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Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
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7:45 pm - Awright
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I gotta rationalise my reading lists, guys. Most of you who care probably know already that I have another DW/LJ identity for "pro"* writing stuff, and I've been doing a slightly peculiar thing where I read journals on DW under this account but post on the other account. And I don't even have a bravecows journal on LJ anymore, so I just use the pro writing LJ for both posting and reading. It's a system that doesn't make sense!
So I'm going to start reorganising my reading list on the other DW and will probably stop using this for much. I'm not going to get rid of it because I like having a fandom blog/identity, and some day I will finish and post that post-series Gokusen fic ... till that day, though, it'll probably stay pretty quiet around here.
PM me if you'd like a link to the pro writing blog. I'll see you over there!
*For, er, a given value of "pro".
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| Monday, March 14th, 2011
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11:45 pm - 30 Days of Me - Day 9
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| Sunday, November 7th, 2010
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11:34 pm - A request and some food pictures
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I've come to realise that it's no longer the case that everyone who reads this journal came to it via fanfic fandom, and I can't assume that its conventions will apply. So it might be worth mentioning that I would prefer for my full name not to be explicitly linked to this journal or identity. I've become a lot more relaxed about referring to myself by my first name (if only because I didn't want to be called afrai by Internet people when I met them in real life!), but I'd rather not have this journal be Googleable by, say, my employer, or for real life acquaintances who might stumble upon this blog to be able to confirm immediately that this is the blog of [my real name].
In other words, please don't out me, you guys!
On a less boring note, here are some pictures of food!
( three pictures )
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| Monday, October 18th, 2010
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6:05 pm - skywardprodigal
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She was generous and poetic. She believed in community and beauty. She made an effort for people. She was kind, but she was also good at being angry.
I admired her and had many reasons to be grateful to her. I always thought there would be time to get to know her better.
ETA: This sucks. I keep forgetting and wondering why I feel sad and then remembering that she is dead. It feels unreal. I feel so indignant.
Of her I remember compassion, warmth, humour and poetry. (This last keeps coming up when I think of her -- her comment style was just so poetic.) And remembering a picture she posted of herself, how pretty she was, how she believed in believing in and being proud of your own beauty. She was just one of those people ... there was nothing trivial about her. So I remember only good things, kindnesses, and so do other people. But what cheeses me off is that these are things to be remembered. I wish she was still alive. And I wish I'd commented more on her posts.
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| Monday, October 11th, 2010
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11:08 pm - I have set up an original writing blog
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If you have an original fiction blog, please let me know so that I may add it to the reading circle of my blog! They can be little blog buddies. I am not linking to the writing blog publicly because I plan to also talk about REAL PERSON things on it, but I don't mind people knowing where it is as long as I know who knows, if that makes sense.
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| Thursday, January 7th, 2010
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4:19 pm - Hallo! I'm back from Japan!
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And this year I was the worst Yuletide participant ever -- I defaulted for the first (and, I hope, only) time ever as the things I had to do before I left for Japan mounted terrifyingly, and I wasn't even around till after the reveal to read my stories. But how I have been spoilt as a reward for all this bad behaviour!
My main Yuletide gift was, I am now able to say, in precisely the fandom I most wanted, and it was the story I've wanted literally for years. Of course I would've been genuinely delighted with stories in either of the other fandoms I requested, and I am tickled pink about the two extra stories I received -- but more on those later. But you guys, I have wanted this particular story for years.
To the Death / The Rambutan Tree (Malay Literature pre-20th Century)
It's Tuah/Jebat fic! Good Tuah/Jebat fic! yesssssss. And the cool thing is that it's not even the pairing that is the best part of this fic (since the Tuah/Jebat OTP is practically canon anyway), but everything else. I love the details -- how the story manages to convey a strong sense of its time and place despite being written in modern colloquial English. And I love the vivid glimpses of the other characters: Adiputra and Hang Li Po in particular. I am thrilled to have received this story and am very grateful to ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) nyarlathotep for writing it. (As I predicted in my Yuletide letter, I do know the person who wrote it, though he managed to con me when I asked him about his Yuletide assignment during a longish ride from Ipoh to KL. Sneaky!)
And then I received two other gift stories! Both in response to my Chinese mythology request for a story featuring Chang E.
Worlds Away by springgreen
Which is about meeeee! Er, maybe you should read the author's summary instead.
