I'm in Dubai. Today is Sunday & I'm working. Though we had Friday off and went to a Desert Safari. Best description I can give of it is Roller-coaster ride in the sand dunes in a 4WD. In our case, it was a Landcruiser. I have a new perception of this beast and you can add some degree of respect to that as well. Been here in this beautiful Emirates since last Tuesday (14/12), insya-Allah will be going back today (19/12). Dubai is part of UAE & is one of the 7 emirates making up the UAE. Great place, very modern & cosmopolitan, lots of foreigners, most expensive (?) hotel in the world - Burj al-Arab with lowest room rate of USD3,000 per night, car lovers paradise, desert & sand, sand, sand.



Okay, the sand is from the Desert Safari & interestingly, they are really cool (as in temperature) at night. I was told now is the best time to visit Dubai weather wise.

We are loking for a holiday destination. Local destination. With the monsoon season, east coast is ruled out. The fact that we just went to Fraser's Hill a couple of months ago means a highland breakaway is not what we would like to have. I'm zooming into a beach/island holiday in the west coast.



That or our usual driving holidays. I love that actually but would like to rest this time around.

I was extremely tired and exhausted after the burial. Extremely thirsty as well. It was scorching hot and we were in the middle of the graveyard without any shade. At one stage, when it was really unbearable (at least it felt unbearable then) I was thinking and looking forward to what I'll be doing after that - wash my sticky face, get back to the car, switch-on the air-conditioner to the max, grab some cold drinks on the way home, have a quick shower at home and then take a nap - wonderful. You can say that the forward plan kept me going.



Towards the end of it though, some thoughts struck me and that was worse. What if there's no end to this? What if I'm stuck in this condition in perpetuity? And worse still, I'll be fully conscious and aware of the whole thing. Isn't that what life after death is all about, in one extreme? Wish not to me.

My uncle passed away a couple of weeks ago. Heart attack. I still think of the meaning of life and death that I learned on that day. You come, you go. Sometimes without any warning. Prepared for it? Fear it? You cannot run or avoid it.

I had to sleep on a chair the other day. Yup, 1 full night on a chair. As it happened, it was a wheel chair. Definitely uncomfortable but the memories that it brought were worse.



It reminded me of the last time I slept on a chair. That was last year & eventhough it's been more than a year, it still hurts. Not the back-pain that is still there and lurks out whenever I sit in certain ways, not the stiff neck, not the cold, not the rainy night when a group of doctor, nurses and some other guys rushed into the room checking the flooding floor, not even the plastic chair I nearly fell from. No, none of those. The pain is inside from seeing my dearest in her condition then. I couldn't even sleep well then though I always pretended to sleep whenever the nurse came to do their 3 hourly checks.



Bad episode. Hopefully, no more.

My kids love fast-food outlets. McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut - you name it, they love it. In fact, I've concluded long ago that if McDonald's and gang are to serve plain rice with salt-water, that would be acceptable to my kids who simply ignore their mum's cooking most of the time. We are talking of nasi tomato (it's not white & too many black things in it), ayam masak merah ('pedas' even when only tomato ketchup was used in the cooking), sausages (too hard/soft, it's cracked, too hot, too cold) etc.



Anyhow, nearly all our trips would be filled with 'suggestions' like, "Abah, let's go to McDonald's", "Abah, I'm hungry. Can we go to Pizza Hut?", "Abah, when we go to KFC, what should I order?" (BTW, the last one came up without me ever mentioning KFC during the trip).



Last week, I started becoming very cooperative. We went to McDonald's and at the point of paying, I asked them to give me their 'duit raya' & we paid their meals with their duit raya. You should see the expressions on their faces.



The next day, I offered them for a change. "Shall we go to McDonald's?" & quickly came the reply, "Are you paying with your money or OUR money?".



"Your's of course."



"No, I don't want to go then."



Peace at last when I'm driving.

'Duit Raya', the wonderful thing of raya. BTW, to the non-Malaysians out there, Duit Raya is the gift to children (usually) in the form of cash (not big amount, mind you) during Hari Raya (I'll explain that some other time, I think you would have realised that it is some form of a celebration).



