New School Year coming up

Semalam baru habis shopping for my 2 sons for the new school year. Alhamdulillah got almost everything.

Discovered a trick to go shopping efficiently ….. DON’T BRING THE KIDS. Get all measurement (macam tailor) dengan tali tape. Bawak measurement and pergi kedai. Sampai kat sana peduli dengan stares from other customers and start measuring away. And kalau measure seluar jangan lupa measure cawat… nanti gelebeh ;-)

Boleh selesai shopping baju tak payah try in 30 mins. Beg we choose … older boys senang tak nak gambar cartoon. Cool looking ones will do. Yang susah kalau girls nak baru masuk sekolah. My wife pointed out ada satu girl tu sampai 1 jam kot dok select beg ada gambar Barbie, Princess Disney yang mana ntah …  

Books … just get everything on the list at the school’s books store (other than reference books that you might already have anyway). Yang lain tu safe bet just get from the school’s books store. Sebab nak cari tempat lain pengsan. Again another tip, jangan beli masa dekat awal kedai buku sekolah buka. Ada can stok tak sampai. So wait 1-2 weeks after the date yang depa kata boleh start beli buku

So managed to do everything in one day. An achievement for us … now … balut buku.

BTW .. the little girl nak baju sekolah .. tough to tell a 2 year old she can't go to school yet. So bagi satu beg and isi dengan pencil box (and toy handphone , compact powder etc) … ;-)

Drama Raya

Drama Raya

Do you notice tak drama Raya punya trend … lain dari cerita lawak yang obviously merepek (Cit-Cat Azwan mangkuk), mesti ada cerita sedih yang buat orang nak terjun tingkap. Dari Gitar Tua, Pondok Buruk, Tikar Buruk dan segala yang usang dan buruk… semua nak bagi orang teriak masa Raya.

Kalau lah orang tu keseorangan … aku rasa tiap-tiap time Raya tunjuk cerita cam ni, mau ada yang minum racun tikus atau spray terus Baygon / Ridsect / Mortein dalam mulut.

BTW, Raya baru ni keluar juga muka aku nyanyi satu rangkap lagu Jamal masa DS1 Astro . Habis kat ofis perli aku nyanyi sedap. Tapi aku pun tak tengok.

OK signing off.

Kapt

Salam Aidil Fitri

Salam Aidil Fitri

Kepada semua … salam Aidilfitri dan pohon maaf dzahir dan batin.

Had a okay Raya… biasa ler Raya is more for the kids rather than the parents …

Okay …. Bored like hell with nothing to write about. At least Liverpool won … should have supported Wigan though … seronok sikit.

I think may have approached the dead in the water portion of this Banking career. Definitely need to look into something else as this is really crappy.

Appraching depression … (more like … it’s after Raya and I’m nearly broke kind of depression).

Wokay … have a good life

Kapt

AL FATIHAH

AL FATIHAH : Datin Seri Endon Mahmood

Salam takziah dari kami sekeluarga untuk keluarga YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Hj Ahmad Badawi atas pemergian isteri tersayang. Semoga rohnya ditempatkan dikalangan yang baik.

Nostalgia Melbourne (dari langit…)

My colleague baru beritahu yang Melbourne area Google Earth . Was fun travel around virtually in Melbourne as I have been banyak tempat lain tapi tak sampai Melbourne since 1989.

Found Malaysia Hall (I think… hope someone can confirm this) which I was there masa buka dulu in 1984/85. The new student masa baru datang ke Melbourne parked themselves there and aku punya kerja cari rumah for them. Most of them masa tu masuk Box Hill High School (sekolah lama aku gak tu sebelum ke Monash di Clayton).















Tapi Clayton dan Box Hill pulak tak clear (low res) so tak dapat nak cari rumah lama aku kat Kent Road, Box Hill 3128 and 2/4 Wright Street, Clayton 3168. Hope one of these days depa upload nice clear images of that area.

Wow … maybe one of these days nak bawa wife and kids pergi Melbourne. It’s about time.

Kapt.

Salam Ramadhan

Alhamdulillah, 2 hari lagi dapat menyambut Ramadhan al Mubarak.

Seronok tak terhingga. The older I get the more I look forward to Ramadhan dan less to Hari Raya. Seronok Raya sebab budak-budak aje. Not really for myself.

Lain dari obvious benefits dan fadhilat Ramadhan (termasuk yang tak obvious) satu lagi perkara ... tak payah pikir nak makan apa pagi dan tengah hari (tak jugak selalu makan lunch pun...). For office workers yang office satu tempat dan tak dapat jalan-jalan cari makan, tak ada enjoyment bila lunch time sebab area nak makan sama aje, menu sama (tambah kat ofis ni ... TAK PERNAH TUKAR MENU 5 TAHUN), muka mamak / abang / kakak jual makan tu sama aje ... dia tengok kita pun dah naik jelak.

