Well, except that voting closes today so this is your last chance to decide who will be crowned Ruumz’s Most Wanted Ruumate. There are 10 guys and 10 girls competing and one person from each category will win.

I am, as you might know, one of the judges for the competition. Later this month, Ruumz will be organising a massive party where the winners will be announced. Exciting!

To vote, you just need to log on to the Ruumz Most Wanted Ruumate site and choose your favourite. You get double  votes today (because it’s a weekend) so that’s six votes!

It’s been quite a couple of months for me to be associated with this project and I’ve made some new friends so I’m very grateful! I know some of the finalists have worked very hard to try and win the competition so a big GOOD LUCK to all of them!

In the mean time, I’m keeping this blog post short because I’m running around getting ready for my trip.

This afternoon, I head over to Bali and I’m most excited because it’s my first trip ever and have heard so much about it. I’ll be bringing my laptop with me so hopefully I can get some blogging time in between and upload some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Otherwise, I’ll see you late next week. Try not to miss me too much!

9am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Nike had invited loads of people (I didn’t know so many people would be there!) including celebrities, elite runners, not-so-elite runners, bloggers and us media types. The objective of the event was to introduce everyone to the Nike LunarGlider+ (which I blogged about previously here).

I won’t write much about the shoe but will leave you to read the initial reviews by a couple of runners who were there including Ribbit, City Boy, Average Joe, Carboman and Frank.

Because I had tried the shoe before, and that my first run was at the Nike+ Human Race 10k, I was asked if I could just speak for a couple of minutes of my running experience, why I took up running (and didn’t stop) and a bit about my experience with the Nike LunarGlide+. I was very nervous (maybe not so obvious in the shot above taken by Jamie @ Carboman – with all those pro-runners in there, who am I to talk about running?

But I think it went well (at least no one told me off!). I just spoke about how I was cajoled into running the 10k last year when the last time I ran (other than a few minutes in the gym) was when I came in Top 200 for merentas desa (cross country) while I was in school. I also talked a bit about not having enough knowledge, leading to my four months of physio.

Before I spoke though, Nike Malaysia’s Marketing Manager Menaha welcomed everyone, then their product specialist Wong talked about the technical stuff. Then they got Yin, a “core” runner to speak (I was the not-core speaker!). Following me was Hitz.fm’s Rudy, who looked really good and fit!

There was a bit of rain so our run was slightly delayed but we finally did a run (there were two routes, the one I took was 2.7km) in the drizzle. But it was all good fun because of the relatively small group (well, at least compared to the proper runs) and caramaderie among everyone. There were those who NEVER run who tried it too so kudos to them! I hope they start running after this!

In the pictures above, clockwise from top: Wong talking about the state-of-the-art technology used in the LunarGlide+, Menaha introducing Yin, the media folks looking really pancit after the run, Lionel who I just recently met, Joyce the KinkyBlueFairy and Amanda (yes, they ran!) and the elite runners stuffing themselves after the run.

All five out us who was at the Nike+ Human Race 10k last year were also at the event; it was nice to see everyone again. I think Jamie left the gap for Richard (who’s not in the picture but ran with us) between himself  and Frank and PuehTian.

Of course, these days, it’s not fun meeting so many people without proper cam-whoring shots. I think we took like five versions of this shot, so it wins and gets featured here. Azura, Sarah Lian, Rudy (Check out his pink towel. Heh), myself and Amanda.

It’s 3.09am in the morning right now and I’m sitting on a pavement outside Royale Bintang at Mutiara Damansara.

Why?

Well, I lost my car keys – and my mobile phone battery is dead. I was with some colleagues at Red Box as a farewell do for our intern Max and had just finished when I couldn’t find my keys as I approached my car.A quick call to my colleague Sharmila to wait for me as I ran back up to the karaoke centre used up the last of my mobile battery. And worse still, the key was nowhere to be found.

I was stranded!

So I weighed my options. I could either 1. call my parents to bring my spare key over, or 2. Take a cab home and come back to get my car later. I went for option 1 since whichever way, I had to wake them up. Except that I couldn’t call them because of my dead phone.

I couldn’t ask the karaoke centre for help because they were closed and I had to wait for someone else to exit before I could get back in (God knows how long that would have took!). Then I wasn’t so sure about asking someone to borrow their phone because most were drunk and I thought it would be hard to explain my situation (I did walk to the couple of bars still open hoping to bump into a couple of friends – but no luck).

Then I realised that I had my laptop with me so I was going to Twitter or Facebook an SOS message. As I booted up, I realised that I could Skype call my parents. And that’s exactly what I did.

Barely an hour later, I am now home (my parents had arrive midway through this blog post) and my phone is charging.

