Doodle #156 : Everybody's Starry Eyed

MUPhaS Annual Pharmacy Night, 2011 : A Grecian Odyssey


As the picture and first line says, this post will be about the MUPhaS organized Annual Pharmacy Night / Annual Ball. The ball for this year was also the first time one was actually organized by the committee and marks the first ball of many to come. For 2011, the ball was located at KGSAAS's ballroom. That's Kelab Golf Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah for you non-golfers out there. Being a golfer, I knew of the place beforehand but had never actually been there.

Well, that's been changed that night.

Traffic-wise, it went a lot smoother than I expected. Managed to get Jamie from her place and make it there in roughly 20 minutes. (:

Caught up with the rest then. Joshua, Dave, Tina, and Caryn were all already there.


The ticket for the night, picture stolen taken from Dave.

Registered (I forgot to bring my ticket down from the car and was much too lazy to get it, so Cheng passed me a new one :D) and just.. mingled, for a bit. Took some pictures, and a little catch up session with the rest of the gang. Everyone was dressed up! That's one of the perks of going to balls, you get to see everyone dressed to the nines, some according to theme (which will be shown later). Speaking of that, the theme was Grecian, think broke. I'm sorry, I thought of 9gag LOL wearing white curtains and flowers on your head.

We were told which tables we were assigned to before it dawned on me that we weren't all on the same table. *huge gasp*, I remember the last time that happened. Cue flashback. 7 of us were seated at a table while another 4 were in the adjacent table. It was then I realized another thing. All the tables were named according to names of various drugs we learnt in Pharmacy. WAY TO GO MUPHAS, way to liven up the names, *thumbs up* Coughcoughsensethesarcasm.


The table settings.

Our very own MUPhaS president kicked off the night with his opening speech.


Quite semangat to follow the theme. President must lead by example! :D He even had a lightning bolt. That's right folks! He's dressed as none other than ZEUS, Lord of Olympia...? (The title is what I remember from DotA, LOL)


That was followed by a speech by the Head of the Pharmacy Board of Monash, Prof Kenneth.


Prof being escorted down by Zeus.

After the opening speeches were made, it was time to DIG IN! Om nom nom nom. Always my favourite part of the night.


Food......

Of course, the performances started then, midway through our meal. >:( Had to choose between food or dance. We all chose dance. :D


This was the first act to perform for the night. 20 Cents if I recalled correctly. *shrug* Pretty cool group. Nice dance moves. They performed twice in fact, the first as the opening act and the second sometime later on in the night. I think they did much better during their second routine, or maybe it was the angle. Picture above was taken during their first performance.

After them, it was our very own Joshiee's turn! He danced to Airplanes by B.O.B. ft Hayley Williams. Three cheers for Hayley Williams! :D

But the shocker of the night for me was this,


Frieeeeeeeeeeeeend!!!! Why you suddenly dance no tell me?!?!? :O :O :O

(Y) *thumbs up* Super shocking.

He was super nervous throughout the performance and before, according to Dave. Can kinda see it on his expression as he danced, or lack of it. Perhaps. You did good frieeeeend!! :D

That was only a taster of what's to come later for the night. More performances were lined up as we enjoyed our dinner. I'd like to note though at how quickly our food was served and removed. The 7 of us couldn't finish any of the dishes, save the fish and chicken. Those were the best, om nom nom. Especially the vege dishes, cause well... There's 1 less of us to help out. ;)

After that, it was Devi who came up to perform,


She sang Someone Like You by Adele.

Devi! You've a really nice voice. :D That was an awesome rendition of it.

That was followed up this,


A performance by Violet, Eugene and..... a third senior whose name I do not know. Uhh, whoops? :/ Guitar was a bit too loud in my opinion.

After that, one of the more.. unique acts of the night.


Airband by The Aeroplane Clan. Starring Soo, Cheng, Josh and Zong Li. Basically, it's a 'band' without any musical instruments. They were pretty entertaining to watch. :D

Played Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet, and a whole lotta other songs I knew but can't seem to remember right now. :D

It was right about then that Joshiee changed into his actual costume for the night's theme.


BEHOLD. Emperor Joshua!

Of course, with every ball there'll be a best dressed related event. Everyone was to vote on who they thought were best dressed for the night and put their names in a box.


