Disturbing Folktales

I think, by now, we've all heard of how certain fairytales were tamed down so that they can be told for children. In the original version of Sleeping Beauty, for instance, the beautiful princess was actually raped by a hunter. She then got pregnant IN HER SLEEP, and so on and so forth.

Recently, I watched a film recount of a folk tale that I used to read when I was younger. Of course, I had no idea what it meant back then. It was just a story, but when i watched it the other day, I was actually surprised at all the elements in the story.

I'm not sure if it's of a certain neighbouring country's or of local origin, but safe to say, it came from the Malay Archipelago. Here's how the story goes:

One day, a hunter pees on a keladi leaf in the woods. Soon after, a wild boar comes by and drinks the pee, and she gets pregnant! A few months later, she gives birth to a baby girl who grows up into a beautiful young woman, coveted by many men, all whom she rejects.

One day, while resting with her faithful pet dog, her handkerchief falls into some sort of hole, which she can't get into to retrieve. She says out loud: "Anyone who can retrieve my handkerchief will get to marry me!". And guess what? Her dog goes down and gets it for her! And so she marries her dog.

And gets pregnant and gives birth to a boy. She doesn't tell the boy that the dog is his father. So one day, while the boy was hunting (with the dog), he spots a wild boar (none other than the very same boar that drank the pee and gave birth to his mom, no less) and wants to kill it and bring her heart home to mommy dearest.

The dog, knowing that this is his wife's mom, stops him from killing his own grandma. The kid is furious (bear in mind, he's like 6 or 7 at the time) and kills the dog instead, brings its heart home, cooks it and gives it to his mother who readily eats it up. She notices that the dog/hubby is not around so she asks her son where it is.

Her son tells what happened. She gets really really angry and chases him away, but not before throwing a large rock at him that leaves a scar on his head.

To make a long story short, he grows up not knowing his mother and she, for some reason, stays as young and beautiful as ever. They meet and fall in love and only when they're in love does she see the scar and realise that it's her son. Of course, the stupid obstinate boy will not listen and insists on marrying his own mother.

Through some trickery on her part, she basically avoids marrying him.

But the point I'm getting to here - Drinking pee and getting pregnant from it, bestiality, incest? Man, people sure did use to get around, huh?

*Sigh*

So many things I wanna write about here, but I can't just yet sebab... entah tak tau kenapa. haha.

Mengada-ngada kan update? :)

You've gotta be kidding me!

Taken from The Star:

KUCHING: A 64-year-old bomoh who raped three sisters to “cure their sickness and restore their virginity” managed to get a reduction in his 69-year jail sentence after an appeal in the High Court here.

Justice Rhodzariah Bujang agreed to reduce the term to 40 years, taking into consideration Jamir @ Jawang Samah’s age.

But, the 12 strokes of rotan stays.

“The offence is serious. The caning sentence stays but in view of the accused’s age, and given that the total sentence is 69 years, I therefore reduce each sentence to 10 years,” said Justice Rhodzariah yesterday.

She ordered the sentences to run consecutively so Jamir has to serve 40 years in total.

The 16-year-old victim was first raped in February when she sought “health, beauty and a nice voice” from the bomoh.

After a few sessions, the girl brought her younger sisters, aged 13 and 14, for “treatment to restore their virginity and tighten their private parts”.

The matter came to light after the 14-year-old told her friend about the rape and the friend’s family urged her to lodge a police report.

Jamir denied the allegation when he was arrested on March 7, but changed his plea after the three victims testified in court.

Despite the accused’s mitigation of old age and bad health, Sessions Court judge Timothy Finlayson Joel ruled there was no exemption on caning under Section 376 (1) of the Penal Code for raping underage girls.

The bomoh was sentenced to 16 years’ jail and 17 years’ jail respectively for two counts of raping the first victim; 18 years’ jail each for raping the other two victims, and three strokes of the rotan for each of the four charges

Did his age or health matter to him when he committed those acts? No. So why should it matter now?

And as for the little idiots who went to him - Bodohnye kauuu!

This whole case is friggin ridiculous, seriously.

Blogcks

Lately, I've noticed how hard it is for me to string a decent sentence together. It's annoying and frustrating. When it comes to work, I'm fine (I think, I mean, my clients don't seem to be complaining). Give me a job to do and I'll do my level best to write you that copy and send it in before the deadline.

But give me a simple blog post to write and my head goes blank and my fingers stay still. Or rather, they type and delete, type and delete type and delete type delete type delete.....(you get the picture)

What is wrong with me? Blogging used to be almost effortless, cuz I love(d?) writing for myself. Now when i re-read my entries, I think "pathetic". Bodoh ah.

The Day We Turned T.h.r.e.e

Time flies, seriously. Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary. It feels a whole lot shorter than that you know? The day itself is almost a blur, but I remember how my bridesmaid ran away with my flowers and how we were so exhausted by the end of the day, tapi i still had to take off my gazillion inches of makeup. Macam nak pengsan.

I tell you, never do whole day affairs. I mean, nikah in the morning and then reception at night? Not to mention the photoshoots and makeup process, and then removing and then re-makeup-ing in between. It saps up all of your energy. Plus, as bride and groom, you don't get to eat much. Yeah, I know there are some of you out there who are thinking

"Fsck it. It's my wedding, I can eat as much as I want to!"

That's what I thought too, trust me. And then the big day comes along and you (or I, at least) hardly touch your (my) food cuz of the cameras flashing in your face and the gazillion people looking at you. haha. And then later on bila dah malam, exhausted and your tummy is grumbling, you want to start regretting the fact that you didn't eat, but you're too tired to do that either. lol.

I also remember how I felt the next morning, while we had breakfast (sent to the room), realising that it's my first breakfast ever as someone's wife. And then the first time we found time to solat jemaah, afterwards rasa nak nangis. haha.

Anyway, newlyweds, we sure aren't no more.

ok,that was a really really long digression.

So yesterday, Epol took leave just for the occasion.

We had a late breakfast





Then we went to redbox and sang our voices out for three hours! I thought the morning package was only 2 hours, but boy was I wrong.

And then we had a movie marathon, A Tangled Tale and Harry Potter - both were pretty awesome so go watch!

And then dinner at Bubba Gump.

Tembam. I know. Shadap.

Bucket of Boat Trash

Rib

Alabama Smoothie. This may not look like much but it's delightfully sinful!

It was an awesome day, with my best friend ever ever ever :)

Cik

Cik (a name we call our grandma - well, technically, she's our grandaunt but we think of her as a second grandma to us, she's been taking care of all of us for so long) was admitted to the hospital three days ago.

On Sunday, she suddenly ran a high fever, and, worried, they sent her to the emergency unit of PPUM. Her blood-sugar level was super high, and they had to keep her monitored. She arrived at around 7++ on Sunday, and on Monday when I came at 12, she was still down there. They only put her into a proper ward that evening, around 5pm.

As it turned out, she had gotten hypothermia a few times over the last few days. Taking diagnosis into her own hands, she decided to stop injecting her insulin, since everytime she took it, the hypothermia would come.

Little did she know that the real cause of the hypothermia was the fact that, although she regularly took her insulin, she did not eat properly. Tak lalu, katanya.
That's why the hypothermia attacked.

After deciding to stop taking her insulin, she also decided to suck on some sugar cubes to prevent the hypo. Six, to be exact. When anyone else with diabetes would only bite off a small chunk off the edge, she sucked on 6 sugar cubes.

And so, without insulin, and with the help of the six sugar cubes, her blood-sugar level shot up sky-high, bringing her body temperature with it. She was incoherent, she couldn't recognise anyone, and was almost comatose.

And that was how she ended up in the hospital. Haih.. I told her to make sure that the next time she made such conclusions, she should ask someone knowledgeable about it so that something like this won't happen again. Dahla tangan kanan dia patah.

I dunno. She looks like she's recovering now, but I'm really worried about her.

Girls' Day Out

Today was a pretty special day for my sisters and I.

