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Wednesday 29 June 2005

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

My old chum from college, Rafeek, recently emailed me this. Thanks, man.

Steve Jobs, current CEO of Apple Computers and Pixar Animation Studios (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo) was in Stanford U earlier this month, delivering a heart-felt speech to graduating students, parents and faculty members. He took the opportunity to talk about his fall and rebound, his major life decisions and his brush with death, among other things.

A college dropout himself, Jobs invites his audience to 'think differently' and to always 'stay hungry, stay foolish'.

Unconventional words from a hardly conventional man.

Tuesday 28 June 2005

Don't toy with your tasks. Use tasktoy


Not long ago, I spotted a book on my father's desk called Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen. In this book, Mr.Allen proposes a system which he claims can help people to master their workflow.

I gave the book a trial read but I was too busy then to remember what was discussed in it, let alone applying it. But later I saw may applications, mostly personal management systems, that uses the GTD system and one of them is tasktoy.

Nifty toy

tasktoy is a free, no frills online personal management system by kiwi programmer Toby Segaran. After registering (no email required, brilliant!), you will get 3 lists of tasks, projects and links.

My personal suggestion is start off with the projects list where we can specify things like 'Books to read', 'Things to be done in a month' or 'People to call'. Projects are like categories with which you can categorize your tasks into.

The GTD method suggests we break things or stuff, as referred in the book, into quatifiable (countable) units of tasks. Breaking them into tasks can help us see what are the things to be done more clearly. In the task list I could add a task like 'Call plumber for lunch' under the project 'People to call' or 'Read Getting Things Done again' under 'Books to read'. You can also set a repeat reminder of any recurring tasks.

The links list is a good place to store important contact weblinks: your emails, online address directory, Friendster etc. You can add up to 30 links of your choice.

You can also print your listed task and color-code them accordingly. For example, I could set an urgent task to red like this: 'Dah habis: printer ink and coffee' from project 'Must buy quick!' and print it out to take it with me to the shop.

tasktoy is still a work in progress and the developer welcomes email questions. Try tasktoy out and share with us your experience. 43 Folders offers some intro to GTD, for those who aren't familiar with it yet.

Monday 27 June 2005

Historic Taiping



I have a strange attachment to this town named Taiping. It is the currently my grandparents' town of residence and the birthtown of my mother.

Taiping, as I just learned recently, means "city of everlasting peace". It is one of Malaysia's most well-known towns because of its historical background.

I don't own a digital (or even analog) camera, therefore I need to rely on other people to share with you the many vistas of this wonderful place. My thanks (and apologies) to Mr. Preetam Rai, the author of betterdays, for capturing the sides of Taiping as I would probably see them. The photo shown is from taipingtalk.com.

If you happen to be within close distances, Taiping opens her arms with welcome.

Friday 24 June 2005

Back to school blues

Alhamdulilllah. My postgraduate application has been accepted.

In a few days insya-Allah, I'll be registering myself as a student again. Only this time, I've changed fields. From engineering, I've flown to management.

I just went the list of subjects that I'll taking and I saw some words and phrases that I haven't seen in a long time:

Accounting analysis.
Financial policies.
Organization policy.
Human resource.

Alamak. I have no background on any of these and I'm about to do postgrad studies.

During my upper secondary school years, I was in the commerce stream. My coursemates and I took Prinsip Akaun (accounting principles) and Perdagangan (commerce) alongside science stream subjecs like physics, chemistry and Matematik Tambahan (additional maths). Shortly after school, I obtained a certificate in accounting from MARA, hoping to get into accounting or something with accounting.

Instead, I got accepted into engineering, where accounting is not necessary.

8 years later, here I am, scouring the cupboards for accounting books. My accounting knowledge have since rusted like the Titanic.

I still have one week before the actual classes start, which is on the 4th of July. Until then, I would be spending time recalling what to debit and what to credit.

Do wish me all the best. I think I'm going to need them.

Friday 17 June 2005

Menghormati mereka yang lebih arif

Dalam Islam, ulama (kata jamak bagi orang alim atau ustaz) merupakan golongan khusus yang wajib dimuliakan oleh orang-orang Islam. Mereka disebut sebagai pewaris para nabi kerana tanggungjawab mereka dalam mendidik serta memimpin orang Islam yang lain (orang awam) dalam menjalani kehidupan beragama. Di dalam al-Quran kemuliaan orang berilmu disebut berulang-ulang kali termasuklah bagaimana Allah meninggikan darjat mereka di sisiNya jauh melebihi orang lain. Sabda Rasullullah SAW:
Bukanlah dia daripada para pengikutku: yang tidak menghormati orang-orang tua, tidak belas kasihan kepada kanak-kanak dan tidak menghormati alim ulama.
Rasullullah sendiri pernah menyebut serta memuliakan beberapa orang Sahabat dengan khusus atas ketinggian ilmu yang mereka miliki. Antara Sahabat-Sahabat yang mendapat kemuliaan tersebut ialah Abu Hurairah, Abu Darda dan Ubai bin Kaab RAhum.

