anakbrunei

Looks like we'll be having a really wet new year countdown tonight... To all of you who are going out tonight, drive safe, keep dry, and play nice. See you all next year!

anakbrunei.org wishes all readers Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha and may Allah continue to bless us with happiness, peace, and good health. Amin.

Went to Tasek Lama again this morning determined to get a better shot of the waterfall. Quite a challenge trying to photograph the mighty torrent as opposed to yesterday's little trickle. There was the usual Qigong crowd in front of the waterfall, and I ended up shooting more people than waterfall heheh... For those who haven't been to tasek lama, I would highly recommend it, and if you go on the weekends, you can join in the free Qigong lessons. The Qigong master is really ROCK! He shares and shares his knowledge on how to practice Qigong for lifelong health so we don't end up "lembik" in our later years. Makes sense, but easier said than done. We get so tied up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we forget to take care of our bodies...

My maiden attempt at shooting flowing water. This could easily turn into an obsession... Wasai Labi is calling... Incidentally, I finally took possession of my Canon 50mm 1.8 II today after a month and a half waiting. It seems there is trouble brewing in the ranks of digitalworld and I almost didn't get my lens as the price had suddenly shot up to almost three times what was quoted in the website! Anyway, after a brief argument, the boss(?) reluctantly honoured the price stated on the website but not without grumbling that it was below cost (yeah... I believe you) and then stating that at this price the lens was WITHOUT warranty. I think this is absolute bollocks , and have a good mind to mention this lousy trading practice to RTB consumer affairs(?) I think if the tables were turned, the gentleman I was dealing with would be jumping up and down throwing a big fuss cos he looks the type. Personally, I don't think its very nice to be dissing the person who made the mistake on

Fellow photoblogger Bruneian has kindly offered this one time exclusive offer for buyers of the anakbrunei.org charity calendar . For every 50th buyer of the calendar, he will give away one of his professionally pressed EXCLUSIVE 4R prints of the buyer's choice! I have seen these prints and they are really exquisite. Thats not all! If I meet my target of 1,000 calendars , he will give the lucky 1,000th buyer a professionally pressed EXCLUSIVE 8R print of the buyer's choice! There's one heck of an incentive for you! So what are you waiting for? Click here to order!

Just a random thought for the day: Winston Churchill said, "Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all other qualities." Everything else emanates from your willingness to face adversity head-on. Someone once defined courage as "fear that has said its prayers." Ernest Hemmingway defined courage as "grace under pressure." Tough timers always see a way out of difficulty. Creativity is fundamental to resilience and persistence. To become more creative you must learn how to think out of the box. Approach the problem differently. Trust your creativity. Encourage your creativity. Tough timers persist until they win. They know nothing great was ever accomplished by a quitter. They know, at a gut-level, there is a time limit on tough times. Every downturn in our economy was followed by a period of expansion. Every missed sale is followed by a sale that you make at some point. Knowing that misery will not last fuels tough

May the Light of Happiness adorn your Days May the Light of Abundance accompany your Ways May the Light of Love inspire your Heart May the Light of the New Year ignite a Brilliant Start

What an exhilarating night! I haven't been to a gambus party for such a long time. It was great listening to the wonderful toe-tapping rhythms and beats of the boys from Kumpulan Gambus Kunci Batu . They are so ROCK! Thank you Don Diego for inviting me over to cover the event AND to the Montoyas for supporting the anakbrunei.org charity calendar project by buying nearly FIFTY calendars in total! Terima kasih banyak2 to Bizzie Lizzie as well for featuring the calendar project in today's BB . It has been so great to receive heart-warming offers of help on this project. Suddenly my target of 1000 pieces doesn't seem so impossible after all... I just hope my trusty Canon printer holds up :)

I've always been fascinated by the sketching effects possible in Adobe Photoshop and other programs like Corel Painter. Its a lot of work but seeing the results from the pros makes me want to master it. Above is my first attempt. Long way to go... Incidentally, Taiwan has decided to re-open its representative office in Brunei March 1, 2007 after it closed the facility last March 17 to save on diplomatic resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday. Interesting that they want to re-open since there has been no change to our One China policy . Given this, a Brunei office would still be a "useless facility". I'll leave the political rhetoric to other more qualified bloggers. I have nothing against Taiwan but I wonder what their objectives are this time around? I am sure our MOFATeers will be querying this exhaustively.

