A lot of things have happened on this date in the past. Most of it are insignificant (the death of Princess Diana comes to mind) but being a Malaysian, one of the more significant thing that has happened on this day would be the Independence day of Malaysia.

One of the things that people usually do on this day is sing the national anthem, which is Negaraku or in English, My country (the more poetic would say My homeland, but I think both would do just fine). So anyways, when I went home today, my brother was playing that song on the PC...or at least I thought it was until I caught the strains of Hawaiian guitars.

After a moment of gaping or two, I went off and did a little research on Negaraku and I found out some very interesting things about the anthem. Oh...I know that the original tune was taken from another song called Terang Bulan but I didn't know that why that particular tune was chosen in the first place nor did I know the back story of that tune.

It's quite interesting actually, with a hint of human ego and a desire for dignity doing a waltz on the ballroom of history. Sometimes when you learn about this kind of stuff, it makes you feel a little more proud to be who you are and you do learn to appreciate this kind of stuff even more.

So shall we rise to sing our national anthem then?

TTFN.

P.S. for those of you who are interested, I got the history of Negaraku from this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negaraku . Enjoy ^_^

The worst thing about gossip is when you just heard the hottest, juiciest piece of gossip and you have to keep your mouth shut and wait until a certain day in order to tell it to others just so that you can see the reaction on their faces when they hear that piece of info. It is just sheer torture, let me just tell you. Every inch of my body is trying to resist the temptation to shout that piece of gossip out to everyone in the whole wide world.

And like Eve, I just cannot resist...Hehehe...soon the whole world shall know the gossip. Muahahahahaha...

Typical hospitality person. Must gossip like nobody's business. ^_^

TTFN.

Sometimes you just have to wonder...how do you know what you're feeling is real? Is it just a simple feeling or is there something more to it than just that? Is it just the rush of chemicals and hormones that the body creates to stimulate the brain or is it part of your mind, an intimate show of what lies deep down?

Are our feelings just the sum total of our physical body reacting in a certain way, or do we really feel what we really feel? Is our hearts just a mere pumping organ or does it really stirs the mind into thinking in a certain way?

Why do we even feel in the first place? I can't answer that because I'm in a partly whimsical, partly infatuated state right now. Maybe I'll post up my answer someday soon...

Or maybe I already did. Who knows?

TTFN.

It was my father's birthday today and well...I kinda forgot to get him something. Oh well, that's what baby sisters are fo, I guess ^_^ No long tributes to my dad like the last time around (some people were saying that my fatehr's day post was a little too long) so I guess a simple photo shot and many happy returns of the days wishes to my dad will just have to do this time.




It's a nice shot, if I do say so myself ^_^ Anyways, one more time I say happy birthday to my dad. TTFN.

Hahaha! The dissertation subject is free! This makes it a definite must-do subject this semester, especially when you consider the fact that we can get an honours part of the honours degree for free. And if we don't do it this semester, we have to pay CHF 2000 just to do that silly paper (which translate into nearly RM6000) so that makes it an even greater priority to do it this semester.

It's just too bad I still can't really do the topics that I really want to do. *sigh* Oh well, at least that's one piece of good news today. Let's see what other kind of news will pop up next time around.

TTFN.

The mind plays tricks on itself sometimes. For instance, take the Matrix. I'm watching the second one as I type out this post and I wonder: is reality what we take it to be? Is our surrounding merely a by-product of the impulses that our brain generates? The rush of electric messages from our nerves to the brain, which our brain interprets and thus creates a form of reality.

Is this what we do in order to make our sanity intact? What if the electric messages that our brain interprets is just a cover to protect our mind from the truth that really exists? What if, what we see and feel and hear is all false? A cover-up?

What if?

Please excuse my inane blabbering. I'm feeling the rush of Cthulhu at the moment and I don't really have anything else to write about at the moment, that's why ^_^

TTFN.

