Man vs Alien... which is better looking?

I'm in an 'out of this world imagination' mode :)

I just watched 'Star Trek' the movie for the 5th time since I bought the DVD. I watched the movie first at the cinema, but somehow still couldn't get enough of it. It's so good and somehow believable :) The universe, the spaceship, the warp theory (I likeeee...), time travel, the technologies, the charismatic leaders, the fun characters, the special effects, the acting, the directing, the ADVENTURES... woooooo!

While I was watching the movie over and over again, I started thinking 'Wow, this Spock guy is quite good looking, even with pointy ears and a weird face'. Of course Captain George Kirk is still the handsomest (is there such a word?), but for an alien, Spock is quite a catch. No?

Then my thoughts drifted to a question. Why is it that aliens always weird looking?

Sorry, correction... Why is it that aliens invented by human are always naturally weird looking? Are we that vain? Aliens can be good looking too right?

But then again, I'm writing from a human perspective. Those aliens might think that we are the weird looking ones.

I remember one night during university time, I had a conversation with a friend, Mc Ha about the tv series, 'Battlestar Gallactica'. While looking up to the stars we wondered 'What are aliens really like?'. Are they really fierce, ferociuos, always looking to attack us and UGLY? We both agreed to disagree to those questions.

For all we know, they could be just like us... and perhaps that night, they were also looking up to their skies and wondering what those two aliens on planet earth were doing? hihihiiii...

That was a fun imagination.

Anyway... before this wishful thinking saying nite nite, I would like to see an alien movie

which aliens are as oppose to THESE...

(not that 'Yoda' is not cute...)

will look more like THESEEEEE...

wooooo... show me the way to planet gorgeous... hihihihiii...

GOOD LUCK! (Vulcan style :P)

A trip cancelled... *sigh*

We firmly made our decision today, Anastasia & I. This is the second time that we cancelled our plan to visit Jogja. First time, last year… because of the passing of a dear friend (whom I still miss so much). This year, would be the second time. Even though we really, really, really would like to see the ancient and famous Borobudur and Prambanan, looks like our visit there is just not meant to be.

Our plan to visit Jogja has been such a challenge since the beginning, as if hinting that we are really not suppose to be there. Starting from the flight ticket booking last year, to applying leave, to the passing of a dear friend, to ground tour booking… almost everything went wrong. But we ignored all the hints and excitedly plan for the second attempt. We face challenges this round as well. Only that this final challenge really dampened our travelling spirit. Apart from worry for our safety, we are mostly disappointed by the current event.

Would you feel hurt when your flag was torn and burned and your countrymen threatened?

For me, it cut deep and it’s a total disappointment.

I don’t understand why they hate my country and us so much…

*****
Because of an island?

What about when we rushed there to help when there was hit by a tsunami?

Because of a terrorist that we are also against?

What about all the kind donations that we made every time there was hit by earthquakes?

Because of their maids were abused by our employer? (stupid employers by the way… a disgrace to my country)

What about when their maids abuse our employers…

What about the snatches, robberies, rapes, murders… crimes committed by them and all the troubles that they have caused us? (to be clear, not by all of them)

Because of an erroneous advertisement which has been clarified not done by us? What if this error was accidentally included in a series of for example, ‘Enigmatic Europe’? Would they react the same?

Because of a misunderstanding caused by a 3rd party with no bad intention (?) we’re having this dispute?

*****
I thought we are all from the same root, aren’t we? Aren’t most of us from the same religion which ‘Peace’ embedded in its meaning? Are we such a rich country that we can afford this fight in the middle of economic downturn? Do we have so much free time to spend on this quarrel instead of focusing on our developments? Do we really have that much pride, that it clouds our judgments? Do we really think that we can survive without each other?

Their patriotics vow to defend their country.
The truth is, we’re not a lesser patriotics as well.

