The Book Shop

Late Night With Shariman

2009-10-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

IT is 12'30 Am, I am still waiting for my latop to finish installing SolidWorks 2009, which take forever to install. Ain is in Japan now,in Kumamoto visiting Honda factory there, for a week. So she will be back this Saturday night. Fareehah fell asleep pretty early today...I dunno why but for the last few days she keep on insisting to sleep inside the "buaian"...I guess that is her way to deal with the fact that her mom is not arround now. But last time was different when Ain went to Thailand for 4 days. Fareehah slept besides me every night and it was easier to make her sleep back then.

Hmm...should I wait for England vs Belarus match on 2;30 am? We'll see about it later.
Suddenly I am thinking of why there are no competitor for ASTRO. Its like a walk in the park for them.They keep increasing prices on sports channel, less channel compare to typical kind of cable tv and there are no other company around to challenge them. I remember back in Newcastle,they have bt,sky tv, virgin tv, digital tv and some other stuff too that everyone are competing with each other, and the consumer benefit from that situation.I remember paying like 25 pound for phone line, cable tv and internet. Even if we converted that amount to RM which will be about RM 130, it is damn cheap.Currently I am paying RM 110 for a crappy internet service, and RM 80 for ASTRO. I hope some company like virgin media will come here and start promoting cheap cable tv, phone and internet packages that will make TM net and astro shit their pants off.

Update the Blog will You???

2009-10-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since my last post here. Lot’s of stuffs going on since then. Let me condensed some of the stories.

1. Klang Hospital Story

I like watching that drama,HOUSE… but I never tough that I will be (was) on the receiving end of emergency unit treatment center…well at least not now during my late-20’s. On the 7^th of Ramadhan Al-Mubarak, around 8.00 AM I was rushed to the Klang Hospital Emergency Unit. During that time, I felt a massive pain on my right rib, like something is going to explode and I couldn't breathe, I can barely talk and walk, I felt that my body was under fast-pace dehydration process, I couldn't feel any moisture on my throat and I am thinking am I dying?

I yelled like a crazy person for about 5 hours in the emergency unit, pain killer did not worked, even a dose of morphine couldn't shut up my mouth during that time, let alone making me fall asleep. Around 2 .00 PM after they gave me some medicine that I don’t know the content are,the pain started to ease, and I was transferred to the surgery wad.

They told me it was a cholelithiasis, caused by gallstone inside my gall-bladder.

I was surprise for few minutes, in denial stage it seems to be, but then I thought that this is not a rare thing to happen nowadays. The next day I had a Ultrasonic Scan to confirm the gallstone, at indeed there are multiple stone seen, a big one and few ( 2 small stone I think) small one.

I asked them to transfer the case to hospital in Penang and few days later I was allowed to leave Klang Hospital and went back to Penang.

Today, the gallstones are still inside my gall-bladder and I was thinking of undergoing Laparoscopic cholecystectomy, removal of the bladder. Maybe it will be done in the next few weeks from now. Well, you just never knew what will hit you, it just came like a crazy train smashing you, right on your face. Hmm…there goes one gall-bladder that I will never see again (after the procedure), just thinking...when people said things like “I felt like a part of me is missing… I am so lonely..” kinda line…do they really felt that?

2. New Baby… InsyaAllah

Next year Insya Allah they will be a new member in my family, my wife is currently pregnant (9 weeks), 2nd child it is and we are really excited about this. Hopefully everything goes well InsyaAllah. I know Fareehah will be a good sister because she has the kindness and loveliness attitude to small children.

3. KDX400

Finally my engine arrived from the US. I am so happy, straight away dismantling the engine to see the inside of the engine. This engine, Kawasaki kdx400, a 2-STROKE dirt bike, is awesome! It has this huge bore (80mm) and even without the engine head you can feel it compressing hard while cranking it. I will convert it to a diesel bike. So lots of hard works are required here.

4. 6 MONTHS as a PhD Student

It is already 6 months since I registered as a student here in USM. Time flies… wishing I have more time, wish I worked harder for the last 6 months, I felt that my productivity could be better during that time. But the truth is, could I? Or would I? Should I? I know that as a scholarship holder it is my responsibility to study as best that I can, it is my duty. But since I am a student and have flexibility on my schedule (most of the time), I think it is a privilege that I should take to spend more time with my family as well. Of course I have to cover back any unfinished work late on night (where the productivity is less,in my case). But my goal is to finish my study on time with great results and also spend quality time with my family. God knows the all works waiting for me after I finished my study. Prof. H already planned lots of great work for our team, and I guess I will be involved in lots of the future work here in USM.

Penang Second Bridge

2009-07-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well, well,well... I am confuse about the status of this Penang second bridge. Is the project on? Off? I got so many answers from one same question. On but currently on-hold, on and progressing well, completely off, off and waiting for re-approval to get back on, on and off and on and off(this is my favourite one)...and on again. Well if anyone really know the status, please let me know okay.

I am really excited if the bridge project is on because it is not that far from my home now. Going to Penang will be so easy. I hope they will properly and strategically organize the development surrounding the second bridge. It will be a waste if they blew it off, nothing is worse than a new but unorganized development/town/city.

Tearjerker....well,not so

2009-07-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

"My mouth fell open

Hoping that the truth

Would not be true

Refuse the news

I'm feeling sick now

WTF am I supposed to do

Just lose and lose..."

It is easy for any Man Utd fan to feel sad and sentimentally disturbed during C.Ronaldo's official presentation ceremony as a Real Madrid player last few days. The amount of goals scored, the amount of assists made, the ground covered, the minutes played and many more of his contribution to the team simple will be remembered. Some will not forgive him to ditch Man Utd and move on but I think many others also understand how he felt about Real Madrid. Real Madrid is not the biggest club in the world nowadays but they will remain as the greatest club for most of the brazil,portugal and spain-based fan. Like us in Malaysia, Man Utd will always be the greatest club in the world. So I personally wish C.Ronaldo best of luck in the Primera Liga this year. I think he could do well there,but we'll see.

Meanwhile, Man Utd have made 3 additional player to their senior squad. Luis Antonio Valencia(Winger/mid from Ecuador), Micheal Owen(Striker from England) and Gabriel Obertan(Winger/Forward from France). There are no indication the new inclusion will stop there,and I think few more new faces with soon join Man Utd.

Post-life after C.Ronaldo, will not be that different. The goal,assist will come I sure. In fact, the re-building of the new team will be focus around Wayne Rooney,the true star of Man Utd. I am more worried about loosing Rooney rather than Ronaldo. Speed, goal, assist can be replace but loyalty and affection are not.So for me, loosing Ronaldo is not that bad, it will be great to see Man Utd play this new season with a few new faces. Good luck Ronaldo,we will not miss you.

This week...

2009-06-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

My wife, Ain ,went to Vietnam today with her HONDA team for business trip. She will be there for about 4days. I am a little bit worried that my daughter, Fareehah will not get used to it( I know Ain won't!...heh,sure rindu giler kat Fareehah tuh). We never leave her that long before. I am sure everything will just turn out to be okay eventually, but this is just a father concern about her daughter. Previously when I went for USM trip for few days, Ain had done great job dealing with the situation. I hope I can do it just fine too. I also think this is a good opportunities for me to spend more time with Fareehah. So what to do Fareehah? Will you teman abah tengok live football game around 2:00AM tonight? Do you want to follow abah go to sport equipment shop later today? Do you want to play tennis with abah tomorrow evening?Hey...how about a trip to abah's office? Lets hang out in the USM library afterwards...(although you can't enter the library because you didn't have USM smart card..). Hmm...so...many things to do ya.....wish me luck!!

