Sunday - Making Use of Bank Loans
A man walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer.
He tells the loan officer that he is going to China on business for two weeks and needs to borrow USD $5,000. The bank officer tells him that the bank will need some form of security for the loan, so the man hands over the keys to a new Ferrari parked on the street in front of the bank. He produces the title and everything checks out. The loan officer agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.
The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the for using a USD $250,000 Ferrari as collateral against a USD $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then drives the Ferrari into the bank's underground
garage and parks it there. Two weeks later....
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I Should Apply To Be A Bank Manager...
Yesterday is a "Pay-my-bills" day. So after the Jumaat Prayer, it will just be me and the bank.. Everything is fine, but I need to complain on one thing. The BSN (Bank Simpanan Nasional)
Just imagine, about 40 people queing and only two counters opened.It's not that they are not enough staff to man the counters. There are guys behind the back door sitting and laughing. I know that it must be their lunch break, but I think the management can do more to settle this problem. For your information, this condition has been a practice since before I was transfered here.
What I did, I first go to the BSN to get the queing number, then I just take my time doing other chores. Believe me, I even had time for shopping my MONTHLY groceries. It's that bad..
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I don't expect the staff to be self motivated. That is just near impossible when there is no reward in working harder. This is entirely up to the management to do something. Maybe reward the staff by asking them to collect the queue number. Then everyone will do their work faster to serve more people and get more incentive
Parent saw their children spending more time with television must do something to change tv into books and study. They should never assume their children will be self-motivated to study for their future.
Again human is naturally lazy. But there are some rare people who are hardworking, and will go the extra mile while completing his/her responsibilities. These are really rare breed. And usually these are the people who will be the successful ones.
- Working Zombie - Organized way to better pay
- Do You Know Uncle Pareto? - The infamous 80/20 Rule
About 1 year back, I'm not that comfortable using internet to do my banking. But I force myself and now I cut 50% of the time spent. The post office here is far worse compared to BSN. I guess that what push me to start internet banking :)
Are you currently using internet banking?
Labels: career, Idea, motivation
Life Is Like Pasar Malam
With the new template going on, it does feel a bit like preparing for raya at home.. changing new curtains or repainting the house. Very exciting.. Hopefully everything is ok with the new template. Do inform me if there is anything I can help you with.
Yesterday I actually went to the first bazar Ramadhan this year. Well, you have to understand that going out of an estate is hardwork, so I very seldom went out. The bazar here at my place is not that grand if compared to back home in Kedah, but there is still lots of yummy food around :)
I remembered an advice given by my brother, which I am going to share it with you.
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We are all given each 24 hours. Everyone will have to go through the same 24 hours - criminals, loitering youth, the dance teacher, the prime minister, and even Rasulullah. So what are we bringing home from the 24 hours? Do we even know our reason going to this "pasar malam"? or are we just walking around aimlessly.. and in the end we brought back those colorful tents home. which is clearly not what we're supposed to buy.
So what do you do at 6am? 7am? how long do we really need to sleep? Where can we squeeze out more time for us? Seriously I read a lot of self-managing books, but in my opinion this "Pasar Malam" concept is a good approach simply because we can associate the feeling of wasting time when we go to a "pasar malam" and return home empty handed... Don't you think so?
- Slow Mo and Fast Forwarding Time - Time does have a sense of humor
- Procrastinator United - 3 personal tips to overcome procrastination
I heard a quote in the tv the other day - "Bukan masa yang terlalu cepat, kita sebenarnya yang terlalu lambat". Really make sense...
By the way, Mertabak here is very expensive. Cost me RM1.80 each, but I have no choice but to buy because the mrs ask for them... It's a good thing she crave for things buyable eheh :) Foods are getting more expensive each day isn't it? and getting smaller too
Update : New Template
I'm again sorry that there will be no post today.
As you can see, Immortal Wisdom is now undergoing heavy renovation. This template is built with your constructive comments in the previous survey in mind. Please excuse the simple graphic and layout. as a non-artistic person, I am actually proud of them because I make them from scrach,
However, again.. I seek your help on this, Any comments to further improve it? or bugs that I didn't notice (maybe browser compatibility issues)?
I really appreciate them
p.s. shoutmix.com (chatbox) is not available at this instant. I hope it will be ok tomorrow...
Labels: New
This Time Is Mine
Today's the last day of my medical leave. Unfortunately, there's some sign that my eye is better. Again.. unfortunately. Nevertheless it's still a good thing that I was given the leave. Now why do I say it's good? Here's why..
I can actually spend time to do other thing. like finishing up the Harry Potter book, resting, and doing some little projects. I wonder why I cannot do this during my day off every week. I guess when it's your day off, you just want to rest. No more working.
Come to think of it, maybe that's why we are so frustrated with work. We work and we work every single day, and when it comes to our day off, we just spend it resting (with the intention to gather strength for another series of work the next week). Some spend it by doing chores that cannot be done on weekdays. This chores are usually not that fun, like doing laundry, cleaning the house etc. It's like work... without the paycheck. No wonder we are stressed out, we are working every single second of our life.
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Seriously I realize this yesterday, that we really need to take some time for ourselves. Allocate some time to do what we want to do. For example, me with reading the book. or surf the web... not to find material for your blog, but just because you want to.
I try to come up with some things that we can do just for our own pleasure.
- watch sunrise (at least once a week)
- take leave from work and go see a movie of your choice alone
- play music and do nothing but listen
- buy a watercolor and draw an abstract drawing
- make a robot from bottles and wires
Conclusion - What we do every single day almost always for someone else, or for getting some benefit from it like paycheck, recognition etc. we never spend time for ourselves. It's true we must not be selfish, but our own time, our own activity is very important for us to realize that we really living a life.
After finishing Harry Potter, I'm going to find if there is any Silat training here at my place. Anything will do.. I really love practising Silat, not that I am any good :)
Just simply love the art
Labels: Idea
MC Day
I woke up yesterday, very eager to work... (not exactly). However it is weird that I had those "taik mata" at my eye (I wonder what it's called in english..eye shit? hehe). Before any assumption arise, I do wash my face and bath every morning (I almost can hear the assumption building up).
