Ho ho.

I've been afflicted by a kind of malady. A malady (or the lack thereof). Get it? Heh. I thought it was pretty clever.

My mail program has also been afflicted by some kind of virus. I've stopped using it and used Entourage instead. Somehow, there's an archive of all the emails I sent during my first term in SMU. I'm quite surprised. I sounded positively enthusiastic about everything then and I'll admit that I sounded quite impressive in my emails organizing the SMU Ministerial Forum for Vivian Balakrishnan back then. I've obviously grown since then.. probably a lot more than the short year that has just leaped by.

I went to Newton the other day. I ate tulang and mutton Steak. My lips were red and the teeth were red too. I also had sugar cane to drink from Ismail Fruit Juices which is a damn suggestive name for a stall. Imagine if one day the fruit part of the name fell down. Then it becomes Ismail Juices. How much would you pay for that?

The monster had a name, and it was Software Engineering!

My life, for the last one week, has been heavily revolving around the same preoccupation that has obsessed almost all year 2 IS students. The Software Engineering Project. Let me recount the life-enriching lessons that I have gleaned from this project.

a. I learnt that smoke breaks are between 5-7 minutes long and are the most productive time for stand up meetings. I am unfortunately not part of this meeting. I may have to rethink my position as non-smoker. Right.

b. My thoughts and speech become completely incoherent after the third or fourth consecutive night in school.

c. There is a really cool shower facility on the fourth floor of the IS Building.

d. The simplest way to solve irresolutely stubborn test code errors is to just delete them.

e. The longer I spend sitting down and working, the more restless I get. The more restless I get, the more I feel like eating. Or jumping out the window.

The submission for the whole thing was last Sunday but something in me isn't really quite sure it's over. I keep looking over my shoulder for another required submission or a test code gone wrong. You have to watch out for this kinda thing.. they'll strike back when you're not looking..

do you know emocore?

Some rejected emocore song titles (inspired by the crap over last nite's supper):

jihad my heart
i'm a suicide bomber but you've already blown up my heart
i can't spell uranium without u
love bite dynamite
green grass and bomb fragments
your love's explosive but my fuse has blown
and you knew them by the smell of C4

Post Prod Party

and you measure the success of it by its post production.

Some pics of the production

pictures by Carrie!

Rama!

Some pictures to the show. Blurry though. Looking for more.

What a wonderful wonderful show

Wayang Ramayana was awesome!!

Good god, I miss everyone already. It was a bloody good show. Seriously, everything was amazing. The Front of House was gorgeous. Everyone was in place and ready by 7pm and nobody complained about it. Everyone gave the highest standards, surpassed my expectations and more.

Carrie, Jac, Tracy, Zhen Shen

Costumes and make up was simply mindblowing. The late late late hours you guys spent at Level 10 Admin Building to conceptualize, do up, sew and prepare the costumes.. plus how you guys rushed with the make up with me screaming at you guys to hurry hurry hurry.

Truly mindblowing. I don't know how you guys pulled off preparing all the costumes and props with minimal budget and time. Props to you! (geddit?)

and Jac, thanks for the gamely filling in as a model during rehearsals and for being a SCREAM of a chorus!

Yu Wei, Michelle, Emilio, Yong Hsian, Sin Gek, Bee Lian

The puppeteers and projectionist. Absolutely beautiful work. Margaret and the esteemed judges were so impressed. I saw how you guys put in so much into it. The water in the cellophane, the characterization, the hours Yu Wei spent just to make Jatayu.. and how u walked around the concourse with the Jatayu puppet.. (to get insipiration?) Honestly, solid stuff. Margaret has been praises for you since the beginning and indeed you guys should be praised.

and Bee Lian, the sheets of cloth were so well stitched and prepared, EVERYONE who came and watched was awed. It gave the stage that professional look and feel.

LN, Gerard, Jinfu, Keli, BE and Studio Comm Backstage and Crew

LN, you the man la. You led the production side of this production to full marks. You took the challenging big steps that I insisted on and turned into a magical stage. You're a strong worker and I have come to respect you more as a person and as a leader. Gerard, Jinfu, you started the set up at 9am. You set amazing standards for yourselves and you hit them despite everything that came in your way. Thank you everyone for making a helluva a stage.. Everything was spectacular.

Derek, Mira, Jillian, Mel, Pam, Kai Hong, Bai Bing, Tina

The front of house looks absolutely gorgeous. The VIP area is a harem la. The reception area was perfect. The ambience with the flames and deco.. with you guys running around managing a FULL HOUSE. Absolutely first grade. Derek, you ran an amazing front of house and please do not feel that you guys are not recognized for it. Everyone in the crew and artistic group were so very impressed.

