TimothyTiah.com

My 3 year old just learned how to dislike someone because of the colour of his skin… here’s how I responded

Posted on September 17, 2016 admin

While we live in a world filled with racial prejudice, I used to envy the world my kids live in. In their innocent world there wasn’t people of different races or religion. There was only babies, kids and adults and they treated everyone the same.

I always wondered when this innocence would come to an end. When would they develop an opinion of someone based on the colour of his or her skin.

That day was today.

I was talking to Fighter about school when he suddenly brought up a classmate of his. Lets call him Johan. Here’s how the conversation went.

Fighter: I don’t like Johan.

Me: Why?

Fighter: Because he has a brown face.

This was the first time that Fighter ever said anything like that so I was really taken aback. In the next few seconds I stood stunned, not sure how I was supposed to respond to that. Thoughts raced in my head and the pressure built up. I know he said this out of total innocence but how I responded to this would be how he in future would view people of different races. I was determined to raise my son to view and love all races equally.

I composed myself and responded.

Me: You shouldn’t like or dislike anybody just because they have a brown or black face or any colour face.

Fighter: Why?

Me: God made us all with faces of different colors so we’re all special in our own ways. Special… not better or worse. You should decide if you like a person based on whether that person is good to you or shares the same values as you do. Not from the colour of his face

Fighter: Why?

I thought about going into a whole explanation about how this leads to racism and how racism does a lot of harm in the world but I reminded myself that I was talking to a 3 year old. I had to make it very simple. So I answered:

Me: Because it’s not fair to the person who has a different colour face. Maybe that person really wants to be your friend and is really good to you but you don’t like him just because of the colour of his face. That would make that person sad. Do you want to make that person sad?

Fighter: No I don’t want.

Me: Look instead at who the person is and if he’s good to you. For example, do you like Uncle Jas?

Fighter: Yes.

Me: What colour is his face?

Fighter: Brown.

Me: Yet you still like Uncle Jas right?

Fighter: Yes.

Me: See? So it doesn’t matter what colour anyone’s face is ok? You don’t like them differently and you don’t treat them different.

Fighter: Okay.

———–

Looking back on this episode I’m not even sure if I did a great job explaining it away to him but today at the kids’ playground he saw another girl with a “coloured face” and he seemed to like her.

Perhaps I’ve prolonged my son’s innocence a little while more.. and hopefully led him to the right path:

That while we acknowledge we live in a diverse world of people with different races and religion, neither one of those things make anyone any better or worse than the other.

That we should be judged by who we are. Not what we are.

Invites to the Heineken Circuit Weekend at TREC this Sunday

Posted on September 14, 2016 admin

Edited with some additional event requirements.

Hello everyone!

My next subscriber giveaway is for something I personally am going for. So I’ll probably be able to see you there and we can hang out.

This Sunday 18th September 2016, Heineken will be broadcasting the F1 Singapore Night Race at TREC on a huge screen.

The event is open to public but what I’ve got is 15 special passes to a VIP area which comes with 10 bottles of Heineken, each pass allows you to bring another 3 friends with you.

If you want the passes please send me an e-mail to lengmoublogs@yahoo.com on why you want to go along with your IC number (Please note that because it’s an event for an alcohol related brand so you need to be 18 years and above and non-muslim to come for this event). Remember to use the e-mail that you have in my subscriber list.

I hope to see you guys there and we can hang out over some beer watching the big screen.

Please submit your request by 12PM on the 16th of September 2016. I’ll only notify the winners.

What our little ones really mean when they say they don’t want you

Posted on September 12, 2016 admin

A couple of months ago when my wife was away in Croatia for a week-long holiday I had a ball of a time with my kids.

With Shorty not being around, I was the new “Mommy!”.

Every time the kids needed something, they asked for me. Every time something good happened to them and they wanted to show someone, they showed me. It was heaven.

Untitled

Then Shorty came home and all that changed. Fighter who for the past week had wanted me to be with him every minute of the day started pulling himself away. Whenever I went up to him he would say “I don’t want Daddy!”.

I was heartbroken and I took his words very personally. Then Shorty explained it all to me.

Put ourselves in the shoes of our little ones now. For the first couple of years of the life they know, they’ve never had choice.

They couldn’t choose when they wanted to eat, what they wanted to eat, when they could sleep or when they could play.

They couldn’t even express themselves to tell anyone clearly what they liked and what they didn’t.

