Lewis Chew Babtism

This is a long delayed post. Lewis Chew was baptised in a Catholic Church (hope to get the name of the church later. Here are some photos of his baptism:

Exact moment of baptism with parents in the background

Lewis Chew being baptised by Catholic Priest

Lewis with my family plus his father after the baptism

Lewis with me, my children and his father after baptism

And here is Lewis with his paternal grandparents plus parents

Lewis with his parents and paternal grandparents

And the last photo:

Spotlight on Lewis with father in background

Spotlight on Lewis Chew

Nice Dinner after Lewis baptism

Lewis's parent treated us to to great dinner after his baptism at a hard to find restaurant well hidden in some, I think, rubber plantation. They had originally planned to go earlier so that we can see the beautiful Kuala Lumpur skyline during daylight, but unfortunately my other son-in-law was detained at work and we had to wait for him.

In any case, the wait was well worth it, for it was a very unusual restaurant they took us to. It was beside a large fish pond and many tanks containing impressive fishes. I took some photos, but they didn't turn out well, probably because of reflection of the flashlight. The food was delicious and according to my daughter, price is reasonable.

After dinner, they took us to a look-out point when we saw the beautiful night skyline of Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately again, the photos I took did not turn out well and I have nothing to show. Perhaps some other time.

Lewis Chew, the youngest blogger in the world

Hi Lewis. Congratulations. You have just confirmed you are the youngest blogger in the world. Honest. Cross my heart and promise to..... See Lewis Chew confirmed he is the youngest blogger in the world. I am wondering if I should try to get you into the Guinness Book of World Records. Ask your mom, dad, granddad and grandma (paternal side), uncles and aunties if I should try.

By the way, I added advertisements in Lewis Chew's blog. Hoping that may help finance your education. And don't forget to tell your uncles, aunties, whoever, not to click on the ads unless they are genuinely interested in what the ad have to offer. This in not impossible as Google has came up with a very clever system of spidering the content of a web page and serving ads that are relevant to the content of that page. In fact, I have to remember not to click on the ads in my own blog even when I see something that interest me as that may land me in trouble with Google AdSense. And once they suspend an account, it is very hard to get reinstated. And since the subject matter I blog about is what I am interested in, it is not surprising that ads in my blogs would be ads I would be interested in.

I also am going to add a URL channel to track if your blog is generating any income. I may have to keep a daily record record which is going to be a lot of work. I got to check if I can get the record on a monthly basis.

Another thing, Lewis. If any of your uncles, aunties, etc., like to join you in trying go generate some income to help with whatever, ask them to get a website and when they have some reasonable content in their website (one got approved with just one post in a blog, but having more I think will be wiser), ask them to apply for an AdSense account via the "Generate revenue from your website. Google AdSense" at the top of the right sidebar. Note that I didn't say "click", but "via" because if I ask them to click, I may also get into problem. But I have checked with AdSense Support and they say it is OK to draw attention to the referral links as long as you do not ask people to click on it. You see, I didn't. I said "via", not "click", so I am OK. Previously AdSense used to be very strict and you cannot draw attention to the referral links. After much persuasion by us content publishers, they have relaxed that. Referral links are different from ads, and no one lose or benefit just by clicking on them. They have to act after clicking on them for anything to happen.

Tell them that Google AdSense plus blogging helped your grandpa finance your two uncles (your pa and ma also helped too) and then maybe their interest will pick up.

And if your uncles, aunties, cousins if you have any, etc, wants to set up a website, the easiest way is to set up a blog. They don't even need to know boring stuff (but highly interesting to me) like HTML, FTP (File Transfer Protocol, etc. If they know how to do email, they should know how to start a blog. Nathaniel Tan, a blogger who got detained under the draconian ISA (Internal Security Act) for a few days said you can set up a blog in 10 minutes. I responded that you actually can do that in less, and it is true. I am not bluffing. If they have any problem, this blog Dummies Guide to Google Blogger which is supposed to be an "online book" (in progress) should help them get started pretty quickly. Ask them to use the CONTENT at the top of the main column. It is not finished though, as your grandpa just have too many things to do to concentrate on that so-called "online book". Maybe you can help me finish it when you grow up.

And if they start getting a bit more ambitious, refer them to Blogger Tips and Tricks or href="http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Blogger for Dummies. Lots of bloggers got help from me, and in fact, your grandpa got honored as a Blog*Star by Google Blogger.

