Word of the Day: Jejune

According to Wikipedia:

1. naive, simplistic, and superficial
their entirely predictable and usually jejune opinions

2. (of ideas or writings) dry and uninteresting
the poem seems to me rather jejune

According to Dictionary.com:

1. without interest or significance; dull; insipid: a jejune novel

2. juvenile; immature; childish: a jejune behavior

3. lacking knowledge or experience; uninformed: jejune attempts to design a house

4. deficient or lacking in nutritive value; a jejune diet

According to Urban Dictionary:

1. naive, simple or childish
He made jejune generalizations about how all students were lazy and never did any work

2. The worst word in the English language, jejune just bleeds pomposity and snobbery. If you seriously use jejune in a sentence you a) are automatically an asshole and b) should be slapped across the mouth.
"I detected a jejune air that had not irked me before" - Brideshead Revisited

DO NOT PUSH MY BUTTONS!

Disclaimer: Google image labeled for reuse

I consider myself as someone who has a quite high level of consideration and patience, especially when it comes to dealing with people involved in my job. But like all other things in life, my patience is not limitless. I understand that it is an editor's obligation to be profoundly concern for accuracy and exactness, in short, FUSSY, but I hate to be treated like I'm some kind of a mentally challenged person, like I haven't the slightest idea of what I'm doing, like I'm that stupid. For instance, I hate it when my editor asks for information that wasn't there in the first place, like why this netizen said this or that, especially if it is a tweet. I write reports based on the information that is available to me. How should I know why or what made a netizen tweet what s/he tweeted if s/he did not mention it in his/her tweet? Did you expect me to go and interrogate the netizen about his/her tweet? C'mon man, I am a Social Media Analyst, not a Twitter police! For almost 3 years with this company, I've never had any problem working with other editors. I've always been able to understand their fussiness, their super thorough attention to details. Heck, I could still be "kind" to J** and pretend like nothing happened even after what he did. But this one particular person, oh gosh! I'm starting to feel like he's getting on my nerves on purpose, like he is purposely trying to push my button, my BEWARE, MIGHT EXPLODE IN YOUR FACE, PLEASE DO NOT PUSH button, even if he had no intention whatsoever of doing so. I'm just hoping that it won't get to the point where I no longer want to settle with just biting my tongue or choking on my suppressed anger just so I won't say things I will definitely regret later. I don't know how much longer I can keep up with this good girl facade, y'know. It's not like it never happened before. I lost my patience once, but thank goodness it was with someone who was no longer my colleague at that time. Ah, sudahlah. Why am I focusing my time and energy on something negative like this? I better go take a shower and eat some dinner. Kbye.

I ❤ Bitstrips! (and always will)

Ahaha. Tiba2 mo blog pasal Bitstrips. Well, I love this app. I was introduced to the world of Bitstrips when I saw a Bitstrip shared on Facebook by my friend Kym in late October 2013, and I was hooked since then. To some people, it is just another fad that will pass and eventually die like Myspace or I dunno, KPOOP? Whatever. I can see that the Bitstrips hype is dying, that people don't bitstrip as much as they did when they first discovered the app, but, who cares? I enjoy it and as long as I enjoy it, I will continue doing it. I'm not the type of person who does something because everybody else is doing it or because it's the "in" thing to do, I bitstrip because I really do love Bitstrips. It's fun, it's cute, it's funny and I love the clever puns. Most of the time, I use the app to quote my favourite songs or be sarcastic or just for the heck of it. I love it and I will continue using it even though some people think that it's annoying. Don't worry, I will never abuse people's Facebook news feeds with stupid Bitstrips jokes.

Here are some of my own Bitstrips that are my favourites.