After almost four months of recovery, mama is finally healthy enough to keluar jalan-jalan with us. Yay! Therefore, we decided to have a full girls' day out. Hehe. Walaupun technically two of us aren't really all that girly no more, tapi nak jugak panggil girls' day out.

As usual, I'm a lazybum, so even though I've got an awesome HD camera on my phone, I still failed to take any photos.

So anyway, it started out with a visit to the hospital - my grandma was admitted two days ago due to high blood-sugar levels (that's a story for another post, if I actually get around to writing it), where we made her (my grandma) giggle with our antics. Like seriously, when we arrived she had this really sad look on her face, and then everything was serious for a while, but when her lunch came, we were arguing over who could feed her the best and laughing at each other, and she was giggling sambil makan. Selera pulak tu, siap habis licin semua. We made sure she was comfy, and then Yaya complained that she was hungry, so we left.

The next stop was The Curve where we had ayam penyet, and then jalan-jalan and run errands and by petang, Yaya was craving for meatballs pulak so off to IKEA we went.

Lepas tu balik.

Yes, it sounds boring, but when you haven't spent time with your mom outside of the house in a while, even jalan-jalan is loads of fun.

Plus, I got a pretty shawl out of it.

So yeah, a perfect GDO.

She Owns the Sun!

So apparently, this woman in Spain claimed the sun as her own.

According to Yahoo News,

"she now wants to slap a fee on everyone who uses the sun and give half of the proceeds to the Spanish government and 20 percent to the nation's pension fund.
She would dedicate another 10 percent to research, another 10 percent to ending world hunger -- and would keep the remaining 10 percent herself.
"It is time to start doing things the right way, if there is an idea for how to generate income and improve the economy and people's well-being, why not do it?" she asked"

You can read the full article here.

What a nutjob. And not to mention, this is totally a lawsuit waiting to happen. I mean, ok, you own the sun and you want to charge people for using it. Now what?

1. Fine then. since you own the sun, I don't want to use it anymore. So keep it away from me. What's that? You can't? Lawsuit!

2. That guy got skin cancer indirectly caused by the sun. Lawsuit!

3. Some kid decided to look at the sun directly through a telescope and burnt his eyes out. Lawsuit!

I can tell you a hundred other situations where this woman could probably be sued, down to her last Euro, but you get the drift right?

Sure she could charge all of us for using it, but she's probably gonna end up with even less money than she started out after all these people are done with her.

I'm gonna say it again. What a nutjob.

House Update

We got someone to come and clean the house. At 12 ringgit an hour, this woman did a pretty awesome job because she really scrubbed the heck out of the floors and whatnot. The house is almost sparkly clean now, saw for the spot in my master bedroom with the shoeprints. Those prints just won't go away. I'm considering carpeting the whole room sebab buruk sangat lah.

We'll see how it goes. I'm still too lazy to take pictures. Nantilah once we've moved in and redecorated. :)

Exams are O.V.E.R

yay! :)
tu je nak cakap.

House of Horrors

*Sigh*

I remember leaving the apartment in perfect condition. Now that we've got it back, I realise that the previous tenants were total unhygienic slobs. I mean seriously. We were so excited about living on our own, but the level of excitement plummeted instantly when we opened the front door to check out the condition of the house.

1. We had this awesome white couch which was huge and comfy. In fact, when we took the backrests away, Epol and I could actually fit on it really nicely and cuddled while we watched tv. The couch cover is now brown in colour and the material now looks like a piece of rag.

2. The yellow leather armchair is still yellow, but dusty as heck and sticky to boot.

3. The curtains look like they haven't been washed at all in the two years we haven't been living there

4. The house STINKS. Especially the master bedroom. It's an unnameable smell. Macam bau hamis badan orang tak mandi 10 tahun + bau rokok + (ok, at the risk of sounding totally racist here, which is not what I intend, fyi) bau babi. Tau tak? When you walk past a shop which sells pork, there's this certain smell. That's what the house smells like.

5. There are ashtrays in the sink. The house used to be a no-smoking house. Nak smoke, duduk kat balcony sorang-sorang or kindly step outside. BUT THERE ARE ASHTRAYS IN THE SINK :(

6. There is a pail in the cupboard underneath the kitchen sink. I think it's leaking or something.

7. Only the aircond in the dining area can be switched on with the remote. The room airconds seemed to have been switched off in a hurry using the main switch instead of the aircond, judging from the fact that the flaps are wide open.

8. The second room (the room we used to occupy) is the only room in the house that does not stink. However, the doorknob is mangled in ways that I seriously wouldn't have ever imagined. It must've also been twisted off at one point. Tak tau la ada orang bergaduh kunci diri dalam bilik and the other person tried to break the door down ke apa ke, but now, it looks like the doorknob has been sloppily taped back onto the door. Buruk gila.

Also also also, when I switched on the room light, the swtich started crackling. CRACKLING! Like literally *snap crackle pop snap crackle pop cnap crackle pop* all the way, which scared the heck out of me.

9. Guest bathroom lights totally out.

10. Loose cupboard in kitchen

11. Shoeprints all over the stinky master bedroom

12. Dirty sheets and pillows still in their pillowcases in every bed of the house.

There did not seem to be any attempt of cleaning the house before leaving it whatsoever.

And so we have to:

1. Hire a professional cleaning service to scrub the place clean from top to toe (literally). I am going to insist on mopping, vacuum and sweeping, and a thorough wipe down of every single nook, cranny, crevice and drawer. Normally, I would do this myself (like I did with the apartment we rented last year before we gave it back to the landlord) but geli tau tak? geli.

2. Get an electrician to fix the wiring of everything.

3. Get a plumber to fix all the pipes and whatnot

4. Reupholster the couch.

5. Open up every single window and door that we can and switch the fans on at full blast to air the house out like crazy and get rid of that disgusting smell

6. burn all of those bedsheets left behind

Did I miss anything out? I don't think so. And just to prove how bad the house really is, I will definitely be taking pictures the next time I go there.

Kau ni dah kenapaaaaaaaa?

Annoying nak mampus la. Diam boleh? Ish.

Mama yang lagi satu :)

We got the keys to our apartment last week. One step closer to being independent.

For the last few years, we rented the unit out because things haven't been all that stable for the both of us, financially. But living with in-laws isn't easy, and I imagine that living with your parents when you have a spouse is equally difficult.

I love my mom-in-law almost like I love my own mom.

Make no mistake about that.

But living together means a lot of sacrifices, on her part and on ours. I'm pretty sure that it is just as difficult (maybe even more) for her to be living with her son and daughter-in-law. Differences of opinion, accidental hurt feelings are bound to happen whether we realise it or not.

At the end of the day, we just have different habits, different stands, different views on life.

And as grown adults, a part of us wants to feel what it's like to be independent. We're getting there, Insyallah, thanks, in no small part to her. She's practically given us the ticket for us to start the rest of our lives, and I will forever be grateful to her for that.

I have no idea if you're reading this or not, but thanks mama, for everything - for receiving me into your life, for trusting me with your son's heart, for forgiving us for our mistakes and wrongdoings, for your continuous efforts in guiding us towards become better people.

Visitors

We're getting visitors tonight!

It's almost like a mini holiday, haha, esp if u've seen my mom-in-law's place. I'm kinda excited, cuz I really need this after a stressful couple of months. :)

Nak letak gambar my kesayangans kat sini but two of us dah bertudung litup and belum ambik a new picture sama2, so nantilah ek? hehe.

Where am I Headed?

This past weekend was basically spent catching up with old friends. One had just graduated and is now home after spending 3 years abroad and another one had just decided to take the next step.

Talking to them, I realised that they have both lined up their plans so nicely in front of them. They're both going somewhere. One has a great career up ahead, and has a 5-year plan - save money, send his parents off for Haji, and then pursue his Masters degree locally with the possibility of taking a job abroad after a few years.

The other one already has a pretty good career, is already planning for the next step, and also has the opportunity to advance his career abroad.

