Happy birthday to Si Baw Mi

Female

Female - (Fe)male - Male alloyed with iron, for greater strength, ductility, and magnetism.

Today is my birthday. Guess how old I am? :-)

Neil, Diana, David and me

THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD

I dreamed I had an interview with God. 

"So you would like to interview me?" God asked.

"If you have the time" I said. 

God smiled. "My time is eternity."
"What questions do you have in mind for me?"

"What surprises you most about humankind?"

God answered...
"That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then 
long to be children again."

"That they lose their health to make money...
and then lose their money to restore their health."

"That by thinking anxiously about the future, 
they forget the present, 
such that they live in neither 
the present nor the future."

"That they live as if they will never die, 
and die as though they had never lived."

God's hand took mine
and we were silent for a while.

And then I asked...
"As a parent, what are some of life's lessons 
you want your children to learn?"

"To learn they cannot make anyone 
love them. All they can do 
is let themselves be loved."

"To learn that it is not good 
to compare themselves to others."

"To learn to forgive
by practicing forgiveness."

"To learn that it only takes a few seconds 
to open profound wounds in those they love, 
and it can take many years to heal them." 

"To learn that a rich person 
is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least."

"To learn that there are people 
who love them dearly, 
but simply have not yet learned 
how to express or show their feelings."

"To learn that two people can 
look at the same thing 
and see it differently."

"To learn that it is not enough that they 
forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves."

"Thank you for your time," I said humbly. 

"Is there anything else 
you would like your children to know?"

God smiled and said, 
"Just know that I am here... always." 

-author unknown 

Joke

Work, Sex and Play

A man wonders if having sex on the Sabbath is a sin because he is not sure if sex is work or play. He asks a priest for his opinion on this question.

The priest says after consulting the Bible," My son, after an exhaustive search I am positive sex is work and is not permitted on Sundays."

The man thinks: "What does a priest know of sex?" He goes to a minister... a married man, experienced... for the answer.

He queries the minister and receives the same reply..Sex is work and not for the Sabbath!

Not pleased with the reply, he seeks out the ultimate authority: a man of thousands of years tradition and knowledge... A Rabbi.

The Rabbi ponders the question and states," My son, sex is definitely play."

The man replies," Rabbi, how can you be so sure when so many others tell me sex is work?!"

The Rabbi softly speaks," If sex were work... my wife would have the maid do it.

Joke

Where Is Jesus

A Sunday School teacher of pre-schoolers was concerned that his students might be a little confused about Jesus Christ because of the Christmas season emphasis on His birth. He wanted to make sure they understood that the birth of Jesus occurred for real.

He asked his class, "Where is Jesus today?"

Steven raised his hand and said, "He's in heaven."

Mary was called on and answered, "He's in my heart."

Little Johnny, waving his hand furiously, blurted out, "I know, I know! He's in our bathroom!!!"

The whole class got very quiet, looked at the teacher, and waited for a response.

The teacher was completely at a loss for a few very long seconds.

Finally, he gathered his wits and asked Little Johnny how he knew this.

Little Johnny said, "Well...every morning, my father gets up, bangs on the bathroom door, and yells, "Good Lord, are you still in there?!"

Joke

In the Closet

A married woman is having an affair. Whenever her lover comes over, she puts her nine year old son in the closet. One day the woman hears a car in the driveway and puts her lover in the closet as well.

Inside the closet, the little boy says, "It`s dark in here, isn`t it?"

"Yes, it is," the man replies.

"You wanna buy a baseball?" the little boy asks.

"No thanks," the man replies.

"I think you do want to buy a baseball," the little extortionist continues.

"OK. How much?" the man replies after considering the position he`s in.

"Twenty-five dollars," the little boy replies.

"TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS?" the man repeats incredulously, but complies to protect his hidden position.

The following week, the lover is visiting the woman again when she hears a car in the driveway and, again, places her lover in the closet with her little boy.

