Berita

Sudah 3 hari berturutan Israel membedil Gaza strip dan meragut nyawa hampir 300 rakyat Palestin. Kenapa kita kisah? Hadith: Dari Nu'man ibn Bashir (radiALlahu anhu), Rasulullah pernah bersabda: "Umat Islam adalah ibarat anggota badan seseorang, jika matanya sakit maka seluruh badan akan rasa kesakitannya dan jika kepalanya sakit, maka seluruh badan akan merasai kesakitannya." 

Berita lanjut mengenai bedilan Israel: NZHerald, The Star.

Jika anda berada di sekitar Kuala Lumpur pada 10-11 Januari 2009 (masa: 0800 - 2300), silalah luangkan masa menghadiri program "Untukmu Palestin" berlokasi di Taman Tasik Titiwangsa anjuran UKM dan KTSN. Antara program yang diaturkan adalah paintball, futsal, forum, gerai jualan dan gerai klinikal.

Artikel ringkas mengenai Muntazer Al-Zaidi (klik pada gambar):

Carnival

If you happen to be in Shah Alam this weekend, drop by at this carnival:

On another note, if you want to rip streaming videos from embedded players (ie YouTube, Veoh) you can go here & they list all known methods available.

Jantung

Sudah genap 3 minggu sejak ku pulang ke tanah air tercinta. Aku hanya hari ini kembali menulis untuk menggerakkan otak menulisku sebelum ia berkarat. Lagipun, aku ingin berkongsi pendapatku mengenai penswastaan IJN. Penswastaan ini secara prinsipnya dipersetujui oleh kerajaan dimana Sime Darby telah menawar untuk membeli 51% share IJN dari kerajaan. Aku tidak tahu kenapa kerajaan ingin menswastakan badan tersebut. Secara umumnya, penswastaan diharapkan dapat meningkatkan mutu servis dan kecekapan badan korporat tersebut. Namun, sejarah menunjukkan penswastaan dinegara kita tidaklah berhasil begitu baik seperti yang dinyatakan pada blog Anwar Ibrahim. Tambahan pula, menurut Dr Mahathir, IJN tidaklah mengalami masalah dalam mengendalikan servisnya dengan cekap. Beliau juga menyoal apakah keuntungannya pada dua-dua pihak (kerajaan & Sime Darby) jika penswastaan ini diteruskan. Malah ada yang membuat spekulasi bahawa penswastaan ini diutarakan kerana ada yang akan mendapat $$$ daripada proses ini. Wallahua'alam. Apa yang aku risaukan, jika penswastaan ini diteruskan, dan jika Sime Darby dibenarkan, mereka tentu akan meningkatkan kos rawatan untuk menebus kembali laburan mereka. Jadi disarankan agar kepada perokok-perokok, berhentilah. Kurangkan makanan banyak lemak, gula ringkas, dan garam. Bersenam selalu. 

tired

4 days ago I touched down in Malaysia after going through Sydney, Darwin & then Singapore. It wasn't fun dragging a huge luggage on Singapore's MRT & then public bus through the causeway link to JB. Nevertheless it was cheap & feasible, albeit barely, & I managed to get to Larkin at 15 minute to 1 am, just in time for the last bus to Shah Alam. Now, after days of shopping, I'm knackered & sitting idly at home. Terengganu's recent flood has receded at the moment but Malaysian meteorologists predicted that there will be a new flood over the weekend, so if the forecast remain as it is, my plan to go there will be postponed. On another note, interestingly Selangor MB held a talk on Palestine issue as part of an opening ceremony of a local hall here not far from my home. Impressive indeed. I tried going but as I got there, the talk started late, it was outside & with my failure to adapt to Malaysia's humidity & subsequent profuse perspiration, I just went back before it started. Maybe there was a hint of laziness. Maybe...      

Perkembangan perjalanan kepulanganku

Daripada berita yang aku baca, nampak gayanya lapangan terbang Suvarnabhumi akan lama dikepong oleh penunjuk perasaan. Jadi aku telefonlah Jetstar dan alhamdulillah aku boleh tukar destinasiku tanpa bayaran tambahan. Aku pilih Singapura kerana tiada penerbangan terus ke Kuala Lumpur. Tetapi itinerari agak memenatkan. Aku bertolak 6 pagi esok dan akan transit di Sydney dan kemudian di Darwin sebelum medarat di Changi pukul 9 malam. Kemudian, aku akan bergegas ke Larkin Johor untuk ambil mana-mana bas ke Shah Alam. Tempahan penginapanku di Bangkok dan juga tiket penerbangan BKK-KL ku telah pun dibatalkan dan akan ditampung kosnya oleh pihak insuran. Tidaklah aku rugi sangat melainkan masa dan perasaan pasrah lambat balik 2 hari. Alhamdulillah. Cuma keretaku rosak, pad brek kena ganti ($230!), yang menjadikan semalam hari gembira aku malap sedikit. Walaubagaimanapun, ramai orang lain di dunia kini sedang menimpa kesusahan yang mengerdilkan kesusahanku:

1. Beribu orang terperangkap di Bangkok kerana pengepongan lapangan terbang.

2. Beratus orang mati atau cedera kerana serangan di Mumbai. 

3. Puluhan hingga ratusan orang dan kapal mereka ditangkap oleh lanun Somali.

4. Rakyat Palestin yang masih ditindas oleh rejim zionis Israel.

5. Rakyat Iraq dan Afghanistan yang masih merana akibat kesan peperangan.  

!@#$%&^*

I eagerly anticipated the day. I cleared my food stock. I packed my stuffs away in boxes. I finally vacuum my room. I read the news. I got this funny feeling that it was not meant to be. I called the airlines, twice. I was told first "no policy have been in place, everything is as is". I was later told "only outgoing flights are cancelled. inward flights remain scheduled". I stayed up. I showered. I woke my co-driver. I drove to the airport. I walked to the counter. 

