A New Beginning. . .

Class has officially started already, as the September semester began just 12 hours ago. Wow, can't believe it's been more than a year since I came to ICSJ. I still remember, the first day that I became an INTI student. The first friend I made in college, J.C. The first group of people I hung out with, Naomi, Jean, Sharmini. My first lecturer, Miss Kamala. The first club I joined, Editorial Board. The first college event I went to, Orientation Night of May 2008.

I still remember, the first time that I told anyone my secrets. It was only to those few people, whom I could trust with my life. I could always count on them. I wish I could have more time with them, but life has to go on at some point and we can't be in paradise forever.

The day that I went out with friends for the first time, just for fun, was with all of you. You asked me like a normal person, with no strings attached. Not out of pity, or out of exploition, but just for the fun of hanging out. Something that I haven't experience in a long time. It felt so good, to be a friend and not a victim.

When I was drowning in misery, all of you were there to pull me out of that depth of darkness and into the surface of light. I had completely given up hope in anyone helping out of kindness, until I met all of you. I didn't want to accept it at the time, that there couldn't exist such warmth, such kindness, such sincerity... But it all changed in time. All of you successfully cracked open the shell that I've been hiding under for more than 10 years... just with simple sentences like "What are friends for?", "It's never too late", "Don't give up", "Whenever you need someone, I'm always there for you", "We're brothers aren't we?", "Your closer to me than anyone here *****". I'll never forget those words...

The first working experience I ever felt, was wonderful. The people that I worked with, I couldn't ask for better co-workers. I felt the responsibility, and the feeling of being needed. For once, there wasn't a voice that said I was useless, that I can't help anyone. I loved the feeling of being wanted. It may sound like a selfish reason to help others, but that reason has made it possible for me to be of service to others. I grew so much from the experience. Both from working as a student helper in INTI, and for working inside the Editorial Board. Thank you...

My first birthday, that I celebrated with friends instead of just my family. All of you did it unsuspectingly, that day I thought that you were just being nice and said that you wanted to throw me a party. "That it was just all talk, but still nice of them to mention that", I thought at the time. It caught me by surprise when all of you really did do the party. I felt so accepted by everyone, so appreciated. The warmth that all of you gave me, I'll remember it always.

When I was far away in a different country, feeling down, all of you talked to me online, or sent me an email. We just talked, and it took my mind off of all the sadness that was in me. I didn't feel sad at all when I'm talking to all of you. I felt free, to be who I really was infront of you guys.

So much has happened in a span of a year. Many bonds were made and broken in just a year. Some I wish didn't have to end, and some I am grateful that it continued. I've had to say goodbye to so many good friends, that it makes me grief with such sadness. I can't believe that they're gone, just like that. Some have left for the U.S.A. and some had left INTI to pursue their careers or other studies, while others have completely lost touch with me that we never speak anymore. To those close friends of mine, thank you for all the wonderful memories that we've experienced. Especially to Han Sen, Alexis, Lik Pang, Amos, Sie Hui, Jonathan, Suzanne, Yi Qian and the rest of you guys. You've been the best, and I've had so much fun with all of you. I can't believe that most of you are gone from INTI already, but even if I don't believe that fact, it doesn't change what reality is. I'm happy for you guys, truly.

After this semester, I'll lose even more friends. But I'll still have them for this semester. And I'm happy to be with all of them like Zjen Thak, Naomi, J.C., Jessica, Kiet, Sandy, Vinod, Joel, Daryl, and the rest of those who I haven't mentioned. All of you have touched my life in some way, and I hope that we could spend more days together than what's been given to us. It's a new beginning that I'm afraid what the outcome might be, but I won't know until I move forward.

Thank you everyone for all the memories that I cherished that was made with all of you...

ED BOARD Seniors and Others Farewell Party!!

Hey Guys and Girls,

Now this took place on Wednesday, 29th of July 2009. The committee of ED BOARD and I wanted to throw a farewell party to the seniors of ED BOARD who were leaving such as Alexis, LP, Han Sen, Suzanne, Han Lim, and our unofficial member, Jonathan hahaha!!

