Ulasan Buku: Tiket Bola Sepak untuk Putera Haziq - Aliff Danial

Kisah dongeng menjadi salah satu kebiasaan dalam proses tumbesaran minda kanak-kanak. Minda mereka perlu diasah untuk berimaginasi supaya daya kreatif dan daya imaginatif mereka berkembang. Justeru, sesuai dengan peredaran zaman, kisah-kisah dongeng Melayu tidak perlu tertakluk hanya kepada kisah-kisah dongeng zaman dahulu seperti Bawang Putih dan Bawang Merah, Raja Bersiong, dan Musang Berjanggut sahaja. Tetapi kisah-kisah dongeng baharu yang penuh dengan fantasi, jalan cerita yang tidak logik dan di luar kebiasaan perlu dicipta. Ini agar kanak-kanak zaman moden tidak berasa bosan dengan kisah-kisah dongeng yang akan luput ditelan zaman.

Pengaruh idea-idea imaginasi daripada luar yang sudah mesra dengan pengetahuan masyarakat sekarang adalah antara idea-idea biasa yang boleh menjadi luar biasa sekiranya diolah dengan baik. Ini antara yang boleh didapatkan di dalam buku tulisan Aliff Danial bertajuk Tiket Bola Sepak untuk Putera Haziq yang diterbitkan oleh PTS One. Pengembaraan dari satu tempat ke tempat menggunakan kereta api yang boleh tiba di destinasi dalam masa yang singkat bukanlah idea baharu kerana ia boleh didapatkan di dalam filem Harry Potter. Kisah mengenaii biji benih ajaib yang boleh menumbuhkan pokok yang di luar kebiasaan juga bukan perkara baharu kerana ia diambil daripada kisah Jack and the Beanstalk. Namun, pengolahan yang baik dapat menciptakan idea lama menjadi kisah dongeng baharu yang segar.

Kehadiran buku tulisan Aliff Danial ini dianggap memenuhi citarasa zaman sekarang. Saya kira buku ini disasarkan kepada kanak-kanak sekolah rendah yang sudah lancar membaca. Sesuai dengan sukatan pelajaran kini yang membolehkan kebanyakan kanak-kanak sekolah rendah lancar membaca, buku setebal 137 halaman ini bukanlah masalah besar untuk mereka baca dari muka ke muka dengan seronok.

Lebih menarik lagi, buku ini mengutarakan kisah keinginan seorang kanak-kanak untuk pandai bermain bola sepak. Pada asasnya, sudah tentu kanak-kanak lelaki yang akan lebih tertarik dengan kisah seperti itu, namun persoalannya, berapa ramai kanak-kanak lelaki yang suka membaca buku seperti ini? Saya fikir pasti ramai. Ini kerana buku ini menampilkan grafik yang segar selain watak-watak terkenal seperti Zinedine Zidane, Nakata Hidetoshi dan Park Ji Sung. Merekalah yang mengajar dan memberi semangat kepada Putera Haziq untuk belajar bermain bola sepak. Secara tidak langsung, pembaca didedahkan dengan teknik-teknik asas bermain bola sepak.

Watak-watak antagonis pula tidak hadir dalam bentuk manusia, tetapi dalam bentuk yang saya kira sesuai dengan kisah dongeng yang penuh dengan imaginasi. Contohnya seperti daun-daun yang membentuk entiti tertentu, robot kayu yang boleh bergerak dan berkata-kata, dan pokok yang suka makan orang. Ini boleh mengelakkan kanak-kanak daripada tersuntik dengan nilai-nilai negatif yang ada pada sifat manusia.

Buku yang menampilkan budaya pemakanan di beberapa buah negara ini juga mampu menyuntik semangat kanak-kanak yang membaca untuk mengembara. Putera Haziq dibawa mengembara dari satu tempat ke tempat yang menampilkan pemain-pemain bola sepak yang masyhur. Ia membuka dimensi pemikiran kanak-kanak dengan memberitahu mereka bahawa setiap tempat mempunyai jenis-jenis makanan yang tersendiri.

