“Wild Geese”, by Mary Oliver

Posted on August 25, 2009 by PpFt

rain

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Posted in Guest Blogging, Random Stuff | 2 Comments

i know it’s very geli*

Posted on August 11, 2009 by gee

but I can’t help but love this song. And I think he’s so hott.

Wang Lee Hom’s “Everything”:

*by the by, does anybody know the Engrish equivalent of geli? Not the literal sense of ‘ticklish’… Would ‘squeamish’ be even close?

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your engrish, it’s very brokeded

Posted on August 9, 2009 by gee

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Late Friday night / early Saturday I was driving a lonely stretch of the highway from Subang when the radio came on with a PSA for the upcoming Merdeka celebrations. The voice was explaining the significance of our flag, the Jalur Gemilang. Much to my absolute horror he kept saying shit like “Did you know the fourteen red and white stripes in our flag resemble…” and “The star and crescent resemble…”

Dear Copy Writer at Radio Station That I Cannot Remember Its Name:

resemble – v. have a similar appearance to or features in common with.

So… I do not think the stripes on our flag have a similar appearance to any of our 14 states nor does Islam looks particularly crescent-shaped today.. but a croissant does.

I think you were looking to use this word:

represent – v. 1 be entitled or appointed to act and speak for. 2 be an elected member of a legislature for. 3 constitute; amount to. 4 be a specimen or example of; typify. 5 (be represented) be present to a particular degree. 6 portray in a particular way. 7 depict in a work of art. 8 signify, symbolize, or embody.

I wish I could find an audio file of this PSA to traumatise you all with, but no joy so far. I’ll try to remember what station it was on next time. If only my phone can record sound…

In the meantime, let’s all pretend our English is very the good one.

ADDENDUM:

My brother and I had a very short conversation earlier this evening about his 3G internet access, and the Malay term for “broadband” was brought up. He rightly pointed out that “jalur lebar” is a terrible translation. Did someone in Dewan Bahasa not bother looking up the different meanings for “band”? Do they need to be shown how to use a dictionary ah?

How to have advancement in science and maths when the language it will be taught in is not properly equipped to convey the most accurate meanings for technical and scientific terms?

Posted in On Being Malaysian, The Eeenglish Police | 1 Comment

Happy Birthday Gillian

Posted on August 9, 2009 by gee

gillian_dollshouse

Whateverlah.com wishes Gillian Anderson, who just gets better as the years go by, an awesome 41st birthday.

Posted in Music, Movies, TV and Books | Leave a comment

quoting without regard to context

Posted on August 4, 2009 by gee

“…it’s like putting 40DDD boobs on a size 6 body.”

Posted in Everyday Things | Leave a comment

I gotta feelin’ like the Black Eyed Peas

Posted on August 4, 2009 by gee

This songs makes me want to dance like no one’s watching. It’s not quite replacing American Boy as my summer song but close. Very close. Much closer than Love, Sex, Magic.

Posted in Music, Movies, TV and Books | 1 Comment

too soon

Posted on July 26, 2009 by gee

Me: I don’t think Yasmin Ahmad would like it much that they’re calling her “the director”…

Because, please if you don’t mind, she is so much more than a director. I aspire to her levels of living a life brimmed with joie de vivre and an unswerving faith in god, this world, and being Malaysian.

Yasmin Ahmad was buried early this afternoon. The Malaysian Insider has a report from the funeral.

The Star has been posting tributes to the story teller sent in from around the world.

The New Straits Time carries the obituary.

In the final entry of her blog, published just four days ago, Yasmin posted a piece by Puccini from his Turandot which she was hoping to use in her latest project, “Wasurenagusa”. It’s rather ironic then, to learn that Puccini died before he could complete Turandot. I don’t have a point, I’m just moping..

Ending this with an interview she gave on July 21st, 2009:

Posted in Music, Movies, TV and Books, On Being Malaysian | Leave a comment

Stop all the clocks

Posted on July 26, 2009 by gee

There are no words to describe the loss this country has suffered in the passing of Yasmin Ahmad, a film maker, the story teller, a hopeless romantic, a one true Malaysian.

We miss you already.

…

Posted in Everyday Things, On Being Malaysian | Leave a comment

Ummm

Posted on July 23, 2009 by gee

smarchcosmo

Happy birthday to Stephanie March. May you be showered with plenty of tequila today. Hopefully, literally; and hopefully with photographic proof. One can hope.

And, um, also happy birthday to the Prime Minister.

And, and.. happy 19th birthday to Dan Radcliffe, who gets better looking with every HP movie.

Posted in Everyday Things, Music, Movies, TV and Books, Stephanie March | 3 Comments

Half Blood Prince and half awake me

Posted on July 20, 2009 by gee

Let’s start off with a quote from instant messaging…

me:
I have a crush on Movie Harry Potter
so cute!

