chocolateylife

Dingo!

2009-12-04T16:36:00.002+08:00

A: Hi Daniel.
B: Err.. I'm Danielle.
A: Ok Daniel. Now, Daniel, I need to speak to the Prime Minister urgently because my tyre is flat.

Today is one of those days when I feel like screaming my lungs out.

6 years of blogging

2009-11-13T14:16:00.003+08:00

6 years is quite a long period of time. I had a blog for 6 years already and I was reading recently that the blogosphere is finally slowing down.

I am not surprised. I practically live to watch the birth of IRC, ICQ, MSN then Friendster, Flickr, Yahoo, Gmail and the bunch of other internet things.

Those who make it live on while others die peacefully like a typical failed product passed its glory.

Well, as a matter of fact, I'm constantly typing more than I am writing with a pen. Just that it's not so much on the blog these few months. Writing reports, minutes and letters... I forgot to write something personal for myself.

Tweets are spoiling you?

2009-11-05T15:25:00.000+08:00

Are you sure? I don't see you blogging either? Hmph.

A step taken

2009-11-03T17:38:00.000+08:00

I would like to announce that I didn't drink coffee today.

Photos

2009-10-27T14:28:00.002+08:00

At a spur of the moment
as the leaves rustle
and the wind calls
when you least expect
at the blink of an aperture
a captured second
in a frame
eternalised

I can't be poetic nor can I be photographic. I've been sitting on my ass for too long. By that, I mean literally in the office. Haven't got to explore the secret realm in that corner of my mind for too long.

I just wanna say JUST YOU WAIT!

I'm coming home...

It's not a typical day, it's not

2009-10-17T15:50:00.004+08:00

Finally, I found a reason to blog and I can boast of how today isn't a typical day.

I woke up as late as I wanted. 10.30 am instead of 7.30 am!
There was breakfast, which is not oatmeal, at 11 am.
I got to watch 3 episodes of Canto series in a row.
I went for a haircut.
I bought myself a hairband, mind you, it has a bow!
I ate KFC for lunch.
I bought myself Dome's latte. Hah, it's not Starbucks and it's not caramel machiato.
I reached office at 3.30 pm and without uniform!

my hairband

my latte

days before I cut my hair

wonders why I always snap pics in the car. lol.

me

looks like a chinx

I need to note, however, that my plan to look younger kinda failed. Despite my cute hairband and hair cut, the guy who collects car park payment called me Kakak.

WTF?

At least call me adik lah.. After all, I spent a good RM15 to cut my hair and another RM15 for my hairband.

Looking Forward, Looking Back

2009-10-14T10:25:00.002+08:00

So many birthdays around this time of the year. I'm so tempted to buy a gift and just ship it out. 5 more days to his birthday. Well, I don't supposed he'd still be reading this but Happy Birthday anyway. Probably because of him, every other Libra babies remind me of something.

Surprisingly, 3 years and still looking back but I'm looking forward ever more. I've spotted a lot of cute guys everywhere. *muahahah*

Tommy taught me this yesterday,
boku ga anata no miso shiru ga nomitai!
Literally means I want to drink your miso soup. More than that it means I want to marry you.

I shall remember that in case someone says that to me. Then I would respond
onaka ga sukimashita!
*blush blush*

wanting

Say something silly!

2009-09-28T22:36:00.002+08:00

Check, check, check... when was the last time I blogged something? Can't recall. Time's been passing too fast, I could hardly catch my breath.

So happy, life's been such a blessing. I get to play with my doggie and eat good food sometimes. I supposed the best thing that's been happening in my life right now is I get to read books. I'm sorry I said that but I'm really a nerd who loves to read.

Someone came to me today with the term "nerd virgin", I wonder how deadly that combo can be but heck care for now. I'm a nerd and so what?

It's been so long since I have written anything. Do I call that a "writing constipation"? Can't believe how much I miss writing and I miss reading my own words not in the form of letters, memos and announcements. It's a freaking personal note to myself! I'm free to say anything I love. I just need to go, Greetings, Danielle! Welcome to the nerdy World of Danielle where Nothing Has to Make Sense Except for NonSense.

Yeah, weird that I'm documenting my own thoughts and by now, you and I probably realize that none of this is making sense at all. Does it even matter?

