Aidilfitri 1435 Hijrah Wishing

As Salam...

This is a re-post entry which for a purpose, I will simply republish this article again and again on each and every year. :-)

Provided sighting of the moon, it is expected that the 27th of July 2014 will be the last day of fasting in this holy Ramadhan month and next comes the "Hari Raya Aidilfitri" - the holiday to celebrate the conclusion of fasting throughout the holy month.

 

In celebrating the festival, as for the case, here are some "IF" advises for us to ponder :

• Drive extremely fast if we are impatience to meet the Almighty and furthermore what is the value of other people's life?
• There will be lots of policemen out there, so, opt to drive exceeding the speed limit if we sympathized with the summons collection they made last year.
• Do not be that considerate on the road if we are paying more road tax and driving bigger vehicle than the other road users.
• Spend frantically as seems that there is no tomorrow if we feel that Aidilfitri will no longer be celebrated the following year.
• Eat a lot especially the food with tonnes of coconut milk if we feel the Ramadhan fasting has really caused us our weight to shred and we extremely regretted for losing much inches on the waist.
• Wear round neck t-shirt with Iron Maiden print on it, faded jeans and a baseball cap on the first day of Aidilfitri if we think that visiting our parents, relatives or friends looks cooler than wearing the complete traditional "baju Melayu" or "baju kurung".
• Go to the movie or hang out at the shopping mall on the first day of Hari Raya if we feel we can still visit our parents, relatives, friends, etc. afterward either during Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Christmas or perhaps Hari Gawai.
• ...... and the list goes on. :-)

Thus, to all friends ...and foes too, my family and I would like to take take this opportunity to seek forgiveness and may all of you and your family be blessed by Allah the Almighty with great health, prosperity and happiness here and thereafter.

Wishing all of you Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and see ya...

Yours sincerely : Rhymee, Norul Akmar, Shahira & Ilhan

My Shahira - "Talking To The Moon" Piano Cover

As Salam...

I fulfilled my daughter's request to post her piano cover on "Talking To The Moon" by Bruno Mars.

Enjoy and see ya... :-)

Rhymee

Prayers For Syria & Egypt

As Salam...

Affectionately to our Brothers and Sisters in Syria and Egypt (if you happen to come across with this write up), I pray to our Almighty Allah that you be granted with strength, might and patience in your struggle and resistance against the tyranny and cruelty of the oppressors.

May you cries and doa be heard by the Almighty, Insya Allah...

"Justice Is Lost
Justice Is Raped
Justice Is Gone
Pulling Your Strings
Justice Is Done
Seeking No Truth
Winning Is All
Find it So Grim
So True
So Real"

...And Justice For All.

See ya...

Rhymee

Eid-Ul Fitr 1434 Hijrah Wishing

As Salam...

This is a re-post entry which for a purpose, I will simply republish this article again and again on each and every year. :-)

Provided sighting of the moon, it is expected that the 7th of August 2013 will be the last day of fasting in this holy Ramadhan month and next comes the "Hari Raya Aidilfitri" - the holiday to celebrate the conclusion of fasting throughout the holy month.

In celebrating the festival, as for the case, here are some "IF" advises for us to ponder :

• Drive extremely fast if we are impatience to meet the Almighty and furthermore what is the value of other people's life?
• There will be lots of policemen out there, so, opt to drive exceeding the speed limit if we sympathized with the summons collection they made last year.
• Do not be that considerate on the road if we are paying more road tax and driving bigger vehicle than the other road users.
• Spend frantically as seems that there is no tomorrow if we feel Eid-Ul Fitri will no longer be celebrated next year.
• Eat a lot especially the food with tonnes of coconut milk if we feel the Ramadhan fasting has really caused us our weight to shred and we extremely regretted for losing much inches on the waist.
• Wear round neck t-shirt with Iron Maiden print on it, faded jeans and a baseball cap on the first day of Eid-Ul Fitr if we think that visiting our parents, relatives or friends looks cooler than wearing the complete traditional "baju Melayu", "baju kurung", etc.
• Go to the movies if we feel we can still visit our parents, relatives, friends, etc. afterward either during Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Christmas or perhaps Hari Gawai.
• ...... and the list goes on. :-)

Thus, to all friends ...and foes too, ha..ha..ha.., I take this opportunity to seek forgiveness and may all of you and your family be blessed by Allah the Almighty with great health, prosperity and happiness here and thereafter.

