Yang panjang untuk Merdeka/The long one for independence.

Keadaan minda: kreatif/khusyuk berfikir
Lagu kini: Derum penghawa dingin

Hari Kebangsaan ke-50 Malaysia, kuraikan di rumah dengan sebotol minuman yogurt Dutch Lady. Hidupku amat membosankan.

Sebagai tradisi, blog pada 31 Ogos ini kukirimkan dalam Bahasa Malaysia. Bahasa Malaysia, jahanam! Bahasa SEMUA, bahasa yang melahirkan satu imbuhan akhiran yang kita warga Malaysia (baiklah...dan juga Singapura...) amat suka. Jadi, relek-lah! :D

Hari ini saya bersantai aje kat rumah sebab letih dari kegilaan Sen-sasi Kemegahan. (Inilah terjemahan rasmi. Saya patut tahu. Saya yang mengilhamkannya.) Tahun ini, tiadalah animasi Flash seperti tahun lepas, tetapi ada pula sebuah sajak:

Dirgahayu

50 tahun di dunia ini, pendek masanya
Satu-setengah-hampir-dua keturunan anak-anak Adam dan Hawa.

Lihatlah tanah airku ini!
Kereta dinamakan sempena ikan, pokok, haiwan;
Dengan satu imbuhan berirama, rakyat jelata disatukan.
Bila dekat, penghawa dingin dipeluk semua
Bila jauh, rindu pada hari-hari membara (tapi biasa)
Berpadu dalam kepelbagaian
Dan berbagai dalam perpaduan.

Kadangkala terfikir
Di manalah pingat
Untuk Yusof-Yusof Rono yang menghilang?
Siapalah yang menegur jerat-jerat
Yang jelirkan lidah ke arah kancil meradang?
Akan dikurangkan lambaian parang puting
Dan dilebihkan lambaian tangan, untuk bahu diganding?
Itulah tugasku sebagai anak merdeka.
Jikalau sebegitu, hatiku lega.

Akulah cicit empayar tauge
Dan saksi kepada wawasan pertama daripada semua.
Darahku dari Selatan;
Seleraku keutaraan.
Mindaku mengadukkan Timur dan Barat
Tapi pada Malaysia hatiku taat.

Dirgahayu
Negaraku
Setia dan sejahtera.
50 tahun di dunia ini, cuma permulaan sahaja
Kekallah ibu pertiwi untuk keturunan yang seterusnya.

---

State of mind: creative/contemplative
Current soundtrack: The hum of the aircon

I toasted Malaysia's 50th Independence Day at home with a bottle of Dutch Lady yoghurt drink. I lead a very boring life.

So, as per tradition, I'm writing this entry on the 31st in Malay, or Bahasa Malaysia. Bahasa Malaysia, dammit! EVERYONE'S language, the language which gave us the one suffix all us Malaysians (all right...and them Singaporeans too...) truly love. Relek-lah! :D

I just chilled out at home today because I was shugged out from the madness at Sens of Pride/Sen-sasi Kemegahan. (That's the official translation. I should know. I thought of it. This year there will be no Flash animations like the last, but I do have a poem for all of you:

Dirgahayu

50 years on this world is but short
One-and-a-half-almost-two generations of Adam and Eve's children.

What a country this is!
Where cars are named after fish and trees and beasts;
Where one musical syllable unites us all unconsciously.
We clamor for air-cons when near
But miss the stable (if blazing) days when afar.
United in our diversity
Diverse in our unity.

Sometimes we think
Where are the medals
For the Yusof Ronos disappearing?
Who chides the traps
That stick their tongues out at the furious mousedeer?
Will there be less waving of dirks
And more waving of hands, that we should rub shoulders?
That is my job as a free child.
Should it be, I am happy.

I am the great-granddaughter of a beansprout empire
And the witness to the first of many visions.
My blood is Southern;
My stomach Northern.
My mind blends West and East
But my heart is with Malaysia.

Long live
My country,
Loyal and happy.
50 years on this world is but short
Let my motherland remain for the next generations.

