Yvonne Foong

It was an honor for mom and I, for we were invited to attend Her World Women 2007 Gala Dinner, at Hilton K.L. last night. We drove to the train station and took the LRT to KL Sentral. We arrived 20 minutes late.

Outside the ballroom, guests stood and mingled with each other, while newly arrived ones were pulled aside to be photographed against a purple backdrop. You might spot our faces in the next issue of Her World Magazine.

Inside the ballroom, purple and blue-ish hues of maroon decorated from ceiling to floor and tables. Spotlight shone upwards from every corner prepped up the atmosphere with a sense of crowding in.

We sat at the left, front-most table numbered 16. On my left was a lady who finger-spelled her name as Mona. Next to her was Low Ngai Yuen. The both talked incessantly from start to finish. Mona and I exchanged the occasional notes and one-liners. It wasn’t awhile before I asked Mona why the lady next to her looked so familiar.

Yuen was winner of the 2007 Her World Young Achiever award, presented last night.

I seldom watch TV these days, because most channels are without subtitles. So it has been years since I used to see Yuen on the silver screen. Yuen was nice to have volunteered her email and number. But we didn’t speak much. One, because my mind went back in time and sunk into melancholy. I told Yuen that I used to watch her on 3R, her natural presentation and demeanor. It has been three years since I became deaf, and longer since I watched her or thought of her. But her voice, I still remember today.

I was unaware of Yuen’s latest work in movie directing and production, so imagine my puzzlement at the knowledge of a TV host winning a Young Achiever award. Why her, and not others?

I found out why today, all thanks to the internet.

The event last night could be an omen, you know. Because I am in fact, planning something I hope will be big.

And meeting Yuen the winner was like a green light, a kick in the butt from God. Who else could have planned the time and events to correlate so well?

Earlier today, Pinky replied my email unrelated to this blog post. She suggested that, as planners of the project I hope would be big, we should discuss whether we aim to win any more awards.\

I hope you have time to spare because today, I am going to tell you a story regarding a segment of my life. It’s gonna be interesting so get a cuppa and sit back.

After penning my biography in March last year, I had nothing much to do. I dropped out of music studies at Segi College because a tumor was discovered inhibiting my remaining hearing nerve in the left hemisphere of my brain. In February, my hearing in that ear suddenly gone worse and I had to spend Chinese New Year in the hospital.

Later on, I met a wonderful woman named Cordelia Lee, who chanced upon my website and got to know me in person. She encouraged me to write a book, that led me to knocking the doors of many foreign literary agents and publishers. That was where I got to know a wonderful writer named John Ling as well.

Life at this stage was in suspense. I was at the verge of falling back to square one, or with one more step, I could have found myself heading to a brighter future. Being a new author was not easy, and I kept receiving rejections because my manuscript at that time was unpolished.

I almost wanted to give up and follow the wind like a boneless straw. But that did not happen because I came across an advertisement by Eden Handicap Service Center in Penang that was looking for volunteers, and I thought “why not?”. After all, I didn’t have any serious commitments. Why not dedicate my time to people who needs it badly?

So the process of job interview began. Mom and I headed to Penang. Madelene and bertie Tye, the founders of Eden HDC were very friendly. They showed us around for two days. The best was, they liked me too! They wanted me to have the position of a hostel coordinator. Basically, I was required to do paper work, oversee the hostel operations, take note of medical and physiotherapy appointments, and probably boss around when there is nothing much to do. Haha okay just kidding. But you get my drift, don’t you? Sounds like a fun job. I’d get to work with children without the pressure of the typical corporate world.
Read the rest of this entry »

Whooops! My mistake. I’m not supposed to send the donations on my sponsors’ behalf. So the money that were handed to me earlier are returned to the respective sponsors.

Just a note though. Postal order is very convenient. So if you don’t have a checking account, do drop by at the nearest Post Malaysia office to purchase some postal orders and have them mailed to

Mailing Address
BLOGATHON
EDEN HANDICAP SERVICE CENTRE
C0-09-GF,
KOMPLEKS MASYARAKAT PENYAYANG,
JALAN UTAMA,
10450 PENANG
MALAYSIA

Cheques or money order made payable to
Eden Handicap Service Centre Berhad

Thanks and sorry for the inconvinience!