P/S: Fatin said that my avatar looks like me. :P

Learn to Drive: Day 13 & 14

Pagi Sabtu dan tadi pegi kelas memandu lagi. Macam biasa, aku mula dari litar dulu dan lepas lebih kurang setengah jam, Encik Sabri suruh aku pandu ke pekan Sipitang dan Mesapol. I believe that I'm getting better at it, tapi masih buat beberapa kesilapan seperti terlupa tukar gear ke gear 2 masa mo dekat2 kawasan sekolah n masa mo masuk simpang ke AMS sebelum keluar balik pi Mesapol tu. Lagi satu silap aku ialah masa mo dekat2 kawasan hospital balik dari Mesapol tu aku memandai plak tukar gear ke gear 2. Encik Sabri cakap nda payah, tapi perlahankan kereta jak. Tapi seingat aku, dia cakap hari tu masa mo dekat2 simpang masuk ke hospital tu, kena perlahankan kereta n tukar ke gear 2. Samalah macam dekat kawasan sekolah tu.  Hmmm ok ok, aku akan cuba nda lupa lagi minggu depan. Hari ni, aku dapat kontrol kelajuan supaya tidak lebih dari 60 km/j. Minggu lepas ada satu masa tu aku nda sedar sudah terlebih 60. Ahahaha. Encik Sabri cakap kalau dalam masa test gagal sudah tu. Ok, aku akan pastikan nda terlebih2 tekan minyak lagi pasni. Bukan jugak terlebih2 ba tu, cuma, aku nda perasan pun sudah terlebih tekan minyak. Rasa macam tekan sikit jak. Ahaha. Sebenarnya, ada satu lagi kesilapan aku hari ni. Tapi bukan di jalan raya, di litar! Hahahaha. Masa praktis side parking tu tadi aku ada terkasi jatuh satu tiang. Zzzz... Ko ni Nurul. Please be careful next time okay! If it was a JPJ test, you would have failed and had to take another test. You wouldn't want that, would you?

Tadi masa aku tengah tunggu kereta sapu yg aku naik untuk balik rumah dari Sipitang tu penuh, one of the drivers who were waiting for passengers asked me to help him solve a few riddles. The first one sounds more or less like this;

Ia bersakti,

Selalu dipuji,

Ia baik hati,

Dan tidak memungkiri janji.

They thought the answer was "hakim" or "pen". I could understand hakim, but, why pen? But then again, why hakim? A judge does not have sakti, unless he's from Hogwarts lah. Zzzzz.... In my head, I was like, "Tuhan"? But then, it is also not a right thing to say that God is "bersakti". Then the driver showed me a paper containing more than 50 possible answers of the riddles and asked me to guess which was the answer to this one. Then I saw "bidadari". So I told him that the answer was probably bidadari, then I shrugged. Well, it makes sense when compared with the other answers. I forgot what were the second and third riddles. *shrugs*

Btw, here are the songs that are in my current playlist. Yep, only 2 songs. :P

Throwback Thursday: It's Been a Year!

Pejam celik, pejam celik, semalam sudah genap setahun aku memakai tudung. Alhamdulillah... :) Rasa macam baru beberapa bulan lepas jak benda tu berlaku. Cepatnya masa berlalu. Aku masih ingat lagi hari bersejarah tu. 7 Mei 2013, hari Selasa. Hari itu aku mau keluar ke Bank Islam, KL Sentral. Aku tertanya-tanya dalam hati, "Camana ni, mo pakai tudung ka tidak ni ah?" Tapi sebenarnya memang hati aku sudah rasa membuak-buak mau pakai tudung beberapa hari sebelum itu. Aku ingat lagi, malam 6 Mei 2013 tu aku baru balik dari Batu Pahat dengan Faezah & Baen (aku ikut dorang balik Batu Pahat sebab Faezah balik mengundi. Aku ngan Baen nda mengundi hehehe). Sepanjang perjalanan balik dari Batu Pahat tu, kepala aku asyik fikir jak camana aku mo pakai tudung nanti. I was planning how I should wear my tudung & clothes. "Pashmina, t-shirt, long-sleeved shirt, long skirt and my shoes. Okey, perfect!", I said in my head. Hehehe. Selama beberapa hari tu, I felt numb (in a good way) and excited at the same time. But I never voiced it out to anyone. Not even Faezah. Sebenarnya, aku nda plan pun bila mau mula pakai tudung. It just happened. I grabbed my only shawl that I had at the time, my Unknown Pleasures t-shirt, a long-sleeved denim shirt and a long denim skirt (also the only long skirt that I had at the time), and walah! I was ready to go out! I felt lucky that no one was at home at that time, because my housemates would've said stuff (nice stuff) that would make me blush, shy and feel awkward. Masa tunggu bas tu, aku call Faezah. And I told her. She was shocked but was happy for me. Ahahaha. Ya lah, baru semalam balik dari Batu Pahat ngan dia, tiba-tiba besoknya aku pakai tudung. Siapa yg nda terkejut? Hehehe. Masa aku bagitau dia tu, tiba-tiba aku rasa sebak, mau menangis, I tried to hold it so Faezah wouldn't notice, but she noticed anyway. Masa tu Faezah dalam kereta ngan Baen otw ke klinik mau cek Yusuff yg masih dalam perut. Hee... It's not an exaggeration to say that it was one of the happiest days of my life. One of my proudest moments in a very, very long time. I felt courageous, strong and so lighthearted, praise be to Allah. :)

