Ramadhan's reminder to all muslim.

Assalamualaikum..

Dah masuk 9 Ramadhan ye ari ni..

Alhamdulillah dapat berpuasa regardless of ke'busy'an yang melanda..

I rasa busy ni membantu gak kot dalam tempoh berpuasa ni..

Sibuk ke hulu hilir, tengok jam dah zuhur..sambung lagi keje, tengok dah pukul 4, time to go back =)

So, macam tak sempat nak layan perasaan lapar ke penat ke.. Tapi for sure, malam memang flat la..

Kul 9.30malam dah padam. Rafique selalu ayah dia yang entertain sampai dia tido.

As for terawih, 1st night je berjaya. huhu..memang tak larat..tak mampu dah..Kalau gi gak terawih tertido dalam sujud agaknya.. I cuba bangun awal time sahur untuk tahajjud etc..Tapi ada gak yang time terbabas =D Harap performance improved towards the end of Ramadhan..

I agak busy sebab dah dapat ethical clearance from Hopkins review board. Alhamdulillah.. Jenuh tunggu 4 bulan. Finally dapat jugak. Currently I have 2 friends from Hopkins came all the way from US to help me out with the project. Syukur jugak dorang ada kat sini masa ni. There's a lot of things that we have accomplished within these 3 weeks. Without their help, mungkin i jadi "kain buruk" dah kot..Too many things, too many issues to cater by myself. Allah knows what's best. No wonder He delayed the IRB approval. Dia nak I ada helper once the IRB approved. I memang tak terlarat buat sensorang segala benda tu tambah dengan preggy dan bulan puasa pulak. Thanks Julia and Allaa if you happens to read this ;-)

They will be here until end of August. Harapnya banyak lagi issues yang kami boleh address while they are here. Takde laa i terkontang kanting sensorang..huhu.. Not that my supervisor is not helpful..Tapi lain r kan..Ngan SV tu ada perasaan segan sket..So, most of the things, i pikir sendiri, and mintak approval dia je.. While with these 2 colleagues, ada laa geng nak brainstorming. Lagi banyak otak yang fikir, lagi banyak idea yang bagus dapat. Lagi banyak tangan buat kerja, lagi cepat siap. 

Last week as soon after dapat ethics clearance we all print  instruments..Just imagine instruments for 1800 respondents. Kalau I sorang nak angkut dari kereta ke lab tingkat 6 tu mahu satu hari amek masa..dengan files yang nak masukkan instruments lagi..without them, i'm dead. Done with re-training session for 6 enumerators Rabu lepas. And I still need more people to join us as enumerators. I target nak habiskan data collection for baseline within  months.. So, I wont be able to do that alone.

Dalam sibuk-sibuk ni i cuba gak seboleh mungkin cook for buka puasa..which also become our sahur meals. 2 in 1 laa..x kuasa nak masak 2 kali.. Bangun sahur panaskan je lauk. Hubby pun bukan laa jenis selera sangat nak makan time sahur. I apetah lagi kan... Setakat 9 Ramadhan ni, 2 kali laa baru ke bazar.. Hari2 lain I just singgah gerai mana2 tepi jalan beli kuih. Untuk kitorang sket and BS rafique sket.. Jadilaa..as appetizer.. Bukan makan sangat pun. Kadang kuih RM2 pun tak abes.

Adik baby seems ok sepanjang berpuasa ni..takde masalah rasanya..aktif je..siang malam pun sama je..tapi 5th months check up dia dah due 2 weeks ni. Sory dik..ibu busy yang amat.. Hari ni insyaallah nak gi jumpa adik baby.. Mungkin kena minum air gula..Kalau diikutkan memang kena minum sebab sekarang all pregnant mothers aged 25 above kena buat diabetes test walaupun takde risiko history or problem with pregnancy weight. tapi kita tengok laa ape doc cakap ari ni.. sayang gak nak kena bukak puasa kan.. tapi kalau dah perlu, maka I relakan je..

