Changes

Changes are good, especially if it can elevate your iman and push you towards becoming a better person in all aspects.

Changes are required, especially when your life commitments are expanding.

Changes are essential, especially when you face challenges, and you need to make adjustments here and there.

Upon my return to work after a long period of study leave followed by maternity leave, quite a number of people I met said that I've changed. I am pretty sure what they meant was the physical aspect—Hey, I'm now a proud mother of two kids!

Yes, I admit I have changed a lot after all these years. In fact, I felt numb on the first day I returned to the department. I thought something must had been wrong that I almost felt like in the state of denial.

Thinking back, I don't deny that having nearly completed my DPhil studies and now in a family of four, I constantly need to change to meet the life challenges.

And ultimately, I hang on to the things that please Allah.

May Allah directs us to make the right decision at any situation and eases the path that leads us to Him. May Allah saves our soul from the things that deviate us from Him. May Allah helps us to change for the better.

Selamat Hari Raya everyone, God bless!

Melancholy

We are counting days to go home. It feels like only yesterday when I first arrived with Mak and Abah and time just flies by that our journey in Oxford is coming to an end soon.

Having spent twenty percent of my life here, it is just natural to feel a bit melancholic about leaving Oxford. Oxford has witnessed almost six years of my ups and downs.

Since a few months ago, every other day I’d tell Sayang the things I’m going to miss about Oxford. I’ll miss the famous scones at The Rose. I’ll miss Kebab Kid, Costa Coffee, Covered Market, Barefoot Books, Pret A Manger, Blackwell’s, and the list goes on and on. I'll miss attending those brilliant seminars and lectures. I’ll miss listening to inspiring talks by great people.

However, I have come to realise that my Oxford journey is just a temporary phase. What’s more important now is to finish my thesis, settle down and continue serving the society. Talking about my thesis, I’m tempted to buy this t-shirt. It reminds me of Dr UmiM, who bought three of them for herself, Dr Faez and Dr Lin at a time they were so much absorbed with their theses.

Godspeed.

10 Reasons...

... to avoid talking on the phone.

My points exactly! See the whole list and more at The Oatmeal.

Zoom

Deadline for results submission is approaching and I still have piles of scripts to mark. AARGH! (No, I am not panicking yet.) Ah well, whatever. Let’s post some screen caps. Here’s how the blog looks on my PC now (on Chrome):

Go ahead and click for full size. However, I usually prefer it zoomed out like this:

Which means I want a larger display, which means, well, nothing.

All right kids, class dismissed. You can go back to doing whatever it was you were doing.

Comics

I am too lazy to actually write anything original, so here are two awesome comic strips:

Expect by kris wilson at deviantART


Creepy @ xkcd

Be cool!

Game Theory

LOL. If love is a game.

Game Theory @ xkcd

(Click for full size)

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PS: On second thought, how do you win a love “game”? How do you lose? It doesn’t make sense.

Knowing

I know that I should have gone to bed, at around midnight, so I can have enough sleep to wake up fresh in the morning. Yet here I am, as always, wide awake till at least 2 a.m.

Knowing what’s right and doing it are two different things altogether, aren’t they?

Do, or do not. There is no try.

Yoda, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Feedback

Apparently, my totally awesome new dark color scheme was impossible for people with terrible eyesight, crappy old CRT monitor and in poor lighting. I’ve now made it a bit less dark.

BTW, apart from official websites for movies, bands and the like, I absolutely hate web pages – especially MySpace pages – with embedded audio clips. They’re just frakking annoying.

The Week

I
My new J!NX t-shirts arrived on Thursday! They also sent me a bunch of stickers I don’t know what to do with for being such a good customer. The delivery took only one week compared to the typical two to three weeks with Amazon purchases, which, I think, is impressive. Now, if only Amazon too offers free delivery for international orders...

II
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was almost three hours long but I really enjoyed it throughout. My brother said that the generous exploitation of Brad Pitt’s good looks made the movie seemed almost like a very long commercial, though in a good way; but Benjamin Button was indeed very beautifully shot, an ode to The Big Easy. The whole movie actually reminded me of Forest Gump, to which I now finds out it shares the same screenplay writer, and Big Fish.

III
My mobile buzzed while I was in the cinema. After the movie I saw that it was from Razlan; he’s getting married in March. Congratulations. I doubt that I’d actually drive up to Pasir Puteh for the wedding, though. On the other hand, I just might do. I’ve never actually been to Kelantan so the road trip could be interesting.

IV
Suapi laughed at me either because my passport expired last September or my passport expired last September and I didn’t know it. Or because my passport expired last September and I didn’t know it because I used it last in 2006. Anyway, now I have to apply for a new passport.

