Feminist, I am.

For those of you who don't know me, I consider myself a feminist. Not an overly fanatical one but definitely a passionate one. I want to draw your attention to the fact that sometimes, when writing articles, people tend to specify women who are involved in crimes. Here's what I mean;

1. an article about and international drug syndicate which was busted:
"The man then led the police to three others, including a foreigner and a woman, who are believed to be his accomplices"
A foreigner and a woman. Now, what about the third accomplice (who is most probably a man)? Why only mention the woman and foreigner?

2. an article about a begging syndicate:
"The syndicate involving 14 Chinese nationals, including four women, was busted ....."
Here we see that the fact that four women were involved was stressed.

3. an article about a betting syndicate:
"In the raid, police arrested 17 people including, 5 women, who were receiving bets on various sports, including football, tennis and basketball."
Again, it's the women that were mentioned, not men, even though there were men involved.

4. an article about a gambling:
"The police arrested 20 people, including two women, for gambling at a four start hotel"
Only two women, but still, the men aren't worth mentioning.

Do you, like me, see a pattern here? The women are always the ones being brought forward even though men are equally involved and guilty. Why is it so impossible that women could be involved in such things? I'm not saying it's a good thing but isn't it sexism when you make it a point to mention women and only the women and not men? Why can't it be just '20 people' or '15 men and 5 women'?

If you're argument is; "It's just so unbelievable that women, the fairer sex, could be involved in such crimes"
Then my argument is; "It's unbelievable for any one, regardless of gender to be involved in any kind of crime. By constantly stressing the women who are involved, you're saying "Women shouldn't do this, but it's normal for men to do it". Well, I think that's wrong. Also, I feel that women should have equal rights as men do, and that includes being treated equally when it comes to criminal cases. The women who are involved are just as guilty as the men are and shouldn't be brought forward just because they're women.

*****

Alright, moving on to school. It's been fun learning BM, something I never thought was possible. Economics, on the other hand, isn't as easy. I've missed 5 chapters and that's a lot to catch up on. I've continuously found myself lost in a maze in every Economics class. I'm slowly getting it but more often then not, I feel teary when it comes the the exercises.

My classmates are quite fun. They're very different than my old school friends and I think that's because of the different area's we grew up in. I'll adapt, as I've mentioned before, and things will be OK. I'm sure. I just need a little more time.

Have We Really Lost It?

Here's something I really want to talk about. I've realised that the Malaysian Censorship Board (that's what I'm calling it but I'm not too sure) has been on overdrive lately. I understand their purpose (thanks to Pengajian Am when we learn about all kinds of Governmental Boards in this country), but I don't think they do. Yes, this is Malaysia and we are definitely a more sheltered country compared to others but their idea of censor-worthy words is becoming ridiculous. You do want to sieve out obscenity and vulgarity, I'm all for that. I realise that they're just being protective of our young minds. However, once you start censoring words that are not in itself obscene or vulgar, you lose whatever hold you have left. Here are some examples of words that have been censored (as far as I've realised):

SONGS

1. I Need You Now by Lady Antebellum - whiskey
2. If I Were A Boy by Beyonce - beer
3. Unfaithful by Rihanna - gun
4. I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry - the word 'girl'

TV SHOWS

1. The word 'beach'
2. The word 'virginia'

I'm sure there are more, but I'm just too riled up to remember.

Come on lah! (sometimes adding the 'Lah' at the end gives a sentence more weight. Haha :P ) Do you really think that censoring the words 'beer' and 'whiskey' is going to stop us from drinking? Those words aren't just in songs. In fact, they're everywhere. Supermarkets, hypermarket catalogs, big banners in front of bars. Also, we are not dumb. I'm sure almost all of us found out about beer and whiskey, not from songs, but from somewhere else (family? friends? refrigerators in 7-Eleven? drunk relatives who surely didn't get it from songs?). It's everywhere, and we young ones know about it so what's the point of ruining the flow of a nice song by censoring words that won't make much of a difference?

On top of that, there's the whole 'gun' thing. That particular song is about a girl who is unfaithful to her significant other and she knows that he knows, but he's too much of a gentleman to ask her straight up. She feels that she's killing him slowly with her unfaithfulness, so she sings this; 'I might as well take a gun and put it to his head, get it over with, I don't want to to this anymore.... I don't want to be a murderer'. That's it. So why do you think we won't guess what the word is? And why is it you feel the need to censor the word 'gun' but not 'murderer'? With all that's out there in the world, do you think we won't be able to find other ways to kill someone rather than shooting them? (I'm not saying we're all murderers. I'm just giving an example). Also, a lot of the shows on TV nowadays have guns (Gerak Khas & Cops, anyone?). What do you want us to call them? A weapon? Yeah, that sounds loads better. It doesn't bring up an image of a killing spree at all. (Sorry for the heavy sarcasm, but I feel it's needed here).