Blowing my trumpet a bit here, but perhaps your grandpa does deserve the honor. Just look at the comments left by grateful bloggers. Maybe when you grow up, you too will become a href="http://buzz.blogger.com/2006/11/blogstars.html" target="_blank">Blog*Star yourself.

And hopefully when you are old enough, you can apply for your own AdSense account via that referral link, and if your grandpa is still around, he will try his best to help you generate some revenue, for he has a vested interest. Currently, if you do that, and you managed to earn USD 5 within 180 days, I too will get USD 5. And if you succeed in getting USD 100, I will get USD 250!!!! So you see, if you do that, I am going to work very hard to help you earn that USD 100 within 180 days. Also, I can click on the ads that are genuinely of interest to me (I got to make sure I am not trying to cheat the system though, as I don't want to get your account suspended). I can do that as those will not be my ads then. Of course I have to be careful that I am sincerely interested in the ads before I click on them as I would not want you to get into trouble with Google AdSense.

We Malaysian Chinese are less fortunate than the bumiputras who have better chances of getting scholarship to further their studies. Your parent probably have to start planning how to finance your education from the time of your conception. Education is expensive, and by the time you are ready for tertiary education, I don't know how expensive it is going to be, especially if you have to go to other countries to get quality tertiary education. Maybe you can help them by getting Google to help you.

Wondering if I should put advertisement in this blog. Will ask your Pa and Ma for permission before I do that.

Importance of good human relationship, And what it has to do with your late grandma

Hi Lewis,

Your uncle started work last Monday, 16 July 2007. Each time he came back to work, your grandpa will ask him about his work. Yesterday too, we talked a bit. The conversation ended up with me talking about good human relationship. If you are good in human relationship, get along very well with people, very likely you can go far in life. Some consider human relationship skills as important, if not more important a good education. I think both are important. A person with a good education will find it easy to get a job. However, if he is not good at getting along with people, he may not go very far. He will of course get a good start compared with one with a poor education. But someone with a poor education but has very good human relation skills, can get along with people very well, can have a very good chance of overtaking his more educated fellow human, especially if he is hard working and knows how to make the best of opportunities that may come his way.

What has it got to do with your late grandma? Well, she has a natural talent at making friends. She can start conversing with someone new and within minutes be talking like they have know each other a long time. I have been hoping your mom, your aunts and uncles will take after her. Perhaps they have. But in any case, good human relation skills can be learned, if one want to.

This old man hope that you, Lewis, will both get a good education as well as be able to get along with people easily.

Mother tongue. Why Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew says it is important

Hi Lewis,

Just read this news report about what Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore advised his fellow citizens. Mr. Lee is the former Prime Minister of Singapore who led Singapore from a resource poor country with only its human capital to become one of the richest country around this region. Mr. Lee is a very intelligent man. When Singapore got separated from Malaysia, they were about the same level as Malaysia, but Malaysia had the advantage of having very rich natural resources like petroleum, plenty of land, tin deposits, even a little bit of gold deposits, wide expenses of rubber estates and now oil palm estates. Singapore had none of these. But because of good leadership and hard working citizens and a pretty much corruption free government and private sector, they are way ahead of Malaysia now. The previous national airline split into two. Malaysia's part became Malaysia Airline System (MAS) and Singapore's part became Singapore Airlines (SIA). The former CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of SIA (now retired), Dr. Cheong Choong Kong (better known as Dr. C.K. Cheong), actually is/was a Malaysian, in fact was my former Statistics lecturer in my university, University of Malaya. He very likely have taken up Singapore citizenship, I don't know. He led SIA to become one of the top airlines in the world while MAS had to depend on the Malaysian government for survival.

Back to the subject of this post. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew advised the citizens of Singapore to make an effort to keep their mother tongue. So Chinese can speak Engiish and Chinese. Indians and speak English and one of the Indian languages. Malay can speak English and Malay. In this way, Singapore will have a huge advantage in this globalised world, and Chinese can interact easily with China (now a fast growing economy and world power), Taiwan and many parts of the world where there are Chinese migrants. Some have estimated 1 in 4 people in the world are ethnic Chinese. Malays can interact easily with Malaysia and Indonesia and the rest of the world, and Indians can interact with India, also a fast growing country, and with the rest of the world. (Whether things like fast growing economy is a good or bad thing, your grandpa have a double mind, but a country with a growing population need a growing economy so that its growing population can find and keep jobs, but it has other effects I would rather not talk about here. Maybe you will understand your grandpa when you grow up). With this multi-lingual population, Singapore will have a huge advantage over lots of countries.

