Sears and Zemansky’s.

I bitau you one sentence and then you tell me whether my hidup berterabur anot-

Okay?

“I have just finished Physics Assignment #4 (due in a few days time)-spent a whole night doing it-but am yet to complete Assignment #3, which is like, due besok“.

WAWAWAWA.

Crap. That reminds me. I haven’t visited/commented on Atif’s blog in ages @.@ ARGH, HOW COULD I?!?!?

This means that another JB-based allusion is in order:

Wiwuwiwuwiwu.

You serious?

It has come to my almost embarrassing attention that snuffleupagush.wordpress.com has possibly attracted a “significant” amount of attention from CUSID.

“Significant”: the point that this site may actually be attracting the higher echelons of Canadian debating @.@

I just hope I don’t come across looking like a debating groupie from Malaysia.

It’s just nice to be lucky enough to be given the opportunity to watch.

Darkness and Starlight!

Check it out y’all!!!

This picture was released at www.dogearedrecords/tbm3 recently:

THE BLACK MAGES’ THIRD ALBUM’S RELEASE DATE HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED!!!! =D =D =D =D

(for those of you who do not know, The Black Mages are a SquareEnix endorsed progressive metal band that remixes and rearranges classic Final Fantasy tunes, spiffing them up with electric guitars, organs, keyboards and good ol’ drums=D And I am a HUGE fan of their works. Read: HUGE XD)

Omigod Omigod Omigod I can’t WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

The third album is entitled “Darkness and Starlight”, and is confirmed for a March 19th release!!!! =D Now this is one album I really REALLY want lol! =D

Initially slated for a late 2006 release, the album was first pushed back to mid 2007, before being shafted to August 2007, then finally delayed all the way to 2008 @.@

But now, it’s really on the way! =D

I have a hunch that the picture you see above is going to be the album cover art-beautiful isn’t it? Just right for a double-disc album that will attempt to remix some classic Final Fantasy tunes AND a reinterpretation of Japanese mythology!=) The reason my hunch is as such is because the last time The Black Mages released a drawing, it turned out to be the cover art for their second studio release-The Skies Above.

There isn’t much information about the album yet though, although you CAN watch an interesting teaser video and listen to a minute of a song at www.dogearedrecords/tbm3. The song in question -their first single – is a song so obviously classic and worth remixing that I am surprised I did not expect The Black Mages to do it.

They did Opening-Bombing Mission, which is the first song that you hear in Final Fantasy VII, right when the title of the game rolls up, and the scene starts to segue into a high speed rogue train assault. God, the good old times =’) Opening-Bombing Mission is also a VERY famous theme at Final Fantasy Symphony concerts, and has been remixed by fans dozens of times…God why didn’t I expect it to come out?!?! @.@ LOL

At this point, I will withhold all major comments pending further release of the rest of the album, but I will say one thing: it seems that they have not been gone at all=)

And bear in mind that this is their first studio album since 2004 tau @.@ They have been very quiet ever since, save for a couple of concert appearances and their awesome remake of This Is The Final Battle for Square Enix’s version of Final Fantasy III for the DS.

I end this post with happy anticipation and speculation of what I would like to hear on Darkness and Starlight:

Liberi Fatali, FF VIII (OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD IF THEY DID THIS MEMANG @.@ @.@ DOWH!!!).

Those Who Fight, FF VII.

Battle Theme of FF IX, FF IX (this is another one @.@)

And a slow theme would be nice…FF VI’s Terra, maybe? =D =D =D Or even Cosmo Canyon from FF VII?=D =D

OhmyGodtaksabarnye…

=)

By work, all things grow.

Hey everyone!!

I apologize for any delay in getting this post up; being away from work for a whole weekend – and therefore having to catch up on a lot of schoolwork – isn’t easy lol.

Anyway, I present to you, O dear reader, the 59th Annual McGill University Winter Carnival:

Now, I know many readers of this blog are ridiculously familiar with the Australasians debating style, in where two teams of three people are set on opposite sides of a given motion and asked to debate it; most are also probably used to seeing some manifestation (at least) of the British Parliamentary format, which is also the format used at the World Debating Championships: four teams of two people each are given a motion and assigned one of two sections of either the proposing Government or the Opposition.

But how many of you are familiar with the Canadian Parliamentary format?=)

Lol, I can see the confused expressions already XD

For the benefit of those who do not know, the Canadian Parliamentary format is the other standard format used in (obviously) Canadian debate tournaments, the other being the British Parliamentary. Basically, how it works is that you have two teams of two on either side of the house, and 15 minutes before the round, you are given a squirrelable motion @.@

Yes, squirrelable. You have tupais flying around the place=p But no, seriously, the motion is intended to be ridiculously open ended, and the Government is given exclusive rights to actually choose what they want to debate. For this reason, prepped cases are encouraged, and the Government is also expected to (usually) take on the higher burden of proof…which kinda makes sense as you have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD TO PREPARE @.@

And of course there are restrictions of no time-place sets or specific knowledge rounds (the second one implying that the case selected by a Government for a debate must be one which does not require ridiculously high levels of knowledge in order to debate it).

