The ABCs of Me Myself and I

Karl seems to be my source for memes nowadays :) Here's the second in as many weeks (with a third in the works!). It's not like I have nothing to post... I just end up using the path of least resistance :) bluetoothing images of the crazy cat hiding under a blanket or perched on the commode to the computer is such a bother *rolls eye* lmao :) :)

Here goes:

Accent: I don't know what "accent" you'd say I have. I speak differently than everyone else. In Malaysia I sound foreign. In the US I also sound foreign. So long I can be understood, I'll be happy with that. Because here in Chicago? I could barely communicate with a library staff that the copier room was locked: finally she understood it "Oh, the Kaaaaaa-pee-yer!" Then in Malaysia, I'm accused of being "too American", "please lose the slang/twang", "don't show off lah". Can't win.

Breakfast or No Breakfast: I can go without breakfast, no problem. But since I am trying to eat healthier, and that means 6 small balanced meals spread throughout the day, I've been making it a point to have *something* in the mornings. It could just be a glass of fiber with another glass of water as chaser. Or a zone bar, or two. Or my cottage cheese & cereal combo.

Chore I don’t care for: Cleaning in general. The apartment tends to get properly cleaned only when visitors are expected. Otherwise I'll swiffer it every once in a while and that's that :)

Dog or Cat: Used to have dogs growing up, and they are fun and all, desperate for your attention, pretty much delirious for any bit of attention you give them,,, but I prefer cats. I like their self-reliance. When a cat deigns to give you its attention, or *gasp!* wants to sit on your lap - it's a compliment that certainly makes me feel special :)

Essential Electronics: my 'puter. to a much lesser extent, my Sony Ericsson P800, and the tv. I'm no longer a slave to these things :)

Favorite Cologne: No longer too much into them, but my first love was Calvin Klein's Eternity For Men (yes, FOR MEN!! so sue me!!). Recently, I got a hold of the "summer" version of this scent - pretty nice, I spray that stuff on me once in a while.

Gold or Silver: Silver. Like Karl, I think (yellow) gold is tacky. White gold is fine. I think the "white" metals fit me better, anyway.

Handbag I carry most often: I don't use a handbag / purse. I do have a leather knapsack-style bag for essentials (which I need to whine about - maybe in one of my next few posts).

Insomnia: rarely.

Job Title: Jobless Bum and Wannabe Writer.

Kids: Not even a twinkle in Kosh's of my eyes yet (despite speculation to the contrary by certain parties, *ahem!*)

Living Arrangements: 1-br apartment in Chicago - for one more month, at least. Ah, uncertainty, so away!

Most Admirable Trait: Heh. The ability to see the trees *and* the forest? That was in my past life in the corporate world anyway, kinda out of practice now.

Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Hmmm.... using a (white) candle (i.e. wax) to "write" on the walls, since I'd been forbidden to mark the walls with crayons/pens/pencils. I don't remember if I got found out. I only remember doing it once, dragging the candle at my waist level as I walked down the hallway.... I was maybe 7 years old?

Overnight hospital stays: Hospitalised almost a week due to Hepatitis A.

Phobias: Ummm, I have concerns, but nothing of "phobia" level, as far as I know...

Quote: "Be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

Reason to smile: Me - where I am now, compared to where I was - physically, spiritually, mentally, family...

Siblings: one older brother

Time I wake up: it really varies, recently I've been driving Kosh to work (be there by 6am) so it's been early. But starting tomorrow, well, I suppose I'll say between 8am & 12 noon :p

Unusual Talent or Skill: I can list one eyebrow. The right one. Just that one eyebrow tho. I'd also like to think I am above average at Boggle (or Scramble as it's known in facebook)

Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Brussel Sprouts. dis.gus.ting!

Worst Habit: nail-biting. self-flagellation.

X-rays: I've had a few taken, yeah. mainly for proof of no TB: US visa requirements!

Yummy Stuff: Ben&Jerry's Dublin Mudslide! Nasi lemak with loads of sambal!! A gook "kau kau" teh tarik!!!