"Hi, how are you?"

"which way are you heading?"

"Bangkok? hmmm. I think theres changes to that route. It might be cancelled. Go to that counter at the end there, she's the one handling this flight"

"I'm sorry, but all inward and outgoing flights, not just our airline, has been cancelled. It only escalated overnight and now the airport is closed."

5h!t

My trip home to Malaysia has just been delayed for a further 2 days. Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok International Airport was, on 26th November 2008, stormed and seized hold by anti-government protesters and disrupted all its services. Don Mueng airport was also blockaded. At the moment, the current government has declared state of emergency in these two places & will try to clear out the protesters by Saturday, the day my flight is resecheduled. More info:

NZ Herald: Bangkok explodes in violence.

Reuters: Main Bangkok airport to be shut until at least Saturday 

Rambang

Aku ingin meraikan hari kembalinya kelajuan jalur lebar Internet ku kepada kelajuan asalnya dengan berkongsi beberapa video dan gambar-gambar yang entah pape:

USB memory stick

Came across this article from NZHerald on some usage of USB pendrive. I haven't tried any but they sound pretty cool:

Stick tricks - USB memory magic: Snippets:

1. Speed up Windows Vista using ReadyBoost that lets the pendrive act as memory cache.

2. Store bootable Windows/Linux.

3. PC repair kit.

It is now only just over a week until I fly back to Malaysia for my last summer holiday & I finish this entry with: happy birthday sis.

Summer idle

On a totally different note, in overcoming my summer idleness, I tried watching/catching up on my vast collections of downloaded movies/documentaries. First 3 lined up were: BBC's Islamic history of Europe, Yvonne Project, and Fox's Conspiracy theory: Did we land on the moon? All these documentaries were old (downloaded 3 years ago) but their content, IMO, remain relevant today. Islamic history of Europe detailed the impact of Islam on Europe and how it shaped Europe today. It also showed brief history of Muslim settlement during Abbassid dynasty in Spain and Sicilly and the impact they have on Europe. Yvonne Project on the other hand is an hour-and-a-half lecture given by Yvonne Ridley, a British journalist captured by Taliban during American invasion of Afghanistan. She talked about her encounter with Taliban and how she ended up as a Muslim after the ordeal. I definitely recommend these 2 documentaries to broaden your perspective. The third documentaries is more sensationalism than exact documentary, IMO. It is Fox material anyway. It proposed that US never did made moon landings and arguements were made to prove this. They had a NASA spokeman, who did a crap job IMO, to counter these arguements. Whether he was trying to convince people of a lie or whether he was just crap at explaining, one thing for sure, he made the whole documentary more convincing of US never did land on the moon. 

Kerjaya dengan Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia

Hujung minggu lepas, aku pulang ke Dunedin untuk: (1) menghadiri ceramah "Kerjaya dengan KKM", (2) pengiklanan PPIM NZ bab pelajar, dan (3) jumpa kawan-kawan lama. Secara ringkasnya, kandungan ceramah (1) adalah seperti berikut:

1. Latihan siswazah (housemanship) adalah 2 tahun. Gred gaji adalah UD44 (sekitar RM4k selepas elaun).

2. Khidmat negara: 3 tahun wajib berkhidmat dengan negara (samada KKM, K Pertahanan Malaysia, Universiti-universiti awam) sebagai pegawai perubatan (Medical Officer) setelah tamat latihan siswazah. Rasanya naik gred gaji pada tahap ini.

3. Setelah selesai khidmat negara, pegawai perubatan boleh memilih untuk samada kekal menjadi pegawai perubatan, atau menjalani latihan kepakaran untuk menjadi pakar klinikal ataupun menjadi pegawai pentadbir.

4. Latihan kepakaran: syarat-syarat untuk memasuki latihan kepakaran: (1) telah selesai khidmat negara, (2) telah berkhidmat dalam bidang pengkhususan sekurang-kurangnya 1 tahun, (3) umur kurang dari 46 tahun ketika diterima untuk mulakan latihan. Disebabkan syarat (2), penceramah mencadangkan agar kita membuat keputusan awal-awal untuk memilih kepakaran kita dan berkhidmat di dalam bidang yang berkenaan ketika menjalani khidmat negara.

5. Nasihat kepada bakal houseman: berbaik dengan pekerja-pekerja hospital dan jururawat kerana merekalah yang akan membantu/menyusahkan anda bergantung pada sikap anda pada mereka.

