Nanjing terkenal di China kerana sejarahnya. Nanjing merupakan bekas ibu negara Republik China. Pada 13 Disember 1937, Nanjing ditawan bala tentera Imperial Japanese Army semasa perang Sino-Jepun II. Semasa tempoh ditawan, ratusan ribu tawanan perang dan orang awam dibunuh manakala puluhan ribu wanita dirogol oleh askar Jepun.

Satu lagi fakta menarik pasal Nanjing ialah pada tahun 2001, Nanjing menjadikan Bandar Melaka sebagai salah satu 'sister cities' nya.

Baru-baru ini, Nanjing menjadi terkenal lagi berikutan kes langgar lari yang melibatkan mendiang Yueyue, budak perempuan 2 tahun yang dilanggar kenderaan sebanyak 2 kali, dibiarkan merana oleh 18 orang awam yang lain sebelum diselamatkan oleh seorang makcik sapu sampah. Yueyue koma dua hari sebelum meninggal dunia.

Kejadian itu berlaku di Fushan, bukan di Nanjing. Tetapi nama Nanjing ni naik kerana peristiwa 'Hakim Nanjing'.

Pada tahun 2006, seorang lelaki bernama Peng Yu (ironically nama blog Yusuf Mujahiddin) menyelamatkan seorang makcik tua yang pengsan selepas cedera terjatuh di jalan. Peng Yu menghantar makcik tersebut ke hospital. Malangnya, Peng Yu dituduh oleh keluarga makcik tua itu sebagai dalang yang menyebabkan makcik tua itu cedera. 

Kes itu dibawa ke mahkamah dan Peng Yu didapati bersalah atas alibi 'kalau dia tak bersalah, kenapa dia nak tolong makcik tu?'. Atas rayuan orang ramai, hukuman Peng Yu dikurangkan dan beliau diminta membayar 10% daripada kos rawatan makcik tua itu.

Sejak kes Peng Yu, orang ramai di China fobia untuk menolong mangsa kemalangan. Bulan lepas, seorang pakcik 88 tahun terjatuh di pintu masuk pasar dengan muka ke lantai dahulu. Pakcik tersebut dibiarkan merana selama 90 minit sebelum mati kerana 'pernafasan tersekat yang disebabkan oleh pendarahan dalam hidung'.

Semuanya gara-gara takutkan nasib sendiri jadi macam Peng Yu.

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Di Malaysia, orang cakap jangan menjaga tepi kain orang. Orang putih cakap; mind your own (tambah carutan di sini) business. Tapi kalau sampai libatkan nyawa orang lain, gua rasa kita haruslah menjaga kain orang lain dan juga perniagaan mereka. Sebab dalam kes bapak dera anak bini ni, kita dai ikut perangai orang China - bukan Cina.

1. I think one of challenges in our life besides having to deal with Monday is to keep things unchanged. Specifically, keeping GOOD things unchanged and be just like the way it is.

2. We want our favorite grocery store to stay in business forever, we want the same kepak ayam madu in pasar malam, we want Facebook interface unchanged, we want The Simpsons to be funny again, we want Barney Stinson to be single again, we want Arsenal to play like the good old days again, we want the newspaper to be relevant again, we want the TV to re-start Joe Jambul for the kids again, we want the radio to be free of pre-pubescent high school kids again, we want to read good books as we were used to when we were kids, we want the girls to stop wearing tighties in public... and of course; we want the good part of our life to be back just like the way it used to be.

3. But a part of life is change. Even the good part of our life can change. When it happens, we try to keep hold on every single good part of our life. Even the silliest one.

4. And that's why we keep most of phone numbers that we didn't call or text for years, we keep wearing some of the t-shirts and jean off, we keep eating at the same restaurant even though there are plenty other new other food outlets out there, we keep every single of memorabilia we had. Maybe books, CDs, toys, pictures, a ring, a guitar, a ridiculous hat or even a primary school name tag.

5. The world changes so fast, one minute you're hip for having a 'henpon daun', the next minute you gonna look like a caveman. We did all these things to remind us of who we really are in this fast changing world.

6. And yes mom, I'm not gonna get rid of my stupid clothes, my primary school homework and exam papers and my bicycle.

Since I was a kid, I have always loved music. I was selected as one of the Chinese dance performers when we had this inter-kindergarten dance show back in 1995. I auditioned and got picked to play drums for school orchestra only to find out we had to play Cindai during Hari Penyampaian hadiah in 1999. Man, I thought orchestra was just as cool as Iklim.

On 2002, I saved up my monthly allowance money to buy a walkman. Back in my days, a walkman was not considered an item of luxury. Everyone had one. It doesn't matter what brand did you buy (Sony, Aiwa, Panasonic, some weird cheap-ass China-made brand, what else..?), because as long as you had one, you were cool. I bought a decent Sony walkman worth RM70.

When you have a walkman, it's always nice to have some cassette tapes too. Apis Awang is famous because of his incredible cassette tapes stack lined up nicely in his locker. I used to stare at his collections in awe. And he was real particular and cautious when I wanted to borrow his cassette tape because at that time a cassette tape worth at least RM25! That was half of monthly allowance money!

But I saved my money anyway in pursuit of my first cassette tape. I didn't go for a blank cassette tape which you can record songs in it to make mix tapes. I wanna buy a real record from real artist. Not Ceramah Motivasi Pelajar Cemerlang tape. Eventually, I saved up enough money and bought a Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket tape in Terminal Seremban.

To be honest, I didn't even know why in the world would I buy a Blink 182 tape. I didn't even knew them. Heck, I didn't even knew what 'take off' means back then! I just picked the tape out of moment of randomness.

Now, it has been 9 years I've been listening to Blink 182. People told me to get over this 'crappy' pop punk thing and start listening to some real punk stuff. Like Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and all those hardcore stuff. I did but I won't get over pop element in rock music. And that's when I learned to respect other people interests.

The latest Blink 182 album was released two weeks ago and I bought the record (and the old records too. It's sort of my effort to get my brothers to start listening to them). But I've got one question for you guys...

Is it me or listening to your favorite records from childhood just give you the chills and a feeling of deja vu? Can a record be some sort of a time machine?