The new year is coming. And I have a lot of unfinished business at hand. But hey, so long that I am still living, there is no deadline. I have set a goal not just to meet it. It is to direct me towards something. To aid me grow and leave stagnant achievement behind. So with all the power vested in me to decide on my life, I would like to carry forward some of the latent life changing resolution to marry with the new ones for my further action.
I know what I want. I will make it happen. For starters, I will enroll for my MBA programme. I will start learning again. Should everything fall into its places, I will be on my way to pursuit my PhD in 2 ½ years time max.
I want to learn one more language. I have a few in mind to choose from. But, I also need to consider the practical part of it. Learning a new language is as imperative as using it. So I need to scrape France or Germany or maybe Japanese. Or else I might waste much or my time and money investing in a bad pool catching no fish but garbage.
I want to put off some weight. Its for my health and my personal needs. Its also for my self esteem. It will not make me any good in my acumen, but still it is a battle that I waged and I am on to win this one. As I said, it is personal.
I want to grow in my career. I am thinking to move if the situation permitted. In light of global economic fever, I must take my time in making the decision. I know that I need to count on my blessing at my present employment, but the decision is nothing short of great dilemma as I need to choose between what I want and what is best for me.
I want to be active again. My current ACL injuries hindered me pleasure of playing high intensity sports the way I was built for. I hope that I will find strengths to proceed with the procedures as laid out by my Orthopedics Specialist. It will be gruesome to me but I think I can tolerate the beating. I just don’t know how far and how stressful it will be. Its for me to find out. Maybe, I can use some rest from my routine if I choose to go on.
I want to perform an Umrah this year. But this one will depend on my new salary structure. If everything go on as planned, it will be a good time for me to have a go on this. Lets just wait and decide. But of course, this one is extrinsic in nature as it depends on other variables e.g my knee, my new salary, my time etc etc.
Enough of lamenting last failure and roll out new resolution. Its time to prove that I can make this happen. InsyaAllah. I can do this. I knew it.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
New Book
I bought a book yesterday. Not relatively a new book. I came across this book many times before but pay no attention to it until very much later. The title is “Tuesday With Morrie” by author Mitch Albom. He is a prominent sports commentator turned masterful book writer and has wrote handful of great books. As soon as reading the first page of it, I fell for the book. It was beautifully crafted, very light yet so profound, bears very remarkable lessons for us to learn. Its about a dying old man (a wise person to the core of course), a young man and life greatest lesson. And to make things even better, it is non-fiction. It’s a real life scenario with real characters embodied the story. I want to share some of the aphorism that had shook me to my reality life. Quoted by the late Morrie Schwartz.
“Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”
“Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too- even when you are in the dark. Even when you are falling.”
“So many people walk around with a meaning-less life. They seem half asleep. Even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
This book is good. Please get a copy. It will enrich your life.
P/S: I can see that this lesson also impart of teaching in Islam. We could have use this long-long time ago.
“Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”
“Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too- even when you are in the dark. Even when you are falling.”
“So many people walk around with a meaning-less life. They seem half asleep. Even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
This book is good. Please get a copy. It will enrich your life.
P/S: I can see that this lesson also impart of teaching in Islam. We could have use this long-long time ago.
Kerja...Kerja...Kerja
Alahai… malas betul la nak menulis. Kalau nak ikutkan masa, aku mmg tak der masa nak buat benda lain dalam hidup aku ni. Kalau tak keje, aku tido.Nasib baiklah hujung minggu ada, boleh jugak la aku plan buat benda lain. Jenjalan ker, tgk movie ker, main tennis ker..Jangan ingat aku ni kuat tido plak. Maksud aku hidup aku ni tak der benda lain, kerja…kerja… kerja…tidor kejap mlm pastu bangun pagi pegi kerja… kerja… kerja…mcm tu la dari lima tahun lepas hingga sekarang. Patut la ada org yg dah tak nak keje makan gaji kan? Aku baru faham kenapa…Bagi mereka, ia macam satu pembaziran masa yg melampau2. Betul jugak kalau kita fikirkan balik. Kita guna banyak masa kita utk buat kerja yg memanfaatkan pihak lain. Kita buat kerja dengan menggunakan segala masa dan tenaga yg kita ada…macam la kita ada masa yg byk sangat utk dibazirkan mcm tu jer…Macam la kita tau kita semua boleh hidup sampai umur 90++ tahun..Kita mcm jadi hamba gak la..hamba kepada duit. Sbb kita keje utk duit, kita jual masa kita utk duit.Kita tak berdaya, juz jadi hamba yg bergantung harap kpd org lain.Tapi tu la, kalau tak keje pun tak elok jugak. Otak jadi lembab. Jiwa rasa kosong. Masa terbuang. Tak produktif. Kita akan jadi macam biawak pasir…lepak jer tak bergerak2.Jadi aku bukan kata kerja tu tak elok. Actually keje tu elok utk kita. Cuma, kalau kita keje utk diri sendiri, aku rasa ia lebih baik dari keje utk org. Sbb, kalau kita keje utk diri sendiri,kita macam tak keje. Sbb ia sebahagian dari hidup kita. Kita tak boleh nak bersara dari hidup kita kan???Lain la kalau kita tanya soalan ni kat org yg nak bunuh diri…dia mesti jawab boleh la….
So, apa penyelesaiannya? Aku rasa aku kena keje jugak.Dah terpaksa. Lain la kalau kita anak org kaya raya kan?Celik2 mata jer dah ada business running. Sbb kita org biasa jer, so kita sebenarnya tak leh nak komplen byk sgt. Apa yg kita boleh buat, kita kena berusaha utk maju. Mungkin dgn cara itu, kita tak perlu bekerja dgn org buat selama2nya. Mungkin satu hari kita dapat bergerak naik jadi majikan plak…mungkin… bila tu bergantung la kpd cara dan sikap kita.
Huhuhu…kerja….kerja…kerja
So, apa penyelesaiannya? Aku rasa aku kena keje jugak.Dah terpaksa. Lain la kalau kita anak org kaya raya kan?Celik2 mata jer dah ada business running. Sbb kita org biasa jer, so kita sebenarnya tak leh nak komplen byk sgt. Apa yg kita boleh buat, kita kena berusaha utk maju. Mungkin dgn cara itu, kita tak perlu bekerja dgn org buat selama2nya. Mungkin satu hari kita dapat bergerak naik jadi majikan plak…mungkin… bila tu bergantung la kpd cara dan sikap kita.
Huhuhu…kerja….kerja…kerja
Friday, March 14, 2008
USELESS FACTS
Useless Facts
Men fart an average of 17 times a day, and women fart an average of 9 times a day.
If you fart constantly for 6 years, 9 months and 23 days you would produce enough gas to explode an atomic bomb.
The longest ever penis recorded by scientists is 13.5 inches.
Humans are only second to cats for having the dirtiest mouths.
It takes about 40 muscles to smile, but only 4 to pull the trigger of a decent rifle.
Beard hair grows at twice its usual rate when you're in a plane.
Around 15 men each year have their penises chopped off by their wives and the highest proportion of men who suffer this are Italians.
You use more calories eating celery than there are in celery itself.
More than 2,500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed products.
Semen is one of the most fattening substances known to man.
An average of 76 people a year die playing twister, and about 23 of which are through playing the nude version!
Linda McCartney has sold more vegetarian ready made meals than Paul has sold records.
In the course of the 18 year run of Cats on broadway, 3,247 lbs of yak hair was used for wigs.
The shortest war in history was between England and Zanzibar in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
65 people become $millionaires every day.
The average human will eat one pound of insects in their lifetime.
You are more likely to be killed by a rogue champagne cork than a poisonous spider.
By the time a person is 18, they would have spent 12,000 hours in school, but 14,000 hours watching television.
Woman blink nearly twice as much as men.
Humans share one third of their DNA with lettuce!
You could comfortably fit the entire population of the planet into a cube with sides 1km long.
Apporximately 69% of all Internet content consists of pornographic material.
Porn sites generated $970 million in revenue in 1999.
Charlie Chaplin once came third in a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like competition.
Every 20 minutes a hapless person treads on a land mine.
The average adult falls asleep seven minutes after turning out the light.
6,000 new computer viruses are released every month.
Over one trillion matches were being produced every year at the beginning of the last century.
Elvis Presley had a twin brother.
Zeuxis a Greek painter in the 5th Centrury BC laughed hismself to death while looking at one of his paintings.
A Roman leap year had the same number of days as ordinary years but January 23rd lasted for 48 hours.
After being decapitated a human can still see for 20 seconds! (Not sure how 'they' worked this one out!).
Under EC law it is legal to have sex with inflatable dolls in the street.
Winners at the 2001 Ig-Nobel Prize ceremony for eccentric researchers, inventors and scientists include an American who claims to have invented anti-flatulence underwear, a Lithuanian who set up a theme park dedicated to Stalin, and two Indians who discovered that nose-picking is commonplace.
Right-handed people live on average, 9 years longer than left-handed people.
Human stomachs produce a new layer of mucus every 2 weeks to stop it digesting itself.
Humans are the only animals to sleep on their backs.
More boys than girls are born during the day, but more girls are born at night.
Julio Iglesias once had five gallons of water flown from Miami to L.A. so he could wash his hair.
Clark Gable was listed on his birth certificate as a girl.
Johnny Vaughan was born at the precise moment that England scored the winning goal in the 1966 World Cup final.
Bernard Manning did his National Service in the Military Police and one of his duties was guarding Albert Speer and Rudolf Hess in Spandau.
Elvis Presley's hip-wiggling started out as a srage fright. He was so nervous, that his legs would shake.
John Lennon shoplifted in Holland the harmonica he used on Love Me Do.
Mel Gibson broke the school record for the most strappings in a week - 27.
Tom Cruise and Robbie Williams were both voted least Likely To Succeed at school.
Sir Winston Churchill smoked an estimated 300,000 cigars in his lifetime.
Michelangelo's cook was illiterate, so he drew her a shopping list, which today is priceless.
The arhcitect who built the Kremlin had his eyes gouged our by Iavn The Terrible so that he would never be able to design another building like it.
Pirates wore earings because they believed it improved their eyesight.
Cher's parents married and divorced each other three times.
Mike Myers (a.k.a. Austin Powers) is descended from William Wordsworth.
If you shouted for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would produce enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
Volleyball is the most popular sport at nudist camps.
Banging your head against a wall uses a 150 calories an hour.
On average, a drop of Heinz tomato ketchup leaves the bottle at a speed of 25 miles per year!
If you mouth the word "colourful" to someone, it looks like you are saying "I love you".
The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".
The fastest sevice in a restaurant in the world is 13 seconds from the order to the food on the table.
Wayne Static (from staticX) uses glue to stick his hair up.
The letter combination 'ough' can be pronounced in nine different ways.
Every time you lick a stamp you consume one tengh of a calorie.
Permanent marker is not actually permanent.
The shortest poem ever goes 'Adam, hae'em'.
To convert milli-inches to micro metres you must times by 25.4
There is an average of 3000 ft. of electrical wiring in every car.
During the battle for Stalingrad, the German army lost more men attacking a single house defended by sergeant Pavlov's platoon than it did occupying Paris three years later. Pavlov survived the war and became a monk.
Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore were freshman roomates at Harvard.
Kermit the Frog is left handed.
There is a city called Rome on every continent.
The Earth is hit by lightning 100 times a second.
Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using only the letters on the top row of the keyboard.
Men fart an average of 17 times a day, and women fart an average of 9 times a day.
If you fart constantly for 6 years, 9 months and 23 days you would produce enough gas to explode an atomic bomb.
The longest ever penis recorded by scientists is 13.5 inches.
Humans are only second to cats for having the dirtiest mouths.
It takes about 40 muscles to smile, but only 4 to pull the trigger of a decent rifle.
Beard hair grows at twice its usual rate when you're in a plane.
Around 15 men each year have their penises chopped off by their wives and the highest proportion of men who suffer this are Italians.
You use more calories eating celery than there are in celery itself.
More than 2,500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed products.
Semen is one of the most fattening substances known to man.
An average of 76 people a year die playing twister, and about 23 of which are through playing the nude version!
Linda McCartney has sold more vegetarian ready made meals than Paul has sold records.
In the course of the 18 year run of Cats on broadway, 3,247 lbs of yak hair was used for wigs.
The shortest war in history was between England and Zanzibar in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
65 people become $millionaires every day.
The average human will eat one pound of insects in their lifetime.
You are more likely to be killed by a rogue champagne cork than a poisonous spider.
By the time a person is 18, they would have spent 12,000 hours in school, but 14,000 hours watching television.
Woman blink nearly twice as much as men.
Humans share one third of their DNA with lettuce!
You could comfortably fit the entire population of the planet into a cube with sides 1km long.
Apporximately 69% of all Internet content consists of pornographic material.
Porn sites generated $970 million in revenue in 1999.
Charlie Chaplin once came third in a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like competition.
Every 20 minutes a hapless person treads on a land mine.
The average adult falls asleep seven minutes after turning out the light.
6,000 new computer viruses are released every month.
Over one trillion matches were being produced every year at the beginning of the last century.
Elvis Presley had a twin brother.
Zeuxis a Greek painter in the 5th Centrury BC laughed hismself to death while looking at one of his paintings.
A Roman leap year had the same number of days as ordinary years but January 23rd lasted for 48 hours.
After being decapitated a human can still see for 20 seconds! (Not sure how 'they' worked this one out!).
Under EC law it is legal to have sex with inflatable dolls in the street.
Winners at the 2001 Ig-Nobel Prize ceremony for eccentric researchers, inventors and scientists include an American who claims to have invented anti-flatulence underwear, a Lithuanian who set up a theme park dedicated to Stalin, and two Indians who discovered that nose-picking is commonplace.
Right-handed people live on average, 9 years longer than left-handed people.
Human stomachs produce a new layer of mucus every 2 weeks to stop it digesting itself.
Humans are the only animals to sleep on their backs.
More boys than girls are born during the day, but more girls are born at night.
Julio Iglesias once had five gallons of water flown from Miami to L.A. so he could wash his hair.
Clark Gable was listed on his birth certificate as a girl.
Johnny Vaughan was born at the precise moment that England scored the winning goal in the 1966 World Cup final.
Bernard Manning did his National Service in the Military Police and one of his duties was guarding Albert Speer and Rudolf Hess in Spandau.
Elvis Presley's hip-wiggling started out as a srage fright. He was so nervous, that his legs would shake.
