The "Before..." Trilogy

I spent the last long weekend watching Rich Linklater's trilogy - Before Sunrise, Before Sunset & Before Midnight (or what I call it The Before ... Trilogy). And I loved it, regardless of what the people who wrote a 1 star rating about it in IMDB. It's a love story.

In a nutshell, it's a story about two people connecting with each other. They just talk. About everything and about nothing. In all 3 movies, they talk, that spans about 1.5hrs per movie. No fighting bad guys, no epic journeys, no robots or monsters or ghosts. Just two people talking.
(Yup, my review is as shitty as those people who gave it 1 star, but I'm rating it 4 stars)

Have you ever been in an engaging conversation with someone you just met and you enjoy each other's company that both of you don't want that meeting to end? The first movie is about that.

Then they parted ways, but agreed to meet again after 6 months without exchanging any contact information and leaving it to chance. Of course, they didn't. However, they met again after 9 years and spend the rest of the afternoon talking again from where they left off. And that's the second movie.

In the last movie, it's after another 9 years where they're now together and this last one is a bit more serious where it elaborates the complexities of a relationship.

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Side note: Seeing Ethan Hawke in 1995 is a sight for sore eyes. However, I think he didn't aged gracefully because 9 years later, he looks worse and 18 years later is like he's off a cliff. Well, I think it proves that good looks doesn't last forever. Julie Delpy on the otherhand, ages like wine, better with age (not that I know how wine taste like).
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 In my opinion, what makes this movie about two people conversing with each other INTERESTING is that female character, Celine has her own thoughts and opinions. The male character, Jesse, is not intimidated by her intellectuality and does not condescend her. And both have fascinating conversations.

It is akin to meeting your girlfriends over some drinks. You can sit at the coffee shop for hours and have no shortage of topics to talk about. It did strike an interesting thought that if the male character was swapped with another woman, it'll be a story about two girls having never ending chit chat. Mungkinkah si lelaki ni bersifat seperti wanita? Sebab it is rare to find guys who's like the male character. Yg tak pandang rendah pada wanita dan try to shut down all her thoughts and opinions because he thinks he's better than her in all and every aspects.

Different from the 'commercial movies' ways, the female character is not hypersexualised like they usually are in most movies.

I guess another point of interest that holds the movie together is the subtle sexual tension that exists between the two throughout the whole movie. This movie is like watching two people flirting with each other for 2 hours! hahaha...

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In our lives, we'll meet many people, some of them you only meet just once in a lifetime. For one reason or another, that chance encounter is one we'll remember for the rest of our lives.

That one person you met when you and your girlfriends are out on a holiday trip in another city. A small talk with a stranger at the hotel lobby while waiting for your friends to get ready upstairs, although just kill the waiting time and a bit awkward at first but leads to some interesting knowledge that we have a friend in common. What a small world.

It would have been a passing thing if not for a coincidence that we share the same flight back home. Made way to greet the new friend, who is now a familiar face in a strange city. We talked about general things and stuff that interests us. Went about the airport shops commenting on how lousy and expensive the selections are. A stranger now has slowly transformed into a new friend. Allowing another person to come into your space and enjoy that person's company for a short while because somehow there is a connection.

Upon landing when the journey ends, said goodbye to each other, but secretly wishing that this meeting go on. And then spending the rest of your remaining lifetime questioning your life decisions.

I think this clip sums it up perfectly well. No subtitles, but it's from DDLJ.

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i realise that I was only talking about the first instalment of the the trilogy; Before Sunrise and then went on rambling about something else. But trust me, if you liked the first one, you'll love the rest.

These movies, it not for everyone. It is an acquired taste. So... yeah.

A Summary of What Happened Today

I was awaken from my sleep surprisingly early this morning, considering I slept at 1am last night trying to finish up my slides to this competition I 'created' for this event at work tomorrow. Anyways the reason I woke up was I had cramps. And then and there I knew it wasn't going to be an easy day, despite the day being what it is. The 29th of Sept.

Didn't have breakfast at home, but grabbed a packet of paracetamol to work. Traffic was bearable with the radio off. Parking lot at 8.30am was like any other parking lot at KL in 5am in the morning, empty.

Had breakfast alone, since the cafeteria was also empty. Ate a piece of paracetamol, only to realise moments later after I had swalloed it, the pill was date 7 years ago. Does paracetamol expire? I asked this to one of my Whatsapp group. -Dua bijik je. takpe. tapi 7 tahun memang lama.

Went up to my cube and started fussing about the preparation for my 1030am meeting. I need to find one more person for my competition. Went up and down the building looking for suitable 'candidates'. Finally found one in the nick of time.

The meeting at 1030 was supposed to be for 9 people, but only 4 turned up (including myself). Oh well, meeting must go on. Went back and emailed the information to the rest of the group. then helped a colleague figure out how to Save a generated signal on the signal generator. Printed some scoresheets and stuff. Booked meeting rooms.

A pang of hunger hits me at 1pm. Went down to the cafeteria for lunch. Was stopped halfway by another colleague asking about tomorrow's stuff. And another person. When everything was over, I went to the food counter but there wasn't much food choice left, except for some spinach and fish with bones. But whatever. can't find anyone to sit with. So it's just me and my own thoughts. But whatever... this isn't highschool.

After lunch, I bumped into another colleague who invited me to this Google Developer event next, next Saturday. I wasn't sure of going at first, but after he told me google gives a some 'swag's to the attendees, I'm suddenly all in. I know he wants to tumpang my car only. But, like I said, whatever. At least I get to go to Google's event. Win-win.

Went back upstairs to get a box of pencils. Then went back downstairs for another meeting. Enough exercise for the day.