Anyway, we left Ottawa for Montreal at noon on Friday the 18th of January. The EDS of the University of Ottawa sent a rather sizable contingent this time (as compared to 3/2 teams for Hart House, and 2 for Chancellor’s Cup) of four full, pure EDS teams, and two others who would later team up with their respective hybrids. Amy Marlene-the president of the EDS-and a fellow novice, Nick M., also went as judges.

I was given the honor of partnering Oscar Wasilik for Winter Carnival. Ridiculously loyal readers may recall him as my partner at the U of O’s Guindon Cup tournament…and also the guy I spent Christmas with hehe=p

I was also lucky enough to be strapped in the same van with a group of very-the-awesome-people: first up, there was John Sergeant, our driver – he would later register at the tournament under the name of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (LOOOOOOOOOOOLLL!!!!!! XD XD XD). There was also Alex Amar – Executive Director of CUSID @.@ – in the co-driver’s seat (I couldn’t stop marveling at the DATABASE of previous debate tournaments stashed in the hard drive of his head @.@) whose influence I regret to say permeated my head for the rest of the weekend (ha…ha…LOIN @.@).

In the back we had the Russian-China coalition of Yulia and Yolanda, who spent the whole trip prepping their fleet of cases (@.@), and of course the random pairing of Poland and Malaysia orbited the centrifuge of the vehicle=)

The drive up to Montreal took two hours, and the highlight of the trip was DEFINITELY the decision of the theme names for teams!!!=D We went through a HUGE list of suggestions; some neat ones included the “EDS Emoticon” theme…which meant that our EDS teams would probably be named along the lines of something like this:

EDS =)

EDS T.T

EDS @.@

EDS -____-

 

Then we had the “EDS Nazi Dinosaurs” idea (this one’s my personal favourite!=D):

EDS Tyrannosaurus-Reich

EDS Pteradact-Heil

EDS SStegosaur

EDS V2lociraptor

 

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D =D =D

But there were fears of evoking at least fifty equity violations, so the motion didn’t go through=( Eventually, we decided on team names based on the Star Trek movies, so there you go. We thus became:

EDS The Motion Picture (Jean-Michel and Alejandro)

EDS Nemesis (Yulia and Yolanda)

EDS The Wrath of Khan (Eric and Sia)

EDS Generations (John Sergeant and Dawson)

EDS The Undiscovered Country (Oscar and Irving)

* Alex Amar became part of Trinity/EDS Horn-Rimmed Glasses…which tied in with the Trinity theme of oculars. NO, this is NOT the title of some ghetto Star Trek movie LOL XD

 

And as usual, this is how my team did; winning teams are bolded:

Round 1:

Motion: This House Would Use A Light Touch, etc…

Squirreled To Be: THBT The United States Should Boycott The Beijing 2008 Olympics

Government: EDS The Undiscovered Country

Opposition: Acadia Sexy Beast

 

Round 2:

Motion: This House Would…(can’t remember @.@)

Squirreled To Be: TH Would Remove All Marriage Tax Benefits

Government: Land Before Equity

Opposition: EDS The Undiscovered Country

 

Round 3:

Motion: THBT It’s Children Are It’s Only Real Treasures

Squirreled To Be: THBT Canada Should Abandon The Kyoto Protocol

Government: Trinity Pince-Nez

Opposition: EDS The Undiscovered Country

 

Round 4:

Motion: THBT “the devil” means “robot devil”, and “metaphorical” means “get your coat”

Squirreled To Be: THB In A Mandatory Parenting License

Government: EDS The Undiscovered Country

Opposition: Waterloo Assembly

 

Round 5:

Motion: THW Dip It’s Bottom Over and Over Again, In A Tub Of Silkiest Oils And Creams

Squirreled To Be: THBT Argentina Should Regulate It’s Soy Production

Government: Acadia Please Don’t Make Us Cry

Opposition: EDS The Undiscovered Country

 

Round 6:

Motion: TH Would Decide Upon The Woman It Idolizes Over The Hands of an Automaton

Squirreled To Be: THBT Canada Should Increase It’s Military Presence In The Arctic Circle

Government: EDS The Undiscovered Country

Opposition: Dalhousie Whiskey & Rai

 

Final result for EDS The Undiscovered Country: 2 wins, 4 losses; ranked 45th.

Speaker score (again with the yardstick of 38.5 as “good”): 38-39-38.5-37-39.5-38, Average 38.33 points, ranked 72nd overall speaker, 9th novice.

 

To be honest, an apt emoticon at this point to sum up my emotions after the tournament would be =( The reasons are simple: firstly, I averaged a 38.3 speaker score for the THIRD tournament running-no improvement-; next, Oscar and I were hoping for at least a 3-3 to reflect the effort that we put into Winter Carnival…what with repeated and strenuous case prep over the hols AND at the hotel, to get a mere 2-4 was just plain disappointing=( I was silent in the van on the way back, and Oscar was doing the same thing; I don’t know for sure if he felt the same way, but if I know him well enough, EDS The Undiscovered Country had mutual thoughts that night.

