Friday, July 30, 2010

Something To Tell You

"Haunted by the idea that he will find the one who will complete him, therefore rejecting all others as wrong. The founding myth of heterosexuality: completion, the ultimate fulfilment,"


Something To Tell You, Hanif Kureishi.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Decorate



Well. I asked my good friend to buy her album from the launch last weekend. Wasn't complete that I was absent for the album launch considering I went for the EP launch 2 years ago.

2 years ago. 2008.

See how time flies?

Friday, July 23, 2010

Mercury Prize Race





I'm rooting for them for Mercury Prize including The XX and Foals.

Monday, July 19, 2010

A Redundant: Sound of Settling

I know it is quite a comedy if I were to echo Ben Gibbard, "If you have an impulse, let it out". I mean, after all the preaching - where you're not supposed to be impulsive, you have to digest and analyze entities, before you do anything stupid. Act maturely, and all that conundrum.

Discussions of educational institutions took place. These healthy conversations reminded me of my personal mental connotations on 'Educational Institutions'.

Sure, we take things for granted from where we are now. Teenagers grow into young adults, and pursue their tertiary studies. The norm (at least for most of us), attend classes, participate (in frequent remorse manner) in activities and such. Then we jump back into our lives - whatever your definitions of 'living' might be. To many, academic life may be a supplementary definition to life, to some it may be a complementary entity, and to few it is life.

For some awkward reason, I have always felt that at this particular phase of life, we are to develop and generate. Well, in the sense where participating in reformations and revolutions is part of the norm. Being a radical sort of gesture. But of course, that's not entirely it.

I mean, what is the definition of "being radical" (in Malaysia) anyway? We are the society of polarized and unsymmetrical diversified views.

So what, embrace relativism and subjectivity? Then, we would've given birth to moral anarchists.

The thing is, my implication about the roles of a Tertiary Education Institution contradicts the ideology of Primary and Secondary schools where ideally, students are to be manufactured products of orderliness.

Think uh schools that constantly mandate students on obedience - physically (e.g. uniforms, hair, sleeves, socks, etc.) and behaviorally. The very idea to instill somewhat 'extreme' orderliness to these students sickens me. I mean, uh, whatever happened to individual's autonomy?

Educational Fascists? How can fascism imposed to kids be educational? I mean, how can not exercising one's beautifully diversified nature be educational? How on earth, is perfect order embracing life?

Maybe, they are "just" associates to Mussolini or something.

But I suppose, the idea of this fascism has not done much to us kids. We are living our diversified lives accordingly, anyway. And that dear reader, is another (problematic) issue.

Ke arah authoritarian salah, ke arah Utopia salah. Macam mana!

Written on September 14, 2009 by yours truly on Facebook Notes.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Das über-Ich

How's your conscience?

Back to Basics

This was supposed to be an overdue post on Gaza, but let's just see how things unfold with a little personal twist to it.

When the flotilla was inhumanely attacked by the Zionist, the world reacted. What more with the whole manipulative 'truth' conveyed to the public by the Zionist media figures, leaving the entire world more outraged! Their sensory clearly saw the masked armies throwing activists down the ship, but the Zionist tells a different tale and 'truth'.

What is more tragic is that Gaza is being tightly controlled and monitored by the Israelis. I can't even begin to imagine the well-being and state of the people in their Gaza. How deprived are they there? Are they being denied by basic survival needs - food, water, shelter? Let alone education, mental states, security etc.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

And then imagine all the people who are being denied of their deserved basic shelters. Those living in war zones, poverty or simply the tiny local babies who are being thrown out by their own parents. What poor beings. When the rest of the world are busily polishing their mental states and plotting for better personal growth, this portion of deprived individuals are being denied of their basic needs and security.

We must not only be the champion sperm, but we are the luckier pot to be able to assess the internet.

But even being in this 'luckier' pot, we could be snatched away from our own security or our own homes. And you know what they say, home is where the heart is.

If the Israelis and the Flotilla are being represented by individuals and on a daily context, it would be like this:

In a rowdy argument and rather confusing dispute on which Truth to be made dominant, both Mr. Flotilla and Mr. Israel decided to straighten things out. At this point, both their heads are made blur of the lines drawn between right, wrong, this and that. You know, the familiar state where we simply do not know what and which to believe in. That once clearly defined line got blurry. And they no longer feel safe as they loose their self-control. So, they got lost in their heads.

So they argued over the different Truths for the sake of being right. Both wanted to convince another about their Truths. But you and I both know (at this current state) in our rational and clear minds and states, that there's no objective Truth, only pragmatic Truth. Absolute Truth is beyond our reach as that's the Al-Mighty's. So the two ran in circles chasing Truth, like dogs chasing for a bone being tied from their backs. Get the picture?

Being humans as they are, Mr. Flotilla and Mr. Israel could not take the dispute any longer as none of them are willing to say their peace and allow another to have the 'authority' and control over the situation. So they decided to deprive another of their own basic security. They got physical.

Who won? Neither. Because Truths simply differ even by the tiniest bit. So what did they do at the end of the day? They tolerate their differences, and live.

Ah, maybe then Tolerance should be it. I mean, the world got over the holocaust that happened 60 odd years ago. But the remainders remain as friendly reminders.

But we never learn, don't we?

Saturday, July 17, 2010

On Melancholy Hill



Are you here with me? Just looking out on the day of another dream.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Ultimate Battlefield

Your head is a war machine and it could drive you mad.
Fret not though. For what Alice's father had said to her in Alice in Wonderland,
all the best people are bonkers.

Dear Stranger,

The stranger on the train.

Have you ever wondered why it's possible to have the deepest
and most profound conversation with someone you've only just
met. The man on the train. The woman on the plane.

It's often while travelling, and it happens rarely. But when
it does, it can be remarkable.
You confide in each other to an amazing degree. It's somehow
easy for you to see one another's Big Picture.

Perhaps it's because you know you're unlikely to see one
another again. Maybe it's that you've got the other person's
undivided attention for quite a long, but finite time.

Whatever it is, there's something really powerful about this
idea of safely exchanging confidences with someone you don't
really know.

Written by Jon (Moodscope team), from a daily Moodscope e-mail dated July 14, 2010.

I just like the idea how I thought of this on the same day, and then there's the e-mail. And of course, because I love Deeper Conversation. Only because I love to dissect one's heart and soul - is that even ethical?

Also, it is because it helps you to see the World and Life.

I want to see the world and be nomadic in between twisted liberal and moderate perseverance of conservative ideologies.