Kisah Cinta Agung II By Kong Chia Yew

this was as my promise below. it was an original post published in http://www.vasoaminichiayewni.blogspot.com/

i am going to go out of my normal routine today of talking about so called serious issues and talk about love. Yes u herad me this is about love. THis stems directly from a question a classmate of mine asked me during lunch one day

Eh, forgive me for being somewhat immature but what is love ah?

Well i gave him a short nonsense filled answer to him that day. But this is Chia Yew's official answer.

first what love isn't:
it isn't as Chin meng correctly puts it looking at a girl and thinking she's a stick with breasts on it. http://www.vagabondsworld.blogspot.com/
it isnt for girls a person with a nice body and a tall posture.
it isnt that sudden exhilirating feeling from down under when u look at that hot girl.If u called all of tyhose love, we will live in a very depressing world.

LOve is that developed or instant feeling that you want to live with that girl forever and ever, sharing everything of yours with hers. It is that feeling that you get warm and at times heartracing that you get when you see that girl and better yet get to know her.

Love is that feeling or urge to fly without wings with her for a period of not less than 33 days. Love is that complex chemical interation in your brain that says, everything's going to be all right.

Love is that feeling you get when you are a girl that you are protected and you are n good hands. It is that feeling that you have finally made a right decision for once.
You will want to protect her, embrace her and laugh with her for no particular reason at all. YOu feel that even though she does something incredibly silly you will not get irritated and give out sureshan frowns but you will just laugh.

She is some one you want to hold hands with forever.

And the best thing is she need not have perky breast, her body need not be described in three super small numbers, she need not have to have a taut ass.

Heck she can still be loved. (although with those attributes, it is easier to lovela but the magnitude of love maybe not the same...:p)you see ah, too many times i have seen friends use the wrong formula

Love=Lust

Love is not carnal pleasure. Love is not looking at a hot girl and licking your lips. LOve is not staring at some girl's chest. For girls, Love is not staring at someone's buns or bodyshape. that is purely lust.

Lust is nature's insurance. TO ENSURE WE DO PROCREATE. If there only existed love, we would be extinct readyla...

Dont love someone because you are supposed to love someone or all your friends are having girlfriends.Call me old fashioned, but i still believe in true love, which fulfils all the conditions above.

I WILL NOT LOVE SOMEONE JUST BECAUSE I WANT TO MAKE SOMEONE JEALOUS WITH MY 'TROPHY'. i WILL LOVE SOMEONE WHO I CAN MAKE FEEL SECURE AND LOVED AND CARED FOR. THAT IS MY MANIFESTO...

To love someone pretty is not a guarantee. She might drive u up all the walls in your house. So you married her on the basis of lust. On the basis of status. Because you want to show her off. Sickos...

But i am not saying that looking at someone's assets is wrong :P. Just dont overdo it. Imagine an old, dirty man looking at them from top to bottom stopping at strategic spots. Disgusted? YOu are no better than that man.

Anyways, the message remains.
When marrying dont go for looks, go for comfort. Love her or him not lust over him or her.