Then something magical happened: they learned to talk.

Learning to talk gives them a whole newfound independence. They for the first time in their lives had choice.

Fighter could finally tell someone that he likes “chicken” and “ice-cream” and he doesn’t like “vegetables”. He could also tell when he wanted to go swimming or when he wanted to sleep and when he didn’t.

That newfound independence applies to people he hangs out with. There are times when he feels like hanging out with Daddy and there are times (especially when Mommy has been away for a week) where he just wants to hang out with Mommy.

Saying that he doesn’t want Daddy isn’t saying that Daddy isn’t important.

He’s just saying “I want to hang out with Mommy right now”.

We adults take it very personally because we often don’t realize that while our little ones are old enough to tell us what they don’t want, they’re not old enough to tell it to us in a diplomatic way that doesn’t hurt our feelings.

Since I’ve understood this I find I cope with Fighter’s rejection a lot better. It’s not even real rejection that he rejects me… it’s just that he feels like hanging out with someone else.

So whenever Fighter now tells me that he doesn’t want Daddy, I reply him and say “Okay… Daddy will go away for now but I’m here whenever you want me ok?”.

I recently learned that my helper who takes care of Fighter went through the same thing when my parents’ helper whom Fighter adores came to visit us. So I’ve told her the same thing I’ve learned and I think she feels a little better.

So the next time you feel a little hurt when your little ones say that they don’t want you… don’t. Understand what they really mean by that… and what they don’t.

Who wants to watch a musical on Adele’s Life and Songs?

Posted on September 8, 2016 admin

Tadaa!

My next subscriber giveaway is two pairs of tickets to this Adele musical thanks to Milestone Productions!

Note that this show is in KL but this giveaway isn’t just for Malaysians. It doesn’t matter to me if you are based in Malaysia or Singapore or anywhere else. As long as you want to go and can make arrangements to go for the concert in KL then go ahead and ask for them. The tickets I have to give away will be for either one of two shows: 8PM on the 23rd September OR 3PM on the 24th September. Please check if you’re ok on both dates before trying for the giveaway ok?

To stand a chance to win a ticket please send me an e-mail to lengmoublogs@yahoo.com and tell me why you want to go. The deadline for entries is at 12PM, 13th September 2016. Please make sure you’re subscribed to my mailing list and e-mail me with that same e-mail in the list so I can be sure.

Thanks guys and good luck!

Things Shorty & Fatty Say #336: About a new charger and games….

Posted on September 5, 2016 admin

For the past week or so Shorty has been looking all around the house for her laptop charger that has been mysteriously missing. At first her hunt for it started with a “have you seen my laptop charger?”

and as time went by with the charger unseen she went

“Where’s my charger where’s my charger?”.

Then eventually it got to the point where she started staking claim over my charger

“Is this my charger? Are you sure you didn’t take my charger?”.

Finally after a week of borrowing my charger every other day, she succumbed to buying a new charger. We walked into the Apple store today only to find out that the price of a new charger was over RM300.

This is the conversation that took place after:

Me: WHAT?! RM350?? Wait wait hold up.. think about this.

Shorty: Why? But I need it.

Me: Maybe we can look online for a second hand one.

Shorty: No but I don’t have time. I’m going to the US this Friday already.

Me: But it’s RM350 ! I mean … that’s almost as much as it cost for me to buy my “gold” in my iPad robot game and I’m taking months to think about spending that money.

Shorty: Really? You want to go there?

And she gave me this face…

Me: Uhh…

Shorty: How much have you spent on your robot game so far? USD100? Or was it USD 200? (It’s actually USD 300.

Me: Ok… I didn’t think that one through.

Shorty: No really… how much again?

Me: I walked right into this one didn’t I?

Shorty: Dare to compare some more huh? Some more I am spending money on a charger that I need to use. You? On some pixels on a screen.

Me: *keeps quiet*

At this point I realize no good was going to come out of this conversation so I kept my mouth shut before I dug a deeper hole for myself.

Guess who’s going to watch Simple Plan!

Posted on September 1, 2016 admin

Hi Everyone

My phone has been vibrating like a Duracell bunny the past couple of days with e-mails from you guys wanting to win a pair of Simple Plan tickets. Thank you for all your e-mails and for subscribing to my mailing list.

When it comes to the mailing list, I am yet to send out a single e-mail because like I want to make sure I get my first e-mail right before I send something out. So much pressure okay after being entrusted with so many e-mails. With great power comes great pressure.

