Ammar’s world of colours
I was quite free last week – so I scanned some of Ammar’s work and turn it into a video using Google’s Picasa . The background music is Yusuf Islam’s I Look, I See song .
Since Ammar saw his works in Youtube he was so excited – he even asked me to scan his latest drawing even the uncompleted ones!
Read MoreBerakhir sudah Ramadhan..
Selamat tinggal Ramadhan .. sedih jugak sebenarnya meninggalkan Ramadhan kali ini — mungkin sebab Ramadhan kali ini lebih bermakna dari yang dulu2– OK I have to admit I was not terawih regular before..selalu skip especially yang hujung2 tu.. Tiap2 hari kami yang dok di Apartment “Sri Wangi” Riyadh , berbuka bersama kemudian terawih pun bersama beramai2 ke surau di hadapan rumah. Imamnya al-hafiz so solat terawih kami memang lengkap 30 juzuk bacaannya sepanjang Ramadhan– terbayang2 angan2 suatu hari nanti anak2 menjadi hafiz dan hafizah walaupun perjalanan masih jauh — Imran dan Sabrina akan masuk ke sekolah Arab 11 hari lagi (Imran keluar dari Multinational School — he told his teacher that he moved because he wanted to be a good Muslim! That was exactly what I repeatedly told him — explaining about the move to the new school to get him mentally prepared for the new school) — after a year of soul searching+ fact finding we decided they better off going for “a classical education” (hey! they like watching The Smurf too!) and science + math and english can always be homeschooled .. Dah terbayang masalah yang akan kami hadapi di sekolah baru memandangkan ilmu agama kami yang cetek ditambahkan lagi dengan “arabic vocabulary” kami yang masih “limited”. Tapi kami percaya dalam perjalanan menuntut ilmu ni — yang penting usaha dan banyak berserah kepada Allah insyaallah akan ditunjukkan jalan 
Sambung cerita puasa , anak2 makin membesar — Imran , 7 tahun Oktober 18 ni buat kali pertama puasa dan cukup sebulan! Seronok agaknya bersama rakan2 sebaya walaupun liat nak bangun untuk sahur dan solat subuh. Ammar skipped few days of school because abahnya liat nak bangun 7am untuk hantar ke sekolah (Saudi working hours untuk Ramadhan pukul 10am – 4pm! ) Sabrina pun sibuk ke hulu hilir dengan 2 rakan sebaya main bersama dengan adiknya Alysha.
Aktiviti Ramadhan yang lain? Seperti biasa resipi.net hosting overloaded! Kami berpindah lagi buat ke sekian kalinya –trafik naik 4 kali ganda! Leceh sebenarnya kerja pindah hosting ni — ended up all other (at least 5!) websites have to be moved too..
Other than that I got back into old hobbies — electronics but this time its more serious — bought few books from Amazon dan other gadgets like multimeter, oscilloscopes, Arduino microcontroller and the mission– to learn building a robot! . Cisco CCIE project also still ongoing now I have 5 routers with NM-4A/S as frame relay switch + the NM16/A as the terminal server — maybe considering CCNP first to force myself get into it seriously.
Raya? Today is the first day!
Akhir kata Salam Hari Raya dari kami sekeluarga di Riyadh -Maaf Zahir dan Batin !
Some pictures here .
The total recall
“You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all, just as an intelligence without the possibility of expression is not really an intelligence. Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing.” - -Luis Buñuel
On the very last day of our vacation in Malaysia before leaving for Riyadh, we decided to visit Ammar’s old school – IMC. It was located in USJ3 not so far away from Ummi’s best friends house . Ammar was greeted like celebrity with hugs and kisses by all those kind people there – it has been almost a year since our last visits and we noticed there are new people becoming part of IMC.
While waiting for Mr. & Mrs Sunny (the principal there) , we sat outside watching Imran, Sabrina and Alysha playing at the small playground.
Ammar seemed to be confused. Perhaps thinking, are we sending him back there to continue schooling at IMC?
About Autism
Have you heard about autism ? While autistic person behaviour varies from one to another it does have similarities - interesting video above will give you some insights on how the world looks like in the eye of autistic person. It was brilliantly crafted by Amanda Baggs sparked so much attention in Youtube that Dr. Sanja Gupta came and visit her. Here is the article , and do read the comments underneath it from parents or people who had experience with autistic people.
Quote
She taught me a lot over the day that I spent with her. She told me that looking into someone’s eyes felt threatening, which is why she looked at me through the corner of her eye. Amanda also told me that, like many people with autism, she wanted to interact with the entire world around her. While she could read Homer, she also wanted to rub the papers across her face and smell the ink. Is she saw a flag blowing in the wind, she might start to wave her hand like a flag. She rides in a wheelchair, she says, because balancing herself while walking takes up too much energy for her to also type and communicate. To an outside observer, the behaviors would seem eccentric, even bizarre. Because Amanda was able to explain them, they all of a sudden made sense. In case you were curious, there is no possible way that I was being fooled. Amanda, herself, was communicating with me through this voice-synthesis technology.
If you’re in Malaysia, and needed more information about austism some of the websites below might helps :-
http://nasom.my.diip.net/ -The National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) is a non-profit, non-governmental, welfare organization, established in 1986 by a group of parents, professionals and concerned citizens with a specific mission
www.pr4a.org – Parents` resource for Autism Malaysia
http://myspecialchildren.info/ – created by my wife but was not updated for ages .. (I will keep reminding her !)
http://imc-specialneeds.com – my son Ammar went to this school last year, located in USJ.
* I have few others will update it later
The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again..
