Forcing the Issue.

This is a sticky note for yours truly. 

When things are really really out of our capacity and we cannot really do anything about it, please Mr Secreteer, please don't force the issue. 

When people go out of their way, do things you don't like, Mr Secreteer, please don't force the issue. 

When you are not in your right mind, and will say things that hurt, please Mr Secreteer, please don't force the issue. 

When you feel on top of the world, but everyone's being down, please don't force the issue. 

Don't force the issue when someone else is looking the other way. 

Don't force the issue when someone eyes another day. 

Don't force the issue when some things are your fault and you don't wish it to be that way. 

Don't force the issue when something is out of your grasp and you really have no choice but to let it go. 

When you feel empty inside and you regret the things you do or you dont do, don't force the issue. 

When you feel jealous and hope for something better but it's too late, don't force the issue. 

When you know you should've waited but you did not, don't force the issue. 

When things turn out not the way you want it to be, and you hope for something else, don't force the issue. 

If you think saying things will settle situations but actually it makes things worse, don't force the issue. 

When there are things you can't bear to handle, you can't bear to hear, you can't bear to see, yours truly, don't force the issue. 

Challenging Ourselves.

No one really feels satisfied when not responding to a challenge.

When someone challenges another to do something, there is a good chance of that person actually taking the challenge. That person is under pressure, and conceding to that challenge means admitting defeat. True, this means competitiveness, but in some ways, competitiveness is a good tool to move on. 

So what is all the hullabaloo of challenging ourselves?

Good question. There are some instances where life will seem stagnant and boring. Doing the same thing all over again doesnt give any thrill anymore. 

So in the end, we will need something new to do. And in some instances, we would need something totally different from what we are used to. 

So in doing that, we are challenging ourselves to do something that we havent done before, or something that we are not used to. 

If we challenge ourselves, we feel disatisfied if we dont take up the challenge. So theoretically, we will try our hardest to do so. 

And I think people succeed doing what they do in challenging themselves. Without it, nothing new would be invented. No new heights would be reached. And boredom would become the next top hobby on the planet. 

In challenging ourselves, we can suddenly realise our potential, and realise that we can do something if we try. 

Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page did not just invented music and hard rock if they had just keep to playing jazz and blues in the studio. 

Card artistry would not have reached the status at which it is today. 

Business and successful figureheads make what they do look easy on the outside when on the inside, the daily underlying routine of their work is to challenge themselves to create something better. 

A prime minister, not challenging himself well to do his job, would not be able to lead a nation, let alone lead his nation in the midst of other countries in the world. 

So challenging ourselves can be an important tool to move forward from the same old spot. It provides a basis of trying something new. Mind you its not and never will be easy, but the work involved is well worth it. Mind you, we cant really challenge ourselves to the point of stupidity either. If its crystal clear that what we do it pointless, then we dont do it. But in the way if we fail, at least we will know our strengths and weaknesses. 

At least, that's how it is in the ideal world.

The Man Behind The Mask

Who are we actually? Where do we come from? Do we realise who we actually are?

Without us knowing it, most of us put on a mask to shadow ourselves from the truth. Truth? Maybe our true self. 

As necessary as that is, it must be remembered that we have to realise who we really are. Who we really are behind the masks. 

Sure, we can't be truthful all of the time. Sometimes we have to 'lie' and not show our true selves in some situations, but we must always realise who we really are in this world. 

Some people are noisy, some are reserved, some are manipulative, and some are honest and straight. Thing is, this world does not run because of these various characteristics, but rather because of how these characters react to each other. 

But we must always realise, at the end of the day, who we really are. We are all humans. Removing all status and pedestals, in the end we all have our dignities, stances, and opinions. 
We are entitled to have them, and to know why we choose a certain opinion over others, we have to realise who we are. 


"We can always run away from the shadow that is cast over us. But the thing we have to realise is that the shadow will always come back for us in the end, because that shadow is ourselves. "

      

"You Will Eventually Find It. "

We all live in this world long enough, and eventually we will look for things. 

Some things are out of our reach. Others, seem desirable but not what we really want. Some things, we don't want early on but in the end we find out it is the best thing we can ever have. 

Whatever it is, I believe in a little adage that is as old as time, but today it still makes sense as it did before.

I believe that when we look for something, when we try, and our desire to find it really overwhelms every other aspect about it, then eventually, we will find it. 

As cliche as it may seem, it is true. There is never a result without effort. And there is never effort when there is no desire. 

Thus if we look for it, when we really look for something, eventually we will find it. 

God says that we have to search for God's love. We have to want it, and work for it. Eventually, like people that have passed us by had done, eventually we will find God's love. 

Similarly to our life on a worldly basis. If we look for something long enough, eventually we will find it. 

