One thing you don't know about CFS IIUM, is that they have a very impressive Maintenance Crew, and one of the reason that they do, is because there are a lot of activities going on ALL THE TIME. All year long, there's always announcements of this and that, and the notice board is flooded with posters and reminders, well at least that's the case for Mahallah Zainab, it's hard not to know anything going on CFS,because they rub it in your face, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm just saying that there are a lot of opportunities to participate in anything and being apart of making it happen, and I've done my share. My foundation studies in CFS is almost coming to an end, and I thought maybe I should share some of those experience.
Trip to Rythm & Hues
This program is one of those rare ones where every single one of my friends are committee members, but me and Shah aren't. FYI, Shah is the vice president for INTECHSS, and the Head of Pub pro for Zainab's MRC, and she's always busy with something. And I'm Pub Pro for my hisbah so sometimes we do stuff together, and sometimes when she's not a committee, I am. It was a twist, (and it was weird watching Ain getting really stressed out over the whole thing) but like all activities, all 6 of us participated in it together.
To be honest, I never heard of Rythm & Hues, and although the name does sound very cool, I never thought it would actually live up to its name. Basically, Rythm & Hues is this really cool studio that makes animation and visual effects for feature films, there are a few branches across the globe, and Malaysia is a fairly new addition to the family, but all studios constantly work together in doing one particular scene. It was really cool. There were a lot of cubicles and a bunch of computers everywhere, and I noticed a lot of people were doing animation for Snow White(the one with Kristen Stewart), and it had a genuinely cool atmosphere. Like, nobody was doing anything serious, there were two guys playing around the cubicles, and there were action figures and collectibles everywhere. There was even a darth vader helmet, I mean how much cooler can you get?
I asked the guy giving us a tour,
"What skills do you need to have to work here?" His answer was simple, a bit vague, but good enough.
"Basic programming skills is a must, but you don't necessarily need talent in art or drawing, depending on your specialty, you can be either a digital artist or technical support, but most importantly you'll need to have a passion towards films."
Dah nampak masa depan :D Sadly Gombak doesn't have BMM by the time I'm enrolling, that means I'm taking Bcs, but still, multimedia is an option.
Mock Trial: 3 Kalam; Is the third time a charm?
Every year, Melex(Law students) take an old case, and they reprise and reenact the whole case. For the past years, they've been doing legal cases: murder and stuff, but for this year, they did a syariah case. I had some doubts about it. I mean the tagline put me off a bit. It's probably unfair for me to judge a whole production based on its grammar but it really bugged me how they put "Is the third time a charm?" rather than "Is third time the charm?" because the latter is the correct one, and we had to pay RM5 for a ticket, I was just very doubtful about the whole thing. And then the night before the mock trial, someone came to our door and promoted 3 kalam. It was probably the right timing, I had 3 quizzes, a test, 2 project and AGD stuff to settle that week, but I really just wanted to do something light for a change. I probably should've studied, but in all rationality, I just had to get away for a moment. So I bought the ticket, together with Azwa, we went to the mock trial and it was the best decision I made that week.
To summarize 3 kalam in a sentence:
"A scizopherniac, hot-tempered, abusive husband, a devoting loving wife with a heart too soft for her own good, a diva datin for a mom, a caring protective Dato' for a father, a squeaky voiced judge, and 4 bad ass lawyers defending them."
It was phenomenal. Seriously, it was unexpectedly very well done. I mean, I thought they would just change the stage to be a court, and start the trial right there, but no, they laid out the whole plot, they gave a great visualization of what's going on, and they made use of the whole AMF hall, which is amazing. The stage became a set for their house at first, then midway it became a court, but before that, they gave glimpses of off set scenes where they shot at various people's houses. I like the way they used the passageway from the center door all the way up the stage. When the husband gave out the second talak, the wife went running away towards the door, and the husband went and ran after her. It was shocking, kind of felt like a rea~ly 3D cinema. And after the third talak, they came through the door, with their lawysers, all the press and TV crew were gushing over them, it was very dramatic.
I like the monologue. The one where the wife kind of self-reflects her years knowing her husband. her view on marriage and her denial in admitting her husband is not who she thought he was. She was sitting on a stool at the center of the stage, and a single spotlight was cast upon her.
" We were in love, I knew him like the back of my hand, but now I'm not so sure. Marriage is a decision to choose who you want to fall in love with again and again and again for the rest of your life, and I chose him. But things have changed. I hate the fact that I was so young when I made that decision, I thought that I really knew him, that I could live with him knowing that he would always love me back, but now it's different, I doubt everything I truly believed in the past."
Azra played one of the lawyers, and she was awesome. Each four of the lawyers had their own unique style of lawyer-ing and the combinations were so dynamic, I loved watching Azra and her partner walk down the pathway like bosses
"Honey, you lost, but you still have to pay!"
Definitely worth RM5!
Anual Grand Dinner
I wasn't exactly a committee member, but Shah was assistant project manager, and she appointed me as committee member, so there I was, being a bit out of place =,= the thing is, Shah was the only person I knew, everyone else knew each other, and I felt a bit of an outcast. Especially when all of us went shopping but Shah wasn't there. I was giving an awkward presence. But eventually the humor kicked in, the friendship developed, the awkwardness disappeared, and the whole journey was very fun and exciting.
