Life, Travel, GRACE

You place few items in front of a baby. Then you let him choose what he likes. The item he chose will be his destiny in future. Do you know this game? I've heard about it but don't quite sure what it's called. And so baby Micah chose the car keys at first. Then he got scared. He made another selection - a book. What does it mean? He'll be an F1 driver? Or a boss? Or a teacher?

Since he doesn't know much about Chinese history, let alone the background of renown philosopher, this movie didn't bring any wow effect to him. It was interesting at the beginning. Towards the end, Confucius chose to isolate himself and live within his philosophy stand. Boring ending. Maybe that's because he was educated in non-Chinese education system, therefore not able to appreciate the life and essence of a Chinese philosopher. And so this story is familiar for non-Chinese educated people like him. B et not, this is n ot the exact same story as the original bedtime story. It's a continuation of Alice's adventures after she grew up. Though the adventure is ok, and a bi t gloomy too, it does provide hope. His Chinese-educated wife did not like it. Probably due to different educational background? That's why two different education system products perceive thing diffe rently.

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." John Adams, 2nd President of the United States. Literally speaking, you need to work and plan smart so that your children will have a better choice, a better life.

Will anyone do the same slide for Malaysia's Navigators?

And so we have completed Mt Bromo tour. From Cemoro Lawang, we came down to Probolinggo. The van would then dropped some people and picked up some. At the end of the day, there were 6 from Malaysia, 6 from France and 1 from Argentina, headed to Kawah Ijen. The journey to Kawah Ijen took one full day, considering we departed late. We met 2 Malaysian backpacker dudes and 2 ladies. Guess what, the dudes also had the same travel itinerary like us but in reverse. They started their trip from Yogjakarta and left from Surabaya. To get a different perspective view of Java, access the two dudes' blogs below. Xiaowei's blog Teh's blog to be continued...

(This will be the last post for Beijing's Olympic stadiums series.) On my last day there (which was in January 2010), I found out one needs to pay 50 yuan (RM25) in order to go inside the National Stadium. That's pretty on the high side considering you just only get the view without doing anything. Fortunately, during winter time, the inner stadium will be converted into ice skating area. The fees package for ice skating started as low as 80 yuan (if I remember it correctly). That excluded skating equipments. And that's another steep price to pay for. From bird's eye view, there's a canal within the Olympic Green which is reminiscent of a dragon. It looks more like a seahorse instead. Probably another feng shui related design.

IMHO, these are some questions that you need to ponder if you are growing your wealth... (1) What do you want to accomplish with your life and your wealth? It could be one of these... - maximize your financial security in retirement . - channel your assets into additional wealth-building pursuits . - spend your money. - create a special place to bring family together (eg: a holiday island, villa etc). - become a collector (eg: art). - donate money and/or time to worthy cause . - give money and companionship to people you care about. (2) For how long do you want your values to shape your family's future? (3) When it comes to investing, would you rather "eat well" or "sleep well"? (This is regarding your investment risk appetite) (4) How should your family communicate about its wealth? (5) Do you plan to build family leadership to grow your wealth over multiple generations? Personally, he does envision to have a special place for family get together. Of cours...

Baby Micah celebrated this CNY by showing off his new skills - crawling, climbing and standing. And my previous Christmas wish was to have my two front teeth, which I've already got it. Yippie!