*sniffle*

Sometimes, in the rapid effervesence of our lives, in trying to gain that perfect lifestyle, the perfect job, career, grasping right opportunities, being the best person you can be with your family, friends and people you come across, you forget that for some people...

just getting past their day is hard enough.

And that the important thing in relating to others is...

you'd benefit them too in the end, wholistically.

What inevitably changes, and what musn't change

Change is inevitable, and some say that those who cannot adapt to change will be left behind. But if what brings along with it is a corrosion of values, meaning of life and quality of inner being, than that is just...wrong.

Othman Clan 3rd Generation

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and finally got down to doing it :)
Presenting to you some faces, sides, smiles and snides of the 3rd generation of the Othman Clan. Mr Othman was a humble keropok seller who lived in the Koon Seng Road area with a huge jambu air tree in front. Legend holds that his wife, Salmah Karnawi, was a loving but strict disciplinarian who used to pluck the branches off the Jambu air tree to rotan her kids if they were slightly naughty. I think the discipline tactics worked pretty well, heh. :)

Another family legend is that Mdm Salmah also used to cook fast and easy to cook meals so that she could spend more time doing other household chores and tend to her many kids. As quoted by her first granddaughter, erm yours truly, in recent times, "Macam suker hati nenek kalau dapat buat kerjer rumah, macam tak sama gitu kalau orang lain buat" that she still feels as passionate about being the matriarch in the house as she had back in the 1950's up until the early 1980's.

I really admire my grandmother. (But well, who in the world doesn't, right?) She raised her siblings because her mother died while giving birth to her fourth child, and then married her neighbour (who had fallen in love with her since their childhood days) at the age of 18, before raising 10 wonderful kids. *ahem* a bit biased la here.
She's got so much strength only a woman who's been through the hardship and throttle in life can speak of, yet she's so humble about things, and always so curious and wanting to learn even at the sunset of her lifetime.

Presenting to you the face and strength behind the entire 2nd and 3rd generations, infecting them with discipline, vigour and a thirst for knowledge (haha, right right), Mr & Mrs Othman:

-May Allah bless your marriage always, within every moment and through the generations...-

Daily Wisdom

5R (Rukun) to make yourself down to earth, yet closer to Allah

1. Strong conviction /Tekad yg sangat kuat..
Conviction to bring yourself closer to Allah/Harus tekad utk mendekatkan diri kpd allah..
"Intansurullaha wa yansurkum - Verily if u help Him.. He will help you.."
"we must have target to get progress"
Paling penting to take note..
Your family has to be close to Allah too/Keluarga harus dekat dngan Allah..

2. Banyak taubat ..
"innallaha yuhibbu taubatiallah...." cintakan org yg suka bertaubat.. Bersihkan diri..
Amalan terbaik.. Taubat..
While waiting for anything.. Istighfar... Anywhere.. tunggu bus, tunggu teman hidup.. tunggu mrt.. berdiri..

3. Jauhi maksiat..
Setiap maksiat.. maksiat paling kuat, maksiat mata..
Jangan tengok perempuan muda.. Isteri jadi tua.. (WHAT??!)
Jauhi maksiat mulut.. Gosip sebagainya..
berkata benar.. Baik..
Baca 10 pg per day..1 pg b4 solat.. 1pg after..insyaAllah qatam quran everymth..
Jagalah hati... Jangan mengharap benda yg tak perlu.. Jangan harap org puji..

4. Tingkatkan taat...
solat 5 waktu berjemaah di mjd.. Best! Syadid!
Jangan rugi tak tahajud everynite.. u tak tahajud everynite.. u rugii...
"azkurni azkurkum - ingat allah, allah ingat kita"
"wasta'inu bisabri wassolat... - org banyak solat.. Allah akan tolong lebihkan.."

5. Tebarkan manfaat...
Allah akan selalu menolong hambanya, yg senang menolong sesama..
jangan harapkan apa penghargaan.. Maupun tenkiu..
Everyting lillahi ta'ala..
Sebaik2 manusia.. Adalah manusia yg banyak bermanfaat..

Sounds simple, but so difficult to perform. Was bloghopping, and found this on
jenggo.blogspot.com
thanks eh, even if I don't know you, you'd get pahala ok!

Juncture @ http://www.biorole.com/notqualified.php

Some advice

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Anyone heard of this company?

Natural wonders!

As mentioned before, east coast has the prettiest sights!

-10th May2007-



Look at the cat! haha. -I've found the hangout where the coolest cats in East Coast parole! If you wanna join must pay me $0.50 affiliation fees to join the club!-



Marlini was all strapped up!

looks like Paradise Beach to me! :) But if you fall in, remember to put the buoy back into its pretty place ok



-Singapore, my homeland, it's here that we belong...see the skyline? Never fails to make me feel patriotic all over. haha-



-Nothing holding up the skies-








3rd May 2007. Stormy stormy morning. The sea glistened on its own.







We had breakfast and a quick dip in the tumultous ocean which had a life of its own. so freaking cool. literally. haha.





Mushrooms! Saw it on the roadside on the way home. By that funny house all on it's own near Kembangan.

HAPPY 22ND!

Glimpse of April babies' 22nd birthday celebration...without THE unofficial camerawoman, who was camwhoring away in Kuching:)


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, darling gfs!



