DMSJ 2009: Day 3

there was the Bingo Bash, which i initially thought was like the one where you call out numbers and then half-heartedly hope you get to cross out B, I, N, G, and O before the other person(s). the new version is where you o-peng with random people and get a dot on your head every time you lose.

needless to say, i lost at this game. good thing i wasn't the only one in the group to get 9 dots on my head. =P

the real Bingo Bash was a combination of charades, win-lose-or-draw, and er, UNO (my opinion). groups got to pick numbers from the board thing on the screen, and some numbers were charades, some the drawing thing, some, intercepts. intercepts meant the question was open to any group to answer, but only if certain conditions were fulfilled. usually the blowing and popping of a coloured balloon.

this was the bestest game for me cuz it required Bible knowledge. Bible knowledge is the one thing i have going for me besides um, English. but as i did in dunno which DMSJ a few years back, i messed up the tribes thing in Genesis. as in i had no idea which tribe it was that is connected to a snake. answer was Dan, i think.

i think this game would work for a smaller group. it seemed like it took forever to get five numbers in a row that in the end my group (Manasseh) just went about sticking our foot in other groups' strategies as in jam a number in between other groups' formation. because there was no way we'd get five in a row any time soon. there were... 12 tribes/groups?

then we dispersed to practice for Special Nite. before that, we had our music practice for the next day. again, i had a good time being flexible and spontaneous. sieh jin's method of teaching his new song was:

*play play guitar and sing once through*
sieh jin: "ok, you all can d right? let's start."

and sagc's method of practicing was:

*someone randomly starts strumming/drumming/bass-ing*
*everyone starts joining in gradually*
*finish*
chee kean: "ok. can ar? any questions?"

and sieh jin had the weirdest song transitions:

*finish Better Than Life (very fast wan)*
sieh jin: "alright! yeah! now, let's continue to praise the Lord** with...
I Love You Jesus."
everyone: "..."

*finish I Love You Jesus*
sieh jin: "yeah! let's continue to praise the Lord with... a hymn! If Ever I Loved Thee."
chee kean: "dude, like, i think you don't say 'let's continue to praise the Lord la'"

**there was a more lawak phrase which i can't remember

but it was enjoyable. learned a lot, evolved a lot. now i know If Ever I Loved Thee can be played with the More Than Words mood. (and it was discovered by accident too, while chee kean was playing around with the song). interesting.

then we went to prepare in our respective groups.

joshua raj, the young man shaun was talking about here.

it seemed like it'd be a very long prep meeting at first. i didn't take to the ideas they threw. but i couldn't say anything. cuz i didn't have any ideas at all. but then refining has always been my better skill as compared to creating, so in the end, we pieced everyone's idea to form one nutty story with no real moral lessons. unlike some of the other groups' adults punya. er haha.

see, just before we dispersed for group preparation, another nut (lala) came running into the hall with a message from King Kalahkalahtakmaumati, summoning a tribal gathering at night. each tribe was to bring an offering to the king, and if he didn't like the offering, matilah engkau. (us, not the king). um, this is not our story. this is what really happened at camp.

long story short, our story was about how the tribe of Manasseh had prepared offerings for the king, when a hungry little Manessehian went and ate all the offerings that happened to be food. so in the end, we sacrificed him instead. joshua's last words were:

"dear king, i have two feelings:
one, i'm happy because i'm going to heaven.
two, i'm sad because i'm going to die. *eyes pop*"

and say it with the indian accent.

we didn't make that up. he really said it on his own while we were practicing. ah well. half the fun of preparing a script is to sit back and hope the actors make up their own one-liners.

our tribal outfit.
from left: erik, joshua, tze meng, sokha.

we finished the earliest, cuz somehow every group i'm in happens to be selamba. then i went outside with sokha, the SU observer from cambodia, learned how to say "i'm pretty" in cambodian and taught her to say "awesome" whenever she didn't get what malaysians are saying. seriously, it's like a kata hubung. and in the process of getting to know sokha, i realized i have the worst conversation-starters. argh. never mind. i started talking to her because i felt guilty for our group switching our allocated practice place without telling her, and she was lost trying to find us. but after awhile, we could talk naturally again. and it only struck me how sad it is that our country's muslims don't have freedom of religion when i told her so.

at the tribal gathering, the same nut ran into the hall in inappropriately-matched clothing. alas, it was the prime minister of King Kalahkalahtakmaumati, and his name was Hairless Harry Potter. or was it Hairless Hairy Potter? am i even getting the three words right? ah nevermind. here he is.

