SPRING

"...strolling along I see people giving back to the community and i ask myself, what have i done to contribute to the wealth of diversity which encompasses this thing we call unanimity? And so I stop and listen..."




Today was interesting. Walking back from Oakland I heard the wonderful squeals of an electric guitar and hence followed my ear to where the heavenly sounds came. Apparently there was a show being set up and a fairly large stage had been constructed between the streets that led to the Cathedral Of Learning in UPitt. Even as the band prepared their equipment and fooled around with their instruments, I found it highly entertaining. A band playing live is far more exciting than listening to prerecorded songs ripped from the net. With the stage set up in the middle of the road like that and flowers blooming everywhere, the atmosphere seemed so light and carefree that even though I had a programming class (yes on a Saturday :p) and a meeting later that afternoon, it didn't bother me that much.

Later in the day a couple of friends and I decided to check out this Community Artistic Expression that was going on around Oakland. It was suggested to us by the Kiva guy and so we thought we'd go ahead and see what the fuss was all about. The first thing that caught my eye was the lights. There was a laser show and upon entering, I was struck by this rythmatic poetry that seemed to be almost rap-like minus the percussions and supporting music. A guy stood on a small stage illuminated in red light reciting this wonderful poem which seemed to flow flawlessly with a certain beat that was awfully catchy. I've never heard poetry recited that way before.

As a band took over the stage it got too cold to stay and watch so we moved over to Kiva where the poetry reading was being resumed. It was fun listening to people spew poetry on all kinds of topics, none of which were related to sappy love and the likes. An elderly guy with a cane also presented a couple of haikus and though he was drawling so bad that it got a teeny boring, I caught the message of anti-war seamlessly interleaved in his brief but beautiful verses.

All in all, the whole experience was refreshing :)

Pictures of my daytime endeavors: The Spring Effect: Of Blooming Flowers and Bands
Pictures of my nighttime endeavors: Flux9: Community Artistic Expression

ALL IN A DAYS WORK...

Friday and I had errands to run. I headed out early to survey for places to cater food for the upcoming Eastern Games. And what initially was a burden on my back, turned to be an eventful day. I have been known to be just about the laziest person; always opting to stay in my room doing nothing when people ask me out just for the mere reason that I want to avoid walking. Even if it is just walking down to the busstop. But lately, with the weather being pleasant and all, I have been choosing to walk, sometimes even for the simple reason of snapping pictures. And so, though the trip to Oakland was quite a way, I decided to go on foot and not take the bus (besides I was unsure of what bus to take anyway :p).

I realized that with Spring being in the air, Pittsburgh is more alive and a lot happens around you. Nothing out of the ordinary happened really, but it was fun just watching people passing by and doing things that ordinary people do everyday. It was interesting meeting some of them. I approached a couple of strangers to have their pictures taken (to which it surprised me they agreed anyway) and it was somehow rewarding that after I had snapped their picture they would smile and say "You have a nice day!" like i did them a favor or something.

Anyway, while surveying for food, I arrived at Salims to get a qoutation from the store. As always Kak Na was at the counter and we chatted for a good hour, with the occasional customers coming over to us to let us taste some of their Mediterranean dishes. I was glad I came with an empty stomach. Even so when Salim himself came and offered some free food to me :)

Mental note: Talk to Usamah about electing me to be the official Food Surveyor for coming activities.

Pictures of Places and People around UPitt and Oakland

LET'S GO PENS!!!

Yes, i'm talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins! This, being the first ice hockey game i've ever been to, was totally worth watching. We played against the red Carolina Hurricanes and they proved to be quite a tough opponent. But it was mighty interesting and we finally won 3-2!! It somewhat reminded me of a badminton match i've watched in my early days with Sidek playing against Indonesia.

Even though Tarnstrom (32) shot the first goal, the Hurricanes soon caught up and by the second third of the game they were leading by one. At this point I was already pretty restless (I hate suspense) and was slouching on my seat sulking and stuffing my face with fries. Then as the crowd grew louder and people around me started picking up the trademark chant "Let's Go Pens!!!", the game quickened in pace and the Penguins started playing really well (sound like Sidek in Piala Thomas?). But by the last set of the game, spectators were quite sure we'd lose and so everyone was busy perfecting "the wave" which went on for a good 10 minutes. It was fun to watch people standing with arms above their heads saying "Woooo!". Especially old ladies wearing oversized Penguin jerseys. Anyway, somewhere between the 6th round of "the wave", the Penguins started getting aggressive and miraculously in the last 3 minutes, we scored. People stopped fooling around and we began chanting some more. Finally near the end of the match we managed to stuff the puck into the opponents goal once again. Even as a first-timer who knew nothing about ice hockey, I screamed with the rest and stood up cheering. It was great.