I looked in the mirror. hm my left eye is reddish. (I have a sepet eye.. chinese almost always speak chinese with me) I thought maybe the eye got exposed to the dust while riding my motorcycle to work (Estate is like that.. when it's dry, we will have a layer of dust on our face - bedak asli). Hopefully the reddish color will be gone soon.
Working as usual, until lunch time, I go back home. (the mill and my house is just 1 km apart, so I can actually go home anytime of the day :) ) the color is still there. (Ait!!!) I tried sleeping during the 1 hour (overslept abit :p). There's no change in the color. (I think I "sakit mata") Went to see the manager, asking permission to go to clinic. (he doesn't even want to look at my face, maybe afraid that the disease spread to him)
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Went to see the doctor.. (Guess what, the doctor also try to avoid any eye contact with me. Is it really that contagious?) and he gave me a 3 days MC (Yahooooo!). Went back to the mill and surrendered the MC to the manager (with the expression of pain and suffering but yahooing inside)
So with that, it is confirmed that I am down with "sakit mata" (I still don't know the english word for it. Eye ache?) Please pray for my recovery and hopefully the mrs will be fine.
Lesson learnt -
- One tips from old people (Petua) to avoid "sakit mata" is to blink when you take bath. I used to do that.. and very rarely be sick. Now that I wear contact lense, it's advisable not to do so, so I didn't. Maybe you can try.. seriously it work.
- People with "sakit mata" has the ultimate power to make even the manager afraid to look you in the eyes hahah
- I need to brush up on my English vocabulary. Very poor
- The words in the bracket is like what my mind is thinking at the moment I wrote certain sentence. what a busy mind we have, don't you think so?
- Heroes with Power To Look Calm But Damn Nervous Inside - My experience handling people Run Amok
- The Story - Childhood memories on creative way to avoid fight
Labels: Experience, Stories
Ramadhan Tribute #4 - The Syaitan In Us
We all know that Syaitan are our greatest enemy. They had sworn to sway us away from the Islam and Iman. If there is any bad things we do, we often associate it with the Syaitan, whispering in our heart to push us do the sinful thing, like "mengumpat", stealing, and even killing. Syaitan is of course blamed for every bad things happening in the world.
That makes me wonder, Isn't it during Ramadhan, all syaitan are chained to protect human from being tempted? Why is it, that nothing had actually changed. Just look into our heart, we ourselves can do sinful things during Ramadhan, like "fitnah", "mengumpat", even neglect the 5 solats. Look around us, we can see people proudly not fasting, innocently walking during Friday prayer, and some even go to the extreme such as raping and killing. Can we really blame Syaitan for all this?
I definitely agree that syaitan is the one who whisper to us, tempting us to do sinful things. and I agree that they are human's enemy till Judgement Day. But how can we explain the sinful things we do during Ramadhan? Desire? maybe...
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Until one time, we no longer care what is makruh and what is sunat, If we don't realize this, the time will come when we no longer care what is haram and what is wajib. To make things worst, not only we are like that, we try to persuade our friends to act the same. What difference then between us and syaitan?
Basically we can see ourselves, syaitan's work is very easy. Maybe we should learn more about Islam, knowing exactly what is makruh, what is sunat. If we take the time to learn about makruh and sunat, I believe abiding wajib and haram will comes naturally. Let's give those syaitan a challenge shall we?
When I wrote this, I feel like the words are actually meant for me. I admit, I am not a good muslim. I never pray at the beginning of the period, I rarely "sedekah". And it's been a long time since I go back to learning all this Feqah. So this writings are more like a reminder to me, A reminder that I know and still I don't care. Ya Allah, please make me a better person
Labels: Idea, Islam, Ramadhan, Syaitan
Apology
I deliberately did not post today, and for that I'm terribly sorry. Thank you for taking the time visitting me here, and hope to see you on Monday.
This blog is simply having its moment of silence... as a tribute to our Kak Ngah.
Nurin Jazlin - Malaysia's Sad Story
First of all... let's take a moment and recite the surah AlFatihah to Adik Nurin Jazlin.
Thousands of blog around Malaysia are writing on this unfortunate event. Cursing the psychopath and praying that the family will be strong and patient. This blog will join in cursing that psychopath and pray he will be caught and punished. It would be better if he can be chained at Dataran Merdeka.. and let us all "rejam batu" at him. I personally will take a day off and go there.
Two things I noticed from this unfortunate event
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Malaysia is a very beautiful country. We are admired by most nation as a nation of peace. I totally agree. We can actually walk anywhere in Malaysia without any fear.
Until now.. one person has changed the whole Malaysia. This one person has proved that despite our best quality, there's a monster living among us. That monster is only one person, but it totally affect all Malaysian. We all mourn for our Kak Ngah.
The point is please increase our awareness on the matter
- Know your neighbour, make friends with them
- Know your children, their friends, and keep track of their activity
- Educate them as early as possible on humanity to prevent them from being that one monster.
- Please be cautious, again... there's a monster among us
I'm touched by the thousands of people mourning over our Kak Ngah. Chinese, Indian, Malays etc all joined together.
I guess, in time like this.. We are all reduced to simpler being. We are no longer Malays, Chinese or Indian. We are just fathers, mothers, brothers. We are all family.
So let's... Let us all be brothers and sisters. Start small.. start from your neighbour. Then maybe your colleague and go on. Let them know our intention is to create that bond with them. It's no easy task.. We are so used to the idea, our house.. our house, theirs theirs.
I really wish all this cruelty happening to our children stop. These are our children.. an "Amanah" from Allah Himself. How can people even look at children that way. Seriously, I hope my "Dataran Merdeka" idea is taken into consideration.
Personally, I think they are many sexual predator now because of the porn in the internet. How else such a culture can be within us? We can't stop the internet. But we can break certain culture of ours and start openly teach our children on sex education etc. Hopefully they will know the bad effect of porn before it even corrupt them.
