Two more weeks to go...

... to study break! Am so looking forward to the study break this time. Yeah, I know study breaks were meant for us to study, but we've got one whole freakin' month off! Like, you really can't expect us to swot at our desks for the entire month? Definitely not! I know I am gonna slack off the first 3 weeks and a half, spend 2 days telling myself I need to start studying, spend another day searching for all my notes, and spend the night before the exam in a mad panic scramble to try to cram everything into my brain. That's the pattern that's been repeating for the past 4 semesters. It's even become somewhat like a semesterly tradition of sorts... Teehee!

Any of you out there go on Facebook? If you do, go and add me as your friend lar... If you don't, go sign up for an account and look for me! I've been addicted to Facebook for the past two days!

Tomorrow is Monday (well, duh!) and I have to hand in 3 assignments, one of which also requires us to give a presentation. I just managed to print out everything just now at about 6 p.m. which is really quite worrying. Why? Cos my printer suddenly spat out this notification on my computer screen saying that the black ink was low... Wah! My heart almost stopped! So frightened that it'll totally run out of ink before I'd finished all the printing. But it didn't stop... Phew! Managed to print everything out. But I still haven't stapled it together... It's just too thick. So I'll just wait till tomorrow. Quite worried about the presentation tomorrow. None of us really know what to do... So I guess we'll just play it by ear tomorrow...

It's also the last 5 days leading up to the staging of the play... It'll be on this Friday night, at the Experimental Theatre, East (Old) Campus, UNIMAS. I think it'll start at about 8 p.m., but be there by 7.30 p.m. if you wanna catch it.

So am I glad that the lectures are almost over? Am I glad that the play production is drawing to a close? Am I glad that study break is almost here? Am I glad that I don't have to stay up in college next sem?

DEFINITELY!

Cheers!

Facebook!

And all this while I thought Friendster was like the best when it came to social networking on the Internet... Until today, that is, when I finally decided to satisfy my curiosity and find out what this Facebook thingy is all about. Am pleasantly surprised to find that it's actually more convenient than Friendster. Well in certain aspects lar... Not really gonna blog much today, just a short one this time. Just too busy to blog these days...

Cheers!

Just four little words...

Life is getting harder.

Rediscovering my love for Slam Dunk

When I was much younger, around oh maybe 10 years ago (rough estimate here), I fell in love with a comic book series called Slam Dunk. It was mainly about a bunch of unruly, problematic guys (read: disciplinary problems) who were obsessed about basketball. I, in turn, became obsessed with those guys. Oh, how I searched eagerly in all the bookshops in and around town for those elusive comics. Every time I found one, I was ecstatic for the remainder of the week. I remember poring over those pages, cherishing each book, caring for each book in such a way that it looked new even five years down the road. Slowly, over the years, I built up my collection of comic books. I even had a special wooden shelf to store them in.

And then I grew up.

My love was still strong, but slowly, with all the hustle and bustle of reality, I found less and less time to spend with them. Slowly, I started to forget the exact amount of books in my collection. My memory started getting a little fuzzy, a little woozy. I couldn't quite remember the exact quotes from the characters, or the height and weight of my favourite characters, or which scene was in which book. I even didn't bother waking up at 10 a.m. every Saturday to follow the anime version showing on national TV... Slowly, I forgot.

And then I discovered some of the episodes on YouTube last week.

And that's how I rediscovered my love for Slam Dunk. The memories came rushing back, like a tidal wave that sweeps up onto the shore... Suddenly, I found myself smiling again. Reminiscing about the good old days that I left behind in the pursuit of an education. I even laughed out loud at certain scenes. My heart beats a little faster. I smile a little wider. I even grin. And that night, I dug up a couple of my old comic books and read. And grinned wider than before. The next day, I brought another book to accompany me in university. And at times in the past few days I have wondered to myself: How could I have let the chaos of life rob away my imagination?

Cos, believe you me, when I flip the pages and read the different columns of the comic, still and lifeless though they may be, I can actually see them moving in my mind's eye. Can hear them speaking, running, yelling, the sound of the basketball thumping on the ground... Imagination is a wonderful thing.

