Hey fellow bloggers and readers, I've been busy these few days concentrating on my assignment and exam due this weekend. Will try to update soon after. I have a lot of readings to catch up! warghh.. In the meantime, check out my Mobile Blog :) Later!

Three people are dead and 25 injured after a strong 7.5-magnitude quake rocked Indonesia's Aceh province last night. Indonesia's meteorological agency said the quake struck 42 kilometres northwest of Sinabang, the main town on Simeulue Island, off the west coast of Sumatra. It was in the same area as the earthquake that caused the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. The quake briefly sparked a tsunami alert and people headed to the mountains. News agenc AFP says the quake was felt for about two minutes in Aceh's capital Banda Aceh, causing people to ran outside in panic. [ Stuff.co.nz ] Omg, that is a shocking and sad news. I was in Aceh barely four weeks ago.. Related Aceh travel links Aceh travelogue Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam travel photos

..Explosions in the Sky live at Ruums Club, KL ..the blogger and the stage (not in pic: Din) "..Kami adalah Letupan di Langit!" one of the band member attempting to speak a few Malay words to a thunderous cheer from the crowd. The moment they played the first track of the night, 'Your Hand in Mind', which is also one of my favorite track, I was like, omg I can't believe I'm watching them live! Been a big fan of the Explosions in the Sky since listening to the 'The Earth Is A Not Cold Dead Place' album during my uni days, this is definitely one of the best show that I've been to in years. It was fantastic listening live to my favorite songs like 'Your Hand In Mine', 'The Only Moment We Were Alone', 'Yasmin the Light', 'First Breath After Coma', 'Catastrophe and the Cure' and a lot more.. I've been watching their videos over Youtube and to compare with their live performance here in KL, I can say they sure...

Below is an interesting piece of letter which I'd like to share with here. Thanks to Malaysia-Today columnist, Azly Rahman for sharing this letter in his column. Leading US Presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama wrote that letter to clear up the misunderstandings about his family Muslim background. He has been accused of being a Muslim, even though he admitted that he's been attending a local church for the past 20 years. He was also accused that he studied at a fundamentalist Muslim school or madrassa in Indonesia ( a pathetic claim to suggest that he's a Muslim extremist?? ) and all sort of ridiculous accusations made up by some conservative rivals. Regardless of all that, I personally feel that it would be great to have someone with a better understanding of the Muslim worldview to sit in the White House. Let's wait for the Presidential race to be over. Read up.. The Muslim heritage of my family Barack Hussein Obama There has been a lot made in the recent weeks a...

Breaking News! PM dissolves Parliament Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today announced the dissolution of the Parliament at a specially arranged press conference at his office in Putrajaya. This is the news that everyone's been waiting for. Malaysiakini has picked up the news 10 minutes ago. Now let's wait for the election date, which is to be announced by the Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya (SPR).

'Trengganu did exist once, as Terengganu does now. I grew up in the former and live now outside the latter; so in the title of this book and in the writings herein it is Trengganu for me..' - Awang Goneng 'Growing Up in Trengganu' by Awang Goneng (pen name of writer Wan A. Hulaimi) is the latest book on my bookshelves. The book is a compilation of his writings in his blog ( kecek-kecek ) from 2004 - June 2007. It is written in a storytelling style about his childhood days in the kampung and the history of 'Trengganu'. I've been meaning to buy this book for quite some time, but only after the third or fourth MPH visit that I decided to buy it. In constrast to previous three to five years ago, I am now quite picky in choosing new books to buy. I no longer just go to the non-fiction or History or the Biography section of a bookstore and pick anything that's interesting, unless if it's really something that I've been waiting for, i.e. Tun Dr. Mahath...

Yay, I have just created a new photo site! Travel and Leisure . Haha, nothing much to shout about though. Just a simple website. It's a collection of photos from my trip to Indonesia, Phillipines, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia as well. Some, or most of the photos in there are currently hosted in Fotopage .

..Off The Edge February 2008 Issue 38 Hey all, don't forget to grab a copy of the Off The Edge 's February Issue (Marina Mahathir cover). For the first time they're giving a free complimentary cd, entitled 'Faith, Hope, Chaos' - Malaysian Contemporary Music Vol 1. I haven't listen to the music yet but free cd is always good to have. :P I always think that Off The Edge is the best magazine in town, in terms of their content at least. I shall mention this that I have no any interest with Off The Edge (OTE), just thought of sharing my thoughts on the magazine. I'm now a loyal subscriber of the mag and enjoy 25% discount. In OTE, you have a range of excellent writers like Farish Noor, Hishamuddin Rais, Patrick Teoh and Kam Raslan (author of Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures), just to name a few. I don't have to agree with what they write all the time to enjoy reading their piece every month. I feel that in some way, OTE has shaped and...

