i smiled today at 2:57 AM


Last week, I was talking to a friend about what I noticed about the secondary schools that I have been to here in KL.

Then he asked me, "what was your secondary school like?"


Hmmm. It made me suddenly go through all that I could remember of my secondary school days. Then I realised, it was actually a great experience being in the school that I was in.

I come from this private school, where you need to go through an entrance exam to be offered a spot. And so obviously I passed the exam.

And then it was the 6 years after that that made things so valuable.


Thinking back, I am proud of the school I graduated from. Sabah Tshung Tsin Secondary School. It is a long name, and most people would just call it TTSS, or Tshung Tsin.

It was a tough school, academically. It still is. I remember having to struggle through many subjects, like Chinese History, Math, and Chinese. These were tough subjects. But I still made it through somehow. The Math they taught was not like all the other schools. What I learned in Junior 3 is what I had to do in my SPM papers. Madness.

It was the kind of school where you'd have to take another exam if your year-end average was between 50-59.99%. Below 49.99% and you have to redo the entire year and be a year older than your classmates. Thankfully I passed every year.

But I did have classmates who were a year older because they failed and had to go through an entire year all over again. They however ended up doing better than most of us.

It was the kind of school which had the perfect facilities.

A 2-storey library with a reference section, lots of story books and research material, computers that could log on to the Internet, loads of good and updated books, a fully computerized loaning system, and because the library closed at 9pm every night, it would be the place that I'd sometimes go at night to study for exams.

There was a 7-storey building for extra-curricular activities, where we'd have our nice air-conditioned music room for choir practices, a huge open space on the 7th floor for Karate training, sound proof rooms for the Chinese Orchestra and the Concert Band and the Violin Club, meeting rooms for any occasion, an office where we'd have to go for anything related to extra activities.



Nice and compact air-conditioned classrooms with curtains that could keep the sunlight totally out, with two huge white boards, and a nice little corner to make hot drinks and toast. Ahh, I enjoyed that!

Two gardens, one with flowers, and another full of trees and mosquitoes, where we would sit and study until evening time, or just chat and enjoy the breeze.


Science labs that made us feel like college students because of all the high-tech equipment. It was also a nice place to run away from the prefects.

A gym to keep healthy, but it wasn't complete during my time. Now it is. Lucky people studying there now.

A huge hall, where we'd have assemblies, play badminton, have our inter-class choir competitions, have debate competitions, have concerts. The air-con in the hall was only fixed during my last few months there. Too bad.



A really nice computer lab that looked like a cyber cafe during recess.

A huge canteen with stalls for Western Food, Malay Food, Chinese Food, drinks, snacks, oh so many stalls to choose from.

A stationery shop which had so many things I wish I could buy everything.

A hair salon where we'd get really good hair cuts for a good price.

A really comfortable first-aid room where students would pretend to get sick just to catch up on sleep or to avoid having to explain unfinished homework.

Yes the facilities were good. There were other great things about the school......

Every year, every class would have to send a male and female solo singer for the singing competition. And then, every class had to train their own choir for the inter-class choir competition. They were huge events that made life fun.

So many clubs to choose from... From Karate to Fencing, from Choir to Violin and Orchestra, from Counselling to Stamps, from Computer to First-Aid, from Basketball to Bowling, from Library to History, the list just goes on.

Recess times were fun. Cleaning the class room together. Class meetings were fun, trying to find way to improve our class. Assemblies were sometimes fun, sometimes boring, depending on which teacher was speaking that day. Saturday classes were fun, because we could go home early. Prefects were annoying, because they didn't know the reasons behind the stupid rules they were supposedly enforcing. Teachers were great, because they were well trained and dedicated, sometimes too dedicated.

Exams were fun. Well now I say they were fun. During those years they were probably not. But I managed to go through all the exams and still be alive today. We had to take Junior UEC, PMR, Senior UEC, and SPM. We had weird subjects like Advanced Math I and II, History in Chinese. Computer classes were fun because we learned how to make movies and animations. History classes were fun only when we could watch movies on the things we were learning about. Oh that reminds me of the Astro room where we could go and watch TV.

Ah, it was fun. I made good friends in that school. I had great teachers who taught things beyond the class room walls.

What was your secondary school like?


i smiled today at 2:08 AM


Food, glorious food...... Nasi Daun Pisang.......

I've just got to blog about this place I frequent a lot. I've been there too many times already, until the workers are now our friends there.