Champion of the PERODUA ECO-CHALLENGE 2009

2009-06-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

USM won!Remember the Perodua Eco-Challenge 2009 entry that I wrote few months ago? Well guess what, my university won the challenge. We got two 1st prize, one in the engineering presentation category and another in the longest distance category for automatic transmission. I am very proud with our USM team. I think this is quite a big achievement to us. Next,Shell Eco-Marathon, and we need to work even more hard this time because it's an international level competition. About the Perodua Eco-Challenge,I hope Perodua will organize this competition annually because we surely want to defend our status as the champion, winning is not easy but defending what you have won is more difficult. So guys, more effort please!! We did proved that with a proper understanding of the concept,technology and systems, we can make improvement. On the race day we get 23.5km with 1 litter of gasoline. Pretty great huh!

Now, about the whole competition,my view point is this competition theme still lacks the ECO aspects. I know that their theme," by consuming less fuel, we are reducing the pollutions as well"but the point is I did not clearly saw that "we are going towards a better environment quality" kind of theme in these competition. What I see is " Buy Perodua cars because we have better fuel consumption compared to Proton".Perodua should use such opportunity to show to the world that they are not just thinking about profit through an "advertisement competition". They should involves more environmentally aspects of things. I didn't even see any "recycle garbage bin"(separated to glass, paper,can etc.) around on the race day. I did saw WWF booth, but that just it. It is more like a funfair with them doing the "hullahoop shoot the duck and you won a teddy bear" booth. Its a circus. I know that the race day should be a fun day for everyone, so are we having fun yet?Anyway, it is the 1st Perodua Eco-Challenge, so lets work together to improve the competitions. This could be a great annual competition and if they really make it right, it will only be in a matter of time before this competition becomes an international challenge,with many oversea universities wanting to participate in it,which will be great for our country.

So guys, really proud of you.What a great sets of people we got here in USM!

(pictures taken from Henry,thanks buddy!)

Number 3

2009-05-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

Three years already? Feels more like three days. How time flies so fast. In my early twenties, me and few of my friends, we sort of made a pack. Our pack was “We will stay single as long as we can to enjoy bachelorhood and only will start to think about marriage when we reached 30 years-old. Guess what…I think I was the first person to broke the pack when I was 26, and so did some of my other friends which decided that its time to move on to family life. So now, most of the so called “Single till I’m 30” club members are married and also already have at least 1 child. Well that’s life. You never know what will hit you. You can make plans, stick to the plans, but sometimes Allah provides you with a better one.
The truth is, I never really miss bachelorhood live. Yes, we have some fun back then, I always enjoy hanging out with my friends but nothing beat what I have now with my family. Waking up every morning besides the person you love, seeing your precious little princess still in deep sleep with her cute tiny fingers move a little bit when you kiss her cheek, coming back home from crazy day in office and your daughter/son running towards you with the her most anxious and happy face before grabbing and hugging your leg, hanging out in the living room with your wife after dinner… chit chatting, gossiping, and so many other great little details that you experience in this live as a family men that makes you wonder, am I destined to be this lucky? I know I am not the richest person or the most famous person in the world, but the happiness that I feel is so great and real, I don’t need to fantasized about anything, my life is spectacular and I am thankful for Allah for everything in my life.
Time move so fast, I will be 30 next year and guess what, Allah revised my early plan, I am 4 years ahead of my plan. Now, there will always be at least 3 extra years of happiness in my whole life, no matter when I die. Alhamdulillah.
Oh, by the way…happy third anniversary Honey! I love you!!!

MICROTRENDS

2009-04-07T03:05:00.000-07:00

Lately, I am blessed with time to read. As a student, my reading list goes like this:
1. Heat Exchangers: Design and Theory Sourcebook
2. Applied Thermal Design
3. Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals
4. Design of Machinery
5. Modeling of Combustion Systems
The list goes on….Many of you would find my reading list is boring, yes I understand the “geek-ness” of the list. So last few weeks, Ain and I went to Borders (by the way, do you know that there are no MPH here in Penang? I know they are selling books cheaper through their website, but what’s the thrill in there right! Makes me wanna open a decent Book Shop here you know, not the typical boring local-type book shop, but something with par with MPH or Borders…maybe one day I will..), and I get myself few “off the list” type of books. I already read one of them.
“MICROTRENDS: The small forces behind tomorrow’s big changes.” I must say this book gave me some insight about the importance of the small-small things around us. Written by Mark J. Penn, a guy used to work closely with US ex-Presidents. He is good with trend-spotting that could help politician plan their political issues. Microtrends are indeed important for politicians, designers, salesman or even educationist. This so-called microtrendist, are small group of people. But although there are only few of them, let say just about 1% from the community, if the trends somehow widen its scale globally, imagine 1% of world population. That is many. In this book, he wrote about 75 new microtrends that currently being spotted. I don’t remember all of them but some of them are:
1. Video-game player
Do you know what group of people is the most fast-growing video game player now?
Children?Teenage?Guess again…it’s the moms over 45!Think about all the new possibilities of video games out there. Spanking your children, throwing dishes to daddy are few of possible titles.
2. Love Cougar
Now days there are many young men who date women older(not 1 or 2 years old....waaay...much older) than them. So to all my single male friend, are you one of the statistics?If so, don't worry, it is the current trend.
3. Travelling Worker
Do you know that the average distance people travel to work is over 150km back and forth? Wow, where do you all live? For me, it’s like Parit Buntar-Sg Petani trip.
4. Left-hander
Do you know that left-handers numbers of people has doubled in the past 2 generations? Think about all left-hander friendly compatible items that we can create such as handphone, camera, computer keyboard etc?
Well, you read yourself to find the other 71 trends okay! This book is recommended to everyone who involved in business, politics or just like to spend time reading quality books.

(Rating : 7/10)

Stadium Story

2009-03-12T00:54:00.000-07:00

I moved to our new home last month. The house is fine, Ain do not need to travel too far to work now. But today I do not want to talk about house. I want to talk about what is near the house. My new house is in Simpang Ampat, and it is not that far from Stadium Batu Kawan, Seberang Perai,Penang.

When I think about it, it seems to me that my home, no matter if it is the current or the previous one, will usually located near to a football stadium. The first one, is Darul Aman Stadium in Alor Setar,Kedah. I was 11 when my family moved to Alor Setar. We lived in a nice neighbourhood. Not far away there is one big stadium where football matches will be held on weekends. Aaa.... the first taste of live football match. I still remember the first football match that I saw live at the stadium. It was FA Cup match between Kedah and Sabah. Sabah won 1-0. I still remember few girls kept screaming crazily during the match. That was the day that I got to know that women too have passion for football.

Then, in 1995 when my family moved to Penang(the island), my house was near to Bandaraya Stadium. During school holiday when I was around,I used to cycled to the stadium when Penang play in the weekend. The stadium was small and old. But the football matches never been bothered by it.It was always a hot game in a cold night.

