Study Week

Currently, I'm in my study week period in UTP, which started on Monday.

So yeah, gotta study. I'm going to have 2 final exams every week for the next three weeks.

Digital Electronics, Health, Safety and Environment, Structured Programming, Vector Calculus, Microelectronic Devices and Circuits and Network Analysis.




Currently having a vendetta against Network Anal-lysis as I busted its derivative last semester, Circuit Theory.

HSE sounds like a real trouble for memorizing.

DGE demands knowledge on combinational and sequential gate logic design. Pretty tough.

SP.....
for(i=0; i<= 10, i++);
printf("I need more exercises on flowchart, pseudocode and writing the program itself\n"):
return 0;

Vector Calculus. A straightforward subject. I wish my total understanding on it is the same though.

MDC. The lecturer has leaked, for the most part, the topics that's going to come out in the exam. It should be easy, or at least straightforward. It better be.

Wish me luck, everyone.

Family Vacation on 31st August Public Holiday

I just found out that I haven't posted anything in this blog regarding my country's celebration of 50 years' of independence....

What, you don't know?

Well, I dunno whether my blog here is cool enough that people from all over the world(read:those outside Malaysia) actually come and read my blog once in a while. Come to think about it, do they even know that I'm from Malaysia? Guess that reminds me that I still haven't properly introduced to the blogging community the who, what, where and when I ams yet. It's not like much of them will take notice anyway...

But back to business. Yeah,on 31st August 2007, Malaysia celebrated its 50 years of independence from the occupation of Britain...well, British people. Well, whatever. Every year, the date 31st August is welcomed by all Malaysians(since it's a public holiday, which means one day off your job) and is celebrated throughout the country(who doesn't want public holidays anyway?). There are parades held in the capital Kuala Lumpur, attended by the Prime Minister and his cronies, with colourful participation by the military and armed forces, students, supermarket mascots, and so, and so, and so....you know the drill...

However, since this year's significantly special, you could see that the same kind of stuff were happening again, except that this time it's bigger, brighter, flashier, longer, more colourful and whatever other superlative words that I was too lazy to type in. Parades are held in(if I'm not mistaken)all of the main cities in evey state, and many crazy stuff took off, like fireworks display competition in Penang, for instance. Hell, my uni (UTP) even tried to do its part my amassing a mountain of used diskettes and made a huge Malaysian flag out of it(it's not like the diskettes are useful for anything else anyway...).

But I don't want to talk about those things actually (The hell....I pretty much done talking about it already!).

During the Independence celebrations, my family and I went to Penang for a family holiday. It's been a real while since all of us got the chance to go on a family trip together, so I'm pretty much grateful that this year's public holiday came aroundback-to-back with the weekends, so all of us were free to go on a vacation. On 30th August, my family from KL went to fetch me at UTP before making it straight to Penang.

The first thing I noticed about Penang was how similar in development it is with Johor Bahru(my actual hometown), and how equally crowded it is. The trip through the Peneng Bridge alone took away about half an hour's worth of my life. Then, going around the main citywe made our way to the Penang Grand COntinental Hotel, where my dad has already booked two rooms for all of us. During that time, there wasn't much to look around in the city, except the iconic Komtar tower standing tall among the old shophouses and its inhabitants in the firework-coloured sky(wow....that's pretty artistic no?). So we made it to Grand Continental, get our bags to our rooms, bathed and prayed and then slept. End of Day One.

Day two.

A view of the city from my room window.

We all woke up late today(Not really...we all did woke up for Subuh prayers...but then we slept back). So around 10 am we went out of the hotel. Our first destination that day, was....Lorong Kulit.

It's my dad who's all hyped up to go there; my bro and sis and I didn't even know such a road esisted, but there you are. Lorong Kulit turned out to be nothing more than your average makeshift street market, selling stuff like pirated Pantene shampoos to handphone casings to drinks and shirts. There was really nothing special there, just your average market stuff. Either way, bought some drinks and after high boredom levels get the better of my dad(and much insistence from my mom and all of us), we went somewhere else.

Lorong Kulit.

