Day 1 of Game Month at CreativeKids

It's the end of year and breaking tradition, CreativeKids is not taking a break but celebrating with a month of games, games and more games! And Day One was over yesterday with Rollercoaster Tycoon the Board Game and Pictionary.

With 18 kids over, all under the ages of 12, it's Kids:1, Daniel:0. I half expected the police to come for disturbing the peace. I seriously owe my neighbours something for their patience. Thank goodness both sides have kids, so they must understand or at least relate to how wild kids can get.

As I'm typing this, I'm reeling slightly from the sonic shockwaves that has left me half deaf, as well as trying to figure out where am I going to muster the energy for Days 2 through 12. If anyone wants to come and help, I will forever be in your gratitude.



It was fun though but gawd... any adult who thinks that they're in control are just misleading themselves.

Digitalia: the dawn of adventure

I am currently preparing a themed learning approach to Creative Writing for 2006 and would like feedback from you guys. Basically, students find themselves in the new world of Digitalia. They will each begin by colonising one plot of land from the world map.

As the year progresses, students will follow lessons that are linked to the world covering topics such as state building, governance, diplomacy, war, ecology, society, culture, symbols of state, festivals, race and more. Through completed lessons, games, and homework, students will earn gold coins that they can use to:

1. Exchange for prizes
2. Build cities
3. Build defenses
4. Build offenses

These are important depending on the student's approach to the game. They can focus on:

1. Development: Build their cities to the rank of a megalopolis of which they will be able to earn a weekly stipend of a goal coin.

2. Defense: Protect their colonies from invasion. Every five colony plots will earn a weekly stipend of a goal coin.

3. Offense: Build their armies to include mythical beasts and to arm themselves with a relic charged with a superpower depending on the land type (plains, mountains, seas). Every colony plot taken over will earn one goal coin but defeat will mean sacrificing the attacking unit.

Basically, students uninterested to pursue this concept will exchange gold coins for prizes. But more adventurous students can expedite their gold coin earnings through strategising. There will be a mechanism for attacking, defending, and building, all designed as incentives for learning participation and involvement.

If this works out well, teaching will suddenly be so much more easier although the initial set up is a little daunting. Will see what the year foretells :) but in the meantime, tell me what you think.

New Management

College group is undergoing some massive restructuring and rebranding, and with the move to the new campus next month, it's been crazy. I have my bosses changed and although the new ones are more approachable, they are also, for a lack of a better word... chinese. With all the extra work and meetings, I've almost had to run home in time for CreativeKids, which incidentally is doing very well. For the first time, most of my classes are almost full! Adding a new one next year :)

Anyways, these new bosses seem to enjoy meetings immensely. I don't know about anyone else but I think that overdrawn meetings are counter productive, especially when they are in the guise of discussion when in actual fact, it's just a venue for the boss to tell you what to do, albeit highly tactfully. If that's not bad enough, my current boss has a tendency to repeat anything he say at least 5 times. He probably thinks that designers can't figure out managerial stuff. This week alone, I've attended 10 meetings, with today alone having FOUR! And with each meeting averaging 2-3 hours, it has been excruciatingly excruciating.

On the plus side, I have come to realise that I enjoy pencil pushing. I am such a bureaucrat...

Happiness is being able to watch TV guilt-free...

After slogging through 16 months of sheer agony, having sacrificed many forms of entertainment and relaxation, it's finally over! I've completed my Masters! Although I've missed my target of a perfect score by 5.4%, I am still very much overjoyed and relieved. Was it worth it? Definitely... will I do it again? Err...

I'm now looking forward to December when CreativeKids will be having a month-long board game fest! And next year will be rocking with 2 new classes bringing the total to 5 in all. It's going to be hectic but fun!

I am such a workaholic...

Now all together... say 'KONICA'!

I've been mulling over getting a digital camera for years, literally. Being a techno-enthusiast, I've always been fascinated by all things digital. And photography is really an enjoyable hobby. Not so much for artsy-fartsy indulgence but to stockpile on memories.

