What would life be without Microsoft Excel



Arggh.. doing error analysis in comparing predicted values with experimental values is way much mind-boggling that programming. Luckily there's excel. If not, i'll be throwing objects around my room and perhaps end up in an anger management course.



Wait. If I do the calculations on paper, things would still be more visual especially in writing down the equations. Excel has only a line for the formulas and that really strain my eyes.

Two movies on a Friday night.



The Passion of The Christ is really movie that strikes deep to the core of your heart. For some who scourging might find reading about Christ's last 12 hours to be not really traumatic knowing that He's God himself, watching this movie will remind you how human he was then. I must say that I took the journey to the Cross to be just another matyr-like suffering. The movie makes us feel that we're really in the streets of Jerusalem; one of those by standers who witness the cruelest form of the Roman execution. The was in fact gruesome, so gruesome that it makes what you the priest narrates during a service of the Station of the Cross far from telling the true pain. I thought it was just the canning, but then Christ was whipped by spiked belts which ripped his bits of his flesh to the ground. And I thought it was just at his back. The torturers turned him over and did the exact the same tortune on his front side. I just covered half of my face with my jacket because I couldnt stand the scene. When your body is full of slashes, nothing is more painful when it get into contact with cloth - the red garment was thrown over him.



Maybe to some, the movie is overly gruesome. I recommend not to let children watch this film. Also, to some it is controversial. Just don't say it's controversial until you watch it. Never take another's word till you witness itself. I think the film is meant for believers. It's a striking reminder on why God is was made man and how He always remember his creations.

Again, I feel so happy today. But I wish this happiness is not overrated.



Sometimes you shouldn't sense the signals too fast. Be slightly dumb and you'll be emotionally alright.

Dumbness + Laziness + Procastination = Inefficiency



I really wish I can sleep early and be fresh for the morning lectures but just this week's Chem E homework has taken a lot of my time. Maybe I'm not smart to answer the question quickly and I'd take ages to solve them. Luckily there is no exam this week or else I'll be roasted, fried, grilled, sauteed or even charred.



Can't wait to watch the Passion of Christ tonight...

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! note: it's not study-related joy.

The Michigan people are here. Fung Ming, Wei Heong, Elaine and Huey Fang are staying at my place tonight. Glad to meet them for the first time since we parted at KLIA. I think they r playing some game called LIFE in Kenneth's room.



Was on the phone with my brother for around an hour. I've not called home for nearly a week and he was telling me stories about the religious retreat that he attended with our parents during the 3-day long Maal-hijrah weekend. One in particular that kinda spooked him and his friends is about the room that they stayed in is actually haunted. He said he felt someone was fiddling around with his hair when he was sleeping.



In Professor Powers' lab today, we had a our first tried of the chemical boat. To produce roughly 4 atm of pressure in side our 20 ounce bottle, we used 0.1 L of the vinegar acid and 8.4g of sodium bicarbonate. Prof Powers told us to try the bottle-strapped styrofoam on the floor and it wildly jetted for around 2ft for approximately 5 seconds. Some liquid jettisoned out. Tested the spray of substance on the floor for its pH level and discovered that they were at pH 6.8. Could be the product of the reaction.

In Love Again?



Initially, I had no plans at all to watch movie tonight but Sarah wonderfully convinced me to go. So, I was off to Waterfront with her, James, Herman, Jacob and Hui Ling to watch the 9.20 show of 50 First Dates.



didn't have much expectations for this movie but in the final scene, I decided to say that it was worthwhile to spend the evening and $8.50 watching Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore fell in love in the middle of the Pacific. Part of the charm of that movie I think is by the attention given to the surrounding ie. the community in Hawaii which seems to be very laid back but close-knitted. The amount of humor the movie contains is astounding a lot. We literally burst into laughter every 5 seconds. Adam Sandler played the role of a vet by the name of Henry Roth which sounded like that the Jewish gangster in Godfather II, Hyman Roth. It was sad to see Lucy (Drew Barrymore) having that short term memory loss thing where she would forget his encounter with Sandler. Even sadder to see how her dad and steroid-addict brother kept up with the problem by reanacting the day before she got into that accident a year ago. They kept the house like it was the day before, even celebrated her dad's birthday every single day just to keep Lucy from realizing that she was actually suffering from the brain damage. Henry stood up for her by keeping daily video recordings of them together ie. how they met the day before, fell in love, made out etc. However, it seems slightly unrealistic on how quick Lucy would get over the reality of having short memory loss every morning.



