Membeli-belah

Owh sekian lama aku mengikat perut untuk menyimpan duit akhirnya tumpahlah jua duitku kearah yang sepatutnya. Walaupun habis almost $200++ at least aku berpuas hati dengan performance belanjawan aku neh..haha.

So just nak share apa yang aku beli ak tunjuk gambar kat bawah neh. Price tags are reasonable..hehe..Tapi most of the items i will be using it during my future trip and all of them can be used for a long time.. so I bought them for their values not because they are cool...urm maybe cool jugak r..okay esok makan pasir T.T

Compression sack

And last but not least..yang neh paling cool..my dream watch..price tag silalah google..mesti korang kagum..tapi still dalam wishlist aku.xmampu lagi nak beli..ade sesiape rase nak sponsor x?

Sleeping bag

If you are an adventurous person or you like to travel a lot, sleeping bag is a must gear for your little adventurous trip. Because i'm one of that kind of people who like to travel and always try to get the best gears to accompany me during my trip, i'll carefully research my gears before i buy them. So this article is based on my finding how to choose the best sleeping gear for my own trip.

There are many types and categories of sleeping gears which when you try to find the right one it may confuse you as you look at many types of sleeping bag. Hence, i hope this post may be a little help for you to choose the right sleeping bag. Your dream sleeping bag.

Before you try to find one, there are few categories you must consider. the list below are the categories based on their priority. After that. i will explain it one by one with a simple language so that you will not need any dictionary. so please bear with me. Four aspects you need to consider are

1. Temperature/comfort rating
2. weight size and shape
3. insulation type
4. Quality and Features

Temperature and comfort rating

lets start with the first one. I'm sure that you already knew where would you want to use your sleeping bag. This is the first consideration you must know in order to determine the best way to choose the temperature and comfort rating of the sleeping bag. Try to ask this to yourselves: Where are you going? Antartica? Sahara? once you know which direction you wanna go you can comfortably choose the right temperature for your sleeping bag.

Next question after you found out the places you wanna go, it is best to choose the right temperature rating. Usually the temperature rating can be easily identify in the products name such as "mountainsmith Poncha 35 degree synthetic sleeping bag". That "35 degree" implies that it will be comfortably used in 35 degree Fahrenheit and above. Below than that temperature you will not feel comfortable. Table below is the best range of temperature rating in Fahrenheit to consider when you choose any type of sleeping bags

Weight, Size and Shape

Secondly when you consider to buy sleeping bag try to answer this question: How are you going to go there and what is you body size? you may answer this question by decided to go there by driving a luxury car or by taking train or even by walking/hiking. The weight of sleeping bag all depends on the shape,insulation type and the size of the sleeping bag. I will further discuss about the weight to choose in the next category.

For the size of sleeping bag you can identify it by using the information on the sleeping bag(length, wide and so on). This all depend on your body size. too small you can't fit into it and too large it can't properly insulate you. So choose based on your body size and your preference.

The bag shape is largely depend on your preference. But be careful because the shape matter if you are considering size and weight. Basically there are 3 types of sleeping bag.

1. Mummy shape
2. Rectangular shape
3. Semi rectangular

The mummy shape usually looks like mummy. if you wanna know how mummy looks like, you may consider to watch any mummy movie. But it'll take a longer time to figure out how the mummy looks like. So i'll help you figure it out by showing you an example of mummy shape sleeping bag. Below is the picture.

mummy shape

Mummy shape will cover your whole body and usually has a very good insulation. Plus, if you were backpacking, this is the best type of sleeping bag you wanna buy because it is lighter and can be compressed. So if you consider lightweight sleeping bag, this is the right choice.

The second type of shape is rectangular. It usually has an extra weight and space. In return you get a nice extra room. heavier and bigger size for your sleeping bag. Usually it can't be compressed. So it is best to use when you are travelling by car with your family. Ahh, a nice comfortable family trip i would say

rectangular shape

The last one is a semi rectangular shape. it is a hybrid of mummy and rectangular shape. Usually broad at the top and getting slimmer to the bottom of the sleeping bag. In return you get a nice combination between space and weight. This best use in any type of trip as long as you are not strict on space or weight.

Semi-Rectangular shape

Insulation type

Next you need to consider is the insulation type. There are usually 3 types of insulation in the market. Cotton, Synthetic and down. However, if you find any cotton type of insulation, please just throw it in your garbage can. Because it is useless!The type of insulation can usually be find out in the name of product.

Synthetic materials is best to choose when you have a budget constrain. It is well insulated, lightweight and dry fast when wet. It usually works fine in easy/warm temperature. It is best when you go backpacking as it can be compressed.

There are two type of synthetic materials: short staple and continuous. Short staple is a dense insulator. it good in warm weather and has a great compressibility. In addition it is soft and flexible. Thus it is a regular choice in the market. Continuous, usually a filament fills with thicker insulation but less lofty which it is less compressible. However, it is strong and durable.

The next type of insulation is down. it is not a downgrade but it prefer term used to categorized type of insulation for sleeping bag. i may try to find out why they called it down later on. But for now i will explain what is down type of insulation. Down usually lightweight, warmer, longer lasting comparable to synthetic. Sound good so far, but when you see the price you may be disappointed. It is too expansive for poor people like me. so i will only consider synthetic insulation for my backpacking trip for now. However, if you decided to go to tropical island it is better buy a synthetic type as down will get heavy when it is wet.

Same as synthetic, down also has it own categorizes: duck and goose-down. duck type much cheaper and widely used in made in Asia(especially China). while goose-down is much durable, less fill and extraordinary warmer. So if you decided to buy goose-down better to buy from western country. Down type is best to choose when you decide to go to backpacking in Sahara when you need a compact and good insulator for sleeping bag.

