Youtube: Piano child prodigy TERESA

True Story — Worth Reading !!! At the prodding of my friends, I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Hondorf. I am a former elementary school music teacher from Des Moines , Iowa .. I’ve always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons-something I’ve done for over 30 years. Over the years I found that children have many levels of musical ability. I’ve never had the pleasure of having a prodigy though I have taught some talented students.

However I’ve also had my share of what I call “musically challenged” pupils. One such student was Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single Mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby.

But Robby said that it had always been his mother’s dream to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student. Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm needed to excel But he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary pieces that I require all my students to learn.

Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he’d always say, “My mom’s going to hear me play someday.” But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled but never stopped in.

Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons.
I thought about calling him but assumed because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to pursue something else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several weeks later I mailed to the student’s homes a flyer on the upcoming recital.. To my surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify. He said that his mother had been sick and unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing “Miss Hondorf I’ve just got to play!” he insisted.

I don’t know what led me to allow him to play in the recital. Maybe it was his persistence or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium was packed with parents, friends and relatives. I put Robby up last in the program before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he would do would come at th e end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance through my “curtain closer.”

Well, the recital went off without a hitch. The students had been practicing and it showed. Then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he’d run an eggbeater through it. “Why didn’t he dress up like the other students?” I thought. “Why didn’t his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?”

Robby pulled out the piano bench and he began. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen Mozart’s Concerto #21 in C Major. I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from pianissimo to fortissimo. From allegro to virtuoso. His suspended chords that Mozart demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Mozart played so well by people his age. After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was on their feet in wild applause.
Overcome and in tears I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. “I’ve never heard you play like that Robby! How’d you do it? ” Through the microphone Robby explained: “Well Miss Hondorf Remember I told you my Mom was sick? Well, actually she had cancer and passed away this morning And well . . . She was born deaf so tonight was the first time she ever heard me play. I wanted to make it special.”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house that evening. As the people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed into foster care, noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy and I thought to myself how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil.

No, I’ve never had a prodigy but that night I became a prodigy. . .. Of Robby’s. He was the teacher and I was the pupil for it is he that taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself and maybe even taking a chance in someone a nd you don’t know why.

Robby was killed in the senseless bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995. And now, a footnote to the story.

If you are thinking about forwarding this message, you are probably thinking about which people on your address list aren’t the “appropriate” ones to receive this type of message. The person who sent this to you believes that we can all make a difference. So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we act with compassion or do we pass up that opportunity and leave the world a bit colder in the process?

You have two choices now:
1. Delete this.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.
 

You know the choice I made. Thank you for reading this
May God bless you today,tomorrow and always
*********
If God didn’t have a purpose for us.
We wouldn’t be here!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Charge the ‘surau man’ with assault on a minor!!

Courtesy of Hartal MSM

So how did the police so quickly know to finger the culprits who splashed paint at a surau in Taman Pulai Impian?

Elementary my dear Watson.

Police apprehended them on the night of Aug 24 and the morning of Aug 25. But guess what? Malaysiakini reported that the 13-year-old sister of one of the teenagers had lodged a police report on Aug 24 itself.

Her report claimed that her brother and his friends were “provoked” before the incident.

The girl said that she was with her brother and five other friends at a playground nearby the surau and they had gotten into an argument when a separate group of 20 men tried to chase them away.

“A Malay man in a red T-shirt and a songkok from the group became angry and called us babi (pigs)” — the girl said in her police report.

“We demanded to know why they used such language against us. That was when another group of men came out from the surau and reprimanded us.”

She explained that as her group refused to admit that they were at fault, the confrontation turned violent and one of the men, whom she claimed was from the surau, slapped her brother and chased them away.

See, something happened to trigger the vandalism… the insult ‘Cina babi’ — that incessant verbal abuse against the minorities. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Before the police arrested the boys, shouldn’t they also have arrested the grown-up bully who assaulted a teenager and gertak a 13-year-old girl?

Yet it is some Chinese voices who have been most strident that the Chinese boys who threw paint at the surau be punished most severely.

MCA central committee member Loh Seng Kok called for the surau vandals’ citizenship to be stripped.

Bernard Khoo (blog: Zorro Unmasked) urged that “the full force of the law must be used as a deterrent. If whipping is enforced, well and good.”

