man utd vs chelsea

dear readers,

i am reporting live from the place where the match between Manchester United against Chelsea is underway. it's not live directly from Stamford Bridge, but from my place's living hall.

the first-half just ended. the score for the time being is Chelsea leading 1-0. i am truly disappointed. before the game, i am expecting Man Utd to perform well. unfortunately, their performance was a dismay. Chelsea controlled the game. in fact, players in blue is everywhere! they fought well to gain possession of the ball. as much as i hate to say this, judging from the first half performance: Chelsea would be crowned EPL Champion tonight.

but i'm not discounting any possibilities of Man Utd turning the game and upsetting the Blues.
i'm keeping my fingers crossed for Man Utd to win this crucial game.

please.....

it's halfway thru the 2nd half. the score is 2-0.
that's it. everyone, hail the champion and its maestro!
hats off to Jose Maurinho, and the "Blues" Chelsea FC.

see you in next season. you better be good, as Man Utd will fight back for the title next season.

Introduction to Islam Hadhari

spent the whole day with dearest dad. chauffered him for the day. kiranya spending quality time with ayahanda di samping bekerja sebagai supir a.k.a drebar :)

reasons why i love to spend my time with my beloved dad is that he is knowledgeable in most field. he is the man to talk with about things happening in the business world, the finance and banking things, and not forgetting about Islam.

brief introduction about my dad. schooled in sekolah agama in rural area of Perak, enrolled in Kolej Islam Klang for secondary education, pursued degree in Accountancy in UM, and has 20++ working experience in banking industry, specialising in Islamic banking.

as i was driving both of us back home, this question popped out of my mouth: "what is exactly Islam Hadhari?"

Islam Hadhari is the contemporary approach to Islam. Hadhari originated from an arabic word ( i don't know how to spell it, but it sure sounds like "hadhar"), which means modern or contemporary. why is there need to have Islam Hadhari? before we proceed, let us take a look at this example given by Mr Nazlan.

bila ada orang sakit, orang ramai bacakan yaasin untuk pesakit. lepas tu doktor datang dan rawat pesakit. bila sembuh, biasanya apa yang disebut oleh pesakit, "terima kasih sebab do'aakan supaya saya cepat sembuh". orang akan lihat pada betapa mujarabnya doa itu. tapi usaha doktor itu macam tak diendahkan. walhal, doktor tu mendapat pahala yang banyak, sebab dia berusaha untuk merawat pesakit tu. yang lain hanyalah mendoa'akan sahaja. in the end, doktor tu mungkin akan berfikir yang usahanya sia-sia sahaja. sedangkan dalam Islam, ada dinyatakan, yang Usaha tu penting, dan lebih besar pahalanya daripada berdoa. dan berdoa itu adalah selemah-lemah iman.

Islam Hadhari is an approach to change current Muslim society's ways of thinking. Islam is applicable in every day activities. with Islam Hadhari, the muslims would be able to rise again and be leaders in today's world. Muslims need to have the contemporary way of thinking. We should focus on both worldly and hereafter benefit. there is a saying in Islam, "bekerjalah seolah-olah kamu akan hidup seribu tahun lagi, dan beribadatlah seolah-olah kamu akan mati pada esok hari". we have to emphasise on worldly needs, without forgetting the hereafter.

dulu, orang Islam cuba untuk menjauhkan diri dari pinjaman bank, sebab ada riba'. orang tak nak kerja dekat bank, atas alasan riba'. without contemporary thinking, mungkin kita akan kekal macam tu sampai hari ini. this is where alternatives come in. to provide banking services that has nothing to do with riba', born the Islamic banking institutions. nowadays, people recognised the importance of Islamic banking to country's economic growth.

those days, muslims says you cannot go to outerspace. why? how to perform ibadah there? how to solat? but now, we are holding conferences and discussions among Islamic scholars on how this issue. this is proof to how we would be able to have progressive mind with Islam Hadhari.

interesting fact: PAS once tried to introduce the Hadhari concept. but failed. and when UMNO took the idea, rebrand it, and sell the idea to the people and received good response; PAS tried to oppose it. weird kan?

