Beans

Yes, we made some vadeh! Who would have guessed that we share the same favourite pasar malam delicacies? We both love vadeh and taufu fah. The problem is, of course, they are both not readily available around here. So the only viable—and fun—option is to try and make some ourselves.

To make vadeh we need dhal. I never knew that there are so many varieties of dhal. We bought some moong dhal previously, but apparently the proper variety for making vadeh is chana dhal. Yup. Thankfully, chana dhal is easy to find. I couldn’t believe vadeh is so easy to make.

Now, the taufu fah story is a different matter altogether. Looking at the recipes online, there is a hard way to make it—from scratch from soya beans—and a more manageable way using soya milk. Either way, what I need is a coagulant.

co•ag•u•lant (koʊˈægyələnt)
–noun
a substance that produces or aids coagulation.

co•ag•u•late (v. koʊˈægyəˌleɪt; adj. koʊˈægyəlɪt, -ˌleɪt)
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

1. to change from a fluid into a thickened mass; curdle; congeal: Let the pudding stand two hours until it coagulates.
2. Biology. (of blood) to form a clot.
3. Physical Chemistry. (of colloidal particles) to flocculate or cause to flocculate by adding an electrolyte to an electrostatic colloid.

–adjective

4. Obsolete. coagulated.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

That is where the problem started. The best, traditional option is to use gypsum powder, particularly calcium sulphate. Supposedly, it can be found at Chinese/Oriental shops. I looked at all the Chinese shops I know of around Oxford but none of them have it. When I asked, the shop staff reacted like they had never even heard of it. Oxford is so kampung.

The other option is to use glucono delta-lactone (GDL), also known by its EU code E575. Calcium sulphate is a salt coagulant and virtually tasteless, and produces taufu fah (or generally tofu) that is brittle in nature. On the other hand, GDL is an acid coagulant that leaves a hint of sour to a silkier smooth product. Thanks to Wikipedia for all that!

Needless to say the taufu fah project has not taken off yet. Some recipes suggest using gelatine, but I think I’ll wait till I get my hands on some gypsum powder/calcium sulphate.

I am not giving up on this anytime soon.

Hurricanes

Afi asked me the other day how hurricanes are named. I actually asked myself the same question some years ago during Katrina. In short, there is a list.

The period between June and November is official hurricane season in the North Atlantic. I don’t recall reading about any hurricanes yet this year, so I guess there isn’t one that’s particularly newsworthy.

Hurricanes in the North Atlantic are monitored and named by the US National Hurricane Center in Florida. When a rotating tropical storm (also called tropical cyclone) blows faster than 65 kph it is given a name, and when the wind reaches 119 kph it becomes a hurricane. Apparently, the term hurricane is used only for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and East Pacific. In other parts of the world, the terms severe cyclone, severe cyclonic storm, and typhoons are used instead. Hence the word taufan in Malay is related to typhoon.

There are six lists of hurricane names used on a yearly rotation. Each list contains twenty-one names in alphabetical order. Used to be that only female names were used, because tropical storms and hurricanes start in the middle of the ocean and sailors are mostly horny men, but now there a male names as well ( YAY!). Sometimes, more than twenty one tropical storms earn names in a year so the subsequent ones are named after Greek letters, like in 2005 when there were tropical storms Alpha, Gamma, Delta and Zeta, and hurricanes Beta and Epsilon.

I remember hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma from 2005. Who doesn’t remember Katrina? Hurricanes that are particularly strong and destructive get their names retired, so Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma from the 2005 list will not be repeated in 2011.

The following is the list of names for 2010:

Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter

Exams, Part 2

Extracted from the Examination Guidelines for Invigilators

Part V: Instruction to Examiners
24. (a) The respective examiners of every paper must be present within the first 30 minutes of the examination to answer any queries related to the question paper or to correct any errors in the question paper. However, the examiner of any paper shall not in any manner to assist candidates in answering their papers, such as explaining a word or translating a question.

Examiners are usually also invigilators. So, while invigilating we aren’t supposed to help explain to a student even what a single word means. Fine, I suppose, if a student asks to define a critical term. What about, however, if a student asks to explain a word of trivial importance to the question? After all, the objective of the exam was not to test a student’s English vocabulary.

My second and last paper for the semester was this morning – with about 180 scripts to mark, AARGH! Here are the actual top two questions I received this semester. The first, from last week:

Other things being constant, what will be the effect of each of the following upon the equilibrium level of GDP?
(iii) A rapid upsurge in the rate of technological advance.

