Schumacher is in Artificial Coma

Seven times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is in coma and fighting for his life after a ski injury at the French Alps resort of Meribel. It is a shocking news for me early in the morning when I read the headline of local newspaper.

The news reported that he is suffering badly from the head injury, with internal bleeding. According to the doctors, Schumacher had been placed in an artificial coma. I hope he will recover from the injury very soon. He is the one of the reason I started to watch Formula One and the only driver whom I took the initiative to meet him for his signature. God bless Schumacher.

A Unique Product Name

Ever wonder how to assign a name for your new product? I find this product name very special, a bath cream with the name Wu Wei:

What say you?

Traffic Jam in Kuala Lumpur for Aircrafts

Who says we only have traffic jam for cars in Kuala Lumpur?! Now in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, despite of good weather in our country, we do experience traffic jam for aircrafts to land and to take off. If you always experience traffic jam for an hour in highway or in town, same goes to the planes.

I experienced it myself, boarded an aircraft at 11.00am sharp and later being informed by the pilot that there was a congestion at the runway, 20 aircrafts are queuing to take off. Guess what? All aircrafts seems to be using the same runway to take off, despite of if the flight is from KLIA or LCCT. I saw MAS, Cathay, JetStar, AirAsia, Emirates and others all waiting at the queue. I really don't know if this is the norm in terms of how International Airports operates, but should there be a separate runway for a KLIA and LCCT? Just curious about it because only after 1 hour waited in the aircraft, it then come to our turn to take off. Lucky that my connecting flight has a gap of another 45 mins; but still it was very rush!

Again, I want to say we did it again...with consistent possibility of traffic jam without discriminating the mode of transportation you use. Seeing is believing!

Education Fair 2013 in Malaysia

Every time when I go to the education fair, I find something is different. I guess I am witnessing the evolution of education industry in Malaysia. 

Most private institutions dominates the main halls in the education fair, with unique constructions of a large area which consist of many booths (12-16 open booths size). Also, there are actually many private higher education providers in Malaysia and growing larger. So far, I don't see any public university there (even if they are there, they will only take very few booths with minimum spending on the booth design). It shows that the private institutions are still more desperate for students than the public. Well, this has always been the norm, just that the private institutions are becoming more competitive and aggressive in sales and marketing.

Secondly, more students involvement in the marketing efforts by various institutions. They call them the 'student helper'. Their task is to give out flyers, goodies and to collect database by stopping everyone to fill up the enquiry form. Some institutions are like those Telcos (in blue, red, yellow t-shirts), assigning there student helper to try to grab anyone who passes by their booths to fill up the form (just like Telcos promoters-signing up a data plan or buying prepaid SIM). I just wonder if this is how education fair suppose to be - "selling" or it should be a place for counselling and to find out about courses available.

In this education fair, there are also some European universities participating under the European Union education booths. Their counsellors are all standing near to their booths welcoming the potential students to approach them to ask about their courses. It is not so much on collecting database as they are mainly here to create the awareness, provide informations and encourage the candidate to apply for their programmes if they are interested; not on "selling".

To some extent, I find that the approach used by many institutions now is more like trying to sell the visitors a product, just like in PC Fair (for ICT) or Matta Fair (for Travel and Tours). It is scary because the institutions are supposed to promote their courses by creating awareness, help the candidates to choose the right course, provide information on financial aid and to cultivate learning and development in younger generations.

What say you?

Right or Wrong Direction?

Have you ever asked yourself if you are heading towards the right direction?

Source: http://choegraphy.blogspot.com/2013/12/road-users.html

I find this question very interesting as we always thought we are doing the right thing in our life and working hard crafting our future. However, if we really reflect on our past decisions or what we are doing now, we might find that our choices of decision may not be as good as we thought. Even if we find our choices are good enough, but try to look around and we may find that many people actually don't agree with us.

Sometime, our thought, stand or approach might be different; we might have chosen for different path...but our purpose could be the same...'to reach at the destination safely'. As long as we don't create problem to others, hurting people along the way, everybody should respect each other and where they want to go. Of course, we may find that some people could be heading to the wrong direction; but again, how to justify if it is right or wrong to the person if this individual (like us) have decided on the direction. Like the cow, can we tell the cow 'hey buddy, you are on the wrong side of the road...this is not the right direction"!!!

In family, at work or in any aspect of our life, we should stop for awhile and reflect on our direction; to see if we know where we are heading to; how are we moving forward and most importantly, are we causing any trouble to others? The cow can head towards its direction as long as our friend know how to use the correct lane or use the walk way.

So, nothing wrong with your direction or the path you want to take, as long as you know where you are heading to...the place you want to be. Once you know where is the destination, don't just keep thinking of reaching the place but to enjoy the scenery along the way. We might miss out something valuable if we passes it while we are heading towards our goal in high speed...

As such, it is difficult to determine if the direction is correct or not, we still need to move on. As long as our concious is clear, we should not simply change our course but to reflect along our journey. Lastly, we should just enjoy the process of life.