Di sini jelas bahawa kita sebagai orang awam wajar memberi penghormatan yang sepatutnya kepada golongan ulama. Bukan kehendak mereka supaya dilayan seperti raja-raja atau menteri-menteri, memadai dengan kita mematuhi adab serta tertib ketika bergaul dengan alim ulama, sebagaimana yang digariskan oleh Islam.

Tetapi apa yang kita sering lihat pada hari ini ialah pandangan serong sesetengah orang tentang ulama serta peranan mereka. Ulama kerapkali digambarkan sebagai puak yang kolot. Pandangan-pandangan yang mereka utarakan selalu dilihat sebagai sesuatu yang tidak selari dengan zaman semasa.

Pihak media mengaku mereka sekadar melakukan tugas. Namun, itu bukannya cerita keseluruhan. Apabila seseorang tokoh politik atau pemimpin membangkitkan sesuatu perkara dan ianya menjadi buah mulut masyarakat, pihak media seringkali bermurah hati untuk memberikan mereka ruang untuk memperjelaskan perkara yang sebenarnya. Mereka akan ditemuramah atau dijemput sebagai ahli panel sesebuah forum dan sebagainya di mana mereka akan menyeru kepada rakyat agar tidak salah faham atau menyalahtafsir sebarang kenyataan yang mereka pernah buat.

Bagaimana pula dengan ulama? Adakah mereka berpeluang untuk membuat perkara yang sama?

Lebih menyedihkan lagi, tentangan serta ketidakadilan ini kadangkala berpunca dari kalangan orang Islam sendiri. Mereka dengan mudah menerima pandangan yang datang dari Barat tetapi mereka sentiasa mempertikai apa ulama cuba bawa serta sampaikan tanpa penilaian yang mendalam.

Bukan nabi atau malaikat

Hakikatnya ialah ulama juga manusia biasa. Mereka bukan nabi-nabi yang maksum, kadangkala mereka juga tersilap dari segi perkataan, perbuatan atau pertimbangan. Mereka juga bukan malaikat, seperti manusia lain mereka turut duji dengan musuh-musuh manusia seperti syaitan dan nafsu.

Dari sudut ini, kita semua adalah sama. Siapa yang tak pernah silap dan siapa pula yang tahu semua perkara? Kalau ulama yang soleh serta hampir dengan Allah SWT boleh tersilap, apatah lagi kita ini yang cetek ilmu serta miskin amalan?

Sebenarnya, kebanyakan kita (termasuk saya) kurang bergaul dengan ulama. Menurut ulama yang mengkaji sejarah Islam, para Sahabat digelar sedemikian kerana mereka bersahabat dengan Rasulullah. Mereka akan bersama-sama dengan Baginda dalam setiap kelapangan yang ada. Malah ada di antara mereka yang pernah berkata yang mereka tidak akan mampu hidup walaupun sehari tanpa menatap wajah Baginda. Begitulah dalamnya kasih mereka terhadap Baginda tercinta.

Melalui persahabatan ini, mereka memperolehi ilmu-ilmu Islam yang masih kekal hingga ke hari ini. Pendekatan ini telah membolehkan para Sahabat melihat sendiri amalan Rasullullah secara dekat di samping menwujudkan hubungan yang mesra serta penuh kasih sayang antara guru dengan murid. Kebanyakan sistem pengajian Islam tradisional seperti sekolah pondok dan madrasah masih mempraktikkan pendekatan ini. Murid-murid akan mengambil giliran berkhidmat kepada guru mereka, melakukan perkara seperti membantu menyediakan keperluan guru mereka atau menolong membereskan sebarang urusan guru tersebut bagi pihaknya.

Perkara sebegini nampak janggal kerana sudah lama tidak diamalkan. Oleh sebab itu, hubungan antara masyarakat dan ulama semakin renggang. Dan jika dibiarkan, keadaan hanya akan menjadi lebih keruh.

Penghormatan sewajarnya

Sebagai orang awam, kitalah yang seharusnya merendah diri untuk mendekatkan diri kita kepada golongan yang dimuliakan Allah ini.

Walaupun ramai di antara kita bukan berasal dari sistem pengajian Islam tradisional, kita masih boleh bergaul dengan mereka dengan menghadirikan diri dalam majlis-majlis agama seperti ceramah, kuliah dan sebagainya. Kita seharusnya merasa gembira apabila berada semajlis dengan mereka kerana secara tidak lansung kita mendapat keberkatan berada dalam majlis yang mengingati Allah serta terhindar daripada berada dalam suasana yang melalaikan.

