Sandy

My Sociology professor said something interesting in class today.

While we all, in state college, feel sorry for the people near the east coast who were hit bad by Hurricane Sandy, we will still have a guilty yearning for  the same (well, maybe not as bad) kind of weather to hit Penn State.

Maybe it's the experience of a hurricane, or maybe we're just human and are too lazy to go to classes. It's probably the latter.

But hopefully Sandy will pass over soon so life for those affected by her can return back to normal.

Condolences to those who lost loves ones in the storm.

The Most Beautiful Song

The Takbir Raya makes me miss Malaysia the most.

It reminds me of raya morning, getting up early and having (the most delicious) breakfast of nasi impit and kuah kacang at kampung before going to the mosque for prayer.

It reminds me of Atuk Rainbow and Wan, and Atuk Dollah and Opah, whose faces shine - even early in the morning - as they are in the company of the whole family.

It reminds me of duit raya and visiting relatives, even though most of the time I can't remember their names.

It reminds me of wooden floorboards, wonky electric fans, cool breezes through the windows, and cigarette smoke in the kitchen.

My kampung in Kuala Pilah :)

And, most importantly, it reminds of how proud I am to be Muslim, and Malaysian.

The combination is beautiful. In Islam you have the beauty of religion and Allah, who you know is watching you, and taking care of you. You have the beauty of jemaah and korban which brings people together to pray and do good deeds. There's also the beauty of the fasting month of Ramadhan, that makes Eid'ul Fitr even more special.

In being Malaysian you have the culture of kampung and staying close to your relatives, as well as caring for strangers too. You get duit raya and delicious Malaysian food, such as Rendang and Ketupat. You get the company of people of other races and religions, who respect your faith and celebrates with you, making the occasion even more colorful and joyful. And you also get the most beautiful Takbir Raya in the world.

The Takbir Raya here is simpler, with more emphasis on meaning (which is the most important part). But Allah loves beauty and the Malaysian Takbir Raya certainly is gorgeous to the ears.

Most of my memories and nostalgia are from Aidil Fitr, but Aidil Adha is just as special. I miss Malaysia so much now.

Happy Eid'ul Adha everyone.

May Allah bless all of you.

Federalist Revival

During PSU Seminar class, I toured around the great Old Main building of Penn State. I even had a chance to go up the bell tower, which was an amazing experience (partly thanks to the great weather). Note the bell tower is only opened during the President's open houses, so I was lucky to go up there outside of the event.

Esteemed Architect Charles Z. Klauder designed the building in the Federalist Revival style, and it is one of the two greatest buildings he has ever designed, the other being the Cathedral Of Learning in Pittsburgh. 

Inside, there are the famous frescos by Henry Varnum Poor that paid tribute to Penn State's original status as a Land Grant University.

Starring Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

Up the bell tower!

Not that high, but a great view nonetheless

Amazon Fever #2

Emerald Collection By Element - Chocolate Bowery Mids

 $30 and worth every penny. Bought from 6pm.com

Autumn's Kiss

With the crisp taste of autumn on our lips,

And the smell of tree bark in the air,

We lay still on the earth, our minds adrift,

Under the rays that lined your hair.

The forest is burning up above us,

Red and yellow leaves flaring down from the skies,
But I don't look up at those bare branches,
As I can't stop looking into your eyes.

Forgive me for speaking from my heart,

I am only human like the rest of us fools,

My soul is restless and tired and lonely,

And the only happiness it can find is you.

But you left me a long time ago, you did,

As God loved you more than I ever could,

And when you went, Autumn's kiss was gone too,

Leaving behind just a pile of dead leaves and wood.

Can I ever rediscover the magic of Fall?

That same old spark of beauty and love?

I guess that is for me to find out for once and for all,

As I stand here alone, under those flames up above.

Falling red and yellow leaves line my feet,

As I start to feel Autumn's kiss on my cheek.

note from the author:

Don't judge the poem too hard, I wrote it on a whim

Sorcery On Ice

I suck at ice skating. A trip to the rink for me is spending an hour stuck on the side, trying to get my balance. I just can't do it.

And I found out that there's something worse than falling and banging your head, and that's getting stuck on the other side of the rink when there's a call to clear the ice. Everybody will be waiting for you, staring strangely while crawl slowly and awkwardly around the side. Then the employees come and help, which makes it even more awkward as they drag you like a sack o' potatoes across the ice.

Oh well, I'll just take pictures then :)

Note: I overused filters because the lighting was terrible. And because I used a camera phone, not a DSLR. Gimme a break, I had to make the pictures nice somehow.

Cheese Cake for the soul

Another night, another session of retail therapy on iTunes. I'd already spent more than budgeted, but when I saw this I threw any financial consciousness out of the window and into the rain where it can die or be found some other time (when I realize I'm practically broke).

Anybody else feel their inner child screaming?

It's Pokemon and classical music. Combined. That's like combining cheese and cake. Nobody dares try it at first, but when they do, it just makes perfect sense. 

To get to the point, this album is brilliant. It's not simply a transposed 8-bit soundtrack; every theme is rearranged and given so much character. Skotein took something that already was already perfect (for the technology in the 90's) and made it even more amazing. Every track is well thought out and professionally recorded, making it worth every single damn penny.

But the real value is in the nostalgia.

I just realized that Professor oak looks damn scary

I remember when I was greeted by the above screen for the first time. I bought my first Gameboy when I was still only in kindergarten, at a game store in Plaza Masalam (Shah Alam section 9). It was cumbersome, had no backlight, colourless, and ate up batteries really fast. In retrospect, that thing was awful. But to the 5-year-old me, that thing was a god send. For the first time, I didn't need my PS1 and a TV the play games; I could play whenever and wherever I damn well wanted to. It was liberation. 