Kuala Lumpur Shocking Incident

I have withnessed something very shocking today. While I was walking to Pavilion KL for dinner just now, when I reached the fountain area at the main entrance (around 6.50pm), I heard a very loud glass breaking sound. Everyone, including foreign tourists were shocked to see a man trying to break the windscreen of a bus.

Looking at the incident, I belief it must be a minor accident where the bus have knocked a Proton Wira from the back. The man were shouting to the driver while keep hitting the bus windscreen with the stick for at least 5 times. Very obvious, this guy is very emotional, equipped with a long stick in his car and it was an unlucky day for the bus driver.

Anyway, this is not the main point. Everyone was so shocked (can see from the expression of all the folks around, especially the tourists) because there were policemen standing from far witnessing the incident but did not take any action to stop the man. A tourist asked me is that guy in blue color uniform a policeman. I answered yes to the tourist, and then he went to ask the policeman why he is not stopping that man. The policeman  answered "I am a police hired by Pavilion KL (polis bantuan Pavilion) and the incident is across the road near Starhill side, can't do anything". The tourist (and people around who heard their conversation) were speechless.

Then, a traffic police officer came, but he was standing at a distance from the angry man. Again, that man hit the bus but the officer did not stop that man. He was trying to do his job by directing the traffic, getting other cars to move. I wonder why policeman didn't stop that angry man hitting the bus. What if that guy hit on people? I think everyone there has the same question too?! After awhile, the man got into his car and drove off...and guess what, the traffic police officer also drove off on his motorcycle, left only the bus driver (helpless).

In movie, incident like this, we normally see the policeman will take action on the man, at least ask for his ID or license, check the man background by intercom to HQ, question him on reasons of possessing a long stick in his car, or even charge him for attempting to damage others properties. Somehow, that man have committed an offence...but can drove off. So many tourists saw the incident. If next year is Visit Malaysia year, do you think incident like this encourages inbound tour?!

If I didn't witness this myself, I wouldn't belief things like this can happen....Seeing is Believing!!!

Cultural Diversity

While I was having dinner at Madam Kwan restaurant in Pavilion shopping mall, I saw a couple came in and seated next to my table. Immediately, the guy took off his shoe and put his leg on the chair while going through the menu. People around, including the staffs were shocked.

Minutes later, when their orders came, the girl also did the same thing; took off her slippers and put her leg on the chair too. While she was eating, she starts to shake her legs (sorry, I didn't take any photo because my Lumia cannot take it). I guess she was enjoying the food while satisfying her self-actualisation needs.

At this point of time, you may be wondering where do they come from. Very obvious, they are not Malaysian. Surprisingly, this couple is from Korea. I do have Korean friends and taught some Korean students before but I don't think anyone of them will sit and shake legs like this couple. Dealing with international culture and diversity are always challenging. There are a lot for us to understand and to study in order for us to deal with the international stakeholders in business.

For some, this behaviour might be acceptable; but for others, they may get offended. I can 'simply say' that we all should respect and adapt to the local culture or practices wherever we go. Even when someone tells you to make yourself like home, that doesn't mean you can do anything you like. Having some sense of respect and courtesy to learn the local customs may helps to create an esprit de corps environment.

No offence to this couple, but it is something good for all of us to ponder on.

McDonald's Happy Meal - Paul Frank Go Bananas with Julius

McDonald's is now targeting on more market segments,  The 'Paul Frank Go Bananas with Julius' Happy Meal promotion starts on 14th November 2013 until 11th December 2013, the last series for the year 2013. There are magnets, watch, luggage tag, figure, calendar, notebook, stationary kit and bracelet for the fans to collect.

Julius Magnets

Paul Frank is a California-based lifestyle product company, specialising in fashion apparel and accessories. With such collaboration, it shows that McDonald's is taking a step further in growing its Happy Meal market; extending the product to the lifestyle fashion young adults customers. Meanwhile, it helps to promote Paul Frank as a young and attractive apparel brands to the growing Asian children and young-adults market.

We can SIMPLY SAY that fast food restaurant like McDonald's is no more selling food and beverages, and serving it fast..but also retail merchandising (toys and accessories). Businesses are evolving!!!

The Most Embarrassing Fair in 2013

When we heard about public exhibition or fair, we can imagine that there will be massive crowd, lots of booths, promoters, products, games, showcases and many exciting events. However, I find this fair is so special. Here is why:

The Malaysia Sports and Health Fair 2013 at Mid Valley Exhibition Hall 1 & 2, Kuala Lumpur. This fair started on 8th until 10th November 2013 and one of the special highlight of the fair is on the 9th, an autograph session with Dato' Lee Chong Wei, Malaysian top badminton player. I just wonder how our Dato' feel when he attend the autograph session. To all the few exhibitors, thumb up for showing the commitment and motivation to run the show, even with such situation (felt sorry for them).

Looks like there are very few companies or organisation in Malaysia that specialises in Sports and Health...even there are Malaysian who are interested with it, we don't have much options except for these few companies who participated.

(Photos sponsored by CK)

Reading Academic Textbooks for Undergraduate Studies

While I was having dinner with my ex-colleague, another lecturer, we were having a debate over the use of textbooks for undergraduate studies. I got so engaged in this debate because before I went for the dinner today, I just told a few of my current students (Gen-Y) about the importance and usefulness of reading academic textbooks.

