Cheat Work Thursday

Last year, once again, I didn't manage to send my baju raya to the tailor. I mean, why on earth do we go to the tailor five months before raya? Who would've remembered to do that? Plus, at about the same time, I was rethinking this habit of spending too much money on kebaya. Then when I tried to look for a ready-made kebaya, I realized, "God. This is hard. I should have got it tailor-made. Next year in January, I'm going to take a day off just to get this done. Just me and my baju raya." Well, January was eight months ago... I'm getting raya things this Tuesday: - Baju (a social obligation), kuih and duit raya. - Pecan pie recipe and ingredients. I hope my mother's oven, last used probably in 2006, is still working. I had a buffet lunch with a friend before puasa and really loved the pecan pie they served. I went to get the pie twice and was just a little 🤏🏼 embarrassed when I realized the staff was staring at me scooping the pie like nobody...

I've been looking for the story's comic version for a while now. I read it when I was probably 10 and loved it so much. I think the one that I read was a translated-to-Malay version. I tried to look for it online but only found the illustrated version ie the actual book accompanied by some illustrations. I asked my nieces to look for it in their school's library, but they said they'd never heard of it. The judge-y look I gave these kids. This is the book version:

"Mortals, you are so about to fulfill my every demand." *waves magic wand*

I've been doing a lot of cooking these past few months — partly to eat healthily. A pinch less MSG, oil, salt and sugar, and an extra cup of fresh-or-not-overcooked vegetables a day adds up to a lot in a year, right? I still go to, for example, McDonald's, of course. I hate myself a little each time I eagerly grab take the pancake bag, but the drive-thru is so convenient. And the pancakes are so yummy. And I love McDonald's coffee. Two days before puasa, I went grocery shopping, feeling ambitious, thinking maybe I could try to make kurma or chicken curry for a change. I don't know much about cooking, you knew that already, but anyone who can read can also cook — with instant mixes. So I grabbed four or five packets of those kurma, black pepper, sweet & sour etc mixes, and the dishes turned out ok — as per my standard, which is not very high, I suspect. They only take me about 20 minutes in the kitchen. I'd start at 7 and finish just in time for berbuka. And...

My mother made one of these for each of us recently. I will never trade it for anything. (Unless someone's paying me a ridiculous amount of money, then I'm open to negotiation.)

Hi 👋🏼, hope you've been good. I had a nice month -- working, gardening, cooking, reading, drawing, playing with numbers, spending time with family, seeing friends more, organizing (and reorganizing) things, volunteering , deep-thinking . Even went swimming for a grand total of one time. Here are some of the books +more that have kept me occupied for the past month: Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell The book is an eyewitness account by Marcus Luttrell, the only survivor of Operation Red Wing in Afghanist*n, which killed three US Navy SEALs and, later, the entire rescue team. It took me a lot of pages before I could tolerate the book, mainly because I was thinking, "Right... a book by a proud SEAL..." And it feels like the tone does somewhat carry throughout the book. Luttrell also has some funny comments about the liberals. Go read them. But the part where he describes how his best friends died was also a difficult read. He survived the battle and was later ...

For motivation, industry updates, and exercising my brain etc, I take short-term courses or day classes from time to time. So I take a few Communication classes at Company A. You know sometimes you meet a person who loves to tell dirty jokes, none of which are funny, every 20 seconds? The first class that I took at Company A two years ago was facilitated by, let's call him, Shouldn't Teach. Within the first 10 minutes I was in the class, I knew it was going to be a looooong one, and I hate that because I've always believed that if you want to get the knowledge right, you also have to like the teacher (and have a friend who writes the notes correctly, but that's not the point of this post). Recently, I took another class with Company A and... great... Shouldn't Teach was the facilitator. Here we go again, another round of dirty-jokes-are-so-funny-to-him. Then, during one of the sessions, he spoke about the seven chakras. (Trust me, we were still in a Business...

Sometimes I wonder how other people, probably my age, in other parts of the world live . I was camping in front of the TV last Saturday, doing some work, accompanied by songs from MTV and YouTube, from which I found a lot of great old live performance videos and songs, including this version of Cat Stevens' Wild World. It's hard to believe that the song was recorded in 1970. It doesn't really sound like an old song in this live acoustic. The lyrics sometimes make me stop and ask, wait, what does he mean by that, but the song kind of tugs at your heartstrings a little too. (Never thought that I'd like any version of Wild World before.) Now it makes me wonder, how my life would be like if I were a 20 or 30-something in 1971? (I even made what I imagined was a '70s Polyvore.) (While I was supposed to do some work .) Speaking of the '70s, although I haven't watched Lost season 6 yet, I think the ending scene is very sad. Image: "'70s...

Travelling to me is like _____ to some people. Now you know my secret. It keeps my sanity. This is where I'm supposed to refrain from whining about not being able to travel for two years, right? Because there are much bigger problems in the world than that -- starvation, illiteracy, poverty, global warming, and, for God's sake, the whole of Gaza being blockaded, and also dry, frizzy hair? When this is over, I'm going to travel for a year! Image: Flickr, Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes , Melbourne, AU that I didn't visit.