The next one, Shah Alam Stadium.It was just a walking distance from where I used to live.The first one was in the year 1997 when my family moved to Shah Alam.The second one was in the year 2005, when I worked in Shah Alam, lived there alone at first and then got married and continued to live there.It was a nice neighbourhood as well, we (Ain and me)always like Shah Alam and probably will come back and live there one day, Insya Allah.

Strange enough, even when I went to overseas in 2007, I lived near a to football stadium as well. St. James Park, the home of Newcastle United FC in UK was just 15 minutes walk from my place.I managed to go to Man United game once, it was a precious memory especially because my honey and my daughter were there too.

Well I think this is an interesting trivia about my life. How many of you lived near to 5 different football stadiums in your lifetime?And I went to football matches held at all of those 5 stadiums.

Actually I never planned it to happen this way, although I am a football fan, house near to a stadium is not an item for my "Things/Places That Need to be Available in/near the House" checklist.It just happened and I only realise this now!

Perodua ECO-challenge

2009-02-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

My lab decided to participate in Perodua Eco-Challenge competition. It is a competition that require the participant to improve Perodua MyVi fuel consumption. We will race our improved version car in Sepang circuit in July this year, but the 1st one to arrive at the finishing line do not win the competition. The winner will be the car that run the longest on the given amount of fuel.Every participant need to gather a 20 people group. They will provide the group with one MyVi. So we can thrash things around, cut some parts etc., go creative on the engine,but the vehicle weight should not be less than 800kg. As usual, the vehicle decoration is 1/3 of the full marks(typical Malaysian automotive company that pay less attention to the vehicle actual performance...sigh!)

I think it is a good chance for us to involved with this kind of stuff, to level up our skill in automotive aspects.We only have like 3 months to complete the task for the competition.

We have few ideas already about the engine(How to reduce the weight), about the fuel injection system(instead of currently Port Fuel Injection type),how to reduce the rolling friction, how to increase aerodynamic aspects of the vehicles...etc.Let see if we are really up for it!

By the way, I think the title of the competition is miss-leading...it says ECO....but I do not see any environmental aspects being a key judgment point in the competition. They only care about the looks and the fuel economy(another typical thing in Malaysia automotive company).

WORK WORK WORK

2009-01-14T22:41:00.000-08:00

Last month, my colleagues and I and the Prof as well went to Bangkok for BAQ 2008 conference.
(I totally forgot to upload some of the nice photos when we where there,maybe later)
This month is a crunch up time. Deadline for abstract submission for JSAE conference 2009 is not that far away. I already completed mine by the way but Prof is still not satisfied with my English(which is not a surprised to anyone who read my blog-well if there is any..hehe)
I also already started to write some chapter for my thesis. Just to have somewhere to start with.
Also my Ricardo's WAVE model of my engine is not working...such a headache...maybe need help from Prof to work it out.My engine's fuel injector seal still not arrived yet.Argh!!!Lazy supplier...
And next month, we will have Drive Smart Campaign in Queensbay Mall where we will open a booth to show our current research to audience.Our Biodiesel Jaguh and E-bike will make an appearance there.I need to make a prediction model of my engine's Pressure-Crank Angle relationship.So...work..work..work...

REVOLUSI

2009-01-14T22:21:00.000-08:00

Now, many people globally are boycotting products that associated with israel. Many branded items such as hugo boss, ralph lauren, levis, or restaurant such as mcD and starbucks also come into that bracket. If you look in the Internet you will find many more brands that relates with israel. I myself was used to all of those brands. To name a few, my perfume was hugo boss, have few levis jeans, a levi’s leather jacket that worth RM1000, a lovely dkny dodger blue shirt and polo shoes. Even my boxers was a collection from tommy hilfiger. Looking back at it, it gave me a WOW! gesture. Practically, I had israel all over me. And all of it does not come cheap either. They are using my money to destroy Palestine. And then food…I was a mcD-monger. I loved starbucks coffee. Something, stuck me in the head. Why am I so attached to all of these israel associated products? Then I realized, yes, the quality. They produced kinda great stuff. This is because they are genius, creating good products and then commercialized it globally should be a piece of cake to them. Actually, this occasion(the thinking about all of this thing that related with israel) happened in last 2 year, somewhere around November 2007. I must confess that in the last 2 years, I have not managed to maximize my act on boycotting israel product. I shopped at mark and spencer, buy few other related products too. I am not happy about it. For the last few weeks I had been writing a lot about israel act of cruelty upon the Palestinian. But due to the unproper words used in the writings, I did not publish them in this blog. I might need to edit them here and there, but since I do not want to, all of them were kept in my laptop(ops…my honey laptop actually…her orange vaio….hmm…vaio’s is not israely ,but the processor,intel ,do associated with israel…need to do something about it)

Anyway, my point is I think now I am in the point where I feel I do not need all those quality israel products anymore. I probably could not avoid the products which I do not know its origin(if it has anything to do with israel), but I will try my best. Of course there will be something that could not be avoided, for example stop using technology that been created by the israel, but I will try my very best. So what if I do not eat mcD or drink starbucks anymore, hey I have Radix Coffee(mai sechawan!) In fact, my Honey does make decent homemade burger as well…so who need a certain red nose clown franchised burger anyway! Also, lately there are so many MLM products available. I know that their intention is easy money…but since their products are locals (most of them), why not? I rather make those MLMmonger rich than give my money to israel. There are many locals product out there besides those MLMs as well anyway. Yes, their quality is not top notch, their coffee do not have cream caramel, no frapuccino, and Honey’s burger still not juicy as Big Mac just yet( hehe……jangan mare) but I can live with it. People can change. Yes we have options. I want to change. I want to be a better person,at least better than I used to be.We do not need to live glamorously like actors in tvs to live our life(Which is short by the way), buying all those branded stuff, eat fancy cuisine at glamorous expensive restaurant or have fancy gadgets to play around when we are bored. I do not need all of those. Enough is enough! israel, I damned you. You have seen the last penny of mine.(I must stop here before this writing also end up in the laptop like the others I wrote)May Allah S.W.T blessed all the Palestinian and all people around the world as well.Amin

My Honey and My Fareehah

2008-12-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

My Fareehah....my Honey....lovely daughter and wife

My future....my present and past...my long long lost life

I used to wonder what love is all about

Is it sweeter than sugar or sour like vineger

Or is it sweet sour like plums or tastless like old gum

Does it smells nice like a peach in the garden of eden

Or is it minty like peppermint or nice just like cammomile

Well love is everything...sweet...sour....minty and more

You will experience it all and long it will last

People say that love comes and love will also go

Once it passed you by... you just have to let it go

Well this love will stick around....round and round

Like a circle of the Sun..like a strong rock on a ground

Love for my Honey and Fareehah are strong indeed

It will always stay there even times when it bleed

You both are my love...my life and my soul

I will love you forever....and this promise I will hold

What Color?

2008-12-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

Ain & I currently in the process to decide what color our new house in Simpang Ampat should be.

