Cheat Work Thursday

I wish the stock market had no impact on my life or my job. And the f-up thing is I’m actually too poor to concern myself with the stock market. Besides my sad retirement funds, I don’t own any actual stocks. It takes me one full day to decide if I can afford a $2 SHEIN necklace! But whatever’s happening there is affecting my job and subsequently my mental health. For example, this year, it involves a body of water. There won't be enough pages to talk about the atrocities the zionists and their friends are committing in the Middle East, but I want to zero in on one area Iran is defending itself right now: the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which disrupts 20% of the global oil supply. Despite one brilliant idea on Twitter to dig another strait across the UAE desert to transport oil — and I'm sure someone is already on it — I can’t go through another round of this. I know, what is a job that has long lost its appeal compared to living under the occupation for decad...

Are you a mother? Yes? Good. If you are not, also good, but pretend that you are a mother for a second. How would you react if one day your grown son came home after being away for a long time, beaming with news: "Mom, I found them. I found my parents. I found my people ." I would send him straight to the doctor. OMG I know I shouldn't be let to watch superhero movies. I don't understand what's going on in Man of Steel. I watched it because of Henry Cavill the reviews. One review says something like 'Man of Steel is the future of superhero movies'. I don't get it. It blows something up every other minute, and it ne-ver ends! And because I'm a grown woman and still love perfect hearing, I close my ears half of the movie. I was hoping this new Superman movie got revamped just like how the new Bond movies did. To be fair, there was one thing that got revamped -- Superman is no longer wearing his underwear outside. And Amy Adams, lo...

Photo by Mario Calvo on Unsplash The news channel. I was home early this afternoon, sat on my towel and carpet to exercise, switched the TV on, and since then have been spending probably about 12 hours now tuning in to the news. You know what's on it in the past 20 hours. And, sigh, CNN news channel -- need them, hate them. You know basically how they report: put on a serious, concerned face as if they are about to relay something really mind-blowing and exclusive, frown or scream for effect... only to ask questions almost as good as the rhetorical ones, repeat what they have been saying for the past three hours (that they can still see a helicopter hovering in the air and hear the sound of dogs barking) and offer about 739 assumptions. "Things are dramatically unfolding here. We don't know yet if the dogs are hungry or just bored, but sources are telling us -- and we're using the term 'sources' quite loosely here -- that they are bored. Stay tune...

I love this book because it comes with pictures, its font is huge, and it has flow . It provides me with some pieces of the event that I missed before. Even if you don't like flow or pictures, you'll love the huge fonts. A few points from the book: - It starts with how the plot was conceived and developed. Apparently, one of the meetings had by the hijackers was held in KL and didn't go unnoticed. According to the book, they were even photographed by the Malaysian intelligence. Ha. Just like Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots backwards. - Also surprising, this group known as the Hamburg cell was formed in Hamburg, Germany (you thought they'd only hold their summit somewhere closer to their backyard), and they were able to live and meet in the open because the German government was reluctant to target radical mosques, fearing accusations of religious persecution due to its Nazi past. - The book continues with the responses following the attack, f...

So I'm not joining the rest of the family in my hometown. I'm nursing my cold, it got better today. Sleeping was a bit of a challenge, though. I woke up at 4 this morning, watched some movie and TV, had some yummy toast, and was in bed again from 7 to 10. I've been camping in front of the TV and logging on to the internet for a few days now. But I've no idea what site to read to keep me sitting still longer than five minutes. I keep switching the laptop on and off. I've kicked off the socks and cardigan today. The surrounding area is quieter than usual, and the weather is pretty nice. And the news, what else do we watch nowadays except the protest in Egypt? So basically I also know that some Fox News journalists were beaten or something, and Anderson Cooper was roughed up but is ok now. I slept in the living room with the TV on. Watching the news on Egypt, and now there are some protests going on in Jordan and Yemen too, I wonder what happened to Iran at t...

Contrary to popular (?) belief, I don't only read Stephenie Meyer's books, I also read the news. I haven't been watching local TV news for ages, though, because I can just scan them online in five minutes. Ok, this isn't really an effective way to keep up, I must say. More than once, I've had to put on my wide-grin-blank expression when clients bring up an obvious current event that I've never heard of. I can go on defending myself more on this, but this is not the point of this post. So, scanning the news, I feel like blogging some thoughts: 1) I can't recall if we had this many movies or TV shows portraying Muslims as terr*rists prior to September 11. It's almost a popular culture. Or do I get this wrong? As September 11 was like nine years ago, I may have forgotten or never really given much care about the issue prior to the date. So each time you hear sh**ting or b*mbing news nowadays, you'll be kind of expecting that two days later an Ara...

