More on the previous stuff, Part II

Sorry again, folks. The last time I apologised for sounding a bit negative about reading, without realising that I was doing the same thing about looking for work. My bad. I guess I have to work harder at this positive thinking thing. Thanks for your concern and wishes.

***

God knows how many times I've tried to write reviews. And a lot of the time I was stumped because I sensed that most of my reviews of anything (books, anime, etc.) tend to follow a similar pattern. I'm not sure what or how but I can sense the pattern repeating itself. That's why I've a number of reviews still in draft form dating back from months ago, a year ago and even further back. It makes me feel like one-phrase parrot sometimes.

Still no matter what, I seem to always find myself writing a review of something, at least in my head. And even when it's very, very difficult to do so. Most recent example: Jonathan Franzen's How To Be Alone.


It's one of the most challenging book I've ever read in my life. But my friends from Bachelor of English would probably breeze through it like a Porsche on a deserted highway.

I got to know Franzen through his third novel, The Corrections (another unsuccessful review, I've already written two drafts of it). I was fascinated by the book, which seems to discuss a lot of things gone awry in America today, while disguising itself as a "comedy" (Franzen's own word) about a Midwestern family weathering the changes in their lives. Some of the observations made in the book the include the dwindling of the marriage institution, 'hands-off' parenting (an interestingly apt description), the pervasion of technology (the new 'religion') and the influence of pharmaceutical giants in people's lives.

The Corrections was picked by Oprah Winfrey in 2001 for her Book Club selection (which only the BIGGEST book club in the world). That was actually a start of a controversy. Franzen later expressed his uneasiness at seeing the Oprah's Book Club logo on the cover of his book and he was disinvited from the Oprah's show. I didn't see what all this were about until I finished both The Corrections and How To Be Alone.

How To Be Alone is Franzen's collection of essays, which surprisingly covers many topics. He tackles topic like the postal service (Lost in the Mail), mental disease treatment (My Father's Brain, also a theme that appeared in The Corrections), maximum security prisons (Control Units) and the sex advice industry (Books In Bed) with his dry wit, imaginative trope and lots of big words (see this post).

The book itself is a mixed bag. There are parts that I enjoyed going through and there parts where I have little idea what Franzen is going on about. But one undeniable fact is the book reveals much of Franzen's soul. And despite the big, uncommon words he throws constantly at the readers, Franzen often makes interesting and poignant observations about the topic he covers.

Meet Me in St. Louis is probably the most personal essay in the book. In it Franzen recounts his brief experience as an 'Oprah author', before he got disinvited. He expresses his anxieties about several things include having to pose for a footage to be shown on Oprah and having to revisit his childhood home. It was an especially arduous emotional ordeal having to act and unearth long buried memories just for the camera.

And it slowly becomes clear to me why he didn't like being known as an Oprah author. The Corrections was intended to be a social commentary novel. Oprah, being the media and commercial force herself, is probably one of things Franzen confronts with The Corrections. I can understand how the the sight of Book Club logo would be unsettling for him. (It's on the cover of my copy.) At least that's my theory. Franzen wrote that shortly after his book was picked by Oprah there were people who came to him saying, "I like your book and I think it's wonderful that Oprah picked it," and, "I like your book and I'm so sorry Oprah picked it."

There's no spewed poison here, however. Instead of bashing Oprah or anybody, Franzen tells his side of the story in a "do you know what I mean?" kind of way but with a layered choice of words. And The Corrections is still in the Book Club's 2001 selection list.

As I've said, it wasn't an easy book. However, I really enjoyed the parts I understood. It's going back to the shelf for the moment as I wait for a suitable time to reread it. Or until I can get one of my Bachelor of English friends to read it and explain it to me.


(To be continued. The last part, insya-Allah.)

More on the previous stuff, Part I

I've got nothing much to write about these days. Aside from amassing a number of rejected job applications. I got into a knot when I got the first one, then I developed a thick skin as a shield. Now I'm taking one day at a time. Still doing my current job, and on the lookout for offers.

Anyways, now I just going to add some more thoughts that didn't make it into the last few posts. Some that got sidelined while I wrote, some are new things that popped up into mind recently.

***

In the last post, I mentioned that FORCED myself to finished a book, The Knowing-Doing Gap. I realised after I posted it that I sounded a bit negative.

