Sunday, July 31, 2011

Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan

Editor (chewah, editor la sgt) "OyisBabyJourney" ingin mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan Al-Mubarak buat semua pembaca dan kenalan, di mana jua anda berada. Ampun dan maaf sekiranya ada tersalah kata, terkasar bahasa baik dlm penulisan mahu pon tingkah laku dan perbualan seharia2an.

Kami di Plymouth kemungkinan besar berposa mulai esok (Isnin), tp since skang ni baru je masuk Zohor, belom dapat lah dipastikan lg. Just teruja sbb baru lps conference call ngan my parents, and diorg dah terkocoh mkn nasi before solat maghrib, kerana malam nanti mungkin dah start teraweh, kang x sempat plak nak mkn mlm kalo tggu lps Isya seperti kebiasaan nya. Rindu nya pada keluarga, pada suasana nak sambut ramadhan, pada solat teraweh di masjid/surau, pada bilal yg baca 'Fadhlan mina Allah hi wa nikmah... wa maghfiratan wa rahmah...", rindu pada moreh, even pada penyimpan mohor besar raja2, '... diisytiharkan, tarikh bermula posa adalah pada ...' Mana x rindu, kali ni masuk tahun ke-3 berpuasa dan raya di perantauan.


Haih, ni yg laju je duk refresh page flight balik Msia ni...


Apapon, selamat menyambut ramadhan! Semoga Ramadhan tahun ini dapat kita beramal dgn lebih lagi berbanding taun2 sebelumnya, Insya Allah...



Thursday, July 28, 2011

Cleansing Ritual

Ni aktiviti nak merelease2kan tension.

Sbnarnya sungguh x plan pon. Pagi nya tu sakit perut, x jd masuk lab. By noon, Alhamdulillah dah rasa OK. Toleh2 keluar tingkap, haih lawoooo nya la cuaca. Ajak2 Hubs keluar, tp dia malas sbb ptg nya dia keja, penat katanya. Tp kalo nak keluar sorg or bawak Aisyah dia izinkan.

Dan2 dpt msg K Mazni ajak merayap ke town. Ulam dicita pucuk mendatang la kan. Zasss... tanpa menbazirkan masa terus ajo mengajak beliau ke Barbican, dan beliau pula x byk halangan hihi. Maka bermula la xtvt 'cleansing ritual' kami...

[1] Mula masuk je jalan menuju ke The Barbican, terus terasa touristy gitu...






[2] Tiba2 K Mazni dpt 'ilham', 'eh jom lah naik cruise ship'. Kena plak bot bertolak 5 minit lg drpd waktu ps masa tu. Tanpa byk bantahan, duit dan tiket bertukar tgn. Dgn Aisyah yg tertido dlm stroller tu tetaplah gigih hangkut naik bot.


[3] Di deck bawah sbb Aisyah tertido kesian nak kejutkan keluar stroller. Cukup mencabar nak amik gmbr diri sendiri. Bak kata org Klate, kemas keming pegang handfon (cameraphone) takut jatuh dlm laut huhu.


[4] Pemandangan Plymouth drpd laut. Selalunya drpd tanah Plymouth tgk ke laut, hari ni reverse view plak :)


[5] Di bhg blkg bot. Dekat sgt dgn air laut. Terpercik2 air laut ke muka.



[6] Interior dlm bot. Sempoi je, tp siap ada bar bagai.


[7] X sampai 15 minit dah sampai Cornwall. Dkt sgt rupanya. Ni stop menuju ke Mount Edgecumbe. Lain kali bole cuba explore Mount Edgecumbe plak, tp kena bertolak sedari pagi. Masa ni x berkesempatan, sbb naik ferry yg trip terakhir. Kang nak balik kena berenang plak hehe. Trip belom habis lg. Belum pon halfway sebenanrnya. Lps ni lalu River Tamar and Dock Yard, tgk ships2 besar plak.


[8] Aisyah terjaga. Orait, semua org pon naik ke upper deck.


[9] Lps 10 min kot, baru dia warm up and start enjoy tgk kapal2. Mostly warships and submarines. X de la menarik sgt2, tp very educational for Aisyah yg dpt tgk big ships depan mata, the closest we've seen in front of us kot.




[10] Cherishing the mummy-daughter moment


[11] Beautifully Plymouth!