But, bear in mind that we have to know what we are looking for, or we will be going for a wild goose chase. Sometimes people do not find what they are looking for because in reality, they do not know what they are looking for. This might seem really2 dumb, but most people today are not so easily decisive as to make sure they know what they are looking for. 

But the old adage still stands. 

"If we look for it, if we try hard enough, eventually, we will find it. "       

Sekian,   

Emotion Vulnerable.

Actually I have a flurry of things that I want to write but I cannot really pinpoint a good heading for it. So I'm just putting up a title that first comes to mind.

So, where we at. Raya raya....

Raya to me, as a celebration like no other. It is religious. It is uplifting. It has a reason. It is a victory (supposedly so) of controlling our lust that we withhold for thirty days prior. It is a celebration that we have become a better person, closer to God and closer to our friends. 

Raya in Malaysia is fun too. People wear new clothes. We go for Eid Prayers in the morning. Come back and ask for forgiveness from our parents. It's fun. Being the not-so-emo-guy I am, my way of asking for forgiveness was simple, brief, and without tears. But trust me Ive seen more 'emotion vulnerable' people  who break down n cry at that moment. 

Raya was never a sentiment for me to tell you the truth. I've never really minded where I had Raya, nor whether or not we do things during Raya. For me I'm just glad that I was able to see and seize the day. But I also enjoy seeing friends and spending time with family, although there had never been any too high a regard in me about raya. 

Now the 2009 Raya is approaching in two days. Last year's raya, I was here in Adelaide so this year I am staying for my second consequtive year for Raya. Homesick? Yeah a bit. But I did not let that get to me. But this year's raya was interesting. Because everyone;s going home. 

See this year's raya happens to be in line with the two week mid semester break. So it is the greatest opportunity for people to back to Malaysia for Raya. Interesting. From early decisions to last minute (literally, one day) tickets. From missed flights to wrong bookings. From happy to sad, content to not. Everyone is going back for Raya. hope they have fun and remember me when they are busy eating lemang and we are having raya here with our own home made rendangs. 

Adelaide's definitely going to be an empty shell without these people who are my family. I'll miss them dearly. But also, there are things to be done here as well. 

MASCA open house is coming up. That will definitely be something to look forward to. Open houses around Adelaide will be pretty scarce this year, but nevertheless there will be open houses. Again, Raya is not a sentiment. And eventhough it's far from raya in Malaysia, it's still raya and its the people that counts. 

I'll definitely make it a point to call my family during raya morning. It will be good to hear their voices. 

Now, emotion vulnerability. 

Some people are really prone to emotions. They make decisions that are based on emotions. But it does not really happen to only individuals. Even nations make emotional decisions that result in emotional lashbacks and more regrets later on. But it happens. 

But bottom line is that if that is the decision that they make, we respect them for it. It works for them while it might not work for us. We might not like it, but that does not give us the right to stop them from doing it. We don't like it, we don't do it. 

I don't like it because it is hard to cope with. It is hard to cope with emotional stress. Although I have been more emotional than I had ever been in this lifetime, truth is emotional actions are hard. I hate to cry, I hate to feel sad. It keeps me burried from the light, but also it gives some spice to life. Hate to say, sometimes we even need it. So don't wish for it to go away.    

Back to Raya. I hope everyone back home does not miss me too much. I'm the only son, so I highly doubt that haha. 

hoping for Raya with a blast this holiday. Let roll..

The World is Temporary.

It's a known fact in life that one day, everything will die. Plants die. Animals die. And yes, human dies as well. 

Which goes to show that actually life is nothing more but a cycle of events that happen until the time when we reach a Full Stop. That is where life ends. 

Goes to show that life is outrightly temporary, and it is never meant to be forever. 

Islamic teacings preach that life, dunia, is a place where we collect good deeds so that we can go to Heaven in the afterlife. After the Day of Judgement. 


Goes to show that life is short, compared to the 'other side', where all our deeds are counted for on the scales of justice and then do we know where do we stand in terms of our deeds. 


When we crossover, we are in a state that goes on forever. We live either in Heaven or Hell, for all eternity. (And I'm going to stop here about this particular topic, because of my still shallow knowledge of the topic)


Point is, say or do whatever, life is short, and the world is temporary. At any time without warning, God can take back our lives from us. We don't even have to be sick or ill. We can die in our sleep, or choke on our vomits. We can be absolutely energetic today and die tommorow. It is dead possible. 


My uncle's brother was like that. A man in his 40s, he was still fit as a fiddle. He was not ill. He was not sick. The eve before he passed away, he ate his supper like it was his last. But there were never signs of him going to pass away. Nobody knew, until the next morning, where he died in his sleep. 


Recently the father of my friend passed away. He choked on him phleghm if Im not mistaken. 


