red tape

actually haven’t been updating because new blog is under construction. so my rants have been relocated there.
will link once I’m done fiddling with everything.
i picked a very odd blog address but I suppose it’s fitting. considering it’s my last year in secondary school and all :/ damn I feel old now -.-

Prefect’s Camp 2011

I just had to type. After all those meetings since last year to plan for all of it and getting so many headaches, the build up of anticipation was massive. Overall it was an incredible experience and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Thursday
Preparations, preparations, preparations.
We spent time sorting out the prizes (candies and junkies) into boxes.
Some were HOMEMADE. Because the original boxes were too big so we hacked them up and made our own boxes (labelled MADE IN MALAYSIA).
Called in all prefect’s and probates for the briefing before camp, gave out the itinerary and talked about the usual things to do and not to do, to bring and not to bring.
Then we saw the truck

Emma: Is that the delivery guy?
Yana: Is it?
May: IDK, what does it say?
Yana: City Link
May: I have no idea let’s go check
*goes to the guy
Emma: OHMAIGAD IT’S A BOX THAT SAYS TO MISS PAU MAY MAY ON IT
Ben: *through gritted teeth* contain your excitement like how I’m trying to contain it now

Separated into groups and I got into the group I was in charge of. But then had to disappear halfway. Nevertheless by the time I got back they had (thankfully) managed to elect a leader (my group was one of those without pelapis) and all was good.
After the briefing some changes had to be made and EXCOs were discussing who needed to be switched.

Naim: Siapa ada Rahman
May: me
Naim: I nak Rahman
May: noooooo I have only 1 Form 5 guy
Naim: I’ll give you Faiz
May: hmmmmm. NAH I HAD FAIZ LAST YEAR.
Naim: I want Rahman !!
May: toooo baaaaad Rahman is my wild card

Then we ripped open the package.

EXCO SHIRTS

crazy in love with it. It’s really the best ever. All of us were ecstatic. BLACKANDYELLOW <3

Continued with my Made in Malaysia boxes and stayed back till 3.30 to finish making boxes.
NOTE TO SELF: Benjamin's wrapping = cannot be trusted -.-

Anyway, after getting home, I needed to start on the preparations for my EXCO game and pack my stuff. Fit everything into a small duffel bag (amazingly) and my white backpack.
Slept pretty late, but at least I got sleep

Friday
Got to school to see a sea of bags in front of the prefects room. I was kinda lazy to bring my guitar because my bag wasn’t a roller and I had to carry it all the way. I had my Harvard sweatshirt draped over me and a clipboard so I didn’t have hands to spare either way.
Didn’t go into class the whole day. Gathered up the prefects and loaded them and the stuff onto the bus. Off to Melaka we go !!
Stopped by the rest stop to get Milo. Reached A’Famosa in about 2 hours. Spent the whole morning telling everyone not to go out of their rooms at night because the place was haunted.
When we got there we put everything in the hall and had lunch. After a briefing they were allowed to check into their rooms and EXCOs set up for their games.

Here’s the thing to all other people that want to pick places to do activities, by all means, do NOT pick A’famosa. Really, the management is horrible. Our teacher had to spend so much time screaming at the guy who really wasn’t much help and was a real pain.

Anyway, had to amend the group list because one group was composed 100% of non-Muslims, while others had too many so during prayer time some groups could proceed while others couldn’t.
The list Ben made was unreadable so I remade the list.

