Lobo's Lessons

It is now 11.43pm... Tired... Just got back home only about 43 mins ago... My head is just spinning with an onslaught of never-ending thoughts, bits and pieces, a cacophony of images and sounds and sights and feelings. It's like a broken TV in my head that I just can't turn off no matter how hard I try. The human mind is supposed to be able to filter 90% of unnecessary information at any single time, whether they originate from the external senses or the internal thought processes. The rationale is simple - too much information and the human mind breaks. My filtering is probably down to 85% tonight, and even then it's driving me up the wall. Work...classes... meetings... deadlines... vetting for exams... coordinator for UHB 2422... Marks... Adel's not feeling well... Salmah's coming down with flu... swimming... gym... Ikea... Social benchmarking... consolidation of solidarity...friend's husband's a jerk... need time for herself... why can't men understan...

I came across this beautiful quote today: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened" - Dr Seuss

It just happens so fast. It only seems like yesterday that I held my newborn son in my hands, so small and fragile... and I saw him opening his eyes for the very first time... Jet black eyes, seemingly so big and tender on his little face. And there he was this morning, waving goodbye to me, with his hand in his teacher's and walking towards the kindergarten. I remember the range of emotions I felt as I saw him walk away. I was proud that he was such a big boy, not crying going to school for the first time, in a sea full of strangers both big and small. I was happy, but as I drove away I became a little sad to know that my little boy had already started the next step of his journey. Pretty soon, he would be in school, and then high school and college...where he would start asking me for ever-growing amounts of money, borrow my car and put a dent in the bumper... And he would start chasing after girls (and If I read the cards right he's going to be chased around quite often too!...

Fifty local residents protest the building of a temple by marching with a bloodied cow's head. They want to march in protest? Fine, it is their right. I would probably do the same if I felt extremely provoked in some way, over an issue that was important to me. Marching with a severed cow's head? Stupid, irresponsible, uncouth, insensitive, moronic, and totally idiotic. The very fact that these protesters chose to desecrate the religious symbol of another race and religion shows how small minded, how provincial, how insensitive they are of basic respect among human beings, especially in a country such as ours. Don't they realise that they have desecrated something holy to other people? Don't they realise that this action is the same as a group of Hindus marching through the streets, protesting the building of a mosque, with a burnt Quran in hand??? It is an act of open aggression. An act of open war. Is this how we would like others to treat us? Does the rule to do unto...

Somehow, there's a magical draw to this place... When I want work done I sit here. Pay RM6 extra for coffee than I would in any other place. Pay RM5 extra for pastry than I would in any other place. Sit in plush chairs which are would make an office ergonomist cringe while hunched over, doing work that I could as easily do at the office. Listen to bad jazz music that should have died 50 years ago blaring out of the loudspeakers. And yet, here I am... hunched over, doing my work, while drinking overpriced coffee... eating an overpriced, overcooked croissant...with butter and jam... I must be daft...

Yasmin Ahmad dies at age 51. A spark of light, extinguished in the blink of an eye. As famous as she was for her films, there is not one of them that I have fully seen from beginning until the end. I do not know her for her films. Instead, I knew her more for her opinions and how she stood by her convictions, no matter how heavy the opposition may be. Like and indomitable island against on onslaught of tidal waves she stood, firm and unwavering. And yet, she too was human, and as such vulnerable to all human weaknesses. A testament, and a reminder to all, that no matter how bright a candle may burn to illuminate the darkness, when it reaches the end, it fades out and dies. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow - William Shakespeare Rest in Peace Yasmin.

Image credit here It's a Saturday.. And I have only just finished invigilating the Special Examinations for the First Year students.. Funny thing is, the exam season is over... And they had already taken this exam before... So why am I here invigilating an exam, when exam season is over, and the students had already taken this paper before, when it is a Saturday where I should be resting at home? Ladies & gentlemen, welcome to the record-setting blunder of the century (as far as my department goes). I am not a liberty to divulge any details, but suffice to say something happened that made the validity of the exams questionable. And so it goes, the students had to resit the paper again...all 2000-odd students from the entire First Year cohort of the entire University... Setting a record indeed. What I had seen these past 2 months has indeed been a test of courage against adversity against many malignant forces, with true integrity shown by the few chosen people... The implicatio...