Thursday, November 25, 2021

Automation and Jobs

Did you know..

"The word "robot" originated in 1920 with Czech playwright Karel Capek, whose play Rossum's Universal Robots imagined machines taking over manual labour. Capek derived the word "robot" from the Czech "robota", which translates to forced labour or drudgery"

Source: Work in the Age of Robots by Mark P Mills (2018) e-book

I had read hundreds of pages of articles from many books and journals, and this was the part that got me the most.. because I remembered reading many years ago that teaching institutions (universities in particular) were created to train employees for the factories.

So, to deduce, are we trained to be robots? 😂

(and once robots replace our jobs, and probably our partners, and children, and friends, what then?)

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Tech-Enabled

Yesterday while browsing FB one participant in the doctoral support group shared a software to help us with literature review. When I browsed my favourite search engine's results, apparently there are lots. I tried signing up for it but somehow the "Get Started" button was stagnant. I then went to the pricing plan & saw that there has to be payment for the app to provide 10 reviews daily (minimum); the more papers reviewed the more needs to be paid [but OF COURSE!].

How it was advertised in the FB group: 
"[app name] for managing your literature review. Try it as it is so easy to use"
"Writing your Lit Review? Try [app name] a perfect online platform to manage all your reading and connect your thoughts"

Reading these, my expectation was something line a simplified Web of Science/ Web of Knowledge where the app searches based on discipline & then organise the sources according to author credibility or number of citations, with a summary on the side. It does not however do that. Looks more like an algorithm that does a keyword search, highlights & connects to other research available online.. It is machine that does what humans should do in a systematic literature review.

Summary: I am not totally convinced & seriously don't have time to check out/ test the app, and also don't want to start and later find out there are limitations.

Besides if we have read enough literature we can probably find/ connect to the commonly cited authors/ experts. It is not rocket science (since I am doing a social science thesis anyways) but it does require some work & thinking. Isn't that part of the whole process to earn the PhD?

Perhaps next I should look for an app/ AI bot who can write the thesis for me 👽

Sunday, November 07, 2021

Fantasy

I thank the movie makers and scriptwriters who translated Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Dune to the big screen for me, who typically can read till the end of chapter 1 at best. Believe me I have tried, more than once, but could not go on. Beyond the introduction it gets too much to process, which my small mind could not take. Imagining that world and its actors became too much work. I read just 3 paragraphs of Lord of the Rings before giving up. In comparison my friend Tina read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Hobbit and the other one related to the Eagle King (which title escapes me). But then again she's always been a fan of fantasy novelists such as Terry Pratchett. 

Hence when these books were made into movies, good ones for that matter, I thanked my lucky stars. I get to enjoy the story visually & left the imagining to the scriptwriters, directors and actors. 

On the other hand, for the novels I enjoyed, I made it a rule to not watch the movie: Rebecca, 5 Point Someone, The Fault in Our Stars, and all Sydney Sheldon, Cecilia Ahern, and Dan Brown ones. The Da Vinci Code for example, was a terrible rendition of the book I thought. Granted it was not easy to translate into big screen because there were a lot of internal conversations and conflicts that don't transfer well on the big screen. I couldn't bring myself to finish watching the movie.

There is probably one exception: the movie Daddy (1991), adapted from Danielle Steel's book. I read the book and watched the movie (in the days when I didn't know any better)- both were tearjerkers, and a few minutes into the movie I stopped comparing the book with the movie (this is always a good sign).

In my bucket list is a novel waiting to be written. I probably have read quite a bit, but haven't honed my writing quite as well to be able to string together a scene (or even a scenario). One day I will be there. Goodness knows there are enough forsaken work in my notes to get something started!

Thursday, November 04, 2021

Bullies

I was a weird child growing up (well I am still a weird adult, so nothing much has changed 👻) and has experienced bullies in many shapes and forms.

Most of my schooling experience were spent in girls' schools. If you have watched Mean Girls you can pretty much picture the scenario, but with no boys around. Our teachers were mostly females too. Lots of evil reincarnate characters exist in my former schools, and they were up to mischief whenever the teachers were lot looking. In comparison though, my brush with bullies were mostly harmless and I found a way to deal with the anger by writing my frustrations & thereafter tearing the paper, while imagining myself tearing the person's face apart. Many people say, and I disagree, that handling bullies made you stronger people. Maybe, but ideally bullies should not have existed in the first place. The behaviour is not normal and we should ideally be able to tell them off. No such luck for me growing up however, because I was too chicken to say anything. I just walked away, or just do very well in the exams to move to a better class who have more weird people and less bullies.

A close friend just shared that his son had been bullied since he started boarding school. This person tormented him since he was 13. He is now almost 18 and bearing the brunt of the experience. The bully made him steal, lie and inflict physical harm if his demands are refused. 

Currently the bully is being remanded pending further investigation in this matter. My friend's family is planning legal action for assault and battery. I hope they succeed, an more importantly, I hope her son will find the strength to get back on track with his family support & his mother's love.

In the news we saw the decision being handed down for the 'bullies' in causing death to navy cadet Zulfarhan Othman https://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/six-upnm-students-found-guilty-culpable-homicide-death-zulfarhan-osman-328697

The deceased was beaten and tortured to extract a confession out of him, when a laptop was stolen. His death was caused by burns inflicted from a hot steam iron. I wonder what went through the boys' minds that night. Zulfarhan must have been terrified, yet insisted on telling the truth, like he was brought up to do. The others could have acted violently in the moment/ due to mob mentality, and may have regretted giving the blows that caused Zulfarhan his life. Would they have done what they did, had the circumstances been different? May his soul rest in peace. The perpetrators were handed down 18 years in jail for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and I consider life in jail bad enough as their punishment, but I do hope that they have the presence of mind to process this incident, learn from it and never do it again. 18 years in jail is a large part of their lives. Returning to society will pose its own challenges I'm sure (but I will not get into the debates of Crime and Punishment here).