Malaysia too can have this advantage if it so choose (in fact it do have it, but to a lesser degree than Singapore because of racial pride).

English is not the best language to be the international language as its way of spelling and pronouncing English words is atrocious. Have you ever heard someone trying to speak English according to the spelling (phonetically), like the Japanese? You will have a hard time understanding what they are trying to say. In fact, one of your aunt's name is spelled in a way that can be considered as a kind of "parody" of the English spelling. English only became the de facto international language by circumstances, not because it is best suited to become one. But not every country's citizen are master of the English language, and if you are able to converse with them in their tongue, you normally would be able to get along very much better.

Your grandpa sent your mom to a Chinese primary school for about the same reason as Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. She can now speak Chinese, English and Malay. China was a poor, backward communist country then, but is a sleeping giant waiting to wake up. It was not an easy decision because when you have to learn more than one language, you have to be hard working. There is a danger that if you do not work hard, you do not master any of them, and then you have a problem. You are neither here nor there, and may end up not not been able to keep up with the rest.

I do not know if your mum found that being multi-lingual is an advantage or not, but I think very likely it do give her an advantage over those who know only one language. I do not know what decision your parents will make for you, but whatever it is, I am sure you will grow up to become a hard working chap.

Mother tongue in books etc

Lee Kuan Yew in books
Lee Kuan Yew biography
Lee Kuan Yew memoirs
Lee Kuan Yew the man & his ideas

Lewis and this old man music slideshow

Hi Lewis,

Hope when you grow up a bit more, you will enjoy this music slideshow. Since the music accompanying this music slideshow is "This old man", thought I show show the mugshot of that old man, your grandpa. This one includes a Nuchal scan when you are still in your mom's womb, and according to the doctor, showed your recognizable face which is rare in Nuchal scan. So you are lucky to be able to see yourself with your face while still inside your mom's womb.

There is actually another music slideshow with another music - Old MacDonald with less photos and without me (old man) in the slideshow. Thought you may enjoy the music more.

Warm welcome, Lewis, my first grandson

Introducing my first grandson Lewis who first joined our family in this world in the morning of July 1, 2007 at the Pantai Hospital. Post of photos couldn't be added earlier because I had to finish many other tasks first, sorry.

Lewis still in hospital, day 1

Lewis at home now, with the paternal grandparents

Lewis on a mattress

Photo of Lewis taken between 7-8 July 2007

I didn't include Lewis's full name because there is some controversy over whether putting up blogs and photos like this on the web is a wise idea. Some says when the kid grows up, he/she may not like it because of privacy issues. When looking for spouse or employment in the future, prospective partner or employer do background checks on the web and posts and photos like this may turn up in the search and it may have a positive or negative effect, depending. His grandfather (paternal side) says if it turns out to be negative, he can then sue his granddad (me). Feedback welcomed in the comments.

BTW, any resemblance to Nuchal scan with a recognisable face?

Also, made 2 music slideshows at Old MacDonald and This Old Man which really contained a photo of this old man.

Poem in memory of your great-grandmother

Hi Grandchild. You will soon be joining us in this world. Don't know when you will be able to read this. I got this from one of your grandaunt, who said that she doesn't know how to express her feelings, but found this poem which helps. This is obviously a poem directed to the memory of your great-grandma, but she did not state her source. If she ever do, I will update this if the author gives her permission.

Update July 11, 2007: Actually got the information much earlier, but only editing this post now. Apparently my children already guess who the real author is. It is I who is blur and didn't know (actually I have some idea but without confirmation, don't want to put it down in writing). I didn't ask the author for permission, neither did she gave any indication of whether it is forthcomming. But I suppose saying that it is Lewis's third grandaunt without mentioning names should do no harm. The author of this poem says she wanted to write a poem to express her feelings but didn't know how to start. Then she saw a poem in the newspaper (I think) and the first few lines gave her the inspiration, and the rest just flowed easily.

Here is the poem:

We speak your name with love and pride,
We smile through tears we try to hide.
We thank you ,Mum, for the years we shared,
The love you gave, the way you cared.
You left a place no one can fill,
We miss you, Mum, and always will.

