kuala lumpur

i went to KL for 2 days last month attending Hazop meeting at Ranhill-Worley. took earliest flight out from senai, with Bert and Laila.

while going up the escalator at kl sentral, i mentioned to Bert that in england there is an unwritten rule when riding the escalator. people who ride it would stand on one side of the escalator making way those who want to run up/down the escalator. he told me, that is also the case in kl now, and there are signs too. that is a good change, i thought. later, i witness this when alighting the putra LRT at Ampang Park.

i had one big surprise before that, though.

EVERYBODY IS QUEUEING UP TO ALIGHT THE LRT AT KL SENTRAL.

i was very, very surprised. the society somehow has improved. it is very, very rare to see this. i didn't commute at peak hours enough during the short visit to kl to see if the queueing thing is the norm everywhere. i sincerely hope that it is not only practised in kl sentral. bravo to you, KLites!

that night i went out for dinner (and a long chat - sampai kedai makan tutup) at burger king klcc (yeah, dinner...) with Imam. quite some time since we last spend some time borak².

the day after before going off to klia i went to his office and have a short educational session about pipeline laying and pigging. oh, i have to mention that Imam works at R-W. thanks for the hospitality, man. and the short ride in your honda city.

drift away

it's been quite a while since my last post.

and naturally, many things happened during that period.
okay, i missed out on going to the cinema to watch episode III. and now, there's no cinema around jb that runs episode III. that is remedied with a copy of the DVD (and never get to watch it yet, as of today.).

i officially resigned from mesb on the 26th. june and started with mmhe [http://www.mmhe.com.my] on 1st. july.
26th. june being sunday, and saturday is not a working day, my last day as an mesb employee was the 24th.
between then and 1st. july i finished watching initial D - all 4 stages. borrowed them DVDs from Einaz (thanks man!).

and so, i watched and learned what drifting is (i never tried it though...). the point is, the anime is good. it shows improvement from stage 1 to the 4th. a marked improvement.

the anime itself is quite technical. a few of internet reviews even cite that if you want to learn the theory of drifting, watch initial D. in a nutshell. i agree.

i guess now the general public more or less would know about initial D as the (non-anime) movie was in cinemas last month. weirdly, it's in chinese - considering the original character, language and the plots are in japan/japanese. i didn't watch the movie though, following a recommendation from Einaz ("don't waste your time watching it, bro. not as good as the anime series"). more or less. it would be rather interesting though, to see how chinese actors try to play japanese characters.

star wars

It has been more than a week since the last installation of the saga runs in cinemas now.
I still haven�t seen the movie: Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of The Sith.
And it's gonna be soon, I hope, to have the chance to see it.

When the first installation of the 6-part saga was in the cinemas a long, long time ago, I was a little baby. It was in 1977 that the movie 'Star Wars - A New Hope' had its first screening. It was Episode IV. Then, it was followed by Episodes V and VI.

Anyway, I was never caught by the Star Wars fever back then during my childhood.
It was only when the Special Edition went out in 1997 to mark the 20th anniversary that it caught my attention (not a die-hard fan, though). This, is due to a few factors.
It was released as Special Edition Trilogy, with enhanced visual effects, digital surround sound, and timeless epic of good vs evil.
Also, I was in Manchester at that time, and starting to build my own home theater separates system.
I remember Imam (Akmal Hisham) and I had a Trilogy marathon at our place on Coleby Avenue - we borrowed Fab�s Trilogy VHS.

A few years later, Episode I released in the theaters. It was confusing to me at first because prequels are unheard of. George Lucas has my utmost respect because of his vision. He waited 2 decades for the technology to be available to carry out his story as he intended it to be. This was partly achieved during the special editions. It is then followed by the next three prequels. The idea itself is amazing.

What made me attracted to Star Wars is that it is timeless. Back in 1977 George made SW IV with spacey ideas that could match those in 2000 era. The millennium falcon is a classic.
Okay, the tie fighters are not so futuristic, but the rebel fighters' spacecrafts are good. Plus, the novel idea of having an R2 unit on board, instead of having all the computers on the spacecraft itself. This is quite like having a mobile computer (eg. PDA, notebook) hooked upon a vehicle system. Well, at least the idea was there.

People already knew who Darth Vader, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker actually are, towards the end of the saga. And by Episode II we know how they came about. It is just plain interesting how the characters evolve. This, perhaps is answered by Episode III. No wonder if many people say that III has too much to tell. Anyway, the most interesting of it all may be that it is the last installation of the whole saga. Being the third episode of six, it is interesting.

