First post of the year (what a lame title)

I loved Tony Parsons' Man and Boy, but I couldn't bring myself to read the sequel, Man and Wife. Simply because Man and Boy was about a man hitting mid life crisis and making choices that tore his family apart, and how he found new love in a new woman (who wasn't necessarily a bitch either. She was just a new woman) . I don't really want to know more about the new woman :-(

So, I'm almost done with Stories We Could Tell by Tony Parsons now. I have a bittersweet fondness towards his writing, because he is so brutally honest that the truth hurts. But of course, certain happy parts of the truth are always so beautifully told.

I hope this year I will understand men more, because you guys will somehow always remain a mystery. I know we women are complicated, but you guys are just... well......... oh well :-P

Happy 2009!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?


Today I found out that there is a high chance that someone copied my pattern for the pixelated Rolling Stone logo I did for my blog shop awhile back.

Ehh ok la I know the Rolling Stone logo doesn't belong to me, duh, but just that I really painstakingly figured out the mapping of the colours manually on my pegboard. I tried searching online for a pixel pattern of the logo (maybe some nice lady somewhere mapped out a cross stitch pattern of the logo, for example), but coudln't find one. Besides, I would need a really simplified pattern to work on my small square pegboard. So I decided to just figure it out myself loh.


And hey! Today I randomly came across a blogger who said she bought this from another blog shop.


Looks exactly the same rite? But hers terbalik la. Original logo is the other way wan. Hehe.

Pooh.

Ooooer new fetish alert

I noticed my white gladiator heels were getting a bit greyish with dirt. Usually I wear them under my skinny jeans, so no one really notices them.. but I wore it on top of my stirrup black leggings yesterday, and I noticed they looked a bit greyish.

So when I got back home after work, I dug out some old shampoo and a soft bristled brush and started washing the glads.

THEY'RE SO WHITE NOW! Heeee.

Ok think I'm gonna start washing all my heels soon... in fact I'm starting to eye my colleague's ballet flats-- they look a bit smudged. Ooer.

You know there's something horribly wrong with the local music industry when people say...

"We're taking the local music industry to the next level... there are no other entertainers out there that consists of female singers who can sing AND dance and has a backing band playing for them.."

- a certain female singing and dancing trio

Erm hi dearies. Have you been to a pub lately?

"Why do we charge so high compared to KRU? Coz KRU are has-beens already. As for our band, they'll be releasing an album next year."

- a certain record label that rhymes with At Oys

Oh right. And your little band that can't agree doesn't sound like a bad Pearl Jam knock off, no siree. FYI, has-beens or not, KRU is STILL making money-- they've got their foot in music, videos, and movies. And they contributed largely to the R&B and rap sound of our local music industry in the 90s. And what have your bands done? Lets seee... hmmmm oh ya nothing much. Plus, KRU people are actually nice :-)

"Signing up with a label is SELLING OUT! We want to stay indie!!!"

- a certain very talented band that is having one of their rebelious rockstar diva phases

There's a reason why contracts are prepared. Read them. If the deal is bad, then yeah don't take it. If the deal is good (ie you don't have to have a boob job or a Taiwan haircut, you don't have to sing whatever they ask you to sing, etc etc), then yeah why not kan? You still need money to put food on the table kan? Ohhhh you have a vegetable patch. Okay then.

"Support our local music! Save our local music industry!"

- irritating nationalistic people

Kesiannye. Kena support for the sake of being Malaysian, not because the music is good. Aduhai. Camni I pun support Dragon Red la. We Malaysian ma.

-_-

Thank you, Jean

For having me believe in Britney's music. hehehe.

I love this song :-)

Oops.

Okay, forgive me for being an idiot again, but I didn't know Oscar Wilde was gay. I'm not homophobic yah. I'm just oblivious. hahahaha.

I searched for Oscar Wilde's images on Google. Judging by the pictures, I must really be an idiot for not knowing he's gay.

He has fairly nice hair

He has soft features

He likes to pose

He really likes to pose

He wears a cape. And he's not a dracula.

And lastly....



Right. I'm an idiot alright.

Navin has an uncanny sense of observation



Click to enlarge. HEH HEH! Our little accidental lolcat!