S.O.P.: Day Three

State of mind: incoherent

Today was...bad. I'm not even sure how much we sold, because I was transferred from promotion to coupon counter, and fled to coin-stacking around 6 pm. I have coupons coming out of my eyes.

Thankfully, no child was left unattended in Sens of Pride today and other than that rather nasty thing with the coupons, I think it was OK overall, just a little quiet.

Happy Merdeka, people. Expect another post tomorrow.

(ETA - President just SMSed to say we sold RM 2 565!!! W00t!)

S.O.P.: Day Two

State of mind: disturbed

We sold almost 2k in tickets today. Woohoo! Got some more product samples on my body (one glittery dragon down the cheek and 10 dragonfly-embossed fingernails). The Dep. Finance Minister, Dato' Ng Yen Yen, appeared for the launch and it was real spiffy and all, particularly as Veron showed up and Sens of Pride appeared, finally, in three-dimensional shiny glory. My Dean of Studies is a weird, hippie-type person. Still like her.

It really shouldn't NEED to be said, but my experiences over the past few days leave me convinced that apparently, it does. So here it is. I'll even put it in cautionary red, extra-special.

Mothers, please do not leave your young children alone in the middle of a mall for any amount of time. Especially if you are in a foreign country. Especially if the children do not speak any of the local tongues. (Because in all seriousness, I thought that kid was DEAD. DEAD, ALL RIGHT?! You really suck.)

That will be all.

I have to replace my dinner with a very Veggie Breakfast tomorrow.

S.O.P.: Day One.

State of mind: sore

We sold about RM 1 000 worth of coupons and shite today--and it started off pretty slow, considering! Singing didn't work. Neither did yelling. Finally just dogged anyone who came in and killed them with kindness. Setup hadn't been started at all for some reason, which was weird seeing how they were all HAI EVERYONE PLEEZ TO COME AT NITE TO SETS UP.

The public, however, is patently weird, some examples including

• the tourist who left BOTH his kids—a girl of five and another of indeterminate baby age—alone with me and under my care. Excuse me. Hello. You do not leave young children with strangers. Heck, you don't leave older children with strangers, either! The craft fair is not a babysitting centre. I'm glad you paid for the full RM50 program and all, but would it hurt to sit with your child as she makes her keychain and sand art and window stickie? I don't care if you've done it before. I don't care if the previous batches did it. You don't leave young children alone with strangers, certainly not in these times!
• The poor precocious three-year-old girl, who had her art sense controllllllled by her mombot and...babysitters? Teenage sisters? No clue. We ARE running creative kids' activities. Your daughter won't care if Mr Bean's jacket is a weird colour of sand, or if he has a black face, or if her aeroplane window art is bright, bright pink and ONLY bright, bright pink. Let her have her gaudy pictures and black faces while she still can, hm?
• the tendency to just simper at misbehaving children. Other people's sprogs can be appealing, gloriously appealing—for two hours tops. Seriously, when you smile as Junior spills fluorescent pink sand on the carpet, I'm not thinking about how wonderful and active he is. I'm thinking about how expensive the sand is, and how much of a bitch it's going to be to vacuum out in the morning. The others are very lucky. They actually like children. Me? Suuuure, children aren't bad. Particularly if you add plenty of tomato sauce. (Although yes, some were patently ADORABLE—see bit about precocious child and limited appeal of strange children.)

Well, tomorrow is another new day. My back and feet are slaying me, and I am going to bed before they complete the job. The Dep. Finance Minister is coming to launch the whole shebang proper tomorrow. Kidchan should also be there. Come, already!! @w@

And now, the aftermath...

State of mind: pleased
Current soundtrack: The rumble of thunder (it's raining! It's raining!)

So yes, now that I HAVE passed me driving exam, I have a little announcement to make. From 6 pm onwards for the next seven six days, I am going vegetarian. You do not pray to two or three different buddhas/bodhisattvas and make a vow in exchange for an exam pass without fulfilling it. Besides, Manjusri—supposedly my patron buddha, hooray rabbit year—has a rather gnarly alternate form, and I don't want to have Yamantaka fooking up my dreams, thankyouberrymush.

