Groot

Recently there is a movie playing in the Cinema call Guardian of The Galaxy.

The movie comprises of 5 main characters all having a mission to save the world. Because the movie is plot in the galaxy, there are all kinds of beings that exists.

One of the 5 characters, Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel, is a species called Flora colossus, who has the ability to absorb wood to feed, rebuild himself and to enhance his strength.

In the movie, he played as an important role in protecting his allies as well as being a very good friend to his partner Rocket Raccoon. Their friendship is seen to be so close that Rocket understands what Groot is trying to say when he can only pronounce the three words "I am Groot".

Even with speaking disabilities, Groot has a kind soul. Towards the end of the movie, Groot decided to turn himself into a ball of roots protecting his friends and also allies from a big fire.

This part shows that those who are willing to sacrifice for you are those who you can call "friends".
Groot sacrifices himself to save the other four friends. What I learn from this part of the movie is that, if we really appreciate our friends, we can do all sorts of sacrifices for them without complaining. We will be able to do it willingly as well.

Appreciate your friends. Who knows when will you be in need of a friend now and in the future.

Failure

I failed two subjects last semester.
What I feared most was to tell my parents. I can already imagine the disappointing face on them.
When I told my friends, they gave all sort of feedback. Most of them will ask me to submit for appeal against the result.

But I started to ask myself, why did I fail?
I went and consult my lecturer and he told me that I am not the only person who failed but there was a high percentage of people who also failed.

My parents asked me why did this happen. I said I don't know. but most of the time in my mind I was blaming the person who set the question paper. I know its wrong.. so I kept it in.

Very commonly, when something bad happen to us, we will tend to blame it on others. There are chances where we convince ourselves that it was not our fault so we should not blame ourselves.

But what I think is that we should calm our self down, and reflect back on what we should do. Realize that mistakes and be prepapred for the future. My mother will say " Don't need to cry over spilled milk" and look forward to strive through and excel in it.

We should not blame it on others when things happen, we just need to remind our self that we need to do better next time.

Time Machine

Time Machine is something so common but yet no one has successfully build one.

If I have a time machine, I will go back to my past. I will choose those time where I had lost things that were precious to me. For example, my wallet when I was 10 years old, my favourite watch when I was 12 years old, my first pet turtle when I was 13 my cat when I was 15.

I choose to believe that time machine exist, because I used to think that when I lose my stuffs, I blame the future me. I believe that the future me has came from the future to take away the things that I've lost because I didn't know how to appreciate things.

What I have learnt is that, we have to be responsible for our things and some things will be lost if we don't take care of it.

Besides that, we have to remember the value of the thing of when we are craving over it after we owned this so that we will be appreciative of the thing we have.

IKEA

Yesterday I paid a visit to IKEA at Damansara.

The plan was actually purely visiting IKEA for their well known meatball. But after the sumptuous meal, I went astray in IKEA.

IKEA has different types of sections with various types of furniture and designs from living room to bathroom and bedrooms.

While walking pass each sections, you will see lots and lots of furniture and some you never even imagine that it exists.

The layout of IKEA as a whole gives you inspiration on how you going to plan and design different parts of your house even for those who has yet to own a house.

IKEA not only offers furniture but also things that supports these furniture such as utensils, taps, towels, rugs pillows curtains and so on.

For me, IKEA is a wonderful place that in the near future, I will return to IKEA to get more ideas and design our home.

I believe that IKEA not only capture my heart but also other people so other people will also go and obtain what they want.

Robin William

I grew up watching Robin Williams’ film and the one film of his that I specifically remember is Mrs.Doubtfire. Robin Williams is a man with true talent and he always touches people’s heart through his movies. Seeing him on screen, my smile is automatically on.

After knowing his passing, I went and done some researches about him and his death.

He died because he hanged himself with a belt and he was battling depression. He was addicted to drugs and alcohols since the passing of his good friends, John Bellushi and Christopher Reeves. He did not take drugs and alcohols because he enjoyed it, he took them because it’s an ‘Escape’ from depression of the passing of his close friends. He did seek professional help to battle his addiction but it was too strong and ending his life was his solution.

When Christopher Reeves injured himself from an accident, Robin vowed to pay his medical fees even if Chris’ insurance won’t cover. Robin loved him and took good care of Chris.

