PAL Presentations

This post is to be dedicated to the many assignments and presentations that we have had to prepare.

The most stressful one perhaps the one for our PAL. It was worth 50% of our finals and our lecturer demanded creativity.

Boy, you have no idea how hard it is to be creative!

We started with Katryne's group that presented on Voting Systems. They prepared ballot boxes for us to participate in voting! xD I feel so grown up. Eheh!

Then it was Raul's group where Khim became pseudo Miss Angela. Fuyoh. She was SO GOOD at impersonating her!! She entered and went "Sorry class! I'm late! So what's in the news today?". She even sat on the table the same style Miss Angela always sits! It was kinda freaky but also so cool to watch. Haha! And it ended with Raul impersonating Ramya and her "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

After that was my group. We had to present of An Alternative Electoral System, so we basically presented on the US Electoral System. We had a mash up of role play and games and elections. Joel became Presidential Candidate from Democrat: Dayak Obama. And Keefe (Chan) became Presidential Candidate from Republicans: John McChan.

Raul: So you're Dayak Obama and he's John McChan... is she (points to Pauline) Sarah Pauline??

Joel: Haha! Ahem. No. Actually, John's running vice is (points to Pei Ling) Sarah Peiling!

In case you're curious, Dayak Obama's running vice was Joel Biden. Haha.

Anyway, like I said, we had some role play so during the giving of the manifesto, the party policies were elaborated on.

During practice,

Pauline: (asking Joel) So, Mr. Dayak Obama ah, I want to ask if you are for abortion.

Joel: Yes, we are.

Pauline: Are you for free market?

Joel: No, we are not for free market.

Pauline: Oh. Coz you see, maybe I can give birth and then sell it...! Okay, let's move on!

And during presentation,

Khim: You are not for gay marriage. But I love my girlfriend! So how?

Keefe: You can love your girlfriend. We are not against that freedom. But we are just not supporting you getting married to your girlfriend!

Khim: Then are you practising discrimination?

Keefe: No, no! We recognise gay people. In fact, we acknowledge that they form an integral part of our society. But we just don't believe they should be a part of our marrying society!

(I laughed at that! Haha!)

Hetish: Basically your ground for opposing LGBT is because of the kids. What if my boyfriend and I don't want to have kids?

Keefe: Then... you have to think about the children you are influencing when you visit the playground!

Talk about creativity. Hahahaha! I really like his answers. And when I was explaining the Electoral College, I said that if Pauline is a lesbian, she would deem it better (as an Elector) to vote for Dayak Obama. So at the end, after the elections, Pauline was like: "As you know, I'm a lesbian so I'm not gonna vote for John McChan. I'm casting my vote for Dayak Obama!"

Oh! And as we were playing the game, Ramya was the official dice thrower.

Ramya: Two!

Pauline: Okay! Two! Before the dice even hits the table!

[We kinda had a pre-plan dice number. Haha!]

Pauline: Will Dayak Obama hit the press conference box? It's....

Class: ONE!

Ramya: One!

Pauline: Alright! ONE! Psychic, all of you!

LOL! So lame la.

Anyway, that's basically our presentation. There were more interesting ones after ours. Lee Weei's group held a station game around college and Eric's group made it into a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire style. Super cool. And they had a super awesome video! xD

But the most hilarious one has to be Nazzeef's group. Omg. Their role play. Can laugh til peng!

Nazzeef put on this skirt (you will not believe how many guys in AUSMAT has acted as girls!) and Ashley put on moustache.

Trying to demonstrate laws against sexual assault in marriages (in certain countries),

Ashley: Ambil teh!

Naz: Ya, ya. Abang letih kah?

Ashley: Kerja banyak. Malam ini mahu gembira tak?

Naz: Ha? Tak mahu la! Sudah lewat mahu gembira apa!?

Ashley: Abang nak jugaaaa!!

Naz: Tak mahu lah! Tak mahu!

Abang: Tapi abang sudah belie *whisper don't know what*

Naz: Ha? Ya kah? Tak mahu la! Itu sudah kahwin 20 tahun masih mahu gembira apa!?

Ashley: Abang nak juga!! WAaaarrrgghh!! *jumps!*

There was another one where Naz acted as prostitute to demonstrate a different form of law. Super hilarious. He was like selling for RM 5. -.-" He also did an impressive impersonation of Olivia!

Naz: You run over my foottttt! Now you have to pppay!