But looking back, it wasn’t too bad. We had a brilliant first day, scoring a win over Acadia Sexy Beast and – if I may say so myself – offering a significant amount of resistance (our speaker scores in the second round reflect this IMHO) to Land Before Equity, a team which was essentially the Government of Canada @.@ (according to Alex Amar, one of their speakers works for the Prime Minister’s Department of Finance…and he hit us with a tax case when we went up against him wawawa @.@).

I do not know why we just crumbled – aside from the absolute overturning of another Acadia team on a ridiculously one sided motion @.@ – on the second day. I’d like to think that we had poor luck in the draws, hitting teams which were exactly the same level as us all the time, but I also believe we have a lot of work to do.

But how does one go on from here? I feel as if I’ve hit a dead end in some respects…stagnating since I was a 17 year old debater, an unchanged 38.3 points average across two terms….=(

While I muse and ponder a bit, here are some pics for your visual appetite:

McGill University, Montreal.

The debaters waiting room.

Ok I’m done thinking lol XD

Debates and results aside, we had a lot of fun though! The social was at Molson House, and as I cannot do justice to an open bar social, here are some pics:

=D

Molson House, before the debaters landed in full glory.

The EDS table.

And now, some of the awesome EDS teams!!=D

EDS Nemesis: Yolanda Jiang, Yulia Lagoutina.

EDS The Wrath of Khan: Eric, Sia.

EDS The Undiscovered Country: Irving Tan, Oscar Wasilik=)

Random picture of the Molson House Social=)

Forum Perdana: Siavosh Nuruziaan, Amy Marlene debating on This House Would Want A Career Girl lol.

Announcement of the break at the Molson House. At furthest right is Vinay Kumar Mysore, Chief Adjudicator and former Worlds Octofinalist.

The tournament was won by a team from the University of Toronto-Hart House Supreme Court Judges, manned by Paul Erik Dash Veel and Jon Laxer, defeating the team xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx! (SERIOUS SHIT, that’s the name they chose-no joke @.@), manned by Ian Freeman, and also the current World Public Speaking Champion Jason Rogers in the finals.

And guess how they chose sides for the finals:

@.@

@.@!

@.@!!!

@.@!!!!!

BY PLAYING A ROUND OF ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS WTH?!?!?!?! @.@ @.@ @.@

Some pictures from the final round:

The Final Draw (told you I wasn’t joking about the team name @.@)

LOL the squirrelable motion for the finals: If It Takes Forever, This House Will Wait For You LOL!! XD

Part of the Government, Ian Freeman-of Carleton University-in action. Serious shit I admire the guy @.@

The Opposition’s Paul Erik Dash Veel, University of Toronto -

And his partner, Jon Laxer.

The final, my friends, was pure BRILLIANCE @.@ Having had the liberty to set the case, and the obligation of taking the heavier burden in the round, the Government of Jason Rogers and Ian Freeman produced one of the most radically stunning cases that I have personally heard: they basically argued about the justice system, and how rehabilitation SHOULD NOT be a part of it @.@ @.@

They then proceeded to argue along the lines of the state having no real right whatsoever to change the BELIEF of it’s citizens @.@ It was a ridiculously heavy burden, and the Opposition ended up winning in the end…but I would almost have given the round to the Government based on pure guts alone lol!

But think about the case…seriously @.@

And the public speaking final was simply orgasmic LOOOOLLLL!!! @.@ + XD The finalists included the tournament’s best speaker Ian Freeman, Jason Rogers-again, he’s World Public Speaking Champion @.@- and also the President of CUSID, Nick Shkordoff.

Heavy company eh? @.@

The topic they were given alone was enough to set smiles on one’s face lol!! It was: “You are writing the next Great Russian Novel. Aside from borscht and misery, what will be in it?” XD

And omigod, I have NEVER heard SOOOO many puns in my life hahahahahaha XD XD XD Nick Shkordoff decided to produce a short story in which he basically punned the names of EVERYONE that he knew in the room -here’s a sample, filched off the Cusid.net forum:

Let me tell you about where I live. I live in this little summer village (Chris Somerville, Hart House), OK, and there’s this theme park where I go. I live on a street called Mulholland Drive (Jenny Mulholland, Guelph) which is between these two lakes, as it were, OK, the theme park is on the banks of the west lake. (Daniel Westlake, Carleton) …So I’m watching TV on Rogers cable the other day (Jason Rogers, Hart House) I’m watching my favourite shows, with Captain Kirk and Captain Picard (Bernard Dawson, Laurier, and John Sergeant, Ottawa, debating under stage names) on it, which is Star Trek, where they battle their arch-nemesis The Jorg. (Lisa Jorgensen, Queens) I’m sorry, Lisa.

Nick Shkordoff in the Public Speaking Finals. Note that each time he “mentioned” the name of someone in the room, they had to stand up LOL.

And look how many he had before long LOOOOOOOOOOOLLL!!!!!

