Written by lainie at 08:53 PM on March 1, 2007 in Events.

PELUKIS CENTRAL MARKET: 21 TAHUN KEMUDIAN
Central Market Artists: 21 Years On

 

You're cordially invited to the
Exhibition Opening: Thu 8, Mar 2007 (8pm)
Officiated by: National Laureate Datuk A. Samad Said

Since its reopening as a cultural centre in 1986, Central Market has been home to Malaysian artists who have dedicated themselves to making a living from art. Over the years, they have captivated tourists and locals, and have defined artistic virtuosity for the public. Their works are also widely collected by leaders both local and international. With the recent rebranding of Central Market, the artists have been given new homes in Central Market Annexe. In this exhibition, the Central Market Artists display the styles for which they are famous as well as more personal works.

Sejak dibuka semula sebagai pusat kebudayaan pada tahun 1986, Pasar Seni telah menjadi tapak kepada para pelukis Malaysia yang telah mengabdikan diri mereka untuk menyara hidup dengan hasil seni. Sepanjang tahun-tahun yang lalu, mereka telah menarik perhatian pengunjung dari dalam dan luar negara, dan memberi tafsiran dan makna kemahiran dalam seni. Hasil seni mereka adalah juga dalam koleksi para pemimpin tempatan dan antarabangsa. Dengan penjenamaan Central Market baru-baru ini, pelukis telah dipindahkan ke tapak baru di Central Market Annexe. Dalam pameran ini, Pelukis Central Market memaparkan gaya lukisan mereka yang terkenal berserta karya yang bersifat peribadi.

CM Artists: Abdul Ghani Ahmad, Agus, Ali Akbar, Anuar Dan, Aris Aziz, Azmi Aris, Azmi S.H, Baim, Charles Low, Dino, Abdul Hadi, Iedet, Ismail Baba, Jack (Abdul Aziz), Jaja, Long Thien Shih, Mohamad Hairul, Nik Zaiton, Hisyam Asmawi, Raja Mohd, Ronnie, Rosli Mohd Don, Suria Suim, Syed Nahar, Syed Noah, Ujang & Yusof Gajah.

Date: Thu 8, Mar - Sun 25, Mar 2007
Time: 10am - 9pm
Venue: Top Floor, The Annexe, Central Market, KL.

Inquiries: 03 2031 0399 / 5399 / 7399 / 9399
Fax: 03 2032 2399

Email: theannexe.centralmarket@gmail.com
Website: www.centralmarket-kl.com.my

Written by lainie at 02:05 AM on March 2, 2007 in College, Home.

Jemufo came into my room asking me if I "smell that". Turns out our compost heap has a new addition, and it smells like shit - we've kept this container of foodstuffs in the kitchen, and after a few weeks, someone actually got around to burying it.

Decay doesn't smell pretty, yknow. And no, I can't smell the dreadfulness, my olfactory skillz died on me a few years back.

Then Jemufo's girlfriend arrived, and she went downstairs to open the door for her - me trailing behind, singing la la la as I walked down the stairs. Halfway through

 Lainie: Wait. Why am I going to greet your girlfriend?

So I came back into my room.
 

 =====

 Had class earlier today. Business Writing, where instead of writing, we end up talking and reading a lot. I dislike reading out loud, and as much as this blog works against the image - I also dislike attention. Probably why I run away from doing readings.

 Found out that my classmate told our lecturer I write for Kakiseni :/. But I figured that if she was gonna know, would it be okay if I submit one of my reviews from the website, instead of writing one on Ise's? :D

 I can't recall if she agreed. Anyhow, our class made a trip to the Aussie High Comm again, because some of us had not seen Ise's exhibition, Keluar 90 Hari.

 In this case, our lecturer had booked an appointment with Ise so we could talk to him, ask him questions, have him show us around the gallery and give a brief summary on each piece of artwork hanging up. I'd been briefly introduced to him when I went for the exhibition last week, and got a copy of the visual diary which I'd already had time to go over.

I asked him a few basic questions - nothing much, since I wasn't writing up on the event - but I think I kinda....put him on the spot . I was worried I was scaring him. Towards the end of him showing a bunch of us around the gallery, he laughed

Ise: Actually, she (points at me) spotted the nastiest thing in the exhibition.

Farid: Yeah, Lainie has a tendency to observe things like that.

Lainie: ?

.....But it was an exhibition................I'm supposed to.......look at the things on the wall........I don't suppose it'd be very nice if I told you what it was, but hey, if you check it out the exhibition has been extended for a month, or something like that. The visual diary has some interesting bits too, if you're so inclined .

 Oh well. Anyhow, his personal favourite piece in the exhibition is "The Giving Tree", which is mine too. Possibly not for the same reason, but what kinda kismet would that be if it was, ei?  

====

I like living here. Always a few surprises Even at almost 4am. 

Written by lainie at 08:21 PM on March 2, 2007 in Stupid, but fun..

Was in KLIA for a class trip, and decided to take photo of fellow sleeping because he looked like he was some monk pulling one of those Shaolin kungfu moves, but backed by a chair

 

Going out now!  

Written by lainie at 05:52 AM on March 3, 2007 in College, Daily Life.

Jemufo came into my room grinning because I'd called Cynna up to ask about the whole "tomboy barred from entry" thing, and she says that's what their office would have to do if they wanted to issue a press statement, or whatever it is they do.

Then there was a pause, she grinned, and called me a good activist. That's not fair, I didn't even know that's what you people bloody do. Go recruit someone else, goddammit.

It's okay, I allow her delusions as long as it means I get to talk her ears off about what I want.

=====

It's 5am, and I just got home. I've not had regular sleep in days, and I'm sure if I go to bed now I'd knock out....but I just can't. This is why the brain should come with an on / off switch. I'd rather stay up and type and Photoshop (CS3 = heart).

I stayed up last night, working on my assignment. At about 4am, there was a knock on my door. From the blast of alcohol fumes that entered my room, I didn't even have to look to know it was Zedeck - though I was rather distracted because Rizal was on his knees, crawling into my room. Hah. Funny dude. Turns out the wanderer is in Malaysia again, and staying over with Zed for the moment.

Couldn't join them, since I had work to finish up. Catnapped every so often. By the time morning came about, I felt....worn out. Got to morning class a bit late today. After a few presentations, my lecturer, Alfredo, looked at me.

Alfredo: Can I borrow your pen?

I handed him my mechanical pencil, which I happen to be very attached to (let's not discuss my emotional relationship with stationery).

Alfredo: Good. I will now mark you late with your own pencil.
Lainie: *gasp*
Alfredo: Hurts more, doesn't it?

I must admit, that was a really nice touch. Heh. Bloody hell. Totally pwned.

Just a while ago, over supper, Rizal told me about some author dude who was punished for some of the stuff he wrote by being thwacked on his head, repeatedly, with the book he wrote till he went blind. That is so cruel - and, familiar.

Fortunately, mine was a much milder version . May I never reach the day where someone feels compelled to whack me blind with my own work.

Was the last to present my assignment - I got as far as showing my research. Then I was about to flip open the visual side of the presentation for concepts - and it's actually something I wanted to get out of the way because I'm very unsure about its feasibility - when Alfredo asked whether I had typed out my concept...........I didn't, though I had been prepared for an oral one (I talk too much?), and had brought along physical examples of what I wanted.

......But, no sheet of paper with concept listed down in black and white. So my preso got killed on the spot. Second ouch of the day.

At the canteen later I showed Bee and Cyril some of the things I'd wanted to do. I'm still not sure about its implementation though. Dammit. Bee's having a difficult time too, because his concept.......isn't a concept.

=====

After that, went to KLIA with my classmates to do research for our next Typography assignment. We're redesigning the screens that show the arrival / departure times in airports. Gahhh.

I took more photos of my classmates clowning around than I did of the signage. That took up so much time, I only got home around 5pm, a few hours later than I expected.

Slept two hours, woke up, and headed off to KL with Rach and Ferg to meet up with more friends.

Had drinks, dinner, had drinks again, played Jenga, then a bunch of us were off to Loft for our usual Friday night indulgences. It's been a few weeks since I've been there. I miss the more indie-powered nights, there's been a bit too many beats for me the few times I've been there recently.

=====

When I arrived, I found Tei and Adrian there. Zedeck eventually showed up with Rizal. It's one of the few places where I've learned to expect to see familiar faces when I go.

Drank more. After a while, Tei got my cellphone, switched it off, and kept in her pocket - saying it was for my own good and that I would appreciate it in the morning - not that I was gonna do anything with it .

After a while, she gave it to Zedeck for safekeeping, not from me, but from her sending drunken smses from my phone. The first thing Zedeck volunteered to do upon getting my phone was grin, and said he wanted to switch it on and send alcohol fueled smses from it.

See lah the people I call my friends, we're of no use to each other. At least I wasn't the only one with my cellphone confiscated that night, though I'm not sure what merit that has, considering my points of comparison.

Adrian kept stealing Tei's hat (he does it to me too, when I wear mine to Loft - he's the hat thief). I told Tei I'd smooth her hair out for her except for the fact that we'd like to keep our reputation intact. Rumours of us getting together, not a good thing. Let's allow the speculations we've already gathered to die down.

Danced with Daph. It's been so long. I wish she wasn't going back to Australia. I asked her to stay and made her sad - shouldn't have, I know why she has to go.

Joey was there too. The last time we met, he had changed careers to be an artist, selling his paintings. Except after a few months, he decided he needed something that guarantees income, so he's back to freelance fashion design. I like seeing what Joey wears - just cause it gives me a hint of what phase he's at. I miss his gothic-buddhaish look most.

Loft is....Loft. I can't say I was totally into it tonight, way too distracted throughout. Then again, was in good company with very close friends and fellow distracted ones, so I suppose all is cool.

