Rants and praises? C'est la vie!

Rage Against the Rodents

2012-01-30T00:36:00.002+08:00

Lately, my sleep had been disturbed by squealing noise of mouses that 'invaded' my house. After a week of investigation, I had identified two mouses were residing inside my room. To avoid further damage to my properties, I had monitored the mouses' route and set up a trap.

So today after work I went to the local hardware shop to buy mouse trap. I have been offered with two options, rat's glue or mouse trap. I've decided to go with rat's glue method and bought the super sticky glue at RM5.00 per can.

Fuji Glue costs RM 5.00

The result? One mouse was trapped after 2 hours of the trap placement. The only drawback of using glue is the strong smell of glue. I've placed the trap and went to Fitri's house to watch the lame Anugerah Juara Lagu 2012 (AJL 2012) to run away from the smell. I found the mouse trapped the moment I went back from Fitri's house.

First catch!

How about the second mouse? I could not sleep with the strong smell of glue. I would like to give the second mouse a chance to repent and go away from my room by tonight before I set up another trap tomorrow.

Kepala Buto Kau!

2012-01-27T17:04:00.001+08:00

Shocking, isn't it? Since when I dare to curse publicly over the Internet? Although I admit that I sometimes cursing when having a conversation with my ~~gay~~ male friends.

Not bad for a noob in photoshopping the logo, but I believe SDARian can do better than this :P

Nah, this post is not about me cursing but about an underage boy who open up a group defaming my beloved alma-mater, Sekolah Dato' Abdul Razak (SDAR). He might be having some issues with the boy(s) from my school but I believe the view of Bazli Hijan (his FB profile link here), the group creator does not represent the view of all Royal Military College (RMC) students out there. The group page of Kami anti SDAR can be accessed here.

The page was created on 26 January 2012

This is totally childish act by the group creator. In fact, there are some of the boys from RMC do not agree with this boy's act. This shows some of the kids still have some common sense intact to their brains. And for that, you have my respect.

The not-so-jambu group creator :P

Feedbacks from fellow SDARAs (the old boys) are mixed, some prefer to ignore and some urged other fellow SDARAs to report the group to Facebook admin. Nonetheless, we are agreed not to take any retaliatory act upon the group or RMC boys. I hope the boys (our juniors) at school will do the same too.

I'd love to quote Rauhi Isa, my school principal from 2001 until 2003 said, "Orang hebat memang ramai yang dengki" or "Great people is often envied by others".

I shall now let the seniors and students from RMC to rectify this shameful act from one of their rotten apple.

Berilmu Untuk Berjasa!

Update Ovi Store and Get Premium Apps for Free!

2012-01-27T14:45:00.000+08:00

So I just knew about this 3 days ago when I have so much free time to spend by synchronizing my Nokia N8 to Nokia Suite and start apps hunting.

I launched Ovi Store and it prompted me to update to latest version. So I preceded with the update and Nokia offered me premium apps for free! This offer is valid for 30 days from the day you updated to the latest version of Ovi Store.

After updating to the latest version of Ovi Store, tap the link on top portion of Ovi Store Homepage

Currently they are offering 8 premium apps to be downloaded for FREE! Most importantly, Angry Birds Arcade is also included in the offer. For comparison, normal paid version of Angry Birds Arcade costs RM 4.00.

The premium apps that are offered to be downloaded for free in 30 days

So, what are you waiting for? Update to the latest version of Ovi Store and get selected premium apps for FREE!

Walaupun Aku Tak Menerima Baucar Buku 1Malaysia

2012-01-21T21:19:00.003+08:00

Hari ini aku berasa sangat bosan. Ramai rakan-rakan seperjuangan di Kerteh telah pulang ke kampung halaman masing-masing mengambil peluang sempena cuti Tahun Baru Cina selama 5 hari. Namun begitu, aku tidak dapat pulang ke Banting demi tuntutan tugas.

Bagi menghilangkan kebosanan, aku menuju ke Mesra Mall untuk makan tengah hari walaupun sudah pukul 3:00 petang. Aku terus menuju ke Secret Racipe dan memesan Chicken Cordon Bleu dan air teh limau sebagai minuman.

Chicken Cordon Bleu, potongan ayam goreng tanpa tulang diisi dengan keju yang lazat berkrim

Selesai makan, aku berjalan tanpa arah tujuan di sekitar kawasan Mesra Mall. Aku melewati kedai buku Popular dan melihat ramai orang melawat kedai buku tersebut, sesuatu yang amat jarang berlaku di kalangan rakyat Malaysia.

Situasi tersebut membuatkan aku tertarik untuk masuk melawat kedai buku tersebut. Rupa-rupanya orang ramai mengambil peluang untuk membeli buku dan alat tulis menggunakan baucar buku 1Malaysia yang diberi kerajaan kepada mereka yang layak.

Walaupun aku tidak menerima baucar tersebut, aku berasa terdorong untuk sama-sama menghabiskan duit di situ. Terima kasih kepada kebosanan yang melanda diri, akhirnya aku membelanjakan RM 51.85 untuk membeli sebuah novel karangan Tom Clancy dan juga 2 naskhah majalah berkenaan IT dan fotografi.

2 naskhah majalah dan senaskhah novel

Jumlah wang yang dikeluarkan agak banyak, tetapi aku tidak kisah kerana wang itu dibelanjakan untuk membeli buku. Membaca jambatan ilmu. Mungkin novel Dead or Alive tulisan Tom Clancy ini boleh dibaca besok di pejabat yang tiada orang kerana ramai bercuti? Oppss...

p/s: Esok bekerja seperti biasa

Liburan di Bandung 2012 - Hari Keempat

2012-01-20T21:01:00.000+08:00

Pengembaraan saya di kota Bandung diteruskan lagi pada hari keempat. Hari ini merupakan hari terakhir kembara saya di Bandung. Seperti biasa, saya bangun awal dan berjalan di sekitar Bandung pada awal pagi bersama Ateh. Kali ini kami menelusuri Jalan Merdeka sehingga ke Taman Awam Kota Bandung sebelum berpatah balik ke hotel.

Di pintu masuk muzium tentera

Bergambar di tugu peringatan pahlawan yang gugur

Kami juga berpeluang melawat Museum Mandala Wangsit Siliwangi, sebuah muzium tentera yang terletak berhampiran dengan hotel kami di Jalan Lembong. Disebabkan kami datang pada hari cuti (dan masih awal pagi), muzium ini ditutup kepada umum. Namun kami mendapat kebenaran untuk melawat kawasan perkarangan muzium yang menempatkan tugu peringatan dan juga senjata-senjata yang digunakan oleh Angkatan Tentera Nasional Indonesia (TNI) seperti pelbagai jenis meriam dan kereta kebal.

Meriam PSP

Kereta kebal Stuart M3A1 buatan Amerika Syarikat

Meriam Gunung

Meriam bofors 40 mm

Selepas itu kami berjalan menuju Taman Awam Kota Bandung yang terletak di Jalan Merdeka. Kami juga berpeluang menyaksikan keretapi melintas yang merupakan nadi penghubung antara bandar di Indonesia.

Jangan tiru aksi ini

Kereta api melintas

Selepas puas berjalan-jalan di situ, kami berjalan menuju ke hotel untuk bersarapan pagi dan berkemas kerana kami akan terus ke lapangan terbang sejurus taman aktiviti lawatan kami di Bandung.

Di dalam kawasan taman rekreasi

Di pintu masuk ke taman awam

Sesudah sarapan dan mendaftar keluar dari hotel, kami menuju ke Pasarbaru untuk acara membeli-belah. Ramai mengambil kesempatan untuk membeli-belah di hari terakhir kerana terdapat pelbagai pakaian lelaki dan wanita yang dijual dengan harga murah dan cantik-cantik belaka.

Nampak macam Avanza tapi cop Daihatsu

Pintu masuk ke Pasarbaru

Saya mengambil peluang untuk membeli baju batik setelah hampa di Cihampelas. Saya membeli dua helai baju batik dengan harga Rp 75,000 setiap satu. Saja juga membeli baju-t yang bertemakan Kota Bandung untuk diberi kepada adik-adik apabila pulang nanti. Rp 100,000 untuk enam helai baju-T dewasa boleh dikatakan sebagai sangat berbaloi.

Mencuba baju batik

Ayah juga tidak melepaskan peluang

Selesai membeli-belah, saya, ayah dan sepupu saya Ain pergi ke pasar di lorong belakang bangunan Pasarbaru yang menjual pelbagai barangan dan makanan.

Banyak buah salak dijual di sini

Di kawasan pasar

Antara yang menarik perhatian ialah tempe yang mempunyai kulat berwarna oren yang tidak didapati di Malaysia.

Tempe berkulat oren

Tempe biasa tetapi cara pembungkusannya unik

Ayah juga mengambil peluang membeli buah salak dan mangga untuk dibawa pulang ke Malaysia.

Sedang bertanyakan harga buah-buahan

Teh botol berjenama Sosro, popular di Indonesia

Setelah membeli-belah dan berjalan-jalan di kawasan pasar, perut mula berkeroncong. Kami menuju ke sebuah kedai makan di kawasan tersebut untuk menjamah hidangan tengah hari. Kami sepakat memesan pelbagai jenis bakso yang dijual di kedai itu.

Bakso ceker (kaki ayam)

Bakso kuah kacang

Kami juga memesan jus mangga, jus campuran nenas dan mangga serta air kelapa sebagai minuman. Uniknya, air kelapa dicampur dengan susu pekat dan rasanya sangat sedap.

Dari kiri: Jus nenas campur mangga, jus mangga

Air kelapa susu

Kami berkumpul kembali di pintu masuk Pasarbaru sebelum bas mengambil kami dan membawa kami ke Bandara Husein Sastranegara, Bandung untuk berlepas pulang ke Malaysia. Petang itu bumi Bandung dibasahi hujan, seolah-olah tidak merelakan pemergian kami.

Graffiti

Arca Husein Sastranegara, legenda juruterbang Indonesia

Penerbangan kami mengalami sedikit kelewatan dan kami tiba di LCCT, KLIA pada pukul 7:30 malam. Dari sini kami mengucapkan selamat jalan kepada setiap ahli rombongan yang pulang ke rumah masing-masing. Kami sekeluarga pula tiba di Banting pada pukul 8:30 malam.

Kepenatan setelah penat membeli-belah dan melancong

Mak dan ayah

Maka berakhirlah catatan kembara saya di Bandung yang bermula dari 4 Januari 2012 sehingga 7 Januari 2012. Saya berharap akan mendapat peluang lagi untuk melancong pada masa hadapan. Bak kata pepatah, jauh perjalanan luas pemandangan. Kembara ini telah memberi perspektif baru tentang kepelbagaian manusia di seluruh dunia kepada saya.

Wajah ceria

Mari pulang ke Malaysia!

TAMAT

Liburan di Bandung 2012 - Hari Ketiga

2012-01-19T17:58:00.000+08:00

Lawatan saya di Bandung diteruskan untuk hari ketiga. Hari ini saya dan Ateh (makcik saya) bangun awal untuk berjalan-jalan melihat keadaan kota Bandung dari dekat.

Pemandangan perkarangan hotel dari hadapan bilik saya menginap

Bergambar di salah sebuah persimpangan di Kota Bandung

Awal pagi, masih belum 'macet' (jalan sesak)

Kami berjalan-jalan di sekitar Jalan Braga dan Jalan Asia Afrika. Keadaan jalanraya tidaklah sesak karana masih awal pagi. Apa yang menarik di sepanjang Jalan Asia Afrika ialah terdapat banyak bangunan bersejarah hasil tinggalan penjajah Belanda dahulu.

Gedung Merdeka

Museum Konferensi Asia Afrika

Senibina Belanda

Seni abstrak?

CIMB dekat aje, ada rakan berkata lebih murah mengeluarkan duit dalam matawang Rupiah dari akaun di Malaysia berbanding kadar tukaran wang asing di pengurup wang

Di sini juga terdapat batu tanda kilometer 0 yang menjadi titik permulaan perkembangan jaringan jalan raya di Bandung. Batu tanda ini terletak di hadapan di hadapan pejabat Gabenor Wilayah Jawa Barat.

Mercu tanda kilometer 0 Bandung, permulaan jaringan jalan raya di Bandung

Batu tanda KM. Bd. 0+00

Kami menuju ke Masjid Raya Bandung sebelum berpatah balik ke hotel untuk sarapan. Apa yang unik mengenai Bandung ialah kebanyakan masjid di Bandung mempunyai dua menara. Di Malaysia kebanyakan masjid mempunyai satu menara sahaja. Namun begitu, aspek kebersihan tidak diambil perhatian di Bandung. Amat menyedihkan apabila perkarang masjid dipenuhi sampah sarap yang dibuang oleh orang ramai serta gelandangan yang tidur di situ.

Masjid Raya Bandung

Selepas penat bersiar-siar, kami berjalan pulang ke hotel untuk bersarapan pagi. Selepas itu kami menaiki bas menuju ke Kawah Putih yang terletak lebih kurang 45 km ke selatan Bandung. Perjalanan mengambil masa kira-kira sejam. Seperti di Tangkuban Perahu, bas kami berhenti di kaki gunung dan kami ke kawasan Kawah Putih menaiki van.

Gunakan Gear 1

Di pintu masuk ke Kawah Putih

Kawah Putih juga merupakan kawasan gunung berapi tetapi tarikan Kawah Putih ialah tasik belerangnya. Kadar belerang yang tinggi menyebabkan tasik ini 'mati' kerana tiada hidupan yang boleh hidup di dalamnya. Bau belerang di sini juga agak kuat dan menusuk hidung. Pihak pentadbiran Kawah Putih menasihatkan pengunjung untuk berada di kawasan tasik tidak lebih dari 20 minit oleh kerana bau belerang yang kuat.

Dinasihati melawat kawasan Kawah Putih tidak lebih dari 20 minit

Tasik belerang

Mendapan kuning di gigi air itu adalah belerang

Di sepanjang jalan menuju ke Kawah Putih terdapat banyak kawasan penanaman padi di kiri dan kanan jalan. Setiap inci ruang dimanfaatkan oleh penduduk setempat untuk menanam padi. Kehijauan sawah padi berlatarbelakangkan gunung memberi suatu pandangan yang menarik sepanjang perjalanan.

Kawasan pertanian bawang

Setiap inci kawasan dimanfaatkan

Selepas melawat Kawah Putih, kami berhenti makan tengah hari di Saung Katineung yang menghidangkan masakan Sunda. Saung bermaksud rumah persinggahan dalam bahasa Sunda dan konsep kedai makannya amat menarik dimana kami makan di pondok yang disediakan.

Ulam-ulaman

Hidangan makan tengah hari yang nampak menyelerakan

Di hadapan pondok makan

Jus strawberi

Di pintu masuk Saung Katineung

Pengunjung juga berpeluang memetik strawberi dan beri hitam yang ditanam di kawasan restoran dengan bayaran mengikut berat buah-buahan yang dipetik.

Mari memetik strawberi dan bawang

Blackberry yang sebenarnya

Selesai mengisi perut, rombongan kami menuju ke kawasan Cibaduyut yang banyak menjual barang-barang kulit berkualiti tinggi dengan harga yang sangat murah jika dibandingkan dengan harga di Malaysia. Barangannya tidak berjenama popular tetapi bahan yang digunakan adalah kulit asli dan mutu buatannya juga bagus. Saya sempat membeli sepasang kasut dan dompet disini. Kerosakan poket dianggarkan lebih kurang Rp 550,000 tetapi saya tidak mungkin akan dapat membeli barangan yang berkualiti sama di Malaysia dengan harga yang cukup murah.

Kasut kulit

Replika kasut mercu tanda Cibaduyut sebagai syurga barangan kulit

Kami meninggalkan Cibaduyut setelah sejam membeli-belah. Kami menuju ke Toko Tiga pula yang banyak menjual seluar jeans berjenama seperti Levi's, Lois dan sebagainya tetapi harganya lebih murah berbanding di Malaysia. Saya membelanjakan lebih kurang Rp 1,500,000 untuk 2 pasang jeans berjenama dan 3 helai baju-t berjenama.

Membeli-belah di Toko Tiga

Sepupu pun tidak mahu ketinggalan

Makan malam pada malam itu menampilkan sedikit kelainan apabila kami menjamu selera di kedai masakan Oriental. Sepanjang lawatan kami, kami hanya dijamu dengan masakan Sunda dan Padang sahaja. Cuma kali ini kami mengubah selera kepada masakan Oriental. Reka bentuk restoran juga agak eksklusif dan sesuai untuk pengunjung menjamu selera.

Sesudah makan, kami menuju ke hotel untuk berehat menandakan penamat hari ketiga kami di Bandung.

bersambung ke hari keempat...

Liburan di Bandung 2012 : Hari Kedua

2012-01-17T14:35:00.000+08:00

#Maaf kerana lambat mengemaskini sambungan lawatan saya ke Bandung. Terlalu sibuk dengan tuntutan tugas.

Pada hari kedua saya bangun pada pukul 5:30 pagi waktu Indonesia Barat (WIB). Tetapi keadaan di luar terang benderang seperti pukul 7:00 pagi di Malaysia.