John Lennon shoplifted in Holland the harmonica he used on Love Me Do.
Mel Gibson broke the school record for the most strappings in a week - 27.
Tom Cruise and Robbie Williams were both voted least Likely To Succeed at school.
Sir Winston Churchill smoked an estimated 300,000 cigars in his lifetime.
Michelangelo's cook was illiterate, so he drew her a shopping list, which today is priceless.
The arhcitect who built the Kremlin had his eyes gouged our by Iavn The Terrible so that he would never be able to design another building like it.
Pirates wore earings because they believed it improved their eyesight.
Cher's parents married and divorced each other three times.
Mike Myers (a.k.a. Austin Powers) is descended from William Wordsworth.
If you shouted for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would produce enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
Volleyball is the most popular sport at nudist camps.
Banging your head against a wall uses a 150 calories an hour.
On average, a drop of Heinz tomato ketchup leaves the bottle at a speed of 25 miles per year!
If you mouth the word "colourful" to someone, it looks like you are saying "I love you".
The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".
The fastest sevice in a restaurant in the world is 13 seconds from the order to the food on the table.
Wayne Static (from staticX) uses glue to stick his hair up.
The letter combination 'ough' can be pronounced in nine different ways.
Every time you lick a stamp you consume one tengh of a calorie.
Permanent marker is not actually permanent.
The shortest poem ever goes 'Adam, hae'em'.
To convert milli-inches to micro metres you must times by 25.4
There is an average of 3000 ft. of electrical wiring in every car.
During the battle for Stalingrad, the German army lost more men attacking a single house defended by sergeant Pavlov's platoon than it did occupying Paris three years later. Pavlov survived the war and became a monk.
Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore were freshman roomates at Harvard.
Kermit the Frog is left handed.
There is a city called Rome on every continent.
The Earth is hit by lightning 100 times a second.
Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using only the letters on the top row of the keyboard.
USELESS FACTS
For every human being on earth, there are about 200 million insects.
The harmonica is the world's most popular instrument.
By the time they are 65 years old, most Americans have watched more than nine years worth of television.
The puck in ice hockey can travel at up to 118 mph (190 km/h).
If you stretched all the nerves in the body from end to end, they would be about 47 miles long.
Humans have more than 600 muscles in their bodies.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."
All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
The largest cabbage weighed 144 lbs.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula" - and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: "L.A."
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Tigers have striped skin, not just stripped fur.
In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. (DON'T try this at home!)
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
Many hamsters blink one eye at a time.
The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.
The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.
Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A.
Whitby, Ontario has more donut stores per capita than any other place in the world.
Starfish have no brain.
Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "E".
Bulls are color blind.
A can of SPAM is opened every 4 seconds.
"Babe" was played by over 48 pigs.
Mosquitoes have 47 teeth.
Lip stick contains fish scales.
The Poison Arrow frog has enough poison to kill 2200 people.
The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms.
Kidney stones come in any color from yellow to brown.
Women blink twice as many times as men do.
The McDonalds at the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario is the only one in the world that sells hot dogs.
A bowling pin only has to tilt 7.5 degrees in order to fall down.
The first episode of Leave It To Beaver aired on October 4, 1957.
Beaver Cleaver's locker number is 9.
The first flushing toilet seen on TV was on Leave It To Beaver.
Jerry Seinfeld's apartment number (on the show) is 5A. In the old episodes it was 3A.
The life span of a taste bud is ten days.
Pi has been calculated to 2,260,321,363 digits.
The billionth digit in Pi is 9.
The first 100 numbers of Pi are: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510 58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679.
Click HERE for 99,999 digits of pi!
A stretched out Slinky is 87 feet long.
An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
Emus can't walk backwards.
A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of whales is called a pod.
A group of geese is called a gaggle.
A group of owls is called a parliament.
A group of ravens is called a murder.
A group of bears is called a sleuth.
12 or more cows is called a flink.
A baby oyster is called a spat.
Chickens can't swallow while they are upside down.
In the October 22, 1945 edition of Life magazine there was a picture of a chicken with its head cut off. It was alive too!
The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
Pinocchio was made of pine.
The largest pumpkin weighed 377 lbs.
A mule won't sink in quicksand but a donkey will.
More people are killed annually by donkeys than in airplane crashes.
Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery.
There are 22 stars in the Paramount logo.
The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime.
A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit.
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
Every time you lick a stamp you consume 1/10 of a calorie.
The pound sign # is called anoctothorpe.
Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.
New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states.
There was once a town in West Virginia called "6".
Singapore only has one train station.
The parking meter was invented in North Dakota.
Napolean made his battle plans in a sandbox.
Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.
The green stuff on the occasional freak potatoe chip is chlorophyll.
If you ate too many carrots you would turn orange.
Pluto's orbit crosses Neptune's making Pluto the eighth planet from the sun. It has been that way since 1979 and will remain that way until 1999.
The earth is approx. 6,588,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
The force of 1 billion people jumping at the same time is equal to 500 tons of TNT.
Popeye was 5'6".
Howdy Doody had 48 freckles.
The first word spoken on the moon was "Okay".
Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.
The average speed of Heinz ketchup leaving the bottle is 25 miles per year.
Hilary Clinton once said We are the President.
The percent of women who wash their hands after leaving a restroom is 80%.
The percent of men who wash their hands after using a restroom is 55%.
There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.
The Eifel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.
"Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish.
On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles.
The average American eats 2 donuts a day.
The longest word in the Old Testament is Malhershalahashbaz.
The longest time a person has been in a coma is 37 years.
Every minute in the U.S 6 people turn 17.
It takes the Where's Waldo artist one month to complete a drawing.
2500 lefties die each year using products designed for righties.
A baby is born every 7 seconds.
10 tons of space dust fall on the Earth everyday.
On average, a 4 year old child asks 437 questions a day.
Blue and white are the most common school colors.
Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year.
The first message tapped by Samuel Morse over his invention the telegraph was: What hath God wrought?.
The first words spoken by over Alexander Bell over the telephone were: Watson, please come here. I want you.
The first words spoken by Thomas Edison over the phonograph were: Mary had a little lamb
The three words in the English language with the letters uu are: vacuum, residuum and continuum.
A baby in Florida was named: Truewilllaughinglifebuckyboomermanifestdestiny. His middle name is George James.
It is illegal to ride a street car on Sunday if have been eating garlic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In a normal life time an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat.
A new book is published every 13 minutes in America.
America's best selling ice-cream flavour is vanilla.
American's eat 18 billion hot dogs a year.
American's eat 134 pounds of sugar a year.
Every year the sun loses 360 million tons.
Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe.
You can tell if a skunk is about if you smell only .000 000 000 000 071 ounce of its spray.
Animal breeders in Russia once claimed to have bred sheep with blue wool.
Penguins are the only bird that can leap into the air like porpoises.
India has 50 million monkeys.
By some unknown means, an iguana can end its own life.
Americans spend around $3 billion for cat and dog food a year.
Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed.
You breathe about 10 million times a year.
The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you'll have a bad dream.
The first non-human to win an Oscar was Mickey Mouse.
Lee Harvey Oswald was booked with mugshot number 54018.
The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour.
The bullseye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground.
The foot is the most common body part bitten by insects.
The most common time for a wake up call is 7am.
The doorbell was invented in 1831.
The are 255 squares on a Scrabble board.
The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928.
There are 500 sheets of paper in a ream.
The monkey wrench was invented by Charles Moncke.
Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.
There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.
There are approx. 550 hairs in the eyebrow.
The most common non-contagious disease in the world is tooth decay.
The shell constitutes 12 percent of an egg's weight.
A squid has 10 tentacles.
A snail's reproductive organs are in its head.
A cow's only sweat glands are in its nose.
The word "AND" appears 46,277 times in the Bible.
The first word played in the Scrabble rules demonstration game is "horn".
The telephone's U.S. patent number is 174,465.
The typical person goes to the bathroom 6 times a day.
There are 17 steps leading up to Sherlock Holme's apartment.
When a horned toad is angry, it squirts blood from it's eyes.
Napoleon was terrified of cats.
The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.
The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.
The ballpoint pen was invented in 1938 by Laszlo and Georg Biro.
The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.
The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935.
In 1961, an IBM 7090 computer calculated Pi to 100 265 digits.
The human body weighs forty times more than the brain.
After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.
A person swallows approximately 295 times while eating dinner.
The oldest known vegetable is the pea.
Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes.
The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.
The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia.
The letter N ends all Japanese words not ending in a vowel.
France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.
The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone.
4000 people are injured by teapots each year.
The typical American consumes 27 pounds of cheese each year.
The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is feedback.
The ostrich has a 46 foot long small intestine.
The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.
The most sensitive finger on the human hand is the index finger.
George Washington Carver invented peanut butter.
The typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year.
Stainless stell was invented by Harry Brearley in 1913.
A scallop has 35 blue eyes.
The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one.
The only dog that doesn't have a pink tongue is the chow.
Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935.
The giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal.
The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.
Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.
Albert Blake Dick invented the mimeograph machine.
The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.
The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday.
An Oscar weighs seven pounds.
It takes the typical person seven minutes to fall asleep.
Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer.
The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.
The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902.
Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning.
Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.
About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30.
A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.
The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.
Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.
Owls are the only birds who can see the color blue.
A jellyfish is 95 percent water.
The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.
The penguin is the only bird who can swim, but not fly.
America once issued a 5-cent bill.
Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.
A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.
You blink about 84,000,000 times a year.
In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word.
A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans.
Every 45 seconds, a house catches on fire in the United States.
The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth.
A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death.
The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used.
Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right of left handed... or is that pawed?
The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.
Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lighting than women.
Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions.
Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow.
Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings.
Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight.
After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again!
When someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown, but it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and whack them in the head.
Coca-Cola was originally green.
Hong Kong has the most Rolls Royce's per capita.
Alaska is the state with highest percent of people who walk to work.
28 percent of Africa is wilderness.
38 percent of America is wilderness.
A duck's quack does not echo and no one knows why.
It costs $6400 to raise a medium size dog to age of 11.
Average number of people airborne over the U.S. during any given hour: 61,000.
70 percent of Americans who visited Disneyland/World.
Intelligent people have more copper and zinc in their hair.
The youngest pope was 11 years old.
Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other country.
The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet and was developed by Western Union to test telex/twx communications.
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only "mobile" National Monuments.
The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter "uncopyrightable."
Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and learned how to walk up standard staircases.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because, when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of unwanted people (without killing them) used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know his voice was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie.
The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel fuel that it burns.
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl.
The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-star Game.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.
The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
Reno, Nevada is west of Los Angeles, California.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.
In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
A cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Coca Cola was originally green.
The Ten Commandments contain 297 words.
The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contains 266 words.
A recent federal directive to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words.
There are more collect calls made on Father's Day than on any other day.
Every day more money is printed for monopoly than the US Treasury.
Men can read smaller print than women, women can hear better than men.
Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
The world's youngest parents were 8 & 9 and lived in China in 1910.
Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil
Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace.
The youngest Pope was 11 years old.
"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosey is a rhyme about the bubonic plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores (Ring around the Rosey...). These sores would smell very bad so people would hide flowers on their bodies in an attempt to mask the smell ("pocket full of posies..."). People who died from the plague would be burned to reduce the spread of the disease ("ashes, ashes, we all fall down").
The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.
Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
American car horns beep in the tone of F.
No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.
1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."
The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
The harmonica is the world's most popular instrument.
By the time they are 65 years old, most Americans have watched more than nine years worth of television.
The puck in ice hockey can travel at up to 118 mph (190 km/h).
If you stretched all the nerves in the body from end to end, they would be about 47 miles long.
Humans have more than 600 muscles in their bodies.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."
All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
The largest cabbage weighed 144 lbs.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula" - and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: "L.A."
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Tigers have striped skin, not just stripped fur.
In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. (DON'T try this at home!)
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
Many hamsters blink one eye at a time.
The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.
The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.
Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A.
Whitby, Ontario has more donut stores per capita than any other place in the world.
Starfish have no brain.
Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "E".
Bulls are color blind.
A can of SPAM is opened every 4 seconds.
"Babe" was played by over 48 pigs.
Mosquitoes have 47 teeth.
Lip stick contains fish scales.
The Poison Arrow frog has enough poison to kill 2200 people.
The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms.
Kidney stones come in any color from yellow to brown.
Women blink twice as many times as men do.
The McDonalds at the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario is the only one in the world that sells hot dogs.
A bowling pin only has to tilt 7.5 degrees in order to fall down.
The first episode of Leave It To Beaver aired on October 4, 1957.
Beaver Cleaver's locker number is 9.
The first flushing toilet seen on TV was on Leave It To Beaver.
Jerry Seinfeld's apartment number (on the show) is 5A. In the old episodes it was 3A.
The life span of a taste bud is ten days.
Pi has been calculated to 2,260,321,363 digits.
The billionth digit in Pi is 9.
The first 100 numbers of Pi are: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510 58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679.
Click HERE for 99,999 digits of pi!
A stretched out Slinky is 87 feet long.
An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
Emus can't walk backwards.
A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of whales is called a pod.
A group of geese is called a gaggle.
A group of owls is called a parliament.
A group of ravens is called a murder.
A group of bears is called a sleuth.
12 or more cows is called a flink.
A baby oyster is called a spat.
Chickens can't swallow while they are upside down.
In the October 22, 1945 edition of Life magazine there was a picture of a chicken with its head cut off. It was alive too!
The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
Pinocchio was made of pine.
The largest pumpkin weighed 377 lbs.
A mule won't sink in quicksand but a donkey will.
More people are killed annually by donkeys than in airplane crashes.
Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery.
There are 22 stars in the Paramount logo.
The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime.
A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit.
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
Every time you lick a stamp you consume 1/10 of a calorie.
The pound sign # is called anoctothorpe.
Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.
New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states.
There was once a town in West Virginia called "6".
Singapore only has one train station.
The parking meter was invented in North Dakota.
Napolean made his battle plans in a sandbox.
Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.
The green stuff on the occasional freak potatoe chip is chlorophyll.
If you ate too many carrots you would turn orange.
Pluto's orbit crosses Neptune's making Pluto the eighth planet from the sun. It has been that way since 1979 and will remain that way until 1999.
The earth is approx. 6,588,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
The force of 1 billion people jumping at the same time is equal to 500 tons of TNT.
Popeye was 5'6".
Howdy Doody had 48 freckles.
The first word spoken on the moon was "Okay".
Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.
The average speed of Heinz ketchup leaving the bottle is 25 miles per year.