Tahun ni Insya Allah dapat my wife sama2 pergi Tarawikh sebab dah ada orang nak jaga our baby daughter. Kalau dulu nak kena gilir2. Kali dapat la kami pergi sama2. That's nice ... something I love to do together with my wife.

Anyway... harap semua dapat menghayati Ramadhan dan memperolehi Fadhilat dari bulan yang mulia ini. Jangan berbelanja berlebihan. Kalau beli apa pun biar makan habis. Jangan buang. Kalau kenyang punmakan jugak apa yang dah beli supaya esok beringat berapa rasa nak termuntah makan benda yang beli berlebih-lebih tu. Fortunately my wife is always around to remind me ... "Bang... beli tu makan ke???".

'Kay ... Salam Ramadhan from aboard NX-01 Enterprise.

Jamal ... 27 tahun berlalu

Semalam saya berpeluang bersama isteri tersayang dan saudara menghadiri rakaman Dari Studio 1 : Jamal Abdillah di ASTRO.

Fuuyooo … selapas beberapa lama dan kali menonton akhirnya saya rasa betul-betul puas hati. Lain dari akhirnya dapat mendengar Perpisahan Tanpa Relaku live .. satu lagu yang jadi kenangan sejak di Melbourne…. Jamal have done so well. Tidur lena lepas tu … ngigau sekali kot.

Hampir semua lagu dinyanyikan dari jiwa dia. Boleh rasa dan sampai mesej, ‘feel’ dan apa jua yang dia nak sampaikan. Tone suaranya is verry near perfect dan on thespot for hampir semua lagu.

Mostly lagu dari album Aku Penghiburmu yang memaparkan cover version lagu dari 70’s dan sekarang. Yup, Seroja dan Gadis Melayu semestinya ada. Mawi FC jangan la marah but Jamal nyanyi …. Fuyoo … there is no other like Jamal.

Personally memang ada masalah yg dia hadapi … maybe that’s why the songs banyak sedih dan really “gut-wrenching” feel bila dia nyanyi. Jemputan pun okay … memang untuk yg otai macam aku , buat rasa macam 20’an balik.

Ohya … Kapt was interviewed at the end … kalau ada can keluar TV … kalau tak … tak ada rezeki. Dengar cerita lepas Raya baru siarkan.

Jamal still rulez!    

Cerita dan Filem

Malam Sabtu hari tu baru "tertengok" Cerekarama TV3. Sebabnya selepas tengok the best of the best macam Cinta Penggali Kubur punya sequel, saya tertarik dengan cerita yang ada. Maaaalangnya ... cerita hari Sabtu lepas was hampaeh. Dah ceritanya mengaruuut ... dialognya nya alamak. Why oh why!!!

Bagi diri saya filem adalah media untuk bercerita. Kita boleh ada pelakon yang terbilang , gemilang dsb tetapi kalau cerita nya hampeh ... hampeh juga filem tu. Kebanyakan masalah kini ialah bercerita dan meletakkan cerita as sesuatu yang utama berbanding shot yang canggih dsb. Second is the screenplay / lakon layar. Perbezaan yang filem macam Sepet dah lakukan ialah tak jadikan pelakon pementas but audience ni jadi macam lalat/cicak/naymuk kat dinding sambil tengok apa yang berlaku. The approach yang saya suka ialah pabila kita masuk cerita tu tapi cerita dah start .... and kita akan melalui perjalanan sepanjang cerita dengan mengenali karektor tertentu .... as the story flow. Dekat nak akhir kita kan berkata ... aaaa that makes sense... or I get that.

Macam Lost .... cerita dia kita tak tahu siap depa tu tapi kita discover bit by bot siapa mereka itu dan menjadikan sesorang itu lebih "human" warts and all ... No one is perfect, tapi kalau kita sanggup melihat kemanusiaan seseorang itu lebih hari dari semalam, just makes us a better person today than yesterday.

Technical is nice sebab filem ni pun "eye-candy" jugak (I am still a Trekkie and a Jedi) ... but to a commoner macam saya ... I want the story. Maybe sebab tu I consume 10 books a month.... I need stories sebab itu cara I grow up when my parents/grand parents tell me stories.

Kapt ... rambling on as usual

UPSR 101, Reading 201….

 

Alhamdulillah. My eldest child completed his UPSR exams. I am not sure how to describe the experience coz it will be premature anyways as the results is not out yet.

 

But one thing for sure … you can see relief and the following day he enjoyed practically the whole day at the public library, …. Reading what he likes.

