Facebook June 12, 2009
Posted by rbjtimban in 2009, Career, Computer, Culture, Education, Ethnic, Family, Forum, Love, My Views, Relationship, Writing.Tags: Connie, Family, Festival, Fionula, Gawai Dayak
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Sometimes ago I was invited by some friends of mine to sign up with Facebook (FB). Iniatially I turned down their invitation, but I did not give them any reasons. I simply kept the reasons to myself – workload, not ready to ‘expose’ myself, etc. But not until recently when a particular friend ‘re-invited’ me to sign up. I could not turn down the invitation for the second time. Then, after our Gawai festival, I signed up with FB. After the sign up, I added some familiar friends, and to my surprise, most of them have been with FB for a long time. It was me who was ‘left out’. As time flies, I added more friends and most of my request to add the people were accepted. It is fun to see their pictures and read comments. Like in our portal, engkabang.net, I do not post much comments on other’s FB, but simply click on the “like” link to show how I feel towards what they had put up. Am I introvert? Perhaps. In real life, too, I do not talk a lot. I prefer sitting down and ‘read’ – reading prints and people. What do I mean by ‘reading’ people? It’s simply an act of looking at another person and studying or observing his/her moves, with the intention to understand what type of person he/she is! Mind you, most of my observations are fruitful! But I do not want to be a psychologist, since I am not one by profession.
Back to FB: In FB I am now among my friends and even relatives. One interesting thing I found in FB, was, my daughter, Fionula Connie Duie, have been with FB 2 years ahead of me! Besides her, two of my cousins, Marilyn and her sister, Olivia, have accepted me in FB. I guess who is next I’d meet in FB.
Lester Called June 9, 2009
Posted by rbjtimban in 2009, Celebration, Education, Family, Festival, Forum, Gawai, My Views, Relationship, Sarawak, Writing.Tags: Car, Gawai Dayak
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Lester, our engkabang.net portal member, called me at 4.00 p.m. today, telling me that he and his family made a short stop in Betong. It was his first time coming to Betong, as he and his family was on their way back from Kuching to Roban. As Lester is from Miri, and his wife is from Roban, I learned that there’s no reason for him to come to Betong. But it was me who had suggested to him that he should drop by whenever he has the time. I was glad he and his family had made it today for stopping in the town. Unfortunately I did not have the chance to meet them as my wife had used our car to meet her sister at a sewing workshop. But Lester did not mind I could not meet him, as he said that they were just looking around the town. We greeted each other Happy Gawai over the phone before he hang up.
It’s February February 2, 2009
Posted by rbjtimban in 2009, Career, Church, Education, My Views, School Activities, Writing.Tags: Association, Parent, Teachers
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It’s February now. Could hardly believe that January passed by so quickly. Too occupied, may be. Yes, my kids and I have been very busy with our own business. Last month I attended our PTA AGM, and declined to be elected as the secretary. No big deal, but just wanted to focus more on my involvement in spiritual activities. I have been the PTA’s secretary since 2005. Before that, I was an assistant secretary. In 2007, I was ‘called’ to join the Parochial Church Council (PCC) as a member. And last year, I was the PCC’s assistant secretary. Why secretarial posts? I could have answered that long ago. All my minutes wasn’t that well written, as I am not that good in writing.
February, too, reminds me of my 26 years of being a husband, and also a dad! Valentine’s Day, of course. Twenty-six years? Wow! How time flies. And, yes! I will be 46 next month – on the 20th March. But I always tell myself – don’t mind the age, but look at what have been done and yet to be done.
Applying for a Promotion September 20, 2008
Posted by rbjtimban in 2009, Career, Education, My Views, Relationship, Teachers' Training, Writing.Tags: bachelor, certificate, degree, promotion
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Now that I have a scroll, and I have been busy preparing papers to apply for a promotion. At the moment I am in DGA32 under the non-graduate teacher service scale. With my first degree I am applying for DGA41 scale. Two weeks ago I prepared two letters, one to be sent to our headquarters in Kuching and another to the Education Ministry in Putrajaya. Both letters are similar. I enclosed copies of my birth certificate, identity card, letter of offer from the varsity, study permit from our ministry, DGA29 appointment letter, DGA29 service confirmation announcement, the scroll and the academic transcript, teachers’ training certificate, and the Certificate of Education. Despite these documents are small and light weight, I ran here and there to photocopy them and ‘chased’ the headmaster to get his signature. It was like chasing after an artist for an autograph!