Did quizzes on “how well do you know your EXCOs” during that slot. Those that answered correctly got tokens.
It was super funny

May: What was Daniel’s name when he was young?
David (aka Koshy Jr.): I’m sorry about this Daniel. FATTY!
*
What was Ben’s name supposed to be before it was Benjamin
BARTHOLEMEW
*
What is written on the sweatshirt I always wear
HARVARD
*
How much did Daniel weigh when he was born?
6 KG!

and so on so forth. It was quite funny actually

Anyway. After check in we proceeded with station games.
My clue was a dead giveaway

“sugar + spice + everything nice + chemical EX = “

really, it was pretty obvious. POWERPUFF GIRL > PauPau Girls (Benjamin Ong’s way of referring to my sister and I)
Kento’s group came up to me and started saying how sugar and spice mixes together to make Pau and I said no and he said “c’mon guys, it has to be something Chinese” -.-

My game was basically unscrambling the letters that were on the backs of each member. Throughout the whole thing, only the leader was given freedom of speech and he/she was only allowed to ask one question to each member. What made it hard was rearranging the letters while the members hands were tied up.

After station games we had dinner before the facilitators took over. We were introduced to the trainers from CC Malaysia. For some reason (maybe it was the latte-ish thing) I was crazy hyper that night.
For the night, Mr Amir gave us a talk on communication which was quite interesting actually. He was a really engaging speaker though, which made his talk very entertaining. Talk about energy level, mine was through the roof.

Then the teams had to do their flags and cheer. Team 9 = YELLOW POWERPUFFERFISH.
Mommy is so proud seriously, it wasn’t even my idea. Someone said it first. But whatever, it was cool.
Cheer was 100% theirs because I was colouring the flag.

My favourite cheer of the night was Dzauqi’s S H A R K cheer. Their motto was aggressive and catchy so I really got hooked. And their team spirit was fantastic.

That night we had a short meeting in El and Hannah’s room. Girls weren’t allowed to do rounds that night so Yana and I went to sleep early-ish.

Saturday
Forced myself up and was nearly late. Was asking around for Milo (Loh promised to get me Milo but he forgot -.-) so Arif got me Milo.
Anyway, started with the cardio exercise (which apparently was tiring) but I only let it go for about 10 minutes then switched to light stretching.
After morning exercises we had breakfast followed by the activity.
Played Saboteur which was really interesting.

Each team task to complete (spot the differences in a picture placed outside the hall). Each team member was given a card that either said “team player” or “double agent”. We were told that we would never be able to complete our task properly without getting rid of the double agent as soon as possible.

My team had 11 members including myself. Basically we stuck to a few runners that could actually be trusted. We sent Melvin up on stage because he made mistakes twice so we really suspected him.
My team finished in fastest time with 12 differences (only 1 short of the winning team)

In the end, everyone was a team player -.- thankfully our team only sent up 1 person. Ben sent up 3 and all of them got up and stage and said “BENJAMIN ONG” which was hillarious. Daniel sent up 3 as well. It was really funny. Overall it was a real learning experience to not judge too quickly and to accept that people are different after all.

The next game was the one EXCOs were told to not lead. So we just stood around and told everyone to treat us like Form 2s. The objective of the game was to build an antenna that could only be held by the strings. I just stood around, ran, string, ran. Which was kinda fun. But the rest of the time I just hid in either Dan or Joe’s shadow from the sun. What was great about this game was that you could really see who was taking charge. My observations were really intriguing and the EXCOs had talk about it. After the debriefing session, we had lunch and proceeded to the next activity.

In the briefing. we were told to listen. Everyone was blindfolded and told to search for something. In the end the EXCOs ended up taking charge so we sat out. While they were blindfolded teacher was poking them with sticks. When the blindfolds came off he pointed at Hannah. HILLARIOUS

The next session was Funk the Junk. Some elements from it was incorporated into the performance that night.
Took a shower and got into my white collared zip up and black blazer. El was in a white blouse and black blazer so we kinda matched. My outfit plus my clip board made me look like someone’s PA. So I stood next to Daniel with his guitar on his back. Daniel was the rockstar

When Ben said the group with the most spirit got to go get food first, Group 9 went crazy Camp group this year was awesome, actually. Technically, it isn’t MY group, but I still had loads of fun with them (: Love their spirit.

