I reviewed some of my previous entries back a few years ago. My thought has morphed into another phase. I'd say, to the next stage. Most of my friends are married now except for a few fellas. And these fellas are also single at this moment.
Today I didn't do much. I just had lunch with client and then went to see a friend. I guess today is the rebuilding the relationship day. Hahahahhaa. I went to see two of my good friends and of course, two different kinds of stories came up except that they both are in the same genre.
One story is about the real deal after getting married. Oh yeah, FYI, I'm not married just yet and I'm still single. Ehehmm...it does sound a bit off when I mentioned it that way. But, screw that! Hahahahah..
There's a lot of hanky panky issues arose when it got closer to the wedding ceremony. I agree that people want to see the best in the ceremony but somehow, the whole intervention had spoiled the celebration. Too many cooks spoiled the porridge, as what the old proverbs says. From make up artists to catering selections...things are sometimes taken a bit too far. Well, I know for sure how to manage my wedding ceremony. Belah pompuan aku tak nak masuk campur la kan...
Okay, enough about the first story.
The next story is about one of our friends has divorced his wife due to pressure from the wife's family members. My friend was very upset to know when her wife's family members actively involved in ajaran sesat kind of Islamic teaching and later he decided to confront the 'Ayah Pin' of that so called religious study. The in-laws were not quite happy with the way he confronted the Ayah Pin and from what I heard, they persuaded the wife to ask for divorce or something like that. The victim is his baby age 3 months. I was totally shocked to know this news. My spontaneous reaction is like, "Astaga....what the fuck is going on??". Hahhahaa...it does sound contradictory. Alas, I feel sorry for him. He's a devout Muslim, a true gentleman and a nice friend for one could ever have and this shit is happening to him. My other spontaneous reaction to it was, "If it doesn't kill him...it will only make him stronger!", albeit I was thinking about something else.
He was happy almost a year ago and now a big shit has come to him. I pray for his struggle to secure a custodial right on his baby. Poor man!
Ehemmm...and why am I talking about this whole getting married, divorce ...yadi yadi yada??!!
Mysterious aihhh....(jangan biarkan misteri menyelubungi anda)
NB: I finally managed to have a dinner with my friend at TGIF and bought her a belated birthday present. A formal jacket for her to wear on her interview meeting this morning.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Remember Pausch, the author of The Last Lecture?
Alrite, his full name is Randy Pausch and today I read an article written in TIME about this great guy. I posted the article here for you to read. And I will go straight to the nearest MPH and get his book.
Randy Pausch - Life Teacher
Kaylin Bowers / Daily Progress / AP
There were times I couldn't bear to watch. But then there were others when his exuberance — physical and spiritual — made it easy to convince myself it would never happen, and so I would call up Randy Pausch's Last Lecture on YouTube and watch it with my children, receive the gift he was giving us and reject the idea that it would come at an ultimate price: that Pausch would indeed die one day of pancreatic cancer, as he did this morning, at the age of 47.
You cannot change the cards you are dealt. Just how you play the hand.
With his child's smile and nimble brain and breathtakingly simple instructions tumbling out one after another, Pausch made the infernally complex machine that is modern life look like anyone could put it together if they just had the right tools and the crib sheet. Come on, he seemed to say, you can do this; I have the secrets, and I'm giving them to you, for free.
Don't complain. Just work harder.
Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
When his cancer was diagnosed in August 2006, doctors said he had maybe a few months. He went through an aggressive course of treatment, surgery, chemotherapy; but a year later the disease had spread to his liver and spleen, and he was told it was terminal. A popular computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he delivered his "Last Lecture" on September 18, 2007. It was a university tradition for popular professors to think hard about what mattered most to them and distill their ideas as though they had only one message left to give to the generation that followed. Randy Pausch was the first for whom the exercise was literal.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
It became a YouTube sensation, viewed many millions of times by people charmed by his easy manner, engaged by his lively insights into work, science, exploration, in awe of his complete lack of self-pity. He was the picture of health, with his thick dark hair and Muppet eyebrows, dropping to do push-ups on the stage, a defiant portrait of life with its edges all sharpened. Every sentence was soaked in gratitude, and listening to it could make you flinch at every time you'd whined or cheated or quit.
