Farewell Tok Ngah

On a more sad an somber side of the day, Mak called me just now telling that she's on the way back to Penang with Abah. Apparently my Tok Ngah passed away. Innalillah..

Tok Ngah Man, or his real name, Hj. Osman bin Hj. Ahmad is the second child of Tuan Guru Haji Ahmad Tuan Hussein Kedah and Hjh. Sofiah bte. Lebai Chik. I don't remember how old he his, nor do I remember what disease he had been fighting all this while but I do remember Tok Ngah as being a very quiet person, warak and nice. I remember Tok Ngah as the most likely Imam every time I went to the surau, be it during a normal Solat Maghrib, Solat Tarawikh and even Solat Aidilfitri. That is my Tok Ngah and I would want to remember him that way.

Anyway, everytime I hear about this my thoughts turn towards Nyang, Hjh. Sofiah. She is almost 100 years old and she outlived all of her son-in-laws and now, she outlived one of her own son as well. What is it like for her to see her child grow up from the very first day and still be there to see him go to a better place? Most of us wouldn't even get to see our son have their grandson. I remeber the day my Tok Wan passed away, I remember Nyang as the one who cried the most..

To Tok Ngah's family and everyone back home in Pokok Sena, I'm sorry that I couldn't be there today.. My prayers are with you, Insyaallah.

Dear readers, Al-fatihah.

Happy Birthday Mac!

As much as I love my Nikon these days, I tend to forget that other love in my heart; My Mac. Well, guess what.. I do remember you Mac and I also remembered that on this day, March 30th, one year ago I marched to One Utama with Mak to pick you up at MacAsia. I remeber how I felt the moment Gideon lifted you out of the box and put you on the table and said, "Here's your Mac".

I said to myself, "At last, I have a Mac!".

A lot of things happened in that short span of 1 year. This screen I'm staring now, it's not the original that came out of the box since I replaced it around 4 months ago. A good friend of mine obviously love the old screen so much he touched it so hard, his fingers burned the pixels in a form of four big dots in the middle of the screen.. and it kept growing. Then, I used it for 3 months without battery since I sent mine in for a recall and it took Apple that long to ship it from California back here. My Bluetooth died last month and I sent it for checkup only to discover that my hard disk is dying too, but that's not all.

Just looking at this pristine brushed aluminium exterior, you can see what this Mac had been through.The bottom plate are no longer even since the day my cousin threw it on the hard marble floor back home.. Eventhough it was still in the STM case, it still dented so you might wonder what would happened if the case were not there. I personally dropped it twice, once in Jakarta and once back home in my room while the bottom casing have scratch marks from Limkokwing's tables. This guy have been through a lot, you know what I'm saying?

Well, that's what you can see. What you can't see is a different matter all together. Nevertheless, it astounded me how durable this Mac really is eventhough at a glimpse it looks sort of delicate and fragile. I wonder what would happen to a Dell if I throw it.. would it still run? Anyway, I bought this Mac circa a month before your shiny new MacBook went on sale and I had to admit I was dishelved to hear that. I felt like stupid buying this machine compared to the cheaper, more powerful MacBooks but thank God for marketing class! I learnt that this behaviour is normal after a purchase so I begin to accept it as it is.

Now that I think about it, I don't actually feel a regret with this purchase since this Mac my dear, is among the last PowerBooks produced. The PowerBooks are from a long line of machines and when it came out, it basically revolutionized the laptop design which is still in use tody. Before Powerbooks you don't have your trackpad over there. Instead, your keyboard is nearer to you and you have to attach external pointing device.. you don't know that do you? Well, that's what Apple do I guess.. Innovate. And oh, It is also smaller and lighter than any Apple MacBooks, so there's another reason.

See, I can go on and on writing about my Mac which makes some people wonder if I'm crazy or not. I am crazy folks.. I'm crazy for my Mac! I bet you couldn't write as long about your Viao or your Toshiba.. Well, I'm not alone I guess. I spend most of my days stumbling upon stories after stories about people and their Mac with one of them dedicating a website for his dead TiBook G4 while others celebrate its birthday by having a party.. We are all crazy about our Macs. It's more than just a computer, it's a symbol of defiance, it's like being in your own community, it's because of the need to be different from others and of course, because we believe in the better life. If there is a future, it is with Macs.

Well, of course life is about progress and in a few years I might need to upgrade. But till that day comes, I am content about my life with my Mac, PowerBook G4 12" SD. Happy Birthday!

The Shoe Box

Some people might remember that a few months ago I announced a photoblog in conjunction of this blog. Well, I had to admit that it lay redundant throughout all these months while I busy myself with this effort.

So today, I went googling for a new template since the old one is inefficient for the task. I stumbled upon this template called 'Lightbox' from the good guys at Gecko & Fly and decided to tailor it to my liking. I haven't been doing any customizing yet so consider this effort as a beta ya?

I really love photography as much as I do love to write and blog. I don't want to lose either one in favour of the other so I decided that a photoblog is the best bet: it nurture the urge to snap photos as well as the passion to blog about them. How cool is that? Serampang dua mata..

Well, enough talking. Click on the picture to be transported to the photoblog. I hope you guys love it.

Oui, Non, Graçias

I think I have a bad karma. As you know my ordeal with the hospital right? That's one. Then last night my James Bond featured, Siti Nurhaliza sponsored SonyEricsson phone went crazy. I can still use it but the # key is non responding. Worse yet, it did respond when I didn't click on it.. Shit. How did that happened?

Anyway, last week I went to watch Mr. Bean's Holiday with Neet at Times Square. Well, we were aiming at Mukhsin actually but we were a tad too late I guess, so Mr. Bean it was. To those who haven't got a clue, Rowan Atkinson stopped acting as Mr. Bean 10 years ago and this movie is his first performance since then. Rowan himself is 52 years old and if you look closely, you can see the aging in his face.

The movie, just like his previous movie was set outside of England and featured locations around France especially the area of southern France. It's rather weird actually to see Bean in an area much unlike his native England, wet and gloomy. Anyway, most of the jokes that are featured are pretty much the ones we grow up with. Honestly! At first I thought it was a blatant ripoff of the original series but at the end of every sketch, they managed to do a twist to freshen the joke.

At the end of the day, it feels to me that this movie is anything but new. It is more of a tribute to the hal witted Englishman character instead of a revival, to make people remember that this is they guy you grew up with and this is the joke you laughed so loud about back then. I'm not saying the story is not good. It's fun and enjoyable actually, but it failed at bringing you something new and rely much on the old recepies.

Well, I guess it must've been a very long time since I last laughed at Bean's jokes.. kids nowadays must've really enjoyed the movie very much. Go ahead and see the movie and tell me what you think of it.

Labels: media

Saya bengang

Saya bengang

Museum Me

The picture on the wall is mine. I took it at KLCC during one night. I suck at night photography so I unfocus the camera to get those cool, colourful light blobs.

