Well it feels good to be back writing. I’ve been very busy with work lately – meetings and endless meetings..I’m currently back in Malaysia pursuing my dreams and ambition to establish my own private limited company in renewable energy solutions.

Being on my own feels great ..but at the same time I’m accountable for all the cost and profits…the pro’s would be I’m in control of my own success insyallah…and the con’s would be …loads of initial investment..thats the sacrifice I’ve got to make.

I’ll be back soon with more things to write…see ya..

(can’t wait for the Apple tablet announcement!)

the power of motion

I have been mourning the death of my laptop for 2 weeks now…some of you may already know some of you might just come to know about it..but heck..I have to still move on…all those years of work…kaput!!…

I was devoting most of my knowledge and resources on recovering precious data from my HD..but to no avail..I would say only 25% is successfull…most of my emails were gone..some important documents still intact..the passing is never easy to accept…

Though as I have stated that it was a dormant 2 weeks – still there were lots of things to be done on the work front…I was finishing up my discussions and net meeting with Macleon on our new Adobe Air application – a web radio (streaming player). Still fine tuning on the user experience and functionality bit…we just need a proper good working demo to showcase in our funding presentation.

That was 3 months old in my draft folder guys…

Hi now I’m back after 6 months of silence. A lot has happened since. I was back in Malaysia for almost 3 months from the end of February till end of May…trying to finish up the so called “business plan”, which to my frustration ended up in the usual state of limbo. No matter – now I’m without a job…so nothing to worry there…just got to give myself a really good kick in the butt to get things back moving on the right track.

To say that I’m happy – I’m really not. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on how should I proceed with matters pertaining to other people’s work ethics, though they might say that mine’s not great either. Personal opinions aside, its time to forget the past and begin things fresh. I hope I’m talking sense right now…

Back to my trip in Malaysia –  work was suppose to be productive, but it turned out to be another one man marathon for me. On some accounts I had so much adrenaline to just say – heck lets finish this; but there is a big part of me saying – you doing it alone again? Imagine, coming back home and you spend most of your time doing work rather than being with your mum at home –  it sucks…trust me it does.

The only good thing that came out from my visit back is I would say – being able to meet good old friends and family members that matter to you the most. Reminded me that how far you might be in this world we still matter to each other; transcending the boundaries of time and space. I got to see my grown up cat …who keeps mum company.

Now back in summery Sheffield – going back to my routine (of soccer, reading and doing my “biz plan”) and getting busy with job hunting as well as preparing to move to our new house. Got mad with Amazon and Royal Mail over the delayed delivery of my books – which I eventually got refunded and got the book in the end.

I know I sound really scrappy and unfocused; I’ll share with you in my next entry my travels to Brussels the City of Chocolates with my wife Afzalina (with pictures this time…yup yup I know..I have this so called section for pictures thats never there – this time I’ll put it up okay…)

Lastly, I would like to pay tribute to Michael @ Mikael Jackson – (al-fatihah to him; hopefully reports of him converting to Islam is true)..the most influential singer and entertainer that inspired me with his messages through songs.

Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009

“Heal The World”

There’s A Place In
Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could
Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You’ll Find There’s No Need
To Cry
In This Place You’ll Feel
There’s No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways
To Get There
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place…

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

If You Want To Know Why
There’s A Love That
Cannot Lie
Love Is Strong
It Only Cares For
Joyful Giving
If We Try
We Shall See
In This Bliss
We Cannot Feel
Fear Or Dread
We Stop Existing And
Start Living

Then It Feels That Always
Love’s Enough For
Us Growing
So Make A Better World
Make A Better World…

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

And The Dream We Were
Conceived In
Will Reveal A Joyful Face
And The World We
Once Believed In
Will Shine Again In Grace
Then Why Do We Keep
Strangling Life
Wound This Earth
Crucify Its Soul
Though It’s Plain To See
This World Is Heavenly
Be God’s Glow

We Could Fly So High
Let Our Spirits Never Die
In My Heart
I Feel You Are All
My Brothers
Create A World With
No Fear
Together We’ll Cry
Happy Tears
See The Nations Turn
Their Swords
Into Plowshares

We Could Really Get There
If You Cared Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
To Make A Better Place…

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me
You And For Me

yup guys…its for you and for me…

I always pray and doa for the peace and freedom of all God fearing mankind…May we recognize atrocities and be wary of the enemy within us..

On the home front in Malaysia – there is a landmark State By Election in Kuala Trenganu important to the people of Trenganu. Lets face it – this political differences should not be taken to a focal point where we lose focus on issues at hand which is strong unity and proper conduct of democracy; but we always get a different paradigm when the politicians take the stage.

The politicians always think that its their show – when its actually more than that. Its a symbol of the peoples voice as you are suppose to fight for the people; but most tend to fight for their personal interest – what a pity. Lets see if this time around people don’t actually fall prey to cheap politics of convictional words which are mere lip service.

Its time for us to not fear and be like a rug under somebody’s feet – remember that we vote them there..so vote wisely . Whatever your political belief is – remember that Allah despises people who creates sects and division in the religion.

This is an excerpt that I would like to share with everyone:

Modern-day violence among sects of Islam spring primarily from political, not religious, motives. The Qur’an is very clear in its guidance to Muslims that it is wrong to divide into sects and fight one another.

