Random Shots

Vintage Bulgaria Revisited

2012-01-28T22:29:00.000+08:00

It's still CNY season. we ended up in Penang again cos we had something to do there. It was quite late when we found our way to the hotel through the heavy traffic. We actually wanted to go for dinner at Ingolf's Kneipe German Restaurant but since only seats at the bar were available and we were told that the wait might be long, we decided to give Vintage Bulgaria, which was its next door neighbour, another go since our last visit there was quite a pleasant one.

This time we tried their Mixed Sausage Platter, made up of pork and beef spiced sausages, grilled spiced minced pork and beef and smoked sausages. The pork sausages seemed nicer than the beef ones. The sauce was light enough not to smother the taste of the sausages. The mashed potato that came with it is one of the nicer ones I have taken. It has a nice aroma to it, not too heavy.

Baby Pork Ribs... the photo above does not do justice to its taste though. Lighting wasn't great for shots and we were hungry. If you like pork, this is one of the places to go. The ribs were roasted tender to taste. It was moist. And they beat the roast ribs that we've had at TGIF or Tony Romas. I guess food in a franchise outlet loses some of its quality because there is no personal touch of the owner. Throughout our meal there, the owner of Vintage Bulgaria could be seen moving among the patrons.

The side dish to go with the ribs. I am a potato person and I liked the potatoes. They were soft and sweet, just right. I think I won't mind having it for the main meal.

Orley Wraps... basically cheese wrapped in bacon, skewered and grilled so that you can pick it up and eat it like the satay. Bacon always goes well with cheese and this one is no different. Orley Wraps is supposed to be an appetizer but we ordered it for Daughter as we knew that the portions for the other orders would be more than enough to go around.

Seafood spaghetti... my kids are spaghetti fans. Son had actually wanted to order the Carbonara (cos they liked it from the previous visit) but we talked him out of it. Seafood apparently referred to fish only cos Son said there were chunks of salmon and 'don't know what other fish meat' in it. I tried some and found the sauce to be rather nice; maybe it's the wine sauce in it but I found it to be light minus the overpowering tomato paste taste that one sometimes gets.

Overall we found the dining experience to be still pleasant enough even though it's the second time we've visited it in the span of a month.

For Every New Year

2012-01-27T10:26:00.001+08:00

When I was a kid, on Chinese New Year's Eve, Mom would cook up a storm and we'd have a family makan. Family meant just our immediate family. Then in the evening, or sometimes the next day, Dad would bring us to visit our paternal grandparents. There would also be visits to my grandparents on Mom's side. Chinese New Year is different for my kids. Their every New Year celebration has been spent at their grandparents' (except once for Son). The prevalence of 'migration' due to work and better opportunities of my generation has somewhat contributed to this different experience for my children.

Years gone by... we're all in our midlife now. CNY is still a time we get together, though often one or two of us might not be able to make it due to distance. These days we tend to have our makan together at the restaurant as Mom is getting along in years.

The passing of F-I-L too has also made us realise that every gathering is precious now. This year we had ours at Michelin Star again. Food was actually better than last year's. Tables had been set when we arrived, with names attached to the tables. I saw quite a few familiar names.... The other reunion dinner was a home cooked one as M-I-L still wanted to cook.

The kids got to play together, with cousins from both sides; and collect their angpows too. I guess for most kids those two are the major highlights. It was so for me at that age too. I guess certain things don't change that much.

And firecrackers... the whole town basically lit up as midnight drew nearer. If you want an ear into what might qualify as absolute noise pollution, you get it on that one night.... your hear cackling, cracking, popping, whooshing, whistling, booms, explosions, sizzles.... And your eyes get to feast on all kinds of colours popping up here and there, like magic, in the sky, appearing and disappearing in colourful trails of light and smoke; a panaromic view cos everywhere you turn, you see them. Whole neighborhoods literally came out to view the spectacular displays of fireworks. Lanterns were released into the sky too; though this year I felt there were fewer. Last year, the effects of Disney's Tangled left the sky very dotted with floating lights. My kids and their cousins had a fun time.... scoring a few firsts for themselves too. Their childhood is not as carefree as mine.... they don't get the chance as we did year after year as we were growing up, even just to light the firecrackers.

These days, CNY is more 'work' than play for me cos most of the time is spent chasing after this or that... kids and everyday mundane tasks like clearing up. But in all that, they were interspersed with things that make life meaningful.... conversations, interactions... those things that serve to strengthen bonds and give meaning to life. You know, there are points in our lives when some of us might feel that we want to get away from all the hassles associated with festive seasons; clogged highways, packed eating places, constant need to be on the feet because the kids (and the older ones) cannot wait, etc, etc. So some of us would very much like to opt to go somewhere quiet to take a break from all the preoccupation and demands that come with this chasing of our career, wealth... And that is why we should have celebrations such as CNY, to give us no excuse for not making it home, for the family reunion. For many of us, it takes the demand of duty to get us there, even though we know our parents would very much want us to be there with them... Think of the times our parents were there for us each time we needed them when we were kids.... Today, many of us can't do the same......

Most of us are back to our normal routine by now... I supposed too it's okay to say that the feeling of getting together often times is no less exhilarating than a trip somewhere. 8) Am thankful for this one more CNY. The dragon has entered....

E-Textbooks and PPSMI

2012-01-21T21:05:00.000+08:00

Apple in education. Going by what they have done to tablet computing, I think education, especially the learning experience will probably be seeing a shift.

And this is one reason why the soon to be dead PPSMI (teaching of Math and Science in English) should remain, or at least parents and students be given a choice of the medium of instruction. I downloaded the samples of the e-textbooks that they put up in the Store and if these are to be a peek of what is to come, education as we know will change.

From my own experience, I have found the educational apps to be of great help in teaching my kids. During Son's time, we had to be where the computer was but still back then, technology complimented the aided in teaching experience and made learning more fun.

Then came the iPad. The apps with educational values were simply awesome. When Spirit and Rover were on Mars, the NASA app made it so easy for me to show the kids the pics of the surface. If you wanted to teach about the constellations, there are so many apps available. All you need to do is just hold your iPad to the sky and you get a guide, real time. I can even show things that I only had some inkling. If skills used to be reflected in how much knowledge you can retain and use, I guess skill now would be how well you know what tools are available and how to use them.

Enter the e-textbooks. You get videos, personal tutors and a touch screen to try out certain tasks. The learner gets instant feedback. And with upgrades which seem to be a practice today, books will never quite go out of date.... and this is where PPSMI benefits; though one might say that if the MBMMBI works, it'll get the same results too.

Still, if our kids are no good in English, they lose out. At the moment, I think it's hard to imagine our local publishers coming out with e-textbooks of this quality. I read through the intro of the recently released e-textbooks in the App Store. The end product is a collaboration of many - researchers, teachers, videographers, graphic designers, etc, etc. And that also means that digital textbooks will now enable a rather efficient delivery system where information can get to the students...... from the scientists, top notch people in their respective fields. And we'll be incapacitated by our lack of language.

English is important. It does not mean that we turn our back on our national language if we seem overzealous in trying get it to be used as much as possible. Our English standard is bad now. That is a fact. For now, English is a language of knowledge. Master it and a whole world of knowledge opens up. And that is what the e-textbooks has shown too.... There'll be many good quality instructional books which our kids will be missing out. Seems such a pity that our policy makers don't quite see that. 20 years ago, there was still quite a big group who could handle materials in English. Today, the group is getting smaller. But perhaps too, we are happier being the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, trying to convince ourselves that we are doing okay.... Woe to us!

Hang Tuah No More....

2012-01-20T17:16:00.000+08:00

I remember the figure of Hang Tuah adorning the entrance to our National Muzeum during my last visit there a couple of years ago. For as long as I can remember, Hang Tuah has been central figure in the history of Malacca. And now, Prof Khoo Kay Kim has come out to say that he is a myth. He and his 4 sidekicks apparently did not exist. And neither did Hang Li Po... the wife of Sultan Mansur Syah; of that famed marriage of the most prosperous Malacca Sultan to the princess from the Chinese Empire which was supposed to have elevated the status of Malacca. I supposed now that the good Prof and his team of learned historians have done their studies, the history of the Peranakan might also be undergoing some changes too, since the descendants of Hang Li Po were supposed to have 'created' the Peranakans.

I supposed then, too since records aren't too clear about Parameswara, could we safely assume that the first ruler of Malacca was a Hindu? Or perhaps too, the stories of early Malacca were folklores? Sometimes one gets the feel that there is too much politics in everything. Politics make things murky. Did Hang Tuah exist? If he did, does it matter if he had been Chinese? Malaysians deserve to know their heritage. Malacca could have been an early model of peaceful racial existence...... one of which we can be proud of. The fact that early stories never mentioned his race... we could learn a few things from there about integration.

So now, would we be told that the colonial historians had something to do with this error of Hang Tuah's existence? Why are we making our kids learn history? Is it to pass exams or to inculcate a certain pride or even to draw lessons from the events of the past? Or is it just to set the young brains onto a certain path? ...brain washing. A new syllabus for history is supposed to be implemented in the next 2 years or so. Will the new syllabus be focussing more on the history of the indigenous people.... the Sengoi, Negritos, Jakun, Orang Asli..... those original settlers on this land? Or will those too continue to be forgotten? Will we be reading about the Penans?

We've seen efforts to wipe out history by changing street names, demolishing old schools for development and thus ensuring their old name dies with that act. We have a university where race plays a pivotal role in entrance. We have a civil service almost devoid of other races at the top level. History is supposed to teach the future generation that man can go very wrong very often.... The atrocities committed by the Ku Klux Klan against the blacks, Adolf Hitler and his Aryan supremacy, the Indian caste system.... yet we seem not to be teaching our young how to be good a good insan in the truest sense. We use race, religion, ideologies to streamline people to achieve our own selfish ambition.

Prof Khoo and Prof Zainal Kling were my former lecturers. Suffice to say, not all academicians are made of the stuff of Aziz Bari. And if one wonders why the Malaysian education system cannot seem to rise to its former glory.... look no further. Instead of challenging the the minds of tomorrow to question and inquire, these (supposedly) learned academicians issue statements like politicians, expecting everyone to accept it unquestioningly... History ought to to be rewritten to correct facts.... not for any other reasons. If it's done with the latter as the main objective, then we will be doomed cos we will never do things right. And that is another lesson from history.

Is This A Lemon?

2012-01-18T15:48:00.001+08:00

This came from my 'lemon' tree or what we thought was a lemon tree. It smelled lemony but did not have the normal lemon look. It's been growing for months on the tree. We finally decided to cut it down cos it looked really ugly.... they looked like gnarled hands.

And when we cut it opened, there wasn't any of the usual lemon insides either.....

Vintage Bulgarian Restaurant & Bar

2012-01-15T20:06:00.000+08:00

Bulgarian food! This is a first for us.

This unobtrusive restaurant is located along a row of shophouses in Jln Sg Kelian, Tanjung Bungah.

Decor is rustic, even charming in a way. Nice place to go pak-tor. And throughout our dinner there, we noticed that there were more young couples than families. It could be a mistimed observation. 8)

This is one of their signature dishes. Traditional Sizzling Platter with grilled pork, chicken, smoked pork sausages, capsicum, onions, mushroom and tomatoes. The meats are tender. The sauce compliments them well. The waiter said this is a serving for one. I think he meant one big meat eater. Two can comfortably fill their stomachs with this... if you add a side dish with it.

Spaghetti Carbonara with pork bacon and mushroom. The sauce is creamy, very nice. This is one of the better spaghetti carbonara we've tried. My kids enjoyed this very much.

The picture says it all... Crown Roast Pork Rib. Served with mashed potato, the ribs are roasted really tender. Roast meat can be quite tough sometimes. Other Half says roast pork beats other meats any time. I tend to agree... This is a serving for two persons.

On their menu, they call this Chocolate Soup. It is served with ice-cream and Son chose vanilla to go with it. LOL! Both kids immediately said it looked like a glass of Milo drink when it was served. It's tasted like chocolate milk drink to me... At RM14.00, I think it's not worth the money spent. The menu says it's a strange delicious dessert.... I beg to differ!

Cream brûlée. Yet another dessert we ordered. It's basically custard at the bottom and a hard layer of hardened caramel on top of it. Hard and soft; I guess the contrast gives this dessert a nice taste. But then again, desserts are almost the same everywhere... they're sweet. The strawberry went to my girl. As usual she said it's sweet.... it wasn't. I think her taste buds are sour bias. At RM12.00, I think there are many other places where you can get decent desserts for less.

But Vintage Bulgaria is quite a nice place for a meal. Might go back there again for a second visit, but I'll probably be giving their desserts a miss.

Queens Food Market

2012-01-14T17:00:00.000+08:00

This is at Queensbay Mall in Penang. This food market offers a range of food, mostly which you can find at hawker stalls. I guess it's supposed to provide hawker dining in a mall setting... away from the hot sun and humid feel.

Chuk with yu-tiao, or porridge with yu-char-kway. Actually it's more of a broth than porridge. It's always nice to have yu-char-kway dipped into chuk. It's that sort of meal that is both light and soothing; not so heavy on the stomach. It's actually more suitable for breakfast but I had it for lunch.

Other Half's hot plate noodles. These noodles are prepared factory line style. Everything is prepared, all one needs to do is just throw everything onto the hot plate, wait for the required time and you have a meal ready. Taste is consistent.

Dry wanton mee. For RM3, I added the wanton dish to the order. The wanton had chilli paste on it. Taste wise it takes some getting used to. The mee was rather dry, a little extra gravy would have made a lot of difference.

Always the curry fan, this was Son's order. The food looked appetizing enough. But Son said it wasn't spicy at all. The curry was not spectacular, he said the potato was too soft for his liking. But I think it would have suited me.... one man's food is another's poison. LOL!

A weekend out.... of a week that has felt like an exceedingly long one for us all.

Work.....

2012-01-11T11:33:00.001+08:00

For the first time in many years, I actually find myself numbed at the beginning of my work year... numbed cos it's just so pointless to hope for the better. Anyway, public examination results seem to indicate that we're doing very okay. We've just had the best PMR results for a while. Other indicators seem to tell us that things are okay...

I taught vocabulary and tenses to a Form 5 class yesterday.... and one word which I taught was hurricane. Along with it I told them stories of how hurricanes can force us to be supermen and women, even brought them half way round the world to New Orleans apart from our ASEAN neighbour, the Philippines who often gets pummeled in full ferocity. And today when I walked into my class and asked them whether they knew the word hurricane... I had to ask 15 students before I landed on the one and only student in the whole class who knew that it was ribut taufan. And this brings me to this point... You can bring a horse to the water, but you can't make the horse drink. That is the state of many of our students today.... Being the early part of the year means resolutions are still strong.... I am predicting that a few will start missing classes and school in 3 months... when everything gets too daunting again or when they feel that they aren't getting anywhere where school work is concerned.....and they'll just be another statistics.

Resources... human resources are probably the most valuable resource in any setting. It's a matter of getting the right people. Good leaders will probably be the most important prerequisite. Next of course will be the worker.... Yet, we waste so much of our resources on mindless ramblings.... One hears lots of sounds, noises.... clanging away. These days, people ramble incessantly more than do the actual work. Throw in the cloak of religious piety, what you get are wannabes of all sorts.

I just came out from a Form 1 class where I gave them 6 super short situations. They only needed to simplify those situations with the key words which I gave as well. 80 minutes later, I discovered that more than half can't even copy properly let alone read. Corrections after corrections they did... on the same exercise. One thing I observed though, the kids who did their primary schooling in Chinese vernacular schools were neater and more conscientious in doing their corrections. The national school kids had very unpolished work ethics. Bear in mind though that both groups are weak.... the only telling difference is their attitude towards work. And that is telling too about the human resources responsible in educating both groups, don't you think? So much for all this boasting about how great our education system is.

And leadership.... Up the hierarchy, one actually gets to hear those in position of authorities daring to verbalize preferences which benefits them, personally..... with no understanding of what it means to be a leader at all! And these same people have no qualms abort screaming at a student for showing a hair; many pots are calling the kettles black, thinking that they are pure, not realising that they too are soot-marked. Passing the buck, making demands because they see it fit......these are products of our education system. A lot of talk but very little substance of the talk... the listener tends to develop headaches which can be quite debilitating. Encouraging hypocrisy????

Wanting and seeking personal relevance, yet not willing to be of real relevance. A lot of schooling, giving a pseudo feel of a lot of education taking place but actually very little learning takes place. The human resource we have now..... many are the products of this too much, too little......

This Journey

2012-01-10T13:21:00.001+08:00

Life is a journey.... what sort of journey we make it to be depends on so many factors. Like every physical journey that we are so familiar with, this journey into life contains its own sets of adventures, discoveries and often feelings which borders both euphoria and sadness.

Imagine walking on this path where you are joined by many others like you. Everyone walking on this same path and its byways but all leading to the same destination. And along the way, sometimes you form partnerships, bonds, groups... these help you as you move long but while you may walk together, that journey still has to be completed by everyone. No quitting.

Sometimes journeying together, there is great fun. But sometimes you get the opposite. When our boy was very young, going places with him was fun. There was always something new and interesting to share with him. You see, we had gone quite a bit of our own journeys when we had him. There was just so much we wanted to share with him. Then as the moods swings of the teens dawned, it became a little more difficult. But we've stuck by him... Weathered some storms with him... and the journeying is still going on. Families are supposed to do that, stay together... be that support. Friends too, if they're the right ones, on this path in our journey of life.

Then as I looked around... I see too each of us trying to find our relevance. This thought came to me this morning..... No matter how much relevance we try to find in our lives... Many are actually irrelevant. Even the word irrelevance is only 2 alphabets away from relevance. All that seeking, be it via wealth, fame, recognition, authority, etc, etc... they become irrelevant eventually. The why is quite obvious.

So what is relevant? I guess it's squarely to the Philosopher's words.... to remember our Creator at all times, to enjoy our journey so that we won't say that we've not lived. Relationships.... everything else will come to naught... be they possessions, youth, beauty, might....can't seem to think of anything that remains relevant in the end except for the relationships that we have in the end.

Delicious

2012-01-08T10:30:00.000+08:00

Delicious... that's the name of the place, another one of those makan places in Straits Quay. We have not been there for a while. We had actually wanted to go to this Bulgarian restaurant in Tanjung Bungah but it wasn't opened when we got there. So we ended up here...

Straits Quay has 'matured' a bit since our last visit, well at least the berthing area. It used to be empty. Imagine this as your parking lot! Kinda nice to be able to walk out from your apartment and hop onto one of these and go for a ride along the coast.

Anyway, Delicious is a restaurant with a simple but nice decor. The first sight that greeted us when we got in was a fridge full of tempting looking deserts. The place was quite full when we got there as it was lunch time. I thought that augured well for us. What is popular can't go very wrong.

I ordered their pan fried cod on ratatouille... wanted to find out how ratatouille tasted like ever since I watched the animated movie some time back. The cod was okay. But I've tasted better ones. I like the taste of cod but this one didn't have that 'lemak' taste that I like. Just 10 sen short of RM50, I am not sure if I will come back for this.

We also tried their 3-tiered grill mix of chicken breast, mutton, beef, sausages and salad. Mutton was my favorite. It was tender and succulent. The beef was just okay. This comes at RM99.90. Serving was good enough for two big eaters.

Salad was light and nice. We liked the salad dressing.

Onion soup baked with cheese and bread. It was soothing. I think being extra hungry made it all the more enjoyable, especially for Daughter and I; since it was the starter.

Tried this for desert, Applicious Pie. All of us agreed that that pie 'crust' was nice. Actually, the crust tasted more like bread than the usual tart crust. And that made it nice.

This is the other desert, Maple Walnut Tart. Every bite of the tart had walnuts. Both came with ice-creams which as usual goes well down well with the pie and tart. Both were more than enough for us.

One thing I noticed after paying the bill was the taxes... eating out at such places also means paying a hefty service and government tax. I think the service tax is fine. The government tax? Our personal tax structure is still rather high.... and dining out like this reminds me that Inflation is everywhere and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. These days we pay more for less, we may earn more but it translates to very little real purchasing power. And that perhaps is also indication that the modern economic models have failed us.... and an indication too that the powers that are not doing a good job.

As for Delicious, the restaurant... I think they offer a menu with a different 'nomenclature' than the norm. Food is okay, not exceptional as in they really stand out but alright. It's still a good experience, though. The view of the sea is really nice.

And one more thing... this is the first post where everything is done from my iPad and iPhone. Quite cool.

Facebook, The Matrix and Skynet

2012-01-01T11:30:00.000+08:00

FaceBook needs no introduction. The Matrix is a 1999 sci-fi, futuristic movie while Skynet is the AI in the movie Terminator which went against its human creators and tried to destroy them. So what do these 3 have in common?

We live in an increasingly connected world. Social networking, right up from those Friendster days to the current FB wildfire has connected us 24/7. Many of us live our lives on FB. We create our FB moments. We even let everyone on our list know where we've checked in, who we are with.

We knowingly and unknowingly try to keep up. With more laid bare, the pressure builds too. Keeping up with the Joneses used to be limited by a boundary that can be seen. FB (and other social networking sites) erase those boundaries. And so, you find people actually trying to create those FB moments. A friend told me a joke about how some people spend more time trying to pose for a photo to be put up on FB than actually try to enjoy the place or the people.

Another person I know noted how foul and harsh languages are finding their way to the public domain, published for all to see. Quarrels between a teen and his parents and foul words used to vent their anger on their teachers have all been put up for all to see. Whatever happened to family and self honor? I guess these days, most think it's pretty cool to be seen as rebellious.

We seem so connected yet seem so unable often, to hold 'eyeball' conversations. Some of us have over a 1000 friends on our list. I remember going through the FB of a young man who committed suicide not too long ago. In the days and hours before his final act, he put up his intent on FB. So many friends, yet none seemed to take time to seek him out. In fact, more seemed to be spurring him on. I guess people don't take people seriously on FB.

The connectivity has also served to numb us further from thinking more; from realizing how temporal and empty life can be.... that there is a void in our heart. We move from one comment to another, one event to the next. We look at photos of travels made, food eaten, events carried out.... and we long for them. Slowly we are sucked into trying to keep up or ceate our own reality distortion field. And some day, perhaps when we find it too hard to cope, we will willingly give up our liberty and ability to think and choose to substitute it with our wishful reality...... and live in the matrix. Lost souls we may be but many of us will opt for that because it'll feel like a more pleasant existence, free of cares and worries.

So will we be like the Israelites who asked God to give them a king. They insisted even though God warned them the King would take a lot from them. That was how Saul came into the picture. Would we, give up the liberty of mind in exchange for a blissful existence like the one in The Matrix? And guess who will be the Skynet? You got it..... harmless social networking sites could well be on their way to being the next superpower. They will own us..... with everything gone digital, it's not hard to see that our lives have been digitalized. And digital lives can be manipulated.... can take a cue from the movie The Net (Sandra Bullock).

iCloud, Dropbox, Boxee and so on.... each one entices us to trust them to keep our documents, images, files, everything that can be digitalized. They remove the need for us to be responsible for our own stuff. And we gladly surrender our privacy for that convenience, to have things done for us, for someone to organize our lives.... We surrender a bit of ourselves in eCh instance in exchange for the things we want..... and come to think of it, that's life. We spend a life bartering this for that.....

Here's to 2012!

Hing Ket Grill House

2011-12-30T19:30:00.000+08:00

Bro-in-law took us here.

Off the city highways into the little country roads that still exist in pockets of areas here and there in the suburbs of KL. And this makan trip was to Hing Ket Grill House.

It's an unobtrusive building, and there's nothing fancy about the shop which is located along the dusty main road of Kampung Jawa, Klang.

We ordered the sa-hor-fun which was so popular with the kids that we ordered a second round. We also had bee hoon and stir fried vegetables.

These la-la(s) were very spicy. The kids steered clear of them. We didn't order rice but these would go really great with white rice. Totally appetizing, the sauce.

Chunky and meaty stingray grilled with curry powder. This is one of the best grilled stingrays I've taken. The meat was succulent and tender; the flavours just nice. Grilled to perfection.

But this was the main reason for our visit here - the grilled mutton. And though they might not look very appetizing, they tasted absolutely good. The meat was tender, well marinated - truly a finger lickin' dish.

December...

2011-12-27T00:39:00.001+08:00

It's post Christmas. For the many Christmases before this one, we've always made it a point to spend it here, in Alor Setar. But this year, we went down to KL, to celebrate it with family members.

So, together with our little faithful Barrels, we travelled south...

I know my girl had a whale of a time with her cousins. We actually spent very little time shopping. All supermarkets have the same feel after a while. We took Son to see some colleges, in preparation for the next phase of his life. We also made a trip to Seremban, a place where I did my teaching practical more than 20 years ago; where I stayed with Other Half's aunt. I will always remember the kindness and generosity shown by both Aunty and Uncle to me. They literally opened a new world to me. And I met up with an old friend/mentor. Years gone by and I marvel at how she is still keeping to her faith... despite the the many tough moments. It was good to catch up... over Seremban's famous gu-bak mee.

And we had a good get-together at Other Half's uncle's place during Christmas Eve. It's been over a year since father-in-law's passing. It was good to be able to meet up, with cousins and extended family members. Good food, great company. I don't know who was happier.... him or us.

I realize that as I grow older, I can understand better why faces light up when such visits are made. It's such moments that warm the hearts. And sometimes too, a little thought crosses my mind too that perhaps things happen for a reason. If some of the things that happened this year did not happen, I doubt we'd have made this journey. I am glad for this trip because in many ways it's also a blessing for my children. Sometimes we caught up by the busyness of our lives. Sometimes the familiarity of the same activity holds us back.

KL remains jam packed with everything.... every where you go, you pay toll. The air is thick with man made toxins. And everywhere is far... time didn't seem to factor in much those days when KL was my temporary home.... but they seem to these days.

We made to a trip to Pavilion which was right in the city centre..... because Son wanted his Stickies. It was quite interesting to see the sweets being made. The shelves were almost empty when we got there. And they're not cheap. A small bottle of Stickies sweets cost around RM30. Yet the bottles just kept flying off the shelves. We also tried the food at the supposedly famous hawker centre in Pavillion. Verdict? Prices were steep. But the kids got to look at the Christmas deco lights. They were actually very nice....

Also, a trip back to the old church we used to attend; DUMC. They have moved a couple of times in the last 2 decades. I've gone back a couple of times but this was my first time to their Dream Centre and it was impressive. Other Half said one can comfortably get lost there.... 8) Anyway, Christmas treat was watching Juwita Suwito and Jacyln Victor sing for us at the Dream Centre. Daniel Ho was the speaker..... he was as how I remembered him; he speaks faster now, though. 8) The sermon was simple but poignant.

And this December too, the things I cherish remain family and friends. I enjoyed a particular afternoon at hone with friends, conversations over things far and near to the heart. Though I tend to get a little more skeptical with age, I realize too that the things that are important don't change much. It's us, people who change things... for better or worse.

December.... the mark of another year, and beginning of another.

Pun Chun Kota Kemuning and Bidor

2011-12-27T00:00:00.002+08:00

I thought my brain was thawing.. turns out it went back into the freezer during and post Christmas...

