29 October 2009

Blog For FT: Keats The Sunshine Girl

My dear friend Keats The Sunshine Girl
has decided to join Blog For FT, a competition for Malaysian Bloggers organized by the Ministry of Federal Territories.
The aim of the contest is to encourage everyone to get creative and start blogging about the positive aspects of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya or Labuan.
I have been following Keats' blog for some time now and I have really enjoyed reading a lot of her detailed posts on Malaysia. So, I'm giving her a little shout out here on my blog.

Below you can see some of Keats' wonderful photos linked to their original posts on her blog. She permitted me to display them, so that you can see and read for yourself about the beautiful aspects in her country. She has even more photos on each post. Just click any photo or link below to see and/or read more.

Spread Your Wings - reaching out - KL Bird Park

Nine Emperor Gods Festival

Hands That See and Feel

Let's Play! - Jom Main!

I was at The SCHOOL of HARD KNOCKS!


Thanks to all of you who take the time to visit Keats' blog.
If you liked her posts, please don't forget to give her a vote.

Good Luck, Keats!

You're In My Heart | I've Been Tagged

I'm so thankful and delighted that
my dear friend Amanda at MooreBlogLife
has sort of tagged me with the following:


This is so cute and wonderful, don't you think!
Go ahead and tag away, my dear friends.
I present it to all of you close in my heart.

28 October 2009

My First Random Dozen (#9) | Simple Notes

Random Dozen
Thanks for hosting, Linda

1. Tell me something about your favorite teacher.
I consider every person who has taught me something valuable in life as a teacher. But there is this particular person who often comes to mind. She was one of my junior high school teachers labeled as "Killer Lady". It turned out that she was one of the most caring and competent teachers I ever met. It's so sad that she died in a tragic traffic accident a couple years later, after I graduated. It was a great loss for all of us, and many former students came to her funeral.

2. Tell me about one pivotal moment in your life.
Becoming a mother has changed my life forever. Now I can even more understand and appreciate all the sacrifice, love and tenderness I received from my beloved mother. She is a remarkable woman, and I can't be thankful enough for all that she has done for me.

3. About favorite colors--a lot of people will ask you what it is, but I want to know why it is. What feeling or memory does it evoke?
I think all colors have their own uniqueness. But if I had to choose it would be green and blue, because they remind me of mother nature. It evokes a calm and relaxing feeling in my mind. So tranquil and peaceful.

4. What's a sure sign that you're getting older?
My back reminds me constantly that I am getting older. I also wish that my breath wouldn't be so short, like these days.

5. Please don't sermonize, but Halloween--is it a yes or no for you?
No, simply because it's not a custom here in Indonesia to celebrate Halloween.

6. What's your favorite musical?
I never have seen a live musical performance, but Mary Poppins is one of my favorite musical movies.

7. Are you more of a city mouse or country mouse?
I'm a country mouse living at the border of a big city. I definitely prefer the relaxing atmosphere of the country, instead of the hectic city. But I do like some modern privileges in the city.

8. Did you know that it is possible, for a small fee, to name a real star after someone? (It's true! Google it!) If someone were to name a star for you, would you appreciate it for its whimsy and romance, or would you say, "Are you kidding me? For $19.95 we could have gone to the movie and actually bought popcorn."
Yes, I knew that. Of course I would appreciate any nice gesture. Especially, if it came from my spouse. But if you asked me, I might have used the money to buy something different. Something more for practical use. I think he would, too. I guess, we are not that romantic. LOL

9. What's the craziest thing you've ever been doing and texted during it? I only thought of this b/c I was about to try to text during my walking video but I didn't. (This question came from Paula at His Ways Are Not Our Ways)
I don't text a lot. So... hmmm... using the bathroom would be my wildest answer.

10. "It's not a party unless _______."
I'm not a party person. But if I actually was attending one, I would say "unless my family and/or friends were there".