Islam Hadhari is not a new religion. it is neither a new type of Islam, nor does it want to replace Islam. it is how to have a progressive way of thinking.

for more info on Islam Hadhari, click here.

another useless facts and figures

picture taken time food tasting

Microsoft wages war against pirate of the cyberspace

achtung to all Windows XP and Office pirated users! in order to curb the ever rampaging piracy of their softwares and application, Microsoft inc is taking an approach that might be useful in overcoming the piracy problem.

"Microsoft said Monday it was expanding a pilot of the Windows Genuine Advantage program that would notify users of counterfeit versions of the operating system. The company will still continue to delivery high priority software updates to these users regardless of their WGA status."

click here for more info. and here too. :)

facts and figures

some useless things you should know about UTP (and its surroundings)

• at cafe Jaya, fried chicken costs you rm1.70 per piece.
• a glass of sirap bandung costs you rm0.70
• the best place to eat Naan and Chicken Tandoori currently is at cafe v4.
• the cheapest place to buy lunch and dinner is at Pak Ali's cafe.
  
• cafe V1 is the best place to have your breakfast in UTP. they sell nasi lemak, kuey teow, mee goreng and several types of roti canai
• the library, or known as IRC, is deserted in early semester, and is fully packed during Study Week, nearing the end of semester
• there are several places where you have to pay premium charges in order to park your vehicles. identified places are the motorcycles parking lots, and sideways lines painted in yellow in colour. the charge is varies, starting from rm50 up to rm100, and issued by security guard.
• matric card is vital here. bring with it anywhere you go.
• Al-Hidayah, a mamak shop in Tronoh, offers the most satisfying Cheese Naan in town
• Restoran Rasa-Rasa, located in Tronoh, is recommendable as a place to have your breakfast. the dishes there are delicious.
• when you are in your second years in UTP, having a computer is not a necessity. it is CRUCIAL.
• when you are not online, either via mIRC, Yahoo! Messenger, or even Google Talk, people will assume you're dead. or something like that.

went shopping last weekend. had to find attire that suits the dinner's theme. Red and Black. bought a glaring RED shirt, and a piece of BLACK pants to match the shirt. found a problem while shopping. i am reaching the biggest waistline available in the shop. directly translate, my waist is getting bigger. which means, i am successful in expanding my stomach size. the truth is, i am getting fatter. haish~ camne nih? the size is 38.

dearie bought herself a pair of new shoes. can't wait to see her in the new dress. hopefully the dress matches with dearie's shoes.

anyway, yesterday went to Casuarina for food testing session. well, it's the normal procedure you are entitled to when holding dinner function at hotels. the food was delicious, and the food presentation is good too! the komiti had a good time eating free food :) in the end, our stomach was soo full. we ate 8 dishes in about one hour and a half. hopefully, these kind of food is sufficient enough for our guests that night. let's pray that everything will go smoothly as planned.

sweet sour garoupa = kerapu masam manis :P

pulangnya seorang wira bangsa ke rahmatullah

perginya seorang wira bangsa.
Al-Fatihah.

semoga roh beliau dicucuri rahmat.

dinner batch: the story behind it

UTP students intake January 2002 can be categorised as one of the not-so-unite intake. the fact that there are two intakes for this batch, one in early January and the other in mid-January solidified the argument. to make things more interesting, we were scattered in Old Village 5 and Village 2 Lembaran. so basically, in our 1st year studying in UTP, there existed about 4 groups in our batch: 1st intake in Old V5, 1st intake in V2, 2nd intake in Old V5, and 3rd intake in V2. as time goes on, these four groups merged and dissolved in order to make way to more sophisticated sub-groups or clans. and today, the sub-groups are going strong as ever. and we manage to co-exist harmony and peacefully with each other.

enter the final semester. and then voices were heard from the crowd. "jom laa buat dinner IT IS". the reason: IT IS students are going to graduate in a couple of months time. purpose of dinner: to gather all IT IS students in one memorable night.

