Thursday, December 23, 2010

Public speaking - chitosan food coating film

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day. 

21th December 2010 is the show time. All participants need to present about their chosen topic regarding on the area that had been given by Miss Nani on the public speaking session. Remember that my group's topic is about food and technology? I chose chitosan food coating film as my topic. Here goes my speech.

Chitosan is a biological product formed from the deacetylation process of chitin that been extracted from the crustacean shells. The chitosan food coating film can be make by dip the fruits or vegetables in the liquid soup made from chitosan. it also can be sprayed in dilute form on foods creating a protective, antibacterial, fungi static and yet an edible food coating film. Chitosan is not digested by human body, it acts as a fibre. It can bind to lipid in the intestine and thereby reducing by 20-30% the amount of cholesterol absorbed by human body. Chitosan is a natural anti-microbial compound meaning it resist infection from microbes, molds and fungi. The chitosan food coating film will modify the internal atmosphere to decrease the transpiration loss and to delay the ripening of the fruits and vegetables. Therefore, it can control the decay and extend the shelf-life of the foods. Due to its excellent compatibility with other functional substrate, it can be used as a carrier of antimicrobials to further enhance the quality and storability of the coated foods. it can be an excellent vehicle to further enhance the health benefit of the coated foods, where the lack of some important nutrients like vitamin E and calcium may be compensated by incorporating them into the coating. In addition, chitosan food coating film can improve the quality of the frozen foods by reducing drip loss and improving texture quality. As a conclusion, this chitosan food coating film might be the best solution in reducing the usage of plastic food wrapper.


I had been evaluated by Mr. Hisham and Fadirul. The feedback from Mr. Hisham was a good one whereby he said that I had a good pronunciation, confidence, eye contact just I need to control my nervous. And alhamdulillah, thank god I had been chosen as top 15 public speakers. It is a very exciting and unforgettable experience. Thank you Mr. Hisham.  



 

Interview

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

There was a mock interview on 20th December 2010, in which all the BeST student had their interview by either Mr. Farouk or Mr. Abdullah. The students had been separated into two small groups. I am in the group A which is with Mr. Abdullah as the interviewer and I am the 28th interviewee. 

The interview not started at about 12 noon. Before we go into our respective interview place for our interview, Mr. Abdullah had given us a brief tips, explanation and summary about the interview process. In group, we had assigned to list down all the common question that is asked by the interviewer together with the best answer. From the list, each group need to choose only three questions and then presented it. 

Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Farouk gave their opinion on the question and answer and they give us the tips on how to answer that kind of question. The mock interview session is one-to-one interview and about 5-6 minutes per person. During my turn, it already 5.15 pm and Mr. Abdullah had to made the interview session shorter. The only question that had been asked to me is what I get from the BeST program so far?Well, I answered it honestly and shortly. The most important thing is I enjoyed to be one of the family in this program.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

We are what we are

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

Entering in the career world is not easy. There are a lot of things that we should give attention. One of the most important things is our personality. It is crucial for us to build and maintain a good personality in order to give a good impression. But how can we have a good personality? It is easy. GROOMING. On friday, we have a grooming session with Mrs. Leilanie Mohd Nor.
Through this interesting session, we learn a lot of tips and information on how to look professional, elegance and the most important things is to look as a person who has career. Mrs. Leilanie taught us what to wear to office and what not to wear. She also taught us how to choose outfit that fit with our body shape, how to match tie for guys and how to match shoes, handbag etc for ladies.
To know what colors fit with us is by looking at our vein color. By looking at the color of our vein at the wrist, blue or green color, we can know our color tone and by that there is a suggested color that is suitable with our color tone. If our vein is blue in color, we have cold color tone and warm color tone if it is green. I am a cold tone color person and the color that suit with me is blue, purple, pink and green.
In grooming session, we also learned the table etiquettes.  It include on how to sit, how to use the napkin, how to hold and use the fork, spoon, knife, how to eat the soup procedure at the table and many more. It is very interesting and exciting knowledge that I get. Last but not least..“Put our time, effort and money into training and grooming our greatest asset.”


Communtion for leaders

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.


