What Makes you Happy

What Makes You Happy

It isn't what you have,

or who you are,

or where you are,

or what you are doing,

or what you are going to do,

that makes you happy or unhappy.

Its what you think about.

~Power of the mind!~

The Emperor and the Seed - Think

An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you."

The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here after one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!"

One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by, still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.

Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But honest about what happened, Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "What great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!" All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"

When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?

Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.
If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
If you plant openness, you will reap intimacy.
If you plant patience, you will reap improvements.
If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.

But
If you plant dishonesty, you will reap distrust.
If you plant selfishness, you will reap loneliness.
If you plant pride, you will reap destruction.
If you plant envy, you will reap trouble.
If you plant laziness, you will reap stagnation.
If you plant bitterness, you will reap isolation.
If you plant greed, you will reap loss.
If you plant gossip, you will reap enemies.
If you plant worries, you will reap wrinkles.
If you plant sin, you will reap guilt.

So be careful what you plant now, It will determine what you will reap tomorrow, The seeds you now scatter, Will make life worse or better, your life or the ones who will come after. Yes, someday, you will enjoy the fruits, or you will pay for the choices you plant today.

Inspirational Words - http://www.pravsworld.com/; viewed 27th April 2008

Well, what you do today will result in what you get in the days to come. It gets me to think, Am I behaving the correct way, to get what I want in future?

Memories of Scouting Life

Attending the AGM recently makes me recall back those days when I was still a junior Scout. How I was invested, welcomed into the brotherhood of Scouting. Come to think of it, I had already been the BrotherHood of Scouting since 1996. Its more than a decade!...12 years to be exact.. Thats half of my life on this World.




Investiture, a ceremony every Scout have to go through. Welcome to the brotherhood of Scouting.



Salute, the basic manners of a Scout. Its basically our code of living and respect.



Awards achievements. Something to be proud of, worth remembering for a lifetime. Its through tests, camps and experience that we get to know everyone well, get to know the good and bad habits of everyone. Its the team work that counts and its the teamwork that gives me unforgettable experience, gain lifelong friends, brothers.



Stages of my Scouting life includes Cub Scout, Junior Scout, Senior Scout, Rovers and now Scouter. Here I am, with my lifelong friends, brothers in Scouting as shown above. We have our own way of life, thinking, work, jobs, profession. But, its during Scout activities, all of us seems to share the same passion, discuss the same topic. How unique is this? Our age varies from 20+ to 30+. Isnt this just so wonderful?

05th Kuching Scout Group AGM 2008

Annual General Meeting for 05th Kuching Scout Group was held on 20th April 2008. Investiture Ceremony for new recruits was also held before the AGM. Its nice to have everyone back in our big family of Scouting.!

All the best 05th Kuching, and keep up the hard work for the newly elected GWC members! Well done for the outgoing GWC members!! A great job was done indeed for last year.. Thank you all for making ANTAC 2007 a success..

Being ahead of time.

Being ahead of time means to get things done before its due. It gives me the feeling of extra 'power' in my hand. Ability to manipulate time and do the things I want is only made possible when schedules are met, ahead of time. Although its not yet totally finished, I am quite comfortable with my condition of time management now. Being ahead of time, enables me to go for badminton 2 sessions since this week. As compared to the beginning of the semester, I guess I had not managed my time well, it really makes me felt sick and tired of chasing time, trying to keep myself in pace with datelines.!

Kept on questioning, why does everyone seems to have enough time while I seem to be lacking, despite the fact that God is very fair by giving everyone 24 hours?? Its how you manage time that matters. I have just learnt my lesson.

I was attracted to this question threw by my tutor yesterday. It sounds: 'Is time an asset to you, or is it an expense?'. This question really judge how a person spends his time. Spending time with benefits makes time an asset to that person, while a person spending time, out of boredom, just to kill time, it is an Expense.!

Too much expense is not good. When asset is less than expense, you have negative equity.! Its equivalent to making a loss.. Do you wanna be a loser?

Asset = Liability + Equity

Profit = Income-expense

Profit = asset

If you income is not enough to cover your expense, which means you are wasting more time than you are benefiting it, it means you are depleting your equity and your asset.! Do you want that?
I am taking time as a expense now while I am typing. That's bad.

Sorry Shean Tyng, forgot you again for badminton today. It was an in prompt to decision to go tonite. Nex round then!

Chan Sui Guan 81st Birthday Celebration

Thanks to Shean Tyng, I was given the opportunity to practice some indoor shooting at this auspicious 81st Birthday celebration of Uncle Chan Sui Guan on 13th April 2008. Quite a challenging shooting nite for me. Flash was high in demand in table to table toasting till it nearly burnt my flash.

I like the close up shots of the cakes. Its just so nice..!

Orang Utans at Semonggok

Green Club of Swinburne has organized an excursion to Semonggoh National Park last Saturday, 19th April 2008. Everyone has a wonderful time with orang utans and the nature environment there was just so wonderful. We managed to meet with a few orang utans during their feeding hours. Overall, the aim of the excursion, which is to expose more people to natural environment to look at a real life orang utans and to cultivate the love towards nature was met.

Despite of all the benefits gained from the excursion, we failed in one important thing. Respect the nature. Principle of nature: Leave with nothing by trails. Some participants just failed this by throwing rubbish in the park and even get warned by park rangers. That really irritates me. Well, I do sincerely hope they learn their lesson and respect the nature. You wouldnt want people to start littering in your house after your visit rite?

Posted below are some pics taken. For those who didnt manage to make it, enjoy the pics of orang utans. For those who went, it shall serve as a memory.

Wonderful trip, with many participants and lecturers. Thanks to everyone who make this trip possible.