COMING SOON
Quite an eventful week so far.. I feel like I want to write about it but I'm really2 tired right now.. will write soon after my night nap..

QUOTES ON FRIENDS
Dedicated to all of my friends out there..

"The only rose without thorns is friendship." -Madalaine de Scrudery

"It's really amazing when two strangers become the best of friends, but it is really sad when the best of friends become two strangers." -unknown

"Side by side, or miles apart, dear friends are forever close at heart." -unknown

"Now may the warming love of friends surround you as you go, down the path of light and laughter, where the happy memories grow." -Helen Lowrie Marshall

"Friends are made by many acts, and can be lost by just one." -unknown

"I always felt that the great high priviledge, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing." -Katherine Mansfields

"Hold a true friends with two hands." Nigerian Proverb

"Two may talk under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends." -Mary Catherwood

"A friend is a gift you give yourself." -Robert Louis Stevensen

"It's smart to pick your friends, but not to pieces." -unknown

"Life without a friend is like death without a witness." -Spanish proverb

"The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away." -Wilson Mizner

"I know doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserve my friends." -Walt Whitman

"When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world losses some of its radiance." -Anatole Broyard

"Friends are born, not made." -Henry Adams

"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies." -Aristotle

"A new friend is like new wine, when it has aged you will drink it with pleasure." -Ecclesiastes 9:10

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One loyal friends is worth ten thousand relatives." -Euripides

"Your friend is a man who knows all about you, and still likes you." -Elbert Hubbard

"Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends whom we choose." -Tehyi Hsieh

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man's success in life." -Edward Everett Hale

"The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are right." -Mark Twain

"The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?" -Henry David Thoreau

"Friendship without self-interest is one of the rare and beautiful things in life." -James Francis Byrnes

"Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world." -Eleanor Roosevelt

"Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary." -Louisa May Alcott

"As you say, we don't need soft skies to make friendship a joy to us. What a heavenly thing it is; "World without End," truly. I grow warm thinking of it, and should glow at the thought of it all the glaciers of the Alps were heaped over me." -Celia Thater

"Only friends will tell you the truths you need to hear to make... your life bearable." -Francine Du Plessix Gray

"God gave us our relatives, thank God we can choose our friends." -Ethel Watts Mumfrod

"I have learned that to have a good friend is the purest of all God's gifts, for it is love that has no exchange of payment." -Frances Farmer

"I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing." -Katherine Mansfield

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." -Anais Nin

"It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." -Marlene Dietrich

"Silences make the real conversations between friends.Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts." -Margaret Lee Runbeck

WACKY WINTER WEATHER

The snow has finally landed.. I repeat, the snow has finally landed! 1 to 3 inches of snow has been sligted lingering in the proximity of the twin cities campus and surrounding Minnesota cities. It is believed that this long awaited snow will continue to fall as the weekend continues. Sources say that due to the light flakes of snow, the weather will be cloudy. Suitable outerwear should be worn when you go outdoors.

Here's something to get the cold winter out of our minds..

The kitty looks so playful.. I miss my cats at home. Once we used to have 8 cats at the same time but right now we only have one. We call it 'Buncit' cause when it was a kitten, it had a big belly.

Wei Lin is moving to the UV tomorrow, she'll be living in the second floor. So she'll be close to us. We went to see the t-mobile dealers yesterday to get a phone for Nad and Weilin but for we soome reason we couldn't get all four of us in the same family plan. So we're not gonna get it yet.

After that we went to the gym, I wasn't suppose to work but I went in my office and just hung out for a few hours.. later I went to t he Field HOuse and everyone was already there, playing basketball, soccer and stuff.So we played too, I didn't have my sports gear on so I didn't play for long.

Today I'm planning to go to Target downtown and get some stuff for the house. I have to work after that. I can see that it's starting to settle down now. So I'm gonna bring some stuff to study.

