Istighasah, boleh ke tak?
2 days ago
My father was a Custom officer and has retired more than 20 years ago. He held a quite high post then. But he worked his way up there from the bottom. And I know he was proud of his work. His first pay when he first joined the government was about RM98. But that was light years ago and that amount of money is considered big at that time. Imagine having that kind of pay now. Isyh... tak terimagine.
A picture of my father taken 2 years back.
Anyhow, over the years of hard work, my father develops osteoarthritis in both of his knees and goes for regular check-up in the orthopaedic clinic. Recently, in one of his appointments, he must have mentioned to the attending doctor of his previous job. The doctor jokingly told him the current meaning of Kastam.
K - Kalau
A - Ada
S - Sapu
T - Tak
A - Ada
M - Minta
My father was amused with the joke. Hmm...
Joke ke? It's reality smack on the face actually.My father said, 'Kalau dulu tak ada semua tu'.
Another elderly patient who was also in the same treatment room said to my father: 'Sebab tu you tak kaya-kaya. Tak apa.. patut syukur'.
True... kalau kaya, duit haram pun tak guna jugak...
The other day I had the chance to attend an all-girls event at a friend's house, Eika, in conjunction with her birthday. Eika is a friend from high school, who is now running her own business in food industries and has opens a cafe called Randau. Her house is located in Kota Warisan, Sepang and I have only been there once...with hubby driving. And I recalled that we made a couple of wrong turnings before we reached her house.
So, that day, I had my qualms in driving on my own 
. However, the map and directions look simple enough so I was quite confident. Oh boy!!! Having confidence alone is not enough. Sense of directions are much more needed. I got lost.... wayyyyyyy lost. I went into Putrajaya, going through the whole lot of precints then managed to get out of Putrajaya only to find myself in Puchong area but managed to backtrack and almost gave up when I found the correct route. Freaking-one-and-half-hours in the car 
. Mujur I refill the tank that morning.
. However, the map and directions look simple enough so I was quite confident. Oh boy!!! Having confidence alone is not enough. Sense of directions are much more needed. I got lost.... wayyyyyyy lost. I went into Putrajaya, going through the whole lot of precints then managed to get out of Putrajaya only to find myself in Puchong area but managed to backtrack and almost gave up when I found the correct route. Freaking-one-and-half-hours in the car . Mujur I refill the tank that morning.
I finally made it to Eika's and the trip was worth it. I got to meet other friends from school including Juraiza whom I have never met since I left school more than 20 years ago.
We had a good laugh over Miyami and BB jokes.... adoi.... bila ingat balik, sure nak tergelak...
The food was excellent too. Sedap sangat makan sampai tak de ambik2 gambar. But you can take my word. Eika's air tangan memang sedap.
I went home with reluctance. Not because of the food, even though it's yummy. Not because of the fear of losing my way again, even though the possibility is there. But because I would love to stay longer and chit-chat with the others. Eika was very generous and gave each one of us a goodie gift box. And I came empty handed, with an empty stomach, with no birthday present for her. Apa punya kawan la....
Some of the goodies in the gift box.
Journey back was uneventful. I took the MEX highway which I categorized as a very dangerous highway. Dah nama pun MEX. EXtreme betul... Because it goes up and down and goes right and left just like a roller-coaster track. One can easily get into an accident in a highway like that, I muttered to myself. I spoke too soon. There was an accident involving 2 cars on the way back. I was about to condemn the architect or the engineer or whoever it was who design the highway in such a way, when I saw something that made me change my mind. The highway forked into 2 exits, Jalan Tun Razak and Bukit Bintang (maybe la, I terforgot). A car was reversing from Bukit Bintang exit and trying to ease into Jalan Tun Razak. Tak ke cari penyakit namanya tu. So, salah siapa ni? Highway ke drivers?
Well, my 'Lost' story had a good, happy ending, unlike the 'Lost' TV series, yang ntah hape-hape and ntah bila nak end ntah... No offense to Lost fans.
.Standardized patients, or SP for short, is actually a group of people that are trained for certain scenario in an exam setting or teaching-learning activities for the students. The main purpose is to develop communication skills in the students. So the students are given a scenario and tasks that they should achieve and they need to interact with the SPs with proper communication skills such as good eye contact, apply listening skills, empathy (if relevant), not judgmental, not rude, not preachy etc etc etc...
For this purpose, the faculty has an SP unit which is responsible for recruiting SPs, calling SPs for training sessions and arranged for SPs' transport, meals and also payment. Yeah... this is a paid job. And the SPs will be paid by the hour (for both training and actual sessions). Meals provided lagi. Sounds good eh..?