After Lorong Kulit, we went to several various places, but didn't stick around long enough at any one place. We went to Bukit Bendera, but most of us were too lazy to go up till the top of the hill. We stopped somewhere to buy some ice creams, then went to Teluk Bahang. We stopped at some beach which name I couldn't remember much, and later went further inland, and came up with...



A dam! The Teluk Bahang dam!

Sure, it's just a dam, nothing much to give a dam about. Still, it was my first time(as far as I can remember anyway) that I actually come up close with a dam, so of course I was a bit more than just jakun naturally.

My dad drove up till the top, parked and took some family pics. My sis and bro and I went camwhoring ourselves, now that we've got our Nokia N76s.

My dad taking our group pic with the dam front at the background.

Me with the dam as the background.

Another view of the dam.

Man, the wind was so strong here, if I was ten times lighter than my current weight now, I could've flown away. It's like a scene outta Titanic, minus Jack, Rose, expendable extras, cheesy acting, stray icebergs and the Titanic itself.


After that, we stopped at yet another beach (or port, not so sure..) before driving back to the town. Dropped by at the Church Street Pier to throw small and large water(aka going to the toilet...hehehe) and later went to the supposedly famous Liner Clear 24 Hours Nasi Kandar joint to enjoy the delicacies it offered and perhaps get my cholestrol levels a bit higher or so....

The Church Street Pier front.

The Line Clear Nasi Kandar Restaurant

How the inside of the restaurant looks like.

Dunno who's this guy. Probably just a local celebrity around here...

Ginger tea aka teh halia.

I also checked around the shops for any latest Gempak or Starz mags, but didn't find any. THe newspapers, meanwhile, were full of stuff about the Independence celebrations - you can see it in the front page alone.




That night, we went out walking around the Penang town, basking in its nightlife. I tried to find some Starz or Gempak mags but to no avail. Anyhow, we had a late dinner(supper) before going back to the hotel.

The next day, we were to go back to KL and JB(in my case, Tronoh). The initial plan was to stick around for another 24 hours, but for reasons known but forgotten, it wasn't so. We spent the cruel morning going to the Komtar, only to find our efforts futile as the place wasn't open yet.

Undeterred, we went to the pier to go out of the island and back to the mainland the way we didn't when going in - by ferry.



Damn!(No, I wasn't talking about the Teluk Bahang one). This was the highlight of this family vacation! This wasn't my first ride on a ferry(with both vehicles and people onboard), since the first one I had was when I went tot Turkey. Then again, at that time, it was at night, I was sleepy and surrounded by folks whom I am too intimidated to ask where the restroom is. This time, it was a clear morning sky, so I can see stuff away as far as my horribly myopic eyes can permit.

The vehicles that were on board the ferry.

A look of the Penang Strait from the ferry.

Me, on the ferry.

Back on the mainland, my dad hooked up with one of his accomplices so the guy could lead us to our final eat-out for this vacation, the restaurant at some place(details forgotten already).

Basically the eatery served you local Penang delicacies along with its main attraction - grilled food. They got pretty much all of the usual stuff here - beef, mutton, squids, fish, children(no they're not on the menu, but they're all over the place).

We ordered drinks and pretty much a little bit of everything. When the food was put on the table, I knew that this would be the moment which I will both enjoy and regret. For one, I'm enjoying good food with my family, a precious experience. Then again, I'm supposed to watch what I'm eating due to high cholesterol levels - and the only thing on the table that I could consume without having health complications here was the drinking water.

Should I eat, or not?

I was in a huge dilemma. A very huge dilemma. Even after all the food was finished and during the trip back to UTP, I'm still in a huge dilemma. Then, back on UTP, I realised that I've already devoured like a third of everything on the table, so I bought several 3-in-1 instant oatmeal beverages to hopefully counter the effect.

So yeah, those pretty much summarises my less-than accurate post on my family vacation. Like all family trips, this one was not without its downs, and mine had a fair share of anger, pissed-offs and dissatisfactions. Then again, what's a family would be without its own ups and downs? No I'm not gonna complain (much) about it being a lousy trip; hell, I suppose it's good enough that we actually had a family vacation together, even if it's not a perfect...

