Clever Food Veggie Tempura

Yesterday I went to a small family gathering at Tok Chik's. Yeah well it was fine, just a normal family get-together. But what caught my attention was this fried veggies(of all things?). The veggies were in one container, and it seems like one of Tok Chik's guests brought them.

It was love at first crunch. The veggies were very crispy and unveggie-like. They didn't taste AT ALL like veggies, in fact, they kinda taste like prawn tempura, which is why I blog about this in the first place. This is some clever food. Disguising tasteless goodness under deliciousness.

Asyraf(lil bro) liked it so much that he unshamefacedly asked for some to bring back. And that's what he got in those polystyrene bowls. The thing is, it actually wasn't only my brother who wanted more. All of us were happily crunching veggies on the way back home.

Suggest this to vegetable haters and they won't think twice about eating them.

P/s: I found a cool free polaroid application on the web yesterday. Imagine how frustrated I was to find out that they are currently offering the app to Mac only. That's why I decided to whip out two polaroids by my self.

The Difference between staying in college and coming back Home

I'm home!! *Kisses the floor*
I unloaded my stuff from the car trunk and dumped it on the marble floor. Immediately I could feel that my life was changing the instant I walked into my home. The burdened, heavy aura around me was lifted and I felt so light, I could've levitated. College and home is like the earth and water. (I'm not sure which is home, earth or water.) And it's really nice to come home after being holed up in that 5-star lock up.

The faces that greeted me were all smiley and happy, and I could literally feel giddiness seeping into my veins. You won't understand why the heck am I so happy about being home, you probably think I'm hyping it up but I swear, while I'm jumping up and down, my poor poor friends in college are wilting in their chairs.

It is that bad. If I happily announce my arrival at home to my peeps in college, they'll probably plan to murder me. Then again, they might be too busy with calculators and spreadsheets.

For one, in college, there's always a dark cloud of gloom hanging over our heads. You can feel it following you wherever you go. The tension is incredible and hampers all productivity(mine). Coming home, on the other hand, is like a breath of fresh air. Imagine breathing in haze, then in a second, breathing in forest air. Which temporarily causes a personality change.

In college, everyone walks around with a permanent frown on their faces. Especially within one month before semester break. Wait. Scratch that. Make it all 6 months before semester break. What's worse is that, it's really contagious. I call it the UTP syndrome, as in universiti tensyenkan pelajar syndrome. At home, it's a mixture of everything. Happy, mad as a cow, impatient, which actually shows some diversity of the human emotion.

In college, I have to fork out my savings for everything. It's really not healthy to be seeing too much money flowing out of bank accounts, especially when at the end of the day, you couldn't figure out where all the money went. Big sigh. On the other hand, going back home=all expenses paid. Thank god for being a child to parents.

Yes, I said this countless times, but in college, internet is almost non-existent. I complained about it here and here. We paid for it, yeah. But if the time to load one page takes 10 minutes, and you call that internet, fine by me. Whatever rocks your boat. At home, I open up 10 tabs in 1 minute using Firefox. Hah. (I can't live without internet to be honest. I can live with looking at the computer until my eyes go red and watery but without the internet, I'm a lost soul. Exaggerate much :P)

In college, I know nothing about the world. We can do mass and energy balance calculations, but ask us about the current breaking news happening in the world, we'll give an empty stare. Either because it didn't dawn on us that it's half as important; or we simply don't have much space in our heads for unimportant stuffs like that. tsk. Back at home, I found that I've really been living under a rock. The world is just too important to be ignored. The world economy is going into recession, for goodness sake.

I could give another 10 differences, but that would totally kill this post. I try to maintain an inquisitive mind in college, but I can't help going into recession there myself. I'm just hoping to survive another one month. Pray for me and everyone in UTP lock-up.

In utp...


Home...!

Inspired by Maximum Ride

If you've never read the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson, then you should. The book tells a story about a bunch of genetically altered kids who are 10% avian and 90% human. That means they have wings and are stronger than the average adult human. If this sounds interesting, wait until you've read the whole series. I've yet to read no 3 and no 4.

In fact, you should try reading all of James Patterson's books. He's a versatile writer, to my delight. Turns out besides thrillers, which he's a master of, he also writes in the romance genre. One of his tear-jerking novels is Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas.

Some time during the holidays, I thought it would be cool to give my brother wings. Hence the picture below.

What I Learn from My Mistakes

A few days ago, I was in the middle of finishing a group project when my computer crashed. Basically, my work that night was thrown into oblivion. Goodbye forever. Imagine how delighted I was to discover that I had copied part of the work into my thumbdrive. While my computer sits in the repair shop, I've decided to sit and contemplate on what I should have always done.

1. Backup data from my computer.
2. Always perform scan disk after an abnormal shut down.
3. Try not to panic and just do whatever that needs to be done.
4. Go through options and choose the best one.
   
5. Send the computer for repair and inquire about the repair costs.
   

And always keep this in mind:
Murphy's Law says that if anything could go wrong, it will.
Better to get prepared for it.

Dr Mahathir is Coming to Town

So. Dr Mahathir is coming to my university. This news somehow got me really excited. I've been reading his blog for some time and I bought the book of his blog entries compilation. I found myself to be inspired by his insights and revolutionary mind. I know, boring stuff.

