Baby Engineering

So, the baby is coming; so in the mean time, while there is still time, I need to get my act together in terms of being a supportive husband to my wife while she carrying Mojo. I am not the most endearing guy in the world but I can be pretty detailed when it comes to getting something new. For example, when buying a new stereo/speaker system for the house, I went to great lengths to understand all the intricacies, etc, etc as this post describes. I guess it is the engineer in me who actually reads the technical specifications and who obeys the “Please read the manual before use” message on any item.

But I am not getting a new DVR here, but a baby so there are usually no manuals or instructions to parenting or caring for one. But wait actually there is about a few thousands of them if you did a search on Amazon. So how? The wife got me this to start:

My Boys Can Swim!: The Official Guy's Guide to Pregnancy. Gotta love the title, but aside from being humorous at best it was not nearly enough to be honest. It contained some facts which were useful, but I would recommend this book for a to be father who is disengaged from the whole preggers thingy. Finished the 1st and 2nd trimester sections in two nights. Next!

It was time to take matters into my own hands, “Time to get detailed baby!” A  recommendation from SY’s hubby J, got me onto American Pregnancy in particular the Your Developing Baby section. “Now we’re talking!” Thanks guys for this; it’s a good guide with some helpful information and I do read it often. It helped with the barrage of new terms like DOC, hCG, LMP and EDD, it helpful especially if you don’t know what OBGYN is. Only thing is as it says it is American Pregnancy and if you know my wife she is extremely Asian and dare I say “Cheena” so some of “Tips for mom’s partner:” does not apply thus leaving the yearning for more information.

So further into cyberspace I dove. I found what is called a pregnancy calendar, which basically charts the progress of Maju & Mojo, on a daily basis. Of course it cannot be like on this day this and this will happen lah but it give you pretty detailed information of what is happening. Moreover, considering I am bad with dates and sometimes, take a while to respond to “How old are you?”, with this I will never be at lost in terms of calendar progress. Below is a screen shot of Month 5:

So now am I satisfied, well more or less. Considering I am a complete noob, my research is ever continuing and I would like to share here and there what I have found.

M Almost Ready

Majimo Terminologies

In case, some of you might be wondering why Majimo. Here’s some light on the subject as well as some new terms that I have coined for the sake of personal simplicity and some sense of anonymity. Here we go again hahahaa…

Majimo is a named coined by the wife. We have pet names for each other, and so far this one has stuck. We use them openly so even some friends and family know of them. So Majimo seems to be relatively interesting and so I decided to make a brand of it.

In case, you are wondering what is the pet name for the wife it is Maju. Yes, I do know that mean progress in Malay but who cares, it has stuck. I know this all sounds rather cheesy but hey this is what we are doing.

To sum up, there is Majimo (short form is Maji), there Maju and now there is Mojo. Seems quite elementary actually:

M Cheesy, yes I know

The Best News Ever

So it is finally time for the big news, of course there are a few close friends who are already aware of this but for the rest of my followers in blogosphere this will be news to you.

The picture is pretty self explanatory, I believe, but in case, you missed it we are pregnant. We have been believing for a child for a couple of months and we were getting prematurely frustrated that nothing much was happening. So we decided to visit our prospective gynecologist to take things one step further.

So we were each asked to get the necessary liquids ready by the certain date for testing. Fortunately, we were spared the tests as we soon found out that we were indeed blessed with a little “Mojo”. We were relieved and continue to be overjoyed.

So now begins the journey of pregnancy, as of today we are in Day 89, with an Expected Delivery Date (EDD) of the first week of December. When we first calculated the EDD was 6th Dec, which is actually my birthday but these things are just estimates and are subject to variation.

Unfortunately, I do not have any sonograms of the Mojo which I can show you folks, I will in due course put some up (once I figure how to scan them) so that, we can share this journey with you and to capture it for ourselves. So as I became man from a boy and husband from a man, I am now onto the Next Step of being a father. Do I know what I need to do? Not exactly to be honest, but I am being guided by the all knowing One, so I am sure He will give me the wisdom when its needed to do what is best.

M overjoyed!

Where does the time go?

