A short night walk at Qao Wong Yeh Temple

I have just realized that the Nine Emperor Gods Festival (annual Chinese festival) for this year began few days earlier already and would last for 9 days. For every year, my family would be paying a visit to the Qao Wong Yeh Temple at Ampang for the worshipping. This year is not an exception, but for this time, we just went there to enjoy the lively atmosphere of the temple area including its surroundings, and so we didn’t worship for this year, as I came this time with my sister.

As expected, there was a very huge crowd from all directions to the temple, beautifully decorated with colour-changing lights which was added a year ago. Another interesting feature added is the long carving wall as the boundary of the temple replacing the former fences. The night market is a local addition to the festival where many stalls selling souvenirs, worshipping items, food, shirts, balloons were set up along the streets as well as roads nearby. Houses nearby would offer their parking area for high number of visitors turnout for the 9-days festival…and of course comes with a price! I didn’t actually went into the main altar. The picture below is the view in the altar…so crowded and smoky…looking at this, you wouldn’t want to enter already…

It’s already been a year….the time when I visited the temple last year for the festival (at night too) appears like it just happened yesterday (and it’s actually exactly a year ago based on Chinese lunar calendar). Going to the temple during the night would be a better choice with more things to see, but the traffic also worsen definitely. For the tradition of the festival, for me, to be honestly, I don’t have the belief on the existence of the Nine Emperor Gods which is based on Taoist culture. Worshipping it last time annually is just a duty done every year, and my family dropped the tradition of worshipping beginning this year. It is funny that once you put your burning joss sticks on the pot, a few second later it would be removed as the pot would be full quickly. So, there is like no point for placing joss sticks  there for worshipping.

The night market there is too crowded and hence we went to another night market near my home where there is no congestion especially when it’s already late (over 10 pm). Actually, we just spend walking at the temple and its surrounding for less than 30 minutes, and the truth is we actually spent most of the time in the car on the way to the temple as all the roads leading to the temple is very congested. Anyway, it’s still nice to see many Chinese people are still rooted to their tradition of visiting the temple and worshipping for the festival. Now, there are many youngsters seen there due to the night market, and also photographers who wanted to capture the beauty of the temple and the atmosphere of the surrounding.

My blog’s three years old birthday!

It’s a bit weird but I would still want to wish my blog happy birthday! My blog is now 3 years old!

3 years of blogging is certainly not a big thing to be proud of, but for me, I still do felt excited for it! Well, I can’t believe that I have stay on sticking to my blog here for 3 years already. Many of you have definitely not know that I have actually started blogging way back 4 years ago on another blog (not this one). But for that one which I couldn’t even remember the name of it, I am just focusing on sharing my interest on tall buildings which I have been fascinated to as early as from my secondary schooling, far before I started to take the architecture course of study for my higher education level.

I do tried on finding that leftover blog of mine (the actual first blog I had written) in Google, but still couldn’t. I guess that blog is already terminated since I have not logging in to that for over 3 years already, making it seriously inactive. I couldn’t even remember my log-in username and password for that. Forget about it. All that are not happening to my blog here. I had my full concentration on this blog eventhough I am not free during this time of my study when it finally comes to my final semester. I promised myself not to make this blog inactive, to be always updated, and forever mine! Haha…

28th September 2008 is the first day I created this blog. Now, today is 28th September 2011. Three years have gone, and my blog had been online for 1095 days, with over 700 posts and over 800 000 hits currently. I even clicked back on the first page of my blog, refreshing my mind on the earliest posts I have written here…and I can see huge improvement on my writing and quality of posts. That is good. This blog is actually helping me in certain aspects. I even get to know more friends who have read my blog. Nothing much to celebrate for my blog here actually, and it would be just another one fine day for me; attending classes from morning till evening on Wednesday! Would be very tiring…

Happy Birthday once again to my blog, www.vincentloy.wordpress.com! All the best!

