HIATUS!

I'm in the middle of an activity that exasperates me to no end. I might have mentioned before: it is the bane of my young life. It is packing. This is the less cumbersome version (cumbersome = packing to move house *quel horreur!!!!*) but still gets me pretty stressed. Mostly because I'm horrible with limits. Lol so that's why now I'm stressing about whether to take out more stuff...or maybe pack more stuff in? Aghhh I wish we could teleport (the eternal dream=D)! Then it wouldn't be a hassle at all=D

Anyway, there is of course the awesome side to having to pack (it's unbelievable, I know, but there is one...) - it means that I'm packing for a reason and tonight's reason is because it's in preparation for my flight back home tomorrow morning early as! Can't wait! I can suffer now and sleep on the plane, right?;D

Seeing as I'll be going home and thereby removing from my daily routine the endless languid hours of sitting in front of my laptop with broadband at my disposal in favour of replacing it with the joyous activity that involves catching up with my near and dears, I won't be able to post as often and at best, probably sporadically - if at all hehe. No reviews or the like until I get back or have free time on my hands so don't be surprised if it's Lost 2 and suddenly Lost 23-24 or something!

I've got 3 months of good times on my hands and I'll be sure to make the most of it! Take care peeps, thanks for the drop-bys and see ya 2007=D

---

Quick bit of thought-sharing...

Last night was talking to some friends way into the wee hours of the morning about everything under the sun. Lol and somehow, it drifted to marriage and it's prospects. Anyhow, we talked about how the long traditions can be quite cumbersome and it would be nice to just keep it simple with the akad nikah and maybe a small bersanding session and a reception - all preferably in one go=p After all, in Islam, all the trappings are unnecessary, right? Getting married in a masjid, one simple ceremony...not bad huh? But then we considered how in Brunei, there's that 'keeping up with the Joneses' going on full-force. And thus, there are people who would talk.Even if one didn't care for their opinions about what is essentially none of their personal business, it wouldn't be nice to have such whispers reflected on the family. But mostly, the other side of the coin was that it would be a shame to have the Bruneian traditional culture and ceremonies disintegrate with time, no?

So keep it humble and 'sederhana' or go all out? It seems that to carry out night after night of various ceremonies would really have no other outcome other than leaving one with a considerably lighter pocket;) Just some thoughts. And heh, don't ask me how we got to talking about getting hitched - err, it baffles me too?=p

Blurring the lines of history on a Friday evening; Fact vs. Fictional Fabrications

It is the weekend again and I can almost hear every single millimetre of my body, inside and out, resounding a collective 'Ahh...', which would, granted, be seven kinds of undeniably-freaky but I wouldn't blame them;) I feel as if I've been running around ragged finishing up all the assignments that are due, as the weeks start drawing towards the end of the run soon-ish (3 weeks closer to catching that plane home=D). But for the moment, I can just take a step back and just...breathe...and relax while catching up on fun (sort of)!=D

Mr. BR blogged about something really interesting today. He talked about how the original Bruneian rulers may have been Chinese. How Ong Sum Ping may have been the second Sultan, Sultan Ahmad, and how Sultan Abdul Majid Hassan died in China, a fact which seems to cue that lighbulb over my head to turn on anyhow;) There was even a mention about Brunei and a Bruneian King naming a mountain "Darussalam" in Chinese records some 1000 years before Sultan Muhammad (I'm presuming Sultan Muhammad Shah)! Fascinating stuff. Of course, we can never know what really happened way back when, or (dare my skeptical side say it?) if the truth may have truly been left to someone's imagination, so to speak.

I have a feeling my skepticism may have been a little amped by some anecdotes a friend was regaling earlier. There was a prank issue of the uni student mag and one alumnus was saying that in the lead up (or was it after?) to their graduation, they decided to pull a massive trick. They decided that NZ would spot some UFOs one fine day. Being spread out across the country in various campuses, they planned the whole operation so meticulously; from fabricated pictures to calls to the police from various parts of the country reporting a UFO sighting at their calculated times of when a flying object of that kind may theoretically traverse that part of the country. It was soooo well-planned that the news made the front page! And 20 years later, a conspirator comes out with the actual truth: they were faking it!

Another tale along the same lines was about this Peter Jackson documentary about NZ and how a Kiwi, and not the Wright Brothers, invented the airplane. And the docu also recorded the discovery of a lost city in the Fiordlands somewhere. This friend goes tramping there and she says that people who tramp there would know that there couldn't possibly be such a lost city of wonderful proportions there. But it made the documentary. And 10 years later, guess what, the documentary was professed to be a fake.

