Twenty Five

Woke up early, bought myself a Big Mac and an Oreo McFlurry, and watched The Simpsons all day long. 25 has been great so far :D

If You Are Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands

I used to have tonnes of things to be written here but everytime my fingers touched the keyboards, all those thoughts, ideas and words wafted away into thin air.

Not this time though.

***

There's this show called Restaurant Impossible on The Food Network channel. This show entails three of my favorite things in the world, food, food and building design. Basically, it's about the host who runs around all over the America in searching for failing restaurants, where he and his team would try to salvage these restaurants by improving their menus, management and upgrading the interior design of the restaurant.

One particular episode struck me.

The  restaurant was somewhere in the 4-seasons state. The restaurant had a large dining area overlooked a river and forestry. It kind of resembled Frank Lloyd Wrights' The Falling Water, replicated into another different setting and dimension. I could imagine myself sitting in the dining area during winter, with the magnificent view of white clean snow and leafless trees along with the clear blue sky as my dining companion. 

I thought having a restaurant in a 4-seasons state would be exhilarating! I mean, every season, you get to plan your menus using seasonal ingredients; tomatoes and melons during the summer, berries and freshwater fish for the spring, potatoes and pumpkins for the autumn and some hot spices and warm soups for the winter.

So,a variety menus to plan from seasonal ingredients, a quaint restaurant with rustic views. I thought the chef must be a jolly fella, he had everything a chef would desire.

But, as the cameraman introduced the chef, he was no jolly fella. He was rather a depressed man, an exhausted red-eyed man who could no longer see a better future. He was desperately unhappy. When the host asked whether he wanted to be a part of the salvation, to be reattached to the restaurant, the chef shook his head, packed his bags, and strode off. When he was finally about to leave the premise, he said straight into the camera, "I am finally happy, for I am free".

***

From other's perspective, he was a silly man because he left everything that was once mattered greatly to him. After the renovation completed, the restaurant turned even better, the kitchen staffs were trained by one of the renowned chefs in culinary world, and the food was tastier. He was a fool man for abandoning his chances and dreams.

But I viewed him as a brave man. He was brave enough to be happy, to step out of his miserable cocoon and flied away to a happy end. Everyone says they want to be happy and will do absolutely anything to be happy, but to what extent?

Would you give up a six-figure salary job to be happy? Would you stay away from friends who are bringing you down? Would you escape from your comfort zone? Would you run away from your loved ones in order to be happy?

Well, maybe saying yes to those questions is a big giant leap, one should conduct a thorough analysis and findings before arriving to a conclusion. Lets start smaller. Will you start appreciate all the little things in your life?

To be continued.

(see you next, what, 3 months?)

(muahahaha)

Literally Blue

I never liked the colour blue. I always thought blue represented depression, sadness and lack of excitement. People who liked blue were those who were always tired, lethargic, dull and lifeless, I imagined. But then, I wasn't looking at a bigger picture. I was looking at the wrong blue.

Blue is pretty immaculate actually. It vibrates sense of harmony, calmness, and at the same time it projects a hint of excitement. In architecture, the color blue is associated with open space, expansiveness, inspiration, and freedom. It embraces loyalty and faiths, like the sea and the sky. As I was looking at the wrong blue, I missed its meaning.

Random Thought #7

A good friend of mine graduated, got a job, got married, and currently is 6 months pregnant, all in less than a year. One heck of a year, she said. 

Me?

I like my own pace, although it's slow. Never liked rushing over things and plans because things usually would end up badly. It's gonna be a very long and a very slow book though. 

- So?

Abbott and Costello

One night, when I was around 9, my dad announced at dinner that he wanted to watch a documentary titled UFO. You see, my dad seldom watched TV. He only watched TV for the news or for Formula One. Back then, we didn't have ASTRO, so national channels were all our source of entertainment and happiness.

I had absolutely no idea what on earth was UFO. I genuinely thought UFO was some kind of other cool things like machinery or building. This UFO thing must've been a really big deal because my dad was gonna watch it, and I was looking for an excuse to delay bedtime.

But UFO wasn't cool, at all. It scared the earth out of me. 5 minutes after the show, I scuttled to bed, close the door and impressing my mom by going to bed earlier than ever and willingly.

Since then, I've developed a small fear of extraterrestrial life or aliens because to me aliens mean uncertainty, unknown and unresolved. It is like the same reason why some of us hate darkness. It is not because of the absent of light, it is because we are afraid of the things that might be lurking inside of darkness. Nobody knows exactly what aliens are or how they look like. Questions are raised, minds are boggled. Are they friendly or predatory? Do they have any resemblances with human form? Do they possess superior intelligence and advanced technologies? Do they really exist?