Arca lagenda bola sepak Indonesia

Bas pariwisata (persiaran) yang menjadi pengangkutan kami sepanjang lawatan telah lama menunggu di perkarangan hotel.

Bas sudah sedia menunggu

Pada hari ini kami bergerak ke arah utara menuju ke Taman Wisata Alam Tangkuban Perahu yang merupakan sebuah kawasan kawah gunung berapi di daerah Ciater. Perjalanan mengambil masa kira-kira sejam walaupun hanya terletak lebih kurang 25 km dari hotel kami kerana jalan sesak dan mendaki gunung.

Kawasan bandar yang sesak

Nissan Juke baru, tak pernah nampak lagi di Malaysia setakat ini

Populasi padat!

MRR2 versi Bandung?

Bas kami berhenti di kawasan kaki gunung. Kami dikehendaki menaiki van untuk ke puncak gunung. Kosnya pula adalah Rp 15000. Van mengambil masa 15 minit untuk sampai ke puncak gunung.

Emak dan ayah terus membeli-belah di kaki gunung

Perjalanan ke Tangkuban Perahu menaiki van

Kawah gunung berapi

Seperti di kawasan pergunungan yang lain, hawa sejuk amat terasa bila berada di puncak gunung berapi yang masih aktif. Dalam keadaan biasa, kawah gunung berapi di Tangkuban Perahu hanya mengeluarkan wap dan sulfur.

Pahlawan berkuda tanah tinggi

Bersama emak di puncak gunung

Rombongan kami

Pengunjung juga berpeluang membeli cenderamata di kawasan pasar di sekitar kawasan gunung. Belerang juga banyak terdapat dipercayai diambil dari kawasan gunung berapi ini sendiri.

Bersama ahli rombongan yang tidak pernah gagal membeli-belah di setiap perhentian kami

Kawasan pasar menjual cenderamata

Makanan bergoreng yang dijual di kawasan pergunungan

Bersama ayah di Tangkuban Perahu

Lesung turut dijual sebagai cenderahati

Di kawasan kawah gunung berapi

Selepas tamat lawatan, kami makan tengahari dengan hidangan Sunda ketika menuruni Jalan Tangkuban Perahu. Antara hidangan yang menarik ialah ikan kaloi goreng, ikan yang biasanya dijadikan ikan hiasan di Malaysia. Pada saya, rasanya pula lebih kurang sama seperti ikan air tawar yang lain.

Bersamo uwan den yang vogue!

Cubaan menyelenggara kereta POLRI

Ikan kaloi goreng @ gurame

Sup bening, manis rasanya - tak sedap!

Selepas mengisi perut, kami menuju ke Cihampelas untuk membeli-belah. Hujan mula turun namun tidak melunturkan semangat makcik-makcik yang menyertai rombongan ini untuk membeli-belah. Keadaan di Cihampelas agak sesak dan jalan basah menyukarkan saya untuk berjalan di kawasan ini. Hajat saya ingin membeli baju batik tetapi hampa apabila rekaan yang dikehandaki tidak mempunyai saiz yang padan dengan ukuran badan saya.

Replika senapang

Toyol yang idak pandai mencuri, tetapi menjadi halwa tekak

Tetapi saya tidak pulang dengan tangan kosong apabila saya membeli sepasang jaket kulit yang dijual oleh penjaja yang datang ke bas kami. Harganya pula Rp 150000, amat berbaloi dengan kualiti buatan dan bahan yang digunakan.

Banyak terdapat di sekitar Bandung, bagaimanakah rasanya?

Menjelang malam, hujan masih turun membasahi bumi Bandung. Kami menuju ke sebuah restoran masakan Padang untuk makan malam. Saya mengambil peluang memesan sate Padang yang banyak dijual di sekitar kota Bandung. Tetapi bagi saya, rasa sate Padang tidaklah sesedap sate yang saya biasa makan di Malaysia. Rasanya masin, tidak kena dengan selera saya.

Hidangan Padang sekali lagi

Sate Padang, tidaklah sesedap yang disangka

Selepas makan saya sempat ke kedai menjual kad prabayar untuk mengisi semula baki nombor telefon bimbit saya di Indonesia bernilai Rp 20000. Selepas itu kami terus balik ke hotel dan berehat.

bersambung lagi...

Liburan di Bandung 2012 - Hari Pertama

2012-01-15T00:25:00.003+08:00

Nampaknya aku membuka tahun baru dengan mengambil cuti panjang ke Bandung. Nasib baik boss tak banyak soal untuk meluluskan cuti (belum apa-apa dah minta cuti panjang). Jadi, aku ingin berkongsi sedikit-sebanyak pengalaman yang aku kutip dari Bandung.

Tujuan asal aku pergi ke Bandung hanyalah untuk berjalan-jalan melihat tempat orang, jadi aku hanya menukar wang sebanyak Rp1,000,000 (bersamaan RM353.00) sahaja. Tetapi apabila tiba di Bandung, aku baru tahu wang sebanyak itu tidak mencukupi untuk lawatan sepanjang 4 hari 3 malam itu.

Satu juta rupiah tidak cukup

Perjalanan dari KL LCCT (IATA: KUL) ke Bandara Husein Sastranegara (IATA: BDO) sepatutnya mengambil masa lebih kurang 2 jam sahaja tetapi disebabkan oleh masalah kabus, juruterbang terpaksa berlegar beberapa kali di ruang udara Bandung sebelum mendapat kebenaran dari menara kawalan bandara (singkatan kepada Bandaraya Udara = lapangan terbang) untuk mendarat dengan selamatnya.

Airbus A320 di BDO

Sebaik sahaja menjejakkan kaki di balai ketibaan BDO, aku lihat perbezaan di antara lapangan terbang antarabangsa di Malaysia dan Indonesia bagai langit dan bumi. Proses imigresen mengambil masa yang lama di Indonesia berbanding di Malaysia.

Menghilangkan kebosanan di Balai Ketibaan Bandara Husein Sastranegara Bandung

Benda pertama yang aku beli sejurus tiba di Bandung ialah kad SIM tempatan. Kadar perayauan antarabangsa Maxis sememangnya sangat cekik darah dengan kadar 'serendah' RM5.30/minit untuk MENERIMA panggilan dari Malaysia, RM2.50/minit untuk panggilan balik ke Malaysia dan RM1.00/SMS. Pek permulaan Telkomsel dibeli pada harga Rp50,000 dengan baki prabayar tersedia Rp20,0000. Anda boleh mendapat tawaran yang lebih baik dengan pek permulaan XL Indo yang lebih murah, aku dah tersalah beli.

Ketibaan rombongan kami disambut oleh Pak Kevin, pemandu pelancong sepanjang percutian kami di Bandung dan kami akan bergerak di sekitar Bandung dengan menaiki bas.

Trans Studio Bandung

Destinasi pertama yang kami tuju adalah Trans Studio Bandung. Tiket masuk dibeli dengan harga Rp200,000 (kadar cuti sekolah). Sekolah-sekolah di Indonesia masih bercuti ketika itu. Kadar tiket masuk pada hari biasa adalah Rp150,000.

Bersama keluarga di pintu masuk

Kad prabayar untuk membayar tiket dan membeli barangan/makanan di dalam kawasan taman tema

Di perkarangan Trans Studio Bandung

Trans Studio Bandung bolehlah dikatakan sebagai Universal Studio Indonesia kerana taman temanya merangkumi permainan dan pameran bertemakan industri perfileman.

Ngeri

Vertigo @ Trans Studio Bandung

Terdapat pelbagai permainan dan persembahan seperti teater, 'live band' dan yang paling menarik perhatian aku ialah persembahan lagak ngeri di Special Effects Action!

Persembahan Teater Hikayat Putera Mahkota

Persembahan lagak ngeri

Aku juga berpeluang bergambar dengan personaliti-personaliti terkenal seperti Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe dan juga Michael Jackson di sana.

Elvis Presley dan Marilyn Monroe, kononnya

Pari-pari pun ada, abaikan pose gedik ittew~

Kami menghabiskan masa di Trans Studio Bandung sehingga hari petang sebelum mengisi perut dengan makan malam di sebuah restoran masakan Padang di Pasteur.

Masakan Padang

Selepas makan barulah kami mendaftar masuk di hotel Royal Palace Bandung dan kami menginap di sini sepanjang lawatan di Bandung.

Hidangan istimewa di hotel

bersambung...

Nokia N8 as FM transmitter

2011-11-24T18:12:00.001+08:00

Nokia N8 is touted as multimedia smartphone with multimedia capabilities that is not found even on other higher end smartphone like HDMI connectivity. And I am one of the proud owner of this phone with the sturdy built quality of aluminum casing.

One of the 'must have' features of smartphone is the ability to play audio files such as MP3 that enables its user to listen to the song. Imagine this situation: You are driving and wishing to listen your MP3 collections via your car audio system. But unfortunately, your car's crappy stock standard audio system does not have any auxiliary input nor USB port. So how you are going to channel the audio from your phone to your car's head unit? Fret not, it has built-in FM transmitter. Yes, you read me right, it can be an FM transmitter.

I doubt many of us will flip through the phone's manual to discover what this phone can do. Here's how to activate FM transmitter functionality (Nokia calls it 'Play via Radio) for this N8:

1) Access your music player as usual

2) Play your favourite song found in your collections

3) Select 'Options'

4) From the menu, select 'Play Via Radio'

5) Set your desired transmitting frequency (in my case it would be 101.1 MHz)

6) Switch on the feature by tapping on 'Play Via Radio' and pop-up will appear

7) You will notice the Play Via Radio icon appears on the top-right corner of the phone's screen

8) Tune your radio to the selected frequency (in my case it would be 101.1 MHz)

9) Enjoy the song from the radio. Volume control is dependent to the radio, so you can use the steering audio control if your car have it.

If the radio is equipped with RDS, the word 'NOKIA' will appear when it is tuned to the phone's frequency

Tips:

1) Always choose the free frequency so it would not cause interference with the local radio station's frequency (eg. if Sinar FM is 96.7 MHz in the area, do not set the transmitting frequency to 96.7 MHz)

2) Do not choose transmitting frequency that is close to the local radio station's frequency, make sure to have around 3-5 MHz frequency spacing from the closest local radio station's frequency (eg. if Sinar FM is 96.7 MHz in the area, do not set the transmitting frequency to 96.9 MHz, choose 100.0 MHz if the frequency is not occupied)

3) Using this feature will drain the phone's battery faster, make sure the phone is connected to the car's charger.

p/s: My phone has been updated with official Symbian Anna from Nokia, however the procedure is just the same with N8 that is running on stock Symbian ^6.

Wetnessday

2011-11-23T19:51:00.001+08:00

Monsoon season is hitting Terengganu again for this year! Indeed, today is the wettest day throughout the week. It is raining heavily today since morning and have a short pause at noon before torrential rain hit again in the afternoon. To some, the rain symbolizes blessings from the god. However, the rain could also means sadness to some.

Congratulations to our national football team Harimau Muda for defeating Garuda of Indonesia during final match of SEA games yesterday. The weather was also kinder here in Terengganu, probably supporting the loyal supporters of Harimau Muda to go out and cheer for their beloved team via live match telecast provided by most restaurants here. There was no rain and the patrons cheering with full enthusiasm without fear of getting wet.

However, heavy rain today is probably signifies the sorrow of my friend and his family. The mother nature is like mourning the death of his 6 days old daughter. I was at the funeral, solat jenazah was performed after Asar prayer and the deceased was buried in cemetery at Dungun at 5:00 p.m. I hope you and your family is strong to face this unfortunate events. Al-fatihah.

All in all, I can avoid myself from being drenched in wetness. :)

11/11/11 - Royal Breakfast

2011-11-11T23:11:00.000+08:00

Adelle Davis once quoted, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper". But that quote does not really reflect my eating habit here in Kerteh. My diet is quite improper and I eat whenever I feel like due to no cook available here.

Kerteh Morning Market

Most probably I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner like a pauper. But on this 'special' day (what is so special about this day, it is merely a date in a year!), I decided to get up early and ate breakfast like a king. After getting a shower (which I rarely do in the morning of a weekend), I fired up the car and went to Kerteh morning market. The morning market is held every Friday from 0800H to 1100H.

The food section, heaven!

Fruits sold here

You can buy anything from clothings, sundry items to fresh vegetables, seafood, poultry and meat. My target for today is to hunt for breakfast to fit the 'king' status. After browsing around the market for 30 minutes, I decided to have nasi kerabu, satay and sugar cane drinks for breakfast. It was a filling breakfast and I was full till dinner. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Solok, stuffed chilli for Nasi Kerabu

Clothings

Jumbo jackfruit

Refreshing sugarcane

Sambutan Aidil Adha di Tanah Adat

2011-11-10T22:52:00.000+08:00

Pada 6 November 2011 yang lepas, seluruh umat Islam di atas muka bumi ini menyambut Hari Raya Aidil Adha atau pun dikenali sebagai Hari Raya Qurban. Kebiasaannya, umat Islam menyambutnya dengan ibadah qurban atau pun menyembelih haiwan-haiwan ternakan sebagai memperingati kisah Nabi Ismail dan bapanya Nabi Ibrahim. Daging-daging korban ini akan diagih-agihkan kepada orang ramai dan golongan-golongan yang memerlukan.

Tetapi itu tidak berlaku dalam keluarga aku untuk sambutan tahun ini. Selepas menunaikan solat Hari Raya Aidil Adha, kami mengambil kesempatan untuk berjalan-jalan di sekitar Gemas dan Melaka. Kami sekeluarga menaiki dua buah kereta dalam penjelajahan ini. Destinasi pertama adalah Stesen Keretapi Gemas yang terletak kira-kira 12 kilometer dari FELDA Sungai Kelamah, kampung halamanku.

Di platform Stesen Keretapi Gemas

Kawasan sekitar stesen kereta api ini sedang giat dibangunkan semula untuk memberi ruang kepada projek kereta api elektrik dengan landasan berkembar dari Kuala Lumpur. Khabarnya, stesen lama ini akan dirobohkan bagi memberi laluan kepada pembangunan projek kereta api elektrik ini. Jika ini benar, maka hilanglah warisan sejarah sistem rangkaian kereta api di Malaysia ini. Stesen Keretapi Gemas merupakan stesen terpenting menghubungkan laluan dari Pantai Timur, Pantai Barat dan Singapura. Jadi aku sekeluarga merakamkan gambar kenang-kenangan di sini andai stesen ini akan hilang ditelan kemajuan di masa akan datang.

5 beradik di stesen kereta api

Selepas itu, kami ke Melaka pula. Seperti yang dijangka, bandar Melaka kini mengalami pembangunan yang pesat dan sudah mula mengalami kesesakan. Jika anda ingin ke Melaka, anda disarankan untuk meletak kereta di kawasan letak kereta di Kompleks Dataran Pahlawan yang menawarkan kadar letak kereta "sekali masuk" (per entry) dan tidak mengikut jam. Selepas itu, kami makan tengah hari di Mahkota Parade sebelum meneruskan sesi lawatan di Melaka.

Dahulunya padang, sekarang menjadi kompleks membeli-belah

Bandar Hilir, Melaka

Sesudah makan, kami menuju ke kawasan tarikan pelancong yang terkenal di Melaka iaitu di sekitar Bandar Hilir seperti A Famosa. Kami juga melawat Memorial Perisytiharan Kemerdekaan dan berpeluang melihat kereta Chevrolet bernombor pendaftaran BE52 yang digunakan oleh Bapa Kemerdekaan Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman semasa membuat perisytiharan kemerdekaan di bandar Melaka pada tahun 1957.

Memorial Perisytiharan Kemerdekaan

Kereta Chevrolet bernombor pendaftaran BE52 yang bersejarah

Kami juga telah mendaki Bukit St. Paul yang menempatkan runtuhan Gereja Saint Paul. Bersempena dengan cuti umum, replika Istana Kesultanan Negeri Melaka yang terletak berdekatan ditutup dan kami hanya mampu untuk bergambar dari luar pagar sahaja.

Di hadapan Kota A Famosa

Di atas Bukit St. Paul, binaan berwarna putih di belakang kami sebenarnya adalah kubur Belanda

Sebahagian runtuhan binaan gereja St. Paul

Kediaman TYT Melaka

Pemandangan dari atas Bukit St. Paul

Apabila hari menjelang petang, kami bergerak meninggalkan Melaka menuju ke FELDA Sungai Kelamah melalui Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan dari Ayer Keroh. Sebagai perbandingan, masa yang diperlukan untuk sampai ke Melaka dari Gemas adalah 1 jam melalu jalan Tebong-Kuala Sungga, tetapi untuk sampai ke plaza tol Ayer Keroh dari Bandar Melaka mengambil masa 40 minit disebabkan oleh lampu isyarat yang banyak dan mengambil masa yang lama untuk berhenti di satu-satu persimpangan. Kami tiba di kampung pada pukul 9:00 malam.

The Desperate Politician

2011-11-08T20:55:00.002+08:00

Hiding behind religion cloak to convey political message, and spamming the subscribers' inbox!