Quality and Features

It really hard actually to determine the quality of sleeping bag by just looking at the sleeping bag. The best way is to try first hand on the material, design and features of the sleeping bag. So in order to determine the quality it is best to try before you buy it. Decide what do you want and how much money do you have. The best quality of sleeping bag when the zip easily slip out and down and it will not stuck when you try to close or open the sleeping bag. You can actually feel the quality of the materials by try to touch it using your hands and compare it with more cheaper sleeping bag.

There are many information on the bag that will tell you the features of the sleeping bag. Usually, the manufacture provide you the diagram of the sleeping bag, either it has taper, hood, color of sleeping bag or the zip location. You can decide what type of feature do you like most. However, as you try to buy PC, the more features it has the more expansive it becomes.

So I already finished explaining the aspects that you need to consider when you wanna buy a sleeping bag. I hope it can help you to find your dream sleeping bag in the near future. You may find out that you need a different type of sleeping bag for different type of trip. So remember this well: Choose your sleeping bag wisely so that you will not regret it later.

If you wanna know more please refer to this articles

http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/sleeping+bag+backpacking.html

http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/sleeping+bag.html

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choosing-a-sleeping-bag-for-camping.html

Read Because of Curiosity

Iqra or the translation is 'read' quoted from Verse 96 of Al-Quran: Surah al-'Alaq which told human to read for knowledge as only knowledge can guide you to the right path. As my last post, I described US' reading culture and the importance to read books. Since then, i try at least for every week to read multiple books for knowledge which it is guided by my curiosity.

I was given a chance by Allah to study in United States which i believed is one of the heavens for readers. This is because for only a few dollars i could subscribe any book that i want for a year. In addition, with the boom of e-readers technology in US i could get any books for low price. This in turn, i'm able to buy any books that i want for only few dollars.

I started to nurture my readings habit by start to read any light material such as magazines. As for now i subscribed multiple magazines such as Times, Economics and Popular science. When there is any free time i will try to read all of the magazines. I subscribed the magazines that discussed the things that i like most so that it will help to nurture my reading habits. In return, it helps me to improve my knowledge and fill up my my free time and my curiosity. So for now i determine to further nurture my reading habit by read more heavy materials. So i made up a list of books that i need to read by 2013. So below are my list of books that i decided to read.

Philosopher

Incoherence of philosopher by al-Ghazali

On the soul by Aristotle

History

Disrupted destiny by Tamim Ansary

Hasan al-Banna (Makers Of The Muslim World) by Gudrun Kraemer

Economy

The wealth of nations by adam smith

An Introduction to Islamic Finance by Usmani, M. Taqi

Biography

Einstein: His life and universe by Walter Isaacton

Steve jobs by Walter Isaacton

Politics

The arts of war by sun tzu

The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, The West, and The Future of the Holy City by Dore Gold

As you noticed i divided the types of book into five categories. all of this categories is based on my own curiosity. Most of the books mentioned above are the must read book for all human. dont believe me? try google it and you may find out which one is the must read book. I'll try to complete read all of these book before 2013. As for 2013, maybe you guys could recommend me any book that may become one of my interest in the future.

Just for information, the reading habit for Malaysian is still low compare to any developed country. I believed in order Malaysia to achieve status of developed country by 2020, we at least, need to improve our reading habit because knowledge is the most powerful tool in the world and only with knowledge we can achieve anything we want.

i share that list of books because i would like to encourage you guys to read this kind of book and i want you guys to share with me your list of must read books. So PLEASE SHARE and RECOMMEND me any book that may be interesting.

The Great Escape 1

Alhamdulillah, i survived another hectic week and the whether is being pretty nice too.So It was another great week as i achieved what i'm supposed to do and i'm be able to see all of the flowers on the streets started to bloom this week. It makes me smile while i was riding my bicycle to and from my campus whenever i see all of the beautiful flowers that Allah created. Maybe i'll post more spring pictures on my facebook wall as one of my friends did(u know who you are..haha )

This kind of thing is one of my reasons why i love to travel and since i was kid, it has been my goals to travel all around the world. In order to see, experience and learn everything as one of the Muslim great traveler ibn Battutah

So, after 22 years old of my life i got a chance(Insyallah) to see another small part of the world as i'm planning to go to Europe this summer. It was decided that i'll be going there from 28th mei to 4th julai. to make this trip will be one of my Great Escape, i need thoroughly plan for the trip. So, pictures below are my first step of planning and there will be a a lot more to go to complete this planning. it is really satisfying to see these pictures, at least for me :)

This dam* styrofoam keep falling down and i hate it when it did

11/12 countries in 1 month trip

Hopefully i can gain a lot of experience and knowledge from this trip. So family and friends do pray for my safety. And for anyone who wanna give me tips or any knowledge about your trip in Europe please do so because i love to hear from ya.

ps:i can't wait for summer to come :)))

Spring is coming

It's wonderful to see all the trees start to produce buds on their branches. Although this year's weather is quite weird with a warm winter and sometimes nice weather comes between hot and cold weather. Hopefully, this spring will be wonderful as the last year. I can't wait to see all the beautiful flowers bloom all over the places.

Unfortunately, there is no more holiday for me because the spring break is over today :((((.. what is waiting for me in the futures are more homework, presentations, papers and exams. Hopefully, i will be alive after going thru all of this things...haha..so guys do pray for me okay..

I can't wait for the spring and summer because there are a lot of things i wanna do. But one for sure are Eurotrip and Skydiving..and if i have time and money, i would like to go to National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington in this march/april, DC to see this with my own eyes. So who wanna go too?