This year, all my 3 kids got duit raya, from nearly everyone. Some points I've made mental notes of regarding this;



1. They like the wrapper/envelope more than the content, until they are 5 years or older.



2. Whenever I gave duit raya to other people's kids, my own kids expect me to give them again. Had to reeducate them on this, though my 4 year old who has not concept of past and future disagreed with me.



3. It's better for you to keep their duit raya for them as otherwise, you'll be the insurance company in case they lose it. Somehow, they've made the agreement with you (bought the insurance policy).



4. It's better if you let them keep their duit raya, otherwise their total amount is always more than whatever it is you've got (even when you definitely did not touch the money). Though you have to consider this with point 3 above.



5. Whenever they want to buy something, they will 'use' their duit raya, but whenever you've bought them THE something, you've used your own money.



6. Their duit raya is magical, it will never run-out and mind you, it can buy anything & that is anything at all, a yoyo, a candy, an ice-cream, a skateboard, roller blades, a doll, a bicycle, a house, a speedboat, a space shuttle, the ocean, the moon, the sun.... got the idea.

Raya is over. For this year that is. However, the mood is still in the air. I was at a friend's place yesterday when a group of 3 kids came over to 'beraya'. A surprise for me as this only happens on the 1st day of Raya where I come from. 2nd and 3rd raya maybe but definitely not on the 15th 'raya'. But then again, it's better than hanging around doing nothing for the kids and it definitely makes economic sense for them. Where and when else can you just go around the the neighbourhood and get fed some cookies and 'sirap' for nothing and to top it up, some crispy RM as well. And if you are lucky, you might even get the unbreakable, state of the art, polymer note. BTW, it was such a big thing for my dad until I told him that Australia has had all her notes in polymer for decades, not to mention our neighbour, the Philippines (I think so - one of those countries I visited a few months back).



Back to the kids and 'beraya'. My kids had a great raya this year. After years being in a foreign land where raya is unknown to 99% (at least that's how it seems) of the populations & never having received 'duit raya' before, this year is definitely a 'raya' to remember. Though after the second day, my 4 year old started to decline 'duit raya' - 'I have enough' especially if the envelope looks the same. The 'task' that he has to do to qualify him for the 'duit raya' must be unbearable by then, 'salam' and saying the magic words. Too much for a 4 year old after 2 days and all you get for it is the same old envelope with 'duit' inside - whatever it is for. Never need it anyway.

surat khabar lama....

surat khabar lama...

What was that? Well, having been in touch with a lot of doctors this past year or so (btw, I've got more than 10 doctors' contact details in my mobile phone) and I like what they do. Why? a number of reasons but most importantly is I'm bored of my current job. What a 'reason' to become a doctor isn't it? Well, you have to understand why I'm bored with my current job & what is it that I see in being a doctor that led to this. We'll look at both the former and latter.



Because I'm bored of my current job, I'm not even going to talk about it. That's it.



As for what I see in being a doctor is the ability to make a difference to another human being's life (maybe sometimes, non-human's as well) almost instantaneously. No, I'm not saying, curing happens instantenously. Seen enough to know better. But the perceived caring and the comfort that is provided by a doctor to a patient is just wonderful. You've made a difference to that person. huh.... with the exception of that @#$F$D so-called doctor that did not even look at my face when I spoke to him. Sorry for the side-track, maybe I talk about @#$F$Dthat some other time.



Where was I. Yeah, about making a difference to that person. About making it easier for that person to go about his/her day(s). Of providing hope in what seems to be a dark future, murky at best. Of taking the time to listen and have the ability to respond, with the right (hopefully) response. I think that is great. I would love to be able to do that.



Yeah...yeah...yeah.... I can hear your thought (didn't I tell you that I'm a part-time psychic as well). What about the world. What about the hungry children. What about the dolphins. What about other people... you just made a difference to one. One out of billions. Read about the star-thrower, say I.

Sometimes I wonder what am I doing at work. Lots of travelling, getting tired of hotel rooms and airports. But then again, I was told that there will be hundred of others who would just love to do what I am doing now.