The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.
You wondered whether, all across the country, children were whipping out the brushes and paint while parents stood resignedly by, remembering the pictures he showed of his own bedroom growing up, covered in doodles and math problems and rocket ships, and honoring his injunction.
"If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it."
Last October Pausch appeared on Oprah, and his audience widened even further. He testified before Congress for better cancer-research funding. He got 10,000 e-mails recommending possible therapies. He spent a day hanging out with the Pittsburgh Steelers, which he'd mentioned as his own childhood dream. ABC News did a prime-time special in which we got to meet his wife Jai, his three young children, watch them playing and planning for what lay ahead.
In April his book, The Last Lecture, swooped high on the best-seller list; his wife called it a "manual" for their family.
Wise men have said they're not scared of death, but they're a little scared of dying. Death is just a mystery; but dying is the journey we don't want to take, and he used it to lead the living to a new place. It was as though he already knew more than he should, had dipped a ways into eternity and brought some pieces back for the rest of us to use in whatever ways and for whatever time we can.
The end of the lecture, it turned out, was just the beginning.
Did you figure out the head fake? It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way ... the dreams will come to you. Did you figure out the second head fake? The talk's not for you. It's for my kids.
You can view the actual article here http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1826574,00.html
Alrite, his full name is Randy Pausch and today I read an article written in TIME about this great guy. I posted the article here for you to read. And I will go straight to the nearest MPH and get his book.
Randy Pausch - Life Teacher
Kaylin Bowers / Daily Progress / AP
There were times I couldn't bear to watch. But then there were others when his exuberance — physical and spiritual — made it easy to convince myself it would never happen, and so I would call up Randy Pausch's Last Lecture on YouTube and watch it with my children, receive the gift he was giving us and reject the idea that it would come at an ultimate price: that Pausch would indeed die one day of pancreatic cancer, as he did this morning, at the age of 47.
You cannot change the cards you are dealt. Just how you play the hand.
With his child's smile and nimble brain and breathtakingly simple instructions tumbling out one after another, Pausch made the infernally complex machine that is modern life look like anyone could put it together if they just had the right tools and the crib sheet. Come on, he seemed to say, you can do this; I have the secrets, and I'm giving them to you, for free.
Don't complain. Just work harder.
Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
When his cancer was diagnosed in August 2006, doctors said he had maybe a few months. He went through an aggressive course of treatment, surgery, chemotherapy; but a year later the disease had spread to his liver and spleen, and he was told it was terminal. A popular computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he delivered his "Last Lecture" on September 18, 2007. It was a university tradition for popular professors to think hard about what mattered most to them and distill their ideas as though they had only one message left to give to the generation that followed. Randy Pausch was the first for whom the exercise was literal.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
It became a YouTube sensation, viewed many millions of times by people charmed by his easy manner, engaged by his lively insights into work, science, exploration, in awe of his complete lack of self-pity. He was the picture of health, with his thick dark hair and Muppet eyebrows, dropping to do push-ups on the stage, a defiant portrait of life with its edges all sharpened. Every sentence was soaked in gratitude, and listening to it could make you flinch at every time you'd whined or cheated or quit.
The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.
You wondered whether, all across the country, children were whipping out the brushes and paint while parents stood resignedly by, remembering the pictures he showed of his own bedroom growing up, covered in doodles and math problems and rocket ships, and honoring his injunction.
"If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it."
Last October Pausch appeared on Oprah, and his audience widened even further. He testified before Congress for better cancer-research funding. He got 10,000 e-mails recommending possible therapies. He spent a day hanging out with the Pittsburgh Steelers, which he'd mentioned as his own childhood dream. ABC News did a prime-time special in which we got to meet his wife Jai, his three young children, watch them playing and planning for what lay ahead.
In April his book, The Last Lecture, swooped high on the best-seller list; his wife called it a "manual" for their family.
Wise men have said they're not scared of death, but they're a little scared of dying. Death is just a mystery; but dying is the journey we don't want to take, and he used it to lead the living to a new place. It was as though he already knew more than he should, had dipped a ways into eternity and brought some pieces back for the rest of us to use in whatever ways and for whatever time we can.
