The Man I Ought To Be.

I know it is a bit late, but I had a lot to talk about as I was starting to write about my dad. I had to omit a lot of things due to time constraints. But, here goes.

My dad is the type who rarely talks about his work. When I was still in school, whenever people asked me about his job, he just told me to answer, "Ala,pegawai kerajaan je.(Just a government servant.)" Now that I'm in a working environment, I just got to know that his job is one of the highly regarded job that people would compete to get. He never told me how hard it is to get oneself into his profession, which I would say can be rewarding at times. He never bragged about his job, being humble is his choice, I guess. But now that I passed the exam to get myself into his profession, I can see that he is actually proud of me, which I gladly did.

He actually wanted me to become an engineer. I vividly remember the times where he would proudly claim," You're going to be an engineer one day " which I'm not right now. We had our arguments about the choices that I made of what I wanted to do, but I stood with my decision which though he reluctantly accepted at that time, I can see now that with the offers that I'm getting, I hope that I made him proud. We rarely had our bonding time with each other, but I know that he likes something that is related to current issues. So I trained myself to read a lot of newspapers and get myself updated with current issues so that we would have things to talk about. It worked, actually. We always have something to talk about. At the same time, it helped me in a way that I can talk about anything with anyone. I always have a topic to talk to. That actually builds up my rapport which is quite useful when you have to deal with a lot of people.

Not only that, he is actually one of my readers whenever I write something in my blog. At one time, he called me just to say that I made a grammar mistake in one of my postings. After pointing it out, he would proudly claim that his English is better than an English teacher (read: me). Oh, whatever.Haha. It is one thing to read my blog, but it is another when he promotes my blog to his friends. He even promoted my blog to one of his friends who is a chief editor of a news agency. Because of that, I was called for an interview and was offered a job as a journalist. Though I had to reject the job offer, I still owe it to him for promoting my blog, which I myself wont be doing as much as he did.

"It's ok, just make sure that you wont do the same mistake after this," my dad said to me.

You see, I was into trouble for a lot of time. So everytime I was in a deep shit, I would get the dont-do-it-again lecture from my dad which he would end with that sentence. Whenever I did something bad, the first thing that I would think about is him. I was very afraid of what he would say or do if he found out about what I did. I can still remember till now when I was a kid and I didnt want to take a bath, he chased me around the house just to get me to take my bath. He was quite strict when I was small but now that I'm grown up, he only told me to learn from my mistakes and not to repeat it again. In a way, I learned that whatever bad things that people did, try to forgive them and try to encourage them to learn from their mistakes rather than punishing them and condemning them for the rest of their life. It took me some time to realise what he tried to teach me so now when I can see that, I tried to be someone who is more forgiving towards others and to give others another chance to learn from their mistakes. It's not easy but it surely gives you self satisfaction which you can't get from all the riches in this world. That is my dad. My abah. He taught me that. So thank you abah, and happy father's day.

How to Double Your Money

It makes me cringe everytime I see a picture of people showing their bank accounts,showing off how much they are getting each week by participating in a scheme where they invest a small amount of money and getting a huge return in a short period of time. My take? There is no easy money in this world. If it seems to be that way, then there must be something fishy about it. One of the most notoriously known is 'Login FB dapat RM100' which is utter bullshit. For those who really understand how it works,it is just a scheme where the money just rotate and in order for it to keep on rotating, you have to get downlines. Yes,once you are caught in the web, it would be very difficult for you to get out.

The thing with many of those who are duped, they are too gullible in believing that they can get money without sweating it out. They just have to be shown with an amount of money and can easily be induced with it.

Or they can be shown a picture of someone with a big house or a big car and keep on dreaming that someday they can be the one in the picture when actually, the guy in the picture only borrowed the car and the house for a while.

Ye,saya menang motor.

I have a friend and he is now doing a business of selling things. He already has a stable job and he is doing this part time business as his side income. He told me that this part time job is just that, a part time job. He is not doing it very aggressively as it is not his main source of income. If there is a customer, he would try to sell his things. But if there is none, he would just do his main job without concentrating too much on his part time job. Of course, he did put up some advertisement about his business, but if there is no buyer, he wont be too sad about it. I asked him, why? He told me he has this habit that he felt somehow helped him in one way or another. Everytime he went to the mosque for the Friday prayer, he would try to donate at least RM1 or RM2 to the mosque. It is not a huge amount, but it sure is a good thing to do, he said. He told me that each time he did that, in one or two days, there would be more customers looking for him. He said that maybe it is a gift from God, that for the small amount that he gave to the mosque, God would give something better to him. But he warned me, that we should not be thinking of getting a reward when donating, we must be sincere and not to be thinking too much if there is no return from the small donation that we made. God, he said, already has plans for us. If God wants us to get some money from our dealings, we would. But if it is not meant to be, then it is not meant to be and we just have to work harder.

