155

After three months into 2003, here are the nominees for __earthinc’s Best of 2003 Awards. Suggestion must reach __earth before year 2003 ends. Any suggestion must be sent to hafiz_sw[AT]hotmail[DOT]com or hafiz_sw[AT]yahoo[DOT]com. A limited poll will be held some time in October till November 2003. =)

The news of the year – The Gulf War II and its related news, Malaysia-Singapore relation, N. Korea Nuclear row
Space news of the year – The lost of SS Columbia, Japan's First Spy Satellites
Environmental news of the year – ANWR survives Bush’s drilling plan, Water Conference in Japan
Sport news of the year – Ajax into UEFA CL Quarterfinals
Crap of the year – Freedom fries

Person of the year – George Bush, Jacque Chirac
Joker of the year – George Bush
Loser of the year – Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair, France
Beauty of the year – Some girl in the bus
Bitch of the year – MSNBC
Fucker of the year – [Award suspended due to its ambiguousness nature]
Critique of the year – [Still searching]

News feeder of the year – Reuters, AP

Computer of the year – [Award suspended]
Quasi-computer of the year – [Award suspended]
Motherboard of the year – [Still searching]
Processor of the year – AMD Athlon, Intel Pentium
Video card of the year – GeForce 4 FX, ATi Radeon 9700 Pro
Sound card of the year – Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
Speaker of the year – Creative Inspire 6.1 [Still]
Mp3 player of the year (hardware) – Apple’s IPod
OS of the year – MS Window XP
Programming language of the year – [Award suspended]
Web browser of the year – IE, Netscape
Firewall of the year – ZoneAlarm
Tracker of the year – VisualCare
AV of the year – McAfee VirusScan
Digicam of the year – Canon
Image editor of the year - Adobe Photoshop
HTML editor of the year – Notepad
Search engine of the year – Google
Portal of the year – Yahoo!
Messenger of the year – Trillian
Media player of the year – RealOne, Quicktime
Mp3 player of the year (software) – Winamp
Game of the year – Neverwinter Nights, Eve: The Second Genesis, C&C: Generals, Freelancer, Earth & Beyond, Impossible Creatures
Gamer of the year – Kelvin, Epol, Hong, Jebai, Hafiz Hasan
Weblog publisher of the year – Blogger, Movable Type
Weblog of the year – [Still searching]

Fast food of the year- McDonald’s, Subway
Restaurant of the year – [Still searching]
Coffee shop of the year – Starbuck
Pop of the year – Mountain Dew
Dining Hall of the year – South Quad’s, Bursley's

University of the year – University of Michigan

Campus of the year (for Michigan) – Central Campus
Zoo of the year (Special Award) – University of Michigan’s North Campus
Reshall of the year – West Quad
Organization of the year – Solar Car Team
Workspace of the year – [Award suspended]
Professor of the year – George Johnson
GSI/TA of the year – Katherine Guthrie, Erik Ohlander
Course of the year – ECON 102
Building of the year – Michigan Union, SCT's workspace, Media Union, EECS Building, MLB
Hangout place of the year – S. University St.
Day of the year – Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Swear word of the year – Fuck Fuckity Fuck, sucks, screw you( I don't think this is a swear word)

Planet of the year – [Searching]
City of the year – [Searching]
Mall of the year – Briarwoods Mall at Ypsilanti-MI, 12 Oaks at Novi-MI
Freeway of the year – I-90, USA
Street of the year – E. Liberty St., S. U. St., Main St.

Car of the year – Nissan Z, SpectruM

Book of the year – [Searching]
Magazine of the year – PC Magazine
Text book of the year – [Screw this]

Football team of the year – AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Arsenal, Man Utd (Ack!), Arsenal, Newcastle, Celtics, Ajax ,Real Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona
National team of the Year – Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Brazil(Ack!), England
Sport site of the year – uefa.com, soccernet.com
NCAAF team of the year – [Waiting for the season to start]