The day started with us finally deciding that we would throw the party at Windmill's Restaurant. We booked the place already, but we failed to realize that Windmill was actually a tad too expensive for our tastes. So we changed the location at the last minute to Manhattan's Fish Market Restaurant. The price was slightly lower than Windmill's, so it was acceptable by everyone.

J.C. and I were the first to arrive and so we booked 20 places for the party. After that we went for a walk around Subang Parade and looked around for a nice cake and some farewell cards. Unfortunately, all of it were too pricey so we had to scrap that plan. Instead, Sie Hui and I came to a conclusion of buying donuts for everyone instead.

Everyone arrived at the Malaysian time of course, which was about half an hour later than what we discussed hahaha!! As the price was quite expensive, most of us ended up sharing our food as the portion was quite big. LP, Sie Hui and I shared one platter which we couldn't even finish it ourselves. And the platter was originally made for two people.

While everyone was eating, J.C. and I went out to get the donuts for everyone. It was a bit of a stretch for the both of us as everyone had not paid for it so we ended up using our own money for it.

When we got back, everyone in the committee asked me to deliver a speech to commemorate the evening. Well, I had no other choice but to do so I guess. The other customers were giving us the stink eyes but who cares! It was our farewell to those who were leaving.

Of course, there were a lot of pictures being taken that night. Too much that I can't post all of it on the blog unfortunately. But I will post some that are quite interesting I'd say such as these!

Oh my gosh this is too hilarious!! Paparazzi shot!

A picture of a picture of a murder taking place haha!!

Grandpa eating style hahaha!!

Table 2 eating pose

Table 1 eating pose

Sizzling hot platter!

Foreplay during dinner!

The bill was more than what we thought. As you can see from the picture, it reached to that extent for 20 people! I guess it's not that bad, but still! After paying the bill we had another cam-whoring session for a little while before we part our ways and went home. We'll miss all of you! A memorable night for us all, especially on the holes on our wallets and purses!

Group shot!

The Jessica Loke Sexy Pose

INTI Ball 2009 - Mystical Illusion

Hey boys and girls!

Alright, time to talk about INTI Ball 2009 which was held at the PJ Hilton Hotel on the 17th of July 2009. It was a magical night indeed fitting the theme, Mystical Illusion. I was being a little bit skeptical of the night as last year's ball turn out to be very disappointing. But I decided to have an open mind as always and enjoy the night with my friends.

It cost me a bomb to prepare for the night, as I bought some formal pants, shoes, shirt, and a mask to prepare for the night. All overall cost me about, RM400++ just for that night. Least I can still wear them for presentations I guess. But of course, I'm not the worst as there were some who spent about RM800++ for the night. A night to remember for them I guess.

First off, the atmosphere of the night was, what can I say other than, majestic. It felt so much like a real black tie event, even though most of us weren't dressed that formal. I felt astounded by the atmosphere of that night. The people on the other hand, well... what can you expect from students? Hahaha! But it wasn't that bad. All of us were socializing with each other, making new friends and strengthening the bonds of old ones, and of course cam-whoring our way throughout the night!

Food was definitely better then last year's ball and they were smart enough to make it a buffet instead of a serve-in because this way the people got a chance to socialize more with others that are out of their circle group. The food last year was just horrible. It felt like I was eating economic rice. Sorry to say that, but it's true. This year the food tasted much, much better.

Next is one of the surprising things that I wasn't expecting at all. They were giving away some awards for people in categories and they called out my name suddenly out of the blue! Apparently I was one of the three people who won the most hardworking people in a club/society and was awarded with a merit award with a certificate hahaha! My pose in the picture is quite funny as I wasn't posing for the camera at all and yet it turned out like this. A few people and myself included commented that I look like a hairdresser or something ahahaha!!