Forced? To read? Reading?

Truth is at the time, my ability to focus was near zero. My mind was everywhere. I was unable to anchor it even for a short while. My work suffered because of that. The quality of work I delivered was below my own normal standard. That disturbed me, and caused my inability to focus to worsen.

I've learned that in a job where reading is a key skill, being able to focus is critical. Without it you can't do anything. But it could also well be a motivation problem, I'm not too sure.

I like the book, but it wasn't the kind of book that I can't stop reading. Still a pleasant read though, I didn't have much problem digesting the proposed ideas. I did however stumbled a lot during the example cases given, which were about companies and the right or wrong things that they did. Those were the ones that demanded a large bulk of my attention.

I also felt that as if I've given the impression that reading (for work or anything else) is boring. A trudging but necessary thing to do. Can there be a bigger crime against reading? Especially nowadays and here (Malaysia, to be exact), when and where reading and the love for it are slowly withering?

I attended an informal gathering of knowledge managers near Damansara recently. The moderator, an exec from Genting, mentioned that the level of communication skills (writing, in particular) among Malaysian workers as awful. The deduction: "because we don't read". Nobody can write properly if they don't read. It's not a rule, but even I can't how it can be otherwise. Good writers are almost always readers.

In Australia, even small districts have large public libraries. In Malaysia, even big town libraries are... sad (I'm actually holding back a couple of strong, unpleasant words here).

Reading should never be something forced. You can't possibly love every book ever written, but the least you can do is not make reading sound bad. I apologise to everyone whom I've given that wrong impression. I'm sorry.

The book's authors did a commendable job in giving straight answers without tossing in unnecessary business jargons. If you're unable to get it, this article based on the book itself is the next best thing, IMHO. It covers most of the ideas contained in the book, with an added dash of humour. Read, ponder, discuss, enjoy.

[ Fast Company: Why Can't We Get Anything Done? ]


(To be continued, insya-Allah.)

The Knowing-Doing Gap

I forced myself to finish a book recently. It's for work, to help my boss prepare for next semester's syllabus.


The book is Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action. The authors, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, observed how the high numbers of courses, MBAs, trainings and other knowledge pursuits still fail to develop remarkable, successful companies. Most of them are stuck on doing things 'the old way' while other fail utilise their knowledge due to action substitutes (things that takes place instead of action).

The ideas contained in the book are based on a breadth of research done on numerous industries and companies, both successful and unsuccessful at closing the knowing-doing gap. Some of the success stories highlighted here include GM"s Saturn Motors, design firm IDEO and clothing chain Men's Wearhouse.

Action substitutes include talk. It's amazing how in companies people are often rewarded or promoted for 'talking.' They pitch all sort of things and impress the top people into buying into them. Yet on the implementation side, it's another story. Very few people are rewarded or promoted for actually implementing something. The authors point they this is how we run our business schools today, by teaching students more on how to talk instead of how to do. As a management graduate myself, I can't agree more while feeling embarrassed at the same time. (Sometimes the truth can really sting.)

Other actions action substitutes mentioned are memory ('the old way'), measurements (that complicates instead of helping), fear and internal competition.

Most of the things covered in the book are common sense. But the most interesting point in the book for me is the argument that competition is harmful to a company. 'Old school' management thought have always praised the virtues of competitions within the company, such as between teams or departments. This could another one of those management thoughts that are drawn-out from sport analogies. Of course sports are mostly about competition. In business however, it's a different story. Dean Tjosvold, competition and cooperation expert, says, "Competition stimulates, excites, and is useful in some circumstances, but those situations do not occur frequently in organisations.” I'm no management expert or anything, but I always believe that an organisation as an interdependent system in need of cooperation, similar to the human body. Internal competition is like the subunits of the system cannibalising each other, where one wins and the rest loses (win or nothing). Anyway, it's good to see a researcher like Tjosvold putting the idea into context instead of just something what people think they ought to belief.

So what do the author recommend we do to close the knowing-doing gap? Do, and learn by doing. It's a deceptively simple advice that most people miss. Again it's common sense, but people don't always act or think sensibly.

Despite being academicians, the authors (both from Stanford) adopts a straightforward style in delivering their points. This is my second reading a book by Robert Sutton, his The No Asshole Rule being the first. I'm grouping Sutton together with Donald Norman (The Psychology of Everyday) in the category of writers-I-like-who-are-also-academicians-but-do-not-sound-like-one. Not that I hate academic writing, I just seriously wish it would be livelier in style. Thank God for academicians who write books and blogs.

