Dubai

Leaving tomorrow night. I'm so excited! There will be lots of first in this trip. I've not been on a long haul flight. I've not been to a middle east country. I've not travelled THIS far to meet up with someone I haven't met. I've not... the list goes on. But overall, I'm quite nervous and hope I do a good job with the purpose I'm there.

My boy is going to miss me.

ps. please do not sms me in the next 2 weeks, I have to pay just to receive your smses. email me, and if REALLY urgent, you can try calling me. rumor has it that receiving calls might be free on my end, but have to confirm with ro-boy first.

alright, no blogging for 2 weeks! OUT.

.a

farming

busy. busy. busy.
this new magazine show i'm working on right now is called "Seeds", and the whole purpose is to promote agriculture in the country. I remember when I was presented with 3 different programs, asking which I would like to pick, my 'fun' side wanted to do a reality show - young, hip and happening, but somehow I thought while I'm still young and should always try to push my limit or take challenges, I opt for this agriculture thingy. My producer was taken aback and wanted to know why. I didn't really explain, maybe because I'm trying to understand myself why Shoghi Effendi refers farming as one of the noble professions. hopefully by the end of the show I find my answers. :)


yo buddies! dinner tonight?

sicklee

been sick for so long it's just not funny. woke up one morning with dry throat, then sore, then flu, then cough, then swollen tonsils. saw doc, gave antibiotics, finished them, couple of days later it got back, with fever and headache. another doc gave me a new set of antibiotics, stronger ones, after a week, gotten better. friend's birthday we had crabs together, i thought i've recovered! next day, sore throat, swollen tonsils, cough... the whole cycle again! and it seems, a friend told me today i might have astigmatism. it seems if i look at the lamppost and see lines coming out from it, it's time to get myself a pair of spectacles!

OH NO!!!
i was just thinking of how some ppl look more intellectual when they put on their glasses, but, but.. i don't want to be one of them.

besides that.
new job. new tasks. new experience. new things.

and probably. new country to conquer.

keceriaan mengambil gambar kanak-kanak

Had a few activities with children in the past weeks. I didn't have to handle any big responsibility, which means I had more time to snap photos. yeay! good thing about stills is u snap, u photoshop, u post. video you gotta shoot, capture, edit, edit, edit, then transfer, or convert, or computer hang, or restart computer, or... you get what i mean. =)

TOYM award night

I guess this was one of the things I've been busy with for the past 2 weeks. You saw the 3mins clip manesh n i did. It was screened on that night before soonkam, our fren who won the award, went to stage and gave his speech. It was a very meaningful night - not because he won the award, but mostly because of the recognition given to the work he was involved in, and what the community is doing - namely the children's classes and the junior youth gatherings.
Jenjarom is well-known for its notoriety even for a small town. some parents were happy to see their children involved in healthy activities, to learn about virtues and to be of service, but there were also some who are sceptical about these free classes. anyways, action speaks louder than words (and awards). the transformation the children/youth had, only themselves or their parents would know.

*TOYM = the outstanding young malaysian award.

pictures below>>1)i like how this photo turned out 2)the video team with soonkam 3)soonkam and family 4)guang liang (aka michael wong) is also one of the winners! i've been listening to his songs since a decade ago, so excited that he's there. too bad i didn't get to take a picture with him. this isn't the best photo i have of him, but i thought it's funny that the man on the right corner (probably a doctor, a scientist, or a humanitarian volunteer) had the peace sign. ^_^

one night when i was yamcha-ing with my frens...

yes, one of those mondays that used to be reserved for futsal, became one of the lets-go-out-n-hav-drinks nights. for malaysians especially, 'having a drink' or having supper u may call it, is a very imperative norm in many young people's lives. maybe it was the togetherness, maybe it was the lively conversation, maybe it was just killing time, maybe malaysians don't read, maybe nothing is on tv that night, maybe it's the nice weather since it's been drizzling at night, maybe it's just bad diet, and maybe that's why we all have bellies because we eat more than we exercise!

anyhoos, that one night (finally getting to my point), i was 'storying' my frens about a huge hole clarice n i found on a road one day. then someone said "oh, i saw it on newspapers." you should have seen me - mata aku terbeliak, hatiku berdebar-debar, senyumanku tak segan - i was just SO EXCITED that i rushed to buy that day's newspaper at 11pm. it was the last one left.

ceritanya macam ni... clarice n i was on this street one morning at 730am, and it was still fine, until 10am when we went pass the same road, we saw a huge hole and was just totally amazed at how it collapsed by itself. lucky no car went in. being curious, we both parked our car and walked to the crime scene and decided to take photos. when we got back to the office, we called up a newspaper's hotline and thinking that they might actually reward us for giving them such an interesting news, all they said was "thanks, we'll send our people there." FINE. since the two of us didn't wanna waste our photos, we sent in to this column where they pay for interesting pictures. the next day, it was out. woohoo! though we didn't win the rm50, we were just excited to see our work - my photo and her words, out on newspapers. haha. cheap thrill.

Arise!

you can say i was bumming all the time at home - but at least i got something out from this week! let me present to you "Arise!" a once in 3 months newsletter for the community of PJ. I used Pages, a mac software that has lots of nice templates, and all I had to do was collect some stories and pictures and put them altogether. though a last minute effort, but thanks to the support of many others, we managed to launch it at the right time! ;-)

I'm only showing 2 out of 8 pages here, hehe.

Temple land visit

Finally last weekend, I get to visit our temple land in Kuala Kubu Bharu. It was about one hour drive away from Petaling Jaya, and thank god the weather was alright. It wasn't too hot, and it seemed like it was going to rain, but it didn't. We had to park our cars bit far off as the road was blocked by puddle of water, and everyone, young and old, started walking as far as 600 meter to reach our temple land.

As we could only receive funds from Baha'is alone, raising the money to buy this land which will build our future house of worship, is definitely a challenge. But in the end, of course, it was purchased. There's many other stories which we could hear from some individuals on how the land was found, purchased, leveled, etc etc, which I personally believe must be God's intervention.

A beautiful devotional was prepared and we all stood around and enjoyed the breezes caressing our faces as we listened to the chants and prayers recited. It was an overwhelming experience for me. Since my visit to the Mother Temple in India, to be at a spot where the House of Worship will be built - where people from all walks of life, despite religion, race, status and what not, come together and worship under one roof. That's the symbol of unity.

The Bahá’í House of Worship is dedicated to the praise of God. The House of Worship forms the central edifice of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár (the Dawning-place of the Praise of God), a complex which, as it unfolds in the future, will comprise in addition to the House of Worship a number of dependencies dedicated to social, humanitarian, educational, and scientific pursuits. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá describes the 191 Mashriqu’l-Adhkár as “one of the most vital institutions in the world”, and Shoghi Effendi indicates that it exemplifies in tangible form the integration of “Bahá’í worship and service”. Anticipating the future development of this institution, Shoghi Effendi envisages that the House of Worship and its dependencies “shall afford relief to the suffering, sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the bereaved, and education to the ignorant”. In the future, Bahá’í Houses of Worship will be constructed in every town and village.(excerpts from the Kitáb-i-Aqdas)