10 Things About My Darling Aisyah

Lately ni mcm jarang bercerita psl Aisyah kan? Kesian dia, mcm kena overshadow dgn kerja PhD plak. Ok so entry ni dedicated to writing about her latest development psl dia, and written for families and frens (and readers jg kalo ada!) yg lama x dgr citer psl Aisyah dah. Ni dia 10 things about Aisyah skang:

1. She will be 1 year and 8 months in February

2. Dah ada 13 batang gigi (8 gigi dpn, 4 geraham, 1 taring)

3. Understands English words and instructions better than Malay, for some reasons!

4. Suka bergoyang dan berjoget (tiru sapa nih?)

5. Talks in her baby-language non-stop (very cute)

6. Likes to run around the house with no clothes on (if she can get away with it!)

7. Can now drink chocolate-flavoured soy milk without spitting them out, but breastfeeding is still going strong

8. Rambutnya lebat dan lembut, but Masya Allah, has a mind of its own <-- maknanya sikat berkali2 pon sometimes x guna hehe

9. Very independent; makan suap sendiri, kasut pakai sendiri (dah bole pakai kasut, provided that kita regangkan dulu kasut tu bg ada width sket, and help her flip the toungue of the shoe. Oh, and help her with left or right, sbb konsep tu dia belom master lg), nak nenen amik bantal sendiri, jalan sendiri x mo naik stroller dah (smlm jalan dari town ke Barbican ok, jalan kaki. Jauh tu, utk budak x sampai 2 tahun), gosok gigi sendiri (tp follow up jg, mesti nak ada org tua gosokkan lepas tu), minum dari cawan x de muncung sendiri... dsb nya

10. Is very generous when it comes to hugging and kissing. Best gile bila dia rangkul leher kita and cium pipi kita sampai kemek2 hidung dia, pastu siap mcm nak sesak nafas kiss kita sbb dia punya hidung tu kan dah tertepek kat pipi kita. Punya la passionate anak dara I nih! hehe

Pesanan dari penaja: 'Cherish your loved ones now, for in an instant, they may be gone' (the Hanson brothers, 1997)

Reiterating the point that my friend Mas Rina made in her FB, 'A PhD is not everything, but family is'.

And sadly, the people you really care about don't really care about your PhD. So enjoy life and don't be too boggled up by work! (if you can) ;)

Post-Seminar

PhD Entry Warning: Can cause drowsiness and extreme boredom. Maybe even projectile vomiting. Proceed at own risk.

Alhamdulillah, my seminar on Friday went well. Buat pertama kalinya dalam sejarah selama aku bergelar student, slides siap ahead of time, with time to rehearse and go over the material, despite keadaan yg x brp mengizinkan, spt yg di entry lalu (woo... ramai family di Msia x puas hati wooo sbb aku tulis entry camtu. Semua backing Aisyah! X aci hehe).

But it wasn't easy. It meant getting up at 5.30 every morning to push myself to work ahead of time, and also coming home at 9 pm on many nights, working over the Xmas holiday and weekends too. I guess when you know you don't have that much time, you tend to use your time more wisely. Wise, of course, is another word for tua lah kan basically... obvious sgt zaman2 muda dulu sungguh lah byk buat aktiviti membuang masa itu hehehe.. shhh!!!

Anyway, I am very happy when I got the feedback drpd my SV dan jg rakan2 se-lab (majoriti nya post-doc and ada yg buat second PhD), that they think I am on the right track, the work so far had been well-constructed, with a rather intensive LR. God knows what a huge relief to hear that, Syukur! My SV added that he's gonna pull some strings and arrange it so that I don't have to do another presentation just for the transfer, bcoz this one seems sufficient already, yeay!


A few points utk membaiki diri di masa hadapan, though:

1 - Don't go too far back with the LR (e.g. earlier work form the 1940s), because there has been so many exhaustive work on them, and you are just putting yourself in real danger that way --> In my defense, I did this bcoz the field is so foreign to me, and I thought I needed to explain all the things and facts I find fascinating from the beginning of time, padahal to other researchers yg dah lama berkecimpung in this field, it might be old news already

2 - Try to limit myself within the scientific part of things, and not to sway too much into musicology, or electro acoustics, because at conferences, when the target audience is large, there is a chance that the musicologists will start to debate on things that are not the main focus of my research, i.e. my definition of music (there are hundreds, and people have actually gotten a PhD just discussing that topic alone!), therefore putting me in a spot where I don't want to be.