F2s- Misery
F3s- some Hannah Montana thing
F4s- Baby, Baby, Baby oh~
F5s- Forget You + Hero (Enrique Iglesias)
Everyone- WE WILL ROCK YOU (Awin and En.Amir singing lead yo!)
NEXCO Cheer

we gon’ rock this camp
we gon’ jump all night
we gon’ write it down
in our triple 5

it was really good.
then
EXCO cheer!
since most people only got the ‘what you know bout me’ part, I’ll type it out since I don’t want to forget.

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Cause Izzatt is popping
Izzatt is cool
All the girls like him
They chase him after school

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Cause Ben plays football
He thinks he’s so cool
But you know what’s funny
He drowns in a pool

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Emma is watching
Better run soon
Look at her eyes
They’re the size of the moon

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Daniel’s a chocolate
He knows what to do
All the girls admit it
That you like him too

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Joe is a ninja
Don’t shed a tear
Better watch out cause
He might disappear

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Hannah’s Korean
Look at her size
Sometimes we wonder
If she has eyes

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Mohsin’s an athlete
Look at his shoes
Don’t fight him in golf cause
You’ll definitely lose

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

When you look at May May
You’re full of desire
When you see her dance
Her body’s on fire

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Naim is quiet
But he’s really wise
And he’s really funny
If you realize

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

Yana is cute
Yana is small
Don’t piss her off or
She’ll break your *shhh

What you know bout me
What you what you know bout me
what you know bout me
what you what you know

El is crazy
When she’s in the room
Don’t mess with her or
You’ll meet your doom

uh huh you know what it is
blackandyellowblackandyellowblackandyellowblackandyellow

Don’t make me snap my fingers in the E formation
step to the X
then to the C
O my god your EXCO’s me

so yea, that took me some time to type.

As that night was the last night for them to collect tokens, everyone was pretty desperate.
Actually some of them were pretty desperate throughout camp.
“MayMay can I get you tea? coffee?”
Puh-leaze I don’t work that way. I gave tokens to those that gave me their drink because they saw I was thirsty and those that got me a drink when I said I wouldn’t give them token. And those that showed leadership or were good participants during activities.

To get away from the crazy crowds insisting on doing things I didn’t care for I basically ran around. I asked people to sing me lullabies. My group sang “I’m Yours” and I gave like, 10? It was really nice
I heard twinkle twinkle little star a million times that night. and rockabye baby.
but it was fairly entertaining. Syed Harris sang me You Are My Sunshine -.- what a lullaby.
I gave away the rest of my coupons by competing in split scissors paper stone with the guys. Some of them beat me, which was really surprising. Took a lot of guts for them, considering I could split all the way down. Amirul was screaming in pain so I gave him 1 token for effort, haha.
After giving out all my tokens but 4 (was saving for the next morning) headed back. Changed into pajamas for EXCO meeting + patrol. Yes, I we were walking around in our pajamas. Ben and Izzatt’s were like bananas in pajamas.

After rounds, Yana and I were writing testimonials while chatting. In the end we couldn’t finish :/

Sunday
I got sick of Yana’s alarm. she seriously tidur mati. Anyway. Did stretches and a bit of cardio. At first only 2 people were counting. After I said I’ll give token to those who counted the whole hall started counting -.-
Then competed in split scissors paper stone with Hazim on stage. HE BEAAT ME D: that boy can stretch. and he has bigger feet than me -.-

HAha. After breakfast we had Groove the Move where we had to dance to Jai Ho. My team teamed up with Hannah/Awin’s team. My team and Syuen, Awin and myself so we were pretty confident in winning the thing. We had all these ideas and then teacher reminded us that Form 5s weren’t supposed to lead so we were sitting on the floor trying to contain ourselves. It was really fun though. Hazwina was leading the girls, Rahman was leading the boys. We cinched it with Rahman’s back flip, my cartwheel split and Syuen’s jump split before finishing it was the hip dance from Abracadabra and repeating the finger point.
When we got up, everyone’s dance was so long whereas ours was short. Panic Panic Panic. Last minute improvisations and up we went.

