the last day of april
the conquered pinnacle
the final examination
the accomplished mission
the closing of a chapter
the finished adventure
the windup of a story
the end of a journey
the concluding rite
the tunnel end's light
the farewell gathering
the fat lady sings
the grand finale
the milestone day
the mass exodus
the ultimate nexus
the taste of freedom
the joy of triumph
the utopia
the omega

resurfacing from the deep
crevices of delirium
rekindling the affection
once lost in infinity
did he regret his actions?
or were they necessary?
overwhelming expectations
bitter disappointment
slowly he recuperates
from the chaos within
for all the gold and silver
is no substitute for her
their paths diverge henceforth
and he wishes against odds
a miraculous reunion
a fairy tale conclusion
if time could be bought he'd give
all to be forever with
the apple of his eye
twinkling star in the night sky
crushed indefinitely
marooned for eternity?

the mosque in my university is probably the most outstanding landmark… located atop a hill right in the heart of the campus… situated between the library and the administrative bureau… not only is it a place of worship… its underground hall is also the place for examinations… surely all students  have taken numerous papers there before… as a matter of fact… my latest one was held there… the last of dozens of exams held under the mosque in my five years here… whether it was tests held at nine in the a.m. or p.m…. this place surely holds a lot of memories for many of us i'm sure…

a self-proclaimed graffiti artist finishing some scribblings on the illuminated wall in the esplanade library…

the student affairs building in my university… taken at sunset…

i have thought of writing an article about rss for some time… because it's something so useful and time-saving… but yet so many casual surfers haven't got a clue what it is… finally someone made the perfect introductory video on rss for the uninitiated… which is much better than whatever i would have attempted to explain through plain words… here it is anyway… take a look…

our days left here are numbered… the five years in university shall pass just like that… i'm not sure whether my five years in secondary or my five years here were better… they were vastly different… life was probably less complicated back then… young adults get more stress than teens i guess… perhaps a quarter-life crisis?

as the years passed… so much has changed… first year was pretty exciting for me… my friend(s) and i would take the bus from our hostel to taman u almost nightly for world cup matches… snooker… and counterstrike… i was definitely enjoying my newfound freedom then… there was just so much enthusiasm back then… taking the bus to city square come weekends… borrowing my friends' cars to hang out some of the time… although i did a whole lot of walking and bus-catching around campus rain or shine… they weren't all that bad when i look back now… even with the sucky food i could barely tolerate… at least i wasn't as jaded as i am now…

most if not all of the chinese moved out and stayed in rented houses in second year… which meant no curfews, unhygienic toilets and irritating wake-up calls… more friends had cars … which meant more shopping and clubbing… lan games were the norm with seven coursemates under one roof… we had so much enthusiasm back then… making an impromptu two-hour drive to malacca at ten on a saturday night just to party… joining the mad crowd spraying confetti and foam during christmas at orchard… partying from night till morn for new year's… yeah we did have a great time…

in third year i started blogging even though there wasn't any broadband yet in my house… cict and some telecommunications lab were the places to get my internet fix at night… after awhile i finally got my line and bittorrent was running 24/7… the good old days of unthrottled bandwidth… i got my first electric guitar and amp too… and our band was high-pass filter back then… with a different lineup no doubt… and i also began to dig deeper into the world of progressive rock… with dream theater being my favourite…

i added the korg to my collection of music gear in the beginning of fourth year… and serpent came to life after a couple of auditions for the drummer and vocalist positions… we were jamming so much back then… whether in studios or waking the neighbous with our drunken solos… participating in two band competitions brought serpent and a few local bands closer… we even went to record in singapore… but when the second semester came things slowed down a little though… and i began to lose my old happier self…

at last… it's our final year… needless to say… i became even more jaded with the usual routine… we had some enjoyable trips to kukup, genting, singapore and malacca though… and on the whole i really had a lot of precious moments to savour… but those times didn't last as long as i hoped… much as i wanted them to… some things slipped away… and i don't know if i should have any regrets… i usually don't…

as a five-year-long chapter draws to a close… another uncertain one awaits…

thelma osiris
whence he is near?
softly neatly end
heavier feeble ore
hit misses emit
new crow elsewhere
otherwise neat
outweighed soul taken
one hope whisks
reality awash me
somewhere hasty lay at
wishing aerial eel?

the helipad in my university… from a low perspective…

it has been the most crucial fortnight for all of us… which will determine our successful completion of our studies here… and what a tremendously hectic yet fun time it has been… two days before the final demonstration… our course of mechatronics students made a visit to the proton plant in shah alam…

we had a day to rest and prepare the final touches on our projects… and that was when procrastinators like me finally got down to some serious work… i fully completed what i had to do nine hours before the demonstration… in typical eleventh-hour fashion… even with the slight fatigue… serpent jammed and gamed all night immediately after it…

the thesis draft was due the day after that… so i spent twenty-four consecutive hours whipping one up from scratch to meet the official deadline but alas… i couldn't make it on time… but it wasn't an issue because it was a flexible deadline (liveline?)… nevertheless it was quite complete… and so the weekend was spent looking through the notes for the finals paper on monday… which was quite a breeze i guess… after the paper… i touched up on my draft and handed it in the following day… and adjourned to exercise our vocal cords and digestive tracts…

we still had a robotic assignment and presentation due on thursday… the final one for our five years here… and true to ourselves… my group crammed all the work that needed to be done in half a day… completed the slides minutes before it was our session and rushed off to campus… and it was the most unusual presentation ever… as we didn't even need to actually present… the lecturer just went through the slides and asked us some questions… in the end… he asked each one of us how many marks we thought we deserved… and after hearing our proposed marks and justifications… he gave us a final grade even higher than what we had suggested… very unusual indeed…

we had a birthday bash for two of our course mates last night… the creators of enigma and brat… it was held at the newly-open burger king near the toll plaza… and what a welcome change it is from the usual mcd parties… speaking of which… there is one tonight… :)

counting down the days… aren't we all?