Kesabaran tunjang kekuatan dan kebahagiaan

(Terima kasih, Hash, atas emel ini. Buat ingatan untuk semua di sini, dan khasnya buat saya yang sering dipesan oleh orang sekeliling supaya, "cuba la bawak-bawak bersabar.")

"ABU Hurairah dan Said Al-Magburi meriwayatkan: Ada seseorang lelaki memarahi Saidina Abu Bakar. Ketika itu Rasulullah duduk di sebelahnya. Nabi diam saja, begitu juga Abu Bakar.

Selepas orang itu selesai memaki hamun dengan mengeluarkan kata-kata kesat, Abu Bakar membalas makian itu, tetapi Rasulullah bangun dan beredar dari situ. Abu Bakar hairan dan terus mengekori Nabi Muhammad sambil berkata: "Ya Rasulullah, dia memaki saya dan engkau pula diam. Ketika saya menjawab maki hamun itu, tiba-tiba engkau bangun lalu pergi."

Rasulullah lantas menjawab: "Sesungguhnya malaikat mengembalikan semua makian orang itu kepadanya ketika engkau diam, tetapi ketika engkau membalas makian itu, maka malaikat pergi dan syaitan pula masuk dan saya tidak suka duduk bersama syaitan."

Rasulullah kemudian bersabda lagi: "Allah akan memuliakan hamba-Nya ketika sedang dianiaya lalu memberikan kemaafan sambil mengharapkan keredaan Allah."

Abu Said al-Khurdi pula berkata: Rasulullah ada bersabda: "Awaslah kamu daripada sifat marah kerana marah itu menyalakan api dalam hati anak Adam.

"Maka sesiapa yang berasakan demikian ketika berdiri, hendaklah dia duduk dan jika dia duduk hendaklah ia berbaring."

Abu Hurairah al-Bahili berkata bahawa Rasulullah pernah bersabda: "Sesiapa yang pemarah tetapi dapat menahan marahnya dengan sabar, maka Allah akan mengisi hatinya dengan keredaan pada hari kiamat."

"Kesabaran adalah tunjang kekuatan dan kebahagiaan di dunia mahupun akhirat...."

Naruto new season. Now with Sasuke

(Warning: image-heavy post.)

It's a natural progression. Dragonball went on to become Dragonball Z. Sailor Moon preceded Sailor Moon R. And Saiyuki spawned Saiyuki Reload. Sometimes in anime, a new season means we get to see additional letters or words in the original title.

And Naruto becomes Naruto: Shippūden (Hurricane Chronicles). The new season premiered on 15/2 on TV Tokyo.


Hurricane because, as discovered recently in the manga, Naruto is a wind-element ninja.

The new season opens with a one of pivotal scenes in the Naruto saga. It's more of a preview because it's not supposed to take place until later in the season.

Now's here the quick update: two and a half years has passed since Naruto's former teammate, Uchiha Sasuke severed his tie with the ninja village of Hidden Leaf to become a follower's of Konoha's enemy, Orochimaru. Sasuke is seeking to avenge the death of the members of the Uchiha clan at the hands of his brother, Uchiha Itachi, an Akutsuki member. To become stronger, Sasuke has chosen the darker path: to train under Orochimaru. Naruto meanwhile trained under Jiraiya, a master of Orochimaru's calibre as well as his former teammate.

In a mission to infiltrate Orochimaru's secret underground hideout, Naruto and Sakura ends up in a unexpected reunion with Sasuke.





Chills down my spine, this one. A good way to kick off the new season, since Sasuke has been missing from the series for some time now and many (including myself) have been waiting for his return, which will definitely shakes things up.

Bring on the next episode of Shippūden!

Fix DLL errors with Dial-a-fix

I have at least experienced DLL (dynamic-link library) errors twice, once on Windows Me and recently on XP. This type of error results in a Windows Explorer warning and if we look at the error's details we'll bound to see something is wrong with a .dll file. The problem on Me was that it failed to display image files (.jpg, .gif) in thumbnail view. I went over to annoyance.org and found the fixes for the problem. Seconds later, everything was alright again.

