Rachel Mariam bilang kalau "Politik dan Seni Peran Tidak Berbeda Jauh".

Maybe she's right. Well, infact she is absoulutely right, women as pretty as her never wrong. :D

Toh politikus sama artis sama-sama bermain peran. Sama-sama bersandiwara, artis untuk main film, sedang anggota DPR agar nampak seolah-olah apa yang mereka lakukan untuk rakyat. Sama-sama harus berlatih skrip, satu untuk dialog di film, satu lagi untuk pidato agar dipilih rakyat.

So, artis jadi anggota DPR? Kenapa tidak. Toh mereka lebih fotogenik dan punya kamera face. Dan kalau tidur lebih cakep dari anggota DPR yang tua-tua.

Oh ya, setidaknya, kalau jalan2 ke luar negeri artis lebih transparan. Mereka harus laporan ke wartawan infotaiment kesayangan mereka. Jadi nggak ada ceritanya anggota DPR ngakunye ke Cirebon, tapi aslinya Cirebon cabang Perancis, karena kalo artis pasti ketahuan, mereka pasti masuk Infotaiment kalo ke dinas luar negeri.

Instead my pragmatism, now you know why I choose abstain on the next election.

But really, If you want to choose, my advice is choose those artist. I rather choose dumb people than corrupted liars. Law, politics, and state administration can be learn, honesty never.

The service-person replied, "Next week, it is going to be in the 80's - we may have to get the sweater out". :)

Have any clean-funny, short stories or jokes?

Share them with others here!

For the first time, I really just let myself obliviate (Is that a word?) I didn't check email, I didn't call work (although they did call me, twice) I barely talked to Boyfriend. I just enjoyed being encompassed by family. But let me tell you, my family is fucking weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, we're all good decent people. I know it might sound concieted, but really, me and my cousin, and my grandmother, are the only socially adjusted people in my family. Not counting the kids that are really too young to see how they turn out.

I will do another post and give a run down of just exactly how crazy my family is. But in the meantime, let me just say, that I am "back to life, back to reality". Isn't that some early 90's song?

My asshole BF couldn't be bothered to pick me up from the airport, so instead I took a cab. He was very busy playing Rockband and couldn't hear the phone. In case you're wondering, Hell Fuckin yeah I was pissed. I cried on the cab ride home. When I arrived home I had to get more money. He left $32 on the side table and the ride was $40 with tip. What am I, a fucking Whore? Then I had to haul my own bags up from the cab to the driveway. He opened the front door right as I had gotten them to the porch steps.

When you've been gone a week and you come home at ONE AM what is your ideal home situation? Is it a Rockband party going on between your BF and his Best Friend? It's sure as hell not mine. I thought maybe, he'd miss me enough to want to have a few minutes alone, even if it was 1:00 in the morning. But no. Best Friend left around 2:00, I sat up reading a book, fuming, and BF then came up and tried to make small talk. Fuck Off. We ended up screaming at eachother.

But you know what, my friends? I'm too exhausted to fight anymore. And there is something wrong with me, because I hate going to bed angry. When I go to bed angry, I wake up angry, and somewhere along the line, it's stopped being worth it to me. Unless I'm going to actually leave him, I'd rather get along with the person I'm forced to live with. So I made up with him.

But I shouldn't have. I really shouldn't have. My  best friends are even trying to get me to break up with him now. I want to, when I'm drinking, it seems so easy. It seems logical. It seems like the obvious choice. If only I could stay drinking. I can't stand the thought of hurting him, and everytime we talk about the "Relationship" he makes it seem as though I'm quitting, I'm giving up. And I hate that feeling.

Could it be that both of us are simply waiting for the other person to make the move? I know I've wished Scott would just break it off for good, so it wouldn't be up to me anymore. Maybe he's thinking the same thing. The night I came home, during our fight he made a good point though. I said to him in reply: "You always make me the quitter, me the one that is giving up, and I don't want to be that person." (or something along those lines, I've had excess wine). His reply, goddamit, was better than what comes to mind, but it rans the lines of this: " If thats the way you feel, then you've gotta have the balls to do it" I don't think he really wants me to have Balls, but you get the jist.

