canon newbie!

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after contemplating and trying to save up for a canon, we received a surprise by getting one as a gift! i am so in love with the camera and although it was not exactly the model i was aiming for, well, its good to start somewhere! i could probably give more focus on my new found interest in photography now, and not just any social media instagram photographer. and you know what, i even have two professional photographers i am looking up to: Annie leibovitz and Peter sanders.

i will continue to save up until i can finally afford a proper dslr canon.

rejabku

Rejabku penuh sibuk
Rejabku pantas berlalu
Rejabku hanya tugas bertalu
Rejabku jangan hilang begitu

Rejabku penuh pilu
Rejabku terusik qalbu
Rejabku khabar sayu
Rejabku jangan marahkan aku

Rejabku lihat dakwah sana
Rejabku disini dakwahku
Rejabku menanda tanya
Rejabku, apa yang dikejarkan?

Rejabku, luaskan dakwah ku
Rejabku, ikhlaskan ibadah ku
Rejabku, laksanakan amanahku
Rejabku jangan hilang begitu

Allahumma baariklanaa fii Rajab wa Sya’aban, wa ballighnaa fi Ramadhan

guru yang hilang

perginya seorang lagi guru
perginya seorang lagi alim
perginya seorang lagi pendakwah
perginya seorang yang berhati mulia

hilangnya kuntuman senyuman
hilangnya suara lembut dalam tegas
bertemu hanya sekali
tapi bagai guru yang disayangi

entah kenapa hati terusik pilu
sedih dan kesal
tersedar dari dunia materialis
mungkin ini teguran untuk kita dari Nya

dakwahnya tanpa henti
ajarnya tanpa letih
ilmunya tanpa rahsia
kenapa kita terus leka?

apa lakuku mencukupi?
untuk mendapat tempat bersama mereka?
untuk medapat redhaMu Ya Allah?
untuk mendapat syafaatmua Rasulullah?

Rahmati guru2 kami Ya Allah
Mereka yang tanpa lelah mengajar kami
Lindungi mereka Ya Allah
Mereka yang hanya ingin mendidik kami

Rahmati diri ku Ya Rahman
Lindungi diri ku Ya Rahim
Didik diri ku Ya Murabbi
Fa’fu ‘anni Ya Rabbi

*Perginya seorang guru Ustaz Md Ibrahim Md Kassim yang tidak ku kenali secara dekat tapi kehilangannya bagai menusuk ke hati. sungguh, kami yang muda ini tidak mungkin sama seru dakwah kami. Didik kami Ya Allah, didik kami ya Allah. didik aku ya Allah…

be present

i think nlp is helping me here again. for the past few days, i had to commit to family and social meet ups. its not that i dislike having them, it’s just that my introvert-ness sometimes rule more than the need to be involved in the gatherings. and i thought i would make a change. it is also an opportunity to practice some red thinking profile, as emergenetics has proven that i scored badly in this.

little did i know that reframing the mind is all that it needs for this self to come out of its shell and overcome shyness. yes, even with the family i need some coaxing because i just totally go lazy or ‘shut down’ if i need to go out have dinner outside. i know, chronic illness ah this shyness and homely attitude sometimes.:P

i just tell my brain – the unconscious mind 😉 ‘i need to be present.’ keyword. tops. just that. with a little bit of goal setting, i tell myself that i need to be present, i need to focus on my family/friends for today/now. it really helps.

when usually i would seem bored and quiet, i was able to strike up conversations and be involved in their conversations as well. i’m surprised at myself. just today, i had dinner with a group of friends which sometimes i find difficulty getting into, if you know what i mean, but today, i think i did better than usual. i am more my self. we talked we joked we laughed. i finally could truly enjoy a social meeting.

so its been days of birthday lunch and dinners. glad i spend dinner with some friends for May birthdays!

although by now, i am exhausted. it takes a lot to be present but no regrets. it is important to spend some time for friends. speaking of which there are other groups of friends which i have yet to spend time with, erk.. and i look forward to a restorative niche with my husband for this two days i am fortunate of having.

now, i need to be present for my husband.

ottoman may

at a book loss

I seem to have a relapse for reading. I couldnt find one book that can hold my attention to go through the next chapter. I got bored easily. Not even a fave author can hold me long. But when im not reading, i feel like im a lost wanderer. My brain hanging on a loose thread. I can almost feel a void in me.