Just finished printing and packing the current batch of orders for the calendar. I will be sending them to BIT Computer in Kiulap tomorrow morning. So for those of you who've ordered, pls pick your orders up from there tomorrow afternoon onwards! Lizzie , have yet to receive your email addy so if you're reading this, email me ah? :D

A Poem by A Father SMARTER Brunei President's Poem during the 3rd National Conference on Autism When I held him 6 years ago, Little did I know, How much our lives would change and grow As he did so Our lives were full of nagging worries Full of little catastrophes But then somehow, Instead of caving, We pulled together, Strived to save him, Little did we know that he, Did all the saving – for him and me Though he can't speak, He makes meanings clearer, For patience, indeed he is the best teacher, He taught us what it meant to be A truly happy family Working together, Supporting each other, Bit by bit, Things got better, Sure there are ups and there are downs, There are days when we just frown, But we dug real deep and then we found, That communication without words is all around, It's in his laugh, his walk, his face, He taught it all with autistic grace, To help each other, we learnt to see, The way things were in his little feet. He showed us what it meant to cry But …

Thought I'd share this email I received from Dads and Daughters . We learn in the childhood nursery rhyme that little girls are made of “Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice.” How does a “sweet and nice” little girl become a police officer, a stock broker, or an astrophysicist? The prism through which we view the world is placed over our eyes from our youngest days, and it creates gender bias and unrealistic expectations for both girls and boys. Perhaps the so-called “fairer gender” would simply prefer a world that is fair, fair to them as people. The currency of the modern workplace is knowledge. This is not gender-specific. Both men and women are needed in the knowledge workforce. Yet women are still under-represented in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. Have our earliest perceptions about girls and women caused this? Do the stories we read and watch in earliest childhood condition us to steer girls away from certain types of educational pursuits and career objectives

My talented friend AmyHeidi's thoughts on language, culture, and tradition struck a chord with me. Being a product of mixed parentage, I could relate to her comments on how she never learnt the dusun dialect from her grandmother. Its so sad isnt it when a tradition or language just fades away over time because its not passed down between generations... I'm equally guilty of this. I am fortunate enough to be fluent in some dialects of chinese, partly due to my propensity for absorbing languages rather quickly, but largely due to the fact that my maternal grandma lived with us throughout my childhood and she only spoke chinese. Much as I would love to pass down my chinese heritage to my children, it feels like an uphill battle and the way I'm going, I doubt I will succeed. It saddens me to think that my chinese heritage will end with me...

Dear Friends, This week US President George Bush became almost the last man on earth to support a failed Middle East strategy. The conservative-leaning “Iraq Study Group” - including top figures from Bush's own Republican Party - has just released its long awaited recommendations and condemned virtually every aspect of America’s current approach to the Middle East. The report is not perfect, but it echoes almost every call to action the Ceasefire Campaign has made since we began in August: it calls for Bush and other leaders to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to talk to Iran, and switch to a diplomatic strategy for stabilizing Iraq that includes the withdrawal of US troops. The global pressure on Bush to change course is now intense, but he is still holding out. Click below to add your voice to the chorus calling for Bush to adopt the report's key recommendations for change: www.CeasefireCampaign.org Our last petition on Iraq, signed by almost 80,000 Ceasefire Ca

I've started printing the calendars and some people have already taken delivery of their copies. Thank you very much for your support and honoring your pledges! For those who have ordered, I will make sure that your orders will be ready for collection at BIT Computer in Kiulap by next week. Stay tuned for more updates on the right column. For those who haven't ordered, please click here to do the right thing. If the order form doesn't work, don't worry, you can always email me by clicking here with your name, hp no, email address, and how many you would like.

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I just love this summary done by Bahapakitani on my calendar project. Kalau exam membuat summary ah, dapat kelulusan cemerlang dah ni heheh: Exclusively done by: AnakBrunei Price: $5 each Support Charity: Half of the profits from each sale will be donated to SMARTER (Society for The Management of Autism Related Issues in Training Education & Resources) About the Calendar: Original Photographic works done by AnakBrunei Printed on photographic quality paper Comes in A4 Size only Can personalize with a line of text of your choosing (e.g. names, special messages etc) Available for those in Brunei & outside Brunei For more information: visit anakbrunei.blogspot.com or email anakberunai@gmail.com