HANGAT-HANGAT TAHI AYAM

Skipped work today.. just couldn't be bother to go.. It's just that I was already home, all tensed up trying to drill myself to answer the homework problems from "Process Control" and then I realised that I ought to stop and leave for a mere 2 hour work, and I tried to reason the pro's and cons.. It's really crazy cause I know it's hard to get worked up about homework.. so I decided to skip work.. I called Amanda and told her that it's too cold to out [-12F outside after sunset], and asked her if it's busy or not.. it turns out that Chad was still at work and it wasn't that busy.. so if I came , then there'd be 3 staff cashiers and not enough customers.. so it's better off that I stayed home.

Early this morning, I dropped a class and registered for another class which fulfils my requirement and fits the time schedule.. just to find that this is the class that nadia just dropped the day before because of the biased Jewish lecturer. Now, I'm not exactly racist but I thihk it shows a lot about a lecturer's perspective when he insults an Islamic leader openly in a lecture hall by calling him a 'B*st@!~' out of nowhere.. I personally know a person who dropped that class right after hearing that and a few other who's thinking about it.. so I dropped the class too and registered for something else.. so now I'm registered for a theater class..but the class won't start until March, which actually just turns out for the best cause my "Product Design" class ends in March too.. My other classes seems to be alright, so far.. I'll have 3 finals I think, one in March and the other 2 in May, but there seems to be a lot of projects, presentations and group work once again.. tomorrow will be the first presentation, but Vikesh and Rowland will be presenting for our group cause they are the analyser and consultant, respectively, for this 'Two-Phased Flow in a Siphon With Computer Data Acquisition' experiment. I am the planner and fajarrani is the experimenter for this experiment. Today , we formed our group for the Process Design Project.. Our group will be doing something with 'batteries and power storage'.. once again, I'm working with Jin, Qamar and Jason. I have to work hard this semester, I want this year to be an excellent final year.. every once and again, I remember that sign that I see on Nurul's bed that Lisa made with chalk saying "Jangan Hangat-Hangat Tahi Ayam".. and I try to make good use of my time, and just never stop what I've started.

Here's a fun tip of how to keep track of time.. you know how a song is approximately 3-4 minutes, on average.. so when you have an easy task like putting lotion on or folding clothes or cleaning your bed or something; believe it or not, these simple chores can be done after a few minutes which is equal to one or two songs.. so what I do in the morning is, when I want to put lotion on or something, I'd assign time for it based on songs.. like I set myself little targets, "after this Craig David song, I should have put on lotion"... "after this David Tao song I should have my bed cleared".. "after this Weezer song, I should have my bag's packed".. and so on... I get things done quicker somehow...
Anyway, here's the song I've been listening too non-stop in the last hour...

You don't miss your water by Craig David

As I sailed with you across the finest ocean
On our way to find the key to our emotions
Together we will move the clouds to brighter days
Some people question what I say
Try to break up you and me
but I know this love between us is growing stronger
You can call me whenever, from where ever.. just remember
that I'll be there through all the stormy weather
Us break up never, no..we'll be together forever

You don't miss your water til the well runs dry
But I believe so strongly in you and I
Can't somebody answer me the question "Why..
you don't miss your water til the well runs dry?"

As I close my eyes sit back while remeniscing
Of when we used to fight but end up kissing
Then maybe sad and pain fades along the way
But in my heart you'll always be everything and more to me

For I know this love between us is growing stronger
You can call me whenever, from where ever.. just remember
that I'll be there through all the stormy weather
Us break up never, no..we'll be together forever

You don't miss your water til the well runs dry
But I believe so strongly in you and I
Can't somebody answer me the question "Why..
you don't miss your water til the well runs dry?"

For you are always on my mind
You are always on my mind
and you know that you are always on my mind
Forever..

You don't miss your water til the well runs dry
But I believe so strongly in you and I
Can't somebody answer me the question "Why..
you don't miss your water til the well runs dry?"

