Greetings from Canberra!

Hey there. I'm here yay! It's a so-called getaway retreat to a city I once knew as a mere ghost town. I now know I was wrong all these whiles. Canberra is small, but I just couldn't think of a city more livable than it is. Its air is clean, its arts and cultural scene is vibrant, its streets are spotless and amazingly pedestrian-friendly, and its mall ain't bad at all. Canberra is just fine for me, it's simply a peaceful spot right in the heart of Australia. I'm staying over Pau's place here in Unilodge. It's a decent studio, smaller than my College Square unit, but spacious enough for single occupancy I guess.

I also went to Sydney for a day-trip on Saturday. The bus journey from Canberra to Sydney took me around three and a half hours, but it was simply worth my time and money. I wished I had more time to spend with Fyda and Ju Anne there. The city was pretty cool, too, but I got a feeling that it was too hectic to my liking. It also lacked the charm that made Melbourne such a wonderful city it's always been. The three of us took a hell lot of pictures together, and we just had great fun catching up with each other and stuff. A fine dinner was had at Pancake on the Rocks, and great memories were left to be kept for a long, long time.

I also had a free lunch at Pn. Zaidah's Open House in Sydney! Well, best things in life are free, aren't they?

I'm flying back to Melbourne tonight, and I can barely wait for that. Home sweet home, as one may put it. I'll try my best to spare some time uploading some of the of pictures I've taken throughout my spring trip onto my blog after I get back. A few days ahead will surely be a busy one for moi, as I'll have to juggle between finishing the bunches of assignments I have and working on the annual dinner, for which I'm acting as the chief organizer. Well, being an important person doesn't always ring coolness I guess :p

Faizal Hamssin

Bon Eid selamat hari raya wot wot!

It's over. Yeah the auspicious month of Ramadhan, with its fasting and holydoings is over. It's time to celebrate!

HAPPY EID TO EVERYONE OUT THERESELAMAT HARI RAYA tout le monde! yes everyone, as God's love is universal. So, let's spread the love this Eid in the spirit of humanity. For love and friendship is a prerogative of every being who walks upon the face of Earth.

The cool 'Happy Eid' greeting picture above was taken from here. Merci beaucoup!

And no Eid is cool without your family by your side. Seriously. This is making me homesick out of a sudden. Thank goodness we have Skype nowadays!

Faizal Hamssin

The Silent Killer

Cellphones are very much the 'must have' stuff that are had by simply everyone in the world today, be him a peasant from Bangladesh, or a Sydneysider who twitter frequently using his more-advanced PDA or Blackberry. They're just so important that we can never dream of getting rid of them, regardless of the known side-effects that these gadgets are carrying to us users.

Being well-informed of the apparent danger of shortwave radiation, which cellphones can easily emit to us everyday without most of us realizing it, I got freaked out a little, but there seemed to be nothing I could do to help me alleviate my anxiety before.

But I just found an extremely useful website that would make it easier for me to protect myself and the ones I love. The site contains a comprehensive list of thousands of mobile phones available in the market, together with the descriptions with regards to the phones' respective "Specific Absorption Rates (SAR)", which is a "measure of how much radiation is absorbed by the body when the phone is sending a signal to the network." Apart from having detailed descriptions on the level of hazard that each phone model exerts on us users, the site is also amazingly user-friendly. It has been designed to make it easier for us to make comparisons between a phone model to another. The is also a list of 'the Safest Phone', and vice versa. Therefore, it can be said that this site gives you proper guidelines on the most 'harmless' cellphone options out there; something that sounds trivial at first, but it can indeed increase your lifespan for a few years, I guess!

I took the opportunity to check for my phones' SAR, and the results left me terrified. I'm currently using two cellphones; Nokia 6500 slide, as well as Sony Ericsson s500i, which I got as my birthday present 2 years back but still functions well.



The results shows that SAR while held at the ear for my SE phone is 1.35W/kg, with the hazard bar being


You might think that my older SE phone must've its hazards explained by its relative age compared to my newer Nokia, but the result for the latter didn't seem to be comforting, either. Its SAR while held at the ear is 1.28W/kg, which makes it meekly safer to use compared to my SE. Looks like another trip to a mobile phone store is truly justified this time around.

