Quaint Melody » random thoughts

Ecstaticism

cc — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:36:50 +0000

I am so restless yet ecstatic that I evidently look like this now.

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Local foreigner syndrome

cc — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:31:00 +0000

This post is inspired by my fellow blogger friend Firehorse, who is a great blogger who writes posts that are fantastically funny. I read this post of hers and it reminded me of something I wanted to write about but has since forgotten and thrown to the back burner.

During my trip back home (Malaysia), I encountered a lot of things good and bad, but there’s this one thing that annoyed me the most. You know those people who went overseas and came back with a weird/fake accent? Well, I am not one of them. Mr K did have one old uni mate who is lidat. He was in the same class with Mr K and went to the same uni for the final year. For your information this guy is Chinese Malaysian with Chinese educational background, so his English was like mine back then, half half only. Have you met those people who tried so hard to speak the slang of certain country but end up sounding very weird? Well, he is that sort. He would go around talking to gui lou (Caucasian) and trying to use all the ‘big words’. Frankly, he sounded like a fool. I mean it is not that I am against learning to fit in and adapt to the environment, but that is a limit before one start to sound weird and make an embarrassment of himself/herself. It is natural that we as Malaysians would have an ascent of our own, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Why have to go and hide that fact?

The joke is, a year after graduation, Mr K met this guy in a conference and introduced him to his boss (a kiwi), who was there with him. After the guy left, his boss asked him, ‘why do you guys sound so different? He sounded really weird!’ Heh. Again, I want to emphasis that I am all for fitting in the local culture and we inevitably will have to do some changes in order to adapt, but that’s a way to do that and not loose your self identity and culture, right?!

OK, I totally digressed. As I mentioned above, the thing that annoyed me a lot was that a lot of people asked me whether I can still speak Chinese/dialect, and also asked whether I am still used to the weather or not. WTH?! I only lived in NZ for 7 years, it’s not like I totally lost touch with my friends and relatives, and transformed into a gui po or something. We are talking about the country I was born in and lived for 20 years! That was 20 long years where I breathed and lived the culture and people. How could I totally ditch that and come back a foreigner? The thought of it really baffles me. To me, no matter how long I’ve been away or how much adapting I have done in order to fit in, Malaysia will always remains home in my heart. So, that’s it, once and for all.

p/s: Something came onto me when I wrote this post yesterday, sounded so angry one hor. I am not an angry person ok. ;P

annoying thoughts

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Random morning scribbles

cc — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:52:00 +0000

It is 6am now and it’s 5 degree Celsius. I am freaking freezing! It’s not even winter yet.

I have been up since 3am. After turning and tossing in bed for a good half an hour, I knew I wasn’t going to fall asleep and decided to do some blog-hopping online instead. I use a RSS reader to keep track of all my blogs of interest. It has over a hundred blogs on the list. Have been quite busy and haven’t been able to read through all of them. So forgive me if I haven’t been coming to your blog and leave my two cents worth ya!

I love leaving comments and I love receiving them even more! Every time I get a notification email telling me I have a new comment, I’d be smiling with joy, with my adrenaline pumped up. I always make sure I reply all the comments that are left in my blog, as they are the results of someone taking their time to left their thoughts on things I wrote and I really appreciate that. So, thank you for all of you that have been commenting and keep them coming! You are making me very happy.

OK, I am freaking cold now and cannot think straight, have to go and sit next to my heater.

random scribbles

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Man and nagging wife

cc — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:43:00 +0000

I am sleep deprived. Ever since I came back from Malaysia, my body clock has been kind of screwed up. I couldn’t not sleep well at night and even if I did, I woke up 3-4 hours later. I used to suffer from insomnia, and I seriously hope this is not it but just an extension of what supposed to be a temporary jet-lag.

