Hoot Hoot

There is something about metaphorical/whimsical lyrics that I just can't get enough of.
Their songs may not have the infectious heavy bass beats of hip hop and techno.
Neither do they have mind-blowing riffs or an array of unique instrumentation and effects.
But I love the lyrics. So beautiful. So poetic. So sui generis.
At least to me.
Remind me of those indie tracks Amanda used to feed me with.
(OK. So they aren't so one-of-a-kind. But still)
To describe it in Amanda-terms, I'd say Owl City's an electronic version of Anberlin?
Have a listen, Daa. Or is he already huge in U.S. and I'm still living in the 60s?

We wrote a prelude

To our own fairy tale

And bought a parachute

At a church rummage sale

And with a mean sewing machine

And miles of thread

We sewed the day above L.A.

In navy and red

We wound a race track

Through your mom's kitchen chairs

And fought the shadows back

Down your dark basement stairs

I lit a match, then let it catch

To light up the room

And then you yelled as we beheld

An old maroon hot air balloon

I'll be out of my mind

And you'll be out of ideas

Pretty soon

So let's spend

The afternoon in a cold hot air balloon

Leave your jacket behind

Lean out and touch the treetops over town

I can't wait

To kiss the ground

Wherever we touch back down

La la la la la laaa

La la la la la laaa

We drank the Great Lakes

Like cold lemonade

And both got stomach aches

Sprawled out in the shade

So bored to death you held your breath

And I tried not to yawn

You made my frown turn upside down

And now my worries are gone

I'll be out of my mind

And you'll be out of ideas

Pretty soon

So let's spend

The afternoon in a cold hot air balloon

Leave your jacket behind

Lean out and touch the treetops over town

I can't wait

To kiss the ground

Wherever we touch back down

I'll be out of my mind

And you'll be out of ideas

Pretty soon

So let's spend

The afternoon in a cold hot air balloon

Leave your jacket behind

Lean out and touch the treetops over town

I can't wait

To kiss the ground

Wherever we touch back down

Brought down by gravity, crystal clear

I’ve been playing dodge ball with the impending manic semester for too long. I ducked, swerved, slithered, even dug a hole to cower in. But at the end of the day I got tired and just stood still and took the game in one stride. Nothing beats being hit by the harsh reality square in the face.

 I can’t say that my break had been a productive one. If anything, it was a junkyard of wasted time, generously contributed by my idle mannerism. But let’s not view things from such a shady angle.

In the course of 8 weeks, I had stuffed myself with sweet, sugary delights and savory bites of Malacca yet again, strapped my legs to a treadmill while in Singapore, lived in a bungalow-sized refrigerator in Fraser’s, pretended to be tourists on our impromptu exploration around KL (not to mention doing a little stalking) and made a Ying Hui’s stubbornness-driven day trip up to Genting. And there were bits and pieces of outings in between, a couple of hours in Atria, a few more in 1U, an afternoon in Amcorp, twilight and beyond in MidValley, the list goes on.

Wanderings aside, what was holiday without books? I had managed to complete two. Hey, considering the mental external distractions, plus the insistent beckoning of my laptop and the virtual world, it was good process, okay?

Of course, no matter however colourful I painted my holidays to be, one can only dwell in escapism for so long, coz when the curtains were finally drawn, it all boils down to what I learnt. Oddly, and on a side note, I guess the biggest impact on me was environmental issues. The world struggle to reduce heat units to 350, the alarming percentage of carbon emission, the out-of-norm weather in various countries, the pressing need to limit global warming by 2 degree Celcius, the failed COP15 in Copenhagen…it’s saddening.

The world may not end tomorrow, nor will it in 2012, but what kind of state would you want the earth to be in to open your eyes to its wounds?

I won’t claim that I spend every waking hour licking up green news, my still-mild interest had not propelled me to do so, but I’m proud to say I had a dosage of it from time to time, enough to keep me aware and be truly worried for the coming years.

So yeah. My 61-day-stretch of freedom summarized in a pitiful 400-word post.

Now I'm just waiting for my alarm clock to shrill.

Humanoid Aliens

Avatar. My second movie in 3D. Graphics, breath-taking. Sound effects, they were effective, alright. Darn, should have worn my contacts instead. Specs kept butting my 3D glasses down the nose.

Yes. THE blockbuster of the year (screw the predictable plot). New Moon what?

P.S. For those of you who had watched it, ever found yourself asking:

1.       Was it a mere coincidence or the Avatars’ cultures and such were mould to mirror the Africans’? The animism belief, the tribal songs and prayers, the hierarchical structure, the clothing (or lack thereof), even down to the manner of speech and the shape of the words and language, don’t you find them eerily similar to our dark-skinned counterparts’ culture?

2.       Humans with weapons of destruction and scientific technologies that would make any geek’s jaw drop vs. the Avatar race with good ol’ hand-crafted bows and spears, backed by Mother Nature’s own self-defenses: A representative comparison of wars between developed and under-developed countries?

3.       The humans’ goal to unearthed, literally, the throat-cuttingly priced rocks: A reflection of the colonization by the Western forces succeeding their venture into the East to obtain spices and resources during ancient times?

4.       The 4 Avatar-mind-control freaks scientists/ex-marine were Caucasians: you could either see it in Jo’s way, which is white people trying to be like blacks, or was it stating the whites were the only ones open enough to accept other cultures?

