A SAD ENDING

I am at the receiving end of my latest Scrabble game. My opponent is a Singaporen girl named Idilina Kamis. She has AI on her rack, while I am left with CNOUU. The Us make my move difficult. This is what the board currently looks like:

Now, I have several options, all of which will lead to my defeat.

1. Put CH, COL for 16 points and leave NUU (3 points) on the rack. My current points are 312, so 312+16-3=325 points. She may put PIA for 15 points and that's it. 316+15+3=334 points. 334-325=9 points difference. WORST.



2. Put COUP for 11 points and leave NU (2 points) on the rack. 312+11-2=321 points. She may put VIA for 7 points. 316+7+2=325 points. 325-321=4 points difference. BETTER.



3. Put UPON for 18 points and leave CU (4 points) on the rack. 312+18-4=326 points. She may put VIA for 7 points. 316+7+4=327 points. 327-326=1 point difference. BEST.



All these, of course, with the assumption that she will put the AI in one move. Hardly a miss.

Kelantan 3 - Selangor 0

Simply outstanding. Breathtaking. I was simply out of superlatives to comment on Kelantan's play this evening. All the goals were beautifully taken. The first goal came out of nowhere, but credit to Norfarhan for his effort.

The second showed that Akmal Rizal still has the talent in him which made him one of the feared strikers in Malaysian League. Oh, and what a good ball from the captain.

The third one was simply the icing on the cake. It surely calmed my nerves after Selangor seemingly got a grip of themselves with their bold subtitutions. Once again, Akmal Rizal was at the centre of things, squaring the ball to Badhri Razie to slot it home. Bravo!

See you in the semis, Kedah!

Mum is covering her face during the fogging

MY NEIGHBOURHOOD HIT WITH DENGUE

My neighbourhood, as recently as last week, had been fogged following a confirmed case hitting my neighbour's daughter. My advice:

PLEASE OBSERVE CLEANLINESS
BECAUSE IT IS A PART OF OUR FAITH

Some interesting facts:

Poster kesihatan: Penyakit Denggi

Denggi: Kelantan kedua tertinggi selepas Selangor - Sinar Harian

Wabak demam denggi semakin serius di Kelantan - Mstar.com

I LOST MY BATTLE AGAINST 'BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH'

Yesterday, my colleague asked me to look at her problematic laptop. What happened was the occurrence of a black screen with only a movable cursor after booting Windows 7 Ultimate. When I googled the problem, the term 'Black Screen of Death' appeared. It seemed that the problem has been troubling users for some time now. Many solutions offered, but none of it could be used to solve her problem.

I used my laptop to surf for solutions. I surf websites, and even youtubes. One of the websites I found detailed the fix, but it was useless for this laptop. This is because I had to pop open the task manager, whereas I could not do so because, after hitting the ctrl+alt+del keys simultaneously, the options on the screen just read = 1.Lock this computer, 2.Switch user, 3.Log off, and 4.Change a password. Then I restarted the laptop and pushed f8 while the Windows loading so that the Advanced Boot Options screen appears. I tried each boot options including last known good configuration, safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc and still left dumbfounded. Then I tried the option Repair your computer, eventually a screen appeared. I tried Startup Repair with no luck; it scanned and finished without repairing anything. Then I tried System Restore also with no luck because, sadly, there was no restore point. When I came down to the dreaded Command Prompt (I said 'dreaded' because I never learn how to use the command; I grew up with Windows), I managed to open the task manager. This was only after I learn some commands from the Wikipedia. I typed explorer.exe in the new task box, but a dialogue box appeared saying 'Windows cannot find explorer.exe'. I tried a suggestion from this youtube also, but to no avail.

It seemed that I had failed to find the solution, and had to return her laptop as is.

School Hari Raya Celebration

We wore our Raya clothes to school. We brought some cookies and cakes. We studied in the morning. We started the celebration at 12.00 p.m. We ate with teachers and friends. We dispersed at 1.00 p.m. We were happy.


Questions:

1. What is the basic form for the above verbs in red?

wear, bring, study, start, eat, disperse, are

2. How can we make the story more enjoyable to be read?

by using connectors (e.g. then, after that, finally), adjectives (e.g. beautiful, shiny, yellow) and also adverbs (e.g. happily, also, approximately).









