Salted Chicken...

This is the salted chicken(yiam keh) which Ling and Siah brought back from Penang... I might as well do a little promo here since it's actually not bad. Ha! Ha! Guess how we found out that Penang has this? From our GPS! LOL! Thanks to all those mapper-enthusiasts...

And guess how I 'ordered' my 'yiam-keh'? Via FB! ROFL! Was on FB when I started a conversation with Ling to lepas geram.... but as the conversation flowed from the geram to rides in the funfair (with Siah) to pening lalat because of the rides.. then it drifted to salted chicken.

So I placed my order and the gals were kind enough to drive all the way to Pulau Tikus just to get them... some more chicken was 'on their mother's house' some more!! Kononnya for us to sample... Kah! Kah! To be able to enjoy nice food is one of life's blessings. To be able to enjoy nice food from the hearts of friends.... that's a super dose of blessing!

Anyway, I waited for Other Half to come back from work and the whole family had a finger-lickin time with the chicken. Verdict... it's better than the original salted chicken from Ipoh. Have already placed orders for the near future. 8)

Malaysia: What goes with the H1N1 situation?

I understand that the crowds at our hospitals in Alor Setar have almost returned to normal and are more manageable.. unlike a couple of weeks ago when it was like a mad house. It's the same at the clinics... things have returned quite normal here for now.

So, is the worst over? WHO seems to be of the opinion that a second wave is likely and that the H1N1 strain is now a dominant strain. Which is not surprising considering the wild run that the virus has had here in Alor Setar.

What got me thinking about this issue again is the death of BN's state assemblyman for Bagan Pinang, Azman Mohd Noor. From Malaysiakini, His son Hairol Asfani, 22, said Azman was admitted to the hospital at 3.30am due to fever. The Star has reported the cause of death as blood disorder... (septicemia??) Earlier reports stated that he died of a heart attack.

"He complained of fever but was able to walk unassisted. After the breaking of fast yesterday, his condition worsened and he was unable to walk," he said.

Among his medical history was he had gone for heart bypass but that was in May. And a few days ago, I heard over the news about claims of 3 deaths in Negeri Sembilan which some claim were the result of H1N1. Sounds kinda worrying... earlier a teacher here died under circumstances almost similar to the State Assemblyman. H1N1 had something to do with it? I don't know.

The information from our Health Ministry indicates that the death rate is very controlled now. I don't know whether it is controlled because the health care and public awareness have contributed to it or (more insidiously) because the data is flawed. I've to keep reminding myself that this is Bolehland.... where the perception of corruption, gilaness, scandals, lies is at a high state.

What I do know is we've to be on the lookout for our own good. We cannot quite depend on the gahmen. Life is fragile.. we are very vulnerable...

My new toy... HP Mini 1000

Finally got ourselves a netbook, a HP Mini Netbook 1000.... and so far, we are quite pleased with it.

So, now I'm back to switching back and forth between my Mac and a PC. Gone back to the 'Dark Force" mainly because the netbook is small and light. With a mobile connection, it's actually not much hassle lugging it around. Can kepit the bag with 2 fingers and still won't drop! 8) The weight (or the lack of it) is a real plus point! Last Sunday night, I took it to church and as I was listening to the sermon, typed down the sermon synopsis for the church website. Published it after dinner as most of the work was done while listening. One stone, two birds kinda thing. And the easiness of bringing this thing around made things all the more easier. 8)

Specs wise.. good enough for us to surf.. with the mobile broadband, it gives you enough room to do some real reading and see good-sized pictures. Smart phone screens are still way too small for comfortable viewing of web pages. The Atom N280 processor is good enough for us to upload pictures and even do some touching up. Of course, you can't multitask too much with it cos it'll just hang, processor power (lack of it) plus lack of RAM probably. 160GB of HDD is also sufficient to store things on the go.

Keyboard size is comfortable enough for typing. But I'm a bit uncomfortable with the Up, Down, Left and Right buttons though cos they are smaller than the rest of the keys. Been hitting the adjacent buttons as a result. And the small mouse pad means less space to manouver. A lighted keypad would be a plus point... then I don't have to be hitting the backspace button so often in the dark. 8)

Do wish that the battery life can be slightly longer but what can you expect from a 3-cell. A 6-cell will increase the battery life but might mean I no longer can kepit the bag safely with my 2 fingers. And HP batteries are so expensive. So, I'll have to make do with the 2 hour plus on a single charge for now. I hear Nokia just launched a netbook with more than 12 hours of battery life, which is just simply awesome, I think.

Would be nice though if there is a SIM card slot incorporated. Then there is no need to make sure I don't forget my modem. But overall I can't complain much. Oh ya! There was some hoo-hah about their Syncables software too (supposed to sync seamlessly with the Desktop) but I've yet to use that.