It’s days like this that I am ever so grateful to technology, that I had my laptop with me and my P1 Wiggy that allowed me to go online almost anywhere. I was also able to Twitter Sharmila to let her know that I am okay, and my general Tweet letting everyone know what was happening to me was read by Max, who then didn’t know to be on red alert to rescue me!

Thanks Sharm and Max for being there (even if I couldn’t find you). I am most grateful. Almost as grateful as I am for my laptop and Wiggy.

3.54am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday out up a poll on his blog to gauge public sentiments on the reversing of the PPSMI, which I blogged about a couple of days ago here. I am against the reversal by the way.

The Tun has made it clear on his blog that he isn’t happy with the decision (teaching of Science and Math in English was his idea after all) despite Deputy Prime Minister, also Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said when announcing the reversal that there has been discussion with the Tun and the latter had accepted the decision.

I am still wondering why a former Prime Minister is involved in current Government decisions (okay lah, if I realllyyy wanted to be nice, maybe it was just out of courtesy). That said, I do agree with the Tun’s view and I do think he’s entitled to his own opinion.

Obviously, this isn’t going to end anytime soon.

This morning, I woke up to an SMS from an unknown number asking me to head over to Tun’s blog to vote NO! to his poll on whether or not we agree to the Government’s move to teach Science and Math in Bahasa Malaysia. As I write this, 79% (17691) has voted “No”.

That said, I hardly think a poll like this holds any weight – mainly because it is using such a basic poll system that I can just refresh my page and well, vote again. The numbers are not accurate.

I wish the Tun, obviously knowing his influence, had used a more sophisticated method to track votes so that the results would have more credibility (then again, most people who are on the Internet in Malaysia are urban-ish anyway).

He even said on his blogpost:

I will then try to let the Government know your opinion.

No point I think if the poll results can be compromised. Still, at least people are speaking up. I’m not sure if the Government will reverse their reversal but hey, they have to listen to us on somethings some day right? Can only hope.

10.24am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

We have heard rumours since yesterday that this was going to happen but now it’s official – I just watched the press conference live on TV1.

I didn’t catch everything but from what I gather, Muhyiddin said that this decision was based on studies they did which indicated that English proficiency did not improve with PPSMI and that students were doing more badly in Math and Science exams than previously.

Pah.

It seems to me that this is a calculated political move, although the DPM had earlier mentioned that the decision will not be one that was made under pressure by any groups, or politically inclined.

He said at the press conference that this is for the future of the kids. Ho hum.

You would have thought that the biggest opponent to this decision will be Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad, although, The Star Education Desk (@starppsmi) Twittered that Muhyiddin said the Tun accepted the decision after a three-hour discussion.

While I support anyone who would fight to retain the PPMSI – because I’m all for it myself – I do wonder why the Tun is involved in so much of the discussions. With all due respect but isn’t he like, er, two Prime Ministers ago?

But that’s not the point. A lot of arguments have been that PPSMI will be able to help improve the English language proficiency of students. @ppsmi Twittered saying that DPM mentioned that PPSMI will take 15-20 years to see effect.

He said that by improving the language of English at primary school level – and the Cabinet will increase English hours in primary schools by 90 minutes a week – will allow us to see results in three years.

He also announced that only 9.96% of primary school teachers are proficient in English. Three years? Er … excuse me if I remain doubtful.

Even then, I think the argument is flawed (although I am glad that at least English is still being given some attention, like the DPM said through grammar, literature and drama). PPSMI is not only about language proficiency. I believe, as do many others who have said it before me, that a massive collection of science and math documents/literature etc are in English (or have been translated to English). Therefore, it is also about grasping the right concepts and knowledge.

Truth be told, as someone who studied Science and Math in BM, my knowledge of science and math jargon is limited (and I have trouble translating what I remember in BM to English because I am unfamiliar with the English terms).

BUT if language really is the main concern, then why don’t we put in some policies to improve PPSMI? Like running the English improvement policies in tandem with PPSMI?

Muhyiddin said in the press conference that they had known since 2003 that it wasn’t working, but wanted to let the cycle complete. Waitaminute, IF you knew that at 2003, why not put in the English improvement policy that you said will take three years to see results? Then by 2006, we would have had students able to cope with PPSMI and by 2009 – this year – everything would be perfect, right?

Correction: Sorry, the DPM didn’t say 2003. He said they had known earlier that it wasn’t working but they wanted to the cycle complete. I still stand by my argument that if they had known before, they could still put in the English improvement policy that runs in tandem to help students cope with PPSMI. This way, the wait is still 3 years instead of 15-20 years and the current students won’t be so badly affected.

But that’s just my point of view. Apparently, the Cabinet doesn’t agree with me.

You can get more details through @starppsmi which is Twittering live from the press conference, or this article on The Star Online. The reversal will be done in stages from 2012 onwards.

3.15pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)