11/03/2006
Penerbitan Filem Negara Malaysia
I am like….Oh My God!!! I was watching 8tv a moment ago and then you know what? I saw this ‘message’ from the Government of Malaysia produced by Filem Negara Malaysia educating people about how to prevent snatch theft and it was OH SO EFFECTIVE. The police who went on air was an officer by the name of ‘Mohamad’ (don’t even think it’s his real name) and he was like looking into the camera, looking at the script, looking at the camera, looking at the script, pause, look at script again, look at camera….
Sad to say, the quality of the clips or films produced by Filem Negara Malaysia (FNM) sucks to high Heaven. I know I am using a lot of religiously sensitive words but this blog is categorized under ‘ramblings’ and I can ramble on, right? Don’t read if you don’t like swearing. :-)
I mean, they’ve had all those years to improve. Even the Malaysian film industry have changed…they’ve progressed. We pay taxes and they get loads of money from the government, right? Where’d it all go? Can’t they like….do SOMETHING….ANYTHING to improve the quality of the film they produce?
Honestly? It looks like something even I can do, you know what I mean? You have that Windows Movie Maker on your computer, right? I bet you can come up with something better. With a better actor, of course. Try training your kids to do it. I believe they can do a better job than that Mohamad guy.
And besides, all they (that Mohamad guy) said was to carry as little money as possible (we have credit cards these days), don’t show your money to other people (OF COURSE, duh???) and keep your handbag or purse very close your personal self (aaarrrrggghhhh!!!).
Oy, make some sense, can or not? If you want to educate people about how to prevent snatch theft, tell us something useful, something we don’t already know. GET IT????
18:48 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
10/03/2006
Rambles on
Judging from writing style, you will understand why I say I am fighting for every single second in a day. Every single second counts. Sitting down, lying down doing nothing, dreaming and surfing around aimlessly on the Internet is out of the question. Absolutely so. But….
Lydia made me do it. Tried the “Desperate Housewives’ test although never watched it before. No time. But I am technically now partially (most of the time) a housewife struggling to find time to fulfill my business obligations…so, why the heck not??
RESULT:
You gave up a great job for this? No one really appreciates you, and yet you slog on, with very little sleep and very little thanks. Who can blame you when you occasionally lose it? Hang in there. Just lay off the Ritalin.
How true, how true. But….what’s Ritalin. Might want to give it a shot if it helps. J
Wanna try the quiz yourself? Go here…
http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/quiz/index.html
On familial front….
Jared fascinated with sunglasses – he’s a vampire, you see. He’ll hide under my shirt whenever we go out into the sun. We found old his old sunglass and he decides to wear in everywhere he goes. Night time, I told him he can’t wear it because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to see where he’s going. He said, “But mom, I can use my mind”. Absentmindedly I said, “I can’t use my mind to see, honey” and he said, “Oh, mom, you can use MY mind. I can see with my mind, mom”
What a laugh I had.
In the meantime, Joshua is going through this…’ghostests and monsters are hiding under my bed’ phase. He’s never had this problem before…well, ok, he occasionally is scared by stuff (like me, easily scared and overactive imagination and all that) but never this bad. Well, thanks to Scooby-dooby-doo. He’s watched it a couple of times with his cousins and now he thinks red-eyed skeletons with sagging green skin is hiding behind every door and translucent hands are going to come out from mirrors.
He’s never going to watch that show again. EVER if I had it my way.
03:40 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
02/03/2006
Got in, no out! What kind of stupid intelligent machine is THAT?
I am sort of…no, right off the bat fuming because of a so-called intelligent vending machine provided by TIME Kontact. I’ve never, in all honesty seen a dumber vending machine. Ok, for all of you who are not familiar with TIME, TIME is a Telecommunications company offering a large variety of communication services from Internet to telephone services. Since I am not particularly happy with their services at the moment, I’ll stop right here. Don’t want to give them free advertisement.
Anyway, TIME provides a sort of vending machine that dispenses prepaid cards for our mobile phones. My maid wanted to reload her mobile phone air time and there just so happens to be one of those vending machines beside my Condo’s admin office. It said there, “Please insert exact amount. Does not return change”. Fine and dandy. This happens all the time everywhere, right? So, since my maid wanted to purchase a RM10 reload card, we placed 2 RM5 bills in (new ones, the glossy type) and the notes were instantly rejected.
That’s stupidity No. 1 – How outdated can a vending machine be when it doesn’t recognize Malaysia’s latest legal money format? TIME doesn’t even bother altering their vending machines?
Never mind, we placed a RM10 bill into the machine and then we realized that the lights on the machine were very dim. And we can’t see the ‘SOLD OUT’ beside the reload coupon that my maid wanted to buy. DAMN!
That’s stupidity No. 2 – You expect your customers to only buy your reload cards in the night time, is it? If that is so, place another warning sign there….”PURCHASE ONLY AT NIGHT. DIM LIGHTS ON DIM MACHINE!”
