20 Ramadhan : italic

Alhamdulillah thumma alhamdulillah.

All prayers be to Allah swt.

We are entering the Final 10 Days of Ramadhan 1441H. 
The most quiet, slow Ramadhan I ever had in 30 years of living.
No iftar outside or in masjid (where we people miss the most T_T)
No iktikaf  or masjid hopping.

There is one statement from Imam Omar Suleiman in one of his trailer vid,
"While the doors of masajids (masjid) are closed, the doors of Allah's mercy is never close"

Subhanallah!
May we will always be reminded that Allah swt is Ever Existing.
Pre, During and Post Ramadhan <3 p="">
Something happened today that reminded me of all sayings; especially on efforts and success. As mentioned by Winston Churchill,
"Success always demands a greater effort".

Wow.
We can never type or write these until we succeed >.<

The story begins when my forever Sony red laptop of 11 years (est 2009) demands for a swap, I guess? I prepared almost EVERYTHING in this precious laptop. And to my known, it was only once this laptop has entered Sony Service Center. It becomes ancient, I know. The battery itself needs to be charged while using :D

It was during my viva session last December. Bayangkan you have prepared everything; those journals, revised versionssss of thesis, and slides (!!!!) dalam laptop ni, tiberrrrr 15 minutes before my session started, the screen became haywired.

Nothing. Projected. From. My. Laptop.

Rasanya kalau aku ni jenis kalut and menggelabah tak terkawal memang dah cuaks la.
Tapi sebab nak present agaknya, then my external examiners were already there! Gila betul situasi tu.

So I humbly asked for laptop from the grad school. Nonchalantly.

Mujur la tak bebal sangat buat pendua pentiga dalam email and my one and only free pendrive.

Begitulah ceritanya.

The moments were so humbled.

Then long story short after like 4 months my precious red laptop already repaired thanks to ayah. Now can even type this post using him (laptop) laa :)

Now comes another challenge.
All words in Google Chrome search engine and anything online became italic!!!

Mula-mula macam hmm romantic jugak (lol).
Dah bila start buat kerja rasa rimas la pulak! Semua senget dan bila nak guna italic dah tak tau dah applied ke belum -.-"

So I googled!

Rasanya throughout (half) of this PKP/MCO or whenever I try to use this laptop to carry out work aku akan search macam mana nak fix this problem! Sampai rasa jadi IT person, tak masuk coding je lagi nak ejah.

Alhamdulillah again. (And like always) Allah tolong.

Aku terjumpa this thread. Aku sebenarnya memang tak percaya sangat thread2 ni macam quora ke whatnot. But tak tahu benda ni bukan top on search engine pun just click2 here and there.

So, aku guna jugak la C:\Windows tu....

Alhamdulillah all fixed!

Aku siap copy dalam diary just in case it happens again in the future. 

So mula-mula most of the searches suggested that the Roboto font was disrupted. So dia tak boleh baca and becomes italic.

Memang ada la beberapa kali aku download Roboto pack tu. Ergh.

And suddenly, aku try for Arial pulak.
Then betullah, it was Arial yg problematic. Not Roboto.

So bila font tu disrupted, or faulty, system tak boleh baca. Tu yg jadik Arial Italic semua benda.

Subhanallah, bagusnya la hai yang belajar IT and system ni kan.
Cabang ilmu yang tak semua pakar. Of course la semua orang ada kepakaran masing masing kan.

Aku akan sujud syukur for this answer :')

Ini antara pelajaran kehidupan la. Yang kita tak mungkin belajar formally in classes, unless you enrol for that SPECIFIC class.

Another one is during baking.

Aku takdelah aktif sangat buat Raya cookies, nak order pun macam siapa je nak makan.
Previously buat beriya pun last-last ada yg buang. 

So this year since tak ada or sangat sikit tetamu, then we just bake several types of cookies yang mungkin akan makan.

And previously, of course lah kita main buat je kan ikut resepi.