It's All Good

School started again today.. this will be my final year here.. I have no idea what tomorrow will hold for me, which makes it all a little bit scary..
Things began with a four hour lab this morning which started with a pop quiz to give me a taste of what's coming up in the next 5 months.. I feel like I'm not used to waking up early for the 8 o'clock lab but I have to adjust to this holiday-class transition, cause I have classes at eight every morning except Thursdays this sem. The other two recitations were cancelled, so I went home, ate lunch and accidentally doozed off. I woke up in time to pray and go to work but I felt rather guilty cause Angie cleared up after me at lunch today... she skipped class today cause she's not feeling well.. I think she doesn't have class today.. Timber was up early, she had no problem cause she was working at 8 every day through the break..

Nadia started wearing the tudung right after we came back from our N Cubed trip.. she said that she had wanted to do this ever since last year but had never found the courage to go through with it... but she had consulted all her friends and family about it .. and we have all been very supportive towards the whole thing.. afterall, it's all good [this is kinda of the unofficial N Cubed motto...ehheheh] Nadia and I went shopping for scarves all yesterday while Nad and WeiLin had work training at the new Coffman Union.WE found some really big and long scarves at the Somalian area.. we then went to Rosedale, maplewood and later to the Mall.. sure we bought other stuff too but the main objective is the scarves... she wanted to find some scarves that were similar to the Tie Rack scarves that my mum bought in Spain but there's only one Tie Rack store in Minnesota and it's in the departure lounge where we could no longer enter without a ticket.. so she'll be borrowing my scarve for a while, if she wants to... Aida was also going to give her some of the scarves which she no longer wears.. nadia feels happy with this new transition, she feels that she looks better than before, which is true in my opinion too... but everyone has their own taste when it comes to beauty...

I don't really feel like writing much right now.. I shall talk more about our 5 day trip to the Wisc-Illinois region.. Right now I feel a little bit disorganized, I'm trying to sort things out and set my priorities right.. Right now, I want to call my mum and sleep later..

Yesterday, Maria called me to ask me how I'm doing.. I know I was suppose to call her to tell her that our trip to Ohio had to be cancelled but I just forgot.. she was worried that something had happened cause I didn't turn up when I told her that I'd be there around the 13th last time we talked..So I told her what I've been u to lately, later I talked to Adriana and she told me that her 5th birthday is coming up soon.. I told her that my birthday is coming up soon too.. she got all excited cause she thought that I'd come over to celebrate our birthday together... so I told her I'm starting class soon, she made that sulking sound for a second but then cheered up again when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday.. said she wanted a Barbie doll, but I'm not gonna get her that cause I've seen the number of Barbie dolls she's got and what she does with it after a while... so instead after a lot of thought I've decided to get her a Barbie outfit.. [Wish I had an aunt like me!] she'll look so cute, such a sweet little darling...

Just wanna say a big THANK YOU to everyone I met in Madison and Illinois for such a welcoming treatment, especially the girls at Princeton; Eena, Nini, Zaini and Pablo the boys at Badgers for the open house; and Rapik in UIUC for the delicious food. Not forgetting the MSD officers in Chicago, especially En. Mokhtar and family and Tuan haji and family.

And to everyone else.. HAPPY SPRING SEMESTER 2003

FINALLY

The 'N Cubed Clan'[Noris, Nadia and Nadirah] is having a road trip to Chicago..
Life's been pretty slow lately.. the computers are not working at work due to some service maintenance.. and nothing interesting is Happening over at this end.. So we just thought that it'll be a good idea to travel somewhere.. we had planned to go to Ohio at first to visit my cousin's family and just hangout in Cleveland and Columbus but that didn't happen due to some small technical difficulties.. so now we're planning to travel to our neighbouring states instead.. we might even have a chance to visit Kak Ras who I met at Kak Siti's open house .. we also plan to come to Madison and Urbana Champaign.. We'll be back by the end of the weekend.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is scheduled to be released on June 21st, 2003. Hooray!!!

.....Oh me, Oh my!.....