Movie of the year – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Matrix: Reloaded, Matrix: Revolution, The Pianist
Disappointment of the year – Daredevil, The Hulk
Flop of the year – [Award suspended]
Flop of the year – [ Award suspended]
Short Film of the year – [Searching]
Cartoon of the year – South Park, Simpson
Sitcom of the year – [Searching]
Group of the year – Evanescence, Dove, Disturbed
Song of the year - Bring me to life(Evanescence), Sea Song(Dove), Remember(Disturbed), Somewhere I Belong(LP)

154

The United States Of America and its allies have started bombarding Iraq. At the same time, the Ann Arbor populace are showing their discontent against the unjust war.
A few pro-peace movements organized a successful rally today. The students’ movements started the peace rally at the Diag at 1700 hours. A few students spoke in the name of peace. Later, the students marched along N. University St., E. Liberty, W. Liberty St. and Main St. before joining other war protesters in front of the Ann Arbor Federal Building. I joined the procession at about 1700 hours and left the rally at about 1900 hours.
Although it was raining, the event was a success. The anti-war march received a huge turnout and the peaceful Tree Town was transformed into a noisy city. A few chanted were shouted. Among them were “What do we want? Peace. When do we want it? Now”, “Who let the dog out? Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush!”, “Who is the bastard? Bush!” Candle vigil was also carried out with thousand of people standing and singing in front of the Federal Building.























For peace!

153

This post is dedicated to peace.
Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace.
Thirty peace words for the thirty members of the so-called 'Coalition of the Willing'.

I know this is stupid but whatever it is, my action does not kill any people. People, if you are against this unjustified war, copy the first paragraph and paste it on your website. Everyone of us needs to show Bush that the majority of the world population is against war.

152

Valencia defeated Arsenal with the scoreline of 2 -1 while Ajax, striking a first minute goal failed to hold on to their lead. Nevertheless, Ajax, for the first time since 1997 is through to the UEFA Champions' League quarterfinal. Roma is indeed disappointed by the result as now, they don't have any cup to win. In order for them to catch up with Serie A leader, they will have to relay on luck excessively.
Meanwhile, as predicted Arsenal lost in Valencia. I am a little bit upset with my own prediction but the important thing is, Ajax made it through. Being in the CL's Group of Death, it is a miracle that Ajax didn't even lose a game.
Well, what is done is done. This week, P$V will be up against Ajax. Although I would imagine that the Eresdivie's crown is now unofficially P$V's property, a victory over the farmer folks would be the next sweetest thing after this qualification.
For Ajax, we have outshot our goal. Whatever happens after this, winning or losing in the quarterfinal, three hurrah for Ajax. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Don't let my Ajax go away...

151

AJAX SCORED IN THE FIRST MINUTE. The first goal was scored by Andy van der Meyde, assisted by Van der Vaart. It only took Ajax 36 seconds to take the lead in Rome.

150

Today is the crucial day for all members of UEFA’s CL Group B. Ajax will be up against Roma in Rome while Arsenal is paying Valencia a visit Spain.
The speculative results are complicated to calculate relatively to the other groups. First case scenario asserts that Arsenal and Ajax will be joining Barcelona, Inter, AC Milan, Madrid, Manchester and Juventus if both teams win or draw against their respective opponent. This will result with Ajax on top of the group.
Second case says that Ajax and Valencia will be through into the next stage if Arsenal loses. If this is the case, it doesn’t matter what will happen to Ajax as long as, if Ajax lost, losing with the deficit of only one goal.
Thirdly, Arsenal and Roma case. Arsenal must not lose and Roma must win big-time.
Finally, Valencia and Roma. Both must win in order for this combination to be true.
Ronald Koeman might not fields Van der Vaart. He suffered a minor hamstring injury during the 2 – 1 victory against Excelsior last week. On the other hand, Roma will be missing Francesco Totti and Walter Samuel.

Earlier this morning, I received a good luck bid from a friend in the Netherlands. He is a PSV supporter staying in Brabant. One thing to note though, the much hyped Ajax – PSV match will be held this upcoming Sunday. Steven, you no good P$V.
More update to come up as the match progresses.

Years since we long this day,
For it has been awhile since that victorious May,
But no more shall we tarry,
For today the serving is sweat and victory.

149

Here we're sitting,
Knowing spring is coming,
But spring is nothing,
When war is looming.

