Penyokong Menyokong

Malam ini. Pasukan pilihan saya akan bermain, menentang Switzerland pada jam 10.00 waktu tempatan : SEPANYOL!

Penyandang Kejuaraan Eropah

Berkata tentang Piala Dunia, ingin saya bercerita bagaimana saya mula-mula berminat dengan bola. Pada tahun 1998, ketika itu Piala Dunia diadakan di Perancis. Saya berasa kagum apabila mengetahui 'Zinedine Zidane' yang sangat hebat itu ialah seorang Muslim, dan 'Zinedine' adalah salah satu cara mengeja nama 'Zainuddin'. Menurut Pak Busu, selepas Zizou menolong Perancis memenangi Piala Dunia tahun itu, toleransi terhadap penduduk Muslim di Perancis semakin meningkat. Semenjak itu saya rajin menonton perlawanan bola sepak, kagum dengan impak bola sepak dan pada masa yang sama saya selalu mengambil tahu siapakah pemain-pemain Muslim terkemuka dunia.

Menjulang Piala Dunia 1998

Izinkan saya menyimpang sebentar. Dalam perbincangan mengenai Qur'an, Falsafah dan Sains, ada satu 'trend'/fahaman yang agak popular. Ia dipanggil Bucaillism. Dinamakan sempena Maurice Bucaille, pengarang buku The Bible, The Qur'an and Science, penyokong trend ini cuba mencari bagaimana penemuan sains semasa boleh dikaitkan dengan ayat-ayat di dalam Al-Qur'an. Teori-teori dan fenomena seperti pasang surut air laut, Big Bang serta pelbagai telah terlebih dahulu disebut di dalam Al-Qur'an mengikut penyokong fahaman ini. Antara pengarang yang 'masuk' dalam kategori ini ialah Harun Yahya.


Namun terdapat kritikan terhadap trend Bucaillism ini. Kritikan paling vokal terhadap bahaya menghubungkan ayat-ayat suci Al-Qur'an dengan teori-teori sains ialah bagaimana bila teori sains yang dihubungkan ini terbukti salah? Adakah ia juga membuktikan bahawa ayat-ayat Al-Qur'an itu salah?

Di internet terdapat banyak perbalahan antara golongan penyokong Bucaillism dan mereka yang 'anti-Bucaillism'. Pembacaan menarik.

Apa pula kaitannya dengan bola? Sebelum ini saya mengagumi pemain-pemain bola Muslim. Namun.. Muslim sayangnya tidaklah bermakna mereka ini mempunyai sifat terpuji. Contohnya apabila Franck Ribery dan Karim Benzema sama-sama ditahan kerana skandal pelacur bawah umur. Aduh!

Jadi, saya kini tidak lagi selektif dalam memilih pemain untuk disokong. Semua mereka sama di mata saya. Kriteria 'saudara seIslam' sudah tidak ada, sebaliknya saya melebihkan cara dan skil permainan. Jika pemain itu juga 'cute', ianya bonus.

Budak Katolik

Sofiya, Koko dan Abdullah

(bukan tajuk sebuah novel cinta).

The Quran and I by Anas Zubedy

Yesterday I finished reading The Quran and I by Anas Zubedy. The title caught my attention and I finished it in one sitting at Sunway Pyramid's Popular. Oops.

The description of the book (taken from Anas Zubedy's blog)

The Quran and I by Anas Zubedy is a collection of reflections and childhood memoirs featuring among others, inter-faith and inter-racial friendships and depictions of how the multi-cultural Malaysian setting is fertile ground for personal growth. The book highlights universal values found in the Quran through daily life experiences and serves as a simple introduction to the Quran.

credit : Anas Zubedy's blog

I was expecting a story of how Qur'an helps him in making choices in everyday life or something close to that, I was expecting Qur'an as a central topic but this book is not exactly that.

He told his story, from a childhood submerged in poverty until he is now a successful adult. He had a very interesting story to tell, I especially love the stories of his remarkable mother, and his friendship with his Christian best friend. Throughout this book there are numerous Qur'an passages that fits with the story he was telling.