                              

B.Tech site visit to IBS Centre…

Ahh….hhmmmm….that’s my yawning this very early morning when I have to get up from my bed already as there is a site visit planned for us under Building Technology 302 module. I woke up at 7 am, getting ready, and there we go, to Cyberjaya, then only to the site, Chan Sow Lin where the Industrialized Building System (IBS) Centre is located.

It is quite a short and quick trip. At first, in the mini theatre, we are given an introduction of the centre and what it does to the construction industry. After that, we had a tour in the main gallery building where many exhibits of structures are shown, ranging from prefabricated, modular, framing, internal wall, timber structure, precast concrete, etc. Many construction details, systems and elements are visible in the gallery, further explained by the lecturer. However, the tour guides appeared to be useless and conveys no talk to us regarding each exhibit.

Then, we walked down into the show-house (not the show-house built for purchase, but the show-house to show some special construction approaches. We went into a sample of a prefabricated house as well as a steel supporting timber home structure. These two houses are considered as an eye-openers for us whom need to learn more on these construction approaches, which would be tested in examination. Honestly, the reason why many of us went for the site visit is just because that some exam questions would be based on it. But still, there are still some people absent for the site visit. Anyway, I think it is really almost impossible for foreign or even local students to know the way to go to the IBS Centre without a GPS in hand, except for those who live in KL (only two probably in the whole class and I’m one of the two).

The site visit roughly ended at 1pm, and it is a hot sunny day here in Kuala Lumpur. Our next stop is at Berjaya Times Square since it is nearby the IBS Centre (just one or two kilometres away) where we are going to watch the film ‘Johnny English Reborn’. For me, this is the second time I watched this film, and also the second time I went into the GSC Maxx theatre, the largest digital hall in Malaysia. The film appeared to be still very funny for me for the second time. How great the comedic quality of the film! As predicted, the audiences do even clapped hands at certain very hilarious moments. This movie is by far the best comedic film of the year, I mean…of the decade even!

Basically, we spent time at Times Square more than in IBS Centre for the site visit. Haha….since we were already in KL just now, of course we won’t miss the chance for a bit of entertainment in the city before heading back to Cyberjaya (which appears to be stressful for us as the students there). Now, I’m back in my small room at my sister’s home in Seri Kembangan, and I guess that I would sleep early tonight….

Movie review: Nasi Lemak 2.0

In the beginning, I don’t have any intention of watching this film, written, produced and directed by Namewee, whom is famous over his critic to the country from his songs. However, as soon as the film is being released to cinemas here in Malaysia, it received very much positive reviews. Despite it is a Chinese film, but the story which touches on ‘One Malaysia’ (unity of all three main races of the nation) is also suitable for Malay and Indian audiences.

Why is the film called as ‘Nasi Lemak 2.0′? Nasi lemak which is a popularized local food here in Malaysia is being used as a driving force for the story to works which is about a man (portrayed by Namewee himself) competing in Chinese cuisine competition by adapting different food from different races  into a unique localized favourite food. In the beginning, he hates nasi lemak, but after he tried it, it is a very delicious food for him like to so many other Malaysians. There are many side stories to it but the main objective is to show the true side of the country (very indirectly in some aspects) which are all expressed in a much positive way. I guess if everything is shown on its true (negative) side, then this film would never be approved by the government.

It is considered a comedic film as there were a number of hilarious scenes created. However, some  just annoyed me after it has been acted or shown in silly way or for too many times. Anyway, after I have seen this film, I have to admit that Namewee did a great job as this is the first time for him in producing film, not from many high-tech stuff but from only a camera. The way he brought up the whole film is even far better than many other local movie producers whom had all failed in creating films of such quality. This is a good start for our local film industry. There are many interesting songs throughout the film especially the theme song entitled ‘Rasa Sayang 2.0′, an edited version from the original ‘Rasa Sayang’ iconic song.