Now I wonder if Apple were to come out with their own version of Netbook... lotsa rumours flying around on that too but knowing Apple products, it'd be a tardy bit more expensive... And since I've started using a PC, I'm back to facing the system 'hanging' more on me too... 8( That's one of the more noticeable things.. cos that's a cause for trepidation when saving my work. When the screen stays unmoving for too long after you've hit the Save button, you wonder whether you have to hit the Crtl-Alt-Del button next. Kinda makes you want to pull your hair and &*(%$^ Windows... I've digressed...tis not the software that's the focus here but the hardware. HP Mini 110-1006TU is actually not too bad-lah.

And oh ya! I also got a wireless mouse for my HP Mini for RM55. The nano receiver is so unobtrusive that I plug it there all the time. Good thing this Mini comes with 3 USB ports. Earlier I bought one Logitech Nano 550 for RM159 for Other Half. It's supposed to have at least one year battery life. This China brand (Cliptech) that I bought claims a 3 month battery life. I'd be quite happy with that if this claim is true.

So, there... another venture into 2 gadgets.

LDP...Latihan Dalam Perkhidmatan

LDP is not the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP just lost their power in Japan, btw) ... it stands for Latihan Dalam Perkhidmatan in the Malaysian Civil Service.

Recently I had to fill in this survey from JPN (Education Department) on Kajian Keperluan Latihan Guru secara School Based dan Ukuran Kecekapan Guru ICT (see how rojak we've become in the use of language. Want to use English but cannot use 100%). I've been filling surveys like this a few times now and I'm beginning to abhor filling them... cos they seem to serve no purpose except to make up some more paper work or further advance someone. Worse still to give the impression that a lot is being done when it's only very little.

Okay.. survey and forms I've been filling. But the school has never held any of those courses that I think would help me. Sometimes they may hold a course which might be useful but those they call in to conduct these courses were either not knowledgeable or interesting enough. So it becomes a 'waste-time' affair. How would you feel if you know that a particular course facilitator is merely crapping to pass our time or fulfill a requirement? That's the quality of moderators and facilitators we are getting. Once in a blue moon, maybe one of real calibre shows up... but like I said, that is a once in a blue moon occurence.

And now they throw in this veiled 'threat' of if you do not have your 7-day attendance for such courses, you will not be entitled to your APC, promotion, etc, etc... So, I get it, it's not important whether you teach well or do the things that teachers are supposed to do well. What is important is you attend those courses..... even though if they are a waste of time and practically useless. Now you see how those people who are 'incompetent' can move up?

All you need to do is know which tree to bark at.... and you'll get your promotion. A friend of mine wrote this apt post... Power Versus the Milk of Human Kindness. The same thing happens in every school. And to think we wonder where our mediocrity comes from.

We were also told that the KP (Panitia Heads) will have to (from next year onwards) conduct 3 days of LDP... I kesian them.. KPs teach the same number of classes. Now another extra burden is thrown onto their shoulders... how can you expect KPs to conduct LDPs? This is another case of grandiose planning and failure to execute. Plan and make it look good on paper... when problems arise, pass the buck down. Every school has a unit set up to conduct the LDP.. problem is the Senior Teacher who heads this also has to teach classes and be involved in other administrative stuff. Moreover, he or she also may not have the necessary expertise or exposure him/herself. Ever wonder why many Heads or Senior Assistants are rather free? Well, these are the smart ones... at delegating the jobs. The teachers get burned out... they don't.

You want to train and expose... you have things such as as computerized data... use them, sort them then identify and conduct real courses. It's more work for the planners but it will serve to improve and motivate teachers. And get the right people... not just who can kelentong nonsense that sounds like the real thing to facilitate. Right now... there is this lack of organization cos the people up there either are too lazy or lack the imagination. Or probably they're just products of mediocrity too!

So at the end of it, what they have is this... lotsa paper work to show off and nothing much else. It's mostly show... open up and you'll find lots worms. It could have been something that would have helped us become better teachers but its implementation has all but render it another typical tunjuk dan lagak (show and tell) to make someone look real good!

Cafe Seventeen

Tried out this place finally. I've been told about this place by a couple of my friends. Cafe Seventeen... guess maybe the young people are their target clientale. So, on another Thursday night, Siah, TH, Daughter and I decided to give it a try. The place was kinda empty when we arrived at almost 8 p.m.

There's a little karaoke corner with a comfy red sofa set to go with it. And they have wifi ... saw a P1 Wimax modem.

The menu looked rather worn out and the choices are your normal western food. They serve 'calanary'.. ordered that. I think they got the spelling wrong. The cafe is too red for my liking. TH said the place felt stuffy. Service wasn't very good. The waitress kept sending wrong orders our way.

But the food wasn't particulary bad. Daughter had fish and chip. They used dory fish and the batter coating was quite tasty. The fish didn't have any smell. Sometimes the dory fish served has a 'mud' smell.