I couldn't fall asleep tonight, not that I'm studying or anything, but I was trying to figure out why the picture that I tried to post would not appear in any other computer other than mine.. Lock finally enlightened me at the wee hours of the morning on what and how has gone wrong... all from the comfort of his RBC lab and my UV apartment using the MSN messenger through the magic of the internet! I'm very happy that I am able to post the picture in here, Alhamdulillah, Allah is truely the All-Mighty...
please give me feed back for I am, as they say, "anak rusa Nani" ~ still learning...

Work? Started pretty late today, though it was a very busy day [in contrast to last weeks do-nothing-at-work-routine] as it was the first day of locker sales.. It took Jena and I about an hour to do the daily report and close out today, and yet it was hard to make odds add up cause the cash bag was off since last week and not all over-rings were reported...and to add to all of the complications, Sarah didn't get change from the Bursar's oiffice this morning, so we couldn't give out change to people cause all we have are mostly $20, $50 and $100 notes instead of smaller bills... honestly, somehow I feel like I should change my major to 'Facility Management' or something.. 3 years of experience should look good in my resume right? It's so useless in my engineer/chemist resume though.. [need to find a more major related job]. Anyway, tomorrow [I mean later today really] I'll be closing again... Amanda had returned from Wisconsin..she had another haircut... she showed me her X-mas pictures today... and I finally get to see a picture of that Mark guy that she has been so excited about lately...

The funny thing is, about a month ago we had put up the sign on our bullet proof glass windows that says "Locker SALE starts 1/13/03, Locker RENEWAL ends 1/8/03" ... then out of nowhere a Chinese lady comes up to me about two weeks ago and says "How much discount will I get during the locker SALE?" I looked at her in astonishment.. "Excuse me?" I had to ask, am I hearing her wrong?.. " The sign says there's a SALE!" .. I had to smile to hide the laughter bubbling deep inside.." I'm so sorry, I think you misunderstood, the locker sale starts on January the 13th, meaning that we will start selling the lockers on that date, there's no SALE"... she looked confused, I had to elaborate, she finally understood.... It was hillarious, inside I was chuckling like crazy... English is a funny language...

Ok I should try to sleep before the Sun rises [I could never sleep when the Sun is up, unless I'm sick, which explains why I don't do naps... except in Prof. Bates lectures].. I planned to go to Barnes and Noble tomorrow to buy a book for next sem... I hope I could stay uup like this during normal semester days, and study...

LADIES...LADIES...LADIES

Here's a picture of Wei Lin, me and Nad at the Persisma's raya celebration in Nicholson Hall... too full to even get up from our chair...honestly, we didn't plan to wear purple.. Other purplist of the day includes Pyan, Kuceng, Aernie, Zam, Rahmah and our newly-weds, ZulFaz.

I'm just testing some stuff, need to update my photo album too after this..

Some like it HOT..

It's such a weird thing but after 3 years in Minnesota, my body is becoming more and more sensitive to the temperature changes around me.. My fingers are showing signs of its sensitivity. It's purple when cold and pink when warm.. it doesn't have to be below any freezing point or anything, it just turns violet and gradually purple..it starts when I came back from England and our family doctor says that my blood circulation just doesn't flow to the tips of my fingers.. so I have to massage my hand now and again.. its not a disease so there's not really a cure, so they gave me B2 vitamin pills.. I'm just glad I'm not living with my mum cause she's keep making me eat zinc pills and "pucuk paku", so that my blood circulation flows correctly.. it doesn't hurt really, but it just looks weird... its ok when I'm in Malaysia, this explains why my hands are always pink and my facial complexion keeps glowing..
[when I was in school, prefects always stop me and ask if I'm wearing any blusher...] but it's bad when I'm here in Minnesota and I'm in lab or something and my fingers are violet...blood doesn't flow to the tip which means that heat is not being flowed all the way there... I need to exercise frequently to keep the circulation flowing, lately I've been playing badminton almost everyday and exercising on the machines after work.