There are so many things that I need to blog about but the time, the time. Over the past few weeks I have been blogging regards to some random topics but there is some big news to share and I am still devising the blog post in my head. The news is huge so I want to put it in a way that I can look back at it memorably. So the reasons are selfish. :-0

I have been so occupied with the many happenings at home, office, church and life. But the biggest time sucker has been my recent obsessions with the show “Lost”. Yes it is a silly excuse but its real, the show that I have avoided watching for some reason or other has got me. I guess personally, I wondered how long a show that involved a bunch of guys crash landing on a island could sustain interest. But after 5 seasons, its cult type status is there and it is still one of the most torrentted shows on the Net.

So eventually I took the plunged and downloaded Season 1 which intrigued me so much that I commenced on an ultra marathon of sort of Lost. Within a few weeks I have reached the end of the 3rd season and about to commence on Season 4, much to the irritation of the wife who constantly tells people that, “He is lost in Lost!”

Other than Lost I have to say my time is more precious than ever, and this period has been one off amazingly good news, yes I will share this big news soon (I promise) and pretty lousy news, not for me personally but its saddening to hear. I will not share the bad news as it is pointless. It sort of explains the posting absence, as the feelings inside are so mixed, that expressing them would be flat and hollow. The best thing to do is to quote and read scripture, so I have.

Psalms 91 has been a close friend of mine, not for the swine flu as previously posted but for general protection of my very human heart. It has kept me sane in an insane world and strong when I should been weak and comforted when I should have been scared. Its is real refuge when there is no one to turn to.

Just uttering to myself “A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but it will not come near Me.” makes the difference.

M under His wings.

Sweaty & Tired but Blessed

Yes, a Wednesday in church! How awesome and nostalgic! To my usual readers this is not an attempt at sarcasm but more one of delight. Yes utter delight! (the throw your hands in the air kind of delight).

I am grateful to the little me for remembering about this. Honestly, I would have forgotten completely as I was so absorbed with what I was doing today.

Grateful to 21PurpleHorses who got us seats in Audi. A true prized commodity this evening although I know it does not matter where you are but it does from a comfort perspective. In any case, I needed that "Audi Feeling"'!

Grateful to my infinite drive time playlist on moi iPhone that allowed me to warm up for P&W and thoroughly enjoy my spirited drive.

Grateful to the drivers on the road who opened a clear path for me to get to my destination with relative ease and brevity despite a close shave, I was never worried as He is my co-pilot.

Grateful to our Heavenly Teacher who has empowered our Earthly Teacher to preach a deep, substanced and rich message but with simple and practical uses and reminders for everyday life.

Grateful to Jesus, for blessing us so abundantly that recounting everything would be true testament of His faithfulness and love for me and my household. People, it's better than Toto first prize!

Finally grateful for the walking on air feeling, the I can conquer ALL things feeling and the knowledge and comfort that through Him ALL things are possible.

M looking forward to 27.
21... TIA!

TED: Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

For people who have not heard of TED, here is an infomercial by Majimoblogs.com; “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.”

To me TED as the tagline says, are “Idea worth spreading”. Its basically a collection of presentations by some noted individuals in their fields taking about ideas, concepts, discoveries and to me this is just plain entertaining and mind opening.

Today as I was watching, I came across a presentation done by Sir Ken Robinson. He was talking about how schools and conventional education can kill creativity. He being a creative expert who is challenging the way schools are educating our kids, is I think really worth a listen, trust me its quite entertaining. Moreover he is not the only sucessful person who have said this.

What hit me though, was in the last part of his talk, he gave an example of how children, get misunderstood and get an illness like ADHD or ADD “conferred” on them following which they are categorized and boxed. I really hate this practice and I completely reject it! I believe if I was born today, I would be one of these kids who would get categorized, boxed and classified as “different”. My life might be quite different from the way it is today and I can say this for quite a few of my friends as well. Anyways, do have a listen:

M Exploring

Sex Education

Growing up in the 80s, sex education was just being introduced as part of a school’s curriculum, and looking back, I think the educators who were tasked with this did not have much of a clue of what to teach without becoming too pornographic. From some of the articles I have read here and there in blogs and forums, looks like we are still clueless.