148 841 5U<|<5

French fries == freedom fries? Kebodohan di mana sahaja.
I found the saying above from one of my friends and it means stupidity is everywhere. Indeed, stupidity is everywhere.
Honestly, I think war will start no matter what we do. We could sign a petition, take the protest to the street or attack the US embassy but all these won’t change Bush’s mind. He seems to have a disgusting hunger for war and he doesn’t care whether it is justifiable or not.
He says that the reason the US wants to attack Iraq is because Saddam Hussein led government failed to adhere to Resolution 1441. However, from what I have observed since the nineties, the inspectors had never and have never found anything substantial that could lead to a material breach. The pro-war might say Iraq is still in possession of al-Samoud missiles and that is a material breach. Note however the banned missile was the longer range scud, not al-Samoud. Really, the UN allows Iraq to have it.
Even if Iraq is in violation of the resolution, isn’t it is the UN power to decide whether we should go to war or not? The resolution was passed by the UN Security Council and not by the White House. It is illogical for the US to start the war by using the material breach reason. But then again, I guess I can’t blame Bush. Bush is the definition of stupidity after all. I bet Bush does not recognize what 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399 is.
In the UN, the US has finally showed a sign of surrender after the French and the Russian threaten to veto any kind of resolution that could lead to war. Although this is good news, I fear this only delay the war clouds instead of stopping it for good. It is a general knowledge that Bush intent to remove Saddam Hussein from power by force.
Furthermore, there have been words that the US forged evidence presented to the UN in order to swing world opinion. I at first was pessimistic of the idea but when the issue was brought to the Senate, the rumor started to gain momentum. The US is going to lose credibility if this is the case.
While this happens, the division between the US and the opponents of war, lead by the French, the German and the Russian has widened. In the US media, there have been frequent columns that condemn the French and I would imagine the French media are doing to the same thing too. The best proof is the introduction of Freedom Fries down south. Freedom fries, French fries, it’s just fries for crying out loud. Kebodohan di mana sahaja.
An excerpt from a forum:
=============================================
hey, you -- over at the shallow end of the gene pool -- FRANCE DOESN'T EXPORT FRENCH FRIES. the only people you're hurting by boycotting french fries are the hardworking farmers of idaho and other potato-bearing states. france has no french fry export market. nor do we import french toast from them, either. and guess what? there's no tariff on french ticklers, french lace, french undies, french bread, or frenchie, the chick from american idol.
if you wanna paste a big "I'M A MORON" sign on your forehead by calling them "freedom fries" and "liberty bread," go right ahead. it'll help me weed out the ignorant when i finally snap and walk into a mall with an ak-47. but for the love of god, france doesn't care if you stop buying american products with the word "french" in them. so please, either take a freedom bayonet and shove it into your sloped forehead, or shut the f**k up!

thank you
=============================================

p/s - more reason for the Greens to hate Bush. He is approving drilling in the ANWR.

147

The important game in Amsterdam ended in another draw. Unlike Ajax’s first encounter of Valencia, this match was not controlled by any side. Both teams could have won the game. Ronald Koeman had pointed out before the game that Ajax was out for a win. A win for Ajax would have guaranteed Holland a berth in the quarterfinal since 1997.
The game started positively for both sides but the F-Side was later silenced by Valencia. Valencia won a penalty kick in the 27th minutes and the penalty was converted smartly by Kily Gonzalez . Ajax however equalized early in the second half, returning the ArenA to its noisy state. Petri Pesanen headed the ball passed Valencia goalie and thus putting Ajax's future in their own hands.
After all that, there was something ironic about the game. Ajax was wearing their famous white-red jersey while Valencia was wearing their away jersey, which was orange in color. To put it bluntly, the impressive Amsterdam ArenA looked very much Dutch.
Furthermore, lately, Ajax’s European goals were not scored Zlatan, Van der Vaart or Mido but instead, some unlikely players. Maybe this is a sign that Ronald Koeman still believes in Ajax’s Total Football philosophy.
While hearts were pumping in the Amsterdam ArenA, Arsenal had to contain Roma in Highbury, London. Surprising enough, Roma could have robbed full point at Highbury and left Arsenal to die. From what I’ve heard from the commentary, Arsenal failed to secure Roma’s tactics. What’s more embarrassing, Arsenal failed to outrun a 10-men-Roma at their own homeground. Although Totti was sent off by the referee after a fight with Martin Keown but Roma continued to cause Arsenal trouble at the back.
As a result of Match Day 11, Group B is left very much as it was after Match Day 10. Ajax still holds the crown but the differences between teams are so small that Roma could steal Ajax’s throne if they managed to deny Ajax of point. So, unlike the other three groups, Match Day 12 will be the most important day ever for Ajax, Arsenal, Valencia and Roma.
For the next battle, Ajax has two good news. First of all, Ajax will again be playing with a full squad and number two, Roma will be without Francesco Totti. Despite that, knowing both the Dutch and the Italian, I predict another draw for Ajax. For the Spain match, I must say Valencia will win. I am suddenly losing confidence in the Gunners. I hope both Ajax and Arsenal will manage a draw.