I don't know why these people love it so much that they set it on a wall.. Well, whatever it is, thanks for being kind enough to dedicate a wall for my work! I really appreciate it!

psst: Okay, I'm just kidding. I did it on a website. You can too if you Flickr. Click here

Rextons and Elises

Just a friendly reminder to all you people who uses SmartTag: Do make sure you have enough credit inside your card before deciding to go into that lane. It really is iritating to be behind you, looking at your charade and it is also a big shame for you considering you are driving a Rexton and a few miles back, you just flashed your big lights to a poor helpless somebody. Well, at least that poor someone do have enough money to go through that lane. Maybe you should waste less money on the car and topup more money into your SmartTag, don't you agree? Or you could buy a Lotus Elise. Do you know that these cars are low enough to pass the beam? I've seen one do that.

Owning a SmartTag doesn't make you smart. It only makes you a SmartTag owner. And oh, owning a Lotus Elise and do that trick I mentioned doesn't make you cool or anything. You're a thief and a cheapskate.

Broken dream

I spent a night at Wad 7TD Hospital Universiti yesterday in preperation for an operation on my adenoids and tonsils scheduled at 11 o'clock today. Well, hospital isn't that bad I guess.. at least it's not as scary as some people potray it as. The ward was partitioned into 4 section; gents, ladies, ladies, gents. Mak and Abah dropped me there at around 4.30 PM and stayed there until around Maghrib before returning back home so I was alone for the night. The two other guys near my bed all have their wives to look after them so I settled with Tuesdays With Morrie as my companion.

I am Jack's high hopes.

I went to bed at 12 midnight and at 4.30 AM, a nurse woke my up to check on my blood pressure and temperature before leaving me to doze again. I woke up back at 7 o'clock and took a shower. God, the view from my ward is magnificent! On my extreme right I can see KLCC, KL Tower and KL literally. I also saw Bangsar with all the rich people's houses on hills while on my left is INTAN and The Star building, I think people call this Phileo Damansara. Oh, did I mention the view at 7 in the morning was beautiful? It really is..

I am Jack's courage and anticipation.

Mak came at around 9.30 and Abah half and hour later. I was there on the bed in the uber cold ward waiting for the doctor to call my name and go on with the operation. Since Abah belum makan, he and Mak went to the cafe downstairs for breakfast. After a while, a doctor came to me. This is when the news came in.

We cannot do the operation today, the ICU is full. You can go back now and come back next week and we'll set a new date for the operation

Then he left.. Just like that.

I am Jack's bitter disappointment.

I called Abah and tell him the news and asked him to come back and talk to the doctor. I want this thing out of me for God sake! I wanted it out for years and years.. Don't tell me I have to come back later just because you guys can't afford to have a bigger ICU.

I am Jack's boiling anger.

I'm a student! I have classes.. yes, you can give me MCs. You can give me MCs for the rest of my life if you must but can you teach me back what I missed in class? I have 4 pending assignments because of this operation. I missed a lot of classes, my friend think that I'm skipping classes and my groupmates are thinking I'm dissing them for the group assignment. I'm losing my credibility here.. And you are telling me I should come back later?

I am Jack's silent defeat.

My dad came and talked to the doctor over the phone and he said that it's too risky to do the operation without an ICU as there's a 10% brain failure if something goes wrong. In other word, I might die. So there I was, angered and disappointed but what can I do? Pack the back and leave..

I am Jack's honest apology.

To everyone who wished me good luck, thank you. I'll keep it in a box until the actual operation. I'm sorry to bother you people.

Today's word is..

I was reading something on the web when I stumbled upon this word, Hubris. I actually read this word a few times before and I also remebered reading about it in Tun Hanif Omar's column in the NST. Well, I didn't bothered to look for the definition back then and I used to think that it's the name of some Greek philosopher. Haha.. I'm wrong.

hubris |ˈ(h)yoōbris|

noun

excessive pride or self-confidence.
• (in Greek tragedy) excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.

DERIVATIVES hubristic |(h)yoōˈbristik| adjective

ORIGIN Greek.

Now that I know what the meaning is, I remembered that I used to know learn about the same thing is MCKK during Islamic class. Ujub. Ujub is a great sin on par with Riak, though both are not necessaraly means the same thing. Riak is when you boast yourself to others while Ujub is in yourself, where you have excessive pride and self-confidence that makes you feel others as unworthy.

Learning never stops people. Even simple things like English can suprise you when you really look into it. That reminds me of a lot of Friendster profiles I stumbled upon where they have this field on Favourite Book. You know what most of them write in that field?

I don't read books

Me? Books? Hahaha

Well, some even went to the extend of mockingly write the Holy Book in a sarcastic kind of way. Do you fall in these categories? Then grow up. You are never too good to read books. Books are fun, books teaches you a lot of things, even more than you cool friends with bleached hair and driving dad's car can ever teach you. You enjoy The Lord of the Rings but where would that movie be if there's no book for it to be based on? You know what I'm saying?

Grow up kids, you're never too cool to read books. Even old books are new to those who haven't read them.

Blood, doctors and brothers

Yesterday I went to Hospital Universiti to get a check up since I'm having an operation this Monday. You don't know about my operation? How could you! Sedih.. Well, basically I'm getting both my tonsils and adenoids removed. It's a simple operation actually, nothing major but yeah, it is still an operation and I'm scared.

I was at the hospital at 8.30 after navigating through the morning rush. After registering and all that, I was shown my bed in my ward which is a really really cold. How ironic. So then they told me to sign something and checked my weight and height. I am 173 cm tall. Guess how much I weigh. Haha.. then comes the scare part: blood test! Though I tak mabuk darah, I really really don't like the though and sight of some shiny, long and sharp thing piercing through my veins.. even the thought of it makes me irk! I remember back in Hospital Kuala Kangsar, them doctors there would cucuk you first and then they will look for your veins, not the other way around. Scary.. What would MacGyver do? Better yet, what did I do? Well, here's something I pick up after years of being poked by doctor in school: don't look at that bloody thing. I hand them my arm, lie down on my bed and face the other side, reading my Wired magazine. It works! You don't even feel that needle come in. Try it folks.

Oh yeah, did I mentioned that the person who cucuk me was a UM student? Yup, she's still in her final year and she took my blood like a pro plus she is also nice and friendly too. How great is that? Then after a while, she came back to my bed and ask for an interview about my problem. I was very happy to tell her every bit of the problem and we had a nice simple chat where she told me that she's going to choose ENT as her specialization. Oh, ENT stands for ear, nose and throat or in science, they call it Otorinolaringology. Damn, I wish all doctors are like that! Malaysian would be a happier people if all our doctors can be that kind and caring towards their patient. Oh wait, she's not even a doctor yet.. anyway, good luck Dr. Nik!

So today I went out with Alep, Syarel and Ayob and have a dinner and a little chat.. It was nice to know that you have friends that care for you especially in moments where you face a major obsticle in your path. Thank you guys! Wish me well ya?

What a great punchline!

I'm back in Rawang since tomorrow I have an appointment with the doctor. Anyway, today is a very bad day for me. First, there's something wrong with Cyberia's water system. I got water the colour of tea coming out from the tap. Being optimistic, I waited for the water to clean.. and waited and waited and waited until about 3 to 4 hours later to no avail. I missed my group meeting for Malaysian Studies because of it.. Sorry guys, I really really wanted to go but I don't want to meet you all smelling like a skunk, and neither do you. Then things get worse. I got into an arguement with this one guy over a DVD.. Silly, I know but if you know the fella, you'll admit that he is sillier than his arguements. After that, I decided to jump into the pool and bathe myself in the pool's peculiarly coloured water. Oh what the hell.. I don't mind as long as I can get myself wet, I'm happy.