11. When you're stuck in traffic or a waiting room, what do you do to pass the time? PS: There are no magazines available.
No magazines? Well, I hope they have a good signal for going online with my mobile.

12. If you weren't yourself, would you be friends with you?
Depends on what kind of person I would be, if I'm not myself. If this person doesn't appreciate prejudice and hatred and follows the heart, I think there is a big possibility that we would be friends.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

A Thousand Words In Idioms: Final Edition

My dear friend Jientje at Heaven Is In Belgium came up with a wonderful meme called A Thousand Words In Idioms, and I really enjoyed this meme because it taught me a lot of new idioms in very creative photo shots. Sadly, last week was the final edition of Jientje's meme. I actually had promised myself that I would try my best to participate, but unfortunately not everything works out as planned. Well, better too late than never... My last theme is the letter S which also stands for a special place in my heart.

Thanks to Jientje for coming up with this idea & being a wonderful host, and to all creative participants for making this meme so much fun.

So here we go...
S is for "Think the sun rises and sets on someone"

© 2009 by Rosidah AbidinMeaning: To think someone is the most important person in the world

S is for "Swan Song"

Black Swan © 2009 by M.Faisal K.
Meaning: A final gesture or performance.
I have posted this idiom before, but I thought it fits this final edition.


Click the button to see more idiom images
Thanks
for coming up with this wonderful idea, Jientje

19 October 2009

Short Notice: On Vacation & A School Paper

On Vacation © 2009 by Rosidah AbidinView on the way home from Safari Garden

Dear friends,

tomorrow I will be off on a one week vacation to Singapore. I still don't know, if I will be able to blog or visit. So, I wanted to wish you all a wonderful week in advance! Hopefully I'll be back soon to catch up on your blogs.

I also would like to ask help for my 8 year old daughter. This evening she just got a school paper assignment about the parts of plants (root, stem, leaf and flower) and their functions. It would be great, if you know some reference links on this topic and could send them to her via my Blogger profile email or this post comment section. We'll arrive here on Saturday night, and she has to work on her paper on Sunday to get it ready for Monday. It would be a great help, if she already had some relevant links to check out. It's just a thought.

Thank you so much, I miss you already!

16 October 2009

Between Birth and Death, Life Your Life to The Fullest

Today is my first time to join Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living To Tell The Story. I read on her blog that she is not feeling well today, so I'm wishing her a speedy recovery. If you click on the button above you will get to more Friday's Fave Five. Susanne says that:
It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.
I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings. So here is my Friday’s Fave Five for this week:
1. On Sunday, we went to Bandung to visit my cousin who just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Grace Sara. I think children are such true blessings to lighten up your life.
Ten fingers, Ten toes
She's laughter and teardrops
So small and brand new
And amazingly angelic
She's sent to bless you

She's one special Baby
The best of life's treasure
And will grant and bless you
Many hours of great pleasure.

Author Unknown
(Source: All Great Quotes)

2. On Monday, I finished a tag from my dear friend Amanda at MooreBlogLife called Only One Word on Facebook. As the name might tell, the goal was to answer the given questions with only one word. I really love this tag and intended to put it on my blog, but somehow I didn't get to it until now. Below are some of my answers which I find as happiness and blessings.
# Your significant other? Soulmate
# Your Mother? Sanctuary
# Your Father? Shelter
# Favorite Thing? Leisure
# Favorite Drink? Tea
# Your Dream/goal? Fulfillment
# Your Hobby? Photography
# Favorite muffin? Blackberry
# Friends? Timeless
# Your Life? Blessed
# Smoking? Never
# Favorite place to eat? Home
# Favorite place to be right now? Nature

3. On Tuesday, one of my daughter's school friends celebrated her 9th Birthday and the children had a lot of fun. It is custom here in Indonesia to prepare some yellow rice for your guests. You can see this yellow rice spread with fried shallot, plus clockwise from the upper left surrounded by kerupuk, pastel, sweet & spicy fried potatoes and omelet. Yummy!

