Today me and my fiancee went to the Mutiara Damansara to buy a ring and go see a movie.

About the ring, we finally agreed on a ring for our wedding. I bought only one since I'm not a ring wearing type of person. A bracelet maybe - but not a ring. Unless that ring has got some special enchantment on it - like make me go invisible or something. Now THAT is a useful ring.

Anyways we bought it at Diamonds and Platinum. There are basically 3 jewelery store at The Curve. Habib Jewel, My Diamond's and Diamonds and Platinum. In terms of prices, I could say that My Diamond's has the cheapest rings of them all. Funky+simplistic design. It was nice to look at at first. But then after quite sometime looking back and forth I find myself hesitating to actually decide upon which ring to get. So we got out of the store, and walked on - intending to look at what other stores has to offer.

Habib Jewel's collection was quite a few. But quite a few of the same thing. The difference between most of the rings available wasn't that stark and convincing - just a couple more diamonds there, a slight variation in design here. I'd say their goldsmith is lacking in creativity department.

Next we went to D & P. The collection was quite nice. And the price range was OK as well (since it was within my budget of RM 1k-ish. The ring we agreed upon was an 18k white gold ring with 2 diamonds attached. The design was quite sophisticated and sleek (whatever that means). It was matted in some parts as well (I mostly fell in love with the ring because of that. I got this thing for matted metals). In any case, it made the ring look nicer since the diamond and the design became the subject matter of the ring (instead of the ring itself which usually would steal the limelight).

So that was about the ring.

The other part of my day was about the movie we went to see - Yes! Man. At first I came there (to Cineleisure) under the pretense of seeing The Spirit. But having going there with my fiancee, I've decided at the last minute to buy the tickets for Yes! Man instead (so that she could enjoy it too. I don't think that she would watch The Spirit with the same passion that I do, being a self-proclaimed comic book/movie buff that I am).

So on we went. The plot was interesting. Plus Jim Carrey, as he's getting older - is fast-becoming one of my favourite actors. Like fine wine (if wine does gets better with age. People do say that often though..). What I mostly like about him is how well he could in different roles - from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to the early days of Ace Ventura. But frankly I like to see him in a more serious role, or at least a romantic comedy (none of those Dumb and Dumber, although the movie do kick-ass) .

The movie brings with it a unique view of how we should live our lives. Say Yes!. Say yes to everything. And perhaps anything that might be coming in our way. There was this part in the movie where Carl (Jim Carrey), the then unbeliever of the Yes! philosophy, went to the Yes! seminar after a friend of his mentioned how the Yes! philosophy had actually changed his life. So in the seminar, Terrence (the Yes! guru), talked on about that by saying 'no', we are closing all the doors of option in our life, and 'yes' actually opens it. I actually find myself intrigue by this statement - and it does get me thinking silently, reflecting on the choices I've made along the years that I've lived as a human on this earth. I could say that I was a bit of a Yes! man myself. Hehe~.

Opportunities do come - if you want it to come. If you let it come. Change can happen, if you want it to happen. I think there is something in the Quran which sounds something like "Sesungguhnya Allah tidak akan mengubah nasib sesebuah kaum, melainkan kaum itu berusaha untuk mengubahnya sendiri". In short if you want 'change' to happen to you, you're gonna have to work for it.

Which brings me to my next favourite quote, "If you want something you like, you gotta help enough people to get something they like" - Zig Ziglar. In the movie (yeah I know, I'm still talking about the movie), Carl had to help (in his case, say Yes! to) many people before finally getting what he wants in his life. A concept that I couldn't agree more. Well at least we as muslims should be aiming ultimately for 'keredhaan Allah'. Heck no matter how much 'pahala' you acquire, if Allah is not 'redha', then off to Hell with you. (which reminds me of a story...)

How is life going to be like after marriage eh? I had always aspire to be someone who would always go to mosque after getting back to work, maybe take some hadith lesson as well - after I get married. I wonder now, now that I am actually getting married, whether I will be actually doing that. Sometimes I doubt myself. But I guess I shouldn't be thinking like that eh - I should say Yes! instead :)

Today I sat down with my dinner beside mom. She was watching the news in the lounge - while trimming her nails.

We talked about stuff. Mainly on the ASB's dividend distribution this year. 7 friggin percent with 1.75% as bonus. Not much I thought, dad says with the state of economy Malaysia enjoyed in the past, we should have been getting up to 9%. Meehh~ "Janji ade.." I thought to myself.

Then the news shows the most hilarious pic of the night - a guy (journalist) throws off his shoes at George W. Bush.


The guy's got some balls! I mean wow..talk about guts. He must really hate the fella huh. But then so does the rest of the world I would imagine. Can't blame him really. And I would imagine that after Bush left, he'd just be getting a slap on wrist and maybe some little fine. Nothing he couldn't handle..I mean hey, he just did what everyone else in the world would WANT to do but don't have the cajones to.

On the other hand..if Secret Service got their hands on him - then that's a different story.

The closest thing I could come to that is this, and it's not even a real person (just a wax at Madame Tussaud. Notice the shock on the lady's face behind me. )

Booyakasha!!

Damn I feel good today. Just got a new contract offer from my boss. A permanency and pay raise. Nice~

Just when an extra cash would come in handy. Perhaps I could get a bigger stone for my lady's ring eh?

Anywho, alhamdullillah. With the economic forecast looking gloom and uncertain, this new contract certainly feels so much sweeter.

7 months have passed - and I am still at Comptel and starting next year; a permanent staff there.

Right then when she(my boss)told me about it I was freaking glad! But my face tried to hide it as much as I can. Kontrol macho la kan. After getting to my cubicle, I was all grinning to myself - felt so good. Wish I had that 'cone of silence' they had in the movie 'Get Smart' - so that I could scream out loud how fucking glad I am. I still am actually. Hehe.

Told my parents about it. They seem pretty happy. Good, I thought to myself. At least now dad wouldn't be nagging me anymore about how I should've worked in the government or some GLC (read TNB). I was all too happy to show him the envelope containing the contract (I actually danced in front of him).

Gonna get the family together for a lunch-out this weekend. Good things are meant to be shared. :)

Well to be honest, this post is serves not to explain why I don't clean my room. It's more to sharing what I just picked up on BBC News.