Ini bukan "summary" dah ni. ini sebuah penceritaan... A lot more happened, but I don't want to type anymore.

Being sick

In my entire life, I remember a few times when I was very terribly sick that I thought this might be "it", you know, kick the bucket sick.

The first time was when I had the flu. It wasn't the ordinary flu, I could tell you that I was bed ridden for a few days and wasn't able to get out of bed even for food. I think what made it worse was the fact that I was a thousand miles away from home and I thought I could probably have meningitis. But it was just a bad flu, but it was bad enough to make me read Yasin to myself.

The second time was when I had a fever during my work trip in Copenhagen. It was a chilly summer, but I treated it like it was a sunny summer (it was, by Scandinavian standards), and the change in weather proved that my body didn't agree. Spent the day being sick in my hotel room, thinking I might have caught H1N1 while I was travelling here (it was the thing at the time, like what Ebola is right now). My body was in pain, but it wasn't that bad, but I was Convinced that I might have bird flu and imagined the horror on the hotel maid's face when she comes to do housekeeping in my hotel room the next day.

Being sick in a foreign country, and being alone, especially, makes you think of silly things like that. I guess having family or friends with you would make the being down and sick experience abroad, a little bit more hopeful and bearable because when I had a fever during umrah, I wasn't feeling so morbid, but I think I would not mind dying in Mekah while doing my Umrah.

And then only recently, I had to be warded in the hospital for dengue fever. This time I was with family and had some morbid thoughts. The pain in my joints and bones were very real that I would feel grateful if someone came to chop off my limbs for me. The terrible headache was also so bad. I also was worried that my brain and the insides of me would turn into mush when I was sleeping and bleed to death.

Fortunately for me, I got better. Alhamdulillah. And now up and about ready to face a new day.

I think that being sick, terribly sick, helps in pulling us down closer to the ground (literally and figuratively), just so we are reminded that a small bug (virus) is able to bring you down from your lofty state of mind that you're invincible, when actually you're not.

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Deep pointless thoughts

I probably am guilty of thinking too much.
Before anyone could bend their knees ready to jump, I have already seen them falling and breaking their bones.
But only on selected issues.
If only I could put it to good use, this 'thinking' matter, probably I could be a chess Grand Master or at least proceed to every next Candy Crush level with less than 3 trials. (good use? debatable.)

Making decisions are almost impossible (not entirely) with this extra brain activity and also it keeps me awake some nights.

Then again, I ask myself,

• what is the worst thing that could happen if you did that?
• what is at stake?
• will it condemn me to hell eternally?
• is this the work of Syaitan or not?

Yes, there is an answer for How to Seek Answers to your Questions, the thing is, I am afraid of the what the answer might be.

Story telling

For thousand of years, humankind has been telling stories to each other as a mean of communication. There are other ways of communicating, such as conveying information thru facts and numbers, like, an accounting ledger or a scientific journal, or newspaper. However these medium of exchange is not as interesting or attention grabbing as story telling that could breakthrough the barriers of age, race or knowledge.

Story telling is as old as time itself. It could be in many forms; verbal, words, drawings or images. Cavemen drawings on cave walls tells a story that travels through time. A picture could tell a thousand words, combine millions of pictures in series and you'll have a movie. Story books, campfire gatherings, wayang kulit, songs... Everything, including our lives is a story that is being revealed to us, day by day. I should also mention that the Quran itself also holds many stories from the people of the past.

A good story should capture the listener's or the reader's full attention. It should make the audience think. It should have a message, a reminder, a moral of the story. Every story should have a point. A story, at the end of it, should give or create or change a person, if not a lot, then maybe a little. The person before the story is being told is now a slightly different person after the story is told. And then, everybody should have an opinion about it. Whether it is good, or bad, confusing or clear.

Everybody has a story to tell, you just need to ask, "how was your day?".

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That long journey that seems to have no end

I was in KL last Saturday and took a couple of days off from work to settle my thesis stuff.

Drove from Penang at 8 am in the morning and the whole stretch of road from Penang to Tapah was cool and covered with light mist, which was really pleasant because it reminds me of driving in UK in the cool of Autumn.

Arrived in KL at 12.30 pm, dropped my mum at the apartment and went straight to Le Meridien at KL Sentral to have high tea with my Cardiff housemates. So lunch & tea was really fun.

Then rushed back home to get ready for a wedding dinner in Dewan Merak Kayangan. Arrived quite early, in fact really, really early. You will know why later. Walked to the lobby of the hall and scanned around if I could find a familiar face. Then noticed a sign board displayed the names of the bride and groom, which is entirely different from the invitation card that is in my hand. Confusion sets in. Soon I realised I had the date wrong! I mistook the RSVP date as the wedding date :( The wedding isn't on yet in 15 days. what a bimbo moment! So I quickly slip out of the hall (mind you, I am already in baju kurung wedding get-go) and went straight to the car and drove to Wangsa Walk for dinner.

Sunday:
Went to Bangi to visit my sister who was studying in one of the colleges there. Had lunch in Alamanda. Had a tinge of envy because there wasn't Alamanda when I was studying in Banting. The closest mall is 2 hours bus ride away. Which makes KLIA (30 mins bus ride), an acceptable replacement place to hang out.

After lunch, met with my dear friend for desserts at Ice Room for a quick catch up. Sighted my twitter friend's parents. Wanted to say "Hi" to them but didn't because I think it will be too complicated to explain the term 'Twitter friend'.

At night, we went to my cousin's house and took her and her son for nasi kerabu dinner.

Monday:
Can't remember what I had for breakfast, but I think it was good. Got ready with everything because I am supposed to go to UM to get my Supervisor's signature on the thesis submission form.