So, if you feel like purchasing a better, safer phone, Samsung Impression SGH-a877 is for you. Not only does it look sleek, it exposes you to the least amount of SAR among its peers. With its SAR value while held at the ear being as low as 0.35W/kg, it's just the safest bet for the people out there, whose safety is put at their highest priority.

The worst phone out there is clearly Motorola's MOTO VU204. Its value of SAR is as high 1.55W/kg while held at the ear. A clear no, no.



And it is, to be honest, ugly, too.


Faizal Hamssin

Of Perceptions

Just got on a train of thought leading to some random musings of my mind. Don't read this if you're expecting something light and cooler, which the following text just isn't.


It's not my fault that your mind is constricted. It's not my mistake that your view is veiled. It's not of my valor that your brain stays behind the bars. It's not my power to shed some light to your dark alley of life.

They say perception is powerful. Some even say that perception is more important than reality. I say that Man can only live when they manage to overcome the power of perception and the needs to please others to perfect the dimension on which their views are centred. If one is unable to be emancipated from the greed of human eyes that culminate into others' perceptions toward him, there's no doubt he's dead inside. Void of soul.

So for those people out there, stop doing things for the mere sake of pleasing others. Stop barring yourself from expressing yourself along your quest of garnering approval from others. Stop playing sinuously on the phony stage to feed your incessant insecurity with regards to how do others view you. It's their visions, not yours. Life is too short for us keep running for the mirage of perfect public perception towards us, since it is part of people's instinct to keep on peeping for every single imperfection that you have, so stop camouflaging who you are, and be yourself. You can't change the way others view the world, but you can surely change your inner self to be more appreciative to who you actually are.

There's no need to keep explaining everyone out there for everything that we've done to our heart's content. Right or wrong are subjective. There's nothing you can do to change that.

And I'm not scared if people think of me being somebody I am not. Cause I know who I am, and so do the ones I love.


Random ramblings on a Friday night :)

Faizal Hamssin

Irrevocable Mess

If you guys don't know how weird my biological clock is, here it goes;

your afternoon is my midnight. your 3pm is my 12am :)

yeah it's true. that's me. nocturnal me!

And yes, Happy Ramadhan to everyone out there! May Lord's grace fall upon you guys! Let's spread our love and affection towards humanity in this holy month. Let's make this month a heath for deep thoughts to thrive and flourish. Let's celebrate the power of human kindness in overcoming adversity throughout this month of greatness.

This will be my first month of fasting in the foreign land. Pathos are here, there, and everywhere, but well, it's pretty good an experience, either. No one knows how badly do I miss the sinful murtabak and refreshing ABC that I'd always had during Ramadhan. If I happened to have had enough of those, there were always other treats like satays, nasi ayam, mihun sup, and kuihs to tackle my desire. So, for Malaysians out there, be thankful that you guys are still able to live in such a heaven of food, with its plethora of gastronomical greatness. OMG I think I should've included Laksa Sarawak on the list, too! Now I can't wait for summer to taste it all!

Being a polar bear is downright cool. Trust me.

Faizal Hamssin

of An Epic Reunion :)

Liying was in the town baybeh! So yeah, we had a reunion dinner at Sofia. The food was, as expected, downright awesome, and the portion was HUGE that we all went home satiated as hell (yeah seriously). Will definitely dine there again next time. Here are the pictures (courtesy of Zara)

Sham's Japanese girlfriend who happened to be in Melbourne at that time for a visit was also present.

After dinner, we all went to crash at Aggie's place, hanging out there. Some of us played cards while the rest camwhored and lounged around, feeling the bliss of being in each others' company. That was very cool. Too bad little Zara was so tired that night (menstrual pain, I suppose!) that she had to sleep in Aggie's room while we all had a blast outside at the living room.

When the party was over and everyone was on the verge of leaving the place, all eyes were on Sham who was also to leave the place for her girlfriend's digs. It was a cold wintry night when someone gave him words worth of advice. "Play safe," she said. We all laughed naturally :D


Faizal Hamssin

Pardonnez-moi, mon blog!

Hey there. I love my blog. It's been the journal of my life; I started this blog just a few months after I started doing IB, so it's nearly 3-year-old by now. The 3 years filled with moments of immeasurable depth, with regards to its impacts towards molding the current me. The 3 years that have been my most exciting and inspiring years I've had, after all the relative lethargy of my highschool years. The 3 years of transitory period, the years in which my real self was finally found. The period of metamorphosis, as we may call it, the process that made my life as interesting as it seems today. It's just great, and this blog will remain here forever, as it is an important tool to remind me where I came from, and how far have I gone through the seemingly incessant sinuosity of human life. I just love it.