OK, so, since they are not going to return the money to us (can go in, cannot go out, right?) so, we have to buy something. So, I decided to purchase a reload card for MY phone this time. We carefully checked the lights and saw that the ‘SOLD OUT’ sign beside the reload card that I want to buy is off, so, good news there.
Aaahhh…but the bad news is that I want to buy the RM50 reload card and we already have RM10 in pits of this stupid machine, right? So, I need to place 4 RM10 notes into the machine, right? But the problem was, I didn’t have 4 RM10 with me. I had RM50 notes with me. And they didn’t take RM5 notes, remember? I sauntered sweetly into the admin office and asked them to break my RM50 into 5 RM10s. They did.
I came back out and checked the small little screen and it says there “Credit: RM0.00”. What in the world…..???? What happened to the RM10 we placed into the machine? My maid and me stared at each other in befuddlement and confusion. We contemplated….did we or did we not place the money into the vending machine. The kids were running around making a heck of a noise outside the admin office and maybe we forgot that we took the money back. Erm…but that’s not possible because there’s IN for the machine and no OUT.
Logical explanation would be, the money is still inside.
At this point, one of the admin staff in the office walked out and asked us if the money swallowed the money AGAIN? And we were like….”What? This is what the machine usually does? Eat money?” She smiled and nods forlornly.
“After you insert your money into the machine, you must quickly select the option. Otherwise, the machine will just take your money. End of story”, she explained. “Lots of people complained about this machine and we are getting the people to come back and take this machine away instead of causing so much trouble here”.
Stupidity No. 3 – Inactivity for certain period of time = donation. Heck, if I wanted to donate money, I would donate it some poor fellow who actually deserves the freaking money, ok? For cripes’ sake, what kind of a stupid machine is this?
First, it doesn’t return change. Second, it doesn’t recognize Malaysia’s latest notes. Thirdly, the machine operates completely right only in the night because in the day time, you have to, like, cup your hands beside your face and squint into the machine to see whether the SOLD OUT sign is lit or not. Fourthly, they take your money if you don’t act quickly enough! So, slowpokes should not buy from TIME vending machine.
TIME is doing brilliantly in pissing people like me off, man! Buck up or you’re going down for sure, TIME.
08:25 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this | Tags: vending machine, angry, sold out, TIME, Kontact, prepaid cards, reload, mobile phone
17/02/2006
Irony hits man on the head
I was reading the papers today (which is rare because I think newspaper is a bearer of bad news) and read something that struck me as ironic. Remember the song ‘ironic’ by Alanais Morisette some eons ago? That song about how you find a fly in your Chardonay, rain on your wedding day, a man who was afraid to die die in his first plane ride…etc?
Well, today, a cancer patient died on his way to the hospital. It’s probably like God telling him, “Hey, here’s a gift from me to you. Die quickly instead of slowly”.
Cancer, as we know, is a very slow and cruel killer. If one was to die, one would rather it be quick and relatively painless. Well, for it to be completely painless would have to mean that you die when you’re already dead. Make sense? No? Too bad. But the thing is that if human beings had a choice between dying of cancer or dying in a car accident, I suppose many would rather die in a car accident. Choi Kor Lei Tai Kat Lai See (Cantonese Touch Wood)…I know.
But suppose this man had a chance to live? I wonder what the report would say after the checkup? Would the doctor say, “Mr. so-and-so, sorry but we made a really stupid mistake. There’s nothing wrong with you. The report we gave you belongs to someone else”.
But I guess we’ll never know now since he’s dead before he made it for the checkup. Ironic, eh?
18:55 Posted in Being human , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: irony, ironic, life, living, health, cancer, patient, die
07/02/2006
Much ado about lion dances...
Forget the mandarin oranges, they stink up a car or lift. Forget the ang pows, they’re nothing but $2 worth of red paper meant to be thrown away, anyway. Forget about the cakes and cookies, they make you fat.
Now, lion dances…. THAT’s what Chinese New Year is all about. I don’t know whether I’ve written about lion dances before or not…like last Chinese New Year but every year, they awe me. These young blokes dressed in tight shirts, long baggy pants looking all prancy and loose are something. They’re really something.
The Lion Dance dates as far back as the Ching and Haan Dynasties and they are performed to bring ward off the evil, bring good luck, prosperity, health and happiness to the people who gather around to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at them. I have to admit that I am one of those who gasp when they perform something tricky. I am also one of those who clap loudly and cheer like a kid when their leap is as high as a two-storey building! No kidding. I mean, my sister-in-law was telling me that last year, the front guy into the air and the head of the lion hit the bottom of the second floor bridge and both fell off the poles. But thanks to their Kung-Fu training, they know, better than anyone else, how to FALL properly.
The grace and agility of those lion dancers are absolutely magnificent. There’s nothing easy about the way they leap from one pole to another, balancing like a ballerina (only more masculine, rougher and faster) crouch and STILL remembering to move those ears and eyes. A lion dance is more than just a display of agility and strength. It’s drama too. The lions express fear, apprehension, anxiety, happiness, jubilance and anger. The lion dancers skillfully and artfully control the lion’s actions without forgetting where to jump to next.