Namun yang lebih penting dalam buku ini ialah nilai-nilai murni yang cuba disampaikan secara langsung mahupun secara tidak langsung. Yang jelas, buku ini menampilkan nilai murni seperti kesungguhan untuk mencapai cita-cita. Yang tersembunyi pula, seperti nilai rasa hormat kepada orang tua dan rasa hormat kepada orang yang menyampaikan ilmu.

Buku ini juga bersifat interaktif bersama pembaca kerana turut menampilkan beberapa aktiviti ringkas. Ini memberikan peluang kepada pembaca untuk bukan hanya membaca, tetapi menyelami sendiri perjalanan yang ditempuhi oleh Putera Haziq sebelum sampai ke destinasi yang dituju dan mencapai objektif lawatan ke setiap destinasi.

Bagi ibu bapa yang memiliki anak-anak kecil seusia kanak-kanak sekolah rendah, buku ini boleh dijadikan koleksi khususnya bagi kanak-kanak lelaki untuk menggalakkan mereka membaca dan secara tidak langsung menggalakkan mereka mengamalkan gaya hidup sihat melalui aktiviti fizikal, seperti bermain bola sepak.

Di Belakang Tabir Hingga Hujung Nyawa

Lewat petang itu, aku dan isteri dalam perjalanan pulang ke Muar. Atau lebih tepat, kami tidak singgah di Muar dulu pun. Lajak sedikit ke Batu Pahat dari arah KL.

Bayangkan sejurus pulang daripada kerja seharian, aku ambil isteri di rumah kemudian terus pulang ke Johor. Gila.

Penat? Ya dan tidak.

Ya, kerana memang tubuh aku penat.

Tidak, kerana mental aku masih bertenaga. Apatah lagi apabila isteri di sisi.

Yang penting mental. Sebab mental yang mengawal tubuh.

Dalam sisa kekuatan yang ada, aku teruskan memandu menghala ke selatan. Sungguh, tak terasa penat sangat apabila sepanjang masa, pelbagai perkara aku borakkan, dan mungkin juga luahkan kepada isteri - hanya untuk memastikan aku terus kuat memandu.

Sehinggalah aku rasa kami sudah kehabisan topik. Radio yang menjadi latar belakang bunyi pula semakin surut bunyinya dek kelainan frekuensi. Makin lama, makin teruk bunyinya. Entahkan bunyi apa pun, aku tak tahu.

Dan itulah masa yang tepat untuk memasang cakera padat! Laju sahaja tangan isteriku menekan butang untuk memainkan cakera padat Maher Zain yang baru dibeli. Dan selaju itu juga dia terus memilih lagu For the Rest of My Life.

Memang kami meminati lagu ini. Isteri lagilah, lagi-lagi jika aku yang nyanyikan. *perasan*

Tiba-tiba timbul idea - mengapa tidak aku nyanyikan lagu itu dalam versi bahasa Melayu pula? Saat itu juga, setiap sel saraf dalam otakku mula aktif mencari kosa kata yang sesuai untuk menterjemah setaip bait lirik dalam lagu itu.

Bermula dengan bahagian korus kerana bahagian itu paling berhantu, aku mula menyanyikannya. Kerana takut terlupa, aku minta isteriku menyalin lirik yang kunyanyikan. Dia menurut sahaja.

Kertas tiada. Jika ada pun, tidak boleh menulis kerana hari sudah gelap. Lebuhraya yang asalnya tiga lorong mengecil menjadi dua lorong. Apatah lagi lampu jalan pula tiada. Makin jauh perjalanan kami, makin dekat dengan destinasi. Jadi, dia hanya menyalin menggunakan telefon bimbitnya. Kuingatkannya supaya menyimpannya betul-betul. Takut hilang.

Tidak lama. Tidak sampai setengah jam, sudah siap draf awal lirik lagu itu.

Selepas pulang ke ibu kota, aku perkemas lagi lirik itu sampai aku puas hati. Tiba masa yang sesuai, atau mungkin kurang sesuai kerana aku kurang rehat tetapi terlebih semangat selepas bekerja, aku rakamkan suaraku dengan lirik yang aku sendiri karangkan. Akhirnya, terhasillah...

