Category: Personal

Perhaps, I am missing my old life so much.

In the middle of the misty morning in Ann Arbor, just after I managed to earn a full mark for my programming assignment, I could remember only one thing :

Bung wak bung wek wek,
Bung kak bung kek kek,
Who are we?
The Malay College,
Can’t you see,
Yeah.

I really miss those short years when life was not as hectic as now. I’m starting to miss all of my ex-classmates, ex-dormmates, ex-schoolmates, the teachers; the environment, the atmosphere. I miss the sight of the grand Overfloor, the smell of the old Big Tree, the sound of the cheering Collegians and the taste of foods served in the Carey Hall.
Well,

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan
the leaders and best
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan,
the champions of the West!

To Koleq and to the Wolverines, may we emerge victorious.

p/s – about the food at the Carey Hall, I take that back.

It has been awhile since I last updated this site. In fact, the last time I wrote something here was almost a month ago. Now, that’s a record.

Last week, I had to live without the internet connection and tell you what; I was seriously messed up without the internet. For some reason, the ITCS office yet again troubled me by not connecting my computer to the University network. The only IP address that my computer offered me was 169.x.x.x, 192.x.x.x and 0.0.0.0. Sometimes, I couldn’t even release my IP address.

I was frustrated at first because I thought was because of my network card gone sour but I bought it just about eight months ago. I disassembled my Ethernet card and reassemble it again and again. I even tried to reinstall the PCI slot although I didn’t really know what I was doing.

In the end, I contacted the ITCS team, told them problem (hoping it was not my computer settings problem) and gave them my network physical address. A few hours later, surprise, surprise – my address was finally assigned by DHCP instead of by automatic private/manually configured address. Damn. I almost thought I have to waste another USD 12 for an Ethernet card.

I made a huge change this semester. I have decided to go to computer science instead of joining the aerospace engineers. By next semester, I’ll be in that department as I need only one more course and that is EECS 203. I did what President Mary Sue Coleman said, a move forward, a step backward and a quick side step. I can’t recall the exact words but it was something like that. Bollinger was great but Mrs. Coleman, I’ll remember you for helping me sort out my life. I sincerely thank you and am glad to see you at the helm of the University.

And Toni, thanks.

I was supposed to go to a library meeting but I missed it. It was all caused by CAP. If I hadn’t been busy for it, I would already have gotten a place as a librarian in Strauss Library.

Lastly, one thing to ponder; a Czech is teaching Modern Southeast Asia. The professor is an old man in a class of about 40 people. I like him. I looked like my late grandfather. Well, just little a bit. Nevertheless, Liebermann is still my favorite professor.

Below is the current situation of my province in Utopia Battlefield. I left it alone for almost a week and surprisingly, I suffered no invasion. Battlefield is tough. If I was still in World of Legend, I would have certainly reached half a million of networth.

The Province of Shadow Chaser (xx:xx)
[http://www.UtopiaTemple.com Angel v1.35 Beta]

Utopian Date: January 22nd, YR7
RL Date: September 5th, 2002 (3:00 GMT)

Ruler Name: Sir Chiron the Rogue
Personality & Race: The Rogue, Faery
Land: 1,045 Acres
Money: 1,479,819gc (20,706gc raw daily income)
Food: 60,642 bushels
Runes: 70,978 runes
Population: 28,633 citizens (27.40 per Acre)
Peasants: 8,400 (100% Employed)
Content: b:100%, t:2.9gc, p:99%, m:98%
Trade Balance: 668,939gc (0% tax rate)
Networth: 155,960 (149.24 per Acre)
Thieves+Wizards+Science Networth: 35,874gc

Soldiers: 45 (66.9% estimated draft rate)
Swordsmen: 0
Magicians: 12,798 (51,192 defense points)
Beastmasters: 1,847 (7,388 offense / 11,082 def.)
War-Horses: 0
Prisoners: 0

Total Attack points: 7,478 (7.16 per Acre)
Practical (0% elites): 90 (0.09 per Acre)
Total Defense points: 62,364 (59.68 per Acre)
Practical (100% elites): 62,364 (59.68 per Acre)

Thieves: 4,462 (4.27 per Acre / 100% Stealth)
Wizards: 1,081 (1.03 per Acre / 100% Mana)

Buildings: 1,222gc to build, 611gc to raze
Away bonus: 42,000gc (12h) / 126,000gc (20h)

I love the weather condition today.

For some reasons, today is a very fantastic day indeed although I slept just for four hours – from five thru nine in the morning due to the invention of differential equation, infamously known to humankind as the capital dee dot capital eee dot.

Yesterday, I did a full pump for D.E. after two weeks preparing for the much expected midterm. Although the sound of it makes it looks bad, I actually enjoyed the pain that I went through. The suffering of not able to comprehend some of the weird equations made me mad and discouraged. Nevertheless, God saved me by making my mind worked better and thus, I suddenly saw through the misty forest of mathematics and found its secret. Out of the blue, the solutions seem to be clearly written in my mind and I could do any problem that was spitted out at me.