3 - Be more confident! Aku ni jenis yg suka nervous2 and sengih2 mcm kerang busuk, pastu kalo org tanya je terus panic2, mata meluas, dada berdebar, mulut kelu dsb nya. One of my labmates said, 'You don't have to be so nervous. People ask you questions because they genuinely want to know the answers from you, not to test you'. Beliau menyambung lg, 'You don't have to agree what whatever people suggest or say' (ye, aku admit aku terlalu cpt to agree, and x defend sgt kerja sendiri), and he went on, 'Remember, this is your work and YOU are the only one who knows the AREA better than anyone else in the room, no matter how many PhDs they have' (eh, betul juga tu!). Advice of the day yg paling kaw2 ialah, 'If you don't know the answer or you're not confident enough about something, FAKE IT'. Wah wah wee wah!

Insya Allah menjadi ingatan dan panduan di kemudian hari. Jelas I have an issue with self-confidence, and dah menjadi kebiasaan kot org Melayu kita ni terlalu modest and selalu underestimate diri sendiri, a negative quality yg harus aku kikis sedikit demi sedikit.

Another exciting news though, is that my SV reckons that it is now time to start my test and simulation with the different audio features. Woo hoo! Finally, something from my MSc years is actually making a comeback. This ultimately means a LOT of work are to follow after this, but we all know that with tests, you get results, and with results, you have some academic contribution to the field, and it means a chance to get your work published as well. My SV is nudging me to start writing a review paper or an introductory short paper to low impact conferences with what I have at the moment, and aim for the bigger ones once the results are here *passed out, but smiling ;P*


Things to do in the nearest future:

1 - Repeat exact same experiment as previously done on the prototype, but with larger dataset (~100 songs)

2 - Test using the features that based on the human perceptual model - spectral centroid, spectral flux, spectral roll off, low energy, zero crossing rate, sum of beat histogram and mean pitch. Compare results one by one. If required, use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to do this

3 - Test with a slightly different methodology. Assume that the system will perform targeted concatenation, where the sounds in the database are pre-sorted into their respective clusters prior to the selection stage, makanya this part bole la ambil chunks and findings from my work on Musical Genre Classification during my MSc days


Itu la sahaja buat masa ni. Byk tu nak kena buat tu. Plus on Monday my SV will return my report to me, ada minor pembetulan lg kata dia, but by next week Insya Allah dah bole submit to the Faculty. Doakan x de aral apa2 ye. Lama dah rasanya buat report ni.

Oh, saja nak share a clip that I played in my seminar, bcoz the man explains it so much better than I ever could, just so that you have an idea of what this field is about (kalo nak tahu la). This is an actual BBC footage on concatenative music during the beginning of its emergence (in the 70s tau, where the magnetic tape player was then the 'new' technology, sila ketawa terbahak2 okeh). Obviously, everything is done digitally now, but the original idea is still the same. It's about composing the avant-garde music. As expected, the clip discusses more about the arts itself, rather than the science or 'intelligence' behind the work (but that's where I come in nyeh nyeh), but still, a good introductory clip.

Alkisah Pagi

Bgn sedari pukul 5.30 pagi lg, tpnya, cik Aisyah sibuk nak bgn sama. Puas la setengah jam pujuk2 dgn nenen x tido2 gak. Pastu pangku sambil konon2 nak wat keja jgk la on my lap, pon x jalan. Sibuk ajak org gurau plak. Nak itu, nak ini, naik dukung. At blimming 6 o' clock in the morning!

Skang dah pkl 7 am. Hubs plak dah kluar gi keja. Dalam sejam lg aku plak yg nak kena gi keja . Kalo tahu mcm ni tido aje straight, x payah sakit2 kepala nak bgn awal. Geram!!!!! I am trying with all my might utk tidak shout dekat Aisyah, tp bila time ada deadline ni (esok ada seminar, slot pagi plak tu, dgn slides x design lg, baru buat draft content aje), mmg nyaris hilang sabar la kata org.

