Entries from January 2008 ↓

I don’t normally do this but I have been approached by 2 people who are both credible and responsible persons (in my mind) to write about a campaign to help someone. YuinYin and Pelf both sent me similar requests to write about the campaign to help Holly purchase a Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI) and undergo surgery and hospitalization and since its Yuinyin and Pelf, I decided I’d participate.

Holly is a young lady and mother with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), which is tumors on the spine and cranial nerves. A previous operation left her blind and she is now risking the loss of her hearing. The ABI is intended to help her with her hearing so she doesn’t end up blind and deaf.

Holly is asking for just ONE USD ($1) which you can donate via Paypal through her site or by check if you are in the USA.

I have just one tip from an outside point of view. It would be useful if someone could help Holly design a counter or something that shows how much has been collected so far and how much more is needed. It adds credibility and gives people a sense of purpose e.g. If I see that only $200 more is needed, it might prompt me to donate more so she reaches her target faster. Just my 2 cents.

So, you know what to do.

If you’re HAPPY and you know it clap your hands,

if you’re HAPPY and you know it better start a blog,

if you’re HAPPY and you know it

and you really wanna share it

if you wanna win RM5000 and be REALLY happy,

write about it!

Share your Happy Moments with Happy, the new no-frills prepaid mobile service.

Gosh! Doesn’t it sound like an ad? Yes it is, but bear with me….
Go read the SUBMISSION GUIDELINES but if you are lazy, this is what you have to do:

• Think of your HAPPY MOMENT
• Write about it on your blog or make a video and post it on Youtube
• Submit your blog title or video (but read the submission guidelines first, trust me)
• Tell all your friends and family about it and get them to VOTE FOR YOU!
• Check your rankings compulsively and pray you win the RM5,000 cash prize.
• Contest ends 31 March 2008

****** END OF AD ******

Many thanks to Beetrice for inviting me along to the blogger party yesterday where Happy launched this contest. There was lots of yummy food, loads of interesting people you’d only read about before and some erm… interesting games

However, I left feeling a tad out of sorts because after looking around at the bloggers present (high profile, many of them were!), I saw that many were brandishing Nokia N95 camera phones and as the night slowed down, a whole other bunch whipped out their SLR cameras. I suddenly felt inadequate. I can’t be a serious blogger if I don’t have fancy-schmancy gadgety toys, can I?

Damn…. I want a Nokia N95 too!!! *whimper*

Er… not very politically correct eh?

The cleaning never ends, but takes on a feverish pitch this weekend. Chinese New Year is hot on my tail and I still have a few more spots left uncleaned. Apparently, Sunday was an auspicious day for cleaning the house. The Chinese will read auspices into anything! But auspicious or not, I was climbing up and down, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping…

Giddy Tiger (and my mom) both recommended a microfibre mop for use in the house. Apparently, it makes cleaning floors a breeze and my mom swears that it makes her floor feel squeaky clean. The tiles in my place had set me at my wits end for making them feel nice and clean, so in desperation, I bought a Scotch-brite microfibre mop for RM49. ParisB the label-whore! haha….

A couple of minutes “mopping” the floor (yes India helped) later, I was surprised that the floor tiles did indeed feel cleaner. It would make mopping them so much easier! My mom dropped by later in the evening and commented on how clean my floor was - the mop has passed the acid test!

And this was my reward:

My review is over at the Pink Parisian. No comments about the environment or mercury please. Its been eaten and digested and it was yummy, thank you for asking.

Oh, and I also found time to squeeze in a viewing of Lust, Caution (uncensored) courtesy of your friendly neighborhood DVD supplier. Honestly, I can understand why a good 10 minutes had to be snipped by the censors. It was way too risque for regular movie audiences - a dark cinema + explicit sex scenes = lots of heavy breathing exercises. In any event, the sex scenes didn’t add anything to the storyline so as far as I was concerned, it was purely gratuitous. Ang Lee was probably trying to see how far he could push the limits of censorship and ratings.

I ran into problems though because my Mandarin and Cantonese is only so-so at its best. Add Shanghainese into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster! The subtitling was also really bad - there was no semblance of a proper sentence and anything related to the telephone was translated as “thunder” e.g. Why didn’t you thunder me? I tried to thunder you. It took me a while to work it out and then I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Now please excuse me, I have to answer the “thunder”.

Whilst browsing the city for bright red and gold gaudy Chinese New Year decorations, I realised that I was seeing many decorations featuring the Maneki Neko or Prosperity Cat. You know that little Japanese cat that waves at you as you enter a shop? The idea behind displaying the Prosperity Cat is to bring in prosperity. The cat is waving in good luck and business into your store/office.

During the Chinese New Year, it is not uncommon to find this cat featured on decorations or sold as decorative pieces whether with a waving arm or static raised arm.

But, why shouldn’t you display the prosperity cat (Maneki Neko) this coming Lunar New Year?

Because its the Lunar Year of the RAT!!!

Which self-respecting rat will enter a premises once it sees a CAT waving at it from the front door?!?!

Add to that the fact that the cat is not even one of the signs of the Chinese Zodiac because it failed to make it to Buddha’s side after being conned by the rat. That is one of the fables behind why the cat always chases the rat - it is pissed off till today at its missed opportunity and so tries to take its revenge when it can.

So, will you be displaying the Prosperity Cat this year? Me? I’m taking no chances and am hiding all signs of cats, prosperity bringing or no - I want the rat to bring in my gold nuggets, not run away!

Dear Diary

We had an unexpected day off in KL because our “dear” Prime Minister decided that we have been working too hard since the year began, and also because someone told him the roads in KL would be so clogged with pilgrims due to it being Thaipusam. So, he kindly declared on a Sunday night, that today would be a public holiday for KL - hurrah! Never mind of course that I had meetings lined up for today or that factories and tradesmen would be affected.

Nevertheless, it was a public holiday which means a lie-in. Sweet!

Later in the evening, I went for a much needed haircut. The Lawrence of Arabia look is so passe dah-link! So upon my hairdressers advise, I hacked off my hair into a short-ish bob. No Posh Bob cut for me… no no… I don’t have the Posh elfin look to carry it off. Hair colour is perfectly natural if anyone’s wondering - yay for saving money on colouring hair! But when I MMS-ed my new cut to sis, her response was “S***! You look about sixteen!” Is that a compliment?

And thanks to Giddy Tiger for introducing me to Photofiltre, I created a new header for my site! So pretty… so ong… so Chinese New Year! dong dong chiang! Successful mods to my theme was all thanks to Kristarella’s wonderfully lucid instructions. She truly is inspirational!

And that was how I spent my day off. All in all, a truly productive day! Oh incidentally, the roads were as clear as if it was Chinese New Year already. Rats could have partied on the streets without fear of being run over - so much for justifying a day off!

Good night Diary.

♥  Paris Beaverbanks