i can see rainbow! No.... rainbow don't go...

Hello, miss me?

I am now free as a bird. I feel so liberated now that the exam has ended. I have marked the papers, keyed in and validated the marks. Now I am waiting for the validation meeting to check and compare marks with the rest of the lecturers for different subjects. Mostly validation meetings are held to formally confirming the marks as a faculty's decision before it is brought to the discussion of the university’s board of director or otherwise called the senate meeting.

But it wasn’t an easy task. In one of the code, the paper was supposed to be marked by 3 lecturers. One of them flew to Australia to pursue her PhD right before the exam. The other markers is one of the very-very senior officer, i.e the vice dean who is always busy and on the run. Since the july-november semester is rather short, we were only given a very short time before the deadline to finish all the markings.

Before i continue, i want to introduce my nephew.

This is azmir, we call him amir. He likes talcum powder very much. He use it everywhere, on his face, the body, hands, leg, under the table, on the carpet, at the sofa. That is his picture before my mom (his grandma) found out and wallop him.

Hik.


this is one of the exam hall. Unlike other universities where they have exam building, we don’t. Each faculty have to be creative and try to find own ways to do the exam. Sometimes we wonder what is the function of the exam department, when the faculty has to do everything on its own.

This is actually a moot court where we rearrange the room and put table in it. Other than that, the exams are held all over the place. Smaller groups are very lucky because they get to do it in an airconditioned room, such as this one. A larger group, such as my students had to do it in the lounge or the dewan makan in the student dormitory, were it is hot and stuffy and you will feel hungry the entire course of exam because you can smell chicken being fried in the kitchen.

That is why this university is said to produce very strong graduate because they are always being tested, and they are being tested while they are being tested.




Understand?




The lecturers are also being tested all the time.




like for example....





Do you know what this is?


This is the last paper from the bunch of papers that I need to mark. It took me almost 11 days to mark all the papers. When you reach the last one you will feel so bliss you almost cry. And I did cry, because mind you I feel very tired marking the papers this semester since I am taking over the bunch from the other lecturer that managed to get away. Lucky bitch.



And when you finally finished the last paper you feel a rush of joy, and stars and sun suddenly appears out of nowhere and you feel like dancing and singing, and if its rain, you would just run out the field and sing a song from the sound of music.

Do a dear, a female dear

Re, a drop of golden sun

Me, a name I called my self….

Bla bla bla.

You feel like rainbow suddenly come out of nowhere celebrating the gush of blood through your head and feel high. Somewhat like what drug addict gets when they take heroin I think. I swear on the way back home, I saw rainbow. I even took picture of it.



Lets take a closer look.




Do you see it? or i am going loco and imagining seeing a rainbow.



But, suddenly....



Not all movies, end up with happy ending. And you realised then, there isnt a pile of gold at the end of the rainbow, but a pile of dung.




Do you know what these are?



These are few (i wouldn't say a few) papers that i need to mark again, because one of the very-very senior person could not finish it.



While attending a train the trainer (tot) training (yes, i need to go to a 3 days training while marking my papers), i got an sms.



"can you continue marking on one of the question because i could not make it, i have another paper to mark"



I just said oke, because i thought how hard could it be. Only one isnt it.

But when i took the bundle from the exam strong room, it was actually one the most famous and easiest question of all. Meaning to say, everyone answered that question, meaning to say, i need to remarks the whole bundle of answer scripts.



Well again, i am not complaining, just sharing stories. It is better to be stressed because you have a job, rather than being stressed unemployed, and since this particular person have enough authority and can elevate my stress level to another stage, i just keep quiet and do my job.




Kacang putih lah...







So with a lots of packets of kacang putih, i continued marking and marking and marking, counting the overall marks, keyed in the marks, validated the marks, and now i am as free as a bird until early January when the new semester starts.



Well, it may sound stressful but a lecturer's work is actually is not stressful at all. We are only busy at the early and at the end week of each semester. while the rest of the 4 months period we are basically talking and making sure the students get hell and sore ass and being a pain in the neck to the student and get paid for it. But of course there is also research that you need to do and some reading just to make sure that you know a little bit more from the students.



If you are lazy, but you have the credentials, and wanted something easy, be a lecturer. Trust me, i am one of them.

the one with credentials, not lazy oke!

anyway, the day i finished all the works, i called Za and Raz and we went to celebrate. We had steamboat for dinner last night.

This is the cheapest steamboat restaurant you will ever find. Only RM19.90 per person, this Flaming Restaurant in Sunway Pyramid served the best affordable steamboat in town. Do not expect lobsters and soft shell crab, but they have almost everything.

And they a lots of dessert too, like ice cream, those marshmellow dipped in chocolate sauce, ice kacang and bottomless drinks.

I just love buffet. Although you know, buffet keep you closer to the heart doctors, but because it is cheap and since you can eat like a cow, you dont really mind about heart attack. Really...

Anyway, it is a steamboat dinner, it is supposed to be healthy.

This is the TOT training session.

As usual, the rule stay, sit as far as possible from the trainer so he won't ask you question or ask you to participate in the activity.

hik.

The one standing is the trainer.

the fat one looking rather bored is me.

These are some of the pictures of the porridge i cook last week while having flu. Since mom was not around that time and since a friend of mine was also sick, so i cook some porridge and fried some anchovies, shallots and grounded some black peppers.

Nice.

Just put 1 cup of rice, and 6 cups of water. Bring it to boil, put some coconut milk, and throws in some slice ginger and simmer it until the rice all lembik already. Put in some salt to taste. Eat with fried anchovies and what ever lah you have in the fridge.

Of course, i went down to buy Nasik Goreng Kampung a couple of hours later.

I am sick, not on a diet.

This is a picture of a half day round table discussion with the Ministry of Youth and Sports which i attended while busy invigilating exams and marking papers to discuss the political issues among youth. That is the life of a public servant, you have to make time when duty call. The discussion focuses a lot on the voting trend in the last election, where one of the reason said for the very interesting election result was because of the youth voting.

They are easily manipulated, they like shiny things, and they like drama and excitement, but they don't really care about politics.

sad.

But, then again it is a good thing because it shows our political thinking are getting more mature each day, and the political partisans are getting bigger, which is good for democracy, as long as they know what they are doing and where they are heading.

I was not intrigue so much on the discussion, but rather was looking forward for what will be served for lunch.

Oke that is about it, for today.

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.