Written by lainie at 05:18 AM on June 2, 2007 in Daily Life, Home.

An interlude in usual blogging activities (CYA disclaimer because I have been ordered to mention a friend I'd previously left out of this blog - with good reason-, and that post should come before this one - much love! ).

Was in Loft tonight - all us housemates dressed in an assortment of black and white, looking like college kids dressed in uniform, moving in packs. This is the first time we've all had a night out clubbing together.

A friend wanted to hook one of us (a specific one) up with a girl friend of hers, and the rest of the household decided a collective evaluation should be held (really, it could just be that the Friday night called for some entertainment). We went, met the girl, drank, danced, and......

The girl has been chopped with a seal of approval. The date for the next date has been set (possibly with further meddlings from the housemates). And everyone remains as anonymous as I can make it on this blog, about this .

After Loft, four of the housemates had supper. I had a drink, phasing out. Poking ice to the bottom of the coffee with a thin green straw, watching it zip right back up to the surface, repeatedly, and eventually melting into my drink.

Ever get the feeling that if you wanted an easier life you should just be a hell lot more stupid, or perhaps, attain a level of intelligence that allows you to surpass...oh hell, I have no idea what I'm talking about, which probably means I should aim to be stupider, especially given the miserable downward spiral my IQ has been taking the past few years. Even I fear to eye what remains in my brain.

The process shouldn't be too difficult, then. I'll just sit back and let nature take it's course . Within a few years I should be a complete imbecile.

[ That being said - I know of the few out there who would already consider my plan well executed, and I also know there are many more out there, damn y'all. ]

Written by lainie at 06:47 PM on June 4, 2007 in Family, Friends, Links / Email, Home.

My brain's been on a standstill, lately. I'm not absorbing new information, I'm not remembering stuff. My body has incorporated sunshine mornings, rainy evenings, and all round holidays into my cells.

=====

Shopping with my mother today. I bought Jose Saramago's book, Blindness (where a mass epidemic leaves nearly everyone in a city blind). I'd actually wanted to get the sequel to this book, "Seeing", which is about an election where hardly anyone votes - and when they do, most of the votes were blank, because the people had just given up on the democracry they had (there's actually some parallels between this storyline and some of the discussions I've had with Zedeck).

I came home with Blindness instead, and Zedeck tells me he already has a copy of it, but not Seeing. Gawddammit.

Over coffee latte with mother, we briefly talked about the Lina Joy thing, and how disgraceful it is.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today urged for an open mind and rational thinking from everyone over the recent decision in Lina Joy’s case.

“If we allow ourselves to be overcome by emotion, we will begin to have all kinds of thoughts; we will have suspicions about this and that,” he was quoted as saying in Bernama.

Yesterday, the highest court in the country ruled on a 2-1 majority to dismiss Lina’s appeal to to have the word "Islam" removed from her identity card.
PM: Don’t be emotional over Joy decision

WAHLAOWEI NIAMAFULAT. I'm too young for this kind of stress from the news. All my stress should have to do with what's happening to the Star Wars franchise.

Anyway. I have a few things to say about that article up there (ripped from Malaysiakini).

1) Thinking rationally is precisely what led citizens to be upset. There is a LOT of upset going around, but that doesn't reduce the merit of the arguments that have been made.

2) As for his "direct quote" which has said nothing and implied everything (here, let me hand you a May 13 pendant flag to wave while you make your speech), it is GOOD to have all kinds of thoughts. Thinking is a great, great thing, let's not discourage it.

3) Any dumbass can tell why people are upset that individuals don't have religious freedom here, don't insult us by implying our reactions has everything to do with lack of mental faculties. Someone's shat a big turd all over The Pie of Religious Freedom in Malaysia, and dammit, that's our pie.

It's been upsetting, really. I'm right pissed about this. But I assure you, I'm also largely quite rational.

And seriously, just cause you're prime minister doesn't mean you should say stuff like that. Heck, lebih lebih lagi you shouldn't. Who's believin you, man? Not many rational thinking people, I gather.

By the way, side note: it is entirely possible to be rational and have feelings, since rationality is to do with being lucid and having reasons for certain actions / reactions.

What the PM is asking for seems to be IMPASSIVENESS, which is.....a waste of our time. And has little to do with rationality.

You know what other words mean "Impassive"?

Apathetic.
Indifferent.
Incurious.
Insensible.

I think I don't have to elaborate why impassiveness is not a good thing for the country? Go on then, it's okay to give a damn.

=====

Was supposed to meet up with KA the other day for dinner and tv, but the hussy ffked me to watch So You Think You Can Dance over at Smile's place, while Tei and I hung out in our usual cafe eating our usual food, drinking our usual drink, and talking about her recent dramatic yet beautiful holiday (I've seen the pictures, and will vouch for the beauty part).

Eventually KA and Smile joined us, and Tei had to repeat her little adventure story. We all agreed on one thing - you don't mess with the jungle at night, if you know what's good for you.

Smile finally noticed that my tongue is pierced. She asked why she had never noticed it before, so I demonstrated how I could slobber and talk at the same thing if I wanted it waving noticeably in someone's face everytime we conversed.

I think we agree that it's best I speak as I usually do.

Then Tei asked if tongue rings are good (god knows why she would need to), Smile said they are, after which, I got looks from KA, and certain other actions that required me to move my chair away from her, as she suggested doing things to me that Idon't need or want will start donating to charity regularly if she'll just leave me, and my piercings, alone.

Told KA much love....but...... Eeeee.....Cannot la woman, I know what's been there. Muchlove! Justnotthatkind, but muchlove!

Smile was laughing at us, I think it was because I looked ready to zip off at any moment. I'm shy, okay, I totally admit it. And even if I wasn't, I'd still have zipped off.

After some veiled, and not so veiled, threats upon my honour (let's pretend I have some), where I was at her mercy cause she drove me home, I arrived in my room safe, and alone.Twenty dollars to the local orphanage.

=====

I just bought some groceries from the supermarket, and unfortunately, I forgot some chikin granules.

Evening entertainment with housemate:

Lainie:
dont suppose we have chikin granules at home?

Jemufo:
prolly not

Lainie:
we dont have msg? what's wrong with this house??

Jemufo:
lol
we are HIPPIES goddamnit
ahhahaaah

Lainie:
I HAVE ASIAN NEEDS GODDAMMIT
BLOODY GWAILO HOUSEMATES!

Jemufo:
you're not fucking asian.
:D

Lainie:
i'm not fucking an asian, that is true.
unless we count me into the equation.

Jemufo:
you're the one that cooks PASTA

Lainie:
that's not fair, i cook maggi mee too.

Jemufo:
PASTA nad BACON!

Lainie:
chinese must eat pork.

Jemufo:
you buy cheese and shit.

Lainie:
.............
you guys have cheese too okay

Jemufo:
hahhahahaha

Lainie:
i saw those nasty presliced sandwich cheese stuff in the fridge

Jemufo:
yeah, malaysian crap cheese
you buy NICE CHEESE
so WHITE
of you to do so

Lainie:
what does refined tastebuds have to do with it???

Jemufo:
you...you....bad chinese you

Lainie:
i want MSG
i'm the only good one here
i'm the only one that bought fish sauce
and sesame oil

Jemufo:
how many asians know what is feta and gouda and brie?

Lainie:
AND i bought shao tsing chinese wine for cooking
fuck you white kids.

Jemufo:
you american in denial.

And that was when I yelled at her because I gave her the option of "white" - which would imply a lot of countries to pick from, and she gives me...AMERICA? Dude, what the fuck.

Anyhow, in the grand scheme of most, if not all, places being multicultural - America strikes me as the least "white" amongst all the "white" countries, if that makes any sense.

=====

I went for Dua, Tiga Dalang Berlari in Annexe on Friday night. Well worth my time, but like I've said before, I find it very easy to like a lot of Five Arts Centre productions.

Started off a bit slow, but I like how it picked up. Directed by Mark Teh, performed by Wong Tay Sy, Lim Chung Wei and Fahmi Fadzil. Some hand shadow puppetry and texts stuff by Fahmi Redza too, I liked the pairs of words they were using, witty fun stuff.

I think when I told people it's about dalangs and wayang kulit, people thought it would be boring, and performed in a language they didn't really grasp. But heck no, it was damn fun lah.

They put in a lot of wayang elements into the performance, I particularly liked how they did the humour, and narrated a lot of it through physical theatre. Fahmi has a lot of stage presence, always fun to watch (I gave a lil jump when he first walked onstage quietly, then suddenly threw open his arms and BWAHAHAHAed at the crowd).

