My Trusted Friend...

3X says "You all must be wondering what is that box? If you take a closer look, you will see that is actually a PC.... yes thats my trusted personal computer... and its a full functioning PC. Its a Pentium 3 700mhz with 512mb ram, 40gb hard disk, with Geforce2MX card, and ethernet and firewire card. All the components are encased inside that box. The openings for the power supply and other connectors are cut using a pen-knife. Click here for a bigger picture.

All the family, wedding, vacation videos, images and blog programmings I have ever produced, are all designed and created with this pc. Contrary to some beliefs, I do not own a pentium 4 with a gigazillion megahertz processor. While I have people asking me about what latest processor or PC components to use, I always wonder what they intend to use with it. My advice has always been, unless you intend to play intensive 3D games (such as Quake 4 or Doom 3) there's absolutely no need to spend on expensive upgrades. But do they listen.... of course no.

I have a friend who is of middle income and soul-bread winner, who ask me to upgrade his PC and he wants the fastest and most powerfull. He has an old pc, and said its useless. He followed me to Sim Lim, and together we bought the components that I recommended to him. At the end of the day, after spending over thousand of dollars to upgrade his PC, I assembled it for him, and set it up at his house. His sons who are Primary 3 and 5 were excited with the new PC. After connecting it to the Internet, I showed him this blog. He and his sons, immediately said they want to make something like this, and said now they can finally do it, because now they have a powerfull PC. I told them their old pentium 3 pc (733mhz) is faster than my pc (700mhz).... they looked at me.... with mouths open... My friend asks am I joking? I said its true, I do not need a gigazillion PC, all that I want to do, I can do with my P3, and it does what I want. Then he ask me about the video editing work or creating images, reports or presentations, I told him all done using my trusted P3.

My friend clearly doesn't know what he wants, he only assumes faster/expensive/bigger means better. In some sense it holds true for some things, but if you ask me... size does not matter... its what you know what to do, with what you have.

Spell this - 'Schizophrenicmegalomaniac'

Iman says "yuu..enn..aii..eff...ooo..arrr...emmm - uniform, phheewww, susahlah spelling-spelling ni. Ape bende makna 'uniform' tu, agaknya nama cartoon tak? Hafal aje tapi tak tahu apa meaning...macam takde meaning. Ada lagi satu word tu 'Exhibition' - tak tahu lansung ape binatang tu???"

Nadhirah says "Abang Iman kan kalau belajar abah kena puji dia rabak-rabak baru dia boleh hafal. Asyik kena puji "Good!...Very Good!!!...Good Boy!!" baru dia ada motivation untuk belajar. Betul pun good! salah pun good! haiii...nyampah!"

Juliana says "Eh Nadhirah jealous pulak? Abah terpaksalah eksyen puji-puji dia kalau tidak dia malas nak belajar. Lagi puji makin bersemangat dia nak belajar, kalau tidak mata dia asyik kat TV aje, tengok kartoon. Jun pulak takde orang nak ajar, mentang-mentang kita pandai sikit...hehehe.. perasan"

Yati says "Jun belajar oklah, dah pandai baca, spelling pun cepat hafal, maklumlah orang pompuan, so pandailah sikit dari orang lelaki...hehehe. Takpelah kita support sikit Iman, as long dia nak belajar dah kira bagus. Tapi si dia ni masih pelupa, kadang-kadang sapu tangan dia atau pencil, rubber, pen dia pergi mana tak tahu... tertinggal kat class lah tu."

3X says "....aku dulu Primary 4 baru tahu baca......"

Spelling

Yati says "Foolamak!!! Ajar si Iman ni spelling boleh pengsan. Tapi actually tak salahkan dia jugak, spelling-nya susah betul. Tak sampai sebulan sekolah dah kena spelling test. Words-nya pulak tu panjang-panjang, kesian jugak tengok dia perah otak untuk hafal."

3X says "Aku rasa macam nak cekik-cekik teacher dia yang kasi spelling ni. Wording nya panjang-panjang. Exhibition, Uniform, Neighbour, Exciting, ada 10 words pulak tu. During my time, Dogs, Cats, House, Ball... lepas tu main colour-colour dan main plastercine kat class. I personally feel its not right, putting so much stress on a very young mind. What I do not want to do now is to pressure him, so how many or how little he can memories its ok, even if he can't and he get zero for spelling, its fine by me."

Akademic Fantasia 4

(click kat button Play untuk view video)
The singing debut of Juliana Rizal
dengan lagunya - Matahari oleh Amuk

Juliana says "Hello... apalah abah ni taruk video kita tengah karaoke kat rumah, malulah. Kitakan kengkawan, sampai naik hafal lagu Amuk, especially 'Matahari' dan 'Aku mahu pulang'. Abah selalu buka lagu Amuk dan XPDC kat kereta, dan kita orang semua nyanyi sama-sama. Nadhirah kan dia minah Metal pasal dia suka lagu 'Biru Mata Hitamku'. kengkadang dia nyanyi sendiri, lagu betul tapi lyrics kita orang tak faham lansung. Iman pulak kengkadang metal dengan lagu 'Haprak' dari XPDC, kengkadang dia metal kentalan pulak, nyanyi lagu 'Gugurnya Bunga Cinta' dari Laksmana, dan bila dia nyanyi kaki dia mesti goyang-goyang macam pop yeh-yeh, kelakar seram seh."

Iman First Day of School

(click kat button Play untuk view video)


Iman says "Ni kan video kita punya experience dari gunting rambut kat kedai dan kita punya first day of school. Kita happylah pergi sekolah, seronok habis. Kita pergi dan balik naik van ke sekolah. Oh ye, name sekolah kita Si Ling Primary School dan kita class Teamwork One."