Moving on to the word 'girl' (Yes, you can expect a comment about each word I have mentioned above). Yes, I understand that the singer is a woman so when she sings that she kissed a girl, she's implying lesbianism and we don't want that for our children, but isn't this where parenting comes in? My mother raised me to be a good person. I'm not always good but I try my best. I was born into and raised by a Catholic family (not a very prayerful one, granted) and I was taught that homosexuality is unacceptable. However, I was also brought up to understand and adapt to the modern world where homosexuality is starting to be accepted. No, I, personally, do not accept homosexuality but neither do I shun it. They are people too and whatever issues they have, they're going to have to take it up with their maker, not me. So yeah, I disagree with that lifestyle choice but who are we to judge them? If you want to protect your children from it, teach them at home, bring them up to be what you want them to be but do not, do not, shelter them from the world. If anything, take them by the hand, show them the world in all it's glory and darkness and impart you wisdom on them so that they know what is right and what is wrong and how they can choose their own paths. If they go the way you do not like, try your best to bring them home, but it's ultimately up to them. Gone are the days when you can blame a child's choices solely on their parent. We have minds of our own and we do what we want, mostly according to what our parents brought us up to do, but sometimes, those decisions have no connection whatsoever to the ways of our parents. It's what we were taught, but also how that small idea, planted in us by our parents, grow thanks to our own individuality. *Phew* In a nutshell, I don't think that censoring that word is very smart step.

Next, we have 'beach' and 'virginia'. For the first, I think the Censorship Board confused itself with another word of striking resemblance when said aloud (I'm sure you all know the word. If you do not then that's a testimony to all the work put in by the Board). As for the second, I'm quite sure they felt that the first two syllables were dangerous. Before I go any further, I'd like to draw your attention to the MUET (Malaysian University English Test) that all us 6th Formers and University graduates have to pass. It states in the course aims that 'all candidates should be able to derive the meaning of words from context'. Now, let's get back to the censored word 'beach'. When someone says, "Let's go the the beach. The sand and sun will be good for you", I'm sure we all know that what they mean is the 'beach'. Alas, I am mistaken. The censorship board thinks that it's the otherword. So much for deriving the meaning from context. And then there's the word 'virginia' which is obviously a proper noun (kata nama khas, in BM), and is most probably a name of a person or place. But no, the censorship board feels that this noun is too dangerous to be displayed in full no matter how proper it is. Therefore, they decided to silence the first two syllables and leave us only with the 'nia' sound. Oh well, I guess we'll all be wondering what she meant when she said, "Let's go visit mother at *****nia *****".

Gosh! This is so enraging. How can the people who work in the Malaysian Censorship Board be so clueless?? Aren't they all qualified? Aren't the senior authorities qualified? Where is their common sense?

Go ahead and censor words like the F and B and whatever other alphabet they start with for being vulgar, obscene, rude and for ruining the flow of good, mature conversations but please do your research first because censoring a word like 'virginia' just because you don't want you child to hear the word 'virgin' or the word 'beach' because it sounds too similar to the other variety is just plain dumb.

Maybe we should all retake our MUET.

Bummer

Magic onion was a no go. It didn't work out (for those of you who laughed when you read yesterday's post, I guess I set myself up for it to begin with). Anyway, my flu, instead of getting better, got a lot worse. My fever was raging all through the day and is only just calming down now. My nose is complete blocked and my body feels terribly weak. I've also lost a lot of weight, which is normal for me when I get sick.

The last time I had the flu was on the 7th of December. It wasn't this bad, though. Just the flu, sans the fever. I felt much better then. Imagine, it's only been 2 days in my new school, and I have to skip the rest of the week. All thanks to this abysmal virus. Well, hopefully I'll feel better by Monday. I have a lot of catching up to do and I really need to be healthy. I'm psyched to do the best I can for Form 6 and Monday is when I really start. I don't mean just academically either. They have a Catholic Students Society in LSPJ and I want to get involved. I'm going t o have to build up a lot of physical strength to handle the travelling and distance but I'm sure that won't be a problem. I can adapt.

Here, I want to mention a blog I came across. It's about a lady who is on a mission. Her blog is called New Dress A Day. It's awesome. She gets dresses, for a dollar each from thrift shops, and reinvents them. One dress each day. 365 days, 365 dollars, 365 dresses. This is perfect for the mood I'm in right now. I've always loved sewing and modifying my old clothes and her blog gives me a lot of ideas. Sure, I lack a sewing machine and any real training and knowledge in actual sewing, but that's nothing I can't work on. I have a few great ideas for some old clothes that I have, but I need a sewing machine, so that's my next goal. To get myself a sewing machine. I've always had this interest in old things. Old cars, old decors, and old styles. So, it's only natural that I want an old sewing machine. The totally manual kind, where I have to use my leg to keep it going. However, once I looked at some of the sewing machines for sale, the motor one's actually makes more sense. I can even sew stretchy materials with it as opposed to the traditional machine that one has once kind of stitch. I'm weighing my options and hopefully, once I have enough money, I'll get a good sewing machine. (They're not cheap, new ones. So, I wouldn't mind a second-hand sewing machine)

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to feel miserable again. See Blog ya later!