I'll definitely be going to more games in the near future. To heck with rules. I'll be there to cheer myself hoarse. And if my team loses, I'd at least get a free t-shirt :p

Pittsburgh Penguins in action

APRIL FOOL

"...when fools come out to play, little does he realize how nature dwarfs him into mere insignificance..."




It was hard not to notice how glorious the sky was today. It seemed to complement every object that came to sight; turning normal admin buildings into architectural magnificence and simple landscapes into absolute pittoresque scenery. Amusing since the same things look dull and lifeless during winter. SubhanAllah.

Anyway, first things first, today is the notorious April Fool's day. And who better to make a fool of me than yours truly. After a week's break, it suddenly occurred to me I had not prepared for a presentation for one of my classes. Of course this is nothing new. I thrive on that feeling of adrenaline rushing through my body, and last minute panic is my source of motivation. After a hellish day stacked with back-to-back meetings which officially ended at midnight, I stayed up all night preparing my presentation (which had not yet been researched nor given a topic until after an hour of actually sitting at the desk to write it up). It was beyond me how I would ever articulate my topic the next day. But somehow, after hours of repeating the text I prepared until the wee hours of morning, I managed an altogether coherent presentation to be delivered in class.

Somewhere between walking to campus and starting my first class for the day, it came to me that I had not been given a reminder from my cell of this presentation. Normally I would record important dates such as this so that I would at least have time to prepare such tasks (that's just talk. "Prepare" is absent from my vocabulary). So I checked my trusty organizer, and there on the screen... it read "70643 Presentation 29th April".

It escapes me why one would abuse oneself to such degree.

A fool and her camera: Of Buildings and Nature

SPRING FINALE

"...and then suddenly, it was time to retrieve my books from the depths of the closet in which i had shoved them in..."



The finale to a very fun Break chose snow in place of confetti and cold winds in place of a pleasant breeze. But all in all, it provided a mellowed atmosphere which seemed to remind me school would commence. That said, I spent the last day of Spring Break at Barnes & Noble, sitting by the window of the Starbucks' Cafe. Even as the snow fell lightly over Pittsburgh, the sun appeared at times, as if claiming its right in the season people call Spring. Oh well. As long as I see the sun now and then, it'd be enough to lift my spirits.

Hope everyone had a fun Spring Break and that rust hasn't yet rested on your thinking caps!

Pictures of Snow in Spring...hmmm

ROLLERBLADES AND RAIN

Woke up early to 'blade only to find the sun missing from my window :(


It rained the whole day so I took refuge at the gym to practice slalom-ing (which i failed miserably at) and invented some amusing ways to fall down. If i had a penny for every fall i took...

Things looked up though as I spent the rest of the day at Kiva. Like previous Saturdays, they had a DJ show organized by The Pulse or something where they display their skills at the turn-table with random movies projected on the wall. Last week was Tron. Today it was Metropolitan. Fun stuff really, if you can stand the noise. After watching the first few minutes, I escaped to the second floor to read and sketch what I guess will pretty much be the last drawing i'll make this whole semester. Oh how heartrending it is to find that Spring Break has come to its end. *sniff*.

Wounded At War


Pictures of my not-so-fun day

WELCOME TO OAKLAND

I got bit by the 'Blade bug....
Last night we rollerbladed for almost 4 hours in front of the museum. Equipped with a modified size 10 'blade and sporting elbow pads on my knees (ingenious idea courtesy of hassan) I prepared myself for a fun time promised to be full of speed and skinned knees. Apparently they lied about the speed. But that was mostly my fault. Skinned knees? Lets' just say elbow pads make great knee savers.

I 'blade like a 70 year old. Period.

I headed to Oakland today to see a travel agent for my summer plans. It's surprising how many interesting sights and shops there are to see. I simply have to get out more. On the way back I had Salim's. The generous cook gave me 2 pieces of chicken and a big fat slab of lamb. I realized just how carnivorous a girl can be after having been deprived of halal meat for so long.

Picture of the day :
The simple things that spell unity...
Taken 03/27/2003
Wright Rogal Chapel,
University Center,
Carnegie Mellon University














Some pictures that amused me today

KIVA HAN

Let me introduce you to my favorite spot....Kiva Han


Kiva is what you need after a days worth of battling on the school grounds doing programming and decision analysis and simply facing your boring TA spill out more information on quadratic regressions than you wanted to know. It's spring break and road trips spell fatigue to me. The best way to spend break is to laze around and do nothing. 'Cos believe me you can't ever do nothing during school. Yesterday i spent most my day on campus and at Kiva with plenty of reading material (albeit depressing stuff) at hand and my trusty sketchbook. I had the whole top floor to myself and it was heaven.