Yellow Rice © 2009 by Rosidah Abidin
4. Sometimes I like to get inspired by searching for quotes. These are the quotes I found this week:

Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it. ~Eknath Easwaran

Never let go of hope. One day you will see that it all has finally come together...You will look back and laugh at what has passed and you will ask yourself...'How did I get through all of that?'” ~Unknown Author
5. There have been a lot of earthquakes here in Indonesia lately. The Tasikmalaya earthquake, the Sumatera earthquake, and just yesterday another shallow earthquake with a 6.4 magnitude struck off at 16:52 Jakarta time (09.52 GMT). The epicenter was 42 km northwest of Ujung Kulon, Banten, West Java, and 10 km under the sea bed. I'm so glad that no victims have been reported for the Ujung Kulon earthquake until now, unlike the high death tolls at the previous incidents. I hope and pray it stays this way. My ultimate gratitude this week is being blessed by the life of me and my beloved ones. Hopefully, we can live our life to the fullest, while given the chance of more time.

Take good care and have a wonderful week, everyone!

14 October 2009

A Thousand Words In Idioms & Watery Wednesday

My dear friend Jientje at Heaven Is In Belgium came up with a wonderful meme called A Thousand Words In Idioms, and I really enjoy this meme because it taught me a lot of new idioms in very creative photo shots. Last week she said that there might be a chance that "There are only two Wednesday Idioms left after this". So I have promised myself that I will try my best to participate in these editions.

Water is one of my greatest passion, so I have chosen it as my theme this week and thought that I will submit it to Watery Wednesday as well. It is another great meme hosted by the wonderful T. Bruce, which I really love to join. I find that seeing images of water is very relaxing and soothes the soul. I have been digging my blog's photo archive again to find suitable water shots for the idioms. If you click the photos below they will lead you to their original post.

Here we go
...
S is for "Make a splash"

Meaning: To get a lot of public attention


W is for
"Water under the bridge"

Meaning: Something that has happened and cannot be changed


Watery Wednesday
Click button to see more watery images or submit your link
Thank you for hosting this great blog carnival, T. Bruce.

Click the button to see more idiom images
Thank you
for hosting this great meme, Jientje

13 October 2009

Open Source Blog Post Award

I'm so thankful and delighted that my dear friend
Thom at Thom's Place 4 Well Whatever
thought of me for this unique award.

opensourceblogpostfromMaricehttp-mizhelle-blogspot-com

What makes this award so unique is that
it has a different way of passing it on:

Before you put the links below when you pass this award, you must remove the participant number 1 from the list. So that all participants up 1 level. Who was number 2 becomes number 1, number 3 was 2, and so on. Then insert your own link at the bottom (10).

Okay, here we go...
This was the previous list:

1. WoeL
2. Lyla
3. Mr. D
4. Sweet_shelo
5. Chris
6. Kaye
7. Yami
8. Mizhelle
9. Hootn’ Anni
10. Thom

I removed WoeL and placed myself as number 10.
So the new list to be used and copied to those I pass it on to becomes:

1. Lyla
2. Mr. D
3. Sweet_shelo
4. Chris
5. Kaye
6. Yami
7. Mizhelle
8. Hootin’ Anni
9. Thom
10. Rosidah

I encourage everyone who wants to join into this fun
to grab this award and pass it on!

Fly Like An Eagle | Seal


Thanks for the upload
SealAngel (David J. Cale)


This is a late post, because I'm currently on a very slow connection (again). I have found a wonderful video of Fly Like An Eagle covered by Seal for the movie Space Jam, showing some images of beautiful eagles. I think the additional words by SealAngel (David J. Cale) to this video are very inspiring as well.

Eagles are a symbol of beauty, bravery, courage, honour, pride, determination and grace. Sometimes in life, you have to fight, you have to rise above it, you have to fly. Will you keep your wings grounded or will you fly like an eagle? It's up to you?

