Good Day,

For the past few days the Digital Library were closed due to OUM 6th Convocation. Not just the library, the whole OUM was closed to give way to the convocation ceremony. It was tiresome. I was involved with OUM Choir Unit. We had to sang for each sessions. 2 songs during the opening which were Negaraku and OUM, 1 song in the middle and finally Negaraku again for the closing. They were 6 sessions altogether. And if my calculations were not without mistake, 25 songs were sang during the convocation. Those songs were:

1. Top of The World (2 Times)
2. Standing in the Eyes of the World (Too bad, only 1 Time)
3. One Moment in Time (2 Times)
4. Malaysiaku Gemilang (2 Times)

Despite of minor glitches the choir went smoothly. We had some troubles to follow the rhythm as our Monitor Speakers were not functioning properly. That is a trouble. Having to sing without music guidance is terrible. However, we had good instructor and of course the teacher himself. Guided us until the speakers operated normally.

Well, this is my debut as a Choir Members. Scared for making mistake (none was made), tired as having to get up early in the morning like 5.30AM and fun as I never realised I could sing.

That’s all folks. Gotta go to Convocation Dinner. Absolute must for me.

Take care

Good Evening and Sejahtera to all,

As promised here is the update of yesterday’s post [The Executive Retreat]. The Paint Ball Session. To most of us, this was our first time experiencing the heat and tense of paint ball. And of course the pain of being shot with that gelatin pallet. I was hit on the head, elbow, neck and the eye. If I were not wearing any protection gear, I would be blind by now.

This was the final day before our training was finally over. We were told to get ready by 8.00AM in the morning where we would be transported to Bukit Tinggi Paint Ball Field. Arrive Bukit Tinggi around 9.00AM and we were briefed on safety aspects of Paint Ball, Strategies and How To Paint Ball. In Paint Ball game, Mask or Face protection is a must. It is absolute no no to play paintball without face protection.

We were then divied into 4 groups comprised of 8 players. Gender was not an issue. Each group was given colour, The Red Team (my team and led by me), Green Team, Blue Team and Pink Team (lol). The 1st game was between Red Team and Blue Team and Winner of course the Red Team. Next was Green Team vs Pink Team and won by Pink Team due to foul play by the Green Team. Then loser vs loser and winner vs winner. With Red Team exceptional leader, the Red Team was declared the Champion of the Day. 🙂

Then the game got more interesting as the Marshals versus OUM. Obviously, the loser would be OUM Team. Those Marshals were far more experienced with this game. And they play for free. We on the other hand were inexperienced. Nevertheless, the Paintball Session was fun and satisfying. We then head back to Awana at 12.30. We planned to perform Friday Prayer but time did not permit us. So we skipped Friday Prayer and straight to checking out.

Good Day and Salam Sejahtera,

Last week me went to Genting Highlands for OUM & METEOR Executive Retreat 2008 aka OUM-Awana Green Campus. It was a 3D and 2N retreat held at Awana Genting. A total of 50 (I believe it was 50) participants from OUM and Meteor were selected to join the retreat. We arrived around 10.00AM and Dr. Selvaraj was already there waiting to commence the Ice-Breaking session. We barely knew each other and this session was a good start. Weird huh? We are working in the same building. We don’t even say “Hello!” to each other. So, the Ice-Breaking Session was definitely a good start.

After being grouped into 6 smaller groups, Dr. Zoraini began her presentation on Understanding Open Distance Learning in Open University Malaysia. Then we proceed to Lunch Break and Room Check In. Apparently, that is best part of any events, seminars and conferences. We had buffet that day. After that, Prof. Dr. Mansor, Senior Vice President OUM officiated the OUM-Awana Green Campus 2008, marking our days as the students of the Green Campus.

In the evening, Mr. Puniamurthi, deputy Registrar UM began his talk on Working Culture and Attitude. He emphasized on team work and was ready to demonstrate the importance of Team Work by providing each group with 1 small potato. Each group would have to cook this potato by any means necessary within 30 minutes. All 6 groups with their creativity began to cook the potato. It was funny, very funny. How to cook a potato without water and stove and container? One group had their potato became complete carbon. My group cooked the potato by placing the potato in the hole and burn it from top. Well, a failed attempt. Later on, Mr. Puniamurthi began to explain the best way to cook the potato and his class on Working Culture and Attitude started.

Then around 7.00PM we stopped for dinner. Again my favourite part. I had mutton, plenty of them and middle-east cuisine. Of the 3 days I was there, not a single rice was taken. Why should I as could always take them everyday. This was buffet, so rice a definitely no no.

After that we had Stephen Corneilius, Dean of Sedaya College talked on Quality and Accountability in the Workplace. A very long talk. I could see some of the participants yawning due to late hours. But he quoted us a very good quote from Zig Ziglar “You are what you are by what goes into your mind“. In laymen terms, this phrase simply means “We are what we think we are”. If we think bad then bad we will be and vice-versa. Alas at 11.15PM his talk was finally over. Imagine from 10.00AM – 11.15PM marathon. A very long day for me and the rest of the participants.

A day after, we had Tony Hayman talking about Thinking Ouside the Box. He basically described how to think analytically and effectively. There’s must be a way of doing something he told. By thinking outside the box men are able to create many inventions that were impossible before. Computers, Refrigerator, Car and many others. These inventions were the result of thinking outside the box.

Then we continued our training with Working Performance & Etiquettes by Puan Faizah Mohamed, Senior Manager (Human Resource Dept.). Many seemed enthusiastic with Bonus and Benefits with OUM as most of the time were spent on answering questions related to performance appraisal, pay and bonus.

After Lunch Break, we had Michael Reyes, CEO of Money Tree Asia Pacific to talk about Interpersonal Relationship : Quality & Professional Attitude. Perhaps the best session as many seemed to be interested with the topic and many laughter and interactions. He explained that most conflict originated from within ourselves. If we could deal with our intrinsic desire to burn the other party we could avoid conflict. He stressed that, it is easier to deal with ourselves than the other party when resolving a conflict. Which is very true.

Lastly, Prof. Dr. Latifah give a talk on Understanding Student Issues. A discussion to understand the problem faced by students doing Open and Distance Learning in OUM. She then asked each group to discuss the problem faced by these students from the Staff perspective. How would we see the problem. Well, we did explain various problems faced by them.

That was all the training we went through for the entire 2 days. For the day after we would have the opportunity to shoot some head and butts of the participants in PaintBall Session. That would be in the next post.

Take Care all.