So dear my lovely, adorable blog, pardonnez-moi if you feel ignored or neglected these days. I really wanna write new posts, keeping you updated with my fruits of thoughts etc, but inspiration has yet to stream towards me at the moment. Yes, I seriously wanna update my blog regularly, but the mojo seems to have petered away at this very moment; I just don't know what should my next post really be all about.

But above all, at least I'm very happy with my life currently. 2nd sem seems to be awesome so far, with the new challenges and perks that it offers. I've also regained my passion in reading, and I have several unread books sitting in the case, waiting to be read soon. Studies have been fine, and friends have been awesome, so far. My Friday nights are always full of fun-filled dinner, gathering, party, or whatever that occupies my time and makes me happy, and I'll always find some time for myself (my real friends know how much do I cherish my privacy). It's just fine. Not much of a rollercoaster ride, whatever.

Perhaps when you're truly contented with your life, you'll find that it gets less interesting and pretty monotonous by day. And when life gets less interesting, there's no way that you'll come out with personal posts on your blog. Trust me it's true.

Quote of the day: Acquaintances come and go, but true friends stay.

Enough with my life story. I just got 'The Pianist' DVD from Rowden White a few days ago, and went on to watch it yesterday. The movie touched me so much it made me cry. It's a shame that I didn't get to watch this wonderful movie earlier (it was released in 2002, I guess). And it's a bigger shame for those who have the hear to deny the atrocities inflicted towards the innocent public during the World War II and Holocaust. What's wrong is wrong, that's it.

p/s I'm planning to write a personal journal to sum my 3 years up. That'd be nice, indeed. The journal will, of course, be private :)

Faizal Hamssin

It Must be the Weed, It Must be the E

The news of Yasmin Ahmad's demise really surprised me, but nor did it shock me greatly, given the critical situation she had been through after the stroke attack she'd had. She's such a person of great talent and sheer intelligence, a true Malaysian, whose works have transcended the seemingly opaque veil of racial and religious divide in the country. She'd directed numerous television advertisements, most of them were dedicated for certain cultural festivals in the country, and her Petronas 'Hari Raya', 'Deepavali', and 'Chinese New Year' advertisements will always be missed in the years to come.

One of my favorites among her repertoire of great works is the ad produced for the Independence Day last year, if I'm not mistaken. It's called Tan Hon Ming, and it projected the undisputed innocence of children with the multicultural Malaysia as its background.



Kids know nothing of skin colors; racism is nothing in their lives' dictionary, or perspective. The downward spiral this country is experiencing, with respect to its inter-faith and inter-racial relations amidst its past image as a 'harmonious' melting pot of people of different faiths and creed is undeniably due to the roles of the people who pride themselves as adults or 'mature' people who've all these whiles brought our children up to be the ones with corrupted heart, racist mind, and myopic eyes. Many parents nowadays seem to be trapped into their own utopia cage; kids of different backgrounds should mingle separately, and polarisation should be the way to go. They simply believe in the notion that Malaysia can survive with only their single race being its single dweller. Children are sent to vernacular schools, where they'll only mingle with other kids who speak their language and do everything their way. Malay parents who don't allow their kids to play at their Chinese friends' place/home for the baseless fear that their kids will be fed with non-halal food; even plain water, or 'Ribena', served in these 'non-Muslim' homes are funnily considered as non-halal by these parents. Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I thought such things are just not Islamic. Even in our so-called national schools, polarisation still exists with staggering intensity. Just go to any of our school's canteen, and you'll see that happening in front of your very eyes.


To make me hate typical Malaysian media more (not all of them, though), a cheap tabloid, Kosmo didn't take any chances in cashing in from Yasmin Ahmad's death. An article of defamation towards her was released short after her death, and the article was shamelessly written as to portray it as a 'sincere' obituary, which it just wasn't. Yucks. The writer must've disregarded the feeling of the demise's family. Speaking on some Malay tabloids, just flip through any of them and you'll find articles on sex, pigs, traditional mysticism, black magic and witchcraft, and some disgusting scandals of some unknown local so-called celebrities. Disgusting at its best.

