Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Journey called Life... (Part 32: Complaints?)
There is no point to complaining if you don't do anything about besides making noises...
Monday, October 09, 2006
The Premier English Dharma Camp is Back!
Tidal waves, fierce wind, never ending rain and
strong undercurrents.
Land erosion, poaching, bribery and oppression.
What does the above natural and man-made
phenomena have in common? Using the seas as a
metaphor for our lives, the social issues we face
today can be equated to storms in the seas.
Do you sometimes feel like a boat, drifting
aimlessly in the seas, pushed and blown about
beyond our control by the wind, waves and
currents?
The Buddha once said "Make an island unto
ourselves…" (Dhammapada, Chap 18). Hence, in
the face of increasing social issues & conflicts, it
is imperative that we anchor our path firmly in the
truth of His teachings, so that we may overcome
many difficult changes and challenges we will face
in the future.
Come find out how YOU can be a calm island
amidst the stormy seas, whilst providing refuge and
shelter to those around you!
In today's modern world, issues like
environmentalism, oppression against minority
groups and moral dilemmas are happening daily.
We need to realise that we, yes, we, Buddhist
youths have a responsibility in improving these
causes. In the latest edition of the 26th INCOVAR
Dhamma Camp (26IDC), you will be introduced to
the essence of the Buddha's 5 Precepts and how
they offer powerful solutions to various social
issues we face today.
Theme : Calm Islands in Stormy Seas
Date: 7– 10 December 2006
Venue : Subang Jaya Buddhist Association (SJBA)
In the dawn of the 21st century, the centuries-old
Buddha's teaching, which is experiential by nature,
is becoming ever more practical to us all. You
might be thrilled, but we prefer that you just "chill"
in the glow of Buddha's insights.
because @ INCOVAR
...we inspire...
For enquiries please contact Sue @ 016-3755527
Visit www.incovar.org for further information
Online registration is now open!
Hurry! Closing date is 11th Nov 2006.
strong undercurrents.
Land erosion, poaching, bribery and oppression.
What does the above natural and man-made
phenomena have in common? Using the seas as a
metaphor for our lives, the social issues we face
today can be equated to storms in the seas.
Do you sometimes feel like a boat, drifting
aimlessly in the seas, pushed and blown about
beyond our control by the wind, waves and
currents?
The Buddha once said "Make an island unto
ourselves…" (Dhammapada, Chap 18). Hence, in
the face of increasing social issues & conflicts, it
is imperative that we anchor our path firmly in the
truth of His teachings, so that we may overcome
many difficult changes and challenges we will face
in the future.
Come find out how YOU can be a calm island
amidst the stormy seas, whilst providing refuge and
shelter to those around you!
In today's modern world, issues like
environmentalism, oppression against minority
groups and moral dilemmas are happening daily.
We need to realise that we, yes, we, Buddhist
youths have a responsibility in improving these
causes. In the latest edition of the 26th INCOVAR
Dhamma Camp (26IDC), you will be introduced to
the essence of the Buddha's 5 Precepts and how
they offer powerful solutions to various social
issues we face today.
Theme : Calm Islands in Stormy Seas
Date: 7– 10 December 2006
Venue : Subang Jaya Buddhist Association (SJBA)
In the dawn of the 21st century, the centuries-old
Buddha's teaching, which is experiential by nature,
is becoming ever more practical to us all. You
might be thrilled, but we prefer that you just "chill"
in the glow of Buddha's insights.
because @ INCOVAR
...we inspire...
For enquiries please contact Sue @ 016-3755527
Visit www.incovar.org for further information
Online registration is now open!
Hurry! Closing date is 11th Nov 2006.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Hidden Gem in the Net: Songbird
While browsing some of my favourite forum sites a few months ago, I came across a thread in the Ubuntu forums detailing a new cross-platform media player called Songbird.
Well, as someone who is very curious about softwares, especially new and cutting edge ones, I went to their site, downloaded give it a spin. It's interface is very iTunes-like, which is not a bad thing since iTunes had been my default music player for more than 2 years now. It's sleek black interface is refreshing compared to those of iTunes, and also Windows Media player 10 and 11.
Behind the pretty face of Songbird is the very same engine used by Firefox web-browser. Yup, you heard it right, it's literaly Firefox modified to be a media player cum web browser. I had to commend the developers for developing an intuitive interface for Songbird, no complains here.