The recent problem was trickier. I had no clue what was the cause. Everytime I wanted to access my D drive, Windows Explorer issued an error warning and forcibly closed my D: window. I was told it was an ole32.dll problem.

I tried searching via Google for ole32.dll errors, but nothing useful came up. Scandisk and System Restore didn't help much. It was days later when discovered this migraine-curing solution called Dial-a-fix.


Dial-a-fix is small, fast and a snap to use. Just check the boxes for the errors you wish to fix and click 'Go'. Dial-a-fix also fixes other Windows-related problem such as Windows Update and DirectX issues.

I felt incredibly relieved when everything was quickly back to normal. This nifty little tool is definitely going into my software toolbox.

Anybody remembers... Toriton?

Well I certainly do.

I remember this one especially because once when I was 4, Abah went to the video store and I asked him to bring back a Toriton video. Instead, he came home with a video of Terrytoons (!!!). Oh, ayahandaku...

The Asiatics

No matter how voracious or adventurous a reader is, he or she will find at least a few book unreadable. Dumped, as Sharon puts it. An unreadable book feels impossible for us to finish it, even with an open mind or a broad spectrum of interests. It's just not our cup of tea or coffee or air ketum (thanks, dzul).

For me, such a book is Frederic Prokosch's The Asiatics. This book was a best seller when it first came out, which was back in the 1930s. I have little idea what's life like back then, but given that TV was still not widespread and the Internet nowhere in existence, being a best selling novel could be a huge deal. For a good reason, The Asiatics traces the journey of a young American man hitchhiking his way throughout continental Asia, from and to places like Istanbul, Damascus, Tehran, Delhi, Penang, Hong Kong and Hanoi. The man's journey is packed with surprises, danger, and of course, the key ingredient, the exoticness of the land called Asia, a place that fuels the imagination of inquisitive dreamers back then.

Apparently, Prokosch is also one of those people. He wrote the book without setting a single toe anywhere in an Asia country. The fact that book became a best sellers seems to suggest that readers believed in Prokosch's 'Asia.'

The Costa Book of the Year Award winner was announced a few days ago. The £25,000 prize goes to The Tenderness of Wolves, a first novel by screenwriter Stef Penney. First novels clinching the literature awards is not exactly news. The newsworthy part is the novel is set Canada, a place that Penney never visited, and will probably never will, due to the reason she's agoraphobic.

My fear wasn't of crowds or being out in the open. It was more a fear of losing control. For me it was public transport, and the bigger and faster, the worse it was, so planes were the scariest thing. Once you're in a plane you really can't say, 'Actually, let me out here'; there's nothing you can do. It's that feeling that it's totally out of your control.

Penny's 'Canada' is entirely patterned from reading and research. Her win seems to do anything but stop her from writing about places she'll unlikely to visit as she plans to write a road trip novel about two girls driving across the Lappland of Finland.

In due fairness, I myself haven't visited the places that Prokosch (and Penney) wrote about, with the exception of Penang.

Somehow I find Prokosch's vision (or version) of Asia to be very unusually less life-like, but still exhales an air of mystery and mystique that seems to attract the Western world to venture into these parts in the first place. The Asiatics' Asia is largely a strange place, filled with surprises both pleasant and painful lurking within its corners, almost like an alien planet in a sci-fi film. The problem is Asia is a real, existing place.

I guess what I'm getting at is nothing quite beats something written by someone who's actually been to the place and fully immersed him or herself into the local surrounding. Imagining a place and transferring it in vivid details onto the pages is a mark of a ripe imagination and skillful storytelling. But you can never fake the love and admiration for the people and the places.

The Asiatics is snapshot of its generation, a time when travelers to faraway places are a mere fistful and the rest had very little choice but to rely on their accounts. But on second thought, today's situation isn't really much different, considering what the media orchestra are leading us to believe. Maybe Prokosch is actually on to something. Maybe the world hasn't changed that much after all.

This blog may be renamed. Again.

The doctor told me to reduce my coffee intake, to prevent any long term health complications. I'm switching to warm milk for the moment (fresh milk heated until about slightly below boiling temperature). Still looking for names (and substitute beverage).