Personally, I always think that one of the best way to improve on academic writing is to start with reading the subject related textbooks. Althought there are various alternatives for readings, such as online journals, websites and even blogs; these are all good to have alternatives for reference purposes but it is not the core materials and blogs cannot be used as academic reference. 

I agree that some of these alternatives sources may be easily accessible and very looks informative but the scope can be very wide too as there are uncountable websites when searching by keywords. Also, a lot of web publishers simplify the subject information to make it easy to read, keeping it short and simple. By doing so, it will only provide some points or even without appropriate explanation on any concepts or models.

Web sources can be very specific on explaning some terms, concepts or models that myay provide limited elaboration or justification. Many web authors simply extract points from textbooks (in note form), similar to a student taking their notes in the class or while reading a text.

In this circumstances, how can a student learn the subject matters properly and able to see how the topic area can be explained or elaborated? Therefore, students only able to provide answers in point form and if essay is required, the student will just combine all the points they learned from the Internet in a paragraph, without taking into consideration the efforts of writing an essay.

At this point of time, I am not against the use of Internet as the medium for undergraduate studies. There are benefits of using the Internet for research or reading e-book too. However, how many students or even lecturers prefer to read e-book online and use the e-book as a main source of reference for assignment and preparing for exam? I am referring to academic e-books, not fictions or online magazine. Maybe there are some who prefer to do so, but how about you? Does your university or college provide e-books?

I belief the fundamental of learning comes from reading, and if it is for academic purpose, it should start from reading subject related textbook. This helps to build cognitive skills and expose the student to the fundamental academic writing style. Only when this is achieved, the student may go online to identify and read more sources to extent the knowledge and scope of the subject area. Textbooks provide definitions, explanations, implications, pros and cons, and illustration using valid examples, which are all critical for developing strong foundations of subject matters. Being in undergraduate means a student should build on the foundation of degree specialisation. To achieve this, there is no other better way but to read textbooks or e-books (as long as it is a published subject related book).

My philosophy is very simple. If someone want to think out of the box, this person should fill up the box with content before thinking out of the box. Think out of the box doesn't meant must go away from the box and never come back. A great mind can think out of the box only if this person has gained significant knowledge inside the box. If want to go to the world wide wide to look for answers for your studies, first thing to do is to understand the basic subject matters from textbooks, which are dedicated for teaching the subject purpose. This is the reason why textbooks still exist today (for a reason).

Ethics in Consumer Marketing

Today while driving home from work, I heard a radio advertisement by P1 about their broadband offerings. What caught my attention was the scenario used by P1 to highlight their bandwidth and data allowed.

In the advertisement, there was a lady mentioning that she cannot watch a full episode of a Hong Kong drama because she ran our of data credits with her broadband provider. She sounded so frustrated while claiming that the download was incomplete. The advertisement tries to relate the scenario (problem) to the target audiences and attract their attention towards the offerings. The scenario will generate the tense and later motivate the target audience to seek for more information about P1 broadband packages.

However, there is this ethical issue that I want to 'choesay'. Why the lady need to download the Hong Kong drama? Does this mean she is trying to use the broadband for illegal download? Or is there any legal website that allows (free) download of drama? No doubt P1 tries to associate their offerings to the norm of Internet users in Malaysia (culture), but is it ethical to do so?

I really don't know the answer but at least it caught my attention today :)

5 Awesome Things About The Malaysia Budget 2014

Last Friday, the Malaysia Budget for 2014 was unveiled by the government and the focus of the budget is to address shrinking account surplus and large fiscal deficit of the country. We all can find the details of the budget in major local newspapers and on the Malaysia Ministry of Finance - Treasury website.

Normally, the budget announcement is a routine activity by the government. However, this year budget tends to get more attention; just because there are 5 awesome things about the 2014 budget:

#1: Goods & Sales Tax (GST) - effective 1 Apr 2015
I am not trying to say that paying taxes as a consumer is awesome but the introduction of GST can now educate the public about supply chain management. We can now understand how a product is being made available to the end-users through its distribution channels. Not only that, there is a RM100 million training grant allocated for businesses that send their staffs for training on the GST, that's awersome!

#2: Real Property Gain Tax (RPGT) - effective 1 Jan 2014
Changes often result in either favourable or unfavourable. Many may see the changes as creating more opportunities, some may see it as threats. For young middle & lower-class working people, the RPGT might be something favourable as this will reduce speculation of properties for short-term profits. The 30% RPGT imposed to any property disposal within 3 years of purchase looks fine for long-term investor and residential purchaser. However, the a seller may transfer the 30% RPGT to the buyer by inflating the property selling price or they may hold the properties for longer period of time. Now, higher selling price will result in more RPGT and higher stamp duty; longer holding of properties will result in more interest payable to banks and owner may charge higher rental to cover the interest; properties developer will still run their business as usual. So, who will benefits? It depend...Awesome right?