*btw, special thanks to Alex Amar for the transcription (should I cite it? Seriously @.@)

And that was just the FOURTH best speech. Imagine what Ian Freeman (eventual champion) had in store lol!=D Excellent stuff all round, and I am honestly bloody amazed at their apparent ability to conjure jokes out of thin air @.@

Personally, I was hoping for the EDS’ own Alex Amar to break to the public speaking finals; sadly, it was not to be…heard he came DARNED close though, finishing at 6th (top 5 breaks to the final)…oh well, next year eh?=)

Right people, thanks for reading. Now I really should go study @.@

And oh yeah, did I mention that I’ll be attending the North American Championships at Carleton this week?=)

Okay okay I MUST GO and study @.@
Oh, but before I go, here’s the ABSOLUTELY BEST PICTURE OF THE TOURNAMENT!!!!!

READY?=p

HERE GOES!!!!=p

=p

Hehehehehe=p Wajid Sayeed (EDS alumnus) doing up Alex Amar’s tie for him…awwww=p

Cheers people!=D

Refe-random.

Hmm.

Please add a comment if you feel that the font of this blog is too small.

You can also comment if you believe otherwise. Thanks.

Extensional ramblings that many, I believe, would like to know.

The following is a response to Afiqah Thalib’s-of the University of Auckland-latest blog post, which was dated January 10th, 2008:

“I first heard of the secondary institution Sekolah Menengah Agama Persekutuan Kajang (SMAP Kajang) back in 2002 when I was a 14 year old budding debater at the Royal Military College (RMC). It was a name we novice debaters were trained-in true RMC debating tradition-to respect and acknowledge along with the likes of Tunku Kurshiah College and the premier school that was the Malay College of Kuala Kangsar.

And why wouldn’t we? Generations of RMC debaters now still remember the great age that was the year 2001, in where the alma mater easily won the state Datuk Wira Championships and-more importantly-claimed the Prime Minister’s Challenge Trophy (PPM) for the first time in a decade (we have not won it since, but have come ridiculously close in 2004, 2005, 2005, and 2006). In the PPM Final of the year past, RMC edged out SMAP Kajang, almost instantaneously immortalizing the Kajang institution in the subconscious of generations of debaters to come.

And yes the repeat of 2005 is intentional.

Yes we respected and almost feared them, especially in the years of RMC’s debating reconstruction in 2002 and 2003. The following year was the inaugural tournament of the IIUM Interschool Debating Championships, and as fate would have it, both RMC and SMAP Kajang broke to the Quarterfinals-at 6th and 7th place respectively. I remember that in the congregation we nearly always sat in a place which put us two rows in front of SMAP Kajang, affording us glances of respect to the team which had so nearly ousted our legendary seniors the year before.

The moment we edged MRSM Taiping on a 3-2 jury in the quarterfinals, we RMC knew that the paths of our two respective institutions would cross in the semifinals. I cannot even begin to recollect the honour of actually being able to argue, and contest the same team which made the National PPM Finals just two years earlier-it was just surreal. And it was at that point in time where we at RMC came to know Afiqah Thalib, who, if memory serves me correctly, was the reserve debater and protege of local greats such as Aisha Adam and Raihana Ghaus. As if to foreshadow our impending levels of conflict, SMAP Kajang thrashed us in the group stage of the PPM tournament that same year-effectively grounding our hopes of progression to the knockout rounds.

Most of the SMAP Kajang team of 2003 graduated that same year. We at RMC would probably well have written off SMAP Kajang from our list of contenders in 2004 if it were not for that one bit of the old SMAP Kajang which remained-Miss Afiqah herself.

And she proved our hunches right, single handedly steering her novice team to the breaks at the 2004 IIUM Interschool, and consistently making it to the list of winning teams for every round of the Asian format debates, which was more than enough to keep us military boys on our heels. To top it all off, her prowess and natural gift of the gab allowed her to claim a spot in the Top Ten Overall Speakers of the tournament; and I know, based on personal experience, that it can be ridiculously hard to get a high speaker score when one is in a team of novices.

In this world, there are many things which seem to happen by cruel twists of fate or perhaps by pure ironic coincidences. Deja vu occurred for both sides of debaters at RMC and SMAP Kajang-we were drawn in the same group yet again for the 2004 PPM preliminary rounds. To top all that off, we were going to be debating each other on possibly the most ambiguous PPM topic of all time: “This House Believes That The Best Things In Life Are Free“.

We prepared very hard for that topic, fully knowing what awaited us in that round. As predicted, it was the hardest match that we had throughout the whole group stage. I note that I am writing on assumption but yet I believe that there is reason to convince one’s self that the main factor by which SMAP Kajang managed to fight so hard against RMC-the eventual group winners-was their rock of a third speaker. I remember throwing myself into the fray of words (I was the RMC speaker just before Afiqah) with every shred of conviction I could muster-knowing full well that Afiqah could potentially turn the tables on us if I did not do my job properly.

SMAP Kajang came alive the moment she began her whip process. I recall that Al-Azim, my team captain and opposite member to Afiqah in that round, turned to me during her speech and asked if he should resort to a drastic change in opening in order to counteract the fire that was so powerfully flowing against our arguments in the closing half of that round.

I guess it shows how closely fought that round was when Al-Azim grabbed the best speaker award-if anything, it was a good indication of how instrumental his responses to Afiqah’s crucial arguments were for us to win that round.