then came one suggestion: instead of program dinner, why don't we have dinner for our own batch? so, we called several people experienced in handling events to sit down in a meeting to create an ad-hoc komiti. born The Dis-Orienters.

then came the voices again. "why should there be dinner batch?" the template answers for that are as follow:

• it will be the night where we will gather again as one big batch.
• could be the last gathering of Jan 2002 intake
• you get to know other batch members that you might not even aware of their existence!

then came the voices again. "why should we bother? our batch has transformed from one big batch to a collection of clans and sub-groups. the IT IS students live their own lives, and those Engineering student with their own lives. interaction is within the sub-groups, with communication with other sub-groups occasionally. there is no point"

with that, most of the answer provided in the template became invalid. the Disorienters were expecting a number of 500 people to attend the dinner. unfortunately, up to this time of entry, only around 300 people give their committment to make this function happens.

so, in hope to be able to persuade my other batch members, here i present my own answers to the question given by the voices.

• to practice the skill of social-networking.
  
• to enhance my communication skills
• to polish my soft skills
• to show to others that i am interested in knowing my batch members
• to show my existence in UTP
• coz i don't care about the groupies. i have my own group, and am proud of it. (three cheers for Kelab AM @ amalgAM!!) but that does not stop me from trying to reach other people
• coz this would be the time for me to patch things up with batch members
• to socialize :)

some might not agree with me. then, i respect your decision.

to others, do enjoy the night! we, the Dis-orienters will try our best to make it memorable!!

disturbed mind

people told me that i work well in the last minute. hence the "gelaran", master of last minute. i seldom complete my tasks way before the deadline, but instead just-in-time of the deadline. i seldom studied weeks before exams, even if i did, i gained only a small portion of what have been studied. i excelled at studying last minute. and Alhamdulillah, my brain managed to absorb the data and information.

so, the main question is: is it good or not? does being a last-minute person make you a not-so-productive or worse, no-good person?

i desperately wanted to change this habit of mine. for once, i would love to do things before its deadline. but due to my second name, PROCASTINATOR, i guess it will be hard for me to do so.

it's time for me to play Dido's song: WHite Flag

surrender? naahh...but i'll try my best to be divorced from MR PROCASTINATOR. somebody, help?

the hostel

the title should sounds like some cheap B-grade thriller movie. but let's not be confused with the film. am not going to do some movie review here. hurmm..it has been a long time since i last wrote any movie reviews here. hopefully the next entry is a movie review!

there is an interesting entry at shasha's blog. she kinda posted pics of her best girl-friends. "wengurls" they called themselves. and one of my housemate is starting his own photo-blog. well, since people is starting to write about the people surrounding them, i guess i'm gonna jump into the bandwagon too!

so here's too an entry about my housemates/hostel-mates here at the lovely UTP.

Room 1: Farih & Amen.
Room 2: Anas & me.
Room 3: Shah & Cheepoi.
Room 4: Alan & Ja'a.
Room 5: Mat Pi & Peet.
Room 6: Solute & Tot.

basically, the occupants of Room 1,2,3 and 5 is my batchmates. we, excluding Peet, is undertaking the same degree. talk about widening your life's perspective hehe but being forced to live with one another in the same house does not mean that we do not have our own lives to live in.

the rest, are the juniors. and they are very lucky to have us as their house-mates. why? bcoz we are sooo friendly hehehe

if you are looking for "let me tell you a bit about my friends' attitude or strange behaviour", believe me, you will not find it here. i would never write anything stupid here. altho, come to think of it, Peet does deserve to be highlighted here. He is the most sengal and craziest person whenever he wants to be, and can change into the most serious lad in just a matter of second. gile kan?

scenic bridge

ok fellas, lets just face the hard cold facts.

it's official. there will be no more so-called scenic bridge. or crooked bridge. or modern bridge. or what-ever-you-name-it bridge.

blame the arrogant singaporeans, blame our government, blame the requests done by singaporean government. it has been a long time since i learnt discrete mathematics, or even additional mathematics. but do tell me, is this equation balanced? elevated bridge = sand + air space.

