Insomniac findings

You Are "Wow"!

What Japanese Smiley Are You?

The Pillowman - Once Upon A Time...

This is truly a special piece of writing, darkly funny even more than it is disturbing, with a strong sense of staging and giving actors juice. Daniel Jenkins plays (the Joseph Heller-ishly named) Katurian, a writer of bleak children's stories, the kind that would make Lemony Snicket uncomfortable.

He's suspected by the Totalitarian police to be connected to a series of grisly child murders with circumstances similar to those described in his stories. Which is only the beginning... He has a mentally slow brother (played with great humor and charisma by the John Belushi-shaped Michael Corbidge) who is also incarcerated by their interrogators - played by Adrian Pang and Shane Mardjuki. Pang was a treat, with one hilarious scene when he attempts to tell a metaphorical story of his own, with clumsy results.

The set consists of the two interrogation rooms, but add some very clever, creative staging for the various flashbacks and stories - with rooms that slide open from the top half of the room's rear wall, lit to look dreamily like a projected film. The ending of the play is rather shocking in a way but perfectly apt, and the play overall didn't do what I feared it might, or what many other modern plays have done, which is get so caught up in the heavy metaphors and critical past events that they forget to compel in the moment as well. There's much needed humor amidst all the heaviness.

The play runs till Apr 6th.

What Subsersive Alternative Paradigm Are You?

What Subversive Alternative Paradigm Are You?
created with QuizFarm.comYou scored as White Lighter

You are a White Lighter! You seek the dawning of the New Age and the raising of the consciousness of mankind (which of course happens in 2012, and all in one day). You seek only to do good, and are determined to cut out that pesky dark side once and for all. You know your own role in the coming Earth Changes is important, and you must let all know so they know whom to turn to at that crucial moment!

White Lighter		80%
True Alternative		75%
Discordian		75%
Otherkin		65%
Mystic		60%
Aimless Eclectic		60%
Spiritualist		55%
Magician		50%

TGIF...

Friend (Noun)Word History: A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin amcus "friend" and "I love" is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos "friend" and phile "I love." In English, although we have to backtrack a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, frond, the Old English word for "friend," was simply the present participle of the verb fron, "to love."

So apparently the month of March has been (for me) to get reacquainted with friends of old. Well, I'm not 50 yet, although it did feel like it when I was back in Kuala Lumpur a fortnight ago when I spent the weekend getting reaquainted with some of my oldest and dearest friends; people who were a part of my childhood and growing up years. Together, we remembered those "glory fun filled days of innocence". And, fuelled by coffee, cakes and more coffee, we were also inspired to share our dreams for the next 25 years.

The following week, after I got back from KL, I met up with more friends from my early years. In fact, I'm to meet up with some others, from this weekend till the next. It's always a pleasant surprise to discover that we are still able to talk and talk for hours. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to say that she/he is my friend from kindergarten, school, college. That's about 30 years of friendship, almost unheard of these days. And it’s sad that I didn't realise how much I had missed their friendship. My one regret is that I have been the worst friend in taking most of them for granted. I think that the time has come to change that aspect of my life. It’s funny that you don't even realise that it has happened until it's too late and you have drifted apart.

To quote Sean, "The friendship cultivated when we come out to the working world pales in comparison to the bonds we forged when we were growing up". I agree wholeheartedly for in this day and age, the circle of friends we choose to socialize with are the people we work with. And as we progress into the new age and pursue success in the rat race, we tend to change professions every 3-5 years. Which makes the average age of a "friend" in your life to be about 5 years old.

Having said that, the song of the week is this particularly emotional one from ABBA. Lyrics courtesy of Google.

The Way Old Friends Do.

You and I can share the silence
Finding comfort together
The way old friends do
And after fights and words of violence
We make up with each other
The way old friends do
Times of joy and times of sorrow
We will always see it through
Oh I don't care what comes tomorrow
We can face it together
The way old friends do (repeat)
We can face it together
The way old friends do

Missed Opportunities.

I just came back from a job interview. It's a job I'm perfectly qualified for, with just the right mix of logistics, writing and other responsibilities. Amazingly enough, the person who interviewed me happens to know me as I am currently managing her company's corporate account in my present situation, and can ask a variety of people for character references (including her husband).