As with other young kids, I was addicted to Pokemon. I had already been introduced to the concept of virtual pets through Tamagotchi, but Pokemon was something else entirely. There was the concept of leveling up and evolving, the concept of adventure and exploration, and the notion of needing of collection every one of those 150 (151 if you count mew) damn little buggers. Basically, it was like living a different life in a fascinating world full of creatures that you could collect and battle (which doesn't hurt the pokemon, contrary to what everyone at PETA believes) that you could escape to just by flicking the on switch. 

That game was practically childhood. I would imagine I had pet pikachus and bulbasaurs that ran freely and playfully around the house, and pet sandslashes and scythers that I trained into Pokewarriors. I would imagine that I was the ultimate pokemon trainer - the champion of Kanto and beyond. Even by listening to the music, snippets from the past come back in mind. Like when my mum's purse was snatched in front of Plaza Masalam, or the time where I was challanged to a Tamiya battle and NO ONE SHOWED UP. 

Thank you, Skotein, for making this album and bringing back all the sweet memories. Reminiscing is great for the soul :')

Amazon Fever #1

Came in through snail mail today. $7.99 and the delivery was a day early :)

Here we go again

An evening with Beethoven and Ginastera.

$2 for an awesome performance by the Penn State Chamber Orchestra.

Still fell asleep though. I'm only human :)

But I'm going to download (legally *ahem*) Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major. Awesome piece.

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” 

― Victor Hugo

Weekends

I love weekend nights; watching people pass by as I sit quietly in the corner, guiltily waiting for something to happen.

I wonder how people here can stand wearing skimpy clothes to parties when it's so cold. Seriously, are they that desperate?

Argh.

My mind is restless. I'm bored.

Honestly, I wish this blog isn't just me ranting. I want to do something creative; something to make me seem interesting.

Like this:

Ah, memories. Damn I was so damn fat. By the way, that was 40 kilos ago :)

I admit, this is far from my greatest work, but I enjoyed the process immensely.

God I miss it. And that car too, ironically.

Oh well, I'm going to the big apple in a month. And there's The Script concert to look forward to.

Maybe things aren't that bad.

By the way, I have the reverse version too, so to all of those who know of its existence, watch this space :)

Pumpkin Spice Latte

I remember as a kid, my parents would never allow me to drink coffee. Minuman orang tua, they would reason. Not that I would care though, I hate coffee.

Honestly, I don't understand coffee fanatics. Coffee just tastes awful. It's bitter no matter how much sugar or milk you add; those who take their coffee black probably have cardboard for a tongue. Fine, it does wake you up with the caffeine and all, but, seriously, a caffeine high just feels like a bad headache that keeps you awake. Even worse, if you drink it at night, you're sleepy and on high alert at the same time - which just feels like a session of Chinese water torture.

But then, when in college, coffee is a student's best friend. And I'm starting to follow the trend. 

To be fair, it's damn cold here. And you can't go to a mamak stall and order a teh tarik to warm you up; over here it's all about the coffee. You could order hot chocolate or tea, but the former's too fattening and the latter just tastes awful (not like the tea in Malaysia). So coffee is the only option for me really. On the positive side, coffee here tastes great. And they use pumpkin the right way - pumpkin spice adds a delicious tone to nearly everything, especially a latte. Not like back home, where the sweet fruit is thrown into kari and served with white rice.

I still hate coffee, but sometimes when I'm sleepy or cold I don't really have a choice. Another annoying thing with coffee over here is that they all brew Starbucks coffee. I don't support Starbucks and their "cause", but then again there isn't any other brand on sale that is ready made. And I have no idea how to make coffee.

Still, I doubt I'll ever turn into a coffee lover. Balik kampung I'll still drink warm milo with my roti canai :)

Dead horses with huge mustaches

I don't get my ESL class. Everyone is so quiet; when the lecturer asks a question you can hear a tap dripping from a leaky public toilet in China. And whenever I even TRY to lighten the mood, everyone just stares blankly at me.

Not much unlike this really

It's like learning in class of dead horses. I thought studying in America would be more fun than this. To be fair, ESL is a class full of Asians. And two Puerto Ricans. And a Greek.

There's an Arab guy who didn't come to class today. I don't snitch, but when the lecturer asked why the attendance was so low, I just had to bring him up as I hadn't seem him in ages.

By the way, he has a huge ass mustache.

You get the point

Firstly, I didn't know that guy was Arab. I thought he was Pakistani. Secondly, I thought everyone found his 'tache amusing. So, smart as an ass, I said:

"Where's that big Pakistani with the huge-ass mustache?"

Now, in a wonderfully racist country like Malaysia, that would have been funny. 

But in the wonderful class of ESL 015, everyone just looked at me with faces that cried: You bloody racist. 

Seiously WTFWHYSOSERIOUS?

And the Arab guy next to me looked pissed.

Oh, NOW I see the elephant in the room.

I hate racism as much as the next guy, but if we don't learn to make fun of ourselves and each other, we aren't going to get anywhere with solving the racism problem. Which is why I like people like Russell Peters so much. He may seem like a racist idiot, but he's really a genius.

Oh well. I've got better things to think about. Like getting a job to pay for my overspending on music. 

Bloody iTunes.

Blue and Yellow wings

Here's the 'accepted' design for my team logo.

Even more proof that I suck at art