Afif

Every year on my old blog I post about the best TV series that I’ve watched for that year. To continue that tradition, here are what I think are the best series for 2024, in no particular order.

Mr & Mrs Smith

A good spy TV series is hard to find these days and Mr & Mrs Smith is exactly one of those. Starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, this series take us through some scenic European cities where Jane and John Smith play spies for a mysterious organization. The twist towards the end will shock you though. Available on Prime Videos.

Lessons in Chemistry

Not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for Captain Marvel, Brie Larson. Whether it’s a stupid series about Unicorns or action-packed The Marvels, I watch them all. Lessons in Chemistry is a story about a struggling chemistry genius in the olden days when discrimination and sexism was rife. Watch how the socially awkward Elizabeth Zott found the love of her life, faces numerous challenges and tragedies to finally achieve her dream at the end of the series. On Apple TV+.

The Acolyte

Like all new Star Wars series, this one is also a must watch. Featuring obscure characters from The Clone Wars, The Acolyte is an interesting new development in the Star Wars universe. Too bad this series got cancelled just after one season. On Disney Plus, obviously.

Three Body Problem

You might have heard about the hype of this popular book by the now dead Chinese author. I was enticed to watch it. But first I watched the long-winded Chinese version of the series. It was long and dreadful. The Netflix version was slightly better made and good enough to make it to the list.

Shogun

This award-winning TV series is a really good adaptation of the 1975 novel (which I never read). Featuring good Japanese actors and a decent anjin actor. Watch if you like drama and beautiful medieval Japan. Also on Disney Plus.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

If you’ve grown up watching this animation on TV, this live action series is a no-brainer. It tried to stay faithful to the original series, but with some minor changes for the 8 episode Netflix version. This Netflix version still turns out really well in the end hence why it was renewed for another season.

Last Christmas holiday, I brought my family for a short vacation at Fraser’s Hill near Raub, Pahang. It’s been a few years since we last visited Fraser’s Hill and it is still one of my favourite cool weather vacation spots in Malaysia. It’s less than 3 hours drive from my house and traffic is pretty non-existent unlike the perpetually congested Cameron Highlands.

Last time I visited Fraser with my family, my wife and I jogged around the place and during the jog, we walked past this pretty hotel called Shahzan Inn. Their beautifully-lit restaurant looked gorgeous in the morning and I said to my wife, someday we’ll stay at this hotel. Well, that someday is this year because we booked the now-called Wyndham Shahzan Inn hotel. It is more expensive than the other hotels in the area but we thought, why not.

Fraser’s Hill doesn’t change much since we last visited. Yes there’s some Christmas decoration on the famous clock tower and a few new restaurants here and there but there rest is pretty much unchanged. As always, we went to the usual food court at the secluded corner of the town since they are cheaper. There wasn’t much to do in Fraser’s Hill except eating at one of the many restaurants and cafés, bird-watching and the usual hiking along the trails. There’s a trail for every hiking-level including the popular and challenging Pine’s trail which my wife and I had traversed many years ago.

The next morning, my wife and I didn’t miss the chance to have a little morning walk around the place. The morning air was misty and cool giving for a refreshing walk. Shahzan Inn was a decent hotel although it could be better in some aspects. There’s limited parking around the hotel and the pretty restaurant that we saw that day charges 30 ringgit per person for breakfast which we find a little pricey for some regular-looking food. The hotel also seems to be in a perpetual state of renovation with construction tools and materials all over the hotel. I’ve read the review and it’s been that way for over a year now. Embarrassing since it is part of the renown Wyndham chain of hotels.

That said, I still won’t mind going there again in the future. Especially if I want to enjoy a trafficless, stress-free short weekend getaway. Maybe we will go hiking with the kids next time round.

My second phone needs to be an Android and the screen had to be huge. This 6.6" phone with Super AMOLED screen and 120Hz fits the bill perfectly. I love the minimalist design and flat side frame. This 256GB “IceBlue” color is the closest I can find to a white color unit. OneUI on this Samsung is still not my favorite but it’s bearable plus I can always skin it using Samsung’s Good Lock app.