Wishing all of you Happy Eid-Ul Fitr and see ya...

Yours sincerely : Rhymee, Norul Akmar, Shahira & Ilhan

Love The Job We Do

As Salam...

It has been a while since my last writing. To tell you the truth, by no means, I have somewhat suddenly lost my passion to write but the spirit kept on calling so strong and that today I begin writing again Ha..ha..ha.. :-)

By the way, last Saturday as to begin my story, for the first ever time, my son Ilhan asked me to describe the job that I am doing as a human resource practitioner. To tell you the truth, I have been waiting for such a question to arise one day from my kids so that I can picture them that making a living ain't easy as they see.

In general, he knows that I am a human resource practitioner but he had no idea what the heck I do day in and day out. Bearing a sarcastic smile and expression on my face, I replied by telling him that what I do every day is to hire and fire people, without elaborating to any extent what it actually means. He dropped his jaw and was astonished to hear my response, ignored me and he then continued assembling his Lego set which I got for him during my last business trip to the States.

As he ignored me, I then picked up the book "Doctor In The House" written by one of my inspirational figure Tun Dr. Mahathir thinking of to finish up reading it as I had read more than ninety percent of the book but I decided to put it away as my son's question moments before suddenly ticked my mind. His question actually made me realized that I had for quite some time practicing human resource since day one and soon it will be approaching twenty years. Hell yeah! It was a very long time indeed. Throughout the years I have seen and experienced so many things. The ups and downs had all the way matures me progressively. It was never boring though some people say that managing human has never got an end.

All in all, I had never regretted and I knew I made the right decision opting to do something that other people might not want to do and I guess I have fallen in love with the things I do.

As for the case, Metallica is coming to town soon, I love them but not their job. Hell yeah!!! :-)

See ya, happy Ramadhan and ride the lightning...

Rhymee

The Bright Side Of Life

Salam...

It is the last day of the year and soon it will be 2013. Comes end of the year it has always been a common scenario for an employee like me for instance where we would tend to appraise other people's performance and as well as to be evaluated by some higher rank person in the employment hierarchy.

Once done with the appraisal process, the person will be seen either as an excellent contributor or for the worst to be one of the unproductive of them all. For one on the high side then, he or she might be rewarded such as promotion, salary adjustment, etc. for all the hard work done. But being on the other end or rated as the "not up to expectation", he or she might be dealt in a different manner.

Throughout my years as a human resource practitioner, I got to see and learned that it is a common act where the evaluator would tend to stress and focus very much on the weak side of the person who is being evaluated instead of the guy's strong side. In a normal scenario, the evaluator would then lecture the poor guy on what he should improve or what he or she should be and this is very demotivating I guess.

In my opinion, no matter if we act as a person who evaluates or be evaluated, have we ever asked ourselves questions such as to how far have we manipulated our strengths or the other person's positive aspects or did we stretched our or his or her strengths to a certain extend? What I am trying to emphasize is that couldn't we look on the bright side and further develop it and make it stronger?

To tell you the truth, back then, I did the same approach and I guess it just did not work well either for me or my subordinates when much was very much focused on the weak side rather than on the bright side and to add salt to the wound neither me nor my subordinates performed. Leading to that, I changed my approach, my principles, my techniques and... Presto!!! Everybody became better!

As for the case and a note to my partner in crime : To make my life brighter, I am in love with that Marshall MG Series MG30CFX 30W 1x10 Guitar Combo Amp Carbon Fiber as to replace the soon to be handed Marshall 10 Amp to its new owner. So, my dearest... knowing that you have got your bonus paid out, work something out ya... :-)

See ya and Happy New Year 2013...

