Friday, October 5, 2007

MDeC Training, MMU Melaka (Batch 4) - Graduation Night (Part 4)

Graduation Night...

Sorry for the lack of updates, was busy conducting trainings the past 2 weeks for UPM & UTAR...*lame Excuse!! ok ok ....I admit....I was lazy*

Anyway, here are some of the pictures we took during the students' RED CARPET Graduation Ceremony...to be very honest with you, I don't think they did a good job in planning and running the event.....I think they did a FANTASTIC job...*Applause! Applause!!*
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The students just before the graduation ceremony began...*so busy and you still have time for photographs?*
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The happy cheerful children...
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What's with the flowers?
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*The hills are alive....with the sound of muuuuusic...AH haAAaaAaaa...* hahaha...here we have the entire cast for the Malaysian version of 'Sound of Music'...
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Group photo with the VIPs...*tsk...so formal...it's so not like you guys..*
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Now that's slightly better!!
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The happy, smiling graduates of the MDeC K-workers program showing off their certificates...*Congrats Congrats!!*
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The 'we absolutely love taking photographs' girls...
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Here they go again!
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Now it's the guys' turn...Look at them....all Cool & MACHO...*at least they're trying hard to be!!*
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Group photo with ME!
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It was a very fun night...just that it passed by so quickly (time ZoOoOoOOmS by when you're having fun)...I'll defnitely miss this CrEAtiVe bUNcH of mONkeyS very much....

I want to take this opportunity to say a big Thank YOU to all of you for enriching my life...

Monday, September 17, 2007

MDeC Training, MMU Melaka - 3rd Batch (Part 3)

Part 3 - Egg Game (Continued...)

In the previous posting, we saw how the first 2 groups performed. Now, let's look at how Group #3 and Group #4 perform with their 'Masterpiece Structures'. Enjoy!


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Ok...What do we have here? Group #3's Masterpiece...Honestly, when Hock Seng (my co-trainer) and I saw this structure, our first comment was...the opening is wayyy too narrow. Perhaps they forgot to consider the fact that the egg will be launched at a height of about 8 - 9 feet. Their chances are pretty slim...UNLESS...they can aim really really accurately....otherwise...NOPE...it won't work....they don't stand a chance(well...at least that was what we thought...)
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The Egg launcher for Group #3 posing with Mr. Eggy...All smiles...
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Group members doing their last minute adjustments...I like their spirit of team work and cooperation..
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2 hours later.....(Just joking)...putting in their final touch...OK...enough!! let's get going you guys and girls...
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Finally...Ze'Moment of TRUTH!! Will they succeed? What does the future hold for Mr. Eggy? 3..2..1..
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WOW! Impressive! Their 1st attempt and IN it went! "What did I tell you Hock Seng? I KNEW they were gonna succeed...hahaha....OK OK....I admit...I was wrong....I shouldn't have passed judgement so soon...". What I learnt from this experience is that..."Nothing is Absolute...Nothing is for sure until the last minute..Anything is Possible! Sometimes in life...the thing that you least expect to happen...happens....this is just how life is...so, in whatever it is that you're working on, be prepared for any eventualities because according to Murphy's law..."If anything can go wrong, it will!" Similarly...according to uV's law (haha..).."If anything can go right...it will too!"
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Well Done guys! I'm so proud of you. Look at their happy smiley faces...The Victorious Group #3!!
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Next, we have Group #4..."guys...are you JUST STARTING to build your structure? We don't have the whole day! Oops...sorry guys...didn't see you structure at the back there..."
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Group #4 doing some last minute adjustments on their structure...Clearly..they have an advantage here because they were able to learn from the experiences of the other groups...
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What's she holding there?
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Oh...that's very Creative! Joining a few straws together to assist in your aiming...Not bad....not bad at all...
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Team members of Group #4 doing some last minute adjustments...
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Here we have our Egg launcher with his team mate Mr. Eggy in his hands...Will Mr. Eggy survive?
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Unfortunately....*sigh*....They were way off their target...Poor Mr. Eggy....I Can't bear to do this activity anymore....too many casualties...too many lives lost in the name of Creativity....
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A closer look at poor Mr. Eggy......
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That's all for this time...In our next posting, we're going to see how these students organized their graduation ceremony...You're gonna enjoy it....So, stay tuned!!!


“Nothing encourages creativity like the chance to fall flat on one's face.”
-James D. Finley -

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Google Pack of Freebies...