But yeah I do somehow hope that my mom and dad can read this. At least then, maybe they won't be breathing down my neck every so often, heh.

Favourite quote from my dad; "Sedangkan bilik ko yang sekangkang kera tu pun ko tak boleh nak bersihkan,..kemas-kemas,..macamana la ko nak pikul tanggungjawab dah kawen nanti (or something like that..kinda forgot..) "

well anywho, here goes the article. Taken from BBC

The Brilliance of Creative Chaos

George Bernard Shaw liked the tidy approach

A POINT OF VIEW

Are we able to think clearly when surrounded by mess because chaos is inherent in all our minds, even those of the great writers and thinkers, asks Clive James.

The great thing about this slot is that I can pontificate. But a wise pontificator should always remember that he won't solve a global problem in 10 minutes, or even do much more than usefully touch on it in 10 hours. There are two main reasons for that. One reason is that the global problems are, by their nature, devilishly complicated. But everyone knows, or should know, that.

The other reason is less obvious, because it lies within the nature of the pontificator. He, or she - in my case he - speaks with a special pontificating voice: integrated, judicious even in its doubts, purporting to contain the distilled wisdom of a lifetime's experience. Almost always, I suspect, this voice is at odds with the personality from which it emerges, and in my case the discrepancy is so glaring that even I can spot it.

Writer Will Self's study Enlarge Image

As I prepare this script, tapping away at the keyboard as Socrates might have done if he had owned a PC, it seems to me that my brain is at my fingertips, with all its scope and knowledge. But then, after looking up at the screen and noticing that the last two sentences are all in capitals and include various chemical formulae for substances unknown to science, I bounce my forehead off the desk and make the supreme mistake of looking around my room.

It's in chaos. The pontificator with plans for fixing the world can't organise his own desk, and as for what lies beyond the desk, forget about it. The evidence that I've spent years forgetting about it is all out there. Piles of old newspapers and magazines. Stacks of box files containing folders containing memos about the necessity to buy more folders and box files. Hundreds of books uselessly hidden behind hundreds of other books. A small statue of a Sumo wrestler, or else a life-sized statue of a small Sumo wrestler. A bag of random receipts that my accountant might have found quite useful in their year of origin, 1998.

But let's start with the desk. Or rather, let's not. The desk is too much. Little of its surface is visible through piled notebooks and shuffled papers. But observe this vertically striped earthenware mug full of ball-point pens. If the phone rings with information I must take down, I reach for one of these pens and find that it does not work.

Shambolic

In the same vertically striped mug there are 15 other pens that do not work either. Vaguely I remember the day when I planned to sort through these pens and retain only those that did work. But I got distracted. What else is in the same mug? Jelly beans, several of which have grown fur.

And that's just the mug. What about this desk drawer over here on the right? Ah, there's a touch of organisation here. Every year I put a new set of vital names and addresses in the designated section of my appointments diary. But I never get round to transferring vital names and addresses from previous diaries into the current one. So there are 10 years of diaries in this drawer alone, to supplement the line-up of 20 years of diaries standing over there in the corner of the room behind that valuable stack of obsolete phone books. Or, as I have just typed, obsotel nophe kobos.

There are books I know I own but I have to buy them again because I can't find them Hear Radio 4's A Point of View Audio slideshow: Eamonn McCabe's Writers' Rooms

All over again I count my blessings that I have not been chosen as one of the subjects for Eamonn McCabe's series of photographs called Writers' Rooms. In London, an exhibition of these photographs has just opened. The photographs have been running as a series in one of the upmarket newspapers. When I looked at the early photos in that series I was envious. Would I be chosen? Then I started praying that I wouldn't be, a prayer which has mercifully been answered.

There are some prizes I would like. I would quite like the Nobel Prize, if the money could be delivered tomorrow in a suitcase, clearly marked "Nobel Prize money: bank immediately or it will burst into flames." I would quite like the Booker prize, the Whitbread Prize, the Forward prize and the Unicef prize for the chronically disorganised. I can hear myself pontificating while accepting any or all of those awards. But what I don't want is to be photographed in this room, because any shred of credibility I had as a pontificator would evaporate instantly.

I noted with shame that even the most shambolic of the writer's rooms in the photographs was better organised than mine, and the majority of them might have been deliberately arranged to remind me that I myself was working in a skip. These paragons had got it all together without it getting on top of them.

Force of nature

You could tell that everything was there for a reason. If a woman writer had the propeller of a Sopwith Camel mounted on the wall, it was because her great-grandfather shot down Baron von Richthofen's second cousin in 1917.

Order and romance for Barbara Cartland

Writers had their books arranged by category, in alphabetical order. I moved into this office 10 years ago, the books came out of their tea chests in any old order, and any old order is still the only order they maintain on my shelves. There are books I know I own but I have to buy them again because I can't find them.

Let me add that everything is well dusted. A cleaner comes in once a week and she does a good job. But she is under instructions not to move anything, in case I need it. So she has learned just to polish the whole lot as if it were an installation at Tate Modern.

Other writers clearly find it easier to get their act together, and no doubt most non-writers do too. But judging from my own admittedly extreme experience, they can only get things under control by striving mightily against a force of nature that wants things to be disorganised rather than not.

Scientists call it entropy. Back in the early 19th Century, Carl von Clausewitz, in his great work about military strategy On War, called it Friction. Clausewitz said that you have to have a plan for the battle but the plan had better include plenty of room for the absolute certainty that the plan will start growing fur from the first moment of its execution.

I have just been checking up in my copy of Clausewitz - I had to buy another copy, because my original copy is somewhere in my bookshelves, which means that it might as well be on Mars - and I can tell from every sentence that he was writing with the insight conferred by self knowledge.

I'll bet all the money in my foreign coin collection - it's over there in the fruit bowl, and some of those hundreds of obsolete francs and deutschmarks are sure to be worth something to collectors a hundred years from now. I'll bet all that money in the fruit bowl - and if you're asking where the fruit is, I gathered up all my powers of organisation and threw it out only a month after I forgot to eat it. I'll bet all that money that Clausewitz, when he was working on his magnum opus in his last years, was sitting at a desk that looked like the morning after the Battle of Waterloo.

