Life's Brief Candle

Yasmin Ahmad dies at age 51.

A spark of light, extinguished in the blink of an eye.

As famous as she was for her films, there is not one of them that I have fully seen from beginning until the end. I do not know her for her films. Instead, I knew her more for her opinions and how she stood by her convictions, no matter how heavy the opposition may be. Like and indomitable island against on onslaught of tidal waves she stood, firm and unwavering.

And yet, she too was human, and as such vulnerable to all human weaknesses.

A testament, and a reminder to all, that no matter how bright a candle may burn to illuminate the darkness, when it reaches the end, it fades out and dies.

Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow

- William Shakespeare

Rest in Peace Yasmin.

Blunder and the Beast

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It's a Saturday..

And I have only just finished invigilating the Special Examinations for the First Year students..

Funny thing is, the exam season is over... And they had already taken this exam before...

So why am I here invigilating an exam, when exam season is over, and the students had already taken this paper before, when it is a Saturday where I should be resting at home?

Ladies & gentlemen, welcome to the record-setting blunder of the century (as far as my department goes). I am not a liberty to divulge any details, but suffice to say something happened that made the validity of the exams questionable. And so it goes, the students had to resit the paper again...all 2000-odd students from the entire First Year cohort of the entire University... Setting a record indeed.

What I had seen these past 2 months has indeed been a test of courage against adversity against many malignant forces, with true integrity shown by the few chosen people... The implications of the the blunder were enormous, and after the ensuing witch-hunt, the question arose - Do the faculty and department hang the hapless, accidental offender out to dry, or do they take the fall as a team?

I am proud to say they chose the latter.

The dean, deputy deans, and the head of department, standing side by side, shields tight and swords held high. 

The path they chose - Take the fall, revamp the system, reschedule the make-up exam, send out letters of apology, remake the exam paper, retake the exam, remark the scripts, and resubmit the marks.

Of course, when it comes to actually doing the work, every man and woman in the department had to bear the brunt. 

Some almost cracked from the strain, from the incessant, overwhelming burden. 

Some were crying for blood, beastly in their demeanour, full of indignance . 

However, some realised that it could have been any one of them who had made the blunder, and these were the chosen few who trudged on, regardless of the toil and turmoil the were subjected to.

At the end of the day, if it had been them, would they have personally taken the fall, or would they have been glad that their colleagues, their compatriots, were willing and able to stand by them in their darkest hour?

I know I would have... 

The blurry haze

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A lot of my readers may be wondering why the past two months have been extremely quiet here in Lobo's Lessons.

Well folks, truth is so much has gone down the past two months I can barely recall anything. It's all one big blur. Next thing I know, the semester has just started again, and I'm left with the question:

..."Where'd my holidays go?"...

Let me fill you in on some of what I can remember from these past two months:

1) End of term - marking frenzy to submit marks on time.

2) Once marking was done, got 2 SPACE UTM classes for part-time students - 1 in Kuching and 1 in JB (thank God...last year it was Kuching and KL).

3) Fly off to Kuching every other weekend, and go straight back to work the following Monday.

4) Teach weekend classes in JB every other weekend, and go straight to work on Monday.

5) Attend MELTA conference while still actively doing what needs to be done back at the faculty.

6) Was awarded post of Head of Committee for level 2 English, in charge of a mixture of 30-odd regular lecturers and part-timers, and not to mention the 2300 students who take the course every single semester

7) Was given post of Committee member in the UTM-TLDM programme

8) Was part of the testing and evaluation committee that vets all examination papers of all the English programmes. Had to do extra work because of a new policy - to have exam papers for regulars, exam papers for SPACE, make-up exam for regulars, make-up exam for SPACE, etc etc.

9) Set up and run department workshops

10)Prepare my PhD proposal.

11) Send my PhD proposal to all prospective universities.

12) Contact prospective supervisors.

13) Go for compulsary JPA research methodology course to qualify for the scholarship.

14) Teach Korean kids.

15) Judge competitions outside uni.

16) Prepare claims that have been backlogged since last year - God knows if I'll get them.

17) Set up and run UTM Toastmasters meetings seeing that I'm Vice-president.

17) And a myriad other things...

Had a tough 2 months? Well, maybe after reading this you'll feel better about your life...

Sounds like I'm being a sour grape here doesn't it?, buuuuut I'm just venting here...

I actually LOVE my job!!! ;)

World, meet Biscuit...Biscuit, meet World...

Hello everyone,

My name is Biscuit. I'm a Persian kitten, but my daddy says I have some local blood in me because of my stripes. I like my stripes. It makes me look like those tigers I see on TV whenever Daddy turns on Animal Planet. I like Animal Planet.

I love Mummy and Daddy, and abang Adel (he's my big human brother). I like to bite them whenever I can. Sometimes I can hear them screaming when I bite them. This means that they love me.

Abang Adel most probably wants to be a wrestler when he grows up. He likes to practice his moves on me. I don't mind. I just show him that I love him and bite him.

I am very happy in my house. But there is one thing I am confused about. Whenever I go to the toilet in the small blue box with that strange sand, Mummy and Daddy smile. I don't know what the fuss is. I mean, it's sand right? But when I go to the toilet in the big toilet that has all those beautiful plants, they get angry and lock me up for the night. Look at this picture.

See? That's sand isn't it? So it's a toilet isn't it? Really... Mummy and Daddy have to go to school again. There's so much they don't know.

Anyway, that's all for now. I have to switch the computer off because Daddy doesn't know I'm using it.

Bye everyone!

Reunions and Runarounds

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After a group of friends haven't seen each other in a long time, when they meet up in cyberspace someone is bound to have a brainwave and suggest everyone to get together... A reunion.

So what goes into conceiving and planning a reunion?

First, the idea surfaces somewhere pleasantly, and everyone says 'what a great idea!'... 'it's been so long'... 'Splendid!'... and so on and so forth. Next, someone asks the brilliant question - 'Who's going to plan it?'

Silence...

And then someone suggests a name... and that person suggests another name... and so the buck gets passed, round and round until someone says 'Hey, let's do it in KL... That's a central location... So and so is there, so let's get him to do it!'

And so the hapless guy takes up the challenge, becomes the leader, and starts delegating tasks... and surprise surprise... the ones who were making the most noise are the ones who are least inept and reluctant and taking on the assigned roles... They whinge and whine... Oh, it's too difficult, it's too far away, it's not really possible, bla bla bla...

After which one of the more dependable ones steps up and starts to do what is needed, smoothen a few ruffled feathers, set up communications, start a blog, get some polls started, delegate some tasks...

Then suddenly, the quiet ones start to find their voice again... with little voices... voicing their dissent to the plan... 'Oh...you know... having it at the state where I live would be much better...it's cheap, convenient, bla bla bla...'

At which point this movement starts to snowball and others also find their voices...peeping out... making noise where there was previously silence...

Question is, if they had these brilliant ideas in the first place, why didn't they say something while it was still worth something? Why give their tuppance worth after things have been set in motion, when other people had already spent a few sleepless nights planning and getting things in motion?

So...what goes into conceiving and planning a reunion?

A lot of heated arguments, bickering, and the motherload of all inconveniences...

Let's just hope the end result is worth it.