Dear sponsors,

Madelene Tye of Eden HDC has sent word that donations should be made in the following manner.

Mailing Address
BLOGATHON
EDEN HANDICAP SERVICE CENTRE
C0-09-GF,
KOMPLEKS MASYARAKAT PENYAYANG,
JALAN UTAMA,
10450 PENANG
MALAYSIA

Cheques or money order made payable to
Eden Handicap Service Centre Berhad

And please include your personal details such as name and address so Eden HDC may send a receipt to you. Thank you!

Dear friends,

We finally made it! 63 posts in 24 hours! Isn’t that amazing? Most importantly, the 63 posts are made up of quality content. Here’s a summary of our posts.

Yvonne Foong (9pm - 5am)
1. Blogathon Begins
2. Neurofibromatosis, A Brief Introduction
3. The Eyes Of Blogathon
4. Getting Properly Diagnosed
5. Second Opinion
6. Being An NFer
7. Getting The Right Doctor
8. He’s MY doctor, so now what?
9. Following Up
10. Treatment
11. Rehabilitation
12. Food Supplements are only what they’re called for
14. Alternative Medicine
15. NF & Children
16. NF & Relationships
17. Special NF Diet

John Ling (5am - 1pm)
1. Taking Hold Of The Baton
2. Starting Young
3. Free the writer in me?
4. Shattered
5. Writing letters
6. Getting over fear
7. Aspiring writer? not!
8. The hunger
9. You can’t be published unless…
10. An industry like no other
11. Publishing is getting tougher by the day
12. Iceland
13. Tightening the belt
14. I want to get published, darn it!
15. Print On Demand
16. Brotherhood- Infinity to zero
17. Why I write thrillers
18. Trying to get published for real
19. Building a portfolio
20. Working with editors
21. The biggest break
22. Coming full circle
23. So, what’s next for me?
24. Tip to promote yourself as a writer
25. How to write better
26. Over and out

Tan Yi Liang (1pm - 9pm)
1. And so it begins
2. Science fiction to me
3. Genres of science fiction
4. Why?
5. Examples
6. Red malaya- the dark clouds
7. Red malaya, the dataran merdeka area
8. Red Malaya- LRT tunnel/Masjid Jamek station
9. Towards PJ/KLCC LRT station
10. Red malaya- Hope, suria KLCC
11. Red Malaya- The Resistance
12. Red Malaya-Nightfall, Pasar Seni LRT
13. Interlude-Why Malaysia in Science Fiction
14. A Short Consideration
15. Red Malaya- Pantai
16. Interlude-Why Malaysia in Science Fiction 02
17. Pneumatica Victoria-Short Story 01
18. Red Malaya- Almost Home, Section 17 PJ
19. Red Malaya-Home, PJ
20. Blogathon 2005

Do read up on our blogathon entries here: http://www.yvonnefoong.com/?cat=14

I’m feelng extremely overwhelmed now. We actually made 63 blog entries in 24 hours! Isn’t that fantastic? If you appreciate our work, please consider sponsoring us by donating to Eden handicap Service Center http://www.blogathon.org/blogathon.php?campaign&id=11
Blogathon is still accepting pledges until Tuesday, 9th August 2005.

Well, now it’s 9, and it’s officially over.
Have to ay, it was a fun experience, certainly a challenging one, and one that I enjoyed immensely. Was fun to learn about NF from Yvonne, and was certainly eye opening to read all about what it takes to be a writer, thanks to John.
Thank you for sharing this experience with me, John.

Am grateful to Yvonne for trusting me with one third of this journey, and forcing my posts, on any blog to take on a certain edge and structure. Normally I am not so structured, nor focused when I blog. Thank you for sharing this voyage, of Blogathon 05, with me.

To the readers, hope you found my works entertaining, and I thank you for letting me voice my opinions and thoughts on Malaysia in a SF setting. It was fun for me being your guide through a set of ideas, and a whole umbrella of genres, and I hope the experience was fun for you too.

This is Yi Liang, final blogger on yvonnefoong.com, signing off.

