A penny can safe one's life;

Good day me fellow peeps. Hope everything is good on your side. July's here, which means we're half way through the year of 2012. It definitely felt like just a blink of an eye. Time does fly pretty fast when we're having a great time ey? Well lets not waste any more time & get down to business, shall we?

Today, the beautiful world that we live in, has changed into a world which gadgets seems to be more important than a pity human being. Little that we know, when we watch a video of a person destroying a brand new i-Pad, people will turn rage upon his actions. Have we forgotten about the life around us? Why are we letting gadgets taking over our world? Isn't a soul of a saint more important than a mini gadgets that can never interact with you?

During any given mamak session, an average Malaysian encounters creep by beggars at least once: from an old man who beseeches you to ask for your loose change on the table to a blind man lead by a normal saint in aim of selling their serviettes. They may act out in different characters, but their aim is the same-to seek for generosity.

Many who sees them will simply ignore, some will wave their hands as a gesture to say no but only a few's willing to reach for their wallet to spare the beggars with their loose change-even for that, some actually do it with the intention of shooing them away-annoyed. Question is, which one of the above is you?

As the beggar approaches to the other tables, will we normally hear the old ones say 'Why would I want to spare them my change when they can work with both their hands & legs functioning properly.' But have you ever asked them, 'Uncle, if you're an owner of a company, will you give them the chance by hiring them to work for you? Will you pay them wages to get things done for you?' I guess this is why I always say preaching is always easier than doing, but can they really put their actions into words in this case?

Have we ever ask ourselves why are they doing this for living? Who they were before they become a beggar? For the matter, have we ever try to put ourselves in their shoes before complaining and talking bad about them? Will you actually invite them to sit on your table to buy them some food and drink and listen to their story? Well I have, and I was shocked myself for doing so.

The man that I so-cal interviewed was actually a Malaysian but many thought he was from China because his outfit that he put on every time he goes to 'work'. He was from a well-to-do family before the road that he's currently walking on came. Unfortunate knows no one by name and it can hit anyone at any time. Can you imagine, a person who was supposed to take over the family business got cheated by his own best-friends and left him nothing but a pity road ahead?

Ever since he lost everything, 'I started to hunt for jobs, I didn't mind working as a waiter nor a restaurant cleaner.' he said. I could see in his eyes,he was so in need of money because he said he had a son with him after his wife ran away. Believe me or not, a drop of tears came running down my face when I started asking him why did he only ate 2 tiny spoon of the fried rice I bought for him and decided to packed it instead. And with a cheerful and utterly humble tone he replied, 'My son loves fried rice.' 

I have got no intention of cutting onions now, but my aim for this post is to spread to the world or least you guys (my humble readers/followers) to at least try to understand them before we start judging them like how we always do. We cry to our parents for not buying us new clothes & gadgets, they cry because their children had to suffer from hunger because of we, the selfish and greedy people who would rather keep the change in our wallet for years and not to give it to the poor.

We have roofs as shelters and here we are complaining of the squeaky sound our bed make and fussing because of not having new clothes when we have a closet filled with them. While they sleep on a 'comfy and cooling' cardboard underneath an overhead bridge and to wear the same shirt everyday, 24/7, 365 days a year without complaining.

Some may think that I may be fooled by his stories. But how much is it for 2 pack of fried rice do you need to spend? You don't need fancy food to keep your stomach satisfied, for them a piece of bread is as good as a platter of a black pepper sizzling steak from TGIF and Victoria Station.

My fellow peeps, Understand that giving a penny can save one's life and what more when you are willing to donate your dollar; Understand that there are people out there who desperately in need of small changes to buy food to feed their hunger than fancy gadgets to feed their peer pressure. If you think that you need the penny more than they do, at least, say a prayer for them before you go to bed. It will only stall your games for a little while by doing so. Again, it wouldn't kill for you by doing so, would it?

I really wish my voice can be heard out there someday and this post can help the most of us to realize that there are more people who's having worst day than us and our challenge is not as hard as how we think it is. Lend your helping to the people who need them and stop cursing them for they are as human as you are and they definitely bleed the same blood as you do.

Have a great day ahead and may God bless you all. Feel free to share it around if you want to.

Picture credit to : http://heikkialanen.net/?page=photos&cat=europe

Yours truly,
Tyler.

Hari Belia 2012 Dodgeball Competition

Credits to Felicia Choi for this shot

Greetings to all my awesome fellow peeps! Since I'm having a very long break before dodgeball training later, I thought of updating you guys with my last weekends experience. With my laptop running and managed to leach the internet line from Secret Recipe, we are set and here we go!