Where does that leave me? I love the course I'm taking right now, but realistically speaking, the one thing I've learnt is that the industry I've got myself in is not a strong one in Malaysia. I would love to try and get experience in a country which is way more advanced in this particular industry, but would they even consider someone like me?

Growing up, I always thought I'd be somebody, that I'd make a change. In fact, I always talked about it with one of the friends that I mentioned earlier. We used to discuss how we'd like to be different and not be afraid to follow our dreams.

It seems to me that he's really on his way.

And as happy as I am where I'm standing right now, a part of me thinks that it's not really enough for me. Not just yet.

Doli Kuey Tiaow Goreng, TTDI

First of all the service sucks.

The wait for your food is interminable. I mean, please lah. The woman at the cafe in UM cooked my mihun goreng in under 2 minutes.

Plus, when Epol wanted to order another dish for my mom-in-law, who was at the next shop buying stuff, the waiter had the gall to say "tak boleh buat la bang."

Now, there was a confusion. We actually thought he couldn't make "mi mihun goreng", as in tak boleh mix the noodles, which was ridiculous la. I mean, since when is throwing in an extra handful of mihun to your mi goreng rocket science? We looked at him and asked "kenapa tak boleh campur?"

and he replied "bukan tak boleh campur. memang tukang masak tak boleh buat. ramai orang." Which meant that the little f*cker was refusing our order as if he worked at a 5 star hotel restaurant.

"huh? kenapa pulak?"

and this is the killer. He actually said "Kalau abang nak jugak, tanya la sendiri kat dia"

Ok.

Sejak bila is it my friggin job to do your friggin job for you? You're the friggin waiter. kau pegi la tanya. bodoh ke apa? RUDE RUDE asshole. Finally, he went over to converse with (what i presume) the more experienced waiter and the tukang masak, and came back and took the bloody order anyway.

PLUS, When he sent the drinks, one of them kinda sloshed over on to the table. absolutely no move to either apologize or wipe it clean despite the fact that it was his bloody fault.


Now, let's talk about the food. I'd say average. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it was pretty good.

But it was not worth the crap you have to go through to get it.

My overall rating? 1 out of 5 stars.

And trust me, I'm being generous here.

Of censors

You know, for a country that sensors "love's suicide" from a song because... well.. I dunno, I guess I reckon they're trying to discourage people from committing suicide. And words like "gun" and a string of other totally random, in-my-personal-opinion harmless phrases that no one would even think twice about, it's weird that Rihanna's song "Rude Boy" is allowed to play freely everyday on the radio.

I mean, c'mon.

Come here rude boy, boy, can you get it up?
Come here rude boy, boy, is you big enough?

For the completely obtuse *cough*censorshipboard*cough*,

in the first line, she's asking the uncouth young man if he can get a boner, and in the second, she's asking him if his d*ck is big enough.

I personally don't really have anything against the song.

I just find it ironic and hypocritical that these kinda songs keep making it through completely untouched, while others that don't talk about having dirty sex with random strangers get butchered to pieces.

Go figure.

Stressed OUT

These past few weeks have been seriously, seriously stressful for me. Assignments, assignments and MORE assignments. Thankfully, I submitted my penultimate one yesterday. On to the last one.

Masalahnye I don't understand it one bit, boleh? It's friggin frustrating for me right now. I humbly admit here that when it comes to formal situations, my BM memang teruk. I can speak fluently, as long as it's informal. Bahasa pasar memang senang lah, I grew up with it what kan? But when I have to write in BM for assignments, or even read scholarly BM articles, I fail. Bukan langsung tak faham lah. Faham, tapi slow. geddit?

And because the last assignment I did with this particular partner was in English, and her English isn't good, we decided to do this one in BM. The problem is, I'm not sure who doesn't understand the concept here - me or her. I'm not sure if she did it right tapi I'm the one yang bebal takleh nak faham at all, or she understands something different from what the lecturer wants and the work that she started doing is wrong. Macam mana nak sambungkan or betulkan if I don't understand it at all? Btw, in no way am I trying to put my partner down, I'm just trying to vent my frustrations at the assignment/miscommunication (?) here.

Sigh.

On to Better Things

After 5 years, I've decided to put on the tudung again. I've had my share of perceived fun and freedom (and it's true, a non tudung wearer does have more fun and a lot more freedom compared to someone who does) but now I'm married (almost 3 years) and we're trying to conceive and if I intend on being a role model to my kids, something has to change.

The decision didn't come easy, though. I thought hard about it over almost two months. The desire came sometime in the beginning of Ramadhan, but I wasn't sure. As most people who knows me are aware, I used to wear the tudung for a while, but decided to take it off. I did not want history to repeat itself, and so I decided to sit on it.
There were some things I thought I wanted to do first before I did it.

I know some would say that that type of change doesn't come from the heart. That to be truly 'ikhlas' I should have just woken up one day and done it without thinking about anything else. I disagree. I know myself. When it comes to decisions, my strongest comes after a lot of thinking, not a spur of the moment thing. Honestly, been there, done that. I was at Matriculation and I had to put on the tudung, and I just thought "I'm just gonna put it on, since I already have it on". Clearly, that didn't work and my decision was shortlived. So here, I want to clarify for anyone who might think that my decision is not ikhlas, I believe that mine was very much so, simply because I deemed it too important to just do. Simply because I wanted to think about it and deliberate, and BE ABSOLUTELY SURE. And now I am.

I never ever anticipated the overwhelming response I received: From my husband, mom and my sisters, to my mother-in-law, to two of my best friends, Baya and Julie (who, coincidentally, was struggling to make the same decisions as well) and to an unexpected source of encouragement, someone who I had just met sometime in July, Adnin.

I received links, support, encouragement, shopping trips and styling tips. And all this was before I put it on!

And when I finally made this decision, I received compliments and hugs. Although I was terrified and worried that I wouldn't be able to cope, the support I received has made me even surer than ever that this is the path I want to and should take.

Hopefully, with this change, I'm moving on to better things.

The reason why I'm FAT.

A few months ago, I was diagnosed with Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). In layman's terms, PCOS is a condition where a woman's (mine, specifically)develops many little cysts in them. This, for some reason or other, increases my testosterone levels, making me prone to acne and multiple other horrible symptoms.

It also increases my tolerance to insulin, heightens my chances of diabetes as well as increases my weight, and MAKES IT A TOTAL BITCH FOR ME TO LOSE ANY. Oh, did I also mention that it makes it difficult for me to conceive? Yep, that's cuz I don't get my period regularly. My last cycle extended for about, oh, 88 days more or less? EIGHTY EIGHT FRICKING DAYS.

How do I decrease these symptoms?

1. Take birth control pills
2. Lose weight
3. Get pregnant

Number 1 is out of the question. We're TTC.

Number 2 and 3, well there's just a bit of a problem: PCOS makes it difficult for me to lose weight, AND it makes it difficult for me to get pregnant.

So why did I choose to share this little fact in my blog? No, it's not to lament over how horrible my life is because, really, my life is good.

I'm just tired of people making fat jokes around me as if it will not hurt. Let me tell you something: IT DOES. Yes, little miss sensitive me, well blame it on my hormones, since they're all topsy turvy.

Just in case you people who find it a total delight in letting me know something that I don't need to hear because I already see myself in the friggin mirror every single day didn't know: For 6 months before Ramadhan, I exercised like crazy. Swimming 10-20 laps one day and going to the gym for at least an hour the next. I also cut my food intake in half, and ate regular meals, cut down on fried food, carbs, and only drank plain water.

I did not lose a single kilo until, because of th fasting month, I stopped. No, you have no idea how HARD I worked and how frustrating it was to step onto that scale at the end of each week and not see any results whatsoever.

And then go out and have people jokingly asking me how far along I am in my pregnancy, asking me how much I eat, making fat jokes and telling me i need to lose weight.

I'M TRYING.

So leave me the fuck alone, and maybe I'll actually get the motivation to do it on my own instead of being filled with stress from all your condescending, smug, "witty" comments aimed at my weight.

You wouldn't like it if I did it to you, so friggin STOP DOING IT TO ME.

