Quick to Judge

Okay, I admit, if I'm gonna start talking about being quick to judge, about being judgmental, I should at least confess that I am also guilty of the same sin, so there. Here is something that I want to remind myself, as much as I'd like to remind others.

When we see an issue involving two different people, specifically conflicts between the said two, we almost always take sides, as if we know the whole story. "Memang dasar jantan, tak sedar diri, dah popular sikit, lupa kat orang yang sama-sama dengan dia dari bawah." or "Saya sebenarnya tak nak cakap, tapi tak pe lah, cakap jugak, sebab saya tak nak hipokrit (hak ptuih, pesanan penaja <- ha, tengok, tengok, judgmental tak aku?). Padan mukalah kat minah tu, sapa suruh jaja cerita kat semua orang. Skang dah putus, kan malu."

Okay, okay, let's not be coy, you know who I'm talking about. But that's not the point. They're not the point.

The point is people, we should let judging be God's work, and God's alone. I know it's hard, it's like we're hard-wired to judge others or something, but in the spirit of Ramadhan, at the very least, let's try, okay?

And if I'm not convincing enough, let's hear it from this guy.



Try, okay? TRY.

extra prescription. why yes, I was talking about the infamous skinny-fingers and common-nickname-for-a-malay-kid-who-looks-chinese.

The Little Miss Grows Up #001

Family time looms ahead. It's the school holidays finally for the little Miss, who 'graduated' from her kindy last Saturday. She was kinda bewildered. When I asked her if there's anyone else she wants to take photos with, she just shook her head no, saying let's just eat and take photos later at school. I told her she won't be going to the kindy anymore next year, she looks at me wide-eyed, asked in a semi-horrified voice,"But why?" Like maybe, she did something wrong. Like maybe, she was EXPELLED. From her kindy. ZOMG!

I explained to her, you're going to big girl's school next year. The school we bought the uniforms for. The school we bought you the flowery school bag for (Oy vey, that shopping adventure, I tell you! Nightmare!). This seems to settle her down -- Okay, so we're still going to school, just a different school, right? Ohkay...

Then I explained again, Teacher Janice won't be there anymore. Alisha won't be there, Arfah won't be there, Danish won't be there, Farid Aiman won't be there. All your friends won't be there (please don't imagine the Grinch while reading that, I was not trying to scare the little Miss, I was trying to explain the situation to her). She just looked at me quizzically and nodded.

I looked at the hubs and he was busy eating.

*sobs*

Little Miss is growing up.

Mission Kinda Possible : Find a School Bag

Little Miss will be schooling next year. Big girl school. Primary school. Being the oldest, she's the guinea pig she wished she never was (at least I think that's what she thinks).

We kinda had a plan on how many uniforms to get for her (2 baju kurungs, 2 pinafores, 3 blouses). But of course, being youngest in my family, older sibs and mak told me to get only the barest essenstials possible. Little Miss will grow up quickly, they say. She won't fit in the small bajus anymore in a very short period of time. For me, little Miss is little. She can still fit into tees meant for 3 year old, bajus half her age. Of course, the length of the bajus are a different story altogether, but let's not get there. All I'm saying is that, she's small for her age, but she's tall.

So one fine day, the hubs had the day off. We decided we'll go shop for her school stuff that day. So off we went to this huge-ass shopping mall in the middle of the muddle that is KL.

So we got the bajus, I actually wanted to get cheaper ones, cos this is a kid we're talking about. Little Miss will probably outgrow them before we know it (okay, so I said something different in the earlier para, I am in denial, in case you haven't noticed. I want little Miss to stay a three year old forever, boleh?). But the hubs being the hubs wanted to get the top of the line ones. Lucky he didn't whisk us off to Proffessors. So we got something, I dunno, maybe second or third ranked brand for uniforms for little Miss. We got her two of each, two baju kurungs and two pinafores with blouses and two pairs of shoes.

Okay, where's the bloody checklict? Uniforms - checked. Shoes - checked. Socks - checked.

