Teachers oh teachers

How many of us actually remember our teachers? Who have sacrificed their time and life to teach us the things we need to learn in life?

The first teacher which left a deep impression on me was my Standard 1 and 2 class teacher, Ms. Azizah. See.. i remember her name. but i don't remember her face.. ahahaha.. but I know that she's kind and really patient. Another teacher i remember was my Moral teacher during standard 1. A tall Malay man with moustache, I don't remember his name sadly. He always like to use our Moral period to tell us stories about a fat man and a skinny man. and it has continuation, which would make us wait in eagerness for the next class.

I also remember my English teacher for standard 3. Pn. Kasmawati (not sure if spelt correctly), a plump Malay lady, who is very strict. She spanks people. hahaha.. and everytime I want to go to toilet during her period, I would rehearse in my mind a few times how to ask for permission, before mustering up my courage to walk to her and ask.

Also, I remember Encik Suhaimi, my Maths teacher (or was it Science? maybe both) in standard 6. And my BM teacher who is really kind. Forgotten her name :x

In secondary school, I remember my Form 1 English teacher. A pretty big size (for a Chinese female) and she's really fun. Likes telling us stories. My form 2 English teacher is also good. She's a Malay, petite, lovely lady. And because she's a Malay, some of my friends thought that she isn't good in English. My friends went to find her and came back saying to me "Oh she's a Malay, but she speaks perfect English" XD Rahul.. u remember this? XDXD

Cikgu Prema, history and BM teacher in Form 3. She takde suka kita, sebab dia ingat kita amat berlagak dan angkuh kerana kita kelas pertama. ahahahaha, and this persisted until when we were form 5 (long after she taught us) lol..

Moving on to form 4 and 5, Datin (Chemistry teacher), Tahiah (Physics teacher) and.. oh biology teacher not important (She made us all dislike biology :x) Add Maths teacher, Mr. Thean (also our volleyball coach then) was a person of small stature but likable by many girls. XD

History teacher, Pn. Norizam, Moral teacher, Encik Jamil, and i forgotten my BM, BI and Maths teacher's name. Dang!

And how could i not put his name in? Mr. Lee Kean Sing. My tuition teacher for Add Maths. Likes to blow water, but his teaching methods are good. At least it gives me a deeper understanding rather than just managing to solve the problems.

Tuition teachers... My BM tuition teacher in Johan during primary school was pretty nice. Also, Science was also pretty nice. I had quite fond memories of Johan. Especially with Boon Kit, Weng Soon and the person who always poke my back, Ms. Valarie Seow. XD

Biology tuition teacher was great. Great because he revived my biology from my school teacher. XD he's funny also. and loves to enter the topic of sexuality. lol.

I am really thankful for my education in the public school. It made me less prejudiced I would say. It made me have the opportunity to come together regardless of races. It made me realize that despite our differences and difference in perception, our perception of the others may be wrong. It made me who I am today.

Thank you to all my teachers. May God always show mercy unto all of you

God Bless~

Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow

Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow. Those who have taken English literature should know these famous words where we were forced to study.

tomorrow is going to be my last class in HELP. let's hope it stays that way. being nostalgic about leaving. so many memories and friends i got to know. so many things learnt. some people can't wait to get out of uni. me? ambivalent.

where am i heading to next? i want to go work and travel, but the plan doesn't seem to fit properly as yet. I WANT GO STUDY IN THE US!!

past few days, have been in a very contemplative mood. all because of bobo chee. :p influence me then make me emo pulak. muahahaha.. undecided.. how? :x

if i own a camera, i would so want to go stalk lecturers and ask them to have a photograph with me. also to all my kawans kawans.

entering hmc, student council, leadership camp, MIS bed, HMC ball, psych colloquium, volleyball club, all the volleyball competitions, visit to Dominos with shelther home, experiments, research on autism and all other researches, counselling, play therapy, group processes, visit to old folks, out there finding out about taboos, ARUPS, tutoring, Dota charity competition and all other things have made me grow as a person.

christmas is coming. and my course is ending. a new beginning.