TH had chicken chop. He said it was quite good. Meat was soft.

Siah had a sort of mixed grill... I forgot what's the name already.. Triple Mix or something like that. It was a bit too peppery for her liking but she said if one likes black pepper sauce, it's actually quite okay. She ordered that cos it was on the set thingy.. you get a soup and drink. Makes it quite worthwhile!

I had lamb chop. Not bad... one of the slightly better ones, if I may say. The big white lump under the meat is the mashed potato. Kinda looks like a swimming turtle with the piece of capsicum doubling up as it's flippers. LOL!

The place started filling up as we were finishing. If you go after 8 p.m. on Thursdays, the ladies will get a free drink. No wonder people started coming in later. Price wise... reasonable. I'd rate this cafe's western as quite nice. Where is this place? Well, it's one of the shops in the new block of shops next to Keat Hwa 1 Secondary School on Jln Kuala Kedah. Can't miss it!

RON95 and Minyak Naik Lagi..

The much anticipated RON95 finally made its appearance on 1st Sept... with a 5 sen increase to the harga minyak. So, now instead of retailing at RM1.75, it's now RM1.80. I managed to pump one tank last week when it was made available in Shell.

It was supposed to replace the RON97 back in May but due to some reasons, the release was delayed. Probably the world price had something to do with it... Anyway, this was the hadiah Hari Merdeka to Malaysians...

Anyway, there isn't much noise regarding this round of increase. Probably cos most are not aware of it. Plus the fact that the 'price increase' actually is no increase from the price that we've been used to which was at RM1.80 for RON97 earlier. Not many people actually notice the change... in Shell they now use the yellow nozzle for RON95. The other nozzle (I think it's green) is for RON97 (now a premium grade) which sudah naik harga to RM2.05 .......so the gahmen probably picked a good time to increase it...

So will prices of goods go up?? The last time the petrol price went up, everything went up... then when the petrol price came down.. didn't hear of prices coming down. What goes up in this case stays up.... LOL!

Electric cars should be the way to go... but I was told that the Toyota Prius (and I've been eyeing that) is priced like a Camry. Want to go green must pay more some more? In countries like the US and Japan, I think they give a rebate to encourage people to go green! It doesn't pay to go green here.. No! It doesn't have to pay to go green... but at least don't tax any more than necessary-lah.

Aiyo! I think maybe I'll go for something cheaper and use what is saved for the petrol then. I'm not asking for the car to be priced really cheap but just because of our Proton, not only do we pay more for cars but it also exacts a toll on the environment, cos hybrid cars become really expensive. A Nissan Latio, with the same capacity as Prius is RM80K cheaper! Sheeesh! This is another reason why I don't want to get another Proton....

Maybe I go diesel..... been drooling over Mitsubishi Pajero Sports. Ha! Ha!

Update (5/09/09): Found this article on MT and it was informative.. this RON95, RON97 thingy. The lack of understanding often makes us victims of our own kebodohan.

Centralized Trial Exams...UPSR, PMR, SPM, STPM

Today the SPM Trial Exam for Kedah will start. It's a centralized exam... meaning all the students in the state sit for the same papers.

That's the practice for quite some time now... each state will have its own trial exams for all the major public exams... UPSR, PMR, SPM and STPM. The setup of the state trial exams mimic that of the public exams. Teachers are called up from various schools from various districts. They meet and discuss the questions to be set... very often some of those who sit in the panel might be those involved in the national setup for the public exams. So, it is always prudent to pay attention to the questions. And students go into a frenzy to collect the questions from all the states and also the residential schools, weeks prior to the actual exams.

But one of the issues which seem to plague the trial exam questions is the way that they seem to find their way to the students' hands before the exam even begins. There have been years when copies were available even before the exam started. And I suspect too that there are also leakages from those involved in setting the questions right down to the printers, teachers and administrators. The security for it is loose cos there are schools where the heads don't bother about it.

Questions leak also because teachers who give tuitions 'leak' the questions because they want their fame to spread.... that their students do well. Results for trial exams can be seen and felt quite fast... so good words are passed around even before the school closes for the year. By the end of the year, when tuition classes open for registration, many of the seniors' words would still ring fresh in their juniors.

So this trial exam thing feels like a farce now. There are schools here who conduct their own internal trial exams after the compulsory trial exams... because the teachers don't trust the results of the latter. I think it's justifiable. The state trial exams can actually be a good thing... but like everything else, when integrity is compromised...... well, we all know what can happen.

So, sometimes I wonder why do it, when the system reeks with leakages everywhere. Cos one of the things it's capable of doing is to lull those students who have actually done the questions prior to the exam into a false sense of everything-is-okay with them. And we also seem to be condoning this acts of cheating. Our kids grow up used to having such kind of questionable practices...