Head out to Bangsar when you're free, any time of the day. And then visit Nirwana Maju. Try out the food they have to offer there, especially the Banana Leaf Rice.


When you arrive, find a good spot. Inside for non-smokers usually, outside for smokers. Then, if Banana Leaf Rice is what you want, just say nasi to the waiter, and it'll be clearly understood what you want. Don't forget to order your drink. I recommend Teh O Ais Limau to go with your rice. That's what I usually take anyway. But you could order the Lasi drinks too, since that's what people always recommend.


So with the leaf comes your rice, and three other standard side dishes... fried bitter gourd which isn't bitter, cucumber salad, and some other vegetables. The meal comes with papadem as well.


And because it is a southern Indian dish, it is only served ala-vegetarian. So go ahead and order other side dishes, like fried fish. Try out the daging masala too. Hmmm, I'm getting hungry.


Ok focus!

Now, you should also ask them for Rasem, a little bowl of this sourish soup/drink which is usually taken after your meal. They won't give this to you unless you ask for it. So ask for it. Not everyone likes it. I love it!


Add curry to your rice... the three choices are fish curry, chicken curry, and dal. I usually mix fish with dal.

They serve the other standard mamak dishes as well. Thosai's not bad. The usual goreng stuff is fine too. But give the Banana Leaf Rice a try. It's not the best in town, but since I usually stay around there, it's a good place for me to enjoy a cheap dinner. Yeah, the rice alone costs RM4.50. Additional fried fish could cost between RM5 to RM10 depending on the size.

Ahhh, yummy...

And of course, nearby Nirwana is the all famous Devi's Corner, where you can get similar food.

Yes, we Malaysians love our food. And we're proud to be Malaysians. We're "truly Asians" apparently!


Here's a little trivia:
1. The tip of the banana leaf is usually used for important guests, or royalty, or anyone regarded as special in the meal. Maybe it's not practiced in Malaysia, not sure.

2. In Sabah or at least in KK, there's no such thing as Teh O Ais Limau. There is Ais Lemon Tea, and Kit Chai Ping (iced lime water), but no lime and tea mixed together. You either get tea and lemon, or just lime water with sugar and ice.

Now go be a true Malaysian and have your full meal at the mamak stall at 4 in the morning!


i smiled today at 1:41 AM


Lately, I've been giving music lessons to some students in KL. Specifically, I've been giving aural, vocal, and ensemble classes.

Now here's the thing: I've started to realize that many kids who learn music from young are actually heading on the wrong path. Well, maybe not exactly the wrong path, but certainly not the best path either.

This is what I mean: Many of these students learn other instruments as well. But they seem to just be learning the instrument, and not learning music.

They know the right keys to press on the piano, but musically, something is very wrong. There's no sense of style, no sense of pulse, no direction, no phrasing, no understanding of the actual musicality required, and so on. It's like they're being drilled on the exam pieces the whole year round just to make sure they pass the exams, but apart from that, there's not much of a musical education going on. And I find it sad.

Students are not being taught how to link their aural skills with what they are learning in their practical execution of their music and how that links also to the theory classes that they have to attend. Everything is being treated in isolation when the whole thing is actually just one thing - Music.

I have students who have high grades in other instruments, but can't count rhythm correctly, or can't tell the difference between a diminished chord and a minor chord, or can't even sing DO-MI-SO. Some don't even know the notes that make up a major triad. What's going on here?

Are music teachers really qualified to teach? Are students just too plain dumb to understand what they are learning? Is it our education system? Is it just the way our society here works?

I'm really not sure. It could be just everything.

Some people may be good musicians, but not every good musician is a good music teacher.

Then there's this part of my singing lessons that I enjoy. I often ask students what they know about singing, or what previous teachers have taught them. And the most common reply would be 'sing from the diaphragm' or 'use the stomach to sing'.

I end up laughing. Because I know what I will be doing to them next. I'll torture the students with questions like 'ok, tell me how to sing with your stomach and diaphragm then'. And then it comes...... the raising of the eyebrows, and then shrugging of the shoulders, and then.... 'I dunno'.

You see, many singing teachers use these very common phrases to teach. But the problem is, if they are not explained well, they just won't make any sense no matter what.

When I ask students how they should breathe, they like to say 'breathe from the stomach' and that's how they were taught previously.