I got my first digital camera when I was doing my industrial training in Seattle. It was called 'CoolCam', a transparent blue plastic camera with the ability to take pictures at 320x240 and record short bursts of 10 seconds of video. At USD20, it was fairly cheap at that time but obviously, with such low resolution and no flash, there were severe deficiencies.

After about a month or so, I got a Samsung Digimax that had a resolution of 640x480 (this at a time when 1.3megapixels was the highest and most expensive), AND it could play MP3 as well as double up as a webcam. At USD100, it was a steal since it was retailing then in Malaysia for about RM1200. This lasted me quite a good deal though pictures were still exclusive to emails and sites. You can barely print a decent photo at 640x480.

Now this was all 4 years ago. Ever since then, I've moved studying to working and the realities of adulthood caught up. Bills, setting up homes, and other costs has always inhibited buying a better digital camera... until now that is! Finally decided to get one, and with the nifty 0% instalment plan available, it's definitely affordable.

And after weeks of contemplating and reading tonnes of reviews, I've settled on the Konica Minolta Dimage Z20 because it's just cool looking :) Placed my order at the shop and now patiently waiting for it to arrive!

Dream bliss...

My old mattress has became uncomfortably bumpy with its springs protuding painfully from within. After almost 3 years of use, I guess it has served me well enough, especially considering the amount of time I spend in it (t doubles up as a sofa in my room). Also, at a cheapo price of aboutRM200+ from Giant, it's not exactly a long term investment. Anyways, all clues points towards a new mattress and with my birthday just around the corner, my parents decided to help get me one by paying half the costs.

I had a whole day of mattress shopping planned for with the shops and models plotted out. However, on an impulse, I dropped by a nearby shop during lunch and within 10 minutes, I had made my purchase.

I bought this King Koil mattress with all sorts of fancy medical claims from orthopaedics and sales pitches like double spring coils and reinforced side springs. It was much better than my old one in any case and at a hefty discount, can't complain. Since I saved some cash from the discount, I decided to get myself a bed frame instead and progress from sleeping on the floor. Got a wood one at also a heavily discounted price. The shop must be very generous, going out of business, or have all their products heavily hiked in prices. Hmm...

Anyways, when the stuff arrived, I struggled to install the bed (only 2 hours, groan) and dragged the mattress upstairs (I think it was at least 50kg and huge and took me only 30 minutes), I am now in seventh heaven in sleep comfort! Bliss...

How on earth is this news worthy?

Pet Monkey Escapes, Bites Boy on Buttocks

A monkey, apparently a pet, escaped, then chased a 12-year-old boy into his house and bit him on the buttocks in the western Malaysian state of Pahang, a news report said Friday.

The monkey, which was believed to be a pet animal because there was a chain around its neck, ran up and down the street in the housing area in Kuantan town as it appeared just after dusk Wednesday, scaring people into their homes, the Bernama news agency reported.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also, read a proposal by students who wanted to plan a day trip to the 'KL TOWEL'. Sounds like something out of a Sam and Max game. And considering how far away the 'L' and 'R' keys are located on the keyboard, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Oh September, How I Adore Thee

It's finally September, my most favourite'st month :) There's something about September that conjures up a whole lot of anticipation. First up, at this time, you could almost feel the year wrapping up. August is still too close to 'mid-year' to be counted but come September, and the year end is almost just round the bend.

Furthermore, September is very celebratory. So many of my dear family and friends have September birthdays so it's immensely rewarding. Just last weekend, I had an excellent trip back home to surprise my mom with a birthday dinner. Had to coordinate 3 aunts, siblings, and my grandmother to effectively keep the secret in force but it was well worth the 50 or so SMS'es and down-to-the-wire timing. I told my brother that I would pick him up at 5:55, arrive to surprise my Mom at 6:20 and proceeded to dinner at 7:00. I did it at 5:57, 6:21 and 7:00! And considering that I could only leave USJ after picking up my cousins, then my aunt at the KTM Komuter of which they boarded the 2:47 train from Sentral. It was just great and everything just fell into place. Must be good karma from good intentions :)

Also, there's the Melaka trip to look forward to although I'm still short of my needed 40 students. I have till Friday to wrap things up so hopefully numbers will pick up.

