Why so serious?

You thought this is gonna be an entry on The Dark Knight didn't you? Well no, I'm not going to write anything about that movie that is perhaps the best movie I have ever saw. In fact, what I intend to do is promote the Islamic Awareness Week that is coming near you all over NZ in the week of 4th - 10th August. Christchurch's activities are as follow:

Weekday daily information booth at University of Canterbury.
Daily lecture/video showing at C1 Lecture theatre 1930 - 2030 weekdays.
Mosque Open Day on the 9th August at Masjid An-Nur 101 Deans Avenue form 1100 - 1600.
BBQ at white pavillion, Ilam Field on the 10th August from 1100 - 1600.

Lets put a smile on that face by learning more about Islam. Pencil in your calendar the dates and time to ensure you'll be there. Invite as many non-Muslims as you can. Remember ,the main idea is for them to get to know Islam, not making them convert as hidayah is only the realm of God.

Just couldn't resist...

..posting these:

Don't waste time

Don't waste your time reading my blog, instead read this: Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah. This article from wikipedia is surprisingly true to what I have heard/read from a reliable source. Abu Ubaidah's will:

"Let me give you some advice which will cause you to be on the path of goodness always. Establish Prayer, Fast the month of Ramadan, Give charity, Perform the Hajj and Umrah, Remain united and support one another, Be sincere to your commanders and do not conceal anything from them. Don't let the world destroy you for even if man were to live a thousand years he would still end up with this state that you see me in. Peace be upon you and the mercy of God."

Gaming

So far, my plan to stop gaming is going smoothly. It is now 3 weeks since I last played any computer games. My record was 6 months, so I'm still far away from breaking that record. Just after 3 weeks, I'm starting to see the fruition of my abstinence, I get more schoolwork and clubwork done, and also able to slip in some other activities as well. Gaming doesn't just take your time out, it can also induce violence (see newspaper article below) and death:
"A South Korean man has died after reportedly playing an online computer game for 50 hours with few breaks. The 28-year-old man collapsed after playing the game Starcraft at an Internet cafe in the city of Taegu, according to South Korean authorities. "(more from BBC).

Mt Cook

Nothing much going on here, me with my school work and NZ is pretty much mundane at the moment. But my dear Malaysia, what is happening there? Sodomy allegation on a certain person (again...), road blocks, motion-of-no confidence, retirement plan. Since the recent election result that ended the years of homogeneous power of a certain political party in the Malaysian government, unprecedented events have took place. Given my lack of knowledge on these kind of stuff, I'm just gonna sit on the fence and see how it pans out. I do think the roadblock was an outrageous move and totally upper handed. Some people will point out avoidance of the 13 Mei 1969 tragedy and they might have a point there..Anyway, continuing my winter holiday story: So, after Queenstown, we head on to Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. We didn't actually hike/drove all the way to the peak, but only stayed overnight at Mt Cook Village that is situated at the foot of the mountain (I guess). YHA hostel was the cheapest accommodation available at the village but it was also the most expensive among the accommodations we stayed throughout our holiday trip (rated at NZD29/night). The village was threadbare as it only had couple of houses there, a resort, a school and no shops whatsoever. At the time of visit, winter hasn't really set in and so, no snow and no skiing and less tourist. It wasn't warm enough to permit tramping as well, so the village was pretty much empty. We only did some walking and enjoy some spectacular scenery, such as the one I captured at the start of this entry. They are glaciers here too but they are mainly for viewing and not as beautiful as Fox or Franz Josef. The road to Mt Village has specatular view as well as evident by the photo below. This is Lake Pukaki.

Queenstown Revisited

Whazzup peeps? I'm here chillin in front of the comp here after that sweet as Teppanyaki dinner. First time tried it and though the food is a tad oily, the cook showmanship and the whole experience was quite good. I've been kept busy this week with exam as I might have alluded before but don't worry, I'm back writing this blog to quench those appetite for another of my entertaining yet meaningless blog entry. :D If you have not scrolled down yet, you should, as I have made some nifty addition to the blog - a FeedJit javascript to keep track of the traffic of this blog. I'm just curious. Anyway, back to my holiday stories and me and my flatmates went to Queenstown after having enough of Wanaka. We took the Crown Range route, a scenic route passing the mountains in between Wanaka and Queenstown:


This road provide access to Cardrona, a ski resort, which I have never been actually. At Queenstown, we stayed two nights to enjoy 'luging', bungiing and jet-boating. There's heaps of things to do here but you sure have to have a bank balance to match. This is not an exhaustive list but other stuffs to do here are paragliding, ski/snowboarding, lake cruise, and skydiving. Here are some panoramic view of Queenstown taken from Queenstown Gondola and Luge Ride:

The lake shown in the photo above is Lake Wakatipu and this is where Lingam went on holiday.

Wanaka Revisited

In a couple of hours, I'm going to try to go to bed and hope I could actually sleep and then wake up for an 8-o'clock start tomorrow. It's a daunting task given I've spent the later part of my holidays being a nocturnal, only sleepin after fajr and waking up just before Asr. This is in contrast to how I spent the early part of the holiday, where I would dose off before 11pm out of sheer tiredness and would then wake up refreshed next morning and not dose off after Fajr. Just digressing here, I've read somewhere that the hadith saying it's makhruh to sleep after Fajr is dhaif. Can anybody verify that fact? However, that early part of holiday was spent traveling, and after conquering the glacier, I went down for a quick visit of Wanaka. Just 4 hours drive from Franz Josef and passing the scenic Lake Hawea, Wanaka is one of the top tourist destination in NZ, mainly for it's winter activity attraction. We went there for sight seeing and only went walking on Mt Iron, a 2-hour walk just on the outskirt of Wanaka. It's more of a pit-stop for us before heading to Queenstown. Winter hasn't really kicked in yet when we enter and so no snow-capped mountains yet. There were lots of fog though. Here are some panoramic photo I've come up with from that walk on Mt Iron:

I haven't really develop my panoramic photo skill yet, hence the narrow slit appearance of these photos. Anyway, on a totally unrelated note, I've spent the last few hours of my holiday reading this hilarious website: . As far as I can remember (not that far) I did promote this website a few years ago in my blog. It now certainly has upgraded and contain some new hilarious articles. Should be good comic relief for those who was or is involved in MSA (Muslim Student Association) or anybody for that matter.