Saturday, April 28, 2007

huckleberry

That would be a pretty howdy-do, wouldn't it?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will make you feel like a boy on a crazy adventure. Which is one of the best feelings in the world.

My brother is back from bmt for a bit. We picked him up for the first time last night after his first 2 weeks. A clump of parents were crowding around the bus door, yes the door where their boys (oh i mean men) emerged, no doubt to manly slaps and motherly hugs. We stood rather far from that scene, in front of the mrt station, with another group of parents/girlfriends/grandmas/siblings. It was lovely because there was an old indian man standing by the side, barely lit by the street lamps, but his music just floating through the night as all these people awaited. He played on his electric guitar some early rock and roll, some elvis, donny osmond (a song about paper planes). He played so simply and his singing was nice. Oh it was lovely and nostalgic. What made a man come out of his house on a friday night to stand in a dark corner and play, when it's obvious he won't get much money at all? I guess he just loved doing it, which is the loveliest thing of all.

We watched Elvis: The Lost Performances in my auntie's room and baby was dancing, they were all dancing. Now Elvis is cool. That white suit! With a v all the way to his stomach, and the bell bottoms. And his hair with those sideburns, and his mighty gold rings. "you ain't!" (nothin but a hound dog) Elvis the Pelvis. Elvis is lovely.

We're leaving in 2 weeks. And you can say that i am very desperate to get my hands on a beautiful hardcover copy of harry potter and the deathly hallows, oh to touch that embossed cover and see the tiny stars in the book and just paying for the bloody book and i am very desperate to just sit and read and not know the ending from any little kid i'm buckling up on a rollercoaster. does it sound crazy? but you have to be irrational, or what, risk hearing 'Harry died! Snape killed him!' and then you can just knock your head against the wall. so, dear friends, pray for our success in this important quest. and though i may sound irrational, it is the last book of the series, which i've read since i was 10 or 11. there's just going to be madness when it comes out. someone won't leave her house till her mother goes out -to the danger zone- and buys the book, they're setting up counselling helplines in case someone important in the book dies, people might get arrested for revealing the ending (hopefully!!!!!!!!!), tv stations forbidden from mentioning the ending. crazy things are going to happen to the muggle world, beware!

lumos!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

earthlike planet

Scientists find most Earthlike planet yet

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18293978/

Mankind's rarest view: Earth from afar

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18202449/

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

libre!

keeping an eye on the world going by my window

Is it fer real?! I just had me last exam. Of the first year of university.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still feel like it wasn't long ago I was sitting in literature class in jc and everyone was stubbornly staring downwards as Harris posed a question, or sitting around the garden tables in the magical sunlight.

Ah.....!

French words are swirling in my head as the last exam was French and the comprehension passage was horoscope predictions. And one of the later questions was something like, Quelle exactement vous commencez a etudier pour cette examen? And the answer was Depuis le___. So i filled in 'matin aujourd'hui'. And some other thing i wrote water from the hill. Je ne sais pas! Je veux acheter des choses pour ma nouvelle chambre mais mon pere ne me permets pas. Je veux lire les livres 3,4,5,6 de harry potter et vivre sans ma famille, donc je peux faire de la cuisine, faire la maison, rester a mon lit pendant la nuit et penser des choses. Nous allons demenager et cette maison, il me manque. Ma chambre est merveilleux pendant la nuit.

Whats-her-name and i are leaving in 18 days!! Oh my, oh my. Scuttle scuttle. Choose a suitcase. Make a list. Call America. Pack everything. Instruct family. Leave for adventure. Take 50 hours of plane rides. Have a lovely time. You know before you leave for somewhere there are things you unconsciously somehow fix in your head, things you think you are going to see? I keep thinking and being excited about...flea markets, quaint shops, people with mad hair, little theatre shows. I have also imagined new york through Catcher in the rye and Extremely loud and incredibly close. Holden and Oskar. Oskar....

There's so much to do you could just lie in bed all night, covered by your warm sheets, staring at the smooth ceiling, thinking about it.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

rattail

Rattail braids














http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattail_%28haircut%29
pictures from flickr people who like taking rattails

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

whoo











WHOOO

sheriff











A sheriff and her horse

Monday, April 16, 2007

mon frere et moi













Trees
, swaying in the summer breeze
showing off their silver leaves
as we walk by

Sunday, April 15, 2007

let it be

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me

Mary in the song was Paul's mother. And when he sings 'When i wake up to the sound of music' he means Yesterday. The last time i woke up to any sound of music was C.R.A.Z.Y, drifting in one morning with peach curtains and light blue walls. I have to admit that I am extremely, maybe overly, seduced by the idea of a family home. All the cans in the kitchens, baked beans, pineapples, tuna, functional kitchen counters, toilets filled with crazy soaps and towels and littered with gross clothes, messy bedrooms with bookcases, ticket stubs and forms and letters strewn around. I don't really know why.

