Selamat Hari Raya

Eid Mubarrak is coming and to my surprise, nearly half of the working force are taking leave. I'll be left to cover many positions including monitoring the loading and unloading activities at Pasar Selayang as early as 2 o'clock in the morning. Pasar Selayang is the largest wet market in Klang Valley. I am asked to start monitoring starting this Saturday so I'll be busy doing extra works. The 'clan' has 600 lorries functioned to do the distribution all over Klang Valley and elsewhere and I am asked not to screw things up ... erks ... yikes.

Eid Mubarrak is also known here as Aidil Fitri. Fitri derived from an arabic word 'fitrah' which means nature which specifically pointed to human nature. So it's not only the day muslims celebrate the victorious fasting month of Ramadhan, but also to celebrate human nature. As previously mentioned, humans are God's best creation so it is the day to celebrate among ourselves, humans.

As it is nature that everybody die, the feeling of the day is mixed with both happy and sad. We'll be happy as the fasting month is over ... hehehe ... but the thing is that celebrating without those we love due to death and distance is sadly. As death is a certain thing, it also the day we'll be asking for forgiveness.

This is what I am so proud of being a Malaysian. As a whole, Malaysians, be it Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Others are very forgiving people. Yes, Malaysians as a whole are very forgiving people. Having Aidil Fitri makes this forgiving and be forgiven thing more appealing.

Fantastically, that us Malaysians are very forgiving people, us Malaysians too are very forgetful people. You know, after we ask for forgiveness and be forgiven, we get to redo things that require us to ask for forgiveness and be forgiven again and again. You know, things like, we get to accuse someone of sodomy even without any witness, or things like, we get to swear that someone sodomized us though there is a clear proof that we are not sodomized by anybody, or things like, we get to fix the judiciary so that bad people are found not guilty and good people are found guilty, or things like, we get to jail bloggers for two years without trial, or things like, we get to increase fuel price though we did promise not to, or things like, we get to give racial remarks and marginalize other people, or things like, we get to be so arrogant and say something like ... "Oh, we don't need your votes because we have ruled the nation for 51 years and we will continue to do so without your votes", etc etc etc.

Why not right? After all, Malaysians are very forgiving people.

I myself too ... you know ... most probably be back being a jerk, being nasty and naughty and all.

Anyway, I'm taking this opportunity as a blogger specifically, am asking bloggers and readers for forgiveness for all my errors and sins be it done intentionally or unintentionally, be it from my words or actions and everything I might not aware off. I'm just human and it is my nature to err but to those who are willing to forgive me ... that's divine.

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Greeting Card

I have updated my Greeting Card blog at

http://www.a-cards.blogspot.com/

'Selamat Hari Raya' card is the latest.

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I Need YOU

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa
Lyrics and Vocals by Azer Mantessa

About this song.



I need YOU
deep inside
the cavern of my heart
never part.
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I need YOU
by my side
to keep guiding me well
all my life.
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This world is full of lies
It's hard to see the truth
I'm not that wise
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To YOU I seek refuge
of what I'm to decide
of which to choose
and once I'm on the way
Don’t let me stray away
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When my death
comes invite
I'll be lonely and wrapped
cloth of white.
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Let the light
be in sight
so I won’t be afraid
in my grave.
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Please lead me to the field
With the streaming light
On Judgment Day
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Let me waiting in peace
for my book of deeds
to be received
and given on my right
Once YOU call for me.

I Am Created

I have registered myself as a voter (courtesy of The Fuel Price Hike). So what does it mean being a voter? It means from now onwards, I am among those responsible in making decision on which kind of people should govern the nation. The study of socioeconomics to me then has becoming more important than before as a voter has huge responsibility. Though socioeconomics is a multi-disciplinary study, I prefer to take things a step at a time.

Step 2: Understand Why I Am Created

In Step 1 : Understand Who I Am, I have mentioned that humans are God’s best creation therefore I will not vote for any racial based political party because no matter what they are claiming, they practice racism. Obviously, they are the ones who have been giving the racial remarks.