My only regret is that I don’t have more Simple Plan tickets to give away. Well at least I get to make one person happy.

So that happy person is….
*drum roll please*

*still rolling*

* still rolling*

Haha kidding kidding.

Ok the winner that I have selected at random is Kristal Low. Attention Kristal Low, my colleagues from Nuffnang Singapore will be in touch with you via e-mail soon on how to claim your tickets.

For everyone else I’ve got more giveaways coming up so please subscribe to my mailing list below if you haven’t already done so.

My first subscriber giveaway: CONCERT TICKETS TO CATCH SIMPLE PLAN LIVE IN SINGAPORE!

Posted on August 29, 2016 admin

HELLO EVERYONE!

A few days ago I promised to use my e-mail subscriber base to give away some of the perks that I get right?

Well just a couple of days in and here’s my first giveaway.

ONE pair of concert tickets to see Simple Plan in Singapore. This is one of the things that I wish I could have gotten for myself because I love Simple Plan.

This being one of my favorite songs.

SING WITH ME NOW
“CUZ WE LOST IT ALL… NOTHING LASTS FOREVER….I’M SORRY … I CAN’T BE… PERRFEEEEEECCTT”.

Anyway here are the concert deets:

When : 8PM, 5th September 2016

Where : The Coliseum, Hard Rock hotel Singapore, Resorts World Sentosa.

How to get the tickets?

If you want to go, send me an e-mail at lengmoublogs@yahoo.com from the same e-mail you used to subscribe to my subscriber list and just say you wanna go. That’s right… I’m not going to make you jump hoops or come up with a slogan or anything. Note that your entry only qualifies if I find your e-mail in my subscriber list so If you haven’t subscribed to the list yet it’s not too late. Subscribe in the box below.

Thanks goes out to Nuffnang Singapore and the people bringing Simple Plan to Singapore: IMC Live. Thank you guys for giving this treat to my readers.

I’ll close off the giveaway by 6PM tomorrow (30th August) and announce the winner on my Dayre by 6PM on the 31st August 2016 so please note that I’ll only notify the winner ok?

If you don’t see your name in my Dayre announcement and you really really want to go you can still buy tickets here.

Don’t fret if you don’t win anything in this giveaway. There are more to come. Just remember to subscribe to my subscriber list below!

I’m starting a subscriber list and here’s what to expect from it

Posted on August 26, 2016 admin

I’ve been doing some thinking about my blog and here’s what I found:

1) I don’t update every day but I get people coming in to see my updates every day.

Since I started using Dayre, I’ve been using this space here for more thought pieces or opinions or longer updates. These kind of articles take a lot more time to write partly because well… I don’t have a new opinion every day.

However looking at my analytics I notice that I get a lot of traffic coming in each day waiting to see my update, only to be disappointed when they don’t see it.

2) I get a lot of free stuff from brands that I often have to turn down.

Why would I turn down free stuff? Well I only want to write about stuff that I personally use or have reviewed or sometimes it’s really because I don’t want to over-commercialize this blog. So I’m really really selective.
What kind of free stuff I get? Well I get everything from concert tickets, beer, shampoo, gadgets and the list goes on and on. So when I can’t take on so many what do I do? I just say no thank you and turn them away.

The solution to these two problems came to me just a week ago when I was looking at what the bloggers in the US did and when it hit me I was like… WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS EARLIER?!

I had to have a mailing list.

With a mailing list I could e-mail you guys to let you know when I have updated my blog so some of you guys who come in every day to check don’t have to do that anymore. Yes arguably the side effect of that is that my blog traffic could drop but I don’t really care because this blog’s main purpose isn’t commercial. It’s a way for me to connect with you guys so if I have to sacrifice blog traffic and less money for saving you guys time then I’d do it.

Then comes the solution to my second problem. Instead of turning away brands I could now tell them “Hey.. instead of giving them to me how about I blast them out to my subscribers and let them try it out”.

That way you guys can join me too in trying new products or getting tickets to shows or performances or movie premieres. I get to share all these perks with you guys.

So what do you guys think?

If you think it’s a great idea, please subscribe to the my mailing list at the end of this article. I promise I will treasure your email and not spam you. In fact I’m thinking that I’ll just e-mail you whenever I think there are worthy updates on this blog… instead of every update.

I will treat your e-mail like an e-mail of a friend rather than an e-mail on a list.

