Case in Point:

CIS/CILC Commencements 2009/2010 @ CILC Campus
09:00AM - 9:20PM, 16 July 2010

Make no mistake, every year's Commencements is a thing of honour and commemoration.

But this year's was just amazing, and I mean that to the very limits of the word; the best there is.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't quite looking forward to the evening's festivities. You see, I was tasked to carry the CIS Flag during the first procession and the Book of Excellence during the second.

I wasn't receiving any prize or award tonight, and if you've been for any Commencements in this sort of situation, you'll know the evening is about to get pretty dull.

I've been for every Commencements since 2006, in almost entirely different roles for each year. From the backstage crew, to emcee, to a member of the procession, to scroll runner, I've even participated in the Damansaran Commencements.

Before I go further, I just want to say: the Book of Excellence is one hefty tome, and the tray it sits on is unnecessarily thick too.

In experience and participation, I think it's safe to say this year's tops every one before.

Basically the procedure was the Procession, the Prize Giving, Tea, the Arrival of the Books of Excellence, the Commencements (Special Achievers), a Cocktail Reception and Performances in the Auditorium.




The hall layout was simple. Imagine the confines of a long rectangular box, sliced into half down the middle. The stage is right in the middle of these two and while on one end you have the multi-purpose hall, on the other you have the coned-ish auditorium.

The beginning preparations hardly presented any highlights, so I'll skip on right ahead to the Cocktail Reception.

Now by this time, I had already implanted in everyone's head that when they listen to Justin Bieber's Baby, they think of this particular Commencements and this 13 second dance routine I cheorographed in 13 seconds. Well, at least I hope it's sunk in.

The food was your typical buffet variant. The lamb was tasty, but the fried fish should be passed.

The violinists, Andrew, Emma, Kevin and another, soon emerged from their auditorium hiding places and began improvising. Such a grand vibe it gave that Jin Hern and Gabriel took a cup, placed it in from of them and proceeded to lob money into it. They weren't the only ones in the end.

Soon, it was 7:30PM and we were invited into auditorium. Though the Year 11's and I rushed in a few minutes later due to a very extended life lesson class by Miss Michelle by the pool.

The performances by the Cheras Cempakans, CILC Cempakans and CPAC Teachers were absolutely brilliant. A wide variety from music to drama to dance, all perfectly arranged and presented. Bravo CPAC, bravo.

Going back the same way, via the Cempaka bus, I had to leave almost straightaway.

Swerving round the bend, I saw Julez walking a walk and took a detour to give her a nice warm see you soon. I wasn't sure if this was to be the last time we'd meet in a long time, but I wanted to say farewell for old time's sake.

Then suddenly, I hear my name and hey before that. I turned and was almost immediately engaged in a hug. It was Joanne Ng, a friend I wasn't expecting to see tonight. We talked for a bit, but the bus was already departing. Promising each other lunch, I ran off round the corner and into the bus' cavern.

I think I'm going to actually miss that cliché piano welcome; something I'd never thought was going to happen.

---

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
"Hell, it's about time."
27.07.2010

Veiled Sun.

Spontaneous, totally improvised. Unplanned. Adaptive.

That's how us Wingmen roll. Kevin, Joshua, Muhaimin and I just don't think that far ahead. Whenever we try, we just disappoint ourselves and succumb to our inner nature of escaping the inside of the box.

Kevin organised this outing yesterday for Cherise; mostly for Cherise.

She's flying South this Saturday, if you don't know already, and if you're reading this Octopus: "Safe travels. :)"

Popped through one of the Curve's many entrances, and almost instinctively went straight into BORDERS.

Being there early and knowing no one would be here until 45 minutes later, I needed something to do. Something to occupy myself with.

After finding BORDERS selection of books typically unnew, I decided I'd walk over to Popular on the other end of the road to see if there was anything of particular interest.

On my trotting way, I was hoping I'd see at least one familiar face down the halls -- was disappointed in the end though.

