Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

Left > The history of the middle finger. Click to read but if you're too lazy, I've typed the text out for you. It's good to learn something new everyday, don't you think? :-) Have a great day ahead, then. *** Well now...here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn't history more fun when you know something about it? Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as 'plucking the yew' or 'pluck yew'. Much to the bewilderment of the Fren...

You know me....my life....nothing but work work work.....therefore, it was a surprise to me when I chanced upon this video on YouTube.com showing David Allen giving the folks behind Google.com a talk about Getting Things Done (guess the guys in Google were having ineffective days just like the rest of us, huh?). I have to say it's really REALLY interesting and whatever he shared was, although nothing new, was stuff that you forgot to think about. He peels off layer by layer, one by one, slowly and languidly all the tips on why we're not getting things done as quickly as we should be and how to go about it. I particularly like the part where he said that our minds should be like water....fluid and react just like it without pre-reacting to it. Accept it, flow with it, then back to calm. David Allen is an exceptional speaker and I believe that Google probably paid an arm and a leg for his talk. And damn, he's funny too! Do yourself a favor, watch this video and learn someth...

I started my writing career on freelance with sites like www.getafreelancer.com . If eBay was the site people went to for cheap stuff, then www.getafreelancer.com is the site people went to for cheap services. That’s how started my career as a freelance writer….producing really cheap writing materials. There was one time I wrote 100-word articles for about less than $1 a pop! No seriously. But the competition on the freelance writing world is tough…being that there are a lot of adequate writers in this world with a little bit of talent, who can whip out a decent article with a decent number of words, laced with keywords (splattered is more the word) in this world. Particularly countries like India where there are, admittedly, more talents than others….really cheap ones. I’ve long abandoned my account with Getafreelancer because I started to have a client base and I focused more on quality these days. But I got curious, one day, and I went back in and took a look at the kind of proj...

In the car, me and the kids, we were just chatting about the topic 'teachers' on a positive note. Casually, we shared with each other stories about our favorite teachers and why we liked them, obviously, my stories were significantly more interesting. Suddenly, Josh suddenly said, "But I don't quite like my Bahasa teacher...always telling us to hurry up hurry up hurry up. And she beat my shoulder quite hard once". I told him that this is life....there are worse people out there. If you think his Bahasa teach was bad, wait till he meets his future boss. Or worse yet, my History teacher from Form 4 and 5! For the life of me, I cannot remember her name....I should. But this lady is one helluva bomb, I kid you not. When you walk past a class and see a roomful of students standing on chairs, you know she's in there drilling all the kids about dates and places, events and names. You just can't miss it because no other teacher does it! The day before, she wou...

It's boring reading the papers everyday these days. There's nothing remotely interesting to read in it and the world seems focused on who to hand the monumental power of manhandling many countries with nearing elections. Elections. Power. Politicians. To me, that's as interesting as counting the hair on my legs. If I could have it my way, I would rather hand the rein over to our dear 'retired' Dr. Chua who performed an Internet porn recently. I can hear you say 'Wha.......?' But you see, I believe that Dr. Chua is a blind, stupid and innocent man with intelligence way behind his years and experience but I think most of us respect him in a sense that he didn't say, "He looks like me, F***s like me but I cannot say 100% that that super performer is me". He came right out and said it like it is. Now, it takes balls to do that, folks. So, if he was picked as our Government leader, at least he won't be sleeping his way through International foru...

Leo July 23 - August 22 Your natural modesty enhances, rather than detracting from, your leadership -- people don't mind following you when you don't seem too invested in your role. It's a good time to shape things up around the house. No wonder I had this feeling that I need to revamp my house a little. Thinking of adding plants into it. To add a little bit of LIFE into it, you know. My fascination with the black-and-white theme doesn't help to make the condo look very human-friendly. Instead, it's kind of robotic right now. Perhaps more suitable for modern youngsters....I am not modern, and not a youngster, so, there you go. Then again, I heard from experts that it's good to move the stuff around your house once in a while and update it.....you know, to refresh the environment and stuff like that. Anyway, it's been a long time since I racked up a bill in IKEA, so.....

Schoolkids' mental health at stake I read the above article and I must laugh, you know! I know I've ranted about it quite a number of times already but I just can't help it lah. Now only they realize ah!!!!??? Sei mow, sei mow!! My son and me, only need to spend one year in a Chinese school to realize that the Chinese school system is horrendous! It's crazy! Insane! The pressure and stress placed on these kids and some of the parents (Me Me Me!!!!) is incredible and we're doing this believing that our kids are race horses! " My daughter dropped already lor. She only got 97 for her Mandarin this time! At least last test she got 98, you know. And her ranking also dropped liao...last time Top 10 in school, now only top 5 in her class " If you're a foreigner reading this and are thinking of coming here, I have this to say " Save yourself! Run for your life! Don't come here and send your kids to study here in Malaysia because we're all cr...

I did this color test and was waiting for them to prove me wrong...being a pain-in-the-ass skeptic and critic and all, you know. But everything the report revealed was correct wor. Believe it or not?! There were things that I would rather have a hammer slamming over my precious piano than admit were there as well. I don't know. If you have the time and don't know yourself too well (duh!), try this short test out. Very fast wan. Like less than 1 minute if you listen to your instincts. Color personality test >>

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it! Rule 2 : The world won' t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both. Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait ‘til you get a boss. Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. Rule 6 : If you m...