And yet, I think I blew it...I can't point to any one moment in particular; we talked for nearly an hour about a variety of things, job scope, current events, work culture, even some after hours activities, but the minute I walked out of the interview room, I felt like hitting my head against the wall, "Damn!" It didn't feel like the interview ever got into a good rhythm, I didn't think I sold enough good examples of my work, and I definitely didn't tell nearly enough stories tooting my own horn.

People say you're always hardest on yourself, and maybe its true. Perhaps I am just melodramatic, but I don't generally leave a situation feeling like that, which is what scares me.

I guess I can't do anything at this point but cross my fingers, and hope for the best.

I hate first impressions...

Fountains of Wayne - revisited!

I was just going through my collection of songs when I stumbled upon some really old ones that I used to love to listen to; ahh the memories... This is one of 'em, it's a little morbid, but it kinda works for me.

Easter Greetings!

Hot Cross Buns

Good FRIDAY - Hot Cross Buns

It is one of the peculiarities of the observance of the great fast of Lent that several of the customs surrounding it have to do with food: pretzels, simnel cake, and hot cross buns. Hot cross buns are perhaps the strangest of these customs as they are sweet rolls that are eaten on the most important fast of all, Good Friday. The origins of this very English custom are not entirely clear. It has been suggested that hot cross buns originated in the pagan cult that preceded Christianity in Britain. But the earliest historical mention of them is traced to a 12th century English monk who is said to have marked buns with the sign of the cross in honor of Good Friday. A 14th century record tells how a monk of St. Albans distributed spiced cakes to the needy on Good Friday, inaugurating an annual tradition, though he carefully guarded his recipe.

Whatever their origins, there were certainly ideas associated with these buns that some would regard as superstitions. Hot cross buns were eaten after sundown to break the Good Friday fast. In the Middle Ages, they were believed to have powers of protection and healing. People would hang a hot cross bun from the rafters of their homes for protection through the coming year. And if someone was sick, some of the dried bun would be ground into powder and mixed with water for the sick person to drink.

In the reign of Elizabeth I, when Roman Catholicism was banned, making the sign of the cross on the buns was regarded as popery and the practice was banned. But neither Church nor State could suppress the popular custom, so legislation was enacted to limit consumption of hot cross buns to legitimate religious occasions such as Christmas, Easter, and funerals. The familiar nursery rhyme, "Hot cross buns," derives from the call of the street vendors who sold them.
There are various recipes for the buns, but an authentic recipe should include currants and a cross either incised on the top of the buns or painted on with a sweet glaze. Here's a typical recipe for hot cross buns.

Hot cross buns!Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!Hot cross buns!
If you haven't any daughters,Give them to your sons!
One a penny, two a penny,Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!Hot cross buns!
If you haven't got a pennyA ha'penny will do.
If you haven't got a ha'penny,Well God bless you.

F is for ...

"I don't know why they call it Good Friday! Hardly good for Jesus, was it?" Well, that is the subject for a sermon and I am no preacher. But whatever your beliefs, the Christian allegory of death and resurrection represented by the cross and the empty tomb remains an eternal, universal and life-enhancing symbol of hope...



Many also believed that Good Friday was the day on which one could plant something in your garden with the sure and certain expectation that it would grow and blossom. I've always remembered this piece of folklore every Good Friday and have wondered at its origin. Thanks to Google I've found the answer... er... answers!

* Good Friday was thought to be a good day for planting seeds inspired by interpreting the Parable of the Sower, in which seeds needs to be planted in the ground in order to bear fruit, as a metaphor for Jesus' necessary death and burial on this day.

* Gardeners and farmers considered Good Friday to be the best day of planting peas, potatoes and parsley because it was the only day of the year when the devil was believed to be powerless. Parsley is notoriously slow to germinate, and very often gardeners would make three sowings - two for the devil and one for the gardener - before getting a crop to come up. They even poured boiling water over the soil before planting to deter the devil and that technique may have actually helped, since parsley germinates faster in warmer soils.

* There was probably also the practical reason for working in the garden on Good Friday in that men were free to work for their own benefit. However, this was not true everywhere; in North Yorkshire in the 1860s, "great care (was) taken not to disturb the earth in any way; it were impious to use spade, plough or harrow… a villager… shocked his neighbours by planting potatoes on Good Friday, but they never came up."