Went for supper with Rizal and Zedeck, walked home. Blogging. Photoshopping. And I'm thinking, maybe it's time I go to bed. I am supposed to get up early tomorrow, after all.

Written by lainie at 11:05 AM on March 3, 2007.

My write up in Kakiseni's Tembak section is up, about Annexe philosophy class.

This blog is where I abuse Zedeck, and Kakiseni is where Zedeck gets to make subtly snide remarks about me at the end of everything I write.

Then on Friday nights we go clubbing in Loft and pull faces, throw contorted body poses, and bare our teeth at each other under the pretext of dancing. It's best you all don't see it.

My only question for this time round is.....But Zedeck...How would you know?

Bastard, kena fulat. Heh. I admit I found it hilarious anyway. What next? Scatology? Ahhhh, I see it's already been mentioned this week, never mind.

Written by lainie at 10:41 PM on March 4, 2007 in Arty stuff.

Happy birthday Miriam - did I get the date right? I tried .

=====

I've been getting a lot of poetry online lately.

About a week back, I started watching these Billy Collin poetry videos (former US poet laureate, and damn good stuff he has too). This user, JWTNY, has basically uploaded a shitload of videos featuring Billy Collins reading his poetry, accompanied by nifty animation -- I like all the poetry, though not all the videos. Nevertheless - this all adds up to "pretty damn cool".

I also downloaded an audiobook version of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (okaay reading), and you can get a lot of other work from her at Project Gutenberg.

Have uploaded some videos from Sharanya's launch of Iyari, from last year. It took me some time because I was supposed to filter out some stuff from it - So Jasmine Low's set is truncated, and Sharanya's performances aren't up yet because I don't know which are okay . You can see the videos I have uploaded so far, which include...Well, everyone else who read that night.

This is where you guys could be useful: I've been looking for online resources of jazz / punk poetry (but not when it's combined, usually gives me a headache). Text, audio, video, art - whichever. Have found a few, but not examples I really like. If anyone has suggestions....? Don't get too hooked up on the labels, by the way, I'm more flexible than that.

[ Update: I do quite like this video with Poets Raul R. Salinas and Magdalena Gomez, with saxaphonist Fred Ho ]

Anyhow, if you like poetry, don't forget there's always the bunch of poetry lovers over at Puisy-Poesy, the latest being an update from the Machinist. Go lah, don't let poetry scare you. Really, it's such a geeky artform if you think about it.

Update later.

Written by lainie at 11:04 AM on March 5, 2007.

From Bangkit.net

MPAJ and bulldozers have suddenly turned up at Kg.Berembang to demolish houses. Unexpected! People did not know about this. Seems MPAJ have some court order or something . Please give solidarity and support.

Please inform others and call Halizan for Info : 019-3586234

---
Community Development Centre (CDC)
No.72B, Taman Sri Langat
Jalan Reko, Kajang, Selangor
Tel/Fax: 03-87370766

----

If you don't know what's up about Kampung Berembang, see Jelas.info's list

and

For those who prefer visuals. Photos of Kg Berembang from Nov '06.

For the truly lazy: Video on Malaysiakini.

Written by lainie at 07:58 PM on March 5, 2007 in Daily Life.

Went for Kampung Berembang protest thing. That was fucked up. RELA, very bad people. And not the only bad people there today.
Borrowed Nat's camera and took photos.

Just got home. Replied an email. Going to shower.

Then out again for Kakiseni's nominees party for Cameronian Arts Awards, at Alexis Ampang.

Two very different worlds.

Cupboard looking empty. I don't think I even have a spare tshirt. Considering wearing rain and sweat soaked tshirt again to the party. But then, why would I shower?

I'm quite a social reject sometimes.

I need a drink, before I go. There'd better be free booze there. I've had a headache all day. Update later.

Never mind.
Hungry, tired, assignments due tomorrow, deadline due tonight, and anti-social = Not going for the party.

Written by lainie at 12:19 PM on March 6, 2007.

Saturday was spent with Daph and friends. I have funny friends, ended up laughing till my sides hurt when we met for lunch at Coliseum, which is a bit of a nostalgia spot for us. The food isn't that great anymore, nevertheless we consider it worthwhile because of our memories and probably for other more frivolous reasons, like the LAT comics that decorate the walls.

This was followed by drinking in The Curve (because Josie's face lit up *ding!* when beering was mentioned), at Sanctuary, where Josie, Joey and Daph each took turns to leave a drawing in my sketchpad. This is a kind of thing I used to have with Joey and Daph when we lived together, it's nice to constantly carry some of their work in my bag again.

Then it was off for dinner at Ming Tien, pissing off the fish they have there, watching kittens play, teaching tourists to eat with chopsticks, and a quick wrap up so we could go to Hartamas. To drink more (Josie's face lit up *ding!* because we were gonna get cheap beer) at Decanter. Josie scares the parking lot attendants who try to get money they have no right to, off us. I understand she does this on a regular basis? We play cards and drink.

Daph wanted to go home, but Josie and I told her this was payback for all the times she dragged us out night, after night, after night, clubbing till we were eventually extremely worn out. This was just that one time, in comparison. Fun. Should abuse my friends more.

Everyone eventually left, and I remained behind in Decanter with someone who said it was sad that we couldn't get anyone else out on a Saturday night. Heck, my friends are Friday night friends.

=====

Sunday was spent working because I woke up too late for the show I'd intended to go for.

Found out about Jerng's excellent DVD collection, so the hours at night was frittered away over the anime Serial Experiment Lain (I briefly lived in a place called Cyberia as well, so that's kinda weird).

Yknow, I've never been able to state my complete address in all the different places I've lived ever since I moved to KL, 7 years ago. I still don't know off the top of my head what my postcode is, here.

Alternated between drinking vodka, gin, vodka, gin, godka, vin, vigodka, kavodvingin....Wheeee. Fell asleep drunk - but ever so cheery.

=====

Monday: Woke up at ten, hungover and bleary eyed. Walked to my laptop for some music - noticed a message on a friend's GTalk, with Kecik's name on it. Basically it was a call from him to go to Kg Berembang where they had suddenly sent bulldozers, on a sneaky Monday morning.

I'd actually told Kecik I'd go with him for Food Not Bombs on Saturday morning, but since that didn't happen, and I wasn't up to much today, I decided to go to Kg Berembang.

Messaged five people an invitation: Suanie (because she has Monsterblog and I like her anyway), Justine (because she is funky good fun), Amir (because I felt like it), Paultan (because he so layan when I want beef noodles, I thought he might layan here too), and Meesh, because she's a friend and a journo - I had a suspicion media presence at Berembang would be miserable (hence the call to bloggers), and I know she cares about stuff like that.

Only Meesh could make it.

In the fifteen minutes it took Meesh to get here, I finished up an assignment, brushed my teeth, got dressed, and whined that I was going for a protest smelling of gin. I didn't have a camera, but I figured I would just look at everything that happened. Eye-cameras, baby.

The houses were already mostly demolished when Meesh and I got there. Not many people around besides the villagers. By "people", I am not including the people dressed in RELA uniforms that were everywhere. It's so stupid, what RELA did.

And Rela is supposed to serve the public for their safety etc? Instead, the only talk going on yesterday was about how Rela could be hired by anyone, since on that day, instead of standing with the people who were right....Rela's a stupid concept anyway...There were more Rela people there than there were anyone else.

So many uniforms, but the driving brain power of a coffee mug. "We don't want to be here", some of them said with a smile and shrug. Fucker, I don't want to be here either. I'm here because idiots like you listen to authority, because you consider yourselves a part of, or in collusion with, authority.

The green uniforms were with the developers. Telling villagers to calm down that their houses were illegally torn down. Helping the tractors pull things down. The contractors all had red arm bands around them, which was suspicious - like a ready form of identification. We asked what it was for, and they awkwardly said it was for "good luck". Most of them had hammers in their backpockets, which I didn't see used that day (tearing down was with bulldozers, and those big....er. Machine stuff, not hammers). Rela people were armed as well.

I couldn't help thinking of the Milgram experiment today.

I'll blog about the actual day later. I have Bernice's class to get ready for. Nathaniel introduced me to Tian Chua, a politician who was there to help the villagers.

He asked me which publication I was with...

Lainie: Uh...I'm not with anyone...
Nat: But she has a website!
Lainie: -_____-"

Tian Chua: Oh. What's it about?
Lainie: ...............Myself.
Tian Chua: But what is is about?
Lainie: .....................Me.

Then we finally got around to the idea that maybe my blog is a cross between the local arts scene and my daily online diary. Eheh. Jemufo and I talked about that later. On my main page, my name and face is splattered everywhere. So ego.

=====

Zedeck came from from Cammies with Alfian and Rizal. Both Singaporeans I've heard of before I ever met them. I like talking with them. Heck, blog later. So many assignments. Ciao.

Written by lainie at 09:27 AM on March 7, 2007 in Events.

Hallo. Good lit-performance event coming up tonight, at No Black Tie (9pm, RM5).

Wayang Kata, an evening of spoken word, Troubagangers and British Council.

Come, come.

Written by lainie at 07:52 PM on March 7, 2007 in Rants, Daily Life.

Went to Nat's website, Jelas.info, and saw link to photos I took on Monday with his camera. He uploaded ALL of them, and apparently it numbers over a thousand :/.

It's all uploaded into a set on Flickr: Kg Berembang 5th March.

Monday was quieter. Just some physical struggles. Much less violence compared with today, where the police and developers (samsengs with hardhats) drew blood.

Anyhow, I have about an hour before I head out, so here goes. Gah.

=====


One of the villagers there, and talked to people a lot. She was the one making phonecalls etc.


Strangely enough, a lot of them had these hammers hooked to their backs. Hammers, that were not required in the work they were doing today since the heavy machinery is used to tear down houses. Hammers are mostly used to hit...................nails..... Which implies..... Construction. Actually, this implies something else entirely.