Hilary Clinton once said We are the President.
The percent of women who wash their hands after leaving a restroom is 80%.
The percent of men who wash their hands after using a restroom is 55%.
There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.
The Eifel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.
"Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish.
On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles.
The average American eats 2 donuts a day.
The longest word in the Old Testament is Malhershalahashbaz.
The longest time a person has been in a coma is 37 years.
Every minute in the U.S 6 people turn 17.
It takes the Where's Waldo artist one month to complete a drawing.
2500 lefties die each year using products designed for righties.
A baby is born every 7 seconds.
10 tons of space dust fall on the Earth everyday.
On average, a 4 year old child asks 437 questions a day.
Blue and white are the most common school colors.
Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year.
The first message tapped by Samuel Morse over his invention the telegraph was: What hath God wrought?.
The first words spoken by over Alexander Bell over the telephone were: Watson, please come here. I want you.
The first words spoken by Thomas Edison over the phonograph were: Mary had a little lamb
The three words in the English language with the letters uu are: vacuum, residuum and continuum.
A baby in Florida was named: Truewilllaughinglifebuckyboomermanifestdestiny. His middle name is George James.
It is illegal to ride a street car on Sunday if have been eating garlic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In a normal life time an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat.
A new book is published every 13 minutes in America.
America's best selling ice-cream flavour is vanilla.
American's eat 18 billion hot dogs a year.
American's eat 134 pounds of sugar a year.
Every year the sun loses 360 million tons.
Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe.
You can tell if a skunk is about if you smell only .000 000 000 000 071 ounce of its spray.
Animal breeders in Russia once claimed to have bred sheep with blue wool.
Penguins are the only bird that can leap into the air like porpoises.
India has 50 million monkeys.
By some unknown means, an iguana can end its own life.
Americans spend around $3 billion for cat and dog food a year.
Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed.
You breathe about 10 million times a year.
The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you'll have a bad dream.
The first non-human to win an Oscar was Mickey Mouse.
Lee Harvey Oswald was booked with mugshot number 54018.
The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour.
The bullseye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground.
The foot is the most common body part bitten by insects.
The most common time for a wake up call is 7am.
The doorbell was invented in 1831.
The are 255 squares on a Scrabble board.
The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928.
There are 500 sheets of paper in a ream.
The monkey wrench was invented by Charles Moncke.
Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.
There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.
There are approx. 550 hairs in the eyebrow.
The most common non-contagious disease in the world is tooth decay.
The shell constitutes 12 percent of an egg's weight.
A squid has 10 tentacles.
A snail's reproductive organs are in its head.
A cow's only sweat glands are in its nose.
The word "AND" appears 46,277 times in the Bible.
The first word played in the Scrabble rules demonstration game is "horn".
The telephone's U.S. patent number is 174,465.
The typical person goes to the bathroom 6 times a day.
There are 17 steps leading up to Sherlock Holme's apartment.
When a horned toad is angry, it squirts blood from it's eyes.
Napoleon was terrified of cats.
The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.
The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.
The ballpoint pen was invented in 1938 by Laszlo and Georg Biro.
The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.
The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935.
In 1961, an IBM 7090 computer calculated Pi to 100 265 digits.
The human body weighs forty times more than the brain.
After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.
A person swallows approximately 295 times while eating dinner.
The oldest known vegetable is the pea.
Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes.
The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.
The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia.
The letter N ends all Japanese words not ending in a vowel.
France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.
The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone.
4000 people are injured by teapots each year.
The typical American consumes 27 pounds of cheese each year.
The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is feedback.
The ostrich has a 46 foot long small intestine.
The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.
The most sensitive finger on the human hand is the index finger.
George Washington Carver invented peanut butter.
The typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year.
Stainless stell was invented by Harry Brearley in 1913.
A scallop has 35 blue eyes.
The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one.
The only dog that doesn't have a pink tongue is the chow.
Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935.
The giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal.
The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.
Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.
Albert Blake Dick invented the mimeograph machine.
The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.
The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday.
An Oscar weighs seven pounds.
It takes the typical person seven minutes to fall asleep.
Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer.
The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.
The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902.
Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning.
Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.
About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30.
A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.
The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.
Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.
Owls are the only birds who can see the color blue.
A jellyfish is 95 percent water.
The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.
The penguin is the only bird who can swim, but not fly.
America once issued a 5-cent bill.
Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.
A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.
You blink about 84,000,000 times a year.
In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word.
A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans.
Every 45 seconds, a house catches on fire in the United States.
The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth.
A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death.
The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used.
Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right of left handed... or is that pawed?
The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.
Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lighting than women.
Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions.
Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow.
Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings.
Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight.
After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again!
When someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown, but it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and whack them in the head.
Coca-Cola was originally green.
Hong Kong has the most Rolls Royce's per capita.
Alaska is the state with highest percent of people who walk to work.
28 percent of Africa is wilderness.
38 percent of America is wilderness.
A duck's quack does not echo and no one knows why.
It costs $6400 to raise a medium size dog to age of 11.
Average number of people airborne over the U.S. during any given hour: 61,000.
70 percent of Americans who visited Disneyland/World.
Intelligent people have more copper and zinc in their hair.
The youngest pope was 11 years old.
Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other country.
The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet and was developed by Western Union to test telex/twx communications.
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only "mobile" National Monuments.
The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter "uncopyrightable."
Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and learned how to walk up standard staircases.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because, when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of unwanted people (without killing them) used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know his voice was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie.
The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel fuel that it burns.
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl.
The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-star Game.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.
The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
Reno, Nevada is west of Los Angeles, California.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.
In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
A cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Coca Cola was originally green.
The Ten Commandments contain 297 words.
The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contains 266 words.
A recent federal directive to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words.
There are more collect calls made on Father's Day than on any other day.
Every day more money is printed for monopoly than the US Treasury.
Men can read smaller print than women, women can hear better than men.
Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
The world's youngest parents were 8 & 9 and lived in China in 1910.
Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil
Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace.
The youngest Pope was 11 years old.
"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosey is a rhyme about the bubonic plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores (Ring around the Rosey...). These sores would smell very bad so people would hide flowers on their bodies in an attempt to mask the smell ("pocket full of posies..."). People who died from the plague would be burned to reduce the spread of the disease ("ashes, ashes, we all fall down").
The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.
Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
American car horns beep in the tone of F.
No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.
1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."
The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
READING QURAN
An old American Muslim lived on a farm in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa wake up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Quran. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa, I try to read the Quran just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Quraan do?" The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water." The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little Faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty Before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house. The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!” So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket." the boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different! . It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out. "Son, that's what happens when you read the Quran. You might not Understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you Will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Allah in our lives."
WHAT IS YOUR RECOVERY RATE?
What is your recovery rate? How long does it take you to recover from actions and behaviours that upset you? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? How long? The longer it takes you to recover the more influence that incident has on your actions, the less able you are to perform to your personal best. In a nutshell the longer it takes you to recover the weaker you are and the poorer your performance.
Just ask yourself: How many times have I got upset with my spouse or partner for something the children did hours ago? How many times have I missed an opportunity because I was still focussed on an upset and all I could say was ‘NO’ to everything? How many times have I driven my car erratically because I was still thinking of an incident that made me angry? The point is: a poor recovery rate affects your health. A poor recovery rate affects your well being. A poor recovery rate stops you from living to your potential. You are well aware that you need to exercise to keep the body fit and, no doubt, accept that a reasonable measure of health is the speed in which your heart and respiratory system recovers after exercise. Likewise the faster you let go of an issue that upsets you, the faster you return to an equilibrium the healthier you will be.
The best example of this behaviour is found with professional sportspeople. They know that the faster they can forget an incident or missed opportunity and get on with the game the better their performance. In fact, most measure the time it takes them to overcome and forget an incident in a game and most reckon a recovery rate of 30 seconds is too long! How long does it take you to recover and overcome and forget and incident at work or at home? A method that I and many others use to help us reduce the recovery time is the method of the FULL STOP. Imagine yourself to be an actor in a play on the stage. Your aim is to play your part to the best of your ability. You have been given a script and at the end of each sentence is a full stop. Each time you get to the end of the sentence you start a new one and although the next sentence is related to the last it is not affected by it. Your job is to deliver each sentence to the best of your ability.
Now think about your life. Imagine life is no more than a play, a drama and we each have a role to play in that drama. Your job is to play your part to the best of your ability and the better you play your part the more chance that you will inspire others around you to improve their performance. Each incident you face is a new sentence. Just put a full stop behind it and start again. Accept that every time you meet someone or have a conversation with a person on the telephone or even send an email it is a new incident. You have both moved on since you last met, so remembering the last occasion only keeps you in the past and stops you moving forward. Stops you seeing new opportunities.
The next time you see the person that upset you, or you upset, is a new occasion there is nothing to be gained by continuing from where you left off. The incident has finished. You are both in a different place now. It is a new sentence so start again. My grandmother used to call it destiny. “Accept what has happened as part of your destiny and live with it”, was a favourite phrase of hers. You cannot change what has happened. Sulking or Brooding will not help. Analysing will only give you a headache and keep it fresh in your mind. In the same way that you cannot enter the same river twice, you will never face the exact same incident again so why analyse that one? You can however notice whether you have a habit or thought pattern that clicks in in certain circumstances and stops you performing to your best. You can then look at the habit and decide how you can change it.
The secret to a better life is be like the sportsperson, ask yourself: Did I recover quicker today than I did yesterday? Did I recover quicker this time than the last occasion I faced a similar incident? Did I allow myself to be average today? Did I equal or improve on my personal best today? Don’t live your life in the past! Learn to live in the present, to overcome the past. Stop the past from influencing your daily life. Don’t allow thoughts of the past to reduce your personal best. Stop the past from interfering with your life. Learn to recover quickly. What we are suggesting is not an easy path. To work on your recovery rate and make changes in your thoughts, behaviour and attitudes requires a great deal of effort. However, the rewards are also great. It is important that you don’t force yourself to work on your recovery rate because you think you ought to or must or because you feel it will ‘make you a better person’. There's no benefit in that because you will not stick to the task. You will make a great deal of effort at the beginning but when you are not achieving the results you want you will stop or look for another technique.
Only when you really feel you want to change. When you realise life is not working for you at the moment using the methods you are using will you put in the effort to change your behaviour to improve your recovery rate. You can only improve your recovery rate when you can see that there is great benefit for the self. Once you decide you wish to improve your recovery rate, you will start to check and change your thoughts and behaviour and make effort to perform to your personal best. You can check your progress by measuring the speed in which you are able to apply a full stop. The time it takes you to let go. The time it takes before you are functioning at or near your personal best again. Check yourself: What was my recovery rate after the argument with my partner? What was my recovery rate after I lost a sale? What was my recovery rate after I received a ticket for speeding? What was my recovery rate after I heard a friend was ill? What was my recovery rate after I got frustrated with myself over………? But remember; Rome wasn’t built in a day. Reflect on your recovery rate each day. Every day before you go to bed, look at your progress. Don’t lie in bed saying to yourself, ‘I did that wrong’. ‘I should have done better there’. No. Look at your day and note when you made an effort to place a full stop after an incident. This is a success. You are taking control of your life. Remember this is a step by step process. This is not a make-over. You are undertaking real change here.
Your aim: reduce the time spent in recovery. The way forward? Live in the present. Not in the precedent.
WHATS BETTER THAN..?
One of the best speeches I have ever read in recent times ....
Happy Reading...
Happy Reading...
What's better than ..... - By Butch Jimenez
As college students, you're just about to set sail into the real world. As you prepare for the battleground of life, you'll hear many speeches, read tons of books and get miles of advise telling you to work hard, dream big, go out and do something for yourself, and have a vision.
Not bad advise, really. In fact, following these nuggets of truth may just bring you to the top. But as I've lived my life over the years, I have come to realise that it is great to dream big, have a vision, make a name, and work hard. But guess what : There's something better than that -
So my message today simply asks the question, what's better than ...?
What's better than being negative?
Let's start off with something really simple.
What's better than a long speech? No doubt,a short one. So, you guys are in luck because I intend to keep this short.
Now, let me take you through a very simple math exam. I'll rattle off a couple of equations, and you tell me what you observe about them. Be mindful of the instruction. You are to tell me what you observe about the equations.
Here it goes : 3+4=7, 9+2=11, 8+4=13 and 6+6=12.
Tell me, what do you observe ?
Every time I conduct the test, more than 90 percent of the participants immediately say, 8+4 is NOT 13, it's 12. That's true and they are correct. But they could have also observed that the three other equations were right. That 3+4 is 7, that 9+2 is 11, and that 6+6 is 12.
What's my point? Many people immediately focus on the negative instead of the positive. Most of us focus on what's wrong with other people more than what's right about them. Examine those four equations. Three were right an only one was wrong. But what is the knee-jerk observation? The wrong equation.
If 10 people you didn't know were to walk through that door, most of you would describe those people by what's negative about them. He's fat. He's balding. Oh, the short one. Oh, the skinny girl. etc.
Get the point? It's always the negative we focus on and not the positive.
You'll definitely experience this in the Corporate World. You do a hundred good things and one mistake-guess what? Chances are, your attention will be called on that one mistake..
So what's better than focusing on the negative?
Believe me, it focusing on the positive. And if this world could learn to focus on the positive more than the negative, it would be a much nicer place to live in.
What's better than working hard?
We have always been told to work hard. Our parents say that, our teachers say that, and our principal say that. But there's something better than merely working hard. It's working SMART.
It's taking time to understand the situation, and coming out with an effective and efficient solution to get more done with less time and effort. As the Japanese say, "There's always a better way."
One of the most memorable case studies I came across with as I studied Japanese management at Sophia University in Tokyo was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetic companies. The company received a complaint that a customer had bought a box of soap that was empty. It immediately isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty.
Management tasked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two to ensure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast. But a rank-and-file employee that was posed the same problem came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electrical fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, an as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line. Clearly, the engineers worked hard, but the rank-and-file employee worked smart. So what's better than merely working hard? It's working smart.
Having said that,it is still important to work hard. If you could combine both working hard and working smart, you would possess a major factor toward success.
What's better than dreaming big ?
I will bet my next month's salary that many have encouraged you to dream big. Maybe even to reach for the stars and aim high. I sure heard that about a million times right before I graduated from this university. So I did. I did dream big. I did aim high. I did reach for the stars. No doubt,it works. In fact, the saying is true "If you aim for nothing, that's exactly what you'll hit: nothing."
But there's something better than dreaming big.