* Many people in the upper Midwest of the USA religiously planted their potato crop on a Good Friday - even when Easter came early and they had to chop their way through icy soil in order to do so!* Some people believe that the moon phases were important to the planting of crops and that potatoes thrive if planted under a full moon and there is always a full moon on Good Friday, or a few days before, or the Saturday/Sunday afterwards.So, there you are: true or not, and whether you're gardening or not, may your day today be a good Good Friday!

Spring is here.

Today is the Vernal Equinox.

That means the Sun will cross directly over the Earth's equator giving us an exactly equal day and night.

From here on out the days will start getting longer than the nights.

Insomniac at work.

Its 2am, and I'm listening to Power 98 on the radio, but I still can't fall asleep...

I got home at a reasonable hour today, stayed awake for a while to chat online with someone in Glasgow, and now I'm tired from tossing and turning around.

Insomnia is a bitch... it's so easy to take something that will make you sleep most of the way through the night, but you never feel truly rested afterwards, and its a dangerous crutch to use too often.

So as I struggle to clear my head, here is a list of things I find myself wanting (in no particular order):
- a new job
- soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies, where the chocolate pulls apart as you eat it .. yums
- to be 10 kgs lighter
- to be free of jealousy
- to be lying next to someone, with him stroking my hair :)
- a steaming bowl of Mom's homemade vegetable soup
- to forgive and forget
- for Max to stay a kitten forever
- to be a number one priority on someone's list
- to pay off all my debts *groan*
- to get 8 hours of uninterrupted, un-pharmaceutically enhanced sleep every night.
- an upcoming weekend of great running-on-the beach weather
- long-time friends to find a little more time to check in on me

Back to the pillow I suppose...

Life is pretty twisted...

The people you think you are immune to, the ones whom you think can't affect you anymore...

They're still the ones that find a way to hurt you the most...

E is for ...

...A new Era in Malaysian Politics.

It's unbelievable, but it's true. The opposition has claimed Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor. A great awakening and truly a milestone in the Malaysian history of politics. I won't go into the nitty gritty of who's got how many seats where, etc. You can read all about it on The Star, the link is on my blogroll. I just want to say that it's possible my fellow countrymen have finally realised that the light at the end of the tunnel is provided by a lamplight held by the opposition and not by BN. The feeling is divine and euphoric.

D is for ...

How do I Define myself? (In Conjunction with International Women's Day)

Who do I say that I am? When asked this, it brought back to mind, a recent conversation with my gal pals; one of them told me about a person she knows that did not seem to have a life outside of her job. No hobbies to speak of, only a handful of friends and even when she would be wise to do so, she refused to stay away from work to rest or recuperate. Now, I don't know this person and therefore I could be mistaken, but it struck me that she might be someone who defines herself solely by the major role she plays in life--her job.

It's extremely easy to get our identities tangled up in our roles at work, or how others may perceive us to be. We end up believing that we are what we do. Undoubtedly this turns out to be a lethal concoction for serious self-limitations and a life-long identity trauma. So, my question is, "What happens to your identity when there is a job switch or when the role ends so that you can no longer identify with it? I often hear of people (perhaps you know some or you could be one of the statistics) who reach a point in life when suddenly they begin to question what they believe about themselves. For example, the high-powered executive who loses her job and its perks when her services are no longer required, or the overdoting parents who never looked outside their roles as mom or dad, and instead found themselves "directionless" when the kids leave home. The all-existential question "Is that all there is?" begins to rear its head, and there are no immediate answers when they've spent all their lives defining themselves primarily as the thing they do.

Hey, we should not view ourselves as such. However it is easy to develop habits such as to pin labels to describe ourselves or to define others. We say them so effortlessly, often than not, we come to think of ourselves and others in one-dimensional terms. "Oh, he's my dentist" or "She's a secretary." And there are even those who describe themselves as "I'm an Atheist" or "I'm a member of the Opposition" and that truly is self-limiting. And how about people we do not like, whom we viciously label as "he's a loser," or "she's a bimbo." Besides the obvious conflicts that such negative labels generate, the danger lies in the fact that we may begin to see others as that and eventually we'll treat them as such. We are not our jobs, our positions in society, our bank balances, or any other possible descriptors. We are human beings, not human doings. We need to be reminded to see ourselves (and others) in large, generous terms.