#3: Foreign Property Buyers
In the past, foreigners can only purchase a property in Malaysia that cost RM500,000 and above. Hence, we can see so many residencies and condominiums are priced accordingly to target certain social class of customers, including foreign buyers. The new budget has raised the minimum price of RM500,000 to RM1 million, double the earlier minimum price of properties. This is a drastic move that will create a strong impact especially on the foreign investment but it must have been rationalised by the government earlier to make such decision. Come to think about it, what are the average price of properties that these foreign buyers have been purchasing for the past years that justify the 100% increase of minimum price...!?

#4: Cash Handouts
With all the various cash handouts and schemes for qualified households and selected individual groups which was estimated to involve 7.9 million recipients, the government in total will allocate RM4.6 billion as cash handouts. Awesome, if you are one of the 7.9 million who will get a 'few hundreds' of ringgit! (please note that this cash handouts is a ONE TIME thing and NOT on a monthly basis...wake up please!)

#5: Sugar Subsidy - effective 26 Oct 2013
The most talk about thing about the 2014 budget, sugar subsidy. The government has announced that the sugar subsidy of RM0.34 per kilogram will be abolished with immediate effect on 26 October 2013. It shows how urgent is this matter that it has to take immediate effect, especially when 2.6 million Malaysian aged 30 and above were suffering from diabetes. The government is expecting the price of sugar to go up after abolishing the subsidy and this would result in lesser consumption of sugar. Here, we can learn about the law of demand. When price of sugar increases, assuming other fact does not change, quantity demanded of sugar will decrease. So, overall population in Malaysia will consume less sugar and live with a healthy lifestyle. Is that awesome?! (Hmmm, I think I have never purchase sugar directly before...must check the food and beverages that I consume then...)

There you go, the 5 awesome things about the Malaysia budget 2014, based on my own personal opinion. You may not have to agree with my view as we are have our own way of perceiving things around us but thank you for reading :)

Strategic Alliance

Iron Man from Marvel is a successful multibillionaire who owns Stark Industries and Batman from DC is the successor of Wayne Enterprises in Gotham City. What if we caught Iron Man having a chat with Batman, does that mean there could be a possibility of strategic alliance? The two companies may not have any intention or to do so, but with their licensing agreement with Lego, indirectly DC Comics and Marvel are now able to appear together in the same world, the Lego world.

Anyhow, before this could really happen, we shall watch out for the upcoming blockbuster movie of Batman vs Superman in 2015, the two most famous superheroes in DC Comics.

Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) for Passport Renewal

We can now apply for new passport or renewal at the Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) Bandar Baru Sentul. This UTC open for 7 days and from 8.30AM until 10.00PM. Yes, they operate until night time. I am glad that I don't have to apply leave anymore for this purpose and don't have to queue from 6.00AM in the morning (you know what I mean if you have such experience before in the past).

After work today, I went there to renew my passport. The UTC provide free parking for the visitors.

The waiting area is spacious and air-conditioned.

I reached there at 7.05PM and got a waiting number from an Immigration officer. Waited for only about 10 minutes, another friendly officer called to process my renewal. It was so fast and simple; updating my details, scan my thumbs and pass the passport photo to the officer (less than 5 minutes), done! Then, I was told to wait for the cashier to call me for payment. After the payment, the cashier informed me to wait for collection without an hour. So, I waited and around 20 minutes later, my number was called and my new passport ready for collection! I am so impressed that the whole renewal process was completed in less than 1 hour! Well done UTC!

The location map for UTC Bandar Baru Sentul, Kuala Lumpur:

Personality Traits: Materialism

Some people are so motivated to achieve their goals or desire on certain things or purposes. I belief the individual personality plays an important role to determine the level of motivation.

Gucci at Old Bond Street, Mayfair, London

I was aspired by the dedication of these people when in London few years back.  The personality trait like materialism tend to motivates these people to be so dedicated, despite of cold weather and many hours of standing. Their need to own something from Gucci was so overwhelming that they are willing to sacrifice their opportunity cost and compliance to the queuing. How good if these people can make use of this personality trait to achieve greater goals in life, work or study. If these people can spend hours to queue on a boxing day just to get into Gucci because of 'Sales', why many of us always complaint about not enough time, no patient to wait and queue why driving or getting into the train?

In front of The Claridges, Brook St, London.

Well, its easy to say than done. Perhaps, everyone of us have more than one personality traits and in different situation, desire can change our behaviour. Many other factors could contribute to individual rationality.

Hence, the more we understand our inner self and the social influences, the better we can manage our behaviour to the utmost benefits; not just ourself but to people around us. Again, it is easy to say than done.

The secret to success - intellectual knowledge and rationalisation.

By the way, I didn't joint the queue on boxing day.Check out the date date of the picture, it was before Christmas!  I am not against those in the queue but I am just not that type of personality.

Top 5 Mistakes in Assignment

When you are writing for an academic assignment, you need to comply with the standards and some criteria set by the examiner. Many students knows about these but somehow, still allow the mistakes when submitting the final work.