I could go on with the other part of my bad day but I don't want to burden you guys with my problems though some of my friends love to tell me about their problems. Am I a good listener? Anyway, I just noticed that I've passed the 100 post mark with my previous post and this one is the 101th. Yeeha! This project is a success people. I never thought I would be able to contain my enthusiasm up to this level because my Friendster blog ended its life somewhere around this point. I won't make the same mistake again, I promise that. This blog is going to stay folks.

Anyway, before I wrote this post I was reading Reader's Digest and I stumbled upon a joke that made my day. It's a blessing to find things's like this on a very bad day. Want to share some laughs?

A chicken and a cow break out of prison and make their way to the border. Hiding behind a bush, they peer out at the checkpoint on the other side of the road, the only thing between them and freedom.

The chicken looks at the cow and say sadly, "You go on, I'll have to turn back here".

"But why?", the bewildered cow asks.

The chicken's eyes move slowly from the armed guards at the checkpoint to the road in front of them. Then he says, "If I cross that road, it might raise a lot of questions".

Hillarious.

Of lampu pelita and babies

I woke up late today since I don't actually have any classes but then I remembered that I have a group meeting for Malaysian Studies. Damn. My group is supposed to present our sketch next week and since I can't be there, I will be doing the paperworks instead of acting. I'm a boring person isn't it? Haha..

Anyway, last night I uploaded a bunch of photos on to Flickr. Tinkering through some of it I noticed a few that I think is the best and decided to post them to the Nikon D40 group pool, hoping for some comments and ideas from fellow D40ers. So today I logged into Flickr and saw 2 comments and I was like excited to see what it's about. Well, one guy commented my picture of KLCC as being 'really good' which quite amaze me since I was quite dissappointed at that picture. I suck at night shot.

Nevertheless, I was very happy that my best picture so far, the one on the left, is being invited to be featured in another Nikon D40 group. Yeeha! God, I really really am happy. What do you think of that picture? it's a lampu pelita Mak use as a lampshade for her garden. I snapped it because one, it's a mixture of both the old and new and the next one is because I love the details on the lamp not to mention when the picture developed, the depth of field is very beautiful. You can click at the picture to see my collection.

Well, everybody needs motivations once in a while right? Mine is compliment. I love it and it makes me want to move forward.. though I wonder what criticism will do. I'm not quite good at handling critism, honestly.

You should really care about your work, but don't treat it like your baby because when you do that, you can't accept criticism

-Orn, my Icelandic friend

Well I guess I really need to keep that in mind.

Conspiracy Theory

Guess what, my lecturer said that it's okay to pass up the assignment on Monday instead of today. You know, the assignment I spend the whole last night doing? Yes, that one. Well, I don't know how to react to this news. I can't be angry since it offers me an opportunity to further brush up my work nor could I be happy because I've slaved myself over it. Hurm.. Anyway, he did checked my work and gave hints on where I could improve so I guess I'll go with being happy.

Anyway, reading Aiza's blog realizes me that I still have a few more articles to finish. Well, this is what life is for I guess. In class today Faizal Nafis lectured us on conspiracy theory under the Information Age module. Well, from what I got from the lecture is that human are a curious bunch where we love to look for answers for things and we also love to rebel, to not accept what is given thus leading us to explore altrnatives or as Faizal puts it, the other.

The human mind of us in the Information Age is different from other ages where we are in tuned to science more effectively than our predecessor. Therefore it is second nature for us to link the dots of a crtain events thus developing conspiracy theory. A much simpler way to understand the Internet where everything is interlinked to each other; pages to pages, servers to servers and what not. That is also what happen in conspiracy theory where you take one information and link it with several others.

Nevertheless, Faizal argued that the whole conspiracy theory is not real other than inside the human mind. The reason is that when a thing get to complicated and large, it gets out of control. Again, look at the Internet which its vastness cause it to be utterly out of control. For example, it is impossible to say that CIA is controling the media since the media is vast and impossible to control and it implies to other theories as well. You get what I mean right? But then again, some people argued that 80% of media output of the world is controled by 6 media corporation, therefore is it wrong to say that we are actually consuming what these mega corporations wants us to consume? Wicked isn't it?

True or false, people still believes in conspiracy theories. I know I do. Do you?

psstt: it's quite a cliché isn't it to put a picture of a flying saucer for this topic?

Labels: media

Good Morning folks

I'm still in my room, my class is at 2 o'clock. I spend the whole night finishing an assignment which I'm suppose to pass up today. The topic? I was given two articles and media violence and what I need to do is write a short essay, around 1200 words to decide which arguement stand out more. Simple stuff isn't it? Well, not really though.. I'm not really in a mood to write so I was quite dissappointed with the result of what I wrote so this morning I'm tuning it to make it sound nicer.

Yup, so that what I'll be doing today.. Oh shit, it's already noon.

Streamyx!

Well, I might be late but at least I'm here. I got a phone call just now from the TMnet guy telling me that I can pickup my modem at their booth downstairs while reading my freshly bought Wired magazine. Like a kid at Toys'r'us I went downstairs and pickup the modem and set it up and finally got it working a few minutes ago after a phone call to TMnet. Yeeha!

So here I am in my room.. finally I can blog in my room.

Big Brother is watching!

I asked my friend Aiza how the heck did she find my blog amidst all the other stuffs on the Internet. I never tell my classmates about my blog since I somewhat makan hati when some of them said that bloggers are stupid and silly during a class sometimes ago. Anyway, she told me that she was googling for something on Farrah Adeeba a few days ago when she stumbled upon this blog. I was like, huh? My blog, listed on Google? Really? I never knew that, what a pleasent suprise! Anyway, it turned out that Lina also found my blog through Google.. Wow wow wow.

Well so today I did a little research on Google and it turned out that almost everything on me is on Google. Being curious I try searching on Aliffadha and guess what, Alep's blog, his MySpace as well as my blog was listed. Tsk.. I thought I was special. Haha! I also tried searching on Yahoo! which gave a totally different result. This time around my blog isn't listed but they have my Friendster account, a comment I posted on Nik Nazmi's blog, my MCOBA Offside profile as well as comments I did on digg.com.

I never thought that search engines would give a damn about something as miniscule as my blog or a silly comment I made on some forum.. How the hell did they do that among the bah-zillion websites on the web? Heck, even I forgot that I have a MCOBA Offside account!

Well, I guess you'll never really have any privacy on the Internet.. Big Brother is always keeping an eye on you.