Consuming media on this phone is a pleasure. The camera’s decent and the 5,000 mAh battery would easily last the day. The only downside I can think of is the lack of wireless charging. For the price, I would be surprised if there were and Samsung reserved the wireless charging feature for their flagship phones. Overall it’s a decent, good quality Android phone from Samsung.

We don’t make much but with what little we have, we always encourage our children to learn new skills or improve their academic performance. Whether it’s joining the taekwondo club, learning archery, extra tuition after school, as long as it’s beneficial to the kids, they can have it.

For our youngest child, we enrolled him to a swimming class nearby. All our other kids never had formal swimming lessons although the girls were quite proficient regardless thanks to the swimming pool at our old apartment. For Asif, we would like him to learn this important life skill which could be a lifesaver someday. Asif is a keen learner and although he had troubles blowing bubbles underwater in the beginning, that didn’t deter him from trying and trying again. Of course sometimes when he’s not in the mood, he’d grumble about not wanting to go to swimming class early in the morning. But I brought him along anyway. You cannot simply give in to his moods, especially when we already paid a princely sum for the lessons.

Hopefully Asif will end up being a really good swimmer and who knows might participate in swim competitions some time in the future!

And just like that, I found it guys. The ultimate secret to weight loss. It’s easier than you think and you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars for it. I’ve heard about intermittent fasting (IF) for a while now and I know a few of my friends have been doing them although not religiously. Then a few weeks ago, I heard it mentioned by Hermes The Cynic on Tik-Tok. He is an ardent follower of Dr Jason Fung’s IF method (#fungsters as they call themselves) so I got intrigued and researched more and in depth about the topic. That’s when I read two of Jason Fung’s book back to back, one of them available on YouTube in a two hours video.

The premise is simple. The main reason for obesity is insulin resistance. How does your body got insulin resistance? By consuming a lot of sugar in a very long time. And then you got overeating which explains itself. So to solve the obesity epidemic and lose weight for good - you fast. Wether it’s skipping breakfast and having an early dinner of fasting for 36 hours straight or doing it on intermittent days, take your pick. You’ve got to achieve calorie deficit which basically what every fitness trainer and weight-loss captain have been telling you.

In a nutshell you have to 1. Completely cut sugar from your diet (it’s okay to splurge once in a while but don’t make it a habit), 2. Do intermittent fasting, 3. Have three or two meals a day and cut the snacks in between and finally 4. Get enough sleep. I did all that for 5 weeks already and lost 5 kilos since. I can confirm that it works and if I can do it, so can you!

p.s: let me know if you wanna read Dr Jason Fung’s books.

Last year in a simple but significant ceremony at work, I was awarded the Long Service Award after reaching my 10th year at the company. Starting out in January 2013, I never thought I would be at the same company for 10 years straight but here I am. The longest I’ve been at any single company was 5 years previously.

Needless to say, the were some ups and downs all through the years. I’ve learn tons, made many new good friends, visited some nice places during the many company trips and received some handsome bonuses along the way. At least in the first 3 to 4 years or so. During Covid and the lockdown era, understandably the company had to cut cost since new intakes were dwindling and some families had to leave the school for obvious reasons. That went on for 3 years I think.

Last year till present time, few would argue that the economy had improved tremendously for the country and for everyone. The intakes were rising and you can see much improvement at the school. They even completed a multi-million ringgit new building in campus. Good times are rolling, right?

Well, not so much for me and my mates. All of a sudden, our certificate and responsibility allowances were taken back. Reason given - none of the other departments were getting them. When you suddenly pull back something as big as that, you know people’s livelihood is going to be affected. Moreso those with families and large commitments like me. 550 ringgit may not sound much to some but it is a lot for me and even after the little (fixed) increment that they give us, it is still not enough.

