Weird...Freaky!

Sigh...

Alright...I've taken a long deep breath. So where do I start. Well after my last blog. Things were doing rather ok for me. By Thursday night, I was completely zonked out-I almost lost it! Hehe...just ignore that line. Yes, I was zonked out!

But then, I had this attachment briefing to attend the next day at 9am, and work after that. So, basically it was a 9am-9pm thing. Did it matter that I was up as early as 6 a.m.? Sigh...

So yeah...rushed over to faculty after dropping Yat off at work and sat through the briefing. It ended at 10a.m. So headed over to McDs to get Krystal's Filet Meal. Got in work early. But we had to deal with this irritating new full timer so it wasn't very a good day after all. But that's all I'm saying about Friday.

--->FASTFORWARD to SATURDAY...

Saturday morning...

After picking Yat up from Kelana Jaya, he dropped me off at Damansara Perdana. I was a little late and all but managed to get on my feet as fast as I could to accommodate the customers that were crowding the store. Pei Yee was the manager of the day and Izzati was working as well. Just the three of us, so we really had to run all day until, finally, there were lesser people in the shop.

Occasionally we would crack jokes (like how we always do) and to me, it seemed like a normal day at work. Each trying to help each other through. All we wanted was for the day to end but at the same time reach sales target. Aren't we GOOD employees? Hehe...Some would beg to differ. I couldn't care less! I'll say what I want =)

By 8.00 p.m., the crowd dispersed and I was a little alarmed, because it was, for a fact, Saturday! Girls usually come in to get their clubbing attire and so on. Only 2 to 3 ladies came in to look around and try on clothes. This made all of us lethargic as we had like RM700 to go to hit the RM4500 target that day, not to mention our bodies were hurting and aching!

Then at 8.30p.m, only two ladies remained and we left them to try on clothes in the fitting room while Pei Yee settled the accounts. As for Izzati and I, we chatted and cracked jokes. Then something weird happened.

According to Pei Yee, while she was on the phone, she was looking at the CCTV monitor. Then she slowly hung up after seeing something peculiar. The only line she managed to utter to get our attention was, "Eh, sape perempuan tu?" Izzati and I moved closer to the end of the counter to look at the screen as well. There were four screen divisions so we looked at all four. Just when I was about to ask where, on the bottom left screen (which indicated the CCTV located just beside of the counter) showed a lady with long hair, in a white dress and a red belt. Now, here's the freaky part. According to the CCTV monitor, the lady appeared to be walking pass the discount corner which was situated a few steps away from the counter. And we were aware that the only customers left were the ones at the fitting room. The CCTV had no access to that area.

So guess how freaked were we? Some 'thing' was walking right in front of us, and we were looking at it through the CCTV monitor. Thing is, SHE WASN'T AT THE DISCOUNT CORNER!!! NO one was!!!!

Right after that, we just closed our mouths and tried to breath properly. I could feel my eyes tearing up. And even though my vision was blurred and my mind was cloudy, I was still aware that the three of us had to survive this until 9pm. Of course, it wasn't easy...I almost lost my mind during that half an hour having to remember was just occured. The two customers finally emerged from the fitting room and paid for their items. We kept so silent that I felt that if they asked anymore questions I would have burst out saying, "Don't leave! Please stay with us until we close up." That wasn't going to happen. So I called Yat up and made him dash to the store. After we closed the door, Izzati and I had to move round the shop to switch off the aircond and spotlights. My legs were relunctant to move while we headed to the end of the shop. Oh God...how am I ever going to enter the back store without having to remember the 'thing' that is roaming around the shop? My heart was beating so fast. I swore I could hear Izzati's heart beat fast as well as we held hands and tried as fast as we could to clear up. After we punched our cards, Yat called to tell me he was in front of the shop. I rushed to let him and Sarr (Izzati's sister, also a good friend of mine) into the shop. It was difficult to summarize the story in a short span of time so I gave them only the important details. Faham-faham saje la kan.

After closing up, we headed downstairs. It was clear, that we were all traumatised by what had occured but to keep talking about it, wouldn't help either.So we didn't do much talking and got into our respective vehicles and headed home. But I wouldn't consider this as a solid reason to leave the job. As Krystal said, at least those 'things' wouldn't harm you the way humans do. Due to that, I will keep strong and continue working. Today, I took a day off to clear my head. I have had some difficulties sleeping but hopefully I get over this as soon as I can. I mean, how will I ever get to explain this with LOGIC? There is no way that I can.