Handling improvements: Yokohama A-Drive R1 205/45/R16 and brake upgrades

2011-10-28T22:57:00.001+08:00

In this post I will share with you my feedback about the recent improvements done to TakBolehBlah on the handling aspect. This post is mainly for my own notes to do further improvement next time but I do not see any harm sharing it on this blog. Expect less or no technical review as I have no proper tools and procedures to conduct such test so this review will be mainly based on my driving feeling compared to before (stock setting). Here is some details about the review made to give that this review was done in various conditions, dry and wet, high speed and low speed and mountainous road:

Review duration: 16/10/2011 until 28/10/2011
Review location: Banting - Penang - Kulim - Penang - Banting - Kerteh (total of 1300 km)

View Larger Map

Now let's start with review

Yokohama A-Drive R1 205/45/R16 - RM260/piece (price on October 2011)

I've installed the tires first as the old Continental is badly worn out and the grip was not so convincing especially when attacking Karak highway at high speed. The tire screeching is obvious and the car's tail went out a bit on tight corner. I have decided to change to slightly wider tires (from 195 to 205) and the grip is improved a bit thanks to the slightly wider surface contact area on the road. Usually new tires need some time to 'rub-in' before they can give optimum grip on the road. Two days later I straight brought my car for a trip to Penang and I must say the grip is just as good as good ol' Continental rubbers but with added confidence when braking. This was proven when I need to suddenly brake from 160 km/h to 60 km/h to avoid highway maintenance worker who wanted to cross the highway! Thanks to the ABS and EBD on my Neo, the new tires manage to stop the car efficiently compared to the old rubber. Be advised that the brakes were stock at that moment as the upgrades were done a week after the tyre change.

Yokohama A-Drive R1 205/45/R16

I also managed to test the tires during my stay in Penang. Balik Pulau - Teluk Kumbar road with numerous sharp bents and hairpins really put the rubber to test. The road condition was wet all the time and the rubbers had no problem coping up with the aggressive driving. The tires managed to compensate the fading brakes (and cracked disc rotors I later found out) and any understeer can be easily corrected by stepping more on the gas and the tires will provide the traction needed.

Tread condition after about 1300 km

Water evacuation is better than the old tires, I guess the aggressive looking thread really serve for purpose. It was raining most of the time during the review period and the tires shows little or no aquaplaning on wet road. When driving through the puddle at high speed, slight loss of traction was felt but the steering response is still predictable.

Tread pattern of Yokohama A-Drive R1

During Kuala Selangor - Banting trip, I switched car with my dad to see how the car perform on new tires and upgraded brakes. I was driving his Waja CamPro 1.6 and I can see he confidently weaving through the traffic at high speed. It gives the sense of confidence to weave through the traffic thanks to the better grip by the tires as Neo itself is recognized as car with good handling. On my way back to Kerteh, I managed to test how the tires behave at high speed. While not being a quiet tire, the noise is lower than the old tire so it provides better comfort. At high speed of 180 km/h, the tire really sticks to the tarmac and I am very confident to whack the car at 180 km/h at most part of the highway. The only fear I have when driving at high speed on highways is the other driver who change lane without giving proper warning. Other than that, this tire is really worth the money and I am very satisfied with the performance.

Good price for good performance

Brake upgrades review

The upgrades consist of better brake pads for both front and rear, steel braided brake hose, complete flushing of new DOT4 brake fluid and new front disc rotor to replace the cracked old rotor. For complete list of the items used, you may read here.

The first impression after changing the brake system is it eliminates the spongy feeling when braking before. The brake feedback is more direct and linear now, it feel more convincing to brake now. The new brake pads can withstand higher temperature now and the 'numb' feeling when braking hard is now eliminated altogether without putting to much stress on engaging the ABS and EBD to put the car at complete stop.

Bendix Metal King Titanium brake pads in action

The linearity of braking also allows more precise brake work when attacking corner at high speed especially like those found in Karak - Bentong highway. The car is more forgiving than before when I entered the corner at slightly higher speed. The car turns well by lightly tapping on the brakes to correct the cornering angle. Previously, I cannot really predict how much should I brake due to spongy feeling when braking. The linear or direct feedback from the brake pedal to the brakes is contributed by the steel braided brake hose that retains its shape under high pressure from intense braking. Compared to the rubber hose, it will expand a bit before the fluid reaches the brake caliper hence the spongy feeling.

The dust generated is just the same as compared to the old stock pads. But considering that this is a performance brake pads, it is still better from the stock brake pads that performs worse than the performance brake pads but generating the same amount of dust. As for me, dust is not really a big deal as the my wheels themselves are grey in colour so the dust is not that obvious.

Minimal dust even after spirited drive

All in all, this brake upgrades really complement the safety features that are equipped with this car for the money I've paid. The system can react better to the driver and provides more accurate feedback to the driver. I really recommend this upgrade to the Neo owner as the chassis itself is heavy and the car is slightly under-brakes for the engine performance it offers. Yes, you can always drive slowly but that's not the purpose of this car. To really appreciate the car, you have to put your foot down on the accelerator and drive. Safety and handling improvements are often neglected by drivers when modifying their rides. As for me, no point making the car run faster if it cannot stop properly when needed. Again, I would say the money well spent on this upgrade. :)

Feeling down? Let's get high!

2011-10-26T22:08:00.000+08:00

Artist: Lighthouse Family
Title: High

When you're close to tears remember
Some day it'll all be over
One day we're gonna get so high
And though it's darker than December
What's ahead is a different colour
One day we're gonna get so high

And at
The end of the day
remember the days
When we were close to the edge
And we'll wonder how we made it through the night
The end of the day
remember the way
We stayed so close till the end
We'll remember it was me and you

'Cause we are gonna be forever you and me
You will always keep me flying high in the sky of love

Don't you think it's time you started
Doing what we always wanted
One day we're gonna get so high
'Cause even the impossible
is easy when we got each other
One day 'we're gonna get so high

And at
The end of the day
remember the days
when we were close to the edge
And we'll wonder how we made it through the night
The end of the day
remember the way
We stayed so close to till the end
We'll remember it was me and you.

'Cause we are gonna be forever you and me
You will always keep me flying high in the sky of love (x2)

High, high, high, high.(x2)

And at
The end of the day
remember the days
when we were close to the edge
And we'll wonder how we made it through the night
The end of the day
remember the way
We stayed so close to till the end
We'll remember it was me and you.

'Cause we are gonna be forever you and me
You will always keep me flying high in the sky of love (x3)

TakBolehBlah Brake System Upgrades

2011-10-23T22:09:00.000+08:00

TakBolehBlah travelled this far before crying for brake upgrades

After the near miss incident during my journey to Penang (read here), the brake pads had worn completely. I cannot stand the metal grinding sound during my stay in Penang. So, I decided to change the brake pads for TakBolehBlah and upgrade the brake system as well. I checked out from Eastin Hotel at 6:30 am and headed to KL for the brake system upgrade.

The worn out Bosch brake pad

I arrived at Zhapalang Motorsports in Kepong at around 11:30 am. Earlier arrangement was made earlier through Lowyat forum and I met with the shop owner, Kent who assisted me with the brake system upgrade. After few negotiations, I agree with the quoted price for the brake upgrades. The items are as follows:

Pro-RS steel braided brake hose
Bendix Metal King Titanium brake pads (front & rear)
Shoji front disc rotors (found the original front rotors were cracked, maybe due to recent incident)
Ferodo DOT4 brake fluid

Ferodo DOT4 brake fluid and Pro-RS steel braided brake hose

Bendix Metal King Titanium brake pads

Shoji front disc rotors

The whole installation work took about two hours and the total damage was RM930. Duh! I guess this time is TakBolehBlah's handling improvement is taking place.

Found a hairline crack on the original stock rotor

The old rotor and rubber brake hose

Nonetheless, on initial drive to KL and Kuala Selangor afterwards in the rain the difference is significant. The brake feedback is more linear and the spongy feeling when braking disappear. I am really satisfied with brake performance and thanks to Zhapalang Motorsports for good and friendly service.

Installing the new disc rotor

I will write a small review on the handling upgrades of TakBolehBlah in the next post. Cheers~ :)

New rotor, new brake pad and new steel braided brake hose

Motorola Subscriber Training

2011-10-22T23:14:00.004+08:00

I have attended Motorola Subscriber Training held in Motorola's Customer Solution Center (CSC) in Bayan Lepas Industrial area, Penang starting from 17th until 21st October 2011. This training is jointly organized by Motorola Solutions and Axis Technology Resources for expansion project of Kerteh Wide Digital Trunked Radio System in Kerteh. I was there representing my company I worked for to learn more about Dimetra System that are currently being used in my workplace for plant-wide communication.

The participants

The 5-day course cover the Dimetra system, the infrastructure, the features of the digital trunked radio system and also their mobile radio terminals, namely MTP850Ex portable radio and MTM800e mobile radio used in vehicles. The training is also attended by representatives from other operating units (OPU's) that will be adopting the new digital trunked radio system (DTRS) in Kerteh.

Receiving certificate of participation from Motorola and Axis

I learnt a lot from this course that surely helped me to carry out my daily task as Safety System Engineer in my workplace. All of us were provided with sufficient manuals and workbook to help us understanding course delivery better.

The whole stack of manuals for system and mobile terminal

During a week stay in Penang, I stayed in Eastin Hotel Penang. It is located near to Queensbay Mall and facing Jerejak Island. Motorola CSC is located 4 kms away from the hotel and I must say the hotel's location is very strategic.

View from my room at Eastin Hotel

On the last day in Penang, I also went to Bukit Bendera. The last time I went here was when I was 10 years old. Bukit Bendera has changed since then with the new train which is more comfortable (supposedly, but the air-condition was faulty so it was like in moving sauna) and faster. To ride the train, RM8 ticket is imposed to the local tourist, while for foreign tourist, they have to pay RM30. The journey uphill only took 10 minutes. It was raining when I reached the hill top so I here are few pictures that I managed to take before the heavy downpour.

The entrance, the weather is already overcast

The train railway

The new and faster hill train

I also met some of my friend in UTP. I went to Kulim with Fitri who are currently working at 2nd Penang Bridge Project to meet Huda and Dalila. Both of them are working as engineers in Silterra and Intel Kulim respectively. We had our dinner in Monrod Kulim and the food is not so disappointing. I also met with my classmate in SDAR, Kamek at Padang Kota Lama. He is currently sitting for final exam for his medical degree and good luck to him!

With Fitri, soon he will come to work in Kerteh

Dalila and Huda from Kulim

All in all, my trip to Penang was very fun and informative. I will surely come again for holiday! :)

Tukang Potong Rumput di Lebuhraya

2011-10-16T09:44:00.000+08:00

Kronologi Kejadian

Sebuah kereta dua pintu berwarna hitam dalam perjalanan dari Kuala Lumpur ke Pulau Pinang sedang dipandu pada kelajuan 160 km/j di Lebuhraya Utara Selatan berhampiran kawasan Bukit Gantang.
Pemandu kemudian melalui kawasan selekoh di lorong kanan pada kelajuan sama sebelum menyedari dua orang pemotong rumput hendak melintas di kawasan selekoh lebuhraya sama.
Terdapat sebuah van bergerak perlahan di lorong kiri dan pemandu kereta tidak ada ruang untuk menukar lorong dan terpaksa membuat brek kecemasan.
Keadaan jalan yang kering, tayar kereta baru ditukar dan sistem brek anti-terkunci (ABS) yang diaktifkan membantu pemandu kereta tersebut mengurangkan kelajuan kepada 60 km/j dalam masa yang singkat dan berjaya mengelak tukang rumput dan van di sebelah kiri dari dilanggar.
Pemandu kereta, van dan dua orang tukang rumput yang hendak melintas tidak mengalami sebarang kemalangan.

Pengajaran

Walaupun masih agak bahaya untuk memberhentikan kenderaan walaupun dari kelajuan 110 km/j dalam situasi yang sama, tetapi dengan memandu mengikut had laju masih dapat mengurangkan risiko kemalangan. Pandu dengan cermat dan berhati-hati.
Tukang rumput sepatutnya tidak memilih untuk melintasi lebuhraya di kawasan selekoh, walhal tidak dibenarkan sama sekali untuk melintas di lebuhraya!

New Rubber Shoes for TakBolehBlah

2011-10-14T22:48:00.000+08:00

After 34000 km old, finally the stock donuts decided to give up. So it is time for TakBolehBlah to wear new shoes on all four wheels. With limited budget, my aim is to search for tires that can perform better from the stock factory Continental SportContact1 195/50/R16.

Yokohama A-Drive R1 205/45/R16 sexy-looking tread

After googling through the Internet, I finally decided to take Yokohama A-Drive R1 as my choice. I also decided to choose slightly bigger tire size of 205/45/R16. The hunt begins and it is quite hard to find this tire. Actually the shop did not keep stock of that particular tires but he can source it from a shop in Rawang and get it delivered to his shop. I quickly placed the order as the price is just the same from the shop in KL, minus the travelling to KL so it is a very good deal! The order was placed in the morning and the tire arrived in the afternoon at around 4:30 pm.

Installing the new tires on TakBolehBlah

Finally I managed to get the rubbers from Kedai Dunlop near Jalan Morib. The shop quoted RM260/piece for that tire. The total damage was RM1100 including balancing, alignment and changing to rubber valves on all four wheels. With the tires changed, I can peacefully travel to Penang to attend training in Motorola on Sunday. I will update my simple review on this tire after returning from trip in Penang.

Alignment

HDMI display problem

2011-09-13T20:24:00.004+08:00

Recently I just bought myself a new Samsung SyncMaster SA350 23" High Definition LED monitor to replace my old Samsung 17" LCD monitor for my PC. The old monitor will go to my hometown in Banting to be paired with unused PC there.

Excited to make full use of High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) on my Sapphire HD 5770 graphic card, I quickly connected my new monitor to the graphic card using HDMI cable. However, I was disappointed when the monitor is not displaying 100% of the screen area of the 1080p monitor as shown in the picture below:

BEFORE (click on image to enlarge)

A quick googling on the net directed me to the solution. The HD monitor is not displaying full screen problem can be solved by adjusting overscan and underscan option within your ATI Catalyst Control Center.

Here I would like to share the step-by-step procedure of adjusting overscan and underscan option in ATI Catalyst Control Center installed on Windows 7 OS:

1) On the taskbar, right-click on the ATI Catalyst Control Center icon (shown in red circle).

2) On the menu, select Catalyst Control Center ...

3) Catalyst Control Center will appear, select My Digital Flat Panel, a drop down menu will appear.

4) From the drop down menu, select Scaling Options (Digital Flat-Panel)

5) Adjust the Scaling Options by moving the slider towards Underscan or Overscan until the whole display is filling up the entire screen area.

6) Voila! The display is filling up the entire screen area of your new HD monitor connected via HDMI cable.

AFTER (click to enlarge)

For older version of ATI Catalyst, you may refer here. I have adapted his guide to match with the new interface in the latest ATI Catalyst driver I am using.

Enjoy your new HD monitor!!! ^_^

Dugaan di Waktu Sahur

2011-08-16T05:23:00.003+08:00

Hari ini aku bangkit jam 4:45 pagi. Niat di hati ingin bersahur dengan makanan berat seperti nasi berlauk atau pun set sarapan McDonald's kerana hari ini aku akan menyertai acara berbuka puasa bersama masyarakat setempat di Masjid Hadhari, Paka anjuran tempat kerja aku.

TakBolehBlah

Jadi dengan langkah yang malas, aku mencuci muka serta menyarung jaket dan seluar untuk bersiap-siap untuk keluar. Aku capai kunci TakBolehBlah dan tergesa-gesa menuruni tangga hanya untuk mengetahui bahawa rakan serumah meletakkan keretanya betul-betul di hadapan rumah dan menghalang aku daripada mengeluarkan kereta aku. Sememangnya kawasan perumahan tempat aku tinggal mengalami masalah kekurangan tempat letak kereta yang serius dan aku amat maklum akan hal itu.

Kereta milik rakan serumah

Tak mengapa, aku naik ke bilik untuk mengambil kunci motor BuJanG ku. Masih ada ruang untuk menyelit keluar jika aku menaiki motorsikal. Aku terus ke motorsikal ku, membuka mangga kunci yang terpasang di tayar hadapan dan terus menghidupkan enjin motorsikalku. Enjin motorsikalku dihidupkan, memecah keheningan pagi di Kerteh yang aman damai ini. Tetapi bila aku mahu bergerak, aku sedar tayar belakang motorsikal BuJanG ku pancit. Mungkin cubaan Ramadhan bagi aku hari ini. Aku harus bersabar.

Pancitlah pulak!

Aku amat memerlukan tenaga tambahan semasa bersahur kerana hari ini aku menjadi ahli jawatankuasa untuk majlis berbuka puasa anjuran tempat kerjaku. Aku harus berfikir pantas tentang sumber tenaga yang aku perlukan semasa bersahur. Aku terus ke dapur dan mengambil tiga biji telur untuk ku buat telur separuh masak.

