Chicken Pox

Hai...had chicken pox the past few days. The fever i had in the beginning was really high and terrible. Times such as this help me to appreciate the blessing of good health that God has given to us. Thankfully, the pox has dried. Took this medicine that i had to take five times a day--acyclovir. Will go back to work coming Monday, after almost two weeks of sick leave...how boring...just stay at home email, surft net, watch tv, etc.

street magicians

Watching over AXN channel, a street magic show by Cyril. Hmmmm....sometimes i think i would like to be one too....perhaps may be more interesting than just giving a lecture in class......hhahahhaha...but i am sure street magic is real, hard work...

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of 'ALLAH' and "Tuhan"

There has been a lot of issues, debates, arguments, demonstrations, etc. on this issue. As an academic, let me give my two cents worth from my perspective:

(i) linguistically, a word is a word. Its referent may be known by many symbols--Allah, tuhan, God, etc. etc.
(ii) however, we have to look at the pragmatics of this situation. If Muslims want to use Allah exclusively for their religion, what is wrong with that? Why should catholics use "allah" when they could use "tuhan". Why should the Christian God be known as "Allah" ?

Frankly, let the muslims use "Allah" and let the christians use "Tuhan".

But i think the real issue is also the banning of bibles from indonesia, because they use the word Allah.

Ahhh...so there lies the real problem isn't it...the govt should take pro-active steps to allow publications of bibles, etc. in the Malay language (which is the lingua franca of many of our Sabahans and Sarawakians) and allow the church to publish these materials locally.

It is no problem for the church to use the word "Tuhan" to replace "Allah". In my opinion, it is easy for the catholic church to change the word through its mass media--the mass, catechism, prayer groups, etc.

But the church has to be given the freedom to publish its own reading materials locally.

disappointing trip

tomorrow going back to KL, after four days in vietnam. Rather disappointing trip for me. Ho ChiMinh city is crowded,dirty and noisy. nothing much to see here. Went for mekong river cruise and it was disappointing as well. Nothing new to see there. Took about two hours plus to go there from the city, and two hours back, duh...and saw nothing.

Food wise, another disappointment. The only good things here are the beef noodles and the vietnamese spring rolls (the ones with pork fillings inside). Don't take the ones where you roll by yourselves (the ones served with pork or shrimp and various kinds of veggies/herbs). It was horrible...
So, take the ones that are deep fried. NOw, those are lovely. Will be back to be home tomorrow....as the proverb goes, "east or west, home is best"

IN HO chinh Minh city, vietnam right now. arrived yesterday afternoon. wow, the city has lots and lots and lots of motorbikes. like no man's land. crossing the roads is such a terrifying experience. have to be careful. hope don't get killed here....had vietnamese beef noodles. good. the hotel is good, with good service. friendly staff.

Penang food not so good any more

People used to praise Penang food but i think it has been overated nowadays. Was in penang for four days and ate penang food in four different places. First night was in Feringghi food court. Ordered cantonese fried and hokkien fried noodles. Below average. Next night was in Northam Beach cafe. Had this french crepe (above average), tom yam yong tau fu (average), lam mee (horrible). then was in Tg. Tokong food court. Ordered curry mee (okay). Next day was in New World--curry mee (not as good ad the one in tg tokong, soup noodle (horrible) and tom yam fried rice (average). Conclusion: either we went to the wrong places or the good penang hawker owners have migrated to KL as I can get better food there...:-))