Sunday Night - heading into February Tomorrow

4 months and we will soon be off for home for a visit.  I will do 2 things, the day after I arrive.  Visit Eastside Marios for a TGI whatever with the boys, and go for a motorcycle ride.The first day back I plan to visit my Mother.

I was wrong about the date Brent and Jeanine arrive.  It is next Sunday, February the 7th.

We had some good news today.  Shaun, a teacher at Taylors who went home at Christmas  is coming back in July for the July semester. It's always good to get a veteran teacher back as well as a lunch buddy!

The Queens International Teaching Fair is into Saturday night and our nephew Logan has had job offers from Kuwait, Mexico, and Guatemala. He has an interview with Taylors tonight and has already had an interview with John McGrath.  It appears he will have a couple of job offers to consider.  Shaun is spending the weekend at Logan's place while he is attending the job fair.

Last night we took a taxi to Subang Parade and the cabbie almost ran over a pedestrian.  He would have center-punched him if we had not yelled.  As it was, it was a near miss and he only hit his hand as he jumped out of the way.  The cabbie continued on  apparently unconcerned by the incident.  We were all kind of shook up as it could have been bad.

Shelley and I have had a very relaxing weekend with a little work and lots of RnR.  We ordered out to McDonalds tonight.  Shelley had the chicken meal and I had the quarter pounder meal. This was delivered to our condo for $27 ringgits, which is $9 CDN, the price of one meal in Canada.  Did I mention the meals were super sized?

I have not heard from my daughter for quite some time and I am wondering if she is still alive.  If anyone in Canada happens to see her, please have her email or call her Dad.  He misses her dearly :-)

TTYL,

Jim

TGIF

Well, it's not a TGIF but it is close.  Jawad has organized a dinner at Tarbush which just happens to be one of Shelley's favourite restaurants (mine as well).  Shelley has cabaret tryouts again tonight but dinner is not until 6 pm so she should be able to get there for about 8:30 pm.  Everyone else is arriving about 8 pm.  I think I will walk over about 7 pm as I have some shopping to do.  I need to get an inexpensive 4/8 port router as I tired of plugging and unplugging my desktop to connect up my laptop to the net.

This is our last weekend before Brent and Jeanine arrive and we luck in as this is the weekend the cleaners clean (every 2nd Friday).  It's all good.

I also have quite a bit of programming to do on Saturday but Sunday should be RnR.

TTYL,

Jim

Visitors in 7 days

Brent and Jeanine Wilson arrive from Canada in 9 days.  They have one day to acclimatize and then we are off to Cambodia.  They figured they might as well jump right into South East Asia and it will definitely be a shock for them.  Cambodia is far down the east Asian world in modernization. It will be fun to watch them wilt under the heat and culture shock. :-)

We start off in Phnom Penh (killing fields) and then Siem Reap (Angkhor Wat).  According to Jaime, Cambodia is definitely unlike Malasia, Thailand, and Singapore.  I was thinking more like Bali, but with fewer people.  I am anxious to see how Brent handles the culture shock.  I am looking forward to having a 'drinking' partner as none of the TGIF crowd has come to visit me (yet, still hoping).

TTYL,

Jim

Thursday - Classes as usual

It is classes as usual.  We have our plane flying across the screen controlled by a timer.  We have a tank on the ground that launches a missile at the plane and we have some rudimentary collision detection happening and if the missile hits the plane we get a graphic explosion complete with sound.  Today we will probably add a scoring system of some kind and more types of planes.

Shelley is producing the cabaret and they had their first call for musicians.  Today it is singers and dancers and ditto on Friday.  Last night the all the teachers involved headed over to the Asia cafe to have supper at 8 pm.  It was a long day.

I decided to move cubicles as a space was created at Christmas when a teacher (Shaun) went back to Canada. I now have some space around me.  I also sit beside Steve who is about my age and we have christened the corner the 'Geriatric Corner'. I also appropriated Shaun's computer since it is faster than mine.  I will probably turn mine into a server for testing purposes.

I lost 2 more students today as they discovered they needed calculus to get into the university program of their choice.  Unfortunately, many university programs use calculus as a 'screening out' course as you have to be pretty good at Math to pass it.  That discounts many other areas of intelligence that would otherwise qualify for university life.  For example, most Human Kinetics programs in university require Calculus to get in, but you never take a Calculus course in the program and as far as I can tell you never use any of the calculus taught in high school calculus.  Please enlighten me if I am wrong.

The weather is great as usual with very little humidity today.  We have been getting some fantastic thunderstorms during the night that are better than the 1st of July (4th if you are in the states).

