Another year older

This will be the second year in my 3rd decade of life.

Nothing to be proud, but enough to be thankful to Allah SWT. For without Him, a few things that I have achieved and experienced that not many people will have a chance in a lifetime, I have had my share in them.

The past will be passe. Only lessons from them are worth to be re analyse again and again, as food for thought for the future. We should not bother ourselves with past events and grieve over it. Happy moments are great, but it should not blow up our ego too.

I have a lot of resolutions to achieve. I have found the ultimate conclusion that befits all of them, that is, we breath, work and play hard is only for Him. This life is an amanah. This burden on my shoulder is an amanah too. The laughter that I erupt once in awhile too, is for Him and from Him.

It is only appropriate that I take care of this amanah. And that can mean this body too which acts as a vehicle for the soul inside it. Any deviation from the norm that exposes one to physical dangers or spiritual contamination will require immediate remedy. Increasing BMI? time to walk that extra mile. Feeling empty in side, time to read the Quran. Talking incessantly and hurting others, time to read up on the prophet's seerah. Not enough dimes in the coffers, time to earn more from extra job or find a way towards financial freedom.

This should not be a colossal burden to us. In the SMART accronym, objectives should be Specific, Meassurable, Achieveable, Realistic and Time based. Today, we start walking, next week we can start running. A page a day would not hurt or take a lot of time. Continuity or Istiqamah is all that we need to presevere towards that goal.

Enough said this morning. Time to put that plan into play.

The chemistry of Dung

Whoa..

Finally, they let it out. The cows have been letting it out.

Just before the Friday sermon today, the Imam announced a formal complaint to the jemaah. The complaint? People working in Jabatan Kimia finally cannot tolerate the cow dung that has been freshly accumulating at the main gate of the department daily. Surely, they would want fresh milk instead!

This has not been affecting the people from the Jabatan Kimia only, but the whole of the residents of the housing estate. Every morning, on their way out to work, everybody will have to maneuvre their vehicles to the likes of the Camel Trophy driver, carefully avoiding the brown excreta that was left on the road by a herd of innocent cows the night before. The owner is guilty, so leave the cows alone.

At night, since the only road that connects the housing estate to the main road is not lit, one would have to be cautious of the herd that seems to be ready to tuck into bed, in the middle of the road.

"Please, whoever it is, please tie up your cows and do not leave them to roam free" remarked the Imam. I really hope the person is there. It really is a nuisance that he can't keep his cattle in safer place, out of the traffic. Apt enough, the Imam went on saying that the dirt left on the road is a pointer to how clean the person is. Cleanliness is part of piety. Being unkempt surely says the otherwise.

To the cows: the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, not the pot holed tarmac.
To the owner: Its time to turn the udder cheek and moo-ve on. We do not take a bull from you.
To all of us: Cow-nt your belssing everyday and wake up in a good moo-d!

Easy-lah

How do we define easiness?

It is really a subjective adjective. There is no metric scale in order to measure easiness in doing something. Probably, to derive at some measurable conclusion, application of the Likert scale would be appropriate. My due respect for those qualitative researchers.

To a paddy planter, planting paddy is easy. He can cover a whole acres of land seedling new stalks within a day. Try telling the surgeon to do it. In the end, the nation will be starving.

If the "refuse engineer" (aka garbage collector) refuses to collect god knows what from the bin of your home, hell fire would be unleashed. Do not expect the high paying CEO to get their hands dirty picking dung from each house in the neighbourhood.

In the medical field, the epithet for an orthopaedic surgeon is "bone head". The psychiatrist looks from the above while the gynaecologist looks from below, if you get the catch. The surgeon "potong only"  as the physician would exclaimed. No doubt soft imperiousness of one to the other is felt.

As students, we may have received uninvited comments that suggest that the course of study that we are persuing in as easy. There are others, who humbled themselves saying that their course of  study is easier than others. I wonder if it really is a sense of humbleness or if there is a slight tone of inferiority complex seeking pity and favour?

Where have all the respects gone to? If it really is easy, may we suggest that you operate, plant, analyse, design etc - yourself?

I think, easiness can relatively be measured if we compare an apple to an apple. It is not possible to compare oranges to apples when their tastes are different. Strictly speaking, different species of oranges must be treated as different. Siberian oranges are not the same as the navel oranges. Hopefully, these analogies makes some sense.

The mouth is meant to support, encourage, and advice, and not to taunt or chastise. When a feat seems "kacang putih" or "a piece of cake" to some of us, think again, the learning curve may be steeper for the rest.

Publish Post

BIggest enemy

Half a century ago, our enemies were the foreign conquerors. They invade the land, in search of gold, glory and gospel. They came with ships, massive troops of army, emblazoned with sophisticated weaponry. The keris and daggers were no match to those superior armament.

Then, came the period when having foreign products in the household were thought to be cool. Imported goods invaded our household to the point we were programmed to accept that foreign is better than local.

A decade ago, a new form of invasion to detroy other nations became agregarious. Money speculation became the main topic of the day. Only then, people began to realise that the conventional financial system is full of flaws. They trade on speculations, debts, fictitious debits and even non tangible goods in exchange for credits. Today, people are talking on the need to trade in gold and having real physical assets. The war against economic control of other nations and getting out of the vicious cycle is on going but slowly.

On an individual scale, one of the worst enemy we would have to deal with is procrastination. It is the worst of all thieves. Everything gets delayed when procrastination sets in. One of the causes of procrastination is distraction. Easily said than done, focus and self discipline will help to overcome this disease.

Lack of motivation can be a huge problem too. Can it be due to burn out? Really, this is dangerous. Sustaining motivation can be overwhelming. How can we find the motivation for motivation itself?

I wish there are some pills or supplement that can change the biochemistry of the brain to overcome this enemy within.

What are your enemies?