So please subscribe below. Thanks guys!

What Badminton has done for Malaysians…

Posted on August 21, 2016 admin

Years ago when I was in the Philippines, my friends there told me about this magical thing that happened in the Philippines. During this particular event, the normally crowded streets of Manila would be empty, restaurants and malls will be deserted and everybody will be in front of the TV.

This event was whenever a Manny Pacquiao fight was on. The entire Philippines stopped to watch. I envied how a nation was able to come together for a common cause and I wondered when Malaysia would have its turn.

Since then I notice we’ve had plenty of these and that is when Malaysia plays in the badminton finals of the Thomas Cup and the Olympics. During the Men’s Doubles finals this year I was at a friend’s birthday party at Neway. We ate, drank and sang but all that came to a stop when the match came on. We turned off the music and instead tuned into a live feed of the badminton match.

We weren’t the only ones too. Up and down the many rooms I noticed no more singing. Everyone had traded in their mics for a seat to watch Malaysia play.

I stopped to look around for a moment. Malaysia is a country of people that are different in so many ways be it race, income levels, religion, traditions and upbringing. Yet on this one event nobody cares about the race of our badminton players, what they pray to or their status in society. We don’t even care about what language they speak. All we care about is the flag they wear on their jerseys and we support them all the same.

Malaysians rich and poor, old and young, men and women from the cities to the kampungs unite to watch Malaysia play. In that one hour or so… we are one.

I’m thankful for that. We may not always have a lot of things going on for us as Malaysians, but we have badminton.

I pray that this tradition of badminton continues to grow and perhaps one day we will win our gold.

The way I see it… Malaysia has already won. With or without a gold medal in the Olympics.

So I tried on the phone that has one of the best cameras in the market right now…

Posted on August 16, 2016 admin

If you’ve been following my Dayre you’d probably know that a few weeks ago I smashed the screen of my Huawei Mate 8. It’s funny how you can drop your phone hundreds of times and it’s the one time it drops at the right angle that cracks it. This time was it.

The first thing I did was messaged my friend Emma who works at Huawei and told her about the sin I had just committed. I wanted to pay for it but instead she took the Mate 8 off me and in the mean time gave me another phone to use.

That phone is the Huawei P9. Now I’m an ambassador of the Mate 8 (you can sometimes see me in some of the ads like the one below here) but not the P9. The Huawei P9 is Shorty’s phone.

I did have a couple of weeks of the P9 until I got my Mate 8 fixed and here’s how it felt.

I loved the camera

The Huawei P9’s main selling point is the camera that is engineered by Leica. Let me show you the kind of pictures you can take with it.
Here’s one that Shorty took.

azure-tFtQYnqwsZhV4VvlHi8Y

And this.

azure-3oICrQWaTVso3Ih8M6lU

The pretty girl in black here is Emma. My friend from Huawei.
The thing that really surprised me though wasn’t just the quality of the back camera but also the front “selfie” camera. I gotta be honest that both cameras perform really well compared to my Mate 8. Since then I’ve recommended the P9 to a number of people and they all seem to love the camera.

2. I began to appreciate the size of the phone…

When I first got it I felt uneasy with how small it was compared to my Mate 8 but I very quickly got used to it. Before long the small size became more of a plus to me and less of a minus… especially considering how my jeans seem to be skinnier and skinnier.

3) Then there’s the USB 3.0 charger head

The Huawei P9 uses a complete different charger head. It’s not the USB 2.0 that we’re all used to and has been made the standard. It’s the 3.0.

As you can imagine my first thoughts were one of annoyance. Why would you fix something that isn’t broken?

Well okay after I did some research I did realize that the 3.0 is better. It charges faster, it transfers data faster and it helps your battery go on for longer.

But the pleasant surprise to me was when I found out that my MacBook uses a USB 3.0 charger. So for the first time in my life I can charge my phone with the same charger I use to charge my laptop.

The day I got my Mate 8 back though I went back to it and put the P9 back into the box. I realize that I really really missed the P9 camera but the Mate 8 had one major selling point to me. It’s insanely long battery life.

So I went back to it.

I have in the past recommended both phones to my friends and many of them have bought and not regretted either of the Huawei. Shorty’s friends too.

It’s not often that I get to work professionally with a brand that makes products that I truly love. Huawei is one such brand.

Oh and here’s one of the Huawei ads you might see me in.

Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space