Islamometer

I spent first few years of my working life as an Instrumentation Engineer. We dealt a lot with TelCos test & measurement equipments from a simple amp-clamp to the complicated DWDM and chromatic dispersion test-gear (the one that requires you to understand Schrodinger Equation to operate). But, the recent development of a new 'test-gear' is really frightening me. The one that I called: The 'Islamometer'.

It is a develish state-of-the-art equipment that could measure how sure are you gonna go to heaven or hell! Powered by a close-minded circuit in a mediocre brain of the most Malay Muslims in the country. With just a prejudice glance and the result is ready almost instantaneously. You could be labelled ulamak, Islamic, Kafir, secular, munafik and supported the latest finding, Erdogan too!

Los Angeles is no longer the City of Angels, most people in Malaysia are angels that could determined and know you dosa/pahala monthly statement and even better, they could blacklisted you far worst than CTOS did. They are the demons in the human screensaver.

I am touched by what controversial blogger RPK said:

Seriously, do I need to go to an Islamic university to be able to write an opinion about how bad corruption is and that not only Islam but all religions condemn corruption? Even if they are right in that I am ignorant about Islam and do not have the qualifications to talk about Islam, you really do not need to go to school or have any qualifications to know the difference between right and wrong. Common sense is enough and that is all it takes. And surely God gave all of us brains for a reason. Even non-Muslims understand that. And you need not go to an Islamic university to understand that.

For the record, neither our Great Prophet p.b.u.h. and the Caliphs-al-Rasyidin enters any Islamic university (do we have any at that time?) and since when do we need to formally educated is Islamic streams to enable us to talk about Islam?

Honestly, most of Islamic graduated in the 80s & 90s are those who rejected from other courses, unable to get a job anywhere else and been dumped to our Pejabat Agama and causes the major bureaucratic problems in our Syariah system. (quoting freely Dr. Asri ex-Mufti of Perlis in one of his article)

Don't judge people, we are supposed to be promoting Islam and be a good Muslims. I always jokingly telling my Jewish and Christians friends that Islam is the latest version of Abrahamic religions, and if in software world, the latest version will superceded the previous one and make it obsolete.

SPM Blues

Quoting Lim Kit Siang in his blog:
During question time in Parliament yesterday (16/Jun/09), I had read out an email complaint from a 2008 SPM top-scorer who is ranked No. 7 in a premier school in Johore Bahru, Tan Hao Chong, who scored 11A1 and 1A21 in Chinese, who was not even offered a PSD scholarship in local public universities.

What????
11A1 and 1A2??
12 subjects????

And I googled:

New Straits Times
05-04-2004
SPM grading system should be reviewed to reflect real picture

ABOUT 6,300 students obtained straight As in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination in 2003. Out of these, 1,152 scored A1s in all subjects.

And then this thing with 300,000 candidates won't received their cert if the Ministry make it compulsory to pass (at least P8/E8) the English paper!

Please see table below, and this figure are not normalized yet (read: they'll use bell shaped/stats app to determine the passing mark)

My Time (1993)	Current	MRSM Grading System 1993	My University Grading
A1	A1	80>	A+	97>
A2	A2	70-79	A	93-96
C3	B3	65-69	A-	90-92
C4	B4	60-64	B+	87-89
C5	C5	55-59	B	83-86
C6	C6	50-54	B-	80-82
P7	D7	45-49	C+	77-79
P8	E8	40-44	C	73-76
F9	G9	0-39	C-	70-72
			D+	67-69
			D	63-66
			D-	60-62
			F	<59

Hmmmmm.......

Time for school

My 4 years old (++) Tich is in her first year at the kindergarten this year.
She was born in mid-December, but since the school calendar in Malaysia begin in January, we have to enroll her this year. So, she'll have another year for pre-school next year (2010) and should begin her formal Standard 1 (age 7 by year of birth) in 2011 at the age of 6 years and 2 weeks.

Now a lady don from Tanjong Malim's UPSI is finalizing her suggestion on reducing the legal age for Std.1 by one year, but stated that she is not touching anything on implementation wise.
Hmmm ... play safe as usual, very typical ..

