Can your art define your personality?

One day, I would really like to devote some time to explore this issue.

Anyhow, in the case of Frida Kahlo, I think it's mostly true

Check out my friend's Sharanya's blog-tribute to her at

http://invokingfrida.blogspot.com/

I equate her art with Virgnia Woolf's art of novel-writing.

And I am a sucker for Virgnia Woolf, amongst many other novelist, but I was considered her avant garde, at the same league as James Joyce.

And greater than most British male novelists.

When he's just not that into you

Yesterday, after a movie with some friends, one of them passed me a book which I was rather intrigued by since I first saw it at a designer bookshop. The title is as given at the top of the blog, written by a staff writer and consultant of the hit tv series, Sex and the City.

I was supposed to start working when I got home, but ended up spending my time reading portions of the book. And I have to recommend it to each and every woman who thinks she's intelligent and has it all figured out, but crumbles at the sight of men (or in her dealings with men)

I can't say I went through the same agonies that many of the women did, not because I am lucky in anyway, just that I have a more black and white perception of things when it comes to many matters, including emotional matters (not that I haven't have agonies, of course I do, who am I kidding!). I may try guessing and reading signals to see if someone likes me (though I have to confess that I am pretty crap at it) but I have never obsessed over details (if I did, I was then a teenager figuring out boys) or sit by the phone and wait for phone calls from would-be suitors. There's too much to do in life, really, that I wish I have more time.

I supposed having had more male than female friends for a long time has kinda taken the mystique of men from me, and I do know exactly how most of them think, even if I don't always agree with that thinking. And I sometimes wish they don't have that kind of thinking. And of course, having too many male buddies can put a dent to your dating life. It's like, I don't enjoy dating all that much I am always communicating with a man already, so it would take someone EXCEPTIONAL and DIFFERENT to capture AND hold my attention for the longer term. But I still like mingling and talking to them, purely for the intellectual exercise.

I was ever only foolish enough about waiting for phone calls from someone I am in a relationship with, but I think I have kinda put that habit out. If he calls, he calls, if he doesn't, his problem.
If he's not into me, there will always be someone else who is (as long as he's not abusive, a creep or an obsessive).

So, if a guy likes you, he likes you. If he doesn't, he doesn't. Don't bother asking for explanation. They wouldn't know how to explain it, and even the most logical explanation always has an element of mystique that is not possible to deconstruct. Forget about enumerating your plus points, or about how well the two of you hit it off. Chances are, if he was interested, he would have showed you in no uncertain terms.

If he doesn't, you can cry a bucketful of tears or threaten to slash your wrist, and he wouldn't like you more. In fact, he probably would distance himself from you.

After reading this book, it kinda make sense what some of my male friends have been telling me subtly about their relationships with women (and men, if they are gay).

Check out http://www.amazon.com/Hes-Just-That-Into-Understanding/dp/068987474X

Detention of Blogger in Malaysia

I think I met the said detainee, Nathaniel Tan, via a friend last year, though it was only briefly as I was under medication and was getting drowsy. Now it seems he has been detained over alleged documents supposedly classified under OSA, though I don't see why documents that may prove the corruption of a politician be under OSA. If the documents were fake, they could just sue him for defamation. Damn Malaysian (UMNO) politics (ok maybe I'll be the next to haul up for that statement).

Anyway, if you feel strongly on this issue, kindly proceed to http://www.cijmalaysia.org/display_story.asp?id=517 for a letter template to write to parties involved or go http://jelas.info/ for more information (though it's pretty hard to read the words on the latter blog.

An entry for Tuesday

Well, Monday, I finished transcribing the last bit of some interviews I did for a project. Today I managed to list out some key trends which I intend to analyze for another project.

I also did something else which I've not done in awhile, blog hopping and reading women's magazine. I've forgotten just how much amusement I've gotten from doing those two activities.

Tomorrow I am going to go mall-trawling. It's partly for research, and partly as a reward to myself for having done my quota of work today...LOL

Well, I can't develop a career as a cultural analyst if I am not aware of what is going on out there, right? So ok, time for a shower and to bed with Mr Gladwell. :)

Bon nuit

Things to do tomorrow
1. Banking
2. Register for the incoming semester
3. Work out a proposal

Well, let's see how many I can do

Well I make apologies for the fact that my entries are a little boring. Firstly, not too many interesting things had happened other than work (except for one social night last Saturday) and secondly, this is not my venue for pillow-talk.

Musing on a Sunday evening

A hot, humid day. I sit in my friend's living room, facing the balcony, and looking at the landscape that encapsulates Kuala Lumpur city centre. Beginning Monday, I will have my work cut out for me. The concept of weekend no longer holds the same meaning for me as it once did. It has always been work, work and more work everytime, with me taking Mondays off at times, but not anymore. It is a quiet evening today, somewhat subdued, and I wish I could take a book and sit at that balcony and read as I contemplate the dusky, dust-glazed skies. But I have some transcription work to finish. Ah the life of a freelancer. I am still easily tired from the flu bug. Yet I am downing a bottle of Danish stout fortified with ginseng. It was cool but has turned warm as I slowly made my way to the bottom of the bottle. I am still not more than halfway through.

I wonder what are the tenants in all the other apartments doing right now. Watching television? Making love? Eating dinner? Arguing? Committing a **** act?

Some kind of music is being emitted from one of the rooms in the apartment I am in.

My life is neither harder nor easier than any other around me. Perhaps it is easier than some people's, perhaps it is harder. Sometimes I look at a person and I am tongue-tied. I feel unable to communicate my deepest thoughts. I feel scorn and disgust emanating sometimes from another person. But I've learned not to let it be a thorn to my flesh.

Perhaps one day, I'll have a comfortable cubby of my own where I will feel more at home and comfortable in my skin.

Changing tide

It has been forever since my last entry. I had been so bogged down with work that I haven't even had time to really read something that is not in some way, work-related, except for some stolen moments. There's always some crisis or other that's demanding of my attention, and it's only now, sometime in the middle of the year, that I have time to sit back and take stock of all that had been going on. I am done with marking (did I mention that I am currently teaching part time at a private university) and with all the administrative issues surrounding it. Now I can concentrate on my research and writing work. I had been travelling quite a bit in the past 2 months but somehow still wish that I am travelling more.

Recently, I was down with the flu and that kind of push back some of my work even more. T go this year has been one of many upheavals, unexpected changes, direction-changing decision making and basically a removal of a cushion from beneath my feet. I no longer have the comfort of knowing that I have a job to go to every morning of the weekday, but I also feel that my plans are more fluid, and that I am able to up and move once the projects I am committed to end.

I am behind deadline in one of the projects I am doing (behind by about 2 months going on the 3rd month) but I am glad to say that it is moving on faster than it was before.

I have also finished teaching a semester at a university, something which I had never done before. And I will be embarking on more work with greater responsibilities this year.