Szakif - Hinggu Hujung Nyawa

Tips for FYP Students

This is an entry by request from Wardah Puteh. Although she's currently a third year student who will start the project by next year but she asked me to write this entry for her reference later. However, to all other juniors out there, you may take this entry as your reference also.

Before the project

1. Set and bear in your mind, it's a 12-credit hour course. Whatever grade you'll get in the end of the project covers both semesters although it's actually divided into 2 parts - FYP I and FYP II. Once you have correctly configured your mindset, you're ready to go.
2. Search as many as possible journals that would help and support your project. However, you also have to know your own limit. Having said that, it doesn't mean you cannot stop from searching because too much information would cause your time to be wasted whereas you have something else that need more attention than journals.
3. Ask the lecturer which online database is the best to search for journals related to your project title.
4. Prepare yourself with some knowledge about statistics. This is most applicable for projects that involve using the statistics for generating results from the data collected.
5. Of course, most importantly, you must have knowledge and interest about the field that you're going to do research on. Don't just randomly select topic or field that you have no knowledge nor interest at all. You must know what you're about to do, or at least you must have rough idea about what you'll go through throughout the year for completing the project.

Preparation for the project

1. Arrange your project accordingly and schedule it in a proper table so that your project will run in an organized manner and you know what to do and when to do it.
2. About booking of chemicals and animals, you must state clearly how much you need and why you need that much. If possible, name also the company you wish the things to be bought from. Don't forget to explain also in written form why you need the things at the expected time (of course since you have your own schedule and the lab management also has theirs).
3. Always update the status of purchase of your bookings. Therefore, it's advised to keep all documents sent to the management for future reference.

During the project

1. Follow your schedule accordingly. You have to push yourself because no one would but yourself.
2. Never expect that you'll get the admired results with only one trial. You may be surprised with the findings.
3. You may need to reset your procedure or method of your project. Maybe you need to change your project title totally even! This is why it's always best to start the project as soon as possible once you get your equipments, materials, chemicals, animals etc to prepare yourselves for any worst case scenario.
4. Never forget to update with your supervisor at least once a week and seek for his/her advise regarding your project. Never be malas or malu to do that since they are the ones who propose the titles in the first hand and quite a proportion of the FYP mark comes from them.
5. Prepare a special log book for your project in which you write everything related to your project.

After the project

1. When you're done with the lab work/field visit/data analysis, it's time to write the report/thesis. Therefore you have to know the right style for writing a scientific thesis. You may refer from the seniors' thesis or you may ask your supervisor directly. The latter is the best and again don't be malas or malu to do that.
2. Never expect your draft have everything needed as a great thesis. You're in learning process and making mistakes are common and thus you must learn from it.
3. Do not be surprised if everytime you see the supervisor he/she'll always make correction again and again and he/she'll add/suggest more and more things to make your thesis better.

Keep on reading this post since I may add new tips from time to time. Should you also have anything to add, leave it in the comment room.

Szakif - Lament

This is my attempt to do an upbeat song. This song entitled Lament is originally sung by Devotees and written by Waheeda, the group's mentor.

I was to sing this song in Cultural Night organized by SCIENCESS last year, in which I and my ad hoc co-MC, Bro Jazli hosted the programme. However, due to some technical problems at that night, I had to cancel the performance in last minute. Nevermind...

In the video, I prepare the lyrics since the song is very fast and it's hard to get the message in the song without guidance from the featured lyrics. Mind you, to keep the tempo was very hard during the recording. Huhu...

And also nevermind about 2:42, flat! (-.-')v

Hehe... I am not a professional singer anyway.

Enjoy listening to the song yo!

The FYP Presentation: I Think I Did My Best

It was a relief. One: because I think I did the best I could for the Final Year Project (FYP) presentation. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best I could give to the audience. Two: because aku melaram tak hengat kot! :P

More about the presentation, I did rehearsal few times to manage my time and I had to edit the slideshow presentation in order to suit the 15 minutes allocated. The rehearsal also aimed to develop self confidence so that I'll be fully prepared before I actually present the project. It really helped!

Next to do is to prepare the hard cover version of the thesis and then I'm done with the project completely.

I wish I'll get at least A- for the FYP. You can imagine - it's a 12-credit hour subject. That's a lot man! Ameen...

