Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
16 things I wish they had taught me in school (or I just would like to have known about earlier).
So here are 16 things I wish they had taught me in school (or I just would like to have known about earlier). --lifted from the Positivity Blog by on April 2, 2008.
1. The 80/20 rule.
This is one of the best ways to make better use of your time. The 80/20 rule – also known as The Pareto Principle – basically says that 80 percent of the value you will receive will come from 20 percent of your activities.
So a lot of what you do is probably not as useful or even necessary to do as you may think.
You can just drop – or vastly decrease the time you spend on – a whole bunch of things.
And if you do that you will have more time and energy to spend on those things that really brings your value, happiness, fulfilment and so on.
2. Parkinson’s Law.
You can do things quicker than you think. This law says that a task will expand in time and seeming complexity depending on the time you set aside for it. For instance, if you say to yourself that you’ll come up with a solution within a week then the problem will seem to grow more difficult and you’ll spend more and more time trying to come up with a solution.
So focus your time on finding solutions. Then just give yourself an hour (instead of the whole day) or the day (instead of the whole week) to solve the problem. This will force your mind to focus on solutions and action.
The result may not be exactly as perfect as if you had spent a week on the task, but as mentioned in the previous point, 80 percent of the value will come from 20 percent of the activities anyway. Or you may wind up with a better result because you haven’t overcomplicated or overpolished things. This will help you to get things done faster, to improve your ability to focus and give you more free time where you can totally focus on what’s in front of you instead of having some looming task creating stress in the back of your mind.
3. Batching.
Boring or routine tasks can create a lot of procrastination and low-level anxiety. One good way to get these things done quickly is to batch them. This means that you do them all in row. You will be able to do them quicker because there is less “start-up time” compared to if you spread them out. And when you are batching you become fully engaged in the tasks and more focused.
A batch of things to do in an hour today may look like this: Clean your desk / answer today’s emails / do the dishes / make three calls / write a grocery shopping list for tomorrow.
4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.
This is a bit of a counter-intuitive thing. There is often an idea that someone should give us something or do something for us before we give back. The problem is just that a lot of people think that way. And so far less than possible is given either way.
If you want to increase the value you receive (money, love, kindness, opportunities etc.) you have to increase the value you give. Because over time you pretty much get what you give. It would perhaps be nice to get something for nothing. But that seldom happens.
5. Be proactive. Not reactive.
This one ties into the last point. If everyone is reactive then very little will get done. You could sit and wait and hope for someone else to do something. And that happens pretty often, but it can take a lot of time before it happens.
A more useful and beneficial way is to be proactive, to simply be the one to take the first practical action and get the ball rolling. This not only saves you a lot of waiting, but is also more pleasurable since you feel like you have the power over your life. Instead of feeling like you are run by a bunch of random outside forces.
6. Mistakes and failures are good.
When you are young you just try things and fail until you learn. As you grow a bit older, you learn from - for example - school to not make mistakes. And you try less and less things.
This may cause you to stop being proactive and to fall into a habit of being reactive, of waiting for someone else to do something. I mean, what if you actually tried something and failed? Perhaps people would laugh at you?
Perhaps they would. But when you experience that you soon realize that it is seldom the end of the world. And a lot of the time people don’t care that much. They have their own challenges and lives to worry about.
And success in life often comes from not giving up despite mistakes and failure. It comes from being persistent.
When you first learn to ride your bike you may fall over and over. Bruise a knee and cry a bit. But you get up, brush yourself off and get on the saddle again. And eventually you learn how to ride a bike. If you can just reconnect to your 5 year old self and do things that way - instead of giving up after a try/failure or two as grown-ups often do – you would probably experience a lot more interesting things, learn valuable lessons and have quite a bit more success.
7. Don’t beat yourself up.
Why do people give up after just few mistakes or failures? Well, I think one big reason is because they beat themselves up way too much. But it’s a kinda pointless habit. It only creates additional and unnecessary pain inside you and wastes your precious time. It’s best to try to drop this habit as much as you can.
8. Assume rapport.
Meeting new people is fun. But it can also induce nervousness. We all want to make a good first impression and not get stuck in an awkward conversation.
The best way to do this that I have found so far is to assume rapport. This means that you simply pretend that you are meeting one of your best friends. Then you start the interaction in that frame of mind instead of the nervous one.