Funny, 'cause the last time I checked in the science book, the lungs were involved in breathing, not the stomach. Again, using the stomach and diaphragm and all these things are true in singing. But they need to make sense to the students. And somehow no student ever bothered to question their teacher and understand what it really means. They just take it in and pretend they know what it means.

So here's my hope: that some day, our country will reach a higher standard of music education, where every student receives proper music education from a teacher trained in providing musical knowledge, not just for the sake of exams, but for the sake of personal growth and finding their own musical identity in life.

Hans Christian Andersen once said where words fail, music speaks.

Let that be the reason why we learn music.



i smiled today at 10:33 PM


It's amazing how KL keeps on giving you surprises. Just when I thought there's no place to hang out when I have free time apart from shopping malls and the cinema and on my bed and going online and, well, you know, the usual productive stuff I always do in my leisure time.... I discovered a really nice place to just spend some of my free time.

The KL Library.

Haha!

Yes, it looks good from the outside, and is even better inside.




Lots of good books for me to indulge in. And I was amazed at how well organized the library is. The infrastructure is not bad at all. Good facilities. Good books. Good services. Good! At least it's better....much much better than the National Library. How sad!

And so I spent my free afternoons there for the past week or so, reading any book that I was in the mood for. They have good books, or have I already mentioned that?

And what do you think happened next?

I became a member!

Yes, I am now a member of the KL Library. I get free 30 minutes online every day, get to borrow 5 books for a maximum of 3 weeks, and get to use all other facilities provided by the library.

Just a few days ago, I picked up a book on the practical approaches to interrogating and interviewing suspects in a crime. It was an interesting book, explaining the techniques police and detectives in the US use to get more info from their crime suspects. I couldn't put the book down. Sadly, the library closes at 6.45pm. And by 6.15, the air conditioning is turned off, which is actually good because the place is like an igloo within an igloo.

I also borrowed some books, on how to teach singing. Yes, they even have music books. I borrowed five books that explain how to sing properly and how to teach your students to sing. How fun!

So next time you want to have a nice educational outing in KL, give me a call! Because after that, there's the simply delicious beef ball noodle shop just across the road.


i smiled today at 1:13 AM


A Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers everywhere.


Dear Mum,

Thanks for everything you've done in my life. You do know I remember many details in my life that even you don't remember, so I definitely remember everything you've done for us. Everything from my birthday parties (the food, the decoration, the games etc), picking me up from school every day on time, sending me to church meetings and practices, meeting up with my school teachers, sending me over to my friend's houses and all those little things that seem so unimportant but are still nonetheless significant to me.

I appreciate everything you have done for me and for Noun, and for always being there and never complaining (well, most of the time ;-)

I am sure I wouldn't know what to do without you. You are the best a child could ever ask for and I thank God for giving you to me and for giving me to you.

May God really bless you with heavenly peace and joy so that you will continue to be a great mother and wife, as well as an inspiration to all the other people in your life.

Thanks for being a loyal supporter of my blog, and a real supporter of my life.

Thanks so much for sharing your life with me. And now that you are a grandmother, your blessings should come in twofolds, or something like that ;-)

I love you for everything you are. And I will always love you.

Happy Mother's Day, mum! Stay happy always.

Love,
Dom


i smiled today at 12:40 AM



You wouldn't be living in Malaysia if you have not yet seen the latest mega campaign being done by DIGI. Maybe "I will follow you" rings a bell. Or that funny yellow plump fella(s) that follows you everywhere you go, or maybe the quack quack quacking yellow ducks (followed by red-hotlink duck and purple-celcom duck).....

I am somewhat amazed at how the marketing people at DIGI came up with so many weird/interesting ideas to promote their latest offers and services.

Heck DIGI is just simply being straight to the point now - "TIME TO CHANGE" is what they say. "WIDEST COVERAGE". Actually, a few months ago, it was advertised as "WIDE COVERAGE", and then they added the WIDEST later on. Smart move.

I am a Hotlink subscriber. Have been for around 5 years already. And?

And I am still sticking to Hotlink albeit the DIGImania going on all over the country. No offense to DIGI... but here's my theory...

While DIGI is crazily making the yellow plump fella run around the streets of KL and having him cry before we watch a movie in the cinema.... the other networks are busily and steadily and hapily and ever readily coming up with something that will be better than what DIGI has to offer now. It's always been like that. When one comes up with a great plan, a few months later, some other network comes up with a greater plan. None ever have the greatest plan because they all find some ways to beat each other. Like rewarding you points as you talk, for example.