Believe me, I got shocked myself. And I learned it from the biggest dreamer of all time Walt Disney. When it comes to dreaming big. Walt is the man. No bigger dreams were fulfilled than his. Every leadership book describes him as the ultimate dreamer. In fact, the principle of dreaming and achieving is the core message of the Disney hit song, "When You Wish Upon a Star". "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are; anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do, " as Jiminy Cricket sang. But is that what he preached in Disney company? Dream?
Imagineering...Well, not exactly. Kinda , but not quite. The problem with dreaming is if that's all you do, you'll really get nowhere. Infact, you may just fall asleep and never wake up. The secret to Disney's success is not just dreaming, it's IMAGINEERING.
You won't find this word in a dictionary. It's purely a Disney word. Those who engage in imagineering are called imaginers. The word combines the words "imagination" and "engineering". In the book " Imagineers," Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, claims that "imaginers turn impossible dreams into real magic." Walt Disney explained there is really no secret to this approach. They just keep moving forward-opening new doors and doing new things, because they are curious. And it is this curiosity that leads them down new paths. They always dream, explore and experiment. In short, imagineering is the blending of creative imagination and technical know-how. Eiser expounds on this thought by saying that "Not only are imaginers curious, they are courageous, outrageous, and this creativity is contagious."
The big difference with imaginers is that they dream an then they DO ! So don't just be a dreamer, be an imagineer.
What's better than vision?
You must have all been given a lecture at one time or another about the importance of having a vision. Even leadership expert John Maxwell says that an indispensable quality of a leader is to have a vision. It is also very clear that without vision, people perish." So no doubt about it, having a vision is important to success. But surprise ! There's something more potent than a vision. It's a CAUSE. If all you're doing is trying to reach your vision an you're pitted against someone fighting for a cause, chances are you'll lose. The Vietnam War is a classic example. Literally with sticks and stones, the Viet Cong beat the heavily armed US Army to surrender, primarily because the US has a vision to win the war, but the Vietnamese were fighting for a cause.
In the realm of business, many leaders have visions of making their company No. 1, or grabbing market share, or forever increasing profits.Nothing really wrong with that vison, but take the example of Sony founder Akio Morita. He did not just have a vision to build the biggest electronics company in the world. In his biography, " Made in Japan" he reveals that the real reason he set up Sony was to help rebuild his country, which had just been bettered by war. He had a cause he was fighting for. His vision to be an electronics giant was secondary.
What's the difference between a vision and a cause?
Here's what sets them apart.
• No one is wiling to die for a vision. People will die for a cause.
• You possess a vision. A cause possesses you.
• A vision lies in your hands. A cause lies in your heart.
• A vision involves sacrifice. A cause involves the ultimate sacrifice.
Just a word of caution. You must have the right vision, and you must be fighting for the right cause. In the end, right will always win out. It may take time, and it may take long. But if you have the right vision and are fighting for the right cause, you will prevail. If not, no matter how sincere you are, if you are not fighting for what is right, you will ultimately fail.
It is said : "To whom much is given, much is required."
Having been given the opportunity to study in UP, no doubt, much has been given to you in terms of an excellent education. Don't forget that in return, much is now required of you to use that education not just for yourself, but for others. And as you move up and start reaching the pinnacle of success, even more will be required of you to look at the welfare of others, of society and of the country.
A final review :
• What's better than focusing on the negative ?
Focus on the positive
• What's better than working hard ?
Its working smart
• What's better than doing something for yourself ?
Doing something for your country
• What's better than a vision ?
A cause
• What's better than a long speech ?
Definitely, a short one
Not bad advise, really. In fact, following these nuggets of truth may just bring you to the top. But as I've lived my life over the years, I have come to realise that it is great to dream big, have a vision, make a name, and work hard. But guess what : There's something better than that -
So my message today simply asks the question, what's better than ...?
What's better than being negative?
Let's start off with something really simple.
What's better than a long speech? No doubt,a short one. So, you guys are in luck because I intend to keep this short.
Now, let me take you through a very simple math exam. I'll rattle off a couple of equations, and you tell me what you observe about them. Be mindful of the instruction. You are to tell me what you observe about the equations.
Here it goes : 3+4=7, 9+2=11, 8+4=13 and 6+6=12.
Tell me, what do you observe ?
Every time I conduct the test, more than 90 percent of the participants immediately say, 8+4 is NOT 13, it's 12. That's true and they are correct. But they could have also observed that the three other equations were right. That 3+4 is 7, that 9+2 is 11, and that 6+6 is 12.
What's my point? Many people immediately focus on the negative instead of the positive. Most of us focus on what's wrong with other people more than what's right about them. Examine those four equations. Three were right an only one was wrong. But what is the knee-jerk observation? The wrong equation.
If 10 people you didn't know were to walk through that door, most of you would describe those people by what's negative about them. He's fat. He's balding. Oh, the short one. Oh, the skinny girl. etc.
Get the point? It's always the negative we focus on and not the positive.
You'll definitely experience this in the Corporate World. You do a hundred good things and one mistake-guess what? Chances are, your attention will be called on that one mistake..
So what's better than focusing on the negative?
Believe me, it focusing on the positive. And if this world could learn to focus on the positive more than the negative, it would be a much nicer place to live in.
What's better than working hard?
We have always been told to work hard. Our parents say that, our teachers say that, and our principal say that. But there's something better than merely working hard. It's working SMART.
It's taking time to understand the situation, and coming out with an effective and efficient solution to get more done with less time and effort. As the Japanese say, "There's always a better way."
One of the most memorable case studies I came across with as I studied Japanese management at Sophia University in Tokyo was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetic companies. The company received a complaint that a customer had bought a box of soap that was empty. It immediately isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty.
Management tasked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two to ensure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast. But a rank-and-file employee that was posed the same problem came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electrical fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, an as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line. Clearly, the engineers worked hard, but the rank-and-file employee worked smart. So what's better than merely working hard? It's working smart.
Having said that,it is still important to work hard. If you could combine both working hard and working smart, you would possess a major factor toward success.
What's better than dreaming big ?
I will bet my next month's salary that many have encouraged you to dream big. Maybe even to reach for the stars and aim high. I sure heard that about a million times right before I graduated from this university. So I did. I did dream big. I did aim high. I did reach for the stars. No doubt,it works. In fact, the saying is true "If you aim for nothing, that's exactly what you'll hit: nothing."
But there's something better than dreaming big.
Believe me, I got shocked myself. And I learned it from the biggest dreamer of all time Walt Disney. When it comes to dreaming big. Walt is the man. No bigger dreams were fulfilled than his. Every leadership book describes him as the ultimate dreamer. In fact, the principle of dreaming and achieving is the core message of the Disney hit song, "When You Wish Upon a Star". "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are; anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do, " as Jiminy Cricket sang. But is that what he preached in Disney company? Dream?
Imagineering...Well, not exactly. Kinda , but not quite. The problem with dreaming is if that's all you do, you'll really get nowhere. Infact, you may just fall asleep and never wake up. The secret to Disney's success is not just dreaming, it's IMAGINEERING.
You won't find this word in a dictionary. It's purely a Disney word. Those who engage in imagineering are called imaginers. The word combines the words "imagination" and "engineering". In the book " Imagineers," Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, claims that "imaginers turn impossible dreams into real magic." Walt Disney explained there is really no secret to this approach. They just keep moving forward-opening new doors and doing new things, because they are curious. And it is this curiosity that leads them down new paths. They always dream, explore and experiment. In short, imagineering is the blending of creative imagination and technical know-how. Eiser expounds on this thought by saying that "Not only are imaginers curious, they are courageous, outrageous, and this creativity is contagious."
The big difference with imaginers is that they dream an then they DO ! So don't just be a dreamer, be an imagineer.
What's better than vision?
You must have all been given a lecture at one time or another about the importance of having a vision. Even leadership expert John Maxwell says that an indispensable quality of a leader is to have a vision. It is also very clear that without vision, people perish." So no doubt about it, having a vision is important to success. But surprise ! There's something more potent than a vision. It's a CAUSE. If all you're doing is trying to reach your vision an you're pitted against someone fighting for a cause, chances are you'll lose. The Vietnam War is a classic example. Literally with sticks and stones, the Viet Cong beat the heavily armed US Army to surrender, primarily because the US has a vision to win the war, but the Vietnamese were fighting for a cause.
In the realm of business, many leaders have visions of making their company No. 1, or grabbing market share, or forever increasing profits.Nothing really wrong with that vison, but take the example of Sony founder Akio Morita. He did not just have a vision to build the biggest electronics company in the world. In his biography, " Made in Japan" he reveals that the real reason he set up Sony was to help rebuild his country, which had just been bettered by war. He had a cause he was fighting for. His vision to be an electronics giant was secondary.
What's the difference between a vision and a cause?
Here's what sets them apart.
• No one is wiling to die for a vision. People will die for a cause.
• You possess a vision. A cause possesses you.
• A vision lies in your hands. A cause lies in your heart.
• A vision involves sacrifice. A cause involves the ultimate sacrifice.
Just a word of caution. You must have the right vision, and you must be fighting for the right cause. In the end, right will always win out. It may take time, and it may take long. But if you have the right vision and are fighting for the right cause, you will prevail. If not, no matter how sincere you are, if you are not fighting for what is right, you will ultimately fail.
It is said : "To whom much is given, much is required."
Having been given the opportunity to study in UP, no doubt, much has been given to you in terms of an excellent education. Don't forget that in return, much is now required of you to use that education not just for yourself, but for others. And as you move up and start reaching the pinnacle of success, even more will be required of you to look at the welfare of others, of society and of the country.
A final review :
• What's better than focusing on the negative ?
Focus on the positive
• What's better than working hard ?
Its working smart
• What's better than doing something for yourself ?
Doing something for your country
• What's better than a vision ?
A cause
• What's better than a long speech ?
Definitely, a short one
THE BOY WHO SCORED 4D'S
PMR results are out and again the media will be extolling the teenagers who did well, who scored A’s. But it is not just the media doing it. Parents and the public are equally guilty. The media portray these A’s as if they are marks of great achievement. Our exams, however, only test a natural ability to remember and solve some “puzzles”. They do not determine a person’s worth or true achievements. Nonetheless, many teenagers will be disappointed and hurt today. They are the perceived “failures” both by society and by themselves, if they did not score. I wish the media would instead portray the real achievers, like the boy who scored 4 D’s. This young man struggled against the system and his own limitations. He was not born with a gifted brain. He had a learning disorder that was not addressed by the education system. He really worked hard. He was placed in the “worst” class with disinterested teachers and his parents had no money for tuition. Despite it all, he scored 4 D’s! Now that shows determination and is worth shouting about. However, he will not even rate a small paragraph on page 10.
Courtesy;
Dr AMAR-SINGH HSS, Consultant Community Paediatrician & Head of Paediatric Department,
Courtesy;
Dr AMAR-SINGH HSS, Consultant Community Paediatrician & Head of Paediatric Department,
VERY INTERESTING STUFF
VERY INTERESTING STUFF .....
In the 1400's, a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence, we have "the rule of thumb."
Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...thus, the word GOLF entered into the English language. -------------------------------------------
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone. -------------------------------------------
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury. -------------------------------------------
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better. -------------------------------------------
Coca-Cola was originally green. ------------------------------------------ It is impossible to lick your elbow. ---------------------------------------- The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska -------------------------------------------
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% .... (now get this...) -------------------------------------------
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%. ------------- The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $ 16,400. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
The average number of people airborne over the U.S. In any given hour: 61,000 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. -----------
The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander, the Great Diamonds - Julius Caesar ----------------------------------------
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 --------------------
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th: John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. ------
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? A. Their birthplace. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested? A. Obsession ----------------------------------------
Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? A. One thousand -------------------
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? A. All were invented by women. -
Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil? A. Honey ------------------
Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year? A. Father's Day ---------------------------------------------------------
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight." -------------------------------------------------------------------
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon. --------------
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's" -------------------------------------
Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice. -----------------------------------
At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow! ----
Don't delete this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? ------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2008 when... 1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave. 2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years. 3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three. 4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you. 5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses. 6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries. 7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen 8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it. 10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee. 11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : ) 12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing. 13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message. 14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list. 15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.
AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.
In the 1400's, a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence, we have "the rule of thumb."
Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...thus, the word GOLF entered into the English language. -------------------------------------------
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone. -------------------------------------------
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury. -------------------------------------------
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better. -------------------------------------------
Coca-Cola was originally green. ------------------------------------------ It is impossible to lick your elbow. ---------------------------------------- The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska -------------------------------------------
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% .... (now get this...) -------------------------------------------
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%. ------------- The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $ 16,400. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
The average number of people airborne over the U.S. In any given hour: 61,000 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. -----------
The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander, the Great Diamonds - Julius Caesar ----------------------------------------
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 --------------------
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th: John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. ------
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? A. Their birthplace. --------------------------------------------------------------------
Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested? A. Obsession ----------------------------------------
Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? A. One thousand -------------------
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? A. All were invented by women. -
Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil? A. Honey ------------------
Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year? A. Father's Day ---------------------------------------------------------
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight." -------------------------------------------------------------------
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon. --------------
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's" -------------------------------------
Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice. -----------------------------------
At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow! ----
Don't delete this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? ------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2008 when... 1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave. 2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years. 3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three. 4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you. 5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses. 6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries. 7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen 8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it. 10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee. 11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : ) 12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing. 13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message. 14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list. 15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.
AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.
Surat Yg Menyentuh Hati
Surat ni bukan pertama kali aku baca. Mungkin dah beberapa kali. Tetapi minggu lepas, surat ni datang balik circulate kat email aku. So dlm kesempatan yg agak terhad, aku bukak dan baca la balik. Tetapi setiap kali aku baca, terasa jugak la mcm tersentuh hati yg satu ni. Tak tahulah, samada org yg tulis ni betul2 pernah berada dlm situasi mcm ni ataupun dia mmg benar2 kreatif dlm penulisan dia, Wallauhua'lam.Tetapi, byk pengajaran yg kita boleh amik dari penulisan ini...