This works surprisingly well. You can read more about it in How to Have Less Awkward Conversations: Assuming Rapport.
9. Use your reticular activation system to your advantage.
I learned about the organs and the inner workings of the body in class but nobody told me about the reticular activation system. And that’s a shame, because this is one of the most powerful things you can learn about. What this focus system, this R.A.S, in your mind does is to allow you to see in your surroundings what you focus your thoughts on. It pretty much always helps you to find what you are looking for.
So you really need to focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. And keep that focus steady.
Setting goals and reviewing them frequently is one way to keep your focus on what’s important and to help you take action that will move your closer to toward where you want to go. Another way is just to use external reminders such as pieces of paper where you can, for instance, write down a few things from this post like “Give value” or “Assume rapport”. And then you can put those pieces of paper on your fridge, bathroom mirror etc.
10. Your attitude changes your reality.
We have all heard that you should keep a positive attitude or perhaps that “you need to change your attitude!”. That is a nice piece of advice I suppose, but without any more reasons to do it is very easy to just brush such suggestions off and continue using your old attitude.
But the thing that I’ve discovered the last few years is that if you change your attitude, you actually change your reality. When you for instance use a positive attitude instead of a negative one you start to see things and viewpoints that were invisible to you before. You may think to yourself “why haven’t I thought about things this way before?”.
When you change you attitude you change what you focus on. And all things in your world can now be seen in a different light.
This is of course very similar to the previous tip but I wanted to give this one some space. Because changing your attitude can create an insane change in your world. It might not look like it if you just think about it though. Pessimism might seem like realism. But that is mostly because your R.A.S is tuned into seeing all the negative things you want to see. And that makes you “right” a lot of the time. And perhaps that is what you want. On the other hand, there are more fun things than being right all the time.
If you try changing your attitude for real – instead of analysing such a concept in your mind - you’ll be surprised.
You may want to read more about this topic in Take the Positivity Challenge!
11. Gratitude is a simple way to make yourself feel happy.
Sure, I was probably told that I should be grateful. Perhaps because it was the right thing to do or just something I should do. But if someone had said that feeling grateful about things for minute or two is a great way to turn a negative mood into a happy one I would probably have practised gratitude more. It is also a good tool for keeping your attitude up and focusing on the right things. And to make other people happy. Which tends to make you even happier, since emotions are contagious.
12. Don’t compare yourself to others.
The ego wants to compare. It wants to find reasons for you to feel good about yourself (“I’ve got a new bike!”). But by doing that it also becomes very hard to not compare yourself to others who have more than you (“Oh no, Bill has bought an even nicer bike!”). And so you don’t feel so good about yourself once again. If you compare yourself to others you let the world around control how you feel about yourself. It always becomes a rollercoaster of emotions.
A more useful way is to compare yourself to yourself. To look at how far you have come, what you have accomplished and how you have grown. It may not sound like that much fun but in the long run it brings a lot more inner stillness, personal power and positive feelings.
13. 80-90% of what you fear will happen never really come into reality.
This is a big one. Most things you fear will happen never happen. They are just monsters in your own mind. And if they happen then they will most often not be as painful or bad as you expected. Worrying is most often just a waste of time.
This is of course easy to say. But if you remind yourself of how little of what you feared throughout your life that has actually happened you can start to release more and more of that worry from your thoughts.
14. Don’t take things too seriously.
It’s very easy to get wrapped up in things. But most of the things you worry about never come into reality. And what may seem like a big problem right now you may not even remember in three years.
Taking yourself, your thoughts and your emotions too seriously often just seems to lead to more unnecessary suffering. So relax a little more and lighten up a bit. It can do wonders for your mood and as an extension of that; your life.
15. Write everything down.
If your memory is anything like mine then it’s like a leaking bucket. Many of your good or great ideas may be lost forever if you don’t make a habit of writing things down. This is also a good way to keep your focus on what you want. Read more about it in Why You Should Write Things Down.
16. There are opportunities in just about every experience.
In pretty much any experience there are always things that you can learn from it and things within the experience that can help you to grow. Negative experiences, mistakes and failure can sometimes be even better than a success because it teaches you something totally new, something that another success could never teach you.
