Student Evaluation, Conference Weekend, & Wall Shouts

During mid-week last week, I just got my students' evaluation for the subjects I'm teaching in XMUM and it was ok. I also received some criticisms (being slow, which I have mentioned here). On another point, I did introduce vector calculus at the beginning since they are very much used in electrodynamics. I do know that they are often taught elsewhere usually in the early years of the bachelor programme. But my main point of revisiting the topic was to introduce index notation, which could be used in electrodynamics. When I asked about index notation, I was told that they were not taught about this technique and thus my insistence to introduce it. When I was an undergraduate student, it was introduced by Prof. Green earlier in our theoretical physics programme (and done in an abstract sense). It also has great utility for (general) calculations. 

Anyway, I'm happy to improve my teaching wherever and whenever possible. I have also checked the second part courses of Electrodynamics and Mathematical Methods in Physics. Electrodynamics II seems to be more engineering in flavour and I hope that I will not be asked to teach this, if ever Xiamen still wants me to teach. Mathematical Methods in Physics II seems to be interesting because it is on differential geometry and (geometry of) Lie groups. I won't mind teaching this.

This weekend, we went to Melaka because my other half has a conference there. She was given a hotel room on Saturday (midway through the conference) by the organizers. We decided to book a room anyway from Friday until the weekend because partly she has to be there early morning Saturday but also we have to send back our youngest back to college in Jasin. So there we were there at Hatten Hotel on Friday late afternoon. The hotel is connected to Pahlawan Mall. Here we are (pic) trying to get to the mall for dinner via a connecting bridge.

We had our dinner in a restaurant there.

This is the view just outside the hotel and interestingly there is an MMA office nearby there.

My other half conference ends at 1pm today. We checked out of our rooms before 12 noon and thereafter we waited for my other half to meet us, in the meanwhile we were having snacks.

Leaving Melaka city, we send Izzuddin back to college and then travelled back to Seremban.

I still follow the development of the war in Middle East. Right now, there are over 12,000 dead in just slightly over a month. The latest news I heard that As-Shifa hospital was evacuated and that a UN-run Al-Fakhoura School was bombed leaving many children dead. I continue to share news items to my social media in the hope that there will be international pressure to halt this madness. I do try to read or listen or watch commentaries that carry opposite views to mine (with difficulty) and they can be classed into three:

• Rational-like arguments; most of these are easily countered with facts or shown to be inconsistent.
• Cringey arguments; often these are based on underlying assumptions that one side is more evil and the other more superior. Here, I tend to wonder how can that be that many are blinded with this colonialist mindset. What are the logics at play?
• Blatant horrifying racist arguments taken with no room for rational thoughts; often here I can't bear to listen/watch any of these.

How should one make judgements, so that one is rightly guided? While I'm a simple average Muslim, I do know of the Qur'anic ayat:

O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah , witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do. (5: 8)

Another is the Golden Rule (which is well-known to non-Muslims alike)

Treat others as you would like others to treat you

These will act as constraints to our own biasness. Do the research needed. In this age of social media, it is very easy to do that but it also means it will be quite easy to be misled. On making mistakes, be humble enough to admit them and be quick about these (no to let one's ego to take over). I remembered sharing posts with my family members and later I knew these to be false, and thus I apologised and clarified the matter.

Perhaps one can listen to Anna Baltzer in her Ted Talk.

One should also watched her documentary "Life in Occupied Palestine".

While going through materials on the current war, I stumbled to this young talent MC Abdul. I recommend people to listen to his videos.

Peace to all.

Varia: Mid-Term Exam, Fruit Platter and Self Focus

The previous week has been busy for me since I need to put out mid-term exams for the subjects I am teaching. In a way, even my teaching preparation was put on secondary place. The questions need to be vetted by an assigned person in the department and I was rather late to do this. Besides the vetting documents, I had to fill in a specification table to see how the questions fit and map into the course learning outcomes and the programme learning outcomes. Normally one have these only subconsciously but here it gets explicitly mapped. Thus, quite a fair bit of things to do and hence the rush. I made changes according to suggestions arising from the vetting and finally got the questions 'approved'. Finally, the exam was conducted last Thursday.

I have another mid-term exam coming this Thursday for the other subject and I am still preparing. My mind is often filled with on what should be the exam questions and I figured I need to address one 'problematic' course learning outcome (else I will have to push this in the final exam or the continuous assessment). 