Look ma, my skull has a hole in it. More hammers.


RELA wankers, who had no business here in the first place, hiding from the sun and looking for a spot to sit. Where? In one of the few buildings they had not torn down. Yet.

Irony.....Wankery.....Hypocrisy. And asking to be bitchslapped.
It's Wednesday now. I watched this building they're resting in being torn down, after the police (who also had no business being there) forcibly pulled people out. The police, of course, also seeking shade in it beforehand.

In fact, those weren't the only ones hiding there. RELA has more than four extra-kau idiots.


RELA has a lot of idiocy to spare.


Speaking of RELA idiocy...Observe man in RELA uniform with extendable baton in hand.


...which he thought appropriate to casually show off after a while, during the "negotiations". Yeah, okay. So you have a stick in your hand. Whatever. Doesn't mean that much when we're surrounded by all the chipped stones and bricks you created when you tore down the houses.


Truck driver that carts away stuff (I believe in other circumstances you will be inclined to call such action robbery), was very proud to be there and have his photo taken. You can almost feel the cotton emanating from the otherwise vacant space in his skull out of the screen. Or rather, I can.


Sometimes, protesting gets tiring and you need to sit down.


Negotiating AGAIN.


Contractor who negotiated and basically said "okay, we need to show we did work, we'll clear that land way over there, before the lamp post, that no one uses". Then of course proceeds to order all the dudes driving the heavy machinery to clear land elsewhere, inching forward all the time. Pretended to be nice. Really, just a liar the whole time.


Tian Chua, politician, was arrested today for "attempted murder", which is a serious, and ridiculous allegation. I heard even he's kinda surprised, and that the chief police at the station he was brought to is his ex classmate. That must have been bizarre.
Far as I understand, there was a barricade erected in the morning to keep volunteers out, and Tian Chua drove a car through it. ....Hmm.

Pity he wasn't around, would have been handy to have him do it again this evening. Instead, we entered from another construction site, sneaking in through a hole in the barricade......Not pleasant.

You can read the version of Monday on the Tian Chua website (blog?) over here.


I only took a photo of this guy cause of the chair, and he looked so weird. One of the developer dudes. Ish.


I saw this from a distance, and curiosity took over (click for full sized panorama). I invited myself over there and asked if I could take photos.


How is it spelled? Sembahyang? I was watching her pray, kneel, get up, kneel, get up, with the RELA, developers, and rubble in the background. I don't know. This house got torn down today.


Couldn't stop taking photographs of her. There was definitely a feel of exploitation / intrusion while clicking away.


Sucks to be poor.


They're just coming up close all huggy from behind because they really, really like you.


Kids casually sitting on the machinery to prevent them from being used.


He was picking through the stuff from the demolished homes and stacking them up....Pretty shy about having his photo taken.


I call this a "supposed to be pathos" photo. Baby, check. Elderly, check. Children of tender school going for "so-called life changing government exam" age, check. Young woman, check. All females in the photo, check. But all some people see are squatters.


RELA on the march. Herd mentality, to be insulting to animals that travel in packs.


Villager who could only mostly yell in frustration at RELA about her kampung - volunteer (I understand this is lawyer Latifah Koya?) in the background is making phone calls trying to work things out.


I think the guy in white tshirt (very vocal dude - Seng? Sing?) got arrested today. For a while I could hear him shouting a lot, to put it loosely: that the policemen were taking bribes, and what if some rich man bought over your land and kicked you out, which is what happened here, etc. Then I couldn't hear him anymore. Later some people were saying some "Seng" dude got arrested, I presume it's this one.


Guy in white shirt yelling at people, again. Would you, if all these armed people in uniforms who have been demonstrating a disregard for the law (let's not focus on the irony yet) and copious amounts of idiocy, were all staring at you?


Notice how this dude's uniform has black stripes. Where his name and identification must have both accidentally, simultaneously dropped off. Kinda makes you wonder if they just bought a uniform and pretended to be RELA, because I was having a good ol laugh over at the government website that states the function of RELA last night. Things happen here by accident a lot. Like how houses accidentally fall down when they're not supposed to.


SB dude filming everything. "Hantu celaka paling besar", I believe he's known as. Must have been because he was overheard asking people to arrest some volunteers. SB = Special Branch.


Kid pretending to be police. By pretending to shoot the police. Today, some children were roleplaying. I overheard "Saya jadi polis, saya robohkan rumah!".... -____-"

As for my photography skills.....Let's just say, after a few hours of using the camera, I finally notice it has an lcd screen.

====

As for today? Let's leave that for another blog post. It wasn't pretty, and I have no photos.

....I've had a few things going on right now that's upsetting me, which I'm actively ignoring because I don't want to think about it. And my god, I'm not even talking about Kg Berembang. I'll be in Wayang Kata III tonight.

And I can't find my damn cellphone.

Written by lainie at 04:06 AM on March 9, 2007 in Rants, Daily Life, Home.

Long entry. I almost feel obligated to. Gonna ramble more than usual. Okay?

Oh! I found videos right after writing this entry:


(right click on video and choose "Stop" if you dont want to watch it)

This is a video from Wednesday, where you had the police. Another interesting video from Monday, where RELA was involved is available. The second video has interviews that will explain a fair bit to you. Actually, I would suggest you watch it - the last minute is an English language interview where you get the legal issues explained simply, without the legalese / vocabulary inducing a headache.

=====

Just a thought. I had this question thrown at me a few times: Why bother about Kg Berembang, if those people there are squatters and should have no rights over the land anyway?

I reckon, if I'm gonna talk about this thing, I may as well clarify some stuff. Please note that anything mentioned here that comes off as factual should......be..........critically evaluated, because I am too lazy to fact check, so I'm basing this mostly on what I picked up being there - and I am very blur.

=====

I've had people say the previous entry has good photos. I would say only people who are already familiar with what the uniforms are not allowed to do will understand what's wrong with the photos.

I've noticed my other friends just see 1) Squatters, 2) Policemen getting rid of squatters (without differentiating the uniforms), and 3) Activists getting in the way of policemen = They deserve what they get, which means 4) Police are doing their jobs. Eheh.

Read on, read on.

First of all: I have very little knowledge of the issues that drive this whole thing. It was a leap of faith on my part, in the person who asked me to join them, that I was not being misguided when I went to Kg Berembang.

#2: Yes, the villagers are citizens of Malaysia. They have lived there for three decades plus (I think). I have heard varying stories on their dealings with the state government, so I think I'd better not go there.

#3: My main objection on Monday was the involvement of RELA. Not because they were the worst people involved, but because they were the most evident idiots on that day.

#4: My main objection on Wednesday was the involvement of police and the dudes I presume are samsengs. Note I make a somewhat false differentiation here between "police" and "dudes", they were all rogue that day, just that some of them were in uniforms.

#5: I found out today that unlike UK, adverse possession does not apply in Malaysia. This, I admit I was unsure of the two days I was in Berembang.

#6: My showers take an extra ten minutes because I am severely sunburnt and my skin hurts as hell. My nose is red and I expect my face to start peeling soon. And it hurts to shampoo my hair because there's a fresh scab where my cuticles got pushed back till they bled when I was pushing against shields because the police did a formation thingie and was pushing us back, and my hand got kepited between some shields. Minor thing, but I'm wimpy as heck. And....I just totally inserted an entire paragraph about myself in this entry about how fucked up Berembang situation is, huh?

#7: The police, RELA, FRU - whatever. The uniforms have a duty to the people, yes? Not working for development corporations? Ah. This section should be a bit longer. I think this is where it confuses most people (including myself). I'll take a bit from the Malaysiakini website to illustrate (they were one of the very few media reps present at Berembang).

"The court order for the interim injunction obtained on Feb 27 stops anyone from disturbing or threatening the plaintiff (Perspective Masa) in the execution of its housing project. "

"Anyone" will include the developers, the police, RELA, and whatnot. Basically, no one has any business harassing the villagers.

From what I understand, the developers then got another injunction, and they were supposed to have a hearing on March 14th to see if they could clear the land. But they manipulated the interpretation of "having the hearing" as "the law now gives us permission over YOUR injunction not to clear the land, to clear the land anyway", which is of course entirely off tangent. As I write this, it's only March 9th.

I talked with a few of the officers. The women, I remember their names. Off the top of my head.....Suzana. Lenny Lim. Hayati. Most of the uniforms I talked to, didn't want to be "doing this", but were "following orders". No one knew / would say where the orders came from.

Lenny tried to get me to move away from a house they wanted to tear down, very half-heartedly. It didn't work, I brushed her off. Later I saw her helping another woman officer drag off a student from UPM, she was holding the feet. This was about the time Jemufo was forcibly dragged away from a house as well. House was demolished soon after. Actually, house #7, where the police officers had been taking shelter from the sun earlier (photos in this entry of RELA taking shelter there too).

A lot of the anger directed at the uniforms on Monday, and Wednesday, was that they should not be working for companies doing illegal stuff, which is pretty much what tearing down houses when the court says you CANNOT, is. Illegal. So yes, I spent two days watching uniforms doing illegal things, and I assure you it was entirely fucked up. I mean, who do we call to report that a whole bunch of people were breaking the law? The police??

Dear god, if anyone quotes me on that like I am an authority on this subject, we'll hailat together.

#8: All this should not detract from the fact that there are people responsible for this situation who were not present in the kampung because they got others to do their dirty work - actually, apparently one of the developer's had a wife there inspecting to make sure all the squatters were removed and land cleared, before the villagers shooed her away.

#9: Don't expect me to talk to you about the elderly and the children. That part's fucked up, but I'm too cynical to try to eke tears out of you. Pathos turns me off, if anything. But I have to say, I think it's funny that all the young girls were so attracted to my keychain about being a lesbian, because they think it's some alternative Barbie thing (must be the blonde girl that just screwed the brunette confusing them).