And joy of all joys, I am about 8 weeks away to finally completing my Masters... hopefully with a good finish! Juggling fulltime studies with work and part-time work has been an incredibly hell'ish 14 months but with the end so close, it feels just great!

Acting on Impulses

I imagine that come mid-life crisis, I would likely be the sort to drain savings (if I had any in the first place) to buy a flashy red sports car. Why do you ask? Because it seems that I am ruled by impulsive actions that I don't quite have much control over.

I was mulling about a thought, just before sleep one night, and it was quite a fanciful thoughts. With hindsight, most can agree that almost all thoughts in sleep/awakeness limbo is fanciful but then hindsight is 20/20. Anyways, I was mulling about how nice it would be to wake up in the morning and instead of going to work to classes, I can go on a trip instead.

So the next day, with the fanciful thought still dominating and hindsight nowhere to be found, I ran a small poll online, found 5 students who had some interest and then proceeded the very next day (still without hindsight) to prepare a proposal for a 2D1N educational excursion to Melaka at the end of the month. And in a record of sort, the bureaucratic multi-layered levels of authority seemed to align in singular thought this once and gave me permission, and a small budget, in a span of one day.

And with that permission, finally came hindsight. And hindsight spoke, 'You will be responsible for up to 40 students in bringing them across 150km and guide them through place after place from 8 in the morning to 10 at night for 2 days and how on earth is this preferable to comfortable office work from 9 to 5?'.

I have to say, I don't like hindsight very much, especially belated ones.

Blogplexing

I've been trying to figure out the reason for blogging. As much fun it is reading other blogs, maintaining 'jumbuck' has been quite challenging of late. Not so much for reasons of time but rather trying to decide what to share.

It used to be easy sharing life stories but in retrospect, it's probably way too revealing than I'm comfortable with now. It appears that most of us do tend to be quite loose with the sharing online, like effects of virtual alcohol. Way back then when the community started with mostly MMU'ians... it was highly therapeutic seeing how teenage angst still persists and the stress of jobs and bills came into play. But I guess now, most of us have settled down somewhat and it likely seems that there's nothing much to share that will be of interest to the rest.

My social bubble has changed quite a bit. I've lost touch with many uni friends and high school friends are geographically distant and basically out of mind. My social connections and lifestyle has changed and I feel that it may be disjointed from what my blogger friends can connect with.

For example, it's hard to relate now to Kotakkosong's rants and raves on capoeira and dance for example. It's her passion but I find it hard to emphatise. And seeing how it's pointless writing to an audience of none, I guess maybe this 'life stories' blogging thing may be running its course.

Furthermore, being in the public domain, well, anyone with enough determination can find you out and basically take a part of your life whether you like it or not. And since I don't believe in self-censorship, it seems ridiculous to have to consider what I say and what I put here.

Anyways, like many other post, this is just a rant. But things considering, probably the last rant for quite a while.

The Biscuit Legacy

I had my Creative Writing class with the youngest kids last night and I made the mistake of telling them about Biscuit in the beginning of the class. The usually rowdy class turned sombre and two girls started crying. They then had a barrage of questions including:

1. Why don't I quit work and stay at home with the rabbits?
2. What did the cat look like?
3. Why don't you go kill the cat?
4. Why don't we kill all cats?

It's definitely heart warming to see them being so involved and touched by Biscuit, even though they see him only once a week. Worse still is that my other 3 rabbits are in depressive mourning, refusing to eat very much and even declining treats. Biscuit the Brave definitely made a mark during his lifetime.

Biscuit the Brave, you will be missed...

On Saturday, July 30 2005, Biscuit, my dear brown bunny died after suffering fatal injuries. Although Biscuit has been with me for only over a year, he has done more for me than any other bunnies I've had.

Biscuit and Dominose was bought to keep my rabbit King Wombat company, after Wombat's brother, Wallaby Wallace the Fourth had to be put to sleep due to a degenerative muscle disease. The meeting between Biscuit, Dominose and Wombat was fraught with challenges. Wombat was in deep depression and the three male rabbits ended up fighting constantly. Biscuit being the biggest was immediately to blame for Wombat's wounds but only after Biscuit was taken out, and the wounds persisted did the real culprit was found, Dominose.

