Some say friends are those who help you through hard times; some say friends are those who you share your happiness and sorrows with; and some say friends are those who make us who we are.
Some people say friends come and go, some people say good friends worth the effort to stay connect.
Some people say friends aren't forever, some people say friends stay forever because we want to.
Some people say friends won't completely understand us, some people say friends are only true when you understand and let understood.
Some people say friends who let go should be let gone, some people say friends drifted apart because they are both fear of saying "I miss you, please come back".
Lastly, a lovely song for you to listen here. Long lost penpal, by Hello Saferide.
Long lost penpal by Hello Saferide
Hello Do you remember me I am your long lost pen pal It must have been ten years ago we last wrote I don't really know what happened I guess life came in the way Let me know if you're still alive Let me know if you ever used that knife or not
Hello Yes I remember you I've got a husband and two children now I work as an accountant and make fairly good money I still have your letters, you used a pink pen to write them And you would comfort me when my tears would stain the ink And I would send you mix tapes with Kate Bush on
I have to admit I sometimes lied in those letters Tried to make life better than it was I still wasn't kissed at sixteen And I still need a friend
There was this letter I never told you this back then But it would be fair to say it saved my life I sat in the window The only one left out from a party again Pretty sure I didn't have a single friend Then I checked the mailbox
Dear long lost penpal I was lying the whole time I'm really a 46 years old man named Luke I have three children and a wife, she doesn't care And I hope you don't resent me And I hope you do not hate me For trying to find my way back to what it's like to be young
I have to admit I sometimes lied in those letters Tried to make life better than it was I still wasn't kissed at sixteen And I still need a friend
And some of the times, we need friends to make life better than it was.
You scroll across your contacts in your mobile phone and you found no one to call up for a lunch out. You open up a new message box and end up clearing the text you've typed because there's no one you thought would be free enough to reply. You log on to instant messenger online and log off in three minutes after you realise those who are online aren't people you could actually chat with.
And then you shut down computer, turn off phone, sit in front of the 24-hour-entertaining television set and start to wane in blues. Those are the times we call ourselves feeling lonely.
But are we totally alone with our loneliness? We may always have thought that loneliness is a completely self-contained emotional state. However, study shows that loneliness is actually contagious. Yes, loneliness, like flu or cold, could spread from one person to another.
According to a research led by University of Chicago Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience director John Cacioppo, loneliness can be transmitted from one person to another, whether in person, on the phone or even online. And in turn, this spreading of loneliness influences the pattern of social network around the lonely person. - Chicago tribune
The results of the study shows that when a person admits feeling lonely at one point, his or her family and close friends will be 52% more likely to encounter loneliness two years later. The contagious effect of loneliness will remain significant up to three degrees of separation. It means that when you are feeling lonely, you could influence your friend's friend's friend to feel lonely. - Time magazine
Besides, the researchers also found that when a person feels lonely for one more day in a week than usual, his or her neighbours who are close friends would experience increased loneliness. - Science daily
It sounds bizarre - that your next-door neighbour, and even your friend's friend's friend whom you may not even heard about his/her name before could feel lonely because you are lonely. Surprising as it sounds, but how does this really happen? What it really takes to make a lonely person makes another person or even a stranger lonely?
According to Cacioppo's research, there is a pattern of contagion that over a period of time, the group of lonely people will be gradually moved to the edge of social networks. In other words, when people become lonely, they become more and more disconnected with the society. - Science Daily
"On the periphery people have fewer friends, yet their loneliness leads them to losing the few ties they have left," said Caciappo in an article published in Science daily.
However, before they lose the last few ties, they spread their feelings of loneliness to their remaining friends, who would then also become lonely.
"People who feel lonely view the social world as more threatening," said Caciappo in an article published in Time magazine. "They may not be aware that they are doing it, but lonely individuals think negatively about other people. So if you are my friend, and I started to treat you negatively, then over time, we would stop being friends.
"But in the meantime, our interactions caused you to treat other people less positively, so you're likely to lose friends, and they in turn are likely to lose friends. That appears to be the means of transmission for loneliness," he added.
Frowning, making other unpleasant facial expressions, saying hurtful things or even adopting uninviting body postures are all it takes to spread negative feelings. - Time magazine
The significance of the results of this study is that it shows that "loneliness is more like an indicator of the social health of our species on the whole". To the psychology therapy field, it means treatment for loneliness not only involve the patients themselves, but also larger, society-based issues, that probably "there is almost a wave of loneliness that is being propagated by people two or three connections removed from them". - Time magazine
Now that we see how loneliness can be spread and its implication on a larger scale, the question that we should ask is: What can we do to help the situation?
