... a sign??

Arriving back from visits on Easter weekend, I was vegetating in front of the tv when I caught a news article about yet another quake off of Sumatera. The seismic map shown seemed to indicate that Malaysia was pretty much "protected" by Sumatera itself, so I didn't think twice about it.... until a day later, when I finally unearthed my handphone from my bag, and saw sms'es from my brother and mom about how the apartment building in PJ was SWAYING and that they were evacuating the building...

oh my....

The impact on Malaysia/KL occurred around midnight - in a way that was an ideal time... After all, if it had struck during the daytime, ALL high-rise buildings, including the world's tallest twin towers, would have been choc-full of people... I can just imagine the panic that would have ensued within KL's Golden Triangle! At least with it striking late night, families could escape together - no kids stuck at home with a maid who freezes in terror, y'know?

Oh - and at least this quake did NOT create a tsunami to go with it...

Once again I must state that I am surprised at Malaysia experiencing such tremors... It's so rare for us to feel them, and now it's what - 2 in 3 months?

And what *is* it about that faultline that has shaken us twice in three months?

And how about this - for those who want "signs": One struck the day after Christmas, and this recent one just after Easter, which happen to be the main "Christian" events. Is "God" trying to tell us something?

For those who picked up on it - yes, I put Christian in quotes - you know why, right? When the roman Emperor Constantine attempted to consolidate his power base through Christianity, some "reverse engineering" was done to superimpose Christian events on preexisting ones. After all, so long the common people still had their few festivals and days of cheer that helped alleviate the drudgery of life during those times, it didn't really matter *which* deity was officially worshipped.... Quantity was more important than quality.... hmmmm, that sounds soooo familiar....

1. "Christmas" - it's NOT Jesus' birthday... if you remember that December 22nd is the shortest day of the year, and if you can put yourselves into the shoes of the people of ancient times who did not know about earth spinning around its axis and around the sun, every year around this time they saw the days getting shorter and shorter (and of course the nights getting longer and longer) and they would wonder it the end of the world was coming... then december 23, 24th would show that the days' decline wsa reversed - days were going to get longer again, whoohoo, so they would end up having a huge festival to celebrate the triumph of the light over the dark... THAT is what is celebrated, not Jesus' birthday... Oh - a side note - nowadays it's referred to as Krismas in Malaysia, but I still remember when I was younger, it being called Hari Natal.

2. "Easter" - there is the resurrection story... which just so happens in the start of springtime... when the earth shrugs off the last feelers of winter, and the process of greening the earth happens... the time to celebrate rebirth, copulation, fertility... and the festival is actually named after Eostre of the Dawn, tho there is also a Hindu deity Usha with a similar function. The symbols associated with Easter - eggs, rabbits - are all fertility symbols. btw - did you ever wonder about the practice of providing "bunga telur" at Malay weddings??

I hope I taught some people something new today....

Peace.

yes, i'm alive... and I need your feedback please!

it's been quite a while since my previous posting... my apologies to my reader(s?), and hope no-one was actually worried about me! I actually have about 5 different ideas for posts in draft form, but i didn't have the mood to push them into actual postings... I'll process them in due time, or deem them irrelevant and just move on :-)

and talking about moving on: it is with great reluctance that I will be getting back to Malaysia in about 2 weeks' time. My almost 6 months here have been great, although the weather put a stop on my ideas of travelling well before I could even begin! If nothing else, that gives me a reason to return soon, during the WARMER months, to do just that :-)

And that means that no, I am still not looking for a job, whether in malaysia or elsewhere. I must say, however, that at least my 6 months of joblessness has started my healing process... I'm no longer bubbling over with anger and frustration when I think of my past job (especially the last 2 years of it) - whoohoo! I do recognise, however, that I've been so burned out trying to make a difference and seeing NO RESULT that right now I can't see myself working in any field at all - not for the job itself but for the people I'd need to deal with.

I think that one of the things I need to do now is do something that has guaranteed rewards: something that is not that complicated, where I put in some effort, and I get results in proportion to the effort I put in. And it should be something that kinda primes me to get back into the workforce one day. So, how about something relatively structured, with a set syllabus, exams at then end, plus opportunities for extra credit?

Yeah.... I'm thinking that I am finally ready, mentally, to start looking at options to further my studies. I'm guessing a second BSc would not be as useful as a Masters', eh?

The next question is: what area to pursue?

Despite a paper qualification in Chemistry, most of my career has been in Change Management. In fact, I believe if I were to do a Master's in Organisational Behaviour, I'd only add frosting to what I've already picked up in 7 of my 9 years of work. BUT... do I really want to get myself a degree in that field? Getting a degree in Change Management / Organisational Behaviour would pretty much condemn me to the rest of my life in the field that burned me out...

I've had positive feedback on my writing: both in terms of style as well as content. Should I look towards something in journalism?

It's at times like these that I think people who have interacted with me have a better idea, or at least can come up with suggestions I may not have come up with alone.