Mak..... Terlalu bosan rasanya duduk membilang hari..... Dah hampir sepuluh bulan mak pergi, Rasanya baru semalam mak peluk kiter kan sejuk syahdu masih terasa lagi nih.... Mak tau tak. .... itu lah pertama kali mak peluk anak mak yang nakal ni sejak kiter dewasa..... dan itu juga terakhir kali nya. Emmmm...rupanya mak dah tau mak nak pergi jauh..... nak tinggal kan anak2 mak..... nak tinggal kan dunia fana ni..... mak macam dah sedia..... Seminggu sebelum tu..... mak dah menganyam tikar mengkuang 3 helai..... Akak kata sampai ke pagi mak anyam tikar tuu.... tanpa rasa mengantuk, tanpa rasa letih..... kakak pun rasa hairan..... mak tak penah buat gitu..... pastu mak pasang radio kecil di sebelah mak..... tapi mak seolah2 tak sedar bahawa rancangan radio tu siaran siam ...... kengkadang siaran indonesia ... mak terus tekun menganyam... Rupanya tikar yang telah mak siapkan tu di gunakan untuk mengiringi mak ke kuburan... Pastu mak sapu sampah sekeliling rumah bersih2.... pastu mak jemur karpet-karpet. .. pastu mak ubahkan sofa ke tempat lain.. mak biarkan ruang tu kosong.. rupanya kat situ jenazah mak diletakkan.. paling menarik sekali mak bgtau kat maner sume duit dan barang kemas mak.. ada kat dalam almari..... ada kat dalam dalam beg..... ada dalam ASB..... ada kat dalam Tabung Haji.. mak cakap tak berapa cukup lagi.... ada kat dalam gulung tikar..... masa tu mak perasan takk..?? kiter gelak sakan bila mak bgtau duit dalam gulung tikar... kiter kata mak ni memang pesenn lama laaa... mak cuma gelak jer... eeemmm..bahagiaa nya saat ituu.. Mak..... Hari tu hari sabtu 18/08/1999 pukul 3 petang mak tiba2 sakit perut..... bila malam tu kiter sampai dari KL..... mak dah dalam kesakitan. Akak dan abang kat kampong semua dah pujuk..... mak tetap takmau pi hospital.... . dan cuma tinggal giliran kiter sahaja yang belum pujuk.. Mak kata mak takmau duduk dalam hospital.... . tapi kiter berkeras juga pujukk.. nanti di hospital ada doktor... ada ubat untuk mak.. kat rumah kami hanya mampu sapu minyak dan urut jer.. Mak tetap tak bersetuju... .. mak memang degil.. tak salah, anak mak yang ni pon mengikut perangai mak tu.. Tapi akhirnya bila melihat keadaan mak makin teruk.... mak sakit perut sampai nak sentuh perut mak pon sakit kami adik beradik sepakat hantar juga mak ke hospital.... .. Mak..... amponkan kami semua... kami nak mak sehat... kami sayang mak... kami tak mau mak sakit... kami terpaksa juga hantar mak ke hospital.... ampon kan kami yer mak.... Mak..... Malam itu abang bawa mak ke hospital dan itu lah pertama dan terakhir kali mak naik kereta kiter... Masih terbayang betapa ceria dan gembiranya mak, kiter kata nak beli kereta.... Mak asyik tanya ajer.. cukup ker duitt.. kiter jawab pula... kalau tak cukup, mak kan banyak duit... mak gelak ajerr..... Lepas tu bila kereta kiter sampai.... mak buat kenduri kesyukuran.. .... Dan kiter masih ingat lagi... bila kiter eksiden terlanggar Ah-Chong naik motor..... Punya la kiter takut... kiter warning kakak kiter jangan sesekali bgtau kat mak..... Bila balik sahaja kampong.... kiter cepat-cepat simpan keta dalam garaj..... Tapi mak perasan juga bumper depan kemek... mak tanya kenapa...? Selamba jerr kiter jawab terlangar pokok bunga..... Mak.... tujuan kiter menipu tu supaya mak tak risau... Maafkan kiter kerana sampai mak pergi mak tak tau hal sebenar... mak, kiter menipu mak kan ... ampon kan kiter.... Mak..... Jam 4.30 pa gi 19/08 /2006 Bila tiba aja kat hospital.... nurse tengah balut mak dengan kain putih..... mak mesti nampak kiter jatuh terduduk di lantai hospital... Mesti mak nampak abang cium dahi mak..... Mesti mak nampak akak baca doa untuk mak.... Mesti mak nampak adik terduduk kat kerusi kat sudut itu... mesti mak nampak semua tu kann...kann. .kannn Mak tau tak.... Pagi tu balik dari hospital jam 5.20 pagi kiter mamandu dalam keadaan separuh sedar... Adik kat sebelah diam melayan perasann... Kenangan bersama mak berputar dalam kepala ini... jalan di depan terasa makin kelam..... airmata dah tak mampu di tahan.... Masa tu seandainya apa-apa terjadi di jalan itu kiter rela... Namun alhamdulillah akhirnya kiter sampai juga... di sebab kan pagi masih awal, jadi jalan tu lenggang.. kosong. ...sekosong hati ini..... Sepanjang perjalanan terasa kedinginan subuh itu lain benar suasananya.. ... terasa syahdu dan sayu...dinginnnn. .... Mak..... Kiter masih ingat lagi... Kiter baca AlQuran kat tepi mak temankan mak... Jam 11.00 pagi mak di mandi kan ..... Anak2 mak yang pangku masa mak mandi.... Mak mesti rasa betapa lembut nya kami mengosok seluruh tubuh mak..... Kiter gosok kaki mak perlahan lahan..... Mak perasan tak...? Makcik yang mandikan mak tu pujuk kiter..... Dia kata..." dikk...jangan nangis...kalau sayang mak jangan buat gitu...jangan nangis ya.." Bila makcik tu kata gitu... lagi laaaa laju airmata ni.. tapi kiter kawal supaya tak menitik atas mak.... Mak..... Sampai takat ini surat ni kiter tulis..... kiter nangis ni..... Ni kat dlm bilik...baru pukul 4.00 pagi.... Takder orang yang bangun lagi..... kiter dengar nasyid tajuk "anak soleh" kiter sedih... kiter rindu kat mak..! Takpa la.... nanti bila kita selesai sembanyang subuh, kiter baca yassin untuk mak... mak tunggu ya..! Mak.. Sebelum muka mak di tutup buat selamanya... . Semua anak2 mak mengelilingi mak... menatap wajah mak buat kali terakhir.... Semua orang kata mak seolah2 senyum aja... Mak rasa tak.... masa tu kiter sentuh dahi mak.... kiter rasa sejukkkk sangat dahi makk..... Kiter tak mampu nak cium mak... kiter tak daya.... kiter tuliskan kalimah tauhid kat dahi mak dengan air mawar... Airmata kiter tak boleh tahan.... Mak mesti ingat kan yang anak mak ni jadi imam solat jenazah untuk mak... tapi kite suruh tok imam bacakan doa sebab kite sebak.... Jam 12 tengahari mak diusung keluar dari rumah.... Akak pula dah terkulai dlm pelukan makcik... badan akak terasa panas... makk... anak mak yang seorang tu demam.... Mak tauu... cuma akak sorang saja anak mak yang tak mengiringi mak ke tanah perkuburan.. . Mak..... Hari2 ku lalui tanpa kewujudan mak lagi... Begitu terasa kehilangan mak... boleh kata setiap malam selepas maghrib anak mak ini berendam airmata... Dan sampai satu tahap.... masa tu malam jumaat selepas maghrib... Selepas kiter baca yassin ngan kawan-kawan. .... entah kenapa biler kat bilik kiter keluarkan gambar2 mak pastu apa lagi... semakin kiter tenung terasa semakin sayu... tangisan tak dapat dibendung... Mak tauu... kiter cuba bertahan... memujuk diri sendiri tapi tak juga reda... Kiter rasa nak telefon mak... nak cakap dengan mak.... anak mak yang ni dah tak betul kan ...???? Dan akhirnya dalam sedu sedan itu kiter telefon kampong... Kiter cakap dengan kakak..kiter nangis lagi... Puas la kakak memujuk kiter... Akak kata..." tak baik laa nangis aje..doa lah untuk mak.." Dan akhirnya akak juga nangis..... Mak tau tak.. di saat itu kerinduan terasa menusuk sehingga ke hulu hati... rasa nyilu sangat... menusuk-nusuk sehingga terasa begitu sakit dalam dada ni.... Sampai sekarang bila kerinduan itu menjelma... hanya sedekah al-fatihah kiter berikan..... Mak.... cukup la sampai sini dulu.... kawan kiter dah ketuk pintu bilik tu.... kejap lagi kami nak pergi solat subuh kat masjid... selalunya, kiter yang bawak mak naik motor kan .... kali ni kiter jalan kaki dengan kawan pulak... esok kiter ingat nak tulis surat kat ayah pula.... Mula2 kiter tak tau nak hantar mana surat nih... pastu kawan kiter bgtau... simpan je buat kenangan.. Kiter cuma tau alamat ni aje... Takper yer mak...k iter kasi orang lain baca... Kiter stop dulu... sebab kawan kiter dah lama tunggu tu... akhir kata untuk mak, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH dan jutaan terima kasih kerana membesarkan kiter... memberi seluruh kasih sayang dari kecil sampai masuk sekolah.. sampai masuk unibesiti.. sampai kiter boleh rase naik kapal terbang... boleh rasa duduk kat negara orang... s ampai akhir hayat ini jasa mak tak akan mampu kiter balas.. Sekian terima kasih, Yang Benar Anak mak yang dah tak degil
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Life lessons - An Inpirational Story By Fatimah Musa
Ju was physically abused as a child. She lived with a mother who was diagnosed with post depression and a father who was a wife abuser. Her parent divorced and left six of them with her mother. She left school at 15 and went to work waiting tables to help her mother feed them all. At 18 she met and fell in love and was married soon after. Then she found out that her husband drank too much, slept around with other women, a wife abuser and took drugs. She was divorced at age 20 with two children. Her husband took their son away and handed him to his friend. He was sent to jail for an offence with the law. Her husband's friend did not want to hand the boy over to her and demanded money in exchange. The child had scars on his chest due to burnt from cigarette butts. That was what he got for crying out for food. She finally managed to get her son back. She left her children in her mother's care while she left to find a job. At 28 she had an accident. Her dress caught fire and she suffered 2nd degree burns. With that her self-esteem and self-confidence went down the pit. She was depressed. She attempted suicides several times and was given psychiatric treatments. After a major surgery and lots of counseling and support from relatives and friends, she started her life all over again even with one partly deformed hand and fingers. Her anxiety was all the time still present. It was tougher to find a job. She felt like a disabled person. The one thing that kept her going in spite of her misfortune was her will to be able to feed herself and sent money for her children. She did not want to ask for financial support. At 38 she was diagnosed with cancer of the cervix. That was a big blow to her. She went through another depression episode. "Why me?" was the question she repeatedly asked. Of course when she asked that question, she got all the wrong answers. She felt more depressed. She blamed her father, her mother and everyone for what brought her sufferings. Worst, she blamed herself. She agreed to go for the treatments, chemotherapy and cesium, because she did not want to go through the pains. This was when she took the time to look within her. She thought that she might not live long enough so she decided to reconnect with her children. It was not easy especially with her son who had gone through his own childhood trauma. She turned to her family for moral support and she turned to God. Now eight years later, she is still alive. Waking up and able to breathe for another day is a gift for her. She has two grandchildren whom she adores and that give her much joy. She takes some jobs every now and then when her health permits and rests when she needs it. Her question has changed. She now asks what is it she could do to get more out of what is left? Things happen and happen to us all. Life does not play favorites. Everyone has a story to tell. It is how we handle it that matters. We do not have to wait until a major catastrophe interrupts us to think of what we should do with our lives. It is up to us to make or break us. No one can tell our brain and mind what to do. No one can tell us what to think of and what to put inside our head. We have the power to think what we want to think. To forget past hurts or to linger with them. We can decide, plan and take action on what we want to have, do or be. At least when the universe intervenes, we know that we have done our best.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Interesting Essay
This is an actual essay written by a college applicant, when applying to NYU where he now attends. 3A. ESSAY IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON? I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru. Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge. I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat . 400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me. I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me. I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis. But I have not yet gone to college.
John Doe Menangis
Hari ni lepas solat asar kat bilik aku, aku terpandang sesuatu yg pelik.Terbaring di tempat letak kaki basikal senaman kat bilik tu, aku ternampak seekor kucing kelabu berbelang2 ni terlentok baik dgn kepala dia memandang kepada aku. Kucing ni nama dia JOHN DOE. Dia dah bersama dgn family aku dah dekat 8 tahun dah. Kami mmg tidak pernah bela kucing ni. Cuma tak la plak halau dia. Sbb dia ni kucing bebas, sumer benda dia kena berdikari. Nak makan ke nak tidur ke, tak ada siapa yg peduli.Tapi, kalau org tak tau, sumer org ingat kucing ni kucing bela. Sbbnya, dia lepak kat rumah ni 24x7.Cuma kekadang dia keluar jenjalan tapi pastu mesti balik tidur kat rumah.Tapi, sbb kucing ni kucing yg tak menyusahkan org, aku tgk mak aku pun tak kisah sgt samada kucing ni patut ada kat rumah ke tidak..Dia tak penah lagi buang air kecik atau besar kat mana2 bahagian rumah kecuali kat tandas. Pastu, satu lagi, aku rasa kucing ni bisu sbb dia tidak penah mengeluarkan sebarang bunyi walau dlm apa keadaan pun…Mmg aku tak penah dgr. Tapi tadi, selepas memberi salam ketika menyudahkan solat, aku terpandang muka kucing niyg tgh memandang kosong kea rah aku. Nampak jelas di kelopak mata John Doe ni air mata bergenangan. Entah dia sedih ker, dia sakit aku tak tau la plak…Hanya dia dan Allah jer la yg tau
Mungkin dia sedih sbb bulan puasa dah nak abis…mungkin jugak dia sedih sbb dia sakit. Tapi sbb kecian kat dia, aku amik bagi dia makan ikan yg lebih dari sahur smlm…
Mungkin dia sedih sbb bulan puasa dah nak abis…mungkin jugak dia sedih sbb dia sakit. Tapi sbb kecian kat dia, aku amik bagi dia makan ikan yg lebih dari sahur smlm…
Dan aku dah pesan kat anak buah aku supaya bg ikan kat kucing ni sekurang2nya sekali sehari sepeninggalan aku lepas raya ni. Mungkin akhirnya, kucing ni akan dibela jugak.Sbb peristiwa tadi aku jadi kecian kat makluk sekor ni.Ye la, kalau nak bagi rating, kucing ni walaupun tak cantik macam kucing siam lain, tapi perangai dia ok.Pastu sbb dia dah dlm kategori tua dan tak cergas mcm kucing2 lain, ada baiknya juga kalau dia dapat makan tanpa perlu bersusah payah lagi. Lagipun, aku tak rasa kucing ni boleh hidup lebih dari 2 tahun lagi. Setahu aku, usia kucing biasanya sekitar 10-12 tahun jer. Tu pun kalau yg cukup zat.