With much luck, I am now home. Passed through Section 17 and the Jalan Universiti area, into New Town.

No Reds in sight on the ground , heard the choppers though. Saw a few jets screaming overhead, high up. Whether they were ours, or Red, was very hard to tell.

No matter. Am home, and my family is fine for now.
Am feeling very lucky indeed, so many dead in KL, so many missing and fleeing.

Will wait and see. When the time is right, we will go.

We slid through Pantai, and by some luck down into the University.
No roadblocks, nothing to stop us. There was the sporadic chatter of gunfire, but that was just an attack on the NPE roadblock. From what I’ve heard, it was a success for the Resistance, despite the loss of precious life.

Saw a few choppers, but by some luck they did’nt see us. Two Hinds and a Hokum far off.
Pity it’s under such circumstances my reading comes in handy.

Am in Section 17, PJ now. Almost home. No commies in sight.

The first story of Pneumatica Victoria, do Enjoy.

“A Letter Home.”

My Dearest Mildred.

I hope that all is all right in London, and that the Kaiser’s agitations, does not worry you so. In our age, such thunder is all but inevitable, what with the technology that we revel in. Even here in Penang, I celebrate your acceptance in Sir Tesla’s laboratories. It must be truly a boon for you, dear woman of science.

“I was reading the Times , and a few choice lines struck me.

With steam, comes clouds of water and of smoke.
With brewing trouble, also comes clouds. Dark and grey.

And it is steam that wreaths Her Majesty’s Straits Settlement of Penang.”

Romantic, is it not?

WE saw the silver linings first, marvelling over the wonders of the Electron and the Aether. Of steam, and how Man could harness the great potential of Electricity through steam.
And there are many men who we can credit for this explosion of Industrial Power. But one shines out. Nikola Tesla.

From Tesla, we get generators of Electrical energy. With Electricity, we power Tesla Aethermachines, which has opened up whole new worlds, The Aetherpolis, by which mails can travel in the blink of an eye, whizzing through the sky and the Aether through our Wireless systems. A-Mails, they’re called. 1890 is truly a marvelous time to be alive, what with businesses booking “shops” over the swirling Aether. One can get his musical enjoyments through the Aether too.. although, that is horrendoulsy illegal.

Vicar Symonds spoke about it last week in his sermon. “Horrible thing, most beastly,” he called the Aether. “A Den of sin”, too. Would agree with him, the burlesque and debauchery that goes on, travesty of Eros, if you’d care for my opinion.

Nonwithstanding, the Aether is amazing, huzzah to Sir Tesla.
Smashing job it is to keep up with the arms race in Europe. The Russians with their new murderous Volley Guns. The French with their Curie Guns, whatever they do, the Germans with Krupp, and ah…Her Majesty’s British Army, our rifles are truly works of art.

All attatched to Pneumatica. Like knights of old we are, with one difference. Our armour is one powered by steam, each with the finest arms Queen and Country have to offer.

And as I write this I am poised to put Her Majesty’s Pneumatica in action. Agitation by the Meiji off our coasts.
And we’re here to tell them that Malaya is Her Majesty’s piece of the Asian pie.

Yours as always.
Edward.

Another reason why one should, and could use Malaysia in SF.

Culture and Mythos
Malaysia is culturally rich, and, perhaps, one could say that we’ve gone beyond a melting pot as a nation. We’re a unique culture, Malaysian.
We share a long history, and many similar passions and drives.
And, therefore, we share a truly unique, Asian body of mythos and legends. Russell Lee has proved this with Singapore, through the horror genre.

But, what if, we could take our uniquely Malaysian mythos, and move it into the SF genre. The “magical” Puteri Gunung Ledang, the Pontianak and Orang Bunian, for example. Might seem like a recipe for traditional fantasy, or horror, what with the flow into the supernatural, and magic.

But then, it has been stated by icons of SF, such as Arthur C. Clarke, that “any technology sufficiently advanced, will be indistinguishable from magic.”

We have so much fantastical “magic” in our mythos.
Or rather, toys for the SF writer to pick up and play with in a Malaysian setting.

After all, how do you think Hang Jebat would interpret say, a Predator?