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.

LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS

My Decision Analysis midterm exam is super weird...

First off, it's designed to make you fail. There are about 20 multiple choice questions, each worth 5 points. However, for every question you answer you have to put the probability of it being right. Say you think A is right, and you're pretty sure it's the answer, so you put a probability of 0.7 beside it. That'll be how sure you are the answer is. Since you think A has a 70% chance of being correct, then the other options will either be assigned equal values of the remaining probability or you can assign values for yourself, just as long as they all add up to 1.

Anyhow, your mark for each question depends on the probability you put beside the correct answer. And if it so happens that A was correct and you put a probability of 0.7, then you gain 3.71 marks. If it wasn't, and instead was C (which you put a probability of, say, 0.1) you get -3.30. You don't get the full 5 unless you put a probability of 1. Duh. Now this is because the points are determined by an exponential curve. Which mathematically proves that

if A was correct (and you put a 0.7), then 5+3.60674 log(0.7) = 3.71 points
if C was correct (and you stupidly put a 0.1) then 5+3.60674 log(0.1) = -3.30 points

Now, due to the logic of this exponential curve and the fact that we know maths can never lie, it is also true that if you're super confident, you might also be super stupid. An example....

You look at a question and think, "Why, I know the answer for this! I'll put a probability of 1 'cos I'm frickin sure it's A! ". I'm sure we've all felt this way at some time or another while doing an exam, and when we get back our paper, it turns out we're wrong. Don't lie. It's happened to all of us. BUT...if you did this in THIS exam, and put a 1 beside the answer you thought was right, then obviously all the other options B, C and D would have a probability of 0. And using our trusty log system, that would give you a....let's see..

if C was the answer (and you had a probability of 0 for it, since you already put a 1 beside A) then 5+3.60674 log(0) = - infinity

Woohoo! This, obviously, will cause you to flunk the exam. And it's pretty hard to pull up. heh.

So now what? Put a probability of 0.25 for all answers? This'll give me a 0 for the exam, but hell it's a whole lot better than getting a negative infinity!

THE SWEETEST THING

isn't that just the prettiest smile you've ever seen? :)

VALENTINE

i got a niece!!!!!

I wrote something for Valentine's. :) (I promise it's not as cheesy as it sounds :D)

PIZZA SESSION

The work load this semester keeps me awake every night that my normal consumption of caffeine has rendered insignificant. Even the guy at Kiva has noticed my unusual absence.

I spent 2 hours attending my Decision Analysis TA session. Which is always fun because Lynna is great. Plus today all of us ate more pizzas then we did homework problems.

Tomorrow I have my Fundamentals of Statistical Modelling exam. And what better time to be sick :(

STRESSED SHRINKS

Happy AidilAdha all!!!

It was so slippery today. On my way to class I counted the guy infront of me slip 3 times. I let him walk a couple of feet ahead so that I could estimate which parts of the sidewalk I should avoid. My plan worked.

In a study to measure the level of stress given a particular department a student majors in (in this observation the case study were Business, Engineering and Psychology students) it was found that Business students are less stressed. No surprise there. But check this out. The group of students with the highest level of stress turned out to be non other than those future shrinks. Well well. Who would've guessed. All that info on Child Development and Personality Dissection (I made this one up) must've somehow gotten to them. It seems that by some reversal order of the universe, stocks and bonds just might be better for your health.

Either that, or the economy is healing.

SADISTIC SPORT

i played squasy today.
i played til my hand bled. really.
oh and i literally whacked yusno's butt. really really.
with the ball.

YET ANOTHER FACELIFT

man i've been nusy! <-- that was me touch typing :p ....

anyway... this has been the most hectic first 4 weeks of my entire academic experience. but it's all good. so far.

lately i've been thinking... my site was way too bright. hence the change. better? i haven't had the chance to update the rest of my pages, but I think those hardly ever get visited anyway. i might work on those, i might not.

well i better stop and do some dadss now since i've been putting it off for so long. i guess i'll update my entries as soon as i get the hang of my current schedule :)

OL' GEEZER

I am virtually on the brink of leaving dear old two-oh.

BOOKS, BOOKS, AND MORE BOOKS

I think I've bored myself into reading too many (many can be relative - in my case probably more than 5 books per semester) classics. A tad too much of Golding and Wharton has made me crave for some lighthearted books. Preferably those with non-existent worlds and incredulous characters.

