Description of Love by Rumi(Lovely and Apt)

A true lover is proved such by his pain of heart;
No sickness is there like sickness of heart.
The lover's ailment is different from all ailments;
Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries.
A lover may hanker after this love or that love,
But at the last he is drawn to the KING of love.
However much we describe and explain love,
When we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.
Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear,
But love unexplained is clearer.
When pen hasted to write,
On reaching the subject of love it split in twain.
When the discourse touched on the matter of love,
Pen was broken and paper torn.
In explaining it Reason sticks fast, as an ass in mire;
Naught but Love itself can explain love and lovers!
None but the sun can display the sun,
If you would see it displayed, turn not away from it.
Shadows, indeed, may indicate the sun's presence,
But only the sun displays the light of life.
Shadows induce slumber, like evening talks,
But when the sun arises the "moon is split asunder."
In the world there is naught so wondrous as the sun,
But the Sun of the soul sets not and has no yesterday.
Though the material sun is unique and single,
We can conceive similar suns like to it.
But the Sun of the soul, beyond this firmament,
No like thereof is seen in concrete or abstract.
Where is there room in conception for His essence,
So that similitudes of HIM should be conceivable?

Things to do

1) Wrap up mock trial character personas
2) English tuition for neighbours kid!
3) Organize Zar's files
4) Teach Goku Kyaw some stuff to fill his PS2 saturated head
5) Hafasan!

Ive been dying to go rock climbing at 1U's Camp 5 which is the largest indoor rock climbing arena in SE Asia. It's been put off so many times before and now im psyched that it's becoming a reality. I've gotta make an appointment to book the beginner's programme and confirm with those who are coming. Weeeee!

Stereotypes: a misnomer

The trouble with stereotypes is that they leave no room for interpretation and zeroes in on one particular feature of that race to the exclusion of all other traits.

I think when stereotypes become extreme to the extent that people act out on them it becomes racism. There is really a fine line between stereotyping and racism.

Take for example Arabs. Arabs are generally seen as barbaric, uncultured, crude, rude,arrogant,snobbish,aggressive,narcissistic, horny and not that endowed in the hygiene department. I myself am guilty of this culturally demeaning form of typecasting...Whenever i see an Arab id wrinkle my nose to hold my breath( the BO is intoxicatingly horrible)and id avoid Arab guys like Im being paid a million bucks to win a race. So far ive been hit on by sleazy Arab guys and been talked rudely to by the same.
They tend to be arrogant too with the false belief that they are superior to the Asiatic race because of their white skin colour and Arab lineage which was the cradle of Islamic Civilization.

But sometimes things and people happen. And when i mean happen they hit you like a red ominibus on a deserted highway. I made friends with this Arab girl called Medina and she was the opposite of everything i held Arabs to be. She was as gentle as the personification of the Arab psyche was not. She was kind, had clear eyes...the kind that shot right through your soul and identified whether you were kindred spirits or not in an instant. She was a perfect lady, modest,unassuming and friendly.

And take for example, White people. Most Asians are subconciously or conciously in awe of their previous colonial masters. Who were almost demi-gods with their white, fair skin, freckles, blond hair and coloured eyes and of course unbridled power that brought the whole world to its knees. So the result is that you see Asian girls( anyone not white) throwing themselves at these white guys in what they see as a move towards the perfect coupling. You see them dressing sluttily and clinging onto the white tourists looking for a casual fling like lost puppies. You hear of them engaging in lewd sex acts to please the modern white male. Why all this? It all boils down to stereotypes...again.

It took the Black Americans years to fight for their equality. To break the mold of stereotype cast by physical overtures that bespoke of their inferior status( in white peoples' eyes): their black skin was associated with ugliness and lowliness, their wide spaced eyes and wide flat noses were considered a derivation of the ape race. They were seen as slaves with little or no intellect at all and driven to lose their humanity through inhumane methods of labour.

