25 November 2011

A few weeks ago, I received an email invite for this Malam Kecemerlangan (excellence awards night) from the Institute of Education Development (InED), UiTM. It is a night to celebrate long distance students who's got on the dean's list during the 2nd, 3rd and 4th semester which I happen to be. Since it's free and it has been ages since I've been to dinners of any kind, I quickly replied yeah count me in.

So today I had my best shirt and pants on, shoes polished and even my favorite neck tie around my neck for the occasion. Actually I only have one neck tie, that black one that I bought from Tesco last week for 16.90. Thanks to 5 years of boarding school, I still remember how to wear a tie, effortlessly. The event was held at Shah Alam Convention Center we got there as early as 6:30 in the evening. Much to my dismay, most of my guy classmates decided they were too cool for this event and bailed. Well, it's your loss.

The event itself is pretty modest yet glamorous if you see how some of the girls dressed up. The food was so so and the awards-giving ceremony later on didn't feel that special especially when you have 200 other people getting the same accolade as you. Still it feels nice to be recognized by the university after all these while. Although we worked twice as hard and paid twice as much than the full time student, the university had largely ignored us for the past 3 years or so no matter how well we did.

For me, I had a good time. Good food, good company and the chance to dress up once in a while. Check out these photos from the night at my Posterous blog.

13 November 2011

As promised, every semester I would display my exam result here. Wait, did I really said that? I don't think so. Only if the results are good may be. But what the heck. I'm gonna put them up here whatever the result was. If it's really bad, let that be a motivation for me to do better.

So here they are. As you can see, I suck very much last semester. 1 A, 2Bs and 1 C. Although I can give you a couple of excuses you know like change of career, family and stuff, in the end the final result would reflect how much effort you put in at the beginning. Obviously I didn't attempt to do my best here. I didn't allocate enough time to study, I skimp on my assignments and I had this feeling that one or two of my lecturers last semester were dead set on giving us low grades

Anyhow, the conclusion is I am ashamed of this result. Having to do better next time would be needless to say. I don't think I deserve to receive that Dean's List award they're giving out next week.

9 January 2011

My first class for the 4th semester for my Diploma in Information Management starts today. For the past 3 years we've been meeting at UiTM International Education Center (INTEC) campus in section 17 in Shah Alam. Starting this senester however, class will be held at our very own Faculty of Information Management at Puncak Perdana. Since the new class is further away than before, I've decided to car pool there with my classmate who happens to live just nearby. We'll be taking turns driving there every class so that we can save cost and petrol.

The Puncak Perdana campus although rather far, has better facilities like classrooms with projectors and enough desks for example and complete labs for each related subjects. I can even see my company's name posted on most of the desks in the labs because we did supply and install many of the computers here some 7-8 years ago. Needless to say I must simply study harder and earlier if I want to improve my current 3.6 CGPA. That said, we have two subjects without final examinations this time although assignments and projects will still be plentiful. 2 of them are related to IT and my job description so I have no excuse but to excel this semester. So as I always, good bye blog. Time to study again.

10 October 2010

Hi friends! It's that time of year again to report my not-so-interesting academic achievements! Does anybody cares? Maybe. Well, to summarize my grades gone down a bit compared to last semester. For semester 3 I got 3.48 down from a high of 3.82 last semester. I must admit that this time it's a lot tougher than the 2 previous semesters.

The lecturer for English for Academic Purposes for example is one of the most fussiest and strict English lecturers I've ever learned with. Her attention to detail and standard is unbelievable. Our essays and assignments must be impeccable and outstanding and just ordinary would not do. I don't remember the last time I got anything other than A for an English subject but this time I got B+. I seriously think I'd had a better chance getting an A studying under Shakespeare than her. Human Communication in Information Agencies meanwhile is all theories and unless I had a photographic memory, it would be humanly impossible to remember all 9 chapters. Plus the lecturer didn't exactly give us a lot of clue or hints what might come in the final paper which is a killer paper by the way. I actually spent the 3 whole hours in the exam hall cracking my brain and yet I got just a B.

The other 2 subjects were okay although I'm quite surprised that I managed to clinch an A for Islamic Information Management. Management of Internet Resources which delves with HTML, CSS and creating a website is right up my alley so there's no surprises there. Okay enough about last semester. Registration is opening now and I must challenge myself to do much better next year.

15 June 2010

While sorting through my emails this morning, I received one from the UiTM Academics department. It was my exam result! I don't remember they ever doing this, sending exam results to students but it is pretty impressive considering their student portal website is almost always down this time of the year.