This is a first for us... in one trip we went to 2 same restaurants in 2 different locations. And it's all because Other Half liked their Duck Noodles so much. Well, actually it's dry noodle (konlo mee) accompanied by duck soup.

This is Pun Chun Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam. Bro-in-law took us there cos he said it's supposed to be very famous. They specialize in noodles. They have rice dishes too but most people seem to go for their noodles.

Their menu... it felt worn out from constant use. That is indicator of the restaurant's popularity. And one more thing, I noticed that the waiter took our orders using a Palm device. Quite cool. 8)

My order of Chicken Feet and Mushroom Noodles. I think being hungry probably contributed quite a bit to me thinking that it tasted quite good. But I think the same noodles at Lee & Lee here is just as good too.

Son's order... curry mee. He says its very nice and he's a curry person.

The konlo mee with its duck soup which got us to Pun Chun's parent restaurant in Bidor. Bro-in-law told us that it was located along one of the towns along the NSE. These days, with the GPS, it's easy to locate them. We were approaching Bidor when the duck noodles came into our conversation. So a few taps here and there.... and we decided to make a detour.

And this was where the GPS guided us to. Pun Chun (the parent restaurant) in Bidor. It's located at the corner lot of an old row of shophouses. This place is quite different from their Kota Kemuning outlet which had a city feel. Anyway, small towns can be interesting and exciting in their own ways cos to me, there is this disorderliness of everything.

And along the same street, you'll see shops and stalls selling fruits. Everywhere we turned, we saw people eating mangosteens. And literally every fruit stall was selling pomelos. I got some.

This Pun Chun had all kinds of cookies and even this yam kuih. I bought a couple home to try. They're nice but I wouldn't say that they're the best I've taken. Each one cost around RM1.70, I think.

This lady was totally busy during the more than half an hour that we had to wait for our order. And it's obvious that order is not via any geeky tools. Business was really brisk and it wasn't even lunch or dinner time. It was mid afternoon and people streamed in non-stop for a plate of Pun Chun noodles. Guess one can see how popular this restaurant is.

And so, that's how we had Pun Chun noodles at home. The noodles and soup were still warm when we got home. Pun Chun in Bidor is cheaper than the fancier outlet in Kota Kemuning. But price is not the only difference. The wantan in Kota Kemuning is sweeter cos they contain more prawns whereas the ones from Bidor contained more meat. Pun Chun's menu is pasted on the wall unlike the more personalized ones in Kota Kemuning.... for the supposedly more sophisticated clientele. And of course the more sophisticated clientele pays more too. 8)

Their duck/chicken soup is good. I noticed that the soups are cooked with longan in addition to the usual Chinese herbs. Would we stop by again for the noodles... I think so.

Meaning...

2011-12-19T22:16:00.000+08:00

The brain is slowly thawing.... 8)

It's Christmas season! And often, we are asked about what Christmas means. Born to die, that one might live. But a look around will tell us that Christmas while continues in its spirit of giving, is more vague in what it means to most of us.

So what gives meaning to our lives? Is meaning externally brought on or internally generated? If it's an external one, then it's also logical to conclude that our moods can be affected by even the weather! Incidentally, the weather does affect our moods. Anyway, if we are responsible for meaning in our lives, then it is supposed to be both liberating and terrifying. Liberating because you no longer depend on others for meaning.... and terrifying at the same time, cos this flow of thought seems to put us all as capable of keeping ourselves happy, in other words we'll be like an ubermensch.

I am still inclined to believe that one of the things in life that gives real meaning to our lives remains the relationships that each of us experience. Right from the relationship with the Divine to our families and the people who cross our paths. It's holiday season. And this year, what I appreciate most is the opportunity to renew ties with my family members and also new friends made.

However, I think ubermensch we are not cos we're not perfect. Meaning in our lives is often affected by the people around us. Other Half and I have been looking at our old videos and came across a video of a church camp we attended some years back. What caught our eye were these.... vibrance, energy, enthusiam from one of the sessions that we had during the Camp. There were many young kids and the church camp had a family-like atmosphere when that moment was caught. It looked like everyone had fun.

Fast forward 8 years... Many of the kids have grown up and left. Many of the adults spot more gray hair. The last church camp we attended had no programmes for the left-behind-kids. Meaning for some had somehow gone on a narrower bandwidth... didn't matter which angle you look from. Meaning, apparently can be affected by external factors.

The years that have added themselves onto my timeline has also taught me that all of us are 'selfish' creatures.... and because of that , we'll continue to do those things that meet our needs and therefore give meaning to our own lives first; 5Ks - kah ki kor kah ki, with some effort to appease our conscience. That type of giving (sacrifice) as told in a parable of the poor woman who gave her two coins and the rich and his bag of gold remains something hard for each of us to do. The thing is, over the years, even in churches, I have seen how, very often the best is reserved for certain groups (with connection)..... and these benefitted tremendously.. Then, there were those who gave like the widow did and suffered heartaches.. And you wonder where the meaning is... One might be excused for thinking that 5K works better.

Meaning gives a sense of purpose and it works vice versa too. Purpose can be selfish or noble. One takes away meaning, the other gives and enhances it. Calvary was noble and it gives us life.

New Year beckons... Hope, hopefully.....

iPhone 4S

2011-12-18T21:35:00.001+08:00

Can't imagine that I feel more tired even though this is the hols for me. Have not been blogging much cos the brain seems to be frozen and I kinda like its frozen state though it's time to slowly start the thawing process.

I finally took the plunge and got myself an iPhone 4S. One compelling reason to get it was my iPod went bust. During my recent trip back, I had the misfortune of falling into the drain when I stopped to resolve a problem at the Touch n Go Service Centre along the highway. PLUS should consider covering all their drains to make it safer for road users. Thankfully, my reflexes were still fast enough. I managed to stop myself from totally 'sinking' into the drain by propping myself up with my hands..... injured my wrist and arm in the process, though. 8( Had a few abrasions, some bruises and I thought that was it. Little did I realize that my iPod which was in my pocket had taken a hard knock. It was only the next day that I discovered a dent at the back when I couldn't power it up. The gorilla glass held well. The iPod still looks pristine from the front. And that was the final 'encouragement' I needed to get an iPhone. I miss my iPod most during gym time cos my faithful little companion wasn't there to provide me the reading pleasure.

I made a pre-order with Celcom 2 days before the launch. I read about long lines in KL.... Up north here, I just walked in and was served quite promptly. No lines of people waiting to get the new iPhones. At one place in KL apparently, Maxis subscribers started queuing at 3 p.m. before the launch at midnight to get an iPhone 4S. Crazy!

I ran into a problem, though when Celcom said I couldn't upgrade my line since the iPhone 4S corporate package had not been announced. I was of course quite annoyed when they told me that I had to wait since they could not return my deposit. But after talking to the gals who were manning the counter, and a couple of calls to KL, discussions with their superiors, they finally agreed to switch my package. I was almost tempted to terminate my line. But I must commend the young lady who attended to me.

And no, I am not going to gush about Siri, though I think it's quite cool. At the moment, I don't think I have much use for it yet. The iphone can play the piano it seems... have seen a video of it and it's pretty awesome. Having used the iPod for quite a while, the iPhone is not much different from it... except it has extra functions, of course. What I am going to gush about is the camera. It's almost as good as my point and shoot camera. Night shots are comparable. Video is good. And I carry less things in my pocket too. Everything in one. And oh yes! SMS-ing is easier now too... no more squinting my eyes trying to make out the letters on my less than presbyopic friendly phone keypad. I am usually too lazy to SMS or reply because SMSing is such a chore most of the times.

And with 2011 drawing its curtain to a close, I realize too that there are now many 'i'(s) in my life. And I don't know whether that is good.

Movie Maker Wannabe..

2011-12-12T21:59:00.002+08:00

LOL! With apps, software... (the term 'software' sounds so archaic now), it's easy to do a lot of things these days. And a movie maker (wannabe) can be one of them! Been keeping a rather frenzied pace the last few days; capturing memories and making sure that I am at home too for my boy since his exam is still not over.

There was a wedding and Other Half and I were the videographers... minus a camcorder! Since it was a last minute thing and our cameras take better movies than our camcorders (which cannot capture in HD), we decided to stick with the former. It felt kinda awkward doing video shoot with a small cameral! LOL! But it's amazing what one can do with a camera these days. And so armed with 2 Canon point and shoot cameras, each of us took our positions and captured away. The old church looks very nice now that they have added a mezzanine floor.

This time around, we decided to take from 2 angles and merge them. Merging them was easier said than done cos I ended up with hundreds of clips! Coming up with a short video presentation two and a half hours after the church wedding, using the video clips was probably the bigger challenge. I found myself having to plan ahead, multi task and sit glued to the screen. But we did it! With half an hour to spare! LOL! Being a meticulous freak, I actually went through almost all of them, edited them so that clips taken from both angles come together as one movie... Amazing how technology has come this far!

Well, the final product is finally done today. And because I hung around a lot during the preparations, I also put together a pre-wedding clip; of happenings which I'm sure is endearing cos those were scenes in the background, the labour of love, usually acknowledged but not quite seen.

Also, going through our own collection of old movies which we took when the kids were small the last few days has also impressed on us again that it's worth capturing moments in our lives. Though at that particular point of time, it may not be such a big deal; given that human memory fails... it's nice to be able to relive those moments; even if it's only on screen. Cos, in reliving those moments, we are also reminded of many other things in life. Sometimes, our minds play tricks on us and make us believe in things we choose to believe. To be able to see captured wonderful moments does wonders in dislodging that which we think is truth. Some also serve as reminders of painful truths too...

Anyway, I use iMovie. It's a remarkable app cos non movie-makers like us can be turned into a movie maker wannabe. Anyone can make their own home movies... and these days, sometimes, can be better than those 'professional' videographers (from small towns like ours) one calls in to capture those special moments. Most of the time, they just capture and give you everything, cos they don't quite know what you want.

With iDVD, burning a DVD is a breeze. But all these are just tools to help us. To get a worthwhile movie up, one still needs to sit for hours (till the eyes pop out sometimes) and pore through reels and reels of clips. It still boils down to us.... tools are just tools. What makes a tool great remains our persistence to finish what we started. And as in every undertaking, there are always new things picked up. This time around, one of the things I learned was how to rip the themes from other apps and use them for iMovie. And I learned too that Firewire 9 pin to 4 pin DV cables are hard to find. We had to call so many shops.... some have not even heard of it!

Anyway, this recent flurry of activities of this particular sort has gotten us looking at Canon Legria range of camcorders cos in the final analysis, to capture good clips, one still needs a tool that is able to capture the happenings clearly in low light. Most good stuff still takes place indoors. So, here's drooling for one of the Legria(s).

Goal? Maybe no....

2011-12-08T11:13:00.001+08:00

In a game of football, you win the game when you score more goals than your opponents. At both ends of the approximately 100m long field are goal posts, one pair for each team. The field is divided into equal half, meaning each team gets the same distance or space to chest, head or kick the ball into the net that hangs between the two goalposts. And of course, the goal posts are planted firmly into their positions.

Now, if one team were to shift the goalposts, make the goal mouth smaller, his team would have an unfair advantage. This will never be allowed to happen cos the fans of the opposing team will surely run amok. But in real life, one often changes the goalposts to his advantage (no one will change his goalposts to his disadvantage) because he wants to win, or get his way.

And that's what everyone of us is apt to do, a lot too. Changing goalposts; even when there is already a set of clear guidelines for us to follow. We will find means and ways to circumvent those guidelines, to have what we want. There will be some among us who will retract or retrace because of conscience but somehow, we will always try to change those goalposts. Sometimes, even when it's obvious that the we've 'illegally' shifted the post, we try to make it legitimate via reasons of various paths.

It takes a lot to say no or walk narrower path. It's difficult cos everywhere we turn, we see people with things we desire too. It becomes even harder when our kids feel deprived of the things they see their friends are able to own. And they are not. Resentment, a sense of hopelessness, peer pressure of sorts fester. And so, we change our goalposts, bit by bit. The gray grows. The black and white diminish.

Life gets a surreal feel sometimes, when you think about it that way.

House of Grace, MYF Years

2011-12-05T20:15:00.000+08:00

A comment on FB by my junior from school triggered fond memories of House of Grace. I first stepped into the first House of Grace in Form 3, after our 'promotion' to Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) from IMYF. It's like moving from junior league to the senior one. When you are 15, that is a big deal. And the deal gets bigger cos you get noticed by the bigger kids. You get friends who are older than us. It's like you know somebody important.

The first time I went there was for Bible Study. It was Ching Mooi who was teaching us. In the years before and after my years in the MYF, these dedicated teachers.... Mr. Ling KN, Mr. Leong CS, Ms. Ling KB, Ms. Tan Ching Mooi, Mrs. Tan YH and those who came into the picture after my time there; they left indellible marks in many lives.

House of Grace was a place for us, MYF'ers to hang out. It was also a place for us to study... a quiet place away from the cramped spaces at home and the noise of the neighborhood. It provided a conducive environment for us to study. There were rules that had to be strictly followed. In the early years, House of Grace had a 'resident' MYF counsellor living there full time, Mr. Leong.

House of Grace moved location too not long after I was in Upper Secondary. Mr. and Mrs. Tay offered their single storey bungalow for our use. This one had a compound big enough for a game of captain ball or even hockey. There was a table tennis too. The house also had a library filled with books. I read many of my first CS Lewis' books there. There was even a room with air-con, a luxury in those days. The house came alive with activities between 5.00 - 7.30 p.m. on weekdays. During weekends, Bible Studies were conducted there followed by games. All the other hours were study hours, except for the December school holidays when the House of Grace will come alive with Christmas preparations. December was the 'funnest' time at the House.

House of Grace provided a safe sanctuary for us, teenagers to meet. It was where the older ones, those who had gone to universities would drop by during their term breaks and help out the younger ones who were struggling with their Add Maths, Chem or Physics. It was a place where we could hang out with our friends, seek out adults in our tumultous years. It provided a healthy environment for boys and girls to interact. And it was also a place where we were taught priorities. And I remember making kuih kapit there too to raise funds for our camp there too, one year.

Carrom games, guitar sessions.... one can always count on seeing a bunch of guys with their guitars strumming away, creating their own music as they went along, mostly self taught. Many of us could play the guitar as a result cos there was always someone ever ready to teach. Many of us saved to buy the cheap Kapok guitar just so that we could learn how to play. There was a sense of belonging and warmth of friendship. These days, I look at my surrounding... so much of everything but much less warmth.

It was through the dedication, commitment and generosity of our MYF counsellors and also the church that House of Grace was possible. I had many good moments there. We played, laughed and cried there. We quarreled and made up there too. It was a place where many aspects of character building took place through the interactions that took place. It was a place which played a big role in our growing up years. We always knew that there was a place for us in House of Grace. If you needed to find someone to talk to, you can always find one there in the evenings during the games time, an older kid, a counsellor sometimes or just your regular hang out friends.

It was also a place where we would have our gatherings... those little 'year' gatherings. When I think back of those years, truly there were many fond memories, defining and even tender moments. Friends from far and near, old and young... House of Grace provided us that meeting place.

The meeting of lives... grace extended to us in so many indescribable ways. We were truly blessed.... by the environment created in our best interest, by the people who committed their lives for ours.

iPad App - Pearltrees

2011-12-02T08:27:00.000+08:00

Pearls don't grow on trees. We grow them in oysters in the seas. Pearls are beautiful and they're a sight to behold. And so, enter Pearltrees, the app. Pearls and trees... the worth associated to pearls and the growing and branching out; getting more knowledge. When I first discovered this app a couple of weeks back, the immediate attraction was it would enable me to organize the many websites that I want to keep for reference. I bookmark and create folders in my computers for the sites I want to use but whenever I am at another computer, I would always have difficulty recalling a particular site that I want to refer or use.

You grow your own pearls of information, knowledge, wisdom.... call it any name you want. But the bottom line is your pearls keep growing...... and growing. One pearl can grow into more pearls and so on. The pic above is a close-up of how your pearls may look like.

This is the screenshot of the whole page. Within each pearl you can grow more pearls, which are actually links to the sites you want. You can create your own downline... sort of like a direct marketing model. If that's not enough and you want to know what other similar pearltrees you might find out there, you can do so.... one arrow leads to more gems of knowledge and the trail keeps going on and on. The arrows are like your path to like-minded people.... for 'birds of the same feather to flock together.'

Clicking on the arrows on the pic before this one brings you to neighbouring like-minded pearltrees. And there you have it, a sharing community. It's very much like a social networking but of a different kind; though not as people-oriented as FaceBook, still one that appeals a lot because one reference leads to another, info to another. It makes it a great informal library of sorts for one.

There is also the ease of which you can pearl a website by bookmarking it, once you install it into your browser. Installation is a breeze. Just follow the set of instructions that pop up during the installation and it's ready for use.

Once you bookmark the site, this page appears and all you need to do is just to 'Pearl the page' and you will find the new pearl among your pearls, to keep until you choose to delete it. You also have the option of organizing it or leaving it at the bottom bar till you figure out what you want to do with it.

I could think of plenty of uses for this app. For people like me with varied interests and also write, it's great for storing sites with which provides information and data for future reference. And for, teachers like me who get bored using the same materials, this can be a possible site resource centre. I could create pearls for different components of the language and pearl (a new verb... LOL!) the sites. LOL! I could even use Peartrees as a lesson... teaching students the ropes and how to use it to organize ideas and thoughts; the future. Students would probably have more fun learning how to do mind mapping in a different way. This would go very well with IThought HD. And it would be a practical skill.... Alas, the MOE were not far sighted enough to give iPads instead of Netbooks.... the 1Malaysia Netbook. The missed opportunity was the Government gave the Netbooks without any solid plans or programs to maximize its benefits for the students.

The Pearltrees app will probably help students a lot too, especially if they are doing research. Everything that is related can be pearled for later use.

In short, this is our very own personal aggregator, made by us, tailored to our own needs and with the flexibility of the octopus tentacles reaching out to other pearls made by other people along the same line of interests. And more and more too, I think laptops are heading towards being obsolete too... cos apps are easier to learn.

Blurred Lines

2011-11-30T21:00:00.000+08:00

How do we know if something is God's will? It seems that our lines often become blurred when the subject of God's will comes into light. And with one utterance of "It's God's Will", it's often easy to shut people up into submission.

Between that which is in our reality and the realm that we seek to understand is this chasm that challenges us to go by faith because our limited understanding cannot fathom the incomprehensible. Without that faith, there there is no bridge to connect these 2 worlds.

How does one know the will of God? Does it mean going by what's morally right? Or common sense? Or the voice of reason? Or perhaps it's just a feeling? Cos supernatural displays are not something that everyone gets to see. Or perhaps the will of God is just whatever that we want, sometimes all murked up by us.

What if a loved one lays dying, and someone comes along and says that he sees a vision that he is going to make it and then the opposite happens? Do we reinterpret? Or if someone comes along and says that it's the right thing to do because he feels God wants to bless him but then turns out that right thing isn't right to begin with? Do we rephrase? Or it's just this deep down in us, there is this arrogance that we will get things our way? Or perhaps it's just plain ignorance or simple faith? It gets confusing....

Or this... these days kosher-ness seems to be so much an issue with my Muslim colleagues that most would not touch any food we give them; even those that we give in good faith... meaning we go out of our way to ensure that they are kosher. Is that God's will, that they show such lack of humility? ... never mind that there is God says the onus is on the giver and the receiver...

Illegal lottery is something which I believe is thriving. Yet I've heard tales of this or that illegal lottery operator being super religious on certain religious festivals, putting up offerings, seeking divine blessings and so on. Is it God's will for these people to make profit out of those they hook onto this gambling addiction? To be a part of such misery, yet be religious as the same time.

Or knowing that something is clearly against the law, yet we still take that first step that breaks the law. Then when the weight of it all comes crashing onto us, we say that perhaps there is His will somewhere.... Way leads on to way. Yet if we know that the first step into the path is morally or even legally wrong, does it make what comes after it okay?

Lines become blurred because very often we impose our will into God's and claim it His; after going through our own reality distortion field that is. We give it good credentials by gluing on God's will to it. And together with the dogma we create, they get hijacked and become God's will. So logically, can it be concluded that God's will is actually what we want or convenient to us; just like how our kids weave their way through and around us to get what they want.Take a cue from the ongoing UMNO General Assembly. There were calls to defend their faith (which is fine)... But then, those calls started to involve name calling with words like bangsat, bapok; makes me wonder too whether it's within God's will to use such deragoratory terms. It's not hard to see why cynicism flourishes. It's after all the rection or response to those that we project. Ending Nov with a sigh....

Environment Idaman and Rubbish

2011-11-28T11:51:00.001+08:00

On 1st September, the Federal Government signed an agreement with appointed companies for solid waste management. While the agreement was only recently signed, those of us who reside up north here have been seeing the Environment Idaman trucks at work for quite a while and many would probably agree with me that rubbish collection didn't get any better under them. In some places, it got worse. One gets the impression that they seem to be constantly running short of garbage trucks.

Anyway, there was a 'big-do' of a launch regarding this waste management thing recently. And since then, it has been interesting to see how the company has gone round 'distributing' the 120 litre rubbish bins which is supposed to cost RM120. From one FB post I learned that a friend who happened to see the truck distributing the bins went back home and photocopied the necessary documents rushed back to the truck to get the free bins. Then we heard no more about it. The posters which were hung up during the launch (which asked the residents to be 'sabaq') went missing soon after the launch....

Then suddenly, yesterday evening, my kind neighbour gave me a set of forms and told me to go to the same field to queue up for the bins. It was already almost 8.00 p.m. But I went anyway because my neighbour was so kind as to to tell me. I got there and they told me they had no more to give out for the day. But when I peered into the back of the truck, there were still some bins... (maybe those were malfunctioned bins... I don't know). Anyway, they told me to leave the forms with them. They told me to go again the next day to 'claim' my bin. I told them that the report and poster stated that they are supposed to send the bins to the people. And guess what? One said that might pose a problem since they actually do not know who has been given and not... Anyway, I was told that the truck will be there from 11.00 a.m. till evening today. I passed by the place twice today and guess what??? No truck!!!!

So how accountable is this whole thing? I guess we will know in 4 years; since the distribution of the bins alone is supposed to take 4 years. Like the flood relief money, and the recent RM100 aid for school students; implementation of programmes which involve money always seem to reek loopholes.

Take a look at this sign to inform the residents of the collection times. It is so small that you need an eagle's eyes to notice it. Back home ( in Perak) I noticed signs (very easy to read ones) informing the rubbish collection times being put up a year or two back. Mom tells me they are regular and quite punctual.

For these... You actually have to stop your car (or bike) and get down, peer up to read these!!! And guess what? They are printed on papers!!! How long do you think they will last before the sun bleaches the paper white or the rain breaks down the paper? Rain water flows freely through the slots.... Action speaks louder than words. Is Environment Idaman serious about creating an environment which we idam for? Or will it be one that is filled with bad dreams?

Well this is our current environment idaman... The bins which they placed at 'strategic' locations have never failed to attract rubbish of all kinds.... and pests too, might I add. See the toilet bowl??? And right around the time they started these strategic bins, rubbish collection also deteriorated... so I guess our idaman now would be hopefully, a really organized and accountable rubbish collection system to hit off. It used to be so much better when the Majlis was doing it years ago. Privatization where this is concerned has not brought better service, and we have the Federal Government to thank. 8(

The one improvement that I saw in the last one month is Environment Idaman workers digging the drains... but not the ones near my house. Years ago, the drains would be cleared quite regularly. These days, to catch people clearing them is a bonus!!! After the flood last year, I dug the drain outside my house and came up with a few wheelbarrows of sand, rocks and soil.... goes to show how poor the maintenance has been.

Anyway, maybe 4 years from now, when this post is revisited, things might have improved by leaps and bounds. Or if it further deteriorates, then we can always point finger to the holders of the concession... UEM, Metacorp among the main partners... companies seen to have major cables.

Nippon Yataimura

2011-11-28T00:11:00.001+08:00

This is Nippon Yataimura at Queensbay. We went there with fond memories from our experience dining at their outlet at Jalan Burma quite some time back. But we were a little disappointed.

As Queensbay was on our way home, we stopped by for some quick shopping and also to have our lunch. And so we decided to give Nippon Yataimura a try as we've not gone for a while.

This is something all of us enjoy. Beans. Endamame. But there weren't as nice as the ones that I get at Kaede.

Other Half ordered this; their pork mayonnaise which was okay.

I had this... quite a simple and plain fish dish. The taste wasn't too spectacular either.

Our gal's unagi set. It came with sashimi, a mix of tempura veg and chawan mushi. The unagi had too many bones to her liking and we ended up eating most of it while she took some of the chicken from Other Half.

We had earlier gone for the Stationery Fair at PISA, which was another letdown. Thinking that stationery might mean paper, I went expecting to see different types of paper. Instead, what greeted us mostly were souvenirs and lots of those modern computer aided sewing machines which could sew all those intricate designs. Dying craft... hand stitching.

But we saw this too.. a professionally made light box. Other Half tried to make one long time ago using white foamy rubber and a box. It was cheap to make. This one??? It's almost RM2K!!

Watches

2011-11-26T22:32:00.001+08:00

Never one to give much attention to watches, bro recently introduced me to this world... I think my dad's penchant for collecting stuff rubbed off us. I went into stamp collection. Still have quite an extensive collection to this day. They'll go to one of my kids. My bro on the other hand is into anything that is collectible - currencies, watches, knives... even RC toys. I used to be quite, quite mad about stamps and would spend hours poring over brochures from philatelic societies. In those days when snail mail ruled, I had a classmate who was equally mad about it and he would be the one to write to the societies which were overseas. And with a few other friends, we would use the pocket money we saved on them.

Anyway, we had an interesting conversation on his current preoccupation with watches. A watch is more than a timepiece. There is a watch for every occasion and situation. Sports, casual, formal and so on. People collect watches because they are fascinating and each one represents the era that they came from too.

These are second or third hands... all in still in good working order.

This is a Telda watch. I am told that it is between 60-70 years old. It has a stopwatch function too. It looks well worn. I liked the solid feel. People made watches to last in those days, like most things.

Bro even took out the back cover to show me its inside... again looking really solid. It's very him to learn up, understand whatever interests that he has and learn it well too. Every piece seemed to be locked in place solidly. I've seen the insides of some of the present watches and the parts are mostly flimsy and feels like they might break easily... fragile.

An Oris. The little red circle is the date pointer. The company used to rank below the more famous Swiss brands like Longines and of course the other more famous names. But in recent times, it has sort of built a name for itself too.

A Borel cocktail watch. This was given to me some years back. The centre piece moves and gives out a psychedelic design which makes it rather quaint. I checked it out and one can find people bidding for it on E-bay. 8)

Sis-in-law was wearing this, a Sixty watch probably made in the 90s. She gave it to me when she I told her it looked rather unique. The colours change as the second hand moves. Even Son and Lil One like it lots.

Old watches... I bet each one has their own story to tell if they can speak.

A Sense of Purpose

2011-11-21T11:50:00.000+08:00

Other Half says I am an Apple evangelist... LOL! I've been buying for or convincing my friends and family members to get for themselves either the iPod or iPad ever since I started using them. And I have found many good uses for them. No iPhone in the list cos I didn't see the need in it earlier but I'll be getting the 4S.