Regrettably, that was the first and last time that I ever had the privilege of debating against Afiqah-RMC and SMAP Kajang never met again throughout my entire debating career.

But we kept our eyes on them just the same. In prepping my junior debaters to take on the role of RMC-2 in the 2005 IIUM Interschool, I warned them of St Xavier’s, TKC, and of course SMAP Kajang. The last component of resistance was still there, and I would not have my juniors take them lightly. And I’m glad they didn’t.

A one man team SMAP Kajang broke again at IIUM Interschool, and once again, Afiqah claimed a spot in the Top Ten list of tournament Best Speakers-this time just one spot shy of the Top 5. The same signs of resurrection occurred again at that year’s PPM-SMAP Kajang broke clear of their group and were well on course to make a huge impact in the knockout rounds. I remember back then we were in the same bracket of the tournament, and my valued teammate of three years-Ayap-showed me the draw back then:

On one end, RMC would contest Sakti and then SMAP Labu, while on the other end of the spectrum SMAP Kajang would square off against SM Sains Pasir Puteh. Ayap said to me:

” We should have SMAP Kajang in the Semifinals-it’s the hardest match we have on our path to the Final”.

We had Pasir Puteh in the end, but that sums up how much respect we at RMC had for the institution-and it’s one man maelstrom-right to the very end.

I can only imagine-and never fully empathize-the huge scale of having to select, and train a team by your own means for two whole years…and at the end of it all, still succeed to a certain extent in many local tournaments. For that, this SMAP Kajang rebel of the system has my respect.”

She no longer dons the colours of SMAP Kajang-the University of Auckland being her current center of tertiary education. All I can say at the end of this post is that in Canada resides someone who remembers how great Afiqah Thalib once was, and I now urge her to remember how great she can be-in New Zealand and beyond.

With utmost respect and admiration,

IRVING TAN ZHI MIAN, former captain of the RMC Debate Team 2005.

University of Ottawa 2007-2011.

I remember a rhythm.

Thanks to my Children’s Literature classes, I have been gently reminded of certain childhood tales stored deep in my cranial memories-many of them Disney cartoons. And from one of these cartoons comes this song, which-until tonight’s YouTubing process-I vaguely remembered.

Anyone care to guess the title of the song? And also the cartoon film it’s from?=)

Look at this stuff,
Isn’t it neat?
Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?
Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl,
The girl who has everything?
Look at this trove,
Treasures untold-
How many wonders can one cavern hold?
Looking around here you think,
Sure, she’s got everything.

I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty,
I’ve got whozits and whatzits galore.
You want thingamabobs?
I’ve got twenty!

But who cares?

No big deal.

I want more…

I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see them dancing-
Walking around on those – what do you call ‘em?
Oh…feet!

Flipping your fins, you don’t get too far,
Legs are required for jumping, dancing-
Strolling along down a – what’s that word again?
Street!

Up where they walk, up where they run,
Up where they stay all day in the sun!
Wandering free – wish I could be-
Part of that world.

What would I give if I could live out of these waters?
What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?
Bet you on land they understand,
That they don’t reprimand their daughters-
Bright young women sick of swimming,
Ready to stand!

I’m ready to know what the people know-
Ask ‘em my questions, and get some answers!
What’s a fire and why does it – what’s the word?
Burn!!

When’s it my turn?
Wouldn’t I love, love to explore that shore up above?
Out of the sea,

Wish I could be…

Part of that world.

=)

Here we go again =)

Classes for the winter semester at the University of Ottawa begin tomorrow, the 7th of January 2008.

I am taking five courses this semester, same as last year. They are:

1.) GEO 1111-Introduction To Earth Systems

2.) MAT 1341-Introduction To Linear Algebra

3.) MAT 1330-Calculus For Life Sciences II

4.) PHY 1122-Fundamentals of Physics II

5.) ENG 2110-Children’s Literature (YES, yay!=D)

I hope and pray to build on the four A’s I have from my first semester (my grade for MAT 1330: Calculus For Life Sciences I remains unknown as of now =.=”) for this year. Am feeling semangat-ed (tiru ayat Atif LOL) at the moment, and this can only be a good thing kan? =)

I also openly admit that the fifth course on my list appears to be a bit wonky lol, but yet it is the only one on the list which actually directly appeals to me as a person to be honest=) Wish me all the best, and God willing the best is yet to come!

Dobranoc people!!=D

Happy New Year!!! (Part Two)

Hello again people, and welcome to the second parter of my new year celebrations in Ottawa=)

Just in case some of you are wondering, the first parter of this super-long blog post is just below, alright?

Anyway, picking up where we left off: the boys and myself had decided to spend the night at Carleton, where a night of Battlefield 2 and CS awaited (XD). So we headed over to my place so I could pick up my laptop and pack some clothes for my stay at Carleton. Then we headed back to the Rideau Center to catch the next OC Transpo bus to Carleton-by then it was already 1.30 am.

So we waited, and waited.

