INTRODUCING NAOKO KENSAKU! The walking encyclopedia that comes with a thesaurus and dictionary. Also spouts opinions from time to time! Note: May be hazardous when given candy, chocolate and/or bishounen. (Taken from Beeb)
Ok, this is kinda a few years too late, but you can now find the owner of this blog writing (more or less) permanently at:
For this post, I shall PIMP Three blogs:
In a little more than 12 hours from now, the Blogathon will begin. I’ll be blogging for Up With People (more details here) - and I need more sponsors!
So far I have 1 sponsor of $20.00 (thanks Naoko!) But I could certainly use more!
Sponsor me - and you will get something special.
For each verified and proofed donation of $20.00, you will receive an MP3 file of an Up With People song. So for example, if you donated $40, you can choose 2 songs. The songs you can choose from are:
Ayiko
It Takes A Whole Village
One 2 One
Can We Sing A Song Of Peace?
We Are Many, We Are One
With Everything Changing
Moon Rider
Live It Live
What Colour Is God’s Skin?
Does It Really Matter?
We’ll Be There
Beat Of The Future
Give The Children Back Their Childhood
The Sound Of Peace
El Puente
I Am A Person
Pays De Coeur/Hartelijk Land
Room For Everyone
Where The Roads Come Together
Unspoken Words
Rhythm Of The World
Keep The Beat
Also, any verified and proofed donation of $50 and above will receive an .MP3 of Up With People - either the folksy 1965 version, or the contemporary 1998 version.
All the songs reflect Up With People’s musical and human diversity, with a variety of styles, song content, and vibes, spanning a 41-year musical history (with more to come!). I often get visitors coming here looking for an “Up With People” MP3 - well here’s your chance! These MP3s are not available elsewhere (unless you manage to obtain an Up With People CD, which is not commercially available), and you can only get them if you donate!
Also, if you are Up With People alumni, have been involved with them somehow (staff, host family, community project, etc), or even just saw a show, please email me! I’d love to hear from you!
Don’t forget…
All songs (c) Up With People/ASCAP except One 2 One (c) 1993 F2O Songs and I Am A Person (c) 1993 Flame Music.
Well, on July 29th to be more accurate. I’m participating for the first time this year and it’s for a very worthy cause.
What’s Blogathon 2006? It’s works like those jogathons like you used to have in schools where you go around asking (read: begging) for money to donate to the school’s building fund. Except that in Blogathon, you don’t have to do any jogging or anything…you just have to blog for 24 hours all for charity! I’m rather bad at explaining things, so, why don’t you just spare a couple of minutes and head over to Blogathon 2006 and read about it.
And when you’ve signed up, please remember to head back here and click on the “Sponsor Me” link found in the topmost box on the right hand side. Fill in your details and decide how long you’d like to sponsor me for out of the 24 hours, though bear in mind that the amount of hours you’ll sponsor me will translate into cash that you’re willing to donate to the charity. The charity that I am supporting is none other than Save the Children, a non-profit organisation that:-
“fights for children in the UK and around the world who suffer from poverty, disease, injustice and violence, working with them to find lifelong answers to the problems they face.”
This is your chance to make a difference, via blogging and sponsoring! If you’re an avid blogger, join in on this noble cause while having fun blogging about the cause you’re taking up! Make people realise the good things your charity has been doing for countless of lives around the world.
Thank goodness I didn’t go, because soon later, I was featured in Youth2 of The Star newspaper, got offered to write numerous articles, participated in Blogathon 2005, won an award, resumed studying on a full scholarship, and the rest is history.
Phew! What a turning point that was! If I had taken up the offer by Eden HDC, I would not have known you. I would not even have time to maintain a blog.
Even so, I often regret not being able to do much to help Eden HDC. During my visit there, I was touched by their genuine love and compassion they have for the physically impaired members of society. Unlike many other handicap centers in Penang, Eden’s services are provided entirely for free, sustaining on public donations. They have hostels for the less fortunate children and mentally challenged adults. During the day, the children are sent by Eden to special government-funded schools while the mentally challenged adults are assigned to do simple work such as dismantling delicate computer scraps to train the efficiency of limbs. A physiotherapist comes around once a week to exercise with the children. Those needing more medical attention are personally taken to the hospital for treatments every other week.
During my visit, there were two senior “houseparents” who cook meals and look after the children. These children are harder to care for, because they do not always understand simple commands that we often take forgranted. The parents of these children are poor, who cannot afford to pay other centers that charged hefty prices for their services. Yet, they need someone to look after their handicap children while the husbands and wives work their butts off, battling with the ever-increasing prices of Malaysian living.