Today I spent most the day at Barnes & Noble specifically looking for the Landover Series. I had all five in my hand when I suddenly felt that $37.49 (plus tax) was quite a steep price to pay. Considering I could get them at a run-down second hand bookstore for lots cheaper. Even the guy who regularly sells his books in cardboard boxes at school might sell them for a buck a piece. Anyway, being me, it was either I get the whole series or not get any at all. I was dying to have a series of books to read but I figured I'd wait a bit and get them online. Or from the guy who sells his books in cardboard boxes.

Anyhow, I simply had to get at least something from B&N since I was there. So a friend introduced me to some other Fantasy authors I should get instead. I almost got me the DragonLance Chronicles Trilogy (trilogies are good since they're cheaper than, say, a series with 5 books ~ duh!) but wasn't so sure if I should. So I put it back and spent the next few hours picking up other books and putting them back on their racks. Ho-hum...

I almost got Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters too since Choke was out of stock, but eventually put that back aswell. Anyway, I came back home empty handed (sobs) but I found some sites on fantasy and fantasy authors I kind of liked:

http://www.sff.net/people/Amy.Sheldon/recommen.htm
http://www.sfandf.com

WHERE'S THE RUSH?

Hello!

I've 2 more weeks of slacking and enjoying the holidays and I've been taking an extensive break away from the computer. I've never felt so rested.

Anyway, I'm psyched about this coming semester (as always :p) and by some freak of nature I'm missing that sudden rush of adrenaline each time i desperately try to finish an assignment the night before hand-in. hmm.

Well, here's my tentative schedule for this Spring. Let's see how long these courses stay in my timetable...

2003

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

DECEMBER SUMMARY

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!!!!

hehe....busy busy...anyway, had a great snowball fight last night! Naturally I was, as Usamah puts it, "the sitting duck" which was continuosly the target of snowballs and more snowballs. I think I managed to get the most snow in my sweater too, courtesy of Azlan and Amir. The other girls did fare better than me.



Fact number 1: Some creatures eyes glow in the dark. They reflect light back through the retina.

Most animals that are active at night have eyes that glow to improve their night vision in order to make it easier for them to catch their prey.

Anyhow, I managed to play til my legs went numb. By the time we reached Kiva for some good old coffee, we were cold, exhausted and wet. Oh, and the guy behind the counter even got a shot at me. The little prick.

As soon as Lynn and I reached our apartment, I took off my sweater and a few pounds of snow (which was conveniently 'stored' by Lan, no doubt) came out. Apart from managing to bring back snow from our little game, I also got a bad sore throat and a slight flu. Yeargh! Snow makes one feel alive.

Well I've been missing much of more important entries, so let's recap a little:
Nov 22 - Last minute scramble to get Philo paper due
Nov 23 - can't focus anymore....hurryupthanksgiving...
Nov 24 - hurryupthanksgiving...
Nov 25 - hurryupthanksgiving...
Nov 26 - hurryupthanksgiving...
Nov 27 - Thanksgiving hols is finally here!!
Nov 28 - slack off big time...muahahahaha!
Nov 29 - THANKSGIVING! I cooked turkey!!!!!! (no casualties)
Nov 30 - Shopping at Grove City! Spend spend spend!
Dec 1 - Tries in vain to complete 500 pages of philo
Dec 2 - Last minute scramble to prepare for philo exam
Dec 3 - Panic panic panic!
Dec 4 - ARIF AND AFIQ'S 2nd BIRTHDAY!!! *hugs*
Philo Exam and Programming Mastery (I passed my Mastery! yay!)
Dec 5 - SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!!! last day of classes for the semester!
Dec 6 - SNOWBALL FIGHT!!! Woohoo!

...the uneventful summary of Yazmin's life....2 more papers and I am done with this semester. Fini. Perfetto. Compleo.

OK... I now have to feed myself and lounge around a bit before I start cracking on my books again. Have fun and take care all!

NEED I SAY MORE?

needahobbyneedahobbyneedahobbyneedahobby...

BZZZZ

Why is it "as busy as a bee"?

