Darkness enveloped the college last Sunday. It was by far the longest (4 hours +) blackout in recent memory. And it was raining heavily too, greatly augmenting the post-apocalyptic effect.

Conveniently started right before Maghrib (and the subsequent fastbreaking) all the way till near midnight.

Dinner was a romantic affair, with tables illuminated by little red candles and the odd car headlights from the dining hall kitchen. The most interesting bit was when groups of people decided to loiter about the acad blocks after dinner, enjoying the cool breeze, playing with their eveready powered torchlights and listening to the meditative pitter-patter of the last surviving raindrops.

Of course, with the lights gone, the guards had a harder time of monitoring the students' nocturnal activities. Which is worrisome considering the escalating reports of students involved with the notorious 'Couples' (in the words of Saruman, "I'm not referring to a pair of forces of equal magnitude acting in parallel but opposite directions"). Petty things aside, what was even worrisome was the AS Thinking Skills paper the next day and the aforementioned Oxford interview. With the power out, how were these students going to revise? *sob* *sob*. (if you must know, they didn't. since they couldn't. Some lucky kl-dwelling buggers actually went back home because of it. sissies. heh.)

Reports later showed that the blackout extended all the way to Kampung Kubu Baru (wherever that is).

After that major power failure, there was only one other blackout, but it was just a brief lapse no longer than a minute on Tuesday. So far, its bright lights all the way now.

Two weeks ago, on Thursday, the halls of KYUEM were graced by the arrival of dignitaries from one of the more distinguished palaces of academia, Cambridge.

They were here to interview 20+ hopeful applicants for a variety of courses: mostly medics, engineers, maths, econs and law (in that order).

There were four interviewers, the most notorious one being Dr. Nava (famed for having made someone cry last year. Someone from this college.)

Maybe it was the Mr. Small hospitality, or maybe it was the dining hall lunch, but luckily the interviews went suprisingly well according to the survivors. (a good interview is where no one comes out crying.)

According to Mr. Small, the interviewers commented that they enjoyed the sessions with the students here. That's got to be a good sign, right ?

Looks like we're probably going to have to erect more pedestals for the lucky ones who get in.

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The Oxford interviews weren't as exciting. What do you expect from an interview centre dubiously named Quality Hotel. (of course, to its credit, the place is reasonably beautiful, and a few minutes walk from Sogo) To those that remember, yes it was the same hotel that served our royal guest last semester. The lunch with the embarrasingly ungraceful cutlery use. ;)

This interview was also much smaller, with only 7 bold applicants hailing from this college (1 medic, 1 maths, 2 engine, 3 econs).

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Not satisfied with torturing us with interviews, the great brains of Oxbridge have also decided to break our will with extra tests. The Thinking Skills Assessment was unleashed upon all Cambridge-applying engineers last Saturday at Sunway College. The Maths and Econs people were handed their equivalent subject papers then too. Their Oxford counterparts have their own tests or essays later on.

AS for the Medics, they will be sitting for the BMAT paper next week. Horrors!

All in all, the results will be known by mid-December, early January. Ah, they just won't stop torturing us.

The Wi-Fi craze is back. Well, its been back for quite a bit now. All chalet computers now come refurbished with a wi-fi network card (that queer looking rubber antaenna behind your cpu).

Actual internet connection is, however, optional.

For those lucky enough to be blessed with net (that all-important link to civilisation) they have found that despite the wonders of 21st century technology, the wi-fi still adopts certain characteristics of its ARPANET predecessor : The occasional annoying downtimes. The downtimes are occasional, but the annoyance, all the time.

The IT department claims that in time, the connection will be fully operational. They're just fixing a few bugs here and there.

Right. The biggest bug, I believe, is the one buzzing in the IT Exec's room. Don't mind me though, I just don't like insects very much.

On a slightly more joyous mood, I just remembered the URL for the College temporary website.
-> www.kyuem.edu.my/tempsite <-

Go on, give it a click. I know you want to.

Sapphire has their own website.

http://sapphirekyuem.cjb.net/

See? told you they're moving up. At light speed. :)

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BTW, there was yet another literature trip to the Actor's Studio, Bangsar today (Lit + Mr Fellender = the coolest thing to ever hit the college. Yes, even better than Western Wednesdays.)

We watched Life ... sdn bhd 2 and wow. It was really really funny :) I totally agree with their tagline "If you don’t see another play this year, you must not miss LIFE... SDN BHD 2". So true! Perhaps it was a trip OUT of college, but I haven't had this much fun since, well, the last literature trip. Heh. ;)

But, my point is really, that on the way back (at the infamous Sungai Buloh stop), one of the juniors following us (actually the only junior) was stopped by a bunch of people. They asked whether she was from KMYS. To which she answered in the affirmative. Then they asked whether she knew Pn Ain. To which she answered in the negative.

Two things struck me. Do we KYUEM-ians (bloody toungetwister.) project a certain instantly recognizable vibe? Is it the been-too-long-in-the-jungle look that is so positively a college thing? Or are they just psychics?

(logically, they probably saw mr. fellender with us, but that conclusion is not as interesting as the jungle-look theory. heh. )

Second thing. How can a current student not know Pn Ain. This is embarrasing. Admittedly I sometimes (still) get confused between Pn Ain and Pn Shiela and Pn Ju. But at least I know they're there. And they're our teachers. Lovely teachers.

Perhaps we should have a Teacher Awareness Week. =)

Sometimes, I wonder whether the current students of KYUEM will ever live up to the expectations put on us by the teachers and the ALUMNI.

