Entry 9: Durian,The King of Fruits.

“A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy...” -British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace describing the taste of a durian, 1856


Randomly my parents decided to have durians and satay for a snack. I'm not a fan of the fruit for a number of reasons. It's a 'heaty' fruit, has a strong odour and tastes chemical- ish. Since its out of the blue I decided to have some, true enough it's chemical like flavours don't really appeal to me but it's once in a while so I couldn't bother.

The thing about the king of fruits are really funny. It's a green fruit with spikes. It takes usually abut 7 to 10 years for the plant to bear fruit, with the help of bats to pollinate it. (We have 2 durian trees which are over 10 years of age, I've been pestering for it to be cut down. Some plants apparently try their best to bear fruit when they are threatened. Probably the same way how some people say that your plants and flowers will grow better when you talk to them. It has yet to bear us any fruit. A durian tree is said to be extremely sensitive, once it is planted on the ground, it must  not be moved. The roots are very sensitive and the plant will die if  it gets moved too much.) When it is ripe the fruit will drop on its own, it can kill you if it falls on your head. The fruit may come in different colours from yellow, white and reddish pink. It ommits a strong smell that is hard to remove, hence it is banned from most places, especially hotels.

Ok that's facts, now with the funny part about them. Here are some traditional remedies passed down from the times of old.After eating durians, the smell may retain on our hands and having too much can make us unwell. Apparently the remains of the fruit (the husks) can help with the problem. Simply use the husk, but not the spiky part use the insides of it and run water from it to wash your hands, this apparently gets rid of the smell.

Resolving the heaty problem: Use a section of the husk and fill the shallow part with some salt and drinking water. By drinking this concoction it removes the 'heati-ness' from eating the durians.

Do you do the same when you eat durians? How do you get rid of the smell  Or possibly you dislike the fruit?
Do share your views if you please. I find durians an awfully weird fruit despite growing up knowing what it is. I still wonder why it's the king of fruits and the mangosteen is the queen. Strange, no?

Quote citation: http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Durian

Entry 8: The AMO Times

I was pretty impressed that there was such a news blog the AMO Times for Brunei's youth by Brunei's youth. And many thought Facebook was one of the ultimate newsfeed other than Twitter. Who knew we had such craziness going on in the virtual world. The team are run by Abdul Malik Omar, founder and CEO of the AMO times.

Interested ? You can also join in to make a change. Info below:

Other than that it's nice to see Blogger finally updated their features on publishing.

Entry 7 : Racism and assumptions

I always hear about Monday blues because its the day after Sunday and everyone has to go to work, school, etc. What I don't get is Saturday night blues, and some people make a big deal of it for not going out and enjoying the night life on a Saturday night. I know else where there are bars and night clubs that I don't know why appease to the public; I don't drink, smoke, gamble and strongly dislike crowded places. Even in Brunei, the night life is quite alright, I'm appreciative of the no alcohol policy - no bars and what not places that lead to trouble.- everyone else just goes to Gadong and crowd at the Mall. Many foreigners complain that Brunei is boring cos it lacks bars, casinos, etc --what they dub as tourism.

This came to light when news about suggesting to make alcohol readily available in our little home country (like when they used to a long time ago) in 2010? My friends had this discussion in our office and were saying the topic is stupid to be even addressed and then realising that I'm the only non-muslim in the room, they quickly apologized to me. And I asked why, just because I'm not Muslim that makes me associated with alcohol and gambling?(a.k.a I can take 'haram' things) A friend then answered that, "Isn't that what Chinese people do?" I did not feel insulted, I agreed with them that allowing such contraband's to be allowed in our country is a bad idea, but I also couldn't help but feel that some of them were daft in the way they see the world. ( Muslims in other countries such as Morocco consume pork and alcohol and own dogs!)It's so judgmental and its the similar way how westerners assume that every Muslim is a terrorist and that pisses everybody off. A wise man once said "We have no choice but to deal with stupid people" even if you wanted to slap him one time or another.

