Whitechapel's Fish and Chips

What is it that make you frequented an outlet? One is preferred over another. This restaurant serving traditional fish and chip in Whitechapel, London obviously is an answer. The treatment you get is one that can be remembered and cherished.
He is cheerful, treats every customer as close friends that needs attention,. It makes coming to his place an enjoyable experience; enter with a hungry stomach, leave with your spirit uplifted.
"Take a seat, i'll bring it to you," he said respectfully in casual manner.
While you are at your seat other customers enter the premise. All are greeted as if they are long lost friend, and they enjoy being treated that way and reciprocate. The shop may be have been operating there for many many years, serving local customers that the owner knows well. But he must have known so many to be at that level of interaction with them.
If I were in that area again in the future I would definitely not miss coming to that outlet serving that traditional fish and chips.

Testing Patience

The computer hangs, the smartphone gets infected, the ATM machine announces it is 'temporarily' unavailable for service, the traffic jams, the junk e-mails, etc. etc. Modern-day necessities and everything that ride on them. At times, it's testing your patience. Those times are when they are taking a leave of duty, not functional. Being so used to the prompt response, available on demand situation, we forget that we used to wait in line, patiently, waiting for turn at the phone booth, at the bank counter, for busses and trains tickets.

Korea Once More

There are times when you thought there'd be no more occassion for you to be at a place you once been to quite often. That thought is there just because you have changed career and moved elsewhere. But things are interrelated and the interconnection seemingly could never be severed. In fact, why should that be? Previously gathered knowledge should be retained and put to good use. Networking should be maintained. Friendships and human relationships should not be driven by 'official' needs of the vocation of the day, and be forgotten once the need is no longer there.

Hence, Nakamora once more was in Korea last week. It was for the second time this year with more places to see and new people to meet, as well as old friends with new jobs. The three-hour bus ride from Incheon to Daejeon, the exploration of Joengup, of Ulsan, and back to Seoul by the 300 km/hour KT train are all new experience.
Best of all have been meeting 'old' friends and knowing that they still recognize you.

e-Card

It is the end of Ramadhan and Eid ul Fitr, or the first of the month of Syawal is coming. Few days before this the mailbox used to be brimming with cards wishing every happiness for the joyous occassion. It is different this time around however. Perhaps e-cards and short messaging system truly have taken over the role of printed cards; or perhaps all those before were actually for the seat of the receiver ;-)

The Basis of Optimization

(It is true that developing something is easier than maintaining it. The long lull of this blog is a living proof of that saying. Anyway, Nakamora is back to tend his plot in the blogspace.)
The first agenda of that meeting in the morning part of the first Friday of every month, without fail, is the tazkirah. Tazkirah is a short talk to advise and remind each other of our role in life and the way we should go about it based on Islamic teachings. It was Nakamora's turn this month, and he decided to put extracts of it in this blog as in the subsequent paragraphs.
Today is the 14th of Ramadhan, the month having the most fadhilah among all of the months in a year. Let us take advantage of it and maximize the benefits, for we do not know if we would meet the next one. Let us pray that we would.
We are reminded of the words of wisdom of Imam Al-Ghazali that the farthest distance is the past, for it won't come back; the closest to us is death; the biggest is nafs; the heavisest to carry is trust; the easiest to miss is prayer; and the sharpest object is the tounge.
My tazkirah is about life in general. Looking at life somewhat philosophically, we can say that what everyone does in life is optimization.
We optimize our time so that we have some for other pursuits.
We optimize our spending so that we have disposable income for other discretionary spending.
In short in everything we do we optimize against some objective or cost functions.
What is different between individuals is the basis of the cost function - the world here or the Hereafter.
We are also reminded of the 80-20 rule - that 80% of problems are caused by 20% of all causes, that 80% of profits comes from 20% of the operations; that 80% of impact is the result of 20% of activities; etc.
We seem to adopt the same 'inverse' rule. 80% or more of what we do is for the world here. The world here, in terms of duration is incomparable to the Hereafter, let alone 20%. This is because the basis of our objective function is the world now.
Let us therefore apportion our activities appropriately to reflect the actual ratio of that durations. In fact we ought to continuously ask ourselves: with respect to the Herefatre, is the thing I do now, the best thing to do for the moment; is the place where I am now the best place to be;is what we spent on the best value for money, etc.
Before leaving for a long journey, we make preparations. The level of the preparations is commensurate with the duration and distance of the journey. Going to Europe, Amercicas, or Africa require more preparation than going to countries in this region, that are all within about 6 hours of flight time.
Prepartions to go to places we are unfamiliar with is even more elaborate. We learn a word or two of the language of the place, and we change our currency.
The Hereafter is so unfamiliar. We have not been there, and those who went there never come back. But we are told about it the al-Qur'an. Therefore, the preparations to go there should be the whole lifetime. The currency is not what we have now, but what we do with what we have - our good deeds. All will be accounted for, no matter how small. From al-Qur'an
[99:7] "Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it."
[99:8] "And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it."

Hardcopy or Softcopy

Both have their respective merits and demerits. Hardcopy? It is hard to imagine magazine, newspaper, and book racks disappear from bookstores. The feeling of touching the paper, weighing the book, and skimming through the pages are still influential in making the buy or not buy decision. Glancing at the frontpage of newspapers lined up infront of small stores bythe bus stand from across the road also has similar influence.
Imagine reading an e-book or e-newspaper or e-magazine in a bus, or train (or even while driving). That electronic reader called notebook must be there with you, with battery that lasts long enough.
But where would you keep all those 'expired' magazines? Old newspapers have buyers. Perhaps keep only selected ones that could be useful for future reference.
Future reference? In hardcopy they may not be easily retrieved, especially if you do not have the tendency to be like librarians, cataloguing all your collections.
For a long time to come, one would neither replace the other. Not all inventions make existing methods or goods obsolete.