Now and Forever

[a.k.a. Obligatory Merdeka entry]

Here it is again, the annual flag-waving season. Wave the Jalur Gemilang, shout “Merdeka!” and call yourself patriotic and a good Malaysian.

;-)

People still talk, and I bet will always go on talking, about minda yang belum merdeka – the ‘unliberated’ mind – and ertikata sebenar merdeka – the ‘real’ meaning of merdeka. Whatever merdeka means to you, the event fifty years ago gave us the chance to shape our own future as a people. Of course, in a world where everything is relative, let’s say that it gave us a higher chance of having more influence on our own future. Let’s live it. Living it, of course, while honoring those who fought for it and preserving it for the future generations.

In the spirit of my previous merdeka entry, here’s a mat saleh song for us, and for all the other peoples in the world with no merdeka of their own to celebrate. I couldn't find another classic, so this one will have to do.

Miss Sarajevo
by U2/Passengers with Luciano Pavarotti (1995)

Is there a time for keeping your distance?
A time to turn your eyes away?
Is there a time for keeping your head down?
For getting on with your day?

Is there a time for kohl and lipstick?
A time for cutting hair?
Is there a time for high street shopping?
To find the right dress to wear?

Here she comes
Heads turn around
Here she comes
To take her crown

Is there a time to run for cover?
A time for kiss and tell?
Is there a time for different colors?
Different names you find it hard to spell?

Is there a time for first communion?
A time for East 17?
Is there a time to turn to Mecca?
Is there a time to be a beauty queen?

Here she comes
Beauty plays the clown
Here she comes
Surreal in her crown

Dici che il fiume
Trova la via al mare
E come il fiume
Giungerai a me

Oltre i confini
E le terre assetate
Dici che come fiume

L’amore giungera
L’more
E non so piu pregare
E nell’amore non so piu sperare
E quell’amore non so piu aspettare

Is there a time for tying ribbons?
A time for Christmas trees?
Is there a time for laying tables?
And the night is set to freeze?

Run Around

I
The students invited me to attend the closing ceremony of some program they had on Saturday and sent three girls and two letters to get me to come. Er... when was it again, Saturday?

HAHA! HAHAHA! MUAHAHAHAHA!

That’s one thing about being academic advisor: you get invited to just about every other student activity you don’t want to have anything to do with. I just don’t get it with these people; if I were the (student) organizer I wouldn’t want to have lecturers come to my event if I can help it.

Of course, it helped too that the invitation letters had a giant loophole that allowed me to skip the whole thing without an ounce of guilt.

HAHA! HAHAHA! MUAHAHAHAHA!

There was no closing ceremony listed in the program itinerary!

I’m so bad. But hey, I’m just the academic advisor, not the babysitter.

II

The program book was actually quite a good read

The 4^th Session of the 23^rd IIUM Convocation was such a bore. The Ministry of Higher Education Sec-Gen missed a huge opportunity when giving his speech – monotonously reading the text at a gazillion words per minute! I suppose he knew that nobody came to hear him speak. The plus side was the whole thing was finished – all diplomas, or should I say diploma folders, were given out – in just about two hours. Oh, and instead of the embarrassingly inappropriate ‘rock band’ last year, an angklung orchestra performed during the intermission.

III
What’s the most important thing in life? Well, people write books on that (or watch Adam Sandler movies, eh?). I sat with the parents of an award winner at the post-ceremony high tea, and the father went on and on about how many thousands his children are earning working with this and that multinationals, and telling me again and again how right he was to tell them to study in the business fields because “That’s where the money is”. I got the point, pop!

His 15 seconds, I guess. He didn’t want his daughters to become doctors, because doctors don’t make much money. I suppose he wouldn’t want them to become teachers too.

Whatever makes you happy, huh?

Carousel

[WARNING: Long entry]

As teachers, our job is to help students successfully complete their studies, but sometimes I cannot help wondering if some of them can, or even want to, be helped.

There is a student in my Introduction to Economics class who is repeating the course. He failed the course last semester despite collecting average grades for his coursework, which was mostly group assignments, after a very poor performance in the final exam. He came to see me when the results were out visibly shocked and upset, pleading that he has a medical condition that’s affecting his studies, but at that point that information was useless.

Recently, he came to see me again after doing very poorly in a quiz. He reminded me about his epilepsy, which is aggravated by stress. He is definitely stressed over the possibility of failing course again.

