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08/01/2006
Messy? Where got??
I am a mess. No, not mess as in mess but messy as in messy. Ppphhhttt, as if THAT made sense but I loathe the idea of calling myself messy so I will settle for calling myself ‘organized in a messy way’.
There.
Since I am going to be moving out to my own place next week (my grandmother found the PERFECT lucky date to move, so, there’s really no escaping. Unless I like the feeling of having a knife in my rear end planted there by well-meaning elderly people in my family – BOTH sides), I thought I’d write a little about housework, mundane and pain-in-the-butt chores like picking up your own clothes, doing your own laundry, sweeping your own floor, mopping the damn floor, wiping and dusting tabletops and computer tops and TVs and….see, I get even get TIRED writing about it. Plus, I have this sinus problem that makes it impossible for me to sweep or dust anything without popping a few blood vessels in my nostrils.
I’ve used my sinus problem as an excuse quite successfully over this lifetime but I guess I will no longer have a choice when I move out without my maid in tow.
Yeah, I have a maid but we’re leaving the maid with my mother-in-law since I am younger, more energetic and supposedly more able than her. Sometimes I question this logic. She may be older but if you look at my mother-in-law, you’ll see that apart from creaking knees, she moves without much effort around the house. In fact, she runs faster than me! But since all the families congregate in my mother-in-law’s place (my current residence) everyday, it would make sense to leave the maid here instead of having to get another maid and contend with another full-blown ‘How can this maid be so dense not to understand what ‘’o-oi’ and ‘mum-mum’ mean?’ problem. They don’t teach maids our baby-language (which they should, by the way) as in mum-mum means eat, shee-shee means pee, mm-mm means big business in toilet, o-oi means sleep…etc.
I think housework is a stupid chore. Why can’t we live in organized clutter? I mean, isn’t it OK if we all know where things are and where the broom, the mouse, the speaker phone, the handphone charger and the fork and spoons are? Isn’t that enough already? Do we have to live in hotel-like environment in order to function? Isn’t it enough that we have clean clothes to wear, half-decent shoes to put over our feet, and a home that does not smell like the insides of an ashtray? If not, then let's all move to Hyatt Saujana or something.
I mean, let’s look at it this way…you wipe, mop, sweet, vacuum…and whatever else it is that you do to a home….tonight, you go to sleep in a this sterile environment feeling extremely proud of yourself and then you wake up in the morning and there’s dust everywhere. DUST, DUST, DUST!! It’s frustrating because you’ve worked so hard to keep the place clean and then all you get is a night sleep without enjoying the cleanliness at all! Why bother?
My table is the messiest place in any place that I live or work. In the bank I used to work, I heard the receptionist say to my client when he came to visit me, “There, see the table with four piles of files stacked up on the front of the table? That’s Marsha’s table” You can’t see me coming in from the door because the files form a sort of protective wall from public eye. Eh, I like it this way, ok? But my office mates laugh at me and my boss asked me if I had enough space to write anything when I pile everything on top of my table and I say, “Sure”. But in the end, they got me a special second table where I pile MORE files on top of it. The extra table did not help me clear the original table but instead, I built a longer wall of files!
It is ironic that when I was living with my parents, I shared a bedroom with my sister. Now, she’s someone who is totally opposite of me! I couldn’t care less and she cares about everything - sad to say, she’s my YOUNGER sister. I make a mess, she cleans up. She puts her toiletries in organized compartments, mine can be found under the toilet bowl. She organizes her perfumes and lotions in sections, mine can be found dumped inside my underwear drawer. In fact, she’s so meticulous that she used to iron my school uniform when we were in school!! She complained but my mom has given up asking me to do the task because I was never home, anyway.
Now that I am married, my HUSBAND has taken over the role. He is the kind of person who WANTS and NEEDS to stay in a hotel-like home and don’t want to lift a finger to do anything! Therefore, in my personal, opinion, he should just take his ass to Indonesia and find himself a bride there! Harumph! Accordingly, many Indonesian women know how to clean a home (any home) with their eyes closed.
And as I was saying, housework is tedious and mindless. Why do housework when you know that everything is going to be messed up again – especially if you have kids? You put their toys back into their organized toy boxes with special labels, and the next minute they are everywhere again. Why bother folding the blankets and comforters when you know they’re going to be used again tonight? Why bother mopping when you know one of the kids are going to spill their VITAGENS on the floor again?
But even if my own personal space is cluttered, I have to keep the rest of the place clean and as organized as I possibly can. In other words, I will clean every other spaces that affects others. When it comes to my own space, leave it alone! I like the organized mess that I am living in right now.
