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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Thank you..



There will be countless of people that will come into your life in one way or the other. They will be there for reasons beyond your explanations. There are times you may feel some of them are godsend to you. And at times you may feel that their presence in your life is like a punishment for all the wrongdoing you did in the past. But whatever the reason it may be, their presence will be an experienced that will teaches you emotionally or spiritually. But mostly their presence was initiated by yourself either consciously or otherwise. Sometimes they arrived to provide you support, assistance, guidance and many more reasons which only you will know. And sometimes they left you as abruptly as they came. Either they passed away or walk away. Whatever the outcome, these people are the ones that helps gives your lessons of life. With the elements of joy, hate, happiness or sadness you will usually learnt to formed an emotional foundation necessary for you to use in all the coming new relationship that will comes you way. For all those that touches my life, especially my family...thank you.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Bad Temper



There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one."

My Story...



This happened to me about 9 or 10 years ago. During that time life was quite good to me. Happily married with 3 kids and with a stable job ( as if..) and good life. The only problem is that I was living on borrowed dreams. Literally borrowed dreams... meaning car was on loan, house was on loan, luxury appliances at home was on loan too. Come to think of it my "Happily Married Life" was actually on loan too. So when the internet bubble burst... it practically burst the "Happy Family life" bubble that I have been living all this while. The day I was retrenched, I stayed in my car at the parking lot, still holding on to the retrenchment letter, for about 2 hours thinking what have really happened. Then it dawn on me that borrowed dreams are just not something that you should live on. It was hell after that... adjustment to a different lifestyle was quite a pain. Kids that have been pampered just would not understand why going to MacDonald for a meal was a luxury. Discussion about household issues with the missus always turns into heated arguments. Friends starts to be getting less and less with each passing day. The blessing from all this is that, you will soon be able able to see your true friends from the other. So when life pushed to the corner of the wall, I learned to fight back. Telling myself there is no way I am going to be stuck there and play dead as there are so many people, especially my family, that are depending on me to persevere and pulls them thru all this. And Alhamdulliah I did... with much difficulty. The way I overcome is to work double or triple as hard as before. I taken up low paying jobs.. do alot of freelancing till late nights and to the extent of not even sleeping for 2 days in a row. I learned to be prudent and invest my money on courses to upgrade my skills and equipment relating to work. And yes.. I tried MLM marketing too... from Unicity, Usana, Revell, CNI and many more. The good thing from all these MLM marketing is the was they teach you about business and how to create networking. I have to admit, I benefited alot from their seminars and gatherings. The lesson I learnt from all these experience is that, never be to sure about depending on others to run your life. Even now, being employed, I am still not sure if it is bliss as you will never know when the letter will come. But atleast I will be more prepared. So thats the more reason for me still want to have the freedom of being able to live my on true dreams and not on borrowed ones...

Monday, October 13, 2008

Salawati the movie



I viewed the movie over the weekend and here is my sincere take on it. Overall the storyline was quite okay. Some reviews states the movie as being a little slow and dragging in pace. But I found it to be quite ok. Though my missus falls a sleep at one point but overall I find it to be quite enjoyable. The use of preparing Sharin ( the dead boy) body for burial as the intro and closure of the movie was quite good. Though some may say a little cliche. I also felt certain part of the movie could be have more impact if the actors could have carried the moment better. Not looking down on the actors' ability, I felt the part where Zaidi (Salawati father in the movie) was relating to his wife, the memories he had with his dead son during his younger days could be better portrayed. He seems to be so much script driven to the extent of being quite unreal and rigid in his acting. Having said that, I realised that most of the actors are actually looks script driven too. But I have to give credit the guy who plays the Despatch rider, I thought he carried his part quite well. And Maznah did well too and I really thought the moment when she was packing her dead son's belonging could have been extended to show more of her emotion. Such a waste of situation to make it too short.
Overall like I mentioned that I do enjoys the show and I was quite surprised to see the muted response from our viewers. This is because I was there with only 3 other couples sharing the cinema hall.., talking about empty spaces..

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A unique affair..



Mixed marriages are inevitable in a multi racial society like Singapore. It can be quite a good thing if look at it positively. It helps to extend the bonding to another circle of community with the loving couple as the link between the two. It can be a unique affair celebrating occasion on different platforms. The only sensitive issue facing the couple ultimately is the way religion govern the relationship. Be it Islam, Christianity, Buddist or Hindu. The couple ultimately have to make grave sacrifices to make the bonding a reality. And these will have an adverse impact on their lives, as I have personally seen happened to a couple recently. I empathise with them as the dilemma can be quite a toll on you. On one hand, you are looking at a lifetime of bliss with the one you loved and on the other hand you need to accommodate the views of narrow minded friends and relatives who may sometimes be just hypocritical judges on other lives. Families torn apart, bonds are broken and shattered, all on the suffice to fit in a community. Please do not interpret my opinion as condoning cohabiting. What I can advise is to couple in this situation is, look at your priority in life. Are you able to sacrifice your life to sustain the relationship?. Only then you are able to make these bond comes true.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Yes... I got it



I have got the iPhone.... Yes, in my earlier blog, I wrote a negative review about the iPhone but the gadget is far too tempting for me not to own and try it.. or may be I am just a sucker for Apple stuff. Well here is my honest take on the iPhone.
I have signed up the 2gig Data plan and took the 16gb iPhone. As per normal syncing the iPhone to all my other gadget was a breeze. For a start I have been using a Macbook and a G4 station for a while, years infact. The browser is easy to setup. Using the WIFI from my home modem was just as easy as keying in the WEP password, and the iPhone will remembers this and automatically link to this WIFI whenever I am home. Ditto this setup at work too. The 3G gives me access to web anywhere and it works smoothly even when I am in JB. The camera though 2megapixels, do captures quite presentable pixs. Or maybe the large screen does help in making the pix looks good. I have download a couple of movies and viewing it was quite pleasantly enjoyable. Though it does take up the battery life quite abit...then again most smart phones do not have good battery life, rite? And the 3rd party Applications available was amazing. So many to choose from. From education to business to games to softwares and the list goes on...and on. So far after using it for about 3 weeks, I am quite happy with it. What I like most about the iPhone are:
1. Good screen resolution.
2. Many interesting application application can be downloaded via the iTunes. (and most are FREE)
3. Checking emails was never a problem anymore
4. Internet access was not an issue anymore.
5. Personalised ringtones can be easily created in iTunes.
6. All the applications are very userfriendly.
What I dislike about owning the iPhone:
1. SMSing can be quite a pain... or may be I just need to get used to it. (from button to touch screen)
2. The black backing and screen can be easily smudged during handling.
3. Battery life can be quite depressing, ( but there are ways to improve it...)
4. But most of all Singtel charges for the data plan is RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE... :(