What are we surrendering ourselves to?

Turn off all your gadgets and internet connection for one day. Have an outdoor walk. Look at the flowers and buildings around. Go to the library. Try to make new friends. Would you feel empty?

My birthday was about three weeks ago, one of my university friends sent me wishes and we promised to have a meal together as soon as university reopens.

I decided to meet up with her this weekend, before getting busier with tons of assignments, meetings and what not.
Thus, I tried to contact her and I realised I could no longer send her a text on Facebook Messenger.
There are two possibilities: She deactivated her Facebook account, or she blocked me.
The latter would not be possible, for I already knew her for three years and there was no issue between us.

It was not a big deal for me at first - I have her phone number.
Scrolled along my contact lists looking for her name, I called the phone number we used to text each other.
It couldn't reach her.

At the moment, I was thinking: Is there any other way to meet her, except social media or handphone?
When I was in primary school, those days without internet, we used to have mini address books. And I have a lot of 'em. I love to jot down my friends' house numbers and their addresses.
Even after I bought another nicer or fancier address books, I used to copy those contacts in the old book to new ones.

The advent of handphones and smartphones made us so dependent and handwriting notes are falling into disuse.
From sending handwriting letters to emails, jotting down notes into notebooks to snapping photos of the notes in our smartphones, drawing on papers to sketching on our iPads - Can we imagine one day where there is no electricity, WiFi or mobile data?

Back to contacting my friend, she sent me a Whatsapp text this evening, after I looked up for her closer friend and add her friend on Facebook.
Thanks to social media, I could get in touch with her.
The reason my friend gave was, there was no signal coverage on her phone last week when I tried to get in touch with her.

Certainly it was not her fault.
But this incident made me think and review of the current lifestyle I'm having, things that I am depending much upon.
All of a sudden, I miss those days I used to play hide-and-seek with other kids in my neighbourhood.
I miss those days where social media or online games do not exist, and my mum used to send me and my brothers for kids competition, say, the Malay traditional Congkak game competition, drawing competition, Snake-and-Ladder game competition, etc.
I miss days where we stay up late reading books we borrowed from the library, instead of sticking our eyes in front of computer monitors.

I could not deny that internet made my life easier and sometimes happier.
However, at the same time, we have given ourselves to technology and internet more than we thought we should.

Maybe some day, we should come up with an 'International no WiFi day'.
At least, once a year.

Movie Review: The Prince in darkness

What does a Dracula mean to you? If you think a Dracula is an antagonist who sucks blood like what a vampire does, Dracula Untold might make you change your perception on that. 

The Dracula in the film is more a hero than a monster. At the beginning of the film, it exposes audiences with the fact that the Master Vampire is entombed in a cave. The film does a good job in establishing the setting and characters. It introduces us to the life of Vlad Tepes (the Dracula), who spends his young life serving in the Turkish army. Raised by his enemies, the Turks, Vlad learns to be a great warrior. He is then the prince of Transylvania and is a vassal to Mehmed, the Sultan of Turkey. He seems to live a happily-ever-after life with his family. However, the peace and harmony is not eternal. War begins when the Sultan demands additional 1000 boys from Vlad for his army, including Vlad’s son, Ingeras. 

Realising the fact that he does not want to give his son up to slavery, and that he could not defeat the predominant Turkish army with his people, Vlad seeks supernatural aid in the cave where the Master Vampire is there. He accepts the power of damnation which gives him extraordinary power to cover long distances as a flock of bats. 

Cinematography plays a crucial role here to impress and gives audiences a clearer picture of how powerful Vlad is with computer-generated effects. In the scene, Vlad successfully protects his people from 1000 soldiers with his power. Nevertheless, his people betray and try to kill him when they know Vlad has become a Dracula. He has to seek for his people’s understanding and acceptance of who he has become. 

At the same time, Vlad has to resist his desire to suck blood for three days as he fights Mehmed, so that he can revert to his former self. His power will be weakened if he is exposed to sunlight and silver metal.

On the other hand, Mehmed does not give up in the war and he manages to catch Vlad’s son. Vlad’s supportive wife, Mirena dies as well. Vlad has both mental and physical stress when his family leaves him at the time he needs them the most. Struggling to save his son and to resist the desire to suck human blood, how could Vlad and his people survive? This film definitely challenges you to watch it till the very end.

