Day 153 - Malaysian Night 2010

WOOHOO!!! I'm still overly hyper despite it being nearly 3 hours since the event ended. The only other events that have ever made me feel so happy were anime conventions. I wonder if my tablemates snuck something into my drink... NAH!!! The night was excellent. If only the darn Irish (and pretty much all Europians) did not have to close everything and chase us out by 12, we'd be able to have a longer event and probably throw in a free style dance session just to blow away all this excessive energy still inside me.

And to think I was part of the backstage crew as the props-in-charge, which means I do all sorts of heavy lifting and running around, which theoretically should have burned me out. Imagine if I was only part of the audience. The swelling energy would probably cause a blood rush to the brain and pop a few vessels.

Let's take a trip back in time to 29 January 2010, the day we conducted the only full rehearsal with complete props and costumes. Honestly, despite the multiple mistakes (some of them my fault), it looked seriously good, since the mistakes were all just equipment problems and mistakes in setting up. Performances went on pretty smoothly with minor mistakes that were easy to spot and rectify. And since it was carried out with the same surroundings as on the actual night, I can say I was confident that we'd have no problems.

The next rehearsal which took place this morning wasn't so great though. Compared to the previous day, a lot more problems arose from change of plans, and the performers were rather zoned out. A friend of mine made so many critical mistakes like moving in the wrong direction or almost bumping into her partner. It was funny but we had a problem.

When rehearsal ended, I began to worry. The pressure was obviously setting in, so will things really go as smoothly when there will be an entire crowd watching them? Well, hard to say. After rehearsal, we settled final arrangements and decorations and then went back home to prepare. With my traditional Chinese outfit on, I marched back to the Astra Hall, only to march back home when I realised that I had forgotten my ticket. And a good thing I did, which I will explain later.

The VIPs were 5 minutes late... and I was pissed as hell. I hate it when that happens. How are they VIPs if they can't even be punctual!? All attending lecturers have already been seated long before the VIPs arrived. Okay, they finally arrived, 10 minutes late, which was already a HUGE setback. Our schedule did not allow wasting time, especially since we had to clear up before 12am later. They were brought to their seats accompanied by traditional Malay drummers and I have to admit they were bloody annoying after listening to the same beats for the 20+ time. And perhaps it was my mistake due to location but they sounded very unsynched.

Then it was time for the Dikir Barat performance. And it was really nice. Although I didn't really get the lyrics... or the meaning of their actions, they were awesome. It's like listening to Japanese songs. You don't understand shit of what they're singing, but you like it anyway. Nice rhythm, and cool, talented singers.

Then, the usual boring speeches, although we totally cocked our heads when the dean told the Irish, "Can you organise an entire cultural event that introduces so many aspects of your country while still maintaining high grades? I sincerely doubt any of you can!" Hah! Too true! Ajay's speech was okay this time, seeing as how he wasn't allowed to be informal, but it was definitely better than the unmotivating speech he gave during the slave auction. Sigh... I wanna listen to the Orientation Day Ajay again! He was freaking awesome and I can honestly say that I respected him from that day on. Recently, it was just meh... even though private conversations with him were always enjoyable.

Next up were several performances while dinner was being served. Our vice-prez was awesome with his guitar and style. The dummy three who made my life miserable (but my job funner) by constantly changing their number of singers and hence, number of mics. Settled that rather smoothly. Then the dummy four who kept changing types of mics. At first, it was 2 wireless and 1 stand. Then , it changed to 2 stands and 1 wireless. Then, it changed to depending on the situation. In the end, they used 3 mic stands, because both singers decided that they were shaking too much to hold the mics.

More Malay songs, but I was too focused on eating as fast as I could to listen. However, I am grateful that they finished ahead of schedule, thus freeing us more time for cleaning later. In fact, they finished so early, we had to force a 5 minute break before the next performance. And the contemporary dancers in their white single-layered dresses were freezing to heck already. I actually lent one of them my hoodie because I found it too warm to wear. I hope she felt better. Considering the performance after, I'd say she did.

Before the dance began, I was suddenly given the job of scattering flowers across the stage, which I did, knowing full well that clearing work later will be a hell of trouble. The contemporary dancers were very graceful and flexible, but they should have at least dimmed the lights considering the romantic melodies they used and the pure white outfits they wore. Still, beautiful. Much better than this morning. Clearing the flower petals after that was backbreaking, and I was doing it with the light on, so everybody could see the idiot desperately trying to clear the stage in under 2 minutes.