So what did I do when I couldn’t sleep? What better thing to do than getting the house cleaned and staying glued to the computer?! Not to say that Mr K didn’t do a good job when I was away, he really did. Well, at least to a man’s standard he did. But his crazy wife has her crazy standard when comes to house tidiness. It is a wonder that he has not been driven up the wall yet. Though it is sufficient to say I nag him a lot. ‘Put this back to the original place‘, ‘why is the fruit on the wrong shelve of the fridge‘, ‘are you sure you didn’t drop anything on the kitchen floor, it looks dirty‘, ‘I don’t understand how is it so difficult to just put things back to their original place after each use‘, nag nag nag…etc. You get the drill. I run a tight ship around here ler, don’t play play. Poor MR K>.

The thing about man is, they are very good in ‘pretending’ to listen to you, when in fact they are hallucinating or having an out-of-body experience. Then when you confront them about it, they’ll show you the guilty look with their puppy eyes and say ‘sorry lor, I forgot‘. Of course you know they weren’t listening, but the puppy eyes just make it a bit hard to continue nagging don’t you think?! Or is it because I haven’t weathered it long enough to be a nagging wife? You tell me.

*cartoon taken from www.halfthedeck.com.

nagging nagging wife

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Crazy Chow phenomenon

cc — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:27:00 +0000

Warning: If you are Jay Chow’s hardcore fan and are easily offended, I strongly advise you to stop here and close this window. Proceed further at your own risk.
This disclaimer exists solely to prevent the blogger from being stabbed to death.

Yes, I’m talking about the all-mighty-God of the Chinese pop music, Jay Chow. Now, I agree that he is talented and everything, but what’s the big deal? Pardon my great ignorance, but I just don’t get it. Is it the mumbling words in his song that no one can understand, the whole-world-owe-me-money look or his I-could-care-less attitude? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate him, well, can’t really say I hate him since I don’t really know him that well, but I seriously think he is overrated. Everybody in the industry seems to like him. For his talent? I think not in all cases. The whole hype is just created by his marketing team and what a brilliant job they have done! They sort of created a Chow phenomenon. So much so that everyone must listen to his song, or at least know of him or you’re so out-dated you can die. Well, what do I know, I’m just an insignificant minute bored blogger with no life, typing away some nonsense in the hope of drawing some attention from some bored insignificant soul out there, right?!

Again, if any one of you are a hardcore Chow fan, please don’t bite me. Thank you.

Jay Chow

Post from: Quaint Melody

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City of apartments.

cc — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:40:00 +0000

When you think of New Zealand, you think of fresh air, millions of sheeps, breath-taking scenery and probably, Lord of the Rings. Auckland, being the busiest city should be no different right? Well, think again. Nowadays, a walk in the city gives you this.

That’s right, blocks and blocks of apartment buildings. They are everywhere, these apartments blocks are being built in every turns and corners. Most of them are what we called, ’shoebox’ apartments. The bedroom space is only enough for a queen bed, and sometimes even single. They are clearly built for the majority of students who prefers to stay in the city centre. With the property investment market blooming, gone are the nice view of the city. Now, the only things you see are apartment buildings. Some of them are built in very close proximities, the residents can probably peek into each other’s window, or even throw things into the opposite room. It’s like they are trying to fill up the spaces with apartments. The situation is getting so ridiculous, I just don’t understand how the city council (or whatever that department is involved) could have approved it. If the trend continue, in stead of city of sails, they should call Auckland city of apartments.

It’s no wonder people escape from Auckland city whenever possible.

p/s: don’t get me wrong, I still love the city, was on a ranting mood when I wrote the above. I guess when you have stayed in a city long enough, you see the flaws.

Technorati tags: Auckland apartments

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Media frenzy over VTM.

cc — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:33:00 +0000

No, this is not a post about the Virginia Tech massacre. I don’t think there’s anything that has not been said or published or shown on TV (repeatedly) already. What I would like to put my two cents worth is about how the media jumped the gun and accused the wrong person in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. The victim?? Wayne Chian g, a guy whose descriptions unfortunately match the killer’s. And here’s the 5 so called ‘clues’ to the media. (quotes Chiang during an interview)

“I was five for five,” Chiang said, referring to the descriptions of the killer being reported in the hours immediately following the killings. “I’m Asian. I went to [Virginia] Tech. I used to live in the dorm [where the first shootings occurred]. There’s the infamous picture of me with my guns.” Chiang also had written on his LiveJournal blog last week that he had broken up with his girlfriend.

