HERE I COME…..

     Finally my Form6 life has come to an end…. Finally my exam is over… Finally my holiday is here!! Well..to be frank it is not that excited as i think before my exam. Now that my exam is over and my dream holiday is here, i didn’t feel excited at all. But on the contrary i feel even more burden and some how frust. 

     Now i have to cope with more things from different aspect such as Church Work,Toastmaster, Tae Kwon Do, Work and so on…. Before that i just have to concentrate on my study and think nothing esle. But now i have to think a lot! I have think how should i spend my half year holiday so tat i could use it wisely to improve myself, gain more knowledge and bulid a better characteristic. All my friends are looking eagerly for works to earn more $$$. I understand it is not wrong to earn more money,but what do you gain besides money?

     For me money is not the priority of why i work, cause my family do not wait for my money to feed them. i want to treasure this half year holiday to do something which i think is more benefitial and important than earning money. Just imagine you have 2/3 of your lifetime to work,why are you so eager to work now?!! I want to invest this period of time so that i will have greater harvest in the future. And this is one of the reason that really burden me up,how could i actually use this time fully and wisely to become a better person. Of course there is also some other things that frust and burden me up such as relationship problem, Christianity and many little things.

     I do really hope and pray that God will give me strength and wisdom to face and overcome all the problems, challenges and obstacles that lies ahead of me. And use this precious time to prepare myself for a better future not in terms of how much money i earn. I just hope that i can do well in whatever i do especially those which is associated with God. One of the main objective of my holiday is to learn to become a better Christian and leave a better testimony. I hope that i have the self-discipline and determination to accomplish that la…

  Well,do you really know what is the meaning of Merry Xmas and Merry Christmas? What is the difference between this two?

    Many people nowadays like to use Merry Xmas a lot but they don’t really understand what is the real reason of putting “X” in it. You can see it all over the place especially all the commercial shops lot.

    People thought that it is a use of short form by putting “X” to substitute the word “CHRIST”. Yes, it is use in the early 16th century where the printing technology was just introduce. In order to save the cost of printing which is very expensive at that time,they chose to use the word X-mas where the letter X is actually the first letter of the Greek word-Christ(CristoV) to abbreiviate the word Christmas . It may be the initial intention of an individual using such word–Merry Xmas, but do they or do you really know how the word “Merry Xmas” accommodates in today’s world ? Do you know what is the intentional use of this word in the commercial world? If you really don’t know, let me tell you what it is.

    This word “Merry Xmas” originates for the use of commercial. For the businessman ,  putting “X” to substitute the word “CHRIST” is not a use of short form as what you thought it is. They have their purpose of doing so. To maximize the market available for different people from different family background,different culture or different religion, they have to come out a way to attract those major part of people,which i call Christian as the minor part. Because the fact is Christian only stand a  minor part out of thousands or millions of Non-Christian. Despite the fact that have shown the figure of Christian,  It never stops the Christmas from being a well known festival and celebrated by almost everyone including Muslim.

    We’ve to really express our “gratitude” to the businessman who have contribute so much to the publicity of Christmas and leaving an incorrect perception of what actually Christmas is. To eliminate the thought that Christmas is only for Christian,what they do is using the word “Merry Xmas. For “CHRIST” is the defined word for Christian, so in order to achieve their intention or purpose they execute the word “CHRIST”. By placing “X” on it, it means to put Christ away, for “X” often symbolizes “NO”. Literally it means “Merry NO-CHRISTmas”, i know it sounds awkward but it’s true.      

    By doing so,it makes people feel that actually Christmas is not only for Christian. In another words, it is to make it more “UN-CHRIST” like. So that people of different culture and religion can be a part of it to celebrate Christmas. Thus, what is the result of doing all this? Tons of $$$$ going in to the pocket of those businessman who know nothing about Christmas but Money is the outcome of all this. Christmas has become a great tool for them to do so!

   
You may think that the 8 letter words alone can’t affects much on it. But the truth is it does work and it works so effectively that people thought that Christmas is all about Gifts,Prizes,new Shoes or Clothes,Rain deer,Mistletoe and Santa Claus where all of this got nothing to do with the true purpose of Christmas at all! It’s just some human “spices” to make Christmas a more “spicy” festival.

    I understand that many people use it not purposely, but now that you know the reason lies behind it,i hope you will think twice before you lay your hand to write or type the word “Merry Xmas” and think thoroughly through the way you celebrate Christmas, is it the real meaning of Christmas?

    Let makes this a joyous festival by celebrating the Birth Of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but not because of all those Glamor,Gifts and Prizes that you got during Christmas. Do understand the purpose  of why you celebrate Christmas and what you are celebrating about it, I’m sure by doing so you will have a different experience of Christmas.

