==tulip speaks==

Thursday, July 17, 2008

There are two common questions people tend to ask when I say I’m
furthering my studies (again). One, "Huh, studying again? When you
think you are getting married?". Two, "How can you even think about
torturing yourself again?".

Let me answer both here. Next time if anyone ask me the same question, I’m just going to give the permalink to this post!

"Huh, studying again? When you think you are getting married?"

I
have always maintained that I have no intention of settling down prior
to completion of my PhD - even when I was doing MSc. While I agree
there are women out there who managed marriage and studies, I know I am
not one of them. It takes a great person to juggle both, and although I
do multitask at times, it is not that easy. Hate to say this, but yes,
I am afraid I would fail in either role I have to pay if I get married
while studying or vice versa.

Getting
married and producing babies should not be the only aim of one’s life.
Plus, is there any rules saying I should get married at 28?

"How can you even think about torturing yourself again?"

I
admit my MSc was long (3.5 years) and torturous. Half way through the
project, I almost gave up. I gave myself an ultimatum - buck up within
the next 3 months or quit. To my surprise, things got better and I
completed the project. Now, I can only regard that as a learning
experience for me to face tougher challenge - PhD. Another 3 years of
‘torture’, I’ll get what I always dream of. I am prepared for it. So,
no worries about me okie?

Amazingly, I got this quote in my mailbox today:
"The victory one gets after hard work is priceless."

I’m guilty of disappearing from everyone’s blog. I even have to excuse
myself from my usual Friday post. I don’t know if its lack of will to
post/blog-hop or it was truly due to my busy schedule. Everything still
seems to be blur to me - thanks to the attack by flu virus.

Anyway, the last 2 weeks have been eventful. We had second MIB gathering at Chilli’s. It was fun to meet everyone again. The photos are uploaded here. We have made several changes to the structure of MIB and back with a bang! We now have a page in facebook and twitter as well. Check them out!

Soon,
after the gathering, i fell sick *sigh*. Only get to be online once a
while. But in that mean time, I got invite to contribute blog posts to
a brand new blog - revivemyblogpost! It’s a brilliant and fresh idea by 3point8.
The blog is set up mainly to revive our ancient posts for everyone’s
read. It has just been launched today and I am scheduled to submit my
post 2moro.

And today, my Monday started with a longer than
usual traffic jam (reminds me of my previous post). I think its due to
the closure of roads in KL and maybe roadblocks as well. It is so mah fan! "These guys" never learn!*sigh*

*mah fan - troublesome

You wake up feeling zombie after a tough night fighting with your boyfriend online.

Drag
your feet to the washroom for a shower only to find your favorite
perfumed shower foam is missing. cursing your maid, you reach for the
medicated Dettol shower foam *sigh.

Wrap a towel and walk back
to the room. Search for a top and matching pants with one hand holding
the towel. Green blouse - grey pants?? Nah! Hmm.. black top - black
pants??? Never!! Search again.. white shirt - black pants!! Ha.. this
is more likely.

But
the shirt badly needs ironing. With one hand still holding the towel,
you grab the iron box, plug it in and starts ironing. It’s your lucky
day - the shirt didn’t get burn. You smiled, just like this –>

The
make-up regime begins now. You start it with toner, moisturizer and
then go for foundation. Forgot all about the concealer. Ah.. never
mind. Continue with loose powder, eye liner, mascara, lip balm, lip
stick and finally lip gloss. Yes, it’s in that order.

Grab the court shoes - wishing you bought the heels you saw last Sunday at the mall :-|. Anyway, life has to go on.

Toss
the document bag, hand bag and the laptop bag in to the back seat. Why
on earth they created different bag? Someone needs to come up with all
in one bag for ladies!

Starts
driving. Everything is fine until you reach the junction. Worst
nightmare - the bad traffic jam starts 1km before it usually does. You
swear at the driver in front of you. Moments later, same words against
the driver at your right and then, the one at your left.

After a
grueling 55 mins, you reach your office. Oh yea, it’s 10am now and you
suppose to be in at 9am. Your boss looks at you. You are expecting the
worse and then….he smiled.

You smile at him and enter your
cabin. Minutes later you realize he didn’t smile looking at your face.
You are wearing bright red interior clothing beneath your white shirt.

Great!

*just
a post to make everyone to smile. i’m still on the road to recovery.
will be back blog-hopping soon. hugs and thanks for the wishes!

For the first time in 7 years, my Kancil broke down today. Well, not
actually broke down but it got overheated and I had to immediately stop
the car. It’s freaky to see smoke coming out of engine and I was
literally ‘convincing’ her not to burst! Its funny when I think about
it now, but at that point, I couldn’t care less.

No, Kancil
never explode and my mechanic came to save my day. I just got her back
moments ago and apparently there was a leakage. Okie, finally the
problem has settled. Probably she got upset that now I am trying to
sell her off. Looks like she doesn’t want to leave

That was
one story and another one will be about our lovely motorist. I am glad
that my sis was by my side today. Thank God I brought her along. If
not, I would have been sitting by the roadside alone, waiting for the
mechanic to arrive and subject myself to verbal abuse of passing
motorist. Seriously, I never thought there are so many uncivilised
persons on the road in Malaysia. I don’t feel like describing it on
detail. I think you guys know what I am talking about.

