May
2
2010
Fantasy yet real. Awesome. Funny. Touching. Smart. Learn. Compassion.
Plot Summary: Long ago up North on the Island of Berk, the young Viking, Hiccup, wants to join his town’s fight against the dragons that continually raid their town. However, his macho father and village leader, Stoik the Vast, will not allow his small, clumsy, but inventive son to do so. Regardless, Hiccup ventures out into battle and downs a mysterious Night Fury dragon with his invention, but can’t bring himself to kill it. Instead, Hiccup and the dragon, whom he dubs Toothless, begin a friendship that would open up both their worlds as the observant boy learns that his people have misjudged the species. But even as the two each take flight in their own way, they find that they must fight the destructive ignorance plaguing their world.
Script from the movie that caught me:
(During Father and Son argument; Father wanted Son to keep fighting Dragons, yet Son chose to save them.)
Father: “They’ve killed hundreds of us!”
Son: “But we’ve killed thousands of them!”. “They’re just defending themselves.”
Hm, familiar?
Maybe ‘they’ think that ‘they’ can ‘train’ the ‘dragon’.
April
20
2010
Taken on 19 Apr 2010, 1850hrs.
April
19
2010
I stumbled upon this amazing quote while browsing thru my facebook friends’ status. Posted by a renowned scriptwriter and a musician, Isa Kamari, I cant help but to believe that there’s a deep meaning behind it. Though I am not sure what he really meant or how he defines the meaning of ‘teacher’ and ’student’, but I do agree with this quote. How I see it is that a teacher should remain as student i.e. to be humble while continue to learn, seek knowledge and be open with comments or questions. Also, there should not be any ‘teacher-ego’ while teaching as that could set a barrier for a 2 way learning hence put that teacher as though he is in charge or superior than those students, just because of the knowledge he has. That’s just not right, I thought.
As for me, I have always believed in learning while teaching. What I’m doing is more like a sharing of what I have rather than teaching or molding them to some ’subject’ or ‘person’. Furthermore, I enjoy being with them like their own peer, or sister. In fact, they do call me ‘kak’ (sister) outside/after class, which I’m ok with it. Back to the belief, I mean it literally too, that sometimes I would figured out or learnt something new of the subjects I teach even after years of learning and teaching. Simply say, what u learn have no end.
Anyway, back to my class. Today’s class was good. Nothing unpleasant at all. Students listened and did what they were told to. And since I have start to take note of their attendance twice; in the middle and end of class, they no longer ask if they could go back earlier coz they knew the attendance sheet will be submitted to school’s office. : )
I gave them an exercise on Arabic dialogue. They were supposed to write the answer/response to the given dialogue (the same dialogue that they memorised during previous lesson), and translated it. Also, I’ve written some Arabic verbs for them to copy, and to memorise it the next lesson.
This post is also listed under FWD Page (Category: Diary). Keep checking out that page as I will update it daily. Lookout for more sharing to come! : )
April
2
2010
I recently watched ‘Up in the Air’. I totally had no idea what was the movie about prior to watching it. All I heard that it was listed in many nominations in some film awards, hence intrigued me. (Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 44 wins & 52 nominations… more)
In this movie, Ryan travels around to fire employees, for a living. What amused me though is Ryan’s (George Clooney) speech telling people how to avoid commitment. I think it’s irony that while talking others out of commitments, he himself is actually in a commitment – i.e. his work- though he does love what he’s doing. Having commitment doesn’t necessarily carries negative meanings like, burden or loads. One also gains and learns about love and happiness through commitment. Well, one can’t simply live without any commitment, it seems. Anyway, the speech, aka ‘Backpack Speech’, is featured in the trailer below:
“Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.”
Personally, I believe that human beings are already tied with commitment the moment we were born. We’re obliged to listen to our parents, obey the school, pledge to the country, follow God’s orders. Commitment continues. It’s impossible to have a total freedom in life. In fact, I just can’t imagine if we’re totally free, with no commitments. It’s sure going to be chaotic, guide-less, ground-less. At times we just need the gravity to pull us back to the ground, and perhaps in this movie, it’s a hard knock on the head and eventually made Ryan realise what he wants or rather, needs.
I think I’ll stay as swan. I’ll end this note with this good quotes from the movie, “Life is better with company.” “Everybody needs a co-pilot.”
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided.” [3:103]
November
21
2009
1. “the guy’s an actor, he’s reading a script! when they tell you not to panic, that’s when you run!”
2. “The moment when we stop fighting for each other, that’s when we lose our humanity”
3. “whoah, big plane!. It’s Russian”
4. “anybody who tries to talk is not only the enemy of the state, but enemy of humanity”
I’m not a script- freak, but I am compelled to express my liking to good movie scripts. Apart from the above, there are many other lines from this movie that caught me. However, what struck me most is the no. 2 script above. I think I ever heard the same quote or something similar to it in other movies – Emily Rose or Transformers. Could it be coincidence, or there’s a hidden message or a kind of code in that line? who knows. Or probably I might have heard wrong.