His name for the accumulated effect of Friction was the Fog of War. When I read that, I could tell straight away that here was a man who, like me, couldn't toast a slice of bread without filling his apartment with smoke. When his widow prepared his manuscript for posthumous publication, she probably found sandwiches in it.

Dangerous signal

When DVDs came in, I rarely played my VHS tapes again, but the VHS tapes did not move out. There are several hundred of them here, stacked on the floor. My first copy of Clausewitz might be somewhere behind them. I know there is a squash racket behind them because I can see the edge of its frame sticking up.

John Mortimer's creative space Enlarge Image

Will I ever play squash again? Of course not, so why is the racket still there? Perhaps it's trying to remind me that the best equipped pontificator is the one who is aware of his own propensities towards chaos. Unable to organise his own breakfast, he will be less ready to condemn officials who can't organise an efficient system for sending out student grants, or collecting private information onto a CD-ROM that won't be left on a train.

But even the most self-aware pontificator is still likely to expect too much of the world. Rarely will he be sufficiently amazed that society functions at all, considering some of the human material it has to work with. In ancient Greece, the philosopher Diogenes, wedded to simplicity, lived in a tub. But he still roamed the streets of Athens by daylight while carrying a lamp. He said that he was looking for an honest man, and everybody wrote it down, saying that Diogenes the cynic was a piercing analyst of the human condition. But maybe he just didn't know how to turn the lamp off.

Sitting at this computer, on whose keyboard I have just typed the word "lamp" and actually written the word "lump", I am face to face with an item of technology that Diogenes would not have known how to switch on. I barely know how to switch it on either, have often failed to switch it off - why does it ask me "do you wish to report the error" when I don't know what the error is? And yet I do know that its mere presence in the pile of rubble I call my desk is sending me a dangerous signal.

This miracle of machinery is telling me that order can emerge from chaos after all. Well, yes, it can, but only against heavy odds, because chaos is inherent even in the minds of those who make the miracles. And it is certainly inherent within the pontificator. I can pontificate about that with some certainty, even as I type the last words of this sprict, scirpt, script, reach for my mug of coffee and get a mouthful of ball point pens.

Eamonn McCabe's Writers' Rooms exhibition is at the Madison Contemporary Art gallery in London until 17 January 2009.

No, I didn't go there. I'm just jotting this down to express my concern over the whole event.

What's the concern you might ask? Well, I am very much concerned over the sponsor for the event : Magnum Corporation. For those who don't know what that company does - they deal with gambling.

Gambling, in Islam; is haram. The profits that they (Magnum) acquires hence forth from their business is then also haram. Thus the event, and more importantly the food served - is haram.

Do the people who went there last Saturday realize this? I mean I guess it's "OK" to go there, listen to the music and enjoy yourself - as long as you DON'T TAKE THE FOOD!!!

I don't know man...I certainly hope they didn't. Worries me a lot when a muslimah (i think) announcer can easily say "Are YOU game for it? " <-- this is Magnum's tagline btw.

Enuf of my rantings. Time to get to work.

It's been about 6 month now since I've entered Comptel. It's been great - working and all that. Meeting new people, learning new things, jargons and languages (as in programming languages) and honing my english-speaking skills (one of the reasons I picked an MNC). Always wanted to be in the telco industry. The problem used to be from which angle should I enter - networking, RF, or programming. I guess my job now answers that question huh.

The early months was pretty laid back I suppose, with lots of training to attend to, and there was also this time when I was pretty much without work (in which as it turns out, my manager had thought that I was busy doing something - so she chose not to assign me with anything. Later on after we had a lil' chat, I explained my situation and later on some CRs came in my mailbox. Damn relieved to have some work to do).

So far my product knowledge goes only up to the Eventlink 4 and Eventlink 5/6. The two although quite similar in function, works quite differently. One relies much on S-Lang and shell scripts, while the other uses much C language and Perl. Frankly though I think I am starting to hate EL4, hehe~

And I've been getting the hang of reading Functional Specs nowadays. And those weird jargons and terminologies don't seem to scare me anymore. I used to worry a lot whenever I read those specs - actually I still worry now too but because of different reasons, haha. Back then it used to be about understanding what the terms meant and all and try to make sense of things. Now the problem is understanding how the program is suppose to flow and what exactly is the customer expecting to see.

These on-the-job training can be quite intimidating at first. I used to be able to use my "fresh-grad" status to buy myself some time in order for me to learn up some new things. It's like having a "Get-out of Jail Free Card" I suppose, where if you'd make a mistake or need some leniency, you can always get it. After some time though - you do not seem that "fresh" to them anymore. Buffer periods get shorter, works get tougher. And all of a sudden you might be thinking that extra cup of coffee might not be a bad idea after all. Owh, and don't forget the pizza delivery, it's gonna be a long night.

Coming from an electronic background, there were times where I question my decision to work here. Hell I could be doing RF or Networking if I'd want to. But I chose programming. Hurm~

Maybe it's one of those days where you wonder about the what-ifs stuff eh? What if I had done this...what if I hadn't apply that..all those unnecessary and useless question. There were times that this "self-questioning" thing became quite troublesome to me (especially in the head). But I guess this is just a phase that I'm gonna have to go through sooner or later.

Is there better opportunities out there? Should I jump while I'm still quite new in this programming thing and seek other jobs in a different field..you know..just try things out..see if it suits me or not.

I dunno. Life is full of stupid questions at times. I say it's stupid because most of the times you already know what the rational answer is, but you still keep on asking the darn question - and usually hope that someone might be able to read your thoughts and give you their second opinion, supportive or not.

Guess I'd just have to live with it for now. Been doing a lot of hard work lately (and sleeping rather late as well I might add). Working on stuff for FET, DiGi..and now Vodafone New Zealand.. man.. I need a break.

Or at least I think I do. It's that "hope" thing that keeps me going I suppose. That "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow kinda thing. Where you think that after this is all done you're gonna go wild and do all sorts of crazy things - but once done you get there, you realize you may not wanna enjoy yourself that much after all. It's that "hope" that gets you finishing that job earlier.

Owh, recent internal news says that Comptel has been voted as top OSS Vendor in Asia..err..or something like that. Great news I'd say. Better news should that mean I'll be getting a fat bonus at the end of this year.

Fat chance of that ever happening eh? But a man can dream. Owh you bet he can.