Ashley also acted Ben's Bieber hair quite well. :P They ended it with a dramatic drama of divorce case. It was to show the role of Mediation. So anyway, Siong Lung and Helfie are married. Siong Lung's the husband, Helfie's the wife. Naz and Ihsan are the kids. Ashley's the mediator.

Siong Lung: Ngo em chung yi lei la! Lei mo yung ah lei! (I don't like you anymore. You're useless!)

Helfie: Lei mo yung ah! *slaps Siong Lung*

Siong Lung: I don't love you anymore la! Divorce la! What mediate! Divorce la!

Helfie: Em tak ah! *slaps some more* Divorce, divorce! Mediate first la!

Siong Lung: Fine! Zai zai! Come!

Ashley: Okay, so who wants the kids?

Siong Lung: I want both!

Helfie: *shakes head*

Siong Lung: Say something la!

Helfie: EM TAK AH! (CANNOT AH)

Ashley: Fine. Then we'll let the kids decide. Who do you want to follow?

Ihsan: I want Papa! I saw Mama with that man in green shirt!

Siong Lung: HA!?

Helfie: Shhh!

Ashley: Okkaaayyy.... So who you want to follow?

Naz: ... TETEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!! Papa no tetek! I want mama!!

LOL.

It was so funny!!

Those are basically our PAL presentations. The best presentations I have ever seen in my life, truth be told! Creative and informative at the same time. Extremely enjoyable too! xD

I hope high school can be this creative next time. Haha! But it's a lot of hard work la. I suppose it's all worth it at the end coz we all got full marks.

:D

Birthdays kids

Have I mentioned that there is an Olivia and a Kimberly in AUSMAT? ;P

Anyway, this is the AUSMAT Olivia.

She celebrated her 18th birthday recently on the 21 October 2010.

Her housemates decided to give her a surprise party at midnight.

This is her cake, it says:

Sang Yat Fai Lok

Hon Hon Pit Pit.

It's basically Happy Birthday in Cantonese. And Hon's her surname so... I don't know the significance of Pit Pit. Lol!

So anyway, at 11.45 p.m., we were all gathered outside of their unit. They had actually pasted notes on their door with instructions for us. Haha!

Lee Weei even took the liberty to remind us it's Olivia's birthday - "so don't be mistaken!", she wrote! LOL.

Lee Weei and Alexie popped out from time to time to check on us. At about 11.55 p.m., Eric lit the candles to her cake and a blackout was induced in the unit. I later heard that Alexie had climbed on a chair, closed the main switched, quickly climbed down, stealthily put back the chair, ran back to her room and came out shouting "BLACKOUT!!!!"

iLOL.

Anyway! They screamed for damn long inside okay!

We were afraid that the candles would go out soon so we sent Yong Wei to bang on their door. We pressed the doorbell at first but *ahem* doorbells work on electricity!

Yong Wei must have banged really hard because instead of opening the door, there were more screaming. -.-"

Finally, after don't know how long, the door was opened and we sang the song.

We made Olivia bite the candles out. The cake was too expensive to push her head in. =)

It was really nice cake too.

At least it was better than Chien Yang and Kumara's birthdays. Chien Yang was thrown into the pool at midnight. Haha! Kumara got away coz he claimed he was sick. :P

But it was midnight so it wasn't easy to coax people to eat the cake. Ah wells. ;p

Anyway, that is it for Olivia's birthday. :)

This is what I drew for her as a birthday present. Tee hee.

On 29 October 2010, it was Eric's birthday.

We celebrated for him after PAL class on Friday.

This is his cake. It's coffee. :)

Before class started, Pauline and Alexie pasted this note at the back of his shirt that reads:

Hi. My name is Eric and it's my birthday. Please wish me!

We even got our lecturer to play along! xD

At the end of class, she was like:

Eric, I heard Miss Ruma (our director) wants to see you? I heard it's pretty serious? Have you done something? It's about something broken and she's quite upset. Do you know what you've done? Do you know it's wrong to have so much talent in one body? Yea! Coz if there are people like you all around, you put people like me out of jobs! What's the first rule? Don't piss off the authority! What did I tell you? Don't be outstanding - just be the average guy!

And this comes from the lecturer who enters class every day, demanding to know what's on the news and constantly emphasising on the importance of being outstanding (not just the average guy). Haha!

I think Eric got a really awesome birthday present from Miss Angela (our PAL lecturer) that day.

And even better - his present extended to the whole class too!

