Knowing where to knock.

A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man in his eighties who had been fixing ships since he was a young man. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully from top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there watching this man and hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer...... ......... $ 2.00

Knowing where to tap.......... ......... $ 9,998.00

Moral of the story?

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

The choice is ours.

The cunning old fox is at it again.  I shall not waste time writing about it.  Instead please go to the link to read the well-written article by Harris Ibrahim of The People's Parliament by clicking HERE:

Then please read my blogger friend Romerz's article HERE:

The Choice is Ours.  Come elections, remember to kick out all these racists into oblivion, to put it mildly.

Elegant silence?

Lately I notice that readers are maintaining a stance of elegant silence in my blog.  I am also surprised to note that there are more readers coming from USA too!  Maybe I am now global!  Hahaha!  Just laughing by myself.

Actually, there are periods of ups and downs.  And this happens to be the time that I'm feeling a bit down.

Let me also shift into "elegant silence" mode and wait for "divine inspiration" to write more interesting and beneficial topics, as and when "divine intervention" intercedes.

You have a nice day!

Great lessons in life (Part 3 of 3)

The Pretty Lady

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river.

The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. 'How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?' thought the little monk. But he kept quiet...The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet.. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.

Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. 'How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite The big monk looked surprised and said, 'I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?'

What is the moral of the story?

This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the 'pretty lady' with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony. Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the 'pretty lady'. We should let go of the pretty lady immediately after crossing the river. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over.

Great lessons in life (Part 2 of 3)

The Frogs

A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many frog legs! The farmer replied, 'There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs - millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to make me crazy!' So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks.

The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The restaurant owner said, 'Well.... where are all the frogs?' The farmer said, 'I was mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were making a lot of noise!'

Moral  of the storey?

 Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of you, remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy frogs. Also remember that problems always seem bigger in the dark. Have you ever laid in your bed at night worrying about things which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning comes, and you take a closer look, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Great lessons in life (Part 1 of 3)

The Turtles

A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. The turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!

For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.

Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich. At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, 'See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt.'

Moral of the story?

Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we do not do anything ourselves.

The marvel of "search engines" (and the photo I took)

I had a wonderful surprise when I Google search "justin choo" and on the third page, line 6 I noticed something interesting and nostalgic.  It said:

Doggerel By Johan Photo By Justin Choo .



Doggerel by JOHAN Photo by JUSTIN CHOO . And he's just me, With both of us drinking our fill, It's rather unfair, That he downs my share, And leaves me to ...
 

Photo by Justin Choo? I clicked the link, and guess what I saw?  Yes the photo I submitted to the New Straits Times, May 7 1995!  A few days to 15 years! 

 
First consider the word "doggerel".  In this instance it is more to "doggerel poem" which the dictionary states:
doggerel : poems of no lasting literary value ,just fun to write and fun to read .see what you can do ; .nonsense poems : think jabberwocky ; .forgret about angst ridden soul searching poetry and just have some fun with words.
 
Before you go to the links, I just like to let you know that I took pictures as a hobby many years ago.  During those "negative film" days, taking pictures as a hobby was quite a costly and  time-consuming past-time. The most you could take in one roll of negative film was 36 pictures, and you couldn't get to see them instantly.  Nowadays digital rules supreme, and anyone can come up with "brilliant" pictures with "Photoshop!"   No such things during the good old days.  A brilliant picture was actually taken as it was.  No computer alterations or enhancement.  The most we used was the polarizer filter to enhance the clouds.  It was fun facing all those challenges, especially lighting.  Today?  Not much fun.
 
Ok, now the links to all these mysteries:
 
1. When you click this link, please don't click the link given there.  Just return to this page first.  You will go to the picture link in "2" below.
(UPDATE: Sorry, you may not find the link because Google Search is a dynamic programme which keeps on updating the data.) 
 
 
2.Before you click this link, just a bit of information on the picture.  It was taken at the Mutiara Beach Resort.  There was a small but beautiful garden with flowing waters and of course the flamingos.  That was the place I took the picture.  The Resort had undergone a major  renovation, if I am not mistaken.  I don't think the garden is still there, let alone the flamingos!  The picture you see is not sharp.  My original was perfectly sharp and well contrasted. 
 

Now you can go to the link : 

 Doggerel By Johan Photo By Justin Choo

(I wonder if I were to continue paging down the search pages, would I find my other photos in the NST way back in 1988.  During those times, Eric Peris was with NST, and we would be taken to Sunday "shootings" under the "NST/Kodak Photographic Outings" with free lunch.  Unfortunately, during those years the bus had no air-con, and by the end of the day, I was really spent and exhausted.  For those who want to know who Eric Peris is, can go to his facebook)