#10: On Wednesday: I saw a woman get her head cracked open by the police. The head police's first reaction was to turn to the SB holding the video cam, and mimed his finger clicking a camera to ask if there was footage of that. I saw a small young girl fending off developers from pulling at her house (built of wood, tearable with bare hands), by swinging with a piece of wood about a foot long. The contractor she was swinging the wood at (and she is SMALL, understand), takes off his helmet and swings it back at her, followed by kicking at her a few times. When I say there were samsengs there, I wasn't referring to the ratio of coloured hair.

#11: I was standing in one of the buildings with a few others because frankly, after a few hours of direct sunlight, shade is good. A contractor comes along and pulls at one of the supporting beams holding the already flimsy - but still heavy, hello - building up. I look up and see a huge beam right above my head, swaying a lot because it's propped up on either end, and the dumbass contractor is trying to pull down one of those ends, knowing full well the roof would collapse on everyone. I would have been brained. The activists yell him away (might I add, "JERIT" is a very apt name for these people?).

#12: Because of this, I have been given the username and password to news website Malaysiakini by kindly people (I'm poor, okay). This is the first time I actually have full access to the site.....

Zedeck: So, how is it?
Lainie: It's...what I expect of Malaysiakini......A lot of news articles?

[ Pause ]

Lainie: I imagine the lack of lifestyle articles means lack of advertisers.....
Zedeck: True that.

Then before leaving my room, Zed offered me some muffins. We both took a bite.

Zedeck: Ew, what the hell?
Lainie: ...These taste really......Uh. Healthy.

I think I'm eating vegetable muffins. Veg muffins, vag muffs, looks like a road of painful puns I should not further explore....I taste celery, broccoli, carrots.....Which is bizarre.

But all is forgiven because he loaned me two paintbrushes for the mini I'm painting. I told him I'm good at keeping brushes, but he still picked up one of mine to check anyway - which is insulting, but I would have thought him an idiot if he didn't check my brushes before loaning me his.

Anyway, I've been going on and on and on, when really, I could have just done this: Uh...Am I gonna get into a lot of trouble if I totally rip off a Malaysiakini article?

=====

Lawyer: Demolition 'unlawful'
Andrew Ong
Mar 7, 07 5:25pm

The interim injunction obtained by property developer Perspektif Masa Sdn Bhd has no provisions for the demolition of houses in Kampung Berembang, Ampang.

According to the settlers' lawyer Teng Chang Khim, this morning's demolition exercise went against the law.

"It is an abuse of power to intentionally misinterpret something that is not provided for in this injunction in order to fulfil the aims of the developers," added Teng, who is also Sungai Pinang assemblyperson.

The court order for the interim injunction obtained on Feb 27 stops anyone from disturbing or threatening the plaintiff (Perspective Masa) in the execution of its housing project.

Perspektif Masa is the developer appointed by state-owned Permodalan Nasional Selangor Berhad, who owns the land.

Perspektif Masa is a subsidiary of property developer Acmar International, a private company which has entered into joint ventures with PNSB.

Today, the last four makeshift houses in the area were reduced to rubbles after the police forcefully evicted its occupants.

'Done in bad faith'

Another lawyer who was also present, Edmund Bon, explained that Perspektif Masa filed a suit on Feb 7 seeking full rights to develop the land where the Kampung Berembang settlement once stood.

The case is scheduled to be heard on May 23.

But on Feb 27, the plaintiff obtained the ex-parte injunction in chambers. Kampung Berembang settlers are expected to attempt to have the injunction set aside during the inter-parte hearing on March 14.

"Why can't they (developers) just wait for the hearing? By demolishing the remaining houses, they are destroying the subject matter of the suit.

"They are rending their own suit academic. This shows that this was done in bad faith," said Bon.

Up to this morning, several families had remained in the former settlement. Some had refused the state's housing scheme while others claim they were not given any alternative housing at all.

=====

It's 3.20am and I can't update because my editor wants me to wait for him to put up the Tembak section on Kakiseni website, but he's in my room frittering time away painting (and wasting a lot of my paint, might I add).

It's 4am, he's still painting, and I just made this picture my desktop background because I think it's fantastic. 4Chan rocks .

After perving on the girl sleeping outside (Yue Yi), he shall now go to work, and I shall....sleep

Written by lainie at 12:08 PM on March 10, 2007 in Events, Arty stuff.

March 8th was International Women's Day. The theme this year (and it's idiotic that I can't see this on the IWD mainpage) is - Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls.

Oooooh. Deep.

Would it be too trite to say happy belated IWD? Anyhow, just thought I'd bring it up since Farish Noor and Rachel Leow have started this:

The Other Malaysia: Call for submissions

A Women's History of Malaysia
An Edited Collection of Essays and Articles on Women's History of Malaysia, from the Pre-Colonial Era to the Present
Edited by Farish A. Noor and Rachel Leow

I'm just thinking about it because Jemufo and I were talking about logo designs yesterday. One of the suggestions to her was to make the logo out of the female symbol for this feminist festival coming up - which I pointed out was......well. You're kinda excluding some of the feminists, then, no? The ones not....female? I've met a few feminists I wouldn't call a woman.

Heck, I've met females I wouldn't call women, but that's besides the point.

=====

Anyone knows what's up with the Indonesia earthquakes?

My head blimming hurts.

I have to tell you about Jacob Sam-La Rose's poetry performance in NBT the other day, but perhaps not right now.

British Council is spoiling me with all that Wayang Kata, and Don't Look Back stuff. I've actually learned to expect a good show from them now.

Anyway, if you can catch the second performance from Jacob at Food Foundry, you won't have to read about how nice it is. And it's free. Fuckers, go lah.

Now excuse me, work to do, hangover to nurse, whiskey to drink.

Written by lainie at 11:33 PM on March 10, 2007 in Home.

After dinner, I was in my room, having just logged on to Minishort's website. I scrolled a few entries down, read through it, and grinned.

Lainie: OH FEMINISTS!!!

I really ought to stop abusing how easy it is to pick on them.

I called Jemufo and her girlfriend (henceforth named Sunway) over to my room, sat them on my bed, and proceeded to read out loud to them the entire entry called "Celebrating International Women's Day".

Midway through Jemufo flopped on my mattress in pain from listening to it .

Jemufo: I can't listen to this.
Sunway: Shakes head in despair...

Then I was accused of reading it to them purely because I knew how much it would kill them to hear this . Jerng came in halfway for the entertainment. After I read the entire entry (and punching the air with my fists in delight at the last sentence)...

Jemufo: *groans*.....You just ruined my night!
Lainie: No...But how would I know how you'd react to this...?

Got a glare.

Lainie: I knew International Women's Day would come in useful for something....



Lainie: See, yknow, I figured since it's your jobs to look up stuff like this and reply to them...I'd just point you in this direction.
Jemufo: *groans*
Lainie:
Jemufo: You write the reply! You know what to write!
Lainie: I have no idea what you're talking about. You do it if you waaaant toooooo

Then I made it a point to read the 16 comments out to them...They were in so much pain......Until, that is, Hedge and Scorkes came along and gave them hope.

I kept reading out loud some of the entry's passages repeatedly, and eventually got smacked, slapped on my sunburned arms, poked with a metal ruler, and squashed under my pillow for trying to irritate feminists.

I just realised I've been deliberately provoking lesbians / feminists in my room. Clearly unwise, must make mental note of this.

Lainie: I just thought, a lil while after this fine IWD, that I should point out what a crap job you feminists are doing by reading this entry to you.
Sunway: That's evil.
Jemufo: You don't want to change how she thinks! You're just doing this for amusement!
Jerng: Finally, she gets it.
Lainie: Finally, you get it. Your ideals, my entertainment....
Jemufo: And I reacted just as you thought I would..
Lainie: Now now...

Lainie: OMG! I have a GREAT IDEA! We should send this to *insert name of feminist here*.

Whereupon Jemufo insisted we went to her blog because she was traumatised by Minishorts and wanted to read something nicer instead.

Lainie: No. I'm not going to her blog. You'll just end up agreeing with everything she says. And where's the fun in that?

Then I started reading more Minishorts out loud and Jemufo knew I was just being cheeky so she gave me a semi-amused warning glare before walking out of my room, closing the door after her.

Jerng: I think that's my cue .

So he left too. And I started blogging. Then Jemufo opens my room door...

Jemufo: Good night...
Lainie: Good night.

Jemufo closes door, then opens it and pops her head back in.

Jemufo: I hate you.
Lainie: Heh heh heh heh.....

I don't have Astro at home, my entertainment must come from some source.

That being said, I have nothing against Minishorts (even if I disagree with the entry written), because misguided as it may be (sorry, Mini - but it'd be weird if we agreed on everything anyway), I am aware it unfortunately reflects a common viewpoint. The easiest one to arrive at? I doubt her entry would actually upset many people.

I'd refrain from replying, I'd have to agree with Jemufo, there's so much to disagree with, I'm not sure where to begin either.

I would like to know whether any of the readers of my blog think International Women's Day is a negative thing, in any way. Perhaps, you feel a woman is already so empowered that to have a day set aside for her seems to be redundant, a step backwards, even? Maybe I shouldn't put words in your head

Just curious, let me know?

[ Update ]

I met Jeremiah Foo the yesterday at Malaysiakini office, for a free screening of "An Inconvenient Truth". Found something from his blog:

The Tourism Minister Tunku Adnan lashed out today (Mar 8, 2007) that all bloggers on the Internet are liars, out of which 80% are unemployed women.

Inititial reaction went like this (but in Cantonese)...

Lainie: Die. I'm going to vomit lightning.

Niamafulat, I don't know what's worse. What he said, or that he's a minister here. Combined, it's....*facepalm*. Sighhhhhh.