News: LHP456 to be registered manually

Students of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) who would like to take LHP456 Spoken English as one of their courses have to go to the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation (SoLLaT) to register the course. 

Different from previous semesters, this semester, LHP456 is not available on campusonline for students to register before semester reopens. Students have to go to SoLLaT to register themselves during the first week of semester. 

According to the Dean of SoLLaT, Prof. Dr Tengku Sepora Tengku Mahadi, the reason they decided to make such move is due to the online system which could not allow students to choose the group and time they wanted. 

“This causes many students to add and drop courses early in the semester because they realised the timetable clashing with another courses, or the group is already full”, she said. 

“This further makes teachers difficult to confirm the number of students early and they will have difficulties to find classrooms if the students requested to change the time”, added Dr Tengku Sepora. 

She does not encourage students to register the course at SoLLaT on behalf of their friends. 

“This is because we would like to avoid students who did not attend the lectures, claiming that they did not know they’ve registered the course, when in fact their friends registered for them”, she added. 

Asking about whether the same registration procedures continues in the coming semester, Dr Tengku Sepora said the school has not decided yet. 

“It depends on the efficiency of the procedure. If registration at SoLLaT found to be more efficient, we’ll make the same thing in the coming semesters. If registration through campusonline and SoLLaT has no much difference in efficiency, we’ll allow students to register through campusonline again”, she explained.

News: Choose2Protect clears sex myths

Choose2Protect workshop has been held on the 30th April 2015, at 8pm at DKM Universiti Sains Malaysia by Durex, in partnership with AIESEC in Malaysia, Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), and the Federation of Reproductive Health Associations, Malaysia (FRHAM). 

Aimed to educate young Malaysians about the dangers of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the workshop was carried out by three peer educators. The peer educators are AIESECers who have received sex education from WAO and FRHAM. 

The Project Director, Jessie Yong Qian Mei, as one of the peer educators, during the ice-breaking session, showed students a video that emphasised on the message “Sex is not a stigma. Ignorance is”. 

She then presented the facts and statistics in Malaysia. 

“Based on the report of the Ministry of Health Malaysia, 51 cases of teen pregnancies have been reported each day. However, this figure only represents those who have been reported, imagine teens who feel ashamed and dared not admit that they’ve pregnant. Also, 45% of the Malaysian youths had their first sex without the protection against STIs. This is then leads to the fact that 21% of Malaysians have been infected with an STI in their lifetime”, said Jessie. 

“Our reproductive organs, like penis and vagina, are just like our eyes and mouth. They are parts of our bodies and there is nothing to be ashamed of”, explained Jessie when showing photos of reproductive organs of both sexes to let students understand their reproductive organs. 

The workshop also cleared some myths on sex that are normally perceived by majority of people. 

One of the myths is that most people think that women cannot get pregnant when she is having menstruation during the sexual intercourse. In fact, according to Jessie, there is no time of the month that is completely safe for unprotected sex. 

There is also another common myth where people think if a male draws before ejaculation, a woman would not get pregnant. 

“This is not true because before a man ejaculates, there might be some leaking of liquid which contains thousands of sperm. Do bear in mind that it only takes a sperm to fertilise an egg”, explained Jessie. 

The second peer educator, Ngoo Xiao Wei, shared knowledge about STIs. There are basically four types of STIs, which are either caused by bacteria, fungi, parasites or viruses. Among these four types of STIs, only STI caused by viruses could not be cured. However, according to Ngoo, prevention is always better than cure. Prevention methods suggested by Ngoo are abstinence and the usage of condom. 

Ngoo told students that STIs could only spread through unprotected sex, sharing of needles and syringes and sharing of sex toys. Sharing the same toilet seats, kissing, bitten by a mosquito that has bitten a person with STI, and spitted by a person who has STI do not spread the infection. 

Meanwhile, the third peer educator, Erica Seng Ee-Su gave talk on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). AIDS is the disease caused by HIV, the virus. According to Erica, having HIV does not mean that one infects AIDS. She also said that HIV test could be done through a specific blood test in hospitals and clinics. 

Even though there is no cure for AIDS, Erica said there are antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that help stop the HIV from spreading. However, one has to continue taking the drugs throughout his life once he starts taking it. 

The workshop ends at 9.30pm. Students who attended the talk were given a brochure, a notebook and a badge. They were also required to fill in a questionnaire to assess their knowledge of sexual and reproductive health.