Since the original color theme of the house is basically pink(hehe...she think that I will have problems with this color,but you know what...I don't! Anything that looks good in the eye is fine by me) I suggested her that we stick to the same theme,but only adding color effects here and there, re-paint where necessary, and also by using a much higher quality paint so we do not need to do repaint job twice a year. So here in my room, since my lab friend still on his way to USM, I've done a little googling about paint. My brand of choice is Nippon Paint. See for your self here...(http://www.nipponpaint.com.my/main/index.php) You see, I consider myself as a non-artistic guy...I always sucks in arts...I do not recalled getting A's in Pendidikan Seni. The problems is when it comes to choosing color, I always can't decide which color should I choose. Okay, I can choose the theme..but when it comes to details....I failed. So I decides to let the pros do the thinking.

I googled some more and found this interesting website...(http://www.house-painting-info.com/painting_pros-choose_a_color_scheme.html). I plan to use this guys step-by-step guideline and it should....yes I think it will DEFINITELY should be more reliable than my way of choosing paint color. Our contractor is currently putting new tiles at newly cement parking area/backyards(yes....no more grass trimming...everything have been cemented/tiled), so this will give us some time to finalize the paint color. Hopefully everything will gonna be okay! Can't wait to move to our new house,hopefully sometimes around January 2008. To our friends, looking forward to invite you guys to our new house soon...Datang aa...jangan tak datang weh!!

NOT JUST YET

2008-10-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Few days ago I read an interesting article (well at least I think it is interesting). Someone wrote that today’s 2-stroke engines are coming to its end sooner rather that later. Well, who came blame the guy to make such statement? 2-stroke engine is not environmental friendly, which is one of the most important aspects in today’s technology. The fuel consumption is also not so good. In fact, the 2-stroke engine also needs extra care with the 2T oil, which makes it in a category of high maintenance vehicles. So why did Dugald Clerk work his ass off in 1880 to design such engine which have so many flaws? Well, the truth is 2-stoke engine have more that just flaws to offer. The engine is by far one of the most high power-to-weight ratio engines, (small size with big power generation) and also has a simple design which makes it cheaper to manufacture. This is why we need to do something about current status of 2-stroke engines. Yes, it has some flaws, but we must look at the bigger picture. We all know current alternative energies fuzz, hybrid vehicles etc. are the future of current technology, but are we ready to abandon one of the most interesting creations by human being? I say not just yet. Let’s do something about it. Let’s be creative .Let’s rebuild it. If you have a house that has given you so much and now the house is old and crooked, will you just abandon the house and buy new house? NO! You refurbish the house and give it new breathe, new life. Well it is the same with 2-stroke engine, and I will say it again…NOT JUST YET!

It`s electric!!!

2008-10-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting info,for those who are into alternative energies topic...

turn heat to electricity

I wonder what kind of usage this material will offer us soon. I think hybrid car have technologies which use waste heat(when we brake the car while driving,the kinetic energy of the car will change to heat..on our usual car we just throw away the heat,just like that) to recharge the hybrid car battery. Are both technologies the same? Might be useful to check on more on those tallium-doped lead telluride.

Where will we go after September?

2008-04-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

Last night Man Utd won their QF tie with AS Roma with 3-0 aggregate. They will meet Barcelona in the semi-final tie, 2 weeks from now.Well, enough about football for a moment.(although I highly doubt it that I can stop speaking about football)

I will finished my master study here in Newcastle this September and probably will going back to Malaysia for a while around the end of September. From there, the journey to the next stage will start. But first, I need to answer the question of " where should I pursue my PhD degree".

I have been searching/researching for the best supervisor suitable for my PhD course since my current supervisor here in Newcastle said he do not want to do research in my fields of interest back in October last year. After many many months of searching,I think my search is over now.My wife and I agreed that I should go to Okayama University in Japan and my Dean back in USM also agreed. I already send the application form and fee to the university.But it is not as easy as we hope because we have so many obstacles to past through first before I can start my PhD study there.

First, I need to enrolled as a Research Student Course for 6 months. This course will not give me any degree/certificate/acknowledgement when it was completed because it is a preparation course for me before I embark for PhD course. But , after I finished the 6 months course, I am still not guarantee a place for the PhD course there,because I need to sit for the PhD course entrance examination first. So, after passing the exam,then I will be guaranteed the place there.
It is not that straight forward.To add up more obstacles, my sponsors (USM and KPT) will not sponsor my first 6months research student course fee. They will only starts to sponsor when the PhD course starts.So for the first 6months there, I need to pay my admission and tuition fee and all the living cost there by my own expenses and back in Malaysia we will not have other income as well because my fellowship allowance only starts when my PhD course starts.First, we decide that I will travel to Japan alone for the first 6months so that the cost will be lesser,and my wife and daughter will stay in Malaysia for a while.But in my heart, I feel such a strong urge not to left my family in Malaysia.
Yes, in life sometimes we must sacrifice something to gain something better. When it comes to choose whether to sacrifice money, or sacrifice time with family...in the end we choose we will sacrifice money.So we will use all our savings to support our life for that 6months period.
Our hard-earn money that we safe for the last few years for our future. Well, this is future.

It is not easy,people will ask why would you want to trouble yourself with all those things?
There are many other paths that you can choose, so why choose the difficult one?
You can do your PhD in UK, because you are already there and you can easily apply and if accepted you can straight away go there and register as a PhD student with lesser fuss compared to a japan university.After all there might be other suitable supervisor for you if you search more carefully.You can even do it in Malaysia.Or you can choose other convenient way of pursuing your PhD,that do not require you to spend all your money or be apart from your family at all.

Well, that might be true. But in life, not everything that is easy will be the right answer. I have my own reason why I want to do my PhD in Okayama University under my prospective supervisor.We will choose what is the best for ourselves with Allah S.W.T guidance.Life is easy and happy sometimes,but other times it will also be very hard.We choose and "redha" with our choices, and work hard in making our chosen path as the best path for us.*****

When in Rome.....

2008-04-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

Like last year, once again Man Utd faced AS Roma in CL Quarter-final. But this time, they done better.Beating the Roman at their ground is not such an easy task. Honestly I think Man Utd player do not played that good, but the fact that Roma player had an off-day made it easier for Utd players.Let's hope they will do well for the 2nd leg next week.

Many people think that Man Utd will go through after their 2st leg triumph but in football matches,anything is possible.If Roma is having a good game while Utd is having a poor game,the final result could easily favourable to Roma.Just imagine, somehow VD Sar miss-kick Rio Ferdinand back-pass,or Wes Brown accidentally head the ball into his own net, and at the same time Rooney,Ronaldo and Tevez all miss-firing in front of Roma goal...enough said, the tie is still an open game.So Utd player should remember that, and I believe they do.

Another thing, I think Rooney is not at is best now. Don't get me wrong, I do think he did the job well, but not to his usual standard.We must remember Rooney is a player with fast pace, deadly shooting from outside the penalty area, have wonderful skills in chipping the ball way past the goalkeeper and also have a very good one-two passing sense. His work rate is 1st class, but he do seems like a little bit rusty when in front of the goal. Somehow he always looks like being too near to the goalkeeper when he shoot the ball. I think he is not as fast as he usually does during the past few years.But I am sure he will turn out to be one of the main player for this remaining 6 games of the EPL and also in the CL.

