Acheiving Your Childhood Dreams

As of writing, the following video has 6,065,672 views on Youtube, and 20234 ratings, all of which are 5 star. The lecture is an hour long, and it is so moving and so powerful you don't really know whether to laugh or to cry.

This is Randy Pausch's last lecture, and he opens with pictures of the tumours in his liver. He is going to die, and he knows that.

Watch it.

I Don't Understand Wine

This is the first time I've ever seen an actual hands-on show of all those weird things they call wine at wine testing events. Notes of early plum and smoky aftertaste? The only thing I get from wine is a burning warm feeling at the pit of my belly (and I'm saying that as a GOOD thing).

So.

Watch and learn. Totally cool way of looking at wine tasting.

Get the picture?

Do you see just a pile of tomatoes?

Do you see a flawed photo, colours that are not outstanding, bad lighting, bad composition?

Do you see something that makes you hungry?

Do you see a tomato that’s different among others?

Do you see what I see?

One photo, so many different possible opinions. A photo may invoke feelings in you, draw thoughts from the depths of your mind, or just be outright ignored. But when it comes down to it, it’s just a photo. It’s just whatever you make of it. Rather like life isn’t it?

On another note, another photo that would look more familiar…

Now what do you see?

Just a big group of people you do not know? Friends? A rather happy looking crowd of people? Absence of people that should be there? People you are surprised to see in the photo? Forced smiles? Good times? Cliques? Just memories?

This is the photo that represents Undergroundsquare for what it rather is like these days. I will leave you to think what you make of it.

Love At First Sight Does Exist

Not so long ago one dude in New York had a James Blunt moment: he saw the girl of his dreams on a subway train. The funny thing about all of this, is, of course, that most people don't believe in Love At First Sight. I'm wondering if this guy did, because what he did next was surprising.

He created a website. It consisted of a single illustration, and he asked people if they had seen this girl. The website spread through word of mouth.


One day a girl saw his description, matched it with that of her friend, and hooked the two of them up.

I wonder what's become of two of them. Here's to wishing them the best. Because, just sometimes, happy endings do happen.

Art and Engineering

I know this is a BMW ad, but I've been thinking about the parallels between the two lately. Especially since the arts vs science in Malaysian schools debate has reared its ugly head in my mind once again. I love arts - I write and I read and who says music and wine and food isn't enjoyable? But I'm stuck in science, because it's the proper thing to do.

Then I watched this video, and my breath is knocked out of me. Here is good science, compressed and tested and made beautiful. The wind, given form and tangible movement. Theo Jansen is a genius.



*PS: That machine there is called a strandbeest. A contraption that runs on wind. Wonderful.

The Silver Lining: Why Life Is Worth Living

Because at times when you really would rather do what’s on the left than the right.

Brock's Microbiology and Sherwood's Human Physiology look nice on my table.

Because when you get frustrated at how things end up.

Laundry isn't meant to be dried like this in a normal world. Then again, I'm grateful I even have clothes to wear.

Got so fed up with cafeteria food some people and I made this with minimal ingredients. Marginally better than normal fare these days.

There’s still always The Silver Lining.

Just an hour or so away after a looong, tiring journey lies CIVILISATION!! This is how I regain my sanity.

Of Photo Opportunities Almost Missed and Eye Opening Experiences

This was just one of those photography moments when you realise how much luck and chance play in capturing photos. Had I not raise my head after dragging my already worn out feet from Suria KLCC to the KL Convention Centre, had it not been for my mother who wanted to take a photo near that area... I may have missed this shoot.

I just LOVE this photo. In case you can't see it clearly, it's actually a photo of the famous Merdeka scene, with the man who fought for our nation's independence shouting "Merdeka!" on that fateful day, 31st August 1957, all this on the big glass windows of the Convention Centre. And there, reflected on the windows, are the tallest buildings of our country, the Petronas Twin Towers.

What an amazing difference between then and now, have we not come far? I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride of being Malaysian and all that, or perhaps it was also the realisation that this would have been something to share in this blog.

