Category: Journal

Orange Juice + Coffee: A Strange Yet Surprisingly Good Combo?

So, I stumbled upon this odd combo in a ZUS Coffee ad: orange juice mixed with coffee. I know, it sounds weird, right? But something about it just made me want to give it a try. I mean, who wouldn’t be curious about how that would taste?

I decided to go for it and make my own version at home. I just used some freeze-dried coffee because, let’s be honest, it’s quick and I didn’t want to go all out on something that might end up tasting awful. But to my surprise, it wasn’t bad at all! The tanginess of the orange juice didn’t clash with the coffee as I thought it would. In fact, it was kind of refreshing. It’s not like mixing coffee with milk where the coffee flavor usually dominates. Here, both flavors hold their ground, and it somehow works.

If you’re someone who likes to mix things up and try something new, I’d say give this a shot. It might not replace your morning latte, but it’s definitely something interesting to sip on when you’re in the mood for a little adventure. Who knew something so strange could taste this good?

Favouristim : Nepotism or Cronyism

According to The Oxford Dictionary,

Nepotism is the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives, friends, or associates, especially by giving them jobs.

meanwhile

Cronyism is the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.

The keyword that differentiates between these two word is “qualification”, if you favour someone over another and both of them are qualified for the job then you should use the word nepotism. If however you still favour someone even though they are less qualified then that is cronyism.

Now let’s rethink your word choice.

#englishteacher

Cronyism
Definitions of nepotism and cronyism
Nepotism

How To Write A Good Essay Part2

here are some simple tips

1 Use ALL Of Your Senses Lets review what is our senses, Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Feel (touch/tactile) but lets not forget your Feelings (Heart). The sixth sense.

When writing please include as much as detail as possible, for you to remember to do this just remember all your senses and ask
– What can you see
– What can you hear
– and etc

In most cases students (not all but I see that most of my students) will neglect to include their Heart. A good writer will include in his/her writings what is close to their heart, here is how you will attract your readers. Human are busybody/prying (jaga tepi kain org) and when the writer starts to include personal feelings it will be more interesting and intriguing to the reader. More plus point for getting the examiner to actually read your essay rather than just skimming to see the structure smile.gif

2. Don’t choose the shorter questions, such as water, peace, environment. These type of single word questions are among the hardest to score. You will think that it will be easy for you to get idea/contents for the topic but don’t be fooled. Most of the time, I see that students will start to branch out too much and lose focus of the topic itself. If you are not confident, don’t pick that topic. Chose a more directed question.

For this type of questions when u wander around too much, u will tend to get a grade lower than what you are supposed to get. Nowadays the marking scheme are what u call, holistic marking, where the examiner will glance thru the entire essay and see if your essay has what it takes to be an A essay. If not, he’ll go down a notch and check if its a B essay, and so on so forth. (this is a simplification of the true process, ask your teacher, she will be able to explain it in more details)



BTW, writing is a natural born ability that is an extension of speaking. If you are the type that is talkative and tends to be good at story telling, even if its only retelling the Korean Drama to your friend then more than likely you are a good writer as well. smile.gif

Anymore q’s on how to write good essays just post it here. This is all I could remember. If I remember more, I’ll post it up here.

How To Write A Good Essay Pt1

How does one type a good fictional/story type essay? hmmmm

It is a matter of expressing yourself actually. A good essay needs a clear view of where it is going. Please make sure that you have a defined Introduction, Content and Ending. This means u need a guide/draft.

Then after that you need to capture your audience/reader. Make them experience the story. Provide as much detail as possible.

Here is an example of how you can provide details to your sentences

Ex: ” I went to the canteen”
When? I went to the canteen today
When again? At exactly 10am I went to the canteen
How? I ran to the canteen
Why? I went to the canteen to buy some sweets

This method of asking questions to extract more details could create in itself a story. Here’s how

When the recess bell rang at 10am, I jumped out of my seat and ran as fast as I could to the canteen, I must get there before the other students. I must! This time I will get what I want most from the canteen, the delightful mini burgers that I like so much.

That instead of saying, “I went to the canteen for recess, I ate mini burgers”

Drama is the life of a story, and no drama will be good without details smile.gif

p/s: That’s all i could think just right off the bat.





Custom ROM

Used to tinker with my phone and changed roms regularly. But nowadays, I prefer to change the rom on my android headunit instead.