More words, part II

My previous post was triggered not by the thought of the great number of words out there that I don't know about. Rather, it was more about learning new words but not having the chance to use them and slowly over time forgetting about them. There are many times when I see a word that I know I've looked up its meaning in the dictionary but could not remember what it is.

If you pick up the current English newspapers, you'll likely to see the word "indelible" being mentioned. It appears in the news about the Election Committee's (EC) proposal to use indelible ink (and the voter's thumbprint) as a way to ensure the integrity of the election process. Indelible ink is said to be used in countries like Iran and India.

What's another word for "indelible"? "Unerasable".

I'm sad to mention that I had to recheck the word's meaning when I saw it, although I've encountered it before.

This is a Fullmetal Alchemist wallpaper I downloaded back in 2005. It has the word "indelible" on it, proof that I've came across the word already. And just after 2 years, I had flip through the dictionary again.

Getting back to the news, the use of indelible instead of unerasable is quite understandable. Indelible is a more technical and formal term, while unerasable is a more literal one.

It is also a dilemma for a writer (i.e. anybody who writes something) to choose words, either the uncommon or a common substitute. Regarding this I would like to share a short excerpt from an essay by Jonathan Franzen called Mr. Difficult (2002). I've read one of his novels and he does use tons of uncommon words. The essay's early parts are Franzen's reflection on the matter.

For a while last winter, after my third novel came out, I was getting a lot of angry mail from strangers... A few month later, one of the original senders, a Mrs. M–– in Maryland, wrote back with proof that she'd done the reading. She began by listing thirty fancy words and phrases from my novel, words like "diurnality" and "antipodes", phrases like "electro-pointillist Santa Claus faces." She then posed the dreadful question: "Who is it you are writing for? It surely could not be the average person who just enjoys a good read." And she offered this caricature of me and my presumed audience:

the elite of New York, the elite who are beautiful, thin, anorexic, neurotic, sophisticated, don't smoke, have abortions triyearly, are antiseptic, live in lofts or penthouses, this superior species of humanity who read Harper's and the The New Yorker.

The subtext seemed to be that difficulty in fiction is the tool of socially privileged readers and writers who turn up their noses at the natural pleasure of a "good read" in favor of the invidious, artificial pleasure of feeling superior to other people. To Mrs. M––, I was "a pompous snob, and a real ass-hole".

One part of me, the part that takes after my father, who admired scholars for their intellect and large vocabularies and was something of a scholar himself, wanted to call Mrs. M–– a few names in reply. But another, equally strong part of me was stricken to learn that Mrs. M–– felt excluded by my language. She sounded a bit like my mother, a life-long anti-elitist who used to get good rhetorical mileage out of the mythical "average person." My mother might have asked me if I really had to use words like "diurnality," or if I was just showing off.

(Mr. Difficult is part of Franzen's collection of essays, How To Be Alone. The very lovely Fullmetal Alchemist wallpaper above is by Tama-Neko of desktop anime (da!), who thinks indelible sounds cooler than unerasable and that it rolls off the tongue smoother.)

More words

How many of the words below do you know? By know I mean able to explain their meaning and know how and when to use them properly.

abjure abrogate antebellum circumlocution deciduous enfranchise fatuous jejune loquacious lugubrious moiety obsequious pecuniary precipitous suffragist unctuous winnow

My score? Zero.

These are some of the words every high school-leaving American student should know, according to American Heritage® dictionaries editors. The entire list contains 100 words. The editors claim that it is not a benchmark, just a measure of one's level of English language mastery.

To tell you the truth, I do struggle with these kind of words. They're not commonly used, so you don't see them often. A word that is used often and correctly reinforces our grasp of it. These words used very rarely and usually substituted by a more commonly-known equivalent word. But then again, they are not often used because not many people know their meaning. So basically it's another 'chicken and egg' situation.

Without a doubt, these words do have their place in the language. Sometimes similar words invoke different feelings and impressions. For example the words quick, fast and swift suggest a similar meaning. But they are not always a substitute for one another. It depends on the context and subject being discussed as well.