An interesting piece of reading! Taking a break from the Obama-fever (congrats to him btw), this piece about conspiracy theories in general really gives you a refreshing take on the subject matter. Ripped off from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4319574.stm

A POINT OF VIEW By Harold Evans

In his weekly opinion column, Harold Evans takes issue with Michael Crichton's latest thriller, in which global warming is the work of mad eco-scientists.

Do you ever read that line on an early page of a novel: "Any connection between the characters and events herein portrayed, and real people, is purely coincidental."

In Michael Crichton's State of Fear, I'd say the connection was purely intentional. It's about the kind of hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and tornadoes we've been experiencing. Crichton's trade is to bring pleasurable terror to millions by spinning tales of science gone amok - as in Jurassic Park and the Andromeda Strain.

In this new bestseller those hurricanes etc aren't natural disasters at all. They are the creations of global warming activists - eco-maniacs desperate to publicise the case for controlling emissions of carbon dioxide. To make sure you get his point, Crichton adds a 32-page footnote documenting his own conviction that global warming is an unscientific scare.

What about the contrary worldwide consensus of scientists that global warming is a man-made disaster in the making? Crichton's answer: "If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus." As I suppose in the old consensus that the earth is flat.

Crichton's is not actually a thesis that the displaced folks in Louisiana and Texas can concentrate on at the moment in the wake of Katrina and Rita. Yet for his polemic on global warming, Crichton has become something of a hero to the groups fighting hard to stop anything like the Kyoto treaty.

Michael Crichton: 'Something of a hero'

The well-endowed think tank, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy, honoured Crichton with an invitation to Washington to address its members - not on the novel, but on science policy in the 21st Century. The point of that was to embrace Crichton's attack on what he calls the pseudo-science of global warming. It's not easy to embrace Crichton himself; he is an intimidating 6ft 9 inches.

BBC NEWS: AUDIO Hear A Point of View in the BBC Radio Player

The sceptics on global warming needed this kind of reinforcement. They have mostly been keeping quiet after the ferocity of Katrina and Rita, widely blamed in the press on the unusually hot waters of the Gulf. Al Gore, in a rousing "action now" speech that impressed business leaders at the Clinton summit in New York recently, pointed out that since the 1970s, hurricanes both in the Atlantic and Pacific have increased in intensity by about 50%.

'Great hoax'?

It is quite significant that while President Bush has been active on hurricane relief, he has not reiterated his well-aired doubts about whether global warming is a real threat or a scare. Nor have we heard much from the Republican chairman of the Senate Environment Committee.

Senator James Inhofe's previous best effort was this: "With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phoney science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it."

Hurricanes are now more intense

The senator did not explain quite how 2,000 top scientists in 100 countries could have been persuaded in 2004 to produce a rare consensus that gas emissions left unchecked will produce a series of catastrophes. Nor is he likely to try and explain in the post-Katrina atmosphere.

The conspiracy Crichton outlined in his novel might seem tailor-made for Hollywood - scientists manipulating weather systems to suit their own leftie agenda. But it is very much in the paranoid political style identified by the renowned historian Richard Hofstadter. There are still people who just know that FDR conspired with Winston Churchill to have the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. There are millions who just know that JFK's assassin, the shooter on the grassy hill in Dallas, was hired by Lyndon Johnson.

As a historian, I have never been much impressed by conspiracy theories left or right. Too often, they are exalted by non-evidence - "proved" by records that have disappeared, "witnesses" whose stories have been suppressed. But if you happen to be in the market for a conspiracy theory today, there's a rather more credible one documented by the pressure group Greenpeace. Just bend an ear for a moment for the names of a few organizations very much concerned with global warming.

• Advancement of Sound Science Centre Inc
• Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
• Heartland Institute
• Competitive Enterprise Institute
• Annapolis Center for Science-based Public Policy

You wouldn't guess it but all these highfalutin bodies are dedicated to undermining the science of global warming and preventing America signing something like the Kyoto Treaty. And again, you wouldn't guess it, but they take thousands of dollars from Exxon Mobil. It's the world's largest oil company and a high profile opponent of Kyoto for imposing too many costs on the developed world.

Grazing on drought-stricken land

The five groups I mentioned are not the only ones with deceptive titles. Greenpeace has identified 40 such mouths at the Exxon nipple. So what's wrong about this? For one thing I'd guess you'd be a bit more sceptical of their pronouncements on global warming if they made it clear that they are not - shall we say - unrelated to the interests of their Exxon sponsors.

I asked Exxon about supporting so many of these propaganda groups. They point out that pro-Kyoto foundations give out much more money than they do, and that's true. What's disturbing to me is that the groups Exxon supports are much less forthcoming about their connections; they are often treated in the media as if they were wholly independent scientific bodies.

In addition Exxon has done something positive in committing $100m to Stanford University for research into new energy technology. So where's the rub? Well, funding long-term research like this is all well and good. The trouble is - as the economist Keynes famously said in another context - in the long-term we are all dead. The damage is being done here and now every day. It is accelerating - and it is damage that could be irreversible.

Smear tactics

All the delaying tactics, denials and obfuscations bring to mind what happened in 1974 to two American scientists, Professor Sherwood Roland and Dr Mario Molina. They coolly set out the evidence that the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in refrigeration, aerosols and air conditioning were eating at the ozone layer which protects mankind and plants from dangerous ultraviolet radiation.

The era of procrastination is coming to a close; in its place we are entering a period of consequences Winston Churchill

They were at once smeared as scaremongers. The manufacturers ran an all too successful campaign to fog the issue. A lazy media bought into it. The public got bored and bamboozled. And as they did so, millions more tons of the pollutant were added to the atmosphere.

Thirteen years later when the world finally woke up to an ozone hole bigger than anyone had predicted, there was a swift international agreement - led by the US - to find alternatives to the CFCs. In the meantime, great damage had been done.

Winston Churchill back in the 1930s had this to say about another government that didn't believe a threat was real. As the Chamberlain Cabinet dithered about Hitler, Churchill warned: "They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent."

And he concluded: "The era of procrastination, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."

We are entering that period now with global warming. And if quoting Churchill in this context puts me in Michael Crichton's class of conspirators, I will bear it with fortitude.

Recently there was this furore about Majlis Fatwa going about discussing whether or not Yoga, is haram or not.

