80s Drama Night 'Blast from The Past'

So our drama has officially ended last night !!!! Alhamdulillah for everything . 

Even though there're some glitches here and there, I'm just glad it finally ended. At last ! 

As soon as our team bowed on the stage, I felt like the whole burden were lifted away from my shoulders ; seriously never felt as free as that.

IT IS FINALLY OVER !

Class with our dearest Dr. K posited nearly impossible goals to the extent of having to perform a musical drama from the 1980's; because acting only is apparently not challenging enough. Though obvious when the oeuvre has finally completed, such demands had actually taught us needed antidote to the term of 'capable teacher' ,,, yet the journey was not one in which I would wish to go through again. Thanks but no thanks. Kissing my goodbye to PET102. 

It was tiring because of the workload behind the scene. People kept expecting this and that and they only knew how to ask. Never sign me up to be a director. Ever again. I'm so done. 

Plus, the clerical tasks that we had to do in order to ensure the event run smoothly was the worst nightmare. Dealing with university admin is the worst nightmare. I know I've said this last semester, and I'm going to say it again, "It's. the. worst."
With little cooperation given by the administrations and some people in the office, we were like puppets; do as what they pointed us to. 

"Go here, ask for Mr. bla bla bla."

"No I'm not in charge. Try asking this bla bla bla office."

"Our department can't let you do this."

Took us months just to secure a venue! And that's just a venue. Don't get me started on other things. 

Yeah. I know it's not good for me to whine but we've been through this for 2 semesters. They're just repeating the same patterns. It is 'running here and there' all over again. But well, of course 1st semester was much worse for us, beginners. Thank God we started early.

As for my own drama team, our group failed in the first practice, was personally requested by Dr. Hardy to reconsider the play, and rewrite the plot.

Not to mention we argued about the scripts and plots, a lot.

We also had problems with the music and dancing teams, 

our main actor was VERY degil (he insisted on going to hockey practice) that he injured himself the day BEFORE the performance (he blamed my mulut masin pffft and I blamed his thickheaded act).

and many more countless issues that we encountered as a team. 

Nevertheless, team is like family. Quarrel as you may, you're still a unit. Attached to one another.
As a team, we compete together ; win or lose as a team, and rise or fall, also as a team. Indeed, we argued a lot but it was because each of us wanted Guns N' Roses  to be the best team, not because of abhorrence

and I am proud to say that 

I LOVE MY TEAM VERY MUCH, 

all thanks to the passion that had driven them to such a wonderful work. 

Guns N Roses :) Urgh those vibrant colours of 80's costumes.

Well, our drama was about a boy who wanna avenge his father's death. He planned it by inviting his rivals to an isolated island through a mysterious phone call. They ended being stuck in the island with no boats and landlines until the next few days , and had to face one after another murder. No one was to be trusted any longer. They started to suspect each other. When there's only a few of them left on the island, the crime was finally revealed. And, the last person anyone would have guessed, was the master mind. 

First scene; flashback to 15 years ago.

Last scene, where Iskandar performed a monologue of a mentally disturbed man, while being tied.

Rehearsal was waay better, I would say. Still, it was an enjoyable experience working with these people :) And, we all had fun , didn't we :) :) :)

Nana's and Allia's groups performance were funny!

p/s :  After having dinner, I went back to the room, plonked on my bed and was unconscious till this afternoon. Haha. Didn't even wipe the make up off. After months of having my life in storm, I could finally have a good rest. The sleep was good. 

Our Poem Recitation

As you may or may not know, our lecturer for Oral Class is very strict. We were warned about him since the very first semester by the seniors. 

Okay now forget about the boring mundane first sem. Now we're in second sem and here we are , dancing , singing and monkeying around in front of Subaidah pave-walk for our Wednesday class. Literall. Because those are our tasks for this sem. To perform weekly in front of the busiest restaurant in USM.

Two weeks ago, we're given a title for an individual monologue and had to perform it on the spot. God. Dr.K really knows how to test his students' limits, doesn't he ? Urghhh 

Mine was, 

"You are stucked in an abandoned nuclear plant in Chernobyl." and after 5 seconds , "Action."

