Tunku Abdul Rahman shouted "Merdeka" seven times to the expectant crowd in Merdeka Stadium on 31 August 1957. It was 50 years ago...

Today, 31 August 2007, is the 50th year of Independence for Malaysia. It is an achievement we Malaysians are strongly proud. I'm sure this is a pride our older cohorts would proudly exhibit. I may have been born 28 years after Merdeka and may not capture the true meaning and significance of Merdeka/ Independence our fore Fathers of Malaysia - past prime ministers - struggle in obtaining Independence but I'm proudly to say I'm proud to be a Malaysian.

Why not? The simple truth is Independence is not something can be easily obtained. It is a strong determination and courage to even dream of it during the colonization days where weapons, vested interests and power speak louder than words. If a scholar make an outcry to the public of uniting to achieve independence because it is our land, water and air that the colonizer is extracting not the indegenes, the colonizer will arrest the scholar under the charge of corrupting the population and categorized he/ she as dissident or globalization term, terrorist. In short, those are the days filled with challenges where the sky is only the limit.

And our founding father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, did it. How proud I am to be in a country that is independent and peaceful.

As I said earlier, I may just one of the younger generations that just join the bullock cart of shouting "Merdeka" and "Malaysiaku Gemilang" in front of the television but I really meant it. In my heart, I followed the shouts and sang along the songs because it is my only way to show appreciation and gratitude to the past ministers for making Malaysia a country I'm proud of and what's more for shaping me mentally, physically and spiritually. Without the environment they have designed, I won't be what I am now. I'm grateful for the environment I grew up for finally discovering what my dream and talents. For this, I'm thankful and thank you.

I do not comprehend the meaning of 'war' because there is never a war in Malaysia since her Independence. Talking to me about the experience of war is like talking mumbo jumbo to me because I cannot simply understand!! It doesn't exist in my dictionary! This is possible because Malaysia is in peace with all ethnics living under one roof. We share, care and tolerate with each other because we acknolwedge each other's differences and they are created by nature. The reason we are all different because we can learn something very important from each other with these distinct features - simply to learn how to accept one's differences no matter what.

I am Chinese by ethnic but I'm a Malaysian inside out. It makes me no different than my other ethnic counterparts, be it Malay or Indian, because we are all Malaysians. I do not see any differences in us all that some sees disapprovingly because I don't see any differences at all in features. They too have a face (ugly or beautiful), eyes (beady or doe), nose (straight or crooked), mouth (small or big) and so on. So what makes us all so different that some of us spit "We are superior than you"? A Quality Checker Institute of Skin Colour? And set up by ...?

I am proud to say my friends are all from all races in Malaysia and I treat them all equally without discrimination and prejudice. And the environment I grew in never once taught me to differentiate people by ethnicity but by personality quality.

There are times I'm unhappy with my life because of the designed environment that is supposed to be for my own good. Instead, I believe actions are much louder than words or simply "lost in translation". No one environment is perfect for every individual in a population but that it is up to the individual to make a change, as Gandhi says "make the change you wish to see." Looking back at world history I learn and current worldnews, I am fortunate to be in an environment that has no inter/ intra-racial conflicts that ignite violence outbreaks, although I cannot deny that this could happen to my lovely ambience. But I know what we Malaysians want. We simply want peace. But somewhere deep inside my heart has legitimate concern over this matter.

No matter what happens, I would bravely step forward to restore the environment- whatever it takes - because I don't want to see "Merdeka" to be erased from my younger generations' history books. If not, why did we shout "Merdeka" together with Tunku Abdul Rahman? As I said earlier, I do not understand "war" but it doesn't mean I cannot imagine the horror of war, and by imagining it doesn't mean I have given birth to empathy. Fear and anger will only strike my heart. By looking at those horrific war pictures, I have to remind myself countlessly that I'm living in a country that experience and witness no such horror and must not. I'm simply grateful for that and many young people should not and must not forget this goodness we are endowed even though discovering weaknesses is our main past time.

There is always goodness in a non-perfect living environment and this must be treasured alway no matter what.

Let's join Tunku Abdul Rahman's shout for "Merdeka" seven times before this special day pass like any other days wholeheartedly, and before we forget the goodness we are given without demanding for repayment ...

Let's not think of anything but the imbuement of feelings of being free ....

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

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I attended a workshop organized by MPH, one of the leading bookstores in Malaysia, yesterday which gathered many uprising local authors in one place. Unfortunately, the authors seemed to be more keen to clique amogst authors than the public but I now know how some authors look like. Hehe. I even got one of the local authors to sign his book which I'm now reading: Hantus & Spells by Nambai.

Later, I had dinner at a japanese modern sushi restaurant. I had Tempura Udon which had miserable amount of udon. I thought of keeping mum about it but the more I thought of it I just told myself I just have this inner squabble out of my mind. The manager attended to me and simply commented that I was the first customer to complain throughout their 4 months operation! Wow! And my mum and I got free double-scoop black sesame ice cream which worth like RM 5 above. Woohoo~ I'm just not encouraging u guys to complain to get free food.