Anyway, for most people, an iPad should suffice, unless you have needs for a smart phone. For those of us in our presbyopic years, the phone screens are too small for comfortable reading. Moreover doing stuff on a bigger screen is way easier for senior newbies. The mouse on the PC is rather daunting for them. And these are the lessons I learned...

Give a person something, but if that something does not meet a need in his life, for whatever promises it might hold, it is useless.

My oldest iPad convert is into her mid 70s. She got convinced to get one because she was captivated by references which she can make on the Bible apps. There is a new zeal in her to study in depth because she sometimes gives sermons over the pulpit. Bible study is a breeze because multiple references can be made easily. Also, many apps have Bible Reading Plans and Devotionals incorporated, making it a one-stop with options of font size, brightness and background adjustments. You can't do all those on a printed book. And so she became willing to try to figure her way around this new gadget because it fills a need and in part too because Other Half and I availed ourselves to be there for her; to get it for her and to show her the ropes.

I had the opportunity to show her the other functions in my first session with her... I saw her eyes light up when I showed her how she could see her children and grandchildren's photos on FaceBook. She began to see that there was much more this new gadget could offer her. It's very much like introducing the Gospel to someone. First, see the need, then the act to accept/receive. And once that door is open, then one will find more relevance and beauty. But first one has to see the possibilities. And opportunities must be provided to learn, serve, etc.....

I have another friend in her 60s who wanted very much to share her photos on FaceBook with her family members. She had found the PC daunting.... There is a pull factor but there were barriers too sometimes we need help to overcome the barriers. I always assure these senior friends of mine that I am only a call away.... Being in the family of God is supposed to be like this too.. but sadly we often fail here. There are daunting moments and trying times, we are supposed to be there for each other, go the extra mile but sometimes it's hard to do because it means giving up some things which are dear to us, sacrifice. To create a strong sense of belonging, more is asked of us.....

One of the things that I have noticed among us, adults is we are always fearful that the computer will crash if we press a wrong button. And when that happens, we might have to send it to the shop. It costs not only money but worries as well. But when I tell them that it's okay to try and will help them out, some actually let go of their fears and learn to use their tools really well too. I've another friend who would not hesitate to call me whenever she ran into problems... sometimes even appearing at my doorstep at night. Service. Very often we think people are not ready and so we do not give them the opportunity because we think they might not be able to handle it. Or maybe we hang on because we want to continue to feel relevant. The thing is we forget that if we don't provide the time and space to try, they'll never be ready, they'll never be good... simply because we keep waiting for them to be ready. And they never will because we actually shackle them. I think it's okay to 'bungle' up a bit... we just need to be there to hold them or guide them a bit. Encourage or even be critical in a positive way.....

Anyway, being an iPad 'promoter' has its own rewards. I enjoy seeing faces lighting up. I like to know that in some way, I have helped chalk up some happy moments in their lives when they can Skype their children, read a book, organize their photos....

We recently got another iPad for Other Half. The oldest iPad in the house now is shared by our kids. These days, I do mind maps of stuff for my kids and dropbox or email to them for quick reference. Scanned materials find their way there too for easy reference. It's a breeze cos I no longer need to print them out or sit at the computer with her. My son asks me for points for his PA and our discussion is paperless.. from wherever I am in the house, and I will email it to him. He has begun putting his notes in the iPad. It's easy and convenient... one tool, everything that has been digitalized can be put in.

And this! A page from Son's childhood.I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Putt Putt in the App Store. Suffice to say, we bought it. Brought back memories of those days when Son was just a preschooler. We'd sit with him at the computer and help him solve the puzzles so that Putt Putt can save the day. 8) My girl enjoys it too. The graphics are not HD but it's still nice game for kids. Better than those mindless games that are aplenty these days.

The iPad is changing the way we interact with our world. Who would have imagined that after all the flops before it. And it has also taught me a few lessons about life too...

Of Tong Sampah and Big Do(s)

2011-11-19T10:40:00.006+08:00

Even tong sampah (waste bins) can become a crowd puller. But in the end, I think not many people stayed to listen or whether at all any speeches were given. I didn't stay.... not interested to listen to more crap.

I actually read about this freebie of a tong sampah a couple of months back and when I saw this poster yesterday, it triggered a search for that article dated Sept 23rd, 2011. Let me just quote some of the content here... So, all of us can expect to receive this 120 litre bins by Sept 2012, according to the article.

All households in the peninsula except in Penang, Selangor and Perak will be provided with a 120-litre garbage bin starting next month to separate their recyclable waste.
The exercise, which is expected to take four years, will start in Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Johor Baru, Seremban, Alor Setar, Kangar and Kuantan. Households in these places will receive the bins by September next year.
Distribution of the bins to all the major cities would begin by the end of next month, followed by other areas, said Solid Waste Management andPublic Cleansing Corporation CEO Datuk Zaini Nor.
“The initiative is aimed to better manage waste produced by households as well as raise awareness on the importance of recycling,” he said.
Zaini said the 120-litre bin would be for daily organic waste, while recycl-able items should be placed in another bag.

I was told by a neighbour that we had to get a form (I assume from the tents at the ceramah). We had to bring our IC it seems. But in the end, she got a copy for us and told me that there wasn't anyone there manning the form counter. Everyone was just taking the forms themselves and many left soon after. Food was also provided amidst the muddy fields. There was a heavy shower yesterday night. But the posters say the bins will be delivered to our houses, which makes me wonder whether the form thing was a ploy to get us to the tents...

I was a little surprised as there had been a flurry of activities around the housing area the last few days. Ever since the the private contractor took over the waste management as well as the upkeep of the place, I have noticed a drop in service. Rubbish collection used to be very efficient. It's not so now. Instead they tried to create all these 'central rubbish bins' around the housing estate which have become mini dumps. I feel sorry for those whose houses are near those bins. I know I would be most annoyed and may perhaps even take things into my hands and pull those bins away to another further location from my house... but fortunately I have been spared of that. The bins are a source of of eye sore and pest attractions. But these last few days, service was somehow different. Now I know the reason... sprucing for VIPs.

So for the next few days, the area will be nice and clean... These days, when I see such activities of benevolence, a few things cross my mind.

First and foremost will always be, who gets the contract to supply the bins? They are supposed to cost RM120 per bin. Are the bins obtained at the best price so that the savings can be passed back to the people? This coming after all these slew of news about the exorbitant sums that we seem to be paying for submarines, fighter jets, sugar prices which seems to be going northwards after it was given to a certain connected figure to the politicians, extension of toll concession under the guise that there will be less raises in the future... and the way that our leaders don't seem able to put us on par with the countries that started off from the same block as us... Taiwan, Korea, Singapore.. and those behind our block are fast catching up.

Other terms of usage of the 'free' bins include a police report if they are lost. And we have to buy new ones if old the one goes missing. I can already imagine unscrupulous people going round carting these bins away since it is also stated that rubbish will not be collected if they are not placed in these bins. Crime rate has been on the rise despite the government telling us that they are taking in more police.... police presence is another issue. And the bins cannot be tied to the fence or any other structures. I guess for house owners will have to get people to build structures to contain these units.... more money spent. *sigh*

Waste management... personally, I try to do my part for my environment. I keep aside almost everything that can be recycled for the lorries or vans that come periodically to collect. Most of my vegetable and fruit peelings are buried for compost. Our family generates very little rubbish these days. But that comes about because I want to do it. I feel it is important and the incentive of being paid; selling them to the recycling vans/lorries. Many of my students who live in the kampung say they don't recycle because there is no such facility. So for convenience sake, some of them just throw their rubbish into the river behind their houses... or just dump it into the big bin beside the road.

Waste... free bins.... these days, politicians want to be seen as giving something to the people. But they keep forgetting that it's their performance and lifestyle that give us some things to wonder about. In this connected world, when they flaunt their wealth and live beyond their means and then claim that they got there mainly through their abilities, you get questions put into our minds. You wonder too why all the PM's children are millionaires (or perhaps even billionaires??), or how before they even hit 30, they have made it. Or how a penny-stock company stirs up a price tsunami when a 28-year-old whose father is the PM gets appointed to its board??? One should wonder... Waste bins.. they stir up thoughts like this...

Now to wait for the bins to get delivered.... in four years, if someone wants to do a research for a postgrad, a study into whether all the households get the bins might make an interesting study... Accountability has gone into hiding for too long cos those who manipulates it know that Religion and Race can be counted on to create havoc and make things murky in our minds.

New Old Stuff

2011-11-16T22:22:00.007+08:00

End of the year is when I have more time in my hands and this year, I am rather happy with what I have been able to learn. These are my current preoccupations.... and they left me rather exhausted, mentally on most days, but the time was well spent.

What started as a goal to teach my gal Science in Mandarin developed into quite an interesting journey of discovery... and it's still evolving. I still can't read very well but with the right tools, I have been able to plod on. And so, it was with much amusement to myself when I decided that I would try to do mind maps to help me teach her concepts and ideas. Another search in earnest and I came across this after trying out a few other mind mapping apps. IThoughts HD....

Making the maps was the easy part! LOL! I used to make such notes when teaching my boy, but they were done on desktops; with Visio and then later Smart Draw in a language I was totally familiar with. I moved on to Concept Draw when I switched over to Mac. So, it wasn't something new, the mind mapping. Trying to remember and read the Mandarin characters were the tasks which gave me lots of headaches! But this app is cool because I can expand and collapse the callouts. And to make it even more PPSMI friendly, I did it in 2 languages! ... all on one single page. 8)

When Other Half showed me his discovery what the iPad was able to do for the blind, another door opened to me; the half blind in Mandarin. I can always depend on support and new discovery from Other Half... 8) And it was also then I understood why Stevie Wonder thanked Steve Jobs for the iPod, iPhone and iPad. And it met my needs too. The beauty was in the Voice Assist function. For the visually impaired, the Voice Assist together with the Assistive Touch functions enable them to navigate the seemingly impossible tablet screen and empower them greatly.

Having volunteered my time for a visually impaired friend during my varsity years makes me appreciate these functions even more because as I worked with him, I understand the limitations posed by their lack of sight. But it also made me aware I of the technology involved and how it has evolved over the years. For the visually impaired, they depended a lot on the sighted to read for them. But the computer age changed all that. By the time I graduated, I remember seeing scanners and computers at the library for the use of the visually impaired. Scan and OCR and there were softwares that could read for them. It freed them of the need for us, the readers.

When I helped to set up a computer lab for the visually impaired students some years back, equipment had to be procured from the States. They had been some improvements but they were still cumbersome to use. The iPad is liberating.... and I think Apple did good in making sure that this technology works so well for them, even though the visually impaired group is a small one. Apple deserves one up for this effort.... Kudos to Jobs! I tried navigating without the help of my sight and found that I could.... Amazing!

With Voice Assist, I can make the iPad read for me as many time as I want the words in the mind maps too! That's as good as any teacher I'll get for sure. The iPad has enabled me, with a half-baked command of Mandarin to do the mind maps! Awesome!!! I would not have dreamt of this 5 years ago!

The next project that I embarked on was database, for next school year. I wanted a database for class management, so that I can manipulate and call up the information that I want at my whims.... 8) I used HanDbase many years ago on my Palm. But what greeted me this time was more exciting. Through trial and error I discovered that I could do many things with it. Me, who knows very little about database building could get it to work.... LOL! Of course, I was feeling rather pleased. I thought with age, our learning slows down. These days, I am beginning to realize that it's our attitude that counts more than anything...

And so, I plodded, tried and retried... until I managed to get it going. I am now able to get forms out... will try it out next year! And improve on it.

I capture this screen weeks ago... found it amusing that it is so polite in apologizing to me about the slow speed, which wasn't even the app's fault to begin with! And that's one of the thing I like about Apple... they pay attention to the small details, which sometimes don't seem important but is able to bring out a smile from you in a moment of utter frustration when a page doesn't load.

9 Hours

2011-11-13T15:28:00.001+08:00

Next year trial runs will be carried out in 4 states for a 9 hour work day for teachers; basically it means for the morning session, it will be from 7.30 a.m - 4.30 p.m. For schools with afternoon session, it will be from 9.30a.m. - 6.30 p.m. Afternoon session still exists, years after the government supposedly went on a school building spree.

The Deputy Minister of Education said that one reason for this 9-hour work day trial is to ascertain whether teachers work too few hours. Perhaps regulating the hours would be good for us. Once the work day ends at 4.30 p.m., work ends and no more Saturdays for meetings and other activities. After all, the civil service operates on a 5-day week now. And an official 9-hour work day should also mean there is no need for sports activities in the evenings or the need to take students for competitions which run after working hours and over the weekend. Many teachers might actually find their weekends freer.

Teachers should also be subjected to breaks like the other civil servants. I wonder whether that means that teachers will have more flexibility of going in and out the school. 8)

NUTP is already up at arms. I bet many teachers too. And some are already using this as election fodder. Foremost would be the issue of co-curricular activities. Can we hold games like football, netball, hockey, volleyball in the hot 3 p.m. sun? Our schools are not equipped with halls. Most schools don't even have decent and clean toilets, let alone shower facilities. Canteen food is horrible in most schools. Staying back until 4.30 p.m. means that kids would be taking at least 2 meals at school.

It'd be interesting to see how this develops. I get the feeling that the authorities are looking for a fix to problems in our education system. Are all these fixes going to work and bring about change for the better? Good work ethics are becoming relics of the past. We seemed to be pushing all the buttons for a quick fixes but they don't seem to get the required results. Just look at how the PPSMI was implemented. After so many years, the Minister admits that a very small percentage was actually teaching Math and Science in English all these years. It's no wonder that PPSMI failed. The authorities never ensured that it was carried out as planned. Even right now... has anyone actually bother to find out what ails our education system? For as long as we cannot bring ourselves to admit the root of the problem, we'll continue to try to fix it with measures which we feel are measurable and quantifiable.

9 hours.... many teachers are already doing that if you consider taking home books to grade, preparing lessons out of working hours 'work'. As it is, many morning sessions are ending between 2.30 - 3.00 p.m. And we do not have the luxury of an hour set aside for lunch break. For some dedicated teachers, they are involved in training students for athletics and games. But then again, there are many too who seem to have nothing to do too....

Update 20th Nov, 2011
With one 'edict' the DPM aka Minister of Education declared that he had ordered the JPA to cancel this 9-hour thingy...

Another Term Gone By

2011-11-09T20:37:00.001+08:00

...and another school year coming to a close, soon. Been a busy week somewhat, as end of the year usually is for me. Tables and chairs to arrange, slips to print and stick - exam season. Also the preoccupation of flood everywhere. The alerts are out. After last year's flood and the current flooding in Thailand which has been hogging the news for the last few months, I guess it's understandable why everyone is jittery. News of flood can be found everywhere... I don't know whether it's because we are so connected these days that we read of similar events happening in tandem. And we've been having some freakish storms too.

Changes are afoot too where work is concerned. Form 1 kids get only 1 year-end exam from next year onwards. I don't know whether this is for the better. But if I were a parent of a Form One kid next year, I'd be keeping a close eye on my kid's progress. Can't leave it to just the teachers. I wonder too if the students will be motivated enough to learn without apparent assessments.

Just finished another round of movie editing for a friend.... with iMovie it's a breeze as long as the materials are there. And Mandarin learning is still ongoing. I'm moving on to varied materials. And as usual, I'll gush about the role of my iPad as my number one Mandarin teacher.

Other Half and I made it to our 20 years! Hurray! And for each year that we've had, I am thankful. I could not ask for any better.

Personal lessons as usual were plenty. I'd like to think that I learned them well but that's not possible. Just as in I teach the kids that history is coloured by bias and perception, those lessons that presented themselves would be dotted with them too and it would be mine. Plus our need to be right always stands in the way and they clutter our paths.

One more week to go! I am looking forward to the long break. Going too long, running like a clockwork most of the time requires effort. Not that I am complaining because I think I'd do them all over again. I've learned lots. I've pushed my own limits, gone into territories which I may not have gone. How way leads on to way.... Every journey takes you through its own myriad of paths. Sometimes you come out of it scathed. Other times, you get bruised. Yet, there are times when you think you are beaten. Then there are those moments when only you can feel that sort of quiet triumphs, which for most part is made possible by those tiring, scathing and bruising moments.

Have not been writing lately. The gray matter is sapped most of the time of late by other pressing attention.

PPSMI....Nails Can Be Pried Open Again

2011-11-06T07:36:00.002+08:00

Apparently a 'No' by a political leader does not mean very much. For months, various parties have been asking that the government re-look the decision to abolish PPSMI. The DPM cum Minister of Education said no; adamantly and with the air of finality most of the time.

Then on the day when we were supposed to get more news about the MBMMBI (Strengthening of Bahasa Malaysia and English), a turnaround. PPSMI will continue after all, albeit for those who started their education while it was still running; meaning those from Year 2 onwards will get to finish their education with Math and Science in English. I guess the many parents of Year 1 students will be hopping with unhappiness now.

So, my kid gets to continue to be taught with the PPSMI. I should be elated but I am not. My concern remains the quality of instruction in English and also the marking of her public examination scripts later. There is a 'generation gap' of poor English command of the teachers. Try as the MOE did to upgrade their English, it is still not getting far. We have been seeing some statistics in the last few days why PPSMI should be abolished. And one was a low percentage of teachers are incompetent in the language. And that is why my elation is muted... and also why I think we should bring back English medium schools.

The government and nationalist claim that the medium of instruction needs to be in BM for national unity. But that argument has many faults. Our schooling system. Chinese and many Malays who want 'better' quality education flock to send their children to Chinese vernacular (national type) schools. The national schools are predominantly made up of Malay students; in the Peninsular. Integration? Nation building? How to have nation building when schools are made up of almost single race?

The need for BM is rather minimal out of the civil service; and it's generally difficult for non-Bumis to get into it, attested by the low percentage of non-Bumis in it now. One can get by with all sorts of dialects and pidgin BM (bahasa pasar) in one's small world - since that seems to be the objective of our having so many types of school along racial lines. Each race feels compelled to preserve their culture and heritage. If everything is done in the best interest of everyone, I think this siege mentality would somehow be reduced. Look at America or even Peru and so many other countries where assimilation is total. It's hard not to come to a conclusion that the we have been divided and ruled so that a certain group can continue to remain in power. Power is now considered a privilege and not duty to serve.

So, coming back to PPSMI. It's been an interesting few days. Through the discussions on FB, I've learned that the growing middle income families are now more aware and concerned for their children's education... and this cuts across racial lines. I read of the Johoreans who send their children over to Singapore to be educated and how their parents take courses to upgrade themselves so that they can coach themselves. I've read of how those in other cities are toying with homeschooling and international schools. Different races, backgrounds, and there feels like this consensus that our education system is not getting any better, and that those who go through our education system are not well-equipped for the working world.

The voices of those without the means to express themselves via digital technology are not really heard and they continue to be made used by politicians. This PPSMI latest announcement is by no means a solution because it still leaves our education in 2 worlds. There needs to be a revamp, that's for sure. But whether we have a government who has our best interest at heart remains to be seen...

Shopping

2011-11-02T16:01:00.000+08:00

November is here... the term is coming to a close. Have not been blogging as much lately because I am preoccupied. Will be blogging about that preoccupation soon.

But last Saturday, we squeezed in some time to go shopping. It's been a while since I went shopping like this; have time to amble down the aisles and take my own time to check out things. My friend says going shopping with me is a whirlwind affair. In part, it's because whenever I do go shopping it's mostly for essentials and have limited time. I find myself wishing for more hours in a day. Wishful, of course.

But we got this at Jusco. Lemon balm herb.... We got this small pot and have replanted it, hopping that it would propagate.... 8) We still have not given up on trying to plant some of our food. Out in the garden, my salad is growing, and cucumbers too. And of course, I still have my faithful long beans.

Then we went to ACE Hardware, which of late has been one of our favorite haunting places at Queensbay; for a simple reason. It is possible to get stuff which we normally don't find in our local hardware shops... like natural oils to preserve your wooden furniture.

What got me a little more excited than usual was this..... A disposable wet wipe... which squirts out the floor cleaner liquid. LOL! Been thinking of such a contraption. I rarely use the broom to sweep the floor in the house these days. Ever since we got the robot vacuum, I've realized that sweeping basically doesn't clean the house much. The fine dust gets stirred up and floats around till the air stills and then settles down on everything. You will be worse off than before you began.

For the places where the robot vacuum can't go, I use the floor wipe. The floor stays clean longer and I need not mop it that often; which comes in really handy at those times when my day help goes on her quirky and temperamental absences. I tried this contraption after I fixed it up. Not bad. Now to see whether it lasts. One problem though, I can't get refills here. So, the bottle better last... as in not break. 8)

I belong to a generation of working women who are expected to be 'super' women. We hold 2 jobs; the regular one like the guys and another one at home. Both are demanding and juggling between the two worlds can be rather tiring. So 'super' women need super tools to help them save energy and time, both of which come in limited supply. And this one would qualify as one, I think.... one of my super tools. It complements my swivel mop very well. LOL!

Azuma Japanese Restaurant

2011-10-30T10:26:00.003+08:00

A short trip with the intention of going to the PC fair but tak jadi in the end cos there wasn't anything we wanted to get from there. So, we detoured to Queensbay for a short shopping trip and ended up for brunch here.

We were early and while away the waiting time, window shopping; something which I have not done for a couple of months. We were among the first customers when they opened for business.

And the first thing I noticed was the sushi conveyor belt. Other Half and our gal were looking out for this, mochi, which has now also become a favourite of our gal. I usually give them a miss. Mochi is actually similar to our tangyuan.

This is also from the conveyor belt. Generally, the sushi bar's offering is better than Sakae Sushi or Sushi King.

I am a gindara fan and I ordered their Gindara Teriyaki set. And it's one of the better Gindara Teriyaki sets that I've had. The cod fish was lemak and cooked to the right texture. The teriyaki sauce did not overwhelm the fish. Overall, it was a nice blend of natural cod taste and the sauce. Went very well with the rice. Another thing I liked about the set was their chawanmushi. The texture was soft like good tau-huey. 8)

We tried a few orders from their menu. This is their Gyu Tenderlion Kushi Yaki, basically beef, mushroom and some capsicum grilled on skewers. Beef was very tender and succulent.

Tsukune Kushi Yaki... Tsukune is chicken meatball. Yaki means grilled. Kushi means skewer. So Skewered Chicken Meat Balls. Nice...

And the Shitake Butter Yaki which was very yummy. The mushroom soaked in the sauce and gave it a really nice buttery taste.

Hotate chahan... sounds exquisite but hotate is scallop. Chahan is fried rice. So basically, this is scallop fried rice. It's nice but not something that most of us can't cook up ourselves. For such small bowl at RM10, you might want to spend it trying something else.

Overall, the food is quite nice.

Steve Jobs ...by Walter Isaacson

2011-10-27T09:26:00.004+08:00

The book was launched on Monday and by the same evening I was already reading it. The irony was it was made possible by the very person I was reading about. I found the book 'mesmerizing' enough to keep me glued. And 48 hours later, I was done with it, all 728 pages of it. In between, I went to do a video shoot of a kiddy sports, at the same time downloaded and installed the iOS 5 for the same friend; multitasking. I sat too with my girl with her lessons and pottered around the house, the usual never ending housework, edited some of the video and pictures on my iMac.... but I was rather disorientated and blur though, because I was caught up by the book. It's best to enjoy a read when one is free actually...

What do I think of the book? It's a good read. Rarely do we get an opportunity to read a biography, 'in his own words', the words of the person being written... but from the author's perspective. I sound confusing, I know. It would have become an autobiography had Jobs written it himself. When Jobs knew that he was going to die, he sought out Isaacson to write his biography - so that his children will know him, he said. He gave Isaacson a free hand to interview anyone, everyone and write his biography in the way he saw fit.

Reading about Jobs' growing up years was fascinating. Jobs and Gates, the two men who shaped computer technology are contemporaries. Jobs did not finish college. Neither did Wozniak until many years later. Gates dropped out from Harvard. It could be all these men were self taught but the education system must have succeeded in shaping their minds. I am impressed by the depth of their high school projects. Even though we have so much facilities and better trained teachers (on paper), we pale in comparison almost 40 years later.

Jobs was a difficult person with a reality distortion field; as how those people around him labelled him. To me, it's a more techy (and polite?) way of saying he lied when it suited him. But he was brutally honest too. I think everyone of us is like that too, often, have our own reality distortion field, but minus the brutal honesty. Most of us would prefer to keep our reality distortion field comfortable for everyone. Jobs did not outwardly seem to care how his actions might cause others to feel or think about him or the consequences that would befall him. But his genius was his ability to bring out the untapped and the genius in others, for at least those who were willing to be pushed into the unknown of themselves. And that's why he was able to do the things that he did, make his gadgets a lifestyle, change the way we do things. Despite his reality distortion field, I find him compellingly consistent, be it, his quirky food habits (he gets fixated with one kind of food, his fasts and purges), his famous mean streak, stubbornness, his focus on the products that he envisioned, and commitment. Mr. Nice Guy he was not, but life can never achieve greatness by just trying to please everyone, I think. But being consistent is a necessary good (or evil, depends on how you look at it) where this is concerned, I think.

While many of the ideas he claimed his weren't exactly his, as Jony Ive, one of those few people who understood Jobs better than most said that, had it been other companies or CEO, it would have taken good ideas weeks, months or never to come to fruition because cost (profit) would have mattered more than anything else. In one instance, when Rubinstein told him that he needed $10 million to seal what he believed is a solution (which was Toshiba's 1.8 inch hard drive. The Toshiba engineers had no idea what to do with it yet at that time) to the problem of storage of what was to become the IPod, he approved it immediately, minus all the hassle of board meetings. This is one of life's lessons which I've had good fortune to experience.

Years ago, when I was just a rookie, I transferred into a school with an enthusiastic Principal with a passion for education technology. That was almost 20 years ago. We had many conversations even though I was still very new. He liked to throw ideas at me and get my response. And through our conversations, he discovered that I had some computer skills. He wanted to set up a media room, with LCD projectors but could not find anyone willing. My youthful gungho-ness and recklessness said that it could be done but I needed 20K. It was a huge sum back in those days! Somehow, he convinced the PTA to fork out the amount of money and we went on to set up one of the first media rooms. Those were heady days for me. I learned a lot. And it was because my boss believed in me and he continued to support me by having many more conversations and encouraging me on.... even though I had many doubts after my initial recklessness. I owe a lot to that boss and am grateful to be able to work with him. Because of that experience, I embrace technological advances and changes more readily today too. But bosses like him are hard to come by these days.... made worse by the haziness of politics.

Jobs' work ethics was legendary. An organization is only as good as its head. A fish rots from the head. Again, and again in this book I find it to be quite true. The rise and fall of Hewlett Packard, Disney, Apple, IBM... they speak volumes about the people who led them. You are only as good as your head because the majority of us, come with very bendable reality distortion fields. At some point, our reality distortion field will convince us that we are doing great, bringing in good profits, etc, etc. but they can only be stretched that long before the distortion becomes reality of the opposite. Take a good look at our own country, Malaysia. The AG report for the past few years have been highlighting abuses after abuses. It used not to be this bad... imagine deferring the repairs of the roof of our National Stadium which hosts many major sports events or the purchase of useless horses. So, if anyone of us gets on our high horses, I think we should take a good look at our own reality distortion fields.