Bees don't go to school. They don't have gazillions of homework. They don't stay up all night reading on Nozick and Structure Considerations and calculating Chi squares. Heck they don't even have to sit for JAVA Competency Exams!

It's registration week. I'm finally going to get to choose what track I want to pursue. Funnily enough I've chosen Stats/Data Mining. Maybe a double in Communication Design aswell. I'm so hyped about Spring semester. It's like that every time. At the start of a new sem I'd be all geared up to perform my best; even planning on a 4-flat. *snort* Then by the time it's mid semester I'd just be happy enough to get a B. Sometimes even a C. Just as long as I finish the semester. And then, when it's that time of the semester - registration week of course - I feel like starting off all over again and can't be bothered about the present sem. What a joke.

Whatever happened to dignity.

Anyway....I still think it should be "As busy as yazmin".

LOST IN THE WEB

The internet is indeed a dangerous tool.

Yesterday I had planned out everything; do Stats at 8pm, Philosophy at 10pm, have a coffee break at Kiva, and then start Programming at 12 (till god-knows-when). Then suddenly in the midst of calculating some Confidence Interval thingimajig, Fatma goes and messages me and gives me this link -> www.Dictionaraoke.com

I laughed so hard that I swear I could feel my stomach starting to open up and have my guts fall out....but that could've been the result of my Kurma I cooked...hmmmm.....Anyway! To top it all, Arthur then messaged me and gave me this link -> www.Googlism.com

Seriously it was agony. It was bad enough that I wasn't getting any homework done. But later I treated myself to some French Soda and oogling over Amir's, King's and Shahril's guitars.

Sigh.

Someday I think I'll pull the plug.

LAZY SPELL

Obviously I've been busy.
And lazy.

Well...this is going to be a tough week - and i don't mean exams or quizzes or food festivals (heheh) - it's just that i've had this delusional idea that last week I was so free and had no homework. Apparently I wasn't. And now I have all these assignments and stuff from last week I have to complete this week.

And of course it doesn't help when you've got a book that you simply can't put down. And I mean this literally.

And updating my site doesn't help either.

ps: bal i want my star back. hahahahahahhahaha ;)

THE MOTHER OF ALL FOOD

Woohoo!!! The Malaysian Food Fest 2 was a huge success!!!!!

I could go into details, but I'm still quite tired. Even after sleeping the whole day :p. Let's just say for now that it was all great and the time and energy spent was really worth it. Oh! And we made a clean profit of over $1,000!!!!

We sold satay, roti canai, nasi lemak, lok-lok, karipap, cekodok, popiah, jemput jemput, prawn noodles, teh tarik and ABC. For the prawn noodles and the roti canai, we actually made them on the spot. Shahril and Usamah did all the "menebar"ing of the canai and Jeremy cooked his famous noodles live for the customers. It really was like a pasar malam, no joke. Really, it was impressive...especially since everything was done entirely by students. Even if I do say so myself.

Once again, we have made our mark in CMU. KUDOS TO ALL BUDAYA MEMBERS!!!! *hug*

We rock!
MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!

take a peek at the Food Fest here!

MFF STRIKES AGAIN

Oh man this has been such a hectic week!!!

MFF2 is going on full speed ahead. It's this Friday and the advertising and coupon-selling and the whole preparation has been wild. I've just got back from chalking (writing on sidewalks with chalk on-campus as a form of advertising) with Usamah, and though we're pooped, it was fun. Specially fun when you feel like it's vandalism, only just not quite....hehe..

We've been selling coupons for Friday 3 days running, and tomorrow will be the last chance to promote the Food Fest. So far we've sold 793 coupons which totals up to $365. I'm beat. But it's all great :D

Last minute preparations are going on and the normal hussle is stepping in. My team will be making karipap, popiah and cekodok tomorrow to get ready for the sales on Friday. Feeling a little frantic here. But things'll go well. InsyaAllah.

MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!!!

FURBALLS ARE YOUR FRIENDS!

hehe....look at what i've been up to...


been so bored lately....apart from the fact that it's the exam week and i have tons to do...hence, the creation of these thingies! BUDAYA is planning on another food fest - MFF2. This time with games. It's scheduled 2 weeks from now and we haven't started scratch. Off-topic though: I'm just so glad my Intermediate Microecons has been pushed back. Philo was yesterday, open book, and i spent half the time flipping away through the pages like crazy. Naturally, couldn't find the answers in it. Oh well. At least I have me furballs :D !!!