Telur ayam gred B menjadi penyelamat

Mudah dan cepat disediakan. Rendam telur di dalam air panas selama lima minit, dan makan bersama lada hitam dan kicap lemak manis cap Kipas Udang. Gabungan kurma dan sekotak susu turut menjadi santapan di kala bersahur. Syukur, aku masih boleh bersahur. Dugaan di bulan Ramadhan datang dalam pelbagai bentuk, dan ianya tidak bukan adalah untuk menguji kesabaran hamba-Nya. :)

p/s: Besok balik Banting! (BBB)

Boobs from Paris?

2011-08-09T22:12:00.000+08:00

Yes, I managed to have a taste of Parisian's bosoms while having iftar (break of fasting, berbuka puasa) in Awana Kijal recently. Well, did I really done that perverted act in this month of Ramadhan? I really want to say yes but it is not! The picture tells it all.

Ignorance feeds the troll

Actually, the dessert was wrongly spelled due to the ignorance of the hotel staff and the chef too. This, of course is the good source of LOL for me but a quick browse through the net tells me the real name of the dessert is Paris-Brest. This dessert was created to commemorate the 1200 km cycling race starting from Paris to Brest and back to Paris again. The first race took place in year 1981. Back on the dessert, it is basically a circle of choux pastry, filled with whipped cream and the shape is meant to resemble a bicycle wheels. You can read more about this here.

The taste? Well, I'm not really a food critique, as long as it is edible and tasty, it is deemed good enough for me. C'est bon! The cake lover would want to try this and to make it more meaningful, eat it after you done cycling. What's more important was my stomach practically bloated and it was a very satisfying gastronomic moment. Happy Ramadhan to all!

My Second Ramadhan

2011-08-03T22:07:00.002+08:00

Time flies very fast; it has been a year since I started working in this beach town Kerteh, Terengganu. I still remember I reported into one of the petrochemical plant owned by our very own NOC in the final week of Ramadhan. The challenge was substantial, being thrown into new place alone with limited amount of money and was struggling to adapt to the new atmosphere and culture.

Bazar Ramadhan Kerteh

Today, here I am, still here and manage to make myself live comfortably although the environment is very different from my hometown, Banting. I hear and speak the different dialect, learning to eat local food and starting to enjoy it, slowly accepting the different culture and norms of the locals; I find myself being slowly assimilated into the laidback lifestyle of sleepy town Kerteh.

I bet the Flying Squad uses this to fly

However, the story is different when I step into the office. The workload had started to get bigger day by day, but thankfully, I have a bunch of supportive colleagues and bosses that always ready to offer assistance when I need it. I started to get immersed and stressful at work, but thanks to this sleepy town, I can de-stress once I call it a day in my office although a lonely life will greet me once I am home. Somehow, I can accept the calmness of this town as tranquilizer that keep me calm after stressful day at work.

The patrons flocking the small Ramadhan Bazaar

Ramadhan come again, and this is my second time fasting far from home. Truthfully, I still miss my mom’s cooking but here I have to celebrate this blissful month alone most of the time. The bazaar is not as big as one found in Banting. The food choices are limited and the price is exorbitantly expensive. Yet, it provides me with a whole new perspective about the Ramadhan in the East Coast, not literally. Most obvious thing is I can see a lot of people wearing coveralls with various colours that drop by to get some food for breaking fast. Yes, they are just like me, petrochemical plants workers and contractors from the nearby petrochemical plant complex in Kerteh. Somewhat I feel that we are like the Teletubbies wearing coverall with different colours. That is the most obvious thing that I cannot see in Banting. At least I know that I am not alone, most of them are like me, celebrating the month of Ramadhan far from family.

Standard drink with local distinct taste

Rotating chickens

I hope I can improve myself to be a better person in this year’s Ramadhan. I will fight my way to survive in this town; it slowly becomes my second home where I could rely on should I need a tranquil retreat. This town teaches me how to adapt to changes fast, being dynamic and inculcates a good working culture. To my family, I hope all of you are fine there and I am doing very fine here. Nonetheless, I still miss all of you days and nights; I look forward to see all of you and celebrate Hari Raya together. Happy fasting and I pray that all of you are blessed in this month.

TakBolehBlah 20000 km Maintenance

2011-07-04T19:52:00.005+08:00

TakBolehBlah in Banting before servicing

This month, TakBolehBlah had travelled 20000 km since I bought it in December 2010. So, I have done some periodic maintenance on the car. Also, I have changed some parts from stock to better parts to improve the performance of the car. Here are the details on the parts and servicing activity for your reference:

Eneos Pro-Racing 5W40 Fully Synthetic Oil (bought online in LYN forum, RM160)

K&N Drop-in Air Filter P/N: 33-2539 (bought online in LYN forum, RM240 - self installed)

NGK Iridium IX P/N: TR6IX (bought online in LYN forum, RM135 - self installed)

For oil change, it was done in Pusat Service EON Banting and I bring my own Eneos oil (as per above) and they charged me RM64 which includes:

Original Proton oil filter
Coolant
Halogen bulb (my right fog light burnt and need to be replaced)
Labour charge (RM20)

For self installation, here are the tools I've used:

Satria Neo CPS SP4H engine bay

To change K&N drop-in air filter, I've used a Philips tip screw driver to unscrew the air box. To replace spark plugs, I've used a 8 mm T-wrench to open up the red cam valley cover and 16 mm spark plug T-wrench to remove and install the spark plugs:

8 mm T-wrench

16 mm spark plug T-wrench

Hope the reader can gain some knowledge on basic car maintenance and what are the tools needed. Cheers~

Scam Alert!

2011-06-13T17:48:00.003+08:00

I admit that my blog is quite dull, boring, and infrequently updated. The reason being I will not write just for the sake of blog postings count resulting in copy-and-paste post. And, my intention of blogging is to share my opinion and information to my fellow readers and followers (if any :P).

To spice up this blog a little bit, I have decided to expand my writing and information sharing horizon to expose the reader about scam through SMS. I will post the number (screw you, scammer!) and the content by retyping the SMS exactly like I received on my phone. No screen capture like you can do with your IPhone 5 (I know a screen capture is more authentic) since I am just using cheapo not-so-dumb phone. Again, my intention is to share with all of you as world today is full of scams. I hope with this information, we can shield ourselves from this fraud.

For starters, I have 2 SMS containing scam (I have not deleted them, still in my inbox) to share with you. Sometimes, these short messages are good for the LOLz. Stay safe online, and do not get fooled.

SMS #1

Date: 9 June 2011
From: +60126291222

:-)TAHNIAH ! Anda dipilih Pekerja-rumah Asiacom dpt gaji RM4000! Hantar borang dgn poslaju hari ni. TIADA JUAL/BELI PRODUK ,Barang sampai rumah dlm 3 hari!Syarikat Asiacom dijamin 100% lebih 11 tahun, tiada unsur penipuan! www.333.my

SMS #2

Date: 13 June 2011
From: +60176359852

Slm. Maaf m'gangu. BeRITA BAIK! PERINTI$ d cari bg Biz Baru b'taraf GMP &Halal. POTEN$i RM640-RM4,480/hr..wow! BUKTI & Testimoni> www.beautyrich.biz (Pn Ila, PJ)

Thinking of Another Reason for Not Texting While Driving?

2011-06-08T09:21:00.007+08:00

Before I move on further, let us list down the reasons why we should not text/sending SMS while driving:

Reason #1 : It is punishable by law

Reason #2 : It can lead to accident

I believe these are the most popular reason to deter people from texting while driving. Now, I want you to consider this case as another reason for not to text while driving:

You are an executive of an old, aging factory in the East Coast of Malaysia. Besides your colleague at work, you are also have friends outside that have totally different background from your work colleague. Your work colleague sees you as someone who is serious and meticulous but your friend sees you as someone who is joyful, love to talk cock, and have garden in your heart (dalam hati ada taman). So, it seems that you have to sides of you by communicating in different lingo between these two group of friends. You were texting with your friend and at the same time you are also texting your colleague on work matters. You are an avid and dexterous texting-while-driving person and accidentally you've sent the message that is supposed to be sent to your friend (hence the different, informal lingo) to your work colleague. You did not realize that until you reached the office and your work colleague make fun of you for sending the wrong message to the wrong person, accidentally of course. And you can hardly survive the day at the office due to your mistake.

So, for Reason 3#:

Do not text while driving as you may send the wrong text message to the wrong recipient. You will end up exposing the other side of you the person that you don't want. It is as shameful as died in accident due to sending text message while driving.

It is OK to criticize, but get your fact right first

2011-05-30T22:13:00.003+08:00

The recent electric tariff hike had made the rakyat furious. In the cyberspace, the angry rakyat started a cyber war on Malaysia's PM Facebook page. So many angry comments, not to forget some offensive remarks were posted on his wall.

Not to condone nor objecting their opinion (I still believe in freedom of speech), but I am amused when some of them are just barking without checking on the fact first. This is very different from criticizing where any remarks or critics were made on a factual basis. Look at this picture:

Click on picture to enlarge

To Malayan Tiger, I would like to share with you that you are using the wrong electrical unit in your comment. For your info, Malaysia (as well as most Commonwealth countries) are using 240 Volt system for distributing single phase electric supply, as opposed to US using 120 Volt. The correct unit is Volt and not Watt. Watt is use to measure the power consumed by an electrical device. If you want to bash, please bash with correct fact, or else people will be laughing at you.

p/s: Not a fan of Najib Razak on FB. Undi adalah rahsia.

Adakah Harga Kenderaan Mempengaruhi Harga Otak Seseorang Itu?

2011-05-23T23:26:00.003+08:00

Apa pendapat anda tentang pernyataan di atas? Berikut saya berikan beberapa situasi untuk direnung:

Situasi 1

Tempat: Kawasan letak kereta Mesra Mall
Kenderaan: Sebuah kereta jenis Nissan Sentra model terbaru

Pemandu kereta ini mengalihkan kon yang diletakkan di ruang letak kereta untuk OKU sedangkan banyak lagi petak yang kosong. Dipercayai pemandu kereta itu ingin meletakkan keretanya di situ kerana lokasinya yang berhampiran dengan pintu masuk pusat membeli belah itu. Tanggapan awal saya tentang pemandu tersebut adalah beliau MUNGKIN merupakan orang kampung yang hanya banyak duit tapi tiada kesedaran sivik.

Situasi 2

Tempat: Laluan Kuantan-Kuala Terengganu berhampiran dengan Rantau PETRONAS
Kenderaan: Sebuah kereta jenis Proton Wira yang telah diubahsuai

Pemandu kereta merupakan seorang wanita dan di dalamnya terdapat 3 orang penumpang yang lain, kesemuanya wanita. Penumpang termasuk pemandunya sekali dengan tanpa rasa bersalah membuang bungkusan makanan keluar dari kenderaan sehingga terkena sebuah kereta jenis Proton Satria Neo berwarna hitam yang dipandu oleh seorang lelaki botak. Tanggapan awal saya tentang kumpulan wanita berkenaan ialah MUNGKIN mereka merupakan penduduk kampung yang memandu kereta terpakai dan berasal dari kawasan pedalaman Pahang (kereta berkenaan mempunyai nombor pendaftaran dari Pahang).

Situasi 3

Tempat: Gerai burger King Burger di Bandar Sri Kerteh, berhadapan dengan pasar mini R-Tinie
Kenderaan: Motosikal jenis Honda EX5

Pemilik motosikal di atas merupakan penjual burger di gerai berkenaan. Setiap kali saya membuat tempahan burger melalui telefon (kadang-kadang saya membuat tempahan kerana malas menunggu), beliau tidak pernah lupa untuk memberi salam kepada pelanggannya sebelum mengambil tempahan. Walaupun mempunyai muka yang garang serta suara yang agak tegas, tetapi sikap profesional beliau amat saya senangi. Kawasan gerainya bersih, dan sampah tidak dibuang merata-rata seperti kebanyakan gerai burger yang saya telah lawati. Cara penyediaan burger yang sangat tersusun juga merupakan sebab saya amat menghormati beliau. Apabila menerima bayaran dari pelanggan, beliau tidak pernah lupa untuk berakad (bukan akad nikah, tapi ucapan "Saya jual" dan disambut oleh pelanggan, "Saya beli") dan mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pelanggan. Saya kira beliau lebih baik daripada pelayan wanita di kedai makan yang berwajah cantik, berkulit putih (beliau berkulit gelap), berdada bidang tetapi tidak tahu adab serta kurang ajar.

Kesimpulannya, kita boleh membuat tanggapan awal, tetapi kita tidak boleh mengambil tanggapan awal berkenaan sebagai penilaian kita terhadap seseorang sehinggalah kita mengenali perwatakan mereka.

EcoCare 2011 Kick Off Events

2011-05-07T18:41:00.004+08:00

Today marks the kick-off of EcoCare 2011, an initiative between Optimal and Malaysia Nature Society (MNS). The event was held at EcoCare's proposed site for Mangrove Awareness Center by the riverside of Sg. Kerteh.

Optimal's CEO giving his welcoming speech

Optimal's CEO, Mr. Herman Shrijver had delivered his welcoming speech before Kemasik's ADUN officiates this year's EcoCare event. The VIPs had also released fishes into Sg. Kerteh as a symbolic of the commencement of this corporate service responsibility program.

Time to release the fish!

There were three events organized for the EcoCare's volunteers namely fishing competition, planting mangrove seedlings and collecting mangrove's seeds at Sg. Kerteh. Our beloved CEO also took part in the fishing competition with the volunteers who are Optimal's staffs and the villagers from nearby villages.

Ready for action!

I took part in collecting mangrove seeds nearby the nursery. About a boat load of volunteers joined this activity. We managed to collect a bagful of seeds that will be planted in polybags and let to grow in the nursery before they are mature enough to be planted at selected planting sites along the Kerteh river.

Mangrove seedlings for replanting activity

This conservation effort is not that easy. It is reported that the growth failure rate for mangrove seedlings is about 60 %. Hence, a huge capital is needed to sustain to the conservation effort and Optimal is really committed to preserving the biodiversity of swamps area in Kerteh. The causes of seedlings' growth failure are from the tide, bad weather and bad water quality. So, this replanting effort is a never-ending process to ensure this natural tsunami barrier will sustain the ecosystem and provide protection to the people who lives near to the sea.

At the nursery

At noon, the volunteers had their lunch and the fishes caught by the participants were weighed to find the winner. Price-giving ceremony for fishing and photography competition were presented and the anglers need to be satisfied with their heaviest catch of 200 grams fish to emerge as champion. After all, this event had been very successful and I am looking forward to join EcoCare 2011 events that have been planned throughout this year. :)

Reminiscing Old Memories Can Be Costly, Sometimes

2011-04-23T20:18:00.000+08:00

If you ask me what is the memorable moment in my life, I would say it would be my secondary school years. Since living in breathing on this earth (I've never been to other planets or at least ISS) for 24 years, school hood memories are etched deeply in my mind. Although I have wasted my 5 teenage years in 'unconventional' environment (yes, I'm from boy school) unlike other teenagers, I really enjoyed the brotherhood, happy and sorrow moments in my Alma-mater. That what makes my school hood moments unique.

The urge of meeting my school friends is so strong that I always try my best to attend reunion with those boys. Mingling with them gives a truly different experience because we share the same wavelength that other people do not. As a result of that, I went to a mini gathering in Kuantan with the boys who are studying in UIA Kampus Kuantan.

Despite the long-distance drive from Kerteh and the gathering was held on weekdays (Monday, 18/4/2011), I was very enthusiastic about it. Right after work, I quickly change from my working coverall to casual attire and rushed off to Kuantan. Finally, I arrived in Kuantan just before dusk. I went to the UIA out-campus male hostel in Indera Mahkota 2 to meet my friend Uganda and Ramdani first and performed Maghrib prayer there.

Then, we went to a steamboat restaurant near East Coast Mall in Kuantan (I forgot the name), where the mini gaythering was held. The attendance was quite impressive: Skema, Sam, Cinok, Ramdani and Uganda were present. Sam, Cinok, Uganda and Ramdani had just completed their studies while Skema has another one year to go before completing his medical studies.

The lads after chomping the steamboat

The ambiance was so good, we reminiscing our school life and laugh about it. Hanging out with them really made me forget my current life for a while, the life that is starting to get messy and stressful. That's the true brotherhood, bro.

Some of the UIA students that happened to be in the same restaurant too

After finishing all the steamboat food provided by the restaurant (it is a pay-per-head-eat-all-you-can concept restaurant), it was time to say goodbye. Sam and Skema had examinations ongoing, so they went home earlier. The rest of us, including me went to take as stroll around Kuantan to witness the nightlife there and stopped by Teluk Chempedak beach to have drinks and resume our conversation there till the makcik asked us to leave when she was about to close shop.

This time, I really had to say goodbye to them. After sending them back to their hostel at 0100HRS, I rushed back to Kerteh. Driving in the middle of the night was truly refreshing but I did not dare to drive fast as I was feeling extremely tired and sleepy. When I was about to reach Kerteh, I've hit a pothole at high speed and punctured the rear right tire.

The morning after the incident

It was unfortunate for me as the sidewall was already ruptured and need to be replaced. The next morning I went to tire shop and get the tire replaced.

