Thursday, November 10, 2011

Going back online

After almost two years of not posting an entry, I'm going to try to start writing here again. My last post was regarding my spring break in sophomore year and just yesterday, I selected my next semester's courses at Lehigh for the last time. It is so surprising how fast time flies when you're not paying attention. It's not that I felt that I didn't have anything to say here, but the inertia of not writing just got to me. Let's hope this post can kickstart a new daily habit.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

MUSE at MSG

My spring break has been awesome. To prevent long-windedness, I will divide different parts of my break into different postings.

I cannot think of a better to kick-off my spring break: watching British rockers Muse live at Madison Square Garden. It was my first time going to a concert in the States, and Muse certainly did not disappoint. It is kind of weird to recall that this would not have happened if I had not procrastinated on Facebook while studying for my finals last year. There I was thumbing through my Microecon notes last November when I saw a Facebook shoutout regarding the show in March. Without further ado, I went on Ticketmaster and bought a seat for 60 bucks (of which 10 went into the pockets of the 'evil' ticket empire). Never did I thought that I would sit with people that I don't know or how I'm going to reach MSG.

Muse did not pop up in my head until I checked my mail after winter break (which was also awesome by the way). In a totally nondescript envelope lay a brand new ticket stub! Excited beyond measure, I rechecked the date and it was the Friday at the start of my spring break! Never mind that at the time, I had no idea what I was going to do that week; the only thing I was sure off was that I need to in New York City on March 5th, 2010.

I would be lying if I wasn't anticipating the performance. Muse's albums were constantly playing on my laptop up till March. When the day came, I had already planned my day from start to finish. I went to an earlier recitation class on Friday so I could catch the 1.30pm bus to Port Authority. I dropped off my duffel bag at Syaz's room at Stevens and went to 33rd St with Bo and Arep. We went our separate ways at the entrance promising to meet up afterward in front of Borders. From 7.30-8.00, I sat at my seat contemplating whether the Muse t-shirt that I just bought was worth the $32 I paid.

At 8, the opening act took stage. In truth, I had never heard of the Silversun Pickups before that day. They were decent, but nothing worth getting too excited about. I actually dozed of a little during their set. It didn't help that I had a middle-aged man to my left with his wife and kids and an East Asian couple to my right; not the most exciting concert crowd, but at least I was safe from beer-chugging youths.

After a neat build-up, Muse finally took stage. Three elevated stage to be exact.



I don't think any description of the event would do it justice. It is just something that you have to experience. Even though the encore at the end was obviously staged, it was gratifying to feel that we the crowd managed to coax three more songs out of them at the end.

Let's hope that this concert is the start of more concerts to come!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Snow Day

Seven posts in 2008, three posts in 2009. Let's see if I can get this blog rolling this year.

Last Wednesday, February 10th 2010, Lehigh University had to cancel classes because of inclement weather for the first time since 2003. This is certainly very historic for the students here, especially because the administrators are notoriously stingy about giving holidays in the middle of the semester (those random Monday holidays that the rest of the US gets; yeah, we don't get them). Oh, in case you missed my drift, the inclement weather that I was referring to was a hell-lot of snow.

I went to sleep the night before pretty confident that classes won't be cancelled even as the snow was falling nonstop outside. My math professor had already postponed a midterm but I figured that was because he's commuting to college and the roads might be bad. So when I woke up 20 minutes before my first class at nine, the first thing I did was to check my email. Lo and behold, my physics lecture was cancelled! The professor kindly pointed out that the whole school was closed! So I posted a shout-out on facebook and went back to bed.

I guess I was luckier than some people. The school didn't send out a campus-wide email telling that the campus was closed some of my friends got up and went to class only to find out that no one's there. So much for the university's response system. Nothing can go wrong today, I have three classes cancelled and a midterm postponed. The day can only get better.

And it did. One student set up a facebook event to be held at 3pm that day: the mandatory snowball fight. I could not miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience (let's face it I'm from Malaysia) so I tagged along with my roommate to the university front lawn. It looked like the whole student body had converged in what was the only relatively flat area on campus. I had not seen that many students on the front lawn since freshmen rally; snow was still falling heavily. The snowball fight initially started as a battle between the kids at the uphill part of the front lawn (which did not look lawn-like at all at the time) and the kids downhill. It fizzled out so people started building humongous snowmen and snowballs. The rugby team brought a ball which a lot of people played tackle for a while.

Things were not so rosy for people living off-campus. The power lines were down and the houses did not have internet or cable. There is even a youtube video of a transformer blowing up. Look up Lehigh Snowday if you're curious.

During all the fun, I remembered watching a Disney movie titled Snow Day at Teloi's place in Colorado. The movie was about how a group of kids made a lot of fuss about snow day being magical. It certainly felt like that.