Also,recently I think Anderson is not having such a great game,well at least not in every game. He always miss-kick the ball when in front of goal.He need loads of shooting practice.But at the same time fair to say that his passing accuracy seems like improving.His strength of holding the ball seems consistent.But lately he rarely burst to the front from deep like he usually do.I wonder if the gaffer do not permit him to do that,but I don't see any reason why he should.

Well, I hope he will improve next year,especially with the shooting because if he will be replacing Scholes,he sure need to level up his shooting accuracy because with Scholes, we always get few spectacular goals every season and we also hope Anderson could provide some in the future, if not now.

So bring it on 2nd leg...(and by the way,Vidic will be out for at least 3 weeks, which is not a good news at all)

Keane...Keano....Roy Keane

2007-12-20T19:18:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to read this book since it was first published in year 2002,and only now...5 years after that,I get a chance to read it and I discovered that it was brilliantly written by him. "KEANE"...an autobiography written by ex Manchester United captain Roy Keane.This book is a must for all man utd fan out there.Very honest and frankly written but maybe not very suitable for under age due to some explicit words being used,but not that vulgar that we must kept this book locked inside a secret chamber or something.

Contrary to his high profile football career,Roy Keane is a late starter in the English Premier League scene,well not to his fault,somehow back then clubs hesitated to sign him in his early age due to his small physical figure. He only sign with a major club,Nottingham Forest in his last teenage years.But from that point he never really look back anymore.So like we all know, after that Sir Alex bought him for a British record signing back then and since then he became a cult hero for the red devils.This book tells a lot about his involvement in the Republic Ireland national team as well.Do you all remember when Roy Keane almost walk out from the Irish team during world cup?This book tells you all about it.Remember Alfie Haaland?Manchester City player which injured Keano and somehow after he recovered,he "accidentally" injured Haaland back during a game a year after that...this book revealed all,which I think Keane had been banned for few games and few thousand pound due to the confession of the intentional act on Haaland.

Keano...either you hate him so much or you just love him...he admit that he is a hot headed guy but reading this book,the are few occasions that we can blame him when he was in a fight or something.It is like somehow he was always surrounded by some moron that will pick a fight with him.Well maybe he can easily make people piss or something.I remember somewhere in the book where he involved in a pub fight with an Irish guy that slam his hometown football team,well even I would react like that if my hometown was insulted.I think that he is just an honest and a very frank guy,well...too frank sometimes maybe.Obviously he respect Sir Alex very much,from this book he always mentioned how grateful he was when given chance to play under Sir Alex.Even though his man utd career ended not in a way that we expected,we knew that he is in love with the red devils....aa Keano...its a pity you didn't end your career at the old trafford....I don't remember if Man utd did arranged any testimonial game for him...did they?Well...wish you good luck with Sunderland....maybe who knows you will be the next gaffer at the old trafford...time will tell.

(rating : 8/10)

That boy Anderson

2007-12-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

"That boy Ronaldo..." is a chant song created by Manchester United fans for Cristiano Ronaldo and whenever he strolled pass defenders or do some step over, the fan at the stadium will sing the song to lift up his spirit.
Well my Man Utd fan friends...I think its time for us to write song for Anderson!
That boy is special.Only 19, yet last week he commandingly run the show at Anfield like he owns the place.What a terrific player.I think Man Utd had bought one gifted football player.
Paul Scholes will not be getting his place in the center of the midfield straight away after his injury,I think.Well at least if Anderson maintained his current form.
Even though Anderson is playing good football now, somehow I sense that there will be more to come from him in this very near future. I think maybe now the coaching staff somehow restricted him from going forward too much and currently building up his defencing skill. From what I saw during his time at Porto FC,he is more and out and out forward,always running to the defence and have an eye on the goal.But currently I think he restricted his attacking game, maybe due to the coaching staff advices or something.But last week at Anfield,we can see how he did the running from the center towards the Liverpool goal,only for Gerrard to nastily tackling him down.His run was magnificent and I believe it was only mere glimpse of his attacking ability.Surely more to come from this boy,Anderson.

Fuel cells ...no more engine?

2007-12-12T04:40:00.000-08:00

Found this book at the library. Fuel cells is not actually my topic of interest as I am trying to narrow my view more to the classical internal combustion engine type of problems/solution. Yet I found quite tempted to read this book and I had a go with it. After that, I am very impressed with the author/editor of the book, Prof. Rob Thring from Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering Department at Loughborough University, UK. (I might have ended up there actually, I had chance to join this university but I decided to go to Newcastle University)The writing is good and very easily understandable for a person like me, a guy who know nothing about fuel cells.
This book tells you about types of fuel cells, such as alkaline fuel cell, solid oxide fuel cell and direct methanol fuel cells. Fuel sources such as hydrogen also were discussed. This book also tells you on the concept of how to store the hydrogen inside the vehicle. Simulation of fuel cell vehicle was also discussed.
I also noticed that this book was first published in year 2004, so by now probably all the technology mentioned in the book might probably have some updated version. But even so, I am very excited about one particular thing mentioned in the book. It is about an invention by General Motors(GM), where the demonstrated a fuel cell vehicle known as Hy-Wire which reflects the idea of reinventing the automobile to take the advantage of a fuel cell power plant’s characteristics. So I looked up for it and found that Hy-Wire is quite a cool invention. The car operates by hydrogen fuel cell and do not have an internal combustion engine and hydraulics system. All are control by a controller. You can check this site for more information about the car http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hy-wire.htm or http://archive.cardesignnews.com/autoshows/2002/paris/preview/gm-hywire/
The car invented in year 2002, so imagine by now the technology must be more highly crafted.
Well, just want to say that this book is quite enjoyable to read and very informative if you want to know about fuel cells. [Rating: (9/10)]

Gazza - His story

2007-12-05T12:21:00.000-08:00

Do you guys remember Gazza?He used to be a football super star in the English Premier League.He had quite a carrier as a footballer and I think now he is into management of one of the club in the lower league.I think now he is already near to 40 years old.
When I bought his biography book "Gazza-My Story", I don't really intend to read it immediately because I am not such a big fan of him.But one night, I just start to read it and somehow I find myself really enjoy reading the book.
Gazza or his real name Paul Gascoigne was born in Newcastle,UK. Since his young age football is his life.In fact, it is the only thing that he likes and that is the thing that he want to do for the rest of his life.
In the book, he mentioned lots of places in Newcastle that I am familiar with.Kinda cool to think that I have been to the place that he had been.
For your information,Gazza has always being the star of any football team that he has ever joined.And this was back dated way back since his first involvement in a junior club level.
Even though people from his club always joked about he was too fat to be a footballer, he never gave up in being a footballer.
He make his debut for his hometown team Newcastle United FC when he was 17.He do not take that long in making headline on the press.He also involved with England U21 team.
He wass so good during his day at Newcastle United that even Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson approached him.But to his silliness he rejected the offer and somehow decided to accept offer from Tottenham Hotspurs FC instead.
Well I have to agreed with Sir Alex,Gazza made a bad choice.If he joined Manchester United instead,I do believe he would be a better footballer because Sir Alex is so good with managing young footballer.
Gazza had his ups and down at Spurs,winning one FA Cup medal and broke his leg in that FA Cup final.
During this time,Lazio FC from Italy swoop in and bring him to Serie A.
His involvement in the England senior squad is quite memorable. I do remember his "crying face" when England went out from The 1990 World Cup semi final lost to West Germany. After that baby face cry,somehow Gazza was saluted like a war hero by his fellow countryman. Maybe it shows his patriotism.
In Serie A, he did not play much due to injury.His hot headed attitude did not help the situation to be better as well.Then thing started to get wrong very much for him.Reading the book, I found that Gazza is a spontaneous kind of guy and obviously a little bit crazy minded guy.(A happy go lucky should be more appropriate I guess).He had a spell with Middlesbrough,Glasgow Rangers, Everton and he even had a stint at a Chinese football club.
I believe he did not finished his carrier on high.If only he accepted the offer from Man Utd!!
It will be a major turning point in his carrier,I believe.
Well,overall I enjoyed reading the book and actually it is fun to learn about other people's life.
This reading is a must for every Gazza fan out there.(rating : 7 / 10)