Berikut adalah link untuk Yahoo Group Persatuan Perubatan Islam Malaysia Bab Pelajar New Zealand kepada mereka yang berminat untuk menyertai persatuan ini.

Click to join ppimnzsc

   

Street Hoops

Old but good. Was on the telly the other day. I'm off to Dunedin today.

Dave Chapelle

Still on holiday

34. I am here languishing in this 5h*7h01e flat that is now quite warm actually (alhamdulillah). Sleepless nights from games and movies meant waking up late and missing out on job opportunities. No urgency from me though as I only wanted to take up a job to kill the time and to feel useful.

54. Malaysian government has recently tabled a RM7bil economy injection to counter the credit crunch and global economy meltdown. The briefing of the stimulus package was marred by walkout from the oppositions MP. Apparently, they were frustrated at not being given the opportunity to debate/clarify facts on the briefing. The opposition blames the government for lack of transparency while the government, as what I perceived from the reporting of The Stars, argued that the manner of the questioning was rude. Which is more important? And another walkout - the solution to parliament dispute? 

58. I added Anwar Ibrahim blog on the blog list. I would like to point out that I try to be impartial to politic but since I do have set of principles that I like to abide upon, they will always be a degree of bias.

90. US election today.

Cuti

74. Cuti musim panas terakhir aku telah pun bermula. Pada bulan pertama, aku merancang untuk kumpul duit sikit dengan berkerja. Aku perlukan duit untuk perjalananku sepanjang cuti ini. 

82. Susahnya tulis dalam Bahasa Melayu setelah sekian lama tidak menulis. Terasa kekok dan hampir setiap ayat aku perlu berhenti untuk menterjermah perkataan dari Bahasa Inggeris kepada Bahasa Melayu.

23. Aku telah kembali bermain Dota. Usaha untuk meninggalkan permainan komputer menemui kegagalan sekali lagi. Apa-apapun, sekarang tengah cuti, jadi sepatutnya tidak akan menganggu pelajaran aku. Sudah setahun tidak main dan kini Dota sudah versi 6.56 dengan peta baru (creep scourge tukar dan ada creep baru), watak baru (Admiral Proudmore dan Sylvias Windrunner),  barang baru (phase boot, magic stick, dan bole naikkan armour tower) dan arahan baru (boleh buang orang afk). Sesiapa yang belum berkecimpung dengan Dota, saya nasihatkan jangan cuba, nanti ketagih. lol. Bermain permainan komputer ini telah menjadi satu budaya dikalangan pelajar Malaysia tidak kira dimana. Menghabiskan 1 malam bertarung dalam alam maya merupakan satu kebiasaan dan ini 1 fenomena yang aku ada juga risau dengan masa yang terbuang tetapi tidak berdaya untuk berhenti atau nak menghentikan. Seronok. Eratkan silaturrahim. Kita menyesal kemudian.

41. Gambar dibawah merupakan satu papan tanda yang terdapat di Wales. Bahasa dibawah merupakan Bahasa Welsh dan bukan tafsiran sebenar ayat Bahasa Inggeris yang tertera di bahagian atas papan tanda tersebut. Tekan pada gambar tersebut untuk baca penjelasan lanjut.

50. Anda mungkin perasan yang bahawasanya aku cuba menulis dengan gramar yang betul dan bahasa yang teratur dan ejaan yang betul. Skema kata orang, tetapi seperti aku pernah tulis sebelum ini, rugi kalau kita tidak tulis betul-betul selepas meluangkan masa untuk menulis. Jika saya berjaya belajar Bahasa Arab, saya juga akan tulis dalam bahasa tersebut.  

saje

it was a good idea back then

This was on the newspaper today. Not that new. 

Al-Quran 2:275 - 280: Those who devour usury will not stand except as stand one whom the Evil one by his touch Hath driven to madness. That is because they say: "Trade is like usury," but Allah hath permitted trade and forbidden usury. Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be pardoned for the past; their case is for Allah (to judge); but those who repeat (The offence) are companions of the Fire: They will abide therein (for ever). Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity: For He loveth not creatures ungrateful and wicked. Those who believe, and do deeds of righteousness, and establish regular prayers and regular charity, will have their reward with their Lord: on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and give up what remains of your demand for usury, if ye are indeed believers. If ye do it not, Take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger: But if ye turn back, ye shall have your capital sums: Deal not unjustly, and ye shall not be dealt with unjustly. If the debtor is in a difficulty, grant him time Till it is easy for him to repay. But if ye remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if ye only knew. 

Taken from USC Quran database. 