Hanya bole berharap yg Allah bg miracle aje la. Moga dipermudahkan urusan buat slides, x de masalah technical dan sbgnya. Harapnya rezeki bgn awal tu masih ada pada aku, even x dpt nak sentuh kerja sgt pon hakikatnya. Juga berdoa semoga aku redha dgn cabaran2 sbg postgrad mommy nih, and in return, moga Allah tolong la aku dgn memberi kelancaran bekerja dan menyampaikan seminar esok. If not, Aisyah tido dulu la mlm ni ye. Ibu nak duk lab sampai siap slides. X siap Ibu x balik, okeh? Sapa suruh kacao Ibu pagi2...

Brush Your Teeth, the Aisyah Way

Busy, busy, busy. Cheh... mcm la org lain x busy kan. Tpnya tu la, rasa mcm time tu cpt je berlalu. A couple of days ni aku spent on heavy duty reading. Sbnarnya nak cari supporting articles yg bole aku guna utk proceed dgn idea aku. Wallahu a'lam Prof setuju ke x, perjumpaan this Friday. Apa pon, 'ammo' kena cukup sblm pergi bertarung, so tu psl la meja dah jadi mcm apa je dlm gmbr di atas, evidence aku busy gile la kata kan...

Sbb aku busy, Aisyah take over jap slot blogging aku nih ok. In English lg, don't prey prey... woh woh!

*****

[Aisyah narrates: Todays topic is on the subject of 'Brushing Your Teeth - the Aisyah Way'.



[1] First off, get a hold of a toddler-sizes toothbrush.

Mine is blue, despite the obvious fact that I am a girl, because I have lost the pink, the yellow, the green and the orange ones already, and my Ibu just about had enough of replacing my toothbrush every so often. Ngeee (",) Oh, be sure to put a pea-sized tooth paste on it too, ok? Yummy... I know la, coz I've tasted a lot of it already, you know?





[2] Start brushing like so. Up, down, all around.

Ain't I a pro?





[3] When you're done with your teeth, do brush your nearest toys too.

You know, your teddy, your dolly, even your bicycle deserves a nice shine. Get them all sparkly clean!





[4] Stop immediately with the toy brushing upon hearing your Mom approaching.

One trick is to make her stare into those big, wide, innocent eyes of ours. Konfemmm cair!





[5] Before she has a chance to start yakking, in the speed of lightning, pick yourself up and dart in front of her whilst saying, 'Tra la laaa, my teeths are cleaned!', on the top of your lungs.

That will ensure that she wouldn't get a chance to open her mouth at all, coz if she didn't already have a heart attack when she first saw you brushing your toys and carpet, she will most definitely now. Hehe..




And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, I have to replace my toothbrush every 2 weeks.

Monday Errands

Hari ni ada byk errands. Awal2 pg lg my task was to wait for the delivery guys to send our computer desk to our house whilst Hubs went out working. Beli desk ni last Friday, impromptu je sebenarnya, and it was a real bargain at only GBP20! Hubs la yg beria suruh beli, sbb Hubs kata I needed to have a more conducive place to study, i.e. in the bed room where there are no TVs, no noise, no distractions from Aisyah, etc., if I were to work from home more often.

Before this I made do with the dining table in the living room. Mmg x kondusif langsung, but you gotta play with the cards you are dealt with la kan sometimes? Anyway, I reckon since Hubs has also started 'going back to school' since the start of the year, he's also got assignments and such, and probably realized that we indeed, needed a better spot to study. So around 9-ish the delivery guys came, and delievered this. What do you think?




At 11 am I went to Uni. Blimey ada byk benda nak dibaca, byk yg DAH dibaca pon, but nothing relevant. Thank Goodness for speed reading! So x la terbazir byk sgt masa on things that are of little importance to me at the time being. I am never going back to my old reading self yg baca satu paper pon, 2 hari nak abis, just bcoz I didn't understand the content and believed that my comprehension would improve if I'd gone slower. Anyways, I still have tonnes of reading to do, AND I need to crack my head at finding the suitable model to base my concatenative system on. On top of it, I've got a seminar to present this Friday, which means I gotta put aside time to do my slides.

