"heroin, mug's game...."

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future lately, and I don’t like doing that. Get me a desk, some money, and a pair of these, and I’m a happy man.

We lost again yesterday, 8-7. I got 2 goals and 3 assists, but I was also guilty of giving away the ball to Fred, an opponent player, which resulted into a stupid soft goal. Nevertheless, it was still a good match; we crawled back in into the game after trailing 8-3. But a lost is still a lost. Anyways, we still have intramural playoffs this week to look forward to.

And to some soccer back home. The local soccer scene just got a little more exciting; getting a story published under the headlines tab on ESPNsoccernet sure is something. Halim Napi is one mad man, and the home crowd, wow. I’m not implying that I’m giving my utmost support to hooliganism and such, but yeah, we’ve had cases of home supporters throwing stones to the visiting team’s busses and all, but putting a police vehicle on fire sure is something new. At least, I look up to these people more than those Melayu Malaysia perasan Red Army and Malaysian perasan Steve Hickmont. I have a lot of catching up to do before going back home. And the national hockey team went on to lose 3-1 to India in the Azlan Shah Cup tournament finals.

And talking about hooligans, I just finished watching the rise of the footsoldier. It is an OK movie, maybe it is just a little bit too long, and it gets a little lackluster towards the end. Anyways, I’d recommend this to anyone who is into gangster or crime films, and be warned that it is a little graphic. You can find a short description of the movie here. And the one big thing that I learnt from the film is, stay away from drugs. Maybe money is the root of all evil, but drugs is the pinnacle of it, the point where if you fall, you’ll fall the hardest.

Back on the future; I can’t really see why I need to conform to the society’s brand of a successful person. It’s not anything existentialism……… I guess. But well, let’s skip the crap.

And talking about successful people, Mr. Onitsuka and Carlton Leach have these characteristics in common; they have a gift, and they got guts. You can have all the muscle and the money, but you need to have bakat to go up the ladder. And the one big difference between them is that one planned to be successful, and the other one did it just for the thrills. So, failing to plan is a plan to fail crap is really not that true I guess. Well, planning ahead is still good though; but it is not right to generalize- that’s what my writing lecturer told me at least.

More on successful writers, I bumped into Nadim last week, and he made me read a short story entitled Guts from Palahniuk’s Haunted. Palahniuk is one sick and amazing writer. He is so good that up to 60 people have fainted listening to the story of Guts during his book readings. I didn’t faint, but I just couldn’t help myself from uttering a couple of bad words aloud throughout the excruciating few pages with the rather animated looking Nadim laughing the whole time. You guys should try it sometime, or you can find a couple of videos of him reading it on youtube. But, just be warned, unless you have a sick and twisted mind, it is going to be agonizingly disturbing.

I still haven’t decided if I’ll be running the 5k next week, so, a pair of shoes with the fancy gel has to wait. And my younger sister will be coming over to the states sometime this week. I need flight tickets….. Houston ke, Philly? And yesterday’s forum was just horrible.

Letih. Perlu pulang ke pangkal jalan.

a better loser

At last, I had the chance to attend the club’s annual regional conference for the first time last week. The focus was on how modern medicine interfaces with and impacts our society and the world. Among the topics covered include Biotechnology, ethical issues regarding to genetic testing, adjusting to an aging population, the rising cost of public health, etc.

Since it’s near impossible to summarize everything here, let’s just talk about the slot which I think is the coolest. Firstly, I didn’t really plan on attending this particular parallel slot because I was afraid that I was going to offend a handful of informed people by not laughing to their clever inside jokes (I never had any biology, not even in high school, and the topic presented was ethical issues in genetic testing, in a big conference where the attendees know a little bit of everything), but I just happen to have entered the wrong room, and when I realized that, it was already too late to get out and join the other group next door. Anyhow, at the end of the day, it wasn’t really that bad, though I had to constantly google up the new terms and jargons used by both the esteemed presenter and the hyper-cool audience throughout the session.

And what I can conclude from the lecture is this- the future is just plain scary. Imagine this, the setting from the X-men series, and how the one main difference between the mutants and the rest of the human population is causing havoc around the world; just this time, no wolverine, no sexy slimy blue woman, and replace the x-gene with some other genetic traits…… Ok, that’s not a very good explanation.