Was surfing the net when I stumbled upon this ad from one of the sites I was visiting. Google Pack?? What's that? So, out of curiousity, I clicked on it and Voila! a whole range of freebies!!! Not sure how many of you have actually come across this ad (I don't surf the net that often.......ok ok...I was blind the last few times...couldn't see it...) and clicked on it.

Anyway, just thought of sharing it with those who have not clicked on this ad before...Google pack is a bundle of software specifically selected by Google. It's always free and doesn't require us to pay a single cent today, tomorrow or anytime in the distant future...and the best thing about it is that the software bundled in the package are not trial versions. All you need to do is just click on it...download it...and install it. It's just that simple....

There are 11 free software bundled together in Google Pack...Google Toolbar for IE, Spyware Doctor, Picasa, Star Office, Norton Security Scan, Google Desktop, Google Photos Screensaver, Mozilla Firefox Internet Browser with Google Toolbar, Skype, Adobe Reader 8 and Real Player.
I know I know...some of you may be thinking...I've got some of the programs already.

Do I still need to download all of them? The answer is No...The cool thing about Google Pack is that it allows you to choose and pick whichever software that you want. Anything that you don't want or don't need or already have...don't download it. Simple...

I downloaded most of the software and tried them out...and I can very much confirm that these software aren't trial versions.

And for the benefit of my fellow blog readers, I've actually prepared a link for those of you who'd like to download some of those freebies I mentioned. Go ahead and download it...it's FREE....FOC...Just click on the link (one of the links on the right) that states 'Get essential PC software with the free Google Pack' that looks like the image below and you're on your way!
That's all for now...Enjoy downloading and installing your freebies!

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

MDeC Training, MMU Melaka - 3rd Batch (Part 2)


The Egg Game...


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Here we have the 1st group with their 'work of art'...all prepared and set to go! Ready to break some eggs? haha...
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Doing some last minute adjustments to their structure...
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And here we have the egg launcher, Meng Chung proudly showing us the egg he is about to break...just joking...(I'm so mean...Can't believe I said that...)
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Chin Seong giving his team mate some moral support and encourgament...I'm sure Meng Chung is now under alot of stress.... to not disappoint his fellow team mates...to not let them down...All the best guys!!

*Good luck to you too, eggy...*
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Here comes the egg!!! *drums roll*...absolute silence just seconds before the egg is launched...is the egg going to survive?
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OoOopPss!!...the first casualty...Anyway, he aimed well....just that there wasn't enough insulation to absorb the impact when the egg landed inside their structure...pity the egg...must've hurt....*ouch*
(notice the egg...or rather..what's left of the egg, at the top right hand corner of the structure...)
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What went wrong? How come it didn't break the fall of the egg? WHY?? WHY??? I've already done all the calculations....F= mg...Force equals to mass multiplied by the gravitational acceleration....Impossible!! WHY????TELL ME WHY???
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Haiyah....very simple....we should have placed more straws here...and we should have put the straws this way.....

The 1st group didn't quite succeed...neither did they fail...they merely obtained some undesired results...but as long as they don't give up, as long as they keep changing their approach to find better ways to design their structure...they'll definitely succeed one day.....Keep it up guys!

Anyway....let's shift our focus to the 2nd group...
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The 2nd group with their spikey struture...(I guess the spikes are there to prevent members of the other groups from going near it...that's the only logical explanation I can come up with because I don't see how the spikes at the side and the bottom of the structure play a role in preventing the egg from breaking...any views from you readers out there? please feel free to leave a comment at the end of this posting...)

By the way...where's everyone?....?? (guess they're afraid of the spikes too? haha)
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Here we have Pui Ling, the egg launcher for the 2nd group, doing some initial testing...testing 1...2...3...
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The moment we've all been waiting for....Will this egg survive?

Maher giving Pui Ling some moral support and words of encouragement seconds before the launch...."You can do it...you can! Believe you can...then you can!" Good luck guys!

*good luck to you too eggy*...
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Some last minute adjustments...by Datuk Seri Saeed...

Unfortunately, after much consideration, I have decided not to post the photo of Mr. Eggy's death. It was just too tragical...too painful...can't bear to look at the photo...but suffice to say... Mr. Eggy sacrificed itself for a noble cause...*sob*sob*
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What happened? How come? CANNOT BE! Our structure is so perfect! Impossible!
Datuk Seri Saeed still coming to grips with the loss of their precious egg...their team mate...or rather...their broken and shattered team mate....