The emotional part of this movie came during the part when Lucy woke up in the morning after their first love making. Seeing a naked "stranger" next to her in bed, she freaked out and hit Henry with a standing lamp I think. She then realized that how Henry had to give up on his dream of exploring Alaska just to be with her. So, she decided to end that relationship with him - ie. by destroying her journal and asking Henry to stop reminding her. That was a sad case I think... as sad as having to part with someone you love by death (A Walk to Remember for an example). Nevertheless, it has a sweet and happy ending. Henry decided not to pursue to voyage to Alaska and instead, turned his ship around and rushed to the Callhan Institute to find Lucy again. For some unknown reason, Lucy had been dreaming of him everynight and put those dreams in her paintings. It was a studio full of potraits of Henry, the mysterious guy in her dreams. Both of them were again love struck, and muuuuaahh muah mah...



Hey, it's pretty interesting to find urself falling in love with the same person every single day. Every kiss is a first, every date is a first.



We managed to get the frequent 61C back to Oakland despite it was near midnight when it ended. I had a cup of mocha from Starbucks before heading for the bus stop and the coffee is now bringing me a headache. Apparently, drinking coffee for the first time since 2 months is like seeing light after a week long of solitary confinement in prison.



Time to end this blog of this weekend. Heading back to work. Sigh... Next week will be Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ, hopefully. Lent starts this Wednesday.

Praise the Lord! It has been since many nights when I slept early. 10.30pm was like my bedtime when I was in primary school. Now that I'm since 6am, a blog need to bed added.



The weather was warmer yesterday, a sign that Spring is approaching. The campus ground was back to its vibrant mode that I missed a lot. Shorts and skirts made their comeback, exposing the pale skin that have long been behind the thick veil of wool coats and jackets. ABTech sent their DJs spinning tunes at the Cut. Frisbees were flying around. Soccers balls were back at the grassy pitch. Buggies were seen zooming along pathway since Spring Carnival is in a month time. However, this morning's sun is hampered by the thick layer of clouds. Forecast indicated that there'll be snow today. Light snowing in fact.



Nevertheless, the sun is up longer and no more stinging artic cold till the end of the year

Finally the widephoto adapter and filter kit for my nikon coolpix arrived. My camera now looks more of one in the 1970s. Very retro. But it works great but I don't really see the need for the telephoto yet. I love the wide angle adapter very much. For the first time, I can take the whole picture of my room and the living room.



The weather is getting kinder to us Pittsburghers now. Today was around 5 to 10 celcius but unfortunately I can't enjoy you with that freaking physics notebook due in the evening. North America is getting back nearer to the equator... sunlight is more..and of course, we all get to wear less.



Started doing this week's Chem E homework at 11pm coz the evening was spent in the lab. Did nothing but solving 7 out of the given 8 questions on mass balances. Interesting topic I guess since we get to draw flowcharts. This makes the problem solving more visual and now it makes sense to me why Microsoft develops MS Visio. I have another question to go and it's the toughest I think. Would have to spend lunch time rushing through it but who cares. I just don't want to skip the morning lectures or get sleepy during them.



Speaking of lectures, I wish my Physics professor broadcasts his lecture on the web like those smart folks at MIT. I did my revision on my recent test on electric potential by watching the video lecture of Prof Walter Lidwen (did I get his name right?) at http://ocw.mit.edu.



calling it a day. kenneth and seng keat, thank you for those encouraging messages.

Life is tough nowadays. But failure and obstacles are the ones that fuel us to improve and correct ourselves. That is true if we take it in the right attitude.



I can't believe something that I believe that I'm good at, something that I am so passionate about, disappoints me in what I can say an unjust assesment stricken by limited time. Arrgggh.. feel like throwing myself out of building or just consume lots of valium. No more smiles for the next few days.

I just couldn't figure out how did I slept till 1.30pm. I was awoke by James' call from the physics recitation class. Anyway, I attended Madhur's 2nd recitation at 4.30.



It seems one of my quest in life today is to listen to an interesting album everyday. Thanks to Napster, now I'm downloading albums legally and even better, quickly (10x the speed of illegal KaZaa).



Right now is Phil Collins' Hot Night in Paris which is a concert tour of him with a bunch of big band jazz sessionists. No vocals but the absence is replaced by a cekap alto sax. So cekap that it seems that the star of the concert is not Collins himself but the saxaphonist himself. Whoever he is lah. My fav track is the jazzy remake of Against All Odds which I think is sounds more satisfying that the original version of the hit.

However, if listened properly, this album will tell you how good Phil Collins with the drums. I did a google search on his biography and found out that he started having his own set of drums at the age of 12............ I remembered watching a documentary of the creation of this album a few years back.. I think when i was in form 1 or 2. It was really with a bunch of professional jazz musicians that are of my dad's age.



