08 February 2005 Tuesday

Scenes change like seasons;

Ever a choice to make, things to be;
remember the path of past and find
the best of company or self on every way;
Each day like each place;
routines, endings, answers,
wholly shared
but quietly overlooked,
shyly slipped back to start,
shouldered simply and carry forward
every new memory to be.

07 February 2005 Monday

Anapod

i’m not really in the immediate market for an iPod, since i’m quite happy with my iAudio M3..
but with the realization that there is such thing as “Anapod” out there, it is now reasonable for me to ever consider getting myself an iPod (or recommending one to anyone whose life isn’t strictly Mac)..
in case you don’t already know, i despise iTunes. i despise mostly the Windows version, but for many of the same reasons, i don’t love the Mac version—though i do understand and believe that it is a very happy program when run on a Mac. but it’s very exclusive about formats and limits all choices… the fact that it’s well-designed in most respects doesn’t really excuse those deliberate limitations ..for me.

in any case, there’s the Anapod. i’ve not used it, cuz i’ve not an iPod.. but from the looks of it, this would solve most of my problems with the iPod/iTunes. :) anyway, i was happy to make this discovery.. maybe someone else will read this and find it happy too.

03 February 2005 Thursday

Playlist 02/03/2005

A few good new songs running through my winamp.

A few good new songs running through my winamp.

Sondre Lerche — Two Way Monologue, On The Tower, Sleep On Needles, Maybe You’re Gone
St. Germain — Soul Salsa Soul, Rose Rouge
Eastmountainsouth — You Dance, So Are You To Me, All The Stars, Hard Times

early February 2005

k. i was pretty excited about that list thing. i’m sort of over it now.. sort of not yet. but at any rate, moving right along….

Abra’s home…
Rhine apparently had an unfortunate incident with a self-inspired diving expedition — directly into a nearby heating vent. He’ll be missed.
sincerest best regards to Hobbes where’ere he be, also.. i was kinda a bit allergic to him, but i liked him much nonetheless. i know he’s missed.
i’m making pizza today. ‘made the dough this morning… i’m pretty sure i messed it up, but maybe.. maybe it will solve itself while it’s rising through the day.
Lorense is gone to cut his hair, and may (god-willing) come home not looking like a member of a boy-band anymore (— not bashing those who currently look like boy-band persons… but my brother really doesn’t bangs.)
the snow’s melting much outside, but there’s still a solid amount of it about.
Bluey’s in the driveway. that’s kind of comforting, in a way…
i like that our brains naturally tend to pretty solidly and subconsciously remember things like how to drive, even if you haven’t done it in ages. would be nice if remembering history and formulas and stuff worked the more similarly for more of us.
the green seedless grapes i picked up this morning are thoroughly fantastic. early morning shopping is sensible.
this site’s pretty cluttered. i feel a bit badly about that, but it’s a pretty overwhelming to consider cleaning/revamping it now. i’ll just whine about it for a few more many months.
i kind of purposely didn’t pick up ice cream today. i’m starting to feel a bit sad about that now, though.
are those snow flurries i see, falling lightly, through my window?

Who likes lists!? Ta-da Lists!

Calling all Virgos, and other individuals with a propensity to make lists…. the makers of Basecamp have come up with Ta-da Lists

Bring your compulsion online. Make your lists public or private. Make one or dozens. This is list-making with quickness, cleanness, and efficiency. Simple and sweet. I went ahead and made three accounts within the five minutes of finding it… one for myself, one joint account, and one account for my family. Has RSS feeds too. Happy! :)

01 February 2005 Tuesday

Home

so i’m home… it’s actually been about a week, but for what may be the first time ever, i’ve been experiencing pretty hefty jetlag.. i think it was seriously aggravated by me taking ‘naps’ at 4pm (i don’t take short naps… catnaps? yea, doesn’t happen for me… i usually lay down for what’s meant to be a 20-40 minute rest, and i wake up 2-3 hours later) and waking up at 3-5am and getting breakfast and starting my day then.