Anyway, I didn’t forget its Nostalgic Friday today. Here is my choice for the 46th week:

Vikram was not a popular star back then and I can’t remember anything about this movie except this song. Nice eh?

Have a great weekend and to Malaysian Indian Bloggers, see you guys at the gathering!
Hugs!

We are paranoids.

Well, most of us are paranoids. While certain degree of caution is
needed for us to keeping on going and obviously to live in today’s
world, I don’t think its necessary of us to be suspicious of every
human being or every single thing we see.

When the a Gerakan member decided to take a job offer from a DAP-lead
state government, he came under the fire from his party. He was seen as
a person who betrayed his party but he only asked for them to see
beyond the party flag. He was chosen because he was the man for that
job and he was trusted even by an opponent party. But his own people
(so to speak) failed to see this and of course, eventually he resigned
from the party. In the end, his own party lost a credible person just
because they feel he is someone else’s payroll.

This is not only confined to politics but even to our daily affairs as well:

• Imagine being suspicious of your mechanic.. did he actually fix the car brake properly?
• Imagine being suspicious of your rival neighbor’s 5 year old daughter befriending your son.. what is this girl trying to do to my son?
• Imagine being suspicious of the vegetable seller at the pasar malam.. did he spray excessive pesticides on these?
• Imagine being suspicious of your MP whom you (and your entirely family) unanimously voted for… he is on a deal with the opposition?

I can go on and on with this list. But let me ask if you if such
paranoid thinking would give you a peace of mind? It won’t, and why
would we want to subject ourselves to such mental agony? At times, we
just have to trust people. Yes, we have to carefully analyze the
situation and be prepared with a Plan B. That’s all it takes.

Anyone can ask questions, but it takes a genuine person to answer it
truthfully. And when one does, it is only wise to accept it with a
little cautious.

Sorry if I sound a little random today. Blurting out things as I feel. Have a good weekend everyone!

*This is not a paid post

I have been actively updating my Twitter lately. Its a great tool for me to keep up with what my other Twittermates (is there a word like this..I wonder)
are doing and at the same time updating them about my whereabouts as
well. Currently I have 30 followers and following 20 Twittermates.

For those who doesn’t know anything about it, a quick wiki about Twitter may help. Lot of information there. Here some of the highlights about this wonderful program:

• a
  free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to
  send "updates" or "tweets"…to the Twitter web site, via the Twitter
  web site, SMS, IM or application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.
• Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.
• …began as a research and development project inside San Francisco start-up company Obvious, LLC in March 2006.
• .. Twitter announced on their blog that they recently created a version of Twitter for Japanese users.
• The first Twitter security vulnerability was reported on April 7, 2007 by Nitesh Dhanjani.

Enough of the facts, just hover the link to my Twitter page and start stalking following me!

A quick and shameless self-promo post

Thank you so much for the votes and wishes. Here are the rankings so far:

Most Popular Female Blogger
Tulipspeaks - 4.29
Bytes-Berry - 3.59
Psych Theory - 3.17

Best Personal Blog
Tulipspeaks - 3.48
Kartzworld - 2.38
Kav’s Kollage - 4.21
TheBlankPage - 3.18

The
voting started on 6th of June and will end in 6th of July. So, if you
haven’t vote (for me that is) there is still some time left

2008 wishes check-list:

1. Robbers to be caught
2. A new car
3. New hairstyle
4. Gadgets
5. Lose weight
6. Overseas vacation
7. A new boyfriend
8. PhD
9. A new blog on shopping
10. A brand new self

I am a Blogger-person and after 3+ years relying on blogspot, I have
grown to love it here. Of course Wp is more powerful, but for me
Blogger.com is more than enough.

Over the period, my blog has
seen numerous changes in her look. Usually I surf around for new
templates and give it a fresh look before applying it here. I never
used a blog template as it is but normally used it as a basis. I have
seen various brilliant templates and here I am sharing my top 10
choices of blogger templates especially for female bloggers in a random
order. The designs remain copyrights of the respective designer.

1. Butterfly girly

Pretty isn’t it?my current blog template is derived from this template. can you believe that?
Download

2. OMG smashing

Bright orangy template. Looks complicated to set up but it gives out a nice feeling.
Download

3. Colibri

One
of the most girlish template I have ever seen. Looks a bit cluttered
for some, but I think it looks.. well, girlish and pretty!
Download

4. Flower Pink

A rare black-pink combo. Simple, clean design.
Download

5. Rosa

Stunning
header! Bright colours! It’s nice but not my kinda template. Maybe
that’s why I never used it. My little sis might like to have this
template though.
Download

6. Art Imagination

First impression - Oh My GOD!!!! Beautiful!!!
Download

7. Flower

White-black-catchy blue combination. Its for those who wants a clean but a bit girlish template.
Download

8. Divalicious

Sexy template for sexy babes! *wink wink
Download

9. Retro Lady

A bright red retro template for daring souls.
Download

10. She’s Got Style

Simple yet stylish template.
Download

There
are still many more templates to be featured. Maybe will have a part
two to this post. Have you came across any beautiful, stylish yet
girlish templates lately?