I-Fest 2009!

Thanks to the Bowling Death Match, I missed the entire 1st Rehearsal for I-Fest. No worries though - I made sure I was there for the 2nd and 3rd - the latter where I brought my tripod along.. hehe. It's amazing how much difference a tripod can make in the range of quality pictures one can capture.. Anyway, here are a few shots and vids from the 2nd and 3rd rehearsals, before I get to the main event itself!

Krishna on the flute (how apt.. haha)

Bhakti serenading us with a classic

The most awesome emcees eva!

French Student Association - These guys were hilarious!

The Indian Students Association - Certainly lived up to their high standards

Xuan!

IIT Chem E Class 2009.5.. lolz. I'll miss these two fo sho.

Lookie here! - Some of our awesome board members

Our very own reigning IIT Idol givin' a rendition of her winning song

Emcees Rob and Fazeel working the Chicken Dance!

This was just sooo random.. Anyway, you've just been Rickrolled! :D

Then came the big day itself.. unfortunately I was wayyyy too busy during the afternoon's Taste of IIT event (which certainly deserves a mention for the sheer volume and variety of people that it drew together) so I couldn't even think of slipping my camera outta' its case. I did manage some shots and videos during the evening event though. Here are some of my picks amongst em.'

Rob & Fazeel all dressed up

Global Spice

Our guest performers for the event

These guys were simply awesome.. apparently they even performed at Lollapalooza.

The Fall 2009 ISO Board (Minus Yao & Fazeel; plus.. k I won't mention him) - Excellent job guys! I'm gonna miss all of you!

The ASO Performance: Sleek; Smooth; Silky..


The International Superstars - In my opinion (and perhaps many others), this was the highlight of the night. A fitting finale..

_________ . _________

And so it drew to a close... I certainly enjoyed every bit of it. If my epilogue on the last post was saddening, this one borders on depressing. It was the last event I organized as an ISO board member. Suddenly so many memories are rushing to my head.. It's quite difficult to leave a group I've grown so fond of.. A place I've instilled within me a 'sense of belonging' to.. Brings back memories of my last few days in the APD Board in VI..

Thanksgiving break is coming up, but not before an exam right before it (wth..).

Bless..

World of My Own

First two weeks of school have been rather relaxing, quite surprising given how I expected a torrid semester filled with activities and assignments. I'm still prepared for the worse, though. As soon as I got back my new apartment, the bed bugs wasted no time in greeting me with a couple of bites. Hence I've been a little occupied with sending these resilient creatures to the afterworld. Other than that, the new place is really nice, although I must admit my room feels kinda small.

It was nice meeting some familiar old faces around school suring the first week, as well as making a whole lot of new acquaintances and friends among the freshies. My job however has been a drawback - I only get to work 8 hours a week given the new system, which must have come up when my supervisors popped a couple of moron-pills. Now there's a serious dent to my plans come next year. What is even more ironic is that I have been on quite an online-shopping spree since I got back.

I finally decided on my laptop - which I'm hoping would last me for quite some time - the Lenovo T400. The positive reviews online certainly aided my decision, plus I had quite a discount thanks to a friend (owe ya' one). I also got Sanyo Eneloop batteries for my camera, some of the best rechargeables there are in the market. Again, I went for quality and resilience. There are also another couple of accesories I'm planning on purchasing - A Zeroshock III cover for my T400 as well as 2GB of DDR2 RAM for my desktop.

Pictures from the Architectural Boat Cruise and ISO Fresher's Camp are due, and I'll probably have them up next week from my new laptop - I certainly can't wait for it to arrive!

Amazing Week

They're gone now, and all that remain are tinges of sweet memories. As I had mentioned in my last post, there were quite a few things I was looking forward to during the week. The Formula One season is officially over, and what a finale it was. It's one of those high-drama moments in sport that will be etched deep into the memories of fans and haters alike. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, perhaps you should check this out.

Then came Election Day 2008, as a historic moment beckoned. Obama was to be at Grant Park, Chicago when the election results are announced. Kwong Hann and myself couldn't didn't want to miss out on the whole thing (we knew we didn't have tickets, and with classes the following day we weren't gonna stay on with the celebrations either). Rather than take the conventional CTA ride downtown, we decided to walk there along the lake! Of course, both of us had photography in mind, and it sure was a clear night (and perfect climate) for some panoramic shots across the Chicago skyline.