PHILOSOPHICAL MOOD

Am currently reading John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism essay with Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite in the background.... how conceptual is that!

No, I'm not in mode of truth-seeking or in any karma quest of some sort... simply preparing for a philosophy exam this monday. And I happen to find Maxwell a good theme to complement philosophical theories.

Anyway, me schedule has been tight as of late. But I'm sure I can squeeze some time to go paint-balling this weekend :p. I'm not any good at it and actually spent half the time hiding among trees, bushes, logs (whatever's big enough to cover me, basically) the last time around. This weekend I'm pretty much prepared to get shot at. Pile on those sweaters!!!

Oh!Oh! I received a bouquet of flowers Tuesday morning. From an 'anonymous friend'. Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it :D

CODELINKS

I'm working on a site to help friends code in html. It's not much really and I've only gone through 1 topic so far. In time though I hope to have a site full of html codes so ppl can refer to them. Anyway, in case you're interested, it's called webCODES and you can click on that to get to the link. Comments are very much welcome and do let me know what you think of it.

BLOG MANIA

ugh... finally finished setting up 2 blogs in blogspot; for the atu gals and for my alma mater...

i'm not gonna post the links in just yet. maybe soon tho :)

A WOMAN'S BEST FRIEND

I just signed up for neopets!

However I haven't chosen a pet yet. They're all quite cute really (in a mutant sort of way). Plus I don't exactly know what I'm supposed to do yet. Somehow I feel that my pet might die very soon tho....

Here, help me choose a pet!

CHOCKFUL ON CAFFEINE

I've consumed two cans of expresso and half a bottle of mocha frappuccino. A whole litre of anesthetic won't put me to sleep now.

Guitar class turned out to be fun. I managed a decent session without revealing my retarded skills. But that was just today.

THE GOSPEL OF WEALTH

Curses. The commenting system's down.

And it's raining.

I've updated my prose page though. Just added one measly essay. Some ramblings about economical issues. Boring stuff really. But if you have time to waste (don't we all :p) go ahead and read it. It'll put you right to sleep :)

Oh! And I think I owe Dahlia an appology for not playing tennis today. Darn these resolutions.

WHERE'S MY SKILLS?

Just got back from watching Insomnia (Al Pacino, Robin Williams). The plot was ok. And the scene where Al chases Robin was priceless... two old men doing a chase scene...

Tomorrow is my first guitar lesson. I'm partly excited, partly nervous. I hope the instructor will forgive my skills; or lack thereof.

Before I forget, I got me a digital pen. It makes drawing on the computer so easy. There's a pad you use to write on. And it also acts as a mouse. The software that came along with it is super cool too. Check out the results here. Disregard the drawings and focus on how much the texture looks as if it were drawn on paper with a pencil.

I'm planning to pull an all-nighter. But without the aid of caffeine this time around. Shucks.

SICKENING SIRENS

Either the people around Oakland here get sick a lot, or they just like burning houses....

My room overlooks the road, and every 5 minutes there'll be a siren screaming away. Without fail. How festive. And if you're really lucky, there'll probably be someone across the road jamming away at 3 in the morning.

Anyway, I've finally fixed the flooble chatterbox, and also inserted a comment form. So go ahead and spill your guts out. And that specifically goes to you, Arthur. You goat. Baaa.

Man, I'm bored.

CSS

Hah! Guess what's different? Yes... gone are those ugly big fat fonts.

Silly as it may sound, I just figured out how to use the CSS Style Sheet *blush*

Anyway, I was thinking of a change. Orange is a bit too gaudy, don't you think? Well, until I come up with something not so punishing on the eyes, we'll just have to bear with this.

CONNECTED

Yay I'm finally connected to the internet!!!

I spent hours chatting last night with nabe instead of studying though. sigh.....must suffer the consequences i guess...

.....must.....get away....from....computer.....

nggghhhh!!!!

