The Best Pick Up Line Ever

Furniture Guy : What are you doing for dinner?
Girl : Umm...chinese food? I think? Yea...
Furniture Guy : Mmmhmmm...My two weaknesses, chinese women and chinese food.
Girl : . . .

Surviving Buffalo

Just the beginning

Thursday night wreaked havoc on Buffalo as 'lake-effect snow' blanketed the city with 2 feet of unexpected early October snow. The snow started falling in the afternoon, and by the time I left school in the evening, I was trekking through a snowstorm, almost getting stuck in a parking lot buried under inches of snow (the car I mean).

The city was paralyzed when power was cut off from 200,000 homes, including mine. I felt like I was stuck in the early 1800s, when there was no such thing as electricity and heat. All I could do was sit in a pile of blankets while counting how many teeth I had in my mouth with my tongue in the dark until I fell asleep.

48 hours later, power and heat was restored. The upside is that school was cancelled from Friday to Monday. The downside is that I now have two loaves of white bread which will get moldy, three just-for-emergency flashlights which I probably won't use till the next time, which by that time the batteries would have drained and a hundred tea light candles.

Naughty

Is it wrong to think one of your students is really cute? And that he's got a great smile? Some things just brightens up Tuesday classes.

Where's A Man When You Need One?

Just when I thought I could be the epitome of Miss Independent, sipping my hot tea and studying while enjoying peace and quiet in a single apartment, a bug comes flying into the house and there I am with spilt hot tea over my notes screaming and ducking at a flying insect in my apartment at 11.30pm contemplating whether to call my neighbour to come smack it dead for me and risking making his girlfriend prissy at me for using her man to come rescue me from my distress which he should be doing only for her since he is her boyfriend.

Edit:

I killed the bug with my Pilates book. I feel liberated!

Aiyah

With the recent furor about Khairy's remarks on Malaysian Chinese exploiting current internal upheaval in UMNO (which has as usual gone unnoticed by Malaysian mainstream English and Malay dailies), as well certain people being very prissy about some harsh but true remarks made by Mr.Lee KY, I am again deeply frustrated by how everything revolves around race, religion and ethnicity.

Kita ni semua kan rakyat Malaysia? Tapi, I tahu lah, memang susah, you orang Melayu, I orang Cina. Bumiputera vs. non-Bumi, Islam vs. non-Islam, jurang yang memisahkan kita, makin lama, makin ketara. Semangat muhibah konon. Orang bukan Melayu (generally!) tidak respek orang Melayu, terasa bahawa kaum Melayu malas dan releks, disuap makan kerajaan. Orang bukan Melayu sudah termakan bisa pentadbiran yang memberi hak istimewa kepada kaum bumiputera. Isu yang tidak boleh dibangkitkan, tidak boleh dipertikaikan, seperti yang tertera di dalam perlembagaan. Bagaikan, saya, anak Malaysia, dilahirkan dan dibesarkan di tanah air, adalah seorang second-class citizen. Orang Melayu pula, tidak suka orang bukan Melayu. Semangat patriotik dan kebangsaan serba kekurangan di kalangan mereka, terlalu asyik mengejar wang. Terutamanya di kalangan orang bandar, etik dan moral yang tidak selari dengan hukum syariah, bukankah Malaysia negara Islam?

The government complacently paints a pictures of peace and harmony, not heeding these undercurrents of tension and dissatisfaction of the nation. Jangan lupa, Malaysia mengamalkan prinsip demokrasi berperlembagaan, seperti adat Temenggung, di bawah prinsip bahawa rakyat yang menentukan pentadbiran. Don't get too big for your boots. You can, and will (if this continues), be overthrown, ala Thailand.

We're a time bomb waiting to explode.

Sigh

Another slew of crimes, one perhaps too close for comfort. The wife of a faculty member from my department was murdered a few days ago. A scene cut out from a movie perhaps, a woman goes jogging alone on a path in a safe town, that is perhaps not really that safe after all.

She leaves behind a husband and four children. We can only hope that she is in a better place, and they can find somehow, to move along.