Sunday morning and I'm home for the day.. Kak Ijah is on the phone calling her family right now and I'm in our bedroom using her computer [my computer still hasn't arrived yet!]
I watched Blow yesterday. Johnny Deep looks as delicious as ever as a drug dealer.. we also rented 'Just Visited' and 'Forsaken' from the Blockbuster Video Rentals..

Yesterday afternoon after work I went straight home to do a little bit of my homework.. About half ah nour after my arrival home, Haz, Nazimah and Tom came over to my house.. the girls wanted to borrow my old Calcalus III and Chemistry class notes.. I let them have everything.. the whole package of exam papers and scrap papers... I hope that'll be useful.. I also gave them some winter clothes and some of the extra cutleries that we have in the house.. but when I wanted to give them a brand new toaster, they insisted that they pay for it because they felt that I'm giving them too much as it is... It's not really anything big for me because everything that I gave to them are the things that I feel they should have, just because they need it more than I do right now....

Later Izrin and Awin called to ask me if they could have my VCR.. since we're using kaka Ijah's VCR right noww.. the one that I have was just lying in a box in the storage compartment on top of our coat rack. So I said that they could have it, but they insisted on buying it from me.. So we negotiated on a reasonable price.. since the thing is almost brand new [I bought it less than a year ago..and we hardly use it much since we used to go to the movies almost once a week before], I told Awin that I'd sell it for $30.. I couldn't remember whether the thing is made by Panasonic or any other brand.. Awin told me to check it first and I was almost sure that it was a Panasonic.. he told me to go and check it.. but it's in a box somewhere and it's kinda hard for me to get it .. so I told him that if it isn't a Panasonic, I'll take five dollars of the negotiated price.. so later last night Izrin came to get it from me.. we took the VCR from the SONY VCR box which is Kak Ijah's VCR.. and to my surprise.. the VCR was a SHARP product!Awin had already wrote a $30 check.. so I gave Izrin the extra 5 dollars..

One of my ex-roommates also came with Izrin to pick up the laptop cart that we have in the house [she has been bragging about her new laptop so much!].. She also took the speakers from our old useless computer.. I don't think anybody wants that old computer.. akak Ijah wants to open it up and experiment with it since it's just sitting there looking at us everyday..

Kak Zee and Abang Ghazali also came to my house last night.. after a while we went to Olive Tree together and ate our dinner there while we wait for the butcher to get our poultry and meat ready... Abang Ghazali paid for our meal again this time.. [I have to make sure I cook for them one of these days] and we went grocery shopping at Cubs together after that..kak Zee told me that there's a new Malaysian familyliving in Edina that just arrived recently.. She also told me about Abang Ali and Kak Suriati's family [who I've talked to on the phone but have never met] is stranded in Malaysia right now because they couldn't get a flight to return back to Minnesota.. but that problem will surely resolve soon and they can start coming to work with Seagate again soon.. I hope to see them sometime.. Kak Zee told me that Kak Suriati is planning to invite Malaysian students to eat at their house this coming Ramadhan..
Anyway, Kak Ijah bought me a plant so that we could hang it in our apartment.. but it doesn't have the hanging thing.. so she told me to go and get it at K-Mart someday..I've always wanted a plant in the house.. she is so understanding.. we even choose the same plant.. I don't really want flower plants and she had the same thing on her mind too.. She is so cool, I'm gonna miss her when she's gone...

'You know you wanna be where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.'-Cheers theme song

I went to two meetings yesterday, one was the Chemical Engineering Junior's meeting at lunch time (free Pizza and sodas) and the other one was the Muslim Sister's Halaqa after classes are done at Ford Hall.
It feels to good to participate in religious discussions after such a long eclipse from this arena. I made some more new friends today, 8 very beautiful Muslim ladies:
Israh, Nancy and Zaharah from Saudi Arabia,
Jaheeda from Turkey (Kak Ijah's lab partner),
Noreen from Pakistan,
Safar and Sarimah from Egypt.
I invited some other Malaysians to join me next time. I don't know how everyone's going to respond to this. Instead of turning Friday evenings into a cinema night, I think this is a better way of spending my Friday nights. It's cheaper and still more fulfilling. I want to do this every week. My classes finishes at 3.30 anyway.. so it's not like I have to go out again to join this event.
God must still love me.. every time I feel lost and empty. He always shines His light to show me the way. Human are forgetful, but once you do realise that you've done something wrong.. the first thing to do would be to change and shift back on the right track. And if you don't realise your wrongful ways and someone guides you to return to the right path, you ought to listen because in a way it is God's reminder to show that he still loves you. He wants to save you from the burning fires of hell. He wants only the best for you.
Yet, as people gets older they feel that they need not listen to advices anymore. They tend to rebel at the words of advices.
The question to ask is.. should you ignore an ex-convict if he advices you to avoid crimes ? Does it make any difference who is giving the advice? Would you accept and find ways to improve your faults? Or would you go and find a way to even up to the advisor cause you feel that whatever you do has nothing to do with anyone else, that nobody has the right to advise you on how to live your 'faulty' life?
It's amazing how people react.. and how others that have nothing to do with it react too..(especially when they only hear one side of the story)..
Like there's this one very quiet guy on campus, who always keeps to himself.. through observation, people makes assumptions about why the guy is such an introvert. Some might say that he has difficulty making friends, some might say that he thinks that he's just too good to join everyone else, some might say that his cynical and sarcastic attitude drives people away. There's a possibility that any one of the reasons above are right but no one would know for sure unless they ask him. Maybe he just likes to be left alone.. Conclusion: Don't judge a book by its cover-don't make assumptions through observation. There's always a logical explanation behind every incident.
If someone is making new friends with people from outside their little pod, it doesn't mean that they're transformed from their old self. Instead of being envious maybe you should follow the lead and see if it suits you. If it doesn't at least you can say "been there, done that!", and go back to your little pod feeling completely content that you've made your choice from experience instead of being an observer all your life.

YOU ROCK MY WORLD by Michael Jackson

Chris Tucker: Oh man! Look at that girl, right there!
Goodness gracious! That girl fine, man!
Look at it, she just too fine! She know she fine too!
Michael Jackson: She is banging!
CT: She's off the hook!
MJ: She looks good, you’re right.
CT: Hey, I bet you, can't nobody get that girl.
MJ: Chris, I can get her.
CT: You can't get that girl, Mike.
I guarantee you can't get that girl!
MJ: Watch me get that girl.
CT: I bet you never-Neverland, you can't.
MJ: I can get her.
CT: All right! Shomon, then. Shomon!
MJ: Watch.