After check out was the closing ceremony. When it was time to announce the winner for the dance, no one knew and teacher said the last group, MayMay’s group. I was screaming already. At first I didn’t really have high hopes or anything because the others were really good as well but I was seriously happy when we won.

I’m still a little high. Haha.

I was reading testimonials on the bus and started crying while reading. I seriously cried. To any of you that are reading this, you guys are such sweethearts, really.
dear guy EXCOs that usually don’t while more than 1 sentence, I was really touched (‘: I love you guys.
And then El opened the curtains and we saw Ben, Dan and Joe on their bus and they were teasing Hannah because she was sleeping -.-
I was slipping in and our of sleep as well while Elmira was talking

Oh, and since we’re girls, instead of shaving cream, we cream people with yogurt It’s good for the skin! Free facial, haha.

*

All in all, camp this year was great. I can’t believe it’s over. This was literally our lives for a week. I keep expecting to wake up tomorrow having to do something about camp again but it’s over. The last prefect’s camp of my life was a blast. Thank you all, Form 5s, juniors, everyone that made camp this year a great experience for me. To the Form 5s, I can’t imagine not having camp to look forwards to next year. To the juniors, don’t miss your crazy Ketua Pengawas RPA too much, eh? (‘:

ILYALL <3

Just a Dream (cover) – Christina Grimmie and Sam Tsui (Arr. Kurt Schneider)

This is just amazing. Wonderful singers and AMAZING producer.

you can’t do this, yet you did.

what i think i need

1. Listen to your inner child
I wonder sometimes what would happen if we all pursued the art of being a goofball. If both sides of a debate dropped their pickets and traded knock-knock jokes instead, what would change? Would we see each other differently? As opportunities, rather than problems? Read more.

2. Be grateful for something every day
One benefit of being grateful and expressing your appreciation to others is the reciprocal nature of such things. The natural response to somebody saying, “thank you” or “wow, I really appreciate you” is the discovery of reasons to respond in-kind. If you’re constantly finding things to be grateful for and sharing your discoveries with others, be assured that they’ll begin to notice things you do and express their gratefulness to you before long!

3. Let some plans go
Giving up goals works in any area of your life. Take health and fitness: I used to have specific fitness goals, from losing weight or body fat to running a marathon to increasing my squat. Not anymore: now I just do it because I love it, and I have no idea where that will take me. It works brilliantly, because I always enjoy myself. Read more.

4. Reduce your exposure to negative media
If information isn’t helping you make decisions and only makes you feel miserable, why are you consuming it? Surrounding yourself with celebrity magazines and television shows featuring spoiled rich kids can fuel that urge to compare. Read more

5. Learn to say “NO!”
At the end of the day, it’s about how you say “no”, rather than the fact you’re saying no, that affects the outcome. After all, you have your own priorities and needs, just like everyone has his/her own needs. Saying no is about respecting and valuing your time and space. Say no is your prerogative. Read more.

6. Nurture happiness where you find it
Be grateful for your joy, every day. Be in the moment with that activity, instead of having your mind drift elsewhere. Refresh your joy often, by starting over or approaching things from a new angle or doing something a bit differently. Find new people to share this joy with, people who love it as much as you. Read more.

7. Get and stay organized
The National Association of Professional Organizers estimates that a huge percentage of work days are lost to people looking for things they have misplaced. Disorganization is the enemy of productivity, and it may even fuel procrastination. A few minutes spent every night organizing papers, assignments, long-term deadlines and goals can pay off handsomely in higher well-being and accomplishments. Read more.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/7-simple-ways-to-be-happier.html

broken pieces

There’s an elephant in the room and we pretend that we don’t see it.

I cried and smiled through it. Maybe I’m just getting better. I lied, I lied, I lied. To everyone, to myself, over and over again till I don’t even know which are lies and which are truths anymore.
I bulldoze through the day even though there’s clearly something else on my mind.