Just that afternoon, I reckon I was brainwashed a bit which led to such feelings, hehe. Whilst my parents were shopping at excruciating pace, my sister and I wandered the aforementioned shopping complex and by luck, again, we chanced upon an art exhibition held in conjunction with National Day at the Petronas Gallery, which I didn't even know existed. It was on the 3rd level, away from the crowds on one end of the shopping complex. Here, the dimmed lights and muted surroundings provided the environment to showcase the exhibitions which ranged from modern art, old school photographs made into collages, more traditional paintings, and a whole section about the buildings built when our country gained independence such as the Stadium Merdeka, House of Parliaments and National Museum. And there were cushy couches to sit on in a section too, bliss after a day's shopping.

There was even an art piece, with nothing but prose typed out, lamenting the state of literature in our country. I can't explain how exactly, but it was cool.

The whole experience was just so.. refreshing, for lack of a better word. That's what Malaysia really is about isn't it? A medley of varying experiences all in one place, and the exhibition being kind of a microcosm of it. Well, so ends my post, with a photo that I hope some may see meaning in as I have.

And do check out the exhibition if you can, it's on till the 30th of this month. It may be small, but hey, good things do come in small sizes too. Admission's free, in case anyone was wondering. Haha. We are Malaysians afterall.

Booker Prize Longlist (Malaysia Boleh!)

Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng's The Gift Of Rain recently made it into the Booker Prize longlist, much to my (and to all other Malaysian litbloggers') delight. Sharon Bakar has been making it a point to plough through the entire series of books in the hopes of finishing it before the shortlist comes out, though she thinks she won't be able to make it.


But here's an interesting thing: Tan Twan Eng is based in South Africa. Yes, he does come back to Malaysia, but the fact remains he is overseas for a good part of his time, and his book was published by Myrmidon Books Ltd (certainly not local!).

If you recall, the other great book to be written by a Malaysian in recent times was Tash Aw's The Harmony Silk Factory, which sparked off a bidding war, was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin award, and went on to become an international bestseller.


It's also a very good book (I read it when I was supposed to be studying for the SPM *yikes*).

So no surprise as Silverfish clobbers most of the local authors on the head in his post on Twan Eng's book:

While basking in the glow of vicarious glory, one cannot help but notice something: all these writers live outside the country. Why? Are Malaysians only able to get anything done when they leave the country? One can't help feeling that there are so many more successful Malaysians outside the country than inside.

Ouchies.

And then - even better:

... Is the lack of Malaysian writings the fault of our education system, then? Sure. Who hasn't heard of the many disturbing stories about our schools and the teachers? If it is, then how does one explain the writers mentioned above? Did they not attend the same local schools when they were here? Maybe they went overseas for their tertiary education, one might say. That could be it. But then how does that explain the 'failure' of those who come back from overseas after their education? No stimulus? No peers to push them on? It cannot be that we have no talent. The writers mentioned above were born here too.

Double ouchies.

Sharon, to her credit, goes on to provide reasons for this writing drought back home. The one that interests me the most is this:

Some go because ... and this is the controversial one that will have me clapped in irons ... Malaysia - let's face it - has a wonderful knack of stifling creativity.

In an environment where freedom of expression is seriously curtailed, where books and films are banned and restricted, where politicians take offense at satire, where Malay filmmakers and authors are harangued for letting the race down, where folks of different races do not feel they have an equal stake in the future of the country, where gays and lesbians face discrimination, where Malay women writers who dare write their mind have their websites hacked and receive death threats ... is it any wonder that authors look for a place where they can create without fear of censure? You see, everything is connected. One very prominent Malay writer told me that his most prized possession is his passport, and he's ready to leave if the current political and social environment becomes anymore restrictive.

It sounds depressing, yet there are writers out there who manage to produce work locally. Kam Raslan is one - publishing a cheeky commentary on Malaysian life (and getting away with it), and Sharon recognizes a great pool of young Malaysian talent whom she has met through blogs and writing courses.

Here's a shoutout to all you closet writers (coughincludingmecough). We just might be the answer to our country's creativity drought ... once our work is out there for people to read. So sharpen your pencils and take out your books. Write and write and write ... and get published.

Because, failing that, we'll all need tickets to South Africa.

Who's willing to sponsor mine?

Mind Over Matter

There are some things that you discover and just go, “That really exists?!”. The following is one of such, for me.

While working, I came across a term in one of the training programme notes organized by the company, NLP. After Googling it, I realised that it was really quite a fancy acronym for something that basically meant Hypnosis. Yes, the power of unlocking minds and using the hidden potential. I don’t know about you, but it seems scary to me.