Now I'm waiting for my dad for a family vacation overseas....

A moment in an after-Maghrib ceramah

Been a long time since I last posted, but never mind. In case you didn't know, I'm already starting a new semester as a 1st-year 2nd semester EE undergraduate at UTP, which started around a month ago. I've been thinking of updating this blog for a long time, but somehow I didn't seem to get the feeling to do it.

In a period of one month, many things have happened. I had to drop Professional Communication Skills because the subject now are only taught to third-years going to internships. I accidentally let down some of my friends in an incident which I had now regretted fully. I screwed up my online subject registration process and had to go to the ACS to sort things out manually, which, by this time, has already been sorted out. I already had my first Digital Electronics test which I seriously hope that I will score on since the questions were pretty tough. Even today, I had my first Vector Calculus not-so surprise quiz, which I managed to virtually finish perfectly.

And just now, from after the Maghrib prayers till 10.00 pm, I attended a religious ceramah at the UTP mosque. It was (mostly) about Israk Mikraj, and the one giving the ceramah was none other than Dato' Harussani Zakaria, the venerable Mufti of Perak! Boy, am I excited! I'm not just so because a Musfti is actually coming to our university to give talks, but also because DHZ happens to be the most outspoken of his peers in other states. He had commented much abou the issues and maladies concerning Muslims in recent times, and his opinions had been heard by everyone. He was celebrated by many for his audacity, yet he was lambasted in certain quarters for his boldness.

Either way, personally I found him very likeable. He had this aura of friendliness surrounding him, y'know, the aura that all elderly respectable religious teachers always possess.....

The topic was on Israk Mikraj. I've heard stories of this celebrated event in Islamic history, of how Prophet Muhammad SAW travelled in in one night from Makkah to Madinah and up towards the heavens, many times before, but this time, hearing from DHZ, several things which previously I knew none of I know now. Like, I knew that the daily solah was conceived during the Israk Mikraj, but the concept of repentance before death was also done during that moment. Like the solah, the concept of repentance also went though several stages; initially, God said that Muslims who repented a year before their death would be forgiven; after much request from Prophet Muhammad SAW, the time was reduced to only before Death reaches their throats(or something like that - I'm not good with direct translations). Apart from that, DHZ also covered the topic on Adam's creation, Iblis' treachery and Adam and Hawa's descent to earth. I learned again about something which I once knew but forgot - the characteristics of Iblis:

When Iblis swore to God that he would be the mortal enemy of Adam's ancestors, he asked God who would guide humanity and what are the guides based on; God replied that the prophets would guide humanity and the guides would be based on the four Holy Books (Injil, Zabur, Taurat and Furqan). Iblis got confused and asked, what about his kind? Then God replied, for Iblis:

1. Kings would be the one to guide humanity.

2. Fortune tellers would be the base of the guides.

3. The mosque of the Iblis would be places where people congregate for immoral activities.

4. Iblis' call to prayer would be hard music.

5. Iblis' food would be those food which, when eaten, were not started with Basmallah.

6. Iblis' drink would be those which can cause drunkiness.

That's pretty much everything new that I've learnt back then during the ceramah. Even if I didn't learn anything, I still appreciate it. For so long, my soul has been devoid of any spiritual fill; I hadn't taken my required share of constant religious knowledge as of late. Back in the ceramah, listening to DHZ, I felt really alive. My spirit was back to what it used to be. At least for now anyway. And that sudden surge in spirit that prompted me to finally blog again this day.

Salam.

Nuri Crash Tragedy

This happened on Friday, when I was back in JB helping out at my grandma's kenduri arwah.





The guy, Captain Nor Azlan Termuzi, was a distant relative of mine.

As of now, all the bodies had been airlifted and buried.

Allah bless their souls. Al-Fatihah.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! Of course, it is a day late actually...

To Smithereens....

I was reading the NST paper today. There wasn't much that caught my limited attention, except for the new arrival of Perodua Viva, a new, Kancil-style car which I seriously doubt I can fit into. Then I saw this.