So...there I was, in class today, minding my own business and trying to focus on the lecture today when my eyes strayed slightly to the left. All hell broke loose after that.

I saw...one damn fine piece of naked ass, sitting right before me and in my mind, I went, Did she wear any panties, cause if that thing goes any lower, I think I should be able to see some hair right below that...

After a couple more thoughts like that going on, I decided that enough was enough and I focused my attention on the piece of paper before me and started to create a character for my friend's Shadowrun campaign. Anything in order to get that ass out of my mind...hmmm...nice ass...oh shit...it's still in there...

Later that day, me, Gary and Nanda stopped by Minh's place and since Nanda had a cooler in his car filled with beer...well, I'm sure you can imagine what happened next. Add to the recipe: Minh's roommate (whose birthday just so happened to be today), a bottle of Chivas, a bottle of Chinese rice wine and a bottle of Vietnamese liquor and it's a damn wonder that I'm here typing out this post.

Too many asses and quite a fair bit to drink...what a day it was today. TTFN.

P.S. For those of you out there whom I know wants so desperately to see me get drunk, here's a couple of words to you guys in case you're reading this: HAHAHAHAHAHA! You still have to wait! Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh!

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town
You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere

****
I don't know why but this song seems to be rolling in my head at the moment. Not that the day is a beautiful one, but maybe because I thought that today should be a beautiful day.

****

You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

****

So, why shouldn't today be a beautiful day? The sun was shining, there was a blue sky out there, no haze in sight, it even rained for a minute or so.

****

You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day

****

Okay...I think I did get a little whimsical too, since half the thoughts I thought about today was about you-know-who (don't ask me why, it just happened like that) and I thought, why shouldn't today be a beautiful day?

****

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day

****

So I've decided that today is a beautiful day. It was one in my opinion and it was one in my mind.

****

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
Don't need it now

It was a beautiful day

****

Yup...it definitely was a beautiful day. TTFN.

I have to admit: going to a chinese school where in the first place I can't speak a single word of Mandarin or Cantonese is an extremely limiting experience when it comes to looking out for good local jokes. Especially the dirty ones. Sure I've heard a few in CHS but they were all in Cantonese and well...after listening to 'ham' jokes day in and day out, you get kinda bored of wondering what the hell 'ham' means and why it's so much better to listen to these jokes in Cantonese instead of English.

So when me, Gary and Reza had an impromptu joke session this evening, I spent most of it listening since I can't recall a single decent one (well...except for that Old Man Coyote and Grandfather Spider and the one where Grandfather Spider's penis elongated and it got run over by a herd of horses wearing spikes shoes...but that's another story to be told some other day).

Plus side: I get to hear some decent dirty jokes which I haven't got a chance to listen to since I was in primary school. Con side: Can't really share any of the ones I know because I don't really remember them and they were all in Cantonese anyways which I can't really pronounced properly (some people say I speak Cantonese with an Indian accent...)

Oh well. Time to brush up on that repertoire I guess.

TTFN.

Indies are cool, especially the horror ones. Like the one I just watched before typing this post up. I have never seen a lamer horror movie before in my entire life, with an extremely thin plot about a building trying to kill off people and one-dimensional characters who are chief purpose is to get slaughtered by the building.

But you know what? The people who made the film knows it and so they went off to make one of the corniest ever horror film complete with a 'Aye keep tellin' ya but ya refuse ta listen ta a single word that Aye've been tryin' tell ya so why don't ya just shut yer bollocks up and listen ta what Aye hav' ta tell ya, okay?"

Hahaha. Lame and not the highest quality but points for knowing it and for having fun making the movie ^_^.

TTFN.

Tomorrow is the twenty second of August, the date of which the wind is expected to change and bring the haze back to Malaysia. *sigh* Hoping for a good and long lasting weather isn't just going to cut it, now is it?

It was bad enough facing the haze with a healthy body. Now the haze comes back when my nose hasn't really cleared off and my crazy throat is acting up as and when it likes. Stupid nose and stupid throat...