I call these "brains in ass" kinda statements. I don't care who he is, that was a whole bunch of stupid bullshit to wank off in our direction. I'm starting to feel overgenerous to even imply he has brains anywhere.

I would tolerate something like that from ill-mannered, badly raised kids of primary school age, at most. Perhaps "tolerate" doesn't apply, I've been known to be very terse with children like that. How old is our tourism minister anyway? 9 years old?

You know what's ironic? Dissing the bloggers is definitely something the blogosphere will pick up on. To do it in such a stupid manner is to automatically cede moral / intellectual / about every other highground possible to all the bloggers he's just dissed.

Which is just not gonna be pretty at all........

Written by lainie at 12:40 AM on March 15, 2007 in College, Stupid, but fun..

Bleh. Been working, and severely sleep deprived. Drank 7 cups of coffee today, and I'm not even counting the amount of tea I've had. I kinda weirded out the guy at the cashier when I paid for the amount of coffee I drank. And I still have more work. And more coffee to drink.

The only reason I'm posting this up is because Jemufo is complaining that my blog has an auto-play video, which is annoying, so I need one more post to bump that entry to the archives page.

Anyhow. I was reading a friend's blog, because he's a pretty cool dude. I scrolled down to the comments. Guess what? His reader thinks I'm a bigot. Aaaaahhhhh......

Now, now, why would some feminist think I hate them collectively? Tch. Surely there are some people out there I would call feminists, who feel I think well of them

[ I know I left a childish comment at the LJ - but please don't troll there, it being rurounibug's blog and all that ]

Hiatus until, probably, end of the week, because it's the last week of college before mid-sem-evaluation, and I've got a crazily heavy schedule, so I'm trying to do away with all okay, fine - most distractions.

Now if you don't mind, I gotta go - have about thirty logos to draw, speech and short story to prepare, and a review to write - tonight. By Friday I need print design, finalised logo, concept sketches and mood board for Typography in Time, and my finalised 30 second video design using typography.....

......and somewhere before Tuesday rolls around, read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and critique it based on Gilbert and Gubar's "The Madwoman in the Attic", thank bloody goodness I am not entirely unfamiliar with both works so I'm hoping my memory kicks in somewhere and cuts down my workload.

Wait. Why am I even blogging? Workload sounds even crazier when I actually type it out. AHHHH! HIATUS!

[ PS: if you have time, check out the exhibition in Annexe, some of the stuff there's pretty cool -- though who am I to tell you what to like, ei? ]

Written by lainie at 08:57 PM on March 17, 2007 in Daily Life.

Hi. It's been a long week for me. But I'm back, and soon, my phone will be too.

There's this entertaining interview on Kakiseni, Antares asking Kam Raslan stuff. Go read, I insist.

College was a bit sucky early in the week, but Friday started off pretty good - my presentation went well, I got a huuuuge chunk of work done from Wednesday class. I think I intimidated some with the amount of output - but I've always said, I work fast. I'm surprised my lecturer was okay with the preso, honestly. I thought it'd get slammed, again....again....again.... again....

A lot of my classmates are doing rebranding for national institutions, and I've had some pretty...unsettling...encounters with their concepts of race / nation / culture. I am tempted to say some of the approaches were racist - not in the "you are a different skin colour therefore you are second class" kinda way. Perhaps a more unconscious, but still systematic, cultural oppression - racism, but more subtle, and minus the ill will.

I've been drinking at home. And I've given myself a day off today, reading Orhan Pahmuk's The Black Book.

I was in Loft last night and I miss how it used to be. Zedeck was too sick with fever to join us in Loft, so he ended up drinking at home instead, after we continued our talk about brains in organic vats and autonomy with Winnie and Danlim . Zed's been editing so much that when he tries to write stuff unrelated to work, he automatically adds html tags (I told him he just has to copy and paste the published page).

I've not slept properly since Wednesday. I need to find the On / Off switch for my brain. I don't know how long this will last, but if I drink myself into an appropriate stupor by 2am, I ought to have a lovely, lovely, sleep. Well, lovely is ambitious - just being knocked out will do by now.

====

Genius of geometric pulchritude and maestro of the movie-land desiring machine, Busby Berkeley (1895–1976) was not just the reigning dance director of early-'30s Hollywood but America's most inventive sound filmmaker before Orson Welles—as well as our Leni Riefenstahl.

From Village Voice, always entertaining.

Written by lainie at 08:15 AM on March 18, 2007 in Links / Email.

Huai Bin is back - Fire Element.com. Wild dude, and really - good to have yback bro.

Written by lainie at 03:39 AM on March 19, 2007 in Daily Life, Friends, Links / Email.

I'm in my room now, blaring "Lion Sleeps Tonight" from my room. I'm (not really) sorry if I kill any romances going on in the next room - I've explained to Jemufo the urge to insincerely apologise for ruining her days.

=====

Sunday's been a slow, easy day. Did my laundry, washed up in the kitchen, cleared up some of my room - then spraymounted photos and stuck it on my bedroom wall, knowing full well it wouldn't last till tomorrow. Kick-jumped off the wall a few times, flipped through magazines, had some wine, listened to some CDs. Made stickers. A lot of my really close friends happened to be online, so I did some obligatory catching up, if a lil to their disbelief since I don't usually chat. Then again, I'll do much when I'm bored, and I was about to tear up from the sheer volume of mind numbing nothingness going on.

On the plus side, I finally figured out where Prits is studying (Perth! See, I remember!), if I still have no idea which institution / course she's in.

Also chatted briefly with Huai Bin (of Sixthseal.com). One of the few online friends I get along with really well, even if we've had lil disagreements over some content of his posts. Forgot to tell him I heard a poem read the other day, inspired by him.

=====

Went for dinner with Zedeck. As we were walking out....

Zedeck: I want to buy DVDs.
Lainie: Sure. I'll accompany you. I'm sure our friendship can sustain the extra thirty minutes...
Zedeck: Ah, but how sure are you?
Lainie: This is based on empirical evidence, unless I made the mistake of assuming we are still friends?

Zed and I are so grouchy together, he brings out the misanthrope in me sometimes. Finally ended up sharing a cheapie Kelantanese dinner with him. Pucuk paku, assam prawn, ikan masin, telur dadar, salad, chicken curry thing (I'm probably getting the names of the dishes kinda wrong). Zal joined us, we had a few talks about girls, the type Zed and I like. For some reason, these talks always gravitate towards boobs (or as Zal puts them, bosoms). Zal suggested I date Zed. While Zed is a very pretty lesbian, I don't think it'd work out between the both of us.

Zedeck: My lack of bosoms gives me away......

Then there was some geekspeak (as if talking about bosoms ain't...) about roleplaying...When Zal brought up characters with sword shaped penises.

Zedeck: You mean penis shaped swords...
Zal: No, sword shaped penises! Yknow...

Then I gestured like I had some swinging penis-sword thing and distracted a waiter.

Zal: You know it'll happen. D&D. Some dude will go, oh can I have a sword shaped penis? Roll the dice!

....I distracted the waiter again.

Zal: D&D is a serious game. We must be serious.
Lainie: BWAHAHAHHA!
Zal: So we can play, for like 15 years.
Lainie: .....

While waiting for the cashier we talked more on the practicalities of a sword shaped penis (costume? A sheath? Nudity?), and pulled a business card out of the jar and pretended it was an eyepatch. What attacks? Giant cum wads...? The Ejaculation of Glorious Death, damage +12.

Yknow, a pirate with a sword-penis is a character sheet just waiiiiiting to happen, if it hasn't already.

=====

Zal eventually treated us both to lattes and free entertainment through her laptop. We probably annoyed some of the other patrons at Coffeebean, laughing so much and so hard. It's not easy to be sober around Zal.

While waiting for Zal to return with coffee, I had a conversation about the aesthetics of strawberries with Zedeck. Basically, I saw a picture of a strawberry's cross-section, and didn't realise it wasn't a whole strawberry, so it looked really weird to me. This started a whole debate about putting illustrations of retarded strawberries on your product - wouldn't you want to put something that fits the narrowest definition of "strawberry" you can, visually? I mean, do you really wanna tell people your products are made of retarded looking strawberries.

There was silence for a while. Then I talked about how much it would suck to be a sentient, homosexual strawberry plant, and how adoptions would be a bitch, trying to convince straight neighbours to give you a kid in a patch of ground *suitably* near you. And I went on and on about it too.

Zedeck: Right. I'm going to pretend the last few minutes didn't happen. You didn't say anything.
Lainie: *still pissing myself laughing* Sucks to be a strawberry plant..
Zedeck: And that you're laughing for no reason, which is more normal of you.

Zal returned with coffee, whipped out her laptop, and we watched these geeky D&D videos - I'm not sure how much of the humour you'd get if you're unfamiliar with geek culture, but if you are, this should give you shit and giggles throughout:

Tom et ses chums! Farador D&D (Part:1) (at 4.56 and 5.17, I nearly killed myself laughing). The second video, Tom et ses chums! Farador D&D (Part:2) has hilarious Boba Fett.....sex and loin cloth adjustment scene.....

Then we viewed pictures of Zedeck's new interest: the Cadwe minotaur maid from Cadwallon, Confrontation. He mentioned she should have udders, but I think the bosoms are more appropriate (the only human anatomy I see to pass it off as "minotaur" ). Check out her apron....

Then Zal put on Jay Z & R Kelly's Fiesta video, I stopped blinking for a while. Bewbies and pole dances. Of course, I was only doing it so I could later evaluate how salah the video was.

Zal: Wait. How old are you? Can you watch this?
Lainie: What the fuuu-
Zal: - Here, this is more your speed.

And that's how I ended up watching an animation of a hippo singing Lion Sleeps Tonight.

