Tuesday, 30 September 2008

A Memorable Verse

At the end of the month.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether it is good or whether it is evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

(Reading daily, last two weeks, through this reflective book by King Solomon - Jerusalem's wisest - was enlightening. The Greek ekklesia means "assembly, congregation, church", and the Latin Ecclesiastes means "speaker before an assembly". Credits: John C. Hagee & Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Monday, 29 September 2008

Tiada S'perti-Mu

A beautiful song that I've learned a few years ago, back at home. The title means "There is none like You".

Tiada S'perti-Mu
By: GMB

Anug'rah-Mu kepadaku tak pernah berubah
Perbuatan-Mu terlukiskan di dalam hatiku
Tercengangku dibuat-Mu, kukagum pada-Mu
Tak ada hal di hidupku terluput dari-Mu
Kau indah, Kau mulia tiada s'perti-Mu
Ku ingin hidupku menyenangkan-Mu

Kau terawal dan terakhir pencipta s'galanya
S'luruh bintang pun bersinar oleh ucapan-Mu
Engkau pun mengasihiku, penulis hidupku
Tak henti seg'nap nafasku menyembah-Mu s'lalu
Kupuji, kusembah tiada s'perti-Mu
Ku ingin hidupku menyenangkan-Mu

S'gala puji
S'gala hormat
Seg'nap hatiku menyembah-Mu
Terimalah
Seg'nap hidupku
S'bagai persembahan yang hidup

Bukan kehendakku, namun kehendak-Mu
Hidupku bagi-Mu
Kau indah, Kau mulia
Kuingin hidupku menyenangkan-Mu

It speaks of - among other attributes - the awesomeness, glory and omnipresence of God. The last line of the chorus quotes Romans 12:1, where we are called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
(Was the first verse I shared about in urban life.)

Credits: kertas.dan.pena (song available)


Want another song?
Di S'tiap Napasku (by True Worshippers)


Thursday, 25 September 2008

We reap what we sow

Thursday afternoon impulse post.
(When most other friends are already having break and I have a 17.75-hour week)

Illustration: A 100-metre sprinter is in the Olympics (maybe we can think of Usain Bolt). The gun goes off. He runs with all his might. Days, months and years of training squeezed into 10 seconds of superhuman performance. He wins with glory - the world's eyes are on him. Commentators, journalists and more media people crown him "the fastest man on earth".

The hype of the experience is its intensified and ultra-dramatized effect. I wouldn't know how it feels to win gold at the most exclusive level of athletics. And to break a new world record. And to express feelings of utter joy, triumph, excitement.

Yet many times, many people crave for that experience while forgetting all the hard, consistent work that has been put into it. People want shortcuts. Success, but not the toil and labour that it demands. The zenith, but not the tortuous road on the way up. It happens everywhere. In school, at work, in romantic relationships. And it doesn't work.

We reap (harvest) what we sow (plant). In the time that separates the two, it demands our faithful dedication. Would we give our all for it? And when we've given our all - heck, let's just say that we've reaped it all - what do we do next? It's continual, for time in this world does not stop. Once we're "there", it really demands more of us. Some say that it's harder to retain #1 than getting #1.

So cherish the journey.

Friday, 19 September 2008

Identity

Just another random Friday afternoon post.

Identity is the sense of self or self-conception. Something like self-awareness. In KH (Kemahiran Hidup, esp Form 2 stuff), students get exposed to the notion of "imej kendiri", which I think is quite related to identity. It's asking, who am I, what defines me, how do I present myself to the society around, why do I the things I do, etc. And perhaps it reaches out to other downstream decisions and actions that I make, too.

Here are two identities that I have assumed in the past:
An adventurer. A hero. Like the warrior in Diablo, bent on a quest to defeat the Lord of Terror. Thing is, I have no antagonist. I just assume the role of a fighter who builds himself up physically. Like Illidan the Demon Hunter, but without anything to hunt. It's like a means without an end. The means are martial art training - like Tae Kwon Do and Jeet Kun Do - coupled with flying moves (which are rather impractical, really). There's no end. Or maybe the end is just becoming a kind of warrior in itself. The lifestyle of training and working out the patterned moves become an objective/a goal on its own. Weird identity.

Another one's a scholar. A Harry Potter of sorts, doing academics instead of magic. An intellectual version of the hack-and-slash dirty pit gladiator. A promising student who has the entire academic arena waiting to be conquered. This was actually influential on me because that's my first strength that I noticed. Intellectual superiority became my identity, and it's not rare to hear people ask, "Macam mana bah ko jadi pandai ni?" In Form 2, I had actually tried denying IQ, the measure which shows up as the tendency of "intelligence" to predict academic performance. At that time, I instead pointed to hard, consistent work with effective techniques and a positive attitude. Now, my view is shifted a bit, and I'd say IQ does play a part: it often makes primary school easier. And maybe secondary school, too. So I had perhaps struck the lucky genes by picking the right parents and choosing the right combination of genes ("brains" are roughly 55-75% genetically determined). Well, God did that hard work, really. He made me this way. And my early schooling reflected it. Hence I saw myself as a scholar. And it's not over yet.

Time for anatomy dissection.

Friday, 12 September 2008

A boy who cried

Based on a real life story.

A primary school boy came back from school one afternoon. His Mom, Dad and sister were there.

His Dad told him that, if the the phone rings, tell the caller that he (the Dad) is not there.