Lain kali kena naik lg ngan Hubs plak. Insya Allah may be ke Mount Edgecumbe, or ke Cawsand Bay, bole mandi laut. Alhamdulillah, kapal x beroleng2 sgt pon, so xde sesapa rasa mabuk2. Sesapa dtg Plymouth nnt bole la aku bawa ke sini, tgk cuaca and musim la kan. Trip took 1 hour and 15 minutes. Very good and recommended kalo nak suka2.

Alhamdulillah, by the end of the excursion mmg rasa happy and recharged sangat. Balik2 tu siap masak Ayam Penyet lg hua hua hua. Jadi x jadi blkg kira, tp laju berdesup je semua org mkn, x sempat nak amik gmbr hehe. Penangan tempeh la ni, mesti :P



Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Paksa Diri

Hari ni kurg fokus sbb mcm 2nak kena pikir. Hal belajar lah, hal extension lah, visa lah, x termasuk hal2 miscellaneous lain nya. Lg hari ni mmg byk setel kan errands, pos borang penilaian prestasi tahunan (cuti belajar pon kena nilai jgk whadehek? tp layan je lah tahun terakhir dah pon CB), byr bil air blah blah. Pastu dpt plak emel drpd organizer konferen yg cam kentut, plak bole tukar2 spec poster last2 minit ni. Dah la org dah fork out duit dah siap print siap beli cardboard tube apa dah. Dah la SV kita dah bertolak dah last week (from another venue, tp x balik Plymouth, terus ke lokasi konferencs tersebut after this, so cannot inform/correct the poster for him). Rasa nak bg pelempang je dkt AJK dia kalo di dpn mata. The conference is this Friday. Sungguh la blardi disorganized. Kacau mood betul.

Tp nak share tips yg Al rakan lab aku bg td. Kata beliau, biasa lah kalo buat PhD ni, ada time external elements yg mengganggu fokus. Bila sedemikian, maka paksa lah diri and 'do something mundane'. Beliau bg contoh, spt meng-update EndNote, or membukak blank word file and tulis tajuk2 yg kita nak tambah dlm Literature Review, or copy paste ayat2 best yg kita nak cite, pastu paraphrase, or kalo ada teks yg perlu di edit formatnya, bole la buat kerja2 kosmetik tersebut.

So aku pon decide la utk buat kerja audio editing sket2, sbb aku tau kalo buat coding hari ni haram x akan jd in my current mental state. So attempted la percubaan nak buangkan click drpd setiap segment yg dicantumkan. Guna Audacity je, pakai default remove click nya function. Kalo x brp cun maybe nak kena pakai add fade out at concatenation point. Kalo x menjadi jg kena cari jalan nak apply Gaussian filter plak, tp x nak la sampai sekompleks itu.

Aku rasa menjadi gak tips si Al ni. Mula2 mmg still berat hati dan slowwww je nak buat, tp bila dah paksa diri after 10 minit, jd ralit jg sampai ke sudah. Tau2 time nak kena balik umah dah!

Ni balik umah bila x buat kerja hati berpikir2 lg. Aduhai. Pastu kena tegur ngan Hubs suh gi masak. 'Busy2 kan lah diri, nnt x sempat nak pikir lg dah. Duk melangut mengelamun, mmg x sudah2'.

Nmpk benar org laki ni pemikiran nya samaaaaaaaaaaa ajo.

Huh.




Monday, July 25, 2011

Summer Holiday Starts Today


For Aisyah la at least.

Uni dah cuti lama dah, end of May hari tu, tp of coz, postgrad students mana kenal erti cuti. Dedikasi gitu.

Saja bubuh gak entry ni, kenang2an. Pic kat atas gmbr kat sekolah td.

Tahun dpn dia masih lg di nursery, but starts on a new academik calendar lah, in September 2011. Lama jgk tu duk umah, sebulan seminggu.

Ok lah, nak tido.

Night2.


Friday, July 22, 2011

Friday Is Date With SV Day :)


Phwarghh... lama nya x bersiaran. Mmg teramat busy lately ni in preparation for the meeting with SV today. Alhamdulillah, all the time invested into coding and testing non-stop mcm org gile rasa berbaloi sudah kerana tuan SV nmpknya teruja dgn result dan sound composition yg terhasil. Asalnya tuan SV nak kansel aje meeting ini hari, tp aku gesa jgk. Bkn apa, beliau akan be away for 4 weeks, and last aku jumpa dia like 3 weeks ago, so better jumpa dulu sbb nak make sure aku berada di jalan yg benar. And now that it's confirmed, lega la sket hati, bole la proceed lg, kalo x begitu cautious nak teruskan.