He loved his daughter so much, he posted a final photo in his Instagram wishing his daughter, Zelda, Happy 25th Birthday on 31st July.

He’s more than just an actor, he’s a hero to many, a great friend to the late Christopher Reeves and John Bellushi, a caring person to United State Military and especially a great father to his daughter.
I cannot sleep through the nights knowing he left us while he still can continue to make our bellies shake with laughter. 

These few nights, I had a flashback of all his films that I watched and this is what I learned from the films so far:
(Mrs.Doubtfire) taught me that no matter how hard or what kind of sacrifices you will do, you just want to get close to the people you love.
(Genie in Disney’s Aladdin) taught me that there’s always magic and happiness if you try hard enough to look for it.
(Patch Adam) taught me to be happy everyday even though life is short.
(Dead Poet Society) taught me to enjoy life and art which what makes us want to live for.
(Good Will Hunting) taught me to challenge yourself to help those who can strive more.
(Lovelace from Happy Feet) taught me to just dance and be happy no matter what.
(Bicentennial Man) taught me to be different and unique.

I learned one important lesson from him, you can act happily and silly on the outside but there will always be dark secrets on the inside. Seek friends for help and never think of suicide because you have much to live for.

I will miss you deeply Robin, the nanny, the robot, the genie, the doctor, the teacher, the penguin, the radio man, the doctor and many more. My childhood would not be fun and beautiful without you.

Bridge

I pass by a bridge everyday.

This bridge is usually used by cars so I don't think people use it to cross the small river.

Everyday, thousands and thousands of cars uses this bridge and I am also one of the many user of this bridge.

This bridge was built temporary for a bypass because the actual one was blocked by the MRT construction.

So I thought... This bridge means nothing to us. However this bridge lets us cross the river by sacrificing itself.

Motorbikes, Sedan Cars, SUV, Buses, lorries cranes and tractor crosses it. imagine the weight that it is able to sustain? Thinking of the heavy load that the bridge needs to carry is so similar to my life as a student. The heavy workload, assignments and so on.

But, however, I feel grateful that I don't need to go through the same pressure.
I am thankful that I am given the chance of being able to study and I know that I have to be strong like the bridge even when times are hard, when assignments kicks in.

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Bridge.
Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Cat & Dogs

Cats and dogs can never live together.
People used to tell me that.
I used to believe and think that too.

Until I started raring a cat and a dog in my home, the myths that I used to believe was just not true anymore.

I have a pet cat name Nikko, and a Dog name WiFi.
Nikko first came into the house before WiFi.
So Nikko has been enjoying the space, the attention.
Two years after Nikko, WiFi came into our lives. Both the pets were female. (Just FYI)

When WiFi was a puppy, Nikko didn't care much. Nikko still do her usual stuffs and ignore WiFi.
But soon, WiFi grew bigger and bigger and then outgrew Nikko.

Nikko was still steady as calm as usual, and WiFi still being a toddler is playful.

Both my cat and dog don't fight. They leave peaceful together.

So it got me thinking, why will people say dogs and cat cannot live together?

What happens in my house is that, one will be jealous of the other if attention is given to either one.
Cats and Dogs are particularly attention seekers.

I believe its the same for us human too. What I think is that, same like my pets, we human are afraid of being left behind, or ignored. Furthermore, pets sometimes can also feel what human feel. I believe that these connections will show and reflects your mood at the moment.

So be kind to your pets, as they are the best companion not only when we are lonely, but also when we are happy.

Car

Sometimes I see cars on the road especially those four wheel type of cars I am really interested with them.


Remembering the last trip to Thailand, me and few of my uncles went to different car sales outlets.

We visited Toyota, Isuzu, Hyundai and also Honda (but Honda doesn't sell 4 wheel drive).

For me, these cars has a very attractive aura that makes me want to buy one later on when I have to ability to do so.


We went to do survey of a few cars from different outlet and one of them caught my attention very much. It was a model that wasn't launched in Malaysia. Isuzu MU-X.

This model caught my attention and it gave me motivation to get one for myself and also one for my dad.

I think that these car manufacturers are smart because they know how to use the right strategy to attract customers to buy their cars and they have won my heart and make me want to buy their MPV MU-X.

Flappy Bird

In January 2014, the game Flappy Bird was trending among people all over the world. 

