Theme-less; Just The Way I Like It.

I've been wondering, maybe I should have a theme for my blog. Write about one specific field or something.

Hahahaha! No, my blog does not have a theme. I'm not going to pick a field of interest and stick to blogging only about said interest. A lot of people can do that, because they're good at it. Not me. I cannot stick to just 'art' or 'politic'. My blog cannot have a theme because I cannot stick to one.

This blog is about what goes on in my brain. That's why I started it. I need somewhere I can just let out whatever is in my brains and heart, much like a diary. This is my digital journal. I don't post uber personal stuff here mostly because I don't have much of an uber personal life. So, I mostly write about things that tickle my fancy or ignites a spark or whatever I'm keen on at the moment.

That's it, really. That's all this blog is about. I want this to be a record of stuff that I do in my life. I want to be able to look back at random on one of my posts and think, "that really did happen, didn't it?". If at the same time, I happen to amuse you with my slow, quick-wit or my highly sophisticated bordering on silly sarcasm, then I'm glad I could help.

I like writing and this is my writing tool. I have to remember to thank the creators of Google and Blogger. They're both pretty smart people. Probably pretty and smart... (guys can be pretty, right?)

Anyway, I also want to thank people who've read this blog, or is reading it now. Even though I can't see you and you probably don't exist, thanks for tuning in. I hope I haven't assaulted your intelligence. Seriously, my mad skills of sarcasm can be pretty deadly. And dry humour. (Wait, do people pour water on their computers to make wet humour?)

Oh well, whatever it is, I'm going to keep this up. Maybe more exciting things will happen in my life and I might get smarter which in turn will make this blog a lot more interesting.

For now, toodles folks. I've got some butterscotch sauce to eat!

Improvising Fatherhood, a Nate Smith Blog

I stumbled upon this blog a few days ago. It's called "Improvising Fatherhood". It's about 'the comedy about being a dad'. Nate Smith, who is an improv comedian decided to start this blog to record his journey through fatherhood. The main star is, of course, his son Chandler.

Because Nate Smith is a comedian, he has this amazing ability to laugh at anything and make you laugh at anything. He finds laughter and projects it well. Just by reading his posts, I can tell how much he loves his son and his wife and being a father.

I stayed up reading about three quarters of his entire blog. I saw the little man grow up from foetus to 2 years and 3 months old. He's such an adorable baby.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to mention this blog is because I think it's amazing. Nate Smith and his wife are two really funny people who seem to be taking parenthood in their strides. They're having fun and are learning just as much as Baby Chandler is.

I think it's a great idea to document their son's life like this. Who knows what the baby will think when he's all grown up, but for now, this is a great read.

It's really cool to read about the simple things Chandler does that totally mesmerises Nate. Things like calling his father 'Eeeeee!' or dancing when he thinks no one is looking. Add to that how awed Nate gets when his son learns something new. Babies can bring real joy to someone's life and it's wonderful to see just how much joy this one little kid can grant his parents.

Nate can be pretty funny about Chandler, taking pictures and making up stuff that he imagines Chandler would say. It's a lot of fun. Everytime I read it, I can just laugh out loud and completely feel the love they have for each other.

So, I hope people who read this (if there are any) would check out this blog.
Improvising Fatherhood - the comedy about being a dad.

Me lost. You help?

I'm having a little bit of a cosmetic issue with my blog right now. I want it to be colourful and the header to reflect who I am, but it's not going too well. I've changed my layout and template so often; even I don't know what my concept is anymore. I need some serious help!

It used to have a black background with colourful text and what not. I've changed that to white for a lighter look but I'm suddenly lost on the colour. What should I do? Which way should I go? Colourful? Or pick a theme? Should I keep the white background or maybe add some colour? Maybe add a lot of colour??

And what of my header? I can't think of a suitable header or blog title. Right now, it's "A Big Bowl of Something". I chose that in an attempt to capture the variety in my blog but it sounds so... alphabet soupy. I cannot remember what I called it when I first started but I know that for the most part, my blog title was "One Day at a Time", which is really a reflection on how I live my life.