Being from the good all boys Catholic school, when the fact that we were going to attend a session on sex education came to light, we all got excited because some of us though we were going to watch porn! Of course there was no porn but it was pretty darn close. It was a shocking audio (I repeat audio only) of a snippet from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, the part on sex education. Yes you heard me Monty Python! For folks who don’t know what this is, do a search with keywords “Monty Python Sex Education” on You Tube and you will be shocked at how this could have been something used in a Sex Ed session for pubescent boys! If you did a search I want to re-iterate it was audio only, as I love my alma mater.

After this audio, which to be honest left students utterly confused as they were not prepared for what they heard, we proceeded to repeat after the teacher words like “Penis”, “Vagina” and I can’t remember what else. Then the talk steered toward the subject of pre-martial sex, and the possible consequence of unwanted pregnancies (sexually transmitted diseases were not that much of a “mainstream threat” at this point so not discussed) thus leading to the subject of abortion, where photo stills of fetal remains were shown to again shock us rather than educate us. I really can’t remember if condoms were mentioned at all but after 20 years, what I have said above remains in my memory.

So verdict, is this proper sex education? Then again what is proper sex education? Why do I say that we are still clueless?

With the recent AWARE saga which I tried to ignore but was unable to because of Twitter and the constant barrage of blog posts on the subject, one thing that was brought to light was its Comprehensive Sexuality Education Program. Before I go on, I will say I have tried to find the complete contents of this program but was not able to but in my “research” these 4 points below seem to be all I saw and basically the basis of the uproar! I do concede that I do not know if these 4 points from the Instructor’s guide is small percentage or the entire crux of the program but it any case it is worrying for me as a to be parent. So with all the caveats here they are:

1. Pre-marital sex is neutral
2. Anal sex is neutral
3. Virginity is a state of mind
4. Sex is fun

Perhaps the only point I can agree with is point 4. but having said that we need to remember that the audience here is impressionable and pubescent teenagers. Of course the most ridiculous is point 3.  Virginity only becomes a state of mind when it is lost and the guilt sets in. Let’s be honest when we lose it (that is before marriage) we all felt a sense of loss and thus trying making it a state of mind is just a way of justifying it. I am not saying that we should stigmatize teens who have lost it but rather than giving them this guilt and which could eventually lead to a “lose” lifestyle they need to be able to return to self respect and worth. They need to learn and not take these acts lightly.

Sex is an intimate subject, which should not be approached in the same way as other “civic” driven concepts. Like say drug addiction, where someone from SANA come and gives a talk or a presentation.

For parents or to be parents who read my blog, make up your own minds but, based on this my opinion is that this form of Sex Ed, cheapens the virtue and the importance of this act. Sex Ed at school is just one of the avenues where our kids can learn it is ultimately the choice of parents to show them the proper virtues and meaning of self respect.

M IMHO (gosh yet another caveat)!

Heightened Hearing

It's really strange my hearing which used to be a little off has become super acute. After years of listening to Metallica and Led Zeppelin way too loud on really bad earphones as well as going to the live firing range without earplugs during my Army days, my hearing has always been; "Sorry can you please repeat ah?"

However in the last 2 weeks my hearing has become much more acute and I am starting to hear things more clearly. Nothing escapes me, such that I can even hear a bug walking on the floor! Yes it's bizarre but true. This past week alone I have Baygonned 7 bugs on different occasions two of which I was woken from sleep up by their scurrying!

Another manifestation was when I was on sick duty at home with the wife. She would be asleep in the bedroom while I'd be TVing in the living room. I could hear every time she woke up to go the bathroom or whatever, mind you the living room and the bedroom are not exactly near each other in my longish house.

Finally the things that go bump in the night. You know those things. I am hearing them too. This one is frustrating because I will hear it and say "what was that?" moreover, I am getting startled more easily and by more things much to the amusement of the wife. At least I make her laugh which is always good.

So what going on? I have always had 20/10 vision which is much better than normal vision and now I have hyper hearing. Looking on the bright side of things I think God is renewing my youth.  That would explain the errant pimple last week. Hmmm I think I am on to something. Perhaps I can use my new found powers for good like Superman. So come on Uber Strength what you waiting for, your holding us up.