The protest for the film is totally nonsense, as started by a group of Malay youths in Perak calling for the ban of the film not because of inappropriate content, but because of the past of Namewee. Silly but funny, isn’t it? They requested ban on the film not because of the film itself, but because they had negative perception and judgement towards Namewee whom had concentrated on telling the true side of Malaysia in film, which is absolutely nothing wrong. For his past, he had criticized the nation by editing the national song but that is a product of creativity of him, and in the end, he is being criticized for being disloyal to the nation. What is wrong if someone is telling the truth?

Now, I’m telling the truth that this film is certainly worth-watching and it even teaches us on some values in life. However, this film is much more appropriate for people understanding the current Malaysian context in cultural, social and political issues, which the targeted audiences are certainly the Malaysian Chinese like me. I have to admire the fact that this film is even produced under one million budget. There is a huge number of local casts whom some are quite famous, like Adibah Noor, Karen Kong, and Namewee himself. So, budget is not something that judge the quality of a film, it is the meanings expressed from this film that reveals the essence of the film as what intended from Namewee. Out of 10 points, I would rate this film 7.2. A high achievement for a local film (ohh…I guess this is one of the very few local films that I have watched since I was born)

Movie review: Johnny English Reborn (2011)

Ha…ha…ha…ha…

(This is all the expression of me while watching the film ‘Johnny English: Reborn’ from the beginning till the end. That is a truly interesting and hilarious movie of the year.)

Yeah…Johnny English is back, with the best actor suited for the hilarious character; Rowan Atkinson, famous for his portrayal as Mr. Bean. But this time, he appeared on screen for a serious issue based on the film, which is to destroy the plan to kill the Chinese Premier created by Vortex, a group of three members containing a key respectively which can be combined to open a storage containing a drug that could control a person’s mind. Sorry for a little spoiler here and eventhough the plot seems so serious…whenever Johnny English is there, everything is turned into laughter….so it is like a brilliant mix of hilarious and action scenes. Excellent!

I hardly remember much things from the first film of Johnny English, back in 8 years ago. Now, Rowan Atkinson reprised his role for the much anticipated sequel. Eventhough it is clearly visible that he is getting much older (he is now 56 years old), he can still make everyone laugh. You wouldn’t think of a second that the laugh intended from this film is nonsense, illogical, weird or being forced in. Everything is so natural despite there is a serious mission in charge by Johnny English in the film. His expression of face is already his best tactic in providing much fun for the film, not to mention funny dialogues, gestures and silly actions from him. He is still at his best on delivering the comedic contribution to the film.

Rowan Atkinson definitely steals the show, and I don’t even mind bothering to look much at other casts’ performances. Sorry for that, but Rowan really attracted my attention the most from his awkward but funny appearance. The other casts performed well too actually. The story is interesting, and the setting gets to switch from many locations (Tibet, Macau, Hong Kong, Switzerland and London). The people that strikes fear to Johnny English is not the man behind the evil plan, but is an old Chinese lady hired in support of the plan. It is really funny when the lady confronted Johnny in many scenes and tried to kill him.

After watching this film, now I know there is more than only one reason why the film is entitled ‘Johnny English: Reborn’. It is not only because of it is a sequel that Johnny is back in action after so many years of training himself in Tibet, but also because he is really ‘reborn’ at the end of the film after a kiss. Ahh…sorry for another spoiler. I have watched the trailer of this film quite a long time ago and it is really promising that this is going to make my day enjoyable. Yes, it truly is..But I think the film is edited and some scenes are cut off with no reason. Anyway, I am enjoying it and let me assure you, this is a film that provides you entertainment unlike any others. In the cinema just now, there are even a number of people clapping their hands at some scenes where it is really brilliantly created to evoke our expression of laughter. You must not miss it…out of 10 points, I would rate this film 7.9. It’s nice that this film is being released much earlier here in Malaysia.

Blog reached over 800 000 hits…and still going…

Yes, it’s over 800 000….my blog has currently reached over that number for my hits…which means click to my blog. For me, it’s quite a lot…but for those very famous and commercialized blog, this number is very little for them. My blog at first is intended only to express my interest and thoughts, not knowing that the impact it contributed to many other internet users is far more than what I expected.