Ultimately, loneliness is our "biological signal of hunger or thirst" (Chicago tribune); only that what we are hungry and thirst for is a helping hand, comforting words, and some wamrth in a friendly hug.
In the end of the day, we are not completely alone when we are lonely - your friend's friend's friend could feel lonely because you are lonely. Now, we are not really that isolated in this colder and colder world after all, are we?
I had had doubts if I would ever continue writing in this blog again, or if anyone would still be following, checking on my blog every weekend, having that tiny little hope that she or he may see an update.
And if anyone still does, I greatly appreciate your appreciation, and I'm also awfully sorry for deserting this blog for more than three months.
But I'm back today, again. Things I'll be writing here may be different from what I've always been writing though; it's been a long time, and people changes from time to time. After all, the world is dynamic, life is dynamic, people are dynamic.
Change is always for the better, I believe.
My return today is a very simple one - I just have these quotes from significant figures that I really like to share. Writing in facebook status or windows live messenger's personal message can only include that many - and I have read so many good lines today that I really like people to know.
They've made my day. Hope they do the same to you too, whoever is reading.
Mark Twain (American humorist, writer and lecturer. 1835-1910)
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
“Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.”
Maya Angelou (American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. 1928-present)
"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."
I only learned about this great woman, Maya Angelou, today. And yes, I'm going to check out her famous book "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" soon!
When I've got the time to hit the bookstore.
I hate this but I'm having so little time to be spent on going out. It's a dangerous place we're living in, but I guess once in a while, we all need some fresh air, somewhere else.
A bookstore, a restaurant, or a movie.
2012 was good in terms of graphics, moderately heart-gripping, but somehow it's also commercialised, if you know what I mean. It could have been better, if it could go deeper than just surface.
Humanity. The best test I've ever seen on movies was in Batman: The Dark Knight; where two ships were installed with bombs. If you've seen that movie, you know what I meant.
Thanks for reading Eternal Baroque. Good evening, and have a great weekend. :)
One interesting thing about commercial ads is that sometimes it inspires. Like watching a meaningful movie, or listening an emotional song; the heart aches, then it warms up; a surge of life in your veins.
It's not hard to survive in this modern days. But perhaps, most of us have problems seeing through; knowing how to live.
And that's the reason some movies, some songs, some ads, could touch a cord in you; as if you've been asleep for all this while, waiting for that one sentence, to wake you up to life.
To cut long story short - I went for a movie night out with my friends last night (Public Enemy, great!), and there was this Chivalry commercial before the movie started. It was as if the narrator was talking to me - a life-inspiring message.
The Movement, Live with Chivalry, Chivas
Transcript:
Millions of people. Everyone out for themselves. Can this really be the only way? No. Here's to honor. and to gallantry, long may it live. Here's to doing the right thing. To giving a damn. Here's to the straight-talkers, who give their word, and keep it. Here's to freedom, wherever you find it, and to knowing the true meaning of wealth. Here's to the brave among us. Here's to a code of behavior that sets certain men apart from all others. Here's to us. Live with Chivalry.
On another note, the background music used in this commercial is a masterpiece. Can't resist to not share it with you. I love how the music flies from one point.
To Build A Home - Cinematic Orchestra
There is a house built out of stone Wooden floors, walls and window sills... Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust.. This is a place where I don't feel alone This is a place where I feel at home.......
Cause, I built a home for you for me
Until it disappeared from me from you
And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust........
Out in the garden where we planted the seeds There is a tree as old as me Branches were sewn by the color of green Ground had arose and passed it's knees
By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top I climbed the tree to see the world When the gusts came around to blow me down I held on as tightly as you held onto me I held on as tightly as you held onto me......
Cause, I built a home for you for me
Until it disappeared from me from you
And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust........
Hooks, daggers, even iron bars, pierced through the skin and flesh of the people walking under the hot sun, towards the temple high up in the dark caves; they walk with pride, without a single sign of fear, as if they do not feel the hooks on their backs, nor the daggers inside their jaws; as if they do not feel pain.
Every year in Malaysia we can see Hindus flocking to Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, during Thaipusam festival. Thaipusam is the day when the Hindus come to thank their gods for granting them their wish. One of the unique scenery on this day, is certainly the extreme actions some Hindus took to show their gratitude to their gods. Some push through a dagger in their jaws, or cheeks, some pierce through the skins of their backs with sharp metallic hooks. They each take different ways to show their faith, but what is similar is that none of them show a sign of pain.
