12.12 ~ Birthday Wish

I feel that I shouldn't forget 12.12 every year. Not simply because it's easy to remember,  but it was the date a very close companion of mine was born, 27 years ago. Definitely I wish I could remember every single date that marks the significant occurrence of every important person in my life.. 

During Engineering Dinner ~ 19th September 2006

To Kasfi Mohamed Nor, wishing you happy 27th birthday. Thank you for the support, encouragement and precious moment that we've spent together since the matriculation time, until today. And I do pray the friendship we have built will be lasting till herefater, Insya Allah.

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Values of Friendship

Well, I’ve been going through the challenging moments since the last  few weeks, and hopefully it will come to the end in 1-2 weeks time. Sometimes, I simply forget to have my lunch on its right time, though I could still have it at 4 or 5 pm.

In fact, all of these challenging situations that I need to go through have taught me to be more systematic and well-organized. Apart from the physical fitness, it also requires mental strength, excellent environment with no external disturbance, as well as proper guide from the right person. I feel so lucky for having friends and seniors who are willing to offer their kind assistances and guidance to me, to ensure that I am on the right track.

Friends may not be able to pull you up
But friends will still think of ways not to let you fall
Friends are those with us in tears and joy.

Oo.. Allah, please make it easy for me, for the family and for all of my friends.. ameen.
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The concept of Idealizations

People tend to associate Science and Engineering with fact and numbers, graphs and charts, symbols, formulas & equations, very straight forward, not flexible.. or perhaps, rigid. Well, how should I say? To some extent, I agree with that statement.. but there are many occasions where engineering concepts are better described using very soft and simple analogy based on the daily life.

One of the analogies that I like most, used to describe the concept of 'Reversible process' as an 'Ideal process' under the Second Law of Thermodynamics..where it relates to our daily life.

"In daily life, the concept of Mr. Right and Ms. Right are also idealizations, just like the concept of reversible (perfect) process. People who insist on finding Mr. or Ms. Right to settle down are bound to remain Mr. or Ms. Single for the rest of their lives. Likewise, a person who insist on perfection in friends is bound to have no friends." -Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach, 7th ed. p291

Look, engineering concept seems to be very beautiful and attractive if we are able to describe them in much simpler words..

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Kampus UIAM ~ Suatu Ketika..

Mata dah berpinar & kepala sudah mula pening akibat lama menghadap laptop dan meneliti borang-borang yg perlu diisi dengan seberapa segera yang mungkin.. Suasana kampus UIAM juga begitu sunyi kerana cuti semester sudah pun bermula, kebanyakan pelajar telah pulang ke kampung halaman. Saya pula mengambil kesempatan ini untuk membuat persediaan terakhir sebelum bercuti..satu proses yang agak meletihkan fizikal & mental. Tatkala semester baru dibuka pada minggu ke-2 December nanti, kemungkinan besar saya sudah pun meninggalkan kampus ini sekali lagi..

Ini adalah antara panorama kampus UIAM yang saya suka suatu ketika dulu.. Tahun 2006. Kini hanya tinggal kenangan.. untuk tatapan generasi UIAM yang baru. (Cuba teka apa yang saya cuba highlight dlm gmbar ini?).

Wassalam.

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Kesibukan Dunia

Few years ago, I received a short SMS from a lovely friend..

Sesungguhnya dunia ini sentiasa menjadikan kita sibuk,
namun bila difikirkan semula…
andainya perkara yang kita sibukkan itu
adalah semata-mata kerana Allah
tentu kita akan senang hati..

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IIUM @ BioMalaysia 2010

 IIUM booth at BioMalaysia Conference 2010.

Congratulations to IIUM contingents, mainly the Dept. of Biotechnology Engineering for having won 6 Gold Medals and 1 Most Innovative Award, 6 Silver and 8 Bronze medals. IIUM has won a total of 26 awards (7 gold, 8 Silver, and 11 Bronze medals), the highest among all other higher learning institutions, as well as public and private bodies. Read the details here and here.