Why I am created is already explained in my previous entry, The Dimensions. Only humans and Jinns are having the freedom to choose. Only humans and jinns are given this privilege to have the will power to choose be it good or evil deeds. No other God’s creations have this privilege. That is the main reason why Iblis and satans start having this inferior-superior things practically is RACISM. However, that I have the will power to choose good or evil deeds does not explain why I am created in the first place.

So why am I created?

The Living Contract: “I have only created Jinns and humans, for the sole reason of worshipping Me.” (Quran, 51-56).

So God tells that I am created to worship God.

This leads to further questions. What do I understand about worshipping God? How am I supposed to worship God? Why I am created to worship God?

Worshipping God

Generally, to worship is to honor and to love as a deity or to regard with ardent or to adore with esteem and devotion. So to worship God is to honor and to love God to regard with ardent full of devotion. Since I am created with uncountable blessings, I should worship God with so many reasons. One of the reasons is to show how grateful I am that I am created.

Worshipping involves acts integrated altogether – spiritual, mental and physical. That I am created to worship God, part of worshipping is to perform the worshipping rituals namely praying. That I am created, it is obligatory to me to pray 5 times a day like the animation below:



The physical ritual consists of four main acts: stand, bow, prostrate and sit. Simple graphics are demonstrated as below:



If you were into Arabic graphic writing, the actions present four Arabic words: Alif, Ha, Mim and Dal as demonstrated below:


Once combined, in roman it spells Ahmad which is an Arabic word for good.

Abstractly, to worship God is to be good. So I am created to worship God in order to be good. One who is into being good may become righteous. What is righteous? Righteous is to do good deeds and to abandon bad deeds. This elaborates further on why I am created. I am created to worship God in order to be good so I can be righteous.

What are the good deeds and what are the bad deeds? That’s step 3.

My Political Stand Based On Step 2

As a father of five kids, it is my duty to remind them that the main objective in life is to be good which may lead into being righteous. In short, to worship God. If they can achieve this, I can consider myself a successful father.

Politically, I will look at those political parties that emphasize high morality. Fortunately, all political parties in this country do prioritize morality in their political mission. Unfortunately, writing down policies is one thing, implementing policies is another thing.

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Introducing Tom Norfolk

Tom Norfolk is a poet and a musician at YouTube. He took interest in one of my song, Lapa. He has created a very interesting version of Lapa (with my permission of course) which I thought is very interesting.

Do listento Lapa by Tom Norfolk.
Original version of Lapa at Cadenza MIDI Diary.
Music video of Lapa at YouTube.

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Greeting Cards

Two additional greeting cards are at my other blog:

http://www.a-cards.blogspot.com/

All are welcome to copy and paste the HTML codes onto other social-connecting websites.

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Pollution Now

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa

About this song

I, Human

Weeks ago, I have registered myself as a voter (courtesy of The Fuel Price Hike). So what does it mean being a voter? I t means from now onwards, I am among those responsible in making decision on which kind of people should govern the nation. The study of socioeconomics to me then has becoming more important than before as a voter has huge responsibility.Though socioeconomics is a multi-disciplinary study, I prefer to take things a step at a time.

Step 1: Understand Who I Am

I am a human, spiritually, mentally and physically. Some of you may think that it is stupid of me to start this socioeconomics study by defining myself a human. Hold your thought please because there are so many idiots out there who have been actively involved in politics and still fail to look at humans as humans. Trust me, just by understanding myself physically as a human, I can make a decision on who should rule the nation.

Let me explain …

You see, if you were into animation like … ehem … ehem … moi, you will have to come across this bone animation thing. Bone animation is the animation of skeletal hierarchical which can be roughly classified in four parts:

a) Head and neck
b) Chest and arms
c) Abdomen and Pelvis
d) Legs

The above parts are described as the animation below.



Now, let me adjust the animation to suit a situation.

You see, there is this behavior in humans called greeting. Yes, it is human nature to greet because it is human nature to wish another human to be in peace. Generally, humans shake hands to greet be it with a hand or two hands. Image below is a simple demo on how a human looks while greeting from side angle.



