The Real Tragedy

I pray hard that I'd never forget how this picture made me feel. Gerald Brenan ; "The real tragedy of life is that we forget. Happy moments come and go, our friends die, everything in the end is destroyed. But this could be endured if only a purer and sharper reflection were kept. Forgetfulness is the real death, for if there is anything we can save and hoard up, it is our memories. All the substances of our life is in them, so that to cease to recall, and be affected by our past experience, is to suffer a diminishment of our personality."

Small Kind

I've always been respectfully amused by kind gestures made by strangers, people you meet on the street.

Scenario 1 = Yesterday, in Giant, as I waiting in line at the cashier counter, a nice Indian man in front of me ripped off the angpow packets from his Julie's tin biscuit and threw it into my basket, without saying anything.
It took me awhile to realised that he's giving them to ME.
#Thank you, sangat cantik# ---was all I could muster.

Scenario 2 = I was in a boutique were they only sell XS size women wear. I couldn't even pretend to be hopeful so I just sat and the corner while waiting for my sis to look around. I didn't realised that I might have misled some shoppers until....

A cute toddler caught me smiling at him and came up to me and say
"You want?" thrusting his bun (bought from bread story) to me.
I was utterly shocked and amused.
"No, no,no...errr..Thanks"
"You want the other one?" pointing at his brother's bun.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww.................
Then his father came and hastily ushered him away from me.

Lesson to learn= wear nicer clothes and never sit on the floor of a fancy boutique. But then again, if i didn't, i wouldn't have had the luxury of meeting this God-sent angelic boy.... sigh, I won't be able to look at buns from bread story without recalling this incident ever again.

Who's the Fool?

As I was anticipating for another yet boring tutorial, my bored daze was interrupted by this 'made public' conversation of the IN crowd of the class.

M=aiya,F, quickly say something nice to V lar. Nanti he feel sad.
V=Wei! (grinning embarassingly) Enough ah...
F=*confused,but oblingingly cheerful* aiya, we are all classmates wat, when i say hello to you (M) means i'm saying hello to all of you lar.
M=No, V wants the personal greeting.
F=don't tease him lar, kesian him.
*the IN crowd breaks into laughter, accompanied by wolf whistles*

Only then, I realised wat's going on, they're teasing poor blissfully ignorant F.

My opinion of the In crowd had just been reinforced. Upper middle class students, smugly talented,not bad looking, confident, strongly proud and loyal to their herd. They're not mean people. It's just that ... sometimes they fail to differentiate between

• laughing WITH her
• laughing AT her

F may not be the girl you'd nudge your male friend to gaze upon on the streets, but she is the nicest girl i know in the class. On my first day, she was the first person to introduce herself to me. She was the first person to ask me if I wanted to join her group for assignment.

This tasteless scenario reminded me of the movie, Shallow Hal. As I tried to imagine myself with that superpower, I smiled to myself at the new perspective.

Soft Skills

written in a lecture--- Help! 20 mins have passed since this woman has walked into the room and announced in an acutely crude "aunty" voice (which promptly reminded me of the kueh teow th'ng hawker), "im here to teach you soft skills" , yeah, u got it right, SOFT SKILLS...

Although i very much rather read my magazine and live up to my skin color as the passive sort, this woman's voice is far too distracting, thus - the birth of this blog posting.

The following are her mistakes in presentation=(in bracket are my presumed understanding)

• I'm giving you fads from your future employers.(facts)
• You all want to be journalism, right?(journalists)
• I'm going to alleviate your speaking skills.(i seriously have no idea but she has repeated it many times)
• if you cant be journalists, you decided to work in a company...
• if you can be more better than a receptionist. - (i just detest this remark)
• it's padatic (pathetic)

There are more of course but I couldn't continue copying, thus finishing about 3 pages of news from Iran and why the mainland Chinese youths are now very promiscuous.

I looked around and applaud silently for my fellow rakan rakan seperjuangan who have long fallen asleep.

#It's her job today to teach us how to be employable. I seriously believe that she has the absolute RIGHT credentials to be standing here. Because I want to know how she got HER job.

@food for thought-if truly everyone in this world is good in what they do, surely this world would be a much better place, right?

Karma : one fine day, someone will criticise my presentation more brutally.