“Sir, what is upsurge?”

The second from today:

How did they financial crisis which originated in the US become a full-blown global financial crisis?

“Sir, what is the meaning of this word (full-blown)?”

So, two questions went through my mind each time:

1. Should I answer them (when the rules say no but the words don’t really matter)?
2. Should I answer them (when the words are common expressions everybody should know)?

Have It Your Way

I wrote about this before, but am going to write about it again. There isn’t, or shouldn’t be, a “third” semester.

se•mes•ter (sə-měs'tər)
–noun

1. (in many educational institutions) a division constituting half of the regular academic year, lasting typically from 15 to 18 weeks.
2. (in German universities) a session, lasting about six months and including periods of recess.

[German, from Latin: sēmē(n)stris, of six months duration, from sex-mēnstris, equivalent to sex, six + mēns(is), month + -tris adjective suffix]

For the uninitiated, the so-called third or short semester is held between April and June during the long intersession break between academic years. While regular semesters last four months, the short semester is only half as long. It used to coincide with the summer break typical of schools in the western hemisphere, before being brought forward a few years ago to bring the university calendar closer in line with other local universities, to begin the new academic year in July rather than September. The short semester is optional for both staff and students, I was told, originally to allow students to repeat select subjects they failed in the previous year before the start of the new academic year. Everybody is free to register for the offered courses. However, as the head of department recently complained, once we offer some courses, students start to demand for more.

Last Thursday, a student came to ask to be excused from class for two weeks because she is attending a 33-day Territorial Army training camp. I might have said yes if we were in a regular semester, but in the seven-week short semester that’s a quarter of the lecture period. So I told her no and advised her to drop the short semester. She became visibly upset and teary, saying that her studies are her priority and that it isn’t her fault that the training camp was postponed at the last minute. The fact remains that the short semester is, after all, optional. Even the kulliyyah will not entertain an application for study leave during the optional short semester.

A more “interesting” encounter happened yesterday. A student shouted profanities in the corridor, obviously meaning that I heard them, after I refused to supervise him for independent study. The university allows graduating students to register for independent study subjects not offered during a semester, provided they can find an instructor who is willing to supervise them. He reeked of cigarette smoke when I opened the door, and claimed ignorant of the requirement to take the subject until it showed up in his graduation audit; a shaky excuse at best. Apparently, he did not handle rejection well.

Neither did whoever wrote “FUCK U” on my colleague’s notice board this morning after she repeatedly refused to accept any more students into her full class.

Ethnocentrism

eth•no•cen•trism (ˌɛθnoʊˈsɛntrɪzəm)
–noun

1. Sociology. the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own ethnic group or culture.
2. a tendency to view alien groups or cultures from the perspective of one’s own.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

This is a word I think I never came across before in the form of a noun. I’ve seen it in the form of an adjective – ethnocentric – but it was quite a lifetime ago. In high school, I think.

The question was to illustrate tradeoff in relation to government spending on national defence and social programs on the PPC, and one student wrote that the government spending more on national defence (at the expense of social programs) could lead to increased “ethnocentrism and patriotism” in youths.

Ethnocentrism and patriotism.

:P

Jaded

Can you help me remember how to smile?
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded?
Life’s mystery seems so faded

Soul Asylum, Runaway Train (1992)

jad•ed (ˈdʒeɪdɪd)
–adjective

1. dulled or satiated by overindulgence: a jaded appetite.
2. worn out or wearied, as by overwork or overuse.
3. dissipated: a jaded reprobate.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

Da Post

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “D”.

D for deserted, which the department seems to be. The new semester will begin on December 22. Until then, staff members are away on vacation, courses, and conferences etc. Some may have simply disappeared.

D is for deadline and dateline, two words that get confused a lot. No wonder, for they are similarly pronounced.

dead•line (ˈdɛdˌlaɪn)
–noun

1. the time by which something must be finished or submitted; the latest time for finishing something: a five o’clock deadline.
2. a line or limit that must not be passed.
3. (formerly) a boundary around a military prison beyond which a prisoner could not venture without risk of being shot by the guards.

date•line (ˈdeɪtˌlaɪn)
–noun

1. a line giving the place of origin and usually the date of a news dispatch or the like.

–verb (used with object)

2. to furnish (a news story) with a dateline: He datelines his reports Damascus.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

A deadline gives you stress. A dateline is what you don’t read, until somebody points out that you’ve been raving about an article that is three years old.

D is for DAGR; more on this later.

