6 wierd things about me

I just read Sivin’s blog entry in May, and finally understand his elusive comment left on my blog these several months ago informing me I’ve been ‘tagged’. I thought it was another friendster, facebook, myspace type invitation, so I just ignored it. The best way of dealing with things you don’t understand.

But is quite an interesting challenging, identifying weird things about yourself.

This is my list of six.

1. I have lived in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur almost all of my life, and I still can’t remember how the roads connect to each other. I still get lost getting to and from the city. I memorize routes. If I miss the turning, the prognosis is not good.

2. I scraped through my Bahasa exams in school, but now use it often for research. Although, really, my Bahasa is a hybrid of Indonesian and Malaysian - neither fully one nor the other. It still causes laughter on both sides of the border.

3. I get PMS… seriously, don’t annoy me during certain times of the month. During these times, I am not amused.

4. I relish reading, consider books an ‘essential’ item on my shopping list, and always wish I had more time to digest them. But, unfortunately, I often fall asleep after several minutes of reading. This has resulted in me owning a compelling library of unread books.

5. I have been planning to learn a musical instrument and to take up painting since I was a child, and still somehow, have not done this, despite accumulating a guitar and loads of paints over the years. I think its due to a tension between wanting desperately to do these and struggling to accept my ineptness. A gulf lies between my abilities as an creator and my appreciation of the arts.

6. My face turns red often and for a range of reasons… when I am embarrassed, annoyed, shocked, laughing out loud, after exercising, etc. This is particularly problematic for me in two types of scenarios. Firstly, I do a serious imitation of a tomato after playing strenuous games. People often ask me “are you okay”, with concern in their voices. I reckon they are afraid I am about to have a heart attack and require immediate hospitalization. Secondly, it hampers my ability to keep my emotions to myself, which is necessary particularly when I do public talks. When members of the audience respond to my talks on refugees and migrants with comments like “refugees are illegal immigrants”, “the root cause of exploitation of migrant workers is overpopulation”, “street children in Sabah are lazy, thats why they don’t go to school” and other ridiculous remarks, I attempt to control what I say, but my face shows my true feelings. It shows that I want to smack them. Fast. Immediately. Hard.

Use words, Alice, not violence: I tell myself.

Who should I tag? Need to sleep on that one!