So how did I fair? As you can see below I did quite well this semester, even better than the last. Principles of Management was never easy and I think my average mark for my assignment affected the final score. Next time remember to do it with the top student in class (that's you Mrs Rock!). Islamic Civilization was quite tough but I got an A as well for that. As usual, thank you everyone for your help, my family, friends, lecturer, employee who gave me that 3 days leave to take these exams. Well, this is just the 2nd semester and we still have 6 more to go. Long way to go and I must continuously improve my results. You know I won't post them here if they were bad right? :)

All this week I'll be working at a client's office in Subang, replacing my colleague who is taking some time off this school holiday to be with his family. Is it just my feelings or does everybody have like 30 days off a year? Cause everybody seemed to take leaves every other week (not counting M.C and E.L). After my sister's wedding, Hari Raya and next semester's exams I will have like -2 days left of annual leave. Sigh.

21 April 2010

Examination time is here. As always, I spent the last couple of days revising. Didn't even have the time to update my blog or do anything online. Every time I opened my browser, I immediately thought what am I doing? I should be studying instead, like right now. Even both my elbows is hurt for sitting at this table for too long.

Islamic civilization and thoughts should not be that difficult of subject to score. That was what I thought initially. But then the lecturer didn't gave us any spot questions or any hints which topic to study so basically we have to read everything, all 5 chapters. So come exam time I was already stumped at the first question. Some of the were easy and clear cut but the rest was somewhat confusing. The essay questions were quite challenging to say the least. 2 hours is definitely not enough to answer all 4 questions. I thought I can nail this paper. After 2 hours I was more like a red-blue blur.

But that is behind me now. 1 down, 3 more to go.

15 November 2009

I woke up around 5:00 AM today meaning to do some last minute revision which I did. The thing is I kept glancing at the clock to see how much time I have left which instead created a sense of urgency and panic of some sort. Unlike some of the other papers that I sit for this semester, we didn't get any spot questions or real hints from our lecturer on this one. So basically we had to study and remember everything in the text book for the 3 hours paper.

Although I arrived an hour early for the exam, I can only continue reading for the first 30 minutes or so because I get rather distracted by the noise and the crowd building up around the hall. Most of my classmates were there, some opted to take their exams at UiTM branches elsewhere and one or two didn't show up again after the first class.

3 hours paper but most of us were finished before the 2 hours mark. I think only about 2 people stayed the duration of the 3 hours. If they didn't get full bloody marks then I don't know what the heck are they doing in there for the full 3 hours.

Now today is finally the end of the semester. When we first met, we were complete strangers but today a couple of months later it's like we've known each other for years, all thanks to Facebook. Some people call it the Jewish proxy for world domination or the easy way for Big Brother to watch on you but we can all agree on one thing, it did what it meant to do really well, connect people, family and friends. And surely that can't be a bad thing right?

So one semester down and only 7 more to go. See you guys all next year okay?

3 November 2009

Unlike last time, I am quite prepared with my second paper (travel-wise that is). We left the house a lot earlier and I took the long road with the least traffic and got there in section 7 45 minutes before time. Even had time to make some last time revision by reading the flash notes on my iPhone® .

This time I didn't leave the exam hall early though. You don't expect me to master every subject I take this semester do you? Yes maybe English is my forte but for the rest, I'm just as good as the next guy. For this Principals of Islam paper, I answered everything in part A and most of the questions in the difficult Part B. Since our 'very caring' lecturer didn't give us any hints or spot questions there's nothing much we can do except read on everything and hope for the best.

28 October 2009

I go about with my business as usual today. Send the kids to their nursery and give my wife a lift to the LRT station. By the time I left Sungai Besi it was still 7:30AM. I got like an hour and half to get to section 7 in Shah Alam for my final exam. On weekends or public holidays I shouldn't worry about getting there in time but on working days it's a cause for concern. Still after crawling for about an hour near HICOM, I managed to arrive at the exam hall 10 minutes before time.

I sat for my English paper today. The first part was easy since I only have to answer some subjective questions. For the second part, I had to write a short essay about 1Malaysia. Hah, I can't even stand to hear that word before and now I must write an essay promoting it? Are you serious?

Still, I'm not about to let my political differences interfere with my studies. So I cooked up some good words about the magical effect 1Malaysia has for Malaysians in about 300 words or so. I think my essay wouldn't be out of place if published in your local BN boot-licking paper today. 1 paper done, 3 more to go.

After exam I went home, clean the house, wash the dishes, do the laundry, feed and look after the kids and made my wife really happy when she came home later tonight.

3 October 2009

A month back, my faculty told us of a plan to organize a 'Pengukuhan Ukhuwah' (strengthening of the bond) program for students of the faculty at the Puncak Perdana UiTM campus. The program is scheduled for today and attendance is supposed to be compulsory hence why I attended it.

