Musings (3)

Took my dignity, stomped on it and spat at it a few times to make sure it was dead.

It was.

Musings (2)

Time is a tease; it rushes by when you want it to stay still and pauses for coffee and a fag when life’s at its chaotic worst

The Wake

What is fleeting can never be

Just a leap from moment to moment

Grasped, only to be let go of

Nevermore to be spoken of

In denial, we resist

Yet forever overcome

Swearing, raging against the truth

The truth that is obscured by the want

Ghosts of regrets past wail without

New regrets supersedes them, forcing entry

If it’s not to WHAT IF that we succumb

Then it’s to WHY NOT that we plead

All we want is forever all that we won’t have

Musings (1)

Do you wave as life passes you by; or do you trip it up and say, hang on, I’m coming along for the ride.

RANT

Veiled indifference or honest truth?

If fate is a bitch why do we let him triumph?

Suckerpunched in the guts only to get up again

To try again

To fall again

Is it a cycle that ever ends?

Or do we submit to mediocrity

Let our lives become swallowed up in mundanity

Never venture, never gain?

Where’s the truth when smothered by banality?

The right versus the wrong versus what could be right

or rather, indulge in what feels right only to be told you’re wrong

speak our minds only to be gagged mid sentence by convention

fate is a bitch, but do we bow in submission?

Roll out! (hopefully)

So the third installment of Michael Bays CGIwankfest or, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is being filmed; to be released in July 2011. The cast is plentiful and kinda interesting with the likes of John Malkovich and Patrick Dempsey thrown into the mix. The usual suspects like Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel are also present and accounted for. Some of the autobots are getting a facelift and Bumble is rumoured to be a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro. The most talked about change is of course the non-reappearance of Megan Fox. She’s been replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and I have to agree with the IMDBer who said “she looks like somebody smacked her in the face with a shovel”. It’s like replacing a plank with a piece of driftwood. (On a completely unrelated note, does Megan Fox breathe through her mouth? Or is the weight of all that lip-gloss dragging her lower lip down?)

Anyway, I sense the there will plenty of Transformers-related discussions taking place at the breakfast table. And inevitably at some point I will confess that I thought the first two movies were crap. Every time I say this, I get this whole “you don’t like the Transformers movies because you just don’t like transformers” argument thrown at me from all sides. That’s seems to be the only argument the fan-bots seem to be able to come up with. And this, I fear is neither a valid argument not true.

See, I LIKE transformers. Transformers are beyond cool. And a movie ABOUT transformers had the potential to be a real good time at the movies. This alas, didn’t quite happen the last two times.

In the first movie, Transformers, there was actually some attempt made to come up with a cohesive storyline. Then of course they decided that they need ‘more cowbell’ in the form of lots and lots of CGI and then at this point the movie became incomprehensible. During the awesome battle, I couldn’t make out the autobots from the decepticons and when you can’t tell the good guy from the bad guy it’s BAD BAD movie making. On the whole the first movie left me feeling like a popped balloon. All buoyant and happy at first and totally deflated and cheated at the end.

This brings us to the second movie; Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. This was such a cheese-fest that my cringe levels hit an all time high. I felt acutely embarrassed for the actors hamming it out on screen. (Except for Megan Fox. I have no sympathy for her.) The whole movie was based on an abysmal storyline with a screenplay probably typed out by two twelve year -olds on an endless supply of twinkies.

So do I dare hope for a half-way decent movie in Dark of The Moon? I fear not. All that awesome CGI will just be laid to waste in the bumbling hands of Michael Bay.

The LOL That Launched a Thousand Slips

Did the internet spawn anything more annoying than the LOL? I thinketh not.

Seriously, when someone types in “I crashed my car yesterday” the correct response is not “lol”. But if, for example, you take a look at facebook, no matter what the status update is, there is at least one LoLer amongst the respondents. These are probably the same idiots who hit the ‘like’ button irrespective of whether the post is a positive one or not. Hitting the ‘like’ button does not convey sympathy you morons, it means you like what’s happened. And if someone’s dog has died, and you like it, I’m calling the AWPA.

So getting back to the LoLs, I personally believe that unless something actually makes you Laugh out Loud there is no excuse for using it. But unfortunately, there are LoLs abound everywhere we look. It’s used as an alternative response when no other response is forthcoming, out of laziness or the inability to actually put together a coherent sentence. The LoL is like the retarded half brother of the smiley.

To be fair, most people do use it as a positive response to something funny. But if you think about it, was the funny statement actually deserving of out-loud-laughter? Maybe we can come up with something more suitable like LIE (Laughing Inside Endlessly) or GUWAW (Giggling Uncontrollably While At Work). Truth be told, whatever was said on the other end probably only made you smile. In which case you can jolly well use a smiley face and be done with it.