This game was created by  Vietnam-based developer Nguyễn Hà Đông. The objective is to direct a flying bird, which moves continuously to the right, between each oncoming set of pipes without colliding with them, which otherwise ends the game. The bird briefly flaps upward each time the player taps the screen. If the screen is not tapped, the bird falls due to gravity.

I am very inspired by this game because it is just a very simple game yet a lot of concentration and patience is needed to actually keep on going. What inspire me most is how one person can shut out all interaction from outside world, and focus on doing one item. That is what I think I can't do. Half the time I will be distracted with all kinds of external noise.

The impact of playing this game is that precision and timing and also patience is needed. Therefore, after experiencing such "training" i felt that every other things that i do have improve in terms of these three elements.

What I think of the game is that it has a very simple and easy concept of playing but requires high level of mastering the game therefore making this game very interesting and addictive. Indirectly I think that it will improve one person focus on everything that they do. 

Sky

Sky can give us wonderful thoughts. Staring into the blue sky, looking at how the wind blows and appreciating how the clouds join together into one big cloud gives me such wonderful feeling in my head and heart.

A human mind is just full of wonders.
It was a breezy afternoon, where the sun wasn't very hot, and the wind blowing cool air that brushes through my hair.

I rode my bicycle to the nearest playground and found a slide to lie on. The feeling was just too relaxing.
Each time the wind blows it gives me the goose bump and send chills down my spine. But still I enjoyed it.

My mind started floating astray, I wondered why can the sky be so blue, why does the wind blow and the clouds moves. It is as if everyone is too busy, busy with their life, busy working, busy earning a living and nobody stopped to enjoy the sky.

Maybe I was too stressed out on my assignment, I needed a breathe. Assignment can sometimes be burdensome. But we need to pass it. We need to get a degree. The society is being so realistic and uses our certificate to judge us.

I closed my eyes. I spent almost forty minutes on the slide enjoying the wind blowing, the birds chirping, the leaves on the trees waving. I told myself that I must be strong. I need to work hard. As long as I did my best, I shall not regret anything in life. I shall not regret spending my time in University.

After that refreshing sleep, I came back home and wrote this blog.

Many little things around us can inspire us in many ways to solve problems and so on, just make sure that when we are faced with problems, we do not solve things in rush. Take a pace slow and think of all the alternatives. Things will be solved eventually.

Love & Sacrifices

How to train your dragon is recently airing in the cinema. 

I managed to spent my time to go and watch it. 

I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall the movie, story line, graphics, and audio are just wonderful.

What I like most is the story line that connects both first episode and second one. One of it is the relationship of the main character, Hiccup, and his dad, Hoist. I can relate very much about their relationship with me and my dad.

Hiccup has never been what the father wishes him to be, where his father's expectation was different from what he wants. He tries to find ways to actually make his father proud, but most of the time he fails to do so. I myself feel the same way too. When finally I try something that I think that "this could make my father happy/proud" it always turn out the other way round.

Hiccup struggles his way through and finally met with toothless.  He brought toothless to meet with his dad and tried convincing him to accept. Soon after that, he was able to convince his dad as well as the whole village that dragons brings no harm.

This part of the movie inspired me despite facing tough and challenging difficulties, we have to always stay positive and think positive and try our best to find a solution to it. Of course, when faced with problem we can always seek help from others and ask with a polite manner. Positive is the key to success. In my university life I faced with numerous failures in my studies, but I still stayed positive and keep the negative thoughts away from me.

And in the second episode, Hiccup with his stubbornness trying to do something to make his father proud and adventuring alone, end up causing his father to be attacked and died. Although at the end he became a hero and chief to his village, he still lost his father.

We should be aware that each and everything has a limit to it. We must control ourselves to not go over the limit. It will only cause trouble or problems will arise. Avoiding these problems will be the best solution, but if faced with it, we must use the correct method to solve it.

This part of the movie inspired me that a father's love for his child/children is uncountable to the extend that they are willing to sacrifice for them. Unconditional love is shown here. Maybe a father's way of showing his love to the child may be indirect, but deep down there is always a caring and loving heart.

My father has the exact characteristic as Hoist. He has rules and discipline values towards his children but also with a very caring and loving heart.

This let me to think for a moment, maybe it doesn't only happens to me, maybe many dads in the world are the same. But ultimately, a father has unconditional love for his child/children.