Pergi Main Jauh-jauh!

Aku (baru) nak start buat FYP!

Earth Hour: What to do during the Hour?

Next Saturday at 8.30 pm until 9.30 pm, everything will be dark with respect to the Earth Hour campaign. But that's up to you: to follow or not, pasal.... ade aku kesah?

But what to do during the one hour? Do you just want to stay alone in your room wasting the hour? Come on... Do something and don't forget to drag your friends together !

Here are some suggestions:

1. Go out to the town and see the dark city which you don't usually see everyday. It might be scenic in a way I suppose.
2. Play with candles and take pictures like what we did last time at February 2006. Links: [1] [2].
3. Sit in a circle and play Spirit of the Coin. Ok jangan buat. Aku tipu je. Syirik tu.
   

Behind the Scene: KOS Amazing Explorace

1. The initial intention of proposing the programme to Jaed was to participate in the race, not to organize.
   
2. Before this, although I've been very active in societal activities, I have never been a Programme Manager in any programmes. But now I am glad I managed to do one before I grad.
3. The Special Awards were available due to the mistake I made when I arranged the budget in the proposal.
   
4. I offered myself to be the host in the video.
5. Zikri and I were out to do the shooting a week earlier before the race but the files were not able to be extracted and edited. So we had to shoot all over again during the day of the race.
6. The Research Unit had to add some ad hoc tasks like flying kites and lighting bonfire to the participants because out of our expectation the leading teams were very fast.
7. The worker at one of the checkpoints changed the task without our knowledge and yet participants followed his instruction. Duh~ Follow the one stated in the paper la dey~
8. We purposely didn't put any committees at the checkpoints. If anything, they just needed to call the Research Unit using the specific number given in the paper provided. Miscommunication happened when they called the wrong number since there were 2 numbers: one for SMS and one for call.
   
9. I didn't prepare anything for the speech during the Award Ceremony and what I talked was completely an impromptu. I did write something on a paper but then it was useless. Haha~
10. During judging, the judges laughed out loud watching the videos and pictures the participants took during the race. We stayed at Resource Center of WacKOS until almost late night and we were undescribably hungry and tired.
    

However, everything worth the results. The KOS Amazing Explorace was a successful programme with a lot of compliments from the Dean, Deputy Deans, participants and committees. I am glad it turned to be something that I can be proud of before I actually graduate this semester.

Not Encouraged to Visit Inside Gua Charas

Blooper

During last KOS Amazing Explorace, among the tasks that the participants had to complete were to find few things at the seventh checkpoint - Gua Charas, which to me not more than just a recreational place to my understanding, initially.

However, I got quite a number of comments about the visit there. To utmost extent, tawheed/belief issue was raised.

Before I write more, I'd love to clarify that my intention of writing this entry is to be partly responsible as I was the Programme Manager of the KOS Amazing Explorace and I approved the tasks given there. Should anything regarding this issue is raised in the future, please refer to this blog for clarification.

For your information, Gua Charas is a place of worship for Buddhists and Hindu believers to perform their religious duties. But then, it is adopted to be one of the attractive recreational places in Kuantan. To put this thing into the drama, the participants were required to take picture with some statues. So, the question is: Is it, in the context of a believer of Allah and Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., allowed to do that?

So I asked my friend who is knowledgeable about this matter. His points were:

1. If you go there and have intention to do worshiping, it's totally not allowed and could fall into syirik.
2. If you go there to see the non-Muslim to call them for believing in Allah and Muhammad, it is encouraged.
3. If you go there for suka-suka and playing around, it is not encouraged.

Then I asked, what if it's for the sake of a race? He said, as best as possible, avoid it. It may fall to become a slander.

The points are clear, so here is my main stand of writing this entry. Please take note, dear participants. Should there be in the future, someone with bad intention raises the issue of you taking picture with the statue and tries to link you with being unislamic and murtad, so with the proofs from the picture you took from the place during the race, tell him/her that it was merely for the sake of completion of the race, without any intention to have any connections with the belief outside the border of Islam and being a Muslim. The tag that you wore is the best proof to indicate your participation in the race and thus explains your connection with the race, not with the worship things.