I was doing laundry and cleaning my room this afternoon. That was when I found my old photo albums. (Not found like, "Here you are photo albums. I've been looking for you for years." No. They are just on my top shelf. I can see them every day.) And yes, Kodak film was awesome. So, from Kodak film photos -- already ditching my broom at this point -- I moved to the digital ones on my computer. 1) There are photos from my walk alone at night in Vietnam with only a map and a make-believe sense of direction, looking for this particular shopping street. The journey to the said street and asking for directions were equally challenging. I headed back to the hotel via a different but just as confusing route. On the way back, on a very quiet street, a motorcyclist stopped and gestured that he'd give me a lift. Great. In the middle of dark, nowhere. If I remember it correctly, this guy was pretty old and looked harmless. I can believe that he just wanted to help. Don...

A few years ago, I learned that -- referring to work / formal setting here, and especially if you are a Malay -- it's ok not to shake hands with men if you are a woman, vice versa. And the way to do it is to wait for the woman to extend her hand first. (Ok, I do know what the religion says about touching non-muhrim maybe since I was seven, but this is not that kind of post.) Although I don't have a problem extending my hand for a handshake, I love this 'rule' because sometimes I just don't feel like shaking hands. It's therefore a perfect excuse for me. So usually, before extending my hand, I'd take two seconds to assess the situation: mine and the other person's. Occasionally, though, I'd forget about this and happily extend my hand without thinking. This will sometimes create some awkward situations in the room ie when my hand is left hanging. It may not be that big of a deal especially that I understand the religious reason behind it, ...

Between work and trying to make new friends and be skinny by this Friday, I did manage to find some time for my self-mixed-and-obviously-mad-delicious mocha, blanket and my favourite TV shows. (I thought once CSI NY, Desperate Housewives and Lost ended their seasons, I'd be left with nothing to watch and finally get to start working on some... new life projects . It doesn't work that way. TV shows are invented to get you glued all year round.) Big Love S3, Mondays 11PM I love discovering other people's cultures , though, of course, finding it out from a TV series... might not be the best way to do it. Sometimes I'd look back into mine, fascinated with the differences* and similarities and how people (and I myself) think about them. Dirty Sexy Money S2, Tuesdays 10PM Though I love the show, I can understand why it was axed. Some series run their course quicker than others. (CSI did three seasons ago.) Sex and the City S1, Wednesdays 11.30PM / Tuesdays 12AM I...

I spent hours over the long weekend reading about Gaza and trying to figure out why my blog label didn't work while playing Bryan Adams' Summer of '69 hundreds of times. So apparently, some HTML codes were missing from my template, but it's all ok now. I think. I've also been busy digging through the very hilarious startingoverat24's and clevergirlgoesblog's archives. I'll put up my reading list soon. Some time ago, during one of my looong-lunches-to-coffee-to-dinner-LIFE-IS-GOOD-HERE-IN-THE-COFFEE-SHOP-LET'S-NOT-GO-HOME-EVER with a friend, we talked about two people* with something in common expecting two countries to get along while they themselves can't even be in the same room for five minutes. *Might or might not be real people we know / in-laws to each other / one of them is that friend's husband / one of them is that friend's father / one of them is not from here. Referring to other little issues in our own lives, perhaps ...

Especially a few years following the tragic attack, we often heard people start their conversations with "Owh, I was in here or there when it happened," followed by "How it changed my life ... " A local theatre celebrity didn't want to be left out. I read a long account of his experience in an interview, which was unfortunately baffling . (The event was horrific, I just found it hard to connect to his story.) Those were powerful images: the two airplanes crashing into the two towers. Part of the event was viewed live by millions, and the footage has been replayed millions of times around the world. The images of people falling/jumping off the burning towers were equally horrible. God knows how many stories, books, songs, movies and TV shows about September 11 have been written since. I doubt we'll have enough words to describe this inhumane, devastating event. Then the world responds with anti-terrorism measures and various degrees of fear. Never be...