Each one of us is born to be a leader, leader to ourselves. To become a leader, we should have a persona, aura and characteristics as a leader. It can be learned and gained through experience either by our own experience or others. Sometime, it is gotten in ourselves as a natural talent. Every leader has their leadership style. It can be participative, charismatic, situational, transactional, transformation, quiet and servant leadership style. Whatever style a leader has, he or she should lead his or her follower well. Therefore, a leader should have very good and strong communication skills.
Prof. Dr. Syed Omar Syed Agil conducted a session on the communication for leaders. He talked about all the aspect that a leader should be taking a lot of consideration and attention in order to become a very good leader. He also shared with us a lot of his experience.
He assigned us to choose a leader that we think is a good leader, do some research and discuss about him and then present about the leader in term of his or her communication skills and leadership approach. Each group chose only one leader and my group, E.cool chose Donald Trump as our leader example.
Prof. Omar gave us a case study. The case study is about an organization that failed to organize a big project which at the end, there is a lot of problems that faced by the organization. Each group need to find and discuss all the communication barriers that led to the failure of the project. Prof. Omar chose two groups that perform the best presentation and awarded those two groups with RM50 per group. Bioself group was chosen by Prof. Omar and Pecah Mental group was chosen by group voting.  Congrats to the winner!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Powerful presentation skills

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.
 
I had a session on the powerful and effective presentation skills with Mr. Abdullah Md. Yunos. In this session, there are six modules all together that been used by Mr. Abdullah which are : overview module, effective communication - verbal and nonverbal communication module, delivery techniques module, getting the audience attention module, handling the questions module and becoming the expert module.
 
The three major components of presentation skills are the 3S which are strategy, substance and style.
 
An effective speaking is to know, and not to be able to communicate what you know, is not yet to know.
There is a lot of skills that one should know in order to make the presentation is understandable, interesting and the most important thing is the presentation achieve its goal. It is a two days session on the powerful presentation skills. During the session, there is definitely a few group discussion that lead to the presentation.

Report writing

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.
 
During the report writing session, each group was assigned to do a group discussion in order to discuss on making a project proposal. After quite a long discussion, my group had come out with decision to a research on a new product which we called phyto-mix yogurt.

Phyto-mix yogurt is a yogurt product that is a mixture of three species of herb which are :

  • Momordica grosvenari
  • Lyciumbarbarum
  • Psidium guajava
  • Garciana mangostana (mangosteen)
All the three herbs have antidiebetic property therefore the phyto-mix product is a healthy yogurt that really suitable for the diebetic patient and for those who aware about the disease and want to prevent them for having that diebetic problem.

At the end of the sesson, each group need to present about the project proposal in term of the S.W.O.T meanings the streghts, weaknesses, oppoturnities and threat of the project. On the finale presentation which is on the 28th December 2010, each group will present the full project proposal and it will be evaluated. The best project proposal will be rewarded.



   

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Can I get to the job interview?

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

This post is about getting the job interview. To get a job, we should apply for the job. During the applying process the organization will ask for the resume. The decision on either we are qualified for the job interview or not is base on it. At average, our resume only has 45 seconds to be viewed. If our resume is good, we will be calling for the interview.

Remember about the first impression is the last impression? People make the first impression about us based on our resume. So make sure that our resume is attractive enough by print it using high quality paper and printer ink, nice and formal picture. The resume should be written by following format including the font size and type, alignment, spacing etc in not more than three pages. This is crucial to make the resume look neat, short and simple. The usage of the sentence and word in resume should be given more attention.

After the brief explanation on writing resume by Mrs. Liza, I am required to make a resume based on what I’ve learn together with the cover letter and then submit it. During this course, I managed to learn something about producing an effective and attractive resume.

Meeting or dating? Which one did you prefer?

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

Firstly, I would like to ask how many of you prefer dating than meeting. For sure we prefer dating since dating is more casual, relaxing, and most important thing is we are dating with someone that we love, like and we know that person (except for the blind date). Contrary with meeting whereby we are not seeing with someone that we love or like and more worst when we are meeting with people that we dislike most maybe our supervisor, boss, colleague etc. Meeting can be also with the people that are totally stranger to us. There are many reasons why people usually hate to attend any meeting in any place and any organization. One of the reason is the meeting is bored.

I had a chance to listen to a talk on how conducting an effective meeting which later can attract people to attend the meeting. The talk is conducted by Prof. Khir on 9th December 2010. The main reference used by Prof. Khir is Meetings - Their Law and Practice by Lawton, Ribgy ang Hall. The important thing for any organization before conducting the meeting is by make sure the meeting that will be conducting is valid and legal. The meeting is valid if the meeting was properly convened, constituted and held.