In a setting, be it an exam or classroom, we usually organize training sessions before the actual sessions to train the SPs so that they will be more or less standardized so that when two different SPs are assigned to two different groups of students, both groups will face the same scenario with similar difficulty index and similar emotions expressed by the SPs. Well, that's our hope but sometimes it's very difficult to meng'standard'kan SP ni. At times, the SPs are uncooperative that the students become helpless, speechless, clueless on how to proceed. Sampai boleh menangis students kadang-kadang.
Students naik angin pun ada jugak..
At times, the SPs may be too loose on the tongue sampai dia pulak cakap banyak. And the students may not have the chance to show their own communication skills.. But of course, there are also good SPs who deliver their jobs effectively.
Students naik angin pun ada jugak.. At times, the SPs may be too loose on the tongue sampai dia pulak cakap banyak. And the students may not have the chance to show their own communication skills.. But of course, there are also good SPs who deliver their jobs effectively.A couple of SPs during a training session
(gambar sekadar hiasan, tidak kena mengena dengan blog entry ni)
There was a similar occurence some time ago. The breaking bad news scenario which I wrote about in my previous post. The SPs were supposed to be a guy who has a 40-year-old wife. However, some of the SPs involved that day were quite young, young enough to be the son, not the husband. Well, I agree that sometimes old women are more appealing to young men but then again that's out of the norm. So, it does seemed hilarious and ridiculous.
The SPs unit may has a reason for this age-unfit-problem. But since we send in a form specifying our standard and criteria, they should try to adhere to that, shouldn't they? And if they could not possibly fulfill the criteria, shouldn't they at least let us know beforehand and explain their problems? Lack of communication maybe? Aiyoo... nampak gayanya the trainers for communication skills need to be trained as well...
My significant half succumbed to the lure of Facebook recently which is quite a surprise since he was quite determined at first not to open an FB account. So far, his FB activities are very minimal; accepting friends' request, adding a few friends, updating status once in a blue moon, commenting on others' statuses once in a while and to date has only uploaded 3 photos. What a contrast to the wifey 
. Almost everyday I update my status, commenting on people's statuses/walls/photos sesuka hati, uploaded numerous photos, wrote several notes and posted quite a few links.
. Almost everyday I update my status, commenting on people's statuses/walls/photos sesuka hati, uploaded numerous photos, wrote several notes and posted quite a few links. 
Anyhow, I scanned through his wall one day. Well, I have been scanning his page once in a while checking who has been added to his friends' list, who commented on his status etc etc etc... Stalker ke ni? And I noticed our mutual friend commenting on his wall. But my hubby did not respond to the comment.
And I noticed our mutual friend commenting on his wall. But my hubby did not respond to the comment.So I asked him, 'Tak jawab ke si polan punye comment tu?
'Kena jawab semua comment ke?' he answered by asking a question... isyh...
Hmm... kena jawab ke tak? I have my own ethic in this matter. To me, people's commenting on my wall or statuses can be analogically compared to people knocking on my door or visiting me at home or saying hi to me. And to me, it is just appropriate to reply back as a form of an acknowledgment that I actually have read their comments and yes, I agree to the comment or no, I have differing opinions. Or sometimes I simply just put a smile as a reply or LOL for comments that are hilariously funny and I can't think of any funnier comments to reply. But then again, I do leave some comments go unanswered but that is very scarce. Selalunya, selagi boleh jawab, akan dijawab.
To put the above as an FB ethic might be too much. But there are a few ethics regarding FB available. And of course, the ethics of chatting/instant messaging or other netiquette should also be applied in FB, such as:
1. DON'T USE CAPS ALL THE TIME. IT MAKES YOU SOUND ANGRY AND SEEMS YOU ARE SHOUTING!!!
2. Proper use of punctuation, should help in reading. the message; and not causing confusion?
3. Use the emoticons wisely for appropriate conditions and situations. But these emoticons are really cute if you see the actual image, eg
:">X(
=))
:DAnd if yahoo's emoticons are cute, gmail emoticons are rather cute too.
Oopss... ok, I am totally over with these emoticons...
4. Avoid sarcastic/nasty remarks. Even though you meant it as a joke, people might interpret it differently. Double oopss for me... I may have been guilty for this sometimes.
Ok, back to the question: should we reply to every comments? I still feel we should. But others may beg to differ. For them, maybe some comments doesn't require an answer or maybe they have this in mind 'FB aku, suka hati aku la nak jawab ke tak'. And I don't blame them. It's not written anywhere that you are required to reply to every comments you received. Letih jugak beb.. especially if you have hundreds of comments. Mine tak la, that's why I can still manage to answer all . But I'm putting this as my ethic of FB.
And I don't blame them. It's not written anywhere that you are required to reply to every comments you received. Letih jugak beb.. especially if you have hundreds of comments. Mine tak la, that's why I can still manage to answer all . But I'm putting this as my ethic of FB.So I told my husband my opinion. And he said:
'Tolong la jawabkan'.
Ciss.... menyesal tanya...