Oh what am I saying. You guys should have gone.

=====

I went for the play alone, but bumped into Petra and Bernice there. Ended up going for a ride with Bernice after her show, in her little white Beetle (really cool). Had some wine at a bar, fed me some soup because I'd not eaten yet.

Then we went to visit her friend Hayati and How Tsean (this is where I start spelling all the names wrong), where we had more wine and food to pick at, while listening to stories from Bernice's student days and listening to Russian music and Cat Power. Turns out Hayati used to teach in Cenfad too, before my time, on analysing symbols and imagery in advertisments (I think)....Dammit, I would have really liked to take that class.

Hayati told Bernice not to get too attached to her students, and Bernice just kinda gestured at me sitting there, a clear example of that not happening. Hayati lives in awesome house and has lovely looking book collection. I told Hayati that Ton no longer lectures at Cenfad, and she said that was a waste because he's awesome (she's right, too). Also told her the administration at Cenfad must have REALLY pissed him off (I know they weren't paying him), because he didn't even attend the ICON show.

How Tsean turned out to be friends with uncles from both sides of my family. He reminds me of Uncle Fudge. Man, the people I meet are getting older.

Later, Vinh and his partner walked over from their Sputnik gallery, which is nearby, and they brought a bottle of wine too. I think I'd stopped drinking by then .

Hayati had gone to sleep after a while (she was sickly on that day). I think when she and Bernice were housemates they make all my previous combinations of housemates sound so sedate and normal.

We ended up sitting in the garden, talking more, over candlelight - and more wine. By the time we left, Bernice and I drove around to see if there were other places to go to. The bar we were at before was closed, so was Frangi's, and No Black Tie.

So we called it a night. Bernice dropped me off home, I slept, and she went back and watched Star Wars. Bernice said she thinks she's bad influence on me, I say I was influenced way, wayyyyyy before I was ever friends with her.

=====

I met my sister and Tommy yesterday in KLCC. Gazel and I don't look anything alike. Here's a fuzzy overexposed photo of them while we were having coffee in Dome:



Jesus, how long have I been blabbing? I wanna clean my room. Ciao.

Written by lainie at 11:48 PM on June 4, 2007 in Home.

There were a bunch of people in my house just now, boys and girls crossdressing. The second last person to do so was Jemufo, in Fiza's clothes.

She wore a black top, green skirt, and my heels (I'm calling Jemufo in girls clothes cross dressing, and if you've ever seen how boyish she usually looks, you'll know why).

I think our jaws all dropped when she walked down the stairs. Whoooooo.

Lainie: Oh my gawd. Yixing. I'm. So. Totally. Hitting on you. From now on.
Jemufo: What? NO.
Lainie: Sure I will. And it's so easy. You live next door!
Jemufo: .............

Sunway, her girlfriend, and I had a lil chat about this.

Sunway: So you like girly-girls!
Lainie: I do?

Well, why argue.

Lainie: Hey....yeah...There you go Yixing, I like girly-girls.

Something productive from all that crossdressing came about after all. A useless stereotype!

Later, as she leaves the house

Jemufo: You're not hitting on me.
Lainie: But why not?
Jemufo: Because we're housemates.
Lainie: I'm allowed to do this, I'm single.

I think I'm becoming a skirt chaser. Yay - Operation Hit on Housemate begins! .......Now I just have to figure out a way to keep her in skirts all the time.

Burn all her pants.

Written by lainie at 08:17 PM on June 5, 2007 in Home.

I've been trying to eat at home more, lately.

Had another version of bacon pasta for lunch - though I changed the sauce this time around to olive oil. I'd put heaps of garlic and chillies in the oil night before and let it soak. Fried bacon, tossed with oil and pasta. Done.

The last time around I'd gotten smoked streaky bacon from Mr Ho's. This time it was from some forgettable supermarket chain - I easily prefer Mr Ho's pork products.

Preparing dinner tonight involved myself, waving a cleaver around (Jemufo said I look scary) trying to cut chicken up. I made one cutlet and asked Jemufo if she'd rather do it instead, but she doesn't like cutting chicken either.

I discovered that shallots really do make your eyes water when you cut them, and chillies sting your hands way after. Anyhow, I prepared everything ahead so I could just go ahead and cook in five minutes when I was hungry. When my stomach called, I walked to the kitchen to discover:


Zheng cooking some tomato-based vegetarian dish. So I returned later.


Cooking halfway. Zheng and I were startled when I put the chicken in (from as far as I could stand from the wok), because the smoke that rose was....Woah. It filled up the kitchen. Zheng says it's probably because I used a really big fire. Never had chicken cook so fast on me before (then again, how many times have I cooked chicken?).

Happened to talk to aunt after cooking. She says she's impressed (which is not surprising considering she's seen the stuff I've tried to do in her kitchen for over a year).


Mom's serai (lemongrass) chicken recipe. Spicy-tangyish. It's usually a rice accompaniment, except I'm fine without....and it's not like I know how to boil rice anyway. I actually really liked it.

Mother said "congrats", then proceeded to remind me recipe came from her, and totally belongs to her, and of course credit goes to her. I'd like to know how eager she would be if I'd burned down the kitchen.

Did I mention, that when mum was down in KL, she gave me some instant sauce packets (I'll have Jemufo and Jerng figure those out ), along with two boxes of medicine?

She called a box "stomach medicine", and the other "not stomach medicine". Sometimes I don't know whether she is wise, or just damn snarky.

Written by lainie at 07:20 PM on June 6, 2007.

Tagged.

1. What is more difficult for you, looking into someone’s eyes when you are telling them how you feel, or looking into someone’s eyes when they are telling you how they feel?
uhm. first option. although in most cases i've pretty consistently avoided the second too.
......I don't want to do this quiz anymore...

2. Think of the last time you were REALLY angry. Why were you angry?
cant remember. i block out and shed off bad memories after a while.

3. You are on a flight from Honolulu to Chicago non-stop. There is a fire in the back of the plane. You get enough time to make ONE phone call. Who would you call?
....i'll probably want to go into my head. not talk.

4. You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live.

(1) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die?
some people i'd want to spend time with. my family. the close friends. maybe 30 people, a day with each? and a party to end it all. i'll do some mass goodbye thing to everyone else. ....if i can get someone to spend the whole day with me without knowing i'm dying, then i'd rather do that.

(2) What do you do with your remaining days?
indulge.

(3) Would you be afraid?
me, die with dignity? slim chance.

5. You can have one of the following two things: trust/love. Which do you choose?
love.

6. You are unfaithful to your boyfriend/girlfriend. Do you tell him/her?
depends on how i foresee the consequences and whether or not i want to deal with them.

7. Think of the last person who you know that died. You have the chance to give them 1 hour of life back, but you have to give one year of your life. Do you do it?
.....i can think of some people i'd trade for, but they weren't the last person to die.

8. Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend?
casual acquaintance, maybe.

9. Does love = sex?
love = x + xy + sex = x(1 + y + se).
i dont know what it means, but it was the first thing that popped into my head when i saw this.

10. When was the last time you told someone HONESTLY how you feel?
i told Jemufo last night i really really wanted bananachocolate cake, and i totally meant it. emo stuff, probably never. maybe rish. unless i'm telling someone i dont want something.

11. What would be harder for you, to tell someone you love them or that you do not love them back?
former.

12. What do you think would be the hardest thing for you to give up? Why would it be hard to lose?
coffee.. i could quit the internet before i quit caffeine.

13. If you had to go back in time and change one thing, if you HAD to, even if you have “no regrets” what would you change?
i'd make myself wealthy as hell. screw the rat race shit.

14. Imagine. It is a dark night, you are alone, it is raining outside, you hear someone walking around outside your window. WHO do you wish was there with you?
hmm. logan. i dont know why i suddenly thought of him, but okay.

15. Would you give a homeless person CPR if they were dying?
if that's what they needed, and i knew how.

16. Are you old fashioned?
just quiet. i dont know the norms of society in mom's time (or even my own) well enough to guess, but i suppose not.

17. You are holding onto your grandmother’s hand and the hand of a newborn that you do not know as they hang over the edge of a cliff. You have to let one go to save the other which one would it be?
wow this one's easy. grandmother. BYE BYE! SAY HI TO SATAN! it's okay, i'm probably headed to hell too.

18. Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before?
heartbreak should be a lot less permanent than any *never*. for everything else, there is alcohol. and friends.

