"Thank God, it has ended."

- Dr. Thani, at the end of his lecture on cardiac failure.
(Yes, I really DO write down the stuff lecturers say, whether or not it's related. You never know when it might come out in the exams.)

Towards the end of my stay in KL, I used a lot of "lasts", like "last dinner with juniors" or "last Mass outing to SFX" or "last one who eats the cake washes up"... (OK, so the last one - see, there it is again! - isn't really the type of "last" I was talking about, but the point is, I used a lot of "lasts".) In fact, it reached a point where a friend from church accused us seniors of merchandising ourselves.
For the record, we weren't. The "I love Sheena" T-shirts someone suggested IMU sell at the IMU shop isn't half-bad an idea, but the thought that there was someone toying around with a Sheena doll doesn't make for good digestion. (Disturbing mental image alert!)

But, this really is a post about lasts, and the beginning of the end of this post starts, of course, with the LAST DAY OF LECTURES.

I had no clue that the lecture on Medical Ethics was going to be the last-ever lecture we had in IMU, so I was caught by surprise when the Auditorium was full. (Health Issues lectures usually are not that well-attended, to say the least.) People figured that since he is the coordinator for the Semester 5 EOS, his lectures might carry a bit more weight than they realised? People wanted to be able to take pictures with all their friends after the lecture? Or could it be what I thought to myself, finally, Prof. Paul is getting the kind of respect he deserves. I prefer the last one. (Again, last.)

I only figured out what was going on when everybody started shaking each other's hands & taking pictures after the clapping died down. And I wondered, had I known it was the last day, would I have brought my camera?

I don't think so.

However, there IS an IMU event of which I have loads of pictures:

Our LAST IMU CUP.

"I just wanna thank the Semester 5s for having organised the bestest, fairest, IMU Cup we have ever had."
- Semester 3 junior.

Grammar aside, and the fact the aforesaid junior's had only had 1 IMU Cup before this aside, it is good to receive acknowledgement, at least from 1 quarter, that we did make the effort to make this IMU Cup fair, even at our expense. When you try to whitewash the memories of the last IMU Cup from everybody's memories, it's not enough just to be fair to people - which is the minumum requirement - you gotta be unfair to yourself, too. But, that's the way the ball rolls, especially if you're holding the ball that is the organising of the IMU Cup, and I am proud that we came out of this clutching the Elephant Cup. Here's to teamwork, enthusiasm & fair play!

On a more personal note, winning the LAST CHEERLEADING was sweet, sweet victory indeed. Agreed, the practices this year were not that bad compared to the grueling regimen we went through last year - to everybody who thinks I lost weight, I'm telling you, it's either 'cos of the pharyngitis last year or cheerleading 2004 - but the emotional investment was just as much as last year, excepting the tears, and the stakes were definitely higher this year. But, I wouldn't have missed being on the M2/03 team, with its cool music, hot dances (not so hot if you're forever counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8"), gimmicks, stunts, short skirts, cheer jargon & jokes about "crab dances" and "Rahman, the duyung", and even the typical American high-school cheerleader bitchings & blow-out, for ANYTHING. To the cheerleaders, especially Yi Wei, Adrian, and Daniel, thank you for all your heart & humour. You have given me some of the best memories I have of life in IMU. Not to mention that gold medal for cheerleading means more to me than any other medal I've got.

The LAST FUTSAL game was the end to an interesting career in goal-keeping. What goals I was able to save, I owe most of them to my defenders. But, that doesn't stop me from taking pride in 2 saves: One, in Semester 3. The ball sailed over the heads of players in front of the goal. I remember thinking, I can't reach this one. (Apparently, I wasn't the only one, 'cos I remember Shamson, or someone or other, telling me, "I thought it was going to be a goal!") But, I jumped anyhow, and reached up... and managed to tap the ball away with both my gloves. It was a MAGICAL moment. In fact, it couldn't have been more magical if you played it in slow-mo and put it in a Disney movie.
The other was in the finals of this year's IMU Cup. Since the supporters' view of the goal was blocked by the players, all they saw was K kicking the ball in my direction...

"I don't think I can take this suspense anymore."
- Jan Hoong to Rassam, overhead by Adeline Teo.