Taken from the blog RantingsbyMM by Marina Mahathir, I find this comment from one of the reader most interesting indeed and have decided to put it all here for all to read/see/talk/discuss with friends. It's not much on Yoga, more on what a fatwa is all about. If you find it wrong or misleading or whatever, feel free to give a comment or two. :)

1. Members of the Majlis Fatwa are selected from scholars of various disciplines of Islamic knowledge such as Hadith, Qur'an, Fiqh, Usuluddin etc.

2. Fatwas are not issued for fun.

3. A Fatwa is needed for issues where its halal or haram is not direclty mentioned in the Qur'an.

4. A Fatwa is the interpretation based on the knowledge and understanding of an issue in a particular time, and place. So a Fatwa can change as an issue is better understood by way of research, or sudden inspiration. Since our life evolves around new things, we will certainly need Fatwas from time to time.

5. A Fatwa is a way out for those who do not wish to push the limit of 'harus' to the maximum. He or she prefers to remain safe from 'syubhah' or associating themselves with something that is close to being haram.

e.g: Majlis Fatwa has issued a decision on cigarette. It's haram based on medical reasons of the day and statistics i.e people who smoke are more prone to getting cancer compared with those who don't. So if you smoke it's like you're subjecting your body to getting cancer, which is close to suicide, which is haram.

If you wish to smoke, it's all right because Qur'an doesn't mention anything about smoking. As far as Qur'an is concerned you can smoke the whole cigarettes in the ciggy factory if you want. And you can still argue with God that since it's not mentioned in the Qur'an you figure it's all right to smoke.

But for those who wish be closer to Allah - they may chose not to smoke based on this Fatwa.

(Not a big deal - the choice is yours)

Members of Majlis Fatwa is made up of liberal-minded individuals with exceptional intelligence that Allah has given them. They have more open discussions than what you have accused them of here. They've had discussions with M. Nasir on lyrics, music and such. They've had discussion with gays and homosexuals. They don't have to tell you about this.

A Fatwa (yet to be issued) on Yoga is in the process of being discussed. You can bet your left ear that by the time they're done with it, they will have understood Yoga better than the most senior Yogi the bear.

The Majlis Fatwa, like the rest of Majlis Fatwa in other Islamic countries, have issued thousands of Fatwas for matters you may consider trivial, but a big deal to those who want to be close to Allah and do not wish to commit 'syubhah'.

That's what Islam is about. It's about obtaining the 'redha' from Allah because you know everything you do here, will be questioned in the hereafter.

Of course, a great many Muslims do not really think that the hereafter is a big deal and so it doesn't really matter to them whether or not Allah 'redha' for all their actions here.

One of the signs that you don't care all that much about Allah is when you feel uncomfortable with the sound of people reading the Qur'an. Or people talking about Qur'an. Instead you make it your mission to point all the 'flaws' in the Qur'an so that you have this thing in your heart whispering; if Qur'an is perfect, then how come Allah has imposed so much rules on women like tudung.

And you have this doubt in your heart that Qur'an is not the ultimate truth, which is why you don't read it every day. Besides you don't speak Arabic. Since you're the type who understand what you read, you figure there's no point in reading the Qur'an. But you forget, people have read Qur'an for more than a thousand years and a great many of them don't understand a word what it means but yet, they find it beautiful.

This blows your mind away. Which is why you figure; I'm a Muslim but I'm a thinking Muslim. Which why you figure you don't need HIDAYAH.

It's just a Fatwa. Not a big deal. You may choose to follow. You may choose not to follow. You may choose to make Yoga your way of life because it is just a form of exercise. Or you may choose to sing songs in a church because you figure, it's just a song.

Each will answer before Allah our action. There's no force in Islam?

Is it just me or has the cinema scene here in KL have become rather dull as of late?

I mean seriously, it has become really congested with 'Thai' and 'horror' genre movies - which is not to my liking.

Anywho, these below however do pique my interest a bit. Can't wait to see'em.

The Spirit

Director: Frank Miller
Starring: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eve Mendes, Jaime King
Genre: Action

In Cathay Cineplexes 25 December 2008

Transporter 3

Director: Olivier Megaton
Starring: Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova, Robert Knepper
Genre: Action

In Cathay Cineplexes 4 December 2008

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

Director: David Yates
Starring: Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton
Genre: Adventure / Fantasy

In Cathay Cineplexes 2009

Quantum Of Solace

Director: Marc Forester
Starring: Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench, Jesper Christensen & Mathieu Amalric
Genre: Action / Thriller

In Cathay Cineplexes 6 November 2008

Guess who's got a new 24'' Dell monitor? Hehe~

Although I somehow doubt that this would increase my productivity as a programmer, it does helps ease the eye a bit. Plus it makes watching movies a hell of a lot more fun! :)

It comes with VGA, DVI and HDMI port up its back. I dunno what that actually means, but I think I can connect them gaming consoles (read PS3) to the monitor - hence, multi purpose.

If only I have that much cash.

Here's an excerpt of what I just read on BBC News

Going to university, then choosing a mentally demanding job may help protect the brain from the devastating impact of Alzheimer's disease on memory.

Scientists found tissue damage was much quicker to lead to memory loss in the less intellectually stimulated.

They suggest mentally tough work, or genes which help people achieve such careers, may help the brain compensate for disease.

The Italian research was published in the journal Neurology.

And I'm like "Yay~". A programmer use their brain. And I mean a lot. They use it so much that they tend to have trouble sleeping at night since their brain wouldn't stop working.

Guess it does have it's upside huh?

It's been almost 6 month since I've in Comptel. In terms of workload..hurm..I'd say OKla. I'm quite interested to see where it'll lead, this "mediation" path I mean. It does have it's busy times and the laid back period (how I hate laying around~). Enough to keep me occupied, distracted.

The future? Will I stay there long? Only time will tell. If I felt like I'm being appreciated, like I have a place where I belong - then who's to say how long I'll stay.

Going with the flow for now. After all, I'm still a "fresh" grad. :)

This stuff is hilarious! Hahahaha~

It's kinda late, but while we're still in the month of Syawal, I'd like to wish all who's celebrating - Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Its been awhile I guess since I met with my cousins..boy haven't they changed a lot. Most of them are in their teens now and I guess I feel kinda out of place at times. Haha..to think I'm growing old already..what a thought.