Should we add these words to our vocabulary? I don't know about you, but it is said that the ignorant are prey for the learned. I suppose another 100 new words wouldn't hurt, would it? Let's grab our dictionaries and all the best!

[ 100 Words That All High School Graduates — And Their Parents — Should Know ]

Preview: Lovely Complex

Lovely Complex (LoveCom) is based on the manga by Nakahara Aya which tells the oft-told tale of high school love with a twist: height complexity. Koizumi Risa is the unusually tall girl and Otani Atsushi is the guy who wishes that he could be taller (since he's in school basketball team).

Right from the start it can be sensed that there's chemistry between the two, and they ended up being dubbed by their teacher as a comedy duo ("All Hanshin-Kyōjin"). The rest of the first episode had me laughing to the point of tears.

Both Risa and Atsushi are considerably unlucky in love, so they decided to hook-up one another with a friend. The plan backfired instead (the friends fell for each other), so they made a bet to see who gets a boyfriend or girlfriend first. And that also seems to backfiring too as Risa begins to develop feeling for Atsushi...

LoveCom is the series I've been waiting for some time. Shoujo comedy is a sadly ignored genre.

Shoujo is difficult genre to describe. The best way is experience it yourself. I'm drawn to shoujo mostly by the way how the characters are made central to the story. Most of time the emotions of the characters affect the plot greatly, instead of the other way around. In the end, you can't help but to feel acquainted with the characters, after seeing and feeling what they've been through in the story.

Unlike in other genres, shoujo characters don't wear the same clothes all/most of the time. Same goes for hair. The lead is usually a plain Jane, pining for for the shining armour-clad knight. And flowers bloom in the background, when feelings of love surfaces (an almost sure sign of something being shoujo).

So far the series, after 7 episodes, is a bit inconsistent in the comedy department. Some episodes like the first had me in stitches, while the rest focused more the story's progression. Not that it's a bad thing.

LoveCom's charms lie in its characters' foibles. Who really haven't struggled with a complex of their own? Risa struggles with a confused feeling towards Atsushi and the possibility of finding a guy to match her height. Atsushi himself also suffers from an inferiority complex, after a former girlfriend broke up with him for a tall guy (that's what Atsushi seems to believe, anyway). Plus he's all blur, unable to pick up on Risa's feeling although the clues are very clear.

LoveCom may not be the funniest or most original story I've seen, but interesting enough to make want to stay for the rest of the season.

(Many apologies for an image-heavy post.)

Teacher Man

Shortly before the paper we were working on was submitted, my employer and I went through a furious stretch of editing, rewriting and pruning of the bibliography. We worked remotely, updating one another via phone calls, SMS messages and emails. Several hour later, the paper was ready and emailed to New York, its destination. The storm had passed. We sighed with relief. Alhamdulillah.

I hope that this didn't scare you from ever considering to join academia, my employer remarked.

Nope, I told my employer, reading Teacher Man did that to me already.

Teacher Man is a reminiscence of Frank McCourt's life as a teacher in New York. It is the part of his life shortly covered in his previous memoir, 'Tis. I finally got around to finish the book, which was bought last year. I know from experience that once I pick up anything by McCourt, I would have difficulties putting it down.

This book confirms what most people think of the teaching profession. We all believe strongly in it. But it's basically a job that nobody really wants to do, understands or appreciates. Just take a look at what teachers wrote in the letters section of the newspapers' education pullout. As woefully described by McCourt, teaching is the "downstairs maid of professions."

But despite all that, McCourt held on. He braved flying sandwiches, ethically-diverse classes, administration interferences and personal crises to deliver his student the English and Creative Writing lesson they deserve.

He also never shies away from confessing his weaknesses: his drinking habit, his womanising ways and other things that may deem him as an unworthy teacher. Teacher Man is a cold and hard at a teacher as a person. I heard from somewhere that one of the most important lesson parents must teach their children is that parents are just humans. I guess this goes for teachers as well.

McCourt is undoubtedly masterful as a storyteller. Reading his books is like pulling a chair and joining him at his table. He sometimes mirrors the speech pattern of the person he's talking about, like the way some people refer to him as Mr."McCord" or Mr."McCoot". McCourt definitely has a keen eye for human idiosyncrasies.

Teacher Man is hugely humorous and personally heartfelt. An emotive read for anyone who's interested about education and teaching.

