Last Tuesday, my department, The Department of General Studies (JPA), hosted the monthly assembly of Politeknik Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin (PSMZA)... For your information, once a month, an assembly gathering all PSMZA's academic and non-academic staff, is held and all of the main academic departments take turns in hosting it... For this month, it's my department's turn to host it and in conjunction with Maulidur Rasul celebration, we chose the theme of Legasi Cinta Rasul... All staff was required to wear Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung that day... It was a bit like Hari Raya...

As the host, my department was responsible in preparing the hall and we're in charge of the flow of event... We prepared the hall, the MCs, sound system, event tentative, performance, registration, Director's speech and etc... We did everything...

Though the highlight of the day wasn't the assembly... After finished cleaning the hall, my colleagues and I went back to our office and suddenly the Head of Department made a grand announcement... That particular day was his 20th wedding anniversary and he wanted to celebrate it together with all of JPA staff! He brought cake!

It was a surprise by him for his wife who's also working in the same department... Before cutting the cake, he made a brief speech and told us a bit about how he met his wife and how they got together...

Apparently, they sort of met with each other when they were in school... His friends were always teasing him and his wife for their names are quite similar to each other : - Khairul Azaha and Khairul Bariah... They were together during their university years after he made a move on her... 

It was so sweet... His wife was so shy about it, she looked down since the beginning of the surprise until they finished cutting the cake... 

The course had two parts - theory and practical... In theory, a speaker from Jabatan Agama Islam Negeri Terengganu was invited to give a talk to students who participated on how to handle a dead person the Islam way... Then, in practical, students was given a chance to try out the steps explained during theory explanation... 

Some students volunteered to be the dead body and was wrapped in kain kapan and bathed... Interesting huh?

~ENGLISH DAY 2012~

Besides that, I was also involved in English Day 2012 at PSMZA where I got to be the project director... There were three activities held that day for the students to join - The Amazing Race, English Corner and Movie Watching...

In the Amazing Race, eight groups of students raced each other to search for checkpoints around the politechnic... At each checkpoint, they were required to solve puzzles and challenges using only English as their medium communication... Among the challenges are charades and phonetic symbols puzzle...

For Movie Watching, two movies were shown to the students and after each movie, questions related to the movie were given for them to answer... Those who answered the questions would get a prize...

Lastly, for English Corner, board games were prepared for students to try out and play against each other... Among the games available were Boggle, Pictionary and Scrabble... Encyclopedias, magazines and word puzzles were also exhibited...

At the closing and prize giving ceremony, as the project director, I had to deliver a speech and I think I nailed it... Here are a few lines of it - 

"You should not underestimate the power of English because it can take u far... Just look at me for instance, I'm 24 and I'm already a lecturer all because of my knowledge on English..."

By the time I revealed my age, most of the audience appeared to be mildly shocked... If I'm not mistaken, I'm the youngest staff at this polytechnic... My colleagues refer me as "Adik bongsu"...

Being the project director was not a burden for me as it was just a small event... It was a platform for me to get to know how the system works here in this polytechnics and for people to get to know me...

So far, PSMZA has been kind to me... The staff are all friendly and the place is beautiful... Here are some pictures I snapped out of boredom today... There were no students because it's the mid semester break and most of the staff take personal leaves...

"Patut la orang kampung tak suka JPJ... Kamu semua ni jahat!"

Those were among the words uttered by my dad to a couple of Road Transport Department (or mostly known as JPJ) officers last Saturday when we were pulled over by them at a roadside near Kuala Ibai, Kuala Terengganu...

Okey, let me start the story with a proper introduction... Here goes... 

Last Saturday morning, my dad, my mom, two of my brothers and me were on our way to granny's house at Seberang Takir, Kuala Terengganu... At that time, it was just starting to rain and it was very quiet in the car as my brothers finally got tired of arguing in 'bromance' kind of way and fell asleep... I was about to doze off too but the second I lay my head onto my seat, I heard a honking sound... It was like, "TOOTTTT!! TOTOTTT!!"... You know, the one like police cars make... 

I turned my head around and saw a dark blue four wheel drive through the rear window... "Abah, polis... Dia suruh kita berhenti...", I said to my dad...

"Polis??", my brothers were awaken by the honking... Mom then frantically told us to put on our seat belts... Yeah, none of us was wearing our seat belts... "That's it, we're doomed... They're gonna fine us for that...", I thought...

For your information, my dad is a decent driver... Most of the time, he drives at 80 km/h and he always stop at red lights... Besides, mom's always there to remind him of the speed... However, one thing he dislikes is wearing seat belts... 

Dad stopped the car at the side of the road behind a black parked car and the blue four wheel drive parked in front of it... From the logo at the side of the vehicle, I could guess that they're not the police but they're JPJ officers instead...

Two officers got out and one of them went to my dad... He asked for dad's driving license and IC and went to the other officer... It started to rain heavily so they took shelter under a wooden shed that was a few metres away from our car and asked dad to join them... 

