Life was like a box of chocolates.

On Wednesday, December 4th I attended the talk by Tony Fernandez in LSE. Yeay! I finally attended my first LSE talk event. I have been planning to go to one of these talks ever since last year, but unfortunately I have not been lucky enough to find the time to actually be there, too much unexpected responsibilities. So anyhow, the talk was fun. He was a fun guy to listen to, and as expected the bulk of it was centered on Air Asia. But who could blame the guy, the brand is what made him who he is. If I may, by rebranding the company in a way he rebranded himself. Here is a man who held on to his idea; he had an idea and at the same time, he realized the potential of an untapped market back at home, then he went on at it without looking back. I admire his life story, I do, and I honestly do think that Air Asia is a great brand to represent ASEAN. It is Tony's playground so to speak, his treasure chest. Air Asia is one of the leading players in the low-cost carrier industry here

Bike trip! Finally! We talked about this for most of last year, but try guessing how many times we actually did it? Once; we went to Abbey road, and that was it. Alhamdulillah this year we have had a couple of trips thus far, we are slowly progressing now. No more cheap talks, time to actually do it. Frankly speaking, we have no much time left.    The email from HR last couple of weeks was one heck of a reality check for us all. Our time as students is almost coming to an end. Dang, how fast time flies huh. These bike trips reminded me of our first year when Afiq told me that we should get a bike when we are second years (I guess we are that influenced by Dean and his bike at the time, we all though it was cool. And it still is!). The dream is do a tour of Europe on bikes. Being encouraged by the idea, I told him that if we are serious enough we might even be able to get a sponsor, as long as we justify a meaningful cause for the trip, such as cycling against cancer or somethi

 A couple of days ago a friend of mine told me that. It came about when he told me the story about a friend of his who he admired so much. For the purpose of this story, let us refer to him as J for simplicity. J is a very outgoing guy. He has a way with people that help him to naturally blend in with people. That is what makes him special. If you don’t believe me, try asking him where he lives now and with whom, he’ll then tell you that he rents a room with some random couple he barely even knew in his entire life. Impressed yet? He gives out this vibe, or an aura so to speak that makes people around him feel at ease with his presence. The fact that he is able to do so without having to be loud is a mastery feat to be respected. Isn’t it amazing to know someone like that? Someone with the guts to just jump into a crowd of strangers and after a few minutes, he’ll get along with them just fine. How many of us can confidently say that he/she can be like J? I know I can’t.

It's almost one in the morning right now. I am supposed to be in bed by now, but I chose not to, maybe not till a few minutes more. My reading week is over, so that means I need to be in class tomorrow. Bummer. But then, when I come to think of it, the past week had not been much of a holiday for me either. For most of the time, I am in uni anyway, struggling so hard just to finish my work, one after another. When you think that you're finally done, that is when more work will actually find its way to you. To be honest, I haven't had much fun lately. All of my days were either be in the library or in the uni cloisters, and then I'm back at home. What a life, huh. There are so many things that needed to be done, papers to go through.  Luckily the topics are pretty interesting; thus far we've covered things like: How China's transition from planned economy was different from the former Soviet bloc, how come theirs did not fail like the rest of them did? Is

Last Friday was the day many of us Malaysians are eagerly waiting for each year without fail. It's budget day! When I was young, I never really understood what is so important about this day; I never got it why people were so excited sitting in front of the television watching our Prime Minister presenting next year's budget. He's just allocating money, big deal. Now is a different story altogether. Allow me to begin with my take on the proposed budget. Below are the so-called thrusts for next year's budget. These are the key areas/focus of the budget. Lets go through it one by one shall we? Because this is just a blog, I will simply breeze through it, stopping only to pick up things of which I find rather interesting. 1.      Invigorating Economic Activity Aviation industry finally got the limelight it deserves after all these years. Quoting the text, " the industry will have a multiplier effect on the economy in line with grow

Dear Allah, Hear my prayer. I am grateful for Your blessings of life & good health, for letting me live another day to keep doing good deed while repenting my sins. Forgive me should my actions are wrong, remind me when I am forgetful. On this holy day of Aidiladha, I pray for my fellow brother & sisters who were humbly invited to perform the Hajj. Bless them, o Allah. Provide them with strength to perform the required ibadah, give them courage to withstand any trials of which You have put in their way so that they would come out stronger and more devoted to You. Hear their prayers and fulfill their wishes, o Allah. Accept their Hajj, and I pray may all of my brothers and sisters will obtain mabruk. Ya Rabbul Alamin, I humbly stand before Your great might today, so that You my Rabb will someday extend me the invitation to perform the Hajj as the brothers before my time had. Until the moment comes, I pray that You guide me to Your righteous path, o Allah. Bl

As I making my way through the security check before the departure hall for my flight I had an interesting encounter with one of the policewoman there. After the metal detector, I went straight to collect my stuff and put them back into my bagpack. Police: Eh, la Melayu ke? Me: Aah, Melayu lah. Kenapa? Police: Taklah, ingatkan Cina tadi. Me: (Sambil tersengih) Mungkin sebab saya tak ada misai janggut agaknya. Police: Belajar oversea ye? Me: Aah. Police: Wah balik tiap-tiap tahun ke? Rajinnya. Me: Mak ayah ada, baliklah beraya dengan dorang. Police: Untunglah dapat balik beraya, akak pun tak dapat balik raya tau. Me: Okaylah kak, saya gerak dulu ye. Jumpa lagi, bye~ Assalamualaikum. That was not the only noteworthy conversation I had that day; in the flight I was seated next to an Australian who works as an accountant in London. I never got his name though. He was back from his holiday here in Malaysia. He was away for the summer to surf arou

In econometrics, when we are trying to investigate the impact of education on wages we have always assumed that ability to be constant. This is a crucial assumption in order for our regression analysis to actually work, because it is usually the case that individuals with higher ability are the ones who chose to spend more time in education. That is our topic for today, people with higher ability, or to make things a whole lot simpler, lets refer to them as smart people. The diagram I have for you is an oversimplification, of course but nonetheless it is useful to highlight the role of smart people. You see, some might argue that these ‘gifted’ people exist to inspire us, to motivate us to be better. They act as a beacon of hope for the rest of us, reminding us that we can actually do anything we set our minds to. In fact, given what their achievements, surely they would know what they were doing, so why not share their secret to success with the rest of th