Abam senior

Will depart for KL tonight to attend SDP tomorrow. Unlike the previous year, this time we'll gather at their Ara Damansara's leadership centre instead. We'll spend a day there, have lunch and dialogue session with Tun Musa Hitam, and will depart for Merlimau's Training Centre later in the evening . Going to the leadership centre is going to be a bit tricky. Kalau macam last year, we gathered at KL's headquarters in Jalan Raja Chulan. Senang. Turun LRT ja dah nampak bangunan. This time I'll have to walk or take a public transit to go there.

Sampai rumah dari UIA memang tak sempat nak buat apa-apa pun. Ingatkan boleh la lari sat pi raya rumah sapa-sapa, tapi banyak benda nak kena prepare. Enough about SDP. I received good news from my sister upon arriving home. She's offered to do her second degree in USM. She'll be taking Psychology Education under PPIP, and she's taking the coursework mode. That means, dia kena attend class la. She's been to usm for registration and briefing the week when I was away. She even has her campusonline profile now. And nanti dia kena pi angkat sumpah alongside with all the new students this coming September.

Even though she's a post graduate student, technically she's still my junior. And I'll get the pleasure to bully her and do stuff for me, like driving me to school. Haha. Kalau dia nampak aku kat kampus tobat mesti dia buat tak kenai punya. 

I dont know how long she'll take to complete her studies but from the way she talked, she's going to try to complete it in one year. Man, there's even a possibilities of us sharing the same convocation. Shesshh.. Better warn her to not steal my thunder. Haha. Anyway congratulation is in order. Kudos Nabila. Hope your endeavour in USM is a smooth sailing one. And please listen and obey whatever your seniors tell you. Haha. Nak selit jugak tuh. I better go packing now. See you in a week. Doakan perjalanan aku. 

The Cycle

Im back in Penang. I left UIA with mixed feelings; happy because I finally get to come home, regrets because we couldn't get any win, and sad because I might not see some of my good friends as they already completed their study. Have you ever get that dreading feeling where you want things to end, but not to end? When we finished all our matches, I really feel like going home. Because there's nothing left for me to stay apart of suffering the pain of watching some other futsal team win it. But we had to stay for an extra few days because our friends from other sports teams are still competing.

I even considered buying my own bus ticket to go home earlier than the rest of the contingent  but I realized it only means that I'll never get to see some of my graduating friends again. So I decided to stay and make the last few days we are together count. And kalau pikir2 balik, aku lagi banyak berjalan dari main futsal. Having friends around Gombak made that trip easier. I also have my friends from Cyberjaya visited me. We went places and we did a lot of things. Cuma kadang-kadang tu I felt bad because tak dapat bawak semua orang, especially when we completed all our matches. Kalau boleh, nak ajak semua orang dalam team futsal join, tapi sebab masalah transport kadang-kadang tu terpaksa juga leave out some of them.

But all our juniors are good lads. They understand that we had to prioritise the senior members of the team and they respected the fact that the seniors's had already developed a friendship together, long before they entered USM. I don't really like to coined out the senior-junior thingy because it is as if I am implying that our team is berpuak-puak sedangkan it is not. No matter what year we are studying, we took care of each other. There's solidarity and unity, no question about that. Anybody can come to anybody's room and hang out with each other. 

It's just that the five senior team members went through so much together. We started playing together way back in 2011 in Medan, when we were still considered a junior. Bukan setakat main intervarsity ja, even tournament dalam USM pun kami main sekali. And the fact that three of them won't be playing with us anymore is a bitter pill to swallow. But like the old saying goes, 'all good thing must come to an end'. I never thought that a group of people whose membership of the group relies on competitiveness could be so close. They're family. They're irreplaceable. But as time goes by, they leave, and new family members comes in. And over time they become irreplaceable too. And the cycle goes on.

Happy graduation brothers. 