I was armed to the teeth with news on the war yesterday I had to take a breather a couple of times to let it all sink in. Thank god for PC Magazine. Aaah....what some binded pieces of paper can do to quench a girl's fetish for electronic goods. You may call me a hardcore technophile. I drool over the latest technology like a boy over a Playboy magazine cover. If only money dropped from the sky as often as EGBU-27s over Baghdad...

The March to War


Click here for larger and more images of my day at kiva

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!!

aaah....can you hear that? birds chirping, people frolicking on the grass, wind blowing....oh and that would be my roomie talking in her sleep again :p
anyway, yesterday was so nice. the nicest day in march to date. i spent the whole day outside lying on my back reading, snapping pictures and sketching; something i haven't been doing much as of late.

Around 6pm i headed to The Climbing Wall and had an hour and a half of muscle-tense fun. i never knew one could use so much energy on the forearms before. i succeeded in climbing to the very top on my first try (yay me!) of belaying.

Note to self: do not go wall climbing with boots.

However when it was my turn to belay, i got jerked up a foot in the air when the 183 pound climber fell. lucky i was anchored securely. if not, that would've been an interesting sight. i got pinched and managed minor rope burns on my pinky too, but it was all worth it. i'll definitely be going again soon!

I'm so happy it's Spring Break. i promised myself i'd be doing some reviewing but that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. It's such a pity though that in such nice weather newsstands are stacked with news on the war. let's not go there today.

Anyway, take a peek at Spring in CMU here!!!

4 A.M. BLUES

Ramen noodles at 4 in the morning is not a good idea.

Neither is doing decision analysis simulations on queing problems.

... i need a hug :(

T40

everybody....
say hello to my new friend...
...the new T40.

THE PENTIUM DILEMMA

The advancement in processors have a big effect on my life. IBM's newly released T40 is the first of its kind - running on Pentium-M. And just 20 hours after it's release, it has been the very bane of my existence.

---

[01:17] yazmin: would you get the T40 or the T30?
[01:17] yazmin: if u were buying a laptop
[01:17] yazmin: need opinion
[01:17] yuenlin: uh....
[01:17] yuenlin: i dunno much about the t40
[01:17] yuenlin: heard its cool
[01:17] yazmin: heheh
[01:17] yuenlin: generally i'd buy an ibm laptop
[01:17] yuenlin: and no other brand :P

---

To begin with, I'm a very picky shopper and would normally take months to research on the specific subject before deciding to purchase it. After growing up with the belief that speed is everything, it's pretty devastating to learn that performance means a lot more than just clock speed. I need somebody to convince me that it is actually true a 1.6GHz laptop running on a Pent-M outperforms a 2.4 Desktop running on Pent 4-M

---

[00:00] yazmin: i don really see the upperhand except for it has better battery life and is lighter
[00:01] yazmin: and yeah better graphics card
[00:01] Izan: thinner also i think...1 inch
[00:01] Izan: but in the end, it's your money and whether u think those things are worth the extra 100 bucks
[00:01] yazmin: but i don see what the point is if its slower
[00:02] Izan: it's actually not slower
[00:02] yazmin: wait for extra 100 i get what the t30 has to offer plus a smaller and lighter laptop?
[00:02] Izan: it's internal pipe cache is larger, 1meg vs pentium 4m's 512kb
[00:02] Izan: so means it can process more things at once
[00:02] yazmin: ok
[00:03] Izan: thus the 1.5 is on par with something between pent 4 2.0 and 2.2
[00:03] Izan: the 1.6 actually beat a pent 4 2.4 desktop in alot of apps
[00:03] yazmin: oh?
[00:04] yazmin: and for the t30 this isnt true?
[00:04] Izan: t30 uses the pent 4 m, which is basically a pent 4 with stepscale tech
[00:04] Izan: http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1801&p=15
[00:06] yazmin: ok
[00:06] yazmin: so it'll be worth buying over the 2.2 T30?
[00:10] Izan: optimum config for 2.2 t30 is 2219 with 128meg ram
optimum for t40 is 2399
advantage... better ram, lighter, thinner, better battery life, worth 180 bucks to you?

---

I have bombarded Izan with multiple questions and by tomorrow morning I'm pretty sure he'll be handing himself to the psychiatric ward in glee. But a laptop is not something you buy often, so I guess questions are essential. Plus a large lump of money is involved.