An interesting note here. I first downloaded and read the book on my iPad. And how I read it is also Jobs' legacy. It would have been rather difficult for me to get my hands on his book on launch day in the old days. Malaysia has become a smaller dot in recent years... can you imagine the iPhone and iPad being launched first in our little dot of a neighbour down south. It has a population of 5 million plus. Malaysia has more than 5 times people, more resources, yet..... Singapore developed the one source that we selectively disregard, people. Anyway, I wanted to go to the gym yesterday. It seemed such a waste of time to walk on the treadmill and not read. But I had not put the book in my iPod. Other Half had thoughtfully put it in my Dropbox for me to download and read the day before. So, in less than 5 minutes, I downloaded the Dropbox app into my iPod and then the book. It would have been a rather cumbersome task in the past to transfer files. I managed to read for 40 minutes at the gym. One stone, two birds or two stones, one bird... depends on how you look at it... That is also part of Jobs' legacy. Changing the way we do things.

And it's been a long time since I last finished a book within such a short span of time. It felt good that I could still do it, despite the stress on my presbyopic eyes. But it also made me realize something too... passion, intensity, inquisitiveness are all those catalysts required to produce that sort of life changing excellence. And unfortunately too, they are rather lacking these days in many of our young ones. This is one of the better biographies I have read... The writer left a poignant view by Jobs. He was in Turkey and he noticed that the young people there were similar to other young people everywhere else.... no Turkish iPhone, American iPhones... to the young, an iPhone is an iPhone. The world has become more uniformed than we care to admit. And here we still have archaic politicians who are still trying to convince us that a certain race is more special than others.... Technology has turned us into one global village..... it has also brought uniformity in many areas. And that happened because of Jobs who was part of the computer equation.

Book 29, a good and worthwhile read and a strange book too cos it's read so soon after the subject's death. It's another first for Jobs, I guess.

The Great Pretender

2011-10-23T21:46:00.000+08:00

An old, old song that I used to listen as a kid cos my dad used to play it on the vinyl record... Remember those black round plasticky discs which you spin on the record player? My dad still has the player. It used to give us hours of listening pleasure. Of course, it was much to the chagrin of my mom who always felt that dad played it way too loud, disturbing the neighbours. But as a kid, I used to enjoy singing along to the familiar tunes. Anyway, this tune kept bugging me this morning.

Aren't we all pretenders at one point or other???

PPSMI... Barking up a dead tree!

2011-10-22T11:12:00.001+08:00

The ink is already dry on the wall. The voices of authority have been sounding it out... the text books are ready. MBMMBI is set to roll but many parents, students, NGOs don't seem to want PPSMI to be phased out. Many say teaching Math and Science in BM being the national language should be elevated, that BM is the mother tongue, but they forget too for some, English is a mother tongue... politics of expediency.

Would it really make a difference, going back to BM as the medium of instruction? Some of my colleagues feel that it would. But these are also people whose language competency is deplorable to begin with. Will the students' grades go up if we revert. I think it would but the rise would not be spectacular. The passing percentages in the public exams do not seem to indicate that the medium of instruction seems to matter. But argue what we may, we have not tackled the basic issues yet. English is important but no matter how important or necessary it is, there are 2 areas which we need to look at.

One is the teacher competency. You use peanuts, you get peanuts. Guy Kawasaki in his writing talked about how Jobs believed that 'A players should hire A players'. Kawasaki modified it to 'A players should hire A+ players', though. We don't see this happening in the teaching fraternity. If anything is to go by, there was one period of time when the MOE absorbed many of those who could not withstand the rigorous demands of the corporate sector. I think there is a general feeling that the quality of teaching have deteriorated. I am inclined to think so too. The state of the teaching profession today is in part due to this decision. I think they must have felt that anyone can teach or is suitable to be a teacher. We have many uninspiring teachers today. Promotions for the really capable ones, even if they are Malays are hard to come by. Don't even begin mention the non-Malays. So in this scenario, many of our Science and Maths teachers are basically incompetent in English. PPSMI would fail because there are far less competent teachers (in English).

The MOE tried to ensure competent teachers by sending promising young people to English speaking countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand for their basic degrees in Science at the start of PPSMI. We're slowly getting these teachers into the system. Though some of them still do not have very good command of the language, they are at least competent enough to teach in English. Now we may never know whether this group of teachers can make a difference.

The second reason is the attitude of today's students. Say what one may that attitude can be shaped, etc, etc... But one thing that stands out is students attitude is bad. The statistics speak for this too... nearly 1 in 10 drops out. School is boring, students get away with their misbehaviour a lot these days. And many teachers seem unable to control their classes. It is not uncommon to go into your average school and find teachers and students talking at the same time while class is on. Meaningful noises? Add that to the marginality of teenage years, you find yourself in a cauldron of helplessness. Discipline should enforced strictly. Lack of parental supervision, family problems coupled with inept school management.... these are among the other problems which add on to the attitude problem.

Free netbooks, scholarships... the list is unending. The message that the students seem to get is they will still get these things even though their grades are bad. The recent 1Malaysia free netbook is one such example. We are teaching our kids that one will still get 'rewarded' even if one does not work hard. Same goes for scholarships.... There is no accountability there... they get the money.

So the MOE may say that they are getting native English speakers to teach or have more English teaching periods. But for as long as attitudes do not change, we are hitting the wall with all the programmes.

Send truly competent teachers to teach the early years in primary. Perhaps that's where we ought to send the native English speakers. By the time the kids are in upper secondary, with the exam to contend with, the teachers are at wits end what and how to teach. Coupled with teenage angst and myopia, it is difficult to make progress.

As for Math and Science in English, a choice should be given to parents. After all, MARA Science Colleges are continuing to teach in English, so it was reported. It would be rather elitist to just allow that. It's crazy to do Science in BM up till Form 5 and the switch to English. It's even worse for those who attend vernacular schools. In Primary, it would be in either Mandarin or Tamil. Then from Form 1 to Form 5, BM would be the language of instruction. And if the kid moves on, English would be the next language of instruction. Crazy????

If I had a choice, I would want my kid to study Math and Science in English.... for practical reasons. I wonder about all those who are vehemently against PPSMI. What would their choice be? If they are truly concerned, why all these policies which has caused us to end up with substandard teaching. The ranking (or none ranking) of our universities in the world ranking is one such reflection of the state of our education system. Just compare National University of Singapore and University Malay. Same roots, different outcome. NUS today is well-known. It is one of the top universities in Asia. None of our best universities come even close to it. The dumbing down of whole generations because of politics.

Alternative education???

Animal Farm ...by George Orwell

2011-10-21T16:21:00.000+08:00

LOL!!! This book brought so many chuckles here and there. Of pigs and horses, dogs and donkeys, goats and chickens... those that make up a farm. At the end of the novel, Animal Farm was renamed The Manor, the ruling animals took to walking on 2 legs instead of 4. What began with noble aims failed, because mortal nature is such that greed always surfaces when power undisputed.

This book is a satire of the Russian Revolution, the rise of the peasants against the bourgeoisie... Stalin, capitalism, Marxism, of ideological struggles so long ago. But as I read, there were many moments where I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. Pigs are smart, pigs are lazy. Dogs are loyal, running dogs... and they are us. Smart lazy pigs... they get others to do their running. They grow fat on inequalities they dupe others into believing is good. If not for the background knowledge I had at the start of the book, I could be excused for thinking that Orwell was describing my own little world, right now, in 2011.

What started of as a noble cause to create an equal society within a short time brought the animals back to square one with a few changes. The pigs (Major) started the revolution going. It was done with a noble aim, to give all animals equality and freedom. By and by, after Major died, the other pigs became what the humans had been to the animals. And the animals, unthinking and ignorant as they were, worked hard with little for themselves for the broods of pigs that came after that. Boxer, the not so intelligent but steady worker of a horse was one such animal. The pigs were smart. The got the dogs to be their bodyguards. The pigs had a good life while the other animals slaved for them. Among the ignorant animals were a few who dared speak out. They we snuffed out, executed and obedience soon prevailed. And the animals worked very hard, feeding the new noble class, not realizing that this new noble class are like them... but more manipulative; the animals that we are too.

Old classics like this are real gems of work. Creative and critical writing in one. Thinking skills too. They make see yourself in a different light; unlike today's literary works which seem to put emphasis on the superficial. I've not come across many present day books written in this vein. We should make such readings a literature read in our schools instead of those stuff that they make our 17-year-olds read.

I read this book in between all the other books that I was reading. It took a while. These days, my eyes tire easily from staring too long into the screen....

Catch 22 ...by Joseph Heller

2011-10-17T23:10:00.000+08:00

' I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.’ ... Yossarian, pg. 442 in Catch 22. As I was getting to the end of the book, this phrase got stuck in my mind. And it basically sums up the comedy in every chapter of the book. The tragedies and human decencies in every chapter see someone else cashing in on them.

I started reading this book almost 2 months ago. When I first picked it up, I found it to be a rambling sort of book. But like many books which I persevered, it got better as I went on. Ideals are good but not all people are good is another phrase which caught my eye. Instead of the usual novel on bravery, sacrifice and everything noble that I usually read in novels about war, this one highlights the greed that turns people in opportunists in every situation and it felt like reading a comedy of errors.

One can't help but laugh at how Milo transformed his war into a business enterprise, how he profited by snitching the emergency kits and supplies on the planes for his own profit. Or how he bombed his own side just so that there is more profit for him. And how he as the mess officer 'abused' government facilities and properties for his personal gain and justifying it as a good for all - using the air force planes to source eggs, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes and everything else to prosper his enterprise. Or how Colonel Korn or Colonel Cathcart tried to advance their own careers at the price of their men's lives; by increasing the number of missions for the men each time the target is achieved. They profited greatly by working in cohort with Milo. It resulted in almost none of the original squadron members getting out alive. People cashing in on every decent impulse, every human tragedy.

I did some reading up while I was mid way through the book and discovered that the phrase Catch 22 was coined from this book. It means a no win situation. The men in the stories were in a no win situation. Survive a bomb run, only to live through another nightmarish run. And so it goes on and on because their superiors wanted more for themselves. There was no way out for these men who kept seeing their goal posts moved after getting there.

War makes us to lose ourselves. You lose either your life or ideals. Either way, a part of you dies. You can feel the characters losing themselves as you follow their brief lives in the book. War is a farce that profits those on top.... to the ones who did the actual fighting and dying, they are pumped up with huge doses of noble aims - to sum it up, freedom from the yoke of oppression. Yet those at the top live to enjoy that freedom, while those who fight for that freedom die in the process. Now, how not to become a cynic on that?

I started reading this book on my iPod Touch but ended up reading on my iPad because upon updating my iOS, i discovered that the app that I had been using all this while, Stanza would not work with the the new iOS. And that set me on another little journey to find out why. And the reason was this. About 2 years ago, Amazon had bought up Stanza. Stanza had been rated as one of the best ebook readers around and I agree. You can download books wirelessly to your iPod Touch or iPad if you had it installed on your desktop. Turns out, Amazon bought it and let Stanza die. Good small product giving big company a run for their money. Big company buys small company. Left it there to rot. And with the new iOS, Stanza is as good as dead. But I am sure the guy who wrote Stanza got a good deal.... too bad little people like me won't get to enjoy using Stanza any more.

On a note of cynicism myself, this is book 27.

Back In Time ...

2011-10-16T20:29:00.001+08:00

This is my 3rd ebook app this year. I decided to give this a try after reading because of the good reviews I read about it. And after going through it for the past 2 weeks, I agree with the reviews. I like the idea of the 24-hour time frame analogy used in this app to represent the history of our universe; from the beginning till present day. And it helps a great deal also that the illustrations are beautiful and vivid.

Being an app also means you find multimedia elements, which enhances the presentation. They are not very detailed but sufficient enough to paint a clear picture. One can always google up more details. But before that, having the big picture helps.

In short, what I like most is the perspective presented by the app. I have always liked the use of timeline to give the bigger picture of everything, if possible. I believe that in understanding our position in the bigger picture it helps us understand things better and be better learners. When we learn things on a standalone basis without taking in the bigger picture, it's sometimes hard to see its relevance to our lives or even make sense of it. The bigger picture is usually hard to see but the makers of this app manage to do it in a way that even my primary school going kid could understand... with some help, of course.

The timeline in this app is cool. There is this black hole which you can push the topics that you are done into... in a way it represents the theory that one day, everything around us will be sucked into the black hole when our world begins to collapse.... the end of times.

The journey back in time begins with The Big Bang. The explanation is simple enough, the expansion of energy from that one point... And the makers chose the events which they felt were defining moments of our vast universe. It's a good job done considering our limited understanding of our universe. This beats a paper and print book cos you get to move the timeline and see the progress of time.

Another book under my belt. This year, my book review has gone onto another platform. I used to think that digital books would never replace the paper and print book that I grew up with. The demise of the latter is unavoidable as I can see it. We are in a transitional stage now, I feel.

Apple Is So Going To Own Our Lives

2011-10-14T22:05:00.000+08:00

I downloaded the new iOS like many yesterday. And since yesterday, in between sitting with my girl who is having her exams soon and the distraction of the new iOS, I fiddled with my iPad and iPod. What caught my attention most was the iCloud. 5GB worth of free storage which can be accessed as long as you have an Internet connection. And so, this morning, I sat with my iPad and fiddled with the Reminder app. Then when I took up my iPod much later, lo and behold, everything that I had keyed in was there as well. iCloud made sure of it. The night before my spreadsheets went into the cloud too without so much of me batting an eyelid.

The new iOS is impressive. And it's also scary to think that Apple might own our lives too via this one day. Not too long ago, Pixar's animated movie, Toy Story changed the landscape of animated movies. The storyline is rather hazy in my mind now but I remember the cruel Emperor Zurg wanting to control the unamind which creates a collective mind (was it the little green people) so that he can conquer the universe. So many of us are happily embracing this newest convenience (the iCloud) that manages the data of our lives. What is there to stop the people who own the servers to mine the data there. Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas and it transformed the animation movie world. Toy Story was the company's first success. And in the movie, no toys get left behind. It's kind of reminds me how this little luxuries in the forms of iPhones,iPods and iPads have enabled many of us not to be left behind too... in education, the cool factor...no toys left behind in Toy Story. Apple products are now within the reach of the many of the masses. Less are getting left behind....

But what's scary with iCloud is your personal life goes into a cloud not owned by you. With FB you put out what you want to be seen by your audience. iCloud is different. The convenience might make you put in information which you would not put on a social networking site. And with this too, thieves and robbers will change with the new reality.

A decade ago, we talk about education in the light of producing knowledge workers... That will probably change too with the changes in the way information comes our way. In the past one year since we acquired our iPads, I've realized that knowledge alone is no longer enough. In the last decade or so, I'm seeing more emphasis in teaching thinking... Not that thinking was never taught but in my own experience I've been seeing a systematic dumbing down of kids by our over zealous education system which prizes the accomplishment of A(s) more than anything. The process of getting there causes us to train our kids to become experts in regurgitating. (Having policies which favor one race over others have also caused a systematic downgrading of our assessment.) We compromise quality for quantity. So, it is now common to find a student with an A+ in SPM English not able to write well at all. The A+ came about because the student had mastered the art of regurgitation. It's possible to do well in a subject like language which is actually a skill without actually having the skills. I know it sounds crazy but that's another reality of the success of our education system.

Anyway, knowledge alone is insufficient... I think we need to train our kids to be instinctive workers too; in that they can see the next step. We didn't even know that we 'needed' the iPad until Apple came out with it. Detractors said people would not find it useful. But Apple succeeded where other tablet makers have failed. They made the iPad so intuitive that both end of the spectrum (kids and seniors) could use it with minimal instruction. Same product but the people at Apple had Jobs who seemed to have the instinct to know what we need. A newborn baby thrives on human touch. iPhone, iPod, iPad, they all thrive on the human touch too. A knowledge worker will know how to solve a problem but might not have the instinct. A knowledge and instinctive worker will not only know but turn it into something that don't know we need yet. That is the genius that made Steve Jobs remarkable.

If iCloud really catches on, they have the making of their own unamind too. When I studied Sociology at university, I learned about the collective behaviour, how it is shaped. Remember The Matrix and the collective consciousness? Now, that script is not only filled with sic-fi knowledge but was also instinctive of what the future might look like.... man and machine co-existing. Which brings to attention Siri. Was just reading about how one guy asked silly questions to it and it actually came across as having a character... AI for the masses.

Just amazing how the last 5 years have seen the emergence of an intuitive technology and also why sometimes I wonder if Jobs had been given a few more years, what would it have been like. But think too, if after years of dependence on the iCloud (or its likes) and one day, it is taken away from us. Would we be able to function? With every bit of advancement, we give a bit of ourselves too. Whoever owns the cloud owns the people... very unamind like, don't you think?

E for ....

2011-10-13T10:04:00.005+08:00

Education.....

Education has been central in human civilization. Education comes in formal and informal forms. What we are more familiar today with is the formal type, the one that collects everyone within 4 walls where instructions and skills are mostly taught.

Education is supposed to be empowering. It empowers in a way that enables us to better our lives, it provides a more level playing ground. The poor has a way out of their poverty through education. It enables us to fit into the modern society by equipping us with the necessary tools; meeting the needs of the market, so to say. Long time ago, if you are born a slave or peasant, you are stuck there. So it would be woe to you if you were born in the bottom pile of the pyramid. Of course, if you were born a noble, you'll definitely have life easier.

Education is supposed to enhance. It gives you tools to improve, make better your life so to say. Instead of learning everything on your own, you draw on the expertise of others. You get to enjoy more of everything else, time, recreational activities.

Education is supposed to be embracing. It is supposed to open your mind to diversity, tolerate them and perhaps even try to understand within the confines of our small minds that differences should not be feared.

So, does our education system do the above? I'm inclined to think it only does up to a certain point. I read somewhere that we Malaysians must embrace hypocrisy. And I wonder whether that is a product of our education. And so here goes another round.....

Education is empowering... It empowers some of us to to say that God created some more equal than others. It allows us to claim that we are the special sons of the soil. The funny thing is, the earth is also made up of different soils.... And everything returns to the soil. So, here we have, each 'different type' of soil claiming that it is better than the other. Yet in nature, each type of soil has a specific role to play and together they make up part of Mother Earth. That kind of empowering is being carried out in schools..... direct or indirectly. Yup! Education does empower us to be hypocrites.

It enhances our hypocrisy and we enable it by using those tools that we've learned. The British did a good job by dividing us into different races. Some among us learned that it is an easy way to remain in power. More than 50 years have passed since the day the Brits left our soil and we remain more divided than ever. Even a first generation American Chinese would feel more loyal to America than a 3rd generation Malaysian Chinese. This is the byproduct of hypocrisy/

And then we make excuses that this is the reality of Malaysia. I wonder whether the core of that which makes up our soul teaches inequality. And in religious Malaysia, the core of our souls is supposed to be shaped by our faith. I read with interest the civil rights movement in America in the 60s, when the schools were forced to open their doors to the blacks. Yet, practicing White Christians were downright vehement in objecting. And their show of outrage was venomous too. I guess they must have forgotten Jesus' teaching to be fair, loving, compassionate, etc, etc... But at least there were more more right minded people who forced through equality and today, they have a 'colored' President. In Malaysia, we are still saying that our reality is different... yet, doesn't it feel that we seem no different than apartheid South Africa 20 years ago, really.

I guess in Malaysia, people here think they are God's chosen. A certain segment of the society might be more like the Jews than they care to admit actually. LOL! And perhaps too, that is why too more of the younger ones are turning away from religion, in part I guess shows the success of education. It has succeeded to teach them how to think somewhat.

You see this bunch of leaders who profess to believe in a God. You look at their lives. A leader spends RM10 million on his travel bill, footed by the taxpayers. And your mind goes, "Wow!" And indeed it is a figure that rightly brings out the wow in us. RM10 million goes a long way for the poor. So, your mind gets cracking. Conclusion - it's crap all this religion thingy. And so the masses begin to turn away. What we see happening in the West, the rise of the 'exotic' religions, perhaps, in part is fueled by such a thing, I supposed. And one day, it'll happen here too. Who would have seen the Arab Spring coming a decade ago? Similarly, why are some churches losing their appeal too? Far from being that sort of salt and light, we are now reading about allegations of scandals which involve super well known evangelists. Education has unfortunately taught us how to hide behind the veils of religion..... but also makes us realize...

Ramblings on a gray morning... and also before piles of papers end up on my table for grading.

More on Learning Mandarin...

2011-10-11T21:16:00.004+08:00

One can only read the same stuff that many times before one feels bored. Been trying to learn and improve my Mandarin to teach my girl her Science which is in Mandarin. Ebooks that read to you are mostly kiddy ones. Then I remembered this... the Bible. It's practical and the reading list is endless...

Enter this iPad app called Bible.is. The opening screen says this - faith by hearing. And indeed it is faith by hearing! 8) It reads to you in Mandarin. I learn to recognize the Chinese characters by following it on the screen while it is read out to me. I like the way they read it too, making the Scriptures come alive, different voices and all that; multi roles. Bible.is comes in many languages - Malay language and even Hakka! This reads to me as many times as I want. And I can make it repeat it as often as I want too! It negates the need to ask someone do it for me. Humans get tired. Gadgets don't. Moreover, I will not feel sheepish at my own forgetfulness. The only snag is you need to be online for the audio section to work.

The reading continues even when you open up other apps. And since I have some difficulty understanding everything, what I do is try to read the verse in its English equivalent while the reading is ongoing. I am also using YouVersion for the same purpose. The only difference is, this one doesn't provide you with the drama - no multi voices. It is more of a narrative. This a win-win situation cos I learn how to read and the Scriptures too.

But if I want a side by side comparison, I use The Holy Bible by Paul Avery. The problem right now is the Mandarin translation that I have is not the simplified version.

One more example of how the iPad has enabled individualized learning... and doing a pretty good job at it.

Words...

2011-10-10T23:30:00.000+08:00

Words said, words not said... people get hurt from both, either from too much or not enough. Yet we cannot live without words. When our elder kid said his first words, it was a happy occasion. We couldn't wait to hear him spew out more words. A baby's words or babble make the heart soar. Yet that same mouth, 15 years down the road will be a source of anguish, bewilderment, amazement (of how much things can change over time) and so much more.

Words said... damage comes from words said. Harsh words wound the soul, sharp ones slice through the heart, incessant bugging irritates, nagging ones agitates.

Words not said... hurt comes from those not said. An explanation, a word of encouragement, a word of praise, a word of apology, a word of comfort, a word of love, a word of compassion... they gladden the heart, heal the wounds, lift the spirit. When not said, none of these have the chance to take root.

Words repeated, words reported... they sometimes take on a life of the reporter. Words not said become words said through the mouth of the one who reports and it becomes misinformation, a reason for discord. Funny, isn't it? Words... beautiful and ugly at the same time. We cannot escape it because words is life.

My iPad and I

2011-10-09T23:40:00.000+08:00

I think it's beginning to become clearer that tablet computing will change education in ways we never imagined... and the picture became way clearer after Apple's iPad. Personally, in less than a year after we got our first iPad, it has enhanced many areas of my life.

After a few months of the first iPad, we realized that the iPad is highly personalized. Everything you play or touch stops at where you stop. The next person who uses it has to either start all over again or pick up from where it was left off. So it becomes highly disconcerting when someone uses an app that you had just used. It's like your space getting invaded and most of us can get quite irritated by that fact. And so, we got ourselves a second iPad, the iPad2.

The iPad has become many things to me. It became my library. I started packing all kinds of books into Stanza and iBook. I'd cut my reference books and scanned them so that I could carry them around. I downloaded books, magazines; all kinds of reading materials into it. Emailing articles to myself became a norm because the iPad is always there. Slowly my iPod Touch was relegated to be my book companion during gym time. The iPad enhanced my already wonderful reading experience after a year of fantastic reading time on my iPod Touch.

I'm now thinking iPhone because it would make it more convenient for me to learn Mandarin via the Pleco app. I used to think of the iPhone as quite unnecessary but now has now become a 'need' because it will aid greatly in helping me learn Mandarin. Its camera can auto focus, a feature which will make live OCR a more pleasant experience. The iPad became my teacher where Mandarin is concerned. But it's too big to hold over words to scan them. While it may not teach me the nuances of the language, it's probably the best teacher I have at the moment. No human teacher will be able to withstand the same repeated query that I give out. The 4s comes with a camera which with a f2.4 lens, which makes it an added pull.

The iPad has seeped into my work. It is quite clear to me that tablets will be integral to education. But I also think our MOE is slow to respond to this technology. Unlike other countries, we have not even yet started mulling over its applications. We should start working on digital textbooks and apps to aid teachers. There're very few if no education apps tailored to our local needs at the moment. So I adapt from whatever I can get my hands on. And teachers should be exposed to the educational possibilities offered by tablet computing. The iPad has become my most convenient and faithful personal assistant at work.. I also use it to keep records of work given and student data. My extensive library means I never run out of exercises or ideas. At home, I have a HP printer which makes printing on the go a breeze. I can be anywhere in the house to send a document for printing, as long as there is a wifi connection. Printing on the fly. But when there is none, I have my MIFI to fall back on.

There was one day I was teaching a poem and I had difficulty trying to describe the guango tree to my students. The iPad was very handy. Word definitions, extra information came in a jiffy. I could even show my class how the guango tree look like. A picture speaks a thousand words. It is also changing my mindset where learning is concerned. I am beginning to realize more too how learning will take on a more individualized form. The teachers will eventually be mentors. We should increasingly take on the role of managing and guiding the students in their learning. Our roles will be one that helps to connect the dots to a bigger picture. Going online during lessons enhances learning too, I believe. There is a greater need for dynamism and willingness to adapt on the teachers' end. Without that, we will be quite ineffective as agents of educational advancement.

In the days before the iPad, I had only the Besta Dictionary to rely on. And it costs just as much as an iPad. With the iPad, I get a more versatile 'Chinese teacher' and it meets my other 'needs' too. For me, the one most dramatic contribution of the iPad has been how enabling it has been in my learning of Mandarin. As for Pleco, I have nothing but praises for the people behind it. After purchasing it, I had some trouble getting it to work. It seemed that the ITunes servers had been under hackers' attack on the day I made my purchase. The Pleco support was fast and efficient. Within the day itself, my problem was resolved and each email I received was signed by Michael Love himself. Michael is the founder of the Pleco company. It's interesting also to read up how he hacked up a usable Chinese dictionary with a Palm IIIx in his early days. Other Half and I went through a couple of Palms. My first e-book was read on a Palm V. And it has evolved into the Pleco on the iPad I use today. It takes someone who has gone through the difficulties of learning Mandarin to come up with those features that Pleco has which reduces much of my pain of learning Mandarin. Only someone who has gone through the struggle understands.

Ebooks have transformed the way books are presented. Reading is a different experience for my girl. I've bought The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, The Magic of Reality, and they're awesome. I am in the midst of downloading Back In Time which is supposed to be a cool ebook too! Today these are novelty but sometime in the future they will all become the norm.