They say I stole the elixir from my husband, but how could a dry pill from the Queen Mother of the West ever appeal to one who has had the ambrosia of mangoes and durian and lychee?
Zhongqiujie by the_alchemist
In which Chang E celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Both stories are beautifully written and I was super excited when I saw the e-mail in my inbox informing me of their existence.
Thank you, nyalarthotep, springgreen and ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) the_alchemist!
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| Monday, December 21st, 2009
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10:05 pm - To my Yuletide writer
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I'm going to be away on holiday, with only intermittent Internet access, till the 6th of January. This means I'm unlikely to read your story till after the reveal. I suck! I'm sorry! But if you don't hear from me, don't worry -- it's not because I hated the story or anything like that. I'm looking forward tremendously to reading it and I hope you get heaps of feedback from other people in the meantime.
Happy Yuletide!
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| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
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9:40 pm - This is what comes of reading A Dress A Day
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Dear Internet friends! I have a question. I know some of you sew your own clothes. Is it super hard to learn to do? How did you get started? Are there any resources you'd recommend to someone who wanted to try it?
One of the many things I wanted to do during this six-month break at home was take dressmaking classes, but that didn't happen, sigh. Should have collared my second aunt on my mother's side and got her to give me lessons! (My aunt used to teach ERT, which is basically Home Economics, and when she was young she made herself gorgeous '50s-style dresses with circle skirts and tiny '60s mod dresses. Which are precisely the kinds of dresses I want to make!)
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| Monday, December 7th, 2009
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11:28 pm - Books piled in my bedroom, waiting to be read
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Mary Seacole, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
The Diary of Lady Murasaki
Helen Keller, My Religion
Laurence Yep, Dragon of the Lost Sea
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (this has been waiting to be read going on four years now /o\)
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis and Other Writings
Anais Nin, The Early Diary 1927-1931
Farish Noor, What Your Teacher Didn't Tell You
Agnes Khoo, Hidup Bagaikan Sungai Mengalir: Kisah 16 Orang Wanita Dalam Gerakan Anti-Jepun, Antipenjajah Dan Kemerdekaan Di Malaysia-Singapura 1938-1989 (trans. Life Is Like A Flowing River: The Stories of 16 Women in the Anti-Japanese, Anti-Colonial and Independence Movements in Malaysia-Singapore 1938-1989)
Eve Ensler, The Good Body
Diane Wei Liang, The Eye of Jade
Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Hikayat Hang Tuah (trans. The Tale of Hang Tuah)
The Malay Annals
Die! Talk about vaulting ambition! And then this Sea of Poppies pun belum habis kot. ETA: Finished now! Phew.
It wouldn't be a problem except I have to finish these books by the end of January, because I'm going back to the UK then and am unlikely to bring them with me, and I'm going to Japan for 17 days between now and then and want to travel as light as possible so I must not bring more than three books. Four at the very most!
Must ban all Internet usage! Strict reading regime! aaaaaaaa
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| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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2:13 pm - Dear Yuletide writer
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Dear Yuletide writer,
Thank you for writing me a story! First, I just want to say that everything that follows is totally optional -- if, upon seeing my requests, the story you want to write leapt fully-formed into your mind, then that is the story I hope you will write. I would much rather read a story you got really excited about than a story you forced into the constraints of my wishes.
But if you'd like more information about what I like and dislike, click on the cut!
( Read more... )
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| Friday, October 16th, 2009
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1:01 pm - one last thing
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Happy Deepavali! I hope you have a great celebration, wherever and however you are celebrating. And lots of vicarious joy and murukku to those of you who don't!
No time to nominate Yuletide fandoms liao. I'd do it now but I don't know whether to put down Mythology - Malaysian or Mythology - Malay. (The old Bahasa Melayu/Bahasa Malaysia debate!) And then I thought, "Wait, should it be Mythology - Malay and Indonesian?" and haiyah! It is all a bit too much for me to figure out. If anybody does figure it out and wants to nominate it under my name I would be much obliged, but otherwise I guess I'll offer to write lots of Enid Blyton fic when the time comes.
BRB, off to China!
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| Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
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3:47 pm - Reminded by the neighbours setting off probably-illegal fireworks
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| Saturday, September 19th, 2009
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11:39 am - yessss holiday
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Selamat Hari Raya!
