i've been tweaking the post below one too many times. still it doesn't capture what i had in mind and i'm too tired to click on the edit button yet another time. it's way clearer in my head. ergh nvm lah.

i've had several conversations in the past few days touching on interfaith romance and friendship and relationship in general. for most part, i was a passive participant, mostly listening and occasionally chiming in with some questions or thoughts, and reading up some articles, but mainly was on the receiving end (i wanna say absorbing, but hahahaha my thick skin doesn't absorb well =) and just wondering *thinking cap whirling like a 486 of yore*

this thinking business is hard.

...

this ground level here is rather suffocating with so many guarded-misguided-self seeking opinions that conjure illusions of being real but you just know they are not (mm Inception reference peeking :P). and how often do we wrestle with myopic views that insist so strongly that they are the truth -- they doth protest too much methinks -- that we begin to suspect that they are? i want to peel my eyes from the present and move upward til i am able to better perceive and grasp and appreciate eternity.

mmhmm and then what?


...

random digression: for most part i have no idea what she's singing about - could have been unrequited love or bowel motions - but she sounds just effortlessly sexay. that's french (the language) for you! :D

carla bruni :: quelqu'un m'a dit

some equations are just downright confounding

one would think that the following would yield the same result:
ethnic group A + item offensive to ethnic group B + place of worship for e. group B
i.e.justified incarceration or penalty for e. group A for creating public unrest and inciting hatred

however, when we substitute the imaginary *cough* variables accordingly, the results kinda vary dramatically:

malay + cow heads + temple = RM3,000 fine
= spare change for the chief dalang
= victory chant and chest-beating ceremony after Friday prayer

chinese* + pig heads + mosque = all hell breaks loose
= ISA (and Sedition Act) 'til kingdom come

* indian dll. also can


will the wonders never end?

saturday morning

in bed. i just woke up. hubby next to me on lappie watching some movie.

me: *groggy* i thought you'd wanted to go for a morning hike[at bukit gasing]? couldn't wake up ah? hehe..

hubby: went already lah. also went to market. and had my breakfast. then came home, bathed and read the papers already lah.

me: ...



o.O



erm... i love sleeping in on sat morns.:P

shutter island x (matrix)power of 2 = inception

warning: spoiler alert. DO NOT PROCEED if you have not watched the show. you wouldn't get it anyways. hehehe..

in the mean time (make sure you leave before this part is over), toy story 3 was not bad at all. :D



i didn't cry though. and e/time i watch something and not cry when others who have seen it said they'd bawled their eyes out, i feel guilty. it's like i've a heart of stone or none at all. worse still, i tear (or laugh inappropriately) at random scenes in other movies (examples escape me now). i confuse myself sometimes.



[...]



annnnnnd, we're back!

so yeah, inception was awesome (the thesaurus cringes).

chris nolan (memento > i wanna watch, the dark night) delivers again, as do leo dicaprio and the entire cast (ellen page = w00t || joseph gordon-levitt = hawwt).

hands down one of the three best movies i've seen this  year (and this year i've seen quite a bit)(the other two being shutter island, and that quaint lil claymation, mary and max)(sorry, toy story 3)



like what The Star's reviewer says, don't read any reviews before you go in, and just let the movie blow your mind away and put it back together again (hi, chongy :P)

and if you are altogether very confused thereafter, go here for a detailed run down of the plot, characters, rules etc. very helpful.




and as for the final scene, i'm all for the spinning thing to stop spinning.. it would be really sad if dom cobb (leo) never got out. :( but it would be real cool if michael caine suddenly leads leo down to the batcave.. maybe batman 3 will start from there. anything is possible, no? :D

At the climax of the film, Mal throws deep questions at Cobb (and the audience) asking if having faceless corporations chase somebody around isn’t yet another dream state. She questions the very nature of reality for all of us and certainly whether or not the faux reality of film isn’t its own sort of dream state – a place where fantastic things occur – an imagined place we as movie goers share and perceive differently and fill with our own subconscious views and interpretations.

