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