Written in jest, of course. Sometimes, I DO wish someone would clean my mess up for me......any takers?
House cleaning tips
House-cleaning schedule (there’s a SCHEDULE??)
Springcleaning
Getting organized
Cleaning up after pets (Urgh!)
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
07:05 Posted in Being human , Blog , Ramblings , Women | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this | Tags: houswork, house work, clean, cleans, cleaning, cleanliness, chores, home
05/01/2006
One Now, One NESCAFE. One SMART advertising move...
I am probably the last person to ever say that I am the EXPERT in design and advertising. I am also the last person to say that I am damn near perfect when it comes to marketing, sales and promotion. But I have this knack of spotting a bad one. A self-proclaimed renowned critic? Don’t know why – born with tongue in cheek, I suppose.
Anyway, I hate most radio ads. Most of them are cliché, try-too-hard and absolutely horrible. But yesterday morning, I heard one of the best ads ever and the ad doesn’t say ANYTHING whatsoever, but it was one of the most impressive branding exercise EVER, EVER, EVER!!!
It’s the Nescafe “One Now” advertisement. That song that is full of energy and lyrics so well-written that it gave me goosebumps (really!). I can’t help bumping in the seat of my car and nodding my head to the rhythm of the song at drivers.
It’s brilliant. At one point in time, I thought Nescafe was a goner because of all those new brands of coffee to hit the market. The Ali Cafes and the Tongkat Alis, the Kopi O’s and the Teh Tariks….but no, in one single suave (and possibly expensive) move, Nescafe has repositioned itself as a leader among the young consumers (myself included – not young but ‘consumer, ok?).
You see, branding is very important to a company and its products. You don’t have to employ MANY different expensive tactics to get back on track but ONE SINGLE smart advertising move and you’re back in as a leader. Reminds me of Formula 1 and it IS a race – as far as a company is concerned.
So, out of the way Café 21, Nescafe is back in the game!
ADDITIONAL INFO
All coffee addicts, take a coffee quiz here!
Are there ANY benefits at all to drinking coffee? Isn’t caffeine known to be bad?
Coffee can help asthma?
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
03:30 Posted in Advertisement and design | Permalink | Comments (10) | Email this | Tags: coffee, nescafe, advertising, advertisement, critic, marketing, branding, brand
03/01/2006
61 seconds minute
Eh? Did ANYONE know that the first minute of 2006 was delayed by 1 second to accomodate the change of the rotation of the earth around the sun???? Did you? I sure didn't.
This is the first leap second ever! I knew only of leap month but never leap second. Funny. Hee hee hee.
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
21:15 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: earth, sun, moon, earth, leap, leap year, astrology, astronomy
Be CRUEL in order to be KIND
It’s the new year, the end of holidays for Malaysian kids and the beginning of a harrowing experience for new students – and the teachers! You won’t envy their job at the beginning of the year – especially if they’re teaching NURSERY.
Anyway, under normal circumstance, Jared is quite independent although sometimes quite clinghy, but he’s adapted to his school environment and understands the concept of ‘mommy coming back for you later’.
But the sad thing is that while he has adapted to his old school, he’s in a new school this year. We’re moving to a new condo this month (probably mid or end of the month) and it would be more convenient for both Joshua and Jared to attend the same school. Hence, I’ve taken Jared out from his old school and both my boys are enrolled with the same school.
I know I half expected Jared to accept the fact that he’s in a new school with new teachers and new friends easily…but that was naïve and wishful thinking. He cried and bawled senselessly and refused to quite down. The moment I said, “Mommy will come back for you later, ok?”, he would grab my thigh and cling dramatically to my leg.
But I’ve seen Joshua do this before and Jared wasn’t exactly easy going when he first started school, so, I know for a fact that you have to be cruel in order to be kind. You see, I remember the second day of Joshua’s school year (first time entering school and all) where he was thrashing around on the floor of the kindergarten when I tried to leave. His teacher tried to pick him up and he gave his teacher a nasty bonk on the nose! But the teachers assured me that he will be alright in 5 minutes. I wasn’t too sure. I stuck around outside, playing pink panther hiding behind trees and slides, spying on the status of my little boy in school.
Well, Joshua can throw a worse tantrum that any other kid I know, so, I was worried the teacher was going to peg him to the door by the back of his uniform or something. But none of that happened, of course. What actually happened was that, I spent approximately 10 minutes in hiding outside watching his eyes, nose and ears turn red with crying and then suddenly, like something snapped, he stopped, looked around and realized that HECK, mom’s stopped coming in the door….so…..the drama can stop too.