Magazines! Articles! Blogs! News aggregators aggregate them for me. You have CNN, Editions from AOL, Malaysian News App, Singapore News App... the list is quite, quite long. There are always more than I can read. Individualized learning, continual and lifelong learning... the iPad is totally capable in providing that sort of platform. The local newspapers feel rather boring after all these, I can tell you. So, you'll pardon me if I think teachers will be obsolete or utterly boring if we are not able to keep up with the tools and know how of how education will change in the coming years or even the possibilities that might open themselves up.

There are apps to make my tasks for many things easier... the Bloomberg app to monitor the markets. I even bought Bento just to try out. With Jib Jab, we had some fun personalizing books and teasing our little girl. Even Barrels had a go at this book. My girl has had countless hours of fun with the Talking apps. Sometimes it seems so crazy but I also realized that it gives them an outlet for fun which is good as a stress buster.

Even in between household chores, I could surf the Net. Or listen to a talk (podcast, sermons, talks) downloaded earlier or make quick references. Recipes abound in the Net. Multitasking has never been easier..... I am constantly learning about the existence of sites which can complement classroom teaching, the simple reason being the ease of use. I get to copy ideas from everywhere. I used to have to sit for hours in front of the computer to do that. These days, I do it on the go. I don't see any courses organized by the Education Department teaching us or at least giving us teachers an idea to do that. It's hard to imagine us moving forward with such lack of vision.

And games...they've never been more fun. There're opportunities for family interactions via the games. The iPod Touch (we have 3) become the racks, the iPad the board. You have Fragger HD, Asphalt 6 which are just entertaining enough. No need for joystick, just one tool, and super intuitive too. If that is not a one all tool we need most of the time, I don't know what is.

I always found budget speeches boring to sit through. This year I multitasked... played some games, passed some comments, read some while following Budget 2012 on Twitter. I use MyPad, which enabled me to switch between Twitter and FaceBook in one single app. In one day, I followed 10 new people on Twitter - Parliamentarians and newspapers. I did not have to sit glued to the TV. And I got all the salient points. After the budget was over, I downloaded the Budget Speech into my iPad where I could read in detail the areas of interest. This morning my colleague wanted to confirm something in the budget. I whipped out the file I downloaded and showed it to her. Last week, I downloaded a Surat Siaran to read and when my clerk said she had no copy of it, I emailed it to her immediately from my iPad. Information at my finger tips.

In the days after the passing of Jobs, I've been watching his videos and my admiration for him has grown even more. Imagine this, he was already talking about the iCloud back in 1997 or even the like of Siri way before that too! He's truly a remarkable man. People may not be able to open up the iPad to see what's under it that makes it run but little kids, senior citizens... they have all warmed up to this tablet. And that's the genius behind Jobs. He made all these possible, for us to own that little bit of luxury that is so simple to use. And he truly deserves to be compared alongside the greats in history like Einstein, Newton, Edison.... I started writing this post this morning on my 3 year old MacBook and end it here on my iPad on Blogsy.... in a couple of minutes, tomorrow dawns.

Viet Cafe Revisited

2011-10-08T08:07:00.003+08:00

They have moved! Have blogged about their old place here.

And this is their new premise, located at the block of shophouses next to TESCO Mergong. It's dining gone boutique. The new place also offers alfresco dining. There're a few tables outside, still within the building premise itself, just beside the corridor. In Alor Setar, the City Council very often seems to selectively go after outlets who put tables on the corridor while just beside the block of new shops, many hawker stalls have set up business on the pavements. They are an eyesore and I wonder how the authorities don't make these operators operate from hawker centres with clean water supply. One wonders about hygiene at such roadside stalls.

We took a drive around the new blocks of shops after dinner and discovered that there are quite a few restaurants at that locality, including a steamboat and barbecue outlet that had just opened that very same day. This seems a nice new place for a dining experience of another sort in Alor Setar. There're also the hawker food stalls to dive into too.

New premise with new menus... well, they seem to have just added the Oriental Seafood Menu.

Finger food... fried spring rolls with its own sauce. I used to order this at their old premise whenever I went.

The non-fried version. It will probably taste a bit 'bland' to those used to strong flavours. But if you take time to savour the natural flavours of the vegetables used, it's actually quite nice.

Cafe-type of food... one dish meal, Asian style. This is Other Half's order of Indonesian Fried Rice. Notice the curry leaves? They give the rice this pungent smell. This makes a nice meal on its own.

I ordered their Garlic, Onion, Fish Rice. It was spicy enough to make me reach out for tissue papers. Fried with onions, dried prawns (plenty of it), onions, lemon grass and chillies, it's enough to make one sweat a bit. But it's tasty. The sauce goes very well with the non-fried spring rolls. 8)

We ordered this, the Four Seasons Beans from their Oriental Seafood Menu just for the fun of it. It's quite nice, with minced meat, garlic, mushrooms and dried prawns (??). Food is quite nice but be prepared to wait a bit if there is a crowd as they seemed understaff at the moment. Renovation is still ongoing as this restaurant. It seems they will be catering for meetings at the hotel which will be opening soon too. The restaurant is part of the hotel set-up, I think.

Pinjam, Borrow, Lend and Rent

2011-10-05T18:50:00.005+08:00

It's PMR season, well.. it's ending soon, anyway. Today's students are a pampered lot. Just prior to the exam, they had their sembahyang session with them, to seek for blessings. Pencils and erasers were given out to each student. Many schools do that. All of us like to be perceived as prihatin.

Today afternoon was Geography paper. I saw hordes of students crowding round their Geography teacher before the paper began.... upon scrutiny I noticed that they were borrowing protractors. The teacher had a bag full of protractors.... I am sure the teachers were also busy lending out calculators and rulers for the Math paper too. I see my colleagues supplying graph papers, rulers, even exercise books. And the reason given is if they don't do that, the students won't be able to learn. See where the students get the idea that we owe it to them??? It's from us.

And that's how it's like throughout the year... borrowing and lending, always forgetting to bring this or that. And teachers would just keep lending or renting those tools which they require during term. And the number of students who borrow or rent just don't seem to get any lesser. In fact, there seems to be more of them now.

I remember when my boy was younger, and he'd sometimes forget to bring his things to school. He would call home and usually his long suffering dad would send the thing he forgot to school. And it happened frequently... he didn't appreciate his father's prihatin-ness. In fact he began to take it for granted that we owed it to him to make sure he has the stuff he needed.

Second time around, with our daughter, we decided early on to let her bear the consequences of her own actions. Guess what, she seldom forgets her things. The fear of punishment plus the knowledge that we will not bail her out for her own irresponsibility made her more responsible. Period.

Parents, teachers, the whole system that we're in make us like that. The preferential policies that we have in place which are racially biased has also played a big part in contributing to our current state of more irresponsible young people. Empathy is often an excuse to do the less right thing. Empathy is an escape route to an easier path.

It's tiring to keep at it... to bug and mete out punishments for those who forget. But with persistence, I have also discovered that the students do toe the line. Many actually do take responsibility for their own learning eventually. But the earlier years until the marginal madness dissipates, require a lot perseverance, persistence from the teachers. Many of us seem to prefer the easier way out... give in. We get the grades we want and hope they just pick up whatever they need to pick up as they grow up.

Parents too seem to be heading that direction. We are encouraged to understand the psychology of kids. The thing is we also want our time to do the things we want and enjoy our life. So we also do the same, believing that our children will learn to be responsible at some point. Maybe or maybe not. Parenting and teaching... they're not much different. Both require the same stuff.

So, PMR season is just about to end. Soon it'll be SPM and STPM. The pencil and eraser giving will continue. When term begins next year, the lending and borrowing will continue too... Teachers expect to, students expect it. We need to show that we empathize.... they feel we owe it to them. The vicious cycle is perpetuated by the people in it... Just great, don't you think?

Of Marginal Behaviour

2011-10-04T12:45:00.002+08:00

Schools often get teacher trainees on Rancangan Orientasi Sekolah or ROS. They will be attached to a school for a week or two to observe how a school is run as part of their coursework. This is to enable them to get a feel of the school environment before they go for their teaching practical a few months down the road.

We recently got 2 young men, undergoing their KPLI. Because of the PPSMI, the MOE sponsored quite a big number of undergraduates to universities in English speaking countries like the UK, Australia to pursue their basic degrees, mainly in the Sciences. So when our Minister says one reason why PPSMI cannot continue is due to competency issues, such teachers would eventually solve that problem. It'll take time though but PPSMI has already been running so many years.

The two young men who came to my school have just come back from the UK. Anyway, they are different from other trainees I've come across in my years as a teacher. For one, these are not young men who come into teaching after a few years of trying their luck outside and finding it hard to find their place. These were plucked fresh from school and given scholarships to pursue a basic degree with the agreement that when they graduate they'll come back for a year of KPLI before becoming teachers. Many of them come from residential schools; meaning, at least their formative environment would have set them apart in terms of attitude. Having spent years abroad would have at least given them the opportunity to see their world from a different perspective. And those stuff would make them different from many....

And we've been seeing rather interesting responses from our marginal people at school these couple of days, marginal behavior which makes one shake head. LOL! First, let me reiterate that these young teachers-to-be still have that boyish enthusiasm, looks.... see the difference? We've been getting to many 'old' male trainee teachers... LOL!

These young men sit opposite me. And for the past few days, traffic at my usually quiet area has gone up a few notches. And I've been seeing really silly behavior up close. One student kept coming up to my colleague to ask questions, and when there were errors to be erased in her book, she even ran back to her classroom to get her eraser. She could have just taken her book back to class! LOL! And as the instruction was going on, I could see her throwing furtive glances at them. And students who never frequent the Staff Room have been coming in, wandering around, pretending to look for something... with this smitten, bowled over, impish grins on their faces. I thought I was seeing all those classic symptoms of a concert crazed audience.... Infatuation deeply scratched into their marginal minds...

Then as I was going back to the staff room, it just so happened that the two young men were in front of me. Sandwiched between us were 4 girls. It was comical just to see them.... adjusting their tudung, slapping each other to spur each other, whispering and giggling.... If I didn't know any better the state of their marginal minds, I should be excused for thinking that they are mad.... madly smitten. Apparently, there are students who await the coming in and going out(s) of these soon-to-be teachers too in the mornings. And more students seem to be offering their services to carry teachers' bags into the staff room.

It seems to when the young men were introduced to the school, teachers saw all kinds of silliness among the students, especially the girls. Marginal minds tend to throw caution to the wind. Marginal minds don't seem quite able to control their actions... I think made even worse by the way we educate our kids today... And I am seeing more brash behavior too, coming to the fore... definitely not our Asian values. LOL! More and more, the young people seem uninhibited. In recent years, I've had students who have had no qualm about baring themselves for photos or even sending out such pics of themselves out to their friends. Exhibitionist tendencies are now seen more. Girls are getting louder, sometimes to the point of seemingly 'kasar'.

I wonder too whether too it's because there is less instructions from the home since many parents work these days. As for these young men... they are nice chaps who seem to have a heart for teaching. I was teasing them to enjoy this movie star adulation and adoration.... In the meantime, up to half of my school population might be swooning for the next 2 weeks...

The Magic of Reality... by Richard Dawkins

2011-10-03T12:17:00.000+08:00

This is an ebook, an iPad app. This book generated much attention when it came out, for different reasons. It was highly rated as an educational app and I thought I'd give it a try. But this is one book which perhaps should come with its own cinema-like rating, not because it contains vulgarity but because it denies religion its place in the big picture. Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist, which basically puts him alongside Darwin. To put it in a nutshell, he believes science is all that is needed to explain everything there is to be explained on this earth.

I've gone through the book and it has a very educational content. The artwork is really nice. It has interesting experiments. Layout is excellent, pleasing to the eye. And animations are used to make concepts very easy to grasp. Almost every chapter has an animation to explain a concept or an experiment to help us appreciate science. It has an edge over traditional text books because everything feels so vivid and there is interaction. One can feel science coming alive in this book. This is an example of how the various media can be utilized to really enhance the learning process. I enjoyed the science coming alive part very much.

Dawkins is an atheist. So it's only expected that he treads the atheist line. Everything else is myth to him. His contention is that faith is a delusion and to that end, he refers to everything as myth except that which can be proven by science. But then again, the science of evolution is also based on many conjectures cos no one has truly seen it happen... it's all a belief too! Science when used to proof the theory of evolution lends it much credence too. But this form of science, as much as I may not fully understand it, is also based a lot of us filling in the blanks with many unknowns too.

Years ago I remember reading about Lucy, the Australopithecus aferensis discovered in Kenya. It was hailed as a significant find as evolutionists said that it was the missing link to man's evolution. Then other studies came out saying that it might not have been a direct descendent. And there was Ardi, supposedly another link. As certain as the study of science is supposed to be, the study of evolutionary science is also filled with big holes with big question marks.

Anyway, this book is quite an eye-opener for me, an experience on its own. It's a little pricey though, @ USD$13.99. Book 25.

The Kesian (kasihan) Culture

2011-10-02T09:42:00.000+08:00

Kasihan (or when spoken sounds like kesian) is well and too alive in our midst today. Actually,, I think we are living in an empathy crazed society. Translated loosely into English kesian means pity, empathy. We empathize way too much today. In school, the practice today is we try to be understanding. We try to empathize... and that's where we ourselves go sesat. Empathy, it seems does not make us do the right thing.

A teacher warns the class at the beginning of the year that work must always be handed in on time. Right from the very first homework, a student fails to complete his homework. He tells the teacher that he had to help with a kenduri over the weekend and could not complete his homework. It's his brother's wedding. Now do you let him off? He expects empathy from you cos it's his brother's wedding. And if you take action, you will seem so unreasonable. So, you let him off the hook because he tells you some story about having to help with the massive cooking and entertaining the guests. The parameters were set earlier, yet when it was broken, we empathize. Punishing him would make us look as if we have no heart. Empathizing with him makes us feel good, look good...

Empathy... I found myself empathizing with my kid back in his teenage years. The more I tried to empathize, the more he learned to work around things. I was trying too hard to be his friend. I've realized this, we go through phases with our kids too. There is a time when we should be friends, but that phase comes after we are parents to them. To be a parent means you have to rebuke, remind... do all the unpopular things first. So that he gets onto the right path, a helpful routine. To get gold, we literally have to wrest it out from the earth. Same goes for diamonds too. You don't get beautiful things without effort. Similarly good kids don't just happen to be there.... somewhere along, someone, some experience need to show them the way...

So empathy... recollections from those who surveyed the Holocaust showed that many of the Nazi soldiers were crying as they sent the Jews to their deaths. Those deaths were horrible deaths... death by gassing, being mowed down, they did all kinds of horrible unimaginable things. Yet those soldiers continued with their task. It seemed that when their personal interest was at stake, empathy does nothing. Duty on the other hand makes men willing to die for their country.

Students misbehave all the time. When you have enforced rules, a better learning environment is created. Troublemakers get less opportunity to drag everyone else down with them. Because there is more empathy and less discipline, recalcitrant students learn that they are able to get away with their disruptive behavior. They are emboldened. Chaos descend after a while. Marginal minds after all follow their equally marginal hearts.

Parents try too much to empathize too. When you empathize you are actually trying to be a friend. A kid needs parents to enforce a certain discipline in his life. I learned it the hard way. In trying to empathize with my boy when he was in his teens, we brought out the little monster in him. I look back into my own childhood and that of many of my friends'. I think our parents instilled into us, first and foremost a sense of duty. When we were too marginal to understand, they made sure that we knew we had a duty to our parents and family. But as I grew older, that sense of duty was slowly transferred to ourselves. It is only with maturity that one is able to differentiate and carry out decisions which we don't feel like doing but know that is needed.

Empathy... It makes us favor people too, our friends and family. We feel for our friends, so we tell them only things we know they'll want to hear. We try not to be harsh because we don't want to break them down. We don't seem to realize that sometimes we need to say the unpleasant things, stand up for the wrong, even sacrifice. Well, sacrifice is perhaps too big to ask for. Say, someone goes up to the pulpit and share in church about how a certain TV station's broadcast has helped her.... The problem is it's an 'illegal' satellite TV station. And no one from the leadership comes out and clarify the issue... That's what is plaguing the Muslims in this country too; the cow head incident, church arson, corruption cases. The sense of duty, it feels, is all mixed up in the cauldron of empathy. Sometimes, it's hard to see whether religious institutions are there because we believe in an eternity or it's just there as a tool to further our own personal agendas.... God just happens to be a good idea to use cos it gets us what we want.

A sense of duty, a sense of empathy... both leave lasting legacies. One ensures that we do what is required and right while the other ensures that we carry out as we feel....

Google, Kindle, Android, IOS, Facebook...

2011-09-30T13:23:00.001+08:00

Just realized that these days, those of us who are connected seem to be getting this slew of offerings that keep flying of the shelves. A couple of days ago, it was Amazon with its Kindles. And in a couple of days, Apple will be releasing some more new stuff. Facebook has just gone through one round of new upgrades. One more is supposed to come in the coming days. Before that, we had all other stuff from HTC, Samsung.... Every few days, I seem to be reading about some new release. And how come? All because I am quite 'well-connected'.

I'm on FB like many. I have articles delivered to my iPad at rates which I have no time to keep up with. I am bombarded with reviews, teasers, speculations... They just keep coming. I never imagined that there can be so much to read. Minus work, housework, 'chasing' after the kids, I actually have not much time. But still I am in the know because all the info I need to know is delivered to wherever I am, to be read at my convenience.

Anyway, to keep consumerism going, this new social networking is a perhaps the best way to get to your potential customers. However, many of these networking sites have abilities to keep track of our lives, our likes and dislikes. Privacy policies are in place but that's just one software away from prying into our lives. And I've come to realize also that many of us don't mind many of the privacy issues. We announce to the world where we are, what we are going to do, who we're with, what we had for dinner, what we've just bought.... even love is professed in this public domain. Very often I know where my friends are. I know who check in with who into a particular place. Some may argue that the info is only for our friends' consumption. But I also notice that many don't bother recalibrating their settings. And there are those of us who accept just anyone to be our friends.

And if you think the telcos would be a safe bet to send messages, think again. The SMSes we send out get stored over a period of time. Some telcos keep messages for a long time. So, FB provides your life's timeline. Telcos stored your supposedly personal messages. Amazon via their latest offering will be able to keep detailed records of your reading and surfing habits too.... it's not available in Malaysia yet but someday, it will.

Back to FB. It's actually quite easy to draw a pattern of behavior from FB. If a person unfriends you, you know the other party probably has an issue with you. This is one of the more obvious examples. Patterns can be drawn from our posts, the way we respond, etc, etc that allows more info than which meets the eye to get through. Sometimes, it is even possible to read into a person's mind via his responses. Imagine what companies can do with the information that they have on users. Tailored advertisement, reading content... all that would be possible. In short, it is possible to even programme us via what we read. Articles are easy to write...

Back in 98 (if memory serves me right), the BN went on a marketing glitz which made majority of the country feel or really good. Suffice to say, BN won big time that year. We were all bought by the feel good factor. Inequality was there, cronyism was thriving, yet majority of us felt good enough to give BN a resounding victory.... it was all in the marketing... Imagine how we can be influenced now that our individual tastes can be scrutinized. And they have the means to deliver the persuasion tailored for you only... Scary! Plus peer pressure can be a useful tool too. You will be informed what your friends are listening to, what they are watching, which phone they are buying. Keeping up with the Joneses' at its best. We've this trait built in; and the media needs only to awaken it. The credit cards do the rest even when you don't have the actual cash... Sometimes, I wonder whether this is all a conspiracy to enslave us all...

Look at the hype surrounding the impending Apple release of products. They are so many articles about what experts are saying about the new products. It builds the hype. It makes people wait in anticipation. It gently prods people make up their minds to get one.... there is nothing like building that desire slowly. Suspense keeps us seated, makes us take note... causing us to crave for it.

There are many pros too but like everything else; you always get both sides. Man is a social creature. We want to know what's happening to the people around us, not that it matters to us... we want to have the things that our friends have, not because we need them, we want to keep up with our neighbors... All those companies? They just know which buttons to press so that they make more money. And they're very successful at it. Apple is the most valuable company. Amazon, Google... they're all industry leaders making tons of profits. And they all have one thing in common, they're all involved directly or indirectly in social media.

Too much?

2011-09-29T15:37:00.000+08:00

What does too much do to us? Diabetes, heart problems, hypertension... these are all outcomes of too much. Too much good stuff apparently kills. Too little also stunts and eventually kills too. We see plenty of that in Africa.

So, too much or little of everything seems to be a problem. The answer is obvious... striking a balance. But the way to this obvious solution doesn't seem to feel so obvious. It's been 5 weeks of unrelenting pursuit of my lil one's lessons. As much as I try to minimize tilting the balance, it was just not possible with so much to catch up and a limited time frame. I've to give credit to my girl for her compliance. If it had been my boy, he would have balked and there would have been many sessions of wall hitting.... or 'long piak'.

Up to 12 homework a day, that's what my primary going girl comes home with some days. And there are only 5 examinable subjects and other 'unimportant' subjects like Physical Education, Pendidikan Sivik and Kemahiran Hidup. So, it's quite amazing to me how she gets more than 5 homework each day. Perhaps it is this 'too much' that causes them to later ignore their homework at secondary school.

When a kid is in Primary school, it is easy to make them toe the line. That line becomes very crooked in secondary school. Just compare the school bags of a primary kid and his secondary big bro. The kiddo's bag will probably be 2-3 times heavier than his big bro's. And in the worse case scenario, the big bro's bag might even be empty except for some writing materials. Many just leave their books in their drawers at school or don't bother at all. I've had students who can turn their Science book into an English one and then , all in the matter in one day if need arises. Too many....

And as if school is not enough, there are always the extra classes. School starts at 7.40 a.m. And it's supposed to end at 1.10 p.m... Primary that is. These days, kids as young as Primary 3 have to attend mandatory extra classes carried out by the school. Some drag up till 3.30 p.m. By the time a kid gets home, he is extremely bushed. And if he's slow, there is this constant need to play catch up. Add that to us, parents' punya kiasu-ness, there is the after school extra lessons... or tuitions. These usually take place at night. I look back into my own childhood. I cannot ever remember being this busy! Yet again too many....

I've been sitting with my girl lately. I discovered that her teachers make efforts to give as much work to them as possible. I think her teachers are very hardworking. But then I realized this... for my girl to do well, she has to be really good at memorizing and regurgitating the answers. She grapples with language issues because Mandarin is not her first language. It impedes her comprehension. The system has no place for kids with such disadvantage. One just has to catch up. And this is where more boys languish since a great deal of them are faced with language issues. Most boys just don't have their language side of the brain fully operational at that age. My boy went to Chinese school too, took the Chinese paper for his SPM and now his little sis reads better than him. Yet again, too much...

Language... boy or boy! BM is tough. Chinese is just as tough. The only language that is not hard is English... at school that is. Yet, many of students have poor grasp of the language. Many find it tough at school. Easy syllabus but poor mastery. When you compare English to the other 2 languages, you can see how inadequate it is. I don't know whether it's because of our racial politics but I feel that there is this effort to memartabatkan each language from diehards from both sides. I am struck by how little real information passages in both languages contain. Yet for BM and Mandarin, the difficulty level is high. And mastery remains so-so. Too much? Too little? Too many languages to learn. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Too much or too little... It's about striking a balance. Give too much here, expect too much there, something has to give somewhere. There used to be a balance somewhere.

As my lil one, she has way too little time to day dream. Everyday, she is just as tired as us. A kid's life... it's not much different from ours. I thought 21st century living, with all that technology has to offer us... rupa-rupanya, it turns everyone of us into a consumer, waiting to consume the next new thing to replace the not so old new thing. And we slog for that material replacement.... UNESCO has an interesting study about materialism, the London riots...

Bak Kut Teh

2011-09-27T12:51:00.000+08:00

Bak kut teh... it's just a soup dish cooked with herbs, a potpourri of everything edible from an animal. Bak refers to pork. There is chick-kut-teh too, obviously a chicken based soup. Of course you can have duck-kut-teh.... The 'teh' is supposed to be good....

Anyway, this is one of our favourite bak-kut-teh haunts. It's located at Lot 7 (I always get confused with its name even after so many years here), just beside Putra Medical Centre. We come here quite often as this is one of the places that our lil one likes a lot, usually after our swim. This hawker centre was one of the most popular ones in Alor Setar when we first arrived more than a decade ago. Then it went on a slide. But after the Putra Medical Centre, adjacent to it was extended and went through a facelift, the area has become busy again. It seems to have found another lease of life. And this hawker centre too.

What's so special about this bak-kut-teh? I guess the soup. For any bak-kut-teh to be nice, the soup (or the 'teh') must be nice. There are few other bak-kut-teh stalls around Alor Setar but this is one of the better ones. There is another one which is quite nice at Pekan Simpang Kuala. There are the yu-tiao and lightly scalded vegetables with meat floss and its sauce. But you only have 2 choices of vegetables.

The stall is rather popular. If one goes slightly later in the evening on a weekend, one might have to wait for quite some time to be served.

Apart from the bak-kut-teh, there is also this chee-cheong-fun. It's nothing as nice as the ones you get in Penang but again, this is one of those places you can get such kind of chee-cheong-fun in the evenings.

Four Weeks....

2011-09-25T17:24:00.000+08:00

It's been 4 weeks since I embarked on a task which I did not know how much I would accomplish. More than a month ago, Jov jolted me to the fact that my girl was struggling with her Science, that she did not quite know what was required of her. It took more than a fortnight before I decided that I would take myself to task to teach her. The problem is I am not Chinese-ed, which basically sums up the whole problem.

And her Science is in Mandarin. I had great difficulty understanding the questions, let alone read her books! Trying to teach content without language competency is a torture. Plus I work full time. So time is a rare commodity. I spent 2 weeks searching for help.... By and by I found a few. The Besta dictionary is a great help but it's a bit slow and it wasn't something I carried with me all the time. But my iPad is with me most of the time. So it was only natural that I looked to it as an alternative.

Enter the Pleco app and the beginning of 4 interesting weeks.... I started from scratch. there were times when I felt like throwing the books away. So many words to learn and so many times I kept forgetting. But I persisted.... writing and rewriting the words onto the screen. The going was extremely slow. That which should take 10 minutes took 3-4 times the time. Still, I refused to throw in the towel. The first week was tough. There were times when I thought, perhaps I should just teach her the concepts in English and hope she picks the rest up herself in Mandarin.

Most of my free time was taken up by this exercise. When I discovered that I could buy an add-on in Pleco which would read the words to me, I told Other Half that I wanted it. That add-on became my intonation teacher. Going by visual would have taken me more time as I would have to go through the 4 tones in my head for each word. By the second week, the going was slightly easier. But I was still writing a lot on the screen. Sometimes, by the time I got the end of the sentence, I had forgotten what it was all about. (But the app Translate, which is essentially Google Translate turns app; helped out a lot with sentence translation) My vocabulary continued to improve. My word recognition got better. But I was still struggling a lot. My eyes were tired most days... from staring into the screen and coping with the transitional eye change that comes with middle age. Both are painful experiences.