Money is a sensitive topic to be talked about. People just seem so eager to amass as much as they can without actually knowing the source of the money first. The money from gambling, for example, which would be used for us to buy food for our family, would have a long term effect which we wont be able to see until it is too late. This is one of the problems with Malaysians, some of us just cant get enough of money that they would resort to whatever method that is possible as long as the money reaches them. It is like organic food and non-organic food. You might get bigger and juicier orange which is chemically laden, but you would get a better quality orange from the organic orange. That is how it is with money. The bottom line is, there is no free lunch. Not even free orange.

Your Shoes Are Too Big For Me.

It is a bit ironic that Mother's Day falls on the same month with Labour Day. A traditional and conservative family would regard being a mother is actually a job per say. So I guess it is not very ironic to some then. Being a mother is a lot of work. Loads of chores have to be done while juggling with the kids and at the same time, preparing things for the husband. For a family where the burden of chores are all on the shoulder of the mother, it certainly won't win the most coveted job of the year.

The place where I'm working right now requires me to deal with nurses, a lot. For those who don't know, my mom used to work as a nurse and she is already retired now. I got my chances to talk with the nurses and asked a little bit about their job, their life experience and everything. I learned a lot from them. But one thing that all of them agreed on is that being a nurse is not a very easy job. It made me think, how did my mom managed to raise her children and at the same time juggling with her demanding job, taking care of the children when we are sick, just like how she took care of the patients when they needed her the most. How was she able to prepare our breakfast before she went to work early in the morning? I am not even married yet, but I already feel the burden of working. I have no idea how hard it could be if I were to be like her.

People say that we won't know someone until we put ourselves into that someone's shoe. But I guess to put myself into my mom's shoe is just impossible as her shoes are too big for me to fill. Happy Mother's Day, ibu.

I Want.

A few days before my birthday, people keep on asking what I wanted for my birthday. I never really know what I wanted, so I made a list and had a few things things in mind.

I already have a personal computer but I have always wanted a netbook. Maybe a Dell netbook as I have always preferred Dell when it comes to laptops.

I was thinking that maybe I can use it for my photo outings and can easily transfer my pictures into the netbook as a backup.

Or...maybe I would want to have a new DSLR body, the Pentax K-7.

Just imagine the possibilities of what I can do with a new body :D

Oh man....I'm such a gadget freak, aren't I ? But to prove to you that I'm not, I have another thing that I would like to have.

I would like Lisa Surihani to sing to me. Though looking at her acting skills, I dont think I should hope for much if I were to get her to sing for me.

So when I had a look at my list,trying to get the best thing as a present for my birthday, I realized that I dont need these things.

I only need my dearest to be with me.

Needs are more important than wants.

Now I Won't Get Lost Anymore.

I have never been good in finding places which I am not familiar with. I once took 2 hours from Shah Alam to Ampang just because I got lost and I could not find my way =_=

I am the type who would have to be around that place for a few times before I could remember the roads. So I was so determined that I would get a GPS for my newly-acquired Nokia 5800 ( well that explains the laziness of me remembering new roads =_= ) so that I wont get lost after this. I have been using my Garmin for mobile on my phone for a few weeks now and I must say that it did a good job. Before I give out my opinions, here are the instructions on how to install Garmin on your Symbian phones. These instructions were taken from the blog of Noktahhitam. All the credit goes to the blog owner of Noktahhitam. Im just sharing here. You can visit the blog here.

Before you do anything, Download the file (80 mb ++) and read all the instructions before hand. It’ll help you to visualize the process.

Download file contains

• GarminMobileXTforSymbianS603rdEdition_50040.exe
• GarminMobileXTFreeBasemap_4xxxx.exe
• GarminMobileXTSupportFiles_4xxxx.exe
• gmapsupp.img (Malaysian Map, with DUKE highway)
• garmin_kgen.exe
• 5800_manual.pdf
• GarminMobile20_GarminMobileXTOwnersManual.pdf

You can skip step 1 if you want. But if you want to do it, just make sure that you do a full back up of your phone.