and four airplanes (Penang to Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo to Los Angeles to Washington D.C.) in the span of a day and a half (is that right? well it’s thereabout..) is thoroughly unfun. i liked airplanes so much more when i was little. i didn’t require nearly as much space, and it was far more novel at the age of 4, running up and down the aisles, grinning at random passengers. i also used to sleep much more easily in planes and in cars.

but i made it home safe and well with my family, and i think all of us are just about recuperated from the trip/travel.

i hear the Bush W. got inaugurated while we were out. how could you people let that happen!? blah. i watched the footage while we were in Malaysia. no one i came across there is happy about it.

anyway, there was a good ~7+ inches of snow on the ground when we got here.. which was an interestingly far cry from the sweltering heat over there, particularly the last day or so..

i don’t think i ate nearly as many of the fruits i wanted to, but i did get a reasonable dose of langsat/dukong (they named the fruit and the manatee the same thing.. ...they don’t really look that much alike.. do they?), and mangosteen and guava..

i got to see my Thai sister, Tang, the last day while we were there… she’d made a last-minute drive down from Hat-Yai with her father, and found us despite thoroughly-screwed-up-attempted-email-correspondence.

i’m sorry to miss Thaipusam and Chinese New Year.. but i’m glad i was there to help put my grandfather at rest and the christmas dinner at Uncle Kheong’s and casual New Year’s dinner at Gottlieb were very pleasant.

i miss the cousins who were not there, and very much hope to see them sooner than later, but i’m glad for the time i had with the cousins who were there. of course, everyone grows up so so fast..and of course it’s especially apparent when you don’t live with them… but it’s still a bit shocking and sad and wonderful to realize it each time..

there are hundreds and hundreds of photographs from the past month+, and i’ve managed to get an online gallery up and running and the photos are all there now.. the url is available upon request.

i’ve noticed that a lot of things happen back at home when i leave the country… people suddenly buy new houses, or trade my bedroom for their office, or decide to move to China. some of those things i think definitely would not have happened, had i been around. some of those things most certainly should, regardless of me. :-/ dunno what else to say about that, for now.

i did get onto the text* forums… i started to very methodically try to catch up (skimmingly) on everything i’ve missed in the past few months…. and gave up after 10-20 threads. it’s just way too much. i do have to get back into the Resources site and see what needs work there, and what i can help with on the Textbook project… but it’s all a lil overwhelming.. i’ll soak in bit by bit, tho…

i already miss Penang food.. but i’m happy to be catching up on some of the television shows (some old, some new…damn it.. i do not need more tv shows taking up my time…) and to be cozy in my room and bed and blankets… oh! and it’s nice to be back at my computer. i’d almost forgotten just how adapted to me this baby is. still gotta pick up linux though.

sincere appreciation, again, to everyone who was concerned about me/my family during the tsunaminess. we were very fortunate.. we were crossing into Penang, from KL, when the tsunami struck, and the cove where the bridge and ferry are (Penang is an island) is reasonably protected by natural design. Had we gone straight to Penang, instead of spending the first few days with other famiily members in KL, it is very possible that we might have been eating at one of the seaside restaurants when the wave hit.

but also, i hear there was a particular Penang fisherman at sea that morning… he noticed strange behavior from the fish, and rather than being greedy and gathering up all the fish that were being unusually easy to catch, he decided, “something’s not right” and immediately headed for shore. he furthermore urged all the other fishermen to go inland, and shooed the tourists from the beach… they were pretty upset to be forced to leave the beach… but so many lives were saved later that day, as there were few people left in the water and beach when the wave hit. i think the death toll in Penang was about 50+... a very small piece of the enormous casualty total. new year’s eve parties all over Malaysia (and i’m sure all over Asia) were cancelled out of respect to the tsunami tragedy. i’m sure it’s still the main focus of the media there, even now.

if anyone’s interested in donating towards the tsunami relief cause, i recommend the Tzu Chi Foundation. Tzu Chi is a Buddhist organization; their name means “Love and Mercy”. as an example of their competence and dedication: rather than importing rice and clothing to the disaster areas, they are deliberately buying goods locally to stimulate the damaged economies and employing hundreds of victims (carpenters, engineers, laborers) to help build thousands of new houses in the affected areas. all of their manpower, including administrative, technical, and medical personnel, are volunteered; ALL contributions go directly to relief efforts. if you’ve been wanting to help, but you’ve been worried about your donation being misused, either corruptively or ineffectively, then please consider Tzu Chi.

