Sepasang Kurung Biru

Setiap kali nak raya, ni la lagu yg ditunggu2 di corong2 radio (betulke word 'corong'???) hahaha...Dari celik mata sampai nak tutup mata, puas dengar lagu raya tahun ni. Somehow, last year I guess I spent more time 'savour' the Ramadan mood with pasar ramadan, foods etc..This year, dgn mentally prepared to be away, I think I savour the moment better. Less food with much better thing I've done so far..."wassatiah in Islam"..kesederhanaan dalam Islam..



To all friends Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin. Bagi yang kat Malaysia jangan la over sangat raya tu...Drive carefully, jgn jadi statistik musim perayaan. Those overseas, ooiii balik la cepat2..Best tau raya kat Malaysia ni hahahaha..Sekali lagi Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin...

France thingy..

KUALA LUMPUR 24 Sept. - Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp) dijangka menarik 150 peserta daripada 40 buah negara untuk menyertai BioMalaysia 2008.

BioMalaysia 2008 merupakan pameran bioteknologi yang akan diadakan pada 7 hingga 9 Oktober ini dengan bertemakan 'Mengukuhkan Pembentukan Nilai Dalam Bioteknologi'.

Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif BiotechCorp, Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood berkata, BioMalaysia 2008 menjadi medan menyediakan maklumat dan peluang untuk peserta bioteknologi tempatan dan global.

''Sejak 2007, BioMalaysia telah menjadi tempat untuk pengumuman dan perkembangan industri bioteknologi.

''Pada kali ini, BiotechCorp akan membuat beberapa pengumuman termasuk projek kerjasama antara sektor swasta dan kerajaan, transaksi produk kesihatan bioteknologi dan projek kemudahan bioteknologi,'' kata Iskandar dalam satu kenyataan di sini hari ini.

Pameran tersebut merupakan anjuran kali keenam dengan lebih 200 peserta tempatan dan antarabangsa dan 46 pakar bioteknologi dari 30 negara akan menyertai persidangan yang meliputi produk kesihatan, pertanian dan industri bioteknologi itu.

Sementara itu, BiotechCorp turut mengumumkan perkembangan terhadap perjanjian antara BiotechCorp dan syarikat Perancis Nanobiotix S.A. (Nanobiotix). bagi tujuan pemindahan teknologi dan lesen untuk platform nanoteknologi seluruh dunia.

''Kerjasama itu akan memberi fokus untuk membangunkan pusat penjagaan (P.O.C) diagnostik dan sistem penghantaran ubatan untuk penyakit tropikal.

''Selain itu, tiga saintis yang berkelayakan dari Universiti Sains Malaysia telah dikenal pasti untuk menjalani latihan pindahan teknologi,'' katanya.

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I wonder what kind of 'perkembangan' he's talking about. :-) I'm still here in Malaysia due to visa problem. Good thing, I will have good time to celebrate Eid and finish up all unnecessary work loads..

You can write whatever you want :-)

I found this interesting sentence in Journal of Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Theraphy

"The legend of vampires is likely based on the porphyria affected individuals important avoidance of sunlight to prevent severe and progressive skin and tissue damage"

I guess most of you must have thought I read some kind of arts or history journal..No..no..no...This article was written by an author from school of medicine in a journal about photosensitiser (something to do with fluorescence agent for medical application)..well, I guess researchers must have some fun when writing scientific article...hahahaha..

To further understand the relation between the article I read and vampire, I found this article on: PORPHYRIA and the VAMPIRE LEGEND.

Science and Maths in English

Since few weeks ago so many people keep discussing about teaching science and maths BACK in Malay. I wonder those who keep discussing the matter, did they send they children to sekolah kebangsaan (national school), local public universities?? I can imagine the answer is 80%++ NO...

Look back at my own education background, I'm from a small town and my parents do not speak English. I was brought up in 'Cintailah Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu' era. During primary and high school, most of my schoolmates were Malay. We spoke very least English. My first degree was from UKM, which also used very very least English. So, most of my long term memories were in Malay..When did I think Malay language is just not enough to survive in global world?? My first job was in a Singaporean-owned electronic company in JB. Imagine all the directors were Singaporean Chinese that didn't even know Malay language. That was the first time I found difficulty to express my idea. All my memories were in Malay..When I joined Sirim Bhd, I translated part of the theories to English because most of my colleagues were overseas educated.. It was a hard work! When I did my postgrad degree, I made sure I translated as much as possible technical vocabs to English. I realized it was not that easy to learn something new when we are aging :-))

In order for us to be a global player I always believe we need to master the global language. When I spoke to final year students last year, I was surprised to see their English level. Things are getting better nowadays since most of the students were taught in English since day 1 at school-although only maths and science. If we choose to back to sq 1, then we are actually producing noncompetitive graduates. Why do you think science and engineering grads much easier to get a job compared to arts grads?? Because they are not given a chance but to use English..End of the day, not only their technical memory in English, but their communication skill also improved significantly-although not perfect.. At least they can access most books, journals, internet resources easily...

In order for the country to reduce unemployment rates we must somehow 'export' our graduates to work overseas. We keep producing thousands graduates each year, so what? Even now we can see lots of clerks, technicians, etc with diploma or bachelor degree. .something need to be done, definitely NO TURNING BACK when comes to language...