The performance is very good for a player that is still in it's early stages. In fact, the stable version now only have a version number of 0.2 Developers Preview RC2, meaning it's not that ready for mass public comsumption yet... So far it had been very stable during my test-run on it, so by all means, try it...
The player is still under furious development as of now, and we can expect a great many more new and cool features awaiting to be implemented. Some of the new features to be implemented are extensions and themes support... *salivating at the prospect of it being as extentible and skinnable as Firefox=p
you can evaluate for yourself the capabilites of this player from the screen cast below=)...
Do give www.songbirdnest.com a visit and see for yourself what it's all about=)
Short Notes: My new semester will start next week. According to the schedule, my studies will put more pressure on me liao...meaning no more fooling around surfing the new all the time like the last semester liao... hehe... to all out there...enjoy yourselves yah...
on the other hand, it's raining everyday here... not good...the weather is just too good for me to snuggle under my blanket and sleep... translating to more trips to dreamland suring my classes =p
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Journey called Life... (Part 31: Helping Hands)
Arloo to all... time for my 31st part of the Journey called Life series...
Nah, I am not going to talk about helping people and why we should be doing it or things like that... I guess we all know that what goes around will come around. So we will reap what we sow.
There is a limit on the help that we can offer to others around us, whether they are family, friends or just plain strangers. There are 2 main reasons to this.
1. Dependence.
Well, the title says it all. When we gave too much of help to some people, they will get overdependent on our help and will not seek out their own ways to solve their problem in the future. Yes, I had seen too many of these kind of situations. Sometimes, it takes creativity on our side to determine the type of help that should be given to others. It's like the old saying, "Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he won't get hungry for the rest of his life." We shouldn't just give in to whatever requests that are forwarded to us. We give people what they need and not what they want. This will explain why I take an off-handed approach with certain requests.
2. Pride/Ego
This shall apply to people with impulsive need to help people like me (=p). There are times when your offer to help will be treated as sympathy to the other party, and this shall affect their self respect greatly. The line between just enough and too much is just too thin here, if persists, can destroy friendships as well. You will have to make your own judgement whether you had offered way too much of help or not.
I, for one, will want to make the world a better place to live in starting from the people who live around me, and helping people is one of the ways to achieve that goal. Look into the needs of the people that needs help. Most of the time, they only need someone to listen in to their problems and for someone to share their burden. There is really no need to go to great lengths and help them do everything for them. Yea, it's simple to just say it, but I know everyone have their own place in the world. Seek and ye shall find.
seehua
*Let's create a world full of LOVE~
Short Notes:
It's getting cold over here in my place. I think winter is coming despite Autumn had just begun it's reign. The leaves are starting to turn yellow...Yea, snow will come soon enough. Class had started, but I am just like how I had always been, sleeping in class... hehe... for some reason activities that don't require me to sit down there and listen to the lecturer and copy notes just seem more exciting to me... hmm... well, it's just me... hehe... Winter semester is coming.. Ganbatte to myself~ =p
*From now on, short notes on myself will appear as small prints at the end of posts. Enjoy=)
Nah, I am not going to talk about helping people and why we should be doing it or things like that... I guess we all know that what goes around will come around. So we will reap what we sow.
There is a limit on the help that we can offer to others around us, whether they are family, friends or just plain strangers. There are 2 main reasons to this.
1. Dependence.
Well, the title says it all. When we gave too much of help to some people, they will get overdependent on our help and will not seek out their own ways to solve their problem in the future. Yes, I had seen too many of these kind of situations. Sometimes, it takes creativity on our side to determine the type of help that should be given to others. It's like the old saying, "Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he won't get hungry for the rest of his life." We shouldn't just give in to whatever requests that are forwarded to us. We give people what they need and not what they want. This will explain why I take an off-handed approach with certain requests.
2. Pride/Ego
This shall apply to people with impulsive need to help people like me (=p). There are times when your offer to help will be treated as sympathy to the other party, and this shall affect their self respect greatly. The line between just enough and too much is just too thin here, if persists, can destroy friendships as well. You will have to make your own judgement whether you had offered way too much of help or not.
