Permanent Head Damage

Appreciation

2011-11-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Funny some of us take for granted simple things of life. Bole bernafas, bole berjalan, melihat, berfikir.... Semuanya satu nikmat tau!.... Well, Allah took one of my nikmat... Temporarily of course... hopefully....

But really, when a part of your body cant function very well, it really affects everything. But no worries, it will be fixed in a jippy and plus... look at the bright side...mama and papa are coming. Papa is staying for a week and mama is staying for a month! Macam dalam pantang laa pulak

Currently working on secularization continuum. Getting inspiration is a b***

Orientation Week

2011-09-30T03:10:00.001-07:00

Minngu Orientasi University di Malaysia

As proud as I am to be a Malaysian University Graduate, I am not proud of our University's Orientation system. Historically, our University orientation system was much worst. It was degrading and humiliating. There were students who went crazy because of the pressure given by the seniors. However, during the Modern era, things have changed..... but still.... it needs major improvement

The video above is just the tip of the iceberg.... Look at their faces... did they enjoy it??

Nie siang siang. Kalau malam-malam kene panggei dengan senior. Pastu kene berleter sampai 2-3 pagi like we are idiots. Tah ape-ape kene ragging dengan senior. Nie tak termasuk yang kene basuh baju senior lagi.

Some institutions even have Army like marches. Penah dulu sampai tahap kene guling-guling atas padang lagi sampai ada orang pengsan. For me it doesnt make sense!!!! We are not going for war!.Those seniors have to understand that new students in a new environment away from their parents for the first time. Let them learn by themselves and not a be a bunch of dictators.

Basically, our orientation system is based on oppression. The seniors were desperate for respect through coercion. As far as I knoe, we are not supposed to gain respect through coercion but we have to earn it by improving ourselves and show good examples.

Australian Universities

See.... macam pesta kan??? The seniors were very accomodative... Terpulangah pada kita... kalau nak ikut ceramah atau tidak. Happyyyyy ja. Macam2 game ada from Foozball to pie throwing. Tapi ada aaa sikit drawbacks... Party terlebih hehe

Nie pulak University Groningen dekat Belanda. Of course memang the parties were extensively highlighted. Tapi, ada macam2 activities besides partying. For example, ada sports tryout, international dinners, tours around the campus, games and macam2 lagi lah

I Strongly believe that we need to change our Oppressive system. Minggu haluan siswa is supposed to be something enjoyable. Not to the extent of University Groningen of course. Our seniors are supposed to be like our brothers and sisters and not bullies.

Not to undermine our Malaysian Universities but as far as Orientation week, overseas universities is the real deal. However, in other areas such as spirituality, religiosity and even teaching, our Malaysian universities are still superior. Kalau dekat OZ or Belanda nie lantak Komee leeee. There are pro-s n con-s.

Yes I have strong resentment towards our University Orientation system. And one day, I intent to change that. Muahahaha

List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.(revised!)

2011-09-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Menyahut cabaran sedare Pire.....

I know this may sound cocky but this is my passion!

Seriously, I'll do it for free if I can....I'd be willing to work at 7-eleven at night just to sustain myself and during the day, I wanna be lecturer. However, I just figured out other professions

1)Lecturer for University Technology Mara UiTM Bebeeeeh!

2)Standup Comedian

3)Penyanyi Karaoke Professional

Chuppp air tu teh o ais yeee... Bukan ayaq buih nooo

Raya Trip

2011-09-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'm now writing my insignificant nuisance on the train while listening to Radio Era!!!! Ya'll must be wonderin. Train? ERA?.... Yess I think around this year kot, Netherlands dah ada internet dalam most of its intercity train ... lagi sempoi dari Germany kott!!? Rasa macam naik Bus nak balik Aloq setaq laa pulak. Tambah pulak today, cuaca panas dan lembab. The thing is, youtube kureng sket.... lebih kurang macam Dialup. But Its good enough for me.

Anyway, I found a nice cozy seat in de train. Its in the silent area, not apposite some loud Dutchies and its a direct train.... No transit sana, transit sini

Rewind a couple of hours ago, I saw some Malaysians while I was walking around in rotterdam . It turned out to be UiTM students..... Merbok plak tu.... wah wah wah... Budak2 merbok nie terer2 laaa....Ex-DBS plak tuuuu... Selaluuuu ja gi Overseas (poyo).

Rewind lagi a couple of hours...I was doing my jalan-jalan cari makan. So far today tak sempat cover the whole Randstadt(Area The hague, Rotterdam, Utrech and Amsterdam). I went to Rotterdam carneiselanden to makan Groote Soto Ajam Surinamse... siap bungkus sekali. N then, i went to Den haag Holland spoor to buy its cake and pastries. Pastu gi plak kat Den haag Centrum for its Lams Schotel. Well I think during this syawal, I'll be gaining 5 kilo easy. Tapi takpa lah coz I lost 10 kilo for ramadhan. Yes... 10 kilo wooo main tak lost 10 kilo.... Bulan2 posa dok main badminton macam orang tak posa.....

Dua jam sebelumya, semayang Jumaat dekat Rotterdam... Worth going...ingatkan nak take advantage of being musaffir but , bulan yang mulia punya pasal . The Azan was Fantastic and Suara Imam sedaap sangat. Funny thing happen after Jumuah prayers. There was a half naked guy ran into the Mosque... Depa kata the guy was carrying a knife... but I don think so coz I saw him entering the Mosque..... Nasib baik dia tak violate aku...

Friday nite I beraya umah Uncle James and Aunty Jolanda. I just need to visit them, coz they are family. Uncle James cam besa, besaq hati laa bila adik beradik mai tak putuih-putuih.

The 3rd, 2nd and 1st raya Beraya kat umah Kak Yooong! The best part was My parents and I all of us beraya kat umah kak yong.. Well at least the same tuan rumah. My parents beraya kat umah kak yong in Putra Heights while family kak yong and I beraya kat umah kak yong in Hannover. Beeest ... Ada rendang, daging merah(turun temurun from santa claus"Opah"), ketupat, lemang, tempoyak ikan patin you name it... semua ada! Isy laaa kalau takda kak yong... tensen jugak raya... My close Malaysian Friends "Balik Deraih"

1st raya aaa best! Family kak yong and I webcam ngan family in Malaysia and Bangi. Tolak pi, campoq mai, lebih kurang macam raya kat Malaysia aa

Projek Posa

2011-08-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

After about half way through Ramadhan, I came to realize that this Ramadhan is special. Last ramadhan, I was quite alone. Everything was done alone. This time....

After semayang Jumaat, my Indonesian friends ajak bukak posa. Being who I am, I cant resist free food. So.... pergilaa aku sensorang rumah Wahono. Masuk2 rumah Wahono, teringat umah Abang ucop dulu. Dengan bau, baby creamnya, semerbak masakan lagi.... mmg family home lah. Comelnya baby dia...

After abang Ucop balik, aku nie dah lama tak rasa suasana Muslim. Kalau lepak, mesti ada botol2 arak atas meja dan asap rokok/ganja. I dont do all that tp duduk semeja dengan depa, rasa tak sedap hati. Kali nie dengan Indonesian Muslim community, rasa mcm Ramadhan lebih Imarah.

So, antara aktifitas-aktifitas persatuan Pelajar Indonesia Groningen adalah Tadarus Al-Quran dan berbuka puasa every alternate days at different houses. Beeeest... Makanannya enak-enak belaka.

Tadarus pula, interesting..... Range of proficiency ranges from beginner to super expert. So, kalau ada silap, masing2 tegur laaa si pembaca jikalau ada yang silap. Best part, beginners are equiped with their enthusiasm. The thing is about Indonesian, Semangat depa memang kuat.... Cuba laa baca sebaik mungkin. I really admire that

However on normal days kalau takde Iftar together, I'm with my cooking projects. So, one of my masterpiece is Lamb steak with pita bread and Mac n Cheese. Beeeeeeest!

I found that daging dekat europe nie top notch punya Kwaliteit... Leeeeeembut!

Resepi nya simple

Beli daging for steak....

Use butter knife and sapu 1)Oyster sauce 2)kicap

Taboq serbuk cabai and pepper

leave it in the fridge....

as far as I'm concerned it can last in the fridge for 3 days at least.....

so bila rasa macam nak masak, taruk jee dalam pan.... kejap jeee nak masak

Less than 5 minutes each side or according to Jamie Oliver, according to yuour intuition

For Mac n Cheese pula...

You'll need

Macaronies
Grated cheese
milk
condensed milk
butter
black pepper
Tepung

Rebuih macaronies.......

Pakai non stick pan, mix Butter, grated cheese, condense milk, butter, pepper and tepung sekali and masak sampai agak2 likat tu.

Taruk macaronies dalam mangkuk foil and then taruk the magic mixture of cheese tadi...

And then tauk dalam oven 200 celcious

and then VOILA!!

Jangan jelessss.... Kat Bazar ramadhan takde jual mende2 nieh HAHAHA (Pathetic lough)

Anyway.... you guys know what's another word for "buka Puasa" in Indonesian????

Its menanti Maghrib or "Penngaburan Burit"...... yes it is true and I didn't make it up

Summer

2011-07-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Musim panas adalah antara musim yang paling Bosan di Groningen. Everybody seems to be either on vacation or at their parents place. Tinggal laaa aku sensorang mcm kera duku. Nasib baik ada member satu office.

Before this, Aktiviti kami kami untuk menghilangkan bosan was of course swimming. Swimming bukan saja menyehatkan tubuh badan, tapi boleh menjamu mata. Bulan Puasa nie tak la pulak gi swimming :P

After that main Badminton..... It turned out main badminton nie lagi best daripada swimming coz bole kutuk2 member in other words, lagi banyak aa interaction drp kawan2.

Kalau 24hrs dok depan computer buat keje je mmg tension...

Anyway, Claudio baru saja bagi video yang dia rakam waktu kami gi Lisbon haritu... We stumbled upon Portuguese traditional dance which was very similar to our peranakan melaka punya tarian.

1st Malaysian version

2nd Portuguese Version

A little bit about the skirts that the girls pakai:

According to Rui, there used to be 7 layers or so. The outer layer was supposed to protect the girls from the sea water when they go out to sea. What they did was depa selak skirt tu naik atas mcm cup. Not all the layers!!! only the first layer. And supposedly it will protect them from the sea water

Rempit

2011-07-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

Kekadang bila lama tak balik Malaysia, rasa macam hilang Malaysian vibe.......

Very difficult to describe unless you experience it....

Among the things that I do is of course Masak makanan Malaysia.... tp tu dah selalu dah

Dengaq Azan Malaysia would help...

But now what I do is dengaq lagu Melayu... Bukan lagu traditional Melayu nie...

Lagu-lagu yang aku klasifikasikan sebagai lagu-lagu rock kapak

Contohnya

Cinta di Pantai Merdeka- jinbara

Rahsia Pohon Cemara

Titian Hasrat - Samudera

Perrghhhh layaaaaaan hilang kejap Nederlandse vibe yang buhsan tuh...

Teringat masa tgh lepak dekat pekan rabu... or tgh makan lunch dekat kompleks peruda....

Tu laaa dulu dok kutuk sangat lagu rock kapak... kata lagu mat rempit laa ...

Sejauh mana merantau last last teringat kat Loq stuck jugaaak

My bro's Graduation ceremony

2011-07-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

First, let me tell you what I meant by Anglo Saxon. Anglo Saxon nie basically Negara2 yang ada kaitan dengan British. May it be Britain, OZ, NZ or Canada for that matter. One of the things that is most obvious is that the currencies in these countries has a picture queen Elisabeth on it. Apart from that if we look at the design of the house of representative and the system boleh kata semua sama.

Our vision of studying overseas on the top of our mind is the UK and of course US, OZ and NZ. The graduation ceremony is a typical robe with mortar head. You'll receive your diploma and and after that maybe a small reception and thats it. I think, the best part is getting to wear the robe and the mortar head to take pictures. Ada jugak yang bagi parents pakai robe tu and also take pictures which I think its very sweet :).

Malaysia Universities are a fusion of Anglo Saxon tradition and our own Monarchical tradition. Our Chanselors are the Sultans and heads of states. A robe and a mortar head is a must except for our clothing inside the robe. We have an option to wear a Malay Suit (Baju Melayu) or a business suit. However I find that business suit is not practical considering our hot and humid weather. In a more traditional public Malaysian Universities of course ada paluan kompang

In the Netherlands, things are a lil bit different. I find that the Dutch are not very keen on formal clothing. Of course they have nothing against it. There are no robes and mortar head gear. There are no dignitaries or head of states. Its just a cozy yet elegant ceremony that celebrates the achievement of the graduates instead of the dignitaries.

These are the Graduates... Tgk, ade yang pakai simple je

His name was called and he had to sit on the table and sign stuff... macam aqad nikah pulak

An then a speech by the Lecturer and by him. They tell about each other's experiences and achievements

The Certificate was given and then the Van Gogh sun flower... And then they hug and congratulate

An then, sesi bergambor

Bros

Geluk

2011-06-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Words cant describe how happy I am. I'm definitely going to spoil him. He's gonna get many gifts. I'm going to teach him how to swim, Taekwondo and Dutch.

My dream is for him to be mischievous and naughty during an auspicious event until all the professors lough seeing mummy gettin angry. Insyaallah

Irony

2011-06-23T03:48:00.000-07:00

Irony kenapa pencaci Al Quran Belanda terlepas daripada tuduhan mengapi-apikan sentimen Agama.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-23/netherlands-court-acquits-freedom-party-leader-wilders-of-defaming-muslims.html

Ironi kenapa pereka fesyen yang hanya terlepas cakap ketika mabuk sentimen antisemitik. Di soal berkali-kali, diseret ke mahkamah dan di desak untuk meminta maaf.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8591926/John-Galliano-trial-day-one-as-it-happened.html

Wonderful days

2011-06-16T03:39:00.000-07:00

Wanted to borrow a very important book for my research from the library... It turned out I cant coz the book has fungus!

Pulled over by the police because of cycling at the wrong lane. Right direction but wrong lane. 25 euro saman.... That's equivalent to freakin 5 Super chicken shoarma/a week of groceries/ a trip to amsterdam :(. Such an Irony...... when possessing or planting marijuana and prostitution is cool but cycling at the bus lane is not cool. There were no buses on sight!. My german friend tak kene saman pon... A lil bit of racial undertone here.... well... Belanda kan... paham-paham lah... they never express it except for the Wilders guy.... But they do have it

Discussions at the Astana Economic Conference is cool for development in Islamic countries. But why some Islamic leaders distinguish Islam and Development???. I guess Luckman and Durkheim is right at least for mainstream thoughts... The Fundamental belief in religion in terms of higher transcendence is disappearing. What I admire is about the discussion was about Womens rights in Islam. This discussion stops here... I hate politics

Library nie laa yang aku dok pi..... Its like a candy store :)

Memang la video nie mcm lakonan. Tp dalam real life pon orang Belanda memang perangai macam nie.

Lipdub nie dah dok jadi trend dah dekat University Belanda... Wagenigen dah ada Universiteit Van Amsterdam pon dah ada....

University Malaysia bila lagi??

Sambungan Bacalhau

2011-06-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

After portugal, then, off to Umah Kak Yong in Hannover . Macam2 dia masak... merasa laaa aku makanan Malaysia. N then mama pulak masak my fav dish. Beeest ! . Umah kak yong is basically my refuge kalau nak merasa suasana raya.Too bad Imran was in Barcalona. We went to Berlin. It was nice there. Got to see some of the remains of the wall. Bukan apa... batu ja... But it was of great significance to the German people.

Above pic is us infront of German Parliament

From umah kak Yong we went to Rumah Uncle James. Uncle James, although he has never met my parents tp Masyaalah Besaq hati. Macam2 dia masak! Umah uncle James adalah satu lagi tempat refuge kalau cuti hehe... Uncle James dulu keje Cook... so mmg sedap laa masakan dia.

Next we went to amsterdam... nothin much abt Amsterdam... Malas lah nak tulis banyak2 about amsterdam, takut emosi kurang stabil. I savored the last days with my family in Amsterdam... after that depa nak balik dah... Sedih laaa bila depa balik... Seb baik jumpa uncle joe dekat airport....

Bacalhau

2011-06-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

It has been a really long time since i've posted anything. Busy as hell.... Loads of things to read before my parents come visit me. Thanks to Azizi sohabat dari Vrij Universiteit yang sudi menumpangkan apartment yang hanya 5 minit berjalan kaki dari Amsterdam Zuid. Siap belanja kebab lagi.

It has been nerly one year since I've seen my folks secara live. Selalunya skype aje.

I took my parents from the airport and we went straight to keukenhof... Sayang, bunga2nya dah banyak layu. The flower in the picture were dutch lilys. It was the end of the season. Then, off to Gro town.... Before that singgah sembahyang kejap dekat Masjid Den Haag.

