Jarod Yong

It's a never-ending cycle. Yet we never tire of it & we always look forward to it. What can I say, it's the holidays & the extra money in those ugly red envelopes. I love to look at the older generation as they fade into lighter shades of grey & look into their once lively now confused eyes. I find a sense of comfort in their presence. Sometimes I will feel joy, sometimes I will feel deep regret. Both for them & also for myself. They compel me to silently reflect upon my own life. When you return to your parent's home, you will find them complaining about each other, their children, the rain, the sun or how forgetful they are getting. Sometimes there will be a showdown between mom & dad. There'd be a yell fest & none would win. Even at this age, I am still disturbed at such occurrences. Then, you'll hear them calmly agreeing about the store with the cheapest soda or the best brand for almond nuts. They'll do mathematics together ...

SMK Katibas - Empurau Magazine 2010 It's finally out! It was actually out 3 weeks ago. haha~~ My 2nd SMK Katibas school magazine. I can truly say it's mine because this time I've made significant changes to it & put in my soul & spirit into making it the best magazine any school could dream of. All the careful planning, dream dreaming, delegating, information sourcing, sponsor soliciting, photo taking/editing/arranging, typing, editing & translating BM to English (Yes, it's a school magazine that is wholly in English!) comes down to this little RM10 book. Here a hint of how cool this magazine is I am very proud of this book & the team that supported me in it's production but I was let down by the printer, one Vicskill Printing of Sibu. They gave a really good offer of significantly extra coloured pages for the same price as our previous printer, Kai Ming of Sibu, but they printed the black & white pages very badly & they did...

This weekend, I returned to Kuching to show support to my beloved choir teacher, Mdm Luk, & her fund-raising concert to send the BL school choir to compete in the 1st Vietnam International Choir Festival & Competition . At the same time, I attended the concert to support my lovely youngest sister who was the only sibling after me to take part in the school's prestigious choir. She only recently joined & may not take part in the Vietnam competition but she is only in Form 2 & has many more competitions to look forward to. I am secretly very proud of her. =) At RM25/RM50 per head, they put up a great show that lived up to it's 'hefty' ( the people in Kuching are extremely stingy ) price tag. I actually paid a total of RM400 thanks to some return air tickets. The choir was excellent & much better than it was during it's pioneer years. I know because I was part of the pioneer group. I dare say the level they are at today is 3 or 4 t...

Welcome to the new year! I ended last year victoriously &, drawing from my 2 year teaching experience & imagination, I had a pretty good idea of what I want to do with my English L. classes, my English L. panel, the English L. Society & the school magazine the following year. During the holidays, I spent a substantial amount of time reflecting & playing different scenarios repeatedly in my head. I was confident in bringing into reality a lot of new things/ideas to my 4 main portfolios this year. Suddenly, in the final month of 2010, I was appointed Chief Warden when I volunteered to just be a Warden. I thought that I should be making some money (RM240 warden allowance) since I'm staying back at school so often during the weekends & during the holidays. The principal & other key people thought that I'd be an ideal candidate for Chief Warden. I was apprehensive but I decided to accept the challenge since I was promised support from the administrat...