Sent my mum to the LRT station because she wanted to meet her friend for lunch. And since it was too early to go to UM, I decided to get a haircut. The hairdresser was complaining that I had too many dandruff and yadda, yadda about hairloss. She succeeded in making me take the hair treatment with the big head gear and washing and all. Well, I had time to kill anyway.

So I went to UM, met my supervisor. She asked if I had the colour of the cover right. I showed her and she signed the form. Then she went to get another lecturer to sign the witness forms. And she told me she came up to the office alongside The Examiner. "Go try to knock on his door, maybe you'll get his signature".

So I went to his room. He opened his door and immediately after he saw me there he said in his cold voice "No, come back Wednesday, I told you Wednesday morning." I pleaded (well, not so much), and explained that I just thought I'd try my luck since I was here anyway. He still said NO. (Damn).
So what time on Monday sir? 9am.

Went back to my Supervisor's room and told her everything that happened. I told her everything.
How I felt like an insignificant being standing there, and he didn't look me in the eye. not even a smile. I think I saw him rolled his eyes, in fact.
He was so arrogant. Rude even.
What is it with him? It's not like he did not knew I drove from out of town for this stupid signature and just give me some considerations.
We ended up talking about his unprofessional and inhumane attitude for about an hour. Turns out he treats everybody like dirt. well, except for some few people who are higher levels than him.

It was quite frustrating, I have not dealt with a difficult person for quite some time. The last time I had a difficult time was with Mr Burns.

In the evening, I went to watch Gravity. I was glad I did. It was a good movie.



Then for dinner, I picked up my friend from the LRT and went to our banana leaf joint that we use to frequent. Had a long chat over things, especially about The Examiner from Hell.

So I went back home and waited for Wednesday to come, with much contempt in my heart and also I think I had gained a few pounds from all the eating. Maybe next time I should meet friends at the gym.

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Paranoid Android

I am listening to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire audiobooks and taking mental notes of survival skills. If an apocalypse happens, the first thing I'll do is make my way out of the city and head to the hills.

I don't have an underground shelter.

Lol! JK!

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Shoddy work

I am adding a kitchen cabinet in the *ahem* kitchen.

There has been a few stumbling blocks that I've encountered and it seems like everything is a mess and did not went as well and smooth as I expected. I don't know where it went wrong.

1. I was made to understand everything will be completed in less than a week. Now it has been almost one month already.

2. As a customer, I expect the sales person would be the coordinator of everything. However, I think I've been unofficially hired to be the coordinator; arranging and scheduling the time slots for the cabinet men, the cooker hood men, the solid surface men, the plumbing man.

3. These men pops up at the apartment without informing me before hand. There's been a few incidents where I just arrived at the computer lab and 30 minutes later some contractor calls me up telling me they're waiting for me at the guard house. A call the day or night before to inform me this would have saved me a lot of useless travelling.

4. The colours of the cabinet doors were wrong.

5. When they took it back to change to the right colour, now it doesn't match with the rest of the compartments. Sigh.

6. The plumbing guy screwed up the pipes that connects the kitchen and the washing machine. Double sigh. Now the plumbing pipes are all over the place and it's not done neatly. What is worse is that now i see water seeping out from beneath the newly installed cabinets.

7. One of the cabinet door opens in the wrong direction. Changing it would mean ruining the wood work of the door.

8. The cooking gas is leaking.

Le sigh. I don't know if this is supposed to be a test or a lesson? Test my compassion? Test me to think out of the box? A lesson not to help melayu again? A lesson to always look in the details of everything that other people do and not trust their workmanship?

As a customer/ buyer, I should have the "peace of mind" when I leave the work to be done by these workers. Am I negligent? Should I be hovering and looking over their shoulders all the time so that they would install the doors and pipes correctly and properly?

What i know is that, if you want to do things right, you have to do it on your own. That much is true. I think I want to re-do the plumbing again myself.

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2of 366

had the family over for the week. was great.
i think 2011 and 2012 is the same. just numbers.
days passes so quickly. you open your eyes and wake up in the morning then blink, blink, blink and a whole day has turned to dusk. i wonder what have i done today that made Allah pleased with me.
people change. you change, i change. deal with it.
i might say i like blue last week and i will only sotong only if they're deep fried in flour.
then you'll see me next week with a new favorite colour, yellow, and eats raw squids from the sushi bar. please don't shake me and say 'what the hell, dyanna?'
from the perspective of someone who sees the glass as half full, change is what makes life interesting, and maybe up to a point exciting.
but from the eyes who perceives glass as half empty, change will only bring misery, difficult challenges and a lot of risk.
change is only good when it goes according to our plan. when it doesn't we wail, cry, shout and throw tantrums. try to look at it from a bigger point of view. maybe it's not so bad after all. still half full.

unfriended a few people on facebook. who cares? do you think when you meet those people, they would get all angry and ask "Why U unfriend me??". nope, don't think so. even if they do, just create an excuse. they just want to feel good about themselves. we think too much about what other people think... about ourselves. social network is a glorified vain pot.

on a totally different tone and note:


Went through a collection of hindi songs on youtube yesterday. did you know that while doing the movie Kuch kuch, Salman and Kajol were not in talking terms with each other (not sure what the reason was) but you don't see that on the screen right? good actors got us fooled. just watch that video clip.

