Our in-house Superstars, Rendra and Shereen managed second place in that duet talent search (like Malaysian Idol, but less famous) finals last weekend. It wouldn't have really mattered but for the presence of their biggest fans, the people of lembah beringin, who braved the wilds to show support for their fellow locals. That's the kind of college spirit that we seriously need.

Well, it helped that they are now RM 6000 richer.

Anyway, congrats guys :)

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The Music Club is hosting its own talent search, prefering to call theirs Battle of the Bands 2005. Having seen the rehearsals, one could conjecture that they will have to search long and hard for talent.

I'm kidding of course.

The event will involve 8 bands, including a group made up of the dining hall staff. Which has caused some people to ask: "Will we be having dinner tonight?".

Other interesting snippets from the line-up: There'll be a girl singer, a teacher drummer, a turn-table expert, an expected winner and two of the coolest emcees this side of the DH queue.

Your interest piqued? Then don't be late. Friday (that's today!) 8.30 pm. Great Hall.

" I missed it! I missed it!
My blog anniversary! It was the third of february and... I missed it!
argh! "

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Trivial celebrations aside: a handover, 371 days and 6000 blog visits later, I am hereby no longer the secretary of the student council.

Which brings up the question, am I still the secretaryman? or does the self-established moniker belong to the post and not the person? considering my successor himself is of the male persuasion.

I will dwell on this dilemna later.

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Indeed, we have come full circle, our tenure as Student Council members of QM (Kyu - Em, KYUEM, geddit? haha) has ended leaving nothing but happy memories, new found freedom and no excuse not to hand up that assignment on time.

The handover itself, conducted by the venerable Mr Zaidi, was fulfilling in its attempt at closure for the old board and an introduction to the fresh faces and their equally untainted drive.

It consisted of the naming of the old board (where we get our certificates and metal paper weights with our names engraved on them), followed by the introduction of the new board (where they get their letters of appointment plus a special gift from the outgoing SC), then a speech by our out-going president, Mr Ahmad (Zawawi) and lastly, the final Student Council movie.

Personally, I thought the movie was somewhat of a letdown compared to the others, and I duly apologise if I hadn't met your expectations. For one who usually thrives on last minute work, this time I just didn't have enough. Maybe I am getting too old. Thankfully this handover didn't come soon enough. ;)

And oh, each student received a free calendar bigfatcup/mug (the mug had the full 2004 calendar of events printed on it) courtesy of the Student Council (we supplied the design), AliHussa sdn. bhd. (they ruined the design. and overcharged us) and the college (they footed the bill.)

This was Friday, the vote counting was on Thursday, the voting itself on Wednesday and the Manifesto Nights were the Monday and Tuesday of that same week. As always between the vote counting on Thursday night and the announcement of results on Friday afternoon, the news always manages somehow to slip through the cracks of secrecy.

My response to the line-up? Overall, I am pleased in the assurance that this group of 15 will contribute greatly to the college. Althought a small point of contention does arise in the fact that they only boast 4 female council members (one less than ours) as opposed to the overwhelming majority of damsels to dudes in college. Again, it is a very small point of contention, and any arguments about it is pointless as this disparity arose from a democratic voting system.

Gladly, calls for a recount, rumours of vote manipulation and the spread of money politics were absent in this election. It was all clean, all fair and all dull. =)

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Now relegated to the ranks of the back-benchers, I do wonder what I've got to show for a term's commitment to the blue book (that being the college logo, if you've been paying attention).

Perhaps its the long-lasting friendship of 14 students who shared the same unique experience and perception of college as I did.

Perhaps its a well-paded personal statement, a stepping stone and catalyst to greater things (as shallow as it sounds).

Perhaps its a different outlook (am trying to avoid using 'paradigm shift'. goodness, can one get more cliche?) on how things work and reaffirming my decision for a life of service (that may not be a cliche [yet] but its still vomit-inducing, i know.)

In any case, thank you my fellow council members: awie, taj, akmal, beng, ibu, muKRish, ash, hazim, ijah, ise, ken, johan, liza and capek. Thank you friends, people of QM (I like the sound of it, so sue me.) and Blogger.

Finally, thank you to the Readers of this Blog! (especially to you, you, you, you, you and you. and no, I didn't forget you either! and those people who constantly tag!) Your deafening shouts of "update, you lazy bum!" is what motivates me to post, post and post somemore! woohoo! love ya all!

And as a reward, I hereby commit myself to keeping this blog alive. (until further notice. heh.)

secretaryman, out.

Just last week, another theft was reported in college. Another laptop had gone missing.

But this was no ordinary theft. No sir, unlike the others, this one was done by professionals.