The Mac returns

Yeeha! My beloved Mac is finally back in my loving arms.. Oh how I miss thee. I was in Hanna Chan's boring class yesterday when the Mac people called me to inform me that my Mac is ready for pickup. So immedietely after class I tumpang Keisha and Arif to the Curve. Anyway, as we were driving past the Sunway toll I suddenly remembered that I didn't bring my receipt with me.. again. Oh shit.. Anyway, I told Keisha to drop me at the Kelana Jaya LRT instead. Why? Well folks, I was going to go to KL Sentral, back to Cyberjaya on the bus and then back to Damansara to get my Mac. Crazy? Yes, but I really really need my Mac since I got like a ton of work to do. Ho humm

Anyway, our God is a Merciful God. I was just messaging Hariri randomly tanya khabar when he said that he is at the Curve with his parents so I asked him to go to the Apple Store and ask Barry whether it was possible to pickup the Mac without having the receipt.. which Barry thankfully said yes of course. Thank God! I immedietely went back to Kelana Jaya and took a cab to the Curve. I don't know why but money was the last thing on my mind then.

So to make a long story short, I went there, got my Mac back with new set of battery and had lunch with the Ariffin family. What a long week..

A lunch 200 kilometers away

What a day it was! Arif's semester break is over so mak and I drove him back to Kuala Kangsar. Well, he's having his PMR this year so Mak decided to pamper him a little bit this year.

Anyway, I drove all the way there with high enthusiasm since it was quite sometime since my last visit. This time around we made a deal with Mak that we will have lunch at Yutt Loy by whatever means, which he easily agreed. Thank God! Anyway, since we arrived at the royal town around 1 o'clock I figured that they're still serving breakfast so we first went to Lembah for some ice cold cendol pulut.. pergh! If only there's a word to describe the scrumptiousness of it!

Yutt Loy is Yutt Loy. Nothing changed other than the fact that the guy with the crooked feet is now wearing long pants instead of short.. mybe he noticed that people are actually looking at his leg sometimes. Anyway, for starters we had some chicken and beef paus which is undeniably delicious together with Kickapoos of course! I know this sound strange but Kickapoo never tastes as good as when you drink it at Yutt Loy. Honest!

So then came in the main course. I went for my favourite fried rice with eggs and since Arif is clueless as to what to order, I ordered the wantan hor while Mak went with a simple mee goreng. Undeniably, it was the best meal I had outside of home for a long time. Haha.. well, maybe I'm being over the edge but hey, we're talking about Yutt Loy here folks!

Needless to say, I went back home to Cyberjaya a happy and full man. Mr. Yutt Loy sir, please please do franchise!

Sunday Secret

It's Sunday folks and it means that over at PostSecret, a cornucopia of new secrets are being uploaded for the rest of us to see. I hate being left out in the rain so here's my secret.

Customer satisfaction

This computer is getting more and more dead as days pass by. I had to reboot it thrice to even get here!.. and I don't know how long it'll be till I have to reboot again. Sheesh. What do you expect? This is a 4 year old computer anyway which in computer years, ancient as them Stonehenge.. I really think we should get a replacement. Kesian mak nak guna. I was thinking of getting one of those Mac Minis to replace this PC. The last time I checked the price is around RM 2500. Why Mac? I think it would be easier for Mak to use because I automate it to open all the stuff she usually use and it is quite easily maintained. Oh how oh how can I convince my parents to opt for a Mac? Hurm..

Talking about Macs, I was at the Curve today to have a look at my PowerBook. Barry wasn't there so I talked to his colleague who asked for my slip which I forgot to bring.

Guy: Sorry, you have to bring the slip
Me: Owh, okay. Is Barry here?
Guy: He's busy

End of conversation. He walked back into the backroom and I, dissappointed as I could be walked out the store and sat on one of the benches. Shit.. Can I at least have a look? Anyway, as I sat there with Neet thinking and thinking, something pops up in my head: 4H6101YKRJ4; My Mac's serial number. How can I remember such silly string of number? Well, I guess its divine intervention.

So armed with the number I stormed back into the store to be greeted by the nice counter lady. "Can you guys at least check whether it's done or not. I just want to know that", and begin uttering the serial number to that lady who stood there mesmerized. Then the guy before came out from the room and suddenly being nice, checked through the log book and said, "Sorry, it not done yet. If anything we will give you a call sir". Now, that's more like it. Can you guys be nice to your customer? Do I look poor enough to own a Mac? Oh, this all reminds me of my marketing class when we discussed about customer satisfaction. What is customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is when you provide service that is above the customer's expectation

So then I left the store with a renewed sense of hope that eventhough I didn't get to see my Mac, I know about its whereabout. Anyway, until the day my Mac is up and running again I guess I have to settle with this ancient PCs as well as my friend's graphic powerhouses to get my assignments going.

Using someone else's computer is just like driving someone else's car isn't it? Both do the same thing, but it's not as fun.

Labels: nerdery

Writing is how we survive

I realize this is my 91st posting since I started this blog early this year. Time flies when you're having fun. Looking back on all this years that I blogged both here and on Friendster I do see some changes that though small it effect me deep inside. Anyway, I remember what Nageb used to say..

Friendship is like a plant; You have to water it for it to grow

We can make a whole encyclopedia of quotes about friendship isn't it? As I reminisce the early days I blogged I remember a few names that were so enthusiastic in their writing but now lay silent with each passing day their blog slowly lay forgotten and some are even lost forever. I remeber reading Amar's post on his driving test on that crazy Nissan Bluebird, Cepe's thought provoking topics and in depth reviews the even got my dad reading as well as Nageb, Mukhlis and other bloggers that opened up my mind with their ideals.

So I guess, what really happened to this guys? Why did they stopped typing their brilliant ideas, their blatant comments? Some might say the lack of time, some might argue that they don't have anything to write about while other's because they lack enthusiasm. I myself had stopped blogging before. My blog lay there, dormant in cyberspace right during the moment it was at its peak.. and then it was forgotten. Why? Well, honestly I love being supported. How do you readers give me support? Your comments. As simple as that. I value my blog based on how many people who gave comment. I didn't put a counter not because I couldn't.. I don't want to. Heck, even if there's 1000 people visiting my blog daily but none commented, I'm down.

So I would like to thank all those who spend a few minutes to write some comments on what I write. I appreciate your point of view and what you write is fueling me to keep on writing.

Writing is how we survive

That's what I always tell people when they ask me why I blog. After you die, your stuffs stored away in the attic and your body decay, your writing survives. If not, why is China still a Communist country? Why we still quote Orwell, Kafka, Nietzsche, Marx, Plato and those other dead people? Why people still praise and argue about their ideas? Well, that's because they survive in their writing and that my dear, is immortality.

Such is the way to the Stars

Well, yeah.. I missed class today. Hurm, what can I say, Rawang and Cyberjaya is far far away and just the thought of riding the KTM Komuter scares the shit out of me. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

Well, yesterday was surely hectic for me from the hour I woke up till the minute I went to bed. See, I went to Alice Smith School to attend this seminar on Promethean's ACTIVboard which in essence is a interactive whiteboard that you plug into your computer and do all sort of things. Imagine doing a slide presentation with a projector but being able to manipulate stuffs just by pointing the stylus on the board and not the computer. That's what we're selling. Oh yeah, I'm working for this company, Inforexus as their presenter and technician and it is one of two or three companies that are offering this product in Malaysia. By far, we're the badass: we sold 30 boards to Alice Smith School to date.

