Friday, June 30, 2006

Monkeys in Kruth

Last friday, we went to some place where we return to our natural habitat (jungle)...not all of us of course, but people who come from Sabah and Sarawak like Ed and Daniel. They were very adept at climbing trees, just like the orang-utans from their hometown. I didn't managed to take much photo about the actual event itself as my camera ran out of battery...Check out the photo of Amir with his retro-car.

-gAvIn-











Thursday, June 29, 2006

Jasin MP alleges mishandling of confiscated luxury cars by Customs Department

News here.
Jasin MP Datuk Mohd Said Yusof is no stranger to us Malaysians. He was investigated earlier (as usual, without any results) this year for asking the custom department to "close an eye" to some timber shipments into Malaysia.

Nothing surprising here...until I read this:
Later, Mohd Said told reporters that he had proof of the Customs officials’ alleged corrupt practices, but he would not lodge a report with the Anti-Corruption Agency.

What the f*** is wrong with this guy? Either he got the guts to prove what he alleges or just shut the f*** up and go home. I think we Malaysians are tired of allegations of whom and whom are so corrupted that they stink but refuse to provide prouve or testify for the ACA. I have read that Mahathir, Anwar, Semi-Value, Daim and tons of people are all corrupt but not charged because no one is willing to stand up and prove it. Unless proofs are given, none of those allegations should be believed.

-gAvIn-

Monday, June 26, 2006

54, '74, '90, 2006 Sportfreunde Stiller

That is the name of a very popular song that currently tops the german music chart. The germans are superstitious, according to the date of their past 3 world cup victories 1954, 1974 and 1990, you can prouve that they are going to win this time (or so they say).

54 x 74 = 3996

3996 - 1990 = 2006

Voilà...I'll keep my fingers crossed, the song is not that nice also btw. :)

-gAvIn-

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Peculiarities in the French language

When I first started learning French, I always wonder why the word that means "today", "aujourd'hui" is that looong. I just found out that it means actually twice the same thing: The latin for today is "hodie", which gives phonetically "hui" in ancient french. Etymologist have found out that we tend to reinforce our words, so "hui" in itself becomes "au jour d'hui" (meaning at the course of today). As time passes, the phrase lexicalized and became "aujourd'hui".

The french have the expression "au jour d'aujourd'hui" which means "these days"...will that be lexicalized in a few centuries time to become "aujourd'aujourd'hui"? God knows...

-gAvIn-

Saturday, June 24, 2006

more pics...?

jus to pick up a little where gavin left off with the pics from the trip... i myself took a couple of photos, not that many thanx to my stupid camera!!! shutter problem... here they are;




<---the 'robotic birds' that gavin was refferin to...
the toy spider that gavin also spoke of...--->

patricia (left) and rosy... our guides...







trekkin uphill...--->




lost!!!






monyet malaysia!!!--->









<---amir and gavin (the oranje team...)




cameramen in action...--->










<---at the summit... enfin...





and thats it for the trip...
-aDRiANo-

I found this in some website...with the usual culture stereotyping. :)







Tuesday, June 20, 2006


Different IUTs for this September.

For some strange unknown reason, most of us still don't know whether we are accepted or not by our universities this coming rentrée. (or start of academic year) A check on IUT de Bordeaux's website shows that most admission decisions are made by July, thus our situation. The funny thing is that all the JPA students seems to know their destination very early, which I believe is partly due to their couse selection and relationship with the IUTs and grandes ecoles...

As you can see on the map to your left, we are quite dispersed but no one has chosen the north-west and south-east part of France. 4 of us have confirmed their placings: Zaid: Amiens, Ali, Kamil, Luk: Annecy
The rest of us are still unsure: Amir: Lyons, Eijas: Lille, Adrian: Bordeaux, me:still torn between Bordeaux and Toulouse...Will keep you all updated.


Update: Adrian and I got Bordeaux, the problem is housing, what Martin proposed to us is very expensive...I'll see if I can find some cheaper ones...
Update: Eijas and Zarf got Lille, Syafiq and Amir got Belfort. Good luck :)

-gAvIn-

Sunday, June 18, 2006


More stunning pictures from the trip. lol, tak tau malu...














Randonnée à Hohrodberg, Munster (10 Juin)

Last saturday, we went for some tracking in the Voges with 3 of our French teacher: Gio, Pat and Rosy. Munster is famous for its cheese, but thats not the point here since we're not visiting those caves in which they "matures" the cheese. We departed from Colmar at 10.15 am, arrived there at nearly 11, where Rosy joined us. Zafran had a field day scaring the teachers with a toy spider that craws he found along the way. =.= Pat and Rosy leads the way, as they tracks alot during their freetime and thus, considered the veterans.

We spotted some birds atop a municipal building, they were at least 6 nests for them, with them flapping their wings once around. It sure looks like some robots to me, but Adrian and Zarf disagreed...well, it seems robotic to me, until I noticed a family of this dunno-what-name bird. A family of robots I would say! Well, I was wrong, they were real birds...Rosy told us that they were caged to prevent them from migrating to the Afriques during winter because of the fear of poachings.

We continued our journey and saw some houses and villages along the way. I wonder why some people chose to live that high up in the mountain. I suppose they like the view, the clean air and the pristine surrounding more than they hate the possible inconvenience. Along the way, Ali performed some dances à la Bollywood and we were all abit worried for his saneness. :) Well, to make a long story short, it was nearly a six hour track with lots of pauses and laughters in between. The trip was well worth it.

-gAvIn-