I've toyed around with the idea of just using my name as the title but that seems so generic when I do it. I've tried other stuff too, like "Words" ('cause I my blog is basically a writing blog. No picture, just thousands of words) and "Bloop Bloop Bloop" ('cause Mina says I sometimes look like a fish). These titles I am not satisfied with. They're flat. There's no real life in them at all.

I need something that really pops. Something with some life and some pizazz! Something enticing that will make you go, "Hey now, this sounds like it could be an interesting blog to explore" or "I don't mind spending sometime reading something with a title like that!"

I need a header that captures the essence of who I am and therefore, what my blog is like. I am an idealistic, old fashioned, food loving over thinker with an unusual love of words who is sort of anti social. How to I get that all in a few short words? This is going to require the help of many brains at work.

Anyone, anyone at all who has any suggestions whatsoever as to what might work in this part of cyberspace, please drop a comment! :) Anything at all will be helpful. Maybe you have some ideas on a title or even a theme I could consider. All is welcomed. I just need some fresh ideas to get my own juices flowing.

Cheers!

Kaleidoscope.
Yes? No? Maybe?

New Stuff!

It it just me, or has everyone's Blogger Dashboard changed? This is super weird. I don't go online for less than 2 days and everything has changed. I'm quite lost in this new design. It's all so uber sophisticated and sleek. I don't like it at all :(

It reminds me of one of those new kitchens with stainless steel everywhere and black counter tops. So lifeless, so steely. Oh well, I adapt easily. This won't be too hard. Right?

Anyways, I'm here to tell the world (because I'm so happy about it) that Mama bought us an Amazon Kindle!! Yes, one of Oprah Winfrey's favourite things! In fact, it was her show that introduced me to it in the first place. An eBook Reader of awesome proportions.

Mama ordered it from Amazon.com and had it shipped here with the help of a friend. We bought an orange leather casing to go with it. It's beautiful. When I first saw it, it looked so fake, like a toy. It's the E Ink Pearl Technology. I downloaded some classics from Amazon, like War and Peace and The Legend of King Arthur. Mum got some of her own romance novels. We're having lots of fun figuring it out.

Reading on the Kindle is not that much different than reading an actual book. Of course, the experience of reading a real book is slightly better, but the Kindle fairs pretty well, especially when you're travelling or if you have no idea what you want to read (because you can bring along so many books).

Anyway, only another 40 minutes till I can taste my Brandy and Chocolate Mousse thingy. Yum!

Message from the Feilds of Battle..

*****encrypted******

!taK
,tenL siht uoy thiw eb ecroF eht yaM

!kcul em hsiW .niaga gnitirw trats ot ma I fi desucof niamer ot evah I dna noziroh eht dnoyeb tsuj yrotciv esnes nac I .thgim lluf thiw kcab gnithgif er'yeht tub degamad ylsuoires neeb evah sreidlos nwo yM .edutissaL fo ymrA eht yb egeis redun llits m'I sa og nac I sa raf sa si siht ,won roF .noos fles lluf ym niager ll'I yllufepoh dna suriv siht thgif ot tseb ym gniyrt m'I .taht rof esigolopa ylerecnis I .reggolB no ereh dah evah thgim I sthguoht yna tuo gnipyt fo elbapacni em tfel taht ssenizal fo tuob a yb tih neeb ev'I .skeew wef tsap siht uoy gnitcelgen rof yrros m'I

,dlroWgolB raeD

*****decrypted******

Dear BlogWorld,

   I'm sorry for neglecting you this past few weeks. I've been hit by a bout of laziness that left me incapable of typing out any thoughts I might have had here on Blogger. I sincerely apologise for that. I'm trying my best to fight this virus and hopefully I'll regain my full self soon. For now, this is as far as I can go as I'm still under siege by the Army of Lassitude. My own soldiers have been seriously damaged but they're fighting back with full might. I can sense victory just beyond the horizon and I have to remain focused if I am to start writing again. Wish me luck!