Rhymee

Life Of Pi = 3.14159265358979323846...........

Salam...

As both of my kids are away with their grandparents for the next couple of weeks, last night my partner in crime and I we took the chance to watch the "Life Of Pi" (Pie as we pronounce it or simply that mathematics symbol π).

...the movie poster.

The movie directed by Ang Lee (He directed that award winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie) was actually adapted from a novel authored by Yann Martel published in 2001. The movie is about Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. Together with his family and as well as some of the animals from their zoo, they were on the journey of migration to Canada. Unfortunately, the ship they embarked capsized and wrecked while he alone (His family members died of course) stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Just imagine.... a human being and a tiger in a boat in the middle of nowhere. Scarykan??? But...he survived throughout the 227-day journey and learned the meaning of life and belief. The rest of the story...go figure it out yourself. It is a decent movie to watch by the way. :-)

After the movie, I was at silence all the way to my home. While driving I said to myself, "Damn! The movie really struck me!". It made me think of the journey in my life I had passed so far. My thought said it was all about survival, turning something from nothing, non living things to living things, everything to everybody and so on and so forth and at times it turned to be to not worth a thing. There were also moments when it turned to be from nothing to a non existence. :-) Get what I mean? Ha..ha..ha.. Along the journey, I wonder where will my stopovers be and utmost of all where, when and how will I end it.

All in all, the equation of life is the entirety of what I believe in, my determination, courage, wisdom, etc. as I conclude it and I guess the equation must be of the right combination of elements as to live life to the fullest and of course to be a good person at the end of the day.

...this is a Malayan Tiger - a tribute to the Malaysia Football Team as they will be playing against Thailand this Sunday in the AFF Suzuki Cup 2012 semi-final clash. May they ROARRRRR and not MEOWWww in the game.

As for the case, I wonder if I could really survive with a ferocious tiger on board of a boat in the middle of the sea or what about a hungry t-rex dinosaur or a humongous poisonous snake or a blood thirsty vampire or a starving man eating cannibal or a nice, pleasant and good looking guy from a place they called country within the Arab region who will always be in hunger of the Palestinians blood. :-)

See ya...

Rhymee

I Sold And My Kids Bought It...

Salam...

Yesterday was a day off for me as the State I am residing observed a public holiday. So as to excite my gang members' life, after we had our breakfast, we opt to roam a mall which is just a stone's throw away from our home.

While I stopped for red at a traffic light, I saw a guy who was actively offering to sell his kuih (cakes or pastries as we called it in English) to a few people at a bus stop. Witnessing the moment, in a blink of an eye my brain reminded me of my very first profession in the employment world that was as a penjual kuih (cakes or pastries peddler as we called it in English) in my early years. (Technically there was no salary by the way as the employer was my very own lovely mother...)

I then changed my focus to my fourteen year old daughter and ten year old son as they were in the rear seat. As to begin a conversation with my kids, I then uttered a sentence which caught their attention. I began with, "I used to peddle traditional pastries such as curry puff, banana fritters, etc. made by your grandmother when I was at your age". My daughter who was actually reading the newspaper, stopped and replied, "No way!" and my son who was at the moment reading the sports section perhaps trying to get some answers as to how and why the national football team could only recorded a draw with the Bangladeshi team (As far as I know cricket is Bangladesh's number one sport) stopped as well with disbelief and from their reaction, I then giggled. 