Return of The Blogger(Not Jedi)

2007-12-04T16:57:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since I last wrote here. Actually there are so much things going on in my life lately. It’s just that I don’t feel like sharing it in a blog. You can call it my private emotion…hehe...But that is just how I feel. Well, obviously you can also call it inconsistency, laziness, or should I say that my blogging rhythm has been off tuned by my current life in Newcastle UK. (More excuse coming up….hehe)
So here I am, in school again. Going to lecture hall, tutorial classes and going anywhere within the university areas without leaving my backpack (school bag) behind.
My course here is okay I guess, not too dull, not to hyper extreme, not to difficult and yet not too easy. I have friends all over the world, from Russia, Greece, India, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, China, Africa, and obviously from UK. They are a bunch of nice guys. I am quite happy to get to know those guys. If you want to know about how my family are doing here, well I can tell you we are doing quite fine here. (You can check my honey’s blog mummyvaio@blogspot.com for more details)
But one thing I tell you, if you think that if you are in England and you can always go to the football stadium for EPL game, well you wrong man. First, you have to fight for the tickets because it’s like there are 50,000 tickets available and there are like I don’t know…millions (obviously this figure is questionable…) of peoples who want to buy the ticket. Second, if you get the chance to buy the ticket, you have to pay it for good money (around GBP20 to 30) and third, it is always raining here.Man...I hate the weather here. So at the end, you think…” Hey, instead of going to the stadium, why not I just lay back on my sofa in my living room and watch the game from the SKY SPORT CHANNEL…hehe...Not such a football die hard fan I guess.
But I planned to go and watch EPL game at least once this year…wish me luck guys!
And also wish me luck updating this blog regularly…although I think nobody is actually reading it though...Hehe...

My daughter's celebrity look alikes

2007-08-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.myheritage.com

Malaysia: Still a Safe Place?

2007-06-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

I hate when people say that Malaysia is a safe place to live. It is just not so true enough. It make us feel safe, when the actual situation is not that safe and sound. The statement make us feel that we do not need to do anything to current situation. It is a lame understatement. It make us feel dumb. It brainwashed our mind.
Yesterday newspaper:A couple was killed inside their own house.They only discover the body after 3 days.
Few days ago newspaper: A couple was robbed. The girlfriend was gang-raped, and the boyfriend was forced to witness it.( Johor)
Day after day we found such newsclips. Not a very safe place to live does it now? Damn all those killer, all those rapist.Currently for the killer, if found guilty for 1st degree murder.. it will be death penalty...justice is done.Now...for a rapist...there are no such clause...1st degree rape.... do we need to rape the rapist back to done justice? Sound a little wierd isn't it.
I suggest we look at a different angle.Now, if a person commit a traffic wrong doing, at a higher level...we will ban this person licence...for some heavy cases we ban it for life...so he couldn't drive anymore...same goes so cases such as bad contractor...bad doctor...bad lawyer. Now for a rapist...the rapist actually mis-used his "manhood"...so why not make his "manhood" unused.... make it to be incapable of using it...give the rapist "manhood" a death penalty so that he will not used it wrongly anymore. Maybe sound cruel, but hey....we only live once...the rapist should think about the victim future before doing the crime. But I am affraid by doing so...all these rapist will end up killing the victims...because they do not want the victim to report it.
We should think more about this. We can't just simply do the law by our angered mind. It will make the situation worst,but I am very sad about our current situation. Every day there will be such cases here.
Where all the good people go?Where all the heroes go?Who will safe us? In Allah very believe. Pray to Allah every second...for our family and country to be a more safer place to live..amin.

Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia?

2007-06-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Firstly, this is not a racist taught. It is an expression of how I love the origin of my self, my root, my race.This is only my free speech and I believe that I am entitled for such luxury.
I guess many of us aware that recently our ministry department declared that Bahasa Melayu is no longer Bahasa Melayu. It has been changed(yup...again..) to Bahasa Malaysia. This is for the unity purpose, so that as a Malaysia Nation, we are united with the Malaysian Language as our National Language....yet the first thing that crossed my tiny little mind is...how long this " Bahasa Malaysia" terminology will last this time?
Previously we already used thus terminology but it do not last. It is just the same with the usage of " Bahasa Baku" where we pronounce the word exactly as how it is spell.( which remind me of currently in ESPN channel they are telecasting Spelling Bee Competition...why on earth a spelling competition squeezed into ESPN?) It seems like we just keep changing this language related topic every now and then. This unsteady situation, does is resemble our true skin, our actual way of thinking? We are not firm about it. I don't see Chinese Government changing Mandarin, or Cantonese to Chinese Language. I do not see English Language been changed to "International Language" considering the whole world population used it as a language.
My point of view, Language expressed the something. It shows our root. To us Malay Race, what is left for us now? Does Malay has its own language now? If Chinese has their language, Indian has Tamil, even a minor race of Iban or Dayak Race has their own language. But no, now Malay do not has our own language as we used a standard language of "Bahasa Malaysia". It is so sad to think about it, we do not even have our own language anymore. I wonder, what if...what if Mandarin or Tamil is a national language. Do we changed them to Malaysian Language?Poor poor Malay, we don not even have our own language anymore. So now is the language? Whats next? Why not change Malay race to Malayisan Race.
"Bahasa melambangkan Bangsa"....I guess now Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka need to make some changes there...because here in malaysia..."Bahasa melambangkan Bangsa...kecuali untuk MELAYU".
Anyway, I wonder if all, every single person of Malaysian citizen can speak Malay Language soundly...fluently. I highly doubt it.

One other thing, does unity by language actually unite us as a nation? I see Indonesia, as a big country, all people there using Indonesia Language as a national language, yet we hear they always living in fear there. Seems like no unity to me. Who said that using one language which the terminology of the language represent the whole nation as a one country is one element for unity? Is it still relevant in today's life? Do we expect other race in Malaysia will change to be more patriotism after this? Does usage of Malaysia Language will be expand more? How to ensure Malaysia Language will be use by all Malaysia citizen in their daily life? It will be very weird not to use it on daily basis, as it is a national language. It is not like we have other remote location to live.We are here everyday. Somebody out there..please give me all these questions 's answer.

I wonder how long this will stand...we just wait and see...

United new boyz!