I have not been an avid believer of such an occurences, but now I do. I used to listen to the stories of others and was only left half convinced of the truth. My deepest appologies. I do now. It exists...in the eyes of 3 people on Saturday night, made it so evidently true. But no, I will not question the logic to this. It'll drive me mad, like I'm not mad enough already...Hehe...C'est La Vie

Reflective Journal-Week 5

WEEK 5
Date: 7th of July 2007
Location: Bilik Meranti

Back to Bilik Meranti. We have finally moved away from the topic on marriage and discussed word mapping. In a handout given by Madam Ruth, she demonstrated what a word map was. It was somewhat like a mind map, but it dealt with words. As easy as it sounds, it wasn’t all that easy as we had to link a word by breaking it down to two or more aspects and describe the usage of the word by adding commonly used phrases, idioms, collocations and so on.

We were all divided into groups to work on a word. We decided on the word ‘Fear’ of which was to be presented in the following class right before our quiz. To assist us in getting the word map done, we used our dictionaries and a thesaurus to look at the collocations and the appropriate ways to use them. We also added some phrases and some idioms to make our word map more interesting. We completed our task by inserting the word map into Power Point form, ready to be presented in the next class.





WEEK 5
Date: 9th of August 2007

I had a severe toothache the night before as my wisdom tooth (or more like teeth) was growing. As the pain was unbearable I had to go on Medical leave leaving the task of presenting the word map to my fellow group members. I was also unable to attend the quiz.

Reflective Journal-Week 4

WEEK 4
Date: 31st of July 2007

Over the weekend, I had injured my right badly due to an accident. Therefore I had missed YET another class with Madam Ruth. From what I learnt for my other classmates who attended this class, they were still discussing the word ‘marriage’-to annul, to agree, to consider and to avoid. A topic I found rather interesting. I’m sure I would have loved it.

WEEK 4
Date: 2nd of August 2007
Location: Bilik Komputer
Today, we were allowed to use the Internet and explore Wikipedia! We were first asked to surf on the significance of a wedding ring and what it meant in certain countries with different cultures.

We then came to the topic of the laws of marriage as well as Iranian marriage. Somehow, we sidetracked a little and talked about culture and the significance of having piercings. Some of us question whether it is a custom or a mere trend. Madam Ruth asked us to surf terms such as ‘nose piercing’ and ‘tongue piercing’, and much to my amazement, the history to how these so called trends came about was basically due to culture. Only now, it has become a trend amongst the teenagers to get them. In the articles that I read online, it also explained the risks and how to maintain such piercing which I find rather a hassle but who am I to judge as I have yet to get a nose piercing or get my tongue pierced. The furthest I have gone is getting my naval pierced and that didn’t last long as it got infected. If only I had access to Wikipedia, I would have known how to take care of my piercing at an early stage.

Later on, we were given a sample quiz to practice for our upcoming quiz on the 9th of August 2007. I fared rather well although I don’t want to get all cocky as who knows how the real quiz may turn out to be?

Reflective Journal-Week 3

WEEK 3
Date: 24th of July 2007 and 27th of July 2007

We spent more time in the computer lab exploring the Longman Language Activator. One of the words we were asked to look up was the word ‘marriage’ in the sense of its meaning, words related to it, what was monogamy and polygamy as well as other cultures in other societies.

The Activator had really good functions. It was colourful, it had pictures and we could also hear the correct pronunciation of the words by putting on the headphones which were provided with each computer.

I, for one, had a really good time looking up the meaning of words I have been dying to use for my future blogging.

Reflective Journal-Week 2

WEEK 2
Date: 17th of July 2007

Due to a bad case of tonsillitis, I was absent from class as I was on Medical leave. From what Emma had told me, we were all assigned to prepare a journal by the end of the 6th week (This journal!) as well as a group presentation on Culture. I had missed out in a handout with a rather catchy and I’m sure was an interesting topic, Marriage.


WEEK 2
Date: 19th of July 2007
Location: Bilik Meranti

I’m finally back on my feet. And feeling rather out of place since I had missed the previous class, I prayed hard it wasn’t something ‘too’ important! We were given handouts. On the piece a paper, there were bold words printed on it, “Know your dictionary.” I knew I was about to learn something interesting today as up until today, even if I do know how to look up for the meanings of words, I DO NOT know the correct way of using a dictionary.

The front page consisted of an extract of a dictionary of where the meaning block was shown. By looking at the word and its numerous meanings, we had to try to answer some question by providing meaning of the meaning block. This is how I learnt how to analyze the meaning of a word to make sure that it can be used in suitable situations. It’s not just a matter of picking and choosing which meaning you prefer but more of the appropriacy of the word, its collocation and the context of the word.

I found this task rather challenging although it did not dampen my spirits in improving my vocabulary. When time was up, we discussed the meanings and how suitable these words were for different situation and how these meanings could possibly mean different things. Wow!