Example of a better writing:

Today, we wore our beautiful, shiny, colourful Raya clothes to our school. We also brought with us some delicious cookies and cakes. As usual, we studied attentively in the morning. We only started the celebration at 12.00 p.m. Then, we ate heartily together with our teachers and also friends. Finally, after enjoying ourselves, we dispersed at approximately 1.00 p.m. We were very happy.

New Sultan Kelantan Proclaimed

The is only one thing in my mind when the new Sultan of Kelantan was proclaimed yesterday - Are we still going to have two days off for the Sultan's birthday? We have had our holidays on the 30th and 31st of March every year, but the new Sultan being born on Oct 6 raising the question in some, if not all, of the Kelantan people. Nevertheless, congratulations to Sultan Muhammad Faris Petra for the proclamation, and I will support you all the way, as well as wishing you a successful reign.

Daulat Tuanku! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!

SALAM IDUL FITRI

We wish you a prosperous and happy Hari Raya

My Student's Common Mistakes

I'm halfway from finishing marking Paper 1. Here, I will compile some of the common mistakes made by my students in their essays.

1. Writing a sentence too long.

Lastly, thank you to all because success the speech today because you all hear the speech because it was boring.

This sentence consists of 4 basic sentences, and all the sentences are connected by the word 'because'. It is better for the student to write shorter sentences to minimize grammatical and structural mistakes. The above sentence could be written "Lastly, thank you to all. Today's speech is a success. You all listened to it even though it was boring."


2. Using wrong connectors.

I think the maintaining good discipline at the school is very important. However, it also can make (a student) become good forever.

Connectors add information, introduce a similar idea, give an opposite idea, and introduce the result. Using wrong connectors will disrupt the flow between sentences. The word 'However' in the second sentence above is wrongly used. It denotes that the idea in the sentence is a complete opposite from the first, although idea of making a student good is stressing the first idea of maintaining good discipline. Thus, the appropriate connector should be 'Moreover' as in this correction "I think maintaining good discipline at the school is very important. Moreover, it can also make a student to become a good person."


3. Confusion in placing the adjectives.

The problem discipline is the nail long, the hair long and other.

Adjectives are words to describe a noun, and they are always put before a noun they are describing. In the above sentence, the adjectives are put after the nouns. The students probably confused with Malay language which put the adjectives after the nouns - nail long (kuku panjang), hair long (rambut panjang). Even 'problem discipline' (masalah disiplin) is a confusion. The sentence should be correctly written as "The (examples of) disciplinary problems are long nails and long hair."


4. No finite verb in a complete sentence.

I the president of the Civics Club.

The golden rule is that in a complete sentence, there should be a finite verb. There is no finite verb in the above sentence. I (a pronoun), the (an article), president (a noun), of (a preposition), the (an article), Civics (an adjective), Club (a noun). The correct sentence is "I am the president of the Civics Club."


5. Disagreement between the subjects and its verbs.

We arrives at the market. I is very excited.

This is the most common mistakes of all. No matter how many lessons stressed on this particular grammatical problem, the students never get it right. They are still confused where to put 's' and where not to put 's'. Singular and plural are the same to them. The obvious correction for the above sentence is "We arrive at the market. I am very excited."

SPM TRIAL REVIEW

It was an unfortunate paper 2 experience for the students in my classes. The so called 'graphics-short texts' questions were full of texts only - no pie charts, no cartoons, no nothing! Even my brightest student only managed to answer 10 out of 15 MCQs correctly (I teach middle classes students). Most of the texts require the students to know synonyms, and considering the facts that these students are weak in their vocabularies, I am not shocked at how poorly they performed in Section A for paper 2. Section B was not kind also, it deviated from the usual 5 headers 5 short descriptions into 1 header only - TRISHAW - making it difficult for them to transfer the information from the longer description. For Section C, the text was an ordinary one - not too easy and not too difficult - but the students need to show some effort in order to answer them correctly. And for Section D, my targeted poem did not come out, instead it was substituted by The Road Not Taken, whereas the story Looking For A Rain God appeared as predicted. The theme 'greed' for the novel has been taught to the students, but as I have yet to mark that section, I can just pray that some of them do remember their lesson.

Literature Form 4 for SPM 2010 Students

SPM trial is just around the corner. In order to help those students who just woke up from their dreams, and found that literature materials for last year's Form 4 are hard to find at the bookstores, I will provide here some sample questions and answers. It is only a small portion, but I hope it will be helpful, especially to my lazy youngest brother.