    Thanks for taking your time to read this. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a “Merry and Blessed Christmas”!. Hope that you all will have a different experience of Christmas with the presence of Lord Jesus Christ by knowing the truth and purpose!

                                                                         by: AnDrEw LeE

                              **”MERRY CHRISTMAS”**

   
SEP 7, 2007….it is truly a grievous day where one of the most influential people in the world gave up his last breath, this is indeed his last farewell of his life time….

    Thousands and millions of people all across the globe mourn and shed their tears in respect of this marvelous, fabulous, fantastic and authentic tenor — The Great Maestro Luciano Pavarotti. After more than 4 decade’s of glory on the sacred stage , Pavarotti finally ends his astounding legacy by leaving behind a great legend to tell.

    This is a very sentimental and yet a grievous moment to me. When i first heard about this news from my friend through SMS, I  really thought that this was a joke. But after awhile, when i think more thoroughly about this, I realized that this was no joke. I was shocked tremendously, my mind gone blank and I don’t know what to think next.

     Even though he is thousand miles away from me, even though I never met him before, even though i never talk to him before, but i still taste the bitterness deep down in my heart where my heart cracked and my tears dropped. The sadness that has been injected to me overflow my whole body, every single cells and molecules in my body seems like grieving together with me. It is truly unbelievable when I first heard about this news.


    I feel like I’ve know him for a very long time. I feel like he is my friend who has always be with me and accompany me since i first came to know about him two years ago when I’m in form 5. All this by no mean will people understand me, for they do not understand how much the interaction and click I have between Pavarotti and me. They will never understand about him, what they did is just to make fun on me and jokes on me.

    Despite all this, I do not blame them because they don’t know, they don’t understand how important the role Pavarotti plays in my life. He is my inspiration and aspiration for Opera music. He is the one who opens up a whole new world for me. He is the one who leads me to the indulgence of Opera music which is so elegance and beautiful. He is the one who constantly gives me an invisible motivation and a new vision of my future,a new going of my life. I feel so fortunate enough that I have the opportunity to know about this wonderful piece of music and the great legend Luciano Pavarotti. All this have bring a new breath and chapter in my life.

    I just hope that i could take this more seriously and
bring my interest into a total different level. Of course i would like
to share my great passion with all of my friends and family,so that
they may come across this soulful music that has bring so much joy to
the millions through out the continents.

                                         26/5–27/5/2007

DEMONSTRATION

Huh…today is really a special and memorable day for me. What happens today is truly a breakthrough for me in my Tae Kwon-Do circle. I’ve been participating in the North Peninsular Malaysia TKD Tournament for approximately ten years since i’m standard one and in every tournament, there will be a demonstration performed by some of the best Tae Kwon-Do member in the state or even in the country. This will always be the time where i’m really eager for because all the stunts that they performed never fail to blew me off every year i watched it. I’m always so amazed to watch all the best performing and I wonder when i can be like them. "It must be very cool and fantastic if i could perform like them" I think. FINALLY……………………………………………………. After 10 years of practising this "gorgeous" and "elegance" martial art (TKD),I finally got the chance to perform like them!! I was really excited when they ask me to join them as part of the DEMO team. To be frank… actually at first i’m quite confidence of my skills and techniques when they ask me to join the DEMO team. But once again my confident began to fade during the third or fourth training,when the 4th dan black belt holder instructor ask me to do a particular stunt which is at my edge of ability and it’s very challenging as it needs a lot of spinning,speed and accuracy in order to perform that stunt in perfection. However thanks Lord that after a few times of training, i’m able to master that difficult stunt.

        Finally the day has come…it’s the perfoming day! On tat day…there is approximately five hundred participants and imagine that there is a few hundred people watching you performing….how was it like? Worst till is there are all the VIP sitting on the stage watching you including the MGTF president. What can i do is just to keep myself relax and calm. Once again i’ve to thanks God that i’m able to perform the demomstration well as what we’ve trained. Happy to say that i receive a lot of positive comment from the people,of course there is still some critics but i still feel glad about the whole performance. Since then i’m recognise better by people and open up a whole new world for me!

TOURNAMENT

There is really a lot of things occur in this special tournament. Besides performing the demonstration for the first time,it it also my first time to become a refree and judge, and of course the first time wearing that refrees uniform. I really did learn a lot of things from it. How to be more professional and evaluates on one’s skill. These give me a deeper understanding of how the competition run for i’ve participate it for about ten years.

         Another things which makes me feel glad is i manage to get back the Champion title for sparring category after loosing it in the previous year. I also won the first runner up in the pattern Open category. And the things that excite me the most is my school Chung Ling Butterworth have won the best school overall champion! The last time my school got this award is about 10 or 15 years ago!! It’s really an honour to my school. And this burdened up my responsibility as a co-instrustor to bring my school to the next High. I’m really striving to raise my school club’s standard up for it has been a catastrophe in my school TKD quality. Hopefully i can do my best to assist them in order to achieve this award again.