Ok, anyways, we already have enough problems with racial, religious, sexual orientation, and social class discrimination, and the last thing we want is to have groups of people being discriminated because of their genes. And in this case, when we talk about discrimination, it goes beyond the social prejudice. It involves issues regarding to money, well being and protection in terms of insurance plans and some other sensitive issues including abortion, etc. As an example, with advancements in biotech, such as the availability of the pre-natal genetic testing, in the future, without the right laws and regulations, it is possible that one day, parents can choose to keep the unborn or to simply perform abortion if it doesn’t really go along with the specifications of the kind of child they want. And in the future, marriage, or love in general, will have to go beyond the psychological chemistry, with the unrestricted genetic profiling coming into play. And as we in general just don’t like to be labeled and treated differently because of certain stigmas, then, we will be forced to choose, thus the issues with selective personality and all. Anyways, the 2 examples are just a small portion of the problems that will surface without the right laws and guidelines concerning genetic testing. And as we were informed, the laws governing the issue today is lagging years behind compared to where we have arrived today.

And the other topics discussed were in fact, just as interesting. And all in all, other than the roasted vege for lunch; the 2-day conference was awesome. And I was just a little disappointed that I had to skip a couple of slots because I just had to join the team for the WC tournament last Saturday and share a portion of the humiliation of getting whipped, losing by 8 goals to 1.

It was a really big slap to our big fat pride; at least 3 guys I know and one random guy I can’t really remember who, came up to me on campus asking what the hell happened. And since the intramural game was cancelled yet again due to the storm, I was available to play for the team for our 2nd game of the indoor tourney. And since its Macheda’s day and we didn’t really want to steal his thunder, we thought that pulling an upset by winning the game was a bit inappropriate; so, our 1st ever WC win will have to wait until next week. hmmmmm…. We really need to find a way to play against guys double our size,....... and how to scramble from very small dogs when playing outdoors…… and I think I can cross ‘playing in the world cup’ out from my bucket list.

And yup, the team got ‘beet’ out, but the future is bright. I like Hansbrough, but I want MSU to win. We’ll see.

Btw, imagine this, liyana fiza (estrella) with a degree in biology from MIT, and she’s all Zidane………..

And good luck Mr. PM.

big shoulders

So, spring break is finally over.

Tomorrow, the sacred boilermaker campus will be swarmed by proud insomniac Neil Armstrong and Brian Lamb wannabes yet again. With the sun shining gloriously after a long hiatus, and the basketball team advancing to the sweet 16 , there’s a lot to look forward to, other than the classes with Korean instructors.

Anyways, it was a well spent-low-productivity-level break. We learned playing mahjong Hong Kong style, played poker, had barbecue, watched basketball games and movies, went to Chicago, played soccer and football, and most importantly, we slept well.


Ok, let’s talk about the impromptu Windy City trip. First of all, Chicago is a very cool big city; the air feels cleaner and the traffic is really not that bad compared to NYC or KL. And if you’re into architecture, you should really go see Chicago (the SEARS tower et al). And what I think I like the most about the city are the cool sculptures all around the city, and the gorgeous parks down the long Lake Michigan shore-line. And just so you know how windy and cold the city is, random local people were talking about how warm and beautiful the day was, when the temperature was at 1 degree centigrade, and the wind was gushing constantly into our faces.


and i've actually upgraded to a point-and-shoot...


And talking about sculptures, at last, I had the chance to see the god bless america sculpture up close. I was excited about the sculpture because I was trapped in a conversation about the American Gothic Painting (which the sculpture was based on) with some guys some time ago, so, yeah, it was cool to see a piece of art and actually knowing something about it.



Btw, I’ve been to Chicago for at least a dozen times before, but being a lousy tourist and all, I haven’t really visited the City of Big Shoulders until recently. And i'm glad i did.


So, if you’re planning to go to the Second City for a visit, you could do the usual tourist stuff like go up the Sears Tower, go visit the Museums and the Aquarium, go to one of the beaches, visit Navy Pier, see the cool stuff in Millennium Park, go to the Planetarium, enjoy the parks, and walk and shop along Michigan Avenue. And if you have some extra cash, go see a theatre or go see the Bulls, or the Bears, or the Cubs or the White Sox play in their respective stadiums. And if you go on St. Patty’s day, you’ll have a chance to see the parade and the river dyed green.


So, yeahh… everyone will miss doing nothing.
The team will play the other Husky this Thursday, and let’s prove Obama wrong.



Wazza, I feel you man… and BTFU!!!!!

