MFN Sketchbook

Thought of making this animation as a tribute to my family when suddenly MJ died of cardiac arrest recently while I was working on it.

This is for you mom.

I just came across this sweet old ad that we used to laugh about few years back. Come to think of it, I'm kind of proud to see Proton cars roaming across the city (though I know they wouldn't be as good as vw or merc etc.). There are still room for improvement for everything in this world. And you don't really need all these to tackle someone. Just be confident and be true to yourself =)

What do you tend to worry about in the middle of the night?

When I think I can't finish my assignment when it's due the next day. Once my eyes are close it's over.

Just watched Tranformers' premiere in the UK on 19th of June. It was long (plus the advertisements that didn't seem to end) but it was worth it. Optimus Prime was cool. SPOILER WARNING: He flies!

I can say that this time the story is much more focused on the robots than the humans. They went in depth on the story of relationships between robots and humans (well in terms of helping each other out). It was great. And the storyline is elaborated, making it possible for another sequel. Getting more robots into action was a good thing too. I think Bay has done a good job in listening to the die-hard TF fans. I think all hollywood directors who wish to adapt a story from an existing franchise should do that: Listen to the fans before initiating the story. I'm not saying that fans are all right, but it will give another perspective for the director to work on, so that it will satisfy all viewers who are watching. I guess Bay didn't believe this when he had all of those 'death threats'. Yeah fans can be threatening, but you are the director - only you can decide the future of your own creation. From my perspective I only see Transformers as a successful Hollywood adaptation of Japanese stuff. Dragon Ball was a mess -they could have done much better by getting the right actors and a more proper storyline. As for Legend of Chun Li, I guess they had to rework on everything. I just watched Family Guy's scene where Pete fights again the chicken and it was cool. They should be doing something like that. I hope Blood: Last Vampire is much better, but I doubt that would happen too. It's up the director whether he wants to listen or not.

Fans can influence a story. Whether their comments make sense or not, it does contribute to the quality of a movie. Maybe Hollywood should start to listen more, and not just making more big budget movies that doesn't stand out. I'm really hoping that they would re-create Dragon Ball into something more of a 'matrix' kind of thing. If you know what I mean.

But all in all, Transformers is great! Everyone should watch it. 2 hours 15 minutes worth watching!  

My friend just gave me this link. And my response? Possibly, but not an absolute yes. I have to admit that teachers do need assistants But it depends to what extent. We may have to look further into the situation that is happening in the classroom.

A lecturer of mine once said, "I came across teachers from a lot of countries. I make them line up according to the number of students they have in their classroom everyday. The lowest was a teacher from somewhere in the europe, and it was less than twenty. And I go to another corner where a Kenyan teacher was standing. I ask her how many students she has in her classroom and she replied, '100'. And my jaw dropped."

So my question to myself and Malaysian teachers out there, which position are we in at the moment?

Time is moving so fast that I forgot to update my blog. I thought that having done with Malaysian Fest means that my workload is reduced. Instead, it got increased to several folds. I am currently trying to catch up with the two of the most important tasks besides my assignment which is due next week. The first one is my dissertation which will span until the end of my course in UK. The title that I'm working on is about teaching children with special needs. I hope that those who are reading this and happens to have knowledge and expertise in this would assist me later on (well, that is if there is one. I'd really appreciate it). I'll update on the topic later on. The other bit is that there will be this Arrow congress which will be held this July in my college, and it will involve people from all around the world. And my friends and I will be organising it. It will take up our summer holidays for good.

So that's about it at the moment. Time to work on my assignment.

Friday, May 22, 2009, 11:28

A TOTAL of 50 secondary school teacher trainees from two Malaysian institutions will study for three years at UCP Marjon, under a new contract announced this week.

The college in Derriford has been training teachers of English in collaboration with the Malaysian Ministry of Education for more than 30 years – and, under the new contract, the first group of students will arrive in September.

Principal, Professor David Baker, said: "UCP Marjon has a strong reputation for teacher training, and we are very proud of our ongoing relationship with the Malaysian Ministry of Education.

"The Malaysian students contribute enormously to the life of UCP Marjon and to the internationalisation of the student experience.

"The upcoming annual Malaysian Fest is one of the main highlights of the university college calendar."
Click here for more

This year's annual Malaysian festival will be held next Wednesday (27). The event, which is open to the public, will run between 10am and 1pm, and will have exhibitions, food stalls and souvenirs as well as Malaysian games – and will take place in the Quad area of the UCP Marjon campus.

There is also a film, Princess of Mount Ledang, being shown in the drama theatre between 7pm and 8pm.

*It was actually a theatre performance and somebody did call on the day to confirm whether it was really a film or not. But it doesn't really matter because what matters is that our event is finally in the paper! Thank you everyone for your support!

Went for an interview for the Malaysian Fest with my friend for the first time on BBC Devon. We weren't prepared at all! But it was worth the experience.

BBC RADIO DEVON

We had to handle a science lesson which was supposed to be 30 minutes, but turned out to be an hour and a half.. The lesson was divided into 2 sessions.

During the first session we had to ask children questions regarding functions of magnets in daily life. I was interested in their responses, as they vary from one another. One of the children mentioned that it is used by the crane to pick up cars. Most of the children never thought of that. There was another child who mentioned that two magnets can still be attached to one another even though we put a repulsive object in between. I never expected such response coming out of the children.

The second session was more challenging. First, the children were given magnets and different objects which attract and repel. Then, we asked them to tick on those which attract and those which repel in their worksheets. Later, we have them a quiz with questions related to what they did earlier. After a while, I suddenly ask them a question which was slightly different than what they had understood earlier. I asked them whether aluminium foil attracts magnet or not. Some said yes while others said no, with their own reasons. The most interesting reason that I heard was that the aluminium foil was made out of different materials and not just aluminium itself. Thus, some assumed that aluminium as a material may attract magnet, and not aluminium foil. At first I thought that they were just going to relate it with the food being contaminated by metals that are conductors but I was wrong.

We have decided to do magnets and spring for our Science lesson the next day. We have also consulted with our friends and surfed into several websites to see how a Science lesson can be conducted. However, we are worried that our plans may not cater to teacher’s expectation at the end of the lesson. So, we just tried to find an activity which suits the lesson plan sheet that the teacher has provided us. We also had to acquire several materials from the school to be used for the next day. We were thinking of doing a ‘magnetic necklace’ so that we can use it as a set induction, but there were not any ring magnets available. So, we had to make adaptation such as asking children about the functions of magnets at the beginning of the lesson.