Let It Out

Ahoy Ahoy!

Apsal excited sgt nih? Bkn apa, my SV wat lawatan mengejutz ke lab. Dah la masa tu baru balik dari urusan x rasmi ke town, dgn hujan lebat nya, and basah kuyup nya. Nasib la smlm dah bersungguh wat keja, so ada la benda nak present :P Tp appearance aku melucukan la, sbb seluar basah kena hujan. Nasib la ada seluar spare, seluar trackbottom utk kalo2 aku nak aerobik, so dpt la aku tukar dan tidak la aku kebekuan. Sila lihat gmbr di atas. Yg kaler grey tu sluar track aku, sememeh je dipadankan dgn cardigan kat belah atas. Baju aku kering btw, sbb pki raincoat masa kluar td.

Spt biasa, kalo jumpa dia, mmg akan ada idea yg mengujakan, even kalo dia duduk 10 minit je pon dpn kita. Aku started off ngan bgtau la, normalization part tu dah beres boss (Alhamdulillah). Tp skang ni kebuntuan sbb x tau nak guna distance measurement apa utk calculate the distance similarity, sbb aku guna real audio data and decimal numbers. Kalo nak guna City Block Distance spt yg tuan thesis buat, x seswai plak, sbb dia pakai MIDI data and binary numbers. Dah try gak convert decimal to binary numbers, tp not making much sense la pulok (ni hasil penemuan dan kebuntuan semalam).

'And without the appropriate distance measurement calculation, I would not be able to add the weights to each of these segments', kata aku dgn bersungguh2 nak tunjuk dah berusaha dah ni.

'That's a very interesting question', kata SV aku sambil menggangguk2 kan kepala tanda paham kat mana aku stuck. *Kembang kejap* (maaf, sesi poyo sedang mengambil tempat - please bear with me. Ni je la little things that make my day okeh, so let me bask in the compliment a bit longer ececeh....).

Pastu tunjuk la beberapa cara lain reseracher lain wat, yg aku baca ala2 sekali imbas je la, just to see what is out there. Ada yg plot semua point tu ke dlm graph, dan ukur beza setiap titik in graph, ada yg letak value tersendiri utk melodic contour spt (U (Up) = jika melodi nya menaik, D (Down) = jika melodinya menurun, S (Same) = jika melodinya sama). Ada plak yg bg binary number, 1 kalo naik, 0 kalo turun. Prof aku suggests bubuh threshold ke, kalo naik certain %, then tambah weight berapa berapa ke...

Aku pon dgn timidnya tanya, 'Bole ke buat suke2 method apa?'

Terus dia jawab, 'Oh yes. It is time you be creative and come up with your own ideas. This can be part of your PhD contribution.'

Aku mencelah, 'What if it's silly?' <--- nada org x dak konfiden.

SV pon jawab balik, 'To you it might be, but it might work. So, let yourself out and go crazy with ideas!'.

Laaa... gitu ke, mana la eden tahu. Selama ni, masa wat Master by Research pon, x de la suggest method sendiri. In fact, x berani nak suggest apa2, kot2 la kena hentam masa viva, like, 'You pakai method sapa ni, pandai2 wat lagu ni?', soal examiner yg menyinga. X kan la aku nak jawab, 'Sendiri bikin la, Prof'. Pengsan examiner!

Honestly tho', mmg masa MSc aku x de peluang to be creative. (and sgt x kreatif pon, even if I was forced to be one). Just followed in the footsteps of other researchers, especially bcoz my research was on traditional Malaysian music, so apa lagi, byk la guna idea yg dah org carried out with western music, but I changed the niche and dataset la kan, of course. But you gotta start somewhere, so aku x regret. At least I learned the techniques and got the results of my own, how insignificant it might be to others.

Tp tu la dia agaknya beza MSc and PhD ye. MSc ni kita nak didik self utk jd researcher; follow the right methodology, read the right stuff, get updated on the current research trend and issues. Apa buat, semua mesti mau rujuk and tunjuk mana asalnya. With PhD, ada kebebasan utk wat la method apa pon. Tp persoalannya, 'Adakah aku mampu utk berfikir secara kreatif?'

Ah... Think positive! Yang penting, usaha dan tawakkal... Insya Allah...

Ok, back to work dah. Nak perah creative juices out. Pray for me ya!