Nursery rhymes

All this while I've known that there are at least three nursery rhymes sharing the same tune.
The most popular of it is perhaps Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
The other two:
Baa Baa Black Sheep, and
The Alphabet Song (you know: 'aye, bee, see, dee, ee, eff, gee...')

When Marsya was in N2 kindergarten (nursery), one of the songs that she learnt was Little Monkeys.
It didn't occur to me at first, just that only recently I noticed that the tune is the same as the Alphabet Song. Marsya and Adam were jumping on my bed and I started to hum the Little Monkey song. That's when I realized that now there are four nursery rhymes with the same tune. Amazing.

Here's the wording for Little Monkeys (you can start with any number and repeat the song reducing one monkey each time until there is none...).

Little Monkeys
Three little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell down and broke his head
Momma called the doctor, the doctor said
No more monkeys jumping on the bed

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell down and broke his head
Momma called the doctor, the doctor said
No more monkeys jumping on the bed

One little monkey jumping on the bed
One fell down and broke his head
Momma called the doctor, the doctor said
No more monkey jumping on the bed

bangunan tabung haji and johor museum

bangunan tabung haji johor bahru.
blue roof buildings on the right - johor museum. formerly sultan of johor's istana.
across the water is singapore.

one for the memories

puva of itd took this photo for us. it doesn't really show the fine interior of itd jb office, which is quite tranquil.
standing l-r: t. siva, ramesh, othman, charles ooi (instructor), muralee, kenneth (itd jb manager), me.
ladies: jeslyn & arnizah.

the majestic bangunan sultan ibrahim

perched atop bukit timbalan in johor bahru, bangunan sultan ibrahim is one of jb's landmark.
on the left cars lining up the jb-s'pore causeway. lush greens on bukit timbalan adds serenity around this place.
beyond, it's hectic jb city life.

the majestic bangunan sultan ibrahim

I attended ‘effective presentation skills’ course at ITD [www.itd.com.my] last week.

ITD JB branch is at the penthouse level of menara TJB in JB town, nearby wisma persekutuan.
other JB landmarks within walking distance are bangunan tabung haji and the classic bangunan sultan ibrahim on bukit timbalan.

as much as the course itself, I enjoyed very much the scenery of coastal line of johor bahru.
from the penthouse level, you could see the cars lining up the jb causeway, the johor museum, bangunan sultan ibrahim, bangunan tabung haji, the lush greens around the Indonesian embassy / masjid abu bakar / johor zoo / area.

[ more on bangunan sultan ibrahim here: http://www.tourismjohor.com/destination/view.cfm?ID=36397F7C-4CD4-44D9-B59085BB3EBC8364&Type=Heritage ]

interestingly, this is the first time I photographed the building, for the longest time I’ve been living in johor bahru.
perhaps because it is in johor bahru, it passed me by as ‘it’s within reach, no rush there – I could always snap them photos whenever I want’, as opposed to a traveling tourist who has only a few hours to enjoy the scenery and capture the photos while he’s there.
I took lots of photos in penang late last year and in makkah & madinah early this year. yes, perhaps because I don’t know when again I would have the chance to be there, so I triggered happy then to bring home the fond memories.

I really appreciate the buildings in johor bahru. a large part of the architecture in jb is influenced by the late sultan ibrahim of johor. the introduction of anglo-malay architecture is evident in johor bahru: masjid sultan abu bakar, bangunan sultan ibrahim, masjid pasir pelangi, to name a few.

start somwhere

it came to me recently, i realized that i have to start somewhere to have something with long run benefits.
a 'now' at any point of time is the best time to start, everytime.
i don't have to have a complete and awesome something to start with.
just a basic structure with room for improvement will do, to get the ball rolling.
then i will have the opportunity to improve it, tweak and fine tune; keeping in mind the goal of the whole exercise.
over time, in the long run, there will be no end to it; only constant improvisation of a solid structure. bit by bit.
O Allah, to You I seek strength and will.

mesb fire squad members with fellow training instructors from balai bomba pasir gudang 

with fellow fire squad members. 

oil & gas fire drill. 

wrestle with real water pressure (without any fire to put out though) 

yes it is quite fun in the fire engine. 

hose drill. run with the hoses... 

fire squad

16 ~ 18 april 2005.
and so i was among 15 of us sent by mesb for company fire squad training in balai bomba pasir gudang.

