Friday the 13
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 10:20 PM | 0 comments  
13 Rejab 1402H, when Muslims were performing Friday prayers, I came into existence. It's now 13 Rejab 1429H. By calculation of the Hijri calendar, that makes me 27.
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The Ring
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 10:59 PM | 0 comments  
The Ring

I got a missed call today. I didn't pick it up as I was riding. The number was strange but I quickly dismissed the call as a ricochet call from some foreign country.

*****
I got home to find out that my house got the same call from that same number. Nobody answered the call for safety sake. There was a report in Berita Harian of people dying in Indonesia after receiving a mysterious phone call or SMS. It was warning people not to answer calls that has strange prefixes. I have my suspicions to the credibility of the report but it's something I would not entirely dismiss either. Perhaps black magic decided to keep up with times and got an upgrade.

I needed to get the bottom of this and started to browse the web if any of these is true. Some indonesian sites has this to say:

Ketua Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) Sumut Prof DR H Abdullah Syah, MA mengimbau masyarakat tidak mempercayai rumor yang "berbau" syirik tersebut. Menurut dia, rumor tersebut sangat meresahkan dan tidak perlu dipercaya karena dapat merusak akidah (keyakinan) beragama. "Hidup dan mati manusia telah ditentukan Tuhan dan bukan disebabkan karena menerima telepon atau SMS," katanya.

I conclude that the Berita Harian report is very likely a rumour gone wild. If you think about it, it's from a plot of the movies.

Then I decided to google the number : 000190853203. It seems that people have been getting these calls for some time. You can check out the link but in short, its a scam.


The Ring 2

Another incident with phones happened about 2 months back. I was calling a friend over my phone. Out of nowhere, I heard a lady's voice. My friend was no longer on the other side. The lady was saying, "Ouh... sorry". Then she hung up.

I called my friend again. He told me that he got cut off as well and found himself talking to some guy. The incident got me thinking,

"was it just an honest mistake of an operator?"
"do we even need operators for our local calls?"
"who was really on the other side, who seemed to realise she made a mistake?"
"are my calls being tracked?"

Technology made life easy for man. But it also empowers the people who has control of that technology.... and what if that technology falls into the wrong hands and we get exploited.

Am I just being paranoid or is there a genuine need to ensure that technology doesn't fall in the wrong hands. I shall elaborate in later posts.
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Lunch Picnics in a Park
Monday, July 7, 2008 at 11:00 PM | 0 comments  
Sekian lama sudah ku tak memblog. Bukan takde cerita, macam2 cerita.

It's not that I don't want to blog in Malay, but I suppose I want to cater to a wider audience. I shall be blogging in Malay in some of my future posts. Furthermore its Bulan Bahasa.

Apart from an introspective marathon, I went to Terengganu for holiday last month. Went with the whole family as well as my big bro's new family. It was fun on the whole. Learned some things about myself. The only downside of the trip was hurting my little finger(pinkie). That re-triggered a whole new episode to my right arm saga.

And the the final part of the trilogy will continue in the middle of October. I don't know what the outcome will be like. Contemplating too much on it only drains me out. Some things are merely out of our control. As what my secondary Maths teacher would say, "We'll cross the river when we reach the bridge." My Maths teacher loved to quote chinese proverbs. I hope I'm not butchering the language. (eh Fir, engkau bulan bahasa.... bahasa aper?) In principle, that's not how I go about life. I am very much quite the opposite. A tad too much perhaps. Another lesson for me to learn. Don't dwell too much on the future which is never certain.

The cycle of life :-
1) Hope/Vision
2) Effort and sprinke it with doa (without effort, you've fallen into ghurur)
3) Tawakal
4) Syukur if your prayers is answered, redha if u don't get it (but ur effort is never a waste)
5) Repeat step 1

Hope and expectations. That's the ingredient to living. I used to tell myself not to have too high an expectation in life. I learned that lesson cos I got disappointed when my expectations did not materialize. So, I went on life trying not to expect too much from anybody or anything. But, that was my major mistake. Without expectations, my soul died. Without expectations, one becomes a living dead.

I am focusing more on my now. I am currently working as a temp staff at Singapore Botanic Gardens, at times having lunches in the park. It's been great so far. Once in a while, I will imagine what's waiting for me on the other side of the bridge. One thing will be certain though, I will only know for sure when I reach the bridge, and cross it.
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Getting on My Nerves
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 11:56 PM | 0 comments  
I posted this a while back and removed the entry hours later... Posting it back again.

I have been watching a tad too much of Bleach as a form of escapism. I can say that I am merely doing research... keeping up with current issues as a prospective animator, but i know better when I have transgressed.

I no longer have to go for physiotherapy, :) , but I still have to carry on with the prescribed exercises for another 4-6 months. I did my physiotherapy in NYP. Physiotherapy is cool. The physiotherapists were professional. I am pretty amazed by the science of the treatment. I am amused by the various methods of detecting the affected nerves. Furthermore it's something that benefits humankind.

On my first visit, I was pointed out that my right deltoid was visibly smaller than my left. 'Wasted' deltoid. That was the term they used. This was odd since I am right handed. One would expect my right deltoid was bigger, if not balanced. I was quite taken aback that I did not realise that fact. At the same time I was 'glad' that I could see that I was not making the pain up. 'Glad' that it was not something psychosomatic. A visible sign of the condition that I was going through.