It's now just past the 4th week. I am still struggling. But I now have a new tool in my arsenal... OCR!! And it's a truly wonderful add-on. By just using my camera on the iPad to capture the words, meanings and how they're pronounced would appear on the screen. If the need arises, I can take it a step further by having the pronunciation done too. It has sped up the reading by leaps and bounds. I can now cover more in a session. But iPad camera does not autofocus. I have since found out that the iPhone 4 has that capability, which means that words thay I OCR via the camera will be crisp and clear. Moreover, the iPad is way too big to hover over the book line by line. It's heavy on the wrist. An iPhone would be lighter and more nimble..... But for now, the iPad would have to do.....

Four weeks! I do not know whether I have the persistence to keep going but I shall try. I can now read more than I could before I began. I can now make more sense of stuff said in Mandarin more than before. My vocabulary has probably increased by many folds. I can even go to the bookshop, look through a Science reference book and tell whether it contains all the information required. I can look at a word, and even though not quite remember how to read it, for some reasons still be able to make a contextual guess what it means or know what it means.

My gardening has gone on hold. My brain feels 'fried' on many nights. My eyes feel like they are going to pop out on many of those nights too. Sometimes I am so mentally bushed that I find my patience running really thin. But it has been a rather interesting learning experience too. For one, I surprised myself in that, I lasted this long. Another is that I found that I could enjoy it once I allow myself to take the pitfalls as they come along... it's the getting up that makes it enjoyable. Being able to get up means you are moving on; very much like getting up after a fall while learning how to cycle. Also, in learning... even though this learning experience is rather painful because the learning curve is rather steep; because Mandarin is a language of character recognition, I find myself feeling ecstatic after each milestone.... But learning has to be meaningful. Meaning makes it bearable, more fun, etc, etc... and the meaning comes from understanding the content to be able to teach my girl.

And one more thing..... I am so going to get myself an IPhone or an iPod, if the reportedly and supposedly tweaked iPod Touch comes with an upgraded auto focus camera because the OCR process would be clearer. I am fortunate that I have the necessary tools to hasten my learning. I am even more fortunate that I have the means to get them. Without these tools, I would probably have given up in utter frustration. Technology is indeed an enabling tool... if you know where to look for it. My friend offered to read for me, teach me so to say. I told her that my digital teacher does not get tired no matter how many times I bug it. And I think I am persistent (no, dogged enough, LOL!... ) enough to stay focus. So four weeks.... and now I am anticipating the big Apple do said to be next week.... because now an iPhone seems to have turned into a need....

When I Grow Up

2011-09-22T11:06:00.000+08:00

I want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer. When I was a kid, there was this 001 Card at school which had this column for ambition. My first recollection of being asked was in Std 2. And everyone (me included)would put down the choices above, policeman (woman), teacher being some of the other choices. Kids.... small world, limited contact, and everyone chose almost the same ambitions but in different order.

Then sophistication crept in and these became more vogue - investment banker, stock analyst, venture capitalist, consultant (this or that).... and all kinds of engineering subdivisions, software engineers... scopes which did not exist when I went to university. And we thought that was sophisticated enough....

I read somewhere that we should train our kids to think of possibilities, of jobs not in existence yet cos the job specs will continue to evolve.

After all would anyone of us imagine the existence of this other realm too where old traditional occupations take new forms. It may seems a little unconventional now but in time, they will be. After all, if one watches a slew of sci-fi stuff, what may seem an overdrive of imagination is actually a peek into the future... provided the world does not come to an end; either through divine intervention or man's folly. For me, I think the more vivid (in my mind) of those sci-fi shows were Space 1999 and Lost in Space... .. Well, there is no Moon Base Alpha yet but we do have an ISS orbiting up there now.

I would never have imagined 20 years ago, jobs which didn't feel like real jobs, i.e. earning money via 'play' would come mainstream and overtake the traditional ones in terms of income generation. Jobs like video (online) game tester, or game farmer where they play and earn money by selling passwords for the different levels that they've done. We'd have labelled such people bums!

But dig this? Vice goes online too. Professional pimping gone online... and gambling too. Now, they don't need to go to Genting or Singapore. Even Vegas comes to them. And gambling takes on other guises too... with many saying that it's a legitimate way of earning money. Illegal betting and lotteries still take place in those hidden away corners but there are slowly gaining a sophistication that comes with the internet. Want a game of poker that plays real money?? Well it's just a few keyboard punches away. And the hope of winning big is stoked in ways unimaginable before.

Online gaming is another area. Micro transactions occur where players once drawn in and get hooked will pay to purchase items for their farms or whatever virtual game they are playing. I play Fragger occasionally... A gem whe you throw grenades through a series of puzzles to blow up your enemies... For a couple of bucks you can buy a solution. That's micro transaction.... it makes money out of impatience for a solution to a level. But lots of people bite. We are a generation of quick fixes, remember? Billions of dollars exchange hands this way! I wonder if a major disaster were to strike and all these people whose skills seem to be farming in the digital world, running digital restaurants, basically just running digital worlds... will they have the enough real skills to survive? I mean, actually survive and not just survive digitally. Generation Y, Z... sophisticated gens they are, but to get their hands dirty or to even slaughter a real chicken??

Then also this... some claim that playing games like Starcraft helps them be millionaires. Read this article about Charlie Cheever who says playing Starcraft helped him learn what he really needed to know about being successful. But the lessons he said he learned from playing the game... I think you learn it doing other things too. It's not an exclusive thingy. There should be lots of millionaires from among the Starcraft gamers going by what he says but reality check will probably show us that most gamers are basically just end users!

So, when I grow up...... who knows what a kid today might be doing? He will be doing one of those jobs that does not exist today.

Those Mad, Mad Years

2011-09-20T12:01:00.000+08:00

I am discovering plenty every day.

Adolescence, the awakening. No more child, the innocence gone and only memories of the cute 'was' is etched in our memories. Been down this road with my kid.... another ongoing.

Both Other Half and I truly enjoyed our kids' childhood. Am glad for our lil one. Cos the second time around, you know the road better. And you tend to be more relaxed. When difficult moments come, you know there is an end to that tunnel.... But we can never claim to totally know, cos each kid is still different.

It seems the years between 14-17 are the most reckless years. A pre-teen is fun. They listen and obey.... well, most of the time, anyway. But the teen years that follow will awaken the need for attention of a different sort; socialization in the real sense, go out, hang out... with peers.... Man is a social creature and this age marks the beginning of this need to socialize. Their world expands to beyond their parents. I call this period the marginal years, years of self discovery. I now understand better why the choice of peers is very important too. Studies on teen brains are beginning to show that the recklessness is very real during those 'mad years'. I've just reacquainted myself again with terms such as amygdala, myelin sheath, etc, etc... My biology is rusty but it is still enough to help me understand the physiology of the changes, somewhat. So, because of that, being with their own peer is something that they automatically gravitate towards. Recklessness during this time also means giving in to the pressure of your peers (one seeks peer approval) and given the fact that all are in the same phase, it's double jeopardy. Peer pressure makes us do lots of crazy things. We lose some along the way due to the craziness. Those who survived the recklessness of the youth survived because they are supposed to be naturally the better specimens... the process of natural selection takes place. Well, in theory. So the recklessness was also nature's way of singling out the undesirable ones...

I now understand better why my elders had this set of rules to follow. Kids who are mollycoddled are more likely to go wayward. Kids who have everything too easy turn soft too easily. Kids need more than just their parents to 'parent' them. My elders might not have understood the biology behind it but even they understood the importance of the communal role in raising a kid. Our boy had the benefit of this communal role via a few of our church friends. But in today's individualistic world, it's every one for their own... well, most of the time anyway. I now understand why my mom said sometimes our kids must be taught by others and that parents should sometimes empower others with that authority to discipline their kids. My teachers had my parents blessings to cane me. Touch a kid today, and you might find yourself being hauled to the police station. Kids learn that they not only had themselves to please but also the community. Those mad, mad years require community effort. But these days, most of us would just shrug this role off.

It seems the 'madness' begins right around 12 and might even last up till 25. But there is good news. The mind becomes sensible and recklessness reduces with age. LOL! Adulthood, it seems catches up with everyone. And fatherhood, it seems tamper the tempest in the male species by reducing their testosterones. How's that? But the road to it is fraught with unknowns.

Still the problem seems to be those mad, mad years. And I realize this too.... we seem to be lacking that community spirit in raising each other's kids. We are too caught up by the individual in us to bother. That community upbringing has now been taken over by tuition centers where many kids spend most of their time. I know many of them spend their weekdays at school and tuition centers. And tuition centers take up their weekends. They are left with hardly much time to hang around their own neighborhood. Their hanging places centre around those tuition centers. Communal roles have now been taken over by peers.

Playing games have gone into their homes, seated on a chair and facing the computer screen.... 21st century interaction. So we make excuse adn say we go for quality.

An American friend of mine used to complain to me that American kids spend way too much time on sports. I think physical games are better than the virtual ones. At least physical games come with physical limitations. Physical games are played outdoor. Digital ones come with virtual ones and we know that they can continue to be pushed as long as you have a computer with you. It can be restarted again and again. No end, no moving on.... one can even play till one drops dead at the chair!

What caught my attention more than anything is how shallow many of these kids are. They are a generation of throwaways. Bored with a phone? Get a new one! As long as you have the cash, there is no problem. And that is why too more kids are willing to do anything for it. Those mad, mad years make it all the more fun, especially with their peers to cheer them on; senses suppressed (or heightened, depends on how you see it)! Mad, mad years. They're necessary to prepare one for his future but so many go sesat.... but I supposed they'll regain their sensibility, somewhere down the rites of this passage... hopefully with just scars and not just festering wounds.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... rupa-rupanya there's a little truth to the novel. It has to do with a little chemical adjustment that the brain undergoes. And why this post.. of late I've been in contact with teens who, from all outward appearance seem to be a picture of well-being but upon scrutiny, seem to have this something that is just quite unexplainable.

Buffet...

2011-09-18T00:05:00.000+08:00

Roasted potatoes and it was unanimous that these were among of the best roasted potatoes we've taken anywhere. You know how much kids love potato wedges. Well, this is even better than any of the wedges that we've taken.

And these potato pieces topped my boy's list of food taken the most times for this particular food outing. Spicy, soft and juicy, I found them delicious. I think honey is one of the ingredients used in its preparations but the combination of herbs and everything else the chef put in seem to make them taste very good.

And they were part of this buffet spread made up of really yummy displays. They tasted just as good as they looked!

The makan place was the g Cafe at Gurney Drive. I like the decor; chic urban modern. The dining area is spacious and one gets a view of the happenings around Gurney Plaza. I have always liked the way the big old trees were preserved when they built this place and sitting in a concrete building with lots of windows looking into the greens amidst a park-like feel was rather relaxing. And we were in no rush to do other things except to eat. 8)

Penang is a hawker haven. You get really good food; cheap and delicious almost everywhere. Eating in Penang is an adventure of its own. Because you get good food everywhere, hotel food pales in comparison. After all, hotel food is usually just that... hotel food; which is almost predictable. But this spread was a different hotel food experience.

My salad mix... I was spoilt for choices. Mixed bean salad, mussels which were really succulent, and generally everything was nice. They had more than enough types of salad dressings to keep me happy. I tried 4 before giving up. My stomach isn't just as it used to be... which is one reason why we generally don't go for buffets. My kids are small eaters too. But we decided to do something different for a change this time.

This buffet had a really nice spread... Irish stew, Money Bags, egg foo yong, salmon, chicken.. the list is just so long that everyone will find a few things they like. The prawns were really yummy; really moist and soft. My girl took a small hill of them and I stuffed in quite a few too! 8) Even Other Half who usually steer clear of prawns couldn't resist taking a bite! I notice that the portions they put out on the buffet spread were small, which meant that the chef was constantly replenishing them. It makes the food taste like a sit-down meal.

The soups were good. This is the lotus soup. The soup was soothing and everything else in it nicely cooked. Really clear soup.... really sweet too.

This was the carrot and coriander soup. See the Mickey in it??? Other Half added a big dash of parmesan into it. The breads were nice and fresh. With a little butter on them, and this soup as the dip, it was another winner. Basically I've not much to complain about except for this little one thing. The watermelon we took was, I think, too ripe or perhaps cut and left too long there. It had a 'sourish' taste to it.

Not forgetting too the desserts. There were just too many to even begin but suffice to say, they kept both my kids and Jov happy. I had wanted to give Jov a nice treat for her willingness to come and sit with my girl and help her with her lessons before going off for her studies these last few months. I also wanted for her (and us) to have something nice as memories. She made me realize that my girl needed extra coaching for some of her subjects and had taught me a thing of two how to make the connections in Mandarin. And the outing was a nice one. Anyway, the cakes were actually good. Most hotel (even some 5-star ones) have cakes which taste too dry and not rich enough. Most of the sweet stuff they had there were yummy enough to make you go for seconds!

I tried almost all the major items but left out Murtabak, crackers and many of the desserts. My final 'food' was a cup of rather strong coffee that was delivered to the table steaming hot.

Priced at RM58 per person; children below 12 get a 50% discount, this buffet is good enough to make us think of going back to try their other culinary adventures. Saturday lunch deal is the Family Lunch. There are different themes for different days and meals like Surf and Turf, Indian Curries, Shell, etc, etc.. all priced differently. As for me, this is one buffet that didn't taste like a hotel buffet. Definitely a good experience cos you get so many nice stuff in one sitting.

Who deserves more?

2011-09-15T17:55:00.000+08:00

Parents get more credit than they deserve and kids don't get enough....

With one kid at the threshold of adulthood and one knocking on the door to the difficult years, I might be getting such a remark from my own kid in the near future too. I don't know. But I hope not. What I do know is my previous path had lots of potholes and occasional sinkholes which might have sucked us all in. Thankfully, that did not happen and I hope it will not happen.

Parents are busy today. Maid assumes the role of parents. It's also not uncommon to hear of full-week or even full-month baby sitting these days. In some cases, parents only drop by to see and play with their kids for a couple of hours a week (month). Some parents even employ maids for their babysitters! Remote control parenting... from a distance. And the excuse is the demands of today require both parents to work to provide a better life. They feel their family deserves more... they deserve more. And they ought to get credit for sacrificing so much for their family. Sometimes I think we get marginality from both ends... parents and kids.

Marginality brings about marginal thinking... marginal thinking can be myopic. And the easy life of today's generation for many makes marginal people even less sensible. There seems to be this lack of a particular edge which I can't quite put a finger to.

This is exam season and like many of the past exam seasons, I get SOS requests to give crash courses to kids; surprise, surprise... for History. Many kids don't like History and Geography. But lately, I am surprised at the high number of kids who seem to be failing these subjects, History more so, just because they say they don't like it. Whatever happened to plodding on because one ought to? These days, it seems to be that when one does not like a subject, one just lets it go....

One kid told me that she was totally off into her own world in Form 2. I could tell too cos she could not recall a single thing from the lesson from that year. There was some recollection of Form 1 work and also a little of Form 3. Another boy says of the same, except that he was totally gone in his own little world for almost the 3 whole years! If my grades had been dismal when I was in lower secondary, my parents would have made me feel really bad... or I would have felt really bad for disappointing them. But today, many parents also seem okay with their kids having those dismal results in these subjects. Maybe they are too tired from their own toils to think that it matters. Maybe they think it's not important... But kids need to be held accountable.

Results are not everything. But they also tell us what might need attention. The lack of determination, perseverance, the lack of parental supervision, etc, etc..

I chatted with the owner of a stationary shop I frequent recently. Somehow, we picked up a conversation and he told me his work with troubled kids. He was telling me about a kid he counseled 5 years ago. The boy had been expelled. But after a heart to heart session with him, this 13 year-old had a change of heart. He decided to go back to school. Despite many obstacles, he finally managed to get himself back into the school. It's been 5 years down the road. He is still in school. But he is not doing well at all. However, he plods on. This kind Samaritan pays for his tuition fees even though the tuition teacher says the going is really tough for the boy.

Will this boy pass his SPM? It's unlikely. But as this man said. It's not important whether he does pass. The important thing is he is persevering. That says something about his character, right? A(s) are not everything. They're important to open doors but beyond that, once you enter into the working world, your attitude counts a lot more too.

As for that kind soul... he has my admiration for the work that he chooses to do.

Apple IOS Or Microsoft Windows

2011-09-14T09:41:00.001+08:00

Windows 8 have just been unveiled... And reviews I have read says that post PC era is way from over cos apparently this new Windows have abilities of tablet and PC computing put together. Basically, for people like me, it simply means that I can have the mobility and versatility of the tablet and do stuff like photo editing on the same gadget. And that would be the most ideal. For all that I like about my iPad, it is still a dumbed down version of the computer which meets most of my daily needs but occasionally does not. So the new Windows sounds quite interesting.

Anyway, this is not a tech review. I have not been a (serious) PC user for the last few years, having migrated to Mac. I do carry a Netbook to work occasionally though. But I like my Mac. However, PC or Mac, I realized this. It's not just how superior the hardwares are in these machines. It's the operating system that powers the machines which makes all the difference. You can have the best hardware but if the OS is not up to par, it will still flop. There are many gadgets which went that way because their OS or content failed them. It's vice versa too.

Take a look around us. In Alor Setar, many things are not well maintained. Rubbish collection is not as good as before. Somewhere along the timeline, there was a change of operator and it has been on the decline since then. Rubbish collection is not so regular and the current operator leaves all these big bins everywhere which are eyesores as well as a place for the strays to congregate. The areas where the bins are located are smelly and unkempt as a result. The operator must have thought it easy for them to create a central location to throw rubbish, unwittingly psyching people to dump rubbish at that particular location. So despite having all the modern equipment, work is still not good. We have an operator in need of upgrades.

Schools, religious institutions, governments... It's the same. We read about brain drain in our country. Those brains are likened to the operating systems. We 'chase' away our best and brightest via preferential policies. In education, we dumb down students by making everything easier. We do not promote the best people for the job. Racial politics has seen to it that double standards remain. We create distinct separation lines by insisting that one race has more rights than others. Talent, the operating system, that powers a country is clipped. The same too is found in religious institutions. We give credence to those who say the things even one with no religious affiliation will find difficulty in comprehending. Often, we prefer to install an inferior OS not quite able to get the best out of the hardware. And that's happening everywhere.

Looking back into history at how the church was used to consolidate the powers of the kings, there is similarity too. Power is difficult to hold on to. But give it a religious tone, fear takes root. After all, the need to choose between heaven and hell makes it quite obvious that religion can be made a powerful tool to subjugate a population. The early rulers knew this too. Hence, history is filled with accounts how each ruler laid legitimacy to their throne via they being the sons of the gods. And this too compromised the operating system..... But I guess too that one could argue that the King is like the CPU needed to direct all the components to work....LOL! There are always two sides to a coin....

But a good operating system is essential for the forward drive, in any institution for anything. So Apple IOS Or Mac, in the end consumers would still go for the better one. For now, Apple has successfully incorporated form and substance and it's a winning formula. Who knows? Maybe Microsoft will be able to pull this from under them with their latest offering.

The OS that makes us? Aptitude and the rest of the long list called attitude.

Literacy...

2011-09-13T12:50:00.000+08:00

Imagine this... 26 students in an Upper Secondary class who cannot use English at all! How do you teach Upper Secondary level English to kids who have not mastered any of the basic language skills? Skills which they were supposed to have learned in Primary school. They are in Upper Secondary, yet not able to follow the curriculum's syllabus. Not a single one in this class is able to make sentences beyond 'My name is....' or 'I live in....' and those too with errors punctuated. The language curriculum is also made up of oral test. Not one is able to hold even a simple conversation in English. Even when time is given to prepare their own scripts for test, there is no taker. And these are kids who have spent their last almost 10 years learning English.

There is no way they can pass their English. But English is not the only problem they face. They fare almost as badly in their other subjects, BM too. Many of them have behavioral problems, with some compounded by the problem of the marginality of teenage years. The thing is, most if not all of them find lessons daunting. After spending 10 years at school, most of them in this class can't even pass their subjects. How can one expect them to remain attentive in class since they also grapple with comprehension. We know that if a kid can do something well, he is more likely to enjoy doing it and will exhibit less of behavioral problem. But if the same kid cannot grasp much of what is being taught, it is also normal to expect them to show more behavioral problems. Kids need affirmation, both internal and external. But when they are in a system where academic results overshadows everything else, they turn to other means to get that acknowledgment of their self worth. I know how it feels cos my boy grappled with comprehension issue because Mandarin was a language he had massive problem with. There are probably other lingering effects still but we hope he'll rise above himself.

Problems plague more boys than girls. The most recent statistics show the current ration in our universities to be roughly 30:70, and girls overwhelm the boys. And in the recent PLKN (National Serrvice) intake they discovered that 1000 out of 10000 had literacy problems. One of our ministers say that it's a normal trend and nothing to worry about. Apparently our literacy rate is better than some 1st world countries. I think there is plenty to worry about. Socially, it's going to be a time-bomb too. Low literacy means difficulty in getting jobs.

Anyway, I come across classes like this every year, and there are more these days. There is a vocational subject in most schools offered these days but the places are far too few. Schools are still too academically inclined. Our vocational training doesn't kick in early enough to give these kids a sense of achievement. And it's limited.

As for teaching such classes. I am always at odd ends. Text books are not suitable. There is still the curriculum and the SPM to be taken when they're 17. Yet we only have one shoe for them. It makes school rather routine for them. Our schools may have better facilities these days but I don't know whether it's really doing a good job at producing graduates for the job market. But one thing I know for sure. Where English mastery is concerned, the situation is not getting any better. The solution is not getting Peace Corps or Fulbright volunteers to teach English in our secondary schools. The problem at the root ought to be tackled first. And that's at primary level. and attitude transformation...

I always remind my girl to finish as much of her homework at school cos she gets so many every day. However, one day she came back with all her homework not done. When asked she said that there were visitors at school that day and the kids had been reminded to pay full attention at class because those visitors were at school to give them marks (trade them). LOL! The inspectorate was there to audit/observe the school. Fast forward to the same type visit to my work place. The school went on a frenzy of getting the files ready for the big visit. Teachers were told to prepare for class observation... All the show that was being put up. I wonder whether they wonder if the contents of the files are authentic and not just made up. If a teacher performs exceedingly well in class just during that one time during the visit, etc., etc... Form over substance issues. A whole show gets put up... Why can't the inspectorate just show up unannounced, I wonder? That I feel is one of the issues which we should do some in-depth reflection.... and that too is also one reason why many at the helm today are performers first and foremost than teachers. Teachers teach, performers perform....

The Act of Pulun

2011-09-11T12:07:00.001+08:00

Pulun is a local dialect which means going all out.

This is the time of the year when exam is supposed to be foremost on the minds of most students (those involved in the public exams - UPSR, PMR, SPM, STPM), teachers and parents. It is at this time that everything extra is brought out to drill as much as possible into the heads of the students. Hence, it is pulun mode we are supposed to be in now.

And those extras include lots extra classes to make sure that students get as much drilling as possible before the exam. Extra classes... Every school I know is holding them. It is a norm these days to have extra classes. It would be incomplete without the extra classes. The head of a school has to be very brave to buck this trend because nobody wants their results to show a drop.

In schools like mine, we are (or at least are seen) taking every conceivable measure to ensure that as many students as possible make the grades. Unimportant subjects like Pendidikan Sivik, PE, KT which are none exam subjects are taken out of the timetable to make way for the important subjects. Makes me wonder too about this move cos we are often reminded that all subjects are important. The important subject teachers now get extra periods to teach because the subjects they teach are so important. Apart from that, they also have to give extra classes after school. That's how indispensable these important-subject teachers have become. Yet we are often reminded too that all teachers are the same.... LOL!

The work load becomes skewed... the important-subject teachers now get saddled with extra classes during school hours and extra classes after school. The not-so-important teachers get to do mindless work by going into relief classes with no extra classes thrown in. And the mantra that all teachers are the same kept being repeated to us when they need the teachers to ensure that programs run but some obviously have it easier for the next couple of months...

I think this is an indication that the MOE has failed badly. First, because the prescribed hours in the curriculum seem not able to ensure adequacy in completing everything in the classes. Second, subjects which are unimportant should not be incorporated into the timetable since they are going to be 'thrown out' by the school administrators at the end of the year anyway, usually around 2-3 months before the school term ends. Thirdly, the morale of the teachers is badly affected cos those involved in the important subjects get saddled with extra work load. You have one group getting stressed up over exam preparations while another basically with nothing much to 'worry'. Or perhaps there is a misinterpretation of MOE policies by those entrusted to be its executors.

Anyway, I think our current system is too rigid with too much emphasis on rote and very little thinking. Recently, I took some thinking skills questions for my 10 year-old to attempt. She couldn't do most of them in the beginning. I downgraded it one level down and discovered that she was still finding it hard to solve them. These were questions taken from our neighboring country which has one of the best education systems in the world. And my own girl could not do it. Then I thought perhaps it's her mental ability that was the problem. So I gave those same questions to a kid who scored a string of A(s) with many (A+) in her SPM to solve. It was quite an eye opener to discover she could not solve a problem meant for 10 year olds! Whether one is 10 or 20, both are not able to solve a supposedly simple but requires some thinking problem.

Perhaps my sampling is too narrow to draw a conclusion. Moreover, one of our universities is back on the list of 200 best universities in the world. Perhaps too my world too is an aberrant one; it is not the norm. But I notice that very few of my students are observant or have the drive and attitude of a dynamic character. But whatever it is, in this pulun season, I realized too that one reason why the rot has set into our schools is many things are not quite right in our system.

Pulun is necessary in life. but I don't know whether this way, that we pulun for them in the sense that we assume the responsibility to pulun, which should be theirs in the first place. Even in my kids, whose life are generally comfortable, the drive to excel is just so lax. The spirit of pulun is just very lacking.... but then again.....

One iPad App for 2Es

2011-09-08T11:28:00.002+08:00

Education and entertainment... 2 integral areas in our life. And this latest app that I've tried out caters to both.

This app is worth a second look...TagDiskHD. I am using the Lite version... cos it's free. Am always thankful that the developers offer 2 versions. Have tried it out and liked what I could download with it and may just buy the full version.

What is good for? Downloading media files to be played on your iPad. It is able to download YouTube files into your iPad for offline viewing. For people like me who still have a relatively slow line at home, this is good. There are many video clips on YouTube which have good educational content and also good old movies. But I hardly watch them cos I need to be online to watch. Now with this, I can just paste the URL into TagDiskHD and download it for offline viewing later. And because the current IOS can multitask, it'll download while you do other stuff. Should you go offline while downloading, the app will seamlessly continue the download later. So, I've been able to download wherever there is wifi connection.

That on its own should be good enough but with sites like Open Culture which contains list of old worthwhile watch of old movies and good educational recommendations, TagDiskHD is very handy to have. I downloaded Animal Farm by George Orwell, the 1954 animated version. It was the first British animated film to be released worldwide. I am actually reading the book again now... though it has taken me ages to finish only half of it at the moment. Too many distractions and commitments at the moment. I think I have read the book before but this time around, it gives a totally different insight.

There are hundreds of old movies which can be downloaded from the site. But some have geographical block; only for the US. The Science section contains an archive of really interesting videos. I downloaded some on impulse and found one to be immensely interesting. The site also recommends other sites with lists of downloadable watchable stuff.

