ADDITIONS TO MANJUNG

Former students of STESMA who are not locals might be interested to know that since the beginning of 2006, there a lot of new business outlets have been opened in Manjung and Sitiawan. First Econsave opened a branch here and the latest is Giant. I heard that there will be a Tesco soon. Also, the MacDonalds outlet will be in Taman Samudera.

STESMA.TK
I had a message from Suhaimi of T7 Batch 2004/05 yesterday but was too absorbed with getting other news and so did not look into his website. However, I had time today to visit www.stesma.tk today.
It is an unofficial website about SM TEKNIK SERI MANJUNG and the site master is Suhaimi. Visitors to this site who would most probably be Stesmarians can interact with each other. Old boys and girls could share their experiences or even set up appointments to meet with each other. From the site, I found that it was first created in the middle of March 2006 and was completed by April 2006. The purpose of stesma.tk is to foster closer ties between present and past students of STESMA. The pictures above were downloaded from this website. I guess Suhaimi's picture must appear in them. I don't know him as in 2004 and 2005 I was in UPSI. But he will know me as I did go back to school from time to time to give talks and help conduct activities.
And lastly, Suhaimi, if you are reading this could you respond and also possibly send me details of yourself plus your personal photo for me to post here. Thank you.

THE SCHOOL DURING THE HOLIDAYS

Except for the examination halls and the administrative block, the school looks very empty and deserted during the late afternoon. There is not much activity or people anywhere except for the Kakak-kakak (cleaning ladies) who go about doing their duties.

1,000 VISITORS

I looked at the site meter just now and it registered the one thousanth visitor. I set up the meter about two months ago. I think I had the most number of visits to this blog today. I guess many of the students and teachers wanted to put up messages of condolences for Cikgu Ishak and his family.
This has actually been a very sad month for me. Last Monday a very good friend of mine, Mr Ian Edward Hemmings passed away. He finally succumbed to the ravages of collorectal cancer. My maternal aunt's husband, my Uncle Lee, has also been diagnosed with end stage collorectal cancer and the doctors say that his days on this earth are also very limited. Ian was 66 and my uncle is 68. Then this morning, I heard the sad news about the demise of Puan Siti Munirah. I heard that she had been suffering from SLE for quite some time. She was a student of our school and was only 21 years old. I managed to get information about her from the old STESMA school magazine. The teachers, staff and students knew that Cikgu Ishak's wife was very ill as she was frequently admitted to the hospital and he had to rush back to Kajang to be with her. So even though I have so many visitors to this blog, I am really very sad today. Furthermore, the funeral service and cremation for my friend Ian will be held this very day.

COMPUTERS FROM MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY

Encik Abdul Hakim received three Personal Computers from Professor Ghauth Jasman who is the President of the Multimedia University. The university donated these three used computers to the school under its Program Sumbangsih. According to Cikgu Hakim the Guidance and Counselling Unit will set up a mini cyber station for students to access the Internet next year.

Condolence and Deepest Sympathy

On behalf of the principal, senior assistants,

teachers, staff and students of

Sekolah Menengah Teknik Seri Manjung,

I would like to offer our deepest condolences to Cikgu Ishak Ismail and family on the passing of their loved one Puan Siti Munirah bt Zainal Abidin

on 28 November 2006.

Miss Cheah Li Na

HOW TO GET COPIES OF STESMA 2006 MAGAZINES

Former students of SMTSM who wish to buy copies of the school magazine can contact Cikgu Azman Shabudin at the following number: 013-5231455. According to him there are still some copies available.

AUTHOR: ENCIK ABDUL HAKIM BIN MUSTOR

Cikgu Abdul Hakim, our school counsellor, helped me to write a message of condolence for Cikgu Ishak Ismail and his family. Later, he showed me his latest publication on career guidance. Before this he had written three other books on the subject. Besides his new book, he has also come out with a set of 10 charts. Three of the charts are shown in the picture. The publishers made an error when they omitted his name for the first one thousand copies. However, they have apologised and will give him credit in the new editions.

CUTE LITTLE GIRLS

I was on my way to the office from the Guidance and Counselling Unit when I spied two pretty, little girls in pink gathering saga seeds outside the Electrical Workshop. I stopped my car and approached the two young ladies.