I've decided that unless you've been through it, travelling is always perceived as a novelty. But in reality, it is just plain tiring and in some cases, counter-productive.

I'm bored. Off to Jakarta, Indonesia next week. Work, what else. Will be spending a week there. If there's any suggestion of what to do, look at, pls drop me a line. BTW, enough of the scary stuff. Don't go, it's dangerous... bla...bla...bla...



This weekend is something else though. Planning to spend the weekend in Fraser Hill. Managed to get a 2 rooms colonial bungalow for the weekend. Looking forward to it DESPITE the rainy weather. Will be fun.

"You can buy people's presence at a given place and their physical activity but you cannot buy enthusiasm , you cannot buy devotion of their hearts. That is what you must earn"

13705287.



What a wonderful world.

I just landed on earth. Back after more than 6 months sojourn. Things are looking great. The planet is still alive & I saw on my way in that the hole in the sky has shrunk a bit. Must be some fluke. Imagine this, a sphere on top of the tip of a pyramid with 100 wheels (the pyramid that is). Got it? Take your time.... yup, that's my vision. Of what? You'll find out.



Things are looking great. Been doing tonnes of travelling. Interesting & definitely eye-opening. Will talk more about my travelling here soon. Maybe some photos too.

Explanation of Fourth Dimension





Introduction:







You have probably heard people refer to the fourth dimension before but maybe you weren't sure what they mean by it. Well, first lets remember that we live in 3 dimensional space. How do we know? - We have three directions of free movement:







1.) Left/Right



2.) Back/Forth



3.) Up/Down







Because we have three possible directions, it will take three values to describe the position of any point (x,y,z). In two dimensions, we only need two points: (x,y). In three dimensions, I could tell you to go forward 8 feet, right 12 feet, then you reach a rope. Climb up the rope 6 feet. Notice that each of these three directions are perpendicular to each other... That means that any of the directions is its own and not combined of any of the other directions. That means I can go forward or backward all I want but I won't be going left or right, nor up or down. So if we were to consider a fourth dimension (x,y,z,t), it would have to be a new perpendicular direction in addition to the three directions we have free movement in.









Considering the Fourth Dimension:







Often it is helpful to visualize the way dimensions increase when considering the fourth dimension. Examine the chart on the right. Notice that the zero dimension is represented by a point, 1 dimensions is represented by a line, and 2 dimensions is represented by a square. When we try to express three dimensions on a flat surface, like your computer screen, we draw two squares and diagonal lines connecting the vertices. It represents a cube, but it is not actually a cube. So perhaps when we draw a 4 dimensional cube, we can draw two cubes and connect the diagonal vertices. That figure is called a hypercube. Keep in mind that trying to express a 4 dimensional hypercube on a 2 dimensional surface is not very helpful. But it at least helps you understand the kind of progression going on. Visualizing 4th dimensional objects is not important if you merely want do some simple computations. For instance, in 3 dimensions, the volume of a sphere is 4/3(pi)r^3, however the hypervolume of a 4 dimensional hypersphere is determined by 1/2(pi^2)r^4.







Using Analogy to understand the 4th dimension:







Since it is hard to try to directly picture the fourth dimension in our minds, perhaps using analogy can help us. In 1884, Edwin Abbot wrote a book called "Flatland". The book writes about A. Square and his world, Flatland. You may have already guessed, but Flatland is a 2 dimensional, flat plane and A. Square is a square shaped guy who lives there. He has two dimensions of free movement. He can go left/right and back/forth, however because he is restricted to his 2 dimensional Flatland plane, he cannot go up/down off the plane. By analogy, we humans are restricted to our "plane" of existence... and it would be impossible for us to freely move in the fourth dimension. Let's go back to A. Square again. Note that A. Square can only see what lies in his plane of existence, which means if a 3 dimensional sphere were to pass through Flatland, A. Square would not see the sphere, but just 2 dimensional "slices". Taking this further, imagine if a sphere passed halfway through Flatland but stopped in the middle. the sphere would interesect Flatland as just one circle and A. Square could see it! Furthermore, imagine if as the sphere approaches Flatland, A. Square watches as the sphere slowly moves through his plane. What would A. Square see? Recall that A. Square can only see 2-d slices of the sphere (or circles) so what A. Square would percieve is a circle suddenly appearing, then growing... then reaching a maximum size as the sphere was halfway through and as it exited, the circle would grow smaller until it disappeared. This means that 3d objects could be explained to a 2d being as a bunch of "slices stacked" on top of each other. Try to imagine taking a bunch of circles and stacking them. They would begin to form a skeleton framework of the actual 3d image. Similarly if a 4d hypersphere would intersect our plane of existence, we would see a 3d sphere appear out of no where. It would grow until the hypersphere was halfway through, then it would shrink back to nothing. Theoretically, we could stack these spheres to form a hypersphere, but we can't stack them in the usual sense, but rather it would have to extend in the fourth dimension which takes us back to the original dilemma of trying to visualize it.







