A Celebration

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~ Chili Davis

It is an interesting quotation, isn't it?

I am a year older today. And what better way to celebrate it than with my students in this Hari Raya mood? So I told them to bring their kuih raya cookies and in return, I provided them with food and drinks. But of course they had no idea that it is my birthday. They thought that it was just a common Raya get-together ;)

D2D1 and D2D2 were first because they have class with me on Wednesday morning.

Both D2D1 and D2D2 students were so noisy that they disrupted Mr. Rajen's class (he's conducting speaking exam next door). So I told both D2D1 and D2D2 to go downstairs and bring the food with them. Sorry, Mr. Rajen T_T

In the afternoon, D3D2 students were the first to arrive since they usually have class with me at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays.

This picture was taken by Amirah Syafiqah, who happened to sit at the far end of the table. That's why she is not in the picture. Thank you Amirah :)

Zaki's cookies were the most expensive of the lot. They're butter cookies, after all!

Afiq, Kashfi & Zaki

I learned from Kashfi that Afiq's birthday is today. I had always thought that Afiq looked a bit like Vince Chong (Afiq is from Malay-Chinese parentage), and it's a pleasant surprise that besides looking similar to Vince, he also shared the same birthday with the well-known singer (and me, of course).

And it's really fascinating to watch him turn bright red right before your eyes when he was being teased by his classmates :)

D2D1 dropped by shortly after D3D2 had left.

Meanwhile, D3D1 waited outside the room and I told them to come in, but they were a bit reluctant. At first I was puzzled by their behaviour, until all of them came into the room with a birthday cake and sang 'Happy Birthday' together.

cutting the cake

It was weird. How did they know that today is my birthday? I never told any them! But after thinking for quite some time, I finally figured it out. Fara Wahida is Shahida's roommate. Both Shahida and her boyfriend Khalid were my students last semester and I had told Khalid that we both shared the same birthday. Khalid and Shida, thanks for the birthday wish that you sent via sms.

Fara Wahida had the nerve to ask me about my age. So I told her to guess and she said that I am twenty-six. Twenty-six?? Oh well, that means I look younger than my actual age. I'll take that as a compliment :)

photo courtesy of Akmal

And D3D1, thank you very much for the delicious cake.

P/S: Dear all, thanks for the numerous birthday wishes on my Facebook wall, Myspace and also via sms. All of you really made my day. ^_^

Salam Aidilfitri

I would like to wish "Selamat Hari Raya" to my blog readers, especially to my students this semester: D2D1, D2D2, D3D1 & D3D2, my ex-students and those who knew me. I apologize if I had hurt your feelings in anyway. I humbly ask to be forgiven and needless to say, I forgive all of you and I will always pray for your health and well-being. Let's forgive and forget, shall we?

D3D1 & D3D2, don't forget about the pot luck party after raya!

P/S: My duit raya is only for children aged 12 years old and below.

I'm The Chosen One

I am in CLL 1 right now, executing the BEL260 listening test to D2D1. As I read the question paper, I experienced a sense of deja vu. I seem to have read these questions before.. but when?

And then it slowly dawned upon me that I was the one who did them! I had created the audio scripts and the questions about a year ago and submitted them to the resource person. Because I was busy with my work afterwards, I had totally forgotten about them.

Therefore, I think you would understand why I grinned like an idiot all by myself in CLL 1, hearing all those familiar audio scripts that I had created while my D2D1 students were busy listening to them.

The questions and the audio scripts for the test were slightly modified from the original, but there was no mistaking it. It is my masterpiece! That means all Part 2 diploma students of UiTM from all over Malaysia (including Hanis Zalikha and Azfar) will listen to the same audio.

Even though it may mean nothing much to you, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. This is the very first time that my work is chosen for a huge standardized test. I chose subject matter that interests me, of course. Anyone who knew me really well will say, "Dah takde bende lain nak buat bahan ke weh?"

For those who are sitting for BEL260 this semester, I hope you will be able to score in the listening exam. As for my D2D1 students, they found Part C quite difficult.

Oh well, I hope I will be able to create better materials next time.

P/S: Aren't you going to congratulate me?

Heartless

I found these abandoned kittens in front of the gym this evening. The mother is not around, and there was plain water served in a plastic bottle. No food at all.

A security guard came to the gym (it was his daily routine) and told me that the kittens were already there since yesterday. That's odd, because I was at the gym yesterday and the kittens were not there. That means the person had left those kittens this morning (or afternoon).

The Guardian of the Gym arrived with his best friend (Jepun) and they immediately lost their hearts to the cute kittens. In fact, Jepun wanted to keep them. But in the end, I decided to take them home with me since Jepun couldn't possibly bring those kittens to his home in Kulai.

But why dump them at the gym? That person must be heartless to leave such adorable kittens here without any food at all. There's not a soul here except me and a few male students in the evenings. Unless that person knows my routine and hoped that I would take care of them. Okay enough with my overrated imagination!