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. From it’s quite scientific, technical sounding name, you would have hardly thought it could mean something as dubious as hypnotherapy. From what I’ve read, its methods are even used in sales. As if the methods they use aren’t sneaky enough.

Here’s a bit of what I read that I couldn’t get out of my mind.

It was describing a method in which salespeople can use to garner positive response from the customer. When the salesperson has made the customer laugh at something, he/she can put his/her finger lightly on the arm of the customer, for 2 seconds. Why 2 seconds? Because that’s typically how long the laughter would last, any longer and the customer may be disturbed. (See? They have even got this down to a science.)
After repeating the process effectively for some time, when the salesperson just touches his/her finger lightly on the customer’s arm, it is said to invoke the same positive response and the customer would laugh, regardless of whether what the salesperson said is really that amazingly funny.

This method involves the using of what is called in psychology, “Anchoring”. I’ll quote from Wikipedia..

Anchoring is a neuro-linguistic programming term for the process by which memory recall, state change or other responses become associated with (anchored to) some stimulus, in such a way that perception of the stimulus (the anchor) leads by reflex to the anchored response occurring.

So what now? Are you telling me that the power of sub-conscious is so strong that I can be affected without even being aware of it? That’s a very scary thought.

What if the leaders of the world became masters at this methods of “hypnosis”, could they effectively brainwash an entire population? What if people could be suckered into buying a car they couldn’t afford through this? What if someone who meant to harm could drive another person into depression which led to suicide?

It all sounds a little vague here, but there’s actually a lot of “mind programming” going on in our lives, whether or not we are aware of it. The mass media, advertisements, propaganda. I need not say more.

Well, there are some benefits if you can properly apply NLP and put it to good, ethical use. It seems quite extensive, and the methods basically relate to psychology. Like mind over matter, “telling yourself you can do it, then you can do it”, all those.

I admit that I do not fully understand this topic yet, and if there are any factual errors in my post, I'm terribly sorry. However, I still would take anything I hear about like this with a pinch of salt. It’s a dangerous world out there, watch your back.

Love is in the air..

In life, there are many kinds of loves, as there are many kinds of shoes. Here’s a list on the types of shoes in life and indirectly, the types of loves.

1. Stilettos

They look insanely hard to walk in, and indeed they are. But when you put them on, the attention you attract makes you feel on top of the way. You feel more confident, more alive, more outgoing even. The sexiness it exudes just gives off “Don’t mess with me” vibes. Some love partners are like stilettos, being with them puts you in the scene, but as with stilettos, they really can cause major aches in the long term so you can’t always wear stilettos.

2. Pumps

Pumps are basically shoes that cover all round and have a heel. Typically for formal wear, so conservative that even your mother would approve. Sure they are some that look nicer, but basically they are typically thought of as for more mature tastes.

3. Slippers

Fun and comfortable. Who doesn’t like slippers? Nice to wear on a day at the beach or just taking a leisurely stroll on a summer day. But can you wear them to a formal event, to the office, to meet the parents? Not exactly…

4. Sneakers/Sport Shoes

The rush of freedom and the “I can do anything” vibe when you wear these shoes is just exhilarating. Just putting them on already makes you feel sporty and ready to go. You feel like you can go on forever in them. But can you really?

5. Bedroom slippers

You just get so comfortable with bedroom slippers that you just don’t want to change them sometimes. But there’s a reason why bedroom slippers don’t see much daylight, they are not exactly something you would want to be seen out and about in. Less you are into the kitsch, kawaii look or something.

6. Strappy Heels

Strappy Heels are oh so beautiful but oh so heartbreaking as well. Few can stand them for long, though they do make you feel wonderful while you are wearing them. Typical evening out fare, you can’t really do without at least one strappy heels in your life. But wear them out and about during the day and you risk getting serious feet ache or zebra tan lines.

So you can see, there is nothing such as the perfect shoe, as there is nothing such as the perfect love. People have different prefences, and sometimes we don’t always make the right choices. I, for one, tend to always fall for the same type of shoes. Go figure what that says about the affairs of my heart. Haha. Anyway, here’s to rounding up yet another spur of the moment post. Hope everyone has a great week ahead, which would hopefully put people in a good blogging mood! :-)

Top 5 ways to curb Internet addiction/Tales of a Friday afternoon

Top 5 ways to curb Internet addiction

1. “Forget” to pay the Internet bills.
2. Sabotage your computer and/or laptop, or if you can’t bring yourself to do that, hand it to someone for safe keeping.
3. Get a life.
4. Have someone change your Internet password and not let you know about it
5. Subscribe to Streamyx, our nation’s number 1 Internet service provider, unbeatable Internet access speeds and reliability!