Whenever you have a “negative experience” ask yourself: where is the opportunity in this? What is good about this situation? One negative experience can – with time – help you create many very positive experiences.
What do you wish someone had told you in school or you had just learned earlier in life?Friday, June 12, 2009
NOAH and THE ARK - Malaysia's version
NOAH and THE ARK
In the year 2020, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Malaysia, and said: Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flash before me. Build another Ark and save two of every living things along with a few good humans.
He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: You have six months to build the Ark before I start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard, but no Ark.
Noah! He roared. I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?
Forgive me, Lord, begged Noah, but things have changed.
First, I need to have a BUMIPUTRA PARTNER who is linked to UMNO. Then I needed a building permit from DBKL and also have to pay under-counter money to get the permit.
Then I've been arguing with the BOMBA inspector about the need for a sprinkler system.
My neighbours complained to The Malay Mail about the height of the Ark I was going to build and the next day it was in the headlines claiming that I've violated the neighbourhood building by-laws because my Ark is going to exceed the height limitations. I appealed to the magistrate and it was approved.
The Opposition then took advantage of the situation and said I was a government crony and they did nasty things with my face in the Internet. I don’t know how they managed to superimpose my face on a naked body with naked MP’s and portrayed it on the YouTube. Oh Lord you are the All Knowing and you know I did not take the photos of the MP.
Then there was another stop-work order even before I could start work. After that the Badan Cegah Rasuah arrested me for pornography.
I talked to a lawyer who looks like Ambitah Bachan -- talks like him, acts like him, but is not him. He said he knows the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister -- the Apa Nama -- and can clear my name but I have to buy them tickets to Australia.
After clearing my name I had to again go to the DBKL Appeal Board for a decision to allow me to build the Ark.
Then the government, after approving the plans, said I must use only SIRIM approved goods and that I must buy from their list of CLASS F Bumiputera contractors and their prices are 15 times more expensive than the Chinaman hardware shop.
Then TNB and JPJ demanded that I post a bond for the future costs of moving power-lines and other overhead obstructions to clear the passage for the Ark 's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us but they would hear nothing of it.
Getting the timber for the Ark was another problem. SUKHAM and the JABATAN HUTAN NEGARA said that there's a ban on the cutting local trees in order to save the Orang Utan.
I tried to convince SUKHAM and JABATAN HUTAN NEGARA that I needed the wood to save the Orang Hutan but they said no go.
When I started gathering the animals, JAKIM and an animal rights group sued me. JAKIM said I cannot put the chickens and the pigs next to each other as it WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED HALAL and the animal rights group insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued that the accommodations were too restrictive and that it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.
Then JABATAN KERJA RAYA AND JABATAN KAJIAN dan GALIAN ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an Environmental Impact Study on your proposed flood.
I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many Bumiputera contractors I'm supposed to hire for my building crew.
JABATAN IMMIGRASI and RELA are checking the status of most of the people who want to work.
The trade unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only union workers with Ark-building experience.
As I started to clear the area to build the Ark, six gangsters came and demanded protection money. They said they will control the area for the selling of drugs and the supply of prostitutes to my workers.
When I complained to the POLIS, the next day the IGP sent an ASP who came in full uniform. Unfortunately he also happens to be one of the six gangsters who were demanding protection money and so he doubled my protection fee.
Then there was a by-election and I was forced to become an UMNO member to get my permits approved and was made to pay a donation by the Barisan Nasional candidate in the so-called spirit of MUHIBBAH. Otherwise they will make life difficult for me.
Every department I turned to is asking what they call “Kopi Wang”.
I calculated that if I paid all the so-called “Kopi Wang” and also give them the donation they ask, the cost to build the Ark will be 20 times higher. But I refused to give them the “Kopi Wang” as I am faithful to you Oh Lord.
Then some top-level politicians became very disappointed with me for not giving them the donations and they started calling me a Murtad. I told them my name is Noah and not Murtad and they got very angry and said they have connections.
Suddenly I became a suspect in the murder of a Mongolian lady because the place where she was murdered happens to be on the land where I am going to build the Ark and I was then arrested.
To make matters worse, the Jabatan HASIL seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species. I have just been released from ISA.
So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark.
Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Noah looked up in wonder and asked, you mean you're not going to destroy the
world?
No, said the Lord, the Malaysian Government beat me to it!