“It sure sounds like me,” he said evenly. “I joked about it with a friend online. I didn’t think it would go anywhere � but obviously, it did.”

What followed is just like a big nightmare for the poor guy, thousands flooded this blog and many leaving angry comments and even death threats. Though the truth came out in the end and apologies were made, the damage has been done. What puzzled the hell out of me is some still continue to pick on him on his way of handling the situation (of which I think is ridiculous as he has been handling it with nothing but grace and maturity); and worse, a TV station continues to use his images in conjunction to the killer’s. Now, that’s just pure ignorance and lake of professionalism right there.

I really wonder what is becoming of our media. Isn’t journalism about discovering the news and finding the truth? Shouldn’t some verification be done before presenting the news to the public? It’s really becoming like a circus nowadays. Maybe I should just go to the fiction section in the bookstores instead of the newsstand next time. BAH!

My condolences and prayers go out to those involved in this horrific tragedy.

Technorati tags: virginia tech massacre wayne chiang

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Blog Apocalypse – This is the end.

cc — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 04:19:00 +0000

Apa tu, got tagged again, this time by TWO people! Is this the tagging season? Of course being a good sport that I am, I’ll gladly do it. Wahaha. *bow*

This is a good one. It was started by urbanmonk who will make donations to charity, for a dollar each tag that links back to him, until it reaches $500. Isn’t that great?!

The last post. If I can only write one last post, what would it be?
…………….

*pins dropped*
………………………

WHAT?!!!! Did you just say one LAST post? Is the world ending? Is it? IS IT?!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!! *kicking up a fuss and throwing everything in sight*
Yes, I am secretly a drama queen. (What do you mean? It’s not a secret anymore?!)

Oh just supposedly. Don’t scare me like that, I am just getting started here. NEW blogger wei. (and yes, 3 months is still new.)

Now, what do you mean I cannot blog anymore? Is this some kind of sick joke? Just how would this ban work? Is someone going to jump out from the screen and chain me to the wall if I try to log on and blog? Or the action will trigger some web bomb and cause a major explosion? Just HOW? What? That’s not the topic? Ok, ok, I’ll think about it then. Be right back.

*some 2 hours later*

Nothing I tell you, there’s nothing in there. *knocks head*

I guess I will have to take my bla bla somewhere else. Oh, this is about the content of the final post. I have a very frayed memory here, please bear with me.

OK, my final post. Like mott, this inevitably makes me think about funerals. My own funeral, no less. There are some pretty forbidden topics out there in the open, but I secretly think about it from time to time. That’s amongst other morbid thoughts that are in my mind. I’d like to think about death like in scenes from Six Feet Under. Dark but comedic, dazzling yet simple. I like to think of death as a beginning. A beginning of another journey to the unknown. Like in the movie theatres, when the curtain comes down and the lights turn on, we move out and onto other things. Ohoo, starting to sound cliche again!

Anyway, for the last post, I think it would be a photo post. That’s right, I would go and take gazillions of photos that best define me and post them to express my feelings at the time. Everything that was ever here would be erased. Left only the post. And that’s it. The end. Hohoho…

I’m just going to tag one person. *drums roll*
FireHorse, you’re it. This is the end for you. Go on and make me proud.

UPDATE:
Okay, I changed my mind, Nonnie the King, you too are tagged! Consider this big present for your blogniversary! ;P

Technorati tags: blog apocalypse the end the last post

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Hoopla of Chow Yun Fat and Crown Macau commercial.

cc — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:07:00 +0000

This is the all new commercial of the soon-to-be-opened 6 star casino hotel, Crown Macau. Featuring the one-and-only every-so-coolly Chow Yun Fat. Also starring the third runner up in the 1st season of America’s Next Top Model, Eleyse Sewell.Apparently, the commercial created waves of controversy in Asia, especially China and Hong Kong, with some questioning Chow’s choice of the job and criticizing him for promoting gambling. And these are the same people who sneered at his decision to enter the world of Hollywood stardom (Well, that’s a whole other story). I guess the whole hoopla started due to one reason. According to the press, Chow was paid 25 million HKD for the job.