There was this one night where we all had to sleep outside in the living room. Each of them has their own handphone and are busy typing away on their keypads writing to gods knows who. And I'm like...wow..times have changed. And it struck me then, that sooner or later we're all gonna go our separate ways and lead our own life in the manner of our own choosing.

Will we ever be as close as this? Only time will tell. I've had chat with Pak Lang and I guess he too shares the same feeling. Or so I think. Anyways with that came the emergence of our family blog, thesallehfamily , with the intention of bringing the family members closer together. There a lot of things that can be done there, share pics, videos, and stories and such. I'm hoping that in the future it can even be a place to swap recipes or even tips on child care.

Someday we will die - yes. But just like our Arwah Atuk journal was left behind (his little notebook that he used to use during his tabligh days), I'm hoping that our blog will survive the test of times too. And may we forever remember our roots and may our grandkids get to know us better that we will ever know our Arwah Atuk. Insyallah.

I've been surfing for hours now looking on how should I lay out my living room in my "future" living place.

I've found some great websites while I was at it; mainly these two:-
i)http://howshouse.com/
ii)http://www.instructables.com/

The first is about home decor basically, telling about the neatest furnish he could find out there and sharing along his design ideas in his newly bought house.

The latter is more on DIY stuff. Now this is something I can keep coming back to..might take up some projects there every now and then (grin...)

Anyways, here is a pic of cool concept of a cabinet I found called the StairCase



Damn neat I'd say. I always thought that the space up above should be better utilized to make more room down below.


But back to the living room. Right now I'm thinking of having mine like this. But of course, not exactly like that. It's not gonna be that japanized - we can't afford lavish spending quite yet. But the concept is there..a square-ish table with pillows (I'm gonna get a whole lot of them...) and a dinner table (which I'll get from my sis later).

I don't know why they'd be bothered to comment about us in Malaysia when they have their own shit right in their own backyard. But maybe I shouldn't take this personally - I mean everyone's a critic right?

My uncle (the son of my atuk busu), which was posted in Libya as a diplomat - has passed away last Thursday due to a car accident. 

Last Thursday us Comptelian went down to Bangi and had ourselves quite a feast. Berbuka puasa to be exact. It was quite nice actually to be able to break fast with all of them. There were me, Theenesh, Luqman, Shahril, John, Razali, Ida, Kari and the man of the hour - Rossi.

It was a break fast cum farewell party kinda thing. Rossi is gonna be leaving (already left by the time tis piece is written) Comptel to pursue his dream at IBM. Big company I'd say. Do I envy him? Perhaps. But I surely don't envy what he's doing. I'm not the sales-guy type if you catch my drift (in other words my communication skills sucks).

But anywho all the best to the guy. Everyone has a dream to pursue, a living to make, a hope to realize. Mine? I'm not sure...but I'm sure as hell won't be leaving Comptel anytime soon thats for sure.

I would post a few pics from the event if I had any; which I don't right now (obviously). Guess I'll be updating this post later on.

There goes one of my teh tarik crew...

I guess it has been quite awhile since I updated my blog space. During those time a couple of interesting stuff happened in my life.

My graduation is among them.


Frankly speaking I couldn't care less about the degree prior to the convocation. I mean, I've already secured a job - what could that piece of paper get me anyhow? We all know that experience matters more than that paper.

But as I came that Friday for my convocation rehearsal - and saw those familiar faces of friends; I'm just glad there's a thing called "convocation". At least on that day, I got to meet back my friends from back in the day and play catch up with them.

I drank too much of teh tarik on that day thats for sure... Later that night we all went and had a 'makan besar' at one of the nearby seafood restaurant. The bill amounted close to RM100. There was six of us. But only two were paying. Me and Pedot.. since we had more 'rezeki' compared to the rest I guess. I certainly didn't mind it at all. It's not everyday we can eat up together like that - and well I guess I kinda agree with the saying; good things are meant to be shared.

In other news, my not so little brother has gone up to the US of A. He's in Purdue now... hopefully making good use of that noggin of his. I admit that the house now seems quieter than usual (obviously). Abah now has a new routine whenever he's home for the night - ym-ing with Din whenever he got back from work. Times have changed he said. Back then he used aerogram to write home to kampung - which would take around 2 weeks to..not fro. Now, with ym..he could easily see his beloved son all the way from across the globe. I guess he must be glad. I am too. :)

The pics below are from his majlis doa selamat which took place a week or so before his flight to the US. Kinda like a 'hari raya' photo don't you think..hehe~

I've done a lil' research as of late on whether I should take some personal loan to add to ASB savings.

The result was quite interesting.

For my case, I had about 20k in ASB savings prior to the loan.

If I take a Rm30k loan with 15 years to pay it with RM250 monthly, I'd end up paying the bank in total of RM15k in interest.

After 15 years of that, I'd end up having RM173,693. Minus the RM15k paid to the bank, the true amount I have is actually RM158,693. Retrospectively, if I'd gone the conventional way, I'd have RM162,957 in savings - and thats the total amount. That means I actually lose out some RM4k because I'd have to pay the bank.

But if you stretch that a little further, let say another 5 years, then you'll see the numbers kinda evens up on both side (conventional and loan).

Stretching another 5 years, I begin to see an increase in return from the loan side - in which the difference between the loan and the conventional method amounts to RM10k.

This effect is perhaps due to the fact that in ASB the bonus is counted using a 10 year formula, so your investment history really can make a difference.

So in the long run - taking a loan to use as capital for ASB investment is actually rewarding. By long I mean real long..like 25 years kinda long (in the example the period of loan payment is 15 years, the period to actually break even is ~20 years. )

I've decided to start a posting today to jot down every weird thing that I did after I've been at it (coding) for some serious amount of time. So every now and then this blog will be updated on the weird stuff I did that day.

Let me start off with what just happened to me just now..

1. I decided to take a slight break from coding and go watch some videos. After awhile though, I find it rather a bore and decided to shut the window down. Guess what I did. My fingers instinctively went and typed ":q", as in the quit command in the vi editor. And it didn't stop there actually. At first I was like "Why the hell wouldn't this damn thing shut off..". And then I realize - I'm not in UNIX!!! Took me like 2-3 minutes to realize that fact.