Honestly, I've only started keeping tabs on him ever since I entered university. Before that I was as ignorant as a tool. I was more into Hayden Christensen back then. Still am, mind you. But it's about time to wake up and stop smelling ONLY roses.

He's having that talk on Thursday in grand Chancellor Hall. If I manage to pester him into taking pictures and signing my book, I'd probably die in happiness. I'm talking like a mindless fan but can't help it. I'll see you when I see you!

Spot Her

Can you spot my hamster, Milo?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a side note: If you haven't already visited chedet.com, you should. Dr. Mahathir is a wise, wise man and he has so much valuable things to say. I think I've fallen in love with his personality or something.

Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Here I Come!

So. Tomorrow I'm going back to UTP, to where my assignments and projects await me. When did my holiday started? Yesterday? No? Are you kidding me? It really felt like yesterday that I was grinning from ear to ear thinking about my one week holiday. Now it's coming to an end and I'll be back to reality in less than 24 hours. Whether I like it or not, I'm going to have to drag my a** across 100km++ to Tronoh.

I bet you don't know where Tronoh is. One day, I was telling a lady in Ipoh (one of the nearest towns to Tronoh) that I'm studying in UTP which is in Tronoh, and she actually asked me where Tronoh is. Now who's more pathetic? Is it her, or is it Tronoh? I'm happier to think that Tronoh is, because the suckier the place, the easier it is to hate the place. I know, I know, I'm such a ray of sunshine, don't mention it.

Some UTP pictures to remind myself:











Actually, come to think of it, if you've been to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), you would've seen a big part of UTP, down to the jungle in the middle of the airport because that's how UTP is. Right smack in the middle of UTP, there's a jungle. And monkeys too.

------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------
Side note: I stumbled across this blog: Hanis Zalikha which I found really interesting. I didn't know who she was until I went through her blog posts and pictures. She's one of the Dreamgirls top 12 contestants. Go on check her out!

How To Spend Your Day on Eid

.. according to me. I know, it's a bit outdated because raya was 3 days ago, but I've got so much to share, so I'm putting this up anyway! In my family, Eid is very different now than it was, say, 6 years ago. That was when we all still had both of our sets of grandparents in the north and we'd spend a whole week with them. Yes, there's the 14 things to do on Eid, but does it end there? We did these on raya (ALOT of pics) >>



We watched tv while arranging kuihs in the glass container. (Watching tv=all of us, arrange kuih= kak Nadia)




We call ourselves 'the Zains' after my grandpa. All of us are the Zains, as long as you're married to a Zain, or born to a Zain will automatically make you a 'Zain'. You'll hear lots of 'the Zain' when hanging out with us. The picture above is some of my cousins. From left, me, Kak Nadia, Aishah, Kak Alia and Kak Afira. People have said before that we have the same nose, what do you think?




We went to Starbucks to kill time and catch up with Zain stories.




Then we played bowling. In baju kurung and baju melayu, no less. Applaud, people. Semangat raya sejati..




My brother was the one who keyed in the names. Kak Alia was liar. Basically, we were all champs in bowling hence the fantastic scores.




From left: Shahirah, Liyana, Me. This kid is our 2nd cousin whom we've never met our entire lives. So when we met her, we were all like, "oh my gosh she looks like SURI CRUISE." And all of a sudden we started going crazy taking pictures with her as if she were Suri Cruise. There were about 3 dozen pictures of her with us and if I were to put all of it here, you'll start thinking she is Suri just like we did.




Our adoration for Liyana a.k.a. Suri Cruise.





That night we celebrated Kak Alia and Azim's birthday. Note the sparklers (bunga api), we had to substitute them every time they finish and that's like every minute. Owh the price for a lifetime of memories.




Aishah and me. By the way, she isn't touching the sparks. Are you crazy?



One of my favorite pictures. I got tired of replacing the sparklers on the cake and each of us just held on to one.




After cutting cake, we played firecrackers. Sparklers are for babies. Everyone's holding mercun das in this one. I played photographer.




Shahirah looks so much like a wizard in Harry Potter, I just had to put in this picture. There's no special effects here.



For those who are alarmed about this picture, we're not women Taliban or training to be one. Besides, those aren't bazookas. We're just girls on Raya high.




Just a cool picture.

A video of us girls blasting firecrackers in the barbeque grill!


For those who were wondering, that was basically how I spent my Eid Mubarak. My parents weren't around, they only came back the next day. It was my third year celebrating raya without my dad, mom and brother, but this year my brother's with me. Initially I was bummed out because my trip to Pakistan was canceled due to the recent bombing, but I got over it.
My favorite raya food is ketupat and rendang (so cliche). I'm wondering what's everyone else's?

Happy Belated Birthday Azim & Kak Alia!

My dear brother and cousin celebrated their joint birthday (September 30) together last night. The cake was delicious and chocolatey by the way, courtesy of Kak Nadia!

One is newly legal and a pain when it comes to driving. Hint: Not kak Alia.

Wishing you guys the best of luck! Happy birthday Azim and Kak Alia!

Happy Eid Mubarak!

or Eid-ul-Fitr

or however else you call it

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!