Wish could do this as a hobby. Be good jazz piano and performs in pubs on weekends. Not for the money but simply for the fun of working with a bassist and trumpet player. But for now, let's just stick for some simple chords on Thursday evening with the great John D'Amico.

First time blogging during daylight. It's really mid-day now and the clear blue sky is so appealing but looking at it from a heated room can be misleading.



This week's "simple" jazz piece I have to work on is Bluesette. Written by some guy by the name of Toots Thislemans (hope I get the spelling right). Another one with the 2-5-1 chords progression. I've gone through the chords and gotten quite ok with it. Still lingering around is the melody and improvisation that I must work on tonight and tomorrow.



I'm so suprised on how common 2-5-1 chords progression are in songs regardless they are jazz or not. I was in mudge piano room when a fellow freshman who was hastily finishing his soon-to-due homework took his time off and told me he could "help me out" with Autumn Leaves. Fuiyo.. for his age, he's really good. My playing barely has any latin tempo to it and the chords were more or less mediocre. He was using all those 9 chords which would stretch the fingers to an infinitely length. Since my fingers are unusually long, I had an advantange though.



Later I realized that Korean Winter Sonata song basically revolves around the 2-5-1 chords progression. Furthermore, it has the very same chords progression of Autumn Leaves. Cm7, F7, Bb7 and Am7, D7, Gm7. I guess the composer must be a big fan of Autumn Leaves. When I listened to Kenny G's latin jazz songs like Brazil, I discovered 2-5-1 in it too. So is his remake in The Girl from Ipanema.



On Kenny G, I dislike listening to his more pop pieces like the Moment which to me, has been overplayed on TV documentaries in Malaysia and as background music of events. You know a disgusting a good song can be after being overplayed. I just couldn't understand why the DJs and film producers like it so much or maybe they are just plain ignorant on creating their own songs. It happens to Yanni and Dave Koz as well I think. Anyway, of Kenny G's albums, I must say Classics in the Key of G is the best. I got my introduction to Acker Bilt's Stranger on the Shore and Bill Clinton's favorite sax piece Summertime.



--------------------------------------



I'm here in CMU as an engineer, not a musician. I guess I have to put that Jazz thing aside for a while and focus on my upcoming Physics II exam that will be on ... WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!!! ARGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

Woke up at noon. Had lunch with Eujern where we discussed soccer. Attended BUDAYA's committee meeting to discuss the upcoming what the Malaysian Night which is going to be next fall. Had Korean dinner at Ginza (what an irony) with fellow freshies.



That's how this year's Valentine's day was for me. =)



Well, now the mood is setting in to blog. The Student Activities Board had screenings of Love Actually last night (fri night) and I watched the one at midnight. Although I had a copy of it in my hard drive, I was eager to watch it with friends and the cmu community actually. In fact, I prefer watching movies on campus than take a 20-minute ride to Waterfront to watch a movie at Lowe's. Not only I get to throw only a buck to watch a 3-month-old movie, watching it in a packed auditorium (McConomy is very much like a theatre) where we get to shout out jokes is pure fun.



Love Actually is just another awesome work of Richard Curtis who wrote Notting Hill, which is one of my favourite movies that I had watched for n times (where n approaches the conceptual infinity). What a good blend of love stories it has that made me realize its theme is about love that can exist in countless facets. There are stories about porn stars falling in love in a very innocent manner, a man cheated by his wife but to later find new love in a Portuguese maid, a young boy in love with his school's most popular girl and of course, the British Prime Minister who fell for the working-class tea girl in his office. Yeah, that Hugh Grant playing of the PM was my favorite part of the movie. Although it's unlikely that the British government will be led by a young, funny bachelor (Tony Blair is the nearest they could get) who seems uncertain with his words, but it protrayed how ordinary a PM can be. No wonder Grant was given a round of applause when he appeared in his first where he stepped out from his official Jaguar in front of 10 Downing Street. Aha, I don't think the part Grant, as the PM, screwed the US President with his very politically uplifiting speech, appealed to the American audience who watching it with me. No one cheered during it except for one or two.



I guess this movie will be added into my favorite movies list. My personal definition of a favorite movie disregards the movie's genre. Love Actually and Notting Hill makes me want to watch it again. Well, I guess it's that connection that I have with the characters - that I find these characters are not at all fictious and exist if I just walk across the screen. That's how Friends is. Love Actually has a good ending too. It didn't hang but ended very satisfyingly - ie. like having a complete 9-course meal that starts with soup and ends with sweet desert and coffee.



