Positive or Not

Think you're not discriminative? You'll get the real answer here.
Help reduce the stigma around AIDS/HIV by first changing your view about it yourself.

Polygamy? No, thanks.

Taken from The Star Online:

Call to 'teach' women on polygamy raises heckles

THE discussion on problems afflicting the Syariah Courts caused a ruckus after Ibrahim Ali (Ind – Pasir Mas) called for a campaign on the concept of polygamy to be taught to all women to end such problems.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic Affairs, Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, fielded questions from the Opposition on delays in settling Syariah cases with Zuraida Kamaruddin (PKR – Ampang) saying it was “very painful” for a woman to have to go to court three separate times to settle a case.

“A woman has to go once for the divorce, once again for custody and again for property division. It is extremely painful for them.”

Fuziah Salleh (PKR – Kuantan) then asked if Syariah Court counsellors were qualified, pointing out that she had received numerous complaints about how the woman was always blamed for everything.

“They are not counselled but given 'advice.' And every time, they are told that the woman is to be blamed. If it is a family problem, they must be patient. If they are beaten up, they must also be patient,” she said.

As Ahmad Zahid was about to answer, Ibrahim stood up to say that such cases would not stop happening as the population was increasing and divorces were taking place daily.

“Such problems happen because women cannot accept polygamy. From a preventive point of view, what about doing a big campaign so that women can accept polygamy?” he asked.

Ibrahim said women did not understand that when they were pregnant for nine months, or had “problems” when they hit their 50s, their men still wanted to “have fun”.

“So the man wants to marry again, and the wife gets jealous and asks for a divorce.”

This caused Zuraida to stand up and say that a gender approach was very demeaning.

Ahmad Zahid agreed, saying: “That man is a male chauvinist.” To this, Ibrahim giggled.

When Ibrahim said that it was allowed from the Islamic point of view, Zuraida hit back and said men must be held to blame, too.

When the House finally calmed down, Ahmad Zahid said although prevention could also be looked into, what was important was to take care of the family.

How about proposing a law for women to be able to have 4 husbands as well? Like when their first husbands might be having difficulties in 'getting up' when they hit their 50's, it would be great to have other 3 husbands to satisfy the need. And I'm sure, men wouldn't need the counselings and campaigns to teach them about polygamy, since they could accept it while women couldn't, if according to this Ibrahim guy.

It would be even better if there's a campaign to teach more people like Ibrahim and Munirah about keeping their hedonistic fantasies and sexism thinkings to themselves instead of spilling them all over to the public.

"School uniform sexy, says group"

Taken from The Star Online:

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.

“It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it,” she said, calling for a review of uniform policy so that it did not violate Islamic ideals.

In multicultural Malaysia, home to majority-Muslim Malays as well as ethnic Chinese and Indians, female students at government schools have a choice of wearing a white blouse with a knee-length skirt or pinafore.

They may also wear a “baju kurung” and a headscarf is optional for Malay students.

Munirah said that “covering up” according to Islamic precepts was important to fend off social ills, including “rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex.”

“This leads to babies born out of wedlock and, to an extent, even prostitution,” she said.

“Decent clothes which are not revealing can prevent and protect women from any untoward situations,” she said, suggesting that girls wear a blouse of a different colour or with an undergarment.

However, the girls themselves also came in for criticism, with the association saying that some used the white blouse to lure men.

“This is the source of the problem, where we can see that schoolgirls themselves are capable of using this to attract men to them,” Munirah said.

“This could see them getting molested, having premarital sex and all sorts of things.” – AFP

Seriously. This lady makes no sense. Distraction to men? This phrase smells like "accusation towards female" to me, like whatever we girls do, we have to be careful or else it will distract the men and invite them to harass us. Does she really thinks that those men that are 'distracted' were because of the white blouses alone?
Her statement about school uniforms sexy would be better describing those Japanese schoolgirls with short uniform skirts. In Malaysia eventhough the white blouse might be a bit transparent, it's covered with blue pinafore (except Form6 uniforms).