"If you wait until your fear disappears before making a change, you will probably wait forever! You never gain true confidence in your ability to do something until you actually do it."

-Secrets about Life every Woman should Know-

Nation Building Course - October 2010

Last week, I have attended a Nation Building Course organized by the Biro Tatanegara for 5 days in Ulu Sepri, Rembau. I found that the course was quite informative, especially the facts about the history of Malaysia, the Federal Constitution, the 1 Malaysia concept and so forth. We also enjoyed having some physical activities and games (but some are considered as 'silly and childish'). 

The most important is that I've made lot of friends from many other institutions, mostly lecturers from public universities. Other than public universities, there were also staff from Ministry of Health (hospitals), Department of Chemistry, Public Services Department, Ministry of Human Resources, and many other ministries.

Some of my group members.. they are from UTM, UTeM, UiTM, UMK, UniMAP, UPM, MOH, and Dept. of Chemistry

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Trip to IIUM Kuantan

On 18th October 2010, I joined an educational trip to the Kulliyyah of Pharmacy, IIUM Kuantan Campus. It was specially organized for the students who are currently taking Bioprocess Facility Design course under the instruction of Dr. Maizirwan and Dr. Rushdi. The aim of the trip was to give clear exposure to the students on how a manufacturing plant of biochemical and biopharmaceutical products are designed, operated and maintained. IIUM is now in the final stage of setting-up the pilot plant for the downstream processing of  pharmaceutical products, which would later be certified as a GMP plant, known as "IIUM Pharmacy". 

The participants..

It was a nice, enjoyable and informative trip. Many thanks to Sr. Syajaratul and all the technical staff there for guiding and helping us throughout the plant visit. Credits also to Dr. Rushdi for allowing me to join the trip. We do pray that the flag of IIUM and IIUM Pharmacy will always be up!

Keep Going, Keep Fighting

I do watch football match (local and international), though I am not an extreme fanatic fan of that sport. The recent match that I watched was Kelantan vs. Selangor. Glad that the red Warriors was able to beat the Red Giant by 3 - 0. What a score line! It also proved that the Red Giant would not always be the winner.

Back in 2005, it was one of the greatest match in football history when Liverpool came back from behind to beat AC Milan in the Champion League Final. They were down 0 - 3 in the first half, but they never gave up. They kept going and fighting till the end even though many have concluded that it was 'game over'.

I read the news on the next morning, and this is an excerpt from the winner's captain, Steven Gerrard, the one who kept looking forward and motivating his teammates to never give up.

"I thought it would be tears, frustration and disappointment, but we kept going and kept fighting to the end."

[Steven Gerrard, The Star 27 May 2005]

So, let us keep going and never give up fighting! And there are moments where the mission has to be achieved through a good teamwork.

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Hardworking vs. Lazy Students

Again, during my undergraduate time, there was an awareness program organized by ENGINIUS (Engineering Society), consisted of many other sub-programs, dedicated for the Engineering students. I, either accidentally or purposely, had a brochure that was distributed randomly. It contained short messages and quotes, perhaps taken from various sources. One of them, that I still remember and keep until today (I copied and kept on my PC) was the pieces of advices given by Br. Asan Ghani (now Dr. Asan Ghani, Head of Mechatronics Department). It was named "Take 5 with Br. Asan Ghani".

Well, what did he say? These are some of his precious advices.. I simply like it, and I am deeply happy to share with everyone, especially the students, and of course I shall become an official and full-time student again, very soon Insya Allah.

"I love to tell all students that there are no such things as smart or stupid students, but what we have are either HARDWORKING or LAZY students. If we fail in our study, it doesn't mean that we are stupid, but most probably is that we are lazy..."

"The cure for our laziness is TO ACT, TO TAKE CHARGE AGAINST IT. We need to plan in order to succeed. Good planning will help us to surf our path towards success. But of course good planning worth nothing unless we have STRONG DISCIPLINE and SELF-CONFIDENCE within ourselves."

Wassalam.

Mengadu Pada Allah

"Mengadu pada manusia, manusia akan bosan, 

mengadu pada Allah, Allah akan sayang.."