Last weekend also saw my other half going to a conference in Meru and she shared her room with her close colleague there. So we are left four of us at home; two of my sons came home then. We fetched our youngest son from college on Friday since the university gave a week long break for the Deepavali weekend. The highway then was already packed due to the upcoming long weekend. We had a 4pm lunch due to this.

On the way back home, there was heavy rain and there was a traffic jam due to an overturned lorry.

The next day, my third son came home and we had our dinner together (without my other half).

Elsewhere, my other half was in Meru with her colleagues.

On the war in the middle east, the current death toll has surpassed 11,000. I still can't imagine the situation there and the Palestinians perseverance facing all these calamities. To have a glimpse, here is an American nurse describing what was it like over there - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk7iWgCk14U (and imagine how the real Palestinians are feeling). 

There are a lot of discussions on this 'war' and I tried to listen as much as I could for my own understanding (e.g. Sami Hamdi, a risk consultant from the International Interest) and developing my own perspective (if that is even possible). It is quite easy to oversimplify the matter given the arising emotional pressure. This is why I 've changed my FB cover photo to a tropical fruit platter. I can't imagine what kind of world will be left after this war. It is troubling to see some are hell-bent towards the end-times future scenarios (some indeed used this to justify the war). As a Muslim, we are often advised to not wish for this or for that matter, wish for our own death no matter what circumstances. It is better to focus on what have we prepared for our eventual certain death. Can anyone say that they are really prepared for this certainty?

Last night, I responded to a question of contemporary Muslim scientists that have been given international recognition (by Muslims and non-Muslims alike). Very much to my thought, we should not strengthen the stereotype that Muslims are backward (or worse, savages), not capable to contribute to civilization matters. So it was my little contribution to highlight lesser known Muslims that have indeed won prestigious scientific awards. And in my attempt to do so, I learned about Munir Nayfeh is an American Palestinian. I regretted not using his book to teach my current Electrodynamics course.

Perhaps we have yet to see is a Malay Muslim to reach such stature. We need to strive to be a good Muslim scientist (and whatever international prizes that one gets is a bonus, a reward that Allah give) and as a start, begin a healthy scientific tradition (and not be swayed by other intentions). Me, as an average person, and alhamdulillah I have tried to start something and the rest will lie with the younger generation of scientists.

Eldest's Birthday and World of Shadows

Last Wednesday, my eldest son celebrated his birthday. My other half recommended that we go to a Korean restaurant in Gateway, Seremban since my son has a liking for Korean food. She knew about this Oiso Restaurant when she met her friend there in the last weekend. Due to my limited diet, she checked out if there are dishes that I could eat and indeed there are. Together with my second son who just came back home from JB, we went there for lunch. Here are some photos.

The restaurant owner (a Korean) actually came out to meet us and handed me a traditional Korean hat and thereafter offered to help take the picture of us together. 

While on the point of my limited diet, let me just say this problem of mine can be a disadvantage when attending official functions or when travelling abroad. I remembered attending an etiquette course and I was told that I must take whatever the host offers us, even if a little. What shocked me, in a different briefing (which was not for me and it was not the etiquette course I attended), we were told to take a sip of wine if there is a toast being made. Of course, we do not follow that and when there is a toast, it is already well-known to foreign hosts that Muslims do not take alcoholic drinks and we were offered only soft drinks. In any case, when I was given a role in management, and attended official functions, sometimes there was still some anxiety in me (due to my limited diet) and had to prepare myself for any embarrassing moments. I must say that there was a huge relief when I stepped down from an admin post years ago, and that I can then be my normal ordinary self.

Sometimes, because of the 'different culture', that we (either as Muslim or Malay) may not subscribe to certain norms prevalent in the West, it is unfortunate that 'we' are pictured at times, as less cultured or worse as 'subhumans' (even animals?). That is why, I have told my students and those who wants to listen, that one should try to be counterexamples (not as examples) to break down stereotypes or dominancy of those with excessive power or influence. There is a propaganda or narrative war going on these days to the recent armed conflict in the middle east. It has always been the case, that those who lie will eventually need to have greater lies to cover up the one(s) before. Some may resort to the idea of post-truth or even world-views to frame 'truths', which I do not subscribe in the absolute sense; 'truths' are not that malleable and if we take that view, we'll be doomed to solipsism. Sure, whatever 'facts' there are, they do not exist in vacuum and more often than not, they have been pre-selected to be known but that does not absolve us to strive to know whatever 'truths' out there. It is in this view, I've started to post (alternative) news item on my social media despite fear of being shadow-banned (as they say). Related to this matter, two days ago, I received this warning from AdSense that my blog(s) is in violation of some policies (see figure below),

Initially, I thought it was due to watermelon posts I've made in my blogs. Later I saw that it was due to an extraneous website that was somehow associated with me (with a EU url). I'm not sure how or why it was there, but I have already deleted it. In any case, even if my site gets demonetised, it does not really matter since it was not my original intent to earn any money from my blogs, but I certainly would not want people (whoever they are) to stop me from saying things that I want to say.

