Malaysians

KB Mall

nobody@vox.com(mfn) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:32:20 -0800

I was browsing through my facebook and found some gruesome pictures of an incident posted by my friend Adlina. A car hit a wall on the rooftop parking lot, fell down and claimed the lives of two master skills students. After reading the news I found out that the driver and the passenger ran away right after the incident. I would assume that it wasn't suicidal, and both the driver and the passenger managed to jump off the car before it hit the wall. The building's durability was also questioned. For whatever reason that it happened, I pray for the families of the deceased. May they be among those who struggled for the cause of good. Al fatihah.

Link to pictures

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OM2N test roll #2

nobody@vox.com(astrocoder) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:14:21 -0800

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om2n test roll
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Make: Olympus OM2N
Lens: Zuiko MC 50mm f1.4
Film: Centuria DNP 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.8EV
Develop: Agfa C-41

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Lingua Franca

nobody@vox.com(mfn) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:47:11 -0800

Language travels across the sea. When I learned history back in secondary school, Malay language was known to be the 'lingua franca' of the Malay archipelago. The archipelago was the home of thousands of different languages. However, the Malay language was dominant as it was used in trades, literature, and at some point, politics.

So what is lingua franca? Must everyone posess a lingua franca to survive? Lingua franca is a language that is used to communicate with people who are not sharing a mother tongue. Lingua franca became apparent during the colonization period. Malacca, being an important capital of economy back then, gained its significant in spreading the language across the region. Thus, the language that travels are advantagous in terms of expansion of terms and structures, as it adapts and assimilates other people's languages into its own. Malay language was one of those languages that expanded in the 15th century. Therefore I don't find it odd if historians believe that there are only 4 words in the Malay dictionary which is 'originally Malay'.

Similarly, English language underwent the same evolution. When the British became the biggest colonial power in the world, the language has adapted millions of words from the colonised countries. However, much of the old and classical English were abandoned. English itself was an evolution of Germanic language, but it such fact seemed to be non-existent to most speakers. So English, as we know today, had underwent expansion more than ever.

From my observation, I could see that one of the characteristics of a lingua franca, is that the language can easily be acquired and learned. According to some people, the reason why English was adopted in their lives was because it was easy to learn. Some went as far as saying that it was easier than learning French, as it does not have particular structures for particular contexts. Malay language, during the Malacca sultanate, had the same feature -as it was easy for everyone to learn. Even until today, people find it easy to learn basic Malay language because of its simple grammar. A friend of mine once said that it was easier for her to learn Malay than to learn Spanish even though she was majoring in teaching Spanish.

Another reason was that the language wasn't imposed or confined to the conquered area, but instead it was used voluntarily by speakers of other languages in order to be able to communicate with people posessing the language. This was prevalent during the decolonization period, as colonized parties began to use English effectively to express their dissatisfaction towards the British. Furthermore, there was no governing bodies that say "English should strictly be like this, and there should be no outside words coming in" as what the Academie Francais is doing. In fact, they invited other languages to contribute their words into the dictionary. This phenomenon may have been one of the reasons of decline in Malay Language, as it was controlled by the The Institute of Language and Literature (DBP) and the structures and the number of new entries were restricted in the dictionary.

Despite this, I am not saying that what Acadamie Francais and DBP are doing is wrong. The threat of expansion as what is happening in English language is that it is slowly being a language that is adapting other people's language. I once read a book that discussed a possible outcome of this. It might be, in future, that English will no longer become a sole language of the world, but instead it became divided and evolved into different languages in different countries. The 'original English' itself would be dead. But other languages that are controlled - even though they don't develop rapidly - would gain significant and survive within the community. That may have been the only danger of lingua franca.

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OM2N test roll

nobody@vox.com(astrocoder) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:35:34 -0800

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OM2N test roll
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Make: Olympus OM2N
Lens: Zuiko MC 50mm f1.4
Film: Centuria DNP 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.8EV
Develop: Agfa C-41
Satisfactory: Yes, very :)

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Sharing SEO Tips on Social and Real Time Search

nobody@vox.com(search_engine_marketing) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:11:52 -0800

Search Engine Optimisation Tips for new Search Engine Engine Feature: Real Time Search and Social Search

Link Here Sharing SEO Tips on Social and Real Time Search

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Always two there are

nobody@vox.com(mfn) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:20:04 -0800

Recently, I came across a lot of fiqh problems expressed by many which are frequently encountered in our daily lives. Coincidentally, I also met people who are experts (or at least experienced) on the matters of fiqh and have differing opinions on it. After listening to them and trying to solve the problem I slowly began to understand the importance of having teachers when it comes to imparting knowledge, particularly the ones concerning faith.