Further explorations resulted in chemise and some shorts. And oh yeah, some PE pants. Okay, checked, checked, checked.

The only thing left then was her school bag. Okay, so the general consensus from family members and friends, school bags are mostly useless. You might as well go and get the ones from Mydin cos if those bags become unwearable in like, 2 weeks of schooling, it's a cheapo bag that you can just throw away. If you get the ones with all the bells and whistles, or in the case of schoolbags of the 21st century, wheels and pull handles, it'll cost a bomb and it will most probably go useless within months of schooling.

I was already disheartened knowing this. I wanted to get her something cool for her schoolbag. I didn't want her first big girl school bag to be an outdated bag, the kind I had to use when I was a kid (usually mak would give me her UMNO meeting bags, I didn't mind actually, but others had way cooler bag, like Jem and Barbie. Didn't exactly feel left out, but it was kinda one of my childhood wish, so there). So the hubs and I spent a few shopping trips prior to this one trying to find an okay-ish compromise for the little Miss' first big girl school bag. We finally found one reasonably-priced and PINK backpack at Tearproof in Midvalley Megamall. Yippee-ky-yay-oh!

So that day, the day we took little Miss shopping for her school stuff, while looking for her uniforms, she saw a few school bags also on display in the area. She has got her sight set on one school bag. It's the over-priced wheeled contraption I swore I would never ever buy for my kids. It probably had Barbie or Powerpuff Girls or Strawberry Shortcake on it, which explained why little Miss was so enthralled by it. No way Jose, Missy, Mama ain't gettin' you that bag.

So we dragged her tiny behind to Tearproof thinking we can make her like the PINK Bodypac backpack. Haha, noob parents, THINK AGAIN SUCKAZ. The little Miss stood there shaking her head (eh, eh budak ni, menurun degil sapa ini?). Okay, so fine, we tried taking her to Tropicana Life (ZOMG, yes, she's going to Standard 1, pakai beg Tropicana Life? Sorry, for the life of me, I pun tak sure what possessed me to do that). Little Miss pointed to a bag. It was purple, okay, girl colour. But it had skulls on them. Not cutesy Avril Lavigne skulls, but the Pirates of Caribbean crossed swords as part of the design. By now, I realized little Miss was giving us a lesson in how stubborn she could be. By choosing stuff that she KNOWS mama and papa will not approve of, mama and papa will know THEY ARE WRONG. Wow, my six year old the manipulator. Today, I will conquer Standard One. Tomorrow, the world, bwahahahahaha!!!

But at that time, instead of reveling on how diabolical little Miss has become that day, I became angry. I told her, "Kakak, if you don't choose a bag now, you will have to bring your Smart Reader backpack yang dah koyak-koyak tu." She replied, without missing a beat, "OK." Goddammit, I am being outsmarted by a six year old! I marched her out of the store (Tropicana Life, remember?) and marah-marah the hubs (actually more like venting to him, "kakak ni ha tak nak pilih bag yang elok," bla bla bla). The hubs was like yea yea yea, malas nak layan. Haiz. What is wrong with this family???

Tired and angry and partially hungry, we decided to leave the bag-finding adventure for another day and made our way back to the carpark. On the way there, lo and behold, I saw this tacky , girly pink shop, Miss T or something. We went in, I am not sure what for, maybe I was just pushing my luck, to look for little Miss' bag. Near the back of the store there was this one white bag with flowers all over them. Maybe she really did like the bag or maybe she was tired of being bullied by mama (or is it the other way around?), little Miss said, "yes mama, I like the bag, please get me the bag." I looked at the hubs, but the bag is white, macam mana ni? Cepat lah kotor nanti... But then again, we discussed that the bag will get kotor any which way pun, unless we got her a black bag, which I doubt she will use and I will buy for her. So okay, we finally got her a bag, which cost us RM39.90, RM0.10 cheaper than the RM40 PINK Bodypac backpack we saw in Tearproof.