Look at it this way, the children will sooner or later learn about it, why not we show them the right way to learn it.
What do you think?
Labels: jazlin, Lesson, nurin, tribute
How To Know He/She Is The One?
Do you have some free time? Maybe we can help a good friend of mine Ms Azuwachan with her question.
Problem - She is currently in doubt with her feeling. She is not sure whether or not she is in love with this person or not. so she asked "How to make sure that you REALLY like someone" and how should she best handle the situation.
Pondering about this does bring up lots of memories hehe. This is what I think about it.
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Love really is the most mysterious thing in the world. People have been discussing on what love really is since the beginning of time itself. So don't be surprised if you are confused. Everybody knows that love exist, but nobody can really put a definition on love.
Being confused on your feeling is actually a good thing. With other friends, you either like or dislike, period. Bestfriends maybe you like more. But to this person, it will be very confusing. He makes you feel so comfortable like a friend, but most of the time, he makes you feel special. And when he did something bad, the hate and sadness can sometimes be very overwhelming. Seriously that is one of the key indication that you are in love with the guy. But of course there is other factor involved.
There are some things in a relationship that may have the same effect as love. They are not love per se, but they can be mistakenly felt like love. So let's try to eliminate them
- Is he just a crush?
- Is it due to gratitude?
- Is it due to him being famous? (Edited)
There are other factors but I think these three are the most important ones. Usually when we've already eliminate these factors, it will be clear that you love him for no apparent reason. Usually that is love :)
All said, love is never a matter we can explain. You love someone, you just know it. You define yourself what is love to you and you honor it. Up until now, I can never describe what I love about my wife. Maybe I can describe them, but believe me the list will be a never ending ones, because I love everything about her, the good and bad and how they complete me.
- Pisau Cukur Ockham - Never assume in a relationship
- Two contradicting love quote - which one is more accurate?
I'm sure all friends have more interesting ideas on the big question. Do share..
For me, it is always better to give a chance to 10 wrong people, than to miss that one who is the one. - My quote eheh
Thanx for those requesting my opinion on a topic, I can promise that every request will be entertained, if I have any opinion on the matter of course. So I welcome any suggestion. Next request would be from UncleJ on Nurin's case.. Please allow me some time ya uncle :)
Labels: love, Relationship, request
Ramadhan Tribute #3 - Expectation
The Battle Field of Badar
A very good day to all of you... The sun is .. well not shining, it's about 1 am in the morning. Tomorrow we will be performing the 8th day of fasting.. so like my friends Yanz asked the other day in the shoutbox, "Siapa tak puasa, angkat kaki". I'm still not sure whether she meant to raise up a leg or to "cabut" :)
I don't know about you, but every year, I see more people not fasting, and they are not embarassed about it. When asked, they just say that they feel weak if they fast.
That seriously puzzled me, "what do they expect?" We change our lifestyle, of course there will be some change in the way our body react. The first few days are always the hardest. Then our super adaptive body will not only be as normal, it will be better in term of health.
The first war in Islam, which is "Perang Badar" happened on the 17th of Ramadhan. 313 Muslim warriors were fighting about 1000 Quraisy warriors and they won. If muslims can actually performed the fasting while at a war (a fight between life and death), why we cannot fast when we are just doing our light job. We were even get paid for that. Did the muslim in "Perang Badar" get paid?
Most of the time, we even used this fasting month as an excuse to get lighter job. I know my foremen are.. Luckily the indian foremen are very understanding and offer to do heavier job. It's very embarassing to me, that when they are actually not fasting, but demand the lighter work.
What I'm saying is, we are fasting.. expect to experience some hardship, some hunger and thirst. Don't whine about being hungry.. That's just wrong.
Knowing this, I like to expand the idea to all things in life. When we started to work.. we need to expect that we are going to actually do some work. Don't be like my foreman... Some of them, when asked to do certain work, they insist that this job must be done by another foreman. This is not supposed to happen. we were hired to work, and so we must work. Period.. By the way, off topic, the foreman finally give in and do the repair I asked him to do.
Another example, is when studying.. We must not whine on the need to study. We are student, and we must expect that they will be a lot of studying involved. So.. all we need to do is to study. Yes, sometimes the work overloads, that we can whine. but not about the need to study.
Any other similar examples happening in your life, please share ya :)
The day is a bit hot now.. I have to admit that sometimes I have this thought in my head to break the fast. What I do, everytime that idea comes, is to think about how Rasulullah, tied rocks to his stomach just to ease the hunger. Immediately feel ashamed of having the thought. How about you? How do you overcome those urge?
6 Tips (For Now) To A Happier You
So what do you do to be happy back after being sad? It's Wednesday.. and in here, we're supposed to be happy on Wednesday :)
I was walking around the mill, and come up with these 10 steps on how to be happy. I know I will.... How about you? Do you find they will work?
1) First we need
2) One trick I always found useful is
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9) If you are actually saddened by a problem, and you've tried everything but to no avail. Maybe
10)
11)
12)
13)
/end list
I'm sure we all have our own way to be happier. Care to share yours.. They will be updated in the post by the end of the day :)
* Thanx to my friends, I've compiled their suggestions in the list. :) A more detailed explanation is available in the additional ideas. Feel free to browse them
- Donkey Tale - Mindset to go through harsh life
- How to systemically have happier days
:) Remember tips no 6, to share your happiness? This is mine... Few days ago, the mrs and I went to the clinic. And the doctor had confirmed that my wife is now pregnant!!!! :) YAYYYYYYY I'm so happy I literally jumped and almost did my happy dance. I actually did but at home la haha.
I pray to Allah that the mrs and the baby are both healthy :) I just can't stop smiling..... :)
A Sad Story - At Least I'm Sad Reading It
A story today, I once heard from an unknown resource. I'm also not that sure whether it's true or not but irregardles, it is a nice story to be shared. (Obviously the story was rewritten based on memory)
Once upon a time, there was a man who is so successful, he was the richest person in the country. One day he decided that he wanted to pay off any debt he had with any person in the country. After paying off all debt, he suddenly realized that he still owe his success to his old mother. And thus he went to see a wise man, asking how he could settle all debt he has with his mother.
