joyeux anniversaire pour mes amis =)

this week deserves a special spot in the story of the life of mine; 3 of our ib comrades have their birthdays in a week's time. the mood of celebration fills the d'shire apartment units as well-wishers and cake-craving friends (the latter includes me) throng to the units that house our birthday boys of the week. the celebration for osem n syed was held at in front of our apartment block; the location was deemed as a strategic one as the idea of basking the birthday boys with the sacred glow of the flour needed an outdoor spot for its execution. after all, nobody would fancy doing the post-celebration spring cleaning am i right?



fatin displayed the world of the kind heart and soul she has long possessed. the birthday cake, rich with the indulgences one can ever expect from the gastronomical blessings in the form of the chocolates, was really wonderful. thanks so much fatin. the cake u brought all the way from seremban will always remain as the testament of your heart of gold.



the glimmering friendship and fraternity that shall last for eternity.



look at how fair these two dudes have become.

the celebration ended with me feeling just good.


the birthday bash didnt end with the flour-madness-themed celebration. khairul is also having his birthday on the labour's day. yeah, khairul=labour (inseparable).



the celebration was more intimate and simpler, as some of us have already left d'shire for their respective hometown and all. however, the merrymaking was, undeniably, full of fun. we chatted and laughed for the whole night while waiting for the time to reach 12. the combustible energy and passion of friendship that we all experienced that night can be attributed to the relative abundance of the food served for that occasion. my special thanks to mary; your pasta was mouth-watering. the cake was also reasonably nice. after all, the cake was chosen by me and pau, (pau is notorious for his perfectionism, fyi). there was barely any room for mistake in that sense. however, khairul's health was not on his side that night as he experienced a headache that might have hampered him from joining us in the many parts of our gossip-filled conversations. hang li po wasnt there too, so, it was understandable that khairul's real soul was drifted to the east coast for the whole night. emotionally drifted, as the saying goes, 'absence makes heart grows fonder'.

happy birthday to osem syed and khairul. may the lord bless you with an abundance of perpetual joy and eternal happiness while turning your most distant dreams into the beauty of reality.


p/s jonmah has told me not to put an excessive dose grandiloquences here, so i did exactly that.

faizal hamssin

Mentally subjugated~

thank god it's friday. this week has been relatively banal with not a single strand of interesting curvature of life happening to sweeten it up. it is also not magical; magical in a way that the bitterness of life can actually be churned into the beauty that lasts for eternity. that's why i do believe that struggles of life are needed in order to create an obelisk of perpetual wonder that is called experience.



the importance of a dose of bitterness in making a better of a person is profoundly testamented in the play 'uncle vanya'. the play is a wonderful epic of the different types of subjugation faced by the pre-revolutionary Russians. Russia under the imperial rule used to be a haven for the aristocrats and a hell for the masses. the country was in a deep shambles while the wealth distribution was extremely skewed. the serfs who yearned for emancipation were deprived of their basic rights while their level of dignity was plunged to the animalistic level. this insanity that lied beneath the extrinsically sophisticated Russian affluent society led to the emancipation of the perpetual ideas of intellectual pilgrimage that plunged the society into the unnecessary troughs of dignity. the aristocrats might think that they are the ones who posed the wave of subjugation towards the serfs, and this is an apparently unarguable claim. however, the wave of subjugations (physical deprivations) posed towards the serfs were actually less venomous than the mental subjugation the aristocrats of that era suffered from. the serfs bear all the responsibility on earth. every fraction of hardship is left for the poverty-ridden lower class people to bear. this means that there was no such thing as bitterness in the life of the aristocrats back then. their lives were all full of artificial lusciousness that tend to eclipse any single intellectual light that might arise. they are deprived from churning the bitterness of life into the beauty that lasts for eternity. they were all intellectually paralysed.

yeah i think that's all for today. au revoir =)

Faizal Hamssin

la fettucine =)

how does it look like? are u gonna love it? that's the very first fettucine i've ever prepared in my whole life, just for the paramount culinary competition. such a momentous event that was filled with the triumphant echoes of culinary naivety and gastronomical indulgences. full of the grandeur and the realisation of a variety of the sinfully rich tastes of food. ehmm should i say that we didn't win? haha but the fettucine tastes good okay. that's fine~

thanks to pau for the recipe. we HAVE to cook another fettucine in the future okay. the ingredients are all left idle in my apartment, waiting for our so-called magical touch. sounds so vain.

faizal hamssin

more and more surveys!

You Are 30% Left Brained, 70% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways. And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery... Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever. You're already naturally a poet, even if you've never written a poem.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Your Scandinavian Name is:

Kirby Lundy

What's Your Scandinavian Name?