Ruptured sidewall

The misery does not end there. On the next day after the tire changed, I noticed the left rear wheel was dented. The dented was so bad that the air leaked through the dented area. I have no choice but to replace the wheels. A good way to say goodbye to the stock wheels. So, the cost of reminiscing old time? Nearly RM2000, who said it is priceless? It is very pricey for me!

The aftermath

On the positive side, I just take this as my unfortunate day. Bad things always happen in the most unwanted moment. I just have to chew it up. To Uganda, Cinok, Skema, Daneng and Sam, I have so much fun hanging out with you guys! Errrr, can you donate me RM400 per person to cover up my loss? Come on, all of you are doctors and pharmacists... to be! :P

The lads: me, Skema, Cinok, Daneng & Uganda

EcoCare 2011 Mangrove Replanting Activity

2011-04-17T14:55:00.005+08:00

I managed to make my weekend productive this week by participating in mangrove replanting activity in Sg. Kerteh, yesterday. This activity is organized as one of the annual event of EcoCare program for 2011. For information, EcoCare is an initiative between Optimal (my workplace) and Malaysia Nature Society (MNS) to preserve mangrove in Sg. Kerteh, Terengganu. This time, around 20 volunteers consisted of Optimal staffs and local village folks of Kg. Gelugor had worked hand in hand to plant around 100 mangrove seedlings in an area at Sg. Kerteh.

Briefing session by MNS representative

All participants gathered at Kg. Gelugor jetty at 1430HRS and were briefed by MNS representatives about the activity. We were transported to the replanting site by two boats. Some of the participant including me went to the nursery located by the side of Kerteh River to collect the seedlings and brought it to the designated replanting site. Our mangrove seedlings of choice for that day were Bakau Minyak (Rhizophora apiculata).

Welcome aboard!

Collecting the mature seedlings

From my experience, working in swampy area is very challenging. The soil is very soft that you will be submerged into the mud at knee level. Walking around the site to plant the seedlings was not easy. In the end, I ditched the rubber boots and walked bare foot. It is better that way and of course, covered in mud was inevitable.

Covered in mud

The seedlings were planted 1 metre apart of each other to ensure successful growth. A hole is made using straight hoe about 1 foot deep. Since the soil is muddy and soft; and we had limited number of straight hoe (only three provided) some of us starting scouring the mud using our hands. And I’m not missing the fun too.

At the replanting side after all seedlings had been successfully replanted

The activity ended at around 1600HRS. We cleaned ourselves and boots before leaving the site. It was a very satisfying moment for me seeing the seedlings filled the empty space of the site. I hope the seedlings will grow into adult mangrove and maintaining the ecosystem of swampy area in Kerteh River. We arrived at Kg. Gelugor Jetty on 1430HRS and were served with light refreshment before heading home.

Some of the participants that missed the boat!

P/S: bakau gardening is more calory-burning than regular gardening at home :)

Shopping in Kerteh

2011-04-08T15:20:00.006+08:00

Sleepy Kerteh, Friday morning

You must be wondering why the post's title is quite specific, right? I just want to share with you my experience about my life here after staying here for more than six months in this sleepy town. Yes, you can expect different shopping experience here in Kerteh.

First, step into TMC supermarket (Giant in disguise) at Mesra Mall and you will be greeted by wonderful Quranic verses recitation via the supermarket's PA system. You cannot find this anywhere else and as a Muslim, it is a good thing for me. But somehow, I beg to differ. Won't other shoppers of different religion feel offended with this? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but can you, as a Muslim imagine stepping into a supermarket that plays Bible recitation or Buddha's chanting over the PA system? We will not feel comfortable shopping in that kind of environment, right? To make things even worse, they just stop the Quran recitation audio to make announcement and then just continue after finished making announcement, just like radio shows. That is why I oppose the idea of airing Quranic recitation over the supermarket's PA system. We cannon simply pause the recitation for fearing it would change the meaning of the verses. Somehow, there are place that needs us to be secular, not mixing it with religion. But do not get me wrong, I'm still support the airing of azan and Quran recitation from the mosque since this place is only visited by Muslims.

Secondly, you will not find unmotivated cashier anywhere else, only here. I've been to The Store Kemaman, Giant Kijal (yes, another Giant, just bigger) and Pasaraya Sama Maju in Paka, they share one characteristic, the cashiers will take your shopping items reluctantly and scanning them slowly before putting them into plastic bags. I never seen anything like this anywhere else and yet very annoyed with it. But then, I guess I cannot complaint much since the locals seem ok with this and not complaining. So, I just need to be silent on this. :P On another note, there is one cashier in TMC had given me hope on this issue. He was very efficient in his work and I just spend less than 3 minutes for 5 items purchase compared to 10 minutes transaction of the same number of items before this. Too bad I cannot see your name to be written in this blog though. Keep up the good work! :)

So, that is all I want to share with you for this time. Hope you can get some ideas about this town and it's surrounding area should you decide to move into this town. Cheers~ :)

Countdown!

2011-03-31T09:41:00.005+08:00

MySpace-Countdowns

450 km journey from Kerteh to Banting!

Retreat

2011-03-25T19:42:00.004+08:00

Beautiful scenery that is soothing to the eyes. Rantau Abang beach, Terengganu.

Hopes

2011-03-21T19:31:00.005+08:00

LKIM Jetty, Kg. Gelugor, Kerteh

Despite Kerteh's image as oil-town in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, some of the inhabitants still rely on the sea to earn a living. There is a jetty near Kg. Gelugor, just a few minutes away from my home where we can see fishermen coming back from the sea.

I was wandering around the jetty area with my camera when an old man approaches me to have a chat. He introduced himself as Pak Hakim. With typical traditional fisherman's look, he is very ambitious about improving his life. But then, hope is just a hope.

In his damaged boat

His boat was damaged by the rough sea waves years ago and he cannot go fishing since then. With his limited capacity as traditional fisherman, he went searching for financial assistance to enable him fishing again but to no avail. I managed to have a chat with him and asked what type of assistance he is looking for. He replied, a 15 HP engine and some money for boat repair are all he needs. He has the tools to repair his boat but funding the replacement parts is the issue.

He hopes that he will be able to fix his boat and start bringing the anglers to his 'lubuk' for fishing trip. I left him sitting, pondering on his damaged boat when the sun sets. I hope he will be able to achieve his dream.

Single Lens Reflex

2011-03-16T17:08:00.009+08:00

I love Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera because I have ample breathing space for creativity when taking pictures. I can easily freely tinker with the shutter speed and aperture to be more creative when taking picture. However, I always regard myself as a casual photographer and I can never surpass the professionals out there just because I OWNS an SLR (seems familiar nowadays huh?). Thanks to my dad for introducing me to this passion as he himself love to take pictures too.

Ayah's Olympus system was something similar like this, minus the lens on the left

My humble beginning started in 2001 when my dad allowed me to bring his Olympus OM1000 SLR to school. Yes, I started with film photography unlike today's generation that already moved to DSLR. It is a fully manual camera where there is no auto focus (AF) like today and I have to adjust the exposure manually. I even have to load the film and wind it manually as it is not motorized. You'll only find shutter speed dial rather than shooting mode button found on most DSLRs today. But then, thanks to this camera, I really appreciate how aperture, shutter speed and ISO (locked to film, in DSLR you can always change ISO digitally) works. Most of my school-time memory was captured with this camera.

2003-2004: Stolen with unprocessed film inside, there goes the memories~

Then, my dad bought a second camera, a Canon EOS 300 kit complete with battery grip, and a Tamron 70-300mm lens. This camera has digital control despite still using film. Focusing, exposure measurement, film loading and ISO setting can be done automatically. I always used this camera and brought it to school for personal use. When I joined the school's magazine editorial team led by Mariana Sensei, I always used this camera for outdoor assignment like sports event where zoom lens can come handy. The school only has Nikon F60 with kit lens at that time which is suitable for taking group photos for classes and various clubs and organizations at school.

Redax's SLR, but with 28-55mm kit lens

The best moment with EOS 300 is when I went to France in 2003 during a trip. 6 rolls of film were used to take my pictures during the trip. The camera travelled the farthest but unfortunately both OM1000 and EOS 300 were stolen at home. Since then, I only used digital point and shoot camera only. :(

During my university years, I seldom held any SLR. To name a few, I only played with Nuriman's Nikon D80 and Ili's EOS 1000D. It's been 6 years since I used SLR cameras. I feel like I've lost touch to SLRs but my passion to this never subsides. Maybe this is a good time to relive the passion? Only God knows...

p/s: There was short period where Ayah bought Pentax MZ60 in 2005 but was seldom used when he bought point & shoot digital camera. Film photography is very expensive compared to digital photography~

Forward Culture

2011-01-30T23:53:00.003+08:00

From my memory, it started from forwarding chain letters, then evolved to chain SMSes, and now, chain statuses on social networking site. I do not know why we like to forward messages like these. Of course, it tells us to do good thing but why good thing need to be forceful by threatening the reader that he/she will have bad luck if they do not FORWARD that messages to the others. This is truly absurd and not productive. We just love to copy and paste then forward it to our friends and family members. Have we ever questioned the truth about the messages we FORWARDED to the others? Frankly, when this is happening too often, I became annoyed despite the good message conveyed or rather, FORWARDED.

This Facebook-is-gonna-close type of message is very lame. Have we even asked the founder about the truth of this message? He would be very idiot to close down this social networking site after making millions of dollar out of it. And we, the ignorant user just do our part by hogging the server (which I doubt will have adverse effect of this mass mailing act) and we even make a fool of ourselves by annoying our friends with these spam of bullcrap.

Another piece of joke from our fellow friend. The message is good. In fact, performing the Solat or prayer is compulsory for the moslems. But why this "GOOD THING" is only intended to be forwarded to only 10 moslems? Should the good thing be shared with everybody? I'm not an expert in my religion, but from my knowledge, we can never know when will doomsday (Hari Kiamat) will happen. It is a part of "Perkara-perkara Ghaib" that only Allah knows about it. Ask the ustazs or ustazahs for clarification.

So, I would like to ask everybody to think deeply before we forward anything to the others. We do not want to forward something that is misleading and be blamed for it, right?

Misleading 'Pasar' Language

2011-01-25T22:44:00.004+08:00

Admit it, most of us Malaysians tend to mix English with Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin or even Tamil in our daily communication be it written or verbal. I am not a language expert yet a language warrior (pejuang bahasa or whatever you call it) as I am also using this 'pasar' language in my daily communication although I am using proper language when writing in this blog. No matter how 'pasar' your language is, please do not make a fool of yourself by typing or saying something that is misleading from what you are trying to say just because to show that you are also know English. Now, let see the phrases below for example:

Defeat or defect?

While trying new garments at the departmental store

"Takpelah, seluar ni boleh otter nanti" - otter=memerang, it should be ALTER

Come on vs common

"Common la, how can you say like that?" I bet it should write "Come on la"

Untie or auntie?

"Untie, thanks for the present! Luv u muah3!" - mak cik awak ni tali ke? Untie=merungkaikan ikatan (tali dan sebagainya)

Message or massage?

"I've sent u massage, how come u dun get it?" - you should send a hot masseuse instead! :P masseuse=tukang urut (tak kisahlah batin atau pun tak batin)

If you really or unsure in conveying the message using the language, remember we still have our mother tongue and keep our mind open to learn the language and improve. :)

EcoCare Kick Off 2011

2011-01-22T23:45:00.000+08:00

Staying in quite quiet places like Kerteh can be so boring sometimes. How you want to fill the weekend can be quite daunting if you, city dwellers are so into busy and 'filling' city life. You won't find malls or shopping complexes in vicinity except the only Mesra Mall.

Deciding to be more productive this weekend, I have decided to join EcoCare 2011 Kick Off program. It is basically cruising along Kerteh River and get to know about the mangrove trees that grow along the muddy Kerteh River. This program is an initiative by my company that I worked for, Optimal collaborating with Malaysia Nature Society (MNS) to conserve and preserve the mangroves in Sungai Kerteh. The objective of this kick off program is to give exposure to the participants about various species of mangroves that grow along the banks of this river. I get to know a lot about mangroves and the importance of mangroves and swampy areas as biodiversity barrier that protect land from being hit directly by big waves from the seas such as tsunamis.

Optimal's CEO was also present to support the EcoCare program

I get to visit the nursery site established by Optimal and MNS for various kind of mangroves and during the 2 hours river cruise, I had received a lot of information from MNS volunteer regarding mangroves. One thing that attracted me is Rhizophora x lamarckii tree that is the only one in Malaysia.

The one and only Rhizophora x lamarckii

As the name imply, the letter 'x' signifies that the tree is a hybrid tree and hence it cannot reproduce due to it's hybrid nature. That is why Sungai Kerteh is very special for conservation and preservation project. There were a lot more to tell, but I'll just leave the pictures do the talking. :)

The mangrove nursery

Cruise along Sungai Kerteh

The participant with The Boss!

Entering the workplace

2011-01-04T17:54:00.002+08:00

You've just graduated with flying colours from your college. After months of unemployment, finally you have been offered a job. An offer letter had been sent to you and you've answered the call to take up challenges in working environment. First day at work, you wore the most beautiful (probably new) shirt to the office. Then you've been directed to your own workstation or cube or whatever you call it.

First month of working was probably the most boring moment in your life. Stuck in the middle. You are not yet assigned to any work and yet you cannot fool around in the office. Opening non-related website or chatting with your college day friends in complete secrecy like a fugitive. Heheh. But then, that's the best thing you can do to avoid from sleeping during work hour. The end of first month finally came and you got your first not-so-hard-earned salary.

Your mind suddenly actively thinking what you want to do with your first pay. Some will think on how the money should be set aside for future saving and some may think how should they spend the money to get something that they dream for a long time. But before that, some of us might forget the most important things when earning the first salary. Here I would like to share with you my experience on managing my salary, the basics of it.

Income Tax. Do not forget to open up your file for income tax. Do the registration online and get your income tax number. You can do it online here.
Employee Provident Fund (EPF). Your company should manage your salary deduction for EPF (KWSP). But you have to open EPF account for yourself. Head to EPF offices nearest to you. Link to EPF website here.
Zakat. For muslims, it is our obligation to pay zakat for our income. The rate is only 2.5% of your annual income per year. You can pay zakat via salary deduction. Furthermore, you get tax relief for zakat. :) For more info here.

I think that's the most basic thing to consider for you monthly salary. Other than that (eg. Tabung Haji saving, trust funds etc.) is up to you. :)

Hilarious Mesra Mall

2010-12-09T22:35:00.006+08:00

Well, another weekend had just started. I left my workplace at 1600H sharp, get changed from my coverall and paid a visit to Mesra Mall, the only place of entertainment for sleepy Kerteh. I never imagined that PC Fair is coming to Kerteh. Yeah, it does, starting from 9th of December until 11th.

Typical Kerteh, do not expect big PC Fair like in KL Convention Centre. The hall is very small and only very few shops open their booth there. Nothing worth mentioning about the so-called 'PC Fair' (it is not organized by PIKOM, just borrowing the name). But somehow, I managed to make myself amused today when I went to Mesra Mall. Look at this picture below.

Everything seems normal right? Just like other banners that promote an event. But look closer.

You got what I mean? This is totally not a typo, but rather a silly mistake due to ignorance by someone with their half-baked English. It is so shameful that they got this printed and be seen by the people of Kerteh including me. I cannot stop laughing (in my heart, of course).

Then I continued walking aimlessly around the mall and entered TMC supermarket (it is actually Giant Hypermarket in disguise) and I found this.

My best guess is that this complete PC in trolley is for stock checking purpose as you can see an RJ45 jutting out from the trolley to access the database. I found this rather old-school. I remembered during my time working part time in Guardian, I can easily check the stock inventory and other information like latest promotion and price using a handheld device. It is a passive device though as we need to download the data into the device first and get the item details by just scanning the barcode of the item. As easy as that.

I think, maybe the management resorted to this old method to cut cost. And, I'm sure that those Bangladeshi workers they hired won't complain much as they see this PC-in-a-trolley think the latest technology breakthrough. Huhuhu~

Pasar Malam Kerteh

2010-12-01T22:52:00.007+08:00

Pasar Malam or night market is nothing unusual here in Malaysia. When I move in to new place, one of the thing that I will be looking for is when and where the local pasar malam is. However, I went to pasar malam in Kerteh for the first time only after 2 months I have stayed here. Nonetheless, it is still serve its purpose like the other pasar malam around Malaysia where you can get variety of foods, fresh vegetables, fruits, seafoods and meats, and other items like kitchen utensils, not-so-cheap pirated shirts and many more.

Pasar malam in Kerteh is held every Tuesday near to the road leading to Kerteh airport near the small stadium. It started from 6 p.m. till 9 p.m. Please take note that some stalls are closing early at 8.30 p.m. so it is best if you can come at around 7.45 p.m. so you have ample time to look around the market. My first impression, the ambience is just like other pasar malam in Malaysia. The site is on a sandy field that is most likely can be like a paddy-field after the rain. Luckily last night the sky was clear and I can browse through the market without trouble.