146

I am sitting here, in front of my computer still trying to sleep. It is a curse to suffer insomnia (or pseudo-insomnia, depending on how you see it) but today, I saw one of the most beautiful things ever, thanks to insomnia.
While I was watching The Pianist in my room alone, I was rudely surprised but the ugly sound the alarm clock made. I had set it to go off sometimes around six in the morning. My first reaction was to shut the alarm off as quickly as possible. I do not know why but the sound of my alarm clock always gives me an adrenaline rush. Anyway, that is not the point. After I slammed the alarm clock with my fist, I saw a line of light far in the horizon.
Curious, I pulled the curtains out of my line of sight and opened up the windows. It didn’t take me long to realize that the light came from the Sun. And it was magnificent view.
A picture worth a thousand words and the phrase is no way untrue.
The sky was dark and the ground was cover with the bluish-white snow. The pavement looked wet and no doubt, it was cold outside. The clouds covered most parts of the sky save the far horizon. The Sun was not visible yet but its light was already brightened up the general east. The light was dully red, almost pink or nearly orange, the sort of colors that you see while twilight was giving way to the night and the formed a line from the south to the north.
I was rather puzzled by the line but soon I understood what caused it. It was the clouds, forming a carpet. It was as if a healthy bulb was lit up and a few feet under it, laid a sheet of thick cardboard. The line of light that I saw would be the light that that would hit the edge of the cardboard. The representation is somewhat way simplified because the spectrum of red light was prevalent around the line.
Slowly, as time passed slowly, the darkness succumbed to light but not without a fight. The deep dark blue was first changed to a softer navy blue. From blue, red took over. The red showed a spectacular array of lights. Farther, the Sun was rising and its shiny yellowish light shot to all areas. The Law School, which looks like a medieval European castle formed an impressive silhouette as the trees covered the modern building as if trying to hide the fact that we are living in the twenty-first century.
Red gave way to a lower level red and that red fell to carrot’s skin. The color conquered vast area of the sky but soon, the Sun was up high. Soon, the lovely cyan declared that it was time to wake up. Soon, the Sun’s brilliance overwhelmed my eyes and no longer could I look straight into the source of all living things.
It was beautiful. These words will no way describe the sunrise so Batcha, I want my other camera back.