The wise man, shook his head and said that there's no way a mother's deed can ever be repaid.
The rich man disagreed, and came up with a plan. What he did was he picked his mother off the floor and started carrying her on his back for 10 years. This according to him should settle the burden he was when the mother was pregnant. In the 10 years time, he did everything, his mother did when he's a child. feeding her with his own hand, bathing her, everything to repay back all the little things he did.
After the ten years passed. He again went to the wise man, and tell him every little thing he did. Apparently he kept a notebook listing it all, complete with time and date.
The wise man simply said that "What you did however great it was, will never match even a drop of your mother's breast milk. or a second of your time seeing with those eyes"
(I'm sorry to interrupt... this is how I remember the story, "eye" with "blind", get it? ok on with the story hehe)
The rich man said "You are just making this up, how come what I did doesn't match what she did?"
The wise man replied "It is because, when your mother carried you, fed you, bathed you... the only thing in her heart is the hope to see you grow and happy. But when you carried her, feed her, bathed her.. the only thing in your heart is wondering when will she die."
/end story
- The dark side of the day - Appreciate parents all year long, not only on Father's or Mother's Day
There are two most important person in my life. My mama and Maktuk. Unfortunately I cannot care for them. My mother is still working in KL. She is a very independent woman being a single parent and all. All I can do is to go visit her every now and then. That's why sometimes I'm not able to update the blog. I seriously hope to be able to take care of her when she decided to stop working.
Maktuk is my grandmother living in Kedah. Alhamdulillah, my brothers Filantera & Pocket are there taking care of her. I always feel sad knowing that I'm not there, seeing her more often when this is the time she needed me the most. I have to do something about this...
Labels: appreciation, Lesson, parents, Stories
Not Blind... "Rabun" Only
Thank you to all those contributing in the survey held on Saturday. It's always a good thing knowing where we can further improve ourselves. I still need more feedback to accurately renovate the whole blog.. So for those who have other things to add, I'd really appreciate it.
I believe all of us can agree, that if we are so accustomed to something, doing the same thing day in day out. We will not be able to see anything wrong with it.
Some will be so attached to what they hold to, they are willing to fight for it. Defending it to the end, even though the truth is, the thing is not worthy to be fought for. Wow that's very abstract of me.
Take me for example, I am so addicted to blogging, that I go to great length with the theme (the boy on the moon). At first it was a mere experiment, trying this and that... after a lot of time spent, I've decided that this is just perfect. (I guess the idea of changing the theme will be so tiring, that I convince myself it is perfect).
The truth is, I completely agree with some comments from friends that the theme is somewhat holding me back. It gives the wrong first impression, and there's not that much room for me to improve. For those who did come up and highlighted this, I salute you.
It is true that every person's opinion is different. Yours will definitely be different from mine. But now.. that is exactly why I needed to hear your opinion. To hear the other side of the whole story, to see the blog from other point of view. Whether to accept it or not is totally a different matter.
I guess we all have had experience of being blind. So blind that we ignore the truth. (loving someone so much, that we fail to see he/she is a bad person, being so proud that we assume everyone else is wrong etc)
In my mill, there's a new assistant started working last March. He used to work in another company. The first thing we did when he reported for duty is to have him go into the mill, and give us 20 things or more which he think is wrong. He came back... presenting to us about 30 items. Things like why some machine sounds weird, why our boiler seems to be very poorly controlled. My manager was smiling. I obviously not. Because those items are happening every day that I'm already so used to it I didn't notice them anymore.
Luckily the manager also didn't notice it eheh.
Labels: Idea, Perspective
I Need Your Advice :)
First of all I would like to say thank you for all the support you gave to this blog. Having you visitting this blog and chatting with you guys has always been the high of my day.
It is my highest priority to improve this blog on a daily basis and hopefully your visit here will be as comfortable as possible. Thus if it is not too much trouble,I would like to ask you to participate on this survey and help me making the blog more effective and better.
I don’t like to lead such discussions too deliberately but I find that the discussion is better if I give a few general questions to stimulate the conversation. So here are some areas you might like to comment on:
- Do you have any topics you would like me to blog on?
- What are hated / loved topics so far?
- Other suggestion?
- Are there too many posts, not enough, just right?
- Is it dull without pictures?
- Is the articles too long?
- Graphic's too much?
- Loading time to slow?
- Maybe these keywords will help -- layout, right Column, font and colors.. Any comments?
- Anything to add that will make our interactivity and your reading better?
- Some keywords to help you comment.. chatbox, advertisement, top commentators and top chatters etc
6) What is it that you like about Immortalw?
7) Services And Tools
- What additional way this blog can be beneficial to you .. services? consultation? community? etc
/end survey
Any feedback, suggestions, dreams or ideas that you have are welcome. While I can’t promise to put every suggestion into place I make a commitment to you to read anything you have to say.
All that I ask in return is that you be honest, courteous and constructive with your feedback. I understand that in the end, it is totally up to me since this is my blog. But to tell you the truth, I never consider this as MY blog. This blog has totally no value if there are no friends adding in ideas and share experience. It's basically ours. I'm just the person with the login password :). So any comments (good or bad) are highly appreciated.
So it’s over to you. Feel free to either leave your feedback in comments below or to share them privately with me via email
This survey will last for two days (which generally means, tomorrow Sept 16th, I will not be posting)... In the meantime, I can start doing that long time pending tag :)
When To Voice Out Your Inner Voice
A good friend of mine, Ms Intan had previously asked my opinion on a subject which is "When to give advice?". Well this is what I think.
However as always, there will be few factors one need to consider before giving any advice.
- Must be very sure of the advice. Don't advise anyone to walk in the dark, when you are not sure where the cliff is
- It is always better if the giver practise the advice first before advising others. However we must know that the advice will always be more important than the giver. A drug addict advises us not to use drug is a good advice. And we should take it irregardless of the giver condition.
