The Malaysiana Digests

The Specialist Bookstore

One of my favourite haunts has always been the Specialist Bookstore on Level 3 in KLCC. I discovered it some time ago, having very dim lighting, it sort of resembles those old, dusty yet magical bookshops that you read about. Haven't been there for a while, I went through my Muslim Feminist phase there, finally bought a couple of books, and decided to do my browsing in new environments, Kinokuniya (until it got too crowded), and home.

I went there yesterday to look for a book for my father - Islamic Banking Concepts and Applications, for his class this Saturday. As expected, I got pretty much sidetracked, this time by the store's new (at least to me!) collection of books on death.

Went through a couple of books on Islam's descriptions of death, alam barzakh (the world between death and the Hereafter), Hell etc. I managed to freak myself out as I found myself furiously looking for descriptions of Heaven and I found myself wondering where I would end up. I decided that this trail of thought got too 'heavy' for me for a Tuesday afternoon and proceeded to go back on track to find my father's book. I made myself a promise to return and slowly go to more calming reading material.

Bye Bye You

Today, I packed my stuff - all 4 boxes of it, and moved down one level to my new department. Odd that even though I routinely go there for meetings or just to chit chat with friends, today, the new place smells, looks and feels noticeably different from my old place.

To my old cubicle, you have been witness to too many dramas and have served me well by keeping quiet. I leave you with some thumbtacks, a poster and some magazines, minus one of your cabinets because my new cubicle has none.

To my neighbours, I will miss the noises you make - Dak and his snoring, Murad and his gossiping, Edi and his Last Ketchup, Linda and her supply of fragrant lotions and food, Reena and her laughter and Hadiee and his 'coughs'.

To my old boss, thank you for letting me 'borrow' some stuff while I'm getting myself organised downstairs.

There goes the neighbourhood! Goodbye Level 63 *sniffles*

Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness

Sharizal told me that Smashing Pumpkins have disbanded. It probably happened a long time ago, but I have been so out of touch with these things ever since I joined the rat race. I used to listed to them as a university student.

Their mass appeal was the beautiful way they expressed those feelings that makes us young - mood swings between a sense of immortality and hopelessness as our youthful ideals clash head on into the real world.

I went to their concert once. Didn't regret the AUD40 I spent on the ticket or the t-shirts or the tapes and CDs (we couldn't download songs way back then!). Now, Smashing Pumpkins is no more. Billy Corgan has a new band called Zwan, haven't heard it yet. But at least I still have Coldplay. More sedate, but just as melancholic.

Energy Received Energy Returned

I had a very frustrating conversation this morning. I was asking for a favour, of course, for something that I needed. The response I got back was not only negative, the matter in which it was said was pretty negative. My immediate response to this was, of course, just as negative. The old saying of what goes around comes around really did apply this morning. The round trip was pretty short due to the proximity of the communication. When we give out negative vibes, we have to always assume that others are sensitive enough to pick it up.

We should always be mindful of how this affects other people - negativity begets more negativity. Similarly, those who project a more positive attitude receives positivity in return.

Taken from a letter written on behalf of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to the Ruling Archbishop of Egypt in the 5th year after Hijrah.

Going along a related and more spiritual line of thought, I had a conversation with a friend a couple of days ago about the meaning of life and what type of people drink good coffee, among other things. In Islam, one of the most significant lines in the Qur'an that is repeated at the beginning of its chapters with the exception of the 9th chapter) is translated as "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate the Merciful".

We are taught as Muslims to start all our activities with the sentence. The significance of this sentence to us in our everyday lives is that it reminds us that we are all mechanisms in this universe. We are instruments of mercy and compassion, not just recipients and beneficiaries of the divine. Starting an activity with a Bismillah reminds us that we must act along those lines - effecting positive energy in the world around us. Interesting how such a simple act, when analysed enough, brings forth a truly life-changing effect. Perhaps in future, I should start my conversations this way...

Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cups

On our way back from lunch at "belachan" today, Murad decided to treat us to some chocolates. Despite the wide range of choices available at the Chocolatier shop in KLCC, I made my decision quickly. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups by Hershey's is by far one of the most yummy chocolates around. Its little chocolate cups hold a peanut butter paste. As a child, I remember going to Hershey Park, an amusement park based on Hershey's line of products and being amazed, not by the rides, but by huge Hershey Kisses street lamps and walking Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. For some strange reason, my sister Zeehan didn't enjoy that bit too much...

