HlaMin

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  • Benny Tan (M70)

    He matriculated from Methodist English High School (MEHS) in 1964 and was admitted to the first ever 1st BE at the RIT (Rangoon Institute of Technology). He graduated in 1970 with Mechanical Engineering.

    IMG_0074
    Handbook
    • Benny Tan (Tan Yu Beng, M70)
      Spouse : Angelina (Benny’s Xerox Copier during his RIT days)
      Two children
      Six grand children
    • He received his MS from the University of California at Berkeley
    • He worked for the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
    • He is a Serial entrepreneur. He started with a Gift Shop at San Francisco International airport. He expanded his business as CEO of Tan Enterprise.
    • He never forgot his roots and his alma mater. He carried two copies of the “RIT Students’ Handbook” to the USA. One copy was borrowed by an alumni eons ago and had not returned the rare book.
    • The Handbook includes a list of sayas and sayamas for the 1966 – 67 academic year.
    • He succeeded Saya U Nyo Win (M65) as President of BAPS (Burmese American Professional Society).
    • He is a Founding member of RIT Alumni International. He hosted several meetings at his house.
    • He and Ko Maurice Chee (M75) served as Co-chair of the Working Committee for SPZP-2000.
    • He designed the Banner, T-shirt, mug and calendar/clock for SPZP-2000.
    • He is a Multiple Golden Sponsor of SPZPs.
    • Along with U Thaung Sein (Steeve Kay, EC70) and U Tha Htay (M70), he sponsored several Reunion and Acariya Pu Zaw Pwe for the Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65.

  • Convocation for Engineers

    *** အင်ဂျင်နီယာ များ ရဲ့ ဘွဲ့နှင်းသဘင်

    ပထမ အကြိမ် First Convocation at RIT

    Held at Aw Barr Lann

    Sayas

    • Rector : U Yone Mo
    • Mechanical : U Ba Than

    အကြိမ် ငါးဆယ် 50th Convocation

    Held at Assembly Hall

    အမည် များ Name Changes

    * ရန်ကုန်စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ်

    * Rangoon Institute of Technology

    * Yangon Institute of Technology

    * ရန်ကုန်နည်းပညာတက္ကသိုလ်

    * Yangon Technological University

    အထွေထွေ General

    * Graduation

    * Convocation

    * Commencement

    * ဘွဲ့နှင်းသဘင် ခန်းမ

    * ဩဘာ လမ်း

  • SPZP-2016

    • Seventh world wide RIT Grand Reunion and Pu Zaw Pwe
    • Full Day events at Gyogone Campus
    • Record attendance
    • True display of RIT / Swel Daw Spirit
    • Many sponsors and donors
    • Free Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
    • Entertainment and Exhibitions

  • Complementary Skills

    • The “Lone Genius” is a Myth.
    • The Success of a company or a product often requires complementary skills.
      Three examples are provided.

    Microsoft

    • Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, passed away at the age of 65. He had the technical expertise.
    • Bill Gates had the business acumen to turn Paul Allen’s ideas into products.
      The two were complementary.

    Apple

    • Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, built the microcomputer and wanted to share his ideas with members of the Home Brew Computer Club.
    • Steve Jobs had the business acumen and persuaded Woz to form Apple Computers.
      The two were complementary.

    Music

    • Oscar Hammerstein wrote beautiful lyrics.
    • Richard Rodgers was a talented composer.
    • The two produced hits for the Broadway and the movies such as South Pacific, My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music.

  • PBRS

    Daw Tin Tin Aye founded PPBRS (Private Primary Boundary Road School). Her younger sisters Daw Yi Yi and Daw Khin Khin Aye (Teacher Ah Mar) taught at PPBRS.

    Daw Khin Khin Aye later served as Principal of PPBRS. She also extended PPBRS to teach Middle School and High School. The school was renamed as PBRS (Private Boundary Road School).

    U Kyaw Zaw & Daw Khin Khin Aye

    Myat Hla Sein (GBNF)

    Son of Director U Chin Sein / Shwe Nyar Maung

    Served as Head of “Movie Technology” at Regional College RC2.