I don't think they're ready for this one

Darkchild
I like that

My life will never be the same
’Cause girl you came and changed
The way I walk
The way I talk
I cannot explain
These things I feel for you
But girl, you know it's true
Stay with me
Fulfill my dreams
And I'll be all you need

Feels so right
(Girl)
I’ve searched for the perfect love all my life
(All my life)
Feels like I
(Like I)
Have finally found a perfect love this time
(And I finally found)

Come on, girl

You rocked my world
You know you did
And everything I own I give
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
Someone like you to call mine
You rocked my world
You know you did
And everything I own I give
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
Someone like you to call mine

In time
I knew that love would bring
Such happiness to me
I tried to keep my sanity
I've waited patiently
Girl, you know it seems
My life is so complete
A love that's true because of you
Keep doing what you do
Think that I
Finally found the perfect love I’ve searched for all my life
(Searched for all my life)
Think I’d find
Such a perfect love that’s awesomely so right

Girl
You rocked my world
You know you did
(Come on, come on, come on)
Everything I own I give
(You rock my world)
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
(Girl)
Someone like you to call mine

You rocked my world
(You rock my world)
You know you did
(You rock my world)
And everything I own I give
(Girl)
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
(Girl, girl)
Someone like you to call mine

You rocked my world
You know you did
And everything I own I give
(You rock my world)
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
Someone like you to call mine

You rocked my world
You know you did
And everything I own I give
(You rock my world)
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
Someone like you to call mine

And girl, I know that this is love
I felt the magic's all in the air
And girl, I'll never get enough
That’s why I’ll always have to have you here

You rocked my world
(You rock my world)
You know you did
Everything I own I give
(Look what you did to me, baby)
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
Someone like you to call mine
(You, you, you, you)
(You rock my world)

You rocked my world
You know you did
(I cannot explain)
And everything I own I give
(’Cause you rock my world)
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
Someone like you to call mine
(You rock my world)

You rocked my world
You know you did
(You, you, you did it)
And everything I own I give
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
(See, it’s you and me)
Someone like you to call mine
(And you, and me)
(You rock my world)

You rocked my world
You know you did
(You know you did, baby)
And everything I own I give
(’Cause you rock my world)
The rarest love who'd think I’d find
Someone like you to call mine

You rock my world
(You rocked my world, you know you did)
The way you talk to me
The way you’re loving me
The way you give it to me
(You rocked my world, you know you did)
You rock my world
You rock my world
You rock my world
You rock my world
Come on, girl
Come on, girl,
Baby, baby, baby
It’s you and me
You and me
You and me
You rock my world
You rock my world
You rock my world

It's only 7.30 in the morning and I can safely say that I have done a lot today.. I woke up at 3.30 this morning turned the alarm off and went back doozing in my warm humidified bedroom.. then I finally woke up at 5 am and started to feel guilty that I have slept for a full 10 hours..so I forcefully moved my otherwise lazy legs towards the towel rack and dazily strolled towards the bathroom.. Had a quick shower, brushed my teeth and cleansed my face.
Feeling rather refreshed I dressed myself in the dark trying my best not to wake up my beloved senior roommate who is still snuggling cozily in her single twin-sized bed. I chose to wear the red [maroon] top which Suria and I bought together [she has a green one instead] back in the old PPP days, and matched it with black slacks and a cream scarf. I grabbed my blue denim jacket and put my grey Nike sneakers on and rushed out of the house with my bag slung over my shoulders at 5.30 am.. knowing that I had to be at work before 5.45. This has been a typical Friday scenario for me since my supervisor always choose to take Fridays off.. guess this is the only down point of this otherwise great job where I get to do what ever I want when the customers are not here. I think I have to do the same thing for Monday too.. he's taking anther day off.. he asked me if I'd rather work the early shift next Friday but I have 2 midterms that day.. so I'd rather not.

I've checked my emails this morning, chat on the msn with Fathi, Isham, Rapik, Mamat and Syed while I played [and won] all three games of LITERATI [scrabble] on yahoo.games .Fathi hasn't slept all night.. he went to hang out with the boys downstairs from midnight til 3 am , then he studied for a while until he saw me online and started to chat for a while and then he went to sleep at 6. He told me to wake him up at 7.30 cause he has class at 8.. so just before I started with this blog I called his house to wake him up. Isham on the other hand was telling me that he will be starting his work with Petronas in Kuantan on November 1st. He misses Mizie very much.. whenever I see him [which is almost everyday online] he would say hello and ask about him. Rapik was just getting ready for class, he's having a little proble with his computer, Mamat and Syed was also getting ready this morning.

Zam came over to my house last night.. I gave her all the Persisma Secretarial materials and also the money that she needed to pay her October rent. I can't believe that JPA would send a few hundred kids to America and only give them 20% of their three months rent with a promise that they'll give the other 80% as soon as they report whether they're living off/on campus. However, now that they have send in a report of their housing status, JPA sends another email to tell them that the money will be sent in November. With just the $400 that they came with, most of it has been spend on September's rent and miscellaneous. The students have to start working just to have enough money to pay off their monthly rent. Most of them are asking money from their parents. I sympathize them.. wish I could help them all, but being a student myself.. I can only help so much, so this is my little part to help the needy.

Aza came to my house about two nights ago.. she's taking statistic this sem, so she asked Kak Ija for some help with her homework. she talks alot about her new bf.. I've never seen her so giddy before, it sort of came as a surprise to see her act that way..I resumed doing my homework on my new dining table while I chatted lightly with her and my roommate. Why did Vikesh say it only took him 3 hours? This homework is eating up alot more of my time! Vikesh says that it also took him 1.5 hours to do the first 3 fluid questions, I hope that's true for me too.

I met Darren yesterday at lunch time outside of the EE building. I was about to go to the Rec to study for a while at the lounge area and he was just walking around. So we went to Starbucks to get some coffee [the intention was to study there but it was too full, but he payed for my coffee, so who's complaining], Later, we walked around campus trying to catch up on all the things that has happened lately. I saw a few of the new Malaysian guys smoking just outside Lind Hall... I still can't remember their name. But I waved anyway.. They waved back too...
We were interrupted by one of those missionary guys trying to give away pamphlets about Christianity... Darren seems a little interested, he is still in search of spiritual relief.. We talked for a while, the guy was telling me everything that Phillip once told me.. I gave my arguments, then we peacefully walked away.. Darren was lying by saying that we have to go to class..
we sat outside Vincent Hall instead.. just talking about things... he talked about his non-exixting love life, I talked about my non-existing love life and we both came tgo the conclusion that we just don't have time for it right now...hehhe.. with class and work and weekend wasted on homeworks, when will we have time? My dad once said that its good to have a million friends, but reserve just one seat for the ONE! The way things are going I think I'll still be looking for the ONE even by the time I'm done with all this studying.

My main criteria for the ONE is that he has to be a Malaysian. And since I want to rule out long distance relationships, it seems that the probability for finding him would be very low.. Darren told me that alot of people thought that I'm with Tom.. well NO! He's just a good friend, I wouldn't go over that barrier. So I guess I'll just have to try to content myself with this 'single to mingle' status.

Zam called me last night asking for some help. It seems that she feels a little left out with her other 3 roommates. Even in PPP she feels that she doesn't really have anyone, people always take her for granted cause she has a car to drive them around from campus to the dorm.. I like her though, when Kak Ijah goes back to Malaysia. I might ask her if she wants to move in with me. I don't really wanna move now that I'm settled down in that apartment.

I've put up a poll there.. so anyone reading this, please give me clue on what you think..

I'm planning to get my thermo homework done tonight. Vikesh told me that Joe and him did it yesterday and this weeks homework is not as hard as the ones before. It only took them 3 hours to do it.. so I hope I can get it done too... I've started doing my material science homework a little bit but there's another 5 questions to go..Jin asked for my phone number yesterday, just in case he wants to check answers with me.. it sorts of put me into the pressure of getting my homework done as fast as possible.. I wouldn't want him to call me and find out that I'm still struggling with my homeworks the night before it's due... that would be embarrasing...

