Good times in UPM

It has been a great fifteen years of teaching and 6 years of studying in this unbelievable university. I came here way back in 1989 to do my matriculation studies. I got into the degree program in 91 and graduated in 95. I got my masters in 2002 and and have submitted my Phd at te age of 39. So if you do the maths, I have been in UPM for 21 years. As in any place you spend a long time at, there were some fantastic memories and some glum ones.

Amond the grand fantastic ones as we should not dwell in the negatives are:

1. winning the inter college debate championship in 91 and 92

2. getting to the intervarsity (Battle of Wits) debate competetion in 94

3. Going to the first Asia Intervarsity Debate Championship in 94 (my team was ranked 14th in Asia)

4. Winning the intercollege rugby championship in 94

5. Scoring two tries in the Jonah Jones 7 a side tournament (in the quarter finals)

Well, a lot of good stuff if you want to think about them, a lot of good stuff would have happened in anybody's life. Remember the good ones and you'll be a wee bit happier. Throw away the bad ugly memoris as they will not do you any good nor will it inspire others to do better.

My Relationships with the Fairer Sex

I never considered myself hot or attractive during my uni years. I could accept myself as being called cute but that would be about it. For all that really matters in life a cute rugby player would never realyy cut it among dog ugly brutes who pl;ayed rugby with or agianst me.

Thus, I never really had any relationship to talk about. I got into liking several gals but never really enough to make the first move and was never gut wrenching enough to make me change my belief that girls would be better than rugby balls.

Advantageous of Rugby balls:

1. You can literally throw it, kick it and hold it and it will still give the same response
2. You can drop it in mud
3. You can use it as a huggy pillow
4. You can throw it at the face of an enemy

Reasons, reasons, many a reason for simply not having the guts to go on a date during my uni years. However, looking at my lovely wife and four kids now, I am eternally glad that I chose the rugby balls.

Cues and Relevancy in Communication

People who communicate will always have problems in the process of communicating. These problems in communicating can also lead to various other social based problems. People who had communication based social problems would generally be facing problems in at least one of three different areas of nonverbal communication: reading nonverbal cues; understanding their social meaning; and coming up with options for resolving a social conflict, according to Clark McKown of the Rush Neurobehavioral Center in Chicago.

A person especially a child or a youth who are not quite familiar with society's cues and gestures for example, simply may not notice a person's scowl of impatience or understand what a tapped foot means. He or she may even have trouble reconciling the desires of a friend with her own or what cues would fit into what message in terms of appropriacy. That is why it is relevant to analyze the 'Relevance Theory' (no pun intended) put forth by Sperber adn Wilson(1995). This is due to the fact that the theory fowards a simple but hugely significant notion that people would only put focus on what is relevant to them. Thus, if we want to communicate better, we should make a huge effoprt in sensing what is relevant to our receiver.

The Mind and Perception: Generation Gaps

We are prone to blame others for misbehaving or not doing things right. However, this is usually viewed or judged from our point of view and the way we want to see things. It is quite rare would we be willing to look into how others would view things and their accepted world view. For the much renown Gen Y for example, some people argued that their attitudes and behavior is a result of how their parents raised them. This is of course similar with religious doctrins that views the parents as the real architect in their children's characteristics and life as a whole. If this assumption or mayhaps even hypothesis is true than if we want to deal with Gen X, Y or Z, we should study on how they were raised by their parents.

In general it can be said that as the planned products of parents who have protected and treasured them, most of the time, they are supported by the family and have been treated as individuals from a young age. Because of this, it can be said that they adopt a care free attitude and together with the extra close connectivity with friends due to the wide accessibility to the internet, handphones and other gadgets. Study them, evaluate them and act. Do not assume as it may puit you in a shaky platform.

Life Ever After

The good thing about life which is unfathomable to a lot of people is simply to go on living. Some people stop to live and decidedly would go hell bent into solving the problems that they encountered.

Sure, we got to solve these problems but they are not the only things in life. There are other beautiful captivating things, items, birds, children, friends, spouses, yada yada yada that would bring you happiness and joy if you but look at them take a deep breath and smile.

I, I try to make it a point to find these items, people or animal once or twice a day to remind me that theings of beaty in life is reciprocal in nature, feed with care and attention and it will come back to you ten folds.

So smile, go on living and keep on searching for the 'items'.

Amazing life at Uni

A typical day in the diary of an average student would start the night before or in realtime, slightly moving into the beginning hours of the next day. The plan usually starts with the venue and time of the classes for the day, which ones to skip, what to do during skippings and then to the more important issues of direct selling of Aloe Vera juice and cream to current and potential clients.

In an average week there will be at least two days where the plans would include some ventures that were expected to yield competent returns academically and super ones in terms of direct selling income. These super actions usually involved me pitching my ideas of getting people's hard earned money into my pocket through a clever mixed of academic inquiries, exciting smile and weight lost creams. These beautifully sculpted ventures usually involved my wonderful lecturers. Once or twice a week, I would go to them academically but left them a satisfied businessman with most of the time, a satisfied client.

Universal Debating Concept

Debate is simply another genre in communication. Hence in any communicative situation there would be people who are the senders and receivers as well as other people who influence the views, ideas and the choice of words of the senders as well as the receivers. Thus I would like to discuss a bit on the peripheral influence of networking influence in debate.

It is always helpful if you know the person when it comes to communicating. Thus in debating, this person or groups of persons, will represent a lot more than mere knowing. You need to know:
1. the kind of structures they like in the speech (inclusive of all the debate speech segments i.e rebuttals and POI's)

2. the kind of model they like for the argument framing,

3. the number of acceptable claims speakers should have and

4. the issues that a debater should know.

However, a community being a community, these networking knowledge would also logically include:

1. If someone knows on first name basis, (tough to tell someone you know they lose, especially in a close one)

2. Your drink preference (liquor or plain water)

3. The outfit you prance around in,

4. Sexual orientation,

5. Many-many more.

It is tough to be objective with these networking grapevine rules. Even in the court of law where attire is controlled, even in the British Parliament when curses must be hidden with farts and even in kindergarden where rules of networking is at its infancy, these rules do take place, they are influential, powerful and dangerous if the intent of the holderf of these information is even slightly less than noble. Thus, get all your plans working, get all the infos but like the Prince of Persia.