Passion is spending all your house's money to build props for some two-bit inter-house drama competition.

Passion is screaming endlessly at your very best friends on the littlest of hickups during rehearsals.

Passion is memorising a gazillion lines of script while your A2 notes lie untouched.

in short, Passion isn't just the fruit.

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The aforementioned inter-house drama is of course Bangsawan, the annual time-consuming, funds-reducing, stress-inducing Cultural Club's main (and only?) activity.

And its tonight.

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Passion can also be displayed through the act of spending one's money on glossy SC Election posters. One's parents' money to be exact. While we did not impose a cap on the funds allowed to be used by the candidates, for a simple college election, some students bring a whole new meaning to the word overboard.

But really, if he is willing to 'give it all' for the college, that can only be good for the seniors. And our Students dinner at the end of the semester.

I'm calculative, I know :)

The other posters are simply inspired. Its impressive how despite Bangsawan and the scare of the seniors' A level results, these kids still manage to put up a good campaign.

Save the littering of posters on the walkways thanks to the forces of nature, the campaign trail has remained relatively clean =)

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There you have it, a detailed analysis of the burning passion of KYUEM students. On the subject of burning, there's a little bush fire just opposite of the college and it has been so since Thursday. I don't know whether its the result of the flaring tempers, or the ominious indication of exam results gone up in smoke (or even the Veritas people's fate in the everlasting bonfire for their 'insightful' articles online. KIDDING!) but its definitely choking the life out of our students.

And there we thought just being in this college was suffocation enough. heh. ;)

Bangsawan fever is spreading! For the uninitiated, Bangsawan (the great Malay drama interhouse competition) was moved from July of last year to January, and it shalt be so henceforth. (Unless somebody can miraculously change the B's minds)

So much hype is put on the Bangsawan, which is scheduled to be on the 30th of January, that it almost eclipses the SC nomination day.

Every house is putting in their all to ensure a win, and it looks to be a tough fight. I hope it will be an entertaining one as well. Imagine having to sit through 4 plays of about half an hour each. Presented in archaic/royal malay. On a school night.

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As for the SC nomination day, rumours have long started to circulate on the possible contenders. Unfortunately most of the buzz center around the Top three posts, or as Awie puts it, the "Top Guns".

It has also been heard that some juniors have formed coalitions and parties. This is bad. bad bad bad for their batch.

We'll be sure to remind them. After the nominations. Yeap, sure will.

At least there'll be many more contenders this year as compared to last. To ensure no posts are won by default.

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BTW, am blogging this in Saad square. The WiFi reception here is excellent! I wish I could say the same thing about the reception in my chalet. Sigh. I feel cheated by the college.

One week has passed by. Quickly, I might add. In the bowels of Lembah Beringin.

A few augmentations to the college are noted upon arrival. They are :-

1) The installation of the ceiling fans in the boys chalet rooms. Its not the BIG ceiling fans, but rather the small framed one that can oscilate its directions while it spins. (if that makes sense.)

2) There are three new trees in Saad Square. Recall that Saad Square was once populated by only the beautiful palm trees and some nice grass with white flowers at its base. Then they chopped a few down. Now, they've added three more. No offence to the three trees, but lets just say they don't quite fit in with the original vegetation. For some reason, the College decided to plant three fully grown trees (they look like the ones in front of your chalets) at three seemingly random spots in the square. And these trees, they shed like its autumn! Who knows, maybe they were actually aiming for that four season's feel, but it's just not working.

3) The new members of College.
i) The new Male Warden. Nice guy, really. Met him on the first day back and he's really helpful.
ii) Dr Graham Parker. A combination of Mrs Avis Parker and Mr Graham Hanson? Not quite. But he does teach chemistry. He does look younger than his age (50+ but looks 30-ish) and with red hair and beard. Has that dashing look, especially when he sports his rose tinted glasses.
iii) Mr John H-Something. Can't quite remember his name, but a fitting description would be that he looks like Mr. B in a way. Except that he is taller. And his belly is less pronounced. Teaches maths.

4) The Admin department looks a bit different. Abg Fauzi now has his own room just opposite the Admin door. But nothing really interesting about that.

What will be more interesting, I expect is the Student Council Nomination, which is this monday! (hurrah!)

I am on an updating spree. I guess this sort of makes up for the long delay of no updates!