[via]

what do you think? :)

trying to clear some backlog posts because you know, i'm procrastinating (isohatemyselfsigh).. so here's one of them:

now that the musical has had its run, i think i can post this dy. i don't know if they are still googling for reviews cos that's what i totally would have done. haha.. but yeah, i just wanna give my tuppence like i was irish.. i have been hesitant about posting this cos i didn't want the cast to get disheartened should they read this (you'll see why) hahaha..

adam the musical 

the actors' studio, lot 10

18-may-2010

let me tell you straight: i did not enjoy the musical. and this was after going in with low expectations hoping to be pleasantly surprised -- alas that didn't happen. oh well.

[a quick thanks to jazz who organized this - went with her and mandy and a bunch of jazz's friends whose names have escaped me now.. haha..]

but first, let me recount what i liked about it:

• tabitha kong - i've heard her once when i went to SIB for some event last year, and i rber really liking her voice although she only sang one song. here in adam, she was the understudy for the role of maria. i would have preferred not to go for understudies' performances but jazz had wanted to go for this one as tabby (which was what jazz calls her, which is really weird for me, so mm, i'll just stick to tab, which is also.. nvm.) is a friend of hers. which i didn't mind cos theater performances are usually frequented by people who sorta kinda knew the cast or crew. and since tab is now a friend of a friend, 'twas ok. :D it also didn't hurt that she's cuter than the lead actress. hahaha..
  
• the couple's chemistry - tab and the lead actor (malik taufik) were such a cute couple! i really liked the scenes they were in together.. their body language spoke louder than their lines.. which was good (because: re. point 1 in the next section).
  
• the group performance - this one, i kinda liked and disliked at the same time. like, cos they sounded good and their choreography tight; dislike, cos i couldn't hear what they were singing about.
• tria aziz - she was one very scary looking ghoul, but her voice! her solo was one highlights of the show..
• mo dee & fairuz tauhid - two transvestite characters who were sometimes funny and other times menjengkelkan. don't know lah.. something about this show just didn't sit down nicely with me.

and now, for the bad:

• the script was horribly banal and trite.. direction was poor. i was unmoved by adam's plight.
  
• the use of religion was quite a fail if not mis-used. if the girl has no qualms about changing her religion, then as a plot device it was redundant. as i saw it, they had wanted to highlight the religious hypocrisy and bigotry, and they would have been better off had they stuck to a single religion (Islam in this case).
• datuk faridah merican - i don't mean no disrespect, but i think her voice was poor. i heard no frailty nor strength in it, and going off pitch not once but a few times is quite a no-no kan?
• the archangel michael played by mark sobels - he was one very annoying character who was neither funny or sensible. bleh.
• what's a musical without memorable songs. unfortunately, most of the songs here were forgettable.
• theater design - the layout of the stage limits severely limits the vantage point to only those in front. if it's for fashion show ok lah, but for 2/3 of the audience, it's mostly just side profiles for the longest time. 

in the end, i was not barely emotionally moved (even bored at some points) - emotions being my yardstick of rating something like this. all said, it was all just really mediocre theater to me.

[i rber the musical ran closely to the very expensive broadway production in KL - the westside story.. and i'd jokingly dubbed adam the poor man's WSS.. now, even that comparison is unworthy. sorry!]

there's something about the blue sky that is just so captivating, don't you think? :)

hiked up broga hill yesterday with some friends from church (arul, jive, jackie, waiee & jocelyn) -- found out they were going on Fri nite after prayer meeting and i happily jumped on the wagon.. hubby was too tired from his PD camp and opted out -- was supposed to give my driver a wake up call at 4 and 430am but ended up waking to his call at 445am. fail betul. haha.. good thing i packed my stuff the night before.

reached the foothill ard 6am and there were no less than 20 cars already parked there. only a group of hikers were still around when we went on our way (forgetting to warm up but thank God that hampered us only a little). by the time we breathlessly got to the first peak (there were four) 45mins later, we were welcome with a nice cool breeze and a whole buncha people who made it up before us. mm suffice to say, it was a little too crowded for my liking. ah well..