People, if you're reading this, I want out. Even if I never meet anyone, even if I spend the next fifty years alone, I'm ready. But I can't seem to do it. I can't imagine being alone, even though I know I'll be fine. I can't stand the thought of wondering how and what he's doing, when I could just stay out of convenience and then I'd know. The scary part is, I can see myself here in five years. Just as miserable as I am now, but comfortable.

I never thought I was a girl who took the easy way out. Some days, nowadays I don't even recognize myself. Well, except for the EASY part....

Mid-afternoon drinks (that doesn't involve coffee) and even just a good, full hour of leisure- which would probably be the only short breather I have before things start to get hoohahistically (no such word, kids- don't learn them, mommy might not approve of it) crazy once again.

And after several months of intense planning (and even more intense procrastination), Taylor's Dance Arena is finally set, confirmed and ready to rumble. It's HOW you should spend this week's Friday night. And to add to that, after this whole week of dramatic hecticity, it's time to let loose. REALLY let loose. Thank god for that- I can't possibly wait. And neither should you."

-Shev

Discography: Pharrell's & Jay-Z's Frontin'

Contoh, seorang teman cewek pernah curhat tentang cowok yang terus mengganggunya dengan sms, telpon dan ngebuzz di YM, lalu seminggu kemudian dia bilang kalau dia jadian sama tuh cowok.

Lalu ada teman cewek yang bilang dia ketemu cowok idamannya, perfect in every way. Dan beberapa waktu kemudian dia jadian, bukan sama cowok idamannya (dan bukan sama aku tentunya).

Lalu, ada seorang cewek yang bilang dia sibuk dan nggak mau diganggu. Ya udah nggak aku ganggu. Trus beberapa waktu kemudian, dia tanya kok aku marah sama dia atau enggak karena nggak pernah ngehubungi lagi. Heh?

See what I mean?

Contoh lain, saat seorang cewek bertanya apakah dia terlihat gemuk atau tidak. Aku seringkali nggak paham jawaban apa yang mereka harapkan. Kalo bilang enggak dibilang bohong, kalau dibilang iya, dia marah. Solusi sementara untuk pertanyaan itu adalah : Berikan senyuman terbaikmu! Jika didesak, teruslah tersenyum.

Mistery of our life, WOMEN. Untunglah sebagian besar cowok suka jadi detektif.

I was once like that, when the biggest worry I've had would only be the mere fear that my shuttlecock would fly over the roof and would've gotten stuck there during hourly badminton sessions in Standard 6. Or the inability to open the cap of a bottle. Or how funny the shape of the cherry which I drew on my file looked like. Fine, so the last one was pretty irrelevant. But you get my point, don't you?

So, for now- in due respect to a far-off comparison from badminton shuttlecocks, unopened bottles and cherry sketches..

..iSuccumb."

-Shev

Discography: Chris Brown's Kiss Kiss

This is a pretty good companion to this article: If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers.

'Tahniah! xxxxxxxxxxxx LEONG YEE MUN, SHEVIE telah dipilih untuk menyertai PLKN Siri 6/2009.'

Oh, yes- congratulate me now, will you? Am very 'lucky' to have gotten picked as one of the 'privileged' individuals aged seventeen (and maybe above) to serve the country for three whole wonderful months. I feel like The Chosen One, thank you very much. Now all I need are my Ray-Bans- should've nicked them from Neo. :D

And.. Chingy suggested that I teach the fellow NS-ers how to dance. Mm, and I'll return back home with a crew named AK-47- lock and loaded and ready to take anyone on, baby. ;)

However, deferring seems tempting. Very tempting. (: And.. I'm finally (after god knows how long I've waited) going to learn how to drive soon! Screw NS, I'm going to DRIVE. With Fie, as a matter of fact. Need For Speed Subang- god save you all, really."

-Shev

Discography: Christina Millian's & Joe Budden's Whatever You Want

Jika kamu nggak bisa nyari bulldozer, cari palu martil.

Jika kamu rasa itu nggak efisien, melangkahlah ke samping sedikit, dan kamu akan menemukan pintu.