And with amazement, I watched as he colored stuff. Occasionally, he turned around towards the door and the teacher stops him. He sniffs and cries pitifully again but then always resumes his position and started doing some work again. That was the second day. He cried a total of 1 hour, I think. The third day, he cried all of ten minutes and even sang some songs. The fourth day, he sniffed at the door but waved goodbye as I drove away. And the fifth day…is history. When I changed him to a new school, he didn’t really cry either.
Jared, on the other hand, is a little bit younger than Joshua when the transition was made. Yesterday was traumatic because I hung around. Today, I went in, took him to class, spent 2 minutes reassuring him that I will be back and then just left. I heard his bawling and his ‘I want to go home!’ and ‘I want my mommy!’ but decidedly and purposefully walked out of the door.
In the case of first day of school jitters, let me issue a reminder to all parents – make the life of the teachers and the children easier. The longer you hang around, the worse it will be. Trust me, the moment you turn around, they’re going to adapt.
A very sordid scenario and example of how to be CRUEL in order to be KIND. If you love your child and want him to stop crying, turn around, walk out of the door, shut your ears and then don’t look back.
Oh, you can promise gifts and presents if you want but- after school and if there’s no crying. Works every time!!!
03:25 Posted in Family | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: school, kids, schooling, family, children, teacher, teachers, start school
02/01/2006
Oh, Mother!!
Excerpt article taken from crimelibrary.com
For entire article, click here
Monstrous Mothers
"We're still blaming mothers." - Joyce Flint, Dahmer's mother
It all seems to begin or end with Mother. Henry Lee Lucas launched his murderous career by killing his mom; Ed Kemper ended his by killing his mom. Even the Shakespearian multiple murderer Hamlet had an unnatural obsession with his mother's sexuality. "Serial murderers are frequently found to have unusual or unnatural relationships with their mothers," notes Steven Egger in his book The Killers Among Us. In our culture, the imposing image of "Mother" looms large in our collective psyches, and some writers easily accept that these killers are lashing out at maternal tyranny. If these murderers are still dominated by Mother (Hitchcock's Norman Bates is the archetype), then it is easy to dismiss them as "mama's boys" who never fully matured. Perhaps we find comfort in this cliche -- the mother is a readymade excuse, particularly in our contemporary era of obsessive parenting. Yet, as we look at some of the techniques of the serial killers' mothers, we are inclined to see a deadly link between the womb and the tomb.
Marsha’s take
I have to admit that I agree with the above observation and is keen to conclude that mothers (as opposed to fathers) play a foundational and defining role in the life and growth of a child. Most criminals cite disparity or discouragement from their mothers which grew into hatred or abnormal behavior.
Which scares me…..
There’s so much pressure to perform as a mother that sometimes you don’t know what to do anymore. Should we, mothers, be strict or lenient? If we are strict, we might over-pressure them. If we are too lenient, we might spoil them or raise an overconfident child. (Murderous monsters are sometimes OVERconfident). Should we punish them or let things slide? If we punish them, they might become vengeful or hateful. If we let things slide, they might think that it’s easy to get away with…no pun intended…murder.
The role of a mother
I’ve often said that the role of the mother is a nurturer, caretaker, love-giver, wound-kisser, bubble-blower and cheerleader. There are many other types of roles that a mother has to take on too in real life, but in my eyes, these are the most important roles that a mother has to take on. And they are BIG roles.
Sometimes I sit back and think about the punishments that I’ve meted out on my own children and wonder if I’ve SPOILT the whole thing. I desperately want to raise a good child, a loving, caring, confident, law-abiding, successful child…but the pressure is to high and hot all the time.
What about the role of a dad?
The role of the dad
The conventional role of a father is to be the breadwinner. He is often described as a distant figure that the children don’t know very well. He surfs the TV, sits around watching TV or reading the papers after dinner while mother clamors around cleaning up and basically doing everything at the whim and fancy of father and children. The father sometimes drinks, goes in and out of the house as he likes. The father is also sometimes described as abusive and strict people who talks and listens very little in the house.
Although this picture is not entirely correct in this modern age and era, I find that in Asian households, this picture, while may not be 100% accurate, hits quite close to the mark. The father, despite their minor role in the familial setting, affects the child’s performance in school, hobbies, happiness, interests, and ability to love others unconditionally.
Therefore, if the father DID play a larger role in the lives of their children, the children stand a better chance of being successful and building strong and long-lasting relationships with others.
03:00 Posted in Being human | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: mother, father, mom, dad, mommy, daddy, parent, parenting