On behalf of the organizing committees, I would love to apologize for the matter described above should it caused dissatisfaction and uncomfortable feeling among the participants. We admit we were lack of information especially regarding the religious matter and this entry, I especially write to express my regret.

I am regrettably sorry.

Videos: KOS Amazing Explorace

Part I


Part II


Part III


Part IV


The videos above are the multimedia presentation entitled The Journey towards being The Explorer. They are all about the task they needed to do during the KOS Amazing Explorace last Saturday. I have cut the video into 4 parts so it'll be easier for viewers to watch them. Note the low quality viewing. To participants and others who would like to get the copy with a better quality, just consult me. I'll pass it to you for free.

Thanks to Zickree for preparing the video and thanks also to all participants who captured the materials for the video.

Do you enjoy watching the video?

Tak dapat jadi Host TV , jadi host Explorace sendiri pun jadi la~ :P

KOS Amazing Explorace: My Professionalism Was Tested to the Maximum

"Zaki, kat mana Gua Charas?"

"Zaki, yang task ni, takleh ke kalo buat macam ni macam ni bla bla bla..., boleh tak?"

"Zaki, sapa yang menang?"

Those were among the questions that I got during the race and during the pre-ceremony of the KOS Greatest Explorer Award.

To face with those questions, I had to keep in mind that I have my own professionalism, position and job to do and I should not interfere other people's work.

For example, referring to the first example above, although I knew where Gua Charas is, but it wouldn't be fair if I answer that question while other groups got to figure out by themselves. They can ask that question to other people, but not to me. I didn't want to be bias.

Next, in the second example, I have appointed my committees in Research Unit who were in-charge of the tasks during the race to be fully responsible with that matter. I have reminded my committees not to give any directions or instructions to the participants as it would cause miscommunication between committees and participants. On behalf of the participants themselves, they had been informed during the briefing session to ask the Research Unit for further questions should they didn't understand the task, not to the people around.

And lastly, since I was among the 0nes who knew the winners before the announcement, I had to keep my mouth shut. Or else, it wouldn't be a surprise for the participants. I got SMS asking whether his/her group won any prize the night before the prize giving ceremony, but being professional, no information was leaked.

Other than that, during the race itself, at Kamdar, I was introduced by my committee the manager of the company and I politely introduced myself and asked him should he got any problems with our programme. I also wished and thanked him for his cooperation in making our programme successful.

Last but not least, I had to keep a distance with my close friends because they also participated in the race. In fact, most of the participants in the race were familiar to my eyes and heart, but to keep the professionalism, I have to be fair with all participants no matter friends or not friends. This is the harderst part actually because we as human can't avoid from having a mercy towards people who are close to us but yet to me, friends or not friends, we must have a barrier when it comes to being professional. Kan?

However, despite all difficulties and problems, I think everyone have given out their best in making the KOS Amazing Explorace successful and enjoyable. Based on the survey form filled in by the participants, mostly we got compliments and positive comments about our programme, alhamdulillah. And most importantly, they want more of such programme in the future.

Sorry beb, gua dah nak grad. Haha! Sape la agaknya yang akan sambung program ni yek? Matematis Muda ada berani?

KOS Amazing Explorace - Was It Successful?

Did you have fun, guys?

Quite a number of the participants were bloggers. Jot down your comments about the race, guys! Did you have fun?

These are the tasks that they need to complete in order to win the prizes. Believe me, we don't let them to win RM500 just like that. Extra efforts are essential. What you are about to read below aren't as easy as reading it through. Hehe...

Tasks 1: Taman Pertanian Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah

1. Find ostrich. They were only given its scientific name: Struthio camelus.
2. Find "Meranti". They might be confused; is it a name for a tree, or a camp?

Task 2: Teluk Cempedak

1. Buy RM5 batik drawing.
2. Paint the batik. The challenge was that some groups that came late to the checkpoint needed to wait because there were limited number of paints and the paintings themselves.
   

Task 3: Taman Teruntum Mini Zoo

1. Find 5 species of animals based on their scientific name. They needed to take pictures with the animals. Mind you, although it was a mini zoo, it's still hard to find each of them.
2. Find the foe of the crocodile. It's actually kancil. They might be confused between kancil and deer.
3. Ride a pony 2 rounds. It's a very easy task. Hehe...