So, sempena bulan Ramadhan ni, jangan laa pikir sangat pasal nak makan apa masa berbuka. Sederhana lebih baik. Dishes penuh meja time berbuka but end up kat tong sampah pun  tak elok juga..I read a note from ustaz mana tah kat facebook tak ingat dah.. Masa memasak bulan Ramadhan sepatutnya sama je ngan masa masak bulan lain. Yang patut lebihkan masa beribadah.. ;-D just a small reminder untuk kita bersama. Makan dengan niat untuk dapatkan tenaga yang cukup untuk beribadah.. Insyaallah.. ecehhh...ada bunyi cam Ustajah tak? =D

That's all kawan2.. Selamat berpuasa.. To ibu2 mengandung, puasa laa lagi terlarat. Kalau tak larat jangan paksa diri. Kesihatan diri and baby is more important. Puasa tapi sampai rosakkan diri pun tak guna. 

Ok.. bye..

p/s : Sorry if title tak represent content. hehehe..

3 minutes thesis competition : some tips and tricks

Few days after I came back from shoort trip to Pangkor, I've participated in the 3 minute thesis (3MT) competition organized by my faculty in conjunction with the faculty's research week. honestly, we (me and my friend) were forced by our supervisor. 

There competition was divided to 2 categories that are master category and phd category. For those who did'nt know what 3MT is, its actually a "platform" for researchers to share the importance of their work with public or I should say people who are not specialized in our field. As its name, it need us to summarize our work in the most simple way and present its importance within 3 minutes.

I used to think that this is a very simple task, its like story telling. hehehe.. but hell no when I started with preparation of the text for the speech. There's too many important things to tell people within that very short period. Well, for me its my one year work to summarize in 250 words? And for those who already done with data analysis, it must be more difficult. Oh my goodness. its tough!

So, I browsed through the net looking for tips for this 3MT. Its not that I'm really eager to win his competition but at least I don't want to embarass myself in front of the crowds. ;') So, of course I need to be prepared..Many websites, people suggest dividing the presentation to 3 parts that are why? what? and how? This is what I get from browsing through..

So, when the day came..

After I did my presentation, one chinese girl came to me and asked me how I prepared my text. I laughed. Not because I am over confident with my presentation but because I am not confident at all..(at that time) LOL! I DID'NT FOLLOW A BIT OF THE TEXT I'VE PREPARED!!I'm kind of blurred at that time. So, whatever came out of my mouth that day was unplanned. hehehe.. But then I realized Allah knows whats best for me. If I followed the text that I've prepared, I won't get the 3rd place on the competition..haha..

alhamdulillah..

But after the competition, I guess I need to write here the most important tips for those who are going to participate in 3MT which is to ENGAGE WITH THE CROWDS. I found that all the winners for both category are strong at engaging with their crowds.

Tell people what makes you choose the topic? If possible, relates it to your life experience. So that they can "reach" you. Start the presentation by telling story or situation that is related to your research topic will be a good way.. For example, I started mine by telling them that I chosed mine on child injury because of my toddler who turned 1 at that time love to explore the house and met with lots of nearmisses....Tell them how your research can benefits them. People will be benefited from my study if my method works. They can avoid accidents and injury from happening to their children. Isn't this a benefit? =D

Why the research is important to them.
AVOID presenting too many statistical figures..
NEVER be so methodological. Trying to impress people by your ADVANCED laboratory techniques etc won't make your presentation interesting.
Use pictures of your important point on your slide presentation. The slide is not to make people understand your presentation but to guide your talk. People are not supposed to be attracted to your slide, they are supposed to be attached by your speech.

That's all..The lesson learnt. I am hoping that this entry will be helpful to those who are looking for tips for your 3MT competition. If I managed to get the video of my presentation, I'll put it up here later..

