Officially started work as printer monitor today. It isn't back breaking work - all I am doing is going round the various labs in the management school and topping up the printer paper if needs be. There is also a standby function - if anything goes wrong with the printers, then I will have to try and sort it out, failing which I should call the relevant technicians. But for that to work, I have to be on this mailing list, and the lady who operates the mailing list only works Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I'm officially not on it yet.

Started work at approximately 1pm; there are 13 labs and today I learnt that randomly carrying the paper load and putting the paper where it should be isn't efficient. The best thing to do is to check the labs first, identifying which labs need topping up and THEN lug the numerous reams of A4 paper to the labs. It may take longer but I won't break my back carrying stuff. We are paid for 70 minutes' work every session; today I managed to complete my rounds in about 45 minutes. So if I do the 'inspection' thing first, then it will only take up time for which I'm paid for anyway.

Watched the United-Charlton game for the first half and hour, and managed to catch the last 10 minutes after I finished my rounds. Beckham scored, only to have Charlton reply within the next 2 minutes through a freak goal - Roy Carroll miscleared from the left edge of his box straight into Jensen's path, who lobbed it straight into the empty net as Carroll frantically struggled to get back in time.

I was quite worried Charlton were going to do a Bolton on us; but thankfully Ruud scored before half time. When I came back for the last 10 minutes, he had scored two more. Now all we have to do win the Everton game and the title will be heading back to Old Trafford. Of course, if Leeds win at Highbury tomorrow then the wrap up is even quicker.

Am I confident? Not in the least. We've cocked this up before - losing at West Ham in 1995 on the last day of the season, giving Blackburn their solitary shot at glory thus far that year. Nothing's to say we won't do that again. Even Fergie himself was relatively subdued - no lap of honour at the last home game today, to ward off any calls of premature glory.

If we make it, they deservedly so. The team have fought well, despite criticisms, and it would be nice to see some form of reward in terms of some proper silverware for Ruud van Nistelrooy given his outstanding contribution to the team this year. If we don't, then hard luck on us - but Arsenal aren't a second rate team themselves - so better luck next year if we don't do it this year.

Homophobia. Literally it means fear of homosexuals. Or scared of them. Put into context, it can be further defined into "hatred of homosexuality" ,"hatred of homosexuals", "fear of gays and lesbians" and "a desire or attempt to discriminate against homosexuals". So based on these loose definitions, I'm not really homophobic. Which in a way is good because I've never really considered myself as one. Although some might differ after reading this entry.

But anyway, I know of, have met, been friends with and have shared a table with more than one homosexual. There has never been any desire for me to kill them, throttle them, abuse them or do anything nasty to them in any manner. Au contraire, they are nice people who seem to have a good outlook on life and are pretty interesting conversationalists. I don't even feel physically sick when I am around them - but then again, when they are not having sex, they're pretty much the same as you and me anyway. And I've never walked into two homsexuals having sex before. [Or heterosexuals, for that matter.]

Principles wise, though, I don't agree with the whole concept. Yes, I call homosexuality a concept because I don't believe that one is 'born' gay. I don't care what the genetic studies say, there is either a Hadith or a Surah in the Quran, I can't remember which, that says children born into this world are like white sheets, upon which the parent chooses to colour it. That's good enough for me; there must have been a flaw in the study that was conducted because it is inconsistent with the Quran and Hadith. You might call it flawed logical reasoning. I call it faith.

I don't agree with homosexuality because it is forbidden in the Quran. The Quran speaks of the people of Nabi Lut a.s. in Sodom whom were punished by God for indulging in homosexuality when He had already sent Nabi Lut a.s. to guide them. The fact that homosexuality is wrong or haram in Islam is made clear by various references in the Quran itself. There are no ifs or buts or anything else. These are facts.

[80] And (remember) Lut (Lot), when he said to his people: "Do you commit the worst sin such as none preceding you has committed in the 'Alamin (mankind and jinn)? [81] "Verily, you practice your lusts on men instead of women. Nay, but you are a people transgressing beyond bounds (by committing great sins)." Al -A'raaf

[165] "Go you in unto the males of the 'Alamin (mankind),[166] "And leave those whom Allah has created for you to be your wives? Nay, you are a trespassing people!" As-Shua'ara

[55] "Do you practice your lusts on men instead of women? Nay, but you are a people who behave senselessly." Al-Naml

So am I homophobic? I don't hate gays, I don't want to kill them, and if one applied to work for me, I wouldn't send him away because of his or her sexual orientation; in the same way that I wouldn't send away someone whom I know has had premarital sex, because both are haram. What I would feel is utter sadness, especially if he or she was Muslim; because if you didn't have any religious denominations, you have no basis or frame of reference to guide your actions. If you are Muslim, then it is clear that this is wrong and I would feel sad because Islam is being subject to misconceptions everywhere we look and if Muslims can't embody its teachings, then what hope do we have of solidarity and strength?

If homosexuality is forbidden, then why do some of us to have 'feelings' towards those of the same sex, then? My take on it is that homosexuality is actually a test. For the people who feel that way, it is a test from Allah to see if we follow the teachings or otherwise. Like any other tests that we get from time to time, be it success or failure or an illness or good fortune or temptations. And if we rise up to the challenge, then there will be rewards. And if we fall by the sidelines, then that's the sad bit, isn't it?

Thursday has never been an excellent day for me to get work done - mainly because so far this year it has been my 'tutorial' day. During the Michaelmas term, it was a straight 3 hours on a Thursday afternoon for AcF211. For Lent and Summer, it's 2 hours on a Thursday morning, one at 10 and the other at 12. Funny really, that only first years have lectures and tutorials in the Summer term. The rest slack off under the pretext of preparing for their exams.