But I can't help feeling the Qur'an quotes are just that. Quotes. That fit with the theme. I remember reading on how the writers of Glee decided what songs to be featured in an episode. First, they will write the storyline, and then scour the music catalogues to decide what songs suit that episode. Sometimes the songs fit perfectly, sometimes we viewers are left wondering how the heck that even relate?? In many ways this book feels this way.

credit : Fox

Plus some of his interpretations of Qur'anic verses sound like a personal interpretation, interpretations that suit his values. This could be dangerous.

BUT. The book is quite interesting. I absolutely agree with the writer's sentiments on the importance of unity, and how diversity is God's creation so we must love/embrace it. I may not agree with all the ways he interpreted the holy verses, but I appreciate the story he was telling.

Another Birthday

It is going to be World Cup again soon. This blog was first created on a World Cup year. In a way it is celebrating its birthday I guess. Like someone who was born on 29th February, aging every year, but older only once every four years.

(There was also something here about how after all these years and everything that happened I still remember the boy that broke my heart four years ago but I deleted it.)

Saya, Mama dan Doraemon

Saya punya banyak memori tentang zaman kanak-kanak, antara yang paling saya ingat ialah betapa gemarnya saya terhadap komik Doraemon.

Doraemon mula-mula saya kenali dengan menonton anime (kartun) nya yang ditayangkan di TV. (Kartun Doraemon ini nampaknya begitu evergreen. Saya baru saja selesai menonton satu episod di NTV7 sebentar tadi). Kemudian pada sekitar tahun 1992 (jika tidak silap) Syarikat Penerbitan Tora Aman mula menerbitkan komik Doraemon secara bersiri.

Saya masih ingat, Mama mula membelikan komik Doraemon untuk saya semenjak keluarannya yang pertama. Sewaktu itu cuti sekolah, dan seperti selalu saya berada di kampung. Mama membawa komik itu ke kampung untuk bacaan saya. Sewaktu Mama sampai, saya tidak berada di rumah Nenek, sebaliknya di rumah Tok Ali. Apabila saya sampai di rumah Nenek, Mama memberitahu dia ada membeli komik Doraemon untuk saya. Wah! Saya sangat seronok. Tetapi kemudiannya saya mendapati komik itu sedang dibaca Nadiah. Mak Lang menyuruh Nadiah memberikan komik itu kepada saya, tetapi Mak Chah (dan keadilan sosialnya) memberi arahan kepada saya untuk menunggu giliran. Saya menunggu dengan tidak sabar-sabar.

Doraemon Volume 1

Maka bermulalah kisah cinta saya dengan komik-komik Doraemon. Komik-komik ini menjadi peneman zaman kanak-kanak saya. Saya berasa amat kagum dengan imaginasi pengarang Fujio F. Fujiko. Komik ini menceritakan tentang pelbagai perkara, daripada apa yang menyebabkan kepupusan Dinosaur, kepentingan menjaga alam sekitar, dan pelbagai lagi konsep-konsep sains dan sosial.

Namun melebihi kekaguman saya dengan jalan cerita yang pelbagai, saya merasa dekat dengan watak di dalam komik itu. Seperti Nobita saya (ketika itu) adalah seorang anak tunggal, dan saya juga seorang pelajar sekolah rendah. Saya juga teringat membandingkan Mama saya dan Mama Nobita. Kedua-duanya memakai cermin mata tetapi di situ persamaan berakhir. Di mana Mama Nobita ialah seorang yang sangat garang, saya teringat memikirkan bahawa Mama saya tidak garang (sekurang-kurangnya tidak segarang Mak Chah dan keadilan sosialnya).


Terdapat satu ketika, dua keluaran Doraemon telah keluar tanpa kami sedari. Sewaktu kami ke kedai Titian Emas yang berdekatan dengan sekolah, Mama membelikan saya kedua-dua keluaran Doraemon itu untuk saya. Seorang budak Cina yang juga berada di kedai itu pada ketika itu seperti kagum dan berkatakannya kepada kami. Mama membalas;

"Ialah budak ini, emak dia sayang dia."

... Doraemon akan sentiasa mengingatkan saya tentang zaman kanak-kanak saya. Namun yang penting sekali, Doraemon akan sentiasa mengingatkan saya tentang kasih Mama kepada saya.