And seriously, you know, it's not just me. I've got friends, who, in my eyes are perfect just the way they are. They're beautiful, and yet some asshole comes along and tells them they look fat just for shits and giggles and now they're OBSESSED with losing weight despite the fact that they're perfectly beautiful.

TAKDE KERJA LAIN KE?

Let me ask you a question:

Is your life really so horrible that you need to make others feel bad about themselves for you to feel better about yourself?

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Thoughts

There are a lot of things I need to think about, a lot of changes I need to make. I've already started on one of them, and thankfully, one of my best friends is right there along with me, making the exact same change to her life.

As for others, well, I guess I have to take them one step at a time, starting with finishing my 16 credit hours.

New Policy

Seriously. How can you claim someone is your bff and then at the same time spread total lies about them? and then YOU'RE talking about suing someone for embarassing you? Do you have ANY idea what we can do to YOU for your libelous claims, you big fat joke of a liar?

My husband has never IN HIS LIFE tasted even a drop of alcohol, and has absolutely never done drugs. Unlike you, he DOES NOT consider break ups to be the end of his life. Get that into your thick head, and I seriously hope you never, EVER contact us again. You can take that bff and those "M***** for life" claims you so proudly tote around and shove them up your ass.

And so, I have a new policy. Toxic people don't belong in my life. Not only did I delete and block you from any social networks I still had you on, you are also officially deleted and blocked from our lives.

Of Setting Good Examples

This is a true story.

A Malaysian woman married a English man, and her being muslim, the man, of course, converted to Islam and the newlyweds moved to UK to start a new life. The early years were wonderful for them. The man was a good convert. Sure, he converted for love and marriage, but he became a good muslim. He prayed five times a day, fasted during Ramadhan and took good care of his wife. HE WAS A GOOD MUSLIM.

And then they came back to Malaysia, because he was on a business trip. As customary with business trips, he had to entertain some clients at a bar. He wasn't going to drink. He didn't drink. After all, he was a good muslim.

At the entrance to the bar, he noticed some Malay men walking in. A few had been sent by what looked like their wives, judging by the fact that they salam-ed the husbands before they went off.

And then what did the men do? They walked into the bar, where there were several callgirls waiting. They each chose one callgirl, sat down, ordered more alcohol than most of the other tables which were filled with non-muslims, and, according to his words "did very very disgusting things with the girls".

He came home furious. And told his wife "I'm not doing anything you tell me to do in Islam anymore!"

She was shocked and wanted to know why. So he told her what he saw, and he said "I don't want to become like those men"

Sure, you could say that these men are the minority and that he should know better than to think he would become like them. You could tell him that there are good and bad muslims, that he should strive to be like the good ones, not neglect the religion just because a few bad apples decided to be idiots.

But the fact remains. He was a good muslim. And then he saw the born-muslims commit those sinful, disgusting acts. These same men probably pray 5 times a day, and fast (or at least pretend to) during Ramadhan. I mean, why not? I've seen people who never fail to pray when they're supposed to and preach and preach and preach and then turn around, go to clubs and drink to their heart's content. So why not? And the fact remains that this man did not want to be like these born muslims.

And so he stopped praying. Stopped fasting. Stopped being a good muslim.

Talk about setting good examples.

disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with me agreeing to the non-muslim lifestyle. I'm a proud and practicing muslim. I try my best to pray 5 times a day, I don't drink, I don't eat pork.

All I'm trying to say here is that if we want others to understand our religion and want to know more about it, we have to show a better example, lest we turn more people off.

An update. Finally.

This little bit of update is a long time coming, but alhamdulillah, my mom is recovering very well from her surgery. Better yet, her doctor has confirmed that she is free from cancer, and will only need to go to the hospital every 3 months for regular checkups. :)

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host.

In general, parasites are much smaller than their host, show a high degree of specialization for their mode of life, and reproduce more quickly and in greater numbers than their hosts.

Classic examples of parasitism include interactions between vertebrate hosts and diverse animals such as tapeworms, flukes, the Plasmodium species, and fleas.

Parasitism is differentiated from parasitoidism, a relationship in which the host is always killed by the parasite such as moths, butterflies, ants, flies and others.

Parasites increase their fitness by exploiting hosts for food, habitat and dispersal.

(taken from Wikipedia)

I can't think of a title because my brain is occupied with my pilot study so just read it

I've been crazy busy with assignments and my personal life, and thus, have absolutely no time to update this blog. Sedih. So many things I wanna write about but so little time.

But anyway, I noticed something. So I have quite a few blogs subscribed into my Google Reader. Usually when I have a little bit of free time, I just scroll through the new posts to see if anything interesting is happening in the lives of my favourite bloggers.

During this Ramadhan month, a lot, and I mean, ALOT of bloggers love to post up pictures of what they had for iftar the day before. I know some might do it because their readers asked them to, but some proudly declare that they're posting them up cuz they want to make their readers (specifically those who are fasting) hungry. And I guess I just don't get it.

Have you ever tried eating in front of someone who is fasting? No? Why? Because you feel like it's rude and disrespectful kan?

Sama lah! Faham tak? kthxbye.

Inception

Christopher Nolan does it again. With familiar faces like Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy, the director managed to bring the gripping suspense and ingenuity from the likes of The Prestige and The Dark Knight, movies which were both also directed by him. This time, he plays around with the concept of dreams, giving out the idea that if you can get into another person’s unconscious mind, you can find out their secrets.

The suspense manages to build itself up after the first 15-20 minutes, takes a hold of the audience and doesn’t let go, literally until the credits start rolling. Even then, you’re bound to spend the rest of what’s left of the day arguing over which outcome you think really happened at the end.

With a wonderful cast, (Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page of Juno fame, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard to name a few), great script and a fantastic storyline with amazing twists, Nolan takes his audience into the world of dreams, where you’re never sure if you’d ever wake up again.

To my beloved friends

To me, friendship is defined, not by the amount of fun you have when you’re out and happy, but the amount of support they give you when you’re down. The ones who are always around for a good time may not necessarily be there when you’re in trouble. It’s the ones who stick by you no matter what anyone says about you – the ones who aren’t afraid to tell you you’re wrong, the ones who, even from afar, will try to help as much as they can whenever you need it, the ones who aren’t shy or scared to ask you outright how you’re doing when you’re sad, lonely and depressed. Those are the ones for keeps. Because although they can’t be there when you celebrate your birthday, or couldn’t make it for your wedding, you KNOW you can count on them when it really matters.

I think you people know who you are. Thank you for blessing me with your wonderful friendship.

What it truly means.

All those times, those "horrible" break-ups, getting cheated on, fights and cold shoulders with certain ex-friends. All those times, I thought my heart broke.

Silly me.

But then you know what they say: Ignorance is bliss. It truly was.

For me, it's like time stopped. I'm registering for my masters program tomorrow, but it feels like I'm going through the motions. The excitement I felt a few days ago is either gone or has found a good hiding place somewhere I can't find.

I'm being strong the only way I know how: to go through life as if I'm fine.

Now I know what it means, I can only count on my prayers and the support from my beloved family and amazing friends.

Please help me pray that everything will be ok.

Seriously?

I'm so embarrassed. Ni la mentality kita kan?

Making fun of someone who doesn't even understand our language. Bagus.

Notice which country/race has the most comments on that page and you'll truly see the mentality of these idiots. How shameful.

Proper Gym Etiquette (According to Me)

1. If you're required to sign into a registration book, don't flood it with complaints of this and that. Take it straight to the management please, cuz I doubt they even read those. You're wasting your time and space, and making the book an eyesore for those who genuinely want to sign in.

2. Bring a towel ( you will see why)

3. Try oh try to catch your sweat droplets before they make their way onto the machine or the floor around it. If this is impossible because you happen to sweat heavily, do everyone else a favour and wipe the sweat off the machine at least. It's seriously disgusting to start using a machine and find it sticky and full of your sweat.