    Passed away in a traffic accident.

    Myat Hla Sein

    Saya Dr. Mya Than

    He taught at PBRS and the Institute of Economics.

    He later worked in Singapore and Thailand as a Researcher.

    Dr. Mya Than 1
    Dr. Mya Than and Kyi Kyi Tin

    Daw Kyi Kyi Tin

    She taught Chemistry at Workers’ College and Assumption University in Bangkok.

    On behalf of the PBRS alumni, she paid homage to Saya Dr. Mya Than and offered him the Garawa money.

    Her older brother U Saw Oo and her younger sister Daw Tin Tin Aye are also PBRS alumni.

    Class photos

    Credit: PPBRS Group

    PPBRS 1
    PPBRS 2

    Thamankyar

    • Daw Khin Khin Aye (Principal) sponsored the project of her former students
    • A1 Than Htut : Director
    • A1 Thein Htut : Cinematigrapher
    • Than Win : Author
    • Aung Myint : Thamankyar Ko Myint
    • Toe Nyunt : Actor
    • Sai Wunna : Actor / Vocalist

  • YTU Scholarship Fund

    Saya Allen Htay & Daw Mu Mu Kin

    NorCal RITAA awards

    Several years back, NorCal RITAA provided financial support for eligible YTU students.

    A photo shows seven recipients. Four received $1000 each. Three received $500 each.

    Volunteers for Selection

    Several RITAA members volunteered to interview the applicants and proposed a short list to NorCal RITAA for the awards.

    Eight members of the Pre-selection Committee are seen together with the seven recipients.

    Donors

    The following donated $500 or more to NorCal RITAA for the YTU Scholarship Fund. Some are repeated donors. The complete list of donations is maintained by the Treasurer of NorCal RITAA.

    • Daw Mu Mu Kin Htay, spouse of Saya Allen Htay (C58, GBNF)
    • U San Lin (M87) and Daw Tin Lay Win
    • U Myo Aung (M85) and Daw Thida
    • U Myint Swe (EP74) and Daw San San (EC74)
    • U Maung Maung Win (Maung YIT, EC93) and Daw Than Htay (ChE92)
    • Daw Yo Shu (Yee Yee Win, EE74)
    • U Tin Maung Win (C76) and Daw Thida Khin Win
    • Gordon Kaung (M83) and Lillian Kaung (EC83)
    • U Kyaw Myint (M83)

    Raffle Drawing and Auction

    To raise the YTU Scholarhip Fund, a Raffle Drawing was held at the 2018 NorCal RITAA Summer Picnic at Coyote Point Park, San Mateo.

    Thanks to the donors of the prizes, to the attendees who eagerly bought the raffle tickets, and to Daw San San (EC74) and Edward Saw (Yu Ket, EC85) for serving as Raffle Masters.

    Gordon Kaung (Kaung Kaung Oo, M83) and Lillian Kaung (EC83) generously donated three iNapa Premium Wine bottles. Each bottle sells for $75 – $80 on the Internet.

    One bottle was put as as the Grand Raffle Prize. It was won by Ma Thandar, the youngest alumni present at the Picnic.

    Two bottles were put on auction.

    • U Sann Naing (M84) and spouse, owners of Burma Kitchen, successfully bid for the first bottle.
    • U Walter Tan (M70) and spouse successfully bid for the second bottle.
    • The sales from the auction $240 also went to the YTU scholarship fund.

  • Cards

    A Deck has 52 cards.

    Suits

    There are four suits :

    • Clubs (Black)
    • Diamonds (Red)
    • Hearts (Red)
    • Spades (Black)

    Each suit has 13 cards : Ace / One, Deuce / Two, Trey / Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King.

    Correspondence

    • The four suits correspond to the four seasons or four quarters.
    • The 13 cards in a suit correspond to the number of weeks in a quarter.
    • The 52 cards in a deck correspond to the number of weeks in a year.
    • The two colors correspond to Ying and Yang.