Terima kasih Mama. Selamat Hari Ibu.

Saturday Night Song Recommendation!

This song never fails to make me be in a fun! mood. Plus the group name is "fun.". Hahaha.

fun. - All The Pretty Girls

So I call your name, cross my fingers
uncross the others, hesitate.
Oh,I don't think straight with nothing to prove.

I don't wanna say I'm leaving
I will stay until the weekend.
And you can take all your things;
the boxes and rings
and get going.

'Cause I've been waiting for...

All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
Let it be, and come to me with the look in your eyes.
Well you break and take all the words from my mouth.
I wish all the pretty girls were shaking me down.

So I call(I call) you out(out baby)
Just to feel a little bit better about myself(he does)
And I do(you do), baby I do
'Til their lips start to move,
and their friends talk music
I say "I've never heard the tune!"
But I have, I just hate the band
'cause they remind me of you.

Every single night ends up the same,
I don't say much at all, but I bring up your name.
(Over and over and over)
I think it's striking me out.

All the pretty girls on a Saturday night
Let it be, and come to me with the look in your eyes.
Well you break and take all the words from my mouth.
I wish all the pretty girls were shaking me down.
But not you,
you still wear boots and your hair is too long
and then this one doesn't want to admit she's fallen in love
Oh c'mon, oh c'mon, what's a boy to do
When all the pretty girls can't measure to you?

I don't understand your reasons
Please just stay over the weekend
You can't take all those things
They define you and me
everything we've become,
You're all that I need
Please don't make me face my generation alone.

All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
Let it be, oh come to me with the look in your eyes.
And you break and take all the words from my mouth?
I wish all the pretty girls were shaking me down.
But not you,
I feel your faith is destroying the world
and then this one never really understood
the 80s is over and done
Oh c'mon, what's a boy to do,
when all the pretty girls can't measure to you?

p/s: I don't condone violence, but to piñatas oh yeah!

Museum Hunt @ Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

This morning me, Nadiah, Anis and Arina competed in Museum Hunt, arranged by Young Muslims Project. I found out about this event from Young Muslims Project's Facebook event, where a whopping 80 people 'confirmed' their attendance and another 400 said they 'might attend'.

I was expecting a big crowd, but there were less than 20 of us this morning. Heh. But we had a great time nevertheless.

Me and Anis were paired together, and we actually finished all our tasks first. But we were placed second because we counted the number of domes of major mosques' replicas wrong. Being replicas and small it's hard to distinguish whether some of them are domes or just random circlish things. We counted more than 1000, when it is probably around 900. We never found out how many domes there were in the end.

Pictures : (to say a thousand words)

Drawing task. The only art I can do is where a mouse is used and an undo button is available.

'Tasbih' we made for one of the tasks. It is now together with other tasbihs hanging at Anis car's rear-view mirror.

One thing I really like about this museum is how big and bright it is. I remember the National Museum being dark and very gloomy. Arina took a wrong turn into the National Museum this morning and we saw that the museum is hosting a ... Pameran Keranda.

@--}----

I think I am too sarcastic/cynic now for chat room chatting. I can say I had my fill back in 1997/1998, when this house first subscribed to the internet. Back then I remember spending hours in front of the PC, chatting to strangers at channel #kampung in mIRC. Those were the days.

I think back then people were more sincere to get to know others on the net. The ability to communicate with someone only through a medium of PC and modem was so noble that people just be themselves. And they were a lot funnier back then too.

I went into a chat room today, and seconds after I logged in, I was bombarded with messages, mostly from perverts (ewww) asking for 'bicara romantik' (double, triple, major EWWWW). And the a/s/l question immediately after saying 'hi' now just annoy me. And most of them seems to be 25/male/kl too. Yeah right.

Where have all the decent guys in chat rooms went? Achik, I think you got the last one.

The Crisis of Modern Consciousness

Semalam, 28 Mac 2010 saya dan Nadiah telah menghadiri Workshop 'The Crisis of Modern Consciousness' anjuran bersama HAKIM, ABIM dan Fajr Symphony. Alhamdulillah, niat saya yang begitu beria-ia hendak pergi mendengar syarahan Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad tercapai, malah dapat juga ditemani Nadiah. Thank you dear. Kami pergi ke sana dihantar pagi-pagi lagi oleh Mama. Terima kasih Mama.