So let me just introduce you to the guys of the Shohoku basketball team!

The red-haired guy below is Sakuragi Hanamichi, the main protagonist of Slam Dunk. There are many protagonists, but Sakuragi is like, the main main protagonist, cos the plot follows him from the start to the end. This fierce-looking guy below is Akagi, the captain of the Shohoku basketball team. He's also the centre for the team.

The guy below (number 11) is Rukawa Kaede, the one that all the girls in the comic are crazy about. He's the cool, mysterious type.

This guy (number 7) is Miyagi Ryota, the smallest amongst the 5 main guys, but also one of the fastest.

And the guy below... With the white jersey... This guy... This guy is my favourite of them all, Hisashi Mitsui! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggghhhh! *faints* I repeat, my favourite. Fantastic 3-point shooter. Enough said.

So there you have it. The five main characters of the comic book. I could go on and on about this subject, but I think I'd rather spare my thoughts for another time. Besides, you all probably think I'm going nuts. So if you really wanna know more, I'd suggest approaching me and asking about it. It'll prolly take me about an hour or so to finish talking.

Muahahahaha!

And at the end of this year, when I go to KL for my family holiday, I'm gonna be on the lookout for all things Slam Dunk! I'm back! Oh YEAH!

Time to go look for more videos on Slam Dunk... Cheers!

Less than a month to go!

Where did the time go? It feels like it was just July! And now it's September, and there's only less than a month to go to the study break. I know I should be happy at the approach of study break and all (we're getting one month of 'holidays' this time around), but it's gonna be a whole 3 weeks of plain torture for me and my li'l ole brain. Like I've mentioned in previously, I've still got 6 major assignments to hand in by the 4th of October, and now the play's been postponed to the 5th of October, which is a Friday. And now I've got the Xcube! newsletter to rush through. I am so gonna enjoy my study break this time.

And apparently The Click Five have released a new album. I was rather shocked when I discovered that their original lead singer (the guy you hear wailing away on Just The Girl and Catch Your Wave) has been replaced by a new guy! Like, horror! I actually liked the previous guy. But I've just finished downloading one of their new songs, and come to think of it, the new guy actually sounds pretty good. His voice is not as distinctive as the previous guy's, and is more on the deeper side, but you know what? I think it could work. I think they sound really good. The new guy sounds like he could really yell through some rock songs. This could just work... Really. But check out their album cover:

Horror of horrors! What's going on? Why do they look like that? They look like any typical boyband out there on the streets (a dime a dozen and all that)... What happened? But don't worry, once the initial shock is over, and you actually bring yourself to listen to some of the songs, you realise they don't sound as bad as they look. Teehee! I guess I'm just used to seeing guys in all their male pride and macho image kinda look. Oh well.

I guess I'll just listen to the music without looking at the picture.

Cheers!

How to use your brain

I obviously wasn't using mine when I decided to hold the play rehearsals at night. I spent last Monday and Tuesday night directing Oedipus Rex from 8.30 p.m. to 11 p.m. By the time we ended my throat was parched, my voice hoarse, and my head aching. Plus, I couldn't return to the comforts of my very own room at home, but had to put up with the mosquitoes and overall strangeness of my room in college.

Not anymore!

Last night while I was trying to sleep (I only finally managed to sleep at about 3 a.m.), and while I was agonising over the need to spend another few nights up in university, it suddenly hit me. All of a sudden, the light bulb in my head went ding! Why was I torturing myself like this? I could just move all the night rehearsals to daytime! Save myself the trouble of staying up in college. And better still, this way my group members would be alert and mentally awake during rehearsals. And we could all use the few hours each night to actually work on our other assignments and presentations! People didn't have to rush through their dinners! People would be happier! Eureka! What a great idea, I thought, so I discussed it with my group this morning after our first class. So yes, I'm actually moving out of college faster than I thought. In the previous post I wrote that I would finally be rid of college on the 4th of October, but now, guess what? Muahahahaha! I'm not staying anymore! What a great day today has been! And so, now my group play rehearsals will be held only during the daytime. The only thing that really irritates me is this: Why oh why didn't I think of this earlier? As in, even before the first rehearsal started? Where has my brain been all this while? Where?