The International

The International has been going on for the past week. For those of you who didn't know, The International is an annual e-sports tournament, but only contesting the game dota. No, dota is not Dunia Orang Tanpa Awek, but Defence Of the Ancient. Basically it is a multiplayer game where team fights 5 on 5 in trying to destroy their opposition throne. E-sports has been growing ever since the dot.com bubble especially in the early 2000s when internet is getting faster and faster.

The International is like the biggest and the most prestigous dota tournament there is. First, because it is organised by Valve, the video game company that produced dota itself. Second, the winner of this tournament is going to walk away with 1.4 million US Dollar. And third, the teams that participated in TI is the top 16 team in the whole wide world. This year, TI is held in Seattle, USA. It's really cool I tell you. It's like a comic-con. Variety of programmes and events are being carried out there apart from the main tournament, like pubstomp, autograph session, selling booths and many more.

I've been watching the tournament via live streaming and through the dota platform, and I can tell you it is an awesome experience. Watching these professional gamers play competitively is really fun which reminds me why I've been playing it since 2005, albeit I never played competitively. There's a few teams that I root for particularly Na'Vi, iG and Orange. iG was last year's champion and they walked away with a million dollar prize money. They're a team from China, but one of the players is Malaysian. Goes by the name Chuan. You could watch Chuan's pre-game introduction at 4:59.

Naik limo tuh. Tiba-tiba teringin nak jadi professional gamer jugak. Anyway also lots of crazy things happened during the tournament. Ada satu game tu, the game was dragged until the 90 minutes mark, which is overly long for a dota game, and the Korean commentator goes crazy. 

And of course, there's Orange. Our very own Malaysian team. Orange has one of the best dota solo player in the world, Mushi. Last year they finished third. Hope this year they could finish better. Orange also has one Malay player in the form of Fadil 'Kecik Imba' Raziff. But he hasn't play thus far as he's like the sixth player and an understudy. But I'm not worried. He's only 17 years old and Im sure he has a bright future ahead of him. 

Jom dota.

Syawal the First

Just a quick one before I go to eid prayers. It's been a blissful month. 

Semoga amal dan ibadat kita diterima dan semoga kita dapat kekalkan segala ibadah, hijrah dan perubahan kita sepanjang tahun dan bukan time Ramadhan saja. Semoga kita dapat berjumpa dengan Ramadhan tahun depan.

I can't remember how many eid had past since the inception of my blog, but I can remember fondly that raya has always been a special occasions where I blogged with warmth and happiness. Hopefully this stays on.

I also want to take the opportunity to wish you guys a very happy eid mubarak. Maaf zahir dan batin. Enjoy and celebrate responsibly. :) 

Augustus

First post in August. Well technically it's the second but my last post got into July's. Probably because it's one day earlier here than the other side of the world. Anyway it's three days to Eidulfitr, and everyone's home now. Adam even brought a friend home to celebrate raya with us this year. So that makes it 8 people here. Best. Rumah riuh ja. It's been a while since we have the whole family home. Usually it's only the five of us. 

We still have plenty to do. There's still house chores to be done, shopping, cooking and baking. It's going to be a busy three days for us. Plus we also have to do some cleaning at our new home in Bertam. Mama bought a home there, a double storey terrace. It's quite nice actually. I'll blog more about it later. 

Anyway I could already start registering subjects for my next semester online, but I think Im going to have to put it on hold. At least until after raya. It's a hassle choosing elective subjects. Because first its not a compulsory subject and second because every subject has its own perks. Subjek ni lecturer best, tapi jadual tak best. Subjek tu lecturer best, tapi dia 100% coursework. So it's giving me a headache. Plus aku rasa aku tak lepas nak register satu subject ni. This subject can only be taken by final year student, and due to some technical error, I'm still a second year student, according to the database. Pimai-pimai pun kena register manual.

August is going to be a busy month for me. After raya I have MASUM and SDP waiting. MASUM's going to be on 17-23, but centralized training is going to start way sooner. SDP will be on the 26th until the end of August. SDP is scholar development program, some kind of an annual event my sponsor conduct to teach us softskills, teambuilding and to be involved in a charity program. At least I'll have a one week good rest before the new semester begin. Hopefully semua baik-baik sahaja.