The criminals came in, dressed up as TNB workers, drove past our unsuspecting pakguards at the entrance, went to a chalet, tricked a student into going somewhere else, then drove off with the goods.

The student, suddenly realising something was amiss, ran to the entrance, told a teacher, went on the chase, but the criminals were already long gone.

The police came, did their routine CSI thing, interviewed the witnesses and left, assuring the college community that they will do their best to apprehend the suspects.

And that was that.

Some questions were raised following that incident :
1) What the heck were the PakGuards doing the whole time? We have more PakGuards per square metre than monkeys, and still these things happen. Pak Guards subject parents and students to all kinds of verification excercises (just short of doing a full body search), and when it comes to supposed Electricians making an unplanned unscheduled suspicious visit to the college, they let them pass without the slightest hassle.

2) Were the previous thefts really done by students? Have we been wrong all this while and pointing the finger in the wrong direction?

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In any case, lets take extra precautions with our belongings and lock our doors always always. Who knows, the next disguise the thieves might use is that of a Government employee! But then everyone knows that the Government's just brimming with crooks anyway ;)

To paraphrase George Santayana: A college without a memory is a college of madmen.

A great many memorable things have passed since my last entry, each one another fine addition to the history of our infant college.

I would like to start with the Great Sapphire Landslide Victory of Bangsawan 2005.

This amazing house went home with many an award for the night, including best props and backdrop, best costume, best script, best actor, best actress and the most coveted prize of them all: best drama. This came as no suprise since Sapphire's offering, to me, was the personification of Bangsawan. It was a tale of forbidden love, faithful servants, royal curses and of course the meddling of foreigners and their deceitful ways.

Having sat through their impressive offering, some may ask why they didn't make a clean sweep of all those hampers.

The answer would be that Sapphire, although adjudged the best overall performer, still had some strong contenders. This came in the form of Diamond, who collected the prizes for best director, best lighting and sound and best supporting actress. If Sapphire had beaten Diamond, it was probably only a marginal victory since their Diamond's drama still managed to captivate the audience despite starting at the sleepy hour of 11 pm. The premise itself is unique (at least to me) as it told of a vengeful bride princess, whose husband was killed on their wedding day, who seeks to reclaim her sovereignity. Between the excellently directed opening fight scene and the heart-wrenching final battle, our princess goes about disguised as a man, and accidentally wins over the heart of the daughter (the role that won best supporting actress) of her hubby's killer.

Not to be outdone, Topaz, last Bangsawan's big winner, managed a best choreography award and best supporting actor award, for which they are very thankful for. Topaz went on stage and performed what was suspiciously a similar plotline to previous bangsawans. They argue reinterpretation and continuity, I argue 'where's the originality?'. hehe. Their trademark silly antics, ridiculously funny lines and sixties pop music went down like a house on fire with the judges (who were affiliated with TV3's somewhat funny comedy troupe, scenario).

The only low point of the whole Bangsawan was Garnet, or rather Garnet's cold dismissal from the awards sheet. What was touted as the most entertaining Bangsawan in recent memory didn't bear fruit for this house as they came back empty-handed, quite unjustly so, as many would agree. But the Garnetors themselves didn't complain as they left the hall in the knowledge that they had done their best. Stand proud Garnetors =)

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Referring back to George Santayana, an occurance that would want to be erased from recent memory is the case of the madman. Or rather, the case of the madman who allegedly urinated in the male TV room.

Talk about paradigm shifts. The deposited liquid is allegedly a student's. The motive, in response or retaliation to the warden's disagreable ways. And the result, total shutdown of the TV room until further notice. Not to mention the cleaning up and disinfection of the room.

The thing is, the teachers and staff were so quick to jump on the conclusion that a student did this in protest. Maybe its my sense of goodwill, but I cannot imagine that a student, especially one of ours, would do such a thing. If they had made a song to mock the warden, I would have believed it. If they made jokes about the warden, I would have expected it. But to urinate in the TV room as a show of protest ? Come on.

Besides, I've personally witnessed a cat marking its territory in my room one idle sunday morning and it smells as bad as our toilet. Why can't it be a cat, or one of the many monkeys that have started a new wave of invasion who did it ? Why must the blame be on the students automatically ? Heck, why can't it be the Warden himself who did it. Its no secret that the Management is unhappy with the students constant "abuse" of the TV rooms. (Apparently "abuse" in their definition is well, actually using the TV rooms. Go figure.)

Its also been heard that our hardworking mr new warden goes around looking through every nook and cranny to find even the smallest dust particle so that he can tell off the students. Now that dude's a certified madman.

Not suprisingly, so far no parties have come forward to claim this act of terrorism.