07 January 2005 Friday

Brief from Malaysia

Seems Ferrydust was down for a while..dunno how long..but it’s okay now (thanks Jason)..

We’re still in Penang..i’m currently in an internet ‘cafe’ in an arcade game place on the top floor of One Stop… the nearby mall near my grandfather’s house.. dad’s on the ground floor accessing wireless at Dave’s Deli..

This will be brief cuz time is limited and this keyboard is kind of tough to type on (gotta slam the keys like a typewriter..)

On the evening of January 1, 2005, my grandfather passed away in his home..surrounded by 7 of his 8 children (the 8th was in transit from Japan)..and many of his 17 grandchildren. He did make it to the new year, though not to Chinese New Year nor his birthday (which he had basically told us a few months before, he was not expecting to be around then.) Leukemia finally claimed him..though he didn’t exactly know that’s what was killing him… He was going to turn 90 in April, by some accounts… by others he was already 93. My grandmother passed away two years earlier; she also died with all her children around her. My mother was here (in Malaysia) at that time. This time, my brother and father and I were also here for my grandfather’s passing. Ultimately, this is why we came to Malaysia this time, at this time—to spend time with Kong-Kong one last time before he left. The resting place of his physical remains are with Ma-Ma now at Kek Lok Si temple. The past week has since been a series of funeral processions and prayers… I will certainly have photographs (a good hundred or so to put together) and a more involved written account of all of that eventually…
Emotions are mixed… he lived a very strong and full life… the family is strong and well… Kong-Kong’s dog, Mole (often called Mole-Mole which sounds like ‘Moh-Moh’ or Moles), seems to me to be the saddest one of all. The younger cousins (age 4-11) asked questions: “Why did Kong-Kong go to heaven?”, and when the hearse brought the coffin to the house and left it there and drove away, one asked anxiously: “Then who will take Kong-Kong to heaven??”, and when we were all walking behind the car carrying the coffin with Kong-Kong in it, and all of the 8 children (my mother and her siblings) each had a hand on the car to show support, the little kids thought they were pushing the car, and all ran to the back of the car and really put their backs into it, to make sure the car kept moving…later asked about it, they said they knew it wasn’t their strength alone that was moving the car, but they’d thought “cuz Kong-Kong is so heavy-one, so they need help!”

Near my grandfather’s resting place at Kek Lok Si is the marker of someone who apparently was a Penang fisherman..passed away on December 26, 2004… the tsunami took him. The tsunami continues to be the dominating subject in the newspaper and on the television.

We’re not sure where we’ll be over the next couple weeks… There’s talk of travelling around Malaysia… We’ll see.

I do hope things are well with everyone else…. I do feel rather cut off from the world and people/places familiar, without constant internet access… but it really is good to be around my family here, and back ‘home’.. in some ways..