The Boy Who Scored 4D’s
PMR results are out and again the media will be extolling the teenagers who did well, who scored A’s. But it is not just the media doing it. Parents and the public are equally guilty. The media portray these A’s as if they are marks of great achievement. Our exams, however, only test a natural ability to remember and solve some “puzzles”. They do not determine a person’s worth or true achievements. Nonetheless, many teenagers will be disappointed and hurt today. They are the perceived “failures” both by society and by themselves, if they did not score. I wish the media would instead portray the real achievers, like the boy who scored 4 D’s. This young man struggled against the system and his own limitations. He was not born with a gifted brain. He had a learning disorder that was not addressed by the education system. He really worked hard. He was placed in the “worst” class with disinterested teachers and his parents had no money for tuition. Despite it all, he scored 4 D’s! Now that shows determination and is worth shouting about. However, he will not even rate a small paragraph on page 10.
Courtesy;
Dr AMAR-SINGH HSS, Consultant Community Paediatrician & Head of Paediatric Department,
Whats Better Than..?
Recently came across a brilliant speech given by Butch Jimenez who is the Head of PLDT's Media and Strategic Communications Department. He delivered this speech at the UP Diliman Class 2003 commencement exercises.
One of the best speeches i have ever read in recent times ....
Happy Reading.
What's better than ..... - By Butch Jimenez
As college students, you're just about to set sail into the real world. As you prepare for the battleground of life, you'll hear many speeches, read tons of books and get miles of advise telling you to work hard, dream big, go out and do something for yourself, and have a vision.
Not bad advise, really. In fact, following these nuggets of truth may just bring you to the top. But as I've lived my life over the years, I have come to realise that it is great to dream big, have a vision, make a name, and work hard. But guess what : There's something better than that -
So my message today simply asks the question, what's better than ...?
What's better than being negative?
Let's start off with something really simple.
What's better than a long speech? No doubt,a short one. So, you guys are in luck because I intend to keep this short.
Now, let me take you through a very simple math exam. I'll rattle off a couple of equations, and you tell me what you observe about them. Be mindful of the instruction. You are to tell me what you observe about the equations.
Here it goes : 3+4=7, 9+2=11, 8+4=13 and 6+6=12.
Tell me, what do you observe ?
Every time I conduct the test, more than 90 percent of the participants immediately say, 8+4 is NOT 13, it's 12. That's true and they are correct. But they could have also observed that the three other equations were right. That 3+4 is 7, that 9+2 is 11, and that 6+6 is 12.
What's my point? Many people immediately focus on the negative instead of the positive. Most of us focus on what's wrong with other people more than what's right about them. Examine those four equations. Three were right an only one was wrong. But what is the knee-jerk observation? The wrong equation.
If 10 people you didn't know were to walk through that door, most of you would describe those people by what's negative about them. He's fat. He's balding. Oh, the short one. Oh, the skinny girl. etc.
Get the point? It's always the negative we focus on and not the positive.
You'll definitely experience this in the Corporate World. You do a hundred good things and one mistake-guess what? Chances are, your attention will be called on that one mistake..
So what's better than focusing on the negative?
Believe me, it focusing on the positive. And if this world could learn to focus on the positive more than the negative, it would be a much nicer place to live in.
What's better than working hard?
We have always been told to work hard. Our parents say that, our teachers say that, and our principal say that. But there's something better than merely working hard. It's working SMART.
It's taking time to understand the situation, and coming out with an effective and efficient solution to get more done with less time and effort. As the Japanese say, "There's always a better way."
One of the most memorable case studies I came across with as I studied Japanese management at Sophia University in Tokyo was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetic companies. The company received a complaint that a customer had bought a box of soap that was empty. It immediately isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty.
Management tasked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two to ensure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast. But a rank-and-file employee that was posed the same problem came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electrical fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, an as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line. Clearly, the engineers worked hard, but the rank-and-file employee worked smart. So what's better than merely working hard? It's working smart.
Having said that,it is still important to work hard. If you could combine both working hard and working smart, you would possess a major factor toward success.
What's better than dreaming big ?
I will bet my next month's salary that many have encouraged you to dream big. Maybe even to reach for the stars and aim high. I sure heard that about a million times right before I graduated from this university. So I did. I did dream big. I did aim high. I did reach for the stars. No doubt,it works. In fact, the saying is true "If you aim for nothing, that's exactly what you'll hit: nothing."
But there's something better than dreaming big.
Believe me, I got shocked myself. And I learned it from the biggest dreamer of all time Walt Disney. When it comes to dreaming big. Walt is the man. No bigger dreams were fulfilled than his. Every leadership book describes him as the ultimate dreamer. In fact, the principle of dreaming and achieving is the core message of the Disney hit song, "When You Wish Upon a Star". "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are; anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do, " as Jiminy Cricket sang. But is that what he preached in Disney company? Dream?
Imagineering...Well, not exactly. Kinda , but not quite. The problem with dreaming is if that's all you do, you'll really get nowhere. Infact, you may just fall asleep and never wake up. The secret to Disney's success is not just dreaming, it's IMAGINEERING.
You won't find this word in a dictionary. It's purely a Disney word. Those who engage in imagineering are called imaginers. The word combines the words "imagination" and "engineering". In the book " Imagineers," Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, claims that "imaginers turn impossible dreams into real magic." Walt Disney explained there is really no secret to this approach. They just keep moving forward-opening new doors and doing new things, because they are curious. And it is this curiosity that leads them down new paths. They always dream, explore and experiment. In short, imagineering is the blending of creative imagination and technical know-how. Eiser expounds on this thought by saying that "Not only are imaginers curious, they are courageous, outrageous, and this creativity is contagious."
The big difference with imaginers is that they dream an then they DO ! So don't just be a dreamer, be an imagineer.
What's better than vision?
You must have all been given a lecture at one time or another about the importance of having a vision. Even leadership expert John Maxwell says that an indispensable quality of a leader is to have a vision. It is also very clear that without vision, people perish." So no doubt about it, having a vision is important to success. But surprise ! There's something more potent than a vision. It's a CAUSE. If all you're doing is trying to reach your vision an you're pitted against someone fighting for a cause, chances are you'll lose. The Vietnam War is a classic example. Literally with sticks and stones, the Viet Cong beat the heavily armed US Army to surrender, primarily because the US has a vision to win the war, but the Vietnamese were fighting for a cause.
In the realm of business, many leaders have visions of making their company No. 1, or grabbing market share, or forever increasing profits.Nothing really wrong with that vison, but take the example of Sony founder Akio Morita. He did not just have a vision to build the biggest electronics company in the world. In his biography, " Made in Japan" he reveals that the real reason he set up Sony was to help rebuild his country, which had just been bettered by war. He had a cause he was fighting for. His vision to be an electronics giant was secondary.
What's the difference between a vision and a cause?
Here's what sets them apart.
• No one is wiling to die for a vision. People will die for a cause.
• You possess a vision. A cause possesses you.
• A vision lies in your hands. A cause lies in your heart.
• A vision involves sacrifice. A cause involves the ultimate sacrifice.
Just a word of caution. You must have the right vision, and you must be fighting for the right cause. In the end, right will always win out. It may take time, and it may take long. But if you have the right vision and are fighting for the right cause, you will prevail. If not, no matter how sincere you are, if you are not fighting for what is right, you will ultimately fail.
It is said : "To whom much is given, much is required."
Having been given the opportunity to study in UP, no doubt, much has been given to you in terms of an excellent education. Don't forget that in return, much is now required of you to use that education not just for yourself, but for others. And as you move up and start reaching the pinnacle of success, even more will be required of you to look at the welfare of others, of society and of the country.
A final review :
• What's better than focusing on the negative ?
Focus on the positive
• What's better than working hard ?
Its working smart
• What's better than doing something for yourself ?
Doing something for your country
• What's better than a vision ?
A cause
• What's better than a long speech ?
Definitely, a short one
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Easiest Way To Download Free MP3 Song Using Google Index
Note that this ‘Google hack’ technique is originally available on Johnny.IHackStuff.com.
Now, let’s begin the tutorial :
Go to Google
Now enter the following query into the Search box.
?intitle:index.of? mp3 [artist] [title]
Replace [artist] with the artist/singer/band you’re looking for and [title] with the song title. Just one of them also fine. For example:
?intitle:index.of? mp3 coldplay?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan”?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan” untitled?intitle:index.of? mp3 “welcome to my life”
Hit the return key and Google will come out with the list of searched files. Select whichever files that you want, of course with the tittle you typed earlier and its all yours. Now you only need to save the file using the usual Right Click - Save As/ Save Target As method :))
3. As an alternative, you can also use the following query to search MP3 on the web.
"parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums [artist] [title]
Same as above, just replace [artist] and [title] with the artist/singer/band name and the song title. Hit the return key and start saving the songs.
But remember. These song are not suppose to be used commercially or in any other ways but to your own listening pleasure.Help the Industry.
Have fun
Note that this ‘Google hack’ technique is originally available on Johnny.IHackStuff.com.
Now, let’s begin the tutorial :
Go to Google
Now enter the following query into the Search box.
?intitle:index.of? mp3 [artist] [title]
Replace [artist] with the artist/singer/band you’re looking for and [title] with the song title. Just one of them also fine. For example:
?intitle:index.of? mp3 coldplay?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan”?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan” untitled?intitle:index.of? mp3 “welcome to my life”
Hit the return key and Google will come out with the list of searched files. Select whichever files that you want, of course with the tittle you typed earlier and its all yours. Now you only need to save the file using the usual Right Click - Save As/ Save Target As method :))
3. As an alternative, you can also use the following query to search MP3 on the web.
"parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums [artist] [title]
Same as above, just replace [artist] and [title] with the artist/singer/band name and the song title. Hit the return key and start saving the songs.
But remember. These song are not suppose to be used commercially or in any other ways but to your own listening pleasure.Help the Industry.
Have fun
Now, let’s begin the tutorial :
Go to Google
Now enter the following query into the Search box.
?intitle:index.of? mp3 [artist] [title]
Replace [artist] with the artist/singer/band you’re looking for and [title] with the song title. Just one of them also fine. For example:
?intitle:index.of? mp3 coldplay?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan”?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan” untitled?intitle:index.of? mp3 “welcome to my life”
Hit the return key and Google will come out with the list of searched files. Select whichever files that you want, of course with the tittle you typed earlier and its all yours. Now you only need to save the file using the usual Right Click - Save As/ Save Target As method :))
3. As an alternative, you can also use the following query to search MP3 on the web.
"parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums [artist] [title]
Same as above, just replace [artist] and [title] with the artist/singer/band name and the song title. Hit the return key and start saving the songs.
But remember. These song are not suppose to be used commercially or in any other ways but to your own listening pleasure.Help the Industry.
Have fun
Note that this ‘Google hack’ technique is originally available on Johnny.IHackStuff.com.
Now, let’s begin the tutorial :
Go to Google
Now enter the following query into the Search box.
?intitle:index.of? mp3 [artist] [title]
Replace [artist] with the artist/singer/band you’re looking for and [title] with the song title. Just one of them also fine. For example:
?intitle:index.of? mp3 coldplay?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan”?intitle:index.of? mp3 “simple plan” untitled?intitle:index.of? mp3 “welcome to my life”
Hit the return key and Google will come out with the list of searched files. Select whichever files that you want, of course with the tittle you typed earlier and its all yours. Now you only need to save the file using the usual Right Click - Save As/ Save Target As method :))
3. As an alternative, you can also use the following query to search MP3 on the web.
"parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums [artist] [title]
Same as above, just replace [artist] and [title] with the artist/singer/band name and the song title. Hit the return key and start saving the songs.
But remember. These song are not suppose to be used commercially or in any other ways but to your own listening pleasure.Help the Industry.
Have fun
Virus Brontok
Hmm..pening jugak aku cuba menyelesaikan masalah ini pada mulanya. Entah macamana, komputer aku terjangkit virus Rontokbro. Mula mula tu aku tak kisah sangat, sebab AV aku mmg x up to date pun. Ingatkan nanti aku update AV tu, aku scan komputer aku pastu semuanya settle la. Dengan keadaan sekarang ini yang mana cd pirate sukar nak didapati, aku tercari-cari jugak mana-mana AV utk aku muat-turun. Pastu habis member member aku kat ofis aku tanya. Manalah tau ada sesapa yang terbeli AV utk aku pinjam.
Selepas tanya beberapa org yg otai pasal komputer, aku akhirnya dapat satu salinan enjin Mc Afee yang mana aku boleh download updates dia kat websites. Enjin ni kira original la dan memberikan aku akses kpd sdat terbaru. Aku bukan apa, laptop aku tu dah kira macam nazak sangat. Selagi masalah ni tak clear, aku tak boleh nak buat keje kat laptop tu. Penangan Rontokbro memang menyakitkan hati. Dari maklumat yang aku dapati dari laman web Mc Afee, virus ni adalah versi yang sedikit latest dari brontok, dibangunkan oleh seorang seorang pacar dari negara jiran kita. Selain melembabkan komputer, virus ini menghalang semua setting penggubahan registry dan menggangu semua proses muat-turun aplikasi. Pastu dia membiak punyalah cepat. Perlahan-lahan, laptop tu akan tunduk kpd arahan dia dan bukan kepada arahan tuan dia lagi. Mana aci, aku yang beli laptop ni mahal-mahal pastu dia plak yang nak take over!! Err, teremosional plak...hehehe
Sambung citer pasal AV tadi. Aku bawak balik dan install kat laptop aku. Siap scan dalam save mode lagi. Pastu, hati aku ni rasa bagai ditoreh-toreh jer bila melihatkan AV aku tu gagal menyetelkan masalah ni. Usahkan nak clean, nak delete dan kuarantin pon tak boleh.
Geramnya hati aku rasa macam nak jual jer laptop tu. Mengenangkan byk info dalam laptop aku ni menyebabkan aku tak boleh simply format jer. Lagipun, kalau aku save mana-mana fail yang aku rasa berharga, dikhuatiri virus ni masuk join sekali. Format la enam ratus empat puluh juta kali pun dia tetap ada balik. Tak gitu?
