Sunday, January 25, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year! Kong sei fat choi!




Chinese new year 2009 falls on 26th of January, 2009 (animal sign OX). The Chinese New Year is celebrated as the symbol of spring's celebration. In fact in China the Chinese New Year is still called the Spring festival(Chun Jie). It is celebrated after the fall harvest and before the spring planting season. The date of the Chinese New Year is always changing and is dependant on the Chinese calendar. Emperor Huangdi in the year 2637 B.C.E invented the Chinese calendar.

The Chinese calendar is a combined solar/lunar calendar and is somewhat similar to the Chinese calendar. For the purpose of determining the dates of the Chinese New Year some astronomical calculations need to be taken care of. Firstly, we need to determine the dates for the new moon. The new moon is the black moon that is when the moon is in conjunction with the sun.
The date of the new moon is taken as the first day of the new month. Secondly those dates are determined when the sun's longitude is the multiple of 30 degrees. These dates are termed as Principal terms and are used for determining the number of each month.

The Principle term 1 takes place when the sun's longitude is 330 degrees, the 2nd Principle term occurs when the sun's longitude is about 0 degrees. The principle term 3 takes place when the sun's longitude is 30 degrees, the principle term 11 occurs when the sun's longitude is 270 degrees and the principle term 12 occurs when the sun's longitude is 300 degrees.

In Cambodia, many people are celebrating this festival since large number of us are half-blood Chinese. This is one of the most jubilant ocassions in Cambodia. Many people gather their families and visit their relatives; moreover, it is the best time for people to relax and have fun with family! Many people go to various local tourism sites especially Sihanouk ville, Siem Reap (land of history:Angkor) and thousands of beautiful sites in Cambodia. Some (depending on living standard) may go visit oversea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Korea or maybe some other countries. Therefore, the capital, Phnom Penh, is becoming very quite! I may go to a province, yet it is for charity work... So how about all of you? Share fun with me then.... :)

Happy Chinese New Year again!!! Wish you all the best!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

A challenge I am participating!


Well, a full day participating in a challenge has never been an easy thing! Today is one of the most memorable, challenging and useful days ever in my life which began with 80 competitive shorted list participants in the morning and ended up with only final 16 at night! Some of you may wonder what type of challenge I joined and some may think that what's a tough game! Yeah, it actually was! ( lol, wondering ... ), the challenge I am talking about is Youth Leader Challenge (YLC) season 5! YLC is an innovative reality television show that combines entertainment with valuable learning opportunities for the youth of Cambodia. It was produced and developed by the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) in 2006. The existence the challenge is a fantastic signal for the future development of this miserable country--Cambodia since Youths are the bamboo of a nation! "Strong Youth, Top Nation".

As I decided to participate in this challenge, I've now reached the last 16 round! It was not that easy to pass each round! As I know, almost 400 people applied this challenge; however, after background selection and an interview, only 80 contestants were accepted! This morning, everyone was invited to participate in the challenge which began since 7am. Meeting many people from really various backgrounds who have their own potentials and talents was a huge opportunity to get to know and learn from one another; The game began with the group work by 16 contestants each. I, fortunately, was in group 4 whose members mostly friendly and knowledgeable. Then all group were asked to form a name and symbol of their group by giving about 10mns to discuss! Everyone started sharing his/her own opinion. After a while, we finally formed the conclusion. My group members' idea were great! We decided to put the name of PEACE which had a hidden meaning P:Participation, E:Encouragement, A:Achievement, Commitment and E:Excellent.

To be continued... quite tired, srr

Friday, January 9, 2009

Some phrases for success you should know!

Behind me is infinite power.
Before me is endless possibility.
Around me is boundless opportuniny.
Why should I fear?
-Stella stuart

More to improve and fewer to disapprove.
More doers and fewer talkers.
More to say it can be done
and fewer to say it's impossible.
More to inspire others
and fewer to throw cold water on them.
More to get into the thick of things
and fewer to sit on the sidelines.
More to point out what's right
and fewer to point out what's wrong.
More to light a candle
and fewer to curse the darkness.

He who is afraid of doing too much always does too little.

Never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They made mistakes, but they don't quit.

If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.

Long time never have my blog updated!

First of all, I'd like to apologize all the blog visitors for the fact that I've never updated my blog lately even missed the biggest event, New Year 2009! It was just because my computer and internet got some problems... For now, I can be more active in this blog lah. There were 2 major events during last period, 2009 New Year Eve and 30th anniversary Cambodian victory over Khmer Rough Regime(7th January 1979-7th January 2009). This year celebration was the biggest ever with the participation of more 60,000 people including civil servant officers, teachers, students, many others and of course top 3 Cambodia Leaders, Prime minister Hun Sen(R), President of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) Chea Sim(C), and senior party member Heng Samrin(L).