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Garnival and Swimming Gala

Two upcoming events which I am highly anticipating! Garnet has done a good job promoting the event - you can see posters practically EVERYWHERE! With catchy lines too - clever use of the letter 'G' there promoting squad..Hahaha..It somehow makes me realise that we don't really use the letter G that much in our daily lives. So it feels funny seeing all these sayings like "It is Goming" and a logo of Batman with the phrase "Garnet Forever". Cool stuff.

(Veritas has also heard from certain *reliable* sources that many teachers *nudge nudge* have been complimenting on Garnet's effort. Now, for more brownie points - make sure it's as great as it seems to be!! Yeah Garnet, you can do it!! *wink*)

Needless to say, I'm psyched for tonight! Can't wait to see what they have in store for us :D I did hear something about a rumah hantu though..That would be interesting ;)

As for Swimming Gala, it's going to be held on Monday and Tuesday afty (3rd and 4th April). Events include the compulsory races and relays of differing techniques (butterfly stroke being the WORSE, IMHO). However, do keep a lookout for the Men's Water Polo - it's bound to be splash-errific! (haha!). Too bad for the girls though, you only have 'sukaneka' kind of activities planned for you. Muehehhee...

Just come down to the swimming pool on those days to support your houses alright! May the best house win! :)

Some college updates!

Okay, as promised this is the mega-awaited college update you guys have been pining for! Hehehe.. Sorry it's not really afternoon anymore as promised, but the camera did some funny things with me. Nevertheless, here are some pics of college! Yay!

Behold the fact that I'm not that much of a good photographer (compared to the likes of Teck Kang and the gang) - I dropped out of Mr Foord's photography club last year, to my own disadvantage...Muhuhu..But I figured you all would like SOME pics no matter how ugly they are, no? ;D

++ The sparse jungle ++

Remember that earlier post about the jungles near our college being cut down? Well, here's some pictorial proof of the tragedy :

FLASHBACK : Remember these green stuff?




Okay, so I cheated! It's not really the REAL flashback - it's actually the still-untouched jungle behind the tennis courts, but at least it jolts some memories...buek!

Anyways, it's kind of sad that we didn't take some time and appreciate the beauty of it while it was still there. Since it is now all reduced to -




*Yes peeps, it IS indeed, a sad sight*

It doesn't look half as bad as it really is - it kept on raining the whole day! (hence the soggy trees :P) But I can assure you people that it looks far WORSE than that on a hot sunny afty, when the sun reflects the earth and it looks like a big patch of orangey substance. Yeesh!

Besides that, we also have the construction in front of the DH. Although I've kind of noticed that they've stopped working this past few days. Perhaps due to the monsoon?





This one is not that bad actually, since we DO need the new buildings (don't ask me what they are for actually..No friggin idea!) But as a common fact - all construction sights are NOISY and SMELLY. Everytime I pass by this place I'd be holding my breath while doing a 100m sprint so that I don't have to inhale the elephant poo-ish scent this place so fondly smells of! Thank god for air-conditioning in the DH!!

++ Some other, slightly smaller changes ++



It took me a couple of walks down this walkway to realise that our clinic now has a 'roof'! Small contribution, but still...On those rainy days, and you're as sick as a dog - you'd be thanking you're lucky stars that you don't have to get wet (and increasing your degree of sickness) thanks to the roof :D Hahaha..

(you can so tell that I have nothing else to update about :P)

And oh! I love this little thing that Arvindd has created during his manifesto to win the hearts of us, lazy bums.



It's a italiano-cafe-billboard sign that writes the daily menu of the DH! Yippee! Thanks for the great innovation pal, you DO know that was one of the reasons you won right? Hehehhe..Kidding! ;)

(but seriously, don't stop doing this ok arvindd deary? *bats eyelashes* It's such a long walk to the notice boards... :P)

And that wraps up this edition of mega-updates. Do come back next year for the next update yea? Hehehehe, joking ;)

Let's talk about ME!! (Strategies to deal with whiners)

Picture this : You have just finished your first mock exam paper, and you exit the hall feeling upset about your performance. You think you haven’t revised enough and feel guilty spending the last few hours of your preparation time playing games/chatting/reading magazines instead.

Along comes Mr Kiasu/Mrs Perfect and starts whining out loud how question 7, part A was tricky and how he/she might have lost 2 marks because she wrongly analysed it and is now doomed to failing. Or worse, he/she cries and you feel bad for them and feel obliged to offer your shoulder of comfort to them. They sob, you try and make them feel better.

The day results come out, it’s an A for the cry baby and you get a C. You feel awful, angry and plain upset that aforementioned drama queen exaggerated about his/her inability to answer the exam questions and is now happily batting his/her eyelashes, bashfully saying that it was pure luck and surely there was a mistake. He/She doesn’t bother comforting you, and you’re left to deal with the disappointment yourself.