Finally, I just want to share this new song from Putri Ariani called Perfect Liar, which is apt for today's world of deceits. It is good songwriting with melodic hooks and interesting vocal runs and certainly show a polished production suited for an international market.

In a way, I'm glad that she did not win AGT and she will be an independent artist, so that she can stay true to her identity. May she be successful.

More Wedding, More Teaching and Watermelon Matters

Let me begin with the easiest. Yesterday, attended another wedding in Melaka for the son of my other half's close doctor friend. The venue was in Dewan Citra Kasih, which is conveniently just near the Ayer Keroh toll. Here are pictures of my other half with her friends.

The week before was a difficult teaching week for me but I have already grown into the rhythm of routines there. As a part-time staff, we do not have a staff card like the full-time staff. The card is necessary for our teaching so that we can access the projector and other AV facilities in the classroom (see pic below). The card needs to be inserted in the slot of the panel near the rostrum. 

So for the part-time staff, we need to borrow a temporary control card (see pic below) at the library and to be returned on the same day when our teaching has finished.

So usually, I will leave my things first in the (shared) office in Block A4 and next will walk my way to Block A3 (where the library is) to get this card. Will return to office thereafter, to continue with my teaching preparation and before 9am go to the classroom where my classes are. On Tuesday, it is at the Ground Floor of A4 and on Thursday, it is at the first floor of A5 Block. All together there are five different blocks in this A complex and they are all connected only at the Ground Floor and the Lower Ground Floor where the car park is. So for Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have good walking exercises. 

Right now, I have started using my Veikk tablet to teach as the students request me to write on the board instead of using slides during my teaching. I prefer not to use the whiteboard since I will have to have lots of whiteboard markers for this. With the tablet, I could export what I scribbled as a pdf file and I now uploaded these files on Moodle at the end of the day. So my typewritten notes have to come later. Right now, I was told I'm a bit slow in my teaching. Perhaps this coming week, I will speed up my teaching and will try not to bore them by looking for extra materials to complement the text book I am using. This means I have to spend more time reading. Let's see what happens this week.

Besides all these teaching preparations, I still do my research readings but right now, I got distracted with the war in Ghazza. The place has been bombed repeatedly causing total destruction of buildings and homes. Current death toll is over 7000 people, many of which are children. I tried to follow as much as I could on this war. So when there was a blackout on the news from Ghazza, I watched the movie Farha instead, which is based on a true story. I hope they document all of what has happened particularly the humanitarian crisis that has gone for more than three weeks now. I follow news mainly from Al-Jazeera and for opinions and commentaries, I follow some YouTube channels and of particular interest the humanitarian matters see e.g. Dr. Mads Gilbert and his views on the current crisis. I still can't imagine the sufferings that the Palestinians have gone through to the extent that I felt hypocritical following these events from the comfort of my own home. I convey to my own family members to always keep the Palestinians in their daily prayers. It is always good to be aware that we do not turn to be bigots in this journey since that essentially started all these. May Allah always keep us on the right path and help the victims in Ghazza. I will leave this post with this video from a lady Jew revert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acJVBbIixwU. May we learn from this.

Wedding Weekends and Watermelon Matters

This weekend and the last, we were at the wedding events of our nephew, Kamil Zafri. Last weekend, it was at the bride's place in Melaka. We stayed at Melaqua Homestay; it was a comfortable place and it even had its own swimming pool. 

Just a day before the event, we were told that there will be a huge event at MITC i.e. a National Sports Day celebration, involving tens of thousands of people. Thus, we decided to be there quite early (even before breakfast). All my family was there, including Ihsan (from JB), Izharuddin (from KL) and Izzuddin (was in Jasin).

In the morning, we had the akad nikah (marriage contract) ceremony. 

The wedding ceremony was held in the afternoon but we stayed there in the complex, not moving anywhere due to fear of not getting a parking place if we do that. When the time arrived, we gathered at the ground level to make a procession to enter the hall. We were told that my other half and I will be placed in a special seating at the wedding.