Your Travel Personality Is: The Adventurer

For you, travel is how you learn about the world. And you like to learn the stuff that's not in guidebooks. You truly have wanderlust. When you're not traveling, you're dreaming about where you'll go next. And your travels are truly legendary - they leave you with stories you'll be telling for the rest of your life!

What's Your Travel Personality?

done!

faizal hamssin

career test

i was trying to answer some questions to find out the career that suits me most. the result was quite shocking actually;

Your Career Type: Enterprising

You are engertic, ambitious, and sociable. Your talents lie in politics, leading people, and selling things or ideas. You would make an excellent: Auctioneer - Bank President - Camp Director City Manager - Judge - Lawyer Recreation Leader - Real Estate Agent - Sales Person School Principal - Travel Agent - TV Newscaster The worst career options for your are investigative careers, like mathematician or architect.

What's Your Ideal Career?

how's it?

faizal hamssin

no one

i should be ashamed for not having my blog updated for ages. this time around, this blog has been left stagnant and idle for quite a time due to the stagnation of my life. no experience, no blogging lah. i just didn't know what to write. furthermore, i've vowed to myself not to ever put lame and crappy stuffs into my blog. after all, quality should always remain above quantity.


lemme get a headstart with the freaking paramount group singing competition...my group consisted of me pau aggie leens and kay. fatin acted as our so-called 'manager' to aid us in our training etc (sounds so vain)...

everything about our performance and preparation was just 'extraordinary'. yeah, extraordinary. it's really funny that none of us has ever had experience of singing in front of the public. the 'dance' between our lack of experience and nervousness, coupled with the echoing technical problems here and there really reduced our chance of getting to final. yes, we didn't manage to savour the feeling of being one of the finalists, but who cares? i had fun. we had fun. i've just watched the video of our performance, and we didn't suck okay. or to be frank, we didn't suck comprehensively. i just simply laughed while listening to leens' cute and cuddly intro, watching the aggie's confidence in shaking his whole body to the rhythm of 'no one', sensing the kay's quest for a vocal timelessness, admiring our lil kid pau's innocent steps and my own stiffness and tensed look on the stage. that was really a recording that i'll surely treasure...


hugs and kisses to my singing comrades. we really rocked the day. kudos to the finalists. you guys were really really great and it's a mesmerizing fact of how successful Sri KDU is in not only being a temple for the intellectual and academic enlightenment for the students; it has also managed breed an abundance of young talents in singing. this has really thrilled me actually.

lesson of the day;
as we're all engulfed in the hectic lifestyle as an IB student, we should be more aware of the importance of us keeping some bits and pieces of the lusciousness of our life and preserving them into the sacred form of images for us to reflect to in the future. treasurable memories can never disappoint us; they act as an enrichment and testament of how wonderful our lives could and will be. they can even act as antidotes to cure the negativity of the feeling of being your own self. furthermore, memories will always be by your side to cheer you up if the emotional eclipse roams your world in the future.

Therefore, do your best to treasure all your memories okay. i think i should snap more pictures of me having my 'ordinary' meals at salhah or deli. who knows, if a picture of me biting my food hard with my friends on my side would be able to add sweetness into my days in the future.

~a perfect reason to have a new digital camera, indeed. i SHOULD get a better camera than my current mediocre Casio EXILIM. I should =) mamak! yan! my plea okay~


Faizal Hamssin

it's good to be free

i can never be blamed for exaggerating with the fact that my ib sufferings have insinuatingly receded after the glorious submission of my EEs and the completion of several small fishes like worldlit etc (writing a 1500-word-long essay is just a staple for any IB people i guess)...
now, my weekends are gonna be much better. of course we're all not gonna be emancipated the way a pigeon does, but, it is just great to have a space for yourself. my first post-EE weekend has been one of the best in this whole year. i'm no longer deprived from hanging out with my sister, updating my blog, sleeping to my heart's contents, hanging out to either OU or curve with my greatest buddies in the world etc. i've even started immersing myself in the charm that great literary works possess; i'm halfway towards finishing the "reading lolita in Tehran" memoirs. the book is just amazing and i'm looking forward to getting another book from the library after finishing this whole book...

do i need to tell you guys that the real icing of the cake is that i'm now more able to switch my real focus from EE to my final IB exam which is approaching us at a staggering pace. with more systematic efforts in place, i have faith that the big fat FORTY is really within my arm's reach of desire. go go faizal!

Faizal

1st Class Test

Okay, i've just received the final result for my very first class test in the year 2008. the result is just OKAY but i myself don't really feel glad for the result i've obtained this time around. for me, scoring simply 35 is simply modest, safe, and okay. that's all. it is neither a cloud signifying the ongoing academic decadency of me nor the rainbow that symbolizes a much-coveted academic attainment harvested due to the efforts poured into my studies. i wanna achieve the LATTER! the result for my 1st class test is as follows:
CHEM: 17/20 SIX
MATHS: 15/20 FIVE
PHYSICS: 15/20 FIVE
ENGLISH: 18/20 SIX
BUSINESS: 19/20 SEVEN
FRENCH: 17/20 SIX

Total: 35/42

Okay?
Perhaps a more wise management of time and buckets of midnight oil to be burnt would do...