Ok, I have a fair share in saying something silly today. I'm satisfied now. Tata, Danielle.

Where creative people get their inspiration?

2009-08-18T14:51:00.002+08:00

"Roseanne" (1988) {Into That Good Night: Part 2 (#9.24)}
Roseanne Conner: [closing monologue] Everyone wonders where creative people get their inspiration. Actually, I've found it's all around you.
Take Leon for instance... Leon is not really as cool as I made him. He's the only gay guy I know who belongs to the Elk's Club...
Then there's Scott. He really is a probate lawyer I met about a year ago and introduced to Leon. I guess I didn't get too creative there...
A lot of kids have called my son a nerd but, as I told him, they called Steven Spielberg a nerd too. A lot of times nerds are really artists who just listen to the beat of a different drum...
My mom came from a generation where women were supposed to be submissive about everything. I never bought into that, and I wish mom hadn't either. I wish she had made different choices. So I think that's why I made her gay. I wanted her to have some sense of herself as a woman... Oh yeah, and she's nuts...
My sister, in real life, unlike my mother, is gay. She always told me she was gay, but for some reason, I always pictured her with a man. She's been my rock, and I would not have made it this far without her. I guess Nancy's kind of my hero too... Cause she got out of a terrible marriage and found a great spiritual strength. I don't know what happened to that husband of hers but in my book I sent him into outer space...
When Becky brought David home a few years ago I thought, "This is wrong!" He was much more Darlene's type... When Darlene met Mark, I thought he went better with Becky... I guess I was wrong. But I still think they'd be more compatible the other way around. So in my writing, I did what any good mother would do. I fixed it...
I lost Dan last year when he had his heart attack. He's still the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep. I miss him... Dan and I always felt that it was our responsibility as parents to improve the lives of our children by 50% over our own. And we did. We didn't hit our children as we were hit, we didn't demand their unquestioning silence, and we didn't teach our daughters to sacrifice more than our sons.
As a modern wife, I walked a tight rope between tradition and progress, and usually, I failed, by one outsider's standards or another's. But I figured out that neither winning nor losing count for women like they do for men. We women are the one's who transform everything we touch. And nothing on earth is higher than that.
My writing's really what got me through the last year after Dan died. I mean at first I felt so betrayed as if he had left me for another women. When you're a blue-collar woman and your husband dies it takes away your whole sense of security. So I began writing about having all the money in the world and I imagined myself going to spas and swanky New York parties just like the people on TV, where nobody has any real problems and everything's solved within 30 minutes.
I tried to imagine myself as Mary Richards, Jeannie, That Girl. But I was so angry I was more like a female Steven Segal wanting to fight the whole world. For a while I lost myself in food and a depression so deep that I couldn't even get out of bed till I saw that my family needed me to pull through so that they could pull through.
One day, I actually imagined being with another man. But then I felt so guilty I had to pretend it was for some altruistic reason. And then Darlene had the baby, and it almost died. I snapped out of the mourning immediately, and all of my life energy turned into choosing life.
In choosing life, I realized that my dreams of being a writer wouldn't just come true; I had to do the work. And as I wrote about my life, I relived it, and whatever I didn't like, I rearranged. I made a commitment to finish my story even if I had to write in the basement in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep. But the more I wrote, the more I understood myself and why I had made the choices I made, and that was the real jackpot.
I learned that dreams don't work without action; I learned that no one could stop me but me. I learned that love is stronger than hate.
And most important, I learned that God does exist. He and/or She is right inside you, underneath the pain, the sorrow, and the shame. I think I'll be a lot better now that this book is done.

Like a frisbee, it comes back

2009-08-15T13:30:00.003+08:00

I used to have a boyfriend and he was the World to me. Everyone else can come next. Everyone else is secondary when he was around. So, I used to repetitively tell my single best friends, "I can't make it because I'm with my boyfriend".

Now it's the reverse. My best friends have boyfriends. So, now they tell me, "Can I have dinner with my boyfriend alone because it's my first time celebrating his birthday?" and "I can't make it because my boyfriend...."

I smiled at the thought of those words. Those familiar phrases that I used on my friends are now being used on me. It's true what goes around comes around. Like a Frisbee I fling out, it's coming back at me.

To my friends, I'm sorry for my ignorance.