4. This is rather specific, but seriously, if you have bad breath (actually, even if you don't have bad breath), please la jangan turn your machine towards another one and proceed to mouth-breathe on to the person using said machine. It's another very disgusting habit, esp because if you DO happen to have halitosis. So inappropriate and nausea inducing, thank you very much.

5. If there's one treadmill (or any other machine) and there are people waiting to use it, try not to take your own sweet time? I mean, I know you got there first but courtesy and logic should tell you that other people are paying the same maintenance fee that you do, and therefore, have as much right to use that machine as you do. 20 minutes is fine. 25 is already pushing it, more than half an hour is ridiculous.

How to Trick Suckers into Giving You Money in 3 Easy Steps

1. Have a mega, MEGA promotion on bus tickets SO cheap that suckerseveryone gets excited and pumped up because their next holiday is gonna be awesome and super-cheap due to the discount on bus tickets.

2. Make it so that their bus tickets can only be used at a future date. Eg: If the current date is June 2010, only make the tickets applicable for June 2011 to October 2011. That way, suckerscustomers won’t be sure what plans they might have, but will be optimistic about being able to move things around so that the trip WILL happen.

3. Sit back and watch the magic happen. Out of 100 suckerscustomers, maybe 40 will actually be able to actually make it for their super cheap bus trip and the rest will probably have to forego their hard-earned few hundred bucks because some important thing or other popped up. Like new projects or work stuff. Or important quizzes that conveniently take place around the time the trip is supposed to happen. Or family stuff that suddenly takes first priority over anything.

And there you have it. Follow these steps and you’ll be rolling in dough in no time!

Hello!

I'm gonna be in Sabah until Monday! Woo hoo! :D

The Losers

Movie Poster from Filmofilia

Synopsis:
A Special Ops group goes on a seemingly innocuous mission, only to be betrayed. Presumed dead, they're blamed for a horrendous incident that involves 25 children, just for knowing too much. Stuck in a foreign country, they have to find a way to get back to the US and take revenge on the people who took their lives away, with the help of a mysterious woman who shows up out of nowhere.

Ok, so did I like the movie? Hell, yeah! :D

Plenty of action, knives, guns and comedic relief (provided by Jenkins Jensen (thanks Keren, my bad), played by Chris Evans, with his bumbling lines and ridiculous t-shirts. Oh, and the villain, Max, played by Jason Patric, did a great job of providing wtf moments too)

Oh. Please don't forget the eye candy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (yes, I know he's old but I've always had a crush on him), Chis Evans (he was awful in Fantastic Four, but those were awful movies anyway. he definitely redeemed himself here), Oscar Jaenada and Columbus Short? And don't forget Zoe Saldana for the guys.

WARNING!Spoiler alert after this eye candy photo

Taken from GeekTyrant

Sangat best. Believe me.






The only thing I didn't like about it was how one of them decided to betray the others. He was so blase about it, despite the fact that they had been through everything together for years and years. I didn't like the fact that he betrayed them (supposedly in order to get his freedom back) and then automatically defected over to the dark side. From a grumpy, albeit good hearted guy, he changed into a greedy, wimpy, cowardly asshole who'd run his best friend over with a plane just so he'd be rich. Doesn't make sense.

Probably would have been better to just let him disappear, and since there are hints of a sequel, have them fight it out then, but that's just me and I'm no director.

(end of spoiler)

All in all though, I seriously loved the movie. And you know what I say. If I walk out of the theatres wishing I was part of that, then I definitely think it's a great movie.

Seriously. Go and watch it.

Tertipu!

When I was 15, the school I was in at the time had just started activating their co-curricular programme. They had a journalism club, which went on to publish our first student-made yearbook.

Back then, after finding my class pictures, I would inevitable gravitate towards the creative section. You know, where students submitted their art and writings and whatnot.

I remember vividly reading this poem that a senior of mine had supposedly written. I thought it was beautiful, and haunting at the same time, and I must've read it close to a thousand times. I was in total awe of said senior and I wondered how someone so young (she was 16 at the time) had so much talent. I guess I could say that she inspired the urge in me to start writing.

Up until a few minutes ago, I really did believe she was that talented. As luck would have had it, I was watching a vlog of the making of an indie movie, and they were reading out a note that they had found tucked in a tree.

I'd recognise the first line anywhere!

It turned out that the girl I had been in awe of had plagiarised Sonnet 17 of one Pablo Neruda. I was lied to!

Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Teka-Teki, Teka Tekuk

"Asm" tu apa?

SMS language is usually defined by the shortening of certain words to fit into the limited amount set by the phone/service provider. For example, some phones have a 160 word limit per SMS, and if one uses more than that, they'd have to pay for another sms. Geddit?

So I completely understand the need to shorten words.

What I don't understand is why people carry that language out into e-mails, blogs, chats and what have you.

Ok, ok, I admit, I'm guilty of that sometimes. I use 'cuz instead of because (probably cuz I say 'cuz' in real life too) and sometimes, i use 'u' instead of 'you'.

That said, I've noticed several short forms of "Assalamualaikum".

Among those that I absolutely cannot stand are "A'kum" and "Askum". They bug the hell out of me, and not to mention that they'd confuse anyone who wasn't in with text language and pronounce it the way it is spelt.

One that I find acceptable to use is "Salam", and, upon asking my mom-in-law, she confirmed that this was an appropriate shortening of the word, because even the Quran writes it as so.

This week, I found out yet another VERY inappropriate short form of the word.

My friend recently asked me if I knew what "asm" stood for, as a short form. I racked and racked my brain, and, for the life of me, couldn't think of what it could possibly be. She told me it apparently stood for 'Assalamualaikum', and a friend of hers had initiated a chat using that phrase or abbreviation or whatever u wanna call it.

Oh, makin lama makin pemalasnya kita ni kan?

A Short Tribute

When I was 19, my heart got broken. At around 2am in the morning. I walked over to where mama was sleeping peacefully, and for the first time in god knows how many years, cuddled up to her. She woke up, and blearily asked me what was wrong. I just burst out crying.

I remember her hugging me tightly, telling me everything was gonna be okay. I think she knew what must've happened. It was my first real heartbreak, and she was there for me.

So here's to the most beautiful woman in the world. Love you, Mama.

Biadab

Yesterday, while I was at Sunway Pyramid with my besties, an appalling incident happened right before our eyes. We were approaching the escalators to go up at the time. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that a man with a shopping cart had just gotten off the escalator which led up to the floor we were on. Right behind him were three little children. He was too busy texting on his phone to take care of them, so I'm guessing his wife was watching out for them from behind.

His wife reached the floor, and she was pushing another shopping cart. I guess between watching out for the children and trying to take care of the shopping cart at the same time, she must've fumbled, because the cart tipped over with a LOUD *CRASH*

The husband turns around, just looks at the wife without any attempt of rushing over to help and says "BODOH LA KAU NI! BANGANG LA KAU NI!" really really loudly, within earshot of at least 5 or 6 people (including us).

With a shocked and (in my opinion) a slightly scared look on her face, she quietly picks up the cart and wheels it over to her husband. From where we were standing, it looked like he was still talking to her, but she seemed to be quiet all the way through.

The three of us just gaped at him. This, my dear friends, is what we call "Emotional Abuse". Kalau nak kata dia physically abuse wife dia, takut memfitnah pulak kan? But emotionally, memang nampak sangat la, kalau depan orang ramai pun senang je dia bodoh bangangkan wife dia, dekat rumah macam mana agaknye ye?

Picture taken from InvisibleViolence

Seriously, dulu masa kau kawin dengan dia mesti beriya2 cakap dengan mak bapak dia yang kau akan jaga dia elok2 kan? Sekarang?

Kot ye pun tak puas hati dengan isteri kau, tak boleh cakap in private? Kena ke maki dia depan2 orang lain? Jatuhkan air muka dia?

And another thing, what kind of example are you setting for your kids? Nanti dah besar mak dia buat salah sikit senang je la kan, dia panggil mak dia "bodoh", "bangang", after all, you seem to do it without a slight bit of remorse pon.