The end of the lecture, it turned out, was just the beginning.
Did you figure out the head fake? It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way ... the dreams will come to you. Did you figure out the second head fake? The talk's not for you. It's for my kids.
You can view the actual article here http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1826574,00.html
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Let’s write about something nice.
Remember back years ago when we were so young and we thought we could conquer the whole world by our wood sword? Do you remember those days? Yeah, when we were young, about 5 till 8 year old.
My mom used to tell her friends that her son one day would become a millionaire. At that moment, the word ‘jutawan’ meant nothing to me as I held no comprehension whatsoever about its literal meaning. When I grew up, I slowly picked up that word here and there. Reading from books and listening from people’s conversation. Once I had understood its definition, the meaning didn’t spark a flame in me. I had no interest at all to be millionaire. That word has hollow meaning to me, as far as I concerned at that moment.
Time passed so fast and I have grown up to be a man of who I am today. I went through high school, got a degree from an oversea prestigious (really?) university and ended up doing differently than what I thought I would be doing. Through this journey I picked up a few lessons in life. Some of them were quite painful and some of them were awesomely good.
Now the word millionaire keeps ringing in my ears. Somehow deep down in my heart I start to feel that what my mom had said years ago was correct. It starts to make sense to me. My mind feels relax to accept the word, “millionaire”. I start to become aware of this. Robin Sharma keeps saying in his book that awareness precedes choices. Awareness makes us realize where we are now and then see the options available on the table. Awareness allows us to make the choice wisely and then the result will follow.
My so called mentor in my profession now, a person who I solidly respect, asked me the other day about my achievement. What is my achievement so far? It is a bitter question. However, it put me into the right perspective. In the next one month I will be 28 and what is exactly my achievement? What legacy I want to leave to people behind me? Who will cry for me when I die?
The book called, “The Last Lecture” written by Pausch, a Computer Science lecturer in Carnegie Mellon University wrote about his childhood dream and living the life the way he desires it. He is a terminal cancer patient who has only few months to live, shared his views about ‘living’. That again me put me in perspective. What have I achieved for the last few years? Anything significant? Anything meaningful?
So now I understand the word millionaire cannot be justified by the magnitude of cash we have in the bank account. It encompasses everything that we hold high in our life. Love, relationship, character, understanding, wealth etc. To be millionaire, it would only be right if I claim my millionaire status in creating wealth in values that are true to me. Values like I mentioned previously.
I received a card from someone I barely knew last year. He is husband to my friend in LP. He wrote,” F@rid, someone told me that to succeed in life you don’t need a big bank account. What more important is, a BIG HEART. I think you have all that.” I barely know him but I certainly hope that I have touched his heart just the way I like other people to leave a fine print on mine.
So, am I becoming to be millionaire? So far, I guess on the right track. Keep on loving, keep on touching people’s heart, keep on making a difference in life and keep on making bucks to my best ability. Being a millionaire is not a burden. It is a privilege to do more good to people.
Thank you mummy for keep on praying me to be millionaire since I was baby.
Remember back years ago when we were so young and we thought we could conquer the whole world by our wood sword? Do you remember those days? Yeah, when we were young, about 5 till 8 year old.
My mom used to tell her friends that her son one day would become a millionaire. At that moment, the word ‘jutawan’ meant nothing to me as I held no comprehension whatsoever about its literal meaning. When I grew up, I slowly picked up that word here and there. Reading from books and listening from people’s conversation. Once I had understood its definition, the meaning didn’t spark a flame in me. I had no interest at all to be millionaire. That word has hollow meaning to me, as far as I concerned at that moment.
Time passed so fast and I have grown up to be a man of who I am today. I went through high school, got a degree from an oversea prestigious (really?) university and ended up doing differently than what I thought I would be doing. Through this journey I picked up a few lessons in life. Some of them were quite painful and some of them were awesomely good.
Now the word millionaire keeps ringing in my ears. Somehow deep down in my heart I start to feel that what my mom had said years ago was correct. It starts to make sense to me. My mind feels relax to accept the word, “millionaire”. I start to become aware of this. Robin Sharma keeps saying in his book that awareness precedes choices. Awareness makes us realize where we are now and then see the options available on the table. Awareness allows us to make the choice wisely and then the result will follow.