News: USM Lifeguards teaching disabled athletes to swim

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lifeguards provided a free swimming lesson to Special Olympics Penang athletes on 27 September at USM swimming pool. 

The lesson which started at 9am was attended by eight athletes, ranging from 10 to 30 years old, who are having mental disabilities. 

According to the Captain of USM Lifeguard Corps, Ng Shin, most of the athletes can swim, just that their strokes might not be correct. However, for those who cannot swim, the lifeguards will teach them the basic skills like floating and bubbling in the water before proceeding with other swimming skills. 

“Few years back, our USM Lifeguard Corps seniors did teach members of Special Olympics Penang. However, the teaching stopped for a few years until this year”, he added. 

Talking about challenges during the lesson, Ng said communication is the major problem. Sometimes the athletes might not understand what the instructor says.

“So we have to be very patient most of the time. We have repeat and teach them step by step. The progress might be slow, but we have no way to rush on that”, he explains. 

Ng feels it is very meaningful to teach Special Olympics Penang athletes. He feels happy to provide an opportunity for the athletes to learn and do sports they like.

 

Athletes having their warm up session before getting into the water.

Before swimming, instructor checked to make sure her student knows bubbling in the water.

Besides patience, caring is one of the qualities presented by a good instructor.

News: "Reducing crime comes first", says Zahid

The 9th Forum on “Crime and Policing in Malaysia” with the title of ‘Policing strategies in reducing violent crimes’ has been held at Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra (DTSP), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) on 12th March 2015. 

Attended by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the forum was organised by School of Social Sciences, USM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Institute of Public Security of Malaysia (IPSOM), Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (Federal), Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (Penang Chapter), Security Department of USM, Penang Police Contingent, Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), and Penang Education Department. 

Speaking about crime, the Vice Chancellor of USM, Prof Dato’ Dr Omar Osman said it is an undeniable fact that there are crimes happening around us. 

“Crime is not something we want to live with, but definitely we have to live with it”, said Dr Omar Osman in his speech. 

On the other hand, Zahid said tackling the crimes will always be the first agenda in the country, and this task would be carried by PDRM and other related agencies. 

“Although the crime rates has decreased 30%, majority of the public are still having negative perception towards PDRM”, he said. 

“I hereby would like to congratulate PDRM Penang for doing very well in decreasing the crime rates”, said Zahid. 

Witnessed by Dato’ Zahid, USM signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Public Security Malaysia (Ipsom) on information, knowledge and expertise sharing about safety and welfare in Malaysia. 

USM was represented by Prof Dato’ Dr Omar Osman, while Epsom was represented by Dato’ Sri Ismail Abdul Rahman.

Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was escorted by the organising chairman of the “Policing strategies in reducing violent crimes” forum, Associate Professor Dr P. Sundramoorthy to Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra (DTSP), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi praised Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) Penang for being one of the good states in reducing crimes during a forum held at Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra (DTSP), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Public Security Malaysia (Ipsom), under the witness of the Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

News: Parking is a privilege, not a right

In response to the parking issue, Director of University Sains Malaysia (USM) Security Department, Associate Professor Dr P. Sundramoorthy expressed his disappointment towards drivers in USM, especially those who have always assumed that parking is a right that USM has a responsibility to provide enough parking lots for them. 

“Drivers should understand that parking is a privilege and not a right for them. It is the same as our driver licenses which are given by authorities. It can also be revoked by the authority anytime”, he said. 

Dr P. Sundramoorthy admitted that parking has always been an issue in USM. According to him, although the population in USM has increased year by year, USM, in fact, has not grown very much physically. As more people are bringing vehicles to USM main campus, the incorrect perception that parking is a right has created more frustration among drivers in USM. 

He added that the parking lots in USM are given priority for those who operate USM, including the administrative and academic staffs. For students, he said, the actual parking lots are only at Padang Kawad, parking lots at the E41 building and their respective hostel parking lots. 

“It saddens me when those who do not have a USM student car sticker are parking as they wish in the campus”, he said. 

Dr P. Sundramoorthy added that the university has always provided alternatives for them, for example, shuttle bus and ecovan services, to help solving this parking issue.

News: RUwhoUR to collect Facebook user data

Developed by the Behaviour Analytic and Social Signal Processing team of School of Computer Sciences of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), the “RUwhoUR” project is a web application which aims to create the first Facebook user database in Malaysia. 