Then I think, racism lead to assumptions of particular groups of people, and people blame one another for bad things that happen- say in an argument with a black and a white man - most would think the white man is innocent but it could be the fact that the black man did no wrong and it is the white man that started the problem.

People always blame those who are weak, of a lower status because they assume with their so called 'higher status" they can get away with things. This occurs a lot in Brunei too, saying how they know this VIP or member of the royal family when its pure bogus. I find these people stupid, suggesting who you know and what threat they can do to you is CORRUPTION and plenty of people don't know this shit.

People are always talking about changing the mind set but when the mind is set for change, they protest citing traditions and whatnots. I apologize but I don't see this as a way for development, if we want something done we many have to step on some toes and probably kiss some asses, because in this world, We can't please everyone.

Such as this story:
"This happened on TAM airlines.

A 50-something year old white woman arrived at her seat and saw that the passenger next to her was a black man.

Visibly furious, she called the air hostess.

"What's the problem, ma?" the hostess asked her

"Can't you see?" the lady said - "I was given a seat next to a black man. I can't seat here next to him. You have to change my seat"

- "Please, calm down, ma" - said the hostess
"Unfortunately, all the seats are occupied, but I'm still going to check if we have any."

The hostess left and returned some minutes later.

"Madam, as I told you, there isn't any empty seat in this class- economy class.
But I spoke to the captain and he confirmed that there isn't any empty seats in the economy class. We only have seats in the first class."

And before the woman said anything, the hostess continued

"Look, it is unusual for our company to allow a passenger from the economy class change to the first class.
However, given the circumstances, the commandant thinks that it would be a scandal to make a passenger travel sat next to an unpleasant person."

And turning to the black man, the hostess said:

"Which means, Sir, if you would be so nice to pack your handbag, we have reserved you a seat in the first class..."

And all the passengers nearby, who were shocked to see the scene started applauding, some standing on their feet."

Have a read on the blame game, as much as I'm not a fan of math this read makes plenty of sense : "Maths doesn't suck, you do."

Entry 6: Correct translations

About a week ago I had a conversation with a lecturer about describing childrens behaviour. It occurred to me that I was unable to translate the word "manja" into English. Often I would sub it as "wanting to be pampered" or "spoilt" but when I described this one child, all I could say was "she is very manja"; I could not find the right word to sub it with to make it a full sentence in standard English. The lecturer I spoke to understood what I meant but also agreed that "manja" was somewhat difficult to just translate without removing it's real meaning.

Some colleagues have also mentioned about the word "tegur" in Malay and the problem of translating it in to English. To "tegur" someone may mean to greet (bertegur sapa), to be told off (kena tegur) or even used as ignoring (inda di tegur).

I find it tricky to explain words that may not have an exact meaning in another language. I think it would be like the word "kiasu" (afraid to lose) the word is somehow coined and used as it is. Funny enough I came across this Tagalog word "gigil" which means being irresistable to hug or pinch something incredibly cute; and there is no word in English to describe this particular behaviour!

Entry 5 : Dragon Year 2012

Photo credits: here

Happy Chinese New Year of the water dragon.

As every new year arrives the people bustle the shops to buy new clothes, shoes, food and fill the house with plenty of cheer and the colour of RED. To the Chinese, the colour red is symbolic to wealth and prosperity. Likewise that the GREEN colour is symbolic to the Malays. Many don't know the story of how RED became the official colour as there are so many variations.

(The one I know of is that a village was attacked by a monster every year and the villagers could not defeat it nor defend themselves. One day they were told that the monster feared loud sounds and the colour red and so the villagers donned themselves in red that night and made extremely loud sounds (like the cymbals in lion dances) and the monster fled in fear that there was a more menacing creature that could devour him; leaving the villagers in peace. Since then red became the official colour of peace, and prosperity.)*Note: There are other versions*

The thing with Chinese new year is that it is a tradition to celebrate it for 15 days in accordance to the Lunar calendar and had many pantangs.(taboos) On the eve of the new year the family must have a dinner gathering to celebrate and also on the fifteenth day to mark the end of the new year.