And I know I'm gonna get quite a few 'smart' comments to that. Fine. Bring it on.

Cheers!

Back to uni tomorrow... Why, oh WHY?

I dread returning to university. And by 'returning', I mean staying up for a couple of nights in my room in college. You wanna call me pampered? Can't survive a few days without the usual comforts of home? Fine, say what you want. But believe you me, once you stay up there, you really do start to appreciate the little luxuries you might have taken for granted all along. Like air-conditioning. And the smell of freshly-washed clothes that have been properly dried under actual sunlight. And not having to chase mosquitoes and all sorts of UFIs (unidentified flying insects) out of your room. And the comfort of lounging in a sofa set with real cushions. You start to miss your Internet connection. You even start to miss the taste of real cooked instant noodles (read: not the 'college-cooking style' of pouring hot water in).

It's a pathetic life we lead.

I honestly am counting down the days to the 4th of October. Not only is this the date of the play production (as in the day we actually stage the play lar), this also marks the last day I will ever stay up in college. Okay, this is just tentatively speaking right, I mean, who knows I might have to stay up there for some urgent reasons like an assignment that I've forgotten to do and have to pass up the next day which requires me to stay up there to complete it and what not, but the plan right here and now is to not register for any accommodation up in uni next sem. That's right. I've decided I'm not going to stay up in college anymore. I won't be signing the pre-registration thingy to say that I still want to stay in college. Cos I don't wanna stay in college anymore! That's right! I've had it. I'm fed up. It's just too heartbreaking. No more. This is it. The end of all this comfort-robbing nights away from home. The 4th of October 2007 will be a historical date. Going down in history as the day Esther moves permanently out of college, never to return again. Well, that's the plan anyway. Yes, I'm willing to go through the torturous two hours' worth of traffic jams and lousy Malaysian drivers* each day just to come back each night (or evening, afternoon, whatever) to the comfort and luxury (relatively speaking here) of my own home, my own room, my own bathroom, my own living room, my own garden, my own favourite wooden chair and table beside my lovely little pond...

No more college-living days for me!

That's my decision, and although I know there will be times in the future where I will complain about having to drive all the way back home in the pouring rain for a full hour of traffic jams, and eventhough I will complain of having no time for anything else due to all the commuting, and eventhough I might limp about because of my clutch foot (ala tennis elbow)... I will be a happier person at the end of the day, because I will be back home, happy, ecstatic, comfortable, relieved, content, satisfied... AT HOME.

Hope you enjoyed my little rant. I'm sure you all can sympathise.

Cheers to my brand new plan to stay at home!

*On lousy Malaysian drivers: This morning on my way to church, it was quite slippery due to the slight drizzle, and I was driving quite fast. Suddenly the car directly in front of me came to a sudden stop, and to avoid an accident I had to pump the brakes as well. My car swerved almost 90 degrees, and I ended up facing the trees lining the road instead of the road itself. Had to reverse a little just to straighten the car, amidst the honking of the other cars behind me (I was kinda blocking the entire road). Couldn't they see I was traumatized? Why still honk? Try to understand lar! Out of the corners of my eyes I saw a little puppy (you know those toy expensive ones) ambling along, obviously unaware of the catastrophe he (or she) had almost caused. My question here is why did the car ahead of me brake like that? But I guess me speeding on a rainy day makes me an arguably lousy driver as well... And to conclude, yes I'm fine, my Jeep's fine, everything's fine, we're all fine...