Well, the link is up above.

Basically, the piece reported that during the Parlimentary debate between the government and opposition reps about the current fiasco regarding maintenance problems in public offices(leaks, falling ceilings, cracks, you know the drill...), Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) and Datuk Mohd Said Yusuf (BN-Jasin) had both mentioned some stuff which had in effect said:


"Where is the leak, the member for Batu Gajah also leaks once a month."


This was actually in response to Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang(who raised the whole leaky-leaky issues first) but directed to Fong Poh Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah).


My thoughts on this:

1. WTF. WTF dude, WTF. What. The. F**k.

2. Right. Ignoring my less-than-intellligent initial thought above...

Seriously, what gives? That statement shouldn't have been said in the first place! First, it has nothing to do with whatever the other party is arguing about. What's a woman's natural menstrual cycle got to do with crappy leaking public buildings?

Second, it is downright insulting and discriminatory! What is this, sexism? The rep had made fun of what comes natural to all women, and in effect had insulted womankind. Doesn't he know that that was discriminatory? Doesn't he had any respect to women? Doesn't he know anything about being sensitive? Come now! His mother, sister and daughter are all women, no? So what with this sudden crap? Didn't he care about other women's feelings and rights, apart from those close to him(blood-related or not)?

3. This kind of statements made by our politicians show just how crap those holding the powers right now are. It's exactly these kind of stuff that made our Parliment more ridiculous than the average popup spam encountered on the Internet-

But wait, there's more! This particular statement was not written in the link, but in the paper version it was. Datuk Said Yusof(BN-Jasin) has said that:

" I said it in the hear of the debate. I don't see what they are fussing about. They also call us names. Like Kinabatangan (referring to Bung Moktar), they call him Kinabinatangan and 'orang liar'. We never kicked up a fuss then."

So what? Just because you didn't get all riled up because someone called you something less-than-polite doesn't mean that you can make rude statements to others and expects them not to get pissed off because you aren't. Remember, one man's mean is another man's(or, in this case, a woman's) poison. Maybe you're okay with people calling you a 'mangkuk', 'bengong', or even 'mereng', but if other people are given the same treatment, they may get get dissed off. Especially when the person in question is a woman who had her woman-ness(you'll ge tthe idea what it means...my vocabulary is not that good) made fun of. Picture this. If a random hip-hopper suddenly address an old lady as "yo, dog!" , and the old lady got realy upset, would it be logical if the hip-hopper claim innocence to his act cuz his friends did the same thing to him and vice versa?

Well, maybe he could do so, but in the end he'll end up being beaten by the mob around, so what the hell.

Just to conclude this, no wonder our country are going to the dogs. The select idiots holding political power had turned the Parliament from what should've been a platform for serious national discussion and improvement into something less tangible than crap. That's a job well screwed up. Just wait till the people outside Malaysia who don't have the word "WARGANEGARA" on their ICs know about this.

Back from Whatever.

Right. It's been like two straight months since I last posted. No surprise there.

I've been busy doing stuff all thing time; assignments, tests, quizzes...and what other things the average overweight teenager would do.

Now, it's Tuesday, or to be more accurate, Wednesday morning. The next week, I'll be having my finals.

I'll come back with something else that's worth posting about.

Hopefully. Later.

Graduation Ceremoney....

Last Wednesday, I attended my graduation ceremony in the UFO building aka Chancellor Hall.

Nah, I didn't graduate from UTP. Not yet anyway. But I did officially graduate from the Foundation programme to the Undergraduate programme. That's what the ceremony was all about-no, wait, there was also the Dean's list awards.

As you may have guessed, the DLA is given to those who supposedly performed well in their previous semester i.e got a GPA of 3.5 and above. Last semester, in Foundation 2nd, I attended my own DLA. This time, though, I'm only here for the graduation ceremony, so you can guess what happened to my last exams results.


It's not really that bad actually......Whatever! Let the ghosts of past disappointments rest in their graves, For here comes the Future that I will brave!