It doesn’t take much to figure out from point number 5 why I have not been able to blog at all last week. Here’s to hoping I can post this up.

Anyway, what do you get when you put three UGSers together in one car?

One who knows the directions, already has a real driving license but does not drive.
One who doesn’t know directions, has a probationary driving license but is appointed driver.
One who is okay with directions, okay with driving, but chooses to sit at the back perusing The Wings, St Mary’s school bulletin.

Well, the above was the case on Friday, after watching The Simpsons and headed for dessert at Sunny Hill after lunch. By the way, the movie was really funny and I probably would have been missing out on watching the best movie this… season(??) if it weren’t for someone’s persuading. I’m really not that keen on The Simpsons. Hence the movie was a delightful surprise.

Okay, back to the point, the driving. I have to admit it’s the first time in my life I have sat in a car with two other guys and end up being the one giving directions. (Yes, I am the one who has a license but does not drive *blush*) Of course, no fault of the driver, we do thank him very much. Without whom we wouldn’t have been able to carry out phase two of the afternoon, and eat ice-cream which has the consistency of mousse. Haha. All in all, Friday afternoon well spent, away from the office.

Googling BUGS on Google Blog Search

Today, I shall amaze you with the extend of my wu-liaoness. (Lameness? For lack of a better English word) While trying out the Google Blog search, I decided to search for “undergroundsquare”, look what I found…

Yay, number 1 search result is a post by me, written some time ago about my “exercise routine” at work. Weird, I don’t know how this blog search thing works. Then the second result, weirdly, is a post by one of our BUGGERS, Divious aka Ling, who isn’t even much of an active blogger nowadays. Then in third place, there’s a blog by a student from Kuching who’s our Boss’s friend, and her post says that our blog is good. Oh wow. Only after that is a search result from Boss’s blog which introduces BUGS, The Undergroundsquare Blog. And following that is our other admin kvys2000’s blog post search result about the Undergroundsquare forum itself.

All in all, 9 search results, only. But that’s for now. Hmmm.. Now I’m really curious how this thing works.

Then next, I tried to search “BUGGERS”, “BUGS blog” but none of them yield any result relating to our blog. Then, I searched “BUGGERS BUGS blog” and what do you know, up pops BUGS as the first search result. Hah. Which actually is a blog post I did about BUGGERS catching the “lazy to blog” bug. And slightly below that is another search result about BUGS, which is the “This Week's BUGGER to Bug to Blog at BUGS” post.

Next up was searching “ugs blog”.

How did BUGS get up there? In the related blogs section. Hmm. But the first search result isn’t BUGS, it’s another blog by the name of UGS Blog. Only the third search result relates BUGS itself, and also the fourth. Both posts of which are about UGS gatherings, one from BUGS itself and the other from Daniel's blog. Hmm…

Enlightening, this search is. *Listens around for the symphony of people snoring*

View of Kuching 18 Storeys Up

Earlier on this week, for two days, I was at Crowne Plaza Riverside for work, since the company I work at was organising a training programme there. I thought it would be just at the 3^rd Floor, as usual, but since the 3^rd Floor rooms were taken up for another function, we got the suite at the 18^th Floor instead.

3 years ago, when I was secretary of Interact Club at Kuching High, I accompanied my president for a Rotary Club meeting at that same place. Fast forward 3 years, and here I am again. Déjà vu. It’s the same place, but a different me and a different situation. And the place has got a whole new look too. It used to be called the Clearwater Suites, but now they call it the Windows on Kuching Meeting Suites. Wonder if it’s because the river water isn’t as clear…

Okay, photos coming up. The views from up there were spectacular! It was so incredibly nice that I had to bring my camera on the second day of training to capture the scenic views. Believe me, nothing that my camera captured can compare to being up there, 18 storeys up from street level, with the views spread out before you. Good thing they had full length windows, the view is really.. Ah, see for yourself.

Kuching’s “Golden Triangle”? Haha. I love how the taxi tops are all yellow and lined up in a row, and there’s patches of greenery around.. And the river is right behind Sarawak Plaza there.

