Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Currently

Ketika Cinta Bertasbih : Habiburrahman El Shirazy: Fiction

Dr Mahathir's selected Letters to World Leaders : Abdullah Ahmad : Non-Fiction
Fast Food Nation : Eric Schlosser : Non-Fiction
Tuhan Manusia : Faisal Tehrani : Fiction ke Non-fiction ek? Both kot.
Assalamualaikum and salam sejahtera,
Just to share buku-buku yang sedang saya baca. Banyak? Erm, memang habit saya baca beberapa buku dalam satu masa.. kalau bosan satu buku, baca buku lain pulak. Biasanya I mixed fiction and non-fiction sekali.. sebab bukan semua masa kita boleh digest buku-buku `berat'. Contoh lepas balik kerja atau sebelum tidur, rasanya tak mampu kot baca buku `berat'. Alamat lepas lima minit mesti dah tertidur.. :) Ada sesetengah buku tu yang sempat baca separuh je, yang separuh lagi tunggu bila ada mood untuk digest.Yup, and my preference is buku non-fiction yang sederhana, tak ringan dan taklah sangat berat.
Dan ya, saya masih belum mampu habis baca Tuhan Manusia. Saya perlukan the best state of mind bila baca buku ni supaya tak tersalah tafsir.
Dan saya juga ingat saya masih berhutang second part sinopsis untuk Dari Beirut Ke Jerusalem..harap bersabar ye.Just don't loose faith on me. Hehe.
Cheers :)

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Marvellous!

Recently I came across this blog, http://tukang3d.blogspot.com/, featuring magnificent 3D animation, mainly on ID and architecture. So cool! I always dream to learn and to master 3D animation art (sangatlah berangan kan, I don't even have the basic knowledge of it yet :P).. anyone willing to teach me? Haha.. do click the link and feast your eyes :)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Adventure : Paintball

Hi all,

I noticed that recently my blog seems so dry and dull, without any graphics. So here I post some. This was during my paintball session dated 2-3 months back. Enjoy.

Haa.. pilih senapang mana nak

Khusyuk dengar briefing, the guy n orange wear full gear, but without the chest shield

Offense

Defense

The field is quite ok and the fees are reasonable. Located at Subang, near Subang Holiday Inn.

Changes in Life

Yesterday marked the 100th day from the general election which showed the greatest political tsunami ever in Malaysia’s history. Since then, we experience many changes, be it done by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)-led states or the government that caused by various reasons, internally and globally. We see that both government and oppositions being strongly criticized, even the humble rakyat now know their roles and voice out their rights. The parliament had never been very important and full of excitement, as there is almost equal strength from the ruled government as well as the oppositions. People can’t wait to get the hansard of the latest parliament debate, to know who says what, and who behaves such. Also, we can see programmes for rakyat and ceramah being held openly and actively, as what previously only some political parties would do, which I thought obviously resulted from the sea-changing previous election.

Besides the judiciary system are seen as being more vocal than ever, revealing one dirty secrets after another. Those dated as long as 20 years ago, as can be read here. I guess the judges now feel more secured than before, starting from the ex-gratia paid to Tun Salleh Abas as a token of apology by the government and the controversial V.K Lingam clip. Nowadays the current and political issues are the most talked issues by everybody, from coffee shop to education institutions. Overall, I see this as a positive change as clearly explained by Wong Chin Huat in his article in yesterday’s the Sun newspaper, entitled `Malaysia’s Journey To Political Adulthood’. I am very much interested with the `Mental de-Mahathirisation’ concept that he introduced, which described most Malaysian’s mentality nowadays.

The latest hit in town is none other than the fuel price hikes. People blamed Petronas just because it is the nation’s oil company and make tough demands i.e to deserve full disclosure of its annual report, to approve the bonus paid to its employees and etc because their lives are at stake. May I correct the statement; the fuel crisis is not involving everyone’s life, just the lowly income ones. The pembesar and the rich ones are barely affected. And the para Menteri dare to claim they also sacrifice, as much as the others, by allowing ten percent cut of their elaun keraian, which the math is done by my friend here. For me, the real sacrifice would be only when they allow 50% cut of their overall earnings that are ultimately paid by the taxpayers. The simple calculation behind my not-so-ridiculous suggestion is just like this : Can an approximately RM30 000 per month worth of income (half the amount of a Menteri’s earning per month) afford a living of a family? Of course, that is more than enough.At least for laymen like you and me.

However being a positive Malaysian, I always look at the bright side. I admit, I was among the furious ones when the government announced the 40% fuel price that was enforced immediately on midnight, which caused massive traffic jams and extra long queues at petrol stations nationwide. But after a week, I started to absorb the impact and tried to adjust to the situation. Our lifestyle changed, slowly but surely. We are more aware to use the money to avoid unnecessary spending. A lot had started to use public transport instead of driving to work, including the managers and big bosses. Carpool becoming popular again. I see this is a good start to make a good impact, not only to our pockets but also to the environment. Less vehicles on the road, less traffic jams, less pollutions, and perhaps less road accidents. Although some economic experts predicted that this change of life will only occur for a while, before the people get adjusted thus resume their old habits of excessive spending, wasting money and resources.