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So what's this entry about, Haz? Well, dear reader, this one's about the wonderful changes you will probably notice once we get back to college. I bet you can't wait!

1) Classroom Lockdown Law. - As of January 2005, all classrooms will be locked after Academic hours. For purposes of studies, club meetings and general revelry, a written permission must first be sought from the Administrative Department and a form filled out. At least two days in advance. To make matters worse, only a select few classrooms will be available for booking as a majority will be kept permanently locked after hours.

Before you start cursing the college, you've got to understand that they have very good reasons for doing this. For one thing, students have been very naughty lately. (I don't mean naughty in the you-don't-get-a-present-from-santa way, but naughty in the sense that students in pairs made up of opposite genders being caught in compromising uhm, positions in classrooms.) Its probably not that they're getting naughtier now, just that the Pak Guards have been extra vigilant in trying to crack down on classroom abuse. Furthermore, the electricity bill has gone through the roof! What with the a single student in a single classroom with the full lighting and aircons switched to maximum blast. KYUEM students are a wasteful bunch. Sigh.

On the other hand, punishing the whole college for the acts of a few is unacceptable. Besides, our students are famed for their resourcefulness, hence the "naughty" students will just find other places to commit their "naughty" crimes. hehe. Seriously, I believe the liberty of choosing a place to study is a contributing factor to the college's success thus far. Don't all the great boarding schools have some form of prep time at night in classrooms?

Don't tell me they expect us to study in our CHALETS??!? Or even, God forbid, and OVERCROWDED RC ??!? And they say they want to increase the student population by a greater margin. Diseconomies of scale, anyone ?

Just what are they doing in those GREAT MANY STAFF/SENIOR MANAGEMENT/BOG meetings anyway? Thats what I'd like to know.

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You're probably wondering now "Hey, since you guys are in the SC, didn't you guys bring it up during the many meetings you guys had? "

Well, truth be told, we found out the same day the other students did, during assembly. The Last Assembly of Last Semester. An announcement by Puan Rog. I mean, she didn't even tell us anything about it. What more to ask for our agreement. You know, I guess its just one of those things that make you feel under-appreciated (and that's and understatement! Heck, the SC isn't even mentioned in the college website. How come the House Committees are named? I don't really want to say anymore about this before I sound like a whiner. Heh).

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2) The new song.

I'll get an expert opinion on that soon and the background story to boot. To summarise (I think i mentioned in an earlier post) the new song just isn't Billboard Top 100 material. If you know what I mean.

3) The departure of a Mr Bryn Muller. The chemistry teacher.

You know the one with the boat. And the hugely entertaining jokes. or so i've heard ;) He will be replaced by a Dr. Parker. Whose teaching methods are considered different from Mr Muller's. (I think its a polite way of saying he's better, don't you? hehe) In any case, Mr Muller will be missed by students and staff alike.

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Changes. Changes. Changes. All this and add the fact that the College scored a greater number of Oxbridge applicants this time round. So far its nine nerds and counting. Alas! they might actually be led to believe that their new "lets fix what ain't broken" policy is the catalyst for all the success!

Uh Oh.

I was surfing today and I chanced upon some excellent blogs by our seniors and their seniors and their seniors ...

Click here to find an excellent list compiled by the good people of the alumni. I assume since these blogs' links are published that the authors won't have any qualms about their writings being publicly viewed. I apologize in advance for taking such liberty.

Absent from this list are blogs owned by any current student of the college. Well, obviously because they are not part of the alumni. yet. And my SUPER PLAN of listing the ULTIMATE list of college bloggers will have to be put on hold.

'Cause I'm just too lazy at the moment ;)

anyway, of the long list of blogs, the ones i've actually read are shown below. In the ascending order of random:

NikNazmi - Who? Batch of 2002. SC president. Law. Finishing his last year in King's College, London. Activist. Writer. Master debater. Also the Alumni President. Excellent blog for those who want to be constantly in the know. Visit often! :)

NizLaili - Who? Batch of 2004. Topazian. That's reason enough! hehe. Medic. Uni of Glasgow. Awesomely friendly and a role model to many. :)

Black's - Who? Batch of 2004's SC president. Medic. Studying in Cambridge. It doesn't get any better than that, baby!

I think these are enough recommendations for one post. I'll put up some more as the semester passes =)

and a quote from Nizlaili's blog :

"KMYS, a college

that holds a dear place

in my heart..."