Pasar Malam Kerteh, pardon my shaky phone camera

Basically, you can find anything that you can expect from the normal pasar malam. So, I bought my 'benchmark' food that I normally buy from pasar malam and compare it with pasar malam in Sri Iskandar, Perak (my favourite pasar malam when I was in UTP) and pasar malam Taman Sri Putra, Banting (home sweet home). The foods are yong tau fu, chicken kebab and mixture of beef and chicken satay. I also bought coconut shake, coconut juice that is blended with ice cream.

Chicken Kebab

I am not really a food critique, so I just comment whether the food is up to my 'edible' standard or not. The kebab tastes good, just like other kebab that I can find in other two places. However, the price is slightly expensive though, RM 3.00 per piece.

Beef & Chicken Satay

I would say that the food is up to my standard but not the best in terms of price and taste. The satay is not as tender as Banting satay and they do not provide the satay with cucumber and onion chunks like in Banting. The kuah kacang is just meeting with my minimum requirement so nothing to shout out about the taste. It is priced at RM 0.40 per piece, cheaper than Banting satay but slightly expensive from Sri Iskandar's.

Yong Tau Fu

Nothing to shout out about the taste, it is just meeting my requirement. It just offer sweet sour sauce only to accompany with as compared to Sri Iskandar where I have option to choose between sweet sour sauce or soup. However, it cannot still beat Banting sweet sour sauce though. The price is slightly expensive here compared to the two places.

Price comparison

Here I summarize the price comparison of each food according to their locations.

Location /Item	Kerteh	Banting	Sri Iskandar
Chicken Kebab	RM 3.00	RM 2.50	RM 2.50
Satay	RM 0.40	RM 0.50	RM 0.35
Yong Tau Fu*	RM 10.40	RM 7.50	RM 7.00

*The amount of yong tau fu is taken based on approximate amount only

I come to think of this, whenever I go, they can never beat Banting Pasar Malam in any aspect, be it the price or the taste. Ok, I admit that I got a little bit homesick right now. Worry not, I'll be returning to Banting tomorrow after work. Yahoo! :P

Introduction to Foxboro DCS Training

2010-11-25T21:00:00.003+08:00

My early phase of my career life with Optimal is expected to be filled with a lot of training. Recently, I have attended a 1 week course on Introduction to Foxboro DCS. In layman's term, it is basically an introductory course for control system engineers and plant operators about Foxboro DCS system used in Optimal plant.

It is only an introductory course but look how thick the manual is!

We learnt about the basic architecture of Foxboro DCS network and the related software. This course was attended by 10 operators and engineers from various units in Optimal (namely Olefins, Derivatives, Butanol, Utilities and Maintenance <- that's me!).

The course participants

The trainer for this course was Mr. Tarek Kamal from Foxboro Egypt and he was very knowledgable about the DCS architecture, hardwares and softwares of Foxboro. We gained a lot of information from this introductory course.

"OAJ stands for Operator Action Journal" - Mr. Tarek Kamal of Foxboro

It really opened my mind about DCS (Distributed Control System) and Foxboro system itself. I also got to experience using the Foxboro workstations which is based on Unix operating systems. The hardware is also propriety to Sun (the developer of Unix OS) and the keyboard layout is different from usual Windows keyboard layout and I took some time to get used to it. Overall, the course was good and the goodies bag from Foxboro sweetened the course delivery. Heheheh~

The bag contains a denim Foxboro short sleeve shirt and notepad

p/s: What I love about attending training is that I can save on my lunch money. :P

Reconnected from Kerteh!

2010-11-24T17:03:00.000+08:00

Last Tuesday I was just reconnected to the information superhighway (a.k.a The Internet) from my rented house in Kerteh. I am now subscribing TM's Streamyx 1 Mbps broadband package. So far, I am satisfied with the connection speed (according to current Malaysia's snailing slow connection standard). The package bundle is good too, for Blockbuster plan (1 Mbps with unlimited free calls to TM fixed line at RM110/month) a unit of D-Link's DSL-2640B WiFi router is provided as opposed to Riger WiFi router unit that is currently being used at my hometown in Banting. So, I just to wait for the DECT phone to be delivered and I am expecting the same Panasonic unit that is currently used in my hometown.

So, I logged on to Speedtest.net website to check on how Streamyx is performing here in Kerteh. Here are the result, I pinged several servers in nearby cities around Kerteh and I am quite impressed with the result. I hope Streamyx has really improved this time and not relying on clause "...is provided on best effort basis..." anymore. I just hope that TM can improve on the uploading speed (384 Kbps I think) so I can keep on Torrenting more effectively. :)

Server: Cyberjaya, MY

Server: Singapore, SG

Server: Songkhla Province, TH

Server: Phuket Province, TH

Server: Bandar Seri Begawan, BN

p/s: Seeding and leeching all the time!

Aging But Still Rolling Strong

2010-11-20T11:17:00.004+08:00

My DAD's indium coloured Waja is now nearly 10 years old and had travelled around 190 000 km now. Currently I'm using this car and yeah, I am driving this car in Kerteh. Despite negative comment received from our fellow Malaysians bashing on the quality of this car, this car however is still in pristine condition (after a major accident) except replacing some aging components which are expected for this car of this age.

Yesterday, I went to our trusted workshops around Banting to replace some of the parts that need replacements. The parts include brake pads, radiator fan motor and front disc brake rotors. Since this car is used under harsh condition like frequent high speed and long haul journey, I have decided to spend a bit on good replacement parts. Instead of using the OEM brake pads, brake pads from Bendix are now sitting in the calipers. The disc rotors are also changed since the the old disc rotors have worn out by about 3 millimeters.

Bendix brake pads

Kim Ban Huat Auto workshop, Banting

Me and my dad were puzzled about the deterioration of cooling performance of the car's air condition since we just serviced it 2 month ago during the last Hari Raya Aidilfitri. We brought the car to the shop we did the servicing last time and upon inspection we found out the radiator fan motor had gone kaput. That was the cause of deteriorating cooling performance of the car and lately I noticed that the engine temperature is a bit higher from 90º C. After changing the motor, the air conditioning system regains its original cooling performance and the engine temperature drops below 90º C. Taking advantage of that, I also changed the radiator coolant at EON Service Center here in Banting.

Ready for 'surgery'

With all the servicing done, I'm hoping that this car can perform better and more reliable after this. This car had gone through a lot, from frequent Banting - Tronoh trip, she is now travelling Banting - Kerteh, and she is still rolling strong. :)

Old front disc rotor and brake pads

p/s: Currently bedding in the new brake pads with the new disc rotors

Salam Aidil Adha

2010-11-18T23:51:00.002+08:00

I would like to wish to all of my blog readers and followers (if any) an eventful Aidil Adha this year. May all of us is blessed by Allah to understand more about sacrifices (Qurban) that we are always facing in our life. Sometimes, the saying "If you want to gain something, you have to lose something" can be true in order for us to achieve better life in the future. What is more important, we need to be grateful and work hard to improve our life.

Apart from the usual Solat Aidil Adha at the mosque (no 'melapah' session this year), I also did some shopping. I was intending to upgrade my old rig before I can bring it to Kerteh this Saturday. The shopping was done at various shops in Low Yat Plaza and here is the shopping list:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 processor
Asus P4P43TD/USB3 motherboard
Corsair Gaming 1333 MHz DDR3 2 GB RAM modules
Cooler Master USP 100 Casing
Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X 1 GB DDR5 graphic card
Western Digital 500 GB S-ATA hard disk drive
K-World PCI TV card
XFX XXX Edition 650W modular power supply unit
Altec Lansing VS4121 2.1 speaker system
Koss Ectron E-85 850 VA uninterruptable power supply

I will post my story on assembling the parts and my findings in term of benchmarks of the newly assembled system for information-sharing in the next post. Salam Aidil Adha. :)

All components assembled

Exciting Kenyir!

2010-11-08T23:31:00.001+08:00

**PHOTO UPLOADED

I am always looking forward to do something exciting or going to interesting place during my stay in Terengganu. This is what I like about living at new places rather than staying closer to home. Thanks to God that during the phases of my life, I was placed in different new places such as Seremban, Tronoh and now, Kerteh. One day, my colleague at Central Maintenance department asked me to join them to an all-expenses-paid trip to Kenyir during the recent Deepavali break. Without hesitation I accepted his offer right away and on Friday, November 5th, we embarked on our adventure in Kenyir Lake.

Day 1

I parked my car at my colleague’s house, Mr. Fauzi the technologist and we waited at PETRONAS Service Station in Kerteh before we were picked up by bus at around 0900H. Then, the bus make a few stops, namely at PFCe Paka and Dungun to pick up other members. Then we make another stop in Kuala Berang to stock up and we reached Pengkalan Gawi in Kenyir Lake at around 1230H. We were greeted by two boathouses, Belida 1 and Belida 3. Belida 3 is bigger than Belida 1 and team Optimal boarded Belida 1. After we split up our food rations, the engine of both boathouses roared and we started our journey to Taman Negara Pahang for the purposed fishing ‘lubuk’. The journey took about 6 hours, and the boathouses slowly moving across the lake. The view was magnificent and breathtaking. Ok, that was expected from a tourist spot like Kenyir Lake. I would like to talk about the boathouse. The boathouse can accommodate 20 persons and the sleeping quarters is located at the 1st floor (yes, it is a two-storey boat) and is equipped with basic amenities like toilet, kitchen and AV system with karaoke and Astro (I’m serious). While others are busy preparing their arsenals for fishing (I’m the only non-angler), I just filling my time getting to know my colleague better, taking pictures and napping during the journey. At dusk, we arrived at Taman Negara Pahang. We hitched the boat, wire up the electricity, cranking up the 2-stroke-engined mobile generator and we were up for some fishing. However, luck was not on our side as we were managed to catch only few lampams, baungs and small belidas. I on the other side enjoyed watching Tamil movie on Astro. The title is Venghanayagam. I enjoyed the gravity-defying actions very much and the actors too. “Deyyy!!! Venghanayagam means fear, remember that!” – captured from the subtitle. :P As the night went by, I slept in the boathouse. The temperature was just nice (too bad I didn’t have sleeping bag with me) Surprisingly, there was no mosquitoes to disturb me, only at 0400H, my colleague (name undisclosed) came and disturbed me with loud snores.

Belida 1, our boathouse in Pengkalan Gawi

The sleeping deck, luckily no mosquitoes and the temperature at night was just right!

Day 2

I woke up at 0600H, and had breakfast made by one of my colleague. It was simple but filling ‘cucur’ with coffee, nice! We had decided to change place due to our bad luck of failing to catch big fish there and we moved to Sauk waterfall hoping to get big catch there. We left Taman Negara Pahang at around 0900H to Sauk waterfall. Again, the journey was boring as the boathouse sailed slowly across the lake. I took this opportunity to take a nap. I woke up for lunch on the boat and then suddenly we heard loud cracking noise form the bottom of the boat and suddenly the boat lost its speed. Upon further inspection, the propeller and the shaft had broken and need to be replaced. Belida 3 came to the rescue and towed our poor Belida 1 while the boat driver unhitched his small speedboat and sped to the shore to find the replacement part. At around 1400H, heavy downpour with storm suddenly hit the lake. For safety measure, the towing cable is disconnected and we stopped in the middle of the lake waiting for the storm to stop. During the storm, the boatman came with the replacement part, and the repair job was done in-situ with technical help from us (remember we are the Maintenance guys).

Torrential rain and stormy weather, Belida 3 was in front of us

As the rain stopped, the repair job was done and Belida 1’s naturally-aspirated V8 Hino diesel engine (detuned from turbodiesel as the boatman find it hard to control) finally roared back to life. We arrived at Sauk waterfall late in the afternoon. We tried our luck there using casting and trolling technique apart from the normal fishing using bait. I on the other hand went on the shore and dipped myself in refreshing Sauk waterfall. That night I just filled my night eating whatever left on the boat while watching Tamil movie on Astro, again. Then, I went to sleep with damp clothes (the storm ripped off the roof and soaked my backpack). Luckily, that night was not bone-chilling and I can sleep comfortably.

Beautiful Sauk waterfall

Day 3

Sunday, my last day in Kenyir. I started my day by taking bath with my colleagues at Sauk waterfall. The icy cold water was so refreshing but unfortunately it was started to drizzled so we only had short time enjoying the bath at the waterfall. After had our breakfast (on the boat, of course), we headed back to Pengkalan Gawi. It was a short journey as Sauk waterfall is located only 8 kilometers from Pengkalan Gawi. That marked the end of our adventure in Kenyir Lake.We boarded the bus and I arrived in Kerteh at 1730H. Although we were not managed to get big catch there, but I personally really enjoy the trip as I had chance to explore the beauty and splendour of Kenyir Lake. Definitely I would come again and have a trip on boathouse but not for fishing, but to spend night there at the waterfalls. :) My personal thanks to Mr. Fauzi for inviting me to this trip and for lending me the fishing equipments of his and thanks to my Maintenance department friends for your hospitality during the trip.

The Maintenance team

p/s: Blogger finally allows me to upload the pictures

Phase Shift

2010-10-20T17:39:00.002+08:00

Greetings to all my fellow readers!

For those who are not aware, currently I am working in Terengganu with a petrochemical plant in Kerteh. I have been staying here for more than a month (baru lagi) and still struggling to settle down and adapting myself with new environment.

To most of people, being in a new place is unfavourable but for me, I see it as an opportunity to expand my horizon and enjoy new experiences. I’ve never been in East Coast before, only few trips during holiday in my lifetime. And now, I am residing here for work.

The people are not as hostile as some of us might think, so stop stereotyping! Of course there are differences in terms of culture and the language, but if we stay humble and are ready to learn their culture, we will be accepted.

I love Terengganu for mainly for its food. I love squid and I can find it easily here. Since I am living near to the coastline, there are a lot of beautiful beaches to visit. Personally, I would come to Pantai Kemasik since it is near to my house and have beautiful scenery.

For town dwellers, you might find this place inhabitable since it is not as developed as big city like KL, but I am ok with that. Kerteh has shopping mall called Mesra Mall, near to Rantau PETRONAS. The mall is quite ‘well-equipped’, with TGV cinema if you want to watch movies, bowling alleys and shops like The Body Shops, Popular bookstores, Starbucks, Burger King and many more.

Another interesting thing that I found here is that I have not seen dogs wandering around but instead, I found hogs crossing the road at night. Mind you, the main road in Kerteh is quite busy, connecting Kuantan and Kuala Terengganu and yet you can find hogs here. So, be careful when you are driving. 

After all, I am enjoying my stay here in Terengganu and I am looking forward to explore this state and gain as much as experience for my career here. 

Tronoh Tales

2010-10-18T14:38:00.001+08:00

Year 2005, the year I first stepped my foot on this land. Together with a number of school-leavers who aspired to pursue our dreams, we started to acclimatize ourselves with this foreign territory and get to know the people who came from different corners of world.

Seeking knowledge in this alma mater is one thing, and for sure, it had never been easy. But the real challenge is how we survived to overcome the obstacles that were laid ahead of us. The language barrier, cultural differences and many more had somehow moulded us to be resilient and not to give up easily. But yet, these shortcomings colour our life in here and opened up new perspective on how we see the world now.

The time flies, and enter year 2010. After years of hardships, failures, ~~heart-breaks~~, we finally came to the end. I wish to congratulate all of us who have been able to surpass our own limit, and here we are the graduates of UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS. Happy Convocation!

p/s: Engineering futures, are we ready now?

PIPE 65

2010-10-04T10:30:00.000+08:00

Last month I attended a 16-days induction course for new staff of this NOC I am working now. Well, as the name implies, it involves of indoctrinations and briefings about the business and operation of this NOC. It opened a new perspective on me who is just started working after completing my studies in UTP.

There was a lot of activities that promotes team-spirit, soft skills and also talks on HR matters. I am very grateful to be employed with this NOC as this company really emphasize on the development of the employees. Despite the fact that the pay is the lowest in the industry, there a lot of opportunities for the employees so that they can carve their own career development path. Furthermore, I see this as an opportunity to serve for the nation although this NOC operates like other business entity, to make profit.

I am looking forward to develop my career with this NOC while constantly eyes for new opportunities in the future.

Wake Me Up When September Starts

2010-08-14T00:46:00.000+08:00

Anticipating eagerly for the month of September 2010 to come. Happy, relieved, thankful to the Almighty, nervous and excited are all combined. The feeling is indescribable.

So many forms need to be filled up.

So many documents need to be photocopied and verified.

Lots of places need to be visited.

What a hectic life I am enduring right now, I hope I can just sleep until somebody wakes me up when September starts.

I will prepare myself to face up new challenges ahead. :)

My PC is finally online!

Benda-benda Yang Tak Wujud di Guardian

2010-08-12T23:01:00.003+08:00

Bermula dari hujung bulan lepas, bermulalah kerjaya aku sebagai ~~pencacai~~ pekerja separuh masa di Guardian Banting (kod cawangan: BTWB). Gaji yang ditawarkan taklah lumayan mana, kadar piawai untuk kerja sambilan, RM 3.50/jam. Bidang tugas aku termasuklah jadi juruwang, sapu sampah, mop lantai, layan pelanggan dan membantu dalam apa-apa hal di kedai jika diperlukan. Secara keseluruhannya, kerja di situ memang agak 'enjoy' dan santai dengan rakan sekerja serta bos yang sempoi. Kira bolehlah bekerja untuk mengisi masa lapang daripada menanam anggur di Farm Ville yang tak mendatangkan hasil tu. Kalau betul-betul jadi petani moden menanam anggur tu ada juga faedah dan pulangannya kan.