After recitation, I went shopping for a new table cloth. I met Adha and walked with him for a while and then I carried on with my journey in search of the magic cloth. However, I came home without a nything to cover that table with. Instead, I bought a new pair of winter boots today.. it's a skechers brown leather ankle boot.. my roommate likes it too.. I like neutral earth colors that's why I have a brown leather jacket and brown slacks and brown tops..hehhe.. but if you look carefully I also like to wear cheerful colors like red, yellow and blue... howeever my favourite color is green.. makes me feel calm.. you can see it everywhere you go.. even if it's just a little bit.... it's always there.. just like chinese people.. you can find them anywhere you go... all over the world... in Asia, America, Africa, Australia, Europe, Artic and Antartica.. there's always Chinese inhabitants... maybe they do clone themselves.. then just scatter their population all over.. hehehee...

Anyway..[somehow my table cloth search has drifted into a Chinese scattering topic].. the weather si definitely changing from summer to fall now.. Someone told me that last Saturday was officially the first day of fall ... and it was definitely a cold, grey, wet and dull day. For the first time since summer, today I saw people walking around wearing gloves. Personally I didn't think it was that cold..but maybe it really is..

I have to renew my CPR certification again soon.. I have set an appointment to do it on the 5th of November [Wednesday] at 4.30 pm..

Yesterday was one of those days where alot of things have happened and I just don't have the time and energy to write it all do.

For one thing, I finally send back the extra desk to Office Max with the help of Marcel and Wira. Then Marcel made a second trip to send me the dining table set that he promised to give to me. The table was actually his sister's and so he told me that if I ever want to move or anything, make sure I don't throw the table away because it actually costs $300.00. But the glass surface is broken and he's replacing it with wood right now. He was planning to put marble and keep it in his house but it's too big so he just gave it yo me instead. So all I have to do is just put a table cloth on it and everything will be ok. Kak Ijah suggested that I put a green table cloth on it so that it matches with the couch.. Good idea! I'll try to find one this weekend or something.

On Sunday night I had dinner at Marcel and Wira's place. It's the first time I went there. Marcel was cooking what looks and tastes like nasi minyak with chicken kurma, salad and mango chutney. He's actually doing a good job cooking. We watched Dusk to Dawn 2 as we ate. That movie is disgustingly gory... Later Wira showed me his new lazy chair that he bought from goodwill. It's still in a good condition..very comfortable. Marcel joined us chatting and he was complaining about his other roommate who snores unbearably every night.. he wants to get rid of the guy but doesn't know how..
Then Pyan came to send me home be cause Marcel's car lights were burned out. he got it fixed yesterday and found out that the bulbs were 60 Watt while irt was suppose to be 120 Watts. So the thing blew a few circuits.. which he had to pay $125 for something which was suppose to be free. Pyan told me that he had lost his wallet, he has search his whole house but still couldn't find it.. all his cards including his malaysian i/c and driving license were in it.. along with $100 worth of cash. That a great lost.. considering he has to get all his cards done again and pay some fees for losing his original cards.

The proactive package arrived yesterday. I have tried the product once before.. it worked great on zcne but after a while my face was dry and peeling too.. so I stopped using it and tried neutrogena instead. Neutrogena works at first but after a while I noticed the blemishes appearing again. So now I'm going back to proactive and try to find a way to reduce the drying effect. Redza lost a lot of zits from using neutrogena.. the first time I met him his face was almost covered with blemish and acne but when he stayed with me for a week he used proactive and it cleared up a little.. and just before he left I gave him an acne treatment set from neutrogena which costs around 30 dollars [only purchase from www.neutrogena.com] and a month later when I went to see him in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in Canada... his face was actually cleared from any skin problems.. so I guess it does work wonders for some.

I think that I am definitely addicted to LITERATI...a scrabble like game that you can find in yahoo games... usually I'd play it while I'm waiting for my next customer at work.. but later when I go home I still want to play the game. Two nights ago I stayed up just to play the game while my beloved roommate sleeps beside me.. and today right after class all I can think about is going home to wind down a very tiring day... sitting facing this monitor and playing at least one game of literati with a stranger somewhere out there...
funnny isn't it?

Today I have handed in both my Material Science homework and the Fluids homework. It feels good to have all this pressure taken off from me. My Thermo professor has changed the date of our first midterm and it's actually a week early instead. So next week I have a midterm on Wednesday, and another two on Friday and a whle bunch of assigned homework problems due both on Monday and Friday... when will I have the time to study for all this!

Harrie called me again yesterday.. I felt really sorry that I couldn't talk to him.. this is the second time that he called while I'm studying. Redza called today.. but he called about five minutes before Marcel came to take me to Office Max.It's a good thing that I have the call waiting service now.. I know who's calling as I'm using the phone.. So I had to call him back later, he actually has a roommate now, called Cane.. He didn't tell me about him before.. next time I have to make sure I wouldn't call so late.

I watched Who Wants to be a Princess today, the last time it was a bout who wants to marry a millionaire, now its a bout who wants to marry a prince [some prince from europe].. it's such a pity that all these beautiful and smart ladies are competing with each other to find a life partner live on broadcast television. It's obvious they're not marrying out of love but for fame and wealth.. isn't it strange that all those people are conspiring on something like this? All the media that's getting money from matching people like this as if marriage is just a game.. Honestly 'where have all flowers gone?'<- that's an old 70's song by the way..

Cindy promised to meet me last night to do our homework together.. I went out of my house at 6.30 and stopped to get something to drink at Starbucks with Tom and arrived at the EE building at 7.. but she wasn't there so I started studying.. Later at 8.30 she still wasn't there and I searched for her at the Chem Eng. lounge. She wasn't there but I met Farlin a muslim gil who I always sell Cycling passes to at the gym. She's a Math major but she came to study with her friend there. Anyway, Cindy was no where in sight. So I went back to study until 10. Still didn't finish it though. I'm sure Cindy is going to call me tonight to do this homework together.

We have installed Roadrunner cable at my apartment. Now the television is clear [bye-bye ariel] and we can stay online 24 hours a day[hooray! no more dial-ups.]..

Tom came to tell me that he wanted to introduce me to his close friend who used to live with him in Pioneer about 3 years ago. So we went over to Pioneer Hall and went to his room all the way on the 4th floor and met Tony. His gf Jelissa was also there. Tony is from Puerto Rico. We watched the MEXICAN, which everyone thought was amusing but not interesting enough. Tom and I ordered pizza and drinks. So we stayed there until midnight, just talking and watching the movie. Tom talks alot, as usual. Jelissa was very quiet. Tony says that she's always like that.. they have been together for almost 3 years..cool!

It was raining all day yesterday.. the weather today looks more or less the same.. right now the temperature is just 57.9 F. Cloudy with a high possibility of rain.. My roommate has this clock that can also tell the temperature inside and outside the house.. it's really cool!

I don't have to go to work today.. but I have alot of studying to do.. so I better go now..

Before I forget, I have to call my mum too..

As you can see there have been a few small adjustments made to this journal.. I'm planning to add more of my friends on there..

So here's a little summary of what's been happening.. I can't really extrapolate on everything as much as I used to.. simply because I am being suffocated with homeworks, midterms and assignments.

Basically last night we had our annual persisma meeting to elect the new committe member.. I am so glad that I am finally relieved from my secretarial position, not because I'm not enjoying it but simply just because I don't think I can spare my precious time on meetings and planning events for people who would usually just take it all for granted, and not to mention also those who choose not so participate at all... With the inevitable work load of a junior (3rd year student), I think I have myself pretty much occupied.. not to mention my 20 hour per week job at the gym... voting for the guys was kinda interesting bedause there's alot to choose from but when it comes to voting for the girls.. there were only two options to choose from... no body was electing anybody else.. at the nd of it all..it seems that the votes were the votes of popularity rather than votes of leadership... but what the heck, let's just hope for the best..