Mistake #1

Never make full use of the subject main readings (textbooks) as the source of reference. With some common sense, one should see the need for using main texts as the fundamental of attempting assignment for a specific subject. Area like definition and concept should be from subject main texts rather than from www.

Mistake #2

Never understand the scope of the question and the requirements but rely on few keywords from the question to determine the direction of assignment. End up, answer given contain a variety of explanations for every keywords from the question, but not serving any purpose as per required by the question.

Mistake #3

Rely on limited source of references and the entire answer skewed towards these few references topic instead of the assignment question. This often resulted either plagiarism, or ambiguous answers that are irrelevant to the assignment requirement.

Mistake #4

Never provide in-text referencing such as citation or quotation in the answer. All justification using statistics, concepts, incidents, models or diagrams in the answer has to be cited based on the references provided at the end of the assignment. Failed to provide proper referencing for assignment will result in poor justification or making claims without supporting facts (fallacy).

Mistake #5

Never check the work before submission. This is the most basic thing to do when submitting an assignment but many take it for granted. Poor grammar, wrong used of punctuation, no paragraphing, inconsistency of font type and size, and incorrect spelling may result in confusion and ambiguity of explanation. Also, it shows that the student failed to show basic attribute of a scholar, mainly on writing skill and respect the subject assignment.

How about you?

Are you one of the student who allow such mistakes like the above to exist in your assignment? Be critical and responsible on your studies and don't give yourself any excuse for such mistakes to happen in your studies. If these become a norm and you think it is acceptable, what will happen at the workplace then? Disasters!!!

Can Wikipedia be used as source of reference for undergraduate and postgraduate assignments?

The answer is NOOOOoooo....

It is crucial to note that encyclopedias  or dictionaries, of any kind, including Wikipedia, Dictionary.com and Merriam Webster Online are not primary sources and should not be cited or used in constructing term papers at the undergraduate or graduate level. As such, these Internet websites can be useful to help gather some background information and to point the way to more scholarly source material (Simon & Goes, 2013).

For references, you should look for materials that are peer-reviewed or refereed and published in recognised academic publication. For example, reference books, professional journals or university publisher. The BEST source of referencing (highly recommended for undergraduate) is always "textbooks"!

So, do not waste your time to check if a website can be used as a reference for your assignment or research work, just head to the library/resource centre for the right materials.



Reference:
Simon, M. K. & Goes, J. (2013). Dissertation and scholarly research: recipes for success (2013 Edition). Seattle, WA: Dissertation Success, LLC.

The Wolverine 2013

It is weekend and this is the best time for me to do some catch up with the recent movie, The Wolverine. Most of you might have watched it by now and that is the purpose of this blog; so you know what am I referring to in the movie. Normally, I will use the implied story of a movie as part of my discussion in the class: my philosophy of learning = E+E (Education + Entertainment).

Well, at least they managed to promote Audi's brand in the world of Marvel Comics!

The Wolverine 2013 is a movie that continue to tell the story of an X-Men, Logan the Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) under the Marvel Comics franchise. Directed by James Mangold, this movie is about an old acquaintance of Logan, Yashida trying to gain immortality by attempting to transfer Logan's Mutated DNA to his weak and dying body. Very obvious, Yashida is the bad guy in this movie. Wolverine is not fighting his all-time enemy Sabretooth this time, but a lethal silver samurai steel.

The plot of this movie doesn't not relate to X-Men but more focusing on Wolverine as a single superhero, with his sidekick Yukio (played by Rila Fukushima): another mutant who can see 'some' future. So, I don't really feel like I am watching a Marvel superheroes movie. On top of the self-healing and classic blades from fist, Logan seems to be very human in this movie (especially when he was infected by a bio-robotic don't know what machine by the Viper).

Just because of that, I find the story-line a bit boring and predictable. It is mixing the plot on family business, politics, romantics, personal psychology and action. It portraits a typical 3 generations Japanese (Asian) family owned business in Tokyo, Japan which trying to create political ties, strengthening the corporation, and fighting for power and money; and not to forget, Ninja and Samurai and World War II. On the other hand, the stories tries to explain Logan's inner psychology and promoting his romantic love story with the pretty Japanese model Tao Okamoto, who played Mariko, the grandchild of Yashida. Meanwhile, the movie attempts to reflect the selfishness of human who wanted the immortality, even by sacrificing the family and friends. Meanwhile, the director is trying to bring out the charisma of Wolverine by making Yukio to admire him.

Sounds like a lot? Yes, it is really too many messages that the movie is trying to package it in. Well, that's quite worth it if you are paying for a piece of entertainment, but you may easily forget about this movie. To me, nothing seems to connect, sorry...even though I am a fan of X-Men and to Marvel's superheroes.

I would rate this movie 5 out of 10. They have good cast but the story-line was like for the sake of making another Wolverine movie.

A Life Perspective

A very interesting perspective of life adopted from a recent TVB drama series Karma Rider (師父‧明白了)
What if someone you love is leaving you forever?

The one who lives on in this world will be very sad and suffers...

The one who lives on feel sad and suffers not because of the lost of someone, but...