I worry that we'll never live up to their legacy. That we'll never be momentous enough to fill their shoes.

Sometimes I worry that we just don't care enough.

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Perhaps its just pre-exam stress, but things are in dissaray. Nevermind that the Great Topaz house is in decline. Or that people are taking out books from the RC without registering them. (Personally I do not doubt this ever happening before, but the fact that the staff are actually checking every book that is taken out goes to show the trust they place in the students.)

Mr. J (housemaster of Topaz) has been widely dissapointed in the performance of the Topaz members to a point where he canceled a house meeting because he feels that "the students don't have enough commitment."

A consolation would be the ray of light that shines forth from Sapphire House. Arguably, after a sweeping victory of the IAW (Islamic Aspiration Week), they've been on a a winning streak ever since. A statement from Veritas Induction Week Edition ( college newsletter, or tabloid really) could possibly explain their sudden meteoric rise : "... Sapphire hardly pools its great resources...". I guess they were out to prove the writer wrong. OR the current team of Housecaptains Izza-Azrin have a very very good future in human resource management.

As per Garnet and Diamond, they too are gaining prominence but not as obvious as Sapphire. Topaz was actually second in last week's Mini Marathon but nobody remembers second places.
And, I digress, despite being of a higher quality (resolution and artistic wise), most people were of the opinion that the previous year's movies were more substantial in their impact.

With SC and House elections coming next year, some teachers already worry that there is no obvious choice for SC President among the juniors. Heck, they claim that there even isn't any probable short list. This, they cite, is a far cry from the times of Black (play imperial march.mp3) and Nik Nazmi (he's running for King's NUS rep. Good luck Nik!) where the words SC PRESIDENT were printed on their foreheads since they stepped into college. Heh.

Well, anyhoo, its the Ramadhan Break now. A 3 day weekend. College is half-empty (or half-full or twice bigger than it need be. pessimist, optimist and engineer respectively.).

Happy fasting all!

p/s : The association formerly known as AKMATYS has a new website. Here. There's lotsa links to SUPER (to the power of n) seniors' blogs etc.

p/p/s : As for our own college website, it should be www.kyuem.edu.my but is currently under construction. Saw the testsite (but I forgot the URL! argh.) and it was alright. For a college website. :)

After a really long and horrible 7 days, students of KYUEM released a collective sigh to mark the end of the HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2004.

The event, which had a happy cat for a mascot, saw many activities lined up almost everyday just to make our hard-working students busier than they already are.

Week-long activities included the notorious "healthier" food in the Dining Hall, where salt, sugar and all other anti-health things were kept at a minimum. For some reason oil never made the list. In fact, the chicken and beef slices seemed to be drowning in that stuff as opposed to just wading as they usually do.

Then there was the daily quiz and exhibition, which included, among other things, health issues.

On Tuesday our college was visited by Dr Ismail Mohammed, who gave a speech on "Youth Health and Nation Building".

Wednesday and Thursday was the 3 on 3 basketball. The futsal-on-the-field was held on Friday and Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, MUSCOM organized a blood donation drive. In the great hall. Unfortunately, the air-conditioning still had not been fixed (since the Mock Exams!) thus probably ensuring the donators lost as much sweat as their blood. heh.

On Thursday, the Student Council dedicated cereal boxes to every chalet. Yes, for free. Why? Because we care. We do. :)

Friday, during assembly (the air-con was finally healthy again.), we showcased the entrees for the interhouse health-themed movie competition. The judging was done by 4 Sc members (one from each house), Pn Rog and Abang Lan. Topaz was adjudged the best movie (again), Diamond (which I personally thought should've won) second, followed by Sapphire and Garnet.

Topaz, Sapphire and Garnet touched on obesity (with similar themes: fat boy likes girl, loses weight and either dies, grows thinner or fails exams.)

Diamond outshone the others because their movie was about mental depression. There were two characters; an optimist and a pessimist, and how they go through life in college. It is by far the most impressive movie i've seen made in this college. Way to go, Diamond. =)

Prizes for the quizes were also given out during assembly. Besides the normal hampers and cash prize money, the winners also walked away with return tickets to Midvalley and/or Tanjung Malim courtesy of Student Services. =)

Then Sunday, the supposed highlight of the Week, was the Mini Marathon. It was 7 km of tarmac and muddy trail. Roughly 65% of the students participated in this uber-exciting activity. Although most would just prefer to be martials (sit in one place and jot down the participants' numbers. no sweating involved.)

Sapphire won both Healthiest house (number of runners finishing the race with the earliest times) and Most Participative House (number of runners. hum. duh.)

That's that really. A-levels begins this Thursday (or was it Wednesday?) with Chemistry AS practical. Time flies when you're having fun, eh?

Garnet succesfully defended their title this year with a stellar performance from an all-junior cast against the more experienced 2/3 senior Sapphire team.

Garnet was comprised of CP director Abby, Iman and Hizami-Earl-Jones.
Sapphire fielded Dan (the junior), Izza and the great Aaron.

Not suprisingly, Aaron Singh, having lost miserably last year, came back with renewed gusto to win the coveted Best Speaker award. Not unlike Wilson Tay of last year.

While Sapphire was strong on style, delivery and composure; Garnet led with the points. The judges final decision was a 2-1.

As cliche as it is, last night was truly a heated debate. Literally. We were not blessed with the services of the Great Hall's airconditioning services as they were down since the mock exams.

We were only able to provide a meagre replacement in the form of table fans (about 20 of them) placed strategically around the hall.

Audience turnout? Better than last year. Much much. :)

Health Awareness Week starts Monday.