The lane normally has quite a lot of people jogging or cycling on it, but this time there were very few. We kept walking towards the inviting lights of downtown Chicago, and soon began to see a few roads and walkways closed to the public by the Chicago police. Things got interesting when we were looking to take the closest exit downtown, and our our path along that exit was blocked. The lady guarding the block first sent us on an 'alternative route,' which we soon realized would lead us nowhere! We returned to the lady (together with another Japanese tourist who was looking to get back to his hotel), and as we were embroiled in confusion (actually, I was laughing sensing how the whole walk was turning into an adventure of its own), a sleek black cop car drove by. From the car, a man in his 40's emerged and gave orders to the lady I mentioned earlier and a few other cops. He then looked at us and asked us where we were looking to go, to which we simply answered "to the nearest CTA station." He then informed us that all the exits were blocked up to Monroe street (which was about 4 blocks north from there), and then offered to give us a lift there. Yep.. I finally got my first experience in a cop car in the US (I've done it once before in Malaysia when I followed Ashan to make a report on his lost Identification Card). In the car, the Japanese man asked the cop if he was the chief or something like that. To this, the guy coolly replied "Nahh, I'm just in charge of the park security for tonight." A truly humble answer when you think of the magnitude of the event, and indirectly his job for the night.

Anyhow, we reached the north side of Grant Park, and began snapping photographs of both the buildings and the huge numbers of people at the park (you should be seeing all the photos soon on the slideshow). Mind you, it was only about 7pm, and Senator Obama was only expected there past 10. Against the path of massive groups of people, we then calmly made our way home to follow the rest of it on TV. On that note, I am happy for Barrack Obama and his revolutionary campaign on his election as the 44th President of the United States. 'Tis true that he faces huge challenges as president, the recent economic slump being the most prominent. However, as opposed to the views of some people I know, I feel this is the right time for him to become president, for it provides him with a great opportunity to prove his mettle, and perhaps even be compared to the likes of Abraham Lincoln ad Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His campaign has created a positive image for the United States in the eyes of the world, that indeed 'all men are created equal,' and 'endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' I can only dream that one day, I could envision a similar drive for change in my home country.

A constellation of words, and I've not even began blogging about the biggest event of them all - The 33rd Annual International Festival (a.k.a I-Fest). As one of the organizers, I was quite pre-occupied all week with a host of tasks. The event turned out to be quite a success with a massive turnout - the auditorium was pretty full with some even seating themselves on the stariways. We were however quite displeased with the audio-visual handling by the so-called professionals, Alien Sound and Lighting. They messed-up big time not once, not twice but MORE THAN A DOZEN TIMES! We did not hire professionals for last year's event, and the show was so much smoother. I never thought I'd be ever saying this, but I am certain my high school's Audio Visual Crew would have done a much better job than these guys. Plus ASL are expensive!!

All in all, the show still did turn out pretty well. A lot of the performances were dramatically improved in comparison to their showings on the final rehearsal which gave us a few jitters. I didn't manage to take too many photos, and even the few I managed aren't good shots due to the lighting. Anyhow, I shall compile these and a few photos from friends before I post em' here.

That's it for now. Ciaozy!

"I will listen to you especially when we disagree." - Barrack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Hey hey hey! Just a lil' recap on what's comin' up, and what's done and dusted..

Things I'm looking forward to:-
1. The International Fest (7 Nov)
2. US Presidential Election Day (4 Nov) - Go Barrack!
3. Formula 1 Grand Finale (2 Nov) - Massa FTW!
4. Christmas! (25 Dec) - Wait a minute.. that's a tad too far. I guess that's it then.

Things Im done with (for now at least):-
1. Haircut - Lavish's mockery was the last straw.. lol
2. Process Control Midterm - don't even ask me how I did on it.. arghhh!
3. Full Metal Panic (all 3 series) - I was addicted to this series for some time

Yup. Tis' always nice to reminisce the past and dream of the future. The I-Fest seems to be what I'm most excited about now. Being an ISO board member sure has been fun, and there's gonna be an even bigger dose of that fun this coming week! Come to think of it, I sure find it odd that I've never mentioned my affiliation with the ISO in this blog. Guess I will have a post on this amazing group of people I work with in the board sometime soon. That's about it.

Ja ne!