Perang Siber Indonesia - Malaysia II* Penulisan ini adalah sebagai reaksi daripada hubungan Indonesia - Malaysia yang makin keruh akibat mainan media massa di Indonesia. Ianya berikutan isu lagu Rasa Sayang dan batik yang kononnya dicuri Malaysia yang kini sudah merebak ke internet. Perang Siber yang wujud semakin menjadi-jadi, terutama sekali disebelah pihak Indonesia. Manakala, situasi di Malaysia kelihatan sangat tenang. Malah ramai yang tidak mengetahui wujudnya perasaan kurang senang oleh pihak di seberang sana kerana media di sini bersikap tidak membesar-besarkan isu ini. Blog ini juga bukanlah hendak menangkis semua tuduhan dan cercaan para bloggers Indonesia, tetapi hanya komentar secara umum tentang hubungan kedua-dua negara, kerana saya percaya pergaduhan yang terjadi adalah sangat sia-sia dan tidak ada faedahnya. Ini juga adalah sebagai reaksi balas terhadap blog-blog negatif yang memaki hamun kedua-dua negara. Saya hanya dapat mencari 1 sahaja blog yang kononnya milik rakya...

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Holidays all! :) Note to Self. 15/2, Friday - MWP assignment submission 16/2, Saturday - MTIS presentation 19/2, Tuesday - Explosions in the Sky live in Malaysia!

..Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street This is a damn bloody (literally bloody) movie! Hahah. I just watched it with zam and yan. Thanks guys. and thanks to Wikipedia too, now I know who Sweeney Todd really was. Let me quote Wikipedia. "Sweeney Todd is a villain appearing in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century as a barber and an early example of a serial killer. His weapon of choice is a straight razor, with which he cuts his victims' throats. In some versions of the story Mrs. Lovett, who is his lover, friend, or partner in crime hides the crimes by butchering the corpses of Todd's victims, baking their flesh into meat pies, and selling them to unknowing customers. He is also assisted by an unwitting apprentice lad named Tobias Ragg, who later aids in unmasking his crimes. In most versions of the story, Sweeney either helps or hinders (sometimes both) the love affair of a young woman, Todd's daughter Johanna Barker, and a sailor ...

..J.Co Donuts & Coffee, Pavillion Mall, Bukit Bintang, KL J.Co donuts anyone? I'm sure many of you have tasted J.Co donuts by now. I had the chance to try it while having lunch at Pavillion Mall, Bukit Bintang few weeks ago. But I think for all the hype around J.Co, the taste isn't exactly that excellent, though I like the softness of the donut compared to Dunkin's. :) I still find it amazing to see how people can queue up for so long to buy donuts! A scene that has never happened before in Dunkin Donuts. The top guys in Dunkin Donuts must be racking their brains trying to think of new strategy on how not to lose their customers to J.Co. hehe.. All in all, I think J.Co is one of the outstanding brand that came from Indonesia in recent years. They currently have 35 outlets throughout Indonesia and 2 in Malaysia (Pavillion Mall and Sunway Pyramid). All that is a span of two and a half years! Quite an achievement, isn't it. And they'll be opening more in Singapore...

1st February 2008 marks the sixth anniversary of my online presence! Amazing how fast time flies by, isn't it? The idea of having a website came in late 2001 before my first website was officially published in February 2002. It started out with a humble personal website using Geocities and Tripod free webhosting and cjb.net as the URL redirector, (shahnon2020.cjb.net) before moving on to shahnon.com in October 2003 to date. You can view previous web layouts here and here Happy sixth anniversary to my website! :)

..Dr Mahathir's Selected Letters to World Leaders (2008 Marshall Cavendish) I happened to came across the book during lunch time at KLCC few days ago. I would usually visit the Times Bookstore to kill some time while waiting for my queue number to be called at the post office. It didn't took long to decide to buy even though it is quite pricey (sighh). I wish our government would subsidies the price of books! Books in Malaysia is too damn expensive! How would you want to cultivate reading habit among the public, if the book price is too expensive? Yes, we do have public libraries but it makes no point having a beautiful library but is inaccessible in the middle of a congested road (read: National Library, Jalan Tun Razak). Libraries, I think should be built near housing areas which have an easy access to public transport and other basic amenities. Okok anyways, this book is definitely one of the books to look forward to read. From Jeff Ooi's blog, I found out that the book ...