SealAngel (David J. Cale)



~ by Jori and Diane ~
Thanks for hosting this meme!

LadyJava's Lounge

Thanks for hosting this meme, LJ

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.




PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

08 October 2009

Simple Ways To Help Going Green On Vacation

Violet Flower at Safari Garden

Right now, we are preparing for a family holiday at the end of this month. That's why I thought of sharing a link related to going green on vacation for this week's Nature Notes and Think Green Thursday.

While googling around the Web, my attention were caught up by the Green Vacation Tips on Simple Ways To Help by Djuna Woods. Although it seems that she has stopped blogging in August 2008, I really think that her green blog is worth a visit. She has a beautiful water drops header with a lot of green links on the sidebar. This is what she says about her blog:
Simple Ways to Help the World,
From your Car, Condo or Cubicle

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Theodore Roosevelt

[...] By making small modifications in our lives we can collectively make a big difference in the world.

We can all help the world in simple ways right here and right now from exactly where we are and with exactly what we have. Let’s get started.

Click button to find more Nature Notes
Thank you for hosting this great meme, Michelle!

Click button to see more Think Green Thursday links.
Thank you for sponsoring this great meme, Michelle!
Thank you for coming up with this great idea, Gina!


MY APPRECIATION TO THE TODAY'S FLOWERS TEAM

Click button to view more flowers or submit your link

07 October 2009

Flower Idioms

Flowers are one of my greatest passion, I thought that I would share these flower idioms for this week.

Here we go...
L is for "Gild the lily"

Flower Idioms | Gild the lily © 2009-now by Rosidah Abidin
Meaning: If you gild the lily, you decorate something that is already ornate.

O is for "Bouquet of orchids"

Flower Idioms | Bouquet of orchids © 2009-now by Rosidah Abidin
Meaning: If someone deserves a bouquet of orchids, they have done something worthy of praise.

R is for "Come up roses"

Flower Idioms | Come up roses © 2009-now by Rosidah Abidin
Meaning: If things come up roses, they produce a positive result, especially when things seemed to be going badly at first.

Thanks for hosting, Jientje

I hope all of you enjoyed the Flower Idioms

05 October 2009

Jordin Sparks Faith Lyrics



Thanks for the upload itsYiin

It's hard to see all the sadness of the Sumatera earthquake on the news these days. So I have been searching the Web for an uplifting song to help soothe the soul and found Jordin Sparks Faith lyrics. She is one of my favorite singers and I find these lyrics here encouraging, like in her song One Step at A Time.


~Musical Monday is brought to you by Jori and Diane ~
Thanks to both of you for hosting!

LadyJava's Lounge

Thanks for hosting, LJ

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.




PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

01 October 2009

Sumatera Earthquake

After the shocking Tasikmalaya earthquake at the beginning of September, another devastating earthquake struck Indonesia at the end of this month. The tragic event occurred on September 30th at 17.15 and its epicenter was located 45 km WNW of Padang, Sumatera, and 220 km SW of Pekanbaru, Sumatera. Sumatera is one of the five main islands here in Indonesia.

According to the news this morning, until now there are around 529 death and the number keeps on raising (12th Sept update: 807 death). I'm afraid that we might end up with a much higher sum than at the previous event in Tasikmalaya, Java, Indonesia.

My family feels very grateful that my uncle who is currently located in Southern Sumatera has survived this terrible incident. But many, many others weren't that lucky.

It's really heartbreaking to see the news about Sumatera Earthquake right now. There are a lot of people still trapped in the ruins, including educational buildings. Many parents are still seeking for their children in the hope to find them alive...

Would you please be so kind to send your good thoughts and prayers for all of them. My deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathy goes out to all the victims of the Sumatera Earthquake natural disaster. May the survivors be found and rescued very soon, and have the strength and patience to carry on.

Condolence Card | Sumatera Earthquake