Too late for that now. Must focus on getting throat and nose better as soon as possible. Where's my morphine? I need it for my throat...

TTFN.

A cough here
A sneeze there
Bleary eyes tear
and things fill the air

Little things that eat
and tear and rip
Our bodies of meat
seem like one ton sheep

First they come in
Then they look around
After that they dine in
On the meat that surrounds

We whine in pain
We moan and we groan
Through our thoughts of train
'I'll always walk alone'

Some time passes
Those little things decide
to look for green grass
And go off on the next ride

They wave goodbye
We say good riddance
They find another guy
We do a little dance

We jump for joy
Then clutch our head
They've found a new toy
Now we have to clean their beds

But they're not here
Who cares where
As long as they's not here
They can die for all we care

************************************************************************************

TTFN.

It started on Monday with a sore throat. And I think it's going to end with a sore throat, now that the fever has died out and the running nose decided that it would rather jog instead. But the sore throat...

First it died on Tuesday. Then it was resurrected and given a second life on Wednesday. I killed it again. And the damn thing pulls a Dracula on me and comes back to life yesterday, giving me the mother of all sore throats. You know, the one where you can't really feel that your throat is sore until you suddenly start coughing like a centenarian who spent nine decades chain-smoking cigars.

Now I can't go a single minute without coughing five of those loud whooping coughs that would probably wake up the entire neighbourhood on its own (ok...maybe that's just exaggerating it a little...but you get the rough idea right?). It's loud, it's annoying and I want it to be gone as soon as possible!

First sleeping problems and now a whooping cough...what's an immune system got to put up with next? Pig fever?

TTFN.

Okay...so I've read Reza's blog post on that Googlism thingie and I decided "Why the hell shouldn't I try it?" I couldn't think of any reason not to so I gave it a whirl.

The results are pretty...interesting to say the least. Here's some of them:

• a professor of finance and business economics at the...
• named lexington's 2002 junior fire chief
• the joint online exhibition "treasures of europe's national libraries"
• one of canada?s leaders in the sports and leisure industry
• the daring rock star he is
• set to release his second cd
• sentenced to death
• intrigued by "the countess" and demands her kisses in payment for his help
• a handsome boy with black hair
• a very diverse community
• doing with his new album at the moment
• a survivor of the 1970s prog rock scene
• involved in collaborative work with researchers at other institutions who use rabbits as an experimental animal to analyze the effects on the...

Very...interesting...if I do say so myself...very interesting indeed...

TTFN.

Okay...I typed out this post only to find out that it didn't really get posted up...*sigh* Back to the starting line I guess (not to mention the extreme annoyance)

Anyways, I've been having trouble sleeping these past two days ever since I got struck by my most recent bout of flu. Which makes it very annoying since I'm suppose to be sleeping the flu off so that I can recover better.

It goes something like this:

Step 1) I sleep for one hour
Step 2) I wake up
Step 3) I go to the toilet to wash my face
Step 4) I go back to my bed
Step 5) I try to sleep again.
Step 6) Return to step 1 and start the process all over again

*sigh* This is starting to get very tedious...Oh well, I'm going to try and sleep again. Hopefully this time I can sleep properly without any interruptions. Wish I could sleep like Sally though (famous last semester for sleeping throughout the entire weekend without a single wake-u. Just how does she do it?)

TTFN.

We appeared in the papers today! Hehehe...KDU actually paid for an advertisement to post up our names in the Star (along with other students but who cares about them ^_^) Man that is cool...

Of course only one person from our class got a distinction (no prizes for guessing who it is) and the rest of us got passes but I think it's worth ripping that particular page and pinning it up on the wall.

But you know what the best part is? Since my name and Reza's name is there, it means that the both of us passed our dissertation paper ^_^ Otherwise, why would they put our names on the list as well? ^_^ Oh happy happy joy joy...