Note that the NST article had this to say: “One of the four suspects is jobless, while the rest are employed.”

Those Chinese boys are merely 16 and 17 years old. How come at their age they’re already working and one unemployed?

*** Why are they not in school? ***

Deprived of the chance of furthering their studies? Their fathers are mechanic, carpenter, trader — quite possibly unable to afford.

The number of Chinese dropouts is a national problem that MCA should be paying attention to instead of Loh Seng Kok wanting to have the poorly educated juveniles stripped of their citizenship. His over-reaction is outdoing the Malays who have been more forgiving. Loh looks like another LGE by being so ‘over’.

How you have utterly, most miserably failed the community you claim to represent, MCA, and now you descend to this low by haranguing errant boys?! Shame on them but BIGGER shame on you, Loh and MCA.

Think! Vui Kong sitting on the death row in Singapore. Why did he not have better opportunities in life? He could have been in college.

And even now, all some people can talk about is punish, punish, punish.

What about ‘HELP’ for a change? How about uplifting the marginalized?

Church arson vs mosque vandalism — proportionality

CASE 1

Two Malay youths were sentenced by Judge S.M. Komathy Suppiah of the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court to 5 years’ jail.

The youths aged 24 and 22 were found guilty of setting fire to the Metro Tabernacle Church near Taman Melawati in January.

They had claimed trial for the offence and did not publicly express any remorse for their act.

They had been charged under Section 436 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years jail and a fine.

The church suffered more than RM1 million in damages when its its entire ground floor was gutted and has since relocated to a new building.

CASE 2

Three Chinese teenagers have pleaded guilty to charges of lobbing bottles filled with paint at a surau in Seremban, on Aug 22.

The trio, aged between 16 and 17, are awaiting sentencing by magistrate M. Mageshwary of the Juvenile Court.

They were charged under Section 427 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum penalty of 2 years jail and a fine.

Their offence is for causing damage “to the amount of RM25 or above”.

The boys have publicly apologized for their act.

WERE THEY AWARE?

The Malay youths were sentenced 5 years — a quarter of the maximum penalty (20 years). Going by the same ratio, the Chinese boys should be sentenced to 6 months jail.

The fact that the Chinese teens have said sorry and the mosque committee forgiven them are mitigating factors. The material damage in terms of monetary cost is not much — some turpentine and a new coat of paint.

Did the vandals fully realise the ramifications of their act on our fraught race relations?

(In comparison, the Malay youths surely knew they were setting a match to the religious tinderbox by doing what they did at the time they did it.)

Nonetheless the Malay youths have been receiving rounds of support from Malay blogosphere whereas the Chinese boys have been hurled sticks and stones by certain Chinese themselves.

Calling to revoke citizenship and for whipping is going waaay overboard!

forward, … Say No to spammers!!!!!!! Thanks.

Grandma couldn’t speak very well, but she would write notes when she needed to communicate.

After a short time out on the lawn, Grandma started leaning off to the right, so some family members grabbed her, straightened her up, and stuffed pillows on her right.

 A short time later, she started leaning off to her left, so again the family grabbed her and stuffed pillows on her left.

 Soon she started leaning forward, so the family members again grabbed her, and then tied a pillowcase around her waist to hold her up.

A nephew who arrived late came up to Grandma and said, ‘Hi, Grandma, you’re looking good! How are they treating you?’

Grandma took out her little notepad and slowly wrote a note to the nephew……

 ‘Bastards won’t let me fart.’

2) Singapore – Lee Kuan Yew On Marriage And His Daughter

3) Malaysia – Multi-Billionaire’s House In Kuala Lumpur

4) Meet Dede Koswara – The Tree Man ( ABC) And After 9 Months Surgery (The Sun) 

5) Japan: Ai Iijima – Her Rape & Memories In Picture

6) Wikipedia – Susan Boyle’s Biography

7) Mother Teres’s Quotes And Early Life

8) Health & You – Oil Pulling Therapy

Source: click here

Finally, Mahathir concedes he screwed the merit system

MON, 06 SEP 2010 14:02

Sambu lingam, via e-mail

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad in a statement (FMT Sept 4, 2010) finally admitted that he and the Umno government intentionally discriminated against innocent non Bumiputra students by denying their educational rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

He said: “If we use the merit system , half of the university students (Bumiputeras) don’t qualify…”

What one can gather from his statement is that the education system over the past 53 years has failed to produce Bumiputera students to meet the set requirement by Umno’s own higher educational qualification merits.