once again, our "beloved" neigbour outdone us. i guess, if there is such thing as "Outwit. Outplay. Outlast", Singapore would emerge as the overall champion. this country is clever enough to play around with anything that has got to do with Malaysia. be it in trade bilateral agreement, development projects or even immigration issues.

quick recap on the nation known as singapore. was part of Malaysia in year 1963, then in 1969 separated to become a republic. being a generous country that was unable to contain singapore's political movement that could threaten the basic foundation of Malaysia, the government at that time drafted and agreed on things that would help Singapore to prosper. easy term = we are sorry for letting you go. but here are several things that we want to do to help you. don't be mad to us.

water piping + railway tracks can only be removed or replaced when both countries agreed on the matters. this issue i believe gave Pak Lah a headache. in order to utilise the "new bridge", the railway tracks and water pipes have to be moved, and without both parties consent, it is illegal to do so.

my view on this issue? let us be like what Mainland China is doing. they positioned their missiles and military arms on the shores, facing Taiwan. let us reclaim back Singapore. we can even use the popular reason used by the moron, George W Bush: this attack is a pre-emptive attack. we believe that singapore is planning to sabotage most Malaysia's development plan, especially in key areas in Johor. therefore, the attack on Singapore is fully justified.

i have nothing against the people of Singapore. in fact, i am looking forward to go there. but what pissed me off, is what the Singaporean government is doing on this issues, and how they act when dealing with Malaysia.

how i wish the scenic bridge project has not been called off. *sigh*

old boys weekend 2006

i just came back from kuala kangsar, attending old boys' annual pilgrimage back to the alma mater, the famous MCOBA Old Boys Weekend.

it was to be the weekend where all old collegians gathered back at the beloved alma mater, and socialised with each other, while re-establishing lost connections, organising re-unions, and also compete in friendly matches with present collegian. memories re-collected, and stories of yesteryears been told again and again.

Old Boys Weekend, or better known as OBW, is one of the activities being looked forward to by the old boys. not anymore. OBW 2006 is not a successful event. i won't describe it as failure, bcoz it's not total failure for there were a numbers of old collegians, but the turnout were a big letdown. perhaps it is because we just celebrated a centennary celebration, therefore there is no importance to attend this OBW.

inefficient planning, plus no incentives made this OBW a gloom one.
for those who attended OBW, they are required to pay rm40 as the registration fee. rm40 for what? previously, by paying registration fee, you are entitled to have a name-tag, a t-shirt, and a place for the prestigious OBW dinner. but this year, rm40 = dinner only. are you kidding me? and the dinner took place not in some grand hotel or whatever, but inside Carey Hall a.k.a mess hall. i am not underestimating the grandeur of Carey Hall. Carey Hall is a good place. even the sultans had their royal banquet there. but pls laa .. at least buat laa dkat quadrangle ke apeke..

anyway, i managed to have a wonderful weekend. a weekend filled with delicious and cheap delicacies, friendly collegians (seniors and juniors), and also a chance to walk back down the memory lane.

i am still craving for Shah Reena's Nasi Goreng Ayam and lembah's Cendol and Rojak Pasembor.
*slurp*

suzana@60an

the show was fantastic! the three of us, S. Jeffry Fakhri a.k.a Cipoi, M. Jimmy Shafiq a.k.a Peet, and A. Romley Izzat a.k.a bET; donned our 60's colours, and relived the era of a-go-go and pop yeh-yeh.

what makes the show wonderful was: it was filled with performances from 60's artistes. Jeffrydin, A. Hassan, A.Ramli and others were there. i am not from the 60's era. i was not even born yet that time. but somehow i feel connected to this era. the sound of guitars and bass, the beats of drums, and the sounds of tamborines and maracas filled my ears that evening. the 60s style, together with the ways they talked and moved, amazed me.

we started our journey from UTP around 12.35 noon, as there was PETRONAS ability test being held for PETRONAS scholars. we entered highway around 2pm. and miraculously reached KL by 3pm. (i know, we drove veeerrryyy fast)

anyway, it was worth the journey. plus the ticket fee RM50.

long live pop yeh-yeh !!!