POEM

Analysis past years questions:
2009 - Monsoon History
2008 - If
2007 - si tenggang's homecoming
2006 - The Road Not Taken
2005 - si tenggang's homecoming
2004 - Sonnet 18
2003 - Monsoon History
2002 - If
2001 - si tenggang's homecoming

From the six poems learned in Form 4, only There's Been A Death in the Opposite House does not come out yet. And next year, this list of poems is not going to be used anymore. I strongly recommend this poem, and I will give several questions based on it. (Please highlight or triple click under the questions for answers)

There's Been A Death in the Opposite House

1. What do you think had happened and where did the event take place?
- Someone had died in the house opposite the poet's house.

2. How did the poet know what had happened?
- The poet knew by the atmosphere that surrounds the house - dull and lifeless.

3. What atmosphere did the place hold?
- The place has a sombre and dismal atmosphere with an air of sadness.

4. Name some of the people that were mentioned in the extract.
- Neighbours, children and doctors.

5. In the line 'They wonder if it died on that', what does 'it' refer to?
- 'it' refers to the dead person.

6. Why do you think there were so many people going in and out of the house?
- The neighbours came to pay their last respects.

7. What was flung out of the window and why?
- A mattress was flung out of the window to prevent the disease of the dead person from spreading.

8. How does the poet react to this kind of event as a young boy?
- As a young boy, the poet looked at the funeral with curiosity.

9. Who seems to be in control of the situation and why?
- The minister seems to be the person in control of the situation because he is the one officially in charge.

10. What is considered as 'the appalling trade'?
- The 'appaling trade' refers to the undertaking services and other business related to death.

11. What does the phrase 'dark parade' refer to?
- The phrase 'dark parade' refers to the funeral procession which is going to take place with the mourners dressed in black.


SHORT STORY

Analysis past years questions:
2009 - The Necklace
2008 - The Sound Machine
2007 - The Lotus Eater
2006 - The Drover's Wife
2005 - Looking for A Rain God
2004 - The Lotus Eater
2003 - The Drover's Wife
2002 - The Sound Machine
2001 - The Necklace

From the five stories, all of them already came out twice, except Looking for A Rain God. Therefore, I will put here some questions and answers taken from the story. (Remember, this is only my opinion)

1. What reason did the family give for the disappearance of the two girls?
- They said the children died of unknown causes.

2. Did the people believe the family? Why?
- No. They felt that it was strange for the two girls to die at the same time.

3. What aroused the suspicion of the people?
- The unnatural looks of the family when asked about the two girls.

4. Who told the police the truth?
- The mother of the two girls told the police the truth.

5. What happened in mid November? What effects did it have on the land?
- The rain fled away and the land was covered with mist. It made it impossible to plant vegetables which will lead to starvation.

6. Who among the family were quite happy and why do you think so?
- The two girls were quite happy because they were too young to understand what is happening.

7. How did the two girls amuse themselves?
- They played a game of making house.

8. What were the feelings of the family during the drought? Give reasons for your answer.
- The family was in great despair because it was impossible for them to grow crops and their food is running low.

9. What was the problem that had caused misery among the people?
- It has not rained for a long time, causing a drought.

10. What do you think are the consequences of this problem?
- The consequences of the drought are less food and starvation.

11. How did the womenfolk react to this problem?
- The women broke under the strain by starting high-pitched wailing and stamping their feet.

12. What did Mokgobja remember from his younger days?
- Mokgobja remembered that when he was young, he had witnessed a rain-making ceremony.

To All Students, Good Luck in Your Trial!

Today the trial for PMR students starts, while the trial for other exams will start on the 17th. It will be the benchmark for the students as to how they have already grasp the knowledge given by the teachers in each subjects. All the efforts attending the classes and extra classes will count for nothing if they cannot interpret them into correct answers. For teachers, they will surely use the trial results to ascertain whether the school target will be achieved. Even more so, the NKRA stipulates that target should not be lower than that of the previous year - they should be higher by 3% at the least.

Sweat it out, guys!

C4FC Lost Again!

