Trolling

January 8th, 2008 at 14:23 · Filed Under Blogging, Days in My Life, Dmitry · Comment 

I trolled while driving just now. Yeah… it was dangerous, I admit that and I shouldn’t do it. But something that sparked my mind was so irresistible to stop wandering about. Actually, it was nothing. Just about Dmitry’s grown up behavior that stunted me this morning.

I kind of like his new kindergarten which is nearer to our home. The teachers there are nice and take care of the children’s safety. Like this morning, Dmitry’s teacher came to our car to receive him when we arrived in front of the kindergarten. When I picked him up just now, I saw all the kids are allowed to come out to the playground and play. The teachers were busy looking after them. When I arrived, the teacher sent Dmitry out to the car. She reaffirmed that I was Dmitry’s father before letting him out.

D told me he did not play but he sat with his friend and talked about his DVD collections. He really maked a good friend with his friend. Our boy is starting to socializing well with his new peers at the new school. He must have enjoy it very much.

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Dmitry grown up

January 8th, 2008 at 13:43 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Dmitry, Family · 1 Comment 

This morning when I sent Dmitry to school, I was surprised that he told me, “Dad! You let me down in front of the school, you don’t have to go down. You stay with Richie and Nicky.” I asked why. He replied, “I am grown up. I can walk in myself.”

Both R and N were tacking along. When we arrived in front of his school, he opened the door, and got off the car. His teacher came to receive him by the car and took him in. Very responsible teacher unlike D’s previous kindergarten. So, D walked in, chest up with backpack on his back, walking talk. Boy! He has grown up!

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Dmitry was promoted

November 11th, 2007 at 23:55 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Dmitry, Family, Karate · Comment 

During the soft launching of The Okinawa Karate-Do Uechi-Ryu Zankai’s Malaysia Shibu Dōkōkai at Bukit Beruang, Melaka today, Dmitry was promoted to Ku-kyu (9th kyu) or white belt with yellow band. He obtained yellow belt in previous style before he switched to Uechi-Ryu Zankai. He has to re-qualify himself according to Uechi-Ryu Zankai’s kyu requirement and standards.

I find he has achieved significant improvement compared to previous style. He has also developed greater interest to improve himself and to want to learn more. Unfortunately, I can only allow him slow progression in order to build a solid foundation in him. After all, he has a long way to go and hopefully I will be able to develop persistency in him.

Okinawa Karate-Do Uechi-Ryu Zankai Melaka Malaysia

Dmitry’s enthusiastic behavior has influenced Dietrich to gain interest in karate training. He always wanted to learn like his big brother. LA and I were too busy and this poor little boy was trying to get himself into the picture and unfortunately he was too short. He was seen in the photos as he moved from one side to another in another group photo here. I feel so sorry for him and I swear that I will pay more attention to him. I will let him start his training at home and begin his training in the dōkōkai next year.

Okinawa Karate-Do Uechi-Ryu Zankai Melaka Malaysia

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Dmitry is typing!

November 7th, 2007 at 9:32 · Filed Under At Home, Days in My Life, Dmitry · Comment 

While I was working on my MacBook in the living room, Dmitry asked if he could type. “Dad, can I type I love my dad?”, he asked. “Sure, you can.”, I replied. I launched a text editor and let him type. He typed:

I love my dad
I love Richie
I love Nik
I love mom
I love Dmitry

Of course, he was typing with one finger.

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My dream dictionary

September 26th, 2007 at 23:07 · Filed Under Blogging, Dmitry, General, Marketing · 1 Comment 

Have you ever had a dream dictionary of yours?

I recall my old schooling days when one day, my sister Jenny presented me a dictionary. It’s an Oxford English dictionary. I was so happy. Ever since then, I started to read my dictionary. My second dictionary was presented to me by Jenny again when I accepted my first job offer as a computer programmer on the east coast about 16 years ago. It was an Oxford English mini dictionary, great for traveling.

When I was having my sabbatical karate training on Okinawa, I saw a huge dictionary in my sensei’s (teacher) house. It was about 5 inches thick, 1 foot wide and 2 feet long! It was hardcover. I could not remember the title of the dictionary but it was certainly splendid to see such a huge dictionary! That’s a dictionary of my dream.

I forgot to ask my teacher where he bought this huge dictionary from. I will email him this week to find out. I can’t find any of such huge dream dictionary in on-line bookstore. Perhaps someone can give me a hint?

Alright. That’s a dictionary I dream to have. Do you have a dream and you do not know how to interpret your dream?