Zoo Animal I Like Most: When was the last time I've *been* to the zoo???? Elephants, perhaps?

Okay, there you have it ... steal at will :)

btw - if you're that kind of anal, here are my responses to a similar A-Z meme back in March 2006 :)

cry-worthy tomes

If you've been reading me long enough, you know I consume loads of books. Sometimes I really really really get into a book or series, or author. Rarely does a book move me to tears, though. As much as I can get caught up in the tale, as much as I may occasionally relate all too well with one character or another, with the whole situation, all that jazz, I don't usually cry.

There are, of course, exceptions, that prove the rule:

I do remember blinking back tears reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I think it was stuff around the burial scene that did it). Okay so if I hadn't been in LAX - or was it on the plane somewhere between LAX and KUL? - I probably would have bawled my eyes out :p

And I quote myself from here when writing about the final (haha) book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series: "I actually stopped reading about halfway thru – FORCED myself to stop, in fact, ... because I was starting to cry my eyes out at what was happening to the characters."

Heck I'm pretty sure I cried at Black Beauty and The Outsiders too, now that I think about it :-)

There might be one or two more ... :)

... but a book that totally moved me, to the point that just thinking about the book tugs at my heart and chokes up my throat, is that of people of a land banished from existence, whose name had been deleted, no one outside the area even remembered that it once had a name, while those few remaining who were born/alive prior to the "deletion" were unable to utter its name... and how a small band of such folk strove to reverse the curse, so that TIGANA could once more be said, be remembered, be honored.

If you read only one Guy Gavriel Kay book in your life, please read this one.

You can come back and tell me if you liked it or not.
I have a feeling you'll be deeply affected by it.
As was I.

As I am being affected again, now, by Ysabel. I'm only halfway through it, although I only started reading it this evening, and I'll probably be done with it before sleeping tonight (read; I won't sleep till I'm done reading!). I'm not moved to tears, it's not that kind of tale, but I am totally hooked by all that I've read in the 230pgs I've consumed so far. A juxtaposition of our modern world with that of ancient Celts and Romans, and the playing out of 2500 year old love triangle of sorts. I'm rooting for a modern resolution to this recurring pattern. We'll see....

... so ... do *you* have any tear-worthy or otherwise extremely impactful tomes to recommend? I'd love to hear about 'em whether via comments or as a full post in yr own blog (with a comment here pointing me there lah, of course) :)

(p/s this is my first try at blogger's scheduled publishing thingamajig - writing this at 10:20pm but will set it to publish at 12:05mn)

omfg not again

this is utterly ridiculous!

in 1998, the war between Dr M and his upstart Deputy came (haha) to a head (hahahaa) when said Deputy was deposed, accused of sodomy, and thrown in jail. It was no thanks to such ridiculous accusations that Malaysians actually took to the streets protesting such ridiculous actions by the government.

While there might have been silent dissatisfaction before, in 1998 this dissatisfaction boiled over. It was now possible to be Malay, Muslim and NOT an UMNO (ruling Malay party) supporter. I'd like to think some people's eye were opened to suspect goings-on within the government. I do believe the younger people were less willing to put up with such actions. Heck, this probably did a lot to pave the way for the total shake-up in the March 2008 elections, where Barisan Nasional was denied a 2/3 majority in the newly elected Malaysian parliament.

In 2004, the Federal Court reversed the sodomy conviction and he was released. And back into politics he went. He couldn't run in the March 2008 elections, but I think he might be eligible now.

So, is it a surprise that this now hits the news?

Malaysia's Anwar to be investigated on sex charges: police

Agence France-Presse

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be investigated over new allegations of sodomy, police said Saturday, the same charge that saw him jailed a decade ago.

Anwar's Keadilan party said that one of his aides, Saiful Bahari, had been arrested and "forced" to make a statement saying he was sodomized by the opposition leader.

"Yes, we have received a police report from an aide of Anwar Ibrahim that he was sodomized. But no, we will not arrest Anwar at the moment," said deputy police chief Ismail Omar.