---

[00:27] yazmin: ok
[00:27] yazmin: wait from what i understand
[00:27] yazmin: the 1.6 outperforms the 2.2 desktop
[00:27] yazmin: but this doesnt mean its faster
[00:27] Izan: 2.4 desktop
[00:28] yazmin: just that performance better la
[00:28] Izan: lesseee now how do i phrase this
[00:28] yazmin: heheh
[00:28] yazmin: give u a tough time
[00:28] Izan: the 2.4 counts faster, but it's slow to use its data
[00:28] Izan: the 1.6 counts slower, but gets data out the door faster
[00:29] yazmin: counts faster?
[00:29] yazmin: eh?
[00:29] Izan: process things faster
[00:30] yazmin: ok
[00:31] yazmin: apa diff process and gets data faster?
[00:32] Izan: ok, say at a giant eagle ada dua check out lines
[00:32] Izan: each check out line ada cashier and bagger
[00:32] yazmin: oo metaphors
[00:32] yazmin: ok
[00:33] Izan: so say line a has a person that enters the price really fast, finishes in like 5 mins, but the bagger is slow and bags everything in 10 mins
[00:34] yazmin: k
[00:34] Izan: and the other chekout line has the cashier entering price slower, say at 8 mins, but bagger does things fast, finishes in 5 mins
[00:34] Izan: ok, the cashier is the main processing part of a cpu and the bagger is the pipeline
[00:34] yazmin: pipeline?
[00:34] yazmin: ok
[00:35] Izan: everything thats related to moving data in and out of cpu
[00:35] yazmin: like burning cds?
[00:36] Izan: thats a different bandwidth, or can say pipeline, but ppl dont say pipeline for things outside cpus
[00:36] Izan: that's restricted by the cd drive's speed
[00:37] Izan: and hard drive transfer rate is determined by it's speed and type of interface, ata33 ata66 ata100 ata133, and type of configuration, parallel, serial, raid, alot of things determine how a whole computer performs
[00:41] yazmin: lalaaalalalal
[00:41] yazmin: ok
[00:41] yazmin: so wait
[00:42] yazmin: kiranye overall this is good?
[00:42] Izan: ya
[00:42] yazmin: from ur metaphor i understand la bagus
[00:43] yazmin: but i don really get the part abt "everything thats related to moving data in and out of cpu"

---

I'm pretty set on getting the T40 now. But somehow there's still some uncertainty on my part. Mainly due to the fact I'm a sucker for faster machines. I just wish my daddy was the guy who owns IBM, then I'd have him make one tailored for me.

And yeah, you can conclude from my chat-log that I am that dense.

SMACKDOWN, ANYONE?

AN INSOMNIAC'S CURE

I'm pretty sure I have insomnia. I've never really been able to function properly during the day, but come nighttime, my brain finally thaws and starts to work (albeit at an extremely slow rate).

And so i make hemp bracelets and watch the Disney Channel at 4 in the morning.

oh yeah...my sister just completed her own website. Shame on you IT and CS people who don't have one :p

THE QUINTESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

I went to the mall with Izan on Thursday. He needed gloves and a new pair of jeans and I wanted to take a look at some laptops at Best Buy. 3 minutes after our arrival we were at the men's department looking for jeans. Izan got 2 pairs out of the rack and went to try them on. 5 minutes later he paid for a pair and we headed to Dick's (go figure). He found a decent pair of gloves and we were out of the store faster than you could say "Chelsea Clinton!". Izan was done shopping in less than 45 minutes.

I figured since it was barely 4pm and we had all day, why not go check out some tracks since mine keeps shrinking into a pair of Barbie-sized pants after washing. So we went over to this sports shop and went looking for one measly pair of tracks. 4 shops and 2 pretzels later I still hadn't found a pair I liked. Either it was too long or it made me look too fat or it was plain ugly. The last bus home was at 7.15pm so there was no time to go laptop surveying, but that wasn't a priority anymore. Finally, 12 minutes before the bus arrived, I grabbed a trackbottom (and a tracktop that was on sale. It was irresistable I tell you!) and went to the counter.

And so ended my outing to the mall.

I failed to do what I had planned and had spent all day looking for something I didn't want in the first place. And Izan did all he needed in 45 minutes. The quintessential difference between men and women.