After the event, we returned to the homestay; my children had a go with the snooker that was there at the homestay. I stayed mostly in my room to finish my editorial review of a paper of my ex student. Having done it, I kept myself up-to-date on the escalated war in the Middle East. There was already a fear of how it will spiral out of control. There is certainly a complex political dimension to the war (which I do read for understanding but will not touch), but the immediate concern is the arising humanity crisis. The mainstream media coverage has always been unbalanced, depicting the innocent victims as lesser human beings, savages  or even animals. Thus, the need to go for independent news outlet (though there are attempts to repress this; even carrying a Palestinian flag becomes a crime in some countries and not to mention that wearing a saree with red, green and black seems to be disfavoured; thus the need for watermelons). It is quite easy for us to ignore all of these and be so insensitive, given that we are a geographical distance away. The war will eventually has an effect on all of us and to ignore is not really a good option. We all remembered the assassination of a Palestinian academic right here in Kuala Lumpur not too long ago. We also knew how each Ramadhan and Eid, we got the news of how the Al-Aqsa mosque being desecrated. There may be some protest noise thereafter but nothing seems to prevent such desecration from happening again. In the recent bombings, we heard about the 'Malaysian mosque' being destroyed (see video clip). I suppose, we could choose to ignore all of these and continue with our comfortable life until something happens at our doorsteps or something severely affecting our lives even from afar. May Allah protect us from such calamities.

Fast forward to this weekend, the wedding function is now held at the bridegroom side and it took place in Putrajaya. We were there before all the guests arrived to help out on whatever that needs to be done.

Many guests came and it continued until about 4pm. Here are some photos.

The Part-Timers & War Weekend

This week, we (Foong and I) made arrangements to meet each other on Tuesday, when both of us had lectures at XMUM. I knew Dr. Foong See Kit from years back. I believe I first met him at the 5th APPC Physics Conference, Awana Genting Highlands in 1992. It was my first (international) conference in Malaysia and I was introduced to many theorists particularly those who are Malaysian in origin and Foong was one of them. I believe the other time we met was the Frontier in Quantum Physics conference in Concorde Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, in 1997. The next time, I think I met him in IAS, NTU. So, when he found out that I was also teaching at XMUM, he contacted me through e-mail. Finally, we made the arrangement for Tuesday when I finish my class at 3pm and he is waiting his next class at 4pm.

We almost missed each other; I was walking away from Block A4 and I think he just came out from Block A3. We stared at each momentarily, perhaps unsure of each other due to our changed appearance. I only saw him when his hair was still black and me, when he saw me was more skinny (we told this to each other). We went to have coffee at Zus Coffee, and chatted about the past and our present situation. By 3.40ish pm, we said goodbye to each other as he goes for his class.

Me, thereafter, rush to do Dzuhr prayers since my two-hour class starts at 1pm and ends at 3pm. At the surau (prayer place), I met Dr. Zaidan (my former boss/head of department at UPM). We chatted and prayed Asr prayers together.

It was rather a coincidence that I met all the part-time lecturers for Physics that day. 

Last weekend, a war broke out in the Middle East and I believe it was a surprise to many. Like many wars, there will be (many) innocent victims and we pray for them. I carefully followed the development and it became a distraction from my teaching preparation. There is also concern how this war will escalate and how it will affect the world economy. May Allah protect us from any misfortunes and calamities.

Varia: Lectures, HoD Meet and MJDK@Physics, UPM

I have just finished week 3 of my lectures and it seems that the topics covered seems to be on track. However my lecture preparation seems a bit slow since I'm preparing the notes from scratch. Despite I'm following the suggested text book quite closely,  still have to internalize the contents so that I have an organic way of discussing them (this really takes up time). So the third week saw me sleeping little. More often than not, I tend to be exhausted on the days of lectures (Tuesdays and Thursdays, each having four hours of lectures), collapsing on returning home. I need to improve on this (on top of other personal matters like attending to the family).

The week also saw me meeting the Head of Physics Department of XMUM, Prof. Ong Chong Kim on Wednesday. The meet is perhaps to get to know each other better. He told me of his life story; was born a Johorean and a teacher in Singapore before it was separated from Malaysia and went for his graduate studies after getting a PR. I told him that I have been to NUS a few times and many more times to NTU and also mentioned that I know Kwek, Oh Choo Hiap and have met KK Phua. Also knew Lim Yen Kheng's supervisor, Edward Teo and mentioned briefly that I met Edward with Malcolm Perry (Edward's supervisor) in one conference in IAS, NTU. Malcolm was Black Holes lecturer in DAMTP for Part III.

