Archive for December, 2006

And we’re two today.

Eric and I are two years old today.

I'd be really honest here. It was extremely easy to get into this relationship, and when it started everything was nothing less than fantastic. When we met, and we both agree to this, Eric was precisely what I was looking for in my life, and vice versa, me the girl of his dreams. So you can imagine, we met up a least once a day, and in the early days when my job placed me just ten minutes drive away from where he was working, we used to meet up for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I remember a pastor said once during Christmas, many many years ago, how relationships grow and you learn that first loves often turn into tiresome loves. God wants us to work on our relationships, and how couples often take each other for granted.

'When I first met my wife, everything was fantastic, she dig nose in public I also happy, I said, "Wah this girl so confident, public place also she dare to dig her nose, I like." Five years down the road in my first year of marriage, I looked at her digging her nose in public and I thought, "What kind of woman is this, digging her nose in public also can." '

The congregation roared with laughter, and the dear pastor's wife was sitting right in front of him, can you believe that? I wondered what she thought then, 'This husband of mine, making jokes at my expense… what is this?'

But they stayed married despite that, and while I was too young to realize just how difficult it is to stay devoted to each other despite the odds, I thought it was fantastic that Mrs Pastor's Wife was able to tolerate her husband exposing her dirtiest secret in front of everyone like that.

'It's the same for me, I know when I brush my teeth, the froth from the toothpaste goes all over the mirror. When we first got married, my wife must have thought, "WAH SO CREVER, LIKE STARS ON A DARK NIGHT," heh. Now ah, I think she must be scolding me each time she's got to clean the mirror.'

Of course, ours is actually a very normal relationship. Slowly the ferocious flames of 'just-in-love' slowed down, and the huge bonfire is now a calm flame giving just enough light to warm up our lives. Corny I know, but I'll also say this. It's not easy to keep the flame going. Ask April, in recent months, it's getting harder to tolerate his idiosyncracies, and I quite believe he feels the same way too.

Some people wonder why I put up with Eric, and likewise I wonder why he puts up with me. See, I quite believe I've got a bit of a syndrome here, though I'm not sure what. After all, Miss-know-it-all here once burst in the middle of a cinema theatre and poured her mineral water all over the guy who sat next to her. I still recall what happened, and in the light of serendipity stories, it's amazing how Raoul (not his real name) eventually became an online friend and was terribly helpful in calming me down and taking me through the necessary routes of resigning from my previous job amicably in order to join TNB. I forgot to wish you blessed Christmas this year!

When people ask me what exactly I want in a man, I always say this, 'Someone who's sensitive enough to listen to me, and someone who knows that while I'm strong on the outside (cos I want face mah), I've got a weak foundation, and I crumble easily, almost all the time. I've got leaking tear ducts, and I cry even while reading an anecdote. I want a guy who can appreciate all that.'

So the truth is, Eric's not the guy who can appreciate all that all the time. Neither is he sensitive all the time. But I know also, I'm far apart from the strong woman inside and outside, all the time. So he puts up with who I am, I stick around despite who he is. Because I think, we love each other to bits.

I know in our heads, we all have our Mr Rights and Miss Rights. I know in Eric's head, he wants a girl who's quietly confident, the type who doesn't cry buckets, the kind who's awesome with the chores, and the type who can looking up to him as her man and well, have agreements with him on most occasions. Unfortunately I'm a strongheaded woman, and a contradiction of ideals, bold to strangers, yet I have an apparently low self-esteem among closer mates, so I seek affirmations from friends all the time.

I quite believe that the head can craft out our ideal partners in life, but when you do fall in love, you don't fall with your head. It comes with a little magical sparkle courtesy of the Big Guy up there, and probably a clumsy thump in the heart. And so it's true, you fall with your heart, and your head gives in a little, but you usually learn to compromise and he/she will be the kind of guy who's just right for you.

I know this man, right now, he's just right for me. I'm not sure if he's going to be just right for me forever, but I do hope so. So I'll say all this: I'm happy we're two today, I'm happy we've made it so far. I'm glad that we've made so many promises to each other, and I'm definitely glad we're looking beyond just a bf-gf relationship. I'm excited he's coming with me to Kelantan this CNY, and I'm happy my mother loves him like a son. I'm just glad, that we're two today, and I wanna wish him a very happy anniversary here on my blog.

