10 May 2008 8:14 p.m. my mother asked if i was interested in teaching (as in, obtaining a diploma in education and becoming a school teacher) and my stomach turned over. D: the power went out yesterday. i wanted to blog it, but... . do suicide bombers really constantly study the Quran while they're waiting for the call to arms? why do they never come across anything that states that suicide is a sin? i wish i'd had the presence of mind to make faces or blow kisses at the woman who honked and gestured at me this morning. i'd stopped on the upper-third of a yellow box in which she wanted to make a turn, and forced her to do it in the two-thirds of the box that remained. after going through my dissertation draft, my supervisor says i have "the makings of a good academic". i don't know if he really meant it, or is gunning for another hapless lab goon, because Sally and Alice seem to have gone AWOL - the last note in their lab was on the 17th of April. if i do go back, it would mean another 3 years or so working with/for him, in addition to the 4 we already have. is that too long? do i have dependence issues? now that i think of it, that's liek, nearly half the span of my mother's career. p.s. i am happy to report that generic (Aiken) tea tree oil works as well as the branded (Body Shop) type. it also costs RM13.50 less. day 7 of non-academic writing and i'm still easily getting sidetracked while surfing ("must click shiny link!!! yessss..."). i was just wondering, cause i'm curious like that, if a person can be detained twice under the internal securities act? i must have done something right when i prepared dinner the other night, because i dreamt that Gordon Ramsey was nodding approvingly at me in Hell's Kitchen. i blogged less because i was writing up my dissertation. now that it's complete and i'm waiting for my supervisor to give the final approval, i still blog less because i'm, uh, busy. i don't know what's going on either. actually, i do know. i've spent so much time bashing out long-winded doublespeak and conjecture that i'm afraid to write anything else. all i can think of is "the results indicate that...", or "our findings suggest that...", and "in the event of... it would be feasible/advisable/a viable option to...". i have been contemplating the research godhead for so long that i've gone blind. i've read through most of the vitriol and scorn deservedly poured on the foreign and home ministries' proposal that single women in the age range of 21-34 years (?) need to obtain a family or employer's letter of consent before travelling abroad. i, too, would like to frame some questions and thoughts in a rational and coherent manner, as this tropical humidity has a way of infuriating you, yet leaches all the energy you would use to express your outrage in a loud and violent manner. 1. would this letter provide indemnity in the event said female is caught with drugs? certainly it would do absolutely nothing for the malaysians currently languishing in foreign jails, female and male. 2. would it absolve those back home of any potential guilt over her situation? "oh, we allowed her to go, god knows where she got those disgusting sinful immoral drugs from. of course we know nothing about it, we brought her up to be a nice girl - nice girls do as they're told, nice girls don't argue, nice girls never say no." it's the heat i tell you, it makes people stupid. 3. would those who gave their consent also be held liable for drug trafficking? is enough being done for the "victims" that highly-ranked civil servants can afford to dick around with such imbecilic ideas? what about the suggestion we eat less rice in the face of rising food prices? should we eat more cake instead? on the flip side, will the lucky girls who managed to travel without drugs in their luggage be given letters of commendation? titles, even? congratulations on not being dupe victim #109! cos, you know, 119 local women are in foreign jails and 90% of them were allegedly dealing drugs, so consider this entry to be ItchyMicchi's math special. i'm sure only a few hundred or so women are travelling internationally at any time. most of them are probably frequent fliers anyway. it's no big deal. i need to go now, there's a kitchen i need to be in. it's pronounced "carbon dioxide" and not "see oh two", you know. however, the latter expels two syllables' less carbon dioxide, so maybe Al Gore was right. overdue as this is, i sneered my way through most of An Inconvenient Truth when it was screened on tv last night. to quote Gore himself, "we agree on the fundamentals", but i found it more alarmist than anything else, coming as i do from Douglas Adams' school of crisis management ( on the plus side, it was claimed that the resources utilised in the exercise were offset by contributions of equivalent worth (?) by its producers. i think that means there was money involved. i'm also curious as to why he kept referring to people as "a friend of mine". did forget their names or was he protecting them from presecution by anti-environmental lobbyists? anyway, i don't like being lectured, neither am i going to lecture you on your baked bean habits (personally, i prefer tempeh), so i'm just going to say: every minute you watch tv is a minute spent allowing yourself to be lectured Al Gore about the energy you're using is a minute spent using the very energy that Al Gore is lecturing you for using, so switch that tv off and go read a book. actually, this is a major contributor to global warming -
gut instinct
so, i got up to leave the computer and reached out to switch the fan off.
