Monday, September 05, 2005
MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com Digest Edition 04 (20050905)
@ILuvBookss Column :
[ hahaha ... so glad i bought the "big book of insults" ]
@ILuvBlogss Column :
[ featured blog no. 005: katsmew.blogspot.com | featured blog no. 006: huntingthesnark.com | have we taken "commenting" for granted when it comes to reading others' blogs? ]
@ILuvWoman Column :
[ if you say my eyes are beautiful ]
@ILuvFriends Column :
[ my thoughts about "friendship" 002 : like a bird in the palm ]
@ILuvJokes Column :
[ everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody ]
@ILuvChina Column :
[ paper currency of china (part 01) : 1jiao, 2jiao, and 5 jiao ]
@ILuvMalaysia Column :
[ useful information about malaysia part 02 : national anthem of malaysia the "negaraku" | useful information about malaysia part 03 : the "rukunegara" ]
And not forgetting over at my buddy the CityHunterGatherer's Blog :
[ sun zi bing fa - the sun tzu's art of war | sunzibingfa (suntzu's art of war) - books ]
Last but not least, on the @MataKecil main blog itself :
[ matakecil.blogspot.com digest edition 03 (20050816) ]
Hehe, find anything interesting? No?!!! Well, ServeURight!!! Yes?!!! You really "TieSay" one hehe :)
hehe ... yours sincerely,
matakecil
ps. thanks to the sponsor of the current edition : JustNice.Org
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com Digest Edition 03 (20050816)
@ILuvBlogss Column :
[ featured blog no. 002: ChanLilian.Net | featured blog no. 003: Belacans.BlogSpot.Com | featured blog no. 004: LrongLimPhotos.BlogSpot.Com ]
@ILuvWisdom Column :
[ i shall not pass this way again | if you think | don't quit | abraham lincoln: "first inaugural address" (mar 4, 1861) ]
@ILuvJokes Column :
[ the cowboy who lost his horse | old lady buys chicken ]
@ILuvChina Column :
[ china's history (part 01) : dynasties of china (overview) ]
@ILuvMalaysia Column :
[ globalmalaysians.com to help malaysians all over the world to network & help one another ]
And not forgetting over at my buddy the CityHunterGatherer's Blog :
[ how good or evil is your blog or website? | online language translation tools? ]
Last but not least, on the @MataKecil main blog itself :
[ matakecil.blogspot.com digest edition 02 (20050804) ]
Hehe, find anything interesting? No?!!! Well, ServeURight!!! Yes?!!! You really "TieSay" one hehe :)
hehe ... yours sincerely,
matakecil
ps. thanks to the sponsor of the current edition : JustNice.Org
Thursday, August 04, 2005
MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com Digest Edition 02 (20050804)
@ILuvBookss Column :
[ story: the best criticism i ever received ]
@ILuvBlogss Column :
[ fundamentals of blogging (part 1) : how to start blogging? | fundamentals of blogging (part 2) : how to blog safely | featured blog no. 001: paultan.org ]
@ILuvWoman Column :
[ story: requiem for a marriage | i'll never forget you ]
@ILuvWisdom Column :
[ abraham lincoln: "gettysburg address" (nov 19, 1863) ]
@ILuvChina Column :
[ chinese name seal | about china - china's provinces, autonomous regions & special administrative regions | chinese name seal - part 2 | the 4 books & 5 classics (si shu wu jing) | beautiful stamps and first day cover of the 600th anniversary of malaysia-china relationship (AD 1405-2005) ]
@ILuvMalaysia Column :
[ useful information about malaysia part 01 : the 13 states of malaysia ]
And not forgetting over at my buddy the CityHunterGatherer's Blog :
[ blogshares.com : fantasy stock market online game ... very addictive ]
Last but not least, on the @MataKecil main blog itself :
[ matakecil.blogspot.com digest edition 01 (20050723) | story: rewards of a gracious heart | MataKecil.Com ]
Hehe, find anything interesting? No?!!! Well, ServeURight!!! Yes?!!! You really "TieSay" one hehe :)
hehe ... yours sincerely,
matakecil
ps. thanks to the sponsor of the current edition : JustNice.Org
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Short Cut to MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com
Hehe, some fellow bloggers and buddies told me that my blog url too long lah. Actually I am ok with my blog url, "MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com" and in fact, I like it very much because BlogSpot.Com has become like a well-known brand name :)
Btw, is having our own domain name really so important. Why is it after a blogger has been blogging for sometime, he / she / it will see the need to register a domain name and maybe even host the blog on their own server. Why can't they just continue with their original freely
hosted blog service such as BlogSpot.Com or Blogsome.Com or Blogit.Com?