Last night, I had a dream. I dreamt I was teaching Dmitry to read a dictionary. What did the dream mean? According to Dream Dictionary, the interpretation of my dream is:

To dream that you are referring to a dictionary, signifies you will depend too much upon the opinion and suggestions of others for the clear management of your own affairs, which could be done with proper dispatch if your own will was given play.

It is quite true that some of the time (may be most of the time), I depend too much upon someone’s opinion and suggestions when I need to get involved in something serious, sometimes not so serious though. I hope I will not pass this bad quality to my children as my dream implied.

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Cold Soba

August 27th, 2007 at 22:51 · Filed Under At Home, Days in My Life, Dietrich, Dmitry, Dominik, Family, Food, General, Okinawa · Comment 

Besides karate and yoga, I learned to make Sushi rice ball and cold soba during my first trip to Okinawa. Actually, the one I ate on Okinawa was not soba. I can’t remember the name of the noddle but it was white in color. I learned to make the dishes from Sumako sempai.

Today, I prepared the two dishes for the kids and LA. They loved it so much!

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Home Sick

August 1st, 2007 at 22:02 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Dietrich, Dmitry, Dominik, Family, Karate, Okinawa, Training Journal · Comment 

I have been on Okinawa for exactly two weeks now. Despite training schedule and some sight seeing activities, I begin to have home sick now. Although I have been able to communicate with home via Skype video, it is not so much the same as looking at the actual person. I missed all the playing, shouting and crying of the three dinos (kids) which sometimes and most often times drove me up the wall.

I am able to channel this feeling to traning but when I am not training and writing on my MacBook, I think of them so much.

I know what is my next birthday wish will be but this time, no one could ever make my wish comes through. I will have to work very hard to make this second wish come true and that can take me years to realize the wish. I hope LA and the three dinos can be patient.

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Flash flood

May 9th, 2007 at 16:13 · Filed Under At Home, Critiques, Days in My Life, Dietrich, Dmitry, Dominik, Family · 4 Comments 

Last night and this morning were unusually humid and hot. After sending D to school, it began to rain heavily. After LA and kids finished their lunch, LA noticed the water level had risen. She alerted me and quickly we started to move stuff on the floor. Another inch the water would have enter the house at the car porch. Some water had enter from the rear entrance and the rear bathroom was already flooded. Dead cockroaches were floating in the water. An awful sight, but D and N were excited.

Thanks grandma and uncle BS for coming to help.

It was about 4 years ago when the last flood came. D was still a baby. So this was the second time for D and first time for Rich and Nik.

We are all fine and in good health and at this moment as I am writing this post, the water has subsided and we have cleaned up all the mess. No losses of property.

This is the 5th time our area was flooded. Can you imagine how the hell can Bukit Beruang (our area is supposed on the high ground!) get flooded? This area has been heavily developed with more houses and high rise apartments. Tress have been chopped down. When the city council approved the plan for development, their oversight on irrigation systems has caused this inconveniences. What a GREAT! job they have done! Despite of previous floods, nothing has been done to improve the irrigation system. So incompetence and ignorant.

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Protected: Dmitry’s 5th birthday party

April 22nd, 2007 at 22:06 · Filed Under At Home, Days in My Life, Dmitry, Family · Enter your password to view comments. 

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3 little tigers promoted

April 22nd, 2007 at 18:37 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Dmitry, Family, Karate · 3 Comments 

Today is the remarkable day for Dmitry. He was promoted, on his 5th birthday, to 9th Kyu (yellow belt) together with another two little tigers at Jasin dojo. It was a tiring day for me today. I drove to Kuala Lumpur at 0600 to teach a private class, reached home around 1300 and prepared to go to the Little Tigers class at Jasin. All of us felt excited and I forgot about the tireness.

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Dmitry’s posing

March 15th, 2007 at 14:40 · Filed Under At Home, Days in My Life, Dmitry, Family, Photography · 1 Comment 

I was making a “photo”-copy of my certificates to be sent to my Sensei in Okinawa. Dmitry came and I asked him if he wanted to make some photos. “Yes”, he said and “Alright”, I replied. I told him to make some pose and surprisingly, he cooperated well.

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Chap Goh Mei Lion Dance

March 4th, 2007 at 17:36 · Filed Under At Home, Days in My Life, Dietrich, Dmitry, Dominik, Family · 1 Comment 

Chap Goh Mei or “The fifteenth night” is the fifteenth day and also the last day for Chinese New Year celebration. Today, we had a Lion Dance at grandma’s. We were waiting for the Lion Dance team to come at 1400 hours. The boys were getting impatient since 1230. Finally, they arrived at 1405.

