Ming's Media Appreciation Life
Hellowwww fellow readers, here's a short brief introduction about myself. My name is Khoo Kah Ming but I'm better known as Ming by my peers and family. I love sports and music which are 2 of the most important things in my life. I was born and raised here in Kuala Lumpur and I'm 18 years of age. I'm currently studying my foundation year in communication at Taylor's University Lakeside. Well that's all about me so far! Enjoy reading my blog readers ;)
Sunday, 2 December 2012
A TRIBUTE TO OUR BOYS IN BLACK AND YELLOW!
A very good morning to my fellow readers. I hope you guys are doing all good and I hope your weekend was a great one. No doubt we are all stressed up with assignments and exams just around the corner, it is always a great feeling when the weekend comes to spend some time with your family and your love ones. This morning, I'm making a tribute post to our boys in yellow and black, our very own Harimau Malaya who have made us so proud and united in supporting our team.
As a footballer myself, nothing compares to watching our own football team do battle in the pitch. Watching our team play almost every single game whether it's in the stadium or at home, I would always feel that feeling of patriotism and no doubt makes me feel very proud to be a Malaysian. We were once the Kings of Asia not too long ago and I believe we can still be that if we keep our heads up high and believe on what we can achieve.Our country Malaysia is currently one of the venues co-hosting with neighbors Thailand in hosting The AFF Suzuki cup which is only for countries in the south east. We are currently the title-holders of this cup after beating Indonesia 2 years ago in the two-legged final. As I recall myself in the Bukit Jalil Stadium 2 years back when we took on Indonesia, the atmosphere was just so electrifying and intense. Everyone was on their feet for the whole 90 minute action and singing our hearts out for our team. Before the game, the national anthem, Negaraku was played and thousands of fans including myself, held the shoulders of our neighbors sitting right next to us and singing our hearts out. There was even tears in my eyes as well as some others around me after the song has been sung.
We won that first leg and the second leg, which was the decider for us was hard and crucial for us. We needed to win or at least draw in order for us to win the cup. Tensions were high in Indonesia at the time of the finals as we have so much rivalry with them. Thousands fled to the GeloraBungkarno Stadium to watch the match. Our fans were definitely outnumbered with the vast sea of red supporters. On that very night, we manage to perform and play our hearts out and although we drew the second leg, we won on goal difference. It was a night historical night to remember for our boys and to our country.
This time around the AFF Suzuki Cup, we are title-holders. We have just completed the group stage finishing second in the group with Singapore leading. Despite loosing to Singapore in our first match which was full of disappointment, we manage to bounce back with victory to Laos, 4-1 and to our long rivals, Indonesia, 2-0 to knock them out of the tournament. With the current attitude and mentality of our boys to win and retain the trophy again, I am very sure that we can win it again. Our next opponents is against Thailand so please support our team and cheer them on when they do battle against Thailand.
I would like to end this by saying, regardless of race, ethnicity or skin colour, let's come together in supporting our Harimau Malaya and our country in any sporting in event. Malaysia boleh!
Here's the link to catch the action back in 2010 in the AFF Suzuki cup! ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8QyRv2VZ1g
Friday, 30 November 2012
STRICTLY ONLY FOR MUSICIANS & MUSIC LOVERS!
Before I get started on, how many of you guys are thinking that because you are not a musician or a music lover you can't read this post or my blog? Don't worry, my blog here is open to everyone out there to read. Once again guys, I would be doing about a musical post if you like on one of the favorite things that I love most in my life which is creating and playing music and this thing which you will see below has kept me up to date with the latest music gadgets, latest updates in the music scene and many more. This thing is no other than......
Yes, thats right! Guitar world. A magazine which has almost anything and everything which satisfies the life of any music lovers or musicians.Inside stories of the lives of musicians, latest album releases or reviews, band's tour dates and even a section where it teaches you how to play songs on your guitar that you have not thought of playing before. This magazine also covers a wide range of bands and artists that have made it there into the hall of fame.How i picture it, it is basically like a life book for all music lovers and musicians.
This magazine opens its life to all music lovers and musicians in July 1980, with Johnny Winter appearing in its cover. If you guys do not know who is Johnny Winter, he is an American blues guitarist, singer and producer. He managed to produce three Grammy Award- Winning albums for his old legend band, Muddy Waters. Here's a picture of him for you guys. He's a wonderful and talented musician in blues music.