The Dewan Undangan Negeri (State Council) well under construction, it looks massive. And with the Fort Magherita near it, a relic of the British colonial times. New and old, side by side. And I love the touch of old the sampans, or “tambang”, add in the photo. Though mind you, Kuching is not that behind in times okay, we have quite a good road network and the sampans are there so that the people living across the river can access the city more easily.

The bar style tables, overlooking the views towards Petra Jaya across the river, and beyond. You can see Mount Santubong in the distance. And the DBKU (Kuching North City Council) building, the old Dewan Undangan Negeri, the State Mosque and many other buildings can all be seen from there. I was preening my eyes, trying to see if I could see the sea around the Mount Santubong area, but nope.

Then on the other side of the lounge they have up there, which is where I took all these photos, the full length windows reveal a different scene, this time of the South of Kuching. To the far right is Gateway, supposedly the tallest building in the city. As you can see, there aren’t that many tall buildings, so the views are pretty unobstructed. If you look closely in this photo, you can see an awkwardly shaped, blue and white building which is the MBKS building, the Kuching South City Council. In the far distance, are what I think are the mountain ranges that border Sarawak and Indonesia, correct me if I’m wrong.

Obviously, I’m still not jaded about this kind of life, but the training venue they had this time is really different from what I experienced just last week. They even have a special lounge sectioned off where the participants had their tea breaks, there’s morning tea and afternoon tea, plus buffet lunch. I really had to control myself from overeating. Thank goodness there was a quite a bit of walking and work to do, so I hope that helped burned off the calories. Though the walking was done in heels, thus resulting in two red blisters on each of my little toe now.

I’ll show you two of the photos I took there in the lounge area…

There’s the “café” area at the back where the tea breaks are served with bar style seatings looking out towards the river. And the rest of the area has lounge style sofas, the curtains were drawn in this area. And to the left is this…

Wow, they have a buffet area up here for tea breaks?! And plasma TV! Though this time round the training package didn’t include those buffet style tea breaks. My colleague told me there was once they went all out and had it really executive style, the whole lounge was filled with food and drinks. The buffet table was full with fried dishes, the café area was loaded with cakes, pastries, yoghurt, fruits, juices, coffee and tea. Wow, unimaginable. Imagine attending a seminar and the whole adjoining room is filled with food for your taking, the whole day.

Aiyo, too bad I was a bit wary of myself putting on weight, I was controlled during the buffets, so really bo hua lor (not worth it). Haha. My plate was only like this.. Quite light right, since I was saving up room for dessert. Which I ended up not eating much of either, what was wrong with me? Haha.

Look, practically vegetarian…

Very light cheese cake, cakes, and some fruits.

I was a bit conscious of taking photos then, so only took two. If not for the fact that there were clients around, I might have took my photo taking up a notch. Oh wow, I ended up writing more here than I expected, this is how it’s like, when I really start to write, sometimes it just keeps flowing. Haha. If only I were this motivated to write more often.

DeBugging the BUGGERs

Alas but it is true, the BUGGERs have caught a bug, the “lazy to blog” bug. Notice lately there has been much fewer posts here than usual? I didn’t realize what was going on till Daniel mentioned he has caught the blogger laziness bug, that the BUGGERs seem to be experiencing the same symptoms too. Oh no! It seems to be an epidemic! What should we do?!

Prevention is always better than cure, so firstly, here’s how to identify if you are susceptible to catching the “lazy to blog” bug. The more symptoms you identify in yourself, the more safety precautions you would have to take.

1. Everytime you open your offline word processing programme to type out a blog, your hands linger, stationary, poised over the keyboard. After a short while, you just close off the programme and proceed to doing something else instead.
2. You go to Blogger/Wordpress/Xanga etc., notice that it’s taken a while to load, and when it does you don’t feel like typing in your username and password anymore, what more to say blog.
3. You read other blogs or do other things, telling yourself you will find inspiration somewhere, somehow. Then you get distracted by something else and “forget” all about blogging.
4. You write up a draft on your blog, but after that find yourself too “tired” to continue finishing it up and forget about it later on.
5. Before starting to blog, you come up with a wonderful idea for a post, filled with photos and have thought up captions to go along with them. Then, after resizing and editing the 5^th or so photo, you’re too tired to continue, thinking of the long process ahead of uploading photos and typing out the whole post.
6. You go online, telling yourself you will finally post something, but end up at MSN, Friendster, Gmail or the like instead.
7. You start having thoughts like, “Why blog? Nobody reads or comments on them anyway.”
8. You come up with any excuse to avoid blogging, “Nothing going on in my life anyway”, “Too tired”, “Lousy internet connection refuses to cooperate”, “Blog for what? So wu liao.” and etc.
9. Knocked out after work or school, blogging is the last thing on your mind.
10. This one is for the BUGGERs in particular, you log onto Blogger, see that a fellow BUGGER has already posted a wonderfully written post for the day and decide to just leave your post for some other time. Have had this personally happen to me some times.