This is the only event in Intechss history to have an all-junior committee line up (batch 2011/2012), and it was surprisingly very less burdening, and with Zafri as Project manager, we were free to give ideas, free to make jokes, and free to be ourselves. Uusually for a program, committees are devided into bureaus, but for AGD, everyone was devided into certain areas for decoration. There were 5 major areas: stage, buffet table, dining table, pathway+walls, and maze. I'll be honest and say that the effort to prepare for AGD is astonishingly very abundant. We booked 3 classrooms in LY for a whole week to finish up all the decorations. 1 room for polystyrene cut decos with a giant tree in the middle, second room was for a mural on stage, it was really big, approximately 30ftX11ft, they painted it on joint mahjong paper and it took up the whole classroom. The last classroom was for technical support. Never in my wildest imagination would I ever thought something like AGD would need a technical team, but we do and it has made this event 10 times more awesome than it was before.
Basically, the Zulh Zaim team can fix any broken chrismas lights you've got deep down your basement, apply magical Physics law and BAM you've got a whole bunch of light for the pathway. They actually already bought some lights, and had an idea to convert the DC circuit to AC circuit- or something like that, I wasn't exactly listening, but they've got magic hands. They're also responsible for the awesome website(now it's gone, but trust me, it was really awesome, I actually liked the web layout, it was clean, smooth and very simple), and they did a promotion video courtesy of bukankutaksudi studios. It was hilarious. Also, Zulh bought everyone McD burgers one day at a meeting. Osem gile, who does that? Really, free burgers is my weakness. Dude, don't do that.
I might fall for you XD
I invested a lot of effort and ideas for the maze, and looking at everyone else's blatant abundant effort for other areas, the outcome is impressive. Everyone was working really hard, but having a good time while at it, I feel an honor just being apart of this. At the last meeting, on AGD's eve, we all gathered and had a Zafri gave an inspiring peptalk. He was talking how much he appreciated us, how we did such a good job and all that stuff...and then he cried. Those manly tears running down his cheeks, talking about all of us. I need to take a moment and just talk about how awesome Zafri was as a leader. I worked with him before for Disco, and when Shah told me Zafri was PM, that convinced me to join the committee line up, because I knew he was good at being a leader, and almost 2 months working with him for AGD really shows how great he can be. One of the reasons why I knew he was a good leader, even wa~y back in Sem 1, he was the first leader to ever bring his own marker to meetings. I've been to a lot of meetings and they always rely on other people to bring a marker, but not Zafri, he brings his own. Aside from that, he never stresses any of us. Even in meetings, he's never in serious mode, but at the end of each meeting, he'll say what he needs to say, people would know what they need to do, and the job gets done, plus he genuinely cares for his underlings. I mean, whenever we're working, he'll ask if we've eaten or not, if not, he'll tell us to go eat, if we look tired or sleepy, he'll tell us to go home, there was this one time, we worked til midnight, and he bought all of us drinks using his own money. I don't recall ever having a leader this awesome. UNDI ZAFRI!
That night, everybody apologized to each other and said whatever they wanted to say. The whole journey to AGD was very exhausting and lots of hardwork, but at that point, it felt very worthy and the memories will remain.
AGD is the last event for INTECHSS and it was a really important for the six of us, because we're off to Gombak next semester, so AGD is kind of a graduation party for us, and I know nobody reads my blog, so on AGD's eve when Zafri was worrying about the speech he's supposed to give, I volunteered to write it. It was kind of a way of paying my respects to him, while having him say the words I wanted everyone to hear. The speech was a mixture Zafri's peptalk and my own personal words.
[Salam]
[Formal greeting protocol]
First and foremost, I'd like to welcome everyone to Intechss' annual grand dinner 2012. It's the end of a semester, and I know how everyone's busy with all these quizzes, tutorials, projects, presentations etcetera etcetera.But that's exactly what AGD is all about, we work so hard throughout the year, taking up positions and responsibilities, getting involved in activities, studying and battling for a high CGPA- everyone is doing something all the time, and it takes a lot of effort and determination to do so. Me and my committee members acknowledge that pain and suffering, and that is why we take some time off our schedule, wreck our brains a bit for ideas, and spend a notable amount of money solely for one night to appreciate all the hard work that has been displayed. It's probably a complicated way of saying a simple 'thank you', but judging by Intechss' achievements throughout the year, all you ICTzens deserves it.
Being a leader, is no easy task. Being appointed project manager for one of the highly anticipated events of the year, was quite a challenge, but I was blessed with such an incredible team, that preperations became a lot easier and bearable for a solid two months. To all committee members, [ Name committee members one by one], for all the late nights we spent at LY making props, staying up til morning filming, all the miscommunications, re-planning, re-scheduling, all the childish jokes and weird shenanigans, I apologize for whatever I did wrong, and thank you for doing such an amazing job. I expected a lot, but the outcome was even beyond my high expectations. It was an honour working with you guys.
And to all my peers, let's take a moment and look back the day we first entered CFS, with naive faces, nervous voices, smelly socks and sticky armpits, and looking at us now, I'd say we've come a long way. For some of us, we'll be taking a short break before the next semester starts, but for some others, this would be their last, so let's savour the moment, embrace the present, and appreciate one another. For just this one night, let's momentarily forget about exams and homework. Tonight, is all about us, so sit back, relax, and just enjoy the show.
[salam]
Sadly I missed his speech. Me and Shah were immensely busy with the maze, we actually had to start the event half an hour late mainly because of our maze, in our defense, we were short 20 partitions, and even adding the meja ping pong wasn't enough, we had to relocate the whole maze, and shorten some pathways, twist some around, and even delete one entrance, it was, Shah was intensely stressed out but Ain & Aisyah helped, and people from other areas helped us, and especially technical gave their support, so yeah, terharu. Sayang korang ketat-ketat. The maze turned out different from what we imagined, but still, it was a not bad maze, I'm quite proud with it :D
All in all. Everything is beautiful, and nothing hurts. Peace out!