19. If you could do anything OR wish anything, what would it be?
a certain type of supernatural, healthy, loooong life, and the ability to share it.

20.Excluding family love, when was the last time you told someone you loved them?
i was talking to rano rish and daph earlier, so must have been one of em.

==

Not tagging anyone else.

Written by lainie at 03:48 PM on June 7, 2007 in Music, Holidays / Road Trip, Links / Email.

I watched Shrek 3 (trailer) last night, expecting a night of mediocrity - it was actually really, really fun. Got some good laughs from me.

Had dinner with some friends - Smile wanted to know why her nickname is Smile, met KA's friend - KA read my post about not wanting to boink her (which is not to say she isn't hot lah, okay, my bad my bad). Met a girl I designed a CD cover for, once, a long time ago - I'm surprised she recognised me. Two guys wearing funny tshirts, and more friends I usually meet in Loft or at indie music gigs, out to watch Spidey3.

I think I'm going for salsa night in a club tonight.

You should click this link, because it will take you to musics from The National, made available by the folks at Spinner.com. Good tracklist - Mistaken Strangers, Apartment Story, Slow Show, Start A War. Short of twenty minutes, and music I love.

Old news, but they also have MP3s from Ryan Adam's "Easy Tiger" album, Two and Everybody Knows, for download. I thought I'd mention it, since the next link is for....

RYAN ADAMS A to Z: The Covers, where you can download an entire zip file of song covers by the boy, or individual tracks (wordpress blogs of the day is usually a good place to pop by and see if any popular music download pages are there - or catch up on (Malaysian) politics, though that's not so much my thing ).
I'm happy to see this, because I lost a lot of Ryan Adams covers in one harddisk reformat.

I downloaded a fifth of the file and got a BSOD. Now I have to start again, motherfucker.....

Busy being busy, making plans I'll forget - and making necessary (ie: paltry) plans for a trip I have coming up soon. I'm sorting out the things I need to do now, and wondering if I should be looking for a holiday buddy.

Written by lainie at 12:57 PM on June 10, 2007 in Daily Life.

Youtube has a TOTP clip with Paper Lace performing Billy Don't Be A Hero. Heh.

Yknow, I actually do like the song, but this live performance is so high on cheesey gazes and coordinated dancing-in-one-spot... I can't. I just can't.

Youtube also has a video up on Exxon Mobil evilness in Indonesia.

=====

Jemufo, in the dining room.

Jemufo: You can't hit on me!
Lainie: Why not?
Jemufo: I'm your housemate!
Lainie: But that just makes it more convenient...

[ Pause ]

Jemufo: Aren't you going to hit on me yet?
Lainie: Wear a skirt first, okay?

Jemufo, lying on my bed.

Jemufo: You can't hit on me!
Lainie: But it's like God's put a lesbian on my bed and wants to know - what more could I ask for?

[ A skirt, for one thing. ]

[ Pause ]

Jemufo: Aren't you going to hit on me yet?
Lainie: Dammit. Wear a skirt.

=====

I'm trying out a new line of facial products, and I'm not too sure about it. For one thing, they all come with "White" or "Whitening" in their description, and these always make me think of Michael Jackson and skin bleaching.

Anyway, the last thing I want, is for my face to be the colour of my ass.

=====

Went to a salsa bar the other day,
met some new friends, played some pool,
learned a dice-and-drinks game, ate bar snacks,
saw old men having a jolly good time, growing old very ungracefully,
i'd forgotten older men tend to bald,
caucasian dude being stuck with the bill, and yes - sexy dance moves.

=====

My mother's given me so many packs of sanitary pads by now, they almost fill up a tall shelf in my cupboard. I presume she thinks she's stemming the next Great Flood, or that I bleed like an elephant.

I don't. I mean, if I did, at some point in time I would have bought a big canvas, laid it out on the floor, and made the kind of bleeding full moon art that you hang in the living room and take turns with your housemates to create fantastic lies about what the piece is really about to visitors.

=====

After agreeing too many times to meet up, I finally spent some time with Rano. It's been so long since we were housemates, it surprises both of us when we put a number to the years it has been.

Temaned her shopping in two malls, looked at animals, made dirty jokes, checked her out in different outfits, discussed bisexuality (she finally agrees with me that it exists), marvelling at how so many of our friends are starting to graduate and work.

I bought my first rainbow-coloured item yesterday - not the correct six stripes of colours for the gay pride flag, but heck. It's a wrist band, I like how colourful it looks. Also bought earrings, because Rano insisted.

We observed that some fish swim the way vaginas would float in the air if they were fish, and others looked like bald, scaly Datins with bad eyeshadow.

=====

Meeting some folks for dinner tonight, the Singaporeans are down! Only three bloggers tonight, unless I'm mistaken, along with someone who works for Fridae, a gay gay gaaay website, and some friends.

She asked me about gay theatre / movements here. Well there are non-hetero individuals in theatre, and there are references here and there in plays, but I don't recall any play in recent times being marketed as "gay". I'm not sure I'd be that much arsed either, but I suppose I would go to watch something sold to gay audiences, just to see what's up.

They saw the Kerouac book I'm half reading, and declared it very post-college. Between Saramago and Kerouac, I prefer how the former pens his sentences and abuses his punctuation.

I'd told my friend some Singaporean friends were coming down, and she'd eyed me skeptically and said "Lesbians, huh?". Well.....yeahh.

So when I say Singaporean and lesbian, and blogger.....yeap -Popagandhi.com is in Malaysia.

By the way, there's a site called Read These Lips, and you can download a lesbian short fiction ebook, 21 stories / poetry pieces with lesbian themes.

=====

I should get curtains. Yup.

=====

My housemates are evil. Like, the kind of evil where you imagine little flames flickering above their waggling eyebrows. Who the heck came up with the "All is Fair" rule in this house anyway?

I think it was Jerng, cause I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.

=====



Some belated birthday / housewarming presents for Lainie over the weekend.

=====

I have stuff to do. Ciao.

Written by lainie at 12:46 AM on June 12, 2007 in Daily Life, Links / Email.

Reading about this guy who got arrested for making fun of religious protestors carrying nasty placards in his university: From the mind of Charles: Arrested.

I was watching Leonid the Magnificent's performance on America's Got Talent. ....Whoo. That takes a fair amount of confidence, I'm not sure I could even....read a poem....or something, in front of that crowd.

I didn't find it outrageous or funny though, more curious as to how he managed to twirl hula hoops with his ass without throwing out his back.

=====

There's been something on my mind for a while, I'm not sure if the patterns I've seen are coincidences or otherwise. Hrmm.

====

Friend and I had this conversation online, on how some identities just give themselves away.

She said: KL, lesbian, blogger, design student - lainie!
I said: blogger, lesbian, writer, singaporean not in singapore - Adri!

Anyhow, I enjoyed the seafood dinner (despite my bad jokes, not all present were lesbians). Met some new people. This girl, her friends, Adri's friend Z, etc.

I asked a few people if they wanted to go for the dinner, but a lot of them suddenly had family commitments. Finally, as I was leaving the house, I asked Zedeck if he wanted to join us:

Lainie: Sure you don't want to see a table of lesbians in a seafood restaurant? ......

[ Pause ]

Lainie: Lesbians...Getting crabs and eating clams?

I went alone.

Met the group going for dinner at the hotel Adri and Z had checked into - really nice, posh place. Not much like the backpacker's inns that I'd associate Adri with, and she said as much with a laugh anyway.

We carpooled over to Lala Chong, a popular seafood restaurant near Subang airport. I like the food there, though it makes me miss Coconut Flower restaurant in Teluk Gong (and drinking todhi!).

One of my friends was new to hamdan crabs (salted egg crabs), which is basically a lil bit spicy, fried in salted eggs batter and chilli padi, and utterly unhealthy. I can only order this, and marmite crabs - I don't know the names of other crab dishes.

=====

Just came back from The Curve tonight, where I, along with two other girls, went as chaperones for two lesbians meeting up for the very first time.

Yknow, the kind where it's a meet-up-date, but not really-a-date, due to all these kind, concerned (read: nosy) friends sitting around the table to make it look like a casual dinner.

Smile was the one hooking them up, and she was right, her friend is cute, and interesting. And apparently, above all else, sane. Do you have any idea how rare a sane person is? Now imagine if your pickings for the dating circle came from the percentages of non-heteros within that circle.

Dear god, I'm touting sanity as a virtue (checklist: plus twenty points).