A year ago,
The long day closed,
The hill was too steep to climb.
You've journeyed hard'
You deserved to rest.
God opened the heavenly gates
And whispered softly,'Come inside'
And there you saw Pa
Whom you've often asked to take you home.
Welcome home he said
No more suffering, no more pain.
You were so glad to see
The father who told you so gently
when you left for another land,
'Siew Yin, it won't be too hot there
You'll find relief under the trees'.
And so you left with Pa
Bound for a land unknown
But you persevered and built a life anew.
You must have seen your Ma, the gran we never knew.
And what about the gran we knew?
She must have smiled and said,'What kept you?'
You must have seen your brothers,
One so kind you often said,
The other died so young it must have hurt.
Did you see the daughters who died before you did,
And whom you must have sorely missed?
One went so young you rarely talked of her,
The other we knew and loved.
We know not what you felt or knew
We can only guess how much it hurt.
Did you see your only daughter-in-law
Who so bravely fought and lost.
Did you finally get to see again
Those relatives and friends you have yearned to meet?
Have fun up there'
You deserve every bit of it.

Year of the pig

I subscribe to Berita Malaysia, a Yahoo group where you get news often not found in the normal newspaper. Today, while reading through the digest, I came across this and thought I would copy-paste an extract from a report from Imran Imtiaz Shah Yacob, a broadcast journalist and trained lawyer:

"The Feng Shui faithful will tell you that according to Chinese
astrology, people born in year of the pig are born lucky. Hence, many
Chinese chose to have their babies this year. It is perhaps also for
these children that their parents will fight for a better future. And
if luck has anything to do with it, they will live in a nation that is
at peace with its very diversity and secure from racial
discrimination."

My First Grandson Second Nuchal Scan with recognizable face

There were a number of second nuchal scans. Here is one of them that is more recognizable. It showed a face.

Scan with a recognizable face

Doctor said it is a boy. If you are interested in the rest of the scans, surf over to Enviroman's Album

Google Blog*Star Award

Hi Grandchild,

Your granddad just received a package from Google USA. It was a package of goodies consisting of a Blogger T-shirt, a Google water bottle, and 5 Google ballpoint pens. It was for my Blog*Star 2006 award. See a photo of me in the T-shirt in front of my trusty keyboard with the water bottle and the 5 pens in the foreground:

Click to enlarge

Looks like it arrived in time for the Chinese New Year which is just around the corner.

Note that I have shaved and got my hair cut. Fortunately you can't see my fingernails and toenails.

Here is where mention of the award was made: Blog*Star

Your grandpa have won other awards, but talking too much about them will make me look like I am boasting. Based on what I am currently doing, I am very satified that Google Blogger has chosen me to be a Blog*Star and that is enough for me.

Hope you are proud of your granddad

To my first grandchild, a message, a bit of history

My late mother didn't tell me much of her life and background when she was in China. But this little bit my brother-in-law told us. My mother's father (my maternal grandfather and my first grandchild great-great grandfather) was a "siew chooi" (in Hakka, my Chinese dialect, a great scholar, an "asset". If I am wrong, someone please correct me). In China, I was told they used to hold difficult government examinations, and a select few are chosen to be given the award "siew chooi". With that award, I was told they can fly a flag in front of their house. It was a very rare honor.

And your grandfather retired as an associate professor, won the first MINDS-Henry Goh Environmental Award, got a British patent and a Malaysia patent, etc.

Just sharing this little bit of information to let my first grandchild knows that he/she has good genes.

My first grandchild at his grandfather's 58th birthday

Today is 6th January 2007 and it is my 58th birthday. Celebrating birthdays are not my strong point as I don't remember ever celebrating it as a child. But anyway, my children never fail to arrange for a get-together whenever it is one of the family member's birthday. So they have arranged for a dinner, a homemade birthday cake, and presents.

(Note: If you landed here from my blog profile wondering how I obtained that rare genuinely smiling profile photo and want a quick explanation, surf over to grandpa's secret weapon)

Ah! presents! I have problem with presents. I want to tell people not to buy presents for me as I have enough material things as it is, and don't want more but find it hard to. And when they buy presents for me, it creates a dilemma for me as it would be very bad on my part if I do not express appreciation for the gifts, at the same time, I don't want them to spend money unnecessarily on material things that add to the clutter of the house. But this birthday gathering birthday was the best birthday gathering I ever had. And the reasons, I will explain later.