Have no fear, Super Majimo is here.

M Smiling  

They got Him or wait did they?

So all the conspiracy theories have gone straight out the door with the question that has begged everyone for 13 months! Where is Mas Selamat? When I heard the news that they caught him, I was honestly surprised because I believe we’d never find him as I believed he died in custody (another conspiracy theory) but he has been caught in Johor Baru (JB) for all places. I am sure the conspiracy theorists are working over time. But after my surprise left, I laughed out loud, for all the place we’d think we would say he was.

I just thought of summing up some of the funnier elements of this Molo’s “infamy”!

This was one of the first one’s to tickle us and as we got more creative this followed:

Then there was the movie:

Something for the Where’s Waldo fans:

From one success he was then casted to the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.

These were the Photochops but there were more funnies.

Top 5 Place Mas Selamat could be spotted at:

1. Mas Selamat was spotted at Beijing Olympics opening ceremony as one of Olympic torch runners
2. Mas Selamat was waving the checkered flag at the inaugural Singapore GP
3. Mas Selamat was working as a customs officer at Woodlands Checkpoint
4. Mas Selamat was hired as Chief Safety Officer at Singapore Flyer
5. Mas Selamat has replaced Shaggy Rogers

I can’t wait for the conspiracy theories as to why we was in JB, shouldn’t he have tried to go to Perak or something to stay further from Singapore. Let me start the ball rolling:

Top 5 reasons why Mas Selamat stayed in JB:

1. He went to work at his cousin’s Fake DVD shop in Holiday Plaza
2. Mee Goreng at Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker Centre is better than anywhere else in Malaysia
3. He took the giant “Selamat Datang” sign at JB, literally
4. Ramli Burger tastes better closer to Singapore
5. Still can listen to Class 95 FM.

M Laughing.

The Unknown, Retrenchment, Roaches & Silly Molos

The past few weeks have been revelatory for the wife and me. We are venturing into the unknown as we grasp with something new. It is exciting but sometimes scary but mostly exciting challenging sort, for me personally. I guess that is part of life’s journey or shall I say rollercoaster without sounding too much like Mr Keating.

Also there has been news in the air about retrenchment and to eventually see the axe coming for some selected guys who I work with closely is tough. I understand the rationale behind it but the idea and the knowledge that something like our jobs that we sometimes take for granted can be changeable is awakening. BUT for me, I know lah; nothing can come near me, as I am protected, just like how I am from the swine flu. It may sound strange to some but its true, just need to apply it.

As for roaches and silly molos, I think they fall into the same paragraph. In case, you wondering what a “molo” is, it’s my terminology for a bozo. I do not want to pinpoint my encounter with the silly molo (as there have been a few) in question as it is pointless but know that I am not deterred or derailed. And since we are on the subject, I also had an encounter with roaches two nights in a row that I have been a little tramatised. I was actually woken up from my sleep by its scurrying and eventually Baygon-ed the buggers. Now I can’t seem to shake the idea of roaches from my mind when I sleep, thus leading to a string of sleepless nights.

But God-incidentally, I saw this yesterday from The One Thing, as quoted:

Psalm 127:2
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.

God “gives His beloved sleep”. Who are His beloved? You and I! Because we are in Christ, we are His beloved. (Ephesians 1:6, 2 Thessalonians 2:13)

So there is no need to face these sleepless nights brought about by worry or fear because it is not worth much or it is in vain without Him being in control. I may have temporary success on my own but permanence can only be achieved by casting my cares to Him and letting Him handle it. So there; it has been cast and I am letting go now of ALL things!

M Free

Quick One

A quick follow up from a previous post. I received a rather ignorant comment from an Anonymous person which I deleted of course.

But just a statement to clarify if you are still hanging around, honestly I hope you are; the thoughts I share here are my own and are meant to minister to me, to people around me and if possible to a passerby. This is not a channel to critique a particular group or to single out individuals.

If you feel so, please get a life; the more abundant one!

I make no excuses for the way I live or what I believe in as helps me and that's what matters.

Albeit deleted, thanks for the comment it showed me that there are so many people out there that need help with the realities of today.

Take care and God Bless

M