“Do you need help with the course materials?” I asked. “You know you can always ask me if you have questions, right?”

“No, no problem,” he said.

I asked how he studies for the course. He said that he spend hours every night going through the materials in the textbook. When I asked how exactly he studies, he said that he would read, translate the materials into his first language, and memorize them. I told him that he should emphasize on understanding the materials instead of just memorizing them, but he said that memorizing works for him, coming from a religious school background. Then, I asked if he studies with a friend. “No,” he said. “No problem.” He’s always studied alone in the past.

Now, I was starting to get pissed. Studying alone obviously is not working, I argued, given the fact that he already failed the course last semester. He claimed to not knowing anybody in the class. “Get to know some, then,” I said. He said that he’s a very shy person.

That has got to be the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard. I was definitely pissed then; there was no way getting through to this guy.

I needed a break, so asked him to do a question he got wrong from the last quiz, which was already discussed in class. He stared at the question for a couple of minutes like it was in Greek before asking me to explain the question. I explained it. He gave me a puzzled I-don't-get-it look. “Don’t you understand what I was saying?” I asked. He shook his head.

“Can’t you see? This working-on-your-own thing is not working. You need to find someone to study with!”

He argued that he’s used to doing things his (goddamn stupid) way – studying all alone by himself – that it would be difficult for him to change now.

I could bite his head off.

I explained to him that he is both really weak in the course and has a serious problem with his command of English. He gasped in disbelieve when I suggested that he drop the course and retake it later when he is more settled. After all, he is only in his second year while the rest of the class are mostly in their third and fourth year.

When I asked if he sees his department academic advisor, he said that he sees his academic advisor during pre-registration. AHA! Only weak students (are required to) see academic advisors during pre-registration. “Go talk to your academic advisor,” I said. “Get help.” His department academic advisor would know the specific requirements of his program so would be the best person to help him. He said that he doesn’t think that the academic advisor would have time to see him.

“Have you even tried to see her?” I asked. “Academic advisors are paid to make time to see students.” He said that he doesn’t think that the academic advisor could help him.

“No problem,” he kept saying.

Now, I was the one puzzled. “So what is it, really, that you want from me?” I asked. A free pass?

“No, no problem,” he said.

__________
PS: He had a brief seizure while we were having a quiz in class on Thursday. It totally freaked me out. He appeared embarrassed by the whole ordeal but still chose to get on with the quiz. I thought about talking to him when the class was over but he ran off before I could call him.

Chocolates!

[Still in sick mode]

Chocolate for Digital Media by psivamp at deviantART

As if I need another excuse to eat (or drink) chocolates, chocolates are good for cough too*!

__________
* Alright, I read it in Wikipedia, not the most reliable of sources, you’d say, so read it yourself, smart ass. Link to the referred very reliable and very scientific The FASEB Journal article is here.

Strike Two

+Cough+ by horrormove at deviantART

I really should’ve known better: colds come in twos. At least for me they usually do:

1. It sucks that I’m back with a stuffed nose and painful coughs in the morning from the overnight phlegm buildup. YUCK!
   
2. It [sucks]² that my voice is reduced to something between a whine and a whisper when I speak, though ever so slowly and carefully lest I break into a lung-spitting cough; the upside of which is the students suddenly become so quiet and attentive.
   
3. It [sucks]³ that I got so tired I had to leave work early. Luckily, I have only one class today; but three tomorrow! Still, I’d rather labor through the classes than have them cancelled and replaced later.
   Even dinner is exhausting.
   
4. It [sucks]⁴ that I practically had a free day-off I had to spend at home, in bed, no thanks to the goddamn cold.

I'm whining, I know. Of course, I’m ever so thankful for everything else. And I'm definitely not going to a clinic just for a stupid cold.

:-P

Autumn Reflections

autumn-reflections by daewoniii at deviantART

A new desktop wallpaper; I have to stretch it to fit the 1280x800 screen on the notebook but it still looks awesome. A little bit early for autumn, though.

Prof. Muhammad Yunus gave a wonderful little speech at the university today, relating to his experience in setting up the Grameen Bank and promoting social business. His message at the end of the lecture was simple – take charge.

(Got to) Have Faith

“This is not an English class and I’m not marking your language,” I always tell my students on the first day of class, “but if I cannot understand what you’re writing, then it does become an issue”.