Brent and Jeanine arrive soon and seem to be getting excited.  It will be fun to have some more visitors as time passes very quickly when there is lots to do.

The Queens job fair will be happening about February 5th this year and that will be the first anniversary of our decision to teach on the other side of the world and also the weekend that I decided to start this blog. It does not seem that long ago.

We have our new contracts in front of us to sign for another year.  That would mean we will be hear until June 2011.  It appears we will sign.  We have decided we will travel home every 6 months as my mother is about to turn 90.  That means we would be home this June for 3 weeks, Christmas 2010 for 3 weeks, and then probably June 2011 for good.  However, there is no constant other than change so who knows what will happen.

My students will be arriving soon, so,

TTYL,

Jim

Monday and Things are Coming Together

It's January 25th and I am still not missing the snow.  I have my first department staff meeting tonight and I think I have figured ONSIS out and have scheduled a meeting with the IT folks later this week.  I spent all day Sunday writing reports for Brent's registration software but I managed to get the 2 hard reports finished.

In my classes we are putting timers together with our animations to have our animations scheduled by the timers. The students are picking it up quickly. I made a poster for the programming contest which is happening on Feb, 3rd with $1,000 ringgits in prizes.  The contestants are 12 programming teams from last semester's classes. I decided to label the poster "So You Think You Can Program!".  The lecture theater is booked and we are good to go.

So, I guess you can say we are back in the swing of things.  Shelley even volunteered to be the producer for the student cabaret (all 3 preU schools) in the spring. It will be interesting to see if she stays out of the directing :-)

Jordan attended the Motorcycle Show in Vancouver and is all excited about motorcycles once again.  He is thinking of working in Ottawa this summer so he can ride our Yamaha FZ1. It's way fast, able to break all speed limits in 1st gear (145 kmh).  I used to worry about him riding it, but he is quite level headed about it, and probably more so after his car accident.

We have not heard much from Jaime, but she was home on the weekend to watch her former team (Queens) play Carleton and U of Ottawa. Queens lost to Carleton by 2 and beat U of O by 2.  The league is quite competitive as Carleton is in first place.

My students are arriving so ...

TTYL,

Jim

Sunday

We travelled into KL but did not go to the Canadian University Fair as it was held at the Hilton which would have required an extra taxi ride. Sometimes we get tired of negotiating with the cabbies as they often refse to use the meter and we have to resort to haggling.  When we don't know how far it is we don't have a target amount.

We did, however hit the bookstore and Shelley came away with 3 books and I picked up book 3 in my current series. It is good to see Shelley reading again as she has become a TV watcher since we arrived.  Much better to be a book reader which is what she usually is.

It appears I will be mostly working today which is okay as I had fun yesterday.

TTYL,

Jim

Saturday - January 22, 2010

Why the date? Today, the rest of the Christmas tree left the department.  Apparently, today (in Ottawa) is the pickup day for Christmas trees. In Subang Jaya, there is no pickup day for Christmas tree. Instead, I purchased a saw for 12 ringgits and sawed the tree into garbage sized pieces and placed it in the garbage container on our floor.

Today Shelley and I are catching a cab into KL to go to the Canadian University Fair in the convention centre to see what kind of display they are putting on to attract Malaysian students.  I expect it to be interesting.  While there I also plan to pick up a few books at my favourite bookstore in the Petronas towers.

On Sunday I have some school work to prepare for a department meeting I am hosting on Monday and a meeting re ONSIS with the IT folks later on in the week.

TTYL,

Jim

TGIF

Yippee kai yah, it's Friday and better yet, it's a shortened day because Taylors offers safety seminars for teh students.  Not that this is an unsafe place to live, but because many  of these students come from small villages and towns or even other countries.  That means that I am done at 1 pm and the weekend starts!

Tomorrow is the Canadian University fair and 20 Canadian universities have travelled to KL to ply their wares.  It is at the KL convention centre which is besides the twin towers that host the largest bookstore in the area so I may travel into KL to check it out.  Better yet it is from 11 am to 5 pm so I get to sleep in as well.

This is a free weekend so it should be quite enjoyable.  Jordan is putting his desposit down on his Australian trip so that puts many wheels in motion.  He has to contribute $1,000 of his Cocal Cola earnings towards the trip.  He is quite enjoying working for Cocal Cola for the Olympics and special Olympics. Coke is one of the official sponsors.  Apparently he received lots of Coke gear to wear!  When we were in Singapore he also talked a bartender out of a great Guiness jacket.  Gabe, you would be jealous!