- If the person ask for advice then it is almost an obligation for you to help. Who else will help?
- However if the person clearly say no advice needed. we should know what to do. Some people prefer to settle their problem their way, and this is a good quality.
- Sometime pople asked for help, but when we offered the help or advice it's like "curahkan air kedaun keladi". He expect us to agree and back him up. Truthfully, I always get annoyed with this people. And I usually just back away.
- It is very important that you believe your advice is beneficial or at least better. Friend A is giving advice to B about how smoking will make him look more cool. Obviously you disagree, (advice against smoking is always better).. it would be wrong if you don't stated your stand there.
- The advice must be beneficial to the receiving person, not to you. For example, your best friend has a crush on a girl, and he asked for your advice. once you see the girl, you decided to sabotage this friend of yours so that you will have better chance with her. you then advise your friend to run her with a motorcycle... that's wouldn't just be non-ethical... that's plain evil.
- The correct method in giving advice
- How to decide right from left - Making decision part 1
- Or you can do this - Making decision part 2
- Last option to choose an option - Making decision part 3
There are millions of reason why we should not interfere. But how do we live our life when we see a child learning to smoke in front of us.. and all we do is look the other way. Aren't we all related?
Ramadhan Tribute #2 - Culture or "Ibadah"
When people say Ramadhan or "Bulan puasa", what are the first things that come to our mind? I try this question myself.. and these are the answers that first come to my mind.
1) Breaking fast with family
I enjoyed this so much.. somehow it will always be last minute, and things will go in a rush. My family often break our fast on the floor in the living room because of the extra space. We can see people going to and fro from the kitchen bringing food. When all the food is served, we will all see with awe the varieties of food, and usually end up with a silent pledge to buy fewer food the next day. (of course it will only be a pledge). And another fact amazes me is how the last 10 minutes are the longest minutes in the entire history of mankind :)... everytime!
2) Bazaar Ramadhan
For those who have no idea, it is a place where all kind of food will be sold especially for breaking fast. You can see some of the most exotic food and "kuih" there. Legend has it, that once the time has come to break fast, all food will be FOC. heheh but this legend had never been tested simply because I never want to break fast there :)
3) Morey (pronunced Moray), "Malam Tujuh Likur" etc
/end answer
Truthfully, I loved everything about Ramadhan especially the above. And I have no intention to ask you not to love them... This is our culture, if we don't stand up to it, who will?
We don't remember Ramadhan as the month we should double all our "ibadah", cry for fogiveness in the silent night, trying to earn that Lailatul Qadar, or the month where we should train ourselves to be better, and most importantly to continue the better state after Ramadhan.
It's actually good that we had integrated our culture with Islam. That's the beauty of Islam.. But the danger will come, when the cultural side had already overwhelmed the true nature of is, we no longer see Ramadhan as an "ibadah".
"They Lived Happily Ever After"
Summary - Expect things to change in a marriage
Wife: You always carry my photo in your purse Why?
Husband: When there is a problem, no matter how impossible, I look at your picture and the problem disappears.
Wife: You see how miraculous and powerful I am to you?
Husband: Yes, I see your picture and say to myself, "What other problem can there be greater than this one?"
/end joke
To tell you the truth, I don't think the above joke is funny. But if you surf the net, you will find a whole genre of jokes all devoted to describe how marriage is the ultimate torture.
Marriage is some of the most beautiful gift given by Allah to us. How can it be a torture? Where could it go wrong? There are so many ways, and this is (in my opinion) one of the major factors.
When we get married, we sometime make the biggest mistake of thinking our life will be the same. It is not. If before we always have time for ourselves, reading books, surfing the net.. after marriage we must make room for our spouses. Everything will change, but for people who know this fact beforehand, they will gladly make the change, to live happily with the spouse. Instead of enjoying their time alone, they can now enjoy them together. These are the people who delighted to give room and compromise for their spouses and often can live the fairy tale end of happily ever after.
But to those who expect things to be the same, they will feel choked with all the room taken away from them. But instead of thinking on ways to compromise, they will blame the spouse entirely. They can't read their favorite books, or go out with friends and they assume it is all because of their marriage. That's why they will never find happiness.
The secret to all this is to compromise. Compromise means we try to meet at the middle when there is conflict. For example, the husband likes fishing but the wife doesn't want him to go, However the wife likes to jog but the husband are just too lazy to do that. Maybe they can come up with a compromise, that the wife will have to make peace with the husband's hobby of fishing in return, the husband will have to accompany her jogging. That is a good compromise. Try to strive for win-win situation.
This is our wife or husband we are talking about, It must always be our intention to make them happy. So please be considerate. We are all new at this, so give each other a break once in a while. :) The most important message here is that expect things to change in a marriage... all we can do is to adapt and compromise. We WILL live happily every after.
How About you? How did you handle conflict alike?
- Other Related Entries -
Labels: Marriage, Relationship
Why Solving A Problem Is Stressful, When We Are Actually Problem Solver
Summary - An important factor to solving problem that we often forget
I think I found out why we are so stressed when handling major problem. :)
Ok, I'm sure most of us are good problem solver. We handle problems on a daily basis, from as big as how to live our life to as small as to how to kill time while waiting for a tv show to start. We knew almost every trick on how to manage stress. And had had lots of experience handling it.
But still, why when we were faced with a problem, those major ones like debt, bad in-laws or evil boss, we often stressed out when we cannot solve the problem as fast as we can. I think I know why...
I really believe that one of the contributing factors is due to the television we watch. First of all, I'm not saying that television is bad and must be banned for the sake of humanity :). This is just an opinion.
Almost all television series especially sitcoms will show the problem faced by the husband and wife, or parents and children. Most importantly, it also shows how the problem is solved within the 20 minutes show.
Maybe, just maybe.. we are actually influenced by this, and we expect all our problems to be solved in the shortest time, hours top. We are now lacking one of the key ingredient to problem solving, which is patient.