We also discuss on matters of Physics Dept of XMUM. The Physics Department here is still new and there is a need to promote its programme. From the conversation, Prof. Ong envisaged the (undergraduate) physics program should be research-directed. I do see this direction in the maths programme before this. Indeed, I even had my students (for the courses I'm teaching), requesting research-like modules as part of the continuous assessment.  My initial reaction is to think this will be unfair to undergraduate students as research is demanding. But on Thursday, some of the students came to show me what they have done in the past. I saw what I did in UPM before i.e. SCL module reviewing research papers could be taken as the research-like modules. In this light, I may just agree on this. Note in UPM, I implemented this as group work but in XMUM, it would have to be individual work. The other direction Prof. Ong was indicating is that one could take up more modern topics in physics as well as interdisciplinary topics to be part of the curriculum. This may help for the physics programme to be more popular. All these discussions help me to see what physics at XMUM can grow to be.

On Friday, I was invited to Physics Department in UPM for Majlis Jasamu Di Kenang (an appreciative event for our services to be remembered). The event is usually held for retirees and for this event, I was one of them, Dr. Nurhidayaty and En. Rahmat Kamid (who could not come). Speeches were made. One of the MC highlighted that there was a humourous side of me. She reminded me of the 'class' joke (sincerely I have totally forgotten about it), where students wanting to leave (my) class, by saying they've got class and my reply was (something like), I got no class. For my speech, I mentioned a few things that very few (in the department) know about me. My work in UPM began as early as in 1985 as a tutor. My work then was not just doing side work like tutorials. I was already teaching diploma subjects (including lab work - I did not mention this in the event), but I was already being asked to design a course on Biophysics (since I was located in the Biophysics lab of Dr. Salleh Harun). I think that course did not see the light of day. The other thing I have mentioned, I was once a webmaster for the Faculty. If I remembered correctly, the earlier webpages was pretty static and not menu driven. I changed that by introducing menu-driven elements using MS FrontPage (received congratulatory messages and some liked the changes made). Unfortunately, my request for FrontPage to be installed in the root directory of the server was not entertained (and hence the full features of FrontPage can not be implemented). I could have added as well (but I did not) about the format of examination of questions adopted today has some origins in what I have introduced (though my intent is not to make this as a standard). I hope all these highlights is not seen as blowing my own horn but mainly to encourage the adaptability and resourcefulness among the academics. I also mentioned my involvement in three different institutes namely, Institut Multimedia (no longer exists), ITMA (now known as ION2) and INSPEM, but I did not mention details since it will not bode well with the Department's event. Anywa, here are some pics.

In the event, I did one embarrassing thing. Dr. Adib requested me to sing a song. I was reluctant but since I have turned down once the request of Dr. Adib to perform in one function, I agreed to the request this time. I wanted to sing Hoobastank's The Reason since I have sang this song in a conference in Philippines (karaoke seems to be a favourite part of events there) and I also liked the lyrics to the song and perhaps fit for the event. During the Philippines performance, I know I have problems reaching some high notes. I thought this time, I could use my head voice (since I thought I have strengthen this part of my vocals over the years) but it didn't go well and hence the embarrassment. The other thing that I did, was to participate in a TikTok recording (my very first time) as requested by members of the department. Here it is.

Back to College

Yesterday my son went back to his college in Jasin. Just the day before, I have been trying to pay for his semester and college fees all day but the online banking security checking system was not functioning. I only got to pay his fees just during the night. Was it simply too busy during the day or there was a server problem, I guess I'll never know. 

This time round, our car boot was full of his things. He had bought a desktop computer to help with his studies (besides the laptop) and brought it to the college.

I was told it will be his last semester there before his industrial training semester. I pray that he does well in his studies.

Our journey back home saw a very heavy traffic and I thought it must be partly due to students of public universities returning to college (at least I know that UiTM and UPM will start their new semester today). Through a friend, I also found out that KL had two major events held there i.e. a marathon and a bicycle race (Tour de Langkawi) and some roads are closed.

Back home, one of our cats was sick and my other half send her to the clinic. Also, my sister in law came to our place as their car ran into problems when they were heading back to Segamat. I have to work long hours ahead now to prepare for my lectures this week. Back to restlessness.