Afiq’s

Australia National University, (ANU), my soon to be alma mater. Wonder what awaits me there. Some people may have known of my want to go to Melbourne but after much thought, I have accepted my fate. I am now busy boasting and defending ANU and Canberra with all my heart and wondering how much I can know about a place I haven’t even been too, haha. Anyway, it’s a whole new start and I’d be lying if I said I’m not sad to leave Malaysia. Sure, some may have heard me say I can’t wait to leave Malaysia but such is what people say to hide their fear. The fear of gaining new comrades, acceptance, friendship. It’s not really the simplest thing to do. Even with past friends, it’s been hard to keep relationships together and who knows what’s in store. Still, it’s something I hope to go through well. Not mentioning the cooking and also the walking.  You sort of wonder how you’ve been surviving all this while. It’s a wonder, huhu.

Anyway, to end this entry with a light note, to those who are still in the dark, my farewell gathering’s on the 2nd Feb 2007 from 5pm till nite. RSVP me please. See ya!

Since I’m in the mood for blogging, what the heck. "Alang-alang seluk pekasam, biar sampai ke pangkal lengan" or something like that (never was good at remembering proverbs).

Anyway, this was an overdue tribute dedicated to the AUSMAT Editorial Board of 2006. The magazine’s finished, hurray! Even if a problem occurs in the process in the future, I dont’ care because as far as I know, at this point in time in my mind, the magazine’s finished, hurray again! And all this was due to the hardwork of the Editorial Board. I know it may be too early to sing praises for them as some critics out there might just lambast the magazine as soon as they get it but I know the Board is satisfied (I hope). Therefore, I’m going to mention a few names here for two reasons; to allow people to sing even more praises to them and for people to know who to blame if the magazine sucks (kidding, just kidding. maybe not, hehe). The first award would be to the great team of designers that helped finish the magazine’s utmost important part, the looks of it. People are shallow and thus, the appearance of the mag is very important. Ergo, I would like to applaud the designers (in no particular order) namely Paku, Saira, Amir and Ara (also part chef) for a job well done. These people put up with my demands and lunacy to finally construct the basic forms of the magazine. The next award would obviously go to my great editors, Mr. Belwael and Ms. Nazneen. These two helped made sure that, as much as AUSMAT students believe their English is good, the reports made sense. (Safety clause: If it still doesn’t make sense after this, I’m sorry but we tried our best. The report may have been beyond help). The two of them put up with my taunts and constant disturbance in the force to finally get the end results. The subsequent award goes to the miscellaneous workers; the reporters, Azreen and Syafinaz. These people had to go through hell by listening to my often crazy requests which they dutifully did in the end. The special task guy should also not be forgotten namely Stuart/Stewart/Syafiq (I never did get your spelling correct). Now, this guy was not supposed to be under my jurisdiction at all but due to my twisting of arms, I got myself a worker who performed the impossible tasks I asked of him. Without him, there won’t be a picture that I keep in my wallet and the speeches of a few important people. He might just be called the ambassador for his task of wooing the bigger powers that be to produce touching and tender words of wisdom for us all to read and learn from. Hats off to you. But of course, there’s also the paparazzis; Chuah, Mango and Calvin. In the end, they didn’t really do the paparazzi stuff much but they actually contributed in very subtle ways. Chuah made sure there was a publisher. Mango did photography while Calvin went out of his way to get me a speech. Thank you to the trio of you. I’ve also not forgotten the other side of this project namely the management team. Thank you to Liana and Izy for finding sponsors. Also thanks Liana for the email list. Izy, you made sure my reporters didn’t go insane and that helped a lot, thanks. At this point, I would also like to thank Afiqa for helping out as well. The others would also be Ezmah, Sean and Ellina for getting funding for the magazine which I may also include Wong, Yeam and Thuaibah at this juncture for doing the basic groundwork making sure the magazine is lawfully allowed to exist. Without you guys, there would never have been a magazine. At this juncture, I would like to pay special tribute to the Chief Editor who spearheaded the project and bravely took on the role to make the magazine (I’m not trying to butter him up but it never hurts to praise). Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the Chief Editor, Mr. Fauzul. With that last award, this glitzy affair has come to an end. Hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did. Before I forget, (it’s always required to say this) thank you to all who directly or indirectly helped to make this magazine a success. Love you and until we meet again, (I can never get out of this publishing business) Avviderci.