A little bit about this mosque. If you look at the building, anything familliar? You'll be surprised that this building was a synagogue. I guess the Muslim community bought the building and convert it to a Mosque. Well, it is true that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. The same situation happened in Leewarden.

After 2 and a half our journey, sampai juga akhirnya

Then dinner at my garden.... Thanks Alles for the table :)

After Dinner menyanyi sepam.... Thanks to my bro Amir for the music and Frank for the guitar. Susah2 Amir turun from Leewarden utk jumpa my parents...

Brought them to see my uni.....

Then besoknya I brought them to Bremen, lepak sana semalam and off to Portugal!!!!!!

For all you readers, if any... hehe before you read this post I would strongly advice you to listen to this embedded music by Dulce Pontez

All this while I thought Sweden was Beautiful. But masyaallah, Portugal is even more beautiful. With its ancient buildings, coble stoned roads, beautifully decorated tiled walls, cozy alleys. Or is it beautiful because I was travelling with my family?. What ever it is I have to say, hands down, the most beautiful place I've ever visited.

Why is Portugal beautiful? The buildings are really old.. If you ask my mum, portuguese buildings need serious paint job. Still it's beautiful.... I think because its different. Typical Malaysians or should I say asians, europe means UK, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.....oh yeah and a pit stop in Belgium. Portugal? I guess portugal is sort of out of the way. It is secluded inside spain. I think thats why there were not many immigrants and Muslims. Payah nak cari Muslim disini. Kalau di negara eropah lain contohnya Sweden, Switzerland, you're not alone.... mmg banyak Muslim

Neway this is my buddy Claudio. He's our tour guide (FOC maaa) member2 punya pasal. Dia, Rui and Amir nie mcm bro aku aaaa.... Best bro man!... Gaya hidup mesti mau style hippie..... Turun2 dari flight terus aku kutuk dia Abraham lincoln haha.

Nie pulak Rui..... nak sebut nama dia nie susah sikit. OK mcm nie... Khhrruiii..... with the Khhrr.... But he's a really nice guy. Budak philosophy.. Very knowledgeable fela... Dia tour guide FOC kami, siap bole cerita apa significance banggunan nie... sejarah banggunan tu...He and claudio even gave us free tickets to travel. Rui managed to arrange with his Grandma to get those tickets

This is us in Lisboa...... or should I say it in a very sexy Portugeshh way..... Lishhhbowwa.... Notice the bridge far away behind us.... Thats the exact same designed bridge in San Francisco.

This is us in Porto satu family....

Papa... Solo traveler..... But you've got to admit the view..... Mak aiii romantik...... Aku nikah nnt nak bawak bini or bini-bini aku mai sini.... Notice baggunan yang paling atas sekali tu...Aku, claudio dgn loan dah ragaih dah.

Maaan It was quite steep... The reason that we went up there because of our ego... I saw one sweet old lady climbing the steep hill selamber je. So claodio n I "Lets go man!!!" loan pon join. It turned out that that old lady lives between the hill.... She musta climbed that hill every day all her life.

Above is the tomb of Mendiang Vasco Da Gama. Sempoi dak?.... All this while baca daripada buku sejarah aje. Portuguese ppl has great pride in their exploration. According to the tourist guide(curik2 dengaq tourist guide orang lain), Apparently if you are an important figure, particularly a religious figure, your followers will cut off some of your limbs as remembrance, when you die of course.

For Vasco Da Gama, he died in India. So what the Church of India did was ... they cut his finger and keep it in the church while the rest of his body was sent back to Portugal.

Sempat lagi mengayat awek portugis lagi tuuuuuuu....... Malu-malu kucing lah konon... Sajaaa nak gempaq my mum...kasi dia suspen sikit.

Below is a typical Portuguese food. Bacalhau nama dia(sebutan bakaliaw)... Ikan kod...siap ada lagu lagi utk a=ikan nie..... mmg sedap....

Above is Pajeja..... Phayeeyaaa.... Its a typical Spanish food actually.... Nampak macam nasik goreng seafood.

Rupa-rupanya walaupun tak banyak, tapi ada jugak comunity Muslim di Portugal. Community Bangladesh actually. From now on I will NEVER patronize Bangladesh people. It is true what my friend Aiman said when I was studying in Australia, Bangladesh people are among the best people to live with. And he was right.

I was just looking for a mosque to pray, and ask this Bangladeshi salesman. Pastu dia terus calling2 member2 dia and kami dijemput ke rumah Imam Bangladesh. Jamu kami makan. Almost every one of them pernah keje dekat Malaysia and they loved it. Bangladesh people are Hardworking, honest and humble people.

Education pon boleh tahan.... Sorang tu graduate dr Al-Azhar and now doin Phd in belgium. Hebat hebat... tapi modest

From now on, siapa kutuk orang Bangladesh, mau kena paku dengan aku...

akan bersambung.......

Looking Back

2011-04-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

After you've done number 2, do you actually "Look Back" ?

I know its disgusting but come oooooon!

Its disgusting, but some people cant resist it

Although some "pasts" can be disgusting but still we wanna look back

Things becomes worse when the shit is not ours

I've had enough of Marx and Hegel

Ik gaan terug

SPM A's

2011-04-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

There are quite a number of debates regarding our SPM results. Among others," are the students really performing or is it just a matter of figures". During my Papa's(Father's) time, students that obtained straight A's in SPM or equivalent are just a handful. I'm not undermining straight A scorers, its just that, if nearly 10k students score straight A's in SPM... Is it too good to be true?

Here's an interesting video

Makan Free

2011-04-04T02:44:00.001-07:00

This Morning tengok Euronews... Nak tau betapa kuatnya pengaruh Rejim Yahood terhadap media europe. Berita nie tentang keganasan yang dilakukan oleh Negara I dan pejuang H. Tapi video yang ditunjuk sangatlah misleading. Video pertama adalah Bom berangkai menyerang bandar Palestine. Anehnya sejurus selapas itu ditayangkan pula penduduk Yahood yang dibom oleh roket secara detail dimana mangsa2 bom itu tertimbus dalam runtuhan banggunan. Pelik kan?

Bila tgk Post pasal musim buah, terasa Jeless aku..... Jeless teramat sangat. As you guys know i'm a serious Durian lover. I see durian not as a fruit but an art. Tautologically, i can call my self a Durian Connoisseur. Gosh I miss Durian, I mean good Durian as in Ang he, Mountain king or at least D24. Over here, in the netherlands there's only one type of Durian that is "Durian Siam". Too bad.... At least in Sydney, I can get D24 easily but not here.

Well, I've had a gastronomical experience of my own wahai che Pire..... There was this international festival organised by International Business Students in my Faculty of Economics & Business Groningen. I reckon there were more than 10 different stalls from 10 different countries from Indonesia to Romania. The Food was superb!!! as in different laaa tak boleh nak lawan asam pedas kita but STILL!

I cant remember it all but here some of the gist....

Unfortunately the Indonesian Representative only offered Satay among others. Satay pulak bukan dibakar tapi di Sautae(Pan fry ) je. But the dipping was good. A good old soy sauce and cubes of onions and garlic. I'm sure you know what satay looks like... nothing new lah

Romanian food was nice. It was Polenta..... It was basically Griesmeal (its a dutch word, I dont know the English for it) but in Bahasa, tepung suji, eggs, butter and cheese. Bole laaa... Its an acquired taste. Unfortunately the sausage is made of you know what lah. Anyway I munching around till I didnt notice my Romanian friend (cun giler ok)

For desert, I ate

This... I dont know whats the name... Dont bother to ask also... But its made of barley, on the lowest layer..... the 2nd layer is chocolate mousse and the upper layer is chocolate powder.

Next is the Slovak food... Still i dont knw the name. But it looks kinda like muntah kucing. Definately something that you wont eat during sahur, if you know what i mean . Taste not bad. Very acquired taste I should say. Its basicaly grated pickled cabbage mixed with salty cheese and some flour, I think. Looks like a paste. Usually eaten with bebola babi. They separated the bebola babi ok

The best so far were the Turkish guys. Seedap gilerr... But nothing new for me.... I think for Malaysians, definitely worth flying 4000 miles for. Its Lahmachun. According to my Turkish friend, Lahmachun is only served during Ramadhan. But here in europe... Belasah ajeeee.

Ini lah ghoper nyerr.... Best kan. Tastes a little bit spicy, you can taste the meat...

And here's Pide.... The same ingredients as lahmachun but in different form... Once you are in Australia and Europe for years.. trust me you'll get tired of it

As for Hungarian dish... I didnt really taste it... maybe because it is sosej Babi on a stick. However, I did managed to rake some cookies. It looks something like this. Sedap tau.... Taste like kuih raya with frostings

Nigerian food was quite unique But I wouldnt dare to taste it... Looks something like this....

But... I did manage to eat this... looks like bananas but it tastes nothing like Bananas. It has this very fibrish taste.... heck.. as long as its free

At the german stall, I tries Black forest cake...... REAL BLACK FOREST CAKE if you know what I mean... Made by germans dowh

As for puerto ricans , they served rice and beans... All vegetarian niceee... Typical non Asian taste... in other words not much of a taste... Looks like Nasi goreng with beans... really filling

Other stalls includes Irish stalls, Chinese and czech stall..... But unfortunately I was very full.... I mean ... urghhh.....

April fool on a different perspective

2011-04-01T04:13:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm damn busy to write any posts... But I was called by my self conscience to make a simple analysis about this story. I think the society needs to know both side of the story behind April the 1st and evaluate it themselves about the plausibility of these seemingly conflicting historical facts

Back in Malaysia, I was educated with predominantly conservative Muslim education. Non Muslim celebrations are not encouraged for us Muslims to celebrate . It is in the Hadeeth Al Bukhary that Muslims are not supposed to follow the culture of the Yahood and The Nasara.

al-Bukhari relates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "Truly, you shall follow the ways of those who were before you, span by span, and little by little, until, if they were to enter a lizards lair, you would follow them." We said, "O Messenger of Allah, the Jews and Christians?" And he said, "Who else?" (Sahih al-Bukhari. 9 vols. Cairo 1313/1895. Reprint (9 vols. in 3). Beirut: Dar al-Jil, n.d., 9.126: 7320).

About April fools day, there are two conflicting stories about it. The first one is what I always hear and read when I was in Malaysia.It is about the fall of the Moor empire or also known as Islamic Andalus/Umayyad empire. And the second one is the "european version" of the story about the changing of the Christian calendar year.

Lets look at it one by one

It has been decades since the Islamic Empire flourished in Granada only to be fooled by the Nasara that resulted in the fall of the empire. The citizens of the empire were forced to seek shelter in their homes. Alot of them were killed including men, women and children.

The Muslims were told by the Nasara that they could leave their homes and bring their necessities to take a ship and sail to seek refuge. Although there were elements of doubt that this was a trick, the Muslims just got along with it

After the Muslims left home for the ships,, the Nasara ransacked their homes and then set fire to them. Before the Muslims got to the ships, the Nasara had set fire to the ships as well. The Crusaders then attacked the Muslims and killed them all.

This version of the story is my adaptation prominently from Ust. Nordin bin Bayadi Bahagian Penerangan dan Penerbitan Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor

see JAIS's website

http://www.jais.gov.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=571&Itemid=1

Now lets turn to another "Version"

Mohd Tariq Ghazi, a veteran journalist and historian postulate that Muslims are not that stupid and the story about Muslims being fooled on the 1st April is a hoax. There were no documented historical fact. These kind of stories were just told mouth to mouth without any concrete evidence.

Actually the Nasara did got hold of the Moorish Muslim empire, but not by fooling them. In fact, the Nasara revered the Muslim for their intelligence and sophistication although they do regard them(the Muslims) as "ïnfidels". It was just by sophisticated and modern weapon and war strategy and of course by the will of God that the nasara won the war . This happened on 2nd of January 1492 when the Nasara army marched to Granada.And the actual date that we as Muslims should remember is 1st January when the Umayyad empire fell. Note that by remembering is not doing violent acts but to Strive and work hard for superiority in human and social capital.

Another story was during the reign of King Charles the IX, when he shifted the new year from April the 1st to January the 1st. During that time, there were no e-mails or Morse code, just snail mail by foot or horse..... so, not everybody received the news. The ones who didnt receive the news still celebrate new year on 1st april and they were called fools because of their outdatedness

If you guys wanna dig deeper here's the link incase what i've digested is incorrect

http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_901_950/truth_about_april_fool.htm

Both resources are pretty reliable. The first one is from JAIS (Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor) and the second is from Islamic Research Foundation international. However, its not that I'm undermining the words of an Ustaz but I do wish that he state references and sources from his stories because the article from Islamic research institute have reference and historical dates .

Again, i'm stating..... I'm just looking at April 1st at another perspective and not judging the plausibility of the story. I mean, who am I to judge?

Lastly i would like to repeat this

I think the Moral of this Hadeeth is that, we need our own stand and identity. No need to follow other culture (in terms of celebration) and all the bad stuff. However I think it doesn't hurt to follow others cultures in terms of working hard, ethics and awareness towards the environment

Speedo Aquabeat MP3

2011-03-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

I am now having a honeymoon moment with my brand new Speedo Aquabeat Mp3. For me it is super cool especially when you attach it to your goggles. I've been going swimming 2-3 times a week now haha!. Lets hope it lasts. A quick review of the product:

1st of all the design is cool to a certain extent that you sort of feel like cyclops from X-men. You wont feel anything when you attach it to your goggles.

The battery lasts for 8 hours with 1 Gb memory. There is a 2 Gb version but I dont think i need it coz I only use Aquabeat just for swimming

To attach the headphones to my ears is quite cumbersome especially with my dumbo like ears. A prolonged use of the earphones will result to marks on your ears.

Sound quality for me is unsatisfactory at first because, water keeps coming in my ears and it blocks the sound. I have adjust it a few times to get it right. It turned out, the third set of earbuds gave me the best sound quality. The thing is, I need to always put the earbuds in my ears while its still dry, or if I'm already in the swimming pool, I need to drain my earsthen put in back. Although it was not comparable to altec lensing, it was ok. I would still recomend friends to buy it.

Conclusion:

Since i've paid 59eur for it, might as well get the best of it. Having an unsatisfactory music is better than having no music at all. Well, its not exactly altec lensing especially when i'm blowing alot of bubbles while swimming. Just try all three earbuds , which one suits you the best. I do wish that there's radio function though

Recomendation:

I just wish that speedo come up with x-ray googles... Waterproof of course ;)

UiTM Merbok... The best experience

2011-03-03T03:41:00.000-08:00

UiTM da best bebeh!!!!

credited to UiTM merbok website

I remember the frustration of not getting into any university. Maybe because my SPM grades weren't any good. After I've done some appealing and du'a especially from my parents and my beloved grandma alhamdulillah UiTM Merbok was willing to accept me.

The Malinja College of UiTM was among the best colleges in Malaysia. It has the state of the art facilities and comfort. Word goes around that it is comparable to Seri Malaysia three star facilities. I dont know whether that is true or not but I sure do agree with it. The room is very spacious with sturdy Beds and fine built in study tables. Best of all it is free! so as the food although its not actually the best, I'm thankful.

Classes are equipped with air condition and advanced technology. Everything in the class is controlled by touch screen technology comparable to the ones in Australia and Europe. Even dekat university aku skang, sesetangah class tak secanggih uitm.

I just cant compare the dedication given by UiTM lecturers to other universities that I've attended. It is very important for them that we UiTM students understands what they have delivered. I know some students needs to be encouraged and pushed and UiTM lecturers have done a great job in doing that. This has also inspired me to be a lecturer

These beautiful ladies from the picture above are UiTM students visiting me. My intuition says that they are going places just like any UiTM students. Meanwhile, the picture below shows the whole group. The background building is my current University... Rijkuniversiteit Groningen

I'm very thankful and proud that my fellow UiTM alumni visited me in Groningen. Reminded me of the good old days in Merbok and Arau. I miss having dinner and lunch in Dewan makan Malinja, loitering at central square and most of all, Nasi Ayam Pakmud hmmm heeel lekker!

For those of you who studied/are studying in overseas, panjatkan Syukur kepada Allah No need laaaa to patronize local universities especially UiTM. Yang study local pon syukur juga, because not everybody has this kind of opportunity. Ingat laaa asal usul. Your foundation program most probably be from INTEC jugak. I've heard those unpleasant comments when I was down under and bashed them.

Frankly I've seen local graduates that has way better abilities and charisma rather that foreign grads. It depends on that particular person regardless where they graduate from.

Pictures are credited to Suraya Mansur and Masyitoh UiTM

Wawasan setia pelajar sepam.... Actually ada lagu UiTM dihatiku, tapi lagu tu untuk convo :)

Yang ni typical lagu Groningen....

Saljun

2011-02-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

Here I am in my office craving for ideas.

Its nearly ten and i'm still stuck

Snow cheers me up

Where the heck is the literature for rationality and secularization

Searching....

