LIFE IS LIKE A CUP OF COFFEE

After watching a short inspirational movie entitled “Life is Like a Cup of Coffee” that Ms. Freda showed us, something flashed in my mind. During watching the short movie, the messages seem too familiar to me. Now I know why, because it was a message in a card that my mother gave me years ago. When I was reading the card that time, I did not really get the hidden message in their. Now I am 18 years old and old enough to understand the meaning of life.

In the message, it says that it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves and that is the source of your problems and stress. Here’s my first example for this, same with wanting the best for your child. You work so hard until you forget to spend time with your child. Fulfilling your family their wants and needs. Buying your child some toys and gadgets but what you do not notice is you are not really fulfilling their needs in that kind of way. Maybe your family are happy with what you give them, but you must not forget that giving them a thing doesn’t show how much you love them. You must express how you feel and how much you love them by showing your emotion not by giving their material needs. Yes, it is normal for you to seek for the best for your child, but be assure that you can balance between the “cup and coffee”. Meaning to say, you must be able to balance life and the tools to hold and contain life.

In life, we encounter lots of important things. On my opinion, it is important for you to learn on how to balance things from so important to not so important things. As a human, we need to consider that “Life is the coffee. The jobs, money, and position in society are the cups. The type of cup we have does not define, nor change, the quality of life we live.

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.”

INSPIRATIONAL SHORT STORY

Life Is Like A Cup of Coffee
-Author Unknown

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups–porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal–some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He told his guests to help themselves to the coffee.

After everyone had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.

“While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it is just more expensive, and in some cases, even hides what we drink.

“What all of you really wanted was coffee. But you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other’s cups, to see who had the best one.

“Now consider this. Life is the coffee. The jobs, money, and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life. And the type of cup we have does not define, nor change, the quality of life we live.

“Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups!

“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

“Live simply. Speak kindly. Care deeply. Love generously.”

HI ms. MT.. PLEASE READ THIS..

MY PERCEPTION OF A PERFECT DAY

My perception for a perfect day is when I wake up with my love ones. A smile is put on our faces. Sadness, fears, sorrows, worries and problems are gone. All of us will go to a park and picnic. Then go to the zoo together with my family. Its been 11 years since my last visit to a zoo which in Manila Zoo. Be able to feed the animals in the zoo. That will be exiting to do. Then watch movie together. My perception of a perfect day is when I enjoy, laugh and spend time with my family. Because since I was in high school, I never had a chance to spend time longer with my family. Being with your love one will be such a perfect day. I will be glad if I spend my perfect day with them. A perfect day where all problems are left alone. It will be more perfect when it is my favorite weather, I do not have to be at school just with my family, our health is good and we are feeling fine, with no pressing obligations, and some extra money in my pocket that I can spend any way I want and I would not allow any negative input into my mind. I’d follow a wise mans words: happiness is a choice and I choose to be happy. This is my perception of a perfect day but being with my family is already a perfect day. Without any movie, picnic or going to the zoo. Just having them by my side, hugging each other because I really miss them specially my mother and my sister (and her two children). I LOVE MY FAMILY. I LOVE MY MOTHER AND MY SISTER. :)

WHAT DOES 1MALAYSIA MEANS TO YOU?

 

1Malaysia is an ongoing program designed by Malaysian Prime Minister. For me the meaning of 1Malaysia is unity. We need to act as one that is why there is 1 in 1Malaysia. Many people do not really understand the concept of 1Malaysia. Even me, I am a bit confused about this. But on my opinion 1Malaysia concept is the idea about making all Malaysians of different ethnicity and religions to fully understand and respect each others' cultures, and to live together, work hand in hand and the sharing of responsibilities to make a better future for Malaysia in terms of social economy and political stability. There is one interview Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that Malaysians should discard their ethnic silo mentality and Malaysians must stand together, think and act as one people under the 1Malaysia concept. Lets break away from operating in the ethnic prism as we have done over so many years. This is also the meaning of the '1Malaysia' concept. We must respect each other, go beyond tolerance and build trust among each other and build trust between various ethnic groups. That is what he told on the interview. 1Malaysia should be about being equal, race especially states. As we all know west and east Malaysia has a big difference or gap. A common identity for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or creed. No more Malaysian Indian, Malaysian Chinese, etc. We will be called Malaysians as one. But will every Malaysians be able to practice this concept since few of us has used living in this bias country?