Bulldozer lebih keren tentunya. Terutama kalau pintunya dikunci.

Yang aku coba katakan adalah, penyelesaian masalah kita selalu ada, membedakan antara masalah yang selesai dan tidak adalah kegigihan kita untuk mencari penyelesaian. Kita bisa menerobos langsung ke dalam masalah dan bercucuran darah, atau mencari jalan memutar dan bercucuran keringat, atau duduk pasrah bercucuran airmata

Itu adalah pilihan.

Tapi tolong, mandi dulu, bau badan dan bau darah bukan aroma yang menarik. Aku yakin kamu nggak bakalan duduk pasrah.

"It's...:

Monday: Mondays suck for obvious reasons, such as the fact that the next weekend is five days away. Logically, though, I would argue that Mondays are nowhere nearly as bad as Tuesdays. At least there is some goodwill carried over from an awesome weekend. Plus, no one has been at work long enough for the proverbial crap to hit the proverbial fan, so we should be full of optimism for a great upcoming week (even if it is delusional). Corresponding Feeling(s): soporific, ennui

Tuesday: Tuesdays probably suck more than Mondays. The only thing that Tuesday has over Monday is that it's one day closer to Friday. Adding insult to injury, people like to schedule meetings on Tuesdays, because it's in the middle of the week and people haven't accumulated a lot of assignments to do yet. Corresponding Feeling(s): forlorn

Wednesday: Also known as "hump day", the week is halfway over. "It's Wednesday" is office lingo for "There's an end in sight." There's a gray area where you have to read into the person's tone of voice a little bit; if you can't distinguish any particular positive or negative feeling...it's probably just ambivalence. Corresponding Feeling(s): variably despondent and optimistic

Thursday: This one can go both ways. It can translate to "Tomorrow's Friday." It can also mean, "It's only Thursday!" Corresponding Feeling(s): anticipative, exasperated

Friday: "It's Friday" translates roughly to, "I'm wearing jeans, and the amount of work I plan on doing today is roughly reflected by my wardrobe choice." If it's Friday afternoon, "It's Friday" means "I stopped working two hours ago, I don't know why I still have to be here." Corresponding Feeling(s): checked out

So, life for a twenty two year-old Englishman these days it is then!  What can I say, it is probably full of more potholes than being a teenager was.  Although then again, thinking back being a teenager is possibly the greatest time.  Seriously, if you are in your teens and reading this, then really you are wasting your time - actually no, that is not fair.  You don't have to be doing something all the time, that would just be ridiculous.  Just enjoy it or something, I can't be bothered to be profound about being a teenager, that is not for me to preach; I've been there and done it, it is not for me to tell other people how to do it and anyway, you're a teenager, you won't listen anyway.  I wouldn't have.  I would have pretended to though out of politeness. 

Anyway, yes twenty two, what an age.  Finish Uni, get a job, suddenly you see why Fridays are great.  This is something you haven't appreciated since you were at school and that really is a while ago now.  A friend of mine reminded me it was 4 years since we left.  Can't say I have achieved much since then, ok so I have a degree, learnt a G chord on a guitar amongst maybe a few others (one doesn't wish to show off) and got drunk several times.  Oh and started this blog that no one reads although I write it as though millions do.  I think the thing about being twenty two is, you are on yet another cusp.  Well you feel you should be anyway.  People you know are in long standing relationships maybe even getting married and thinking about the next step.  Careers are supposed to be started (I hope I have started mine now), you might have even started putting money in a pension fund (I have, it depresses me greatly). 

Then again, twenty two isn't exactly old either.  It is a good age really, but so is any age when you are happy I suppose. It is easy to get nostalgic about age, indeed it is anything that was in the past isn't it?  I do it way too often, it can't be healthy reflecting on the past too much. 

Anyway, I am even boring myself now with this, so I apologise. 

Kris' brother was wearing an excellent jumper on Hollyoaks earlier (E4 one at 7pm), if anyone knows where to get one let me know, cheers.

Beberapa teman-temanku sudah mulai membina keluarga, ada yang masih terpisah rumah karena kerjaan, ada yang masih numpang di Pondok Mertua Indah, ada juga yang sudah menjejakkan kakinya di rumah sendiri, meski kontrakan.