Bang, Shriek, Thud

2009-08-12T09:11:00.003+08:00

I heard some noise. Weird and disturbing. An extraordinary orchestra of shrieks and bangs and it finished off with a deafening silence.

I saw a woman covering her face in shock across the road. I saw onlooking men facing my side of the building. I looked down from my balcony and I saw a family coming out from their home to find out the noise. Within 30 seconds, they went back home and I went back to mine because from my angle, I couldn't see anything.

This morning when I woke up, I was told, two women fell down from their balcony and both died. The din etched a mark in my head and the deaths officially marked the third jump-off-balcony case at my place this year.

Perhaps it was a good thing, I didn't see anything last night.

3 Vietnamese women fall from 11th floor building in Penang, 1 survives

Updated: 13 Aug 2009

GEORGE TOWN: One of the three Vietnamese women who fell from the 11th floor of an apartment in an attempt to escape a police raid on Tuesday has survived despite having severe fractures.

The 25-year-old woman is in stable condition at the Penang Hospital.

The three were believed to have been involved in vice activities and police recovered pills, believed to be sexual stimulants, from the bags belonging to the two who died.

The women, aged 23 and 33, died on the spot after they slipped while climbing out of the apartment unit in River Road here through a window and landed some 30m below.

Their bodies were found in a pool of blood in the open space at the apartment block while the woman who survived landed in a garbage bin in the 9.50pm incident.

SOURCE: The Star

Wondersation Conversation: You genuinely care for me or You care to make money?

2009-08-10T11:44:00.003+08:00

Hairdresser: Oh God, your hair is so little and you've got Dandruff!
Dee: *smiles*
Hairdresser: You must take care and protect your scalp from now. You should use this anti-hair loss shampoo.
Dee: How much?
Hairdresser: Only RM98.

*One hour later*

Hairdresser: Your haircut is ready. Ta da.~ You should colour your hair, then it'll look more dimensional.
Dee: *smiles*

Dee: *Wonders if dyeing my hair would nourish or damage my hair*

Another Wondersation Conversation of the day.

settle for nothing but the bulls eye

2009-08-06T13:03:00.003+08:00

You aim straight and settle for nothing but the bulls eye.

The following is from Christian D. Larson called the Optimist Creed. Personally, I prefer to call this my Sanity Pill. I take a dose when I think I'm losing my ground. I take a dose when I think I am about to get suffocated. I get a dose when I think my heart pumps too fast or that my blood pressure is too high.

But most of the time I only need to read the first line, "to be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind", to bring myself back to my normal state.

When I look around me, I hope people would expect the best and yet be forgiving to mistakes. I hope everyone would smile and keep moving on. I hope people would have faith in one another as much as they have faith in themselves.

I hope everyone sees life as a hike up Mount Everest or a dive down the deepest sea - where life is concerned you need courage, wisdom, trust, focus and perseverance to make things happen.

I Promise Myself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature you meet.

To give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

By Christian D. Larson

Wondersation Conversation - Chimpandrew

2009-08-02T20:49:00.002+08:00

KokoDaPia says: ho monkeydee

moneydee says: lol

KokoDaPia says: how are u?

KokoDaPia says: the tonsils?

moneydee says: hi champandrew

moneydee says: chimpandrew

KokoDaPia says: im a champ

moneydee says: lol... chimpandrew is DAMN HILARIOUS

KokoDaPia says: uhhh, thats so funny

moneydee says: hahahahaha

KokoDaPia says: nice try monkeydee

KokoDaPia says: u knw

KokoDaPia says: i got an idea

KokoDaPia says: we buy a comb of banana

moneydee says: why? and then??

KokoDaPia says: hollow one out and fill it with wasabi. then we give the whole comb to the monkeys. then we wait and see which one cries

moneydee says: so mean of you chimpandrew

KokoDaPia says: i knw u'll disagree with me since its monkeys

Wondersation Conversation

2009-07-30T03:58:00.005+08:00

Dee: Are you religious?
Kee: Nope.
Dee: Do you pray?
Kee: Everyday.

A Blue School Dress, Luffy and Danielle

2009-08-02T20:04:00.004+08:00

That's Luffy and me. He's grown up a bit. His body is obviously longer but his legs are still short. It's fun to see him trodding.