I see a lot of buns and dairy drinks in my diet for the days to come. Merdeka Craft Fair starts tomorrow!

Mom also informs me that while it's not harmful, no, people don't usually drink a whole bottle of blessed water in one sitting. @_@;;

MERDE-blimming-KARRRRR!

State of mind: jawdrop-level shock
Current soundtrack: The white noise of the room fan

Today was my fifth—FIFTH!—attempt at gaining a probationary driver's license. (Shoddy steering, shoddy steering, a big ninja bus and a sputtery engine foiled the first four attempts, if you choose to recall.) I had a pen. I had my blazing red preppie shirt. I had a stable stomach. I even had a bottle of blessed water that one of my mom's colleagues gave her several months back (To drink beforehand, not to throw at crotchety examiners). Got to SDC, paid some outstanding bills and went to get my number. If you pass your parking, but fail your road test, you get a J number, for jalan. That gets you a little priority in the lining-up-for-numbers and test times, supposedly. SUPPOSEDLY.

8.30 - Receive number. Go sit down at porch.
9.00 - Waiting. Listening to very non-J numbers being called out.
10.00 - Waiting waitishly. 11J is called. 10J is still languishing in some limbo. Candidate 123 is called again. Optimum test times start now (because everyone's in the office, and nobody's starting off for lunch...)
11.00 - Waiting waitishly with waitingness. 11J actually goes for her exam. Still more non-J numbers. Candidate 123 is called for the fifth time, and still does not show up. More experienced J-number holders speculate on what grisly fate awaits him when he finally shows up. Optimum test times winding up. M.Y. prays desperately.
11.15 - Good news! Examiner finally shows up and starts looking for candidates. Bad news! Examiner is female. Worse news! It's probably the same examiner I almost helpfully ran into the ninja bus!

M.Y. drinks the blessed water and prays even HARDER.

11.30 - Test starts.

Let me tell you, Internets, I may not have been able to steer for nuts, but I can BALANCE a clutch like nobody's business. Funnily enough, I ended up with a very bad deal today, as the moment I eased on the clutch the car would hack and complain and generally threaten to die. Cheer up, emo Kancil. :\ I got about as far as the junction up and out of SDC before everything jammed, and the car died. Pull handbrake. Thump clutch. Start engine.

Going uphill past traffic light. Balancing begins. Car dies. Pull handbrake. Thump clutch. Start engine. Car dies again. Pull handbrake harder. Squash the clutch into the ground. Start engine.

Going downhill towards traffic light. Car dies. Pull handbrake. Thump clutch. Start engine.

Finally sputtering back to SDC. Car dies. Refrain from screaming aloud. Pull handbrake...

This, I must say, was one of the most nerve-wracking rounds round that part of town I'd ever had. It was OK to build speed after a while, but that blasted clutchery! *cry* It has been hammered multiple times into one's mind now that with the engine, it's three strikes and you're out. As we trundled back into SDC, I said in the teeniest voice imaginable "Thanks for letting me finish the route."

"...Here, just sign."

"HowmuchdidIgetthistime...*squeak*"

All at once my legs went weak and my throat went dry(er) and my eyes swam. Five times, and...



I'd finally passed, with a mark extra at that. (Instructor says the dyings may not have counted as the car didn't roll backwards or forwards.)

I'm still a little swimmy on this point, but I do remember marching triumphantly into the office and asking for a license application before going out for a celebratory meal at Swensen's. And now here I am at home, typing this post up and preparing to crosspost it, and scanning pictures of the actual marks sheet.

Thank you Mr Amini for your lessons; Mr. Nasir and Mr. Balan for their extra tips; and last but not least, a certain JPJ officer called Shida. May metta fall on you copiously from above! :DDDDD

Now to figure how the gears work in an auto...

So you wanna meet CMYk.

