Just Curious

This is an extension of Nani's photo activity. I was curious to see what the seventh photo in my seventh folder was... and believe it or not, we actually have:

That's Ahmad Faiz and myself on a trip to Sarawak. Photo by Kamarul Ariffin Ahmad and Muhamad Lothfi Zamri. Don't ask me why it takes two people to take a photo.

Ahmad Faiz is a surprisingly shy person. You can tell by the way he's inching away from me (yes, we were on talking terms by then) and sitting funny. He's never comfortable being photographed and is hardly ever in any of our group pictures. You'd think we never include him. So, that's why this particular photo is a rare one.

I actually can't remember where I bought that dress but it's one of my favourites.

Nani's Photo Request

Nani asked for a description of the sixth photo in the sixth picture folder so here it is:

This photo was taken by Matt during a filming session for our group project. Also in the group were Wan and Jey. We were making a video for the short story The Lotus Eater and taking breaks in between scenes. Matt caught me while I was reapplying my lip balm. Flattering.

Depression and the Diets

After years of research, I have observed two levels of depression:

Level 1 - in which a person is so depressed he/she will consume massive amounts of food

Level 2 - in which a person is too depressed to even think about food

Level 1 is pretty common and many of my friends can attest to downing mountains of comfort food (chocolate is a firm favourite) in trying times. But once in a while, we reach Level 2.

The other day I was feeling especially bad about something and I could only handle a bowl of soup for dinner (those who know me better would liken this to a sponge repelling water). My housemate gave me this really concerned look and asked, "Are you on a diet?"

There have actually been times when I went for days without a decent meal. It's dangerous, yes (especially when you're already as skinny as I am), but somehow you don't even realize your stomach is empty. It gets that bad and you won't even know it.

This is why I need to watch a lot of comedies - it would literally kill me to be sad.

Would You Call Me Stupid?

"So are you excited about tonight's birthday party?"

"Oh I'm not going - I'm seeing a friend of mine."

"Really? Wish you could join us, A. How about you, B?"

"Oh B's meeting up with a friend, too."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, what a coincidence..."

*Fast-forward 4 hours*

"Hi, C. How many of us are there tonight?"

"Not too many..."

"Hey, how come we're not celebrating D's birthday as well? After all, it's between E and F's birthday."

"Oh didn't you hear? A bunch of them wanted to celebrate D's birthday. Just them."

"Why not celebrate three birthdays instead of just one?"

"I don't know."

If you haven't figured it out by now, A and B are very good friends of mine.

I don't know about you, but in my opinion "We didn't want a big party" or even "You're not invited" probably would have hurt a lot less than a lie. But that's just me.

Sound Familiar?

The other day I was watching Oprah and there was this lady whose husband literally set her on fire and thank God she lived to tell the tale. They were talking to some experts on domestic abuse and one of them explained five signs that a man could turn out to be physically violent and abusive:

1) He's irrationally jealous - even of your friends...
2) He shows controlling behavior - from your clothes to your diet to what you do with your money, everything he says goes...
3) He verbally abuses you - to the humiliating point where you feel like less of a human being...
4) He threatens to physically harm you - and your family or friends or pets...
5) He isolates you - and makes you feel completely alone so you won't get help from anyone.

If you, or any unfortunate individual you know, are in this kind of relationship... end it now.
Share this with every woman in your life. You never know who you'll end up saving.

P.S. I know a few of us are already thinking of the same person. Shall we all e-mail her?

And Then Tomorrow

I finally finished writing my project paper... All I have to do now is wait for my supervisor to approve it then we can edit the itty bitty nonsense and then it's all systems go with the printer and I am DONE with assignments! Haha! Oh the past six years of studying are starting to feel sweeter now! (Shut up... Anyone who's graduated after one too many years of school could relate to this.)

The plan for writing did not go well at all. The weekend I wanted to really write more on the last two chapters we had to practice our storytelling (which in the end was postponed anyway). Then yesterday when I thought I had a good chance my mom drags me to Tesco (sekejap je, she says). After she's weighed out enough chicken and meat and prawns she realises that she's left her credit card at home and I had to wait for her to go back and get it. In the meantime, she allowed me to select a whole bunch of stuff to take back to Sungai Petani... She generously paid.

Today my niece decided to be extra cute. She screamed when anyone pulled her away from her busy aunty (away from my laptop, more like it) and would come crying back to me. And if she comes running with her arms up in the air, it's hard to say no. Even when her parents took her to her grandparents' place (Daddy's side), the first thing I heard when she came back was, "Baba! Baba!" (She still can't say "Eva") Anyway, it's a miracle I got my work done by the end of the day.

The good news is now I'm pretty much free to write Shadow Spirit, which I hated leaving on the back seat. Let the fun begin...

Fight Me

It's unfortunate that some debates are more often than not misunderstood as arguments. There are times when you don't really care about winning - you just want to look at both sides of something, and you need someone with a different opinion for that. On occasion, you find a topic for which you had never even considered another side to; that's when things get really interesting.
Is it because of something in our supposedly docile culture that we always think people who love to debate love to cari gaduh? We need to break out of this, or we will never be open-minded.