Interesting week what with all that outage at MySpace. It was up and running within 36 hours but with so many bugs and lost msgs and Comments that Tom had to shut down the site again. Friendster ~ slow as usual ~ gave me a pleasant surprise with dozens of people requesting to be my Friend this week. 115 at last count. Must be the post I did on the Bulletin Board, adding my email to an already long list. Had invitations to join Hipster and Frenzzy but I declined. Even an Internet Addict like me needs to draw the line somewhere.
The outage had at least one positive effect: got me to practise my rudimentary html skills by making several pages at my geocities site:
Even got me to paste photographs at this blog, something I hadn't done before. Devised a work-around to download photographs from face-pic. I’m pleased as punch about that. But please don't ask me how it's done. It's such a useful tool you'd have to pay me cash money for that!
Got an assignment to co-author a handbook on Public Relations called PR at Work as well as some marketing consulting for orthodontic products. Orthodontic products? Yeah, I speak the lingo, you see. Cross-bite, over-bite, Class I and Class II occlusion, lingual, buccal, and etc. My client was impressed by my all-round ability. He made a joke: if anybody asks me "Who are you? " that I should answer "Who do you want me to be today? " He was probably buttering me up so that I accept a lesser consulting fee. But I'm not as gullible as I may have been before, though. Also received a tentative offer to administer an NGO website but I'll know more about this later.
Posted my Plans for 2004 at my Friendster Bulletin Board. Against my better judgment, I'm going to reproduce them here for the sake of posterity. I know I shouldn't do this. My gut feeling tells me I shall live to regret this but what the hell ~ live and laugh, I say!
For 2004 I'm going to...
Lady J
1. Excel in my assignments n exams,no matter what it takes
2. Hv s much fun s i can while i m still here,b4 i go back4good after study's over
3. Play cupid n pendakwah in the same time,n by way things r goin,it's rite on track!although in the xpense n hurt some ppl's feeling including mine..i will apologize later,after plan's completed successfully
Azlan Adnan
1. Help Lady J achieve her goals (esp. # 1, above) in any way I can
2. Sort out all my unfinished business in KL so that I can return home where my heart is
3. Exercise more tolerance and less knee-jerk reactions ("Patience has its Rewards, My Dear")
4. Be more forgiving
5. Be a good single parent from Jan 25 to March 15
6. Be more discriminating when accepting new tenants and no more handing over keys without CASH deposits (you'd be surprised how many cheques still bounce nowadays)
7. Write more at my:
11. Attend my mother's wedding on July 3rd
A chat on IM with a non-Muslim lady friend inspired me to write about my religious ideology and a reply to another's msg prompted me to enlarge upon it, taking into account Friday's khutbah. The new version is reproduced in full at a previous post on Monday, January 05, 2004. Below is today's update:
I once wrote a poem (see my second blog entry for Saturday, November 08, 2003) saying that what I seek in life is Faith, Knowledge and Love. And as serendipity would have it, at last Friday's prayers, the sermon was about our duty to seek Faith and Knowledge. (Love is very much downplayed in Islam, although it plays a central part in Christianity where it is previously known as Charity. In fact, Christ is known as the Prophet of Love.)
Anyway, the gist of the sermon is as follows: God created Humans to be his steward (kalifah or caliph) on Earth; to care for the Earth on God's behalf. To this end, God has given Humans capabilities far more than Animals. One such "enhanced" ability is the ability to learn. Although Animals, too, have the ability to learn, the Human capability is far more.
It is our duty and obligation to learn, so that we have the Knowledge to perform our role as God's stewards on Earth and also obtain Knowledge to gain us a place in the Hereafter. Knowledge in itself is neutral; it may be used for good or for evil. That is why we need Faith. Faith in God and in the Hereafter will guide us; how we should use the Knowledge we have gained.
Of course, as I mentioned before, the sermon was silent on the subject of Love. I can write a whole treatise on the subject of Love and its many different types. There's a whole spectrum from Platonic Love, Romantic Love, Erotic Love and more. But I'll leave that for another day.
Unusually, I was at the TTDI market twice this week. People watching as usual, on the first visit I noticed an immaculately-dressed Indian gentleman in his fifties. Starched long-sleeved white shirt, neatly-pressed black trousers. Dead give-away, a lawyer. He was on with his handphone with his hands-free, as he needed them to be, gesticulating wildly as he was, while barking instructions to his underling at the other end. He seemed more at home conducting an orchestra than in a market. Pity about the grotty shoes, though.
On the second visit I saw a lady in her forties with a bare-back black top with pink plastic string bra-straps showing. "Hey, Lady, that's okay on a teeny-bopper of fourteen but not on someone your age!"
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