FAQ on submitting entries for MiPhoto (or, Competition Participation for Dummies)

(Another old one. I quite liked it at the time so, yeah, here we go...)

Where do I get presentation board?

The easiest method of obtaining presentation boards would be to go your nearest stationers and ask them for presentation boards. However, if your chosen shop happens to be named along the lines of “Gunanuwana stationers” the default shopkeeper response will be “mokak?” in this instance it is advisable to seek a more renowned establishment.

What do I do if I can’t find presentation board?

In this case you have two options:

(a) Withdraw from the competition

(b) Find an alternative

If you should opt for (b), please refer the detailed instructions below.

Items required

1. Cardboard – any colour
2. Black paper – this is available at ANY stationers including “Gunanuwana stationers”.
3. I bottle of chemifix (or similar)
4. Foot ruler
5. Pencil
6. One finger

Method

1. Cut the cardboard and black paper to the specified size. You may use the foot ruler for measuring.
2. Using the foot ruler and pencil mark out the 1” margins on the black paper.
3. Open bottle of chemifix (or equivalent).
4. Using the finger, apply the chemifix evenly on the REVERSE of your photograph.
5. Place photograph carefully (glue side down) in the center of the black paper, using the margins for alignment.
6. Smooth down.
7. You can now finish by pasting the black paper on the cardboard.

(step 7 can also be performed at any stage before step 4)

Where do I find GINORMOUS envelopes?

Again, any stationary shop that has presentation boards should also have a selection of large envelopes. However, if you’re one of the unfortunates living in the locale of “Gunanuwana stationers” you may use one of the following:

• Brown paper bag
• Wrapping Paper

We do not recommend the use of news paper as the newspaper print might smudge your photograph.

How do I ‘seal’ the envelope?

There are several acceptable methods of sealing the envelope.

• Cellotape
• Stapler (when using a stapler please hold the stapler face down on the paper to avoid stapling your thumb instead)
• Masking tape
• Double sided tape (3M or any other brand)
• The funny brown tape that you use for taking lint off shirts
• Any other tape that is sticky enough to stick
• Glue
• Pāppa (for more details on how to make pāppa, please refer our accompanying booklet, Vesak lanterns for Dummies)

It is not recommended that a combination of the above items be used for sealing purposes at it would result in a MESS.

Twishite

(This, again, is an old post retrieved from the lost blog. since i went to all the trouble to read the damn books i think i owe it to myself to upload this again)

As a testament to my will power I resolved to read all four books in the Twilight series. Now, I’d read the first book (Twilight) last year. I was curious and I borrowed it from a friend. The fact that she didn’t want it back should’ve warned me. I got through the book surprisingly fast, but mostly I think because I was wondering where the hell this was going. A few months later I tried to read the second book (New Moon) and gave up after a couple of chapter. I literally shuddered and threw the book away from me in disgust.

But last week, I firmed my resolve, metaphorically girded my loins and set out to read the 2^nd 3^rd and last books back to back. Here’s my summarized version of the books:

Twilight

Bella: “Gloom Gloom, Doom, (stumble) Gloom Gloom”

Classmates: Hey, you’re all pale and stuff. That’s hot. Can we stalk you?

The Cullens: “We’re unusually pale and hypnotizingly good looking and we have cool hairstyles and never eat “

Classmates: “We don’t suspect a thing since our characters are never fully developed.”

Edward: (sniffing) “ugh, wtf is that? ” (runs away)

Bella: “what’s biting him?”

Edward: “I love you and you’re beautiful and so clumsy. Let me sling you across my shoulders like a backpack and run all over the forest.”

Bella: “I love you too, and you’re so beautiful and I’m so clumsy.” (hits her head on a tree branch)

Evil vampire tries to kill Bella. Edward saves her by sucking the snake vampire venom out.

New Moon

Edward: “I’m leaving. You’re not good enough for me”

Bella: (sobs) “I knew all along that I wasn’t good enough. Now I’ll just cry myself to sleep under a tree in a thunderstorm”

Jacob: “Hi Bella, it’s so cool that you want to hang out. Let me teach you to ride a motorbike so that you can remind people yet again how clumsy you are.”

Bella: “Hi Jacob, my you grow a couple of inches every day and you’re so strong. Nope there’s nothing weird about you. Ooops, i fell and cut myself. Hah ha that’s SO me”

Jacob: “Can’t you guess what I am?”