The sadness and suffering are because of the failure to let go of someone; or the life that we used to own

Latest Online Scam

I received an email asking for an appointment to discuss on something to do with this person life and wealth. The sender, known as Alexia Oko wanted to share with me an important issue concerning inheritance wealth and her 'wicked' uncles who wants to kill her.

Sound interesting? To me, it is another online scam. Just beware. Many such scams are trying different ways to look for their victims. So, let us share with others about this.

Top 5 Tips for Essay Writing in Exam

Most of the final examination would requires a student to write a full essay, especially you are asked to discuss on a particular topic, compare and contrast, analyse, evaluate and give recommendations. Therefore, you will need to make sure that you can present your essay in a professional and yet resourceful manner. Remember, your examiner will be looking for good content of your answer and at the same time, the ease of reading your essay for understanding. That's how you can earn more marks for your answer given.

The following are 5 simple tips to improve your essay:

#1: Essay should consist of 'introduction, body and conclusion';

#2: Use paragraphs to differentiate the main discussion points;

#3: Provide a simple heading for each section of discussion (i.e. The Advantages of Using Mass Media); 

#4: Construct short and simple sentences for the ease of understanding; 

#5: Don't start your essay by giving examples. Examples should be given after your explanation on the discussion point.

All the best!

Top 5 Tools Needed For Examination

As a student, final examination is always the most challenging and stressful assessement. However, you can reduce the stress and challenges by preparing yourself well, not just to have the knowledge and skills to answer the exam questions but to have the right tools ready to go for your final examination.
The top 5 tools needed for examination:
#1: Ball Pen (preferably black color)
Always bring more than 1 pen when you go for exam as contingency. You will never know when the ball pen will run out of ink, got stuck or leaking. Why black? It makes your answer bold and solid - looks more confident and easy to read.
#2: A Watch
You need to time yourself because it is better to have enough time to attempt all the questions rather than spend all the time on a few questions. Do not rely on the clock in the exam hall. Nothing is better to have your own timer on your desk.
#3: Correction Tape
If possible, use the correction tap instead of liquid type corrector. You need time to wait for it to dry and it may not be smooth for you to make the necessary corrections. If not dried, it may be very messy too.
#4: Ruler
It is good to have a ruler in case you need to draw lines. For example, drawing tables, charts, diagrams or underlying key points/titles for essay.
#5: Water Bottle
Exam hall can be very cold and dry. Always make sure you have some water to drink when you feel thirsty. Thirsty means unfulfilled needs; means tense. You can think better if you can minimize the tense.
There you go, the top 5 tools for exam.
Good luck!

Beat the Traffic Jam!

How to beat the bad traffic jam in Kuala Lumpur city center? - Timing!

In normal working days, the jam will normally starts around 6.00pm but most of the time unpredictable and unexpected things can happen. Therefore, no matter how good is your planning and time yourself, you may still ended up stuck somewhere in the traffic. In normal days, timing is not the best strategy unless you have very good luck.

However, during the fasting month (puasa), the traffic can be more predictable.

Many companies allows their Muslim staffs to leave early. Some as early as 4.30pm. Mostly around 5.00pm. As such, the traffic was being normalised when people starts to leave their offices in different time. With this, the traffic may starts to pile up as early as 5.00pm but won't be that bad as not all can leave early.

The peak of the traffic might be at 6.00-6.30pm as all other working people will start leaving the office at 6.00pm. If you leave on time at 6.00pm, most probably you will reach home around 7.00pm+.

Now, what does this mean? By 7.30pm, the road should be cleaared. Firstly, many has already gone home and most probably reached home. Secondly, the break for fasting is around 7.25pm so many of our Muslim friends will be ready at home or at restaurants for their dinner.

Now, this is what I call the right timing. If you are off the road to head home or to any where, this is the best time. 7.30pm - 8.00pm is the best! Road will be cleared and smooth drive to your destination. You will save time, save fuel, less polution to the environment, better mood and less stress in driving! That's the fun of driving home during this fasting month.

Enjoy the smooth traffic everyone! Cheers!!!

The Problem is, the Problem!

Many people may think that a good leader should anticipate the problem before it exist and operates in a way to prevent the problem to exist. However, can we really do that? Can we really anticipate problems and prevent it to happen? I don't think so...
There are many things in our life that we cannot have any control at all. Most of the problems that we encountered were hardly anticipated. That's life!
So, what do we need to do in our daily life? Instead of thinking of how to anticipate and prevent from any problems, why not we learn to solve a problem more effectively and efficiently? Yes, we should anticipate for better skills and knowledge to solve our problems, and not just to spend our time to think of what problems that might exist in our daily life.
I personally think that one should know how to identify the root cause of a problem in order to solve it effectively and efficiently. More thoughts should be given on developing our critical thinking skills and further enhance our knowledge in various aspects. We just need to improve our intellectual mind and train our positive attitude towards problem. With that, we should be able to handle all kinds of problems in life and remain optimistic of our future.
As such, don't waste time to worry about what might happen (uncontrollable) but focus on strengthening yourself (controllable) to handle a problem, when it exist!
Think positive as nothing cannot be solve if we know what is the root cause of the problem!
Cheers!