What a save

People do stuffs that they know it's wrong or dangerous for them. Why? If you think that at the end of the day you'll get away with it, then why not. Usually, the dangerous and wrong stuffs are fun and gives you a quick dose of 'high' and is often easier than the alternatives that are commonly more laborious or demand perseverance and patience. Human are not built to experience easy 'high's and body builds up tolerance to such an experience. It is perhaps this mechanism is built into mankind so that they don't get complacent and to continue to strive for 'high's. It is a mechanism necessary for survival. But in modern lifestyle when survival is easy and obtaining 'high's is easy, the body & mind become corrupted & diseased chasing those 'high's & surviving & functioning in society become secondary to these. lalalalala...b***s***. All I wanted to say is, be patient & persevere.

evaluation

And do not follow (blindly) any information of which you have no (direct) knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception, you must verify it for yourself. (In the Court of your Lord,) you will be held accountable for your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning."[17:36]

I think from now onward, I should start writing in Malay as well, which will serve as a good practice for me. Just an opinion regarding blogging: it's easy to use everyday language and the intermingling of Malay & English (aka Manglish) as commonly used in Malays conversations & speech, but IMO, consorting to this meant you deprive yourself an opportunity to practice writing properly & improve your language/writing skill. As in everything, the more you practice, the easier things become & my recent flurry of blog entries is a culmination of getting the hang on writing + free time after finishing all assignments.

1337 & teh jihad

[Continued from previous post] The 1st habit is being pro-active. For more explanation, read the book :) but just a snippet here and my own addition from another tazkirah: Part of being pro-active is being aware of what you can actually change and do and this almost ultimately means that the only thing you can change is yourself. There are 3 types of people: people who controls/fight/jihad against himself, people who are slaves to themselves and their whims, and people who interchanges between controlling and slaving to their ownselves/whims. The first lot, also known as mujahid linafsi (fighter against ownselves/whims), have the following characteristics:
1. Knows that controlling his whim is key to success,

2. Is charitable and not greedy,

3. Is thankful of his providence, 

4. Totally depends on his Lord on all aspects of life,

5. Mind that is open to the truth and willing to embrace it.

The slaves of their whim are those who:

1. Is greedy,

2. Is never thankful of his providence and often lament his luck,

3. Does not think that he need his Lord,

4. befriend syaitan - indulge in sins.

The last lot - the people who interchanges between the two states - make up the majority of the people in the world. The degree of interchangability varies between individuals and it is prudent for one to achieve success to have a greater degree of control of one whims rather than slaving over them. 

If you click on the photo above, it'll take you to some photo of terrorist training us playing paintball. 

This is how you do it

The diagram should be self-explanatory and if you click on it, it will lead to more raya @ Chch 2008 photos. It doesn't seem to stop huh? Even with exams looming around the corner. This open house was preceded with Solat hajat in conjunction with the oncoming exam held primarily for Canterbury Uni students. I crashed in because of the free food. Tazkirah given that night by the usual person in Chch (Napi) was centered around the 1st habit of '7 habits of higly effective people' authored by Stephen Covey. That Covey chap is an interesting guy. He was (or still is) a Christian preacher who wanted to convey his messages and values. He realised that in this secular age, anything with religious connotation will have its market restricted or be negatively perceived. Hence, he repackages the information into a "secular" form and wrote what became a best-seller book. I've read the book and it doesn't contain any subliminal or frank messages on Christianity - the book is just on common and good senses written in a coherent, easily understood and well structured manner. To be continued ----- 

Everybody knows

Everybody knows it's you but let me give some idea to those who are still in oblivion of who is impersonating me on shoutbox.

Hisham @ 2332 16/10/2008 is a telstraclear Wellington Cable TelstraClear Wellington Cable Customers 24/7 TelstraClear NOC phone +64-9-91XXXXXXX

Hisham @ 1341 15/10/2008 is student-6.wnmeds.ac.nz imported inetnum object for UNIVER-164

IP tracker used: aruljohn.com/track.pl

More raya @ chch 2008 photos (click on the poster below):

break

Just a random entry for a break from writing - guess what - another ethic assignment. yippeee. If you want a doctor well versed with ethical theory, choose an Otago graduate. Theory doesn't translate to practice though, just like someone who has spent years in a religious school doesn't necessarily mean that that guy is a pious person. Does that mean to hell with education? Of course not, as you're never certain who will turn out alright or when the effect of the education is going to come. A person who is made aware of certain things will perform an action with that knowledge subconsciously working to guide that action IMO. 

--- 2 hours later ----

OK, I'm actually stuck with this essay and I need my brain to get going so I'm going to blabber on here for it to work. So, there was this handicap guy with some bowel problems. The team popped in a urinary catheter into the guy while he was under GA for a CT scan. What is wrong there? Nothing. lalalala apart from the fact that he wasn't told about it. Does it matter? He's retarded and doesn't understand anyway and would it just be a futile exercise? 

--- 2 hours later ----

aaargh, still haven't finish this damn essay. Its due tomorrow actually, thats why I'm burning the midnight oil. Anyway, things going on with me: I'm only 2 weeks + 1 day away from my summer holiday. OSCE on last week of october. This ethic essay is my last assignment for the year. I'm going to stay in NZ for a month, possibly doing odd job then head to Malaysia via Melbourne and Bangkok. Direct flight to KL cost $500 more than going to this route - I'm not sure why. I will also leave my current shitty cold flat and will rely on my friend who is staying over the summer to find a new flat. What will I do in Malaysia? So far, planned to travel to Kuching and possibly Johor. Balik kampung to Terengganu is always a feature. I reckoned December will be filled with wedding invites so I'll be staying in Shah Alam during those time. I also have a plan to learn arabic if I could find some intensive course somewhere. I plan to do my electives in Egypt, now that my brother is studying medicine there. I'm surprised he chose that since I thought he was adamant not to follow his brother's and sister's footstep. Anyway, good luck to him and I'll be sending my no-longer-needed textbooks to him. When I get back home, it'll be just me, my baby sister (happy birthday!), mom & dad. Mom will be busy with her PhD (I think). Dad is always busy. Baby sister is a baby & watches soap drama all day long after her SPM. The others who wont be at home - sis being a teacher somewhere in Kedah & another sister who is studying medicine in UK. Yes, I'm still staying with my parents. sigh - people my age are married off, having kids, living by themselves - here I am lagging behind as always.