At least six graduating classes of Lehigh didn't get to experience snow day here. As the snow kept falling, some people were wondering if we'd get another snow day the next day. Not in this lifetime.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

It must be love!

US Open fever is in the air and I'm infected. It has been raining for two straight days so I haven't been getting my daily dosage of tennis lately. Nonetheless, I have been checking USopen.org at every chance I get to see if any matches are going on and guess what: Nadal won his delayed third set 6-0. Rafa for the win!

I definitely watched a huge amount of tennis this year. Who would have thought, after not picking up a racket for 5 years, I would spend my summer break consuming Wimbledon as much as I can. The Federer-Roddick final was epic and I've turned into a Roddick fan. It got me all excited for the next Slam so when Khalifa started asking around about going to see it LIVE, I joined the bandwagon.

The tickets that we got were for Sept 4's evening match. Looking at the tournament schedule at the official website, we were going to watch a Men's 2nd round match and a Women's 3rd round match at the Arthur Ashe stadium. They didn't release the exact lineup until a day before the match so it was a jittery week of me guessing in anticipation. It's going to be my first live Grand Slam and the tickets weren't cheap so I didn't want a no-name for the night. In the preceding two days, I refreshed the Schedule of Play site hourly as the big names finished their 2nd round match. Federer has played, Roddick has played, Djokovich has played... running out of big seeds left to play the 2nd round here.

Lo and behold, I scored Rafael Nadal! Second round match against Nicolas Kiefer! Nadal I know and Kiefer I've heard of; it's going to be an awesome night. As a bonus, Venus plays before Nadal. I don't really keep up with the ladies' tennis so it's good to be able to watch a name that I recognize.

The roadtrip to Queens was uneventful until we reached Lincoln tunnel. Being in a car in Manhattan is definitely a different experience compared to walking around the city. I got to witness a lady ticketed for stopping in the box as an intersection and a guy in a motorized wheelchair weaving through traffic (on the road, cars and all). Vying for road space with cab drivers and truckers, I realize that the guidebooks were right in saying that the best way to move around the city is on foot. We reached the Billie Jean King Tennis Center sometime before 5pm. Since we're not allowed to go in before six we loitered outside the South Gate enviously watching people with dining passes walk straight in. There's a bit of comedy to watch too:

Ticket attendant: If you have a stamp, WALK STRAIGHT THROUGH!
Guy to attendant: Do you have the stamp with you?

People in the line were in stitches. That was when Naazer pulled out his iPhone and accessed his USopen app. Federer, Roddick and Sharapova were playing the next day! Three big ticket match and we missed it by half a day! The Canadian ladies behind us in line got into the excitement. One of them called her agent to see if they can get tickets. Naturally, the scalpers would have bought them all when the schedule came out.

When the attendants finally let us in, most of us made a straight shot to the Nike store. Khalifa and Naazer bought tonnes of stuff while Mirza, Areeb and I just stood watching. Tempted, I finally bought a t-shirt and Areeb bought a couple of wristbands, mainly because they cost twice as much on eBay.

At 7pm, we entered the just-emptied Arthur Ashe Stadium where the workers we cleaning up after the previous Murray match. Venus and Maggie started warming up a few minutes later while we broke our fast with Mirza's homemade sandwich.

Venus' match was nothing to shout about really. She was the overwhelming favorite even with her knee injury. For the fun of it, I started rooting for Rybarikova and it paid off with her giving better resistance in the second set. However, towards the end, I could not help hoping for the match to be over so we could move on to the next one.

The crowd started to swell by the time the Nadal-Kiefer match was up. Excitement was really picking up in the stands but the players didn't really reciprocate in the first set. Nadal was in his element and Kiefer didn't have a chance to play his game, resulting in a thoroughly boring 6-0 first set. Me and the crowd are having none of that so we started rooting for Kiefer. And woke up he did. After winning the first point in the second set, old Nicolas gave a roar and soaked up the crowd's approval.

Kiefer went on to exhibit some awesome serve-and-volleying, lifting the crowd of their seats on most points with his exquisite net-plays. Nadal looked a bit off in the second set but that doesn't diminish Kiefer's ability, with Kiefer going on to win the set. Looks like I might get my money's worth. Hoping for at least three hours of tennis, I change allegiance after every few points depending on who's winning haha.

There was one empty seat in our section somewhere in the interval Khalifa brought a young Brit to sit with us. Apparently, the guy had a day pass and stayed back for the evening matches. He had some really interesting stories to share but I was too engrossed with the ongoing match to really pick his brain. One thing that I did get was that he had went to all the Grand Slams this year! Yes, Australia, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and now New York. He watched the Nadal-Verdasco five-setter in Australia! I hoped I could do what he did in the future, touring all the Slams.