I, for one, will want to make the world a better place to live in starting from the people who live around me, and helping people is one of the ways to achieve that goal. Look into the needs of the people that needs help. Most of the time, they only need someone to listen in to their problems and for someone to share their burden. There is really no need to go to great lengths and help them do everything for them. Yea, it's simple to just say it, but I know everyone have their own place in the world. Seek and ye shall find.
seehua
*Let's create a world full of LOVE~
Short Notes:
It's getting cold over here in my place. I think winter is coming despite Autumn had just begun it's reign. The leaves are starting to turn yellow...Yea, snow will come soon enough. Class had started, but I am just like how I had always been, sleeping in class... hehe... for some reason activities that don't require me to sit down there and listen to the lecturer and copy notes just seem more exciting to me... hmm... well, it's just me... hehe... Winter semester is coming.. Ganbatte to myself~ =p
*From now on, short notes on myself will appear as small prints at the end of posts. Enjoy=)
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Journey called Life... (Part 30: User-friendliness and Efficiency)
In my experience with both Windows and Linux softwares, and through browsing of many many forums, especially this one, I had come across many discussions about how un-user-friendly linux distributions are because some of them requires us to use the command line to do our jobs.
Being the curious type, I had used both types of operation (via command line and the point-click method) to do the same jobs. What I had found out is that, while the point-and-click method is definitely more user-friendly, it is also the slowest way of doings things. depending on the operation, I can make my way using the commend line up to 5 times faster than when I am pointing and clicking around the various menus and dialog boxes that pops-up. That is, of course, due to my familiarity to the operation of the system and my typing speed (okok, I AM trying to make myself look great here, so don't bother =p). Example, it's much easier and faster for my to go the terminal within Linux and type
then press enter and input my password rather than to click on system-administration-synaptic package manager, input my password, then search for supertux. Afterwards I have to mark it, and click apply. I know most of you won't understand this, but the number of steps speaks for themselves.
That is the reward of me finding different ways to do the same job rather than "following the masses" and do it like how everyone did. There are many many shortcuts that we can make use of but invisible to us even though it's just standing right in front of us. I'd admit that I am also one of the people that are in the group.
But for once, we need to start think out of the box and think creatively on how to resolve any situations that arises for us to confront. Like in the above example with command line and point-and-click comparison, I had managed to find another way around my problem by using the very method that scarey people away from linux. That's the joy of doing research, it's the joy of solving problems by the way that most people won't even dare to touch with a ten foot pole...
There are always more than one way to solve problems, can you see it?
cheers~
seehua
*Let's create a world full of LOVE~
note: Enjoying the song xiang shui bai he through my linux based media player/organizer, Listen
Being the curious type, I had used both types of operation (via command line and the point-click method) to do the same jobs. What I had found out is that, while the point-and-click method is definitely more user-friendly, it is also the slowest way of doings things. depending on the operation, I can make my way using the commend line up to 5 times faster than when I am pointing and clicking around the various menus and dialog boxes that pops-up. That is, of course, due to my familiarity to the operation of the system and my typing speed (okok, I AM trying to make myself look great here, so don't bother =p). Example, it's much easier and faster for my to go the terminal within Linux and type
sudo aptitude install supertux
then press enter and input my password rather than to click on system-administration-synaptic package manager, input my password, then search for supertux. Afterwards I have to mark it, and click apply. I know most of you won't understand this, but the number of steps speaks for themselves.
That is the reward of me finding different ways to do the same job rather than "following the masses" and do it like how everyone did. There are many many shortcuts that we can make use of but invisible to us even though it's just standing right in front of us. I'd admit that I am also one of the people that are in the group.
But for once, we need to start think out of the box and think creatively on how to resolve any situations that arises for us to confront. Like in the above example with command line and point-and-click comparison, I had managed to find another way around my problem by using the very method that scarey people away from linux. That's the joy of doing research, it's the joy of solving problems by the way that most people won't even dare to touch with a ten foot pole...