The rest, is up to the two of them.....should anything happen.

=====

Lainie
i should be sloshed
but i'm just sleepy

Amir
sleepy?
you need get your game on
let me pump you up
who the baddest, greatest lesbian around?
huh?
who?

Lainie
meee!
meee!
ME ME ME!

Amir
who can turn any straight woman gay?

Lainie
yayyy!

Amir
yeah

Lainie
damn i could get used to this.

I try to give him huggles all the time, but he keeps saying no. Huggles! HUGGLES!

Written by lainie at 03:19 PM on June 12, 2007 in Q & A stuff.

HELLO SINGAPORE BUTCH HUNT 2007!! Oooh. My. My my my. And why don't we have stuff like this here?*

By the way, I have decided I am not gay, bi, straight, lesbian, confused, slutty, or whatever. I am a lebisan!

LEBISAN! Because it makes me laugh.

*oops, i have been for such stuff here, just on a smaller scale - my bad.

 

---

A list of 100 things I like, numbered but in no other particular order, without mentioning food:

I like:

1. paper with nice texture.
2. comfortable wristbands
3. music that fills my head with good memories.
4. sketchbooks.
5. nice fonts, preferably with a decent range in the family.
6. ephemeral comics.
7. interesting ideas, applied anywhere.
8. the number eight. infinity.
9. with too little reservation, and too short an attention span, sometimes.
10. geekery.
11. the sunset, a balcony, cold drink, quiet times. colours of the sunset are a fave.
12. funny scrabble.
13. breathing in new air.
14. well thought out theatre productions
15. well thought out reviews of said productions.
16. youtube, god i love youtube so much it's a vice.
17. vices in the morning.
18. surprises - not shocks.
19. pencils - pastel - chalk - oil - charcoal - markers
20. buildings waving through paper, tongue and giggles.
21. webcomics that make fun of things i love.
22. the internets.
23. reflections, clear, distorted, coloured, deadened. interesting.
24. curios.
25. duct tape.
26. big comfortable bed, big comfortable pillows, cold room, warm covers.
27. drawing rabbits, one of the first things i remember drawing and trying to make look pretty. i like real rabbits too.
28. popular science.
29. daydreaming - actually, i'm not sure if i like it so much as i do it out of habit.
30. stupid messages while chatting.
31. the girls i shouldn't. ah.
32. books that hold my attention - and i think, those about estranged male protagonists in a lonely / crazy world.
33. duty free.
34. graffiti. i checked out a place recently, and some that had good memories have been covered up. i never did get that picture.
35. photography - juxtaposition in collages.
36. game. games.
37. caffeine experiments.
38. this set of extra sexy lingerie i saw the other day in bangsar village.
39. ambitious animes.
40. problem solving.
41. a brand of perfume i can't identify.
42. contemporary poetry, and all the related word performances.
43. intelligent dogs.
44. cho dai dee, yahtzee, californian poker.
45. breakneck speed. i like speed a lot.
46. those who make me laugh.
47. drinking in dim bars with low music.
48. midget exploitations.
49. painting big surfaces.
50. money.
51. sharing wealth.
52. wooden surfaces with nice grain and caters to my tactile tendencies.
53. overloading on hedonism and indulgences.
54. white on white.
55. full moon.
56. quirky friends.
57. my initials (no, Tei, my chinese name is not May May)
58. children's stories.
59. rain.
60. posters that make me want to stick them to my wall.
61. retro looking designs.
62. punk rock gigs, moshpits.
63. exploring the mind-body orgasm
64. sitting by the lake at night, watching fireworks.
65. the beach.
66. baby animals. i like baby animals much more than baby humans.
67. clear soap bars.
68. massive rpgs and marathon gaming.
69. ah.
70. finding stuff i thought i'd lost.
71. keychains, more than other objects with sentimental value.
72. tattoos. are. sexay.
73. late nights.
74. visiting art galleries.
75. having minimal plans on a holiday.
76. it when things function.
77. ridiculously artsy films with nonsensical, fun breaks. preferably the kind that uses music and makes me say "trippyyyyy" after it.
78. big smiles. people with faces that transform into almost someone else when happy.
79. snarkisms.
80. living with friends.
81. hidden reading corners
82. mix tapes. i really, really, like mix tapes. really.
83. making quickie vector drawings.
84. and slow pixel paintings.
85. anonymity (yah, laugh track).
86. playing with fire.
87. feeding house lizards and making friends with them. my eccentric crone tendencies showing through.
88. being more truthful than people realise. perhaps not honest.
89. staring at loopy things.
90. stumbling along the beach with drunk friends, following one high bloke who spoke german, english and indonesian, and coulda been kidnapping us for all we knew, as he led us to what he promised would be a fantastic time - which he did, then later in the night nessa and i headbutted each other, nobody noticed the guy trying to pull me away and we thought we were airplanes.
91. short songs for short people.
92. people with a way with words.
93. being free.
94. and not finishing lists.
95. and, being free.
    

Quiz ganked off Chen.

Written by lainie at 06:54 PM on June 12, 2007 in Links / Email, Arty stuff.

Some jpegs to fritter time away. This is a cropped image of what's coming up. Sahaja.



Simple table layout for household stuff, that Jemufo asked for. She eventually received a lecture from me on form and functionality, and how the two of them can be friends.....



This one was a quick sketch made for one specific friend in mind, but she went offline just as I posted this up. So heck, dedicated to the youknowwhoyouares.

=====

Oh look, it's a collection of Against Me! MP3s. I already have these tracks, but if any of you will like to try it out.

Or, if you have more time on your hands, you can watch

The Sadness of Sex (episode 1 of many). This one has the sex.

or

Four eyed monster.

====

This is quite salah, but also quite cool:

Learn. Genetics: Mouse Party.

A Flash app that lets you learn about the effects of drugs on the brain, from Uni of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center. Veeery basic, but fun.

Written by lainie at 01:16 AM on June 14, 2007 in Daily Life, Links / Email.

Scarecrow, online literary mag, has some interesting reads.

From what I've heard, I like The Like. Their official website has streaming, but if you prefer to download then go here and here. The track I like is "Bridge To Nowhere", and if you find a download for that, let me know .

More more more MP3s and videos, if you're so inclined - just browse through the huge archive from Prefixmag.

If you like music by women, it happens to be the specialty of music blog, Womenfolk.

====

Went for dinner with some friends, included Sanj, Fip (yes, the ex) and KA. I noticed asides from Fip, the rest of us at the table were quite boobsy. Fip and I both ordered clear Tom Yam noodle soup. Ooooh, spicy dishes. Sanj is on some crazy vegetarian diet.

Somewhere during the dinner, my dear friend thought this appropriate dinner conversation:

KA: Are any of you into midget porn?

[ Stunned silence at the table, everyone staring. ]

KA: .........

[ Pause ]

KA: Just checking.

KA suggested we pitch the idea of midget porn to Fip's current girlfriend (KA sold me the idea when I was dating Fip). Eheh. We are out to ruin the peace and normality in Fip's relationships.

Although some of them have been so strange I'm not sure there was anything normal to disrupt.

Tei called as we were having dinner, and semi-demanded to know why she wasn't invited (heck, these peoplez showed up in my area, okay?).

Lainie: Terasa ke?
Tei: No, not really la.

I could hear the mental hair flip that went with that.

Sanj then told the others about how I showed her midget porn, and two weeks later (she was a med student then) she had to treat a...midget. It didn't go well.

Sanj, talking about some fucked up names of places in Perak:

My sister is stationed in Changkat Melintang. Do you know where Changkat Melintang is? It's near Botak Kanan. Yes, there's some place actually called Botak Kanan. And you wanna know what Botak Kanan is next to? Botak Kiri. The thing is, driving from Ipoh, you turn left to get to Botak Kanan

Botak kiri - Left bald.
Botak kanan - right bald.

Apparently these places are accessible on the road that leads to Pangkor, from Ipoh.

=====

I finally did some much needed grocery shopping today (after four meals of....spam). I texted Jemufo my observation that lots of veggies look dildonic.

I mean. I bought zucchini, carrots, brinjals...And I was looking at all the turnips, lady's fingers, etc...I swear, I would not be surprised if some of the shoppers next to me weren't exactly shopping for dinner. I had plenty of time to make this observation, as the vegetable section is where I push my shopping cart round and round in my confusion trying to spot a vegetable I can identify*.

*Broken vegdar, reasons for correlation with broken vagidar / gaydar as yet unidentified.