Statistics

Just finished my Evidence-Based Medicine assignment and now is plowing through the books on breast surgery and GI diseases. As I have been toying with papers involving some statistics lately, here are some few interesting statistics on bread:

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called “dough.” It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average North American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
8. Bread is often a “gateway” food item, leading the user to “harder” items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 240 degrees Celsius! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

Stolen from wwww.phsyics.uwo.ca

What are we actually celebrating?

In his Eid sermon, Christchurch imam likened Eid celebration to a university graduation. Unlike Christmas, which commemorate birth, Eid is to celebrate the success of believers doing deeds during Ramadhan - the fasting, tadabbur quran and tarawih to name a few. Ramadhan is a month made to train the souls, discipline and physics of man in order to attain the pleasure of Lord of the universe. It is hoped that we will carry some of the deeds through to the rest of the year. Hence, Eid is not a celebration of freedom from fasting and its inhibitions and should not be treated as such. That is why Eid day is started with Eid prayer and sermon soon after Fajr prayer - acts to which serve to remind mankind of their purpose in life and that is to worship God. I have been alarmed at myself for failing to carry on some of the deeds that I have set out to do and this entry was meant to serve as mainly a reminder to me and not as a swipe at anybody. Anyway, more raya in Chch 2008 photos: 

Taken from PelangiBonda.com:

“Daripada al-Nawwas bin Sam’aan Radiyallahu ‘anhu, Nabi sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam telah bersabda: Kebajikan itu adalah pada keelokan akhlak. Manakala dosa kejahatan pula adalah apa yang mendatangkan resah pada dirimu, dan engkau tidak suka manusia lain melihat atau mengetahuinya.” [Hadith Riwayat Muslim]

Housekeeping

Just to post blog updates and more raya pics. I have added more blogs on my blogroll - JIM website, my mom's cousin, fellow Canterburian and a childhood friend when I was in Loughborough. The top photo is taken at our current shitty cold flat when we did our open house last Saturday. It was a joint venture with the Cambridge Terracce girls, Chow and Rae Na (5th year IMU students). Us boys at the flat spent almost $200 for the party and we cooked satay, rice vermicelli tom yam, and nasi lemak. This time around I didn't use ayam brand satay sauce to marinate the chicken but modified the recipe found at rasamalaysia.com. Here's the recipe:

Boneless chicken/beef cut into cubes.

Marinate meat overnight with: (for meat amounting to a tub of icecream -?size)

2 teaspoon of coriander

4 teaspoon of tumeric

2 teaspoon of salt

4 spoon of sweet soy sauce

2 spoon of oyster sauce

1/3 blended lemon grass

Skewer meat in soaked bamboo sticks and grill away. 

It was better than the first time around but still not there yet. I have to put on hold my dreams of starting Satay Haji Wan Hisham :D More raya at Christchurch 2008 photos:

Selor

Atoy

Now, I will labour on my final case report for the year.

Credit Crunch and bruises

The market is in a freefall at the moment and only recently, the US Congress has approved a $700bn bail-out of top American companies, including insurance giant AIG. This matters as ripple-effects from the US economy is felt globally, and countries, like China or EU, that was thought to counter-act this effect did not have enough strength. The root of the current problem is cited to be due to the current credit crunch. I have been oblivious to what is this credit crunch all about but I decided to let my mind free of this ignorance and here is what I found:

1. Credit crunch means sudden shortage of funds for lending leading to reduction of loans available. This can occur due to :

a) sudden increase in interest rates

b) direct money control by governments

c) drying up of funds in capital market.

Companies need loan to do businesses (ie buy stocks) hence lack of loan means inabililty to do business which results in loss of employment and lower income.

2. The current crisis is caused by these steps:

a) Initially, interest rates were slashed in the US to help boost economy after 9-11 and dot-com crash 

b) These lead to cheap debts and were given to inappropriate people (people with low incomes and bad credit). To make subprime mortgages (high risk loan for people with bad credit history) more profitable, mortgage companies package these subprime mortgages into consolidation packages and sold it to financial companies. This meant that mortgage companies borrowed in order to give out mortgages and not financed out of saving accounts or the like.

c) In 2007, US had to increase interest rate to curb inflation which leads to mortgage being expensive. Inflation also caused lower income from household to pay off mortgages. In addition, these mortgages has 2-yr honeymoon period of low interest rates followed by high interest rates the following years. Hence, on 2007 onwards, many defaulted on their mortgages. This lead to several companies to go bankrupt which then leads to huge losses of money by financial companies and banks.

d) This then lead to banks and financial companies to restrict their lending and thus the credit crunch.

e) In the UK and NZ, the credit crunch is caused by brankcruptcy of several financial companies that have high % of risky loans. 