"Hi, we're like silver."


http://www.myspace.com/likesilvermusic


Trust Adlin to come up with these type of band names.. hahahha

Dorian Gray

Okay, forgive me for being oblivious, but I picked up The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde to read yesterday, and my eyes went @_@ from page to page because I never knew it was a bisexual and gay themed story.

Then again maybe it's just me, and maybe to other literary students in the world I deserved to be burnt on a stake. "He's not gay, he's art!!!"

@_@

Come on, you gotta admit... Basil's such a sister!!! :-P

Boon is Majik

We just recorded the vocals for Liberated yesterday. Admittedly, sometimes I feel a bit bored with singing my old songs over and over again (Liberated is about 2 years old I think), but, the way Boon arranged it, he actually made me fall in love with the song again.

So therefore, I would like to dedicate a piktur to him. ATKK is so lucky to have you Boon Kok!

Thanks to my mom, dad and my grandpa's liking to double names...

... Jens Lekman replied my email saying that he wished Ching-Ching was his name.

Tee hee hee!

Hurrah mom, dad, ah kong! :D

Anggun

We heard this song on radio the other day and I thought it was funny that some of the backing vocals sound like they're singing softly "Pornstar in the desert... you are, pornstar in the desert..."



Though it reeks of Enigma, blue eyeshadow and circa 90s colour correction, I do like it, I mean the song itself. Hehehe. Especially the synths at the end hehe.

Ironu Kokoruuuuuuu!

Oh my dear Iron Chef, how delighted I was to have seen you on TV tonight!!! Nothing entertains me like the grandeur of your motions, and how you always manage to dub every single line, every laugh, every joke, from Japanese into English!

Tourism Malaysia

One of my favourite projects! This was really nice to work on because we had to produce four songs, each with a different feel, and with a natural song structure (as opposed to song that's painfully tailored to an ad, ie "when the product comes out, bring in the snare roll and the chimes!!"), plus these ads actually have a story. Yay!

Vhy does the zun go on zhining. Vhy does the zea rush to zhore.

Vhy is the coffee machine broken la...

..VHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Drama Mama

Lots of drama going on here. Interestinggggg. Nice to see so much activity.

It's ok Kit. We know what we did :-)

Creating a platform for small bands to perform, trying to get bigger bands to attract the crowd, coming up with door gifts to attract the crowd, not taking a profit but instead split the door collections fairly among the bands (we were practically charity... because if we insisted on making profit, the bands would not be paid fairly for their performance), and we paid the bands honestly, fairly, and ON TIME. Just ask any of the bands that played a Fireflies gig.

Why didn't we take any profit? Because we knew we were small. Finding a balance between taking profits and paying the bands fairly was difficult, because we know if we charged more than RM12 for a gig, people wouldn't attend, as the most passionate fans are mostly school kids. So we sacrificed our profit.

Anyway, that thread on junkonline is a perfect case study of the world (or at least parts of it). The ones with the money have bad intentions, and the ones with good intentions have no money.

Thennn there's the childish people. Kamonnn la. That's so low, it's getting ticklish. Heheh.

Maya & Marley


Many, many, many months ago...

He: (walks into the living room) Hey... are you ok? Why are you crying?

Me: Sniff.. sniff... this story is so sad! *points to the Eight Below showing on TV*

He: Aww... don't cry la..

Me: Last time I watched also I cried...

He: You mean you've seen this movie before?

Me: Er.. yeah.

He: And you still crying..?

Me: Er... it's sad ma... sniff..

Fast forward to about a month later in Singapore...

He: (walks into the room seeing me watch tv) Hey isn't this Eight Bel... wait, are you crying?

Me: Sniff.. sniff... huwaaa so sad la!!!

He: But err... you already know the story ma.....

Me: I know... But still... (choking on tears)

Faaaaaaaaaast forward again to sometime later...

He: Are you watching Eight Below again???

Me: Sniff.. this part is so sad... sigh...

He: But err.. you've already seen it like, seven times.........................................