Since the magazine debuted in July 1980, it has interviewed with some of rock's greatest guitarist like Santana, Slash, Jimmi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Angus Young of ACDC, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and many more. Just imagine yourself as the person interviewing all these famous rock stars and celebrities in the studio. That would certainly be a job to kill for. You would get to interview your favorite rock icon or celebrity, get their autograph, snap a picture with them and many more.
Well, i guess that is it for now. I hope you guys enjoy reading it. If any of you guys want to purchase this magazine, just head on down to any bookstore in the magazine section and you should be able to find it.So what are you waiting for, head on down now to get a copy of this magazine! ;)
Thursday, 29 November 2012
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! Those are the exact same words a producer or a director would say just before filming a movie. A very good day I wish to you guys. Hope you guys are doing great. I sure am doing good here myself. I hope you guys enjoyed my previous post titled My Appetite For Destruction; Sex & Drugs & Guns N' Roses. It's my first time after some time posting about something that has to do with music and i was really stoked and hyped up to blog about that.
My title of this post is LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION and why is this?. It is simply because all of us managed to get the chance in saying that!. I mean in a directors or a producers way by being behind the camera. About a month ago, we were assign together with our groups to make a short video/movie about a comedy. I have never got the opportunity to get involved in movie making and in the process like that as I'm more of a music person and I do get heavily involved when it comes to the music scene.
When I heard that we would be given a chance to direct/film/shoot/make a movie I was stoked and hyped for it. I had loads of ideas on what I thought it was funny which I shared it with my group members. They had their own set of ideas as well which was great. The initial process was to create what type of movie that we would be doing. We came up with a few ideas and even a parody of a movie but in the end, we decided to stick to something totally original and create our own movie and our own parts.
The next process which was challenging was to allocate the roles for us based on our own personality. We want to make it as original as possible and each character would be exactly like how we really are. The other was of course the locations and the settings to shoot our video. We manage to handle all of those challenges within a short period of time as all of us in the group really had chemistry and we totally understand each other.
The next stage was to present our story or a " jist " of it to our lecturer and our classmates. Unfortunately, we did not get a good response from our classmates which resulted in us changing the story line. Disappointed we were but we were still determined as ever to produce the best video in class. We burnt the midnight oil together trying to come up with a good story line and created a good story line we did. Well based on our own opinions. We included several camera angle shots that we have learnt during one of our lectures.
After coming up with the storyline, we were quick to get our shooting started as we were lacking behind and we did not want to waste anymore time anymore. We shot our video over the weekend in several locations. Time being an issue for us, we worked around the clock from as early as 8 or 9 in the morning till 11 in the night. We shot our video straight for the 2 days with minimal rest. The only time we got our rest was during lunch or dinner and during the editing at night of our scenes that we have done.
Then came editing and boy was it a real struggle for us. All of us had a number of ideas that how we want the video to be edited and at the end we managed to agree on how we want the video to be edited and all those hard work of burning the midnight oil in shooting the video and editing it after that really paid off.
We hope you guys would enjoy our video that hopefully we would be showcasing it to you guys in our lecture. That is all for this post. Do stay tuned for our video and we really hope you guys enjoy it. We really put in a lot of time, effort but most important dedication into this video :)
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
My Appetite For Destruction, Sex & Drugs & Guns N' Roses
A very good evening to my fellow readers, how are you guys doing on this fine evening? All good I hope. I really hope that you guys did enjoy my previous posts. I certainly did have a lot of fun blogging about it. My last 2 posts have been really long and I hope I did not bore any of you guys reading my blog out there. If you like any of my recent posts or dislike, do tell me so that I can improve my posts to make it better for you guys out there. Some of you may be wondering what is my title of this post all about, some of you may think what the hell is wrong with this dude blogging here. Before you guys do come into any conclusion, my title for this post does not represent me but instead someone really famous which has gone through all of these and is fortunate enough to still be alive today to tell the story. The guy you see above there is no other than Steve Adler, former drummer of Guns N' Roses.
This book was released in 2010 by no other that Steven Adler himself. He is fortunate enough to still be alive here to tell his story. After forty years, twenty-eight OD'S ( Overdose), three botched suicides, two heart attacks, a couple of jail stints, a debilitating stoke, and being labelled as one of the most self-destructive rock star ever, he has finally sobered up to share the shattering, untold truth about his life and about his music career.
