Badminton LOLness

Well, I began to play badminton more actively this semester, usually starting around 5-6pm at the gym. There's always a lot of people there when I go, and they play doubles in court (I'm not sure what the term is, but they use the net and follow the rules and everything). Being a beginner, I just play at the sides, helping the players to warm-up by hitting the shuttle to and fro. (By the way, does my use of the word 'shuttle' instead of 'ball' indicate anything? :D)

One fine day, after I finished playing 'hit the shuttle', I sat down and watched a doubles match between Dr Lawrence (a lecturer in IPG KBA) paired with a staff member, and Akmal (one of my seniors) paired with another staff member. Theirs was an intense match, but Dr Lawrence and his partner won in the end. ==Sometimes I wonder how a man of his age can still play so fervently and enthusiastically.

Anyway, after that, I thought I was going to walk back to the hostel, and it was already quite dark. Suddenly, Dr Lawrence saw me sitting at the sides, and his passion for badminton got the better of him despite reason. (Well, just look at me and you will know --I can't play singles well, so keep doubles out of the question ._.) I hesitated for a moment, and Dr Law pushed again. "Well, come on. You just stay in front and return the shuttle when needed. I will take care of the back."

Sounds easy? Wait till you read on xD By the way, that was the first time in my life I played as a double in badminton ... *inserts wow herself here* ...

Apparently, there are many rules in badminton that I don't know about. First, if another person was serving to your partner, you should not hit the shuttle out of kindness or reflex action or something else. Instead, even if the shuttle lands an inch apart from your racket, you move away and let your partner smack the damn thing.

..I lost a few points because I couldn't resist hitting the lovely shuttle in place of Dr Law...

Next, there's this thing about right and left, even and odd that I still can't understand. Apparently, when the score is even, the right serves to right and vice versa. However, the right won't always be right and vice versa again. And I can't seem to get my brains to keep count of the score anyway, especially not when I'm playing in the court and focussing on not to hit the shuttle when it's not served to me, how to hit the shuttle when I'm supposed to hit it, how to make sure the shuttle doesn't land outside the lines...and a number of other things.

Dr Lawrence and I played two sets against the two staff members, and we won both. --Of course, it's because of Dr Law, not me xD

P.S: I played badminton again today, for a short while. It involved hitting the shuttle to and fro (again) with Akmal the senior, and guess what? My racket strings broke. LOL.

Musica is Up and Running!

Last year, a few of us petitioned for the establishment of a music society in my college, IPG KBA, to gather all music lovers together in a society where knowledge, enthusiasm and ideas can be shared and put to good use.

Hence, MUSICA was born, initially with 16 committee members forming the backbone of this society. Then, registration was carried out on the 4th of November 2009, where we received 53 new members in only two hours. Currently, we have about 70 members in the society.

On the 7th of January 2010, a meeting with all the members was held, where we discussed the plans for this semester. Not wanting to make things too complicated, we settled on an opening concert for Musica first, tentatively planned in February, where all Musica members will take part, either in choir, band, solo/group singing and maybe dancing.

That's it - this is just a short update on Musica - the first ever music society in IPG KBA where everybody, regardless of their musical background and knowledge, can join~

If I Die Before I Wake

If I Die Before I Wake...The first time I came across this phrase was when I read a book of the same title by Francine Pascal. Sounds familiar? Yes, it's the author of the teenage book series Sweet Valley, which revolves mainly about the Wakefield twins Jessica and Elizabeth. Putting that aside, there are also songs and a movie with the same concept as this phrase. The second time I saw this phrase was in another book by Sidney Sheldon - "The Other Side of Midnight", where an ambitious French actress, who is the mistress to a Greek tycoon, and his hired pilot, who was the French actress' ex-lover, plotted to kill the pilot's wife so that they could be together. In the end, they were executed, for the Greek tycoon saw through their treachery and unfaithfulness, and employed a genius lawyer to ultimately lead them to their demise in court.

Now, for some background knowledge...

This phrase originated from a classic children's prayer from the 18th century (source: Wikipedia), and the whole thing sounds roughly like this:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Should I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Being a non-believer, I'm not really sure where my soul would go after I die. And, being the 'scientific, logical' person I am, I think all bodies just decompose and become nutrients to the ground when people die, or turn into ashes when cremated, and nothing will be left.

Probably, some of you would be already wondering why a self-proclaimed free-thinker would be blogging about a classic prayer...I assure you, this post has nothing to do with religion or faith.

Now, to get to the point. I used to have a voice in my head that told me: I would die at the age of 18 - actual date unknown, causes untold. According to that voice, I would die at 18 because I made some sort of bargain with the devil, and I have no idea what that would be. In short, I have six months left before I find out whether I'm a prophet or I'm actually schizophrenic instead.

So, I'm trying my best to live out these six months and see what happens. If I survive, great - I can continue weaving the tale of my life. If I don't, well...I would say that there were no big regrets in my life, and I love each and every one of you who had crossed paths with me at some point in my life~

=D

1st day of school...

How to put it? I've lost most of my enthusiasm in any activities concerning the college, be it classes, extra curricular activities, unfinished tasks from 2009 and so on. For example, I slept a whole lot of time last night, but I still managed to be half-asleep during LDV and slept the most of the one-hour free slot away before recess time. Social Studies was much better - after filling my stomach, I became slightly more energetic, and the topics were new and fresh and interesting.

The only bright side to this was meeting all of my old friends and chatting, gossiping and more with them again *ahem*

*still seriously lacking motivation for anything but to sleep*