After the meeting was over Azizi came over to my house to pick up one of his desk wooden drawer doors whichwas somehow disconnected from the desk when they moved to their new place. I was kinda hungry so we ate rice with the complimentary fried chicken and stir fried vegetable that I cooked before going to the meeting.. Later Tom came and join us watch SPY KIDS .. his roommate, Atul, broke his VCR.. so Tom came over whenever he wants to see a video.. he also rented MERLIN and brought it with him. maybe we can watch it tommorrow.. About half an hour after Tom arrived, Darren called me. He went to a party at Essex Street and he knows that my house is nearby so he called to ask directions to come over. He came about 10 minutes later but he could only stay for 15 minutes because his friends are waiting for him to go and eat somewhere else.. so I went out for a walk with him and he starts to tell me about the things that he did the last time he went back to Malaysia [last month].. Apparently he met Shahida [Rifqah's best friend-Rifqah is one of my friends from boarding school who was also my classmate at PPP when we were doing our preparation to come to America. However, her parents wasn't too confident about sending her oversea at this age that they choose to send her to a local university instead] Anyway, it was nice to see Darren again, he told me that he broke off with his one-month-relationship gf. DArren used to hang out with me alot at the end of last Spring semester then when he had a gf he just difted away.. Darren used to call me, Wei and Fathi occasionally during this one time period, we didnt hear anything from him and I finally found out from Wei that he's occupied with something else [wink! wink!] When I came back to my apartment I introduced darren to my roommate, and Tom. He met Azizi already. Tom later told me that he knew Darren because his ex are close friends with Ming,Darren's bestfriend and Diana, Ming's better half. I already met MIng and Diana before when darren and I went to the Sesquicentennial Orchestra performance last Spring. So I guess I knew both of them too...

Anyway, at work, Phillip, my supervisor hired two more new cashiers today.. both are freshman.. Chad and Rachel. Apparently Michaela has quit her job due to a better-paid job at the library.. but she's stuck in the 5th level basement shelving century old mouldy books. She told us that it's really cold down there and that there's no window and so you're stuck in this chamber of foul smelling books.. making you feel dizzy.. She says that she couldn't stay down there for long..

On the spur of the moment I did it.. I looked up at www.dell4me.com and found that they're doing a free shipping offer so yesterday I bought a new computer online..

Here's the description of my new computer:
Dell Dimension 4300 Series--Dimension® 4300 Series, Pentium® 4
Processor at 1.5 GHz

Memory: 128MB SDRAM
Keyboard: Dell® Enhanced Performance USB Keyboard
Monitor: 17 in (16.0 in viewable,.28dp) E770 Monitor
Video Card: 16MB ATI Rage Ultra 4X AGP Graphics Card
Hard Drive: 40GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5 in Floppy Drive
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows Millennium w/WinXP Home Upg Coupon¹²
Mouse: MS IntelliMouse®
Network Card: 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Modem: 56K Telephony Modem for Windows
DVD ROM or CD-ROM Drive: 8x/4x/32x CD-RW/DVD Combination Drive
Sound Card: SB Live! Digital Sound card
Speakers: Harman Kardon Speakers
Bundled Software: Microsoft® Works Suite 2001 with Money 2001 Standard
Norton Antivirus® at no additional charge: Norton Antivirus® 2001,
Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MusicMatch 6.0
Digital Imaging Software: Image Expert® 2000, Dell Edition
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 1 Year Ltd.
Warranty, 1 Year At Home Service, 1 Year 24x7 Phone Support
Internet Access Options: 6 Month Dellnet® by MSN Internet Access

Monday again...

I have lots of things running in my mind crying out to be written down in this blog.. things about this weekend.. funny stories from the recent past .. and things that'll make you go "hmmmmm.."

But for now.. let us all bow down and give me a moment of silence...
-so that I can study and finish this damn fluid dynamics homework [due in an hour's time..]

*·.¸_¸.·¨¨) (¨`·´¨)
¸.·´ ¸.·´¨¨ ) `·.·´
(_¸.·´ ¸.·´ ¸.·´¨¨)
(_¸.·´ (_.·..*

Bush, Pentagon prepare response

Could this response possibly be WAR?

"whether the elephants fight or make love,
the grass will still suffer."

- Tilman, 1987


I was surfing while I wait for my shift to end and I came across this It's a journal from someone who was going to work in NYC on Tuesday morning.. you can read and click on the footnotes to see his personal pictures of the site that day...

[Time to stop and study!]
Here are the classes that I'm taking this semester.. click on it to see the classes webpage..
Materials Science
Thermodynamics
Transport Phenomena
Physical Chemistry

This is Nostradamus in 1645, predicting World War 3:
"In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two
brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress
endures, the great leader will succumb. The third big
war will begin when the big city is burning"

People are starting to talk about the possibilities of a war.. Tom's mum advised him to take out his money from the bank.. and he's telling everyone to do the same.. she's stoking up on fresh, tinned and dried food to prepare for a war..people are also filling up their tanks with fuel so that they can run for shelter.. it's obvious that the price of fuel will increase soon with this kind of demand.. my mum did advise me to stock up on food too.. I'm glad I did all my grocery shopping last weekend.. Tom's mum is even changing money to gold, just in case if the currency goes down.. if it is a war.. all I want to do is flee back home to be with my family...

I hate working in the morning shift...

Here's this morning's latest news[click on the word 'news']

This is what the world thinks of it..
GLOBAL RESPONSE
Around the globe, governments scrambled to respond:
China increased security around U.S. diplomatic buildings. According to China’s Foreign Trade Ministry, China had 14 companies with offices in the trade center buildings.
Israel sealed its land borders with Jordan and Egypt until further notice.
Japan’s intelligence authorities joined forces with U.S. counterparts in trying to identify those responsible for Tuesday’s attacks, a Japanese intelligence source said Wednesday. The source said Japanese intelligence officials were investigating whether there was any link between Tuesday’s attacks and unconfirmed information that the U.S. embassy in Tokyo had received last week of a possible terrorist attack.
India said it stood ready to cooperate with the United States in tracking down the attackers.
European Union foreign ministers announced plans to offer moral support and practical help to the United States at an emergency meeting called on Wednesday.
The head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, in a rare public comment, said his service was working closely with agencies in the United States, Europe and the Middle East to prevent new terror attacks.

ARAB WORLD SHOCKED
Across the Arab world, there was shock and disbelief at the sheer scope of the horror. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak condemned the attacks as “horrific beyond imagination” and offered to help in any way. “Egypt firmly and strongly condemns such attacks on civilians and soldiers that led to the deaths of a large number of innocent victims,” Mubarak said in remarks aired on national television.
Though sentiment in Iraq was mixed, Mohammed al-Douri, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, described the attack as a “very grave, horrible action.” In an interview with NBC, al-Douri said, “no one will accept such a horrible act, no one [is] in favor of that kind of action.”
Al-Douri called on the United States not to act hastily in exacting revenge. “Wait and know who is behind it before taking action that could be wrong,” he said.
In Turkey, a key ally of the United States in the region, the mood on the streets was somber and fearful, as groups gathered around TV sets in small shops to watch non-stop coverage of the disaster.
MSNBC’s Sue Lackey reported that the streets in Istanbul were filled with tourists and college students, some quietly crying as the news spread.
An overwhelmingly Islamic nation, Turkey is home to Incirlik Air Base, a joint operation between the American and Turkish military. Fighter planes routinely take off from Turkey to fly sorties in Iraq, and there is a long history of co-operation with Washington.
Many Turks stopped Americans in the street to sympathize and express concern for their families.
“This is not Islam,” said a carpet seller, pointing to the scenes of the collapsing trade tower, played over and over again. “If my son did this thing, I would be ashamed.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MSNBC’s Sue Lackey in Istanbul, NBC’s Martin Fletcher in Tel Aviv, Thomas Bonifield in Moscow, Andy Eckardt in Berlin and Linda Fasulo at the U.N.; The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

I had a mandatory staff meeting this morning at the gym at 6 am.. the meeting lasted two hours with Jamal, Beth and Susie explaining about customer service, facility management and safety.. it turns out that last summer somebody actually died while working out at the gym.. so we will be learning and traininga new type CPR called the AED..