Both of us (my wife and me) were born in November, and we don't even have any problem with interacting in class. In fact, in my MBA class, only three of us that enrolled are actually below 30 years old on the first semester. (For the record, I received my MBA from the King at the age of 31). But, that is not the real apple-to-apple comparison when you talk about children brain development, IQ/EQ level, physical attributes and so on. It is just like comparing Macintosh and Washington's, both are apples, but one is a computer and the latter is a fruit.

Anyway, the dona might have a point there, but her safe domain prohibiting her from suggesting about the implementations. Probably when she was somewhere abroad obtaining her PhD, she's too busy checking on the Yellow No. 5 on her ice cream or trying to find mono/di-glycerate using her bare eyes that blinded her about schools in that particular country. Then, the ministry will need to send their local uni history/social science graduate director, their Libyan Syariaah alumni S/U bahagian and one N22 MCE qualified senior PPT for study trip in UK/US and any other developed countries to explore about their school systems. And everything will be given to the poor PPT for him to compile the report, because the director & SUB families also joining the trip.

And there we go, a new Penyata for our next generation, and we'll see another time bomb waiting to explode just like the PPSMI; in the pipeline!

Then, when things got wrong ..... just blame the politicians, and don't vote them anymore.

Day 5 - Jalan-jalan di Brussels

The sitting guy is a real person, pakai topeng statue Van Gogh

The whole gang in front of the Grand Platz. Far right is Osita (Oblicore Frankfurt), me, Mark (founder of Oblicore and based in Brussels), the shades guy is Alain, a Frenchman from Oblicore UK in London, the ladies are: Ikha (my support engineer) and at a far left is Sue (the Celcom's engineer)

The Dude at the Grand Platz

It is a real gold plated trimmings, since the early upteen century. Can't recal 13th or 15th.

The Brilliant Pee

My colleague Mark took us to the city today. We were at the Grand Platz or the city square in Brussels. He kept mentioning about showing the ladies the symbol of Brussels. Surprisingly, it is the statue of a peeing boy.

And here is his explanation on the statue:

And as a memento:

Pics Pelancong Jepun Style - Leuven, Belgium

Ali Baba is a kebab store. Nak makan kat McD, sekali tgk Filet dia EUR5.90 ala carte, ces baik makan kebab EUR5.50 with fries+drink

The Leuven train station

St. Peter's Church (in front of Town Hall) the other side that make the square.

de lijn bus ... nanti la google meaning dia

Normal cafe view in Leuven

The Town Hall - just 900 years old

Town Hall Sq.

Cafe Piazza in front of the train Station

Day 2 & 3 London-Brussels-Amsterdam

My trip. Arrived at London around 4 pm GMT Friday. I stayed at The Barn in Ruislip, Middlesex. A very lovely hotel. I'll post the pics later. The next day, we board The Eurostar from London to Brussels. A little bit crazy on Sunday to head for Amsterdam. Pictures are quite jumbled up. Since I disabled my 3G (they'll charged per kb and in Euro and EUR1=RM5), I'm posting it here for my gems. Love both of you very much.

Waiting for train from Leuven to Brussels-Midi

Midi is Flamish for South, Nord=North ... pharmacy is called APOTHEEK (same as in Indonesia)

In Eurostar London-Brussels

In front of the Bulldog in Amsterdam

The Canal just opposite Amsterdam Centraal Station

London - Trafalgar Square - while waiting for train to Brussels

Chelsea fans en route to the FA final

Pose wajib depan bas 2 tingkat

Missing Baby Gomok

Dear All,
Dah bersawang dah blog ni ... both of us are very busy in May.
In fact, this new entry is posted from Leuven, a very nice student town just outside of the EU Headquarters in Brussel, Belgium. In front of my hotel is the infamous Stella Artois brewery.
I was here since last Saturday, and on Sunday we took an opportunity to go to Amsterdam by train.
Guess I really missing my baby gomok, last Sunday was in fact very sunny day, and some say the hottest day of 2009. In the train was one lady clad in tudung, probably an algiers ethnic Belgians and her 2 kids. The kakak about 7 yrs old and a 5 yrs old boy. Sound like they are speaking French rather than Flamish. The boy is a copycat of my gomok, very active and full of adrenaline all the way.
While I'm enjoying the view, dengar dia kena marah with his mom. And then I switch to movie mode and capture the video above.
Really miss my baby gomok ....