(no subject)
I got back from Malaysia on the 8th and it took me a while to get adapt to life back here. In the last 2 weeks since I got back I continued to live the ganguro lifestyle (i.e. unemployment and para para), minus the promiscuity and drinking. Tomorrow I'm starting a temp job, which takes place from 9-5, and then I have college from 6-9, so I'm going to have no free time tomorrow. I was expecting to be doing Industrial work, but they're sending me to a call centre, which makes me a bit nervous, but I'm glad that I've finally got some work, which will hopefully be ongoing. If working there goes well I'll be able to get Admin or Data Entry Work more easilly, so I'm hoping I don't ruin it with my social ineptitude.
Today I was also able to learn that I lose all discipline when I'm offered a job. I've resisted buying We <3 Techpara for the last few weeks but, because I may now have a steady source of income, I finally broke down and bought both We <3 Techpara 1 and Super Eurobeat 162. I still consider myself to be slightly disciplined after resisting Love Para2 and SEB 161, though, because there are just too many Eurobeat and Para stuff to buy at the moment, after we had a 2 year drought of para para DVD's, but I suppose thats what happens when we get into a para para boom. I'm still going to have to get SEB 161 and a Farm CD sometime, because Saifam are underrated and should of been on SEB since 141 and The Farm CD's have some great songs.
After I got back from Malaysia I really missed it for the first week, because I miss Malaysia's great and cheap food, the diversity of the country, its traditionalism and how everything there is so relaxed. I spent a while wondering wether I would be happier living in KL, but after visiting some friends in Derby, I realised that there is something uniquely English (or western), which I would miss, which is the sick sense of humour that most english people have. There were so many things in Malaysia that I thought were extremely funny, but everyone in Malaysia was too jaded or offended to see the slightly funny side of it. I'll mention a few of the things we joked about under a cut, because I don't want to offend anyone.
The Commercialisation Of Ramadhan
This years trip to Malaysia was the first time I had ever visited during the month of Ramadhan, and I was shocked by a lot of the things I saw. One day I was walking past a KFC close to my parents Apartment, and I noticed a sign in the window advertising the Ramadhan Combo Meal. I stopped and suddenly started laughing and my mum was trying to figure out what I thought was so funny about it. I thought it was funny on several levels. It shows how far companies will go to make money. Ramadhan is the most important time of the year to most muslims, and making a KFC meal of it is extremely tacky and devalues its religious and spiritual value. My dad said he isn't shocked by it because he thought Ramadhan was the Islamic equivalent of Christmas. I told him that Ramadhan is a part of their religion, unlike Christmas, and its one of the 5 pillars of the religion. Its also a month where people try to follow the teachings more very strictly, so making a fast food meal for it would be like Walkers releasing a packet of chrips designed for Eucharists. My other relatives were very jaded and had a "what do you expect from a multinational corporation in this age" attitude towards it. Unsurprisingly, many Malaysians were offended by the comercialisation of Ramadhan. The breaking of the fast was supposed to be a very dignified coming together of a community to ended a day of self-sacrifice, but when everyone goes out to dinner for the breaking of the fast, it becomes greedy and glutinous, and many people would argue that people are trying to one-up each other with increasingly extravagant meals and are putitng more empathsis on the breaking of the fast then the actual fasting.
My friends in Derby were quite shocked by it, but saw the funny side to it. They saw Ramadhan as a very spirtual and religious event, and not just an excuse for excessive eating and consumtion, stolen from the pagans and given some token Christian meaning, like Christmas, so the commercial side of it seem very strange to them. I told them about the braking of the fast buffets McDonalds have there and one of my friends created a new slogan for them (bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, I'm Fastin It!).
I don't have anything against Islam, and I think its funny more because it shows how far companies will go to make money, and that to them nothing is too sacred when theres a chance to make money.