Anyway I got home later to pick up my bags and call my parents [which I haven't done in 2 weeks all ready].. and as I listened to the radio while calling office max to ask about the delivery of my desk.. I heard about the two planes colliding into the WTC in NYC.. K.Ijah ran to the living room to watch the whole news on the television.. and the whole thing is really bad.. I saw the live coverage of the second toewr collapsing.. the smoke of dust was terrifyingly monstrous.. there's no word to describe it.. I just hope this is not the brink of another world war or anything... but there was talks about this being the beginning of a war.. however, the reporters could be exaggerating.. I hope they are..

I got to class two hours later and the class was shortened just because of the tragedy... everyone wants to go and watch the news.. this is a major tragedy for the Americans!

Then I went to my next class and about halfan hour later a lady came from the admin office telling everyone that the classes are cancelled for the rest of the day.. so I went straight to work because I have a one hour shift in the afternoon.. and I saw this message on the doors of the gym...
University to cancel classes on Twin Cities campus
In light of the national tragedy and the emotional turmoil that the nation and our students are facing, the University of Minnesota will cancel classes on its Twin Cities campus, effective at noon today (Sept. 11). Classes will resume tomorrow morning. The university will remain open.
This seems like a miracle, our university is never closed, even in the worst evens of snow storms.. its always open.. but I guess everyone is too distroughted to continue with the day in class.. not just the students but also the staffs are unable to concentrate with the class due to the tragic events that has shocked us all..

Students gathered at the Northorp Mall to hear the University's President's speech.. He was concern about everyone's safety especially the Muslims and Jews, so everyone received an email about the contact numbers that we should call if your were harrased.. MSA(Muslim Student Association), MSD(Malaysian Students Dept.) PERSISMA's President [Rafique] and MARA Students officers also sent emails to tell the students to be careful especially female muslim students who wear the veil... Abg. Rezal also called me to make sure that I was safe.. just like the others, he also advised me to limit my outdoor activities especially tonight and the weeks thats coming by... I wasn't scared at first but all this warnings are making me nervous..

At work all the television were tuned on to the live broadcasts of the destruction in NYC, PA and Washington DC.. the volumes were turned up so that everyone could hear about it clearly.. there was alot of people crowding in front of the tv with the look of sheer interest, shock and terror.. the phone wouldn't stop ringging with people calling to ask if the gym would close or not... all this adding to the busy first month at the gym.. I felt restless and flushed by all of the fuss... Michaela came to relieve me from my afternoon shift.. she had been crying, apparently her uncle was one of the passangers in one of the four planes that was hijacked and exploded!

Tonight I called my mum and talked for what seem like 2 hours.. the news spreads like hot buns all over the world.. even 2 hours after the event I met Isham and Azwan online on my msn messenger and he was asking me about it all...everyone's worried about their relatives in the USA... I heard from Dia's mum that there's talks from the Malaysian Education Ministry that if America is declaring a war.. , the Malaysian students, staff and officers are going to be returning back home for safety purposes.. it's not official yet so let's hope that if worst comes to its worst, it wouldn't end with a war..

Day of terror in N.Y., Washington

Planes crash into Trade Center; explosion rocks Pentagon

An explosion rocks World Trade Center Tower 1 as Tower 2 burns from a previous plane collision.

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 — Americans reeled in horror
Tuesday as the worst terrorist attack in U.S.
history saw two planes crash into the World Trade
Center, toppling the twin 110-story towers. An
explosion later rocked the Pentagon in
Washington, where the White House and all other
federal buildings were being evacuated. Military
jets patrolled the skies while the FAA grounded all
civilian aircraft nationwide, but not before reports
of another plane crashing in Pennsylvania.
President Bush vowed to “hunt down the folks
who committed this act"

THE FATE OF those in the twin skyscrapers was not
immediately known. Authorities had been trying to evacuate
the thousands of people who work in the towers when they
collapsed, trapping rescuers and workers. Much of
Manhattan was being evacuated.
“I swear I’ve never seen anything like this,” said
MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield. “This whole place is like a
complete war zone.”
At the Pentagon, officials said an aircraft crashed into
part of the sprawling complex. Walls were later seen to
have collapsed.
At the State Department, an earlier report of a car
bomb proved to be unfounded.
In New York, the aircraft struck minutes apart, starting
fires and sending smoke billowing out of the skyscrapers.
The top of the south tower later collapsed onto the street
below.
The first crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. ET.
MSNBC.com reporter Martin Wolk, who was inside
one of the towers, said the lights flickered and then a loud
bang was heard. People panicked and started to flee the
building.
When they reached the lobby, smoke started to fill the
building and people could see debris falling and many cars
outside were damaged. “It was sheer pandemonium, people
were screaming and crying, afraid to go outside because of
the falling debris,” Wolk said. “We looked up and it looked
like the top 20 floors were in flames.”
Another bystander described a barrage of debris
raining down on the sidewalk below.

Shortly after 9 a.m., a second aircraft was seen
crashing into the other tower. Broadcast cameras already
watching the scene filmed the second plane as it slammed
into the tower and exploded in a huge fireball.
A half hour later, President Bush made a brief
statement to reporters, calling the disaster a “national
tragedy” and attributing it to terrorists. He did not cite any
specific terrorist groups but vowed to “hunt down the folks
who committed this act.”
U.S. military jets reportedly took to the skies to shoot
down any unidentified aircraft, and congressional leaders
were taken to secure locations. A plane was reported to
have been circling the Capitol building before the
evacuation.
American Airlines later acknowledged that one of its
flights had been hijacked Tuesday morning shortly after
leaving Boston en route to Los Angeles.
The second plane might have flown out of Newark, a
U.S. official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
In the wake of the crashes, New York airports and the
Lincoln Tunnel were closed as precautionary measures. The
stock exchanges in New York also did not open.
Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story
buildings. The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the
smoke.
Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office
paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from
the tower, one witness said.

In an earlier terrorist attack, the center was bombed on
Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injured more than 1,000
others. Terrorist Ramzi Yousef and three others were
convicted of orchestrating the attack. Three other indicted
co-conspirators remain at large.
Traffic entering New York City from New Jersey was
at a standstill approaching the Holland Tunnel as motorists
stood outside their cars watching the fire.
Across the country, highrises like Chicago’s Sears
Trade tower were being evacuated as a precaution.
Buildings were also being evacuated in London.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Work today was actually busy.. alot of people came to buy new lockers and I almost went to class late again..

Hanna finally remember to bring me her MatS textbook.. all I'm waiting for now is my new desk .. so I'm now in gear to start studying again.. and what a great feeling that is..

So this week I'll stay home and study..