Cant wait for Fridays swimming

A pleasure for the EYES, body and soul

I guess I can forget about conferences in the middle east now

Stumble upon a blog that I hate

Why suddenly full of hatred?

Some people are just gifted in writing

or is it just a matter of practice

If you are the only Malay in the University and there are no other Malays around you, you'll start to appreciate the Malay culture. Its not that I'm homesick, heck I call my mom almost every day. Its just that sometimes I miss my culture. Thanks to you tube, I can listen to Malay songs... I mean, traditional Malay songs . Back to my apartment, I'm still with my kain pelikat and sometimes I eat while bersila. ... Not mentioning the Gulai rebung, nasi lemak and sambal that I cooked

Sometimes I miss Azan... not Azan pak pak Arab nie. Azan Malaysia. Kalau dapat dengar Azan pakcik HArun dekat Masjid Tg Bendahara kan best. Nanti balik Malaysia nak kena record Azan Pak Harun.

One more thing, gadis belanda bukanya tak cantik.... cantik. Tapi kalau dah hari-hari dah menghadap muka belanda, terasa muak pun ada. Sekali-sekala pergi ke kedutaan Malaysia tengok gadis Melayu alahaaaaiiii..... dengan sopan santunnya....

Bersunat

2011-02-22T10:36:00.000-08:00

I'm sure that most guys have been through this. My experience of circumcision was not very pleasing (who does?) but mine, the anesthesia wore of at the last minute and the doctor didn't have the decency to reload the juice. As painful as the procedure was, it was very profitable. I managed to rake a few hundred ringgit , enough to by Nintendo Game Boy.

Well, the reason that I mention my experience was just as a Muqaddimah for this video I stumbled upon. I love strange food, so I googled strange food in you tube. Well see it for yourselves

Yes... I think it sucks being a grandpa in this community as you have to eat those "bizzare" food. I dont think those bananas gave much help. Its like borderline canibalism....

You are old when....

2011-02-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

1) Facebook, myspace and other social networking sites are lame (Does blogging count?)

2) When friends you age are married and have kids

3) When your lil sisters n brothers get married

4) When your nieces and nephews get married(extreme case)(disc. does not apply to all families)

5) When you watch what you eat

6)When some kid holds your hand by mistake thinking that you're his dad

7)When some kid claims that you are his dad

8)When you stop goin clubbin

9)When students calls you sir

10) When you go to renew your passport, people at the embassy thinks that you want to register a childbirth

11) When you drink coffee with professors

12)When having a playstation 1/2/3 is no longer your life ambition

13) When you read this stuff

14)When you say to your self... Shit! thats me

15) Then feeling alone, ashamed, lost, confused......

What tha hell am I'm thinking..... Age is relative...... Life expectancy in poor countries can go below 40.... While in advanced countries can go up to 80.....

Enjoy life (with limitations of course) be thankful of what you have

Invest in life and afterlife

Bleargh!

De Profeet Muhammad (vrede zij met hem)

2011-02-15T05:25:00.000-08:00

Sedangkan hari jadi sedara mara, kawan2 dan Bos kita, kita bole sambut....I think it is worth mentioning Maulidurrasul.... Moga2 kita dapat Syafaat Baginda kelak...

Raya Cina

2011-02-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

Pasport aku hampir tamat, so dengan lenggang kangkongnya aku pegi laaa Den haag berbekalkan pasport lama. Ingatkan mcm dekat Malaysia laaa bawak pasport lama, cakap nak reniew and Presto! Tp taak... First, aku nak kene buat appointment dgn embassy, pastu nak kene bring along gambar with blue backround, surat beranak, IC dan resident permit. The best part was I did NOT do any of those things :).... Mujurlah staff embassy sangat helpful and friendly. Siap drive aku gi pekan utuk tangkap gambor and cucuk duit. Punya laaa malu alah aku nieee... Tp terpaksalah tebal muka. I owe alot to them!!!

Kebetulan besok tu embassy akan sambut raya cina, so aku pon tolong laaa sikit2 malu alah aa kaaaan. BTW lama gilerrrrr tak lepak ngan Malaysian. Sempat jumpa uncle James, Nda Chik, Nabil, Falinda and His Sis. Faisal pon veeery the friendly(lama tak slang Melayu)..... Siap ajak aku datang umah...memula aku refuse, pastu dia pancing dengan Nasik lemak... so, kalah laa akuuu... Gi makan dekat rumah depa punyalaaa sedap!!!

Pas lepak ngan MAlaysian, lepak dengan pure dutch pulak..... Nie experience yang agak pelik... Seems that they dont have any borders. Tua, muda, Kaya Miskin semua satu kepala. If you've seen gangsta movies in new york, these people are the dutch version of them, memang ghetto abis. Dalam kumpulan tu pulak very diverse, from Politicians, Gangster and Police. The best part was they can speak Indonesian walaupun orang belanda rambut blond semua. Best borak dengan depa.... Memula aku sampai kat umah depa, this dutch guy approached me and said "Buat macam Rumah Sendiri" Wow! bisa omong! I think this kind of experience is super priceless!

Basically, successful people in their own field, generally are modest and friendly. For example time dekat sweden, makan dengan Nobel Laurette semua, they are very friendly and they see me or us students as their apprentice because they've been in our position.On the other hand these diverse group of Politicians, gangsters and police also I consider them as successful in their own field. Mind you, jangan salah anggap dengan gangster nie... not a typical gangster... these people work together with police and politicians to solve crime and they are also entrepreneurs. Bukak restaurants and macam2 kedai lagi lah. Dalam istilah akedemiknya, social capital. Something non profit that binds people together.

Talam Kiasan

2011-02-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

Wilayah yang diduduki si Totok sudah cuak bila penghuni-penghuni anai-anai mula memberontak. Abang si totok sudah pun memberi pengumuman bahawa ratu anai-anai haruslah dipilih oleh anai-anai sendiri. Nampaknya abang si totok memang talam dua muka. Anai-anai hanyalah boleh pilih ratu yang hanya mengangguk kepada keluarga totok . Apa salahnya jika ratu anai-anai yang dipilih tidak bersetuju dengan keluarga totok?? bukan kah itu pilihan anai-anai?? ..... Kenapa penghuni si totok sangat paranoid dengan ratu-ratu anai-anai yang baru??? Bukankah keluarga totok sangat kuat? dengan bisanya, tebuan bersayapnya dan cengkerang yang kuat??

Sekurang-kurangnya si totok tak boleh nak buat tak ketahuan hala dekat adik anai-anai yang berada dibawah cengkaman Si totok. Kalau nak harapkan ratu anai-anai yang ada sekarang nie, memanglah tak guna satu sen pon. Semua yang si totok buat pakat dok angguk ajaa si ratu-ratu anai-anai yang dah tak laku dan tak sedar diri. Elok lah kasi gerun sikit si totok nie.

Moga2 penggantian ratu anai2 yang lama kepada yang baru berjalan lancar dan membawa perubahan positif kepada bumi Anbiya

Upadate... tgk euronews, Malaysia kena titik dengan Kyrgyzstan 32-2 dalam acara ice hoki Asian winter olympics . Tersemboq aku!

Okuns Law....

2011-01-28T03:09:00.001-08:00

Heran pasal apa walaupun dekat luaq matahari punya laa terang.... tp dont be fooled.... suhu -3.5 Celsius...

Last few days kene kutuk ngan housemate Belanda becozz aku cakap Belanda style skema. Tgk Frank tgh main guitar... Aku cakap "te gek jonge!!!" bersepai kene gelak.... makna dia mcm "cool man!" actually sepatutnya aku kaja "nice" jaaa... Vocab Belanda aku ok aaaaa tp grammar berteraboq

semayang Jumaat tadi ada Muslimat baru.... Dengaq suara cam dutch.... Sentimentoi gak... pastu aku teringat..... Sejak abang ucop balik... aku mana ada number orang Islam(as in practicing Muslim) yang lain.... So, aku mintak laaa nambot tepon Pak Berahim nama dia Ibrahim drp Al Jazaa iee.... Algeria... tp dia nie tak reti English.... tp Dutch, perancis n Arabic mcm ayaq.... aku apa lagi, cakap rojak aaaa...

Hurmm euronews skang dok heboh pasal Davos Econs forum

Nampaknya Europe skang dalam masalah walaupon they appear to be united.... u know... dengan single currency depa....free trade...free entry etc.... bAru-baru nie one of the advisors of IMF eu cakap sebenaqnya negara eropah nie bila dalam crisis, depa lebih pentingkan diri sendiri secara defactonya. Germany dok seronok currency de-value lepas bailout greece coz export dia melonjak naik...pastu portugal plak masalah..... Skang nie Spain pulak dalam masalah.... tax naik and benefits kurang... Unemployment rate naik..... rumah mahal... Nampaknya sejak euro di intoduce kan, banyak side effect.. Egypte, yaman, Tunisia.maaacam2 masalah.... harga minyak kuih naik.... hrmm tak tau laaa apa nak jadi

Ok back to worK

Kelebek punya kelebek

Menatang apa okuns law nie???

Ok i'll describe it in a very kedah way...

Dia menerangkan ciri-ciri antara perubahan kadar pengangguran dan perubahan antara GDP yang sebenaq dan GDP yang sepatutnya. Mcm nie laaa....berapa percent bagi setiap perubahan unemplyment sebenaq dan unemplyment yang sepatutnya kita punya GDP jatuh sekian2 percent haaaa

In order to describe menatang nie... it is worthwhile kalau kita ushar sket simultanious equation model

y= Spatial unit/endo if right hand

i=cross sectional unit

t=time

α=intercept

β=Exogenous

However this model cannot be estimated.. kalau tak, dia meletoppp

δ-->Endo

γ-->Exo

σ-->Error correlation

So masukkan restriction nie dalam Simultanious equation

So termasuklah neighboring effect

Researchers nie mmg pikiaq secara detail.... Contohnya...

Of course kalau Panel data, dia termasuk effect masa dan effect sample....

Kalau bercakap pasal unemployment dan GDP mesti ada cyclical effect...i mean effect keadaaan ekonomi contohnya kalau every ten years is assumed to be recession... So, depa masukkan Henry Prescot HP to take account for these effect

Selauntu depa test for unit root-- Kot2 kalau ada masalah dalam sampel

Nampaknya Neighboring effect memang mustahak dalam model nie pasai improvement dalan unempoyment rate dapat dalam satu region dapat improvekan GDP di region lain

Policy implication dia pulak.... tak banyak actually... pasai apa? ..... Mcm nie lah.... adun kawasan pendang la... mesti takkan amik kisah kawasan lain(especially kalau parti lain).... (this explaination needs improvement--- i know yg lain pon need improvement tp especially this one)

Menda yang bermain dalam otak

2011-01-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

Actually ada banyak mende nak tulis nieee tapi.... Tah tade mood... Dalam otak kire exaaaaam ja.... Banyak mende yang pending utk entry aku cthnya....

1) Peristiwa cabut gigi lagi satu.... this time I was not sedated although I took sedative pills... It was worse than before coz they had to split the tooth which is horizontal into 4 pieces. Pakai drill lagi tuuu....

2)Jalan2 cari makan dekat Bremen..... Kalau laa hot dog tu halal

3)Peristiwa gi Paris ngan kakyong ngan abang apit n family

4)My new year celebration

Start daripada sini, post nie adalah selfish post aku.... Takdak sapa pon akan paham... nie utk aku... tp kalau nak baca gak baca aaa haha

Dalam otak aku skang spatial econometriiiiiic je

Manski Model

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+WX θ+u

u =λWu+ε

Y = Dependent variable N x 1

W= Menda matrix yang buat dalam Geoda tuu

ρ= Spatial autoregressive

X=N x K independent variable

β and θ = K x 1 anu

α = Anu tetap

Model nie cam sebijik kereta yang dah siap ( Of course paper nie tahun 2003 kot... mungkin ada jebon2 yang pintar dapat improvekan model nie....

Provided yang θ= 0, θ ada sekali dengan independent variable dan jugak WX nie exogenous so kita tauk buang, jadi laaaa Kelejian-Prucha model. Anggaplah variable nie macam bumbung kereta... So, jadi laaaa convertable

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+u

u =λWu+ε

Tapi kalau λ= O, dia jadi spatial durbin model

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+WX θ+ε (alaaaa u tukaq jadi ε sudeyyy) tapi actually Wu ditauk buang, diibaratkan seperti tauk buang pintu kereta

Tp kalau ρ = 0

Jadilah Spatial Durbin error model.... Kita tengok ρ niee melekat dekat WY which is endogenous, so kita buang Endo. Diibaratkan seperti buang bonet

Y = αιN + Xβ+WX θ+u

u =λWu+ε

Basically Model manski nie dipecahkan kepada 3 model lain mengikut parameter yang ditetapkan. Parameter yang ditetapkan adalah θ, λ, dan ρ. So kalau kita test model tu, mana2 parameter yang disebutkan adalah sama ngan 0 maknanya parameter tu nak kena tauk buang, so jadi lah model2 seperti Kelijian pruscha, spatial durbin model dan spatial durbin error model. So, jadilah kereta yang tak berbumbung, tak berpintu dan tak berbonet

Sekarang, kita nak rungkaikan lagi kereta tu.....

Aku nak start dengan model Kelijian prusha yang takdak bumbung tadi tu

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+u

u =λWu+ε

There are two instances in terms of parameter untuk model ini reduce ke model2 lain.

Contohnya anggaplah λ sebagai tingkap. λ kita tengok ada dalam u =λWu+ε so, jadilah spatial lag model

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+ε

satu lagi kalau dalam model yang sama, yakni Kelijian prusha model, kalau dibuang ρ wiper instead of tingkap λ, jadilah Spatial error model iaitu...

Y =αιN + Xβ+u (ingat... either or je tau! maknanya tingkap retain λ , wiper je buang)

u =λWu+ε

Skang kita pegi ke Spatial Durbin Model pulak

recap

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+WX θ+ε

ingat, nie kereta yang takdak pintu

provided yang parameter θ=0 , mcm takda kunci so jadilah Spatial lag model

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+ε

Tapi kalau θ=-ρβ, jadi lah spatial error model (This is quite confusing.... I need to read more)

Y =αιN + Xβ+u .

Now, we go to Spatial error Durbin Model a.k.a bonet

Y = αιN + Xβ+WX θ+u

u =λWu+ε

provided yang θ=0, jadilah spatial error model

Y =αιN + Xβ+u

u =λWu+ε

Skang nie kita campare spatial lag(Dibawah) dan spatial error model

Y = ρWY +αιN + Xβ+ε

Ushar ρ & λ berdasarkan kepada dua model iaitu Spatial lag dan spatial error

Kalau salah satu nya kosong, maknanya jadilah basic OLS model

Y = αιN + Xβ+ε

Its basically my own way to understand these stuff.....

Tok

2010-12-28T03:04:00.000-08:00

Syukur Alhamdulillah when I received the news that Tok dah passed away, I was with kakyong and family in Paris. At least I was not alone.... Terkejut jugak... tp redha je... Seriously contemplating utk balik, coz dah dekat dah ngan Charles De Gaulle Airport, and insurance cover for the expense. Tp papa n mama kata no need, coz mmg Ziad takkan sempat... Tambahan pulak there were chaos in airports becoz of the heavy snow

Tak sangka time Ziad balik jumpa tok time kenduri Nawal adalah kali terakhir Ziad jumpa tok. Glad to have your last kisses with traces of bedak sejuk on my cheeks and i purposely wouldnt wipe it off haha. I thank her for the prayers to me for my success. Tok had faith in me even though I had doubts in my self,

"Takpa Ziad.... Tok Yakin, Tok dah doa dah...Ziad akan pass..... Baca book elok2"

Her shoulders were the most comfortable shoulders to put your head on. She was a woman of wisdom... After all that she had been through, she's tough and a true survivor.

No regrets... Time balik Malaysia, Ziad bagi isi nyioq kat dia... Tau dia suka... Pastu bawak balik chocolates and cheese from Holland.... Bagi dia makan cherries and peaches... Kehulu-kehilir cari ubat n cream utk dia.... I guess Mama, papa n Nawal pon no regrets... MAma telah lah... Lap dia, basuh rambut dia etc. Papa was more than a son than a son in law. Nawal can be in her best dress and still jump in and bagi mandi dia. Special thanks to Loan(Nawal's husband) for taking my place utk uruskan Tok. We treated her like a Queen.....

Now its my turn to Doa for her. For her safe journey to the realm of barzakh and beyond.

Moga Allah ampunkan segala dosa tok, eliminate Azab kubur, terangkan dan luaskan kubur dia.

"Ziad saaaaayang kat Tok"

Readers, please sedekahkan Yasin.... anything lah Al-Ikhlas keee Al-Fatihah kee...anything....

