Friday, November 28, 2008

Harimau yang beriman


"Alkisah... .. Seorang lelaki islam ponteng sembahyang Jumaat. Sebaliknya dia masuk hutan untuk memburu ayam hutan. Sedang dia terhendap2 di dalam semak, tiba2 dia berlanggar dengan seekor HARIMAU yang sedang lena tidur.

Dia begitu terkejut sehingga senapangnya tercampak lalu tergelungsur ke dalam jurang. Dia pula tergolek ke arah lain, jatuh ke atas batu dan KRAKKKK! Kedua2 kakinya patah. Jangan risau .. ini bukanlah berita buruk. Ada lagi .. Berita buruknya adalah HARIMAU tadi terus menghambatnya, sedangkan dia dah tak boleh bergerak lagi.

"Ya Allah," doa lelaki tersebut,"Ampunilah dosaku kerana ponteng sembahyang jumaat berjemaah pada hari Jumaat yang mulia ini. Ampunilah aku ya Allah ..makbulkan hajat ku ini .. jadikanlah HARIMAU yang memburuku HARIMAU yang beriman .. tolong ya Allah! Aminnn.."

Tiba2 guruh berdentum! HARIMAU tadi tiba2 terhenti betul2 di hadapan lelaki tadi. Harimau itu bertukar menjadi seekor harimau yang beriman dan bersopan santun. Sambil menadah kedua2 kaki depannya ke langit .. HARIMAU tersebut pun berdoa, "Allahumma barik lana, fima razaktana, wa qinaazzabbannar. Amin!"

Nota: Artikel di atas bukan hasil nukilan H. Sekian, terima kasih.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

What would you do if you are bestowed a million ringgit?


What would you do? Hmmm...What would I do? May be I would spend some, save some and invest some. Or may be I would venture into entrepreneurship?

If you asked me, 1 million ringgit (about USD 280,000) is not enough for me & Atiz or either one of us to quit our jobs and splurging our life. But definitely it will help to ease some financial burden. I could pay all my debts, then buy and sell some basic necessity and assets. Here are things that I would do...

Houses
I would pay my Denai Alam's housing loan balance of RM370k (inclusive of any penalties due to early settlement) and my Seri Puri's housing loan balance of RM74k (inclusive of renovation loan). Then, I would spend some RM100k for my Denai Alam's interior, landscaping, furniture and electrical goods. Once completed, I will not need to keep my Seri Puri. I would sell it and gain another RM160k (after deducting the repairs, agent and lawyer fees). How much left so far? RM616k

Cars
I would pay my car loan balance of RM102k. Then I would sell Atiz's car for RM22k and buy 2 new Myvis at RM100k, one each for me and Atiz to commute to work. Now RM436k left.

Other Debts
I would allocate RM146k and RM137k for my study loan and Atiz's respectively. I would also settle our credit cards' balance and personal loan of RM25k.

Yippeee... I'm free from debts now. Instead of paying the monthly installments and interests, now I can save up to RM6,000 every month for future entrepreneurship. And all the basic necessity has been paid off. I still have RM128k balance from the original one million. I'll surely want to celebrate this and spend half of the balance by a-month-long family vacation in Europe. The final RM64k will be saved in my ASB account for a rainy day. Errr.......wait a minute. What am I merapuing? It's only a dream.... Aarrghhhhh!!!!


Coming up next.....What would you do if you are bestowed 10 million ringgit?

Saturday, November 15, 2008

A Design of Life (Episode One)


This article is not about a single by Manic Street Preachers that was released in 1996. It is a snapshot of many designs that I've done throughout the years and hopefully for many years to come.

I love to design. It gave me pure satisfaction whenever my designs were appreciated by others, be it architectural, engineering, artwork, system or programming. Time and again, it still gives me the same amount of pleasure whenever I managed to complete the design on time and the intended recipient complimented my creativity/efforts. Here are some of my designs during my childhood.....


1970s
I came from a poor family and my parents could not afford to buy us toys. So in order to be at par with my peers, I'd to design and make my own toys.

Some of these homemade toys were wooden rifle with rubber band projectile and wooden sword to play 'perang-perang' (war in English) with our neighbours, slingshot to catch squirrels and bamboo pole for fishing. I had fun playing with my creations.


1980 (circa)
Drawing: An oil painting of a calm beach
Won the primary school drawing competition


1982 (circa)
Drawing: A poster for Road Safety Campaign
Won the district drawing competition


1987
Programming: I entered the local paper, New Straits Times' software writing competition.

I designed a programme that will enable the end users to select any pair of elements from the Chemistry Periodic Table (at least one reactant of course).

