2nd half of the sem.

Snippet: Local film director, Yasmin Ahmad (of the Sepet fame) suffered a stroke earlier this evening and is placed under ICU at the moment. More here: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/7/23/nation/20090723163731&sec=nation)

Been awhile I've updated with some actual blogging. Random picture spams and micro-blogging through Twitter has somewhat taken over. Anyway...

1) The haze is back and getting worse. Since I got back here after my holiday break last Sunday, it has been hazy nearly every day. Heck, another reason to wear those flu masks? Owh, and Malaysia has recorded it's first H1N1 death, although the deceased died to due other complications arising from the deadly flu.

2) The dean of our faculty together with a few 'bigshots' of the university called for a meeting with the parents last Sunday. On such short notice, many could not make it. The purpose: To get our opinion and votes in changing our course degree. It was proposed (actually, this was planned long time ago according to some) that 5+0 Mahsa/Trisakti DDS programme is to be changed to Mahsa University College DDS programme. Meaning, the Trisakti & Indonesia part is striked out.

So I wasnt there, but from what I heard, the 'bigshots' were going pro Mahsa all the way, to the extend that they could offer it better here. And those present were required to summit the votes on that day itself, either to stick with the Mahsa/Trisakti DDS programme or the full Mahsa DDS programme. After some debate, with some parents requiring time to consider, they gave us a few days time. But in actual fact, nothing could be done as it was rumored that the contract with Trisakti had already been terminated and the parents opinion/voting thingy was just a showface gimmick.

3) The following day, Monday, another meeting was held for those not present on Sunday. And they passed us these forms for us to agree or disagree on the change.

However, one check at the form and you'll find that there is no 'Disagree' option to strike out. In a way, it was sort of indirectly forcing us to sign the agreement.

Some delayed as much as possible, but I guess the end result is very much obvious; we are now DDS (Mahsa).

4) Mid semester exam results will be out next week according to our coordinator. No questions asked or else further delay by authority. The following few weeks up to our finals will be summarized in 4 letters = B.U.S.Y. All the best to my coursemates. May you repeat less in your practicals and drill more into your gray matter. =p

5) During the meeting on Monday, it was proposed that we are going to have a Dental Council. A BOD (Board of Directors) was recently formed but abolished shortly because we were told to include the DT's (Dental Technologists) & DSA's (Dental Surgery Assistants) as well when the namelist was to be summited. Very typical of Mahsa = lambat tapi boleh (but on the brighter side, it applies to fees as well. =D)

6) The new students guidebook is out, supposedly for the incoming batches. (Hey! I'm on the front cover! lol)

Haha...just a small picture lah. Anyway, we didn't had the time to go through it fully but a few things caught our attention. So, future prospective students, please take note of this: (and the underlined captions)

Somehow the fee is increased to RM70 000 per annum. Which makes it RM350 000 for the whole 5 years course. Which is an increase of nearly 100k! @@
(EDIT: due to the numerous inquiries i get regarding this fee increase...do take not that it has not been implemented yet. the guidebook is not made official yet. so incoming intakes which is this September, the fee is still rm260k (as of August 09'))

And...

Medium of Instruction includes BM!

7) My housemates & I forgot to pay the electric bill. So for 30 hours, we were literally suffering.

8) On a brighter side, I ate durian! YAY!