Had a heart to heart with Brynna today. I never knew we just had so much in common. It’s kinda cool actually. haha.

knocking on the doors of 2011

Now, it’s supposed to be reflection time but, oh whatever. I have been neglecting my blog this holidays *gasp.

2010 was a year of change. A lot of unexpected things happened. But I really thank God for placing the people He has placed in my life. And always having someone there for me. Always reminding me the He has a plan, even though I may not know where I am going in life, even though I don’t know how to face 2011, even though I don’t know where to go after secondary school, I rest assured knowing He has plans for me, and though I may not know it right now, He will guide me.

I learned a lot. But I guess, the words that will repeat itself in my head is something from a song – Seasons of Love from the musical Rent. How DO you measure a life? When we were going through the lyrics, we were told to reflect on the past year, and look to the future. In the end, it came back down to the present. It’s all about living right here, right now, and taking every moment. Because at the end of the day, how do we measure our lives?

I think what I’m typing makes no sense. It makes much more sense in my head after sitting through sessions with Nish and Dylan but I don’t know how to put them into words.

Take today, without worrying about tomorrow, and without thinking about yesterday. Does that make even a little sense? haha

oh and second, don’t think too much. This is tied with number one, but whatever, go with the flow, and the currents will take you there. I think.

I’m getting bad at this. The tonality of my post is changing like, crazy, for lack of better word. I take my leave.

Thank you 2010, hello 2011.

moments like these

Am relishing the fact that I have internet. At Mc Ds in Mont Kiara right now with the laptop. Hence combining everything into one for now.

Showcase on Saturday was awesome Had loads of fun on stage. As usual, jittery before getting on but the moment the stage lights were on a couldn’t care less. Nish said I sounded okay for my solo. Normally she says I sound like a strangled cat -.-

Najla brought 2 friends to watch the show case <3 thank you guys so much for coming (:

Uhm. Yea. For Gaga we had the weird head thingy. Took a million hair pins for it to stay in place -.- And when I took it off I had black glitter all over my face :/ Honestly, the costumes weren't as outrageous as I was hoping they would be. But whatever, what's pass is the past. The routine was great though (:

Pulled on my black coat and pair it with mismatched knitted wear. My purple knit beret/cap thing and pink and white knit scarf. Took deep breath and prayed my voice wasn't shaky for my solo :s But Nish said it was okay so I guess it was okay? I was mighty nervous before getting on stage.

For the Aladdin number we had gold waistcoat/vest thing. I paired it with my flares and jazz shoes. Topped off with a nice hat with was just such a nice touch to the whole outfit. I think this was the outfit i liked the most because it was just so fitting. Cue hooker persona
IDK how I did for my solo but I'm pretty okay with singing the jazzy style and the solo didn't require me to hit any high notes. Just hope the headset didn't pick up any breaths.

Speaking about headsets. The thing was annoying. I clipped it to my pants and it was dragging my pants down down down -.- So I clipped it onto the side, didn't give me much trouble after that. Though I still needed tape to tape it to my skin. The stage manager was complaining it wouldn't stick because I was too sweaty -.-

Oh what a night for finale was like, hastily done. But it was okay in the end (: Dylan covered the singing for us so all was good. I just sang backup

This week we're doing Rich Man's Frug from Sweet Charity with Judi. The dance is really, um, odd. I have never done a style where you need zero energy but this one. The moves are so graceful and contained. It's cool.
Honestly at first I wasn't too keen but now I think it's bloody awesome

My Life Would Suck Without You – I did partner work with Dylan, jealous girls? Jealous? Haha.
Though my partner for the show is CJ. REally. Doing partner work with him is just awkward. I feel like laughing half the time. But Dylan keeps getting us to show the rest how it's supposed to be done haha. Anyway the dance is just fun. Not too intensed or anything. Just fun (:

Nothing. The song is called Nothing. It's so weird because everyone asks us what were working on and we go "oh we're doing nothing". But it's from the Chorus Line. CJ, myself and Erika are sharing the character Morales. Which is weird because Morales is a girl but whatever CJ is opening, with the acting included, I'm taking the middle section where there are talky lines, haha. Erika is doing the high pitched part at the back where the key changes because me and CJ can't sing that high. We changed a few lines. Ben is doing Mr Karp because apparently he can't sing haha.