Launchy 1.0 comes with newly added wonderfulness

Checked out Launchy yet? The new version 1.0 of this awesome program/file launcher is a good way to start because it now includes a few new useful plugins and features:

• Explory: No need to click My Computer. Launchy can open the window of the C: drive by simply typing 'C:'. Same with all other drives.
  


• Foxy: Launchy now indexes Firefox bookmarks for even easier access.


• Weby: To search on Google using Launchy, type in 'Google' followed by tab and your search. Launchy can also search in Amazon, Wikipedia, MSN, Yahoo!, Live, Weather, Dictionary, Thesaurus, IMDB, Netflix, and MSDN. The plugin also alows Launchy to open typed in URLs.


• Calcy: A simple calculator that can perform basic arithmetic operations (BODMAS).
  


• Got a USB drive? Launchy 1.0 supports a portable mode, allowing us to use Launchy on other computers.

The best thing about it is it frees me from using the mouse too often, giving my wrist a rest. Searching and accessing my stuff is definitely faster now, but only if I've properly customise Launchy and remember what's the file's name. Read the Readme.pdf file for information on how to make Launchy work for you.

Once I was looking for a PDF file without setting Launchy to recognise .pdf file types. I thought Launchy wasn't working when instead it was my mistake.

Overall, this new version is a tremendous improvement of the previous version. Very much recommended.

[ Launchy 1.0 Final ]

...and I hear somebody said

Clearing clutter from the Windows desktop using Jedi Concentrate and denial

This is my Windows desktop. It's got lots and lots of icons. As you can see it's a bit organised but still looks cluttered.

Most productivity guru will tell us that clutter on our workspace will lead to a cluttered mind. I find this to be somewhat true. There's a gigantic sense of relief and freedom that comes from seeing our workplace cleared of towering stacks of papers, books, etc.

And Thank God for the people at The Software Jedi, getting rid of all the clutter is a cinch.

Jedi Concentrate (JC) is a tiny app written to emulate Exposé, a feature found in Mac OS. Once started, the app will dim the active windows including the desktop, except the window with focus (the currently selected window). The purpose is to allow us to be more focused on finishing what we're doing by dimming all other possible distractions.


This is JC in action. But this is not my desktop, but a screencap from a site called MOONGIFT (thanks!). (I tried to screen capture JC in action on my desktop but without success.)


Let's not forget the second ingredient needed for this task: denial. This is my desktop with JC activated, by a simple press of the F12 key.

Where are the many, many icons before? I can't seem to see them now.

A cluttered desktop? Mana adaaa......

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

15 or 10 years or so ago, I wouldn't want to even be caught near a book like this. But I guess with age, I've mellowed.

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas is written by James Patterson, the author more known for his Alex Cross thrillers. Two of his books, Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, have been made into movies, with Morgan Freeman playing Dr. Cross. With this book, it seems Patterson has decided to branch out to romance and relationship-type stories. This is actually my first time reading anything by Patterson.

On the first page we meet Katie, a senior editor in New York, who met the most perfect man she could ever imagine. Matt was her client, a promising poet from Martha's Vineyard. While still falling headily and unbelievably in love with each other, Matt suddenly disappeared and left her a diary.

Katie is crushed. Further adding to her wounds was learning that diary was written by Suzanne, who is Matt's wife, for their son Nicholas. Reluctantly, Katie picks up the book, with mixed feelings.

And as Katie searches for answers, we begin to see glimpses of Patterson the mystery writer. And like all good mystery tales, the final and critical clue is often revealed at the very later parts of the story. By the time the final page is reached, all ties that link Katie, Matt, Suzanne and Nicholas are made known to the readers. Patterson has succeeded at what I think he was going for: to write a romance story with a tinge of mystery.

My only complaint would be how incredibly amazing Matt is as a character. He's great husband, father, son, friend, lover, cook, carpenter, handyman, who's sensitive, thoughtful and writes beautiful poetry. Either Matt is an actual specimen of the perfect, dream guy or Suzanne is an angel of a wife who fails to see any of Matt's flaws.

Perfect man aside, this book for me is a gentle introduction to Patterson's works (who by the way writes in very, very short chapters) and the world of romance (which I don't plan to revisit any time soon). A story lacking slightly in realism, but beautiful in its simplicity.

(And a wonderful year ahead to all Muslim readers.)