A chunck of my time today was spent browsing for a suitable paper, and fixing the network connection between my laptop and my networked printer in the lab. Just when you wanted to work super fast, teeny weeny stuff like this happened. Grrr... Dah la nak print byk2, hari2 lain okeh je... For some reason it didn't read the device, but I really needed to print this good thesis. I have read the thesis again and again, but on the screen, and I felt that I needed to have it in front of me big time now, so in the end, I managed to fix whatever the problem was in the first place, and I printed all 300 pages of it. Guilt-less sekali. Hehe. Lama tau nak dpt courage print byk2 sekaligus ni. Dpt hari ni buat don't know sahaja la ye, terpaksa muahahahha! Pastu ada dekat setengah jam aku (comb) binding thesis tu. Sdn Bhd, okeh, dekat Media Section in the Library. Dgn ada 2 plastic covers and hard cover tu, baru kena 55 pence. Hehe. Kalo gi kedai konfem dah dkt GBP2. Jimat, jimat....

Dlm pkl 2.30 balik umah, gi bawa Aisyah ke klinik. Aisyah had an appointment to get her swine flu vaccination done. Aku rasa bersyukur sbb kat negara org ni dia dah release vaccination tu pada those yg vulnerable, i.e. small children and old age pensioners, plus those who are high-risk such as pregnant women, for FREE lg. Hopefully she is spared from this nasty virus, Aminnn... At least lps ni if we have to travel (which we are!), we don't need to be so nervous about her catching the virus, hopefully. Kat klinik bukan main ligat lg dia, nasib baik x nangis masa kena injek, sbb dah bribed awal2 dgn sticker... hehe








Balik rumah, hari pon dah ptg, no point pegi lab. 'I best make use of this desk then', I figured. Mula2 I was a bit hesitant at the idea of spending 20 quid on the desk, coz I don't know whether I will make full use of it, since I'd rather just go to the lab. But ... when Hubs kemas2, and we bought a mini halogen desk lamp at only GBP4 at Wilkos while we were out just now, it totally transformed the dull looking desk into this cool, contemporary work station (at least to my eyes lah!). As of right now dah hias2 sket2 with books, photo frames, and stationaries, and it totally looks inviting utk study. Terus naik smgt and start blogging studying.




Doakan agar investment x seberapa dlm desk ni memberikan pulangan yg besar ye. Semoga dpt la juga aku buat study dgn lebih maju jaya nya dgn perubahan yg kecil ini, Insya Allah...

"Dear Allah,
Please grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change,
the strength to change the things that I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference between the two..."

Off to study now. Qadha' balik masa yg digunakan utk keluar bawa Aisyah gi klinik td ptg.

Aisyah Volunteering at Baby Lab

On Friday, Aisyah had an appointment with the Baby Lab at University of Plymouth. Baby Lab ni adalah salah satu lab drpd School of Psychology utk study mcm2 hal perihal babies, and I have given Aisyah's name down as a volunteer. Bkn apa, tp sbb studies yg dibuat ni adalah sgt2 best, and I guess if it's in the name of science, apa lah salahnya kan? I myself pon dah berpuluh2 kali jd participants (paid plak tu, GBP3 setengah jam.. best ooo). Depending on the studies, buat la apa2 yg disuruh, spt tgk speed of respond kita ke, facial expression ke, even dah pernah pon pakai EEG cap tu (free hair you, tp dgn female reserach assistant la, lps tu dia siap bg free hair washing services tau, gile ganas lab EEG ni ada tempat basuh rambut yg kerusi baring ada sinki tuh spt di salon2 biasa!).

Ok enough about aku, psl observation studies yg dia nak wat kat Aisyah ni adalah berkaitan dgn 'Speech Development in Bilingual Children'. Fuhhh... best gile la research psychology nih. Kenapa la aku x amik psychology dulu, amik PhD in Child Psychology kan best. Instead, duk buat Music Signal Processing. Ggrrr!

Anyway, the study sungguh kena la dgn Aisyah kan, coz she is exposed to both Malay and English. Mula2 aku kena isi the Mac Arthur CDI (Communicative Development Inventory) yg diorg hntr melalui email. CDI ni adalah panduan kosa kata yg sepatutnya babies age 16 - 30 months tahu. Ada dlm 400++ words gitu. Ada byk kategori, from 'Animals' (e.g. Duck, Dog, Cat....), to 'Toys' (e.g. Balloon, Ball, Teddy...), to 'Food' (e.g. Cookies, Banana, Apple, Biscuits....), to 'Body Parts' (e.g. Mouth, Nose, Bellybutton...), and many, many more! Jenuh tau nak isi. If any of you Mommies nak tgk list tu, let me know, I will email it to you.