Everybody squeeze!
Sidenote: sigh everyone looks good in this pic EXCEPT me. So being the usual self-sacraficial being that I am...I shall post this up anyways. haha.

Sains Islam

A run through the keywords "Sains Islam" would bring you to websites on how the Quran has undiscovered miracles back in the 6th century already imbedded into its holy verses, and known only recently by latest 21st century technology. This only seeks to verify the authenticity of the Quran, but it doesn't commesurate a distinctive view on the approach to scientific endeavour, the islamic way.

The websites doesn't actually cover the theoretical aspect of what Sains Islam actually is, what it means to be a practiscing Muslim scientist.

Islamic Science goes beyond explaining these two concepts separately, there's science, which generally means a methodological approach based on repeat experimentation to verify the presence of data/facts on natural phenomena. Essentially, it's about discovering the natural world through experimentation to verify existing natural processes/relations/things. Science in Islamic terms can also include the social sciences or generally understood as "ilmu duniawi" or aquired knowledge, as compared to "ilmu ukhrawi" or revelaed knowledge.

From a western worldview, scientific methodology and commitment to the scientific endeavour basically means having a perception that what cannot be measured does not exist.

And this is probably where a secular understanding of the world ends, and where revelation comes in. For Divine Revelation tells us things that are unable to be thought of by the human mind, and if we do try to conjure up mental images, we'd need divine guidance so as to not be off track.

So if we spin the secular mentality and see it from a guided perspective, this means that science is a tool used for mankind to explore God's creations (His signs of revelation, in His creations: nature, man, living beings, insects, etc) and acknowledge His presence in the way we continue on with our lives.

Upon that, it's used also as a means to rightly enforce what mankind has inherited from Him as Khalifah on this earth. For example, if you're able to understand the complex web of biodiversity present in a particular terrain, you'd be able to manage human activities that balance off well with the preservation of that biodiversity.

Similarly, you'd be able to understand mental diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, to view how the molecules interact with each other to form the mental processes required in everyday thought. As such, you'd be able to derive the best learning processes for kids, or find out what are the possible mental strengths or shortages that one might have when predisposed genetically to a particular wiring of the brain.


But all these wouldn't come about if you woudn't have the right mental framework to hold you through. The understanding that all this secular knowledge is just a means that comes with a greater responsibility to find an end which is brings us closer to Him, and making a better life for all others around us to do the same.

I've always wondered like what's the point of saving (and this is a completely hypothetical case) an old dying tycoon with 5 billion in his bank and 5 squabbling children only for him to give his cash to his mistress, whom he will die in the arms of. Like...is his life more worthy than a child, who, battered by his dad and conceived by his mom out of wedlock has no fair chance in life to begin with? Then is it more worthy just to save wholesome people from wholesome families cause simply, they'd have a fair chance of being good citizens and contribute well to society?




My point being? I need direction. heh.

My Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

The jobsearch process

ok I should really blog this out before it gets faded in the memory...:)
*brushes cobwebs off my blog*

And so for the last 3 days I've been working with this advertising company. Yeah it's totally different from my degree, but I figured I should try something that I've never tried before. And they were pretty keen on me too, a varied work experience in customer service at different levels and active CCA experience throughout your school years never hurt anyone.

So i totally loved the culture there. LOVED LOVED LOVED. It was an SME, so the people are pretty close, and since it's a face-to-face marketing company, their people are the essential resources of the company. It focuses a LOT on training, and learning from each other. I know it sounds like a very idealistic culture, but this is actually the case, and is implemented from managerial level down to the newest trainee-to-be. So the mornings would be full of trainings, trainings and more trainings, and a funny cheering session. Everyone gets involved, and it's like some kinda cheer-leading team. Plus the whole training structure was solid, and they were undergoing masive growth. Each person had their own individual goals and were enamoured by a supporting team around them.

But as much as I completely LOVED the learning culture, the essence of the job required me to do direct sales. And even though it would equip me with a lot of skills I would love to learn, I just felt I wanted to learn something more academically inclined, and not so much people skills, cause I believe that can be picked up without active training. Plus, I have this strong feeling that I really cannot convince people to buy something that they have a 50-50 stand on. I'd prefer to support people to buy what they need, rather than what they might not necessarily need. Practicality in business.

maybe childhood education would be worth a try. I'd love to set up an islamic montessori programme. yay:)

and thanks to my new phone, I've picked up a new hobby...
check out the pics!

-ok blogspot not working! pics next time!-

This is gonna be a super deep post...

Doing nothing has its merits...and the feeling after the last paper was invincible and incredible. All 15 years of education culminating into a neuro paper, I was smiling even before the paper started. Anyway, it went OK.

So anyway



this picture is usually on my sister's table, which faces the door and cupboard where all 3 of us usually change and dress up and stuff. Apparently, the picture is a leetle bit intimidating coz of the cheeky smile on my sister's bf's face, so when my sister comes in, she usually sees the photos like this:



which pretty much upsets her cause she feels like we're rejecting his presence in the family. It's not that. It's just the l0ook he gives us whenever we feel the most vulnerable.

So in the end, we compromised:







And check out the shrine that my brother has in his room to ensure that we do not miss him...I found it particularly hilarious that it takes up one-eighth of his room.