Other than that, I played Last Chaos .. some game I got now idea how to play ... And I met some 2 new wonderful people online. One gave me a drake as a pet and teach me how to feed it .. and the other is just nice to have fun with. ARgh!!! so cute my pet.

Lastly ... jolenesiah is finally freed from the education world!!!!! No .. she didn't come out from the jungle with her tigers... She came out from the university!!!!

Woohoo ... and her birthday is just around the corner!!!

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Book Title: Dark Prince: A Carpathian Novel
Author: Christine Feehan
Publisher: Piatkus Books
Genre: Romance/Erotic, Fantasy, Mystery
Rating: 2.5/ 5

One-Liner Synopsis
Raven Whitney used her psychic gift to comfort a wounded individual mentally but she ended up finding her other half or rather soulmate except he is not human.

Review
The synopsis reminded me a lot of Lisa Jane Smith's Nightworld series which indicated why I picked this book.

Feehan is really good in describing the emotions the main characters have especially the leading male character. Every action each character does is entailed with a logical reasoning, which gives a better insight and understanding of each background.

Not only that, she is also very descriptive and detailed on the love making scenes which are spread like 2 to 3 pages or more. And the setting of that erotica scenes are various: they do it on the floor and in the lake but not on the bed. But you know what? I just feel there's a rush in the whole storyline especially the love making scenes. That's because the first page you flip tells you Raven contacting the wounded fellow mentally and then he got so excited?he tracked her down instantly by changing into a crow bird and then he molested her using his mind and then the next night, he kidnapped her into his mansion and followed by his seducing rituals and tada there goes the love scenes. I just think Feehan could go slower on how they discover each other. What's the fuss of rushing? Or you guys get more excited?

Wee interesting?
The leading male character is sort of a vampire that sleeps in soil not coffin???!!! My, we need to rewrite vampire history.

If you like reading this book, you should also try reading:
Lisa Jane Smith - All Nightworld series & The Forbidden Game series
Sherrilyn Kenyon - The Other Side of the Moon

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Missing and returned alive in one piece. Nope I'm not a shinobi.

I went to Penang on Friday to distress myself but things didn't turn ou well on the journey but they got better later... here I present my updates!!

1. Went to the bus terminal punctually but was told to be waiting at the wrong platform. How the heck was I supposed to know which platform to wait when here are 4 platforms for the same bus company without indicating the destinations. Thank god, I realised I was standing at the wrong platform and headed to right one. But things were not great since I waited 1 hour 30 minutes for my bus to appear.

2. Pretty sad when I had dinner with jolenesiah when I arrived because my family favourite's Thai restaurant no longer exist. It just evaporated into thin air. I really miss that restaurant. But happy to be able to eat one of my old times Japanese restaurant. Quality and price is still good.

3. I slept in jolenesiah's house. Bwhaha. Got to sleep in an air conditioner room... and I finally got to play a RPG game using her account. We also discussed of setting up a project.

4. Wow. We watched 2 movies back to back and we managed to get some manga. I recommended her to read Yotsubato manga and I got myself some manga that I got attracted by their cover. Oh well, I'm simply Chinese illiterate. The movies we watched were Evan Almighty and Ratatouille.

5. Came home from the cinema with an accomplishing feeling but not for long because I had diarrhoea. I was just simply goofy. I drank only Coke/ Pepsi during the hours we were in the cinema area. And that means I only drank Coke/ Pepsi as water for almost 6 hours. Because I have acute gastritis [sort of], I had diarrhoea the whole morning, leaving me with little sleep. I woke up like every 2 hours to visit the toilet. And ol' sweet jolenesiah made me ginger tea because I requested. Thank u. Bwahaha..

6. The journey back to Kuala Lumpur was fun because I get to sleep in the car while jolenesiah sped. Haha. I don't mind driving since I'm already "owing" her some USD 100000000++ ... without any black and white document. Haha. Despite the fun of it, it was awful to have stomach dicomfort because I only get to see jolenesiah drinking Chocolate Blast from Baskin Robins.

7. Sweet Mr. A called me to say hi. I remembered him asking me for some dream translation, which I asked my colleague since he's a psychology graduate. The dream he had was me with a bunch of army rabbits chasing after him in a field. [Gee... Am I that violent? I thought I'm as sweet as a daisy flower..]. The explanation I got was ... "there's no explanation for that dream. If it does, it is called NIGHTMARE."

Oh well, I'm happy to be home ... because the happiest news is ... the damn Internet is finally back for good. The reason? Streamnyx has not replaced a card into my jumper area I guess due to no stock. If the problem I was facing was just simply of a card, can't Streamyx be frank with me? I waited and talked like an idiot for the past few months. It's simply not acceptable. I will be writing in to the newspaper and asking for rebate. Woohoo~

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