It's raining again... Alhamdulillah

It's starting raining again here since last week, Alhamdulillah. The cooling effect, temporary fresh air and bright sky after the rain, remind me of my kampung.  Before this, the weather was just dry, hot and you felt very stuffy and stale air due to the high pollution level. Most of the time the air quality is so bad, you throat felt dry and sore, your hair get hardened due to the gratis air pollutant hair gel.....

At least my office is in the south of the city... the effect is lesser. This part of the city is consider the 'the green lung' of the city, lots of trees and a few public park. In spite of that, what i am seeing now, each corner, each patch of vacant land that was previously green and fresh... now explored, building for new mall  and apartment...for the sake of development. Good example is the empty lot behind my office is becoming Bakrie Imperium, high profile apartment and mall.... I don't know the name for another new city under development at Mega Kuningan... Last time i used to fly paper plane from the apartment level 20+ to that open field. The best design was the Paperang glider... it's just glide....like eagle....

Probably, 10-20 years from now, if I return to this city... there's no more empty space of land....becoming mall city. Even today, there are too many malls and ICT.... only a few area gazetted as open air public park such as Taman Menteng or some people called it Taman Kodok (I don't see many kodok there...). Located not far from my office... but unfortunately I seldom go there... 

Today evening, probably it will rain or probably not... People will normally associate rain with macet (traffic jam), wet, going home late or early, slow work progress, network availability compromise... etc.. Let's just see from the positive side, how many disaster happen due to rain. Statistically very few, compare to the rainfall we encounter through our lifetime. Unlike rain,..... ....earthquake or volcano eruption or tsunami, is a sure disaster.

So next time rain falling on our head, be cool and calm like Peter Parker in Spider man 2..... and don't be like Milli Vanilli which only blame it on the rain....

Books for my son

Last night I bought some books for my son.. his birthday is middle of next month. Try to find a decent and educational books, with lots of picture and good story. A few days ago I called him  and asked, what he want for his birthday, he simply answered " Luqman nak buku ".

I went to a nearby mall and went up to Gramedia bookstore, searching for books that's is suitable with his age... hmmm..... There's quite a number of children Islamic book, but I do not prefer them so much, because the book depicted the image of our Prophets in most of the " Kisah-kisah para Nabi " books, although there's no depiction of Prophet Muhammad pbuh.

The price of local published books here is acceptable.... but imported books is expensive...  I managed to buy ' The adventure of Tin -Tin ' books (3 copies) in  Bahasa Indonesia. The original books in English, is expensive... 4 times the local price. I also bought books about pirates with 3D diagram, from a local kid store downstairs. Previously I also bought 3D books about Dinosaur and Jungle animals. It's seem I'm the only person buying books from that kid store.

Probably he will enjoy reading the books, viewing the pictures and learn some Bahasa Indonesia....

It is that time again.....and my memory as Tutor Pusat Asasi Sains UM 93

Dear readers...

I can still remember my first job as part time tutor and lab demonstrator in a local University, back then. My salary was base on hours and each end of the month, I have to submit worksheet for approval to the supervisor or lecturer. On top of that, we also get paid on the numbers of lab report paper we checked....  to be fair, we among the tutors, distribute fairly the paper among us...

The salary was not much and not less.. it's enough for single person like me during that time... just graduated in 1993, where you can still fill a full tank of kapchai with RM2.50... where the price of daily acceptably good breakfast, lunch and dinner, does not cross  RM10 line.... Most of us were just graduated and work temporally, only a few otais were the permanent . Basically I took this job because I have no job at that time..... jobless and living in KL..... I need to pay for the house rent and utility bills also...

After many job seeking, hundreds of application letter, several work interviews...finally one telco contractor company in PJ accepted me. There's no online job application such as jobstreet, jobsdb, jobserve etc like today. Post office during time, is really a post office by function... not like now, where they only busy during festive season handling greeting cards.. and most the people going there now, to settle utilities bill. 

It take quite a courage and nerve to meet my supervisor, saying that I need to resign.. after working there for about 7-8 months.  This was my first resignation tender. He understood and give some encouragement on my future career, though I can sense there's a regret tone in his voice.

After that, I have changed job but not career, many times.. many application.. and many resignation. The longest period job I held was for 9 years....despite the figures, I was never prepared to resign or at least to meet my boss, saying I want to quit.

Once my close friend advise me.... don't get sentimental with your job, love yourself more. People who's sentimental with their job, will have personal feeling affection... they will claimed this were their project, their baby, their hand print were all over, and sometime denying other people contributions... and worst, they feel their jobs and the division he/she leads is theirs... creating a sub domain.. a company within a company. And they think they are the boss, creating their own policy and set new rules.... beside the larger company policy itself.

My current job does not require me to resign.... I will be terminated once the period expire...Once I enter the job, I am prepared for resignation in 6 - 10 months ahead....Furthermore, I contribute to this planet for not wasting a few pages of resignation letter paper....

Nevertheless, I am half prepared...

Why I choose Physics...

"Your grade in Geology is good.. even your Maths grade is quite good.. I don't see any good reason why you need to choose Physics as your major.....you have potential in Geology subject". I can still remember my good lecturer advise me on what Major subject I should take for my 3rd and final year. Its was 1991, ... location Dataran Kimia at Science faculty , or what it is so called with... my friends and I used to 'study maut' there, especially when the final term exam was just around the corner....

During that time, and probably still now, Science student need to take 4 subjects for their 1st and 2nd year course. My choice were.... Geology, Math, Physics and Philosophy of Science. The later is a compulsory subject until the final year. Only during 3rd year and above you are going for Major course... and if you smart enough you can go for double major...  for me double trouble. The basis of selection can be from academic factors such as limited numbers of space for popular subject, prospect for future job, opportunity for further study ...  to very much non to do with the academic .. following friends or girl friends, cost comparison, or just dumb clueless on what subject to undertake...

Despite her advice and disapproval, I chooses Physics as my major subject, not because I dislike Geology... (i have to admit i don't like math.. higher level of math I mean...). I enjoy Geology subject.. and who doesn't... we are studying about the Earth history, learn about dinosaur, precious minerals, Earth formation... and the field trip was entertaining beside educational. My son have hard time believing when he asked me with his eyes wide open "Ayah belajar pasal dinosaur... dia makan orang tak?". Geology is not just a subject, but an adventurous field of study for me that time... 

But due to my budget limitation, I have to choose major subject which was cost friendly at that time, despite my interest and capability.....

I go for Physics.  At my time, Geology student have to spend at least around RM1,000 for their final year project... this cost include the field trip cost, mineral slide preparation, map etc... I do not have that amount of money. My loan was just enough (with most of the time deficit...) to cover my daily expenses, acceptable meals, house rental, decent clothing..... on top of the compulsory course fee, examination fee, lab fee etc....RM1,000 nowadays, is just the value of most student hand phone.

Sometime in life we have to make decision and choose not base on our liking or our ability... but on knowing our limitation... only Allah swt knows better.

I didn't regret of my choice and I am grateful... for which I choose my path, otherwise I would have different career and I might know and meet different peoples in life... and at that time you may perhaps read my blog and know me for just any other stranger...not as friends...Or worth case scenario, I won't be able to complete the course due to insufficient monetary fund

Things happen for reason.... but we can make reason for thing to happens....