[003:103] And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allâh (i.e. this Qur’ân), and be not divided among yourselves, and remember Allâh’s Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another but He joined your hearts together, so that, by His Grace, you became brethren (in Islâmic Faith), and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus Allâh makes His Ayât (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.,) clear to you, that you may be guided.

[003:104] Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good (Islâm), enjoining Al-Ma’rûf (i.e. Islâmic Monotheism and all that Islâm orders one to do) and forbidding Al-Munkar (polytheism and disbelief and all that Islâm has forbidden). And it is they who are the successful.

[003:105] And be not as those who divided and differed among themselves after the clear proofs had come to them. It is they for whom there is an awful torment.

Surah Al-Imran Ayat 103-105 – The Holy Quran

I open an invitation here to all; to pray for the innocent Palestinians who are being massacred  by the ruthless Israeli regime. May they face these trying times with Iman and courage..amin..

I don’t actually think that I have the words nor the vocabulary..nor the might to describe their perils and pain.Pictures…news…videos..every single one showing innocent women & children decapitated, wounded or shot  ..which is so disturbing.I’m totally dumb founded by the ignorance of humanly kindness and compassion – the people who instigated this war says that this is a way of deterring terrorist; but they are actually creating new generations of terrorist who will seek for their own form of justice as no one will actually fight for them.

Hence this cycle will be so vicious that the end is by far infinitely impossible to be solved by just humanly means. Every religion says that we shouldn’t inflict pain to anyone – so I guess the Israeli regime are just pagans and everybody with a religion should curse them and hold them accountable for this genocide.

But it was a good experience – now you know why those guys in the Premiership never stop running..hehe. The turnout was good; since most of us didn’t really get the opportunity to play before Christmas – some guys were honestly unfamiliar to me, heck with it – lets play ball.

To depict to you guys how cold it was; my gloves was covered with frost almost throughout the game. But as my good friend said – “After a game of football you always say – no I’m not going to play anymore; my body aches, the leg hurts and it was cold..bla bla – and next week cometh we will be there back on the field” (very true Leo!!). That is the beauty of the game termed ‘the beautiful game’.

I’ll be back on the field tomorrow..lets see if I’ll improve my game this time..

I would say that there is so much mental block just for me hold the keyboard and start typing. No matter – I’m just going to get use to this and see how it goes from here.

Interesting things happening in the Apple World today as Apple has just launched their new 17 inch Macbook Pro. They are also saying ‘good bye’ to their landmark event Macworld which has always been organized by the IDG. With the absences of Steve Jobs (as he is said to be unwell) – things were said to be very dull and in short – it sucked big time.

But there are also some landmark statements and business directions taken by Apple; I’m putting down the snapshots here:

• Starting immediately, iTunes will be DRM-free.

• In April, iTunes will have a three-tiered pricing structure. Songs will be either be 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29. Apple claims that there will be more songs falling into the 69-cent category rather than the $1.29.

• iPhone 3G owners will be able to preview and purchase every single item from the iTunes music catalog on the 3G network instead of only being able to use Wi-Fi.

• On the hardware front, Apple announced a new 17-inch MacBook Pro. Like its 13-inch and 15-inch brethren, the $2800 notebook will have a chassis milled from a solid block of aluminum. It will also feature a nonremovable battery that claims 8 hours of continuous life. The Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93-GHz powered beast will be available in January.

• iLife, GarageBand and iWork have also received updates. iLife will have true facial recognition and better video editing features. GarageBand will feature tutorials from actual rock stars (Sting teaches you to play guitar!). iWork is going all online with group editing and file hosting services. You know, kinda like Google docs. Ahem.

Strong points here I would say is the DRM free content from iTunes – it would change the reaction of every other music site and prick different kind of market reactions towards the digital music business climate. But we have yet to see until the numbers are presented in the next Big Keynote event (hope that Steve gets well soon).

There is also no news on any updates on the iPhone application front – in relation to the SDK; it must be that good as I’ve read very few complaints with the SDK and lots of corporate companies are creating iPhone apps to be downloaded free from the Apps Store as a branding exercise.

I’m hoping to get enough dough so that I can get hold of a Macbook to tryout this SDK. Back to the Macworld event – eventhough Steve Jobs was not there..there was another prolific Steve – Steve Wozniak the co-founder of Apple Computers together with Jobs. He was there to endorse a product called ModBook Pro – which is a tablet PC moddified from a Macbook Pro.

Innovations are always on the topshelves of the mac developers – its just that I’m not really sure how niffty this tablet would be (definately it will be great for graphic designers).

I hope to see more good products come from Apple (other computer and peripeheral makers have to learn and climb this learning curve fast – HP is doing a good job for PC right now though).

Well – with the new year already begun with its grand opening; we are still loved and cherished by Allah to be able to live our life’s peacefully. But some of us are facing very trying times with the economic downturn, turmoil and violation in Palestine and not forgetting the ever relaxed Malaysian people who largely think that they are not affected by anything. I do hope that we Malaysians start waking up before its too late to act.

Lets not jump into the mambo-jumbo of politics, who is right or wrong – but lets focus on the matter at hand which is the Malaysian society; facing a time without a national vision. More so everybody “up” there wants the country to be their platform of personal goal and glory. The successful Malaysia was born because all of us wanted it – progress, prosperity and respect.

Lets not dwell on  ideological differences that split our unity -  it should bring us closer to understanding tolerance, compromise and maturity in handling  our issues – the colourful Malaysians.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone Happy Blessed New Year – and make Hijrah a meaningful paradigm shift.