Spontaneous joy

Spontaneous joy happens WHEN

• you are bored to death with the monotonous tutor who confuses between lectures and tutorials THEN SUDDENLY you spot a ten cent syilling on the floor, a shinning one too.
• your joy of purchasing a Rm10 sunglasses a day ago is abrupted because Two of the screws are missing thus forced to buy another one THEN SUDDENLY you realised that you look much cooler with the new one.
• you are forced to park really far from the actual destination BUT on your way there you spotted Free Sun newspaper which u can take from 7-Eleven.
• you are stuck in a jam but u have the Free Sun newspaper to read!
• your favourite English radio station is playing annoying chinese new year songs but upon switching to another, favourite Eminem is on!
• it's raining cats and dogs but you have already reached home.
• you are dreading to complete the much procrastinated assignment when suddenly your favourite online pal perks you with his antics.
• the stamp vending machine swallowed your money, thus mercilessly destroying your initial excitement of discovering the new stamps , BUT today you receive Two nice mails with the exact same stamps on them.
• you receive an email from an old dependable classmate who is concerned why you're unattached... awww....
• you are wondering why there is nothing to look forward to this week THEN SUDDENLY you receive an sms inviting you to a slumber party this friday.

** ^_^ **

Rory Gilmore

Rory's life is so blardy perfect. She is smart,beautiful,amiable,desired by many eligible guys,has rich and dotting grandparents who never see any flaw in her,cool and amicably separated parents,has a fiercely loyal friend in addition to a spectrum of colorful classmates, studies in pedigree-breeding Chilton,lives in a hip but tradition-adhering town,well-fed due to the fact that mom's best friend is a great chef and local diner owner has a huge crush on mom,able to make coherent and witty sentences in 40mph, becomes a valedictorian and ends up going to Yale. Mana boleh?....

I'll be glued to my tv set same time next week.

Blessed Mistake

ok.. story time, after watching Chronicles of Narnia, i was very interested in getting the soundtrack. then, last sunday's local paper had offered a 15% disc. on the cd frm Rock Corner. and coincidentaly my mom and sis wanted to go to The Curve (shopping complex)that very same Sunday. so i thought, oh! wat good luck!! so, i happily went with them. But, after searching for the disc high and low i couldn't find it in the store, asked the assistant there for help. He was a very cheerful chap and had seemed very confident that he has that cd.

However, after flipping several cds, he asked his superior about it, the words stung my shopping spirit, "Sold the last one aldy!!" sob!! then,,, i walked to Popular bookstore in a nearby shopping mall (with very sad violin song playing in head) then, i thought try my luck lar.. flipped a few cds.. whoila!! two different cds of Chronicles of Narnia,, jeng jeng jeng!!! Nancy Drew thinking cap on.. it turns out that the one introduced by the paper is "Music Inspired BY"... the one i wanted was the soundtrack.so, i happily bought that soundtrack and felt very blessed that the Rock Corner couldn't sell me that cd which i had mistakenly wanted. also, i enjoyed the 10% disc. given by Popular coz i have the membership card.

Popular added my joy of shopping when i spotted that they were selling 'The Harmony Silk Factory" by Tash Aw - the first malaysian writer who won the Whitbread First Novel Award. ok.. end of my long winded story..and we live happily ever after..

Idiot Proof System

i truly enjoy the company of books. sometimes, i even fail to draw the line on being 'reasonable' and being fanatic.at the moment, the 50% of the books in my collection has not been read. and still - i STILL shop for new books.. gosh.. i think i need to join a support group or something.

yday i was surprised that the university library has very much improved since my last visit. i mean, despite having split frm the rest of the faculties, the books do commensurate to the size of the building (at least).
i was very shocked to find -four sisters of hubei -the core- the 8th habit by stephen covey- LOTR -ten thousand sorrows -falling leaves(yes!i can't believe it either) -john gray -wild swans-karim raslan-jasper becker-lee sukim-richard carlson- niencheng-hemingway-rick bragg-bound feet western dress-shanghai baby-gao xingjian-tony parson-pearl s.buck-arundhati roy-asian beauty-tenzin choedrak. i think there is a conspiracy behind the purchase of all these books. i have used up all my loaning priviledges to borrow 3 fiction books!! and they wonder why graduates these days are unemployed. =(

ok story time - last monday i went to mppj library. i saw this old man jotting down notes in a book (wat seems to be a personal one) . wat caught my attention was that he kept looking outside the window after each scribble. i walked over and saw that he had a very huge childlike handwriting - which gives me the impression that he might be very friendly. i now regret not striking a conversation with him. i hope to see him again. this time, i'd surely take my chance.

the mppj library offers its patrons the convenience of renewing their loaned books through the phone. i forgot to bring one of the books i borrowed, so i asked if i could renew the book via face to face. she said no. i thought 'FINE". so, i went outside, took out my hp and dialed the given no. and renewed the book.. and i thought.. ah... such a fool proof system. hahaha