Classes are going great.  However these students are second semester and no longer bow to their teacher.  Sometimes we Canadian teachers are too good at our jobs.  We turn them into Canadian students and therefore no bowing or 'thank you teacher' at the end of the class.  However, they are still wonderful and attentive students. They also now have opinions and are not afraid to voice them. I am sure their parents love us for that :-)

Haven't heard much from Jaime lately. This is a big basketball weekend for her as Queens travels to Ottawa to play 2 games and some of the players will be staying over at our house in Ottawa as in past years when Jaime was playing for Queens.

TTYL,

Jim

Thursday

Classes are going very well this week.  yesterday we were animating a plan landing and taking off using bezier curves and today we created a stop watch.  The students liked both activities but I prefer the programming of animation.  However, the stop watch is used to show how to create and manipulate timers which is something they need for their game projects.

I seldom see Shelley during the day as we have different lunch hours and teaching periods.  From getting out of the van to getting back into it, we are ships passing in the day (night).

This is a free weekend so I am quite looking forward to sleeping in and doing a little programming and a lot of reading.  Just remembered that I have to do a wash tonight as I am out of clean clothes for tomorrow.

Larry Brown called last night and we had a nice chat and I was updated on what is happening in Ottawa, especially the curling team that appears to be unable to win it all without me. I also called my Mother and had a great chat with her.  Everyone in the Dale family seems just fine. Jaime is out on the road applying for jobs. I have not heard how that is going but hopefully it's going okay.

Well that is it for today,

TTYL,

Jim

Wednesday - Hump Day

It's the middle of the second week and the usual semester startup activities have kept me quite busy.  That's probably why my postings have dropped off some what. My class sizes have settled down at 17 and 8.  The class of 18 is actually more fun to teach.  Once you get down below 10 students, discussions and questioning techniques suffer.  However, the marking will be less.

I decided to take a picture of a squat toilet.  I will upload it soon.  In Malaysia you are just as likely to find a squat toilet (even in the cities) as a regular style toilet.  I will leave it's use to you imagination as I have never used a squat toilet yet.  In contrast, Thailand has regular style toilets everywhere I travelled.

Jordan is looking at taking 2 spring travel courses.  This quite common at Trinity as travel is the best school there is.  He would travel to Australia from May 4th to may 20th and visit Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, and a tropical location (probably the Gold Coast). He would get a sports psychology credit as well as 'Perspectives Within the Global Sport Community' credit. The trip would be $3,300 which covers the travel and accommodation once there and the cost of a flight from Vancouver to Australia return.  I hope to use air miles for that portion.  Of course there is the $1900 tuition for each course as well but you would pay that at the university if you were taking it there.

Jaime is job hunting in Kingston at the moment.

It's time to plan my day, so

TTYL,

Jim

Sunday - Recruitment

Shelley and I are required to do a couple of days recruiting students for the CPU program. Shelley worked Saturday and we both work today. Basically, parents and their students show up to get info on the 4 Pre-U programs that Taylors offers. The 4 programs are:

1. Canadian Pre-U
2. Cambridge A levels - British
3. SAM - South Australian Matriculation
4. IB - International Baccalaureate

The Canadian program is the only program that has North American (Ontario) trained educators, however programs 2 and 3 have a longer history in Malaysia, and the IB program is the newest program for Taylors. In terms of numbers it's Sam, Cambridge, Canadian, and IB. Of course I believe the Canadian program is by far the best because of the teacher training, balanced curriculum with 70 percent classroom/project/presentation based, not to mention the problem solving and higher level thinking skills that are taught vs the rote learning and regurgitation approach of the other programs. Content based instruction is fighting a losing battle with the amount of knowledge in the world doubling every year and a half.

Our greatest ambassadors are our graduates.

TTYL,

Jim

TGIF

I have already mentioned a few times that I miss the many TGIF's back at the Board office. I am already looking forward to a June TGIF reunion and King Louie is in charge of organizing it! Is our favourite bar tender still tending bar at East Side's?

It's another beautiful 30 degree day here in lotus land. I wonder what the temperature is in Ottawa. Oh why not check. 1 degree, what's going on, global warming or a chinook blowing in from the west?

I have been tasked with deciding on an ePortfolio system for Taylor's CPU (Canadian Pre University) school. At this moment I am leaning towards the extended version of Acrobat 9. Sorry Paul Cotton, but Microsoft just does not get it yet although the merger of the Office Live and Windows Live teams may help. Adobe just has good designers and decent programmers which seems to win out over good programmers and decent designers. Google Docs is also in the running. Office Live and Google Docs are free which is actually a problem as Taylor's wants to promote the program by stating we provide ePortfolios for each student. Free ePortfolios are something that any institution can jump on board. TCO (total cost of ownership) not withstanding, it makes for better advertising copy. We definitely are in the education business in Asia.