Hewitt won the match...you can actually read more about that by checking it out at http://msn.espn.go.com/tennis/usopen01/s/2001/0909/1249915.html

Resolution of the week: Stay home as much as possible!

I like my apartment as it is right now but everytime I want to stay inside, Tom always comes and asks me to go out.. last night we went to the elmwood housing to pick up our rollerblades which we left two nights ago when we went out to play at 12 midnight until 2 am with a few other Malaysian junior boys.. Bubu and Army came to my house at around 11 pm after going to a concert at the Weissman building.. then because Tom was there we started talking about things and Bubu told me that he is teaching himself how to rollerblade but he doesn't know how to corner.. so we all went to the parking lot of the Child Care center [where Amilin once worked last summer] and played there just like Zack, Amilin, Awin, Ram and I used to during summer last year.. Lock, Fariz and Hazmin was there too just hanging out.. after a while Tom and these three guys started throwing footballs at each other.. while the rest of us taught each other how to turn corners..it was Army's first time and Bubu's 4th try but it seems that Army was more adventurous in the moves that he tried.. they feel a couple of times but that's natural.. When we were tired we stopped over at Fariz and Hazmin's place to drink for a while.. their place is already complete.. with an entertainment center, dining table and everything.. we only stayed a while.. we left at around 2 am.. I had to work at 8 the next day[Saturday].. I'm glad that I made it..

Anyway.. we went to elmwood again yesterday to see how the girls were doing.. [and pick up our rollerblades which we left that Saturday morning].. I had some money stuff to straighten out with some of the girls anyway.. so we went to Zam's place first.. she was assembling a new wooden bookrack.. so I helped her out with Tom.. hammering away at the wood.. it turns out that she told me that Ninnart that Thai guy who was trying to hit on me last month was actually hitting on Zam right now... I'm glad I turned him down.. Zam said that the guy is annoying.. Tom knows the guy too because last last Tuesday, that guy came to my window in my little office-booth at the gym and tried to get me to go out with him for a whole hour.. I made so many excuses I can't believe that he is so persistent.. anyway when Tom came to walk me home from work, I let Tom into my little office to wait for me while I write the daily report and Tom went out a minute to check on some stuff and while Tom was gone Ninnart asks if I would let him in too because he wants to sit and chat with me inside.. I just told him 'No'... who does he think he is.. Tom told me later that he knew that guy and everything that he told me seems to match with everything that Ninnart told me.. so it must be true.. Tom told me that Ninnart collects PlayBoy magazines that fills an entire book rack.. pervert!

Anyway.. Ninnart came over to Zam's place.. and I ran to the other girls' apartment.. Tom wants to run away too but I told him that he should stay with them.. I stayed at Haz, Azura,Syikin, Fiza and Nazimah's place for a while..just chatting and hanging out.. then after a while they cooked some macaroni and served it for me and Tom.. it was really spicy.. they didn't want to eat with us at first but Tom insisted because it feels weird to be the only ones eating while they watched...so we all ate together.. at around 8.30 we started to head home with our rollerblades in hand.. I stopped over at Zam's place again to say goodbye.. they cooked rice too.. Ninnart was eating alone on the floor.. Tom was actually hungry but we didn't want to stay.. so we left...

Yesterday there was also a Malaysian gathering that I went to.. almost everyone was there.. and it was a great event.. we all introduced ourselves.. there's alot of new faces that I still can't match to their names but I think with time I can get it all figured out.. I cooked a laiche jelly with K.Ijah and Kak Zee made some spaghetti.. and there was other chips, nachos, and light food being prepared by the new students..Later after the event, I went to Holyland and Olive Tree to buy some poultry with Nadirah and Zizi.. I also went grocery shopping with K.Ijah, Kak Zee and abg. Ghazali the previous day before that too.. so we're all stocked up.. Abg. Ghazali bought a new car.. a green Subaru.. nice.. very spacious..

Sampras is having a match with Hewitt now in the US Open's men's final...

"Emotion" by Destiny's Child


It's over and done
but the heartache lives on inside
And who's the one you're clinging to
instead of me tonight?

And where are you now, now that I need you?
Tears on my pillow wherever you go
I'll cry me a river that leads to your ocean
You never see me fall apart

In the words of a broken heart
It's just emotion that's taken me over
Caught up in sorrow, lost in my soul
But if you don't come back
Come home to me, darling
Dont you know there's nobody left in this world
to hold me tight
Dont cha know there's nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight
Goodnight, goodnight

I'm there at your side,
I'm part of all the things you are
But you've got a part of someone else
You've got to find your shining star

And where are you now, now that I need you?
Tears on my pillow wherever you go
I'll cry me a river that leads to your ocean
You never see me fall apart

In the words of a broken heart
It's just emotion that's taken me over
Caught up in sorrow, lost in my soul
But if you don't come back
Come home to me, darling
Dont you know there's nobody left in this world
to hold me tight
Nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight
Goodnight, goodnight

And where are you now, now that I need you?
Tears on my pillow wherever you go
I'll cry me a river that leads to your ocean
You never see me fall apart

In the words of a broken heart
It's just emotion that's taken me over
Caught up in sorrow, lost in my soul
But if you don't come back
Come home to me, darling
Nobody left in this world
to hold me tight
Nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight
Goodnight, goodnight


I love that song so much right now..I sing it all the time, eventhough I can't really remember all its lyrics.. I'm gonna get the CD

I was suppose to have a late lunch with Tom yesterday at 3.30 after my classes ended, but he went to visit his mother and couldn't get away until it was hours later.. I didn't really mind cause I knew that he'll be going home and if he's not where he was suppose to be at the time he promised I'd just go straight home and not wait.. anyway, he came over to say sorry later, he owes me dinner but since I already ate we went out to get a video instead.. when we were in blockbuster Tom used his U-card to rent the movie and he didn't want me to see his picture from 4 years ago.. but I stole it from him anyway to take a sneak view.. then I put the card in my back pocket.. he couldn't get it from me so he told the girl infront of us to get it from me.. apparently this Pakistanian girl has been to Malaysia on an exchange program for one year and she started talking about her experience and what little malay she knew.. she was happy to finally talk to me about it cause we always met in campus and smiled but never stopped to talk.. well isn't it a small world..

Anyway we rented Vertical Limit, I actually wanted to watch Chocolat, but I can do that later..

Will of Their Own
The Williams sisters have yet to take the court for their U.S. Open singles final, but they have already made history. Serena pounded Martina Hingis 6-3, 6-2 and Venus ousted Jennifer Capriati 6-4, 6-2 to set up the first sibling final in Open history and the first sisters Slam final in 117 years. It could be a long night before for some, but the players' mom tells ESPN.com's Greg Garber that Venus and Serena will likely be out on the town.

I watched the semi-final Tennis US Open yesterday.. Today the two sisters will battle it out for the Champion title.. I think that Venus will win.. she seems to be the stronger player.. but I could be wrong, we'll just have to watch it today..

I've been trying to add some more features and links in this blog for hours already.. but this thing wouldn't save any of the changes that I made to its template.. I think that there's probably something wrog with the server.. I'll have to try it some other time..

The first week of class has given me an overview of the schedule that I'll be having throughout the next 15 weekes aswell as the kind of people I'll be hanging out with.. I found out yesterday that I will be having all of my recitation discussions with Jin, Vinash and Kiran..so I gues that's gonna be my study group members.. during lectures [MWF] Brian, Fajar and Cindy always comes to sit with me.. and we'd sit more or less near the other three guys, Joe and also sometimes Che Wan, and the other Malay guys.. there's also some other familiar faces that hangs out with us.. that's a good thing cause I can see that we'll be having classes together for the next two final years too..