Another big thought that was rolling in my head was whether I should buy this game, ModNation Racers, at the store right opposite the Popular bookstore.




It's this game that's sort of like the classical Mario Kart Racers, but with a whole new idea tossed in. You essentially "Play, Create & Share", exactly how Sony Entertainment puts it. You really design and build your character, kart and track. Complete creative freedom.

See, none of the video-game outlets in KL (at least the ones I've visited) seemed to receive a stock for it. Plus here's a little tip from me: When a shopkeeper says, "Oh, it's out of stock already" they actually mean, "Oh, I've never heard of what you said of before and probably will not again until a couple of week later."

Giving it some thought, I popped into Popular, grabbed the latest issue of EMPIRE and began reading about Inception; a film I think will just not raise the bar but run it through a wood chipper, douse the remaining sawdust in nitroglycerin and set it on fire.

Before I could decide on whether I should spend RM215 on a video-game, Keevin called. "Check if there are still tickets for Eclipse," he told me. So checked I did.

There was barely anyone there at Cineleisure, didn't expect anyone to be there actually. It was a school day, and it was just after 6:00PM.

Long story short, we got the tickets and everyone was here except Joshua.

We still had his ticket but no way to get it to him. We decided, we'll pop out through the film to get him in. You can tell our anticipation for the film wasn't die hard; thus mostly for Cherise.

Probably the only initial motivator for Muhaimin and I was seeing Alice again. Oh, yeah. ^*deepsigh

So Eclipse.


"Doesn't he own a shirt?"
- Edward to Bella, when seeing Jacob

Well it's definitely much better than the two previous films -- but the previous two didn't really pose much of a challenge to top. The action scenes were definitely better, I mean they got Muhaimin throwing jabs in his seat.

I thought the songs they chose to compliment the scenes were pretty good, but when I got the soundtrack I only really stuck to two of them.

Joshua got in the later part of the film, but I have no idea how. Didn't even see Kevin leave his seat. About sometime after he got in, he fell asleep. That said, you probably might wanna choose him to recap the film for you.

When the credits started rolling, all of us were standing up giving standing ovations. No idea whether that was for "Great improvement!" or "WTF? It ended? YES!"

Min and I went straight for the bathroom, and it was to be the first time we were in the Premiere Class Bathrooms.

They have a mirror that's a television screen that's motion sensored. Guess it's a marketing scam.

They even played soothing acoustic music. Min asked me to guess who was playing the music. I replied naturally with, "Who?" "Me," he said. I turned to him and he was facing the standingpeeplace smiling.

Strangely, all of us were wearing really formal shirts. Heh.

We went to Marche's afterwards and this really fancy place didn't allow you take photographs.

Being the model citizens we were, we took a video instead:




Link on YouTube: here

You can blame Joshua's stubby fingers for blocking part of the camera and the microphone.

We left with a picture that Muhaimin has yet to upload.

Then, the Teoh's picked me up.

I've known this family for about a decade, more than half of my life, and it wasn't who you expected it to be. In the driver's seat was Jason Teoh, riding shotgun was Jamie and Jiah Sze (Jessie) on the passenger.

A history lesson: Jiah Sze was my second best friend, ever. Jason, the third.

We went back to my place, and I introduced them to Rayne. Rayne absolutely loves Jamie for some reason, but he wasn't as hyper as I thought he'd be.

We went for a nice hour walk under the stars, and returned to the television to watch (500) Days of Summer. But before it could end, they had to leave.

It was nice to catch up with them.

Now onto Friday for CIS Commencements 2009/2010!

---

Inception
The dream is real.
15.07.2010

Damansara's IU Day '10

SAVE THE TIGERS, Cempaka Damansara's IU Day
International Understanding Day 2010

Came, saw, sat down.

The crowd hadn't flooded the hall just yet. The deco whispered simple, but gave off that sort of kindergarten vibe; the really welcoming and pleasing sort.