Shelley and I both have to work this weekend as we are manning the registration and admissions desk at Taylor's over the weekend. It's our job to answer questions by students and parents about the school and convince them that Taylor's is the place for them. I have learned to not say that we make learning fun as most Asian parents feel it should be boring and painful and if it is fun it is not demanding and challenging enough. Go figure!

I am currently in my lab awaiting my first class of the day. Class rosters have not solidified yet so I am teaching a bit of fluff today in the form of type of tweening animations that are available in Flex and actionscript 3. We spend much more time in a couple of months on this topic.

TTYL,

Jim

First Day Done

The first day of classes has come and gone. My students are much more varied, one could say cosmopolitan in their makeup. I am quite looking forward to the mix.

I was surprised that the majority of the students were on their second semester. I had only 1 or 2 new students to Taylors.

Teaching both lunch hour periods left me feeling starved by 2 pm so off I went to subway for a 6" tuna. It was yummy!

That's about it for today.

TTYL,

Jim

First Day of Classes

Last night was a sad night. While we were in Bangkok John McGrath gave us a tour of his school. We loved Bangkok and the school. John made us job offers that were quite good and we would have loved to work for John but the moment wasn't right in time and space.

The money was still a little better at Taylors and Shelley and I like teaching grade 12's in subjects that we love teaching. Perhaps in another year we may be ready to move on, but not quite yet.

Classes start today. I currently have a class of 15 and a class of 9. I expect the class sizes to grow somewhat as they did last term. However that is quite a bit better than the 73 students I had last semester. The class makeup is quite different this semester. I will have no scholars and all the students will be paying (or their families) the tuition. You would think that would make them more motivated but apparently that is not the case. many of these students will be international students from places like Yemen, Tanzania, China, etc. I expect I will learn a lot about the different cultures. I am quite looking forward to it.

I always start off my year with the following quote. Those of you who have programmed will appreciate it.

Programming is the only art form that fights back!

TTYL,

Jim

First Day Back

Our first day back was good. Both Shelley and I have the same prep but have fewer children to teach. The January intake is always smaller than the June intake as there are no new scholars sponsored by the government. We are also teaching the course for the second time and the prep is much easier.

I have new air conditioning units in my lab and wonder of wonders, I can control the temperature. No more freezing for me. Just dial in 24 degrees and I am good to go. The old units just ran at one speed that was too cool in the morning and too warm in the afternoon.

The only downside is I teach 2 sections and they are from 11:45 to 2:15 so no lunch or lunch buddies for me. I will have to grab a quick bite at 11 am.

I am now the Department Head for Science and Mathematics and the Coordinator for Science. King Louie should get a big laugh out of that.

TTYL,

Jim

Back in Subang Jaya

We made it back safe and sound. It seems we were on the road quite a while but it was only 17 days, a far cry from our European odyssey of 37 days 2 summers ago. The highlight of the trip would have to be Krabi, followed by Bangkok and Singapore. Bali was special because we were with our kids for New Years. Our children are simply wonderful and we treasure every moment we are with them.

We have a staff meeting at 8:30 tomorrow morning when we get our final teaching assignments for this semester. The actual classes start on Wednesday.

That's about it for now. Oh yes, our wonderful Christmas tree is now a Charlie Brown!

TTYL,

Jim

Checking out of Resort

We are checking out of the resort and heading off to Krabi airport. Here are some pics of the resort. It was lovely, highly recommended as a home base for exploring Krabi.

Snorkelling Pics

Here are a few pics taken with our Lumix DMC FT1 waterproof camera. This camera is highly recommended for any water/beach activities. 12 megapixels, compact, 4X zoom and very easy to use underwater.

TTYL

Jim

Last Night in Krabi

We head back to Subang Jaya tomorrow at noon. Shelley and I traveled by speed boat to Phi Phi island today as well as Bamboo Island. We had 2 opportunities to snorkel and yes I did see Nemo (or his cousin). The boat ride out was rather bumpy. The open ocean can be rough so I would suggest you take one of the larger speed boats (seating 35 or more) as they had a much smoother ride than our boat which had a capacity of about 20 passengers.

We also picked up Jaime's Cityscape we had commissioned. It is of Sydney Australia. It looks great and she should like it. We also saw the family portrait we had commissioned and it too is great. The artist painted it from a photo we took of us (Jaime, Jim, Jordan, and Shelley) in our resort in Bali. It is perhaps the last vacation trip we will take as a family. Shelley also had a purple Buddha painted as well. Go figure.