I always hope that we, Malaysians will adopt the good habits of the other people of other countries, which are to conserve energy, reuse and recycle whenever possible and avoid pollutions. I love to imagine us using paper bags and card boxes to carry our groceries, and eat nasi bungkus that is wrapped with paper instead of polystyrene. And we might organize car boot sales in order to reuse things that we no longer want. They even start to use hybrid and electric cars to reduce dependency to natural resources and opt to alternative energy instead. These are among the good practice of the Westerners that are yet to adopt by us. Maybe, with the global economic crisis would open our eyes so that we will appreciate our life and our world better.

If all these changes make us become better human beings, well I don’t really mind.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Blocked

Initially I thought I would have ample time to update this blog frequently when my host company provides internet to its staff. But eventually, I was wrong.

Whether I'm too occupied with office work or am having a terrible writer's block recently, I'm not very sure.

The previous post was also written over the weekend, and I only got to update it once I arrive to the office, in a rush. That's it.

I hope I can recover soon, because usually when I had this laziness, I will get the mood instantly the next minute.Perhaps.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Lady drivers

Have you found yourself stuck behind a lady driver, after a hectic work and you can’t wait to arrive home to have a good rest? The lady, who was obviously a first timer to park at a parking bays of an office building, apparently not familiar with her surroundings. She was with her colleague, chitchatting, probably to share her worries of first time to park her car here. She abruptly stopped by to ask a security guard where the way out is while you can clearly see the exit sign just beside her. And then she needs to reverse her car since she needs to ambik side to turn right (whereas she’s driving a Kelisa! She should not face that difficulty right?), and she makes you have to reverse your car a bit too since you are too near, while a few cars are already waiting behind you.

(my assumption on the rationale of the lady’s act : the lady just want to make sure she’s heading to the right situation, maybe her life motto is `malu bertanya, sesat jalan’. Or maybe she thought her car is big, so in order to avoid scratch and get on the divider, she might as well reverse her car a bit)

When she reached the pay post, she just handed her ticket and waited for the man to tell her how much she needs to pay, whereas it is obvious the parking area has a flat rate. When she was told the exact amount, she spend about ten minutes to reached her hand bag at the bag seat, took out everything inside her bag in search of small change but found none, and reached back again for her wristlet pulak, and finally found a RM5 bill.
She handed the bill to the parking assistant. At this stage I expect that she will drop the money and miserably had to open the door and pick it up back, but thank God it does not happen.

(my assumption: this is her first time parking here, and she put her handbag at the back seat so that she don’t have to bother her colleague to hold it for her. She might as well forget that she put her small change in her wristlet, which she always brought with her for lunch, not her handbag. Thus that explained the fuss)

After that, we joined a long queue of people going out to the main road, all impatient to reach home. The lady I observed was deep in conversation with her colleague, perhaps updating the latest gossip in the office, you know with hand gestures and giggles. She reached her bag and tried to find something in her bag, while not noticing the car in front of her moved a few moments ago and she kept another ten cars waiting for her to move. At this stage I think it is the most suitable time for me to honk her. This made her jumped and quickly pulls away, towards the wrong lane. Luckily other drivers were generous enough to give her way so that she can get back to the right lanes. I sighed.

(my assumption: she was deep in conversation in the most important detail of her life, like the boss’ mismatch clothes or a staff having affair with another staff at different department, things like that. And she might on the way to show her colleague the picture of her loved ones, thus she reached for her handbag. The front car was not moving anyway, so what’s wrong with her action, right?)

In different occasion, when you found an extremely slow car at the right lane, or when you are generous enough to give way for a car to get into your lane but the driver is hesitant or take too long to get in, it is always not surprise to see that a lady driver is involve in this. Also in quite opposite manner, you can see daring lady drivers who drive too fast, cutting queues, and seboleh-boleh not letting you to get in her lane with furious look on her face. These ladies usually come with sunglasses and a smug.

(my assumption : the lady think she followed the maximum allowable kmph thus she deserve to drive at the right lane. Other cars that are faster than her were breaking the rules. Also when a driver give signal to change lanes, she is not too sure she can move in, or scared that the car will not give way. So it’s better to stay the safe distance. For the daring ones, well maybe they observed too mane similar driving techniques by the men, so why not doing one by herself anyway? Lady drivers rule!)

Also, when you come across a very unlikely accident, like crashing into a roundabout or a divider (it is a divider to avoid crash, mind you!), or a pavement at the edge of a parking lot when the driver try to park. Usually you will find miserable ladies on the phone, trying to get help from someone on the scene.

(my assumption : Ladies are naturally not good in estimating the exact distance, or they observe that the pavement or divider was not there at the first place! Duh)

I am a lady driver too, and I’m not discriminating my own gender in this matter but I can’t help to feel irritated too once in a while. I tried to have 360º views and try to understand why guys always have these exact views on lady drivers. Well guys, you might want to understand the lady’s situation at the first place. And ladies, we can always improve our driving skills by being more alert and observant of our surroundings.
By the way this is just a general view, there are excellent lady drivers on the road as well, and a lot of reckless and mean man drivers too. It’s not about the gender difference but more on personal attitude while driving.

Afterall, buckle your seat belt and drive safely! :)

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Dutchmen won!

Holland beat Italy 3-0!
OK, I know this is yesterday's news, but who cares.I've been the Orange supporter since Dennis Bergkamp era :) They played extremely well too.
Go go Orange!