-__________________________- 

mega facepalm, right there in front of Dr. K. 

I swear even the performance art students won't be able to think of a scene or script within the time given. 

It was a total disaster. I prefer not to recall it.

And then last week, his task was, 

'Perform an original poem of yours within 90 seconds. No less, no more or I will straight away give a B' 

Always play his 'B card' , guys. All the time. And yes, it worked on us, somehow. Hahaha. 

As usual, this pathetic student of his (me of course) went back to Kelantan for her weekend and only prepared the poem the night before. Thank God the timing was extraordinarily perfect although I didn't even memorize the whole thing. haha. Who cares.

Okay forget about it. 

The thing is, our class is like a BIIIIIG melting pot of drama and adventure, so a 'live' weekly drama is a must . 

The tinge of 'drama drama drama' for last week was, we had to redo the recitation. 

 Dr. K was very furious at us last week (said we didn't prepared much, take things lightly, not fitted to be English teachers and so on blablabla all those excuses) , 

and he just canceled the class. 

Pooffff. Begone.

So this week, here we are ... semangat as hell. haha

(this class has really burned my whole pocket, I tell you)

Not to mention it's only 5% of the paper's coursework. 

*muka bulan, muka bulan, muka bulan*

Mayra is begging for more mark apparently haha and I'm just giving up on this class, nothing in particular. Thanks for asking.

Muka desperate markah  

nenek kebayan 

another beggar haha

my personal favourite poem recitation !
sumpah best and creepy gila.
and i think dr liked it too. kudos syuhaida !

I am sooo done with this semester. Still, need to survive ! Lusa dah nak kena perform dramaaaaa

p/s : Thanks for singing me birthday song in front of the restaurant :') so sweet of you guys. Thanks

Update: 3 students were chosen to recite poem and represent USM in an event with the ministers and I don't know how and why but somehow, I was one of them hahahahaha.
I was already a part of the drama team with the seniors (same event) and my costume for that part was the opposite. My role for that one was to look girly. Lol. Someone needs a make up assistant that can do the job quickly.

Henna day :)

Right after my maghrib prayer and all , I found myself switching on my laptop, typing 

"How to get rid of Indian henna"

in the Google engine search box , quickly hitting 'Enter'.

Tons of suggestions came out in a split second

 and non of them are the tips to get rid  of henna but to fade them away... in a week. 

I mean , seriously?  T_T  

I just stared at the screen nervously before my eyes darted towards various types of henna drawings on my legs. Literally on my legs.

So Allia just bought this one tube of henna last night :)
The colour of the henna remained mysterious until this evening as the confused uncle/shopkeeper seemed not to understand our question last night.

"What colour is this one, anne ?" as Allia pointed out at one small blue tube with RM2 sticker on it.

"A'ah." he replied with mouth half opened  -________-

lol

Ok thats not the point.

This evening, we decided to try the henna . Yaaay . Finally . Weeeeee. 

After Zuhr, I started painting Allia's fingers with the thick pitch black henna before she did mine. Nana came to play along later on and everybody had henna on their fingers ! :)
despite of the smudged colours, our fingers looked so emo-ish. haha

Not long after that, they both started drawing Sun on my left calf and seeing the pretty art, I requested for a butterfly ; 

"Allia, nak butterfly macam Ted dalam How I Met Your Mother."

"Okay. Say no more Anis."

and I got one, similar as this one. 

Well not as pretty as Ted's but well, close enough . . . to a butterfly.

I fall asleep as those two continued drawing on my legs, expressing their arts with the dark-brown-almost-black henna. Legs splayed , left leg for Nana and right leg for Allia ; did not realize the plots in their ceative brains.

Two hours later ....

 I woke up only to find one eye under my knee , a name , a sun and a male organ on my left calf while right calf was more lively with butterfly and sprinkles of dots as the background, a lollipop , a wave (?) and a Sushi King logo -_-

now again, how do I get rid of this male organ on my leg ?