    Card Games

    Ivan Lee (M69)
    • Bridge uses a deck of cards. Each player is dealt 13 cards. The players then bid or pass. Ivan Lee (M69) is a Life time Platinum Bridge Expert.
    • Some games use two decks.
    • A few games (e.g ရှိုး၊ တချပ်မှောက်) may use a subset. Mg Mar Ga (M72) has written some posts about the RIT Card Players.
    Mg Mar Ga (M72)

  • Memory

    Memory Types

    There are several types of memory

    • Long term memory
      It is analogous to disk (or similar) storage in a computer system
    • Short term memory
      It is analogous to RAM (Random Access Memory)
    • Photographic memory
      Some people could glance at documents and recall them
    • Associative memory
      Facts are easier to recall if they are associated and chunked
    • False memory
      Some innocent people were victimized by key witnesses with “unreliable” memory

    Study of Memory

    • The study of memory transcends medical research, sociology, linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence.
    • It is often done by a team of multi-disciplinary experts.
    • Aging contributes loss of short term memory or the decline in the ability to retain short term memory.
      My younger cousin sister said, “I forgot what I wanted to say”.
    • One elderly could recall names of his primary school classmates, but could not recognize his youngest grand son that grew up in his hands.
    • Memory loss may be temporary.
      Ko Tin Oo (M87, SDYF, RITAA) temporarily forgot his name, but uttered “I pledged my donation for the YTU library, but I have not made the donation.”
      The memory lapse was attributed to a fall that hurt his back.

    Memory Feats

    Mingun Tipitaka Sayadaw
    • Mingun Tipitaka Sayadaw U Vicittasarabhivamsa was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Record for his phenomenal memory that he displayed in the Sixth Buddhist Council held at Kaba Aye (World Peace) Pagoda from 1954 – 1956.
    • He not only remembered 8000+ pages of the Scriptures, but he could also point out the variants of some Suttas while he took the Oral tests for the Tipitaka Examination.
    • He passed the Oral and Written tests for Vinaya (Monastic rules of conduct), Sutta (Discourses) and Abhidhamma (Ultimate reality) with Distinction.
    • Sayadaw became the Grand Custodian of the Tipitaka (Three Baskets) and was the key player in the Sixth Buddhist Council.
    • Dale Carnegie wrote that Harry S. Truman won the presidency because his campaign manager could address 50,000+ voters by their first name.
    • I thought that I should try for 500 or 5000 names.
    • Some trained / developed their memory to compete in memory contests (e.g. recall cards, numbers).

    My Memory

    Hla Min
    • When I was in Middle School, Chauk Htutt Kyee Sayadaw came to our house to give a dhamma talk.
      After Sayadaw returned, I recounted the main points of the talk.
    • I have a built-in recorder and a reasonably good memory, but the use of association, chunking, mnemonics, and “learning how to learn” helped to make my memory better.
    • Not everyone appreciated my memory.
      One person thought that I was dyslexic when I wrote English words and sentences backwards and upside down.
      I also wrote a few in mirror image.
      Another said, “What’s the big deal? You just have to remember patterns.”
    • I often start a talk –tongue in cheek — by saying, “My brain is damaged. It’s easy to remember, but it’s hard to forget.”

  • Memories of a 69er

    • Hla Min (EC69) wrote an article for the Commemorative Issue of Swel Daw Yeik Magazine for Shwe YaDu, 2014.
    • Thanks to Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War) & Team for publishing the article.
    Hla Min

  • Mother’s Day

    • In the USA, the second Sunday of May is celebrated as Mother’s Day.
    • Some countries celebrate Mother’s Day on a different date.
    My beloved mother
    Three Mothers

    Mother

    • Mother is also known as Mater, Mum, Mom, Mummy, Mommy, Mah Mah, May May, … and “the hand that rocked the cradle”
    • Mother’s unbounded love is honored in many real-life stories (e.g caring for children during disasters)

    M-O-T-H-E-R (Famous song)

    Sample verse (may have variations)

    M is for the Million things she gave me
    O means Only that she’s growing Old
    T is for her Tender sweet caresses
    H is for her Heart of purest gold
    E means Everything she’s done to save me
    R means Right and Right she’ll always be

    Put them all together
    They spell MOTHER
    A word that means a world to me