2007-06-14T03:41:00.000-07:00

After getting Owen Hargreaves, Manchester United make double swoop in form of Luis Nani and Oliviera Anderson, both are Portugal League based player.
Nani was a Sporting Lisborn wide man. At 20, he is already a full international player.
Anderson, 19, was a Porto FC player and can play either wide, midfield or even forward just behind the top striker.
These 2 new signings shows Sir Alex Ferguson still has ambition to develop Manchester United as a top squad with talented young guns. However, the 2 new boys is still at tender age and we should not expect any high hopes from them. They are more likely a long term replacement for Paul Scholes and Ryann Giggs. After watching Nani performed at the Under 21 European Tournament with Portugal, I think we must give him couple of years before really his true potential at the English Premier League. He will need time to adapt the tough tackling league, and considering his lightweight body, he must fully use his dribbling and fast feed to get the better of players like John Terry, Jamie Carragher or even Kolou Toure.
Meanwhile, Anderson is a Brazilian who some claim as the next Ronaldinho. I hope this is going to be true. Nothing much are proven yet from him, his performance for Porto was good but due to a horrific injury, the action has been lessen back then. But from some of the mach with Porto, we can see that he has potential. He should be good enough for EPL, strong figure, fast feet, good passer and also skill full with the ball. But he need to adapt himself first as we previously see how Brazilian always failed to impressed in EPL.( remember a guy call Kleberson? Or remember Veron?　Well he is an Argentinean though)
Anyway, I am looking forward how Sir Alex will use the 2 new boys. Just imagine Nani on the left, Ronaldo on the right, Anderson at the middle and Rooney just behind the top striker. With the likes of support, I think I myself can score about 10goals a year. Just throw me in as a striker and I think I can get some goal with that kind of player around me.
We will see how it will goes. Can’t wait for the EPL opening season…huhu.

Man Utd got Hargreaves

2007-05-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

The EPL season for 2006/07 just ended with my beloved team Manchester United winning the league title. Also united lost in the FA cup final to Chelsea and could not stop AC Milan from whipping them at San Siro, this year surely is one of the best season for the Red Devils.
So all now are focusing on how all team will strengthen their squad next year. Man Utd made a fast move on Owen Hargreaves. Even though the reportedly 17million pound move still not yet been finalized, it seems impossible for the deal to be broke down.
With Paul Scholes having a good season this year, Micheal Carrick also had a good season, Darren Flecther seems decent, Chris Eagle trying to push for the first team spot, it seems that adding Hargreaves in the team will create more competition to the 2 center midfield slot. But united do not have any player with the same type of Hargreaves. He is a midfield dynamo, a decent passer and also can read the game well.
His important roll for united next year is to be a holding center midfielder , winning the ball from opponent. Kinda have a similar role as Gennaro Gattusso of AC Milan and Claude Makalele of Chelsea or Momo Sissokko of Liverpool. Many people doubt that Hargreaves will make big impact next year. Some say he is overrated as well. Playing a great world cup tournament do not make you a big player until you proved yourself week in and week out in the league game. But you can’t deny that a player who can play as a right back and also a midfield and playing regularly at a club like Bayern Munich is not good enough. Throughout the years, I think that Hargreaves has improved. He is no longer a no nonsense player with a flying tackle all over the pitch. He has more good vision of the game now. Control the ball nicely, passing is also decent, could dribble as well and also very good at tackling. This is the element which are lacking at united now, a player who can tackle well. Carrick done great this year, but adding Hargreaves to the team will only make united with more flavor at the center midfield. Through times people will see that united indeed has spend a well 17million pound on Owen Hargreaves.

Winning the title and the factors

2007-05-30T03:07:00.000-07:00

Another season ended in the English Premier League, with my favorite team Manchester United clinched their 16th league title, only 2 short from all time winner Liverpool FC with 18 league titles.
I must say even though the Red Devils won the title, it seems to me that actually there are contribution factors that helps united won the league. I am not saying the united not done well enough this year, I just think that if all the contribution factors do not exist, the ending of this year league results might be slightly different.
First, it can be said that actually besides Man Utd and Chelsea, other teams do not performed well this year. Liverpool had problem with consistency in the domestic league and Arsenal seems lost without their captain Thiery Henry which missed most of the league games through long term injury. Other teams seems just like trying to push for a place in the UEFA cup next year, or some just fighting to survive in the premiere league. With all these problem had their difficulties, Man Utd can steadily maintained their lead.
Secondly, Chelsea factors. Chelsea was unfortunate this year. They lost their magnificent goalkeeper Petr Cech during season start through head injury. They also lost their second goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini through injury as well. So they only have Huelerio to guard their goal post. This guys, well not that he is not good, but he is nowhere near Cech caliber. Chelsea also had problems at their center of defence, lack of back up. When John Terry and Ricardo Calvahlio got injured, Chelsea need to use Micheal Essien to cover that area. Essien is a good all rounder player, but lets face the fact that he is not a natural center half. This is where Jose Mourinho felt selling Robert Huth and Willy Gallas was in fact was a mistake. With all these inconsistency in the back line, Chelsea had difficulties during the starting point of the league, which it turns to be a favors for the Red Devils.
But anyway, Man Utd do play well this year. Christiano Ronaldo had a good season, Wayne Rooney also had a good season. Scholes and Giggsy also seems to find their old touch. Edwin Van Der Sar play superbly all season. Patrice Evra was a revolution at he left back. Darren Flecther seems maturing to be the potential midfielder that many had predicted he to be one day and last but not least, the fierce less, the wonderful header , the fast and furious Nemanja Vidic. He is my Man Utd player of the year, despite all the attention are turning to the magnificent Christiano Ronaldo.
We hope that Man Utd will be champion again for next year. Man Utd For Life!

My car for sale!!!!!

2007-05-30T02:45:00.000-07:00

Since I will be leaving Malaysia for about 4 years from this September, I am considering selling my car. Okay..for those who is interested,you can call me...

Kinda sad you know...when thinking about selling my beloved car..

but like old saying...."..if you love me..set me free..."

sure there will be someone out there who will appreciate this car like I do...

Sayonara CF4....till we meet again....

Manchester United FC blog's marathon !

2007-05-27T03:11:00.000-07:00

Hi all!Hehe..I might be talking to myself actually...cause I dunno if there is anybody actually reading this blog besides my luvly wife..but somehow my friend Azida did found this blog...so maybe I am not talking to myself after all...so spread the news dude to all

man-kind ...ops,sorry for the masculinity choice of words...spread it to all human-kind okay!

Since after completing my courses at USM, I didn't do any reading about my pre-research study.

But I am in a mood for football talking...planet soccer...football chat...call it what ever you want.

Let's talk about a very specific club...Manchester United Football Club....well even though I am proudly a Malay guy with no such bloodline/connection with any source of the Manchurian football club...but I start supporting MU FC way back since my early ages...as far as I can remember...I knew MU FC first before I knew about football game itself.

Well you see...back in 1986..my eldest brother was studying in UK..so the first time he came back to Malaysia for holiday, he bought me one football kit...a children football jersey of the great MU FC...at that moment I didn't really care about football. But after getting that jersey...it changed my life forever..since than football is my game and MU is my team....