Sitting thru the movie which runs for 158 minutes, I notice religious groups performing their prayers except for one, the Jews / Judaism. Neither do I see any scene of them praying or their religious building destroyed. Do they purposely excluded it? Hm, I wonder. Also, what’s up with Russia/n? From the Billionaire (Yuri), the Pilot, the Prime Minister, the big plane…to show that Russian economy will recover fully in 2012? Enlighten me.
Right after the show, a friend asked if this is really about ‘the-end-of-world’. “I think it’s just like another disaster movies”, she opines. I second that opinion. Especially on the “Ark”, which reminds me of the comedy Evan Almighty, while the 2012 is like the serious version of it (the biblical Noah’s Ark story) – the flood, the destruction, and building the Ark to save humanity and animal.
Overall, it’s a good movie. The disasters (earthquake, volcano, tsunami) effect is impressive, though I don’t really enjoy the too-much-computer-effect scene when Jackson runs away as volcano explodes, and he impossibly survives the quakes and the fireballs. That’s too unreal.
Well, we won’t know when is the end of the world. But we are taught to remember and prepare for death. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) said, “Remember death very often, so that it may purify you from sins and decrease attachment to a world which is not an introduction to the betterment of the spirit.” (http://bit.ly/4vDBmX). One of the good values from the movie in relation to this, is the part where family members grew in love & appreciation, and ask for forgiveness of each other. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Say and share your love to your family & loved ones, and treasure them.
June
18
2009
Here are picture snippets of some great new features of the latest iPhone OS 3.0 :
Above features:
1) Spotlight Search. 2)MMS. 3) Landscape Keyboard / Copy & Paste. 4) Voice Memo.
Well, of course there are more features we get from this new OS . I can’t wait to try out the rest myself, which includes but not limited to; Internet Tethering, ITunes Store, Shake to Shuffle music, Auto Wifi Login -hope this work better than the Apps, and many more.
To those who wonder if it’s worth to update, surely I would strongly recommend it. And especially to those who are still thinking whether to buy the new iPhone 3Gs, hope this posting will help you decide, else drop me a note if you would like to know more about iPhone features. Not saying I’m an expert, just an average iPhone enthusiast. =)
More pictures are available at my Facebook.
For more info, also check out these cool links: iPhone 3Gs Official Site & iPhone 3Gs Music Video.
May
31
2009
.. Trust
In the early stage of the internet, most people used the internet for fun, chat and entertainment. Internet has evolved over time and now becoming an important platform to find information & engage with people, or in another word, social networking. And in this social media world, one has to be ‘real’. Once, nicknames were so popular but now most users use their real names or rather real identity in the cyber space. This indicate that nowadays people are willing to share his real name hence building the trust among other internet users.
As the founder of Facebook said, “Our goal is to build great products and to communicate clearly to help people share more information in this trusted environment.” – Mark Zuckerberg
In Islam trust is one of the fundamental aspects in human relations. In the early stage of Islam, Rasulullah Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH) gathered His companions, the people of Makkah, and later his follower, and preached about Islam. People started to trust Rasulullah (PBUH)’s teachings. They believe and trust every word from Rasulullah (PBUH) even on things unseen by human beings such as angels, heaven and hell. Even with no source to prove what he said, yet amazingly the trust that Rasulullah built among the locals of Makkah made them believe his mesasges. Indeed, he was then known as Al-Amin (trustworthy).
Social media has changed our lives and the world (in meaningful ways). What else can we learn from social media which also reflect Rasulullah (PBUH)’s teachings?
.. Share
The other value that we can learn from social media is ’share’, which undoubtedly was also practised by our own Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
There are lots of sharing knowledge site, such as twitter, facebook, digg, wikipedia and the list goes on and on. Today, people will simply share stuff that they find useful and interesting. And that is the core foundation of internet today. People will then follow and trust people who contribute online information. That’s the rule of thumb for internet today.
Rasulullah (PBUH) will always update his followers about Islam, knowledge, and messages that Allah had given him. He had also stressed on the difference between knowledge and wealth. The more knowledge we share the more we’ll get whereas the more we share our wealth the lesser it gets. And in the case of social media, the more generous we are with our findings and sharing, the more we’ll gain people’s trust.
Social media is all about sharing information, ideas, thoughts and feelings. By adding value in our sharings especially, will lead to a more people following us for latest updates. Creating this value in the internet space is the key to expedite the message across. Also, sincerity is one of the elements that motivates people to share. That’s what our Prophet teaches us on lesson learnt from hijrah (migration).
..Conclusion
Islam prohibits hiding knowledge. Let’s build trust and share our knowledge, findings, and wealth. Social media is about sharing something that is value to you, hoping that it will benefit others too. Secondly, is to share with passion and sincerity, while bearing the responsibility of the messaging and information shared with others.
We believe that there are many other values we can learn from the social media. Do share with us your thoughts and views on this issue, through the comment box below.
“ballighu ‘anni walao aayah” which means, “convey (my teachings) to the people even if it were a single verse” – Hadith
May
9
2009
With the institutional resources shrinking and the costs rising, teachers are being asked to do more with less. John Seely Brown explores how technology can help.
May
9
2009
Fact about Al-Aqsa Mosque
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