"We will investigate this report first. We will look into it and carry out the necessary steps before issuing any warrant of arrest," he told AFP.

Keadilan officials said that Anwar and other top members of the party were holding crisis talks and feared that he could be arrested soon.

The charismatic leader of Malaysia's resurgent opposition was a respected deputy prime minister and finance minister until 1998 when he was sacked and later jailed on sodomy and corruption charges.

He spent six years in jail until the sex charge was overturned, but the corruption conviction kept him out of politics until recently.

In March he led an alliance of opposition parties to unprecedented gains, wresting a third of parliamentary seats and five states from the Barisan Nasional coalition which has ruled for half a century.

Since then he has claimed he has the support of enough government lawmakers to form a new government.

(source: Rocky's Bru)

i just don't effing believe this

*looking around for a coconut shell I can crawl under*

*geek out alert*

First I becaome "friends" with Patrick Rothfuss, via Facebook.

Now, I'm "friends" with Neil Gaiman, via GoodReads.

Help me, I am *so* geeking out :)

ori & spoof reviews

so over the past month or so, we used Netflix to "study" two sets of "ori & spoof" films:

SET ONE: "300" vs "Meet the Spartans"
When this came out, I had no interest in seeing it: seemed like a testosterone movie to me. In fact, it was only when "Meet the Spartans" came out did either Kosh or I have the motivation to see "300" if only to see the original before its spoof. Because as atrociously bad as we expect these spoof movies to be, chances are we'll watch them: sometimes it's nice to have a no-brainer to watch when Kosh needs to wind down after work.

"300" was better than expected: the CGI effects were pretty cool, it really did seem like a comic strip graphic novel come to life. Story-wise, okay lah. Its spoof was about as expected, with plenty of gags / effects that just. weren't. funny. and just didn't need to be there. BUT!! Having Kevin Sorbo in it? Kinda cool. Especially since he'd bulked down so I thought it was just a lookalike... until he screams "I'm gonna go Hercules on your ass!",,, yeeaah,,, it's Kevin Sorbo, LoL!

SET TWO: "Walk the Line" vs "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"
Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison was one of the cassette tapes of my parents' that I listened to over and over back when I was a young'un. My absolute fave song on the whole album? 25 minutes to go. It's about a prisoner's last 25 mins alive, follows his interactions with the sheriff, the priest, etc, and ends with him swinging on the gallows. My fave song. At age 11 (or thereabouts). And if THAT doesn't help explain my unusual slightly twisted take on life, well, I dunno what to say, LMAO :D

Anyways - so "Walk the Line" was okay. Sure, it was interesting to find out more about the man in black, but the self-destructive behaviour, the majorly screwed-up family (read: father) interactions, the all-too-typical alcohol and drug abuse... bleah... same ol' same ol', ainnit? What was impressive was that Joachim Phoenix and Rheese Witherspoon both sang all of their songs for the film. Dunno if Rheese's performance was oscar-worthy, but whatever :p I was certainly nice to see her in a non-LegallyBlonde role :p

And the spoof? Well, I've seen about half of it right now. So far it's matching the original pretty closely; while I've not been impressed, neither have I been grossed out (which seems to be the objective of the "usual" spoof movies)... but, ummm, the version we have must be the uncut unrated version because, ummm.. we've got sightings of male dingly-danglies... I'm no prude, but still, are such sights necessary to the storyline? Nope.

Jury's still out on Dewey Cox (might finish watching it today), but it's safe to assume I'll rank it as a better spoof than Meet the Spartans :p

ONE MORE THING: we also got all CGI'd out by watching Beowulf - it was such a disappointment, because despite having Neil Gaiman among the screenplay writers, the story seemed to be less important than the special effects (rather like why Star Wars Episodes I - II were such letdowns). I *do* like, however, that the movie took us "beyond" what I'd known about the tale - the dragon that comes to wreak havoc, and how its vanquishing mirrors Grendel's defeat, is genius :) However.. the irritating CGI combined with Angelina Jolie's small part yet utterly irritating due to a ridiculous accent, make this an utterly un-recommended movie. Really, don't bother. If you're interested in the Grendel story, look at this movie instead (Beowulf & Grendel): no CGI, and breathtaking views of Iceland, make for a much better tale overall.

message for those using RSS to read me

.. you're gonna be seeing a whole lot of old posts getting republished ... I'm moving as many of my old images from flickr to the picasa web albums linked to google. Sorry about that! I've reached Feb 2006... another 2+ years to go... ugh!!