It was my first time attending such an event and I'm the only one there that is still below 30 years old which quite scared me since I don't know how this sort of people talk to each other. Nevertheless, I think my physique look quite maturish to them since none asked me anything about my age or where I'm studying except for this one Scot lady working with British Council. Other than the marketers, there's also a group of teachers from Penang that is under the government's pilot project for the use of this board. Some of them are lecturers at maktabs while the rest are your everyday secondary school teachers.

From my observation and listening, I believe that to some of these teachers the trip here was just a jalan-jalan trip. They seemed uninterested at the whole product as well as the presentation. Well, maybe because the guy who's talking is British.. there's always the translation problem but then again, these teachers were sent to get English training aren't they? Not to mention they now are supposed to teach in English. These teachers are also lacking in participation during the presentation where that poor British fella was trying to engage us all in the activities, the teachers sit at the back of the room and did nothing save from simple chats with one another. Remember folks, these are the teachers who probably scold their students for not answering a question in class. Talk about pot calling the kettle black.

Anyway, on the brighter side Alice Smith School is a child's dream school. You can really see that the student engage themselves thoroughly with education with the noticeboard along the main corridor full of student's work.. and this is a primary school mind you. The environment is nice and relaxing which is the benefit having the school at Jalan Bellamy near Istana Negara. The whole complex was clean without any trash of any sort while the students are very very disciplined. Imagine, they were playing futsal on the courtyard during break and the the bell rang. What happen? The whole team stopped playing, one boy picked up the ball and all walked in back to the building. Exactly the moment the bell rang. Our school? Go figure.

Well, some of the Penangite teacher said that we can be just like that school if we have their kind of money. Well, yes of course if you are talking about the infrastructure but can you buy children's discipline with money? Hell no! Those kids were disciplined enough because the environment they live in is one that is stimulating and they have teachers they can look up to as role models. It has nothing to do with money. Yes, this kid are filthy rich sons of expatriates same as some rich kids at our schools. Does being rich makes you more mannered? I don't think so.

Oh how I wish one day I could send my kids to a Sekolah Kebangsaan and get an Alice Smith sort of treatment.. Sic Ad Itur Astra. Such Is A Way To The Stars.

footnote: I do have pictures but it's in my camera. Maybe later I'll post it here.

Excuse me..

I hate hate hate this computer I'm writing on. The graphic card killed itself twice just now and a few minutes ago it rebooted all by itself while I was busy typing. How patient do I need to be? Damn, I miss my Mac..

Anyway, I haven't posted for quite sometime; it's not that I don't have stuff worth writing about, I'm just too friggin' tired to do it. It's a hectic hectic life I'm living. Since my dad's car is still in the workshop, he's using the Chevy thus leaving me to the harsh life of Malaysian public transportation. I just came back from KL on a lousily slow KTM Komuter train that got one of its door jammed and making a weird high frequency noise, which I had to endure for the whole 45 minutes ride. I'm close to losing my sanity dude!

Why can't you guys be great like all those public transport I saw on Discovery Channel? Tak cukup ker aku bayar? Anyway, I'm working on a proper posting which might be out soon. Stay tuned folks!

Yesterday

Good morning people. It's 10 o'clock here in sunny Cyberjaya and I have nothing to do. God, yesterday was a blistering hot day indeed, even after two cloudbursts the temperature still makes me sweat and sticky. Anyway, I somehow missed it but a friend told me that it was in the news: Cyberjaya and Putrajaya is the hottest place in Malaysia. I guess all the tree cutting shocked the environment don't you agree?

Yesterday during my Journalism class we talked about journalism and politics where the lecturer who previously worked for Bernama gave us a little insight on how things really is in the Malaysian media. I have to admit all that stuff, though how predictable it is, is really making me feel sick. Politics is dirty as a friend puts it. I guess if I really want to go into Journalism, I might aswell get some strong antibiotics with me.

Anyway, yesterday the SPM results were announced and no, I didn't manage to get the full details on the overall result of the College. Anyway, my good friend Raja Azraff managed to get himself 7A1 1A2 and 2B3 which is way better than mine, considering his chemistry and add maths are both A's while the B's are his biology and EST papers. Congratulations kid, I know you can do it.

So that's probably the highlights of my yesterday. How was your's?

A year ago

Rummaging through my old Friendster blog archive, I stumbled upon this post that I did a year ago in Ipoh, the night before the SPM result was to be announced. It's great to read through all this back, the memories.. I see how much I've changed since that day a year ago. What do you think? Here, read it.

well, it seemed that in the next few hours the life of some 160 people would be changed, by a piece of cheap paper that could bring tears of joy as well as bitterness and sorrow. five years of education, it's all there, summed up in that transcript. and to add to the strangness of it, people would travel from all parts of malaysia, some even dare to miss their university class just for that goddamm piece of paper... or is it?

for me, the reason i'm writing this entry in this cybercafe in greentown ipoh is, eventhough had something to do with that peice of paper, more to the fact that i want to meet my friends that i have been missing all this while. this is also the only big occasion that probably have everyone of the batch attending for the next few years, and could also probably be the last time to meet some high flyers that would be leaving malaysia for a better education in some first world country. so to me, it's more of a gathering than the actual result announcment. well, i admit some of the guys i've talked to are scaring the crap out of themself by the thought of the result alone, but to me what's done is done. nothing in our regret could turn that B into an A. but believe me, not getting a straight A in SPM doesn't mean the end of the road. don't believe everything the teachers say, their view is only closed to the prospect of doing scientific courses. for me, a person who is currently doing an arts course, i kept wondering what is it that i've learn about chemistry that i would be using when i hold the Betamax camera as i shoot a short film. getting really good result in SPM is like using the highway while less good results leads you into the jalan lama, narrow, bersimpang-siur... but if you look a little bit closer, behind the bushes of life, beyond the ruins of hope and across the river of tears, there it is... a very beautiful life with lotsa things to see and do. jauh perjalanan luas permandangan doesn't necessarilly need an airplane ticket to harvard, all that you really need is a roadmap, some good friends to accompany you along the road, a better lookout for the many junctions that lies ahead and don't forget your destination as well as the folks back home. don't loook down on those in IPTS, we are not stupid, we don't go there for the glamour of it and not because our parents are rich enough to send us there... it's because we belief in something else, we want something different... we are taking a scenic ride of life... just because our campus doesn't have a proper field or student accomodation doesn't mean that we are lacking in the feel of the university life. we are enjoying our very own version of university life, which sometimes is more fun that you are having on that playing field of yours and sleeping in old building with graffitied walls and urine stench. aku dah merase semua tu waktu sekolah menengah lagi, waktu korang duduk bawah ketiak mak korang, pegi sekolah pakai seluar kaler hijau... i've gotten bored of it while you are just starting to feel the fun of it. pity you... owh, by the way... limkokwing ade a few hundred iMacs... skolah ko ade ker?...PC? haha... ape bende tu? tukun?...

anyway, what i am really telling here is just that: life doesn't end with that peice of paper. in fact, real life will only begin after you hold that peice of paper on your hand... for better or worse...

chain your ankles to the sky and believe me everything's gonna be alrite..