Anyway, just to make it easier for people to come here, I have registered the domain name MataKecil.Com. :)
cheers
matakecil
Monday, August 01, 2005
Rewards of A Gracious Heart
A story that touches our heart and start us on a soul-searching journey. I have come across many such stories in my life and I have always made it a habit to compile them and then share with my friends and loved ones. Well, here's one such story to share with you:
REWARDS OF A GRACIOUS HEARTVery inspiring and touching story isn't it? How often are we so busy with work and life in general that we forget to be a "graciousheart"?
From July 1969 Reader's Digest (Pages 116-118)
On the way to Inverness, Scotland, several years ago, a big jawboned farm woman sitting beside me on the bus asked why an American should travel north in the dead of winter. "It's rooky weather in the Highlands".
I explained that I liked wild weather and that I was gathering material for a historical novel, talking to country people, soaking up sheep-lore and folkways that have changed little in four centuries.
She invited me to visit her overnight. "We've a wee croft, but warm, and I'd welcome your company, for my husband's off to market."
It was raining hard when we reach her home, a dumpy stone cottage on a bleak slope. Collies welcomed us, and Mrs. McIntosh led me into a spotless, shabby parlor.
Suddenly, the lights flickered and died. She sighed, "The power's out," and lit candles. While she was making a fire there was a knock on the door.
She opened it and a boy came in. She took his dripping coat and cap, and as he move into the fire light I saw that he was about 12 years old - pitifully crippled.
After he caught his breath, he said, "My father tried to ring you, but your phone is dead. I came to see that you're all right."
"Thank you, John," she said, and introduced us. The wind rose, raving and screaming, battering the shutters. I told them how much I loved the drama of the storm.
"You're not scared?" John asked. I started to say no, but Mrs. McIntosh, though obviously afraid of nothing, quickly said what any boy longs to hear, "Of course she was scared, and so was I. But now we have got a mon aboot."
There was a moment's silence.
Then he rose. "I'll see that everything's snug," he said. And he hobbled out with a little swagger.
Weeks later the incident still haunted me. Why hadn't I answered his question as Mrs. McIntosh had - tenderly, imaginatively? And how often before in my life, insensitive through self-absorption, had I failed to recognize another's need?
Perhaps my heart had been asleep for years, but now it was awakening, anxious to compensate for lost opportunities, and avidly curious. By what magic has Mrs. McIntosh transformed a crippled boy into a confident man? Had it been instinctive kindness, or deliberate? Was it compassion, tact or a combination? Then I recalled an expression used by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. He had called such generosity of spirit the "gracious heart."
Looking back, I realized how often I had been helped by such hearts, how often I, too, had been exalted by a single gracious phrase or act. My mother did this to me many times when I was young and vulnerable, conferring the precious gift of self-esteem by a thoughtful gesture.
Once when I was seven, she was planning a formal tea and I wanted to help. I picked a bunch of dandelions and brought them to her. Many a mother would have thanked me and plumped the ragged weeds into a milk bottle in the kitchen. But my mother arranged them in her loveliest vase on the piano between tall candelabra. And she made no simpering explanation to her guests about "little Betty's flowers." Now, whenever I see flowers at a party, I remember the pride I felt that my dandelions, treasured above roses, had
the place of honor.
The gracious heart is, above all, strongly understanding of the feelings of others.
My teen-age brother taught me this the night he helped to create a popular girl. He had seen her at a dance - a shy, unattractive little freshman. Nobody paid any attention to her, and she faded against the wall. My brother was moved by her predicament. He asked her to dance, and a minor miracle occurred. She was so happy that she sparkled and was almost pretty. Another boy cut in; afterward she danced nearly every dance.
Gallantry like that deepens every relationship. It can polish a marriage to a new lustre. My friend Marge told me that on her 40th birthday she was, like many women, deeply depressed. She knew that happy, productive years lay ahead, but in the excessive value placed on youth in our society, she had lost her perspective. She said nothing of this to her husband at breakfast, but after he left she gave way to tears. She foresaw deepening wrinkles, a struggle to remain slender. By the time her husband came home she had regained a degree of calm, but the ache persisted. After dinner he said, "Come and see your presents."
They had always exchanged practical gifts and she suspected he had sneaked in the new vacuum cleaner they needed. But to her amazement she unwrapped a pair of jeweled boundoir slippers and a lace negligee. "He didn't explain why," she said. "But I knew what he was implying: 'You're beautiful, you're glamorous.' And the odd thing was, I began to feel that way."
The gracious heart is never too busy. I recall hearing of a little boy who was devoted to a battered, one-eyed teddy bear. Hospitalized for a tonsillectomy, he was holding Teddy close when the surgeon came to his bedside just before the operation. A nurse moved to take the bear, but the doctor said gravely, "Leave Teddy there. He needs attention, too."