My so called mentor in my profession now, a person who I solidly respect, asked me the other day about my achievement. What is my achievement so far? It is a bitter question. However, it put me into the right perspective. In the next one month I will be 28 and what is exactly my achievement? What legacy I want to leave to people behind me? Who will cry for me when I die?
The book called, “The Last Lecture” written by Pausch, a Computer Science lecturer in Carnegie Mellon University wrote about his childhood dream and living the life the way he desires it. He is a terminal cancer patient who has only few months to live, shared his views about ‘living’. That again me put me in perspective. What have I achieved for the last few years? Anything significant? Anything meaningful?
So now I understand the word millionaire cannot be justified by the magnitude of cash we have in the bank account. It encompasses everything that we hold high in our life. Love, relationship, character, understanding, wealth etc. To be millionaire, it would only be right if I claim my millionaire status in creating wealth in values that are true to me. Values like I mentioned previously.
I received a card from someone I barely knew last year. He is husband to my friend in LP. He wrote,” F@rid, someone told me that to succeed in life you don’t need a big bank account. What more important is, a BIG HEART. I think you have all that.” I barely know him but I certainly hope that I have touched his heart just the way I like other people to leave a fine print on mine.
So, am I becoming to be millionaire? So far, I guess on the right track. Keep on loving, keep on touching people’s heart, keep on making a difference in life and keep on making bucks to my best ability. Being a millionaire is not a burden. It is a privilege to do more good to people.
Thank you mummy for keep on praying me to be millionaire since I was baby.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
This Quote I Keep For Myself
King Baldwin IV: 'When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be one hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. You see, none of us chose our end really. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son. But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.'
Balian of Ibelin: I will.
I am responsible on what I do today, to my life and to the people around me. If I do good, the goodness will go to the people around me. If I commit bad deed, I pray to The Lord to make sure me alone will suffer the consequences of committing bad deeds. I carry the weight of responsibilities to make my life a better one, subsequently to help others to have good one as well. For that, I promise myself.
King Baldwin IV: 'When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be one hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. You see, none of us chose our end really. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son. But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.'
Balian of Ibelin: I will.
I am responsible on what I do today, to my life and to the people around me. If I do good, the goodness will go to the people around me. If I commit bad deed, I pray to The Lord to make sure me alone will suffer the consequences of committing bad deeds. I carry the weight of responsibilities to make my life a better one, subsequently to help others to have good one as well. For that, I promise myself.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Securities Investment 101
Many of my friends know that I'm attached with Public Mutual Berhad, a Unit Trust Management Company (UTMC) listed under Securities Commission. However, I hardly penned down my views about the investment situation in our country, especially during interesting times like this occuring in our country and the region as well.
I hope nobody would quote me on my take on our investing environment here in M'sia. All the information written here is based on my readings, working/training/Financial Talk experience and discussion with senior personnel in Public Mutual Berhad.
Let's start talking about our general equity market. What is equity market? Equity market is essentially our stock bourse governed by Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Here is the place where the securities are traded on daily basis. Securities can be in many forms, for example stocks, derivaties, commodities, Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and etc. Our bourse's performance is reflected through Kuala Lumpur Index Composite. Index Composite is a group of counters (or stocks) from 100 big companies (usually we refer them as blue chip companies). For example, Maybank group, Public Bank group, Kenchana Petroleum Bhd. and Airasia Bhd.
For the sake of simplicity, let's focus on stocks market.
Why our KLCI is low at this moment?
It is simple. The market moves in sort of sinusoidal function. It has maximum point and minimum point. For the last 3 years, we have been experiencing a bullish market. Bullish market means that our stock market is rising in its value. The peak was at the beginning of the year when the market hit highest point in its history, 1516 point on January 11, 2008. This shows a 300% growth from the last recession which indicated 557 point on May 14, 2001. Very few people realized that we actually had a mild recession in year 2001 after we were hit very badly in Asial Financial Meltdown of 1997.