State of mind: drowsy

So let's say you'd like to meet a crazy young blogger who loves Ultraman and meeting her readers. Now's your chance. *ahem ahem*

In conjunction with Malaysia’s 50th Independence Day, Sunway Pyramid, Da Vinci Creative Kids and The One Academy’s December graduates are throwing a bash you won’t forget!

Come join us down in Sunway Pyramid’s concourse, where there’ll be fun for the whole family at the Merdeka Craft Fun Fair. We have great face-painting, stunning glitter and henna tattoos, colourful sand art, wacky caricatures, educational craft workshops and the inaugural exhibition of Sens of Pride.

Sens of Pride is the product of our young creative minds, who sought to find an innovative, community-centric way to commemorate Malaysia’s 50th anniversary of independence. Community-centric it is, as you will see when you behold the flag built entirely out of 50-sen coins. Every donation brings the work closer to completion, and you can watch it grow day by day. After it’s completion, 70% of the flag will go to charitable causes.

With the purchase of an RM 50 book of coupons, which entitles you to almost everything we have to offer, anyone can stand a chance to win the grand prize in the Dice and Win game, a tricky game with three chances at advancing. Could you be the lucky one this Merdeka?

Come one, come all to support the next generation of young creative talents as they come together to show their pride in their work, and their pride in their country.
Let our Sens of Pride rise along with yours this fair Merdeka day!

..I'm sorry. You can blame me for the puns. *doffs copywriter hat* The fair and Sens of Pride will be up at Sunway Pyramid from 28th August-2nd September.

I will be there every day except Friday and Sunda, and will most likely be running around Sunway Pyramid, singing what patriotic songs I know. Tanggal 31, Medan Bakti, Setia, Sejahtera Malaysia, mostly those four. If you see me, buy a coupon! Look for a skinny promoter with glasses and a ponytail if you don't hear singing. XD Actually, buy RM 50 worth of coupons! It entitles you to the whole sweet shebang. And you stand a chance at the grand prize if you can roll three sixes with our giant dice.

In short, I would LOVE to see all of you there. Especially some of the people I know in RL (Jac, Gu Bak Wan, Hako, Dimmu, yeah, looking at all of you. XD Do stop by if you're free.)

More (and older news) after the break!

Blogging, Blagging and Buggery.

State of mind: jumbled
Current soundtrack: Black Jack songs on loop (Anyone got Tak Matsumoto's BJ theme? The Miracles of Life one?)

Let me tell you, Intartoobs, this week bordered precariously on Terrible, No-Good and Downrightdisastrous. The New Media projects unexpectedly turned belly-up and group leader took a big blow. Natural 20, critical hit, elemental weakness and all that. D: But trees will prevail! Trees will grow!

Despite having kept odd hours for the past few weeks, and having a good chance of having 25% of my holiday eaten by...well, SOMETHING I'll tell y'all about soon...I spent 20 minutes scrubbing the bejesus out of my stinky hair this morning and another using far too much soap. I am clean, and I am *at this moment* very happy. 24 hours ago I was incredibly annoyed. 48 hours ago I was unconscious.

---

It seems I moved out of Livejournal at about the right time. After Strikethrough '07, we now have Blackout(?) '07.

To summarise, two artists got banhammered!!! banned for life over at LJ for one offense. One. The reasons, depending on who you ask, range from the pernicious peddling of pedo porn pics to lack of 'artistic merit'. And, sneaky sneaky, LJ/SixApart did this juust before a fandom convention.

Were this any other fandom, the backlash might not have been so bad, but they picked on Harry Potter.