Author unknown
Copied from http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/23099/84/
In the year 2020, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Malaysia, and said: Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flash before me. Build another Ark and save two of every living things along with a few good humans.
He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: You have six months to build the Ark before I start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard, but no Ark.
Noah! He roared. I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?
Forgive me, Lord, begged Noah, but things have changed.
First, I need to have a BUMIPUTRA PARTNER who is linked to UMNO. Then I needed a building permit from DBKL and also have to pay under-counter money to get the permit.
Then I've been arguing with the BOMBA inspector about the need for a sprinkler system.
My neighbours complained to The Malay Mail about the height of the Ark I was going to build and the next day it was in the headlines claiming that I've violated the neighbourhood building by-laws because my Ark is going to exceed the height limitations. I appealed to the magistrate and it was approved.
The Opposition then took advantage of the situation and said I was a government crony and they did nasty things with my face in the Internet. I don’t know how they managed to superimpose my face on a naked body with naked MP’s and portrayed it on the YouTube. Oh Lord you are the All Knowing and you know I did not take the photos of the MP.
Then there was another stop-work order even before I could start work. After that the Badan Cegah Rasuah arrested me for pornography.
I talked to a lawyer who looks like Ambitah Bachan -- talks like him, acts like him, but is not him. He said he knows the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister -- the Apa Nama -- and can clear my name but I have to buy them tickets to Australia.
After clearing my name I had to again go to the DBKL Appeal Board for a decision to allow me to build the Ark.
Then the government, after approving the plans, said I must use only SIRIM approved goods and that I must buy from their list of CLASS F Bumiputera contractors and their prices are 15 times more expensive than the Chinaman hardware shop.
Then TNB and JPJ demanded that I post a bond for the future costs of moving power-lines and other overhead obstructions to clear the passage for the Ark 's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us but they would hear nothing of it.
Getting the timber for the Ark was another problem. SUKHAM and the JABATAN HUTAN NEGARA said that there's a ban on the cutting local trees in order to save the Orang Utan.
I tried to convince SUKHAM and JABATAN HUTAN NEGARA that I needed the wood to save the Orang Hutan but they said no go.
When I started gathering the animals, JAKIM and an animal rights group sued me. JAKIM said I cannot put the chickens and the pigs next to each other as it WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED HALAL and the animal rights group insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued that the accommodations were too restrictive and that it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.
Then JABATAN KERJA RAYA AND JABATAN KAJIAN dan GALIAN ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an Environmental Impact Study on your proposed flood.
I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many Bumiputera contractors I'm supposed to hire for my building crew.
JABATAN IMMIGRASI and RELA are checking the status of most of the people who want to work.
The trade unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only union workers with Ark-building experience.
As I started to clear the area to build the Ark, six gangsters came and demanded protection money. They said they will control the area for the selling of drugs and the supply of prostitutes to my workers.
When I complained to the POLIS, the next day the IGP sent an ASP who came in full uniform. Unfortunately he also happens to be one of the six gangsters who were demanding protection money and so he doubled my protection fee.
Then there was a by-election and I was forced to become an UMNO member to get my permits approved and was made to pay a donation by the Barisan Nasional candidate in the so-called spirit of MUHIBBAH. Otherwise they will make life difficult for me.
Every department I turned to is asking what they call “Kopi Wang”.
I calculated that if I paid all the so-called “Kopi Wang” and also give them the donation they ask, the cost to build the Ark will be 20 times higher. But I refused to give them the “Kopi Wang” as I am faithful to you Oh Lord.
Then some top-level politicians became very disappointed with me for not giving them the donations and they started calling me a Murtad. I told them my name is Noah and not Murtad and they got very angry and said they have connections.
Suddenly I became a suspect in the murder of a Mongolian lady because the place where she was murdered happens to be on the land where I am going to build the Ark and I was then arrested.
To make matters worse, the Jabatan HASIL seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species. I have just been released from ISA.
So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark.
Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Noah looked up in wonder and asked, you mean you're not going to destroy the
world?
No, said the Lord, the Malaysian Government beat me to it!
Author unknown
Copied from http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/23099/84/
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
I remember when ... NST article coming out on 7 June 09
I remember when I made first contact.