When I tell people how long I’ve been at this company, they often remark in amazement, wow that’s long. I always say when a company treats me right, I have no reason to leave. The right treatment in my opinion would be a generous bonus or increment that’s tied to your annual performance. The company dinners and trip were nice and I can complaint but the bread and butter is still our salary, increament and bonuses. These past few years, especially since Covid, our bonus were fixed to one month and our increament were at a fixed nominal rate that’s not tied to any performance review. Basically, we’re at the mercy of the management. While they drive around with their new flashy cars, I struggle to pay my housing loan this month.

This month when I received my wages, I was nearly 300 ringgit poorer than last month. When I expressed my disappointment to my superiors, they advised me to get CPD certificate so that they can resume my certificate allowance afterwards. The thing. is, I already have my Apple certificate which would only expire in May next year but they argued that they should be valid for at least the full academic year. What could I do? Study hard to pass that difficult exam and get some of my allowance back, which together with my tiny increament are still less that what I got last month? Or find another job altogether that could offer more?

Guess which one I choose?

A coup de grace is an idiom which means “a decisive, final or overwhelming action or argument”. The straw that broke the camel’s back. To me, it was revoking our allowances. The sad thing was, I actually liked working at this company. It was close to home and I can go back early daily to pick up my kids from school. I would loathe to begin hunting for new jobs, going through all the interviews again to start over again completely at a new place. I seriously thought I could retire at this company. I guess that won’t be the case. This company doesn’t care enough about its workers, especially the long time servants. Nobody is irreplaceable and hiring new cheaper staff would be even better for their balance books. Sure it would save the company a few hundred ringgits here and there but in the long run? What about the cost and energy required to train new staff? Well that’s not exactly their problems isn’t it? It’s for the middle managers to deal with.

Last week, my wife spent nearly 2,000 ringgit at this dermatologist for our daughter’s acne skin problem. She doesn’t have too but she did it anyway because that’s how she is. Willing to sacrifice anything - effort, energy and money for her children’s happiness. We are truly #blessed.

This post was originally published on Blogger on August 14, 2024.

On my desk at home, there’s a little Google Nest Hub device on Photo Frame mode which displays a selection of photos of my family members. From my bachelor days, till the time the kids were born, through major milestones in their lives. Amongst them is a picture of a scrawny little boy at a playground, grinning on a slide with his little sister in tow. If you tell me one day that little boy is going to be getting a scholarship and doing a degree in the United States, I may find it hard to believe. But just last week, I bawled my eyes out saying goodbye to him at the KLIA airport for exactly that.

I always knew Adam was good academically, ever since he was in primary school, earning top grades in class. During his UPSR exam however, he only got 5As out of 6 subject and understandably he was distraught. There goes his chance of getting into a good boarding school. But as fate would have it, he somehow got into a proper and good boarding school. One at the north of the state, some one hour drive from our Casa Riana home. Never been apart from the family, Adam surprisingly adapted to life in boarding school pretty quickly. The fact that he gets to go home every other week also helps. Linda and I also played our part, visiting him at school whenever we can or every time he called us.

Time flies and before you know it, Adam was sitting for his PT3 exam during form 3. Despite his best efforts, Adam did not manage to get his target of straight As (a solitary B I think). That itself was quite an achievement but knowing Adam, he will not settle for second best. Don’t worry too much about it I said to him. You still have two years ahead to get good results in your SPM exams. Fast forward two years later, we did not know what his result was until his name was called on stage for getting straight As. We were all elated of course. We knew he would do well but had no idea he’ll got all 10 As.

That result along with his prowess in the debate team and other extra curricular activities opened up an assortment of opportunities in term of scholarship offers. We encouraged Adam to apply to almost every scholarship available. He did all the hard work of writing the application essays, video essays and attending interviews after interviews tirelessly. In the end, for all his hard work, he was offered a JPA scholarship with a chance to further his studies in South Korea. We were sure glad for that golden opportunity but to our surprise, only a week later, Adam was offered another, even better scholarship by a statutory body of the government of Malaysia. Alhamdulillah.