We're also talking about flying off to attend LARP events, so we get to see men in kilts magi throw stones spells at each other (lightning bolt! lightning bolt! lightning bolt!).

After that, Zal came over to our place so we could leech off her music collection. Three of us sat in a circle, passing Jemufo's thumbdrive around.

Zal: This is like an orgy, but not. "Here pass this thing around, and stick it into your holes".

[ Pause ]

Zal: See we got a three-way thing going.
Lainie: .......Uhuh......
Zal: *points finger*. Fear me. For I have Johnny Cash.

Before she left, she dropped us a link to this puzzle online. I made it past a bit over ten pages before I gave up.

I need to cut my nails - but I can't because Zedeck borrowed my nailclipper (along with a second - so he can "cut his nails in tandem"). *shrug*.

I'm really just blogging to distract myself. I've been thinking too much lately, about stuff I don't know enough to think about. And it's really best that I stop, so....Somebody, distract meeeeeeeeee.

Written by lainie at 04:19 PM on March 21, 2007 in Friends, Home.

First of all, two Youtube links:

How to check for symptoms of breast cancer
How to check for symptoms of testicular cancer.

Unfortunately, because some asswipes have decided that learning how to check for tumours is too pornographic / offensive, you can only watch the video if you register as over-18 years old in a Youtube account.

Anyway, I decided to be fair, I should try to get off on the video. My conclusion is that in general, videos of old dude handling young woman's bewbies are..........well. I wouldn't call them porn, I'd call them precursors to long drinking sessions to numb the mind.

I'm probably closer to getting off on this: ketchup and fries art porn.

=====

The night before, I walked out to get Zedeck dinner because he'd only slept an hour the night before, and was bent over painting some mini. For some reason I felt sorry for his ignored health, so walk out I did.

Since I was going, I decided to ask Jemufo, Zheng and Sunway if they wanted anything from the mamak too.

Zheng: Snow!
Jemufo: Bring back snow.
Zheng: Snow!

Lainie: Uh. How about some ice cubes instead?
Zheng: Bring me back a polar bear!

Dumbasses. As I was walking downstairs (Zheng: Bring back a giant chicken!), Zedeck evidently overheard the conversations upstairs.

Zedeck: Get me a girlfriend!
Lainie: Eihh. I take care of myself first, okay? Or wait. You can have Jemufo's body.

Jemufo: (yells from upstairs) What did you say?
Lainie: Nothing!

[ Pause ]

Lainie: I just offered your body to Zedeck, that's all.
Jemufo: ....That's not cool.
Lainie: Whatever. *muttermutter* Feminists *muttermutter*.

Shook my head and left the house.

Zed came over later at night to announce that drinking would happen downstairs later, and that we were welcome to join him.

Jemufo and I wanted to know what was happening, who was coming over. Turns out Zed just wants to have nightcaps, and good sleep at night. I knew there was a reason we get along

Jemufo: You and Zedeck are so bad for each other...

=====

Yesterday went out for lunch and talked about family. Family is....Ah, well.

Came home, scanned photos, drank wine, laughed at my ollllld photos, and went for dinner with Jerng.

Kinda.

Work now. Ciaoooo

Written by lainie at 12:32 PM on March 22, 2007 in Links / Email.

I think those used to searching for Def Jam poetry videos on Youtube will be familiar with Suheir Hammad by now. I remember watching the video the first time, while I was feeling bored, and by the end of it....Oh, she had my attention.

So I logged on to Puisi-Poesy to find a post by Sharanya on one of Suheir's pieces "of woman torn", which you can read, if you're so inclined.

=====

Something I ganked off Meesh, it's a book meme.

Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.  A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17.  Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24.  The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25.  Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28.  The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36.  The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37.  The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38.  I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39.  The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40.  The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41.  The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42.  The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43.  Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51.  The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53.  Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56.  The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62.  The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65.  Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch–22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint–Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76.  The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77.  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79.  The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81.  Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83.  Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84.  Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86.  Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88.  The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89.  Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of a Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96.  The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99.  The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Well. Now I'm lazy to finish the other parts - the italics, crossing out, and what not. Who gives a crap anyway, ei? I actually want to cross out a fair few of the book titles I bolded .

 Right right, back to work. Anyone wants to throw books my way - always welcome.

Written by lainie at 11:48 AM on March 24, 2007 in Links / Email.

I started off in the morning watching Naked News. I'd long heard of it, but never bothered to check it out till today. It's all women within a certain age / weight bracket, slipping out of their clothes and eventually baring all as they....report the news.

I was at Naked News because my friend got a subscription, and kindly gave me access to the full version - where you get to see all the bits (not sure about the limitations of free accounts). She wanted me to check out "Erica", who does the Travel section.

Towards the evening, I showed one of the videos to Jemufo and a friend - laughing because it's so entirely fucked up that someone distractingly nude is reading the news about kids dying in warzones. I'm going to hell, I know. I don't remember what the heck the news was about, my power is not enough for my attention span to encompass bewbies AND information.

The most interesting video I saw, out of about 3, was this "Travel" series by Erica.


Naked newscaster. Malaysia's largest phallic symbols. Look at those twins. Yeah you fuckers all skipped the words, straight to the picture, I know. No hard feelings, no pun intended.

If you have a subscription - there's this funny blooper video she's in where she's moonwalking, or slowly turning around and strutting off - in the wrong direction. Then changing paths.

Yknow what? All porn access passwords, you are invited to throw my way. Donations welcome.

Moving along to not very wankable things from my email inbox - Article 11. Apparently, videos have been uploaded onto the internet so you can watch them and pretend to be more intelligent.

If you find these things erotic, heyyyy, you go right ahead, and do whatever you need to do. Here's the email:

Hello everyone,

On 21 March 2007 the Article 11 coalition launched a video series to better inform the public on its mission to uphold the supremacy of the Federal Constitution. The video series will also counter the misinformation and attacks against its work.

The video series comprises 3 videos: there are the English and Bahasa Malaysia videos which explain the Article 11 coalition, its mission and objectives. The third video, which is in Bahasa Malaysia, is a forum in which four Malaysians discuss the pressing issue of “Kebangkitan Islam dan Pemerintahan Berperlembagaan” (Islamisation and Constitutional Governance).

The videos can be downloaded for viewing from Malaysia Today and will shortly be made available on other websites as well.

Article 11's press statement relating to the launch is attached. Selected press coverage relating to the launch follows below. Please refer to Article 11's website (www.article11.org) for more information on the coalition.

Please circulate this information widely.

Regards,
Chin Oy Sim
Programme Officer
Women's Aid Organisation (WAO)
03) 7957 0636/7957 5636

More reading:

Article 11 launches video series on upholding Constitution
Jacqueline Ann Surin
Article 11 launches video documentaries
Bede Hong

=====

Teens Say 'I Do' to Purity

"In today's day and age, if the daughters are sexually active before they're married, that ceremony really is meaningless because the father's not giving anyone away," said dad Brett Markle.

Tonight, the girls make a solemn pledge to their father.

Sarah Markle, 12 years old, said, "I'm going to stay pure until I'm married, and I'm not going to date or kiss a boy or anything until I'm married."

...........................................I'd like to see anyone try to .....give me away......

Written by lainie at 04:40 AM on March 25, 2007 in Arty stuff.

When you're insomniac, waiting for sunrise and the noise of morning buses beginning to go by..... And you happen to be tired of pretending to read / slowly boozing in bed, or both.....



....you can draw pink rabbits.

That is all.

Written by lainie at 07:32 PM on March 26, 2007 in Friends, Home.

Bye, Bruno .

=====

Met so many people in Loft on Friday night - and yet, it always seems like there are many more missing. Towards the end of the night, I really liked the music. Less electro, more indie. Driven by margaritas, jumping with friends, singing (yelling, really) songs as they play.

At one point, Tei and I were cheerily facing each other, singing "If you want to use my body go for iiii-eeew".....

Let's just say our friendship only goes so far. Our reflexes kicked in when we realised who each other were, and there was a moment of recoil from horror before more tactfully acknowledging there was much love between us, just.......SO not that type. Hah.

=====

The next day, I was home, talking with Jemufo before she left.

Lainie: Seeya..
Jemufo: Huh?
Lainie: Seeya...?
Jemufo: Huh?
Lainie: Seeeeeyaaaa...........?
Jemufo: Oh! Yeah, see ya.
Lainie: Is 'seeya' a term used...amongst your kind...?
Jemufo: ....... *grinning / glaring*
Lainie: What's that look? Are you going to stab me with a knife the next time I EEEEEEK!!!!

Jemufo tried to stab my ribs with her fingers, and I'm really ticklish . Yes I go eek. It's quite uncool, I know.

====

In the afternoon, while I was typing away on my comp, Jerng suddenly popped in:

Jerng: Do you like to set stuff on fire?
Lainie: Hwurrr? ("How did you know", but I had been concentrating on work).
Jerng: *whips out huge magnifying glass*
Lainie: Ooooooh! Yayyy!
Jerng: Hehe.

Two seconds of focusing the sunlight onto a leaf, and it starts smoking, and white, blue flames....It was fun, till the heat got to me and I returned to my computer. But it was fun.

I liiiike fire.

====

Group-chatting at night with a bunch of friends. For some reason, all my fingers are now named "Hello" (after rejecting Zal's suggestion to name them Ding, Dong, and 8 hellos). I guess this makes my handshakes a real welcome committee?

lainie says:
hello, hello and hello.

zedeck siew says:
lainie. please do not be touching yourself at this moment.

zedeck siew says:
i live with you.

lainie says:
dont flatter yourself.

Written by lainie at 01:27 AM on March 28, 2007 in College.

I started off this morning unpleasant. By 10.30, I was dealing with people who had me impatiently drumming my fingers and breaking out into cold sweat from the effort of reigning in my temper -- for the past half an hour.