(note to self - continue from here)

flustered friday?!

So I'm doing my rounds today in the blogosphere, and wonder if there's a theme going on I wasn't aware of... I mean, Karl's talking about a Pleasure Party he attended, then I see Eilen's sharing about sex and orgasms, followed by a visit to Ms Sizzle who's talking about her sub-par visit to the gyne..

... but there's a bonus!! Thanks to Ms Sizzle, I've added a new word to my vocab. As you may know, my sis-in-law gave birth recently in Malaysia to a bouncing baby girl. Seeing as it's her first, she's staying at my parents' who are certianly not equipped to care for a newborn, and there's also loads of customs/superstitions that Malays subscribe to relating to the post-partum period, a "bidan" was hired full time and is being kept busy looking after the baby (baths, clothes washing, feeding advice) and the mother (flower baths, massages, stomach wrapping, hot stone, special food, etc.). I was trying to describe this function, and all Kosh could come up with was "Nanny?", ummm, no, not quite... And Ms Sizzle has solved the problem for me. The (North American?) equivalent to bidan is DOULA.

And on that note... have a good Friday, and a good weekend!

"i see the nuns are gay"

My apologies to Indian (Hindi? Tamil?) readers - I found this video clip of a typical song&dance routine in a typical Bollywood film... except that some enterprising person strove to put lyrics to the words... English lyrics....

... watch out for "Who put the goat in there? The yellow goat I ate."



hi.la.rious!
(to me, anyway!)

Hat tip to Baby Angel for posting this on my Super Wall... over 5 months ago... yup, I'm only now looking at it, LMAO :)

mosaic meme

Stole this from Karl.

The concept:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. What is your first name? (I used "lynne")
2. What is your favorite food? right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your flickr name? (I had to drop "1972" to get any hits)

Here are my results...
I tip my hat to the following flickr photo owners:
1. Lynne Eastaway, 2. Harold's Beef Ribs!, 3. Stormy sky- St Mary's Cemetery, 4. 10001-burning-man-2006 - Black Rock City 2006 (Nevada) from the sky, 5. Alyson Hannigan signing autograph, 6. 'Teh Tarik' - Asian Cappucino, 7. Not of this Earth - The Bubbling Sulfur Pools of Iceland, 8. Monday dessert, 9. Peaceful Dawn, 10. Nothing to see, 11. Reach for the Sky - Deep Negative, 12. Azlynne


* phrase stolen from Pat Rothfuss :)

jurydoku?

... getting tried by a jury of your peers ... you'd want these so-called peers to be giving your case their utmost attention, yes? Unfortunately, cases are never as direct and to-the-point as what we see in those Law&Order episodes... we all know this, right? And if you've ever seen "12 Angry Men" it's a little scary how personal issues of one or two jurors can sway everyone one way or another... but at least in this case most of them seemed to have been paying attention to what had unfolded in the courtroom (I'm not sure, because I only saw the remake, and it was so boring I ended up only half-listening to it while I read or something LOL)...

... and then u have this happening ...

Sudoku addicts halt drugs trial

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian drugs trial lasting more than three months and costing taxpayers over A$1 million ($947,000) has been aborted after a number of jurors were found to have spent up to half the time playing Sudoku puzzles.

(full Yahoo!News article here)

I. just. can't. even. begin. to describe. the. incredulity. I feel.

... this just in ...

.. so it's been quite a few months of not knowing whether I was going to be an aunt or uncle... finally got news...

I'm an aunt!!

Oh wait... that doesn't quite work... umm... let's try again:

it's a girl!