Zimbabweans are billionaire. And they're gonna get to be a-gazillionaire too, if their inflation keeps on going like the way it is now.

I've been following this news for a couple of weeks now on BBC. For the record, Europe's inflation is like on 4% and Malaysia our very own is at 7%.

Zimbabweans rates meanwhile is like 2 million %.

It'll take like a couple of hundred billion just to buy bread over there.

Imagine the zeroes on that.

Britain and Ireland have the highest average incomes in Europe but come bottom in terms of quality of life, while Spain and France are at the top of the index, according to a study published Wednesday.

Britons have to pay sky high prices for fuel, food and other essentials, while having among the shortest holidays, latest retirement age and lowest life expectancy, according to the survey of 10 European countries.

Ireland, which like Britain has seen a huge market-driven economic boom over the last decade, is even worse than its bigger neighbour, coming in last in the European Quality of Life Index by U-Switch, a British service comparison website.

"We may earn substantially more than our European neighbours but when it comes to quality of life we remain the sick man of Europe," said Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com.

"Soaring food prices and inflation, not to mention high property costs, are placing the biggest squeeze on disposable incomes in well over a decade," she added, noting also below-average investment in health and education services.

The study assessed 19 factors affecting quality of life, ranging from income and working conditions to healthcare, education and cost of living.

Britons have an average net income of more than 35,000 pounds (70,000 dollars, 44,000 euros) a year, about 10,000 pounds more than the European average, while Ireland comes second on more than 29,000 pounds.

But they pay between six to 18 percent more for fuel and 49 percent more for gas, not to mention spectacularly high housing costs. Ireland's gas bills are more than twice the European average.

At work Ireland comes worst in terms of retirement age, with an average of 64.1 years, followed by Britain on 63.2 years, while life expectancy is 78.1 years and 78.9 years respectively, the lowest barring Italy.

At the other end of the scale, Spaniards have the lowest average income, at some 16,800 pounds, but low taxation and cheaper essential goods prices put them at the top of the overall quality of life indicator.

France comes second, notably benefiting from the longest holidays in Europe at 40 days and the second-lowest retirement age at 58.9 years, just later than Poles who retire at 58.4 years old on average.

The findings come as Britain and Ireland face a sharp economic slowdown fuelled by the global credit crunch, which is also threatening other European countries although they have enjoyed less of a boom in recent years. - BBCNews Online.

Life.

My life is made up of many distractions. I guess distractions is too negative a word, but I'm just calling it like I see it.

And I don't even see it as a "bad" or "negative" thing in a sense. At times I would call it as just "living" my life.

There was this one period of time in my life where I am void of these so called "distractions". Back then, I felt like life was so damn boring. I mean all I did back then are just series of repetitions; get up, got to work, go to lunch, drive back, sleep, get up..etc. That is; until I got some actual work to do from my boss. I guess in a way I am a workaholic type of person, always looking forward to the next sets of challenge life (or work) can throw at me.

That, referring to my job - was my sets of distractions during the day. And at night, I usually am "distracted" by my sayang. I guess all in all them distractions help me forget how slow and boring life can be sometimes and spice it up some here and there.

Going to the movies, playing them computer games, reading the next title from Tom Clancy; you may call it what you want - but to me they're all just distractions. A distraction we all need to get through the journey called life.

Just read the news today. It seems the inflation rate in Euro has risen up to 4% from their previous 3.7%. Read more here.

4% huh? Ain't a little bit more or less the same as Malaysia's rate?

"The grass is always greener on the other side" my ass. Hehehe~ Malaysia Boleh-lah!!

News Flash! A guy I knew during my time at Uniten has just been sodomized - or at least thats what he claimed lah.

And I was like, what the fuck! Is this for real? I mean I know the guy did have some issues back at Uniten (you can read up on him in his " nemesis' " blog, riwayathayat.blogspot.com) and all, and after that he seems to be heading into the Malaysian political scene. Didn't keep my tabs on him after that (during my times in Uniten - the write up in riwayathayat was kinda entertaining so I kinda was following it at times - you can imagine how bored I was back then...).

Anywho - boy was I shell-shocked to find out that he became the latest victim in another "Anwar Gone Wild" episode. Babi pun tak giler macam ni.

Some people are saying he was planted in PKR by BN, prior to the General Election last March. I guess if that was true then kudos to him - being able to get to the 'aide' department in just a short period of time.

Is it a BN conspiracy? Reasoning would suggest that this would provide our deputy PM with the perfect diversion over RPK latest allegations against him. And so far I can see that it's working - with the media having no mention of RPK in recent times.

Or can it be a PKR conspiracy? In another perspective (if I were a BN guy), I could say that Anwar told Saiful to lodge that report purposely so that he (Anwar) can gain the support of the rakyat and bring on his momentum to become the next premier of the country. Now THAT, is what I call a great Hollywood script.

Alas, at the end of the day - one can only wonder what really happened...

Rule No 1.

Find a girl - check.

Rule No 2.

Get a ring - check.

....


Thats right fellas - today, on the 28th of June 2008, I have bought a ring to give to my lady for our engagement. Hopefully things work out alright ya? Insyaallah.

Today I've had the opportunity to see the movie WANTED. I had to admit, I was actually expecting a lot from the movie - after the seeing the cool trailer and all that, and fortunately for me - it truly delivers.

You see, I've been waiting to see the movie for 5 days (I booked the ticket on Monday). Not to mention I got no significant job to do this week at the office so that in itself kinda puts you in a "I can't wait for Saturday" mood to sink in.

At the end of the movie - I felt satisfied. The same feeling I get after watching "300" and "V for Vendetta". It was truly value for money in my book. Or perhaps I'm just a sucker for a neat FX and a good plot.

Whatever it is, you can bet I'll be looking forward to the next installment of WANTED should there be any.

Kudos to the director Timur Bekmambetov for once again having to come out with a great sci-fi flick. After watching his earlier movies - "Night Watch" and "Day Watch", I came to like his style of directing, much like how I enjoy watching movies from Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is famously known for fun plot and witty dialogues. Timur is of a different kind - but I enjoy his movies nonetheless.

A bit pity though that "Dusk Watch" won't be coming anytime soon. I kinda hope that it won't be Americanized per say...cause I kinda enjoy the original two, so a russian ending would be perfect for it. Nonetheless, here a bit of news on the last of the trilogy. Click Me!