I shall be trying this out with other downloads. I think my kids will be downloading Mind Your Language from YouTube once I tell them.

School Is....

2011-09-06T15:16:00.000+08:00

It takes only 2 days of school to trigger these.... This is a season of exams. Next week the Primary 6 kids will be facing their UPSR; 6 years of primary school culminating to this one exam which last for 3 days. After all the afternoons and weekends of extra classes. A good part of their childhood is sacrificed in this toil. From Std 3-6, they are forced by the demands to stay in the race to stay back for that extra push. UPSR will be followed by the soon-to-be abolished PMR and finally the SPM and STPM at the end of the year. Standardized exams all these are.

Good schools will remain good schools. Good students will continue to benefit from good schools. Normal (not so good) schools like mine? I think we are failing our students. I have a large number of SPM students who are quite lost. I am at a lost at how to make them pass. Their parents are at a lost too, some quite anguished by it.

Bored by school, pulled by peer pressure and distracted by the sophistication of this age, many are languishing and will not get the basic requirement for entry to diploma level courses; which by the way is just 4 credits or 4Cs. C used to be a C6. We have a very confusing grading system for our current SPM with A*, A+, A-, B+, B, C+, C, D, E, F. STPM also has the same labyrinth of grading system. Sometimes I wonder whether this confusing grading system was slapped together to fool ourselves; compromising quality while duping ourselves into believing we have the quantity of quality that is not there.

School is a business. The chase for grades has caused everyone of us to sacrifice the love for learning in exchange for grades. The aim of education is no longer to ensure that kids leave school with an attitude of lifelong learning in place. It's the A(s) that's most important. I find myself chasing my girl to complete her homework so that I can do other stuff with her but by the time she is done, she is already tired. I find my girl not wanting to think. She only wants to complete her work; the easiest and fastest way so that she can read her story books. I find myself looking at my friends and relatives who are brave enough to go their own; homeschooling. And I find their kids seemingly having those things that I wish my girl would have.

So we produce many straight or near-straight A kids who on paper convey an impression of a kid reeking with those qualities we think they have. Then we are told that many of these kids seemingly fail to meet the demands of the real world which require problem solving skills, tenacity and perseverance on their own. Many of our kids go through our education system being dumbed down in the sense that they lose their ability to think. Realizing that recently, we started our girl on problem solving skills and to our horror, discovered that she preferred not to be challenged by 'difficult' tasks. If anything, I also noticed that the amount of rote learning that takes place at school is beginning to leave effects which I'd rather she not have.

Education, being centralized has become a right for every kid in Malaysia but the individual's needs and abilities don't carry much weight in its execution. And education is also in a very exciting phase currently with ICT enabling it to scale heights unimaginable before. But we have a system that treats everyone the same (supposedly), the one shoe size fits all.... but we also have our very own select system at work too. We claim that we have remedial steps included for those kids who need it but more often than never, these measures fail.

We also sacrifice character building for the grades. In the chase for those A(s), we develop tunnel vision. We forget that kids also need to be shaped to be resilient, focussed and have self-control but we sell that for the other. We go for results but not the effort. Effort becomes secondary to grades.

Being centralized too means great business opportunities. But despite all the hard work that we've to put into getting the strings of A(s), I've realized too how easy it is to gain entry to university. Now everyone can get a university degree. But very often I find myself wondering too whether everyone is cut out for that, the degree. Education answers the market needs. Almost RM30 billion was forked out for our MOE in last year's budget. It's a massive amount of money and I would imagine the massive amount of good that it has supposedly achieved.

Standardized curriculum with a standardized exam. Who actually benefits most? It's supposed to be the students but sometimes I wonder whether it's those who are involved in the creation and administration who benefit more. The recent SAPS under the NKRA for example. It felt like an ad-hoc measure. I find myself keying in marks twice into the 'national system' online. Why wasn't there any thoughts about streamlining both systems? But what I think of is those hired to get the website going. This contract must have been worth quite a bit.

We get sucked into this endless consumerist hole too. Education also economy. And since it is the ticket to a better future, everyone has not much choice but to jump in. Prep and extra classes, tuitions, all in the effort to boost the grades in a standardized exam. Whether one is ready or not, once you hit 17, you sit for the exam. Never mind foo if the kid did not sit for his PMR or can't even read or write properly. They sit for their SPM when their time is up in secondary school. Is it a wonder that many of our kids are totally bored and get snuffed out in school by their boredom? As for those who are able to cope and come from financially stable families, minima, grades, no attitude, still a degree in hand.

We need flexibility and freedom to address each kid's needs and ability but sadly that is not quite available. We need parents to be more involved in their children's learning but the chase for grades but the hectic demands of life make it quite difficult. Parents are missing out opportunities to teach their children critical thinking skills because they have so little time.

Is a government able to do a good job at educating a child? I am not sure. We need policies but the policy makers at Federal level are too detached from the ground. Education should probably be decentralized somewhat. I noticed that my friends' kids who are home schooled seem to have a rather balanced and happy childhood. They are generally more inquisitive and creative too. Perhaps if parents can see this and with some help from the system, we'd be better at producing creative and thinking individuals.

Holiday Roundup...

2011-09-04T22:35:00.003+08:00

Been a quiet holiday. We didn't make the trip back home even though the hols was on. First because Son's trial is on right after the holidays and also because of some miscommunications with each other's travel plans. We assumed that my MIL would remain at my bro-in-law's and I thought my parents were traveling to my bro's place. Plus there was the heavy traffic as a deterrent. But I kinda wish that I had gone home to see my folks though, especially after reading a friend's post.

The first few days of the hols were a total washout as it rained and rained. Then on the first day of Raya, some friends gathered at my place for a breakfast do. It was supposed to be a walk but in the end no walking took place even though the weather was fine for the whole day. I guess we were all just too lazy after the cold days. It had been so cold and damp that clothes took a really long time to dry. The air was saturated. I also took Karyn to the Thai noodle shop off the beaten track... and true enough the trip through the winding paths beside the canal was an adventure in itself.

And then my washing machine broke down... or that's what we thought. We went to the shop, but turned out that they weren't delivering since it was the first day of Raya. The salesman wanted a deposit for a later delivery. It was a good thing I decided that since I had to wait, I could wait a couple more days. It's hols and I could always hand wash. Stress level was bearable. That turned up to be a decision that saved us a lot cos when we got home, the washing machine was working again. Before we left, Other Half had lifted it up and that probably dislodged something. Sometimes it's good to be long suffering a bit... LOL! I saved $$ too! And I am reminded this... Be wary of salespeople. Sometimes they just kelentong only to pitch a sale.

It's a nice break, one which I think I could do with more. Had a fruitful time with my girl. I am struggling, teaching her in Mandarin but because I didn't have to go work, I wasn't so stressed out with it. The time we spent together was actually quite enjoyable. I am often told by many parents that it's difficult to teach their own kids. My dad did it with me and I think I enjoyed his 'tuition' classes very much and reminded me that he was a good teacher. I did it with my boy... he was a little bit of of a tougher chew but I think it laid the foundations to a better understanding that we seem to have these days. And maybe too because his marginal years are now almost behind him. But I actually enjoy teaching her.... well, most of the time.

The learning curve for Mandarin for me is extremely sharp but because I taught her when she was in Std 1, there was something I could return to as a base. It's so difficult to remember all those characters. The task feels daunting but the Pleco app on my iPad and Google Translate have made it quite bearable. But I still find it rather difficult to remember the characters and find myself rewriting and rewriting the same characters again and again for pronunciation and meaning. Tis tough, this learning. How long more will I continue to sit with her? I don't know. It takes great discipline and energy. It's tiring cos I work and there's the housework too. Sometimes I feel like I have too much to chew. But I also tell myself that this is only temporary. And it's a matter of priorities - getting it right.

On conversations... one of the must have things in life. I had a few of those which will be remembered more than others. I learned a poignant lesson too. Each of us has this urge to hang on to possessions, responsibilities, etc with a zeal that is hard to comprehend. Some label it service, others feel it gives them relevance for their continual existence, yet there are those who hang on for their offsprings....and those who do it for truly noble reasons. But whatever the reason, we die and must leave all them behind..... cos we're mere mortals.

Tsurukame Shabu Shabu

2011-09-03T23:52:00.001+08:00

For some reason my gal has a liking for shabu shabu... and we were at Queensbay Mall, Penang.

This was where we ended up for lunch. She has been asking to go to the Grill & Shabu Shabu in Alor Setar for some time but we weren't keen. So, this time we decided to go with her choice since she has been really good at home the past week, sitting for hours at end with me and Other Half where her work is concerned.

It's got the same concept as the Grill & Shabu Shabu here, except that they seem to have more choices on the conveyor belt, including a few choices of sushi.

They use an induction cooker too which is way more convenient, faster and easier to control the heat. And it's less hot too, a great plus point. Eating is more comfortable because of it.

There are 4 choices of soup available... clear, miso, tomyam and kimchi. You get to choose 2 and we took clear and miso.

Choices... jelly fish.

Scallops... there were plenty of those. They kept coming very regularly and we didn't have to wait long for them unlike the other experience.

There were prawns too; plates after plates kept passing us but we didn't take any cos none of us felt like eating them. But they had this!!! Bamboo clam!!! It's been such a long time since I had this that I can't really remember when the last time was... probably eons ago. The rest of the stuff is the usual... sausages, fish balls, different kinds of meat, vegetables.

They have cooked stuff too but not very many choices.... the fried mee was okay, though.

Price wise... it was RM17++ for our gal and RM36++ for adult. Free flow of drinks but don't expect much cos they tasted pre-mixed. It's eat all you want or buffet style, as we were told by the waitress. With the same amount, you'd probably be able to get much better stuff if you were to do it your own. But then again, this is eating out with ambience, a view of the sea and some shopping thrown in... the fun of an outing. Oh yes! I tried a few of their sushi too - quite bland.

Would I go back again... my lil one seemed to enjoy it very much. We think it lacks the 'wow' factor to entice us back, though. But we'll never know... with the lil one pestering.....

The Politics of History...

2011-09-02T20:29:00.002+08:00

Education is politicized in Malaysia. Personally, I feel that subjects like History and Moral are taught on the premise that our kids have no ability to think on their own. So it is with some interest that I followed Mat Sabu's interpretation of the 1950 Bukit Kepong incident. And I find his angle really interesting... The details of Bukit Kepong can easily be googled. So can the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) struggles in Malaya.

Going by simple logic, technically anyone who worked for the government back in 1950 was actually working for the Brits. So if one is anti-colonial, then it's actually quite easy to see that the MCP was actually fighting the penjajah. Communism was much feared here back then (and we're still wary of it today). But it's hard to fault Mat Sabu for his line of thought on plain logic... cos by the 1950s they (the MCP) were fighting against the British; which loosely meant that they actually qualified as freedom fighters trying to free the land from the yoke of the colonialists. The 3 stars on the caps of the MPAJA actually represented the three major races, here. Their fight, while was to perpetuate the communist ideology was no longer for China. Malaya had become their home. China became their support base just as in the US, the United Kingdom and France offered support to the Libyan rebels against Gaddafi and provided a support base for them. Malaya was home to the MCP members just as Libya is the home of the rebels. It's a rather simplistic comparison, I know.

And MCP was not solely a single race party, though there were far fewer Malays or Indians in it. But to agree to Mat Sabu's speech would akin to admitting that there were others who were more willing to fight (and die) to gain freedom from 'oppression'. But that too means that the local leaders of the day had been selling the people short too for their own gains. That could be one way of looking at history. And then if we were to continue and study further, we'd also be reminded that in many instances, the local leaders practically gave their lands and subjected their rakyat to being colonialized while they continued to live rather comfortably, even having a semblance of an authority, in other words puppets of the colonialists. It was only in certain instances when their lives were affected as in the incidents leading to the murder of JWW Birch's that we read of the upper class uprising. Most of the other rebellions were by the minor pembesar.... Tok Gajah, Haji Abdul Rahman Limbung, Dol Said. They died, got expelled, jailed, sentenced to death for fighting their causes.

The thing is... history is supposed to enable us to learn from our mistakes. It is supposed to be a shortcut to helping us avoid the pitfalls of those before us. But history when politicized gives the opposite effect. It causes us to live under an illusion. And those people responsible for the illusion has to maintain it. And every now and then, when someone like Mat Sabu offers us another view of what could be on the outside of the bubble we live in, the creators of the illusion have to work even harder, spinning more stuff to protect that illusion. Never mind that most of us do not subscribe to the Communist ideology.

History as a propaganda.... It does feel so very often. In the politics of history, how can governments resist that opportunity to use it to churn support or build a divide?

Anyway, what Mat Sabu offers here seems like The Pill in The Matrix. Take the pill and you might find yourself awakened. But you might not like what you are awakened to. So perhaps, like many who remained happily suspended and oblivious to the real world, the humans continued to exist in their bubble of happiness in The Matrix. I think there is no harm in looking at Mat Sabu's approach. Instead of clamoring him to take it back or lambasting him for whatever reasons, take a look at it from an intellectual perspective. But of course, it's hard to imagine the cause and effect here... LOL!!!! As for Mat Sabu, it doesn't make him a communist sympathizer by just highlighting this angle. Or it could just be a political gimmick to draw attention.... but it is an interesting angle. If the Communists had won, our history books today would be totally different.

September is here....

2011-09-01T21:13:00.004+08:00

This year's Merdeka Day was really muted.... Raya overwhelmed it and pushed it to 16th September, which I feel should rightly be our 'Merdeka" cos Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaya to form Malaysia on that day, 48 years ago. As in many things these days, semua boleh diaturkan, including pushing backward Independence Day... unless this is a permanent push.

My long suffering orchid plant finally flowered. I thought it was not going to make it through the last heat wave when almost all its leaves had this yellowy tinge. The cooler weather lately has brought forth colour in the sea of green.

My bush bean finally flowered. As of this evening, I could see tiny beans growing. Monay, if you are reading this, we are waiting anxiously for the first fruits. But I am going to keep the first few for seeds... after so many failed germinations. BTW, my lil one has also germinated the Alyssum seeds.. there are tiny seedlings now. We are hoping to see them grow too.

This is Mark, the latest addition to our hodgepodge pond. He was found right outside our house after a particularly heavy downpour by our help. We put him in a small aquarium at first, and he made so many attempts trying to crawl up. I pitied him and thought of releasing him into the river.

But he's still really tiny.

Finally, after a few days... we thought we'd keep him. Our gal christened him Mark. We had a small tortoise many years ago named Tobias but he died after I fed him with cabbage. He was Son's tortoise. Apparently he couldn't withstand the chemicals in the cabbage... see how laced our vegetables are. Anyway, Other Half built a little platform in our pond for Mark to rest whenever we let him in there to play. He hasn't quite gotten used to it but he's quite happy to swim in the pond. He also seems to enjoy helping himself to the moss in the pond too... So, we'll probably keep him for a while before releasing him back into the wild...

And this is the little patch that Other Half and I just cleared over the weekend, after the long beans were done. I have pineapples growing there too but they don't seem to be looking very good after being hidden among the bean plants the last few months. Because I bury all kinds of fruit peelings in this patch, a honey dew plant grew...

And among those vines which looked kinda weather beaten was this and a couple of smaller lookalikes... honey dew melon. I had one plant which grew there the other time which had a fruit but it didn't grow well. We're keeping our fingers crossed for this one... 8)

September is here.. year end is also coming. School will also be reopening soon....

Thursday Mee on Wednesday...

2011-08-31T22:50:00.003+08:00

We stayed put this Raya... mainly because of Son's impending exam. Driving is no fun because the roads are full of cars... and it takes so much longer to get from one place to another.

Anyway, we got a call mid morning for mee by Karyn, inviting us over for Thursday mee... 8) The last few days have been a time of 'binging'... and today was no exception.

Thursday Mee (Noodles) have held a special place in our lil girl's world. All her years at nursery, Thursday was always noodles day, hence the name Thursday mee. Thursday Mee is actually noodles (and beehoon) in clear soup with meat and fish balls and vegetables.

And because she likes the mee so much, Karyn's mom would packed some for her every Thursday. It's been going on for some time that my gal gets very disappointed on those Thursdays that she didn't get the mee. But that rarely happens. There has always been a packet of mee for her almost every Thursday and no matter how full she might be, she would still always eat it, at night. Sometimes though, we'd pull her leg and tell her that there'd be no mee. We even have a little Thursday mee 'mantra' at home which we'd belt out to tease her sometimes...

What she does is she would keep the mee in the fridge and wait for Other Half to come back from work. It has become almost a Thursday nightly ritual for them to heat up the mee and eat it together. Thursdays mee... a part of her childhood which she seems to cherish holding on. We are fortunate and blessed to have a friend who lovingly packs it week after week even after so many years just so that our little gal can hang on to her cherished childhood a little longer. Even when she doesn't drop by at the nursery after school, the mee would find their way to my house...

So, today, on Wednesday we had Thursday mee, on a week when Thursday mee was supposed to be on holiday. Now, don't you think that's nice? Thursday Mee... it's one of life's blessings for us and our little one, at an age of innocence and wonderment.

You Go-lah...

2011-08-30T15:49:00.001+08:00

A lil gal and her mom are out at the mall. Suddenly the lil one spots a pretty young lady giving out free balloons. She wants one and tells her mom. Mom tells her to approach the pretty girl and ask for one. Lil one gets sudden attack of shyness... She tells her mom, "You go-lah"....

You go-lah.... Why the you go-lah? Sometimes it's because you have no confidence. Sometimes it's because you are lazy.... or it could be you are afraid of rejection... or worse still you don't want to be responsible for your actions or words. So we push our friends and spouses to the front. We tell them, you go-lah, You tell-lah.... We push others in front, not because we want to give the best spot to the person but because we don't want to bear the brunt of come what may.... we don't want confrontation.

Or 'You go-lah' means this... you want to give the best to the other person. So you want him/her to be the first ... and so you say, 'You go-lah'... so that you get it first. But I wonder too whether this type of 'You go-lah' is often uttered.... Or you are denying yourself so that the other person gets it.... Self-denial at work.....

Anyway, to be able to ask someone to go or say on our behalf is also a privilege... there is still someone to hold the fort for us, take the flak for us....

Ramblings.... From a mind depraved of oxygen from too much chow-ing, with holiday still on...

Mid-term cum Hari Raya Break

2011-08-27T23:46:00.001+08:00

This one was arranged to coincide with the Raya celebrations. It's good to have a break. One reason why I like teaching is the scheduled breaks all throughout the year. Just as I get to beh tahan point, a break would come along. Even though it may be as short as just one week, it does wonders. Kinda like a cooling down period.

One week would past by quite quickly, I am sure. The 'hols' (Raya break) began with a nice dinner and good conversation; it was almost midnight when we got home. We have one more SIP which we are planning to do... I find having some vegetables growing in the garden very convenient.

Also the beginning of this hols marks Steve Jobs' letting go the helm at Apple. Kinda sad to see this development. I switched over to Mac about 3 years ago when I got the MacBook. Back then, we always referred to Windows as the dark side... the PCs were inferior to the Mac but dominated. Then the iPod, iPod Touch, iMac and iPad followed suit. I never imagined that the Mac would one day dominate the market, or that it would be the computer of choice for many. A Mac retail outlet (Switch) is opening in USM.... that is sign enough that the Mac has arrived.

What made Apple one of the most valuable companies in the world is Jobs, his ability to surround himself with the best people, encourage them on, etc, etc.... One could learn quite a lot from the success of Apple. It was not built on the work of one man, but of how that one man, got others to work not for him only but with him. We could learn a few lessons about that from him...

Or late, I notice how the same people seem to be taking charge of the same thing... there is this indispensability thingy. New ideas are not very welcomed. Changes are feared. And somehow, many seem to be trying to cling to those tasks or responsibilities which they feel make them relevant... or at least that's how it appears to me. Or maybe the hanging in is to pass to their kids. But like Jobs, we are mortal... we could either cling to those things and leave an empty shell when we leave or be like him who wanted to leave something meaningful and not be the richest man in the cemetery. A legacy worth leaving, making a difference in lives.... not clinging on for ourselves only...

On another note, I cleared my long beans patch with Other Half. Many years ago, we used bricks to demarcate the patch but after the last flood, in my haste to clear my drain of the sand and soil, I piled them onto that patch. And so the bricks got buried even deeper. So today, with a crowbar and a lot of brute strength, Other Half pried them out from the patch. They were already heavily entwined by the roots. We had especially bought a crowbar from ACE a couple of weeks ago for this purpose. He put up the pipes for the vines to creep after we were done with the clearing. I loosened the soil for new rounds of planting... I've put in the bush and French beans. I hope they'll sprout. Nothing else seems to grow well in the patch, except beans so far.

The hols is just starting... many people are on the move. We'll be staying put. Son is sitting for his big exam this year. I'm planning to sit with my girl who needs remedial work... Chinese school is hard on banana kids like mine. Sometimes I wonder why can't my kids take to Chinese school with minimal struggles... perhaps too this is a lesson and reminder for us as parents too.

And one more thing, coffee dependence. I've been rather caught up with the loads of stuff that I have to do the last couple of months; at home and work. And somehow, I didn't realize that I had been become dependent again on coffee to get through the day. I usually don't take coffee during hols and the effects showed. I had a splitting headache the first day. Today is the second day and the head is still aching. To be perked up with the help of chemicals... I guess it's good that this break came along. There is time to clean my system of excessive caffeine. 8)

The rainy spell is back... at the back of our minds, some of us are worried about floods. I find myself checking the river levels, weather forecast, the tides..... but again, this is something we're quite helpless to stop. However, I think it still pays to be prepared for the worst..... 8) Typhoon Irene is the news now. I've a friend who sits in her path, though out of the danger zone, supposedly. From what I hear, people just sit, prepare and try to brace through it...

Happy hols... Selamat Hari Raya! And this hols I started playing Fragger on my iPad too... It's kinda fun to be throwing grenades and blowing up all those aliens, bad guys, etc, etc... stress busting, in a way too. LOL!!!

NKRA Education Saps...

2011-08-24T22:38:00.001+08:00

As positive and upbeat that I try to be with the latest MOE NKRA effort via the online Sistem Analisis Peperiksaan Sekolah or SAPS, I have this to say. SAPS literally saps our time. Marks which used to take me around 5-10 minutes to key per class into our internal exam analysis software now can easily take double the time. Many of my colleagues take even longer than that, especially those who are more wary of computers. As a result a lot of time is wasted...

After a few times on it, I have this to say. First, this software was badly written. Poor interface. And it does not run very well on Safari too. Who did the MOE pay to write it? The computer programmers must really lack skill and imagination. Imagine having to log out after keying in marks for each class? 5 classes meant logging in and out 5 times! Peak hour usage means system jamming up. The servers do not seem to have the ability to handle the capacity. I wonder what will happen if 100,000 teachers try to key in data simultaneously. The system will probably crash I think. So you get teachers working the graveyard shift, keying in those darn marks! LOL! The Ministry implemented this without taking into consideration that we do not have enough computers too in the school for such a task. If all of us were to use school computers, the wait would probably be long.

And keying in the Headcount... ETR, TOV... a bunch of numbers which actually still don't mean much. A kid can still blow his exam away despite awesome ETR and TOV. And what is there to stop a teacher from just randomly keying in a figure? Who is going to check? The numbers look nice but their addition to the system is not really a necessity. What they seem to do is to give this business model feel to education... have the corporate feel? Kah! Kah! Kah! I cannot help but feel that we are more concerned about outward appearances more than anything else.

For years, I have been keying in data, marks and grades into another online system for the SPM, one that works only with IE. The IOS from Apple has been taking the world by storm, yet our people up there still don't see it fit that sites that run on IE be modified to accommodate this new development. It's not like Apple overtaking the PC is a new phenomena. Moreover, we have IPads coming into the picture too. Imagine the convenience and ease that tablet computing can contribute to enhancing data analysis and management. Tablet computing will probably be changing the way education operates in the near future.

While over the years, there have been improvements but I wonder too why the NKRA planners didn't expand and upgrade on existing systems. The PMR has another system running too... and probably the UPSR too. We shout out all these nice sounding programs but fail to integrate the existing systems into one cohesive system. Wouldn't it be more practical to have a system that follows a student throughout his schooling career. What happens now is, at every 'level' a new system is used. What kind of NKRA is that? Makes one wonder whether we have visionaries up there or just reactionists steering the ship? Cos reactionists react. They don't really plan well ahead too.

So sapped, many teachers seem to be by this latest SAP system. LOL! With so many developing headaches after this latest round of prolonged clerical job, what kind of NKRAs are they expecting for the teaching part? I suspect, as in and like many of the things around me, this one is also more for show that something is being done now... Never mind that the programme seems rather cacat.....

Ah! Good thing the break is just around the corner. NKRA... Is our education system indeed getting better? I know one of our local universities finally broke into the the 500 of the Shanghai Ranking. But how do our graduates actually measure up against their counterparts from other parts of the world? The general perception seems to be that they aren't measuring up too well.... there are some who feel that our grads are only comparable to those from the Philippines. Our schooling system seems have a more sophisticated feel but I am not too sure where real ground is.

Am I sapped by this latest NKRA addition? Not really but I think It wastes our time because the planners failed to do their homework.

Off the Beaten Track for Thai Noodles

2011-08-23T21:39:00.002+08:00

Very often the best food is found off the beaten track... and this is one of those; if you like Thai food, you'd probably don't mind this and might even find it nice. This is in Jitra. For those who like to go hiking in the hills of Malau, this is one place that they will pass by.

So this one might be a little 'fun' for those who are adventurous. We usually take this underpass which cuts across the highway; this after turning right at the junction where the Tanjung Pauh mosque is located.

Mind you, this is a really narrow tunnel, just wide enough for one car to go through, nothing more.

This is a view from inside the tunnel. Bicycles, motorcycles all have to wait for their turns. This tunnel is actually rather low lying and during big floods, water fills up almost the whole tunnel!

And beyond the tunnel is a scenic kampung route. As you can see, it runs parallel to the North-South Highway. The road is narrow also. This road leads us to the Wat Siam in Jitra town.... after a few turns here and there, all on narrow pathways.

Our destination. Taman Cermai.

Somewhere nestled among the houses behind the row of shops, you will find this stall. Located at Jalan Cermai 1 (I think), it's not hard to locate. The place opens from 7.30 a.m. onwards and usually runs out of food by 2-3 p.m. We were there very early and already people were trickling in. And by the time we left, many of the tables were filled.

This was what we went for. Siam kuayteow. Clear and spicy, a little sweet... it's rather appetizing.

The kuay-teow is actually like fat meehoon or vermicelli. The kuay-teow comes with meatballs and minced meat.

And you eat it with all these sauces... chilli sauce, chilli powder, sugar (yup, Thais like to add sugar to their food) and all those sauces with all these Thai words which made no sense to us.

Also this place sells really not too bad of a porridge.... and some other types of noodles. Apparently there's one with this really red soup too. This is my second time there. The last time I went with my friend, we bought one packet of porridge to share. It wasn't enough. Today, we decided that each of us should have our own packets... 8) but it wasn't as nice as the previous time

Edo Ichi Japanese Cuisine

2011-08-22T21:19:00.002+08:00

I like Japanese food. We were in SP visiting family members and decided to drop by Village Mall near TESCO for a quick bite. We decided to give this a try cos there didn't seem to be any other outlets that we've not tried. We haven't been to Village Mall for a long time.