Despite the billions spend to improve the educational achievements among Bumiputeras, citizens of this country are now been told by this longest serving Malaysian Prime Minister that Bumiputera students in Malaysia can only survive upon discrimination against their fellow non Bumi students. What a shame!

The former Prime Minister also revealed the truth on why local public universities are constantly dropping in international standard ratings. He admitted that half of the undergraduates did not qualify for entry into universities but were nevertheless granted places merely on race considerations.

I wonder how he justifies such brutal educational injustices. The moment a government tolerates such discrimination, it is actually planning to fail the country and its citizens over the years to come.

By implementing this racist based policies, thousands of fully qualified non Bumiputera students are cruelly denied entry into matriculation courses , local public universities intakes as well the PSD scholarships.

To summarise Mahathir’s statement, he as the former prime minister and those in power ruling this country today clearly do not implement meritocracy in local university intakes, half of our university students are actually non qualifiers for higher education.

Fully qualified non Bumiputera students are oppressed and suppressed by the implementation of racially biased educational discrimination. The Umno-led Barisan Nasional government over the past 40 years have conveniently violated article 8 and 12 of Federal Constitution.

Source: click here

A little girl asks her mum, ‘Mum, can I take the dog for a walk around the block?’

Her mum replies ‘No, because she is on heat.’  ‘What does that mean?’ asked the child.

2) How To Refresh Your Brain?

3) Thailand – Dr Pornthip/ Dr Death – Her Story

4) Malaysia – Multi Billionaire’s House In Kuala Lumpur

5) Mother Teresa’s Quotes and Early Life

6) Ai Iijima – Her Rape & Memories In Pictures

7) Malaysia – Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong Declared A Muslim?

8) Practical Solutions For Daily Problems

Some, rather most organizations reject his CV today because he has changed jobs frequently (10 in 14 years).

My friend, the ˜job hopper™ (referred here as Mr. JH), does not mind it. Well he does not need to mind it at all. Having worked full-time with 10 employer companies in just 14 years gives Mr. JH the relaxing edge that most of the ˜company loyal™ employees are struggling for today.

Today, Mr. JH too is laid off like some other 14-15 year experienced guys ” the difference being the latter have just worked in 2-3 organizations in the same number of years.

Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr. JH:

Q: Why have you changed 10 jobs in 14 years?

A: To get financially sound and stable before getting laid off the second time.

Q: So you knew you would be laid off in the year 2009?

A: Well I was laid off first in the year 2002 due to the first global economic slowdown. I had not got a full-time job before January 2003 when the economy started looking up; so I had struggled for almost a year without job and with compromises.

Q: Which number of job was that?

A: That was my third job.

Q: So from Jan 2003 to Jan 2009, in 6 years, you have changed 8 jobs to make the count as 10 jobs in 14 years?

A: I had no other option. In my first 8 years of professional life, I had worked only for 2 organizations thinking that jobs are deserved after lot of hard work and one should stay with an employer company to justify the saying ˜employer loyalty™. But I was an idiot.

Q: Why do you say so?

A: My salary in the first 8 years went up only marginally. I could not save enough and also, I had thought that I had a ˜permanent™ job, so I need not worry about ˜what will I do if I lose my job™. I could never imagine losing a job because of economic slowdown and not because of my performance. That was January 2002.

Q: Can you brief on what happened between January 2003 and 2009.

A: Well, I had learnt my lessons of being ˜company loyal™ and not ˜money earning and saving loyal™. But then you can save enough only when you earn enough. So I shifted my loyalty towards money making and saving ” I changed 8 jobs in 6 years assuring all my interviewers about my stability.

Q: So you lied to your interviewers; you had already planned to change the job for which you were being interviewed on a particular day?

A: Yes, you can change jobs only when the market is up and companies are hiring. You tell me ” can I get a job now because of the slowdown? No. So one should change jobs for higher salaries only when the market is up because that is the only time when companies hire and can afford the expected salaries.