Then, it was choral speaking, where multiple races will do a random performance and then end with a speech and choir. First up were 3 Malays singing Rasa Sayang. The main singer was so cute because she was so shy up there. Ah... how I missed listening to that song. Next was a friend of mine singing a well-known traditional Chinese duet song which title I've forgotten. What I can say is, "WHY THE HELL WASN'T THE CROWD SCREAMING!?" His singing and character on stage would have made CLHS boys scream like mad, so what gives!? Then, it was Indian dancing. Compared to what I saw later, this was nothing but still great as a warm-up. Finally, they went ahead with a sappy speech about unity that was actually very true. I will not repeat their words because certain racist people will just bash what they said. M-A-L-A-Y-S-I-A!! They had to scrap the flag because the flag would have to start off folded on the floor.

Then, a 10 minute break before the sketch. The initial plan was that desert should have been served by then, but since the cooks screwed up, we were delayed. However, the choral speakers had also finished ahead of schedule and bought us some time.

Ah, the sketch. The reason I've been sleeping late, asking for help, and proving myself a lousy Penangite for the past week and a half. It kicked start with a video introducing the cast with damn funny scenes. Everyone's fav, or perhaps the most outstanding part was the introduction of Li Ping, the glamour girl. I've known that senior for 3 months since she's in the same Japanese class as me, but I have never thought her to fit the glamour girl character so well. In fact, everyone screamed when they saw her. Funniest scene would probably be the Star Athelete introduction, when the teacher used an assault rifle to fire instead of a pistol. We admit that we were too cheap to invest on a model pistol, but hey, it was funny, so who cares?

The sketch was about unity. An Irish exchange student joins the class at the same time as the Merdeka performance interclass competition. He is introduced to all sorts of traditional performances as well as other cultural stuff like games and Manglish. Finally, he suggests to mix all the dances together to form one big fusion dance. Now, as boring and cliched as it sounds, the scenes were acted out in the funniest ways possible, and I mean FUNNY. Just imagine the crowd laughing at almost every joke we pull.

The first, as always was the Malay Joget dance. Unfortunately, I had to engage myself in backstage work at the time, so I didn't really pay much attention. It was the typical joget dancing but they were pretty good having trained for months. I really didn't get much epic-ness from that one, other than the fact that it was better than this morning. But it might have been because of the lighting that made every action more prominent.

The sketch then continued with a scene of the Irish kid being taught about traditional games. Our gasing guy freaked out from nervousness and screwed up the gasing act. Panicking, they skipped straight to the chaktay act. Unbelievably, they actually kept the chaktay up for almost the whole scene, something they had never done before be it during individual practice or rehearsal. And we rigged nothing. It was purely based on their skill, so although the audience found nothing wrong, the entire backstage and cast had their mouth gaping open. And they even ended the scene with an off-script comedy when the chaktay flew at someone's face. I shall say that again. That was NOT planned, and we got a roar of laughter from that. AWESOME!!! It scores a 10/10 on the WTF scale.

Next would be Hime-sama's field. Chinese fan dancing. Now, this I could not miss. Very nice. They started with Mo Li Hua, a slow dance with lots of grace and elegance. I could almost fill my mind being carried away along a heavenly river created by their passive energy. And then the song changed to one of tension, like the music you'd hear in martial arts or war movies that portrayed more of chivalry, willpower and fighting spirit. Very, very nice. I wasn't given the chance to praise them though because I was required for prop moving... again.

But before the next act, it was time for the Lucky Draw. 6 numbers were drawn. 222 was one of the winning numbers. And it came out during the only time the emcees were screaming, "1! 2! 3!" Odd... A lady won a set of men's perfume. You lol, I kill. Why? You'll see.

Up next was the Sabahan dance. I'm curious as to why this dance had so many first years participating. Of the 7 people performing, 4 were 1st years. Ah well, they were really nice. And I made a joke about how one of my friends (mentioned at the top of this post) did not screw up this time and actually did everything perfectly. Yes, I am a meanie. Also, I totally appreciate the dancers for scattering their gold papers in front of the stage, making it a lot easier to clear after performance.