Then, I created animations to show the chemical reactions that finally produced the end results/ chemical substances.

However, computers at that point in time have limited Maths co-processor capabilities. Simple hardware such as graphic memory used primitive HIMEM and LOMEM platforms. At times when calculations became too complex and I ended up burning 2 school's PCs in the process.

Yes you got it right, the PCs were physically caught on fire!!


Anyway, I managed to submit entry for the competition on time but luck was not at my side. It was impossible to win because the winners were rich kids and words went around that they hired professionals!!. Ah well!





Update:
one of my Facebook friend entered the same competition and he won the second place. By the way, he did not hire professionals... :)


Drawing: During my free time, I loved to draw. By the end of 1987, I had a scrap book with about 20 to 30 drawings, mainly pencil sketches. I shared the sketches with the then Art teacher, Cikgu Tajuddin (TJ). He liked it and wanted to keep it for the school. In return, he awarded me with the best art student award for that year, even though Art was not one of my SRP subjects.

Most of my sketches were framed and given as souvenirs to VIPs who came to the school and the rest were displayed in the school's library. I wonder where could my sketches are at this point in time. It could still be around at at one of those houses or offices of now retired Malaysian Army generals, Chief of Army, Chief of Defence Forces or MARA directors. Most probably it may have ended in a black dingy room somewhere. Ah well!

I went back to the school and went to the library to check on whether any of my sketches would still be there but as I expected, after 21 years, there were none. Sadly, I don't remember what I've drawn.

Photo of Cikgu TJ in 2008. He is in MARA HQ now...and yeah! He still remembers me.










1988
Emergency Design: In any boarding school, students are required to be within the school compound most of the time. We were not spared as we were only allowed to go out during weekends through main gate with proper documentation and inspection. However, with most of us being smokers, it was not a viable option for many. Therefore, we need to find means and ways to smuggle the fag. Smuggling bags of cigarretes' boxes through the school's back door was our only choice which we nicknamed as "Rambo" as oppose to other boarding schools where they called it "Fly". As our school was (and still is!) within the army camp, we need to pass through a jungle under the watchful eyes of the school security guards and yes, MP!! (read: Military Police).

Unlike other Sunday nights of which a Sergeant who was quite familiar to us manned the MP post, on that fateful night, it was headed by a Captain. Luck seems not to be on our side and my friends and I were caught in the act. He was giving us long lectures and at a flick of a second we saw an opportunity to escape. In an instant, we ran helter skelter to the jungle, back to our school. And yes, we ran like 'amputated cockroach' (or lipas kudung in Malay) faster than the MPs who trailed us with their Vespa's. We felt like Rambo. Hehehe.


We managed to climb back to the hostel albeit our bodies were full with bloodied gash and scratches from thorns and rocks along the emergency escape route. Not long after that, we overheard a commotion outside the hostel where there were three trucks loaded with army personnel looking for us. We quickly hid under the blanket and pretended to be sleeping. They went in but none of them could recognize us as they did not pull off our blankets.

It was indeed a successful design of an emergency escape route. For me at least. Fuh!


.......to be continued in Episode Two

Monday, November 10, 2008

Places I've called home...


1972 - 1975 : Lorong Chempaka, Sungai Besar, Selangor, Malaysia

1975 - 1985 : Miles 7½, Sungai Besar, Selangor, Malaysia

1985 - 1989 : Terendak Camp, Malacca, Malaysia

1989 - 1990 : Miles 7½, Sungai Besar, Selangor, Malaysia
1990 - 1991 : Section 18, Shah Alam, Malaysia
1991 - 1992 : Section 17, Shah Alam, Malaysia

1992 - 1993 : Forest Ct, Loughborough, England

1993 - 1993 : Forest Rd, Loughborough, England

1993 - 1993 : Falkner Eggington Ct, Loughborough, England

1994 - 1995 : St. Annes, Nottingham, England
1995 - 1995 : Sherwood, Nottingham, England
1996 - 1996 : Miharja, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1996 - 1996 : USJ11, Selangor, Malaysia
1996 - 1996 : Subang Mewah, Selangor, Malaysia

1996 - 1996 : Taman Ehsan Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1996 - 1997 : Taman Senangin, Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia
1997 - 1998 : Bandar Sri Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
1998 - 2001 : Taman Ehsan Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia


2001 - present :
Desa Aman Puri

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia






2009 (expected) - : Denai Alam, Selangor, Malaysia