The movie has quite x-rated scenes as on the part of the porn stars. To me, there are not at all erotic but more surprisingly funny. Oh ya, it was quite a lot of ridicules in it. The British are indeed people with lots of wits in them. No wonder Apai Amin finds his days in Cam to be fun although how bad is Oxbridge's reputation of having a stuck-up society.

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH. I SCREWED UP MY JAVA (15-111) exam. I misread the question. Instead of just inheriting the class, I created a totally new one. ARGGGHH.. I HATE PAPER BASED PROGRAMMING EXAMS. HALF OF EFFORT IS ON MAINTAINING OF STRAIGHT LINE AND WRITING CHARACTERS THAT YOU DON'T NORMALLY HANDWRITE. no wonder my classmates walked out at half time coz THEY USED INHERITENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!

the materials are exponentially getting tougher now. i'm slightly losing track esp physics. trying my best to understand what's all these electric potential, potential difference and their relation to the electric field. this week's homework assignment is a tough one.

Here goes one of the many interesting forwards from Eing:



From : Rata Shalom P Muda

Sent : Wednesday, February 11, 2004 6:39 PM

To : adrian@mit.edu.ow, Aimi Shaari Ahmad Shukri , "sybaris-MIT.EDU" , cryzpene@hotmail.com, clair_lim@yahoo.com, Cynthia Sequerah , hclim84@yahoo.com, , ngqiming@umich.edu, Sally Ong , "Sarah Lasung" , liszelings@yahoo.co.nz, swee@andrew.cmu.edu, Tzuo Han Law , Umar Abdul Azizi , vl3242@bristol.ac.uk, wnmohd@fas.harvard.edu

Subject : hell... from hell



Is hell Exothermic or Endothermic?

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington Mechanical Engineering mid term. The answer was so "profound" that the Professor shared it with colleagues, which is why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.



Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or Endothermic

(absorbs heat)?



Most of the students wrote Proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:



"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we

need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.



As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different

religions that exist in the world today.



Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.



With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added.



This gives two possibilities:



1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all

Hell breaks loose.



2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell

freezes over. So which is it?



If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa Banyan during my Freshman year, "...that it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you." and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, # 2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze."







This student received the only A.

Had a rush dinner because I decide to obey my craving for veal rather than be in time for the evening lab. Sauteed veal over penne for $10.95. That's twice the daily pay of a construction worker in Malaysia. I can easily have an ala carte meal at Chilli's or Shangri-La back in KL with this amount of money. Maybe feed a party of four at KFC or Sugarbun. I didn't finish the penne because I dun like penne. I just couldn't understand why everyone likes penne. To me, the spaghetti is the god of all pastas.



Experimental physics was cut short to a lecture this evening. the professor explained something on RCL circuits which I barely understand. Involves differential equations - maths stuff that I've yet to learn. I tried my best to be intuitive but couldn't help feeling inferior to the Physics majors in the class. This week and next week will be sort of a easy week for the lab course. Tuesday is off since Monday's President's Day so the professor wants to equalize the pace of the Monday and Tuesday sections.



Rafiq came over from Penn State for a Finger 11 gig at Club Laga which is just a few minutes walk from my place. I fogot that he's coming until he gave a call saying that he was downstairs. Well, I knew he was going to come on Tuesday but I lost the sense of today being Tuesday.



Sliding away from my studies lately esp with Physics which took me the whole evening to finish the first portion of the week's assignment. So much maths in it that the homework looks more like a maths homework. I somehow realize that Physics is all about dealing with quantities and playing around with quantities is basically maths! F = ma is not a fact but more of an expression of a certain quantity not quality. F = ma does not have a subjective definition to it so it can't express beauty, taste, smell or sound.



Time for bed or else my sleep continues during Prof Quinn's and Prof Tolle's lectures tomorrow morning.

less than a month to florida. i can't for that week-long break. we bought our airline tickets already and even had the hotels and theme park tickets booked. this is totally unlike our trip to new york where things were not that certain. but hey, having 41 of us in the heart of the world is nothing to be regretful. now my friends began to refer me as a travel agent, asking me to plan future holidays. oh ya, sure i will. let's go to havana.



yeah, havana. seriously...



i love napster. even the new one. version 2.0. although many thinks what a waste when u can get mp3s for free from KaZaa? ya but you'll never what shit RIAA has up in their sleeves these days. the next thing i know i would be getting a subpoena from these fat, money-rolling yanks. but the idea of online music service like iTunes and Napster I think is a sound business idea. i prefer napster's monthly rate of $10 for unlimited songs. although i can't burn or transfer them into portable players, who cares when people like me don't own those sexy, slim but pricey Ipods? anyway, Santana's Shaman album that I'm spinning right now definitely are soothing my ears after listening a whole load dance tracks for the past 5 hours.