Kuch Kuch was a really great movie. The first time i saw it was on a bus from Johor to KL. dok teriak sepanjang perjalanan ataih haighway. evil bus driver, tak patut pasang cerita sedih on the bus. crying inpublic is embarassing. cried again watching it the second time at home. such a sad love story.

sapa2 tak pernah tengok Kuch Kuch, aku tak tau la nak kata apa kat dia, kecuali, pi la tengok.

hindi movies are very good at playing with our emotions. especially at making people cry. if you really want to cry your eyes out, watch Kabhi Kushi.

anyways, my favorite actress is Rani. but favorite pairing is Shah Rukh and Kajol. Salman was really charming before, but now he's just fat and old. aamir had a lot of hair in Mann, now he's sporting a short hair and picks good roles in movies, like 3 idiots and Taare Zamin Par.Kareena is always in every movie in i see, now i just get sick looking at her in every movies. like in EVERY effing movies! like give it a rest la please. More air time to Preety, Priyanka (god, she has a really hot bod), and Aishwarya. A lot of good actresses in the past have gone out of the screen, but i wish i could see them again, like Sridevi, madhu, manisha, karisma..

I was really pissed at tv3 last saturday because they did a really bad job at editing Kal Ho Na Ho and 3 idiots. that was not editing, it was more like butchering with a dull knife. even the dead carcass could feel the pain.

Some random thoughts about ageing.

I was watching Oprah (a rerun of old episode) the other day, it was was a session with Dr Oz who talked about the new research findings and diets that could prolong one's life... Maybe up to 125 or 150.

*sekadar gambar hiasan.

The things that was shown was eye opening. Listen to this:
(For more details, you have to Google it yourself)

1) Restricted Calorie Diet.
There was this guy and another couple who carried out this diet and they looked amazing at their age. Nothing like our 50-60 year old uncles or aunties we normally see here.

2) Eating loads of fruits.
There was this old man who's a millionaire who ate a lot of fruits and veges daily. He looked like he's having fun (apart from the fact he's a millionaire).

3) Growing your own organs.
Dr Oz went to visit a research lab that was growing organs and arteries on a petri dish. If you happen to need a replacement of, say.. a heart or a 'pundi kencing', you don't need to wait in line with the rest of the 7000 people who's waiting for an organ donation. You just drop some of your dna sample onto a petri dish with a cast of the organ of your choice and it will grow in 8 weeks time.
Well, the catch here is the cast is made of pig's inner things because apparently they have the have almost the same build up as human beings.

4) Oxygenated hyperbaric chamber. Which pumps oxygen into the chamber at gh pressure so that it forces more oxygen into skin cells and blood system. Therefore you'll slow down the ageing effect since the cells gets more oxygen.

5) This is not from Oprah, but worth the mention. A drug found to be able to stop ageing by flushing out dead cells and helps the body to replace them with new cells. Resveratrol or something like that.

At first I was like, wow.. The first and the second story was believable and sort of pumped some motivation for me to do the same. Eat more food sources that came from plants. Reduce food intake and exercise more. Maybe I'll live longer.

However, now I'm thinking "Oh, what's the use?!".
Why?

There's this worrying thoughts about financial and personal matters if I (ever) lived up to 150 years old.

I don't know if i will have enough money in the back to support me financially for the next 100 years? Do i still have to work in my 90's? How's the inflation rate is going to be like in the year 2120?

I might be lonely when I get old since probably most of my immediate family members are dead. I might have to endure the struggles of the generation gap. Who wants to hear old gramma Dyanna talk about how hard life was back in 2010 when we had to drive ourselves to the groceries stores to buy food and carry them in bags into elevators? You kids are lucky that now refrigerators orders and stock up food for you automatically. Maybe all you need to do for dinner is pop chicken curry flavoured pills into your mouth and be done with.

Steve Jobs died of cancer (at a considerably 'young' age) despite his eccentric organic vegetarian diet.
So to me this does not makes sense and somewhat pointless to pursue such a unique eating habit, because you can't prevent cancer from happening. Come to think of it, maybe it was the acid and lsd that he did when he was young that caused this...

The point here is, you'd die when your time is up.
Allah SWT has written for you your fate. It is one of the things that you will never know. 1, 20, 30, 40, 100 or 150. We will never know at what age we will "go". He will neither hasten nor delay our time of death even for one second shorter/longer.

Second point is, since death is imminent, what we should actually strive for is not longetivity, but for
our own well being.
Now that's something to live up for. Just in case you get to live to 150, might as well not spending most of it being frail and helpless on a hospital bed, but instead by being healthy on a sitting on yatch or by the stream, sipping tea and reading a good e-book.

Take good care of yourself and don't be too strict on your what you are consuming. Life is too short to miss eating the delicious stuff. And life is too dreadfully long if you're just eating the boring stuff.

The key of living is to live in moderation.

I might have missed a few points about the physical aspects of growing into your 'hundreds'. Maybe that oxygen chamber and cells replacement pills does come in handy afterall in preventing loose limbs and sagging skin.

Let me know what your thoughts about these new research findings of prolonging one's life and what is your preparation if you are going to live over 100 years old?

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Drafts from the Past (2): Wearing Hijab during tense situation

More of posts from the past. (Seems like I don't have much ideas on what to write about, eh?)... this was written in 05/08/2005.

According to a national newspaper here, a fatwa has been released that allowed Muslim women to take off their hijab following the recent London bombings that occured less than a month ago.

"In the present tense situation, with the rise of attacks on Muslims, we advise
Muslim women who fear being attacked physically or verbally to remove their
hijab so as not to be identified by those hostile to Muslims."

"Dress is meant to protect from harm, not to invite it"

This was said by Dr. Zaid Badawi; one of the progressive Muslim leaders here.
It is unfair how some portion of the society do nasty things and say nasty words to a women. It is not our fault....

Consisted of a few paragraphs and it was not even completed...haish..
Wrote this after my parents left for Msia after my graduation. Parents came to visit, but a few days before they arrived, London was rocked by the devastating train and bus bombings on 7/7/05. Fortunately it did not happened when they arrived because it could have been us (visiting London and taking public transportation were our plans). It did threw our schedules and visits out of the window now that my parents are bit more extra nervous about getting around and walking in public.

