fasting month is around the corner...

Ooops... i was simply too busy & forgot to update my blog so there's no entry for July... my apologies...

Life is too short, so make the most of it... Every minute and every hour of my life is saturated with responsibilities... everything I do has to be prioritised and planned well before being executed... of course, there were days when I feel rebellious and just dropped everything and just have some fun.

By fun, I don't mean clubbing or partying and getting drunk... but read books in the library sipping on coffee.. my fav pastime with dear fiance... or just walking around window shopping, people watching and gadgets surveying... for now it's the ipad... gonna get one for my future hubby soon, and gonna receive one from my dear brother... :)

Trust me when I say I'm a boring person... My friends think I'm cool but really, I don't even have time to watch TV... maybe if any I will force myself to read the papers... my off days will be days when I catch up on news by reading all the newspapers compiled from 4 days ago... haha! I guess mum has gotten used to it when she saw the whole dining table full of newspapers... she'll just say something like,'how many years of news are you trying to catch up on?'... :)

If ever I get to watch the TV, it will be shows my family call 'nerdy', and I'll be left watching my shows alone... mostly documentaries or such... haha! :) I heard the show Glee! is great according to my teenage sister who's sooo into it... So I made up my mind to catch the first season online or by torrent download... and watch it along the way to work on my iphone...

Fasting month is nearing... to be exact, next Wednesday... I hope I can make it through the days despite my hectic lifestyle... wish me luck! :)

WORK:

I've been posted to another lab, more specialised biochemistry tests, you're basically left alone at your station to fend for yourself, guided by work instructions and files around you... every now and then, there will be kind souls from other workstations to explain away the questions in my head... my first day didn't go quite well I suppose, because my trainer has to cover another station and she has to leave me alone after just a few hours of brief through on the things I have to do... Second day was better cos there's someone to guide me the whole day...

Third day, will be tomorrow, and I'll be on my own officially... trusted to be independent enough to battle it out myself the whole day... Hope to make it through in one piece...

I've been scouring websites for an additional tuition assignment that can give me my first big break and fill up my Sundays and give me additional allowance to finish buying all the things I need by November...





BOOKS & MOVIES:





As usual, my insatiable appetite for knowledge will lead me to explore more great books and intellectual movies for more discussion and pondering into life's complexities and the unique differences between every human being... yes, despite my busy scedule... haha! :)

A great movie I caught was called,'Inception' by Christopher Nolan.. the great guy who directed 'The Dark Knight'... the show explored the psych of the humand mind, and break reality barriers by questioning the impossibilities of our imagination... the idea of extracting information from another person's subconscious mind when a person is at his most vulnerable...



When the character Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), mastered this art of extraction, he decided to experiment on something rather vice versa... the idea of transplanting an idea into someone's mind... the mistake he made was experimenting it on his loved one, costing her life... leaving him guilt-stricken reminded by heart-wrenching memories whenever he closed his eyes...and dreams...



This movie allows the audience to question themselves regarding the fine line that separates reality from dreams... so how sure are we, that the lives we're leading now belongs to the real world? which brings us back to the movie 'The Matrix'...



( In Inception ) But I find the concept of having a totem to separate reality from dreams, a little too easy... and can still be deceiving as what Cobb proved when he manipulated his wife's totem in her safety box... So how can he be sure his totem wasn't maipulated or tampered with to fool him? That was why the ending was left hanging with a totem still spinning... the last scene involving his children playing in the garden outside the patio, cannot be coincidentally be the same as when he left them... so Cobb might still be in a dream...

Looking forward to Inception 2... because their plan might not work out according to plan, which is to ensure the demise of a rival empire... the victim might have figured out their plans and thwarted it somewhere in between by introducing his own set of plans to fool them into thinking they suceeded... many scenes pointed to that if you are fast enough to catch the hints...

I simply love the idea of the time paradox... in reality, time flies very fast, as compared to dreams... in actual fact, many people believe in this idea... within an hour, you can dream of many things and events... in religious texts, a similar idea was introduced..something like a day spent in hell, feels like a year spent on Earth...

Thus, now I understand why some books introduced concepts like learning using the subconscious mind... that is, you memorise and learn better by sleeping immediately after studying... or sleeping throughout a lecture... the brain can actually retain information better because it has been fooled to believe that the time taken for it to learn something has been prolonged... as compared to real-time... :) I've used this concept myself and it works for me... I passed my exams well despite my last minute resolutions... haha! :) always study smart, not study hard...

A book I've recently read, called 'The Imam's Daughter'by Hannah Shah.... which I initially thought was good because it helps put light to the derogatory culture and practice of minority Muslims in some countries, which misleads others into thinking that Islam is a bad religion, which is sad...

I felt sad that the author converted to Christianity due to the circumstances she has been put through, which were horrible and worst still, came from her own family and community... A minority Muslim community set in England, still strongly practicing cultures like arranged(forced) marriages, leading to honour killings when the daughters refuse or ran away... and they love to back their actions with verses from the Quran... which is a huge sin and leads to wrong interpretations of Islam... leading to other problems like radicalism...

It's more heart-wrenching when the author questioned a lot of Muslim beliefs and practices... and the Quran teachings... questions she had in her mind are all affiliated to her past negative experiences... which is wrong... she should give herself time to heal by visiting Muslims from other countries, out from her community... and realise how beautiful Islam is, if practiced according to mainstream teachings, and it must always be guided by certified religious teachers... like mosques in Singapore...

It's sad many choose to believe that culture and religion is intertwined... they chose to be ignorant and selfishly lead other religions to believe that Islam is a bad religion... I don't encourage my fellow Muslims to read this book, if you're not well-versed in Islamic teachings... it might lead you astray... For others, it's a mind opening book...



Here's an article regarding the spread of radicalism in Islam by Muslims who oppress their own lives by adhering to cultural practices that exist in Afghanistan, despite living in UK.I strongly feel the British authorities should interfere & come up with a solution to tone down such negative practices and thinking and provide mainstream religious education to these ignorant Muslims... before things get out of hand... evident in their current practices which can be damaging to the reputation of Islam.

The Talibanisation of British childhood by hardline parents. (5/8/10)