For the Hindus, it is believed that with proper rituals done prior to the special day, and with a deep faith in their gods, they will not feel any pain when taking such seemingly painful actions. According to them, they do not feel any pain when they pierce through their flesh with metals because they are protected by gods.
Bizarre as it sounds, there is also another case as a similar example - the followers of Sufi teachings. During their rituals, they chant and chant, sometimes even dance. As their chants get louder and louder, their devotions to their teachings get more and more intense, they claim that they can push through daggers, swallow swords without feeling any pain. And also that they can heal very fast, without an ugly wound left behind, within minutes, after pulling out the daggers or swords.
Similarly, the Sufi followers claimed that they are blessed and protected by their God when they perform such rituals, hence the magical powers of no pain, and fast healing.
While experiments found that the phenomenon of no pain, and fast healing, is TRUE, and that the bio-light of a person is enhanced when performing such ritual, which lead certain scientists to conclude that "the only simple explanation is God"; some scientists argue that it's not God, it's just OURSELVES.
Experiments back then have shown that human's consciousness has very powerful influence over their physical bodies. The famous example would be that experiment, in which a person was hypnotized, and being told he would be touched with a hot coal. The experiment subject then actually had his hand burnt, even though in the reality he was being touched with an ice block during the experiment.
Therefore some scientists argue that the "magical power" of no pain and fast healing when highly-religious people perform such rituals, is actually the power that they obtain, simply because of "faith". There is no external forces, but only internal influences where their strong believe in immunity to pain because of God, make their physical bodies immune from feeling any pain. It is what we call, mind over matter.
For years debates have been on this subject - is the power of feeling no pain, the gifts of God, or is it natural capability of human beings that is yet to be understood?
And thus here I ask the question : Do you believe in any external forces outside our mind (e.g. God, spirits, etc) ? Or do you think that there is no external forces, but it's only our mind over our bodies, and matters; it has always been just us, and our powerful consciousness ?
I personally think that such magical powers derived from both forces - external, as well as internal. Yes, I totally agree that the power of human's mind is so vast, so....unlimited, and also, undefined. I believe that, with a strong faith in something we are doing, we can achieve anything beyond our known limitations.
However, I also believe that there are external forces, unnecessarily be God. I believe the universe is filled with energies, active, inactive, flowing, stagnant, occupied, or free-flowing. When we believe strongly in something, our consciousness actually is "stirred" to such intensity, where it "attracts" the external energies outside our bodies, resulting in a resonance that may enhance what our physical bodies can do.
For me, the answer lies in a collaboration between the two - the intensity of our consciousness, and the resonance with external energies outside our bodies.
But still, we will never know the true answer until the true potentials of human beings is being explored, and mapped out; until we can say definitely what is really the limitations for human beings, or what is not.
As human being that possess the ability to think of why to everything, we are the most mysterious of all beings in this world. It's even more mysterious, when mysterious beings like us, are actually looking inward now, looking for an answer to what we can actually do, and what we really are.
I believe most of you who have followed Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci's Code" story closely would be familiar with; or at least heard of it more than just once - Phi, the golden ratio.
In spite of its significance in mathematics and arts, the definition of a golden ratio is rather simple actually. Take one line here, and then we cut the line into two segments in different length in a special way. Say we name the longer line segment as line segment a, and the shorter one, b.
What is so special with it is that we have to make sure the ratio of the length of the entire line (a + b) to the length of the longer line segment (a), is the same with the ratio of the length of the longer line segment (a) to the shorter one (b). Get that right, and we will already be looking at the magic number, the golden ratio, a.k.a. Phi.
The golden ratio is often denoted by the Greek letter phi (Φ or φ). Phi is a ratio, and moreover, an irrational mathematical constant; which approximately equals to 1.6180339887. When expressed algebraically:
In one of his books, Stephen Hawking once mentioned the more numbers of mathematical formulas are printed in a book, the less popular it will be selling. Thus let's leave that algebraic expression as the one and only mathematical formula you will see in this article, to prevent further boredom. :)
Well, back to the heart-gripping fiction. The handsome Harvard lecturer Robert Langdon gave a mathematics lecture on golden ratio in his class, trying to tell his students how special, and how really close the number is, to human beings. Fibonacci's sequence, ratio of female bees to male bees in a hive, ratio of one spiral to the next spiral on a nautilus, ratio of the diameter of a rotation to the next in a sunflower's growth, even to the ratio between different human body parts.
