A Journey Beyond The Logical Mind

Salam to all.

Angkat kaki... Tinggi tinggi.. Masuk hutan.. Ha Ha Ha Ha.. Ha ha ha ha.. (tak tahan gelak betul nyanyi-nyanyi ikut Pak Mus sambil angkat angkat kaki) Pak Mus, oh saya sudah rindu!

Bee. Tea. End. Yeah. I'm now a Kem Bina Negara Meru Kursus Kenegaraan's graduate. Woohoo!
To be honest la kan, I was actually looking forward to this camp because of two reasons. First, I want to borak borak with my friends, second, I want to know what's so 'dangerous' about BTN? Why is it such a big deal in the media?

So, due to the first reason, I was happy to be there at Taylor's in the early morning of 7th December. :) Boom bam boom bam, I checked-into Magma 1 with Faiz and Athirah plus 5 other people. Best kot 1 bilik untuk kitorang 8 orang je!! This is the hikmah of not having a matress on my bed in Wira 2, I can definitely see that.

Anyway, the first day starts with 2 talks or ceramah. (Somehow, the 'ceramah' were not called 'ceramah'. They were rebranded as 'Pembentangan Kertas Kerja'. A way not to promote 'ceramah.mode.initiated' I guess :p)

Both the Pembentangan Kertas Kerja were okay; meaning that I didn't fall asleep. The second one is a deeper version of Form 5 Sejarah textbook. It's a good thing they let us know about the 'Ujian', it kinda made me focus and not let my mind fly~ It's funny that we have to sing Menara Bangsa before the ceramah though, but well, ikut je lah kan?

First night, more to music. An instrumental patriotic song was played and we have to act like a conductor conducting an orchestra. Yuhin was one of the conductor that lead the guys all through the second song, Waheeda's Mazataro. Cayalah Yuhin! Then, grouped into groups. Got trouble finding the name list. Heh. Ended up in Group 8 with Atika, Reedo, Adilah, Nadhirah, Hidayah, Sharifah, Amir, Amar, Irfan, Faisal, Rhymie and Azlan. Was given 'Malaysia Tanah Airku' as a task.

2nd day. The naik bendera and dreaded KAWAD. Simple je but I couldn't get it right. Heh. Whateverlah. Then, the LDK. Our group's facilitator was Mejar Asharie. Nice, patient and on top of all, knowledgable. Hebat.

LDK 2: Choosing the shape thingy. I chose the Square.
LDK 3: Called 'Aku Tahu'. But like Tuan Kamal said, it revealed that 'Aku TIDAK Tahu'. So true.
LDK 4: Rumah Pusaka.
LDK 5:The shillings of Priority <--senang hati je letak nama.
LDK 6:Discussing LDK 5.
LDK 7: Bingo! (Yeahhhhhh, my group B won!! Woohoo! -Atika, Amar, Reedo, Hidayah, Amir-)
LDK 8: Free & Easy.

Yeah, the LDK was definitely NOT like I imagined. No treasure hunt or games -except the Bingo!- and we just stayed inside Dinamik 2 all throughout the 7 2hour-session of LDKs. Glad I survived without syahid~~ But then again, I enjoyed the discussion because I get to see things from many points of view and learn how to convince others. Of course, there're elements of Kenegaraan involved.

The last night, LDK 9. The Best Night. The presentation of songs (I DON'T WANT to remember Tn. Asharie as the MC.. =.='), the Batu, the Tugu and the Video. At the start of the Batu, memang kecut perut dengar suara fasi.. (Gkah's fasi). I was blurr during the start of The Batu and later, I was really touched by this; Kadang kala, penyelesaian kepada sesuatu masalah itu adalah dengan memberi. T.T And then, the Tugu. Smart ohhhhhhhhh, tugu!!! :D Terbaikkkkkkkk! The singing of songs represented the time of peace, the Batu represented the time of penjajahan and the Tugu represented the struggle for independence. Hebat. The video made me appreciate the peace our Malaysia now enjoys. I seriously hope Malaysia will always be peaceful and progressive. I don't want the Palestine situation to continue and I don't want any of us to experience that. Ever.

The first evening, the girls we given bola tampar while the guys did the abseiling. We played bola beracun, galah panjang, pepsi cola and bola tampar. :) The second evening, the girls did the abseiling. Lama dah tak buat, so kinda cuak. But bila turun, tak susah pun, Alhamduillah. :D
Had one of those roomate's moments with Kina during the decend. Haha. I want to do MORE! The last evening, we did the Kembara. Not that mencabar, really. Just walk through the 'forest'.. My group nearly got lost when we followed a different trail which later turned out to be a short cut. Once we lose track of the yellow marker, we turned back and found the real trail, thanks to another group.

The maghrib and subuh tazkirah were mainly about Bersyukur or being Grateful. Ustaz Khoirul was funny, haha. Really miss moments like this.

The Ujian, okay la I guess. Not that tough, but surely not that easy. After that, the majlis penutup. Pak Rani, as usual, made me laugh a LOT! I don't recall everything I 'bebel-ed' on stage, =.=' but I hope I wasn't crapping too much. Did I? Oh =.="


Overall, okay. Above expectation actually. (Because thanks to past experience, media and some friends, BTN was said to be brainwash camps with political agenda).
Well, if you ask me, who went through BTN for 4 days 3 nights, I'm proud to say that I love my country more. I feel the need to excel and to play my part in ensuring positive development of Malaysia. I feel obligated to say thank you to the pejuang bangsa of yesterday and today by doing my job; study hard and smart.