The two big boys were a little agitated by the loud drum noise. Dominik was really enjoying the drum rhythms and he was kind of dancing and getting excited in the whole event.
D and R enjoyed so much playing with the colorful papers from the party poppers.






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Dmitry’s haircut

February 11th, 2007 at 15:45 · Filed Under Critiques, Days in My Life, Dmitry · Comment 

It was always an ordeal to have Dmitry to have his haircut. After the dawn practice, we took D to the “Lorong Bukit Senjuan Scissor Man” for a haircut. He was the first to have his haircut instead of me. To our surprise, he cooperated very well. He got onto a raised seat and let the barber to wrap around him a towel and a long cloth. The barber applied talcum powder around his neck and started the cut.

Everything was so smooth. Then it was Dietrich’s turn. But he broke into tears and tantrum. After many attempts of persuasion, we gave up. Then it was my turn.

Everything went nicely until my wife asked the barber to shave the back of Dmitry’s head after my haircut. The barber became impatient and unfriendly. He said he had little time for such trimming and we should go to hair saloon. He was only doing men’s haircut and this job done well by the girls in the saloon. The trimming would not take more than a minute but this middle-aged “pakcik” was so upset about it. What an excellent customer relations he had!

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Child abuse

January 19th, 2007 at 11:46 · Filed Under At Home, Critiques, Days in My Life, Dietrich, Dmitry, Dominik, Family, General · 5 Comments 

Actually, I did not plan to write about this child abuse thing. It happened to my kids and I would not want to leave any marks on them. So, I decided not to write about it and hopefully to let this incident died. But I read about this maid thing in Suzette’s blog and I think I shall speak up and warn other parents about Indonesian maid.

Last August when my wife gave birth to Dominik, my mom sent her maid to our home to help. She helped to wash and cook. We did not want her to even lay a finger on our kids. But my 2nd son, Dietrich, liked her very much and liked to hug her. We left it to be but we tried to prevent him from doing so as much as we could.

Then I had retinal detachment in September. Had a surgery and needed for follow-up examination in KL. My wife would drive me to KL for the examination. One day in October, my wife sent me to the clinic in KL without taking any kids along (we left them at home together with my MIL and the maid), we discovered a small bruise on my eldest son left inner arm. We became suspicious about her and my wife asked Dmitry who did this. He told my wife that the maid “pinch” her! My wife asked him 5 times and he answered 5 times the same answers! Then my wife and I checked on Dietrich and found a bruise on his right waist. Dietrich did not know to express yet. Then we decided to file a police report and sent her to the police station for investigation. And we had to sent our kids to General Hospital for examination! After the police investigation, we deported her back to Indonesia.

Why did she pinch the kids? We trained our kids to do household chores. It appeared that Dmitry wanted to help her to clean the dining table. Apparently, the maid did not want him to do that so they were snatching the cleaning cloth. And the bitch pinched him. As for the case of Dietrich, we did not know what happened because he did not know how to express himself yet.

Of course not all Indonesian maids are bad. My mom had one maid earlier and she was very hardworking and quick in her work. We, particularly my sister Angie, really missed her. Angie missed her so much even until the last days before her departure. We tried to contact her in Indonesia but failed.

Before this happened, my wife and I had talked about installing CCTV at home. But before we could finalize the decision, this unpleasant thing had already happened. It was too late to install and we would never need to install one because my mom had decided not to employ any maid anymore.

If you want to install one, then do it! Don’t think about the cost or its worthiness. You never know what these fanatic Indonesian maids can do (but not all of them are like this).

Luckily, the incident did not leave any permanent psychological effect on our kids.

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Bullied by girls

January 11th, 2007 at 15:19 · Filed Under Dmitry, Family, Karate · Comment 

Dmitry was bullied by girls of his age today! One good thing was that he did not bullied them back. What a gentleman he was. On the other hand, it was not so good to let girls to bully him. I told him to say “No!” and “Stop!” when someone did this again and immediately to tell the teacher.

I asked his teacher if he cried. “Nope. He is a good boy. Dmitry did not bully anyone and he is very good to his friends.” , said his teacher. I was so proud of D after hearing his teacher’s comment.

It is ok at this age but when he has grown older, there should be a bottom line and the bullies will better not to cross this line. D is not really following the karate training at this curious age. He runs around during the training but I know what to get him to follow in the class, I have to be in training myself. He likes to train beside me. I will try to train myself during the class tomorrow. It can be exhaustive when I need to coach and train at the same time.

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