 

I asked him how many of his friends at the library … one guy …. As most of his friends don't really like to read all that much. Habis kuat pun baca komik dan buku yang pendek-pendek saja. Kind of make me feel sad because through out my life, the most joy I have other than my family is actually reading. Curling up with a good book (macam tenggiling) is my kind of personal time. Macam dengar lagu Afdlin "WARAS" … so appropriate Bro!

 

 I have always been a sucker for a good story. Used to start off with kids investigation. Hardy Boys was okay but kind of geeky. Anyone remembers Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators, those kids were cool with their own "office" and "NAME CARD" that says Private Investigator! I know! At age 10 that was the most amazing thing to have …. Your own name card. Sekarang bersepah … celah bangku office pun ada terselit name card.

 

Moved on to thrillers around 11… I still remember Day Of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. Well of course I do…. coz I read it for the 15 ^th time I think last month. After that every single FF books was consumed. I think that happened with good (for me)author I find out about. In the 80's and early 90's … I was consuming incredibly right wing authors like Clancy, Dale Brown. Then I wised up … as I was strating to throw up with new offering by those authors. Found some old books by people like Garrison Keillor that charmed the sock off me. I still read some right wing stuff like W.E.B Griffin's series on the (Marine) Corps. But a lot less.

 

I thought Jeff Archer did quite well for a while but seems to have tapered off. Not as good as he was before. Dan Brown's Angel and Demons was actually the one I prefer compared to Da Vinci's Code. Both improbable as crazy but kind of redefines page turner. Grisham's storyline is okay … most books with exception of Runaway Jury, Rainmaker seems to have fairly flat endings ….. ending that have you saying …. Huh?

 

J. K. Rowling? Read all 6 so far, the favourite is the early ones … the last couple is much more sombre and dark. The early ones were like boarding school books ( i.e. Blyton's Mallory Towers) meeting sorcery stuff. Interesting read and enjoyable. Great endings for the first three so that I end up the endings (last 30 pages or so) reading them again and again. Then the "Rowling death cycle" kicked in from HP4 onwards…. And there goes my escapism.   

 

When I discovered eBooks I was so happy coz then I could bring 3-4 books in the PDA and read anywhere I want. I mean everywhere … NO Limits! Even at night as the PDA light means I don't have to switch on amy other lights. That is …. Until I dropped the PDA and broke it …. Need to buy another one….

 

But seeing my son pick up Timothy Zahn's Star Wars Heir to the Empire kind of remind me of … ME. Discovering my world and various people's imaginay world through these pages. I have 50 plus channels on ASTRO but between those pages is where I get "Waras" … (Afdlin … gua pinjam term you)

 

Anyway … enuf for now … rambling on as usual.

 

 

 

Will Post Soon

Haven’t posted for a while …. Will do so as soon as I catch up on work. Cuti lama nak support my eldest child ambil UPSR. Dia yang ambil UPSR, father and mother dia yang nak pengsan …

Lama cuti....

Hi all,

 

Dah lama tak tulis apa2 ... not for lack of material more lack of time. Been implementing systems for some customers (big ones!) and kecoh ... mengalahkan TV3 Karnival Sure Kecoh (sic.)

 

Basically it's just change management. Most are used to doing it one way. Once you take them out of their comfort zone, TV3 Sure Kecoh! Stability is great but sure kills souls like crazy. Sometimes I think being in this industry is challenging coz it's so resistant to change and being a change agent is in this type of industry boleh biol dibuatnya. Heck ... dah biol dah pun!

 

Selamat Menyambut Kemerdekaan .... Nice parade .. less mitilaristic anding dengan tahun lepas2. More kids ... which is always fun .. and the slip of tongue (with great recovery!) by the 9 year old Lufti, really puts in the reality in there. Everyone watching will remember and adore him for it. "Merdek....Daulat Tuanku!" Lufti rocks!

 

I was reading this bit about the Malayan Union.... it seems that part of the Malayan Union includes part of about centralising and reducing the powers of the States.... Maybe that part of Malayan Union is not that bad come to think of it. Wouldn't it be better not to have this ridiculous land / water management by the states which is creating nine types of hell. I am not certain wether it will be better at Federal but some is ... Corruption can be curtailed a bit by centralisation rather than decentralisation. 

 

I guess maybe the Malayan Union wasnt all that bad ... some may need to be used. This is not controversial ... but could be interesting to pursue.

   

Dealing with stress and making it...

Well what a day today has been .... had to dela with system live on Day one and Murphy's Law kicked in. Semua yang nak jadi jahannam .... jadi jahannam ... next time tak boleh hope for the best.

 

But at the end of the day realised that, I felt really alive for all the adrenaline. Have been a bit down sebab rasa boring .... haaa ambik .kena sebijik. 

