Saturday, October 28, 2017

Default Setting

Mothering instincts- this is the one thing that I have which can't be changed. No matter the age of the person I am dealing with. This, for your information, is not necessarily a good thing.

For my children, I am protective, involved & caring (as I should be) and hopefully they will grow up to be good, well-adjusted persons.

However for my students, I find it really irritating that I attend to requests like 24 hours before the exam: individuals asking various silly questions about concepts/ issues that we have already discussed in tutorials & revisions (at times ad nauseum).

Perhaps this (attending to students' messages at ungodly hours) is just my lack of assertiveness- similar to my willingness to help the alumni group at the expense of my own personal time/ space. SO: WHAT WILL I DO ABOUT IT?

For the students, I will be creating an openlearning course that will channel the 'special cases' to online resources. They can refer to the multiple materials (that we will build together) when they miss my classes (whether intentionally or otherwise) and take responsibility for their own learning. After that, my answer to these messages will be "please refer to the online resource page". One liner. Instead of having to explain anything, I will direct them to the river of knowledge (if I could call it that).

As for the alumni group, our event on 21 Oct 2017 was my last. I had informed one person (the Project Manager) before the event, and after the event I had shared a cryptic message indicating that my daughter has a major exam this year- hence I will be quiet throughout November and December.. and all suggestions for event improvement can be documented for the benefit of THE NEXT TEAM of organisers. Well the letters weren't exactly in caps, and I don't really think that they got it.. BUT with voluntary work it is quite easy to 'drop out' by JUST NOT COMING TO THE MEETINGS! There is always a reason since I am after all a single parent with little children. Time to play that card, why not?

In short, 2018 should probably be a quiet year for me. Will I get married? It is in the pipeline, but the laying of the pipes doesn't seem to be too visible. Well I will leave it to the Almighty as He knows best what I can handle. Toodles & XOXO.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

The Future of Work

Our Faculty will be hosting a Business Week for the students- essentially for 3 days we will have various activities such as business debates, forum, external speakers' presentations, competitions, sales & whatever-else-have-yous to encourage students' involvement in the business world (whatever the heck that should be). On another note, a 3-day programme can't technically be called a "Week" but whatever right, I did not initiate it. Was merely roped in (regardless of willingness) to handle one of the segments (OH MY!!!).

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to discuss the Future of Work from my perspective.

In the future, work probably would be:
- done mostly from home in an empowered, independent, trusting relationship between employer and employee, riding on the ubiquity of technology
- an avenue for creativity and growth, whereby workers have some room to work on their personal projects to channel their energy & prevent boredom/ burnout
- obsolete (to some extent) as more 'workers' opt to freelance or do multiple work (not strictly related to each other or even in the same job category or industry)
- a stepping stone to something bigger e.g. self-employment or entrepreneurship

Well I do not know how much research has been done in the background by our Almighty Micro-managing Head of Department on this issue, but I do trust that she has some basis for choosing the title.. and hopefully it is not just a title but something that could at least initiate some thinking (or at the very least, a tiny bit of curiosity) on the matter. Good luck to us!

Zooming out though, we do have a good team of lecturers who has voluntarily agreed to coordinate these events & need the room to maneouvre, because we are already trying to balance 2000 other things that we are required to do. So my message to our HoD is to just please give us a break & let us have the parameters to work with. Please do trust that we WILL do the work properly & WILL NOT embarrass the University, or Faculty, or the School, or (God Forbid) you!

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Beauty

Be beautiful in & out.
Rise above all the pettiness.
Life is too short to be pondering how others think of me. It doesn't influence my worth ANY ONE BIT.

Someone shared this video via social media: https://youtu.be/AH5myTDN48w

Summary: the value of the stone is basically how you see yourself.

Am I the rock/ decoration in an aquarium/ pavement OR a diamond used to fashion rings for the select few?

Rise above my dear. Rise and shine and light the way. Focus on the love you receive in abundance from your Maker and the people who DO love you. #HUGS

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Sense of Justice

When unfairness is seen anywhere I tend to respond against it. There has to be a minimum level of treatment of everybody and if humanity cannot be nominally fair (at least), what is there to look forward to?

There was a song on the radio as I was driving back from work today- about how he treated her better. Bad move, dude. You have messed with the wrong person. I knew exactly how that felt- like a crushing blow. That after all the years, whatever I did didn't matter & she became his priority.

NEVER AGAIN.

The slightest hint or unfair behaviour of any sort will have my objection. Immediately.


Sunday, October 08, 2017

Kingsman 2

The write-up for Kingsman (i.e. online reviews) generally mentioned that this movie derived inspiration from the Bond era.

I would agree: as there is the romance of old spy movies, and the fantastic gadgets, and the elite group of spies sworn to secrecy to their deathbed.

However to compare, Kingsman is a lot more bloody and gory; its fight scenes are more modern using some slo-mo effects as they beat each other up to a bloody pulp; the villians are as over-the-top (or perhaps bizarrely over-the-top) compared to Bond ones; and perhaps more witty lines compared to Bond movies..

Just got back from watching the movie (Kingsman 2) and surprisingly I had some philosophical/ ethical questions in mind:
* who do you choose to live or die (COULD you choose?)
* if you had only ONE vial of antidote (hypothetically speaking), who would you save?
* should drugs be legalised & taxed like cigarettes and alcohol? (once when I was an impressionable youth who did not know any better, an English lecturer actually introduced that same issue as a debate question & got the whole class thinking)

Death and The Living

This morning I attended a course related to preparing a deceased person (body, to be exact) for burial.

In Islam, it is usually a communal thing whereby (after the authorities are notified of the death & the coroner certifies the person dead) the family members under guidance of trusted elders clean the body and wraps him/ her up in the burial shroud.

Well my interest to attend is not really to make it as a profession, but rather to be able to handle the 'process' after a loved one's passing.. or perhaps to teach it to my children in case the knowledge might come as useful.

Generally what I saw was how dignified the whole process was. How the 'body' was cleaned with soft cotton, bathed with bath soap& aromatic water and finally covered with white cloth sprinkled with the best perfume. After tying all the strings, the face area is left open for a while for families to kiss him/ her face and bid their final goodbye. Once that is done, the body is carried for burial at its final resting place.

The other matter that struck me was how reliant I (we) will be on the living & abled to do everything for us once we leave this world. I (we) would be lain down on a plank/ bathtub-like contraption for our final bath on earth: unmoving, helpless and lifeless (pun intended).

Willingly or unwillingly, I (we) will say goodbye to the world and our prayer is that I (we) have done enough good to merit all the good things Allah has to offer in the Hereafter.