After that I *did* lose my temper, and cowed the four of them by yelling angrily, all the way till 1pm, when they came up with a solution of sorts to cut short the amount of inefficiencies I had put up with from them the past two weeks (I probably scared quite a few passerbys too). They seemed taken aback because I've noticed people tend to presume that I look too easygoing to have a temper (WHY?), and so they'd been carelessly, casually, going back on our agreements. I hate having my time wasted. And, I have a really bad temper, okay. I'm very impatient.

After a while I gave up yelling at them in Cantonese and used English instead just because I could not describe precisely what imbeciles they were and exactly how shit a job they had been doing - and I just realised it never crossed my mind to just cuss. Waste of my energy on the undeserving.

Banged my cellphone against something everytime I emphasised a point, and after a while my phone gave up on me too. I don't even want to talk about it anymore. Let's just say I had my nerves frazzled, my throat hurts now, and I was too angry to eat.

======

Went to college, and was so utterly braindead I could barely acknowledge my classmates. Had a drink, and eventually ended up talking with my lecturers about fine arts in Malaysia. Discussing some of the aspects I found disappointing / lacking - and how it could just be me, being overly critical, which is something I'm aware I tend to be.

Then Mr Teh showed me two of his artworks - and we discussed one of the pieces I had seen before and interpreted as a "nest", whereas I later learned it was from his series on squatters and oppression - I only saw the unity part of his work. After his explanation, I better understood what he was trying to do, so it was an interesting experience.

Although to be honest, I'm not sure how much information I absorbed because my brain felt saturated by then.

Then Bernice's class on Womens' Lit started immediately after.......I was so, bloody, tired by then (and frankly, the whole day before had just been kinda craptastic), that I could. Not. Concentrate. She would ask me a question and before I could even think of an answer it'd slip out of my mind - and I'd be left with two people staring at me.............waiting (only Bernice and another student present). I don't even remember much what happened in the first half of the class. Sleep deprivation is contributing to this, I guess.

Then again, my lack of contribution was interesting in that the two of them started this whole discussion on misogyny. My mouth had felt glued shut by then, but I slowly started listening, and I realised they were coming in from different perspectives. Yknow that saying, duck and chicken talking, when people don't understand each other? I took turns imagining what my classmate and lecturer would sound like if they literally clucked and quacked. That kinda woke me up .

Later, I had the common sense to tell my classmate what I had been picturing while looking like I was sleeping with my eyes open. I now have an idea on what you would look like if you were a fowl......?

Went for dinner with a friend - ate a lil, but mostly ended up picking at my food because I hadn't realised I had leftover appetite bleghs from the morning. Consumed a lot of coffee instead. I'm such a lil caffeine addict.

Talked about some stuff. "Stuff" being the general term for "Hands too lazy to type some, brain too tired to remember the rest".

Long day. But at least by Bernice's class it got a bit lot better. Got home at about midnight. Brain too numb to work on assignments. Throat starting to feel like it's being stabbed by pins.

=====

Very cool: Adobe CS3 family is out, and check out the link because it shows you some of the Illustrator CS3 new features, and I am plenty pleased to see that Kuler has been included (one of my minor gripes after downloading Photoshop CS3 Beta was that this feature wasn't inside).

Written by lainie at 11:34 AM on March 29, 2007 in Links / Email.

WHY DO YOU NEED TO REGISTER ?
To secure your right to vote in an election and exercise your right as a citizen.
Information on how to register here.

Just posting this up because someone asked me where to get information on this, and I resorted to trawling through the internet. It's ridiculous, in the age of google, how long it took for me to find the website that lists this information.

What's this I hear tomorrow's the last day to register as voter, something something?

Gah. Grahhh. Grahhhhhhhhhh.

Written by lainie at 12:54 PM on March 29, 2007 in Friends.

My baggy jeans are now so loose on me that fresh out of the laundry, I still have to wear a belt with it, or risk flashing my arse to random strangers. Which, I suppose, though nothing new, is an action I usually have more control over.

I've been training Yixing lately, singing songs from Avenue Q. Mostly, this one.

Lainie: The internet is really really greeaaat....*cues Yixing*
Yixing: ...?.....for porn....
Lainie: I've got a fast connection, so I don't have to waaait...*cues Yixing*
Yixing: .....for porn.....
Lainie: There's always some new site....
Yixing: .......for porn.....
Lainie: I browse all day and night!
Yixing: ....for porn.....
Lainie: It's like I'm surfing at the speed of liiiiight
Yixing: fooor poooorn!
Lainie: The internet is for porn! The internet is for porn! Me up all night honking me horn, to porn, porn, pornnnnnnn!

[ Pause ]

Lainie: Oooh. I'm training the feminist.

In fact, I may have overtrained her.

Lainie: Always look on the bright siiide of liiife....

[Song from Spamalot ]

Yixing: ...For porn!
Lainie: .....Uhmmm...Wrong song..
Yixing: But they fit together so well...

I'm not saying I disagree with her, only that this kinda stuff usually comes from *me*.

Showtunes are fun.

=====

Was talking with Zheng about human engineering, and how it would totally suck if you were more than 60% chicken. Say you were pretty much just a reallly, realllllly human chicken. And other humans are considered first class humans and can...yknow. Be friends with you one day, and eat you the other.

This makes me think of monkeys. And other stuff. But mostly, it makes me think it sucks to be food.

Written by lainie at 01:39 AM on March 30, 2007 in Friends, Stupid, but fun..

I've been lethargic and cramped over the past few days, but on the plus side, having my period means Zal bought me chocolates to take away my few remaining excuses to behave like an absolute cow. It's about the only time I quite willingly accept desserts.

I'm pathetic at handling sugar sometimes (see me after dinner to get what I mean), so I was giggly throughout. Then again, all Zal has to do is laugh and I can't help but start giggling along with her. Infectious, crazy woman. She showed me some video of guys wearing their nutsacks outside their pants.

I've just discovered something pleasant - Al works near where I stay . I'd just tried to message Al a few days back, to discover my phone was out of credit. Was peculiar to be heading towards Zal, and to find Al staring at me as I walked. Was momentarily stunned.

=====

The Pee Party

These images capture not only Jong’s rebellious exuberance, but also offer a comment on what constitutes the personal and the political. Pees on Earth is a statement about the ownership of self, of sensuality, of humanity, and of womanhood—all expressed with beauty and a great deal of humor.


It's a coffeetable book filled with photos of some woman peeing around the world. You here that, Daph? It's art. I must say, some of those photos do look pretty cool.

I want to go dancing. And I don't mean that foot stamping, jumping thing I seem to end up doing in Loft. Hah. Not that there's anything wrong with Loft.

Written by lainie at 07:42 PM on March 30, 2007.

I just found out: Today has been declared by Andy Carvin as Stop Cyberbullying Day.

I'll post something about this later - meanwhile, I have to head out for what promises to be an awesome night in the Annexe (and if you have time, you should head on over too).

Written by lainie at 02:10 AM on March 31, 2007 in Takebackthetech.net.

Stop cyberbullying day. Man, this post appearing here is...ironic.... and hypocritical. Moving along, let's focus on the bad people whose names aren't Lainie Yeoh...LE RAMBLE!

I received an email from the Takebackthetech mailing list, telling me that a prominent female blogger has been harassed lately - Manipulated photos of her being suffocated with underwear, death threats, a fuckload of misogyny, etc. It's horrible, it takes some prime fuckheads to do that.

The sequence of events leading up from that, led to Andy Carvin declaring 30th March as "Stop Cyberbullying Day", where bloggers can voice out about this and then tag Technorati with "stopcyberbullying".

First of all....the term "cyberbullying" sits strangely with me. I think I'll have to agree with another TBTT blogger that I am more comfortable with calling it "Stop Online Harassment Day".

I don't know what to say about this, how do you tell stupid people they are stupid, and have them understand that the very way they laugh it off implies that whatever level of intelligence they have in all other fields still means they are, ultimately......idiots?

I've had my share of trolls on this site. Lessee.........Anti lesbian comments. Sexism. Racism. Oh heck, I've had a variety of hate remarks. And - people *pretending* they were physically stalking me.

Emails telling me what I was wearing in college. Who I met. What I did at an event. That they were going to befriend and eventually seduce me, before completely fucking me over because haha, they're actually one of the trolls on my blog and hate me and it gets their rocks off to be able to make a fool out of me using the very information I've put online that enables them to track me down.

Oh, and nosy midlife crisis man printing out my exploits and handing it out during societal functions in my hometown, almost forgot that one. Someone constructing a false identity and baiting a friend, through my blog (can't go there, don't want to, anyway).

I don't think I have anything to tell trolls that they don't already know. It's petty. Cowardly. They're being social rejects from the comforts and privacy of their homes. And it's so, so easy. I've had my moments of immaturity, and one trolling incident from a long time back (which I now regret, albeit a bit too late), so I should know. I still am immature, but the mild progress is - I now admit it .

I'm pretty sure they can hold up their side of a conversation about how trolls are idiots, because it's what they're expected to say (btw: I've had trolls unaware that I have IP tracking, pretend to be two different persons - a fuckhead troll, and someone appalled at the existence of fuckhead trolls, arguing with each other on my blog).

I don't feel particularly inclined to give trolls a moral lecture. You could say I'd like to pretend I'm seldom inclined to moralise.

HOWEVER, I have learned recently that my dear blogger friends forget sometimes they can speak up against things they disapprove of - even if it seems obvious that there is nothing to approve of in the first place about hate comments.

Aiyo, I know lah you're not going to hand out award ribbons to trolls. I know you get annoyed by them too. But by collectively keeping quiet about online harassment - it lends this whole aura of complacency / acceptance - that idiots are a norm in cyberspace, and there is no point in dissing them - so may as well let them say what they do and maybe they'll go away.