Tahun ni ada la belajar sikit2. Since duduk rumah je so banyak lah masa. 
Contohnya, dulu aku wondering sangat kenapa kena letak cuka dalam chocolate chips cookies?

The acidity in buttermilk is important for helping leaven quick breads, which are made without yeast, and depend on an acid-base reaction to keep breads light and fluffy. 

The acid found in buttermilk reacts to bases — most commonly baking soda — creating carbon dioxide gas. The gas presents itself as small bubbles throughout the batter or dough, giving the quick breads their light, airy structure. 

However, because this chemical reaction is not long lasting, goods made with buttermilk as a leavening agent need to be cooked soon after mixing; otherwise, the bubbles will deflate, leading to heavy, dense-textured foods.
(https://oureverydaylife.com/the-purpose-of-buttermilk-in-baking-12258290.html)

Interesting kan?

Haha macam belajar Sains pulak. Of course la sains makanan.

So ada la baca baca sikit saje nak tambah ilmu tak formal.

Many of us pun mungkin belajar something kan during this MCO? I hope it will helps us or others nanti in the future, if not now.

InsyaAllah.

Don't despair in this MCO. And His Bountiful Mercy.

Lets' keep on learning and putting effort in everything we do insyaAllah, nanti Allah swt balas sebaiknya!

'Till then.

8 Ramadhan 1441.

It has been 44 days of Movement Control Order (MCO) established in Malaysia. 

And today is 8th Ramadhan 1441H. A week has passed like a blink of eye. 

Whatever we are going through at the moment will be scribbled as history, probably in another 50-100 years time. It is when the world is affected by a pandemic COVID-19 and almost all countries around the world experiencing lock down or partial lock down or movement control order like here in Malaysia.

You know just like the Spanish Flu in 1918.

What a deal.

Before that, let me confessed that I just knew the word lockdown from U-Know's Under Armour Ad for winter edition with themed "U-Know Lockdown" earlier this year. Lol.

Sorry tak penting dan menambahkan iman lansung. But seriously aku tak pernah dengar pun perkataan lockdown before ni.

On 18th March, we went through pre-MCO period until 31st March. For some, it was quite a deal since we cannot go to work as usual and such. 

Me myself, a self-proclaimed outgoing person (I guess) was thrived at first. Imagined the freedom of driving was restricted and there were so many road blocks with police. 

Then some of my close friends were asking if I was okay :D

Honestly, it was an adaptation. 

It was like a caffeine withdrawal syndrome. Or maybe like someone who is going through a sugar cutting period.

The first 2-3 days were horrible. It was not that I am anxious about what's going to happen but to stay at home, I mean, working at home, I was distracted most of the time. 

To get my thesis done previously has involved many trips to public uni's libraries. Cafes. And sometimes sneaked into Aqlili's PG room. It was not easy. I am not the type who can stay at home and get my job done. And guess what, I sent in my soft copy of thesis to the grad school at my previous office in Prudential. To that extent.

Well, that was me. Previously.

This MCO has taught me a lot about life.
Basically, it taught us to go back to basics. To look into ourselves, to sound a bit cliche. As a reflection for ourselves.

Especially this year where I just entered 30. 
It was like a "pause" year. 

And I just realized, that is why some people take more times to decide. That is because they are MINDFUL of what they are deciding. 

Mindful. 

And just before MCO, I planned to buy a book entitled "Contemplation".

You see, I was in awe a bit when I ironed out things just now. 

I don't know. I am not THAT busy earlier this year. There were of course things that played around in my mind, especially in job. I did (and sometimes do) felt unsettled with my current job. 

My life. I thought it was just a phase. 

Little did I know that we were going into this period and THAT probably a sign for me to slow down. 

Rain that welcomed 1st Ramadhan.

These are some things that I have learnt so far. Of Day 44 MCO. 