I was sitting next to Jin yesterday in the Fluid Dynamics recitation section and he told me about his summer holiday in Korea.. apparently he bought all of his books over there for an unbelievably low price.. I saw his brand new textbook with a $32,000 tag.. and I asked him what the korean currency is and one American dollar is worth $1300 Korean money..and so he bought his text book for about $24.60 American dollars only.. and he told me that when he summed up all his books, it's like just over a hundred American dollars. And to think that everyone was spending almost USD500 on brand new books this sem and he's saving a great bundle of cash.. I told him that next time I'm gonna get him to buy me my textbooks... but then again I'll have to think of the shipping costs..but I'm sure I'll save a lot still... My Transport Phenomena textbook arrived on Wednesday.. all the way from Singapore..hehhe..that was a shock, I actually thought that it'll be posted from somewhere within America!

I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.

It's Fridays again.. the week has gone by quickly.. on Monday I helped Tom move in, I met Atul [his new muscular-Indian-superstar-look-alike roommate who is doing his masters in Pharmacy], and also spend the day fixing up my place with K.Ijah. ..on Tuesday, I started class, went to work in what seems like the busiest day of the year at the cashier's office [there's a que that goes out towards the walkway of students wanting to buy gym's membership and semester lockers] and later I met Wassem [Atul's equally good-looking friend who just arrived from India to do his masters in EE here in the U of Mn] as I went over to Tom's place for dinner.. on Wednesday, I spent the whole day and night going to all the 5 classes lecture sections.. and yesterday was just another day of recitation and relaxing.. Work has been hectic all day this week, but that was expected so it didn't really come as a surprise.. I had to come to work at 6 am for the last two days.. I just wish I don't have to do more of that later on the week..

I'm so tempted to buy a new computer yesterday.. Dell is having an offer where if I buy a computer from the 8100 Dimension series, I could get either a DVD or a CD-RW upgrade for free.. I want both of those assoceries in my new computer so I'm looking around for offers.. we are getting DSL, so that my roommate can stay home to do most of her programming assignments.

The Mysterious thing called "LOVE".
If you find yourself in love with someone who does not love you, be gentle with yourself. There is nothing
wrong with you. Love just didn't choose to rest in the other person's heart.

If you find someone else in love with you and you don't love him/her, feel honored that love came and called at your door, but gently refuse the gift you cannot return. Do not take advantage, do not cause pain. How you deal with love is how you deal with you, and all our hearts feel the same pains and joys, even if our lives and ways are different.

If you fall in love with another, and he/she falls in love with you, and then love chooses to leave, do not
try to reclaim it or to assess blame, let it go. There is a reason and there is a meaning. You will know in time. Remember that you don't choose love. Love chooses you. All you can really do is accept it for all its mystery when it comes into your life. Feel the way it fills you to overflowing, then reach out and give it away.

Love always has been and always will be a mystery. Be glad that it came to live for a moment in your life.

"If you want to be happy, be."---- Leo Tolstoy

Let's not discuss all that any further..hehehe.. I've got a new interest in life right now ..but hey don't jump into any conclusions.. it's not a man.. but a cat.. if only I could have a pet in this apartment then maybe I would have taken it in ages ago.. but I don't really want to handle a new responsibility, plus there'll be fur all over the place and my house will smell of cats if I start taking it in.. so the cat always stays outside our basement window, meowing for attention.. at times, I would go out and play with it.. K.Ijah shares my interest in cats and she bought some cat food to feed it.. I think the cat's real owner left it astray.. I can tell that the cat was previously owned by it's cleanliness and also by the way it seeks attention. The cat could even do tricks, when you stroke its head it would rise up on it's two hind legs and it would sometime rest on your lap.. so cute! I have eight cats back home with my parents.. we've always had cats ever since we were little.. we didn't have any while we were living in Leeds, England in the first 5 teen years of my life somewhere back in the 90's. I remember once when I was little, my cat just gave birth to two little kittens.. it was a ginger and a striped black one. My brother would alwas play with the male striped one and I took care of the ginger one... one day we were playing with it and my brother started cuddling the kitten.. I gues it was suffocated or something and it scratched his face straight from the top of his forehead all the way down to his chin... there was this three lines running down his face like the stripes of addidas, which later bleeds and becomes theree red lines of blood..it's a good thing that the scratches didn't leave scars or people wold start recognizing my brother as the addidas mascot, 'Amir Addidas'..hehehe... the incident didn't really lessen his interest in cats.. we loved cats even more.. our first cat was an albino cat .. we called it 'Putih'.. it had blue eyes... it was beautiful.. somehow it reminded me of a queen, striding down the aisle.. purring majestically..

Lately I loved staying home.. I feel fortunate to have K.Ijah as my new roommate, I would rush home everyday from class.. when Tom comes over and asks me to go out for walks or over to his place, I'd tell him that I'd rather linger at home, watching tv or just chatting on the couch.. it's the first week of the semester and I feel that it might be the only week where I'm lounging around without the thought of getting assignments done.. The rush will obviously begin next week.. this weekend, I'll try to get some reading done so that I'm not lost during lectures..

I feel that I will be having a great semester this time around just because I feel calmer [without the moody roommate and everything that comes with the package].. my new roommate has similarities with me.. we both study early in the morning and not stay up late at night, we both don't listen to garbage/trash music and we both like cats.. she's so cool and always happy.. just can't help to make me feel better.. we always have night talks on the bed just before sleeping and I can feel a bond in the process of development.. ang that's a good thing.

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God went missing for six days.
Eventually, Michael the Archangel found him on the seventh day, resting.
He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds,"Look Michael, look what I have made."Said God.
Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God' "and I've put life on it, I'm going to call it earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."
"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused. God explained, pointing to different parts of earth.
"For example, North America will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while South America is going to be poor. The Middle East over there will be a hot spot and Russia will be a
cold spot. Over there I've placed a continent of white people and over there
is a continent of black people."
God continued pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot and this one extremely cold, and this one covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a small land mass and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God."That's Malaysia, the most glorious place on Earth. There are beautiful lakes, rivers, streams and hills. The people from Malaysia are going to be modest, intelligent and humorous and they're going to be found travelling the world. They'll be extremely sociable, hard-working and high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed,"What about balance, God? You said there will be BALANCE!"
God replied wisely," wait until you see the wankers I'm putting next to them. I'm calling them "Singaporeans"! "


This joke was forwarded to me by one of my friends, just a light Malaysian joke which shouldn't be taken seriously. Just like the way British people are not too fond of Americans, Malaysians are sometimes not too fond of the Singaporeans.. but it doesn't mean I'll go around killing Singaporeans or anything..

Well today is the first day of school. 2 of my recitation classes [were cancelled just because we haven't gone to lecture yet], and I came to my other recitation class 15 minutes late..heheh.. I didn't miss anything though, what happened was that I thought the class was cancelled, I knew that Chen4002 [Transport Phenomena] recitation was cancelled but I got it mixed up with Chen4101 [Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics] because I met Che Wan at the computer lab and I started talking about the PChem textbook and he told me his next class was at 12.20 and some of his other classes was cancelled. I assumed that we have the same class and that my next class is at 12.20, but it turns out that my class was at 11.15 instead. I realised this at 11.30 because I was making a time table of my Fall Semester schedules. So I ran to class [and got a blister in the process], the first 15 minutes was just an introductory time when the lecturer and TA talks about office hour and exams.. so I just copied it out of the board. I'm glad I didn't miss anything else.