In light of that, maybe they should consider making vegetable condoms. I mean, if plastic bags are so popular, why not multi-purpose rubber bags.... That'd raise a few eyebrows at the line in the pharmacy though, wouldn't it?

Extra Large Turnip Condoms.

or heck,

American Football Condoms.

or...

Goatse size.

or for people who want smaller stuff...like

RM0.20 size Condoms (and I don't mean the cost). Comes with Pull-Out String.

Sigh. Forgive me reader, for I are bosans.

=====

While going over some webdesign stuff, Jemufo and I shared some duck pate / orange chutney dish, and can expect to die of a heart attack......anytimenowdeargodthatwasunhealthy.

I bought some reading material today. A design magazine, a political book and a comic / graphic novel. Blog more tomorrow, computer lagging and dragging its ass.

Written by lainie at 11:06 PM on June 14, 2007 in Daily Life, Arty stuff.

So I don't know how your day went, but here's a brief brief brief breakdown of mine.

Woke up this morning to get some stuff done to find that it was a waste of my time by the afternoon. Really. You have no idea.

Visited Kat, played with her new toy poodle puppy Bosco. Furry lil nipper, jumps gleefully after tennis balls and drags around a stuffed blue elephant bigger than it. Adorable.

Even though I insist I don't have a "type" that I like, Kat has long declared that I do, and she knows the type well, down to looks, personality, etc. And she proved it by explaining her comment, hitting it spot on about me, skirts, and girly girls that got me a bit "holyshite I think she's right". Prophet Kat. Tabik.

Discussed possibilities of a few upcoming design jobs. Also, might take up a kinda travel writing job.

Went to Kakiseni office, made a full arse of myself before realising the new editor, Veronica, was there. Tried to introduce myself with the pretence that really, I have some dignity left. Called Zedeck a garden gnome. Called Viji a garden gnome. Harassed Juliet. Mission accomplished, havoked the Kakiseni office for a while.

Came home, helped Bernice out with some techy aspects of her upcoming art exhibition. Met her daughter who has a pink handheld Nintendo DS. Fed them Cheezels courtesy of Yi Zheng.

Yixing came home with a new set of Boggle. She wanted to play it, I wanted to wrap up her face in the name of art, we played three games of Boggle and as she was listing down the words to the fourth game I was enthusiastically unwrapping the materials.

I covered her head and she was still trying to be grumpy through them. I giggled so much. The things she'd believe I do for the sake of art, as opposed to......entertainment. But she damn layan (housemate - you da best!)



This is the after product, of which I stuffed Zedeck's stuffed-bunny into. We should make a set of lampshades or something. Shine the light upon our guests. This was prototype, to get an idea of how it goes - have many more plans for these later.

Had two surprise guests over for dinner, Yixing cooked. I dislike brown rice, but I liked the tofu and veggies. Kinda full from the Cheezels anyway. Will have supper later, I guess.

More people came over, we had a laugh crossdressing two of us - apples make better bewbies than plastic bags. My boxers look like cotton poofy plastic bags on skinny boys.

And I might be meeting some friends later on to chill out, am not sure what the plans are, yet. It's been a pretty good day.

This took me ten minutes to type. I like that.

Written by lainie at 02:17 AM on June 15, 2007.

Okay, which bloody imbecile in the Singaporean MOE is responsible for this, and why?what pathetic excuse was given for dismissing him?

News:
"Acclaimed and multi-awarded poet Alfian Sa'at gets terminated for undisclosed reasons by MOE."

Alfian Sa'at's Unexplained Termination (with more links).

Anyone who's ever spoken to Alfian will know the guy's intelligent and gets the point across, subtly or otherwise.

Read Alfian's letters here:

What are the reasons for my termination as a relief teacher? I have satisfied the eligibility requirement as stated on your website, which stated a minimum of 5 'O' Level passes. As a matter of fact, I had garnered ten A1 distinctions for my 'O' Level results. I do not have a criminal record. To the best of my knowledge, I have not committed an infraction during the course of my teaching so grievous as to warrant such abrupt termination.

kafka's shadow.

Yknow, now I remember one of the reasons I initially decided not to be a consumer in Singapore. It was a decision made while I was much younger, with reasons I didn't have to consider against new factors in my life now. Nice reminder. Precise.

Also, strange to think back on what I was like, then. But yeah, this is why I could never live in Singapore. Not that they'd want me anyway, my grades sucked (that, and my mother is convinced I'd be arrested within the day).

Anyway, read stuff from Alfian's old site.

Written by lainie at 06:42 AM on June 18, 2007 in Daily Life, Events, Home.

I'm not fond of Vanessa Carlton's singing, but I do like A Thousand Miles.

Right, what does one blog about after announcing on the internet that she is uncool? Hrmm, let's see.

====

I was surprised yesterday to find that Jerng had returned (he was in Korea for some superholiday/ training session). Then Zheng announced that he would be in Germany soon, for a month-long working holiday.

I was in the passport office on Friday, and overheard this conversation between some dudes working the photo booth, about their competitors at a more optimal location and charging higher prices.

Dude: Biasalah macam tu. Cina mah*.
Lainie: Ei. EI! Excuse me?
Dude: Oh! Hahaha...Sorry sorry.

[ Stare ]

Dude: .....Ahaha.....

[ Stare ]

Dude: ..................Ahaha..........

[ Stare ]

Dude: .........Biasalah macam tu. Kerana peniaga ma...Peniaga.. Ahaha....^
Lainie: ..........Sigh.

No energy to be bothered.

[ Loose translation: *It's not unusual, they're Chinese / ^It's not unusual, it's because they're businesspeople ]

=====

I was at UM over the weekend for Fiesta Feminista, because Katagender somewhat invited themselves to "gatecrash" the event on Saturday and put up a performance during lunchtime. I say "gatecrash" because quite a few of them were also working on the Fiesta as volunteers.

I hadn't blogged about Katagender gatecrashing because my ego is big enough to believe that it is possible one of the organisers might stumble across my blog, yet I remain humble enough to believe my natural charm and grace, though in abundance, combined with that of Katagender's undoubtedly sterling reputation for youthful enthusiasm, would not be sufficient to win alllll the organisers over.

Peace.

The official Fiesta Feminista website was designed by the housemate, so I knew of it from quite early on. By the way, Jemufo's brother did an interview in The Star in conjunction with Fiesta.

The Star article: Towards an equal society

Q: What challenges do women today face and how can we overcome them?

Hwa: I think one of women’s main challenges today is finding their niche and individuality, within their own localised society, amidst restrictions imposed on them by law, religion and culture.

We should constantly review and amend laws in favour of egalitarianism; have progressive and fair interpretation of religion; tap into media, education and literature to teach the younger generation about equality and civics; promote a greater active role of the husband in raising families; crack fewer sexist jokes in a day; have less gender stereotyping; have more male secretaries and less hierarchal male leadership.

When Jemufo and I had read the interview, we were like.....

Lainie: Holy crap, he's more of a feminist than you are.
Jemufo: I know!
Lainie: Omigod!

Then I realised chances are, I'm the biggest cretin in the house, so I decided not to dwell upon that too much (this is not to say that I thought Zheng the one before this, merely that evidence is starting to stack up against me).

Jemufo then said she was going to forward his replies to some feminist mailing list - I said that he would get pounced on, being a model AND a feminist at the same time.

Hang on. Where was I? Fiesta. Right.

While I was there - a few "Hurrahs, I am feminist!" and "Hurrahs, there's a male feminist in the room!" went about, which.....I am weirded out by the usage of...."male feminist".......I mean....Anyhoo. I wonder if Zheng got any of that.

I don't think I learned anything at the Fiesta. I heard there were some interesting issues raised during the Fiesta, but didn't attend those sessions - I went for very things, and those I did, more to accompany a friend than due to my usual nosiness passing curiosity at everything.

What's this I hear that Malaysia is planning to adopt the healthcare system from, of all the bloody ones available, America? Because, seriously, that would be So. Fucked. Up.

Okay, if that is true - which group of you elite assholes are out to bleed the money from the rest of the citizens?

More on Fiesta, and the Katagender thing, when I have the time. The sun is rising and I needz to sleepz.

Written by lainie at 11:49 AM on June 19, 2007 in Friends.

Lainie:
what colour what colour

Lola:
i expect the next thing you say would make sense...

Lainie:
uh...
yknow
what colour?

Lola:
is...