The concept of duality is applied here in the market. When the market is up, it also must come down to correct some sudden inflated figure in equity market. It is called a correction move, a self-fulfilling mechanism built in the market. What we are experiencing right now is a correction to our market after it has gaining momentum in 2006 till 2007. Some experts said that if the drop is more than 20% in market, it is considered as market crash. However, I am not too sure if we are experiencing a market crash at this moment.
Why Kuala Lumpur Index Composite is important to investors?
Because it indicates the health level of our economy. Like if you check your body temperature, you normally can guess if you are having fever or not. It is exactly like checking the body temperature of a nation's economic activities. At this moment the index is registering a decreasing trend. It translates to public confidence on our equity markets.
Why it happens this way? I will explain later in the next edition of Securities Investment topic. Hehehehhe.
Many of my friends know that I'm attached with Public Mutual Berhad, a Unit Trust Management Company (UTMC) listed under Securities Commission. However, I hardly penned down my views about the investment situation in our country, especially during interesting times like this occuring in our country and the region as well.
I hope nobody would quote me on my take on our investing environment here in M'sia. All the information written here is based on my readings, working/training/Financial Talk experience and discussion with senior personnel in Public Mutual Berhad.
Let's start talking about our general equity market. What is equity market? Equity market is essentially our stock bourse governed by Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Here is the place where the securities are traded on daily basis. Securities can be in many forms, for example stocks, derivaties, commodities, Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and etc. Our bourse's performance is reflected through Kuala Lumpur Index Composite. Index Composite is a group of counters (or stocks) from 100 big companies (usually we refer them as blue chip companies). For example, Maybank group, Public Bank group, Kenchana Petroleum Bhd. and Airasia Bhd.
For the sake of simplicity, let's focus on stocks market.
Why our KLCI is low at this moment?
It is simple. The market moves in sort of sinusoidal function. It has maximum point and minimum point. For the last 3 years, we have been experiencing a bullish market. Bullish market means that our stock market is rising in its value. The peak was at the beginning of the year when the market hit highest point in its history, 1516 point on January 11, 2008. This shows a 300% growth from the last recession which indicated 557 point on May 14, 2001. Very few people realized that we actually had a mild recession in year 2001 after we were hit very badly in Asial Financial Meltdown of 1997.
The concept of duality is applied here in the market. When the market is up, it also must come down to correct some sudden inflated figure in equity market. It is called a correction move, a self-fulfilling mechanism built in the market. What we are experiencing right now is a correction to our market after it has gaining momentum in 2006 till 2007. Some experts said that if the drop is more than 20% in market, it is considered as market crash. However, I am not too sure if we are experiencing a market crash at this moment.
Why Kuala Lumpur Index Composite is important to investors?
Because it indicates the health level of our economy. Like if you check your body temperature, you normally can guess if you are having fever or not. It is exactly like checking the body temperature of a nation's economic activities. At this moment the index is registering a decreasing trend. It translates to public confidence on our equity markets.
Why it happens this way? I will explain later in the next edition of Securities Investment topic. Hehehehhe.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
One thought before I close my eyes for tonight.
"Falling in love is as natural as breathing the air". That is a quote I saw on someone's blog. My first response was like, "Is it true?". I gave it a thought and I must admit, it's true. Things happen. We never how is the future will unfold in front of us. Falling out of love also does happen. A couple could be crazily in love and all of sudden, a split happens. The man is here and the lady is walking away, vice versa.
But hey, I like to focus on good stuffs only in life. So I put my mind to the statement, "Falling in love is as natural as breathing the air".
So I'm going down to JB this weekend. My intention? Watching movie Sepi with a friend down there.
See you guys next week!
"Falling in love is as natural as breathing the air". That is a quote I saw on someone's blog. My first response was like, "Is it true?". I gave it a thought and I must admit, it's true. Things happen. We never how is the future will unfold in front of us. Falling out of love also does happen. A couple could be crazily in love and all of sudden, a split happens. The man is here and the lady is walking away, vice versa.
But hey, I like to focus on good stuffs only in life. So I put my mind to the statement, "Falling in love is as natural as breathing the air".
So I'm going down to JB this weekend. My intention? Watching movie Sepi with a friend down there.
See you guys next week!