Very best regards,
~Alicson

27 December 2004 Monday

I am alive and safe and well

The ‘South Asia Tsunami disasterâ’ did not hit me at all, though it’s no surprise at all that some were concerned about me (thank you) being out here in Malaysia while surprising travesty occurred in this region.. we were headed (in my uncle’s car) towards Penang (island in Malaysia) from the mainland (coming from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city) when I heard the news reports on the radio about an earthquake that had claimed lives in Sumatra (which hosts the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta, where I lived my first four years) and had affected several other neighboring countries.. a couple hours later, my aunts and uncles started calling our cell phones, warning us that a huge tsunami had struck (varying reports of the tsunami size and magnitude of the earthquake and death toll) and that we might not be able to cross Penang bridge (or might not want to)..and be concerned for our lives and whatnot. Ultimately, we crossed the bridge without incident (the strait between mainland and Penang would’ve been/was quite sheltered from any tsunami waves..) and went straight to the hospital to visit my grandfather. We got most of our news about the Earthquake/Tsunami disaster(s) from the television there.. That was yesterday. Today we did drive past Batu Ferringhi (major tourist spot here on Pulao Pinang (Penang Island) since it’s on the beach and such..lots of eating places and everything too) on the way from hospital to my uncle’s house.. and it was very plain to see the damage.. e.g. where once was a restaurant is now nothing.

But thankfully my family is well and I am well. The death toll is climbing and we are paying attention to reports of possible additional dangers from aftershocks.. but we are okay.. do not worry.. though thank you.

Aside from that, my grandfather is mostly well, though not out of hospital yet. My brother and father donated blood today; I would’ve also, but apparently I have quite low blood pressure. this is news to me. it all makes good sense, but nonetheless.. they insist that low pressure is a very good thing.. the only thing wrong with it, they say, is that I shouldn’t give blood. I wonder whether my body subconsciously knew that this was how it could protect itself from getting pricked and losing a pint of blood. rather selfish of my subconscious, then.

The food here is as good as always; Penang even better than KL. that’s same with the drinks (stafruit juice, green apple and orange juice and Malaysian ice coffee), and with the fruits (langsat/dukong and mangosteen) so far too.

Mosquitos remain my not-friends.

My mother’s staying the night with Kong-Kong tonight. I spent a good amount of today with him.. he didn’t talk much after this morning, but it was nice just to be with him.

My cousins (those few that I’ve seen) are wonderful. the two youngest ones (about age 3?) are still carryable.. which is a nice surprise for me as I’d kind of resigned myself to having missed out on the whole babyhood/childhood of my cousins.. well they’re not babies anymore; as my dad described, “they’re amazing little people”; but I can still watch some babyness before they grow up like all the rest.

Several of my other cousins are scattered in the world at universities.. two are in Australia; I’m considering a ‘sidetrip’ over there while I’m out here we’ll see whether that makes sense to do (and whether they want me there!)..

I’m really quite tired, actually—it’s 11:57pm on Monday, December 2004 in Penang, Malaysia as I write this.. it’ll be considerably later by the time I send this..

I’m trying to keep a fair record of my thoughts and stuff while I’m out here.. but online time (crazy crazy snail-crawling-through-glue-and-other-slow-things slow dialup, though very appreciatedly shared by my uncle) will be sparse here..

anyway, I mostly just wanted to say that I am well and fine, and do very much appreciate the sentiments of concern.. ‘hope everyone else is very well.

21 December 2004 Tuesday

Relevant Philosophy on Packing

My dear friend Sean once told me that packing is something that should either always be done at the last minute possible, or it anyway might as well. His reasoning was that it certainly will get done. Whether you do it three days in advance, or 20 minutes before leaving, you will get packed and you will have with you what you’re bringing and that’s that.

Now, there are a dozen or more things wrong with that general philosophy, and certainly with that specific example.. but the basic truth is that he’s right. The packing will get done.

It’s not quite the same as one of my favoritest quotes ever:

“The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that sooner or later all men will do and know all things.”
~Jorge Luis Borges

But at this time, I am finding cause to exercise liberties and am deigning to invoke it.

This has been another Ali-moment in putting off what actually needs to be done and instead doing….what really doesn’t.

Ali Mix to Malaysia 2004

Coming with me on my M3; 36ish gigs full, 3.51gb of which go to my Mix folder:

794 tracks in playlist, average track length: 4:08
Estimated playlist length: 54 hours 46 minutes 30

Coming with me on my M3; 36ish gigs full, 3.51gb of which go to my Mix folder:

794 tracks in playlist, average track length: 4:08
Estimated playlist length: 54 hours 46 minutes 30 seconds:

(Winamp generated playlist)