Incident

This happened to me on a Tuesday morning. I was at my friend's apartment eating my early lunch when suddenly my friend and I suddenly heard a loud "THUMP" outside. We ignored it at first thinking that someone dropped something from the upper level. But not long after that, someone from downstairs shouted in BM, "Ada orang jatuh!! orang jatuh!!"

Out of curiosity we went out and have a look towards downstairs. We saw an old man lying on the zinc from the first floor. Without much thinking my friend locked her door and both of us ran downstairs to find out more. Upon reaching the first floor, the whole scenario became even clearer. Wild guesses was the uncle fell from high level and was fortunately saved by the zinc roof. However it scared the people working below it as there were workers of the restaurant that operates at the ground floor right under the roof. The uncle that was lying unconscious. His skin around his arms and leg was wounded from the sharp edges of the zinc.

It made me start to wonder...

Is he a resident here?
Did the uncle lost consciousness while leaving from his home and fell over the railing?
Is he all alone here?

I started to think...

I should do something and I have to do it fast! he is lying there, in danger, that roof may not be able to hold him long enough.
Somebody should do something as well. help him up maybe? Call for ambulance?
I am someone who always like to help people, this the opportunity, why am I not doing anything?

That moment of time I had an internal battle of myself. The Id and Ego appeared inside me.

A good samaritarian who happened to be there quickly grab his phone and dialed for ambulance. He spent almost 10 minutes explaining the scenario over the phone.

But it took a very long time before the ambulance came and the uncle finally got his consciousness and started move around. Me and my friend worried that the zinc may collapse and so we tried to stop him from moving. Speaking in Mandarin then Cantonese to the uncle, he seems like he wasn't able to hear nor understand what we were trying to tell him. Maybe he was still suffering from dizziness.

One of the resident who was curious went up floor by floor to trace back how did the uncle end up falling down found out that his slipper was nicely arranged on the 8th floor and made a conclusion that he decided to suicide.

The thought of it made me want to help him even more. Soon after that people from the restaurant got ladder and other resident threw cushions down to prepare a soft landing spot for the uncle just in case he fell.

In a matter of minutes the uncle started ignoring what we were telling him and he started to move trying to climb up. I couldn't take it anymore and I quickly ran to the ground floor and take a look at the structure of the zinc roof and told the people to give support below it so that i can climb above the zinc and help the uncle up.

Many of them felt that it was not ok to help him up as he fell from 8th floor and may have internal injury and further more the zinc may not support both our weight.

I knew that helping him up was the right thing to do. I told myself that. I looked around and nobody seems like they want to give a helping hand.

I climbed over the side of the wall on to the zinc and successfully pull the uncle up with the help of another foreigner who came to help.

I felt the exhaustion of helping the uncle up all over my body, but my heart and mind told me that it was worth it. At that moment I really felt like shedding tears.

After climbing over the wall, the other residents placed him lying on the floor and found a note in his pocket. It turned out to be a will written by the uncle.

When I knew about the will was already prepared earlier by the uncle, so much thoughts came into my mind. 

First thing was I felt choked up and my eyes became watery.

Why would this uncle choose to end his life? 

Why would he write such heartbroken letter and placed it with him? Where are his loved ones?

he thought of my grandmother also came into my mind. I silently asked myself.. Why?

But still, no matter what, what the uncle did to himself gave me a proper chance to reflect on my own life as well. There are so many kinds of people in the world. Some that are optimistic, some pessimistic. Some of those that are unable to accept the fate of their lives and chooses to end them while leaving their loved ones behind.

My mother's mother, which is also my grandmother, who is currently reaching the age of 80 years old still active and kicking is so positive and optimistic about her life. She said that if she leaves the world one day, which may happen anytime, she leaves worries, sadness or negativity behind but only good thoughts and happiness as her memories. I wonder why didn't this uncle thought the same way...

It struck me that after this incident that soon after I finish with my studies I want to get job, or maybe a hobby that is committed in helping people, to give them enough love and care and also time. There are uncountable problems that we face in the world, every second every minute every day, and I believe that every one of it has a solution. So love your live. I swear that I will love mine and cherish every moment of it.

P/S: Inside his letter he wrote that he is suffering from Cancer and he doesn't want to live anymore. He apologizes to his wife, and his sons. He even wrote his name, Identity Card Number and full address as well as his son's phone number. 