Landmines

2010-12-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

Topic nie agak jijik. Its about Animal defecation product

In Malaysia

Avoid sandy areas!! or be cautious of on places that has sand or even small gravels. Coz potentially a sneaky feline has left a present. And the smell..... you tell me. It gets worse when you stepped on it and you get into your car and the smell stays in you car for days. I can just understand that there are alot of stray animals in Malaysia. So its the animals fault and partially its the local govts fault coz they do not take care of these stray cats

In the Netherlands

Avoid grassy areas along the walking path. Coz its a mine zone. Allocate at least 1 metre of buffer zone, but in the middle of the field the risk gets less but still watch out!. Another spot that you should avoid are the trees by the side of the road. Dont ever walk on the dirt around the tree Here feline is not much trouble. But the K9 is much worse especially the big fat ones. The big fat ones produce a LOAD of you know what. Things gets worse during winter coz its most likely covered by snow, you cant see it until you step on it. Its not the fault of the animal coz there are no stray animals in the netherlands. Its the fault of the dog owbers! Here, dog poo wise, the people are very individualistic and they are opportunists! with low sense of social capital. Funny... such a developed country, people are still under developed (dog poo wise).

In Australia

Its pretty safe I guess. People here are more aware of the environment. Although they take their dogs out for a walk, the pickup the poo that the dogs left. If you observe the Aussies, they walk their dogs with a leach and they have spare plastic bags..... you know... to pick up the chocolate fudge. Sometimes I can also see them with their palm wrapped in plastic bag, waiting for the chocolate fudge to drop from the factory "literally!!!" . I guess the saying "Dogs are mens best friend" really applies in Australia! . Would you do that to your human best friend??? I dont think so! you'd rather do it to your dog..... That makes me wonder, who's the master???. At least Australians have better awareness... Plus.. in recreational parks its pretty easy to get plastic bags for de poo poo.

I know this entry is disgusting. Its just because last saturday I stepped on one!!! Just beside my apartment! and its not even near a tree or sand. Its on cement! and It was a big yellow one! with my Lacoste shoes! Verdomme!

Have a nice Disgusting day :)

Pengalaman Menarik

2010-12-03T06:46:00.001-08:00

Ini adalah cerita drp salah sorang Prof drp school aku

Thesis Phd dia mainly about Moses Model. Moses model nie basically an extension drp Weber Model. Not Max weber tp adik dia. Basically dalam mainstream economics, Dunia nie hanyalah di hujung pin, maksudnya lokasi firm or lebih mendalam lagi jarak firm tu dengan firm lain dan suppliers tak diambil kira. Sebab tu ada New economic geography yang ambik kira lokasi n jarak. Well google moses model kalau nak tau lebih lanjut.

Selalunya academician ada ada idola dia. Kalau dia nie dalam bidang Economy, maybe idola dia J.M Keynes or Milton friedman. Kalau dalam Physics mungkin Raymond Davis Jr.... Mcm aku, idola academia aku ialah mendiang Earnst Gellnerr. Tp idola prof aku nie, si Moses nie la.. One day lepas conference di new york kawan2 prof aku nie arrange prof aku supaya bole gi dinner dekat umah si Moses nie. Pergh... bayangkan rumah bungalow berpagar high security dekat new york(sapa kata lecturer gaji ciput huh!).

Masa tengah dinner dengan si Moses nie, prof aku notice dekat dinding dining room to ada banyak painting. So, dia tanya aaa siapa lukis? Moses kata Frida Kahlo kalau tak silap. Frida Kahlo tu tau siapa????Famous maxican painter yang paint dekat UN building. Sebijik2 harga berjuta. Tp bapak si moses nie kenal dengan painter tu, masa dia tak famous aaa. And painting yang dekat umah moses nie masa dia beli, less that 10 Dollar...... Sekarang Berjuta.... Pastu si Moses nie soh prof aku gi Toilet umah dia.... Prof aku masuk... tadak apa2 pon .. tapi bila dia tutup pintu bilik ayaq tu, ada satu lagi painting.... dia ushar betui2 ada signature picasso.....Rupanya bapak si moses nie kenal rapat ngan picasso and dia beli painting tu dengan harga yg sangat murah.

So the question is, painting2 yang bermillion2 dollar nie mcm mana nak protect? Haaa nie cerita best. Of course laa ada security and alarm semua. Tp despite that family moses nie kaya raya, depa mash lagi tak mampu untuk insure semua painting2 tu. Picasso tu saja, nilai dia berkali2 ganda keseluruhan asset keluarga moses. So, depa tubuhkan foundation kerjasama dengan muzeum utk nak insure semua painting.

Aku ingat aaa bila berjalan2 kat europe, tgk painting murah, beli je!!! mana tau kot2 famaous kawan tu, Buleh berjuta2 euro

Note to self.... never compromise safety.... Td naik beskal, aku dok tailgate satu kereta, tiba2 dia brek.... sikiiiit ja lagi... dahla brek aku hampeh... Immediately gi repair brek kat kedai... kena 11.50eur...

Beste

Dutch Edu Sys

2010-11-30T02:55:00.000-08:00

My last post, kan aku mention DUtch style education. Well, it is tough but nothing is imposible. I received an e-mail that I've passed subject yang paling susah (at least for me). Siap cakap congratulations lagi. mmg banyak orang fail subject nie pon, yang repeat pon fail.... Oh yeah kat holland, repeat nie is not a big deal yerr.... 5.5/10 is the passing mark... so berceretet yang fail. Tp syukur Alhamdulillah Allah bagi jalan. The journey towards passing this subject wasn't easy. Kita nie dah la tak reti... So jadi laaa pengemis... Muka nak kene tebal laa... Pegi study ngan budak drp China, Africa n German..... Yang paling banyak tolong, budak Nigeria, Obi nama dia..... Baik dan ikhlas menolong....Banyak nya dia yang mengajar aku.. I think he will be a great teacher...

Rupanya, dutch system, Weekly test susah gilerrr soklan pusing babeng.... Mid terms test pon susah... Tp final... betul2 mcm soklan cth masa class.... Aku mcm tak caye gak... Tp that's their style.

This block ada statistic... Banyaknya hans on with spss... menarik gak... Ada multiple regression... factor analysis etc lagi detail laaa.... I really need to grasp on factor analysis to learn on Principle component analysis (PCA)

Syukur

2010-11-21T04:57:00.000-08:00

Suasana dekat Holland nie amatlah lain. Bagi yang Iman yang tak kuat, mmg akan terpesong. Sesetengah benda yang salah dari sisi agama dan budaya kita mmg menjadi perkara biasa bagi orang2 dekat sini. Tak lupa juga kepada orang2 yang lupa pada asal usul. Allah dah bagi keistimewaan untuk belajaq dekat Kota Groningen yang Indah nie, ada juga segelintir yang lupa asal usul. Pernah aku bersembang dengan orang yang lupa asal usul budaya dan agama, berbangga dengan vodka yang dipegangnya. Macam Vodka tu lambang kemajuan dan trend. Pemikiran dia yang menganggap orang yang conservative ( yang masih lagi intact dengan agama dan budaya) nie sebagai kolot. Malah, mempersendakan golongan seperti ini. Dengan ilmunya yang penuh didada bercampur dengan perasaan riak melafazkan nas daripada kitab Suci daripada surah Al Kafirun, iaitu....Untukmu agamamu, dan untuk ku lah agamaku. Rupanya budak nie pernah belajr dekat Madrasah. Thats why kita nak kene doa everyday and everytime moga2 Allah bagi kita ketetapan Iman.

“Dan kalau Allah menghendaki, niscaya Dia menjadikan kamu satu umat (saja), tetapi Allah menyesatkan siapa yang dikehendaki- Nya dan memberi petunjuk kepada siapa yang dikehendaki- Nya. Dan sesungguhnya kamu akan ditanya tentang apa yang telah kamu kerjakan.” [An- Nahl : 93]

Tak kurang jugak orang Belanda.... Pure Dutch! ...... Yang kaya raya. Taukeh Chocolate laa katakan. If you Imagine a stylish european chocolate shop with hand made chocolates yang kita tgk dalam travel TV tu, itu lah kedai dia. Who would of have known that yang tauke tu Masuk Islam. Nice chap, bila aku masuk kedai dia dengan cousins aku, I guess maybe coz dia tgk my cousins pakai tudung, dia terus bagi salam. Aku mati2 ingat dia orang maroco. Tp tak.... Dia pure dutch dan dia peluk Islam not through marriage. Aku tanya dia, mcm mana bole peluk Islam nie? Dia kata dia lonely.... Bila dia kawin pon dia lonely. So, one day dia dok ushar2 buku pastu dia tarik Al-Quran dan randomly baca

Dia recite ayat nie

“Wahai manusia sesungguhnya Kami telah

menciptakan kamu daripada lelaki dan perempuan. Dan

Kami jadikan kamu berbangsa-bangsa dan bersuku-suku

supaya kamu saling kenal mengenal.”

Al-Hujurat ((49) : 13

Dia kata, Nie lah yang aku mencari-cari selama nie.

Dia cukup tak suka Geert Wilders..... And then dia quote pulak ayat nie

Firman Allah: ``Kitab Suci itulah hidayah petunjuk Allah. Allah memberi hidayah petunjuk dengan al-Quran itu kepada sesiapa yang dikehendaki-Nya (menurut undang-undang peraturan-Nya) dan (ingatlah) sesiapa yang disesatkan Allah (disebabkan pilihannya yang salah), maka tidak ada sesiapa pun yang dapat memberi hidayah petunjuk kepadanya.'' (Az-Zumar 39:3).

Kita pon naik segan how this guy really appreciate Islam......

Nie christmas dah dekat, Siterclass pon dah mula dok mai dah..... Lagi kaya laaa muallaf tu hehe

Abang eddy ajak gi Milan, paris n swiss time xmass..... Hurmmm takyah lahh baik concentrate ngan research..... I have to remember my main objective here.... To get through Phd.... Maybe I'll drop by hannover tido 2 malam kaaa cukup.. then bak to work... i have yet to convince prof that I have the materials to get Phd :(

Pulun aaaa bila lagi??

Anyway Snow dah turun.... Sejuk super.....

Exam--Test of faith

2010-11-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry lambat reply...Giler busy.... Assignment, study utk exam n research... Pergh juggling stuff. Memula exam, pastu assignment n then sedara datang.. n then time tu la jugak sakit gigi sampai I had to cancel trip ikut depa gi Switzerland.Alhamdulillah all went well. Assignment, sikit lagi nak abis.... study utk exam settle dah.... research mcm besa aaa oooon and oon.

Nak jadikan cerita, my cousins datang sehari sebelum exam. They didnt want to come at first, takut kacau Ziad exam aaa. Tp actually dah prepare dah awal2 for exam(Study ngan bdak nigeria and german... fine chap!). And I insisted! tah, dgn family nie happy giler. Dengan anak2 plak, rasa macam raya pon ada. Study utk exam nie mmg tension so, bila sedara mai nie macam dicurahi air selepas berpanas study.

Weekend tu dah siap beli ayam utk merinate. PAgi seblom depa mai, dah siap masak tomyam. Alhamdulillah I think they are well fed.

Bila my sedara dah gerak gi Hannover, Ziad tak ikut coz sakit gigi n assignment. Makin lama, makin sakit. Telepon dentist seeeeemua tak amik new patients. Exept for this particular dentist. Pi laaa kat dia..... Ya allah punya laaa kasaq.. dah laaa muka bengis.. patut la clinic dia tak full. Dia xray gigi aku n then he decided tak mau operate gigi aku. Dia refer aku kat hospital instead. Pastu terus demand CASH! hishhhhh kalau nak kata belanda laa...

Bila pi hospital immediately, memacam bureaucracy nak kene register card laa n then nak kene buat appointment... dun forget, time tu tgh sakit gigi dowh . Bila aku kata what if it is an emergency, lady counter tu cakap soh amik panadol jee and dia kata "your doctor(Dr yg kasaq tu) didnt say its an emergency" owh that horrible Dr.... Private practice patutnya lagi baguih aaa and anyway he's not my Dr! My next appointmet was monday

Weekend tu mmg dok risau gak... Siap buat appointment backup dekat Nijmigen lagi.... Coz kat Nijmagen ada buat pakai GA which means bagi pengsan terus, which I prefer. Kalau kat Groningen nie mana ada GA niee Local jeee... Weekend dok rasa lagi sakit tuu.. siap bengkak lagi... isyyy takleh jadi nie.

Sambil tu cakap gak ngan mama papa to calm me down. One thing mama said. Takut... hanya pada Allah ..... Which is logical.. nak takut apa? And mama sed gusi tu besaq mana sangat??? gigi haluih jaaa.... kecik lagi daripada jari. Dat made me felt better. Still, she said, up to you to decide.

Berbekal ngan jiwa yang takut nie, monday tu pi class dulu ...pukui 1pm appointment nieh!... tp takleh concentrate sangatpon.... Dok sembang aaa ngan member2 tanya pengalaman depa cabut gigi. Actually, Belanda nie mmg betui2 jaga gigi start drp kecik lagi. Time2 kecik mmg dah lining siap2 gigi depa so that tak berlubang. And they have their own dentists. Nie baru chek tau, 85% dutch goes for dental checkup at least once a year.

Then is 11am... abis class... every langkah rasa beraaat sangat..at certain poin mcm nak cancel appointment ja.... maklum lah walaupun dental surgery, its still SURGERY! BAlik umah makan dulu... Tp lupa semayang.... Semayang kat hospital instead(pandai2 aaa cari port). Pas semayang tu dapat Ilham.... If I chicken out, that means I dont believe the presence of Allah. What way to prove my belief towards my creator than to belief his presence and help during my surgery!!! Time tu Ziad Yakin... Yakin adanya Allah dan Allah akan tolong Ziad. Memula depa nak xray menyeluruh dulu...

Pastu one beautiful dentist datang utk check gigi n recomend treatment. I told her about my fear of dentist and she smiled.... Oh boyy comel nyaa... I requested sedative for my anxiety...dia kat no prob... as long as you have somebody to help you go back home... So tepon laaa abang ucop mintak tolong dia pimpin.

Lepas dah lali sket, they brought me to the operation theater and the procedure start. Everything was so fast. Memula cucuk bius bawah lidah.. tak sakit pon.. depa ada mcm...some special teknik depa utk bagi dia tak sakit. Then I felt pressure around my teeth... Sambil2 tu tanya Dr bole dak nyanyi,... so takbir aaa... kena pulak raya haji.... Tup tup gigi keluaq and tup2 depa cuci and then jahit pastu SETTLE! alhamdulillah

PAstu masalah lain pulak... Bukan masalah aa....Ubat bius tu membuatkan aku HIGH....Housemates aku tak larat nak gelak... Ziad habaq kat depa kata "I came here with a limousine" ..........n memacam lagi lah. nie video dia...dalam dok high tu, my conscious mind told me to record it haha

Going to Dental surgery is like a test of faith for me...... Alhamdulillah Allah maha kaya... All went well

Layan

2010-10-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Layan gak lagu nie.... Sort of a lovey dovey song... But what a hell I like his voice

Oh yeah and I'm covering a a few songs.... Very amaturish

and this

Oh yeah.... And KErja gila kami kat Rotterdam

Aku yang bingung

2010-10-20T04:10:00.001-07:00

Today i've found out one of the most trivial things in my life! Rupa-rupanya orang boleh comment blog aku! Bila tukaq page design baru aku tau. Lawak dak?.... Stupid kaan? baru tau...

Lesson:

Do not have high expectation on Phd students!! They are also ngong like any ngongs you find on the street.... Or is it just mee???? I guess its just me kooot.... And readers, sorry kalau aku tak balas comments... bukan sombong tapi tak retiiiiii.....

Perdana Menteri Baru Belanda

2010-10-19T03:38:00.001-07:00

Akhirnya, selepas beberapa kali berdebat di meja rundingan, Belanda sudah ada PM baru Mark Rutte menggantikan Balkenande. Sebelum nie, dah beberapa bulan tiga parti besar Belanda dok negotiate untuk membentuk sebuah kerajaan. Parti CDA dan parti VVD terpaksa berkerjasama dengan PVV yang dipimpin oleh "Gerit Liar" yang lantang mengutuk agama kita.

Dok sembang2 dengan orang Belanda, macam2 pendapat depa bagi. Daripada orang intelek, depa kata. Macam mana parti CDA dan VVD boleh setuju utk berkerjasama dengan PVV yang polisi dia amatlah berunsurkan Anti Islam dan perkauman yang ekstrim. Daripada orang belanda yang tepi jalan, depa suka dengan "Mat Gerit" pasai dia berani untuk menyuarakan pandangan dia. Memang banyak pendatang daripada timur tengah berkijrah ke Belanda pon.