Friends o' mine

(The Naruto pic above is kinda cheesy, but I heart Gaara.)

I don't consider myself as a friendly person, nor am I known among people by that reputation. I'm mostly a loner (and an expert at that). In school I did my own thing. When everyone were having a good time at the badminton court playing 'galah panjang', I hung out at the library. If anything, that was my reputation.

My class teacher asked me, You go to the library at recess every day? She looked at me with such unbelievability. Short answer: Yes. Slightly longer answer, the one I didn't told her: Yes, because I'm super lame at 'galah panjang' and nobody wants to play anything else.

From childhood to the present, I've been comfortable being outside a group or clique. I do hang out with my regular buddies, but I never see myself as a core member. These people usually do things and go places together, and I'm around mostly to tag along. I'm more a fringe member.

I thought with all this I shouldn't have that many friends. But scrolling up and down my mobile phone address book reveal evidences to the contrary.

Let's see: there's my roommates, coursemates, schoolmates, classmates, people from the same college as I am, former team member from other courses who worked with me in management subjects, anime, manga & comics 'kakis', game 'kakis', people I know from the 'surau', neighbours, juniors, seniors, lecturers, mentors, advisers, intellectual sparring partners, those have helped save my skin at one time or many times over – How did this list get so long?

I do feel bad about not keeping contact with them. Sometimes I feel when I needed them, I kept them close. But when I don't anymore, I go my own way. I feel kinda selfish (and as I've been told, it's the worst kind of fish).

I try to make up for this during festivities. Thank God for multiple SMSes. A warm, fuzzy feeling trickles through my being when the recipients sends back a reply. It's great to know that they still at least remember you and keeping your number. Nowadays I try to contact as many friends as much as my mobile phone plan allows me, insya-Allah. And there's also IM and email for my faraway friends.

I'm writing all this mainly because I'm meeting with a couple of old friends from school soon. One of them is getting married and he insisted that we meet in person so he can hand me the invitation. Another is a proud father of a new bouncing baby girl, a dude whose calmness and perseverance I greatly envied, back when we were studying together.

I ran into another old friend this morning. Turns out she's a bank officer at my school's branch. (For last three years!)

And to friends who visits this blog to keep in touch with me all this while. Muchas gracias.

Initiatives and forethoughts

A large chunk of the work I'm currently doing is research. A slightly lesser chunk of that is organising stuff. Research, as I've come to realise, trains (or perhaps, forces) a person to be organised. And that can be very beneficial in many areas in life.

The task of organising is partly reason why I haven't updated anything here. It's a not difficult task, but requires a lot of focus and forethought (two things that I'm not very good at). I've had nightmares of seeing my future self sinking in a quicksand of books, articles, tapes and Powerpoint slides. Therefore I took some initiatives to prevent the horrific vision from realising.

My arwah grandfather, may Allah bless him with mercy and forgiveness, was trying to teach me this when I was a kid. He never did anything without giving it enough thought. We in the family see this in the way he organise his things, the way he do his work around the home and in his daily routines. This guy is never acts randomly. He plans everything (within his capacity, of course) carefully. So far my life, I've never met a real person who's as pragmatic as he is. I'm not praising this man because he's family. His actions and words speak for themselves.

When he was alive, he lectured me a lot about this. Never underestimate the power of forethoughts. Always do things in a systematic way, he would always say. And that requires a lot of thinking in advance. At that time, I didn't really listened and I didn't see why it is important. Now, sitting at my work desk, I realise how valuable those words are. And I how wish I had realised them sooner.

Get Vista fonts without Windows Vista or Office 2007

Along with a whole truckload of new features, Microsoft has bundled a new set of fonts for the new Windows Vista and Office 2007. The font set is designed to make use of the ClearType technology, which allows for better on screen display and readability. If you've got neither of the aforementioned programs, you still get your hands on the Vista font set by downloading Powerpoint Viewer 2007 (a Powerpoint files viewer, for computers without Office installed). It will also install the Vista fonts.

Personally, I find the set to be a refreshing update. However, like a lot of people, I really hope Microsoft would license the fonts openly so that they can they be used by Mac and Linux users the way they use common fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana) right now.

Also worth reading: Poynter Online's article on the Vista fonts. I recommend you to read the comments afterwards for some enlightening insights on the topic.