145

I do remember way back in the late eighties that I was an Apple freak. No, not that apple, I mean the Apple computer. For those of you that know me well, you might be surprised to know that I was a Macintosh lover.
Yeah, those were the days when Windows was nothing but a sperm searching the ovum and Lotus 123 was in the making. Back in those days, there was only Apple and Apple and IBM was competing against each other. (Whatever happens to IBM anyways?)
Back in the late eighties, my cousins and I were groups of the few people that had ever touched a computer and had the luxury of playing Karate-Ka on a Macintosh. A Mac. That Mac was the granddaddy of today’s ultra useless iMac with its own looked-cute-but-pathetic operating system.
Shortly, competitor named Commodore then was born but Apple somehow survived the wave that Commodore 64 made.
Then, came along the motto ‘Windows won’t win as long as Apple and Lotus 123 still run’. DOS was introduced by Microsoft for IBM computer and it quickly shoved off Apple out from the market. Later, Windows 3.1 hit the public and with that Microsoft managed to sideline the ‘Steves”. Bill Gates finally declared victory with the introduction of Windows 95.
From that moment on, I didn’t hear anything about Steve Job, Steve Wozniak, the Mac or Apple in the news nor in public conversation until the new millennium was around the corner.
While I was back in Shah Alam doing my useless preparatory classes, I must admit that I didn’t get the chance to get my hand on a so-called modern Mac although I did hear a lot of hype about it. My first modern Mac experience was in September 2001. I didn’t know how to use a Mac at that time but I tried to overcome my ignorance on Mac. Tries after tries, ignorance became knowledge and I found out that despite my disgust of Microsoft’s monopoly, I found IBM computers and especially a computer with Windows operating system is better than a cute Mac with a ghetto OS.
Beside the OS, the Mac keyboard failed to give the cool experience that a Logitech's keyboard provides. Furthermore, the command for cut and paste are so different for what normal people are used to. And the mouse! How could I forget about the mouse? Imagine a mouse with only one button. Nowadays, the most advance mouse has more than 5 programmable buttons but Apple decided that one button is okay. Yeah, try that mouse while playing UT2K3!
And the ultimate reason is that you can’t upgrade a Mac with the normal hardware or software found in the market. For instance, if you want to play Civilization 3, you have to buy a game entitled Civilization 3 For Mac. Wtf? So, one can say that a Mac is never compatible with anything. Even its iPod doesn’t support any other platform other than Apple’s until recently.
Wait, there is another ultimate reason. Apple is always overpriced. As an example, you are short on money, its better to get a Creative Lab’s Nomad rather than reaching for an iPod. For proof, the following line was taken from apple-history.com:
------------------------------------------------------------
The 15" model, with a 60 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 32 MB of VRAM and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, was $1299. The 17" model, with an 80 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 64 MB of VRAM, and a CD-RW/DVD-R "SuperDrive" was $1799.
------------------------------------------------------------
For USD1799, I could get a ultra powerful workstation with AMD Athlon XP 3000+ or the latest Intel Pentium, 120 GB of HD, 512 or even 1024 of DDR RAM, the fastest CD-RW/DVD-R, equipped with ATi Radeon 9700 Pro while enjoying the great graphics with detailed sound by SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum through Creative Inspire 6.1 6600, a Logitech keyboard and optical mouse and cool a 21” flat CRT.
However, Apple then introduced OS X, which really impressed me. Nevertheless, I still prefer Windows XP (or Linux but Linux is a pain in the ass). Also, Apple’s Firewire came out and beat the crap out of USB 1.1. The excitement didn’t end there. The ghetto iBook was phased out by the PowerBook and iMac was given a new look with an incredible slim design (the iMac still sucks though). And the curves, oo la la. It is like watching a Nissan Z or a Toyota Celica 2002 in front of you.
Earlier this year, Apple made another impact. They introduced the smallest ever laptop…ops PowerBook and the world first 17” laptop…ops sorry again, I mean PowerBook. If that didn’t impress me, I don’t know what will.
And early last week, I visited an Apple Store up in Novi, Michigan with Wann, Izham and Epol. There, I saw a 23” screen for Mac. The largest, ever monitor I had ever seen. I’d always though 21” was the largest. The only word that I managed to muster was
“…shhhhiiitttttteee…”
While there, Wann showed me a Mac lovers’ motto, “My anti-Mac sentiment was based on ignorance”. (I bet they are also ignorant on technology too). My anti-Mac sentiment is certainly based on knowledge but with the development by Steve Job and company, I won’t be surprised if in ten or fifteen years or anytime in the future, I will love Apple again the way I had loved the machine that I played Karate-Ka on. In fact, I am already in love with the 12” PowerBook.
So now, I will stop harassing the Mac lovers since I don’t want to eat my own words back.

p/s - have you guys seen Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? Seriously, I think one of those girls look like Mahira (or however you spell it) from Vanderbilt. The next time I meet her, I am seriously going to ask for her autograph.
p/s 2 - I've finally been to the Vu =) (well, I was only at the door steps of the thing with some solar guys, searching for a good restaurant in Ypsilanti).