Not many familiar faces in the crowd. Unsurprising as most of the familiar faces were tasked as ushers, pianists, preparers or speakers.

In my row sat Gabriel, Ivan Wing (his surname's way cool, I know), Li Jin, Melanie, Kah Long and Mithrra. Ivan just got back from the UK a few days back and it was just really great to meet everyone from everywhere.

It started a little off the clock, but I figured there was more than enough time to spare until 5:00PM. Soon Aminah passed Shezmeen, the IU Day Director, the mike and things kicked off.

Next up, Brandon Liu (who seriously screams a little David Kam) went up to introduce the campaign and talk a bit about what the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has been doing with their efforts. He's the Young Executive External Spokesperson of the foundation?

Then the newly installed el'presidenté of the Rotarian Society took the stage.

The lights dimmed a little, and voilà! Performances from Cempakans. Totally expected nothing less.

The showcases were very pleasing, but I have to point out Gao Jye's solo performance. With his guitar, he performed Hallelujah and it was breathtaking. Handsdown; awesome.

Dr. Rizal as per normal gave the closing address.




Brought a bag with me just in case I bought anything. I went with the Diesel Deep Blue to hold on to the remaining shreds of my masculinity. The bag has a pretty good construction, and it’s been great for me so far. Found it in the drawer yesterday still attached to the price tag.




But inside my bag, was also something completely new: my Moleskine Sketchbook. I haven't exactly been pouring things into it -- I must admit I still prefer A4's -- but if you refer to the sketch at the tippy top, I think I was made for on hand sketches into this baby.

Right. So the following events on the field are details neither chronologically nor alphanumerically organised, but rather locationally.

So when you enter the field a nice column of tents meet you. Right underneath them, closest to the entrance, is the T-Shirt booth. Right beside it is the coupon booth. Only the transaction of coupons is allow in this part of town.



Front-side


Flip-Side

Still underneath the tents are the foods and beverages. Super varied, you got things like pizzas, coke, orange juice and cupcakes which were awesome (they even had tigers on them)!

At the corner of the closed field you had coconut bowling. Now you use actual coconuts to whack these groups of water bottles. My best record was a spare in two hits out of the five given. Total ownage. This is also where I started a challenge with Nicholas Yap to pwn in the most number of games. I won this round.

Right beside it you had the classic Pin the Tail on the Tiger.

Next to that, the carnival-esque Throwing Balls at Standing Cans. Tyen and Daniel were in charge of this booth and I played twice. Conveniently, they place a guy of your choice right behind to hands to give you a little extra motivation to speed a ball right in the middle with all your might. The aim was spot on for some real pain.

On the other corner, you had the Human Foosball booth. They place 10 players on chairs that dominate that area and without leaving the touch of your chair, you had to score in purposely very small goals. Tried this out once and it's not as easy as it seems; very fun though.

Rolling down the east side was Erich's Human Header. Here you need 2 players. There are two ways to play this game. First way is simple enough: one person tosses a ball into a basket that's strapped to the other players back. The last way is exactly why it's called Human Header; or what I'd like to call Header Ball. One player is strapped to the basket but this time on the front. He throws the ball toward the other player who then has to "head" the ball into the basket. I played this with Karyna and we should totally sign up if this game goes into Inter-School level.

Then you've got Malayandi's Lucky Draw. Using the ticket which you'll already have, you can have a go at digging into a box for the winning paper. There are three prizes here: an iPod Shuffle, a 4GB Thumbdrive and a sweet. Only the last is won more than once. You can have a second go but you need to cough up RM5. In my first try I got a back that read: "TRY AGAIN, but you get a sweet!" Gao Jye won the Shuffle in the end; mint condish.

Lastly you had the sponge throwing booth. Choose a victim, toss a wet, grass covered sponge at them. Awesome! I got elected by Kim and before I could get the poncho on, I was pelted by 5 sponges. The girl's got aim.