There are many Star Trek fans out there, but there is only a handful that would revolve their lives around a sci-fi show. RICHARD SI’s love affair for the show might seem eccentric to some but he tells AUDREY VIJAINDREN that he believes it has led him to do the impossible.
My “first contact” was in a dream, one cold and rainy night. I was asked to board an unusual vehicle {craft} that beamed me up into space. There I feasted my eyes on all sorts of magical {technological} wonders. Things I had never seen before, like a half human and half Vulcan being speaking in a foreign tongue.
Well, at least that’s how I would like to think it happened. But there was nothing magical about my encounter. My love affair with Star Trek was born in an empty university library.
I was studying Network Computing in England at the time. Unlike my friends who got to travel {went back-packing} around Europe during {summer holiday} semester breaks, I could only afford to walk to the nearby library. But little did I know that my misfortune brought me one of the greatest gifts of my life – Star Trek.
I spent two weeks in that library watching VHS tapes of every Star Trek episode I could get my hands on. People must have thought I was “super hardworking”. But no one really knew why or what I was doing there everyday.
Being fascinated by the show is an understatement; I eagerly waited each day to be fed with more and more knowledge of that distant space and the wonderful vehicle, The U.S.S Enterprise, which eventually became my obsession.
Star Trek spoke to me about humanity and philosophy. {I felt that} There was a moral behind each episode and I yearned to learn more.
Eventually, I extracted information from the episodes, studied the schematics of this Starfleet ship and used it to complete my final year dissertation on distributed network computing. I learnt the optical network of the Enterprise thoroughly. As an analogy, It’s sort of like a worm, although you break the head the body still moves around its parts, other parts may become autonomous and continue operating. I graduated with a first class degree.
In between studies, I took lessons in one of Star Trek’s popular language, Klingon, and became quite fluent in it. A few of us gathered in a room weekly periodically to practice the language. We called it our “spit room” because the pronunciation of many of the words demanded some expectorating of saliva to get the intonation? correct a lot of “spitting”.
When I came back from England in 1996, I started working in companies, like IBM, HP, Petronas and Shell. Although I was busy with my career, I never stopped being a die-hard fan.
My parents were shocked when box after box of Star Trek items were shipped back to Malaysia. The first thing they asked was, “why did you spend all our money on toys?” My mum said that she expected me to come back a man but instead I turned into a teenager.
I didn’t really elaborate or tell them about my love affair with Star Trek but when I got my first Kancil and changed the number plate to 1701 to match the Enterprise they noticed and started asking more questions.
They also noticed changes in my demeanor; I was more “disciplined” almost military like. My table manners were impeccable and I always stood upright. I was very proper and in that sense I did my parents proud, but my siblings called me “weird”. Those are some of the challenges I knew were in store for me if I continued this journey. I did continue and never looked back.
I got married in 2001 to my wife, May. She was a small town girl from Teluk Intan and had never heard of Star Trek. But I told her that if she loved me she must also love my interest. Thankfully, she did.
Although May is not a fan like me, she is supportive of my interest. I’ve given her a Vulcan name, T’prena, which she uses sometimes. Together we continued my interest in Star Trek and even changed our phone number so it would end with 1701.
Year after year May witnessed and supported my love affair with Star Trek. But it didn’t really hit her until I bid for a car number plate to match the starship registry number of the U.S.S Enterprise, NCC-1701, which would cost us an arm and a leg.
I was waiting for the number plate NCC-1701 to be available for five years; I kept the desire secretly in my heart. I am not a show-off but having that number plate would be a sense of achievement for me as a loyal fan.
More than a year ago, I was told I won the bid for the number plate for a mere RM25,000. The bid that lost to me was RM10,000.
I’ve owned seven cars in the past 15 years and all of them carried the numbers 1701. When my wife got her car, we even drove all the way to Melaka to register the number plate MAY1701.
My wife stood by me through all my Star Trek needs but when I told her we have to name our children after some of the series’s characters, she put her foot down. “Changing a number plate is one thing but this is a child’s life we are talking about, it is serious,” she said. So we compromised on choosing “almost human” names.
My first choice of “Data” didn’t go down well with May. Our son was named Riker Si James Tee Kirk, {after the characters Commander Riker and Captain Kirk}. Five months ago we had a daughter, she was born on January 17 (1701,yes it was a “planned” technological miracle). We were worried that our obsession with the show would cause her to have Vulcan features. But Seven Si Kathryn Janeway {after the characters Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway}is a beautiful girl with slightly pointy ears (literally).