800 000 clicks to a blog is certainly not easy, and my blog had only achieved that after almost three years since its creation. When I first created my blog here to share my interest and thoughts to world wide internet users, particularly blog readers, I never had any intention to reach such a huge sum of number for hits, comments, or even the posts I have written. All these numbers keep on increasing day by day which is a good news for a blog that indicates it is developing, and generating more viewers. I’m glad my blog is listed as one of the growing blogs in WordPress, which contained over million of blogs registered.

Two weeks later would be the third anniversary or birthday of my blog, as it is first created back in end of September 2008. But before that, there are already several submission datelines just around the corner, so I would not be spending much time updating my blog after this post. No matter what it is, I have to still concentrate on my study as this is already my final semester which I always reminded myself so that I would not easily give up and could successfully graduated at the end of this year. But still, this blog is part of my life and I’m glad that it has reached another milestone, of reaching over 800 000 hits. Congratulation to my own blog for successfully achieving that! It’s a great news in the middle of stress moment dealing with my assignments. 800 000 hits is definitely cool!

Happy Malaysia Day!

12am just passed, which means the date for the day now is 16th September 2011. It’s a public holiday for whole Malaysia beginning not long ago. Previously, Malaysia Day is not treated as very significant to every year’s calendar and the holiday is only given to Sabah and Sarawak as it marked their independence after joining Peninsular Malaya to form Malaysia, back in 16th September 1963, exactly 48 years ago.

After our current Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took office as the head of government in 2009, Malaysia Day is given more emphasis, and is treated as another public holiday for the whole nation every year. So, today is the public holiday for Malaysians, but not me, because I have no class on every Friday already, and further currently I’m rushing for my design submission next Monday. So, the holiday doesn’t really mean anything to me, and my classmates as well.

Anyway, it’s still Malaysia Day, for the 48th year. Two more years from now, the formation of country of Malaysia would be celebrating big and grand for its 50 years anniversary, while our independence has now reached well over 54 years. As our previous National (Independence) Day falls on Hari Raya festive season, the national celebration for independence is postponed till today, in conjunction also with Malaysia Day celebration. Hence, in the morning, national parade would be held in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia Day also reminded me of one song created from my university, Limkokwing University entitled ‘One Malaysia’ which had garnered wide attention from the whole nation and is being played all around the country. I have listened to it quite a lot of times since my campus is definitely promoting the song especially during Merdeka (Independence) month, and I also find it quite nice to listen. It’s a good song; very creatively done with beautiful melody. You can find the song easily from YouTube.

Just now when I’m driving back home while listening to radio station, special airing occured which our Prime Minister gave a speech for Malaysia Day for around 20 to 30 minutes long. The highlight of his speech is on abolishment of Internal Security Act (ISA) and freedom of people to hold peaceful rally after gaining permit from the police, and no detain to people involved in different political ideology. He promised so many things, which indicates that the next general election would be coming soon, and so he need to gained majority of trust of the people to continue his job as the Prime Minister by giving out a very positive speech. Whatever he says….I would like to wish again to all Malaysians, Happy Malaysia Day! I do sometime feel proud to be Malaysian…but honestly, just for ‘sometime’!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Ahh,…three hours left before the festival is over! So, better hurry up on wishing….Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all Chinese around the world, particularly to my friends in Malaysia! It can also be called as Mooncake Festival or Lantern Festival. Today is the day for it because it’s the 15th day of the 8th month based on Chinese lunar calendar.

It’s holiday! But only for the Chinese schools, not for national schools or even university…too bad…I have to continue the day, back to campus on a new week and start the week with design again. It’s very much like a normal day here in Malaysia. The only thing different is that there would be full moon, and that we could have mooncakes, while for the children, they can play lanterns.

Talking back on lanterns, I wonder how many years I have not playing that already? I could hardly remember. When I was a kid, I like to play lanterns, and all those candles. But, I don’t play candles in normal way, I make things out from the candles, especially like creating huge fire from a bunch of lighted candles. That is cool, and we can burn something from it. I also like to decorate place around me with lanterns last time, making sure the candle inside each lanterns is not extinguished. The atmosphere created is very nice and beautiful.