As with any outbreak of any dangerous viruses, there are guidelines given on how to deal with the situation. So, here goes the safety measures that can be taken, and guidelines on how to survive this dangerous BUG.

1. Imagine the visitor stats counter dropping to 0 visitors a day. Gasp! Motivation enough to blog?
2. Block out any complaints from other people who have The Bug. Do not be influenced to not blog.
3. Blog regularly and make it a habit, build up your blogging stamina, increasing your immunity towards The Bug.
4. Blog offline, where there are less distractions.
5. Do not make excuses for yourself, a Blogger is not a Blogger just because he/she has a blog. Blogs should be blogged in.

And after some discussion in the Undergroundsquare forum, came up with this phrase, “Bugging the BUGGERs to Blog”. One of the admins, Sam, suggested this should be our catchphrase or aim or something. So, that’s what we should do from now on, Bug the BUGGERs to Blog. If any of you BUGGERs should catch The Bug, you shall be Bugged to Blog till you are rid of that awful, nasty Bug.

Now, are you confused enough by the words above, “Bug”, “The Bug”, “Bugging”, “Blog”, “BUGGER”? Haha. That’s a lot of words starting with “B” in a paragraph.

Random observations and a newsflash

Some time ago, on a sunny afternoon, while browsing nearby shops at Main Bazaar after watching a movie at Star Cineplex, I came across something that looked familiar.

Why it is exactly the same bowl and coasters that my mother got at Bali earlier on this year. Except at a much marked up price. We got the bowl for about RM20 at Bali, here they are selling it at RM32.90. Exactly the same thing…

Well, the price didn’t startle me as much as seeing exactly what we got at Bali being available here. It kind of makes it less unique. The one at my house I discovered, has a very lovely cinnamon scent as the insides of the bowl has shavings of cinnamon bark. Though my mum suspects they also put cinnamon essential oil in it to make the smell stronger. So, when I saw the one at the shop, I instinctively picked it up to see if it had the same scent. Haha. It did, but not nearly as strong.

So when what you can get from another part of the world can be found in your hometown, what is really special anymore? Hmmm.. Perhaps just the memories of making that special purchase.

BUGGERS newsflash:
Here’s a quick update on what’s going on with our BUGGERS or UGSers which you may or may not know, since they do not all blog that much.

• Good job Eli James on his performance in the school’s fund-raising play, saw you in the papers today
• Congratulations also to Lil Tim, Interact President of his school now, following in my foosteps? Haha.
• Sam got silver in her level at the summer ballet school she attended at Singapore
• Zhe Rong got into USM for the course of his choice, translation. Congratulations!

And if I missed out on anybody else, sorry, just let me know and you’ll be in the next newsflash. And note, after blogging for three times a week here for several months, I’ve been taking it down a notch now. Okay, I’m going off to enjoy what little of Sunday I have left…

A Case For Reading Novels

An unpolished first draft of a Square (school newsletter) article:

Rafidah Aziz made an interesting point in a STAR interview some time ago.

‘I don’t read novels. Only non-fiction.”

Granted, Malaysia’s ‘Iron Woman’ is a busy, active professional, a good example of a woman who balances her time between a multitude of responsibilities (she plays sudoku and a gameboy to keep her mind occupied). What she reads is entirely up to her and suits her career and personal tastes.

But really now – why should people read novels?

I was piqued by her comment and started asking around.

“Novels? I read textbooks!”

“No time; must study.”

“Escapism, relaxation and … entertainment?” my aunt suggested. I mulled over her words.

“Then doesn’t that make books equal to television?”

But by then of course I had lost her to a Romance novel, and was left to reason on my own.