Needless to say, we accepted the better offer and Adam was given the option to do his A-Levels at either Sunway College or Kolej Tuanku Jaafar. Thinking a boarding school near to home was the better option, we encouraged Adam to pick them and he did. Studying at KTJ, a private school is a whole new experience for Adam. The facilities and resources were on a different level from regular government school and we constantly reminded Adam to make good use of the opportunity provided. Before he could continue his degree at a university of choice in either the U.K or U.S, he still need to get at least 3 As from 4 A-Level subjects. Knowing A-Level exams, I’m fully aware they’re definitely not a walk in the park.

Before you know it, two years flew by just like that. Adam really enjoyed his time at KTJ, judging by the activities, dinners and parties that he attended. I should know how fun it can be at a private school since I’ve been working at one for the last 11 years. Still, Adam has a really important exam that he’s got to ace and after he’s finished with that, we had a nervous two months to wait before he got his results. It’s not that we don’t believe in Adam but in the small chance that he does not get the required As, we’ll have to pay back all the financial assistance that was given to Adam since starting upper sixth in full. Trust me, it’s a lot.

Adam applied for a few universities in the U.K and in the U.S. His dream college was the one in New York, an ivy league school that I shall not name for now. We didn’t put much hope about Adam getting into that school and maybe they were impressed by his admission essay but to everyone’s surprised he received an unconditional offer into that very school for the fall admission date. We were ecstatic of course, especially so Adam because he actually got into his college of choice.

Adam already got one As for Physics but the rest of the result would not come out until 2 days prior to his departure. Regardless, we still need to prepare for his departure and spent thousands of our own money for the purpose. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family and friends for their emotional and financial support for Adam and us. They were simply so generous and kind. How could I ever repay them back.

T-2 days before departure. We just finished changing some ringgit for dollars at the PKNS mall. It was 1:00PM, the time two A-Level results were supposed to come out. We urged Adam to check them on his phone. Much to our relief, he bagged one A* and another A for his Computer Science and Maths papers. That’s his sponsorship guaranteed. Alhamdulillah again.

We left for the Kuala Lumpur International airport Terminal 1 at 3:30AM that somber Wednesday morning with two luggage full of stuff. Asif came along, obviously. My mom was there, along with Linda’s parent, my uncle and my cousin from Kota Damansara and also Linda’s sister and her husband. We got to the airport to be greeted by about a dozen of Adam’s friends from SM Sains Hulu Selangor and KTJ. They took a lot of effort to show up that morning, some drove straight from work and some event rented an Airbnb nearby for the purpose. Good friends like that are hard to find. I hope Adam will remember that and never lose contact.

After the baggages were dropped and check-ins were settled, Adam spent the last few minutes of his time here hanging out with his friends. I know I wished he would spend his time with us, his family instead but I don’t want to intrude. His friends did made all that effort to be there that morning so they fully deserved it. When it’s time to actually go, we exchanged long hugs and there were not a dry eye in sight. Linda and I especially bawled our eyes out while hugging and saying our goodbyes to Adam. Although he did not show it but Adam said he’s scared of going to a whole new place all by himself. It is indeed his first time out of the country without his family. Previously I’ve been planning all our trips for the family and he just tags along.

After all the tears were shed, Adam walked pass immigration and into the boarding area without any untoward incident. We went our own ways and Linda and I back home. Maybe it was because a lot of people cried but I felt this pang of immense sadness, something I have not felt since my father died many years ago. Linda was even worse, anything she sees that reminds her of Adam made her cry spontaneously. You must understand that this is the first time we are apart from our very own children. And by 14,976 kilometers away too mind you.

Adam was very lucky to have some Malaysian seniors at the university putting him up to stay a few days before starting college. The newly wed couple even brought him around town for sight-seeing and even some shopping. Now that Adam had actually checked in to college, we still miss him and worry about him every single day. Yes, I know we can chat or Facetime him any time but we still worry for him for this next few months at least until he truly fully settle down.

I hope that Adam can quickly adapt to the changes and challenges that he will face in a foreign land far-far away. I know it won’t be easy at first, especially without your family or friends to help but I’m confident you will raise to the challenge like you always do. I know that you are a strong, independent and driven young man who will not easily give up. I pray that your four years in New York will end up with that precious computer science degree and then you will be happily reunited with your family (and friends).