There's nothing much to be sexy about, unless someone could fix the pinafore to something like how the maid cafe's waitress wears the outercoat :

more maid costumes here (warning for sexy costumes)

And if they wanna change the pinafore uniforms to something else, try this :

more maid costumes here (warning for sexy costumes)

Minus the ribbon on the head and the laces, this is pretty much similar with our current blouse-pinafore set but upgraded with whole body "covering up" just like baju kurung uniform.

But I seriously doubt "covering up" could stop rape, sexual harassment and ESPECIALLY pre-marital sex.

Way Too Many Tags.

I have like, 4 tags waiting, thanks to Faisal Admar. I'm gonna fit all 4 tags into one very long post, get ready to be bored by all my facts (or skip this)!

-----
1st tag:

Instructions: Remove ONE question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged. Whoever does the tag will have blessings from all.


1. Do you believe in love at first sight?
No. I think love happens only after you know more about that particular person.

2. Have you ever felt stupid? Why?
Yes, especially when I contradict my own statements as I think more and more about things.

3. Where is the place that you want to go the most?
Venice, Italy or Japan. I can't decide, both places are very important to me.

4. If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
Be an art prodigy.

5. Do you believe in seeing a rainbow after the rain?
Sometimes.

6. Do you like being who you are today?
Yes.

7. If you win $1 million, what would you do?
Travel around the world, give whatever my family wants and also to charity needs.

8. If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
Yep, but maybe giving a bit of hints first.

9. Who are the top five people in the world you would wish to meet?
Any of L'Arc~en~Ciel or Luna Sea members, Hayao Miyasaki, Yoshiki.

10. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
Love, patience and understanding.

11. Do you believe in fate? *
Yes, in certain matters.

12. Which do you prefer from your other half? hug? or a kiss?
Kiss.

13. If you have faults, would you rather the people around you point out to you or would you rather they keep quiet?
Definitely point out to me or else I wouldn't realized it sometimes.

14. What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
A sense of fulfillment in whatever I do.

15. Are you a shopaholic or not?
Yes, only when it comes to CDs, books and mangas.

16. What kind of electronic device/gadget you own that you like most?
my mp3 player and camera.

17. If you have a chance, which part of your character you would like to change?
My chronic procrastination.

18. Are you in love?
Yes.

19. If given a chance, do you want to see your future?
Yes.

20. Would you still be friend your best friend whom had betrayed your trust?
Maybe, it depends on how deep the hurt from the betrayal.

-----
2nd tag:

1. Do you eat a lot of fast food?
Yes, I love fries and wedges especially, and my recent addiction is Carl's Jr., no thanks to someone.

2. Besides your mouth, where is your favorite spot to get kissed?
Nape.

3. Were you happy when you woke up today?
Yep, waking up with your cute dogs barking madly at passerby is great.

4. Have you ever streaked?
Nope.

5. Are you an understanding person?
Maybe, I don't know.

6. What was the last movie you saw in theaters?
Iron Man. Reluctantly watched it, but didn't regret it as much as I thought I would.

7. Did you pray before you went to bed last night?
I'm an agnostic.

8. What did you last get upset about?
About my lack of idea in new paintings.

9. Do you eat candy on a daily basis?
Yes, when I get that craving.

10. Does it make you happy to get letters in the mail?
It used to make me happy, when I still had a few of my penpals.

11. What are you looking forward to this summer?
Everyday is summer day here. I'd say I look forward for winter here, but that'll mean the end of the earth.

12. Who was the last person you ate with?
My parents and my sister for supper yesterday night.

13. Do raisins belong in cookies?
Nope.

14. What's your screen name?
kirsch

15. Walking into a party, what's the first thing you notice?
People. ^^;;

16. Are you currently taking a science class in school?
I did took the science class 8-9 years ago, and regretted it a bit.