Get me a good book. Please. Any book.

past quarterlife crisis

hi. been busy these days with work and school. i like that..saying ‘work and school.’ like i have a meaningful mission to accomplish.

school has been mild going at the moment although the lecturer has started to remind us about the assignment that we need to do. its been all theories, a reminiscence of theories i have had the fortune to learn back in uni in Intro to Psychology. i was reminded of pavlov and freud and erikson. i enjoyed them. although back then i learnt for the sake of learning and was not inclined to take it up as my second major, i never regretted doing it. i chose sociology instead. again, no regrets, oh except for one, i wished i had the chance to do criminology. that would have sealed the deal. but already deviant behaviour was such an eye opener and depressing. haha.

so back in my specialist diploma class. i was introduced though, to quarterlife crisis and the lecturer invited us to reflect on that. what crisis did we face back when we were 25? i couldnt think of any in class but on the way back home, i thought about it, i guess i cannot say i did not have a quarterlife crisis. everyone has.

my crisis was about choosing a career. i was doing temporary projects at that point of time and i realised my position was in jeopardy because i cannot see myself doing what i was doing. i was thrown from one task to another without specific something to focus on, except for the sudden interest in education and curriculum. i was also teaching part time and quite put my mind and heart into it, up to a point that my parents questioned when was i going to ever spend a proper rest day at home? and then i got thrown into a fulltime job, which was what lead to what i am doing now.

and then there was the matchmake decision i had to do. thrown into knowing a man chosen by my parents and uncles. it was about whether to go for this relationship or to continue leading a single life when week after week i receive invitations to weddings of schoolmates, uni-mates, etc etc.

my crisis was with myself. too shy too boring too quiet too simple, still quite unsure of what to do with my life just yet. just look at my blogposts year 2009. 😉 heck, go straight to January 2009 and see what you get, a questionnaire with song titles. one question: what is your life’s purpose? my answer? =damn regret! (by the red jumpsuit apparatus) fuhh! that’s one for the memory lane!

it was a matter of making decisions. but i cannot say i did not have some achievements that year, no?

i have not regretted my decisions but work is really taking its toll on me.

but with all the odds, i braved myself to claim time off, left whatever pending works and took halfday to spend last thursday with recovering mother, although it was more of her accompanying me to a massage session. which i am really really glad i did. the makcik masseuse ‘untie all knots’ till i am practically bruised. and i understood why so many people have been saying i look tired! my body was really really tired, i have just ignored it. poor body. but it was pampered for a whole two hours. even my mother was relieved i finally made the massage appointment. i am glad to announce this makcik as my personal masseuse. hehe.

and then i spent the whole day friday with my mother and sisters. its been such a long time since we all girls went out together. i truly am happy and grateful we get to do this before my sisters start working and my mother well enough to get back to work. so so glad. i practically splurged on myself and on them. i feel like i was going through a wardrobe overhaul! i really did though i was very happy with the dresses/blouses i bought. i am thirty after all, need to dress well i must say. i loved the day. i wasnt even feeling tired when i had to go straight to class. i just had such a fulfilling day chatting and shopping with them. really we had so much to talk about.

slowly getting over my quarterlife crisis. slowly make the right decision. as of now, i will work my ass off. sorry the pun intended.

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forever charmed

charmed

im in a reading relapse mode. this always happens after i read a real good book or a book which impacted me alot. and the past three books which i read is doing this to me. it made me feel like there is no other book which is as good as the previous. i read Quiet, Aleph and The Messenger, and these books had impacted me in some ways that now i couldnt get them out of my mind and i couldn’t quite figure out what book to read next. bear in mind, i have lots of unread book on my shelves. i picked one, i read a few pages and i put it back on the shelf, pick another, same ritual and for the past week, that’s what i have been doing.

Latest book i attempted to read was Mitch Albom’s The First Phone Call from Heaven, but past few chapters, i decided the book is going to be such a drag to read at this point of time. it’s plain boring. repetitious. it’s about death and we all know there is not going to be an answer at the end of the chapter. i should have known. i never did really like Mitch Albom. sorry.

so i ended up picking up a non-fiction spiritual book on Du’as of the Superstars by Alima Ashfaq in the hope that it will inspire me perhaps. i don’t know how it’s going to be like, i’m only past the preface. it’s the charmed season, to me, now. haha.

