Azmi@Blogosphere

Spent the whole last Sunday roaming around JB with my brother looking for a PDA that has VGA output. First we went to the Landmark IT Mall. Prior to arriving, I imagined the place was like the Low Yatt Plaza in KL. Thus, I went there pinning high hopes that my search for the PDA will be answered there. Alas, the place was i guessed, just around 60% resembling the Low Yatt. Computer shops occupied the whole building but the atmosphere was not as merry as the one in KL. And to my dismay, not a single shop there was selling PDA. Asus eee was sold at some of the outlets but only the black unit. “If you want the pearl white, I have to order from Taiwan”, one shop assistant told me. “How long will it take?”, I asked. “About a week”. Aghh, can’t wait that long. At that time, I was not sure whether to buy a PDA or a UMPC like Asus eee. PDA was my first choice but the Asus would be a good buy too as it has almost all the features a PDA could offer. Besides, it comes with a keyboard which makes typing a breeze. But Asus in black looks like a cheap toy laptop. So we went off to the Jusco at Tebrau City. My brother said there was a PDA outlet there. When we arrived, there was just a handful of Dopod PDA-phone available. I guess they were running out of stocks. ..cont.

Something good finally showed up amidst these last few chaotic days. My abstract entitled Using BALL in ESL Writing Class has been accepted by the conference organiser of the 10th Annual Conference on World Wide Web Applications. I emailed the abstract 2 weeks  ago knowing that it’s already beyond the closing date. So it was just a gamble which paid off. Nevertheless, I read the email with mixed feeling. Talked to my boss last week about my eligibility to present paper at overseas. She said that I should have informed her earlier so that she could put me as one of the presenters for this year and the centre will have allocation of budget for me to do so. Goshh! It’s something which I didn’t do because I was not aware of all these procedures. I just hope somebody in the ‘eligible’ group will not use his/her slice of the pie. I’ll talk to my boss again. Who knows luck will be on my side. Otherwise, it’s thanks but no thanks Johannesburg.

The hot weather seemed to have taken it’s toll on me. Last night I was down with high fever. Consequently, I could not finish marking the TW paper as I felt so weak to do the task. I’m going the Klinik Sejahtera after this after sending my son to Seri Gading. He’s going back to Labu with Mr Alimi whose son is also studying in the same school. Never met this guy. From our telephone conversation, he could be a nice person. Still, I have to go to office after that to fill up marks for EAP. Its’ overdue but I don’t care what my KJ will say about it. I did my best to check all the students assignments and gave them their deserving marks and grades.

It has been meetings everyday this week. Panel meeting, staff club, postgraduate, KIK and a few others which I could not remember. At the same time all lecturers are asked to key in marks for subjects which have no final exam paper…Ohhh! I’m suffocated by all these. During the panel meeting, we were reminded that final exam answer papers must be corrected within 3 days time. The thing is TW paper was this morning which means I must spend the weekend marking the papers and coz marks must be keyed in by next Mon. I think the university should change the duration to 3 working days and not 3 days. Oii…you people who wrote the client charter or the policy or whatever it is..is your life all about work..work..work. You people must be leading a boring life…

I went to the BP Mall last Saturday and there was a PC fair there. It was just a small scale exhibition and I guessed not more than 20 booths occupied a small portion of the ground floor. I really missed the similar fair at KLCC where countless booths were available. One product that caught my attention was the Asus EEE PC which costs only around RM 1, 200. All these while I’ve been looking for a PDA that I could bring to class and connect to the LCD projector, instead of having to carry my notebook. I thought this gadget is better than a PDA as it comes with keyboard which makes typing easier. One feature that makes me feel uncomfortable is it runs on Linux platform but it’s just a matter of getting used to. The sales agent said that he could help to install the XP but I think it will make the PC runs slower. Having just a 512mb RAM and 4GB of hardisk would certainly make the machine wobbles if it runs on the Window platform. I love this gadget may buy one soon.

On my way back from Abang Rahim’s house, I stopped by the roadside to take this photo of the signboard of three primary schools around the area. One of them is SK Seri Nasib Baik or loosely translated as Lucky Primary School. Hopefully everything and everyone related to the school is as lucky as the school name suggests.

Shocking! I thought the other contestants fared worse than him in the Top 8 round. David Cook was out of sort or as what Simon said ‘pompous’. Brooke White was bad too and my favourite choice that should have been booted out was Smithson who oversang. I’m not sure whether I’ll continue watching AI after this. My pity goes to Michael Johns whom I thought would lock horns with David A for the final two. But life sometimes can be so unfair and cruel.

Ever since I came here,  I have been  hearing the term PBL here  and there but never truly had the opportunity to know more about it what more implementing it in class.  I guess it something like task-based learning or where learning happens indirectly through experience of involving in tasks given. Thus, I valued the session that I had this morning when attending a colloquium where the presenter was Dr Hussain Othman who presented  his  PBL-based teaching and learning module. Personally, I’m amazed with the panache of this guy, whose background is in Islamic studies but presenting his materials for 2 hours completely in English language. He successfully practised  PBL in his teaching and must be one of the experienced ones in using the approach in this university. So bravo doc! I just wonder if I could collaborate with him in using blogs for communication purpose in his PBL class.

It was not Results on AI last night but performances from the contestants and other celebrities in Idol Gives Back. The show was meant to collect donations to help the unfortunate ones either in America or other parts of the world. There were video clips on suffering children and families in Africa, New Orleans…wait a minute..New Orleans? Katerina Hurricane victims? It seems that after the tragedy strucked 2 years ago, very little has been done to improve the lives of the victims. They still live in makeshift camps. What has the American government done to help these people I wonder. Yet they talk so much on helping to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, restore democracy bla…bla..I thought our tsunami victims are much luckier though we are not a developed country like the USA.

I have been closely following American Idol this year. It seems that this year’s contestants are very competitive. Archuleta, Johns, Mercado and the rests are so talented and even the judges thought that all of them could be successful recording artistes after the competition concludes next month. But the real reason why I love watching AI is not so much of the singing but the comments from the judges particularly Simon Cowell. Though the guy is the most hated judge in the competition due to his acerbic comments, I personally thought that he is just being honest. As the saying goes, ’sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind’. His comments are made so that the participants would improve their singing, pitching and even the way they dress themselves. Look at what happened to Carly Smithson who has improved her dressing after the stinging comment from Simon during the Top 9 round.

“I thought it was good but not great, Sorry. I also think that you’ve got to have a word with whoever is dressing you at the moment. You’ve got to start looking like a star at this point.” (Quoted from http://american.idolblog.com/)

Paula, for me, is boring, trying to be nice all the time even when performances suck. To be a good judge, one needs to be critical and honest in analysis and judgment. And I think I have learnt from Simon.