Faizal~

IB Grade Boundaries

I've suddenly found this site displaying the IB exams grade boundaries. the range of mark displayed gives me a more optimistic view of what i can actually achieve for my IB exam. it's also obvious that the school's requirement of getting seven (19/20 and above) is just skyrocketingly high. the requirement is overtly stringent and this might bear the risk of causing Sri KDU IB students' level of confidence and motivations to decrease. perhaps, now is the perfect moment for the school to modify its IB grading system to become more relevant to everybody.

If u wanna see the whole IB grade boundaries, just hit the link below:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/IB_Grade_Boundaries


p/s I just checked my 'Feedjit' and apparently this post has garnered quite a lot of hits, hence the action of fixing the link above that was broken for quite a while. It is now working, finally. Apologies on my part. Good luck!


Faizal Hamssin

choices~

okay things are getting better right now; my EE is on the verge of being fully completed, my IAs are progressing well and my 1st World Lit is also to be given a final touch up before being submitted to Mr.Shaw. Thus, this is the very right time for me to focus for nothing but my IB final exam. Forget about class test;who cares about the class test when you have an ultimate and divine emphasis for the year, which definitely is the IB final year exam. i actually have faith in my ability in getting the result that petronas demands. now i need the God's blessings, and mercy and more efforts should be poured to fortify my strengths and rectify my weaknesses in IB. Come on, the IB, Sri KDU, and all the sufferings that I have to bear throughout these definitive 2 years are truly the opportunities of my lifetime. this year should be either the most glorious or devastating period of my life; and i can't afford to flop. okay all of us should cease worrying too much about our exams because we are all going to make it. each of us is blessed with our own distinctive strengths and flaws, but we are all here for a reason. we're here because we deserve to be here. we're here because we have what it takes to succeed. we're all gonna make it through the rain my dearest IB mates...

All of the petronas scholars from my batch were required to fill in a form to give Petronas and Sri KDU a clearer picture of the universities that we're all eyeing. the universities that are included in the list are all located in the southern hemisphere countries of Aus, NZ, or South Africe; there's nothing surprising nor shocking about this. however, this fact has never eroded my ultimate dream to get a place in one of the prestigious universities in the UK. fortunately, petronas did also give us an additional list which consists of several top UK universities where we're all allowed to apply for. however, the costs incurred throughout the application and assessment processes are all to be bear by the applicants, which sets this option apart from the previous option of studying in the southern hemisphere countries. I've been very interested in going to imperial college london, which is one of the institutions of my dream.

luckily, several of my friends are also very keen to apply for the UK universities that are 'recognized' by our patron petronas- Ox-bridge, Imperial, LSE. this would make our self-application processes much easier as we would have each other to turn to.

However, i do understand that getting a place in Imperial has never been easy. my result should be fantastic and my level of charisma should also be polished to prepare me for the rigorous university entrance exams and interviews. therefore, i'm not going to put a hope as high as the Eden for me to get a place in the UK colleges that have been listed by petronas. i believe that the chance is there, but life is not a fairy tale, after all. it is very difficult to predict something that will happen next year, as humans and their destinies keep on changing with time.

Thus, I've picked 4 universities in the southern hemisphere for me to apply. (it is compulsory for us to apply four southern-hemisphere universities). my choices are as follows:

1) University of SYDNEY



This university has a long history of excellence;
THES Rank: 31
Sydney is a great city to live in. definitely my first choice.



2) University of AUCKLAND



University Rank (THES) = 50
NZ tempts me with its kiwi culture and great landscape. I don't personally love living in an overtly-bustling and hectic place. Auckland should do.



3) University of QUEENSLAND



THES Rank: 33
The university offers an excellent geology program.



4) University of CAPE TOWN



THES rank: top200
The main reason for me to pick UCT is the charm that Cape Town and South Africa has to offer. it is a place full of natural wonders and sexy architectures. the weather is also gorgeous (Summer: 16-26 celcius, winter: 7-17 celcius). the cape winelands region is really picturesque with all the vineyards and quaint towns with mighty mountain ranges as their backdrops. table mountain? breathtaking.