Well, I did dread this ceremony, or any events of formal nature, simply because it was - formal. See, I didn't have a formal in my wardrobe, and my last one I lost, so I had to go dress-hunting for a long-sleeved, collared shirt which I can fit into. Luckily, my mate Zul, who possess physical qualities and quantities similar to mine, had an extra black one to spare, so finally I was able to attend the ceremony without thoughts of wearing the wrong shirt nagging the back of my head.

On a lesser idiotic note, I did take lots and lots of pictures during the whole ceremony with my trusty Sony Cybershot (albeit broken already). Something like this comes naturally for me; if there is any event that has students attending it on a massive scale, for sure I will bring my camera along, just so I can capture pics and later brag about it to other people.

Pretty much shows how many students turned up for the ceremony(all, minus those who were absent). The guys and girls to the lower right are from my course, Electrical n Electronic Engineering.


Dr. Zainal Abidin bin Haji Kassim, officially and currently UTP's acting Rector.

FINALLY! A close-pic of myself. No, in case you thought otherwise, I was not going insane there. Honest.

This is a calmer-looking me with the IRC (Information Resource Centre, a fancier name for the UTP Library) as the background.


This is Ivan. He seemed kinda pissed off at me taking his pic....well, never mind, it's done already.
My EE mates queueing up to sign their attendances.

I always believe that showing an open camera to anyone can instantly make them friendly to you. I only knew two of these girls(Alia and Rima, both also from SMTJB), yet all of them posed for my camera.


My credit ran out after the ceremony, so I need to use the public instead. Ah, no lah. But it's still a cooler pose than Ivan's.

Sodrohu-at-modelling@utp.com.whatever

Zoodoo! It's been some time since I last posted, no? Well, I've been busy before this, doing assignments, projects and revising for tests and quizzes(and I'll be even busier after this, doing the same exact thing all over again), so I didn't get any quality time for blogging. Well, I did actually got some, but mostly I was busy doing something else instead.


But yah, whatever. Now, I just realised that, after nearly a year of inactive blogging, I still haven't posted anything worthy about my own self. Which, could be a bummer, since my own audiences(read:you!) didn't even know what I like, who my parents are, or whether I am really an exiled Protoss eternally stuck on Earth or just a bluff(This one is no brainer. Really.). Let's just say I don't really like talking about myself. Well, I actually do, but mostly I'm too lazy to do so. But, for starters, let me talk about my current interest first.


Now, you guys may not believe this, but I'm actually into modelling.



No, not that kind of modelling.



This kind of modelling.

For sure.

Yah, currently I'm into those Gundam modelling. I kinda always attracted to the whole business of putting up stuff together, even when I was young, as the whole idea fascinates me. I still remember, when I was a cute lil' kid, my dad brought back from overseas, a skeleton model of a certain sauropod(that's the term given to long-necked, long-tailed, huge herbivore dinasours. Y'know, like a Brachiosaurus...). I had the time of my life putting that thing together. From there, as I grew(mentally and physically obviously....well, mostly physically), I moved to aeroplanes, Tamiya car models(most notable collections include a bigfoot truck and a motorbike replica - all but now lost. Damn!), Legos, K'nex, Zoids(still got all but one of them) and now....Gundams.


Now, as you guys may have guessed, this kind of hobby is frickingly expensive. I'm just able to be into it cuz I got monetary backup(read: my dad's money and Petronas scholarship loan) for it. Of course, even so, I didn't just go model frenzy and buy every decent-looking model I saw on the shelf - I only buy them every now and then. Then again, I suppose, costly or cheap, it's still a good hobby - it's not like I'm killing anyone when buying models anyway.

Why am I into this? Well, I guess that putting up models gives me a sense of satisfaction. Just imagine the feeling you get when you have finally finished constructing something good-looking out of tens of little pieces of plastic - I mean, assuming that it does turn out right. I always feel kinda euphoric whenever I finished putting together a model - holding the model in my hands, comparing how big and detailed it is, and how the joints move and the colours shine, knwoing that this is for real, and not just some imagination. It's like getting high on a crack, except that this one doesn't screw up your brain.