The wall of players parted, and they saw the ball was safely nestled in my arms. Truth be told, I never doubted I could make that save. Either K kicks real slow, or again, maybe some moments play in slow-mo just so the ending that is supposed to happen, does happen. Players & fans, it would not have been real without you. Thank you.

I am not gonna post about my LAST DEBATE, because that ain't gonna happen for awhile. Suffice to say, YP, here's to KUITTHO & IMU Cup debate. Gang, thanks for the memories & see you in future tournaments. Seniors never die; they just go on to debate for clinical schools.

And now, it looks like I've reached the end of the end.

"Welcome to a blog that is steadily heading towards single ownership. Don’t let the word M203 at the top of your screen fool you. It really isn’t the community blog its all made up to be. Just think of it as other students periodically posting into the wrong place, and so it ends up cluttering this space."
- KenJ.

Inasmuch as the end of the world will come, so too, this blog moves inexorably from being the M203 Diary towards becoming KenJ's personal blog. (Please leave the batch picture up.) And as with the end of the world, it's best to get out of it while the going's good. So, with that, I close with this last quote:

"We toast to the future,
And we drink to the past.
It might not be easy,
But nevertheless,
These are the best days (of our lives)."
- Best Days, Juice.

Peace out!

P/S - I rock in red.
PP/S - The coolest thing about being in Semester 5 in IMU BJ: EVERYONE's a junior!

X-Linked

Has it always been our tradition to be inconsiderate?

When it comes to rants about inconsideracy.. inconsiderateness.. inconsideration.. whatever its called, you could fill a textbook’s worth with boring, derogatory, and hurtful remarks about other fellow citizens who, for the most part, don’t even know they’re being insulted across the net, if not, say, across the window of a disgruntled motorist. Technically, this rant should be no different from any other. However, if it is something I pride myself in, it is the ability to evaluate a situation from various viewpoints. For example, what I’ve just said would lead other people to consider me a vain, egotistical braggart (See! See!).

Coming back to the issue at hand, I’ve noticed that us humans (especially them Malaysian sapiens, since this is where I base most of my ‘research’ on) have the capacity to be inconsiderate at any time, at whatever level they so desire. The precipitating factor is the trigger. All it takes is one X (X being the definition of inconsideratecynesstion, and also other additional personal input I’d rather not have displayed) to start off a chain reaction of Xs, much like an atomic detonation. The air ignites, and streams of energy radiate to the surrounding.

Exhibit A: Cars. Many, many cars.

That is to say, the air ignites with powerful vocabulary, and the horny sound waves hit you from all sides, when you’re caught up in it. Better spread across all sides of a slice of toast than when it spreads into the emergency lane, jams just suck to begin with whether or not you’re in a rush. (Jam on toast however..)

Initiator: “I’m late, I’m late, I’m late! I’ll need to hurry or that RM2 promotion I’ve been begging for will slip away… Now what is that X doing?” *horn*
Propagator: “Aagh! I’ve got 7 kids that study at 7 different schools! Why don’t they start at 7 different times?” (To compound matters, the X behind you is sticking it up yours with his horniness) *horn*
Innocent Propagator: Wah! Omg, so dangerous! *horn*
Not-so-Innocent Propagator: “What the X? X you la! Xing X! *horn*
Moron: You tot you hon very loud ar? *horn*

Moron’s exist in every motorist community, living oblivious to the fact that adding to the noise does nothing to reduce the way it annoys you. However, you cannot help but feel that all the other cars impeding your travel fall into this category, given the circumstance.

Exhibit B: Amonynous.. Anomynous.. Amonymous..

Okay, so I have spelling issues. That doesn’t stop me from spelling out my own name. I mean, you’re giving a comment, so you WANT to be heard. But you don’t want people to know who they heard it from? What’s there to be afraid of?

Argument #1: But Raj can track me down, pick out all my credit card numbers I use for porn sites, change all the speed-dials on my handphone to call my ex-girlfriends, and then send rabid rabbits^TM to maul my sorry ass..
Not true. Raj doesn’t have any rabid rabbits^TM.

Argument #2: But I can’t let people know my real name. I’m really a secret agent working for a spec forces company in Anonymasia. And since it has a total population of 1, I thought..
Uh, yeah. Righto.