Antara isi-isi syarahan beliau yang dapat saya catatkan:

• According to BBC, humans are less happy now than 50 years ago.
• Women were happier then than now
• Values such as self-esteem, security, optimism, sense of hope have been down in UK since 1950's
• These are the values that secularism can't really supply
• Humans are exposed to many kind of technological advancements
• But they are not more happy because of it : technology are just distractions and modern world is a world of distractions
• A story by Maulana Rumi - about a baby that can't stop crying, and not satisfied with every food offered
• We are all holding a crying baby in our arm, human soul that is crying out for authentic nourishment
  
• The soul is not satisfied with bits and pieces e.g : technology
• Zikrullah - milk the crying baby needs

• What is a moderate muslim? - If u believe in materialism and Darwinism but at the same time believe in Qur'an & Sunnah, there will be a crisis in spirituality
• Technology - are just toys and tools, we should pay no heed to them
• Intelligent muslim sense an estrangement with duniya
• Grip with akhirat - there's enough for everybody
• Grip with duniya - envy, because resources are finite
• State of joy comes from intimacy with akhirat

• History of human is cyclical
• Believers must always be in a state of optimism; pessimism -> despair -> kufur
• Certain shafts of lights are visible
• Study of quantum mechanics - future already exist (I wish I know more about this subject. Fascinating stuffs!)
  
• Time is no longer what it seems to be
• Reaffirm the concept of qada' and qadar
• Our view of reality now : far more dynamic, slippery

• On 'self', modern world view : self is glorious, can do extraordinary things. e.g : be yourself, challenge yourself
• But no single entity of self : consciousness -> collection of memories? (a bit lost here)
• We are not really what we thought we are, no linear continuity of thoughts
• What is self?

• There's a collapse of ethics, rise of communism, totalitarianism
• Modern world, inharmonious, paradox, focus on materialism but also try to fight for universal human rights
• Religion have more to offer now than what it did previous years ago

• Imam Ghazali, when confronted with hedonism : e.g - modern world, we must see what we can use
• But a spiritual soul must be inside in order for us to see what is usable, what is forgery (like a money changer)
• How do we get the wisdom? It is right of believers
  
• Someone with wisdom, firasat, intuition can know and differentiate belongingness to term of Allah's rule
• But human consciousness can be polluted with envy, ego, nafs
• Ugliest manifestation of religion comes when driven by ego, frustration, trauma, envy, rage rather than spiritual
• Example, distortion of Jihad, ends in destruction
• To be in the middle - hardest path to be
• Sirratul Mustaqim - hardest place to be
  

• Quality of believer is having awareness that we are just passing through
• Human's soul is not from this world, but from a divine world
• Our true home is the heaven
• We must set a boundary from free-fleeting wandererness, pray for hikmah
  
• People with wisdom restrain themselves
  

Pada sesi petangnya, Shaykh Seraj Hendricks pula memperkatakan tentang identiti Muslim, tetapi ketika ini saya sedang 'gila-gila' menahan mengantuk maka hanya beberapa perkara saja dapat saya fahami.


Usai workshop, kami berjalan ke Stesen Keretapi Kuala Lumpur, sambil menangkap gambar-gambar seperti pelancong. Kami menaiki komuter ke Subang Jaya, makan malam di Subang Parade dan pulang diambil Mama (terima kasih lagi Mama).

InsyaAllah saya akan berusaha untuk ke majlis-majlis ilmu sebegini lagi di masa akan datang. Ucapan tahniah kepada pihak penganjur yang berjaya menganjurkan program syarahan yang sangat bermanfaat.

