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A Shy Hello

i feel like i must have mentioned this before, but sometimes from the backseat of the cab i catch a glimpse of a (nearly perfect) new york city apartment window, complete with the warm yellow light and billowing white curtains, and something in my heart seems to almost pull me into the future. for a brief moment i am in that afterlife, stirring awake and putting on a bathrobe to get the door. that sudden flash is all i hang on to during the times i sit down to seriously consider my job options and which city i want to live in after i graduate. isn’t it crazy how time flies… this time one year ago i was back home, spending christmas day in ikea with a guy i thought i knew but barely speak to these days. two years ago i was in barcelona, making big mistakes that gave me the final nudge into adulthood as i tripped blindly along. three years ago i spent all of december writing application essays to the colleges i would come to consider enrolling in some months from then. and everything before that seems like a dream, a feathery-edged dream i can think of but can’t access.

this year, i’m spending christmas and new year’s in new york city for the first time since i’ve been here. i just got back from a quick but fun dinner at my favorite ramen place with some of my most favorite people in the world. sandwiched between andrew and kafka is really quite a good place to be! kafka stayed on in the east village to grab some drinks with his friends, but i came home for the solitude. it’s been a while since i’ve been home alone, and for the first time in a long time i actually felt like writing something. it’s almost as if i’ve forgotten how to be alone, and a small part of me enjoys it but the biggest part misses kafka, andrew, carol, adrian, nyc et al. the suite is so silent and still without my roommate, who has returned to texas for the holidays. the city itself is quiet as it lies low after the blizzard that just hit the northeast. as italo calvino would say, there is no telling if the city hidden under that mantle (of snow) is still the same, or if in the night, another had taken its place.

nycinthesnow

nycinthesnow2

kafka asked the other day if i would accept a job offer that warranted i close my blog down, which as most of us know, is a non-negotiable requirement that shows itself quite often in the fields i’m dipping my toes in. i didn’t have to think too long about it before i decided that if i really wanted the job, i’d close down my blog. the 15-year-old me would have recoiled in horror and felt like a sell-out, but the 22-year-old me did not. i guess in some ways i have outgrown this blog, and in many other ways i have become so tired of having to constantly defend myself over what i write here. it’s not even about stuff like getting attacked over my opinions or nasty anonymous comments, but simply how the most vicious of people in my life — i can just see them rolling their eyes now! — find little ways to tunnel holes in my existence from the (mis)information they glean from what few sentences i string together. it sounds vague, i know, but it’s just as confusing to me too. nevertheless, there are very little things i feel like sharing with what’s left of my readers these days. the blogging world is muchly missed by me, but at least i know for now that some of my favorite Big Bloggers are there for me to live vicariously through.

today i feel quite contented. it’s a feeling i don’t often feel, so this is quite nice! a liquid me is being poured back into the old mould of me. if you’re an old reader who has or hasn’t commented in a while, do comment and tell me what you’ve been up to! please! i’ll read anything. even if you’re a new reader, tell me something about you, before i disappear again!

P.S. : for the record, i didn’t write this post to look for reasons or support to keep my blog open! it’s just so peaceful and quiet tonight that i almost can’t deal with it :) so i just wanted to hear from some of you. talk to meeeeeeee


December 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment








Back To High School

hi all. it’s 5 a.m. where i am, two days before christmas, and i’m still in the library writing a final paper while everyone is already home or on the way home for winter break. the library, always a center of activity no matter what time of day and year, is a ghost town right now. i can practically hear the dust balls rolling, and absolutely cannot believe this is happening to me. friends, i hope you are thinking of me as you fly home across the pacific / atlantic / north america / tundra of canada, or even as you catch up on sleep in new york city. it’s the least you could do for having such disgustingly great lives.

so, while i’m wallowing in depression and self deprecation, i thought i’d go ahead and say that tonight i also realized how unfairly i’ve been treating myself. i’m not sure why i always allow other people to rob me of what rightfully belongs to me. it’s not even that they rob me — oftentimes i almost give it up to them for free. which is very stupid and almost certainly naive. so today it stops. okay? okay.

i guess high school exists everywhere. but i really miss the apam balik that the indon uncle sold outside our school, next to the longkang.


December 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment








A Sad Realization

sometimes i think i have lost all ability to feel anything except anger


December 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment








Old Malaysian TV Ads from the 70s and 80s

wow look what i came across on youtube:

1. Instant Nespray (Susu Segera Yang Sebenar) – isn’t it funny how these days you can imagine some exec sitting uncomfortably in the board room after the presentation, saying “dont use Fur Elise can ah… local song maybe better?”

2. State Express 555 – the 555 notebook: one of the many cherished fragments of my childhood

3. Cadbury Chocolate – check out those wrappers from the 70s!

4. Guinness Stout – Baik untuk Anda??? I CANT BELIEVE THIS!

5. Kotex Soft Impressions – i absolutely adore this ad. love the vignettes, the car, the gorgeous star and the Wendy Darling voiceover.

6. Carrier Air Conditioner – a clear indicator of the sort of post-colonial sentiment going around at the time…

also watch these:


love the Milo ad in this one. it’s marvelous, the difference!


this one has a Zappel ad with cheeky sexual undertones and a young Sheila Majid!

these vids have made me very happy today :) i’m still clicking on all the various related videos on the sidebar, and relishing in the opportunity to see all these things from years before i was even born. 1983 Dunhill ads, 1987 Maggi ads… sigh.


November 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment








Blenders

sometimes we meet people who are just like blenders. ruthlessly, they cut, chop, dice, slice, whirl and swirl until everything that goes in it comes out an unrecognizable puree.

have you ever looked at the stuff that comes out of a blender? am i the only one who looks into the blender sometimes and get this sinking feeling that it’s too late? as soon as the blender is turned on, there will be nothing left to hold. not a single piece of bruised fruit or an intact seed. there’s something very dismal about how everything just comes out so clean, smooth and so put together. in a very strange kind of apprehension, i sometimes catch myself holding my breath as i look into the blender.

i’m still scared. i don’t want him to meet a blender. but at the same time it’s also too late, and i don’t want to care. who made his innocence mine to preserve?


November 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment








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cam!

Su Ann, New York City and Kuala Lumpur. Books, films, coffee, ice cream, justice. Sometimes a flaneur. Writes weekly for the youth advice column of The Star. Tweets here and curates this.





Quaintly.net

Quaintly.net has existed since 2001 in various shapes and sizes, and is currently undergoing a slight revamp. It will be back to full form and a litany of words hopefully soon!



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