Common situation in KYUEM? You betcha!

Lets face it peeps (especially us girls), most of us fall under this category – the attention seekers. If you’re the kind of person who can’t keep a problem to yourself, if you love to pore over every fear and emotion in exhaustive detail, face it – you’re addicted to attention. You may think, “Hey, it’s not a big deal, after all it’s not good to keep everything to yourself right?”

Well, sorry to say it’s a YES and NO m’dears. There’s a vast difference between sharing your problems with your buddies and being a constant stress cadet who constantly leans on anyone and everyone as crutches!

Attention Grabbers – Are you one of them?



You know you’ve got an addiction to attention if you constantly:

*Call your friends not to say “Hi!” but because you want an agony aunt.
*Complain to anyone and everyone about how busy/unlucky/unwell/unhappy/unsatisfied you are.
*Could not conceive the idea of keeping a problem like a fight with a boyfriend to yourself – when a problem arises you feel the NEED of giving a blow-by-blow account to friends and expect them to analyse them and offer their feedback.
*Respond to every story a friend shares with something similar that happened to you.
*Have trouble being alone
*Always feel as if you’re in crisis and can barely remember the last time someone asked how you were and you said “I’m great!”
*Exaggerate to get sympathy – like the situation mentioned above.
*Take on responsibilities you shouldn’t take – then complain about how stressed out you are and how problematic being in demand is.
*Engage in prima donna behavior – throwing hissy fits, storming off in a huff, slamming doors and bursting into tears.

The underlying question is, how do we balance being open towards other people and being labelled as a drama queen? It’s obviously unhealthy to constantly be stressed out, and not being able to live on your own – how do you expect to survive on your own when you go overseas? Do you expect to find sympathetic people for you to lean on everywhere you go? And what if you can’t find one? What will become of you then?

Breaking the habit
Fortunately, we can TRY and reduce our dependency on others’ with these simple first steps :

Zip your lips Stop hogging the conversation. Fight the urge to dominate the conversation or directing the conversation towards only one subject – YOU. Sure, you were woken up by the warden 20 minutes late for your maths class, burnt your toast, locked your bag and keys in your room by mistake then slipped and fell on a patch of mud in front of your chalet while you were sprinting off to class. You will definitely feel the urge to tell people of your horrific misfortune; however, recounting the events to everyone you meet will only increase your irritation. So, take a complaint break. Your sanity AND your friends will thank you for it!

Control your responses When you feel absolutely helpless and the need to talk about the situation arises, try saying “It upset me” instead of “I’m depressed/devastated”. Remind yourself that no matter how unpleasant it is, you WILL get through it! It is the complete opposite of what many of us do – we tend to regard ourselves as the victim, which encourages us to whinge and complain and feel as if we have no control over our lives. Take charge and control your attitude and responses, you will find that you can, in some way or another carve your destiny and ensure you’re indeed happy, despite your problems.

Tune in to the positives Happiness is not something that slaps you in the face – you have to tune into the things that make you feel good; such as the morning sun streaming into your room, the pleasure of knowing you look good in that shirt and satisfaction on finishing your homework in good time. Always look at the bright side of life – a negative outlook on life would only make you feel as if the whole world is against you when it actually isn’t! It’s all about perspective – change that, and everything changes.

Forget your fears When we’re obsessed with worries and our mishaps, we become self-centred and forget about the people around us. Therefore, to avoid alleviating your concerns, programme yourself to let go of fearful thoughts without judging or identifying them. Don’t let them affect you – ‘Strangle them at birth’ as Mr Conquest would put it. If this fails, try counting breaths until the thought passes. Make this a habit, and you’ll find your fears starting to lose their control over you. This will leave your mind free to focus on the finer things in life which bring you happiness, joy and comfort.

All in all, let us all try and be better people and stop weighing ourselves (haha, punny!) down with self-pity (especially since exams are coming around this time of year!). Look at the positive side of things, and keep depressing thoughts at bay. Hopefully there will be less people whining after any examination after this yea? :)

The demolition of KYUEM's Flora

It's a cruel thing, really. I'm not quite sure why this is going on, but the heat has come to the point that even the most unobservant fool (like yours truly) has realised this sad fact..

The pristine trees which give our college the identity of a jungle are being chopped down. As I write this, the whirring sounds of their chainsaws penetrate the otherwise, peaceful hum of our quaint college.

The trees behind the boys chalets (you know, those BIG HUGE rubber trees that used to obscure the view) is now reduced so much, the blue of the sky (and the scorching sun!) can be seen now. It's THAT bad!

It also doesn't help that the wide open ground in front of the DH is also undergoing construction. Hence, more trees are being chopped. Rumours say that they're building new labs because we have insufficient labs around here. Some college-peeps have been heard saying "Oh no!! Now we won't be able to see the front gate!" (a.k.a FREEDOM)

If this goes on, there won't be a jungle anymore. The heat is going to fry our brains like eggs on a hot pan. Lembah Beringin won't be 'berangin' anymore - we'll be just another Cyberjaya/Putrajaya. Uwaaaaaaaaa!!