As the traffic light turned green, I changed gear, stepped on the accelerator and continued with my story. I told them that during my young time, things were not as what they are experiencing today and it was tough back then. I continued by telling them that after school or during school holidays, I had to peddle between three to five hours around the kampung (village in English) with a rattan basket in hand (there was no plastic basket back then) and had to ensure at least three quarter of the kuih to be sold before I faced my employer (my employer was always a fierce one to handle). I shared with them too that during my time it was never easy to ask for things from their grandparents as I had to work for it and not as what they are today with me. Both of my kids threw lots of questions on my story and I answered them elegantly though I knew that it was tough for them to swallow and digest it but that was the reality. :-)

All in all, I hope my kids will understand that nothing in this world comes easy, they have to work for it, always be in gratitude for what they have, never complain for what they do not have and pass the story to the next generation.

As for the case, once we were at the mall, how I realised that narrating them the story had saved me some money as we had lunch at that usual food court which was extremely at lower cost instead of that ridiculous priced Subway. In the end, I sold my story and I guess my kids bought it! The icing of the cake was not only my kids bought it but my partner in crime as well. Hell yeah!!! :-)

See ya...

Rhymee

 

Tao Kae Noi - The Little Boss Aitthipat Kulapongvanich

Salam...

I was surfing the television channels one Sunday afternoon when this movie entitled "The Billionaire" caught my interest - an inspirational movie about a Thai teenager who used to waste his time in playing online games until one day something happens that turns him into a successful person.

This biographical movie is about Aitthipat Kulapongvanich a.k.a. Tob - founder of the Tao Kae Noi seaweed based snack product company turned to be a tycoon at a very young age and what is interesting about him is how he realized his dreams overcoming all the challenges and obstacles. As I concluded it, nothing comes easy in life for sure. 

Watch the movie trailer HERE.

Aitthipat Kulapongvanich - founder of the Tao Kae Noi

All in all, after watching the movie and did some readings about him, in my opinion, this guy is simply brilliant!

As for the case, right now I am already dreaming of becoming like him. Perhaps the goreng pisang (banana fritters) would be the best bet and should go international I guess. Why not? If I happened to bump into him one day, I will for sure throw him the idea. :-)

See ya...

Rhymee

Legoland Malaysia

Salam...

Legoland! Yup!!! I was there together with my gang members a couple of weeks back. Located in Nusajaya, Johor and with just half an hour away from my home, I took the chance to experience that so called Malaysia's first international theme park.

Details? Click www.legoland.com.my

Armed with my not so impressive compact camera, let me share some of the moments I captured.

...get your tickets here.

...the entrance.

...roller coaster ride known as Project X.

...another breathtaking ride.

...to the Dragons Castle.

...it ain't 3D but a 4D theater.

...get your driving licence here instead of from that usual JPJ, it is valid I guess. :-)

All in all, what I can say about the place is that it is a nice place to stroll and past our time and moreover it is great if we are thinking of walking ten thousands steps a day. Healthy isn't it? :-)

As for the case, annual pass? Hmm... why not!



See ya...

Rhymee

They Play And I Listen

Salam...

Whenever I am driving, besides bringing along my wallet, phone, packet of Marlboro menthol light and my chrome Zippo lighter, I always ensure that some of my all time favourite CDs are in the car.

...in my opinion this is Pantera's best album. 
Listening to it I get good feeling! The album cover explains...:-)

... a Malaysian metal legend best album. 
It is like somebody is reading you a storybook. Great riffings too!

... one of the big 4 and no introduction required. 
Millions of copies sold.

... amongst the Malaysian metal greats. 
Hail our local!

... another member of the big 4. 
My partner in crime loves that catchy N.F.B. track.

... the legendary boys from Brazil.

... a bunch of New Yorkers. I would listen to them each and every time before any of my Sepaktakraw game or competition. A kind of "spirit lifter" perhaps as seems we are going to war. :-)

... another member of the big 4. 
It is a kind of melodic and a lil' bit dark here and there stuff.

... one of the guitar gods. In this album, in my opinion, he made the guitar sings! 
Listening to the track Forever One reminds me of my partner in crime. :-)

As for the case, although the above do drives me most of the time, it is however; I will switch to the radio whenever, that sweet and cute Selena Gomez is on air. :-)

See ya...

Rhymee