Quote of the day..

You don't sink the ship because the captain is not handling it properly. You remove the captain.

Berbuka puasa

Ramadan this year is 'so-so' to me compared to last year. Although I went to pasar ramadan or shop some food almost everyday, I still think Ramadan this year is a bit dull. Last year, heaps of stalls with various food in pasar ramadan. But these days I would say even though the number of stalls could be almost similar but most buyers were more cautious about spending money. Even myself, last year I spent at least RM10 for myself but this year hardly reached RM5. No more buying power I guess..

This week, being a typical Malaysian, I was invited for 'berbuka puasa' (breaking fast) at my friends' place. Start with Zai's place with meehoon soup on Monday, and k/Zu's place with 'gearbox'...Nice high cholesterol food! :-)

Yesterday I invited my 'singles' friends to my place for breaking fast. When I invited them, I made sure not more than 6 persons since I only have 6 seaters dining table. However, more than that turned up so we took turn to sit on dining table. More like buffet I supposed hahaha...Zai turn up with Depi and Fareese, Zura and k/Na came together, Shime brought over her sister Linda, and my neighbour-Raja came over with my other neighbour Niza..More like ladies only function with 9 months old Fareese the only thorn among roses..Most of them brought something e.g laichikang, masalode, kuih cara, cucur udang, cup cakes etc...

As a host, I prepared home cooked mee kari and murtabak.I also bought 2 types of kuih.hehehe I never made murtabak almost 2 years. I think the last time I made murtabak was hmmm when I was in Kingsland...I think I kind of loss my touch already, or at least I simply loss my taste..Murtabak turn up ok but I'm not that good anymore to 'canai' the dough anymore...hehehe.I found out actually it is easier to prepare dough here because of hot and high humidity..the dough turn up very soft..Mee kari not much different from NZ. The good thing is much cheaper la kot...

My mum always remind me of my well-kept dining plates. She said I must use it from time to time or it will be a burden for me in the hereafter hehehe..so, I took this opportunity to use some of my collection except my Noritake hahaha...Seriously, my house simply not a kids-friendly environment. I don't have any melamine or plastic plates and glasses hahaha..

Here are some pictures before my friends turn up..


Proof I prepared murtabak by myself..:-) Some of my friends have serious doubt about my capability...Those who know me in NZ should know la kot kan??kan???










Homemade murtabak.














Food prepared by me..I should take picture after my guest turn up, all of sudden full of foods on the table....hahaha...









Thank God, Zai brought over her maid..She helped me to do the dishes. But still, tidy up was really tiring..hmmmm...Hopefully I can host another get together later...

Proud..BUT....

Finally, I have time to write about this topic. For me, of course I'm proud with the achievement. The whole university had put a lot of efforts to move from research university to apex.

2 years ago, USM was rated as the only 5 star university in Malaysia. However, this year while we were running for apex, out of nowhere USM was rated as 3 star university. Just imagine how a 5 star university can suddenly drop to 3 star university?? Unless it is a serious sabotage by certain people. The management did not argue about it coz when USM was rated 5 star they never complaint about it hahahaha...I'm glad when the '3 star' university was chosen as the only apex university :-)) I doesn't matter what people think of us. As long as we constantly improve ourselves, then we will achieve our goal...

Talking about apex status, although government promised lots of things including autonomy in management, service scheme, student intake etc, so many things that need to take into account. For me, the target to be in top 100 university in 5 years time is ridiculous enough..To get money from gov is a very slow process, to get a good staff is not that easy, to buy equipment taking ages, etc..etc..My other concern is what apex university offer to their staff?? In the list above, gov clearly put 'better salary and service for foreign lecturer'. I happened to know few foreign lecturers in NTU and NUS. Of course they are well paid. Can we afford pay them in USD or EURO with competitive global rates???)..If we do, how about local lecturers? As an apex university, all of sudden our key performance index (KPI) jump to God knows how high. If we are expected to work much harder than before, then people will start asking what we get out of it?? Probably I’m a material engineer/scientist, so I’m a bit materialistic. Having said that, if I work in other universities e.g. Unimap or other ex-college universities with the same salary, with much lesser work load, with lower KPI, why would I stay in the apex u??? Why should I burden myself if I can have much better quality of life out there?? The management need to look into this matter or else I’m very sure they will lose more and more staff very soon (brain drain)..I don’t see USM can do much in terms of salary scale because it based on JPA but I’m very sure they can come out with some competitive incentives. At least the approach will motivate ‘money oriented’ person to work much harder..:-)) Well, those ‘tukang tempek’ can also ‘tempek’ the benefit of it (if you know what I mean? ).

I’m very sure money will be pump in for research purposes. I just hope they distribution of ‘wealth’ is more transparent and not only for senior staff. They should check who actually do the work.. Reward the research grant NOT based on the background but on the research plan. As MOHE said, apex is about the FUTURE not about the OLDEST/ SENIORITY..

I also hope, the university will set up a service centre that has the state-of-the-art facilities for research purposes in all campuses. The equipment must be handled by at least research officers with master/PhD degree that have patient in the equipment they are handling. I would say, even if we have sophisticated equipment if nobody really makes full use of it end of the day it will become white elephant.

Enough said, will add more from time to time...