There were 2 people, a guy and a girl, from each year. From Year 1, Joshiee and Adeline! Yes yokeyee, you can thank me. BAHAHAH :P

With that, you get the whole "You guys must now perform a catwalk" and stuff like that. T'was fun to watch >:) Then they got paired up, Joshua was paired with Devi and Adeline with... one of the seniors. Sorry, my memory with names is bad. :D First they had to do a catwalk, then do a very short sketch using one of the props provided.


Joshua and Devi. The winning pair, hands down. :)

Ngawwww. :D

Once that was over, it was basically free time for the rest of the night. The dance floor was opened, and everyone........

Wait for it...


Keep waiting..


Patience...


They all...


Just sat around taking pictures.

Almost nobody danced. Well, the music played didn't quite suit the overall mood I guess. Slow music + bright lights = big no no.

No matter, paparazzi time!


Le emperor has conquered ze lightning prowess!



THIS. IS. SPARTAAAAAAAAA!


Le emperor with le lecturers. :D

That concludes the night, and the official end of my first year as a Pharmacy student. :')

It's been a great year guys! I'll never forget it. Here's to another awesome 3 years together. :))

Kinoc, out.

Doodle #155

First and foremost, I must apologize for going back on my word. I don't think I'll be able to keep updating this page every so often.

This will be a super quick one.

I'll write about Pharmacy Night sometime later this week should I find the proper manner to dictate the proceedings of the night.

Work also officially starts tomorrow, will be heading down to KL. Hopefully things go smoothly.

That's it. Yeah, short and sweet.

Kinoc, out.

Doodle #154 : Alpha

Ekam Eveileb.

Sometimes all you need is a little faith, that one guiding light amidst darkness. To know that the world we live is but a small part of a larger puzzle and each of us represents a piece of that puzzle. When push comes to shove, you'd want something, or someone to fall back on. Something bigger than any of us, a deeper meaning to life. Perhaps that something resides in each and every one of us already, we just have to acknowledge it. All you have to do is reach out, and believe.

Just finished reading both books borrowed from Samantha. I was supposed to pass her Pendragon as part of an exchange pact but alas, it slipped my mind on the day itself. Sorry! I really am, LOL. I'll pass them to you, and your books back when uni reopens!

Having said that, I attended the final gathering for Alpha at Whispering Hope (a church in... Damansara?) I'm sorry my geographical knowledge is horrendous. In simpler terms, it's Mun's, Joshiee's and Rachel's church. There! So much easier, no? It was more of a celebration, to celebrate (well, duh) the end of Alpha, or so Mun puts it.

It's been roughly 3 weeks since I last attended Alpha, due to the increasingly hectic schedule back in the end of Semester 2. Seeing as this was the final one, I made a point that I'll attend. I'm glad I did too.

In a nutshell *flashes back to 2010*, Alpha can be described... somewhat like a forum I guess. Basically, we meet up, eat dinner, chit chat, watch a video, then share our views on what we thought of the video. It's like a gathering to know more about other religions and their views on life. Throughout the past few weeks of attending, I feel that I've learnt quite a bit on Christianity. Well, much more than what I had previously known. Well, it's always nice to know more about the religions of others and share your views.

Those who find historical / religion related facts boring should look away now.

Last night's session was pretty interesting. Christianity in ancient China. Generally, we'd all assume a Chinese to be either a Taoist, Confusionist (is that how you spell it?), or a Buddhist. Well, apparently before all those came about there were no actual official religion or beliefs documented. However, historical records of China existed way back to 2500BC and all 3 religions aforementioned only came about roughly during 5BC. That leaves us with over 2000 years of.. blankness. Well, historical records may not have recorded any official religions but most would agree upon the existence of ONE god, Shang Di, contrary to what we know of in Chinese culture today. Cue flashbacks to the various Chinese drama's I've seen as a kid where there were over 20+ individual gods and goddesses.

Interesting, no? Even more so is the fact that history could only be documented only when people were able to write, that is when the Chinese writing was invented. Now, if something of epic proportions were to happen now, people could document them. The Flood, Tower of Babel and the Creation Stories would be as such. I won't even try to go through every last detail in this section as I'm not exactly well-versed in the ways of religion. But here's something to ponder upon, take a good look at some of the Chinese characters and how you write them. "Guilt", "Lust", "Sky", "Garden". Call it coincidence if you wish, but somehow or rather, each word carried with them a portion of the creation story. The speaker in the night's video really managed to explain each with such clarity and confidence you can't help but agree that he has a point.