All of us, after slaving for a crazy amount of time, have managed to obtain 50/50 for our presentation. And mind you, our presentations were TOUGH. Phew~! xD

Yea. This is our Politics and Law class. The guy holding the big green manila card (also the birthday card) is Eric. :)

Non-nutritious

Today, in the bus to college:

Ee Lyn was reading a Chinese novel which according to her, is non-nutritious.

I was squinting to read some of the characters.

Finally saw a complete sentence that I could read.

So I read out loud:

"我已经5天没有上厕所了!"

Which means:

"I have not gone to the toilet for 5 days!"

Wigo and Say Ting's heads just jerked up, I tell you! With a completely shocked expression on their faces.

Now I know never to so loudly express a random Chinese quote. Lol!

Especially from a non-nutritious book!

Ee Lyn asked why out of so many quotes, I just had to choose that.

Well.... Oops?

Ah wells. Luckily the bus was quite empty. HAHA!

Taking root

I’ve just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns for my EALD book review assignment. I find it highly thought-provoking, not to mention quite disturbing to some extent.

I wonder if in a war-torn condition where death is imminent and hunger and starvation triumph, mercy killing and abortion would have been acceptable.

People may argue for the sanctity of life, that the choice to live (even if it is to live among sufferings) or die is not for a parent to make.

But imagine living in a condition where hope does not exist. Your parents, your friends and everybody you were once close to, all blown into pieces or have fled the country, giving you nothing to anchor yourself to in this wretched place. You live by the day, each day praying that the rocket will land just a few metres away from where you stand, sparing you your life for yet another miserable moment, but only to live with the knowledge that Death is never far.

And then, you got pregnant.

And you have a choice to spare this baby from a life, a world so overtaken by fear and violence. Would it have been an acceptable, or an almost noble deed to perform?

I would have shouted, “Oh ye of little faith!”

Yet the heavier, more important question remains: Do they even have their faith still?

Would it have been possible to hang on to faith when every day, you witness cruelty, injustice and murder?

And none of it ever shows any sign of passing.

It would have taken every part of me, whatever that is left from this lack of strength resulting from the deprivation of food and water, to put my fingers together at the end of each day and thank God that today, the rocket has missed my head and hopefully tomorrow, it will too.

Then I might find myself pondering on the meaning of life. What have I to live for if as a woman, I am deprived of everything – healthcare, education, work and even the freedom to roam the streets?

For one, there would be the duty as a mother.

Then if I give birth to a girl, what has she to live for?

The possible prospect: To marry to a man, hopefully a non-abusive man, but she hasn’t got much of a choice in that now, does she?

And she would still starve, like everyone else on the street.

So I suppose at the end of the day, we can say all we want about civilization and how inhumane it is to take away a life, but we can never comprehend with the magnitude of the choice one has to make when one inevitably steps in those shoes.

Killing, abortion and mercy killing are objectively wrong.

But does the world allow us the privilege to be objective?

When you refuse to take a life (when that said life is living in a condition so unimaginably bad), are you upholding your morals or are you merely selfish and reluctant to have blood on your hands? Is it really more humane to let another human being suffer?

Unanswerable questions, these are.

But, if Jesus could face that same discrimination, that same suffering (and worse), that same persecution for the world, being as innocent as He is, I think I can find faith in that, however hard it may be.

So today, as I read this highly disturbing story, I am reminded of how great it is for me to dwell in the house of my Lord. How comforting it is for me to know that I have a shelter for when the darkest moments dawn on me. How grateful I should be to have a faith to hold on to for hope, that even when all earthly roots may vanish, I have another one to anchor myself to.

And perhaps it is time for me to try a little harder to water that root.

Meanwhile, I’ll just pray really hard to God that I never have to make such a choice in my life. :)

Seeking Talent

Sitting by, feeling forlorn,

Looking back at the days that'd gone

And knowing, that things have changed,

That I can never return to where I once was again.

I've moved to a new beginning,

Encountered people with much talent,

Tried copying them all, I did, striving to add meaning

To what I do, yet I remained fallen.

The spoken words, the written letters:–

It all left me in a marvel, mouth agape,

The wonderful understanding! What poise and confidence it delivers!

The speaker, the owner of talent – I want his thinking cap.

But oh wait! What's that?

A man so fluent in reasoning without the need for pen-down line!

Thus, a chord struck as quickly as lightning would in my head:

Could I make his talent mine?

Yet the truth remains that I can speak,

I can write and I can read,

So as I was about to aim for the lead

I thought, Why make my future seem so bleak?

The world's talents lie not in a single soul;

That is why I can't aspire to have them all.

God's grace should have been enough to realise in contrary,

My talent lies simply in being

Me.