tuberoses...her favourite flowers

Yasmin...in so many ways...i wish you were still here...to share your infectious smile and your wise and yet funny view of the world...hope you are having a good time in heaven...and thanks for everything yet again...i still miss u.

Dear Mc Donalds....

Mc Donald is everyone's friend....we all roughly know the words to his song....Mc D-O-N-A-L-D-S...Mc D-O-N-A-L-D-S .....so I thought I'd write to him and tell him that his burgers are not up to par these days....

Well...the busy Ronald can't really be faulted as he does have a busy day making us all happy...and not to mention healthy, with his invention of reputedly 'wholesome' recipes. So, I decided to just tell him in case he was unaware of the recent drop in quality control....

The note read as follows....

Dear Ronald Mac Donald,
As your friend, I just thought I'd tell you that some of your products need more quality control....either that or you have one awesome photographer....cheers.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4040397&l=16275d0268&id=627896555

Linus


Do you guys wanna tell Ronald anything too? Let's speak up!

Linus

DAY 1 : Stong and Jelawang Hike : Nik Aziz's country here we come!

Trail Trackers made our first camping trip of the year from the 25th to the 29th of February 2010. It was a trip to Gunung Stong in Dabong Kelantan. 11 people went for the trip, original number was 12 but 1 pulled out. The trip started with a KTM ride up north to Nik Aziz Country.
I've always loved train ride and the buckling of the train on its track that seem to annoy many is part of the romance of sleeping in a train cabin. I also like to squint my eye and let the light from outside that stream through my window become diamonds floating in the night sky.With that i slowly fade into a blissful night sleep and awaken to a misty morning at a small train station in kelantan. A picture of Nik Aziz and a ridiculously cheap RM2 but very good dish of Nasi Kerabu Daging welcomed us...After that we had a tour of three caves named gua Gelap, Gua Pagar and Gua Keris. The caves weren't particularly outstanding or interesting, just your typical serving of stalagmite, stalactite and various cave dwellers like crickets and spiders. After the caves, we proceeded to Stong Resort, the starting point where we begin our climb up to baha camp at the top of jelawang falls.
Within minutes of our climb, we were exhausted and honestly half an hour hiking uphill carrying our 20kg backpack really showed us how unfit we city folk are. I really must workout more. But the waterfall infront of us at the half an hour point looked magnificent and you do get somewhat charged up for the trek ahead. However, the worst was yet to come,the trekking pace became unbelievably bad towards the end of the two hours. Myself, Eddie, Sum, Henry were resting for 5 minutes every time after walking barely three. However nobody gave up and we all managed to get to base camp which was a rather nice spot with a great hilltop vista and nice pools where we can dip.
The day ended with a good game of werewolves at the ledge of the waterfall under the gaze of a full moon...

14 films for 2010

The 14 films I watched so far in 2010

Chandi Chowk to China


Battle Royale


Legend of Chun Li


AVATAR


Girlfriend Experience


Merantau Warrior


14 blades


Valentine's Day


Shinjuku Incident


Jumper


Shoot Em Up


The Kingdom


Blindness


Ink

Conquerors of the useless!

Conquerors of the useless!

This video is dedicated to my trail trekking buddies... =)

Aurelius....do note "It's not an adventure until something goes WRONG.Yvon Chouinard"

DEMOCRACY

Fiqir fiqir

Asked by my friend to appear in this video...as a thug who loves his hair...

hope....

I asked Allah whether there is hope for the country in my prayers.

Yesterday, I went for my usual 4km thrice weekly run at taman tun park at 6pm. Anyone staying around the area will know it rained very heavy by 6.30pm. I was caught in the rain about 1.2km from my house. Exhausted from running 4km but used to the rain I didn't seek shelter but continued walking home along the road.

By the time i got home. I had a big smile on my face. There is hope for my country

On the way home.three cars stopped, the driver offered me a ride home. I declined because I was wet anyway. Two of three cars had the holy quran on the dashboard. One had a pendant with the muslim prayer for safe journey.

Thank you my muslim brothers. We are all one under the abrahamic religion. We all seek a good life, god's abundant blessings and peace. To Allah be the glory.

Malaysia Boleh

we should all feel so'proud'. Malaysia Boleh.

I once said I believe. Allah.

picture credits

Don't they get it? It's not about overzealous rhetoric or screaming your lungs out in a war cry at some mosque...it's about faith...personal...small and deeply burning....faith...a belief...in Allah. Amidst all the heated religious debacle in my country,Dennis recently asked me. "If you have to die admitting you are Catholic. Will you ?"