More on credit crunch here or here or here

The song on new iPod nano ad is quite catchy. The link to mp3 is below the YouTube video. As for me, it's time to hit the books for haematology test tomorrow. Yippeee.

     

Chairlift - Bruises

Down

#*!@#$%^&. I wanted to write an emo entry like Nuha but then the machoness of this blog will forever be erased and turned into a wussy blog. But I could see the perks - you get to clear your head and your heart without directly bothering anybody else. However, I'll rather retain the machoness of the blog than capitulate to such level. Anyway, back in Malaysia I had someone to do that, now here, not anymore. sigh. miss her & i need replacement :D.
The truth is, when your heart is anxious and your head in shambles, who else is best at setting them straight than Allah a.s. It's a pity that I always forget about this.

Eid Updates

More photos:

Pelangi Bonda
Pelangi Bonda again
Another Pelangi Bonda
Yazid 1
Yazid 2

If you are coming to Christchurch, make sure your camera is a DSLR or don't bother to use it. Better option is to steal photos from those who have those fancy cameras. Anyway, not much of me in these photos - not photogenic enough :(

Still Eid Mubarak

More Eid photos. Stolen from Christchurch photographers with their spanking brand new DSLR, which made my 5 year old kodak camera embarassingly pathetic. I'm gonna go and bury it safely somewhere. The photos:

Atoy

Yazid

Also added some more blogs on my blog roll. Eid mubarak again and happy syawal fasting, something I have doubts I'll able to do this year.

Eid Mubarak

Eid mubarak. Photo of me with some Canterburians for "Salam Perantauan" photo session. Theme: Red -  but apparently there are some outrageously colour-blind chicks, but the more the merrier...

Tazkirah Ramadhan

In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most beneficent.

All praise and glory to Allah, lord of the universe. Peace and blessing to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and his companions.

Brothers & sisters in Islam,

As we approached the end of Ramadhan, 90% of us would have their mind  preoccupied with Eid celebration with the plans for binge eating, trying out new clothes and stuffs like that. But lets not get ourselves carried away and stop for a moment,  evaluate ourselves, our Ramadhan and what our plans for the future regarding our deeds. The question is, do we, after end of Ramadhan, regress back to our old selves? Or do we achieve something from it, and that is by continuing some of the deeds that were performed during this blessed month. One deeds that was encouraged in Ramadhan and  should remain the mainstay of our daily activities is tadabbur Al-Quran. The word tadabbur can be roughly translated to 'contemplate', which means to study thoroughly and to have in mind as an intention or possibility. Hence, Al-Quran is not just for reading but it has meanings for which are there to take lessons from as stated by this verse 38: 29:

  كِتَابٌ أَنْزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ مُبَارَكٌ لِيَدَّبَّرُوا آيَاتِهِ وَلِيَتَذَكَّرَ أُولُو الألْبَابِ

(This is) a Book that We have revealed unto you (O Prophet), full of lasting Bliss that they may ponder upon its Messages and that those who have understood may (take them to heart and [always] be mindful.[38:29]

Brothers & sisters in Islam,

In order to achieve understanding of Al-Quran, one can resort to reading tafsirs as they compiles other verses of Quran, hadith and opinions of ulama in explaining, expanding and interpretating the verse of Quran. Many tafsirs are out there but there are two that are highly recommended, Tafsir Ibn Kathir by Ibn Kathir - a classical tafsir which mainly uses hadith to explain verses of Quran, and Fi Zilal Al Quran by Syed Qutb - a more contemporary tafsir that includes modern problems in explaining the verses of Quran.
Brothers & sisters in Islam,

To conclude, if there is one thing that we could take from Ramadhan, is to be closer to Al-Quran and that can be achieved by tadabbur Al-Quran. I would also like to take this opportunity to say Eid mubarak and apologize for any mistakes i made.     

Daylight saving

After almost 9 years living in UK and NZ, only now have I confirmed my hunch on why they observe day-light saving. According to a "reliable" source, Daylight Saving Time is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. The practice is controversial. Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun. Extra afternoon daylight reduces traffic fatalities; its effect on health and crime is less clear. Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns greatly differ and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited and contradictory. 

Class resumes tomorrow and how I wish for a valium to correct my sleeping habits.

Satay recipe

Tried cooking satay for ifthar today. Here's the recipe:

1 kg boneless chicken
1 kg topside beef
2 jar of Ayam brand satay sauce (lol)

Cut meat into cubes or strip and marinate with 1 jar of satay sauce overnight. Then skewer meat into soaked bamboo sticks. Grill away. I grilled using oven grill set at 300 degrees for 5 minutes before turning over and then another 5 minutes. The other jar of satay sauce is used as a errr, sauce. Result:

This photo shows what ideally the satay should turn out. Mine: doesn't look as good and the meat weren't that tasty - 4 factors to blame: (1) meat wasn't really defrosted when it was put out for marination, (2) not enough marinate sauce, (3) oven grilled, instead of bbq grill as additional oil dab can be used in the latter option, and (4) it was cold when I ate it. 