it was a series of lectures (theories) and practical training (tiresome but awesome).
we gained some skills for rescuing people from building on fire - basically how to carry people sans equipment - bare handed, alone and with 2 & 3 other assisting.

there was a series of (four total) hose drill. basically, it is a set of instruction of how to coordinate and distribute work (well, not quite) between team members of four. in brief, all the drills require member no. 3 to frequently run along the hose line - need quite high stamina and enthusiasm.
oh, and if anybody do ask you - the rubber fire hose has a coupling at each end, male and female. and the standard length is 100 ft.

the basic hose drill (drill no. 1) spans 300 ft. of hose with a jet nozzle at the end.
we were equipped with hard hats (firemen hats - cool) and fire jacket (well, doing it under the hot sun makes you appreciate your everyday work - you don't have to be as hot and sweaty).
the best part came on the last day. we get to handle the fire hose blasting the water jet under 6bar pressure. it really requires teamwork and coordination.

and there was this oil & gas fire fighting drill - requires twin hose spray as water curtain, protecting the firemen.

well, what i do get out of this, if any, is that i have better knowledge regarding fire safety.
also, i have enormous respect to our fellow firemen regarding the public service they are constantly putting their lives into.

skills

from concise oxford dictionary 9th ed.:
skill n. expertness, practised ability, facility in an action; dexterity or tact.

for me, it is the thing that gives people the itch.
babies acquiring walking skills would walk around non-stop.
small kids practising writing their names. and signatures.
driving school graduates wanting to drive their cars at every given opportunity.
golfers practising their shots.
perfecting playing musical instruments.
touch typing.
and the whole long list of other skills imaginable.

improving one's skills is my answer to the question of why people love to do things.
before one having the necessary skill to do something, he needs to master the basic skill needed to get on the platform.
when the basic skill is grasped, this is where the itch begins.
comes the next level, which is to making it second nature.
finally, there's the endless level of mastering and fine-tuning the skill.

to err is human.
this is the greatest challenge (and fun) part of acquiring a skill. to be 100% perfect with the skill is the goal.
for a typist, his goal would be error free, ultra-fast typing.
for a golfer, his would be effortless hole-in-ones. every time.
for a footballer, his would be controlling the ball, scoring beautiful goals.
for an F1 driver, first place at every leg of the race. every season.
and so on...

can you think of a skill that you are now improving?
if you can't answer that, try this - what makes you itch?

quite new Avanza with seats still in wraps. oh, and there were people sitting on the seats. wonder how long will the wraps be there... 

keep it wrapped?

keep it wrapped, so that it's protected?

ever noticed that (in malaysia, at least) many things are kept in their original plastic wraps (or protective plastic film), and kept that way for quite a long time. even until the wrappers are frayed and makes the thing itself looks messy.

you may see examples on things such as: chair legs, car seats, glass display panel on cd/vcd/dvd players, washbasin drain (this one usually with blue protective film), etc.

come on, the reason those covers are there is to protect the surface during transport from the factory (and the shop) to you so that you'd get unscratched stain-free & nice looking things that you bought.

if you intend to keep it that way, no problem. after a certain period of time though, the protective covers will get dirty, frayed, etc. & turns unsightly. don't you think it's time to remove them?

just so that the THINGS do look nice.

the double rainbow. nope, no lens effect here. just two beautiful rainbows. nice.

circ en ciel - deux

it's been quite a long while since i've seen the beautiful rainbow.
and just my luck, this time it's a double rainbow.
i had never known that there is such thing as a double rainbow, until i heard about it while in Mina during the heavy rain of Zulhijjah.
friends said there's a newsbreak in Malaysia citing the sighting of double rainbow and Mina flooded. i never got the chance then to see the rainbows.
well, last sunday i witnessed it (them). with Marsya.
i was driving down PLUS highway (after a heavy rain) towards Johor and i scanned the horizon.
to my left, there they are - beautiful rainbows.
subhanallah.

putik manggis.
this is the bud stage of a mangosteen. teka berapa ulas dalam buah manggis ni nanti (insyaAllah)? 