How I wish I had my camera around to show the extent of the damage...*sigh* :(

The long awaited Bangsawan Post!

My humble apologies for the delayed post, so many things to do, so little time!
(perhaps I should've listened to you, Nick about joining as a senior..Haha :P)

Anyways, BANGSAWAN was GREAT! Honestly, it was waaaaay better than last years - especially since all houses won something, since let's face it; NO ONE likes to go home empty handed right? ;)

So, the first house to perform was Sapphire with their usual rendition of the empire of Salsabilah and it's royal family. This time, it was about treachery in which the Sultanah herself has supposedly betrayed the trust of the Sultan while he was in battle by having an affair with the 'Pendeta Istana'. All hell breaks loose, especially since the own Sultan's mother (victoriously acted out by Syrrushaqwa!) had an unspoken vendetta against the reining Sultanah. Accompanied by her naive daughter, they manage to influence the Sultan to believe this lies and he decides to blindly take their words whole. It has a tearful end when the Sultan finally stabs the Sultanah's pregnant belly, and a curse breaks out - killing everyone on stage (a funny sight saw our own Firdaus Rahim dying a horrible death! haha!) leaving only the Sultan alive. Tragic death of innocent souls, a classic! Sapphire managed to cleansweep all the female awards - Best Actress to Amira Anis (second time! Woot!) and Best Supporting Actress by Wawa. Besides, that Sapphire also grabbed the top spot of Best Drama and Best Director. Yay!

Next was the House of Reds - Garnet. The story had a very colourful approach - with backgrounds that immediately caught our eyes (a sudden contrast to Sapphires soft blues) and the costumes were really grand! Anyways, the story was about this Sultan who felt that his own men were plotting against him, so he feints his death. When it becomes obvious that there was indeed, betrayal going on, he came back to life and sorted out his men. The loyal ones joined his forces immediately to fight with the King and it all ends with them frozen in action as they try to win back the throne. The highlight of the show was seeing Ozair's hearty laugh - and of course Syafi'e as one of the pembesar (I think!). Garnet, with their amiable house-spirit managed to win the People's Choice Award (first time held by SMS-votes in College history!) and also Best Supporting Actor - for Pi'e!

Up after the short break (where we refilled our tummies with oh-so-yummy Karipaps and Popiahs), was the house of Diamond. Speaking as a Sapphire-an, this was one drama I was looking forward to, especially after their breath-taking performance last year (as for you juniors, go watch the VCD in the RC to marvel at their performance!). Boasting actors like Nasyitah, Shahirul Syafiq and juniors like Nuddin and Farhana, they really pulled it off well and won a total of FOUR awards - Best Props, Best Costume, Best Dance and Best Technical. The story was about a rich merchant's daughter who has premonitions that after she marries the man of her dreams, things start to turn bad. The Sultan gets annoyed that he wasn't enlightened on the existence of a fair maiden, and thus seeks revenge.

Last but not least was the best crowd-amuser of all - The Great Topaz! As usual, they didn't leave out the comical bits that make us yearn for Topaz's performance; although it WAS a bit more serious. Finally, there was a 'jalan-cerita' where three childhood friends cum brothers journey to become kingsmen. When one of them finally succeeds, the other two left behind find it hard to accept their failure, especially Megat (brilliantly brought to life by Zulazwan!). His envy turns into rage when he also loses the chance to win the village sweetheart's (Dalilah) heart to this so-called 'buddy'. He starts to poison minds and it finally leads to murder and regret. Truly captivating performance, especially when Totok quoted the line "Lauk sepinggan, kongsi berdua!" Whoaa...that one shook the audience really good! It's no surprise then that Totok won Best Actor and Topaz also managed to grab Best Script for the night!

Oh wow, talk about a recap..Haha..

Now, for pics..You can go to Poh Teck Kang's blog for more pictures as these were taken from there too!


Some of the Sapphireans posing together


The Garnet Sultan and his soon-to-be betrayers


A terrifying moment as the Sultan displays his fury..Yeeks!


Topaz's dancers - and it was so nice to see BOYS dance for a change!! :D

Last but not least - the SUPPORTERS!! Without you guys, there would be no meaning to the performances :)


TOPAZ


DIAMOND


GARNET


SAPPHIRE

Kudos to the Cultural Club for organizing such a smooth event. Here's to a memorable Bangsawan which shall be cherished for years to come, and may the juniors continue this tradition just because it's FUN! :D

Important Announcement

As there has been an impostor using my name at the tagboard, I will stop doing so from now on. At least until the person gets a life. So in the meantime, ignore anyone who appears on the tagboard using my name.