Novels are at its most basic works of fiction – stories told to enrapture and entertain and engage the reader. But entertainment alone wasn’t enough to justify reading to me: I could easily say the same for the computer, couldn’t I?

Well, no. Books require you to visualize scenes while reading – and each visualization is unique to the reader. I can never forgive Daniel Radcliffe for his portrayal of Harry Potter – he is far less the geeky, ordinary boy that roamed in my imagination.

Then, one day, I came across Lord Of The Flies.

And I had my answer. Golding’s tale of school children stranded on an island wasn’t just a story. It was a statement – that all men have evil tendencies, and civilization is our attempt at controlling them. Golding’s story is like a car crash: you want to turn away from the carnage – the kids killing each other – and yet you can’t.

I started seeing statements wherever I looked after that. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss was about Western dominance, even in the isolated jungles of Kathmadu. Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin asked if we should blame mothers for their son’s actions, amongst other things. And The Age Of Innocence turned out to be more than a love story – it was a front for a difficult question: Who are the heroes of our society – and what does that say about us?

Edna O’Brien deserves a mention here: “I believe that the novelist is the psychic and moral historian of his or her society.”

They say reading maketh a man. But what books do we read – and what does that say about us?

Post Form 6 : Converges in Paths

Number one reason why people go for Form 6, to eventually get into public universities. And I have a feeling I may be going to defy that.

It’s been a few days since results of acceptance into public universities in Malaysia have been announced. Surprisingly, many people I know managed to end up with courses of their choice, if not the first choice. Which wasn’t what I expected from the system, after the horrors I’ve heard of students doing brilliantly yet ending up with courses that they did not apply for but were pushed upon them.

Well well, no doubt that the dates of releasing the results are a little too close to the registration date for comfort, it’s a week plus to 1^st July! But that supposedly was due to the matriculation results which needed processing.

So, what did I end up with? Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Biochemistry. Hmm. With a GPA like mine, I knew I didn’t stand much of a chance of getting my first choice, which was USM, biomedicine, but this isn’t too bad. Well, congrats to my classmate who managed to get into Universiti Malaya for medicine, I can’t remember the last student from our school who managed to do that (and yes, he is Chinese). And congrats to the others who managed to get into the top public universities of our nation.

Seems like just a short while ago that I was still in Form 6, and now everyone is going their separate paths. C’est la vie. What would life bring? Time will tell.

Bananas

ba·nan·a /bəˈnænə/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciatio[buh-nan-uh] Pronunciation Key –noun

1.	a tropical plant of the genus Musa, certain species of which are cultivated for their nutritious fruit. Compare banana family.

2.	the fruit, esp. that of M. paradisiaca, with yellow or reddish rind.

From dictionary.com

But do you know another meaning for banana?

An asian person who acts like they are white. Yellow on the outside, white on the inside.

Quang doesn't know what Dim Sum is? man that guy's a Banana.

From urbandictionary.com

Now, as with the real kind of banana, there are many different kinds of “banana”s, or rather, varying degrees of banana-ness.

First condition to be a banana: You have to be Asian, or of Asian parentage.

And the rest, is variable. In this post, we would focus more on the Chinese bananas, since that is what I kind of am, and thus I’m more familiar with this.

What makes me, or anybody, a banana? Any of the following…

• Not knowing how to converse in Chinese
• Not knowing how to read and write Chinese
• Speaking English in “ang mo” style
• Generally acting like Western people, whatever that means
• Not knowing Chinese traditions and following Western kind of lifestyle

People can range from being mildy banana to extremely banana, not even a hint that they are Asian apart from the fact that they look slightly like Asians. It is not easy for bananas in this society, they may get comments like, “Now even ang mo lang (Westerners) learn Chinese, you are Chinese but don’t know Chinese!” or other worse comments.

Most Asian parents discourage their children from becoming bananas and ingrain Asian traditions and family values in them from a young age. However, it is inevitable in this age of globalisation that youngsters will be exposed to the way of life of the West, which has now generally become the way of life of the World.

Take this blog for example, a majority of us bloggers here are Chinese, but all the posts are in English. If we did not tell you that we are Chinese, would you have known from what and how we write? In most cases, I doubt so. Thus, are we bananas? Hmm.. that is an increasingly difficult question to answer.

Some of us here have learnt Chinese from a young age, studied at Chinese schools up until primary or secondary school. Yet somehow, many of us here prefer to communicate using English. But does that necessarily mean we forsake our Chinese origins? No.