Task 4: Tanjung Lumpur

1. Find 3 ikan bakar restaurants.
2. Find Mak Cik Wok and Pak Cik Husin's keropok lekor stall and buy RM1 of the food. The stall has no signboard so the participants had to ask the villagers.

Task 5: KAMDAR

1. Dress a dummy using the provided textiles.
   
2. Find the exact textile in the shop. Can you imagine, how tough it is to find it in a shop full with thousands of textile designs?

Task 6: Padang MPK2 in front of Masjid Sultan Ahmad Shah

1. Find one person among the public and ask him/her to sing Pahang state anthem.
2. Sing along with him/her.
3. Prepare a kite and fly it at the field. They were provided with anything thus they need to buy the equipments on the spot.
   

Task 7: Gua Charas

1. Find few things like dinasour, cobra, Sleeping Buddha, lady looking into a mirror, elephant, monkey, fish etc. The challenge was that, they needed to climb to enter the cave. The things in search were scattered every where inside and outside the cave and they were not easily found.
   
2. Count the number of steppings leading up and leading down to the cave. The challenge was that, the steppings were unorganized with different sizes and height. The answers are: leading up: 130 and leading down: 150.

Task 8: Sungai Pandan waterfall, Panching

1. Find a "broken" pitcher plant (periuk kera). It is actually not the plants, but a slightly broken signboard. They need to act like a monkey in front of it.
2. Act like a TV commersial: the fisherman and the fish inside the river.
3. Light a bonfire.

Task 9: Benteng

1. Unlike other checkpoints, they were only given the clue "Kuantan". What they need to find was huge alphabets of KUANTAN at Benteng.

Now I can't wait for Monday as the prize giving ceremony named KOS Greatest Explorer Award Ceremony is scheduled. During the ceremony, we'll know who win the prizes and the newly announced special prizes: Best Picture Award, Most Hilarious Video Award, and Mystery Award.

All students, lecturers and staffs are invited to the event. Monday 11.45 am at Main Auditorium, Kulliyyah of Science. Watch the video entitled The Journey towards being The Explorer and there'll be lucky draws in an Explorer-style. You'll like it!

KOS Amazing Explorace - The Journey Begins

Fact #1: I am the Programme Manager for the KOS Amazing Explorace.

Fact #2: I am so excited for today is the day of the race.

Fact #3: I am nervous for some unknown reasons.

From my observation, the participants were also very excited and that was obvious during the briefing session last night. I could see some have arranged their strategy and plan in order to win the great prizes.

For all, committees and participants, who involve in the programme, I wish you all the best!

Hati-hati di jalan raya.

KOS Amazing Explorace

Those who read this blog might have some ideas that I love traveling and I have traveled a lot around Kuantan area. In fact, I have gone to some places few times by bringing friends of mine who visited Kuantan.

Due to that, I was thinking of conducting an Explorace-like programme because I think there a lot of great places around Kuantan that people might not know of. I forwarded my suggestion to Mujahid, the HeadComm of Sports and Recreation Bureau of SCIENCESS and I ended being selected to be the Programme Manager for the game.

Since I have reasonable capacities for that reason, I accepted the job. So people, I would like to attract your participation by these particulars. Pay attention!

• No fees at all!
• Petrol subsidy worth RM10
• Breakfast and lunch provided
• Prizes worth RM500, RM350 and RM200
• Certificates provided for all participants
  
• Having fun around Kuantan while racing
• Being challenged with tasks that aim basically to promote recreational places around Kuantan area

Other particulars about the programme:

• Race on 14th February 2009 (Saturday, 8AM - 5PM) and Prize Giving Ceremony on 16th February 2009 (Monday, 12PM - 1.15PM)
• 20 groups of 5 members each
• Must drive car during the race
• Must bring camera (digicam or handycam)
  
• Students and staffs of Kulliyyah of Science (KOS)
  

Don't hesitate and wait. Contact Bro. Fadil 0122089244 or Sr. Sulha 0139753253.