Source? Still xda-dev. Why them? Because they were there from the beginning since before my 1st android phone…. My 1st was actually an xda2mini so it makes sense that i went to that forum.

Why tinker? Sometimes there are just things that you want and is not provided by the manufacturer. My headunit for instance is shipped with android 6 but with instructions from the forum has been updated to android 10.

Dangerous? Of course it is dangerous if you don’t read properly the instructions. There is the risk of your device turning into a brick. But even then you might find instructions on giving it life again.

Till next time.

The Audacity Of The Young One

I have been involved in the development and fine tuning of  Co-Academic activities concept paper for quite some time. I was among the youngest when I started.  The group was quite small back then and it is a fact that I have always been intimidated by my colleagues. Older and more experienced in many ways.

During one of my early meetings I was sitting across the table to a senior teacher. In one of our heated discussion on how we should go about one of the activities. She blurted out “the audacity of the young one” at me. It sounded harsh in the beginning but her face had a smile. For context, I was explaining to my colleagues on why we shouldn’t follow her direction for a competition.

At that time it was shocking. But as time passes by I realise it should have been the opposite, it should have been a proud moment. I have done what many wouldn’t do. To respectfully disagree when the situation demands for it. And I believe that is why there was a smile accompanying the words.

I believe that was why I was included in the discussion, to be candid and to be frank when the ideals seems to be too lofty. To introduce fresh ideas. To simplify and to make it easy for adoption.

My younger colleagues may have heard this story from me before, it is all but a reminder that they too have ideas that may be worth more than mine.

Konvokesyen dan Hujan

31 Oktober 2010 – Sintok, Kedah

11 tahun yang lepas pada hari ini saya di UUM Sintok untuk graduasi sarjana. Graduasi dalam suasana malap, tiada gambar yang di ambil kerana hujan yang pada awalnya rintik-rintik semakin lebat. Hanya bergantung sepenuhnya kepada jurugambar rasmi majlis.

Apa yang lebih di ingati adalah perjalanan pulang. Sejurus tamat konvokesyen sudah ada kawan yang memilih untuk terus pulang. Saya memilih untuk bertolak sedikit lewat. Sudah banyak jalan yang dinaiki air. Menggunakan garmin kami mencari jalan alternatif yang belum dinaiki air untuk ke lebuhraya.

Alhamdulillah kami berjaya mencari jalan yang selamat. Masih saya ingat kerana kami terpaksa melalui kawasan sawah padi untuk memintas kawasan yang tenggelam. Kami berjaya sampai ke lebuhraya utama walaupun menghadapi sedikit kesukaran. Hujan di sepanjang jalan sangat mendebarkan lebih-lebih lagi bila merentasi banjaran Titiwangsa. Alhamdulillah, kami sampai ke rumah dengan selamat walaupun berdebar sepanjang perjalanan.

Keratan akhbar pada keesokan hari menunjukkan bahawa lebuhraya yang kami lalui juga telah ditenggelami air. Sidang konvokesyen kami juga menjadi sidang terakhir. Kerana sidang seterusnya telah ditunda akibat dari banjir.

Basikal : Pengangkutan atau Rekreasi?

Pengalaman saya berbasikal bermula dari kecil. Pastinya waktu kanak-kanak ini yang memungkinkan saya untuk meronda kawasan kampung. Dari rumah petang-petang kami akan berbasikal sampai ke rumah kawan saya… Ada kawan yang duduk di Taman Malinja. Kami berbasikal sampai ke sana. Paling jauh saya berbasikal seorang diri adalah dari Kg Dangar, rumah saya ke rumah nenek di Kg Tg Rendang, Lemal. Sekitar 3 km sahaja jadi tak kena marah. Hihi.. Aktiviti ramai2 jangan tanya.

Bila masuk sekolah menengah basikal bukan lagi semata-mata rekreasi, saya berbasikal dari rumah ke sekolah. Sebelum berpindah hanya kurang lebih 500m dari rumah. Bila berpindah sudah jadi 5km dari rumah. Keadaan yang sama diteruskan sampai universiti, saya tiada motor mahupun kereta yang ada hanyalah basikal.