TTFN.

Puteri sprang that on us when we came into class this morning. And there we were thinking that the little assignment was just going to be handed in to her and she would just read it and then she would grade us and so on and so forth. I was a little worried since I did exactly as I said I would do in my blog last week (see Most Wanted for more details ^_^) but I thought "Hey...this is Puteri. She can accept almost anything, right?" and I went ahead and presented it anyways. And well...needless to say, everyone was very much taken by surprise, to say the least ^_^

By special request, I was told to put into this blog about one of our classmates presentation. He's a politician-wannabe and his most wanted project is to take UMNO into Sarawak. It was one of the most...passionate presentations I have ever heard. Hell, he was so passionate he managed to alienate most of the class and cheese off Captain Hook (who's from Sibu btw). All that talk about shares and who owns Ntv7 and TV3 and all that other jazz...my poor little head...Puteri was just as flabbergasted by what he said, her face the very picture of 'What is he talking about?'

Anyways, later that afternoon, we got the other surprise, although for most of us, it really wasn't much of surprise. As of today, this Bachelor's Degree in International Hotel and Tourism Management now has an honours attached to its' name; meaning that we now have the option of doing a dissertation or not.

Which brings me to the next important question: should I do the dissertation or not? More musings coming up right after this message ^_^

TTFN.

I actually watched the Kim Possible movie yesterday after three months of trying to download the moive but I was too lazy to write my thoughts about it yesterday. So today I'm going to write about it.

Hmmm...what can I say about it? Besides the usual crap which everyone else has written about it (perfect ending to the series, lovely animation, great fight scenes, the part where Kim strips naked in front of Ron, how the two tasted tongue during the last dance, etc, etc.)...hmmmm...

I love it. I really enjoyed the movie (despite the fact that it's suppose to be the end of the series) and the only flaw that I could grip with the movie was that the whole Kim and Ron pairing up together seemed a little too rushed a la Disney channel style but it was still a nice moment. Oh that and the fact that Shego's dress was definitely out. That girl has no sense of fashion. Maybe that's why she's always wearing green and black...

*sigh*...why did they have to cancel this show?

TTFN.

The haze has lifted its smoky grip from our skies! Have a look at this:



Nothing but clear blue skies...Okay, it's not really clear blue skies yet but it looks like it's going to be heading that way soon. Must be some kind of omen...I wonder what could it be ^_^

TTFN.

I did a little experiment today to see what my chances were if I were to tell *censored* what I feel about her and the result that came back was just as I'd expected: the whole 'we're only friends' thing that we all keep hearing on tv.

Hehehe...joke of my life: I left the one girl who's willing to go out with me (well it was just a fling but I think that counts in some ways now doesn't it) to go after someone who would just think of me as a friend. Maybe I really should look for the bridge to nowhere and take a dive...

But who knows? Maybe given time, I might have a chance. Of course there's the maybe not too, but I'm suppose to focus on the positive side of things right?

TTFN.

Went to watch Seven Swords today with a couple of friends and well...that movie won't win an Academy Award for best picture anytime soon but that's the moot point. The cool thing about that movie were the swords which the seven swordmen used. Well, I can't really see anything cool about the old man's sword but the rest of the swords were the flashiest blades I've ever seen, from the Dragon, which chimes like a bell whenever Tsui Hark thought it would sound the coolest to the Heaven's Fall, whose blade flows to and fro like a river and thus caused a lot of trouble for its wielder because the blade kept going out the other side at the wrong time to the sword whose name I couldn't quite catch but it had a ring carved above its hilt and it could split into two and he'd dual wield it to slice everyone around him.

Now on to the more important part of this posting: which one of the seven swords would I like to own? The answer: none of them. ^_^ I don't really like swords that much (too overrated, seen too much in movies and books and mangas and anime and cartoons, etc). I prefer spears and axes myself since they look much cooler than swords (if you ask me). Hehehe, what's the point of me even posting up this post then?