Because you see, stereotypes are the result of ignorance of another's culture and values. What the western world sees as good or noble may not be seen as such in say, the lost Aztec Civilization. But that doesnt mean the Aztec people were inferior to the Western civilization...It just means that there is a difference in the set of values and culture to compute. We live in a world where everything Western is seen as worth emulating and good...an investment( even in terms of education) and anything that goes against the grains of Western Civilization's culture hub-which through its media tentacles have influenced the world to think of its culture and values as the universal truth-unacceptable.

So I say to myself and to others! Shake free of that stereotype and get to know a person in the context of his culture and origin rather than accepting the status quo of a known, so called universal culture(i.e globalization)!

Even more anecdotes!

1.
House Guarded By Shotgun 3 Days A Week. Guess Which Days.
2.
if my calculations are correct SLINKY + ESCULATOR = EVERLASTING FUN
3.
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.
4.
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
5.
Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling.
6.
Anything you say will be held against you. ... "tits"
7.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
8.
once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of 'hot xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, "give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.
9.
Don't drink and park - accidents cause people.
10.
Solution to two of the world's problems: Feed the homeless to the hungry.
11.
My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.
12.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move.
13.
I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.
14.
War is God's way of teaching Americans about geography. -- Ambrose Bierce
15.
I could've eaten Alphabits and crapped out a better essay!!
16.
"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures." -George W. Bush
17.
A woman broke up with me and sent me pictures of her and her new boyfriend in bed together. Solution?? I sent them to her dad.
18.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
19.
Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs.
20.
Why do they call it PMS? Because Mad Cow Disease was already taken!

Witty anecdotes

1.
Give a man a match, and he'll be warm for a minute, but set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
2.
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.
3.
Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
4.
House Guarded By Shotgun 3 Days A Week. Guess Which Days.
5.
Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
6.
War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.
7.
It's your god. They're your rules. *You* go to hell.
8.
I once prayed to god for a bike, but quickly found out he didnt work that way...so I stole a bike and prayed for his forgiveness
9.
If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?
10.
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
11.
Sarcasm helps keep you from telling people what you really think of them.
12.
Actual Headline: Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
13.
If you think things can't get worse it's probably only because you lack sufficient imagination.
14.
if my calculations are correct SLINKY + ESCULATOR = EVERLASTING FUN
15.
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station...
16.
The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
17.
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.
18.
You can't be late until you show up.
19.
Knowledge is realizing that the street is one-way, wisdom is looking both directions anyway
20.
Parents spend the first part of our lives teaching us to walk and talk, and the rest of it telling us to sit down and shut up.

This puts a smile on my face:

http://dazzle-brazzle.blogspot.com/2009/02/crazy-stuff-my-sister-and-i-did-at-ikea.html

Random lovelies from Oh Joy!

Follow the link to find out more eye gems: http://ohjoy.blogs.com

Stuff I'm digging right now

Barbie lips, tailored pants, clean lines, skinnies,wide leg jeans,snazzy Louboutins,cinch waist belts,grey and yellow chiffon,florals,brights,A-line skirts and animal prints and cutesy thingamajigsy stuff

The Archies-Sugar Sugar(classic bubblegum pop)

I LOVE LOVE THIS SONG!

Mellifluousness is abrasive to my ears

Im paranoid, sadistic, sarcastic, crass, difficult,hard headed,cold hearted,stubborn, hypocritical and cruel(stellar traits are they not?). I am everything you're not. And YOU would be the very definition of a normal person, a normal, successfull 21 year old law student with a ton of admirers,a steady boyfriend who simply dotes on her,who makes a flying leap into the Dean's List every year with the cherry on top being her proud,smiling,happy parents and who has life rooting for her in every other way ...unlike the subjective ME that's stuck in an equally subjective rut that i can't seem to worm myself out of. I'm stuck in a petri dish full of slashed hopes and realistic fears.




I want to be found. I want to live. I want to experience joy and find the meaning of life before i die. I dont want my life to be a worthless piece of randomosity. I want it to be a flowing tapestry with underground hints,scents and notes of mystery and allure and depth. I dont want to be a shallow cockle shell or a mandrake root with no end in sight. I want to wish upon stars and feel them rain down on me. Unrealistic much?