Me: IT'S STILL SAD LA OKAY?? HUWAAAAAa~~~~

He: -_-"

Speaking of doggies... Marley reminds me A LOTTTT of Bunju when she was young and restless... hehehe

Bleeding Sister is bleeding

eevon says:
so i downloaded new version of itunes.

eevon says:
ARRGGGHHH!!!!

eevon says:
BUT MY MUSIC LIBRARY LOOKS WEIRDDDDD!!!!

eevon says:
DAMNITTTT NOW I HAVE TO GO PAINFULLY LOOK FOR ALBUM COVERS.

eevon says:
KANASAINNSADOIGJOSANGIUSANVGIERNVIRENVGIUHGY
UAVUABABVIANBIVNAIBVNFSAVNEVOIAVNMOAMVORMC
WMCMCORMOWIMVOWMVWNVREQNVASTUPIDSTEVE
JOBSANOTHERSTUPIDGUYMAKINGMYLIFEDIFFICULT

eevon says:
oh.

eevon says:
okay.

eevon says:
it's fine now.

eevon says:
i just needed to change the view settings.

eevon says:
:D

Woman says:
.............................................

Woman says:
......................................................

Woman says:
..............................................................

Woman says:
. . . . . ..

eevon says:
hee hee

Thank you

Kelvin sent me this on MSN yesterday, saying something along the lines of "I saw your MSN status, so I drew this"

Thank you, Kelvin... this is really cute, especially where the kitty cat is waving bye bye.. :-( 

Thanks for everyone's concern too. Lisa and Colin gave us a little cherub and a bookmark with a funny pumpkin face, which cheered us up. Jiggles tried to eat the cherub though -_-" Anyway its sitting in a safe place now haha.

*Kelvin is a really good designer, and although I don't know him well, Lobak recommended him, and now Kelvin is behind Maya Karin's website.

Meowie

The boyfriend used to joke about how he used Jiggles and Meowie to get me. Well dang these animal-loving instincts, coz I fell for it! -_- When I first went to his house, I was delighted to see a big doggie and a small kitty cat living together. They were actually Sen Hon's kids, but because he was away, the boyfriend took care of them.

I was afraid of Meowie at first, was afraid she'll scratch me if I accidentally piss her off. She was wearing this weird poofy purple collar, thought it was a fashion statement at first but found out later it was just a product of her scratching.

Quite the fashionista huh?

Anyway, on that day, which was October 1 2006, we bought her a new collar. Reason I remember the date is because that's when he and I got together :-)

Meowie is really a special kitty cat. First of all, she doesn't meow like any regular cat. She makes these funny sounds that sounds like a cross between a jungle bird and The Predator. And because she grew up with dogs, she actually fights for attention, so you can expect her to greet you when you reach the house, just like Jiggles would. So cute right?

If I'm on my laptop, she'll saunter over my keyboard like as if I don't have any work to be done, and rub her head against mine. She runs in a pitty-patty manner, with her cute little socky paws.

She loves pulling down towels from the rack and sleeping on them. Sometimes we'd wipe our face with those towels and wonder why our faces get so itchy, so we scratch a bit here and there, and wash our faces, and pat them dry with the towels again. Of course it later dawned on us who was the culprit heheh :P

She loves lying on tummies and following people into toilets. She also loves her Royal Canine Adult 37, always vocal about when she's hungry heheh. She loves hiding in the cupboard, sleeping on fresh laundry (okay, don't we all), and trying to steal from the kitchen counter.

It always cracks me up when she slips when she's trying to jump gracefully up the table, because she'll quickly regain her posture and pretend like nothing happened-- it's like one of those blooper videos hehe.

Me? I like to kiss her forehead, rub her ears, rub between her eyes, let her sit on my tummy, and sayang her while she purrs. :-)

So it's almost been 2 years since Meowie came into my life, huh? Well, short of about half a month I guess.

Last Sunday, she fell ill. She was already showing signs of loss of appetite and wasn't behaving like her usual self, so the doctor did some blood tests and said results will be available in 2 days. He gave her a jab, and prescribed medicine as well as A/D, a type of wet food for sick kitties and doggies coz of it's high calorie, high protein content.

By Sunday night, she was looking much better, and her appetite came back. We were glad!

But she lost her appetite again on Monday, even the wet food didn't work.

Tuesday, lunch time, I went back to feed her some food, we had to use a syringe by then to force-feed her. I was about to feed her when the boyfriend called and said that the vet just called him. Results were in, and Meowie had a serious liver infection which required her to be sent to the vet immediately for an intensive 5-day care. She had to be put on drip.

He left work and hurriedly came back so we could go to the vet together. Meowie was unhappy that she had to go into the cage again, and she was very vocal about it. We told her that it's just the vet, don't worry, doctor's gonna take care of you k?