I don't know why it took me a few days to tell mama about it though. Or maybe I knew exactly why. Mungkin aku mau kasi surprise mama masa aku balik KK bah tu. Mesti dia terkejut bila tengok aku tiba-tiba pakai tudung kan? But.... I couldn't help it. I broke the news to her anyway. Her reply was, "Amin....." It sounded like, one of her prayers was finally answered by Allah, syukur alhamdulillah... :) The 2nd person to know about my then new image was Siti. She accompanied me to shop for some new tudung and skirts at Jalan TAR after work, then we had dinner together at KL Sentral. :) Balik rumah tu, aku rasa agak nervous untuk masuk rumah. Hehehe. Segannya sebab baru semalam balik dari Batu Pahat, masih free-haired. Their reactions were as expected, shocked but happy and excited for me. :) Pastu apa lagi, masuk bilik & try tudung2 yg baru aku beli tu lah. Ahahaha. Seronoknya time tu. I couldn't wait to go home to see my mom, to show her her daughter's new and improved self. Alhamdulillah, sejak hari itu sampai ke saat ini, tiada rasa menyesal atau keinginan mau buka tudung balik walau sekali pun. For the first time in my life I genuinely felt beautiful. And for the first time I felt like I could really love myself. Rasa macam akhirnya aku bebas. Bebas! Bebas dari idea konformis duniawi yg percaya bahawa kecantikan itu letaknya pada fizikal (yg ditunjukkan) semata-mata.

Iya, aku akui. Dulu setiap kali pakai tudung ke sekolah atau bila mama atau siapa2 lah suruh pakai tudung, aku rasa terkongkong, rasa hodoh. Bila habis jak waktu sekolah, terus cepat2 tanggalkan tudung. Macam nda sabar2 mau tunjukkan rambut aku pada dunia. Macamlah cantik sangat. Zzzz... At that time I thought it was an act of rebelliousness. Now when I think back on it, it was merely an act of stupidity. What was I thinking? Who was I kidding? It wasn't my mom or my ustazah that I was defying, it was Allah. Gila. Kalau Tuhan cabut nyawa aku right then and there, ndakah menyesal dalam kubur aku sekarang ni. Syukur alhamdulillah, Tuhan bagi aku peluang untuk berubah. Dan masih lagi bagi peluang sampai sekarang untuk perbaiki diri aku yg masih banyak cacat cela ni (bukan fizikal ok!). Oklah, sebelum lebih panjang aku melalut-lalut, lebih baik aku hentikan post aku malam ni di sini. Unplanned writing. Memang beginilah jadinya. Pendahuluan entah ke mana, isi entah ke mana, penutup entah ke mana. Ahahahaha. Hey, ini blog post, bukan essay Nurul! Suka hati lah. Hahahaha. Ok ok, selamat malam!

Quote of the Day

Learn to Drive: Day 12

Encik Sabri taught me the Sipitang-Mesapol route today. I was like, FINALLY!!! After around 30 minutes practicing in the circuit by myself, Encik Sabri took me to Sipitang. Well, I took him. When Encik Sabri stopped me and said, "Nurul, kita pi Sipitang", I felt a bit nervous but excited at the same time. I said to myself "Okay Nurul, this is what you want right? Now keep calm and be fearless!!! Alright?!! Alright." I think I did okay, but I still made a few (but pretty dangerous) mistakes. I tend to look at the gear and let my steering wheel went a little out of balance while changing the gear. A problem I know I need to solve soon unless I want to keep coming back to the academy for the next 6 months. NO PLEASE! I'm starting to feel quite impatient to get my driver's licence. The laid back (READ: LAZY) attitude of the entire AMS staff is starting to get on my nerves. It's already May for God's sake! I felt very disappointed when Encik Sabri told me that he won't be available tomorrow. Last Sunday was a "public holiday". So what is his excuse now??? Urgh. I couldn't even be bothered to ask because I didn't want to show my sour face so I just left after thanking him for today's session. But at least, I have started learning the final route. And I hope I could get my licence by end of this month. Insha Allah...