Establishing the Community Blog

Created! Click to the image to go to the fresh blog. But it's yet to be updated with better layout and many more. Give me time to work more on it because I am currently busy with Induction Course of IQUEST 2008. I am the Programme Manager for the course. Wish us all the best guys!


It is not easy. Now I know...

Wish me all the best for it to become true as soon as possible. "It" refers to http://www.iiumbloggers.com.

Currently there are 3 things that are packed in my head:
1- Induction Course of IQUEST2008 this weekend.
2- Establishing the United Blogger Community of Students of IIUM (UBCSI) blog.
3- Of course, practical training.

Don't YM (read: az_zakingompol) me. I am busy. Huhu...

I am not Autocratic

To establish the IIUM students blogger community isn’t that easy. I keep on asking questions and suggestions and I myself have given few of mine in the previous entries. The latest one is the poll that you may see in the right panel of this blog.

However, it’s a fact that no one can deny: different people have different thoughts. Lain padang lain belalang. I’d like to address that differences shouldn’t be the barrier for unity. Even it is clearly mentioned in the Holy Quran that He purposely created us in groups for we to know each other. Well that I know you know better than I do; which chapter and which verse.

Back to the track, there’s a concern in me about using the name of “IIUM” in the name of the domain since we are not really recognized by the authority of IIUM. But think back, there’s a so-called group in one of group network site that uses the name called “Not-so-IIUM” in which the members are as what the name tells; they don’t portray the real values of muslimin and muslimah of IIUM students. Considering that, why shouldn’t we use the name iiumbloggers.com for the domain name right? No, I don’t mean that the destination of the blog will be like the “Not-so-IIUM” one, but the other way round. We want to provide a medium for discussion about latest updates about the university, and other related yet interesting matters like what discussed in this entry. I hope you got my point eh?

Meanwhile, I think I’ll take the name “United Bloggers Community of Students of IIUM”, abbreviated to UBCSI as the name of the community since no one expresses objection to the name previously, even some really love it. Is there anyone who doesn’t agree with this? Or you may have suggestions? Tell us.

Now I am working on registering the blog in wordpress.org and I’ll be using sempoihosting.com as the host and domain provider for the blog (credit to Anwar). Anything related to the expense for the hosting, I’ll be responsible for it. I don't mind. I just need you people to together establish the community by registering yourselves and promoting it to people. Bear in mind, we are talking about long term project here; it shouldn’t end once you finish studying in IIUM. That’s why it’s open to all as long as you satisfy the 3 conditions (read here). To a greater extent, if this project of building the community successfully works, blessed by Allah, insha-Allah we’ll have a lifelong virtual highly beneficial community via the internet! Amin...

So back to the topic, that’s what I mean about “not-an-autocratic”. I am open to suggestions people. I hope I am not alone here. We are talking about ourselves actually!

Expectation II and iCAST 08

After 2 months trapped in Selangor, finally I'll be going to Kuantan!

I was asked to come to IIUM Kuantan Campus to be the committee for the 2nd International Conference on Advancement in Science and Technology (iCAST) 2008 which is held on 13th - 15th June 2008, organized by Kulliyyah of Science (KOS).

Apart from that, the discussion about the establishment of IIUM Students cum Bloggers Community is still on. I want to suggest that name. It's a community only, not a club, or society or what ever terms that might make it sounds official and legally registered. In other way to explain it is that, it is an official community of bloggers among IIUM students with a mutually agreed name.

But i think the name "United Bloggers Community of IIUM Students" might sound better. Isn't it? Then it'll be shortened to UBCIS. Or should it be "United Bloggers Community of Students of IIUM" which will be UBCSI. You don't see the pattern? You-be-CSI. I know many of us love CSI series. Haha...

Other and further discussions are available in this entry. Meanwhile, this blog and this blog could be the references for the suggested blog which will be built for the community. Figure out the format. They are multiple writers blogs.

The to-be-established community blog differs from a forum in the sense that only registered yet responsible members are allowed to post entries while no registration is needed to read and to give comments on them.

Meanwhile, to differentiate the community blog with personal blog is that only entries containing news and facts related to the university (read: IIUM), careers and jobmarkets, and the like are allowed to be posted and personal opinions must be minimized.