Ada dua column, satu utk perkataan yg diorg FAHAM, dan satu column lagi utk perkataan yg diorg bole SEBUT. For every words yg babies ni faham, kita bagi tick and bagi 1 markah. Same goes utk perkataan yg babies ni bole sebut. So in the end, add up, then get the percentage and compare it to the tables below (different tau boys and girls).





BUT....! only words in English aje that counts tau. So, for instance, Aisyah faham 'Bantal' in Malay, but sbb x pernah guna perkataan 'Pillow', then kena regard as TAK FAHAM. Haaa.... like that tau.... Aiyoo... semasa mengisi Index tu, mmg rasa bykkkkkkk sgt perkataan yg Aisyah dah faham, tp in Malay. Aisyah dah bole sebut byk jg perkataan, but then again it is also in Malay, so x dikira lah. Tinggal things yg mcm sama Malay and English tu je la yg ok, like 'Bicycle', 'Vacuum', 'Book', 'Ball', 'Duvet', 'TV', 'Remote Control', 'Shampoo', 'Pasta', 'Pizza', 'High chair', 'Sofa', 'No', 'Yes', etc.

Mula la rasa x syok sbb byk nya kena tanda as TAK FAHAM. Huhu... tp x pe, sebenarnya ada kajian dah prove dah utk anak2 yg Bilingual or even Multilingual, kena utamakan Bahasa Ibunda dahulu. Selagi bahasa Ibunda tu x dpt grasp sepenuhnya, jgn ajar dulu bahasa2 lain, nanti lg lambat anak2 tu nak bercakap, because it can create confusion in their little mind. Berpegang pada tu, aku x heran sgt la nak ajar English pada Aisyah. She's already picking it up from the TV anyways, and we are sending her to nursery soon, so she should be able to slowly learn English on her own in due time. Aku dulu pon mcm tu gak masa kecik2 and my Dad was doing his BSc and MSc kat USA. Gi kindy ckp omputih, balik kecek kelate lg mung. Jadi org je... heheh...

Ok berbalik pada kisah Baby Lab tu, lab tu mmg baby-friendly, Aisyah bebas to roam around main apa sahaja yg dia suka. After dah isi CDI tu, kitaorg pon start la isi questionnaire psl Aisyah. Brp % dia exposed to English words dlm sehari? Siapa jaga dia all day? What language does the carer speaks to Aisyah? How many hours a week does Aisyah mix with English-speaking children? How many hours a day does she sleep? Does she have hearing impairment? Was she borne prematurely? Blah blah blah... byk you allsssss... Pengsan nak jawab!

After all that gruesome questionnaire, kitaorg dibawa masuk ke bilik testing la. Bilik dia mcm theatre sket, ada skrin besar tunjuk citer kartun (nanti dia akan tunjuk gmbr objek2 bila testing dah start). The idea is that they will present two objects, e.g. Cat and Spoon, and if the speaker says ckp 'Cat', the baby should look at the Cat's picture first. The eye movement will be tracked by the camera. That is to indicate understandingness la.

So imagine my 'geramness' when after all that, Aisyah bole plak x mo participate. ish ish... Sbbnya, she needed to be strapped onto a carseat, and faced the screen. Berkali2 cuba, tp dia x nak, menangis. Maybe sbb gelap, maybe sbb kena restrain. Last2 give up je la. Researcher tu ckp, 'It's normal. That's how it is with children, you can't force it onto them. Out of 48 children I've tested, only 20 or so has been successful'.

Nasib baik la gitu. Idak la teman malu sgt. But to think after all that. Aiseh... Tp sbb dah dtg kan, dia bg je la sehelai T-Shirt, sekeping certificate 'Baby Scientist Award' utk Aisyah, and sebijik belon. Lps tu Aisyah got to play for another quarter of an hour dkt ruang legar Baby Lab tu. Hmmm... sayang x dpt nak contribute. I really would have liked to know how Aisyah measures up with the rest of the Bilingual Kids. Oh well... it doesn't matter. As long as she's developing happy, I am happy. Mmg la dia happy sbb dpt spent the whole day with Ibu dia. Tu yg kena dtg lab even on a Saturday ni. Ganti ponteng keja on Friday hehe...