Anyway, yesterday I went to Barnes & Noble. I haven't read all semester and thought it would be nice to get some new reading material besides the Thai Place Cafe menu pinned to my board. Yusno needed to be back before 2 to catch the bus to Seven Springs. So I lingered a few minutes infront of the fantasy section before quickly grabbing the Dragonlance trilogy without a second thought. I had been meaning to get it since last semester but never did. Then I went over to the history section and browsed through. A little variety would be fun. It was amusing how all the books under World History were related to Iraq, Iran, Palestine History and The Middle-Eastern Religion. And of course not to forget, North Korea. My eyes trailed to the Current Issues rack and saw books titled Bush At War and The Taliban and The Biography of A Terrorist. I randomly chose a book called Forbidden Truth: US-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and The Failed Hunt For Bin-Laden (which was interesting and revealing. But I guess I didn't really need a book to tell me that corruption and greed played a part in all this. The US consumes oil a percentage 8 folds that of its population - isn't it obvious? But the details were amusing, nontheless). Anyway, all this took about 30 minutes. Quite a record since I have been known to sit infront of a rack for half a day without buying anything in the end. So I figured all I need to help me decide was a little urgency. Now I know this, I guess I will schedule all my shopping plans 30 minutes before the store closes down.

Today I've started on my Dragonlance series. To which the Kiva guy pointed out that he used to read them too. Back in grade school.

CLONE ME, WHY DONTCHA

Last night we played basketball with Julian, Charles and Dan. It was 4 against 3, and we got creamed. Oh the humiliation.

But it was all good. I haven't had so much fun playing basketball since PE back in school. It seems that the older I get the lazier I become. Not your average lazy, but so lazy that walking from my bed to my desk is a chore. Reason #1245 to get a laptop...lalallallalalala.....

The others are going skiing today, leaving me to mope around the apartment. I'm in Spring mode now and I don't feel like freezing in the snow anymore. Besides it's the Midterm Break and skiing sounds like too much work. Work no good. Sleep, yes.

For those of you who are worried I might bore myself to tears (should death not get to me first) I have been amusing myself with Sonic Foundry, a studio recording software. I managed to record my retardedness and kept it on my desktop as a reminder as to why I shouldn't play the guitar. However, it was fun fiddling with it. Another ingenious creation resulted by the proliferation of CD-ROMs. The pace of it all.

All this breakthrough in technology leaves almost no boundaries as to what can be achieved nowadays. Heck, even sheep are cloned, let alone humans (stop it Zavos! Clone plants instead!). Cloning. Let's talk about that, shall we?

We have seen many wars and have been scarred by numerous human blunders (stupidity, more like), but will cloning finally be the end of humanity? Have we suddenly discovered the potential of the human brain that we now want to play God? Or is this just a competition to quench the biologists' thirst for recreation? I believe that cloning can be advantages to the human race; for instance a stem cell can mend an injured heart pretty much naturally. But need we clone ourselves? First off, it's like the freakiest thing ever. We hardly even know what the consequences are. Didn't Dolly die young? Didn't it take over 200 embryos to make one Dolly? Somehow by some reason I really have no explanation to, I sense that eventually all this cloning business will only bring us suffering. I could give a scenario of things that could happen (all invalid of course) if I let my thoughts run wild, but I don't feel like going there. Besides I might make myself look stupid. But bottomline is, we should let God run the course of human creation. We know that a tip of a particular gas in the air will imbalance the ecosystem and that an illegal frog brought to Australia might screw the whole food chain (this fact is based entirely on The Simpsons), so why don't we take our meddly hands off all of this? Let's not find out what the consequences are. Watch Star Wars and learn.

It's 10.30am and all this thinking is not good for me. Me go eat now. And remember, don't clone anyone.

OH, THE POSSIBILLITIES

I signed up at kawanaku.com last night and found my long-lost best friend, Yayzah (well...not so lost...it's just that i haven't bothered to contact her for like, a zillion years). She even left a message for me at the message board. Which i think was really sweet :) Yayzah, if you're reading this, I miss you too!!!!

We went to the same primary school at Bukit Bintang. I remember, because of the fact our names both started with "Y" we'd tell people we were related (isn't that just like a 7 year old? Similar names mean people are related. Oh how simple the mind of a child works :)). And we managed to fool just about everyone in school that we were cousins. However, I left to study at Tun Fatimah while she stayed behind with my 100 or so friends to continue high school at BBGS. I would have stayed along with them to happily mosey (I hardly think so) my way through high school together if it wasn't because of that darned Malory Towers. But no regrets. Well, I got her number off the site and called her up. Boy was she surprised! We talked for a good 40 minutes before I ran out of credit. It's amazing, but she hasn't changed a bit. And it wasn't the least awkward talking to her. I can't believe I had the nerve to not call her up after all these years. Bad myn.

As soon as we got off the phone there was a moment of mass emailing of pictures and address swapping. Technology never fails to amaze me. And all the while that I was reunited with Yayzah (signing up at kawanaku.com, finding her number, calling her from my cell, emailing photos), I never left my chair. Thank you Len Kleinrock.