Winners take chances.
Like everyone else, they fear falling,
but they refuse to let fear control them

Winners don’t give up.
When life gets rough, they hang on until the going gets better.
Winners are flexible.
They realize there is more that one way and are willing to try others.

Winners know they are not perfect.
They respect their weaknesses while making the most of their strengths.
Winners fall, but they don’t stay down.
They stubbornly refuse to let a fall keep them from climbing.

Winners don’t blame fate of their failures nor luck for their successes.
Winners accept responsibility for their lives.

Winners are positive thinkers who see good in all things.
From the ordinary, the make the extraordinary.
Winners believe in the path they have chosen even when it’s hard, even when others can’t see where they are going

Winners are patient.
They know a goal is only as worthy as the effort that’s required to achieve it

Winners are people like you.
They make this world a better place to be.

6.15 am. On the way to work. Saw an Indian lady waving – nak tumpang. Didn’t know her, but gave her a lift. She said she was late and dare not take the bus coz the sister is now paralyzed since 2 months ago coz the bus took off before she could get in safely. She said cars before me just went off ignoring her but I stopped. No one wants to take a stranger, she said. Now I am thinking.. what if she is.. ??

As you all know, OUM recently had its 10th Convocation at PWTC with a total of 4367 graduates. This is an event memorable to everyone especially the graduates. Just writing about this gives me goosebumps. I would understand how hard it is to study and work at the same time, on top of that you have your family, friends, your social life .. and all sorts of mess along the way. It is just so appalling just to think about it. ‘What am I putting myself into?’ one must be thinking when one first set foot in OUM. Registration is fine, you get your modules, you take it back. Some read, some don’t. Some started playing with myVLE. Some goes back to work and not touching anything until the 1st Tutorial…and nearly choke after knowing there are 3 assignments due on Tutorial 4!

I mean, why study? What do you want to achieve? What is your goals? Why going to all these hassles; coming back to class, studying, panting along the way balancing a handful of responsibilities? THAT.. you have to answer yourself and truly grip on it, because that is your motivation. If you want to survive this journey, you have to keep your faith, your motivation and one day, you will get that scroll. You will get a chance to walk that stage, to wear that robe. You will have tears in your eyes. Your children, your parents, your other half.. will be so proud of you. You made it. Wearing that robe, walking on that stage, such emotions is only treasured by you alone.

So keep your faith. *chaiyyookkk*

Very familiar phrase eh? Being in the Library field for such a long time, this has been like daily necessary intake. It would be a strange day not having people asking this question. Why? Because we always will have new students coming in every semester and new users who suddenly realized that they need to find something in the Library.

As tiresome as it would be but I would prefer having people asking than not having one at all. Like what our old folks said ‘Tak bertanya sesat jalan’. There is no need of you to be winding, circling in the labyrinth since the librarians are always there to help. I wouldn’t expect people who are new to the system to immediately grasp your way through the search path but I do believe that after several trial and errors, you will get the hang of it. ‘Tak cuba, tak tahu’, ‘tak kenal, tak cinta’. So, if you have noticed, we do not actually give you your materials in a silver platter. Instead, we teach you how to go about searching them so that you will know how to do it on your own. Remember the ‘fishing’ story?

So, don’t be embarrassed to not knowing something. Don’t be afraid to ask. What important is you ASK. That’s how you learn. And of course, ask to the right person – ASK US!

Recently, I gave a briefing to the new students with regard to Library services. It’s a usual event during the new graduate students registration. After many briefing all these years, I figured showing them how to search is just a waste of time since most will remember perhaps only less then a quarter of what was said/shown during that 15 mins briefing. They are more anxious to know what courses they are going to take, what the PCs are going to say… all about the course. Other things can come later.

So, nowadays, I focused on merely How to Get Hold of Us! Telling you that we are here to help. We have the Facebook! We have the Live Chat! We have the ODLibrary forum in myVLE! We have librarians to help you even after office hours. We have the emails listed at the portal. The numbers are visible. We make sure queries are answered in a jiffy. We make sure you can communicate with us without hassle.

Usually, people don’t realize something is important .. not until they are in a situation. You won’t want to know how to search for a book on your first day of class coz that is not your main concern. You just want to read your module. But we know at one point you will need some kind of help from us to get that book you need. So we are telling you now that WE ARE HERE to help!

Don’t ask others about what we can offer to you… just ask US

Conscious is define as ‘having an awareness of one’s environment and one’s own existence, sensations, and thoughts”. Control is define as ‘restraining or having direction over; dominate; command”.

When we were little kids, running around playfully, enjoying life as it is without thinking of responsibilities, we have our parents and teachers telling us to do this and that. Mom make sure we get up in the morning, brush our teeth, eat breakfast, go to school, do our homework etc etc. We were guided and told what to do.