Saturdays are not meant for exams

Yesterday it was Friday. Well, duh. Was supposed to be the weekend - you know, the usual watch-TV-or-play-laptop-until-3-in-the-morning kinda fun. Tough luck on me this time around. Spent last night reading through my lecture notes from one of the classes I'm taking. Why? Cos I had an exam this morning. I mean, hello? It's Saturday! Shouldn't there be a rule stating we get to sleep the whole of Saturday morning (and maybe even the afternoon) away? I mean, like, where are our human rights when we need them? Y'know, this is beginning to sound real familiar. Can't help but feel I've written something along the same lines before.

So anyway back to the sad story of my life.

I ended up sleeping at 10 p.m. last night. Woke up at about 7.45 a.m. today, drove all the way up to Unimas, and arrived at approximately 8.30 a.m. (yes, I know I drive fast). So there I was, together with all my coursemates, and it was the usual sight you see before every exam. People frantically thumbing through their notes, their eyes red and swollen from the lack of sleep (due to the mad rush to cram in everything the previous night), their faces pale and their expressions frightened in anticipation of the dreaded exam. This time round I didn't even bother bringing along my notes. Que sera sera* and all that crap. I'm done studying. So we trooped (almost single file, army-like) into the nice big air-conditioned hall where we would have to sit, solitary and silent, for an hour. I made a quick rush to the toilet and back, and we got our exam papers, everyone got really hushed, focused on the questions and all.

I finished the entire paper in 10 minutes.

Yeah, you read that right. 10 minutes. Why? There were several reasons for this:

(1) The exam was 3 pages long
(2) I didn't really memorize much of what I read, ergo I didn't know the answers
(3) I write fast - real fast

I mean, like, how long does it take to make a guess and write it down? Muahahahaha!

On another note, yesterday was the first meeting of the new Editorial Board for our faculty newsletter X-Cube. I'm currently holding the post of Editor-In-Chief (since Keeman graduated recently), and we're on a tough dateline here. We've to come up with the first draft by the 24th of September, so yeah, from here on out it's gonna be a real mad rush. We're looking at maybe 6 pages of newsletter... Talk about a heavy workload. What with the assignments (I counted approximately 6 major ones that have to be completed in the next 2 weeks or so) and the play (Argh! Headache!), I'm really running short on brain power. Anyone knows where I can go for a quick reboot? So yes, I've assigned everyone to their writing assignments (talking about the newsletter here), and I told them all to give it to me by this Wednesday. Then a couple of us will look through it and edit any mistakes (read: spellcheck and grammar), send the edited draft to the layout designers, and hand in the first draft on the 24th for the faculty advisor to check. Well, at least that's the plan.

The first thing I'll do when study break hits is lounge in front of the TV for like 8 hours straight and let my brain degenerate.

Cheers, I think.

*Que sera sera = What will be, will be...

Youtube addict!

The wonders of YouTube are really amazing... Suddenly, I can watch all sorts of video clips of things I would otherwise never have had the opportunity of watching. Yesterday (well, no, that would be 2 days ago, seeing how it's already 2 in the morning now) I spent a horrifying total of 8 hours surfing YouTube.

And now I am a YouTube addict.

You see, it all started (more or less lah) with this play project. I came with what I thought was a really grand idea, of having the Chorus in the play sing a cappella. Yes, what was I thinking? Seriously though, I really thought we could pull it off. I still think we might be able to pull it off. So anyway, I decided to go 'hunting' and 'researching' for some videos that could help me, and I so I checked out YouTube and started watching first one video, then two at one go. And that's how I stumbled upon the UC Men's Octet. Specifically, I'm referring to the Octet that performed during the Spring Show of 2003, a bunch of 7 fantastically talented young men who can sing! Man, can they sing! And their expressions! The whole bunch - they're incredibly talented! I was quite sad to see that there were only, like, 14 videos of them. It's not enough! I wanna watch more! Their harmonies are simply stunning, and they're always in perfect pitch! It's always fun to watch their videos, cause they use a lot of humour in their songs. And they dance too! The whole bunch of guys, they're just great! So if you've got some time to spare, and you wanna watch some really great videos of them, go to YouTube. Seriously, great stuff! And if you're really into a cappella music (like I currently am), you might wanna check out some other groups like the Beartones (they did a fantastic cover of I'll Be Your Crying Shoulder), and it's always fun to see how many different versions of The Lion Sleeps Tonight you can find.