Orang selalu excited jika bicara soal pernikahan, whose next? adalah pertanyaan standar di kalangan teman-teman. Apakah A dan B? C dan D kapan? dll.

Pernikahan adalah saat yang membahagiakan, baik bagi mempelai, orangtua, keluarga, dan teman-teman.

Terutama, bagiku, itu soal makan-makan.

I couldn't sleep after watching this episode.... Oh no wait.... I couldn't sleep watching the previous episode too. The Firm is giving me insomnia....hahaha.... I'm pretty sure some of the other contestants are having insomnia too.

Viewers who follow the show, or happen to switch channels to NTV7 between 8.30pm and 8.45pm would have been made known by now that I've decided to leave the 'reality show'.

Now, that was real. I left and didn't looked back.

Hmmm.... I'm sure you are dying to know the real story and reasons for my departure from 'reality', right?

OK, perhaps not dying but definitely a burning question to you. No? Then, you may choose not to continue reading now. Otherwise, click on the link below and find out....hehehe....

On screen, there is this certain 'clash of chemistry' between me and the woman who labeled me "Drama King". Something like having durian and assam laksa all at once. (Ya.Ya. I'm a person who is fond of using analogy - because I see things from a kindergarten's perspective....hahaha...)

I'm accepting such distinctive recognition (the title of "Drama King") because it was bestowed upon me by 'Her Highness' herself - "THE Drama Queen". It's not easy to get distinction from your peers nowadays, I must admit. And mind you, from 'one of the best' some more (pardon my Malaysia slang here).

Off screen, the act of being cool about it was even more real than on TV!

Why did I leave The Firm?

1. I peeped through my black briefcase of Common Sense, and all observations, information and evaluations gathered thus far was really glaring to me - I just don't fit in a drama or in Malaysian fashion, 'Sandiwara'. I honestly believe I don't look, behave, speak, and at times can't 'really' act in front of the camera as well as the others. In show biz, that's not very promising.
2. Remember how I described this 'reality show' against the scene of a football match and poker game. I realised after task 1, I couldn't be as deceiving (like in a poker game) as well as certain players can, and I wasn't brought up to see a different perspective of a 'fair game' (like in a football game) in such a competition.
3. I'm a firm believer - In life there are always choices. Sometimes we choose not to recognise these choices, while other times we fails to take courage and make them. I chose to participate, and therefore I can also choose to leave.
4. The shooting schedule was too time consuming for me - than earlier expected.
5. And then, there were unexpected change of work commitments and schedule back in my real corporate world.

Did I regret joining The Firm?

No. But I regretted leaving.

Why I regretted leaving The Firm?

I missed working with a bunch of wonderful people.
(I can almost hear at the corner of the table, a soft exclamation "Liar", coming out from a certain member of team Asset... maybe more.)

Hahaha....

Seriously, I regretted leaving this 'reality show' because I still haven't perfected the skill of spotting real actors from the 'real' actors. Remember, I was secretly learning the 'tricks of the trade' in TV show production. How can I be an award winning producer/director if I haven't mastered the skill of spotting real actors to star in my future 'reality show'? (I'm not being gender biased here - when I said "actors", I also meant "actresses").

What have I learned from episode 2?

When you see trouble ahead, you can gather your courage and wisdom to challenge it. When you see shit ahead, don't try and step on it and hope your feet ain't gonna stink like shit and people will applaud your courageous act!

Pardon my language once again.... I'm not as optimistic as others here (or then).

I've worked long enough, seen corporate politics more than enough, been in challenging teams more than enough, shot and being shot more than enough, being in engaging situations more than enough.... to try being optimistic and continued in this 'reality' of theirs.

I've learned that at times, it's not bad to refuse moving forward and step aside - especially when our instincts and gut feel tell us so (not to mention - our little black briefcase of Common Sense)

That's more 'real' than anything else.....hehehe....

Happy watching The Firm, Season 2!

The better we talk and listen, the better we understand and the better our relationships.

However, the antithesis of true communication is "small talk." 