Biadab.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My Sister's Keeper, in my opinion, was definitely written from the heart. From the first moment I picked it up, three days ago, I couldn't seem to put it down. To me, the book was not written to impress scholars and geniuses. It wasn't filled with big words or clever little cliches, and yet, it was beautiful. I didn't have to use contextual clues, or pick up my dictionary to understand what she was trying to say, and yet, somehow, the way the single words fell into sentences and the sentences, into paragraphs made the story so enticing and so easy to read.

Normally, books which are not chronological, or skip from the point of view of one character to another would make bore and and confuse me, and I usually end up giving up on understanding or trying to get through it altogether. Yet, My Sister's Keeper has both of those, and managed to keep me hooked until the very end.

I loved it. The ending, ironic and heartbreaking at the same time, took me by surprise and made me cry. The only thing I could think about as I was reading it were my two beautiful little sisters and how it would kill me if anything like that happened to any of them.

It's safe to say that from now on, I'll probably be picking up more books by the author for my little collection. I'm gonna end this post with one of the most beautiful lines in the book:

"I have only known her for two years. but if you took every memory, every moment if you stretched them end to end - they'd reach forever." -Sara, about Kate

p/s: I know the book was made into a movie, but I'm not sure I want to watch it, because I found out that they cut out one of the major characters from the book and changed the ending. We'll see.

Hot Chocolate Pots

Last week, I made some chocolate pots, just to try out the recipe. They're basically gooey chocolate goodness in little ramekin pots. For the life of me, I can't seem to find any ramekins over here, and since the recipe doesn't require any baking, I dug up some of my mom-in-law's cute little white teacups and decided to put them in those.

It's an extremely easy recipe which takes less than 5 minutes to make, but Epol and mama suka. Last night, Epol asked me when I was gonna make some more, and since the last time, I only used half of the ingredients, I decided to just finish the other half today.

No pictures, but they basically looked like these:



(I took this picture from Easy French Food, tapi the recipe is not the same)

After pouring the mixture into the cups, I saw that there was quite a bit of residue stuck in the pot and the ladle, so I just reheated the stove, poured in some milk, and voila, hot chocolate.

This was the first time I made my own hot chocolate, and let me tell you, I was very pleasantly surprised that it tasted just like the ones I love at Starbucks! :D

So yeah, byebye Starbucks, hello homemade hot chocolate.

I feel all warm, happy and sleepy now...

ROFLMFAO

LOL. Orang sekarang ni kan, sikit2 buat hate group, sikit2 buat hate group. I swear, some people are total dumbasses and should never be let close to technology sebab ada je dalam kepala dia nak bikin huru-hara.

Someone kutuks your kind/race/institution/country/city/belief on facebook. Big friggin deal. Don't tell me you've never ever said something bad about someone else before. Tak pernah? Seriously? You must be a friggin angel then. WHOAH!

Then I seriously, seriously salute you because you must be the ONLY person on planet earth who has never kutuk orang lain, EVER. Baik betul kamu ni.

I mean, seriously. If everyone who ever said something bad or given negative opinion about something gets a friggin hate page, every single one of us would have one. And then who's there left to join?

I keep saying.Otak dah ada. Guna. Kalau sampai orang tak boleh give opinions, then baik tak payah maju lah. Belajar tinggi2 tapi macam tak pernah masuk sekolah langsung. Otak caveman. Bodoh.

If you dunno what I'm babbling about silalah to my Facebook profile and take a look at the latest link i posted. Haih. dunia, dunia.

How it feels.

I'm dazed and confused. The past few weeks have been somewhat disturbing, to say the least. My heart feels like it's been through a washing machine, spun and soaked to its very core. I wake up with such a heavy feeling in my stomach everyday. Because I can't figure out where it went wrong.

Every night before I go to sleep, the same, pathetic, sorry words seem to come out of my mouth: "I'm nobody's ______". And my husband can't seem to do anything about it but to say that "You're my zurin. You don't have to be anybody's ______".

I never ever thought in a million years I'd feel this way about this person. How can you rectify this with someone you've loved so deeply your whole life without hurting them? Because I have no idea if I'm overreacting, or if my own hurt is justified.

But I've cried too many times over it to even ignore it and push it aside anymore.

God help me. I'm trying.

Template

Something's wrong with the template. There's double of everything, and for some reason, I can't get into my own private posts. Ah well.

I seriously can't be arsed to fix it at the moment, so biarlah for now.. :/

Protected Entry: Part 2

Password

Birthday Treat

Dinner at Tony Roma's

Chicken Honey pebenda tah starter tapi sedap


Crispy Potato Skins

Ribs
and off to the platinum suites for Date Night

No pictures of me because I didn't really like them :)

Quarter of a Century

I turn 25 today. You'd think I'd feel a bit more mature. You'd think I'd have gained a bit more confidence in myself after having gone through 25 years of macam-macam.

I don't really. I still feel like the awkward, unsure little girl who stepped out of high school, into university 6 years ago. Who stepped onto the stage to receive my scroll a year back. I don't feel any wiser.

I'm still me :)

The Past, Present and Future

Someone from the past came back into my life a few days ago. I'm happy to say that I managed to put it all behind us and accept what happened as fate leading me to another direction. And I'm comfortable with where going right now, and the person I'm going with. :)

Currently, my appetite has returned with a huge boom! Ermm, not exactly. I can eat a full meal now, but I no longer feel hungry every 2 hours, and the portions that I'm able to eat are enough that I don't feel like a pig. That probably means that my hormone levels are back to normal :). I've started swimming again, which is great because I need some exercise after the ridiculously long recovery time from the first surgery.

I'm also happy to say that we've decided to start a little family of our own. However, due to the near future plans, which we've already put cash into, it's gonna have to wait until at least a few months more. Till then, I have Langkawi to look forward to, and hopefully, my masters in a few months time, assuming I get accepted.

Life is great.

Sometimes I'm Stupid.

Aku tak kisah la orang nak meluahkan perasaan ke apa ke. Tapi aku kisah yang makhluk2 ni cari aku bla ada masalah je. Lepas tu merungut je kerja. Merungut tanpa cari jalan menyelesaikan masalah. Bila aku bagi option, tak pernah nak dengar, tak pernah nak ikut. Esok2 phone lagi, cakap benda yang sama je. lusa phone lagi, masalah sama lagi. Aik? Yang aku berbuih mulut bagi advise tu kau ikut tak? Oh, tak rupanya. Kalau kau tak reti2 nak grow some balls and solve your own problems, boleh tak jangan paksa aku dengar masalah kau. Nama pun masalah kau, bukan masalah aku. Lagipun, kau bukan orang penting dalam hidup aku. Kalau kau salah sorang dari kawan aku yang memang tetiap minggu kalau tak call, message, kalau tak message, chat, kalau tak chat, jumpa, takpe lah. Itu lain cerita, kalau diorang nak call aku hari2 bagitau masalah diorang pun aku tak kisah.

Aku tau, ada masalah yang memang tak dapat nak buat apa2. Yang tu lain lah. Dah memang tak boleh nak selesaikan, so terpaksala duk diam je ataupun luahkan aje perasaan tu. Tu aku tak kisah la, sebab aku pun takleh fikir cara nak selesaikan. Aku sanggup dengar je, lebih2 lagi kalau aku sayang orang tu.

Yang aku cakap ni pasal orang2 yang suka sangat cari aku cuma bila ada masalah. Yang bila happy, dengar suara pun susah, ni pulak nak nampak batang hidung kan? Tolong jangan ganggu hidup aku lagi kalau kerja kau cuma nak menyerabutkan otak aku. Tolong berhenti rungutan2 yang sangat membosankan tu. Betul2 aku cakap, aku bosan.

Sikit2 "sampaiii hati dia". sikit "tapi dia buat camtu pun aku sayaaannngg sayang dia, zurin. Sayaaannggggg". eh, dah la tu. Dulu ko ada chance ko buat taik, sekarang baru nak bersampai hati bagai. tolong cermin diri sikit. It's friggin over.

Now go get a life and stop bothering mine.