Compulsory

com•pul•so•ry
adjective, noun, plural -ries.
–adjective

1. required; mandatory; obligatory: compulsory education.
2. using compulsion; compelling; constraining: compulsory measures to control rioting.

–noun

3. something, as an athletic feat, that must be performed or completed as part of a contest or competition: The ice skater received a higher score on the compulsories than on her freestyle performance.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

I received a letter yesterday saying that I’ve been selected to attend a week-long course I don’t want to go. It says that attendance is compulsory, but attached with the letter was a reply slip with two boxes: I will attend, I will not attend. I ticked the second box and sent it away.

So much for “compulsory”.

Of Giants

So, as per Kue Peng and Hanif, BFG also stands for Big Friendly Giant. Obviously, I have never read Roald Dahl so though the Big Friendly Giant does sound somewhat familiar to me (even then I think it was the animated movie rather than the book) it didn’t stick. In my defence, however, Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant is referred to as The BFG while to the rest of us illiterate (former) video games junkies a BFG is just any big f*%king gun.

Just the same, I associate the word “giant” with the Jolly Green Giant and the Super Jolly Green Giant, nicknames of the HH-3 and HH-53 dedicated combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopters used by the US Air Force to rescue downed pilots during the Vietnam War. The Jolly Green Giant was a much modified derivative of the Sikorsky S-61 Nuri helicopter our own TUDM is trying hard to have replaced.

The Jolly Green Giant, however, is also better known as the mascot of the Green Giant food company. I love their Niblets^® Whole Kernel Sweet Corn for snack.

BFG

“What is BFG?” asked mom.

Anyone who’s played DOOM or been around enough video games would know what a BFG is. BFG stands for Big F*%king Gun. There is no better way to call the biggest, meanest, most powerful weapon around but calling it what it is – a big fucking gun. I don’t play FPS, though; they give me motion sickness.

The J!NX BFG Creed is based on My Rifle: The Creed of a United States Marine, originally penned by Major General William H. Rupertus. Some may only know it from Full Metal Jacket.

I didn’t tell her all that, of course. :P

Pardon all my nonsense until I actually have something to write about.

Interregnum

in•ter•reg•num (ĭn'tər-rĕg'nəm)
–noun, plural. –nums or –na (–nə).

1. an interval of time between the close of a sovereign's reign and the accession of his or her normal or legitimate successor..
2. any period during which a state has no ruler or only a temporary executive.
3. any period of freedom from the usual authority.
4. any pause or interruption in continuity.

[Latin: inter-, inter- + rēgnum, reign]

How’s that for a big word, unless you are a walking dictionary/thesaurus, in which case I hate you!

I first came across the word through Isaac Asimov in Foundation, referring to a period of anarchy between the fall of the first Galactic Empire and the establishment of the second. I’m eternally thankful to Abang Aziz for introducing me to SFF.

[BTW, I’ve just received Axis and The Clone Alliance from Amazon on Tuesday. The package arrived two weeks early – all hail Amazon! Now I’m seriously considering putting the books I’m currently reading to read these two first]

We are in sort of an interregnum on campus too in between semesters. Today is the deadline for submission of last semester’s results. The new semester begins December 3. It doesn’t mean that we have nothing to do till then, though, as there are administrative meetings, seminars, etc to attend. The week before the semester begins – wait a minute, that’s next week! – will be spent preparing for the new semester.

In the meantime, the university is reminding us (staff without PhD) yet again to go for PhD. OKAY, we get it already!

Honestly, though, I am still not done thinking about the whole PhD thing. It is teaching and learning that I love, not particularly the research part. So much for wishing that I’ll be a student forever – yeah, careful what wish for, kids! I suppose I’d be perfectly happy teaching in a high school. Why can’t we be happy as a teaching university? Why must we all want to be research universities?

SIGH. There are some really big decisions to make. I hate big decisions.

Last Word

I
“What is the Malay word for begging?” asked Pak Suherman this morning while we were invigilating an exam – my last paper for the semester. He was looking at a picture of Buddhist monks begging for alms in the newspaper. It caught me off guard. Begging is mengemis.

“Do you know the origin of the word mengemis?” he continued. I gave up. Mengemis comes from Khamis –Thursday. People give away charities on Friday, the Muslim holiday like Sunday is to Christians, so the poor beg on Thursday, hence meng-Khamis – mengemis.

I swear I heard it before. Pak Suherman leaves for Surabaya tomorrow.

II
It is finally the end of the semester, though I have four miserable piles of exam scripts to mark before the semester is really, truly, over.