Without a doubt, minus the first set, the match was truly entertaining. Nadal dictated proceedings but Kiefer did not give in easily. Nadal won the next two sets but not without resistance from Kiefer. The match clock stopped at 2:59 hours; I was off by one minute in my prediction but no complains here.

We stayed back for some pictures in our seats while the stadium emptied in a flash; probably people rushing to catch their trains. We had to be ushered out by a worker who was really nice about it. All that's left is the two-hour drive to Lehigh. It's past midnight, luckily I'm not driving. A good end to the night. We even forgot about dinner.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Rise and Shine

Lately, I have been going through a major sleep overhaul. Bed at 10, if rajin sahur at 4am and stay up sampai subuh and onwards to my 8am class. Doing homework at the crack of dawn does feel good. Everything's all quiet and peaceful. Imagine that, me doing my calculus and accounting homework when normally I would be sleeping. I don't know whether this is awesome time management or the ultimate procrastination. (FYI the homework are always due on the same day I'm doing it)

But I knew it was too good to last: No more sahur this week, just subuh and straight to class with a few moments online beforehand. I have been lucky in finishing my homework so far, even with me putting sleep before work during the preceding night.

Had my first late night the day before doing math till 3 so boom missed subuh and woke up at 8. Good thing class is just 5 minutes away.

Pizza is getting old.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Apathy at its best

It is kind of sad that the only way that I am keeping up with the news back in Malaysia is through Facebook status messages. I don't devour the newspaper as much as I used to, especially when thinking back about the time in KYS where a lot of us would spend the afternoon reading newspapers at the RC couch. I am not saying that I missed Malaysian news,heck, the only stuff that were written on are the endless political drama that Malaysians got themselves stuck into. In this case, for the past week, people's status messages have been flooded with phrases like "daulat tuanku", "what happened to democracy" and "Perak is going down" etc. Curious of what's happening, I googled for those terms and found out that some Perak lawmakers defected which made the Pakatan Rakyat lose their majority in the state government.

Surprise, surprise. Apparently the Sultan of Perak had disagreed with PR's Minister to to dissolve the state assembly and call for a snap election. I am not going to dissect the event blow-by-blow, they have more qualified analysts to do that. But the gist is the debate of whether the Sultan had the power to refuse the Menteri Besar's request to dissolve the state assembly and dismiss the popular elected state government.

I am the last person who you would say is engrossed with the local politics. I always thought that it had more flair than substance, and reading the latest news in the papers is like a preview of an upcoming soap opera. During the Biro Tatanegara (BTN) program that I had to go before flying overseas, there was this exercise on figuring out your priorities. You have to list down six items on individual pieces of paper (they were politics, economics, education, social, and two other stuff that I could not recall) and rank them according to importance. The first paper that I chucked into the bin had "politics" written on it. What do you know, politics happened to be the most important item (they were trying to instill patriotism in us apathetic young-uns).

The role of the Sultan is something that I have always wondered about. I mean, they get allowances just for being symbolic figures and they do not need to work at all. What do they do, then? Somebody posed this question during BTN, and as luck would have it, we happened to have the most uncooperative speaker you could imagine, answering questions with questions:

"Apa peranan sultan dan raja dalam sistem politik zaman moden ini?"
"Awak rasa apa peranan mereka?"

Well, what do you expect from a program whose only highlight was the abseiling we did one afternoon. To the fascillitators' credit, they did give a vague answer that the Malay royalty is what differentiates our political system from the Western ones, providing checks and balances to the ruling government. I somewhat agree with that, looking at Raja Nazrin Shah as a voice of reason and the current Selangor Sultan who postponed the ratification of the 'yoga' fatwa (yes, I got that through Facebook statuses too). However, there are some bad eggs that made the whole basket look bad, but don't ask me who or why because I don't have enough info to start pointing fingers.

So, do we need the Malay royalty? Frankly, I could not care less.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Roaring back to life

Woah!! I'm surprise that I'm still alive after 4 days in this desolated campus after the finals ended. I suppose that I should be thankful that my last paper is on the last day of exams; if not I would have needed more mind-numbing series to watch online to fill my time. I would not be surprised if I need a new contact lenses prescription after this past week. But then again, I have always spent the first few days of holidays in front of the tv. Call it catching up time after not enjoying the tube for so long during school term. Then again, the same logic cannot be applied for this semester because I have been watching a lot of tv!! Oh well, what else can you do when no one is around and a blizzard is blowing outside.

Alone time is over!!! This year end would be a productive period for me, travelling on the eastern seaboard. Christmas in DC, daytrip in Philly and New Year in NYC! Bring on all the bus rides, long queues and freezing temperature... it would be a good change from Bleach (whose 199 episodes I have finished in the aforementioned 4 days... actually 7 days if you count the days I procrastinated doing my English paper)

Adios online tv. See you next semester.

P/S: The infamous KOPETRO bag would be making a reappearance during my holidays - minus the broken zipper.