I answered yes.

He looked suprised...almost impressed.

I added..."Then maybe it's time to die. We all die anyway...better die for a cause."

I don't understand why am I being prosecuted for wanting to try and be good and by believing in Allah. Maybe it will help if I explain my Allah to others.So they can stop holding false accusations and saying things as stupid as "Allah takkan beranak..." making utter primitive primates of themselves.

I became a Catholic follower of Allah because my grandfather was the favourite child of his family. When his father(my great grandfather died) he was thrown out by his jealous brothers. He was in his early teens.homeless without a penny to his name

He went to many schools....the Anglicans told my grandfather...be an Anglican and we'll help you.

My grandfather refused to convert...

He went to a Catholic school....the priest told my grandfather...you need help,let us help u.

My grandfather ask if he has to convert. Priest says no, my grandfather took up the faith to follow Allah on his own accord many years later.

Today my family still hold the Catholic faith and believe in Allah.

Allah has given me many things...

Sometimes...I do loose my faith...but i keep on praying...even when i have to say...Allah, if you are there...please help me find you.
I am a sinner in many ways.
People get it wrong that it's about being sinless...it's about being forgiven.
People think it's about an answer...when it is about the questions.
People think it's about one word Allah...when it's all about faith in itself

Why are you dictating my faith...

May Allah's blessings be upon those firing the flames of religious hatred instead of promoting religious growth in understanding and learning from one another. Amen.

This is a the Our Father. The most important prayer in Catholicism in Malay.

Bapa kami yang di syurga, Dimuliakanlah nama-Mu, datanglah Kerajaan-Mu, jadilah kehendak-Mu diatas bumi ini seperti di syurga. Berikanlah kami pada hari ini rezeki kami dan ampunilah dosa kami, seperti kami juga mengampuni orang yang berdosa terhadap kami; dan janganlah membawa kami ke dalam pencubaan, tetapi lepaskanlah kami dari pada yang jahat. [Matius 6:9-13]

As you can see my friend of other religion...the prayer that I say above regularly is simply a pray to honour him and his kingdom, to ask him for his blessings, to forgive those who have sinned against me and to ask from an escape of prosecution.

I do not want to convert a Muslim...God is for him to find...and it is not for me to judge if he finds the right God.

I once said...i believe and i always will.

Gogs...

building stone hedge


and fighting a kung fu dinosaur!!!!!

Suicide.

Today over lunch...a friend showed me a message from another friend.

Half an hour ago... XXX(name withheld) passed away.

and when i asked why...another text message came in.She had committed suicide.No other facts known at this point.

Well, I don't know how to feel. I feel sympathy for my friend to whom she was dear to. And I wondered what would have been so bad as to drive someone to depression and then to take her life.She was a young girl only 24 with a whole life ahead of her . Later I found out she committed the act because a boy whom she love is behaving oddly.

Suicide is a major sin in most religion from Islam to Christianity to Judaism to Buddhism to Hinduism. see here.

I know how frustrating life can be and I like living ready to die, as not be be abruptly cut off when my time is up but but i find it quite sad that there are people who are so insecure about themselves or so unhappy to the point that they'll kill themselves. In this case I also find it equally sad that people have no sense of another's feeling even when in a relationship that they'll do something to hurt the one they are supposed to love...

Maybe I am blessed. To have friends, to have a life which makes me smile...to have work that I feel is worth doing.

On the departed's facebook wall, there's a flood of well wishes and rest in peace...but honestly...aside from comforting the grieving, what's the point now when a life has been lost.So I think in her memory it's more important to put something here...to possibly help anyone contemplating anything similiar...

Friend...should life ever get the better of you and you feel like ending it don't...for life to get better...you have to stay alive. If you feel particularly nasty...and the thought has crossed your mind, go to a window...look upon the sky. God, your creator is there.

Say this simple prayer...

Lord. I am unhappy and sad.please help me and bring comfort to my hurting heart.Please help me see joy and wonder where there is now but pain and anguish. Lord help me your child.
Amen.

Also call your friends...and talk things over.Very often...things are not as bad as they seem.

=)

Bukit Tabur East. Again, in Majesty's Threshold

It's a funny thing in the morning when you are so hesitant to wake up and the thoughts of clambering up a hill at that hour just want to make you resign back to bed hugging that pillow. I have many a times felt that way. But I gradually make myself get up and brush off the night's lazy comfort and take my bag again ready to venture into yet another jungle and climb another mountain. Sunday, we were going up Tabur East. Approximately 1000 feet.