Protected Entry: Practice What You Preach, Old Man, Practice What You Preach

Password, please.

Have You Noticed?

Facebook has become a very powerful medium indeed. Case in point, it showed up on my wall two days ago that a friend of mine was tagged in a photo by a blogshop owner showcasing her new stock. I was intrigued, and I clicked on the photo, and voila, fell in love with one of the products. :)

So I hopped into the blogshop and proceeded to make the proper transactions.

I haven't had the urge to shop online in months, and I have never heard of this blogshop before. Yet, with the simple act of tagging one of my friends in the picture, she somehow ended up with one new customer.

So it's no surprise that a lot of people are utilizing this commodity to the fullest.
Jomgig has even created a contest to attract people, using Facebook as it's medium and I honestly think that it's one really smart idea. Congrats to whoever who made the contest happen. :p BTW, go here if you happen to feel like winning a camcorder or some ipod shuffles.



What I do want to talk about here is how it's being misused. Of late, I've noticed an onslaught of hate pages popping up like mushrooms. If someone makes a mistake by speaking their minds, you can be sure someone else will sniff it out just like a hound dog, and create a page to ban/delete/petition that person off facebook.

It's all well and good to be intolerant of racism and pure rudeness, but creating these fan pages attract the worse kind of people. People who think it's ok to counter these racist and rude remarks with more racism and rudeness. So if it's not ok for the person who did it, why do they think its ok for them?

The way I see it, there are two types of offenders:

The first type is someone who is just out to get attention.
I firmly believe that the boy (yes, he's a boy, which explains it)who recently came into the limelight because of his atrocious comments on a recently deceased comedian is just trying to get attention. And congratulations to him, he got it because all these people who don't know the meaning of trolling are flooding to the masses to his hate page and condemning the heck out of him with even more hateful remarks. Not too smart, eh?

Type number two are people who spoke out of anger at a certain situation without thinking of the repercussions. Which means that they might have meant what they said at the time, but only because they were ruled by strong feelings of anger, or remorse or sadness or annoyance. I remember how some people of a certain religion got offended by what this girl said out of anger on Facebook (admittedly, what she said was very racist and extremely insolent, but she was driven by the chaos that was going on at the time). They created a hate page, demanding an apology from her, calling her all kinds of names. She gave them what they wanted and apologised. Did they stop hating on her?

No.

How do you deal with type 1? Ignore them, because once they've milked all the attention they can out of the controversy they made, they'll probably shut up. All they want is their 15 minutes of fame, and the best we can all do is simply by NOT GIVING IT TO THEM.

As for type 2, leave them alone lah. They realise their mistake and frankly speaking, talking about burning down their houses or beating them to a pulp or worse, raping them so their husbands will get disgusted at them and not touch them (this really is a comment I saw on one hate page) really doesn't make you a better person.

Dah Nak Kiamat kot. Part 2

1. The VERY definition of 'Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire', 'Sudah Jatuh Ditimpa Tangga'.
A girl gets raped by a taxi driver and gets dumped at the side of the road in some semak somewhere. She gets up, walks around pretty much aimlessly, trying to get cars to stop and help.
A lorry driver stops and agrees to help her, (and, you guessed it) brings her to some semak, rapes her and dumps here there.

2. Illegal
A girl is on the way home from college when the LRT breaks down at Pasar Seni. She is forced to get down and look for a taxi. (This is around 8pm). Out of nowhere, 6 Indonesians (most probably of the illegal alien TAK SEDAR DIRI kind,) show up, tried to get her to hand over her handbag and whatnot and attempts to take her clothes off too.
Luckily, a taxi driver (obviously not the same man from above) shows up just in time to scare the assholes away and proceeds to driver her to the nearest safe stop where a family member picked her up.

Sycophants

Definition: Self-seekers who try to win favours by flattery.

I don't like sycophants. Depan2 beriya2 puji, buat muka manis sangat sampai gula pun tak manis macam tu.

Buat tak tau jelah kalau tak suka. Buat biasa tak boleh? Ni puji lebih2 just to get someone's secret out lepas tu pegi bagitau orang kutuk2 semua.

Bab puji-puji tu yang tak tahan.

I'm just saying.

*This post has no relations to anyone I know.

Tapi kalau tetiba terasa pedas tu, janganla makan cili eh?

After a week...

1. My cuts are healing very nicely. Pedih kadang2 je (i.e: late at night when I'm sleeping soundly and forget I just had surgery and scratch my cut sebab gatal, only remembering when I feel the slight sharp pain and the thread at my fingers *brr*)

2. My appetite hasn't really returned, because I get realy muak of whatever I'm eating after only 5-6 suaps. But at least I'm not gorging myself anymore (read: yet) and my tummy is no longer rejecting solid food.

3. The inner wounds seem to be healing well too, since I don't feel much pain whenever I move around anymore, and the best thing is, I can now tidur mengiring once again without feeling any pain. Yay!

4. The pening2 still comes around quite often. In fact, I feel pening as I'm typing this. I don't like this part. I don't know if it's because of the medicine ke apa. According to my dad, the anesthesia hasn't really worn off yet, tapi it's been a week whattt.... *sigh*

That's all :)

Stuff I Feel Like Eating But Can't At The Moment (Because I Can't Take More Than a Few Spoonfuls Right Now)

1. Steamboat


Tak kirala, Johnny's ke or Ketam Village ke, bring it on.

2. Sup Ekor

I like the soup aje, without the ekor. Ekor tu my hubby usually takes it and I just slurp up the soup. And it can only be from those tomyam stalls tu. Weird, I know but that's the way I like it. heh.

3. Red Velvet Cake


Looks good kan? Never actually tasted it before, but I've heard (and read) people rave about it so I'm really curious. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I'd like to know what this one tastes like.

4. Tom Yam

This one sounds simple but the last time I had really good tomyam was probably 7 to 10 years ago. Nowadays, I dislike every single tomyam I've tasted, so if anyone knows of a really good place to have tomyam, PLEASE let me know.

5. Steamed Fish


I just had some steamed assam fish with hubby and my mom-in-law last week, which was tersangatlah sedap, but you know how it is. Fresh fish at restaurants tend to be pretty pricy. So I'm thinking of making some myself as soon as I get better, which I am hoping will happen by next week.

Tapi of late, since the surgery, I haven't had much of an appetite. Lapar tu lapar. And my tongue siap boleh rasa lagi what's sedap and what's not, but I basically get all muak after a few suaps. Not that it's not good. It's GREAT actually, since I really need to lose those kgs I put on since I got married, tapi tak worth it la to get/cook all those things and not even have the appetite to makan betul2. After all, beside the cake, the rest of the stuff I've listed down are basically healthy food kan? Cuz I'm actually one of the lucky few whose cravings tend to fall under the soupy, healthy category, rarely the fatty stuff. Tapi gemuk jugak, so moot point there. haha.

Oh, and almost lupa.

6. Nasi kukus
Thanks to one of my best friends, I am now seriously curious to know what nasi kukus is like. Macam sedap je. LOL. :p

The End.

P/s: The pictures aren't mine, obviously.

Close-Mindedness

On my way home from a trip with my mom and sisters, my hubby got a call from a friend. He was driving so I picked up. This was how the conversation went:

Friend: Hi, Zurin, (name) here. Is Sai free?

Me: Hey (name), sorry, he's kinda driving atm. Wanna leave a message or something? He can call you back later, if you want.

Friend: Wait, you did the same course in college as him right?

Me: Yeah, what's up?

Friend: Well, a friend of mine is interested in teaching english and she's hoping to get a certification for it. Can you tell me more about your course?

Me: Well, what do you want to know?

Friend: How long it is, what kind of requirements needed, that kinda stuff.

Me: Ok, ermm... If she wants to take TESL that's 4+1 years of studying at a local uni. I'm not sure about private instituti..

Friend: (interrupts) FOUR YEARS?!?!

Me: Ermm.. yeah, it's a normal degree programme so..

Friend: FOUR YEARS JUST FOR A CERT?!?