Para alim ulama sentiasa berbesar hati jika ada orang yang datang menemui mereka untuk mengemukakan sebarang kemusykilan agama. Mereka gembira apabila melihat umat Islam mengambil berat tentang perkara-perkara agama dan sebaliknya mereka berasa dukacita apabila melihat orang lain bersikap bena tak bena tentang akidah, akhlak serta amalan masing-masing.

Sekiranya kita kurang jelas dengan penerangan seorang ustaz atau ustazah mengenai sesuatu, kita boleh menghampiri beliau dengan cara baik dan meminta penjelasan lanjut. Andainya beliau tersilap secara sengaja atau tidak, kita patut menegur mereka mengikut tertib serta dengan penuh hikmah. Maruah serta reputasi mereka boleh tercemar dan perkara buruk mungkin timbul jika kita tidak ambil berat tentang perkara ini.

Menurut ajaran Islam, bersangka baik adalah sesuatu yang disuruh. Ini termasuklah bersangka baik terhadap alim ulama. Sebarang prasangka buruk terhadap mereka perlu diketepikan, selagi perkara buruk yang dikaitkan dengan mereka itu tidak dapat dibuktikan dengan terang dan jelas. Ingatlah bahawa menyebar fitnah serta memecahbelah perpaduan di kalangan umat adalah dilarang keras dalam Islam.

Pendek kata, dalam soal bergaul dengan alim ulama, banyak adab serta tertib yang perlu kita pelajari dan patuhi. Segalanya terlalu panjang untuk diperincikan di sini dan tujuan perenggan-perenggan ini ditulis adalah sebagai pelawaan buat diri saya dan pembaca yang lain agar kita sendiri menilai sejauh mana kita telah menunaikan tanggungjawab kita terhadap para ulama. Mereka telah banyak mencurah keringat, darah dan air mata semata-mata untuk memperolehi keredhaan Allah dan memastikan agama Islam akan terus subur hingga ke akhir zaman.

Allah SWT menjanjikan banyak ganjaran dan kemuliaan kepada mereka yang mengasihi para kekasihNya. Semoga Allah memberi taufik dan hidayah untuk diri saya serta kita semua untuk mentaati serta memuliakan para ulama yang mursyid seperti yang dihendaki oleh Allah dan RasulNya.

Tuesday 14 June 2005

Audio weblog listening

My first experience listening to an audio weblog was David Duchovny's.

Most people remember David Duchovny as the man who played Agent Fox Mulder on the TV series X-Files. He also tried his hand at films, appearing in movies like X-Files the Movie and Playing God.

At present, David Duchovny is a man at both sides of the camera. He directed and acted in his own movie, House of D. The studio that produces his movie also gave him a weblog where he writes to his fans about the film, the promotional tours and also about his family and himself.

Parts of his weblog are recorded in audio. The audio posts are actually recorded messages, which I find kind of weird because it was like listening to Mulder, only this time he is talking about the weather and his sick children (something you wouldn't hear Mulder talk about) . I guess it's because the way David talks in his audio posts is similar to the way he talked as Mulder, with the ever recognizable occasional pauses.

Audio weblogs are quite intimate and more personal than the written ones because we humans respond more to sound and voice compared to words. It's easy to detect feelings of happiness or sadness in a sound or a voice than in a paragraph of essay or a stanza of poem. After all, we normally talk and listen more than we read or write.

David's audio weblog posts were made during the times when his was too busy to write or when there wasn't any opportunity for him to type any posts. The last audio post he made was in 19th of April. It's understandable because audio posts are larger in size and takes a longer time to download. People with a slow Internet connection are not able to fully enjoy the experience.

The latest trend in audio weblogging is podcasting. It's basically a syndicated, audio-based weblog where listeners can download the posts and listen to them at their convenience. Podcasting is slowly taking off because it is quite easy to set up and the explosive growth of MP3 players sale is making podcasts more accessible to the masses. Audio weblogging would also enable people with vision impairments to use and experience the web with the rest of the world.

Since don't own any MP3 player, I might be a while before I could get my ears on podcasting. Audio weblogging is definitely a new experience for me, and it will continually change the way we see, and hear, the world wide web.

Sunday 12 June 2005

Weekend preview: Ichigo Mashimaro

space girlsfloor-crawlerehhh...?big sister talks big

Found recently: a 3-minute-plus preview of Ichigo Mashimaro (strawberry marshmallow).

What's going on in the preview? There's a group of super-adorable little lasses. There's one slightly older onee-chan (big sister) who smokes (bad, bad influence!). There's a space station. There's trouble. There's an unexpected solution to the trouble, devised by onee-chan. And, of course, onee-chan's solution brings more trouble for them than before.

