the __earthinc

I went to the Intramural Building down in South Campus to practice basketball and it was unbelievable how bad I am in that game. I think I should be joining the badminton team. At least in badminton, I can fight back fiercely.

Playing basketball is no doubt more exhausting than playing squash. I hope I won’t regret joining the basketball team.

Finally, after eight month staying at the most expensive place in Ann Arbor, I have to move out to Mary-Markley Building for four months. It might be two because I’m certain whether I want to go home or not for the summer. I miss my friends and I’ll be missing them more if I miss the gathering that is being planned to be held in August. Sigh.

Nothing much is happening. Even my diary is not frequently updated now. It’s just so bored. I do have a few new games such as Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. It’s a really good game that uses Quake III engine.

After awhile playing that game online with some non-virtual-friends, I went bored again and went to the once an all-girls meeting place – The Michigan League to playing a LAN game, Half-Life’s Counterstrike. I teamed up with an American and boy, we rule!!! Two Counter-Terrorists against three Terrorist with the CT team having nearly 50% more frags than the Terrorist team could mustered. Unfortunately, playing such a fast pace game with a flat-crystallized-liquid screen was unsatisfying. The normal flat CRT monitor is still the best for playing games, especially online/LAN games.

Well, I’ll be moving to a place which is a few kilometers away from this desk. I might try to hack some people because my IP address will be changed within four hours. Before anything happens, I apologize to the would-be victims.

314, Cambridge House, West Quad – login out and signing off, until August 2002. I’m going to miss this place, especially those beautiful girls next door a lot.

Damn, Matt has gone back to his home somewhere near Lansing, Michigan, Khateeb back in Jordan, Unmesh to India, Fatima to UAE, Grace to Taiwan I guess. At least Jung is still here instead of being in Alaska. But my God, Spring is cold here.

Unbelievable but I am actually procrastinating everything that can be procrastinated. My final exam, Astronomy 102 will be held on the 25th and I have promised myself to do at some advanced reading but until now, I have done nothing but practicing my fencing ability in Jedi Knight II.

I promised myself to do a lot of revising at one point in the semester but unfortunately, I guess promises are made to be broken, some of it. At least for Physics 140, I didn’t procrastinate on purpose. Last week, for five sunny days, I’d laid on bed, unmoved, unawake because headache, cold and sore throat all came with one package for me. At first, thought it was just a normal thing so I let it to be cured on its own but my judgment is something that I will laugh later after I’m done with this fever.

All these happened just when Physics 140 exam was coming, right when I really needed to revise everything thoroughly. Luckily in the end the exam wasn’t hard that could spoil my chance of getting a respectable grade.

Well, Happy Earth Day. With that said, I guess I’ll do my astronomy.

I still can’t believe I messed up Sagittarius with Scopius for the final astronomy quiz.

The semester is nearing its end and I feel I’m not ready for the end to come just as yet. It surprises me how fast time can run but of course, literally, time runs around the rate of 300 000 000 m/s but casting science asides, I cannot believe it’s already April 2002. The last time I realize that time actually run was roughly more than a year ago, back in Malaysia. Back then, I was sad to know that nearly all of my closest friends are heading to places where I won’t be around twenty four seven. I was afraid as there will only be me in Michigan with no one else to hang around with to plus and minus the girls but even now, I rarely see them physically. Nevertheless, my fear was unfounded as I found new friends here and I do have one of my ex-schoolmate to watch me over now and then.

Yet, I can’t imagine the day that I will hear “Hafiz, you are graduating!!!” Imagine, Khateeb saying that. “Hafeeeeeeeeeez, you are graaaad-uating!!!” Arabs…Wait a minute, he calls me by my father’s name. “Shaaaaaaaams, you are graaaad-uating!!!” I will miss him a lot once these undergraduate years end.

Graduating is hard, emotionally.

Back in the Malay College, I cried on the last day of school. I know I shouldn’t have but the tears were hard against my psychological bulwark.

Back in August 2001, I visited the airport nearly each day and it that visits cost me nearly RM 40 each day. Imagine, the want of seeing my friends for the last time managed to overwrite the economical sense in me.

Forwarding to 2005, I will never be able to bear the feeling of losing a place that I’ve fallen in love with.

Seeing the future is a love-hate relationship. Of course I want to earn my degree and graduate but leaving the beautiful Ann Arbor is something that I do not want to foresee.

Last week, I ate an early dinner at South Quad which is just across the street. As usual, I represented my Mcard to the machine and entered the dining hall casually. The menu was poisonous as usual but accompanying the menu was Frosted Devil Food – my favorite cake.

Routinely, I took a glass of chocolate milk and a glass of orange juice to challenge my taste bud. Once everything was on my tray, I moved on to the seat and pleasantly smiled upon seeing Unmesh and Khateeb were still eating their dinner. Routinely again, they were fighting but this time, the argument was about something serious. It was about the Mideast conflict. Unmesh presented an interesting point against Khateeb but my ears were deaf and heard nothing but the sound of my mouth chewing.

Here in Michigan, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is something that affects the students’ everyday life. Last week, even the CNN came to Ann Arbor to report about the students’ protest at the Diag.

Israel’s Borders

The current situation in the Middle East is grave. Never in my recent memory have I heard a confrontation as serious as now. With the Second Intifada going at full steam, the Israeli government is forced to retaliate but their retaliation has gone too far. They invade the Palestine’s trust territories and kill innocent victims.
Israeli tanks fight against Molotov cocktails throwers, jet fighters against useless rifles. It’s just an unfair fight but in these scenarios, justice has never been the term that the pro and the antagonist searched.

I do remember one fine afternoon, I was watching an interesting show on CNN and suddenly the giant news feeder (a.k.a. manipulator) interrupted the program in favor of breaking news related to a suicide bombing at a pizzeria in Tel-Aviv.

Disturbed, I switched off the television and prayed for a better world.