1. Setting up Apparatus, The Nokia 5800

1. -Back up all data using PC Suite (go to Nokia website).
2. -Soft reset by pressing *#7370#. Should take about 2-3 mins and you lose all your data (except on memory card). But don’t worry, you have back up remember?
3. -On your Nokia 5800, go to Application > Location > Positioning > Positioning Methods. Enable “Assisted GPS” and “Integrated GPS” ONLY. This will ensure you don’t get charge using WAP or 3G network for Internet.
4. -Go to Application > Location > GPS Data > Position > Options > Satellite status. This will show the satellite signals you’re receiving. Be sure you are outdoor in an open area. Balcony doesn’t work well, believe me I’ve tried. Once you’ve got AT LEAST 4 satellite signal, go back indoor, you don’t want people to think you’re crazy, waving your phone around.
5. -Now you’re ready for GarminXT.

2. Installing GarminXT on Nokia 5800.

1. -Once you’ve downloaded, unzip the files to someplace accessible preferably on your desktop. If you haven’t, please download it.
2. -Connect your phone via USB and select ‘Mass storage mode’.
3. -From you PC, double click “GarminMobileXTforSymbianS603rdEdition_50040.exe” to install and wait.
4. -Double click “GarminMobileXTFreeBasemap_4xxxx.exe” to install. Wait..
5. -Double click “GarminMobileXTSupportFiles_4xxxx.exe” to install.
6. -Remove USB connection between PC and phone. When prompted ‘Launch GarminXT’ do not click Yes, just Cancel.
7. -From your phone, go to Menu > Settings > Application Manager > Installation files. There should be GarminXT.sis file. Install it.

3. Cracking GarminXT on Nokia 5800.

1. -Tell yourself and say “Yes, I’m a cheapskate”.
2. -Run GarminXT from your phone at Menu > Application > Garmin. It will prompt you with some settings. Choose your preferable.
3. -Select “Use other device” when it prompts you to buy or trial. You will get a screen, “Where To?” and “View map”
4. -In GarminXT, go to Tools > Settings > About. Jot down “Card ID”, you will need it. Exit GarminXT
5. -On your PC, run “garmin_kgen.exe” and enter the “Card ID” from previous steps.
6. -Generate it and you will get a string of codes. Copy the codes to Notepad and save it as “sw.unl”. *Be sure you don’t save it as sw.unl.txt”*
7. -Connect your phone to PC and select “Mass storage mode”.
8. -Copy “sw.unl” to Garmin folder. Usually located at E:/Garmin.
9. -Copy “gmapsupp.img” from downloaded file to Garmin folder. “gmapsupp.img” is the Malaysian map.
10. -Disconnect your phone from PC.

4. Restore your Nokia 5800

1. -Reconnect your phone via PC Suite.
2. -Restore your settings through back up.

5. Setting up GarminXT on Nokia 5800

1. -You don’t need your PC anymore. Shut down and conserve energy.
2. -Run GarminXT on your phone.
3. -Go to Tools > Settings > System > Remote GPS. Change to “Use Attached GPS” by disabling the “Bluetooth GPS”.
4. -Go to Tools > Manage My Data > Map Sets > MapSource. Make sure all maps are enabled.

6. Toying GarminXT on Nokia 5800.

1. -Switch off your fans and lights. Go out.
2. -Run GarminXT, (duh!).
3. -Select “View Map” and wait for a while. The satellite will find you. It took me 5 mins or so. Just have patience and faith.
4. -Now you’ll see where you are.
5. -Go back and select “Where To?”. If you’re at home and wants GarminXT to store you current location as home, then select “Home”
6. “Where To?” is rather confusing. I usually use “Where To?” > Point of interest. There’s lots of shopping malls, hospitals, banks, ATM machines etc. from there, you’d know where to go.
7. -Pat yourself and say “Well done”. The rest is up to you.

These past few weeks that Ive been using the GPS, I can say that the Garmin GPS is better than the Ovi Map that is supplied by Nokia. Alot of features on Ovi Map need me to use my data connection, which is a no-no for a cheapskate like me.Haha.

The route recalculating on the Garmin is very fast too, it took me less than 5 seconds to recalculate another route while Im on the road. Ive tried installing the Garmin on Nokia 5800, Nokia E75 and Nokia N97. It worked just fine on the 5800 and E75 but somehow it couldnt work on N97 as there are buttons that cant be used on N97. So it is not advisable for you to try to install it on the N97.

There are many questions regarding the step 3 and how to crack it such as this :

1. when i start my garmin on 5800 ( pls refer to your point # 3 iii) where it says “Select “Use other device” when it prompts you to buy or trial. You will get a screen, “Where To?” and “View map” – there is no such option. it gives you four options:
a) purchase and go
b) begin free trial
c) enter product key
d) connect to garmin GPS

pls let me know which option to choose here…

From my experience of cracking the software, there is no such thing as 'use other device', that is why people are confused as to which option to choose. Just make sure that you choose the 'connect to garmin GPS' and proceed to instruction number 4 of step 3 which is

In GarminXT, go to Tools > Settings > About. Jot down “Card ID”, you will need it. Exit GarminXT.