Lainie:
lol
dont tell me you've never been pinched till you can name the colour of the nearest turban

Lola:
WHAT!?!?
LOL

Lainie:
i guess not

Lola:
what have you been sniffing

Lainie:
apparently, in your world, buckets of glue.

Lola:
apparently
in both our worlds, i expect

=====

I just walked into a wall. I'm gonna put that down as "hunger" and get some food.

Written by lainie at 09:01 PM on June 20, 2007 in Daily Life, Friends, Events.

I'm....Bleh. A bit woozy from meds. My voice sounds kinda peculiar. Am trying to stem off whatever bug it is - I've not moved from my bed the whole day, except to get food and orange juice.

=====

Fiesta Feminista over the weekend.

Katagender gatecrashed it, we figured the worst we could do was piss off the University of Malaya guards, and some older feminist organisers, and really, who gives a damn yeah?

I woke up in the morning for this, man....Kinda designed a flyer for them, Jac wrote the copy. I was originally thinking of making a ransom note (give us back our gender?), then I figured reading that much text would make everyone's eyes water and I only had half an hour anyway. I see a spelling mistake now the version I printed was okay, actually - this is the grayscale version. Photocopying was b&w, and very very strangely done, but never mind that.



Then Ding told me to meet her at a hall (contrary to what I believe, "kuliah" means "learning", and therefore, "Dewan Kuliah" means "Hall of Learning", not "Hall of Slaves") - I opened the door, poked my head in and was stared at by a lot of feminists. One of them told me to come in the back way (ahahaha...) and I nodded with a smile like I would, retreated, and ran away. Synchronised female staring, I scare. Quickly found where Katagender had gathered, some girls putting makeup on Tim, and preparing props.

I wasn't paying attention during the meetings we had, planning this event, being far more interested in watching the boys crossdress. But as far as I could tell:

We were going to run a parody of a Gender Correctional Institute. Basically, gather up all the "gender confused" people and rehabilitate them. Our worry with this was that we would offend some people who might identify with what we were making fun of.....

These are photos taken from before the action started (for during, there's the Youtube account for some videos of the beginning).


The girls took turns putting make up on Tim.


Someone looking realllly enthusiastic...We figured we wouldnt really get kicked out of FF, what with so many volunteers for the event being involved in it.


Our elected negotiator, in case we had trouble with the authorities.


Tim waiting to be paraded onstage by us. Sporting fellow.


Jemufo and Zheng waiting as well.


Props have been laid out on the stage.


and the action begins.

We had Jemufo as a Lelaki Lembut (effete man) and Tim as a Wanita Keras (butch woman?), dressed as such, onstage. Then proceeded to get the audience to help us pick signifiers (handbag / weights, high heels / sneakers, scarf / cap) that would make them manly / womanly. Jemufo ended up in slacks and shirt, wearing a cap backwards and walking around with a weight.

Tim could barely walk in the high heels, but his green apple boobs looked fantastic. She (He?) also had a lot of make up on, and a hat, and a skirt, and yadayada. It was fun. In the end they became "Lelaki Sejati" (real man?) and "Wanita Murni" (I don't know what murni is, I presume ladylike lady?).

The crowd had started off slow - everyone wanted to eat. But after a while we had some enthusiastic people shouting out suggestions. I keep wanting to write "they" "they" "they", but I get mental glares in my head when I do and I say "we", "we", "we" instead.

Anyhow, there was no trouble with authority. if anything, Katagender even looked like it was part of the Fiesta Feminista. After we left the stage, some emcee took the mic and thanked us for our performance, before introducing the "next act".

Jerng says that means we weren't subversive enough.

Well, you know how most institutions have space for a certain amount of deviancy, I think we fit into that, I doubt we challenged what Fiesta was about - though judging by the (confused) looks of some kids there, we did get them to realise gender is a bit iffy - at least with some people.

Anyhow, Katagender's gender correctional institute was declared a success - have some videos on Youtube if you're so inclined: Katagender in Fiesta Feminista.

=====

The rest of Fiesta, Saturday:

Went for some class, at Ding's suggestion, called Memahami Feminisma (Understanding feminism). It was mostly conducted in Malay, which means my understanding remains at the same level when I walked out the door, as it had when I first entered.

Ding said I could conduct the class, with my "Duhhhh" face. What would I have done anyway? Err. There is patriarchy. You're women. Life sucks. Sorry. For everything else, there is Google, and Wikipedia. Duhhhhhh.

Ding was translating everything for me - I speak Malay, but when it goes too fast, I tend to lose track. Then, we were separated into groups, and my first thought was....shit, there goes my interpreter T___T.

Ding was already giving me panicky "how do we escape" looks midway through the class. Bleh. We had to identify one womens issue, and come up with ways to tackle it.

My group ended up talking about domestic violence. I had a pretty cool groupmate suggest some uber-Xena name as our groupname, but the most vocal one didn't seem fond of the idea and basically elected "Mawar" instead (Rose). Something about beauty and thorns pricking fingers yada yada. I didn't really care, I just wanted the class to be over.

When it was over, Ding and I quickly left for a break. Don't think we, or anyone there, really learned anything? We were at the food area, where there were quite a few women around.

Lainie: Okay, after we walk past this stage...Let's run away screaming.

We didn't. Woulda been fun though, even if I doubt anyone would have known what we were doing.

=====

Next up was some "Demokrasi dan Hak Asasi: Where do you stand?" (democracy and basic rights), which Ding and I thought would be better than the "Islam and Feminism" talk, after our previous class. We decided any class that sounded generic would probably be a waste of time.

We were the last ones in. The first exercise was sucktastic. Three minutes of talking to a partner. One minute about ourselves, two minutes about some issue we feel strongly about. Partner then has to recite everything that was said (and has to keep quiet while the other is talking).

I hate talking about myself (despite existence of blog), and I have no issue I feel strongly enough to want to blabber about it for two minutes. Which is kinda strange, when taking into consideration experience speaking extemporaneously about some stuff. I basically just ended up blushing.

Ding couldn't remember half the stuff I said, and instead recited what she already knew. Cheat. Turns out I'm better than her at remembering stuff I listen to (I suppose, if you can get me to), and I am fantastic at keeping quiet while people talk. Fantastic. Not a peeep.

Heck, me, keep quiet all day? Suuuuure.

They meant it when they say "Stand" in "Where do you stand". The room was divided into "agree", "disagree" and "don't know", and we were given questions like whether it's still rape if a husband rapes a wife (wtf, I know), if we agreed with caning criminals (said no, think it's inhumane), whether women have the right to abort pregnancies if they wanted to (I said yes). Then the guy calls on some people to justify why they took some of the sides they did.

Met someone who reads the blog there. Jace? Jacklyn? Jaclyn? Hello!

Then we got some talk on how we need to protect all rights, and not select the few that favour our current position. I have my reservations about the declaration of human rights, but sometimes, I think it's a list that's been put together in the language that makes it easy for me to say why I should be able to do some stuff. It's my right, goddammit!.

Came out of it the same cretin that I was when I entered. Really, sometimes I wonder if I'm just too thick to learn.

=====

After those classes:

Watched Berbagi Suami, which was cool. Movie on multiple perspectives of polygamy, with interweaving narrative. I want my own copy, the one they were playing that night got a bit skippy towards the end.

Berbagi Suami made the whole Fiesta Feminista worth it - I mean, hanging out with Ding and all that is much fun, but for the evaluation of Fiesta by itself...Maybe I attended the wrong classes, who knows?

Was really tired by the end of the night, Fip, Eva and Geeg had to bear the brunt of my grouchiness. Sorryyyy . I asked Eva why we had to register for the event, but never did get a reply. Hmmm.

=====

Sunday, Fiesta:

Can't really remember what happened. Went for a film and talk by SAWO on feminism in Sabah. Felt like I was back in Freedom Film Fest all over again.

I suppose that was kinda interesting because Ding and I had a mild disagreement about middle class women and feminism on Saturday - I don't think feminism is a middle class thing, which set me thinking about grassroots movements vs access, and I do think right now, access to some feminist studies / theories primarily begin as a middle class and above kinda thing.

I mean, if you don't have the academic background. it will take a bloody lot of foresight to find the place for women in say, macroeconomics. But if we include feminist economics, then....then. Shit, the list will never end if we keep going up, till the esotericisms drives everyone away, and you will need more and more privileges to get to hear all these new information (or, maybe, just the internet and patience).