The End of Courtship

Lovely article by Leon R. Krass...why the more a single girl holds back( does not give herself willingly to just any guy that flirts with her)the more likely she is to remain single for longer in today's so called "modern" society:

Anyone who seriously contemplates the present scene is — or should be — filled with profound sadness, all the more so if he or she knows the profound satisfactions of a successful marriage. Our hearts go out not only to the children of failed- or non-marriages — to those betrayed by their parents' divorce and to those deliberately brought into the world as bastards — but also to the lonely, disappointed, cynical, misguided, or despondent people who are missing out on one of life's greatest adventures and, through it, on many of life's deepest experiences, insights, and joys. We watch our sons and daughters, our friends' children, and our students bumble along from one unsatisfactory relationship to the next, wishing we could help....

Here is a (partial) list of the recent changes that hamper courtship and marriage: the sexual revolution, made possible especially by effective female contraception; the ideology of feminism and the changing educational and occupational status of women; the destigmatization of bastardy, divorce, infidelity, and abortion; the general erosion of shame and awe regarding sexual matters, exemplified most vividly in the ubiquitous and voyeuristic presentation of sexual activity in movies and on television; widespread morally neutral sex education in schools; the explosive increase in the numbers of young people whose parents have been divorced (and in those born out of wedlock, who have never known their father); great increases in geographic mobility, with a resulting loosening of ties to place and extended family of origin; and, harder to describe precisely, a popular culture that celebrates youth and independence not as a transient stage en route to adulthood but as "the time of our lives," imitable at all ages, and an ethos that lacks transcendent aspirations and asks of us no devotion to family, God, or country, encouraging us simply to soak up the pleasures of the present.

The change most immediately devastating for wooing is probably the sexual revolution. For why would a man court a woman for marriage when she may be sexually enjoyed, and regularly, without it? Contrary to what the youth of the sixties believed, they were not the first to feel the power of sexual desire. Many, perhaps even most, men in earlier times avidly sought sexual pleasure prior to and outside of marriage. But they usually distinguished, as did the culture generally, between women one fooled around with and women one married, between a woman of easy virtue and a woman of virtue simply. Only respectable women were respected; one no more wanted a loose woman for one's partner than for one's mother.

The supreme virtue of the virtuous woman was modesty, a form of sexual self-control, manifested not only in chastity but in decorous dress and manner, speech and deed, and in reticence in the display of her well- banked affections. A virtue, as it were, made for courtship, it served simultaneously as a source of attraction and a spur to manly ardor, a guard against a woman's own desires, as well as a defense against unworthy suitors. A fine woman understood that giving her body (in earlier times, even her kiss) meant giving her heart, which was too precious to be bestowed on anyone who would not prove himself worthy, at the very least by pledging himself in marriage to be her defender and lover forever.

Once female modesty became a first casualty of the sexual revolution, even women eager for marriage lost their greatest power to hold and to discipline their prospective mates. For it is a woman's refusal of sexual importunings, coupled with hints or promises of later gratification, that is generally a necessary condition of transforming a man's lust into love. Women also lost the capacity to discover their own genuine longings and best interests. For only by holding herself in reserve does a woman gain the distance and self-command needed to discern what and whom she truly wants and to insist that the ardent suitor measure up. While there has always been sex without love, easy and early sexual satisfaction makes love and real intimacy less, not more, likely — for both men and women. Everyone's prospects for marriage were — are — sacrificed on the altar of pleasure now.

by Leon R. Kass
from http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001154.cfm

I need a job that pays!

I have a whole to do list stretching to the brink of Doomsday and oh what joy!I haven't done anything about it. So yeah here it is:

1) Get a job!
2) Update wardrobe
3) Teach Leo English coz the lil git is a little bit behind.
4) DO anything to get rid of this sickly thick boredom.
5) Strategize ways to not fall flat on my ass( for grades) next sem. I cannot afford
to get kicked out of law school(as much as i'd like to in my inner fantasy world)
6) Redecorate room
7) Surf for scholarship options and network!
8) Exercise( swimming is out coz the neighbourhood pool got shut down indefinitely!
Stupid much...sigh)