Majority of Muslims around the world have been the victim of extremist groups, Muslim and Non-Muslim for that matter. One small group of people, creating terror. It doesn't help that the rest of the world likes to stereotyping and applying it to the rest of the group...

Only when total emergency 'darurat' that we should consider removing the hijab. But for me, personally I would not remove my hijab whatever happens. Unless it's being forcefully pulled off my head or I am constantly getting serious death threats that the authorities can't protect me from. I hope it doesn't get to that in my lifetime, ever.

Normal blog post - Friday is Ipad2 Day

(my 2nd post for today)

Firstly, I have to come clean with you guys (or myself actually - I need to get this off my chest!), for the past 5 weeks I've been keeping a watch scouring the internet for any news of the Ipad 2 in Singapore and Malaysia, up to a point that I myself think I'm becoming an crazy obsessed freak. I don't even want to say how many hours spent doing this 'research' for fear of looking even more like a pathetic crazy obsessed freak.

Last Saturday new rumours emerged on some local tech websites showing someone holding a receipt of ipad2 pre-booking confirmation, then followed by the start-up of a tech forum and from there on, fans went mad and the forum expanded uncontrollably like a wild forest fire.It goes up to 108 pages in just 5 days and has more than 50k views! Apparently there's a whole group of pathetic crazy obsessed freak like me out there. Phew, what a relief! -lol- *maybe the hindi word 'pagal he' is more appropriate*

So, I did my research. I have set what kind of model, color and storage capacity that I wanted to buy. 

Last time Apple only gave fans 6 options to choose from. Now the number of choices have doubled with the introduction of white colored border. Talk about spoiled for choice. Black vs White. The dark side or the light side. The hip or the serious.

Then there's the option of which capacity to choose from. 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. For each model it's RM300 difference, which is quite a considerable amount. You could go for that lower capacity and have extra dosh for a funky ipad2 casing. However, the inner geek in me tells me to choose function over fashion.

And finally, choosing between a Wi-Fi or 3G model. For me this is a no-brainer.

Now the real question is what time should i go and make a bee line to the store? I don't know how long I'll be  in the queue. What should I bring? A jacket? A thermos filled with coffee/tea? Some food? A book? Fortunately it's launched on Friday, where people are at work, schools and some have exams! So I estimate the crowd would be less, but you'll never know, maybe it won't.

I really do hope they got tons of stocks and enough for everyone that day. I've seen pictures of the carton boxes in the stock holding room, but after doing a quick math and dividing it with all the different ipad types, it's actually not that many. Only 1/12th of the box contains the model I wanted. Like, hey, in US pun you have to wait 1-2 weeks if ordered online. ugh...

* I don't know why i'm so obsessed with this. If I was still working at M0t0 i don't think I would even look at an ipad. No, I will look, but I won't have the slightest desire to own one. Maybe it's because back then I already have a portable computer given. Or maybe because it's a competitor gadget?

OK what ever... now less than 24 hours to go! Friday is becoming a favorite song for ipad2 fans. Now Rebecca Black has the last laugh, how ironic.

It’s Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward Friday, Friday
Friday, Friday
Gettin’ down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward for the Ipad2

Avatar

The Internet social network (again?) has allowed people to own numerous profiles on the web. Some people keep it simple and consistent across the web and some people have many 'colorful' profiles from one site to the other. This could only mean one of two things, either each separate profile is a reflection of themselves from different sides of their decagonial dice (I wanted to say- different sides of the same coin, but a coin only has two sides) or they have a multiple personality disorder.

For me, my blog, which has it's own profile, is like an extension of myself, particularly of my thoughts, but I wouldn't say it's my personality. Or maybe it is. OK, so now I'm confused. I'll settle for it being a 'window' like how the eyes are the windows to the soul. But it makes me wonder how could that be? If someone have a bad soul, how would the eyes looks like? Is there a detailed manual guide for this? Maybe I need to make more eye contact. I better stop here before I chat away about contact lenses.

Have you had that awkward feeling when you introduce yourself by referring to the blog you're writing in? For example:

"Hi, I'm Dyanna from 'As Told By Dyanna'".

I did once and it felt, like I said, awkward. And now after my blog's name has changed, I think it'll be a mouthful to say it out loud and without getting my tongue twisted at the end of the sentence :D

I was wondering if anyone out there who is reading this blog that I have not met yet would recognize me if I were to pass you by and walked over to me and said "Hi.". Or maybe I should ask myself whether if I would walk up to you and said "Hi, I'm Dyanna from 'As Told by Dyanna' and I'm one of your blog reader. Nice to meet you in person. Now I'm happy to know you're an actual person and not a robot." That would be a weird thing to say, but you can bet your cats that I'm going to say it or at least slip the word 'robot' somewhere in between the conversation.

There she goes rambling about FB again

This post is a rant. I just had to type it out of my system.

Facebook irks me sometimes. Actually, it's not the system, but the people on it. This particular incident annoys me the most today. A smarty-pants called me an "anti-social =)" just because I asked him why he sent me a friend request. yes, the smiley was included.

What actually ticked me off was that tilted smiley. It's like being rude to people while having a friendly smile on your face. So I told him off. And yes, I got another annoying reply. I wanted to post this picture back, but I don't want to fight fire with fire. Better not prolong any virtual bickering that leads to nowhere.

 

If there's rude people driving on the road, there's bound to be more rude people on the internet. I found one today. Or maybe that one FOUND me, actually.

I guess there should be some kind of common courtesy which people should adhere to when logged on social networks. Like, when you add someone you think doesn't know you, include a message introducing who you are. Or if you adding an old long-lost friend, please say "Hi! How have you been?". You don't add people and later ignore them.It defeats the purpose of adding friends in the first place, isn't it? And hiding behind a 24-inch LED monitor doesn't give you the right to be rude and think you're so awesome than others!