The second exercise was somewhat the same, although we also had to find the right definitions for the words and apply the right words to fits definitions which have been given. Sounds complicated? Well in simpler terms, it was basically an exercise where we had to fill in the blanks with appropriate words which best fit the definitions already given.

Reflective Journal-Week 1

WEEK 1
Date: 10th of July 2007
Location: Bilik Meranti

Today was the first day of class for me for Vocabulary for the Social Sciences and to be honest, I have no idea what this course is all about. Of course, I did not pick it out at random just to fill my credit requirement for external electives. I have to admit, I had already decided taking it previously but somehow I couldn’t find a proper time slot which would suit my time table at the Law Faculty.

I didn’t get an opportunity to listen to Madam Ruth’s introduction on the course in full as I had arrived late. There were only three students already in the class so it somewhat made me feel ‘less’ embarrassed for walking in late.

Madam Ruth’s introduction was smooth and comprehensive. Thank Goodness I had no difficulty in catching up with what she was trying to say. She was talking about the usage of the right words to describe something, may it be an object, an emotion, anything! What she was curious to know was the method that we used to remember a ‘new’ word that we’ve learnt or rather, if we even bothered to use it or look it up in the dictionary for its meaning.

I could see that Madam Ruth’s approach towards in encouraging us to find and use new words rather subtle. In other words, she made me feel inspired to read more in order to improve in my vocabulary. But of course, this did not mean I could just forget the technical aspects of vocabulary-something I have overlooked over the years of learning English. This is mainly due to the fact that I converse mainly in English and I guess in a way I have personally assumed that my English was alright, well, at least not that bad and that the technical aspects of vocabulary such as phonetics and grammar was learnt only by linguistics majors. How wrong was I? No wonder I difficulty in pronouncing new words or worse, had no motivation in using a newfound word. For one, I didn’t know how to pronounce some.

Madam Ruth explained about prefixes, suffixes and affixes on the whiteboard. And later on, she touched a little bit on phonetics. I know there are reasons to why certain things are in the dictionary. I realised what such a big loss it was for me for not paying attention to the words in little brackets after the word I was looking for in the dictionary. According to Madam Ruth, these were the right way to pronounce the word as there could be many correct ways to pronounce a word depending on whether you are in Britain, America or Australia. And that was a very interesting fact because all along I thought that those were the ways these people from different speak. But to get it all codified in a dictionary? I was getting really amazed with what I was learning.

Later on, Madam Ruth taught us the right way of pronouncing the word, meringue, debris and almond. She taught us what was a stress mark (which is like a little apostrophe on the top of a word) and demonstrated how to use the stress mark. A stress mark basically indicated which part of the word we have to stress on in order to pronounce it correctly.

Then, Madam Ruth listed out several words, such as presentation, vitamins, director, direction, sherbet or sorbet and how these words are pronounced correctly in the context of Britain and America. She also mentioned the word rendezvous, a French word which was commonly used in English. Deep down, I knew very well that I wanted to use that word in many occasions, but just didn’t know how to. Now I do.

We were all given handouts towards to the end of the class, of which Madam Ruth made us describe our feelings about learning vocabulary and the methods available when learning a new word, in order for us not to forget to incorporate the word into our vocabulary. The methods as explained by Madam Ruth came in forms such as by listening and later asking someone the meaning of the word in order to remember it better, visual learning, where a person usually remembers a word by visualizing the word by relating it to a certain object and finally, to stumble across a word and just plainly dismissing a sophisticated word. Only if the word is important enough, then will the person look up its meaning in the dictionary. Sounds a little bit like me. In fact, it’s a little bit of everything. Sometimes I do ask people of the meaning of the word I’m unsure of, depending who the person is. Of course, I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself by walking up to just anyone! Regarding visual learning, I must say it is one of the most effective ways to remember a word. I mean, yes, visualize ANYTHING you want (because it is only in your head) but somehow or another, I remember words better that way. Last but not least, the most ‘correct’ approach in learning proper English is to look it up in a dictionary. It is without a doubt, time consuming but it will be worth while once you get used to it, I guess. So where did I put my dictionary?

The final task was to describe our attitudes towards learning English. The first thing that came to my mind was my constant blog reading and eventually (I hope) my own blog writing. I wrote about how by reading the blog of others, I would occasionally stumble upon words I am unfamiliar with. Usually, I would just dismiss the word or worse try to assume its meaning. But when it does bug me and sparks my curiosity, then I get more motivated to find out its meaning. One good reason why is that I do inspire to become a good blog reader and how on Earth am I going to achieve that if I keep missing out in incorporating good words in my vocabulary. I wouldn’t want to see myself being a dull blog writer someday and say, “I know that word! I should have used it!” Well for one thing, there a lot of ‘could haves, should haves and would haves’ out there, but I’m glad I decided to take this class.