As of now, at my room in UTP, I have three models. I have about a dozen more at my house in JB, but for now, here's my immediate ones:

A group pic of them - kinda blurry tho.


Asshimar, without its beam rifle and stand. Yeah, I know the name sounds....weird....but it is nice looking. At least, I find it so. Those orange coverings look cooler if they aren't orange, tho.



Blaze Zaku Phantom. This one I brought all the way from JB, though I bought it at Singapore. Nice design of shoulder shields and awesome looking. It belongs to the CE timeline of the Gundam series. Go Wikipedia for further details.



Kerberos BuCuE Hound. Has three heads, but only the front one works. Even that one falls off easily. Kinda unique design tho.


A pic of all the Boxes. You can see the code name for Asshimar there.

Rcon id teh best!

Last week, or the week before, or the week before the week before that, the local entertainment industry was a bit shaken when a talk show about celebrities was taken off from a local TV station when one of the artists unwittingly made comments that were said to insult Sayyidina Khadijah, Prophet Muhammad’s first wife. The show went under heavy fire, particularly from Muslim groups who viewed the incident as blasphemous. I’m not sure whether the editor apologized or not, but the actress did, which may or may not cool the situation down.

Me? Well, basically I do felt incensed over the whole issue, since the actress herself was a Muslim, and should knew better than to release such remarks. But that is not exactly the issue I’m trying to bring up now.

Now, what really pissed me off was the TV programme itself. It’s another show about entertainment, damnit! Come now, do we seriously need another one of those? We’ve already have lots of equivalent shitty TV shows around, do we still have room for more? One only needs to look at the past local shows we’ve already got: entertainment programs (AF, AF2, AF3, AF4, and the new AF5, Malaysian Idol, Gang Starz, Who will Win), gossip shows and detestable local dramas with wrong messages (read: Dunia Baru!).

Come now. Hadn’t our society been spoon-fed with enough useless crap already? Hadn’t our society been preoccupied with enough entertainment already? Hadn’t the producers made enough money to last seven generations already? Isn’t it time to think about having more quality, education-centered TV shows already? It’s so sad that that producers nowadays are only concerned about making money, and not about the betterment of the attitude of their audiences.

Back when I was still a cute, happy, primary schooler, I used to watch National Geographic on TV3 at 9 pm every Wednesday. I so freakingly loved the programme, so much that at 9 every Wednesday, I would cease operating whatever I was doing at that time and go watch the show start, its trademark opening theme song blaring in my ears, and I would be glued in front of the CRT TV set for an entire hour, oblivious to anything happening in this world except obviously a blackout. Now, the show’s gone, and even though I can still access NG through Astro Satellite TV (who ironically also brought forward AF and what other crap I’d rather not put here), I do and still miss the TV3 one, with its Malay subtitles and all….

What I am talking about is that, why can’t we have more quality TV programmes? Last I checked, there are not many local documentaries that are shown in TV stations…well, popular ones, that is. TV1 and TV2, which are government-owned, have quite a number of local knowledge-based shows, but these often escaped most people’s notice(mine included) since most people only watch TV3 and NTV7, and perhaps TV8 and TV9 also. I’m not saying that the swasta TV stations don’t have any good shows (TV3 got Majalah 3 and MedikTV, and NTV7 got Edisi Siasat, to name a few….). It’s just that, since they know that many people tune in to their channels, the producers ought to put in some quality documentaries that teach the audiences about new stuff, be it local or foreign. I’d say that shows from NG (Built for the Kill, Wild Planet, other NG specials) or Discovery (Power Zone, the popular Mythbusters, Extreme Engineering, to name a few…) would be suitable for the task, or at least put in entertainment shows that are heavily themed on engineering which can garner interest among its audiences (Robot Wars, Monster Garage, Junkyard Wars). Sure, being an engineer wannabe, I tend to be biased towards shows with lots of engineering and technical themes, but I’d welcome any decent documentaries that can educate its viewers.

I seriously hope that things will change for the better. Since its creation, TV had shaped the mentality of many generations of people. It is the perfect tool for propaganda and brainwash; kids who grew up watching lots of television either end up as better humans of downright psychos, depending on what they watched. Knowing this, we must be the one in control of the TV, not the other way around. And I’d say, if you’re going to brainwash the masses, put in stuff that can at least make them think more and dawdle less.