The internet. It’s a tool for a myriad of stuff. It’s brought about the best and the worst in humans. I’ve realized just how much vice happens on the internet and have wondered, are there not useful reasons to use the internet other than for activities that are sinful? There’s the obvious few like checking emails, your friendster, doing some research, blogging, reading comics, downloading stuff, chatting but what else can be done on the net. This will make me seem dull but after checking my emails and doing some stuff at friendster, i really can’t think of anything else to do which is also fun at the same time (that’s why that list above hasn’t really helped) which was why i resorted to writing this blog. Any ideas?

What a trip! Overall, I’d have to say that I wasn’t satisfied with myself. My team achieved four out of eight wins only against Tokyo, Chula2, Kyoto1 and ICU1. How frustrating it is to also realize that some of these teams later broke whereas my team wasn’t privileged enough to achieve that losing to MMU1, UM1, NUJS1 and UMS1. It was going great at the beginning but then we faltered towards the end of the tournament with just about nothing to our name. Even so, I’d still have to give gratitude to bear with my grouses and emotional breakdowns as I just can’t stand losing I guess. Thanks Guys! Still, UTMARA achieved a few stuff like public speaking and overall best speaker with another two in the top ten. Other than that, all the teams faltered at semis, quarters, octos and three didn’t even break. It was a great experience for me and I learned quite a bit. The side activities were memorable with the championship dinner, the speeches and hanging out at the beach were those that made the whole trip a bit more worthwhile. Overall, this experience is one I won’t forget and will hope to improve on in my coming years as a debater and maybe hope to finally achieve something in the future. Here’s to the all-asians of 2006 (not to the committee though).

If you realized, i’ve been trying to read the catch-22 book for some time already now. But then, it came out on HBO and i thought i’d watch it. While reading the book, i thought the movie would make sense. I was wrong. I’d have to say it was one of the weirdest movies i’ve ever watched and although it had it’s hidden motives and etc but it was still so weird. It didn’t prompt me to finish the book though, rather it delayed my attempt. but the main reason is actually i have other reading materials that i need to finish first but that doesn’t change the fact that the story’s weird. so that’s my conclusion but who knows that maybe after finishing the book, it’ll all seem different then. who knows…

finally, i’m entering an international tournament and i’m hopeful that it’s going to be a great one. after debating for years, you obviously hope to reach somewhere in this arena and although my team’s the underdog, it won’t stop us from beating the odds and pulling off some surprises. with that said and done, guess we’ll have to wait and see then.

What a day today! Another day wasted of unnecessary things but also a day filled with lots of reminiscents of memories. Anyway, the SPM results for the batch of 2005 was announced today and what a relief, the results were fantastic in my opinion for my alma mater. Just wanted to say that it was a job well done for the batch and hopefully they’ll go far in life.

On another matter, last weekend was a great weekend. My debate team actually won all our group rounds and I’m quite happy since my team was ranked fifth. It sort of gave me a feeling of hope from the feeling of hopelessness I felt before. Thanks to my great teammates! Shah Alam Ope’s coming up and I’m hoping for the best. Wish me luck! Ciao!

Don’t know whether you guys read about it but there was a danish newspaper that published a supposed cartoon of our prophet inside their newspapers as a terrorist. Subsequently, a Norwegian newspaper printed it followed by a few more European nations. This has outraged the muslim community everywhere and why not? What right do these people whom do not even practise Islam have to even make out a resemblance of our prophet. There is a fine line between free speech and making a mockery of other people’s religions and these people have crossed that line. Never have a Muslim made out even a picture of our prophet and never will there be. So, what right do these non-believers have in even portraying another person’s religion’s holy symbol? Let’s hope that the Muslim community sends a strong message to these pompous fools to never repeat such an act ever again for if we let them go easily now, who knows what else they might do to tarnish our religion.

I can’t believe the number of work that’s got to be finished. I mean, I thought they were kidding when they said it’s going to be hard. Never thought for it to be this bad. I’m still wasting time doing useless things because of addiction. Thinking back, I’m starting to understand now why people find it really hard to let go of something they’re addicted to. Maybe we’re just humans but I hope this part of me can be sorted out rather than be given accepted as an excuse of my own lack of willpower.

Transition’s been doing well back into the new academic semester. Still, on a sad note, I have broken quite a number of those resolutions and am wondering on the futility of it all. Furthermore, the book i’m currently reading, i’ve not gone far, all because of me getting hooked up on a Yu-Gi-Oh! game on my laptop. God, dive me willpower to shut it off! Really hope to concentrate more on my studies in the future. Ciao!