A few years back a friend of mine died in a car accident, as you might or might not have known. He was the passenger. The driver was safe, Thank God. But my friend passed on, and he was only 18 at the time. 


Last year the father of my friend died as well. My friend was only 20 years old at the time and she was the eldest daughter I think. 


And if i were to mention all the deaths I encountered in my young age of 20, I think i would take all day. 


Fact is, that is just what life is. Life is short. The world is temporary. There are people who die when they were babies. My father should have had four more elders, but all did not make it. 


There are people who die when they are in the middle ages. 


And there are people who die when they are old. 


So, moral of the story?


Life goes on without warning. God gave us life, and God can take back life from us. 


So in this temporary life, it is natural to think about death everyday. Remind ourselves how it would be like. And this goes out to me as well. 

"A friend of mine said, death smiles at us all. All we can do is smile back."

Mr Secreteer, lest you forget.

What The Hell are you talking about?

What the hell are you talking about?

Well, some observations in this world suggests that some people don't really know what they are talking about really. 

Like, some people are Engineers but they don't really know their stuff. They talk like they do, but actually they don't. 

Same goes for other people as well. They talk like they know a lot of things. But actually they don't. 

And I don't exclude myself from these people. Sometimes it happens to me as well. =(

I guess it's good to make it a reminder to know what we are actually talking about. At least a bit. 

And if you don't know, ask. It doesn't hurt.

The world of dicks and nics.

There are two large classifications of people in this world. 

The Dicks and the Nices. 

The dicks are well, dicks. They are the bad guys. 

The nics, are nice. They are the nice guys. The good guys. 

The ideal world consist of six billion nices, as opposed to six billion dicks. 

But given the way the world is run until today, the proportion seems to get unbalanced somehow. 

Seems like the Dicks are finally outgrowing the Nics. 

Why?

Well, evil presidents are Dicks. They have a lot of inside jobs. They go for war. They conspire things. 

Political parties that contend for the sake of political glory rather than the benefits of the people are dicks. They live for glory, but they lack the important substance of a man. 

The sex industry is sprouting like mushrooms after the rain it seems. Every country has a brothel. Pubs, strip joints, and brothels are getting increasingly popular across the globe. Women are actually willing to work in this industry. 

The drinking of the devil's piss, or alcohol, is getting increasingly popular these days. Friday nights are used for drinking the whole night long and the following Saturday is hangover day. 

So, where are the nices? What happened to them? 

Either they are joining the Dicks, or they are simply diminishing such that what they do is no longer significant in this world. 

Given the circumstances, what choice do they have? 

The dicks, being the dicks that they are, have a certain appeal to them. The control businesses., and in turn sontrol the trust of the general population. When they do, the nics are left far behind. So how are these nice guys going to live? 

The dicks are clever. They push people in a corner and become sharks to bully people into becoming one of them. 

That is why their power and influence is so great in this world. Increasing numbers and appeal.

So in the end the question remains. If these two herds cannot live together, who will emerge as the better side? 

That, is the dillema in this world of Dicks and Nics

Talent is a Tool.

"Talent is a tool and trouble is a friend"

Talent is something special. It is our own ability. Our skill, that either come naturally or something that is trained. We polish it, perfect it, and use it, hopefully for our benefit. 

Talent is a tool. It is utilized for the best benefits imaginable. Take a good musical instinct and use that talent to construct symphonies and orchestras. Take good public relations and use it to know as many people as possible. 

But talent is two-pronged. It can go in the other direction as well. It can be to strip people of benefits. Take an excellent cardsharp at the card table who shows promising skill with sleight of hand, and this man can be the cheat during what seems to be a clean poker game. This man can be the sole ripper of benefits, namely money in this sense, and send other 'suckers' in the game to the cleaners. 


But not straying from the point, everyone has talent. And everyone can harness it, use it for whatever they need. 


But behind every talent, trouble can await. 


Talent is a tool, and trouble is a friend. And in certain instances, talent do not go well with trouble, but trouble always awaits. 


For every man who has promising talent, is open to exploitation of some sort. Where there is exploitation, where he utilizes his talent not in his own will, there will be trouble. 


Take for example the sleight of hand artist who does things purely for the love of sleight of hand. Trouble awaits at the card table if say someone employs him to be the dealer to deal him the winning hands. In short, people are using him to get the money. 


Take for example a promising new product by a university student full of vision. It can be arranged such that the product he comes up with will not be his own. It will be 'made' into someone else's idea. It will ripped off from him. 


Take individual talent of intellect, who come from one country to another to study but in the end does not go back to serve. This is because the other country is keeping intellectual talent from the parent. Malaysia is one good example, where intellectual talent does not go back to Malaysia one way or the other. 