"It must be the weed, it must be the E" lol

RIP Yasmin Ahmad

Faizal Hamssin

Of Hackers and People Who Need to Get a Life

I just came back from Malaysia after spending a month there. It was awesome, with those homecoming stuff and explosive fun, but I'm not gonna talk about those.

I reached Melbourne 2 days ago, had a sound sleep that night after a long and tiring flight just to wake up to Syed's phone call. It was something like this; "Faizal, I think your facebook's just been hacked." I was like, "What the f**k. (I was really shocked that I cursed) and why the hell must someone do that to me?", and the conversation went on and on and my anger grew and peaked when I found out that my YM and facebook password had also been changed, making it impossible for me to get my access to those two things to do some quick damage control. I panicked a great deal, and managed to change my password and regained access to those sites a few minutes later (I had to answer a few questions to be identified as the owner of my own YM and facebook, and that was pretty annoying yet a relief, indeed).



When I got onto my Facebook, I was like, "OMG". The pathetic hackers seemed to have changed my profile picture into an image of a fugly vagina, and my status had also been changed into something that was so disgustingly vulgar and racy. That lame guy did also add a link (something like indonesiamerdeka.com, whatever, on my facebook). He also sent messages like "Let's make love at my place" to my friends, using MY facebook account. ewww. He did GREAT damage to my facebook, I'd like to say, and that was so so so not cool.

I struggled to do damage control and reverted everything into the way it used to be in a few minutes. I also changed my YM and facebook password instantly. Thanks to Syed who informed me about that stupidest thing that ever happened in my life quickly; you saved my life. The hacker who did that to my Facebook must've been the most pathetic person on Earth; hey, get an effing life, please! May you rot in Hell for eternity.

Everything finally turned back to normal.

The stupid thing didn't only happen to my Facebook alone. The hacker did also use my YM to send some silly messages to my friends. How desperate can one get! He must've struggled a great deal when it came to English; he mixed his 'fuck you' this and that with Indonesian, for God's sake! Therefore, for those who happen to have received any weird and lame messages that clearly didn't reflect me as a person, you guys are the luckiest bunch of people in the world for having been able to witness such idiocy at its legendary form.

However, it was pretty surprising a fact that some of the ones whom I believed to be my friend did actually think that it was me writing those hordes of rubbish to them. Well, those who thought so were clearly not my 'real' friend who understood me and who I was. My truest friends would always know that I won't have degraded myself into the act and ethics of a subhuman that the hacker did clearly reflect from his language use. For those who thought that I'd have done that to them, you clearly hadn't known the real me. That was it.

Lesson of the day: Guys, the ordeal I faced yesterday was funny, weird, but it certainly didn't turn out into something embarrassing, to be frank. This could happen to anyone out there. My perception towards internet and the safety and privacy issues behind it has certainly changed dramatically due to this very occurence. Never, ever, use your birthdate as your password. People, in general, can easily get your birthdate from your Facebook profile, and they are certainly smart enough to use it to gain entry into your Facebook, Email, and even E-Bay accounts. Try changing your password periodically- don't use the same, ol' password for too long a time. That'd make you more prone of being the next victim of these growingly-sneaky hackers out there. Last but not least, keep updating your anti-virus frequently. Yesterday's drama happened when my Kaspersky was pretty outdated; I hadn't downloaded its update for as few weeks at that time.

Dear hackers around the world, please. Get a fucken life, you F.tard. You guys stink. I'm so not gonna be your victim again in the future.

Dear Lord, save me from any future attacks on the net. Amen.

Faizal Hamssin

Of the Indulgence of Sheer Euphoria

I was so indulged in the burning anxiety as I waited for my first sem result to be published online last night. Having thought that the result would be released at exactly 12.00am Melbourne time, I checked my student portal to relieve the killing curiosity and nervousness inside straightaway when the watch showed me the time. It didn't come out still, and I got pretty pissed when a friend suddenly told me that result would be published at 9.00am, rather than 12.00am I initially thought of. Waiting was excruciating, and I hated sleeping with uncertainties, so I applied for the result to be e-mailed to me straightaway by the uni. The process would take around 2 hours, so I filled up the time with Zuma! yeah Zuma! Haven't played that for so long! The 2 hours passed by instantly and I finally received an e-mail containing my first sem result. Trust me, with the ordeals I had with my student number and the cold I had while answering Global Environment, the prospect of flopping in this exam was real. I panicked.