I’ve been exposed about the chairman of the meeting – appointment, qualifications, duties and removal of the chairman. The most important person in making the meeting is effective is the company secretary whereby he or she needs to prepare the notice about the meeting and then distribute it to everybody that should be in that meeting. The notice can be in e-mail, letter, print in newspaper etc as long as the information about the meeting reach to the respective person. I’ve given an example of the notice and Prof. Khir explained all the contents.

This topic on meeting gave me an overview on how the meeting will look like if I’m the one that should attend a meeting during my career in the future.

Are you are a Glossophobia...?

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

The word for the day is Glossophobia meaning that having fear in speaking in front of people. So, how suppose Glossophobia have to do with my blog? Well, it has nothing to do with my blog but it have to do with my knowledge and my experience in BeST program. On the fifth day in the program (8th December 2010), I’ve been exposed about the art of public speaking by Mr. Hisham Ab. Karim and Ms. Shadwan Hanani.

To be the best public speaker, it is very crucial to overcome the Glossophobia first. We cannot talk in front of other people if we are afraid to do so. To overcome that fear, we must begin within ourselves by improving our confidence and self-motivation level. Think positive, think that we can do it and built up the strength from the within to go to the front and speak up. We should keep on practicing talking in front of the mirror in order to built up the confidence and improve our word pronunciation and make us ready with our presentation.

I’ve learned about the various elements that involve in effective public speaking including volume (loud or soft), rate (fast or slow), emphasis and articulation. One should master all these elements so he or she can become a good public speaker. An effective public speaker is able to speak confidently with new people, choose interesting subject, organize a speech that captures the audience’s attention, use language properly and sensitive to others opinion.

During the session, I’ve done the word and phrase emphasis exercise and pronunciation exercise. At the end of the session, Ms. Nani had assigned all the participants with an individual presentation regarding the main topic that had been given according the group. My group’s topic is about food and technology. The presentation is on 21st December 2010. So, I guess I should be prepared from now. I will be a person that will like to speak to the mirror starting from now on. It is time for me to build up my confidence level. You go girl!

blogging..blogging..blogging..




Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

The post’s title is really straight forward and by reading the title I’m sure that you guys will definitely know what is this post is all about. Yes! It is all about blog and blogging. During the BeST program, I’ve learn about how to create one, how to use it and what are the rules in blogging. The person in charge in giving me guidance and knowledge about blogging are Mrs. Sita, Mr. Halim and Mr. Jefry.

Blogging is an alternative way that helps people with a lot of ideas, stories, experiences, opinions with a little courage and opportunity to share what they have in their mind with other people. For those people who have something in their mind but have no idea to whom and where should they share it, blog is one the way to express and share their thoughts. But of course, it need some learning in using this `social network’ I might say.

Again, it is my new experience to have my own blog. It is quite difficult at the first place but with helps from trainers and friends, slowly I found that blogging is not something that bad. It is interesting and it is cool! My very first blog and post was created on 3th December 2010, during this BeST program and I got a comment as a feedback from my trainer not likely a positive comment and not a negative one either. It is a good comment after all to teach me and help me to improve my skills in blogging.

Since my first blog was created during my BeST program, so I dedicated my blog to BeST program. `Aku dan Kehidupan’ means all the experience from this program.


Note: the first post is not actually my very first post, it is the edited one. Believe me, if u read my original and unedited first post, u definitely will post a comment. It is not a good post but it is a good experience for me in improving my post and my English language.

This is it…

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

The first module of the BeST program (communication module) starts on 1st December 2010 with Mrs. Norliza Hashim and Mrs. Norfarahiyah Mohd Kamal as the trainer. It started with the group forming by the participant. Each group was required to create the group’s name, logo together with the cheer song. The group discussion finally contributes to the forming of groups namely Prodigy, Chimera, XX, Pecah Mental, McBIO and my group, E.Cool. I met Zahirah, Firdaus, Laila, Yunie, Erah, Ayrin, Wanie and Ainun as my group mates.



On the first and second day, it is more about group discussion and it is good because it help me to know my group mates better, give opportunity for the participant to give and take opinion, discuss about it and finally come out with a decision. Together with the group discussion, the trainers explain about the communication concept and skills both from global and Islamic perspective. In order to master the communication skills, one should about its concept first including its meaning, the process, types etc.