Lesson learned? Little Miss has a mind of her own.

Lost Causes?

Aku marah hari ni. Marah. Sedih. Dan mungkin sedikit disappointed. Tapi aku tak tahu kenapa aku marah, sedih dan disappointed. Mungkin......

Last weekend was quite an eventful one. Not life-changing eventful, but eventful nonetheless. There was a workshop at work that I attended on Saturday. And I went to the Save the Palestinians Campaign organized by COMPLETE on Sunday. I went there with both kids, the one who's 4, the other one who's 11 months old. Hubby didn't follow, he was home, nursing his back pain.

I took it upon myself to insist on going to the rally. I really wanted to go. I wanted to actually feel what it's like. But as I was there, I can't help but feel disappointed. I kept on asking myself, "what good will this be? what good will this bring?" This is not a criticism against the organiser. I applaud their good job. But rather, perhaps these moments of despair can be attributed to the fact that the more I am exposed towards the brutality, the more helpless I feel.

These moments of despair can perhaps also be attributed to the fact that there are still many that are saying, Palestinians are wrong. That the Palestinians are terrorists. That Islam promotes terrorisme. Ya Allah, are you trying to tell us something? However, I believe that it is the Palestinians' right to fight back. It is their land. Like the gist of Dr. Mahathir's speech last Sunday, as with any sort of oppression or colonialisation, you would see the oppressed and the colonialised fighting back, even if the oppression or colonialisation are for a "good cause" (a cause sorely lacking in Israel's attacks).

This alone should put me in gloom for days on end.

Then I witnessed the debacle at KT. What a show, BN, WHAT A BLARDY SHOW. Okay, so I am an UMNO supporter. But I am not a disillusioned one. I know there are many things seriously wrong within UMNO. I know people dislike UMNO. But I have faith. I have faith that these wrongs can be mended. They have to be corrected. And insyaAllah, I will help to mend the wrongs. That's why I support UMNO, because I have faith that UMNO is something worth fighting for. But to see this... And to see that people who are supposed to be intelligent keeping on making the same mistakes, over and over again. It breaks my heart. And from henceforth, my political standing is that I have faith in UMNO. I don't support UMNO, but I have faith in UMNO.

A fool and her lost causes?

Yes, and her bipolar is kicking in.

Dear Officemates,
please forgive my off-key Mika's Grace Kelly from now on.

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants

Once upon a time, a time where there was no Internet, people had to go to the library to find out about stuff. Or they had to ask their teacher, the know-it-alls of their time. They type out their assigments on typewriters, those born in the 80s and above using electronic typewriters. Those more unfortunate born earlier had to use the mechanical ones (to tell y'all the truth, I kinda dig them typewriters, they have so much quaintness and character). These people studied hard to be the best in their field, and some do become the best in their field years later.

These breed of people then grow up to be teachers, lecturers, tutors and the likes. We'll call these people digital immigrants.

Fast forward. Enter a new breed of people. Young'uns who was born into a world with computers at their home, broadband internet connection, word processor, digital imaging etc. These people are so well-versed with the cyberspace, Second Life is their life. They keep up with their friends via Friendster or Facebook. They communicate with their friends using Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger. We'll call them young'uns digital natives.

These digital natives go to schools, which are administered and taught by the first breed of people, the digital immigrants. (Note : Read here for more explanation about those two breeds.)

So of course, these two breeds think differently.

More often than not, the younger set of digital immigrants will adapt and adopt IT successfully. But then again, they have accents that painfully reminds you that they do not really belong in the digital natives group. Painful reminders like, "Kau print email-email kau tu, jadik proof untuk appraisal kau nanti" or *phone rings, you pick it up* "Masuk bilik aku jap, aku nak tunjuk website ni kat kau..."

*sigh*

Kadang-kadang aku rasa cam nak tatu, God doesn't give you more than what you can handle kat mana-mana anggota badan aku yang aku boleh selalu nampak.

Tuhan tolong aku.