You guys might wonder, what has this book got to do with anything in my life?. Truth is, it has a lot to do with my life. Well, not the drugs part and everything but how much it motivates me to strive for the better. When the band first started in the late 1980's, it was really a struggle. All of the members were struggling to pay rent, were struggling to put food on the table for themselves. That was how poor they all were when they first started. The road to stardom was a long and winding road for them. They were finding it hard to get record labels at the time to sign them to produce an album, they were even finding it hard for anybody to listen to their music.During the late 1980's, it was pretty hard to make it big as a rock band as there were so many out there especially in America. It was basically a do or die motto for all of them in order for them to make it big.
Fortunately at one of their gigs, they stumbled upon Vicky Hamilton which would later become their manager for the band. She believed that they had what it takes to really make it and burst into rock and roll scene in the sunset strip boulevard in Hollywood. After months and months off finding a record label to sign them, she finally found a company which would sign them. This company was called Geffen Records which was founded by Geffen. Geffen Records later proved to be one of the most successful record labels of all time and would work with many famous bands and artists.
Geffen Records brought the best out in the band and later that year in 1987, they released their first album titled My Appetite For Destruction which was one of the best selling albums in the world during that time. None of them expected the album to be an instant hit. In that album, songs like Welcome to the Jungle, Nightrain and Paradise City later became the bands best songs out of the many till today.
However, despite all the fame and fortune, the band had a really dark side. All of them were heavily involved in drugs. All of them had near death incidences. Steven Adler, after forty years, twenty-eight OD'S ( Overdose), three botched suicides, two heart attacks, a couple of jail stints and a debilitating stoke. Duff Mckagen, bassist of the band nearly drank himself to death whereby his pancreas expanded to the size of an american football, Slash also nearly drank himself to death till the point the doctors told him he only had a week to live and the list goes on. All these drugs consumed by the band later proved to be one of the reasons why the band split up after a decade together.
I would really suggest to you guys to get this book from any bookstores like MPH and Times. This book is really good in my personal opinion as it really helped my band and I to strive to be the best and give our 100 percent whenever we are performing. And also to not go into this dark abyss of drugs. For any aspiring musicians out there, this is really the book to get. It's obtainable at only RM 56.90 which is really reasonable for a biography.
Well, that's about it. Till the next post. ;)
December 7th, 1941
A very good evening once again to all my readers. How are you guys doing? I hope you guys are doing all good. Exams are just around the corner and as assignments are all coming to it's due date, it tends to get pretty stressful and tiring working on them on late nights. Whatever it is, always have a positive mind to it and give it your very best shot. I hope you guys enjoy reading my last post which was mostly a tribute to my dad. I believe that he is in a much better place right now enjoying what he loves doing which is playing golf. Today's post well i'm going to go back in time to an event which took place during the early 1940's. 1941 to be exact the year this event took place. This event has changed history as well as played a great significance in the second world war. December 7th 1941 was the bombings on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.
Here's just a short brief history on what really happened on that sunny morning when all of these took place. The attack on Pearl Harbor called Hawaii Operation or Operation Al by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, Operation Z in planning and the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of December 7th, 1941. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. I took this source from a trusty search engine called wikipedia.
You could only imagine how the lives of the people in Hawaii during the morning when the bombings took place. Imagine yourself waking up on a nice sunny morning, preparing for breakfast or going for military training at the time and some people still in bed sleeping and before you know it, you are being bombed. The panic and the chaos that happened during that day. Hospital crowded with wounded people, wounded soldiers needing medical aid. The streets filled with dead body as the Japanese were shooting at anything, anyone. The naval base completely destroyed, many battleships destroyed including the USS Arizona.
Today, many movie makers and directors create their movies based on past tragic events that took place.A couple of movies that movie makers and directors create their movies on based on past tragic events is Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor and many more.
Pearl Harbor is a classic American war movie directed by directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Randall Wallace in 2001. Although this movie was based on actual events that took place in 1941, it has a little bit of twist in the story whereby not only broadcasting all the events that took place, it also shows romance in the film just like Titanic.This movie features a large ensemble cast, including Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett,Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Colm Feore, Mako, Tom Sizemore, Jaime King and Jennifer Garner.Pearl Harbor is a dramatic reimagining of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Doolittle Raid. "Some special prints were made from the color negatives using the recently re-introduced Technicolor dye imbibition printing process. Despite negative reviews from critics, Pearl Harbor became a major box office success, earning $449,220,945 at the world wide box office and won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing".