Final words. This is your time Adam. Time for new adventures, new experiences and new lessons in life. Make new friends, learn new things, travel far and wide if you can. Here’s to a new chapter in your life. Here’s to whole new world and new adventures. Remember that you will be in our thoughts and our prayers, always.

This New Year’s Eve, there were only three of us in this household with Asif being the only children around. Hana and Mia both left for school a few days ago after an extended school holiday. Adam is in NYC, celebrating New Year at Times Square with his buddies. Linda had to work until 9pm in the evening you know, because her boss is the literal Grinch. I went to pick her up at work and after dinner we head to IOI City Mall to celebrate New Year’s Eve there.

I was expecting the mall to be super crowded and we wouldn’t even find parking or enter the mall. After all, there’s a countdown concert going on in collaboration with “Meletop” there. To my surprise, the mall was relatively not crowded with plenty of space to go around. But at 10pm, many of the shops were already closed though with the exception of a few restaurants, extending their operation for another hour.

Near midnight, we went out to make our way to the concert area. It was unsuprisingly, very crowded around the stage and we couldn’t see anything from the back, especially the kid. In the end, we went 3 floors to the food court and watch the concert and the subsequent fireworks show from there. The fireworks was spectacular and it went on for at least 10 minutes. That concludes our modest New Year celebration. At this age, we usually stay in and watch some countdown concert on TV. This is the first time in a while we decided to go out somewhere.

Do I have any resolutions for the new year? I’m not really bothered with resolutions anymore these days. It’s the same few things anyway. Lose weight, get fit and healthy, be happy. The first (perpetual) resolution (to lose weight) is going on quite well. I’ve lost 5 kilos in just over 5 weeks. I’ll tell you more about it in another blog post. Happy New Year everyone. Hope you’ll have a productive one.

These past few years, there’s been a drastic change in how I indulge in social media. It all started when Elon Musk took over Twitter and burned it into a massice cesspool/hellsite. I jumped ship, albeit gradually (but surely) onto Mastodon and I have argued my reasons clearly here. It’s not easy leaving my 900 plus followers and following and 91k tweets behind but it had to be done. I can’t live with the conscience of contributing to Elon Musk’s funds.

Moving to Mastodon, I learned to embrace open source and the small web. For every giant corporation and monopoly out there like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon etcetera, there’s a ready open source or small web alternative. All of these monoliths, they have no qualms manipulating and selling your data and information to the highest bidder. Some were even directly involved in genocide like Google and Facebook. Apart from leaving Twitter for Mastodon, I have also switched from Instagram to Pixelfed and deleted my Facebook account ages ago. While still in its infancy, Loops is a promising open source alternative to Tik Tok. I wish I could delete Whatsapp for Signal though, if only all of my family, friends and colleagues would follow suit because otherwise it would be pointless.

Yes I understand, it is still impossible to completely detach myself from the oligarchs due to work commitment or financial reasons (all the popular platforms/apps are free but at the price of your soul) but I did my best whenever I can. Which brings us to the topic of today’s post. I’ve tried Micro.blog, a new blogging platform from Manton Reece in 2019 which offers a really pretty and minimalist design and integration with the fediverse. But I stopped short from paying the $5 a month subscription because you know MYR23 a month for a lifetime is still a lot for me in the long run. But now that Manton had offered the cheaper $1 per month Micro.one, I could not resist.

So today marks the first day of switching, hopefully permanently to Micro.blog from my old blogs Afifplc and Afif Chronicles at Google. Those two sites had been criminally neglected anyway for these past few years with very few updates, most recently because I loath to continue to be associated with Google. I love how this site utilizes Markdown markup language which I also use in my Obsidian note-taking app (which I switched to from OneNote and Notion). You should embrace open source and the small web too.

Here’s to a new beginning in blogging and to hopefully, more updates from me.

Let’s start this blogging thing again, here on Micro.blog!