Lipat Kaki, Tarik badan, Jumpa Orang.

بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم

Terharu...
Life is truly wonderful when you get to meet new people and make new friends.
As mamat and I did the set up for jummuah prayer, I met Scott there and he said he'll be doing a presentation the next day, which is today, Saturday. He's a PhD candidate, whose research is on Malay Maritime and Piracy. Sangat menarik. So at 2pm, I went. Apparently it was a conference. Matt and Glyniss who are both doing a minor, as undergrad in Bahasa Malaysia also presented their papers. Matt's presentation was on how the Indonesian government used films to embed the spirit of nationalism in its people, while Glyniss' was on the musical instrument of Sapee in Sarawak: how it is tied with gender roles i.e. only guys play the instrument while women do not. The taboo is still strong as strong as how we know only guys wear songkok and not ladies. 5 students of NIU who are doing BM as minor get to come to Malaysia this summer for study abroad with full scholarship. I'm excited :) Inshallah we'll definitely hang out in Malaysia.

Jitra mari, Siew Lim from Klang, Jocelyn from Sarawak

Scott (grad student) and Glyniss (undergrad) won the best written paper. Both are BM students...proud of them both :) But there, I also met someone. She was different. Apparently she's from Klang, Selangor. She just got her MBA, she's doing research on wayang kulit in South Asia and she is also a striving artist. What's different about her is that, she's also a buddhist nun. Completely in grey kinda robe, her head was shaved off with six tiny dot marks. Saya jakon la sebab saya tak pernah tgk buddhist nun before. Mai2 dia orang sekampung teruih (kampung tu Malaysia la). The first ever time I was exposed of buddhist nuns was when I took my world religion class. After Hinduism, there came Buddha with enlightment to reach nirvana (ultimate happiness through samsara/rebirth/reincarnation).

1. The truth of suffering (dukkha)
2. The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
3. The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
4. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)

The four noble truth that Buddhists live by is often put in medical terms for us to understand better, 

1. the symptoms (of the suffering)

2. the diagnosis (identify of the pain)

3. the prognosis (forecast the cause of the pain)

4. the prescription

I find it pretty interesting. That's one way of looking at things. 

Saja nak recall saki baki memories of three years ago. 

Funny, there have been a couple of times where Chinese Malaysian artists came and have their work put up for gallery show at NIU. I feel honored having to write papers on them and relate with their artworks that for the most part are influenced by the Malaysian culture. I bet there are many more of them all over the US. Completely inspirational. It's nice when art is appreciated in, especially, in Chicago. Moga luas lagi pandangan dan skill saya jadinya...amin. Chicago is truly the nest and periuk nasi for these creative and passionate people and I'm lucky to have been brought here. Chicago has a rich culture because of its appreciation for art, music, nature and architecture. I watched an exclusive interview of Steve Jobs he other day and the pioneers of Apple was those whom he hand picked. They were people whose expertise were in poetry, art, music and that sort with also some knowledge in computer science. 

To cut long story short, alhamdulillah, I'm glad the fact that a restaurant in Chicago called in as a response to my email of lament and proposal (ehh? plak dah). That's a lil bit crazy for a newb like me but alhamdulillah. It's an opportunity. They're interested in me designing a dinner and lunch menu for them. It was completely unintentional. Last weekend we dined out at restaurant for a special occasion. I returned home with a heartache, not being able to get over the ridiculously designed menu they had. I took it to heart. I was moved to write to them, offering my two cents of suggestion - I can help you do something about the menu. Bila fikir2 balik, ya Allah, ni kerja Engkau lah ni. Segala yang baik datang daripadaMu. Entah apa lah yg aku tulis dlm email tu. All ateeqa nasha's crazy, mindless, semangat yg tak tentu arah, yang takde keje cari keje action datang dariMu. Bila fikir balik, it wasn't like me to pull that kinda stunt. Especially bab2 nak tulis email secara random dan criticize keje orang. Lagi pun sayakan pemalu. My first client ever. Alhamdulillah :) Please make du'a for me. Whatever the outcome will be, I can only be thankful because the whole process is already a great experience for me. Bestlah Allah ni. 

Anyway, my point is that, where there's appreciation for better things and passion for making things better, that's where the magic lies in making this whole world a better place. But get this, design is not only external it's for most of the part, internal. That's why Prof. Harry insists in looking at nature as a source of inspiration - as a facade, it's beautiful. as a mechanic it's all purposeful. Because God is the Best Designer like that. nak bagi wink sket boleh? ;) haa. kan dah. That's how I see design. I want to see it grow to be a humanitarian business, activism and connection between people. Steve Job's dream was, he only intended to see people grow up with better things. 

Last advise, 

Let's go out and meet people, people! You never know where it may lead you to ;)