May the Fourth (Be With You)

I guess another post is due.

I had just put out another post in my Malay blog last night. It was meant to be posted during the World Quantum Day on April 14. However I was still reading up materials for the blog entry. Initially, I wanted to rush it to make the post in time. Then I rechecked my intention; if my post is meant to educate those who are interested, then it doesn't really matter when I post it. So I took my time reading as much as I could, including my surprise doscovery of Prof. Shaharir's papers way back in 1974. I thought it would be a good idea to publicise such technical materials. I posted the link on FB so that the article gets a wider reading. Again, intentions need to be rechecked time and again, not to chase popularity at this age but to increase good deeds

Did a lot of reflections over the period in Syawwal and now in Dzulqaidah. Found myself still wanting a lot from this world, which is not a good thing at my age. Financial wants seem to take a huge chunk of it, particularly when expenses tend to grow over time. I'm still blessed with a part-time job in XMUM and I hope the opportunity will still be there in the future. I have still my youngest who intends to start his BSc education later in the year. Also, none of my kids have yet to marry (so my 'Datukship' is still far away). Recently, we went to our surau's neighbourhood day cum belated 'Eid celebration and there was some health check station and optometrist station. My other half took my youngest to check his eyes. Ever since he broke his glasses in college (I think), he went on without wearing glasses. The check-up showed deterioration of his eyesight. In my mind, I was already worried about forthcoming expenses since new pair of glasses can go up to 400 or 500 Ringgit. We were told then he need his eyes checked by a specialist to be sure of what his problems are, in a way delaying the expenses.

Many times I do delay spending in things that I want to have, to ensure we have enough until the end of the month (or whenever the pension pay comes). An immediate need is my laptop (see pic below) whose battery is no longer working and due to its expansion, cracked an opening in the laptop.

Once, just before a lecture, the laptop could not be started and I panicked. After a few times switching on and off, it finally booted up. Unknowingly, the laptop's clock was slowed down to around 7 minutes late. Not realising this, I tend to finish late with my lectures, overrunning another staff's lecture. After realising that the clock was slowed down, I made the effort to apologise to the lecturer in the following week. So my laptop will be at the top of my priority list given that I have at least three months of teaching left. Other things like my own back treatment can wait (hope to do better pain management and get me off the dependence on pain killers).