From far, I could see that one of the officers was writing something on a small book while the other one was talking to dad... A minute later, dad returned to the car and asked all of us, "Kita ada langgar lampu merah ke?? Mereka cakap kita langgar lampu merah, betul ke??"... He seemed upset...

Mom answered in a confused and surprised tone, "Lampu merah?? Mana ada!"

Dad went back to the officers and the mood changed rapidly... Dad started to argue with those officers but as I was about to go to them to find out what's going on, dad came back to the car with a ticket in his hand... 

"Mereka cakap kita langgar lampu merah dekat Chendering tadi! Mana ada! Masa kita jalan tu, lampu tu dah hijau la..."

We're fined RM300 for running a red light... Dad was furious and so was mom... They kept on expressing their dissatisfaction while we kids sat quietly at the back... 

Dad told us that at first he tried to be nice with them as he thought they were going to fine us because we're not wearing seat belts but when those officers wrongly accusing us of running a red light, no more mister nice guy... All hell broke loose when he saw the ticket being written...

"Encik, saya tak pernah langgar merah... Kalau Encik nak saman saya sebab saya tak pakai tali pinggang keledar, saya akan terima dan redha sebab itu memang salah saya... Tapi kalau Encik nak saman sebab langgar lampu, saya memang akan marah la!", dad narrated what he said to those officers...

One of them who dad assumed as the superior insisted that we ran a red light... 

"Encik salah kereta ni... Saya tahu Encik mesti taknak malu dengan anak - anak buah tapi kalau dah tersilap tu, mengaku je la... Jangan la aniaya orang macam ni..."

When the ticket was finally handed over, dad no longer held back...

"Kenapa bersungguh sungguh sangat nak saman ni?? Hari ni tak dapat saman orang lain lagi ke?? Saya yang pertama Encik saman?? Lapar sangat nak saman orang ni..."

The officers' faces changed from poker face to upset face...

"Patut la orang kampung tak suka JPJ... Kamu semua ni jahat! Memang patut la pun kena pukul..." 

Before dad could finish his angry rant, the two officers went back to their vehicle and drove off...

It was supposed to be a happy day for us but the cheerful atmosphere was changed... Heck, even I was furious by the way those officers acted... Obviously they got the wrong car and refused to admit it...

Dad then told us a story about a JPJ officer was badly assaulted by some teenagers from our place some time ago... 

There's this one young guy who dad referred as "Budak Kemaman" and he loved to drive fast... One particular evening, the guy was speeding when a JPJ vehicle suddenly appeared and tried to make him pull over to the side of the road... He couldn't find a safe place to stop and therefore kept on driving until he found a safe spot to pull over... 

One JPJ officer came to him, asked him to roll down his window and suddenly took the guy's car keys and threw them away into the bushes... It was a bad movie for the officer as the guy was in the car together with a few of his friends... They beat the shit out of the officer... 

"Aku tak kisah kau nak saman aku!! Tapi kenapa kau buang kunci tu!! Kau tahu tak sekarang ni malam! Macammana aku nak cari??!!"

They saw another officer waiting in the JPJ vehicle and threaten him to come out... But the officer refused and so, they tore the vehicle apart... Actually, the one who's in the vehicle was the superior and he had a gun but he was too scared to come out...

Therefore, the moral of the story here is, dear law enforcers, we don't mind u doing your job... but don't go around trying to show who's the boss and act all tough... It may work for certain people, but most cant tolerate your rudeness... 

"This thing... There's no conscience, just hunger...

The Rider's gonna come out... and when he does, 

he'll destroy whoever's got it coming..."

Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) reappears as The Rider once again in order to prevent the devil from taking a human form..

The second installment of the Ghost Rider movie is brought to u by Mark Neveldine and Bryan Tyler, the directors of Crank... I notice that this movie is quite similar to Crank where the story was not carefully developed, instead the focus is more on style and action... 

Special Effects

I love the special effects in this movie especially when The Rider comes out... For me, the highlight of this movie would be the time when The Rider rides a monster drilling machine at the quarry as he battles an army of illegal weapon dealers... 

Bad Bad Acting, Story and Script

None of the cast members really stand out... Nicolas Cage used his usual kind of acting style and it sucks big... Moreau who is supposedly carefree and happy-go-lucky in character is obviously not meant for Idris Elba... In my opinion, Elba is suitable to play serious characters like the one that he took in Thor... Danny, the son of Satan, played by Fergus Riordan portrayed zero expression... Violante Placido took the character Nadya, Danny's mother, didn't really stand out... Though I was happy every time she's on screen coz she's really cute...

The horrible script makes the movie almost unbearable to watch... I definitely expected more from David S. Goyer - the writer of The Dark Knight... 

The best moments are only when The Rider appears to save the day... Simply because The Rider only utter a few cool punch phrases like, "ROADKILL..."... Other scenes are a pain to go through because of the script and bad acting...

As a conclusion, like what have been stated before, this movie is focused on style and style only... The special effects are the best thing in this movie while the acting and story are trash... 

~2 out of 5 stars~