Then one day, we are set free. The time we set foot in a higher education institution – we are ‘free’. No one will wake us up in the morning. No one will tell us to pray. No one will monitor everyday that we do our assignments. It’s all up to us. It’s all up to our ‘conscious’ and ‘control’.

In order to stay in the course, one has to be conscious with his surrounding. Be aware of the good and bad. Understand the existence affected by how one leads his life. Be conscious in knowing what is important, what is needs, what is just like. Be aware of what is the goals in life. What is the focus and objectives to achieve.

Having conscious is not enough without being in control. Dominate yourself to the conscious. Control your state of mind. Control your focus. Control your enthusiasm in achieving your goals and objectives. Control your judgement.

So be conscious and be in control.

May you lead your life well.

Perception is a state of being – where one is aware of something in such a way, interprets and understands the matter. As individuals, we perceive things differently. We understand at different levels. We interpret according to our level of understanding.

In order to come to a conclusion and agree on a decision, we have to be at a state of mutual understanding. You read a line as 1-2-3, I read the line as 1-2-3. If one reads as 3-2-1, some form of arguments might occur.

Then, all traits come into the picture. Ones that we have been reading or come across through our lives. Increase your tolerance, listen to others, appreciate other people’s view, put yourself in other people’s shoe, etc etc etc. If you think about it, do you 100% believe that what you perceive is 100% true?  Somebody else will think the same way too. So, don’t be so hard-headed.

Doing a project at the office, the team came into a confusion due to different focus and understanding. The bigger team agreed on something which the smaller team (which I am in) had a hard time grasping. After much thought and professional squabble, I think I am seeing the root of the problem.  No one is at fault – I can put it that way. They are right, and so are we. The thing is, both teams are perceiving the issue at a different angle. The big team is looking from the level of a human eyes and we are looking from the sky.  One is corrective action and the other is preventive action. Both wanted to achieve the same goal – in the end. You just have to align all needs and concerns into proper channel – then you solve everything and make everybody happy.

So.. next time when you are in a squabble at the office – sunk it in and THINK through. Apply all those ‘thinking hat’, tolerance, and what not. You might see a different view :))

Today, at 6.18am, I drove to work thinking that I can reach the office much earlier to get some urgent work done before the 12.30 meeting. However, about 10 minutes of relax-mode driving, I was stuck in a massive traffic jam.

First, there was a major construction – a huge crane parked in the middle of the road trying to assemble a huge chunk of bridge block. They have closed the road and everybody had to divert to one little tiny back road.  To make things worst, I ran out of gas. Panic stricken, blood level rising up ..finally I got out of that road at 7.20am something. Stopped at a nearby Petronas, and filled up. Luckily I am not using Ron97, if not I would have die with anger.

Continuing the ‘trip’, got stuck again in another traffic jam up ahead. This time, there was an accident on the OTHER side of the road. As usual, both sides will get piled up with ‘bystanders’ – a common culture.

After that, there were 2 broke-down cars up ahead – adding to the slowness of the traffic. What’s going on I wonder.

Then .. just as I thought it’s over, there was a taxi stopped on the side. The driver was holding an old guy’s hand – walking him to the bushes. I guess he just had to ‘go’. Geeshhh

Finally reached the office at 8.10am.

So how was your trip to the office today? 

Yesterday, in a group project I was involved in, our group leader asked me about Barbara Minto’s Pyramid Principle which I have never heard off. Being a librarian, I should have read more books right? Well anyway, we have this book in the Library if you are interested in reading it.

This book is about ‘presenting your thinking so clearly that the ideas jump off the page and into the reader’s mind’. I haven’t finish the book yet but a glimpse of it is about how you logically structure your thoughts, intention, understanding etc – to simple and clear logical sentences.

Let us try with this sample I found in the Internet. This is a letter from a little girl name Lucy to her friend Shirley.

“Dear Shirley,

Remember last Saturday afternoon when I was
playing in the park with my boyfriend and you
came over, and he told me that when my back
was turned, you kissed him?
And also, on Sunday when you came to my house
and my Mom made you a tuna fish salad for lunch
and you said: “Yech! That’s the worst salad I ever
ate!”?
And yesterday, when my cat brushed against your
leg, you kicked her and threatened to sic your dog
“Monster” on her?
Well, for all of these reasons, I hate you, and I no
longer want to be your friend.

Lucy”

Now, what is the actual message that you are getting from Lucy’s letter?  The letter is simply saying these:

Dear Shirley,
I HATE you. Here are my reasons:
1. You stole my boyfriend.
2. You insulted my mother.
3. You scared my cat.

The message is -  Lucy sent the letter to Shirley to tell her that she HATES Shirley.

WHY she hates Shirley? Because 1,2,3 reasons which are stated in each paragraph in the letter.

So.. it is a simple way to understand on how to summarize a long text into straightforward simple sentences.