Our football team created a sensation when we lost again for the second time in a row. The news will surely fly across the map, and we will soon get many invitations to be beaten. It was surely a good market stunt, and at the same time, a good workout for our teachers. But surely using several kids to run us to the ground would be against the idea of a friendly game, when the focus was just winning it. That was what happened when we played SMK Long Yunus when they brought along several young men while our teachers were mostly aged 40+. Nevertheless, we were proud of ourselves, and the main objective of getting some exercise had been fulfilled. Good work, guys!

AEILRST*

.. were the letters given to the students for their word building, and they were taken from the Vocable game. They were divided into groups, and each had to construct new words from these 8 letters. The star could be used for any letters, and each letters could be used once only. Students used dictionaries to help them form the words. Words created using 4 tiles and above were given marks as follows:

4 tiles = 1 mark
5 tiles = 2 marks
6 tiles = 3 marks
7 tiles = 4 marks
8 tiles = 5 marks

The students were completely immersed in the task, and fought among them to get the highest marks possible. Some of the groups managed to form 7-letter words but none of them created 8-letter words. Some 7 and 8-letter words for consideration:


7-letter words

SALIENT
LITERAL
RATTLES
STERILE
RELIANT
RETAILS
TAILORS
STAPLER
REALITY
RENTALS
RITUALS
RECITAL
RELATES
TRIPLES
RETAINS
LITTERS
TRAILER
REALIST
LARGEST
SALTIER
STALKER
SERIALS
TASTIER
REALISE
WAITERS
DETAILS
REALISM

8-letter words

TRAILERS
RECITALS
REALISTS

One Evening at Parkson, KB

I was hurrying to get out of the mall with my wife and son when a salesman offered me a free souvenir. I knew if I took it, I had to listen to him for at least five minutes or so, and I was rushing for the Maghrib prayer. Nevertheless, I took it anyway (it was a mug) and he started:

Salesman: How are you, mister. Do you have a minute?

Me: Well, I'm rushing for Maghrib prayer. Thanks for this mug. It is free, right?

S: It won't take long. I just want you to write your name here, so that we know in our record that you already take the souvenir. One only for a person.

M: Okay (I wrote my name, but stopped before writing other details). Do you need all these details?

S: Just for the record only. In the mean time, can I promote you our product?

M: I told you I'm in a hurry.

S: It will just take 5 minutes of your time.

Before I could answer, he continued.

S: I want to tell you that by taking the souvenir, you are entitled for these two tickets. Open them. They will show you what you win among these great products. Or they could be cash vouchers.

I opened them. One RM100 voucher and the other showed two products - an air purifier worth RM4+++ and an oven worth RM2+++. It also had RM100 voucher written at the corner. I gave them to him.

S: Did you just win these two products? Well, I have to call my manager because normally only one product per ticket.

He promptly called his manager and gave me his phone. The manager confirmed with me that the ticket was redeemable.

S: You are so lucky. You won these two products (pointing at the oven and the air purifier) and also RM100 cash voucher.

M: Okay then, give them to me. I really got to go now.

S: But you have to use your RM100 for another of our products. You can choose from here (showing a catalogue of electrical products worth thousands RM each).

M: Can't I use the voucher another time. I really don't have time now.

S: No, you must use the voucher now. Or you will lose these two items (by now his assistants put two big boxes in front of me). You can bring these home now, plus the one you are going to choose. But first you have to choose which of these items you want to use the voucher for.

He continued by showing some calculations on how I saved around RM6+++ to acquire the three products. He also compared the prices with other items from other known brands and bloated that his products were much better. He stressed that the payment will not be in cash, but in monthly installment, as low as RM50 per month. Unknowing to him, I also made my own calculations, and concluded that it was not worthy. So, I politely declined.

M: Well, in that case, I'll pass. Thank you anyway for all the information.

And I left him murmuring and chatting with his assistants, presumably about how stupid I am to pass the opportunity. However, I knew I made the right decision, because I sincerely believed that all the three products combined together are not worth thousands. I didn't mind because in the end, I got a mug and they got nothing.

Family Outing

We were at Taman Indera Petra again. This time, there was a train ride. It took only RM2 per person ('Ammar was not counted because he is only 2 years old) to take the train ride. It didn't matter that the train only went in circles, but it was satisfying for 'Ammar. Of course, after an hour in the pool, that was. Then we played the slide before we went off to Euro Fun Park just behind the TESCO. This is the first day of the park, and we went there just before the sunset, so there weren't many people just yet. Entrance fee was RM3 per adult and no charge for 'Ammar. Inside there were many games to excite the visitors such as the Euro Wheel, the Challenger, and the Haunted House. A token was worth RM2, and to play each game we needed at least 2 tokens. 'Ammar wanted to ride the mechanical horse, worth 2 tokens for the rider, and 1 for those who accompanied him. Next we rode the Euro Wheel, worth 3 tokens per person, accumulated to RM12 minus 'Ammar who rode free of charge.