When parents faced their rebellious children, they expect the children to be obedient almost instantly. They have no patient what so ever to slowly advice the children. They expect results immediately. We all know, for those rebellion type, the harder we go against them, the harder they will rebel.
When a husband found out that his wife is seeing another man, he immediately scolded her, and those stupid ones may even resolve to divorce. Simply because we lack the patience. In Islam there are ways to resolve marriage associated conflict, advising, sleep separately, third party etc.
These two examples show how patience is sometimes needed in solving problems. There are other situation that may need prompt action, but that would be discuss in another time.
Maybe that's why we can see the older generation is more patient than ours. Hm..
Conclusion - life is not a show on a television. Some problems need time and patience to be resolved.
- Other Related Entries -
- Any Problem Can Be Solved - Basic problem solving skill
- Never Run away from a problem, solve it
Ramadhan is a very good tools to recover back the patience quality we may have forget. Be patient to break the fast, Be patient when somebody flame you, Be patient when you know there's nothing more you can do.
Ramadhan Tribute #1 - Welcome
It's that time of the year again... Ramadhan is here :) It is most probably to start this coming Thursday. First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends reading, "Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan".
This will be the first of the many tributes to Ramadhan I will write. The entries written is dedicated generally to all of us Muslim reading, specifically to myself... since I admit that I have A LOT to improve.
So can I ask what is Ramadhan to you? Is it just the name of the month where Muslim will be fasting? or does it have any other definition to you? We must first establish this before we even start fasting. Otherwise what difference would our fasting be from the diet practised worldwide.
Ramadhan is actually more than a mere month.
So what do you think the answers would be for the three questions? It is interesting that this training academy is actually supervised by no other, but by us ourselves. If we don't want to fast, who will know? It is entirely up to us... so as the supervisor of this training, do you have the answers for the three questions? No answers are wrong answers I tell you, simply because these answers are basically what we want for ourselves.
We really have to know what we're doing. Take eating for example, "How?" We put food in our mouth, chew and swallow. "To achieve what?" a healthier body, "What's in it for me?" no more hunger. All answers are equally important.
- If we don't know how to swallow, there's no point reading all those health books and knowing how a chicken would taste.
- If we don't know anything about health, we will be eating, and we will not be hungry but the food we eat will eventually kill us
- If for example our tounge has loss its sense of taste and thus we cannot enjoy the taste of food anymore. We will be eating healthy food but after sometime, the desire will deteriorate and we may end up (hilang selera makan) and possibly sick.
- Other related entries -
- Dari Mana Nak Kemana - The beginning of this blog
- The Story - Childhood memories of an "almost-fight" happened during Ramadhan night
--------------Personal Note-------------
Again... "Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan" to all :). Hopefully we can gain other thing this month other than weight :)
Labels: Idea, Islam, Ramadhan, tribute
New Updates : Top Commentator & Top Chatters Appreciation
1) Top Commentators & Top Chatters
I've introduced a new section located underneath Sponsor column, which is Top Commentator and Top Chatters.
I was thinking of enlisting all friends commenting and chatting here there, but I found that it is a very long list. So to all, commenting and saying hi in the chatbox, I would like to thank you for all the support.
The reason I enlist the top commentators and chatters is to show how much I appreciate all your contribution here. Together we had been sharing our lesson in life and hopefully we can continue to do so for the benefit of us all.
Note : The figures are taken starting from August 07. Apparently there is no automated update for this listing. So I'm editting them manually every day. Please excuse the late update if any ya :)
Thanx again my dear friends
2) Upcoming Advertisement in Sponsor section
Two advertisers had chosen this blog for their campaign. The campaign are scheduled as follows.
- Pacmee Campaign (9th - 15th September 2007)
- Chipster Campaign (23rd - 29th September 2007)
Labels: New
It's Sunday... And it's Doraemon's babies
A man hated his wife's cat and he decided to get rid of it. He drove 20 blocks away from home and dropped the cat there. The cat was already walking up the driveway when he approached his home.
The next day, he decided to drop the cat 40 blocks away but the same thing happened.
He kept on increasing the number of blocks but the cat kept on coming home before him. At last he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then left, past the bridge, then right again and another right and so on until he reached what he thought was a perfect spot and dropped the cat there.
Hours later, the man calls his wife at home and asked her, "Lynn is the cat there?" "Yes, why do you ask?" answered the wife. Frustrated the man said, "Put that cat on the phone, I am lost and I need directions."
/end story
Moral of the story :
- Do not hate cats..
- "Malu bertanya sesat jalan" :)
I used to have pets with my brothers. There were cats, birds, tortoise etc. The thing is, we don't give them fancy names like Putih, Belang or anything. We actually name them Kucing for the cat, and Kora for the tortoise. Birds I don't remember.
We took care of the Kora the longest. I think for more that 6 or 7 years. It grew from a little as the size of two fingers until it reached the size of about 20 cm.
Personally I think owning a pet is a big responsibility. And if we cannot take care of them, it is better to leave them alone. What do you think?
Labels: Joke, memory, pet, sunday
Apology
I'm afraid there will be no entry today due to me having to travel
back very early this morning. apologize for any inconvenience caused.
see u again tomorrow :)
ImmortalW - The Why
Summary - Why there are no discussion on issues here at ImmortalW
"So many things out there, and here you are blogging about emotion, self discovery etc? Do you even know the "Negarakuku" case, the bus accidents or Muslim's fate around the world? Are you just that insensitive?"
Alhamdulillah no one ever ask me this question. They have been raised by my concious though. As you might be aware, the articles written so far, had never be about any specific issues in Malaysia, well maybe some:)
Why didn't I blog about politics? or the misunderstanding of Islam throughout the world? or major issues around the globe? Actually I am... But I prefer to be very general about it, What I did is actually addressing to the core issue which is our mind. We need to change there for everything else to change. I've highlighted in my previous post on how to choose effectively. And maybe how to open up our mind for more possibilities. Once we know this, choosing "which political party is better" would never be an issue. This in my opinion is more important than all those specific topic. Once our mindset had changed, we no longer accept everything people throw at us, we will have a look and choose whether to accept it or not.