And waited some more. It was a minus 11 Celcius by then; trust me-very cold >.<

And waited still a bit more, but still the OC Transpo bus to Carleton station didn’t arrive at the Rideau. By then it was 3.30 am, and we were starting to get very hungry and cold. Finally, fed-up and tired, (I was carrying my laptop in my backpack @.@) Khamsani and myself stopped a bus heading to the Bayshore and asked if the bus to Carleton was on the way soon.

His answer had us all mimicking the following smiley: =.=”

The buses to Carleton had been cancelled. It was, after all, New Year’s Day =.=”

=.=” We decided to head over to McDonald’s for a bite to eat, as we were all so pissed from having been made to stand in the chill for no reason at all lol. The McDonald near the Rideau was a mess, having been filled to the brim with hungry and messy revellers; there were about thirty people at the counters, waiting to be served, and the floor of the establishment was just @.@

Perhaps pictures will help me articulate myself lol:

The salt and ketchup counter-and this was one of the tidiest places in the outlet lol!! @.@

I had Azrap pose beside one of the tidier (and empty @.@) tables.

The whole place looked something like this lol!!

Yeap, not the cleanest place in town heheh. After the meal, we had only two real options-take the walk back to Carleton (one hour walk @.@) or camp up at my place for the night. Unanimous vote: 6-0 for uOttawa residence lol!! XD

Only one problem: my room was only strictly designed for one person…LOL.

So this was how it looked, 40 minutes later-Pawa, Khamsani, Azrap and Mustaqim took the floor:

And we also reserved a special place for Mustaqim:

Zul and myself took the bed (the rest of the guys insisted lol! @.@):

And don’t worry, nothing happened=p

XD

We also found time to compare cards. What cards? Student cards, IC, you name it-we did it LOL:

Student Cards. You can observe how “well” our names translate into Canadian society here-the part of Zul’s name that is reflected on his Toronto student card is only (read bold text) Sharazul Fikri bin Mohd Salleh (yes, that’s his DAD’s name he has on HIS student card LOOOOOOLLLL!!!!), Khamsani is addressed in Carleton as Mohd bin Ahmad (his full name is Mohd Khamsani bin Ahmad wawawa @.@), and of course I am known in international circles as Irving Zhi Mian, Tan wawawa XD

Oh, and DO check out Pawa’s picture on his student card=p

Luckily, the bank cards weren’t that bad:

And only three of us brought our ICs lol…sudah lupa daratan nampak HAHAHAHAHA=p

(I decided not to post pictures of our ICs, also for safety purposes >.<)

The very next day, we headed down to Carleton. Azrap was leaving for Montreal as well, so it was at the Glengarry Residences of Carleton that we bade him farewell; but I’ll see you this 19th of January-as I fly the EDS flag at the McGill Winter Carnival-man=D

Random shot of the University of Ottawa campus (and snow=p) as we left for Carleton.

I spent much of my time there just chatting with the guys, watching my collection of Futurama series with them, and having round after round of CS and Battlefield 2=p Felt so good to have dinner with them and to be part of a group once again, as it has been half a year since we all left Taylor’s University College and Ridzuan condos to pursue our separate paths in Canada =’)

And guess who was top Battlefield 2 frag=p But I ruled the base and wooden spoonists in CS LOL. >.< Now that’s one game I’ll muster more than master hahaha @.@

We also went skating at the public ice rink across Carleton University!!=D It was only the second time that I had ever ice-skated-the first time was back in 2001 at Sunway Pyramid (where else eh? >.<)-and I am glad to announce that I only fell down TWICE!!=p (I also do not know how to roller blade so it was a bit of an achievement=p) It was so much fun, and I intend to try it again soon!=D Heck, I want my own pair of ice skates now lol!!

For me, the hardest part was the coordination of legs and shifting of body weight to the front. I also found the sideways-push motion a bit hard to produce-I was still not doing much more than walking even towards the end XD-but I think I might just have gotten the general feel of it.

Cause towards the end I think my left foot was doing the sideways-push thing HAHAHAHAHAHA=p

XD XD XD

Here are pictures of us at the skating rink:

=D

Pawa’s skates and I =D

Frostbite victims XD

Saya amat gembira=D

It was just an awesome way to celebrate New Year’s: a historical fireworks show, good food, and more importantly, good friends=)

That concludes my reminiscence of my New Year’s celebrations. I am now safely back in Brooks Residence at the University of Ottawa. The winter semester starts this Monday, and I look forward to making the coming semester better than the last=)

At this point, I intend to:

1-Improve on my first semester performance at the University of Ottawa; (as of now I have three A’s and one A-; my marks for Calculus are still being ambiguously adjusted and toted up lol) I would like to claim an A+ in Geology-something which I sorely feel I missed out on this semester.

2-Get a job, preferably in the Earth Sciences Department at the U of O.

3-Find my debating self once again-I hope to break new ground at both Winter Carnival, and the much bigger North American tournament this year.

4-Be happier=)

Much love from Ottawa.

Happy New Year!!! (Part One)

Hello there people!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!=D Hope everyone had an awesome New Year’s celebration, hopefully spent with friends/family, or even friends on the verge of becoming family…I think you all know what I mean by the latter I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone all the very best for the upcoming year, and may all of us be blessed with love, happiness, and prosperity. And hopefully get started on some resolutions haha.