State-wide Blackout August 9, 2008
Posted by rbjtimban in Career, Computer, Forum, Writing.add a comment
This evening at around 6.40 p.m. we experienced a black-out. I thought it was a usual one. Then after waiting for more than 15 minutes I send my friends short messages asking them whether they experience any power failure in their places out there. My brother in-law, Jonny, who lives in Kuching told me that they did experienced one; a cousin of mine in Sarikei replied the same. After dinner, I picked my computer and logged-in to my favourite forum – forum.engkabang.net, just to know more about the power failure. Yes, the people in the forum talked a lot about the power failure, from Kuching to Miri. Here is tonight’s new I had manage to read from the forum:
MIRI: A state-wide power cut in Sarawak on Saturday evening saw the blackout affect more than two million people over a distance of 1,000km from Kuching to Miri.
Cities and towns in the state were plunged into total darkness causing massive chaos as everybody was caught by surprise.
The power failure started in Kuching at about 6.30pm Saturday and rapidly spread northward to Sibu then to Miri by 7.30pm.
Deputy chief minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam when contacted by The Star confirmed that it was a blackout that seemed to have affected the main power grid.
“We (the state government) want to find out the source of the blackout. We need to know exactly what has triggered this massive state-wide blackout.
At 8.30pm Saturday the cause of the incident is still unknown.
Dr Chan, who is the state Industrial Development Minister, said that the Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (Sesco) is in the midst of trying to re-connect the power supply as soon as possible.
The state authority hopes that the people remain calm.
Meanwhile, thousands of people who were caught up in the massive traffic jam and in commercial complexes were reportedly evacuated without any incidents so far.
Source : The Star
Waiting Anxiously August 6, 2008
Posted by rbjtimban in Career, Celebration, Culture, Education, Family, Language, My Views, Relationship, Writing.Tags: Air Asia, hotel
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Since I sat for the final papers in April this year, I have been preparing for my convocation which is due on the 24th August. Am very excited and anxious. What else could I say. It’s a once in a life time experience. I will be accompanied by my wife, my younger children – Trevor, Timothy and Theophilus (all school going). Theodore was not included as he now has his own family to look after. Same goes to Fionula who had just being employed by the college where she obtained her certificate in front office recently. She is now working as a part-time tutor there. All these days, my laptop was used to surf the varsity’s portal to keep myself updated of the matter on convocation and graduation. A few weeks ago I have booked for five air tickets and two double-bed rooms to accommodate my family and I. That’s what I called ‘anxious’. I made all the bookings and purchases online – a way of doing business which I really ‘hate’ to do. It’s a phobia really. I fear that the business would be fraud of some kind. But any way, both the flight and rooms bookings were ‘clean’. From today, my family and I are waiting for the trip.
7th July … July 7, 2008
Posted by rbjtimban in Family, Funeral, Love, Relationship, Writing.add a comment
It’s 7th of July today and I woke up and said a little prayer seeking God’s love to take care of our late dad’s soul who left us on 7th July 1981 – exactly 27 years today. Should dad still lives today, he would be exactly 90 years old! But God loves him more thus he took dad from us.
… And Going … July 3, 2008
Posted by rbjtimban in Career, Celebration, Computer, Education, Family, Festival, My Views, Relationship, School Activities, Writing.add a comment
I simply left my earlier post unedited, just to remind myself that I am coming back to WordPress.
2005 – my car-pool mates (i.e. Nicholas, Fedmek and Agnes) and I were still attached to OUM. Twice a month, and trips were killing us. Last year, which was our 1st year, we did not know that we could apply for slots adjustments. We had to hit the road from Betong as early as 3 a.m to enable us to attend the 8 a.m. tutorial. Prior to 3 a.m. none of us could catch our sleep as early as 1 a.m. So, just imagine that – slept at 1 a.m., woke up at 2.30 a.m., and started the journey at 3 a.m.! It was an average of 4 hour driving. Lack of sleep but had to focus our minds on the road. In the evening we used to make our way back home at around 4 p.m. Sometimes it was earlier, but most of the times – as early as 5 p.m. By the time we reached Serian town, it it was already dusk. Driving home for another 3 hours. Simply imagine, when we reached home (Betong) our families were asleep. We used to joke – “leaving home (heading for Kuching) in the dark, and reaching home (Betong) in the dark too”. As time flew, we managed to seek help from the admin on adjusting our tutorial slots so as to enable us to catch the second slot which began at 10.15 a.m. The admin nodded and on the rest of the tutorial days, we hit the road between 6 – 6.30 a.m. Everyone felt relieved. Everyone slept as much as he/she could the night before.