"Measure the distance from the tip of your head to the floor. Then divide that by the distance from your belly button to the floor. Guess what number you get," says Langdon in the class. And we don't have to guess like his students here; the answer by Langdon, is Phi; no surprise here. To top it off, he claims that Leonardo da Vinci has shown belief in golden ratio as the ratio of the height of a perfect human face to its width; that the artist used Phi in his artwork, Vitruvian Man. - Discovermagazine.com
Of course, we have much to thank Langdon, or Brown, for indirectly giving such a mathematical revelation to the readers who may or may not know about Phi before. However, Brown is a fiction writer, and there are certainly a lot of disputable claims in this book; and some are more fiction than fact. And thus as critical-thinking readers, we have to ask: how much are the claims about Phi is true in the story?
Look at the human body proportion example Langdon proposes. Measure the distance from the tip of your head to the floor. Then divide that by the distance from your belly buttion to the floor. What answers, we will actually get? I bet it's something close to 1.6. But what is 1.6? When we compare the number 1.6, to the irrational number of Phi, 1.6180339887... , we can see why this claim is impractical, weak in foundation. There are a lot of ratios we can get that, when simplified, is 1.6. But that can be derived from a numerous possibility of exact numbers - 1.623, 1.607, 1.572, etc. And these numbers I just gave as examples cannot be said to be anywhere close to 1.6180339887... . - Discovermagazine.com
Besides, if you spend time measuring your body parts, you might get numbers like 1.2, 1.8, other than 1.6. It's more coincidence than predetermined. - Discovermagazine.com
Similarly, the claims on Vitruvian Man doesn't seem to be very solid either. According to Keith Devlin in his article "Cracking the Da Vinci Code", the equally common claims that Sandro Botticelli used φ to proportion Venus in his famous painting The Birth of Venus and that Georges Seurat based his painting The Side Show on φ, are also seem to be without foundation. Painters who definitely did make use of φ include the 20th-century artists Louis-Paul-Henri Sérusier, Juan Gris, Gino Severini, and Salvador Dalí; but all four seem to have been experimenting with φ for its own sake rather than for some intrinsic aesthetic reason. - Discovermagazine.com
There are so many false claims made about the golden ratio, and so many surprising truths, that it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Here are some of the most common statements you will find in the literature, besides the ones mentioned in the article. See how many you can correctly guess are true or false. (True means known for sure to be true; false means there is insufficient evidence to justify the statement.)
1. The Egyptian pyramids were constructed using the golden ratio.
2. Some Egyptian tombs were constructed using the golden ratio.
3. Some stone tablets show the Babylonians knew about the golden ratio.
4. The cubists based much of their work on the golden ratio.
5. The famous French architect Le Corbusier advocated and used the golden ratio in architecture.
6. The Secretariat building at the United Nations headquarters in New York comprises a stack of three golden rectangles.
7. Some Gregorian chants are based on the golden ratio.
8. Mozart used the golden ratio in some of his music.
9. Béla Bartók used the golden ratio in some of his music.
10. When a falcon attacks its prey, it swoops in along a path that is mathematically related to the golden ratio.
11. The poet Virgil based the meter of his poem The Aeneid on the golden ratio.
12. Some 12th-century Sanskrit poems have a meter based on the Fibonacci sequence (and hence are related to the golden ratio).
13. The golden ratio occurs in certain crystal structures.
14. There is a Fibonacci number with exactly 666 digits.
15. If you square any Fibonacci number, the answer will differ by at most 1 from the product of the two adjacent Fibonacci numbers.
Answers:
1. F 2. F 3. F 4. F 5. T 6. F 7. F 8. F 9. F 10. T 11. F 12. T 13. T 14. T 15. T
Now I'm sure you have a clearer, more-examined, less-disputable views about Phi. Although there is a lot of claims in Brown's novel that seems to lack viable justification, but a few points Langdon proposes are true anyway. At least the part about plants.
According to Devlin, to achieve maximum efficiency, flower heads and plant leaves grow in a spiral fashion governed by the golden ratio. Since φ is an irrational number and the number of petals, spirals, or stamens in any plant or flower has to be a whole number, nature “rounds off” to the nearest whole number. - Discovermagazine.com
He also explained that in the case of leaves, each new leaf is added so that it least obscures the leaves already below and is least obscured by any future leaves above it. Hence the leaves spiral around the stem. For seeds in the seed head of a plant, nature wants to pack in as many as possible. The way to do this is to add new seeds in a spiral fashion. - Discovermagazine.com
As such, we come to see why Phi is so significant in science - it's the ratio that gives optimal solution to plant growth equations. - Discovermagazine.com
Like how Devlin puts it, "It’s a question of nature being efficient".