Bella: “You do remind me of something, hmmm. Are you an Aquarius?” (jumps off cliff)

Alice: “OMG Bella, what have you done? Edward’s gone to kill himself because he thinks you’re dead. Let’s go after him and save him in the nick of time with not even a second to spare.

(They go off and do so)

Eclipse

I can’t for the life of me remember much of the plot (or lack of it) in this one. Suffice to say that:

1. Bella is clumsy and falls down repeatedly.

2. Edward is beautiful and still creepy enough to watch Bella while she sleeps.

3. Jacob loves Bella and is still a werewolf.

4. Bella loves both Edward and Jacob since this is necessary for future plot threads.

5. They face a life threatening situation and survive.

Oh yeah, at the end of the book Bella and Edward get engaged because Edward refuses to have sex with Bella till they’re married because the obvious demographic for the book is 15 year old girls.

Breaking Dawn

Bella: “Now that we’re married, let’s go have sex. But in a strictly PG way“

Edward: “Pfffft.” (spits out feathers after attacking a pillow.)

Bella: “ I think I ate some bad chicken.” (Hurls) “1..2..3..4.. Oh, no I’m pregnant. Without a doubt. Just because I threw up and I’m 5 days late. And oh, look, I have a little preggy belly.”

Edward: “Ooops.”

Jacob: “What the hell have you done?”

Edward. “Ooops. ”

Bella: “I’m going to keep my heart beating. This baby won’t kill me.”

Reader: “Ooops.”

Edward: “It’s a girl.”

Bella: “I want to call her Renesme because there has to be one original name in this series dammit, even if it’s a horribly bad one. At least she won’t get beaten up in the playground because she’s conveniently invincible.”

Renesme: “Shut up mum and give me more blood.”

Stephanie Meyer: (checks bank balance)“I’m so glad I listened to my publishers and drew this out to four books instead of two”

More stuff happens which is not the least bit interesting and at the end, in a totally unexpected twist THEY ALL SURVIVE A LIFE THREATENING SITUATION.

Krakow! Krakow!

Men aren’t from Mars, they’re from the planet Zorg. Why? Because that’s where Spaceman Spiff hangs out and every man is Spaceman Spiff at heart.
Remember that emphatic phrase used by Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire? “You complete me” he said. What demented hack came up with that tosh? Would you ever catch a red-blooded male uttering such a girly sentiment? I don’t think so. Mind you, that sort of thing probably had women swooning in the aisles and groping for the Kleenex at the movies. Heck, I guess we all wish we had a Jerry Maguire in our lives but unfortunately Homo-Maguire doesn’t exist. Nope it’s just a figment of some crazed scriptwriter’s imagination. And seriously, where would we be if men started going around actually saying things like that? At the nearest shrink probably, asking him why Tom, Dick or Montgomery is baking cookies in the kitchen wearing a flowered apron and singing I’m Every Woman.

As hard as it is to face up to facts, we must. Men don’t have a sentiment gene. Their natural hunter-gatherer instincts prevent it. Which is probably a good thing in a way because otherwise a typical food foraging incident might have gone something like this;

Unga: “ugh eargh Bantha boh!” (Look Bantha, antelopes!)
Bantha: “greonk! Bugh wagga boing boing” (Meat! Looks like I’m getting lucky tonight!)
Unga: “geee waaah” (let’s get them)

They draw closer to their prey

Unga: “awda wada poo” (oh look at their cute little tails)
Bantha: “dinky goo gaa” (and their pretty eyes)
Both: “awwwwww”

…and the human race would have come to a sorry end by starving to death.

Women who often complain that men aren’t sensitive enough just don’t get it. It’s not that men aren’t sensitive (try kneeing them in the noogas to see just how sensitive they are) it’s that their level of sensitivity doesn’t conform to ours. When we have a problem we feel the need to talk about it. Men don’t do that. When something is bothering them they either try to find a solution to it or they will dismiss it as being unsolvable and move on – usually towards the TV. There’s no in-between stage of wallowing and crying and why-me’s for them. When they try to apply the same process to our problems we perceive them as being insensitive. Face it girls, men don’t listen. In fact, their sense of hearing is bit dulled. Why do you think, as men grow older, they start sprouting hair in their ears? It’s a defense mechanism devised by nature to gradually block out sound.

So why are men like Spaceman Spiff? Because whenever a man encounters an uncomfortable situation, his eyes glaze over and his breathing slows down as he slowly calculates the distance between the nozzle of his Atomic Napalm Neutralizer and the Graknil lumbering towards him.

