at the moment i'm in bristol. tomorrow i'll be going back to dublin to continue my academic journey. just wait for the official account of my 10 day trip to united kingdom. until then, bye!

this is already my second day in london. yesterday we went sightseeing around london by tube. unfortunately, the tube closed on christmas, so what did we do? we went to westminster from malaysia hall by foot. and that whole journey took us about five hours. hahaha! it was good fun nevertheless. along the way we walked through a bunch of royal gardens. the ones that i remember right now are hyde park, kensington garden, st. james' park.......and what else? i'm sure we can't see them all if we travel via tube. ok. got to go now. my time's almost up in this internet cafe. more notes and pictures once i get back to dublin. cheers!

the big ben and london eye.

i'll be away for almost two weeks. so expect an updated blog in that space of time. but please come anyway anytime you can. and bring a friend along. i'll be back with pictures from my trip. see you next year...

'Abdullah bin Mas'ud's Hadith, may Allah be pleased with him.
'Alqamah related: While I was going along with 'Abdullah (May Allah be pleased with him) in Mina, 'Uthman (May Allah be pleased with him) happened to meet him. So he walked and talked with him. Then 'Uthman asked him: Abu 'Abdul-Rahman, should we not marry you to a virgin girl that your past may be recalled to your mind? 'Abdullah said: If you say so, Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said to us: O young men, those among you who can support a wife should marry, for it restrains eyes (from casting evil glances) and preserves one from immorality; but he who cannot afford it should observe Fast, for it is a means of controlling the sexual desire.

Sahih Muslim : 2485

"hingga ke anak cucu" - my grandparents.

only nineteen years on this world, i already have one former schoolmate who got married early this year and another one is going to take the plunge this weekend. the one who's going to tie the knot this sunday, was a childhood friend of mine. i remember doing everything with him when we were kids. i also remember he had this amazing coin collection from all over the world and he just gave them to me.

one funny incident that stuck in my head was when we were in standard one (around 7 years old) in primary school, me, him, and this other guy once slipped a red rose under a desk of a beautiful girl (where's this girl now, i don't know) during recess. unfortunately, this girl, being the good, obedient person that she is, took the rose and reported it to the ustazah. boy, were we busted. i remember the ustazah gave us a good lecture. "kecik-kecik lagi dah gatal".

i can't recall what or who influenced us to slip her that rose that day. i'm sure that the hormones have not kicked in yet at 7 years old. i blamed it on the tv and hollywood movies. but this girl was pretty. hahahaha........those were the days.

ok, back to this guy. i don't know who's going to be his bride, but i wish for his happiness hingga ke anak cucu. good luck man.

me? i don't think i'm going to follow his footsteps in the near future. don't think i'm ready to take on the responsibility. don't even have a suitable candidate yet. :p

Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported:
Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: While two women had been going along with their two sons, a wolf came and made away with the child of one of them. One of the two women said to the other: It is with your child that it (the wolf) has run away. The other one said: It has run away with your child. They brought the matter to Prophet Dawud (David) for decision and he made a decision in favor of the elder one. They then went to Prophet Sulaiman son of Dawud (may peace be upon both of them) and told him (the story). He said: Bring me a knife so that I may cut him (the child) (into two parts) for you. The younger one said: No, it cannot be, may Allah have mercy upon you, he (the child) belongs to her (the elder). So he gave a decision in favor of the younger one.

Sahih Muslim : 3245

notice the new title? the links section was also updated.

Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported:
"I heard Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, said: The son of Adam abuses Dahr (Time), whereas I am Dahr since in My hand are the day and the night."

Sahih Muslim: 4165

time's up

exams are over. the pressure, the memorizing, the cups of coffee, the constant visits to the library, the doubts, the motivations, are over (for a while, at least). this also meant that the academic term is over and everybody is in holiday mood.

the campus is already as quiet as shah alam stadium on football match day. the university rescidence is also seemed abandoned. most irish and canadians had already returned home for christmas. i don't celebrate christmas, but i won't mind returning home. heh! if only i could.

what am i going to do this holiday? i should do something meaningful and worthwhile while i'm still here. i feel like travelling.

maybe i'll finish reading the skeleton crew. good book. that stephen king fellow is very imaginative and creepy.

conclusion : don't waste time. time is gold. we never miss water till the river runs dry. bla....bla...bla....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

will update soon.

kuala teregganu. sometime this year. Olympus C-3030 Zoom

i was surfing the net and reading through people's blog when i found this personality survey thingy by bbc and decided to give it a shot.

my result:

and here's the summary given.

* Visionaries who put energy into achieving their goals
* Prefer to work independently and dislike inefficiency
* Think of themselves as logical, thorough, and bright
* Values practicality and common sense above ideas and theories

"Masterminds create a vision for the future by gathering and organising information. They then develop strategies to achieve their goals. They have a rare gift for looking at almost anything and seeing how it can be improved. These skills and the Masterminds' high standards often allow them to reach leadership positions at work.

Mastermind is the least common personality type in the UK, according to a nationwide survey.

Masterminds value independence and prefer to work on their own. Once they have decided on a course of action, Masterminds rarely change their minds, although they can be persuaded by clear reasoning by someone they respect.

In situations where they can't use their talents or are unappreciated, Masterminds may cut themselves off from a group and criticize people who don't understand their plans. Under extreme stress, Masterminds may overindulge in sensory experiences like eating, shopping or watching television."

hahaha......whatever.

but one line of the summary i think is true about me.

"Masterminds often have an unusual sense of humour, which arises from their ability to spot surprising links between seemingly unconnected facts."

another random picture.

when i was a kid, i used to think that the blinking red light in the car after the alarm is activated only blinks when you stare straight at it. so i remember hiding under the seat and locked myself in and slowly watched the LED. it blinked. next i try peeping at the light from the outside of the car. it blinked. then i did the same thing but wearing my dad's sunglasses thinking that the light must have sensors that can detect your eye movement. it blinked (of course!). only after that did i know that it will blink continuously if you watch it or not. that must be my first scientific observation and experiment.

soon, i'm going to lose this, just like my other websites. before this blog, i had a few other html projects, some of them are experiments, while some were intended to stay, just like the chess site. but all of them have one thing in common, they're always under construction.

why can't i finish these projects? well i can give many straightforward answers (which are true), like lost passwords, lost contents, some other big projects came up, no time, or exams are near. but should i look further into myself, maybe I'll find the true answer, maybe i have the habit of 'hangat-hangat taik ayam'.

this habit doesn't just pop up when i'm doing websites, it's been happening my whole life. for example, i stopped taekwando training at only yellow level I, played the trombone for only a year (yes, i used to play the trombone when i was a kid), stopped playing (and studying) chess a couple of years ago and can only do pop shuvit when skateboarding (yes, i used to sk8) because i quit last year.

is it just me? or does everybody have this habit of quickly losing interest? is it embedded in malays that even a saying has been created of it? or is it just laziness?

can i change? of course i can and i will, god willing.

just some random picture. this was taken on June 2004 in kuala terengganu.

exams are near. everybody is getting more serious now. the library is almost to full capacity every night and i smell coffee every night. and i should do some revision instead of blogging. now where did i put my notes.

good night!