Zalutations!

Robocon R' Sodrohu

I got two good news to share with the world today.

My mom has finally recovered from her illness. Whether it was really dengue or not, I will never knew, since she was down with symptoms that hinted dengue but the doctors never really determined whether it was really dengue or not. Either way, I'm thankful that she's now healthy....well, not exactly, but otherwise much better than previous.

I has finally joined the Robocon marketing team.

*waits for any signs of amazement, surprise or whatever...*

Right. It's not like I was expecting any anyway. Anyway, for those who don't know, Robocon is one of the biggest engineering events in UTP, aside from FSAE and EDX. You can easily guess what it's all about; building robots and later putting them into competitions. Of course, all the competitions currently involve stuff like stacking donut-shaped styrofoams in pillars, line tracking and the like, so it's definitely not like Robot Wars or BattleBots. A pity, but hey, this is as close as you get to the real thing, so I might as well not complain!

I've been drooling to get into the damn team even before entering UTP! Naturally during my first Foundation sem I tried for the interview but failed to secure a seat. Now I've made a comeback and this time I succeeded!


Well, initially I was vying for the technical team instead. However, I realised that being in the marketing team gives me the equal exposure to robotics, robots and the makings of one as me in the technical team. Besides, I heard the technical people are pressured to finish their projects fast and on time, so I guess I can relax a bit if I joined the marketing team.

Just last night we had our first meeting, and get introduced to our boss (president), old timers (seniors) and department heads (dept heads). What I didn't really like is that I am relegated to the Decorations dept - initially a serious blow to my image. I was hoping that I would get Logistics instead! However, as fate would have it, the Deco dept and the Logs dept was combined since there are only two new people in the Logs dept - and the seniors are often absent. So even if I am not in Logs, I can still have a shot at it, have a go at it - not a bad turnout indeed.

Why am I so excited anyway? Guess I am really obsessed with robotics - real or otherwise. I collect mecha models at home and I intended to put some in my room too, just for the sake of showing off. And once I'm in Robocon, I'm going to try and build my own robot - a wheeled one, then maybe a hexapod of a quadrapod.

Okies then, chiaou!

My thigh muscles are sore from jogging.

Everyone, listen up.

Sodrohu Kaiser would like to announce to the Earth-world that yours truly has moved to a new room.

.......

...right, enough formalities already.

What's this? Switching to a new room, all of a sudden! Why? Don't you have anything better to do?

Well, to answer my own questions, I say that I had my own reasons to switch rooms, and that my ex-roomate Zul, and the previous occupant of my new room, Izhar, and I had a mutual agreement together and decided to go with my transfer. Now I'm living in Izhar's room, and Izhar in my old room with Zul. Yes, I do have better stuff to do, but let me finish this post first.

Coming back from self Q&A session...

Oh, I'd say! This is the first night I am going to spend in my new room! For those who want to know but otherwise too lazy to ask, my new room is a single room type, meaning that I, apart from a few million bedbugs and what other microscopic organism, am the sole inhabitant of this particular confined space! What's so exciting about that? Owning a room all to yourself opens up a whole world of new things that you previously could only dream of:

1. Pull out an all-nighter without any regard for sleeping roommates.

2. Listen to whatever audio crap you want, minus your mate's complaints.

3. Let your room become a mini version of the Pengkalan Nangka Landfill without the additional noise pollution from ultra-mates.

4. Do stuff in your room naked.

5. Have ultra-cool models furnishing your cabinet.

.........and what other reasons my brain cannot recall right now.

But yeah, like changes do, there're always some sort of remorse and regret plagueing the back of my brain when I finally switched to my new room, whispering stuff like "the old room is so much better what" and stuff. And I had to admit, certain features that my old room has do make me sometimes feel like regretting my decision. For one, uh....how should I say this.......well, I've been living around a bunch of noisy- I mean, outspoken group of people, and even though I prefer a quiet environment, I must say that I had actually come to miss the perpetual din and random screams, laughs and badly-sung songs. Besides, they're quite a cheerful bunch, who never mind helping out at troubles and know each other well. They might not be the best study mates, but they make excellent buddies. And I know I'll miss them people like Apan, who occasionally raided our room and steal Zul's pillow, and Minod, who often came to our room, had some chat and maybe smoked(when I'm not around).