All that was past, way back almost ten years ago when I was still a young innocent kid, playing with my sisters, or even with my neighbours. Now, I might find it childish but that is a very joyful experience as a kid and I’m glad I had experienced that before. Even now, there are not many kids playing lanterns or candles anymore at this generation as all they are attracted to now are those high-tech devices like I Pad or I Phone. Where has the old tradition of playing lanterns or candles gone? Not much seen lately on kids nowadays…

Anyway, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival again! Enjoy your mooncakes eventhough the price is very expensive, and enjoy the night (you must have spend your day for work or school like usual days) with your family, accompanied by the beautiful full moon! Now, I can’t even see the full moon from window at my sister’s house at 19th floor. Where are you? Talking about moon, it reminds me of a song played just now when I’m driving back home called ‘The Moon Represents My Heart’, an iconic classic Mandarin song by Teresa Teng. That is a very smooth and nice song, and it’s good to hear it on radio station.

Yesterday: 911 Memorial Day at Ground Zero, New York City

The main memorial event organized in commemoration to the 10th anniversary of the 911 attacks on United States is held at the site of the former Twin Towers of World Trade Center that collapsed due to the attacks. The site, which later known as Ground Zero is transformed into a Memorial Park with an addition of a memorial museum to be opened next year. Yesterday which is the exact date of the anniversary also marked the opening of the memorial park to the public, attended by the nation’s president, Barack Obama and former president, George Bush.

The park is a contemporary intervention in objective of memorial to nearly 3000 people who lost their lives due to the attacks. The perimeter of the former Twin Towers is made into a pool of waterfall respectively with the stone surrounding each pool is etched by names of the deceased. Thousand of people joined the 911 Memorial Day event in New York City with many carrying photos of their beloved ones, carrying flowers to be placed on the stone, taking pictures and listening to heartfelt speeches. Similar event is also held at two other sites where the other two hijacked planes crashed to; one at Shanksville and another one at Pentagon.

“Ten years have passed since a perfect blue sky morning turned into the blackest of nights,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at New York’s Ground Zero. ”Since then, we’ve lived in sunshine and in shadow, and although we can never unsee what happened here, we can also see that children who lost their parents have grown into young adults, grandchildren have been born and good works and public service have taken root to honour those we loved and lost.” Thousands gathered at the site on a clear morning to grieve. With security tight and no traffic, there was an eerie silence where the 110-story skyscrapers collapsed a decade ago, sending a noxious cloud over lower Manhattan.

President Barack Obama, who visited all three attack sites, read from Psalm 46 in New York: “God is our refuge and strength.” Speaking at an evening concert in Washington that closed out a day of memorial observances, Obama said much had changed for Americans in the 10 years since Sept. 11, 2001. ”We can never get back the lives we lost on that day, or the Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in the wars that followed,” Obama said. “Yet today, it is worth remembering what has not changed. Our character as a nation has not changed.”

The 10th anniversary of the attacks marked the first time the Democratic and Republican presidents have appeared together publicly since January 2010. But, joined by their wives, the two men made a show of solidarity at Ground Zero in New York, walking in tandem along a memorial pool at the site of the north tower of the World Trade Center. They nodded their heads during a moment of silence, the only sound the roaring of the waterfall in the pool. Afterward, they appeared together behind bullet-proof glass near where the names of those killed on Sept. 11 were read aloud.

The memorial day is over but the 911 incident remained as one of the most tragic moments for not only the United States but also to the world.

(Part of the information and all the images from this post are from The Star Online)

911 Remembered: 10 years anniversary of the world’s tragic event

11/9/2001

A usual morning when people would go out for their works in the bustling city of New York turned out to be a haunting day for them…

United States is attacked deliberately by militant group of Al Qaeda as an act of terrorism on early morning. Four planes were hijacked, with two crashing into Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, a symbol of US giant economic power that caused both towers to collapse. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, a symbol of US military and defensive strength. The last plane failed on the plan to crash into either White House or Capitol Building where both are symbols of US government. The overall attacks on the day killed amost 3000 people.