Some more curiousities:







If we look down upon a square in a flat, 2d plane, we can see the entire object a single glance. Only one perspective is needed. In fact, we could place our finger inside the object without touching the sides. This would be a profound feat for A. Square, a creature inhabiting Flatland. His house is one big square and he can't just put his finger in the middle of the house without first "entering" through a door on one of the sides. Analogously, fourth dimensional beings have the ability to visualize an entire cube at one glance. Humans can only visualize one half the cube at any given second. Also, four dimensional beings could easily put their finger inside a closed cube without penetrating its sides. Other curiousities involve mirror images. Imagine A. Square again. But now, lets pick him up off Flatland and put him back into the plane upside down. He would now be the mirror image of his old self. It is a bit tricky to imagine a human becoming a mirror image of themself since we are unfamiliar with the fourth dimension rotation needed.







Conclusions:







Ultimately, it is best to think of the fourth dimension analogously. Considering that the 3rd dimension is a "new direction" to A. Square, we realize that the 4th dimension is a kind of new direction to us. To say that we don't have free access to it, it not to say we are in no way effected by it. This website in some ways, attempts to find possible connections. Consider what Einstein said about the fourth dimension.

I was wrong, a 1-D shape is a straigt line - 'infinitely' thin, I think.

Another one that came up two nights ago & I think this is really interesting + I had difficulty with it.



"Abah, what shape is one dee?"



"One dee?"



"Yes 1-D, like 2-D & 3-D"



Trying to see whether she knew what she's talking about, I asked. "What shape is 3-D?"



"Hmmm... you know like us.... hmmm.... a cube"



"How about 2-D?"



"A square"



Buying some time, "That's good".



And she persisted, "So, what shape is 1-D?"



"Let me think - a dot, a very small dot". I was thinking along the line of something without width or depth.



"How small?"



"Very-very small"



"Is it smaller than germs?"



"Smaller"



"Is it real"



"Yes it is" - without much thinking.



"Wow, germ is the smallest thing I know"



Then trying to be a dad whole tell new things to her child & take her off the 1-D subject.



"Actually atom is smaller than germs, everything is made up of atom - all these small atoms"



"Wow, are they smaller than the 1-D dot?"



argghhh...... "not really. You can only imagine the 1-D dot."



"But is the 1-D dot real then?"



I did say real. "No, not really - you can only imagine it"



"okay, maybe after this you can tell me a 4-D shapes"



"4-D shapes are not real & you cannot imagine them" - I guess you actually can mathematically.



"Abah, can you tell me about 100-D shape one day?"



"hmmmmmm, is it not your bedtime yet?"

Open or switch on?

Another one. This took place about a week ago. I probably start with some explanation of the Malay language's usage of the work 'buka' - open literally. Instead of just used to 'open-buka' a door etc, it is also used to say 'buka lampu' - 'switch on the light.'

My daughter always gets confused in saying 'open the light' instead of 'switch on'. So on this particular day I got the question.

"Abah, do I say open the light or switch on the light?".

"Switch on". Then, to be more helpful, I went on;
"You say open if you are opening something like a door, but if you are flicking a switch or pressing a button to do something, then it is not 'open".

She listened to that and in less than 30 seconds came back to me & said, "Abah, what about a lift?"