And all the marketing stuff was so well designed and prepared. You guys met every single changes that I had to throw at you guys.. and churned out absolutely amazing stuff. Pasting up the posters... design.. going through the little changes to put into the programme booklet. Thanks for a job done great.

Tina, thank you for dealing with the sponsors for me. I honestly couldn't keep track of all the details.

and Derek, good god.. if I didnt have you for Finance and Documentation, I would have just simply died. What would I do without you? Haha.

Jovina, May, Su Jun

If I didnt have you girls to help liaise with all the cast and chorus, managing all the movement, covering every single detail, meeting up with my demands of "Where is everyone? Why is he not here yet? Who is not here? 5 minutes to Run Through! Call Jatayu back to stage! etc etc etc". You guys were the foundation that kept the whole thing together through the chaos on that day. And definitely looking forward to the POst PrODuCtiOn PaRtY!!

and Su Jun, you certainly took the challenge of presenting to Margaret and I's standards.. and faced them head on. You did spectacularly on the event day. Well done =)

Daniel, Putra, Heriza

Music extraordinaires. You guys carried the whole show through.. you set the mood. some people have complained to me that you made some of the scenes so scary with the music, they're getting nightmares and goosebumps! Extraordinary. Daniel is the man.

Brian, Guo Feng, Sue Jan, Liu Yue, Bee Lian, Sin Gek, Kenny, Varsha, the Rakshasas, the Monkeys and the rest of the Chorus

Simply the reason why the show feels so full and powerful. It is the things that you guys bring to the show that distincts it from being a mediocre student production to an excellent one and you guys pushed us into the realm of amazing. I was roused with "Kill Rama, Kill" and seriously got goosebumps looking at the rakshasas jump out at "rakshasas roamed everywhere!"

Brian, thanks for all the work with the chorus and characterization. your knowledge and expertise was much needed throughout the whole process.

and Guo Feng, haha.. you finally won the scissors, paper, stone!

Jason, Mita, Louis, Charlotte, Lavanya, Zhi Hon, Saravanan, Karen and Christina

A stellar acting cast. Thank you for being a part of this production and giving so much to it, you guys are truly amazing actors. I am humbled. Mita.. everyone got goosebumps watching you dance. Jason, your entrance into some of the scenes give some girls nightmares and your singing was simply top notch! Everyone gave 150% and rocked the stage. Karen, Christina, you truly were the perfect voices for the show. Absolutely incredible.

and thanks Louis for helping out to block, work with the different characters, and seriously go the extra mile to turn this production into a professional one.

Ja, Margaret

Ja, you gave absolutely everything into this and I kept pushing and pushing. You didn't sleep but you didnt let your responsibility as Artistic Director even falter a little. You led this show and you pulled it off. The credit is yours.

Margaret, your invaluable expertise and advise.. your long hours with us.. your coming down despite being ill and tired.. we all have learnt so much from you, not least the lesson of compassion and caring for others and going the extra mile.

I honestly can't believe that it all went perfectly. Part of me seriously wished it never ended. You guys were simply amazing, THAR003. I'm speechless.

\m/

photos soon.

the end of the secretariat.

And my term of office as the SMU Students' Association Honorary General Secretary comes to a close.

Phew.

Helluva a year. Worked my ass off (and more) but no regrets really. It was service willingly rendered and I carried out my duty well, I believe. We had our Annual General Meeting last monday on the 7th of Novemeber and for the first time in SMU history, we hit a quorum of 190 people.

We made history, okay.

Here's the coverpage to the annual report that I had to prepare for the council.



and so yea, I headed the meeting to hand over to the next committee. so all there's left to do is to hand over the email account.

yea. hmm.

strange but true

inspired by ben

[1] he can't sleep with the bedsheet on so more often than not, he takes them off

[2] he likes the smell of some vintage elevators

[3] he always takes at least two hours to psych himself up to call a girl for the first time

[4] he does not step on pavement cracks and the middle of tile patterns, when he's not too tired to care

[5] he only studies by dim, yellow light

[6] he is almost always punctually late by 10 minutes

[7] he goes for random walks at 2 am in the morning just to think

[8] he can cross his eyes one at a time

[9] he still doesn't really know the malay words for sour, salty, bitter, etc.. only sweet (manis)

[10] he doesn't know what adverbs, nouns, verbs, adjectives are. his teachers never taught him

[11] he truly believes that if he puts his mind to it, he can accomplish anything and so can anyone else

[12] he would rather fall in love than do anything else

[13] he eats prata with curry and sugar

[14] he just spent an hour doing this rather than his tonnes of work but won't stop till he hit fifteen

[15] he feels hungry... but won't touch this box of streps that's kept on his table, given to him by this girl once because he had a sore throat... instead he is going to go eat his staple of bread+nutella+butter rather than go sleep or do work