The exercises have done me good. Tingling sensation and numbness is hardly an issue for me nowadays. I still need to deal with the weakness issue though. Imagine doing push-ups to your maximum limit... that kind of weakness. I would say my condition is 3 times better now. What better way to test my condition than to take on an animation project. My hands have been itching to get to work anyway. I still have bad days(especially cold mornings) and my right deltoid still needs to grow. But overall, I am thankful that I am healing. Prays that I'll be set when its time to return to school.

Alhamdulillah, I am thankful of what I have. Life is a continuous process of being and growing. One should not be too obsessed of being in control of the future for the future is never certain. This should never make one stop striving for a better future, but rather, it should make one be content that he keeps striving while letting the end result be the realm of Allah, as it has always been.

---------------------------------

On a different note, looking forward to http://www.sgtoyandcomiccon.com over this weekend.
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Mother's Day @ En-Naeem
Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 7:34 AM | 0 comments  
Last Saturday, I rushed from NYP to make myself present for this mother's day event. It was a lunch/charity/mother's day event. Mothers were presented with a rose upon entry. The whole family was there including our maternal grandmother and sis-in-law. Dad decided to attend and bought his ticket on the day itself, and ended up sitting at a table with the star-performer for the day, Didicazli.

But we were there to see our smallest one perform. Our littlest sister was performing a skit, together with some of her kindergarten2 classmates. She played the part of Alqamah's mother. Her teacher was saying how great she was at the role to mum prior to the performance, we had to see it ourselves.

I felt little sis could have done better with her facial expressions but she was able to deliver her lines well. She took her role seriously unlike some of her classmates... but of course, that is to be expected of most kids their age.

Once, while lying down in bed at home, she lamented that she preferred the role of Alqamah cause she would only need to lie down ~ then she pretended to have fits and pretended to die. LOL!

Other than the skit, there were performances in the form of nasyid and poetry by other students. I know nuts about the local malay music but the performance by Didicazli was pretty alright. However, in my opinion, the muazzin of En-Naeem Mosque sounded so much better. I was somewhat mesmerized. There was also a mini forum session towards the end.

We even got to bring back lucky draw prizes. Big bro and Dad were the lucky ones. The whole event has a warm feeling to it. It was a nice day out to celebrate the 2 mothers in our family.
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Haggle
Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 2:53 AM | 2 comments  
Went to Sim Lim Square to get power supply for my computer and also some CD-Rs. I've been wanting to check out the prices of video cameras and decided to do so during this trip to Sim Lim Square. Checking out = Don't wanna buy yet

The first few shops I passed by sells video cameras. And so, I began asking how much the professional video cameras were. I ended up saying that I was looking for something in the thousand plus range. The salesman recommended a HD DV cam. He was saying that the DV cam was superior over the pro cameras since it uses it hard disk instead of tapes. When I asked how much it was, he took out a calculator and typed out 1250.

"What's the deal with salesman and calculators?... just say out the price lar."

He was keen to demonstrate the functions and I played along.

Talking. Demonstrating. Talking. Comparing with other models. Talking.

"I give you special price," he said. Took the calculator and entered 1100.

Talking. Demonstrating. Talking. Browse magazine. Talking.

"I give you complete set," With lens and tripod. I began to get tempted... alas, i was just checking out the prices. So I told him that I'll think about it. All these while, I wasn't the one haggling. He was the one who slashed the price. I was merely playing the hesitant buyer.

As I went out of the shop, he said 900. By this time, I was wondering to myself. "This guy is either too desperate or he marked up the price so high that he's able to slash the price by $350 and add stuffs to it."

It's probably a bit of both. I am not the type who would ask for a discount except for certain known places where you are an idiot if you don't do this haggling routine.

It's a common marketing ploy to mark up your prices and set the minimum that you are willing to sell. Of course, still at a profit. I suppose some people enjoy playing the haggling game. I personally find it a tad of an annoyance.

And what's with the calculator?? It's probably yet another ploy so that the haggling game remains between one prospective buyer and the salesman..... therefore not influencing another prospective buyer.

This incident proofs to me that perhaps, haggling is something that I have to engage in(like it or not)..... not because I am crazy for a bargain, but because I wanna get a reasonable deal and not be at the losing end.

I went on to get my power supply and CD-Rs. Before making the payment, with the incident still fresh in my mind... I said, "Can discount?"

I got a $5 discount. I could have pushed my luck and asked for more discount.... but haggling is not my thing.
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Sooner or Later
Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 11:56 PM | 0 comments  
A secondary school teacher of mine,Mr MacDonald, tried to proof to us that it doesn't take long to write a journal entry. One of things I had to do for class. Basically he played Eric Clapton's Tear's a Heaven. A song he wrote about how his toddler fell down to his death from his apartment. So, we basically go on writing in our journal whatever was flowing in our mind be it in response to the song or not.

This is to the tune of Breaking Benjamin's Sooner or Later

I feeling kinda tired of my own blog. Mainly because it seems to speak a lot of negativity of late. I don't like it that way. Many times, I tried blogging something but got tired to continue and ended up abandoning the idea. Hence the idea of just filling up the blank of this page by the method that I remembered from secondary school.

Probably not going to make much sense reading this randomness. Sooner or later is the title of this song. Speaks a lot about life I suppose. Something happens sooner or later. Later seems more likely for me regarding certain things. Yar... all 3.38min is up.
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