Alhamdulillah, the basic concatenation prototype (without weight) now works fully automatically. Itu hari semi auto ajo. The concatenation prototype with weight mechanishm has worked too, but I had tweaked something last night that there is now an error, but that can be fixed fairly quickly. The interface for this is similar to the basic one, but I added a sliding scale for users to decide how important one feature is over another feature. I have also revamped the whole dataset, and the result so far has been more promising than previously, as the sounds produced are a lot less 'unruly' (too much of non-sense jumble) than before. However, you can still hear the click, I may need to apply enveloping to each segment later. Just for fun, I have added basic audio manipulation function on the interface.

Besides the better sounds composed, revamping the dataset and code has indirectly improved the search time compared to last meeting. I think it's because I changed a little bit of coding to make it perform quicker, and also the way I design it now allows users to just select the sounds that they want to be included in the database, so the search size is smaller.

Oh, and I owe my SV a write up of the results from last meeting (but I will submit one after I have finished the entire test set). Tsk tsk.

I really should sleep, tp baru pkl 5 ptg. Smlm tido jam 12 mlm, bgn pkl 3 pg sbb Aisyah muntah2. Habis kena cadar, duvet, tilam, baju tido, etc. Siap mandikan lg Aisyah. Setel dia, sental cadar apa semua plak yg kena muntah pekat. Then sendiri mandi, solat Subuh terus prepare nak jumpa Prof. By pkl 9 pg aku dah sedikit high, ye lah tido 3 jam je kan. Aisyah muntah another 5, 6 times before aku gi lab. Ni nmpk dia ok dah sket ptg ni, tgh tido dgn ayah dia. Sian dia, cirit pon ye jgk tu, abis seluar2 dlm dia kena basuh jg. Balik meeting, masak mee sup wat mkn tghari, manja2 ngan budak x sihat, then makan tghari, kemas pinggan mangkuk, did 2 loads of washing baju2 yg kena muntah apa semua, angkat baju yg kering, sidai baju yg baru basuh. Ni ada sebakul nak lipat nanti lah dulu malam krg. Fuh.. nasib baik meeting went well, so x kesah sgt housework berlambak hihi. Jadi stress-reliever plak, bole x?

Yg heran nya, last week masa borak kat fon ayah aku ckp 'moga Aisyah get well soon ye, cirit2 dan muntah2'. Aku ckp mana ada muntah2nya. Ayah aku insisted, 'Eh ada la, Ayah baca kat blog'. Aku ckp, 'entry mana ayah baca ni, entry lama kot'. Rupanya jd minggu ni, psychic bapak aku ooo. So Ayah, yg ni betul2, bkn mainan mata ayah lg ye hehe. Doakan Aisyah cpt sembuh deh.

'Let's go to the beach'.

Ni Aisyah tiba2 dah bgn ajak gi beach. Wah, dah sihat ke tu. Aku kalo dia sihat terasa gak nak gi somewhere tomorrow or Ahad ni. Kasi relax sama otak, sian dia dah 2 Sunday aku memerap kat lab. Tgk la camno...

Oh, aku nak berkongsi kegumbiraan di sini. I have just been on the phone to Emma, aka blogging name Tun Fatimah telah pon lulus viva baru skjp satni. Beliau telah start PhD 1 year before I did, in Cardiff, and blog beliau start semasa beliau awal2 memulakan PhD. The stories in her blog are funny yet inspiring, and it initially gave me smgt utk apply PhD abroad and also along the way byk share suka duka of this PhD journey. I am very happy for her and her family. Congratulations, Dr! Will definitely miss her sbb dia dah nak balik Msia next week. Sapa lg I nak calling2 lps ni waaa... One by one by my PhD friends dah 'cross over'. Hopefully my turn will be not too long in the future, Insya Allah...