But the more you learn about our universe, the more plausible that we are not alone. Stephen Hawking once said that we should keep our business to ourselves because we do not know who might be listening. Al-Quran mentions; 

All praise belongs to GOD, Lord of all the worlds.

The word WORLDS may indicate about our world, the animal world, djinns', the unseen or others. But it can also literally mean other world, as in other planets and universe. Our universe is enormous, huge, gigantic and other synonyms for huge. So it is possible we have neighbors. Once, I did some reading on what Islam thinks about extraterrestrial life. Some theories came up. Some seemed convincing, some do not exactly answer the question. If you ever stumbled upon this theory, just remember one thing. Allah told us to be prepared, so we should. You see how I tried to build a suspense here? Hihi.

Allah knows what you do not know. 

Humans unconsciously initiate fear for things that are not real, like supernatural entity because humans refuse to deal with the real cause. But the existence of aliens has been a vigorous disputes, discussions and debates between men. Some people claimed that there are numerous evidence that aliens exist, and this people are attempting to contact them. My thought, please don't. And well, there are some evidences saying aliens response to our contact. Seem doubtful though, but who knows. Maybe aliens do exist. Maybe Roswell wasn't a hoax. Maybe Area 51 was real. Maybe all the interstellar conspiracies are true. Again, who knows. I refuse, no, I am scared to believe that aliens exist. I even get scared whenever I heard the opening theme of X-Files (a very good job scaring me with instrumental music).

But I believe zombies aren't real. Because I hate 'em. I finally watched Arrival last week, but I regret watching it alone.   ''-____-

Somewhere deep inside of my bottomless heart, I somehow acknowledge that aliens are objectively real. 

Rainy day makes me want to write.

Once upon a time, there was a kind Muslim man, one of the good ones. He was a good son, a helpful neighbor and a reliable friend. But he was a lazy man. He was too lazy to perform solat. He came up with excuses, and if he did perform a solat, he would had done it at the very last minute as possible.

So one day, he went to have an appointment with a Muslim scholar. Upon meeting the scholar, he spilled his bean, of how he's too lazy to perform the solat.

"Dear Sir, I am a good man, but I refuse to solat anymore. Surely all my goodness as a Muslim would compensate my solat, so may I be excuse from performing solat?"

The scholar smiled and replied;

"Sure, you can be excused from it, on one condition. You must first perform solat for 40 days straight at the mosque, right after the azan. On the 41st day, you are excused from solat forever."

The man thanked the scholar and went home with joy, for he wont have to perform solat anymore after the 40 days trial.

So he performed his solat for forty days straight, as per condition. Even before the azan. He had prepared himself with wudhu and sitting at the front row of the saf. He was intensely dedicated to be excused from solat forever.

On the 41st day, the scholar came across the man again and asked him whether he had abandoned solat as he wanted. The man suddenly broke down in tears and between sobs, he said;

"Dear Sir, I have never experienced this kind of serenity in my whole life. I was a good man but I never feel this calmness until I started to perform solat regularly. How did I miss this? By Allah, I will never skip solat anymore."

The scholar smiled. Mission accomplished, he thought. And the man never ever skipped his solat until the day he died.

This has been my all time favorite story. It simply means that sometimes, in order to curb immorality, misbehaving or mishaps, we have to use our wits to outsmart them rather than violence. We often hear people preaching about combating misdeed with gentle manner, but how many people actually abide by their own principal? Sometimes, even the unsophisticated way might be the best way.

"...But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not." - Quran (2:216).

2K16

So today is 2017. I didn't have any particular expectations or resolutions for 2016. I thought I would just go with the flow, nodding my head agreeing to what's going to be presented along the line, because it seemed like none of my resolutions from previous years came true.

My 2016 was, well, the first half was pretty intense, hectic and full of adrenaline rush. Who knew to graduate was not easy. Woke up every morning, did the work, sipped a cup of coffee, resumed the work, and went to sleep. An endless cycle of monotony I say. 

The other half was a relief. After graduating, I was finally at ease. 5 years of architecture school, finally paid off. I can pull all nighter if I wanted to. It's paradise *giggling*. But then again, I'm starting to miss campus life. 

I'd say 2016 was a more like closure. A closure is a sense of clarity, where moving on from what's done without denying its validity and existence, and believing that every exit is another entry. Adieu to 5 years of architecture school, adieu to all the futile hopes, adieu to all memories, and adieu to the former me. It's time to go on.

2017

2017 feels like a breath of fresh air. You know, the feeling of fresh air on your face and the wind blows through your hair (hijab?), then you take a deep breath, feel the air filling up your lung. I turned 24 last couple of days. A sudden realization subtlety appear, that I'm an adult. Hmmm.