Lecture & Workshop by Sheikh Dr. Abdal Hakim Murad

The Program

---

6.00 p.m. :	Registration
7.30 p.m. :	Maghrib prayers Arrival of guests / buffet dinner
8.45 p.m. :	Opening Doa
8.55 p.m. :	Welcoming Speech by En. Azril Mohd. Amin Chairman, Islamic Outreach ABIM Introduction by Dr. Mohd. Farid Mohd. Shahran Chairman, The Assembly of Young Intellectuals (HAKIM)
9.15 p.m. :	Public Lecture by Shaykh Dr. Abdal Hakim Murad
10.15 p.m. :	The Launch of "The Travelling Light Series" & Cambridge Mosque Project
10.30 p.m. :	END

Workshop Title:
THE CRISIS OF MODERN CONSCIOUSNESS

Date & Venue:
12 Rabi'ulakhir 1431H / 28 March 2010
Masjid Negara, Kuala Lumpur.

Fees:
Professional RM50
Students RM25

Program:

8.30 a.m.	:	Registration
9.00-9.30 a.m.	:	Opening remark by Dr. Mohd. Farid Mohd. Shahran, Chairman of HAKIM
9.30-10.45 a.m.	:	Workshop 1 - Shaykh Dr. Abdal Hakim Murad
10.45-11.15 a.m.	:	Tea Break
11.15-1.00 p.m.	:	Workshop 2 - Shaykh Dr. Abdal Hakim Murad
1.00-2.30 p.m.	:	Lunch / Zuhr prayer
2.30-4.30 p.m.	:	Workshop 3 - Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
4.30 p.m.	:	Disperse

I'm very interested.

Source 1 : www.abim.org.my
Source 2 : www.hakim.org.my

Pertandingan Hafazan Peringkat Negeri Selangor 2010

Wakil Keluarga Othman kali ini :

1. Muhamad Zul Aiman Bin Zahidi - Kategori 1-10 juzuk
2. Khairul Amir Bin Zahidi - Kategori 1-20 juzuk
3. Muhamad Izzul Bin Zahidi - Kategori 1-30 juzuk

Aiman telah pun memperdengarkan bacaan pada pagi ini (10 Mac 2010). Izzul dan Amir pula pada malam ini. Doakan mereka mendapat kejayaan cemerlang dalam pertandingan ini, Insya Allah.

kredit gambar : jais.gov.my

We Shall Overcome

Our family is yet again tested, this time with the news that my Achik is diagnosed with a tumour in one of her ovaries.

Its a very devastating news, but somehow.. I have this very big instinct that she's gonna get over this. This is just another test that she's going to excel through. Achik is very good with big hurdles. She once told me when she was doing her master, that she feels like the world is going to end before she ever get her doctorate. And yet she performed beautifully with her postgraduate study. Even in the subject of looking for that ever elusive significant other, she made it look so easy. (I know this is not so, there were some losers thrown in the mix but she sailed through the challenge too).

This, is another big challenge God give her because He know she is gonna ace this test too. Just another bump in the road, hole in the path, in the epic life story of one Dr. Azizah Othman. She'll pass through this. We are willing it so, and God's willing so will it be.

Meeting Pertama AJK Hari Keluarga Othman

Malam Ahad lepas, selesai kenduri tahlil di kampung, saya dan Nadiah telah memanggil sepupu-sepupu untuk mengadakan mesyuarat mengenai perancangan kami untuk mengadakan Hari Keluarga yang telah lama tidak diadakan. Alhamdulillah, mesyuarat berjalan lancar dan kami berdua sangat berbangga dengan penyertaan semua pihak.

Mesyuarat telah dihadiri oleh :
1. Nadiah
2. Fadzlin
3. Muhammad
4. Ahmad Sobri
5. Muhd Hafiez
6. Abd Muiz
7. Aminah
8. Muhammad Firdaus
9. Nafisah
10. Naziha
11. Haslina - Mak Ina sebagai pemerhati/penasihat/wakil adik beradik keluarga Othman

Mesyuarat telah memutuskan beberapa perkara :

1) Pelantikan AJK Hari Keluarga.
Terdapat 7 Jawatankuasa yang telah dikenal pasti, dan ahli-ahlinya adalah seperti berikut :