Oh, come on! Who am I kidding here?! We are not living in Jane Austen's age where people act all prim and proper. Or speak in bangsawan language. There will be more strangers requesting to be friends in the future. Some are rude, some are aren't, and some just want to sell things. Like the catchphrase from the movie The Social Network -" You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."

So, now tell me, have you seen that movie and did it changed your perspective towards FB? It did win 4 Golden Globe awards for Best Score, Best Screenplay, Best Director & Best Picture, Drama.

I know a friend who deleted his account right after watching the movie. I do think that FB can be too revealing sometimes. I still have issues with it's privacy policy in the past. It did get people into some kind of trouble when people can view all your profile and pictures. But I think that's not the fault of FB, the problem is the people on FB itself (again!) who tends to share TMI (Too Much Information) on that site.

Sharing TMI on FB, I think, is a psychological problem (of the user) because we normally don't share our deepest thoughts or irrational ramblings with EVERYONE in real life. But we do on FB. I guess it's because when we are in front of the computer, we tend to have tunnel vision and block our surroundings. This makes us feel like being in a room alone and you start to write down private thoughts (like writing in a diary). But then there's the subconcious that reminds you that you're still connected with the rest of the world virtually, so you make the statement ambiguous and indirect (a mashed up version of freaky private-social realm). This creates another effect called 'fishing', where you type a very ambiguous hanging status like fishing for empathy or attention. And when someone asks 'Why are you so?" (because they're concerned), and then they'll say "Nothing" or "Secret". And the Ping-pong comments ensues and I'll start pulling my hair when I see this kind of game (I can't help not reading it because it's on the News Wall).

And then there are some users who posts pictures on FB like there's no tomorrow. Do you really need to post all that 84 pictures in one album? have you ever heard of choosing selectively? It does boggle my mind when someone post pictures of the same thing more than twice in the same album. No, it's not a mistake, they're just lazy to sift through all pictures during the trigger happy moments and decided "Oh, what the heck, I'll post them all! Hahaha ! "

One of these days, I'll have them remove from my friend's list.
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If you have reached this line here, thank you for reading.

OHAI !!!

Dalam seminggu-dua kebelakangan ini saya kerap mengubah-suai rupa blog ini. Saya inginkan sesuatu yang ringkas, tetapi memiliki fokus. Pada mulanya saya ingin bertukar konsep terus kepada blog yang mempamerkan gambar sahaja, dan mengurankan perbualan dengan diri sendiri. Tetapi selepas dikaji semula, mungkin ianya tak melambangkan personaliti diri saya, dan juga kalau saya malas mengambil gambar, macam mana? Jadi hasilnya, ini. Saya dah susun mengikut logik yang saya rasa masuk akal.

Kenapa rencana kali ini ditulis dalam BM? Sahaja, lama dah tak menulis dalam bahasa ibunda. Sebenarnya Bahasa Melayu (sekarang Malaysia) adalah satu bahasa yang cantik. Itupun kalau pandai memilih perkataan yang sesuai dan bijak merangkainya untuk membentuk ayat yang bermaksud.

Bahasa jiwa bangsa. Pernah tak anda melihat cerita melayu zaman 50-60an dan merasakan bahawa bahasa yang mereka gunakan tersusun rapi dan berlapik? Dan betapa indahnya bait-bait lagu yang dinyanyikan pada zaman tersebut? Tak setanding dengan cara kita berbicara sekarang kan? Mungkin sebab itu jugalah lagu Tolong Ingatkan Aku menang AJL25 tempoh hari (nak selit juga cerita tu di sini).

Saya akui saya jarang menulis dalam BM kerana saya takut saya akan mencincang dan merojakkan bahasa saya. Sejujurnya, saya sakit mata bila membaca blog-blog yang merosakkan perkataan (tak kira BM atau BI, kecuali bahasa Cheezburger). Contohnya, Itu = itew, Sayang = sayunk, Actually = ekceli. Hmm.. mungkin saya dah ketinggalan dengan perkembangan 'trend' masa kini.

Tak mengapa, anda tulislah dengan gaya masing-masing, asalkan mesej yang ingin disampaikan dapat difahami oleh pembaca blog anda.

(Totally unrelated picture)

I had questions and was searching high and low for answers. I also went through pages of GOOOOGLE search terms, only to find that the answer lies in front of you. You just need to sit down, read and make some notes.

Gifts giving season

'Tis is the season of giving gifts. For Christians it's for Christmas and for the rest of the M'sians it's the wedding season.

I think giving things to children are the easiest. You could buy them a box of crayons or packet of jelly shaped like hamburgers and they'll have fun bouncing off the walls all day long (due to sugar rush). But for adults, there's so many things to consider.

Speaking of gift giving, I honestly suck at it. I once gave a dear friend a pair of salt and pepper bottles shaped like puppies for their wedding. Come on, who uses salt and pepper shakers here in Msia? Luckily for me, she loved dogs.

Being a practical person, of course you would want to give others something that's very useful and practical. You also don't want to look like a cheapskate in the eyes of the receiver, but at the same time you also don't want to break your bank account.

At weddings, I try not to give kitchen appliances and utensils because these are the things most people will give. I've seen 3 rice cookers of the same brand and model at a wedding. And really, does a newlywed couple need 2 dozens of plates and glasses? idk.

I also try to avoid electronic items. Giving electronic gadgets like an electronic photo frame, or and iPad (wow, ade ke org nk bagi?) would sound like a good idea, but it'll only sound great just for a few moment in time until the a newer model comes out which are more energy efficient, has more applications built-in, lighter in weight, and cheaper than before. In simple plain language, electronic tech gadgets easily becomes out of date by the end of the year. By the couple's 5th wedding anniversary, the gift would have been chucked into the store room and forgotten forever.