Especially as an English (and Arabic)-medium institution, the students’ command of English is embarrassing. Forget about grammar, they often can’t even spell, which is unfortunate considering English is taught from Day One in our education system. Half the time I cannot understand what’s being written. The other half the sentences say exactly the opposite of what the students presumably mean to say.

Since we really want to give the students marks and make them pass, it is very tempting to resort to scanning for keywords or guessing – very optimistically – what they are trying to say.

Both are, well, wrong. So like it or not I still have to look at the language, as ultimately I can only take the answers literally, at face value, because as much as I fancy the idea, I really cannot read minds.

I gave a quiz today, and here are some of the interesting questions I get from the students during the quiz:

Sir, what does lumber mean?
Lumber is processed timber.
What is timber?

(Same student) What is a mill?

(Another student) What are bowling balls?

Quite recently a minister proposed that universities conduct programs to improve students’ general knowledge. Yes, why the hell not? We can teach them how to juggle too while we’re at it.

:-P

Revelations

I never thought I’d ever be glad that I sneezed. Well, I did (sneeze) and I was (glad). I woke up on Saturday morning with a very blocked nose that I actually wondered how I could possible wake up still breathing. Then I sneezed, hard.

PHEW!

In the meantime our house is under siege by ants. Previously we were invaded by this species of red ants my mother calls semut gila – crazy ants because they seem to run around like crazy, well, ants. Now, those thin loony ants are taken over by some kind of mean, stocky black ants I like to call semut manggis – mangosteen ants – because my first recollection of them were on the old mangosteen tree we had behind the house. So now every morning my mother has a new routine engaging the ants in chemical warfare, and whenever we’re not careful the ants will strike back by swarming the kitchen cabinet or dinner table.

Two interesting news I found online today. In the first, a seventeen-year-old girl in the UK was taken to the hospital for caffeine overdose, after downing seven double espressos while working the family shop. It basically confirms that all you heavy coffee drinkers are nothing but a bunch of caffeine junkies. LOL. I typically have only one dose of coffee a day, if any, when I drop by Dunkin Donuts for the Iced Coffee/Latte Combo breakfast on the way to work.

Coffee by kris-wilson at deviantART

In the second, in the Health & Science section of the International Herald Tribune was an article called ‘Sex surveys don’t add up’ by Gina Kolata. Basically, sex surveys consistently report that men are more promiscuous and have more sex partners than women. Everybody seems to accept that because men are supposedly biologically inclined to spread their genes. The problem is the finding doesn’t make sense mathematically when the male-female ratio in the population is about equal.

As explained by (Emeritus) Prof. David Gale from the University of California:

By way of dramatization, we change the context slightly and will prove what will be called the High School Prom Theorem. We suppose that on the day after the prom, each girl is asked to give the number of boys she danced with. These numbers are then added up, giving a number G. The same information is then obtained from the boys, giving a number B.

Theorem: G = B

Proof: Both G and B are equal to C, the number of couples who danced together at the prom. QED.

The researchers can't explain it, but one possible explanation that I particularly like is that men exaggerate while women understate their numbers to conform to societal expectations and stereotypes.

Go figure!

__________
PS: Scalzi has a really interesting explanation to the whole conundrum here.

I Passed!

School was fun.

So I decided to stay. :-P

__________
PS: Seriously, how could anyone fail 8^th grade science?!
PPS: I only took the quiz; I did not put up a personal ad.
PPPS: Anyone refers to any adult with average intelligence and level of education.

Friday

So untypical for a Friday, I had a relatively full day at work today.

In the morning I had a briefing session with second-year students explaining them the details of the Bachelor of Economics (B.Econs) program, particularly the elective packages. A rep from the B.Econs students society came to see me two weeks ago asking if I could brief the students. Of course I said yes, as it falls under my job as academic advisor. We (the department) never thought that it was necessary to conduct such a briefing session as at the kulliyyah level we regularly brief first year students on all three programs offered by the three departments once during the ta’aruf (orientation) week and then once again towards the end of the semester. The students also have access to the program curriculum structure, which clearly outlines all the program requirements.

Apparently many of them don’t understand the curriculum structure, which puzzles me, as even as a student I found that it tells me all that I needed to know about the program. So I got some really interesting questions. I also discovered that many of the students don’t even know that there are academic advisors in the kulliyyah to help them, which is even more puzzling given the at least two previously mentioned briefing sessions we give them during their first year. It really makes you wonder whether they get what you’re saying.