And lo, the drama flooded the intertubes. The angry responses lay down with the civil ones. Cat macros spammed the news page. Comments reached the (maximum) FIVE THOUUUUUSAND. But it didn't stop there. The bones users are currently picking with LJ include:

• The immense length of time between incident and announcement of 'resolution'. (5 days!)
• Refusal to clarify, in writing, the changes to the TOS (read: refusal to update TOS page)
• Changing the 'strikethrough' of a banned LJ-username to something bolded and linkless. The action is seen not only as confusing, but also as a way of robbing the user of their 'Strikethrough' battlecry. :S
• The perceived double standards in censorship. Nazi communities? Can't do anything. Racist communities? Sorry, not our business. Pro-anorexia? Nope. Gay buttsex pictures? ZOMG BANBANDIEDIEDIE!
• The asshattery/stupidity of two staff members: burr86, for posting in a snarky humor comm but refusing/failing to address the concerns raised in 4000-odd comments at the LJ news community, and coffeechica , for insisting that yes, she knows what anorexia is: simply 'an aspiration to be thin'. Way to go! Where would you like that failcake decorated with failsprinkles and failcherries?

Does the outcry go on? It's hard to say, but I bet you the next news or lj_biz post is going to be maxed out with comments too. I've seen very few banners, or calls for themesongs and suchlike. But this happened THREE MONTHS after Strikethrough in almost identical circumstances. Big-name users/comms deleted on the sly, just before a large event (Memorial Day/HP convention), failing to take into account the size of the LJ community and the outcry that would result. As it is, one of my closest LJ buddies has made the leap to another journal site, although he admits the interface is foreign to him now. If I hadn't jumped to Blogger beforehand, I might just have followed him.

People are angry. People will leave. Communities talk (it's already up on Digg that LJ supports pro-ana). Customers will go to other places. 6A will learn it is not wise to poke the sleeping dragons - particularly as the dragons render fictional erotica and pay them shiny money.

One day, I wish to teach Consumer Behaviour—simply because I want to pick up a textbook, tell the students to turn to the pre-chapter case study on Six Apart and Livejournal, and say 'You see this, guys? THIS WAS REAL. I saw how some of it went down.'

Um...no.

State of mind: weirded out
Current soundtrack: Playlist name - series - song title (artist)

Yanno, if the ruling coalition wants the progressive next generation's vote, they may have a leeeeeeetle slog ahead of them. UMNO youth head Khairy Jamaluddin has been pretty cool in general, but lambasting people—even Anwar, who is pretty much painted as Lucifer—is just Not Cool.

In making the declaration, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaludin said:
“The (coming) general elections is not about politics but the future of the
Malays.”

“Anwar is a puppet of the United States and the Jews, thus he must be
hounded until there is no more place for him to run to,” he told a state Umno
Youth gathering on Wednesday night.

...O rly? Silly me, I thought the coming general elections was a chance for the people to choose who's going to helm the country and make stupid comments in Parliament for the next coupla years. (Jasin, Kinabatangan, please get yourselves new MPs. For great justice.) I thought we were supposed to stop playing the racial cards here.

Also, Malaysia's an Islamic country and all, but not all Jews are Shylocks and...um...Shylocks. Oy, I fail. Will the Children of Abraham please stop bickering, already? It's not that simple, I know, but what have the Jews done to Malaysia? I'm pretty sure they're not sending haze our way, or poisoning our food, or sending fire-breathing dragons to raze the virgin rainforests.

There's a bit more to the article, but that's what first jumped out. Ranty rants about your considerably trampled enemies? Not endearing. In fact, it's somewhere between keris!love and jokes about leaky women, teeheehee. So before the votes go the way of the rocket, the green triangle or even the sacrilegeous twin moons, good people, think of what image you're putting forward and be civil, confound it.

Still, why do I get the feeling this is going to turn into an 'ala Mawi' thing once I register to vote?

P.S. - NST Online, a day behind? Tsk. D:

(ETA: Thanks Hako, for catching the rather off spelling error.)

My typedorkery is official.

State of mind: bemused
Current soundtrack: MMLab 2 denizens going off in various Chinese dialects

...Other sane women squee over Brad Pitt, Rain, Johnny Depp—stuff like that.

I happen to squee over UM Dyna, Igarashi Shunji and...fabulous typography videos. This happens to be Eine kurze Geschichte der Typografie.



(Not that I don't like Johnny Depp, because anyone who can alternate between gritty, kooky pirate and desaturated snarky confectioner has my deeeeeep respect.)