The older of the two girls told me that her name was Maheerah and the younger girl was her sister, Muna Izzah. They said that their father, Cikgu Suhaimi, had gone to get something from the other workshop and that they were waiting for him. Maheerah also told me that she has another sister at home, Muna Izzah and a younger brother, Marwan. Their mother is Puan Nor Amlina.

CLEANING SERVICE

Here are the ladies who help to keep the school clean. They are attached to a cleaning service company. It was around lunchtime and the ladies were all going home for their break.

NEW CLERK: CIK UMI KALTHUM BT YAKOP

Cik Umi reported for duty recently. She will take over the duties of Puan Saripah who will be going on transfer soon. She is from Changkat Lada and is 24 years old. Before working here she worked at the FELCRA Plantation in Changkat Lada.

INSTALLING A NEW AIR-CONDITIONING UNIT IN THE OFFICE

At around 10.00 this morning, there was installation work being done at the school office. The workers were putting up a new and more powerful unit.

STESMA FOREVER BULLETIN BOARD

I saw one of the SPM invigilators reading the articles posted on the STESMA forever buletin board. I approached him and got his permission to snap his picture to put in this blog.

PUAN ROSHIDA BT LAJID

One of our hostel supervisors, Puan Roshida, will be leaving for Kota Kinabalu in December. Her application for transfer has been approved and she is supposed to report for duty in East Malaysia on December 1 but she tells me that she has deferred the date to 16 December as there are things that she needs to finish doing here. The reason for her transfer is because her husband who is with the Malaysian Navy is posted there. Good bye and good luck to you, Puan Roshida. If you miss SMTSM, you just need to log on to http://stesmaforever.blogpot.com.

PHYSICS PAPER

This morning the students in the technical stream sat for the Physics paper. I was informed that Cikgu Ishak Ismail, the Head of the Physics Department, was supposed to be on duty this morning but had gone back to Kuala Lumpur to attend to his late wife's funeral preparations. He had asked Cikgu Jalaluddin to take over his duty. I heard from some of the teachers and staff present that Cikgu Ishak was in school yesterday afternoon. He must have gone to see if his students needed last minute advice for the Physics paper. He got the bad news late at night. Later, Cikgu Jalaluddin sent him to the bus station to catch the 1.00 a.m. bus that left for Kuala Lumpur.

Many of the students whom I talked to outside the examination hall told me that they were informed about the death via sms last night. It seemed that some of the students had received the news from their seniors.

UCAPAN TAKZIAH

kepada Cikgu Ishak dan keluarga, semuga sabar menghadapi dugaan ini.

Sesiapa ingin menziarahi sila hadir ke alamat berikut No 18, Jalan Melur 1/4, Taman Seri Ramal, 37000 Kajang, Selangor atau menghubungi telefon berikut : 012-5796267 atau 012-6147699.

Pihak sekolah telah mewakilkan Encik Wan Yusaini Wan Hassan (PK HEM), Encik Ismail Mokhtar (PK Kurikulum), Puan Alisa (Ketua Kerani) dan Puan Sharifah Hussain (Kerani Akaun) bagi tujuan mewakili Pengetua dan seluruh warga sekolah ke majlis pengkebumian jenazah allahyarhamah Siti Munirah Zainal Abidin.

Ditulis oleh: Encik Abdul Hakim bin Mustor

OBITUARY

PUAN SITI MUNIRAH BT ZAINAL ABIDIN 13 August 1985 - 29 November 2006

I have some sad news to report today. Cikgu Ishak Ismail's wife, Puan Siti Munirah passed away this morning at 12.35 a.m. She also leaves behind a young son, Amir. She had been suffering from SLE, a disease that affected the immune system (refer to the post that I did on lupus last week). The late Puan Munirah was a student of Sekolah Menengah Teknik Seri Manjung. She was in 5PKEE5, the class of 2002/03.