2006 – My third year in OUM and the courses got tougher than the previous years. Yes, it got tougher. We had to read and write for our TESL major courses (i.e. introduction to reading, writing, speaking and listening, and on teachings of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills). Reading alone would have ‘killed’ us, but assignments and short notes had helped us very much in our exams. That is learning. To understand better, one must read and write, or at least scribble. By the way, despite having this blog, it has been my habit for not preparing a draft prior to publishing, or rather, presenting. It has been my (poor) habit to start my writing and end it just like that! Any reader would notice that there are numerous mistakes and errors in my postings but let us conclude that, these postings are merely spontaneous and have meanings (or messages) in them. Let’s disregard the grammatical elements. It was not intended to offend the beautiful English language but rather delivering the gist of the post. And, that was why I have tried to observe and preserve the proper grammar usage as much as I can.
Year 2006 too saw how my daughter, Fionula, had showed her determination sitting for her Form Six exams. My wife and I had always encouraged and motivated her all throughout the year, alongside her younger siblings (i.e. Trevor, Timothy and Theophilus). Assisting her with the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) subject was easy, since I am a TESL student myself (oops! sorry, this is not a show-off). I found that she improved a lot in that subject as my wife and I had always checked her report card regularly. She used to score good marks for the subject. Unlike writing, teaching the language with the text-book in your hand is pretty much easier, where all the ‘rules’ of the language is at hand. You’ll look professional especially when you ’spice-up’ the facts in the book with a bit of elaboration in you own words! Sounds great, is not it?
The Show Must Go On July 2, 2008
Posted by rbjtimban in Career, Celebration, Computer, Culture, Education, Family, Festival, Language, Love, My Views, Relationship, School Activities, Writing.Tags: Agnes Mukan, Ajan, Fedmek, university
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January 2004 – My friends (Nicholas Ajan, Fedmek, Agnes) and I went to OUM office in Kuching for registration. Nicholas, Fedmek and I went there a day earlier, so we had decided to stay at my cousin’s (Edward Langie Kadam’s) place at Batu Kawa, Kuching. The following morning, the three of us packed our things and made our way to OUM which was located at Jalan Simpang Tiga. There we met old friends, mostly college mates, who were also grabbing the opportunity to join the varsity. Amazing! All of us who came that day were working adults, so none felt embarrassed of being ‘too old’ or ‘too late’ to study. Excitement and anxiety filled the air. The whole morning was packed with briefings by officials from OUM and our MOE. In the afternoon, we proceeded to our respective lecture rooms to meet our tutors. They all delivered almost the same ‘theme’ in their lecture and it was very interesting, or rather, motivating. By 5 p.m. that day, and the final tutorial slot was over, my friends and I made our way back home to Betong. The 4 hour ride back home was full of anxieties, visions, dreams, just name it! But we told ourselves that trips like this one would end by 2008. In other words, this program would take us four years to complete. There would be three semester in a year. From January till May we were to take three courses, sit for our final semester exams and register for the semester. From May till August, OUM called it short semester, we were to take two courses. Exams for short semesters were conducted in August, and after the exams, we were required to register for the third semester for that year. The third semester for that year would be from September till November, and we were suppose to take up three courses. After the exam in November, one would have to register for the next courses (January, the following year). This went on for more than four years as I had mentioned earlier.
Besides sacrificing our two Sundays (at fortnightly) each month, we had to prioritize our core business – teaching. That was rather tough to cope up with, especially when one had to race against time completing his or her assignments and course works, and even preparing for the final semester exams or quizzes. In the beginning I found it hard to adapt – teaching kids during the day and becoming a bookworm late in the evening. At this point, at this age, I learned that time management is very crucial in one’s live. As time flew, I took learning whilst working very seriously, and I used to tell my pupils that I hate dead woods.
Phew! What a post! I’ll continue in a short while …