Edo Ichi is like Sakae Sushi and Sushi King. I guess most Japanese restaurants are similar. So, there is also a sushi bar. There was still a small crowd in the restaurant when the waitress showed us to our table.

Our lil one immediately snag the moshi-moshi cos she knew that Other Half enjoys this. I am the only one in the family who is not particularly crazy about it. 8) She likes establishments like this cos she is able to pick her own food from the food conveyor belt herself.

I tried their Gyu Kimchi Udon and found it quite nice; it wasn't too sour or spicy. Gyu is beef. So this is beef udon. Udon is supposed to be fat noodles where as ramen is the thinner version. The beef was tender but one can't go very wrong with beef sliced thin actually. The vegetables in the udon were just right too. But for RM20, I think it's rather pricy.

Other half decided to order their Gindara Teriyaki Set. He didn't like the overly strong 'fish smell'. Actually it's just the Gindara (cod) smell. At RM38 it's expensive if I were to compare it to what I can get at Kaede, Alor Setar's own local Japanese restaurant. The cawan mushi that came with the set wasn't that great.

The sushi is charged based on plate colour with the cheapest being the white plate at RM1.80. Our lil one was looking out for one but none showed up. The most expensive is the yellow plate, at RM7.80 and there were plenty of reds and yellow... the more expensive plates. I like this one with boiled egg t the bottom and baked with cheese. The rest of the stuff is almost the same like any boleh tahan Japanese restaurants.

One more thing. I always wondered why Sungai Petani seems to have more choices where food is concerned. Alor Setar, despite being the capital of the state still feels like a kampung. We don't even have a Starbucks! Our choices of restaurants are limited to Pizza Hut (which seems to be deteriorating where cleanliness is concerned), MacDonald's and KFC (which i'd have reservations going after that video of their kitchen helpers' behavior). Not that I am complaining but I get the impression that international franchise seems to think that the Alor Setar market lacks that sort of dining sophistication. One more thing, as Other Half was buying our fix of coffee, he noticed some kids with 1Malaysia Netbooks sitting in Starbucks, surfing away. LOL! Can you believe it that these kids who come from families with income less than RM3000 sipping coffee and surfing at Starbucks?

Anyway, the visit was good. We got to meet up with cousins not seen in a while, with all the little kids in tow.u

More iPad apps..

2011-08-21T22:55:00.000+08:00

These are the recent apps which I found rather useful...Pleco, HEDictEc, Dropbox, Discover and PDF Reader Lite. All apps are free but for Pleco the add-ons can cost up to USD$149 in total.

This was claimed as a must have app for teachers. This is Discover by Cooliris. It's an encyclopedia with daily updates from Wikipedia. You get to download their daily encyclopedia of 2 articles, displayed in a book format; very short reading. The update for the day goes into your iPad each time you open the app. There are pictures which go with the articles, so compliment the articles and help make them more interesting. And yup, teachers should have this app so that they read more.

Another app is Pleco. This is a Chinese-English dictionary, very much like Besta. I replace my Besta a year ago at the cost of RM1.3 K. Pleco with all its add-ons is still way cheaper. Of course Pleco does not have the BM dictionary. The app is free but there are add-ons which you can purchase. And I bought their audio add-on so that it reads for me. It's USD$15.99. There is nothing like one touch to have the phrases read to you. I like it better than Besta cos the English meaning is given at the same time too. Lately I realize that my girl has problem understanding her Science which is in Mandarin. We need to sit down with her... but we have problem with the language used.

One more thing, you can also type in the romanized hanyu pinyin of a certain phrase; which means that it you are listening to Mandarin words, you can juste type in the hanyu pinyin and the meaning comes out... But a little knowledge of mandarin goes a long way in helping you understand better cos you still have to identify the words. You can also type in the English word for its Mandarin counterpart as well. This is helpful when I want to explain certain concepts to my gal in Mandarin and I'm at a lost of the Mandarin words.

I also use this app HEDictEC FREE to help me with my English-Chinese translation. Life is tough for parents like us who are not very Chinese literate with kids in Chinese school. It's a constant struggle cos all the subjects are in Chinese. And because our kids think first and foremost in English, grasping the lesson content becomes a struggle too.

This is Other Half's ingenuity. One more app to aid the 'banana' like me who has a little Chinese education. Many of us use PDF Reader. ... He OCR what he scans from the workbooks and then uses Google to translate them. All the yellow annotations on the screen are the translations. Touch on the annotation and a window pops out with the meaning of the Mandarin phrase. Other Half does the scanning and translation. And now when we sit down with her, the iPad is with us as our digital translator.

Then we share the files at Dropbox. This is where Other Half drops the exercises he has annotated to be shared with me. We're just starting to use this... after getting our girl's marks and seeing the need to make sure she doesn't fall too far behind. The problem is the language for when the questions are in English, it's way easier for her. Having the computer around when we teach her also helps.

And this.... a little entertainment while one works. Asia Radio. The radio can be playing on the background while you work or read on the iPad.

The beauty of it is you can set the radio station and put them below as little icons. There are so many radio stations to choose from. I recently took a liking to some Japanese stations; not that I understand what they say but their songs seem nice.

These are some of the latest apps which have come to our rescue in teaching our gal.

Gardening Therapy...

2011-08-20T22:58:00.009+08:00

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that the gardening bug has bitten me again. Only this time, we're into planting our own greens. We're just beginning to see the fruits of our labour... mind you, this is only on very small scale. As you can see from the leaves, the insects are also having a go.

This is our chai sim (mustard green??) pot. It measures 1 foot in diameter but they're growing really well. I turn on the drips on very hot days and they get enough water. Now, whenever I need greens, just cut what I need and let the new shoots continue to grow. No chemicals!!!

This one is another pot, but with other types of vegetables as well. I planted celery too but they don't seem to be growing well, yet. I am still trying to grow them in another planter box. I've spring onions somewhere inside this pot too. And our mint is growing super well too at the 2 locations that we planted. But our drip system from the pond to grow vegetable didn't work out well. The water supply couldn't be sustained because sediments from the pond water would jam up the dripper. And somewhere too, my spring onions are 'springing' very well. I used small onions. Must do it with big ones next round. My chilli plants are doing well too. I have so much that my day help and neighbours are helping themselves to them too. Unfortunately, my long beans have reached the end of their cycle. But new ones are coming up... I am waiting to see whether my blue lake garden beans will bear. A few of them are growing quite okay at the moment.

Now, this is our experiment with sub irrigation planting (SIP). A pot with its own potty. LOL! The top pot is filled with soil and its potty is filled with water. There is a small overflow hole somewhere about 3 inches from its bottom so that the soil doesn't get too soggy and the plant 'feels' overwatered. We're growing cucumbers in this pot. And the best part is the 2 pots cost only RM5. In IKEA they have this self watering pot which costs almost RM90 each! Anyway, we plan to make a few more of this. My salad leaves didn't do too well the other time. Maybe I'll try them on our balcony next.

And this is how it looks like inside. The curve pipe is for me to pour water down there, usually people just cut a 45 degree angle to it but we had this pipe with the corner joint glued there; so we just recycled it. To make sure water gets to the soil, Other Half used towel strips to connect the soil to the water. Capillary movement does the rest for us.

After the 2 weeks, the cucumbers seem to be doing relatively well. The pipe is where I feed the water into the potty below the bigger pot while the white cap is a plastic bottle cork from a bottle of sparkling wine, recycled. Its purpose is to close the hole to the water supply so that mosquitoes don't fly in and breed. The reason for the pipe is so that if you want to cut out a piece of plastic to cover the soil so that weeds don't grow, you can replenish the reservoir at the bottom. In 2 weeks, I've only replenished the water supply twice, not because it needed to be replenished but because I was itching to. I think it can easily go 2 weeks for now without it needing to be 'watered'. The soil feels moist all the time and I don't have to worry about it going dry.

While I am still on the subject of SIP, this was what we did on Saturday morning for a friend who wants to try SIP. The pail is recycled... I think it still needs some soaking before planting can take place..

We took whatever plastic bottles we could find around the house and recycled them. Other Half drilled holes into them. They are going to the stand for the cover of the pail which we will use as a platform to separate the water from the soil. I think there is a space of about 8 inches for water storage in this SIP.

The complete set with the cover. The lining cut out from the cover is used to 'seal' the sides so that the soil does not fall into the water section below. The cut coke bottle is the pathway to fill up the water reservoir. The holes are for the 'wicks'; I'm recommending to her that she uses the same type of towel material that we're using. I think the water should last for 2-3 weeks for a full bucketful of vegetables. And the best part is, everything is recycled!!! 8)

Therapy on a weekend, quite a fruitful one too for we were also able to squeeze in a visit to family members not seen in a while.

And The 'English Issue Continues To Haunt

2011-08-18T12:04:00.002+08:00

Read here about the government's latest stand on the use of English in Math and Science. I thought they had decided. I thought the text books have been printed... in BM. I thought teachers have been sent for 'reorientation' (yet again!). I thought they are removing the Critical Allowance for the Math and Science teachers. There have been much mentioned in meetings, media.

And now, the DPM says they have a committee still looking into it. What is there to look? Or study? In BM or English, the dismal performance in many schools is not due to the lack of English only. It has also to do with the mind set and attitude. It might be a good idea to just take random sampling of the ability in the basic skills before pointing at English being the reason for it. But the policy should be uniform. I cannot understand why MARA colleges are still allowed to teach Math and Science in English. Duh! Privileged and still get to learn in English. English is for those privileged ones? I think that is grossly unfair. If it is to be BM, then let everyone learn in BM.

The position of BM is already secured. It's been over 50 years. At 50, one is supposed to be self assured. Also, a compulsory pass in SPM means that no one can overlook it. Why keep this siege mentality? No one wants to threaten the position of the national language. But we have to be practical. English is important. Period. Just as in knowing Mandarin is an advantage now. Master it or be left behind. It's all economics. What is there to martabatkan if we, as a nation are weak? It seems more like an attempt to keep the 'under-siege' mentality alive, and so BM needs defending.

Improving English... it's an uphill task and the slope is extremely steep. They are calling in experts from the Fulbright Program. I can imagine the amount of hair they're going to pull if they're sent to schools like mine! LOL! English is almost dead because there is no reason for them to pass it. Okay, label me a lousy teacher but I am at wits end, trying to figure out a way to teach English for upper secondary students. You see, when I get students coming in at 16, and they having spent the last 9 years learning English, I think it's only fair for me to expect that these kids can construct sentences. Well, guess what... their vocabulary is so limited that I have to keep downgrading. I am currently using Year 3, (Singapore syllabus) comprehension passages for my Form 4s and guess what? Majority still cannot comprehend. So, I continued going lower.... I've almost hit the floor. Cos yesterday, I had students asking me for meaning of words such as 'seldom, often'. After 9 years of learning English..... It's almost laughable. I find myself more like Primary School teacher very often.

And there is the exam which they must sit.... I am so used to getting blank sheets whenever answer sheets are returned. And yet, year after year, I get 50-60% of passes in SPM. The results seem to heading up most of the time though it doesn't take a genius to see that proficiency is getting worse. And dig this... I met a former student the other day. She said she was doing a TESL course! She can't even hold a conversation properly in English. Such is the quality of English teachers who will be entering the education system... and the Ministry is saying that they are looking into the matter, trying to find a solution. The solution is clear, I would think. Get the right people! Competent ones would be a good start! I went through modules prepared by the so called experts appointed by the Department to help us improve our English. Guess what! Those experts formulated questions which were totally wrong, and with many grammatical errors.

So PPSMI (Math &Science in English).... Either our policy makers are really dumb not to see the reasons for the decline in our English (and also our thinking skills) or they're really smart to make sure that we remain dumb. Or perhaps, we prefer to pull wool over our own eyes that teaching Math and Science in English would threaten the position of our national language. But either way, who would care about what language we use when we languish economically. The politicians still laugh all the way to their banks......

We used to have a good education system. These days, many of our top SPM scorers head across the Causeway filled with confidence that they will do well.... only to leave 2 years later (after their A-levels) with tails between their legs. Even our 10A(s) fare poorly. Not too long ago, our SPM top scorers generally fared well there... these days it's a different ball game altogether. The China Chinese and the India Indians are hungry for success.... They are now a few classes above many of our students, generally. So, the world passes us by, while we mull over something like whether to teach 2 subjects in English... Bah humbug!

Of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law

2011-08-17T15:17:00.000+08:00

I think of all the relationships... the relationship between a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law is the stickiest. Generally a man has 2 women in his life... straight relationship, I mean. But then also, in a gay relationship there is a dominant partner too (pseudo woman, perhaps???). The world is getting a little crazy these days what with a gay pastor getting 'married'. Where did he find in the Bible that God condones such a relationship?

Anyway, the marriage of the son brings in the second woman in his life. MIL and DIL relationships have always been a brunt for jokes. The acronym M-I-L has also come to stand for Monster-In-Law. In days of old, when the son marries, the wife becomes part of his household... Many MILs impose their will on their new DIL because in the Chinese culture, a woman marries into the family of her husband. If we keep to this old system of thinking, I think the wife's family gets a raw deal out of this arrangement these days cos they spent small fortunes too educating their daughters. But new financial independence and education has also changed the mechanics of this.

Early on in the marriage, the DIL is in need of the MIL's approval and friendship. But if the MIL fails to 'capitalize' on that, and continues to feel that the DIL must follow her way, then in the later years when the need is reversed, then the MIL stands to lose out. We all grow old. With the failing of our bodies with age, it helps a lot when there is genuine affection shared. But sadly, many MIL fail to see that.... partly because they love their son too much that they think no woman can measure up.

MIL tends to measure up 'the new woman' in her son's life with her standards, and usually those standards are high. The MIL will usually feel that the DIL falls short in executing her wifely duties in taking care of her son. No woman is good enough for her son. Can't blame that sort of thinking. But I think we forget that mothering ends once a kid grows up. The MIL should cut some slack actually, cos being young, the DIL is on a learning curve. But the MIL expects the DIL to be on a steep learning curve, which creates undue stress and strains. Many young couple's relationship suffers as a result not forgetting, mother-son's too.

In the mean time, the poor son gets torn.... between his 'old' and new love. It's a Catch-22 situation. Taking sides puts him in the line of fire either way. So, men being men.... they shut it out, deal with it only when necessary; which is easier cos the 2 women love him equally. And so whatever that troubles continue to simmer, with everything taking a subtle form.... till it explodes.

I think things have improved a lot today. Education, lesser children, a generation of mothers who worked while raising their kids, financial independence, better living standards and so on contribute to it. But the old ways are still there. It's hard to be rid of what has been passed down for generations.... and not all that has been passed down are bad. There is a need for MIL to let go of their sons. But there is also an equal need for the DIL to let the MIL feel that her son will always be her son. Her task is to make sure that her husband treats his mother the way she treats hers. Men tend to fail in seeing to their mother's emotional affirmation from them. Instead of drawing her son away, as what usually happens in the battle of 2 women for 1 man, she should also give the MIL the assurance that it will not happen.

Being newly minted, there's always an urge to stamp one's ownership (and this works both ways) on her husband. It is not necessary where the MIL is concerned. Cos the man she marries won't even be there if not for his mother. The DIL owes her MIL that. MIL on the other hand should not feel threaten by the presence of this new woman; one that she wants her son to have but at the same time torn by that sense of 'loss'. And of course, the son has a role to play too! One which many sons fail to see!

So the tale of the Monster-In-Law, there's more than what meets the eye. Cos the monster that we see, if we do see it, usually is a culmination of acts from many parties.

Freeloaders

2011-08-16T20:36:00.000+08:00

A freeloader is someone who exploits any chance to get free stuff. I think all of us have been guilty of being a freeloader. There's just this built-in 'greed' that kicks into action automatically for something free.

Free!! I think many of us relish the sight and thought of freebies... Sometimes we turn into compulsive buyers just because there is something free that comes with it. The marketeers got it right. Hence, lots of stuff come with free stuff to entice us int buying them. And we buy, even though those freebies are of no use to us. It appeals to our greed.

But there are certain people who freeload on purpose! And I'm sure most of us would have come across a few. In a group, it often takes a while to identify a freeloader but becomes quite easy to spot after a while. The freeloader is often the one who will make convenient toilet visits when it's time to pay or use the oldest trick in the book... lupa bawa dompet.

Why do we freeload? Cos it's free! Cos it means we spend less of our money. Or it could just be we're lazy. Freeloading does not necessarily mean that they get a free treat off you. Sometimes it can just be showing up at your door at certain times.... usually meal time. They get invited to makan sama-sama. They want company, but they don't want to be doing the hard work of preparing the food, or digging a hole in their pocket.

Or it could be a penyakit. Psychiatrists, psychologists, they label so many behavioral problems as a disorder these days.

Freeloaders... I think all of us have this in us... Just that whether we allow it to rear it's head. Freeloaders... I've had my share of experience with them. But I wonder sometimes too whether we should just half close our eyes to some of those who make their way into our lives... maybe they deserve a little more compassion. I don't know but right now, I think it's better to steer clear of such people.

August

2011-08-14T16:14:00.005+08:00

...and it's mid month. I should be saying time flies and it does but I seem to be saying the same thing often. So, for as long as I have my hands full, that's how time will feel.... it flies. I might sing a different tune some day. SPM Trial begins today but this year we're having a really short one, 2 weeks instead of the usual 1 month. Before this, I always felt that the trials were way too long but this year, I don't know whether it's because it's the fasting month or those responsible feel that 2 weeks would suffice. Anyway, they also prepared less papers. Many of the electives have returned to being school based exams.

The rains have started. The weather seems to have turned cooler but I hope there wouldn't be intense storms and floods. They've started digging bigger drains at my housing area. There are works going on to deepen the river, increase the embankment, so I heard. End of the year brings end of the year worries.... and I think flood is something that lurks at the back of many of our minds.

I went to Penang after quite a while. Went to Tao Cuisine for lunch... Felt it wasn't quite worth the money.

They had baked oysters in cheese, and their popular scallops too but somehow, the luster's gone. Food didn't seem to taste that great.

But I had my first sashimi at the behest of Son. And I learned one thing too. Buffets make one stuff in more food than needed, to the point of discomfort. I don't know whether that's worth it. When we were younger, buffets seemed like a huge treat. These days, I am not certain. I think food is nicer when taken in quantities that makes us appreciate them. In 'generous' amounts....it's beginning to feel like committing harakiri. Too much of the good stuff also kills.

We attended Chinese church service as a family for a change. I found that the sermon was rather interesting, better than the English service. It's been decades away from the Chinese church for me. I started going to church by going for the Mandarin service. My first Scriptures were in Mandarin. It's time my kids get used to Mandarin services. Anyway, their Mandarin should be far better than ours.

Cooler weather... Other Half and I have been toying with our own versions of SIPs but of the things about vegetable gardening is we've to learn to be really patient.... My mustard greens have been taking a pounding from the heavy rain. I've planted another box of salad. Hopefully they grow well this time.

August is midway. I have not gone to any Ramadan Bazaar. I miss some of the food like beef with air asam but am too lazy to jostle in the crowd. Plus these days too, I tend to be 'fussier' with food hygiene. But fasting month also means that there are sometimes goodies shared by colleagues. Today too, we had kanji kambing (mutton porridge). It was not too bad, a new experience for me, to eat that. But it was a little too plain... some spring onions or herbs that go well with mutton would enhanced its flavors, I think. Still, it was nice. Maybe I'll go hunt for some lemang near Raya. Used to love it with this kuah kacang made by a friend's late mother.

My MacBook On Last Legs

2011-08-11T10:06:00.002+08:00

Before I bought my MacBook, I used to hear about how durable Macs are... well, I have a feeling my MacBook might be on its last few legs... First, the battery went kaput right around March. These days, I've got to plug it into the power socket to use it. Battery is totally useless. I tried looking up for a replacement but it's way too expensive, the original. Low Yat has a cheaper one but still I've to fork out more than RM100 without being able to try. So, it's back to the power socket for me.

Then not too long ago, I discovered that I was getting intermittent wi-fi connection. I would lose my wifi signals off and on. But I could still reconnect by just clicking on the network that I wanted to reconnect. But a while back, I found out that once it disconnected, I couldn't reconnect unless I restarted. That was when I began to entertain the idea of getting another replacement... but I wasn't that willing to part with our hard earned money... plus a new model might be coming out end of the year. And it's already nearly the 4th quarter.

Thought that was it.. but inconvenience continued to pile itself onto me. Lately, I would get disconnected from the wi-fi network after a minute or so of being connected. Restarting might not even get the connection back. Sometimes multiple reconnections are required. Maybe I'm getting older but I seem generally more patient, even though 4-5 times of restarting is required. 8(

I have a friend who has a MacBook Pro, the one with the unibody casing which is newer than mine. It recently went kaput... first the wifi and now the computer refuses to come to life. Macs losing their tahan lasak-ness??? Mine has lasted me almost 3.5 years. I thought they do 5 easily.... I shall probably try to hang on to it for as long as I can. These days, I find myself able to get through the days without having to switch it on with my iPad around... but it's still rather irritating to have its wifi go off at whims.

Last legs... 1 leg totally gone, 1 more seems to be getting more capek by the day....

School Is....

2011-08-10T12:11:00.002+08:00

School is boring.... to many kids. But I think that doesn't mean that there is no fun at all, either. I think the fun is in getting together with friends, the socializing that takes place, the opportunity to just be around people. But where lessons a concerned, I think our pedagogical approaches are archaic. The demands are beyond many kids that they are not able to cope.

School used to be fun for me. There were co-curricular activities which I enjoyed tremendously, like the band, badminton, athletics and some of the society competitions. Then, of course there was the MYF, which kept us occupied, challenged us, basically making sure we stayed on the path. So, the confines of the four walls of a classroom were quite bearable. Then again, maybe I was lucky. I had a good school with great teachers!

Recently one of my classes was shifted into another room which was also a resource room. I walked in and the first thing I noticed was bird droppings everywhere! And the students had already cleaned it up somewhat! Then as I proceeded to teach, a few birds perched themselves at the ventilation windows and chirped away. They were so noisy, so I took a broom and banged on the windows. Yup! They flew away, but only momentarily. They came back, even noisier. I gave up trying to out-voice them. The class was hot. It's uncomfortable. By 10.00 a.m., what more with the fasting month, the boys were off to Zzzzland. Somehow, it's always the boys who give in. Is that why they grow up into men with less self discipline that women have to be garbed extra so that they avoid sinning? Global temperature has gone up. Generally, the surrounding is hotter these days cos we keep chopping down be trees. And uniform materials are not exactly the most comfortable for this tropical weather.

Academic subjects... there are just too many of them. At 16, it's important that we realize we either have to channel them to fields that interest them or they'll just drift away. If things hold no meaning or purpose, it's hard to jut plod on for these marginal minds. For many, that's what happens cos they cannot cope. You cannot expect kids who cannot do something even mediocrely well to be interested at all in lessons!

Classroom size is still big. I'm considered more fortunate. My average per class is 30. There are some schools (especially Chinese schools) which need to grapple with 40+ students per class! But with three quarter of more not able to make sense of lessons, it feels like a hopeless cause. So, if a kid cannot cope, how can you expect him to be interested? I have 2 Fourth Formers who did not sit for their PMR. They missed school for months when they were in Form 3! They came back to school for their own reasons. But being too long away... they're just too far gone. Vocational training might have been a viable alternative. But some smart alec of a Minister of Education took that out long time ago... so these kids continue to exist in the school system, unable to cope.

These days many schools offer one vocational subject as an elective. But with discipline and willpower cracking everywhere, even that one vocational subject does not help much, what with the attitude sinking into an abyss of their own making.

Too much emphasis on religion at school. I notice many seem to think that religion is a cure all for behavioral ailments. So we organize one ceramah after another, hold session after session of prayers, invite speakers to give religious talks, hold religious activities, pray before every lesson... use religion to chide them for misbehaviors.... the list goes on. Well, guess what? The kids aren't getting any better. If what I see is to be a yardstick, morality seems to be on the decline. Unwanted pregnancies, blatant show of semi nudity via mobiles and social networks, drugs, smoking, disciplinary problems... having a religion labelled to a race or name does not make one good. Good attitude are inculcated, not preached only. There are no short cuts or quick ways. Good attitude is also caught by watching.... and these days, good role models are rare species too.

I had a father coming to see me one day. He was wrought with worries about his son and bewildered too cos he had just taken his son to perform the umrah in Mecca, hoping that his boy would change and turn over a new leaf. Now this is a boy who has the brains to study but he has been failing. He couldn't understand why his son was not touched by 'his experience with God' in the Holy Land. I've learned it from raising my own kids. Faith and convictions do not come by attendance or presence. It comes by watching those around us practicing it. We have leaders who are reportedly buying 24 million ring or living lavishly. Take the church raid for example. What we are teaching the youngsters is it's okay to be a big bully, just as long as you think you are right. In our saner moments, I'm sure everyone of us knows how unreliable we can be because we go into an emo state too. Emo people are highly unstable and make poor judgements. People given the authority; we're not getting many good role models from there too.

Or a teacher who is always missing in action during her classes. Or one who doesn't bat an eye lid when ethics be damned. What kind of role models do they make? Teachers who purportedly 'give' out questions to the students to practice before tests. Yet we find more of these dubious characters in schools today. School has become a place where the subtle lessons seem to be how to lead a double life. Kids will cheat. Man will cheat. It's trying to stay straight or walk that narrower path that needs effort.

Sadly too, many religious teachers seem to exhibit actions which are deemed unacceptable; like sleeping in the staffroom or worse still, classrooms. And what if an agama teacher also 'leaks' out test questions to students for trial runs? What values are we passing on? Teachers conduct businesses at school. Over the years, I've overhead snide remarks about the Staff Room being a pasar malam. Faith by watching... tell me, aren't we teaching hypocrisy?

Textbooks are boring! We use the same textbooks for umpteen years. It's time we go digital. Instead of the 1Malaysia Netbook which is a waste of taxpayers' money, we should be developing digital textbooks, equipping schools with tools such as iPads or one of those Android based tablets. Instead we waste our resources because some politicians need to dole out goodies to score points. The 1Malaysia Netbook was rampantly abused. Teachers' children who are not supposed to get them (because they would not have qualified if family income is more than 3K) got them. The people entrusted to distribute abuse that trust too. And they are teachers! Else how did the teachers' children end up getting the computers? It's hard to find graduate teachers earning less than 3K, especially if their kids are already secondary school going. The students are neither blind nor stupid. They learn their lessons by watching those around them. School is where the crisis is now... a crisis which ripple effects are felt socially too.

So while we read news making big hoo-hahs over things that are haram or halal, we have so many haram actions and deeds going on. Makes you wonder if at all those hoos and hahs are only made when the intention is to create a 'you' verses 'we' mentality or perhaps related to the almighty RM or we're just plain lazy to work hard...... cos the right state of mind will tell us that right or wrong. Most of the time, they're pretty clear.

More technologically advance, more sophisticated, better lifestyle, more wealth, better facilities.... yet we seem to be regressing. Or maybe I'm just one of those flers who like to lament about the good old days.