AJK Kewangan
-Firdaus
-Nadiah

AJK Makanan
-Muhammad
-Ahmad Sobri

AJK Malam Keluarga
- Abd Muiz
- Aminah
- Abd Rahman *

AJK Riadah
- Nafisah
- Naziha
- Ahmad Afiq *

AJK Kerohanian
- Khairul Amir *
- Muhd Izzul *
- Muhd Hanif *

AJK Dokumentasi
- Muhd Hafiez
- Ahmad Aizat *

AJK Logistik
- Nurlina *

* menandakan ahli tiada sewaktu mesyuarat, jawatan diberi berdasarkan cadangan ahli-ahli mesyuarat.
** AJK boleh meminta pertolongan ahli keluarga lain yang masih belum diberikan portfolio untuk diserap masuk ke jawatankuasa masing-masing

2) Tentatif Hari Keluarga
Boleh dilihat di sini.

3) Cadangan Tempat Hari Keluarga
Pusat Latihan LKIM @ Camar Laut Bagan Lalang, Sepang
Penerangan mengenai tempat boleh dilihat di sini.

4) Budget Hari Keluarga
Tidak disebut disini atas sebab-sebab tertentu.

5) Mesyuarat Kali Kedua
Akan diadakan pada 14 Mac 2010 di rumah Mak Ngah di Subang Jaya.

Perkara yang tidak dapat diputuskan di mesyuarat adalah tarikh sebenar hari keluarga akan diadakan. Ini kerana cadangan tarikh pada 12, 13 Jun 2010 mendapat beberapa tentangan. Penentuan tarikh memerlukan perbincangan dengan adik-beradik keluarga Othman yang lain dan akan diumumkan di mesyuarat kali kedua pada 14 Mac 2010.

Semua ahli jawatankuasa yang menawarkan diri masing-masing nampak begitu bersemangat untuk menjayakan Hari Keluarga Othman. Sobri dan Muhammad sudah terfikir-fikir menu untuk dihidangkan, Aminah dan Muiz mengadakan mesyuarat mereka sendiri selesai mesyuarat rasmi, Kak Chik dan Nafisah pula bertanyakan bajet tambahan yang mereka boleh dapatkan. Kita doakan Hari Keluarga Othman 2010 akan dapat dijayakan dengan cemerlang, InsyaAllah.

Music

Its official. My (pirated) music collections have officially exceeded 20GB in size. My old trusted mp3 player can only store up to 1GB amount of music and deleting songs is becoming a very sad routine. I want a bigger storage mp3 player. I want the iPod Classic. Why is it so freaking expensive???

Demon of a different kind

The new semester starts this coming Monday, and I'm trying to put my mind and focus into the course I registered.

I have been feeling very jitterish and nervous about this latest undertaking. While I am excited and interested in doing research, I suffer from every student's disease : procrastination and inconsistent motivation.

There were times when I was an undergrad where I thought I worked best under pressure. And what better way to add pressure in your life than postponing your work to the very last? Pulling all-nighters, typing and exhausting my brain so that I can come out with an acceptable (at least to me) research. During the time when I had to submit my Final Year Project, I actually did not sleep for more than 36 hours. Crazy I know, but miraculously that project was awarded best FYP. If only the awarding committee knew how much of a lazy bum I was during the earlier part of the semester I think they wouldn't have given me that award.

I know that if I had started doing my writing earlier, I won't need to go through that hellish last week before submission. And this is the most scary part : I know that the same tactic ABSOLUTELY won't work now that I'm a graduate student. It would be like comitting suicide.

I can't ever remember me finishing an assignment not before the day/night it was due. That is how chronic my procrastination problem is. I guess that's how I always work. I need that extra push, that extra adrenaline rush, that fear of impending due date before I can focus and actually finish what I started.

I need to change. I need to find a different sort of rush/motivation for doing work. And I still don't know if I can find it. That is a bit scary.

Dijemput Tuhan

When I was in Standard One back in Sungei Besi, I remember there was this one time a girl from my class was called by a teacher to the office. She received the devastating news that her father has passed away. Being so very young, I remember thinking this is such an uncomputable news. How do you face with the lost of one's parent?

Also when I was young whenever I read or heard of those around me losing their parents or grandparents, I keep thinking that I am so lucky that it wasn't my mother, or my grandparents. Back then I thought God have a score running, and because Alin had lost her father very early, lets not take any of her loved ones just yet. Of course God do not work that way. Now that I'm wiser I know that.