I'm doing science and I'm still alive

In 17 days 919 Palestinians were killed by Israel including 284 children & 100 women, while 4260 others were injured

anyway, remember primary school language classes, when we had to write essays on ‘my most humiliating experience’ or ‘pengalaman yang tidak boleh dilupakan sepanjang hidupku’? Everyone or at least those not adventurous enough would write about their first day at school, wetting their pants because they were too terrified to ask the evil teacher to go out to the loo, or better, how they cried like a baby under the wooden desk when the dad had to leave?

btw, I didn’t make up the crying under the desk part, but let’s keep that for another day shall we. Man, I can’t stop laughing, sorry eh…. hahaha.. And I still can’t stop laughing.

And because we were not trained to be adventurous, and the one example that the teacher gave is supposed to be the best one, I had to write down some lame lies every time we had to write something about the aforementioned topic. Though it was a good way to learn fiction, it was still pretty lame.

But I digress…..

Anyways, I was just trying to enlighten you that I didn’t cry at all on my first day of school. Ahah…. I did look back the instant my dad left, right after dropping me at my desk, when all the other parents waited for their kids outside the class. But I didn’t shed a single tear.
Because the class teacher thought I was so brave, and anarchism was yet to be integrated into my dictionary, I was appointed the ‘penolong ketua kelas’. Farhan was the class rep, only because he was the biggest and the tallest kid in class, and because Mrs. Chew, our class teacher knew his dad, Mr. Wilson Yeo. But no hard feelings, we went on to be best friends up until today.
But thinking back on it, I think I didn’t cry because I didn’t know we should or we were expected to cry on our first day at school. And I didn’t know that parents were expected to wait for us outside the classroom the whole first day of school. But I’m glad I didn’t know. hehh…..

And today was the first day of school all over again; supposedly the last first day of school for some of us. I’ll probably be staying for the summer, I don’t know yet. Anyways, back to today, it went pretty well I guess, except for one of the classes. I think the professor is a psycho, I don’t know. And I’m in a modeling class again, mathematical modeling to be exact... ahah... lame gile…..


I've experiments to run, there is research to be done… (lagu rockband smlm)

And to some soccer, most of the ‘liga competitive malam jumaat’ guys are back in snowy WL. So, we had a game just now, but we had to stop early because the roller-hockey guys wanted to play on the court we’re sharing with them. And just so you know, every time the two groups come at the same time, tension will flare, but thank god, tonight, only bad language was used, and no punches were thrown. I’ll be writing to the paper tomorrow. But I had to stop playing early anyway; I pulled a muscle in my right thigh. And AJ, the guy I’ve been playing with for at least a year now, actually lives opposite my apartment. hampehh….

Anyways, welcome back to school. Let’s hope Friday will come by in a flash.

bye-bye coach Dungy.


yang lapar dan sakit kena sepak.

*terdelete entry sebelum ni.

leg breaking

So, I was facing this big dilemma. I don’t like to choose, especially when it comes down to choosing people. If it were a staffing decision, then, a simple linear model would suffice, but this one is way beyond complicated.

But a man has to do what a man got to do. And Dawes’ and Ben Franklin’s long explanation on prudential algebra brought me down to this decision which cost me $20. I chose a Polish-born Nobel Prize winner over my favorite scientist, who also happens to be one of the coolest physicist, science idol and writer ever; Rotblat over Feynman.

And after reading one of the best composed and sincere writings by a scientist or a philosopher I’ve ever came across, I signed the pledge.

And then paid the $20 membership fee, and got my cool t-shirt and other ‘free’ stuff.

Anyways, the Student Pugwash is all about engaging students to promote the socially responsible use of science and technology, and in order to create effective social change, students must first understand the issues at stake, and then contemplate their ethical and moral responsibility to themselves and to society as a whole.

And as I can’t really get a consistent 10 hours of sleep a day and not that much soccer or football or sweat anymore this semester because of schoolwork and all, I decided to take the passenger’s seat for this particular intention, by the door in the backseat. Well, I didn’t get myself all messy with the administration stuff, but I’ve learnt some pretty cool and great new stuff from the very people who are pioneers and the crème de la crème in their respective already cool fields.
Seriously, after the short an hour or so lecture, you’ll get out feeling a little bit more intelligent, which is good to feed the deflated ego after having to do too much schoolwork and projects that make you feel dumber than a 12 year old giraffe. And some of the lectures even helped me change my stand on certain issues. Anyway, the most important lesson I’ve got so far is that, information, small or little goes a very long way. For $20 (actually the lecture series can be attended for free), now I’m a big advocate of nuclear energy, I have a pretty good idea on what to feed my wife during and even before pregnancy, how calico cats and women are the same, a new dimension on the black gold, corn and the energy issue, and I get to meet some new cool geeks.