Q: What have you gained by doing such things?

A: That’s the question I was waiting for. In Jan 2003, I had a fixed salary (without variables) of say Rs. X p.a. In January 2009, my salary was 8X. So assuming my salary was Rs.3 lakh p.a. in Jan 2003, my last drawn salary in Jan 2009 was Rs.24 lakh p.a. (without variable). I never bothered about variable as I had no intention to stay for 1 year and go through the appraisal process to wait for the company to give me a hike.

Q: So you decided on your own hike?

A: Yes, in 2003, I could see the slowdown coming again in future like it had happened in 2001-02. Though I was not sure by when the next slowdown would come, I was pretty sure I wanted a ˜debt-free™ life before being laid off again. So I planned my hike targets on a yearly basis without waiting for the year to complete.

Q: So are you debt-free now?

A: Yes, I earned so much by virtue of job changes for money and spent so little that today I have a loan free 2 BR flat (1200 sq.. feet) plus a loan free big car without bothering about any EMIs. I am laid off too but I do not complain at all. If I have laid off companies for money, it is OK if a company lays me off because of lack of money.

Q: Who is complaining?

A: All those guys who are not getting a job to pay their EMIs off are complaining. They had made fun of me saying I am a job hopper and do not have any company loyalty. Now I ask them what they gained by their company loyalty; they too are laid off like me and pass comments to me ” why will you bother about us, you are already debt-free. They were still in the bracket of 12-14 lakh p.a. when they were laid off.

Q: What is your advice to professionals?

A: Like Narayan Murthy had said ” love your job and not your company because you never know when your company will stop loving you. In the same lines, love yourself and your family needs more than the company’s needs. Companies can keep coming and going; family will always remain the same. Make money for yourself first and simultaneously make money for the company, not the other way around.

Q: What is your biggest pain point with companies?

A: When a company does well, its CEO will address the entire company saying, ˜Well done guys, it is YOUR company, keep up the hard work, I am with you. But when the slowdown happens and the company does not do so well, the same CEO will say, “It is MY company and to save the company, I have to take tough decisions including asking people to go.

So think about your financial stability first; when you get laid off, your kids will complain to you and not your boss.

************************

Note: The road is paved with DREAMS and OPPORTUNITIES. It’s up to U to pick it up. Contact 016-337 7228 or 017-690 1141

Information on: “ DON’T ALWAYS SLEEP LATE ! “.

Find out the reasons yourself WHY? Take note…don’t always sleep late!!!!!!!

Good rest and sound sleep is very important… if u don’t sleep well, The toxins in your body will accumulate… Affecting your health and your mood… The main causes of liver damage are:

1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are the main cause..

2. Not urinating in the morning.

3. Too much eating.

4. Skipping breakfast.

5. Consuming too much medication.

6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.

7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best Cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.

8. Consuming overly done foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried Veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits is very important for our body to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals.

Because…. Evening 9 – 11pm: is the time for eliminating unnecessary/ toxic chemicals (de- toxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes). This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music. If during this time a housewife is still in a un relaxed state such as washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this will have a negative impact on her health.

Night at 11pm – 1am: The de-toxification process in the liver, and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state. Early morning 1 – 3am: de-toxification process in the gall, also ideally done in a deep sleep state.

Early morning 3 – 5am: de-toxification in the lungs. Therefore there will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time. Since the de-toxification process had reached the respiratory tract, there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with toxin removal process.

Morning 5 – 7am: de-toxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.

Morning 7 – 9am: Absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier, before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very beneficial to those wanting to stay fit. Those who always skip breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to eat breakfast late until 9 -10am rather than no meal at all.

Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of removing unnecessary chemicals. Midnight to 4am is the time when the bone marrow produces blood. Therefore, have a good sleep and don’t sleep late.

Sharing Is Caring!

2) Thailand: Dr Pornthip/Dr Death – Her Story.

3) Practical Solutions for Daily Problems.

4) How To Refresh Your Mind.

5) Meet Dede Koswara – The Tree Man and  After 9 Months of Surgery.

6) Ai Iijima – Her Rape and Memories.

7) An Inspirational Story About Teddy Stoddard ( Told by Dr Wayne Dyer).

8) Health & You: Oil Pulling Therapy.