My Racist Barber
Theres a barbers in the village my Grandmother lives in, which I've gone to everytime I've been in Malaysia. My Grandad, uncle and Dad have gone there for a very long time, so the barbers there know me quite well. The place is owned and ran by 3 Indians, which includes an extremely eccentric man. I remember one time I was getting my haircut and he was randomly acting out scenes from Ben Hur. After cutting peoples hair he will ususually give them a really energetic massage, which will often involve pushing the person he's massagin back and forth a lot, which shocks quite a lot of the people there and he also cracks peoples necks. When I was a child I would shudder whenever I saw him crack someones neck, and he would often laugh at how much it scared me. He wouldn't crack my neck, because I was just a child, but when I visited the shop when I was 16 and 19, he would grab my nack, move it and then laugh and say he wouldn't do that to me. I wasn't impolite enough to refuse a neck cracking, like my dad, so I just put up with it.
During this trip he asked me the usual question, like what I was doing and studying and he then asked me if I lived in London, because he couldn't remember where I live. I told him I live in nottinghamshire, and he so remembered me telling him before. He then casually said that its better that I don't live in London, because he's "heard that the Pakastanis have up to trouble done there". I'm against racism, so I was absolutely speachless. I wasn't sure if I should say that we shouldn't judge people of differant nationality's despite political conflicts between India and Pakistan, but I'm not brave or social enough to confidently debate with someone, plus I didn't think it was wise to argue with some who was holding a razor to my head. He then continued with "we Indians hate the Pakastanis, and so should you". At that point I couldn't do anything but sit in silence.
I was disturbed by that for several days. He's an very nice man, and seeing that side to him shocked me. I always thought that confronting Racism, Facism, Homophobia, Misogyn or Bigotry was difficult, because people can have those traits and still be nice people, and unlike them you can't show any hatred towards them or try to fit them into a negative stereotype, and that encounter made me sure of it. Maybe I should of confronted him about it, but I didn't want to start an argument. I know I really shouldn't of taken something so serious so lightly, but the next day I thought, I just received racial hatred from my barber, I suppose tomorrow I'll receive homphobic comments from my Manicurist and misogynistic comments from my Chiropotist (not that I have any of those), as well as thinking that its funny how somepeople were introduced to extremeism at churchs and I was introduced to extremeism at a barbers.
The other things we joked about included my big box of Cracy Asian Crap, which included lots of Meiji sweets (Glico and Pocky are overrated), weird SE-Asian sweets (including preserved plum flavour lollipops, with the slogan, Wah! Fresh) and traditional Malaysian and Indonesian sweets and cakes, like Dodol, Indonesian layer cake and those flaky peanut things. We laughed at the bad english, admired the great creative box art and I spent half the day convincing them to eat the Trebor preserved plum sweets. I also showed them my wildlife photos, which showed several monkeys eating some Athirasam, which are Indian doughnuts. The picture was taken at the Batu Caves, which is a Hindu temple located in a cave, on a hill in KL. I hadn't had breakfast and there was a lot of stairs up to the temple, so I got some Indian cakes. When I got to the stairs I realised there were lots of wild monkeys around, and they seemed to like my doughtnuts, so I very generously gave them to them (the monkeys didn't force them out of me if thats what your thinking). I decided to take some pictures of them eating the doughtnuts, and everyone loved them.
Other things that happened included getting Mario Kart today, which I love and can't wait to play online, getting SEB 160, which is the most varied request countdown so far (because they finally allowed people to vote for Euromach and Eurobeat Flash songs), and my fears about my already dull social life becoming non-existant after my friends went to Uni becoming true. At the moment I only have one friend who has a similar working schedule to me, which is weekdays 9-5. I have a friend who goes to Uni, who I used to meet up with a lot, and is now extremely busy with Uni work. I'll have a lot of trouble seeing my friends in Derby again, because the only day they have free is Thurdays. I could drive to Derby at 5 after work on Thursdays, but the traffic will be very bad, I'll be tired after a day at work, I'll only have a few hours there, and I'll have very little sleep. I was dreading working slightly because it feels like I have to choose between having a job or being able to see my friends. I think now that I have work I'll very little social contact with people, which even makes someone like me, who has Social Anxiety Disorder, quite sad. I'll just have to see what happens and I will try my best to see my friends whenever I can, because I'll go mad if I have no one to talk to.