WHAT US AS INDIVIDUAL CAN HELP TO PREVENT POLLUTION

If you really want to do something to prevent our Mother Earth from Pollution, then firstly you take a step forward. My lecturer, Ms. Tina Lights showed as one of the videos of Al Gore. He served as the vice president of United States. According to him, there are ten things you can do and how much Carbon Dioxide you'll save doing them. He's right.

Here are the ten things that he mentioned:

• Change a light ~ Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light will save 150 pounds of Carbon Dioxide a year.

• Drive Less ~ Walk, Bike carpool or take a public bus more often. You'll save one pound of Carbon Dioxide for every mile you don't drive.
• Recycle More ~ You can save 2,400 pounds of Carbon Dioxide per year by Recycling just half of your household waste.
• Check Your Tires ~ Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more then three percent. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps twenty pounds of Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere!
• Use Less Hot Water ~ It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low-flow shower head (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds per year)
• Avoid Products With A Lot Of Packaging ~ You can save 1,200 pounds of Carbon Dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10 percent.
• Adjust Your Thermostat ~ Moving your Thermostat just two degrees in the winter and up two degrees in the summer could save you about 2,000 pounds of Carbon Dioxide per year.
• Plant A Tree ~ A single tree will absorb one ton of Carbon Dioxide over it's lifetime.
• Turn Off Electronic Devices ~ Simply turning off your Television, DVD player, Stereo, Computer and your Computer Monitor when you're not using them will save thousands of pounds of Carbon Dioxide per year.

As a student, the first thing that I will do to help prevent pollution are recycling things that can be reuse, keeping our environment clean, take a public bus instead of own car and unplugging the appliances when you are not using it. This steps can help to prevent pollution. Every little helping hand of everyone can help our earth if we added all our concern. 

 

ME AND PUBLIC SPEAKING

Public speaking is a common source of stress for everyone. Many of us would like to avoid this problem entirely, but this is hard to do. Whether we work alone or with large numbers of people, eventually we will need to speak in public to get certain tasks accomplished. And if we want to be leaders or achieve anything meaningful in our lives, we will often need to speak to groups, large and small, to be successful. The truth about public speaking, however, is IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE STRESSFUL! If you correctly understand the hidden causes of public speaking stress. I am a college student taking architecture course. As a student, we must practice public speaking so we will be able to improve ourselves. In my level, we always have this presentation that we do in front of our lecturer and classmates. Presentation is one of public speaking. There are three things to remember to do public speaking. First is content of your message. It is a message packed with practical, easy to remember and useful information. When you do public speaking, make sure you do not memorize your speech. When you memorize, the more you prepare, the worse you will do. All you need is you have to understand your content or message in able to deliver it to audience in a great ways. Second is confidence. Knowing that what you share will be valuable and useful, and that you are the one to share it. If you have lack of confidence, you will probably shake nervously in front of your listener. The more nervous you are, the higher chance you will forget your speech. And the last one is connection. You must be able to draw the audience into the message. That’s what brings the laughter, the tears, the standing ovations. You must connect with the audience. If you practice this three things while public speaking, you will improve. The more you do public speaking the confidence you are because you are trained to speak in front of crowd. In a public speaking, you don't have to be brilliant or perfect to succeed, when you speak in public, nothing "bad" can ever happen, and you don't have to control the behavior of your audience.

A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS

A picture paints a thousand words. Everyone has its own explanation about this idiom. Base on my research, this quote was one Chinese proverb long ago and allegedly first made by Confucius. This idiom says that a visualization is a better description than a verbal description. Simply put, it means that a picture will be far more descriptive of something than words can ever be or put it another way, no matter how hard you try, you cannot beat a visual presentation. In other words, sometimes, too much words are hardly to get what is the real story or meaning behind that many words but if you are looking at a picture, the picture itself will tell you the story or meaning behind that. 

