A Community for Swinburne University (Sarawak Campus)
Archive for August, 2008
By johnsonwoan in Random Ramblings on August 25th, 2008
While you guys are desperately waiting for some of the interesting writing works with reference to the Swinburne GRAND Opening from the dedicated bloggers, here i am, for the first time on this weblog, entertaining you guys with this insipid and lame post of mine.
It’s undoubtedly a golden opportunity for me to be part of the Choirs to sing both Malaysian and Australian National Anthems. My privilege, i should say. Yet, this is not the “grand” happening that occurred on me on that afternoon.
What makes it more grand is right after the Choir singing, the aptitude of my two hands.
I managed to place my two hands on the handle and snapped a picture with the police bike. Don’t **cher** eh… How often can you place your both hands on those vast, deluxe and sophisticated police bikes before you actually get caught? *kidding of course*
At least, i took up the courage right? *grin*
Even so, this bravery incident doesn’t heat up the word “grand” to the max. What makes everything even more grand is actually my fingerprint !!! People, never ever under estimate the potential of my fingerprint. Why?
Simply because:
I have my fingerprint tattooed on CM’s Rolls Royce. Don’t *cher* eh. How often can a person, a normal citizen like you and i, plant down its fingerprint on our Chief Minister’s car? At least, I did it once. so do my peeps.
LOL! I know this snapshot is of incalculable value; still, don’t get jealous yea…
**The purpose of writing this post is to diminish your boredom. See how good and kind hearted i am? LOL. Johnson is still waiting patiently for the Grand Opening posts by the other writers.**
By ~ApRiL is HeRe~ in Random Ramblings on August 24th, 2008
Errrmm… tired after the Grand Opening…
WY said I can write whatever I want here…This is just something in my mind that I cant help anymore. I just need some people opinion on this topic. I don’t know how to start. Sometimes… we need to choose between relationship and friendship. I believe in “when you get bf/gf, you will lose some friends”.
From my female friends:
When they have new bf, they will still close to me or any friends. Only that they don’t have much time anymore, will spend the time with their own bf. And… they will only look for their friends, when they having problems or fight with the bf (me, myself is like that too, I’m admit that). They will not lose their male friends, because the bf is not easy to feel jealous, they won’t control their gf much.
From my male friends:
Aduh….
When they have gf… Everything changed.. I have a friend, who always on the phone with the gf all the time, when he is go out with us. Is a bit annoying for me, because, why not you just spent 2 or 3 hours with your friends without your gf? And the gf, always ask him to not do this and that because is embarrassing.
Aduh…when you like or love a guy, you will accept how bad and good they are. If my bf does something embarrassing is cute for me!!! And that is him, if that really make me feel shame, I will just cover my face.
MOST of the girls, they feel jealous SO EASY (including me)…!! That is really annoying; I hate it when I feel jealous. And girls, they LOVE to control the bf, can’t be friend with some girls; can’t go clubbing; can’t go out too late; complaint that the boy have no time for them. So annoying rite? (Actually I am like that too).
Some girls just too selfish, if you can’t believe your bf, then he is not the one for you. If you feel worry he will cheat one you, he is not the one. I can’t help it, because I’m a girl, I try my best to be better, but still jealousy always running around my head.
I hope I don’t have to feel what is ‘jealous’…!!
Girls…sometimes, you need to try understanding your bf, they are human like you. They have male and female friends. Don’t be selfish, but…you also need to watch out, because some boys might use the freedom you give for ‘something’ else. And remember, you are the gf, NOT the boss.
Boys… when your girl being moody whenever you with your friends (male and female), what will you do? Leave your friends and try to make her happy? Ck..ck…ck…she should understanding you…ck..ck…ck…ck.. She should know who are your friend before she be your gf.
I complaint a lot yah…whatever I wrote here, please, don’t ask me, who I’m talking about, because it’s including myself too. I’m still trying to be a nice gf for any boy who will be my bf LoL
Good nite!
Ps: I’m not really good in express something I want to say, so forgive me if I say something wrong.