Just a drive away, is Eden’s recycling unit, where they acquired the vicinity of a factory and recycling tools. During the day, a group of men would go around Penang Island in a van to collect recyclable items from door to door. Here is a touching scene. Because most of these men are mentally challenged, they can’t possibly go around on their own. Therefore, there are always a few physically challenged, but mentally capable staffs going on these trips with them. The physically challenged staffs would draw the diagram of simple lift buttons that indicates which button to press to reach the correct floor. The mentally challenged men will then go collecting items from door to door by following these simple hand-drawn instructions. I am most touched to see the well-planned co-operation between two groups of people with different gifts from God.
Besides these, there is also the handicrafts unit where the physically challenged ladies are trained, and also the computing unit where some of their members are taught basic designing and computing skills, so they may one day enter the workforce despite their individual physical limitations.
Eden provides all these services to the public for free. In madelene’s own words:
Many less fortunate children has been knocking our door for help as we are the only centre that provides hostel/day care service to children at no charge. Whereas other centre that provide only day care to the disabled children are charging about RM450.00. From here we notice that only those that can afford will enjoy their training but what about those who cannot afford. The total number of mentally challenged male adult and children in our hostel has escalated to about 45. The overall total of disabled friends in our centre has reached 85 excluding adhoc services provided to the less fortunate in the community.
Last year, I made a big decision to leap towards my dream. Medelene and Bertie, as well as other volunteers at the center, have also made a decision to dedicate their lives to the bettermen of the underprivileged. For this, I solute them, because not everyone is willing to make such a sacrifice.
Madelene and Bertie’s story, as well as their many full-time staffs and volunteers is certainly one worth admiring. They are truly selfless servants of God. I will never forget the genuine compassion and hospitality they gave me during my stay there. Even until today, we still remain in contact by e-mail. Madelene has always been warm and humble, and she still is despite the many struggles in life!
If you enjoyed reading my experience with Eden Handicap Service Center, please consider donating some cash to them. Authors and writers, John Ling, Charmaine Hon, Chen Pelf Nyok, Jessica Choo, and I are teaming up in this year’s blogathon to raise funds for Eden Handicap Service Center again!
Blogathon will start on 29th August 2006, 9pm (Malaysian time) onwards and we will be blogging for 24-hours straight. John, the author based in New Zealand, Charmaine the journalism student in Australia, Pelf the marine biology graduate in Kuala Terengganu, Jessica Choo from erm… somewhere I forgot, and yours truly the student and writer based in KL, are bringing you the spirit of volunteerism and charity through blogging this Saturday!
I’m most keen to see what this team of people with diverse interests are going to blog about!
Please have a heart, spare some cash, and make a difference to the lives of less fortunate Malaysians who could have been your own family member.
Sign up as a sponsor today: http://blogathon.org/sponsor.php?blog_id=148 Blog name: YvonneFoong.com
After the event, an email will be sent to you on how donations should be made DIRECTLY to Eden. We don’t handle any money to ensure transparency. Remember to surf my blog this Saturday, 9pm onwards!
Blogathon is coming up! What is blogathon?
On July 29, hundreds of bloggers from around the world will put their endurance to the test for charity, blogging every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. This is the Sixth Annual International Blogathon, an event that creates a worldwide community for a day, serves up fascinating content, and most importantly, raises tens of thousands of dollars for dozens of charities. Bloggers choose the charity and collect sponsorships. At the end of the event, those sponsors fulfill their pledges directly with the charity.
It’s not too late to sign up if you’d like to blog! You can also help by sponsoring a blogger, just check out the List of Bloggers at the site. Stay up late, make a difference.
Bear in mind though, you DO NOT pay the bloggers, but you donate instead STRAIGHT to the charity involved. Donate because these kids (well, relatively speaking) are making a difference.
So what are you waiting for? GO PLEDGE TODAY!
Bloggers I am sponsoring:1. Tiara, who’ll be blogging at: http://educatedeviate.wordpress.com
- Topic: Alternative Education
- Charity: Up With People, a student exchange programme that takes you around the world
- Pledge: http://www.blogathon.org/sponsor.php?blog_id=70
2. Serge: http://dustyhawk.com
- Topic: No theme this year
- Charity: Unicef. I don't think I need to explain this, do I?
- Pledge: http://www.blogathon.org/sponsor.php?blog_id=10
3. Edrei: http://kamigoroshi.net
- Topic: None as far as I know
- Charity: Association for International Cancer Research
- Pledge: http://www.blogathon.org/sponsor.php?blog_id=86
4. Onii-chan Phil: http://theeternalwanderer.wordpress.com
- Topic: None yet
- Charity: Save The Children.- Pledge: http://www.blogathon.org/sponsor.php?blog_id=130
So what are you guys waiting for? PLEDGE TODAY! It starts this Saturday, Malaysian time!Or how I realise that for some strange reason, the computers @MPH, where I work, for some reason do not allow me to post in GeminianEyes. Gah.