I found this photo while I was doing my assignment for my history. This picture shows a sculpture. But behind the sculpture I felt different. The picture was full of emotional. Its shows that a man was trying to stand by holding on to a wall. As you can see, the man was naked. Maybe the man is poor or he was kidnapped or beaten by gangster who were asking for money and get thrown by the roadside naked. Sometimes a picture can communicate more succinctly than words. I think that this sculpture gets over, brilliantly, the emotional state that exists when you are frustrated, in a state of despair, finding it hard to go on and wanting to give in. Although the creator probably had in mind an extreme situation, it also works as an exaggerated expression of more mundane frustrations that sap your enthusiasm and make you question the benefit of going on.

100 WORDS

WORDS	MEANING
1. petrified	extremely frightened
2. modest	not large in size or amount, or not expensive
3. piddle	urine, or an act of urinating
4. pincer	one of a pair of curved claws of an animal such as a crab
5. appraise	to examine someone or something in order to judge their qualities, success or needs
6. redundancy	the situation when someone loses their job because their employer does not need them
7. combustible	able to burn easily
8. uproar	when a lot of people complain about something angrily
9. inadmissible	unable to be accepted in a law court
10. incentive	something which encourages a person to do something
11. macrocosm	any large organized system considered as a whole, rather than as a group of smaller systems
12. pivot	•a fixed point supporting something which turns or balances •the central or most important person or thing in a situation
13. tout	• to advertise, make known or praise something or someone repeatedly, especially as a way of encouraging their sale, popularity or development •to repeatedly try to persuade people to buy your goods or services
14. tousled	describing or having hair that looks untidy, as if it has been rubbed
15. liaison	•communication between people or groups who work with each other • someone who helps groups to work effectively with each other
16. biathlon	a sports competition which combines skiing and shooting a rifle (gun)
17. diocese	in the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican (Church of England) church, an area controlled by a bishop
18. fizzle	• to gradually end • to make a weak continuous 's' sound
19. insidious	(of something unpleasant or dangerous) gradually and secretly causing harm
20. fumble	to do something awkwardly, especially when using your hands
21. furrow	a long line or hollow which is formed or cut into the surface of something
22. bellow	to shout in a loud voice, or (of a cow or large animal) to make a loud, deep sound
23. amalgamate	to join or unite to form a larger organization or group, or to make separate organizations do this
24. banns	a public announcement, made in a church, that two people are going to get married
25. bandy	(of legs) bending out at the knees
26. blip	•a small spot of light, sometimes with a short sharp sound, that appears on a radar screen, or a sudden sharp V-shaped bend in a line on a computer screen •a temporary change that does not have any special meaning
27. blotch	a mark that is not regular in shape, for example on a person's skin
28. brogue	an Irish or sometimes Scottish way of speaking English
29. deem	to consider or judge something in a particular way
30. decency	behaviour that is good, moral and acceptable in society
31. expedite	to cause to be done more quickly; to hurry
32. exhilarate	to give someone strong feelings of happiness and excitement
33. nautical	relating to ships, sailing or sailors
34. semolina	a powder made from crushed wheat used for making pasta and, especially in Britain in the past, for making sweet dishes
35. sham	something which is not what it seems to be and is intended to deceive people, or someone who pretends to be something they are not
36. shambles	a state of confusion, bad organization or untidiness, or something which is in this state
37. sickle	a tool with a short handle and a curved blade, used for cutting grass and grain crops
38. stint	a fixed or limited period of time spent doing a particular job or activity
39. octane	a chemical in petrol
40. odious	extremely unpleasant; causing and deserving hate
41. ruminate	to think carefully and for a long period about something
42. rowdy	noisy and possibly violent
43. sag	•to drop down to a lower level in the middle •to become weaker
44. saccharine	too sweet or too polite
45. tycoon	a person who has succeeded in business or industry and has become very rich and powerful
46. grasp	to quickly take something in your hand(s) and hold it firmly
47. bridle	a set of leather strips that are put around a horse's head to allow its rider to control it
48. bursar	the person in a college, school or university who is responsible for controlling its money