i went to the living room and tried to watch tv.
i went to the kitchen and wondered why the fridge light didn't come on when i opened the door.
i wanted to make a hot drink and the water dispenser wouldn't work.
i wound up reading a Stephen Leather book. that ex-SAS Dan Shepherd fellow really is a superman type, isn't he? i should dig out that Special Air Service training handbook and give that a go.
regrets, i've had a few
half-baked
somehow getting it
the power is yoursso long and thanks for all the fish"Don't Panic")
put some damn clothes on, you shameless hussy.
the rest of the set is at Asian Heartthrob 2008. please make sure that your mother is not lurking in the background when you open the page, as mine was.
15 April 2008 3:31 p.m.consumer dissatisfaction: TMI on female biology to follow
not only are Kotex sanitary pads insufficient in absorbency and length, the name also connotes the plural form of a vulgar reference (in malay) to female genitalia. i come from the country that produces Oral-Me toothpaste anyway.
however, their website is pretty nice, and contains an amusing pad selector tool, for the woman who daren't stand in the aisle in a pharmacy.
that is all.
11 April 2008 2:56 p.m.how not to prepare for a race: one of those times when "i forgot" just won't save your ass
1. agree to let your mother sign you up (BHP's Orange Run 2008).
2. buy a fancy shmancy digital watch so you can "keep track of your training time."
3. goof off for 2 weeks (but carry on admiring watch).
4. be reminded that said race is 2 days away.
me against the world
i'm pretty sure it's wednesday, but everyone else must have received a memo that says it's "try to squeeze money from PMS Girl" day.
if the municipal council picks up garden refuse, why should i buy them a drink to clear up plants my parents pruned?
if the municipal council has a fogging programme against aedes mosquitoes (not that it works that well, cos people still get dengue, innit?), why are there people claiming they're from a "private company" roaming my neighbourhood and offering aedes larvae checks and fogging services? they legged it when i said i wanted to check out their company first. RM40 is still money, okay!
how they expected anyone to let them in without them identifying themselves or their company was beyond me, but they must have sounded convincing to a neighbour up the road because i heard some fogging going on a few minutes ago.
at 12.20 p.m., mind.
quick tip - AEDES MOSQUITOES EMERGE AT DAWN AND DUSK. THEY ARE BLOODSUCKERS AND BEHAVE AS SUCH.
IF YOU WANT TO SAVE YOURSELVES FROM VAMPIRES YOU MUST EAT MOAR GARLIC AND ACCEPT CHRIST OUR LORD THE SAVIOUR OF OUR SOULS IN TO YOUR HEARTS (in case the garlic doesn't work).
mum says it might be the actual council contractors trying to make a fast buck. fuck y'all fuckers, can't you see i'm busy surfing? stay off my information superhighway.
02 April 2008 9:37 a.m.an experience to remember
the funniest part about having your restaurant dinner (bro25 has graduated) interrupted by 50 beered-up hashers is the deafening silence that results from them falling on their food like ravenous beasts. seriously you guys, drink a Tiger, not be one.
my favourite bit of the KL International Marathon was the stretch along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman - now i know where Sarah Hughes' @ Globe (sic) is, and Kamdar and some shoe store are having a sale. yes, i have a fabric and shoe fetish. i surprise myself every day. no, getting a medal isn't that impressive - you'd probably have to walk the entire 10km to not be within the 500 finishers' range.