Anyway, straight into business: this post is about my New Year’s celebrations-my first out of Malaysia-which I was privileged enough to spend with many of my friends from the nearby Carleton University.

The plans to usher in the new year grew in the offing as a random invitation by Farhana-a former ICPU mate now at Carleton (we used to sit adjacent to each other in Chemistry-happy times lol)-to join her and a few other peeps from Carleton University at Parliament Hill on New Year’s Eve. Having been stuck behind the four walls of my Brooks apartment for too long, I was only too happy to agree lol.

I met up with Farhana, Chin Yen, and Fong Yi at Parliament Hill-the seat of Canada and Ottawa’s ruling government-at 6.30pm on the last day of 2007. Farah joined us a few minutes later on the walk to the Museum of Civilization. Here I must say it was good to finally see a few Malaysian faces of which I had been deprived the company of for a long time=) According to Fong Yi, there would be a fireworks show near the Museum of Civilisation at 7.00pm.

Lol, I know what you’re all thinking: “Hmm, 7.00pm…isn’t that a bit too early for a 2008 celebration? @.@”

Yes, that was what I thought myself too @.@ I don’t know for sure, but the impression that I got was that all of us knew that there would be a fireworks display at 7.00pm on New Year’s Eve, but none of us knew why it wasn’t at midnight if the pyrotechnic presentation was supposed to help usher in the New Year lol.

But then when I got to the crossroads near the Museum of Civilisation, it all started to make sense. I saw this:

The fireworks show I was attending WASN’T for the New Year’s Celebrations-it was for the Grand Finale of the year-long celebration of the selection of Ottawa as the capital of Canada!! And yes, technically it wasn’t at 7.00 pm…more of a 6.57 pm >.<

Anyway, a bit of background information on Ottawa in general would be ideal here=) Firstly, Ottawa is the capital of Canada=p I thought I would say that first because I can recall at least two people who attempted to rebut me back in mid-2007 when I told them I would be studying in the capital of Canada when I flew off to the University of Ottawa lol=p

XD

The capital of Canada is none of the more popular choices of answers i.e Toronto (I read somewhere that 60% of New Yorkers think this is the capital of Canada @.@), Montreal, or even Vancouver-that distinction currently belongs to Ottawa. I know this sounds a little hard to believe as seeing that Ottawa is not even close to being half as famous or popular as Vancouver or even the more fanciable city of Toronto-this act of surprise in itself is not exactly new as well-it was the same reaction of millions of Canadians alike when Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital of Canada 150 years ago in 1857!! Lol!!

Basically, the story goes that Canada was once divided into two regions-Upper and Lower Canada. Such an arrangement caused an immense amount of instability and revolts, causing the two regions to be united as a nation-Canada (LOL what else? Malaysia? XD) However another problem then arose-what should the capital of this new nation be? Montreal? Toronto? Or maybe Kingston? The people and the government were divided on opinions and beliefs, so Queen Victoria was asked to decide on the capital of the nation-and she then made the apparently “random” choice of Ottawa.

In fact, the choice seemed SO random at the time-bear in mind that the Ottawa of those times was barely more than a backwater logging town with horsecart-tracks instead of roads-that a popular myth emerged: Queen Victoria was said to have closed her eyes before randomly sticking her hairpin on the map of Canada in her room when asked to choose a Canadian town to be the new Canadian capital lol!! @.@

At the end of it all (this included at least two Parliamentary motions to overturn the Queen’s decision, and the sacking of a ruling Government @.@), Ottawa was officially announced as the capital of Canada at exactly 6.57 pm on the 31st of January 1857; to commemorate the city’s 150th year as the seat of the Government of the country, a year-long celebration was held, the events of which included a tulip festival earlier in the year, and numerous historical seminars and orchestras scattered throughout 2007. And it was the finale of this celebration which I bore witness to last New Year’s Eve.

So there we stood in the blistering cold of minus 8 Celcius outside the Museum of Civilisation, with another five hundred revelers who had also braved the cold to come and witness this historical celebration. Then, coming from the loudspeakers in the vicinity, we heard a countdown:

5…

4…

3…

2…

1!!!

As the first pyrotechnic wonder shot up into the air, illuminating the evening sky with a cascade of gold and red sparks, the audience began to cheer. Then, as I was fumbling with my camera’s pouch, the background music came on=D

Constructed from a medley of various famous themes from composers such as the Camille Saint-Saens and Edward Elgar, the soundtrack was in itself a tribute to the capital’s history as it drew motifs from the Victorian era, and also provided a beautiful framework of symbolism and metaphors which were related to the capital by the means of a metaphorical timeframe – the music itself was actually a progression through time, going back from the mid-1800s all the way to the 21st century!! =D =D =D

Here’s the arrangement of the Grand Finale’s soundtrack:

The timebar above denotes the synchronization of the fireworks with the music, and shows the general motif of the song being played at any particular point in the fireworks display.