Damn, how time flies.. and how I miss those days. Anyway, it reminds me that tomorrow the SPM result of my good juniors, the Class of 2006 will be announced. Guys, whatever it is just go on with life. There are still many great things out there left to be discovered. May you have the very best of luck!

Labels: a year ago

Free WiFis!

It's cool that there are still nice people out there who don't lock their wifis, such as this dude who's wifi I'm tapping via my friend's Dell from the comfort of my livingroom. Thanks dude!

My parents just left a few hours ago so here I am with no laptop, bored stiff. Anyway, I just bought a book, Fight Club by Chuck Palanhuik.. yes, this is the book that made it into the silver screen under the same name. A blessing in disguise perhaps.. I haven't read a good book since Orwell's 1984. Anyway, let's wait till I finish reading this book ya? Maybe I'll write something about it.

Till then, have a great week folks.

I have a sad Mac

I'm writing this post on my old.. I mean, ancient family desktop. Why? My Mac is in the hospital.. Well, I went to the Apple Store to get a checkup on the dead Bluetooth issue that have been bothering me a lot this few days and the doctors there told me another shocking news.. Bear with me folks.

I was just a routine checkup, I went there, said hi to the lady at the counter and tell her why I'm there. That lady just worked there I think, looking at her feebleness with paperworks as well as the fact that she doesn't know that PowerBooks can run without battery if you plug in the charger. Anyway, a few minutes later Barry the doctor came out from the inside and greeted me. Apparently he thought I came for the battery and explained to me that the replacement was still in California and I still had to wait a few weeks for the transplant. So I told him about the problem and he immediately took my Mac and had it diagnosed.. a peculiar one I must say. He plugged in the charger, pushed the power button and held the Mac next to his ear before calling me. He said:

Your Hard Disk is dying.. I can hear the sound. It's just the matter of sooner or later... It must've been through a lot of vibration..

I was stupefied.. What did I do wrong? Then almost suddenly came the image of my laptop being dropped in Jakarta and the time when my cousin throw it a few months ago appeared in my mind.. Oh shit. I guess Barry must've knew how I felt, he was after all the doctor: it's his job telling people sad stories like this. I asked him what the options are and he said that I should leave my Mac with him for the weekends and he'll do some diagnosis to see if there are any more problems with it and he also mentioned that a replacement hard disk shouldn't be that expensive.. I must say I'm somewhat relieved.

So after signing a few paperwork here and there, I left my baby with the doctor, my feeling both of hope and worry. Well folks, my Mac is 19 days short of his 1st birthday and yet I already had to go through all this.. do I regret purchasing a Mac? No.

The thing is, you really need to know your stuffs. You wouldn't dream that your laptop would outlive your desktop would you? Why? A desktop is stationary and the only time it moved is probably when you kicked it the last time it hanged. A laptop on the other hand travel with you and thus, moves constantly so I'm not really shocked at the thought of it needing repair at such a short while. Another fact is, PowerBook G4s and the new MacBook Pro is a little bit more fragile than the previous PowerBooks like the G3s which is very very durable at the expanse of form. Therefore, if you consider yourself to be abusive or careless, do consider the MacBook instead of the MacBook Pro which I believe is more durable due to the plastic outer case compared to the other's aluminum. Heck, why would you need MacBook Pro for? It's big, powerhungry and yes powerful. The only thing you do with computers is browse MySpace and chat right? Don't waste the extra power, go for MacBook folks.

Anyway, it's only been a few hours but I've already missed my Mac.. Get well soon dear! I miss you!

In Class with Farrah Adeeba

Class is over! Heck, the week is over. Anyway, I was supposed to attent FTV 111 for screening but my Journalism lecturer ask me to come to his class for a mock press conference with Farrah Adeeba who turned out to be his in law. Farrah who? Well, she's the lady in Wanita Hari Ini perviously and now hosts Mecari Menantu and Akedemi Al-Quran on TV9. Ask your mum, she should probably have an idea.

Anyway, I didn't asked her many questions unlike my TV-presenter-aspirant female friends who asked her about everything and whatelse in between. I simply asked her what did her parents' reaction when she moved from being a lwayer to a TV presenter, on her move from TV3 to TV9 as well as her take on reality TV.. simple stuffs. Well, she's a nice lady I must say and she do have superb English which I think a feature that some local presenters lack. She is also very conservative from her notion that censorship should be tighter.. but I think as you grow older and have kids you do want censorship to be a bit higher.

Well, that's my first experience with a TV personality. I must say that if she is really like what I think she is and her colleagues are also like that, I will believe a little bit more about what I see on TV. And oh, about the picture.. If you are wondering why I didn't take picture with her, refer back to my posting "Weird weird stuffs" topic number 4:

I feel awkward when I'm with girls. Maybe it's because I think I have a low self-esteem.. maybe it's because I spent 5 years with boys. Maybe it's just me.

Haha.. Anyway, who ever said Limkokwing is a party place? We invite good people like Farrah Adeeba here. Heck, we even had Nik Aziz once. Bestkan belajar sini?

Anyway, have a nice weekend folks!

Labels: media

Last night, I dined in Hell

Well, not really but I will gladly and proudly say that I am among the first Malaysians to see the movie 300. You haven't heard of 300? I pity you.. You ought to get out of the tempurung once in a while dude, this movie is utterly awesome!

The movie is set in Sparta during that age when people kill each other manly using swords. People now are cowards, they shoot from afar and then hide behind walls.. Sheesh! Anyway, though the timeline is real the movie was based on Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name and not some history books which makes the movie more of a fantasy movie along the same line as Lord of the Rings and what not. It tells about a Spartan king who went to war against an invading Persian army which is quite typical actually if not for the fact that the Spartans consisted of 300 soldiers while their adversary is within a million. Yes, it is true but before your logic start to fire up, remind yourself that this is a fantasy movie where imposible is nothing and they just do it.

So that's about everything you need to know. If I say more I might as well ruin the ending for you isn't it? Well, what's cool about this movie to me is not actually the story line which is quite predicable but infact it is the cinematography.. It is silver screen art at its best. The dark colours, the stop motion, the impossible nature, the gruesome Persian horde, the larger than life King Xerxes with his harems.. It is stunning.

Anyway, the movie is 18PL and there's a reason for it. This movie is definately not the movie you want to bring your primary school syblings or parents for that matter since the scenes are horrific and yup, disturbing. Honestly disturbing. Nevertheless, the censorship board did a good job by not slaughtering the movie; most explicit scenes are still intact, they only cut one scene which involves a nude girl with some horny old men. Thank God.. that is disturbing indeed.

Anyway, enough chating folks. Get off that couch and go se this movie. Meanwhile, I think I'll go for Mukhsin la pulak.

Labels: media

I would walk.. would you?

..I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles
To fall down at your door..

Well, the lyrics were quite unappropriate for this posting but hell, thats the only song I could think of now that have anything to do with walking.

So what did this crazy bugger do that had to do with walking? Well, last week my friend Rasyiq did an astounding feat of human willpower by walking from MMU to Limkokwing and it took him a full hour to do so. I must admit, I'm impressed with you Rasyiq.