It was a pretty fascinating thought.

On a side note, attendees (myself included) were also each given a certificate of attended throughout the Alpha course. Well, I wasn't sure how to react but it was nice to get one.

It's the thought that counts, right? :)

Allusions, unrelated thoughts strung together weaving a web of an intricate plan.

Okay, I just can't randomly string words together to form the complex sentences I used to be able to do. At least not now. For now, time to relax. :))

Kinoc, out.

Doodle #153

Silence is deafening.

It's been almost 2 weeks now since the semester ended. Can't say that it's the most productive of time but it's been okay.

Attempted an outing last Wednesday with the rest. Joshie, Blondiee and her counterpart, Dave and Jhii. It's time for chuyukfun (pork noodles)! Om nom nom. Taste the rich porky goodness in every bite. I have to say that the pork noodles there are the best I've ever tasted. It's a shop at SS15, right behind Taylor's CPU building. Average waiting time : 30 minutes. 45+ at lunchtime.

Or so we thought..

Pulled up to the road beside the shop aaaaaand.... SHOP CLOSED! :O Like what?! The one day we chose to go, shop closed. :/ Not the best of days. So we diverted off to Jojo's. Ah well.

Off to OU for movie! Drove Josh and Jhii there were we met up with Melody. The Adventures of TinTin. I didn't actually remember who the character was until the opening scene. The main character's silhoutte popped up and I just thought "Hey, I remember this guy!"

Overall, it was quite funny. Watching his dog Snowy save his neck more than once was pretty nice. Though I must say the most entertaining characters were Thompson and Thompson and their attempt to capture the local pickpocket. Hilarious. Of course, there's the constantly drunk Capt. Haddock. The whole quest for a family secret / treasure which is the main plot of the story pretty much led them everywhere. Though at the end, everything ends up back at square one.

Pretty entertaining watch.

Then there was yesterday. I can finally say that I've watched Real Steel! In short, the best movie that I've seen in the past few months, probably even the year. It's one of those movies that kinda engulfs you in its story. I found myself so engrossed in it, even felt like part of the crowd at times.

Went with Chern, Mei Yi, Voon and Chai Yee.

Story? Basically a man controlling a huge ass robot, in robot boxing. *cue Robots vs. Wrestlers thought* A robot boxer who is in huge debt, literally broke, and just got his robot's ass kicked. Multiple times. It's just painful to watch it being teared to shreds for his cockiness. Everything changed when he ended up with his son, and you can basically guess what happens from there.

Son comes into life, he wants to get rid of his son at first but over time they get dam attached to each other. Sounds like your typical plot but somehow or rather, the whole story captivated me.

Loved the Dancing Robot. :D This is te secod movie that has gotten me cheering, the other being Ip Man, and that was legend.... Wait for it.. dairy! Real Steel had that same effect in the final fight scene. Most memorable of all was when Max turned on Shadow Mode for his dad to manually control Atom :') Epic jump punch. :') :')

Life's good.

Kinoc, out.

Doodle #152

In line with what I have said, I'll start updating this page more often, despite however little things I have to say that are of any notable value.

This holiday season, I've found myself a new muse.


DC Universe Online! I heard that it recently started being F2P. Needless to say, I jumped into the bandwagon after my friend told me he was going to start playing.

It's pretty cool, just like your standard MMO. Only thing is instead of your standard classes (ie. Ranger, Warrior, Thief), you get to create your very own unique hero with a whole range of possible combinations of weapon + power + traveling method. The possibilities are endless. You even get to customize your equipment to your liking, disregarding your current equipment. Which brings about the thought, you can't judge a person by whatever they're wearing, unlike almost every other MMO out there. Heh.

So long as you look cool right?

When I first started playing it, the opening cinematic just blew me away.



You can see for yourself. It's pretty stunning. I was like WHOAAAAAAAA, and WHOAAAAA, and ZOMGGG all the way.

Well, that's all there is to it. Kinoc, out.