Because this is the Extremely Random Musings and I get to post whatever I want on this blog and that's the bottomline cause Stone Cold...said...so...(cue in shattering glass sound).

Man, I love going nuts on this blog ^_^.

TTFN.

I took a few shots of the haze when I was driving back from college today just to let everyone see how bad it is over here.


Again I say, to those of you guys in Switzerland, you are pretty damn lucky not to be in Malaysia at the moment. Now if you'll excuse me, my father just bought yau char kueh and I'm going to sink my juicy little teeth into them. Later I will be eating rojak and maybe some satay as well...Hmmm...Malaysian food...

TTFN.

New assignment or project or essay or whatever you want to call it. Essentially during Puteri's class, she just told us to write a one-page essay about a project that we want to do, whether it be related with our course or even a personal one. Of course, my head started cracking and already a few ideas popped into my head and I did want to do a re-write of an earlier post that I wrote last month but a different idea forced its way into this crazy head of mine. Here goes...

****

The Project that I want to do the most by Me

Well...there is something that has been driving me insane this past couple of months and I ought to do something about it and so I will. And it's nothing big, nothing fancy; it'll just take a lot out of me but I think I can live with that. And this particular project would be 'How to ask *censored* out".

*OOC note: Hehehe...I didn't think I'd get the guts to write this far...now back to the main paper

Why do I want to do this? I suppose it's because it's been two years since I started liking her and the fact that I've only gotten the guts to actually talk to her properly only recently and that I've got nothing to lose and so on and so forth.

So what am I going to do in order to accomplish this project? Simple. Below I list down the steps that I need to take:

Step 1) Come up with a decent plan for the 'date'.
Step 2) Come up with a script for the asking-her-out part
Step 3) Full-dressed rehearsal
Step 4) Get the courage to actually ask her out *OOC note: Dutch courage sounds extremely tempting over here ^_^
Step 5) Actually ask her out.

And there you have it. My so-called five-step plan in order to accomplish this particular pet project of mine.

****

The end. Finito. Finis. The fat lady has sang her song. I wonder what else is missing in the project up there...

TTFN.

Okay...that's it...this haze has now officially gotten to my nerves. My head is throbbing from the stupid smell that constantly permeates the atmosphere. It's like a combination of smoke, smoke, more smoke and even more smoke. It's pervasive, it gets into the house even when all of the windows and doors are shut and my aunt has started complaining about how the haze has caused her floors to be dirty and dusty...

Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything I can do about this stupid haze...not unless I could control the weather, in which case I would just summon forth twenty-eight rainclouds over my house and have it pour like it was the day Noah got his family into his ark. Hello rain...goodbye haze. Of course, then there would be the problem of it pouring cats and dogs but since I can control the weather, I'll just sing "Raine, raine go away" and it'll just leave...

*sigh* Stupid haze...those of you who are in Switzerland and if you happen to be reading this, be glad that you're not here in Malaysia because of this stupid haze.

TTFN.

I think I saw one today when I stopped by at SS2 this evening. It flew down right in front of me and was right in front of me for a full five seconds. During this time, it just gave me this long piercing stare that all raptors do (well, at least they do on tv and movies) before it flew oof.

And I was fumbling for my camera all this while and when it flew off, I went 'Crap' because how often does a bird of prey land right in front of you and gives you that long movie look? What a wasted chance...

TTFN.

Okay...I'll start at the beginning first.

Sunday is usually the day when I go out to my friend's (his name is Baleen, don't ask...just don't ask) place for a game of D&D (for the uninitiated, that's Dungeons and Dragons, the pen & paper game, not the PC games but the real pen & paper one). Normally I won't usually write about my gaming sessions since it's usually pretty standard fare Sunday afternoon gaming which ends up with a bout of PvP (player versus player, where we pit ourselves against each other to bruise the other person's ego).