... that's about all the news I know... but congrats to bro & sil... and my parents are now grandparents... whoohooo that's another weight off my back LMAO :D

durian-flavoured members...

Recently on Facebook I was invited to add the "Makan-Makan" application: literally translated as "eat-eat" it's Malay/sian for food, eating out, food glorious food. While I salivated at the sight of a scrumptious nasi lemak, I was tickled pick to see one of the items you could send to others is a durian.

Now, the durian, as you may or may not know, is deemed the King of Fruits,, and rightly so! After all, a fruit that stinks to high heaven yet tastes so heavenly deserves the highest honors and worship :)

HOWEVER...

.. in its raw form, it's the best.

Many people like to take the flesh and mix it in with santan (coconut milk) and rice, but I find that just waaay too rich and filling, detracting and distracting from the "purity" of the durian itself. Ditto for dodol, never been a fan of the stuff.

I remember back in my high school days, a nearby McDonald's introduced a durian shake. Tried it once. Once. That was enuf.

I remember converging onto a durian stall in... Batu Gajah? ... with my fellow work colleagues... we had a 2-day convention starting the next day, we'd all gone out for dinner, it was durian season... and I remember my colleagues were impressed at how much I enjoyed the fruit ... at that time I was also on a detox regiment which included drinking a tea that would move your bowels about 8 hours later... I didn't think about how it and the durian would react... wow... the next morning I *soooooooooo* had to go, I musta spent 20 mins on the throne, stinking out the entire bathroom: can u imagine a poop & durian combo "fragrance"?? yikes!!! But lemmie tell ya, I felt SO GOOD after that movement :D

Ummm okayyy... moving on...

Recently, Kosh and I explored a relatively new commercial neighbourhood: the Chinese restaurant we ate at had "Durian Fruit Freeze" on its menu... I had to try it... and OMG it's like liquid durian!! Heavenly!!! Of course you wanted to stay upwind of any of my belches that night, because oooo-eeeee naaaaasty!! :D :D :D

but this... this takes the cake... (compliments to Kenny Sia for the photo)


yes, that's a condom with durian fragrance (and I assume, flavour)

... be afraid.... be VERY VERY afraid...!!!

what the...

"tufted" mohawk ...

... all other parts of head shaved ...

... ... except for the tail end of a mullet at the back of the head ...



I just *HAD* to take this fellow commuter's pic last week...

crikey, glad I never got that bad in my attention-seeking days...

quickie

No thanks to the whole tabula rasa phone mishap, I realise I'm almost back to square one in terms of documenting the pottery pieces I've created since the start of 2008...

One small step forward: today I made a new small album of pix to document how I'm getting rid of the last of my clays ... click here to view the album. Only 4 pix so far, more to come as the pieces get finished :-)

Ciao :)


p/s: here's the fate of my pieces - most of them ending up in "piles of pot" LoL :-) We're running out of kitchen counter space :D :D :D

sunny sunday snippets

Okay so I need to stop featuring GraphJam stuff in every post... but...

more graph humor and song chart memes
why do I like this? I'll let you speculate, LoL, cos I'm not sure I know either :-)

On another topic:
Anyone on facebook who is friends with me can see that I've had an increase in friendships over the past week or so - all it took was for one pal, who happens to blog *and* be a "brother" of mine, i.e. a fellow member of a co-ed professional chemistry fraternity, that one pal finally joined facebook and befriended me, then I noticed quite a few familiar names appearing as her friends, so I befriended them and it's been kinda cool to reconnect with some folk from my 1990-1995 era of life :-) Still so many missing tho :( Patience...

Kinda funny tho, how I'm almost at 100 friends over there. Who would have thought... after all, I only joined facebook at the insistence of one friend who said it was the only way to keep in touch with her... that was about a year ago... then I concentrated on reconnecting with schoolmates,,,, then added fellow bloggers,,, then got sucked in to the word games... and the rest is history, LoL!

anyways, it's not like I'm going for quantity targets or anything, but if you're on facebook and would like to hook up as friends there, look me up using my "Lynne Naranek" moniker :-)

Have a good week, y'all :-)