Aku rasa la... Mat Gerit nie tak ada modal lain.... Dia cuma hendak mencari publisity murahan daripada media. Dalam bahasa utagha laaa... Kebebasan bersuara tegha mana???.... Sebenarnya dekat USA dah ada undang2 baru pasal kebebasan bersuara. Nama dia Theathre Law. Undang2 dia mcm nie.... Dalam satu theathre/ pawaham laa katakan. Kalau ada seseorang yang jerit Api!! Api!! kebakaran!!, mesti orang akan panic kan?? menjerit api! adalah satu kebebasan bersuara tapi dalam masa yang sama, dalam kekalutan tu mesti ada stampede dimana orang jatuh dan cedera etc.... Nie lah loophole dalam notion kebebasan bersuara yang akan menghantar mat gerit nie ke muka pengadilan.

Moga2 dia disumbatkan dalam penjara dan rambut perang dia yang macam haram tu dicukur botak haha

Lumrah Phd

2010-10-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

Best giler baca blog bro aku sorang nie. He has entered another phase in his life. I remember we used to study together and teasing each other. Tup tup dia dah ada anak. Super cute plak tu. I'm still stuck in this phase in my life where there are exams where I am graded.

I've studied in Malaysia and I've studied in Australia. Both countries have about the same system. Malaysia style as far as my observation laa----> You have a whole semester to do a course. Lecturers give comprehensive notes , explain satu2. As long as you practice over and over ok aaaa. Pastyears khatam ok bole aaa B+ at least takpon A-. Soalan nak pusing mcm mana lagi??. To a certain extent selak jee tengok figures terus boleh jawab.... Siap create shortcut lagi.....

In Australia, lebih kurang.... The lecturers really explain.... Except Visual basics... tak tau kepala ujung pangkal.... Seb baik pass. BAsically it is good to read before class... Tp takde laaaa detail sangat baca seblom class tu. Tp pastyears tadak.... sooo pandai2 aaa practice banyak2.

Holland?? System laeeeeeen dowh!!! You need deeeeep understanding! Practice is certainly not enough! Khatam aaaa berkali2 pon practice / pastyears. Soalan yang keluar mmg pusing! Dalam course description pon dah cakap, "Do not expect the instructor to explain everything! Study in detail before hand" PAstu sini tak main aaaa semester... Sini main Block... 1 sem = 2 blocks every blocks ada exam. Every week ada test! And depa akan announce sapa fail test.

I've been through Malaysian and australian system. Going through dutch system has its huge hurdles.... Sini very theoretical, maknanya maths kene strong... algebra kene petik jari jeee.... Aku masih lagi terkial-kial dowh.

Apa2 pung I'll try my best.... At this moment baru abis test ! Question last tu aral siket... aduuuuh

Thesis pulak.... Prof tak setuju ngan proposal pulak dah.... Dia kata, kalau nak buat ikut proposal aku nie, nak kene extend banyak tahun. So I have to come up with another one.

Life's getting tougher

Al Fatihah

2010-10-07T03:21:00.000-07:00

Mintak sapa2 yang baca blog nie sedekahkan Al Fatihah kepada Dr Ahmad Adnan yang meninggal dunia hari Rabu 4pm. Kebumi Pagi Khamis kot. A very cool guy although sakit tenat, bole lagi senyum n layan tetamu when I visited him the last time I was in Malaysia. He has contributed alot to the country. He is the pioneer/founder of PPU(Pusat Pakar Utara) which is now KMC.

Why I commit FB suicide

2010-10-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

It all started when I was having conversation with Paksu. BTW, FYI, Pak Su is my uncle. One of the uncles that I look up to. In fact mama Alwiz sort of associate me with Pak su's Traits. You know mama's.... Her son is alwiz the best. Pak Su is a very qualified , sensible and wise guy. Started out as a low achiever but now, one of the big shots in Malaysia's leading group of companies. His view regarding the Malaysia economy and politics is something you wanna listen untill 1 oçlock in the morning.

Well, facebook is a social phenomenon which tallies with human instinct. Human instinct to be penyibuk until at certain extent.... stalking!. His view of Facebook is "A waste if Time!". You basically give out your personal information to the public although there are terms and condition. Violate your own privacy and privacy of others.

His point of waste of time is really true. I mean, you waste at least 15-20 mins of your life reading what people think and sometimes petty things like "Just came back from a coffee" maybe thats not a good example. but you know what I mean. And sometime browsing some silly and obscene pictures. Sometimes people tag you when they are not suppose to yet alone posting embarassing pictures of you.

Hahaha kinda think of it, I'm not closing my FB account because of those reason. Its just because I'm very busy and I just wanna concentrate with coursework and research. Giler stress this block.

I miss Malaysia
Kekadang tengok iklan petronas kat youtube
Jumaat dengaq Khutbah kat Youtube
But not everybody can enjoy life in the Netherlands
Leaves turning yellow.. getting colder
Owh assignment!!! oh paper!!!!! owh supervisor!!!
Banyak kawan masalah
Takdak kawan lonely... nak concentrate ngan research aaa konon
Phd ooooh phd jauhnyaaaaaaaaa
God I miss my Erasmus buddies
Adakah aku semakin gemuk???
Need to buy a scale.... 14 euro bole makan kebab seminggu

Embarrassment at a National level

2010-09-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

For this situation, I'm adapting a post modern style of thinking. Everybody has his/her own opinion. Nobody is free from criticism. Sedangkan great philosophers and leaders pon dapat macam2 criticism, inikan pulak si kerdil ini.

Before that I was criticizing Mr F, pengerusi persatuan XXX for being blur in is correspondence with CNN. I checked his background and found out that he was very well educated from University in the UK. Why he did not answer the questions from the TV newscaster properly. He keeps reading the text... In other words, he fumbled.

Pandai sangat kata dekat orang, last2 sekali kene dekat diri sendiri. I've embarrassed myself in National television For all of you who watched Berita astro Awani. Especially when they mentioned that I'm a "Pelajar Kedoktoran di Amsterdam" Yes that was me and I've made a mistake. My mistake was, I didn't listen to the questions properly. I dont know why... My best bet is maybe because I am nervous. Or maybe because it was really in the morning and I was blur. Well korang nak kutuk keee nak kata apa-apa I accept it with open arms. I deserved it. I think its a learning process...Coz i've never been interviewed in live TV before.

Lesson learned(The hard way)..... Prepare yourself before an interview. Be sure of the questions that the TV casters ask you before hand although the read the question really fast and you cant catch up with the question.

Another lesson... Dont be disappointed by people's criticism and judgement about you, especially in national television hahaha. What to do? dah lepas dah... just lough about it lah. Anyway i'm learning that Phd has its hurdle. Kalau nak ikut criticism orang lain tentang penulisan dan pemikiran aku mmg very frustrating.... Kekadang rasa macam diri nie bodoh dan useless

I pray to Allah that he gives me knowledge superiority and so that I can contribute alot in Islam and to the Academic world .

Hehe kalau nak pikir balik... eeee maluuuuu malunyaa aduuh tensen

Flying into the unknown

2010-08-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

I just found out that I only have 2 decent shirts for a conference. Off to Zara laaa apa lagi?. Thus I bought a whole new wardobe complete with collard T-Shirt and shirts. A lil bit body hugging but who cares... Thats why I work out...(With a lil bit of cheese cake on the side).

And Presto! My bag is packed complete with matching suits... Nie nak gi conference keee fashion show nieh?

Before that I'm messaged my bro amir that I was gonna crash at his joint...

Amir said, lets bukak posa at Masjid MArocco and pekena Hariraa and tajiyn.. So we went... and buy it was a hefty bukak posa. The Harira was great, ada dengan roti arab and roti canai. Met new friends, takleh cakap English. But boleh cakap dutch and Arabish sahaja. So, there I was again speaking broken Dutch and arabic... I guess "Darabic is my third language" A real creole made up by De Heer Ziad.

I've never met such a nice person like Amir. He treats me like his own bro. Kalau Ziad mai mesti dia masak. Alot of surprises bila Ziad mai. He's the kind of person that honours friendship. I learn from honoring friendhip from him.

He gave me his keys and ask me to leave it in his kast so that i have ample time to rest for my flight to Sweden

I was expecting for a big ass airplane and it turned out that it was a small plane. But it was still a jet plane so, I guess its better than kipas plane. thankfully it was not very bumpy and not that tiring although puasa.

There I was all alone transit semua.. I guess i'm used to it... I have my own time and in a survival mode. Alwiz check and raba2 to check wether my pasport is there or not. And raba2 my back pocket for my keys although I'm not using it. I guess it has became a habit.

Well, from the sky, it seems that there's alot of lakes in Sweden and lots of trees. Most of the trees are sprucy and its all green. Sampai airport than I observe the people. They are not that tall... At least shorter than dutch.

Alhamdulillah my serunding lepass!!! takde orang check passport pon. I guess europe is very intergrated and they trust each other although Sweden uses their own currency. Keluaq2 je pagaq ada booth European Regional Sciences Congress (ERSA ) with two hot blonde naturally bleached hair waiting for deligates. Yang bestnya aku langsung tak nampak those blondes, yet alone the booth. Keluaq2 ja pagaq kalut dok cari bas nak gi Jonkoping. After dekat sejam aaa gi balik kat pagaq, baru nampak booth.

Anyway, my friends were right. Among blonds, Swedish chicks are smoking hot. Clear blue eyes, blonde hair and petite. They almost made dutch girls look like giants. Tp bau hamis sikit, I guess they have worked alot for the congress. It is a very significant congress, dengan 50 year anniversary nya etc......... And yess pahala puasa bertaburan di Sweden....

Purposely datang sehari awal so that I can take my own time. Explored the city...... I noticed that it is very safe. I mean, tak rasa takut pon coz ppl there, I guess terlalu maju and they dont need to disturb people. Except for weekend of course... but still.... harmless people...

I dunno... I'm not really what you call religious.... I dont really join Usrah and top five dalam masjid. But I guess Allah selalu tolong. Time nak check in hotel, minah yang jaga hotel tu sikiiit lagi nak blah. Kalau tak, mana laaa aku nak tido n sahur malam tuu...

Bilik pon selesa sangat, although toilet share. Tp tak penah pon nak kene tunggu orang.

The view of lake vatern pon cantik, so breathtaking.... Dekat tepi2 jalan ada wild flowers.

Petang tu registration.....

So register laaa aku sorang2... Everybody seems to know everybody... Jumpa2 terus jabat tangan... berpeluk pon ada... Semua stok tua2... I guess most of them dah ada Phd and some of them dah professor.

There I was wandering alone in the sea of seasoned academicians. Berenang punya berenang, Jumpa jugak orang muda, tp still tua lagi pada aku... Budak Finland... So budak Finland nie pon intro aku ngan Finnish yang lain. Pastu pelan-pelan jumpa budak mexico, Korea, Venezuela, spain.. still they are older than me.... Ada aaa budak Philippine rasanya muda lagi drp aku.. tp sombong.. maklum laa duduk Germany... bAu tengit jugak..

And then it was my turn to present. Gabra nie Allah sahaja yang tau.. But as the time is near, makin kurang rasa gabra. Seblom tu call mama dulu, and she knows my schedule . Prof pon nak turut serta dalam audience. Prof was very supportive despite his busy schedule. Alhamdulillah the presentation according to the audience was ok (great). Lots and lots of questions raised by the delegates

Among the questions yang participanta tanya... lawak jugak..

Can we not pay Zakat every year and pay it in a lump sum with interest?

How about the influence of peer preasure as one of the factors why people pay zakat?

ARE Malaysians forced to pay Zakat?

Posiblity of obtaining panel spatial data

and many more....

Most of these questions, I answer to them by explaining the concept of "salvic merit" better known to us by Dosa and pahala. And this is to utilize this belief among Malaysian citizens to get them to help the government in terms of welfare.

They are very interested in the potential of Zakat in Regional economics research particularly in regional welfare.Because most EU countries are welfare countries.So, the welfare mmg mcm totally public funded.

BTW,

In that conference I get to rub shoulders with great professors from great universities. My professor pon dok kenen2 potential of Zakat research in regional economics. Also, I gained lots of contacts from scientist all around europe.

Sempat berbuka puasa semeja ngan Masahi Fujita, a living legend in Spatial econometric... Sempat bergambaq dengan Nobel prize winner for economics. Paul krugman. and banyak lagi lah.

Alhamdulillah, dapat merasa suasana ala2 cocktail party. Selalunya tengok dalam movie jaa tp nie dapat merasa first hand. Yang bestnya drinks walaupun ada alcohol, ada variety yang without alcohol. Sambil2 dok makan tu ada lagu2 Jazz. Mcm cerita Frasier la pulak.

Pastu malam tu plak ada formal dinner... Nie bukan sebarang dinner tau! yang jantan abis2 kurang nak kena pakai Kot semua... Yang pompuan sorry lah...mmg menjolok mata pakaian depa... Nampak mcm anak patung pon ada... mmg kureng banyaklah pahala posa.

Since duduk dengan living lagends of New trade theory, sempat aku bertanya.... Professor, what do you think of a single asian currency???

Prof: Actually I've conducted a meeting amongst policy makers and politicians from 16 Asian countries. Unfortunately, the outcome is quite pessimistic especially when China disagrees(ayat ini telah diubah) coz org jepun nie BI kureng.... Furthermore, in terms of economy, Asian countries are already integrated, so no need for single currency. Kalau single currency, tgk apa yang jadi kat europe dengan kes greece.

PAstu aku tanya lagi soklan:

This time, kindof a personal question:

How do you balance between your magnificent work and your family?

Dia terus peluk bini dia.....

Prof: My WIFE!! Number one!! hahaha

KAmi semua gelak... lawak jugak prof nie

Yang bestnya kalau dia tak tau, dia cakap tak tau.... Dia tak buat kapla.... Kekadang kami tanya.. What do you think of the collaboration of Physics and Economics?

Pastu dia Jawab: I dont know that coz i'm a mathmatician! Ask Kuuruugman(nobel prize lauriette for econs 2008)

Haha lawak-lawak... At least for me laa...

Ada jugak soklan yang dia refuse to jawab...Kami tau dia dulu penah mengajar kat Upenn(Ivy league university)

Kami tanya dia... Why did you leave Upenn and decide to be a prof in Kyoto instead

Prof: i dont want to answer that, it was a bad memory...

Best sembang ngan oraang intelek nie.. especially orang yang terkenal.....

Kesian kat prof aku, dipinggirkan oleh student yang kacang lupakan kulit hahaha... Tp dia sikit pon tak jeles... Infact, dia encourage... Dia cakap, since you are siting near him... talk to him! Actually prof aku nie tak interfram mcm aku... Low profile, tp publish berkajang...

After the dinner is the JOGET LAMBAK time....

You can be surprised time conference, prof2 tua nie nampak mcm skemaaa je... Tp time joget pergghhh menari2 .... Ziad? ingat pasal bulan posa jeee kalau tak harus.... hahaha But it was aa great experience... Awek-- toksah dok kira laa Masyaallah tambah pulak Ziad jaa di kalangan orang2 muda, yg jadi tukang arrange student comel2.... Good thing bolan posa...

Next day, bangun awai... blah gi Gotheborg... Typical european city... surprisingly ramai Muslim... Nice view... naik ferriswheel with breathtaking view. Tgk banggunan lama2 berhala besaq...typical european city... Jalan mcm orang tak posa tuh... tp kekadang rasa gak peluh2 sejuk..... rest sat... pastu jalan balik.

Conclusion about conference....

BEST giler!!!! nak pi lagi! nak pi lagi! Next year Barcalona--- target! target!

Conclusion about Sweden

Dari segi view, cantik aaa tp holland n germany pon cantik... Banggunan lebih kurang germany... But the Chicks..... I think the only reason that I wanna go and visit Sweden again is because of the chicks mmg exceptionally beautiful. Tak tinggi sangat mcm dutch n german.... Rambut blond tahap bleach ... mata biru jernih(like they are staring into your soul)...kulit mcm porcelain...

There's a saying ... Swedish women makes British women look unattractive.... I agree with that...

Takde time nak menulis blog

2010-08-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Update, next week puasa kat Jonkoping Sweden. Mudah mudahan Allah bagi pertolongan. Now tgh wat powerpoint presentation. So, entry kali nie malas nak tulis. Pagi, petang siang malam dok mengadap data ngan paper ja. To make it up, here's a crazy video

Zomer

2010-07-23T02:59:00.000-07:00

GRO-AMS-HKG-KUL-AOR Begitulah perjalan aku utk sampai ke Loq Stuck... Giler lama, pasnieh tamau transit dah lah... Sampai2 ja, terus pekena nasik Ali peeerghh bantai btoi! Besok tu terus demam 3 hari + Jetlag. So three days lost!..

Managed to spent quality time with parents n tok. Tok walaupun nyanyuk tp Ziad mesti ingat. She's aware that I came from holland, brought her chocolate n cheese n berries so happy lah my grandma. I'm sorry kawan2 balik tak habaq coz mmg sekejaaaaaap sangat just for my sis's wedding. Balik nie pon cuma nak attend wedding, tolong mama n papa, catchup ngan family n work so, i'm sorry kalau tak habaq.