balik kampung

weekend lepas drove up to senawang balik my parents house. rasa rindu.and, balik kampung juasseh (kuala pilah). sejak balik dari hajj, this is the first time balik sana.
plus, ada kenduri kat rumah sedara nearby rumah kampung.
the main thing was for marsya to meet up with her friend (dua pupu) syafiqah. selalu sangat she imagined talking to her on the telephone.
quietly i arranged for the weekend untuk balik kampung.
naza was made busy jadi timekeeper johor state netball meet (mssj) from friday til sunday in jb, so tak ikut sekali.
how happy marsya was, main² dengan syafiqah sampai habis basah kepala dia berpeluh² (plus bahang tengahari kat kampung).
on the way back around 3pm, about five minutes in the car dia dah tidur dah, sampai la lagi 60km to home. about 2 hours sleep. penat sangat la tu.

manggis memang menjadi tahun ni. at least, putik manggis banyak betul. perhaps, ganti buah tak menjadi tahun lepas.i've never seen manggis berputik sebanyak tu. alhamdulillah, hopefully nanti menjadi boleh buat makan ramai² anak cucu atuk.
i love mangosteen. you need some sort of a skill untuk kupas buah manggis.
unlike rambutan, manggis still ada value sekarang² ni.
you could tell (subhanallah) ada berapa ulas buah manggis dalam tu, by looking at the 'tampuk'. i think, the most i had was 8 ulas dalam sebiji manggis. jarang jumpa 9.
when enjoying mangosteen, here's a caution: keep your hands away from your shirt. getah manggis tak boleh hilang.

keruing tree (dipterocarpus spp.). looked up and saw this while trekking down the trail in endau-rompin national park.

look up above

how often do we look up above us?

try these:
1. go outside, and look up above. beautiful sky on a sunny day.
and breathtaking moon and stars on a clear night sky.

2. stand (or sit down) under a tree, and look up above.
amazing array of leaves and branches. if you're lucky, you'd see a bird's nest or a squirrel.

don't forget to utter this: Subhanallah.
enjoy your views!

honest work

i went to pusat penyerahan mel pos malaysia pasir gudang at sri alam counter saturday morning with Marsya, after sending Naza to school for her meeting. Naza didn't quite have the time to go collect Dawud Wharnsby Ali cds that finally came in the mail (a gift from me, actually), so i took the liberty of collecting them myself (completed surat penyerahan kuasa with forged signature... hehe...).

it's only 8.45am while the counter opens at 9.00. i stayed in the car with Marysa for fifteen minutes and then went inside.9.00am and still the counter is not yet open, so we wait outside.

i showed Marsya the magic of daun semalu. she enjoyed it very much.

i peered in and saw that all the postmen having their morning briefing. and du'a recital.
it struck me that the du'a is very important for all of us before doing any work, particularly in this case, the postmen.
imagine that they have to be honest 100% every working day. or else, there would be mails and parcels kept hidden somewhere.

i approached one of the postmen there (and he seemed delighted), and said to him that it is heartwarming to see that they do have a du'a recital. he replied, it is a rule for pos malaysia postmen to have the morning session (the whole of malaysia). he added 'sekurang²nya hati boleh dididik jadi jujur'. alhamdulillah.

oh, and i have the cds now. good songs.
visit dawud wharnsby ali's site here, and here for details of the cd package that i bought.

what's in a name?

Ijam -
it's derived from Hizam. lose the H and change Z to J.
Ali (Nazri Adam) my childhood friend used to call me Ijam Bedek, or rhyme it Ijam Bukit Mertajam. teasingly, of course.
i'm not sure who first called me Ijam. anyway, it's the name i'm used to people calling me with, be it friends or family.
until i'm 6 years old, then only i had a shock. i'm in the kindergarten, and Ms. Michelle called me 'Akmal'. for life, nobody had ever called me that! it's making me rather uncomfortable.

Akmal -
now i personally prefer people to call be by my name. Akmal.
it has a really special and very good meaning. thank you Ayah for coming up with such an unusual (during my childhood days - more of this later on) name, altho i was not very fond of it when i was young.
Akmal in arabic means 'perfect' or 'lengkap/cukup' in bahasa melayu.

when i was young, there were no other Akmal in school besides me. me, a black sheep? oh, man.
i remember when i asked Ibu to change my name to other more common ones. so Ibu asked me 'Ijam nak nama apa?'. came my reply 'Mamat ke, Ahmad ke'. common, right?
i was really overjoyed when one day i know that my name is in al-Quran. this means that my name is after all not an unusual one. and it has a very good meaning too.

i really like the fact that my name starts with an A, so i get to be among the firsts in any list at school.