I do, however, applaud DIGI for their marketing strategy.



If you take the KL Monorail, DIGI has its own stop - Bukit Bintang. Actually, so does Hotlink - Imbi. And the little voice inside the monorail announces it like this:
Next station, Imbi Hotlink....... Next station, Bukit Bintang Digi.


And when you arrive at their stop, the whole station is filled with their publicity. Smart move.

But while DIGI now claims to have the WIDEST coverage, Hotlink only advertises that it has GREAT coverage. No difference anyway. Both have weak coverage in so many places.

But to that yellow plump fella, who sometimes actually is seen walking around the streets in costume (poor man inside that yellow thing), and is "I will follow you"-ing on TV and cinema screens, I just have to say to DIGI: time to change. DIGI is starting to look really desperate with all their publicity.

The interesting thing is, when I check my cell phone's phone book, 90% of the numbers stored inside are 012, 014, or 017. 019 and 013 are really rare in my phone, and there are about ten 016 numbers. But that's no real statistic to prove anything whatsoever. It's just interesting lah!

Anyhow, I shall patiently wait to see what the other networks are coming up with in the next few months. I can imagine them working OT for the next few months, thinking of how to beat DIGI's amazing yellow publicity that has got people talking all over the country.


Oh, one more thing, Hotlink asks us to love Kuala Lumpur. Hotlink talks about philosophy: Life Unlimited... DIGI is smart, they hit the nail on the head: TIME TO CHANGE. ALWAYS THE SMARTER CHOICE..... no time for life unlimited or loving your city...just change... or so that's what they seem to be trying to say.




Anyway, good job to DIGI. But I am still sticking to my Hotlink number.

Not yet time to change.

See first.

Quack quack!


i smiled today at 12:37 AM


Several people have been asking me whether I will be continuing some posts from my previous blog. They're specifically asking me if I'll continue my stories from Primary school and go on to share about how Secondary school was like.

Yes, I will. Worry not. I will!

It just needs some time for me to actually sit down and type out everything. I even need some time to think back and recall what events in Secondary school are still in my memory cells. It wasn't that long ago, but still, I am getting old. Not that old. Old-er.

So be patient.

It will come, soon.

For now, thanks to those of you who have shown excitement for domluk.com and thanks Doreen for adding a link from your blog. Appreciate it!


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While I am at it, I'd like to gladly and proudly announce that my dear sister back in Sabah has given birth to her second child, Amelia Melanie Luk Baxter, born on 24th April this year, a little bit after midnight. Good for her, and I mean both of hers.




i smiled today at 12:28 AM


Richmond is in the midst of his mid-year exams. And being the nice person that I am, I've been helping him with his revision... from Science to Sejarah, to Malay, and even Math. Yes, you saw it right, Math.

It is just weird, but helping him with his revision, you'd think I'd get stuck and not know what to do. But it is amazing how many of the things I learned years ago, are still firmly stuck in my memory. It's just amazing how I can still remember how fermentation works, what distillation is, what chemicals are more reactive than others, and all that funny stuff they taught us in school but never really found any use for it in real life.

Even for Math, which was officially my worst subject... I am now able to do questions so confidently, and I just couldn't do so when I had to do them in secondary school. Weird?

If I had to take SPM all over again now, I'd get straight As, no joke! Haha. Maybe that's just how the world goes.

Anyway, I just found it interesting that I can still remember so many useless pieces of information and actually know how to apply them now.

Too late? I think so!




i smiled today at 1:20 AM



If you're one of those who have been reading my previous blogs, and wondered why it was left abandoned for no good reason, please know that there were good reasons for it. Well, for starters, it was left abandoned so that you could feel the anticipation for this new blog of mine here at domluk.com at then you'd smile again because I'm blogging again. OK, it sounded like an excuse.

Honestly, I have been up to lots of stuff for the past few months.

I had final exams. And yes, they're finally over, THANK GOD! I had a few weeks of final exams.... Let's go through them one by one.

Music History - I didn't really prepare for this subject. I never felt like preparing for it actually. There was just too much to read and memorize. I probably kind of just gave it up much earlier on. But you know, something inside of me kept telling me.. "don't bother studying, because it'll be fine". And thankfully I listened to that voice. Because two days before the exam, it was announced that this paper would be an 'open book' exam. I KNEW IT! I COULD FEEL IT! Haha. And luckily I didn't bother studying for it or I would have killed myself. So since it was open book, it went perfectly fine.