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend in Japan, who's also on his winter break right now and he tells me that he's been skiing with his friends almost everyday since new year.. wish I could also do that but I can't stand the cold so I have to settle for something warmer. My housemate, Angie, is going to Miami today with her ex-bf's family.. wish I could go there too...

Time is moving so fast... it's already the 12th... and I haven't done anything productive all year long... I must be the QUEEN of procastination.. I don't even know why I do it... I have no problem with planning and organizing myself but when it comes to doing what I plan to do, I'd put it aside and wait til I absolutely have to do it... It's not like I have something better to do, but I just don't do it.. I'd always find other ways to spend my time... I even procastinated the new year.. [well I did go out to celebrate the new year but I only made new year's resolution on the 3rd... so basically I moved the 1st to the 3rd... then it took me another 7 days to actually do what I planned to do on the 3rd... and it gets worse, I need help!] Two days ago I came home from the gym after work and working out and I found Timber, my other housemate, in front of the tv reading her genetics textbook... so I asked her what she's doing and she said she's studying to get a head start... I was so shocked... even felt guilty for not being as enthusiastic as she is about my studies... I have 2 IDL classes to finish off for February... what am I doing? I should be doing what she's doing... so I ordered all my textbooks online and started reading a little of my Asian American Literature books... [but soon later, I was defeated by myself..]

So guess what my new years resolution is....
Zählen Sie Ein: Stop Procastinating, Just Do It! I finally realised that no matter what needs to be done, all I have to do is just to work it...I mean if I didn't work to get my laundry done this morning, it'll still be dirty... right? [It's so obvious... I knew it, just didn't do it]... Hopefully this one will also turn me into a good student..
Zählen Sie zwei: Keep the heart pumping Angie and Timber has TAEBO videos so if I'm too lazy to go to the gym I'll just workout in my spacious bedroom.. they even have YOGA, maybe I'll give it a go...
Zählen Sie drei: Spend Wisely Sometimes I really don't know where my money goes to... one minute it's there then suddenly it's gone... [but then again I'd find that a new sweater just 'appeared' in the closet]

Hopefully this will be a better year for me..
my mum asked me last night if I have anyone special in my life [why is that the question of the season? Last week Timber's mum asked me if I have a bf too, turns out that she wanted to promote her son .."At least there'll be someone to tell him to pick up his socks" she said in response to the clean apartment and the sight of me cooking lasagnia at the kitchen stove for my little "Thank You For Helping Me Move" feast.. ] Then my friend studying in Japan also asked me the same question yesterday morning..

so all of a sudden I have to have a bf now? My parents want me to have a Malay bf... [Time's running out.. this is sad.. this is scary...] when I was in kindergarten, I remember looking at the young mothers and wishing that I could send my kids to kindergarten before I'm 30 too... I don't see that happening now, I'm surrounded with Malay guys who are younger than me and every each one of them wants someone younger to be with.. well at least that's my assumption...[I once had my heart shattered by someone just cause I'm older just before I came here.. so I'm kinda scared to even bother with younger men, even though it's just a few months] Maybe someday someone will erase that perception from my mind.. for the time being my heart is locked, and I haven't found the guy with the key..
My friends says that I'm too picky, "Just respond to the signs" they say.. "What signs?" I'd say
Even my mum says that I'm too picky, "Just concentrate on one guy" she'd say.. "Which one?" I'd say..
"The one that gives you his extra attention"... if only she's here with me, she'd see me roll my eyes as I say "Which one??"

Recently, I watched a French movie called "Happenstance" about how destiny brings two people together.. they didn't really have to do anything.. it just happens, the movie didn't show how they fell in love.. it shows how they met [as the horoscope says they'll meet that day].. it's a really good movie, but then again that may be a biased opinion cause I love movies starring Audrey Tautou - such as "Amelie". Anyway, what I'm saying is that I think it's all fate.. maybe it's not time yet