At the begining, I was still cursed with a few yawns and dragged my foot a little to get up and be on my way but as the adrenaline gradually kicked in. I felt so alive. Steep inclines that annoyed me as I had to push my way up now became a fun challenge.

Tabur East was much more challenging that tabur west and posed more death traps; edges where you could fall off to oblivion aplenty and sharp ragged limestone crystal rocks to cut you on the way down. I relished it.Didn't quite feel much fatigue as the promise of rewarding sights above supercharged me.
And it was majestic...beyond words as usual.
However, there were some rubbish strewn about even at this high altitude to remind me of the sad society that i live in. Come on people...the sweet wrappers does not weigh anything...just put it in your pocket and carry it down with you. Otherwise...may any pontianks on the mountain curse you to a deserving death from falling on your next visit.

Are There no More Good Samaritans?

Are there no more good Samaritans?

Please be warned the following video is very gory.It's of a cop dying on the street after his two legs were cut off. Two ministers of state were there but did little to help. It's taken from NDTV.

My Freedom to have Allah

My name is Linus Chung. I am a Catholic, has been for 29 years and will be.

I respect the Muslims and have many friends who professes the Islam faith.But please respect my freedom to choose my spirituality and to call my God whatever....be it Micheal Jackson, Mahathir or even Allah.It is the search for spirituality that is important and not the definition.Religion is just a language to understand Godliness and is not Godliness itself.

Nama saya Linus Chung. Saya beragama Katholik untuk 29 tahun dan akan terus beragama Katholik. Saya menghormati orang Muslim yang menganut agama Islam. Saya mempunyai ramai kawan Muslim. Saya meminta agar mereka menghormati bahawa saya mempunyai kebebasan memilih agama saya dan boleh memanggil Tuhan saya dengan apa apa nama sesuka hati saya biarpun ianya Micheal Jackson, Mahathir atau Allah.

Yang pentingnya kami semua mempunyai kepercayaan Tuhan bukan sekadar melawan satu sama lain kerana satu perkataan. Agama itu adalah satu cara untuk mencari Allah dan bukan Allah semata-mata.

My name is Linus Chung. I am a Catholic, has been for 29 years and will be. Problem is I am a Catholic in Malaysia.

We are hiking Tabur East.

Challenging for some. I know friends who have vormitted.
Easy for others.I know friends who call it a piece of cake.

We shall meet at 9, Jalan Datuk Sulaiman 2,Taman Tun Dr. Ismail at 5.45 am and carpool to the site (20 mins drive).

We start hike at 6.30 am.

Please bring a good attitude, torchlight,a bottle of water(at least 1 liter) a change of clothes, your own breakfast(you can bring extra to share with new friends on the hike) and some bandage for first aid.

**optional** Please bring a small bag to help collect any small rubbish along the way and help save our environment.

The hike is free and at your own risk. Kids under 21, please get your parent's consent. RM 10 per person will be charged for petrol cost to be given to drivers.

We are limiting this trip to a maximum of 10 people.

Trail organiser is Linus Chung. call 0129331415 for more info. No sms will be entertained.Please note that confirmation cannot be cancelled without a good reason(i.e. family death or your death) or you will be blacklisted.

Trail lead is a new friend named Mr. Lim.

Frog 2 : Updates 1

Some more pictures from Frog 2.

Blessed Christmas.

One friend decided to spend his christmas at Euphoria. Another decided to go for a home party and worship at the booze altar while another was fighting with his girlfriend over where to eat dinner. Some friends actually told me they didn't know christmas was a christian celebration. Well, he is half right, christmas 'holiday' or more appropriately 'holy-day' doesn't feel very christian anymore but more another reason to indulge in alcohol and senseless partying. (Holiday originally referred only to special religious days and originated from the word holy-day)

I do not mean to be anyway preachy but I went to church. I went with Sum and Aurelius. Two of my regular camping buddies. Sum is trying to find faith. Aurelius has been a lapsing Catholic but tries to make it a point to go for church on Christmas at least.

My parish priest, Father Simon Yong, gave an awesome homily(priest personal commentary on a scripture reading). **this is my interpretation and is not in verbatim.**

He started saying that christmas. God becoming man so that we can share in his divinity and how profound that is that God has come into the world to make our faith; a factuality...a reality.
Jesus our savior came. Does our action of making ourselves less to christianity and the celebration of christmas makes Jesus any less Jesus or Christmas any less Christmas? It does not...but if we do give ourselves our chance to be embraced by him, who come that we can share in his divinity. Sometimes our desires for a greater world does not come in grandeur but in the mere bowing in reverence that we are a part of greatness. Creatures before a creator.