The brown one is my favourite because it is so darn cute with its huge melting eyes. It reminded me of the handsome Dewatta Arjuna (yes Hanis, go ahead and laugh your head off!). I still couldn't figure out what to call him, though, but the two black ones were named Phobos and Deimos. I have always wanted black cats, so I got my wish.

I'll take very good care of them. I promise.

2 Accidents in 1 Night

I received an SMS from one of my ex-students last night, saying that he met with an accident very near UiTM Segamat (it happened opposite the Chinese cemetery, to be exact). He asked whether I knew any workshop around Segamat, so I called him back to let him know that I will be there.

The car wasn't even his. It was his roommate's. That means he's in deep trouble now. On the way to UiTM Segamat, I saw another accident in Tasik Alai. I saw a Waja and the flashing lights of a tow truck parked beside the road but I didn't stop.

When I arrived nearby the Chinese cemetery, I saw a Satria crashed into a lamp post. It was surrounded by the police and a few male students from the campus. Apparently, he had hit the lamp post. Since he was busy answering questions from the police, I approached his traumatic girlfriend (also my ex-student) and she sobbed as she poured out the details of the accident.

By the way, here's the picture of the beat-up Satria:

credits to Sagak for taking this pic for me

The tow truck that I saw just now happened to drive past, towing the Waja behind it. I was surprised as I saw the driver of that Waja. Incidentally, it was also one of my ex-student. (The victims were all Part 5 students). But nobody was hurt, thank goodness.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri is just around the corner.. so for those who are driving back to your hometown, please drive carefully and please think of your loved ones. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Crocs, Anyone?

Shahira (who looks a bit like Eva Mendez) was one of my ex-students. She is currently in Part 5 (DBS) and she is very active in the English Debate Club.

Shahira, Hanis Zalikha, me and Yasmin

Shahira is currently selling original Crocs at half price. I have always wanted to buy one, so I ordered a pair from her. If you're also interested to buy them, you can go to her room at Z217D (Girls only! Guys, please contact her first!) and browse through the catalogs. This offer is only valid for students of UiTM Johor. If you're not, fret not. You can contact Shahira 017-2821694 and see if she can make arrangements with you.

WARNING TO GUYS: JANGAN CONTACT KALAU NAK MENGORAT FVHGHJKLPX

I'm Back!

Hello. I haven't updated this blog for almost a month. This is because my faithful modem was struck by lightning during a thunderstorm last month. The thing is, the computer and the modem were not even turned on!

All I heard during the thunderstorm was a small explosion coming from the CPU and when I wanted to use the Internet that night, the modem did not respond at all. That means no more Internet for me! *groans*

So I bought a new modem last weekend. Why not sooner, you ask? That's because I had to wait for my salary first T_T

Isn't it cute? And so classy too. Costs only RM135. It has 4 ports.

When I tried to install it, there was another problem: the modem cannot detect the network card! The LED of the network card did not flicker at all. So I concluded that it was also busted due to the thunderstorm. Since the shops are not open on Sundays, I had to wait until this morning to buy a new network card.

It's really cheap (RM35 after discount), but since I didn't know how to install it, I asked the technician to have it installed to my CPU. With service charge, the whole thing costs RM70! How exorbitant!

Note to self: I really have to learn the basics of computer hardware after this! Can anybody teach me?

So after replacing the network card, the new modem was finally installed. I had no idea how easy it was! And for the first time, I was able to go online after almost a month! I miss Streamyx so much!

Thus, I learned something important from this. The technician said that the modem is an easy victim of lightning. Therefore, during thunderstorms, please remove the telephone line (the main one leading to the splitter) and remove the modem's power outlet.

I already learned my lesson. The hard way. T_T

P/S: I had published my previous entries for you to read. I hope you enjoyed them.

Mood Good

I never look forward to teach combined class because there were like fifty of them (students) and one of me. So it's kinda hard to control them and I totally lost it this morning. I know, I know, we were supposed to keep our temper during the month of Ramadhan but somehow I really lost it when they (D2D1 and D2D2) did not stop talking among themselves when they were supposed to do some reading comprehension.

So I yelled, "If you don't keep quiet I will punish you. I'm not in a mood good today."

This is an example of Spoonerism. Read more about it here.

I hoped D2D1 and D2D2 didn't notice that.

Kinohimitsu Health Pad

I'm sure you have heard of this product. It's Kinohimitsu Health Pad.

I already knew about this product for a long time. Since I am interested in health-related products, I really wanted to give it a try. But if you bought it at normal price, it is very expensive.

A friend of mine had tried it and he said that he felt refreshed the next morning. He had recommended it to me, so I couldn't wait to experience it myself.

Guardian Segamat is having a sale this week and the price had dropped to RM25 for two pairs. That sounds affordable, so I bought it at once and tried it last night.

All you have to do is put the patches on the soles of your feet (or any part of the body) before you go to sleep. Like this:

The idea is that we spent our whole life upright, so the toxins are mostly submerged to the feet. That's why we are supposed to put the patches on the soles of our feet (I think).

Anyway, I woke up for sahur and removed the patch.

Here are the results:

That's definitely a lot of toxins. Eww.