Yep, that's about as much time we have before we go back to the ugly routine of 8.30 to 4.10 every day (save the half day saturdays).

Can't believe the 6-week freedom given to us flew by so fast. Now, on our last legs, feverishly trying to finish the holiday ascension, we begin to wonder, "What the heck have we been up to anyway?"

Well, at least that's what I'm wondering.

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Some people went traveling. Some buried themselves in books. Some stayed home and delved in horizontal jogging (luxury indeed!). Some kept on blogging. Some contemplated on whether to run for the SC. Some were working hard in motivating themselves to start that darn computing work. Some were anxiously awaiting the Oxbridge results. And some joined talent shows and became famous on national TV (yes, I'm looking at you Rendra and Shereen. Catch them on SUPERSTARS every friday night. Primetime. Only on your feel good channel.)

While we were all busy with trying to be productive, unbeknownst to us, the college was well alive with activity. Well, not the teaching department, but surely the management and student services side. The counseling room is practically flooded with letters and letters and letters from the various UK universities our students applied to. They'd need extra help just to begin opening all that mail.

Then there's the management team and the BODs. Rumour has it that the college is looking into serious expansion. Rumour has it that we're going to build new academic blocks. more chalets.

We're probably looking at a student population figure, close to 800. Again, this all is just hearsay. But man can you imagine that? Are we emulating KMB now ? More students means more teachers right ? Are they going to expand the Dining Hall too? The queue's too long as it is.
I hope they know what they're doing. sigh. at least its not going to happen in our time, eh seniors? ;) haha.

Doing a review more than a month after the actual show has its setbacks. Like sometimes not remembering what the show was about.

Thankfully, I have a super-duper good memory. And I remember pretty much most of it. There were some people on stage, right? and they were talking i think. heh.

alright. We'll start with the props. It was by far the most elaborate set I've ever seen in college (well, minus CP and bangsawan sets. I mean for a drama set, its really good. ok, I've only seen one other drama stage set. heh.) They had a staircase, the inside of a spooky mansion and a little fireplace.

Next is the acting, and it was superb :D Having a crew of mostly juniors, one senior and two stalewarts (Misters Hanson and Cranwell, also the director and producer of the play respectively, and the propmasters, and the costume renters... well they basically run the whole show.)

The sypnosis is some rich old guy dies and leaves a fortune to the next of kin. (cant remember their names now. but what the heck) This dude's a loser who's pretty much tied to his wife's g-string. You know the type. (no, i will resist the temptation to draw a parallel to a married couple in college.) So he comes with his family to the mansion (which contains a butler played the awesome mr hanson), and according to the lawyer (hizami was made for this role. or this role was made for hizami. or.) they have to follow some rules set by the deceased in order to inherit the fortune. Then some people come over. Its christmas. There's a snowstorm. They're trapped and forced to stay the night over. Throw in a sultry air-head, a deranged red indian (aaron in his most memorable performance since Basil Fawlty) and some ghosts and you'll get a most entertaining production.

The play is filled with risque jokes and enough innuendoes to make even me blush. I'd say its a refreshing change somewhat :)

Overall, i loved it. Hopefully we'll see more plays like this in the future productions of KYUEM PLAYERS.

I give it a 4 out of 5. :)

Yes, I am still alive. Albeit just barely. heh. Thank you to everyone who has smacked me upside the head asking for updates. Well, its the holidays people. Don't tell me you still want to read about the college now?!? Come on, like get a life.

KIDDING! I bet everyone's missing college so badly. Can't wait to get back to good old Lembah Beringin, eh? What with our Uni application results waiting; Our November A-level grades around the corner; and medic interviews all ready to knock the lights out of our future doctors. ;)

Yes, its is a new year. And with it, comes a new SONG for our college. Thats right, a new SONG for our college. Can't believe it ? Then let me say it again : a new SONG for our college!

Well, okay. It's more like a digitally remastered uber uncool techno version. Like how Don Mclean's American Pie was covered by Madonna. Only worse.

But more on that later. First, I've got to do an official summary of the June-Nov 2004 Semester :)
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july
13 induction week and some sponsor-based parties.
august
1 sunway physics trip 2 islamic aspiration week 14 alumni weekend 20 cultural performance september
1 interhouse debate 11 chess invitational 17 british high commisioner visit 25 evening with topaz
october
3 KMB friendly match 3 mooncake festival 4 health awareness week
november
11 deepavali dinner XX the UEM buka puasa 24 swimming gala 25 hari raya open house 26 drama "laughter in the dark"

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Now for the official commentary on the last few weeks of college. Let's see, there was the swimming gala. Which was actually just a smaller scale gala. Can't even be considered a gala. More like a little Swimming picnic. Heck, there wasn't even much swimming involved.