Related Reese's Resources:
Reese's Peanut Butter Cheese Cakes
Hershey's Vending Maching Product Line
Reese's on the opinion polls

Blogs, an addiction

I am becoming quite addicted to blogs. It is quite an exquisite form of expression. I am so smitten that I am enlisting the help of a blog master to revamp this site.

Stuff I've been looking at:
MediaNews Weblog - A journalism school paid Jim Romenesko to produce his site
kottke.org - I like the green and white 'crisp' look of this site. Going through the links makes for interesting learning!

Leadership

Some of us received a questionnaire in the mail recently on "Leadership Competency Profiling". This questionnaire looks at developing a Leadership Competency Model for managerial roles in the company. The questions explore behaviours which we may or may not demonstrate in our role at work and how we balance our professional and personal lives. It asks us how often these behaviours are demonstrated and our perceptions on its importance. \

Doing that questionnaire got me thinking about what makes a good leader. One of the best definitions I have found so far is by Moira Rayner, a human rights ctivist in Australia.

How do you define leadership?
"In the words of Lao Tzu, When the best leader's work is done, the people say, 'we did it ourselves'." "A leader encapsulates a group's sense of purpose and aspirations. She can inspire others to work together because they genuinely wish to, and the skills that lead a group to find shared objectives and achieve a desired result, sometimes at the cost of their personal preferences.

Leaders are intelligent, aware of their own limitations and skills, possess vision, and the ability to communicate that vision, and have a range of significant skills,
including the ability to select others with the skills they don't have but need, and in particular the capacity to bring other people along with them, as a result of free choice.

A leader can personify the aspirations of the group, without losing their individuality."

Technologists

The whole point of technology is to make life better for humans. We technical people should always remember that. Unfortunately, not a lot of vendors out there make products that makes life simpler, for the end users as well as the techies. The problem is then exponentially expanded when the techies who try to work their way around such products do it with the aim of making it work for the sake of making it work, rather than subdue the effect to the end user.

Bleary Eyes Surprise

So Arsenal thrashed Birmingham last night. That's why I'm sleepy this morning. Not because I wanted to watch football. Living with a football fanatic, who practices hooliganism even in his own home, can give anyone sleepless nights...

I was really hoping that they would cancel the match after that incident with the lights.

Fragrant Thoughts

A long time ago (by internet standards, 1996 is considered wayyy back), Fische introduced me to a web strategies/design company called RazorFish. A pioneer in web advertising and web branding (they didn't even have a name for it then), this company thought up of innovative ways to sell things over the internet (it was so new that then, it was spelled with a capital "I").

I used to enjoy reading their case studies on how to capture people's imagination via an online medium. Of course, this has been exhaustively researched and web branding/design/strategy enterprises have mushroomed as the internet becomes the de facto business medium.

In the mid-90s, Ralph Lauren used RazorFish to market their fragrances. Their idea then was to convey the message in the scent through stories that invoke certain feelings. It was done over a series of soap opera-ish stories, with the name of their fragrances incorporated as the climax or emotional point of the experience. Today, most online storefronts have gone straight to the point, and refined marketing strategies leverage on a variety of delivery media. If they had to market Romance today, I would imagine one would have to describe a walk on a cold, wet spring morning under a tangerine tree as one's bare feet float over a carpet of fresh rose petals in anticipation of the date.

Scary Mornings

For those who wonder why, even after a spectacular start this new year, I have fallen back to coming in late for work. My excuse: I have had some very scary mornings. I strongly believe that waking up the right way helps you start the day in the right way. Hence, I have put a lot of thought into how to wake up the right way. I started with IKIMfm - the local Islamic station. The best way to wake up with to the sound of azan or call to prayers - it's soothing, it's loud and it reminds you that you have to get up for prayers. It was good for a while, I either exited my slumber to the sound of the azan, or to the sound of someone reading the Qur'an. Then one day, they changed to program slightly and my waking up time coincided with the reading of the Hadith. They really should quit using deep voices with echoes. The Hadith contains wonderful lessons on how Muslims should live our lives. But should they really read it out in THAT way? Especially so early in the morning?

Most of us, me especially, are pretty groggy when we wake up, and it doesn't matter what the guy is saying, because we won't be able to put two words ogether. But the tone of voice when these guys read the Hadith, especially when the only words you can get is neraka (hell), makes for a pretty rude awakening.