Argh so hard to keep Luffy still.

Just bought this from Dorothy Perkins yesterday. Looking innocent in it. Muahaah.

Suddenly think I like low-res camera phone best bcos it just doesnt capture me so meticulously.

My guess is... I have a tendency to snap pics when I'm wearing my pajamas. I can imagine Yee Ting going, I got the same pajamas as yours. Sadly, I think I wear the same pajamas every day.

That's my current Facebook pic. When I uploaded this, I had Andrew in mind. Knowing he'd never sign up Facebook, I knew I have to continue loading pics in my blog. Otherwise, poor Andrew won't get to see my pics. Lol.

RANDOM THOUGHT #1

Talking about photos, my poor Nikon baby is collecting dust on my cupboard. I feel compelled to make good use of it. Maybe tomorrow and I'm gonna mean it! Oh yeah, there'll be tonnes of people reporting to work and I'm excited to meet new people and snap photos! I shall come up with a theme for tomorrow's photography. Hard Rock being Hard Rock, shall call it - Expressions of Individuality.

RANDOM THOUGHT #2
One day my bro commented that I wasn't good at make up. I couldn't agree more. Did a Google search and found a company in Penang offering free make up course worth RM1800 but it's fully subsidized by the government. Definitely going to check it out! Anyone wanna go with me?

RANDOM THOUGHT #3
With time at hand, it's time to make the visuals in my mind a concrete one. :)

Farewell to Yasmin

2009-07-29T09:38:00.002+08:00

I came to work this morning cheery. I logged in to my computer and read on some twittered news. I was hoping for news on Apple tablet instead I found that Yasmin had passed on.

I came to know about this talented director when I was doing media studies during uni days. Her works were enlightening. If it wasn't for her, I would still carry the perception that the Malaysian movie industry is hopeless and dead.

There are so many reasons why I adore her works. Mostly I am encouraged by her ability to explore themes that are considered big taboos here. How many others would bring up ideas about prostitution and love between two ethnicity? She's constantly advocating that there's no boundary in love. Your skin colour, religion, culture, background doesn't have to matter.

I still remember in one of her movies, she featured a boy who sells pirated vcds and he reads classic english literature. That's one good point made.

Apart from movies, her advertisements are cool too. It's the the thing to look forward to every chinese new year. In case you think you don't know, most Petronas ads on our national television during festive seasons are her work.

I won't know how many Yasmin Ahmad's are in the making but for some reason, I know it's gonna be different from this year onwards...

Deep down, I hope all those who are inspired by Yasmin will take on her footsteps and continue to work on to advocate Yasmin's messages.

"they would teach him how to fly"

2009-07-20T09:35:00.003+08:00

I think one of the most beautiful things in life is to get married and to be pregnant.

I also think one of the most tragical things in life is to find yourself pregnant and your own husband dead the week you were supposed to wed. Tragedy like this is rare but not unheard of.

What is really new is the young man getting tortured and died and you knew deep down in your heart that justice is not a word that exist in the Malaysian dictionary.

"The MACC then announced that they had released him the night before. They failed to announce that they had not released him from custody but released him from this world. Then they suddenly found his body the day after. He jumped. He committed suicide. He took his own life. He was never tortured. He was not dragged to the window with the threat that they would teach him how to fly."

an excerpt from Malaysia Today

Give in goodness.

2009-07-16T14:51:00.003+08:00

You do not need a picture of
an appalled child crying alone
in a bloodied warfare
to share half his pain.

All you need is
a picture of peace, tranquillity,
beauty, goodness and light.

Give in goodness.

Say Something

2009-07-16T10:48:00.003+08:00

I got kicked around, I finally do something about it.

I got a swell, I finally have a few jabs for it.

I have a troubled heart, I'm still looking for a platform of peace.

When food isn't good...

2009-07-10T16:15:00.003+08:00

I'm sorry and am fully aware of the consequence of this post. Even though this will spread to the next 368 persons (or maybe more) I just can't help but to say that the International Buffet I had last evening sucks big time.

I have reasons to say this. The last time I had an international buffet at Pan Pac KLIA, it was really international. I could see cuisine from all nations imaginable and the feast was endless.

It wasn't just the quantity or variety, for all I care, the taste and the quality were there: soft, tender, succulent and fresh (be it dessert, main course or appetizers).