And tonight (or rather yesterday night - 2 in the morning remember?) I discovered Riverdance. If it sounds familiar, it's because it's a really big thing. It's an Irish dance, and wow, watching the videos can be really addictive. How can they dance like that? So perfect, so in sync, so full of energy! I'm amazed, truly I am. It's a lot of tap dancing, but wow, like, this is the best tap dancing I've seen!

So what more is there for me to say? Nothing much, just two words really: GO WATCH!

Cheers!

It has begun!

The past two nights (Monday and Tuesday) saw me staying on campus. It's true. It's finally begun. Rehearsals for our group's play Oedipus Rex are on every Monday and Tuesday nights, from 8.30 p.m. to 11 p.m., on Wednesday afternoons, and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The actual date of the play production is tentatively scheduled for October the 4th, and have I mentioned I'm the Director? Yes, I think I've already mentioned that. Ignore my going on and on about it. It's a really big thing for me. I've never really been 'in charge' of something this big. How big? There are 45 of us, 46 if you count me. I guess you can say we're planning big things. We've got a really good, enthusiastic cast of actors, a Chorus of about 20 (maybe 25) who will be performing several a cappella arrangements, and the costumes! Ooooh! That's really gonna be something. We're thinking big-scale for the props and backdrop as well... I'm just hoping we can pull it all off... We've only got less than 3 weeks left before the big day, and we've only had 2 practice sessions so far. To say I'm worried would prolly be one of the biggest understatements of this semester. So there... Can you picture the magnitude of this project? This arrangement will see me staying on campus for the next 3 weeks or so. Oh, to miss the comforts of home... Is all this worth it? I seriously hope so. It's apparently going to account for 30% of this course's marks which, I'm sure you'd agree, is really a lot of marks.

And here are some pictures that I snapped on last Friday afternoon, where there was this ceremony in uni to commemorate the handing over of our debate trophy to the Vice Chancellor. Remember I was saying that Unimas now gets to keep the challenge trophy cos we've won it 3 years in a row? Yeah, so here are the pics:

Hidden away in a little corner, far from any prying eyes, is a 'secret' side door hidden behind one of the walls in CAIS. Walk through the door, and what do you get?

Apparently, almost a whole new world. A rather a whole new room, that no one knew existed. This is the room where the handing over of the trophy took place. Nice room eh?

Of course, with every ceremony here, you have the customary singing of the Unimas song, followed by the customary speeches by the VIPs. I had my eyes on the nice big beautiful challenge trophy the whole while.

The debate trophy is the biggest one you see on the table. Yup, that's right. That one.

Then came the actual presentation of the trophy to the university. I think you can see me standing at the utmost right hand corner. You can see that the trophy has 'crossed over' to the other side of the fence. Now it belongs to the university. It'll probably end up stowed away somewhere behind all the other trophies the university has won. It'll probably spend the rest of its days in the trophy cabinet. Goodbye nice big beautiful challenge trophy.

We also took a group picture with the VIPs. That is, the Unimas debate contigent that actually took part in the YS 2007 debate competition took a picture with the VIPs. Don't we look like a happy bunch?

After the presentation ceremony, they gave each member of the winning team a little souvenir gift bag (scroll below for further explanation). The ceremony ended with the customary makan aka refreshments. There were the customary food stuff.

Like curry and kuih jala (at least, I think that's what it's called), some spongy green cake...

The customary cling wrap also visible, of course...

And also the customary fruits that no one really wants to eat, but have to cos that's the only option...

The customary tea cups, with the customary pieces of folded yellow tissue paper. Also visible, customary porcelain-lookalike-but-actually-plastic saucers to go with the customary tea cups and customary folded yellow tissue paper...

As for me? I had my customary cup of milk tea. Doesn't it look really pretty?

