Behind Birthday Cakes

This year we celebrated all our birthdays with a birthday cake each (Jan - May). What normally happened was:

1. The birthday girl/boy got so excited and was expecting a cake.

2. Somebody went to the cake shop secretly and brought it home.

3. Family members surrounded the cake (to judge the looks and number of candles).

4. All presence sang the Happy Birthday song and "Celebrity" would blow the candles.

5. "Celebrity" cut the cake and handed over to all anxiously waiting audience, for them to confirm does the taste correspond to the looks and whether the number of candles correspond correctly to the celeb's real age.

We try to not view this as a ritual, but rather a special day for the celeb. Anyway, what is the biggest significance of a birthday cake?

a. It differentiates your age group (age of innocence vs. age of not so innocent)

b. It symbolizes your wisdom (the number of candles is positively correlated with brain cells developed and utilized, hopefully)

c. It signifies a celebration which is not necessarily favored by the "celebrity of the day" (especially for women, the age stops at 25).

or

d. It is a symbol of bonding between individuals - if one person gets older, the circle of friends or family members who celebrate it have the sense of getting older too. The clock will never stop ticking, and aging is my friend - unavoidable.

I got this SMS forwarded to me on Mother's Day:

Woman at 20 - mengancam , At 30 - bermacam-macam

At 40 - terancam, At 50 - diancam

At 60 - tak boleh nak cam!!

Whatever it is, life is full of uncertainties and that is why if we fail to plan, we plan to fail.

A reminder to myself - take life one day at a time and ensure that today is better than yesterday, and that tomorow is much better than today.

The Black Gold - priceless or too pricey?

The Black Gold extractor is coming to town. Gigantic and proud.

Malaysians in general (or Bolehland people acc to Zaidah :P) are very sensitive to the oil price movement. We ought to be watchful since the shops and the bus operators are practically waiting for that tick off to increase their price (or is it profit?). For people who "makan gaji" or "kulikutif" like yours truly, the impact on fuel price increase is hurting deeper and deeper into our pocket. Travelling to office one-way for 50 minutes every day used to cost RM300 per month. Thanks to the recent initiative to reduce government's subsidy, it now costs RM440. Compare that against the one time subsidy declared of RM625. Do the math. That's just on transportation to office cost.

It is a chain effect. Went to Tesco yesterday and my friend Yati complained. "The Koko Crunch is at RM14.00?? Dah ambil letak balik". Yup, that same brown box used to be RM8, just a few months ago. Let's take a look at the baby's milk powder. Once, the plain boxed baby's milk used to cost RM22. Now, thanks to scientific R&D, add another DHA, SA, GA, etc etc coupled with enhanced marketing brouhaha, the same box is enhanced to look like a brand new package, but with price tag of RM34. Do they really add up the DHA, SA, Folic, GA, etc etc only God knows.

Oh, 1 UTM student complained, bus ticket JB-KL used to be RM25, it is now RM40++. Wow...our value of money is indeed getting smaller and smaller at a faster pace than I have ever expected.

The Black Gold or commonly known as oil, fuel, hydrocarbon, etc is now hovering at USD140 per barrel. I remember 10 years ago when I first started to have meetings with clients, 1 of the conversation topics was how further down we expected the oil price would be. It was at USD10 per barrel, rumours had it that it would go down to USD5. Perhaps what will be the oil price 10 years from now? And how is it going to affect us? One thing for sure, the earth is running out of oil supply. That is why the Gigantic and Proud extractor pays a visit to my office to undergo major repair work, so that it can extract more and more oil from the earth's crust. FYI, we seldom received visits from these species as they are always in the other part of the world where oil extraction is a sunset industry but nowadays, it's a common sight to my office. Looks like waters in this part of the world is also depleting in resource and requires such structure to be deployed.

Some economics brainiac claim that the USD140 per barrel is a bubble waiting to be burst. The other camp says that the price will reach USD170 by August 2008. Whatever happens, we suffer. Perhaps it's time children who used to eat Koko Crunch by Nestle change to lower grade cereal - like the generic brand with the hyper market's label. EUWWWW...kesian...

Nice Shirt

Try to peek into Message Box (SMS) of people who are in love. Craps like "You dah makan? Kenyang tak?" or "Nite2, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" or "Good morning bebeh..I miss you sooo much today" or "I makan sandwich tadi, ada roti, tuna, salad, etc..do you want some (as if the person is in front of you)?" and yada yada yada (or should it be yuckie yuckier yuckiest?).