I silently asked myself, to grade it from 1 to 5, how would the yesterday's buffet rate? I gave it a 2.

All there there is in my head now is just cold hard food.

All said, there went my RM60 in the drain. So what if it was a buy 1 free 1 promo?

Dear Iris, as a consolation, there's no need to feel bad that we didn't make it last time and am pretty sure the food of the roadside seafood stall we had at Teluk Bahang was way more superior.

Daw Jropping Trip

2009-07-06T19:11:00.002+08:00

This trip to Singapore was fun.

The Luge, the boat ride, the Songs of the Sea and the bikini-babes cat fight were all eye opening.

The Cafe Del Mar, the Coffee Club, the Popeyes, the Burger King, and the fried carrot cake were awesome.

The Singapore flyer, the public transportation, the Singaporean discipline, the Immigration were jaw dropping too.

Kevin's hospitality was a bit violent but lovable.

Fruitfully met my bestie and June. :)

Officer at the Penang airport slapped a mask immediately on his face the moment he knew we came back from Singapore. H1N1 was a bit scary but we're all safe.

This trip to Singapore was fun.

Who did it? Lee(s) did it. Who did it? We did it. Remember, you did it.

Real lame but impressive.

Luffy the Puppy

2009-07-01T19:47:00.002+08:00

Out of spontaneity, I asked my bro to buy me a puppy soon after I knew he just bought one. Our puppies are brothers who have a fetish to smell each other's ass. Hmm...

I decided to call him Luffy because I just recently watched One Piece. My bro calls his puppy, King. According to him, he looks like the Lion King. I thought he acts like Pumba.

Luffy is a mixture of Pom and Maltese. Definitely cute and adorable and good thing is he rarely barks.

Sometimes when at work, I feel I miss him...

I must be in love!~

What I am writing about when I am writing

2009-06-25T14:09:00.004+08:00

Save the best for the last, I spent the last moment of the previous Sunday at Borders. It's a place I would go after meeting up all my friends. It's a place I would go when I need silence and some inspiration.

Books are expensive stuff to me.

More often than not, I find it so difficult to fork out money to buy myself books. I could only sit by places like MPH and Borders and grab some books and read there. Like a bee buzzing around its honeycomb, I found myself looking at one book after another.

It was not like window shopping. In my heart, I was looking for something, almost like I couldn't stop until I found that something that I was unconsciously looking for. To be honest, I didn't even know what I was looking for. There was just a strong desire to find something.

And then I found it.

"What I talk about when I talk about running" by Haruki Murakami.

I read the first few pages and I knew I could not resist buying it. Surprisingly, there was something familiar in the book. The style, it reminds me of myself. The story, it reminds me of a narration of myself. The run, the marathon, the metaphor - they were all too familiar. The speed and the need for solitude seem as much in my veins as they are in his.

In the run, he's already a regular while I'm still kick-starting. In my life, I have written quite a bit, I cannot help wondering when will the day come when I could write a rainbow out of my keyboard. When I could write food into famine? When could I write comfort into pain? When I could write an inspiration instead of a story. Not that I want to be a novelist...

... all I want is to be able to write, ship it out and don't expect its return.

Cluckdicted!

2009-06-18T12:33:00.002+08:00

I've been waiting for the past 30 minutes for someone to ask me out for lunch. Working at this area, I know exactly what are served around this area pretty well.

If lunch is within walking distance, there's only the following:

Overpriced Malay Economy Rice;
Delicious-but-Very-Slow-Service Chinese food;
Economical-and-Bland Chinese Food Court stuff and;
KFC

In reality my mind is thinking of the ideal lunch:

Balik Pulau or Old Town's Laksa
TGI Friday's steak
Chilli's big fat succulent burger
Chicken rice
Japanese food
Taiwanese restaurant
Grilled lamb

Pardon my tummy's growling noise as I am typing.

Well, between reality and idealism, I must strike a balance. Frankly, I am really craving for a chicken drumstick from KFC.

Truth be told again, I just had one drumstick from KFC - like - yesterday?

The problem with the KFC here is that anyone can look in, then people will know I'm eating KFC again. I think I'll just hide elsewhere while I have my KFC.

Bye. Lunchtime.