Me: Like I said, it's a degree, not so much a cer...

Friend: Isn't there like something else she can take which lets her study for a few months and then get the same qualification anyway?

Me: Well, there might be but you're asking about the degree programme, which takes four years, just like any other degree

Friend: YEAH BUT JUST FOR A CERT LIKE THAT ONLY HAVE TO STUDY FOR FOUR YEARS AH?

Needless to say, I seriously felt like punching her in the face many times. So, Since, according to a pot former friend of hubby's, I am a black kettle
passive-agressive bitch, I decided to write about it in my blog a few months later rather than getting my knuckles dirty with her blood and spit.

Well, 'lil miss I've-got-a-degree-in-pharmacy, just because the stuff we learnt in Uni doesn't qualify us into hospitals and clinics does NOT mean that our degree isn't a proper one. It's as much of 'just a cert like that only' as that piece of paper you so proudly display up on your wall.

Don't be so close minded. It makes you look like a total idiot. And it's friggin offensive because I'd like to see YOU do well in that 'ridiculous' four-year course with flying colours since you're so smart.

So many people think that when you take TESL, you learn English all day long. Simple kan? SO easy. Well, I'd hate to be a buzzkill but that's not all that TESL's about. Dealing with meds and chemicals may not be a piece of cake but at least those meds don't throw tanthrums and those chemicals won't make you feel like an idiot when you can't make them understand you.

And do you know why you're stuck in that dinky little room dealing with prescriptions and chemicals all day while WE get trusted with other people's children ALL FRIGGIN DAY LONG?

It's because you're close minded.

Teaching English as a Second Language.

Warning: This post may touch on some sensitive issues, so if you're the kind of person who can't take criticism, you might not want to venture beyond this line.


I suck at teaching. There. I said it. Not to say I don't like doing it. In fact, I love it. I love it when what I'm trying to teach somehow manages to get across all the barriers that seem to stand in between me and the students and enter their level of comprehension. I love that look on their faces when I say something that actually makes sense to them.

But those moments are so few and far between. Most of the time, I feel like I'm talking in a language so foreign to the hopeful (and sometimes bored) faces in front of me that they don't.get.even.a.single.word. That part of teaching makes me uncomfortable. It makes me feel stupid and incompetent. And I hate that part a whole lot more than I love managing to get through to them. I hate that part a lot more than I love the thought of conveying to these people how beautiful the language really is. That's because I want to be good at what I do. My grasp of the language, even if I do say so myself, is above average.

In fact, it's at the level where people take all kinds of liberties to make fun of the fact that I speak (and definitely write) better English than I do my beloved first language, BM. But being really good in something does not mean that you'd be good at teaching it. Not at all.

HOWEVER, I do firmly believe that to be able to teach something, you DO have to be good at it. Let's look at it this way:

Someone who knits beautiful sweaters may not be able to teach someone else HOW to knit properly. She can do, but she can't teach. BUT, someone who sucks at knitting, DEFINITELY can't teach someone else how to knit. Faham tak?

The same principle applies to teaching English. Someone who is very fluent in the language doesn't necessarily make a good English teacher. But a good English teacher definitely has to be fluent in the language.

So I cringe whenever I see educators of the English language make glaring grammatical errors here and there. Sure, it's on facebook or twitter or an online forum or a blog but I believe that standards should be set. Some of these educators have proudly added their students onto their friends list, or followers list or what have you. And they unabashedly make announcements with errors that are so glaring and so basic that my 10 year old cousin could probably detect them. And that's just embarrassing.

I believe that a lot of people will actually think of me as a snob if they read this, but I'm not talking about the general public here. I'm talking about people whose sole purpose in their careers are to teach others how to use the English language. If they can't be good at the language themselves, I believe that they shouldn't be let anywhere near the front of a classroom until they rectify their own glaring shortcomings.

Yes, I know, people make mistakes. I make them ALL the time. Sometimes, I write a status on facebook and then I realise that something's wrong with it. Most of the time, I delete said status, but sometimes, I leave it there. However, I do believe that language teachers should always strive for perfection. After all, when someone becomes a teacher, he or she automatically sets an example to be followed by students.

Honestly, it's all about credibility. Trust me, papers aren't enough. The fact you can wave a piece of degree in someone's face, really doesn't mean a thing if you can't even tell the difference between you're and your, that means and that's mean, and can't even tell that "Are you agree" is not the way to ask someone if they agree with you.

So do yourself, AND your trusting students a favour and go back to those grammar books you had to slog through in school before you make statements that would only ruin your credibility outside of class.

Maybe a lot of people think that the classroom is the only place that language excellence should matter, well, I beg to differ. If you, as a teacher, can't even convince yourself that using the language properly inside and outside of class matters, then how are you supposed to convince your impressionable young students to take you seriously in class? How are you supposed to make them care enough about what you teach to be able to take it out of the classroom context and into the real world?

Think about that.

A Quickie..

1. Im back at home.

2. I seem to be recovering faster than the last one,although

3. The scar(s) look a bit more gruesome this time around

4. I'm under observation for any repercussions

5. I'm extra2 fertile for the next 6 months (ha ha)

6. After 3 days of fluids and tak berapa lalu nak makan, selera tu dah ada sikit but eating solid food kinda makes me feel bloated, so... oh well.

That's it.

edited: Looks like I cannot take solids yet. :(

Holier Than Thou

I don't like people who go around with an all holier than thou attitude. I'm not saying I don't take advice. I realise that religion-wise, there are so many ways that I'm still lacking, and I hope to one day grow as a muslim. I value the advise given by people who do it with the purest intention of helping me become a better person. I believe that there are right and wrong ways to do it, and, sadly, SO many people lack the tact and courtesy of doing it the right way.

If you want to tell me something, tell it to my face. Pull me aside and let me know what I'm doing wrong. Let me know, with the softest and most polite words you can muster, the way it should be. Trust me, I may be tersentap at first, but when I think about it later, I will appreciate what you tried to do and bersyukur that there is someone out there, besides my family members, who cares about me so much that he/she would tegur me that way.

I despise the fact that people are so inclined towards using public channels to preach to someone personally. Joking or serious, doing it this way is annoying and wrong, especially because most of the time, it's embarrassing and hurtful to the person it's intended for.

Statuses on FB seem to be the favourite medium of preaching. Not their own statuses, no. Heaven forbid they'd just post a general status on their own page that would subtly educate the people it's intended for. Usually, these holier than thous target other people's status updates For example, someone I know posts a status about how frustrated he was that he overslept throughout his nap (from noon until 6). Some holier than thou bugger decides it would be amusing to question "mana zohor?". Obviously, the original poster got offended because, si idiot ni failed to read between the lines and grasp the fact that this person was lamenting his mistake of over-napping and missing all the vital things that should have happened in between.

OR, (and this is a HUGE favourite among local holier than thous) someone posts a status about how they're confused and disoriented or rasa tak tenteram, asking their friends for help or suggestions that might help with their problem. the holier than thou will inevitably comment "Sembahyang". How do you know they haven't done it? And why is it necessary to give those one-word answers just like that? Kalau nak bagi nasihat, bagi elok2.

Just imagine it this waylah, imgine FB tu real life. You go up to a friend, you tell her your problems and ask her what she thinks you should do. She looks at you, says "sembahyang." and walks away. Rude tak? Rude kan?

So nak bagi nasihat, tolong la bagi elok2. Languages and common courtesy were invented for these very purposes. If you HAVE to comment on someone's status update with religious words of wisdom, do so in a way that doesn't offend or humiliate them. If you want to tell them to pray to god for guidance, tell them in a way that isn't akin to a slap in the face. If you HAVE to. Alternatively, do it in private. FYI, FB is not just about public wall updates. There is this little thing called the 'inbox'. It's a marvelous little invention on FB's part, where you can, (amazingly) personally preach all you want to someone without it being obvious to every other tom, dick or harry that's on their facebook friends list.

Bukan tak boleh nasihat orang. Boleh. Tapi buat dengan cara yang baik. That's all I'm saying.