God Bless~

Hatch, Mismatch, Dispatch

November 26th 2010

Fr. Christopher once said that many Catholics comes to church only on a few occasions that the priest have termed it as "hatch (baptism), match (marriage) and dispatch (anointing of the sick)" Funny, but have some truth in it.

This semester, I learnt about the whole 3 categories from hatch, to mismatch (rather than match) and dispatch. It's really cool to be able to learn all these things from on hands research and assignments. Again, this semester is probably the semester which I learnt most in terms of gaining experience. It's been a wonderful experience and i see it fit to be an ending semester for me :)

Hatch - learnt about children. more specifically how to do therapeutic play with children. children are awesome beings don't you think so? they have such immense live in them. So good at gaining insight and yet at times asked the silliest question ever. Cute max! The special thing about this course is that we have to go out and actually do real play sessions with real kids. No longer like counseling skills where we video record role play. This is REAL PLAY! and it's really a challenging experience, a great experience

Mismatch - y mismatch rather than match? because of contemporary psych, where we learn about different ideologies humans have as an adult. Children don't fight for ideology. Old people are probably at an age where it doesn't matter as much. It's the adults who fight for what they think should be and there's where the mismatch comes in. Many people just don't understand the other parties' point of view and don't 1 to listen. So what happens? mismatch and therefore fight. war happens, sadly.

Through this subject, I learnt a lot about different ideologies and at the same time got to explore my own beliefs. Beliefs about religion, sexuality, law, prejudice and discrimination etc. and it's really been an eye opener to learn about how different people view the same thing. We have to interview people regarding what their thoughts are about certain topics. And it is here that I went to a mosque for the first time. Do you know that mosque are actually a pretty nice place (forgive me cause i never entered a mosque before)? At least the mosque at my place is really pretty :) It was also the first time i have been to a tattoo shop and an indian temple. Challenging, yet memorable experience.

Dispatch - Old people. Group process' assignment was about older adults and we got to go to an old folks home, and the experience was just AWESOME! really proud of the old folks home that we visited. Proves that old folks need not live a miserable like how I always thought would happen. From group process subject, I managed to learn more about different groups of people from children to older adults and it expanded my horizon on things. Not challenging, but really good experience. Not to mentioned the fact that I got to make good friends.

I was pretty anxious with taking these subjects because I do not have my normal friends to take it with me, which means group assignment might be screwed up. Amazingly, the group experience have been awesome, even with random selection for contemporary psych. I guess God have His mercy on me. ^^ Group counseling is good, although I felt that it should have been a lot more better.

Before I end, there are a few myths that I would like to debunk

1) Sex workers choose their 'profession' - they did not. Because of lack of education and the need to survive, they have no other alternative. Do you really think people enjoy having sex with anyone anytime?

2) Drug addicts are stupid and society's trash - they are not. they are pretty smart actually because if they want to, they can get what they want (drugs) by any means, without getting caught. Why else you think there are so many drug addicts out there? They are not society's trash. Many of them actually can contribute to the society, but very little people believe in people who have history of drug addicts. So what do they do? Nothing. Simply because people don't believe in them

3) People who don't believe in my religion will go to hell - ok, for this 1, i shall not say 'not true' because ultimately, I am not the one who makes the decision. But I do think God is merciful enough. Protestants (sorry if i am generalizing) love to quote this verse from the Bible to show that there's a clear distinction between them and others

2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

From what i see, the Bible cannot be taken literally and the point to be taken here is what does it mean by 'unbelievers'? Protestants (Sorry if i am generalizing again) seems to take the word 'unbelievers' as those who are not protestants. but are all non protestants bad? If the answer is no, then the following words "for what do righteousness and wickedness have in common" does not make sense.

Then it comes to the question. Who are believers? Believe in what? Believers of course is to me believers in Jesus, but more importantly, what is Jesus? Jesus is love. God is love. And therefore believers in love and those who work towards spreading love are known as believers. Naturally, unbelievers would mean that they don't believe and don't spread love. Following this line of thought, then the second part of there verse now makes sense no?