The most straight forward thing to give is money, but does shows that you're lazy to think about anything. But who would complain about receiving money nowadays kan?

We all heard about the saying, "It's the thoughts that counts". Sometimes, I actually think that it's just an excuse created by crappy gift givers to make them feel better (i'm saying 'sometimes'). We should also look at the circumstances of the gift givers. It might be that the only thing that the person could afford is the crappy ones, then the thoughts really does count.

There are of course other things that makes good and useful gifts such as:-

• Lamps of all sorts (floor/table/study/wall/etc)
• Clocks (wall/wrist watch/digital/analogue/ones that goes cuckoo)
• Books (related to field of interests - cooking/decorating/travelling/etc)
• Wall decorations (paintings/ayat2 Quran/picture frames)

Well, this entry actually doesn't give any conclusions as to what is the best gift to give. I just sharing some experiences and thoughts about giving gifts. 

Happy holidays everyone.

Trouble Sleeping

I went to bed early last night. 12am (normally it would be 130am) with hopes that I would get an early start in the morning. However, I suddenly woke up at 1.15am and wasn't able to go back to sleep until close to 4am. I'm not particularly sure what woke me up, whether it was the dull pain in my left knee that's been nagging since last week, or the temperature (I didn't turn on the fan), or an itching itch or the sudden hunger pang I felt in my tummy, or because of the bad dream that I vaguely remembered.

I have sleeping problems, I don't mind staying up and doing some work but the thing is I still need my 6 hours of rest. And when I start my day late my productivity level is very low and I'm not able to get much done. I think one of the reason is I can't make my brain to stop thinking. It's always 'noisy' up there. Maybe I worry too much. I used to be sleepless when I had engineering issues to solve at work, thinking and coming up with a number of ways to find a solution. I can't sleep when I'm at a new place. I also can't sleep when I anticipate to do something exciting the next day, like going to a place or just trying a new experiment. It doesn't really help if I need to wake up early for the long journey because I'll suddenly wake up thinking "OMG, I'm late!!" and later realised it's just 3am. It gets worse when I'm down with fever because my thoughts will become even more morbid. Let's just not go there.

Here's what I have done...

• cut caffeine intake after 6pm. I know this is not a problem because last time I can go to sleep even after taking espresso shots. But I'll avoid them just in case.
• try to avoid taking short naps during the day.
• immediately go to bed when I feel sleepy and not try to fight to stay up.
• closing the window & shut the drapes to make the room quiet and dark.

Here's what I plan to do...

• start working out again to drain the energy so I'll be tired and be able to fall asleep quickly. But I'm concerned about my knee being 'busted'. I think that Drs at the clinic don't know what they're doing because it's still not fixed.
• 'flush' the noises out from my head. hard to focus on this... worked for 5 minutes and then started  'buzZing' again.
• I'll set up a bed lamp and read something really dull (like a technical book) and hopefully it'll be boring enough to make me fall asleep.

So last night, I got bored between the tossing and the turning, so I listened to a couple of Queen songs (I Want to Break Free & Love of My Life), then watched the last 20 minutes of Becoming Jane on my phone, checked into FB and Twitter (again from the phone, avoiding turning on the computer to make matters worse), went to the kitchen for a glass of water, turned on the radio and there was Kris Dayanti's Mencintai mu playing, read old journal entries and finally wrote down something until I felt sleepy again. That was the last thing I did before succeeded in dozing off.

I think writing works for me. I don't think I'm much of a writer myself, but it has always been the best way for me to express myself. Which explains a lot about me having a blog and updating it frequently and mostly talking about stuffs and myself. I do try to keep this blog as anonymous as it can be, because I don't want to get into trouble with things that I might have said (unintentionally or intentionally).

OK, enough with the critical analysis... I'm only trying to get this off my chest so that I can sleep better at night. Now it's 5pm and I'm going down to the gym and work my insomnia out of my body system. Oh, I hope having a cup of jasmine tea won't spoil anything later.

or maybe there's a lolcat that's been stealing my zzzz...

Now, tell me what do you do when you have trouble sleeping?

Disconnect to Connect

Do you like oxymorons?     I DO!
It's the innuendo of the English language. So cleverly arranged in a sentence that when the first time you hear it, it makes sense and when you think about it, you'll go "Hey, wait a minute!". It never fails to amuse me.

There is a website dedicated to cleverly crafted oxymora (plural of oxymoron; oxymorons is also accepted ~ according to Wikipedia at least) that you just got to go see.. it's terribly good (pun intended).

[image from Gizmodo]

As amusing it could be in literature, having it in real life is called paradox. Have you ever thought about the paradoxial social networking is?To connect, you need to disconnect.

As we thread our days living in the era of social networking, we are slowly detaching ourself from 'actual' socialising activities? We stopped talking to our neighbours who lives just next door, but we chat non-stop with people hundreds of miles away through social network. We kept quiet during meetings, but we criticised incessantly about how dull or indecisive the meeting was on virtual walls. We are sooo much connected that we allow work stuff to creep into our mobile email boxes even after work and during holidays just to be 'on top of the game'.

We wanted to be connected with the other side of the world so much that we've forgotten that there's actually one in front of us. We rather look at back-lighted devices for updates rather than look into the eyes of loved ones and have meaningful conversations. Sadly, this is the irony of 'being connected with the outside world', we have to be disconnected from everything that's happening around us.

Hear this song. It has this kind of continuous looping music that just can't escape from your brain.

