KDUDA 2009

Carmen asked me to blog about this, so here goes.

I started REAL debating in March this year, at the National Novice championship. Then I experienced life as an adjudicator at IIUM inter-school. Recently, I made the step up to being a coach for my high school Catholic High.

How I got started is a story on it's own. The Catholic High junior teams had just come back from the first KDU debate tourney of the year. One team lost all its debates, except the last one, where they faced the swing team. The other did little better. The debaters struggled to complete the time given to them, and they came back demotivated and demoralized. One of the debaters was my brother, another was a close friend. It was also around this time I found out about the good work the ex debaters of Damansara Jaya were doing for their juniors, and it showed in their performances. Although I'm not a really good debater by any means, it made me think about what I could do to really help these guys.

So one fateful afternoon while picking up my brother from debate training, I offered my help. The target was to achieve respectability, to reach a reasonable standard of debating. It sounds like a really low target to aim for, but at that time it was all everybody wanted.

Time also wasn't on our side. The debate was to be from the 26th to the 28th of June. I was preparing for my A Levels, which only ended on June the 5th. They were preparing for their mid terms. I was also going to be in India for a week in June. So basically, we only had time for 1 session before I left for India.

And that session wasn't pretty. We did 2 debates just to assess the situation. The debaters lacked manner, they lacked ideas and more importantly, they lacked confidence. It gave all of us a lot to think about.

I came back from India on the 23rd, 3 days before the big day. On each day, we did 4 hours of debating. The first day saw some improvement from the day we had before I left. At least they managed to reach 6 minutes. We analyzed their weaknesses and tried to work at them. The reward - a major improvement by Thursday afternoon. There was a reason to smile at last. Come Friday morning, one could sense determination in the air. Respectability had definitely been achieved, now we were hoping to break. However, we still thought it was a far shot, as only 8 out of the 52 teams would break.

Watching the debates was agonizing, I think I was more nervous than they were. I waited excitedly for them after each debate, praying for good news. Giving high-5s if they won, and putting an arm around their shoulder if they lost. It was a new experience for me, something I had never done before.

What we all were waiting for was the break announcement, which was on sunday morning. What happened was one of the coolest moments of life.

"Breaking 3rd...Katholik team 2!!!"

"Breaking 5th...Katholik team 1!!!"

"Breaking 8th...Katholik team 3!!!"

Seriously, that was beyond our wildest dreams. I think even if we broke 16th we would have been screaming and shouting at each other like we did that morning. I felt extremely smug.

So team 2 and 3 lost in the octo finals, but no one was really upset. We had already exceeded our expectations. And that was all that mattered to everyone.

I congratulate team 2 - Carmen Chua, Tan Wen Min and Rachel Gan. For having the strength to rise from facing the swing team, from being called useless by a teacher, to break 3rd.

I congratulate team 3 - Yu Li, My brother Sean, Kim. For sticking together as a team and not giving up despite the first round loss.

I congratulate team 4 - Aaron, Jin Yun and Jasmesh. For being ever positive despite not breaking, I applaud their team spirit and their willingness to fight.

I congratulate team 1 - Prashanth, David, Shaun and Zean. For making the grand final. I also thank them for helping the junior teams along the way as well.

I'M SO PROUD OF ALL OF YOU!

Last but not least, I would like to thank Peter Heng, James Yap and Ahmed Khabir for helping with training in every way they could. You guys deserve a lot of credit for all your tremendous support.



Winning is a great feeling, but to help other people experience the joy of it. That's just pure magic. (:

Allah.

That's my priest Father OC! Look out for James Yap in the video as well.

Psych yourself up!

Physics was over last night. Let's just hope I managed to 'win the games'.

Anyway! 

I compiled a playlist of pre-exam songs to help pump myself up. I know, pathetic attempt to make yourself feel more confident. But you try everything when you're desperate don't you? 

1. The Touch - Stan Bush 

2. You're The Best - Joe Esposito

3. The Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor

4. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins

5. The Final Countdown - Europe

Feel free to suggest any songs that have worked for you, as you can see my list is really short. 

My personal favourite is The Touch. It's actually from the animated Transformers movie which was made back in the 80s. Super cheesy I tell you. 

You got the touch, you got the PO-WERRRR!

Star Trek.

Greetings. I must say it is logical and rational for one to watch Star Trek.

Look out for Mr Spock! One of the coolest characters ever to hit the screen. I love his stoicalness, the way he completely lacks emotion. And his use of 'press statement' speech as well! 

"Are you trying to elicit an emotional response from me?" Mr Spock when being teased about his mother. 

Anyway I shan't spoil it for you. Live long and prosper.

Worry.

I'm worried about the fact that I'm not worried enough.

Does that make any sense?

Hope.

I know this is very silly, but I am going to talk about Malaysian politics in this post. I promise it will be short.

To say the high court's decision was the right one would be an understatement. It is abso-f***king-lutely clear there was really only one answer to the question of who really was the rightful MB of Perak. 

Credit to Justice Abdul Aziz Abd Rahim, he has not only given Najib a kick in the balls, but also given all of us a reason to believe, a reason to hope.

Revamped.

Hello! Welcome to the revamped version of my blog!

Okay, so it isn't more snazzy or anything. In fact, it is just black and white. But somehow I feel it was necessary to do away with with the old one, as it was starting to boring and crappy. Not that it is the blog's fault of course. I just think it's nice to start all over again, on a clean slate.

I hope I'll somehow post more opinions on this blog. I'm not the most expressive person and often have trouble translating thoughts into words. So yeah, I'll work at that. What this blog will not be is one full of emotional muck, and it will most definitely not have any Malaysian politics in it. Talking about it makes me upset. 

I'm not going to be saying much more, should probably hit the books now. 11 days to A Levels majors. Oh Boy.