The Reader

No tazkirah today

My apologies to my regular readers of Friday Tazkirah.I am now at my kampung to attend Kenduri Kawin my niece.InsyaAllah I will continue next week.
I don't have pc with me and no Internet connection at my mother's house.I blog this using my Treo680.

16% rise in deaths on KL roads

The figure of 16% is shocking!

When I read this newspapers report as shown below,my mind flashed back to what I have seen a week ago on the roads-right in front of me.As I was about to release my brake when the traffic light on my side turned green,I was shocked to see taxi,bus and motor-cycle still passing in front of me.While travelling on NSE, as I came to Kajang exit, I saw two motor-cycles were racing against one another.The rode their machines like a snake being hit by a stick-competing with one another and showing off to us.On another occasion in my own neighbourhood(about 3km from KLCC), I saw a pillion-rider changed placed with the rider of a moto-bike while their machine is moving.Real stunning show for me!

The evil in me said these people wished to die,let them...but sometimes I du'a so that Allah change their attitude.What was reported below is all true and I am the witness on KL roads everyday.

16% rise in deaths on KL roads

By STEVEN DANIEL

KUALA LUMPUR: The city saw 78 road users killed in 77 accidents in the first four months of this year, a 16.4% rise over that in the corresponding period last year. Motorcyclists accounted for 51 deaths, or 65% of the total.

City traffic police chief Asst Comm Abdul Wahab Abdul Rahman said most of the road deaths were the result of serious head injuries.

He attributed the higher fatalities to the negative, reckless attitude of motorcyclists, and their love of speed.

“Motorcyclists love to ride dangerously and to speed through red lights (at road junctions). They have no regard for the safety of other road users,” he said after launching a road safety campaign together with Pos Malaysia and the Kuala Lumpur traffic police on Tuesday.

Another Black Beauty?

The salesman told me that this black N82 has arrived in Kuala Lumpur about two weeks ago.I have read about it and later visited the Nokia Kiosk to get the feel of it.It was nice to hold and looks great  as well.

Yesteday,I consulted my friend PipsGuy who has been using metallic N82 for some time.He recommended me to buy this phone if I ever need a new mobile phone.The price is RM1999.00

Talking about mobile phones,I got a shock when I visited Pertama Complex a week ago.There were so many kiosks selling all kinds of phones.I just wonder how many can they sell when more than 80% Malaysians already have mobile phones! I know some of my friends have more than one phone.And that included yours truly.And some people change their phones every quarter.

Why then I write about this phone? Honestly,I love to have it because it is operating using Symbian S60 3rd Edition that would enable me to use a few Web 2.0 applications that I enjoy using them.Only time will tell how long I could resist the temptations;-)

By the way, most likely I won't be able to update this blog regularly  for the next one week because I will be back at my kampung tomorrow.However, I will try to use my mobile phone to blog and also update my Tweeter.(a microblog located on the top right of this page).

Here is the link to a review by a retired tech guru.

Cycling to Olympic

I took my helmet off to Encik Mohammed Adnan  Osman for taking the great challenge to cycle from KL to China, a distance of 8000km alone! I am 10 year younger than him and yet could not afford to cycle from KL to Putrajaya.

I was told cycling is a good exercise for older citizens like me because it has less harmful effect on our knees/joints. That is why I bought a new mountain bike a few months to motivate my to go cycling.

By the way,you can read the full story here.I hope Encik Mohammed Adnan's cycling journey is reported on the web so that I could read his journal.

The photo is cut/paste from Utusan Malaysia.

The devils..

As they say in project management, the devils are in the details.The photo on the right is the roof of KLIA seen if you were sitting having expensive teh tarik and nasi lemak.If we were to tele-focus our sight through a telescopic lense using our camera,we could see more intricate details that make you wonder! Well, it is just a roof, but this one is no ordinary roof that may require complex mathematics like eigenvalues and eigenvectors for structural analysis.

I was informed that when Australia mooted the idea to build its landmark the Sydney Opera House, the engineering knowledge of that day was not adequate for such a complex plate design.Nowadays,computing capability and ability are not a problem.The limit is our own ingenuity.That is where the word engineer came from.(the word ingenuity).Sadly, I see less and less ingenuity from my engineering fraternity!

Grand old trees...

I think everyone can guess where I snapped this photo.Just look at those majestic trees.If someone were crazy enough to cut a few of these trees,I think the whole population of Taiping will come looking to hang him upside down! The big flame of the forest trees remind me of my school days at SDAR,Tanjung Malim,Perak.The big one is still there next our assembly hall.

Many,many years ago(early 80's), I  became so angry with the headmaster who cut down a big 'jembal' tree at the entrance of my primary school.And opposite the road is my house.The area under the tree was MY playground.The HM ordered the tree to be cut down to give way for a new concrete fence to erected and at that time I was working in JKR Alor Setar.When I came home during school holidays,the tree was gone!The tree took away the landmark of my childhood memories and I have not forgiven him yet until today.In retropective, I should have created a rumour that a big 'hantu raya'(ghost) is living on that tree.Then, nobody will dare to chop it down.