Hrmm. I don't know. Just thinking of how I'd react if my maid came up to me and suddenly started spouting Spivak gives me a headache. Grah I hate questions.

I think Ding scared some woman from SIS away by bombarding her with a lot of questions. Nyeheh. Almost wanted to chuck her in the direction of some activists, just to see what happens.....Actually, I may have already done that to her.

Day ended early cause I needed to get home and do some work.

=====

This is a bit rich, coming from Youtube where I had all of FIVE (or six, whatever) languages to choose from everytime I uploaded a video:

"Video is universal, and the incredible variety of the international content that we see on YouTube confirms just that!"
Youtube blog

I'm from Malaysia okay, what are the chances I point a camera at a group of people here, and they're all speaking just one language? The new interface doesn't seem to require me to input language, which is good (though I uploaded a Katagender video and was asked to review the language, not sure why).

Anyway, Youtube now allows you to edit videos online with Remixer. Yeah, well, don't expect too much, ei? --- This is my lack of faith in Youtube, not Adobe, talking.

Check out Chowderhead Bazoo's Bane of My Existence drawings and stuff. Much fun.

=====

Just had a tiff with Daph. Not often I really snap at friends. Hell. Whatever.

Written by lainie at 11:57 AM on June 22, 2007 in work?, Daily Life.

Through squeaky ears and watery eyes, I just finished some travel writing job for some UK travel agency. You will love KL! We have great food! We will pander to your every wishes! You want to see MONKEY DANCE?? MONKEY WILL DANCE!!.

I met my deadline way early, only had to wait till 10am today to check all the phone numbers. When you're on meds, sleep for three hours and wake up feeling like that's way too much, something ain't right.

Now I have more things to get done. Talk to y'all later.

Written by lainie at 11:52 AM on June 23, 2007 in Family, Daily Life, Friends, Links / Email.

If you're in the area and want to give the game of tennis a try, visit the blog Fuzzy Yellow, by certified tennis pro Sheena, who offers tennis classes for those interested in picking up the game - including a free half hour lesson evaluation to test the waters. Sounds good?

I used to play tennis regularly - heck, I used to be on the school tennis team / committee from primary all the way till secondary school, but that's another (unimpressive) story all together. Really good way to get all those certs, trophies, class exemptions and whatnot though.

I tend to receive skeptical stares when people find out the amount of activities I was involved in during my school years. I don't blame them. .

=====

Played Scrabble Thurs night - this might turn into a weekly thing, who knows? We need a bigger board, we're playing with a travel board right now, and those fiddly lil letters really aren't doing it for me. Ding was supposed to join us but she had work, so we found a replacement in her colleague Anne.

We had dinner and some Baileys (courtesy of Annie). Jemufo takes about twice the amount of food I do (I'm not that fond of rice) and finishes before me - I think she should stop waiting for me to catch up with her when we have dinner together.

Nonsense Scrabble word of the day came from Annie: "Tard".
She got away with it too, I didn't notice she'd made that word till towards the end of the game.

Jemufo's score kicked our arses .

=====

It's Saturday, and I'm gonna take a break off work tonight because my cousin Debbie is back, and I'm off to her place tonight for dinner, and card games. We don't play with money, but we scamper after every point there is. It's a score we've been keeping for....7 years. She's in a smug, comfortable lead.

We used to play a lot of Monopoly and Cluedo too, but we lost a game partner when Emily returned to the Philippines.

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At the mamak with Smile and Tei, they had spotted a girl and were asking me "Isn't she so dyke?". I casually turned to where their attention was, and panned the crowd continuously. Heck, I don't even see a female, it's like banana-land there that night. I turn back confused, what dyke? Tei stares at me.

Smile: Oh cmon, Lainie. I'm straight and I see her.

[ Grabs bruised gaydar back and polishes it with as much dignity as can be mustered up, then turns back to survey banana-land crowd ]

My gaze ends up on this particularly clean shaven, very overweight "man", with no adam's apple and big moobies. As I scrutinise the "dyke", Tei leans over and tells me there's a tomboy sitting right behind him. I loooook, and sure enough, there she is! Seated with one ankle over knee, baggy clothes, bronze spiky hair, and let's not forget, a ciggie pinched between first finger and thumb. Ahhhhhhh, I see.

I tell them I was looking at the person behind the tomboy, and there was a moment of debate, Tei saying it was a guy, Smile saying it was a woman, and I remaining unsure - before another friend seriously informed us he knew that overweight person is a woman, because he had dumped her, so she became a fat lesbian. Well, that settles it then (really, he was kidding).

[ It was probably a man I was staring at ]

Tei (shamelessly) tells him to do it again because we need more lesbians in this world. I need to fix my gaydar.

======

Was supposed to go for a jazz night out with Lola last night, but she got lazy and cancelled, saying the venue was too far away.

I ended up in Bangsar Village bumming out because some friends were there for the KLUE Blue Chillies party. Saw the gifts they handed out: A nifty Nokia, L'Oreal products, and Nike shoes - I'll not buy Nike products, but I'll admit the design for the KLUE finalists is nice.

General gist of phone conversation with Lola, who has decided to go for a movie, and maybe some drinks later:

Lola: Where are you now?
Lainie: I'm in Bangsar.
Lola: Haha! Small world, that's where I might go drinking later.
Lainie: Ahhh, I see.
Lola: Which part of Bangsar are you in, exactly?
Lainie: .....So you know which road to avoid, right?

She laughed and said I was smart. Some stalkees have no mercy.

Anyway, perhaps unfortunately for her, we did meet up later in Social. She's just returned to this country, her sojourn in Italy having treated her very well. It was the first time she saw me in the company of heterosexual men (excluding, errr, Zedeck), I was surprised that she was taller than I remembered (taller than me, in fact), and she learned that she was wearing what could be considered a "very dyke belt". I swear that woman accessorises like a vain lesbian.

Oh, and if you hear a loud "clunk" when Lola puts her bag down somewhere, don't worry about it.

======

Met up with Smile and Tei that night, some guys, and a few very loud girls together (not that I'm complaining) singing and dancing to 80s music. Ken got us free drinks for the night through his uber-connections.




There was some competition by four very drunk girls I met that night - they teamed up in pairs and tried to assemble a wooden seahorse each (a game for ages 6+).


The girl on the left reminds me a lot of Nessa.

Tei and I marvelled at how apparently, half a bottle of whiskey is all it takes to reduce the combined intellect of two adults below that of a six year old child. Both teams took a really long time, and we were seeing tri-tailed, cross-eyed seahorses for quite a while.

Smile comes up to Tei and I and tells us to list down the benefits of being lesbian, that she may consider it.

Lainie: ?
Tei: ?
Lainie: Smile, what benefits?
Tei: There are no benefits.

Smile: None?

Tei: I mean, look at our love lives (generously including me in the example to illustrate her point).

We convinced her that she was fine where she was, on the heterosexual side (which is a privilege Lola's never had ). Later in the night met Lola's friend, Nadia - and introduced myself (buzzing on whiskey) as the scary lesbian who had come up to her car, mistaken her for someone else, and frightened her the last time we had an encounter (I was smashed on beer, and that was the least of it).

Some dramatic moments later, seahorses were assembled, and the night was..Oh look! Spontaneous amnesia! I suddenly have no idea what happened last night...In fact, what last night? Though if I was out last night, I guarantee I was being relatively good. I'm not sure what I'd be obligated to do if proven otherwise, but hey, I doubt that's gonna happen.

Popular sing-a-long for the night: The Four Seasons - December, 1963

"Oh what a night....
Why'd it take so long to see the light?
Seemed so wrong, but now it seems so right
What a lady, what a night!"

Now I's gonna go raid fridge for foods. I want juice, dammit.

=====

[ Update ]

The hazards of kitchen composting at home, if you have a container in the kitchen where the contents get buried periodically, instead of heading out to the garden immediately everytime, as noted in an email from Jerng titled "cool stuff for bio geeks":

"There's a porcelain bowl which is full or wriggling fruit-fly larvae... next to our kitchen sink."*

I had a giggle. To be fair, we're usually pretty okay with the compost heap (and by "we", I mean Zheng and Yixing). Now I gotta go wash up the sink, I made an omelette earlier.

Seriously - composting reduces the amount of trash your household puts out by heaps (I should know, I'm the one who's supposed to take the trash out). Or at least separate your trash for cryin out loud, it's not that hard.

*That was quick. In the time it took for me to eat the omelette and get downstairs, it was already buried. Must have been Zheng, before heading out to the gym.