I suggest we make them feel as unwelcome as they truly are - which is not to say we have to waste energy getting all angry, I understand that not everyone has the time trolls do.

Recently, a friend asked me to write about a social issue she was greatly concerned about, and left her own blog silent about it (though she later did write about it). I don't know.

Instead of waiting for someone else to say something, I'm just pointing out that you can speak up, too.

Technorati: stopcyberbullying, takebackthetech.

=====

As for why "cyberbullying" sits strangely with me...Hmm. I don't know. First of all, it doesn't seem adequate as a description for the situation that kickstarted this "Stop Cyberbullying Day". And secondly....I guess "cyberbullying" reminds me of something else too:

Sometimes, people don't get named on my blog (not just because they threaten to club my head in), and things I do don't get published here - because I kinda feel that by virtue of being about the only one amongst my immediate group of friends with a (regularly updated) blog, and an audience familiar with me, I pretty much have the upper hand everytime I open my yap. And if I do, maybe I also owe them the responsibility to be aware of that.

[ Sure, they can input comments and correct my version - but the post gets read more immediately, no? Or update their own blogs, but who's to say everyone here will read their version too? ]

Does this only make sense to me? I'm almost tempted to say the (I can't think of a better term) unequal power balance makes it possible to say that everytime I blog about my friends on one of my copious, careless updates and somewhat misrepresent them - it's a subtle kinda bullying. I'm not saying it's intentional malice......

Just a vague thought. This self-censorship thingie is something I do by instinct, I don't really wanna think about it further .

Maybe I'm not pinning down my hunches correctly. If there are any other bloggers out there who are more rajin than I am and have thought about it, hey, drop your two cents.

=====

It's kinda weird for me to sit down and blog about one particular topic, since most of the regular readers will know, I like to ramble on about whatever crosses my mind. I have no idea how some of you people do it.

This is the third night I won't be sleeping. I should really consider doing drugs to sustain this lifestyle (then again, caffeine is a drug....). On the plus side, my lecturer likes my work. On the minus side, I need to stay up to cover the amount of output he'd like to see (I'd like to see it too).

Gahhhh. Extremely tired. Groggy but cannot sleep.

Written by lainie at 12:40 AM on April 1, 2007 in Events, Arty stuff.

The trailer for Stardust is out - I hesitate to be too excited about it yet. But - Michelle Pfeiffer, oooh.

My article on Kakiseni's weekly Tembak section, about Di Antara Cahaya, is up. Basically, I went for a screening a few days back, at Help Institute. I've been bumping into my ex typography lecturer quite frequently at events (and he's sometimes hanging out with my current typography lecturer). Was there for work, but I bet it looks like I'm constantly faffing about, this Lainie Yeoh, always wasting time at events .

Went for dinner with Danlim and Grace after that, and talked a whole gamut of stuff. Dan's my braindump when I need to coalesce thoughts online before writing something. I always feel like I don't know enough.

====

Went to Annexe last night, for poetry - the main star was Benjamin Zephaniah, whose entire promo throughout his stay here seemed to be as the guy who told the queen and Blair "up yours" for offering to knight him. Well it worked, very good turn out that night.

Rahmat Haron also read poetry, smoked onstage, vandalised Annexe while he was at it - he was "forbidden" from singing, which he did anyway along with his poetry reading, and scrawled messages everywhere in Annexe about being forbidden to do as he wished by those who...forbid the act of forbidding (I heard they have to repaint the place, which should cost quite a bit, which basically means he's kinda banned from Annexe now). He trained the audience to yell back "kerana Rahmat memang Bangsat" everytime he said his name.

Yknow, I don't even know what bangsat means. It sounds like "Bangsar" to me.

The kids from Kampung Berembang did their "Wayang Kadbod" thing. Discovered that someone I knew was there for the event too because her voice boomed around the hall - turns out she was roped in last minute to briefly emcee and fill the audience in on the Berembang situation. Was funny, because Yixing had turned around right before to ask if she'd be there, I'd shrugged.....and then it was like The Voice of God boomed through. "YES I AM HERE AND I AM TALKING ABOUT BEREMBANG KIDS".

They were flashing photographs and I didn't really want to see in case there was some awful picture of me there. Tei said she was a bit oversaturated with photos of Berembang because of my blog - I'd left my update on it on the frontpage for a loooong time.

Always good to hang out with Tei. I like that I don't have to explain myself much to her. She promised her friend she wouldn't be going to Loft for some time, because we have a party coming up there soon, and it won't be special otherwise. Silly girl. Oh well, it's all good anyway, we finally met each other on a Friday night - sober.

The wayang show was actually really adorable. They got the audience laughing, cheering. After the show, they lined up in front. All really young kids. They sang a song. Tei said they were so young. I said those were the kids that got dragged out of their homes illegally by the uniforms. It's screwy that way.

Benjamin Zephaniah - I can see why this dude is the famous dude he is. I liked the part about the people being understood. How politicians claim they don't "understand you", then they stand on top of you, and you are "understood". Eheh.

After that, went for dinner / supper with Tei, Zedeck and some other friends in Brickfields because one of them was drunk and cajoled the rest of us there. Was kinda sleep deprived then, don't remember much of the content, though I remember talking about religion and parents with the guy who dropped me off home later.

=====

Crashed into bed. Woke up hungry today. Ended up working on assignments, doing laundry, then going to Seksan for my first poetry slam event (is it a first in Malaysia? I don't know).

Was there on an empty stomach (and I didn't eat much the day before either), face turned red after just a glass of wine. I didn't even realise my hands were shaking until it was pointed out to me. Decided to stick to sugary drinks to keep upright, and eventually, Pringles.

I liked the environment of poetry slam. If the poet is taking too long and abusing your attention span - just start clicking your fingers. If they're really boring, stamp your feet. I like the idea of reciprocating crappy treatment to poets . There's also audience participation - you get prompted to fill in the blanks of the verses on their behalf, or when cued.

Some of the poets after a while generated a whole lotta finger snapping feet stamping. Then they get scored afterwards by a panel of judges scattered around the crowd. Even the judges get booed or cheered accordingly. I ended up making noise over some of the poets - couldn't really be bothered too much after a while because my fingers were shaking when I snapped them. At one point, Foo told me to stamp my feet for him because he was perched on the stairs and cuoldn't. Heh.

Met Bernice there, one of the first things she asked was if I'd written her paper, due in three days :O. I don't even remember what the title of my paper is supposed to be, because I was so incredibly tired in class that day it didn't cross my mind to write it down.

Then I got cornered by her brother, Bernard (who used to lecture in Cenfad), and Foo (ex-typography lecturer), who both ganged up to give me a lecture on how my potential counts for shite unless I do all my work well. Which is fair enough except I was at a poetry slam event, so I tried to get away from the lecture, but was forcibly pushed back in front of them by an overly-eager friend too happy to see me put on the spot . Bloody hell.

Bernice still wants to see the paper. You know what sucks about going for the same events your lecturers go for? They know you've been out spending time you could have used on the paper. AHHHHHHHHH!!

As for the poets - I thought one of the poets looked kinda psycho, but hey. She didn't do too badly on the score systems. Noticed some of the judges really appreciate emotional catharsis and sexuality being flaunted. I like the dude who ended up winning the poetry slam, Marc Nair (even if my friend who found him cute was disappointed because his first piece of poetry was about Milo, which I quite liked).

I'm blogging about this because I don't think I'm supposed to write an article about it, so hey hey.

Yknow, the great part about Readings is that La Bodega sponsors free wine. Heh. Honestly, I totally appreciate the concept behind free booze. After readings, went to Delicious in Bangsar Village and chatted with a friend about relationships, women, what I'm looking for in girls (I'm still unsure), and she drew crazy looking electrocuted cats and a picture of me (I have no elbows), while she sobered down.

First proper meal in ages, so it was good to get some food into my stomach. All my eating / sleeping patterns have been erratic lately. Came home. Did a bit of assignments. Blogged. Will sleep soon - Sunday's when I catch up on sleep by refusing to get out of bed.

Tomorrow, by the way, is yet another poetry event. The flyer is here. 9pm, Bernice Chauly, Jerome Kugan, Sharanya Manivannan and Cyril Wong (from Singapore), at No Black Tie. Sounds promising.

Three days of literary events. I'm getting spoiled. Yay.

Written by lainie at 01:24 AM on April 1, 2007 in College.

Figured it's been a while since I updated stuff from college.

Just some of the sillier studies for an assignment....I can't say they're very original, since this series was more geared towards exploring the feel of combining some elements of my work with different ideas I've seen elsewhere, just to see what happens.

This is what I do when I'm blocked for ideas, and I'm bored, but I don't want to break my work flow - I do entirely derivative things while waiting for inspiration - I usually end up with a bulk of familiar looking designs. Heh.



Things that never have, and never will see the light of day in class .

Hmm. Studies. I don't usually like to do studies the way we're supposed to, even if they're essential, and I know this. We're supposed to put them side by side, and compare them. I prefer to have one piece, and continously work on it, as opposed to leaving copies of work done along the way to compare and...study. It distracts me to have so many things going on in one document. I like to delete. Delete. Delete. If I put stuff next to each other, I automatically eliminate everything I don't like as much. Something I'm trying to change.

Kinda like how when I presented business cards, I gave my lecturer a whole bunch of cutouts that I had been bothered to print out, and barely showed it to him before saying I....had rejected....the entire lot. To change to another concept. I wasn't going to show it to him, then I realised it was going to look like I'd *not* done anything over the week, so I fished the old cards out of the trashcan - but the good thing about where I stay is that we recycle, so it was only paper in the bin. Not that he ever needs to know . Heh. At least I didn't show him the cards that were spraymounted and had hair and dust stuck all over em.

Slowly. Sigh. Werk. Have to werkwerkwerk tomorrow.