  Hoho…finally I’m on my way to get my driving license! Actually i can get this driving license a year ago, but due to some financial problems i have to wait until now only i may register for that. Basically everybody knows that we have to attend a theory class before we can step our foot on the "BIG" Malaysian made car,so i went for that class. Literally…that so call theory class is just a waste of time and at the same time meaningless! After a week since i attended that useless theory class…finally today I got my chance to drive a manual car in my first driving lesson. Before that, I drove my mom’s auto car(proton) before and i felt so easy of driving it even in my first time,i felt like I’ve drove that car for more than ten years! Up to that reason and experience,I’m so confidence before i step into that Kancil because i thought that the manual car would be as easy to control as the auto one. But right at that moment when i switch the engine on and prepare to show my "techniques" of driving, i knew that I’m absolutely wrong! Oh thanks God that i still haven’t ask that instructor to shut up and let me drive by my own! All my confident and ego i had before this have lost instantly when my car’s engine shut down due to the reason that i did not step the clutch well. Haha..what a lesson for me! Don’t be too confident unless you meet your opponent! Although my car "die fire" (hokkien) a lot of time, but after half an hour of practice i begin to understand how it works. I even get to drive on the main road during my first lesson, no big deal about that right?! haha! Huh…I’m so eager to go for my second driving lesson and get my P license as fast as possible. Whoever read this please wish me luck! Thanks!

Here i am to unveil myself,my thought and my World! I would like to share every great moment in my life here with great passion! And of course i hope this could be a place for me to express myself, squeeze my brain juice and think of my life… I always wanted to do this, building a corner which i could share and shout, and now i finally did! To be frank i’m actually quite excited about this cuz this is my first time of writting blog. I would like to share every aspect of my life from music to religion,friends,loves, sports,interest and bla bla bla bla…..

The most powerful music element we have ever had in the planet earth—OPERA! The word itself is so powerful as it has drawn and captured the hearts of millions all across the globe. I have came to know about Opera when i was 17 years old,form five. In the beginning of my journey in music i was totally expose to pop rock and band music since i have a band of my own a few years ago. Before tat i was totally focus on music and the way it goes. But as time pass by, i begin to focus more on vocal when i listen to music. So i started to listen to all those great artist with great voice like Celine Dion, Maria Carey, Whitney Houston….  Although all of them have great voice but they still could not satisfied my thirst for magnificent, powerful, wonderful, authentic and superb voice! So i begin to search more thoroughly for that and i know that Opera music may be the one that I’m looking for. Before this i really know nothing about Opera but i still heard of a name called—Pavarotti. At that time i only know his name and i don’t know how he looks like. So in the very beginning i mess him up with Andrea Boccelli , When i first saw Andrea i thought he is the legendary Pavarotti because Andrea appear more frequent on our local television, so BLUR am i! I started to search for Luciano Pavarotti in Lime Wire…and when the result shows, i saw this song name call Nessun Dorma. Nessun Dorma was the very first song that i listen to him sang. It totally blew me off to the very top and i feel like I’m in a state of ecstasy, I’m just intoxicated by this heavenly-like voice after listened to him sang, especially at the end when he sang "Vincero! Vincero!" which mean "I shall win!" or "I shall conquer!" as this is the highest pitch he delivered in this aria. There is no other singer that can sing like that and blew me off like this except my favorite idol, the very great maestro–Luciano Pavarotti! He is the only one in this planet that could actually satisfied my thirst for superb voice. Bravo Luciano Pavarotti!! Long live Pavarotti!

NESSUN DORMA

（Turandot)(No one’s sleeping!)

Nessun Dorma! Nessun Dorma!
Tu pure, o Principessa,
nella tua freda stanza
guardi le stelle che tremano d’amore
e di speranza!
Ma il mio mistero e chiusoin me,
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diro
quando la luce splendera!
Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
che ti fa mia!
Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle! All’alba vincero!
Vincero! Vincero!

SYNOPSES
Only the man who answers her riddles can marry the icy
princess Turandot; those who fail die. Calaf, a prince from another land, has
fallen in love with the beautiful Turandot and answered the riddles. Though by
law she must marry him, Turandot pleads to be spared: only if she answers his
riddles-his name.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
No one’s sleeping! No one’s sleeping!
This evening, icy princess
perhaps in your cold chambers,
watch all the bright stars
that tremble both with loving
and with desire
I keep my secret locked inside.
No one shall ever know my name!
No, no! When our two mouths
touch, she’ll learn it,
when the morning light shines forth!
And then my kisses will dissolve
her silence and she will be mine!
May this night end! May all the stars set!
And may all the stars set!
When dawn breaks, I shall win!