Other than that, work, discussion with USM counterparts and jumpa ngan dear dekan. Oh yeah ..... went out with a "potential".. adik dah kawin abang dok bercelaru lagi haha! I dun expect much, coz I'm in holland sooo it doesnt hurt to keep trying Malaysian chicks.

The kenduri was alhamdulillah, coz its just Mama, papa jee yg arrange, Ziad tlg sket2 je. Thanks to family members, Kahriah Tg Bendahara, org surau yg organise meetings on how to help us yg tulang 4 kerat nie literally. Neighbours yang tolong dengan penuh ikhlas. Siap ada bagi pinjam rumah lagi utk setup bunga teloq. The best thing is they are really HAPPY to help!! Alhamdulillah Allah bukak hati depa.

Time Kenduri alhamdulillah smooth. Although aku miss miss sister's procession... aduuuh hampeh... my parents pon.. We were busy greeting tetamu. Kami tak mau nnt2 kot tak greet tetamu.

Its good to have a new member of the family. Instantly rasa mcm he's a part of us. Ada laa orang yg dekat utk tengok2kan mama n papa. Ziad duduk jauh

2 soalan orang selalu tanya aku.... berbuih mulut nak jawab.... Dekat sana mengaji apa? bila abang punya turn??

Soklan satu pon payah aku nak jawab hehe aku cakap Spatial science depa semua clueless. So aku cakap ekomomi je lah senang... semua orang tau

Soklan2 hurmm cakap jodoh tak sampai lagi nnt2 lah abis Phd ... full stop

Tp actually banyak terbuku

I've learned many things abt relationships and especially the BAD examples.... The bad examples helps me to choose better( I think). Although I kinda forgive the one who gave bad examples but I dare not look back. Any reconciliation is not acceptable in under any circumstances. It's like if i look back, I feel like i'm in a party but stuck with a ugly wierd chick. You feel sorry for ignoring her but you wanna avoid. Anyway it really happened once when I was in a party haha.

Anyway kesian dekat sahabat lama aku, had a bad experience with a BAD example.... I felt like I wanna go to him and slap him so that he wakes up. No use sulking to a person who doesn't care for you. Takyah lah nak rasa down..... Dont be stupid... What we do is we wake up n dont look back. But he's only human. me too... One day he's gonna look at this situation n lough...

AOR-KUL-HKG-AMS-GRO

Flight delay---train tah pape time tu lah nak jahanam kene petir pon-- Dah la ada discussion petang tu. Anyway, my lifestyle pon nak ikut prof dah. Dalam plane pon wat keje. Pastu sampai2 je umah, tauk bag n trus gi discussion dengan penuh blur. Balik terus meghelluh(tido).

Pas discussion of course banyak keje nak wat... Aku terpaksa rahsiakan kepulangan aku di bumi belanda nie coz nnt ada jaaa jebon2 nak ajak merayau... Memula Fra msg... aku diaaam ja depa mcm boleh sense jaa kedatangan aku... Pastu si claudio plak.... aduh, kesian kat depa... I guess depa tu mmg rindu kat aku.... Akhirnya terbongkar... kat library... Depa tu ajak mai rumah n masak lagi kat aku... punya laa baik punya kawan2. Depa tu pi beli daging halal n masak kari kat aku hehe what great friends I have... mcm adik beradik.

I guess all this while kita mesti ingat omputeh sombong kan??? I guess that only applies to the British.... Orang eropah lain coool ja.... especially italian n portuguese mmg senang masuk aaa... Lithuanian n french pilih bulu gak tp depa sempoi jaa ngan aku.

Oh yeah Groningen time Summer LENGGANG! Takpa baguih boleh aa aku concentrate utk beribadat... haha... Relek jee gi office pakai t shirt ngan seluaq pendek(Contradicticting statements)...

Dui dui

Murder

2010-06-03T08:17:00.001-07:00

Heike came to my office personally on behalf of the faculty to invite me for our department dinner. Hurmmhh on that same day is the day that I move to a new apartment. Lots of things to be done. Imean lots n lots!. But since they invited me personally, its very hard to decline.

FYI it was worth it. You know our typical Malaysia dinner, with Malaysian food or if it is a western dinner(in Malaysia) with european food ( with alot of oriental touch). And while you're having dinner, there's some sort of cultural show with dancers dancing Zapin or at least a guy playing Piano. Sounds fancy huh! But NO! .

In the netherlands, the dutch does it in a different way. Veeery unique. It started with a chic soire, you know, people standing and talk while drinking mende haram. It started like that. And then the waiters invited us into a hall with dinner tables. BTW it was really cosy and fancy sort of setting in an old reinassance sort of building. Well, we were seated and there were unfamilliar faces sitting among us and they talk to us and make jokes.

I genuinly thaught that they were waiters flirting around or some PR people trying to promote their restaurants. I soon found out that they were actors. The scene is like this. Instead of us watching some sort of theathre or an act on a stage, the scene was among us. We can interact with the actors while they are acting and they will ask us to solve their problem. It was an act of a MURDER scene. What is even unique, some of us even were given scripts to read act with us.

Since it is a Murder sort of Drama, we were given pictures and clues to help them solve . There were sounds of guns shooting and people screaming while we were having dinner. Devided into groups, we were assigned to identify who is the murderer according to the clues given and their motives. Its sort of something that I need to get used to because we had to use our brains to figure it out. I even saw my groupmates, prof ed and Prof Piet jotted notes and looking at the clues. This really give an impression that even during leisure times, the dutch people like to think. Aku, mcm malas dah, tp depa mcm eager nak tau who's the murderer and what was the motive behind it

Anyway, about the dinner itself, it was decent. You know, in fancy restaurants , the portion is small but the price is high... heheh. But it was nice, takde "kerbau pendek" but I had sushi for appetiser and pasta with noorze salmon for main course. The desert was of course ice cream with chocolate sauce. The funny thing about the desert was, there were only 2 choices, ice cream and fruit smoothie. Thank god I did not order the smoothie coz it doesnt look nice coz the smoothie was just blended fruit with ice which looked yuckh!! but the ice cream looked lekker lekker and tasted good also. I could see the faces of regret from my other collegues who ordered the smoothie hehehe

It was a great experience... Advice to dear readers, if you have the money, or your parents has money, come to study in holland. Altough the subjects are the same but the experience is totally different. Be mindful of dugaan2 Syaitan though . I've studied in Australia, nothing to be compared to holland, groningen especially... Sounds Poyo but its what I think.

Dag

Akhir Zaman

2010-05-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

Alhamdulillah, my regression results seems to be according to my hypothesis. Thanks for my dear Prof for his suggestions. Jonkoping conference pon dah register dah..... Credit card papa pon dah guna dah utk booking hotel. Hopefully before kenduri Nawal, boleh la submit paper tu.

N dah discuss ngan Justin regarding my intro and conceptual model. Its a rather broad discussion. But I did scope it down to some of the details. Furthermore, he suggested me further reading. Among other things that we've discussed which is very interesting is neo liberalism and he scoped it down to thatcherism and reaganism. It all happened during the reign of MArgeret Thatcher and Ronald reagen regardingthe concept of Free market. The way justin wanted me to relate it to religion specificallt Islam is something to think about. Memang menarik, aku mmg suka baca pasal neo conservatism. So, my argument is this... neo conservative notion of economy is of course for all the material purposes is not all accurate. Despite all the material goal people still have the conscience for salvation. Of course, if we are againts that, thatcherists will acuse us of having Marxist ideology. Yet again, Religion is the opiate of all masses :) huh pening tp seronok.

A horrid day to insult our loved one

2010-05-25T04:28:00.000-07:00

One of the first thing we hear since our birth is his name. Instead of our parents’ name, we hear his name first. We were nurtured to love him and respect him. He is our model of perfection. How would you feel if your parents were insulted? Yet alone Him. How would you feel if stupid ignorant idealist freaks depicted the picture or drawings of your parents for the world to see in a very humiliating way.

Who’s fault is it?. I always believe that Stupid disrespectful idealist freaks will always be stupid disrespectful idealist freaks. The fault is on us! And our Government!.

Why are we still buying their products? Of course things like computers, books I mean the things that we can’t live without we can rule it out BUT the petty things which have lots of alternatives like clothes, shoes and fast-food. We need to show to the world that we mean business through our consumer power. We are the 2^nd largest population in the world cant we show the “real” compassion towards our loved one? . Participating in mass protest doesn’t really work, it will just show the world that we are barbaric trouble makers.

How about government who claims to love “Him”. Why don’t you expel the diplomats?. Why are the governments still trading oil to these countries?. Clearly, greed can compromise the insult to our loved one.

Kiyamam Sana

2010-05-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

Atas desakan daripada peminat2 setia terpaksa laaa aku mengupdate blog aku ~~poyo.~~ At this very moment aku tgh tunggu solat subuh pastu baru nak tido. Coz subuk masuk pkl 3:45am kalau tak silap…..Nie baru abis lepak di Drie Gesuisters(Three Sisters) . It’s the biggest place to hang out in Groningen. It’s a combination of restaurant where u can get the finest cuisine, Bar, Tempat utk berjoget lambak and simply a place where there are comfortable leather chair for everybody to chill out during the weekends. The special attraction is the ice Bar, best gak, tp sejuk giler aaa… Semua buat drp ice, kerusi meja, dinding semua buat ngan ice. But my friends and I just hang out at the common area where there were nice comfy sofa and we had drinks and talk about what are our plans, what we’ve done this week and shit(literally).

Oh yeah b4 I forget, I’m starting to use this ~~thingy~~ terpengaruh ngan pire agaknya

I really love this open conversation with nice ~~expensive~~ drink, non alcoholic of course. Jumpa pulak geng Czech n Korean, pastu depa pon join skali. There were like 13 of us from different cultures and background. It was fun.

Well, before we went to lepak at Drie Gesuisters, we went to this exquisite Italian restaurant. I think it was my first time in Europe in a decent Italian restaurant. Nice Ambiance, fancy table cloth and expensive wooden chair and table. Its like being in little Italy. There were nice Italian sculptures ~~patung bogel tayang pungkoq~~ and pictures of Italian landscape. Yang best to aku duduk diantara gadis Italian yang sempoi gilerr. Depa nak mintak discount la kunun tp chess! Tak dapat . I ordered seafood pizza and it was AWFUL. Dah la masin!! Tp nak buat mcm mana Sumbat je la coz it costs 10.25eur…

But during the dinner was the best part. Macam besa we were kutuking each other. Bila mai tang aku of course they’ll talk about my obsession with Turkish gurls in front of 2 beautiful Turkish gurls. Hurmmm merah padam aaa… Tp tak kisaaah. I dunno, sejak aku mai Europe nie perasaan malu nie menghilang.

Claudio: Ziad! Cammon man sing some Turkish song for the Turkish gurls Maan!

Aku pon nyanyi laa lagu Golmez Olsun pergh depa suka kooot! ~~Perasan~~ siap amik video lagi. Haha.. Pastu Italian gurls nyanyi lagi Eros Ramzotti aku pon singalong jugaaak. Kira, our table paling havoc… Imagine, there were 10 of us in the Ristorante de Italiano and 3 of us were singing. And I reckon the waitresses were expecting that we will be making a lot of noise so they seated us at a quite secluded place. Oh yeah and it was an opportunity for me to semayang maghrib. Selamba jaaa.. amik wuduk, pastu hampar jacket n semayang je lah tepi meja tu, mintak tlg Claudio tunggu. When there is a will, there is a way.

Vincas, Paola and my hand
Burcu, Nilai n Kathy

Paola on my left and her sis Frencie

Donmez Olsun

2010-05-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

Bila Jatuh Cinta ngan Awek Turkey.....

dönmez olsun dönmez olsun
sensiz bu dünya dönmez olsun
sönmez olsun sönmez olsun
içimdeki ates sönmez olsun

bu sarki bizim olsun
askimiz sonsuz olsun
gönlümün pinarinda adin ceylanim olsun

görmez olsun görmez olsun
sensiz bu gözlerim görmez olsun
sevmez olsun sevmez olsun
kalbim baskasini sevmez olsun

bu sarki bizim olsun
askimiz sonsuz olsun
gönlümün pinarinda adin ceylanim olsun

geçmez olsun geçmez olsun
sensiz bu ömrüm geçmez olsun
gelmez olsun gelmez olsun
ayrilik bize gelmez olsun

bu sarki bizim olsun
askimiz sonsuz olsun
gönlümün pinarinda adin ceylanim olsun

Beshummm Doniyorr!!

Al- Naqba

2010-05-16T02:25:00.000-07:00

Marilah kita sama-sama memperingati peristiwa Al-Naqba. Peristiwa penyembelihan abang2 dan kakak kita di Tanah Palestine.

Nie la dinding apartheid yang menyusahkan saudara2 kita di sana
Insyaallah saudara2 kita akan dapat kembali ke tanah air mereka. Kunci ini simbol kepulangan mereka.

Gambar ihsan Frenchie

Kerja Gila Di Rotterdam

2010-05-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

Just to finish up our discount tickets we've decided to rotterdam. The journey was around 3 n a haf hour. Well, the thing is when travelling in groups, its not boring. We had a joyful 3n a half hours of Kutuking and disturbing each other. KAwan tu usik kawan nie kawan nie usik kawan tu.

Yup saja testing upload video.

Claudio was juggling, and I put something in Franchie's nose after that. Seb baik dia tak marah haha. Anyway, In rotterdam, banyak giler turkisg chicks wee. I was fallin in love every 2 minutes(Tolga sed the same thing when he was in Rome)

About rotterdam, besides the turkish chicks, there was alot of ultra modern buildings. Nothing special actually. Rasa macam dok kat KL. But the Doner shops are really cheap and Halal. Aku apa lagi.. makan sampai tak ingat dunia aaaa best giler. Although I've made some cucoq ikan as bekal, I didn't really eat the cucoq ikan, istead I ate all the available Halal food in stores like Doner, lahmahcun etc,

Nak tergelak pon ada tgk gelagat member2. Ada a group of motorcycles bawak peti ais penuh ngan Beer. Tudia masing2 pakat2 dok hambat(kejar) Motor tuu. Siap tahan tengah jalan lagi. Dah la tu, siap motor tu buat memacam stunt n lari daripada kami. Actually its an add campaign by Gholcg beer company. You cant buy the beer, but only exchange it with warm beer. Pretty catchy huh. Hehe tp mende tu tetap haraaam.

Nie nak tangkap gambar cam merenung masa depan la konon... Terus diganggu oleh jebon2 terhormat nie. Hurmmm

Yesss you know what I meaan.

Bad move

2010-05-08T03:01:00.001-07:00

Aku dah e-mail dah dekat prof.... Ok meeting friday 1-2.... Nie Allah betui-betui nak menguji keimanan aku. Prof mai lewat sket, pastu dia jumpa Ann dulu.... Aku dok laaa berlari naik turun tangga so dat aku bole jumpa prof dulu dan bole gi semayang jumaat pukul 2. Jenguk dalam ofis Ann tgk proff ada situ, aku senym kat depa pastu dia kata

"See you in half an hour"

O.k, so tak pee aa kot miss sikit khutbah..... bukannya miss semayang...

After half n hour aku gi jenguk kat ofis depa, tanya ann, Where's prof, he's down stairs at my office... pastu aku larii pulak turun bawah.. tgk Jengtao tangkap prof dulu... Aisehh prof discuss2 dgn mangkuk ayun tu pulak. PAstu baru prof cakap kat aku

"Ok noww, lets talk about religion"

Hurmmm dalam hati aku, nak cakap ke dak, nak cakap keeee dak, pasal semayang Jumaat... hurmmh aku tak cakap pon.

We kept discussing.... Funny how Allah Maha pengampun dan maha mengasihani... Aku mcm lagi takut ngan prof dr Maha pencipta... Isyyy tak buat dah... Taubat... Lenkali aku mesti habaq kat prof kata, aku nak kene gi semayang Jumaat. Allah still bukak hati prof utk tolong aku dalam paper Jonkoping dan Allah still, bukak hati prof untuk suka kerja aku.... Tobat aku tak buat dah perangai huduh macam tu.

Time flies....

2010-04-29T04:04:00.000-07:00

Prof bagi e-mail... Your introduction is NOT OK.... aduhhhhh.... It seemed that after the last discussion i've made it worse. LAst discussion he asked me to put in rationality of religious beliefs. And i put it in, and I got over exited with the discussion until my structure goes haywire. Pas dia bebel-bebel... Dia soh aku bawak a couple of papers and dis soh ikut paper tu.

"I want it next week to be squiky clean" .

Yes prof.

After that, he wanted me to bring the results of the analysis... That have made him smile... Legaaa..... Funny age is negatively related to Zakat payment... Rupanya I need to do the distribution of age coz the sample is only singgle household.