Today I was also able to learn that I lose all discipline when I'm offered a job. I've resisted buying We <3 Techpara for the last few weeks but, because I may now have a steady source of income, I finally broke down and bought both We <3 Techpara 1 and Super Eurobeat 162. I still consider myself to be slightly disciplined after resisting Love Para2 and SEB 161, though, because there are just too many Eurobeat and Para stuff to buy at the moment, after we had a 2 year drought of para para DVD's, but I suppose thats what happens when we get into a para para boom. I'm still going to have to get SEB 161 and a Farm CD sometime, because Saifam are underrated and should of been on SEB since 141 and The Farm CD's have some great songs.
After I got back from Malaysia I really missed it for the first week, because I miss Malaysia's great and cheap food, the diversity of the country, its traditionalism and how everything there is so relaxed. I spent a while wondering wether I would be happier living in KL, but after visiting some friends in Derby, I realised that there is something uniquely English (or western), which I would miss, which is the sick sense of humour that most english people have. There were so many things in Malaysia that I thought were extremely funny, but everyone in Malaysia was too jaded or offended to see the slightly funny side of it. I'll mention a few of the things we joked about under a cut, because I don't want to offend anyone.
The Commercialisation Of Ramadhan
This years trip to Malaysia was the first time I had ever visited during the month of Ramadhan, and I was shocked by a lot of the things I saw. One day I was walking past a KFC close to my parents Apartment, and I noticed a sign in the window advertising the Ramadhan Combo Meal. I stopped and suddenly started laughing and my mum was trying to figure out what I thought was so funny about it. I thought it was funny on several levels. It shows how far companies will go to make money. Ramadhan is the most important time of the year to most muslims, and making a KFC meal of it is extremely tacky and devalues its religious and spiritual value. My dad said he isn't shocked by it because he thought Ramadhan was the Islamic equivalent of Christmas. I told him that Ramadhan is a part of their religion, unlike Christmas, and its one of the 5 pillars of the religion. Its also a month where people try to follow the teachings more very strictly, so making a fast food meal for it would be like Walkers releasing a packet of chrips designed for Eucharists. My other relatives were very jaded and had a "what do you expect from a multinational corporation in this age" attitude towards it. Unsurprisingly, many Malaysians were offended by the comercialisation of Ramadhan. The breaking of the fast was supposed to be a very dignified coming together of a community to ended a day of self-sacrifice, but when everyone goes out to dinner for the breaking of the fast, it becomes greedy and glutinous, and many people would argue that people are trying to one-up each other with increasingly extravagant meals and are putitng more empathsis on the breaking of the fast then the actual fasting.
My friends in Derby were quite shocked by it, but saw the funny side to it. They saw Ramadhan as a very spirtual and religious event, and not just an excuse for excessive eating and consumtion, stolen from the pagans and given some token Christian meaning, like Christmas, so the commercial side of it seem very strange to them. I told them about the braking of the fast buffets McDonalds have there and one of my friends created a new slogan for them (bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, I'm Fastin It!).
I don't have anything against Islam, and I think its funny more because it shows how far companies will go to make money, and that to them nothing is too sacred when theres a chance to make money.