At the last corner you've got a blow-up castle! Pay RM3 and you can go in and out as much as you like. This was where I spent most of time after most of the crowd left and where I drew the sketch at the top.

The super highlight stands in the middle of it all: the Sumo Tent.

This is the tent in the middle of the sketch, but I didn't end up drawing the wrestlers. By that time they were just suits slumped over each other.

Farah Alia and Sheun Wern were in charge here, but Jude would occasionally pop on by to give his props as announcer and host.

Protocol: Stand, Bow, Engage, Body Slam.

Dr. Rizal had a go with the guest, Brandon Liu. There were some really epic battle scenes but I think the one I'll remember the most would be the match I participated in.




The match with Najiha "Carrot" Zahiera.






I also got to meet loads of friends who weren't on the job but just supervising the various booths and the overall performance. Some were just there to have some good fun.

Kaylyn, Karin, Audrey, Shi Fen, Gao Jye and Judah!

There were Interactors from schools all around KL, like the Victorian Institute and Damansara's sister campus in Cheras.

It was a wholly amazing event but I think if given a little more time it would've been more amazing. In the short time for preparations, they really went all out to give only the best to their guests.

In lieu of the TX2 campaign, I'm currently sketching a Tiger on the very next page. Have never attempted to draw an animal on this detail before, but it looks more like a bear or lion I think.

I'll post it up when it's done.

So remember kids, there are only 500 tigers left in Malaysia and you should do your part to help out WWF's campagin TX2. The doubling of the tiger population in the next few years.

Do your part, make a difference.

Peace out & reinvent love.

---

Inception
The dream is real.
15.07.2010

Alpha. Mike. Foxtrot.

The A-Team captures the spirit of the original series and the cast does a really good job of mirroring those characters. Overall it amps up the action, and tones down some of the campy elements of the show. It delivers a straightforward, solid action film.

The action is incredibly overthetop, throughtheroof. There's one scene where a tank gets blown out of a plane, and the whole team just ends up flying it to ground-level. There are some really wild action sequences that are just absurd, and they are scattered quite nicely throughout the film. A set-piece almost every 10 minutes? Superb.

The entire film really relays the origins of the team, and how they go about to clear their name for a crime they didn't commit.

The characters for this venture maintain their respective personalities but they still evoke a sense of realism while doing that. Their position in the military is very believable.

Hannibal is a tougher and gruffer than the original, but still captures that wit and glint in the eye I assume the original Hannibal would deliver. Face is just all charms. The name says it all, and it totally met my expectations for him. Then Copley proves that his acting debut in District 9 was no fluke, playing Murdock as comic relief and I find most of his antics pretty hilarious. Nuclear hamburger patties, anyone? B.A. is the tank of the team, but he's never the steel you'd make him up to be. The team seem more amused than intimidated in angering him. Even the badguys weren't actually afraid of him.

An incredibly fun and crazy ride, if you find yourselves at the cinemas, this is something you have to see for yourselves.

---

Inception
Your mind is the scene of the crime.
15.07.2010

Don't Cry for Me, Argentina.

The truth is: I never left you.
& so on, so forth.

First, I was going all out for Germany in last night's match, and then since I don't really support any country (and all my buds were cheering for the other team), I went for Argentina.

Unfortunately, they got pwned; pretty badly too.

I hope you've got the time for it because this is another long post coming right at you. Now that I've got that established, let me recap this memory of mine.

Friday, 2 July 2010 - A Night Under the Stars Fundraiser.




More than this year's prom fundraiser; a battle of the bands it was also.

Seeing as how they changed the venue three times due to external affairs, I was a little unmoved as to the success of the attendance.

Nothing too magnificent, it was simple, but I think they managed to rack up more than enough to start preparations for the National Class of 2010 Prom.