As readers living in a society "exquisitely dependent" on science and technology, we have to sharpen our eyes and logical senses when we read. I certainly do not hope people in our era live up to fulfill Dr. Carl Sagan's expectation that "hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology".
Hence we just have to be critical, and check, and double-check every fact we are absorbing.
"There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, news ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny."
And there we go, Dr. Sagan's quote has quite sum the whole thing up. :)
*Dr. Carl Sagan, 1934-1996, American astronomer, writer and scientist.
Giant mushrooms looming all over the lands, elephant legs with eerie pink flowers growing on top sticking their stems out from rocks, sky-scraping ogres almost bald-headed with creepy hair standing tall in the forest - you would ask, is this a fantasy dream alive in the mind of Guillermo del Toro ?
But no, this is not a fantasy, let alone a dream. It's a real place on Earth, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Horn of Africa. It is a small archipelago of four islands and islets in the Indian Ocean, some 350km south of the Arabian peninsula, belonging to the Republic of Yemen. - Wikipedia: Socotra.
The main island of Socotra, spanning over 30 to 35km north to south and 130km east to west, is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin. The archipelago was believed to have started its long detachment from main continents since the Miocene, some six or seven million years ago.
This harsh and dry land, which derives its name from Sanscrit word meaning "the island of bliss", is considered as the "jewel" of biodiversity in the Arabian Sea. And people name it that way for a good reason. - Dark Roasted Blend, Wikipedia: Socotra.
For millions of years the island has been isolated, providing a suitable environment to preserve a bizarre botanical paradise, since the time of Gondwana, the massive supercontinent once existed on Earth 180 to 200 millions years ago. The long geological isolation of the Socotra archipelago explains the teeming plants varieties on the island - with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, more than a third of the 800 or so plant species are found no where else. Some varieties have even been preserved for 20 million years, i.e. haven't changed their forms or ways of living for those million of years!
As we have a grip on what and how Socotra island is, we shall look back at our otherwordly landscape we just thought came out from Pan's Labyrinth nightmare.
Looking closer, the giant mushrooms looming all over the lands are not mushrooms after all. They are trees, with such great name - the dragon's blood tree, or dracaena cinnabari. The tree has branches spring upwards forming an umbrella-shaped tree top, and when seen from afar, looks just like a giant mushroom. In spite of its uncanny appearance, its red sap was highly sought after as a medicine and a dye.
Next are the disputable elephant legs sticking out of rocks with odd flower branches, except that they are not elephant legs (obviously), but stems of another rare botanical species, the desert rose, or adenium obesium. Weirdly enough that these rather ugly-looking plants which reminded me of literal meanings of frump, are called as the delicate, fragile and graceful rose of the desert (I would say it doesn't live up to half of its name), they actually have more stoical bearing than roses. They grow their roots without soil and straight through the hard rocks.
Leave the harsh roses aside, and we shall look at the ogre with eerie hair like Medusa's. Of course it is not an ogre, instead it looks more like a papaya tree's stem, except that it is taller, more taller, and fatter. It's the cucumber tree, or dendrosicyos socotranum. It doesn't resemble any forms of cucumbers to me, but maybe those bare leaves dangling over its top like some monster's hair do dangle in a cucumber dangling style.
Socotra was recognised as a world natural heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in July last year. The island has around 40,000 populations, but it has only has it first roads in 2006. It is geared towards sustainable eco-tourism and thus, it seems that you would have to get a camel to walk the lands. - Dark Roasted Blend.
Botanists rank the flora of Socotra among the ten most endangered island flora in the world. The archipelago is a site of global importance for biodiversity conservation and a possible center for eco-tourism. - Wikipedia: Socotra.
If there is any places I would want to visit at least once in my life time, I would tick this island as one of them. It's great to be transported back in time to some ancient era in Earth history to have some otherworldly experience, except for the camel-riding part. But who knows, it might feel better than you thought!
The Sims. You live in a neverland of your own family, and the world is flat. The Sims 2. You fall to the circle of life with roommates and course mates, and the world is three-dimensioned. The Sims 3. Your can walk from this side of the town to that side of the town, and the world is interconnected.