Many people were busy throwing ang pows at the lions and picking up mandarins when I saw a few of the troop members come up with extra boxes of mandarins behind the dancer on the back. They were running out of mandarins to throw out. So, these members pass the oranges to the back person and the back person passes it on to the front person. And the front person throws the mandarins out of the lion’s mouth!
And did you know that there are different types of lion dances? I didn’t but I DID notice that some lions are different.
<the Southern Lion>
The Southern Lion Dance and the Northern Lion Dance. I personally like the Southern Lion Dance better. Although it’s not more realistic but because of the way the lion is shaped and designed (with as few restrictions to movement as possible), the performance is always more amazing! The Southern Lion may ‘look’ more realistic (I don’t know about that – I’ve never SEEN a dragon before, have I?) but the Northern Lion merely prances around and is often have limited capabilities. And they’re just not as pretty.
<To the right, the Northern Lion>
My favorite part of the whole Lion Dance performance is usually the time when the Lion is trying to grab (albeit, eat) the choy cheng. That’s the payment for the lion dance, by the way. For those who are unfamiliar, among all those poles, one of them has some vegetables and red packet containing money (payment for the performance) in it. The Lion will take the payment by ‘eating’ the vegetable (and the payment). Hee hee! But that’s not what I am interested in. I am more intrigued by the drama that leads to the ‘eating’. The Lion will climb the poles and see the ‘chow cheng’. And then approaches the ‘choy cheng’ very carefully and apprehensively. Many times, the lion will stop and look around, wonder if it’s safe or not to take the ‘choy cheng’. It will hesitate, look around, turn around, jump back, come forward again…etc, just to be sure that the ‘choy cheng’ is safe to take. And then the Lion will perform a very special ‘3 star’ routine to be sure that no one is there to take the choy cheng from it, ward off others who may be nearby and then grab the ‘choy cheng’.
Such drama. I love it!! There’s one at my new condo tomorrow. I won’t miss it for the world.
19:55 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: lion dance, chinese new year, cny, lion dancers, performance, perform, performs, lions
06/02/2006
Things I recently learnt living on my own
Things I learnt after moving out of the safe confines of in-laws’ home and my own home.
1. When using plastic gloves to wash dishes, you lose the use of your touch (feel) faculty. Use eyes when washing dishes.
2. Dust is not only on your PC. Dust is EVERYWHERE.
3. Ants are hateful creatures. Worse than vultures! And worse yet, they are also very vengeful. Kill one hundred of their brothers (or sisters), a thousand of their kind will come raid your kitchen and dustbins. Thankfully, ants are not very smart creatures. They don’t know and can’t remember what a mortein (insect killer) can looks like.
4. It takes so painfully long to cook, and very short time to eat (spill, throw, stuff in fridge)
5. Each component in a cuisine (albeit dish) is delicately handcrafted by an art master. Read: Have to cut carrot, potato, onion, garlic, vegetable, and whateverelsethereisinthedumbdish each one individually one meh? Cannot cut all at one go?? Someone should design something like this.
6. There’s a very important reason why knives are made sharp – they CUT!!! Wash and use carefully.
7. Clothes don’t wash, dry, fold and return themselves to closet without human intervention
8. The toilet don’t flush, wash and clean itself. Keep soap at safe height.
9. One can actually get bored of canned food. (amazing discovery here. I thought we could actually feed the kids canned food until they are 18)
10. Food doesn’t grow in fridges and freezers.
08:50 Posted in Being human , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: live, life, living, own, home, house, family, families
04/02/2006
Mom, why English is so hard?
It continues to bug me, despite my best efforts, that my kids are not avid readers. It bugs me BIG time! How come, how come, how come? You see, ever since I was very young, I’ve always read a lot and if you can’t find me, it’s because I am hiding somewhere reading my novels at high speed fantasizing and immersed in my own world of princes and princesses, thanks to a heavy dose of Enid Blyton. I sincerely believed that, at one point in time, if I wished hard enough, I could actually make a bed fly and whoosh around. I honestly thought that goblins and fairies DID exist. Oh, the countless times I sat outside in the wee hours of the morning looking out of the window wondering if a fairy was slumbering under closed flower petals.
And yet, why oh why can’t my children find the same joy I did when I was a kid.
It seems that Joshua (in particular) is a very visual person. Ask him to sketch something out and he would, without much hesitation, ink out a picture of whatever it is that you’ve just mentioned – be it flying dragons or triceratops-robot-cars, whatever! He’s very cartoon-ish in his drawing as well – with those tell-tale signs of clouds behind someone who is running very fast, and bubbles around wrongly-spelt words to show that the character is thinking or talking.
English. A very funny language indeed. With Chinese, you recognize the character once and for all – and that’s that. No two ways about it. With Bahasa Melayu (Malaysia’s national language), B-A is Ba (as in goat and sheep Baa Baa), P-U is Poo, T-O is Toe…etc. But with English, it’s a little bit more different.