WEEK 1
Date: 12th of July 2007
Location: Bilik Meranti

A second hand out was distributed to day. Task Two was to see what we knew about English vocabulary. Deep inside, a voice was screaming TECHNICAL! GRAMMAR! I was unaware of what an active vocabulary or a passive vocabulary was. Surprisingly enough, there was exactly what they meant. Madam Ruth encouraged us to activate our passive vocabulary and BANNED generics today.

Then we were asked to explain what it meant when we say, “I know that word!” Believe me when I say that I have uttered that line so many times but I don’t really know what I’ve done to help myself improve. To know a word is to know who it is spelt correctly, pronounced correctly, used correctly, the right collocations, appropriacy and so on. Now that is a really big task to fulfil when we are learning up a word but I figured that with a dictionary at hand, it couldn’t possibly be THAT bad, right?

Later on we were given six new words to learn up-cantankerous, bauble, insatiable, crème de la crème, kleptomania and claustrophobia. At first we were asked to think of what these words meant. Just by looking at these words, there were some that I already knew but some were just hard to guess. In a normal situation, I would have ignored the word. But this time, there was a big desire for me to grab a dictionary and find out their meanings. Then, Madam Ruth gave the meanings of the words with relevant examples. For instance for the word bauble, she showed us what a bauble looked like and I must say, until today, I still remember what it is. There were different kinds of examples for each word. I had visualized some by relating them to something familiar (such as my aunt for cantankerous and the actress Winona Ryder for kleptomania). I was amazed at how my brain was absorbing so much within so little time. Is this due to the fact that deep down, I was really curious to know the meanings of these words? Well Madam did ‘unleash the lions and tigers’ in all of us. We’ll be hunting down new words to satisfy our hunger for a better vocabulary!

The 'checklist'

I am MARRIED to my Starbucks organizer. I jot everything in there-appointments, birthdays, deadlines (datelines?), birthdays, anniversaries, homework, pay cheque, reminders, shopping list, notes and post-its that I receive from my friends (Emma, especially!), important receipts, movie tickets, a pamphlet on how to customize my own Starbucks beverage. Yada yada yada...!

BUT I have given up on keeping a diary. One upon a time, when I was between the age of 16 to 18, I had volume 1-5. Serious! I recorded my feelings...everything I felt! And to the ones who think that diaries are all about 'dirty secrets', think again.

I consider my diary something to 'remind' me of the day I was feeling so and so...

Nowadays, I haven't got time to really sit down and extract everything I have in my head to the point that I become forgetful. Yes. SCATTERBRAIN. A better word to describe my pathetic condition. It's not like I have a wand like Dumbledore who could literally extract his memory and store them in some magic 'whatchamacallit'. I don't even know what its called. Or if J.K Rowling even gave it a name. She's not to be blamed anyway...

Over the week, I have been thinking hard of a possible career change. Well, not a CAREER per se. Its just a term I use as I am studying full time and working part time. Sulastri does it too. So it's not something foreign. If you ask me whether I can handle it, well I'm not complaining.

I earn enough for petrol, groceries, rental, photostat money (crucial for a Law student!) and also for the occasional lepak activities I have with my pals or SA members. So, really. I'm much happier with my financial situation at the moment as compared to the previous years.

I loved teaching tuition in my first year in UM, but deep down, I felt a certain guilt towards my students as I didn't know if I was teaching enough to help them score in their tests and exams. I was even considering how guilty I'd feel if they didn't manage to get a place in university. It wouldn't be entirely my fault, but I would think that just a 2% contribution is bad enough. Rizuan, wherever you are...and if you happen to be reading this, thank you. Your A1 made me the happiest tutor alive. It was a good 'retirement' gift. I owe you one dude. You worked hard. You deserved it! It just shows you that if you're into just the money and think that by tutoring, you could earn more, well you could. But there is a form of responsibility that comes with it. But I've said enough.

Basically, I need a checklist. Every Sunday night, I usually refer to my organizer and jot down all incomplete tasks in a piece of paper with hope that I'll get it done before the coming week ends. Guess what happens? By Wednesday, I've got five different papers (some ripped at the edges, post-its, other people's post-its, scraps of receipts and whatnot) with somewhat similar reminders. And nothing has been done. In some of the checklists, I have less tasks. And some checklists have too many words 'Urgent' that I can't prioritize anymore. What's next? Semi-Urgent? Not so Urgent? Extremely Urgent? Too Urgent? Sigh...I don't even have enough words to scribble on my more than one checklist to emphasize how disorganized everything is.