June I have to submit my paper by hook or by crook :P

Social life,

Social life memacamlah... Went to Kak Yong's place, which was great.... Abang eddy pulak buat roast chicken... KAk yong pulak buat cake, cucoq n other stuff. Afte that gi shopping pulak kat brand outlet. P.S dapat Seluar timberland for 10eur :P angkut dua terus (kedekut) Satu untuk ana satu untuk papa. Papa punya belia sikit :P

PAstu gi keukenhof. Sea of flowers.... Bayangkan sawah padi terbentang luas....add tulips on it... Mmg fuhhh tak dapat bayangkan. Tak tau laaa Syurga mcm mana, nie baru dunia... refer to Alwaqiah for further details. N we found this sea of red tulips, perghhh sampai sangkut kereta kat tanah gambut lah! giler panic... dah la nak gi makan KFC halal kat den haag aisehh... Orang putih yang tua2 jee nak tolong...yg muda2 tolong tengok je aaa. Akhirnya warga suriname mai tolong, tough2 plak tu. Rupanya kalau kereta sangkut nie, all U need is help from at least 5 ppl to push the car out, korek laaaa mcm mana pon, tak jalan jugak.

Well after keukenhoff n stuff back home n continue work... solitary confinement. Except for last sunday.... Gi mandi sungai... Hero abis lah! Orang belanda pon tak mandi sungai tu lg coz sejuk giler aku, claudio n tolga belasah jeeee pastu terketaq-ketaq aaaa.

Ada omputeh nie sembang ngan aku pastu bukak topik agama dan Palestine. Aku pon interested aaa. PAstu dia kata dia besa gi sana. MAsjid Quba Al Saqara dia besa gi n Masjid Al-Aqsa pon dia besa gi wah mmg hebat. Dia nie agama nasrani tp tak practice aaa. Dia gi sana pasal dia nie mcm masih mencari dan nak gi tolong warga2 Palestine kat sana.Time tu aku sikit malu, coz apa yang kita umat Islam lakukan untuk menolong warga Palestine niee??... Hurmmm.. MAsjid besa masuk, tudung pon besa pakai(anyway cun siot bila pakai tudung), in fact dia mmg ada tudung. Huyyoh! Aku nak react pon tak tau coz aku nie bukannya Ustaz. Pastu dia cakap kat aku dia nak ikut gi Masjid. Nak bagi dia ikut aku pon aku rasa bersalah. I really2 dunno what to do. Aku mana ada kawan pompuan Muslim yg rapat kat sini utk show around kat dia. Kak Wani je aaa Kak Wani pon tgh pregnant. Anyway Khutbah Jumaat pon dalam Arabic(walaupun kat sini pompuan pon gi khutbah jumaat)... so mcm no point going... Kalau aku show around?? Tak tau lah coz entrance pompuan pon aku tak sure kat mana... Isyyyy kalau nak buat mende baik ke jalan Allah nie adaaa jaa halangan.

Aku perasan 2 member dari itali satu laki2 satu lg pompuan yg aku citer td mcm tu... Ada member laki pon dia nak ikut aku gi Masjid. Tp setau aku orang kafir takleh gi Masjid coz haritue prof aku nak masuk ushar Masjid Ubudiah kat Kuala Kangsar, Tok Imam tak bagi coz depa nie Berhadas besar(Siap quote Hadis lagi). Sedangkan wanita muslim berhadas besarpon tak bole masuk masjid inikan pula wanita/lelaki non Muslim

Tak tau laaa rasa bersalah sangat2. Anyway for me bercakap saja pasal Islam is no point ppl wont listen... We hav to practice it n show good example. I guess I hav to show good example.

Moga2 Allah bagi hidayah kat 2 sahabat aku nie...

Anyway, nama dia Boolat. Aku jumpa dekat student house aku pas balik ofis...Ingatkan tikuih, rupanya Hedgefund.... Hedgehog daaaa
Sharukh Khan in the making
Nice shorts
Antara kerja gila yg kami buat... Tgk, mana ada orang lain... geng kami jaaa.... Masing2 nak impress awek.. dajei ngguhh

Jönköping

2010-03-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

Kawan-kawan... aku ada ofis mate baru... Nama dia Li Jengtao... Sempoi... Skang baru aku ternotice.. Aku slalu tulis blog lepas jumpa ngan supervisor :P. Well this time, sempoi giler the discussion. Before the discussion, mesti call mama dulu.. for comfort.. gelabah gak. Tambah pulak this time nak discuss ngan 2 bangsa yang penah menjajah kita.

Best gak tgk gelagat orang pandai nie. Sembang ilmiah laa katakan. Rasa mcm orang kaya pon ada bila dalam bilik discussion tu. It started on a few questions which was difficult for me to answer(nervous kot). Anyway, Justin started with a few complement regarding my proposal. Like "Now I can see where you're going" ..... "Much better than the last time we met"...He even pointed out the term "eurocentricity" that I often use and the optimistic view of maybe de-eurocentricise certain theories like Post secularization, pre-secularization and secularization. Alot of things that I need to develop clearly especially in methodologising my ideas. Coz, as justin said, research is not just intuition and ideas. It is lso about mathodolgising yer ideas

And alhamdulillah my abstract has been accepted (walaupun antar 1 month late) thanks to God, my mum's prayer n papa n prof Westlund, at least thats the first step on publishing my work.

The discussion about the paper was also quite interesting. There are two opposing views regarding the format of my paper. Prof Henk coming from a quantitative empirical backrground like numbers n heading while Dr J. Beaumont would prefer it in an essay and philosophical form. Well I think both of them are right. Of course prof has the ultimate authority :)...yes boss. But I think different academic view will increase academic vitality :).

I also e-mailed Prof Abd Lateef Abdullah an American and an ex protestant now a Muslim convert about my work and he said that there are many reason why people dont pay Zakah besides secularization. He said that I've justified the use of Zakat as a measure of religiosity, I still need further justification. Prof henk added that I need to add the rationality and irrationality of religious belief and start on the data analysis :) Well there's a lot of work.

It is safer to believe in god because if good doesnt exist, than the impact on you is not very significant. However, if you dont believe in god, and it turned out that god really exist, then you're in deep shit. Bleise Pascal ..... I like this one haha anyway I rephrased it so that it sounds funny. Take that Karl Marx!

The next week amir mai with Juan. I've made tempoyak ikan tillapia and ayam Kurma sedap gila... Everybody ate with their hands. Vincas is an expert in eating with hand :). Juan n Claudio nampak cam kekok sikit haha... N thanks to vincas for baking the Apple pie. I was great!!! Luv it!!!

P/s.... I know somebody has been stalking my blog... I guess you googled my name :)..... What u did to me was horrid. There are some mistakes that is unforgivable. You've lost my trust and respect which u dont deserve in the first place. Nevertheless I forgive you but plz stop it. Can be quite irritating sometimes :).

A word from a philosopher that I look up to. "Only take care and care for the person who cares for you"

J.B Khairy, Amir...Gro->Hilv->Ams

2010-03-27T05:51:00.000-07:00

Anyway, Prof e-mailed my about his suggestion for Dr Justin Beaumont to be my co-supervisor. He's gonna supervise me on the theoretical part and Prf will be supervising on the econometrics part. I said ok aaa...Actually its more like BRILLIANT! coz when I met Justin also, he did ask whether I need him to supervise, but I have Henk already so skang mmg happy.

By the Way Dr Justin Beaumont is an Englishman..Got his Phd from Durham... I just discovered how to pronounce Durham... NOT Durr Hamm BUT Durrem.... Silent H... Hehehe orang biasa ngan dutch mana tau semua2 nie "poyo" . Anyway, he is a very energetic suave, charismatic n a person with style with a strong intelactual touch. The choice of word that he uses reflects countless books that he has reads and write and his in depth research not just abot planning but in Theology as well. He has collaborations especially theologeans, planners, geographers and reverants from churches. In fact he has organised a conferences just recently about Dutch religious situatiation mainly about faith based organization and from that conference he compiled all the research work into a book that will be out soon, July maybe....

First impression of him, he has made research as more fun for me. I think the research about postsecularization that he's doing is fun!!! sadly i dont think it can be applied in Malaysia..not yet Coz Malaysia's secularization is still latent..... N my research is to crystallise it. What he want from me for now is what is the Aim for my studies and my propose chapters in my thesis. After that we will sit together with henk in my office n discuss about my phd future...Nie yg gelabah nie

Anyway, KHairy mai, n lama aku tak jumpak Amir... So 2 birds with one stone.. Jumaat malam aku gerak gi Hilversum n spent the night there. N the next morning(More like afternoon) me n Amir gerak gi Amsterdam n wait for khairy. Unfortunately Khairy sampai lambat n we waited for hours. Not Khairy's fault anyway coz It was raining n they had trouble with the holland pass. So, Amir n I had nothing to do except being hooligans in Amsterdam. Our mission cari MELAYU.. haha... Especially awek... Tp unfortunately time kami nak cari, takde pon Melayu. Yang ada orang Indo... Anywayzz we did found a group of Malay, tp u guys know kan typical Malaysian students yg study dekat UK, buat deeek ja dkt kami so lantak lah. Kami, Malaysians yg study dekat Holand nie kalau jumpa other Malaysians, kami apreciaaaate sangat.

Anyway after hours of waiting, finally we get to meet Khairy n Also Hawa Hanum.... Aww she's so cute. We need to rock her pram so that she's asleep, if not she wakes up. We took some pictures n aku n Amir pon letih sangat... we had some lite dinner n head back.

The next morning b4 I headed back, I cooked Kuah durian... We had to open all the windows so that the Gas incidence never happen again. It was spring n prettey warm outside so we ate outside...mmg sempoi.. Orang puteh pon heran kami makan kuah durian kat luar sambil main guitar n nyanyi.... How oftern do you hear 2 Malaysian guys eating kuah durian in Hileversim netherlands?....

Deliks Defence

2010-03-27T03:49:00.000-07:00

Lamanya aku tak tulis blog.... Kalau dah sampai Pire pon bole tanya pasal apa lama tak post blog , maknanya lama la tuuu. Well, alot of things has happened this few weeks. Well remember my last post mentioning about how prof like my work. Well, a week after that fuhh memacam complain especially on my conceptual model.

In doing research, we have to be neutral. By neutral is really NEUTRAL. There is one statement that my prof is really critical about. The statement sounds something like this. "Muslims belief towards Islam remains strong. In fact, it becomes strongger" something like that laa tp ayat yang lebih acedemic, aku pon tak berapa ingat cemmana aku tulis. Anyway I quoted that statement from a book and articles that I've been reading mainly from Earnest Gellner. Anyway, I certainly can write that kind of statement BUT the refference towards it mesti panjang berjela. From what I understood, there must be some sort of concencus from alot of acedemics in order to support that statement

Thats one thing.... and another thing is AGAIN my structure. Prof is so nice to even drew me the stucture especially for my dependent n independent variable. First is the hypothesis, then WHY?? n then support with literature. AGAIN n AGAIN he wants me to be fast. Yes Boss!

After the discussion, both of us wen to see Delik's defence. FYI Delik is a very nice chap. He's a lecturer in Bandung. Umor dekat 30 arr to anak dah dua..... I went there with abang ucop n we went to buy a book for him as present. About the defense, My prof n my 2nd supervisor was there to ask questions. As usual, the profesors n the Decents(lecturers) marched like royalties. Only the professors wear the robes n the special hat. The docents pakai baju coat aaa. And they we sitting on a should I say communal throne. Mmg cantik Aula hall tu.

Anyway, professors will take turn to ask questions about Deliks thesis according to their respective expertise.N my prof tanya soalan paling susah, n delik pon kata camtue hehehe, n the kind of question that he was asking delik is the kind of question that he asks me every time we meet. Delik nampak mcm gelabah tp pastu cool je. Anyway, I was hoping dia pakai baju yang macam magician ka, rupanya dia pakai baju suit beasa jaaa. He managed to complete his Phd within 3 years..impressive.. tp Masters dia 2 tahun n dia sambung Phd ikut masters dia...Hurmmm aku tak tau aaa. He gave me Alquran for free...mmg baik. I wish him success utk mendidik anak Bangsa...

After the Phd presentation, there was a banquet. I did't go, I was thinking, kita nie apa laaa sangat. Ingatkan banquet nie utk proff prof n tetamu diraja jaaa... Rupanya, everybody who attended mmg dijemput. N prof was looking for me, n I know that the next morning when Stiny told me... kesian prof, dia tu usaha aa cari aku, rupanya dia tolong carikan co supervisor utk aku Dr Justin beaumont.

Ps. Khairi cakap dia nak datang from UK bawak Hawa Hanum, his cute lil daughter

Comedy night

2010-03-06T03:37:00.000-08:00

Ive been reminding claudio from last month about the comedy night. I've missed it 3-4 times already coz it's always on the first thursday nite of the month. Oh yeah and the above picture is when I cook Nasik Padprik(tak jadi). Pedak plak tuuuu kesian claudio. Vincas sental jugak.

Kami bertiga naik laaa basikal sampai De korrenbourg(One of the landmarks of Groningen). N gi la ke comedy nite show tu.... Best gilerr... Its like a groningen version of "Who's line is it anyway" cuma the input from the audience is selected by random shouts from the floor instead of writing it down in a paper. Any inputs from the audience which are accepted in the show, the oudience will get a free beer. Ha ha... The actors are natural, bukan buat-buat n bukan lawak spastic. I loughed my pants off!

Muka penuh kebencian pasal aku kutuk dia. Saja jaaa sindir dia... Aku tanya dia.. Pasal apa malam nie pakai smart sangat?? nak cari awek ka??? BTW aweks2 kat sini fuhhh....

This is a typical lithuanian soup. Its some sort of desert made from fruit mixes and starch. Sapa lagi yg buat kalau roomate aku Vincas

Oh yeah and thanks to claudio for showing me the way. Kalau dak sesat laa akuu. This is his 3rd time here. Anyway, the ambiance dalam dewan tu mmg unique. Dinding color merah with wallpaper merah bunga2. Ceiling pon color merah with beautiful chandeliers mmg suasana europe abes lah! Should've taken pictures...

Cant wait for the next showw next month!

Dui!

Geen Weekend voor mij...

2010-03-06T03:35:00.000-08:00

Sepatutnya spring tp snow mencurah-curah.... I LOVE IT!..... Dok antaq laa progress kat prof, dok heran laa pasai apa dia lambat balas.... Rupa-rupanya dia suda gi US utk conference naseb baik US.... Time gempa bumi tu aku dok rasa cuak jugak, isyyy takut prof gi Chille pulak jadi apa2 kat dia, MASAK aku!

Cheee at this moment Ive accomplished 2 stuff!!!

1) Mintak prof fill in progress report....Cheee dia fill in "laa laa tu" immediately.. juga.. Sepatutnya mende tu confidential tp prof open jaaa... Ok laaa Average banyak... Semua very good tipu aaaaaaa....

2) Mintak cuti mid June for Nawal's wedding... Dia approve!! Alhamdulillah...Happy siot!!!

Rgarding my progress...

Prof duduk depan aku n said "You have progressed!" Pastu dia mcm Berkerut n fikir balik...Pastu aku mencelah "I need to progress faster am I?" pastu dia kata "yes! yes!"

He gave me a paper by Dutta and ask me to follow within his lines!

About dutta's paper, I notice that there is specific section for literature review...n I ask him why???

He said

"its a matter of style, literature review doesn;t have to be a specific section it can be anywhere".

I still have this undergrad mentality that loterature review must be in one exclusive section.

"The literature review that you wrote is a combination of Introduction and the Conceptual model"

That means i have to restructure my literature review and saperate it into Intro and conceptual model

I've traced back related literatures dated back in the 17oo regarding religion and economics which starts from "The wealth of Nations" by Alex Weber until Azzi and Ahrenberg 1975 which is the foundation of my conceptual model.

Azzi and ahrenberg said: Religiosity can be measured by various indicators namely church attendence and religious contribution. The main point which many literatures point out is "RELIGIOUS CONTRIBUTION IS A SUBTITUTE FOR CHURCH ATTENDANCE" as a measure of religiosity. Based on this, I will use Zakat payment as a measure of religiosity. Insyaallah by next week Ziad nak data! from Jabatan perangkaan.

The other thing that Prof point out is the motives of Church attendance/religious contribution. I did mention the 3 motives in Azzi and Ahrenberg

1)salvation motive-> Church attendance for the purpose of afterlife consumption. Maksudnya buat kerana Allah aaaa ikhlassss

2) Social Motive-> Church attendane for social preasure= Mcm lalang aaa,... 4-5 orang pi Mesjid/sedekah, yang lain pon ikut

3)Consumption Motive-> Nie pi mesjid/Sedekah utk dapat business contact....

All these 3 motives professor wants me to model it in such a way, there is sort of an equilibrium between Earthly motives and the salvation motive.... Hampeh! aku tak terpikiaq pon mcm tu... Thats why he's the professor and I'm the Idiot

And then AGAIN he wants me to structure my points and use bullets for my dependent and independent variables. Dia siap tulis lagi kat draft aku sebijik - sebijik....