Doodle #151 : Le Cycling

IT REMINDS ME OF THE HUNT.

I iz back! With an event to boot! That and I will now try my best to keep this page of mine active.

Have I mentioned the holidays are officially here? Or that I'm free from the exam plague? Either way, my first year of Pharmacy has come to a close. It would seem very cliched now but I'll just reiterate how fast the year has gone by. :'(

Today was the day for the Pharmacy Inter-School Cycling Treasure Hunt, or rather it was more of a race but I'll get into that later. As the name of the event implies, it involved participants from Monash, Taylor's and SEGI, all of whom were pharmacy students. Think of it as a large scale mingling session amongst the undergraduates. SEGI Pharmacy was the main organizer of this event.

Scheduled meet up time was 7:15AM at Monash prior to departing. Being Malaysians, we were to adhere strictly to Malaysian timing, which involves leaving at 8AM or not showing up at all. *coughcough* If my memory's any good, there were 19 of us, from Year 1 to Year 3.

Destination?

Taman Pertanian (not Taman Negara) Seri Alam.

As if on cue, the sky darkened and the rain started to pour. Way to.. Rain on our parade. *dak dak, ting* By the time we reached and disembarked, it turned into a full scale downpour and we were all huddled in the bus stand.

Nevertheless, we were unfazed and some of us came prepared *brandishes umbrella*. It's times like these I wished I brought along an actual cap and not a visor. So we waited, for the SEGI students and for the rain to stop.


We push on!

As we entered, the rain began to die down. Some of us were already soaked then, but it still felt nice for it to stop as the event began. As I headed back towards the general crowd, I was approached by someone holding coloured ribbons who went "Take one!". So I took one, and got sorted onto Red team.

A quick scan around, and I found some of my would-be-teamates. I had 2 fellow Monashians with me, Devi and Sin Nah. The teams were all sorted out then and gathered, and we got acquainted with fellow pharmacy students who were also on Red. All in all, there were 7 of us. I was the only guy in Red, so it was no surprise I got elected leader. I wasn't a very good one. Hhahaa. :)

Once the teams were all acquainted with each other, everyone headed off towards the bicycle sheds. It was a cycling event after all. In essence, this event is a race ala Amazing Race style only that we were confined to one road and traveled on bikes. We were to travel to each station and perform a task in order to obtain our next clue which would lead us on so on and so forth.

Each team also had a coordinator, or facilitator who is in charge of handling all the stations and clues for their respective teams. Red team's coordinator was Matthias. Quite the fun guy. :D Managed to test my bike out for a bit before everything began. It's been almost 2 full years since I last cycled, ever since I got my driver's license. It felt rather nostalgic to get on one and started pedaling again. However, I wasn't really a big fan of the bicycles there, not the most comfortable to ride. Then again, what did I expect?

SO WE PUSH OFF!!

First up? Egg toss. (In my head: Yay! Get to test dexterity LOL).

Teams were to split themselves up into 2 groups on two platforms. One side was to toss eggs towards the other whose job was to catch it. Obviously. I was le catcher. *thumbs up*

The first few flew way over my head. After about 2 catches, I was tasked with catching everything. Well, why not? T'was fun. 5 Eggs later we received our next clue. One that brought us a little further down the trail, to the second station.


Here we had to wait for a group who had reached there before us before we were allowed to begin. The task at hand? Transport 5 rubber bands from the first member to last (aligned in a row) using only your mouth and a straw. LOOPHOLE. Didn't say we had to do it one at a time, which I think was what the previous group did since they literally took AN ETERNITY there. True, we had time to pose for pictures then. Our strategy? Take the whole bunch )about 10+ bands, and just transport everything at a go.

The third station was a game I never liked to play. Squish everyone onto 3 pieces of newspaper which acts as a makeshift bridge, to cross a makeshift river. Never did like the game, still don't.


Now that that's settled.. On to the forth station! *pedals at lightning speed* *crack, crack, BOOM* Bicycle shudders and jams. One glance later, I saw that my chain had come off. Oh nuts. Signaled everyone else to go ahead as I did some makeshift fixing. The oil stains are still on my hands as I write this post, in those ridges between your nails you just can't reach with soap. Lucky for me, Devi was there and she had hand sanitizers! :D


We press on!