And I got this:
Intro. Microeconomics: 84 H1
Chemisry 1: 80 H1
Calculus 2: 79 H2A
Global Environment: 88 H1

I was like, "wow!". The result petrified me at the moment. I know some other students managed to get better result, yada yada, but my result really made my day. Especially the H1 I got for my Global Environment. It beat my expectation, to be honest, what more with the modest result I got for the practical component of the subject. It seemed like those sleepless nights of reading, reading, and memorizing the geological processes were not in vain. I couldn't help but feel blessed and tremendously thankful for my that.

May the vibes remain for the rest of my uni life.

p/s just had an evening with Dex and Farid. OMG I haven't seen Farid for so long! And he looked different, seriously. From their conversation, I could easily grasp that they had their time of their lives in UTP. Can't wait for a mini-reunion next time.

Faizal Hamssin

ovah

Guess what? Sem 1 is OVER. Final exams are history, and I have five more semesters to go before my uni life ends. lol I'll try my best to abstain myself from thinking about that. It makes me feel old.

Malaysia is just 2 days' away from me, and I'm just back from an awesome retail therapy, shopping for good stuff, and blowing the stress away. Loving it.

MJ has just passed away yesterday. I was in total a shock when I got to know about that. It's such a big loss to music as a whole, I guess. Millions grieved, as the news of his passing filled headlines across the globe. Fans showered their affection and appreciation towards him, and the entertainment media and tabloids, whose keys of financial lucrativeness lie on their skill in fabricating stories, finally granted him with some good obituaries in memory of MJ's life as a performer of sheer intelligence in music. This comes as a contrast to what these tabloids used to write of him previously. Even Perez Hilton wrote a strangely compassionate remark on his death. It's a shame that us humans are so into indulging ourselves into taking everything around us for granted. We will, apparently, only cherish something when the subject is finally gone. We blatantly and desperately show the world how appreciative we are of the 'lost' thing, but it's simply too late. I doubt anybody will even remember of the tales of MJ's 'oxygen chamber' or 'elephant man's bones' in the years to come. But his music will live forever, being an anthem of his era. His songs will make people happy for many years to come, and that's the only thing that matters.

On a lighter note, Fyda is in Melbourne right now! Seeing her and hanging out with her really make my day. Can't wait for a dinner with Zahra and Fyda tonight :)

Watched Tranformers 2 with fyda, zahra and syed. It was awesomessss. Seriously. And watching the movie at IMAX was so impeccably mesmerizingly astonishingly cool. I mean, the screen is the 3rd largest in the world, so basically the robots were all looking really big and everything was so real. I'm so looking forward to watching Harry Potter at IMAX again next month. Well-worth the money spent.

By the way, what should I be doing in Malaysia during this holidays apart from sleeping and eating my mom's legendary food? well...got to think about it tonight!

Michael Jackson, rest in peace! I'm very much a 90's person when it comes to music, and this video is simply awesome.



Faizal Hamssin

Of Randomness. Again.

Just spent my Friday night in the library, studying for next week's exam. OMG I need to get a life, but to look at the whole situation in a wider dimension, it's pretty cool that exams are gonna be over by the end of this month, and I'll certainly be free after that. Can't wait for that, seriously. The whole ordeals that I've had this particular week have been pretty draining. It was revision, revision, and revision, with those past year papers being my bestfriends. *and facebook, too lol

Being a busy bee this whole week doesn't stop me from updating my playlist with newer songs and this particular song by Alexander Rybak has totally amazed me. No schmaltz, nothing. It's just a plain song with simple lyrics and understated yet addictive musical arrangements. Love it bunch.



And I also took my time to read the whole text of Obama's speech in Cairo. It was just awe-inspiring, and pessimists should watch, or at least, read his speech as it is an indication that hope does exist these days. At least I'm having something different in the news today; daily updates on Swine flu make people sick, to be frank. It causes panic and fear. Especially if you live in a state where 900 people have been diagnosed with the flu. Pretty scary, right? Gosh looks like my Dettol hand sanitizer will surely be my best friend for many months to come.

23 days to go before I bid hi hi to Malaysia. Can't wait for the sunshine!


Faizal Hamssin