In conclusion, i learnt a lot of things this sem. nice for me :) You might want to rethink of some of the things you believe in. If you reject certain things and believe in certain things, it might be time to re explore what are the rationale behind those thoughts and beliefs.

God Bless~

Life's Journey

My time in HELP is going to end (Terence)

This is sad as I want more (Sharon)

Look forward to the future... the best is yet to be

Have a great future ahead

All the best in all you do (Charissa)

It may seemed like an end, but it really is just the start (Ser Li)

Fill up your future with your dream (Yi Wen)

It will be another start in my life

Perhaps I might just find a wife (Amanda)

And sacrifice my whole life (Terence)

Thinking about it is depressing (Sharon)

Look forward to the future with open arms

Not everything out there is bad

Marriage can't be that sad? (Charissa)

Just knowing that there will always be light at the end of the tunnel (Ser Li)

Go for the light, go for your dream (Yi Wen)

Kick all the obstacles away in the future

with God above, everything is pure (Amanda)

And in Him I have faith, faith to carry on (Terence)

This is the poem written in PSY 215. Not very poetic, but it's not too bad I suppose. Pretty meaningful when we have to complete each other sentences. Mine wasn't very funny, there were others who were funnier. lol.. but at least mine has got meaning ^^

God Bless~

Little Sisters of the Poor

This semester, me and my group mates went to an old folks home to do our assignment for Group Process. The old folks home is the Little Sisters of the Poor and my my.. the home is dang nice. I want to go there when I am old and when nobody wants me. In order to get into the home, u need to be poor cause they only take in poor old folks. hahaha.. so go donate all your munney to charity and come in :p

We went there twice cause we did it pretty early. The first time we went was to help with their open day. So we helped out with whatever that we could like decorating and arranging things.

It's pretty isn't it? :p

The second time we went there was half for assignment and half for fun i suppose. XD this time, we went and helped out with playing bowling. They actually have real bowling balls and pins. So cool right? And it's tiring to be the 'machine' who picks up the pins. sweat like.. oink oink..

But all in all it was a really nice experience. At the end of the second visit, we walked around more and explored the area. There's a reflexology area where we walked on it. And then some smart person (who's the smart 1 ar? forgotten dy. XD) suggested we ran on it. and so we did and it was not a smart decision. I had aching soles for 2 and a half days.

Still, it was a nice trip. Thank you all for making this a success, Adrian, Cheryl, Sarah, John and not forgetting Cheah. Without all of you, it wouldn't have been this good.

God Bless all of you~

Birthday 2010

I guess i should dedicate some time off from assignments to update my blog. :S been lazy to post up things these days. So this is the happenings for my birthday this year.

1) Outing to Klang for... celebration (Sat, 23rd October)

So first we went to a restaurant in Klang to eat baked crabs and lamb. My friends told me it was dang good. it was OK-LAH! XD the shop was packed with people and seems like it's really famous. almost every table got order baked crab

After dinner, we went to I-City, and I paid for the entrance fees. Fuiyoh i tell u, all of them were surprised that i said i will pay because i very cheapskate 1 normally. for me to pay is like waiting for rain to fall during drought.

There was nothing special inside actually. Just that the lights are pretty pretty and there's lots of people inside. We walked for a while, took some photos and it began to drizzle which made us leave the place. The photos aren't clear which is a waste. :x

Then we went to Station 1. they still refuse to go home. XDXD don't 1 to let me go right? :p So we went there and yum cha. I had a cake. awww so sweet of them. So there goes my lovely celebration with them.

2) LookoutPoint (Sun, 24th Oct)

Went to lookoutpoint and the weather was super nice. Was windy and cool up there. Awesome! I enjoyed the company, and the food. Thanks for the cake RACHEL! XD

Nice time catching up with friends who i don't see always. Chan hoe talked about his experience travelling, Suet and Kong got some juicy stuff to dig from. XD

3) 25th, Monday - I actually had another celebration with another person. But.. i shall just keep it to myself :)

A big thank you for everyone who celebrated my birthday with me. It's been a wonderful time spent with all of you. Jika ada apa-apa tersinggung, harap maaf zahir dan batin.