[1] Ruang legar Baby Lab





[2] Suruh main, Aisyah main...







[3] Suruh lukis, Aisyah lukis...





[4] Suruh wat test, Aisyah tak mahu! Uwaaaa!!!



[5] Tp belon, T-Shirt dan Sijil tetap Aisyah amik.. hehe

Of Moving and Moving On

Busy nyer!

Lately ni letih2 badan sampai ikutkan new life routine ni. Hoepfully alah bisa tegal biasa. But I'll blog about the reason why later la ye. Right now nak cerita psl my fren Eton and Mael yg dah nak balik Msia. We all satu Plymouth ni small community aje, so tumpang2 excited and kalut sama la, nak2 Mael and Eton la yg betul2 first family yg balik Msia. Before this semua single2, so brg2 yg nak bawak balik Msia idak la ter'compare', kata org hehe...

The night before last night, we went over to see how they were doing, sambil bawak light dinner and gave little presents for them la kan. It turned out byk lg yg belum settle with their packings, so we stayed and helped sampai pukul 10 pm mcm tu. Mmg it brought back memories la, mcm mana the state of the house was dgn masa kitaorg satu family masa my Dad habis PhD dulu and nak balik Msia. Semak sgt, tp terpaksa la tinggal jgk dlm keadaan mcm tu. Dah la masa tu aku tgh exam final A-Levels. Hishhh...

Anyway, we stayed and helped out with the labeling, and Hubs helped wrapped the larger structure like the dining table, bed head, and such. Kesian sgt, sbb Eton plak tgh 6 months pregnant. So it was nice to have lent a hand. Budak2 plak (Aisyah and Aqil), woh woh, seronot la... main sesama x de sapa halang. Main selotape la, main kotak la, lari2, kejar2, main kertas, main laptop, ewah2.... x tahu esok lusa dah nak berpisah tu dua org best pren tu *sob*

The next day plak dtg la kontena mai picked up the stuff. For the life of me aku x ingat masa kat Luton dulu dgn family aku mcm mana. So ni dpt la tgk sendiri. Besar gak, dgn brg2 yg byk tu and kereta sebijik dah masuk pon ada berlebih2 lg. Pendek kata semua la yg bujang yg kawen menolong semlm, kitaorg je yg sampai lambat, sbb aku ada kerja and Aisyah plak napping lama.

Ptg ni nak balik awal sket, sbb nya nak gi rumah hntr diorg ke train station. Plymouth ni gile jauh dari London, so kena la naik tren mlm ni utk catch a flight tomorrow kat Heathrow. kena prepare je la utk adegan air mata mlm ni sob sob uwaaaaa!

Ni dia gmbr2 sekita kemas2 brg diorg. Yg last two tu gmbr kontena kalo2 sesapa nak tgk. Nasib la jalan dia parked kontena tu one way, so x crowded sgt.

*****

Speaking of one way, ni dia budak yg dah bole buat two-way communication with.

[Epilog: Aku tgh baring di sofa bagai kan couch potato kerana penat sgt. Hubs di dapur goreng chips utk Aisyah. Aisyah berlari2an dari dapur ke sofa aku sambil mkn chip]

Aku: Aisyah makan apa?
Aisyah: Cheee (Chips)
Aku: Sedap ke?
Aisyah: Yeah! *angguk*

OMG! X sangka okeh. First time rasanya dia menjawab pertanyaan yg bkn Yes or No, or geleng or angguk. Kena dgn konteks plak tu. Teruja sgt!!!!

Ni budak yg dah bole bawak bercakap. Masa ni dia tgh pakai hat yg Hubs baru cari dari kotak2 lama. Hat ni kepunyaan Tok Ayah Aisyah (my Dad). Pemberian kpd Hubs sempena kitaorg nak gi UK dulu. Topi ni my Dad pakai selama dia duk UK. Maybe I should wear it, kot2 senang sket nak dpt PhD, pakai 'bekas' org buat PhD juga. Kot2 la geliga berbekas kat hat tu. Ye ye je hehe.. Tp buat masa ni Aisyah feeling2 dia cute la tu pakai topi tu. Gitu la dia, suka benor buat kelako.