I don't normally order through the McDonalds delivery service unless I wake up late or really lazy to cook for the kids. Eh, this Chinese New Year, isn't it? I have to have a holiday myself....from the kitchen too, you know. Anyway, today woke up late because we all went to bed late. By the time I open my eyes, the sun was shining in through the window already, indicating that it's probably noon. Then I look at the clock and it showed 1.25pm! I jumped up! Walau-eh! I can really sleep, man! What the hell....it's one-something already meh? My kids leh? So, I very men-gan-cheong (anxiously) check on them (playing Nintendo DS in the living room) and grabbed the phone to call 1-300-1313-00 for quick delivery. Then faster-faster brush my teeth, change my clothes. My mother call me and told me that she's going to pass me some vitamin supplements, cakes and cookies for the kids and me. I told her to pass to the kids cause I wanna pang-sai (make a mess on the toilet thro...

Happy Chinese New Year to all Chinese readers and bloggers alike! Hope the year of the rat brings you lots of goodies (hopefully in the form of cash and big business deals or bonuses) and you will be happy and healthy always. May your life be enriched with love from your friends and family and although 'choi' (fortune) is important, so's 'oi' (love). Despite the following....blistering winter in China, people blowing up themselves in order to kill many other innocent people, others fighting for a governmental position, starving children eating mud and grass in a bid to live a day longer, rain drowns out happiness in some parts of the world....we are here. Happy, healthy and most importantly, TOGETHER. So, I share with you together-gether this video I received from a friend. Don't you just wonder why we delight in making people scared, shocked, terrified? My kids love to scare the bejeezus out of each other. Just wondering, are you a prankster? Opini...

I just read that just as Britney Spears is preparing to be released from the psychiatric ward she has been housed in, papers were signed to hold her in for a longer period of time. To add to the injury, her dad, Jamie Spears, just got the courts to approve his assignment as co-conservators. I don't know about you but I am kinda torn about this news. I think Britney could be suffering from Bipolar Disorder but this does not make her incapable of handling her own finances. I think people should just deal with her health and mental state instead of digging into her accounts. She has worked very hard for her money and it's painful to have everyone come in and tell her she cannot spend it the way she wants it. And as for daddy Spears....Gawd, I'd hate to think that he was a blood-sucking idiot trying to take control of his daughter's finances when she's at her worst. But then again, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, as a parent, I know how painful it ...

I told you it was cold Hong Kong when I was there, rite? It was the coldest winter week in Hong Kong. We didn't plan it that way lah since we're not sucker for cold weather but it just happened that way. It was really difficult trying to take a decent picture at Victoria's Peak. I was trying to take a picture of Karen and Sharon up there. Because of the cold, Sharon needed to find a toilet. Karen, in the meantime, had to battle with her own hair in order for me to take a picture. Most of the pictures we took there in Victoria's Peak look like shit. We are either eating our own hair or too cold to even smile! Therefore, I don't have a lot of pictures taken there (read: have pictures but don't want to upload cause they look shit).

I am a big fan of eggs....as with my second son, Jared. We can eat eggs in any form or format....as long is eggs. I've been a fan of eggs ever since I was a child, hard boiled, half-boiled (setengah masak....yum!), fried, scrambled but not raw. That's the only line I draw at eating eggs. In celebration of the joy of consuming eggs (and raising my blood cholesterol level, here's something for you to gawk at! Amazing stuff!

Category: Books Genre: Nonfiction Author: Lori Lansen ISBN: 0-316-16728-2 Pages: 340 pages It started out pretty bad, I mean, let’s get real. How many of us can connect instantly to a pair of craniopagus twins stuck together at the head? You can connect to a protagonist who is a bad ass swearer who spends his time loitering in the pubs because his wife left him. But craniopagus twins? Not a lot. So, in the beginning, it was like a narrative piece of poetry trying to let us into the world of a pair of twin sisters stuck at the head. Rose and Ruby. For your benefit, here’s the synopsis. “Twin sisters Rose and Ruby Darlen have been known since birth simply as “The Girls”. Raised by Aunt Lovey, the nurse who took them in after their mother abandoned them, they have lived all their lives in the small town of Leaford, in an old farmhouse bordered by cornfields. This is their story, told by Rose and Ruby themselves – two sisters who are ordinary in most respects but who have a relationshi...

I really really cannot tahan this anymore!!!!! Every Chinese New Year that rolls around, it gives me a bloody headache. Not only that a wallet-ache and also butt-ache! Sitting in the car all the time so many hours liao today! Just now, I went to fetch the two kids back from school lor at around 12.10pm. Jam jam jam jam jam jam jam (Malaysians use the term jam for traffic jam) all the way to Jared's school. Then hor....outside I see got jam some more. So, I thought I smarter than everyone else and tried to find another route to Joshua's school. Longer but I was hoping this route wouldn't be quite as jammed up. So, I go. Kanasai! (er....this is a Chinese swear word) No need very far I travel, I see cars everywhere! NO NEED TO WORK WAN AH???!!! Go back to work lah!!! So instead of short jam, I went for the long jam! If there's one thing that makes me lose my cool, it's traffic jam. Takes me 1 hour 12 minutes to get to Joshua's school! Some more today Friday, ...