Although it started off on quite an awkward note (Tasha, Ellya and I were the only Cheras Cempakans attending), I made off with a slew of new friends. I've actually met most of these friendlies before in intercampus events, but never actually took time to socialise.

It was also a blast to meet the ones I already knew here, but was honestly a little disappointed when a few didn't come.

I spent most of the beginning period showing off this magic trick Johan Shah taught me. The Levitating Styrofoam Cup. Pretty mystical stuff.

Wouldn't you know it, I turned out to be one of the surprise judges. I guess that's why they call them surprise judges; I was totally caught off guard.

For the night, we were blasted away with 7 amazing bands. But only 1 would walk away a winner with RM300 and 3 would turn up performing at the actual prom.

Atlas (Winner), was unsurprisingly damn good. They've had experience in this business, and they expressed it brilliantly in their presentation. They even played two of their own compositions!

Konnection (2^nd runner up), chose excellent songs to bring up this night. Move Along and World Behind My Wall had every one finishing the lyrics.

Ticket to the Moon (3^rd runner up), played an excellent array of indie songs. Unfortunately I couldn't pick up (or remember for that matter) any of the words.

Walking away slightly deaf, I managed to spend some more time around the place.

Before I left, I even got to say: "Even with all these Christmas lights I'm carrying, I still think you're far brighter than me. ^*wink"

After another late night's sleep, I woke up into Saturday morning.

Saturday, 3 July 2010 - Cherise's Farewell Dinner & (Not)Sleep Over.




I've only ever been to Marise's/Cherise's/Janice's/Denise's house twice; once before this dinner jamboree.

It seemed a little smaller than I remembered, but still had the warm welcome swirling about it.

What a pleasure it was to see some really old friends (one of the firsts in Cempaka) here. Kah Yan, Azlin and Veronica were back and seemed great! There were some buddies here who were still in Cempaka; a satisfying sight.




After a nice catching up with the oldest of us (Momoko, Joshua, Muhaimin, Denise & Janice), we went over to watch the match.

During half-time, the house was sent back to the dark ages; total blackout. But the TV was working so all the guys were practically on their knees shouting hurrah or something.

Not wanting to see the tears, Min, Josh and I took a walk out when the score was 2 - 0. We figured Amanda Khoo (jelloforbrains) lived around here somewhere and decided to trek off into the unknown to find her residence.

It was about 20 minutes on the walk when I realised whenever the three of us were put together we always ended up going on a shenanigan of an adventure -- almost always involving walking long distances.

Amanda wasn't very instructive over the phone and we ended up walking the right way, then the wrong way and back on the right way. Her house was much further than what we were expecting.

We decided to make our way back.

Two houses from Cherise's, there sits an impressive mansion with stained glass and a strange resemblance to something shipped straight from Spain. Very cool.

When we got back, the house was still super dark.

Joshua and Min had to leave at 5:00AM so I ended up sleeping at 6:00AM. This is what happens when you've got a job and no car.

We ate at the Golf & Country Club the next day. Thanks for the great lunch, Tan's!

Denise drove us over and we all walked back.

I left at about 2:45PM with Johnathan and Melanie to the Curve. Burning time with the pool table, a couple of sticks and balls, we caught the A-Team at 3:40PM.

This isn't the entire story, but you get the pinch.

What do they say? Memories are kept in your mind, not your blogs? Nyeh, something like that. ^*smirk

---

Inception
Your mind is the scene of the crime.
15.07.2010

Spiff.

On some days (or nights), I just come up with something really snazzy to say. Because I'm a licensed P driver without the means to go anywhere, I don't really have a lot of anyone to share all these spontaneous thoughts with.

That's where Facebook and Twitter come in.

I'm not really sure how many people actually take the time to read them; I mean, with the hundreds of people they're following or the friends they've made who faithfully update their respective feeds all the time.

But the fact it's already archived for all to see and that I'm not the only one with an admiration for things cheesy and corny, warms this lame heart of mine.