The boy thought that it was a simple instruction.

Then the phone rang. He picked it up. The caller asked for the Dad.

The boy took rather long to respond. No words came out of his mouth. With the phone still on his ears, he turned and looked at his Dad - a definite expression of worry, dilemma and conscience-struck.

His Dad immediately took the phone and took hold of the situation.

And the boy cried.


His Dad and Mom hugged him and let him cry. He said, "Sorry, Dad..." His Dad said that it's OK.

It was the calm after the storm.

Thursday, 11 September 2008

The past few weeks

The weeks that were...

A game of poker on a Friday night







No, no gambling; we used plastic coins.
Was a fun way of spending some spare seconds.

My principle was: No all-in, no big win.
I won using my first all-in, and lost in the second.


The 2.5k assignment










I learned a big lesson this time around.
At first, I used the same strategy as last semester:
Writing my thoughts down on paper first, extracting the underlying assumptions in the wording of the question.
Then, I had trouble. I didn't know what my main points were going to be. My essay had no body in the first week that I was working on it.

Retrospect










This was the rough work on the paper.
I looks like a lot of mess to me - though at one time it was my functionally organized ideas factory and map.

I learned that Melbourne Uni students could actually use the "Bonus+" feature, which meant getting a book from another university.

I got Goffman's 1963 book from Deakin Uni.

Katakan...

Satu lagi utusan dalam Bahasa Melayu. Persoalan: kematian.

Saya pertama kali menggunakan istilah "katakan" (cth. katakan x = tinggi bangunan) dalam Tingkatan 4, dalam subjek Matematik Tambahan.

Penggunaan katakan sebegini adalah suatu jenis anggapan (assumption). Katakan adalah suatu subset khusus dalam set umum anggapkan. Di sini, saya ingin mengupas suatu anggapan asasi yang kita gunakan setiap hari, mungkin tanpa sedar. Pertimbangkan senario berikut:
Kes 1
Ali: Hei Ahmad, aku letih ah hari ni... Esok je lah kite main CS, ok?
Ahmad: Kau ni, aku dah datang rumah kau dah... Ah, aku tak nak datang main dengan kau lagi ah!

Kes 2
Abu: Alamak, I tak study lagi glycolysis! You ajar I Sabtu ni boleh? I nak bangun awal, tak nak bazir mase dah.
Bakar: Boleh je. I suke mental workout.
Usahlah menyoal tentang nama orang yang saya gunakan. Ali, Ahmad, Abu dan Bakar sangat popular dalam mana-mana cerita rekaan.
Sekarang, izinkan saya memperkenalkan seorang pembaca rekaan, namanya Crezki. Ini maklum balasnya:
Hmmm, ade suatu corak persamaan yang saya lihat dalam perbualan ini - kesemua watak itu menganggap bahawa mereka akan hidup pada hari esok, dan hari lusa, dan beberapa ratus malah beberapa ribu hari lagi.
Maksudnya, setiap ujaran kata dan pertimbangan yang dibuat oleh keempat-empat watak itu adalah berdasarkan anggapan bahawa mereka tidak akan meninggal dunia dalam masa terdekat ini.
Kematian bererti berakhirnya tindakan sebegitu, kerana mereka yang sudah mati tidak mampu membuat keputusan, bertutur kata, berfikir - pendek kata, tidak mampu membuat apa-apa. Dan kematian, amat sering kali, adalah proses yang tidak berbalik (irreversible).
Anggapan ini membolehkan kita merancang hari esok, untuk melakukan sesuatu, misalnya permainan CS yang dirancang oleh Ali.
Terdapat pelbagai jenis rancangan lain: ingin pergi ke Kem Eksplorasi, ingin melanjutkan pelajaran ke menara gading, ingin menjadi kaya, ingin menjadi dermawan, ingin menyumbang bakti kepada masyarakat... malah ingin menamatkan riwayat sendiri (atau orang lain).
Sesetengah rancangan bercorak tidak ingin lagi: tidak ingin merokok lagi, tidak ingin menipu, tidak ingin bertemu dengan seseorang, dan sebagainya. Persamaannya, rancangan tersebut bercorak ke masa hadapan, dengan anggapan bahawa maut tidak akan tiba lagi.

Tidak dinafikan bahawa anggapan ini sangat berguna; kalau saya akan mati esok, mengapa bersusah-susah mencari nafkah untuk sepanjang bulan hadapan ini? Dan tidak dinafikan juga, anggapan ini sangat munasabah. Purata jangka hayat adalah petanda yang agak sesuai untuk menganggar masa yang ada pada kita selepas lahir dan sementara menunggu mati. Purata jangka hayat warga Malaysia lebih kurang 70 hingga 80 tahun; jadi jika saya berusia 20 tahun, saya boleh menganggap maut masih menunggu lebih daripada 50 tahun lagi. Jika matra keempat (4th dimension) adalah masa, maka kalendar, jam dan buku sejarah merupakan alat rekaan manusia yang boleh menunjukkan berapa lama lagi hayat kita akan dikandung badan.

Sampai di sini sajalah kajian pada hari ini. Kita sudah melihat bagaimana istilah katakan adalah suatu bentuk anggapan, dan juga mempertimbangkan betapa mudahnya manusia membuat anggapan asasi ini: saya akan hidup lagi esok.


Dan jika anggapan ini tidak wujud, kemungkinan besar pentas kemodenan dunia tidak bergerak seperti sekarang.