Remember that I'm one weirdo who loks for job satisfaction, and gets off on knowing i'm making a difference. I'm not one who wants labels like General Manager, and neither am I one who looks at the pay before anything else (although so long the pay is enough for me to survive, I'm happy!).

So, dear reader(s)... if you could spare a few minutes to suggest what I could pursue, I'd be delighted!

Many thanx.

Peace.

The Hills are Alive...

It's a sign of the times...

I suppose I should be happy that Yahoo has imposed numerous rules to reduce spam and other abuse originating from their accounts… but it was *SO* frustrating the other day: there I was, groaning delightedly at a punny e-mail I felt was worth sharing with everyone… so I composed my message, and proceeded to select most of my ex-colleagues in my address book; then I clicked “send”.

Yes, I myself label that as spamming… but it’s not really a true spam, since I’m sending the joke to people I know! Anyway – can u guess what happened next?


ERROR: YOUR MESSAGE HAS NOT BEEN SENT was the message on the screen – in red - instead of that usual “message sent.” Ugh. It seems Yahoo now puts a limit to the number of recipients OF THE SAME DOMAIN NAME in any one e-mail message. And since I was e-mailing my ex-colleages at their work e-mails… of course they were all addresses of the same domain name! Ugh!

Fine.

Since the error message didn’t state just how many of the same domain name WERE allowed, I figured I’d just send the same message to smaller bunches of people instead. So I only did about 20 (instead of the almost 100 or so) recipients, and hit send. Yahoo! No problems with that!

Then I did the second batch, continuing with another 20 or so recipients.

I hit send.

ERROR: YOUR MESSAGE HAS NOT BEEN SENT.

Omg what now? Can you guess? It seems I had now reached my “sending limit for the hour”!!!

>>>>>>> “sending limit”?????? “… for the hour”??????

What, are we allowed to only send two or three messages per hour now??

No way in hell was I going to putter around online just to wait for an hour to pass by before trying again to pass some groans/laughs to my friends and colleagues!