PpFt:
ah, *now* you have a crush on Movie Harry Potter

me:
well yea..
i dont do underage okay

I’m going to preface this little rambling by saying that I need to watch the movie a second time to really see where I stand.

[SPOILER WARNING]

For now, there are hits and misses but overall the movie was enjoyable if rather clunky for whatever reason.

Biggest hits:

- the three main stars are getting so much better in their roles. I genuinely enjoyed the comedy and the interplay this time rather than rolling my eyes at contrived efforts in the other movies before.

- randomly, everything will come together and a scene would be so perfect that I have no words for it. These scenes make me glow with warmth inside. The Quidditch scenes in HBP does this for me.

- Dan Radcliffe in the Felix Felicis scenes – GOLD!

Biggest misses:

- uh.. talk about dialing in your performances. They might as well have CGI’ed Robbie Coltrane into this one for all the acting he did.

- the WTF scene of Bellatrix attacking the burrows. Someone explain the point of this and maybe I won’t be so unhappy about it. And believe me, I am plenty unhappy about this and the camera work is but only one reason.

-my biggest, and i mean HUGEST sore point about this movie is Draco and the vanishing cabinet. I really wish I could find someone who’s never read the book but has only seen the movies and ask them what they thought was the point of him working so hard on the frakkin cupboard for. To smuggle Bellatrix and the two unnamed death eaters in and…. witness his almost-killing of Dumbledore?? WTF? My friend who accompanied me to watch the movie suggested that they cut the entire Hogwarts battle out of the movie because it would be too similar to the one in Book 7. Okay, fair. But in doing so they’ve made Draco’s scenes – being all emo in the Room of Requirement – POINTLESS. And that really chaps my ass. *deep breaths*

- I’m going to say it might be because I’m tired but I felt that visually the movie wasn’t as cohesive. I felt like I was in different worlds even while in Hogwarts the whole time. Even the muggle world was whacked. Loved the opening to Order of the Phoenix way better.

Random appreciation:

- Rupert Grint is just gold throughout.

- PpFt pointed out that the Lav-Won-Won in the movie is not as geli as the book. Agreed.

- McGonagall and the Weasley Twins – always awesome and needed more screen time.

Posted in Music, Movies, TV and Books | 4 Comments

Laksa Croquette

Posted on July 20, 2009 by gee

File this one under things that looks interesting but will never attempt at home:

… because it’s much too much effort.

The laksa croquette is a menu item from 7atenine, a fancy pants place at the Ascott in KL. The menu actually doesn’t look half bad.

My foodie friends, when will you all return so I can go feast there with people I enjoy nomming with?

Posted in noms, On Being Malaysian | 5 Comments

science love

Posted on July 16, 2009 by gee

So muck geek love coming out of Twitter today that I’m not going to bother to fit it all under 140 characters.

First of all, Stephen Fry tweeted:

Wheee!My alltime hero Richard Feynman.The legendary BBCCornell Lectures.God bless Bill Gates(never thought I’d say that!) http://is.gd/1zXuv

Note: the link probably doesn’t work too well, or maybe it’s just my crap internet. Basically, it’s a link to the videos of Feynman’s lectures (7 hours worth) done at Cornell is now available thanks to Bill Gates. (Hint: go youtube these videos if the Microsoft link doesn’t work for you)

The point is.. Fry loves Feynman. I Love Fry and Feynman. <3 <3 <3

And then..

Go behind the scenes of TEDTalk with a mini documentary. Squeeeee!!!!

Posted in Geek Stuff | Leave a comment

It’s July already

Posted on July 9, 2009 by gee

Time for a repost, from last year:

A month to Kuwait. Packing? What’s that?

Posted in Everyday Things | Leave a comment

awesome on this side, me on the other

Posted on July 7, 2009 by gee

**for PpFt because I neglected Tweet In BM Day on Twitter.

Semalam semasa makan tengahari terlihat saya seorang lelaki yang amat tampan sekali duduk di meja sebelah. Apalagi, mencuri-curi tengok sajalah. Apa nak buat? Mak ada.

Ketika tengah-tengah berlakon ‘cool’ saya bangun untuk membasuh tangan tapi belum selangkah saja sudah hampir jatuh.. terpeleot. “Oh mak engkau!” aku berteriak di dalam hati. (But more accurately it was more like “FUCK!”)

Jejakaku senyum. No doubt, at my dweebness. Mampussss….

…

There. Had a good laugh yet?

Posted in Everyday Things, On Being Malaysian | Leave a comment

quoting without context

Posted on July 7, 2009 by gee

“They can use their gay marriage money to pay for their chicken issues.”

Posted in Everyday Things | 1 Comment