Anyway, yesterday I lepak at the library for a little too long and by the time I got out the college was somewhat deserted so I figure the bus would probably be late.. so I waited for it before an idea popped up: Hey, if Rasyiq can why can't I? Yes of course, I had the most briliant idea to walk all the way back from Limkokwing to Cyberia which is a few hundred meters more than Rasyiq's fanstastic voyage.

I started walking at 6.30 sharp using the long way.. which is something I regret since there's a short cut that could've cut 10 minutes off my trip but I kept on walking anyway. There's a lot of traffic at that time since all these people just finished work and are going back to their homes. The must've been really focusing on their destination since none noticed a peculiar fat kid walking all by himself in the middle of nowhere. I guess that happen when you drive.. Walking makes me realized there's a lot to see along the way which of course is just a blur when you're driving at 100 km/h.

To make a long walk short, I finally arrived at Cyberia exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes later at a distance of aproximately 6 kilometres. The whole trip by car? Less than 5 minutes. Yes, my friends said that I am crazy and some doesn't even belive that I did it but I did it for myself.. to prove to myself that I'm still capable of doing things as I had been able to do before. This isn't my first time walking long distance. The longest I ever did was back in Form 3 where I walk from just after Kuala Kangsar's toll plaza all the way to MCKK carrying a backpack on my back and two other bags on each of my hands. That trip took me 2 and a half hour. In KL, during Form 2 I walked from Pudu to KLCC.. but that is in the city, you don't really notice the distance.


Anyway, I really think I should do this thing more as an exercise. Compared to my MCKK days, I walked a lot less now. Isn't it guys? 3 years ago New Hostel to Fajar and back was easy right? So why should it be hard now?

Weird weird stuffs

Thanks Pcha.

Rules & Regulations:
Each player of this game starts out by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog!

6 weird things about Amir Hadi Azmi

1. I love teddy bears. I really do and I don't see any problem for a man to do so. Faggish? Who are you to say what's fag or not? Guys who think that way really need to dig more into their sensitive side.. but most of them are afraid to.

2. I sleep with the lights on. It's not that I'm afraid of the dark.. but I find it easier to wake up to a bright shining room instead of a cool, dark room.

3. I write in Malay on my blog when I'm angry or pissed off at something. It feels more natural to do so in that language rather than in English.

4. I feel awkward when I'm with girls. Maybe it's because I think I have a low self-esteem.. maybe it's because I spent 5 years with boys. Maybe it's just me.

5. I'm destined for greatness. I really really believe so.. and you should to.

6. I feel old though I'm just 18. I look back at my college life and it felt as if it was 10 years ago.. I look back at my childhood and it felt like it was 50 years ago. I think I need help.

I think I could write a lot more if the topic was what irritates me since there are a lot of things that could make me lose my nerves. For example, all these people in the library.. I wish I could make them shut up.

Now, who should I tag.. hurm..

A spot of bother

Shit.. my Mac's Bluetooth is not working. Please, please, please don't die on me.. It's not even a year yet! Hurm, I guess I really need to pay the Apple Store another visit this weekend.

Now, I really hate this feeling.. it's irritating! I know I'm not using the damn Bluetooth right now, but the thought and sight of the dead Bluetooth icon on my menu bar is really really bothering. It's like a drop of soup on your pristine white shirt; people might not notice it but you act as if the whole world is watching. Argghhh!!

Let me take some time to cool of ya? I'll be back soon.

Buat kawan-kawan..

I blogged offline yesterday from my room and intended to post it today.. but when I read it back, there's something wrong with it.. it's like it doesn't have a soul like when I'm writing online. I wonder..

I just finished my Information Age class where we discussed on what really constitutes the term Information age. Really, really philosophical that class I have to admit but it is also my favourite together with Journalism. Anyway, in a nutshell we learnt that the notion Information Age is actually quite vague and can be contradicted.. People had been using information for years and years. Then why only now is the Information Age? That's the main arguement.

Anyway, this morning I woke up quite late actually. Walid was already up which quite amaze me since I rarely wake up later than him but hey, I'm happy for him. Keisha and Arif came to my house since she asked for me to help her with some of her work.. which I honestly admit that I did reluctant and half-heartedly. You should notice by now right Keisha? I'm sorry, but it's just not me you know, to do that kind of stuff.

It bothers me actually sometimes when I see my friends being idle and lazy.. to see my friends not going to class, to see them slack at assignments, to see them do a crappy work to send to their lecturers just for the sake of passing up. It really do bother me. How can they live like that? They argue that the tuition fees is expensive, they argue that the lecturers are not good enough and they argue that doing arts is better than science.. but still they slack. Betul, aku sedih. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm holier-than-thou or anything as such and by friends, I am also talking about all of my friends; budak Limkokwing, budak Koleq..

I admit I too didn't go to classes sometimes, but I always kept it in a way that it wouldn't ouweight the number of classes I went to. I hate being marked as being the lazy kid in class, as the one who slack at work, as the one who doesn't have commitment. I've been in that position in MCKK and I know how it felt like so I don't want to go through that again. I realized all this when I was watching Green Street Hooligans during my 1st semester where there was this scene when Elijah Wood was at Harvard and he looked at his Journalism assignment. On that report, his lecturer wrote this "This is a graduate material. Are you sure you haven't work before? Call me and I'll have you work for me". I paused the movie and I said to myself that I want to get something like that. I really really want to and so after that I worked hard for my assignments to get me to that point.

Come on guys, it's not that hard to go to class.. it's not hard to wake up in the morning.. Heck, you guys even drive to class while I took the bus. I waited an hour for a bus at that shimering hot bus stand. You guys can go anytime you want at the fraction of the time. So why not? Come on guys.. Let's move on ya?

Russians in paradise

I stumbled upon this from the Friendster buletin by my friend, TJ.

A Brit, a Frenchman and a Russian are
viewing a painting of Adam and Eve
frolicking in the Garden of Eden.

"Look at their reserve, their calm,"
muses the Brit. "They must be British."

"Nonsense," the Frenchman disagrees.
"They're naked, and so beautiful.
Clearly, they are French."

"No clothes, no shelter," the Russian
points out, "they have only an apple to
eat, and they're being told this is
paradise. They are Russian."

I wish my sister could quote on this matter. Haha..

Hectic, Hectic Life

Hectic, hectic life. I just finished Malaysian Studies just now so as usual, I'm off to the library. My usual spot is taken by some college official doing some official stuff so I had to scavenge for another spot. Hurm, I should call that Apple store to get my battery soon..

I don't know why but my days are getting boring and boring each day. I don't know what to write! It's like a massive writer's block came crashing down on my head. Splat! Thank God Alepadha was kind enough to ring me last night and we chat and chat and chat for 45 minutes on all the crazy topic that we always talk about. It's fun really.. like stumbling upon an oasis in the middle of the desert. Thanks Alep! Anyway, I tried to start conversation with a few of my other friends through SMS but I somehow didn't manage to gain their interest enough for them to even text me back. Maybe they're busy, maybe they don't have credits, maybe they're on the line with their significant other or maybe they just plainly hates me.. Maybe not.