On reflection, Singapore was great, Bali was a bit of a bust, but still worthwhile because it was different and our kids were with us which made it special. Bangkok was interesting and fun and the Thai people are great. The tailor was especially fun. Krabi was a great way to finish a very busy vacation schedule. I am looking forward to going back to work for a rest.

Pics will be uploaded in a day or two.

Oh yes, Jaime is back in Ktown (Kingston)

TTYL,

Jim

Pics from Bankok and Krabi

Here are some pics from the tailors in Bangkok, shots from Krabi activities, and random stuff.

Jim feeding the elephant bananas after our ride.

Shelley reclining on Dumbo (big ears).

One hour ride was long over varied terrain.

The Tiger Temple - similar to Batman's cave :-)

1000 year old Banyon tree.

More of the Tiger Temple.

Learning how to tap a rubber tree.

The emerald pool (similar to colour of Lake Loiuse).

Jaime's Sydney landscape being painted.

Long boats at rest in the Krabi harbour.

Long boats on the move (powered by car and truck engines (recycled).

My new tuxedo!

My new suit.

Jordan looking good as always.

Jordan in his tux! Looks like transporter guy!

Jordan in his suit!

Jordan looking hot!

Jordan loving every minute of it :-)

My pal the monkey and his buddy.

Waterfall at the Tiger Temple.

Jim and Shelley at the hot springs.

Shelley in the hot springs - 42 degrees C.

Jim in the hot spring.

Jordan being Jordan.

This is why Jordan looks good in a suit!

Jordan's Back in Canada

We talked to Jordan today and he is back in Vancouver not without a little adventure along the way. His stop over in Singapore required a switch of terminals and hotels but that was no big deal. However, the Chinese immigration folks seem to have his number. He was pulled into an interrogation room and asked why he left the secure area of the airport. He tried to explain that he had to leave to pick up his luggage and then proceed to Air Canada's counter for a new boarding pass as they do not ticket him all the way through from Singapore. They eventually were satisfied and put him on his way.

Customs was no problem in Canada as he sailed right through. Next up is some touring around with Jaime and Lauren for the next few days and then Jaime leaves for jog hunting in Kingston and Jordan heads back to classes on Monday.

Shelley and I are once again empty nesters but plan to stay busy teaching and travelling. We are also back to classes on Tuesday. We are quite enjoying the resort in Krabi and I am even able to get some programming done.

Tomorrow we head out for some elephant touring and tiger watching. We must remember the insect repellent as the mosquitoes are bad here. We also plan on some beach hopping over the next few days and a trip to Phi Phi. We fly out Monday.

TTYL,

Jim

Resting in Hotel Room

Jordan is in Singapore, probably having something to eat. He will then check into the Transit Hotel, located in the airport at 11 pm. His wake up call is 5 am and then he has breakfast at 6 am and checks in at 6:30 am for the first leg of his flight back to Canada. It is about 5.5 hours in length and ends at Beijing. He then has about 4.5 hours to kill and heads off for the final 12.5 hours back to Vancouver.

Shelley and I are now in Krabi and there is lots to do here. We probably should have brought Jaime and Jordan here instead of Bali as you can walk to all kinds of activities. The hotel we are staying at is called the Pakasai Resort and it is fabulous for about $110 CDN per night which includes free internet and breakfast for 2. Highly recommended. It appears to be about a 5-10 minute walk to the beach and there is a Starbucks. So far the internet seems great. maybe pics tomorrow.

TTYL,

Jim

Sad, alone with no kids again!

Jordan departs for Vancouver via Singapore (spending the night), Beijing (4 hour wait), and then Vancouver. Jaime is awaiting Jordan's arrival in Vancouver for a tour of Vancouver and the surrounding area.

Jordan seems very happy with his tux and suit and looks like a million dollars. He has the perfect triangle body build that looks great in a suit.

Jordan's plane takes off at 4 pm and our flight to Krabi takes off an hour later. Shelley and I are looking forward to rest and relaxation on Krabi. I also have some programming that I have to accomplish during the 6 days we are there. I hope there is a Starbucks nearby :-)

If there is a decent internet connection I will upload some more pics.

Last night we had our farewell dinner with the McGrath family. It was at a great restaurant where we embarked by boat to our table that was on an islet. The lake was full of large mouth bass and Jordan freaked when about 100 of the monsters (2 to 3 feet long) came to the surface as someone threw some bread in the lake. It was king of spooky and weird! John's family heads back to Ottawa on Thursday and John will be by himself for the next couple of years. He plans to visit KL in the coming months while the Wilson's are visiting.

TTYL,

Jim

Bali and Bangkok Pics

Bali Pics

Bangkok Pics

Here are some pics of Bali and Bankok.