17. You've just won a free vacation to either South America or North Korea?
South America.

18. Kiss on the first date?
Nope.

19. Would you rather have chicken or steak?
Steak. I'm addicted to it currently.

20. What's one thing you've learned?
Your parents will start to act cute when they get older.

21. Who was the last person you took a picture of?
My family in Genting Highlands last week. Though I substitute pictures by taking videos instead.

22. Would you ever donate blood?
I tried twice, the first time I was not heavy enough to donate, 2nd time I passed the weight test but failed to donate any in the end because of my low blood-pressure. Never tried again ever since then.

23. How many snack machines are in your school?
None, or there was one? I forgot. There were stalls selling snacks though.

24. Have you ever felt replaced?
Once, very long time ago.

25. Are there deerheads covering any walls in your house?
Nope.

26. Do you believe in karma?
Yep.

27. Have you ever been asked out?
Yep.

28. Are you good at telling jokes?
I don't know. Occasionally I do make people laugh, but maybe not at my jokes.

29. Do you wish you had smaller feet?
Nope.

30. Have you ever had a best friend who was of the opposite sex?
Yep.

31. When ordering sushi, what do you get?
California temaki, chuka iidako, and unagi.

32. How many of your friends have seen you naked?
None.

33. Do you write in cursive or in print?
Half and half. I write in full cursive when I'm in rush.

34. What were you doing at 10 am?
Snoring, probably.

35. Are you different now than you were six months ago?
Erm, I've got longer hair now.

36. What was the last beverage you spilled on yourself?
Plain water.

-----
3rd tag:

Age That I Wish To Go Back To:

the age of 18. It was the first starting year of my college life, when I was very positive and enthusiastic about my own future, and made the most friends I've ever done before. It was also the age that I was the most daring in doing things I've never thought I could have done before. Eventhough it wasn't as great as I imagined it 6 years ago, I still wouldn't want to change anything from the past to alter this future I'm having now.


Amidrin wish to go back to age 22 to correct back some mistakes in life
Lemonjude wish to go back to age 6 to enjoy kid’s life.
L’abeille wish to go back to any year but never return to age 28.
Sweetpea wish to go back to, actually, just thinking about 17.
Jean Chia wish to go back to 14 years old.
Emila wish to go back to the age of 7 to live that precious moments again
Mangosteenskin wish to back to age 7 to chase back Macik Piut's geese and dogs. haha!
Rizal wish to go back to the age of 7 - 7 super wonders of my world.
Bluecrystaldude wish to go back to the age of 7-12 (yeah, I know. I am so greedy!)
Faisal Admar wish to go back to age 20 just to change the present.
kirsch wish to go back to the age of 18.

-----
4th tag:

~~Begin Copy~~
This is the easy way and the fastest way to :
1. Make your Authority Technorati explode.
2. Increase your Google Page Rank.
3. Get more traffic to your blog.
4. Makes more new friends.

Rules :
1. Start copy from “Begin Copy” until “End Copy” to your blog
(for bloggers paste on the “compose” not the “edit html” part in posting blogs so it will be linked automatically).
2. Put your own blog name and link.
3. Tag your friends as much as you can, the more the better!

1. Picturing of Life
2. Juliana’s Site
3. Hazel-My Life, My Hope, My Future.
4. Jeanne-The Callalily Space
5. Starz in De Sky
6. My Charmed Life
7. Denz Techtronics
8. Denz Recreational
9. Life’s Simple Pleasures
10. My Blog
11. Because Life is Fun
12. In This Game of Life
13. Scribbles of my Life
14. Changing Lanes
15. anna
16. joytoy
17. Surviving deployment
18. The Deviant
19. All I want is Everything
20. Shadows of love, fate and destiny
21. Tasteful Voyage
22. A mom’s note
23. Bittersweet Collide
24. Jackie Simplypinay
25. Jackie’s Everyday Life
26. Parisukat
27. Ang Sponge ni Bub
28. ee-ey
29. Life is too short to be ordinary
30. kirschy's daily dose of obsession

~~End Copy~~

-----

So I'm tagging all these to :

pling
karat
s7even tan

Only 3 blog friends to tag to. This is a bit embarrassing. lol

Guilty as Charged.