You see, it’s hard to explain to a kid how come things are different all the time. Sometimes you have double Ts and sometimes not. sometimes you need two Ss and sometimes you don’t. sometimes Chair and Mare rhymes but they are not spelt the same. How come you add a T at the end of ‘Go’ and it’s not ‘Goat’. This is the problem I have with tutoring Joshua.
It’s sad because, as a writer, I am thinking to myself, ‘Teaching my own kids to read and write in English should be a breeze because I am like such a PRO (Cough! Cough!), right?’ PRO-fectly wrong. I am not a PRO, of course, because I make so many mistakes in my grammar and writing that I wince, sometimes, after writing some stuff for my clients. I am particularly bad with punctuations and I think it will be a challenge in the future if I decide to pursue this tutoring thing with my own kids. I am not the best English teacher on the planet – no, wait. I am not teacher material – period.
Or maybe I am a good teacher (because I used to tutor other kids and did a credible job at that) but just not to my own kids.
Or maybe it’s best that I just teach whatever I DON’T like or have NO passion for…like maths instead of something that I like so much – the English Language. Bah, I think I’ll just teach my kids how to enjoy life, have fun, live with wild abandon and shun responsibilities. Hhhmmmm….I think I won’t have a problem with that at all.
02:05 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: English, english, read, reads, reading, book, books, teach
02/02/2006
Woe the holidays
I wonder if I am the only one on the planet that feels like holidays are…such a complete waste of time. Admittedly, I am one of those workaholics who cannot sit, stand, lie or squat still for a very long time. No, not a hyperactive person, but I do like being useful or doing something.
Therefore, holidays are always a bore to me. Strangely enough, when I was in school, I would end up going to school just to play or practice something. You know, in school, we always have this extra-curricular stuff going at one point or the other. And when I was working, I would end up spending more hours in the office during holidays than during the normal working days! Strange creature…me.
And it’s no different now that I am a mother and freelancer.
Having the kids home with me all the time is god-send. I mean, this is what I want – to have them with me and I have all the time in the world to spend with them, tickle them and play catch with them, enjoy their laughter and also to break up their fights. But heck, when in the world is the holiday going to end??!!! I have to get them out of my hair soon otherwise, I am never going to get any work done at all!
Sadly, even during the Chinese New Year, when just about every single Chinese in the world is taking a holiday or enjoying themselves, I am here, mulling over websites, articles and brochures!
Am I the only person in the world who doesn’t like holidays?
In fact, I spend so much more money during the holidays because I have to take the kids out all the time – they get bored pretty easily sitting at home, it seems. So, there we go strolling aimlessly around every shopping mall nearby and breaking every see saw and swing in every garden we find, stuffing our faces with pizzas, spaghettis, lasagnas and other out-of-the-budget food during the holidays is….well, something I can do without.
I can’t wait for school to start so that they can have their life back (they might disagree with me) and get off Astro Playhouse Disney and Cartoon Network and I can get some things done here. Otherwise, my clients are going to have my sorry behind for dinner!
08:55 Posted in Being human , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: work, holidays, holidays, kid, kids, family
30/01/2006
Mom of boys
First, read this. It’s an excerpt from Sure Signs you’re the mother of boys by Sharon O’Donnell. I am quite picky about who I like as a writer and for me, Sharon O’Donnell has this way of writing that either touches you or tickles you. Everything that she writes about parenting and being a mother is so true that it makes you want to cry!
Excerpts from: Sure Signs You’re the Mother of Boys
by Sharon O’Donnell
- you find Power Ranger parts under your sofa. Sometimes your vacuum cleaner finds them first.
- your weekend schedule includes more total hours of little league sports than it does sleep
- they think PMS is the new Play Station video game system
- you have to chase down the playful family dog to retrieve your son’s jock strap
- the most romantic movie you’ve watched in the last five years is DieHard II
- you have to arrange two weeks ahead of time to take a bubble bath – and then must lock the door and scream “I’m in the tub – ask Dad!” every three minutes.
I not only find Power Ranger parts under the sofa, I find it in my underwear drawer, in the fridge in the wok and many other unimaginable places. And I have not been able to find the time to sit down to plan the next five minutes….a bath? Out of the question!! The only bath I get these days is in the condo pool. And I don’t think they allow red wine there….
14:00 Posted in Blog , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: mom, moms, mother, mothers, motherhood, parent, parenting, parents
20/01/2006
Sand Paper hands
It’s been…what…6 days since I moved out of the safe confines of my in-laws’ home. Gone are the days where you sleep until there’s food on the table. Gone are the days where you surf the net until someone tells you it’s time to fetch the kids. Gone are the days of peacefully working behind the computer while the kids entertain themselves with other cousins.
I have spent 90% of the time in this new apartment washing one thing or another. It’s amazing! Every time I finish washing something, there’s something else to wash. The kids have this radar thing going too – when the floor is clean, their radar spots it and they run around in the clean area until it’s dirty again.
