Jarod Yong

In this world, there are many types of friends. There are those who cannot keep promises. There are those who leave you halfway. Then, there are those who are with you forever. During my trip to Penang... I experienced all 3. Nesa, Chee Chee, Shawn & I Here are some of my best friends in the world. We make an effort to meet at least once a year. This year, we agreed to meet in Penang in Dec. Guna, an important part of our group, did not even show up. Chee Chee & Shawn had to leave on the first night. Sad sad~~ But thankfully Nesa stayed & showed me around his hometown. It's just the two of us... as usual. When you're in Penang, there's really only one thing to do... EAT . I did plenty of that & also visited the grand Kek Lok Si Temple Check out the intricate details! Magnificent! I found Guna & gave him the evil eye. Pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas + 1 koko' And now I shall introduce the hawkers & shops I had a...

There I was thinking that I'd have a good quiet break from my duties as Penyelia Kawasan SPM at home in Kuching when my boss called me up suddenly & told me to dress up for a function at Hilton Kuching. I thought that he was going to hook me up with a rich young lady but instead I was in a hall full of rich married ladies who wouldn't bat an eyelid at me. I was called up to take pictures for my principal during the " Majlis Penyampaian Anugerah Khas Ketua Menteri Sarawak 2010 ". What could I do? Saya yang menurut perintah... Although, I did get to blackmail my boss into buying me 2 pints of Guinness after the ceremony... Oh yeah~~~ There's no beer like free beer. My school was awarded the "Anugerah Khas Ketua Menteri Sarawak 2010 - Sekolah Menengah Cemerlang Pendalaman" for successive years of excellence in education. We were judged according to our academic, student affairs & co-curricular performance for the past 3 years & w...

My holiday is almost non-existent but what surprises me is my complaints are non-existent too. I am actually enjoying life stuck here in the jungle babysitting 17YO monkeys who get on my nerves every now & then & incur the wrath of my Lvl15 Roar & Lvl20 Paralyse Pinch. I'm still here in school instead of lounging at the Playboy mansion because my PK1 & PK HEM want to be liberated from their Penyelia Kawasan SPM duties. They wanted to selfishly enjoy the long holiday so they found 2 dumb-dumbs to replace them ( they were only here for 1 week! Baskets! ). Unfortunately, I am one of the dumb-dumbs who wanted simply to invigilate the SPM exams at another ulu school I've never been to but instead, got pulled into this insignificant open the vault, give test papers to Ketua Pengawas, shake leg until end of exam, wait for KP to bring the answers, keep answers in safe & send answers to HQ once a week. I wanted to be posted to the super ulu SMK Bellaga...

adapted from 3dartgallery.org When I first cum... to teaching, there were options available for me outside of teaching / government. I was also aware that the window of opportunity would slowly close as I age & younger more qualified infants saturated the workforce. However, with deep conviction, I made a decision to commit the first 5 years of my professional life to be a teacher in a government school anywhere in the country. When I say commit, I meant it. I was going to bust my a$$ teaching no matter what my circumstance; be it in the middle of nowhere a thousand miles from home or working with hopeless & fruitless Neanderthals or teaching leaping yelling brainless chimps. I wanted to see whether I was any good at teaching & whether I enjoyed it. Two years down this overly trodden road, I find that I AM good at it & I DO enjoy teaching! Maybe it's because I've busted my a$$ so bad pushing homework & hustling in the classrooms that a little bi...

It's something that girls adore. They like to feel it, grab it &, of course, smack it. Like all good things, it comes in pairs. You know what I'm talking about... I was jogging on a quiet Monday afternoon when I stepped on a puddle, slipped, floated into a seated position & landed right on top of my left bum. Cold hard concrete. What followed was pain. Lots & lots of pain. Until today. That was when I lost the functionality of my left Gluteus Maximus. Joni Mitchell once sang that you don't know what you've got til it's gone. Since the incident, I've learned to appreciate my quiet & faithful buttocks more. Can you imagine feeling pain at every waking moment? Did you know that your glutes are involved in almost every body movement including sleep? I couldn't sit, walk, stand or even sleep without pain. Imagine putting your socks on in the morning sideways. Imagine having to sit on one cheek with the support of a pillow & st...