So, yup, Feynman is still the favorite and the coolest scientist ever, but Rotblat, Einstein and a couple of their scientist friends made the better choice. Well, consistent to what Erick Erikson suggested, people in between their teen years, up to their early 20’s usually have this Identity vs. Role confusion. So, choosing what’s cool and what you’re supposed to be and do is pretty confusing at this age.

And talking about another favorite writer, I had a chance to hear a lecture and get my book signed by Mr. Tom Friedman some one month ago, the same night I saw Frank Duong at the Union, the night before he scored a touchdown out of an interception. He talked about his book which I yet to get a chance to read beyond page 34, and a couple of his personal experience which was great. And with this entire APEX thing going on, maybe the particular university back home should really look into this energy engineering technology thing, which according to Freidman, is the new ‘it’ thing, the new big tomorrow. And as I was 12th in line out of the nearly packed 6,025 capacity Elliot Hall of Music audience during the book signing, I get to have a little chat with him, but I forgot to ask him to sign his other book I brought along.
Ohh, again, if you somehow managed to find this humble blog, thanks for the book……

We went to see my classmate take the basketball court during the halloween night exhibition game last night. We were pretty good. The future is bright.

And for one last time, let's go slay some wolverine for lunch.

-the best indoor kicks yet--

-The tired, deflated, stressed, and in need of a pair of new kicks, a new graphic card and to break some legs-

Nadal and a Platypus Walk into a Bar

The school's football season kicked off yesterday, with the team chalking up a rather unconvincing win over a championship subdivision team. We won big, but it could've been bigger, and we were expecting a lot more particularly from the QB, especially when you stupidly spent the day basking under the freaking hot sun at the stadium when you're fasting.
This season is kind of special because it's the coach's last season here in WL and the last one for the seniors too. Anyways, the team will be playing #14 Oregon next week, and it better be interesting.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to October for basketball season. The team is ranked as high as #3 in the pre-season polls, and we're scheduled to play Duke this season. Btw, Duke's coach, Coach K , was the coach of the USA National Team who won the gold medal in the recent Olympics.

And the schoolwork, assignments and projects have just started to kick in as the 3rd week of school resumes. And like the midterms, once it starts kicking in, like an avalanche, it just won't stop falling onto you. But the good part is that there's only 14 more weeks of classes left. So, let the countdown begin…..

And right after the football game, we were invited to a friendly with the Indonesian team which we lost to by a goal from a penalty kick. I got an assist, and hit the post twice from long range…hehhh….
We could've won the game, really….. But we were experimenting with the newer guys, and it turned out to be horrible, just as expected. Anyhow, it was still a good start for the team.

Anyone with any good tips to keep focused? I don't think I have ADD, but I do procrastinate a lot, and I really can't keep focused on a task (schoolwork that is) for more than 5 minutes.

Hmmmm…. when I feel annoyed or angry, I feel like punching certain people right in the face, and most of the times, the same faces keep coming up. And right now, I really feel like doing just that. But for now, I really don't know if the act of punching someone in the face could help me with my level of anger or annoyance.
But being a student of science, I think I really should put the hypothesis to the test. And because doing a computer simulation is not really feasible in this case, so, I think I should just go say 'hye' to these buggers, give them the punch, and then tell them about this theory I was trying to prove. Or should I tell them about the theory first, and only then give them the punch?.... I think it doesn't matter, because them knowing or not knowing about the hypothesis is not relevant to the study….
So, I should really go punch someone now…….

mahu

Huarghhhhhhh~

ape khabar org jepun?

This is the current line-up for the fantasy team challenge. The team was ranked at number 239 out of 375,188 teams last Thursday, but not having a chance to make transfers and substitutions on our no soccer day last Saturday, the team dropped down to number 155,967.
My personal favorites, Spain and Netherlands plus the 2 favorite underdogs Turkey and Russia made it through to the next stage though the Romanians and Swiss had to bid early goodbyes. Gus Hiddink is a magician.

So, last week, in an attempt to escape this cruel, hectic and problem ridden world of ledger books, hiking food prices, Obama, the NBA finals, stupid and crazy math equations, Euro2008, and the world’s obsession of black gold, we decided to go on a rather casual, impromptu and short camping trip in one of the state parks nearby.
In short, our endeavor to ‘bersebati dengan alam’ was great, as towards the end of the trip, we literally turned into orangutans.
The smoke from the campfire created a special kind of ambience that made the food we cooked taste a lot like the ones at the kenduri kawins at kampong. The gripping battle between man and raccoon with sporadic crazy shaman dances in between was something to remember. The 15 mile kayaking in the fast flowing creek (due to the thunderstorms a couple of nights prior that has flooded some counties nearby), which looked a lot like the Huang He river that particular day, under the torturous shining sun was great despite not having any chance of saving any drowning kid or soaking the camera to its end like last year. And the pretty unsuccessful attempt in fishing at the tasik berpuaka stuffed with loads of boarding school ghost legends and stories was still pretty relaxing and a lot of fun.
Minus toilet time and the severe sunburn, it was great. Maybe we should do it Bear Grills’ way next time. The Yellowstone National Park seems like a great and a very possible location.