When the three of them were brought up to USJ where they had a bigger run in the backyard, Biscuit aggressively protected Wombat from Dominose, chasing him and even attacking him, while keeping Wombat safe. Sadly though, the severely depressed Wombat never recovered and he soon died from a flu infection.

Biscuit lived an interesting life as a free-roaming outdoor bunny who was very well fed as well as the unofficial mascot of CreativeKids. Every one of the 20+ kids knew Biscuit well. They played with him, asked about him, and he in turn rewarded them by posing quietly for pictures and enjoyed being stroked tremendously. Biscuit may not be very personable with people but he appreciated company and never declined a back rub.

When a friend had two rabbits to give up, I took them in and instantly, Mocha and Caramel became Biscuit's new friends. He took them under his wing, made them comfortable in the new environment and he even shared his meals. Mocha and Caramel, who were very fidgety and stressed from their previous ownership, became bunnies again and the three brown rabbits could always be seen together. After time, the bunny bond strengthened and Mocha and Biscuit became lovers and inseparable in my tiny backyard.

The last week, I suspected that Mocha was due to give birth, as she had ballooned out a bit and was keeping to herself. Plus, Mocha had created a nest for the future babies and even Biscuit was not his usual self.

On Saturday morning, when I went down to feed them, it felt strange that no one came out to greet me. Dominose stood soberly in a corner with the rest all huddled in another. I laid the food out and went towards Biscuit, for his daily morning pat. When I approached him, I knew something was wrong. He was breathing heavily and when I lifted him, he cringed. I've seen the injuries before and I knew he must have fell or jumped too high. Beside him, keeping him company was Mocha and Caramel, faithful to Biscuit till the end. I was still uncertain over the cause of injury but Biscuit was too shocked to be moved, so I patted him one last time, carried him to a more comfortable place and drove to Melaka.

That night, my housemate came home and by then Biscuit had died. But not just that, there was a cat in the backyard as well. Biscuit laid in the middle of the yard, in front on the nest Mocha made. I believed that even with his initial injury, likely due from a cat fight as well, Biscuit braved himself to protect the babies he borned with Mocha. He gave up his life for new life, which unfortunately, was also at the mercy of the cat.

No one will really know what happened or how it happened but I like to believe that Biscuit died fighting. Cats have came in before but the rabbits are too big to be a meal so over the past year and a half, nothing has happened. However, there were never babies before, and the empty abandoned nest which Mocha now stays away from says it all.

I feel in some way, a sense of pride that Biscuit took it upon himself to challenge the cat, and save all the others from danger. He never went to hide or run but stood and fought. None of the other smaller rabbits had any injury, so I know that they were not the reason the cat came. It really is sad that the babies did not survive but I can imagine Biscuit rising against the feline predator and with all his might, doing something very against his rabbit natural instincts and fighting for his family and bunny friends.

I am sure, like me, Mocha and Caramel, and maybe even Dominose will truly miss and fondly remember Biscuit the Brave. He has been buried right beside King Wombat, and maybe in death would they rekindle the friendship they had.

Oh Biscuit... I miss you.

Graduate showcase

As most of you know, the Multimedia and Advertising departments in my college had a graduation showcase for the final semester students. It wasn't a big pomp event but it was well received, neatly done, and served more than what it intended to do, which was to provide an avenue for the students to showcase their works to family and friends and for the industry at large to drop by.

Sharon and Zeke were the assessors and they did intimidate the students quite effectively! It was also great to have a handful of people from the industry coming over, a result of me spamming all the ad and design agencies in the country. Better still, their feedback was quite positive, so overall, it was pretty good.

Here are some photos of the launching ceremony with our internal VIP's on an escorted tour of the works.

Customer Service? What a misnomer...

I have had it up to here with dealing with TM Net's customer service. There was some service interruptions with a few Australian servers and since my studies require me access to those sites, it was quite urgent for me to get it resolved. My first call resulted in being told that it's a local problem (even though I told her that every other of my friends here in Malaysia cannot access the site) and was asked to stupidly clear my cache and recreate my dialler.