Then, it's hip-hop. How is this Malaysia? Well, my friends, you don't live in atap houses or wear cheongsams all day do you? So, there was obviously a need to represent modern Malaysia too, which explains hip-hop. The stars of the show were my two seniors who are unrelated by blood yet share an uncanny semblance to each other. And our boss lady (the Malaysian Night Organiser!) took centre stage as well. The dance was a mix of cool and comedy, with the guys solo being funny and the rest being serious. I also found their cool, arrogant look very convincing. Good show, good show.

Then, lucky draw 2nd round. On the 2nd last draw, my number came up and I went on stage. They asked for my ticket (see why I'm glad I went back now?) and I showed them the number. And I won..........a set of perfume for WOMEN!? (see why you shouldn't laugh now?) In the end, the committee helped arrange a trade between the two of us and settled things. Yay! Unfortunately, it wasn't done publicly so... I hope nobody remembers...

Now then, for my favourite performance, which is also the longest - Indian dance. Our president's an Indian, so that was a given. It was long, and complex. I'm amazed they remembered all the steps. The dance was 10 minutes long and involved so many different moves and scenes, like a Bollywood programme. Seriously, some of them CAN quit medicine and joing Bollywood, like Ajay. Yes, our great prez joined and was perhaps the best male dancer I've seen all night. Well, he did coach the entire cast of Indian dancers, so meh... Well, what I found most unforgettable was Ajay's expression during the guys only dance, but his expression throughout the entire performance was perhaps the most unique and unforgettable. His smile was just weird. A confident, fun and happy smile... no, I can't really describe it, much less attempt it, but it was certainly a mix of those three with something else.

The following scene featured my PHAIL creation - the gold plated mamak stall that obviously had no equipment to serve anything, except maybe teh tarik, but still it served every kind of dish mentioned in the NO POK video. Then, funny scene, funny scene, more funny scene. Pirated CD vendor was awesome. Also another good pick. And they served real food by the way.

The last performance of the day was the fusion dance, mixing short parts of each dance mentioned earlier and adding in a chorus dance that was repeated thrice. Said chorus dance is freaking addictive and I shall find the time to memorise it. Yes, I have the footage but I'm not allowed to show it because it was taken during rehearsal. Anyway, the dance overall was epic. And the music really made me proud and happy to be Malaysian. The best part in my opinion was the Sabahan dancers' part. It seemed like they moved the least, but something about the dance made them very attractive. And the finale saw every dancer gathered to the front of the stage carrying the banner that read "Malaysia Through Our Eyes". Su-te-ki. I almost screamed "I LOVE MALAYSIA" on the spot.

And then it was random photoshooting time and staff thanking time. Strangely, the backstage crew did not get a photoshoot and I am not happy. :( And then clean up and then cabut by 12am.

That marked the end of Malaysian Night 2010. I hope our 3rd year seniors enjoyed their last Malaysian Night in UCD. I never got the chance to scream into the mic, "On behalf of the 1st years, I would like to thank the 3rd year seniors for their guidance, support and friendship!" Oh well, I might get the chance on the actual farewell day.

Oh, Chinese New Year is coming soon. Gotta go settle all the preparations for PMCSA CNY dinner, if they're holding one this year. Nothing has been mentioned so far.

Day 144 - Week's End

Man, what a week. Two dissection practicals, a German language class, a mamak stall prop and announcement of our provisional results. Awesome start. I couldn't even find the time to study.

Lectures are the usual tranquilisers. The only difference is the strength. I had 2 modules I looked forward to this semester. Cardiac Biology and Personal and Population Health. Unfortunately, I got Dr Thompson again for Cardiac Biology... and she is probably the most boring lecturer this semester. P&PH will only be interesting later on when they teach psychology and ethics. For now, it's statistics, statistics and statistics.

On the plus side, I happen to always be sitting at the side which does not smoke, use coccaine or have cancer. I am LUCKY!! XD I hope my luck persists until the end of statistics, where hopefully, they'll stop using the class as examples.