Last sekali, aku join chat room dan disscuss masalah ni dgn mamat2 yang very dedicated kat room tu. Heren jugak aku, mereka ni suka sangat berforum memalam buta macam tak payah tidor. Ternyata, ramai jugak yang mendakwa terkena virus ini. Ada yang lagi teruk pun ada. Banyak la cadangan dan kaedah yang aku terima dari mereka ni. Banyak jugak dakwaan dan saranan yang aku follow tapi tak jadi pun....Biasalah kalau kat internet ni..tak sumernya benar.
Tapi, usahakan tangga kejayaan. Ada sorang mamat ni kata Avast 4.7 pro boleh clear virus tu. Aku pon apa lagi, download la menda tu kat websites dia. Install kat laptop aku. Kasi scan dua tiga kali jugak la. Sajer nak make sure. Akhirnya, Alhamdulillah, benar bagai dikata, AV tu dapat mendelete dan mengkuarantinkan virus dalam laptop aku. Kira aku dah boleh guna dia mcm biasa la. Tak ada lagi masalah macam sebelum ni.
So, kepada sesiapa yang menghadapi masalah dengan virus ni, bolehlah skip proses pencarian dan usaha anda sbb AV ni memang dapat menyetelkan virus ini. Kat websites dia, kita boleh download AV tu utk trial selama 60 Hari. Hasil dari pengalaman aku, Ia bukan AV yang terbaik yang kita boleh cari tetapi ia mampu menghapuskan virus Rontokbro dalam laptop aku. Kira ok la tu.
Huh, selesai satu masalah.
Kenangan Dengan Nenek
Tepat jam 2.15 petang pada hari Jumaat yg lalu, bertarikh 15 Jun 2007, telah pulang seorang lagi ahli keluarga aku ke pangkuan penciptanya. Nenek aku, bernama Meriam Bt. Abd Hanan akhirnya tewas dalam pertarungan hidupnya setelah hampir 4 tahun terlantar uzur. Org pertama dalam keluarga aku yang telah meninggal dunia ialah Allahyarham ayah aku, Ismail Bin Che Mat yg kembali ke Rahmatullah juga pada hari Jumaat 14 Julai 1995 ketika aku masih dalam tingkatan empat. Ia adalah satu berita yang amat menyedihkan. Mungkin tidak semua orang mempunyai hubungan yg akrab dgn nenek mereka seperti dalam lingkaran keluarga aku. Dan dalam kedua2 kes ini, aku tidak dapat berada di samping orang tersayang saat mereka meninggalkan dunia ini. Patutlah semasa aku sedang mengerjakan solat Jumaat di Masjid Wilayah pada tghhari tu aku terasa begitu sebak sekali. Aku menyangkakan mungkin kerana bacaan dari imam itu begitu menyentuh hati aku. Entah mengapa, dalam solat itu, aku terasa begitu sedih dan hina, sedangkan sebelum itu aku sedang sibuk bersembang dengan rakan-rakan sepejabat. Mungkin itu juga merupakan petunjuk Allah kepada aku agar aku sedar akan apa yang akan berlaku, atau mungkin juga atas rahmat Allah, kualiti solat yang aku kerjakan itu lebih baik dari yang selalu aku kerjakan.
Mengimbas kembali kenangan dgn nenek aku menjadikan perjalanan pulang aku dari Kuala Lumpur terasakan begitu jauh sekali. Aku begitu terganggu memikirkan bahawa aku tidak mungkin lagi dapat menemuinya sehingga dunia ini berakhir. Tanpa rahmat Allah ke atas hambanya, tidak mungkin aku dapat bersua kembali dengan nenek aku yang kini telah tiada. Tidak akan bertemu kembali walaupun sehingga dihimpunkan di padang Mashyar kelak. Terdetik rasa kesal menjalar dalam diri kerana aku begitu sibuk dengan urusan kerja dan melepaskan peluang untuk mengisi saat-saat terakhir hidup seorang nenek tua yg begitu mengharapkan kehadiran anak cucunya. Sebahagian dari diri aku bersyukur, nenek aku tidak perlu lagi menangggung kesakitan terbaring keseorangan tatkala anak-anaknya tiada di sisi. Syukur juga kerana penderitaannya kini telah berakhir. Syukur yang teramat kerana dia telah meninggalkan kami pada satu hari yang mulia, hari Jumaat dalam keadaan yang bersih dan tenang. Walaupun begitu, sebahagian lagi dari diri aku seakan tidak bersedia menerima kehilangannya yang dirasakan begitu cepat dan tiba-tiba. Dia pergi meninggalkan banyak kenangan pahit dan manis yang terlakar dalam coretan hidupnya yang penuh ujian dan dugaan, tatkala hajatnya utk melihat semua anak cucunya bersama menemaninya seakan akan tidak tercapai.
Sehari sebelum itu, secara tiba tiba ketika sedang melipat pakaian, aku terpandang sehelai cadar pemberian arwah nenek kepada aku. Cadar itu adalah cadar biasa sahaja, berwarna merah muda dan dihiasi dengan corak bunga-bungaan pelbagai jenis.Warnanya begitu feminin utk aku seorang lelaki Cadar itu dihadiahkan oleh nenek aku dan diserahkan kepada aku pada pagi aku bertolak ke SERATAS, Taiping untuk meneruskan program Matrikulasi. Tarikhnya masih segar dalam ingatan aku, 6 Jun 1997 hari Sabtu. Ia seakan-akan baru semalam berlaku. Pesanannya begitu bersungguh2 kepada aku supaya rajin belajar demi membantu ibuku yg ketiadaan suami masih terngiang-ngiang di telinga. Walaupun aku seorang lelaki yang tidak mungkin akan meminati cadar merah bercorak bunga-bungaan jingga seperti itu, aku tetap mengunakan cadar tersebut dengan bangga sehingga sekarang. Mungkin kerana nenek aku seorang tua yang tidak bersekolah tinggi, dia tidak mengetahui sebenarnya cadar bercorak demikian memang tidak dibenarkan utk digunakan di sekolah berasrama penuh. Namun, kerana pemberiannya yang sebegitu ikhlas, aku menganggap cadar itu sebagai satu hadiah yang begitu bermakna sekali.
Nenek aku seorang wanita yang cekal. Dia menyara hidup selama 20 tahun selepas kematian datuk aku dengan berniaga ke hulu dan ke hilir demi mencari sesuap nasi. Dia tidak pernah kedekut wang dan tenaga ketika diminta. Setiap kali anak-anaknya bakal menerima kelahiran anak, beliaulah antara insan yang paling gembira dan sibuk membantu. Menurut ibu aku, beliau akan membantu anak dan menantunya dengan bersungguh-sungguh. Cukuplah dengan upah sekadar dapat melihat wajah cucu tersayang. Tanpa rasa geli, dia menguruskan semuanya tanpa disuruh. Pernah, dia membantu makcik aku (menantunya) yang hampir mengalami keguguran dengan mengelap darah dengan bajunya sendiri. Dari semenjak kecil, disaat aku mengenali kehidupan di dunia ini, aku tahu nenek aku seorang yang tidak boleh mendengar dengan baik. Deria pendengarannya telah rosak ketika dia masih lagi seorang remaja. Namun begitu, dia cukup pandai membaca gerakan mulut ketika berbicara menjadikan dia seolah-olah boleh mendengar bagi orang yang baru mengenalinya. Aku sendiri pun pernah menganggap beliau berpura2 tidak mendengar kerana kemahirannya itu sehinggalah aku cukup dewasa untuk menilainya.
Selain itu, nenek aku juga seorang yang garang mempertahankan orang yang disayanginya. Pernah dia menghalau ayah aku beberapa kali ketika dia menghantar pinangan untuk menyunting ibu aku. Kenapa ayah aku dihalau tidak pula aku tahu. Pernah juga aku menanya ibuku berkenaan dengan perkara ini tapi hanya dibalas dengan senyuman. Mungkin ada perkara yang elok saja disimpan sebagai kenang-kenangan. Walaupun begitu, selepas mendirikan rumah tanga dengan ibu aku, Allahyarham ayah aku menjadi begitu rapat dengan nenek aku. Sehinggakan, orang pertama yang dimaklumkannya tatkala diberitahu oleh doktor yang dia menghidap kencing manis ialah nenek aku. Ketika itu aku masih lagi kecil utk memahami apa yang berlaku, namun aku masih dapat mengingat dengan jelas kesedihan di wajah ayah aku ketika dia memaklumkan berkenaan dengan penyakitnya keada nenek aku. Dia amat risau dia tidak sempat melihat anak-anaknya membesar. Ketika itu, ibu aku sedang sibuk memasak di dapur dan tidak mengetahui berkenaan penyakit itu sehingga beberapa tahun kemudian.
Aku juga masih boleh mengingat dengan jelas pada malam ayahku meninggal dunia. Aku baru pulang dari perkhemahan pengakap setelah dijemput secara tiba-tiba oleh abang aku. Ketika aku sampai, jam menunjukkan pukul 1.15 pagi. Aku dapat melihat sekujur tubuh terbaring kaku. Di hujung kepala arwah ayahku, di dalam puluhan kelibat tetamu sanak saudara yang lain, kelihatan nenek aku tidak henti2 membaca surah Yaasin untuk dihadiahkan kpd arwah. Dia kekal di tempat yang sama sehingga azan subuh memecah keheningan pagi hari itu.
Kini, sampai sudah gilirannya meninggalkan kami. Sepanjang ingatan aku, nenek aku seorang yg sihat kecuali mempunyai masalah darah tinggi yang ringan. Namun, setelah dimamah usia, kesihatannya sedikit demi sedikit merosot. Sepanjang beliau terlantar sakit, beliau dijaga oleh ibu aku. Hanya beberapa kali sahaja sepanjang dalam tempoh 4 tahun nenek aku dijaga oleh anaknya yang lain. Kerana itulah, nenek aku begitu rapat dengan keluarga aku. Sepanjang beliau terlantar sakit, beliau langsung tidak boleh bangun. Segala urusan mandi dan makan pakainya diuruskan oleh ibu aku tanpa rasa penat. Banyak kali aku mendengar rintihan nenek aku mengenangkan keadaan dirinya. Kadang-kadang, beliau menangisi nasib dirinya yang tidak sempat melakukan amal ibadat sesempurna orang lain. Kerana masalah pendengarannya, suaranya kedengaran cukup kuat dan jelas disaat dia menadah tangan dalam keadaan terbaring. Dia berdoa dalam rangkaian ayat yang hampir sama sahaja setiap kali, iaitu memohon keampunan di atas segala dosa2 yang telah dilakukannya. Dia juga merintih mengenangkan anak-anak nya yang lain tidak mengendahkannya tidak seperti apa yang dilakukan oleh ibu aku.
Kadang kadang, dia menadah tangan di waktu pagi awal dinihari ketika semua orang masih nyenyak tidur. Menurut ibu ku, sudah lebih berpuluh-puluh kali nenek aku menadah tangan memohon taubat dan memasang niat utk beribadat dengan lebih baik andai dikurniakan kembali kesihatan kpdnya. Setiap kali mendengar doa itu, ibu aku tidak dapat menahan rasa sedih dan air matanya pasti akan bercucuran.
Sepanjang ingatan aku, nenek aku bukanlah seorang yang begitu menjaga ibadatnya. Malah, ada dikalangan anaknya sendiri yang mendakwa nenek aku seorang wanita yang berhati keras dan percaya kepada perkara yang ghaib.Apa yang pasti, nenek aku telah di ceraikan oleh datuk aku ketika beberapa hari sebelum dia meninggal dunia kerana sikap nenek aku yang tidak mendirikan solat. Datuk aku adalah seorang pendakwah dan peniaga yang berhijrah dari Pakistan. Mungkin setelah berputus asa menasihati nenek aku, akhirnya datuk aku dengan penuh kesedihan melafazkan cerai kepada nenek aku disaksikan oleh anaknya yang paling sulung. Ketika itu, dia terlantar sakit kerana penyakit asma. Nenek aku menerima perceraian itu dengan hati terbuka dan mengakui perkara itu merubah hidupnya sehinggalah ke hari dia akhirnya jatuh sakit.
Namun, Allah maha mengetahui isi hati setiap hambanya. Sepanjang hidup aku, aku melihat banyak sifat-sifat mulia dalam diri nenek aku. Dia tidak pernah walau sekalipun mengumpat mengeji orang yang menuduhnya perkara yang bukan-bukan. Samentelahan telinganya yang tidak dapat mendengar.Dia seorang yang tidak lokek dalam memberi makan kepada sesiapa sahaja yang bertandang ke rumahnya. Malah, setiap anak cucunya yang datang pasti tahu mereka tidak akan pulang tangan kosong jika berkunjung ke rumah nenek aku kerana secara pastinya, nenek aku akan memberikan duit kepada mereka semua. Berkerja sebagai penjaja yang menjual kain dari rumah ke rumah, nenek aku hanya dapat pulang modal sahaja setiapa kali keluar menjual kerana ramai yang membeli dan tidak membayar kepadanya. Ramai yang mengambil kesempatan di atas kebaikan hati nenek aku yang mudah kesihankan orang, Mereka sering memohon utk menangguhkan pembayaran atau tidak membayar langsung sehinggalah perniagaan kecil2lan nenek aku itu berakhir begitu sahaja.
Aku sampai di rumah tepat pukul 1.30 pagi. Perjalanan dari KL ke Machang mengambil masa hampir 8 jam memang memenatkan. Sebaik menerima panggilan dari adik aku tadi sekitar pukul 2.30 ptg iaitu beberapa minit selepas nenek aku meninggal, fikiran aku menjadi sedikit buntu. Aku bergegas balik ke rumah aku di KL dan mengatur rancangan utk segera pulang ke Machang dengan abang aku. Malah, aku tidak sempat untuk mandi kerana terlalu terkejut dengan apa yang telah berlaku. Semuanya berakhir apabila aku sampai ke rumah. Ibu aku menasihati aku utk berehat sahaja kerana arwah telah selamat dikebumikan selepas solat maghrib tadi. Kerana keletihan, aku terlelap juga walaupun aku tidak sanggup tidur selagi tidak menghadiahkan bacaan Yassin kepadanya.