AVATAR

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you would have noticed the word avatar popping up once in a while under the scroller of my chatterbox. In this post, I would like to tell those who are in the dark about what an avatar is.
An avatar (abbreviations include AV, ava, avy and avvie) is an Internet user's representation of himself/herself, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon used on Internet forums and other communities, or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user.
In simple English, an avatar is a small graphic, up to 100x100 pixels that you can use to represent yourself online. It can be your picture, or a picture of your favorite star or movie character - or something different altogether. The above graphic is the avatar that I have created for myself. Doesn't it look a lot like me? Heh! Heh! Actually, the pictures that I have put by the side panel are also my avatars.
To learn more about Avatars and how to create them, please visit the following sites:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/games/create/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(virtual_reality)
Avatarity.com

STESMA 2006 MAGAZINES

Amierul and Suhaimi wrote to say that they are interested in getting hold of the 2006 school magazine. I presume they must have found out about it from this blog. I am not too sure whether there are any extra copies that they could buy but I shall ask Cikgu Azman tomorrow morning. Anyway, both Cikgu Azman Shabudin and I will be transferring all the school magazines (from 1993 until 2006) into CD format but we need some time to get the job done. So if the printed copies of the magazines are not available then at least there will be the CD version. So keep visiting this blog.

BREAK-IN

There was a break-in at the girls' hostel, Block H or Nafisah to be exact. Puan Noriah, the hostel supervisor said that the break-in involved only two dormitories. The victims reported loss of money, electronic gadgets and even pencil cases. The hostel authorities suspect that it may be an inside job. Sigh!!! If that is true then I am very disappointed.

TEACHER ON DUTY

Cikgu Shahidan bin Ahmad was the teacher on duty this afternoon. He had to look after our students in two centres; the hall where the technical students were and one of the classrooms in the Form Five Block with the ICT students. The two pictures above show Cikgu Shahidan looking in on the students who had just entered the hall.

BEFORE THE START OF THE ADDITIONAL MATHEMATICS PAPER

The pictures above were taken before the students went into the examination hall to sit for the Additional Mathematics Paper which was scheduled to start at 2.00 p.m. The last picture was snapped when almost everyone had entered. This is a common scene in many Malaysian schools, that of candidates leaving their bags and other belongings outside. However, there were two students who came about 15 minutes late. One was from the hostel and the other from the surrounding housing estate. Both gave the same reason for their tardiness - they had overslept.

CORRECTION: CUTTING DOWN OF SAGA TREES

Remember the post I did on the saga trees outside the Electrical Workshop? Well, I mentioned that I guessed the reason the trees were cut down was because the workshop was to get a new coat of paint. Well! My guess was wrong. The principal, Puan Siti Arfah bt Ibrahim, informed me that the roots of the trees were growing too big and would cause damage to the building. That was the main reason for removing them. If that is the case, then I think the next step would be to uproot the stump of the trees that are left. Failing to do so would make way for the trees to grow. I shall keep everyone informed of what is going to happen next. And incidentally, the paintwork for the workshop is planned for 2007, not now.

Anyway, I was very happy (still am) that Puan Siti Arfah reads the blog and takes the trouble to give her comments. It really made my day. Actually, I am very much encouraged if my superiors, my colleagues and students (past and present) visit the blog frequently. I also noticed that I have visitors from all around the world. It makes me want to work even harder to look make the blog more interesting. After all, my number one ambition since childhood was to be a writer and not a teacher.

LEAVING STESMA

Two of our staff members will be leaving this school next month. They have gotten transfers to other places. The two are Puan Sarifah bt Husain (administrative clerk) and Puan Roshida bt Lajid (hostel supervisor). Of the two I know Puan Sarifah very well as she was working here when I first reported for duty after coming back from England. Puan Sarifah will be going to serve in one of the schools in Kedah which is her home state. Her husband is also from there. Before I forget, Puan Sarifah's husband was involved in an accident last Monday but I am glad to report that he is out of danger and is recuperating in their house in Seri Manjung.

As for Puan Roshida I did not get to know her very well as she came around the time I was reading for my Masters degree in UPSI. Furthermore, she was mostly in the hostel which made it even harder for me to have much contact with her.

The principal, the senior assistants and the other members of staff gave both ladies a farewell lunch at Hasnah Tom Yam during lunch time.