Ah, performances, performances. What can I say? Some of them I really liked, and some of them I really hated. The band performances were great except for the occasional sound system problem. Another was the dance performance by Zjen Thak and his partner which was phenomenal, despite a slip up near the end of the performance, it gained great applause from the audience. The ones that I really didn't like at all were like the act put up by the MC. It was just horrible! I mean seriously, did they really paid for the guy to be MC and do some magic tricks which wasn't interesting at all?! Man, at least the foods good or I would have asked for my money back.

I think overall, the night was a success as they succeeded in learning from the mistakes of last year's ball, except for the MC. Oh well, nothing in this world is perfect right? I'm glad I went for the ball this year as I made some imperishable memories with my friends.

I'm back!!

Hey people!!!

Yesh! After a long one month absenty I'm back to the blogging world! But not just yet though. My internet right now is killing me so I won't write any stories until tomorrow. I'm also thinking of changing the blog layout as well. We'll see how it goes as I have all day tomorrow to fix it, finally!

So many things are left untold, so many things needed to be told. I'll do my best to update everyone on what's been going on for the past two months, though I might be skipping some of the stories. We'll see how it goes. Tune in tomorrow folks!

Beau Bristow

On the 2nd July 2009, Beau Bristow came to ICSJ to put on a show for us all. It was quite an interesting night. The concert was suppose to have started at 7.00pm but of course, Malaysian timing got it to start at 8.30pm instead. Luckily the people who organized the concert were smart and told everyone that it was going to start at 7.00pm when it was actually going to start at 8.00pm. So overall, it started half an hour late than expected.

I was a little bit skeptical on how it was going to be. I've never actually listened to any of his music before so I wasn't sure of what to expect. I didn't really had a group of friends to go to during the concert at the time. But later on I found some people to hang out with so that was okay. I was thinking at the time if I would regret going to the concert. There were plenty of bright lights and people there so I would just end up worsening my migraine even further. But I just said what the hell as I already missed a lot of events because of the migraines.

The music by Beau Bristrow was incredible. He was quite good and was good at improvising even when there was something wrong with the PA system. I ended up liking the concert very much. Alexis, Jessica, and many more people including myself were standing infront cheering and clapping so loudly together. We were doing all sorts of things that night. The rest of the audience on the other hand were quite... dead. They were so passive. I mean a clap or a wave once in awhile would have been great, instead they just stared and when the music stopped, they clapped for awhile and stopped again and listen to more of his songs. Repeat that step throughout the whole concert.

When the concert was over, I went to buy his CD to get his signature as well. I was short on cash that night so I had to borrow from Suzanne who was also borrowing from other people hahaha! Anyway I managed to get his signature but he signed my name wrongly. Instead of writing Qisti he wrote Quisti. But of course that was to be expected I guess. A lot of people had written my name wrongly before and still are. Could be worse. Overall I really enjoyed the concert regardless of the audience's attitude. It was a good night and I got my first ever signatured CD! Yay!

MPO Experience

Hey all,

I'm back to blogging now at the request of a few people I know and of my own will of course. I miss writing down everything so that I won't forget all the things that has happened in my life so far. Good times and bad. So, it's time to start out fresh again.

On June 28th 2009, I went to my first orchestra concert with my Music Appreciation class. It was a blast!

Concert hall of the MPO

The day started out with me meeting up with YQ at the KTM station. It was my first time going anywhere by KTM in Malaysia, so I was a little bit confused on what I was suppose to do. I just followed whatever YQ was doing. We were the only ones dressed formerly on the train which was quite funny as a lot of people were staring at us. Especially to the guy wearing formal with a cast on his hand hahahah!

Afterwards when we reached KLCC, we met up with Kar Wei and went out for lunch as all of us were hungry. I suggested that we ate at Kinokuniya and both of them were stunned to find out that there was a restaurant inside Kinokuniya. The waiter sent the wrong order to our table so we had a sort of free tasting session before we got our real orders. It was quite delicious hahaha!