The day is the last day the Twin Towers stood proud over the others as the tallest in the nation. Two supertall skyscrapers were almost completely flattened on the day itself after the collapse, and the site is being nicknamed Ground Zero. It gained extremely wide international attention by media and is considered the most terrifying act of terrorism in history.

Many other nations quickly expressed their condolences to United States, as well as fully against any act of terrorism. I can still remember even my nation, Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers had been evacuated for safety measure, at the time the tallest buildings in the world.

12/9/2001

I remembered that time when I was only 10 years old, and I get to know the news a day later, as the time difference between here in Malaysia and US is 12 hours. So, when that attacks happened in the morning at US, it’s already at night in Malaysia. We didn’t notice what’s going on even on the TV, and so we slept, and only discovered such a shocking news the day after. I recalled back that my dad called my mom to turn on the TV (any channels) as the breaking news would be headline of every channels and taking up other programmes. Eventhough I was still kid at the time, I felt shocked by the disastrous tragedy and I have never seen anything like that before.

The visuals of the crashing of the planes on the Twin Towers and the shocking collapse of both the towers in a duration of 102 minutes flooded every channels, newspapers, and even on radio stations…so everyone must be knowing it.

As year by year passes….

United States launched War on Terror on Afghanistan for the justice to what happened on 911. Finally, on this year, early 2011, the leader behind the attack, Osama bin Laden is killed, further weakening his allies.

The site of the crumble and remains of the World Trade Center has been cleared and open for intervention as a memorial to the victims and the tragic event that not only shocked US, but also the world. Daniel Libeskind, a famous architect won the Master Planning of the proposal for the reconstruction of World Trade Center complex over the Ground Zero.

Tribute of Light is introduced on every anniversary of the 911 attacks, which powerful columns of light around the perimeter of the former Twin Towers were displayed. The idea of it is simple yet very meaningful.

There are many conspiracy theories going on even until today, especially on the true identity of the planes that are being hijacked so easily, on the collapse of World Trade Center 7 Building which sparked questioning by engineers and architects, and some others. Whether all these are correct or fake, it is still undeniable that the tragic event has occured and claimed almost 3000 innocent lives.

Even after many years, I am still saddened with what I have watched from YouTube where there are many videos on the attacks, on the collapse of the Twin Towers that cause public outcry, and also on the recording of the calls made by the victims trapped inside the towers before the collapse. It is so sad and emotional after watching all that. Why would Al Qaeda killing on innocent people when Islam also stressed on priceless value of human beings and prohibited killing?!

11/9/2011

It’s the day today, the 10th anniversary of the 911 attacks that becomes part of our unforgettable memories. The construction of pool with waterfall on the perimeter of former site of the Twin Towers which symbolises the tears over the tragedy had been completed. The memorial park will be officially opened today to coincide with the anniversary while the memorial museum would only be opened next year. The construction of the office towers of World Trade Center is progressing and the whole complex would be completed few years later. The highlight is on the main tower,One World Trade Center, nicknamed Freedom Tower which would reach the height of 541 m including spire (1776 feet that represents the year US gained independence). The tower’s height to top of roof would be somewhere between 415 to 417 m for similar height with the destroyed Twin Towers.

Security measures by US would definitely be heightened today to prevent history from repeating. Many special programmes highlighting the 10th anniversary of 911 attacks are scheduled to be aired in many channels especially on news and history-based channels. Eventhough it’s already 10 years, a decade, but the sad memory still lies within many of us. Rest in peace to those who have lost their lives by 911 attacks. Shadow of the dark past remains, but let’s move to a brighter surface of the present where now the site appears to be. Anyway, 911 would be forever remembered.

(Excluding this portion of text, this post actually contains 911 words, coincides with the date the attacks occurred)