MY UTM CLASS 2010

Lucky enough, I am given the chance to teach in UTM again this semester. I heard only three part-timers are taken. This time I am teaching students from Fakulti Alam Bina (Built Environment Faculty) and only two people from another faculty. For the first time I have international students, three girls from Indonesia, and they speak English quite well. And I am quite happy because there are only 27 students in my class.

with Razman and Puteri, the girl from Padang Sumatera

And the guy in black is Iziq, the class monitor

We had a replacement class today, to replace a class in the forthcoming week. As I need a few pics for my blog, so I asked the few remaining to pose and they promptly agreed.

The people in the photo:
Iziq, Puteri, Razman, Hazwan, Rika, Husna, Saiful,
Farid, Dila, and the other one I think is Diana. See,
I remember people's names.

As I thought the rest had left, a handful of them were outside waiting (for what or whom, I did not know) but they seemed excited when asked to get into the limelight. So, a replacement class was not that bad after all, just by looking at the smiles on their faces and that guy giving a special pose at the back.

MOVIE REVIEW 10 - SHERLOCK HOLMES

David Downey Jr. looked more like Barry Manilow in the movie poster

Many friends from my FB recommended this movie. At first, I had a dilemma whether to watch or not, but after checking the schedule on the internet, I had no choice. Today was the last day so it was now or never, and furthermore the ticket was cheaper on a Wednesday.

So the movie is about Sherlock Holmes, the master of all detectives, old school style. Something like CSI, but there are no hi-tech gadgets to help him solve any problems. So what he needs are his amazing senses and deduction skills, as well as his strong knowledge of science. The movie looked quite serious to me but it was actually a comedy, and you could only laugh if you listened to the Britsh-accented speaking characters' dialogues real carefully. By the way, Robert Downey Jr., who played Sherlock Holmes, just won a Golden Globe award for his role in this film.

Great acting and entertaining in its own way but not many people will appreciate this kind of story. What more, too much science makes me a bit delusional. So you better go watch Avatar.

And I guess this could be the last movie for now. There are other things to do, and I have stopped reading for quite some time. But, you will never know.

PLAYING CHESS AT A MAMAK RESTAURANT AFTER 10 PM

The chess fever is back! My friend, Mr. Aziz, asked me to join him and his students for a chess practice at a nearby mamak restaurant. They are from SMK Tun Syed Nasir Ismail, formerly known as SMK Majidi Baru. They are working very hard for the coming chess competiton at district level this Saturday. When I thought my students come to school on Sunday mornings to play chess is already a big sacrifice, some people even go another extra mile. It was a short session but I think this was better than chit-chatting over teh tarik and roti canai.

So my students, our next chess team meeting will be at KFC Taman Universiti, 8:00 p.m. until midnight. Can?

KICKING OFF ON A SUNDAY MORNING

As usual, we have to sacrifice our Sundays for school activities. This is due to the fact that there is no free Saturday for all the students to meet. A school with two sessions and very limited space and time to gather people at the same time, so we are left with not much choice actually. Nevertheless, I am very happy that the students willingly come to school even the practice is held at the moment when everybody else is still soundly sleeping at home or watching television.

two ex-students who came: Mutalib and Haziq

the teachers: Mr. Hisham and Mr. Masrizal

The first group which was in school were the Kadet Bomba (Fire Brigade Cadets) boys and girls. The marching practice started last Sunday and today many more people turned up; there were about 74 participants. I just wonder if the number will increase next week, or will it be the other way around. We teachers have already some ideas in our minds for the upcoming activities and hope we can have camping again this year.


The other group who was staying at the school canteen was the school chess team. They also made their opening moves on the chess boards last week. They were preparing for the coming MSSD tournament which is scheduled to be by the end of this week. We emerged as the district champion last year but we are not that sure whether we can bring back the trophy this year, but we will try very hard.

I AM NO FARMVILLE'S FARMER - EP. 2

Not actually a farmer - basically the things I do are buying plants, moving the (heavy) flower pots here and there, and watering the plants regularly. The other necessary work is done by my sister. But still, I do hard work than those so-called farmville's farmers who do the farming work by a click of a mouse. It is always a pleasure to see the multi-coloured bougainvillea blooming constantly and the flowers will last for quite some time. Not that difficult to tend to, just make sure they get enough sunshine and water, and perhaps a bit of fertilizer once in a while. The utmost important thing would be tender loving care. In the Malay language, the flower is literally called paper flower because the structure and the thickness is just like a piece of paper.

I will try to get more plants for my house. Plants are supposed to be good. More photosynthesis means more oxygen. Now, this sounds more like a biology class.

[NOTE: I was just experimenting with my Olympus FE-5010 digital camera and the pics turned out quite okay, and I spent more time editing, cutting and pasting, the original photos. Perhaps I should start taking up photography. Now everybody wants to be a photographer.]

MOVIE REVIEW 9 - AVATAR

Yes, I know I am a bit behind time. But, better late than never. Recently it was announced that Avatar was ranked third in the box office tickets collection, behind Titanic and Pirates of Caribbean. So this was one strong reason not to miss this film.


The story line is quite simple: an ex-marine, Jake Sully, goes on a mission. He is being transferred into the body of a half monkey, half human kind of blue creature. So the creature (known as Na'vi) acts as an avatar to him while he navigates himself in other form in a different, exotic and mystical world. He tries to learn new things and in the end, he falls in love with a girl of the native and becomes one of them.

Intriguing story-telling, with magnificent pictures on the screen, you will soon find yourself being transported into a beautiful world where you can see things glow in the dark at night and you can ride birds and fly in the sky. DEFINITELY a must watch. Those who have not, you better hurry or else you must have missed a great movie in the history of mankind.

BOYS' NIGHT OUT

with Mr. Hisham and Mr. Faisal

with Mr. Zahidi and Mr. Faisal

We have been working very hard these first two weeks of school term so I guess everyone deserves a break. So it was a short night out; first at the cinema and then, a dipper (dinner+supper?) at a nearby restaurant.

There are suddenly too many interesting movies at the theatre. To watch or not to watch, that is the question.