We met up with everyone outside the concert hall to experience our first orchestra concert. Well, it was a first time for most of us. Some of us had been there before. The security were quite strict with the dress code and Kar Wei was wearing sneakers instead of formal shoes so he couldn't go in. He had to go and buy some new shoes which costed a bomb to his wallet. Sad for him, but at least he got some new shoes to wear hahaha!

The concert started quite nice, the audience was quite at the beginning and the music just flow into our ears. That of course lasted only a few minutes as the rest of my classmates started making noises within the concert hall. I was surprised that we didn't get the boot out of there. The orchestra music showed great variations within mood and tempo and it was just amazing to see all of those people playing their instruments together, making beautiful music together.

After the first few songs, the guest violinist, Mr. Li Chuan Yun then joined the orchestra and it turned from a symphony to a concerto. They played music from the romantic era and the violinist showed great expressions through his mastery of the violin. I could see and hear from how he plays the violin, how expressive he was into the music. It was just incredible and I was in a state of awe and amazement.

The violinist was in a good mood that day I guess, as he played an extra piece for all of us in the concert hall that was not stated in the program. He played a piece by the great Paganini, which was filled with feelings and emotions. We could see that his hands were tired already from playing all those notes and songs, but yet he still continued to play for us. He inspired me musically, through the greatness of his songs as well as his dedication to music.

I will never forget this experience. My first orchestra experience. What I've learned from it will always stay in my mind as well as my heart.

Updating!

Hey everyone, I realize that I haven't updated the blog quite often as I promised before. Sorry about that, going through some hard time right now so I couldn't write much. I still am going through a hard time but I should start updating the blog at least once in awhile. Anyways, picking up from the last post! I'll post a few stories all in one.


Terminator Salvation

First up is the Terminator Salvation movie that I went to watch along with LP, Han Sen, Naomi, Paul and Jerusha. The movie was quite okay. It did justice I guess. A lot of action pact inside of it. It had a lot of moral values within it as well as a lot of explosions ahaha. We managed to get the last six seats of the movie during the premier which was very very lucky ahaha!

We went there by three cars, one driven by LP, one driven by Naomi and one driven by Paul. Naomi, Jerusha and Paul went ahead first to get the tickets as Han Sen and I were waiting for LP to finish his class. Originally we were going to watch another movie which I've already forgotten what it was, but when we heard there were seats available for Terminator Salvation, we jumped to the opportunity.

The movie was quite good. Naomi and Jerusha never watched Terminator before so we had toeducate them during the movie ahahah! LP enjoyed the movie more than he expected. He's considering of getting the movie in Blu-Ray disc format. We thought of maybe making this a once every two weeks kind of thing, going to the movies together. After the movie was over and done with, we were thinking of going for some dessert but everyone felt tired so we all went home after that. Next story!

ED BOARD CAMP JUNE 2009!!!

Yes people, you read correctly! It was the first time ever done before by ED Board. A camp getaway! The camp was a great success although we had some problems along the way.

First, the bus tickets. We didn't manage to book them in time so they had to leave the bus station from KL Central to Genting at 1.00PM instead of 10.00AM. That was still okay though. While the rest of them were going by bus, Alexis and Jessica were going there together by car to prepare the food. LP, Han Sen, Sie Hui and I went there way before anyone else as well to clean up the place and get everything ready for the others. We finished cleaning the place quite fast so LP, Sie Hui and I took a cat nap while Han Sen was cleaning the chickens for the BBQ later on that night.

When all of them reached, they were all starving so Alexis, Jessica and Sie Hui whipped up some sphaghetti for everyone to eat. It was really yummy ahaha! After that, Alexis the briefing to the station masters aka the OomPaLoomPas' on what all of us had to do during the Amazing Genting Race we were hosting for the rest of them. She gave me and Naomi Walkie Talkieswhich saved us a bundle on phone credits.

We were expecting all of them to take about 2 hours to finish of the race, but surprisingly all of them took around 5 hours to finish the games. Apparently they got stuck on the 2nd clue of the game that Han Sen and I did. The fastest team took 1 hour to figure it out ahahahahaha!!