It's the "how was your day?"  It's the "what do you want for dinner?"  It's the "love you, see you later" and the "what's the weather today?" that slowly erode our relationships.  Small talk lets us believe we're actually talking.  Small talk lulls us into a false sense of "we communicate" when we really don't.

Real talk is about honest, sincere, non-judgemental and open talking AND listening.  It is about having the goal of knowing our special someone better at the end of the conversation than we knew them at the beginning.  Many times we listen waiting to speak.  Many times we think we're communicating but we're not.  Small talk is a mask that we get to hide our relationship's struggling communication behind. 

Of course, not every verbal interaction is going to be ground-breaking.  That's unrealistic.  But there needs to be far more sincere and enlightening lines of communication than there are not.  Remember how you and your someone talked at the beginning?  Remember the deep conversations and the levels of learning you both experienced?  That's when you fell in love and that is a level you need to try and maintain. 

Stop the small talk.  Begin by letting it lead into real conversations of learning.  "How was your day?" could lead to "Honey, I honestly don't know what you do at work?  Tell me about it." Or "What's it like outside?" could lead to "I love the rain.  What season do you like?"  Take it from there and grow, grow and grow.  Small talk is the weed, real talk is the garden.

Someone once said to me "But I know my husband so well, what do we have to talk about now?"  I reminded this person that her husband was alive some twenty-to-thirty years before she met him.  I asked her had her husband shoved thirty years of experience, likes and dislikes, joys and sorrows into her head.  She agreed.  She still had much to learn as did he about her.  Communication requires we get out of our own head and get our spouse into our hearts again.

For the complete interview with Alan Curie, go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ModeOne/2008/07/18/What-is-a-Mans-Inner-Wife.

Good life and love,

Ch & the IW

-Shev

Discography: Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (pun intended)

-Shev

Discography: Rihanna's Disturbia

Skrivekløe. Alice Flaherty er hjerneforsker og den førende ekspert på hypergrafi, ukontrolleret skrivetrang, som menes at være nært forbundet med kreativitetens oprindelse. Selv skriver hun på vandtæt papir i badekarret.

Læs alt om det her i Weekendavisen.

...and the roof was blown off the school building close to our house! I heard the helicopters this morning (which almost always means a natural disaster or deadly accident has occurred) and went up the street to see what they were looking at. OK, I was going out anyway, but I did grab my camera. I saw the channel 4 news lady doing her "live on the scene" report and the Fox news van, too. You know, for a sleepy little town of about 700 Winfield sure gets its fair share of news coverage.

In Chicago, we all went to Chinatown and walked up & down Wentworth Ave. for a quick glimpse of the tourist-trap shops. There were many of the food markets that we couldn't go into because the smell of fish was so overwhelming, but we did go into a few of the tacky-and-cute-stuff stores. Elizabeth and I got matching folding fans, I got us a Lucky (or maybe Happy?) Turtle for our kitchen windowsill and I found these notebooks which I couldn't resist:

Cute, no? I'm sure "ice creae" is meant to be "ice cream", but the mistake is charming and I love the saying on the yellow notebook which reads, "I wanna tell sweet stories to everyone who wishes to have sweet dreams". We ate lunch at the Won Kow, which is just as good as it ever was, except for the egg rolls which had shrimp in them-ew. (I sent them back right away) I don't know why people want to ruin good food by mixing in fishy stuff!

I'm starting my Simplify September a month early. Every September I purge extra art supplies, stitching stash I haven't found time to use, WIPs I haven't worked on in a year, books I'm not going to read, clothes I'm not going to wear, and so on. It's amazing how much stuff accumulates in a short time! I've got a busy fall coming up so I thought I'd get a jump on things. I'll be listing some destash (de-stashing: the opposite of accumulating craft-related items) in my Etsy shop as well as offering some things for free here on my blog. Today's offering:

I will mail these 2 Easter charts to anyone, anywhere, so please don't be shy. If you are interested, make sure you say that specifically in your comment on this post. (If more than one person is interested, I'll do a drawing) I want this to move along quickly, so I'll let everyone know who gets it when I make my next post. Thanks for helping me reduce my stash pile :)

Edited: Jennifer has won the Easter charts ;)