Life for the new Generation Y is like a constant turmoil between choosing to be respectful of the traditions of our heritage and being forward thinking, and how much of each. Undoubtedly, there is a time and place for everything. During Chinese celebrations, we may still maintain quite a few traditions, and perhaps add in a few additions of our own. In everyday life however, we may not be so focused on these traditions. The elder generation may chide us for our “liberal” behaviour, but it can’t be help that situation has changed and thus people have to change too.

Ah well, life’s like that, complicated and I think I think too much for my own good sometimes. Which leads to posts like this…

*Listens around for the symphony of people snoring*

4.4 pounds past sanity

What happens when you eat too much of this…

And don’t get enough of this…

It's exercise by the way...

Shocking weight gain! I do hope it’s as I believe, that the scales have gone wonky. However, I have a sinking feeling that it does not lie. Although according to it, my brother has put on weight too. Hmm..

Alas, it is as I feared, working has made me gain weight, or perhaps changed my perception of weight. Remember my post in which I said that my surrounding my work place is a high concentration of beauty and slimming centres? Well, I think I may have somehow, subconsciously, succumbed to something along the way. Ok, I probably have to tone up more than slim down. But looking at all those skinny and tall girls walking about in the vicinity who work at those centres, sure makes you feel like a lumpy, thunder-thighed walrus even if you aren’t one.

They saunter around, you can see them around at lunch time or after work, though do they actually eat? And they always go around in pairs, always! Thin, well-groomed, make up done just so, legs looking further elongated by heels, hair tied up in a bun and never out of place, they really are walking advertisements. And eyes follow them wherever they go…

They are further identified by their uniforms, which are all so fitted that only the very slim can wear them, and the skirts are all pencil skirts, which we know are difficult to wear without making your hips look gigantic. Dark brown suit girls from Marie France Bodyline. Beige suits with dark brown buttons girls from Bella Skincare. Light beige suits with white trim girls from Clara International. Oohlala..

I rest my case. I might as well enjoy food in Kuching while I can, before going off to Kuala Lumpur for studies. If form 6 made me lose weight, I wonder if university would do the same, or worse.

Kuching on a nice and sunny day

There is somewhere public where you can catch amazing views of Kuching city. No, not Civic Centre, although that’s quite nice too. It’s the 9^th floor of the Medan Pelita, which is where Star Cineplex is. *CoughAgainIncludingNamesToGetMoreGoogleHitsCough* And yesterday, after watching Shrek 3 with my brother and sister, we wandered around while waiting for transport and found ourselves enjoying the scenery while people-watching, or in my brother’s case, car-watching from the 9^th floor.

From one side, you can see the “Golden Triangle” of Kuching, where the hotels and shopping plazas are with the beautiful greenery adding a soft touch to the “concrete jungle”. Here you can see the tallest building in Kuching, which if I’m not mistaken is Gateway, with that huge red OCBC Bank ad at its top.

Then another side, you could see the river, the old Main Bazaar shops and across the river, the Dewan Undangan Negeri building construction site, which looks huge. The building itself is next to the old Fort Magherita, a fort built during the English colonial era and which was later turned into the Police Museum. And a little further on it’s other side is the Astana, where the Governor of the state resides. Ah, what a contrast between old and new. All these buildings are along the Sarawak River, and opposite them is the Waterfront, very green, very nice looking from the top actually.

And if you move to the other side of the Medan Pelita building, you can see another different view. On a clear, sunny day like yesterday, you can see Matang Mountain in the far distance. Off to the left is the Merdeka Palace Hotel. And in front of you, you can see the old Bishop House (or is it Guesthouse?) surrounded by beautiful greenery and situated in the same grounds as the St Thomas Church. Next to that is actually a Chinese temple, not included in photo. In fact, if you look closely in this photo, you can even spot the golden domes of the mosque in the old town side of Kuching. See.. one photo in Kuching can supposedly capture places of worship of three different religions. But, that wasn’t my aim at that time, so hence I only have this to make do with.

So, this is Kuching for you, a mix of old and new, a place still grounded in rich history and culture yet forward looking, my hometown. Who wants to come over to Kuching for a visit? Rainforest World Music Festival is on from the 13^th to 15^th July, very good reason to come over. Haha. Somehow this has turned into a tourism promo…