Muka seorang pekerja yang berdedikasi

Walaupun ramai orang tahu fungsi Guardian sebagai sebuah kedai yang menjual barangan berkaitan kesihatan, kecantikan dan penjagaan diri, ada juga orang yang sengal otaknya dengan bertanya jika barang-barang yang pelik ada dijual di Guardian. Apa-apa hal pun, pelanggan sentiasa betul kan... Antara barang-barang pelik yang penah ditanya ketika aku bertugas adalah:

Rokok (Benson 20 batang - gile veteran hisap Benson & Hedges lagi, orang sekarang hisap Saat lah, hahaha~)
Pelembut fabrik (Softlan)
Sirih (wtf?!!)
Sabun basuh baju (makcik, Econsave dekat, Megah pon dekat je, kat situ ada jual)

Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa

2010-07-28T12:29:00.003+08:00

Hari ini aku ke farmasi Hospital Daerah Banting untuk mengambil ubat ayah yang demam. Setelah mengambil nombor giliran, aku pun duduk menunggu di kerusi yang disediakan. Aku tertarik dengan 'banner' yang dipamerkan di ruang menunggu farmasi tersebut.

Kelakar sampai rasa nak pengsan~

Mungkin pihak Kementerian Kesihatan cuba menterjemahkan frasa "Integrated Drugs Dispensing System" ke Bahasa Melayu. Tetapi bunyinya kedengaran agak janggal bagi aku. Aku bukannya seorang pakar bahasa tetapi aku pasti masih ada perkataan dalam Bahasa Melayu yang boleh digunakan untuk menterjemahkan perkataan "Dispensing" itu. Menurut laman web Wordnetweb, maksud "Dispense" adalah:

distribute: administer or bestow, as in small portions; "administer critical remarks to everyone present"; "dole out some money"; "shell out pocket money for the children"; "deal a blow to someone"; "the machine dispenses soft drinks"
grant a dispensation; grant an exemption; "I was dispensed from this terrible task"
administer: give or apply (medications)

Jadi, ternyata masih ada perkataan yang sesuai untuk menterjemahkan perkataan "Dispense" seperti perkataan pemberian atau pengedaraan. Aku tak tahu kalau perkataan "Dispense" telah dipinjam dari Bahasa Inggeris dan wujud dalam kamus dewan tetapi aku berasa selagi wujudnya istilah dalam Bahasa Melayu, kenapa kita mesti menggunakan perkataan yang dipinjam dari bahasa asing? Kalau hendak menyampaikan maklumat dalam Bahasa Inggeris, gunakan Bahasa Inggeris sepenuhnya dan begitulah sebaliknya. Jika dalam perbualan seharian mungkin tidak mengapa menggunakan bahasa rojak, tetapi untuk urusan rasmi dan penyampaian maklumat kepada orang awam, gunakanlah bahasa dan istilah yang betul. Bunyinya memang kedengaran agak janggal dan kelakar, rasa nak pengsan sahaja membacanya. Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa.

p/s: Hari ini ambil ubat dan kerja di farmasi juga~

Walaupun Menganggur Tapi Kena Pandai Cari Kerja

2010-07-05T20:07:00.000+08:00

Berikut merupakan tentatif aktiviti harian saya di era pengangguran ini:

0600H - 0630H : Solat subuh
0630H - 1100H : Bangun tidur, kemas katil kalau ~~mak~~ rajin (Masa sebenar bergantung kepada keadaan)
1000H - 1200H : Rampaian aktiviti bermula dari berkebun (membajak dan menanam semula tanam-tanaman), sarapan pagi (jika ada), aktiviti bebas
1200H - 1300H : Bersiram dan bersiap-siap untuk sebarang tugasan (Masa sebenar bergantung kepada keadaan)
1300H - 1330H : Menjemput adik pulang dari sekolah (Masa sebenar loceng berbunyi mengikut hari)
1330H - 1430H : Solat zuhur, makan tengah hari dan menghantar adik ke sekolah agama
1430H - 1730H : Menonton tv, menuai hasil pertanian, menyelesaikan tugasan, aktiviti bebas, solat asar
1730H - 1800H : Menjemput adik pulang dari sekolah agama
1800H - 1900H : Menonton tv, menyambut kepulangan mak ayah dari sekolah
1900H - 2000H : Solat maghrib, bersiram (tengok mood)
2000H - 0000H : Menonton tv, aktiviti bebas, makan malam, masak kalau lapar lagi
0000H - 0200H : Mula masuk tidur (bergantung kepada tahap kebosanan)

From Level 40 Tower 1

2010-06-29T09:14:00.000+08:00

Imagine yourself is a plant manager in the future. Your manufacturing plant is producing components for hi-fi stereo system and your plant is the only factory in the town. To produce these components, the plant is using hazardous chemical as the raw material. The plant operation is smooth sailing until an environment officer from the State Bureau pays you a visit.

He said that he received complaints from the town folks that your plant had been releasing untreated waste to the local stream and some of the children had been infected by skin disease due to the contaminated stream. The officer demanded to conduct investigation at your plant and that requires your plant to shut down for a week. Of course, you cannot afford to shut down as this situation will give effect to your production, reducing profit and thus make your boss unhappy. You asked the officer to let you conduct an internal investigation at your plant facilities like waste treatment plant, storage area and factory area to isolate the cause of the toxic waste leakage.

The officer granted you the permission and he will be contacting you again after a week. A week passed and he came and told you that the contamination still occur. The number of children infected by the skin disease is also increases. You presented him with the lab report of the sample taken from waste treatment plant and from the stream. You denied the allegation because the sample of two places is completely different in terms of chemical content and your facilities are operating at good condition without any leakage detected.

Then the environmentalists came in pressuring you to cease the plant operation or they will publish your plant 'misconduct' to the newspaper. You had explained to them that the contamination of the stream is clearly not your fault by presenting them the lab report result of the samples taken in those two places. You also warned them that you will take legal action if the newspaper continues to write unscrupulous report about the incident and tarnishing the image of your company with false accusation.

*Looking at the situation, clearly that the plant manager is in dilemma between profit and social responsibility. This is just a sneak peek of one out of many challenges that are faced by today's engineers. So, the future engineer might ponder on this and learn to be ethical whilst not compromising their main task as an engineer.

World Through My Window

2010-05-29T18:17:00.001+08:00

Ku sangkakan panas sampai ke petang rupa-rupanya petang hujan juga. Mari tido!!!!

Pagi - perfect untuk membasuh baju (tapi aku gunekan Daia untuk pengeringan di dalam rumah)

Petang - hujan lebat beserta ribut petir di satu dua tempat di Tronoh [ayat laporan kajicuaca]

Penguatkuasaan Bermusim

2010-05-26T20:15:00.002+08:00

TRONOH - Kesesakan berlaku di Kompleks Imigresen sebuah universiti di sini hari ini telah menyebabkan kenderaan beratur panjang untuk keluar dari kawasan berkenaan. Kesesakan itu dipercayai akibat penguatkuasaan bermusim agensi keselamatan universiti berkenaan yang mengeluarkan arahan untuk memeriksa ruang 'boot' setiap kenderaan yang ingin keluar dari kawasan universiti berkenaan.

Kesesakan yang berlaku di pintu utama mengundang rasa kurang senang sesetengah pihak

Operation Management

2010-05-21T11:44:00.000+08:00

From Wikipedia:

Operations management is an area of business concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as little resource as needed, and effective in terms of meeting customer requirements. It is concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labour and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services).

My 'date' with OM is due tomorrow at 1430H~

Hell's Weeks, The Finale

2010-05-18T06:01:00.000+08:00

I hope this will be my last time I crack my head, amin...

18 May 2010, 0900H~1200H @ Main Hall
ENGINEERS IN SOCIETY

20 May 2010, 1430H~1730H @ Multi Purpose Hall
ELECTRICAL MACHINES II

22 May 2010, 1430H~1730H @ Main Hall
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

31 May 2010, 1430H~1730H @ Main Hall
MODERN CONTROL ENGINEERING

Take a look how three (3) exams are cramped in only one week and notice the 1 week gap between 3rd and 4th paper. Anyway, this is the war I have to face. Brave the wave! To all my fellow readers who will be sitting for final exam, good luck and let's do our best! :)

p/s: Pareto Law states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Does this mean if we put 20% of effort will yield 80% of success? I wish this law is true for all events, but not for event of final exams! '-_-

Selamat Hari Guru

2010-05-16T13:23:00.004+08:00

Hari Guru disambut pada setiap hari yang ke-16 dalam bulan Mei sebagai tanda untuk memperingati jasa dan pengorbanan guru yang telah bersusah payah memerah keringat dalam menjalankan tugas mulia mereka mendidik anak bangsa menjadi insan yang cemerlang. Peranan mereka dalam membentuk masyarakat yang berilmu dan beradab sememangnya amat penting dalam membina sebuah tamadun. Lantas tidak hairanlah lazimnya dalam pembentangan bajet untuk setiap Rancangan Malaysia bajet untuk sektor pendidikan mendapat jumlah yang tertinggi berbanding sektor lain seperti pertahanan.

Saya secara peribadi tidak memandang guru sebagai insan yang hanya memberi tunjuk ajar sahaja, tetapi saya suka memandang mereka sebagai jurutera, jurutera masyarakat. Jika kita melihat tugas lazim seorang jurutera, jurutera bertanggungjawab dalam mereka bentuk, merancang dan menyelenggara sesebuah mesin, bangunan, jambatan dan sebagainya. Begitu jugalah dengan tugas guru. Malah ruang lingkup tugas mereka sebenarnya lebih besar dari seorang jurutera kerana subjek sasaran mereka bukanlah sebuah mesin tetapi manusia. Membentuk manusia adalah lebih sukar daripada mereka bentuk mesin kerana manusia mempunyai ragam dan emosi yang pelbagai. Maka, memang sewajarnyalah hasil titik peluh dan cetusan idea mereka mendapat penghargaan dari masyarakat.

Mengimbau kenangan Hari Guru, saya teringat tentang sambutan Hari Guru di SDAR semasa saya di Tingkatan 5. Saya telah diberi tanggungjawab di bahagian permainan sempena sambutan Hari Guru 2004. Jadi, saya dan pasukan saya (AJK Permainan, siapa-siapa yang berkenaan sila mengaku) telah merancang permainan berdasarkan kepada rancangan Explorace yang popular di TV3 itu. Permainan tersebut terdiri daripada pasukan guru dan pelajar. Antara cabaran-cabaran yang terdapat dalam permainan tersebut adalah makan sepinggan mee goreng (yeke sepinggan?) selepas berlari dari 'checkpoint' yang sebelumnya kemudian berlari (dengan perut yang penuh selepas makan mee goreng) ke kolam ikan di blok pentadbiran. Cabarannya ialah menangkap ikan tilapia merah dengan menggunakan tangan. Maka berbondong-bondonglah para peserta terjun ke dalam kolam yang airnya hijau berlumut itu. Kepada pasukan guru yang terlibat, kalau ada salah dan silap dari pihak saya dan AJK yang terbabit, saya memohon maaf. Saya harap acara itu menjadi kenangan yang indah buat semua yang terlibat. Lagipun saya tahu, cikgu-cikgu SDAR semuanya cool. Heheh~

Di kesempatan ini, saya ingin mengucapkan Selamat Hari Guru kepada guru-guru saya, terutamanya dua guru terhebat saya, En. Mohd. Sadli bin Abd. Hamid dan Pn. Siti Banun bt Ayob (ibu bapa saya juga seorang guru, huhuhu~), guru-guru di SK Sri Langat, Banting (terutamanya guru-guru yang mengajar di kelas 1 Orkid, 2 Orkid, 3 Orkid, 4 Cempaka, 5 Cempaka dan 6 Cempaka), guru-guru di Sekolah Dato' Abdul Razak (terutamanya guru-guru yang mengajar di Sikamat: 1 Ungku Omar, 2 Ungku Omar; Sungai Gadut: 3 Ungku Omar, 4 Al-Razi, dan 5 Al-Razi) dan pensyarah-pensyarah di Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (Kejuruteraan Elektrikal & Elektronik). To all teachers, you are the best engineer in the world nonetheless, designing and maintaining good civilization throughout the world. :)

p/s: Belajar Terus Belajar, Berilmu Untuk Berjasa, Engineering Futures

Designing Destiny

2010-04-18T21:32:00.003+08:00

I am alone in my room overlooking the damp soil of Tronoh that I am about to leave very soon. Yeah, it is drizzling right now but it is enough to give the moist and cool breeze through my window. It really gives off soothing feeling to me. Being alone like this always make me ponder about many things. Accompanied by lovely Liyana Fizi latest release, "Light Writing" and few dose of Sitti Navarro's jazz tunes, my mind start working and pondering about my destiny.

Being an engineering student, the word "design" is no stranger to me. Designing something is not as easy as it seems. Various factors need to be taken into consideration and the final design decision must be feasible and logical for implementation. I am always structure my mind to work like this and this is how I decide things although people always see me as a laid back person.

I just completed my poster evaluation as one of the requirement for my FYP (Final Year Project) completion. Alhamdulillah, everything turned out well without any glitches. And Mr. Z reassured his students with some convincing words about the evaluation result although we can easily sensed he was being sarcastic at that time or he was showing off to other students that he is the best supervisor in the world. Hehehe... Anyway, he is a good lecturer indeed and any weaknesses is acceptable as nobody is perfect, right? Alhamdulillah again, I passed the ability test as one of the requirement for securing job at PETRONAS and qualified for Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ). I hope that I have proven to them that I am the suitable future employee from the OPQ process and move on to Structured Interview (SI) afterward.

These two occurrences had actually made me ponder about my future. About how should I design my destiny. I know there is no time to waste. I should start thinking about the path that I am about to take. I have devised few feasible options to start my move. Taking all factors into account, I know this is isn't an easy task to do. There will be many variables that could hinder me from achieving my objectives. Nothing will be smooth sailing during the process. I started contacting my friends, and I had a long chat with my friend in SDAR, Mr. Kuch. We talked about the need of friends for networking and expanding our career. With prayers and encouragement from my parent and family, I hope things will be as smooth-sailing as possible. It will be not much of time left for me to start my endeavour in real world, I feel excited and anxious at the same time. Designing destiny must be achievable but it is not wrong to aim big, in fact everyone of us should aim big for our future. :)

hoh.. ko pon has been sucked into the formspring craze.. LOL. bagus2.. (takde soalan sebenarnya... saje nak congratulate ko.. uhuhuhu~)

2010-04-07T09:41:00.001+08:00

akibat kebosanan melampau (xsuro jawab pon nk jawab gak).... hahaha~

Ask me anything

adakah anda bosan?

2010-04-06T22:27:00.001+08:00

sangat bosan~ ade cadangan nk ilangkan bosan ke?

Ask me anything

Morning Train

2010-03-26T10:01:00.003+08:00

Hi all, today I will be coming back to Banting by train to attend Hazmi's wedding at his house in Taman Sri Putra (dekat je dengan rumah aku tu). Before I leave, I just want to share with you my recent indulgence in jazz tunes. Here is my favourite song from Sitti Navarro. She is a Filipino singer that offers jazz and bossa nova tunes in her performance. Enjoy!

Sitti Navarro
I Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love
I was alone thinking I was just fine
I wasn’t looking for anyone to be mine
I thought love was just a fabrication
A train that wouldn’t stop at my station
Home, alone, that was my consignment
Solitary confinement
So when we met I was skirting around you
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you

I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you, honey
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you, baby
Didn’t know I was looking for love
Didn’t know I was looking for love

Cause there you stood and I would
Oh I wonder could I say how I felt
And not be misunderstood
A thousand stars came into my system
I never knew how much I had missed them
Slap on the map of my heart you landed
I was coy but you made me candid
And now the planets circle around you
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you

I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you, baby
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you, baby
Didn’t know I was looking for love
Didn’t know I was looking for love

So we built from here with love the foundation
In a world of tears, one consolation
Now you’re here, there’s a full brass band
Playing in me like a wonderland
And if you left I would be two-foot small
And every tear would be a waterfall
Soundless, boundless, I surround you
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you

I just didn’t know

I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you
I didn’t know I was looking for love (I just didn’t know)
Until I found you
I didn’t know I was looking for love (Oh, I just didn’t know)
Didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you, baby
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you, baby
Didn’t know I was looking for love
Didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you, baby

I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you
Didn’t know I was looking for love
Didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you
I didn’t know I was looking for love
Until I found you…

Bisul

2010-03-24T23:40:00.000+08:00

Today I woke up with extremely cold feet despite the hot sunny day of Tronoh. Quickly I realized that I was going to get struck by fever. Strangely, there was no flu or runny nose that usually comes with the fever. I stayed in the room till the afternoon to wait for the weather to go shady and went to UTP clinic for medical consultation. Thanks to the 'friendly' Dr. Baron Von Varun-look-alike, the fever is caused by abscess at my right underarm. Lesson learnt here that we have to tell everything about what we feel to the doctor. Usually I just neglected the pain thinking it is usual for me to have sore muscle when I got fever. Now I know that an abscess can knock me down with fever. So he prescribed me with antibiotic and usual paracetamol 650g pills. I hope the abscess will heal with the antibiotic, or else I'll have to get incision at the abscess to remove the pus. Ouch!