Unfortunately, today isn't any other ordinary day. First, our group's favourite punching bag (we call him Panda on account of his permanent eyebags and we just love to kick his ass simply because he annoys everytime with his proclamation of 'My characters can do anything!' right up until the moment we kick his ass in twenty-eight different ways) was an hour late. We expected him to be there at about three-ten so that we could get in about four hours of game time but he arrived at about four-ten. His excuse? Bus was stationery for an hour. Why didn't he call us to tell us that the bus wasn't moving? He has an hand-phone right? Well...this is Panda, all the Strength bonuses but all the penalties to Intelligence and Wisdom...

The next culprit of the day was, unfortunately and expectedly, me. We've started the game and we were right in the midst of it. I had just gotten my character into a mansion full of soldiers who were investigating an attack and I unfortunately managed to tip them off to my presence. So I fled away and hid myself in the bushes of another mansion and I was holding my breath, trying to be as quiet as I can. Then my character heard voices saying, "I think I saw something dive in here!" And I was racking my brains on what to do when all of a sudden...my handphone rings.

Okay...slight breather. I answered the call and it turns out to be Minh, who needed some help with the case study that we were working on this past few days and which we needed to hand in tomorrow. Oh fuck...

As you can well imagine, my friends were not pleased with my sudden announcement that I had to leave. Especially the DM (dungeon master), Andy, who I know was up all night last night prepping the most deliciously evil villain to kick our sordid asses (I know because I was up talking to him on the phone last night, discussing the possibilities of how he could kick our asses today).

My deepest apologies to Andy...I know this was totally unexpected and uncalled for and since I know you won't be reading this, I'd better remember to call you tomorrow to apologise again...

*sigh*...D&D blues are much more common than the average non-players imagine...

TTFN.

I've just noticed one thing about kopitiams and that is how much other people writes about them in their blogs. Granted, it's kinda limited to only Malaysian and Singaporean blogs (mostly Singaporeans. I guess it's because Malaysians prefer to hang out in kopitiams and mamaks and Singaporeans are too cheap to actually go these places ^_^ Malaysian prejudice showing up here but wait a minute...I was born in Singapore. Does that mean I'm making fun of myself? Hmmm...)

Anyways back to the blog.Why do people write about kopitiams on their blogs? Why not mamaks? I'm pretty sure that mamaks deserves to be written about in blogs (I know that mamaks have a website, namely www.mamak.com, but still...) Cue on the Dragnet theme song...

One thing I noticed about these blogs is that they're always writing about the food that they serve at kopitiams, mostly about their roti bakar (no explanations from me about what they are. Go check out other blogs to find out what they are ^_^) and their half-boiled eggs.

The next thing is that bloggers write about how much they miss their kopitiams back from wherever they come from. After that, they'll proceed to describe in extreme detail about their favourite kopitiams, from the colour of the chairs provided at the place to the smell of the chair to how each chair can bend and...well, I could go on but it's kinda pointless now isn't it?

Conclusion: these guys must be overseas and must be feeling terribly homesick. Otherwise why should they be writing about kopitiams (except for Singaporeans who are too cheap to do anything else ^_^ Now, am I still making fun of myself or not?)

TTFN.

Life at twenty three
Not as fun as it should be
That's why I just blog.

****

^_^ TTFN.

Had the pleasure of meeting Reza's classmate again, this one whom I played futsal with about two months back. It was at Reza's favourite spot and since I'm the only non-smoker at the table, I had the pleasure of inhaling their second-hand smoke...

Not that I'm complaining about the smoke. At least that way I know I get to die a whole lot faster and younger too. Reaching old age and becoming like my grandmother is not exactly at the top of my to-do lists anytime soon. So the sooner I die, the less likely I am of reaching senility, develop an addiction of sleeping pills, an irrational fear of the dark and the paranoid feeling that someone is watching me take a bath a la Norman Bates (as if anyone wants to look at her body. Those who does probably has a death wish or something like that).