After we played the race, it was getting late. Too late to make a BBQ. So we settled for leftover spaghettis and some mashed potatoes. The rest of the night everyone just bonded with each other. We played Dead Or Alive 4 on the XBOX 360, Grand Turismo 5 on the PlayStation 3, some Cho-Tai-Ti which was hilarious, and the funnest game of all, Mafia! That was ridiculously hilarious ahahaha! We created a whole story from it and tried to find the killer and ended up killing some innocent bystanders hahahaha!

Most of us stayed up all night until 4.00AM. Then it was lights out and everyone went to sleep. Except for me of course. I couldn't sleep too well due to a few reasons I can't really say. Anyway, I spent most of the night at the balcony, looking up at the stars. It was quite hard to see any with all the fog around that night. But when I do see some stars, it's quite nice and peaceful. I could think more clearly and enjoyed the night, mountain air at the same time. I should go to Genting more often ahahah!

The next day, LP was the first one to wake up in the morning. He began his job as a Paparazzi and started taking photographs of everyone sleeping in an awkward position hahahahaha!! But too bad the lighting was bad so he couldn't take much shots.

Everyone started waking up as Alexis's group from the other apartment unit visited us in the morning to start cooking breakfast. It was impossible for anyone to continue sleeping after that. We had some baked beans, chicken balls and hot dogs for breakfast which were delicious.

After that, everyone started showering and getting dressed to go home. When I was done, Alexis and I had a little chat while we were alone in one of the rooms. She heard that originally I was planning of not coming for the camp at all and so asked me as to the reason why. I answered her because I was feeling quite depressed at the time due to *Fill in the blank _______________* and if I went for camp in my depress state, I'd just bring everyone down and ruin the mood. After that she asked if I regretted my decision of coming to camp. I answered her no because we don't get much of these kind of chances, and I had a lot of fun at camp. We were discussing about some other stuffs as well, but was interupted by someone so we stopped there. After that she told me to prepare a speech to give later on for the ED Board sentimental moment.

We made the announcement to everyone and had our speeches ready. First, Alexis started out and told everyone of how ED Board has grown and her first experience when she joined it last year during her first semester. After that, LP started talking about his experience as well, and then Alexis made the announcement that from now on, Naomi would be the Chairperson of ED Board and I would be the Vice-Chairperson. After that, it was Naomi's turn to give the speech. When she was done with her speech, it was then my turn to speak of my experience in ED Board. I told them what I was expecting when I joined, what I got instead, how I've grown from ED Board and the reason why we had this camp. After that we toasted to a lot of things, and finally drank our glasses of sparkling juice.

The ones who came by bus had to leave then as the bus was going to leave soon. After that, only LP, Han Sen, Sie Hui and I were left at the apartment. We cleaned everything up until it was squeaky clean. We played Cho-Tai-Ti for about 2 hours before we decided to go home. It was incredibly hilarious as we screamed after almost every round when someone wins ahahah!

After that, we went back to Subang Jaya and ate at the mamak near INTI. Everyone felt drained after the trip. When we finished eating, everyone went home to rest. It was one of the best weekends I've ever had. Next story!

Mid-Term Mania!

Right after camp, I had 3 Mid-terms waiting for me the next week. First was the Music Appreciation mid-term. I was worried that I had not studied enough to pass it, which turned to be true. I did quite a lot of careless mistakes within it such as spelling errors. Urgh, coming from a journalism major that is not something fun to have. But I did okay on it I guess, even though it could have been better.

Second test I had was my World Religion which was not fun at most parts. I didn't do good in this one either as there were some things I forgot during the test. There's just too much to remember at once! I got a little bit more than half of the paper on that test.

Last test I had was on Public Speaking. This was quite an okay test. I didn't do too badly, yet not good enough either. Although I had the highest mark in my class, apparently it was the average mark on the other class. Sad... but oh well. I can only try to do better next time!

Lesson learnt. Never study last minute as you'll only regret it in the future.