Oh yeah tensen2 aku dok dengaq lagu nie.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06CWxWx2k0o&annotation_id=annotation_460684&feature=iv

Hilversum apple chicken

2010-02-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

During the weekend, I went to Amir's place. It was a really great experience. I was treated like his big bro. Really honoured to be at his place. His hospitality was great and his friends are super cool.

This is Juan Amir's friend a super smooth Columbian Dutch guy.

Vincas sed "I wanna cook Apple chicken!" and I sed "Let Me buy the Chicken!". It was friday and Friday is the day for fresh chicken!! yesss!!. It was veeery yummy especially with my Nasik Kunyit and all of us were eating with our hands. Vincas was eating with both of his hands of course.

This is Pijus cutting the chicken. It was very soft and tender and most importantly Halal coz I bought it. Vincas tgh lapas sekarang actually pastu Pijus dok buat slow haha panas aa kawan

The right picture is me waiting for good old Pijus to cut the chicken. Dori... I think she's having her meatloaf

I know, I'm supposed to arrange the picture but I dun reallly have the time for it so hantam sajalaaa.

Apple pie....

2010-02-19T02:53:00.000-08:00

Betapa Syumulnya Islam sampai Earnest Gellner pon kata dalam Buku dia yang Orang Islam dan agamanya tak dapat dipisahkan. There is no Secularization in Islam. Kepercayaan Islam adalah sama kuat macam sekurun yang lalu dan mungkin lebih kuat kata Gellner. Dia bukan mcm kepercayaan orang yang bukan Islam seperti yang dikatakan oleh pensyarah dari pakistan Abida Eijaz dimana ada kontradiksi diantara kitab2 sebelum kitab "Kalamullah yang latest" yang menyebabkan trend secularization menjdai lebih teruk. Ye lah, kalau dah berlawanan dgn sains mmg lah orang tak mau. BTW, kalau hangpa nak tau, Earnest Gellner nie adalah seorang berketurunan daripada negara yang passport kita tak bole pergi... Paham-paham lah. Yang bestnya any articles yang aku baca pasal Secularization in Islam, memula sekali depa akn cite mamat nieh. Atas sebab2 nie lah yang aku dok buat research aku pasal economic development and secularization.

Anyway, dah mintak dah data kat "Cik Y" cun woooo.....N En Zakaria pon bagi positive feedbak... Update ngan prof, dia nak jugak data utk single household soooo takpah ikut cakap boss/pak mentua/mentor/hoogelaren/Professor walaupon aku rasa n Cik Y rasa data tu tak represent the whole of Malaysia. Nak kene spend aaa skit utk data tu tp takpalah utk masa depan. Aku estimate dalam RM10000...mmg banyak tp... anggap je 2000EUR pastu pandai2 laaa aku claim kat USM keee Rijkuniversiteit Groningen kee...They dont call Rijkuniversiteit for nothing... Rijk means rich!....

Social life....

Seronok ngan kerenah bebudak lithuania nieh. Roomate aku nie perut dia lagi Melayu drp aku!!.

Few days ago, aku nampak dia masak NASIK GORENG!!!! Hampeh! aku pon tak penah masak nasik goreng. Pastu aku nampak dia goreng teloq.... siap bubuh kicap, cili n rempah apa ntah, bau maaacam masakan Melayu. Cuma malam tadi dia buat apple pie utk aku...Apple pie bujang hahaha. I felt like it was my birthday!! Mmg sedap, Smaak Lekker. Teringaaat dekat Vaiva dan Indre, depa pon suka buat apple pie dkt aku jugak

Rasa mcm birthday aku....Depa semua tgk muka aku time aku tgh makan apple pie... sedap giler... Aku cuba control ekspresi aku tp tak bole maaa

Muka control nikmat Apple pie

Yang nie tak bole blah, tangkap gambor mesti posing maut

Yessss Dapat gambaq nikmat.....Mmg sedap pon pie nie.. Nak buat pon simple giler.... 2 cups Manni((Letuva)/griesmeal(nederlands)/Samolina(English) dalam BM aku tak tau.... 2 cups tepung n 1 cup gula pastu mix it together satu layer campuran mende2 tu satu layer apples(potong2 aaaa) n satu layer tepung2 tu n atas taruk butter pastu tauk dalam oven. Lepas sejam Voilla!

Bawah Nie aku tgh kebosanan menunggu Vincas beli kasuit

Ronda satu Groningen tak jumpa yg berkenan...kalau nak cari bini tak tau laa cemmana

Nie, aku tgh bawak depa jalan2 perkenalkan Groningen. Tgk...Melayu nieeeee la jugak yang dok bawak depa tour groningen.... Tunjuk kat depa, Bank kat mana pejabat tu...pejabat niee...Grootemarkt.

Mcm nie laaa aku dok ulang alik drp kitchen aku utk masak. Rilek jeee pakai kain pelikat...Kekadang boleh lari dan lompat.

Miss the old Batches n welcome new comers

2010-02-12T03:01:00.000-08:00

This is the famous Apple pie by Vaiva and Indre. Love it....

These are the lovely custodians of the Apple pie. On my right is Indre and on my left is Vaiva. Other things they are good at----Lazagnia, Boluvu koshe etc.... Cant wait for them to come again on April. They cant wait to go surfing at teneriffe...Been playing surfing songs almost all the time

Our last dinner together, From left, Vilius, Claudio, me, Vaiva, Indre and Maria. Malam nie mcm Romantik sikit coz lampu Green Kitchen padam. Siap ada lilin lagi tuu

On the left is Pijus and my new roomate Vincas and they are surprisingly tolerant to spicy food. They are eating with their hands, Malaysian Style!!!....Oh yeah except the guy who is eating with his left hand.

2 Melayu celup di Albertine Agnesplain. Sebagai senior Albertine Agnesplein, Ziad dgn sedaya upaya cuba Memelayukan bebudak Lithuania nieh.

Pokoknya walaupun Geng Ziad kebanyakannya dah balik negara asal, Ziad bakal mendapat geng baru. Anyway, tgh pulun nak finishkan corection so that weekend nie bole la enjoy sikit sempena raya Cina.

Dui!

Kerja gila ngan Martin rumet aku

2010-02-04T05:35:00.000-08:00

Gambaq nie MArtin yang cadangkan, so orang kampung nie pon ikut laaaaa...... Baru dutch!

Muka stok baru mangkit tidoq...tapi time nie jaaa sempat buat pooon....Martin ajak buat keje gila nie lama dah, cuma aku jaa tadak masa...giler sejuk super kot

Depan bilik kami.... Hahaaa

Stylo dak?? Budaya dan fahaman yang berbeza tapi sekepala.... 2 2 otak gila....

Today is Thursday, as in tomorrow, my new roomate will come. His name is Vincas, according to Maud, he's from Lithuania tp according to Vaiva n Indre, his name is a Latvian Name....Tak kisah! janji satu Kepala, mcm aku ngan Martin....

I guess martin dah sampai czech republic dah laa time nie... -22 kot hahaha! gud luck man!!

Rojak

2010-02-04T05:33:00.000-08:00

Alot of things that I want to write but dyemmm so little time. Ok first things first... professor wants me to be faster in my progress but i'm a slow reader n writer. So i think I really have to sacrifice most of my fun time to my research. However, today pulak he said "you've really made progress when I showed him my model" hahaaa alhamdulillah legaaa sikit.

Actually without the cacing2 my model is rather simple, its just using Zakat payment as a latent variable which I believe a good measure of religiosity which in turn will ask my main question of my research that is.."Is Malaysia secularised?". I know Singapore is not secularised and singapore is the most developed country in SEA and within 35 years of independence, singapore managed to move from a 3rd world country to a developed counrty(more info plz read articles by peirera). Back to my model, I'm using Malaysia Housohold expense survey to empirically examine wether secularization theory holds for the case of Malaysia. Anyway kalau korang nak tau, secularization theory nie basically lagi developed economy lagi kureng pegangan agama seseorang tu and I dont think that can be applied for Malaysia and I want to prove it empirically hahaha gila kan?. So belek2 Buku panduan HES nie tgk2 ada payment of Zakat in a household, n belek2 sikit lagi ada demographic data, education, health and housing condition! ini suda menarik coz I can use that for my latent independent variables!! So kita pon call laaaa Jabatan perangkaaan for the request of datasets n I've been stalking ppl from jabatan perangkkan for a few days now. Meanwhile, i've been updating literatures in a form of table(thanks to Datin Dr Joriah 4 that)

Anyway social life.....lil suxx..... Cedric balik italy, Jauma balik spain, Martin balik czech, Vaiva n Indre balik lithuania....yang tinggal bebudak hunggary and Claudio mmber portuguese. Jadi laaaa anyway bole concentrate research, kalau dak kira merayau jaaa ngan depa

Nie time dinner paling best, cedric masak kat aku vegetarian lagzania, n ak plak buat cucoq udang hahaha beeest!

I'll miss them very much!!!

Good people with good heart

2010-01-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

I work really hard for my last draft and sent it to my professor and it was not very good. In other words it sucks I guess.... The structure is still not good the English is bad. But the latest draft was better altough I didn't work as hard as the last draft because my mind is on the Paper that I'm writing, desecularization thesis.

Thanks to Martin for helping out with the kitchen duty. I owe you bro.. I wonder how ppl can be so nice. Like me, I'm nice because I want to please the almighty, but how about people who doesn't believe in the Almighty? How can they be nice? May Allah bless him and give him the Hidayah

Gelukkig Niew Jaar

2010-01-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

I think next time I really have to plan my new year. 31st december, went to Amsterdam with Jeff and Nareen. Nareen haven't been to Zaans Scans so I followed them. FYI I've been to Zaans Scand for 5 times already...dah naik bosan... After that we dropped Nareen at the station and both me and Jeff went to the Red Light District for "Window Shopping" except this window shopping has no discount!!! shheeeshh!. Bored of window shopping we went to the Sex Shop which has the biggest Sale and guess who I found??? Malaysian Students!!! Muka sanggap semua hahaha.... They are students from the UK and pretty friendly. They were trying to find a place to stay but everything in Amsterdam is fully booked!!! So I offered them to stay at my place which is 3 hours away and they said nvrmd. I'm not too worried abt that because there are 5 of them and they are in AMSTERDAM during NEWYEAR's EVE.......

Instead of celebrating new year in Amsterdam, I've decided to celebrate new year in Groningen. Went to a party, but dunno anybody there exept my pal Derek from germany, my roomate and Jeff. Jeff and I decided to watch new years fireworks outside at the city center. It was not as cool as the ones in Sydney though. But I did get a strange experience. One hot dutch girl came to me and hug me and the lifted me UP! I didn't know what to do!!! It had somehow emasculated me in a way hahaha. Anyway we watch some fireworks n went back home....

2009-12-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

Got e-mail from prof... He said "although I have many comments, I think this is exellant work" waaaah bestnya. Alhamdulillah. I did just what he asked, start from general from specific. So I described world Poverty in general, gave the stats. Then I scope down a lil bit to Asia... And I just found out that countries like Japan and South Korea are welfare countries. However when I narrow it down to south east Asia, there's nothing about welfare country. Maybe singapore is going towards that... they have sortof heavy tax exemption if you r below certain income level.

Bukan senang nak dapat good comments drp orang belanda. They are sincere and sometimes for our standards, quite blunt. Which is good! I need an honest oppinion regarding my work

When I was doing work all day, I didn't really make time for cooking. So lapar aaaa... makan chips ngan guacamolee ja. Allah maha kaya, while I was at the kitchen, ada mamat italian nie buat pizza. He needed to use the oven coz at his student house, the oven is not working. so he use ours. He baked pizza in large portion. So, offer aaa si lapar nie skali. Bessssttt and its veggietarian so bole laaa aku makan.

Life's great!!!

2009-12-03T04:17:00.000-08:00

Ik hou van Nederland!!!!! Life's great!!! Beeeessst nampak ice crystals(mcm laaa tak penah nampak kat CAnberra haritue) . And the chicks are super hot!!!.... I'm on my way to success....Nobody can stop me!! Alhamdulillah

Change topic

2009-04-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

Goshhh gotta crack my head on a new topic. The main concern is the data.... Where the heck am I gonna get the data??? NPL on Islamic product by state per se??? Goshhh Henk is comin back from US n I gotta show some progress. To start a problem statements takes alot..... Dah la tuee.. dengar roomers plaks saying that budget dah abis this year huhuuuu Owh Allah, help mE....

Hopefully I get to stay in hostel for a few more months.... Things can get a lil bit boring but I can manage. Shoot!! have to focus more.... things a lil bit blurry lately... tahajud pun tak bangun... I guess sbb tu kot macam tak tenang....... Kak Yus, kak Linda, Kak Eli n Kak liza, orang dah panggil Dr Dah.... Ziad bila lagi????????????? Susah buat local je laaaaaa..... Tp tringin nak pi holland....

Aduuuhhh...... mcm2 dalam otak......

Antar proposal cepaaatt...

2009-04-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

I should be finalising my proposal...heck I'm still writing this blog although there are no followers.... I asked for an offer letter from Prof Henk, he said not yet...Coz he needs approval from external comitty(dunno the spelling). However, he is so nice and want to send me a letter that he's workin on a proposal with me and that he's gonna be my mentor... well that's a relief. E-mailed a professor from UKM, not yet balas for co-advisor just like what henk asked.

An annoying sms asking me to do solat Istikharah.....

Report duty hehehe....

2009-01-07T06:05:00.000-08:00

Yessssss , USM called. I'm supposed to report duty wahkahkah...Walaupun gaji ciput, I still looove it. i alwiz wanted to teach. It is my passion. hope students like me. Goooshh its sooo humid here in Malaysia. I went jogging last few days, it was takin a toll on me. Anywayyyzzzz...

Here's my input wahkah kah ...Input la sangat...

I'm still maticulusly checkin out what Bonfim2009 is talkin abt.

What they did was grouping the models for credit risk from Crouchy et al 2000, Gordy 2000,, Saunders and Allen 2002 and duffy and singgleton 2003. By the way, I hav to find out what these guy's have been yakin about, just to have a rough idea about how bonfim2009 yakin about the 3 modellin criterias.

1) Models that use Acc variables
2)Models that use market info
3)Models that use macroeconomic variables.

intro n drive to find a topic

2008-12-20T02:38:00.000-08:00

Assalamualaikum

Waaaah.... pire mesti terkejut Ziad dah stat blogging dah.... Well bro..here i am. Hmmmm what to write aaa. Dun have much idea. Well, i dunno what exactly made me start blogging but... tetiba time nak tunggu semayang Isyak ntah terrrrr register utk blogspot.
I dun hav much to write actually, waitta minute. Hmmm yeah! yeah! went to paddy's market just now, ughhh spent alot of money on souveniers sheeesh! a fortune!. Wait! wait! before that i went to my uni for souvenier shopping, huh I remembered buying just 2 caps, a pen, a necktie, some stickers n some other stuff. i was a whooping 108 dolla! The paddy, I bought souvenier tshirts for 40 dolla. To bad the main souvenier shop at the uni was closed altough i was quite pissed at the owner coz she's there but she's not opening the shop coz she wanna do some kinda auditing or something. She could just let me in coz i was gonna really buy.

huh! The story was kinda boring huh.....

Well, my target to go back to Malaysia is 2nd of January, so, I sort of... called my dean inform him abt me finished my Masters. Then, I called the officers from HR n they sed I had to get approval from the TNC HEA, that's alot of work. I'm just hoping that I can get back on time and the TNC HEA approve my trip back. IF not, I'm stuck here down unndah!

Research proposal

It's been like, days for me to read academic papers and it's gonna take weeks for me to ready with a proposal. Gosshh it's so damn hard. First i wanted to do something about ATPs anti takeover provission coz i'm quite well versed with that paper but.... It doesnt really apply to Malaysia coz hostile takeovers are very rare in Malaysia. The only time it happened was on 2005, I read it somewhere.

Huh! So ii've decided to do something about credit risk. perrghhh. At this moment of typin this blogg, I'm reading Bonfim2009 paper. Altough I have a "Masters" in finance, this paper seems gibberish to me. I was quite embarassed by my own self when i didn't even know what an idiosyrcratic risk was. Well that's why i have to READ

On Reading....

I'm estounded by the culture of the Orang putih... The culture of reading. Me, altough i'm in acedemia, reading is not exactly pleasure for me. u see, orang putih , one of the things that they'll ask you if they are "friendly" who's your favourite author?? Even among kids they'll talk about that. They can talk about books and criticise them.

BAck to propsal

Well once i've read it quite a few times, it is interesting to know that most credit risk build up during upturns, this is when at that time, the banks apply less stringent requirements. The risk materialises only when the economy is down Pederzoli(2005). Wow, i just found that out! It's like when you bela hantu at the time you are strong, you are like invincable but when you are at your deathbed, the hantu that you bela meterialises. Hehehe

perrghh melewat-lewatkan semayang nieh!!chiow!!