Anyway, need to work on singing. Nish says it's not clean enough ):

Finale is a Grease medly with is amazing! I helped with the choreography It looks awesome. Okay whatever I know what they say about self praise but really, even Dylan thought it was good

GO GREASE LIGHTNIN'

And, we worked on the opening, which is Wizard of Oz. And the storm effect is genius. IDK how to explain but the audience will be SPELL BOUND

BLOODY EXCITED. SATURDAY IS GONNA BE ONE HELL OF A SHOWCASE! <3

Fusion December Week 1: Day 5

Rehearsal day. It’s always a mess but it’s part of the fun.

First of all, our changing room was on 5th floor -.- Auditorium was on like 2nd floor.

Morning we did all the blocking and mic checks and some polishing. After lunch we ran the full dress rehearsal and we got our costumes. I’m gonna dance in skinnies tomorrow for Gaga, my jeggings are really uncomfortable to dance in. I mean it’s possible to dance in them but… they’re so hard to pull off during costume changes and costumes change is always the faster the better considering you’re sharing the room with like, 50 other people.

Initially Kaesh, Natalie, Shanti and I used the 5th floor changing room where you had to go up through the freaky lift and ended up running around. At least we were in time for our numbers.

For Seasons of Love soloists are using the stand microphones but for the Aladdin song we had headsets. So the stage manager was trying to wire me up and she was like IT DOESN’T STICK YOU’RE SWEATING. So I just grabbed masking tape and taped the thing to my face. And the other guy nearly stuck someone using duct tape LOL. All the chaos going on backstage, the audience has no idea. Okay maybe they do. But whatever.

Moving on. the headset receiver was clipped onto my pants and it kept pulling my pants down so it was really annoying and I’m trying to fix it as subtle as I can but… Anyway, I lip sync half the long notes at the end so that I don’t get out of breath but IDK whether the people watching can tell.

Oh yea, the costumes for that is like, really showgirl-ish. Basically a black tube and a gold waist coat which is really stripper ish, and black hats with golden sequins which just makes it more stripper ish.

my favourite outfit of the whole show has to be the ensemble for Seasons of Love where I mismatched knitted stuff and I had on my black coat. Haha, maybe I just like it because I’m wearing my own stuff. Or maybe I like it because it’s the only non PG outfit I have for the whole show

speaking about PG stuff the lyrics to the finale song really is PG. I just sing whatever I know because at this point I still have the headset on. 5 of us had to do a floor bit for the finale and I did a wrong move and I went “Shit” and the headset actually picked it up -.-

After the finale I had to get the headset off and the stage manager was like “no don’t touch them we’ll take them off for you” So the guy that was helping out back stage was just standing there awkwardly because a bunch of skimpy girls all had their backs to him so he could take off the headset. So in the end most of us did it ourselves.

it was crazy. but crazy is part of the fun I guess. With clothes flying all over and accessories just getting thrown here and there.

I CALL DIBS ON THE SHOW GIRL FEATHER FOR THE GAGA THING!

Fusion December Week 1: Day 4

Nish: Day 3 only right?
Us: no, it’s Day 4
Nish: THEN WHY CAN’T YOU GUYS SING PROPERLY :O

anyway. I’m singing lead for Seasons of love with CJ and Gavin. Apparently I need to be more powerful. I’m really scared of losing my voice AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

ANYBODY GOT SINGING TIPS?

*

this song makes me cry. It’s so beautiful and it literally speaks to my heart.
and his dancing is just AMAZING <3