Faizal

IB Solidarity Party

while pouring my heart and soul typing my previous post, i suddenly got stuck and dragged into some serious YM conversation with Afida about...POLITICS? The conversation was at its zenith of intellectual exchange between us two (something i really rarely do via YM), when the topic suddenly changed into the really less-serious ones. it's time for us to have some fun joking around. it all started like this:

Afida Liyana Yahya (2/15/2008 11:43:08 PM): he opposes lobbyist.. which means he would do something for the country for the sake of the people.. not for the lobbyist..
fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:43:19 PM): oic thats good
fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:43:31 PM): seems that u know a lot about us politics than i do
fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:43:35 PM): thats great
Afida Liyana Yahya (2/15/2008 11:43:41 PM): he has background of africa.. and lives in indonesia for four years..

minutes later...,

fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:52:12 PM): i hope msians would become as matured as the americans in the future
Afida Liyana Yahya (2/15/2008 11:52:24 PM): insya-Allah.. it starts with us..
fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:52:28 PM): we really need to get outta this stagnating state
fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:52:31 PM): haha yeah
fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:52:38 PM): lets form IB party
fay hamssin (2/15/2008 11:52:47 PM): all IB alumni unite
Afida Liyana Yahya (2/15/2008 11:52:52 PM): yep..



then it started with the formation of our own utopia party on the net. the IB Alumni Party. that was just too too crazy man. just imagine, the conversation about our funny, and, sometimes, unrealistic party has just dragged us two into a kinda long conversation. here is the list of petronas IB people and their imaginary role(s):

mary: leader, spokesperson
syed: highly-spirited campaign cum tganu minister (that's the most realistic prediction we made i guess)
fida: HQ (secretary) & the so-called samaritan who visits the flood victims etc. soo sweet
aiman: women's right
jiha: kelantan's minister (omg)
amin: he woos the female voters!
aleen: she woos the guys!
fatin: fida said,"fatin woo the gangster, mat rempit and all the sweet but naughty people.."
kay: segambut mp. gonna sing her fav alicia keys' number "no one" to woo voters. "no one no one no one can replace me..."
pau: economist (presenting all the statistics to the voters)
zara: fida said,"zara woo the kids and the handicapped..". lets keep finer crossing that she wont sleep in the orphanage together with the orphans due to her drowsiness.
yvonne: finance minister
ju anne: national musician
siangie: human cum animals right advocate. he shares the latter position with zara
chanhu: money lender a.k.a. along to help the poors
hafiz: rock kapak to entertain the voters
ammirul: a MP cum fashion model. his election poster's gonna be filled with the images of him posing like there's no tomorrow
khairul:msian version of CIA computer hacker
linges: next samy velu (his EE is the mainstay of all future projects)
aggie: faizal said,"aggie bwat yoga demo to campaign". health minister. SMASH should be built everywhere. yoga lessons should be provided for free. No high-calorie food is gonna be sold in the country. tau foo and porridge is the national delicacy. relationship with mongolia n nepal is gonna be fortified.
me: senator to advocate for a better position of the women. (hello, am i that sweet?) =P
osem: MUFTI NEGARA

For the other IB people (non scholars), just wait for a while as we're gonna expand this list to include u guys later, but, im just damn sure that aaron's gonna be the foreign minister, while kim can make a perfect arts & cultural senator. riza the msian dancer who dance to woo voters. winson? minister of education while jonmah can be a great minister of science and innovation. this list is so gonna be expanded from time to time.

escapade

The increasingly-demanding IB has eventually taken its toll. time has never been this precious before, and this very possession is the constraint that has greatly barred me from updating my stagnating blog frequently. however, thinking that my blog should not succumb due to the woes that i'm currently facing, added by the constant encouragement (and decree) by my friends (pau especially, needless to say), give me the strength to keep on writing and having fun blogging. after all, that's having fun is the golden reason to blog am i right?

Okay, Chinese New Year holiday rocks i guess, but, i didn't go back to bintulu the place i love for the break. having nothing to do (putting aside the IB craps) i've decided to join my cousins for a trip to Genting Highlands. actually I've gone genting before but this very trip was really fun and full of nothing but enjoyment! however, it was kinda bad that my sister was sick that she couldn't make it with us. here are several pictures that were shot during our Genting so-called crazy escapade.



this was only the beginning



okay the place was damn freakingly crowded on that day. there were people here there and everywhere and getting a headache was just inevitable. needless to say, the hotel rooms were all fully-booked and there was simply no place for four of us. thank goodness there was a shine at the end of every deep tunnel, and we did, miraculously, get a room just before the outdoor park was closed. that thrilled me a lot as there was not a single room when we sought for them in the daytime.perhaps some Samaritans were wonderful enough to leave their room earlier than they were required to. that's a total blessing for us. getting a room saved us from having to ride the cable car back to the foothill in the complete darkness of night. I'd surely dread that.

having a room, there's nothing that could stop us from savoring the real essence of that really lively night. we just kept on having great rides at the indoor theme park while sharing hottest gossips with each other.




Our hands =)


searching for a demon

we all went back on the next morning with extreme fatigue sticking on me. damn tiring and exhausting experience it was but, who cares, if you had real bunch of fun throwing all the misery of IB for just a little while.