we managed to enjoy the view and the slowly brightening sky. it was just lovely and worth every step we took. camwhored much as we could and by 9plus we were on our way down. the descend was faster than i'd anticipated :) we had wantan noodle at one of the shops in the nearby town before making our way home. all in all, a very good saturday morning! :D

for some pics of broga, chk out my FB album here and here and here. admittedly i didn't have many pics on my phone -- my other friends had better cameras so we made do with those.

friends over food ;)

met up with the friend who inspired this post for dinner last evening. 'twas good in many ways.

first, there was the food. we ate at this place in Paramount Garden (didn't get the name of the restaurant) but it sells some of my fav food, and we ordered Lala (Clam) Soup (excellent in yesterday's rainy weather), Ou Jian (mm oyster in egg? hahaha.. yumms. difficult to find good ones in KL.. this was not bad at all) and the ever sinful ever delicious Hokkien Mee.*sheer delight* [buzz me for directions if u r interested]

also while in all the delectable goodness and under the fluorescent lights, we went thru topics as they came: from old times so old i still fit into my 1st pair of levi's -- we tried to pinpoint how we actually met (i'm sure it was the inter-varsity mission trip that we both signed up for); to the happening present trading stories abt our spouses and families esp his two kids whose names i openly covet for mine (you'll find out what it is if i ever have one) and work/career, and the anticipated future (ahh.. :), and faith of course.

[somehow, friendships that effortlessly and seamlessly broach on this subject are the best kind -- without which there seem to exists a layer of superficiality. i think it's just me.]

so many subjects, so few hours. and due to our irreconcilable geographical difference, rendezvous are rarer than rare. but there's always email right.

so to thee my friend i promise 
that i would get to writing that email
which i repeatedly claimed i had been writing
for the past 1 year or more
:D

and looksie what i ended up having after tonite's dinner with a certain chongy:

.. all the way from BKK thailand! mr watterson may not be pleased, but all i can say is sorry.. and that i super luurve this (C&H forevaa!!) :D [actually she also gave me food stuff but i think this is more picture worthy ;)]

sometimes, i do like how things turn out (things? life, i mean)

u know
id never thought id end up talking to you so much
how curious life is


hahaha tell me abt it
did u know that when i left WK, i nv thought we'd talk again
hahaha


AHAHAHAH
u never we'd talk again? like even jus a bit?


yeah, cos we hardly ever spoke at work..
lol


LOL true


i mean, even abt work it was rare.. i dun think we ever even chatted.. did we??


GOT LA
i knew u were a christian


like one to one chat worrr
mana adaaa


kpis?
got what


that's work maa
haha


hahaha ya i guess not
i rem u bully fel and the rest quite a bit :p HAHAHAAH


whaaaat?!
no i DIDNT
*winces*
only zul
hahaha

i heard something like this over the radio and again on TV about a month back, close to Father's Day.

two celebrities were interviewed and when it came to a question about parenthood they made this similar remark: i might not be a good husband, but i am the best father to my kids.

i could only wonder, what on earth does that mean? did they think both roles are separated? that the relationship with their kids is more important than that with their wives? is making sure that their kids have enough material wealth (which was implied by one of these guys) the yardstick of being a good father?

that's just a perverted way of looking at this fatherhood thingy if you ask me.

one of these guys went thru three failed marriages, and wiki said that the other's "love life has also been a center of tabloids under the public eye". how conveniently you forgot that you subjected your kids through the hell of three failed marriages eh.

if you wanna proclaim about how good a Dad you are, what about letting them witness how much you love your other half -- how you treat and respect her, how you fulfill the vows you've made. and for us Christians, what about showing them what it's like to love God wholeheartedly. and the list goes on. (don't even let me get started on good-for-nothing abusive dads)

let your life be the testimony.
let your kids give the testimonies.