"It`s dark in here, isn`t it?" the boy starts off.

"Yes, it is," replies the man.

"Wanna buy a baseball glove?" the little boy asks.

"OK. How much?" the hiding lover responds, acknowledging his disadvantage.

"Fifty dollars," the boy replies and the transaction is completed.

The next weekend, the little boy`s father says "Hey, son, go get your ball and glove and we`ll play some catch."

"I can`t. I sold them," replies the little boy.

"How much did you get for them?" asks the father, expecting to hear the profit in terms of lizards and candy.

"Seventy-five dollars," the little boy says.

"SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS? That`s thievery! I`m taking you to the church right now. You must confess your sin and ask for forgiveness," the father explains as he hauls the child away.

At the church, the little boy goes into the confessional, draws the curtain, sits down, and says "It`s dark in here, isn`t it?"

To which the priest exclaims, "Don`t you start that in here."

Joke

The Preachers Widow

An Illinois man left the snow filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida.

His wife was on a trip and was planning to meet him there the next day.

When he reached his motel in Florida, he decided to send his wife a quick e-mail.

Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it in from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher's wife whose husband had passed away only the day before.

When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, she let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a total faint.

At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

DEAREST WIFE:
JUST GOT CHECKED IN.
EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW.
P.S. SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE!!

Joke

Sunday School

Little Mary was not the best student in Sunday school. Usually she slept through the class.

One day the teacher called on her while she was napping, "Tell me, Mary, who created the universe?"

When Mary didn't stir, little Johnny, an altruistic boy seated in the chair behind her, took a pin and jabbed her in the rear.

"God almighty!" Shouted Mary and the teacher said, "very good" and Mary fell back asleep.

A while later the teacher asked Mary, "Who is our lord and savior," but, Mary didn't even stir from her slumber.

Once again, Johnny came to the rescue and stuck her again.

"Jesus Christ!" Shouted Mary and the teacher said, "very good," and Mary fell back asleep.

Then the teacher asked Mary a third question.

"What did Eve say to Adam after she had her twenty-third child?" and again, Johnny jabbed her with the pin.

This time Mary jumped up and shouted, "if you stick that damn thing in me one more time, I'll break it in half!"

The teacher fainted.

I read the news about Dept. 1127 from Bell Labs today.

http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=9846/ur0508l/ur0508l.html

Dept. 1127: going, Going, GONE! by Peter H. Salus

In 1969, UNIX was created at Bell Labs.

For decades, the source of the AT&T dialect of UNIX came from the researches of workers in department 1127.

When the "Baby Bells" split from "Ma Bell," department 1127 survived. When AT&T and Lucent split, 1127 survived.

But the new reorg at Bell Labs finally breaks up what's left of 1127 entirely. Theory people will go to one place, systems people to another, I'm told. I'm not sure what happens to those who fall in neither camp. There was no malice, so far as I can tell, just an administrative reorg forced by recent cutbacks and layoffs and departures that left the whole research area with too many managers and too few researchers.

Ken Thompson retired to California.

Brian Kernighan is a Professor at Princeton.

Doug McIlroy is a Professor at Dartmouth.

Rob Pike and Dave Presotto and Sean Dorward are at Google.

Tom Duff is at Pixar.

Phil Winterbottom is CTO at Entrisphere.

Gerard Holzmann is at NASA/JPL Lab for Reliable Software.

Bob Flandrena is at Morgan Stanley.

To the best of my knowledge, Dennis Ritchie and Howard Trickey remain, enisled.

A former employee at 1127 remarked:

"My take is that 1127 probably reached Schiavo status when Rob, Presotto, et al. fled west to Google.

"But it's still sad to see the final demise, both of a particular institution and as a further nail in the coffin of the sort of research environment Bell Labs once represented."

That may be the worst effect. DEC Labs are gone. XEROX PARC transmogrified into "Palo Alto Research Center Inc." on 4 January 2002. It's a waning of research potential.

Ave atque vale, guys. "And thanks for all the fish."