As quoted in Yoda's words, "Always two there are. No more, no less. A master, and an apprentice".

In order to embrace a knowledge, we need to be fully prepared and feel responsible of acquiring it. There are certain knowledge which are not just give-and-take, but more of 'analysing' and 'synthesising'. This is something in which I lack of.

When we understand a knowledge, we should not quickly be judgemental by saying that it is the only correct knowledge or it is the wrong one. We should embrace it, analise it, make comparisons with works from other people. The Imams in the old days did not fully accept or discard one solution over another. They only provide possibilities in which we need to analise and understand ourselves. The solutions may be different depending on the social and geographical context. Like our ustaz here once said, "Mazhab is a choice, an alternative, not something that we should adhere". And a teacher can help us to make the choice.

We tend to favour one mazhab over another. He further explains that the reason why we adopt Shafie in our country is because it would be easy for us in terms of standardisation. Furthermore, historically we have been using the same mazhab. Thus, it would make easy for everyone to refer to. However, when we are in a different situation, say, we are performing the Haj, we cannot adopt Shafie per se. We need to consider other schools of thought as well. That is when we need a teacher to advise us what we can do and how we should do it.

However, we must also not be judgemental on our teachers. Just like mazhabs and other knowledge, we need to analise and understand before completely accepting or rejecting the opinion of our teachers. We respect them for being our teachers, but we must also respect the knowledge that they are imparting, so we need to treat the knowledge carefully. People who follow their teachers bluntly are those in the end becoming terrorists, or extremist, spreading the ideology that are sometimes not intended by their teachers. They may have the knowledge, but they may not fully understand it. That is why we need to be careful. Teachers are there to guide us, but they are not there to make us become them.

Just an interesting thing to note every founder of his school of thought was once an apprentice to one another. However, not all of the principles were adopted from their teacher.

Scholars in the Golden Age of Islam often critisize and quote one another, so that they can get the facts right. Even so, no one is truly correct everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So long as they referred back to the original sources and did not deviate from them.

If Yoda believes there are always two, Muslims also believe that there are always two 'original sources' that they need to constantly refer to:

Always two there are. No more, no less. Al Quran , and As Sunnah.

Wallahu a'lam.

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-

nobody@vox.com(astrocoder) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:55:43 -0700

How to Photograph Absolutely Everything: Successful Pictures from Your Digital Camera

Utk mengelakkan kekeliruan sbb Tom Ang ada menulis beberapa buku yg hampir sama covernya, nama penuh buku ini ialah, "HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING: SUCCESSFUL PICTURES FROM YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA". Saya nak tolak buku ni yg dibeli pada awal tahun ini (kononnya nk cuba2 kamera digital, tp terbantut). Menerangkn byk ttg fotografi, membuat exposure, composisi, etc. Ditulis oleh fotographer terkemuka, Tom Ang, terbahagi pada 8 bahagian antaranya, People (menangkap potrait, aksi, candid, etc), landscape (pemandangan, natural, etc), animal (potrait, bird watching, aquarium, etc), architecture (bangunan, interior, abstrak, etc), events (majlis2, wedding, atas stage), artistic expression (byk2 x 10). Sesuai utk yg baru menceburi bidang fotografi digital. :) Harga RM 100 sahaja. Kalau berminat, boleh email saya di astrocoder@gmail.com. Sedikit review ttg buku ini dari amazon:

"Tom Ang is the man. The thing about most photography books is that they take a chapter to explain what can & should be done in a few sentences or a paragraph. They also suffer from a dearth of photos illustrating the concept they are trying to teach. Tom Ang really does teach how to photograph absolutely anything. Every two to four pages there is a new concept with at least a dozen photos illustrating the technique. There are bullet statements on steps to follow and what to look for when setting up the shot. I love it: one page, one technique, several pics. That's the way a photography books should be done. I also enjoy the fact that he doesn't get involved with any computer software or digital editing. All of his techniques can be done in camera. Tom Ang also uses compact or point and shoot cameras without any fancy lenses or accessories. This book is for beginners and hobbyists, not for professional photographers. Buy this book and several of Tom Ang's other publications. You will not be disappointed."

ISBN: 978 1 4053 1985 0

Averange Amazon customer review:

terima kasih :)

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Takziah

nobody@vox.com(mfn) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:00:04 -0800

Yesterday morning I was shocked to hear that my ex-roomate's mother passed away. It is not long before all of us are returning to Malaysia. He decided not to go back.