The first two days classes give me an overview on what I will learn in the next one month in communication module. Communication need a lot of understanding as it is the art of transmitting the correct information, ideas, and attitudes from the sender to receiver without any misunderstanding. In order to avoid the misunderstanding, it is important that the communication process is a good and an effective one. Good communication skills will lead to a good and an effective communication process. Communication skills are what I’m going to learn and polish throughout the communication modules. Wish me luck!






The beginning of everything...

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

I believe that most of you people might think about what this post is all about. Maybe some of you think that I will talk about my marriage as most people think that marriage is the beginning of a new life. Sorry I’m still single and I’m not thinking about that yet at least in this while. So, definitely I’m not going to talk about marriage as the beginning of everything. I’m talking about my new experience which is the beginning of everything including my career, my new life in a new place, with new people, new environment but the old and same me (which I want to change to a better person).

So, what my new experience is all about? Well, I just want to give you a key word and it would be BeST that stands for Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Special Training program organized by Biotechcorp (I’m sure u guys know about this big and successful company right?).

This exciting program started on 29th November 2010 starting with the orientation day at Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur. This three months program is conducted at Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UniRAZAK, previously known as UniTAR) at Capital Square, KL. This program consists of three modules all together which are communication module in the first month, followed by technical and entrepreneurship module on the second and third month. Sound interesting isn’t? That was my taught when I’m decided to apply for this program and that taught still be the same for now after about two weeks joining this program.

Want to know some more about this program? Since this blog is all about me and my life, definitely I’ll share about my BeST experience but of course one at one step at time. As time goes by, I’ll update my blog with my new experience and new story weekly (at most), Insyaallah. For those who are interested to know more, I think you should become my follower.

Last but not least, it is the beginning of everything when I’m joining this program as I can get experience as much as I can. Along with knowledge about biotechnology (which is new thing to me), I get new friends and chance to live in KL, a place that I really not familiar with.

Monday, December 6, 2010

How to reach an audience through blogging

I have a strong belief that all of you have heard about blogging and i am pretty much sure that most of you have your own blog. Blogging, same goes with facebook, twitter etc are now becoming a trend that all people especially the young generation should be aware of. Blogging is an attractive an alternative way to communicate with other people in order to express feeling, share experience etc. When you are blogging, of course you want your blog or post to be reviewed and read by other people. For sure you want the reader to post a comment regarding on your post. But how can you get people's attention to read yours? You cannot simply force them to view your blog and read your post.

First and foremost, your design of your blog should be attractive enough to attract people's attention to stop by and then view your blog. The choices of your blogs template, background, font size and color and all the widget should be done correctly. The usage of striking color of background and font should be avoided same goes with the usage of small font. It will make it hard for the reader to read your post.

Your post should be about an interesting topic. But the most important is your post title. try to put a catchy and unique post title. People will read your blog title first and if your post title is interesting enough, they will spend some of their time to read your post. But make sure that your post content is interesting as your post title in order to make sure that the reader will keep going to read your post till the end. If your are lucky enough, they will leave you a comment.

In order to reach an audience, it is important to get connected with other blogger. Get and stay connected with other blogger by viewing and reading their post and leave your comment. Your comment definitely will attract them to view and read your blog. But of course, you have to make sure that your comment is a positive one and if it is not, use good words and be polite to avoid misunderstanding.

If you are a creative person, use your creativity to create your blog something really different from others. Blogging is all about creativity in term on how you create story, to make it colorful and interesting but easy to understand. You are not only need to be creative in writing but also in designing your blog page. Creativity is not necessary a gift that one posses from birth, it can be learned by viewing other blog, get an idea, get inspired and then try to blend it with your own idea to produce a new idea that is definitely a good idea.

Last but not least, blogging is a process of learning. Time by time a blogger will  improve his or her skill on writing, designing and interacting with others. Keep blogging, you will find the pleasure of blogging.

KUALA LUMPUR (PART ONE - LRT)

Alhamdulillah, bersyukur kerana aku masih mampu bernafas dan mampu menaip untuk berkongsi pengalaman aku berada di Kuala Lumpur. Post kali ni aku ingin berkongsi pengalamanku di dalam Light Railway Transit (LRT) ataupun Transit aliran ringan dalam bahasa melayu ataupun kereta api laju dalam bahasa kampung.