My fingers are coarse like sand paper and no amount of lotion is going to repair this!!! My back aches. My nails are chipped. I call out ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jared’ in my sleep. I’ve pissed off at least 6 clients because of this house moving thing that has taken FOREVER!!! And I almost poisoned the whole family with overnight ikan bilis (anchovies) broth left wrongly in the refrigerator instead of the freezer!
So far, everything’s really…..swell?
13:35 Posted in Blog , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this | Tags: moving, move, shift, shifting, clean, cleanliness, dirty, new house
14/01/2006
Who’s the worse driver?
Remember the age-old accusation of cursing at a road hogger as Auntie, Uncle, Woman driver? Well, apparently, the world has changed so much that the automatic accusations we’re so accustomed to before…no longer applies. I remember when I first got my driving license, I drove so slow that a child on a tricycle overtook me. I refused to press the horn and think that everyone (THE REST OF THE WORLD) should patiently snail along behind me. I give them a nice little finger gesture if they dare honk their horn. Road hogging was, not yet, an offence. I am not particularly sure whether road hogging is an offense today or not – I am not interested to find out, anyway.
Things took a slight change when my mother learnt how to drive. Say, if I had my mother in the passenger seat and I was driving, if I dare shout, “Oy, Auntie, drive faster lah!”, my mother will turn around and glare at me. “Why you got no patience and no consideration one?”
“Er….mom, that was like 20KMP? Not slow meh?”
“Be nice, just wait lah. We’re not in a hurry. And don’t honk”
So, out the window went the accusation.
My driving slowed down ever since I got my kids, as with many other mothers out there. Once you have kids in the car, the brakes are used more often than the accelerator. And today, I was driving to a popular mall at around 60KMP and rounding a mighty tough bend when I heard a honk from behind. I frowned….”What in the world was that for?”
I looked into the rear view mirror and there was thing young lady with tudung sitting behind the wheel thumping her steering wheel impatiently! Oh gee! 60KMP is not to slow, young lady and mind your manners!
I continued the pace and kept the car from swerving. My kids have this tendency of telling me when I am driving too fast – they’re busy pretending to be Power Rangers or Ultramans in the backseat and if I turn a corner too fast, they won’t be able to FIGHT nicely. And angry or injured kids in a car is a death wish.
So, I kept my eye on the rear view mirror noticing that the lady was trying to overtake me but the consistent flow of cars from the right kept her from doing so. As soon as the last car on the right went past, she literally bucked out of the left lane, sped up to my right, glared at me, gave me her middle finger and mouthed the word that looked a lot like “Auntie!”
Boy, was I shocked. Auntie? Oh wait, yes, I am probably auntie by her standards, huh? But hey, this Auntie is not a road hogger. I think even a decent driver can tell you that 60 is not too slow a speed to take when rounding a bend! What in the world has happened to polite young ladies who drive at the speed of snail? From the look of the lady, she was no more than 23, dressed in traditional clothing – but boy, looks can be deceiving.
The speed limit by which we use to gauge an ‘auntie’, ‘uncle’ or ‘woman’ driver last decade no longer applies. It seems that the limit has been raised and we all need to be in a rush just to avoid being honked at. And last but not least, there’s no such thing as a ‘woman’ driver anymore. Decently dressed woman drivers are now as fast (and impatient) as their male counterparts.
That leaves us the auntie and uncle drivers.
19:55 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: drive, driving, drives, driver, bad driving, people, blog, human
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
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
31/12/2005
2006….a new year…AGAIN!
Here we go again…another new year, another beginning….a whole new barrage of resolutions and hopes and wishful thinkings. Of course, I am only saying this because I have been resolutely making resolutions for the last 15 years and only one time hitting one target. But I continue making these resolutions because it gives me hope and hope that some day, I will hit more than just one of those darn hard-to-hit targets.
New Home. My own home
I made this resolution consistently over the past 6 years and only this year, it’s realized. I am finally moving out into my new home. although the circumstances under which the new home was obtained (nothing illegal, I can’t very well STEAL a condo from someone, can I?) is less than ideal, it’s still my new home. a home for the kids. My own place.
Quit smoking.
Yes I smoke. Horrible, isn’t it? After all those years of making this resolution, I am still here…making this resolution. So, in year 2006, I WILL frigging stop smoking. I managed to bring the number of ciggies I smoke less now but heck, I just wish that one fine morning, I would wake up without needing my first morning cigarette. I wish that I didn’t have the need to have one last smoke before my head hits the pillows.
Encourage more people to work from home.
Now, this is only the second year that I am making this resolution. In 2005, about 6 of my friends or acquaintances have decided to trade in their office suits or a work at home career. I say HURRAY to them. This year, I hope I will be able to influence others, including my own sister, cousins and good friends, to work from home so that they can spend more time raising their own kids or be with their loved ones.