University students who do their final year projects (This for engineering students) have to sign an agreement form, in which they declare that all findings will eventually be properties of the university, and not themselves. This is also another version of taking talent from claiming their name. 


And the list can go on and on. Point is, talent keeps on sprouting from time to time. But in the end trouble always awaits at the door to utilize the tool for something else. Something that it was not designed for. But in the end it gets done due to the mystical appeal and finesse of 'trouble'. 


Think about it. Does it matter to keep talent where it should be? 

Accumulated Anger

Have you ever felt that you kept to yourself long enough, that you are, at any time, ready to burst and blow up?

Thing is, you are not alone. Not everyone has a chance to actually express what they feel. They want to express how they feel, but people wouldn't listen. 

So it ends up as accumulated anger. What's not said is kept quiet. What is kept quiet becomes accumulated again and again as the same scenario happens every time. 

So they end up with accumulated anger. When things like this is accumulated, they start to have bad days. They start to say things that they don't mean, because they want to keep it quiet. They start to have a hot heart (panas hati). 


And until the time comes for them to burst, we can only sit and wait. Fact is, these people are walking time bombs. 


But have pity on them. Sometimes all they need is a friend to express themselves. 


Sometimes they have been lonely for too long that they forget how it is to have friends. 


Sometimes they just do not know how to express themselves. Excuse them for not doing it the way YOU expect to see from them.

Believe.

Believe in a place where the waters run deep
And the mountains stand strong 
And the hills stand steep. 


Believe in the words of the preacher of truth
Of the sayer of words
And of words that soothe



Believe in the love that comes from the heart
That takes time to be found
That demands work that is hard



Believe in the traps that the trapper has set
That will lever a threat
Till all demands are met







Believe in the life where all is fair
Where some hunger is there
While some bread is shared. 


P.S. : This is called early morning crapping.

Motives

Have you ever questioned the motives of any people you meet?

Why they befriend you. 

Why they work so hard.

Why they are so intent on listening to what you say?

Yes, it is funny to question the good things that people do. But sometimes I find it amusing that we tend to overlook the motives of people doing good things. 

Like why do people make friends? It could be that they just want your benefits..

Why do people trust you? It could be that they want your money. 

Like why do people do good deeds? It could be that they want something in return

And as dumb as it seems, questioning the motives of good deed-doers is as important as questioning the motives of bad-deed-doers. 

Hold it! Don't get me wrong. This is not saying that we have to have bad impressions or even ill thoughts of anyone who does good deeds. 

Only sometimes, things are not what they seem. 

A good deed can be something to misdirect. To shadow a bad deed. 

A good deed may seem good. But in actual fact it is just a flourish of a bad deed, perceived as good. 

So, as much as questioning motives are concerned, don't be obsessed or even too worked up about it. But you can never be too careful as well.  

But hey, what do I know. haha.  

Late Bloomers.

In this world, there is a proportion of population who belong to the same order, genus and species. 

They are called late bloomers. 

Late bloomers occupy a certain proportion of the world and they are deeply disadvantaged. 

Therefore we must kesian with these people. 

But firstly, what and who are late bloomers? 

Late bloomers are people who are, like the word, bloom late. Or as they say it, mature late. 

In other words, late bloomers reach maturity a bit late in their lives, as compared to others of the same species. 

They learn a bit slower. 

They find it difficult to digest information. 

They find it a bit difficult to understand things at times. 

They lack experience, and therefore they lack the understanding of situations and how to deal with them. 

So you see, late bloomers are extremely disadvantaged people. 

Why are they late? 

It could be that they are not so exposed to things when they were young, when it is the time they are able to digest as much information as they can. 

It could be that they are portrayed ignorance since they were young, and consequently become ignorant of things until they reach a certain point in life. 

Maybe they just did not have the interest to learn, because it was not hard wired in them that learning is important. 

Maybe they just refuse....

But you see, late bloomers are present in everyday life. But they are human. They are like you and me. They have heart. 

And sometimes it is not even their fault that they turn out the way they are. 

Sometimes it is not even their desire, but it happens to them..

So, have a little sympathy people....

Choosy.

Sometimes we can be rally choosy. 

But the thing we have to realise is that all in all, we can't have it all. 

Some things come, and we just have to decide whether we want to go for it or not. 

Some people in fact forget that nothing is perfect in this world. 

Thing is, we have to realise that nothing is. Nothing is near perfect. 


But sometimes it can be so hard to make a choice. 

As life gets complex, choices are as well..

But our choices determine where we go. There is simply no right answer..

A friend of mine once said, "life is all about choices". 

I say, "there is no right choice. There are only choices and where it takes you".

So, how do we make the right choices in life? 

We don't. We can't. With every choice there is always a new problem to be faced. 

We just have to live through it. 

Oh man...