There's a study that shows people who are in love have some kind of hormone imbalance, that can cause them to act/react illogically or irrationally. Just imagine, how impotant is it to assess whether the other person is eating heartily or otherwise. Let say he/she is full or not (assuming love dosage is the most important meal compared to actual food), does it change anything? The crappiest of all, is that it is such a lame conversation on food taking and non quint essential to be asked in the first place! Heck with the person feeling full or not. The conclusion is - when couples are in love (caution:before holy matrimony comes into place), they will talk and talk and talk until they run out of brainy conversation topics and end up talking CRAP and repeating them every single day. And worst of all - they feel good about it. Same crap, different day.

OK, fast forward a bit. Holy matrimony comes into place. What happened to all these crappy-but-sweet-oh-my-goodness-so-nice love routines? The answer : Gone with the wind. Again, go back to my post on "Where is the love, the love, the love?".

Team Bonding aka Team Building - who needs it?

The specially-created-for-united-purpose-worn-on-Day-1 t-shirt for all tired-of-work-need-some-motivation-cum-party-time participants.

I had the chance to attend a team building program organized by yuppies in Marketing & Sales Department (this is where I recall the constant tickle-to-my-bone jokes created for Marketing goons by the-always-brilliant engineers in Dilbert). To some extent, yup, they do apply to these homo sapiens whom I had the chance to team bond with. Should it be a pity or lucky me?

Once in a while, working adults (WA) need a booster for their morale, spirit and motivation to stay fit in the working environment. It has been quite a long time that the WA in my organization had the chance to attend such fun-and-loving program. So when the tough gets going, the WA suddenly found themselves in deeper and deeper piles of routines and s***. Until one day, some smart Alec suggested to the management that the staff are in dire need for some morale booster. Apparently the staff's energy and motivation are negatively correlated with the oil price hike and the organization's ever increasing demand for more contribution. Then the prophecy was broadcasted - all departments in the organization are required to conduct a team building program.

Besides dwindling energy, morale, spirit and motivation, WA also need to better understand each other's background and culture. We had WA in this organization who hail from Phillipines, Indonesia, Portugal and of course, Malaysians from multiple states. I have to congratulate the yuppies organizers who were able to spread the team members equally, and thanks to them I got to know Jojoe, Jess, Zulsham, Jamal, Naidu, etc, etc much better. On top of that, I got to see the hidden talents of colleagues whom I've never expected - like being a champion in the Limbo Rock contest, speed thinker who made us the champion for the "carry a person on a spider web made of a role of string" (I was the person to be carried since I was the lightest - at the time of posting, my weight was 49 kg, a record indeed after married life) and being able to spot tattooes of people who were hidden all these while.

Therefore folks, I have to concur that team bonding is necessary every once in a while, especially if the organization pays for it. Well, the business is getting bigger and we are expected to perform better with the same resource. I guess the more stretch targets put on us, the more we shall demand for "fun" things to be granted or at least subsidized. It is for the good of the organization as well. Sometimes money is not the only answer. Team bonding may be the solution for that time where WA lose interest in their routine and s***.

Of Al-Fatihah and PDCA Cycle

This is somethng I learned from the ESQ training (for more info pls visit http://www.esq.com.my/). We know that the Japanese introduced the Quality Management System (QMS) particularly on the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act). Actually this PDCA has been introduced long ago in the meaning of the surah Al-Fatihah. Only we have not realized it fully. Here it goes:

Bismillahhirahmannirahim - Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang.

Plan (Merancang):
Alhamdullillahhirabbilalamin - Segala puji bagi Allah Tuhan sekelian alam
Arrahmannirahim - Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang
Malikiyaumiddin - Yang Berkuasa di akhirat kelak

Do (Buat):
Iyakanakbuduwaiyakanastain - Engkaulah yang kami sembah, dan kepada Engkaulah kami mohon pertolongan

Check (Periksa):
Ihdinassiratalmustaqim - Tunjukkanlah pada kami jalan yang lurus

Act (Buat setelah periksa):
Siratallazinaanamtaalaihim - Iaitu jalan orang yang Engkau beri nikmat ke atas mereka
Ghairilmaghdhubialaihim - Bukan jalan orang yang Engkau murkai
Waladhallin - Dan bukannya jalan orang-orang yang sesat

Have we ever ever thought that the 2 are relevant? I guess this will change a little bit on how we read and perceive the surah which we recite (compulsory) 17 times a day. Isn't it just great?
This is just a small sample of what the modern sciences and management theories discovered or developed but which have been existing in our religion since the beginning. Only we are late to realize it. There are many more samples, which I would like to share later. Things that we have never thought of, but have been in us for a long long time.