McDonald's Happy Meal Versus Minions

Are you a fan of McDonald's Happy Meal or the Minions in the movie, Despicable Me? The recent craze in Malaysia recently saw the increase in demand for the Happy Meal with the free Minion toy series. Is this a coincident or merely another effective marketing strategy?

We can analyse this emerging phenomena by applying the diffusion and adoption process of consumer (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010). McDonald's has increases the adoption process of their newly launched toy series for the Happy Meal, embarking on the opportunity from the highly publicised movie, Despicable Me 2. How they did it? Let's look at the possible elements of consumer diffusion process being managed by the world's most popular fast food brand:

1. The Innovation
As usual, the toys that comes with Happy Meal will have playable special features or movements. This would different the toys with other retail version of the toys by major producers.

2. Channel of Communications

At the introductory stage of the new Happy Meal toys series, McDonald's has been shouting about their offerings using integrated channels such as mass advertisement and on social network. This helps to create awareness and building up the momentum of buying even before the commencement of sales; especially triggering the needs to possess, not just satisfying physiological needs, but social needs, self-esteem and self-actualisation (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

3. Social System

With the current social system, many consumers are influence by the need of possession (materialism personality traits). Hence, a toy in Happy Meal has always been promoted to the parents with children where they not just get to eat and drink, but to play! This become a norm to many as an value added consumption process, especially when the Minions are Free! Well, not just children who likes free toys, but all ages, that's our social system here.

4. Time

The prolong time of releasing the Minions with various models in batches build up the demand from extensive Word-of-Mouth, especially when news and on social media started to cover this craze for Minions.

Of course there are many different views on this marketing phenomena, and the above is just one of my very personal view. Let's wait until the next Tsunami of Happy Meal next time, we shall learn more!

Cheers!

Top 5 Questions by Students - In The Class

As a student, what are the most common questions you have asked in the class? How about these 5 Questions below:

#5: May I go to toilet/refill water?

When nature calls....what else can you say; 'Sure'!

#4: Can we have a short break?
I really want to know if cinema nowadays give short break to the audience while watching a movie!

#3: Can you repeat?

People say 'do it right at the first time'...but in actual life, we like to repeat, and repeat, and repeat...

#2: Got tips?
I wonder what services the students have provided in the class that their tutor should give them tips :S

#1: Can ar?
This is the most challenging question to the tutor!

Which one of these questions is your favourite? Try to observe yourself and your peers in the class and you can easily pick up some of these...enjoy your class!

What Role You Play?

Red pen, blue pen and black pen. Is it matter which pen I use? Well, it doesn't matter which pen we use as long as we know the purpose of using the pen! Many use only blue and black, but I use red the most. Why? ~ because I am a lecturer and I mark papers most of the time. For financial institutions, black is a must for writing or signing on legal documents. We have a choice but the choices comes with impact and consequences.

Everyone has a role to play and we have to play it well. It doesn't matter who you are, what you know, how much you earn and so on...it just doesn't matter. As long as you are given a role, you must have a clear understanding on the role, the importance and impact of this role to others, and how we are suppose to perform this role.

Yet, our role switches from time to time of even playing multiple roles simultaneously. Hence, we should have a clear mindset and rationality when we act and make decision. Sound like a very holistic thing to do, but yes, we have to because we are not living in a close-world by ourself. So, see the causality, see the impact to others, see the consequences...Let's be a holistic person in managing our life and play our roles well for the sake of our peaceful world! Cheers!

The Students in 2013

Ever wonder an undergraduate student study nowadays? When I was in college, we were told to read lots of books, journals, trade publications, magazines and newspaper. Most of these materials can be found in the library. As a student, I cannot afford to purchase these study materials and have to read it at the library. I belief most of us who has gone through your undergraduate life in the 80's and 90's knows what I am referring to.

We don't have high speed Internet, and even to use e-publications, I need to login via VIrtual Private Network in the college. With the limited Internet speed, everyone have to wait for their turns to search for e-journals. At that time, my lecturers used to help us to source of relevant journals and share with us in the class. The moment we got the articles, we were very excited and read it immediately, hoping that we can catch up with our studies by reading more.

It was like a privilege to be able to study for a degree programme for me as I have chosen to study in private higher institution and taking a UK degree. At that time, I was hoping to complete the course within a specific time and prevent from money wasted unnecessarily. As what I can remember, there were lots of reading and practicing of answering case studies and essays.

When we got our test, exam, and assignment results, we were so eager to find out what went wrong and reflect on our work for days. We even work in groups to identify our weaknesses and make sure we know how to minimize the mistakes in the next assessment. We feel so glad to hear and/or read comments from our lecturers so that we can reflect on it and know more about ourselves.

Today, as an educator, I try to replicate my lecturers' efforts to teach my students, hoping that they will learn more and gain better knowledge than us in the past. However, things has changed. I was really shocked when I got to know that many students now don't read textbook, even the main text for a subject that the student is taking. What they read to prepare for exam? Slides for each topics given by the lecturers. How about references for the assignment? Not textbooks, but google for keywords and from various webpages, including slideshares, wiki, etc.