The Reason

rainy day in sunny june by ssilence at deviantART

I have just had a beautiful drive home from work. The sky was heavily clouded with the sun ray penetrating through like giant spotlights upon the landscape. I almost wanted to pull over by the road side and enjoy the view; it was definitely the highlight of an otherwise dull and uneventful day.

So, to celebrate the occasion I made a quick stop by Secret Recipe at Sungai Buloh and bought a nice cake.

Da Post

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “D”.

D for deserted, which the department seems to be. The new semester will begin on December 22. Until then, staff members are away on vacation, courses, and conferences etc. Some may have simply disappeared.

D is for deadline and dateline, two words that get confused a lot. No wonder, for they are similarly pronounced.

dead•line (ˈdɛdˌlaɪn)
–noun

1. the time by which something must be finished or submitted; the latest time for finishing something: a five o’clock deadline.
2. a line or limit that must not be passed.
3. (formerly) a boundary around a military prison beyond which a prisoner could not venture without risk of being shot by the guards.

date•line (ˈdeɪtˌlaɪn)
–noun

1. a line giving the place of origin and usually the date of a news dispatch or the like.

–verb (used with object)

2. to furnish (a news story) with a dateline: He datelines his reports Damascus.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

A deadline gives you stress. A dateline is what you don’t read, until somebody points out that you’ve been raving about an article that is three years old.

D is for DAGR; more on this later.

Choice

People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think, don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome.

River Tam, Serenity (2005)

What is the meaning of virtue without the chance to sin?

I wanted to write about government, religion (or the roles of religious authorities), faith and freedom of choice – all heavy stuff – but I got lazy to actually do it.

Die

A random movie quote because I don’t have anything better to post.

President Thomas Whitmore: What do you want us to do?
Captured Alien: Die. Die.

Independence Day (1996)

Small Insignificant Things

1. These last few days there are crickets (or something) on the other side of my bedroom wall keeping me up at night. They are still singing now. ARRGH!
2. Now that Gmail has implemented those cool new themes, I find myself checking my mailbox more often than usual; like two million times an hour!
   
   
   
   
   
3. I can’t help getting annoyed when I hear or read announcements that begin with “Please be informed that ...” Of course announcements are meant to convey information, DOHH! The worst is the guy who makes those announcements just before Friday prayer at the university mosque. Every week he’ll make about five announcements one after another and starts every single one of them with “Please be informed that...”
4. Just as annoying – well, a bit more annoying actually at the moment – are students who obviously don’t know the answer to an exam question but still write an essay three pages long about everything else. Yes, it’s the spray-and-pray method; throw everything in including the kitchen sink and hope that they’ll score some points. Add to the combo some barely legible handwriting, and it’s a recipe for hypertension.

Not a Good Day

Two stalled trucks in Sungai Buloh turned a routine 30-kilometer trip home yesterday which usually takes only about 45 minutes into a more than three-hour nightmare. I left work at about 4.30 p.m. and arrived home at about 7.45. Seriously, there must be a law that punishes people causing traffic jams. Traffic accidents aside, those who cause traffic jams because their poorly maintained vehicles break down should be fined at least RM5000. Why? There are real economic costs to traffic jams and people “saving” by not properly maintaining their vehicles are creating problems the rest of society simply do not need.

Earlier in the morning I found the leather strap of my watch broken from wear. During the weekend the silicone strap of my other watch also broke. What a coincidence! Instead of having to look for a new strap for one watch now I have to look for two. It doesn’t help at all that the Fossil watch has a non-standard design and size.

And my Amazon shipment is overdue.

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TECH NOTE #1: I’ve just changed the blog’s default font to Cambria. Despite everything I said about Microsoft, I really like this new font they ship with Vista and Office 2007. If you still see this blog in plain ol’ Georgia, well, too bad.

TECH NOTE #2: Currently on Google’s new browser, Chrome, which is looking really good towards becoming my new favorite.

Quickie

I
The department is organizing a conference in April next year. Tasked with creating a website for the conference – we don’t have the budget to get it professionally done – I’m reminded yet again that Internet Explorer (IE) really, really sucks. The simple CSS styling tweak I was working on comes out perfectly on Firefox and Safari but not on IE. Why, oh why? Oh well, I can’t be bothered to figure out a solution so @#$% it! Seriously, IE should just be banned and Microsoft burned.

Dirtiest car on campus

II
My car hasn’t been washed since... I can’t even remember when. I almost got the car washed last month, though, before I took it to its regular scheduled service. Apparently my father, who was quite the car-guy way back then, really can’t stand the sight of my car and complains about it all the time to my mother, who complains to me. LOL.