Ichigo Mashimaro is another 'group of girls' kind of show which reminds me of Azumanga Daioh! (one of my all-time favourites) and Galaxy Angel, to quote a few. The setting is similar: a circle of closely-knitted friends where everyone in it has a unique personality and role. Ichigo Mashimaro is another attempt at the genre, and hopefully it will contain some originalities to set it apart from the rest of the crop.

Ichigo Mashimaro's première is schduled somewhere in middle of July over the channel TBS. Interested parties can catch the preview at this link.

Thursday 9 June 2005

Short anime: Studio 4°C's Comedy

i was born looking corpse-likehow to pick up a chickhowdy, missymedieval warfare ARE scarierlit-dudethe horse follows her everywhere

The only thing funny about this 10-minute long anime is its title.

Comedy (or Kigeki) is a collaboration between two well-known anime studios, Studio 4°C (Spriggan, Animatrix) and Production I.G (Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell). The story is set in middle age Ireland, in the wake of the invading English forces conquering their way through the surrounding regions. The main character and narrator of this story is a little girl who learns about the approaching invaders and tries to save her village from the impending danger.

The girls remembers a legend about a mysterious swordman who lives alone in a castle in the Black Forest. Aside from being dubbed the 'Black Swordsman', nobody knows why he choose to live in recluse and spends most of his time burying his nose in literature and rare books.

The little girls sees a saviour in the black-clad, well-read swordman. She grabs an old book from her family cupboard and makes her way to castle, hoping to make an offering to the swordman. A rare book in exchange for the service of his sword.

Short but sweet

Comedy's greatest strength is in its animation. Studio 4°C, the chief endeavourer behind this project, proves itself again to be one of the major creative force in anime. The artistic style of the animation is surreal in which generous amount of blurriness and light hues are used. It's almost like watching a painting in motion.

The story begins with a scary warning, but viewers will understand what it means in the later part of the story. The narrator's child-like voice lends to the the story a sense of hope and innocence, despite the gloomy setting of potential despair and uncertainy. And as you could probably tell, there is no clear or reasonable relation between the title and the story.

Funny title, but overall an impressive and memorable watch for art lovers and busy viewers.

(Comedy is an OAV, original animation video, or straight-to-video release anime.)

Wednesday 8 June 2005

No updates? Why?

(A poem about an uninspiring blogger)

Are you
Too busy, to sit down and write something?
Too lazy, to think of something to write?
Too hungry, to even think clearly?
Too occupied, to even remember that you own a blog?
Too sad, from hearing the depressing news about the world around us?
Too stressed out, from the tremendous pressures of modern living?
Too tired, from running away from all your responsibilities?
Too guilt-ridden, from the thought of taking some time of your busy day to update your blog?

Or are you
Too scared, to face the readers who never really exist?

Thursday 2 June 2005

Astro Boy quick quiz + result

Even if you're not into anime or manga, you've probably stumbled upon Astro Boy (or his real Japanese name, Tetsuwan Atomu) at some point in your life. He's virtually the Japanese counterpart of Mickey Mouse, that's how huge the little guy is.

Now let me quiz you this: which of the 2 pictures below is the picture of Astro Boy? Is it A? Or B?

Can you guess?


Wanna show off your anime/manga knowledge? Proceed to comments and write your answer. (And please be creative and not post comments as "anonymous", OK? Thank you.)


Quiz update

(5:40PM)

So far we (me and my nonexistent sponsors) have one entry from ieka, who said:
dah kate macam mickey mouse..tentulah B jawapannyer :D betul kan kan:))

She's going for B, folks.

We're giving the quiz 24 hours dateline, so anybody who wants to give it a try can still do so before the result is out.

(Maybe we should've throw in an iPod or something. People, after all, need motivation, no?)


The result

(11:16PM)

Finally, our 24 hours are up. We managed to get 1 entry, which is more than what we expected, and it's time announce the winner. But before that, we need to reveal the answer first.

The answer we are looking for is : both A and B.

Yes, both are pictures of Astro Boy, or his real name, Atom. B is the original robotic boy, and A is also Atom but in another manga series called Pluto.

Pluto is a retelling of a story arc in Tetsuwan Atomu called The biggest robot in the world. Pluto features a slightly different take on the original story arc, with a more grown-up-friendly dialogues and artworks by Urasawa Naoki. The original Tetsuwan Atomu manga series was first published in 1952 and Pluto made its debut somewhere around last year. More on Pluto in later posts, insya-Allah.

Pluto volume 1Astro Boy volume 1 US release

Atom was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame last year, while Pluto recently won the grand prize in the 2005 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (here are the winners list in English).

Our thanks to all those who participated or just stopped by to have a look at our short, no-prize-for-guessing quiz. We hope that you had as much fun as we did.
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