Watch out for these little critters! First time I've seen either sign. Mind you, I was fascinated enough to stop and take pictures of both. Frankly, I'm just very easily.. Fascinated. Heh. :D

*pedal pedal pedal* Have I ever mentioned how much of a pain it is to cycle up an incline, or up a hill? Even in low gear, it's a physically exhausting fatigue-inducing task.

After the river station, we were directed towards the dam. By that, I mean those large man-made structures made to impede and divert the flow of water in order to harness electricity through nature. You catch my drift? The only thing was the station was ALL THE WAY AT THE END OF THE PATH. It was horrible to cycle all the way there, by now my butt already started to hurt from the ever so comfortable seats. It was a far cry from my own bicycle at home. It's times like these I wish I had my personal bicycle.

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the place. We were rather taken aback when we read the instruction sheet saying "You may get wet" and when other participants mentioned "blindfolded".

Turns out those were 2 seperate stations. One was to walk across an array of platforms that divided what seemed to be a pen for fish rearing (I'm not sure about the actual terms to use), which were more than wide enough to fit me. The catch was that you had to make a turn every time you reached a crossroad. Simple enough though. It also only required 2 of us to play it.

The following one was a bit harder, it involves 3 people (the previous 2 are not allowed to take part). 3 people were to play the roles of the "Eye", "Mouth" and "Blind". The eye could see the blind but the mouth could not. The blind had to make his or her way towards some steps from a nearby hut (blindfolded of course). The eyes can only see but cannot speak, and the mouth has to face the eye at all times, meaning the mouth's back is to the blind. Only the mouth can well.. shout out instructions on how to proceed. The nature of the task really requires one to exhibit teamwork.


Well, you can pretty much guess which role I found myself in. Well, I made a mental note of the path before starting just in case. Right before we started, I got spun around in circles. BAHHH. Then people spoke, easy enough to redirect myself from where their voices came through relative positioning.

Yes I am well aware that I have an odd manner of typing out my words sometime.


Halfway down the path, I heard a "STOP!" from the side. It was actually pretty hard to listen to your teammates as the 'mouth' didn't actually face you, so whatever commands that came out were voiced in the opposite direction. I immediately froze, and waited for what to do next. I reached out instinctively and sure enough, my team had just prevented me from walking facefirst into a tree. Mental imagery fail.

DO ZE ZOMBIE *hop hop hop*

The only good thing about having a station at the very end of the path? The only way to move from there was back. Which was exactly where we went, back down the path we came. Only this time..


More bike problems! This time it was one of my teammate's bicycle. The plate-like thing separating the gears from the wheel just got splintered, and broke off, taking out the gear with it.

Another 5 minutes setback.


Our next station, loved the architecture of it. Though we weren't actually in it, just beside it where we were supposed to climb ropes and stuff. Just some physical stuff. So long as you touch the beam at the top it counts. Being tall and having long arms ftw. :D

Ze station of plants came next.



Definitely the most tedious task among the 10 stations we had to go through. Each team was to decipher a clue that described a plant, and figure out which plant it was before taking a picture of it and showing it to their respective coordinators.

I have no idea how we managed to get this one.

By now, I was deadbeat tired. Just cycled for fun at this point, the flame of competition has died out. Might as well enjoy every moment of the race while it lasted. After all, it's not everyday you get to do things like this. :D




Our road then brought us to this place, Menara Pandang Jauh. Literally translated into Tower See Far. LOL. Anyways, we were supposed to count the number of steps that ran along it's structure. As I counted and recounted going up and down, I managed to get different figures and my mind flashed towards a scene in "Twilight Town". Fellow KH2 fans would know what I'm talking about.

Anyways it was 59. Did I ever mention how I disliked heights?


Photo time! Red Team! Devi, me, Sin Nah, Tze Mei, Jia, EeMay, and LouRene. Our coordinator, Matthias, is the dude in the mushroom. Hahaha.

Final station!!



Just had to count these little critters. Darn they're cute. :D

That concluded the day. Like how it was before we started off, the rain began to pour as we came to a close. Didn't make the top 3 spots but we thoroughly enjoyed the day. It's been really fun to have participated, meeting new people and old friends alike.

In line with every event, the end always call for a photoshoot session!


Monash-ians!