Remember the whole drama with the discovery of DNA? (Sorry, it's Friday afternoon, names are failing me at the moment and I'm too lazy to do my research=p) It was actually that lady who died because of too much radiological exposure who really made headway, but those 2 dudes published first and got the Nobel! If she wasn't acknowledged, us future generations would never have even known of her very existence!

So I guess my point is: how much of what we know is what truly is? Especially, as I've demonstrated, what we have come to know and learn and teach as facts may have been a lie, a mistake or a misunderstanding? Or even, as particularly applicable to inventions, medicine and royal lineage and the like, may not have been etched into history until the next one comes along with the same invention or title and has it in records? It seems that whoever speaks up his claim and whoever has the pen makes history. And most importantly, whoever believes and perceives this to be fact marks said history as the future's truth.

It would be amazing to know what really went on between the lines, behind closed doors, underneath the underneath of the pieces of history that we have come to know as facts=) Oh, to have been an immortal (slightly-more-attractive-being-than-a-) fly on the wall!

---

And some more frivolous reading;)

1. Chapter 10 of Beautiful Fighter by ronsmyhero is up!=D
2. The eagerly awaited Chapter 325 of the Naruto manga is up!! Can't wait to find out the workings of that brilliant mind of Shika's!;D

Some frivolous reading on my to-read list...
1. Lover Eternal and sequel Eternal Flower, which I think may be SakuSasus, by Kiasidari Ixari.
2. A KakaSaku Sins and Tragedies by Kjata.

Are you listening?

You know you've been trawling the Net way too long (which isn't necessarily a bad thing IMHO XD) when you've done your usual rounds of your usual hit-list 3 times in a row. Minimum figure.

Anyway, I was lurking on Global Voices and got myself a pretty badge (click on said pretty badge on the sidebar to your right to check their site out!) To quote, "Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens’ media project, sponsored by and launched from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School." A bunch of bloggers worldwide blog about their respective regions, some doing the rounds of their local blogs to come up with their most interesting posts (their "daily roundups") and a whole bunch of others contribute posts; all this culminating in the Global Voices Online! Pretty neat eh. Have a read!=D

A post from Turkey alerted me to the fact that Ramadhan is referred to as Ramazan there. Granted, there are probably a gazillion different inflects and variations across the globe but it's nice to stumble upon a reminder of that fact once in a while ^_^ So it's that time of the year again... Ramadhan has already started today for those practising back home and due for us in NZ tomorrow at the start of the new week. Since the Islamic calendar is based on the lunar cycles, the dates and months don't correlate with the arbitrary annum of January to December that the world centres around. As such, the months annually creep up in relation to the standard year and such is the cycle.

The previous 3 Ramadhans we've had in NZ has been quite the gruelling test. Occurring so late in the year, it was close to summer here as opposed to what Ramadhan would be like in the UK. Our Subuh would be at around 4ish and Iftar as late as quarter to 9. This year promises to take less of a toll on my body (currently similar to Brunei but will probably lengthen as the year progresses) which is much welcomed considering that of late, it's more sensitive to low fuel levels and the consequences manifest more as the more horrifying faint spells and incredible headaches, rather than plain old cumbersome borborygmi, albeit of gastronomic audible proportions.

~Ramadhan mubarak, to all those practising!~

Another year of abstinence from yummy local sungkai food and family iftars... I can, however, look forward to the very-real-I-can-almost-taste-it possibility of not missing Raya/Eid what with our academic year due to pave way for an early summer vacation in oh, about 4 weeks;) My feet are certainly itching to catch that plane...

(One of my brothers turned 18 today. May he always be blessed ^_^)

Food-spotting v. 2

On Ouran 24, during one of Tamaki and Kyouya's little regional ventures, it seems that Tamaki wanted to eat Okinawan soba, and later compare it to Shinshu soba. It not only whetted my appetite (I haven't eaten!) but also my desire to know the difference myself.