To you out there who said that BTN is of political agenda because political parties and issues were discussed, I would say : Of course la. We learnt about how our country gain independence, of course we cannot escape stories about UMNO, MCA, MIC, and stuff. And do I feel inclined towards a certain political ideology? I think not. I'm free to decide what I want to choose. I just want a harmonious country to live in, full of respect and trust, no misunderstanding, no ridiculous and stupid comments and actions whatsoever. If you can give me that, no doubt I'll choose you. Before that, please come to me with a Sijil Kursus Kenegaraan okay?

All in all, I had great time there. Tuan Asharie, Tuan Kamal, Pak Rani, Pak Mus, Pak Ya, Pak Dol and the whole team, thank you! You guys are GREAT and very dedicated. May Allah bless all of you always.

I enjoyed the time I spent there with my groupmates and classmates particularly Athirah, Atika, Faizah, and Sen. Sayang anda!

May cEndOl dUriaN always keep in touch!

Salam to all.

Cecilia Ahern and Dan Brown are no stranger in MPH's Top 10 bestseller's list and not surprisingly, other bestseller's list around the globe. 'Apa yang best sangat?' sparked my interest to read and this is what I think of some of their creative work.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

Slower, is a word to describe it. To me, Angels and Demons (A&D) gave more chills and thrills. It's not fair to judge this novel based on its sister novel, but well, people tend to make their first encounter as a benchmark for everything else. Yes, I would recommend reading A&D first because it's the prequel to Da Vinci but I kinda feel a lil bit disappointed because Da Vinci has less 'action' that I anticipated out of Brown's novel. Da Vinci explores more deeply into historical information *Call me a skeptic~* but I find some of them quite interesting, like the secret messages behind Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Da Vinci shares one major similarity with A&D, though and *Spoiler Alert!!* it involves the word trust. I have to admit that I'm more interested in following the trail of clues and finding the location of the treasure than to read about the Knight's Templar and all the stuff in between. *Spoiler Alert!!* At first I thought that the location would not be revealed, but regardless whether it's true or not, I felt relieved knowing that the mystery is solved. The title.. yes, definitely there's a connection to the story but the cover.. hmmm.. I don't know, too monotonous? But then again, like the moral of the story, Don't judge a book by its Cover!
Language: 3 out of 5.
Overall rating : 3.5 out of 5.


Where Rainbows End by Cecilia Ahern.

'One-of-a-kind' definitely describes this novel. I'm amazed that a 'flowing' story can actually be told in a series of letters, emails, chatroom messages, etc, etc.. The first person point of view actually gives an extra emotional feeling to some of the stuff, particularly the letter from Alex to Rosie. The characters are funny and they really showed the true meaning of love. This novel doesn't constrict love to just the two-person relationship but also highlighted family love, friendship love, employer-employee love and teacher-student love (okay, just a lil bit la). As lovely as how the story ends however, I DO NOT want this as my story, thank you very much. Why? *Spoiler Alert* It took them SO LONG to be happy and before that is achieved, her life is so.. so.. so full of unfortunate events! The message is quite similar to that of P.S. I Love You; you MUST get up after every fall.
Language : 2 out of 5.
Overall rating: 4 out of 5.


The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

This is my third experience reading Brown's novel and somehow I sensed that the writing style is a little bit different. This one has more monologue (and I admit to skip the ones I find boring) and there are more female characters (Ironically, there's no trace of sparks whatsoever. Not that I'm disappointed or anything..). Anyway, perhaps due to my lack of background knowledge about the Masons and buildings of Washington D.C. that I find it harder to maintain interest in the the main storyline. I loved reading about the Noetic Science, though. To me it's just WOW although I have to keep reminding myself that I'm reading a novel and not a science text to 100% believe what was mentioned. In the novel it says that when yogis are in deep meditation, a waxlike substance can be produced from the pineal gland. The substance has incredible healing effect and can regenerate cells.. One thing keeps popping in my mind is the relationship between the quality of concentration in solat (khusyu') and the effect on our body. That is why we have to khusyu' in solat... Reading this book in a certain way does help to increase our imaan. But then again, in my frank opinion, a certain precaution needs to be taken so that there won't be any slightest thought in our mind that is against the teachings of Islam as this novel deals with a human wanting to become god and stuff like that.
Language : 3 out of 5.
Overall rating: 3 out of 5.

P/s: From now on, this will be my criteria for rating a book;

Language: 1 (very easy, easier than language used in daily conversation and reading); 2 (easy, like the language used daily); 3 (so-so, can survive without dictionary) ; 4 (hard, a dictionary is helpful in understanding the storyline) ; 5 (very hard, either it is too scientific or too linguistic or maybe it's a totally different language)

Overall rating : 1 (not recommended at all, don't waste your time on this book); 2 (not so recommended, you can read it if you want but it's definitely not worth to spend your money on it. Just download the pdf format if you really want to read it) ; 3 (acceptable, but I've read better books) ; 4 (recommended, well-developed storyline, enjoyable, makes me realise something I haven't ); 5 (highly recommended, worth every cent! )

Oh by the way, I'm looking forward to Bee Tea End!!! Mwahahaha!!

Salam to all.



I hate that part the most.