Expression : English vs. Malay

Why is it easier to express yourself in English compared to writing/speaking in Malay? Especially when angry or when in love (love lagik, sorry guys, this is the easiest example), I've found that it is much much more easy to express myself in English. In discussions with my significant other, I've discovered that he also finds it more convenient to express his thoughts in English.

Imagine, saying "I miss you". It's so much easier compared to saying "Saya rindukan awak". Or saying something like "I think we better start to see other people", against "Saya pikir kita patut berdating dgn org lain".

Once I tried to change the rule of the game. I wrote a very significant life changing letter in Malay and voila...it sounds so highly "literature" type of letter and I think it is suitable for publication in a Malay novel. No doubt I got the points accrossed, and the other party responded, but I think it is better that for next time, I better write in English.

Perfect

I like this soundtrack song from a movie titled "Sempurna". Here is the lyrics:
Kau begitu sempurna
Di mataku kau begitu indah
Kau membuat diriku akan selalu memujamu
Di setiap langkahku
Ku kan selalu memikirkan dirimu
Tak bisa ku bayangkan
Hidupku tanpa cintamu
Janganlah kau tinggalkan diriku
Tak kan mampu menghadapi semua
Hanya bersamamu ku akan bisa
Kau adalah darahku
Kau adalah jantungku
Kau adalah hidup ku lengkapi diriku oh sayang engkau begitu sempurna .. sempurna
Kau genggam tanganku saat diriku lemah dan terjatuh
Kau bisikkan dan hapus semua sesalku
Kau adalah darahku Kau adalah jantungku Kau adalah hidup ku lengkapi diriku oh sayang engkau begitu sempurna .. sempurna
Sayangku engkau begitu sempurna.. sempurna.. sempurna..

Hmm, nice song, nice lyrics but with a catch. We all know that nobody is perfect on this planet. But I guess when we are in love, the other party seems so perfect. Reality will only hit much later.

I got to watch Jerry Maguire again yesterday morning on Star Movie. "You complete me" was the sign language used by the hearing impaired couple in the elevator when Jerry and Dorothy were on their way out of the office where Jerry got fired. And those were the words Jerry uttered to Dorothy at the end of the movie to express his genuine but all-this-while-hidden feelings and ultimately these words that win her back. I guess "You complete me" or "Kau lengkapi diriku" is much much better rather than saying that your love one is perfect. Just that we don't want to get hurt much later when reality hits back on us.

Above all, perfection only belongs to Allah, not to any other beings or things on this earth. But then again, when love strikes, everything else does not matter. And that is why love is blind. It blinded the people who are in love, indeed. So folks, please don't make any hasten life-changing decision when you are terribly terribly in love. Afraid that you will live to regret it much later.

Father's Day 14 June 2008

Hi-tea at MSuite Hotel JB for Father's Day.

Dad - an 82 years old wise man

Proud father of 8 children

Grandfather of 24 grandchildren

Great grandfather of 3 great grandchildren

Very happy with the meal served - mediterranean style.

Mr. X - a 33 years old hunk

Proud father of 1 kid, 1 toddler and 1 baby

Maybe dazed and confused :)

Where is the love, the love, the love? (Part II)

So the basic question is why husbands and wives need to "re-brand" their relationship all the time. I would love if any body out there can share with me some tips on how to re-energize and make the relationship more exciting. Your views are most welcome folks...and please be specific.

I did get some feedback like doing some hobbies together, go to a concert once in a while, just the two of you, but I need more ideas...of course I read some books as well. Currently I'm reading a book by Dr Tuah Iskandar on Membina Hati Bahagia - motivasi untuk wanita. It is such a great book to gain back some spirit and motivation that you thought was lost when something hit you.

Going back to the song "I live my life for you" by Firehouse, I think that we can never place someone so important such that your whole life is dependent on or dedicated to this person. Be it your mother, your father, your child, your husband/wife, etc. That's why Allah says, "only love me as only I am eternal". The rest are just on loan to you. Allah will take back anytime He wishes. Let say you love your wife/husband so much. One day Allah will test you by either taking away his/her life or taking away his/her love from you. That's why sometimes we can see that a mother would faint or cry and cry endlessly when her child is dead. Worst still, there's a true case of a wife in Kedah who killed her two children as a retaliation against her husband who wanted to marry another woman. So where is the love for Allah for these people? Allah gives a clear warning to all muslims on love and its condition, that we must place Him above any other beings on this earth. Once we lose this, we are bound to lose it all.