27 November 2010, tarikh permulaan hidup di Kuala Lumpur. Satu pengalaman baru dan menyeronokkan yang penuh dengan suka dan duka. Ini bukan pertama kali aku berkunjung ke KL namun pengalaman untuk tinggal di KL melebihi tempoh 2 hari 1 malam adalah pengalaman baru bagiku. Tiga bulan, tempoh minimum yang aku abiskan untuk menjadi warga KL. Sebelum ni, bas dan kereta menjadi pengangkutan utama aku untuk bergerak kemana-mana, namun di KL, aku kini membiasakan diriku dengan LRT dan pengalamannya memang menyeronokkan.


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Pengalaman menaiki LRT membolehkanku menikmati pemandangan indah KL serta ragam dan kerenah manusia. Sepanjang keberadaanku di dalam LRT pada awal pagi dan lewat petang, banyak muka-muka baru yang ku temui terdiri dari pelbagai bangsa baik rakyat tempatan mahupun rakyat asing. Dalam setiap raut wajah yang ku temui amat susah bagi aku untuk menemui seraut senyuman pada wajah mereka. Aku membuat kesimpulan sendiri mereka mesti dalam kepenatan, sedang terfikir-fikir sesuatu mungkin masalah yang dihadapi. Bagi diriku yang masuk hari kesepuluh berada di sini, aku masih mampu tersenyum mungkin tekanan masih belum kurasai.

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Ada kalanya aku tersenyum sendirian setiap kali melihat orang tersengguk-sengguk dalam LRT. Ada yang terlepas stesen, ada yang tersalah menaiki LRT, berlari-lari untuk menaiki LRT dan macam-macam lagi. Aku tersenyum bukan kerana mentertawakan mereka tetapi mentertawakan diriku sendiri. Aku pun seperti mereka pada kali pertama aku menggunakan pengangkutan awam ini. Teringat kali pertamaku dalam LRT, tiket kupegang erat, aku bersandar kaku pada tiang, mata hanya tertumpu pada satu arah sahaja iaitu peta laluan perjalanan berharap diriku tidak tersalah laluan dan tidak terlepas stesen. Pernah terjadi gara-gara terleka aku nyaris-nyaris terlepas stesen, nasib aku tersedar dan sempat keluar dari LRT sebelum pintu tertutup kalau tidak mesti selepas itu aku akan jadi panik tak tahu nak buat apa. Biasalah aku ni memang terkenal dengan sikap cepat gabra dan panik. Namun pengalaman tersebut sangat seronok.

Akhir kata inginku berpesan tapi bukan pesanan buat kekasih macam lagu Spring tu tp pesanan buat semua penumpang LRT "senyumlah. Hanya dengan senyuman anda itu anda akan berasa bahagia, semua masalah akan hilang begitu sahaja. Senyum kan sedekah" 

Friday, December 3, 2010

First and foremost..

Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for giving me another chance to breathe for another new day.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m introducing me as a new blogger of the year. For all the blogger or blog reader, you definitely have never know and never read about me and my blog before because this is my first, one and only blog. I’m sure that you will ask me why I suddenly want to become a blogger, isn’t? Well, the answer for that question will be reveal sooner and later if you are interested to find out the answer. But of course, you need to read my blog often.

Just want to share what is all about `Gadis jingga’, `Aku dan kehidupan’ and my profile picture. I introduce myself as `gadis jingga’ or the orange lady since my favorite color is orange. It is a little bit weird to find someone with that favorite color but for me orange color is a unique color. For those who just know me, they definitely cannot tell my favorite color because I’m not the one that so called `orange fanatic’ since I’m not wearing all orange outfit almost every day like some people. It is not my color actually, not suit with my skin color. But I am fanatic to orange color in other way and only people who know close to me will know.

My blog is not about politics, music, business etc. It is just about me and my life as described by `Aku dan Kehidupan’. All my taught, my experience and my interest will be contain in this blog. Talk about my interest, my profile picture represent one of my interest – detective conan. The picture show my detective conan comics collection (half of my collection actually). So people who are interested maybe to rent the comics wait for my second blog which definitely a business blog so called `detective conan comic rental’, maybe.

I think it is quite a long post for a new blogger like me. I better stop for now. Nice knowing u people. Leave a comment if you wish to stay connected with me.