So many bloggers out there excellently took the role to discuss those issues. I think their discussion and ideas should be more than enough for our reading pleasure. Kudos to them. In Islam, there is a phrase known as "Fardhu Kifayah". It is a task that someone will have to do, if not the whole community will share the responsibility. For examples, doctors. Doctors are important right? But should we all strive to become doctors? We can't, There are other task that is equally important. So this is my second reason... I am actually blogging to highlight some OTHER view on the matter. Not that I say that those issues were any less important.
However I understand that despite our virtual life as a blogger, we live in a real world, where issues should not be taken for granted. Believe me when I say that when there is an issues I have a new view to share, I will definitely share it here.
Conclusion - this post is a tribute to the many unsung heroes out there. Bloggers who each is doing their part. Any entries what ever topics is never a waste. As long as they're out there... they're all a part of us. So show respect to any blog. Show respect to all bloggers... which is basically YOU who is reading this :) Thank you!
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
I'm currently in KL visitting. So all entries are posted via phone and I bet the allignment is all messed up. Please excuse them ya, will be fixed ASAP :)
Doctors (good ones only)... We Respect You :)
Summary - Situation where mistakes must not happen.
It's just not easy to becoming a doctor. I once heard (doctors.. please correct me if I'm wrong) that in any test while pursuing medicine, the marking method is completely different from the rest of us. For us, if we answer the question wrongly, they will be no mark for that question. But for the soon-to-be doctors, if they answered the question wrong, their marks will be deducted accordingly. Doctors must train themselves to only be sure when answering, if not.. it is always better to leave the question alone.
They just can't afford to make any mistake, especially when lives are at stake.
An engineer is expected to make mistake, since this is the only way we can learn and get a more accurate result. Any damage done to the machine, is never an issue, we just simply replace it. But doctors can't do that. Otherwise, unfortunate cases like the cutting of wrong arm of a baby will be more common. Once the trust is gone... I guess we will have to take up medicine and be the family doctor ourselves.
What I'm trying to say is.. that in life there are two different situation. One, in which mistake is actually allowed and needed to gain experience. And Another where mistakes is never an option. NEVER... not only to doctors, but to us all.
Examples are like when we were going to blame someone. We must be sure that he is the culprit. No mistakes. If not sure, it is better to leave him alone. There is a saying in law if I am not mistaken, that "It is always better to free 10 guilty criminal than to imprison one innocent person"
In Islam also, the phrase "Cerai" is not a words can be joked around. If a husband say "Saya Ceraikan Awak" to the wife, irregardless of intention. The divorce had already occured.
Maybe you know any other situation that mistakes is not allowable?
Labels: Idea, Perspective
Doctors 101
Summary - 2 Lessons from Med School
First-year students at Med School were receiving their first Anatomy class with a real dead human body. They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet.
The professor started the class by telling them: "In medicine, it is necessary to have 2 important qualities as a doctor. The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the human body."
For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the corpse, withdrew it and stuck his finger in his mouth.
"Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students.
The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead body and sucking on it. Each one tried his best not to puke.
When everyone had finished, the Professor looked at them and told them, "The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my Middle finger and sucked on my Index finger. Now learn to pay attention."
/end story
This is a classic joke I received via email. I bet most of you had read it before. I guess that's just how important to pay attention when you're learning something. Or otherwise, eww! or worse
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
In 1995, I worked as a cashier in Sungai Petani, Kedah. Every night I had to rush myself to the bus station and usually boarded the last bus for the night home. If I miss that bus, I will have to take a taxi which will cost me RM30 (No Way).
One night, as usual I rushed to the bus station and luckily for me the bus already arrived and I got in. After a while, I noticed that the bus was heading the wrong way (Obviously it was the wrong bus). I immediately got off, and knew that I was 2 or 3 km away from the bus station.
Time was running short, I could even see the bus I was supposed to take coming. I had no choice but to hitch a ride with a motorcyclist. Luckily the motorcyclist stop, but he hesitated because he didn't have an extra helmet. What a perfect timing to start being a safe rider.. (He was not wearing any at the time he stopped)
Despite the delay of waiting for him to get a spare helmet from home, and the fact that my bus had already passed in front of me, I still able to make it to the bus station in time. Thanks to the motorcyclist.
Lesson learnt - Pay attention! :)
Labels: Experience, Joke, Lesson
Crime Scene Investigation... The Lesson
Summary - Ideas come first in a team, then comes the work.
Watched CSI yesterday on ntv7. Typical CSI series as always. By the way, love the series... hehe
Do excuse the entry if you're not a fan of the tv series. One thing I noticed from the show is that the CSI team always think out loud. When they see a small fiber, they will say it out loud.. "There's a fibre there, which shouldn't be there" or even when they are alone, they will speak up. highlighting this and that. Why ya? did they do that? The reason are maybe as follows -
1) They are acting.. and in real life, police may work quietly, But if they do the series quietly, it will be one dull series. Unfortunately.. I believe this is the actual reason why they speak up every piece of their mind.
2) Many heads are always better than one head. Usually with these guys, time are always against them, they need to solve the case ASAP. so by highlighting what they see to the rest of the team, all will be updated simulataneously and maybe some other guys have better insight on the things. So guys... this is actually how a team should be.
I remember when I was studying. For one of our subject, we were put into a group of 5. Our group consist of 4 Malays and one foreigner from Turkmenistan. And as always, our group tends to discuss everything in Malay. So he is very pissed everytime the meeting was held (I can't blame him). To cut things short.. the foreign student finally gave up and instead of supporting with his creative ideas, he just did all the work. Shame on us...
I guess we might have gotten better grade in that subject if we allowed his creativity and ideas to be discussed. He is one of the best student there.