Anyway my mind is so much distracted by CHARMED. yes, i am rewatching Season 1 back-to-back. I can never get bored of Charmed. forever will be my most favourite drama season. i still remember the first time i saw its trailer on TV, i decided right there and then that i am going to love this show! and i did. i remembered my excitement and anticipation waiting for that very first episode. and i am hooked. till now. and once i started watching the first episode, i will continue one by one. i did that before, twice, gone through all the episodes until the end of their final season. and deep in the fans’ hearts, we still hoped they will bring back Charmed. it had been prue, my first love, but in her memory, i persevered and watched all the way.

and! i just found out there may be works on new seasons of Charmed! and after so long, i realised there is Charmed Season 9, comic version. hehehe..

forever charmed.

steampunk bookmark

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i have been having visions of this bookmark for days! and i realised i had to do it, otherwise it will continue to haunt my mind! so out of impromptu-ness, i did it right about 10 minutes ago! and the feeling! it felt like a craving satisfied. i love how it turns out though :))

my brain could finally stop thinking about it. i was glad i had the stuffs that could materialise the bookmark, or dare i say i would go straight to PS or 313@Somerset tomorrow and find the items that fit the vision. although, it has always been, i have a vision or a picture of it, look through my scrapbook boxes to find the flowers, papers whatever that fit the picture, glue them here and there, and it just happen.

just me. just like writing. i can go for days or weeks without doing any writing or scrapbooking and when the sudden ilham comes in mind, it just goes pooff and i really need to sit down and do something about it.

video disclaimer

please know that i have no intent to go back to my rebel teenage days of posting my fave bands on my blog. Warpaint’s Billie Holiday was just a test post. but they are awesome arent they?

in another life, i could have been a guitarist. i played the guitar but then i stopped. between what i enjoyed and what i have become. i actually could play for an audience. well some small audience. between what i would have loved doing and what i think people expect of me. i guess life is always about choices. i do sometimes have all these ‘what ifs’. maybe i should turn those what ifs into short stories. oh gosh, im excited just saying it out loud. but i dont know if i have the time or the talent for that anymore.

anyway, i have left the guitar by the dust. i would love to pick it up again.

oh well Billie Holiday sounds like a nice song to be dedicated to my husband, if i understand the song correctly.

matrix re-life

i am watching The Matrix as im typing this and im brought back to a time, in my pre-u days when i had a general paper lesson and guess what the teacher made us do? Watch The Matrix! and i am introduced to a world of learning where it was not based on textbook and from then on, i learnt to watch movies with a critical mind and learn the language at the same time. of all the lessons i have learnt, this particular lesson practically etched itself in my memory. it invoked a sense of learning, wonder, critical inquiry but at that point of time, i have to admit, all the while watching the movie with my schoolmates, i was thinking: why the heck are we watching this movie, wont we get caught by the principal or the discipline mistress, despite the knowledge we are watching this with a teacher in class. but, hey, it’s keanu reeves, if we can watch him in class, why not?! and giggle to his handsomeness along the way. but now, im just thinking, it was still a process of learning. im in the education line now and i realised the need for me to be on par with what is happening around me, the community, the world, the religion. i can say i have been quite ignorant, coz it’s bliss they say. not anymore. as much as my introverted personality wants to shy away from all the chaos, my analytical thinking style would really like to do something about it.

so the machines used in the Matrix, kinda obscure now that the world is more advanced and technology wise more sophisticated and smart than those shown in the Matrix. i never really get to fully understand The Matrix though, not then not now. Dont even talk about the second and third Matrix movie. the second movie, i always stopped watching when it reached the part where they are all partying in what looks like an indigenous cave. so now what, what makes Neo’s life different or more pure than the life the matrix has computerised human to believe in? i just hated the club dancing scene.
so What is Real? well here’s real for you.

life has been a rush these few weeks, aint it? i have this mosque officers course i had to attend and in the midst of it all, my dad had a hard attack and warded in ICU for a night and just when everything is going back to normal, my mother was warded due to high fever and suspected of TB. SubhanAllah. the challenges this family is facing and it is only March. Mom is undergoing treatment now, she’s home but on hospitalisation leave and has to visit the polyclinic everyday for the next two weeks to get her medication. already she’s looking weak and frail, lose weight and have no appetite. and its kind of heart wrenching seeing my father taking care of her at this point of time now when he himself needs to slow down a bit recovering from the heart surgery. so they went through some hard times but i know the depth of love they have for each other. i am glad the choice is still this. life.

i am praying for health in the family, even my husband who himself have been coughing close to two months now. after all this settled, mom, dad and hubby gets well, i am going to do a check up of my own.

2014 has been something, maybe something good will happen soon. pray for health and happiness.

Rabbana aatinaa fiddunya hasanah wa fil akhirati hasanah.

the body cannot live without the mind… so the mind needs to live for the body.