Students' Festival 2009 Awards Ceremony

Every year during spring time, all students across Russia will be celebrating the annual Студенческая Весна (Student's Spring Festival). The festival usually lasts for a month - basically its a month of talent competitions. Students from all over Russia compete in different categories and the main aim is to grab the Laureate Honors awards. In Malaysia it would be the equivalent of a "Festival Ko-Kurikulum" or something like that.

Last year, me and my friends (my music-band mates) competed in the Instrumental Music and Vocals category and we managed to get the 1st Degree Laureate Honors award. This was a first time in the festival history that a group of international students took the top award.

This year, we competed in 3 categories and the results were as follows:

1) Instrumental Music & Vocals - 2nd Degree Laureate Honors

2) Contemporary Classical Music - Festival Diploma Award

3) Original Genre & Illusion - 2nd Degree Laureate Honors

For the Original Genre & Illusion category, we performed a Sarawak-Sabah cultural fusion dance which was the opening performance for this year's festival (WOW - talk about being honored up to that level)

If you are interested to see our Original Genre & Illusion performance, you can go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1BFnk7w9iI&feature=channel_page

For next year's festival - we will surely do our best again!

Instant Cure for Flu - Терафлю!

I never thought that the common cold could be treated in less than one day! Before this I used to intoxicate my system with a maximum of 8 paracetamols a day taken in 6 hour intervals just to relieve the catastrophic symptoms of flu - and in most cases, I usually don't feel any better after that hepatotoxic regime. I'd still be sneezing, coughing up phlegm, plugging my nostrils with tissue paper and stuff like that for the next 2-3 days.

But now, thanks to Терафлю (pronounced as te-ra-flyu) I got better (seriously better) even after taking only one packet! Wonders of Russian pharmaceuticals.

Its easy to take, just dilute one packet of this "healing elixir" in a cup of warm water and just gulp it (although your taste buds will scream in agony)! Best to be taken before bed (as per written on the instructions) GUARANTEED - you will have a sound sleep, without any blocked nose or headaches or nausea or anything.

Comes in 3 "lovely" flavors - Lemon, Forest Berries, Ginger (although I don't think it would make a big difference, I guess they all have the unpleasant after-taste)

For the concerned pharmacist/physicist:

Contents: active ingredients include 325 mg paracetamol, 20 mg feneramine maleate, 10 mg phenylephine chloride (plus flavoring, sugar, this that this that lah)

Effects: Antipyretic, anti-oedematic (?Did I translate this word correctly - противоотечным?), analgetic, & anti-allergenic action.

Pharmacologic group: non-narcotic analgesics, alpha-adrenomimetics, H1-histamine receptor blockers.

Indications: fever, chills, headache, flu, stuffed nose, sneezing, malaise.

After this, flu is no more a big problem. Just take a packet of Терафлю! And smile the whole day :)

Volgograd - The City of Heroes

Suddenly, I missed Volgograd. My 3-day stay in that beautiful city had really made quite a strong impression in my mind.

I remember that in Malay we have such a proverb that says "Hujan batu di negeri sendiri, hujan emas di negeri orang - lebih baik lagi di negeri sendiri" - which is loosely translated as "Although it rains stones in your motherland, and it rains gold in a foreign land - it is better to be in your motherland". I don't really see where this proverb is coming from or going to - back home we NEVER had stones falling as rain to begin with. Anyway - comparing Kursk and Volgograd (in this case it rains stones in Kursk and it rains gold in Volgograd), I pretty much prefer to be in Volgograd.

Remembering Volgograd also means remembering Volgo Games 2009. My experience participating in the annual intervarsity games was a very exciting one as it was my very first time representing my beloved university KSMU. Sportswise - I used to do well in tennis back when I was in secondary school. But this time - being a part of the athletics team was a different thing altogether. Middle distance runner? Haha. I never thought that I was a middle distance runner. I never even thought that I could run 400 metres non-stop. And the most astonishing thing is that I was able to bring back a bronze medal - now that's cool! (I was eyeing on the medals this year, just because they looked pretty and unique - see the medals below!)