I look at Bloglines and I see many of my friends getting on with their lives. Those who've had upheavals in the past few months seem to be adjusting well, with or without the people in their lives that they love or cared about. Before, when they were going through it all, all I could do was stare at the screen and read, helpless to offer anything more than typed words of comfort. At the end of the day, that's all I can do. Because an ocean separates us.
Overheard this morning over FLY FM (95.8 in the Klang Valley, guys)
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT??? WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY THINKING??
We now return to a little bit more of sanity.What is the taxpayers' money going to? Why is it that they couldn't fix the toilets during the refurbishment? And for the record, I heard that the Minister will be in charge of the PARLIAMENT Toilets only. If he was in charge for nationwide then can la. BUT ONLY PARLIAMENT?
Excuse me while I answer nature's call. *Sarcasm deliberate*
Manja is the Malay term for something like wanting to be spoiled or pampered. Thanks to my current moodswings, that’s exactly how I feel now. I want to be manja-ed, and I do not like that feeling. I know, I know, it’s normal to feel like that once in a while, but while they are comfortable with it, I’m not.
I like the idea, but I just don’t want to be manjaed. Well… I suppose I will be when it comes to Saturday. I just want to be held and cuddled, that’s all. And to know that I’m comfy and safe and secure enough with a certain someone to fall asleep in their arms…
One of the biggest problems we have in facing the Internet is the sheer amount of information that’s available. Sometimes when you’re searching, Google, Wikipedia and even The WayBack Machine don’t seem to turn up any results. In these cases, it’s always important to remember to try a different approach.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because I’ve seen two requests for song translations in the past five days. It could be that I just have too much time or energy to focus on something like this, but I’d like to point out that when the accurate word search fail, look for associations.
Basically, read through the search results you get. Find out the common theme binding them together and see if you can trace them back. For instance, a search on Siam Shade’s Time’s turned up the Romaji translation, but nothing else. A search of the Album name though (provided by Anime Lyrics) turned up more. A little bit of tweaking the Google searches brought up a site with the album lyrics. Click on link, and VOILA! You have the translation to said song.
If anyone wants to know, yes, that is the main reason why I cannot find my links and articles that I read anymore. Basically when I do research, I used to always read them online, quote them in said article, and then completely forget to get the URL before heading home. When I checked in next, said website was lost in cyberspace.
Now I simply print them out and do the linking the hard way… If I use them at all.
Yes, I’m procrastinating. And yes, I have two news pieces that need to be written. And yes, I have an unfinished PR report. And yes…I’m going clinically insane.
Bleh.1. Never, EVER insult the religion. *Headdesks, followed by sound of glass breaking* I can't believe that I forgot that cardinal rule. I be dork. Forgetting my own rule... *headdesks again*
2. When in doubt, NEVER EVER leave the footage capturing to the next day. At least not when you have the opportunity to finish everything in one day.
3. Being politically correct can make all the difference, no matter how silly it may sound.4. You cannot be friends with EVERYone.
5. Being bitchy once in a while is alright, but biting heads off is too much.6. Being hormonal is not an excuse.
7. Being stupid is.8. Kicking a football is NOT a phallic excerise. 'Sides you might scare someone off.
9. Did I mention that being tired and hormonal is not an excuse?10. Your timing and words suck. And to think that you just about managed to get him to be civilized to you too.
The Keys to Your Heart
For guys. Highlight to read if the bkrg is white. Bear in mind that I'm trying to expunge most of the trivia I collected when I was about 10-15 years old, so please keep an open mind while you're reading, ya? Oh, and did I mention that this was trivia that I collected? So if my facts are off, tell me where and when. Girls, comment if you think that I messed up a fact or something. BTW, for some people, this may be considered "dirty," so I would really recommend you NOT to read this till AFTER Ramadhan. I do not want to be accused of corrupting more than I already have. ^_^
The period, also known as the post-ovulation period for a female, is one that most females fear, and with good reason. Most guys know that a period's basically the body expunging blood after ovulation, but do you know why?
During ovulation, the female body prepares itself for the baby by lining the uterus with a thick layer of blood vessels that are disposed if fertilization does not occur during ovulation. This is the reason for the blood.And now we go into the reason why periods are evil and why women complain of soreness and pain.
1. We're discharging BLOOD.2. Blood clots. Unfortunately, for some of us, the blood vessels from the previous month was not discharged fully, so when the new one forms under it and is then discharged, the pain can be excruiating, to say the least.
3. Due to 2, the level of pain and discomfort felt by women may vary. That's why some females are absolute b****es at this time, while others have a shorter temper.4. Hot water helps. Anything to relax the muscles. Unfortunately, most of us work in a cold environment. Any wonder why we hate air-cons?
5. Bleh.
A freelancer trying to make her way in the world. If you'd like to know more about the person behind the blog, check out Reach Into Your Soul.