In closing, bullies exist. For whatever reason. 

It is not okay to bully, in any circumstance.

Monday, November 01, 2021

Teacher

1 Oct 2021 is my 18th year of service in my current university. 

I am loyal that way, 

or probably too lazy to move elsewhere. 

I have had some offers, but nothing too exciting to make me jump ship (yet).

18 years is a long time in one organisation by anyone's standard. 

On average my mates stay 2-5 years on a job and will move on.

Some do stay & have stayed for more than 20 years: we started working in 1998, and me in 2000 due to the CLP & Bar Exams.

Why have I stayed so long?

Looking in, the main reason is probably because I love teaching.

I would wake up early in the morning or stay up late at night preparing materials, and being self-critical of them, to do justice to my students who join the class at different levels.

Online Learning is a joy to me especially: my work-from-home dream came true and there are many edtech tools that encourage students' participation in many different ways.

Academic management is not too bad either, although given a choice, teaching is multiple times better.

Assessments creation is ok/ satisfactory but marking is the pits. Again, I keep my students in mind and did what I don't really enjoy doing because they deserve to know how they did & should get some feedback to do better in the next assessment. 

There is probably another place of work waiting to hire me in future, but from the looks of it I may stay some more... plus I have the PhD to complete funded by them 😄😏😇

Adulting Part 2

This month I turn 47 and I still have not comprehend(ed) the full meaning of being an adult.

Managing finance, buying property, working, making decisions, being responsible, doing the right thing: Why must there be so many things to do? I wonder if other people are as overwhelmed as I am, or am I just not doing this adulting thing right?

Next year Malaysia will allow 18-year-olds to vote. God knows how they will vote, because we haven't really taught politics or constitutionalism or law in school (or have we?). Our press does not provide all aspects of the picture; our media channels are mainly the government's mouthpiece. Granted there are TONNES of information on the Internet and social media, but how would these kids process truth from misrepresentation, or decide their leader without some basics in ethics even?

I should probably start a YT channel that teaches children these things. Not even teens, but children.

One-worders/ explainers that describe the law.

"Politic" refers to...

Law/ Politics in kidspeak. Will that work?

Perhaps. LazyLaw is that channel. Go for it!


How to Build a Better Mousetrap (or buy one)

There is an infestation in our Puncak Jalil house, and my suspicion is that there is one main guy who's causing the havoc.

It has gnawed one the wooden rice bucket, and also the cooler. Why the cooler, because I keep the cat food there- to avoid it biting through the packaging.

The day before yesterday we went to buy the mouse trap: we had tried to poison it, but due to its size the poison may not have worked. At night we set it up & in the morning caught a huge rat. 

To deter other rats, it was put on display at the yard & eventually drowned, followed by a burial. I did apologise to it before the drowning: I could not let it live to terrorise us again. Neither could I release it either, it may cause a problem to other homeowners since it has been living indoors for quite some time.

Our cat Lemon was startled when he saw the size of his prey. I had offered the rat to other strays which frequent our house: no takers. When I was younger, mom used to display the rat and the cats will sniff it. The moment we open the cage, one of the cats would catch it and break its neck. 
Cats now have become soft.

The trap has been set again in the store room. I hope that the others have learnt a lesson, or hopefully have seen the public execution. Its graveyard is by our fence, if they want to pay their last respects to this hero. I call it a hero, for its tenacity. We have used pandan leaves & all the natural leaves/ spices to no avail.  I had persuaded it/ them to leave our house more than one time. Literally begged- because I really would not want to kill it & it can live comfortably outside, in nature & not indoors in our house.

When we used the poison it killed one (also buried by the fence), but the other bigger one eventually became nonchalant & started ramsacking our trash in broad daylight. I also could not stand the rustling sound heard at night when this nocturnal creature was up to no good.

This mousetrap bought on 29 Oct 2021 is sturdy with thicker & heavier metal. No chance of rats escaping or biting through. Well done to the designers who have indeed invented a better mousetrap.

For the animal lovers out there, I do apologise for killing that rat. In the circumstances, releasing it would be to our disadvantage as it becomes smarter and more vindictive. 

Lemon is hopeless, I think he is intimidated by this creature. Lemon ventured into the storeroom, picked up its scent, ramsacked the area for a bit, and didn't do anything.

I came, I saw and I left ~ Lemon

Letter to a famous person

If you were to write a letter to someone famous, dead or alive: who would it be?

Mine would probably be:

Pink/ Alicia
Leonardo de Caprio
Emilia Earhart
Judi Dench
Helen Mirren
Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively, for marriage tips
Sara Baase: to thank her for the materials & great case study ideas
Peter Drucker: for his management tips 
Sun Tzu: probably would ask him to explain The Art of War
Khairy Jamaluddin
Nurul Izzah: who, in person, is the most down to earth human being ever!
P Ramlee & Saloma: for bringing us the magic 
Queen Elizabeth
Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra
Sir David Attenborough
Heath Ledger 
Michele Williams
Keanu Reeves
Jennifer Aniston (and probably the whole cast of friends)
Tuan Guru Nik Aziz
Jane Goodall
Fujiko F. Fujio
Hayao Miyazaki
Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank)
Julian Assange
Cyndi Lauper

If they were you best friends, how would you write it?

If you all had lived in the 15th century, or in the 1920s what would the contents of the letter be?