Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan

I have been planning to write about Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan (HLP) for a while. But as you may have realized by now, life as a full time and married post-graduate student can be quite demanding and time consuming sometimes. Well, now that I’m free a bit, well for another two weeks or so, I figured out I should start write something down or else it’ll forever become a tacit knowledge.

Thus in a series of short entries, I’ll attempt my best to recall and share my own experiences with HLP starting from the early days of applying for the program until the moment I finally set foot at Rensselaer campus. I hope it’ll be useful for those who are planning to pursue their education in the near future…

For a start, here’s an overview of what will be covered in the narrative series:

• Rindu pula nak jadi student…
  JPA, iklan HLP, mengisi borang, persiapan untuk temuduga, seisi temuduga, tunggu keputusan
• Tahniah! Permohonan anda berjaya
  Alhamdullilah…
• Loquacious, Nefarious, Pulchritudinous: Oh tidak! Apakah semua ini?!!!
  GRE, TOELF, buku rujukan, belajar menghafal perkataan, yuran peperiksaan, tarikh dan lokasi
• Antara fantasi dan realiti: Universiti idamanku
  coursework vs research, professors, locations, kos sara hidup
• Lari2…kita lari… Biar kuat..urat kaki…
  kursus, INTAN, BTN
• Adus! If I can just remember where my passport is?
  visa, passport, borang, MACEE, Kedutaan Amerika Syarikat
• Alamak! Minggu depan dah nak fly…
  elaun permulaan, tiket MAS, kemas dan pindah barang/rumah
• Welcome to the US of America
  22 jam di udara, duit kecil, juniors yang baik hati, lapar la; ada roti canai tak kat sini…
• Rensselaer, a dream come true
  

There you go. Insya Allah, over the next a couple of weeks, I will try to cover all these topics as much as possible. Opps, terasa dahaga lak. Kejap, nak pi cari air sirap dalam peti ais dulu. Nanti sy akan mula bercerita tentang bab 1; Rindu pula nak jadi student…

Cerita dulu2 (part deux)

Together with Hilmi at Oxford, UK

Sedang sy memilih gambar untuk dijadikan photo book buat wan dengan tok Atiqah & Aqif di Alor Setar, terjumpa gambar2 lama semasa di UK dulu. Masa ni belum ada digicam, SLR pun sy tak kenal lagi. Kalau jalan ke mana2, sy mesti bawa my trusted and reliable Canon PRIMA BF-80.

Perasan tak dalam gambar2 ni mesti berpasangan? Al kisahnya masa tu, di Manchester ada satu kedai gambar ni (seingat sy di sebelah Boots, Arndale) . Kalau kita cuci two sets of pictures from the same film, the second will cost only 99p. Good deal eh? Memandangkan elaun yg diterima masa tu memang cukup2 untuk survive di sana , so kenalah amik gambar berdua. Memang jimat habis.

With Eris at Land’s End, UK

Elaun selebihnya disimpan. Another way which helped me to keep tight to my budget was by eating Döner Kebab. Favorite spot: Kebab Picadilly Station. One kebab with everything in it, please. Besar sungguh kebab ni. Kebab Melawati pun tak leh lawan (tapi dua2 pun sodap). Kalau beli untuk lunch, boleh simpan untuk dinner lagi .

Duit yang disimpan tu, bukannya betul2 disimpan. Ada maknanya tu . Back then, I have a rather unique hobby; minat kumpul jersey. Every week mesti singgah JJB Sports. Hari terakhir sebelum saya pulang ke tanahair, sy kira2 sy ada 40 helai jersey. Kalau member2 lain kumpul duit untuk beli seperate systems, savings sy habis dengan membeli jersey. Tak tahu ke mana menghilang semuanya sekarang. Half of them sy jadikan souvenir buat friends and family. Yang lain sama ada dengan adik sy or dalam lemari .

Aku Budak Minang

Dulu2 sy memang minat habis dengan cerita ‘Aku Budak Minang’ karya kartunis popular Ujang. Bermula dari Gila-Gila sampai ke majalah Ujang. Nak baca time tu, kena sembunyi2. Takut kena marah dengan mak pasal tak siapkan homework dulu . Selepas sambung belajar, terputus minat tu. Kalau Ujang ada di WHSmith, harus meletup macam Mad Magazine.

Memandangkan dah lama tak dengar cerita pasal kartunis pujaan ni, nak juga tahu perkembangan beliau sekarang. Rupanya Ujang dah join semula dengan Creative dan Gila2. Mungkin ramai yang tahu kisah beliau dengan isu Intellectual Property. Agak lama beliau menghilangkan diri, membawa diri selepas itu.

Online, he’s The Derhaka Student. Ada kisah di sebalik nama ni (refer to the youtube’s entry below). Apa-apa pun, Ujang is back now. Selamat Maju Jaya Bro! Wish you all the best.

Sihat sebelum sakit…

Tengahari tadi saya ke The Armory, RPI untuk solah Jumaat. Boleh tahan juga sejuknya hari ini. Salji masih lagi turun, cuma tak selebat dua hari yang lepas. RPI nampak lengang sekali bila kebanyakan pelajar sudah pulang ke rumah masing2.