Kutukan Dewata: APA MAKNANYA BERSAMA PAKATAN YANG MENENTANG HUDUD ...

Kutukan Dewata: APA MAKNANYA BERSAMA PAKATAN YANG MENENTANG HUDUD ...: PAS Umum Keluar Pakatan ?!! Berikutan tentangan demi tentangan daripada sahabat sesyurga PAS dalam Pakatan Haprak berkenaan ...

P.O.L.I.T.I.K.U.S

Sometimes I forgot that I have a blog. I mean, I still tend to use Facebook as a place to vent my frustration in human beings. I need to stop doing that. At least when I rant on my blog, I don't know who my audience is. So no one would mistake that my post/comment was directed at a specific person or a group of people. Y'know how it is on Facebook right? Some people have this stupid tendency to think that every status was shared with them on the poster's mind. *roll eyes* 

I decided to delete the status that I posted just now and share it here instead. Okay, I didn't actually delete it, but I changed the privacy setting so it's visible to well, only me. So, here goes.

Kenapa bila cakap pasal politik (tidak kisah mana2 parti pun), majoriti orang buat dalam keadaan marah2, mengamuk, meroyan, memaki hamun, mencarut, tuding-menuding jari, dan yg sewaktu dengannya? Pada yg muslim tu, mau tanya sikit, Nabi ajar camtu ka? Atas nama memperjuangkan Islam? Nda malukah kita mengaku umat Nabi Muhammad s.a.w dengan perangai camtu? Nda payahlah bergaduh2 berperang mulut sana. Ketawa jak Yahudi Zionis tengok. Sebab? They won, we lost. Kbye.

Note: I didn't post this status for likes/comments. I just had to get it out of my head.

I'm just so sick of people who claimed to be the so-called pejuang Islam, but at the same time express their opinion in anger and dirty words, which are against the teaching of Islam. See the irony??? When it comes to politics, I just wish that people could be more civil and level-headed. I believe that each and every one of us, regardless of race and religion, were taught that we should be courteous, tactful, and the most important of all, patient. Yes, we were taught about all that. So can't we just practice it already? Regardless of which political party that you side with? Please?

Good News vs Bad News

Yesterday, I received both good and bad news.

The good news was, my aunt whom I call Ucu, had given birth to a baby girl, her 4th child, my new cousin. Syukur, alhamdulillah, both mommy and baby are safe and healthy. :)

The bad news was, my sister Fatin may have to see a brain specialist or a neurologist if she continues to have headaches. Severe headaches. I don't know how bad the condition of her headaches is, but, she told me that her roommates told her that she had been screaming in pain for the last several nights due to her headaches. Yep, they told her. Meaning, she wasn't even aware of the late night screaming she made. She was down with fever a couple of weeks ago (on her birthday) and was given medications accordingly by the doctor. She went to see the doctor again when she didn't seem to get better from the headaches. The doctor gave her migraine medications and advised her to come back if the headaches won't go away. Well, the headaches didn't go away. As advised, she went to see the doctor yesterday and the doctor gave her more powerful migraine medications. If she still keeps getting the headaches, the doctor said she would need to go to the hospital to see a neurologist. 

I'm so worried. So effing worried. She's coming home for her mid-semester break this early May. I will take her to see Dr Ganesh with mama. And perhaps buy her a new pair of spectacles or just upgrade the degree because that could be one of the reasons of her headache. Gosh, I really hope it's nothing serious. But serious or not, this matter should not be taken lightly. I hope that it is just a normal headache. Or migraine. Or whatever. As long as it's not what I'm trying to wash off my mind right now. :(