When we registered their names, we got funny looks from the officials. But it’s a great icebreaker; everywhere we go people are instantly curious about their names.
We’re also hoping that maybe NTV7 may want to give our daughter a scholarship on their anniversary because of her name.
I wanted to give our children what I never had – a childhood filled with memories of Star Trek. So instead of lullabies, our children listen to Star Trek themes. When Riker says, “I want to see TV” he means Star Trek and nothing else.
I’ve willed my ship figurines, models and other Star Trek items to my children and have requested in my will that I want this phrase engraved on my tombstone: “To boldly go where no one has gone before”.
A few months back when I watched the private footage of the latest Star Trek movie, I was taken a back. It seems as if the director, J. J. Abrams, has changed the genre of Star Trek.
He has made it so people in their 50s and children can enjoy it. He has changed 50 years of history by changing the plot. The ships and uniforms are different too. The average person might not notice it so much, but those that follow the show closely will notice that the whole idea of the show has changed.
Probably his aim was to recruit new and younger fans. I was not disappointed because he did keep certain elements the same.
In the latest show, crewmembers were falling in love almost implying that office love affairs do happen these days. The gender bias has changed over the years. In the 1960’s, there was a more evident distinction but in this movie the females were portrayed stronger.
I’ve seen the new movie five times and cried each and every time. I must somewhat embarrassingly admit that there were scenes that brought tears to my eyes. For instance, at the beginning of the movie when Kirk was born, when I saw the Enterprise with my car’s NCC-1701 on it and when the original theme song was played at the end of the show which I’m glad this director decided to maintain.
Being a fan is something you practice all the time. It’s always on your mind. The show may come and go but Star Trek will give me a long and prosperous life.
Richard today runs full time a treasure hunt event management company and that my company name is also named after the words that Captain of starships usually utter before bring the crew into ‘warp speed’ Engage Treasure Hunts}
-- New Straits Times article draft before publication --
There are many Star Trek fans out there, but there is only a handful that would revolve their lives around a sci-fi show. RICHARD SI’s love affair for the show might seem eccentric to some but he tells AUDREY VIJAINDREN that he believes it has led him to do the impossible.
My “first contact” was in a dream, one cold and rainy night. I was asked to board an unusual vehicle {craft} that beamed me up into space. There I feasted my eyes on all sorts of magical {technological} wonders. Things I had never seen before, like a half human and half Vulcan being speaking in a foreign tongue.
Well, at least that’s how I would like to think it happened. But there was nothing magical about my encounter. My love affair with Star Trek was born in an empty university library.
I was studying Network Computing in England at the time. Unlike my friends who got to travel {went back-packing} around Europe during {summer holiday} semester breaks, I could only afford to walk to the nearby library. But little did I know that my misfortune brought me one of the greatest gifts of my life – Star Trek.
I spent two weeks in that library watching VHS tapes of every Star Trek episode I could get my hands on. People must have thought I was “super hardworking”. But no one really knew why or what I was doing there everyday.
Being fascinated by the show is an understatement; I eagerly waited each day to be fed with more and more knowledge of that distant space and the wonderful vehicle, The U.S.S Enterprise, which eventually became my obsession.
Star Trek spoke to me about humanity and philosophy. {I felt that} There was a moral behind each episode and I yearned to learn more.
Eventually, I extracted information from the episodes, studied the schematics of this Starfleet ship and used it to complete my final year dissertation on distributed network computing. I learnt the optical network of the Enterprise thoroughly. As an analogy, It’s sort of like a worm, although you break the head the body still moves around its parts, other parts may become autonomous and continue operating. I graduated with a first class degree.
In between studies, I took lessons in one of Star Trek’s popular language, Klingon, and became quite fluent in it. A few of us gathered in a room weekly periodically to practice the language. We called it our “spit room” because the pronunciation of many of the words demanded some expectorating of saliva to get the intonation? correct a lot of “spitting”.
When I came back from England in 1996, I started working in companies, like IBM, HP, Petronas and Shell. Although I was busy with my career, I never stopped being a die-hard fan.