Minggu ini, khatib memperkatakan tentang perlunya kita muslimin dan muslimat sentiasa mensyukuri nikmat yang diberi olehNya. Sy begitu tertarik sekali apabila beliau membicarakan tentang isu kesihatan tubuh badan: sihat sebelum sakit. Katanya orang yang sihat jarang menghargai nikmat sihat sehinggalah apabila mereka sendiri yg jatuh sakit, barulah timbul seribu rasa penyesalan dan keinsafan.

Dari Ibnu Abbas RA, katanya nabi SAW bersabda: “Ada dua nikmat yang sering kebanyakan manusia tertipu tentangnya (sering melupakannya) iaitu waktu sihat dan waktu lapang”. (Riwayat al-Bukhari)

Benar kata khatib. Saya mengangguk tanda bersetuju. Terkenang semasa sy sakit@demam selama seminggu pada awal Oktober lepas. Tak berdaya langsung untuk bangun. Apabila kita diuji dengan kesakitan walaupun sebentar cuma, memang terasa benar akan nikmatnya sihat itu…

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),
Verily Man is in loss,
Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds,
and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth,
and of Patience and Constancy.

White Aidiladha di Troy…

Salam AidilAdha buat semua

Kami sekeluarga di Troy, NY mengucapkan Salam AidilAdha buat semua tak kira di mana berada. Tahun ini merupakan tahun kedua kami berhari raya di perantauan. Insya Allah tahun hadapan, kita akan dapat beraya bersama2 di Malaysia .

AidilAdha di US akan disambut esok – 19 Disember (Rabu). Solat AidilAdha di Troy akan dimulakan dengan takbir seawal 7.30 pagi. Kemudian diikuti dengan solat pada pukul 8.00 pagi. Lepas tu, ikut perancangan; macam selalu, kami akan gerak ke rumah Kak Izan dan Abg Azhari untuk acara makan2 .

Salam AidilAdha dari kami di perantauan
Ayien, Ayu, Atiqah, Aqif

Atiqah, Aqif dan Salji

Kisah Atiqah and Aqif main salji. Atiqah sangat suka salji. Anak abah . Aqif sangat tak suka salji@sejuk. Anak mama . Puas la nak suruh Aqif keluar main salji dengan kakak. Tak sampai 5 minit, masuk rumah balik. Kakak lepak jer, siap buat snow angle lagi, wakaka…

On a serious note, late this afternoon, it’s expected that the falling snow will turn into freezing rain. This is quite dangerous especially when you’re driving. You can easily lost control of your car due to the icy condition – skid and slide. Pressing your brake hard won’t do much help. In fact, that should be the last thing you want to do. Yes, you may have stop the tires from moving, but your car is still in motion.

Much worst, when the freezing rain drop on your windshield, you can’t see a thing in front of you. My Sudanese’s neighbor experienced this for the first time last winter. He panicked. Luckily nothing serious happened, he only hit a guardrail.

Tidakkkkkkk!!!

Liverpool vs Manchester (Source: BBC Football)

Oh Tidak! Kalah lagi tahun ni!!! Dah 6 tahun The Reds tak pernah menang di Anfield bila lawan Red Devils. Waduh2…

“You’ll never walk alone”

Let it snow…

Here it comes. The first big winter storm ever to hit Troy this year. According to the weatherman, it’s likely to be between 3 to 6 inches. I had a field day with my camera today. Unfortunately my Atiqah is out sick today. Hopefully she’ll feel better soon. Then, we’ll have our own snowball fight. Yeay! .

 

What a relief!

Fall 2007’s grades are out today. Alhamdullilah, just like what I was expecting at the beginning of the semester.

Typography
Such a wonderful class. Intelligent professor and great classmates. I was exposed to so many new things which I didn’t know before this (or didn’t bother to know ) on fonts and print materials. I designed a travelog’s website for my final project.
Grade: A

Developing Usability Guidelines
This is an independent study I undertook under the supervision of Prof. Grice. I chose JKR’s website for the usability study. The final report was delivered two weeks before the deadline. My guess is he’s happy with the result; based on the grade I received. I’m planning to share the findings with my colleagues at JKR when I’m back home next year.
Grade: A

Theory in Human Computer Interactions
Initially I took this class in Fall 2006, but dropped it three weeks into the semester. Banyak fening la . Without much background knowledge on HCI, I thought it’ll better if I defer it to Fall 2007. As expected, I was struggling with the readings. Too abstract for me. My final project was on distributed cognition in distance learning education.
Grade: B+

Advance HCI
I love the reading materials for this class: Usability Engineering, The Design of Everyday Things and Leonardo’s Laptop. Good stuff! It’s all about user-centered design. I developed an application’s interface for my final.
Grade: A

Overall, I’m satisfied with the results. Can’t say much about the theory’s class. B+ is rather acceptable to me. After all, you can’t always get what you want in life. Now, I can really enjoy my winter break. Yeay!