Now, let me adjust the image horizontally like below.



If you were into Arabic writing, the image spells four(4) Arabic letters as below.



The letters are mim, ha, mim, dal and once combined yield a word in roman as Muhammad or Mohamed. Muhammad is an Arabic word meaning ‘praiseworthy’. Coincidently, it is a name of a prophet. Abstractly, any human being is worth to be praised and it is human nature to greet.

The Living Contract

“Verily, God created man of the best stature.” (Quran, 95, 4).

So God tells that humans are His best creation.

My Political Stand Based On Step 1

As a husband and a father of five kids, one of the earliest lessons that I taught my wife and my kids is

“Unless you really know how to, do not judge people based on their looks”.

Why?

Simply because humans are God’s best creation. In fact, humans deserved to be greeted. I mean everybody no matter a Malay or Chinese or Indian or European or Bangla or Kadazan or Iban etc. So I made it clear to my wife and kids that it is important to greet everybody including ourselves, relatives, neighbors, friends and everybody else.

So from what I have taught them as based on understanding myself as a human, my political stand is very clear – I will not vote any racial based political party.

Why?

Simply because any racial based political party practices RACISM. Ever wonder why members of any racial based political party love giving out racial remarks?

A racist may say something like this:

“Oh, we are not racists. We just want to group among ourselves to fight for our rights. 51 years of ruling has proved that we have managed to work well with other racial groups in harmony and the nation has progressed very well”.

I will deal with the above statement much later as it requires further steps.

Greeting Cards

I have started a new blog:

http://www.a-cards.blogspot.com/

As to greet does make the difference, anyone is so welcomed to copy and paste the HTML codes from the blog into other social connecting websites like myspace, tagged etc. That humans greet, a study emerged from it known as … SOCIALOGY.

Below is a sample of the card:

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa
Greeting Card by Azer Mantessa

Azer Terbang Lagi

Terbang Lagi means Flying Again.

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After years in system developments - database programming, artificial intelligence and neural networks, I decided to take programming into a different zone. Music and graphical art then animation hit me once I got the idea.

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1983 was the year I started programming. It was FORTRAN on mini-computer. My first program, 'Hello World', was a disaster as while I was compiling it, tons of errors came out with huge buzzing noise. While everybody in the lab was so pissed and stared at me, I was like ... "Whoaaaa ... this is cool". That was the moment I fell in love with computer sound. Unfortunately, it took me another 23 years to come back to sound programming.

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Writing songs has becoming something special to me. Not only it is another kind of programming, it is also another kind of being creative. To be able to compose a new song and becoming the first person in the world to hear it is joyful. Although there is nothing great about my songs, to be irrational, illogical, and messing up all the reasons has helped me balancing out both hemispheres of my brain. It is healthy as life is not just about technical thing.

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This entry means I have posted a hundred songs at Cadenza MIDI Diary. Should you ask me years ago, I would say this is unthinkable. You see, in order to accomplish something, there is no substitute but to keep on trying. Of course, we really need to have a lot of patient and passion.
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Below are my ten most difficult songs I've ever written. All of them are quite my earliest and written in MIDI.

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I Pop - Originally it was written based on complicated Baroque chord progressions. While trying to get some ideas on the melodies, my son strummed his guitar for a pop song. I noticed that, melodies for pop are quite easy so I experimented by strumming a guitar based on Baroque chords. It was chaotic in the beginning that I decided to move the chords closer to each other. Surprisingly, the strumming yielded the funky sound that I really like. I then added the clapping drums and synth for the pop trick.

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http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/i-pop.htm

Aku, Sheryl dan Malam - I have to admit that this song is derived from a very complicated fractal calculations. I was experimenting on some mathematical formulas to yield an ambient sound. However, an error in programming caused the equation to yield an interesting picking riff which later tested out on my acoustic guitar (nylon). I really like the sound of the picking which later has become quite my musical playing style and later give births to many ballad/romantic songs be it on guitar or piano.