I did wake up on time, in a foul mood.

Moving on, I wanted to improve my morning temperament. I decided to experiment with WOW FM (Yasmin Yusoff's slot). Being the ultra-perky DJ that she is, I was hoping that some of the perkiness would rub off. That - and the fact that I woke up in time to hear one of the competitions - I won a Boyz2Men CD, which they haven't sent to me yet (can someone tell her that it's been 3 months at least!). This didn't work either. It was TOO perky. All those little "Good Morning" blurbs, done one after another, got way too annoying. I almost threw my remote control at the radio. Poor radio.

So I moved on to the next radio station, what everyone else listens to, Hitz FM (with little Kev and Fly Guy). They're good fun. They've been good fun until recently, when the station decided to play a commercial for "The Ring" (movie). How would you like to enter the "not asleep, but not awake" state with the sound of whispers and a scary guy voice saying "watch her video and you'll die in 7 days".

What a bad ad to put on in the morning! Don't they know that people wake up to these things?! I moved from Hitz to another English radio station and this ad seems to be everywhere! I am now scared to go to sleep and setting my alarm
feels like playing Russian roulette! This morning, I was fumbling around with the remote controls to shut that radio up before they got to the word 'die'. Hence my entrance at the office at 8.45am this morning. I'm taking my chances with IKIMfm tomorrow.

Friendship Currency

I had the most wonderful visit last Friday from a good old friend. Fische and I have known each other for 8 years now, and despite the distance, as with good old friends, it seems like we've never left each other. While having chocolate tarts and lattes at Jerome's, I was giving him the usual verbal bash of how he's been too busy to drop by KL on his way to Subang from Singapore.

We've mastered this routine for the last 4 years, since his career skyrocketed despite the Bubble's burst. Then he made the statement: "You know that if you ever needed me, I'm always there." No, this was no suave statement to dig someone out of trouble - this was the honest truth. The furthest I have been out of touch with him, I have always had his mother's number. Which was how I found him to tell him that I had met the love of my life. The visit was long, for his standards. We extended coffee to dinner, he met Sharizal, we said goodbye. What I couldn't shake off the whole weekend was a feeling of guilt - that I could always reach him, but I didn't.

Friendship is a two-way street. And yes, I do the things modern friends do - send stupid jokes over email, sms on special occassions. The odd thing was that I felt that I was in an inequitable arrangement, where I came up short. The truth is, he was always there - at the oddest moments. Two major (and many many minor) events over the last 8 years, he was there and he made sense, despite his own personal struggle to prove something to the love of his life. I guess after that coffee, I realised that I never had the opportunity to reciprocate. And in friendship currency, I still owe him two - at least.

Convergence Explained

The entry below was the result of me doodling on the PDA. Yes, I have found a way to blog while on the move and managed to upload it via AvantGo. And here is my favourite question: But what does this all meaannn?

This means that I can while away my time during a boring meeting AND look like I'm paying attention and taking notes. Gone are the days where an intense stare into the PDA meant that you just lost your way through Solitaire. My meeting-mates will see blurry text, which looks sort of like meeting notes, but are in fact... ta daaaa... my blog entry!

Equitability II

I recall the good ol' NLC days when we used to argue on my brief but meaningful involvement in student politics as Womyn's Officer. A lot of people, women included, mistake the mainstream feminist movement to advocate a very literal definition of equality. It's really not about not letting a man open doors for you, or how much weight a woman can lift (yes... this got into some
debates). It's about equal opportunity and equal recognition. It's about removing gender biases, and changing perceptions.

It's about walking into a meeting room full of men and not assuming that the only woman is the secretary. It's about hiring the only female candidate as a facilities manager because she can do the work, rather than worrying that she won't be able to manage the men because she's a woman (hats off to Trevor!).

It's about giving equal reward to the guy who worked the hardest to fix a technical problem and a woman who manages to sell an idea. It's about giving a woman the same chances as a man at the workplace, and not assigning roles based on our personal biases to what a woman can/cannot do. It's about setting the same limits to your daughter that you would to your son. It's about changing our language - in our minds and in our lives, when communicating what a woman does. It's about equal interpretation of personal qualities, assertiveness in a woman should be as revered as when found in a man. It's about women not setting self-imposed gender biases for ourselves, and imagining glass ceilings where there are/should be none.