The Examined Life by Jamie Soo Siew Yuin

The decline of leisure in the life of a student is prominent indeed as with the decline of leisure in the lives of everyone for that matter. For progress, perspiration is the price to pay. With the test date of the October SAT I looming up, there appears to be much turbulence which have students of the American Degree Foundation Program running higgledy-piggledy in their heads while determining to ensure, with much difficulty, that their calm external composure does not desert them.
With me, it is always the case. Be it major national examinations or minor school ones, my study area will be a vortex where books, papers and other paraphernalia will be strewn, encompassing and encircling my desk. A general in my own rank with 11 years of test-sitting experience under my belt, I have won battles against irksome biological terms, triumphed over calculus questions, each capable of beheading us and each more vexatious and violent than the last. On the other hand, I have yet to quiver under the clutches of English, a subject most students in their secondary school would scoff at and deem redundant to study at that time. True it is that at that time, no amount of studying English would have helped; however, now, I fear I need all the help I can get for studying for the SAT is something unique and dissimilar compared to the other subjects. Students are hurled back to basics, back to the basics of English grammar and building up of vocabulary.
It is not that studying for SAT irks me, though at times it does drive me up the wall. Conversely, a few years back, I am daunted by the very notion of when all this will ever end - when all this will finally come to a halt and we can enjoy life. But then, I think I have come to know now that it will never end. To quote my mother, “People work so hard, they don’t even find time to get sick.” Indeed, people cannot bare to fall ill, even a slight indisposition will jeopardize the enterprise of larger dealings.
Back to the topic, I feel that all my futile complaints are simply a by-product of societal progress. Things never stop because if you rest, you rust and for progress to occur, the only way is to pay the price of perspiration and to ensure that you are not left behind. All of us have truly paid the price for prosperity to the extent that sometimes when I am pensive, I question myself for the need of all these “unnecessary” hard work.
Although not a country which practices capitalism in its economy, Malaysia, along with the rest of the world, has been influenced by capitalism more than it knows. American capitalism has flourished in the more covert form of neocolonialism via cultural domination. Simply by watching Hollywood movies or following the much publicized lives of its celebrities, we are influenced to work hard in order to gain that level of material achievement as well so that we can enjoy life.
As a result, self-progress has brought a dramatically increased standard of living, but at the cost of a much demanding work life. True, we have access and the option to eat more and satisfy our palate, but are we not burning up those calories when we work? We have high quality color televisions, compact disc players, and high-fidelity audio technology systems that we work hard to earn for, but at the end of the day, we need them to unwind our stressful lives at work. We may seem well-off to take vacations, but we slave ourselves throughout the year that these times of relaxation have become indispensable to our sanity. In a whole, the conventional wisdom that progress has brought us more riches as well as more leisure is only partly justified. I feel it is never going to end because we are caught up in a wave, an unending circle in which we want to enjoy material things, so we work hard; we work too hard and we feel the toil; the material things we have now is not enough to satisfy us because we have been suffering in work and we now need more expensive gadgets to appease our psychological protests and needs and wants.
So, it is justified, that the decline of leisure in my life as a student is only just the beginning. Because I want to succeed in life by being accepted into a good university, I have to study hard. Ironically, it appears I have no say in the matter for everything is pre-planned and sanctioned without my own approval. However, I accept my place in this world for I am not fully controlled by a remote. I do have a choice to embellish my otherwise dull life by living it to the fullest and I have a purpose that is to achieve all that I want to gain to make this world a better place for posterity. “I have a dream,” Martin Luther King Jr. once said. I have one too and it most certainly does not involve me enlisting in slave labor for more than 30 years of my life and fade out like a distant candle without a purpose; just watch me realize it.

Majulah Sukan Untuk Nigeria???!!??? By Jamie Soo siew Yuin

It is with huge melancholy that I went to bed with on the Sunday night of 17th August, 2008 when Lee Chong Wei, our only hope, Malaysia’s only badminton player who had made it into the finals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Men’s Badminton Singles was beaten by Lin Dan, China’s top seed and world number one. The next day, it was splattered all over the local daily newspaper with mixed commentaries from the whole nation. To quote an article of “The Star”, “What good is a very good player who on court becomes a worrier and not a warrior?” Truly, this justifies Malaysia’s futile attempts in inscribing herself a name among warriors but how often do warriors with mind of steel come by?
Watching Chong Wei sigh a deep heavy breath of despair and dour as he stood on the podium stolidly with a silver medal around his neck, it is hard not to have your heart quiver as well when you truly empathize with him. While many derogatory criticisms have marked this down as his weakest performance to-date against Lin Dan, not many could have understood the overwhelming mental pressure faced by the only Malaysian left capable of bringing home either a silver or a gold medal. Suffocated by the crowd too, who would not stagger when surrounded by approximately ninety thousand spectators all united in heart and deafeningly echoing “Go Lin Dan!”? – The only person’s name you probably would not want to hear at that very moment. His adversary, Lin Dan too was in his top-form and put up a match worthy indeed of world number one. Coupled with the fear and turmoil in him, Chong Wei’s body muscles tensed up and shots accuracy deserted him. All in all, “nerves” was the reason for Chong Wei’s devastating defeat.
What I admire in Chong Wei, who is now hailed a hero, though, is how he takes it all in. Sure, a silver medal itself is already considered a never before achieved feat by Malaysians but he must also live to rue the day of his defeat and bear with him the awful memories of that somewhat tragic experience which no doubt has now been painfully registered in his mind.
Psychologists speak aptly of two kinds of people. Negative feelings such as abhorrence, anguish, wrath, fear, anxiety, spite, and self-depreciation fill the mind of the first category. These people are constantly restive and never happy. Failures and illness easily conquer them. The latter group of people are however, filled with love, affection, patience, gentleness, joy, optimism, and self-confidence. Not necessarily perfect, they adopt an optimistic view of life and nurture a positive attitude to life by accepting the essential limitations of life and rejoice in their blessings received. Such are the grateful people. This does not mean that we should never convey sorrow or make complaints. People are neither stonework nor woodcraft, anyone will cry out when plunged deep in pain. It is human to do so but the negative attitude of being oblivious to the blessings showered down and relentlessly lamenting one's deficiencies and mumbling is deplorable.
How I wish to say proudly, with my head held up high that I belong to the latter group. Unfortunately, that would be hypocrisy, for in the face of adversity, I find myself, along with many others guilty of the former crimes, frequently complaining querulously and whining incessantly for “what could have been”, blaming others and leaving others to erase past mistakes. Albeit stereotypical to use the cliché “whining teenagers”, as a teenager, inexplicably, I agree that it is not entirely indefensible. Therefore, it is adulatory that Lee Chong Wei, who I feel is in the latter category has the pluck to walk out of that stadium like a celebrated hero and not a fallen star despite that crushing defeat. Had not Lin Dan previously portray himself with negative sportsmanship when beaten by Lee Chong Wei in Malaysia by throwing away his racket and taking off his silver medal? It is sad to note, however, that those who complain interminably too fall in the fist, negative category, making tactless statements and condemning the future of Malaysia’s sporting achievements. These people know only to point the finger out and not in.
In a nutshell, though many do not concur with my views, Lee Chong Wei was intrepid and did a great job to even make it to the finals. Cynical people with their harsh judgments should reexamine themselves and stop passing out calumnies. I too will take a leaf out of Chong Wei’s book and try my best to forgo those pessimistic views of mine, lest I be branded a spoiled brat.