There's alot of familiar faces in campus today. I met Brian [my summer class study group partner] first, he looked so happy to see me and so was I. We'll have a couple of classes together this sem, so I guess I'll see him around. Then in class I can see Jin and Vikash too, along with some other familiar faces. Lalat was in my recitation too, but he sat on the opposite corner from me.. well I can't really choose where to sit since I came in late, but it was a good thing cause I did join a different crowd and participated in the class discussion with them, thus I can safely say that I made new friends today.

After class I went to the bookstore to but my Fluid Dynamics textbook, I already bought one from half.com, but it just hasn't arrived [I think I'll get it within the next fortnight], so I bought a brand new one from the bookstore knowing that I'll return it for a full refund within the next two week.. then I went to the Registrar Office to pick up my unofficial transcript, I stood in line for about half an hour. I was so tired and bored [and thirsty] by the end of it that I wanted to just go home to my new beautifully arranged apartment, but then I realised that I had left my floppy disc at the computer lab.. so I headed back to Union St Lab and got it.. it's still there.. and so here I am still stuck in the lab 15 minutes later, I bought a drink in the MechE building on my way here.. and I'm drinking it even though there's a NO FOOD sign all over the place.. well you can't really blame me, it's a scorcher outside, I'm roasting in the Sun.

Anyway, I did go out with Marcel, Wira, Amilin and Hasnor on Sunday. We went all over the place but finally stopped at Office Max at 5pm, I bought a new desk for $129.99, it will be shipped tomorrow but nobody's gonna be home tomorrow so I'm gonna tell them to send it on Thursday instead [sometime after 12].. my new roomate moved at around 7 on Sunday. Tom was there to help with the move in [along with alot of other Malaysians too such as the guys I went shopping with, Zulfaa, Pyan, Zul, Aza just to name a few ]. We'll have to cook something nice for them when were all settled down. We started unpacking right away and everything looks so beautiful. I feel that a great burden has been lifted of my chest and I can breathe again. It's as if the 'great witch' has been casted away and home is now my 'paradise'. I'm going to be getting a dining table set from Marcel and with my new desk everything is complete. I'm even hanging lace curtains in my bedroom. Yesterday, Ken Min, Nad & Dia came and they were happy with the transformation too.. the house looks beautiful and clean. I sew the bottom of the frailing couch with my hand.Right now we just need to put the extra boxes in the storage and everything will look right.

Tom moved into his apartment yesterday. Ken Min and I helped him a few times. I even went to his brother's place in Savage [somewhere up north an hour's drive from Minneapolis] and picked up some stuff. The house is massive.. it's beautiful. We were suppose to go to Target again last night because I needed to buy a mop, Ken Min wants to buy a mirror and the two girls [Nad and Dia] wants to exchange some stuff, but we couldn't get the car last night. So I went for a walk with Tom on the bridge instead. I was actually very tired but we went anyway. I went back home at 10 feeling so flushed out..

Anyway, last night another Malaysian student arrived in Minnesota. His name is Anas and he is transfering from Brown [just like my new roommate, Kak Ijah].. this guy is also taking ComScience but he's a sophomore, just like me. So at around 10.30 pm, Pyan, Ram and Anas came to my house so that Anas can talk to Kak Ijah and discuss about the things that he has to do to transfer his credits. Kak Ijah has gone through all this 2 years ago, so she knows best. They left just before midnight and I went straight to bed. I found out this morning that Ram left his cellphone nest to the computer table. I'm sure he'll come and get it today. Che Wan will be coming over to send me his textbook at 4 after his Organic Lab and I have to go to work today from 6 to 11.. I should go home now..

I am suppose to be going out to buy a new study desk right now but Marcel still has not appeared to take me there [frankly at this moment I don't think I should be going with him because he is planning to ake the whole day to go furniture shopping]. My roommate should've moved last night but the was some little problem with the lock on her door, so she decided to move out today instead.. I think it is more convenient for her to move out today, just because she rented the U-Haul today and not yesterday. So I heard fom Pyan, who will be the guy who drives the damn thing, that my roommate will be moving out at five. My new roommate will also be using the same U-Haul and will be moving in sometime after five today.
I really can't wait for my old roommate to move out. Basically just because I can't stand her presence near me. I can't stand the way she talks, the way she pulls that face, the way she closes the door [which by her manner is usually a slam].. and I think the feeling's mutual, and so the obvious thing to do is to move out.. that was my initial plan..[to move out, all my close friends knew how much I wanted to move out ].. my prayers were answered when she choose to move out instead, thus meaning that I don't have to go through all the hassles.. I got an email from my old roommate trying to get me to pay for all the little things that she's leaving behind... I don't want her breathing down my neck so I'll just give her what she wants..
Classes are going to start soon but one of the books that I bought from Half.com still hasn't arrived yet.. I still need to see Che Wan to pick up my PChem II textbook which he is selling to me for $35 and another book [material Science] from Hanna which she will be lending to me. I met Kamal [at the airport when we were sending Isham back to Malaysia] and he told me that he is also taking MatS too.. I hope we're in the same class. I couldn't register for Organic lab cause the lecture time clashes with my other classes. So I'm planning to take it in the spring. I also met Fajar last night at Target [while I was helping Nad and Dia shopping for household stuff], she had just finished her summer internship with M3, she is so lucky! I wish I could get an internship next year or something instead of being stuck in a little cubicle in the gym.

Yesterday has been a busy day.. I helped everyone [the girls at my house] move out. Tom was a great help, his car got into an accident on Friday... and everyone was worried about catching a cab to move out, but he came with another car yesterday and helped everyone move out.. first we helped the 3 petronas girls move into their new home somewhere near Amilin's place.. then we helped Nad and Dia into their apartment just a block away from me ..and lastly we moved Zam's bags into her apartment in elmwood. Tom went home later cause he promised his mum that he'd be seeing her at 5pm..he left my house at 5.30 and it takes him an hour to get there.. he was [obviously] late.. Pyan took me to the airport to see Isham leave for Malaysia.. 17 people came to bid him farewell.. his flight was suppose to leave at 6.45 but it was delayed up until 7.30pm.. so by the time I got home it was about 8.. then I saw Tom just as our car was entering the back lane.. he was trying to find me cause he left Nad and Dia at Target and had to pick them up an hour later.. So I told Tom that I have to pray first before he could take me out again.. so we went into the house and for the first time, he saw me pray. I didn't want him to look at me as I pray but he was so curious, he opened the door ajar and peeked in anyway..
Just as I finished praying the phone rang and Nora was on the other side, she was asking for help because she and her roommates were shopping for some household appliances and they can't take it all home in a bus.. I think they were trying to save some money by asking me and Tom to pick them up because the other option would be to take a cab.. but we don't mind [I mean we helped everyone else all day] so we went to pick them up. Tom actually promised his mum that he'd go to his brother's place at 9 and it takes an hour to go to Shakepey from Minneapolis, but he just can't say 'No' when people are asking for help. He knew that he will be in a lot of trouble [especially cause his mum wasn't too happy when he told her he's moving out].. he went to get Nora and her other two roommates, they bought alot of stuff.. then we went to pick Nad and Dia at Target and sent their stuff home too.. we were done by 11.30. Tom rushed home knowing that his mum is going to be furious at him.. and I went straight home.
He called an hour later, luckily things were ok..