Of course, it is easier said than done. This realization to place Allah above all your love for individuals and things on this earth would not come easy until you are tested by Allah. Whatever that test is, be it - you contract a disease, you have an accident, someone you love dies, or suddenly you feel that you are married to a wrong partner. Ahah..this is tricky. I got to watch Dr Fadzilah Kamsah's program on Astro Oasis 2 nites ago, where he said " Allah tentukan jodoh untuk kita bermakna itulah pasangan yang terbaik untuk kita. Bila Allah tentukan jodoh itu, tidak ada ketetapan waktu e.g. jodoh kau ni 5 tahun jer." It is how you make the best out of it that's the most important. So it is really up to us how to manage our lives, and how do we best place the love that we have - priority to Allah or to any other beings on this planet.

Where is the love, the love, the love?

I was driving to work from my home in Skudai to Pasir Gudang (usually about 50 minutes drive) and I just couldn't stop thinking of writing for my blog. Am I addicted?? Maybe...this is initial excitement to do something new. Just like when people first start to develop relationship with their loved ones (boyfriend-girlfriend), it must be the most wonderful time in one's lifetime. The excitement and the feeling of intoxicated are just unbearable.

I listened to the radio while driving and 2 songs gave me an idea of what to write for today.
"People killing and people dying.......can you practice what you preach......where is the love?"
and
"I live my life for you, I want to be by your side, and anything that you do, if there's only one thing I can believe it's true, I live my life for you.."
Yeah..where is the love and I live my life for you...

In our life, we start by nature to love our parents. Then when we get to become adults, we learn to like someone of the opposite sex and fall in love with the person. If we get married and have children, we automatically will love our children (this is among God's great creation of maternal or paternal instict to love your heirs). So I don't understand if people want to give up their children or kill their children. Or when a couple gets a divorce and totally don't care about their children. I'm sure someday these people will regret their action and have to live with their guilt all their life.

Love for parents and children are somehow an inborn feeling and can last forever, without having to be nurtured, nourished or revitalized. But why is the love for your husband/wife needs to be in check all the time? Isn't this unique creation by God? Husband-wife relationship is like a "product life cycle", where it starts by infancy stage, then it escalates, then it reaches plateau, and finally it goes down. What normally companies have to do is to re-brand the product or put more creativity to excite the consumers again to buy the product. So it is basically the same product but with a new look.

Now let's look at a love relationship between sexes. You started off as friends, then become good friends, then become someone whom you said "I care for this person", then you just can't stop thinking of the person, and if the chemistry is on, you'd go out and get married with the person. But what happens after that? How do you nurture, nourish and re-vitalize your relationship all the time? And why the heck do husbands and wives need this constant placebo to stay happy? The biggest danger is of course when the relationship reaches a plateau but both parties do not realize it's happening. It is actually on the verge of going down, worst still, go bust. But the greatest danger of all is when either one of the parties suddenly realizes it's happening but resort to find solution outside of the institution, instead of rectifying internally. By the time this happens, it may be too late to find that strengths to tighten the relationship, as the attraction from foreign inteference is normally much much greater and "fun".

Man..I've got to work...continue later...

My new venture into the world of "blogging"

I heard about the word 'blog' for a long time, but never had the interest to try. I have only been reading other people's blog (not anybody mind you, only famous people like Raja Petra, Prof. Wu, etc) until today, somehow when my friend Akmal Hizam mentioned that he had created a blog so that his children and great grandchildren in future can view his thoughts, then it struck me - this is just great! It's like creating a diary or journal of your life, but anyone can view and comment to your blog...well, well, well, this is nice. Let me try..

I have always wanted to write a book (one of my long time ambition), but dunno yet on what genre. I am thinking it's either on self help, motivational kind, financial help or novels...waa...somehow I know that I can write pretty well...actually I have a few articles published in newspapers..started in 1992 right after SPM (article on life at SMAP Kajang) and one in 2004 where I complaint about the condition and proposed upgrading of the Pasir Gudang highway (both were published by Berita Harian). Now I remember, there's another one published in Harian Metro in 1998 about why overseas grads want to get home and serve the nation (now when I think about it, I should've stayed in the States..too bad..:(()

So today, I'd like to thank Akmal Hizam for introducing me to this wonderful world of blogging. On a side note, we met during lunch because he wanted to add more investment to my unit trust business. So it's a win-win situation. I help him to make his money work harder for him, while he introduced me to the world of blogging.

For my friends and future generations - today is indeed a history in the life of a humble person named Noraidalin Buang. Nice!