Thanks to the development of the Internet edge, students attitude towards education is no more the same as in the pass. Many might be thinking that education is just merely a paper for them to show to the company when they are applying got a job with higher expectation. I am not referring to all the students out there, but some whom I taught recently. The want fast, easy, simple and no hassle learning experience. Basically, they expect to spend minimum time on studying so that they can enjoy their own lifestyle. As long as they attended the classes every week, it is considered as they study hard. Most of them just for to the library in group for chatting and satisfying social needs.

How they see the assessment? Next post, I will share more of my experience.

PRU13 - The Malaysian Election

When I was a kid, I always wonder why the adults like to read the newspaper and watch the news on TV. At that time, I just couldn't figure out what is so interesting in the news that make them to be so focus and not to miss the news everyday.

Even the time when I knew there is something called election, I don't really bother. I saw many banners and buntings around my neighborhood. Posters were everywhere with all sort of funny symbols. At that time, I really don't know and don't bother with all these. What I knew was, something important for the adults.

At that time, I even tried to look at the newspaper (not read) and all I saw was words, pictures, and advertisements. Nothing really interesting actually, except some nice pictures (sometime). Most of the time, I just saw some people standing at some places, pointing his/her finger on some location/item for some purpose. Then, there were always pictures of people walking while being followed by many others, shaking hands and speaking aggressively. I don't really know who they were, what they were doing, and what was the purpose.

After so many years, I find myself doing exactly what I saw the adults were doing back then. I read the newspaper everyday, not just to look at the pictures, comics or sports; but on our country news, business section and foreign news. I will turn on the TV at certain time, not for the dramas but prime time news.

I don't even know since when I have become like one of those adults I used to observe but I know that this is part of our life. At one point of time, we will be awaken to acknowledge our rights as a Malaysian, our rights to know about anything in our country, the need to understand our country economy, and the freedom we have to decide on our future. This is because we are MALAYSIAN.

Now I realize that why adults likes to read about the news. It is because we all care about our surroundings and our future. It is because we want to know what is happening around us so that we can make a better decision for the improvement of our future. Hence, the adults in the past solely rely on newspaper and TV/radio for any news. If our parents can make a good decision for us in the past based on limited channel of information, I belief we can now make a better decision than before with all the advancement of information communication technology.

I have never felt the excitement and the urgency of election before. Looks like the advancement of media has changed the way we live and act. This PRU13 is going to be an awesome experience to many of us as a Malaysian.

I bet the kids out there would be thinking what is going on now and why the adults are so excited, just like how we all used to be. So, let us make the right decision and leave a legacy to them so that when they grow up, the will know why the adults now are so excited.

Happy Voting on 5th May 2013, for Democracy and Peace!

Welcome to Choe 'say' - a simply talk blog site!

While having my normal routine in the morning, having a nice cup of hot coffee and reading the newspaper, I came across an article about the perception of Gen-Y in job hopping attitude.

The article trying to clarify that it is a norm for Gen-Y to move from 1 job to another in less than 2-3 years. Some of the main reasons, Gen-Y is looking for faster way to earn more money, retire as early as possible, enjoy a work-life balanced and a healthy lifestyle. Because of these, many people may thought that they are job hoppers, very demanding and having too big head in expectation.

Being a Pisces, I always like to see simple thing from 2 different perspectives. First, lets look at how the older generations may look at the Gen-Y.

If you are the Gen-X or Baby Boomers in the middle or higher level of management, would you like to enjoy something like what the Gen-X wanted? Perhaps you may already have a secured senior management position with a good paycheck, some good assets and sufficient savings in your Retirement Funds (which for sure everyone thinks it is insufficient). Yet, you may still unable to enjoy what the Gen-Y wanted to achieve because, you already trapped yourself in the hunger for power, the 'not-enough' mindset for self-esteem/actualization needs and escalating commitments of family. Hence, you may say to the youngster: "do you think it is so SIMPLE to reach my level, earning what I am earning now and being so capable after years of work experiences?"

Now, try to imagine yourself as the Gen-Y living in this century, experiencing the global emerging competitive environment today. Will you want to move up the corporate ladders like how you have done it before? Take for example, if you get a second chance to become young again and start all over for your life...do you think your way of life that brings you all the way up there will work again now? So, to Gen-Y, they can only listen to your success story like a fairy tale. How many young entrepreneur we have today if it is not because of their simple mindset of not wanting to follow the footstep of the elder one. This simple mindset is about how we change and adapt.

Moving from one job to another is about changing. Looking for ways to earning more money in a shorter time is about changing the norm of typical workers attitude. Trying to achieve a balanced work-life is also changing the society and creating better future for a more simple life. Being loyal to a company is good but time shouldn't be used to justify loyalty. A person who works for many years in a company doesn't prove that he/she is loyal, if the person is not productive.

To me, a simple life is about being happiness. Gen-Y really know how to be happy, and that is why they are different from other generations. Sometime, we just worry too much and make things complicated. Why not be simple and open up our mind to start changing for good!

Anyway, I just simply talk...you don't have to agree with me. Cheers!