But, fighting is never an option. We have fought for this freedom and peace for so long. We mean to keep it. We don’t want to lose face to our older generations who had suffered and sacrificed so much to make us a free citizen and a developing nation. By the way, we still have our own 'fights' that we must resolve internally *sigh*

When these kind of things happened, you’ll get flashbacks of all the unfortunate encounters and experiences. I personally have really bad experiences with some of them (bugger! sabarrrr... bulan Ramadhan ni) But, I also have fortunate encounters that I cannot disregard. A good friend that I had who have helped me get through heavy-hearted times. All the late uncles and aunties who settled near my house when they first came here in the early 80s, who were good neighbours. Their children and I used to play together. I have memorable childhood moments with them. Although some of them were not good, but I'm not going to talk about it.

I think a Malay proverb that is most suitable for this current situation would be 'seekor kerbau membawa lumpur habis semuanya terpalit’ . I know that not all of them agree with what is going on there, so let's not be prejudice. Let us pray together that the dark clouds will clear up soon. All these disputes are doing no good for both of us. We have better things to do… a country to develop, a life to improve.

I pray that the blessings of Ramadhan will penetrate into all our hearts. May the approaching Aidilfitri brings the true meaning of ‘Peace’ to all of us.

But still, the sunrise at Borobudur will have to wait…
Until when? Let fate decides...

p/s: To Malaysian leaders, please do something soon. We can't keep on accepting our good name being tarnished every now and then.

Vanessa Williams - Colours of the Wind

You think you own whatever land you land on
The earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned ?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain ?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind ?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind ?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun-sweet berries of the earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
In a cirle, in a hoop that never ends

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or let the eagle tell you there hes been
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain ?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind ?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind ?

How high does the sycamore grow ?
If you cut it down, then youll never know

And youll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper-skinned
We just sing with all the voices of the mountain
Need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the earth and still
All youll own is earth until
You can paint with all colors of the wind

(OST of Pocahontas)

Perpetuum Jazzilee - Africa

I first listened to this amazing choir when I visited Mrs. Miller's blog --> http://mrsmillerlite.blogspot.com/

Perpetuum Jazzilee is a jazz choir from Slovenia. You should listen to them coz they are great. They have great range of voices and great arrangements. Great performance!

The two guys on the left of the front row are really cute. Especially the one with the yellow scarf. Wat up with those dimples? (lalalalaaaaa...) And those guys on the right amaze me, they make musical instruments sounds... My favourite of all is the guy who looks like he's playing a drum. Wow!

You can visit their official website here --> http://www.perpetuumjazzile.si/en/

I hope they'll come to Malaysia... I'll definitely go to see their performance... hopefully the ticket price won't be too expensive.

They are a lot of videos of them in youtube. You can go and check them out. But for starters, you can check them out in mytube :p This is a video of them performing the song 'Africa'. The song is originally by band 'Toto'. You can check out Toto's Africa video on youtube as well.

If you want to sing along, you can find the lyrics below the video... you're welcome :P

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

Africa

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, hurry boy, its waiting there for you

Chorus:
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
Sure as kilimanjaro rises like olympus above the serengeti
I seek to cure whats deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become

Chorus

(instrumental break)

Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you

Its gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

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

Speechless on Dress Code

Last month, I read in a newspaper that a Muslim French woman was banned from using a swimming pool in France because she was wearing a 'burqini', an 'aurat' compliant swimming suit.

They said, it was unhygienic and will endanger other swimmers, which I don't understand. If I wore a clean swimming attire into a swimming pool, how can that be unhygienic? It'll be unhygienic if I wore a dirty swimming attire into a swimming pool, be it a burqini or a bikini. Isn't it?

If you asked me, a bikini can be more dangerous to the other swimmers, don't you think?

Those people are confused or maybe afraid to open up their minds or just afraid to the idea of Islam.

I wonder why...

Today, I read again in newspaper that a women in Sudan is being imprisoned because she's wearing trousers which according to the law was 'improper'. From the picture, I can see there's nothing improper about what she wore. Loose long trousers, loose blouse... but the half-covered hair was off... amazing how they don't mind the half-covered hair. Sometimes, people just missed the obvious.