While I was going through my old files, I found this piece of paper from Purdue for my 4 years' effort.

My Purdue Degree

My Graduation Day back in May 2002

BARS students performing Burmese drama last year (Thar Gay Gyi and Seng Bu)

A rabbit from Mogok, north of Burma

Today is my youngest brother's birthday.

My family picture (the one in the middle in the back row is my brother whose birthday is today) Note: my sister is not in the picture.

My sister, Thi Thi Win

Humor

A minister was talking to a children's Sunday School class about kindness to animals. He cite the Biblical references to substantiate his case.

"Now let's suppose," he said, "that you saw a bad person cutting off the tail of a cat. What Biblical quotation would you use to tell him of the terrible wrong he was doing?"

"I would point out to him," one of the class said, "what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. (Mt. 19:6)"

I went to Si Si Htun, a BARS graduate's house, for her birthday thanksgivings.The following picture was taken at her house.

A typical Burmese village house

I had a chance to talk to Saya Augurlion who just came back from the States after finishing his Master in Theology from Pittsburg Theological Seminary. He also had to go through some reverse culture shock.

He gave chocolates to the immigration officer and cigarette cartoons to the customs officer at the airport.

Augurlion and Lwin Moe chatting and relaxing

I went to the dinner hosted by the Myanmar Christian Fellowship of the Blind (MCFB). I was involved, in early days, in the project to convert Burmese fonts into Burmese Brey.

Dinner to honor Zaw Htut from MyanmarsNet and Kyaw Lin from Natural Language Processing for their work to convert Burmese fonts into Burmese Brey. Left-right: Lwin Moe, Kyaw Lin, Zaw Htut, Htay Lwin, U Thein Lwin (standing).

U Thein Lwin, the secretary of the Myanmar Christian Fellowship of the Blind (MCFB), giving a speech during dinner

Unlicensed Car Crackdown

The government has really cracked down unlicensed cars all over the country. The car in the picture was imported from Thailand through Three Pagodas border pass. People in Mon state were using those cars with fake licenses. The offical price of that car in Rangoon would be US $ 100,000, which is ridiculous and only the richest of the rich can afford. However, the price of that car smuggled in through the border would be US $ 10,000, which it should be. The control of import license is causing the jump in price for cars. The powerful are abusing the system.

Cars were smuggled in through Thailand and China border towns, such as:

• Three Pagodas in Mon State
• Mya Wa De in Kayin (Karen) State
• Muse in Northern Shan State
• Thachileik in Southern Shan State
• Laiza and Mei Ja Yang in Kachin State

Lwin Moe with an unlicensed SUV :-)

Somebody was joking that Burma is the most expensive place in the world for:

• Phones (US $ 1,000-2,000)
• Automobiles
• Prawns (Shrimps)

ALOHA 22

Mon Baptist Churches Union's Logo

Burmese village scene at Nyaung Ywa village in Hmaw Bi, Yangon

Ex-political prisoner, Dr. Khin Zaw Win, said the following:

The situation has changed a little bit. I think it is getting slightly more open. I am saying what I think. You can call me stupid as I studied Political Science. I wrote not only about Political Science, but also about the Burmese Constitution, they became more frightened. What I want to say is, I want more Burmese to attend and participate in the international organisations and universities. I want their eyes to be more open. We have been cut off from the outside world around 40 years. We are quite behind in academic outlook, academic standard and the like. As you know, is there a Political Science in Burmese Universities? Before 1962, it is said that Political Science was taught by History departments. During the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) time, La[n]zin Youth studies political science for their propaganda purpose. If you want to have progress in a country's university education system, you can't leave aside and omit this subject, or be afraid of it. To say it openly, because of this vacuum, there are some outdated political views. I dare say it. Our mode of thinking is outdated. We are unable to think in a modern way. Our views are outdated. I want to urge young and middle-age[d] people to continue studying.

Sui Dawt Men and Si Baw Mi

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