The Weird Girl and Magic Onion

So far, the new school has been good to me. They have very high standards but I think I'll be able to keep up if I work at it. I have two subjects to catch up on, BM and Economy, which I have never taken before. I'll work hard this year so that by next year, I'll be on the same level as everyone else. It's alot of work but I'm confident I can do it. I just need to keep reminding myself not to slack off (which is more of a habit than anything with me).

As for the people, they're not too bad either. Since everyone is new to me, it's been easier to fit in. They very friendly and although they're not on the same wavelength as me (I'm not holding myself to a higher standard, I just don't think the way most people do), but they're definitely closer to it than my other friends. Of course, I'm obviously under-exposed, being the Shah Alam raised girl that I am, so this might be a good experience. I'm having fun, for sure. Maybe giving more of myself to this school experience will make things even better so we'll see how it goes. As for now, I'm going to try as hard as I can to catch up and get into this Form 6 thing a little more whole-heartedly.

Moving on, I have the FLU! Argh! Not again. :( But do not fret, I say, for I have come across and ancient (not so ancient actually but it sounds nicer) form of remedy. It is said that to be rid of this wretched virus, all I have to do is place an onion in a bowl on my night stand while I sleep. When I wake up, I should be healed. Ergo, I will try out this ancient magic and let you know how I feel tomorrow. If it works, I shall be singing praises to God for his almighty wonders and if it does not go my way, I shall still sing to the glory of God for such a wondrously delicious fruit (I love onions by the way)
:)

I would love to give you an introduction to my classmates, but since I don't know them enough and I'm in no condition for another long post, I'll leave it here for now and get back to you tomorrow, if and hopefully when, the onion remedy works.

Blueberry + Free Time + Recipe Book =

BLUEBERRY CUPCAKES!
It didn't take me long at all. I had all the ingredients so I just made it. Although, they didn't turn out very well. I think I might have over filled the paper cases because the cupcakes overflowed and they look kind of deflated. Passing oer the looks, however, they actually taste good. The butter cupcake is sweet and then once you bite into a blueberry you get a kick. A little chocolate on top wouldn't be too bad either.

not exactly an award-winning cupcake
but ILIKEIT!

Anyway, cupckaes aside, we (as in Aunty Lucy, my brother and I) are going to watch the Reluctant Saint musical tonight. I'm not really looking forward to it that much but it might turn out to be quite fun. We'll see.

Awesome Day with Angel on Earth

Here are some of the pictures from last night:

Models for the day

June My Dear

Please say 'Yes'

Haha.. Syok Sendiri:)

After Dinner

Heavenly Dessert

Angel is Flying Away..

OK, the past two posts have been more on the serious, in-depth side. Let's move to a lighter area now. I want to talk about changing schools. I've decided to flit to LaSalle. Ma took my request to PPD and now we're just waiting for it to be processed. It takes two working days, or so they say. It's been almost a week now and they still haven't processed it yet so I'm still waiting. I already told people that I'm leaving so all that's left now is to actually go.

I really can't wait to go. It's going to be a whole new place. I'll spend time in CERiA after school and maybe hang out around that area. No more sitting at home alone all day.

However, with great opportunity comes heavy sacrifices. I had to quit my job. I really would have loved to stay but right now, I have to focus on my Form 6 and that includes English Literature classes which happen to be at the same time as my working hours. So, I had to leave. :(

Anyway, today was Angel's last day in Friday's. We had a girls night out. It was awesome. We ate in Friday's and then had a photo shoot that lasted more than an hour. After that, when dinner had finally been digested, we headed to Haagen Dazs for dessert. Angel treated us to the Chocolate Fondue. It was delicious! The chocolate was just heavenly. By the end of it, I was so full that I could barely walk.

The photo shoot was by far the best part. We went to a variety of places and spots. The best was of course the "Shadow Shoot" where we took pictures with the light behind us so that you could only see our silhouettes. Daisy was a great director:) Anyway, I left around 9.30pm because I have school tomorrow. The other's are still there, probably hanging out at the mamak store.

I'm going to miss Angel. She's been so awesome. I can't wait till she comes back here. Hopefully, she'll get the job she wants. Then we'll see her more. Yay! Bye Angel! Safe flight and till we meet again!

*Oh, I'll post the pictures once I get them:) They're awesome!

