Busy, Busy Days

11th of July: Went to Subang to settle my passport (with a 50% discount for students).

12th of July: I officially graduated from INTEC (despite the fact that our results will only come out in August).















With Amira Balqis. Our Biology lecturer said that we look similar.















That's our biology lecturer - Mrs. Mimi Sophia.















Six lovely, 'ayu' girls from A-Level Medicine of INTEC.















From left to right: Sumaiyyah (my sister), Jee Jian (classmate), me, Elaine (housemate)

13th of July (Morning): Quality Day for students, where awards were given to the best student of each programme, best club and best club activity. I was nominated for best student for the ALM programme. The winners were Nicholas Lee Kwan Tuck and Praveena. Congratulations! To the other nominees, Hisham and Alicia - best of luck next time! Perhaps in MMMC or IMU, maybe? ;)
















Nominees from ALM (left to right): Nicholas, Hisham, Alicia, Praveena, me















With one of the winner, Praveena. She's one of the most amazing person I've ever met in my life - full of energy and extremely talented in many areas. We rarely get the chance to see each other, but when we do, it's time for one of those 'girls' pillow talk', if you know what I mean.


13th of July (Evening): Went back to our 'kampung angkat', Kampung Belia Satu, perhaps for the last time before all of us take off to our respective countries. Khairil drove, and Afiq was the co-driver. I sat at the back with Mardhiah and Hidayah, who both kept arguing with Khairil over the lyrics of a certain Malay song (I don't remember the title. Blame the wonderful Japanese music for making me immune to the Malaysian radio).

When I arrived that evening, I immediately joined my friends at the 'balai raya', who were busy slicing onions, ginger and the likes for our kenduri that night.















Working hard















Seronoknya blender cili ramai-ramai...















Shiraaj and Yaqzan diligently washing the dishes















Khairil stirring the 'sup daging', while Fahmi, Ajin Madang and Azizul looked on with a certain 'poyo' pose. Heheh.















Makcik-makcik sedang menggoreng ayam... harumnya bau...















With my 'mak', Cik Asliah, and my 'kakak', Aini.



























"Oh... so that's how you sweep the floor.."















The 'sick team' (L to R): Hanis (a wasp stung her feet), Damia (flu), Qamar (allergies)















Bersemangat nak ambil gambar tu...

14th of July: We went back to Shah Alam in the afternoon. Arrived at INTEC at around 4.00 p.m. I arrived home at 5.00 p.m. and rushed to get ready for my Grand Dinner and to catch the 6.00 p.m. bus to Pan Pacific Hotel in KL. We got back from the dinner at around 1 a.m., so I slept over at the surau in our hostel (all the seniors do not have their own house anymore).















Damia look stunning that night. I helped her set her tudung (tumpang bangga).















"You're just too good to be true.. can't take my eyes off you..."















Maziah and Rean belting out the lyrics of Mika Nakashima's "Glamorous Sky". They did an awesome job.















With my English lecturer, Mr. Udaya Bhanu (who sung a Hindi song that night - good job!), and fellow classmates

15th of July (Morning): I rushed home at 7.30 a.m. to get ready for my sister's award ceremony at her school. She had reminded me beforehand that I MUST come.





















Winner of the Best Chemistry Student and Anugerah Emas awards, my sister Syahidah.

15th of July (Evening): Went to Bon Odori at Matsushita Stadium, Shah Alam.
















With my online friend, Aina a.ka. haruna_hamasaki a.ka. Yamapi freak
















With a Japanese okaasan and her kids
















With a group of Japanese dressing up as the band members of Gazette
















The beautiful sight of Bon Odori

16th of July: My friends from Kedah (former MRSM Taiping classmates) came to my house.

17th of July: Reunion with some friends and classmates from MRSM Taiping in Mid Valley. Had lunch, and walked around while chit-chatting.

Busy, busy days all right. But I certainly enjoyed them.

When Will It Ever Stop?

Source: Wikipedia






















14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza and her family were killed by American soldiers in their village of Mahmoudiyah southeast of Baghdad on or around March 12th. So far 5 soldiers Steven Dale Green, Paul E. Cortez, James P. Barker, Jesse V. Spielman and Bryan L. Howard have all been charged with participating in the crime.

The Qassim family lived in an isolated farm area. Abeer's mother, Fakhariya Taja Muhassain was reported as being worried that her daughter had attracted the soldiers as she worked in the field near a checkpoint manned by U.S. troops. According to neighbors, soldiers had entered the farm house previously to search it and make advances toward Abeer. Abeer's mother was concerned enough about the soldier's advances to request that Abeer be allowed to spend her nights at the neighbor’s house. This proved to be an ineffective deterrent as the attack took place in broad daylight the day after Abeer spent her first night with neighbors.

According to reports the soldiers had planned to rape Abeer days before the event. They established a six-man group and on the day in question left with five soldiers leaving one behind to man the checkpoint. The sixth soldier has been charged with dereliction of duty for not reporting the crime.

The soldiers entered the house and ordered Abeer’s father, mother and sister into another room where Steven Green summarily shot all in the head after emerging to say, "I just killed them, all are dead." After the rest of the family was murdered, Abeer was gang-raped and then killed.

Abu Firas Janabi, a relative of the family and first to arrive at the scene was interviewed by the L.A. Times. He stated that both of the mother’s arms were obviously broken, the father’s head “smashed into pieces” and Abeer's body was found naked and burned, with her head smashed in "by a concrete block or a piece of iron.". The lower part of Abeer’s body, from her stomach down to her feet, was subsequently set on fire, presumably to eliminate any DNA evidence although it is unclear if Abeer was still alive or conscious when her body was burnt. The fire eventually spread to rest of the room and the smoke alerted neighbors.