Already someone came to see me yesterday. He sat for the exam on Friday – my other paper. This semester is supposed to be his last, he said, and he is looking forward to returning to his home country. He already told me this two days before the final exam.

“So?”

“I forgot to answer one essay question” he said. It was unbelievable. I told the class many times, I told him himself directly a few times more I’m sure of it, and the instructions were clearly written on the question paper – ANSWER ALL THREE QUESTIONS. He only did two.

“Can you help me?” he asked with a phony sad face. The ship has sailed.

“You’ll get the marks you deserve” I said.

Civilian

ci•vil•ian
–noun

1. a person who is not on active duty with a military, naval, police, or fire fighting organization.
   
2. Informal. anyone regarded by members of a profession, interest group, society, etc., as not belonging; nonprofessional; outsider: We need a producer to run the movie studio, not some civilian from the business world.
   
3. a person versed in or studying Roman or civil law.

–adjective

4. of, pertaining to, formed by, or administered by civilians.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

What’s another word for “civilian”, the adjective, not the noun? “Private” is the best I could find.

I gave my classes another round of quizzes last week, their fifth; and I plan to give at least a couple more before the semester ends. A student raised her hand during one of the quizzes. When I went to her desk she pointed to her quiz paper and asked “sir, what is the meaning of this word?” pointing to the word “civilian”. It was a true-or-false question:

The unemployment rate measures the percentage of the civilian population that is out of work.

The answer is false.

What’s another word for “civilian”? I was quite a bit taken aback that somebody even asked what such a common word means – “non-military”? “Outsider”? I opened the question to the class. There were a few chuckles, but then another student raised his hand and said, “isn’t ‘civilian’ the same as ‘population’?”

Somebody, kill me!

I just told them to ignore the word.

Word of the Day

pasrah

1. Jw menyerah;
   
2. memasrahkan menyerahkan: kepada-Nyalah kita pasrahkan doa dan harapan;
   
3. terpasrah terserah;
   
4. kepasrahan keadaan menyerah diri (nasib) kpd Tuhan: ~ doa utk menunggu saat-saat berkabung.

English: to submit to one's fate.

A relatively common word, especially in literature, that I’ve never understood and known how to use (and never thought of looking up the dictionary). Now I do, though not the kind of word I look forward to using.

“Aku pasrah” – Suapi

On a lighter note, the origin is Javanese – no wonder I don’t know it given my Bugis-Minang heritage.

:-P

When It's Cool to Wear a Gown

We are now halfway through the semester; having just finished week seven. I gave my students their mid-semester tests during week, so there is a bunch of papers to be marked at the office.

We are also having our 22nd Convocation this weekend. I believe that commencement or graduation is a better and more accurate word to describe the degree conferment ceremony. Somebody may be able to dig up how we came to use the term convocation instead. The older public universities in the country may simply keep the term by tradition, but we were only established in 1983. Besides, instead of one huge convocation of graduands, staff, alumni etc we have the ceremony split into five sessions over three days.

Anyway, I’ve always thought that the convocation ceremony is more of a big deal to parents and family members than to the students themselves. As a student I hated the week-long Convocation Fiesta* – CONVEST – that turns the campus into a circus. Classes were disrupted, and they closed down the college canteen to force you to go eat at the CONVEST Expo where the food were just as terrible, but you pay twice the amount and had to walk 20 miles. I wasn’t all that excited during my graduation too. Big deal, you finish your degree and get to go on a stage to receive your diploma from some big shot. [1] You only pretend, because you actually collect your diploma unceremoniously from a university pencil-pusher the next day; and [2] that big shot, who may not be that big of a shot at all, doesn’t really know who you are and why he is congratulating you. My mom surely did enjoy the show, though, both times.

As a colleague commented, we would probably have appreciated it more if we had to work harder to graduate. By the same token it is no wonder that parents are so excited in seeing their children graduate, after spending all the emotional, financial, and psychological investments in raising their children and seeing them through school. I can imagine myself getting excited seeing my students graduate.

I attended the second session today as part of the academic staff procession. As we were queuing to enter the hall, I had this amazing idea of a criterion to add when deciding where I want to apply to do my PhD – which school has the best-looking robe?

__________
* The Malay word pesta obviously comes from the Spanish fiesta, which in turn comes from Latin fēstum for feast. Why can't they just use the more common English word festival or fest, which by the way comes from German but still originates from the same Latin word; instead of fiesta, which is more commonly used to describe religious holidays? ‘Convocation Fest’ saves you a syllable, and doesn't sound as cheap.