it's really easy to delude yourselves of the notion that you are a good father. and trying to convince us so with your own words, but it's not unlike the ego-stroking act of masuk bakul angkat sendiri. 

mm, simpan ajelah.

we won!! viva la espanol!! :D

yeah, "we". LOL!

it was my 1st 2.30am match this WC season, and i didn't too too well in sustaining consciousness. i went in and out of it throughout the 120mins (game went into ET after a goalless 90mins).. didn't even get to see the sole goal at the 116th min (woke up 2 mins later to a replay, oh well).. only remembered in my half-awake state that it was a very aggressive game (a record of 14 yellow plus one red) esp by the Dutch and i didn't quite like that *frowns* it's supposed to be a beautiful game, guys.

so i'm glad that it's over. glad that octopus trumped the parrot. and glad that spain won (1st time winner & 1st time a team won after losing their first match) in a final that for the first time in 80 years of World Cups, italy, brazil, germany or argentina were not in the last 2 teams standing. :D

and urgh, hello monday.

mimpi mario..

every now and again sometimes, i just wish i could get my hand on a PSP and play mario bro all day long..

this is my mom at work. :) *HUGS*

this was my living room. i was ambitious. spent the weekend taking everything down from all three shelves (i have one downstairs, and three upstairs.. and i carted every single book down in about 2,547 trips. the exercise did me some good i hope!), sorted them out by genre, and putting everything, well mostly (see below), back. reminds me of my librarian days back in st. john's. :D




managed to throw these away. whee! i love clearing stuff. kinda.


this is one of the shelves. i haven't seen it so neat in yearrrrs. love it!


the IKEA sale is ON!! can't wait. i've got a BIG home facelift project coming on. oh the excitedness -- WHEE!! *wink wink*

btw, someone asked why this blog is hardly updated these days. hehehe.. no i haven't gotten lazy. i have a million blogs if you didn't know that already. do chk 'em out (links on the right column under "Virtually Everywhere") ok. plus i've been taken to a little project i'm working on with a couple of friends which i hope would take off (more of that later, if and when it does). right now, it seems all hanging in the air. *grimaces*

and the ultimate world cup game is on this sunday, well Monday morning.. Spain (let it be rbered that my money was on them ;) will be facing off against the Netherlands, and either one will make WC victory as this is their first final appearance. German played an awesome game (in my mind, the best game i've ever seen) when they decimated Argentina (my heart goes out to them :() 4-0 in the q-finals. then they had to play that lousily against the Spaniards.. hehe too bad la.. so yeah. this sunday i will sleep early and bangun for the game. hehe.. my first 2.30am game this WC season. hehe..

happily ever after..? :D

this is belated on account of my being away (i hope to write about that later ;) but the backlog of posts stretches back to May so i don't really wanna promise), but i just wanna share chongy's excitement as she embarks on this new and wonderful journey of her life.



you are welcome to guess which of the above journey it is. ;) anyways...

CONGRATULATIONS SHERYL CHONG!!!!! :D

reading what she's written about her getting to this point, how this whole thing came along, how God made it all possible, it's just amazing lah. :) i will always rber that particular moment at the traffic light when i was sending you home after a dinner we had when you came back from the UK in 2007 when i asked if you had any plans for her bday and you said no and how we got to organizing it, to how our friendship quietly took off from that first yumcha session in BU's OldTown kopitiam a year after making us friends than friends of a friend, and from then til now a period filled with laughter and tears and meals and desserts and just talking our (mostly yours) heads off (sometimes with such overwhelming intensity it was "breathtaking" *gasps for air*) about God and life and family and friends and work and worklessness and everything else under the sun..

for all the time i needed a cathartic outlet, thank you for being one. thank you for reminding me of the things i've forgotten. above all, i'm deeply grateful for your uncanny, surely divine timing of being there through the darkest period of my life.. so yeah, for everything you have given, may you be blessed twice (don't be greedy now =) over. all the best, chongy dearest, and may your next three years be exceedingly more splendiferous than the preceding three. don't blink! ;)