God Bless~

ARUPS 2010

2 Oct 2010 - 3 Oct 2010

Finally ARUPS 2010 is over. Although I am still not very happy with the way things were planned and executed, I am very happy about the presentations that I have heard so far. It's really an eye opener and heartening experience to know that psychologists at the very core are still pretty good people (or at least people who come to conferences are).

Let's first say some of the things which I am unhappy about

1) THE VENUE CHANGE!! - i understand y they need to change the venue, but some insider told me that the committee knew a little bit earlier that the venue has to be changed. However, the committee didn't want to announce until like... 4 days before the conference. I was thinking WHY, but seems like this question is never going to be answered.

2) The seemingly last minute preparation - ok i have to give credit to those who did try their very best to organize ARUPS. I know it's a big conference, and it's not easy. But to me, it seems there are so many things being done last minute. helpers and volunteers are being recruited last minute. Schedule of presentations are changed. venue changed. and i was asked to be chairperson only during the very VERY last minute. I don't mind chairing. It's a great experience, just that i don't like it so last minute.

Also, i think it's really unfair that the helpers are treated as free labor. they need to pay, and they still need to work. not having the luxury of going to sessions that they wanted to. and the food is just.... poor!! I really pity them.

Now let's not delve on the negative side, and move on to the positive side. There is only one positive side to ARUPS, which are the presentations being done. So below are some presentations which i think are really heartening.

1) Novel Ways of Understanding the Mind - Dr. Robyn Young

So this presentation talks about autism and how her team of researchers managed to develop a scale to better diagnose autism in children younger than 12 months. It's really a great achievement because the earlier a child is being known, the earlier the intervention can be. And it's not really a diagnose per se, cause a children that young, you can't really know for sure whether he/she is autistic. But the special thing about this is that it assess some of the behavioral deficits, and instead of labeling the child as autistic, tries to improve those behavioral deficits. really cool!

2) Research on contemporary issues affecting youths in Malaysia - HELP lecturers (Dr. Hera, Dr. Albert and Dr. Anansuya)

Probably the most enjoyable out of all the presentations in ARUPS. It's good to know some of the research that is being done in Malaysia and what HELP's staff trying to do to make things better. Very nice

3) Economic Empowerment: Sustainable Support System for People with Learning Difficulties in Employment - Ms. Clarissa Chang

I chaired for this session, and it's really another very heartening presentation. Ms. Clarissa has been in the field for 20 years, advocating for people with learning difficulties. The things she does are just angelic la. It is said that nowadays, Giant no longer hire foreigners and they shift this quota to employing people with learning disabilities. Great right? That's hard work!

4) Promoting Children's Personal Strengths: Integrating Positive Psychology with Child Development.

Dr. Albert presented in this session, and the way he laughs is SO FARNEE. he sounds like he's asthmatic, but a happy one. XD So Dr. Albert constructed a scale to measure personal strength and in his session, he said that personal strength (or noncognitive ability XD) is equally important, if not more important to predict success in life. And yes, eventhough knowledge is important, being able to control and manage one's emotion and interpersonal skills definitely will bring a person a loooong way. if not, even with all the knowledge in the world, you would still end up in jail, simply because u cannot control your emotions and end up fighting with other people. lol

5) Stress Level, Life Regard and Coping Strategies of Wives with Alcoholic Husbands in Kartanaka, India: A basis for an Intervention Program - Ms. Judy Lewis

So Ms. Judy managed to find wives whom are married to alcoholic husbands (which treats them pretty badly like using verbal abuse) and measure all the things she wanted to, like meaning of life and stress level. After identifying those who have high stress level, and low meaning of life, she invented a logotherapy intervention. So these females at the end of the day manage to lower their stress level, and also mange to find more meaning in life. so cool huh?

Man, these people are the people who change the society around them. I want to be like them too! muahahaha.. it's good to see that there are advocates who are doing things to change society for the better. Often times, they work background and nobody recognizes them.

I guess i did chose a right course after all!

My supervisor Dr. Albert and me

God Bless~