To start with, soba is a thin Japanese buckwheat noodle (the word soba itself actually means buckwheat!) which can be eaten either hot as soba in broth ("kake soba") or cold ("zaru soba"). Being made out of buckwheat is apparently unusual and quite a feat since noodles made out of buckwheat tend to fall apart easily. Soba is commonly eaten with chopsticks and it is traditionally considered polite to slurp the noodles noisily. I think this has to do with the diner's appreciation for his/her food as a mark of respect to those who served it to him/her. Slurping hot noodles also helps to cool them down. Soba is apparently the noodle of choice when it comes to Tokyo residents! Apparently, this originates from the Edo era where consuming primarily white rice, which had low levels of thiamine, led to beri beri. So came thiamine-rich soba!=D Ingenious ;) Occasionally, soba is used to refer to noodles in general. In Japan, ramen is sometimes called chuka soba or shina soba (meaning Chinese noodles) and doesn't contain buckwheat. Stir-fried chuka soba is famously called yakisoba.

Okinawan soba is what soba is referred to in Okinawa, and is a misnomer as these noodles are made out of flour rather than buckwheat, and more similar to udon. The broth is derived from pork bones and bonito shavings. Toppings include leek, sliced pork, boiled fish paste, short ribs and vegetables. I read on a site that soba is to Okinawa what hot dogs are to Americans, and I suppose this demonstrates the ubiquitious-ness that is soba in Okinawa. It is apparently quite popular across the globe in Campo Grande, Brazil as well! This is due to the influx of Okinawan immigrants and soba is sold at street markets or served at "sobarias", special soba restaurants.

The most famous soba noodles come from Nagano in Japan and these are named by either location or ingredients. Shinshu soba is named after the southern region of Nagano. These noodles are made out of buckwheat.

I guess the different constituents and the fact that 'soba' is famous in both regions is why Tamaki wanted to compare the two!

---

On another note, I was reading brudirect the other day and I noticed that the government had launched 'Operation Knock Rice' to ensure the hygiene in preparation of 'Knock Rice' or 'Nasi Katok'. Lol somehow I feel that Knock Rice is too literal a translation. Then again, what else could they call it right? 'Knock for rice' which is more suitable since 'Nasi Katok' was derived by customers knocking on the vendor's door anytime throughout the 24 hours in a day for the dish? Somehow, it doesn't sound so good rolling off the tongue... 'Knock-knock rice'?? Catchier but less reflective of the meaning. Looks like "Nasi Katok" is still the reigning label in my book!;)

(in the pic: rice usually made with coconut milk, half a hardboiled egg, chicken, sambal, roasted (?) peanuts, dried fish on top of the rice, cucumbers on the side. All on a pandan leaf. The best, IMO, has minimal onions lol but that's just my preference. Note teh tarik as the drink of choice here.)

Getting my fix...

So I've been reading a lot of fanfics lately. My vice is the Naruto fanfics, especially KakaSaku and Itasaku. I also enjoy lots of other older Saku-centric het fics. Hehe I dunno, I guess I've grown to like the girl, especially when the standard image I have of how her character's grown has been influenced by all the great fics I've read! I'm not into yaoi or yuri so much but that's just my preference=)

Generally though, what I think makes a great fanfic boils down to 3 things:
1. Great believable plot. Even more awesome if the plot is fresh/original in a sea of other stories starring a similar pair.
2. Great grammar and articulation. It's just harder to immerse myself in a fic when this is lacking.
3. Great style. What I mean by this is the author's individual style and approach to writing. Using an art-oriented analogy, say we have the great plot and infallible grammar...then this is like a semi-blank canvas where the author/artist can add his or her bits to (like one may have roses on one side while another may have stars printed all over the canvas), as well as his or her own individual approach (much like watercolour vs. oil paints). Fanfic-wise, this refers to things like how many lines before the next paragraph, writing in dialogue form, subtlety in writing, the ability to utilize sentences and words to make an impact, the ability to use words to hook their readers in, intricate style of writing, descriptive style of writing...a whole lot of stuff basically. And therein lies the fun in creating a fic=)

So a bunch of stuff I've been reading lately...

Naruto-oriented...
1. A drabble "Poor Mrs. Hatake" by ronsmyhero. (I love love love her stuff. Truly awesome.)
2. "Salvation" by oliviabenton.
3. I've stumbled across this really good author on ff by the name of Celtic Oak. I've been reading her stories which are seriously good reading. I've read a NejiSaku "Hidden Green Behind Silver", 2 GaaSakus "Sunagakure Belly Dance" and "Magnetism". I like how she portrays Saku as a strong woman - rawr! Check her page out=)

Nana land...
1. ›:‹ 7 plus 7 equals 3 ›:‹ by Suzumiya Haruhi over at ff.
2. There was this one other TakuHachi story which is basically someone's take on the night at the mansion where Takumi 'rapes' Hachi. Can't remember what it's called now though. I might have to look that up...