It was a great experience to meet new people here and there, and to get to know people from your own university even better. I mean, I don't know about other universities but here in KSMU, you can go through 6 years of studying without even knowing that this particular person even existed! So that means more friend requests in facebook - YAY!

Hope that next year in Kursk, the intervarsity games would be better, packed with more fun and excitement! (And hope we will take back the overall champion trophy from Volgograd LOL)

Syndrome of Intoxication

All the while in case histories I've been writing "Syndrome of Intoxication" as a diagnostic syndrome. Its possible symptoms include fever, general weakness, malaise, chills, rigors, body aches and probably some more can be added to this list. Basically, in layman terms it is called by the phrase "I think I am feeling sick." Usually when patients present themselves with any kind of infectious disease (e.g. the common cold) - there you will find the manifestation of this particular syndrome.

After coming back from Volgograd for the annual 6th Malaysian Students Intervarsity Games, I immediately succumbed to the grasp of this troublesome and somewhat incurable disease (you can only at most alleviate your symptoms, that's all)

Now I think this disease is at its peak. Why?

1) Terrible headaches haunt me almost 24 hours a day. And I can feel as if my brain is moving in my skull whenever I turn my head in different directions. No, more like its being pulled here and there. I wonder how Jean Grey cou deal with all the mental stress O_o

2) My nose apparently has more supply of water than the Amazons. Its leaking like a tap with a faulty valve. I might as well fly over to Africa and start nourishing the Serengeti. And there goes another roll of toilet paper.

3) My body aches as if I've been building the Great Pyramids of Giza for the past 20 years - ALONE. Whenever I move a muscle, it hurts like hell.

4) I am working more efficient than a standard Russian heater. I can feel heat emanating from my body to the environment. If I were to wear some wet clothing, in 30 minutes it would be drier than your udang kering. Maybe if I tried, I'd be able to shoot fireballs from my hands!

5) I've been eating more than what I usually eat everyday. Sign of increased metabolism due to this troublesome disease. I have no idea how these ultra-tiny viruses can cause so much havoc in my body system.

I don't have the strength to even open a book - and obviously studying is out of the option. My brain is shouting "No More! No More!" even though nothing was inside it 24 hours before O_o.

So much for being sick. Now I understand all the patients who lie in the wards, suffering from their respective diseases. No wonder they are so grumpy and prefer to keep to themselves. I am now feeling exactly the same way too. Just bearing a day with this common cold is a torture, imagine others who are suffering from more serious diseases?

Panacea - will we ever discover it?

Prima Volta

After hearing a song which resonates with the same frequency of my musical inclination - I would straightaway play that piece on the piano. The same case goes here:

After reading a lot of blogs made by various people from around the world - I came to a quick, but perhaps immature conclusion. Everyone has a need to express themselves, most of the time to a level so sensitive, where there is ultimate (well, almost) freedom, and where imagination can appear almost spontaneously. That is what my initial understanding of blogging looks like. Maybe in the future it will change, but only time will tell.

Actually, come to think of it, I really don't have much to write from time to time. Only sometimes, SOMETIMES - something comes along and I would usually express it in a form in which some people do as a living. I write poems. And later when words meet music, songs are created. Some are funny, some are inspirational, but mostly are sad. Maybe, the choice of the word "broken" from "broken piano" came from the sad compositions. But then, that's just another explanation I could cook up in this most spontaneous moment. Or simply said, I just thought that the words "broken piano" sounds cool and meaningful. I don't know.

I think this post is sufficient as a first post. I guess. I'm new to this blogging thing. But I will catch up soon. And I really hope I will keep up blogging for a long time, I don't want this thing to break down in the middle of the road.

If that happens, it wouldn't be a broken piano anymore.

In its place, a dilapilated piano will emerge.