Directed by Dr Syaheerah Lebai Lutfi, this research further aims to predict personalities of the users through their usage on Facebook. 

“This kind of research is not new in Western countries but it has not been done in Malaysia. We would like to compare the results of our research with Western results, we believe there’s a cultural difference between Malaysia and Western countries. Cultural affect is what we would like to investigate”, she said. 

Talking about the application, Dr Syaheerah said there is a personality questionnaire which helps to verify whether online self is matching the real self. 

“There are 24 questions in the application, and it only takes five to seven minutes to complete the questionnaire”, said Dr Syaheerah. 

At the moment, there are only two students and one intern working with Dr Syaheerah in this project. 

 “I would like to invite all readers to log on to www.ruwhour.com/ to take part in our research. Those who are interested in working out the project are also welcome to approach me, as this data collection platform will be opened for a long time to collect as much as data we could. This project is meant not only for Computer Sciences students, as it involves social work, communication, security, trust, privacy, and ethnography”, she said.

The master’s student, Zaaba Ahmad said users do not need to worry about the privacy of the web application, this is because once the application received users’ data, a numeric identification will be assigned to users and no names will be revealed.

Tren terkini: Media sosial atau interaksi bersemuka?

Dalam zaman yang mengagung-agungkan teknologi ini, bukanlah perkara yang luar biasa apabila media sosial sering dijadikan sebagai pengganti untuk membina dan mewujudkan hubungan dalam dunia sebenar. Kajian yang dijalankan oleh Pusat Penyelidikan Pew di Amerika membuktikan bahawa 54% daripada responden yang ditinjau menghantar teks mesej kepada rakan-rakan sekurang-kurangnya sekali sehari, manakala hanya 33% daripada mereka yang bercakap secara bersemuka dengan rakan-rakan secara konsisten. 

Mengapakah fenomena ini berlaku? Adakah interaksi bersemuka dianggap tidak penting lagi sejak wujudnya sosial media? Adakah kita sanggup mengorbankan pengalaman dunia sebenar untuk “menjalankan hubungan” dengan individu lain dalam dunia sosial media secara maya? 

Pemikiran yang menganggap bahawa perbualan melalui sosial media adalah lebih penting atau lebih berkesan dari interaksi bersemuka amatlah tidak sihat. Pada hakikatnya, antara senyuman yang ikhlas secara bersemuka dengan pemaparan emotikon atas talian secara maya, kita tentulah tersentuh dengan senyuman yang ikhlas dan benar. Hal ini kerana elemen-elemen seperti ekspresi muka, interaksi mata, dan intonasi suara tidak wujud melalui emotikan atas talian. Mungkin kecanggihan teknologi seperti panggilan video atau aplikasi Skype mampu mengatasi masalah ini, tetapi ketelitian ekspresi muka tidak dapat dirasai sepenuhnya. 

Penerimaan kad e-mel juga tidak setanding dengan penerimaan surat tulisan tangan. Walaupun kad e-mel mungkin lebih cantik, berwarna-warni dan menarik, keikhlasan surat tulisan tangan terserlah apabila penulis surat memilih jenis dan warna sampul surat serta kertas yang digunakan, dan menulis surat dengan tulisan sendiri. Mungkin warna surat yang dipilih atau tulisan tangan tidak semenarik dengan kad e-mel janaan komputer, akan tetapi kita akan lebih menghargai dan merasai keikhlasan penulis surat. Hal ini tidak bermakna pengirim kad e-mel tidak ikhlas, tetapi taipan perkataan pada komputer sememangnya tidak setanding dengan surat tulisan tangan. Salam yang ingin kita hantar juga tidak mampu menyampaikan ekspresi wajah kita dan memberitahu betapa gembira kita untuk menghantar salam kepada orang yang kita sayangi. 

Kita mungkin pernah melihat seseorang yang kelihatan riang dan ceria semasa berdepan dengan kita, tetapi perasaan atau perkataan-perkataan yang diluahkan oleh orang yang sama melalui media sosial adalah bersifat negatif. Hal sebegini kemungkinan besar berlaku disebabkan media sosial berpotensi untuk mengubah watak sosial kita. Individu cenderung untuk mempunyai watak sosial yang berlainan semasa berdepan dengan orang dan atas talian. Sekiranya fenomena ini tertanam pada generasi kita sendiri, tentulah fenomena yang lebih serius wujud dalam generasi akan datang. 