The Dating Game

The elders say that when early man walked the earth, dating was a much simpler process. Man A spots Woman B squatting by the communal fire, goes up to her, grunts a few times, clubs her over the head and drags her over to the nearest cave by her hair. And they probably lived happily ever after. One must make a note here that the modern day ‘clubbing’ ritual is vastly different and somewhat inferior to this early system. Although the end result for the female is the same; a headache; in present times it does not guarantee that the male will actually get some post clubbing action.

This brings us to the concept of dating. Dating involves a series of long thought out meetings all of which are focused towards the common goal of getting laid. The how and where of these dates depend on the individuals concerned but it usually involves food, drinks and the aforementioned latter version of clubbing.

But wait, we need to talk about the pre-dating process as well. Pre-dating involves actually discovering someone shagworthy© and then going through elaborate measures to find out their name, relationship status and sexual preferences. This process is made simpler using a medium known as facebook which will allow you to stalk your prey in anonymity until you decide to make your presence known. It doesn’t end there, oh no. once contact is established, instead of simply telling that person you fancy their pants off, you need to get embroiled in a series of mind games that more often than not brings negative results. Fuckwittage inevitably ensues.

I personally have tired of this ritualistic proceeding. I think it’d be much simpler to invest in a club, or spear, hide behind a convenient pillar and wait.

Custard Pie

(To the tune of Dolphins Cry by Live)

The Taste of your custard pie
Reminds me of sleepless nights
My stomach churning I toss and turn, in my bed
Next morning you smile and say
“I made pancakes in a special way”
I’m a helpless fool
Yeah, I ate it all, in a mad daze
I just can’t tell you that
Your cooking makes me gag
When you look at me sweetly over burnt toast
I give up the ghost

Darling someday I’ll tell you why
(You’re a bad cook, you can’t get worse)
When I eat oatmeal I cry
Your chocolate cake just leaves me speechless
Eat the pasta? I’d rather die
(You’re a bad cook, you can’t get worse)

Oh yeah remember when
Aunt Jane she came to stay
You gave her breakfast in bed, and she screamed
When I asked her why
She threw a bread bun at me
12 stitches the damn thing cost me
She packed up her stuff and left for Greece
Wait for me, so that we
So that we can go together!

Darling someday I’ll tell you why
(You’re a bad cook, you can’t get worse)
When I eat oatmeal I cry
Your chocolate cake just leaves me speechless
Eat the pasta? I’d rather die
(You’re a bad cook, you can’t get worse)

Colic and dyspepsia
Recurring waves of nausea
They all constantly hover in my life with you
In a blinding paradox
You’re as healthy as an ox
When will my troubles be over?

Over…

Awakening

(This is an old one - circa 2003. I still like some parts of it, though most of it is tosh)

Deep red slashes across the sky
Like the setting of the sun i still wonder why
It felt like my world had been torn apart
Did you even realize you'd broken my heart?
No, not broken, more like bludgeoned to death
Soaked in every single tear that i shed
Wasting my time, wondering what if
I'd fought to keep you 'stead of setting you adrift
Out of my life, out of my world
They say hell hath no fury like a woman spurned
Spurned I was but I hate you not
Time healed the wound but I never forgot
I'd closed my soul, stopped people looking in
But maybe it's time to let them in again
Let you go and get rid of your spell
But keep you safe in a place where memories dwell

Who's your donkey?

This whole man-woman relationship thing is one I never get tired of writing about. It's crazy how different the two sexes really are. The thought process; from pre-relationship to in-relationship to post-relationship are so different you wonder how the in-relationship bit worked without going poof and leaving your face all blackened.
The pre-relationship stage for the female generally consists of evaluating the male. The evaluation process will consists of a long check list containing all or some of the following:
1) Appearance
2) What he drives
3) Where he works
4) Where he studied
5) Whether his finger/toe nails are clean
6) Whether he has facial hair
7) Whether he doesn’t have facial hair and why
8) Whether his ears and nose are proportionate to the rest of his face
9) How he eats
10) Whether he drinks
11) Whether he doesn’t drink and if so why
12) How many siblings he has
13) If there are male siblings, whether they are more attractive than him
And so on ad infinitum.
The males however just go,
"Donkey?”
“Pin the tail?”
“Oh, um,” (points) “here."
which is why halfway through the relationship they start to wonder,
“Where am I?”
“Who does this donkey belong to?”

Pani Pol

I was asked to contribute toward the jokes and recipes sections for the company newsletter so I thought I'd combine the two and write a funny recipe instead. Unfortunately the editorial powers that be didn't have a sense of humour and my offering was rejected.

Blog Off

Mudmark.com is no more. So here i am slinking back in to my old blog (which i actually thought i'd lost).