My cousins lost their mother yesterday.

This is very devastating, and its gonna be really hard for them. I don't know if I can do very much but I know I will be praying that they'll be strong and can face this great test God bestowed upon them.

Al-Fatihah for Cik Yati.

Cooking need an undo button

The thing is, if it was only me I would've happily spend the whole day surfing the net and only think of cooking something for myself when I'm hungry. But I have my two brothers with me and I actually feel responsible that their routine is not disturbed very much.

So today I cooked, washed, cleaned, and took them to play bowling with our cousins. Overall a tiring but productive day.

And I'm still a lousy cook.

The Workplace of My Heart

Today I'm saying goodbye yet again to Mesiniaga, and this time I'm feeling even more devastated.

Mesiniaga.. is like a beloved and cherished first boyfriend. The one that knows you the most, and the one that you always come back to for guidance, and perpetual comfortable presence.

I was in Mesiniaga for four times. Back in 2004 I did my practical training for my Diploma program. Then in 2008 I came back again, this time interning for the Degree program. After I finished the practical duration, I took a few weeks break and then was employed again, this time as a casual worker. Finally when I had to leave for the third time, I left with an instruction to contact them again the minute I graduate.

The rest is history, I graduated and contacted the HR Manager who immediately arranged an interview for me. I thought I flunked the interview (I certainly did flunk the technical test) but apparently because they already know me, they are confident that I should be employed.

During this eleven months, I've learned a lot. I was attached to many projects, I had the chance to go to many offices. (PNB is charming in the way they preserve their building, it reminds me of 70s, 80s malay movies where they have scenes in the office. MATRADE is sparkling new, the building with a hole in the middle, and constant traffic jams whenever a high profile case is being heard in the nearby Palace of Justice. BNM is like a 5 stars hotel, the lobby, the toilet, the executive cafe, and the experience of getting to meet the Governor. BURSA, I regret to inform I never get to see a live trading, but the foodcourt in nearby Menara Maybank serve the best Nasi Goreng Ikan Masin in town. UiTM is.. UiTM. Hee.)

But most of all, I appreciate all the relationships I made during this time. I am blessed that I am surrounded with wonderful colleagues. Especially during the first few months when almost everything seems alien and a problem could take forever to solve. They helped me, guided me, understood my limitations and above all became my friends.

Beyond missing the building, ladies days at the swimming pool, various ceramahs from all-too-funny ustazs, delicious breakfasts and lunches at twelfth floor, taking a break by raiding the well-stocked locker in the unoccupied workstation for mamees, and sitting (sometimes twirling) at my beloved workstation, I will miss my friends' company and support the most.

When I told my manager my intention to resign to further my study, he said that he wishes that our path is gonna cross again. With all my heart I sincerely hope so.

Of Gifts and Thoughts

I guess I am flattered that when people think of my football club, they think about me. But I cringe that when people think about me, all they can think about is the football club.

Its like all my existence can only be defined by my love of Liverpool FC ( I want to think I am so much more than that). There's the female me, muslimah me, twenty-something me, bookaholic me, software engineer me, future grad student me, travel-loving me, music maniac me, movie buff me, and all the quirky, stupid things I say and I do that define me.

I appreciate all the gifts that I received very very much, but when I receive so many LFC related gifts I can't help but think that its such a kop out. Pun fully intended. Hehe.

Dressed

I was trawling through the internet today when I stumbled upon this picture. This dress was designed especially for Audrey Hepburn to be worn on her wedding day.



What especially amuses me, it could easily be worn today by our modern Muslim brides. Of course the middle/waist is a bit tight (but so does our usual kebayas and what nots - the keyword here is 'modern', or well, some definition of it.).

The point is, the dress, she was dressing modestly. For her wedding day she wanted to look elegant, beautiful, virtuous.. showing a lot of skin would be disrespectful, vulgar even.

THIS. Where the beauty lays in not what is perceived, but what is portrayed. Where a person wears the dress, and not the opposite (ever heard of celebrities needing industrial strength tapes to avoid 'wardrobe malfunction'? um, yeah.)

A bit of a nonsense update really.