When the child regained consciousness, Teddy was snuggled against the pillow - and across his missing eye was the neatest bandage a skilled surgeon could devise."
Opportunities to put this rewarding talent to good use are all around us. I was shopping with a friend in New York's Italian section when she noticed a boy of about eight helping his father sell vegetables from a pushcart. He proudly sold a cauliflower to a woman and waited for payment, but she reached past him and gave the money to his father. The little fellow's smile faded; his shoulders slumped. My friend realized that somehow she would have to retrieve the child's pride. She called him over and selected tomatoes and scallions which he put in a bag. She could have given him even changes; instead she gave him a dollar. For a few seconds he frowned, calculating; then he brightened and handed her the correct change.
"Thank you," she said. "I couldn't have figured that fast."
"Aw, it was nothin'," he said, looking at his father. But it was something to him, and suddenly all four of us were beaming, warmed by the glow that her imaginative act had created.
"The gracious heart protects and enlarges the self-respect of the other person, builds his ego," says Dr. Peale. "When you come home from work and your child races to greet you, asking excitedly, 'Did you hear what happenned on Main Street today?', your gracious heart, somehow, had not heard the news - it gives the child the pleasure of telling you. But if you say, 'Oh. Yes. I heard about it an hour ago.', your heart is only building up your own ego."
There is enormous love in this world - unconscious, instintive, eager for expression. Each of us can learn to unlock it with the thoughtful courtesies of a gracious heart.
Have we taken things for granted in our life that we even neglect to be kind to the people around us who matters a lot to us ... such as our family members, friends, colleagues, neighbors, schoolmates, associates, etc.?
What about the other people who one way or another affect our everyday life? Noticed the newspaper man who deliver the newspaper to your doorstep everyday? Still remember what the milkman looks like? Do you ever spend a minute of your time talking to the waitress at the restaurant you usually have your dinner? Have you ever thanked the man behind the toll counter? What about the policeman walking on the street? Do you know that they also need a little bit of kindness and appreciation? Of course they are paid to do what they are doing. But they are also humans like you and I. They need someone with a "graciousheart" to brighten up their day too ... why not you be the one?
regards,
matakecil
Saturday, July 23, 2005
MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com Digest Edition 01 (20050723)
@ILuvBookss Column :
[ follow your heart by andrew matthews | assume | the smallest book i ever owned | chicken soup for the writer's soul by jack canfield, mark victor hansen and bud gardner | my top 10 all-time favourite books ]
@ILuvBlogss Column :
[ i have something to say ... but cannot come out leh | do you intentionally try to be "funny" when you blog? ]
@ILuvMusics Column :
[ medicine woman by medwyn goodall ]
@ILuvWoman Column :
[ i say real men don't cry | right partner | no wonder I have tough luck with women ... i don't smell ]
@ILuvFriends Column :
[ friendship is like planting a tree ]
@ILuvMonies Column :
[ google adsense is good online revenue ]
@ILuvWisdom Column :
[ reading maketh a full man | the road not taken | do not stand at my grave and weep ]
@ILuvJokes Column :
[ i would be a floor cleaner at microsoft | why aren't you out there fishing? | dating my daughter | crazy english ]
And not forgetting over at my buddy the CityHunterGatherer's Blog :
[ check your google pagerank (pr) | the cia world factbook | urban legends and hoaxes | introduction to art of war ]
Last but not least, on the @MataKecil main blog itself :
[ why so many blogs? | who is matakecil? | new tld (top-level domain) for associations ]
Hehe, find anything interesting? No?!!! Well, ServeURight!!! Yes?!!! You really "TieSay" one hehe :)
hehe ... yours sincerely,
matakecil
ps. thanks to the sponsor of the current edition : JustNice.Org
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Why So Many Blogs?
And the answer is:
Blogging is a kind of therapy for me. Just like many bloggers, I use my blog to express my thoughts and feelings about things happening in my life ... both good and bad, positive and negative, happy and sad, success and failures, etc. Blogging is a therapy because it helps me release my most deepest thoughts and emotions which otherwise would have been pent-up and might just explode one fine day (or maybe unfine day) ... just like a time-bomb!
Through ranting and cursing (with or without 4-letter words) in their blogs about the injustices and frustrations in their life, bloggers have found a way to stay sane. Yep, a blog is a great media that allows many people to let-out and let-go of negative emotions in a kind of "safe" way.
Hehe, blogging is a kind of therapy that helps us find and maintain equilibrium in our life. It creates the balance. It allows us to walk the middle path better. And often, it gives us the opportunity to choose to go along the path less travelled. Blogs open new opportunities for us to learn to live a more meaningful life and to live our life to the maximum.