Countdown

2010-03-10T10:46:00.004+08:00

Flash Countdown

When I was in SDAR, the blackboard (later whiteboard in our new campus) is divided into two main parts. Occupying let say, 90% of the writing space is for writing lesson materials (eg. notes, diagrams, the usual stuff) and the remaining 10% and located on the right side of the board is for other information such as attendance (which is 100% for most of the day) and countdowns. There are certain types of countdowns appeared. When I was in Form 3, the countdown would be for days before PMR and when I was in Form 5 it was for SPM. But there's another countdown that is applicable to all students in the school, countdown before we leave for vacation at home. This is the moment all students were waiting for. Usually the countdown starts 2 weeks before the day we are allowed to go home and will be updated daily. On the D-day (vacation day), the countdown are updated hourly, and on the last hour (usually the last day of school will be on Friday, so we are allowed to go home after performing Friday prayer at school first) we even updated the countdown every 15 minutes! It just reflected how we were so excited about going home and enjoy some moment of lucidity at home. Free at last! And today, I just can't wait to be at home for mid-semester break! Forget FYP, forget the upcoming Electrical Machines II test and forget everything! This desert of Tronoh is killing me! Hehehehe~

p/s: This countdown is until Operational Management lecture end at 2.00 pm~

Lagak Si Helang

2010-03-07T18:37:00.003+08:00

Sila anggap bendera ini telah diterbalikkan (kes takut kena ISA la nih~ :P)

Terbang Helang by Sharifah Aini

Di angkasa nan luas
Terbang sang helang bebas
Menebarkan sayapnya
Sungguh megah lagaknya
Helang mendabik dada
Membelahi angkasa
Dengan gaya perwira

Bila saja engkau menghampiri
Burung lain terbang lari
Kau merasakan dirimu gagah
Hak yang lain tak kau endah
Mengganas kau di angkasa
Dengan gaya perwira

Terbanglah engkau tinggi
Sampai ke mana lagi
Ingin engkau jelajahi
Sehingga kau terlupa
Yang tinggi jatuh jua
Bila tiba ketika
Kau ke tanah akhirnya

Usah kau lupa diri
Bahawa langit itu tinggi
Nanti lemas sendiri
Nanti lemas sendiri

Kasut

2010-03-07T02:07:00.002+08:00

Peringatan: Mungkin mengandungi bahasa-bahasa kasar.

Untuk mendapat lebih kefahaman tentang post ini, sila rujuk di pautan ini.

Pelbagai perkara boleh dikaitkan dengan kasut sejak akhir-akhir ini. Ada yang dipenjara kerana membaling kasut ke arah seorang pemimpin negara yang melabelkan dirinya sebagai 'Polis Dunia', seorang pemimpin parti politik 'communal' (parti politik berasaskan kaum) ingin mengkalungkan selipar (juga termasuk dalam kategori kasut) ke leher seorang negarawan ulung dek kerana percanggahan idea politik; dan yang terbaru, seorang tukang kasut warganegara Malaysia telah dibelasah oleh sekumpulan pelajar ASING di salah sebuah universiti di Tronoh (masih ingat dengan ayat ini yang pernah dikeluarkan dalam satu laporan jenayah di akhbar yang sama beberapa ketika dahulu?). Kasut sekarang bukan sahaja digunakan sebagai alas kaki, malah pelbagai perkara boleh dikaitkan dengan kasut. Betapa berpengaruhnya kasut di zaman ini sehingga menjangkau bukan sahaja di peringkat nasional, malah ke peringkat antarabangsa.

Aku berasa maruah aku sebagai anak Malaysia diinjak-injak oleh SEGELINTIR pelajar asing yang menuntut ilmu di sini. Perbuatan mereka menyerang rakyat tempatan amat-amat tidak boleh diterima sama sekali seolah-olah merekalah yang paling berkuasa di tanah bertuah ini.

Lebih mengaibkan (aku harap perkara ini tidak betul), pentadbiran institusi pendidikan tinggi tersebut (yang sudah semestinya ditadbir oleh orang-orang tempatan) cuba menutup mulut rakyat tempatan yang membuat laporan tentang serangan tersebut untuk menjaga reputasi institusi pendidikan mereka. Bagi aku, jika hendak mencari PENGKHIANAT BANGSA, kita tidak perlu melihat jauh. Tidak perlu menjadi ejen rahsia untuk negara lain dan membocorkan rahsia kerajaan dan tidak perlu sembah derhaka kepada sultan, hanya lihat kepada mereka ini sudah cukup untuk menjadi seorang pengkhianat bangsa. Sanggup melihat bangsa sendiri tidak terbela atas nama 'maintaining healthy diplomatic relationship'.

Satu contoh lagi pengkhianat bangsa boleh dilihat pada anak bangsa yang diberi kuasa untuk menguatkuasakan undang-undang. Tetapi mereka hanya berani mengambil tindakan ke atas orang tempatan yang melakukan kesalahan, tetapi membutakan mata dan memekakkan telinga mereka jika warga asing melakukan kesalahan.

Bagi aku, memang selayaknya warga asing yang melakukan serangan itu diberkas polis. Belasah dulu cukup-cukup di balai polis (inilah masanya polis menggunakan kekerasan di jalan yang betul, bukan hanya berani membelasah pelajar-pelajar tempatan yang membuat demonstrasi secara aman walaupun aku tidak pernah bersetuju dan menyokong tindakan pelajar mennyertai demonstrasi politik, entah-entah mendaftar sebagai pengundi pun belum lagi dah pandai nak bercakap pasal politik). Selepas itu tarik balik visa pelajar dan hantar mereka pulang ke negara asal mereka. Mereka memang tidak layak duduk di sini jika tidak tahu menghormati budaya tempatan sedangkan pelajar kita di negara mereka sangat menghormati budaya mereka di sana.

Untuk pengkhianat-pengkhianat bangsa ini, aku harap mereka sedar. Mereka diberi kuasa untuk memastikan keharmonian semua orang tidak kira warga tempatan ataupun asing. Menjaga hubungan diplomatik yang baik bukan bermakna kita harus menerima setiap perlakuan baik buruk warga asing tersebut TETAPI mereka seharusnya mengajar warga asing ini tentang budaya masyarakat tempatan dan menghormatinya. Ajar mereka budaya kita, "di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung".

Khusus untuk warga negara asing yang satu ini, lagak mereka tidaklah aku pelik sangat. Benar, negara mereka mempunyai sebuah institusi pengajian Islam yang tertua dan terulung di dunia serta banyak mengeluarkan fatwa berkaitan agama Islam, namun itu hanya untuk sarjana-sarjana agama mereka yang tidak terkesan oleh dasar politik negara itu sendiri. Tapi, melihat kepada dasar mereka di peringkat antarabangsa, negara ini memang terkenal dengan dasar yang menyembelih rakan seagama mereka sendiri. Negara mana yang sanggup menutup pintu sempadan mereka kepada konvoi-konvoi bantuan kemanusiaan ke wilayah bergolak Palestin jika bukan negara ini? Harus diingat bahawa rakyat negara ini beragama Islam dan Kristian dan rakyat Palestin yang ditindas Yahudi Israel juga beragama Islam dan Kristian. Sebab itulah aku mengatakan negara ini sanggup menyembelih rakan seagama mereka sendiri. Jadi, perlakuan biadap pelajar mereka disini tidaklah menghairankan sangat jika kita kaji dasar politik antarabangsa mereka sendiri.

p/s: Aku sangat berharap pendirian yang tegas serta tidak tunduk kepada tekanan asing canselor institusi pendidikan ini semasa mentadbir negara dahulu dapat diaplikasikan di institusi ini.

Mind your language

2010-03-05T10:31:00.003+08:00

I am writing this in response to a note posted by one of my friend on Facebook. I gave a second thought before commenting directly to his note, this long post should be shared with everyone who want to improve their language.

Good grammar is very important to give good first impression to the reader. Proper use of language will also improve the presentation of the paper. No matter how good the work is, but it will become useless if the researcher fails to present his/her work to the target audiences due to improper use of language and grammatical error. It will make the report looks not professional to the reader and it will be a laughing stock to the informed reader if this problem is not taken seriously. The lecturer must have expected your friend to have language proficiency that is on par with the status as a university student. Harsh comment from lecturer is expected but the comment is totally impersonal in nature, they just want their student to improve. That's all. Looking at the current scenario in any publications by UTP students, the level of English is very poor. Take MPPUTP as example, frankly I look down on them due to spelling errors, silly grammar and word usage mistakes in their publication. Poor language=poor in professionalism. Remember, the first impression matters. If the language is hard to understand, how the readers can understand what are being fed by the writer in his/her writings? In my situation as an engineering student, the language is very important (although I am not studying linguistic or any courses that are language-intensive) as the reports are very technical in nature. A very critical language check is important to make sure the reader would not misunderstand our points. There are numerous ways of improving our language proficiency.

First, we can do a lot of reading that are RELEVANT to our field. It is pointless to read a Tom Clancy's novels if your main business is to publish technical papers on Electrical Engineering. Take note on how the points are presented, how the sentences are constructed and the jargon used.
Secondly, improve our word power. One interesting way is by watching movies of that language with assistance of subtitles in THAT language. For example, if you watch an English movie, make sure that the subtitles are in English too. Sometime, spoken words in the dialogs are hard to be recognized, with the assistance of subtitles, we can easily find the meaning in dictionaries (my favorite and fast dictionary is Google with search string: define:"your words").
When writing your report, please make sure all the grammatical and spelling errors are checked before printing. Make full use of your word editor software's grammar and spell checks features like those found in Microsoft Word (just press F7 and make the necessary corrections, there are reasons why red and green jagged underline below your words).
Prior submitting your writing to the intended reader, please have someone who are known to have good command of language to proof-read your writing first. We cannot rely on the spell/grammar checks feature found in the word editor only.
These are some guides to improve our language that I practice myself. I am not that good in language but I am always trying to improve my proficiency in language especially in English and Bahasa Melayu. I believe that no matter how good we are in our work, if we fails to translate it into words (verbally or written), then it will be no use to others.

p/s: Struggling with my FYP II progress report I. "Your report are not up to my expectations" - Z, my SV. Just tough it up and accept with open mind. :)

Java

2010-02-21T14:00:00.004+08:00

The weather currently is very good. Not too hot nor it is raining. It is nice to hang the laundry to dry out there and yet my laundry basket is still full and untouched. What a boring and unproductive weekend. I feel so lazy to do anything right now and this new post is written with a bit of force just to tell myself that this weekend is somewhat productive. Hahaha...

I woke up at around 8 this morning (yeah, I am somewhat... a morning person... hahaha~) and headed straight to my PC, logged into Facebook and play Airline Manager - my current Facebook game addiction. After all the flights have been started, I played FarmVille, doing some harvesting, plowing and seeding job. I bet you can tell me how boring my weekend is. I feel like going out, but my pocket constraints me, making me feel even more boring stuck up in my room.

Browsing through my Facebook profile, somebody posted a wall post on my profile page. He (actually my teacher in SDAR), said something in Javanese language to me. I am not a native Javanese speaker myself but I understand what he said by translating it contextually and based on my understanding. The reason? I was (and still I am) nicknamed Jawa at school. This is where all it start. I remembered that my senior nicknamed Kobau (means "Buffalo" in English) give that name just because I live in Banting. Starting from that day, my friends especially the SDARians call me with that name. When I studied there, I made a few friends outside the school. I introduced myself with my real name first. Then, came my schoolmates calling and yelling me with my nickname, and automatically that name stuck at the tongue of my new friends when they are referring me.

Apart from that, some of my friends called my Asad as contraction to name Afiq SADli. I share the same name with my friend who is also in the same class with me from Form 1 until Form 5. So, we are differentiated by stating our dad's name along with our name. But, this nickname is only limited to my friend of that particular school only. Therefore, I can tell from which school are they when they are calling me with that name. Hehehe... However, the name Jawa is still prevail among my friends even when I entered UTP. As usual, I introduced myself to my new UTP friends that time with my real name, and preferred to be called Afiq but it did not last long. Remember the friends that are from other school I made earlier? Yes, some of them also enrolled in UTP and that is how the name spread. Hahaha~

Well, I guess that could not be helped. It is not a problem with me if my friends called me with my nickname as the nickname itself does not bring any bad meaning. But yet I am not proud of it because that nickname can bring misconception to other people who do not know me that well. and I feel guilty for that, somehow... Yes, like the recent wall post I mentioned above, people will think me I am a pure Javanese and can speak Javanese language very well. Yes, I do have Javanese blood from my dad, I can count from 1 to 10 (only, not more than that) and understand some words in Javanese but my nickname often be the cause of misunderstanding among my friends. Honestly, I can't speak Javanese fluently as my mom is from Negeri Sembilan. So, in our family, we only converse in standard Bahasa Melayu for daily communication. But, I think I am more comfortable with Negeri Sembilan dialect compared to Javanese. Anyway, I preferred to be called with my real name but I have no problem when my friends called me with my nickname. :)

p/s: Paris van Java

Act of imbecile

2010-02-06T11:26:00.003+08:00

Care to tell me the moron who owns this car? It has been 3 days this car had caused traffic problem around V5E / V5F parking lots. And it seems the car is immune from security department summonses. Can it be the security department had ran out of summon book or they just have no bal*s?

Consistency

2010-02-02T13:26:00.002+08:00

The word consistency is derived from the root word "consistent". From WordNet online dictionary website, the word CONSISTENT can be define in several context:

Consistent:

(adj)((sometimes followed by `with') in agreement or consistent or reliable) "testimony consistent with the known facts"; "I have decided that the course of conduct which I am following is consistent with my sense of responsibility as president in time of war"- FDR

(adj) uniform (the same throughout in structure or composition) "bituminous coal is often treated as a consistent and homogeneous product"

There are several examples or instances where this word can be negatively expressed although the word itself is not there:

The ID card checks at the academic building area are done during the early week of lectures only.
Car boot checks are done whenever they like it, causing delays and long queue when exiting the perimeter.
Smoking openly (eg. at the cafes) is prohibited in the perimeter but it seems applied to the locals only.

So much with the consistency! :)

Rants and praises? C'est la vie!

Rage Against the Rodents

Kepala Buto Kau!

Update Ovi Store and Get Premium Apps for Free!

Walaupun Aku Tak Menerima Baucar Buku 1Malaysia

Liburan di Bandung 2012 - Hari Keempat

Liburan di Bandung 2012 - Hari Ketiga

Liburan di Bandung 2012 : Hari Kedua

Liburan di Bandung 2012 - Hari Pertama

Nokia N8 as FM transmitter

Wetnessday

11/11/11 - Royal Breakfast

Sambutan Aidil Adha di Tanah Adat

The Desperate Politician

Handling improvements: Yokohama A-Drive R1 205/45/R16 and brake upgrades

Feeling down? Let's get high!

TakBolehBlah Brake System Upgrades

Motorola Subscriber Training

Tukang Potong Rumput di Lebuhraya

New Rubber Shoes for TakBolehBlah

HDMI display problem

Dugaan di Waktu Sahur

Boobs from Paris?

My Second Ramadhan

TakBolehBlah 20000 km Maintenance

Scam Alert!

Thinking of Another Reason for Not Texting While Driving?

It is OK to criticize, but get your fact right first

Adakah Harga Kenderaan Mempengaruhi Harga Otak Seseorang Itu?

EcoCare 2011 Kick Off Events

Reminiscing Old Memories Can Be Costly, Sometimes

EcoCare 2011 Mangrove Replanting Activity

Shopping in Kerteh

Countdown!

Retreat

Hopes

Single Lens Reflex

Forward Culture

Misleading 'Pasar' Language

EcoCare Kick Off 2011

Entering the workplace

Hilarious Mesra Mall

Pasar Malam Kerteh

Introduction to Foxboro DCS Training

Reconnected from Kerteh!

Aging But Still Rolling Strong

Salam Aidil Adha

Exciting Kenyir!

Phase Shift

Tronoh Tales

PIPE 65

Wake Me Up When September Starts

Benda-benda Yang Tak Wujud di Guardian

Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa

Walaupun Menganggur Tapi Kena Pandai Cari Kerja

From Level 40 Tower 1

World Through My Window

Penguatkuasaan Bermusim

Operation Management

Hell's Weeks, The Finale

Selamat Hari Guru

Designing Destiny

hoh.. ko pon has been sucked into the formspring craze.. LOL. bagus2.. (takde soalan sebenarnya... saje nak congratulate ko.. uhuhuhu~)

adakah anda bosan?

Morning Train

Sitti NavarroI Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love

Bisul

Countdown

Lagak Si Helang

Kasut

Mind your language

Java

Act of imbecile

Consistency

Sitti Navarro
I Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love