Good luck =)

bukan senang nak senang

salam semua kawan-kawan yang masih sudi jenguk disini..disebabkan i jarang-jarang je update blog skarang ni, i thought dah takde orang baca blog ni lagi.. kalau update pun banyak cerita merapu meraban jer..takde buat entry bermanfaat dah. bukan taknak cuma tak tertulis..again, terima kasih. walaupun bukan ler ribu-ribu readers, it is surprising looking at this stats tadi..hoho..i ingatkan ada lah 4-5 orang yang sudi datang..ramai gak upenyer.. =P

huhu..tak sangka masih ada yang sayang..sob sob..sebab i sekarang ni memang jarang nak berbloghopping.. sekadar baca blog kawan-kawan yang ada kat my bloglist aje..terima kasih lah kepada korang yang sudi datang ye..at least takde lahh i macam syok sendiri kat sini kan..hehehe..tapi kalau takde orang baca pun, i tulis gak rasanya (like the old days when this blog have no followers) hahaha..sebab i suka baca entry2 lama bila i tengah stress. sebab boleh gelakkan diri sendiri..like what the hell lah mende cam ni pun aku tulis kat blog? ^__^

undeniable, the challenge of the phd journey memang sedang memuncak kot i rasa sekarang ni. bahang stress start bulan 4 dah tak de income, turut terasa. panassss!!! yang lebih stressnya bila research project dah pending dekat 3 bulan ni..adoiyyaaiii..this is the challenge when collaborating with people from overseas kot..sebab distance, sebab supervisors2 ku both are orang penting, busy sokmo. kekadang terpikir gak, am i teh only one who stressed over this project? heh. this main project that i'm currently in is not my phd project, but its the main project for the grantt that i got from John Hopkins.

Sepatutnya, kitorang start collect data end of November, so that bulan 6 nanti we can produce a report untuk dapatkan extension grantt. but up to now, not even start to train our enumerators. entah2 enuerators yang register ngan we all few months back pun dah tak nak join. sobsss...sedih lah macam ni. what we are currently waiting for adalah training manual yang direview oleh Dr. Abdul dan jugak translation of the education materials. kisah translator ni pun satu hal gak panjang ceritanya..adoilaaa...astaghfirullah..banyak betul mengeluh nya..but seriusly, ini adalah stress.been waiting for them for almost a month!when they used to tell me that the translation work will be ready within a week.huh!

perkara paling besar when talking about this project adalah duit. Duit grantt masih belum dapat when we actually have got the grantt since June last year(2012).dah 8 bulan kot.. soooo slow. susah nak buat keje bila takde duit nih. i think this is the major reason why we are on hold. maybe sebab my supervisors tahu that duit tu belum dapat lagi, that's why dorang pun tak rushing sangat. but to tell you the truth, i sangat stress sebab i mengharapkan dapat duit tu to cover my expense bila dah takde gaji nanti. but looking at the current situation, i dont know i boleh berharap ke tak. tak tahu lah ape masalahnya. when the money is there, tapi on hold. why???? aigooooo..stress!

pray hard that duit grantt akan release dalam masa terdekat. hopefully paling lewat pun end of March. for me, dia bukan setakat effect kepada i takde pocket money aje, but the delay will jeopardize the chance to extend the grantt for another year. kalau tak dapat extend, means i need to find another source to fund my phd project. kalau no fund, how to run an intervention? and my project adalah jenis yang perlukan big fund!  oh oh oh... please....this ain't an easy work. melalui pengalaman fighting for that grantt before, i rasa macam "mampu ke aku mengharunginya lagi sekali???" if this really happens, it's gonna be a REAL MESS!

serius, takut saya akan give-up halfway. 

Ya Allah kuatkan lah semangat hambamu ini..Tabahkan dan cekalkan hatiku untuk mengharungi dugaan ini. Janganlah Engkau uji aku dengan ujian yang tak mampu aku laluinya..