Early Reading History..

Since I was a school boy until now, I am not the type of ‘reading’ kid. I only read for ‘survival’. Thus, I only read when exam is just around the corner. I rarely read books even for pleasure. It will make me tired and I ill fall asleep. The only two books, if they can be categorized as books, are Doraemon and Shin Chan. I would rather read these books starting dawn till dusk than to do anything else. Sometimes, I do go to the library but seldom read the books there. I often study there with my friends. However, I remember this one book (novel) that was made compulsory to read as a literature component when I was in Form 1. The name of the novel was ‘Aku Anak Timur’ written by Siti Aminah Haji Yusof. This novel also had won the first prize in the ‘Competition of Writing Journey Novel’ this novel was written in 1980’s.

The novel was a bout a girl, Zarina who followed her mother during school holidays to visit her father who was studying in Leiden University, Netherland. When she reached there, she was at first rather shock with the lifestyle of the Western people. However, she realized that their way of lifestyles were different due to their differences in cultures. Later, she met a guy, Niek Van Hoeve who was then introduced her to his friends. She then became influenced by her new friends and this made her parents worry. Everything changed when she was almost being raped by one of her new friends that she just met at the party. After the incident, she realized why her parents disobeyed her all this while and how far the Western people had gone in respecting others.

I like this novel because it showed the patriotism spirit that the main character, Zarina had. Apart from that, the writer also had shown to me how beautiful the scenery along the journey besides how wonderful the experience that the family had. It was narrated well and I believe all the readers could imagine the real situation happened in the story. It also taught me the new language which, language of the Holland people. Zarina in one scene of the story became mad because the people there did not know where Malaysia is. I still remember how weird I felt when I first read about it. Soon, I became proud as people from all around the world have known Malaysia now.

As a person who never experienced staying at overseas, the novel was like ‘an imaginary place’ that I had been. It really ‘brought’ me there. Since the novel was written in1980’s, when I first read the story in 2000, I did wonder if the perception of the Western people towards Malaysia had changed. As I stated above, in the story, Zarina became mad when the people there did not Malaysia and yet they knew Indonesia better. I do hope that now, the new generation know Malaysia better since we are more advanced and developed better than Indonesia.

High Fidelity..

What is the movie about?

• Searching for a true love. That is the main theme and what the movie is all about. Rob Gordon, the main character of this movie tries to complete his searching by having relationships with several women. However, he encounters a lot of problems due to his own fear of commitment.
  

How it is different from a common love fiction?

• From my point of view, it is different since it is narrated by a man.All this while, we have been watching all the movie that shows how women perceive love and at the end it is always men who is blamed. However, this movie shows how Rob sees love in his life. Besides, there is no such thing as too romantic scene that would make me sleep while watching.
  

Who is your favorite character and why

• Dick, a low-profile friend of Rob Gordon is my favorite character. What I like the most about him is his characteristic - low-profile yet funny. He doesn't like to talk when he doesn't feel it is necessary. All of his points are relevant he does not spAt the early part of the movie, Dick is shown as 'a loser' in love. However, towards the end of the movie, we can see the difference in him. He becomes more confident in himself and even manage to get himself a girlfriend.
  

Provide an alternate ending

• Rob insists on forgetting Laura. He decided to focus on his career. He becomes a very well-known person due to his success in managing his record store. Later, she found another girl who is prettier and end even smarter than Laura. He realizes that they really compliment each other. They get married and Rob managed to have his own company. His label becomes an international label. Then, Laura regretted what she did. However, it's too late since Rob already has his own family.
  

Writer's Block..

Problems Faced by Students When Writing..

When writing, i often face these problems. They come in tree different stages.

Pre-writing stage:

1) Organizing ideas.
- It is sometimes hard for me to organize the ideas since it came to blow out in my mind and I have to arrange them in order.

2) Draft/Outline.
- This problem happened since I was in primary school. I am kind of free writing person. I love to write whatever comes cross my mind. I hate doing draft since I think it will just make me lose all the idea that I had.

While-writing Stage:

1) Grammar / Tense.
- I think most of the writers would encounter this problem. It really makes me 'worry' about my writing. I have to double check my grammar and the tenses. I do this even while writing all the entries in this blog. This is sometimes hampering me from writing.

2) Thesis statement.
- I often face this problem while writing essays especially during my pre-degree. Sometimes, the idea of the content of the essays did not come out when I was writing the introduction, therefore, it was very hard for me to write the thesis statement. And sometimes when I just had a new idea, I had to make a change to my thesis statement. This is really tiring.

3) Exposition of the ideas.
- Good ideas would sometime come without elaboration. I had the idea, but while writing it I do not know how to elaborate it.

4) Mental Block.
- This is a very common problem of all the writers. The mental sometimes being 'blocked' and I can't even think at all. When this happen, I always stop writing and do other thing while waiting for the idea to 'appear' in my mind. If it does not appear, I'd rather stop writing.

Post-writing Stage:

1) Overwrite.
- After I had finished writing, I always wonder if my writing had exceed the limit. Readers sometimes hate to read an overwrite essay. And I hate it either.

2) Overstate.
- Sometimes when I had a very good idea, I became too excited to write about it. Thus, I would sometimes wrote too much explanation. Therefore, I had to double check my essay and erase the unnecessary elaboration.

3) Too Complex / Not Simple.
- As a reader, I did face a problem to understand what the writer tries to deliver. So, when I was writing, I often wonder if my readers would understand my message.

4) Too many needless words.
- When this happens, the readers often feel that reading the article is just wasting their time. I always double check all the words, since I might put too many needless words.

The New Semester..

07/07/08 is the date that marks the beginning of the new semester. Being a part 5 student in my third year of study I do really hope that I will be able to score the GPA of at least 3.5 (May Allah grant my wish). I heard from my seniors that part 5 is actually 'the hell' of this lovely course. I do really hope that they were wrong though I do think it was right in the first place. This might be due to the 20 credit hours with 5 subjects of 3 credit hours that we 'carry'.
I am really happy that the holiday was finally over since I did not have so much activity to be done during my holiday. As usual, the main problem faced by us is regarding the online registration system. Some of my friends did not actually registered for the subject as a result of their 'lateness'. Luckily, I did not have to face such problem since I registered early on the very first day of the registration. Even though I had to wait for more than an hour for the sake of joining my class, U5C. Technology...!
The first week of this new semester gave us no assignment and I do really like that. I just hope that the semester will leave me a sweet memory.