Rogue Waves - Eyes

TURN the TV on kid

Some of you may have come across this antique television set in their young life before. I remember a tv set like this on my great-grandmother's (Mokmek) house.

Kids, this was the grand-father of TV. It only shows images in black and white, it has this V-shaped antenna on top of it. There is no remote control so if you wanted to turn it on or change the channel, you'd actually have to WALK up to the tv set and turn the knobs. Yes, you have to actually touch the tv and TURN the circular knob (that's where the statement 'Turn the TV on' came from). To adjust the volume, there's a slide to control the loudness coming from the speaker. There were no buttons to push (gasp!).

Some even comes in nice housing. You don't even have to buy an extra furniture (read: tv cabinet) to compliment it. My Mokmek's tv had this folding covers where you can slide it to the side if you wanted to watch TV and slide it back to close it, so it'll look like another cupboard furniture in the house. Very stealthy, right?

I don't know what kind of shows people watch back in the 60-70's, but I know it's not Glee or Dexter. I think there's only 1 or 2 channel available. Compared to now, we have hundreds of channels and thousands of shows, but sometimes there's nothing to watch on TV :( especially on Friday nights.

Anyway, I brought this topic up because last night I dreamt of this tv (weird kan?), and to top it off it, when I turned it on was working and was showing the current tv shows on the screen, like, how cool was that?! IMMD.

(ps: can my dreams get any geekier?)

For the mean time while we wait for Eid-ul Adha post, let's take a poll:

create free polls | comment on this

OM NOM NOM NOM.! (or just simply 'Gastro-tales')

When I was in Copenhagen, my meals were paid for by the company.  So eating was not a problem. Halal food was quite easy to find and if there is none, seafood are a plenty and I can eat at any fancy restaurants I wanted because (again) it's all paid for. So my colleague and I went on an eating spree in town everyday after work.

One thing that we notice is that the food portion here is twice the size of Malaysian portion. As we all like to say it - 'Portion Mat Saleh'. (Tapi diorang pun tak habis makan gak aku tengok.) Most of the time we could not finish the food on our plates and in the end felt guilty about leaving leftovers behind. So we tried our very best to try to finish  up our plates before we up and leave.

A Scandanavian meal consists of a few types of fishes and bread

One time, while I was finishing my meal, my friend-colleague commented, "Dyanna, you surely can eat a lot! You are not like other girls that I know who eats very little." And at that point I don't know what to say. I know what he said was true because I realised that in many occasions I had finished food on the plate more times than he did. I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or a criticism?

I guess there is a reason for it.

Eating is a favorite past-time for Malaysians. Those who are blessed with good health are fortunate enough to indulge in all their likings, but we must be wise and not to over indulge too much that it may bring harm in the near future.

This is one of my many weakness. When I like something, I'd binge on it if I have the chance. Desserts especially.

Mmm-mmm... nomnomnom

When I was growing up, I remember the excitement of balik kampung because my mom, aunts and my grandma will go all out making feasts for the big family gathering- ayam percik, mee rojak, nasi dagang, nasi kerabu, laksam, etc. They were and still are the best food in the world. Eating was fun when there's a lot of cousins and family around. Comments like, "Bagus, makan banyak2." (Good, eat more.), is normally heard because I was a scrawny kid back then. Some even suggested me to take multivitamins from my doctor cousin to put some meat into these bones of mine, but I didn't. and was fortunate because the others who took those vits now have excess meat on their bones..

Om nom nom!

Boarding school and college didn't curbed my appetite. Now I get to know more food that's totally different from my native palate, those that came from South, West, Mid West of Malaysia. The hunger pang that comes during night study sessions open doors for late night suppers. Now I'm eating 6 times a day! Having a competition with mates on who could eat more was a fun filling (pun intended) activity.

Nom! Nom! NOM!

Going to university, changed my normal feeding schedule 180 degrees. I had to cook for myself. Having no past experience as how to even cook rice was not helping at all. Eating out was not an option because nothing was cheap except for raw chicken. So I was forced to cook and feed myself. But by the time I graduate, I'm proud to say I can whip almost anything on the kitchen stove (as long as there is recipes on the Internet). So ladies or mums who are worried sick because you or your daughter can't cook, just try sending yourself or your daughter to a place where she is forced to cook, then she'll come back with the confidence of Jamie Oliver. Believe me, everybody can cook.

Om om nom nom

So back to Uni time. I'd have a light breakfast or none at all. Then have a sandwich or fruits for lunch. Heavy food comes later during dinner. I'll have a chocolate bar or crisps in between meals if I'm hungry.

But when there's a makan-makan session like Hari Raya, Jamuan bersama Menteri, etc (This is something that every hungry undergrad students looks forward to), where postgrad families have cook-off (figuratively speaking), I'd definitely start filling up until it hurts to walk.

nom..nom..nom

When I started working I'm back on a normal eating schedule thanks to the good people of Mot that sponsored most of our meals, free breakfast, free rice and cheap lunch in the cafeteria (can you believe a hot place costs only RM2.80??! At Jusco it's RM4.80!!), free tea break and sometimes (5-6 times a year) you'll be treated lunch or dinner at hotels or fancy restaurants as a token of appreciation. And this is where the kiasu part comes in...

We've been pushed to the extremes at work, working over time and all, so this is the best opportunity for pay back time! You have to eat as much as you can to squeeze out all that 'appreciation' from the ones who are paying for your food (i.e boss/company). If you don't eat or eat little you'll lose and the company wins. And also eating with guys will make you eat more competitively. The point is, you'll eat until your stomach hurts.

OM NOM NOM NOM!!!111!!

So that was my full length explanation about my gastro-adventures and the expandability of it's capacity. After all this talk about food, I think I should start exercising.

A compliment or criticism? Meh.