Menurut kakak aku yang membantu menjaga arwah nenek aku, pada pagi hari Jumaat itu banyak perubahan berlaku kepadanya. Pada pagi itu, dia minum air lebih banyak dari biasa walau pun sebelum ini dia langsung tidak menjamah makanan atau minuman. Dia juga bercakap dengan semua anak cucunya walaupun nampak begitu keletihan. Sempat juga dia mengucapkan rasa terhutang budinya kepada anak-anak yang menjaganya. Dia juga memberitahu dia merasa lebih sihat dan tidak merasai sebarang kesakitan seperti biasa kecuali sedikit batuk2 dan ingin sekali pulang ke rumahnya yang begitu lama telah ditinggalkan. Keadaannya kelihatan lebih baik. Tanpa di sangka2, ketika semua sanak saudara lelaki ke masjid mengerjakan solat Jumaat, dia menghembuskan nafas terakhirnya dgn wajahnya berpaling ke arah kanan. Makcik aku sempat mengisyaratkan dengan menadah tangan seperti berdoa dengan harapan dia dapat mengingati Allah dan di sambut dengan anggukan olehnya sebelum matanya terpejam rapat.
Aku berdoa semoga rohnya dicucuri rahmat. Semoga segala amal baiknya diterima oleh Allah SWT. Semoga dengan penderitaan dia selama dia sakit menjadi kifarah yang cukup untuk menghapuskan segala dosanya yang lalu. Semoga dengan hilangnya nikmat pendengarannya sepanjang hidupnya digantikan oleh Allah dengan nikmat yang lebih besar di sisi-Nya. Dan akhirnya, semoga taubat yang dilafazkannya di waktu semua insan-insan lain lena diulit mimpi diterima oleh Allah SWT, Tuhan yang maha pengasih dan maha pengampun. Al-Fatihah. kepada Allahyarham Meriam Bt Abdul Hanan.
Mengimbas kembali kenangan dgn nenek aku menjadikan perjalanan pulang aku dari Kuala Lumpur terasakan begitu jauh sekali. Aku begitu terganggu memikirkan bahawa aku tidak mungkin lagi dapat menemuinya sehingga dunia ini berakhir. Tanpa rahmat Allah ke atas hambanya, tidak mungkin aku dapat bersua kembali dengan nenek aku yang kini telah tiada. Tidak akan bertemu kembali walaupun sehingga dihimpunkan di padang Mashyar kelak. Terdetik rasa kesal menjalar dalam diri kerana aku begitu sibuk dengan urusan kerja dan melepaskan peluang untuk mengisi saat-saat terakhir hidup seorang nenek tua yg begitu mengharapkan kehadiran anak cucunya. Sebahagian dari diri aku bersyukur, nenek aku tidak perlu lagi menangggung kesakitan terbaring keseorangan tatkala anak-anaknya tiada di sisi. Syukur juga kerana penderitaannya kini telah berakhir. Syukur yang teramat kerana dia telah meninggalkan kami pada satu hari yang mulia, hari Jumaat dalam keadaan yang bersih dan tenang. Walaupun begitu, sebahagian lagi dari diri aku seakan tidak bersedia menerima kehilangannya yang dirasakan begitu cepat dan tiba-tiba. Dia pergi meninggalkan banyak kenangan pahit dan manis yang terlakar dalam coretan hidupnya yang penuh ujian dan dugaan, tatkala hajatnya utk melihat semua anak cucunya bersama menemaninya seakan akan tidak tercapai.
Sehari sebelum itu, secara tiba tiba ketika sedang melipat pakaian, aku terpandang sehelai cadar pemberian arwah nenek kepada aku. Cadar itu adalah cadar biasa sahaja, berwarna merah muda dan dihiasi dengan corak bunga-bungaan pelbagai jenis.Warnanya begitu feminin utk aku seorang lelaki Cadar itu dihadiahkan oleh nenek aku dan diserahkan kepada aku pada pagi aku bertolak ke SERATAS, Taiping untuk meneruskan program Matrikulasi. Tarikhnya masih segar dalam ingatan aku, 6 Jun 1997 hari Sabtu. Ia seakan-akan baru semalam berlaku. Pesanannya begitu bersungguh2 kepada aku supaya rajin belajar demi membantu ibuku yg ketiadaan suami masih terngiang-ngiang di telinga. Walaupun aku seorang lelaki yang tidak mungkin akan meminati cadar merah bercorak bunga-bungaan jingga seperti itu, aku tetap mengunakan cadar tersebut dengan bangga sehingga sekarang. Mungkin kerana nenek aku seorang tua yang tidak bersekolah tinggi, dia tidak mengetahui sebenarnya cadar bercorak demikian memang tidak dibenarkan utk digunakan di sekolah berasrama penuh. Namun, kerana pemberiannya yang sebegitu ikhlas, aku menganggap cadar itu sebagai satu hadiah yang begitu bermakna sekali.
Nenek aku seorang wanita yang cekal. Dia menyara hidup selama 20 tahun selepas kematian datuk aku dengan berniaga ke hulu dan ke hilir demi mencari sesuap nasi. Dia tidak pernah kedekut wang dan tenaga ketika diminta. Setiap kali anak-anaknya bakal menerima kelahiran anak, beliaulah antara insan yang paling gembira dan sibuk membantu. Menurut ibu aku, beliau akan membantu anak dan menantunya dengan bersungguh-sungguh. Cukuplah dengan upah sekadar dapat melihat wajah cucu tersayang. Tanpa rasa geli, dia menguruskan semuanya tanpa disuruh. Pernah, dia membantu makcik aku (menantunya) yang hampir mengalami keguguran dengan mengelap darah dengan bajunya sendiri. Dari semenjak kecil, disaat aku mengenali kehidupan di dunia ini, aku tahu nenek aku seorang yang tidak boleh mendengar dengan baik. Deria pendengarannya telah rosak ketika dia masih lagi seorang remaja. Namun begitu, dia cukup pandai membaca gerakan mulut ketika berbicara menjadikan dia seolah-olah boleh mendengar bagi orang yang baru mengenalinya. Aku sendiri pun pernah menganggap beliau berpura2 tidak mendengar kerana kemahirannya itu sehinggalah aku cukup dewasa untuk menilainya.
Selain itu, nenek aku juga seorang yang garang mempertahankan orang yang disayanginya. Pernah dia menghalau ayah aku beberapa kali ketika dia menghantar pinangan untuk menyunting ibu aku. Kenapa ayah aku dihalau tidak pula aku tahu. Pernah juga aku menanya ibuku berkenaan dengan perkara ini tapi hanya dibalas dengan senyuman. Mungkin ada perkara yang elok saja disimpan sebagai kenang-kenangan. Walaupun begitu, selepas mendirikan rumah tanga dengan ibu aku, Allahyarham ayah aku menjadi begitu rapat dengan nenek aku. Sehinggakan, orang pertama yang dimaklumkannya tatkala diberitahu oleh doktor yang dia menghidap kencing manis ialah nenek aku. Ketika itu aku masih lagi kecil utk memahami apa yang berlaku, namun aku masih dapat mengingat dengan jelas kesedihan di wajah ayah aku ketika dia memaklumkan berkenaan dengan penyakitnya keada nenek aku. Dia amat risau dia tidak sempat melihat anak-anaknya membesar. Ketika itu, ibu aku sedang sibuk memasak di dapur dan tidak mengetahui berkenaan penyakit itu sehingga beberapa tahun kemudian.
Aku juga masih boleh mengingat dengan jelas pada malam ayahku meninggal dunia. Aku baru pulang dari perkhemahan pengakap setelah dijemput secara tiba-tiba oleh abang aku. Ketika aku sampai, jam menunjukkan pukul 1.15 pagi. Aku dapat melihat sekujur tubuh terbaring kaku. Di hujung kepala arwah ayahku, di dalam puluhan kelibat tetamu sanak saudara yang lain, kelihatan nenek aku tidak henti2 membaca surah Yaasin untuk dihadiahkan kpd arwah. Dia kekal di tempat yang sama sehingga azan subuh memecah keheningan pagi hari itu.
Kini, sampai sudah gilirannya meninggalkan kami. Sepanjang ingatan aku, nenek aku seorang yg sihat kecuali mempunyai masalah darah tinggi yang ringan. Namun, setelah dimamah usia, kesihatannya sedikit demi sedikit merosot. Sepanjang beliau terlantar sakit, beliau dijaga oleh ibu aku. Hanya beberapa kali sahaja sepanjang dalam tempoh 4 tahun nenek aku dijaga oleh anaknya yang lain. Kerana itulah, nenek aku begitu rapat dengan keluarga aku. Sepanjang beliau terlantar sakit, beliau langsung tidak boleh bangun. Segala urusan mandi dan makan pakainya diuruskan oleh ibu aku tanpa rasa penat. Banyak kali aku mendengar rintihan nenek aku mengenangkan keadaan dirinya. Kadang-kadang, beliau menangisi nasib dirinya yang tidak sempat melakukan amal ibadat sesempurna orang lain. Kerana masalah pendengarannya, suaranya kedengaran cukup kuat dan jelas disaat dia menadah tangan dalam keadaan terbaring. Dia berdoa dalam rangkaian ayat yang hampir sama sahaja setiap kali, iaitu memohon keampunan di atas segala dosa2 yang telah dilakukannya. Dia juga merintih mengenangkan anak-anak nya yang lain tidak mengendahkannya tidak seperti apa yang dilakukan oleh ibu aku.
Kadang kadang, dia menadah tangan di waktu pagi awal dinihari ketika semua orang masih nyenyak tidur. Menurut ibu ku, sudah lebih berpuluh-puluh kali nenek aku menadah tangan memohon taubat dan memasang niat utk beribadat dengan lebih baik andai dikurniakan kembali kesihatan kpdnya. Setiap kali mendengar doa itu, ibu aku tidak dapat menahan rasa sedih dan air matanya pasti akan bercucuran.
Sepanjang ingatan aku, nenek aku bukanlah seorang yang begitu menjaga ibadatnya. Malah, ada dikalangan anaknya sendiri yang mendakwa nenek aku seorang wanita yang berhati keras dan percaya kepada perkara yang ghaib.Apa yang pasti, nenek aku telah di ceraikan oleh datuk aku ketika beberapa hari sebelum dia meninggal dunia kerana sikap nenek aku yang tidak mendirikan solat. Datuk aku adalah seorang pendakwah dan peniaga yang berhijrah dari Pakistan. Mungkin setelah berputus asa menasihati nenek aku, akhirnya datuk aku dengan penuh kesedihan melafazkan cerai kepada nenek aku disaksikan oleh anaknya yang paling sulung. Ketika itu, dia terlantar sakit kerana penyakit asma. Nenek aku menerima perceraian itu dengan hati terbuka dan mengakui perkara itu merubah hidupnya sehinggalah ke hari dia akhirnya jatuh sakit.
Namun, Allah maha mengetahui isi hati setiap hambanya. Sepanjang hidup aku, aku melihat banyak sifat-sifat mulia dalam diri nenek aku. Dia tidak pernah walau sekalipun mengumpat mengeji orang yang menuduhnya perkara yang bukan-bukan. Samentelahan telinganya yang tidak dapat mendengar.Dia seorang yang tidak lokek dalam memberi makan kepada sesiapa sahaja yang bertandang ke rumahnya. Malah, setiap anak cucunya yang datang pasti tahu mereka tidak akan pulang tangan kosong jika berkunjung ke rumah nenek aku kerana secara pastinya, nenek aku akan memberikan duit kepada mereka semua. Berkerja sebagai penjaja yang menjual kain dari rumah ke rumah, nenek aku hanya dapat pulang modal sahaja setiapa kali keluar menjual kerana ramai yang membeli dan tidak membayar kepadanya. Ramai yang mengambil kesempatan di atas kebaikan hati nenek aku yang mudah kesihankan orang, Mereka sering memohon utk menangguhkan pembayaran atau tidak membayar langsung sehinggalah perniagaan kecil2lan nenek aku itu berakhir begitu sahaja.
Aku sampai di rumah tepat pukul 1.30 pagi. Perjalanan dari KL ke Machang mengambil masa hampir 8 jam memang memenatkan. Sebaik menerima panggilan dari adik aku tadi sekitar pukul 2.30 ptg iaitu beberapa minit selepas nenek aku meninggal, fikiran aku menjadi sedikit buntu. Aku bergegas balik ke rumah aku di KL dan mengatur rancangan utk segera pulang ke Machang dengan abang aku. Malah, aku tidak sempat untuk mandi kerana terlalu terkejut dengan apa yang telah berlaku. Semuanya berakhir apabila aku sampai ke rumah. Ibu aku menasihati aku utk berehat sahaja kerana arwah telah selamat dikebumikan selepas solat maghrib tadi. Kerana keletihan, aku terlelap juga walaupun aku tidak sanggup tidur selagi tidak menghadiahkan bacaan Yassin kepadanya.
Menurut kakak aku yang membantu menjaga arwah nenek aku, pada pagi hari Jumaat itu banyak perubahan berlaku kepadanya. Pada pagi itu, dia minum air lebih banyak dari biasa walau pun sebelum ini dia langsung tidak menjamah makanan atau minuman. Dia juga bercakap dengan semua anak cucunya walaupun nampak begitu keletihan. Sempat juga dia mengucapkan rasa terhutang budinya kepada anak-anak yang menjaganya. Dia juga memberitahu dia merasa lebih sihat dan tidak merasai sebarang kesakitan seperti biasa kecuali sedikit batuk2 dan ingin sekali pulang ke rumahnya yang begitu lama telah ditinggalkan. Keadaannya kelihatan lebih baik. Tanpa di sangka2, ketika semua sanak saudara lelaki ke masjid mengerjakan solat Jumaat, dia menghembuskan nafas terakhirnya dgn wajahnya berpaling ke arah kanan. Makcik aku sempat mengisyaratkan dengan menadah tangan seperti berdoa dengan harapan dia dapat mengingati Allah dan di sambut dengan anggukan olehnya sebelum matanya terpejam rapat.
Aku berdoa semoga rohnya dicucuri rahmat. Semoga segala amal baiknya diterima oleh Allah SWT. Semoga dengan penderitaan dia selama dia sakit menjadi kifarah yang cukup untuk menghapuskan segala dosanya yang lalu. Semoga dengan hilangnya nikmat pendengarannya sepanjang hidupnya digantikan oleh Allah dengan nikmat yang lebih besar di sisi-Nya. Dan akhirnya, semoga taubat yang dilafazkannya di waktu semua insan-insan lain lena diulit mimpi diterima oleh Allah SWT, Tuhan yang maha pengasih dan maha pengampun. Al-Fatihah. kepada Allahyarham Meriam Bt Abdul Hanan.
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