Google seriously has no solution this time around -____-

learning photoshop

As I write this, you will notice that I've changed my blog template. 

Watching movies for two days in a row somehow made myself tired and I started to have eye-bags and dark circles. So I thought about doing something else.

And I decided to learn about Photoshop. 

After years of trying to actually learn it. 

Yeah I know that I always ordered people to teach me about photoshop and all. In fact, since the school years. But I put no effort to it because being lazy as I am, photo-editing is also not my forte. Haha. Just look how terrible my Instagram photos are. You don't have to look far for the proof. 

Besides, I'm seriously not good with technology, gadgets, gizmos and apps. 

Anyway, after putting enough thoughts in it, I rummaged through the YouTube search box, finding myself typing 'phototshop cs3 tutorial' as I held my breath .
Finally . I'm doing it. I always knew that I will learn photoshop sooner or later. It's just about finding the right mood, you know. 

So I opened one and waited for the buffer impatiently. 

The tutorial was seriously easy. Very easy. In fact, after watching it, I believed I can master the art of photoshop in no time. Yes, I have faith in this. Even I'm not one of those techno geek, this photoshop thing is just so easy. No wonder people in the world are doing this.

I downloaded a few photos and decided to make a new header for my blog. 

After an hour struggling with the photoshop, deleting this and that, re-doing the touch up and a little bit adjustments , I finally came out with this. 

*flipshair 

I know right. Even the font is bizarre and something. I knew it. I am good at this, guys. So I tried editing another one and came out with even a prettier result. Teeeheee

Duhhh. This is just a piece of cake. Not that I spent a long time at it. Just half an hour adjusting the fonts and another half trying to save it in the right folder. Lol.

After a few minutes of admiring my art, I tried to edit another one and chose this photo.

Now, how am I going to cut the vaera.com words ? How do I just crop that part only ? And what does this button lasso do? Why is it not working ? Oh maybe I should use the eraser. Well, maybe not. Hem , did I click on brush just now ? What's happening with the colour. 

Okay. That's it! Photoshop is so hard. 

I should just edit them with my phone instead.

I'm not doing this when there's so many buttons trying to confuse me. 

Well at least I can say I tried....

Allia is under the spell of Budu

Allia looooves to eat while Nana and me are both crazy about foods, 

especially the mouth-watering dishes from Kelantan. 

We can talk all day long only about food and kuih and all of the other delicious thing, and Allia would google the pictures just to see the clearer view of the detailed descriptions of food. 

"The way it would burst in your mouth and when you chew every tiny bits of the crispy crust ..."

"The tangy flavour and the sweetness of the asam ... ohhhhh a perfect marriage !"

And bla bla bla as the cray-cray can go for hours.

When I told Allia that I don't really like curries due to my sensitive stomach , she asked me what do I love to eat the most if I'm in Kelantan. 

"Budu !" Nana answered instantly in her crisp voice when I was about to say the exact answer.

To make the story short, a few days later, we actually ordered 3 sets of 'nasi budu' here in USM (which cost us RM 4.50 each! for God sake I should quit studying and sell 'nasi budu' in here instead -_-) and since then , Allia couldn't stop gushing about the magical & authentic taste of 'nasi budu'  though me in contrast, was very mad at the over-charged plates of rices+budu+a few SMALL pieces of chicken.



And, unfortunately I have to announce that ...

Allia was cursed by the budu.. after eating the over-priced one.

Hence, last week , when I went back to Kelantan for mid-sem holiday, I bought two bottles of the magic sauce. 

"Allia , I bought budu for you!" almost screaming , I showed her the item when she came to my room after her dinner, right after our holiday break. And well ... I wasn't quite sure back then if she was excited about it because Allia only nodded and went to sit at my study desk. Okaaaaay then .

But five minutes later ....

"Anis this is so tempting," almost desperately , she held the budu bottle in her palm
"I've had my dinner but can I have budu with Chipsmore ?"

and she was serious -____- 

why do you even bother to ask Allia. Just go for it and create a history. 

Budu , with Chipsmore ? Alright then.