Lapt -
i got this during MRSM years in Jasin, Melaka.
it was orientation week, in dewan besar. a few of my new friends sitting in a small circle, and they decided that we oughtta have nicknames. some sort of a boarding school tradition/norm.
and so names like Mat Patt (pet pot pet pot), idung (you should see his nose), dol (jendul), etc., emerge there and then.

the Lapt story - Matt Patt (Dzeimy) was thinking for my nickname. Akmal... Akmal... Hah! Makmal. Laboratory! yeah, right. nobody would call people with mouthful 'Laboratory'. and he continued... Lab! plain and simple. and from that day i can't quite recall my friends calling me Akmal. they call me by my nick.
i thought that 'Lab' is quite strange for a nick, so i changed the spelling to 'Lapt'. still plain and simple. and without any meaning.
the name stuck with me during my MLA, A-level, NCUK years.
oh, and i should mention too that Zaleq (Razali) coined 'Laypo', and Fab (Faizal Abu Bakar) fondly calls me 'Laporpo' during a-level years.

Haji -
when i got back here from hajj friends and family calls me 'Haji'. 'Haji Akmal', 'Haji Lapt'. teasingly, or seriously, or perhaps just a gesture of respect, i may not know for sure. i don't mind them calling me that. for me, in a way, it's a du'a. perhaps i'd be able to perform hajj again some other time.

wrapping up -
it can be awkward sometimes to carry my names.
i reserve 'Lapt' for my close friends and friends who choose not to call me by my name 'Akmal'.
i would usually introduce myself as 'Akmal' to people i meet now.
Adlee introduced be to his father (my cousin) Abang Bakar as 'Lapt'.
one time during a-level year i went with Naza to her cousin Myra's birthday. she introduced me to Aunt Dahliah by my nick 'Lapt'.
until now, most everyone present that day call me 'Lapt'. Aunt Dahlia and Unc Bob call me Lapt; Myra, Lana, Aliff call me 'abang Lapt'. and Abang Bakar too, still calls me Lapt.
which one do i prefer, then?
plain simple Akmal will do. i love it very much. and for the respect of Ayah who gave me this name.
anyway, if you feel awkward to call me by my 'new' name Akmal, cool 'Lapt' will also be ok.

what should i call you, my friend?

hajj diary

i've created a blog for my hajj journey here:
hajj diary

will be updating it daily with a day's worth of jottings during the pilgrimage, insyaAllah.

hope that we could learn a thing or two from it.

safely back home

alhamdulillah,
we're back home in Malaysia today, flight touchdown KLIA 20 minutes earlier than scheduled 1046hrs local time.

I together with my wife Naza, mak and akak (my sister-in-law) went to Makkah-al-Mukarramah for hajj and umrah, and Madinah-al-Munawarrah for the obligatory ziarah.
So it has been nearly 2 months this blog is free from any posts (from me, at least).

InsyaAllah, there will be a blog about my hajj, umrah & ziarah mission. I've been toying with the idea since the beginning of the departure.
And there are a lot of factors that encourages me more to post the stories, experiences, bits and pieces of it (with photos of course) in a new blog. May Allah guide me and with it I could send posts to the blog, for the good of the ummah. InsyaAllah.

Will post a message in this blog when the first post in the hajj blog published insyaAllah.

mail-to-blogger

hey hey hey. i published this entry via email. this is convenient.

time lag

just now i realised that there is a time lag between the clock on my PC and the time stamp on my blog entries.
it is actually a 16 hour lag. it's 4pm local time in Malaysia (+8 GMT) when i post this entry.

how about you? what's your time lag?

wish you a better year ahead

new year is not a public holiday in Johor (swap with Awal Muharram), and this year it falls on a Saturday. not working at the office, free to work at home (chores - basuh lantai, kemas garage, fixing stuff around the house).
as usual, no new year resolutions for me (been a few years now). still with the old one - improve myself continuously. not much pressure there.
start working in the new year today, and the feeling is good. fresh and energized. is it because of it's a new year or is it because it's a Monday, i'm not sure and don't really care. i feel really good.
happy new year and may this year makes you and i better persons, prosperous and happy.

screenshot of the wallpapers page

been to my pages yet?

i've put up a personal website (thanks Geocities) earlier this week. you can visit the site here.

the main idea is for me to share wallpapers [1024x768] and a series of windows keyboard shortcut 'tutorial', with those who might be interested.

it had been quite a while since the birth of the idea that i finally put up the website. big thanks to adlee for giving me a little nudge (and this piece of photo for one of the wallpapers).

it's nothing quite spectacular, but it's there now, finally.