People might think.."hey..this dude is a typical malay guy...cheering up for MU FC...because starting from the mid 90's MU started to be the best club in UK"..well I tell to all who think like that..I am not that kind of guy...I start to support MU way before they are call the champion...

You see..in the mid 80's...it was Liverpool FC who dominated English football...MU is more to a moderate...mid-table in the league kinda club...so I like to think myself as a pure MU FC fan...

I supported them not because they are a champion..not because there used to be a dude name Beckham played for the club...it is just purely FATE...me, myself and mu..hehehe....

So..I would like to take this opportunity to congratulated MU FC for becoming the EPL champion for this year...champion again dude!

As for that..the next couple of my post or more ,will be related to MU FC...

The football season is closed...yet my hunger for football is still not over...oh my god!

Palm oil as a biofuel source : A disaster?

2007-05-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

We are now in an era where our fossil fuel is getting lesser and lesser.A solution...biofuel...where we can recreated it through usage of biomass source or from vegetable of plant source.
As our country Malaysia,also have a part in contributing in these field through our palm oil source as one of a biofuel source alternative.
Palm oil was hailed as one of the biofuel source which could be a solution in creating an environment friendly biofuel energy.But not the story is different, we heard many complaints and research results(mainly came from the western country's researchers) that by using palm oil as one of the biofuel source,we are actually threatening the forest and environment ecology.
They said that we might threaten orang utan habitats and ecology system.Whereas if in Indonesia,the Sumatera tiger existent also might be in jeopardy.
Well I am not a researcher,well not yet at least.Neither nor a animal habitat expert as well. But I think...I think...those animal do not actually live in a palm tree estate.How come they think by using palm oil as a biofuel source we actually threatening those animal existent?
They should actually come to Malaysia or Indonesia to see the orang utan and the sumatera tiger by themselves.
If they are suggesting that we are bulldozing the forest to plant more palm tree...well that point I don't know.The government surely will wisely plan this kind of thing to ensure those animal will not be in danger.
What I can say is all this kind of negative point only suggesting that those critics were more kind of a jealousy point of view.This is because other western country also are producing biofuel source from other kind of vegetables or plant.For example in US and Brazil,they are using soybeans as a biofuel source.Whereas in France and Italy ,they are using sunflower oil.
I think Malaysia and Indonesia scientist and researchers must do more and more research deeply into palm oil potential as a biofuel source.Lets try convincing the world that we have a solution for the energy crisis matter.We can be a nation of energy and power in the future by monopolising this palm oil business.
Lets take this opportunity to progress our economy growth.Let others bit their teeth's when we show the world that palm oil do not only have potential,it also has a future.
I am surely to look more into this matter when I complete my PhD as I believe with palm oil development,Malaysia could be a better country.

Biofuel : An Introduction

2007-05-09T05:28:00.000-07:00

Biofuel is an energy source that comes from waste, vegetable or plant. It is one of an alternative solution for currently used petroleum. Biofuel shows its potential as a future solution for current energy resource crisis because it can be reproduced. Though the cost of producing biofuel is efficient enough or not is still in debate among scholars and academician but it is surely seen as on of the best alternative to us.
We see biofuel created from palm oil, corn or other plant. Somehow it actually resembles an image of a “Green Product” because it came from such sources. However research do show that combustion from biofuel actually emit higher NOx quantity when comparing with the combustion of petroleum. These phenomena cannot be taken lightly as when we are trying to find solution to our energy resource crisis, we are creating another issue for our environment to handle with. Do we need this kind of problem? Surely the answer is no. We cannot sacrifice mother earth in order to satisfy human greediness of energy sources. But as we know, petroleum is frighteningly decreasing and eventually will totally be none for us to dig in the near future. As for this, it looks most likely that alternatives are needed and biofuel could give us that. What we need to do is we need to eliminate the weakness of biofuel before we widely commercialized its usage world widely.
To find the solution for its weakness,a thorough researches are needed.But first a literature review need to be done so we can see it as a large picture.
Do not also forget that any solution found will be evaluated thoroughly.We need to see from the RETURN OF INVESTMENT point of view as well.
But as I said,thorough literature review are needed here before any research design is prepared.

Research oh research

2007-05-08T05:43:00.000-07:00

I am planning to pursue my study next September at Newcastle University,UK.Well hello the geordies!People call newcsatle people the geordie...why...don't ask me...have no idea bout it.I heard that the geordies are very friendly.
So I will do MSc in Mechanical Engineering.The first 9 months will probably full with classes, assignments and exams.The next 3 months is where I need to complete a research and a dissertation.
As currently I am at University Science Malaysia attending Research Methodology Course, I already started to think about the research that I will be doing in this near future.I will probably focusing my research broadly at first(during MSc) and will probably make it more specific during my PhD.(upon completing my MSc successfully)
Gosh...the air condition of this CC is conducing me to sleep..hehe.OK back to the research thing, I heard that during PhD,people usually take about 1 and a half year to only making a research proposal.I remember during my undergraduate days(aaa....quite a fond memories),I took about a week or something to come out with the proposal...so....wow.....imagine how I feel when I heard that it took that much of time to complete a research proposal for PhD.
Lecturer here also reminded all the course attendees that doing PhD is not a fun thing or something that is enjoyable.I do believes so.How much do lo like to research for fun?If it is a science camp or 2 hours a week lab classes...maybe we could find it fun(although I think most of people hates lab class...me...its a mix feeling)The lecturer also said many sacrifice are needed,and your love ones need to understand your situation.....well that point I don't worry too much as I believe my loves one do understand my choice.Luv you honey!!
But as I already set my mind...choosing lecturer as my destined profession....I will face them all...one by one...day by day....with Allah willing and blessing and supports from my love ones,I do believe I can do it.
So BRING IN ON!!!....

TheBookShop Opening Day

2007-05-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

Its 10:05 PM...I am still at Starbucks at Queensbay Mall,Penang...and with courtesy of Starbucks hot spot free Internet access , I am writing these words on my so-called blog...well I am not a blog writer after all...but currently I am attending courses at USM Penang and one of the facilitator did well convincing me that writing blogs does improve one writing ability.So please mind the grammar,the spelling,the nonsense and other wierd and troubling stuff that you might and will discover in my blog because this is the space for me to actually burst all my thoughts without any filter in my head....but I'll try to mind my language though....
So...what are today Special at TheBookShop?Well...if some of you wondering why my blog is called that way...it is because apparrently creating blog does need blog title to start with....
Hey!....is this what we call democracy?So what if I don't want my blog to have title....Well if you think about the word....democracy actually came from greek word ...demo + cratos ...hmm.....so much for democracy in blogging huh!Well enuff about these nonesense.
Well back to why name blog is call The Book Shop.It is actually because the starbucks that I in right now actually is inside a book shop,THE BORDERS.Come to think of it,now I am practically inside a book shop.So thats how the name came out from.
Well guys...I'm off to the 24hours Mamak Stall(if I can fine any nearby..)...EPL game Chelsea vs Arsenal kick-off probably just around the clock.....hope the Gunners will beat the hell of Chelsea...so my Man Utd will be Chanpions again!!!!hahaha......
By the way...I dedicated this blog to my wife Ain..and our princess Fareehah...sleep well my Queen and Princess........Good Nite!

Raja Shariman