Of course, the gossip was great and all that (none of which shall be repeated here since we all know how much online gossiping can ruin your career but let's just say that I will never look at nipples in the right way again...) and the slow death was an additional bonus but I'm starting to wonder though...how much smoke can I possibly inhale before my mind goes absolutely numb and I begin to pick up the stick as well?

Makes one wonder doesn't it? Has the randomness return back to this blog? Have I become totally insane once more? Hehehe...

TTFN.

Summer draws to an end…there is but four months left before I leave my mother’s home and I return back to the house of my husband.

It is strange, I believe, how things change. Once I was a young girl, who did nothing but gathered with my friends and danced about in the fields, with not a care in the world. I was happy and carefree then. There was nothing in this world that chained me down.

Then one day, I met my husband-to-be.

It wasn’t love at first sight. How could it be, when he just came out of nowhere and snatched me away when I had strayed away from my friends. I remembered how terrified I was and how much I screamed as he ran away with me but no one could hear me and I thought that I was going to die.

He took me to his house, where he laid me upon a bed and left me there for hours, alone while I wept tears of fear and sorrow. Fear that he would do something dreadful to me and sorrow that I would never see my friends and family again.

When I had done crying, he returned to me, his face a mask of stone, but his voice soft and tender as he told me that he had asked my father for my hand in marriage and that my father did not deny my hand to him. He promised that he would be a loving husband and that he would never do anything to hurt me.

How I hated him for those words at that moment. I screamed at him, beat my fists against his chest, kicked at his ankles, did everything I could to provoke his anger, to force him to reveal himself as the liar that he was.

And he merely stood there, receiving every blow without flinching and when at last I looked upon his face, there was a single tear on his face. It was the only sign of sadness that I saw on his face ever.

We didn’t talk for sometime after that. I stayed in my room, waiting for my mother to send someone to rescue me. He just stood away in the distance, watching me with the same granite mask that he wore all the time.

The days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. My mother had surely given up on me, I remember thinking in despair during this time. The man who had claimed me as his wife had done nothing to me all of this while, save to watch over me to make sure that nothing happens.

After this, I stepped out of my room more often and he began to lavish more attention towards me. He brought me gifts which I have never seen before, beautiful necklaces made of silver and diamonds that sparkled like the night sky, flowers that were carved out of ice and that were as beautiful as those that I used to hold in my hands. He was kind to me, as he had promised and never once did he force himself upon me.

My anger for him cooled away and I believed that I forgave him for what he had done to me…but could I return the affection that I know he felt for me so strongly? Could I love a man who tore me away from my home, my family and my friends?

After a year had passed, a messenger came to his house, telling him that his brother had commanded that I be returned to my mother. I was glad to hear this but when I saw the swift sadness that appeared and disappeared on his face, I felt pity for him. Pity for this cold and cruel yet warm and loving man who had been my constant companion for the past year.

Did I love him at that moment? I don’t think so…but I knew that I pitied him.

Later, before it was time for me to leave, he offered me a fruit, a pomegranate. “Eat this, so that I would know that you would keep me in your memories,” he whispered softly, that fleeting sadness appearing in his eyes once again. Out of pity for him, I took the pomegranate and ate it.

****

What happened next was a whirlwind of events that swept my breath away. Apparently, by eating the pomegranate, I had violated a promise made between my mother and his brother and now a new arrangement had to be made. In the end, it was agreed that I should spend eight months of the year with my mother while I spend the remaining four months with my soon to be husband. My mother did not like this but she had no choice but to agree to the terms.

And so, that is how I came to be wed to my husband. On the first night of our wedding, he took me back to the room where he had placed me when I was first brought to his house and he laid me on the bed as gently as the first time.

“I love you,” he whispered and I looked into his eyes and I knew it to be true. But I wasn’t sure how I felt for him and so I looked away.