Yet another weekend has become a part of our history and from the bottom of my heart, I truly hope that all of you had a good one! Well, as for me, I was having a back-to-back Dodgeball tourney under the mighty hot sun with ultra-blazing temperature. Despite getting sunburned, I would like to say that I had a great time & I'm much more tanner now. LOL (still going through the skin peeling period though) 

It all started with a shaky Saturday morning where I was supposed to be in University to catch the bus together with our other dodgeball family members to go to the venue at 7.30 am and I was late, 8.15 am late :\ Without thinking of the safety, I sped with my car thinking that I could catch up with the bus. And as I was paying for the toll in Max Highway, I gently ask the toll person for the direction to Putrajaya where the tournament was held. And of all the day, she just have to give me the wrong direction. The road that she told to use leads me back to where I was before, Bukit Jalil -,- Though I was very angry at myself for being so irresponsible, I put 'em all aside and continue my journey back to Putrajaya by U-turning back to the same highway again. O,O'

Finally, I reached the place and thankfully I was just in time for the official opening for the tournament. There we were standing under the humid environment, desperately searching for a shade to hide ourselves from the burning-glare. Just when I thought we will only play against teams from Malaysia, we were told that there were actually teams that were formed by players from various countries such as Singapore, the United States of America and also the Philippines. I must say, they are all very friendly indeed. (:

On the first day of the tournament, all the teams from our University did very well by winning in most of the matches in the group stage. But sadly to say, on the first day of the tournament, I wasn't performing that well, which somehow brought our Red Legion's standard down. Aiks.

As for the second day of the tournament, it was judgement day. Where the announcement of teams that qualified to the knock-out stage were held. And most of our teams made it (Red Devils, Devil's Dukes and Red Legion). I'm somehow pretty surprised myself that we can actually make it this far. But unfortunately for the guys category, we weren't that lucky as two of our male team (Devil's Dukes & Red Legion) lost in a very unlucky Quarter-Finals sudden death match. As for our third team, even though they are still new, they manage to come up 3rd in the group stage, which is a very good start for them.

Whereas for the girl's team, Red Devil's they managed to win all the matches and finish as Champions in the tournament. I am indeed very-very proud of them all, for they have prove to the others that it is not a good idea for them to look down on Red Devils though there were a few new players in the team. 

Although, in this tournament, only our girls team manage to grab the Championship, I'm still very happy to see the growth of maturity from our family. The spirit and support that everyone gave during the tournament was just simply amazing. Not giving a damn about the burning weather, every one gathered outside of the cage to cheer when one of our team's playing. We also managed to prove to the others that when you have a match with us, we won't make it easy for you!

Although in this tournament, we guys team didn't win anything but we definitely win something from the others, which is respect. Which is not an easy thing to earn.

'Play as a team, win as a team, lose as a team, that's how we play!' 

Will be uploading the pictures for the tournament as soon as I can grab the photos out from the memory card. Till then do stay tuned for more exciting updates in the future. Have a great day ahead, Cheers!

For more info on our team, feel free to visit us on our humble Facebook fan page : Devil's Dukes

Credits to Xin Ni for this shot

p/s: Thank you for the knee guard (:

Yours truly,

Tyler

A boy was born; A man has gone

Greetings to my fellow peeps-Happy Tuesday!

With a bright sun shinning down to our lovely mother earth, I was awaken to a purple sky this morning for my class. After I was done with all my classes, I've decided to look back into my old photo albums - photos during my previous trips. There I was, stumbling across the photos during my trip with my family to a dazzling beach better known as Kuta beach which is located in Bali, Indonesia back in the month of December 2010.

It was indeed my first experience of celebrating my birthday outside of my homeland. And it was because of this expedition that I've learn to agree with the fact that behind every happy occasion, there will be one individual who is sad and in this case I was the one who's in the so-cal 'parallel universe.' sigh

As far as I can remember, after a few hours of journey in the bus to our local Low Cost Carrier Terminal, there I was sitting on a long cold bench with a cup of Java Chip, waiting for the gate to open. At first, the trip was all filled with excitement and thrills, since it was my first time going to Bali with my family. But unfortunately, on the second day of our trip, which was also the day of my 19th birthday, I received a very heartsick call.

It was from my Godmother herself and with her gloomy voice over the phone, it was even harder for me to digest the news. Somehow, till this very day, the words that came out from her mouth is still haunting me. She told me that my Godfather was surfing in the open sea until a wild boat came and knocked him off from his surfing board. Due to the huge impact, he was immediately unconscious. And an hour after my birthday was stated, the hospital called to notify us that his heart has stop beating.

Papa Momo (that's how I address my Godfather) was 45 and he is survived by his wife and two handsome sons. Apart of sobbing for the entire night, his eldest son, Sanjaya kept comforting and  constantly reminding us to not to be sad about this because Momo was doing what he love before he died. So we should be happy for him instead (': 

As for his funeral, we held a Paddle Out Ceremony for him. Paddle out is a traditional funeral service held by the Hawaiian for surfers who have lost their life. So most of the people who were closed to him attended the service.

Paddle Out Service

Anyways, I shall end this post with some photos throughout the rest of my journey in Bali with my family. Enjoy (:

p/s: It was all taken back in 2010 & I was still learning

So yeap, that's bout all peeps. Thanks for stopping by once again and hope you enjoyed your stay here (: More stuff will be coming up soon, so do stay tuned for more. Have a great day ahead! Cheers!

Yours truly,

Tyler