The lesson I learnt from this is not from my proudest experience. But for the record, the foreign student was staying in the same block with me, and most of the time, after the meeting, I will describe to him what the meeting is all about. Most of the time... *Sigh
Conclusion - the reason teams are formed is to share the ideas, not to share the work. Work, anyone can do.. Ideas, can only surface if everyone support each other.
Anything else from the show that you might noticed?
Labels: Experience, Lesson, teamwork
What We Need to Not Do, When People Hurt Us..
Summary - What you should NOT do when people hurt you
This entry is actually dedicated to a friend of mine. Hopefully it will be of use to all of us, especially me.
When people hurt your feeling, calling you names, what would you feel. Definitely rock bottom down. Well, we are human, and it would be very weird if you don't feel a thing. "Why do people have to say such things?" I can very well say that each of us have or will meet this type of people in our life. The type of people who joke around by hurting other people. And when we say that that is just cruel, they insist that they were just joking. and that we should have sense of humor. The funny thing is, when the joke is on them, they are not that humorous at all.
Don't we all knew this type of people at least once in our life?
What should we do? I don't exactly know. Everyone had their own way of dealing with them. But I know exactly what we shouldn't do...
1) Never run away from them
There will be millions of people like this around the world. Yes, believe me... if you think he is bad, you ain't seeing anything just yet. There are people even worse and they are all around us. If you give in and run away from the first person, I can assure you lots more will be heading your way. and you will spend your life running.
So be strong. do your very own research on how to deal with him. Either speak to his face that you hated when he make fun of you, or just treat him as invisible man (my favorite). It's your choice. But never run away... if not, you will be running all your life.
2) We should never let this people affect our life.
There's a Malay proverb - "Jangan marahkan nyamuk, kelambu dibakar". Which generally means that if you are mad at something, don't punish everything else but that thing. Why should you hate yourself? Why should you change? Why do you have to feel miserable for what he did or said?
There are many more important people, worthy of our tears. worthy of our attention like our parents, best friends, and even spouse. These are the people who we deserve our attention, should be our reason for creating or ending a blog. NOT the person who hurt us. So the next time we are going to be hurt by these people, just remember that they are not worth the agony.
So please guys, what would you advise this friend of mine? Any other way to deal with this kind of people?
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
There's a quote from Princess Diary that I remember. "You can only be hurt if you allow it to hurt". Just ponder about it... we can never control people's mouth. So we should always make a concious decision to NOT allow the insult hurt us. I know it's easier said than done. But seriously it works. Helped me through a lot of rough time.
Fun With Signs
Hey it's Sunday... I would like to share some signs I received via email. They may be made up, but I still find them funny. Enjoy
In an office:
- Toilet Out Of Order.. Please Use Floor Below
- After Tea Break, Staff Should Empty The Teapot And Stand Upside Down On The Draining Board
- We Exchange Anything - Bicycles, Washing Machine Etc. Why Not Bring Your Family Along And Get A Wonderful Bargain?
- Elephants Please Stay In Your Car
- For Anyone Who Has Children And Doesn't Know It, There Is A Day Care On The 1st Floor
- We Can Repair Anything. (Please Knock Hard On The Door - The Bell Doesn't Work)
- Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber.
- Don't stand there and be hungry. Come on in and get fed up.
Lesson learnt - If something is that important to be told, it is just as important to tell it as clear as possible eheh :)
"Jangan Pandang Belakang"? --- Why not?
Summary - Accuracy can only be achieved from multiple point of view
I once heard that almost 70% of our interaction is based on sight. The remaining 30% is based on hearing, smell or touch. The figure is not important, what's important is that our ability to see is generally what we rely on to live and to learn. Don't you agree?
However relying only on sight is not accurate. A man draw the number 6 on sand in front of another man. The second man will see number 9. In short, in order to get an accurate picture, we will have to see everything from all possible point of view.
This topic can be elaborated in so many ways. But I'm more interested in this section, where we have only RM10
If we look at people who have RM1000, we will feel humble. We know that the RM10 we have is nothing compared to RM1000. We shouldn't be bragging to these people about our RM10. Instead we should learn from them on how to get that RM1000 and improve ourself
If we look at people who have on 7 cents, we will feel thankful. If we think, we are unfortunate, that's a living proof that we are actually blessed. And instead of whining of only have RM10, we should learn how to not only use the money wisely, but also how not to end up like that fellow.
What would happen if we only look in one direction? In the first case, we will be so passionate to chase that RM1000, we will forget more important things in life. We will forget to help others by donating because for us, every cents count to reach that RM1000.
In the second case, we will be so satisfied with what we have for the rest of our life. RM10 for us is more than enough since there are other poorer people around us. We will not dare to venture new things and we will lose all interest to be better, to have better life.
I don't think the two extreme cases even exist. But I do believe that we sometime tend to look from one point of view and ignore the rest. We actually need to see our life in all point of view and find the best compromise.
An excellent example would be to appreciate the peace we have in Malaysia but still working to improve the life of Malaysian, maybe by giving the best service when working etc.
Please don't just whine.. Everyone can do that, It helps create awareness yes, but that's it. Ask yourself... What can we do about it?
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
There's so much we can improve in this beloved country of ours. First of all, I noticed that we often take a stand in politics without actually knowing head or tails. For example, there is political party A and B. If our family is all in favor of party A, it is most likely that we will end up supporting party A. We shut all information from party B entirely. This in my opinion is not an accurate way to take a stand. Learn everything about both parties A and B. Go to both political campaign and mix with people from both parties. When you have all the information, judge them yourself and then make the decision. Don't you think it will be better this way?
Labels: Idea, Perspective
Two weeks later, the man returns, repays the USD $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, "Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multi-millionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow USD $5,000?"
/end story
This story has had so many version, the first one I read it's about Phua Chu Kang parking car in Singapore :) Anyway I wonder if we can really do this? Kuala Lumpur is getting more expensive to park a car in.
Sometimes I always wish that the Doraemon technology exist, where we can shrink our car and put it in the pocket. Now it really is getting harder to find a parking spot in KL. Things is not getting any better I assure you.
How else do you think we can solve this problem?