i finally got an e-mail from Daphne. Two e-mails actually. One was saying like "Oh, i dunno what to write" and the next one which followed less than an hour later began with something like "I think I should write something..." glad to hear from her from Perth.



my room's still in a mess. me starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. one of these days i might step and break a CD or two if I don't throw them back into my drawer. even my clean clothes were still in the laundry basket although they were washed 2 days ago.



me calling it a day. but before that, me must reply daf.

quite a weird slepeing pattern i've now developed. i couldn't shut my eyes till 9am and in 3 hours, i was awake for mass. room still in a mess with CDs lying and papers lying around.



still pondering whether i should stay for summer II or not. kenneth gave a strong argument that we should do the pre-reqs when we can do them in summer. so, there's a strong possibility that we'll be back only for 3 weeks in august. need to e-mail Kurt Larsen on the exact schedule.



tasneem has quite on a site in xanga on her poems. gave me a surprise on how well she can write. simple ones but meaningful i must say. i told her she should turn into songs. i'll be more than glad to bang some keys for her in an open mic.



been working on my java assigment for the past 6 hours. a rather hard one when i'm restricted from using arrays. thank God Kenneth's around since he had taken 15-100 last semester. i'm off to bed. calling it a day and a weekend. the cycle begins again.

also, i'm pissed off when someone told me that i'm not efficient with my experimental physics course.

damn. i feel quite dizzy right now. i guess it's the time and the caffeine that put in me in this state. i heard once that mountain dew has the highest level caffeine among sodas. no wonder. i had a lot of it today.



i have to end this addiction to building my web site. dreamweaver, stay away...

No more tweaking with my new blog site. I had enough of it till sunrise. must now get back to work!

I'm really freaking tired right now. I never imagine I had survived the week of sleeping at 5am or later. The experimental physics (33-104) is becoming a taxing course for me this semester. For example, the previous notebook I handed took me two days to finish. I did nothing else but finishing it since Tuesday night. Even missed Wednesday's Calculus 2 and Physics 2 lectures. What troubles me more is the level of competition in my lab class. Compared any of lectures, this is the course where most of the students are the competitive ones. Physics majors are there too and it's more or less true that physics majors are a breed of people who a step higher than average cmu students. Just listen how we weep on our physics sequences and swore that we would never do college physics.



Earlier today, I promised myself that I would spend tonight, Friday night, doing my next lab notebook which is due the Thursday after next. However, to my disappointment, I spent the evening watching Cadet Kelly. It's a film that stars the young Hilary Duff. I came to watch it by accident. I was browsing the channels on cable and stumbled upon this cute little actress in Disney's Channel.



I must admit that she's really cute when she's younger. She was not that beautiful or gorgeous but Hilary seems to have this hilarious character. I'm not sure whether she's really the girl I saw in that movie in real life. Lizzie McQuire gives me the same impression on her.



I've been taking Jazz Piano I for non-music majors with John D'Amico. A class of 5 which charges an extra $485 to my student account this semester. Lots of stuff I had learned since the past 4 lessons. Yesterday was a particularly new thing to me - ii-v-i chord progressions. John didn't tell us what scale to improvise on Autum Leaves so I went up and played only in G minor. He forgot to mention about 2-5-1 until he explained after I played. Cm7, F7, BMajor7 are the 2nd, 5th and 1st chords under the BbMajor scale. So, in that 3-chord sequence, I must play in that scale. EbMajor follows suit but that stands by itself as some sort of a bridge to the next trio of chords. The next 3 chords after EbMajor is Am7, D7 and Gm7 which are the 2-5-1 chords for Gm7. I haven't improvised on yet except this afternoon when I was playing for a while on the Mudge piano.



By the way, Autum Leaves is such a beautiful song to play. The feeling of playing in 7th chords are much more satisfying than playing only in majors and minor like in Pop. I've been listening to various versions of the song by jazz artists lately and concluded, the tempo can be of all sorts - latin, swing, etc.



I'm really tempted to go back back during after taking Summer Session 1. I emailed the rest of the freshmen who plan to go back and asked whether they are interested in stopping over in europe for 3/4 days. The replies seems not to be encouraging. I spent the evening the browsing for flight tickets during the summer so I guess I failed to keep up to my promise at the beginning of the day.



Anyway, there's 2 or 3 more hours before my eyes becomes heavy. Here I go..