And thus ended the entire YS 2007 debate journey. One of the first things I did was check out the nice little souvenir bag they gave to each member of the winning team. Check it out: mysterious looking black cloth bag with Unimas logo. Looks good eh?

And look what they gave me! Two posh-looking, Parker-lookalike pens! They look better in real life, trust me. I just couldn't get a good enough position or lighting for the pens to glimmer and glint. But they really are pretty pens. Look:

And of course, the cheque is really pretty too. Split down three ways. Still waiting for the cash.

The nice big beautiful challenge trophy that we'll prolly never see again. But it's nice to have made a part of Unimas history.

My personal wins. From left to right: the champion trophy for the Public Speaking competition (the one with the metal microphone at the top), the Overall Best Speaker of the preliminaries trophy (they gave away 10 of this), and the Most Proficient Speaker trophy (yeah I know it all sounds alike, but I think this one is for English language proficiency. They gave away 3 of this, I got the champion trophy - isn't it pretty the way the glass globe reflects the light?).

Aren't they all really pretty?

So there you have it. The pictures. That's it from me for this post. A lot of pics I know, but at least you all know what's going on...

Cheers!

Online!

I'm currently in one of the lecture halls in Unimas, surfing the Internet through one of the LAN ports here. I just had lunch at the Warung 2000 area with 2 friends (who shall be known as Ping Wei and Aril), and now we're lepak-ing in the lecture hall. What I like about the lecture hall is (1) it has Internet connection, and more importantly (2) air-conditioning! Muahahahaha! You could literally freeze in this here Unimas lecture halls. We've got about an hour and a half before our next class, and I'm actually supposed to be working on my script for a play we'll be doing in about a month's time.

What script, you ask?

Okay, lemme elaborate. I'm currently in my first semester of my third year in uni, and for this sem, one of the courses we have to take is the Reading Plays subject, which is where we study plays. One of the major projects in this class is to come up, from scratch, an entire play production at the end of the sem. So my group consists of 46 people, and we've decided to stage Oedipus Rex, one of the plays we're studying this year. I'm supposed to be the director, but for now I'm working on the script. Yeah, so that's basically the story. So far I've completed about 6 scenes in the span of a few days, and yes, I need to rush through the next few scenes. The aim is to finish the entire script by this Wednesday so that we can move on to the actual rehearsals for the play.

Okay, that's it from me this time around. See you guys soon.

Cheers!

Celebration!

It's times like this that I feel like banging my head against the wall for not recharging the batteries for the digital camera earlier. Times where I get to see my debate teammates outside of debate practices, where we just hang loose and really enjoy ourselves. And the good food, of course.

We went to Italiano's in town, just to celebrate the culmination of the Yayasan Sarawak debate competition. It's been close to 2 months of preparation, and around 15 of us flooded the restaurant, making an awful amount of noise. We might have possibly driven away all other potential customers, but we sure had a lot of fun! I had something called fettucine al salmone, which was really pasta cooked in some sort of tomato gravy, with little slivers of salmon. Slivers. Yeah. Then of course, I had the customary Coca-Cola. Altogether that came to 23 bucks. Not bad, for the atmosphere and all, but next time I'll take the fusilli. Then we spent close to an hour trying to find another spot to 'migrate' to. We had actually set our minds to Bing!, but it was so packed with people (ala sardines) that we had to move off to Scoops, but what do you know, by the time we got there they were 5 minutes away from closing. So off we were to the Kuching International Airport for... Starbucks! I had their Chocolate Chip Frappucino (at least I think it was frappucino...) which came to about 17 bucks. We stayed there until about 1 in the morning. We made so much noise and were laughing so loud the whole time we were there that a few security officers in their blue uniforms actually came out and looked at us with that look. You know. The one that says we're juvenile delinquents with nowhere else to go at 1 in the morning. Oh yeah. We rock!

Sure had a lot of fun. Too bad about the batteries though... But it sure was fun seeing ourselves making the news on all 6 local dailies... And 5 with our pics! We love the newspapers now!

Thus endeth the YS 2007 debate journey... With a big bang!

Cheers!