Friday, July 15, 2011

Evolution


Gambar di atas merupakan ruang tamu kami smlm. I was ill, so I worked from home. Aisyah is soooo into pretend play skang, and minat dia adalah castle memanjang, and her castle would take up the entire living room ok. She wouldn't let me sit at my desk (ditunjuk dgn arrow merah dlm gambar, dia blocked dgn kitchen set dia), and x bg jg pinjam kerusi kecik dia tu (dibulatkan). Sudahnya I had to use a the sofa as my desk and alas dgn kusyen seketul (marked X), sampai sakit pinggang2. X larat makk nak bebel, biarkan aje daya kreativiti anak2 berkembang mantapp.

I noticed that my study method have sorta evolved, more lex barangkali. Contohnya:

1. Kalo dulu nya mesti study atas meja, dah bole study kat mana2. Flexible.

2. Kalo dulu adik2 masuk dlm bilik time aku study, habis sorg2 kena hambat suh keluar cpt2. Skang, rumah one bilik, nak hambat ke mana? Wat dunno je...

3. Kalo dulu mesti study diam2, org dpn bersin pon angkat kepala konon distracted, skang kalo Little Einstein blasting off on the tele in the background or anak beranak (Aisyah and Hubs) main baling2 bola sambil tergelak2, tergolek, tergelek pon redho aje lah

4. Kalo dulu meja serabut, sanggup spend 10-15 minit kemas2 sket, serabut2 kan x masuk idea plak. Tapi skang, hoh, rumah mcm kapal pecah pon, can what?.... Kalo dikemas castle tu dulu, mengamuk si tuan puteri, setengah jam dah terbazir nak memujuk. So guna kaedah biar lah dia dan tutup mata ajo

5. Kalo dulu malam2 buta jd owl utk berjaga mlm menyiapkan keja, kini tidak lagi. Bila Aisyah tido, aku juo tido. Zzzzz... Kalo degil berjaga juo, hah, demam la jawabnyo, mcm skang ni.


I guess bila dah jd jd parent ni, u don't really have much of a choice. You do the best that you can, with the most resources that you have, time-wise or even material-wise and lps tu pasrah ajo lah kpd Allah agar it all comes together magically on the end heheh

I'm not complaining, as a matter of fact I am grateful for this chance to observe and experience this. I find it quite amusing how I have 'changed' over the past few years. Dari segi patience tu, masih bole dipertikaikan lg, sbb I always end up yelling jgk dkt Aisyah or Hubs, especially time2 mengejar deadline, but if you had seen me masa anak dara, you would know how much i have improved, x caya tanya my brothers!

I have a growing admiration for mothers yg bole belajar dan bekerja drpd rumah, especially yg ada anak 2,3,4,5, bergayut di kaki mintak attention or anak2 yg bersilat or jadi superman terbang drpd sofa ke curtain kat belakang, tp mak dia bole je codingkan complex algorithm dpn komputer, or yg sambil2 goreng ayam bole tulis 2,3 perenggan utk thesis, dan berlarian2 ke dapur, shouting, ayam ku hangit! hangit! but in the end siap PhD with flying colours on time kalah org kurg komitmen yg lainnya. Wa tabik sama luuuu, babe!

PS: I am grateful for the workspace that I have in my lab. It helps a lot when I needed a quite space to work, but lately, I find working from home works just as fine. Adakah ini semua mainan minda belaka selama ini? Or maybe kah aku juo telah adapt dgn lebih lg after 3 years? ) 0.o

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Oyis Can!

I am in huge debt. These will need to be sorted in seven days, before my SV flies off for 4 weeks, and also during which he will present on my behalf at a conference, for our poster:

1. Finish coding the eigenvalues for the weight part (Saturday)
2. Finish designing poster for ICMC (Sunday)
3. Submit poster to SV for approval and corrections (Monday)
4. Get the poster printed in A0 and purchase postal tube and thumb tacks for presentation (Tuesday)
5. Finish off weight vs no weight experiment (Tuesday)
6. Quick write up on the result and submit to Prof prior to discussion (Thursday)
7. Meeting with SV (Friday morning)
Things to bring forward at the meeting:
- posters and stationaries, receipts to claim printing
- weight vs no weight report
- demo sound composed based on the algorithm
- demo basic working interface for order-dependent part
- lay out work plans for summer (inclusion of fuzzy set approach)

Looks like I've got my work pretty much cut out for an entire week. In the meantime, my main is TO GET BETTER, health-wise :)

Insya Allah.


Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Respect Thy Body

Demam. Tu yg lama x hapdet. X teruk, tp rasa lemau. Satu badan lenguh, especially lengan, pinggang dan lutut ke bawah. Hari ni pon x gi Uni. Esok pon mungkin sama. Tepon Dr, Dr kata mungkin something viral, just duk umah and rehat. Mungkin overworked during the weekend kot. Mmg pulun wat kerja, sampai bercekang mata apa semua. Very stressful sbb buat2 x jd. Aku plak jenis selagi x jd, selagi tu x reti berenti. Kalo jawap soalan matematik masa muda2 dulu, mmg parah la kalo soalan no 1 x dpt jawapan, x bole nak bergerak ke soalan lain, tau2 dah nak abis masa. Ditambah plak hari Isnin tu buat aerobik. Over sgt kot. Konfem dah tua. Must learn to respect my body and read the signs lah after this, what to do. Ok lah nak gi makan roti bakar ni, x lalu jamah nasi.




Friday, July 8, 2011

Summer Fair




Baru balik drpd Summer Fair di sekolah cik mek molek ku itu. One of the advantages of joining a nursery which is actually a part of a larger elementary school compared to a private nursery is the activities that they hold. Kalo tgk diary, bulan ni aje ada berderet2 aktiviti, mujurlah yg concerning the whole school ada 2 aje.

Ok, back to the fair. Set up dia ala2 carboot sale la, jualan brg2 terpakai secara murah2 (donated from parents jgk), refreshment stalls jual kek, crisps, air, etc, stalls jual produce from the school garden (yg student2 duk menanam dan mencangkul this spring dah ada hasil - basil, spring onion, lettuce, baby carrots, plums, etc). Pastu ada raffle tickets on sale, games for little one like hook the duck, hoopla, lucky dip, etc, and a bouncy castle. Ada jgk services yg ditawarkan spt Henna tattoo art, nail polish station, hand massage service and face painting. With the exception of face painting, semua ni dilakukan oleh budak2 sekolah, semua utk suka2 kutip duit utk sekolah punya aktiviti di masa dpn kot.

Mula2 survey dan membeli sket2 brg second hand dulu. Item yg dibeli hanyalah sebuah buku Bedtime Stories utk Aisyah and seketul paperback book on Home Deco. Ye, mindset kita harus lah kpd dah nak Msia, dah nak Msia and renovate rumah, so invest lah 50p beli buku yg seinci tebalnya hehe.

Aisyah telah memilih utk mencuba nasib memancing itik. Bkn setakat main skali, malah dua kali plak. Alhamdulillah, dua2 kali dpt pancing itik dan dpt la gula2 sbg hadiah (ala kos main 20p je skali main pon).



Kemudian dia mintak nak naik bouncy castle plak. Sbb aku ibu yg sporting, kasi la green light. Lg pon budak2 lain semua pon naik. Tp yg kelakarnya, budak Aisyah ni main sambil peluk tiang. X melantun2 cam budak lain. Takut agaknya. Ke x sempat warm up x tau la kan, sbb 50p tu 5 minit je main nya.

Lps tu gi station face painting plak. Mintak designkan seekor Butterfly kat pipi. Ongkos 50p skali coreng. Hasilnya ok jgk. Anak dara I mmg one satisfied customer lah. Cuma problemnya, sibuk dia nak tgk cermin berkali ni. Oh how vain!



Ni gmbr overall ground pada hari tu. Agak meriah la sbnarnya, tp aku x berani nak hala kamera ke area ada byk budak2, coz policy di UK ni berhubung dgn gmbr kanak2 bwh umur ni funny sket, so better not lah :)





Ni plak Aisyah amik gmbr aku. Not bad la kan. Nak jgkkkk letak gmbr tuan blog tuuu hehe...

Added:
Oh aku nak selit jgk berita baik yg aku baru terima ni. Our host masa mula2 sampai dulu (Zali & family), telah slmt lulus viva pada hari ni. Mmg aku cukup happy and tumpang berbangga di atas kejayaan beliau sekeluarga. They totally deserve it, org2 nya mmg baik skali, mana nak dpt host yg sanggup bg tumpang SEBULAN beb. Tu masa mula2 dtg, dgn x kenal hati budi lg dah tolong mcm tu, x termasuk pertolongan2 lain along the way. Smg suatu hari nnt (dan tidak lama lg, hopefully), merasa jua aku conquer PhD ini, insya Allah. Sambung buat kerja nih, mode terbakar smgt!