And I bet that some of you are familiar with some of the pieces listed here, even if you don’t know it=) For example, Symphony No 3 by the Camille Saint Saens is the theme tune which was borrowed and adapted by the Academy Award-nominated movie Babe…it’s the one that goes, “If I had words to make, a day for you…I’d sing you a morning, golden and true…“. Remember that one? It’s the same tune=)

The opening minutes are from Jay Knutson’s Un Amour, Une Histoire is in turn an original piece, composed by Mr Knutson specifically for the 150th anniversary celebrations; the song of which can be found here: http://www.1857.gc.ca/ bins/ncc_web_content_page.asp?cid=16297-58245-82007-70047〈=1

To me, it is a very beautiful song, and I cried the first time I heard it=’) I don’t know the meaning of half the lyrics, but the chorus touches my heart everytime:

Un amour, une histoire
Forging together, stronger than ever
Un amour, une histoire
Ensemble, un bâtit un chez nous
Un amour, une histoire
Bring our voices together, stronger than ever
Un amour, une histoire……Ensemble.

You don’t have to understand what it means to know what it means, if you get my meaning=)

Meanwhile, the fireworks display was still going on:

The start of the Grand Finale-Un amour, une histoire!!=D

That’s the Museum of Civilisation in the background; I apologize for the lack of quality of many of the photos-taking your gloves off to activate the shutter on your camera can be a pain if the removal of the gloves subject your fingers to a temperature of minus 10 Celcius >.<

That’s a “cake” firework in action up there-that night, the “cake” fireworks used that night could attain a burst radius of 30m!

A 305 mm shell-these babies can reach altitudes of 300m @.@ And I also randomly remember this bit-the music was going through a series of crescendoes as the fireworks went up it short blasts of smoke and light; oh oh, did I mention that the explosions and the falling light effects were synchronized with the music?=D

A solitary climbing firework, punctuated with slowly rising blasts from the recorded arrangement of strings and violins, before exploding in time with the entry of the horns-WOW!!=D

The fireworks show ended to a round of thunderous applause (even from my frozen digits lol!=D) and loud cheers and whistles from the gathered audience-the organizers deserved it, as the fireworks show and the musical arrangements were-no other word for it-awesome!!!=D

Still hooting loudly and cheering with glee, the girls and myself headed over to a nearby hotel for dinner and also to meet up with the rest of the Carleton guys, and a few visitors we were going to have from the University of Toronto and McGill University. I met up with Khamsani and Pawa from Carleton-both of whom I haven’t seen in months-and also Zul and Mus from the U of T; peeps which I had not seen since Taylor’s ICPU days-and also got to know Azrap, a cool TNB scholar from McGill University in Montreal:

One of the girls: Irving, Farhana.

The guys; from left (university of affiliation in parenthesis): Azrap (McGill University), Pawa (Carleton University), Mustaqiim (University of Toronto), Khamsani (Carleton University), Irving (University of Ottawa), Zul (University of Toronto).

Comments on my new hair, anyone?=p

After dinner we then decided to chill around the Parliament Hill area a bit while waiting for the midnight fireworks show-LOL I hope you didn’t forget that I had another one in store on my agenda haha!! We ended up chit-chatting, having small snow fights, and just taking the pictures like there was no tomorrow lol!

Us in downtown Ottawa=D

Farah and Fong Yi decided to bug Farhana lol.

I had to drench my feet in snow for this picture @.@

Our makeshift snowman, hurriedly created for the camera from randomly stacked blocks of solid snow.

By the time we were done, it was almost midnight-time to usher in the New Year!=D We ran to the back of Parliament and joined the locals in counting down the seconds to midnight. From where we were, we had an excellent view of the neighbouring province of Quebec, and also the vast frozen expanses of the Ottawa River:

Midnight on the Ottawa River. Note Alexandria Bridge which joins the neighbouring provinces of Ontario and Quebec in the background.

Tricolour galore. The next picture shows a significant portion of the frozen Ottawa River which runs through the Capital Area.

Note the ice collected underneath the bridge on the Ottawa River @.@ And randomly, if you took the course Geology 1115, you’d know that the Ottawa River was once a sea

Thanks to Petronas for providing me with such a wonderful opportunity to witness the coming of a new year in a foreign land=’)

After the second fireworks display was over, we decided to spread a bit of Malaysian cheer…we counted down from 10 to 0 and shouted “HAPPY NEW YEAR” out loud once again…in Malay=p LOL!! XD

By the it was almost 1am , and the girls wanted to get back to their residences in Carleton University. And us boys wanted to…do the same lol. It was a freezing minus 10 degrees by then, and all of us decided it was high time to go back. Then, Khamsani and Pawa invited me over to come stay the night at their place in Glengarry (awesome of them eh?=D) an invitation which I gladly accepted; but first I had to go back to my place in Brooks for a change-my things were soaking wet and there were some amenities which I needed to take to Carleton if I intended to stay the night.

So I invited the guys over to my place first before we headed down to Carleton for the night. We said bye to the girls and headed towards the University of Ottawa for another chapter in the awesomest new year celebration I’d had in a long time…

The events of which will be detailed in Part 2 of this post =)