Anyway, it was kinda fun.

Immediately after that a fellow staff member who just got promoted full professor treated us a big lunch. YUMMY!

During the afternoon this cold I’m nursing graduated from the blocked-nose phase to the extremely annoying runny-nose-and-rampant-sneezing phase. I know that I have to be thankful that it’s just a common cold, but it sucks nonetheless. I didn’t help too that I had to sit through two-and-a-half hours of kulliyyah meeting which didn’t really discuss anything.

So in the end I’d say that it was a so-so day to end a so-so week.

Electric Sheep

John Scalzi’s The Android’s Dream really has nothing to do with androids. The title is an homage to Philip K Dick’s Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep? that was adapted into the 1982 Ridley Scott/Harrison Ford movie Blade Runner.

It does have something to do with sheep, though.

A diplomat caused an interstellar diplomatic incident by farting and killing an alien trade representative. In order to avoid war, which Earth would most certainly lose, a State Department agent has to find and deliver the alien a very rare species of genetically engineered sheep in less than a week, while being pursued by some bad guys and a band of religious fanatics. It helps, though, that the sheep turns out to be a woman – imagine trying to run from some really mean thugs with an actual sheep – and our delivery man was a decorated war hero.

Only in science fiction can you read something this outlandish and funny and still make sense, in a way. I bought the book sometime early this year but only read it now because I’ve been lazy watching television and browsing stupid websites. Man, I’ve only read five books this year!

shaun, the black headed sheep by lorseau at deviantART

The PC Affair

I
My sister asked me to transfer some files from the hard drive I salvaged from the dead home desktop, now given a new lease of life in an external casing, into her notebook.

How much free space you have?
I don’t know; you check it out.
Hey, how big is your hard drive?
Why?
It says 20GB here.
So?

A 20GB hard drive on a two-year-old mid-range notebook just doesn’t make sense. True enough, I had my sister check her purchase invoice and it says that it should be 60GB; and the CPU should be a 1.6GHz instead of a 1.4GHz Pentium M.

Shit!

The notebook had a nasty problem a while back – it wouldn’t boot – that my sister had it sent for repairs. It came back about a month later with the optical drive replaced and sporting a new OS, running on Vista instead of XP, which my sister took as a nice upgrade. She didn’t otherwise notice anything amiss as the notebook came back with its distinctive scratch intact.

Somebody has either screwed up, or screwed her up.

The PC, the external HD, the other external HD (in box), the book and the cheap watch

II
We went to the PC Fair last weekend, with actually something to buy. The crowd was crazy, as usual. I remember in uni when we went to the PC Fair just for the sake of it and some of the guys would buy a cheap mouse or a box of diskettes. This time I was looking for an external hard drive set and an external hard drive casing for the above-mentioned salvaged hard drive. I knew exactly what I was looking for in the case of the former – a 300GB Maxtor Personal Storage. The vendor offered me a cheap (and perhaps more importantly ugly as hell!) external hard drive casing for RM48, but I bought a cool RM100+ Cooler Master instead.

Yes, always an excuse to spend money.

;-)

Road Logic

Diverted Traffic by Murasicht at deviantART

Regardless of the speed limit, which ranges from a ridiculous 60kph on the elevated section to the federal maximum, people usually drive on the inside lane at about 100-110kph on the MRR2 stretch between Batu Caves and Kepong. The police don’t seem to mind – at least not during the morning and evening rush hours, and the patrol cars speed too – suggesting either that they agree that the posted speed limits are a joke, or have resigned to the futility of trying to pull over practically every other car on the road.

Of course, sometimes we do slow down because somebody up ahead decides to take a cruise, it rains, or an accident or something otherwise even remotely interesting happens on the other side of the road that we just have to get a good look and snap a picture or two with our mobile phone cameras. In the first case, we simply don’t have a choice and have to wait for our turn to overtake the stupid ass through the left or wait until he/she gets the message and moves over, which ever comes first. You can’t fight Mother Nature and the laws of physics when it rains. And Malaysians are a caring lot.

Still, the best reason to slow down for no good reason (er, what am I saying?) is when you see the flashing lights of a police or JPJ/RTD patrol car pulling someone over on the opposite side of the road. Yes, you may think that you see them stationary, on the other side of an expressway, but unless you slow down they may just catch you!

:-P