May the Force be with you this Lent,
Kat!

Watcha Lookin' At?

Two down, one to go! Yay! I've finished my MUET and PA essays. Only one more BM essay to go before I'm home free to be bored all day long. I guess just sitting here while Ma was working really got me into it. To pass the time, I did my homework. I should do this more often. Ha ha:)

Anyway, now that MUET and PA are completed, I can focus on BM(which I have no idea how to do at all!) and Literature(which I've not started on yet). Literature will be fun so I want to finish BM first. Get the 'gray' out of the way, and then on to the more colourful ones (I mean 'colourful' as in fun for me to read, not 'colouful' as in the poems are lively. The one's I'm supposed to be reading are about 'Death'. Nothing colourful about that!) Anyway, I'm leaving BM for tomorrow and Lit for Thursday.

While I was finishing up my PA essay (Ma went out to the Hospital for a meeting), I heard a tapping sound coming from the sliding door so I went to investigate. Slowly but surely, I crept to the sliding doors and my stomach did a back flip. there was a huge Monitor lizard knocking on the doors (trying to say 'Hi' maybe?). I just stared at it for a while and then grabbed my phone to take some pictures! The thing is, I did not bring my USB cable nor did I bring my memory card reader. Thankfully, I found a memory card reader on Kak Zaleha's desk. So here he(or she) is:

I don't know what species exactly

Long.. Really long!

Whatca lookin' at??

Long claws too

It had yellow spots on its scales near the claws. Quite cool actually. Anyway, while I was uploading the pictures, it ran away. It's probably still out there in the garden!

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!

Never Judge A Book By It's Cover..

Of that, I'm guilty as charged. I never thought I'd be the one to judge but I've realised that's exactly what I've done. I hope they can forgive me (they don't know though). I was wrong and now I'm going to be very concious of what I think about someone. I feel very ashamed now but I know I'll get better and learn from my mistakes. I was raised better and I hope I become better.

Anyway, I read this on someone else's blog and I have the same questions. My blog is public and I don't have a clue who reads it. So, how do I decide on what to post? Do I just keep writing the surface stuff or do I throw caution to the wind and write anything and everything that's on my mind? Do I keep my deep questions and thoughts locked in my brain or do I share it for the world to know? Sometimes I wish I could just scream my thoughts to the world because everything just seems too big to keep hidden. On the other hand, how do I know what people's response will be to my thoughts? I'm not a normal person. My questions vary to every extreme. "Why is the sky blue?" to "Does daddy really love me?" to "Will I ever find the one?". Like I said, I'm nothing but ordinary. Questions is, do I reveal to the world the conversations I have with myslef in my head? or do I keep them in my head? Right now, every fibre in my body is screaming for me to just post it for the world to see. But a little voice is telling me otherwise. another question: is the little voice always the right one?

BOREDOM!

Okay. Today was... okay. My mom asked me if I could teach her how to blog. It'll be really cool to see her posts! I think I'd probably enjoy it setting up her blog more than she would (ha ha!). I just can't wait for that day:)
Anyway, I wanted to post something here but I have no idea what to say. Today was just one of those days where I felt happy and content the whole day. There was nothing that particularly bothered me and nothing that overjoyed me either. I don't know whether to love this kind of days or to hate them. Don't get me wrong, I'd definitely love to be content everyday, but not without some adventure. Today wasn't even a lazy day, just an ordinary one. I think I'd prefer to have a life full of new stuff to do and adventures to face. I just HATE feeling bored. Its the worst feeling ever. All I do when I'm bored is sit and read or play solitaire. But this can't be it right?? There has to be more to life than just sitting around, reading and playing solitaire. I'm sure there is but I guess I just haven't figured it out yet. I hope I do soon though, because after my exams, I'm going to be home all day and I don't want boredom to be my new best friend. Well, until I have something better to say, bye!