{"id":660,"date":"2019-07-22T14:50:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T06:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/?p=660"},"modified":"2023-01-12T00:13:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T16:13:22","slug":"a-time-to-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/a-time-to-think\/","title":{"rendered":"A time to think"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For some reasons, there\u2019s always a kind of hesitation when it comes to posting stuff about me or what I did or what I\u2019ve been through, etc., without a doubt. Well, I\u2019m not a big fan of social media like Facebook, but the only social media account that I have is Instagram. In fact, I have two: one for me and the other one specially dedicated to my furry babies, where I can simply upload tonnes of their photos to capture those special moments and their everyday antiques. Both are private accounts.<\/p>\n<p>So, you see, I like to keep my life private, meaning to say that even if I set up my very own Instagram accounts, only selected significant others have been given access. Not because my life is so special that I need to keep everything to myself (and only share with a few people), but because I do prefer my life to be private. But this is what I personally believe as I am writing this down. I&#8217;m not sure if the story will be slightly different in the future. I am open to the many possibilities&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But lately I feel the need to have a platform where I can safely pour out my thoughts. There were times when I felt that after I finished a great book or a good article, or after watching an interesting documentary on Netflix, or even after conversing with someone on a very good topic, all the good points got stuck somewhere deep in my cognition. So before I lost them all, I told myself, &#8220;You better start writing it somewhere.&#8221; And I think I have to start now. And why now?<span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 12pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/51gfVQdcGJL._SX321_BO1204203200_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-659 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/51gfVQdcGJL._SX321_BO1204203200_-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"334\" height=\"509\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s all because of this book. Last week, it so happened that I plucked it out from my bookshelves, and after going through it all again, it reminds me of the importance of giving yourself a break. At times, you get so overwhelmed by the things that happen around you that you feel stuck and even suffocated. Well, after immersing myself in the pages, it got me thinking: if a great professor and physicist can just stop and ponder for a while, just to make sense out of the things he has experienced, then I should start listening to him again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 12pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/IMG_0394-e1563777204198.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-669 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/IMG_0394-e1563777204198-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"344\" height=\"454\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is the book that I really treasure the most. It may sound corny, but every time I hold it, I get that &#8220;my precioussss&#8230;&#8221; feeling. This one survived the &#8220;attack of the anai-anai&#8221; back when my room was still at level 4 C15 (that got me crying every night for almost a month; I nearly slipped into a horrible depression&#8230;).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_812\" style=\"width: 326px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/DeansCourt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-812\" class=\" wp-image-812\" src=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/DeansCourt-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"316\" height=\"417\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-812\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Me in front of my hostel during Autumn Term (pic taken 29 October 2006)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I bought it at Blackwell&#8217;s near UoB&#8217;s GSOE back in 2006, during my first term there. It was in the autumn; those days were the lonely ones, and MPhil courses were in full swing. So, after classes, I would drop by the bookstore on my way back to Dean&#8217;s Court (the hostel I stayed in during my first year of the MPhil program). I found solace in there, letting myself get lost between the shelves, amused by the &#8220;oh, so many wonderful books&#8221; (and expensive at the same time because everything was in pound sterling)&#8230;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_814\" style=\"width: 411px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/23E_DeansCourt1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-814\" class=\"wp-image-814 \" src=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1866\/2019\/07\/23E_DeansCourt1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"401\" height=\"304\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">23E, Dean&#8217;s Court, St George&#8217;s Rd, Bristol BS1 5UL, UK (the book was already there on the bookshelf&#8230; has been \u00a0my constant companion since&#8230;.)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For some reasons, there\u2019s always a kind of hesitation when it comes to posting stuff about me or what I did or what I\u2019ve been through, etc., without a doubt. Well, I\u2019m not a big fan of social media like &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/a-time-to-think\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21422,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[30,31],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-reflections","tag-reflections-on-action"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/narina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}