What do you think? Do you have any other suggestions?
Any abbreviations for the name of the community maybe?
Which host to use? blogger.com or wordpress.com or others?
What's domain name for the blog you'd like to propose?

Expectation

Let’s talk about unity and university student, I mean IIUM student.

I wrote about how proud I am, being an IIUM student in this entry. Then there were few people who disagreed with my stand. It’s fine. Let them be, and please let me be also. We are human with different thoughts and stands. I respect what ever people say as long as it’s with reasonable and rational basis.

What ever it is, I expect that you, I mean you, yes you who are reading this entry has a lot of knowledge about the internet, or at least you can use it to check emails, to surf the no-boundaries internet world by clicking here and there and I know you know what I’m talking about.

I expect that you, I mean you, yes you who are reading this entry love to build relationship with people around the world. That’s why you have Friendster account, Facebook account and what ever sites that’s mainly built as a medium for people to be connected.

I expect that you, I mean you, yes you who are reading this entry have read at least one blog written by an IIUM student, not considering the blogger reveals him/herself as an IIUM student or not. Here is one that you are reading just right now. Those who for some reasons would not like to reveal themselves but they love to write, that’s fine. That’s entirely up to you.

I expect that you, I mean you, yes you who are reading this entry have your own blog, or have a friend who writes a blog, or you yourself have an intention to start blogging but it’s either you don’t know how, or you don’t know what to write. It’s ok. It’s easier than you think. Be it written in English, be it written in Bahasa Malaysia, or mixed, or what ever language you might think of, never mind as long as it’s a blog.

And lastly but surely not the least, I expect that more and more students from IIUM will be assigning blogging as their interest and hobby day by day. I’ve seen it growing and it’s still growing now. Don’t you see the commonness?

But now, what do you expect from what I expect?

Still don’t see it? Ok, let me be clearer, the best I could.

Ever heard of the word unity? People who unite are stronger than a person who lives in his/her isolated life.

Ever heard of freedom of writing? Yes, it’s free for you to write anything but must be within a legal and lawful (in term of shari’ah especially) atmosphere.

Now, I am suggesting for we to unite under the name of bloggers among IIUM students. That means, any IIUM student who writes blog will be eligible to join the union, or club, or society, or whatever you name it, for we can unite under one name and register under one official blog. And seeing myself under the name of SCIENCESS Exco member who writes a blog, I think I'd like to start with SCIENCESS members first. “SCIENCESS members” refers to all students from Kulliyyah of Science and I have read quite a number of blogs by KOS students and many others a hiding theirs. I instinctively knew it.

So here I want to suggest to all bloggers among KOS students, for now, to unite under one roof. The main objective is for unity sake and the members will get a lot of benefits like provided with:
- Lifelong information about the kulliyyah and the university
- All-time religious, moral and ethical reminders
- News from the graduated students
- Unpopular but important news and events that’s secretly propagated among people
- Most importantly we’ll stay connected, wherever we are. Well, you know the distance isn’t the excuse not be bonded nowadays.

But this is still open for discussion. I want to know what you think about:

- Is it really necessary on the first hand?
- The name of the group.
- Other useful things that could be injected and implemented in the group if you join it.
- Should it be open to other students from other than KOS? Or should we focus only to KOS students so that it’ll be more narrowed down and thus focused.
- Who’ll run the blog?
- Other discussions that might be out of my head.

Let’s discuss people.

Update 10 June 2008.

I just copy and translate what I replied to Alif Zai Mim Ra’s comment for this update. This might be a repetition but there are some new updates. More discussions are in the comment room.

The group that we are going to establish is basically based on these 3 foundations; that the members must be:
- IIUM students (current or graduated)
- Writing blog(s)
- Willing to share and contribute to the community of the group and written in one special blog

Furthermore, I’d rather like it to be formatted as multiple writers’ blog. All of the members of the group are eligible to write and share what ever news related to the university and thus to be shared with the members of the community.

For example: There’s news about students from IIUM winning an international level award and the member of the community knows about it just right before it’s spread in the mass media, so the blog will be the first to feature about the news and thus share it with the community, and to a greater extent to the world!

So you say?
Would you join the group if it's established?