First some background. Since I retired, I have become something of a hermit, hardly going out of the house and glued to the computer. I shave only when I have no choice, I drag my feet over getting my nails, especially toenails, cut. I only go to the barber when my hair gets unmanageable. I am also an introvert. I don't laugh easily, I find it even harder to smile for the camera except if I am prepared for a very artificial smile. But I am happy the way I am (except for the inability to easily laugh and to smile for the camera).

Well, this evening, (actually yesterday evening, but I am going to change the date of this post to the actual date of my birthday), I shaved, I bathed, and I enjoyed a nice dinner with my children (I should not be calling them children anymore as they are now adults. But what should I call them?), my sons-in-law and my first grandchild (still in his/her mother's womb). We returned home, and I proceeded to open my birthday gifts, wondering what to say, to pretend that I like it, or to tell the truth. There were 2 gifts (actually 3, the 3rd one was from Google from my participation with Google AdSense. And the cheque arrived exactly today, my birthday). Anyway, when we reached home, I proceeded to open my presents. When I opened the first and smallest one, I started to laugh, really laugh. It was a long time since I had a real laugh, and the laugh was my best birthday present. I will let you guess what I found when I unwrapped the gift and to give you time to guess, I will put some pictures here for you to view before you get to the answer (click to enlarge. It is a large photo, 1024x768 pixels and may take some time to load. So best is to right-click on your mouse and select "Open in new window/tab" and let it slowly download in the new window/tab while you continue with this page). Further, I will do what I promised to do at the bottom of the post if you honestly guessed the correct answer before you read it (don't want to keep you in suspense. What I promised to do if certain condition is met is to exercise 10 minutes, something which I need).



That is my family gathering to celebrate my 58th birthday, me sitting at the center, my sons on my side and my daughters, sons-in-law and my first grandchild (hidden) standing behind. I will let you guess where my first grandchild is hiding. Same condition apply as above.

More photos - me just starting to blow all the six candles at one go (no easy task because they were in a long row). That is 6 candles for 60 years. That mean they don't need to celebrate my birthday till I am 61 years old.



OK. Here is the answer. What my youngest son gave me was a nail clipper! Well, I can take a hint and I can laugh at myself! And to my son, I really appreciate your gift. Now I give you somemore time to guess what the second present given by my other children and their hubbies was by showing somemore pictures (of me laughing at myself, holding the nail clipper) before I give the answer. Also, same as above. Guess correctly, and I will do what I promised at the bottom of the post, that is, do 10 minutes of exercise.



More photo so you have more time to guess. Below is the photo of my daughter looking through the photo album. I think she was pointing out the place she visited (Tivoli, Rome) on her company's trip last year. She later showed me the photo of me, my late wife (and her, hidden too, like my first grandchild) at exactly the same spot.



Well, the second present was a Phillip electric shaver, and a pretty sophisticated one at that! With rechargeable battery, so I don't need to go out to buy new batteries every time the old ones run out of juice! How considerate of them. And again I can take a hint and I can laugh at myself. But my regrets are, now, I have no excuses anymore not to shave and not to cut my nails. Thank you, all of you. And still more photos. Here is one showing me with the Phillips electric shaver:



If you want to see more photos of my birthday gathering, you can surf over to Calvin's album

Just one more thing. One of the readers of my blog, commented in one of my post, and I reciprocated, visiting her website to comment thank her and to let her know I have responded to her comment. I read her post. It had something about exercising for comments. For each comment she received in her post, she will do a certain amount of exercise. I am going to be a copy-cat today. I realise I need exercise, but not doing very much about it. My late father was diabetic. A long time ago (20+ years I think), I was diagnosed as having Impaired Glucose Tolerance, meaning that when I take in sugar, the blood sugar falls slower than a normal person. They call it pre-diabetes now, I read in the papers recently. Going by what the report said, I should be diabetic now. Thank God I am not. They also say one need to exercise to keep diabetes and high blood pressure at bay. I need inspiration or persuation. So for each comment you put in this post, I will exercise 10 minutes. Deal?

Update 12 February 2007: Got the URL of the post from where I copied this exercise for comments: Healthy Blogger Life Style.

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