 

Manusia ni semua tak kena ... bila tak ada tension .... boring .... bila ada tension .... STRESSED. Nafsu beb. One thing I am very proud of, 2 months 22 days ago I would have caved and done a "chimney" ... tapi despite the highest level of stress ever faced past 5 years, no serombong kapal. I am sooooo coool. 

 

"TAK NAK" rulesz!

 

 

Lelaki Malaysia tak Gentleman???

Hari ni masa nak pergi komuter ada satu insiden yang buat pikir panjang….

One lady keluar kereta masa kereta jam sikit kat Shah Alam Komuter stesyen. Tapi dia tak tengok belakang so nasiblah ada satu motor (with a couple on board) terlanggar sikit pintu tu. Yang bengang nya … laki yang bawak kereta tu biar perempuan tu keluar dan terus belah tinggal kan perempuan tu deal dengan laki yang naik motor tu … Yg lady tadi pun tersengih-sengih nak settle dengan pakcik yang bawak motor tu.

What the heck was that all about? Kalau laki dia … memang tak patut, kalau abang/adik pun tak patut … kalu boyfren baik break aje … Apa nak jadi la dengan laki Melayu ni … malu betul aku dibuatnya. Nasib baik pakcik tu ok … kalau tak jenuh orang lain nak tolong . Sapa susah …. Akuuuu jugak.

Kekadang benda cam ni buat malu nak mengaku kita ni lelaki dari Malaysia. Bangladeshi pun gentleman sikit kekadang tu …. Walaupun part pegang tangan guys with guys tu euuuuuu sikit for me.



    

Afdlin's gone mad ... and so have we!

Afdlin Shauki's blog on creativity being stifled is really opening my eyes to the crap that these people who have done so much have to endure.

So go and see how he's putting up the fight. You go Afdlin!

I've ordered ... so you go ahead and order...

And please lah bayar ... jangan le take up offer dia yang seposen tu ... bayar la yang substantial sikit ikut kemampuan you...

JB and Cat's IBS

Hi,

Back from a long weekend …. Urggh! Spent most of the weekend kenduri in JB … didn’t realise how long the drive was… sakit pinggang den!

Stayed at M-Suite (yes… same hotel as where Siti , Mawi stayed) . Not too bad … it’s new but the smell from the sea was pretty awful. I don’t realise how polluted the Selat Tebrau was …. Memang patut replace the Causeway with a bridge (crooked or otherwise) … the water flow is just like a bad lake….. Bau macam something that came out from a cat’s rear end on the cat’s major case of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).

Went to the much recently popularised Danga Bay … okay but a bit narrow so it’s a long walk from one end to the other. Parking is also bloody murder on a Saturday nite… the funny thing is even when I asked the guard “ada parking ke kat depan?” … and he answered something along the lines of Good Luck. Nice of him to wish me luck but also depressing to know that I’m going to need luck which is pretty much not in sync with me past couple of weeks. Otherwise wasn’t that bad.

I don’t actually know how people can drive for so long …. Makes me reaaaally serious about investing in the private pilot license (PPL) and FLY! Anyone know how I can get this done in under RM12k?

Still loving it!

MS Word blogging

Oh yeah … trying this Blog from MS Word, if it works fine … if it doesn’t no surprise what … microsoft kan?…. It works but the bugs is standard offering! Tapi kalau working well I’ll be happy ….

Sure lepas ni nampak sibuk habis tapi sepatah haram pun aku tak buat.

I have to think about next stage career … maybe open up that air service (Island to Island hopping) and maybe also lake to lake hopping with amphibian aircraft….

Ok gonna do the numbers now….

Frustation...

Frustation!

Cant get the haloscans to work … and the frustrating things is I know they have made this idiot proof … I guess they don’t count on this idiot.

Thinking of getting in on a diet now that the SMOKE free zone has been in effect for 2 months 15 days. Gained 2kg coz of that … actually because of lack method to deal with the boredom.

Maybe will do the step exercise thingy … just have to dust it out from under the cabinet…

1st entry

hi, I'm new at this so ... welcoming your help....

Hmmmph ... actually been some time since I put my thought on paper .... or web...

It's raining and I'm worried that my roof will leak due to the renovations being done by the neighbor. .... Hope the chinese guys fixed it before we start using the towels again.

Kind of bored and worried. My eldest exams is just around the corner. I think UPSR and these kids level exams is just ridiculous. I dont think anyone finds learning fun anymore? come to think of it ... was it ever fun. It was for me only at MRSM ... before that it was boring ... after that it was hell ...

How do we make learning fun again for the kids ... I wish I know coz .. the lights of fun learning is slowly and surely winking out from the eyes of my kids.