Abeer Qasim Hamza, her mother Fakhriyah Taha Muhsin, 34; her father Qasim Hamza Raheem, 45; and her sister Hadeel Qasim Hamza, aged 7 are survived by 8-year-old son Ahmed Qassim and 13-year-old son Mohammed who survived the attack because they were at school.

Comments at the forum this was posted on:

...The details... oi...

No comment.

~Kisu

...*kicks*

...If America finds them guilty, the should just send them to the Iraqi government and let them do whatever they want to them. I don't really give a **** what they do, just let them do whatever they want to them in any way they want to do it.

...i AGREE! give them a taste of thier own medicine. or a much higher dosage.

...I'm so sick of this war.

So. Sick. Of this war.

... Amen to that, I am too!

... their trial should be held in iraq, in iraqi court. just becouse amecan (sic) war criminals tend to get away with it in us courts. (an example)
their act was sick, something any army should be able to prevent their personel (sic) form doing. most of cases like this are usally covered up by military organizations.

...Agreed, but that won't happen because they don't think they'd get a fair trial in Iraq. So that's why I suggest that if they're found guilty then send them over there. That why the trial part is out of the way and all that's left is to figure out how to sentence them.

...no war crime suspect has never got fair trial, nothing even close to that. but crimes they comited (sic) were happened iraq, that should be good enogh (sic) reason for trial to be held there, using iraqi laws with addition of "international laws of war" (hague conventions, geneva conventions and united nations charter).

What Do You See?

Look at the picture below and tell me what do you see.

So what do you see?

A black dot. Is that your answer?

It's the usual answer I will get from most people. Wouldn't "a white sheet with a tiny black dot" sound like a better answer?

So what's my point exactly?

Isn't this how people usually see things? People always tend to focus on the bad things. A person can be nice for all his life, but a single mistake he did would remain to be the most-talked about topic in everyone's conversation. We focused too much on the black dot that we failed to see the bigger region of the white sheet.

I usually hear things like "I can't believe a nice person like him did that." But it's all a talk in the back, and no one even care to advise the person about his wrongdoing. Yes, he is a nice person. A nice person is a nice person all right, but in the end he's also just a human being who needs to be reminded and advised all the same. Our actions of dissing that person behind his back brings nothing back in return - he remains in his ignorance over his fault, and those dissing him would be nothing but a bunch of gossipers who are looking for more sins to add to their credit.

So, can we all agree that a nice person - no matter how nice he is - is in fact, human. If he did something wrong, do not be so quick to say he is bad. We all need an advice once in a while in our lives. Let us try to focus on how to expand the area of the white sheet than to work on embedding that black dot forever on that pure background.

Who Moved My Blog?

Finally I made it. Although I'm not happy with how my blog template turns out to be, I finally moved to Blogspot. It's not exactly easy for me, seeing how I love the way I can manipulate HTML codes on Xanga easily as compared to Blogspot. But, oh well, I've got to start learning how to do the same for Blogspot. At least now I can link my favourite blogs from here.

I just got back from BTN (Biro Tatanegara) Course yesterday. Overall, BTN was okay. There were good things and bad ones, as usual. My fellow MMMC and PMC friends and I were confused at first as to which camp we were assigned to - Camp A or Camp B. We found out that all twinning students from INTEC are assigned to Camp B, so we headed to the hall there. It turns out that we were the last to arrive. Which made us lucky. Since the dorms were all full, we were given the guest house. There were 19 of us left, so 9 were assigned to Guest House 1 and another 10 to Guest House 2. Guest House 2 was at the very top of the place, so while climbing up the place (in an old-lady manner) my friends and I had all the lactic acid we can produce for the next five days. There were six beds and 9 of us, so my friend Maziah and I slept on the couch.. Which is not bad, really, because we were not tortured by the extreme cold air of the air cond when we woke up every morning. Plus, the cushions were so good and comfy! Maybe I would buy one just like that when I get my own house. Haha.

I had a great time hanging around with my friends, and knowing new people from other colleges as well. I met a few former schoolmates and acquantainces. The talks were.... well, all right. Some were better than the others. The LDK was.... all right, as well. But if I were to put an overall rating, I'd definitely say it is a good course. I've made some self-discovery and discovered a certain thing about myself that cannot be changed for the longest time. I've met a fellow anime fan, and another Manchester United supporter. I've endured 5 days without no news from the outside, except some short notification about who won the World Cup games and who were the losers. I was sad that England had to leave, and on penalty kick again, but I didn't expect much of them after their lackluster performance in the previous games. I'm very happy that Brazil had exited. Time for another country to lift that glory.

I wish I had spoken up more, but I didn't. I kept quiet most of the times, and my smile was my only expression. During BTN, for the first time in my life, I cried in front of strangers. Well, not really strangers, since they're my group members from other colleges (and 2 of my classmates), but it felt somewhat different to reveal yourself like that. And a bit embarrassing as well. We were supposed to write our will to the two most beloved person from our family - a will before we took off to our respective countries. Of course, everyone chose their parents. I was reluctant to read mine, as I knew just how I can easily cry over the thought of others' kindness. But of course, it was compulsary for everyone. I was the second last person to read mine out. I managed to read the first few words before my tears just started to flow crazily. I tried to control my emotions and to choke back my tears, but I just failed. Miserably. My facilitator finally asked me to turn around and face the wall instead of my group mates while reading my will. With a struggle, I managed to finish it all. It was supposed to be read for 20 times, but I think that once was enough. So did my facilitator. He told me "okay" after my first read. Ah, it was so embarrassing! I rarely let go of my emotions like that in front of others....