Music Theory - Easy, piece of cake. I finished the paper fast and then went out of the exam hall to buy myself a can of soya bean milk from the vending machine.

Transcription - Project based, so it was fine. Had a great deal of help from my team mates for this.

Pedagogy - Well, I had lots of work to do for the final presentation. But it went really well. I taught the 'kids' Old MacDonald, BINGO, and the Monkey song. I based my entire lesson on animals and taught them music with the help of animal pictures. Fun!

Analysis - Tough one. Didn't expect it to be so difficult. Don't even want to think about it. Honestly, I know I did very well for this subject. But I can't help feeling that I just didn't do well enough.

Performance - Ahhhh, the main exam.... I had to do a solo performance in front of an audience and a panel of judges. Prepared hard and long for this, memorising songs, designing and printing my concert booklet, researching on my songs, practicing with my accompanist, etc. I am glad to say that I am satisfied with the performance I gave. I also had friends from KL who came to support me. So nice of them. Ms Mona complimented me too, which meant a lot.


So you see, I have been busy.


*


I was also busy with the Melawati choir. Was preparing them for the choir competition. It was a tough ride.... We had to change song last minute because of some silly last minute stuff from the organizers. But I had fun training this choir. They are talented and fun people who really strive. Unfortunately, our hard work wasn't good enough. We got 2nd place.... 1st place was our aim obviously. It was a sad day for all of us. 2nd place??? No, it was not a fair game. I'm no super musician but I know a good choir when I hear one. Having round voices does not mean you are a good choir. Dancing on stage while singing some English song which sounded more like it was in Swahili does not make you a winning choir. Having a nice upbeat song while singing out of tune does not mean you are a good choir. But the judges' decision is final, sad to say. I just hope one day, they will invite qualified judges to such competitions.





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I also went to have fun at NTV7 to be part of the audience for the new game show, DEAL OR NO DEAL. It was fun! I was supposed to be one of Hoong Tze's supporters, but she didn't make it past the first round so we became the audience instead. That was good enough for me. I enjoyed being part of the show and seeing how a game show is recorded and directed. Thanks to Hoong Tze for inviting me, Richmond and Peter Moo to be her supporters.


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Oh I also went to watch SCREWED, by The Oral Stage. It was good. It wasn't really great, but it was good. It had some really funny and meaningful moments, and some really draggy stories. Doreen's act on her toilet bowl was my favourite. It was just so her. Heard that it really happened to her, so no wonder it felt like she was really putting her heart and backside into it. Congrats to The Oral Stage.. it brought back memories of long ago.


i smiled today at 12:31 AM


Welcome to domluk.com - my humble home on the Net. It took me a while to finally get this site up and running... you know, I was trying to figure out what exactly to use it for. I had several designs that I did, and threw them all away. And I eventually decided that domluk.com will just mainly be a blog for now, and will add on other 'features' to the website much later on. Initially, it was a full website, with lots of links to many interesting things. But, errrr, I realized I didn't have much time to really maintain it properly. So, I just faced the reality and decided to just make myself my own little blog, my own, my very own.... and I am so proud of domluk.com !!

So I'd like to thank you for supporting me on my previous blogs. It was fun having those blogs, and having regular readers who always had lots to say. But now, I have moved on the whiter websites, and domluk.com shall remain my one and only blog until I decide to move on yet again (which will not happen very soon, trust me!).

Please help me promote my blog, by linking your own to mine. I'd appreciate it a lot. I will also in turn link you from my blog. You scratch my back, I scratch yours too. Or something like that.

This blog offers an optimistic twist to life. Well, the 'smiling' theme kind of represents the optimism. I will use this blog to say whatever I want about anything I want. Hmmm, ok so it's not that much different from any other blog. But, I'm just proud of this new blog I have so just give me some attention!

Keep on checking out domluk.com .... and keep on smiling! ....


i smiled today at 2:27 PM


I spent a few days trying to decide how to use my new domain name. I registered domluk.com a couple of months ago, and I did several designs for the website, trying to figure out which one to use. And after all the trial and error, I decided not to use any of them. So this is what the main page of domluk.com will look like. I do have plans, however, to expand it even further, to include other webpages apart from this blog. So keep checking and I will definitely put out a notice of any expansions to my website through my blog. In the mean time, I thank you for smiling... haha..