Selain itu, sebagai siswa-siswi, bukanlah perkara yang luar biasa untuk kita mengadakan perjumpaan kumpulan atas talian semasa membuat tugasan. Masalahnya adalah tidak semestinya setiap ahli yang berada atas talian akan memberikan perhatian sepenuhnya. Mereka mungkin berada atas talian, tetapi pada masa yang sama mereka sedang menonton drama pada laman web yang lain. Hal ini boleh mengurangkan keberkesanan perjumpaan tersebut. Lebih-lebih lagi, terdapat individu yang malas untuk menaip atau menjelaskan ideanya melalui taipan atas papan kekunci. Oleh itu, untuk mengadakan perjumpaan secara berkesan dan mengeratkan hubungan antara ahli kumpulan, perjumpaan bersemuka adalah paling baik. 

Akhir kata, apa yang ingin disarankan adalah cubalah mengenepikan alat-alat teknologi seperti komputer riba atau telefon pintar sebentar, dan meluangkan masa untuk berinteraksi dengan orang lain secara bersemuka. Perbuatan yang kecil seperti mengenepikan telefon bimbit semasa makan dengan rakan-rakan sebenarnya menunjukkan bahawa kita menghormati dan menghargai masa kita bersama mereka. Ingatlah bahawa jarak yang jauh antara manusia adalah menggunakan alat-alat teknologi untuk mengakses kepada sosial media apabila kita berpeluang untuk berbual-bual antara satu sama lain secara bersemuka.

Scalp treatment and correct hair washing steps for oily scalp (hair)

Went for my very first hair scalp treatment yesterday.
Didn't know hair and scalp treatment were different, LOLL

The treatment cost me for RM28 (bought the promotional voucher from Groupon) and the hairdresser suggested me to add on RM6 for upgrading to a better shampoo during the treatment.
Initially she scanned my scalp and showed me how oily my scalp is, couldn't keep a copy of those pictures as there were some technical problems LOL

Gained some knowledge on scalp and hair treatment that I wish to share it here:
(1) Each healthy hair follicle/pore has more than one hair grown (like 2/3 hairs in a hair follicle)

 A picture says it all. Photo from Google (donovanmedical.com)

(2) To really get your hair and scalp to be cleaned eventually, the hairdresser suggested us to go salon for a hair wash once a month (Letting those professional to wash a real clean one for you, play safe).

(3) How to clean your hair and scalp thoroughly? Double washing suggested
⇢ Step 1: Put a small amount of shampoo on your palm (for long hair, a size of old RM0.50 coin).
⇢ Step 2: Rub the shampoo on your both palms, put it on your hair and start washing
*Normally, for people with oily hair and scalp like me, the first washing don't
create much lather/foam on your hair.
*But do not add on anymore shampoo at the moment, rinse the shampoo off instead.
⇢ Step 3: Get another small amount of shampoo (Amount lesser than the 1st time)
⇢ Step 4: Rub the shampoo on your both palms, start washing for the 2nd time                 *Now, you get lather/foam on your hair.
'Cause when you wash your hair the 1st time, it removes the dirt & oil on your               hair. The oil also prevent foam forming. So, when you cleaned everything and wash your hair again, foams say hi!

(4) Use a wooden comb to comb your hair, also don't forget to comb your scalp.
You just have to ensure the comb touches your scalp, and of course don't comb your
scalp too hard that it hurts your scalp instead.

Before signing off, do bear in mind that scalp is more important and should be given extra care than your hair, love your scalp! ;)

Best stage in life?

Regardless of what your age is right now, what do you think is the best stage in life?
Personally, I believe that majority of us feels the best time was the time being a child, a lil kid who plays around without worries.

Those are the times where we don't even know how to care about what people say about us, how to take into consideration on how people feel about our appearances, we don't have to worry about what to do tomorrow to survive and compete with people with lots of intention out there.
But without realising how time's ticking, we grew up as person with self-consciousness.

So now I understand what mom told me when I was 5, she said she envy me so much 'cause she can't go back to study life anymore.

Do you remember since when you emphasise on making up and grooming so much whenever you're leaving the house?
Do you remember since when you no longer depend on your parents so much, and start living your own life?
Do you remember the day where you talk back your parents and defy what they wanted you to do?

Normally, no one does remember.

If we're advanced enough, I hope scientists can bring us back to my childhood life so that I can have a peek on how happy I used to be.