So here it is: The joke that led to the discovery of new and restrictive anti-spamming Yahoo practices. You tell me if it was worth it:

~~~~~~~~~

Bob Hill and his wife Betty were vacationing in Transylvania. Driving in a storm, they had a wreck. Both were hurt, especially Betty. So Bob carried her to a nearby farmhouse. A hunchbacked man, Igor, answered the door, and called to his master, a scientist. The Hills were taken to the lab downstairs, where they were placed on tables. Despite the scientist's best efforts, both died. Disconsolate, the scientist went upstairs to play his piano. Igor, cleaning the lab, noticed that both Bob and Betty were moving. He ran upstairs. "Master, master," he exclaimed, "the Hills are alive with the sound of music!"

Double-checking with snopes :-)

One of my inboxes has started to be filled up again with a variety of mails... and while I usually just read and delete, this time there were a few that I thought I'd just swing by over to www.snopes.com and check just how true some of those mails were. Let me share them with ya:

1. This picture was supposedly taken in front of an IHOP (International House of Pancakes, duh!), where the car owners were forced to stop on their way back from a Home Depot store (an Ikea / DIY type store). True or false? click here to get the whole story, and the verdict!

2. Oh my, one of those wonders of nature, izzit? Here's what snopes has to say about it...









3. I remember searching Snopes for some indication of true/false when I received that e-mail about archaeologists supposedly having uncovered gigantic bones proving the existance of a giant people. Not finding anything, I forwarded them the e-mail and asked them to investigate. Didn't hear anything back from them, but just now, as I was surfing their site, I decided to see if there was any update - and yes, there was! Whoohoo! I'd like to think I helped point them in the direction of yet another Urban Legend. Anyway - it's confirmed FALSE. Read more here.

4. And who didn't have a good laugh at THIS photo?
yep, you guessed it... it's fake too!

Here's the full report.










Once again... a friendly reminder... have a good laugh at all those e-mails you receive in your inbox... but do take a few minutes to check them out before passing them on to others, ok?

Peace.

trials and tribulations : numero tres

I stumbled on a place to take quizzes that are much more educational (as opposed to the others I'd pointed you to in two previous postings, that were very much more for fun.): MSN's Encarta!

The ones I've taken so far:
1. Famous First Words: Identify the novel based on its opening sentence. (I got 6 / 13)
2. How Bookish are you: I got 6 / 10.
3. Flags of the World: I got 6 / 11.
Hmmmmmm... is there a pattern? I seem to be getting nothing but 6'es?!!

4. Chemistry: I got 9 out of 10!
Whoohoo! I guess getting a degree in Chemistry *does* help me out sometimes ;-p

There are many other quizzes in the following categories:
- Language & Literature
- Animals and Nature
- Geography
- Math and Science
- Sports
- (American) History
- Miscellaneous other stuff

Knock yourselves out! I hope this is handy for ya, especially during those times when there's nothing to do, and you've still got a few hours before you can actually leave that desk of yours and head home/ to the gym / wherever!

Peace.

Iraq & apathy

I don't pretend to know much about world politics.

But I have a big problem with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, where the U.S. administration kept on and on about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posing a serious threat... only to have the same U.S. administration admit, how many months later, how many unnecessary civilian deaths later, how many millions of dollars better spent elsewhere later, that there were indeed no WMDs found.

I also don't understand how the eye of the U.S. settled on Iraq, when they were supposedly hunting Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 masterminds. They bombed Afghanistan, wrecked it, and the country has yet to recover... then suddenly the eye of Mordor swiveled and set its sight onto Iraq. (Can't you just picture that eye from the LOTR movies? )

I smell a "the end justifies the means" excuse coming up from the U.S. Administration...

... but wait... WHAT "end"???

I stumbled across a blog that provides an excellent inside look at what goes on in Iraq right now. Check out Baghdad Burning: riverbendblog.blogspot.com The latest article, at this time, describes her visit to a government office, where she is scolded for not wearing "proper attire" for a female. It's amazing to read that such behaviour (being hung up on covering women's heads, etc) is starting to flourish since the occupation. My impression that that entire region was totally in that rut before the occupation. So much to unlearn and relearn... The author writes well... next thing you know you'll find you've spent 3 hours or more just going through her postings!!

From Baghdad Burning, I found another few links worth reading... there are definitely so much more similar blogs out there, but if you are like me, any link will do so long as it gives me a flavour of what's out there.

Here's an excellent article on the speech Dubya should have given during his inauguration. I haven't surfed beyond that article, but here's the author's main page.

And here's a hard look at the U.S. occupation motives/reasons/excuses: Free Iraq

Maybe the above will help you learn a bit more of what is going on in the world today...

Why am I pointing you to these sites? Well... I feel one of humankind's great failings is apathy. And I feel Malaysians score really high in that angle.

Ask yourself: Do you really care about what is going on in Iraq? So what if there's probably nothing you can do right now that would impact that mess... do you actually have an opinion? If not on Iraq, then other stuff like... oh say... the way the Malaysian government (mis-)handled providing aid to the victims? The raid by JAWI on a nightclub, targeting Muslims only? The way your neighbourhood is kept safe/clean, or not? The way things are going on in your workplace?

I can already hear most people going "Yeah, yeah, yeah: I disagree with so much of what is going on. But what can I do?" "It's not the Malaysian way to voice protests."

And with such a defeatist attitude, apathy thrives

Get an opinion, folks! And even better: make sure it really is your opinion, and not you just regurgitating what you read/heard in the papers/tv/unverifiable emails, ok?

This reminds me of yet another Reader's Digest jewel: someone was raised by his parents, his dad in particular, to NOT make unsubstantiated statements of opinion. For example, after the author for some reason burst out that he "didn't like Van Gogh", he was asked why: he couldn't answer. Neither could he name any of Van Gogh's works. He was then ordered to "report back" to the dinner table the following day, and back-up his statement by not only citing 5 Van Gogh works, but by also providing his opinion of those works, and how they compared to a contemporary artist of that era.

wow... imagine such a scenario happening as you were growing up! I doubt you'd be among the multitudes that seem to swallow hook, line and sinker whatever the establishment spoonfeeds them.

Once you have an opinion, and I mean a logical/critically thought out opinion, it will follow that you will feel strongly for things that are happening: different causes like Iraq, or the many different aspects of the environment, or the lack or corporate governance in the government or your workplace. This will help you "think global, act local"

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead (1901-1978), American Anthropologist

Of Urban Legends and Pregnant Men

An ex-colleague of mine sent me one of those e-mails the other day. Has it made its way to your inbox yet? The one about the pregnant man?

I dunno about any copyright issues, so I'm not posting the pix up, but they are pretty cool... there's even one of him on the cover of Time magazine.

I, of course, smelled an urban legend from the first sentence.

On one hand, it's amusing to receive such e-mails... but on the other hand, I can't help but wonder how many people actually BELIEVE everything they receive via e-mail... are so many people so gullible? or am I just better able to weed out inconsistencies in a story? or am I just a bucketful more cynical than most people put together?

Whatever it is... I highly recommend that you bookmark this page: www.snopes.com. This is an excellent site to click to as soon as you receive one of those too-fantastic-to-believe e-mails about cookie recipes, spiders under toilet seats, Shell Malaysia's warning about not using handphones at petrol stations, and whatever else...

So... to share the myth of the pregnant man: Here's the "official" website, with pictures to boot! And here is the write-up about it from snopes.

While surfing around for material for this posting, I came across some tsunami-related myths already emerging (or in some cases, being re-packaged).

This was amusing: supposedly having weird sea creatures washed up by the waters.

This is more disturbing: Amazing how people want show the superiority of their religion through lies. I suppose the end justifies the means, eh? Not to me! Hey, I'm sure there are miracles enough occurring everyday lah, no need to fabricate anything mah. And the tone of this myth is terribly divisive... but then again, are you that surprised?


My advice to you:

The truth is out there. Keep an open mind.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. (thanx, Dale Carnegie!)