"So who are you?" Try to define yourself in terms of something besides your job, or a certain group whose beliefs and members you identify with. Learn to recognize that no labels, however broad could ever fully capture the unique, one-of-a-kind essence you. Learn to explore the vast possibilities that will come when we let go of limiting one-dimensional labels of ourselves and of others! Imagine the gifts that could be unleashed into our world when we begin to see ourselves and everyone around us as unique! Take a peek in this box labelled "YOU" and uncover hidden treasures when you dare to give up those lame "job description" versions of yourself . The world is waiting for YOU.

Thank God For Chocolate!

I love desserts, and right now I would kill for a Chocolate Banana Cake from Secret Recipe. Actually I would probably kill for lesser things, like a chocolate cupcake. Sigh. Well, in lieu of cake, I'm going to make do with a list of sugar coated songs.. How many can you come up with?
This Friday's list of songs are about sweets and sweethearts. Here's my list! Which one do you like best of all?
1. Candy and a Currant Bun - Pink Floyd
2. Chocolate Cake - Crowded House
3. Candy Everybody Wants - 10000 Maniacs
4. Savoy Truffles - The Beatles
5. Sweet Like Chocolate - Shanks and Bigfoot (Wasn't sure who sang it, so I googled it)
And number 6 is a bonus that I couldn't quite resist:
6. My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small (dedicated to Aud and ShY)

Gaming Euphemisms for the late Gary Gygax (R.I.P)

Gary Gygax wasn't the father of Dungeons and Dragons. He was the weird uncle that lived in the basement, painted lead miniatures, and could expound on the twelve different types of polearm weapons. So it's understandable that gamers might have trouble talking about it openly. Instead, here are some ways to refer to Gygax's untimely passing…you know, without really saying it:

When referring to Gygax's death, you can say he:

1) Started a new character sheet.
2) Is looking for a ninth-level cleric.
3) Failed his save vs. death magic.
4) Is food for purple worms.
5) Immediately became an NPC.
6) Finished the Doritos.
7) Has gone pips up.
8) Is pushing up shriekers.
9) Cashed in his gold pieces.
10) Took the first step to lichdom.
11) Went ethereal.
12) Kicked on the end of a spear.
13) Didn't make his system shock roll.
14) Bought the farm in Hommlet.
15) Is taking a dice nap.
16) Has gone to meet Zagyg.
17) Rolled his last natural 20.
18) Went against the giants.
19) Joined the gaming table invisible.
20) Is sleeping with the sahuagin.
21) Drew the Void.
22) Ended the campaign.
23) Kicked the dice bag.
24) Retired Mordenkainen.
25) Got screwed by the DM.

Possibilities.

57%

C is for ..

...Little Miss Curious.

The proverbial expression 'curiosity killed the cat', is usually used when attempting to stop someone asking unwanted questions. The frequent rejoinder is 'satisfaction brought it back'. I have a question though, how fine is the line between being nosy and being curious.

Have you ever wondered why we are naturally curious? Curiosity is the Christopher Columbus in all of us, sailing beyond the horizon of our understanding to bring back potatoes from new worlds of knowledge. They say curiosity killed the cat, but it also made its other eight lives far more enjoyable. Dogs are also naturally curious but are only really interested in smells. Humans are curious about virtually everything except smells.

Curiosity is pushing buttons, turning corners and opening doors for no other reason than to see what happens - 75% of accidents occur as a direct result of curiosity, especially trying to answer the questions, "Can I reach that?" and, "How does that work?"

There is a fine line between an inquiring mind and a big nose. Nosy parkers are mostly interested in other people's business, armed with the pathetic excuse that they don't know whether or not it's their business until they've had a sniff around. Like nymphomania, curiosity can never be satisfied. Answering one question always leads on to another, like a never-ending game of passing the parcel.

Curiosity is one of the main motors of the internet today. If people didn't have so many questions, it wouldn't provide so many answers. Curiosity also means the rejection of face value. In cultures where face is important, curiosity and questioning are not encouraged. The scientific revolution took place in Europe largely because of inherent nosiness and lack of respect for the opinions of others.

You can measure how curious you are by how many questions you ask. Some people manage to live blissfully without ever asking who, why, when, where or how. The advanced form of curiosity is to be very interested in what fate serves up to you without asking a lot of questions beforehand. This doesn't normally happen because curiosity and patience rarely go hand in hand. Why not? Good question.