THE DISCONNECTED BABYSITTER

my room still has no internet connection yet. how dull is that? anyway, i've taken up guitar lessons and will be starting this sunday. yay! apart from that, i've also started babysitting :)

THE JAPANESE SURVIVAL KIT

...here's an email my brother sent to my elder brother and his wife after receiving 3 singlets from them in Japan:

Dear Kak Azi-san and Along-san,

To show my humble appreciation of so noble a gift, I want to teach you all some VERY IMPORTANT japanese phrases, essential to your survival in the land of the rising sun. Wakarimasu ka? Yoi.


Repeat after me please:


Ohesotte nani?
What is the meaning of my bellybutton?

Anata no gosenzo sama ni kao o awase rare masuka!
Get ready to meet your ashamed ancestors!

Sozo ijo no mono deshta.
That was different.

Suiteki de atama ni anao akararete iru yona kokoromochi deshta.
It was like drops of water boring into my skull.

Kazoku sorrote no seppuku ga yokatta.
I loved the part where the whole family disemboweled themselves.

Watashi no nozomi dori no shinikata deshta ne.
Their deaths perfectly expressed my deepest desires.

Omawarisan! Chikan o tska-mate!
Police! Arrest this pervert!

Nanashi no nihon no michi no kado ni imasu!
I am at the corner of two nameless streets!

Okikute ugokasenai Fujisan mitai da.
He looks as grand and immobile as Mount Fuji.
(To be used at Sumo contests.)

Ahoka! Sodai gomi!
Shame! Public Humiliation!
(To be shouted at baseball players when they err.)

Nihonshoku o tabesukete inai yabanjin desu.
I am too barbaric to eat a Japanese breakfast.

Osoroshii kangae nimo osoware mas.
I have many evil thoughts.

Ebi no idaina saigo desu!
How honorably shrimp struggle as they choke to death!

Anata wa haru ichiban no sakura no yoni utsukushii.
You are as beautiful as spring's first cherry blossom.

Shijin ga suki desuka?
Which poet is your favourite?

Anata no hiza ni suwattemo yoroshii deshoka?
Do you mind if I sit in your lap?

Sekai ichi no ginko ni otsutome desune.
I see you work for the largest bank on the planet.

*(phrases were taken from http://www.muppetlabs.com/~netropic/japanese.html)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SIS

I have programming in half an hour's time.

... on a lighter note....Today is akak's birthday... so Happy Birthday kak!!! Hope you have a great time and lots of great things to look forward to.

muah muah!

NEW RESOLUTIONS TO IGNORE

yep I'm back at school!!!

new apartment, new books, new resolution.... *cough cough*

... let's see how long this one'll last :p

anyway, this is the 3rd day already and so far so good. I just realized that my art page had a few errors before. I've fixed them though so now you can check out my meaningless doodles.

FAREWELL SUMMER

heading back to pittsburgh tomorrow at 2230 hours.... *sobs*

bye bye summer.... hello sophomore year.

eek.

MALESYIA E KAERIMASU!

aaahhh... back at last...

Tokyo was great!!! Went to tons of places; Disney Sea, The Forum, Japanese gardens, the Imperial Pace, Ginza, Shinjuku, Hurujuku...and even the pasar!!!

It was extremely hot though, and we walked most of the time. We went sightseeing and shopping everyday and didn't waste a single minute of the 8 days we were there. We'd get up at 7 each day and leave for the train station at 10am. Then we'd travel around Tokyo and be back at home at around 4pm. Everyday. Occasionally, we'd rest awhile and head back out at 8pm.

Once in Takashimaya, we felt a tremor on the road. Scary as it may seem, it was actually quite interesting.

Tokyo is a really awesome city. And I couldn't help but realized how self-sufficient these people are.

The trip was totally worth the money and I seriously am thinking of going back someday to explore Japan thoroughly. Sore feet and crammed coaches aren't gonna stop me :D

...oh! And I'll post pictures later...

NIHONG E IKIMASU!

woohoo!!!! off to tokyo, japan tomorrow!!!!

sayonara people!

A HOPEFUL AUNT

wow... it's been awhile...

have too much to tell obviously, that i dont know where to start :)

well for starters, my crochet is almost done. it shouldnt take this long to complete really, but in my defense, it was hard :p. i'll give you a sneak peak later on.

i'll be leaving for Tokyo, Japan to see Arif and Afiq this August. things aren't really confirmed yet, so let's just keep our fingers crossed eh? :D

DOUBLE THE SORROW

...sent Arif and Afiq to the airport this morning...