Finish 2 books
I have 2 books in the pipeline and I hope to finish them off this year and get them published.
Have more time
Funny, isn’t it? When you think of people working from home, you think they have all the time in the world. They don’t. they have less time, actually. So, this year, I want to have more time to myself and my kids instead of slogging it out 24 hours a day in front of the computer for my clients.
Continue gym. – very important to keep healthy body.
Be clothes horse – Yeah….right.
Visit my grandmother - She’s not feeling too well. Dad says she doesn’t have a lot of time on her clock.
Build more partnerships so that I don’t have to do so many things at once!!!
Make more money – Of course! Duh!
03:15 Posted in Blog , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (13) | Email this | Tags: new year, resolution, 2006, hope, wish, resolutions, new year resolutions
23/12/2005
Ai yo yo!! Not another one!
I was browsing through a newspaper (The Star but don’t know what day) just about 5 minutes or so ago and couldn’t stop myself from doing a headslap. There’s something new for Malaysian viewers to watch and guess what….it’s ANOTHER reality show! My goodness, isn’t this an overload…and maybe overkill? Aren’t we all bored with the astronomous number of reality shows we have now.
This time, it’s a ‘football’ reality show. And then that’s not all – there’s another talent search show!
I am bored of watching reality shows and talent searches. I have to admit that I watched a lot of reality shows but when they started creating Millionaire-looking-for-wife reality shows and plastic surgery reality shows, I tuned out. This is WAY overboard. What, wouldn’t you start thinking whether the next type of reality shows would be along the lines of a woman or man testing out how good a person is in bed or something? It’s ridiculous and inconceivable!
And here we are….yet again, with another reality show with only one aim, to bring the advertisers in and lure the consumers to sit down and watch the show….oh, and the ads.
Marsha
19:25 Posted in Blog , Leisure , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: reality show, tv, shows, movies, leisure, television, advertising, talent search
19/12/2005
Guitar is a musical instrument too…isn’t it?
I love the piano and have spent my childhood days dreaming about playing wondering music and composing songs. Because I have this gift musically, I didn’t speak to my parents for close to a week, I think, because they sold my organ off. I didn’t know then but now I do – my parents had financial problems and selling off the piano was an option I think they didn’t want to (but have to) make.
But I swear to you…I was the maddest kid on the block for a long, long, LONG time!!
So, off Joshua goes to music class. This is not the first time he’s going to attend music class. The first music class he went to was under Musikgarten program. I have very good reviews about Musikgarten but they teach a whole lot of singing, dancing and drama in the classes. So, after about a year of classes under Musikgarten, I suppose I decided that Joshua’s reaped enough benefits through their program. In attending the music class, he’s come out of his very solitary shell and has become more confident and vocal about things. Like when I shout at him unreasonably (bad PMS mom in action), he will sniff silently and tell me, “Mom, you shouldn’t just simply shout at me”. The first time he told me that, it stunned me silent. Then I ran to him and gave him a big hug, telling him, “You’re right, Josh. I shouldn’t. I am so, so, sorry!”
And yet when I went to the music class with Josh and he stares at a young teen playing a guitar in the shop (probably practicing before class), he pointed at the teen and told me. “I think I want to learn how to play the guitar”.
My first thought was….”What? You don’t want to play the piano? Why not? it makes a beautiful sound and I like the piano and I desperately want to learn how to play the piano. Why not you?”
Then I snapped out of the dream-state and said to Josh, “Sure thing, Josh. You’re a little bit young for the guitar but let me try to sweet-talk your new teacher in accepting you as a student, ok?” And my sweet talk worked.
I got past myself in accepting the fact that my son is not playing the conventional piano but others have not.
A certain relative and her husband snigger and chuckle every time they see me and Josh lugging the guitar around. They’re like saying, “You’re really serious about this? What makes you think you can do this? Josh? Playing the guitar? Why not the piano? It’s not going to work, Marsha”
But they’re not the only one, elderly people have this ingrained perception that the guitar is not a proper musical instrument too. They continue to think and imagine the guitar as the kind of toy people bring around and strum aimlessly on during campfires. But with a piano, you can make a living, you can play in an orchestra or become someone….prominent. With a guitar, you don’t.
Eh, you never heard of Santana or Four Play, is it? They make bigger buckaroos than those people in orchestra, I would like to assume.
So, I say, let Josh make the decision. If he wants to switch to another musical instrument later on, let him. Don’t tell him he can’t without letting him try, right?
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
www.creativejooz.com
www.allmomstuff.com
01:15 Posted in Family , Music , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
07/12/2005
Oh, you’re good for nothing
I don’t believe in good for nothing.
I was walking down the aisle of a large supermarket when I heard a mother hissing to her crying child, “Good for nothing! Nothing! You better stop this now or I will leave you with the police man”. Not that I am angel when it comes to being a parent to my kids. Sometimes, I falter too and I will yell and shout and throw a massive, scary temper and my kids would cower in fright thinking that their mom was going crazy. Hey, I am human, amn’t I?