Help

Palestinian women lead young girls through the Kalandia checkpoint, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah, to cross to Jerusalem to attend Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosques compound on September 19, 2008. Thousands of Muslim faithful have been crossing every week from the West bank to attend Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest shrine, since the start of the holy month of Ramadan three weeks ago.(DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images)

Israeli border police hold back Palestinians on their way to pray for the holy fasting month of Ramadan at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, at Kalandia checkpoint, between the West Bank town of Ramallah and Jerusalem, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Palestinian women walk past men (on the other side of the fence) waiting to cross a checkpoint to get into Israel in order to pray for the holy fasting month of Ramadan at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehil)

As you can see, our brethrens in Palestine aren't doing too good and they need our help. If you can spare some dough, please donate to Aman Palestin Bhd. Acount no: 562263010787(Maybank) 12029010047880(Bank Islam). For more info call 03-89267019 (Malaysia) or visit amanpalestin.org

Photos from boston.com

the Dwellings

O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor let (some) women scoff at other women, it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor defame one another, nor insult one another by nicknames. How bad is it to insult one's brother after having Faith. And whosoever does not repent, then such are indeed zalimun (transgressors, wrong-doers).

O you who believe! Avoid much suspicion; indeed some suspicions are sins. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it. And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is the One Who Forgives and accepts repentance, Most Merciful.

O mankind! We have created you from a male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has taqwa (piety). Verily Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.

Verses from Qur'an 49:11-13 as recited in today's tarawih prayer at University of Canterbury.

On a totally unrelated note, I'm getting pretty fed up with chrome's hanging and now seriously considering a move to kyubi (firefox) or worse IE. I'm hoping the final version of chrome come out soon and fix these 'hanging' coz I kinda fancy it for being speedy (fast load).

Comment moderation

All I wanted to say is I've switched on comment moderation. Not that there was ever any flood of comments on my blog, but I can't condone any comments that in any way promote maksiah (sins) and such. A society that allow sins to perpetuate is very much condemned in Quran and I will not allow this blog to be a medium for those sort of activities. Go somewhere else, there's plenty out there. I'm not free of sins too and may be a bit myopic of my own faults but I'm working on that (hopefully) and this entry will act as a precedence/reminder that most of my entries should be kept in the limits of Islamic law.

The photo sure does bring back memories of high school. Back then, we used to hang cats on window grills like this:

No cats were harmed though, and after several 'hanging', they finally figure out how to get down. 

Ramadhan blues

Whether it is a good thing or not, this whole week I got a holiday as the convener of the class had to go outstation and felt drafting someone else in such short notice as unfair hence canceling the whole week of class. I should be pissed because my government paid hefty fees to get me educated but hey, who doesn't like holiday? My mates invited me to go down to Dunny, but poor them, they don't have holiday, so what am I suppose to do during the day when everyone else at class? (actually, I could do hafazan or some reading, or sleep). So, here I am, at home, with free time to spend and to contemplate and evaluate my Ramadhan this year. The only aim I set this year was that, it must be better than last year's Ramadhan. But that Ramadhan was the worst I ever experienced, and without going into much details on that, it reminded me that to have the eagerness to perform ibadah is a blessing and mercy from Allah itself. To be woken up in the early morning so you're able to perform qiam and have sahur is a blessing as is to have the right state of mind or freedom of time to focus on hafazan or quran recitation. Nevertheless, one doesn't perform ibadah because he is pure or pious, but one performs it in order to purify oneself or reach piety. This is an important concept that I would like to remind myself and others. It debunk the concept: "I'm evil so I don't perform ibadah". Anyway, as alluded earlier, the state of my Ramadhan last year was bad and it was only a manifestation of the regression that I have experienced as far as I can remember when I stop involving in dakwah activities 3 years ago. It strike me today, I haven't made much improvement to myself since, and in fact, I am in a state worse than I was. I was demystified of my current state only when observing how much my mates have progressed. I'm not sure where I'm going with this musing but the point is, the regression must stop now, retrain my self-discipline, endure the journey and pray for the result.

Remember this cat?


He's kinda serious underneath those makeup:


And also master of disguise:


Stolen from pantip.com

masochism

mas·och·ism [mas-uh-kiz-uhm]

–noun
1. Psychiatry. the condition in which sexual gratification depends on suffering, physical pain, and humiliation.
2. gratification gained from pain, deprivation, degradation, etc., inflicted or imposed on oneself, either as a result of one's own actions or the actions of others, esp. the tendency to seek this form of gratification.
3. the act of turning one's destructive tendencies inward or upon oneself.
4. the tendency to find pleasure in self-denial, submissiveness, etc.

The goat was licking an electric fence.

PS: Chrome do 'hang' a lot when browsing YouTube, which is surprising. And a simple copy-paste of text for blogging is hard since the default mode in chrome is to copy the whole html behing the text. Several cons for you to chew on...