With regards to the trousers affair, from my opinion, nowadays, it's safer to wear trousers and it's more convenient too. We can walk faster, we can run faster (just in case). We can do activities like go into a crowded train without getting worried that our cloth is going to be stuck in between the train doors (happened to me once... I can't move until the door opens at the next station, 6 stations to be exact. Luckily I was cool :P) Personally, I prefer to wear trousers and jeans because I feel more safe.

If they said that wearing trousers is 'improper', I bet they'll faint or go into a coma if they came to Malaysia.

Over here, we have muslim ladies covered from head to ankles with a proper headscarves, tight long sleeves t-shirts which length is somehow below the waist and tight slim-cut jeans. Which means, not really covering... *sigh* Things get worse when they sit or bent down, if you know what I mean...

Who am I to talk? Even though I don't do what I wrote above, I'm not 100% obedient either... but still, I think I have the right to remind my fellow muslimah.

What is it that I really want to say here?

I guess what I want to say is that there is nothing wrong with Islamic dress codes. The rules are there to keep us safe, inside out... not to make our life difficult. We (and I mean EVERYONE) especially muslims are not suppose to make simple things complex. Islam can tolerate changes, as long as the changes are not against shariah. However, as muslims, we must not abuse the tolerance. When muslims fashion evolves positively, then I don't think that muslims cannot evolve with it.

Again, I'm writing with my own mind and my Islamic knowledge is shallow. Please, correct me when I'm wrong.


References: (if you're interested to know more)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_burquini_banned
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lifestyle/australian-swimsuit-banned-in-french-pools-20090813-eijt.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6017524/French-ban-Muslim-woman-from-pool-for-wearing-burkini-swimsuit.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/sudans-lubna-hussein-convicted-wearing-trousers/story?id=8508383
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8173714.stm


Wishing for senses for some people.

The Big Picture by David Suzuki

I saw this book on one of the front shelves in Kinokuniya bookstore. It caught my attention only after I read the review on the back of the book. I didn't know who David Suzuki was, that's why the book title didn't attract me... but the old man picture did. He looks so deep in thought.

That's David Suzuki... a Canadian environmental activist.

In a National Geographic (or was it Discovery Channel?) documentary, two brothers went to visit the 'Three Gorges Dam' in China. They went for a river cruise along the Yangtze River (Yellow River). It was heartbreaking to see how nature's wonderful and breathtaking beauty been sacrificed just to make way for modernization and in the name of economic and social development. The dam is huge, but not as huge as compared to the lost of our natural world.

Perhaps, there are no other options?

I remember the commentator mentioned something about how human is the only species that can alter Earth. At that time, I thought 'how true...'. But, while reading this book, I realized that is so, so true.

In his book, David Suzuki laid out all the evidences of how our actions have been altering Earth. If we don't act soon, this 'home' will be no more. I'm sure I don't need to mention everything... There's one effect that we can already feel. Global warming... us that live in the tropics can already feel the heat. It gets really hot when it's hot and too heavy when the rain comes... But global warming does more that just releasing more heat and rain. It impacts everything in our chain of life. Our weather, our air, our food, our health, our future... our life.

You might think that ants are just a tiny species that can be ignored and we can live without. You can read this book and find out how wrong you are. Just like I did... If ants are at the bottom of the food chain and we are at the top, it's not so hard to imagine what will go wrong if the chain is disturbed isn't it?

If you watched the movie, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', you'll probably remember what Klatu said...

If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives.

One day, we will all go together with our Earth and the universe. But while we are still here let's work together to make this Earth healthy again... and make right what we have made wrong.

As for myself... I'm taking tiny steps in my struggle to become a true environmentalist.
Wish me luck!

~I DO LOVE THE WHOLE WORLD! BOOM DE YADA!~

p/s: Check out David Suzuki Foundation... the link is under my 'Friends and Favourites' section.

Next, I plan to read 'Ecological Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman. I need to know more about what I can do to help my beloved Earth.