My parents were shocked when box after box of Star Trek items were shipped back to Malaysia. The first thing they asked was, “why did you spend all our money on toys?” My mum said that she expected me to come back a man but instead I turned into a teenager.
I didn’t really elaborate or tell them about my love affair with Star Trek but when I got my first Kancil and changed the number plate to 1701 to match the Enterprise they noticed and started asking more questions.
They also noticed changes in my demeanor; I was more “disciplined” almost military like. My table manners were impeccable and I always stood upright. I was very proper and in that sense I did my parents proud, but my siblings called me “weird”. Those are some of the challenges I knew were in store for me if I continued this journey. I did continue and never looked back.
I got married in 2001 to my wife, May. She was a small town girl from Teluk Intan and had never heard of Star Trek. But I told her that if she loved me she must also love my interest. Thankfully, she did.
Although May is not a fan like me, she is supportive of my interest. I’ve given her a Vulcan name, T’prena, which she uses sometimes. Together we continued my interest in Star Trek and even changed our phone number so it would end with 1701.
Year after year May witnessed and supported my love affair with Star Trek. But it didn’t really hit her until I bid for a car number plate to match the starship registry number of the U.S.S Enterprise, NCC-1701, which would cost us an arm and a leg.
I was waiting for the number plate NCC-1701 to be available for five years; I kept the desire secretly in my heart. I am not a show-off but having that number plate would be a sense of achievement for me as a loyal fan.
More than a year ago, I was told I won the bid for the number plate for a mere RM25,000. The bid that lost to me was RM10,000.
I’ve owned seven cars in the past 15 years and all of them carried the numbers 1701. When my wife got her car, we even drove all the way to Melaka to register the number plate MAY1701.
My wife stood by me through all my Star Trek needs but when I told her we have to name our children after some of the series’s characters, she put her foot down. “Changing a number plate is one thing but this is a child’s life we are talking about, it is serious,” she said. So we compromised on choosing “almost human” names.
My first choice of “Data” didn’t go down well with May. Our son was named Riker Si James Tee Kirk, {after the characters Commander Riker and Captain Kirk}. Five months ago we had a daughter, she was born on January 17 (1701,yes it was a “planned” technological miracle). We were worried that our obsession with the show would cause her to have Vulcan features. But Seven Si Kathryn Janeway {after the characters Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway}is a beautiful girl with slightly pointy ears (literally).
When we registered their names, we got funny looks from the officials. But it’s a great icebreaker; everywhere we go people are instantly curious about their names.
We’re also hoping that maybe NTV7 may want to give our daughter a scholarship on their anniversary because of her name.
I wanted to give our children what I never had – a childhood filled with memories of Star Trek. So instead of lullabies, our children listen to Star Trek themes. When Riker says, “I want to see TV” he means Star Trek and nothing else.
I’ve willed my ship figurines, models and other Star Trek items to my children and have requested in my will that I want this phrase engraved on my tombstone: “To boldly go where no one has gone before”.
A few months back when I watched the private footage of the latest Star Trek movie, I was taken a back. It seems as if the director, J. J. Abrams, has changed the genre of Star Trek.
He has made it so people in their 50s and children can enjoy it. He has changed 50 years of history by changing the plot. The ships and uniforms are different too. The average person might not notice it so much, but those that follow the show closely will notice that the whole idea of the show has changed.
Probably his aim was to recruit new and younger fans. I was not disappointed because he did keep certain elements the same.
In the latest show, crewmembers were falling in love almost implying that office love affairs do happen these days. The gender bias has changed over the years. In the 1960’s, there was a more evident distinction but in this movie the females were portrayed stronger.
I’ve seen the new movie five times and cried each and every time. I must somewhat embarrassingly admit that there were scenes that brought tears to my eyes. For instance, at the beginning of the movie when Kirk was born, when I saw the Enterprise with my car’s NCC-1701 on it and when the original theme song was played at the end of the show which I’m glad this director decided to maintain.
Being a fan is something you practice all the time. It’s always on your mind. The show may come and go but Star Trek will give me a long and prosperous life.
Richard today runs full time a treasure hunt event management company and that my company name is also named after the words that Captain of starships usually utter before bring the crew into ‘warp speed’ Engage Treasure Hunts}
-- New Straits Times article draft before publication --
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