Just , when you talk to Kelantanese , try not to boast about it, okay ? And I'll keep it a secret .
*zipping my mouth right away 

Thank God she didnt do it but in my defense, I believe that she would drink the whole bottle if I let her to. 

And every single day for this week , when I ask

"So Allia , what are we gonna eat for lunch ?"

"Hot rice with budu !!!"

Aunty Anita , sorry I ruined your mamak-ish tongue daughter :( 

We had finished one bottle and there's only one more left :(

* I can still remember her face when she first tried eating it with catfish .

"Anis , I can't speak .... I've found the most perfect marriage ."

Working my way through

Assalamualaikum :) 

Well , I have MUET exam in a few days and this is my second attempt trying to answer the past year question. For the time being, I honestly don't have the mood to write. Leaving my draft here. Just in case I feel like continuing it.

“Women make better leaders than men”

Main Idea

-For peace to prevail. (world history suggests that violence and conflicts were more evident under male leadership than under female leadership )

-great leaders have great communication skills. (women prefer to communicate directly. Ask big-picture question about their work and its value . And they listen to others’)

-more sensitive towards the need of society . and most women are more meticulous and detailed . (look for minor details)

Draft 1

              Apropos of this statement, I am in consummate accord with it; women make better leaders than men. Observing this issue from some perspectives, I believe that a leader is like a helmsman of a sailing ship. It may seem like a rather simple and easy task:- to steer the vessel and conduct the whole crew to arrive at the desired destination but the responsibilities are huge. The team are wholly reliant on the sacrosanct ability of their leader; one small mistake and the whole ship sink. Nevertheless, despite the capability that a leader should possess, many of us still keep bringing up the issue of who have the potential to be greater leader, men or women? We have not only seen this debate between genders for these past few years but since time immemorial. In my humble opinion, it is rather a more accurate notion to agree that women make better leaders due to their creativity in solving problems, sensitivity towards the society need and ability to communicate directly.

             To begin with, women do prefer to solve the problems in a more creative way, unlike men whom mostly preferred to end any confrontation with violence.  As far as we can submerge ourselves in the world of history, we see wars, power struggles, conflicts and violent competitions between humans as the revolutions stroke. Predominantly dominated by male rulers and leaders, the tendency in prevailing peace always ended in vain or else, vie. As the ruling powers relegated from men to women since these past few years, only then people start living in amity.

Google : Hatshepsut … queen victoria….bloody marry, record their approach towards war vs other kings.

Continue later ….

Disputing: 

Have wars BUT...

Even though most of the women who are known to be great till date, e.g. Queen Isabella of Spain, Queens Marry, a.k.a. Bloody Marry, Victoria, and Elizabeth of Britain, all have ruled over vast spectrums of power. And they often have done so ruthlessly, achieving goals with an iron hand. They have waged wars that are barely comparable to only few of those devised by men. These women are not anomalies of history, but examples from numerous others, who went beyond the boundaries of gender in the path of prevailing in power while expending peace whenever they deemed it to be expendable.

Concluding paragraph ?

              The two greatest wars of modern history, World Wars I & II, have taught us that wars are impersonal. Race, religion, nationality, sex are only pretence to the universally human lust for power. During both the global conflicts men were in the rulers’ thrones. 

It will also be foolish to ignore that Margaret Thatcher, the famed Iron Lady who spared no rod against a minnow enemy in the war of Falkland, whom has prevented a larger scale of war (compare with: how the greats Winston Churchill and Franklyn D. Roosevelt had been tackling the Axis of Hitler). A deeper perspective always reveals to historians that conflict is a generic tendency of humans. So peace being disturbed is not the liability of men only, but humans in general, and a power shift, from men to women, is destined to be fruitful in prevailing peace.

Argument for male leaders: 

The gender issue is only a determinant in the battle of the sexes, not the battles among nations and peoples. It is therefore impertinent, if not irrational, to conclude that world conflicts result from the rule of a particular gender and the finer sex would do a better job at prevailing peace if selectively put at the helm of human nations….. OR .

* I should read more. At time like this, I started to realize how important it is to read :'(