The Chinese come from a superstitious background and like to keep traditions intact. There are strict rules that have to be followed.I'm sure many are familiar with the never say the word "death" or "number 4" on the first day of CNY. Others include not touching a broom on the first day as it will sweep away all the good luck, not washing your hair on the first day as it will wash away luck, advised not to wear anything black as it symbolizes death, watching or referring to horror stories , etc.

Now, I'm quite skeptical of some of these taboos and tend to question a lot but I rarely get a satisfactory answer. I value tradition as one thing but I feel that it has to make sense other wise it's plain rubbish to me. First of all, why are we not allowed to touch or use a broom but are allowed to use a cloth to clean or wash? Won't we also wipe away the luck? Secondly -not washing your hair - I understand this but won't we have to bathe ourselves -would that not also wash away our luck? Sorry but I find these ironic.

I always question everything and that's because I believe that everything has an answer. When we were children, we've always been told not to question anything and follow the status quo. Why? What is there to hide? If the Chinese were considered "grand" with their history why the variations and contradictions of beliefs? For this trolling attitude I tend to be told off for asking these things but it's not because I ask too much. It's because I put the elders to shame that they themselves do not know the significance of some traditions that they blindly follow without fail. I particularly did not like this attitude and it's not the fault of theirs to do so, their own elders oppressed their children's upbringing and did not allow questioning.

This makes me quite grateful that we live in an era that makes some sense and allow for rights and opinions. It also depends on the mind set of the people should they accept or reject these traditions. Some traditions just beg to differ and I believe should be solved than just left to burn in the minds of those who follow them to heart.

So does anyone know if Chai Shen Ye really exists or is he just like Santa Clause, man made?
(Note: Chai Shen Ye is the god of Wealth and has become a popular term for those who are wealthy and also a nickname to parents by their children because they are their source of income.)

Well it depends if you believe in him or not, it's just like questioning a leprechaun and his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Speaking of which, the chinese new year is about visiting relatives and friends and also about the hong bao (红包) (red packets). Did you know that in the old days red packets did not contain money but a piece of paper giving advice and nice words from the elders as a fresh start to the new year!

[Other reads: http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_773__2009-01-02.html
http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/taboos.html]

I know I may pass off as a mean person who is strictly prejudiced at some point and speak my mind out especially about the whispers from the crowd, but I don't care. If you have an opinion speak it out rather than just sit back and talk amongst your silly little crowds with fear of being heard. We're given a life to think so think about it.

Entry 4: SOPA

Imagine a World
Without Lolcats, Bronies, and other complete stupidity

The Uncyclopedia community has authorised a blackout of the English version of Uncyclopedia for 24 hours in protest of the blackout of the English version of Wikipedia. Unlike them, we support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives and the PROTECTIP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate - bills that, if passed, will help purify and secure the currently free and open Internet, once and for all putting an end to the mess of memes and blogs and social networking and pron.

Wikipedia urges you to take action, but today we ask you to not take any action at all.

Let it happen. Allow the Internet to be purified.

"Imagine a world without LOLCATS,BRONIES and other complete stupidity" -- I don't want to live on this planet anymore!


Yep that's right today/yesterday (18th January 2012) is the blackout for SOPA which is affecting everyone. The battle has been going on several months ago. I still can't believe a lot of citizens of the Internet did not know what SOPA is! It's the "Stop Online Piracy Act" where the US govt are trying their best to ban social sharing sites like megaupload and file share; this is supported by the rich and powerful who don't want any one to siphon off their money, when they've already got so much. So if we just innocently share a picture or song online, we can get sued just for the latter. Rubbish ain't it?