Make sure that once you cracked the software, update the map at malfreemaps. From what I am told, it is updated weekly.

There you have it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I am right now! :D

Men are having it easy.

How many of us know that every 8th of March is the International Women's Day? I guess some of you will be asking, 'Really??'.



What is the purpose of special days like this usually? It is because people want to feel appreciated. It's the same with Teacher's Day where teachers want to feel appreciated and Labour Days where all workers are appreciated. So how about Men's Day? Don't men want to be appreciated too? I guess we are, but there are reasons that there is a Women's Day but not Men's Day.

It's because women are facing a tough time now while men are having it easy.

Let's face it, women nowadays are having a hard time, especially in marriage and education. More women are getting married a bit later compared to 20 to 30 years ago. This situation is also interrelated with the level of education of women nowadays. More women are concentrating on their studies and careers now that they cant simply settle down and put a break on their very fast-paced life. This leads to them getting older and unmarried. When they feel like getting married, most men are too afraid to approach them as their career and education status might be too intimidating. This forces women to 'marry someone who was less educated or with lower qualifications. Some also married men younger than them' like what is reported in this piece of news. Men have egos, alright. Not many men would want to marry someone whose salary is double the amount of what that man gets per month.

I had a look at the list of the 2010 SPM candidates who excelled in their studies. The best student is, yes, you guess it right, a girl,Gladys Tan Yee Kim. While most of the excellent students are girls, I guess there is still a shine of light at the end of the tunnel when SM Sains Seremban is announced as the best school. For those who dont know, it's an all-boys school. You see how competitive it is for the girls to compete now when most of the excellent students are girls too?

Ok, so how is it that I'm saying men are having it easy now? First of all, not many men are really interested to study anymore. That is one of the reason that men are a rare breed in the university and colleges. Some just prefer to work while some prefer to go to the 'college of needles'.



Well, there your future goes, out of the window.

So for those men who are continuing their studies, they can rest assured that the competition in getting a place to universities and getting a job is less compared to the women. Men are in a position to choose now, so for all the men out there, don't worry that there is no Men's Day for us, at least we have something that women dont have, more choices!Haha.

Formal Education: It's More Than That.

I had a look at my blog, it has been 4 weeks since my last entry. Im already working now and it starts to take a toll out of me. Most of the time is spent on working and when Im at home it is spent relaxing after a hard day's work. Being at a working place really helps me to learn alot of things, especially things that are related to education as Im in the education profession.

Formal education is just a ticket to success.

Being in the education line, Ive encountered so many people eager to pursue their studies that is of interest to them. It's not that getting a degree and such is a bad thing.Its a very commendable thing to do. Well, learning never stops, right? Getting diplomas, degrees, masters or even PhD s can open many opportunities for you. But thats what they are, they give you options, opportunities for you to be successful. It doesnt guarantee you anything. The world doesnt owe you success. In order to be successful, you need more than a scroll and a formal education. You got to have the right attitude. I have seen people who didnt really score in their degree can be successful too. They might not have enough aptitude to compete with other workers but they have the right attitude, the will to learn and not giving up. I guess these are the criteria that we can never get from a classroom. It comes from within you. Dont forget social skills. You might be able to score 3.90 for your CGPA but the knowledge that you have comes to nothing if it cant be properly channeled to other people i.e. co-workers. You need social skills, moreover when your profession demands you to deal with other people day in day out as opposed to being in a lab looking at some chemicals. That is what I normally tell people when they are too concerned about their studies like there's no other thing to think about except for exams, exams and more exams. Its not that exams arent important. It is. But some people dont know how to balance things out. I was in the Dean's List for two semesters in a row during my first year degree. But I felt like I wanted more than just mere degree. So I got myself involved in alot of things after that but at the same time not forgetting my priorities in my studies. My principle was and still is, work hard but play harder, as I dont want to be that dull boy sitting at the corner counting numbers while other people are having fun during the recess time. Im still carrying the same principle even when Im teaching. I let my students to give their opinions rather than listening to me blabbering, and telling them stories that are related to the topic in the class, something from my experience. It gets them to think and not just nodding their head in agreement. Enough of producing students who can only score in exams but nil in their character. Formal education is just a ticket to success. Unless we stop producing students who churn out facts without understanding them, formal education is like a ticket to a success that isnt there.