Tuesday, evening, I rushed off from work to go to the vet to see how Meowie is doing. She was just lying there in the cage, groggy, and lots of pee beneath the cage. The vet said that they couldn't find her vein to insert the drip, so they had to sedate her before cutting open the vein. So she was just groggy, and it's good that she was peeing, we'll see how she is tomorrow, he said. I said thanks so much, I'll see you guys tomorrow k :-)

Wednesday, around 4pm, I went to the vet again. Meowie was still lying in the cage, and she still looked lethargic. Meowie.. meowie... How is she doing, I asked the vet. He sat down and said "Not too good, I'm afraid." What do you mean, doctor...?

"There's nothing much I can do for her anymore."

He went on to explain how serious her condition is, and how the drip isn't even helping, and how her liver is not functioning anymore and she's got fluid buildup inside her, and how she only has about 1 or 2 weeks to live, but I coudln't even concentrate on the facts he was speaking off. I nodded and nodded.. and asked if I can bring her home.

I drove to the house to pick up the cage to bring her home in, but before leaving, I called the boyfriend and that was when I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. I cried and cried and said the doctor said there's nothing that he can do anymore. He said what do you mean? I said that the doctor said Meowie only has 1 or 2 weeks to live. He was speechless.

We went to the vet together to bring Meowie home. The doctor said to force-feed her food, and also the medication-- she had 5 pills to take twice a day. That should prolong the pain from hitting her, though eventually her discomfort will be replaced by pain. When the pain comes, then I would recommend to put her to sleep, said the doctor. Don't let her suffer, he said.

That night we washed her bottom half of the body with Dettol because she'd peed over herself in her sleep.

Thursday morning, we force-fed her some food, and her medication. It wasn't a comfortable experience for her and for us, because it was heartbreaking to hear hear meow her unhappy, angry meows while we held her down and force-fed her. She was too tired to get up to pee, and she'd hang her head over the water bowl for the longest time, phasing out.

Thursday night, Sen Hon came back, and we tried to force-feed Meowie again. This time, she vomited on Sen Hon's leg, and refused to eat. I asked her if she's the Exorcist cat, but she was too tired to answer. Jiggles licked Meowie, trying to help her clean up since Meowie had no energy to clean up herself.

We gave her a break, and tried to feed her again, and this time, she refused to swallow, something the doctor had warned us about. It wasn't a good sign.

Friday, I left work early because Sen Hon and I wanted to take Meowie to the vet for one last checkup. By the time I reached the house and saw Meowie, I panicked because her eyes were wide open, but she wasn't looking at anything, and her mouth was opened and she was panting very hard. The doctor said that this was because she found it hard to breathe.

We rushed to the vet, but they were closed! We decided to take her to the vet the next day, so we took her home, Sen Hon carried her upstairs, and he had to go someplace. I stayed back and started wiping the pee off Meowie's legs with baby wipes.

She started coughing and jerked like she was going to vomit, and vomited something dark brownish. I couldn't remember her eating anything of that colour. I tried to keep her warm and said Meowie don't worry, calm down k girl, but she let out a long meow and her body arched back... and all the while, her eyes and mouth were wide open, staring into space... and she heaved, and wheezed a few times... and then she took her last breath.

Her body stopped moving, but there were some small twitches on her legs... you know that last bit of muscle that's still moving even though the heart has stopped beating. I cried so hard because... she was really gone.

The boyfriend got back 5 minutes later and we were both so heartbroken, I didn't know what else to say except "She's not breathing anymore..." as I took more and more baby wipes to clean her soiled legs.

We shut her eyes and her mouth, and bent her body into a comfortable position before her body got cold and hard-- something I learnt from my mom when my grandma passed away.

"Should we take off the collar?" I asked.

"Leave it la... it's the collar we bought for her last time..."

The boys borrowed a shovel from the neighbour and dug a hole in the garden while Jiggles looked on and mosquitoes attacked us. We wrapped Meowie in one of her favourite towels that she loved pulling down from the rack.

They laid her body in the hole, and we ceremoniously sprinkled soft dirt over the towel as we shared random memories about Meowie. Soon, it was time to use the shovel. And soon, the hole filled up. We joked about how we hope Jiggles don't go digging it someday with a "Hey look what I found!" face.

That night, I cried to sleep. I'm so sad that you're gone, Meowie, I really am.

Thanks for letting me be part of your life, Meowie... *hug*