So, there’s another 6 more weeks of summer school to survive. I bumped into Tammy yesterday and she treated me lunch, met some new cool soccer buddies with very sick moves, and I suddenly got this long list of party invitations to go to, and I think I saw Abbas in math class?????



Masih menyesal xtgk game turki vs. Czech. Lakers hampeh... belanja tiket pg london....????

the fox and the grapes

So, Mozart wrote his first minute at five. Bill Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard when he was 20 to then become the richest man on the whole wide world. Michael Dell dropped out from U of Texas Austin at the age of 19 to then establish once the 25th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list. Anderson was only 20 when he helped United win the Champions League trophy. And Cesc Fabregas, one of the best midfielders at this time, just turned freaking 21, 25 days ago. And Novak Djovovic who turned 21 a week ago, ranked 3rd in the ATP world rankings, already has a big fat $7.5 million prize winning money in the bank. And the $16 million dollar guy, Rafael Nadal won’t turn 22 until next month.

I can’t do music. I was microns away from dropping out from school, but hardware and software don’t fit me that well. I should’ve forced my parents to send me to soccer academy when I was younger. And I’m not very good playing court games. And hockey doesn’t offer that much fortune, even more, fame. Hmmm…. Looking at it the sore loser’s way, these people are freaking prodigies. Maybe I’ll make my first million at 40, or 65 maybe.

Fortune and fame, at a young age, is lethal.
Sour grapes………..

Anyways, at least I won’t be left out when the group mates want to go celebrate like before. Hmmm… minus the nasik lemak, 2nd hand smoke, roti canai and teh tarik, God’s will, I could make it for another great profitable 46 years.

And our team should get the perennial 2nd round losers’ tag; we lost twice in the semifinals and this year in the quarterfinals, 3 years in a row. The teams competing were better and tougher compared to the ones last year. And it sucks to not be able to give a 100% on the field because of the recovering shoulder and a few knocks here and there. Being unlucky again, we could’ve made it to at least the semifinal game if the schedule weren’t altered at the last second in favor of the 2 lobbying teams. It’s just incomprehensible, we were the group champions, aren’t we supposed to have the advantage of facing the weaker team first? We lost anyways. And it sucks to be a loser.


In addition to the severe sunburn, my Michael Phelps foot exploded into the size of an Ogre’s foot. I could barely feel my right foot the first two days, and I’m having some pretty tough time tucking it into the sneakers. Ube’s decently captured photo explains how it happened. And the guy sliding for the ball, we go by the same name. How cool…..
I played bigger games with higher stakes, pace and intensity, plus the stick and a smaller, harder ball that moves up to 120 km/h with minimal protection. But I’ve never faced injuries this serious.
It’s only the freaking MWG. Tak faham….

But it was nice to see those familiar faces again.

Anyhow, losing still sucks….

red in russia

glory glory~ (soccernet.com)

the man

* hoping the shoulder gets better.....

let's go play footie on the moon

next time you want to talk about something, make sure you know what you're talking about. or else, just shut up.

(in the shadow of the moon)

let's go to the moon.
this one is a must see documentary.
thank you punD.



go google up the review.
who are you again? why are you questioning me supporting this team? and who are you again? why are you supporting this other team? the team doesn't even like nor need someone like you. besides, you don't even know how to kick a ball.
you see, soccer is more than just a beautiful game. Soccer clubs don't just represent geographic areas; they stand for social classes and political ideologies. so, unless you can give me an excellent reason why you're supporting this certain club, next time you're watching a game at the mapley, please sit down and sip your teh tarik quietly, and stop acting like you're Steve Hickmont or Zeljko Arkan.
we do bribing and all, but a nation ranked 170th in the world rankings certainly doesn't need nor produce any hooligans.


and i bumped into this not so suicidal word game.
go test your vocabulary, and feed someone.(click on the banner)

but before the moon, Paris might be good for a start.
Paris again eh? congratulations btw.

masih marah...