To Ignor or not to ignore... by Jamie Soo Siew Yuin

The well-known proverb “Ignorance is bliss” suggests that people with knowledge of the world’s complexities and its limitations are often unhappy, while their less-knowledgeable counterparts lead lives that are antithetical to theirs. However, a recent study showed that well-informed people were more likely to have a sense of well-being. In fact, more knowledge leads people to fell better about themselves and more satisfied with their lives.
Last Wednesday was the “Science and Maths Day” organized as an annual event by INTEC. Having registered to be involved in the constellation section of the ATUSA Space Tunnel, I found myself roped in to help out on Tuesday after school until the wee hours of the morning. Unbeknownst to me, I was caught up in a misunderstanding due to communication incoherence.
The issue was that the art director of the constellation section was supposed to purchase black cloth (used to make the tunnel dark) for another section of the space tunnel but in turned out that she did not receive the message and in ended up both parties not being able to start work until the black cloth arrived. Hearing the heated argument taking place between the seniors in charge, I was told by my friend to “not care”. This had me jarred; I was completely taken aback by how casually he said it.
In the first place, people think that ignorance is bliss because if you do not know anything, you cannot get hurt by it. When we are children, we go about our daily life being ourselves; when we are all grown up, we lose ours true selves, all in the name of adjusting to what is known as societal norms and rules. With the knowledge gained through growing up, we become increasingly aware of the pain and suffering faced by others in the world as we gain insight and judgment, ergo we lose innocence, becoming less blissful.
The other day I came across a quote of the philosopher Sophocles in the newspaper, 'For ignorance provides the happiest life'. How does he define 'happiest', one wonders? Is it going about your everyday life not knowing why things are the way they are? Are people happy because they feel that what they see is what they get, without the urge to delve into it more? If people are ignorant, the world will not seem a better place simply because they are oblivious to the pressing global issues or those that threaten society. Is it merely a simpler life people want to lead without so many complications?
I disagree that ignorance is bliss. How, I ask is being uneducated bliss? Is being unaware bliss? If ignorance truly is bliss, why are wars started over religion when no one knows the truth? Why are people beaten up for having different skin colors? Knowledge helps us to know what is happening in this world, to be aware of the differences, to be informed and to be satisfied. Imagine growing up without knowing that poverty exists, people will never be satisfied because they will always want more and never stop to think how lucky they are compared to others. People too will be unsympathetic, worrying only of their own problems, disregarding altruism.
In the end, I asked the people involved about the problem urged them to solve it. I feel that they should just solve the problem in the fist place instead of leaping at each other. Had I not asked, I probably would not even know what happened and it would be a waste because to think that I joined in the project just to be a worker - to put up the decorations and go home to sleep, where would all the fun be? Fun lies in the journey and experience, not the end product.
Regardless of which path you choose, knowing how to deal with people, problems and issues that arise is essential. Ignoring a problem does not make it go away. Shutting them out limits our lives. While others who have attained all that they have ever wanted think ignorance is bliss, we have not, and leading a simple and uninformed life would not make us happy because we will always “want to know”, it is human nature.To acquire true bliss, we need to open our minds to new things, and not shut it down, blindly clutching onto a non-existing ignorance. We need to step outside our comfort zones, abandon oblivion, as this is the only way we can broaden our horizons, and give ourselves golden opportunities to find real and fulfilling bliss

Our Semarak Theatre, Bukak Tempurung

Writing has been a communication tool for aeons to overcome one problem, miscommunication. The Kong and Ashamn Theatre Company thus wants to create a platform where intelligentsia (meaning anyone who can call themselves humans) post up postings on anything under the sun that needs to be presented. Any topic except lewd and politicaly malicious ones are allowed.

We believe that we are providing a middle path to those who want their views heard but don't want to get addicted to blogging (because it is exactly that).

Let thought transpire through your veins, let imagination fill the crevices of your axons, and let your literacy take flight like a phoenix from the dead :P. You are entering the THOUGHT DomAIn.

Welcome to the inaugural launch of our

Semarak Theatre, Bukak Tempurung Programme