Discouragement quickly became eagerness and I sat in front of my desk until four o’clock in the morning, studying the population, acceleration-velocity models and homogeneous equations. By the time I closed my weary eyes, all that I could think of were P (t), M, C, k, P’, e, and all the other math stuffs.

One REM later, I woke up and all ready for the confrontation. I was all ready for midterm. Actually, I doubt I even had a REM sleep.

Two hours later, I was done and smiled all the way from Dennison to Stockwell. I smiled and that means that it was a nice day.

Reason number two, it was a bright but mildly warm day. Previously, Ann Arbor’s atmosphere was extremely hot with static air. The last two days, a so-called isolated storm occurred. It’s not that I hated the storm. I appreciated the storm. The storm did function to cool the environment down a bit but the fact that it was a gloomy day didn’t make me felt happy.

But today, TODAY, I repeat again, was a bright but mildly warm day. It reminds me of how the days during the fall season would be, nicely litted up and gently warm. I am looking to experience fall again. I guess that makes fall as my favorite season.
Thirdly, met up JJ though I don’t really know why I was glad of meeting him. Maybe it was just that it has been awhile since I last met him. Or perhaps, he is one of the few American friends that I think I have a very good relationship. I guess I’ll be looking forward of meeting Matt again. And Khateeb and Unmesh etc. Guys, I seriously miss your squabbling over the dinner.

Fourth, the Commonwealth Games will be up and running in a few hours time.
Next, the food was good (minus the milk which JJ complained to the manager about. AND the greens were yucky).

Sixth, I am just feeling happy. Plain happy and loving myself although I doubt this feeling will last long. Nevertheless, I am happy for the time being and savoring every drop of the juice.

Life is getting out of hand. I am still trying to get hold on my life after all of these years.

Pleasingly, The __earth Inc. received its 1800th visitor after eight months it came online. That particular visitor was from Kodak.com and to be precise he or she was from Rochester, New York. I have absolutely no idea who was that but I’ve visited Rochester a few months back. Whoever you are, I wish to thank you for visiting The __earth Inc. Yeah, 200 more visitors and voila, the sacred number 2000!

Updating and maintaining this site has proved to be a daunting task. I thought it was going to be an easy job but I was wrong. It requires more time than what I am willing to spend. Yet, the satisfaction of having a personal site is something to be enjoyed alone by the creator. It’s something that I enjoy greatly. After eight months of continuous building and modification, The __earth Inc. still hasn’t been completed by me. After eight months, it has been praised and mock. It has even been hacked but nevertheless, the damage was negligible.

Eight months. I can’t believe how eight months had passed so far and how I have done so little. Oh how I wish that I have a time machine. I need to change the past. Damn, I am digressing.

Lastly, I wish the visitors will continue to visit this site and support it Together, we shall rule the universe. Hmm… A little bit ambitious aren’t we?

I went to the ongoing Art Fair at South University St. after having a lunch with the gang yesteraday. They were a bit reluctant to go to fair and told me that we should go there tomorrow instead of today. Their reason was – the day was hot. I then replied “yeah, like tomorrow is going to be a lot cooler. It’s summer man.”

We had a debate but then, I was tired arguing with them and decided to use my “mind trick” on their weak mind. Guess what? It worked!

So, he walked from the lousy Stockwell dining hall to the Art Fair via the Diag. The fair was about, well, art but there were nothing much to see at the South U. St. other than paintings and stuffs. Maybe we should have gone to State St. instead because according to Ronnie, there are a lot of artifacts over there instead of paintings and paintings and paintings. Yet, there was one booth that offered something different and made the visit worthwhile.

This one booth exhibited steel sculptures, the sculptures that resemble roller coaster track but instead of trains, balls were made to roll on the track. First, I saw a small scale sculpture and was immediately impressed by the work of art. I told David that I want it. It should be fun to have one of those things inside of my room.

Immediately next to the petty track stood a two-meter high steel sculpture with more than a dozen steel balls being lifted up by electric-powered gear and rolled down the track at a decent speed simultaneously. I was frozen there for minutes trying to keep track of the balls routes. One of the guys realized that I was absorbed by those gadget. So, they pulled me away from the booth.

Later, we strolled down the South U. until the street meets up with Geddes. There, there was a guitar-playing guy that looked like he had just had hashish. Nevertheless, his music was cool.

I was enjoying myself when a member of the party insisted that we go home. I know he was not having a good time so I realized that there was no point of arguing with him. On that, we headed home but before we were out of the fair area, I saw a sign that said “Make a difference” or sort of that. Nearby, I saw a girl on a wheelchair expressing herself by painting on a huge piece of paper laid on the ground. I stood there and stared at her while watching the others walked passed beside me. I just stood there and pitied at the sweet little girl. I wish God wouldn’t have been so cruel to her.

Knowing that life goes on, I tried to get her off my mind and walked toward home under the scorching Sun.