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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Batas Sebuah Kesabaran


Saya pernahmenanyakan kepada diri sendiri mengenai keberadaan kesabaran. Kesabaran yangada dalam diri manusia. Orang bilang “Sabar itu tidak adabatasnya”. Benarkah hal itu adanya.

Sekarang marikita lihat sisi lain dari manusia. Bagi saya manusia adalah makhluk Tuhanpaling unik karena manusia memiliki hal-hal yang tidak dimiliki oleh makhlukTuhan lain. Rasa cinta, benci, nafsu, semangat, dan kesabaran. Semuanya milikmanusia. Semuanya ada dalam diri manusia. Setan, iblis, atau bahkan malaikatpuntidak memiliki semua sifat itu dalam satu raga. Tapi dari semua itu ada satuhal yang membuat manusai juga unik. Manusia memiliki batas. Sebuah jarak yangtidak bisa ditembus bahakan oleh makhluk yang menjadi pemimpin di bumi. Manusiamemiliki batas untuk berfikir tentang sejauh mana keberadaan akhirat. Manusia memilikibatas untuk memiliki sebuah material. Manusia memiliki batas untuk melakukanhal. Karena jika manusia tidak memiliki batas, apa bedanya manusia denganTuhan. Zat terkuasa di jagat raya yang tidak memiliki batas untuk melakukansegala kehendakNya.

Permasalahannya adalah:Apakah batas yang dimiliki oleh manusia juga berhubungan dengan kesabaran?

Manusia memilikibatas dalam mencintai karena mereka juga punya rasa benci.
Manusia memilikibatas dalam berusaha karena mereka juga punya rasa malas.
Manusia memilikibatas dalam kekuatan fisik karena mereka bukan mesin (toh mesin juga memilikibatas kekuatan).

Semuanya karenabatas. Lalu saat orang bilang “Sabar itu tidak ada batasnya”. Apa artinya?
Apakah manusia hampirsederajat dengan malaikat yang mau melakukan apapun dan tetap bersabarmenjalaninya.
Tapi kita bukanmalaikat. Kita adalah manusai. Dengan segala pernak-pernik yang tidak dimilikioleh makhluk Tuhan lainnya. Kita berbeda.

Jadi wajarkahjika seseorang memiliki batas dalam kesabaran? Karena pada kenyataannyaseseorang itu adalah manusia.

Jawabannya ada dalam diri kita untuk sejauh mana bisa menahan kesabaran kita.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Here I come (again)!


Here we are!

Finally I write my blog after sucha loooooong time I hadn’t written.
I miss writingactually and this is the thing that becomes my runaway. After finishing mythesis about Class Struggle I feel that my time is getting ineffective so Igotta find something to do and writing could be the one. Writing my thesis isnot as easy as I though. I was thinking that it was going to be me and mywriting but I was totally wrong. In fact there were a lot of things related tothis final project. Yes, it is about my other activities, my family, and alsomy thesis advisor. The last one should got a spot light (underlined, italic,and bold written). I won’t blame that my thesis advisor is the reason why mythesis took such a long time to finish but there is something beyond that. Ilearned something! I learned that life is not like a straight line made byelementary students with their ruler. I was such a stubborn that think time isthe barometer of success. People especially my friends who could graduate inOctober always pursued time graduation while I didn’t. The reason was quitesimple. It was because I thought that it is not worth that I could graduate assoon as possible while my thesis became like an uncooked scrambled egg. Thus Iknew the fact that it would be impossible for me to graduate along with thosepeople. However I have to emphasize something else that I have mentioned beforethat I learned something. It is not only about the understanding of my thesisbut also patience. In Javanese people say “Sopo sing sabar bakal subur.” Ithink it is suitable for me. I learned how to be patient, patient when facingmy thesis advisor or even myself. Maybe I won’t get this learning elsewhere.

Patient. That’sit!!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Renting in Canberra

I've actually moved out of my uncle's place a few weeks ago now. Since I've got a full time job, it was high time that I started being more independent. I'm currently renting a room in a fully furnished house with an Aussie family. The rent is AUD $200/week or around RM640/week (or RM33,280/year) which is inclusive of all bills; water, electricity, gas and internet. The price is average but you can probably find cheaper rents elsewhere. The main reason why I chose this place was because the house itself is clean and tidy unlike some of the other places I've checked out which were horrible.

My landlord is a pretty nice guy. He and his wife are really friendly and easy to get along with. And because the house is fully furnished, I didn't have to buy too much when I initially moved in here (apart from all the Asian pantry staples such as soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, wan ton noodles, mee suah, etc. and a rice cooker that is). And fortunately for me, my landlord doesn't mind me cooking up the typical Asian stir fry.

I've been cooking the usual stuff the past few weeks. Nothing really interesting. Had stir fry snow peas with prawns with lots of garlic, eggplant with minced beef, fried mee hoon, wan ton mee, fried egg with french beans, stir fried broccoli with beef slices, stir fried ginger beef and so on. I even cooked a steak one day on my landlord's bbq. Just did the basic salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, oil and red wine marinate and chuck it on the fire. Nothing too fancy.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my room:













My current place now is also pretty convenient as it is located quite close to the town centre where all the shops, supermarkets, banks, restaurants and fast food joints are located. It is also where I catch the bus every morning to get to work.

The yellow line is the route I normally take to get to the bus stop. It's about 850m or a 10 minute walk. The bus takes about half an hour from there to the city centre where my workplace is.


This place where I'm currently renting is also very near a lake (or a pond). The distance round the lake is roughly 4km. So what I normally do is I go for a jog either on Saturday or Sunday around the lake just to keep fit. I hardly have any time to jog during the weekdays because I normally get home late after work. But I'll be looking to jog more regularly during the Christmas break.