Argument #3: But my real name IS qwert yuiop!
Wait, don’t tell me. You’re from Anonymasia too, aren’t you? I’m just bubbling with genius.

Argument #4: But other people are doing it..
Not anymore, I’m afraid. Raj’s dark reign has cast a shadow over all that was once beautiful and otherwise inconsiderate.

My conclusion is that someone must've started the Annoyme thingy and people just follow suit. But I can't seem to come up with a reason for this one. I can, though, assure you that nothing will happen to your credit cards, or your porn for that matter. Your ex-girlfriends probably wouldn't have wanted talk to you anyway, even if you did. Whether or not you can or will be hunted for any transgressions against this little community, however, is privileged information..

Anyways, I could add tons of other examples, but then I’d have to charge. And besides, nobody would buy a book that heavy anyway. I think these two give a sufficiently clear picture of what other similar events of inconsideratecynesstion are like. So please, save our poor webbie of having to throw down the ol’ iron fist.

I suppose the reason this regulation was enforced is that more people are gonna be chatting around. Sounds better than the hollow emptiness we get on any given pre-exam Sunday. On a good day, I could hear a ping drop.

NB: If you're gonna tell me you're a girl and/or don't have any porn/ex-girlfriends, go ahead. Don't forget to include your full name and email address though.

This is Law.

From now on, and comments on the Haloscan commenting system or on the Tag-board that are Anonymous will be deleted without question.
Don't like my decision? Tough.

Attention M2/03 EoS OSPE!

When you walk into the broadway for the second day of judgement (OSPE), you must be wearing your lab coat. And, as I had to repeat myself the many times I attempted to disseminate this information, I'll save you the trouble of asking; NO, i'm NOT JOKING.

This bizarre turn of events has piqued my very piqueable curiousity. Maybe, there's a clue as to what's gonna be coming out. Maybe:

a) We're gonna be dealing with corrosive chemicals, hence the need for protection. That would be as fun as it is unlikely to happen. Too bad.

b) They're afraid we'll feel cold. Or not, because them actually caring would appear to be quite unbecoming.

c) Somebody important's gonna be around. Whenever tourists from the outside world decidedly enter the atmosphere of our strictly controlled microenvironment, the ambient temperature has a tendency to freefall into sub-zero levels. That's why it'll be cold. And a group of students sitting in line shivering their frozen asses off paints a pretty poor impression of professionalism.

Whatever the reason, we really shouldn't give them anyMORE reason to bar us from sitting for the exam. Yeah, I'm talking to the other hundred of you who didn't go for the hospital visit. If you haven't gotten onto writing that letter, anytime before the exam begins is good. Should you require aid, I've included an emergency kit to get you started.

First, a handy link:
Writing Formal And Informal Letters-Grade Three

Second, pitfalls to avoid i.e. your letter should look nothing like this one:

Your details,
---
Whoever it concerns.

Hey dude,

ExCuSe To AvOiD bEiNg ScReWeD oFf ThE eXaM

Regarding the above matter, I would like to inform you of the reasons as to my absence during (date). During the aforementioned period, I had developed a constellation of symptoms, which included, but unfortunately was not limited to, auditory and visual hallucinations. Upon the cessation of those symptoms, subsequent others developed; headache, lethargy, fatigue, lassitude, and chills. In retrospect, I was also perhaps delusional, frankly believing that I had set my alarm clock the night before.

I avoided visiting a doctor to purchase procure a document confirming my complaints because not only is it unethical, its expensive. Besides, he’d only laugh at me and call me a sissy, apart from telling me that my mystical disease was precipitated by my recent consumption of obscene amounts of the powerful sedative cognac.

So there you go,
Signature.

Third and Finally, Some tips:
Keep in mind that everyone submitting a letter would have experienced some form of common, self-limiting, yet thoroughly debilitating illness at that time. The key here is to not make yours stand out, or you might end up being made the scapegoat. Baa-aa-aa. To this end, use a bizarre font (like Monotype Corsiva at size 8) that would almost guarantee giving the reader a profound headache, hopefully much like the one you apparently got.

By the way, seeing as the exams are next week, good luck to all Sem 5s. And don’t forget the lab coats for OSPE. May it be the last quirky rule change we’ll have to conform to in this slightly mental institution.