Water polo dominated most of the game period. And it wasn't even water polo by the rules. Then again, nobody really knew the rules. Not even the referee. ;)

The other events were some marble collecting race and row-your-butt-in-a-lifesaver-to-the-end-and-back game. Which was actually pretty fun.

Naturally, there was a seperate session for boys and girls.

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The HARI RAYA OPEN HOUSE is actually a combination of the semester dinner + hari raya celebrations (u-duh.) Suffice to say, it was "very much better" than last year's effort. (sorry dear seniors. hehe). But there is a story behind all that effort. It is not a happy story. It is a sad one. A depressing tear-jerking heart-wrenching struggle of the little guys (us the sc) against the evil forces of THE COLLEGE MANAGEMENT (echo: THE COLLEGE MANAGEMENT!).

Here's how it went: At first, our "BIG IDEA" was a grand finale for the year. A closing of 2004, exams, Hari Raya and out SC tenure, right? Naturally something as big as this ought to be held in the Great Hall. Plus, considering we DIDN'T have a great hall dinner like last year. (The UEM buka puasa dinner was a dissapointment. Dining Hall. Nothing Special. We even had to queue up for our food. No performance. Not even a speech by our new UEM bigshot.)

Then, the first snag : No Great Hall. The College Management (TCM) said it was because of the Exams (but the last paper was on the day before!) Then TCM said it was because of the Drama (Which Mr Cranwell denied. Besides it was on the DAY AFTER!). TCM told us to organise it in the Dining Hall. Considering we were still having our exams then, arguing with them didn't seem like a very productive idea. So we relented.

Second Snag : The Dining Hall people (led by the mario-lookalike Abg Zul) refuses to serve the food. He says that he's understaffed. We were upset. And we knew the whole student population would be too. I mean, would you want to dress up in your spanking new raya clothes only to queue up for an hour to get your food? NO WAY. Plus, this would seriously cripple the atmosphere of the event, not to mention the programme. This time we argued, and Mr Mario said "ok, but find your own caterers." And we did.

Third Snag : This event wasn't bugdeted for. The semester dinner was (slightly above average food. an extra dish or so. and that's it) but a Hari Raya celebrations wasn't. Why? because they didn't think we'd organise an event for Hari Raya. Didn't see it coming they said. We went WTF? (whiskey tango foxtrot) You mean to say a college that organizes super-productive calendar meetings every other week to plan and revise events made a silly mistake? the same college that emphasises Islamic values forgot the one most popular Islamic holiday in the country? we were astonished. No, no, we were dumbfounded. well, you get the idea.

Fourth Snag : We came up with our own caterer. Then suddenly, Mr Mario says that he wont allow it. Yes, you can guess our reaction (waste treatment facility?). He says that he can't allow the students being at risk of food poisoning at the hands of unaqcuainted caterers. I guess poisoning students is HIS job (Yes, there was a case where a majority of the non muslim students had a bad case of diahorea from having lunch. Apparently the lunch was a reserving of sahur food. And not to forget the incident where a student found a maggot in his chicken. When he complained, he was just told to get another chicken. The nerve!). Anyway, so we told him that we'll do the serving ourselves. The first excuse he gave was that "we students would get it all wrong like not putting the correct number of servings on the table and stuff." What kind of idiots does he think he's dealing with anyway? THEN his SECOND excuse was that they didnt have enough plates to serve all of us. How ridiculous is that ? For a college that's planning to take MORE and MORE students, that's pretty silly, even by his standards. I mean, geez.

(pause for breath.)

I bet you're pretty tired of hearing me complain. I'm pretty tired of complaining. To cut a long story short, we argued with tears to make that night as special as we could. With some help from Puan Rog of course (hey, she's not as bad as you think she is.) Abg Mario-Zul conceded, the budget was approved, and whatever second thoughts we had about joining the SC almost a year ago vanished when we saw all the happy faces of our friends at the dinner.

no, seriously.

I guess these are the little things that really matter. =)

NEXT UP => a review of "Laughter in the Dark".