But I would never call my kids stupid or good for nothing.
For one thing, I sincerely believe that education is important – but it’s not everything. We, as parents, have to carry this grave responsibility of providing our children with education. Not only do we have to fund it, we have to ensure that they learn whatever they can learn from the education system so that they can benefit from it later on in life.
Knowledge is a funnel.
A funnel whereby information can flow into and train a mind to think and react in a certain knowledgeable way. It’s important.
But frankly, I don’t think it’s everything.
Listening to their cues
What’s more important to us, parents, is the listening skill, not directing or bossing skill. We need to learn how to take cues from our kids, open up gates and doors and let them explore and watch them. Watch how they are taking in the vast opportunities that are being presented to them. Do they like it? Are they interested? Is this their calling? Is this their gift? This is what goes through my mind whenever I introduce something new to my kids. We, parents, should not try to force something…ANYTHING…on to our kids.
As much as I hate being forced to do something (I quit the banking world for a reason, didn’t I?), I won’t force my kids to do something that they don’t like. Of course, there are things that they HAVE to do (like homework, cleaning up, showering, good manners…etc), I also have to bear the responsibility of ensuring that they are well disciplined and yet free to explore the world. But in other respects non-related to their safety and general well-being, force is not my style.
Even the worst kid in school can do well
I believe we all know of geniuses who have made it far beyond our human comprehension. People who we, today, claim as geniuses were called ‘buffoons’ in their early days. Let’s take Albert Einstein as an example. His teacher thought he was a complete loser and yet today, the world think and knows FOR A FACT that he is and was a genius. Even in death, he made a difference not only in his own life…but to the rest of the world too.
While we should not expect our child to be Einstein or paint like Da Vinci, we should always be on a lookout for their gift.
The gift…everyone has one
Everyone has a gift, God is fair. One person may fare well in math while the other did terribly. But if you look close enough, you’ll see that the second child who can’t count for nuts can paint like no one else! No one is born without a gift, which is what I believe. Some people have multiple gifts and are multi-talented in nature but no one in this world is without one.
Parents should set out to find out the gift of their child. It could be anything! ANYTHING! Like Don who loves cleaning out closets and is meticulous in arranging stuff – he’s a good accountant today. Like Gina who loves to play in the playground instead of doing her homework – she’s one of the most popular kids’ football team coaches in her country today. And Simon who was so weak in math that his mother almost told him to leave the house and never come back – he’s a professor in Philosophy today.
Think about it
No one is good for nothing. Even trees or worms are good for something. Trees give us oxygen and some serve as food. Worms digs holes in the ground and helps trees grow. Even bacteria are good at something. Bacteria can actually benefit our health. What about mud? Think mud pack? Everything is good for something….why not your child? Your job, as a parent, is to find that ‘good’, find that talent.
And perhaps, maybe it’s got nothing to do with education.
20:05 Posted in Being human , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
29/11/2005
Atlas: where did that name come from?
I’ve always wondered why the world map was often referred to Atlas. I asked my Form Two form teacher once about why the Atlas was the Atlas. She told me it was just a name. I wasn’t satisfied because I thought otherwise.
After some research, I found out that the name ‘Atlas’ was derived from the name of a deity. A Greek god. Atlas was the son Iapetus but Atlas fought and firged ahead with a war with other Titans supporting Cronus against Zeus. By the way, Zeus is the King of the Olympians, a might kingdom. They failed.
So, Atlas was punished. His punishment was to hold up the world on his back. In those times, it’s thought that the world (earth) was made out of mostly clouds. But Atlas was surprised with the weight that he had to hold.
Although Persues DID come along to give him some help. Perseus turned Atlas into stone. The only problem was, Atlas now had the head of Medusa, the snake headed goddess. Today, he’s known as a world map and also as Mount Atlas. The one who holds the world up.
Interesting, isn’t it?
21:35 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
28/11/2005
Yes!!!! I made it!!!
I made it!!! Can you believe it???
Nanowrimo winner icon
I, myself, can't believe I went this far. Only a few days ago, I thought about giving up. 50,000 words...when I have only written 35,056 words? I had about 14,944 words more to go!!! Where in the world do I find the time?
How I progressed from 0 to 50,000
I don't get anything from NanoWriMo except for a web certificate that I can look at from time to time. And also tell the world that I made it. I can boast about it to my friends and family members...but I don't get anything monetary in return.
But the feeling of having come so far, trudged through the month of non-sleep, coffee, ciggarrettes and grouchiness is....worth it!
I can't tell you how I feel. The jubilance. The 'Yes!!!" It's a personal challenge. And I've reached it. And now I can start going back to work and tell all my clients how sorry I am for having neglected them...blah blah blah.
But whenever I set out to do something, I don't often give up. I came very damn close to just GIVING UP. But then I remembered....damn, GIVE UP is not even in my dictionary.
So, thank you to the staff of Nanowrimo for giving me the courage. For helping me see that anything can be done with a deadline. Although the deadline is crazy, but if one sets one's mind to it, ANYTHING can happen.