My Racist Barber
Theres a barbers in the village my Grandmother lives in, which I've gone to everytime I've been in Malaysia. My Grandad, uncle and Dad have gone there for a very long time, so the barbers there know me quite well. The place is owned and ran by 3 Indians, which includes an extremely eccentric man. I remember one time I was getting my haircut and he was randomly acting out scenes from Ben Hur. After cutting peoples hair he will ususually give them a really energetic massage, which will often involve pushing the person he's massagin back and forth a lot, which shocks quite a lot of the people there and he also cracks peoples necks. When I was a child I would shudder whenever I saw him crack someones neck, and he would often laugh at how much it scared me. He wouldn't crack my neck, because I was just a child, but when I visited the shop when I was 16 and 19, he would grab my nack, move it and then laugh and say he wouldn't do that to me. I wasn't impolite enough to refuse a neck cracking, like my dad, so I just put up with it.
During this trip he asked me the usual question, like what I was doing and studying and he then asked me if I lived in London, because he couldn't remember where I live. I told him I live in nottinghamshire, and he so remembered me telling him before. He then casually said that its better that I don't live in London, because he's "heard that the Pakastanis have up to trouble done there". I'm against racism, so I was absolutely speachless. I wasn't sure if I should say that we shouldn't judge people of differant nationality's despite political conflicts between India and Pakistan, but I'm not brave or social enough to confidently debate with someone, plus I didn't think it was wise to argue with some who was holding a razor to my head. He then continued with "we Indians hate the Pakastanis, and so should you". At that point I couldn't do anything but sit in silence.
I was disturbed by that for several days. He's an very nice man, and seeing that side to him shocked me. I always thought that confronting Racism, Facism, Homophobia, Misogyn or Bigotry was difficult, because people can have those traits and still be nice people, and unlike them you can't show any hatred towards them or try to fit them into a negative stereotype, and that encounter made me sure of it. Maybe I should of confronted him about it, but I didn't want to start an argument. I know I really shouldn't of taken something so serious so lightly, but the next day I thought, I just received racial hatred from my barber, I suppose tomorrow I'll receive homphobic comments from my Manicurist and misogynistic comments from my Chiropotist (not that I have any of those), as well as thinking that its funny how somepeople were introduced to extremeism at churchs and I was introduced to extremeism at a barbers.
The other things we joked about included my big box of Cracy Asian Crap, which included lots of Meiji sweets (Glico and Pocky are overrated), weird SE-Asian sweets (including preserved plum flavour lollipops, with the slogan, Wah! Fresh) and traditional Malaysian and Indonesian sweets and cakes, like Dodol, Indonesian layer cake and those flaky peanut things. We laughed at the bad english, admired the great creative box art and I spent half the day convincing them to eat the Trebor preserved plum sweets. I also showed them my wildlife photos, which showed several monkeys eating some Athirasam, which are Indian doughnuts. The picture was taken at the Batu Caves, which is a Hindu temple located in a cave, on a hill in KL. I hadn't had breakfast and there was a lot of stairs up to the temple, so I got some Indian cakes. When I got to the stairs I realised there were lots of wild monkeys around, and they seemed to like my doughtnuts, so I very generously gave them to them (the monkeys didn't force them out of me if thats what your thinking). I decided to take some pictures of them eating the doughtnuts, and everyone loved them.
Other things that happened included getting Mario Kart today, which I love and can't wait to play online, getting SEB 160, which is the most varied request countdown so far (because they finally allowed people to vote for Euromach and Eurobeat Flash songs), and my fears about my already dull social life becoming non-existant after my friends went to Uni becoming true. At the moment I only have one friend who has a similar working schedule to me, which is weekdays 9-5. I have a friend who goes to Uni, who I used to meet up with a lot, and is now extremely busy with Uni work. I'll have a lot of trouble seeing my friends in Derby again, because the only day they have free is Thurdays. I could drive to Derby at 5 after work on Thursdays, but the traffic will be very bad, I'll be tired after a day at work, I'll only have a few hours there, and I'll have very little sleep. I was dreading working slightly because it feels like I have to choose between having a job or being able to see my friends. I think now that I have work I'll very little social contact with people, which even makes someone like me, who has Social Anxiety Disorder, quite sad. I'll just have to see what happens and I will try my best to see my friends whenever I can, because I'll go mad if I have no one to talk to.