By ember in Celebration & Events, Swinburne on August 23rd, 2008
Just a quick update on today’s mark in the history of Swinburne Sarawak – the Grand Opening Ceremony of the new extended campus.
Click on image for full size!
The symbolic torch lighting marking the official opening of the new campus by the Chief Minister, YAB Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, accompanied by Mr. Bill Scales AO, Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology.
This post will be updated with more info shortly.
By ember in SwinTalk on August 22nd, 2008
In line with the looming Grand Opening Ceremony of Swinburne Sarawak’s sprawling new extended campus, it’s community blog, SwinTalk, has also unveiled a whole new look!
Not only do Swinburnites get to enjoy the new campus, now, even our online presence has a unique theme to boot! How’s that for aspiring for us to be the best online campus community out there?
The new SwinTalk theme proudly parades itself in the two major colours of the Swinburne Sarawak logo – black and yellow, which are also the colours used in our campus’ interior decorations ahead of the Grand Opening.
The theme aims to be vibrant and fun, an image Swinburne tries to paint itself in all the time.
Your help is needed!
No code is perfect. Granted, a Wordpress theme might not be the most complex stuff to code out there, but mistakes and errors do occur. I am after all, human. =)
That said, I’ll need you, the community, to help in identifying any bugs, errors or weird stuff you see. If you happen to come across something not working or something that might seem not right to you, please do not hestitate to tell me about it throught the comments!
I also regret to inform that the theme has not been tested on IE6. So those of you using IE6 out there might be experiencing broken layouts. I highly recommend the lot of you to upgrade to IE7 or other browser alternatives. Rest assured, the theme has been tested to run fine on the latest of all major browsers.
Suggestions!
The layout you’re looking at right now has been rather carefully thought out by those collaborating behind the theme. We’ve taken into consideration the placings of items, features of every nook and canny to make SwinTalk an enjoyable experience. But we are almost always bound to miss out a thing or two along way.
Because this is a community blog, it is my job to tune the theme to the needs of you, the community. As such, I’ll most certainly welcome any comments and suggestions on how the layout or design of the theme can be improved!
So keep the suggestions coming in! =)
This is ember, the resident SwinTalk graphics guy, checking in my first ever post on SwinTalk.
Hope you like the new look as much as I enjoyed designing it!
By Hans L. in Swinburne on August 21st, 2008
It is already the fourth day of the week. The new buildings and facilities are being explored by inquisitive students, eager to go where no other student have went before. But even the most inquisitive of students don’t have access to the lecture theater unless they have a lecture held there. Or they could have snuck inside.
For those who has not yet had the chance to sit in the comfortable chair of the lecture theater (instead of the hard chairs that we are all used to by now), have this picture instead.
(click to view full size)
This photo is by Hans L. and as such is under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. You are free to distribute, modify or use it commercially as long as it is atrributed to me. Quite a nice term, don’t you think so?
By Saad Kamal in Celebration & Events, Swinburne on August 19th, 2008
One of the main reason for starting this blog is to let everyone know about the ‘latest happenings’ of Swinburne. If you have been in campus in the last 2-3 weeks, you have probably noticed that everyone is very busy with the preparation of the Swinburne’s Grand Opening! So we (the Swinburne’s Bloggers Community) have decided to cover the whole event for you in this blog starting from today.
Right now I am blogging semi-live (I’m using my diary instead of a laptop) from the Swinburne Auditorium to cover the Rehearsal of the Students that are performing on Block C (Open Air) after the opening ceremony. So here is how the current layout of performances is like: There are in total of twelve performances out of which 5 are Solo (signing), 3 Duets, and 4 dance performance.
Performance 1: Japanese Song
The first performance was a Japanese Song by Nabilah, Anastasia and group. Well basically for me there was no way for me to verify whether what they were singing was actually ‘Japanese’ or not…but the song was indeed very melodious and pleasant to hear. Both of the lead vocalists have beautiful voice and good sense of rhythm.
Suggested Improvements:
- Since there are three vocalists, I think they should be provided with Three Separate microphones.