When I was the district engineer of JKR Pasir Mas,Kelantan in late 70's,one of my workers went out to cut   a few trees  around the Town Padang of Pasir Mas that got in the way of our road widening programme.The next day,I got a call from a senior officer of state government and he gave me a piece of his mind why JKR  should NOT cut down the trees.He told me that he used to play under that those trees that were chopped down .My workers wanted to do the easy away like the HM of my primary school.With some efforts and a little ingenuity,some big old trees could have been saved.

What goes round comes around!

Similarly, we should also be careful with grand old man...

Below is a better picture of The Lake Garden:

alhadi64 said 2 yrs ago at my flickr:

bro adib, u hv done justice to the serene lake gardens - tq on behalf of all tay-pain folks

Twitter about books

Have you joined the twitter community? If you do, you are welcome to follow me here where I post short messages about books I love to have and  what books I am reading now.You can read other interesting usage of Twitter here and here.Are you a productive reader?This is a must read so that we can benefit from our reading.Please click here.
 

Verily,this is My way..

Last month our guru Prof Dr Hashim Minhat, discussed at length about the weakening power of the muslim ummah in our country.One of the ayats he quoted is:

[6:153] Verily, this is My Way leading straight: follow it; follow not (other) paths: they will scatter you about from His (great) Path; thus doth He command you, that ye may be righteous.
[6:153] Dan bahawa sesungguhnya inilah jalanKu (agama Islam) yang betul lurus, maka hendaklah kamu menurutnya dan janganlah kamu menurut jalan-jalan (yang lain dari Islam), kerana jalan-jalan (yang lain itu) mencerai-beraikan kamu dari jalan Allah, Dengan yang demikian itulah Allah perintahkan kamu, supaya kamu bertakwa.

If we had chosen to deviate from His Way, and suffered the consequences of our decisions and actions,then we are the ones to be blamed and must be accountable for them.We must realise and accept our mistakes and have a recovery plan to The Right Path.Talking without any plan and actions will lead us nowhere.This applies to the nation and well as to our individual lives.

All choked up

The photo on the rigt is taken from the Star about the river Sg Kayu Ara-All  choked up by all and sundry.This is no news  at all to me.It has been like that for years and until and unless someone do something about it,it only can get worse.

Water and land matters belong to the state government.Remember the song-Love Our Rivers?
IMHO,we have enough llaws and regulations but what is missing is the enforcement of these laws and regulations by the authorities.We water engineers have discussed at length about the Intergrated River Basin Management and proposal have been submitted.LUAS was formed in Selangor but I have yet to see something positive happening.

I have seen a very good example of waterways management/maintenance in Holland.If nothing is done,many of our rivers will dead in a few decades and we have to travel to Europe to see and enjoy clean rivers.

It is the political will!
I rest my case.

Walking shoes #2

To me comfort comes first,price comes second and the others like style and fashion come later.Last week,my casual  walking shoes went kaput.The pair of shoes have served me well for more than five years and it is time I get a new ones.Before I talk about my shoes,I must thank Allah swt for the pair of legs that I have been walking on for the last 55 years of my life.It is not like  the tyres of my car or bicycles that I need to replace every 2 or 3 years!This reminds me of the appointment with my orthopedic surgeon( who is also my schoolmate) when I complained of my knee problem.The good doctor asked me to look out of the window from his clinic and show him any cars that passed through with tyres more than 50 years old.We had  good laughs and I felt grateful that I still have two legs to walk on.My cousin,who is a one year older than me,is walking on one artificial leg because one of his legs had to be amputated due to diabetes.Last weekend,I attended a wedding and saw a man pushing his wife in her wheel chair.What if it were me sitting on the wheel chair pushed by my wife?Thank you my Lord for the legs that still could carry 75kg around KL...

I need to stop a while for my breakfast.Will continue later..

Where was I? Okay,it is about my new walking shoes..

I used to wear buy Larrie shoes for my business wear when I was in my 30's.That was a long time ago....Then my interest fell on Clark and Hush Puppy for their comfort but when it comes to fashion,I prefer other brands.

First, the advertisement really caught me.These copy writers at the AD Agencies are really great.They knew what to say to capture our attention and touch  our feelings.No wonder I heard that these good copy writers are earning 5-figure a month!The ad was so appealing to me that I immedately snapped it with my smart phone as shown on top right.It says," Angkor Wat Explorer"...and the shoes were sitting on a map of the ruins of Angkor Wat.That looked great to me..Below it is the a photo of my good loyal old shoes.

I asked for my size 9 and walked with the new shoes.They are light,soft and comfortable as casual walking shoes and not for jogging.The price was not cheap and but reasonable.If it could lasts for  5 years like the previous one,it only cost me about 10 sen per day.And 10 sen per day to protect my feet is a really good investment.

So, gentlemen,buy a good pair of shoes and walk while you can..