I'm just sayin'.

Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart

She put her pen down for the umpteenth time. Outside, flurries of snowflakes danced and twirled in fluttering sheets of white, gentle yet mesmerizing. Just like his smile. She winced involuntarily. That was her, always too caught up with the beauty of drifting snow, never pausing to wonder about the morning after, when the magic was gone and all that was left was picking the slippery way through the half-melted slush with only the hard packed earth to catch her fall.

Silly, silly girl.

She stared at the blank paper on her lap, chewing her bottom lip.

I can’t believe I’m doing this.

She gingerly lifted her black fountain again and scrawled across the top line the 2 words that never felt out of place at this time of the year.

Dear Santa…

She saw herself again, precisely a year ago, sitting in the same armchair, his arms around hers as they both scribbled their letters together. She had not given much thought to her letter then. Why needed to anyway? She had everything she could ever wish for. So she had left hers empty, knowing someone else in the world deserved the chance to receive Santa’s gift.

But this year, that someone else happened to be her.

Dear Santa,

There is only one I ask of you, nothing more, nothing less. 
1) A new heart

Please?

She signed her name and placed it beside the traditional cookies and glass of milk. She smiled to herself. Old habits die hard.

Her finger hovered over the switch. Just one more thing.

P.S. I still believe in you.

Is it just me or Malaysia has started to snow?

Been in a dream-like manner, treading on clouds feeling all day.

Not in the ecstatic, defying gravity way.

More like drug induced, head pounding and energy deprived sort of trance.

Plus, my temperature's alternating between Indian Summer and Winter-bound Antarctica.

Ugh. Fever. Again.

HopOnHopOff

Hypothesis: The more impromptu and less detailed the plan is, the better the trip turns out.

Conclusion: Proven true.

Date: 18th December 09

Day: Holiday

Venue: Kay El

Warning: Narration of the post will be replaced by resurrected nursery rhymes.

Freaks who thronged the shopping mall 9 in the morning

Canai Bread (Ori: Short’nin’ Bread)

Heat up the griddle,

Grease it with ghee,

Mamak’s gonna make

A little Canai Bread.

That ain’t all it’s gonna do,

Mamak’s gonna make

A Teh Tarik, too.

Mamak’s little urchins love

Canai, Canai,

Mamak’s little urchins love

Canai Bread.

Mamak’s little urchins love

Canai, Canai,

Mamak’s little urchins love

Canai Bread.

Wheels On The Bus

The wheels on the bus dipped in and out,

In and out, in and out.

The wheels on the bus dipped in and out,

Of potholes in town!

The people on the bus go what the heck,

What the heck, what the heck.

The people on the bus go what the heck,

All through KL!

Green Green Grass Of Park (Ori: Green Green Grass Of Home)

The Lake Gardens look the same

As I step down from the bus

And there to eat me is the Saltasaurus

Down the road I look and there runs the plants

Moss of green and brown like fungus

It’s good to touch the green, green grass of park

Three Weird Freaks (Ori: Three Blind Mice)

Three weird freaks, three weird freaks,

See how they screech, see how they screech,

They screeched Britney’s song in harmony,

While jumping on the surfer’s board with glee,

Did you ever see such a thing so creepy,

As three weird freaks?

Magical Bridge (Ori: London Bridge)

Magical Bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down.

Magical Bridge is falling down,

On Joanna.

Built it up with steel and wire,

Steel and wire, steel and wire,

Built it up with steel and wire,

Ying, Eu and Jing Hua.

Ying Hui And The Dance Pole (Ori: Jack And The Beanstalk)

Fe, fa, fi-fo-fum,

I smell the breath of a Chinese girl,

Let her be bold or let her be shy,

She’ll have to dance to stay alive.

The Children Who Lived In A Shoe (Ori: The Woman Who Lived In A Shoe)

There were some weird children,

Who lived in a shoe,

They had too little space,

They didn’t know what to do.

They drilled open a hole,

Without any door,

They whipped up a dance pole,

And did Gimme More.

I’m A Little Mushroom (Ori: I’m A Little Teapot)

I’m a little mushroom

Short and stout

Here is my cap and

Here is my stem

Jing And Eu (Ori: Jack And Jill)

Jing and Eu raced up the hill to see who could run faster

Jing shot ahead and turned to wait

And Eu came tumbling after

Edward Cullen’s Coming To Town (Ori: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town)

You better watch out

You better go hide

Better not shout

I’m telling you why

Edward Cullen’s coming to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping

He knows when you’re awake

His name is Edward Cullen

So be ready to get raped

The following stalking-in-nature photos are not for the faint hearted.

Screw that hoi polloi who ruined our photo

"On your right, you'll see Malaysia"

"On your left, you'll see Malaysia"

After many intentionally-failed attempts at self-shot group photos, with me causing much hullabaloo about them, I asked our subject-of-stalking to take this shot =]
After which he asked for my help in taking his photo
I'm a genius.

TEEHEE

We were a couple of inches away from the doors when Jo suddenly turned and shouted "Bye!" towards the open deck, twisted around and ran into Central station. And what do you know? He waved at me, drawing a wide arch in the air, and I waved back, with twice the speed but half the size.

Then, me and Jo simply collapsed, giggling on the floor for God knew how long and sucking in breaths that sounded like an asthma attack in between.

And I said to myself, What A Wonderful World Day.