My day started at 5am today, for some reason. After Subuh prayers I felt too awake; so I decided to finish a random menial story book I was reading. As a result - feeling a bit sluggish; and due to having breakfast too early, was starving all through the second tutorial. Toyed with the idea of having a slice or two at Pizetta, but decided to go for a Cheese and Onion pasty instead. Washed down with coffee, of course.

Spoke to Abed yesterday and he said as a first year student he could, at best, polish off one paper a day; two perhaps if he was skimming. So I'll set the target a bit higher for myself - one proper paper or three if skimming.

Still can't decide on what to cook for dinner tonight. Can't figure out how to make some edible form of sauce from scratch to go with my celery and mushrooms. Yes, in addition to tomatoes, I have added celery on the list of vegetables that I find palatable.

A slow day, but some minor accomplishment. Finished reading the Gompers article, where he constructed a governance index to rank the corporate governance level of the companies in his sample. His actual paper focused on corporate governance and investments, and whether returns for firms with better corporate governance were significantly different compared to firms with poorer corporate governance. But it was the index construction methodology that I was more interested in, rather than the results of his study.

Went to town in the afternoon; had to restock some of my groceries due to the fact that I eat at home more nowadays to save expenses. Only bought the necessary stuff - tomatoes, mushrooms, celery, smoked mackerel and tofu. Oh, and some coffee too, because my supply has finished, and the Maxwell House they serve at the office doesn't quite taste the same as Nescafe Gold Blend. Total price - £6.36. Not bad for stuff to last me a week or so.

Also ventured into one of the charity shops and managed to find a few football jerseys - Newcastle from last season or perhaps two [adidas] and Barcelona from way back when they wore Kappa with Guardiola written on the back [and the number 4]. I always make it a point to buy cheap football jerseys. For one, they cost some £40 in-season, and only go down as far as £20 after a new one comes out. So to me paying £2 for them is value for money; and some rare ones, which are collector's items, can be sold on Ebay. I used to go round carboot sales to find random jerseys - the nice ones I send home to my brothers and others I sell on Ebay. Perhaps it's time to start selling again.

Imagine, if you will, that you were fired for performing poorly at work. Maybe you've been taking too many sick days, maybe you have missed every deadline there is to miss, or perhaps, you have just not met the targets you were asked to meet at the beginning of your tenure. The bosses are talking, and generally, they want you out because you are undermining the company's performance.

What would you expect as part of your dismissal? If you get a month's pay, one would think that would be good enough, given that you're not leaving the company under positive circumstances. But in the imperfect world that we live in, there are people who are getting windfalls as a result of performing badly. Who are these lucky people? Generally, top company CEOs.

I was going to do an entry that was heavier in nature and a bit more on the intellectual side, since I haven't said anything remotely clever in quite a while to justify my status as a postgraduate - in case people started getting confused.

Fact of the matter is, I am knackered. Can't put a thought together, never mind a proper sentence.

Perhaps I'll give it another shot tomorrow.

The weekend breezed by, but even by my standards it was a good weekend. Work wise, last week, was mostly spent on mapping out my second paper on executive compensation. I think the study is now becoming more relevant, what with the coverage executive compensation has been receiving as of late. In the past few weeks a few AGMs were held and the amount of remuneration managers were receiving in office were very much the source of debate, as was the million pound payoffs of CEOs who have been unceremoniously ousted from their posts.

I also managed to file everything, and while Thursday was spent messing about in Blackpool, I decided not to spend too many hours at the office on Saturday. Instead went into town for grocery shopping. Zieha was coming over for a finance study session and my cupboards were bare. The rest of the day was spent watching the live AIM telecast on the internet, cooking a decent dinner for once, revising options and option pricing, and watching DVDs - Notting Hill and Playing by Heart back to back. As usual, I fell asleep very early on. Zieha, meanwhile, was trying to break my record for watching Playing by Heart the most times.

Sunday morning was mostly spent with me waking first, having breakfast, the Sunday papers and watching another DVD - A Knight's Tale. Another revision session on Forwards and Futures, and it was off to the football for me. Results went our way this weekend - Martin Keown we love you! - but I'm not celebrating yet. Better teams have failed to clear easier hurdles.

I have ended up buying two newspapers lately - both the Independent and the Guardian. The former for its post-war coverage, and the latter for its excellent articles in the supplementary sections. It isn't that expensive considering broadsheets are subsidised here at the University - 20p each - so those two newspapers cost just 8p more than a tabloid like the Mirror or the Sun.

What is obvious of Iraq post-war is that the Shia Muslims of Iraq are now taking to the town in droves, celebrating at Karbala 'in a way they were never allowed to under Saddam's regime', so described the BBC in its attempt to give the feeling that the UK really were justified in liberating Iraq - just look at the proof here. As the Iraqis relish their new found freedom of speech and demand an Islamic state, or what the Coalition refers to as a 'cleric-led state', the US recoil in horror. They don't want another Iran, but are now haunted by their own words - that the freed Iraq would have a government that was chosen by the Iraqi people.

'Not going to happen' screamed Donald Rumsfeld, as images of his pockets well laden with money from Iraqi oil slowly diminishing should Iraq be ruled by anyone other than the US appointed puppets.

'Thank you, now go home' shout the Iraqis to the Americans. 'You've gotten rid of Saddam, now get rid of yourselves and leave us to rebuild everything you've managed to destroy.'

Did the US administration really think that once they've gotten rid of Saddam - for the time being, at least - the people of Iraq would be ever so grateful that they would allow the US to streamroll their country and their lives, when it is ever apparent that there was only one thing the war was about - the oil? The Shias of Iraq are clearly not interested in secular rule, which they did live under when Saddam was in power; and now it seems the whole liberation propaganda to give Iraqis a voice has slapped Washington back in the face.