And everybody else. This picture made me realize how many people actually took part that day. That's a pretty big number, seeing how small everyone looked in this picture. Heh.

All in all, it was a good day. :)) I'm looking forward to more events like this. For now though, it's time to sink into the holiday persona again, and turn into a sloth.

Kinoc, signing out.

Doodle #150

I just suddenly felt a strange stinging sensation of emptiness, or perhaps it's just mere boredom. Nonetheless, that fleeting sensation has compelled me to return once more to blogging! Now you may start cheering.

That aside, I really do feel a little bit lost right now. An allusion to a song I was once addicted to. In fact, I'm listening to it right now, kinda makes me bubbly inside, though it isn't exactly one that reverberates happiness. Well, there's a line about feeling lost.

Coming back to my ever so mundane life, there's only one thing separating me from summer break. A three-hour long paper known only as PHS2. I can't exactly say I'm looking forward to the break that awaits me after the paper. I have virtually no plans for the holidays nor was I ever a holiday person (those who have read my older posts would understand) to begin with.

My first year as a Pharmacy student is coming to a close. It felt like everything had just sped past me. As I try to focus on what's happened throughout the year, it feels rather typical of a blurry haze. I've had my fair share of ups and downs (as with every year). But will this year top the magical high note that was last year? I'll just have to wait and see. :)

I can't help but feel all these reminiscence posts of mine almost inevitably end up as a rather depressing rant. :/ I need to liven' it up a little! Or so I keep hearing from my peers.

Vivid recollections of that first week I stepped into Monash remains fresh in my mind. Due to primacy perhaps? They say you always remember the first and last days. :) (I'm throwing in smileys to try to give the allusion of emotion here). True, it was indeed a memorable week. A week I found my friends. I still remember how I met each and every one of them. Heh. :) I realize now how light-hearted everything was back then. To revisit the days is to relive every emotion. :')

And to think this is only our first year together, three more years awaits us. I'll try my best to make each day count. :D

Oh I'm making myself feel all dejected now. Time to kick it up a notch! Holiday plans! Oh wait, I've none -.- besides the contemplation of finally beginning work. My dad's helped me find smth, but I'll have to make the call, which will be after the exams.

Holidays also mean people are coming back, and there are some I'm just dying to see again. Very few actually, I never had that big a circle. Still. :)

A quick recap on what's done. I think Physiology's paper this semester was our 'wtf' paper, akin to Physico from Sem1. My jaw just dropped when I opened the first page.

Maybe I have a knack to exert control on whatever I can, it's one of my less preferred traits. I need to loosen up, and let it play itself out. *deep breath*, sigh. Just needa relax a lil'. The exams are almost over, and that is one of the things I'm certainly looking forward to. :)

Kinoc, out.

Doodle #149

I'm writing this after having sat through 2 papers of my finals. Overall, I think I've done pretty okay so far. Of course, I tried as hard (somewhat) as I could to prepare for the two papers, which were..

Chemistry of Biomolecules
Essentially a unit based on Organic Chemistry. In some ways, I've viewed this unit as my forte, and one of my leading two units for the semester. Hopefully, I'll be able to rake in the marks. My performance for the paper? It was far from perfect. As usual, parts I never read up came out. Blazed through it and just walked out. Couldn't think any more at that point. Of course, got the standard glares as I left. For the record, I just write fast. What I write on paper may not be right. There is a difference.

Drug Delivery 1
Well.. Can't say much about this except I was dead worried about what we may be quizzed on as well as the number of questions we would be facing in the examination. When reading time began, I flipped through to the end and saw that the last question was marked 11, and it was a full SAQ paper. Flipped through the pages, and managed to crack a little grin. I felt a slight sense of relief then, the paper was as hard as I had initially expected. Still had some issues with it though, namely some doubts with how to tackle certain questions. Stayed in for the full 3 hours, to make full use of my time for this paper. Though exams wasn't the only reason for that, I gave my word and will abide by it.

Well. That's that! The month of November is upon us. Today marks 1/11/11. :)

A new month.

Will be studying for Physio over the next 2 days. I need San Frans.. :/ Still have 2 purchases to go to fill up my card (from LAST YEAR). Yeah. :/ Really want that free coffee. XD

Kinoc, out.