• Every feeling is valid right now. This is what I learnt during early MCO days. Because everyone (myself included) tend to read MORE comments on social media, so we tend to release our own opinion (without being asked lol) and easily bashing other people/party. It was when I realized that the situation kinda accounted for the actions we did. Because not everyone has same coping mechanism, especially towards changes in routine. Some can cope easily while others, it requires time. So we tend to express our feelings easily during these days.
• We tend to reflect ourselves more. There are times where we can easily "escape" from things we don't want to deal. Especially about our well being. Conditions of our hearts. Or family matters. Most of the time (previously) we tend to ignore because we are so busy with other things. Distracted, you see? So during this MCO with every movement were restricted we HAVE TO face the reality, the real condition of our hearts, and we cannot escape from them, now. It is time to mend things out.
• We can "start" to practice mindfulness. I read Raja Sarina's blog on this topic and it hits me every single point she mentioned. All these while, especially when we entered 2020, I do realized that most people and of course including myself, were really distracted most of the time. It was either by too much information (TMI) to be consumed, or haywired, or we kinda have so much to do with so little time (kononnya), so much social media accounts to update with. We tend to procrastinate. We hardly focus in what we are doing. OMG bitter truth right? Spit it out. So this MCO came to rescue of our well being. 
• I read a book called "Seni Berfikir yang Hilang" by Ust Hasrizal Abdul Jamil which was published with the sole intention to teach us on how to build a thinking framework in this TMI world.
• Lessen our time with social medias is helpful. But not everyone has the same coping situations during this time. Some people may have to binge on dramas, let them be. But, lessen our time to read on COVID-19 could help reduce the anxiousness.
• Try to do things that we hardly do during normal weekdays. This is one of the major things that I have learnt and realized during this MCO. I even discussed it with some of my close friends during video call, we always sighed of things that we cannot do because of lack of time. Now is the MCO where we have plenty, bountiful of time but still, we hardly do morning/evening adzkar :(
• Use this precious time to sort out our mind, responsibilities, people in life. It is during this "isolation" time that is best to take some moments and figure out things that are worth our attention. We felt so hectic previously because of uninvited dramas surrounding us. Or probably busy thinking about toxic people that came in and out our everyday lives. Or maybe unnecessary "tasks" that we focus in, and finally distracted to finish our own, real tasks. It is during this time that I feel soothe at its best :D Because of working from home now, I can be myself and ignore unnecessary people to get involve in my life.
• Practice of making lots of good intentions before every task. Before doing every single task, let's put some niyyah in. It is when we are intentional then we are less likely to rush through things. I learnt this from Sarina's blog too! 
• Now is the time to achieve, or to rest. You choose! For some people, they need to have short term goals in order to move forward. So they sign up webinars, countless online classes just to tick the goals off every time. But it truly depends on individual and we are not obliged pun to do so. Again, let them be. Let them eat cake. Gituu. For rest of other people, it is time to heal. To get some rest. Then please do so. Kenapa ayat aku dah macam motivator ceh.
• Now we might don't have freedom to move around, but inside. Of all other things to reflect, I did do some throwbacks to all things that happened before MCO. You know what I misses the most? My precious me-time. My maghrib or isyak session at Masjid al-Hidayah. My short errands to bookstore. My short visits to drink some coffee. My close friends :D my weekend morning at KLCC park, or any other park. Weekend evening strolling in Putrajaya with ibu. Attending usrah. And even traffic jams :D Seriously I missed all of them! Now that I realized I have taken all for granted previously, and you will see on how I will invest my time after this MCO ends. I am so gonna re-live every moment again and ignore all petty issues that kinda stuck in my head. No no no. I will be more selfish with my time after this. 

Well, that is all of major things that I realized. Of course there are millions of other tiny things that I learnt too. I have this aim to publish more post during this Ramadhan and may Allah grant me good ideas and hikmah for me to ponder and share more. 

Phew, this is long enough.

Sorry for the haywire thoughts. I need to read and write more after this. 

'Till then.