Yep, sometimes I hate myself for that. Those guilty pleasures. Those things that I said I hate, but secretly I ended up watching/doing them (maybe its not correct compared to wiki's definition, but who cares). I confess... once a while when I said I hated something, it was more like an impulse from surges of emotion from that thing I so-called 'hated'. My sister witnessed and heard about these impulses the most, and once a while (again) she would irk me by mentioning and reminding me of my small little regrets on letting her caught me off:

Watching Reality TV Shows - first time I watched 'Survivors' and said aloud I hated this type of show. I still hate Survivors, Bachelor, Apprentice, Simple Life (eww), American Idols (whatever-Idols) and all those similar stuffs. But I was once got caught off laughing at Just for Laugh Gags and switched channel to Apprentice 2-3 times.

Soft Drinks - I did managed to resist drinking when I dine in fast-food joints by replacing it with other drink most of the time. But I never did get to avoid them completely. My parents used to forbid us buying carbonated drinks and junk food when we were young. Now with all of us grown up and away from home, they buy all sorts of junk food once in a while and stock them up in the fridge. So, everytime I got back to my hometown, I found a bottle or two of A&W rootbeers (my mum's favourite), Pepsi Twist (my dad's favourite), Kickapoo and various other cans whichever my house's nearest Tesco supermarket got promotions on. *sigh* Lucky that all members in our family are not the type that get fat easily (which I'm very happy for).

90's Bubblegum Pop Music - Spice Girls, The Moffatts, Hanson, 911 and all those one-hit-famous pop singers/bands. I still have quite a lot of their hit songs in my mp3 albums. I cleared them off once when I started listening to J-music (by pretending to be into rock music only, but still never get to achieve that), but a few years after that, I came across them in LimeWire and downloaded them back. Won't be able to erase them off forever I guess, they were, after all, a part of my teen years. (my biggest confession is that I still listen to quite a lot of chinese/korean/japanese pop music now.)

Stereotypical Shoujo Mangas - This is the offence that was most often repeated by me, and still is. Everytime I bought a new manga based on just the style of drawing in cover, I would only realized and regretted it after I read the whole book. Most of them have crappy storylines and boring main characters albeit done with nice style and cute drawings. But still I couldn't help but choosing and buying them the next time I browse manga shops.

A Decade of Neon Genesis Evangelion

After 10 years, Neon Genesis Evangelion emerged again in fresh and modern version - Rebuild of Evangelion, the 1st part titled Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone. Compared to the old version, the animation is smoother and sleeker with 3D CG, the color palette has varied, the overall mood has upgraded, even the music is much more complex and fitting to certain scenes and situations.
This is definitely an eye candy to those who enjoy good flow of animation, pleasant yet beautiful backgrounds and refined character designs. The story has been reedited and redirected in some certain parts for easier understanding and all. This benefits a lot to those new fans and viewers, and also shed some lights on certain confusing matters for loyal old fans. For those who loves anime, or starting to love anime, this is a strong recommendation from me even though I sucked at writing reviews and providing more information.

First enemy that appeared in the series, Sachiel


First scene of Ayanami Rei


EVA Unit 01 fighting against Shamshel, 2nd enemy to appeared in the series


Kaworu spotted at the end of part 1

On to a more personal experience and view on Evangelion.

I knew this anime for just around 7-8 years actually. I don't really remember when I got to know its existence and when I watched it. I just know somewhat vaguely that I borrowed that whole set of VCDs from my friend, Adrian and watched it for a few nights. I remembered buying both the movies that were available in pirated VCDs, and watched them on repeat just to understand what was the ending about. Nothing memorable happened when I finished watching though, I was still confused and bewildered at the whole ending part.