This is a story told not to discriminate, alienate or propagate a certain ethnic group or way of life. I’m saying things the way it is. It’s my honest depiction of what I have observed with my own eyes. Please do not take offence. Often have I wondered why the local people found it hard to break out of the chain of poverty that plagues a large majority of them. Apprenticeships & job opportunities are easily available wherever they are albeit lower wages, longer hours & hard work, it could still lead to something some day. I’ve always wondered why business owners would shun the local people & prefer to hire Indonesians for these menial jobs. I’ve always wondered why many of them have such low productivity even from the very beginning of their careers. This reflects the local men more than women. I find the local women more industrious & reliable. After observing them & especially their young up-close for 2 years, I realise it has got a lot to do with their attitu...

Every year is unique to a teacher even though he may be teaching in the same school & the same class. As the academic year draws to an end, let me share with you the #1 act of defiance I encountered this year. I taught a Form 3 class this year, two actually. But the focus is on this particular one with a majority of borderline fail students which also happens to be a class with a majority of boys. I put a lot of pressure on them & made them do a lot of exercises. There was this boy who probably had had enough. Can’t blame him though. I’m a tough teacher. I gave the students exercises to do after teaching & he was making a lot of noise while the others were quietly doing theirs. I went over to his desk & sternly told him to zip it & finish his work. He stopped but did not do his work. He just sat there in a taiko style. I ignored him & went on to monitor other students. However, he decided to make noise again. This time, I returned to his desk, raise...

This week, I want to share about a decision someone made that has both surprised me & inspired me. In every school, there is at least one teacher who is a master magician who can unbelievably disappear into thin air! Someone who would avoid doing anything & would even struggle with the most basic tasks. I hope you’re not one of them. If you are, hope is not lost. You can learn from this particular teacher in my school. taken from blog.sophinie.com This teacher is notorious for being lazy & lately for being anti-establishment. He would be late for lessons, teach half-heartedly & produce faulty exam papers that are distributed unvetted because he is both the Department Head & Panel Head. What meritocracy? This is seniority at its best! He rarely turns up for extra activities, would come late & leave early. He is in a position of influence & would often strut it but he rarely shows the aptitude or attitude of someone deserving it. Recently, ...

There was a time when I was less stubborn, very suggestible & still somewhat clueless to the female psyche. At that time, I was walking next to a good friend of mine who had broken his arm or leg or neck or whatever it was. As we passed by this pair of attractive females, they checked out his injury & cheekily imparted these 3 divine words of wisdom: "Injuries Are Sexy". Right there and then a blinding ray of light shone through the cloudy skies of my mind. I was proud of my friend & at the same time very much envious. However, I have learned something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. As the years went by, I had my fair share of cuts, bruises & hospital visits. Maybe even more than my fellow male because of my tendency to throw caution to the wind & go all out in competitive sports. Every time without fail, injuries will attract attention. From BOTH genders. The worse the injury the better! haha~~ The males will share a laugh ...

I remember not too long ago, when I was still a young strapping handsome lad with the strange haircuts sitting in a dysfunctional sauna-like lecture hall in an obscure teachers training institute which name I had to mouth to taxi drivers like a child with down syndrome & would eventually give up & say UM. Back then I was carefree, I've completed most of my courses effortlessly & would continue to glide gracefully through the rest of the degree. There was one thing the lecturers would resonate in the middle of a lecture even when they were talking about something completely unrelated. I would usually zone in for this little moment & then zone out again as the lecturer went back to reading from powerpoint slide to powerpoint silde. Students are really good at that. When you talk about something really important that they must know, they are quiet & they look at you as if they're actually listening & nod when you ask if they understood but underneath t...

It's been almost a decade since I last had food poisoning. It's one of the worst agonies a disease can bring. Last night, I woke up every 30mins to 'pee' sitting down. I was leaking fluids every 30mins & I was feeling bloody dehydrated. I felt like puking, I was feverish & I was aching all over. Plus the interruption of my beauty sleep really made it one of the worst nights in my life. This is why I'm feeing through the wrong hole. "One of the hallmarks of many food poisoning incidents is chronic diarrhea and bloating. The ingested chemicals, parasites or bacteria often wreak havoc on a victim's entire digestive tract. Normal digestion becomes virtually impossible as the body's fluid levels and bloodstream change to attack the invading organisms. As the bacteria or parasites die off, they often leave acidic or gaseous wastes in their wake. In cases of moderate to severe food poisoning , victims may begin to wonder if they wi...