This movie is about two best friends from Tennessee in the year 1923, Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker, who's dream's were becoming a fighter pilot in the US Army. By January1941, both of them First Lieutenants in the United States Army Air Corps under the command of Major Jimmy Doolittle. 4 weeks earlier Rafe had met Evelyn, a United States Navy Nurse who passes him for his physical examination even though he has dyslexia. They started off their relationship since then. Rafe was called off to England to join the British Army to fight the Nazi's in the war. While fighting the Nazi's, his plane was shot down over the English Channel. In case anything happened to him, he fully put his trust on Danny to inform his girlfriend, Evelyn and to look after her.
After some time, Danny and Evelyn started seeing each other. On the night of December 6th, just before Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, Rafe returned and they were all shocked to see him still alive. He later found out that his best friend Danny who he could count on was seeing her. He was really heart broken and did not treat Danny too well. They had a brawl that same night at a pub by the beach which result in the military police coming to the pub. Both of them fleed in Danny's car half drunk.
On the morning of the attack, they were waken up by the sound of fighter planes surrounding the area and shortly after bombing the naval bases there. Everyone was in shock and both of them tried getting to an airstrip as soon as possible but most of them were being bombed. They managed to find an airstrip which was not bombed yet by the Japanese and they quickly got onto their planes and started fighting.
After several hours of fighting the Japanese, the Japanese returned to base which allowed them to regroup with their troops. There was a top secret mission to attack the Japanese few days after the bombings of Pearl Harbor which both of them volunteered for together with some more soldiers at base. It was a suicide mission and they knew that chances are they might not make it back. Both of them said goodbye to Evelyn and left for battle knowing that they might die. Evelyn explained to Rafe that she did not know that he was still alive and that if he was still alive, she would have waited for him. It's clear to see that both of them love the same woman and at the same time, Evelyn loves Rafe ad Danny.
They set off on their suicidal mission and they knew that turning back was not an option. Danny, Rafe and others are to fly North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, bomb Tokyo and then land in friendly Chinese territory. The two men and their team succeed in their bombing but crash-land into a rice field in a Japanese-held area when their bombers run out of fuel.They were outnumbered by the Japanese there and were caught in the paddy field. Just when Rafe is about to get shot, Danny saved his life by trying to break lose and fight the Japanese and would eventually be shot. In his dying words, Danny told Rafe to look after his son for him when he gets back.
Upon returning to base after an unsuccessful mission, Evelyn expected the worse and instead of both of them loosing their life in battle, her current boyfriend, Danny was carried out by the boys in a casket. She was devastated. After returning, Rafe married Evelyn with Danny's child. Few years later, America managed to bomb Japan which they later surrendered.
After watching this movie, I would want to put myself in the shoes of the soldiers and the army personals that are preparing for war or being unaware of the attacks that at the time was about to took place. If i had the chance, I would recreate the movie but this time instead of romance, the movie would be more on patriotism towards our homeland and more of the fighting that took place. My motto behind my very own movie is to instill patriotism and to make my countryman believe no matter how small a country we are compared to the rest of the " power house", we have what it takes, the courage, the strength to fight off whatever that comes in between us in harming our country regardless of skin color or race. I strongly believe that this motif would make us Malaysians more patriotic and more loving towards our country, Malaysia.
After watching this movie, I would want to put myself in the shoes of the soldiers and the army personals that are preparing for war or being unaware of the attacks that at the time was about to took place. If i had the chance, I would recreate the movie but this time instead of romance, the movie would be more on patriotism towards our homeland and more of the fighting that took place. My motto behind my very own movie is to instill patriotism and to make my countryman believe no matter how small a country we are compared to the rest of the " power house", we have what it takes, the courage, the strength to fight off whatever that comes in between us in harming our country regardless of skin color or race. I strongly believe that this motif would make us Malaysians more patriotic and more loving towards our country, Malaysia.
Watching the movie, Pearl Harbor has made me weep many times and it made me realize how patriotism is really important. I am really grateful to have been raised and born in our country Malaysia. Although our country has many races and despite our past, today, we have all united as one and living in a peaceful and harmonious country. That is all for this post. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did blogging about it. Till the next post :).