There are always more than one way to solve problems, can you see it?
cheers~
seehua
*Let's create a world full of LOVE~
note: Enjoying the song xiang shui bai he through my linux based media player/organizer, Listen
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Realisation Part 5: Overjoyed :)
hohohoho...yay~~!!!...Gold medal for pharmacy table tennis team...yay~! hehe...so so happy we won the finals in IMU Cup on tuesday with a clean score of 3-0. Was not expecting at all for such clean winning...thanks to our female single player, our hero of the day...:) Semi-finals was the most exciting match with the Sem 3 medics, winning by a close 3-2 score. The stress when i was playing the mixed doubles was indescribable la, but the joy of winning the match was even more over-whelming! Never felt so victorious before la...all the effort put in for the trainings, sacrificing of personal time, study time, rest time, sleeping time, dinner time, and all the sweat and blood (hehe..exaggerating) are all worth it:)
How true is the saying, we reap what we sow :p
On another happy note on reaping what we sow (hehe), i just got back my biosci lab reports, and wow, it proves that all the sleepless days and nights and headaches struggling and rushing through the 4 super long reports (10 pages and above) are worthwhile too! Hehe..rewarded 24/25 and 22/25 for two of them, still waiting for the other two to be returned, but it's enough to make me happy :) (coz it's relatively higher than the rest >.< ) ;p
While enjoying the triumph of this week, i do realise the joy is not gonna last i.e impermanance, so i'm gonna enjoy it now, hehe:)
Tonight is the closing for the IMU Cup, have cheerleadings and prize giving ceremony...hehe...gonna have a great time tonight...yay, get to receive the first medal from IMU ;p
haha..there goes another day for studying :p
oh well, class test on monday and i have not studied for it!:p
How true is the saying, we reap what we sow :p
On another happy note on reaping what we sow (hehe), i just got back my biosci lab reports, and wow, it proves that all the sleepless days and nights and headaches struggling and rushing through the 4 super long reports (10 pages and above) are worthwhile too! Hehe..rewarded 24/25 and 22/25 for two of them, still waiting for the other two to be returned, but it's enough to make me happy :) (coz it's relatively higher than the rest >.< ) ;p
While enjoying the triumph of this week, i do realise the joy is not gonna last i.e impermanance, so i'm gonna enjoy it now, hehe:)
Tonight is the closing for the IMU Cup, have cheerleadings and prize giving ceremony...hehe...gonna have a great time tonight...yay, get to receive the first medal from IMU ;p
haha..there goes another day for studying :p
oh well, class test on monday and i have not studied for it!:p
Friday, September 22, 2006
Journey called Life... (Part 29: Being Here and Now)
I had been for the past 2 days alone in my place over here in Aalen, doing things which I enjoyed the most. I.e. Reading tons of stuffs to find out how to go around this and that problem when using my linux, reading up ReCom for a bit of debates, reading up on the latest news, writing entries to my long forgotten blog, sleeping, listening to music, downloading stuffs, cleaning up my computer, talking to the teddy bear, and missing someone who is very dear to me...
Ah, the joy of being able to just settle down and enjoy every moment of our lifes. Maybe you guys out there might want to give this a try. Take a break to do the things that you like to do most, and you will find that life have a lot to offer to you other than eat to work or work to eat=)
But then again, we can also being right there when we are doing our stuffs/jobs, just do it without going and worry about stuffs that we can't change anyway...
Anyway, this is just the calm before i have to buck up for the next busy semester. Lucky for me that there are no class on fridays. I might go and visit Buddhist temples in Germany la, making use of the Bahncard 50 that gives me the 50 % discount when I take the trains to anywhere.
For the mean time, I just continue reading up on stuffs and enjoy the music being player through my computer now=)
To the all of you out there, gambatte ooo...in whatever that you are doing now...till next time, *tata~
seehua
*Let's create a world full of LOVE~
Ah, the joy of being able to just settle down and enjoy every moment of our lifes. Maybe you guys out there might want to give this a try. Take a break to do the things that you like to do most, and you will find that life have a lot to offer to you other than eat to work or work to eat=)
But then again, we can also being right there when we are doing our stuffs/jobs, just do it without going and worry about stuffs that we can't change anyway...
Anyway, this is just the calm before i have to buck up for the next busy semester. Lucky for me that there are no class on fridays. I might go and visit Buddhist temples in Germany la, making use of the Bahncard 50 that gives me the 50 % discount when I take the trains to anywhere.
For the mean time, I just continue reading up on stuffs and enjoy the music being player through my computer now=)
To the all of you out there, gambatte ooo...in whatever that you are doing now...till next time, *tata~
seehua
*Let's create a world full of LOVE~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)