When he saw this, he took his arm off me and he walked away from the bed towards the exit. He stopped under the archway and he said in a voice that almost cracked with emotions, “I apologise for taking you as I did that day and I apologise for deceiving you in order to keep you here. But my heart shatters for every moment I spend without you and life without you is like a dead tree that would bears neither fruit nor leaf.”

There was silence for a while and I thought I could see his shoulders tremble for a brief moment. Then he said in his usual voice, “I beg your leave, my wife,” and he walked out of that room.

****

It was many years before we finally consummated our marriage and it took many more years before I took pleasure in the act. I don’t know if I could love him as much as he loved me underneath his stone mask. On the one hand, he is the kindest, most faithful man that I have ever known but I never did forget what he did to me…

So every year I look forward to returning to my mother’s house and spending the eight months with her. But the eight months will pass and I will return to my husband’s house and we will be together for four months.

He still loves me with the same quiet intensity that he has shown me since the first time we spoke and he performs the most wonderful of deeds in order to make me happy. But I don’t know if I could ever love him as he loves me and I do believe that he deserves that much at least.

Forgive me, Hades…I wish that I could feel the same for you as you feel for me. Maybe…in time, when I could forget the pain of my abduction and when I can truly focus on the love that you shower onto me…

Maybe…

************************************************************************************

And that's the end of my Hades and Persephone story. If you guys were scratching your head the day before, wondering what that post was all about, well go and check out this site:

http://messagenet.com/myths/bios/hades.html

TTFN.

Only one month remains. I will be able to see my wife soon. She is always joyous whenever she leaves me, always so sad whenever she returns to me. It aches my heart to see it as such for I love her with all my heart. Of course, it was partly my fault that I forced her to be with me but I was crazed with love at that time. It never occured to me that it would be like this later on.

I thought that no one would begrudge me this one simple thing: a woman for me to love and to call my own. But apparently everyone did and they did all that they could in order to stop me. But I treated her with nothing but love and kindness and I believe eventually she did forgive me for snatching her away like I did on that day and I believe that she did come to love me in return.

Finally my brother's messenger came to me on behalf of my love's mother and we negotiated a deal. My love would go to be with her mother for eight months and then she would come back to me for the remaining four months of the year. I was not pleased with this but I saw the look of joy on my love's face and I relented. Anything for her, to see that smile upon her face again.

So every year, she leaves my house and returns to her mother and all around I see the joy of the world reflected in the flowers, the skies and the smiling face of the sun. But that joy is not that of my heart.

When she returns to me, the world seems to die but I do not care for much for it because she is back with me. She smiles at me whenever she returns because she loves me and she does not wishes me to grieve but I see the sadness in her and I do grieve.

I wish I could make her heartache go away and that my love would be all that would make her happy. But that is not to be and so, we go on as we do, year after year.

Now I wait for her to return from her mother, with both joy and dread in my heart. My dear, sweet Persephone...how I wish I could be the one who would make you truly happy.

****

TTFN.

Okay...that was one of the weirdest things I've ever had to do. Granted I volunteered for the job but that didn't make it any less weirder or more (I know what some of you guys are going to say so I'll stuff it down your throat first).

So anyways, I was teaching my aunt how to download pictures of the internet (dinosaur in the modern age. She admits as much anyways) and she was telling me how my cousin was complaining that she looks rather fat and all that and that all the guys are always chasing after her friends and yada yada yada.

So I took it upon myself to start gathering opinions about how my cousin looks like and I ended up with comments like:

"What? Are you interested in this girl?"

"You cannot like this girl! What about %censored%?" *

"You want my opinion in terms of sex or friendship?"

...Okay...either a) a guy can't ask people how a girl looks like without being accused of being interested in her or b) a guy can't ask people how a girl looks like without being accused of thinking with his penis.

*sigh* What's a guy to do?

TTFN.

* It's not that kind of censorship bleep where I delete words out that are considered excessive since I'll never do that. Rather I think you guys can guess who this person is and I don't want to bother typing it out.