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
That dream that felt so real. A tribute to a great man
A very good evening to all my readers out there. Sorry for not updating my blog for some time as i have been really really busy sorting out some personal stuff with my family since my dad passed away last month. I hope you guys are doing all good, besides being busy with assignments and exams etc.. since it's reaching the end of the year and nearing exams.
Let me first start this post of by asking you guys out there, have you ever had a dream where it felt so real?. Not those dreams where you have your favorite meal or find yourself fighting some dragon in castles and whatnot but dreams that find yourself in 10 years time or so doing something that you really love doing or someone you wanted to be since when you were a kid. When i was a kid to be honest, I had many dreams. Yes, loads of dreams! There's one time I wanted to be a football player and play for Liverpool and another i wanted a superhero and save the world just like how Superman or Spider man did. I used to think that superhero's like Superman and Spider Man really did existed. Yes, I mean it is great to have dreams which aspire you to become who you want to be but chase those dreams which you know can be achieved if you really work hard at it.
Before i get my dream started, I would like to dedicate this post to my late father, Mr Eric Khoo Teng Hai who lost his life to heart attack last month while enjoying a golf game with 24 of his close buddies. He is already greatly missed by all of us especially my mother and me. Things have been really hard for the family since he left us last month and we still could not accept his death and how he passed on. My dad has always been a really healthy man. He doesn't smoke nor drink but only when he has any social events, he watches his diet and he exercises. It still puzzles us how a man so fit like him would go at the cause of a heart attack.
Well, like most religion says, a persons death is already fated. The day we born into this earth and the day we took our last breath on this earth. We Buddhism believe, for the first 7 days of a person's passing, his or her soul would still remain with the family and you would encounter them for the first 7 days. And yes those believes were true. Honestly, before my dad's passing, I was rather sceptic and didn't believe all of this.During the first 7 days I actually encountered a lot and even seeing a glimpse of him watching the television. I also felt my dads presence a lot and whenever I would sort of have an encounter with him, the hairs on my hand would all stand up and I would get a very chilled feeling down my bones. It takes a lot for the hairs on the hand of a hairy man to stand up. Since my encounters with him, I really did believe in all of these believes that my religion says.
Last Sunday or Monday night if my mind serves me right to remember, I had a dream about my dad. I have been having loads of dreams about my dad since his passing but this dream in particular that I had really gave me motivation to aspire my dreams which made my dad proud. My dad was a very successful man where he touched many lives of his colleague as well as inspire them to strive for excellence in whatever they did. It really showed how much of an influence my dad really was with the huge turnouts of visitors coming to my place during the wake of my dad as well as on the funeral day it self. My dad was once one of the leading men of Mcdonald's Malaysia,when the franchise first started. He used to tell me stories about when the company first started and how much it has grown. I can proudly say this that my dad was the founder of the Prosperity Burger that Mcdonald's have towards the end and beginning of every year.
After leaving Macdonalds in the year 2000 since he started in 1986-87, he joined Starbucks Coffee Malaysia and later Berjaya Food And Franchise Berhad whereby he was in charge of Papa Johns, Wendey's, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, and recently, an Italian Gellato ice cream chain called Ci-Gusta which was really famous in Italy. This is just a brief biography about my late father which I am really proud to share it with you guys.
During my dads funeral, I made a promise to him that I would one day walk in his footsteps and be someone very successful just like how he was with Mcdonalds and Berjaya. In this dream I had about him, I was much older. I would say maybe I was in my thirties as I had a mustache and I looked more matured. It was at this function whereby the employee's of Berjaya and Starbucks were getting their awards for best performance, stores which has the highest sales, etc. The ballroom was filled with all the employees looking stunning and dazzling as it was a very prestigious and formal event. I was seated at the very first table together with my dads colleagues whom he had worked with before during his time at Berjaya. I was called up on to the stage by the owner and founder of Berjaya, Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan who have worked very closely with my dad for the past 30 over years since Mcdonalds and also a dear friend to my father.
He told me in front of everybody present on how great my father was and how much of a legacy he built during his time with the company. He also told me how much of a man I was in terms of doing business just like my father once did and how much of an influence I was to the company. Shortly after, he told me that I was going to take over my dad in the same position that he once held just before he passed away. I was really really happy and I accepted it with all my heart.