You've just added one extra notch to my bedpost...and I have one more thing, one more credential to boast about now.
Thank you!
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
20:10 Posted in Being human , Blog , Leisure , Ramblings , Work | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
27/11/2005
Ultraman crazy!!
This is going to be a short blog entry today but I am tired (and broke) of paying $26.00 for one small ULtraman figurine after another. Todate, we have about 20 or so Ultramans in their various heroid poses. That's $520 down the drain in case you don't have a calculator with you! Although he is hilarious, Jared is an Ultraman fanatic who tells me that he wants to ‘dream’ about Ultraman before he goes to sleep.
These Ultraman people are smart too….as if one Ultraman is not enough…they have Ultraman Cosmos, Ultraman King, Ultraman Leo, Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Gaia, Ultraman Agul, Ultraman Chaos, Ultraman Nice (what a sissy Ultraman name!!), Ultraman Powered (I am quite proud of myself for remembering all those names. I didn't make them up...these Ultramans are for real...as real asn Ultraman can be)….and now….I feel compelled to create my own one….
Ultraman Jared. Oh, he’s going to hate me for putting his picture on Ultraman AND publishing it on the web…but he’s only 3, so, let him hate me when he’s 30 and suffering from the same problem I am now.
I hate Ultraman but I kiss the ground Jared walks on.
Marshawww.marshamaung.com
17:40 Posted in Blog , Family , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
24/11/2005
I'm crawling
I am crawling towards my destination. My destination is 50,000 words....only about 1/2 the number of words in a normal novel...and here I am, fingers cramped and mind totally blank.
I've come so close to giving up. And yet, I am only 8000 words away from where I end this pain. This was a challenge that I was confident in when I first started. Like everything else in life, when I want to do something, I will give it everything I've got. But November and December are busy months for me because everyone's got new financial budgets and there's lot of promo to do and all that and I leave the novel in the nest for sometime...one day...two days...three days...and blast it. I am 4,800 words behind.
Now, there's only 4 more days to go and I have to write at least 1,900 words a day to see the finish line. I don't know. I am not confident. But I will give it everything I've got to see this damn stupid thing I've started to the end.
For those who are wondering what in the blinking hell I am talking about, visit www.nanowrimo.org for more info and you'll understand.
It's 6 in the morning now and I need.....a new cup of coffee.
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
22:35 Posted in Blog , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
15/11/2005
My sister is so stupid:: Jessica Simpson
I am no fan of Jessica Simpson…in fact, far far FAR from it. I don’t even like her wailing on the radio. I think her singing stinks and she looks more like man than a woman. Her cleavage, well….a side benefit of good genes, I guess. But what the heck…all this news about her calling her own younger sister, Ashlee Simpson, stupid has gotten out of hand.
Ashlee, 20, has been going out, getting drunk, caught snogging with other strangers and hanging ‘loose’ among Hollywood celebrities and celebrity-wannabes. And what is wrong with a sister chastising her own younger sister in front of her own mother? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
If I knew my own sister (pardon me, Karen) was partying like that, being flung around the bed so many times because stardom couldn’t keep her feet on the ground, I would call her stupid too! In front of many other people than just our mother. But the fact remains is that Jessica’s seen more (in the entertainment circle, at least) than Ashlee has and she deserves the chance to correct her own sister.
They may not see eye to eye…siblings sometimes do these kind of stupid things to each other….but the fact remains, we care about each other. This is a fact. We fight but we love each other. This is what family is all about. Isn’t it? I think so.
Jessica Simpson said, “"Mum, Ashlee is so stupid. She left the popcorn in the microwave and almost burned the house down."….and the way I see it, there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with saying that. so what? The popcorn in the oven? They burn? And when they do, the house may too? And sometimes we all call our siblings stupid. Like Karen is so stupid and Damien is so stupid. I won’t go as far as calling my own father or mother stupid but yeah….I think I can safely call my own siblings stupid….older or younger than me.
So what Jessica’s marriage to Nick Lachey is on the rocks. It’s got nothing to do with anything! The paparazzis’ got a way of worming things into things that aren’t there? I hope it doesn’t spoil their sisterly relationship just because Jessica called Ashlee stupid. Ashlee IS stupid for leaving the oven on with the popcorn in it. And she’s STUPID for fucking around with her own life. She’s stupid. If I were her, I would pull my socks up and start with apologizing to her elder sister, mother and the REST OF THE WORLD for being so F****D up!
And even though I think Jessica herself is a bitch and she can’t sing (she can scream, though) for nuts, she’s right in calling her younger sister stupid. Stupid can sometimes be a very kind and loving verb. Like….”I love that stupid woman”.
See?
Marsha
The stupid woman
http://www.marshamaung.com
20:05 Posted in Film , Music , Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
12/11/2005
What kind of a hero are you anyway?
 | You scored as Neo, the "One". Neo is the computer hacker- |