Top 3 Things I Hate The Most

There aren't many things I hate, because I always choose to be a loving person. But when I hate something, it must have been a real unacceptable behaviour, or something which is very intolerable. I will give you only three things I hate the most:

3. Smokers

Please, smoke at home. Don't make me a secondhand smoker. I have asthma, and smoke always makes me cough. I hate them most when they smoke at eating table; I feel that my food is contaminated by it.

2. Jumping queues

Every Raya, whenever I'm involved in traffic jams, there are always those who inconsiderate enough and jump queues. I hate it when they take the roadside, and create another lane to the left. They will try to get in at the front of the queue, and those who are fool enough let them in. I try to position my car so that the roadside will be very narrow, but it is not enough. I was very happy this one time when a car took the roadside just to be stopped by a policeman who patrolled the road and slapped the driver with a fine.

1. Manchester United Football Club

I have to admit, I hate Manchester United football team and everything associated with it very much. I am a Liverpool FC fan, although not very fanatical, I try to watch every LFC games live on ASTRO. The Red Devils tried to be the number one team in England by winning more league titles than LFC, but failed when Chelsea FC pipped them last season. I fully supported Gerrard when he accidentally gave the ball to Drogba culminating to their winning the title, thus denying the Mancs from lifting their 19th.

Taman Indera Petra, Kota Bharu

Yesterday I took my wife and son to Taman Indera, a water based park located beside the Kota Darulnaim. It is not as big as Tambun or Sunway Lagoon, but just for fun with your kids, it will do just fine. There are swimming pools of different sizes and depths, suitable for kids and also adults. There is no entry fee for the kids, but if you are escorting them you will be charged RM1. However, if you are 13 years old and above, planning to dive in yourself, you have to pay RM5.

Happy Teacher's Day

We celebrated Teacher's Day at our school today. As always, the celebration started with the addresses from the principal and the Minister of Education (read by PK HEM). Then, the main event started. The futsal game between the AP teachers and the non-AP teachers was won by the AP teachers with the scoreline 2-1. At the same time, there were also stage performances by the students with their songs, comedy, and also drama. Lots of presents were given to the teachers - from the administrators, from the students' bodies, from the class committees, or from personal students. I myself received several presents which include towels, mugs and also a ship from my class 5 Gigih. Thank you all, especially to Ahmad Maher and Class 5 Gigih!

Female Drivers = Careless?

I was at the parking lot waiting for my wife to finish her exam at the UKM Hall when suddenly I saw one of her friends walking to her car. She opened the back door, put her handbag at the back, opened the front door while pressing some numbers on her cellphone. Then, she started the engine from outside the car, and chatted a little before getting in. At that time, I thought 'Maybe she wanted to put something again at the back - she left the door opened'. However, after finishing the call, she closed the front door and started to drive away. I promptly waved, luckily she saw me and stopped the car to close the back door.

Now, what did that tell you about a female driver? It was nothing short than CARELESS. I am not going to make a generalisation, because statistics show that male drivers involved in more accidents than female drivers. Even the insurance companies acknowledge that male drivers pay more for their insurance than their female counterpart because of their risk factors. Furthermore, they are more obedient on the road than men; following all the traffic rules including the speed limit, while men tend to violate them. Nevertheless, if you want to make comparisons between the gender, then don't. Both have their pros and cons, with a fair share of risk factors, so to say that one is more prone to accident than the other is totally absurd.

I can see that they are indeed a very brave driver; sometimes too brave that I think male drivers do not even dwell of doing what they do on the road.

Now is that a male or a female driver? Pictures credit here.

References:

Female Drivers are Better than Male Drivers - A Proven Fact
Are Men Better Drivers than Women?
Female vs Male Drivers
Betulke Lelaki Lebih Hebat Memandu & Wanita Cuai Di Jalanraya?
Pemandu Wanita - Lembap atau Berhati-hati?
Pemandu Wanita vs Pemandu Lelaki