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/aku-sheryl-dan-malam.htm

Peter Olson In Paris - So far, this is the only song I have written on Ragtime genre. I consider this one tough because I'm not used to listen to rag. It took me to study rag for about two weeks before I started writing it. As I wanted to write something about Paris, I decided on continental rag rather american rag.

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/peter-olson-in-paris.htm

Curiga - The idea of this song hit me suddenly when I was reading something about Fugue. Fugue is described as repetitive sound and I like the idea so I told myself, "Okay, why not write different melodies and combine them all together." Once the melodies are combined, I have no idea what the
song is all about and so I named it as 'Curiga' meaning Doubtful.

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/curiga.htm

Ketika Bulan Mengambang - This is the most controversial song I've ever written. I can understand the controversy as this song is derived from a mathematical geometrical pattern. Traditional musicians were so pissed because the musical notes are so impossible to be played. I have never written any song based on any mathematical formula or mathematical pattern since then.

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/ketika-bulan-mengambang.htm

Keretapi Malam - Musically, this song has the most notes events I have ever written on one musical instrument. It is baroque and the chord progressions are very complicated - an usual case for a baroque song anyway. Originally, the idea is to prove to a friend of mine that a pianist is faster than a guitarist. Of course it is a fact but this song is meant for a joke.

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/keretapi-malam.htm

Bersama Selamanya - Originally, it was written on Baroque chord progressions but for an unknown reason, I just had to turn the song into slow rock progressions. It required many re-adjustments as I had to suit both baroque and rock and had to made them both intact as a song.

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/bersama-selamanya.htm

Layan Kepala - What is so difficult about this song is, it has the most genres as a song - hard rock, baroque, adagio, polyphonic and progressive rock. When comes to screwing things up, I really am so good at it ... ahaks.

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/layan-kepala.htm

Rampaisari - It took me five weeks to complete this song. Basically, it is quite a simple jazz song but because the song was requested, it was written with thinking (the only song so far that was written with thinking). From then on, I decided not to entertain requests because I prefer to write songs out of my heart rather my brain. Obviously, I hate to think ... LOL

http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/rampaisari.htm

Terbang Lagi - Okay, this song is among my earliest through MIDI programming. As starting things up are always the hardest, I consider this one difficult. Once the song is compiled and run, I told myself, "Holyshit! Did I wrote that?!!!" Until today, this is the song I like most :-) Of course I have the right to be biased on my own songs ... hahahahahaha.

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http://www.diary.cadenza.org/azer-mantessa/terbang-lagi.htm

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At Cadenza MIDI Diary, we received monthly hits of about 100,000. To me, that's not bad.

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The Patterns

Okay, this song is officially my 100th song posted.

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa

Flash Illustrations by Azer Mantessa

All mathematical patterns are calculated by Azer Mantessa

About this song.

Project Malaysia

This entry is brought forward by Citizen Journalism.

http://www.projectmalaysia.org/

Adapted from the website above:

For a long time, Malaysians from every walk of life have noticed something intrinsically wrong with our nation. Some are less pleased than others, but the fact remains that nation building is a constant, ongoing process that requires hard work, and diligence from all parties involved. In realising this, and in looking for ways to move forward, we hope that Project Malaysia will inform Malaysian stakeholders to solutions for this nation's success. Especially for those who want to move into a direction of accountability for our actions, transparency and justice in every area of public life, and most of all, in the pursuit of a nation that is home to all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or creed.

I personally support the project above. Already they have voiced out many interesting issues. Do check out on the project. Again at:

http://www.projectmalaysia.org/

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Another Morning

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa
Vocals and Lyrics by Azer Mantessa

More About This Song



Another morning
Wake up and start pretending
That everything is fine
Just shut up and don’t cross the line

Living the everyday
You wake up
Assuming all the troubles hide away

Another morning
Never mind all the feelings
Another sunshine
Just mind to bother your own mind

Things might be out of hands
What to say
We are living in sensitive land

Between you and me
Far apart and it’s not meant to be
Love can never be a crime
Take a step at a time

We may see the day
Our hearts are never far away
Never mind those who are blinds
You and I, one of the the kind