Notes for the day.

Eric woke me up at 7.30 am this morning (I'm on half day leave) to tell me he will sponsor a part of my server needs. Which means minishorts.net doesn't have to go away!

But changing hosts must come with some drastic movements, obviously. I'm thinking of keeping away all the older posts, and starting completely afresh, with relevant categories, and wholesome revamps. All new minishorts, improved to my very own personal liking.

I've got one week to complete all of that.

Watch this space. Updates whenever possible.

LG Contest results (1st part)

Hi.

There's a little bit of a problem.

LG has actually chosen the winner.

However, the winner seems to be residing in Austin. Not in Malaysia.

I've wrote to her a week back, and I'm still waiting to see if she has a friend in Malaysia that she'd like to give the phone to.

In the meantime, this means that we have to wait a little longer to see who wins the phone.

Now because the phone is with me, whoever wins the phone will be obliged to meet me in person (so that I can give you the phone lah what else). I also want to give the shortlisted bloggers who tried a bar of chocolate each (sorry yeah me a bit cheapo)…. hehehhe… so I'll be posting the date of the meet up by next week I hope, waiting for LG to tell me who gets the phone. Whether it is the current winner's Malaysian contact, or it is a lucky someone else, the prize give-away session will definitely happen.

I've a feeling that most people love chocolates.

I've been exploring webhosts, and I think I'm just going to have to move my servers overseas. This means that you will still be experiencing a substantial bit of downtime while I decide just which plan to purchase… and well… there's probably going to be some kind of overhaul. Might just shift to a completely different CMS to overcome the stupid spambot attack syndrome that I get. As of now, each time I delete 10 pieces of spam, another 20 floods into Akismet. Killing.

I spoke to Eric about whether or not I ought to continue minishorts, and I suspect he actually believes that this site is of some kind of value to me. Is it an online portfolio? I suppose there's actually a record of the testimonies I go through each time I achieve a significant milestone in my life.

Can't believe it's going to be 5 years of being minishorts. Oh well.

Resolutions. Resolutions. Time to make them, it's that time of the year again.

Site down

I just got back from Johor, where the floods are. Friends have called to tell me my site has been going down for sometime. Scorkes asked if I didn't pay up.

I did, but I think when I purchased this hosting plan, my site didn't have that many readers, nor did it have that many bots attacking the commenting system. Right now, I've been advised to upgrade, and it's going to cost me a great deal. It takes up just about what I put aside each month for my life-savings, and you can imagine just how keen I am on that.

I'm left with few options:

1) Upgrade, lose money
2) Downgrade, move to a free server ala blogspot/wordpress
3) Quit blogging altogether, stop worrying.

Option #3 right now seems the most feasible because it (blogging) will turn into a huge chore to me the moment I start to have to pay up my yearly savings just to keep minishorts.net alive.

If I choose to upgrade, I'm sorry I'll have to do a substantial amount of advertising… but I don't lavish the idea of checking my adsense credits on a regular basis, neither do I fancy the idea of reviewing items/websites I don't ever get to use or see or choose to say whether I like or not. I know it pays well, but I have a full time job to sustain me…. and that's just about enough.

And my lifesavings have other purposes more meaningful than keeping a blog. I want to buy a house one day. Upgrade my wira to something better someday. Renovate my current home, hopefully. Get myself some blingblings eventually. If all of that goes to my blog, I'll curse myself for having terrible financial management.

Don't mind me, I'm just thinking aloud, while the site is down.

Happy Holidays.

Hi guys! Some photos taken during my latest working trip to Kenyir, brought the LensaMalaysia guys on their latest photo ops for the Malaysia @ 50 photo contest.


It's that time of the month, and my pimples decided to pop in the most strategic areas. Well. Check out the wires leading to the transmission towers in the distance.

There was a model of the dam in the office, and this is what I took.

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From the top of the dam.


Record for the journey, LensaPic by nikonk.

Had a great time, it was difficult driving through the monsoon, and we reached home just in time, escaping the great floods. I hope to go there again when the weather's a little kinder, but for now, am looking forward to the Christmas holidays.