For everything I could find at home & a minuscule investment in gaming hardware, I had an awesome time this mid-sem break. I have spoken very little about my gaming hobby particularly because, with work commitments, I have very little time to play games. I tend to refrain because I can get very obsessed. Anyways, the chastity belt binding my hands are now off because IT'S HOLIDAY TIME ! I hooked up my laptop via HDMI to a 32" HDTV hooked up to a 5.1 Home Theatre. I dragged a lazy chair from a dark corner of my house & stole a cushion from a chair somewhere. I stocked up on gamer food to keep me gaming & I bought myself a Xbox 360 Controller. Just me in my boxers, banging away on a controller & staring intensely at the screen. It was awesome! I played Batman: Arkham Asylum & Mafia 2 with my low-budget system & I had an unbelievably new gaming experience! The games were really beautiful on the large screen. Occasionally, some of my fa...

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I'll write about the 4 night PMR lecture I gave my students when I feel like it... Holiday mah!

The video has been mailed today & it will hopefully arrive safely in Cyberjaya tomorrow. I have high expectations for the video. I expect at least a consolation prize. Check it out at the bottom of this post, leave a comment & share it with your friends. If you have some extra time, do read the story of the production. This experience was quite an adventure for me & it really stretched my limits. I feel that I have improved personally & professionally after this ordeal. Last Thursday, an application form was anonymously left on my table. It was an application form for a Liga Remaja Kreatif video competition organised by the Ministry of Information, Communication & Culture. I was very interested but, after realising that the closing date was exactly 7 days later, I decided to put it into my thick folder of contest applications received way too late to do anything feasible (like on the day of the closing date or long after). This is the unfortunate fate of ma...

Last Thursday, I received a letter on my table about a Liga Remaja Kreatif video competition. I took a look at the theme: "Jalur Lebar untuk 1Malaysia" Then, images & ideas naturally started pouring into my head as if God opened up a floodgate of infinite creativity & imagination. I was pumping & ready to get on to it. Then, I saw the due date... Monday, 30 August. Which meant I had to courier it on Friday, 27 August. Meaning I have only 7 days to do the scripting, casting, shooting, music & editing. Initially, I decided to forget about it. But one sleepless night was a good enough sign from the heavens that this was something I had to do. When opportunity comes your way, you grab it with both hands & then some. This is a part of the production that I cannot do on my own. Please help the production by sending this person a friend request on Facebook. [The production is complete so this Facebook account has since been closed.] Please...

taken from mosquitokillersleague.com I absolutely hate mosquitoes. There is no insect in the world I hate more than the buzzing little pest that discreetly sucks your blood & after satisfying her lust, leaves a "Mozzie's wuz here" on your skin for you to scratch on. (No sexual innuendo intended.) I loathe them. But they love me. Seriously, I'm the mozzie magnet. My friends would sit close to me so that the mozzies will bypass them & suck on me instead. I've always wanted to be a chick magnet but it seems I've attracted the females of the wrong species. Whenever I see one of them flying around, I get into a frenzy. I'd get into a clapping position & home in on these b**tards like a missile. I'd clap away until I've killed at least one of them & then chase the others until they've escaped or I've squished every last of them. One day, after killing 5 mozzies naked in the bathroom during an afternoon shower, I a...

Many have asked me for this & I have only found out recently. To all you better funded, better situated & better staffed secondary schools with 24hrs of electricity, read this & weep! The KPM secondary school NKRA rating for SMK Katibas is 729 out of 2237 secondary schools in Malaysia! Don't think that we have it easy though... This school has been a performer for many years prior to this rating system & even prior to my arrival. All this is achieved from sheer hard work, dedication & determination of the educators serving at the school. Don't think that the school receives select students like certain high performing schools do. This school receives 130+ Form 1 students from the deep interiors each year. Half of them do not pass UPSR. Better students will leave for more urban schools & then come back when they have developed discipline problems. Actually, this schools gets a lot of 'rejects' every year. Despite the circumstances, al...

taken from bestrabbitsites.com Once upon a time, there lived a young rabbit named Yellow. Yellow had just finished a degree at Rabbit University and decided to be a teacher so he could help the children in Farmlaysia to learn & love the English language. He was immediately accepted & sent to a school in a magical forest. Upon arrival, he met all the farm animals who staffed of the school. There were hornbills, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats & other rabbits too. Everyone was very friendly & Yellow wanted to form good relationships with every one of them. Yellow was very excited & he couldn't wait to make a difference at the school. The other rabbits were the friendliest to him. There were 3 other rabbits teaching at that school, Copper, Navy & White. Yellow went to live in the same house with Copper & was next door neighbours to Navy & White. On his first week, they prepared him dinner & they spent a lot of time together getting to ...