The news today seems to read oil prices is gonna come down pretty soon. Well I hope so. I've just read an article on NGV just now on the NST - apparently a full tank gas price of a 1.6L Chevy is just RM9. Yep, you read right - that's RM9. Geez. And I'm driving a Kelisa and paying like 7 times that amount for a full tank.

Lets do a simple math here.

9 (per week) X 4 (weeks per month) = RM36.

70 (per week) x 4 (weeks per month) = RM 280.

What a difference that is. A conversion to NGV would cost around RM 3500 or so. Savings from the conversion per month would be RM280 - RM 36, which would be around RM 240. Now for me to get back that RM 3500 would take me about 3500/240 which would be 14 months or so. But then my car is not of a 1.6L type, so I think probably within a year or so lah.

Now that's an idea worth considering.

Oil prices are going down, or so says the article I read at Yahoo.com. Oil price have been steadily climbing and at times I think the oil companies are enjoying every minute of it and making sure that it's gonna stay that way. The other day there was a strike at Shell Nigeria - can't remember the details but the plant had to be closed down. So you know la what happen if an oil plant goes down - supply would decline, thus prices would go up. Now I'm not saying that is the sole reason why the oil price worldwide is rising, but probably more or less it's one of the triggers.

Anywho, the strike eventually came to an end. But then a few days after I think, some bugger decide to attack the rigs. Is there a connection? I dunno, but somehow I smell something fishy is going on there, as if Shell is deliberately hiring someone to attack it's rigs. But then again - that's just an unproven theory.

In other news, CERN is gonna conduct the world's biggest particle physics experiment - perhaps conjuring up a mini black-hole along the way. Reports have been given that the new black hole would not - and I repeat WOULD NOT suck our beloved planet Earth into it. You can about it more here. You know at first the news itself is like weird joke..you know..Earth getting sucked into a black hole. But then I'm not much of a particle physicist. So who knows? Is there really any probability of a black hole sucking the planet?? I mean..wow. Talk about science fiction. Maybe I should read up on this..maybe I should.

Yesterday I went to UNITEN..or more specifically YTN - to tie things up with them in regard to my scholarship, aka "melaporkan diri".

I even applied for a half-day leave the day before that - semangat giler! :P

I reached UNITEN at about 8 am. After about 30 minutes or so waiting/discussing with the fella, I am told that I can pay 20% of the total amount - and that would be about around RM 17k lah. Not bad. 5 years of learning and hardship - and I was like earning RM 66k for all those years. Not bad at all.

Alhamdulillah.

And even better they didn't even mention that I have to work at TNB - which by the way, is not a bad way to make a living. It's just a matter of interest - and I chose not to work there because of it.

So it was then like 8:45am..and my office hour starts at 9am. And I applied for a half-day leave. So I thought to myself, just what the heck am I gonna do now? Go to Kajang and get them fuel rebates? Heck no. Don't wanna trouble myself and waste more fuel just to look for parking at that place. Gila.

So I called up Elsie, and asked whether or not she can omit my application the day before. She said yeah..you can come... So inside I was like, "yippee~~", although the fact that I don't have any real job to do back then is quite a troubling thought. Hurm. But that is yesterday's story la. Today's a different thing.

Got quite a lot of things to do today. Owh such fun.

As usual today I was driving to work early in the morning, listening to FlyFM. They got this one segment whereby they'd ask the listener to share with them their thoughts on that day's topic. Todays topic was - 'what are you doing when other people are not looking? '.

It was a pretty much interesting topic.

There was this caller though which I thought had the best thing to share. Sonia I think was her name.

"You know sometimes when other people aren't looking, I kinda had to pull a bit my underwear to place it better la - you know..adjust a bit if there's a wedgie and things like that.."

And I was like....that is soo true~ (and laughing hysterically in my car)

Now normally I don't post other people's blog here - usually it's more of quotation of sorts or perhaps some useful thing that I think other might benefit by reading. Today will be an exception I guess. This post is from the Ancient Mariner - one blogger that I like keep tabs on since the recent general election.

Here goes.

Like everyone else, I am still reeling from the double whammy of the rise in fuel prices and yesterday's increase in the electricity tariff. I suppose all hell will now break loose with other increases: price of food, transport fares, crime rates etc.

This old sea dog who served many years for God, king and country and trying to survive on a pittance is now sufficiently pissed off to want to go shoot somebody.

And they wants us to 'change our lifestyles". Have they ever stopped to think what will happen if many people leave their vehicles at home and go to work in trains and buses today?

To those of you who voted in this government: Go Eat Shit and Die.

I just found out that for people in Venezuela only pay like RM0.16 per liter of fuel. (Wan Norazizah interview in MalaysiaKini ). Guess this is what the Singaporean must be feeling like right now towards us Malaysians back then (and perhaps still right now...till August I guess.)

So for now, me,..the young working 'adult'..will be driving to and fro with my car air-cond turned off in an effort to save my hard earned cash. Sigh~.

p/s: Now Mika (that's my boss btw) if you're reading this, Comptel ought to give travel allowances to their staff from now on! Hehehe~ :P

Learning should be fun.

And so it actually is. I found this quote tucked neatly into one of the manuals that I got during training.

The Action cannot be completed because Unknown is busy.
-- Microsoft Word 97 Error Message

Now 'that' is a quote you don't get to see everyday.

Yesterday Comptel had a bowling tournament at Mines Wonderland. There were 5 teams in all. I was in team 3 - consisting of me, theenesh, ganesh and john. All of us are newbies - and are from Uniten. So in a way it was like team Uniten lah.

Anyway, the event began at around 7pm. Before that a small dinner was served - bihun, fried nugget and fishballs were served. OK-lah, quite nice what~

Later the games begun,..., and ended. LoL..I think I'll spare you guys the boring details. What matters though is, our team won! yeeehaawww - 1st runner-up je. But I guess it was something at least. Each of us got a RM30 Jusco voucher. I gave mine to my mom.



Interesting times at Comptel thus far. Ice-cream days, pizza lunches, and McD's for breakfast. And my brother Idin was like - was kind of company is this? Is it even listed? Lol~

So far times are great. Can't be too complacent though. Better prepare for the storm ahead~