Why this is relevant in politics?

Net-izens and youngsters alike LOVE the Internet and we have this care free attitude and sense of freedom when online, able to escape into the world of imagination that is up to you to decide. And Politics, yes, the only time youngsters will ever be involved in politics is when the Internet is Threatened!

Now who can survive without Wikipedia, Uncyclopedia, Nico Nico Douga and all those stupid sites we enjoy going to! Let's hope SOPA does not pass.

We demand Internet rights to creativity and freedom of expression. If this crappy useless contract passes we won't even be able to blog, Tumblr, YouTube and torrent such anymore. Do you see the power of the youth and the Internet?

Entry 3: The future of language with Internet Memes.

Do you know what an Internet meme is? It's effect on our imagination and communication in the real world? Did you know that the ever popular kitty cat site " ICanHasCheezburger" is an Internet meme promoting bad spellings for funny effects of personified cute cats talking to us? (Wouldn't this just murder my English teachers mind if I were still in primary school?!)

We know with the Internet we have a vast network and access to almost everything at our fingertips. We share and learn new words, lingos and what nots that other people deem as cool and gets spread all around and somehow becomes universal. School teachers obviously hate SMS language in their pupil's compositions and essays with all the "V went 2 d park 2day" and the "4eva" and "LoL". How would they feel if they get memes drawn on their essay sheets? I would love to see the reaction though at the expense of the pupil's grade ( :P)


So what are these Internet memes?

Internet memes may seem like nonsense, a complete waste of time. That they’re something for people with nothing to do but to surf the net all day. But in actuality, these internet memes are big business. They shape popular culture, change the way we live our lives, and continually evolve with modern society today. (here's a good read on them )

It is becoming one of the world's cultural phenomenon described as a virus travelling from one person to the next and breathing life on it s own.
The term was coined by Richard Dawkins. It is pronounced as /mi:m/

Usually memes are meant to be funny- poking fun at society, people -especially famous ones, urban legends, etc and is affecting the entire population of the Internets perception of language, world view and such.

Most common on a popular meme site called 9GAG, they popularize the "You're never alone on 9GAG" quote to show the similarities of those who can't relate to others in real life but can escape in to the virtual world and meet others who think just like them.

The new in thing seems to be meme related especially the troll faces, cereal guy, forever alone guy, etc.

Pic below (popular memes used nowadays)

Cereal guy :the cynical one who makes fun of others.

Laugh Out Loud Guy: Laughign out loud literally

Okay guy: the sad person who always agrees

Pffft guy: the typical face you imagine when laughing in a mocking way.


Forever alone: this explains itself. alone..
Troll face: the most common image for trolling people and usually ends with a "problem?" note.



Apparently these meme's are some kind or marketing scheme as well. You can always make your own memes with a troll generator and share them as you please.

Want to create your own meme? Click here!

You can choose from Y U No guy, Philosoraptor, Socially Awkward penguin and so on.


Sure, some may include profane language and such but that can be ignored. We know trolls are all over the net and some just want to pick fights for no reason.

And with SOPA's stupid fight running today, we may lose all freedom to the Internet . What will happen then?

Entry 2 : C'est la vie

"As a final year student in the dying breed of English Language Studies course, I want to make most out of my time at UBD. Having accomplished so much in the last semester, I'm a tad too ambitious this time round hoping to accomplish plenty before graduating and somehow I've reverted back to blogging but for academic purposes, interesting aye? "


Today was a very productive day, We finally got the recording for the SMARTER jingle done! But what I want to address here isn't just the Jingle, it's what happened with our kids that impressed me so much. Here's what happened:

So today we had three lovely boys who have autism voice the jingle that will be aired across Brunei through Kristal FM for the SMARTER MUSICAL 2: ODDY'S QUEST : A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A HOME. If you have not yet heard, SMARTER is going to move from its current site in Sengkurong in to a new home and every proceeds from the tickets and merchandise goes solely to building this new home for Individuals with Autism. And at the same time, we are doing our part for charity to raise awareness on Autism as it is a silent syndrome. It is not a disease, is lifelong -has no cure, its not about naughty kids who do not want to behave nor is it the cause of bad parenting. Autism is Not disabled JUST DIFFERENT.