Google Chrome (Updated)

A new browser in town and I gave it a go. When compared to IE7, Google Chrome loads pages faster, looks cooler and has some nifty functions not available to its rival. I like the customizable tab (look better too) and the highlight-then-right-click-and-search function. Open source means third party apps will be available soon ala Firefox. But comparing it with Firefox 3, no much difference between the two, even the functions are the same. Mozilla is after all under Google. In addition, Chrome has issues with securities, but I don't have details on that so nothing I could elaborate there.

Update: Apparently, IE 8 beta version is already out and I tried it. Still more sluggish than Chrome when tested by comparing the loading time of an important website - Soccernet.com. What caught my eye with IE 8 is the built-in accelerator that allows you to do stuffs to highlighted stuff. For example, you highlight the word 'Shah Alam', click the accelerator logo on it, then you can, say, either search 'Shah Alam' in YouTube or in Google map. At this moment, I'm sticking to Chrome mainly because speed matters for me. I'm sure accelerator for Chrome would come out soon as a third party app or when the final version of Chrome is out. My hunch is that the accelerator was based on firefox third-party app..  

Salman the Persian

One of prophet Muhammad's companion, Salman the Persian or Salman Al-Farisi, was born into an affluent Persian family and was much loved by his father. Early in his life, he was a devout Magian (fire worshipper) and attained the position of custodian of fire. However, one day he passed by a Christian group and out of curiosity stayed with them to learn of their religion. He found that this religion was better and replaced his old religion with this one. His father was not approved of this and chained him away but Salman managed to sneak out and fled to Syria, where Christianity was flourishing at that time. As years gone by, news of a new a prophet in Arabia reached him and he set out to Hijjaz (the region in Arabia where Mecca and Medina (then Yathrib) were located) by joining an Arab caravan heading there. Before reaching Yathrib, he was betrayed by his host and was sold to a Jewish family as slaved. He was transferred to Yathrib and that is where he accepted Islam as his faith after observing prophet Muhammad pbuh. He couldn't join the Battle of Badr and Battle of Uhd due to his position as a slave. However, after Uhd, he was released from slavery following a payment of planting several hundreds of palm trees for his master, an agreement brokered by prophet Muhammad pbuh. The following military conflict, the Battle of the Trench, made Salman famous among the Muslims. Salman was the one who gave idea of building a trench to fortify a seiged Medina from the Confederate army, a strategy that was alien to the Arab world back then. The Muslims were outnumbered and faced betrayal from previously ally Jewish tribes, the trench provided the Muslims time until the Confederate army has to withdraw due to poor weather (or divine intervention). After the death of the prophet, Salman became a governer in Syria where he is known to give away all his salary to charity. His living is largely dependent on his own crop. Salman is known for his attributes of generosity, humility, extensive knowledge of Islam, Christianity, Zoroastriasm. He was also the first person to translate al-Quran.

Summarised from wikipedia.

Nothing to do with Salman Al-Farisi (but I wanted to write something too before my hiatus from blogging for a couple of days) is that Man Utd has got this talented youngster that had me impressed. Another 19 year-old Brazilian, Rodrigo Possebon made his competitive debut in the 1-1 EPL match against Newcastle Utd. He also made a 13-minute cameo in the 1-0 win over Portsmouth this morning. Playing in the defensive CM position, he was comfortable on the ball, good range of passing, good ball control and technique and can use both feet. He is 6 foot tall too which is a plus.

Weird ...

Al-Yankovich, another musician who does parodies. His song 'eat it', a parody of Michael Jackson's 'Beat it', had me in stitches. 'Amish paradise' and 'Smells like nirvana', parodies of 'gangsta paradise' and 'smells like teen spirit' respectively, were good too. Now, I stumbled upon 'e-bay', a parody of BSB 'I want it that way, which had kept me entertained a couple of minutes ago. This is not the official video but still funny:

Shoelace how-to

Back in high school, washing those white shoes and relacing them was one of those mundane that I had to do weekly. Who the **** gave the idea of white shoe as part of school uniform in a tropical, wet and muddy country. Luckily for me, I only experienced a year of it as I quickly volunteered to be a librarian so that i could wear black leather shoes instead. Anyway, to make lacing those shoes more interesting, I have stumbled upon this website last year - Ian's Shoelace site. So far, my favourite is Over Under Lacing, which happen to be the author's favourite as well. Its not too fancy but remain stylish over the normal lacing method:

Lacing Technique:

1. The lace is run straight across the bottom (grey section) and is fed into both bottom eyelets.

2. The ends are crossed over underneath and emerge from the next set of eyelets up the shoe, then crossed over on top and fed into the next set of eyelets.

3. Repeat step (2) until both ends reach the top eyelets

Note: If the shoe has an ODD number of eyelet pairs (eg. 7 pairs = 14 eyelets, like my shoe at left), start with the bottom (grey section) underneath in order for the last crossover to also be underneath when you reach the top eyelets.

amateur transplants

I was belatedly introduced to this duo - Amateur Transplants - Drs from London who does musical parody mostly on medical stuffs. There are couple of their songs posted on YouTube if you want to look it up. However, some songs have strong languages so thread with caution if you think you might be offended. Here's one of my favourite - anaesthethist hymn:

optimism or delusion?

More from Worth1000.com - a cool website with collection of photoshop galleries and contests.