Dari duduk di desasiswa hingga berpindah di rumah sewa. Sepanjang tempoh pengajian di USM itulah satu-satunya kenderaan saya. Bila ia di curi di kawasan kedai Sungai Dua. Saya tempang. Mujurlah bapa saya memberi wang untuk membeli basikal kedua. Harga basikal Lerun murah sahaja dua tiga ratus dah dapat. Basikal kedua ini masih tersimpan di rumah mak. Berkarat dah. 🙂 Kalau diberi kepada yang suka bergambar sambil mengangkat basikal rasanya mereka tak mampu angkat… Berat oiii… Haha..

Kini setelah bekerja.. Berbasikal hanyalah sekadar rekreasi, kayuhan di waktu petang menemani anak-anak beriadah.

#oldcyclist
#throwback

Faiq's first bike ride
Faiq’s first bike ride

Webinar Producer

Webinar/ Livestream Producer

Dalam waktu pandemic ini demand untuk webinar makin meningkat. Saya berpeluang beberapa kali untuk menjadi producer atau sesetengahnya guna istilah Technical Host.

Software/Webware/Platform

Belajar dari kosong sahaja, saya bermula dengan hanya grab screen dari google meet / ms teams terus ke facebook. Tanpa guna sebarang software khusus.

Kemudian saya explore aplikasi OBS. Memang power aplikasi ni. Kita boleh tambah additional setup yang saya suka. OBS guna istilah sources dari sources tu kita boleh jadikan pelbagai elemen. combine dengan vdo.ninja maka kita dapat satu setup untuk menjalankan webinar/live streaming.

Malangnya laptop saya yang dah berumur tak cukup gagah untuk menggunakan OBS pada kapasiti maksimum. Processor akan ramp up hingga suhu maksima di capai dan terus hang.

Akhirnya atas cadangan senior, alumni saya subscribe kepada streamyard. pada pendapat saya. OBS lebih banyak elemen yang boleh dimanipulasi dan customised. Akan tetapi streamyard merupakan satu platform yang sudah lengkap. Kawalan semuanya hanya pada satu screen sahaja.

Pre-Production

Untuk menjayakan webinar bukan hanya perlu kepada kawalan sewaktu webinar. Tapi banyak juga pre-production yang perlu dilakukan. Biasanya saya buat sendiri dengan bantuan sorang junior yang terer graphic. Order je terus dapat. Mmg power dia ni.

Biasa yang saya prepare sendiri adalah

  1. Overlay
  2. Background
  3. Intro/Outtro

Semua elemen ni streamyard guna istilah brand, dan saya rasa memang tepat. untuk memastikan ada consistency antara webinar kepada webinar yang lain. saya jenis yang suka simplify tapi kadang2 saya ter over do jugak. Saya suka gunakan platform canva untuk buat semua elemen ni.

saya banyak guna video countdown timer utk intro, yang ni mudah jer… boleh dilakukan di canva juga. gabungkan video countdown yang free dalam internet kemudian tambah personalisation.

Untuk bahagian outtro saya gunakan html slideshow yang memaparkan poster program2 semasa sebagai outtro. Html slideshow lebih mudah kerana hanya perlu tukar beberapa baris perkataan sahaja utk tukar kepada poster baharu.

Berkongsi sebagai rujukan saya juga pada waktu lain. Dengan pembukaan sekolah yang makin dekat, makin terasa sukar untuk memperuntukkan waktu untuk kerja2 luar.

#amateurproducer

Better Health

Alhamdulillah, finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. After months of battling with my cough. Managed to narrow it down to my Diabetes medicine. Specifically Metformin.

Culprit!

After talking to pharmacists a month back during my regular visit to the health clinic they confirmed my suspicion that Metformin can cause gastric/acid reflux. They asked me to consult my doctor on stopping or replacing it. That would be a month away. I know I can’t simply stop as it can cause havoc on my glucose levels. A few days later I decided enough was enough. Couldn’t take the on and off coughs anymore. So I stopped cold turkey. Stopped metformin entirely.

After a month, I can say that my health has improved. Still has irritations to my throat from time to time but no longer has chronic coughs. No more sleepless nights due to coughs.

A week back I had my monthly appointment at the health clinic. After telling the doctor everything she agreed with my findings. And supported by the fact that I was able to maintain a healthy Blood Glucose level, she amended my prescriptions. So now I have one less meds to be taken daily.

Alhamdullillah, so far so good. Hopefully I can get off more meds after this.