Now that I've shaken hands with long lost friends and settled down, let's start updating this thing, shall we?

Where Was I?

Hm. over eight month's since i last did this. Guess i've got a lot of catching up to do.

Egg on my Pants

I sat on a carton of eggs today. Yes, eggs. fortunately, only two broke. I should've known the day wasn't going too well when i made the Thermos explode earlier...

Harry Potter – Back from the Barber

He’s back. And he’s got a new haircut

The 5th Potter film – The Order of the Phoenix – is said to be due for release by Warner Bros on 13th July 2007. Fans of the bespectacled teenage wand whipper will no doubt tattoo the date on the insides of their eyelids and in the meantime try to sate their Pot(ter) craving by frantically searching the www for sneak previews and trailers.

From the first official photos released from the shoot one can’t help but notice that HP has undergone a slight makeover in the hair department. Everything else seems to look more or less the same. Even Hermione’s boobs.

Some idiot decided to email me some photos from the movie and now that my dormant Potter-bug has been unleashed I feel the need to give way to a good old rant.

Not that I have any major issues with the HP books. I think JKR came up with a damn good plot and wrote 3 good books. And then she went a bit loopy and sent her editor on an extended vacation. Book 4 – Goblet of Fire was actually ok compared to what followed. Order of the Phoenix was a rambling mess – the actual content would have made a decent 200 page book. And of course there’s the killing spree. In Prisoner of Azkaban, poor little orphan boy suddenly discovers that he’s not alone in the world. Sirius Black turned up and we all breathed a sigh of relief that life was finally cutting Potty some slack. Then what does JKR do? She ruthlessly kills him off for no good reason. It’s like she was inspired by the movie version of The Shining. You know, when Halloran turns up at the Outreach after all the fuss and bother of getting there and is chopped down in his tracks before he is able to justify the screen time devoted to him. Killing Sirius was a bit like that. All that hope and then whoosh, hack, hack, splash, aaargh.

The best example of a good thing gone wrong however is Half Blood Prince. The darn thing was so badly written that it took me four days to finish it. I had to read it in conjunction with several other books just to keep my sanity in check. Most times, I just wanted to take a pencil to it and edit the fricking thing. It was horrible. Horrible. HORRIBLE. So what went wrong? It seems to me that when she wrote the first three books, she was writing in relative obscurity. But after everyone started getting dotty over Potty her publishers told her “hey, why don’t you make the books WAY longer than necessary and throw in a lot of stuff that’s irrelevant but magically cool? That way we can justify a price hike and they’ll take up more display space in stores! Oh, yes, we sacked your editor by the way. An author as famous as you doesn’t need to be corrected. And we save more money”

Sirius – gone. Dumbledore – gone. Snape – now there’s an enigma. After the events of the last book there are several theories we can propound re Snape. That (a) he was bad from the start and had Dumbledore well fooled (b) he was bad, then turned good, then was tempted by the dark side and turned bad again (c) he was always on the good side but was pretending to be on the bad side and killing Dumbledore was a trick and Dumbledore is going to turn up wounded but alive in the middle of WWII.

Rumour has it that more people are going to get kerplunked in the final book. Rumour (who seems to be a well informed brother) also seems to have it that it’s Potter himself. If that’s so, that’s the biggest rip off of the century. All that building up over the space of seven books and he just dies? Gimme a break. Even if he destroys Voldermort in the process, Potter getting killed would be the lamest thing yet to happen in the books.
Well, one can only wait and see.

ho hum

I haven’t written in yonks and don’t really see any point in trying to recap the last six months in this one post. So let’s not go there.

Only 5 more weeks (hopefully) to go till the sprog pops. Being a live incubator is interesting but I must admit, a bit tiring sometimes. Especially when you get periodically kicked in the soft bits. So am I nervous about bearing an offspring? Hell yeah. Which reminds me, it’s time coached myself to stop swearing. Bugger. Ahem, I mean, boulder.

Went to see Oliver! last Saturday. It wasn’t as good as I expected it to be but very well done nonetheless. I must say I was most impressed by the set and lighting. The sets conveyed such a sense of depth – especially in the opening scene. There were instances that made me wince but I’m happy to say they were few and far between. The most annoying thing about the play was not the play itself but the gaggle of international school kids who thought it would be a peachy idea to have a nice chat while waiting for the play to end. Was almost tempted to stand up and yell at them but didn’t want to be laughed off as a hormonal pregnant woman having a hissy fit. For more on the play itself, go here.

Am reading Tony Parsons' “one for my baby” at the moment. I loved his ‘Man and Boy” and this one is living up to my expectations.