The Vox Populi

Vox Populi means the voice of the people, if you are all wondering.

Wondering why I'm not active again, huh? Well a lot of things happened recently and I prefer not to talk about them, except for one. 9 Days of public speaking training went by like a flash I tell you. I can still remember all the criticism and verbal-whipping I had throughout it. Of course today, was the competition, what I refer to as... WAR. I'm sorry, can't help but to say it because the only song that could motivate me was from 30 Seconds To Mars. Of course, the night before I kinda freaked out. In truth, I didn't expect this to happen...at all.

So today was competition day, woke up in the morning and donned my uniform, clad in a blazer due to prefectorial board formality reasons. AS I make my way to school I whispered my speech to see if I could recite it perfectly. Seeing that problem taken care off, I had a little confidence in me. S we made our way to St. Mary's, yes, the same venue from last year's inter-zone competition.(We being Ms. Sheila the teacher adviser, Mr. Derek KOK AKA the mentor and Johnathan Goh AKA the successor ) And when we reached there I saw a rather familiar face...Trester Kaur, who I dubbed Derek's pseudo-girlfriend...don't ask. And of course we got our breakfast, well most of us, Johnathan didn't eat. And GOD I miss St. Mary's good food that has ridiculously puny portions. So after that we entered the conference hall.

Let me tell you most of them looked intimidating, the competition that is. But in the process of calming myself down, I succumbed to Derek's advice. "Go and have fun, psycho them." He says. So I started talking to Trester, which eventually lead me to talk to the friends she's met and extended to almost the whole of the contestants. So there was a total of 13 schools, namely St. Mary's, Convent Sentul, Chong Hwa, Kiamas, and of cousre, SMP with their dreaded teacher adviser. A boring competition turned out to be rather entertaining. Status report for the prepared speech is:

1st Speaker (St. Mary's) : had a rather interesting topic; Body Language, but the intonation is...yeah.

2nd Speaker (SMP) : Wow, such a contrast from last year... this one is just like a flat-line.

3rd Speaker (Convert Sentul): Very well presented, with no mic at that. Interesting topic but rather informative, still, love the delivery.

4th speaker (not sure from which school) : Had decent delivery until she forgot her speech.

5th speaker (also not sure where she's from) : Very dramatic delivery, but generic topic on teenage blues.

6th speaker AKA Me : Well, Derek said that I lacked confidence in this one, but was more composed. Stumbled on a word though...

7th speaker (not sure) : Started okay, but freaked out.

8th (Kiamas) : TRESTER! Product of unity. Very witty speech, had a slight Chinese slang to it. I find the term Chinjabi very catchy.

9th speaker (SMK Bandar Baru) : Dude, nice speech. Love the snapping fingers and kids dying part. Poverty redefined.

10th Speaker (SMK Las Salle) : Topic had potential, (TV Commercials) but kinda boring...

11th speaker (not sure) : Very funny speech man, but perhaps too funny. But it was rather entertaining. How to speak in public, huh?

12th speaker (not sure too) : Very generic topic, Global warming. Delivery was okay.

13th speaker (Chong Hwa) : The one who got my respect, a Form 1 entering such competition, Derek freaked when he was talking about money. Oh the irony. He also had a standing ovation from the speakers.

Through the course of the competition I had more confidence fueling me. When we were quarantined in the waiting room... the psychological warfare begins. It ended up with Me, Trester, Amirul, and that other guy having a blast dilly-dallying our time there. So we were the calm ones, we even had time to tell jokes, listen to music and just making random noises. While the rest just went tense. When I was called into the quarantine room, and saw the topic "Entertainment", Ms. Sheila's final random topic from yesterday's practice came to mind...."Music" of course I added a little spice here and there. When I came out, I completed the deal that we would reveal the topic, whoever went first. So as Trester went in, I told her the topic for a few seconds' advantage. And Silent-shouted at my 2 other partners-in-crime just before I gave my speech. So I hoped I helped.