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Things To Do at Home on a Saturday Afternoon:

1) Take a picture of yourself smiling
2) Make sure you are brushing face with a disembodied hand sculpture.
3) Assure yourself that's not creepy at all.
4) Post on the internet.



You may look like you have rosy cheeks and wavering focus in your line of sight in the photograph, due to some samples you may have imbibed from dodgy old bottles of whiskey you have in your cupboard, appropriately located between a big tub of mural paint and lots of little arts material that will get you high if you smell them long enough.

Please, allow me to show you the hand sculpture, on the more unblemished background of the sky, on a Saturday afternoon.





Things To Do at Home on a Saturday Afternoon (The Prequel):

1) Make sculpture of disembodied hand.
2) Use your own hand as a guide.
3) Stroke your housemate's face when s/he tries to sleep.
4) Make sure you purr while doing so.

Peoples, have a good weekend!

Written by lainie at 03:10 PM on June 24, 2007 in Daily Life, Links / Email.

Chor dai dee marathon last night, from dinner till past midnight - My mind was so incredibly tired, lacking practice in thinking. This also showed in my final score, which is too indecent to post up.

There's this group of people on my Youtube (Givingitago) (I think they found me because I put up some video of Jerng and Jemufo working in the garden on our home compost).

Anyway, these people have been trying to grow their own produce (veggies), and rearing chickens, and being all hippie and stuff at home. My late grandmother used to have a lil chicken farm, and it attracted snakes. Chicken farms smell funky and it's best to have them a distance from the house - keeps the smell and noise away....

Oh, and their website: Giving it a go. Their veggie garden has a slug problem, and they got advice that slugs like to drink beer! And get drunk and die in beer! And you can then feed beer slugs to the chickens.

See how it goes here: Slug beer (part 14) (vomit visuals warning).

So now I know I have something in common with my fellow hedonistic lil invertebrates.

I woke up in the morning to have fruits and juice, shopped the whole day sustained on coffee and currypuff, just got back.......................................

and yknow, I have my period so I'm really, really, really tired. My mother thinks it's funny because I have to go through it. In fact, I wish she'd find less humour in it, honestly that woman and empathy has no connection point whatsoever. She's having the most painless menopause I've ever heard off - she pissed off some friends asking them how one knows, exactly, that she's having a hot flush.

Friends told her "If you have to ask whether you're having a hot flush, really, you're not having one - and why aren't YOU having hot flushes??". I think she's just too healthy. She's been trying out a detox programme my aunt recommended that's supposed to be great, but leaves you with a blinding headache - she's been drinking it with no perceptible effect. And, she's one of the few people who don't have wisdom teeth. They're not embedded, she x-rayed and they're just not there (never make jokes about her implied lack of wisdom, she has an arsenal of retorts you don't want to run up against - I should know).

So she seems cheery enough about her body. I, on the other hand.....

I'll pass out now and wake up later for lunner? Dinch? Dunch? Linner? Why do they all sound somewhat pervy / toxic to me?

Okay sleep. Gnite.

Written by lainie at 01:59 AM on June 25, 2007 in Daily Life, Links / Email.

Met KA and Lola for tea today. They both got haircuts - Lola was conned into colouring her hair, so she joined us a bit later. KA and I, meanwhile, checked out girls walking by and a cute baby kid trying to strike matches on his forehead.

Bar the weekend, I'd not seen Lola for a while, since she was in Italy the past few months. My hair's grown a lot longer since then.

Lola: How long have you been growing your hair out?
Lainie: Oh, this. Since last night.

I have very limited areas to appear prodigiously talented, I figure "Hair Growth" is a field not many people have tried to impress her with, so I may as well corner the market*. She did admit that would have taken a lot of talent.

Lainie: I've actually mostly had long hair.
Lola: Oh....
Lainie: Except for that time when it looked like I had a pineapple on my head.
Lola: Ahaha....yeah.

[ Pause, I presume so everyone can have that flashback of what I look like with pineapple hair ]

Lola: You should get that haircut again. That look...suits you.
Lainie: ......You mean it....amuses you.

[ I suppose it's honesty if she presumes what suits me, is whatever amuses her, in which case there are many many things I could look ridiculous in ]

Lola: Oh that. Among other factors.
Lainie: Uhuhhhh.

Then KA heard Lola say something about how she had a trishaw on her head. Then KA and I discussed tampons, that woman behaves like the tampons I bought are a box of mini dildo joys. I've had more than ten cups of coffee / tea, and 4 servings of juice today. And I'm still tired as heck.

*I'm kidding^. Lola and I have a lot of ridiculous, ditzy conversations, mostly because I tend to supply ditz very generously.

^It kinda sucks that I have to make disclaimers like this because I know some of you out there will actually believe everything I say.

Then again, even if I was being serious, there are cases of far greater delusions than mine.

=====

Good reasons to be addicted to AdsOfTheWorld, Exhibit A:

Graphic designers use terms that upon reflection, sound like they belong in a film noir review. Realising this, Nina Orezzoli and John Neerland, from Colle + McVoy came up with this little gem for American Institute of Graphic Artists.


Dear design geeks, guess what you'll be doing today?
Finding the 25 design terms in Design Not For The Faint Of Heart

I encountered two new terms there (was familiar with the concepts, but not the labels). "Encountered" and not "learned", because I find I cannot remember what they are.

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Jemufo cooked dinner tonight, yay. I messed about with Jerng's new toy bought from Korea, a videocam. Sunway came over and Jemufo cut her hair. Zedeck played computer games. Talked about how Jerng and I couldn't date each other (it gives me visions of gazing at an apple adoringly because of him - don't ask), and Jemufo and I can't date each other (I'd take less than a month to drive her nutters).

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Gonna sleep. Have to work tomorrow, and it is going to be sucktastic. I hate working when I have my period.

Oh damn. I just realised I have other stuff to do tomorrow as well. Damn damn damn.

Written by lainie at 03:01 AM on June 26, 2007 in Events, Home.

First of all, happy birthday to the lebisan holding her flirtieth birthday bash tonight . Apologies for not coming down for the party, will make it up to you next time round (otherwise, there's always mine to wait for)!

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Anyway, moving along. This is great news for playwrights, aspiring or established. Or people with a story in their heads and a hole in their pockets:

We’re looking for engaging plays that explore and define issues of the Malaysian experience, in all its social, political, historical, spiritual and emotional complexity.

Realistically, these are the parts (besides the rules) that concerns you:

The playwright of the winning entry will receive RM10,000 in cash. Two runners-up will receive RM5,000 each. Seven consolation prize winners will receive RM2,000 each.

The play must be written in either Bahasa Malaysia or English, or a combination of both. Incidental use of any other languages must be accompanied by a translation in either English or Malay in the script itself.

You will retain all rights to the play you submit.

And of course, deadlines are always important:

Your masterpiece must reach Kakiseni.com by no later than 12pm (noon), Tuesday 31 July 2007.

From the Kakiscript: Playwriting Competition. You know it's worth a shot.

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Played Scrabble. Jerng and Zheng were about to go to bed but I wanted to play one round .



I got a bingo with my first word: "Gauntly", and almost bingoed two more times, but got blocked by Jerng - Mr Game Tactics. See where "Habit" is, middle of the board? I had wanted to put "Tendrils" for a triple word score, and hook up with "pane" while I was at it. Ah well. That's gonna enter the vague Hall of Coulda-Bingos.

We changed the houserules a bit. We were playing with Jerng's computer dictionary, and allowed certain shortforms through - this means most of the nonsense 2 letter words (Ru, Ne, AC, AK) from Zheng are actually chemical symbols for elements - I didn't do any two letter words, though "Borates" did come from me.

We had a Cheryl visiting that night, and the way we behave, it's like there are never any female visitors in this house (except when Jemufo's feminist friends come over). It's such a treat the way female presence makes us smile.....and behave like arses.

This house runs on hormones.

=====

Zheng's going off to Germany end of the month.

Zheng: Do you want me to bring anything back from Germany?
Lainie: Bring us a girl.
Zheng: ...Everyone in this house says the same thing.
Lainie: Well, we are in the same market.

So Zheng.... In Germany, your shopping list will be:

Girl(s).
Intelligent.
Looks good in catsuit.
Can crack whip.
Willing to have multiple partners at a go*.

We shall test the goods when she is brought back. She will have to run up the slope to our front door in 6 inch high stiletto boots, dressed in catsuit, while skillfully cracking whip (and I don't know, simultaneously spouti