The red line is the path I take when I go for my once-a-week jog. I think the total distance is around 4.5 to about 5km which isn't too bad.

Here are some pictures of my 'neighbourhood':

The Town Centre is all the way down this road where the building with the little 'chimney' is.

The path on the way to the lake



The jogging path at the lake


It's very green with lots of trees and plants all around



The usual ducks and ducklings at the lake. You can see some black swans there sometimes. Some people also go there to fish. Not sure if they ever caught anything though. 


That's all for now. Will update again next time. Am going to be busy with work over the next two weeks running up to the Christmas break. Take care!

New Phone: Blackberry Bold 9700

Just a short update.

I was actually just about to confirm my order for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc when another rival phone company had a promotion for a Blackberry Bold 9700. It's a pretty old phone, but I get a lot more credit for calls if I sign up with those guys. For the BB plan, I only have to pay $29/month for 1 year (which is good as I can would be able to sign on to a new contract next year and get another new phone) and I will have enough credit to make a phone call to a mobile number in Cuba for around 3 whole hours (assuming my phone's battery doesn't die on me by then). With the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, I had to pay $29/month for 2 whole years and only get enough credit to call my friend in Cuba for 2 hours on her mobile phone.

And because the main reason for getting a new phone was not because of the phone but because of the credit to call my friend, I decided to apply for the Blackberry model instead. This particular 9700 model was released in October 2009. So it's about 2 years old as it is. The specs aren't great, with a 624Mhz processor (which is still faster than my current Nokia N97 mini's 434Mhz), 256mb of RAM (double my current 128mb), a slightly faster bluetooth connection with supporting up to v2.1 (unlike my current v2.0) as well as a longer battery life with the BB having a 1500mAh Li-Ion battery (compared to my miserable 1200mAh). The BB also boasts a slightly higher pixel density although it only has a 3.2mp camera compared to my Nokia's 5mp camera. However, I'm not really in it for the camera, so that doesn't really bother me.

Also, my current $29/month plan includes a 1.5gb of data for video streaming and unlimited Blackberry Email Internet Browsing. It should be more than sufficient as I hardly use too much of my mobile internet.







I've already put in my order for the phone. So hopefully my credit check is successful and I would be able to receive it by the end of this week if all goes well.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

So now that I've started working full time, I thought I might treat myself and buy me-self a new phone. My current Nokia N97 mini is still working fine albeit a little (maybe very) laggy. It hangs ever so often and the battery doesn't seem to be able to last the whole day as well. I was also in the midst of looking for an extra phone line so that I can have extra credit each month to call a good friend of mine who is currently studying in Cuba. So since I was going to get a phone line anyway, why not sign up for a 24 month contract and get a new phone whilst I'm at it?

So after much browsing (of the various telco websites), I decided to get the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. This phone was released less than a year ago in March. It is sort of a mid-ranged phone and is no where as powerful as the Iphone 4 or the Galaxy SII. However, the newly launced SE Xperia Arc S (which is one model after the Arc and was just released last month) which boasts of a 1.4Ghz processor might be able to compete with those two phones.



The SE Xperia Arc has a 4.2" LCD screen which has the same panel that Sony uses in their Bravia TV range. This phone also has an 8.1-megapixel camera sensor which borrows the Exmor-R back-side illuminated image sensor from the Sony's Cybershot camera range. Apart from it's 1Ghz processor and Android OS platform, this phone is also one of the lighter phones on the market, weighing just 117g.

 
I might be getting this phone in the coming week or so. It should provide me with something to do over the Christmas holidays. Also, I'll be paying $29 per month for 24 months once I sign up with this plan. Hopefully I'll like the phone and won't have too many things to complain about.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

ACT Road Rules Knowledge Assessment Test

In order for me to get an Australian drivers license, I had to re-take both the theory and practical exams again despite holding a Malaysian drivers license. It's just so unfair that we Malaysians have to re-take our driving exams again while our fellow neighbours, the Singaporeans, get to convert their drivers license without having to sit for any further test.

So anyway, I went to one of the two testing centres that Canberra has to do my Road Rules test or more commonly known as 'Undang' in Malaysia. There are 35 questions in the test and you are allowed to make 4 mistakes in the general section and none in the intersection, drugs and alcohol and seat belts section. If you do make a mistake in one of the three sections stated, you'll automatically fail the test and have to resit.


The test itself costs AUD $35 per sitting (maximum of 2 sittings per day) and you would be required to bring along:
1. your foreign drivers license,
2. an NAATI approved translation of your drivers license if it's not in English,
3. 3 forms of ID (Passport, Medicare card, ATO tax assessment, etc.),
4. 2 passport sized photos ($5 payable for picture to be taken on that day), and
5. $35 (both cash and Eftpos accepted).

Some practice questions can be found on the ACT Government's website. It is advised that you have a go at the practice questions prior to sitting for the Road Rules test. Some of the questions are actually similar in the actual test itself.

There are two testing centres:
North Canberra Office
Canberra Technology Park, Block D
49 Phillip Avenue, WATSON ACT 2602
Ph: 02 6162 5152
Fax: 02 6162 5153
E: roadreadynorth@freebott.com.au

South Canberra Office
72 Townshend Street,
PHILLIP 2606
Ph: 02 6282 8990
Fax: 02 6281 7432
E: roadreadysouth@freebott.com.au

Their opening hours are:
Monday to Friday: 9am to 5pm
Saturday: 9am to 12noon


It's fortunate that they open on Saturdays as Saturdays are the only time when I'm actually free to do all this kind of funny things now that I'm working full time. As for my test, it went alright. Managed to score 34/35. After I passed the test, they printed out a confirmation letter to be presented when I book my practical exam.

More on the driving test when I actually attempt it in the next few months or so.