I didn't know what happened to the first 5 speakers, I heard the 3rd speaker did good though. But the 7th speaker had a nervous breakdown and puked, she pulled out of the competition as well. I think the lines "The rhapsody waltzing through the ages." "..like the latest phenomenon; Lady Gaga. Bad Romance, anyone?" and "The emotions on the silver screen." saved my speech. Trester quoted Adam Lambert, I think it was because of me. The guy after her did a wonderful speech, it sounded very intelligent, he redefined entertainment by saying that it isn't just the glits and glam but also creativity, he pulled off Issac Newton as an example, very well done. After him, it went significantly down, yet still rather entertaining.

After the competition, everyone had a sense of relief. We were just wasting time and talking. Getting to know each other, and hey me and that guy who talked about poverty might start a band! Derek and Ms. Sheila told me that I didn't have to win, because I did my best, so that was an extra relief. The time went flying so fast we didn't even feel it. And in the end the judges arrived back and we were back in tense mode. We were nervous, but went into a state where we were guessing who the winners are. I guessed that 3rd would go to either me or Trester, 2nd to the guy who talked on poverty who I find very entertaining and 1st would go to the girl from Convent Sentul. The poverty guy told me that I would win 1st but I thought that was preposterous. The results came in.

3rd was.... SMK Kiamas, Trester. So far I thought my prediction was correct.

2nd wen to.... St. Mary's. This is the part where I started panicking if I'm going to disappoint my friends and Derek.

Now here's the part all of you might not expect. The moment the MC said "And the 1st place goes to..." I was half praying it was either me or the poverty guy, or the convent girl. Then the MC continued saying "Contestant number 6, Law Sie Weng from SMK Maxwell." Immediately I went "HOLY SHIT!" to the poverty guy and Trester. Looked at my 3 supporters at the back. Johnathan had a smirk on, Derek was doing epic fist-pumps and Ms Sheila was clapping ever so proudly. I was of course overjoyed but kind of felt that others deserved it. Then I packed up my bags and made my way out, teachers were congratulating me, of course I was thanking them as well. And of course, my favorite part, fangirls, EVERYWHERE. I shook hands with the other speakers and the girls and made my way home. It was truly a once in a life time experience. And a first time feeling like a winner.

On the way home we stopped at Selayang Mall and ate some Popeye's. That was a first too. Stomachs full, we went back home. Talking about the competition along the way. Hearts overjoyed.

I truly miss new-found friends. And how Trester is an expert in making love....letters. Too bad life goes on, eh? I wished I could re-live the moment.

The rest is silence.
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Quote of the day: "I'm an expert in making love...letters." -Trester Kaur on her talents.

Insanity of the Day:

"If the teacher told me to talk about Silence in impromptu I would *stands quietly* there, silence" -Amirul on ridiculous impromptu topics.

Of Music and Love.

Okay, enough ranting...seriously...I'm bored of that. Now finally a real update.

My life's been great so far, I started learning the Piano 4 weeks ago and I love it. And my teacher's a very cool person to hang out with. Shoutout to you teacher, if you're reading this. My guitar on the other hand has turned to shit, I might consider going on a full 1 hour piano class instead of a 30 minutes of piano and 30 minutes of guitar since I find myself more into piano. Finally I realize, I do love music and can embrace it's power.

And I broke up with my girlfriend a few days back, which was a HUGE relief, finally I won't need to bear the burden of someone who can't appreciate me. Breaking up was hard, but the after-effects felt good.

School's okay, I'm coping well enough with studies. Going for tuition for Maths and Economics, might be going for History as well.

Also, since I'm single again, I can finally kill more Russians in Modern Warfare 2 again! Okay Ritchie, let's ace those Veteran missions.

I'm still obsessed with Paramore, aaaaaaaah~ Hayley~ <3

And finally, I can't stop randomly singing The Only Exception by Paramore for some reason...

I'll leave you with my newbie attempt of Playing I'll Face Myself from Persona 4 then.



And this very interesting graduation speech made by a university student (Thank you Nat for giving me this awesome video)



Till then, adios senior en seniorita

P.S. Average is the new Exceptional.
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Quote of the day: "FAGATHON!!" -Jane's remark of my name.

Out of the frying pan and into the freezer.