My grandmother bought her urn yesterday. (Insane!) It cost $8000 and she got one for my grandfather too, for whenever he is exhumed. She says it's normal and some friends do it. She found it shocking and weird when i asked about keeping her ashes like they do in movies. Anyway i just want to keep a little of her in a pendant, her mixed with my grandfather. But then it is crazy to think that someday she will be reduced to ashes. All those wrinkles, her moronic moles and icky curly hair and spider veins and fat hips and bunion.

Dammit.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

NS

Gones are the day...

where boys had to queue up to call their family/girlfriend using 10 cent public phones in NS. My friends, my brother went to NS today! We took a ferry to pulau tekong (some parts of it that spread out from the island seemingly untouched looked a little like the beach in The Return, with all that sky). Oh but before that, at the terminal, when we just arrived, this guy was walking around looking rather severely at all the 'enlistees' and saying things. When he came to us (remember we had barely arrived) he ordered my brother, 'Tuck in.' in front of us!! I had to laugh. Boys around were tucking in their shirts into their low jeans or already had them tucked in. And there were all these huge photos plastered on the walls, the army's publicity. 'Every soldier is a leader'. Ooooh. And after that, as you walk towards the ferry, a whole stretch of such awe-inspiring words hung from the ceiling, like Perseverance, Professionalism, Courage, Human Spirit and things like that. Well my father started rattling on 'Professionalism! Makes me think of my NS time. Wah...they told me to take a week off and go to the library and research to write a speech for the minister of defence. in the end i was so proud when mine was chosen. he was saying his speech then wah, how come sound like my one ah?' Who knows how he did it. But anyway, he was being fascinated with the parents booklet in the ferry. Everyone was strangely quiet and he said 'Eh, to be chosen as an officer, you must consistently show your abilities leh' (i know he really wants my brother to be an officer. p.s. i found out to my horror and amusement that he was once ns man of the year) So when we got to the island we were given a tour around, and at the bunks, our guide said to all the curious family members and friends things like 'As you can see! there is a mosquito net above the bed! this is to prevent mosquito bites!' and 'the cupboard is designed well. it has a drawer for your son to put his personal belongings! he can put his wallet and handphone inside this drawer!' but the funny moment came in the auditorium after the lieutenant colonel (a nice guy, but who said things like 'building brocks' and 'gones are the day' and 'it is very importance') invited the audience to ask questions and this father stood up and said, 'I am for the concept of national service, but it is very discomforting to read of fatalities in the paper. how can you ensure that there will be no torturing and what systems do you have in place...?' Oh what a tickling moment. But no one laughed. And my brother just seemed fine with everything. It felt strange thinking that he was in NS. It is sort of an adventure i guess, going into the forest and firing guns, but a really long one that you have no control over. I just hope he has fun with the people in his section and if he gets tortured I'll kill 'em. He called back earlier and sounded nicer already. I miss him.

'Where boys become men'.....

Friday, April 06, 2007

home

Someone to run with

Today we went out for hours to many places looking at furniture and lights. I got a stained glass purple and blue mosaic hanging ceiling lamp from a man called john and a simple black chandelier (though this word makes it sound grand and pompous) from ikea where we measured bookcases and stood in front of wardrobes feeling sad. (Also saw a punk in a carpark with a mohawk and many piercings, cleaning out his car) This whole idea of a HOME...is so elusive and yet is something everyone has a warm image of inside. A place where you can just be. Maybe the only place in the world you can just be. And it's easy to get so worked up about what is going to be in it and where because that is what makes it your world and the world you are imagining inside and you just want it to look like what you are dreaming of, when actually, all you are yearning for is a peaceful and free feeling, and not exactly the furniture. Maybe it's like how everyone wants to be loved and how, quoting a book, 'Even your yearning for sex is really a dyslexic search for love'. I don't know how all this might explain itself but maybe that's why it makes me sad that no one in my family has any faith in me or my room and almost all think it will look awful and have no bloody fudging theme.