Dissections were a whole lot better than lectures. The dissection room lecturers do a much better job at teaching us, always explaining things properly and occasionally humouring us by forgetting things. Thanks to them, we feel less pressure. However, one of the lecturers make us feel defeated. He has a degree in Archaeology, and he's teaching us anatomy. The scary thing is, he does not need to refer to books and can tell us the names of every part he points to, sometimes ending the sentence with "But you don't really need to know this yet." And the names ain't easy. It's like talking to a real life Dr Black Jack, except that he's not a doctor.

German is bloody crazy. Out lecturer came into class and spoke to us in full German. And she expected us to understand what she was saying. And she's MEAN. The first thing she did was force everybody to memorise each other's names, birthplace and current area of residence. We're not talking about a class of 5. It's a class of 12! How do you expect us to remember all that when we're already struggling enough to ask them in German!? Sigh... This is so different from Japanese. Next term, I'm not taking languages anymore, except Japanese.

My results were crap. End of topic.

And I was assigned the job of making a mamak stall for Malaysian Night. And as a last minute addition, I was appointed assistant computer and PA in-charge on that night. The reason I was appointed was so that they would have a substitute when the main guy in-charge performs. Whatever it is, I'll do my best. On the other hand, mamak stalls and swords are two COMPLETELY different things. You can't just assume I know how to build a cardboard house just because I could make model swords!!

Finally, a joyous news. 3... 2... 1...

FINAL FANTASY XIII LIGHTNING EDITION, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

*Beijing Olympics fireworks x10*

*Rolls around the house.*

*Bounces around the house.*

*Makes dents around the house.*

*Gets kicked out of the house by housemates.*

*Continues to make dents everywhere outside.*

Now then, pics.































It's mine! All MINE!!! MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 140 - I'm still keeping count! XD

Right... Winter break is over and it's time to force myself out of bed and get to class again.

Firstly, a summary of my adventures in UK. My initial plan was Manchester, then Sheffield, and finally London. Change of plans because the flight was delayed and the train to Sheffield from Manchester only ran once an hour. Plus, it was friggin' expensive. So I skipped Manchester and headed straight to Sheffield.

My first day was spent listening to music and watching anime at Khai's dorm, since it was getting late and Sheffield was COLD, even in the day. And I thought Dublin at night was bad. Daytime in Sheffield had almost the same temperature as a Dublin winter night.

Well, there wasn't much to see in Sheffield. Just some art museums, the Wheel of Sheffield and nice hilltop and countryside views. What's nice was the thick snow on the ground and the heavy snow that fell one night. Ah ah, it would be so awesome to just sit on one of them hills with a romantic partner watching the night scenery of Sheffield city, so long as you don't freeze to death first.

I guess the best thing about going to Sheffield was getting anime from Khai XD ...CRAP! I forgot to get Summer Wars!

Now, London was pretty good but pretty disappointing at times. One word. RENOVATION! Almost everywhere I went, there were construction workers fixing pipes and rebuilding stuff. The House of Parliaments, Westminster Abbey and Tower of London had construction work going on here and there. Well, at least I still got to visit both places.

Buckingham Palace was closed off during the winter, but at least the Changing of the Guards still happened every alternate day and I could watch. Hyde Park was empty so I actually wasted my time visiting there. If I had gone to Kensington Gardens (which is just across the Serpentine Lake) that night, I might have spotted someone drowning. It came out in the news.

Oh, I also regret not bringing more money along. Things were cheaper in London, some from a few cents to a few euros cheaper than Dublin after conversion. My next trip will probably involve more visits to Oxford Street.

On my final day, Ethie took me to see the arcade and an anime shop. YAY! Stuff we don't have in Dublin. I finally got to play Para Para after so many months!

Lastly, I sat at the airport for 12 friggin hours waiting for the flight because my Oyster ran out of credit and I couldn't go anywhere else. Not that there was anywhere else besides Oxford Street. But I was near broke anyway. I ended up finishing "Kannagi" and "Earl and Fairy" before even reaching home.

Today, I attended my first two classes, but pretty much just brooded through them.

UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

And my mid-terms fall on the 2nd day of Kitacon, so there goes my chance of attending at all. BOOOO!!!!!!!

Day 116, 117 - Christmas Day, St Stephens Day

Yes, it's a pretty late update, but I wasn't sure whether to mention this.