I am taking this comment, seen on Facebook, to heart: Happy Raya to those who are celebrating and to those who aren't, tumpang holiday only la! :) so I'm going to Penang for a week. \o/
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| Saturday, July 25th, 2009
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10:52 pm - A sad end to a happy day
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RIP, Yasmin Ahmad.
ETA:
omg ♥
Interviewer: Who's your best friend?
Tiny child: My best friend is Marion.
Interviewer: OK, if a boy bullied Marion, what would you do?
Tiny child: I would do this. *demonstrates* That's the way.
current mood: sad
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| Friday, July 3rd, 2009
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11:36 am - Handful of links
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I like The Nut Graph's Found in Malaysia series. I found the interview with Kathy Rowland interesting for what she says about identity: The continuing migrant story.
Kathy Rowland gets asked a lot about where she's from. It wouldn't be an issue but for the fact that she is Malaysian, has a Caucasian surname and doesn't look white. And so in racially-defined Malaysia, with its obsession for categories, Rowland is the odd "dan lain-lain".
One wonders. Shouldn't it still be an issue even if she did look white?
NorthEast Two-Spirit Society and Audre Lorde Project’s Executive Director Forced from Manhattan Pride March
wtf, this sucks >:(
Nostalgia: a Sport for the Privileged (via unusualmusic)
I would sit there with my classmates penning my “If I were to travel in time…” essays for English class or fantasizing about the Baroque period in Humanities class. I would travel to the deepest, darkest Africa with Cecil Rhodes in my History class. Yet as I got older and became more seasoned in the realities of global race relations, the beauty of the past faded. I knew for sure that no matter how beautiful an outfit, hairdo, or even lifestyle may have seemed, my participating in the nostalgic longing to return to the past was, in fact, an art I had picked up from the privileged.
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| Monday, June 22nd, 2009
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12:56 am - Food party
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| Saturday, June 13th, 2009
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8:55 pm - Speaking of cooking
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You know how they say baking is a science but cooking is an art? And good cooks all get very vague when you ask them for recipes: "How much black sauce should you put in?" "Till it looks about right, I guess."
I just made something like this garlic and chilli pasta, only replacing the anchovies with smoked salmon, putting in two bulbs of garlic instead of one clove (I have a lot of garlic to finish!), leaving out the lemon and cheese, and replacing the two deseeded chillies with five bird's eye chillies. Seeded.
As you can tell, as cooking artists go, I am the kind that operates not so much on intuition as on recklessness.
It burns. ;_;
***
Post-dinner report: the astounding pain has gone, but I am uncomfortably full of gas now. The Internet suggests that the two bulbs of garlic might be the perpetrators. Oh dear!
This entry was originally posted at http://bravecows.dreamwidth.org/10920.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
current mood: insufficiently burpy
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2:34 am - Cake or death
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| Thursday, June 11th, 2009
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12:06 pm - Link of the day
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The hybrid-Malay Malaysian dilemma. Interview with Farish Noor.
Thinky stuff about being mixed-race in Malaysia. This in particular stood out for me.
And I think this raises the question of how do we deal with racism? Because if there's one thing that irritates me about the discussion of racism in Malaysia it's that one side is always seen as the aggressor, and one side is always cast as the victim. And if you are a hybrid like me, then you realise that all sides can be aggressors and all sides can be victims. So I was victimised by Malay [Malaysians] and I was victimised by Chinese [Malaysians]. But I had Malay [Malaysian] friends and Chinese [Malaysian] friends.
Emphasis mine.
Also haha, he is a knitter!
This entry was originally posted at http://bravecows.dreamwidth.org/10335.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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| Monday, June 8th, 2009
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12:54 pm - Living in revisionland
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This trailer for the Sell Out musical is so cute lah. (Link via horusporus.)
I don't know if I'll actually do this, because I am already so awkward on the phone, can you imagine how much worse I would be on a voicepost, but maybe you all could ask me a question and I will answer it via a voicepost. Maybe!
Here is a meme from tariq_kamal.
1. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their Livejournal. You only have to post it if you want to!
2. Explain in five sentences why you’re using that wallpaper!
3. Don’t change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had at the moment, not what you want to show people.
( cut for picture )
And I've definitely gone over my procrastination quota for today. Back to the grindstone!
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