A few years after that, I watched the whole series once again. That time I could say I've matured a lot, and understood things a lot more than before. And I managed to grasp tails of what going on in the whole series, understood generally what it was trying to convey about. For that, I watched the series again a few times during the last few years, slowing getting more and more into that enigmatic world of EVA. I don't know about others, but for me, EVA helped me a lot in my journey of understanding self acceptance and self-awareness. Only then I realized how great the series it was, and how the last 2 episodes left impacts and inspirations to those who understood the message and also experienced the similar denials and realisation that is portrayed by EVA characters.

first beautiful smile from Rei

A Matter of Languages and Mistakes

I bet most of the online surfers knew Engrish.com, especially those that are into japanese culture. If you haven't really heard it before, and you don't even know what is 'Engrish', no worries, here's the FAQ link. (Perhaps after you've read them, you might think that this blog should be included in as well.. mm you know, broken English and grammar mistakes all over the blog..)

I knew about this site long time ago, and those photos used to crack me up a lot and made me feel better about my not-so-perfect English. But somehow the more I look (and read) the photos, the more I feel guilty laughing at them. Probably because of the chances of making similar grammar mistakes myself are not low, so I stopped visiting not soon after.

Recently, I stumbled upon that site again, and this time, I found some really interesting site listed in the link section (instead of checking the photos and digging up my little guilt again). One of them is this - Hanzi Smatter. This website is exactly the opposite of Engrish.com, (minus the laughing matter). Instead of pointing out the English mistakes, the site offers photos, character info and explanation on Chinese language character mistakes (especially in tattoos). And I'm quite ashamed to admit -- I ended up laughing harder at them compared to Engrish's. (I shouldn't even laugh at other's misfortune -.-")


These below are the example of catchy Japanese language characters (maybe incorrectly used). Both T-shirts are available at JBox. (And you can find loads more of similar stuffs there.)

Japanese T-shirt "Dirty American Devil" - Camouflage Limited Edition from JBox

Japanese T-shirt "I Love Yaoi" (girls' fitted tee) from JBox

L'Arc~en~Ciel TOUR 2008 L'7~Trans ASIA via PARIS~

Taken from L'Arc~en~Ciel Official Website:

TOUR 2008 L'7～Trans ASIA via PARIS～ New Tour including first appearance in Paris Confirmed! 10 shows in 7 cities, total of 320 thousand audience!
	2008.4.19 Shanghai Yuanshen Sports Stadium 2008.4.26 Taiwan Zhongshan Soccer Stadium 2008.5.09 Paris Le Zenith de Paris 2008.5.17 Seoul Olympic Park Gym 2008.5.24 Hong Kong Asia World Expo 2008.5.31 Tokyo Tokyo Dome 2008.6.01 Tokyo Tokyo Dome 2008.6.03 Tokyo Tokyo Dome 2008.6.07 Osaka Kyocera Dome Osaka 2008.6.08 Osaka Kyocera Dome Osaka

I'm so happy that they are having tours outside Japan again. It's great that now they can go even further than just stopping around East Asia like their last Asian tours. But I feel so sad about this ToT I guess we Malaysian fans can never hope too much about them coming here. The nearest they went last time was Thailand, and it was only tetsu and hyde promoting ark and ray album back in 1999. Maybe they would consider Singapore, but not here.
I guess maybe they don't think it's worth the trip to come to Malaysia... You know, Malaysia's famous for being exceptionally strict on singers and bands coming over for concert performances. I think maybe laruku wouldn't want to risk it here.. The probability of banning tetsu throwing his bananas is as high as having Gwen Stefanie in sexy clothes. And that hasn't included hyde in Nazi & Pope costumes. And a list of devil-related and sexual-themed songs and lyrics.

... sob.