As I was giving a speech about my dad and how much of an influence he is in my life and to the company, I saw him standing at my near right corner, smiling at me and clapping his hands. When I got down the stage, he told me that he was really really proud of me as a son and I kept my promise to him of becoming someone really successful and walking in his footsteps. And that was the dream I had which today has really gave me so much motivation to strive for excellence and to keep up to my promise that i made to him during the funeral.
I wish I had more pictures to show you guys but unfortunately I do not have as most pictures of him are on his Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/eric.hai.7. Above is a picture of him with some of my family members. Well, this is all for this post.Well, this is all for this post. Once again, this post is tributed to my late father and there is one thing I would like to say to you guys before I end this. Dreams really do come true. Do not let anyone tell you what you can't do or what you can't achieve in the future cause deep down only you can decide on whether you really want your dreams to come true :).
Let me first start this post of by asking you guys out there, have you ever had a dream where it felt so real?. Not those dreams where you have your favorite meal or find yourself fighting some dragon in castles and whatnot but dreams that find yourself in 10 years time or so doing something that you really love doing or someone you wanted to be since when you were a kid. When i was a kid to be honest, I had many dreams. Yes, loads of dreams! There's one time I wanted to be a football player and play for Liverpool and another i wanted a superhero and save the world just like how Superman or Spider man did. I used to think that superhero's like Superman and Spider Man really did existed. Yes, I mean it is great to have dreams which aspire you to become who you want to be but chase those dreams which you know can be achieved if you really work hard at it.
Before i get my dream started, I would like to dedicate this post to my late father, Mr Eric Khoo Teng Hai who lost his life to heart attack last month while enjoying a golf game with 24 of his close buddies. He is already greatly missed by all of us especially my mother and me. Things have been really hard for the family since he left us last month and we still could not accept his death and how he passed on. My dad has always been a really healthy man. He doesn't smoke nor drink but only when he has any social events, he watches his diet and he exercises. It still puzzles us how a man so fit like him would go at the cause of a heart attack.
Well, like most religion says, a persons death is already fated. The day we born into this earth and the day we took our last breath on this earth. We Buddhism believe, for the first 7 days of a person's passing, his or her soul would still remain with the family and you would encounter them for the first 7 days. And yes those believes were true. Honestly, before my dad's passing, I was rather sceptic and didn't believe all of this.During the first 7 days I actually encountered a lot and even seeing a glimpse of him watching the television. I also felt my dads presence a lot and whenever I would sort of have an encounter with him, the hairs on my hand would all stand up and I would get a very chilled feeling down my bones. It takes a lot for the hairs on the hand of a hairy man to stand up. Since my encounters with him, I really did believe in all of these believes that my religion says.
Last Sunday or Monday night if my mind serves me right to remember, I had a dream about my dad. I have been having loads of dreams about my dad since his passing but this dream in particular that I had really gave me motivation to aspire my dreams which made my dad proud. My dad was a very successful man where he touched many lives of his colleague as well as inspire them to strive for excellence in whatever they did. It really showed how much of an influence my dad really was with the huge turnouts of visitors coming to my place during the wake of my dad as well as on the funeral day it self. My dad was once one of the leading men of Mcdonald's Malaysia,when the franchise first started. He used to tell me stories about when the company first started and how much it has grown. I can proudly say this that my dad was the founder of the Prosperity Burger that Mcdonald's have towards the end and beginning of every year.
After leaving Macdonalds in the year 2000 since he started in 1986-87, he joined Starbucks Coffee Malaysia and later Berjaya Food And Franchise Berhad whereby he was in charge of Papa Johns, Wendey's, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, and recently, an Italian Gellato ice cream chain called Ci-Gusta which was really famous in Italy. This is just a brief biography about my late father which I am really proud to share it with you guys.
During my dads funeral, I made a promise to him that I would one day walk in his footsteps and be someone very successful just like how he was with Mcdonalds and Berjaya. In this dream I had about him, I was much older. I would say maybe I was in my thirties as I had a mustache and I looked more matured. It was at this function whereby the employee's of Berjaya and Starbucks were getting their awards for best performance, stores which has the highest sales, etc. The ballroom was filled with all the employees looking stunning and dazzling as it was a very prestigious and formal event. I was seated at the very first table together with my dads colleagues whom he had worked with before during his time at Berjaya. I was called up on to the stage by the owner and founder of Berjaya, Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan who have worked very closely with my dad for the past 30 over years since Mcdonalds and also a dear friend to my father.