Well, Dublin is pretty much deserted on these 2 days. The only people you'll see are beggars, hobos and people like me who have nothing to do but stroll alone on the streets of the empty capital. The usual crowd and traffic are reduced to less than 1%. Even the night life in Dublin had more activity than these 2 days. Shops are closed, buses don't operate, families snuggle in their warm houses.

I had expected something to be going on, like events at a mall or park or something, so I decided to go to town. That's when I learned that buses do not operate on those days. The same for taxis, but they're too expensive to consider anyway. The only option left was to walk and so I did. It's surprisingly easy to get there. All I did was follow the main road for about an hour and I arrived at St Stephen's Park, which was closed. Unbelievable! They even closed the park!

And so I headed to O'Connell Street with little expectation. It was worse than I thought. Only 1 shop was open along the entire road which takes 15 minutes to traverse on foot. Luckily, it was the shop that sold the cheapest baguette in Dublin. Lucky! At least I wouldn't have to starve walking back.

Like an attempt to further dampen my mood, it began to rain. Foolish heavens. I may not like the wind in Dublin, but the rain is always welcomed. As my response, I played Motteke Sailor Fuku at full blast. I needn't worry about disturbing others, since the path from the city to UCD was entirely devoid of human activity.

Too bad I couldn't buy any sweet wine. Then I remembered the carton of grape juice I had back home. A lousy replacement, but since it's sweet and it looks like wine in my French housemate's wine glass, that was good enough. After that was just a whole day of sweets and anime. An excellent otaku Christmas, I must say. The perfect otaku Christmas would, of course, be a cosplay Christmas party.

While I'm at it, I might as well summarise what I've been doing up till today. Anime, manga, video games. Details?

-Naruto
Not bad, but Bleach is better. Contrary to rumours, I think the second part is not much better than the first. Sure they killed off some characters, but they revived most of them later. And Sasuke isn't really that despicable yet. When people told me that fans of the manga began to hate Sasuke, I thought he killed Iruka, Kakashi or anyone important, but all he's done is say, "I'll destroy Konohagakure!"

- Seitokai no Ichizon
Now this is nice! It's a parody-themed anime that makes obvious parodies. The jokes are funny and the characters are lovable. Kinda sad that there won't be a 2nd season, or so they say. And I'm gonna have to learn that pose! "Konjitsu no Seitokai shyuryou!"

- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
Not too bad overall, but it's not my kind of anime. I actually thought this was a parody anime. Turns out it's a romance anime that just features an otaku. Tch! Disappointing but since I already started, I didn't feel like dropping it just like that, so I finished it and the 2nd season.

- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Purezza
The first season was better, but I am amazed how many ways they can interrupt the kissing scene. Every time you think "There's no way they can stop it now!" BAM!! Door/window breaks, phone rings, secret agents rush in etc etc. Seriously! Just let them kiss!

- Toradora!
I see what the hype was about. I have to admit that it is an excellent piece of work. I don't like romance but I enjoyed this so much that I forgot to sleep! Seriously, all the lead girls here are WEIRD. They give you this weird impression which I can only describe as "You'll never want a girlfriend like that, but you'll never regret having a girlfriend like that." It's the first time something made me wonder what it feels like to be in love. Well done. I express my regret for not having watched this when it was released.

- Umineko no Naku Koro ni
The title came up in Seitokai no Ichizon, which prompted me to try. Since I couldn't find Higurashi, I settled for Umineko. The OP and ED themes were very appropriate although they suck as songs. The story is basically a mind battle between a human and a witch, where the witch continues to create impossible crime scenes while the man seeks to disprove the existence of magic by applying logical deduction. Interesting concept, but the delivery was kind of confusing. Basically, a serial murder case has occurred on a secluded island, and the man is the only one of the victims who didn't believe that it was done by magic, so the witch challenges him to deduce each crime scene. And she will keep repeating the incident as many times as it takes until the man surrenders, so it's just a repetition of the same case with minor changes such as order of victims, location of murder and surviving members before the last murder. The witch calls it "eternal torture". I don't really understand how it is so. I mean, if I was the guy, I'll just keep retrying until I get the right answer. I do have to admit that the conditions she set make the crime scenes ungodly difficult to solve though.

...That was a surprisingly short list. Ah well, Naruto took me 3 days and all the anime took 1-2 days so no time wasted at all :)

Nothing new for games though. Just continuing FFTA2 and some of the replayable games.