From one confined virtual world to a virtual world of endless possibilities, The Sims 3 finally opens the door for sims and its players this June 2.
Originally expected to be released in February, Electronic Arts has announced it has plans to re-evaluate when The Sims 3 will be available in stores, and has now decided to postponed the releasing date to June 2. - Ars Technica
Alongside the June launch, the game team is creating awareness for the game through trailers and videos. And these videos are so great, I can't wait to play The Sims 3 NOW!
It's a harsh cold world out there at the front line.
Being thrown, pushed, crushed, defeated, devastated, depressed. And still the next morning you have to wake up and survive the next battle.
Though till then, all the battles fought were only minor scratches of the whole cruel world.
But the failures in fighting these minor wars were already able to smash the young spirit into shatters and pieces.
Life isn't hard, everyone else is doing the same, and even more difficult jobs than you are; But life's still overwhelming, while you can't even win the weakest monsters when others are already slashing throats of huge demons.
Like a loser gamer in Diablo II, stuck at the ground level and could never break through to the next.
I am baffled in newsdesk. But I'm still surviving, at least able to breathe.
Though the worst part of it hasn't even come yet.
Watching people battling one of the worst demons I feel belittled. I know if it were me, I couldn't handle it.
Relieved and angry at the same time.
Relieved since I know that demon is out of the limit of my capability to handle; Angry because I know I couldn't handle this if it were me while others can excel it.
Even though the hands are trembling when weapons are set out; even though the shoulders are shaking when armour lies in front; even though the tongue is tied dumb when horn is handed - there is no turning back for a soldier on the red line.
In the end it's only sieg or vom krieg zerstört.
All we can hope is a ride on four horses over the Siegestor when the curtain draws.
"Dem Sieg geweiht, vom Krieg zerstört, zum Frieden mahnend" - inscription on back side of The Siegestor (Victory Gate) in Munich by Wilhelm Hausenstein.
"Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, reminding of peace".
Taking control of that wheel, reading the invisible grids mapped out in the vast space, looking over to clouds all around and lands beneath shrink into blurry dots - have you always been aspiring to be a PILOT?
Now here's the chance for it. AirAsia is organising a blogging activity for those who want to apply to be a pilot in AirAsia airlines. Yes, blog! And ten people will be chosen to live their dreams in the sky.
Simply send in your blog entries from April 1 to May 15 this year, telling why you deserve one of the ten spots, to AirAsia blog.
First you'll have to login to the blog (it's the same login as the AirAsia website; create one if you don't have one), and then click on the "Write a Blog Post" tab. Then you can write in your entries titled "So You Wanna be a Pilot?:(post title)" with your full details that include your name, date of birth and your contact details (email, physical address, direct contact number) and submit it.
Applicants are required to meet these basic entry requirements as per the Department of Civil Aviation and AirAsia standards for pilot acceptance.
Conditions of entry:-
1. Aged 18 to 28 as at date of submission of entry
2. Passed SPM (or its equivalent that is recognized by the Malaysian Government) with at least A2 in English and Mathematics and B3 in Physics taken at one sitting. (Those from the Arts stream should have at least an A2 in General Science); or possess a Diploma/Degree in Engineering or Science-related disciplines with CGPA 3.0 and above and at SPM level scored at least a B4 in the subjects mentioned above taken in one sitting.
3. Good command of English and Bahasa Malaysia both written and spoken.
4. Must be physically and mentally fit with good eyesight (visual acuity of at least 6/60 without optical aid, correctable to 6/6 and not colour blind. Should be able to successfully pass a medical examination up to a Class 1 standard conducted by a Department of Civil Aviation Authorised Medical Examiner (DAME).
5. Minimum height of 163 cm (5ft 3in).
6. Be prepared to sign a training bond with a surety.
Ten winners will be selected as a whole. Only published entries will be considered for selection as one of the ten winners. The winners are then entitled to be the first to attend the first round of selection for AirAsia's new pilot intake, which will be determined by AirAsia and AirAsia retains the right to alter the date of interview at its discretion.
I wanted to be a pilot too, at some point of time in my life; How cool and free it is to soar in the sky? Well. Unfortunately I'm too short (around 159cm only)... so guess I'll pass on this great offer.
Though I know some of you might have been always aspiring to wheel that plane! So I'm writing this down in my blog, in case those of you who meet the requirements and interested might want to know about this great opportunity. Good luck blogging and flying! :)
P/S : I just read that you are unnecessarily to be non-spectacled to be a pilot. Read this.