With my amazing classmate Hakeem to help voice the "deep manly voice" part, we were set to record. It took a while to get the kids settled in because they were in a new environment and they loved how the recording studio was. It was sound proof, fully cushioned padded walls and carpeted, it was the ultimate kid's playground. Excited,one of the kid's started walking around admiring the lights, hitting the walls to see if they were soft to lean on and played with the lights -switching them on and off. The other two boys enjoyed toying with the mic and talking through it. It was educational for them going out of the center and experiencing new places rather than at being home or hanging out at the mall and such.

This was important to me as well, educationally as I am a keen observer of the children's behaviour not only for my work but also as a teacher. These three kids were my students during my involvement with SMARTER and I am still learning so much about each one of their characters.(Like What I can do should they have meltdown, how to cheer them up when they cry and such.)

After the recordings, the ETC staff allowed the kids to take a break in their office and let them play with the computers. The ETC staff have hearts of gold! Now whats very interesting here is that, after settling themselves in front of a computer all three of them logged on into Youtube.com ! (they were sitting about two feet way from each other facing back to back). One typed "Mario games" as he happily watched walkthroughs, another child typed "Barney and friends" in the search bar and finally the littlest one typed in "The annoying orange." They were all giggling to themselves clearly in their own world and enjoying every moment of it. I was so impressed that they were very fluent with using the Internet and out of all sites, Youtube! (Usually in the center they would just play games on computers and never asked about the Internet.) One of them even showed me a Mario games website, of which I have forgotten by now.

As a GeN - Last student, I would like to troll on the "Back in my days we didn't even have the Internet for games or even Youtube." Sure the media is changing and all, so are our children -their mindsets on how to learn creatively through digital media and the Internet and not enjoying browsing books in the library or going out side to play with other children. Now they'd rather sit in front of a computer or tablet all day, learning things differently than how we have done so throughout the years. I find this rather amazing - I'm only 22 and still learning the knic knacs of tech savvy gadgets and these kids who are below 10 years of age have extremely more knowledge in the field than I do.( I feel the hardships of old age now. no sarcasm intended) It wonders me how my future children would be like growing up with gadgets instead of physical play with friends outside in the playground. Would he be an outcast if I raised him the traditional way reading with real books than e-books, painting with a real brush and not using Photoshop or MS Paint!?

I am very interested in the advancement of learning especially in early childhood and rather than just observe children who just play with electronics and refuse to share about it as they think you're a busybody, some of the children with autism are more than happy to share their interests if you ask.

And to end last but not least:

We could not thank Azhar, from ETC , enough for his help with the recording and editing and he looked very happy to see the kids as well. Even when the kids made mistakes, he was very patient and smiled all the way, even when the lights when on and off several times. Now I know where to go for future recordings if I need any.


Hakeem Azis, for lending his voice for a good cause. I do believe the children's innocence and care free lovable attitude have touched many hearts today.

and also Ayla and Low Kok Wai for entrusting me with such very important task. I am thankful for the belief you put in me, though I think I might fail.

This entry may pass as a typical blog post, but I feel that maybe if we've learnt something from it, it is still educational.

Next entry will feature "The future of communication"

PILOT

A new blog to probably say anything about anything. Since this blog is specifically for classwork purposes, should I start blogging about people's funny use of language? , record my classmates secretly and take notes about language use in hope they won't find out? they are welcome to observe my language usage as well.:)

I still catch myself thinking : What exactly is an academic blog? Is it meant to be educational?
I'll think again another time.

Cheers.