*sobs*

SHOPPING AND THE CITY

Back at last!!!

I've been staying at The Ascott apartments near KLCC these last few days, so you can guess what I've been doing the whole week... heheh... What better time to live a minute away from the shopping haven that's having 50% off sales in it's stores !!! (evil grin)...

I'm still tired from my shopping craze, so I'll spare you the interesting details.

STITCHES AND CRAFT

A few days back I went to this shop with my mum, owned by her friend. It was called "Stitches and Craft" or something like that and the auntie specialized in sewing; namely crocheting, cross-stitching, hard-edging and other things involving needles and thread.

Anyway, then I had this crazy idea of learning how to crochet! hehehehehe.... It's not as easy as it looks though, I must tell you that. Well, so far I've only mastered doing chains (not!!!! :p), but it's all good :D

At least I do have a new hobby now ;)

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Oh joy! Turkey won!

I must say, I was at the edge of my seat watching the match. After the first 3 goals the game was really mostly thrilling (and we all know how I hate suspense :p). One thing for sure, Turkey's goalkeeper was the star (doesn't he remind you of the guy in 'The Mummy'????). Rustu is a natural human shot-stopper. Korea did play awfully well though and frankly, I was relieved when I heard the whistle.

Just finished watching Ocean 's 11 (wipe that smirk off your face :p), and it's not so bad.

Well me off to bed. Having breakfast at a kedai mamak tomorrow morning. Yippee!!

THE LOYAL TYPIST

I've finally updated my art page. It's got a lot of old stuff I did about 2 years ago. I also changed a bit of the layout for that page so it's easier to see the pictures now.

Am helping abah type some stuff for work. I've become his loyal typist... heheh. Along wants me to send over some pictures of Arif and Afiq. The poor lad must miss his sons. Oh well. Serves him right. 'Cos we'll miss them terribly too when they leave for Japan with him in July ;p~

FOOTBALL JITTERS

Everyday I wake up looking forward to seeing what my nephews are up to next. It's never boring and I never tire of snapping pictures of them. They're just so adorable!

Arif and Afiq are asleep right now. And I'm secretly praying they'll wake up in a minute. hehehe..... doubt it though... it's already past midnight.

Brazil won against Turkey. No surprise there. Football isn't exactly my favourite game. Not so much 'cos I'm not fond of it. Just that I can't take the suspense. Maybe I take after my dad. While mak is screaming at the players on TV, you'll see me walking to and fro to my dad's room to tell him what's happening, thus missing some action. I'm his mobile commentator. Not that I mind. At least it spares me the dreaded suspense. I just hate being left on tenterhooks. Well, I'd place my money on Brazil. But it would be a nice thing to see Germany win instead.

Here's a picture of Arif today.

PICTURE OF THE DAY...

SUMMER UPDATES

Akak's back!!!! And Arif and Afiq will be leaving in 3 weeks time ...sobs...

Well... I've finally fixed my little FTP problem, which has been the reason for my long absence on the web... if anyone cares anyway :p. I've also gotten my hands on a new lappy (not mine) so I just might add more stuff on my Prose and Art pages. Got some old junk I'm prepared to upload on my site for all to see.

OK then... there's only one computer at home and my sister is already hinting me to quit :p. 'Sides I wanna watch TV anyway.

Toodles!

KENDURI

We had a kenduri doa selamat on Sunday for my brother who's leaving for Japan soon. Friends and relative came by and the food we catered was excellent. There's no end for praising Malaysian food. It's just not said enough :D

It's been a week since I got back and I'm beginning to wonder how I ever survived 13 years in this godforsaken heat. Oh well. It's not like I go out much anyway.

My sister will be coming home in a week's time. Then I can finally get my shopping gear ready and head to the mall with her!

HOME SWEET HOME

Yay!

I'm back at home now! I spent the last 22 hours sitting on the plane and now my bum is sore. Anyway, I'm so so excited and so happy! Arif Afiq greeted me at the airport and I was really shocked to see how good looking they've become.

Well, I'm pretty tired now and I think I should hit the sack. I predict that I'll be sprawled on my bed for the next 3 days, at least. Due to jet-lag of course :p