Check out my new post-chicken pox look. I arrived 20 minutes early at Puncak Perdana. Only a handful of other people were there first including the organizer lecturer and a some committee members. We had breakfast (provided for) first while waiting for the others to arrive. In the end, only 4 people from my class (of 20) showed up for the event. Overall I estimated about 25 people came today.

For coming and registering for the event, we were given a pencil, ball pen, a little notepad and an umbrella for our troubles. We listened to some speech and a few lectures from several (successful) alumni of the faculty which were meant to motivate us which they did, at least for me. The talks and seminar dragged on until lunch which were also provided for free by the organizer. The hujan panas rice (coloured rice) with mutton curry and spicy chicken were delicious and I casually left the event shortly after.

From Puncak Perdana I rushed home, shower and change and brought my family to my boss' Raya open house in Sungai Merab, Bangi. We got there around 3:00 PM, just in time. Surprisingly most of my colleagues were there although I heard rumours earlier that many of them won't make it to the occasion. We ate a little, took some pictures and left for our next open house at Desa Saujana nearby.

Maybe it's just not our luck but we simply couldn't find Desa Saujana anywhere today. We tried half a dozen roads, and explored a dozen more junctions but Desa Saujana was nowhere to be found. In the end I just gave up and head home. That's when Adam threw a tantrum and demanded that we go to Puan Hajar's house. He cried for hours today and only stopped when we promised to go visit the Alamanda shopping mall in Putrajaya tonight. Honestly, I would have let that spoilt brat cry his lungs out for all I care but since his mother bugged me to appease him I had to do something.

At Alamanda I suddenly had the urge to have a noodle soup, any kind but preferably laksa sarawak, javan or curry. Of all the eateries and restaurant in Alamanda today, none served the ones that I'd like to eat. All of them is either sold out or out unavailable. In the end I had to settle for a Hong Kong beef noodle at The Chicken Rice shop which was despite it's glamorous name is quite plain and tasteless. Regular yellow noodle and some beef and vegetables, that's all.

It's been a long day but I stayed up late nevertheless tonight to watch the Man U - Sunderland game. Damn, they almost beat United only to be saved by an unfortunate last minute own goal. Guess we'll have to beat them ourselves.

13 September 2009

Amazingly, in between watching Liverpool trash Burnley 4-0 at Anfield, I managed to finish my assignment and just in time to send to the photocopy shop downstairs for binding. I didn't do much reading for my test today though. Plan to do that in class today.

The exam today was obviously difficult, because I only studied last minute. A few boys next to me were blatantly copying from the text book but still had the audacity to peek at my answer sheet. What a loser. Even after opening the text book, still cannot answer one. It's not like I got all my answer correct or something.

One of the tests today was oral, for my single English paper this sem. We had to form a group of four persons and discuss the given topic. I did most of the talking today while the others just blurted a few lines. I simply must score in this English class. The last paper was a tough one. Still after that paper, the lecturer just had to continue with the class. Everybody was already tired and obviously cannot concentrate in class so late in the afternoon.

After class, that's around 6.00 PM I went to pick up Adam at my Mom's place. Adam may be a really naughty boy at times but today he told me he cried when he found out I wasn't around this morning. Poor kid. He's not so used being left behind with other people aside from his parent.

After breaking fast with my Mom, we head straight to the hospital in Kajang. That has become our regular routine every day since Friday and the next few days. Mia found her appetite at last. Although not much but it's an improvement. She still clings to her mother so dearly and cries from time to time. The good news is the doctor said she just might be discharged on Tuesday. The not so good news is her right foot is swollen after they injected her with something yesterday. I pray that it's nothing serious.

Tonight, it's just me and Adam alone at home.

19 July 2009

First class of the semester. There were slightly more guys than girls in my class today from a total of 27. I left all my moduls (text book) at home and I had to a peek at the guy and girl sitting next to me whenever I needed to refer to the book. Imagine my difficulty.

I wanted to sit up front this time around but since I arrived late, I had to settle for the usual back of the class spot. Next class, I simply had to come much-much earlier. An hour early at least. Made a few new friends in class today. Okay got to go now. This future librarian must study a bit for our next class on August 2nd. Yeah right.

21 June 2009

By the end of the day, I'm officially a student of IS 110, Diploma in Information Management. It's just a diploma not degree or PHD no big deal really. It's been one heck of a tiring day. My back aches from all the standing and queueing. I can run for 4-5 miles but standing in line is pure torture.

At least now I can brag that Yuna and I go to the same place. You can have her ring tone all for yourself Zeffri but me and Yuna, we are like buddy-buddy right now he he.

I'd like to thank my Dad for helping to make this happen. You know I can never repay your kindness. I promise to make it to graduation day this time as my sign of gratitude. Happy Father's Day.