- I think this performance would be perfect if played somewhere in the middle of the event. It’s not a good selection as the opening performance because it’s better to play something ‘popular’ to get the initial interest of the audience.
Performance 2: English Song by Abdullahi (Nigeria)
There was a delay of 10 mins before this performance actually started. The performer was nowhere to be found at first….. But later everyone realized that he was actually at the back stage. The performance was pretty good overall. Just there were some issues with the microphone….and the MCs were a bit lost.
Suggested Improvements:
- Stage Assistant/Runner should inform every performer about their performance beforehand. This will ensure a smooth flow of the program.
- MC s should coordinate with the runner/stage assistant so that they know who is performing after whom and whether they are absolutely ready.
- The PA System Assistant should know which music to play for which performance. The best way to ensure a smooth flow of performances is to burn all the ‘music’ to be played in one single CD!
Today they kept on changing CDs and laptops…after every single performance which was kind of annoying.
Performance 3: Traditional Dance
Next up was a traditional dance performed by Lennie Sim and her group. There was some initial hiccup with the music; however the dance went pretty well overall. However I think not all the dancers were aligned properly in terms of their dancing ability. For instance it’s a common practice to highlight the good dancers by putting them in the middle or In front, so that the audience sees them first rather than the ones who had less practice or are nervous.
Suggested Improvements:
- Align the dancers according to their skills. Present the best ones in the middle or in front.
Performance 4: Malay Song
After the dance performance, Faraliza sang a beautiful Malay song….titled …..err…I don’t know …I didn’t catch the title..But all I can say is it was a damn good performance. She has excellent control over her voice…and the crowd really enjoyed her performance…
Suggested Improvements:
- She wasn’t properly centered on the stage and was looking at only one side of the audience. Maybe it’s her style, however Its actually a good practice to face the audience face to face to get the maximum attention.
Performance 5: Dance sport Club
After farah’s performance, dance sport started with some serious rap dance…everything was going really well and then there was a sudden ‘PAUSE’….I’m not sure what happened but it seemed like the music simply ended there……Well hopefully we’ll be able to see the full performance on the main event day itself.
Performance 6: English Song
I didn’t really catch the title of the song, but the performer – Stacy (hopefully I got the name right) is supposedly Gab’s cousin. She has a beautiful voice and excellent showmanship! She later performed another song with Farah…
Performance 7: Malay Song
A duet by Farah and Stacy…….awesome performance….but there was an awkward pause in the middle (while the music plays for quite some time)…. Maybe instead of just standing there…they can move around a bit…
Performance 8: Flying Without Wings
This guy was simply brilliant, he sang this song without any music or instrument and it was just great. He was having hard time reading the lyrics though… Sadly…I didn’t catch his name properly…
Performance 9: The BB (or the Baby?)
A Free style rapper, did a rap about Swinburne..and his life @ kuching. Simply brilliant!
Performance 10-11-12
All these 3 performances were by our African students. The MC had no clue of their names and he kept on saying “Lets welcome our African friends from Africa”….which was kind of funny. I think it should be made mandatory for every performer to give their real name or stage name to the MC.
So overall it was all good. However there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Some of my personal suggestions are:
- Change the order of the performance in such a way that you can retain audience at all time from the start until the end of the event.
- Both the MCs were NOT prepared. Well it’s not their fault as one of them were not even been informed about this event until TODAY. But anyway, they should really prepare a script and follow it accordingly.
- All the necessary music/songs should be burned in 1 single disc for easy access.
- The performers should be informed beforehand about their performance by the runner…this will ensure that the performers aren’t surprised when their name is called on stage!
- There is always a problem with “Sound System” in Swinburne. There should be someone dedicated to look after it while the event is ongoing.
- The MCs should follow a Time line and proceed accordingly.
Anyway I am really looking forward to see the actual event. I hope you are too! Join us live @ Swinburne opening ceremony on 23rd Aug 2008. We will be doing some interviews of some of the senior management staffs, lecturers, visitors and students along with some detailed review of the new campus.