Divine Humour

God is a funny man. When I was feeling so upset and frustrated with almost everything, I found a way out. A new adventure to take my mind away from the darkness. Once I get there, I won't feel like this anymore and things will get better. Just as I confirm my leaving, he springs on me some beautiful moments. It's like he's testing me, trying to see if I really want to this new chapter for myself and not for some obscure reason like escape.

The very same day I took the first step of a new adventure, he showed me that I'm not a loser in everyone's eyes. Not everyone thinks I'm nothing. The next day, he shows me that I wont be forgotten, that I have friends who will actually miss me. After that, I just felt so happy to be where I was that I started wondering; 'maybe I'm not supposed to leave'. But no, I'm leaving anyway, because I know that if I stay I'll fall back down. These moments I was gifted with were not meant to make me stay. In fact, they were planted in my life just to give me some confidence and to help me understand that everything I want in life is possible. Also, I realised that I'm not someone who can stay in one place for too long. My biggest fear is being stuck in a routine my entire life. That's not me and I wont let that happen. I'm going to make sure my life is an adventure all the way. I want to explore and experience. I'm working on it and I'll make sure it happens.

Crossroads

Everything seems like it's falling apart. Work is going haywire with my schedule being off every week, school is getting unbearable with friendless days, and everything else is just out of control. I don't know what to do. I just feel like I need to escape this and go somewhere new. A fresh start might be a good idea. It's not easy, of course. Changing schools is a lot more than just moving from one place to another. I have to figure out work, transportation, scheduling, time off, fees, books and even friends. It wont be easy on me or on ma and I'm sorry, but I can't take this anymore. Ma suggested giving it a month, since nothing in my life is stable now, maybe the time will help. I disagree. Time wont make it better. Instead, time has made things worse. If I stay here much longer, I don't know how much of 'me' will be left.

World Stage momentarily made things worth while, but the energy has faded now and I'm left with nothing but the bare pain of school. As soon as I stepped into school, I was back where I didn't want to be. Getting good grades in some of my papers was lifting but not enough and soon I sank back down.

I know that transferring school will take a lot of work and hassle. Something both I and ma have to face. I'm sorry for burdening you with this. It's my heartache but you bear it too and I thank you for that.

..This way ain't working so I'm going that way instead..

To quote Harry Potter in Prizoner of Azkaban:

"Anywhere is better than here!"

Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon

*Drawings are proudly presented by me:) It's what happens when I'm in school^^

*The signpost was inspired by India Jones

*The dragon is the Horntail from The Triwizard Tournament

*The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Crest (more or less:))

MTV World Stage Asia 2010

Everything was awesome. We (June, Aishah, Fieka, Me) had lunch in Fullhouse. It was quite good. My favourite was the Mushroom Soup and the Ice Lemon Tea.

Lunch!

We're waiting for the food..

So full!

 After lunch we walked around the Fullhouse Store for a while before heading to the entrance of Sunway Lagoon. It wasn't as bad as we expected. We had to line up for about 40 minutes or so but it was fun. We met up with Daisy & her Korean friends and Ling & her friends. While the line was moving, we lost track of Daisy and her gang. Then Ling went missing and finally June managed to squeeze in between the bars and follow Daisy up ahead, which left me with one of Ling's friend. As soon as we got in, it started to rain. we got some cool MTV raincoats which kept us reasonably dry.

yay! we finally got in!

wet and waiting

soaked and barefooted

The surf beach in Sunway Lagoon was drained but our shoes got wet in the rain anyway :)
The spot we chose was quite good at first. We saw Bunkface quite clearly. I'm not a huge local music fan but they we're not bad. After Bunkface, we moved to the back to join Ling and gang. It was quite clear there and we enjoyed Wondergirls eventhough we didnt understand any of the Korean Songs.

Wonderfull!

aah!

*tongue out*

 After singing incoherently to the Wondergirls, Ling and I moved to the left side where there was less people and we had a really good view of the stage. It took a while for the next artist to come out due to some technical issues but once Tokio Hotel started, we were all jumping up and down going crazy. They were awesome! I would like to state, at this time, that Tokio Hotel is going on my list of the most awesome bands ever! We sang along to every song and we we're dancing like crazy. Around this time, we saw Aqil. He was taking pictures of everything. With him there, things got alot more crazier. I even got a chance to use his huge and really heavy camera. That thing was really something. He got some good shots of Katy Perry. There was one where she was looking right at him. Of course, the pictures I took were terrible. I did get an almost nice shot of the violently pink guitar during Katy Perry's performance.

Thinking of you Katy!

After the Katy Perry, which was supposed to be the last performance, Wondergirls gave us an encore. By this time, alot of people went home so we managed to squeeze into the front. We were so close the I could actually see their faces clearly on stage. I was pumped!

My first live concert experince was awesome. I'm definitely going again next year!

Thanks june for taking me!

I HAD A BLAST!