Yati says "We are proud of him, sikit pun takde rasa takut atau menangis, tapi sebaliknya, dia punya tak sabar nak pakai baju sekolah dan nak pergi sekolah. Its like his energy goes up ten times. Tapi dia ni suka tertinggalkan barang, first day aje, lepas turun van dia lupa nak bawak beg sekali...hehehe. Lepas tu second day, buku dia ada missing, sampai teacher pun tanya kita mana buku dia, mesti tertinggal somewherelah tu."

3X says "Nasib baiklah dia ni tak macam aku, pergi sekolah first day melalak macam nak apa, buat susah arwah mak dulu. Dulu terbayang jugak, kalau dah ada anak, mesti ada yang ikut perangai aku pergi sekolah nangis, so far Juliana dan Iman tak macam gitu, tapi cannot speak too soon, tengok si Nadhirah pulak macam mana."

WE ARE PROUD OF YOU IMAN! YOU ARE THE MAN!

Face that make me happy

- A Face I Could Look At, All Day Long -
My Princess

Weekend Happening

Iman says "Hari sabtu lepas kita ada family gathering kat Costa Sands Resort. Hari sabtu tu actually first day lah, tapi kita overnight, pasal katil satu aje. Actually cuma ada barbeque keledek aje, tapi alang-kepalang ayam pun dibeli oleh maketon untuk bbq sekali. Wakdir, bik, kakyan family, dan kaketi ada sekali. Wak Atid family pun ada, dan juga abah punya favourite cucu-sedara, Ilham. Abah happy dapat lepas rindu kat baby cute tu... cepatlah mama buat lagi satu, abah tengah kempunan tu...hehehe"

Nadhirah says "Malam tu kita tengok cik Pon pt2 pun cerita, semua orang terpekik-pekau tengok babak-babak terperanjat. Abah cakap cerita-nya bukan seram sangat, pasal lama-lama ceritanya macam cerita Kung-fu aje. Lepas kita makan-makan kita balik rumah, dan keesokan hari-nya datang lagi."

Juliana says "Esok hari-nya kita datang balik, pagi-pgai dah pergi main bowling. Abah dan mama menang, actually mama punya scorelah yang buat menang 110 (2nd place), abah cuma 99 aje. Lepas tu kak mai ajak kita masuk WildWildWet - Thanks kak Mai! pasal dia ada voucher discount untuk masuk satu family. Seronoklah kita dapat swimming dengan muhd, danish, sabryna, cik ad, kak atiq dan kak wani. Macam tak nak keluar, tapi kena paksa keluar pasal ada game amazing race pulak."

Yati says "Lepas budak-budak mandi kita join game Amazing Race, team kita Abg Atid, Faiz, me and my hubby. Lari punya lari kepenatan betul. Kita ingat game-nya macam kat TV tu, siapa sampai dulu boleh menang, kita pun berlari sana-sini untuk kejarkan time (7pm), pasal kita takut kena disqualified kalau lebih dari timing. Kita sampai 2nd lepas mai family, ingatkan bolehlah dapat no.2 atau 3, sekali keputusan-nya no.6.... hmmm pilu... kalau tahu tak kena potong markah atau disqualified pasal lambat, tak payahlah susah-susah lari. Anyway thanks kepada sesiapa yang vote kan untuk blog kita. Actually semua blog bagus dan ada kelebihan yang tersendiri."

Special Shout-Out to Kak Eton pasal Sup Tulang the best in the World. Tak pernah kita rasa Sup Tulang sesedap itu. POWER!!!

Amazing Woman!

3X says "This is about an Amazing Woman who ran, despite her bad back and bad knees. She ran as fast as she could and she drove, all in the name of a game, minus the one million dollars. I am so proud of her tenacity and endurance, thinking back it would bring tears to my eyes. Never throughout my marriage have I seen her ran so fast and so much, all because we thought timing matters, as it turns out, getting back first or second means nothing.

I was useless, apart from driving, I have no idea of the clues and little energy to run, I was pretty much behind the wheel all the way (those of you who met us, always saw me stay back with the car right?), while the brainwork and legwork goes to my team-mates of Abang Atid, Faiz and Yati. Abang Atid and Faiz were fast runners, once I stopped the car, together with the men she ran out and caught up with them. I don't have the heart to tell her to take it easy, she was totally in the competitive zone. When she came back breathless, never once did she complained. Even the guys were worried about her.

When the results were announced, we came in second last, my heart immediately broke for her and abang atid. We were caught by surprised by how badly we did. Nevertheless its just a game. The real important thing is all four of us had the best time, we laughed all the way, we had fun, we had a good vascular exercise, we had a memorable time. For me it was the best time I had with my wife, my brother and my nephew.

Kudos to everyone who took part, at first I was apprehensive about everyone's enthusiasm, but as soon as the whistle blow, everyone had pure adrenalin. At the kuil, I saw Iskandar, atiqa and hakim ran to the car, and then iskandar ram the car as fast as he could out of the car park, power!!! Kudos too to Herman, despite having a pregnant wife and 2 senior citizens still manage to finish the race before time. Heard that even KakNgah went up the stairs of the old changi hospital...power!!! I saw Atiq and Kak idah ran at the Meriam place, and then measuring the length of the meriam with her arms, as she saw abg atid doing it... that's amazing!

To my wife, you constantly surprise me with your abilities, strength and character. I am so in awe of you and proud of you. You are my winner and You Are My Superwoman, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me be your husband. You're the Greatest!