Eczema

Hi there. This time round I am going to talk about my experience on eczema. Many may not know about it. But after reading this, I hope that you will take care of yourselves and always drink water + keep your skin moist. :)

This is a picture of me during foundation, Year 2010.

About three years ago, i was faced with a disease that was related to skin. It was called Eczema or in scientific terms called atopic dermatitis. The symptom is pretty easy to be recognize. Its either you have dry skin, then you will feel the irritation on the dry skin, then the skin starts to inflame and then red rashes will appear.

Very commonly it happens on new born babies, or on adults' elbows or behind the knees. But for me, it happened on the most sensitive part of my whole body, which is the face.

When I was facing this eczema attack, I suffered the most where by my skin on the face becomes dry, then the itchiness starts where I will scratch it and then it causes inflammatory on my skin. I feel like its a cycle, after the skin recovers, it becomes dry again, then itchy, then I scratch followed by inflammation. 

Year 2011, First Month after getting rashes around the eyes.

When I realized that this has become a very serious issue, I went to see my panel doctor to get referral letter to meet with skin specialist. The skin specialist only prescribed medicine and gave a few tips on how to keep my skin moist at all times.

Eczema started spreading causing me to scratch and losing my eyebrows. Year 2011, February - March

Slowly spreading around my face. 2011, April - May

The suggestion that the skin specialist suggested was a remedy that helped me in a short period of time. Soon the eczema attack even worst and spread to other parts of my body. It caused me to have difficulty to sleep at night and I have to depend of anti-histamine which is a oral medication that will cause drowsiness but helps at night.

Year 2011

If you google for eczema, this will be the common image to be found.

I even tried the product Herbalife, which I consume it not because I want to lose weight nor gaining weight, but to help improve my condition of my system and to cure eczema. Herbalife products helped by cleansing and regenerate my body system making me feel fresh and more energetic everyday.

Later on, one of close friend suggested me to meet with another specialist Dr. Ting on Jalan Imbi. The prescription given by the doctor helped me to reduce the seriousness of eczema. Now, I am better and only have a little around other parts of my body. 

 2012

2013

2014

A few things to take note if you suspect eczema, or having eczema :
1. Drink lots of water. (always keep hydrated)
2. Apply moisturizer, cream on places that you feel is dry
3. Avoid extremely cold or hot places that may cause dryness to your skin
4. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables that helps in maintaining skin healthiness

5. If symptoms of eczema worsen, visit your nearest doctor/specialist as soon as possible.

6. Do Not apply hot water on eczema wound. It does not help.

7. Change the surrounding items eg: bedsheet, pillows, blankets and curtains

8. Make sure that clothes are clean

Best Regards,

Sam

Why Jaron Chook

Hey guys,

It occurs to me that many people ask me why do I have so many names....

Sam (My original name as stated in the IC)

danny (A few of my social media name)

Jaron (Facebook and now Blogger.com name)

Well. I would start with the name Danny.

Quite some time ago I watched the movie Peter Pan 2...

A Screenshot taken from Peter Pan 2.
Wendy talking to her son Daniel (Danny)

Then I thought to myself... that name is kinda adorable. hmm..

Can I use it? Well so i tried to coined my name and relate it to danny.

At the end of the day.. i came out with dannysam which I felt that it was quite unique.

Well my mom was kinda dissapointed when she got to know of it,

"Why do you want the name "danny" when you already have "Sam"?"

well I find it kinda fun to have another name.

So yeah, now its stucked with me. I use it in most of games and so on. even my email address. :)

Jaron - this name come about just a few years back.

In my family, My dad, mom and sister's name started with J. -Joe -Jane -Jean

So then, I thought.. why not join in the fun? Since I felt that my Facebook name was Sam Chook and was kinda dull and boring... Then I went searching for names with the first alphabet - J . Googled around and from one of the baby naming websites.. a few names appeared..

Jason Jackson Jacky Jaiden Jayden Jacob James Jamie Jarred Jarvis and so on.

Non satisfied me. 

Then after much thinking, I took from one of my closes friend's name Jared and changed it to Jaron. The name just came and stucked in my mind. :)

Adapted from http://www.thinkbabynames.com/

So. That's practically how I came about the name danny and Jaron.

Hope you are satisfied enough of my explanation here. :P