Takziah is different from 'tahniah'. We often have the misconception that by saying 'takziah' to someone, it would be enough. Takziah itself is an act of condolence, not a wish. Takziah is what we do to comfort our brothers and sisters, to share grief, and to do whatever it takes to help the one who is at loss. We pray for the best for them.

But it doesn't really matter if we are sincere in our wish. The person knows our intent. God knows our intent.

Unto Him we shall return. It is a reminder to myself of what I would do and feel it it happens to me. And what if, at this minute, my life is taken away. I have done so many bad deeds in this world and I don't know if I can face the afterlife. Pray that we shall all be at peace in this world and in the Hereafter.

Say:"The death from which you flee will truly overtake you; then you will be sent back to the Knower of things secret and open: and He will tell you (the truth of) the things that you did!" (Jumu'ah: 8).

I pray that she will be among those will be among those who are loved by God. Be strong my brother. Verily, to Allah belongs what He has taken, and to Him belongs what He has given. For everything He has set a term. Al-fatihah.

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Musolla

nobody@vox.com(mfn) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:24:47 -0700

It wasn't until I entered college that I learned to use this word. We used to call it 'surau' -a typical name for a place of worship which is smaller than a mosque. The name of the building may be different, but its function remains the same.

Recently, I heard a lot of people talking about musolla and mosques only having "Quran" and "Yasin" in Malaysia. They compared it with the West as they always have Quran and Hadith stacked on the shelves. Then I questioned myself, "is this really true?"

I am not sure about other places in Malaysia, but in my place that certainly does not happen. I agree that "Yasin" books are abundant in musollas, suraus and mosques due to its significance in several rituals. But this does not mean that the suraus, musollas and mosques do not have books on Sirah Rasulullah/hadith. It's probably because we are used to be given "Yasin" for granted that we forgot about other books that's available there. When a ritual takes place, people would pass around the "Yasin" to everyone in the compound. So, we don't really have to work hard to get one. When that happens, we could care less about other things that has been provided in the shelves.

But that's just probably a theory. There might be truth behind the missing Sirah and hadith. But from where I am living, I haven't come across a musolla/mosque with no books on Hadith. I slowly learned and became interested in Sirah Nabawiyyah when I was browsing the books in the musolla. Even the surau in schools do have books on that. They are usually placed in the shelves.

People not reading the hadith? Think again. There are people who do make use of the hadith in the musolla. But they wouldn't be reciting it like the Quran. That is why we may sometimes see this phenomena as not as popular as Quran and Yasin recitation. But I have to agree upon one thing, the numbers of people who reads it frequently are lesser than those who read the Quran.

But so long as the knowledge of Quran and Hadith is passed on, it doesn't matter how they are presented. Some people may opt to read and recite, while others may opt to listen, memorize and discuss. But this tradition must go on. Wallahu'alam.

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Satire: Parliament Speech - Slapping to increase performance

nobody@vox.com(Aput) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:02:39 -0700

(again, this is just satire)

Yang Dipertua,

It has come to my attention that slapping is now being a culture among Malaysians, particularly amongst teachers and students for their late attendance to classes. As such I wish to propose measures to ensure equality amongst Malaysians, as per the 1 Malaysian motto’s wish to increase performance.

Firstly, since students arriving 10 minutes late to classes will be slapped, teachers who arrives late of the same duration, or leaves classes early of the same duration, will be receiving a slap from every member of the class.

This also applies to students and lecturers in our higher learning centres.

Similarly, this culture must also be implemented in the workplace to encourage performance of employees as well as employers.

The slapping of employees arriving 10 minutes late to work will be encouraged, as will the slapping of managers by all his subordinates for arriving late of the same duration.

This culture will also be implemented into contractors who are late in their construction projects. For every 10 minute delay, the government, or owner of the project, and the financiers, are allowed to slap the contractor and members of the crew.

Similarly, to encourage the culture within the government, all government projects that are delayed will be punished with a slap for every 10 minute delay for the minister whose signature approved said project. The rakyat will also be allowed to take part in this culture. If the rakyat were to meet an MP that has yet to keep an electoral promise within his area, he is encouraged to slap the fellow MP for each 10 minute delay he has made for implementing his promises.

Yang Dipertua,

If somehow slapping a student for being 10 minutes late will encourage him to come in early and be on time, then I suggest, with our culture being one that wishes to put ‘performance now’, then we as the government should be the first to experience and put this into practice.

*slaps Anwar for failing his government takeover last September 16*

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