Well, it's been nearly a week since my return from Indonesia. I didn't have time to blog because of my laziness, due to the amount of things I have to blog about.

Here goes. See the reason I didn't wanna go to Indonesia was because of where I live there, the food's bad, the girls are...mehh and there's only 3 friggin' malls, in 3 years....they only built 2 more....wow. Also my stay at the little town outside of Jakarta known as Depok isn't FUN, it's like a baby-sitting job that doesn't pay at since I have to take care of my 3 year-old twin nephews.

But, on a different note, the heart of the country, Jakarta is a different story, though the pollution is nothing less than displeasing, progress on the city has bettered itself, roads don't get stuck in traffic jams much, and the malls there have improved, so has the social well being of the citizens. Every single block you to, every single street has a mall, that's something rather new to me since Malaysia has less.

Not only that, the entertainment industry has greatly improved, Indonesian artists make much better local tunes than Malaysia has ever did, they create something original, not used. For instance, my latest band fetish Vierra, they make great songs, powerful music and lyrics. Or local movies are shot at a decent camera quality, I immediately fell in love with a movie called Laskar Pelangi which tells of the struggle of a group of elementary school kids, the plot is diverse and complete.



Speaking about love, I think I just fell for my cousin's bestie, unfortunately, she lives in Jakarta and the only way I can talk to her is via Facebook, but no matter, someone told me to be patient and so I will. When will I ever be able to meet you? *sigh*

Also on the other note, my extortion of cash from my aunts is a success, I finally got myself a Nintendo DS Lite. For those of you who know my hate for Nintendo would be shooting me right now for being a hypocrite, but some NDS games are too good to resist, so I had to get one.




Then there's the cinemas of Indonesia....walking to each one of them is like walking into a 5-star hotel, since it's plain "wow" they have arcades, comfortable seats, good food and great movies shown at a reasonable price of approximately 25,000Rp - 30,000Rp, which is about 8 ringgit to 10 ringgit.

My cousins are also the people I love and I will miss them for the next 11 months, since chances are I'll be going again in 2010, anyone who wants to come with me are always welcome. And no, Indonesia isn't just bout Bali, there are other great places to see, 37 states in all, and a large metropolis of a city to hang around with.

Well, as 2010 is just hours away, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, may you successfully achive your new year's resolution. Ciao.

An update.

Yeeeeeeah, haven't been blogging for awhile, but why not now eh? So ok, reasons why I haven't been blogging, my laziness of course and my PS3. Apparently, Ritchie has been coming over as my Resident Evil 5 partner, and I thought that game was just a one shot game with no replay value, but there's more than meets the eye, there's tons of unlockables to make the game fun, like god-like guns or alternate costumes. And offline co-op play is just so damn fun, beats trying to direct a dumbass AI to do something.

On that note, I seriously don't know what to get next for my PS3 , so much for endless fun, eh?

Also today, me and my friend was just entrusted to design the Prefectorial Board's T-shirt and the Prefectorial Board's Crest/Badge/Emblem, whatever you call it, so yeah folks, I'm gonna curb stomp my own mark in Fagswell's history, awesome huh? and finally I can get some reputation in that joint.

Yesterday, I also visited SMAKL (Sekolah Menegah Agama Kuala Lumpur) for some road safety for motorcycles seminar for an excuse to skip school, it was dull as shit, though the girls from the other schools that came were so my taste, I didn't get any numbers since the schools came in masses of 30's. And walking miles just to find a mini-market selling drinks then running back full circle uphill and downhill of the housing complex (SMAKL is located in a secluded housing area) 'cuz of a low blow prank my fag friend did. My thighs are aching.

Also apparently, at the '09 VMAs at MTV, Kanye West mocked Taylor Swift after she won her 1st best female singer award by snatching the mic from her and saying (I swear to God this was his exact words) "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for ya, and Imma let you finish but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time, OF ALL TIME!!" proves how much of a douchebag Kanye is.

So yeah, guess I'll be real busy during the holidays with the designs and gaming going on. That is all folks and you've been filled in.

P.S. Look what I found when I was google-ing for a higher resolution for my school badge needed for the T-shirt design: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_School I can't help but to laugh my ass off.