Now that the season’s turned wet I’m definitely not going to wash the car anytime soon; but that is really not the reason why I leave the car covered in a layer of dirt and dust. Lorries fully laden with dirt and sand ply the stretch of road I use to travel to work every morning, so there really is no escape getting splattered. Everybody knows how incredibly annoying it is to have your freshly cleaned and shined car violated by the smallest speck of dirt. I’ve had enough of the heartache so am rolling with it. The interior of my car is clean, though.

III
I have all three of Avril Lavigne’s studio albums, plus one EP, because I think she’s sexy. :P PAS Youth cannot exactly call her sexy, unlike Inul, so plays the patriotic card to try to get her banned. Still, apparently some idiot at the Home Ministry does think she’s sexy too and almost got her banned nevertheless, and once again the whole world reads about dynamic and progressive Muslim Malaysia.

I’m not going to her concert, though, because I’m saving for when U2 comes to Malaysia.

The Wedding Song

That’s Why (You Go Away) by Michael Learns To Rock

I am starting to think that the real purpose of having music played at weddings, ranging from a live band to just the bride or groom’s brother hooking up his MP3 player to the family hi-fi set, rather than to entertain people, is to scare them away. The music – often of very dubious taste – is played so loud with the speakers at full blast that not only your ears hurt but your blood pressure rises. Forget about having any meaningful conversation with anyone other than the person sitting right next to you. So, for quite some time (about two minutes) I wondered why people bother paying for such “entertainment”.

Then it hit me: the loud and annoying music is really a form of crowd control.

The typical Malay wedding reception is held at the family residence under tents erected in the yard or along the street. Since there aren’t enough tents available, due to both budgetary and space constraints, guests are generally expected to vacate their table after having their meal so that other guests may have theirs. Common courtesy as well as sense dictates that one should not stay too long at a table as if having a teh tarik session with long lost friends, even though teh tarik has indeed become commonly served at weddings too. However, more often than not some people simply don’t get it, hence the loud and annoying music, just to make sure that nobody gets too comfortable.

How’s that sound?

One other annoying feature of music played at weddings is more of a faux pas, I think, though one which nobody seems to care much. A wedding is supposed to be a happy occasion celebrating the union of the newlyweds. It is no surprise that ballads get played a lot at weddings since love songs are usually of that form. Nobody wants to hear beat thumping house or European techno music played at a wedding. However, it surprises me that nobody cares much about the actual theme of the songs played. A lot of ballads especially the hit tangkap leleh Malay love songs really have such depressing themes as failed relationships, heartbreak, infidelity etc. – hardly the kind of positive and optimistic vibes we would really want to have at such happy occasions as weddings, don’t you think?

Sleepy

Sleepy Head by Prussian at deviantART

I’m feeling really sleepy all day today at work. It’s not that I didn’t have enough sleep last night, so it’s must be the Monday thing. It has been an awfully boring few days too, and I think I’ve misplaced a book.

Aww, I wish I had a cat.

Things Money Can Buy

People often talk and write about financial freedom, which if I understand correctly means having or making enough money to not worry about money; quite an oxymoron, if you ask me. My idea of financial freedom is to not worry about money period. Somebody told me that I only thinks so because I am single with no dependents to clothe and feed, and don’t live in a shack. Perhaps, but it tells something that the happiest people on the planet live in a remote island nation in the Pacific.

Other than to have a really nice house with huge bathrooms and a huge kitchen, there is only one perverse reason I would want to be filthy rich: I want to hit people with my car.

I don’t know how many times I almost knocked down a motorcyclist running a red light at a junction, or rear-ended a car that slowed down or stopped suddenly without any warning. Some people seem to think that traffic rules don’t apply to them, while others do not care to properly maintain their vehicles. It is perfectly understandable to not noticing a broken brake or signal light, but to allow all your tail lights to fail is simply irresponsible.

So I really, really wish I could hit them – gently – and then tell my lawyer to sue them for running the red light and not having a working tail light to cause me to hit them. Of course, I’d give all the money to charity.

Of Giants

So, as per Kue Peng and Hanif, BFG also stands for Big Friendly Giant. Obviously, I have never read Roald Dahl so though the Big Friendly Giant does sound somewhat familiar to me (even then I think it was the animated movie rather than the book) it didn’t stick. In my defence, however, Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant is referred to as The BFG while to the rest of us illiterate (former) video games junkies a BFG is just any big f*%king gun.

Just the same, I associate the word “giant” with the Jolly Green Giant and the Super Jolly Green Giant, nicknames of the HH-3 and HH-53 dedicated combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopters used by the US Air Force to rescue downed pilots during the Vietnam War. The Jolly Green Giant was a much modified derivative of the Sikorsky S-61 Nuri helicopter our own TUDM is trying hard to have replaced.

The Jolly Green Giant, however, is also better known as the mascot of the Green Giant food company. I love their Niblets^® Whole Kernel Sweet Corn for snack.