See? And for your information, I am a person who need LOTS of therapies. That's why I need to have MANY blogs .... hehe :)
Oh btw, the million dollar question: "Do I have the time to post in so many blogs?" Well, I will FIND THE TIME :)
(Hehe ... since blogging is a kind of therapy for me ... I will blog more when I need more therapy. I will blog less when I need less therapy. So, if you see me posting in ALL my different blogs ... you know I am in a SERIOUS NEED for therapy ... like NOW for example!!!)
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
About "MataKecil" And My Interests & Hobbies
A/S/L?
Well, as of July 2005, I am almost 37 years old (or 38 years old in Chinese). Male. As I have mentioned above, you can find me all over the place in Asia, especially in Malaysia and Singapore. :)
I have many interests and hobbies. Anything that inspire or can help me to grow into a better person, I will be interested. :)
I am especially interested and have always been looking for ways to help me live life better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. And among my many hobbies and interests are:
- Reading : Any kind of books especially motivational, business management, spiritual, and China related books.
- Listening to Songs & Music : Any kind of music
- Watching Movies : Any kind of movies
- Blogging: write my own blogs and read others' blogs too
- Photography
- Travelling
- Studying the thoughts and philosphies of the greatminds of the world
- Ways to leverage time and make more money ... safely, effectively and legally.
At the same time, I am also very interested in things Chinese or China:
- Chinese Language : I am interested in Chinese languages or dialects, especially the official Chinese language of Mandarin and the other dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Hainam, Foochow, etc.
- Chinese Martial Arts : "Wushu" in general and the other Chinese martial-arts such as "TaiJiQuan" (TaiChi), "ShaoLin", "BaGua", "XingYi", etc.
- Chinese Culture & Traditions :
- Chinese History :
- Chinese War Strategies : "Sun Zi Bing Fa" (Sun Tzu's Art of War), "36 Ji" (36 Strategems), etc.
- Friends : friends, pals, buddies, soulmates, activity partners, schoolmates, classmates, fellow members of clubs / associations / societies / special interest groups, etc.
- Women : aaah ... women, women ... can't live one day without em :)
Last but not least, I believe in continuous self-actualisation, self-improvement, and personal upgrading through education.
Monday, July 11, 2005
New TLD (Top-Level Domain)
Why not? Since we already have Top-Level Domains such as ".com", ".net", ".org", ".biz", ".info", ".name", ".aero", ".coop", ".museum", ".pro", etc. that are used by companies, organisations or individuals worldwide and also those TLDs specifically used by the U.S. government agencies, such as ".gov", ".edu", ". mil" and ".int".
Furthermore, they are gonna introduce the new ".xxx" (or maybe they should have approved ".sex" instead) for adult-content websites (especially porn sites) soon, too. Yep, even adult sites will have their own specific TLDs.
Why not associations? Yep, a special TLD (domain name extension) that is meant for domain names related to associations worlwide. For example, ".ass" maybe.
That will be a nice little extension and so easy to use. Here are some possible domain names to be registered with that TLD:
- my.ass : meant for any associations related to Malaysia
- kissmy.ass : meant for any kissing clubs / associations in Malaysia
- chinese.ass : meant for Chinese associations
- fat.ass : meant for "obesity anonymous" kind of groups
- kick.ass : meant for enthusiasts of any sort of "kicking" habits
- smart.ass : meant for associations for smart people ... such as mensa
Now, won't that be nice to have a TLD such as ".ass"?
Sunday, July 10, 2005
MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com Digest for A Fulfilling Life Is Registered Or Listed In These Blog Directories
Hello. MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com Digest for A Fulfilling Life Is Registered Or Listed In These Blog Directories:
Blogarama.Com : Blog Directory And Resources
Bloghub.Com : Blog Directory & Blog Search Engine
GlobeofBlogs.Com : Blog Directory
Blogwise.Com : Blog Directory
BlogShares.Com : Fantasy Blog Share Market
Bloggernity.Com : Blog Directory & Search Engine
BlogUniverse.Com : Blog Directory & Podcast Links
SynBlog.Com : Blog Directory
BlogSweet.Com : Blog Directory
BlogRankings.Com : Blog Directory
FindingBlog.Com : Blog Directory
And MataKecil.BlogSpot.Com Digest for An Interesting / Exciting Life Is Also Ping(ed) to These Blogtals (Blog Portals):
* Project PetalingStreet.Org (PPS) : A blog-tal aggregating content from a cross section of Malaysians being Malaysian.
* BlogsMalaysia.Com : Is an experimental portal that aggregates trackback pings from registered Malaysian blogs.
regards,
matakecil