This post comes abit late....but blessed christmas everyone. Rejoice for the savior has come.

Maurice the Lizard

Sorry for the delay on the fishkeeping post...still writing it and it's technical.

Anyway, This is Maurice the lizard. He was named Maurice because while I was preparing the film, I had a cat nap in the afternoon and dreamt that maurice came up to me and said,"hello, my name's maurice"
Maurice has a small role in my new film called frog 2, a sequel to my first successful short film demolition frog. I have wanted to do this sequel for so long but it was plagued with so many false starts...but i am happy it's finally off the ground.


Maurice is a pretty good slave labour actor and in the film he has to outrun this...which of course he'll probably fail. But he has a small role anyway so it doesn't matter if he dies.

Still the good thing about directing a lizard is...if he does not listen to you...you can always pick him up and give him a good shake.


until the pleads for dear life.


It's really quite fun.In a sadistic way.

Fishkeeping : Part 1 My Hobby

There is always an oil mark on the glass of my fish tank when I was young. It was where my forehead landed as i pressed my face to the tank to see the fish up-close. They never cease to fascinate me.

**The next three blog posts will be on fish keeping with an overview of the hobby and better instructions that most capitalist fish store would care to educate their customer. More fish die = more purchases = more business.**

Learning
I learned many things because of fishkeeping. I learn to love the dentist because I would be able to blackmail my mum saying, “I'll go to the dentist only if you will buy that RM 6 ringgit molly!” At that time, it was a premium for me to pay for a single fish.

With a container full of coins, I once bought a RM30 Arowana. Yes through fishkeeping I also learned finance and dissapointment. The Arowana jumped out and died three days later.

I also broadened my English vocabulary because of fishkeeping - I could always be found at the 'Mohd, Yahya and Sons' magazine store in Wisma Saberkas, browsing through the Practical Fishkeeping magazine. I will save every dollar I had to buy the magazine and I carried it everywhere I went. Eventually I started a pet club in my school for fellow fishkeepers from which I learned organization and people management, both of which still come in handy when I direct.

A hobby grows

From one single tank, my hobby slowly grew as I asked for a new fishtank everytime my birthday or christmas came along or even when I scored well in an examination.


Fishtank aside, any container that can be filled with water will do as a pet enclosure. It looked very makeshift but I think it’s much more fun to grow your hobby this way than to buy an overpriced mini aquarium with ready-set lights and filter package. You learn nothing from those. Eventually I knew fishkeeping so well I started building my own tank with filtration design. I was thought how to build a filter by N.C. Aquarium in carpenter street who taught me how a biological filter(more of this in part 2) works.. I also started to have a pretty good collection of specimens. As I grew ever more confident in the hobby, I would even buy sick fishes to enable me to afford expensive specimens which would otherwise be out of my range. Sometimes, I traded excess stock with friends who had equal fanaticism for the hobby. I always enjoyed showing friends my fish and telling them about curious observations I made. It was definitely more fun to learn science that way, and i also made some very close friends.

My hobby eventually branched to an interest in marine fish, birds and small animals. This took up half my porch, one spare room of my house, the garden and the back area behind the kitchen.

It became a hobby with about 28 fishtanks of various sizes, one 10ft by 10ft birdcage, one fiberglass pond, three 4ft by 3ft turtle enclosures. I had electric catfishes, salamanders, piranhas, lionfish, red eared sliders, kingfishers, budgerigars, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, seahorses, crabs …….the list goes on and on.

my marine tank.the technology wasn't available in kuching then but
i did whatever and it worked.I was about 15.This is 14 years ago.

an iguana swimming in my pond

my guinea pig run.they sleep in cages at night but are free to roam in
this movable grass deck by day.organic lawn mowing

Then fishkeeping do a few other things for me: I never took drugs, smoked, drank or mixed with the wrong crowd. My mother never even had to tell me not to, because I was always home tending to my pets. I also learned compassion for animals, which I have till today.

It’s unfair how environmentalists simply dismiss pet keeping. True, there’s the danger of wild caught specimens threatening wild population and also the danger of invasive species from pets freed to the wild. It’s a double edge sword I guess. I am willing to bet many environmentalist and ecologist, their love for nature probably started from pressing their head on a fishtank.