As far as my study life is going, I can say that it is pretty smooth. As of today, none of the lecturer have any bad impression of me yet though one tutor did called me asking me why I wasn't in her class last week. I have my reasons and no, I didn't give excuses. There's a different there, reason and excuse but most educators I met would simply ommit the former as merging it all as the latter.

Why weren't you in class? Because I didn't come to class. Where were you? I was not in the class. What are you doing? I was doing something else

Well, that's not what I told her la, but I think it sounds cool. Haha.. Anyway, there was a quiz on that subject yesterday and though the tutor did have a discouraging tone on me, I believe that I answered all question terrifically.

So anyway, I'm hoping things will brighten up later.. I hate living like this.

Kurasa Raksasa!

Catchy name isn't it? Well, Kurasa Raksasa is shall we say an art group formed among others by a friend of mine, Ben. It consisted of him and 3 other Limkokwing students who of course, are deeply in love with arts. From an observer's observation I can say that they're art is mostly in the league of wondermilk with interests such as lomography and stencils. In their own word, they described themselves as:

We make tshirts, (conteng) shoes, and C said she might do dresses and jewelleries, and also underwear, but we'll see about that!

We can pimp your sneakers. Plain, brand new, beaten up, bleached, torn, whatever, we can make it oh-so-pretty. Just msg us for more info.

This page is moderated by 4 achingly brilliant individuals. We don't bite and we don't discriminate. Our love for art and money is compare-able to John Lennon's love for Yoko Ono. We think

Anyway, they've just starting out and is currently selling their oh-so-cool t-shirts as what you can see from the pictures, priced RM 20 each. It was sold out during the KLJam concert last week so you know it has to be very good. Go ahead and have a look at their MySpace site by clicking the picture.

So come on people, promote this group of young individuals. It's so much better than supporting those pelumba motor haram don't you think?

Labels: friends, promotion

Of Mates and Meters

Phewh! Yesterday was tiring indeed. I was in KL most of the day to meet Neet and we spent the whole day photographing. Haha.. how cool is that? It turned out that she enjoyed the whole dating-cum-photographing idea which is quite a relief for me. Why? Well, not all people tolerate photographers. Some of my friends get iritated walking with me since I would just stop all of the sudden and snap pictures.. again and again. Some even hate to see me tinkering my camera! Well, I can't blame them so I avoid them if I'm in the mood to shoot and go out with someone who apreciates photography instead. And that includes you Neet, thank you!

Anyway, forgive me for being photography centric all of the sudden. It's just that I'm really really in the mood to it now and I believe my writing reflects that very much. It's normal right? You just bought a new camera of course you'd be crazy over it. Remember when I just got this Mac? Go figure. Anyway, I learnt from marketing that regrets are a normal part of purchasing behaviour. Everyone regrets over their purchase at one point and so did I since last night, I've read rumours that Nikon is coming out with an updated version of Nikon D40, dubbed the D40x. Haha.. I hate it when that happen but hey, it's normal folks and you'll get over it soon enough.

Last night I stumbled upon a Nikon D40 owner's forum on Flickr and decided to join. It's great to be in a little club you can call your own and from other D40 owners photo posted there, I'm very happy to see what the camera is capable of.. in the right hand of course. It also reminded me on how novice I am compared to other people. Nevermind, we live and we learn and from yesterday's experience I learnt how to meter my photos (decide on the lighting et al) and who knows what today'll bring. It's fun to learn folks.. honestly!

Feel free to see my pictures over at my Flickr page. Just click on the picture up there and do leave comments ya? I would really appreciate it.

Labels: photography

Ultraman

Today was Screening day! Well, to all you Science students out there a Screening class is when you come to class to watch movies. How sweet is that? I bet it's a few times more fun than your chemicalish, frog slaughtheringish class right? That's the sweet life of a Mass Comm student.

Today before the movie we discussed on the latest movie everyone had seen and the most probable answer was of course, Ghost Rider. There was this debate with one side saying that it is crap while the other side is praising it for its superb technicalities. Well, I haven't watched that movie myself but from the arguement, I can conclude that the movie is great techincally, but it fails in storytelling.

Anyway, from that arguement came the topic of metaphors in films since my friend Zain insisted that the director was a mere fanboy who doesn't include any metaphorical qualities in the movie apart from flash bang bang. My lecturer then brought up this topic on Ultraman. Yes folks, we brilliant folks here do discuss about Ultraman in class, with our lecturer.

Well, I never thought of this but Mr. Eric definitely have a great understanding about metaphors in Ultraman. Ultraman came about after the world war when Japan was under huge sanction by the Allied forces, especially the United States. Life then was hard and people need something to look up to.. and the were given Ultraman.

If you remember Ultraman, you can see that his outfit's colour is red and silver.. just like the Japanese flag. Yes, of course the flag is has white instead of silver. Want to know why? Silver is the common colour people will associate with technology so in this case, Ultraman symbolizes a technological Japan in a form of a huge superhero.

Then came the monsters. As we all know, the monster would usually come from some factory due to some animals got infected by radiation and stuff so it became gigantic and thus wreck havoc on the Japanese land. In every episode it would be almost the same stuff with cities destroyed and all that catastrophe. Sounds familiar? Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Both got banged by a nuclear bomb and were utterly destroyed not to mention several other cities that got bombed every day. That's the idea of the monster. You remember some of these monster came from the sea? That's another metaphor. If you go east from Japan through the sea, where would you land? Bingo. United States of America. So there's where those monsters came from..

And so Ultraman will fight off the monster and in every episode, he would fail the first time and then suddenly he'll get back on his feet and beat the monster before throwing the carcass into the sun (or other similar stars).. Japan, Land of the Rising Sun. Go figure.

Well, inevitably Ultraman is a symbol of a new Japan that is based on technological advancement as well as something the Japanese people can look up on to as a symbol of hope. It is true now that Japan, after the World War managed to get back on its feet and became a very successful nation, just like Ultraman.

Now, what about Cicakman.. what does it tell about our people?

Mid Semester Blues

Today isthe first day of March. Bye bye February, nanti kita jumpa lagi ya? Anyway, I'm writing from a cybercafe in Sri Kembangan since rumah I belum masuk Internet. Kesian kan? I don't really like blogging in cybercafes since there's too many eyes prying and I really feel awkward with the keyboard and the whole PC for that matter. Hurm, what to do..

Anyway, I have no class today. I used to hate Thursdays since Sekolah Rendah but somehow this semester fate decided to make a little change and I love Thursdays! Actually I plan to go to KL with a friend to snap some pictures but since he's a tad busy I cancel the plan altogether. Why? It's not really save actually, walking around the capital alone with a camera dangling around your neck and yes, it is boring to do that alone as well as someone who can be a model for me to shoot. Too bad all my friends have classes today..

Well, as for classes I'm a really good student. I go to most classes on time but I am having a problem with this MCI 101 course. I find it too boring and the things they tought is of common sense.. plus the lecturer, I think she'd be better off in a Sekolah Menegah if she want to teach the way she do. But hey, I paid so kena lah belajar. Anyway, I found out that I really need to practice more on academic writing since from my last report, I figured that I write mostly from the heart, like this blog. In academic writing, you need to write with your brain, no rooms for emotions folks..

Mid-semester crisis? Maybe.