Anyways, got peeved so followed up with an email (which usually leads to better feedback since it's verbally expressed and recorded) but it's all a bunch of gibberish. Can you make any sense of the following emails?

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Does the following paragraph register any logic with any of you?

Referring to the above, kindly note that currently there is a problem in
accessing Australian websites but it has been confirmed if the problem
is on the Australian server with the Streamyx IP or vice versa.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just don't get this. Who on earth will be my server administrator? My problem is
with the darn ISP :P

Referring to your e-mail, kindly be advised to consult with your server 
administrator for further assistance. On behalf of TM Net, we apologise 
for the inconveniences caused.

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I have to say, being polite with these people is pointless. I am just so embarassed
that this company is Malaysian.

Tragedy!!!

Wedding Bells for Sandra Bullock and Jesse James!

July 18, 2005

Movie sweetheart SANDRA BULLOCK, 40, married "Monster Garage" star JESSE JAMES, 35, on Saturday evening, according to her official spokesperson, in a down-home, country wedding!

(read more)

My name is Daniel and I am a...

SHOPAHOLIC! It is quite impossible for me to step into any mall and not buy loads of stuff. It's an illness I tell you. Went to Ikea/Ikano over the weekend to get a couple of chairs and ended up with RM500 worth of goodies. I have no willpower... either that or my credit cards have the ability to possess me.

However, it was 'happy' purchases :) which means no lingering doubt or regret. Got another table for CreativeKids to allow for a slight student expansion for the full classes and two more lamps. I have such a softspot for lights. Just love to have them about the house.

Another soft spot will be books. I can't stop buying them. I now forcibly not left myself wander into PayLess or Popular unless I really really have to. Argh...

Post-mortem

Phew, charity event is finally over... months of drama, escalating tension, shouted arguments, boycotting and a whole lot of mess is finally at an end. I have to say though that the event itself was disappointing to many parties (too few booths and poorly promoted) but for the staff and students, pretty fun. We ended up buying most of the stuff anyways and I frequented this dessert stall so often I got a discount on Day 2. :)

One thing I couldn't understand is that if the total amount of crafts to be sold = X amount and if X amount brings in Y profit, and if Y profit does not equal Z target collection, how can anyone expect the fund raising goals to be met? Were they planning to sell invisible stuff? Perplexing...

..........

On another note, end of semester evaluations are about done and information so far affirms what most of us have suspected. It's going to be disciplinary week plus a fair bit of part-time lecturers are seeing the boot. And lucky me, I get to be the one exercising it. Grumbles...

Art with a Heart Charity Bazaar 2005

My college is organising an arts and crafts charity bazaar themed Art with a Heart this weekend at The Summit USJ. It will kick off tomorrow and end on Sunday, open from 10am - 10pm. Lots of trinkets and stuff to buy plus games to play so if anyone's free, welcome to drop by :)

All proceeds will go towards Rumah Kebajian Orang Tua dan Kanak-Kanak and Charis Home Community Point.

Managing people

Reality of the job struck me today when I had to confront a colleague and address the person based on certain issues arising. Very awkward, very nerve wrecking but had to be done. Feels strange, and it's definitely a steep learning curve but am coping. Am also stepping on many toes along the way. I can't help it I guess... too many things need changing. Hope I don't become like one of those eager-beaver managers my Dad describes as just wanting to change things because they can. Hmm...

Meaning in life

I have a problem, I tend to over-think things and what people say really gets to me. Maybe it's over-sensitivity at work or innate Libran characteristics coming to fore but I'm just really peeved about how easily I'm affected by things around me.

Which is why I just hate watching 'charity' themed shows that are designed to milk sympathy because I will be so guilt-ridden and on the opposite scale, shows on holidays and escapades because then I'll be inclined to spend. Having to stop and think about what you really want and what truly makes you happy is definitely an insightful personal challenge and probably one most of us can never quite figure out.

Way too much thinking for a Monday... groan...