Now, we all know Chow is famous for his classic role as the seasoned gambler in the God of Gamblers movies. So it is natural and perfectly suitable for him to take on the role of a classy gambler in the commercial. I really don’t see what the problem is here, except there’s a bunch of goody-goody trying to act as the moral police. It’s not as if he’s asking people ‘come come come, gambling is good for you’. The business is already there, approved and built. I don’t see them criticizing the Macau authority for approving such an establishment or any other casino for that matter. The only obvious reason is that the green-eyed monsters in them cannot stand it.

Period. What a bunch of bollocks!

Technorati tags: Chow Yun Fat Crown Macau Crown Macau commercial

Post from: Quaint Melody

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5 reasons.

cc — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:09:00 +0000

Finally with high-speed broadband to blog hop again, I found out I have been tagged by mott to do this meme. List 5 reasons why I blog. Now, that will take some brain-cracking.

I have many thoughts in my mind at any given time. Instead of verbalising these thoughts and annoying the hell out of people, I choose to blog them out and annoy the hell out of people.

Because long distance calls are expensive and I am a cheapskate. Blogging is the perfect way for me to keep my friends, especially those back home updated on what’s up (or wrong) with me. (Heh, some said they know more about ~~my craziness~~ me after reading my blog).

Because the exhibitionist in me needs to be let out.

It reduces white noise at home because ever since I started blogging, I don’t complaint/nag as much to Mr K who thinks it is a godsend.

It relishes my life. (so cliche, bleh…)

Hey, that’s it. No cracking or damaging done to my limited braincells after all. ;P

I would very much like to tag the following people:
1. Alex
2. Kleio
3. Yen Fen

Technorati tags: meme reasons I blog

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Attitude.

cc — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 03:51:00 +0000

I don’t usually read forwarded mails, but this one caught my eyes today. I thought about it deeply and would like to share with you.

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today.”
So she did And She Had A Wonderful Day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
“Hmmm,” she said,
“I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today.”
So she did And She Had A Grand Day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.
“Well,” she said, “today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.”
So she did And She Had A Fun, Fun Day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.
“YEAH!” she exclaimed,
“I don’t have to fix my hair today!”
Attitude is everything.
Be kinder than necessary,
For everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle ……
Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly…….

Post from: Quaint Melody

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Epiphany toilet.

cc — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Have you heard of an epiphany toilet? I came across the term when I was watching scrubs, and it got me thinking. Is there such thing?

Come to think about it, it’s true that my thoughts are always clearer when I’m in the bathroom. Great ideas seem to come easily and I can even remember things I usually won’t in the bathroom! It’s incredible I tell you. Many ideas and thoughts seem to be coming out of nowhere when I’m in the bathroom. But it’s the one place people where normally don’t keep pieces of paper in, so pretty soon after I get out, the thoughts would be gone.

Maybe it is the one place where we normally don’t keep other entertainment gadgets in, therefore there isn’t any distraction. We could concentrate and focus our thoughts. Our mind is a magical thing, it wonders whenever it gets an opportunity, and the bathroom is the perfect place for thoughts. It is the one time you’re completely alone by yourself. Hence, many thinking sessions take place when I am bathing. I have drafted letters in my mind, with a constant flow of ideas and rekindled memories. The only problem is, as soon as I leave the bathroom, all those thoughts slip from my mind.

Maybe I should consider moving my work station into the bathroom. Or better yet, set up an office in there. I’ll call it the inspiration room instead.

The question remains, ‘As we cleanse ourself, do our minds become clearer too?’

Post from: Quaint Melody

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