He told me in front of everybody present on how great my father was and how much of a legacy he built during his time with the company. He also told me how much of a man I was in terms of doing business just like my father once did and how much of an influence I was to the company. Shortly after, he told me that I was going to take over my dad in the same position that he once held just before he passed away. I was really really happy and I accepted it with all my heart.
As I was giving a speech about my dad and how much of an influence he is in my life and to the company, I saw him standing at my near right corner, smiling at me and clapping his hands. When I got down the stage, he told me that he was really really proud of me as a son and I kept my promise to him of becoming someone really successful and walking in his footsteps. And that was the dream I had which today has really gave me so much motivation to strive for excellence and to keep up to my promise that i made to him during the funeral.
My late father on the left |
I wish I had more pictures to show you guys but unfortunately I do not have as most pictures of him are on his Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/eric.hai.7. Above is a picture of him with some of my family members. Well, this is all for this post.Well, this is all for this post. Once again, this post is tributed to my late father and there is one thing I would like to say to you guys before I end this. Dreams really do come true. Do not let anyone tell you what you can't do or what you can't achieve in the future cause deep down only you can decide on whether you really want your dreams to come true :).
Thursday, 27 September 2012
WORDS AND PICTURES ON A PAPER?
A very good morning I would like to
wish all my readers. How is your morning going on so far? Mine has been good so
far. What really made my morning is that I had a plate of Nasi Lemak for
breakfast from a stall that I have been going to since when I was a kid. For
me, this Nasi Lemak is unlike any other. These days, you would get a modified
so to speak version of Nasi Lemak where you have it with fried chicken or the
usual Nasi Lemak biasa. This stall that I have always been buying since my
early years of life, serves the very authentic Malay type of Nasi Lemak where
you would have like the beef rendang, ayam rendang, sambal sotong and stuff
like that. The Nasi Lemak is even served with banana leaf at the bottom! How
often can you still get Nasi Lemak that is still served with those traditional
side dishes to go along with it yet alone served with banana leaf. Talking
about it right now makes me feel like I want to have another plate of it.
Now getting back on track before I
blog about food rather than the purpose of why I am here this morning. From my
headings, SHEETS OF PAPERS FILLED WITH WORDS AND PICTURES, what does the first
thing that comes to your mind when you read the headings? Does it leave you
clueless for a bit? Does it make you wonder what I could possibly be talking
about?. If I would have to ask you to guess an object in relation to my
headings, what object would you possibly guess?. The answer is newspapers!.
This is how I imagine newspapers. It’s simply sheets of papers filed with words
and pictures. Some of you may agree with me, others may not. Let me go in
depth. Newspapers are simply papers filled with important words so to speak
going along with pictures to help describe a clearer picture to readers. Here
are some of the newspaper companies that are currently operating in our
country!
Living in this technological era
today, where computers are no longer huge and bulky like they used to be, but
instead slimer and getting smaller in size if you like. It is now even portable
and you can carry it wherever you go! Hand phones are no longer those big
phones the size of a huge brief case but instead the size of as small as your
palm. Adding to that, who would have thought that hand phones would soon become
touch screen?. We have advanced so much to some extend where we become heavily
dependent on our gadgets. Let me ask you this question, could you survive a day
without using your laptops, your tablets or your smart phones just for a day?.
Honestly, I can’t last a day without even using my Ipad and checking my
Facebook and Twitter for updates. Not only that, I find it hard when I am
studying as most of the time I would rather type than write and I have gotten
so used to this that if I did not type out my work and I would have to write
down, I would not be able to do it as my hand writing would have probably be
affected. This is how much technological inventions have impacted our lives
For some people, they do not rely
heavily anymore on the newspapers to obtain their source of news. Back in the
days not too long ago, every where you would go, whether its to the coffee shop
or to those India-Muslim restaurants, you would find most people having a
newspaper in their hand while they enjoy their Roti Canai and Teh Tarik kurang
manis. Today, we rarely see that anymore! Instead we see most people having
Ipads in their hands checking out the latest updates as well as their source to
obtain news. This is how revolutionize our technological gadgets have advanced.
Before I end my post here, I would
like to ask you this question. Do you think that newspapers would be taken over
by technological gadgets causing newspaper companies to go out of business say
in 10 years time?. A lot could happen in 10 years time. We are already in that
era where car companies are starting to invent cars that fly! Have a great day
everyone and till the next post! Stay
tuned J
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