49. compensate	to pay someone money in exchange for something that has been lost or damaged or for some problem
50. cougar	a large brown wild cat that lives in North and South America
51. crumb	a small amount of something
52. desiccated	not interesting or completely without imagination
53. destitute	without money, food, a home or possessions
54. inception	the beginning of an organization or official activity
55. dromedary	a type of camel (a large animal that lives in the desert) with one hump (raised area) on its back
56. epilogue	a speech or piece of text which is added to the end of a play or book, often giving a short statement about what happens to the characters after the play or book finishes
57. eponym	the name of an object or activity which is also the name of the person who first produced the object or did the activity
58. extol	to praise something or someone very much
59. extempore	done or said without any preparation or thought
60. fallacious	not correct
61. flounce	to walk with large noticeable movements, especially to attract attention or show that you are angry
62. gabble	to speak quickly and not clearly so that it is difficult to understand
63. haunch	one of the back legs of an animal with four legs that is used for meat
64. haul	to pull something heavy slowly and with difficulty
65. impregnate	to cause something, usually a solid substance, to absorb something, usually a liquid
66. isthmus	a narrow piece of land with water on each side which joins two larger areas of land
67. jostle	to knock or push roughly against someone in order to move past them or get more space when you are in a crowd of people
68. jocose	humorous or playful
69. latch	a device for keeping a door or gate closed that consists of a metal bar which fits into a hole and which is lifted by pushing down on another bar
70. layette	a complete set of clothes, sheets, bed covers and the other things needed for a baby who has recently been born
71. mallard	a wild duck that is common in Europe and North America
72. mitten	a type of glove with a single part for all the fingers and a separate part for the thumb
73. naval	belonging to a country's navy, or relating to military ships
74. nymph	(in ancient Greek and Roman traditional stories) a goddess or spirit in the form of a young woman, living in a tree, river, mountain, etc.
75. penury	the state of being extremely poor
76. prevalent	existing very commonly or happening often
77. putative	generally thought to be or to exist, whether or not this is really true
78. querulous	often complaining, especially in a weak high voice
79. remunerate	to pay someone for work or services
80. saffron	a dark yellow substance obtained from a flower and used as a spice to give colour and flavour to food
81. scruple	a feeling that prevents you from doing something that you think is morally wrong or makes you uncertain about doing it
82. spruce	an evergreen (never losing its leaves) tree with leaves like needles, or the wood from this tree which is a pale colour
83. stupendous	very surprising, usually in a pleasing way, especially by being large in amount or size
84.swoon	to feel a lot of pleasure, love, etc. because of something or someone
85. tantalize	to make someone feel excited or attracted by an offer or a suggestion of something which is, in fact, unlikely to happen
86. thrash	to hit a person or animal hard many times as a punishment
87. trance	a temporary mental condition in which someone is not completely conscious of and/or not in control of themselves and of what is happening to them
88. tranquil	calm and peaceful and without noise, violence, worry, etc.
89. usurp	to take control or a position of power, especially without having the right to
90. vixen	a female fox
91. voluptuous	describes an experience or object that gives you a lot of pleasure because it feels extremely soft and comfortable or it sounds or looks extremely beautiful
92. vulnerable	able to be easily physically, emotionally, or mentally hurt, influenced or attacked
93. whorl	a circular pattern of lines, with the smallest circle in the middle, surrounded by other circles, each one wider and larger than the previous one
94. wisp	a thin, delicate piece of hair/grass, etc
95. wreath	an arrangement of flowers and leaves in a circular shape, which is used as a decoration or as a sign of respect and remembrance for a person who has died
96. wrangle	an argument, especially one which continues for a long period of time
97. yodel	to sing by making a series of very fast changes between the natural voice and a much higher voice
98.yoke	a wooden bar which is fastened over the necks of two animals, especially cattle, and connected to the vehicle or load that they are pulling
99. zither	a musical instrument shaped like a flat box, which has many strings that you pull at with your fingers or with a small piece of plastic
100. zest	enthusiasm, eagerness, energy and interest