Pui Ling seems happy there....Guess she's trying to cheer her team mates up..."look guys....at least it wasn't you who launched our eggy team mate to DEATH....I was the one who did it...If at all someone should be sad...I should be the one!...But I'm not! I refuse to be! I'm positive about it...in every successful endeavour, sacrifices have to be made for the team to advance...to grow...to succeed. So, get over it and let's see what we can learn from this to ensure our success in the future...!! Ok...so, who wants to take the place of Mr. Eggy the next round?"
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"Yeah, Pui Ling, I guess you're right...Let's see what we can learn from this experience...and see how we can use this experience to help us achieve the success we've always dreamed of....anyway...before we draw straws from Soon's hand (notice the straws in Soon's hand) to choose a replacement for Mr. Eggy...let's get a group photo for remembrance.."
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erm...notice who's missing here? I guess they've chosen the replacement for Mr. Eggy....
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In the next posting, we'll see how the other 2 groups fared...so, that's all for this time...See ya all and Ciao!

Friday, September 7, 2007

MDeC Training Program for MMU, Melaka (3rd Batch) - (Part 1)

June 2007, we conducted the MDeC K-Workers training program for the 3rd batch of University Undergraduates. This time we conducted the program for MMU Melaka students (again...)...but I would have to say that this batch of students were slightly different as compared to the 1st batch of MMU students we trained last year....This particular group of students were absolutely FANTASTIC ! Most of them have very good attitudes towards life...and most importantly, they're very willing to learn. I honestly believe this particular group of students will have a bright future and they'll definitely go very far in their lives...

As usual, I conducted the "Innovation & Creativity" module...but this time I had my very good friend and training partner, Ee Hock Seng co-train with me. I'm not going to bore all of you with more of my babbling and boring text, but suffice to say, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during this program! So, below are some of the photos we took during the training. Enjoy!
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That's me!
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And that's my very good friend and co-trainer, Mr. Ee Hock Seng conducting one of the sessions...he's a man with a very big heart and he's very fun to be with...
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This time we tried something different...Instead of just using magic and mind-boggling puzzles to help unleash the creativity within the students...we also used very creative ways to teach the students how to count from 1 to 100 in Japanese....in under 10 minutes...(mind you, all of these students have no prior knowledge of the Japanese language). Just in case you're wondering what they're doing here, they're actually scratching their knee because it's itchy...*all of them having itchy knees at the same time??* YES...haha...well...actually NO...they're just using some creative linking methods to link the first 2 numbers to something they're familiar with. 1 in Japanese is ICHI, and 2 is NI. When you put them together, it sounds like "Itchy Knee"...

Just FYI, 1 to 10 in Japanese is:-

1 - Ichi
2 - Ni
3 - San
4 - Shi
5 - Go
6 - Roco
7 - Shi - Chi
8 - Hachi
9 - Kyu
10 - Ju

I'm not going to go into the details of how this is done, but if you're interested to find out how to do it, ATTEND THE TRAINING! haha...just joking. If you're interested to find out how to do it, just ask me out for a date...and I'll share it with you...this offer is open to ladies only...haha...as for guys, just give me a call, I'd be more than happy to share this with you... (if you buy me lunch!)
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8 is Hachi...notice their hand gestures...the egg is Hatching...
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10 is Ju...

1 to 100 in under 10 minutes...and all of them could remember it even after 2 days...no sweat!

This technique was actually taught to me by my dear friend and training partner Mr. Jeyaraman a.k.a. the Memory Man. This man has got fantastic memory! Jeya and I conduct public programs together to teach students how to significantly improve their memory and remember facts & information easily. During our program, we also share study techniques and mind-mapping techniques with the students to significantly reduce the time they need to do revision...and at the same time improve their results in exams so that they can have more time to develop themselves in other areas of their life (i.e. leadership, communication skills...etc...), which in my opinion, is equally important, if not more important than exam results.

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As usual, we did the 'Egg Game'...This is the first group with their work of art...
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A closer look at their structure...Looks solid and nice eh? Wonder if it'll prevent the egg from breaking.....
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This is the 2nd group with their masterpiece...rather spikey struture they have...wonder if those spikes serve any purpose....or are they just for decoration?
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A closer look at group #2's masterpiece...
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And this is group #3, with their erm....structure?
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A closer look at their...structure... looks more like a creative art piece...a very creative and beautiful piece of art...
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This is group #4...with their.................erm.......straw bag?...
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A closer look at the...Straw Bag structure....
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Well, that's all for this posting. In the next posting, we'll see how the students launched the egg and which group's 'structure' managed to prevent the egg from breaking...till then, Ciao!....