Ah, those were the good days.

Still, trying not to sound too pessimistic, I really hope that this sudden transfer will fulfil its goals. What goals? Well I'm not going to say what they actually are, but maybe later I'll disclose it to the public.

Assalamualaikum!

I'm down with sinusitis.

I am freaked out.

Last week, my mom was admitted into the Ampang Putri Specialist Hospital because she had been suspected of being down with dengue.

I am still freaked out.

I mean, I thought she was only having a common fever when my dad called, telling me that she was sick. Then, when I called her, I knew something out of the ordinary must’ve been up when she mentioned that she ‘s having recurring fevers. No amount of courage is still enough to prepare me for knowing what her sickness is.

After the Friday prayers I went to Medan Gopeng to secure an immediate ticket to Kuala Lumpur and arrived there around 9 at night. By that time my mom, sis and Mak Som were on their way to APSH to secure a ward. I didn’t feel like visiting her immediately since I’m tired from the journey, and my body gave off quite an interesting smell anyway. So I had dinner and went back to our apartment.

The following day (Saturday), my brother (who also secured an immediate ticket to KL and arrived at noon) and I went to visit my mom in the ward. My sis didn’t go with us as she’s gotten exams that day. She seemed to be fine, though a bit pale, but still her usual self nonetheless. I was relieved to see that she was okay; not that I’ve been expecting anything worse, but yeah.

Despite this, I am still worried. Dengue is an insect-borne illness that has killed thousands, perhaps millions, in the past, and still continued to plague our society today. It’s bad enough that my mom isn’t completely healthy in the first place; now she’s down with even another deadlier disease.

Then again, it’s not like I can blame anyone. More than anything, I should take this as a test from God to me, to test my somewhat patched-up faith. Lately I had not been a faithful Muslim as I had used to be, and I knew that sooner or later something like this will crop up. Well, here it is; it him me, and hit me hard. But yeah, hopefully I will overcome this, and that nothing worse will happen to me or anyone else for the matter.

As of now, my mom is now back in our home in JB. She’s been given a week-long leave to give her some rest. Guess the current educational system isn’t that cruel actually anyway.

I'm still down with gout.

Happy New Year to everyone who's reading this right now! Well, not that I'm expecting many, since I'm as much as active posting here as a sloth would go and clean itself of algae every month, and it's been 2007 for nearly a week already, so I'm damn late now, but still, don't let the depressions of the real life get to you and be happy!

Now, it's been a long time since my last post, which was primarily about my vacation to Jakarta that didn't feel like one. Turned out it was never going to be a vacation at all - I didn't goto Jakarta that is.

What happened was that, when I made it all the way to KLIA with my mom, Mak Som(she's the woman whose family relation to me I didn't feel like explaining since I'm too lazy - for limited reference see previous post)and her son and daughter, we waited for some time till almost one pm. I even had time to perform the Zuhur prayer - or was it jama' Zuhur-Asar prayer? Anyway after we all finished with our prayers, the travel agent was already there to gather in all the group members and take our passports.

Turned out that my passport cannot be used since it only had five months before its expiry date, which was in May. See, for international travel, your passport must have a period of at least six months before it can be used. Now who the hell came up with that arcane rule? One of the officers there explained that if I still want to go, I can renew my passport at Sepang and join the travel group later, since my ticket seat is still valid for another month, but as I didn't really want to go in the first place, and insistence on going would only cause me more hassle and money.....

Long story short, I managed to go back home alone, from KLIA to Setiawangsa, luggages and all.

Well, sure it sucks and you fell terrible, after all those pointless persuasions by my mom and packings, but at least I did learn something.

....

...what?

You people knew what I was going to say anyway, so what's the point?

Anyway, chow.