So...one step at a time. Priority: Quiz and Jurisprudence tutorial.

I will keep those two in mind. And to the rest..hmm...could I have a pen and ANOTHER paper, pls? Argh!!

Suggestions PLS!!!

Hello Monday...

Less than half an hour to Monday. I'm trying my best to reflect on what i've done in the past few days. Lectures, tutes, work, lepak...

I was active this recent week. I felt energetic and enthusiastic about lots of things THEN.

But now, I'm getting a worried.I'm fretting over my presentation on Wednesday and my Vocab quiz. Not to mention, the journal I have YET to complete and finalize by the end of this week...

Should be blaming myself for procrastinating. Should be getting some work done.

But yeah...something is bothering me.

Should have realized by now that i caused all this self-inflicted pain.

Should have used my head. Should have...this and that. Point is, I DIDN'T.

So does that make me a brainless idiot?

Answer me that. Wait. Let me answer that. But then again, do I give a rats a$$?

'Nuff said.

Slowly but surely...

It's not just a phrase I'm using to excuse myself from the tonnes of work I've got to do since I missed 3 days of lecture. Influenza...bla bla bla yada yada yada...

My own fault for not taking care of my health.

But really, I really mean it. Slowly but surely.

I used to think that it was impossible to achieve something for certain in a lackadaisical manner.

Thats where people get the phrase totally wrong. What it really means is that, no hurry. Do it slowly, do it well, perfect in every sense of the word and there, YOU HAVE IT. A masterpiece!

Sometimes, rushing while getting something done puts you at risk of doing it all over again (amendments, corrections, errors, you name it! Flaws come in different shapes and sizes, not to mention its intensity! Erk!)

What are you going to do when your mistakes are beyond repair? Like when you stain your white shirt with ketchup and to make matters worse, being in such a hurry to remove the stain, you RUB the stain in until it smudges all over your white shirt! Believe me, clorox-it all you want, but a stain like that, lives forever. Maybe not evidently on your shirt after the amount of Vanish, Kao Bleach, talcum powder and whatnot that has been applied on it, but mentally...Heaven knows.

White shirt=ketchup stains (Erk!)

So...choice is in your hands.

As for me I'll resort to the Road Not Taken.

Influenza....

We all know the basic symptoms of flu, right?

Well...I can't smell, I can't taste, I can't breathe properly.

Sigh...

And! I'm going to get left behind.

Thank goodness Emma let me borrow her notes. Thanks a million dearie.

Mock Trial Preview 2007/2008

As usual both Faseka and I were the registrars. I was observing the new talents in the Mock Trial 'Industry'. These ppl without a doubt are very talented!!!

Although it was just a preview, I have to admit that it did turn out well even though we didn't have much time to rehearse. Thanks to the director, by 4.45 p.m we were all ready to stage our performance in front of the juniors and (yes, my dear 'kawan-kawan seangkatan' and fourth year students at the back at the hall)

Sigh...I can only imagine how hard it was for the juniors to hold back their laughter.

All in all...

Yeah. I agree, Ika. It's time to retire. =)

Friday. No classes. Time to get some chores done!

I managed to watch Harry Potter:Order of the Phoenix last night at 9pm. It was fantastic! [Thanks, Yat!] Since Monday, the only word that I can use to describe my first four days of my third year in UM is...CHAOTIC.

My major concern, registration of tutorials have (finally) been dealt with! Procedural aspects, checked!

Now, its time for me to deal with the mental and emotional aspects. To gear up for this long, long and cumbersome (I'm not complaining!) year. Besides all that, I really do want to turn a new leaf this year. I don't know if I actually can but you can't blame a girl for trying right?

I turned 23 during the three-month break. Well...like I had expected...it's not good to expect too much! So I got what I wished for:some time to sit down and reflect on my past, present and at the same time do a little bit of planning for my future. Not easy, but I survived.

I'm still pondering on whether I'd be strong enough to tackle full time studies and a part time job at hand. It's not like I have a choice. I started working during my exam leave last semester and had to plan my time REALLY well in order to get enough studying done and at the same time fulfill 9 hours of work. I managed to go through with the exams with slight problems. But will I be just as lucky as the last time?

Determination! That's what I need.

And motivation!

As for now, let me get some chores done. The house is filthy and I'm expecting a VERY important guest tomorrow. Yeay yeah!!! Till then...


'Nuff said.

~JeN~

I've moved.

Vee was right. Xanga was getting a lil too congested not to mention the hackers.Sigh...