*after dmsj*
shaun: "and his vest so lawak somemore! *laughs*
me: "and you know what the funniest thing is?"
"what?"
"he wears that vest all the time."
o_O "really ar?"

and then everybody had to bow down with their heads touching the ground while the king walked in, cuz he doesn't like people looking at him while he walks. lols.

tada! the awesome king and his konco-konco.

from left: sieh jin, runa, unc dex, christina,
jason fong (oops, blocked), sir hairless

eh blocked again.

ah. tada for real. tada!

sir hairless panas d.

anyway, there were some announcements about how we'd be sentenced to the Chamber or Prison if the king didn't like our offering. the chamber lawak, by the way. hard to explain here though. pokoknya people will get beat up in the chamber and come out limping wan.

and here's the king choosing his queen
from the women of all tribes.

here's a sample of the presentation from one tribe.


plus the video. (psst: video not clear wan.)

oh ya, the king couldn't speak english wan. mostly hokkien nie.

neh, nothing much happened in between. just some chambering, attempted assasination, king's sms spree with the quizmaster (who already balik malacca, by the way), surprise birthday celebration, demotion of the prime minister, return of the king's prodigal son - Cepatcepatpergimati, some imprisonments, and a rubber-band competition. nope, nothing much.

the changes on the stage since the last picture
of the Kalahkalahtakmaumati council.
er shaun's there cuz was his turn to pray.

then it was time to clean up. (after bowing with our heads to the ground while King Kalahkalahtakmaumati walked out, of course).

and the advanced in age gathered to talk. after all, we've only seen each other once every year for 9 years. hm.

from left:
lee girk, chee kean, yuen wye, christina, sabrina

at one point, i said, "eh, you all reaching 30 d hor?"
sabrina: -_-
chee kean: "some people already passed 30 lor. XD"

owh. whoops. it's ok. if DMSJ goes one full cycle again, i'll be 30 too. aha.

yeah, i can't believe we've seen each other for 9 years. it's the 10th DMSJ, but it's been 9 years. since 2000. i was wearing a kiki-lala shirt back then. hm. it's a nice feeling. to know that whenever i'm in malacca, johor, or shah alam, there'll always be someone i know there. someone i've probably seen for more than 9 years. i'm glad i kept going for all those DMSJs although i didn't feel like i wanted to.

i never talked to any of them, honestly. just knew their faces. yuen wye's been scaring me out of my wits every DMSJ cuz he always seemed to be in my group and he's fierce, lee girk was the one with the uber long hair, chee kean rolled a table as the door to the ark in the Genesis DMSJ, and sabrina was the one who got herself a bald head back when it was still the DMS quiz. that was how i differentiated sabrina lee and sabrina chia. lols.

i think camp was a very good way to get us to actually sit down and talk to each other. there was lots of time for that, lots of space, liberty, and most of all, voluntary assertion. nobody had to make me talk to them. and that's one of the best things in relationships. talking to someone just because you want to.

and we get to do stuff we can't do
during a normal quiz event.

like play a four-way o-peng, lose,
and get contenged on the head by the winner.

yup. it wasn't a perfect camp for everyone. but it was good enough for me. cuz i know i'll always be able to look back at this point of time, and say,

thank you, sagc, for organizing this.
thank you, SU team, for the games and sessions.
thank you, everyone, for coming.
thank you, God, for these memories.
i can grow old knowing i was indeed young once.

then we went back for our dorm sharing, and i reminded my share-mates again that these four days were a single moment in the history of DMSJ that should never be forgotten. then we had our lights turned off, and went to sleep wishing the day would never end.

neh.

too tired to think of anything. sleep nie. =P