Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

I must have felt particularly rich three years ago when walking in IT World because instead of purchasing my usual RM45 speakers, I went ahead and bought the above Edifier speakers for about RM350+ or something. To some of you, it's normal. But this is someone who thinks that paying RM75 for a nice dress is excessive. So, in general terms, people will call me an el-cheapo. Especially when it comes to electronics. Basic rule of thumb = if it works and is cheap, don't complain. But let's just say that three years later, my red Edifier MP300 is still solid as a rock! The speakers are so darn tiny and cute (the cute part was one of the reasons I bought it and it's maroon in colour, so, I was sold as hell) but the sound is absolutely solid. I recently though the Edifier died on me. I went and bought a RM75 speaker, put it on. Didn't like it and randomly checked the Edifier again. And you know what? I just blew RM75 on the new lousy speakers for nothing. CEH!!! ...

If Chris Weitz was in any way disgusted with a single word that was in New Moon because it was nothing more than just womenly mush, he didn't let his opinions seep into the movie he directed. He is magic. He is awesome. Sadly, better than Catherine Hartwicke, I have to say. I spotted a few guys in the theater and I am wondering to myself...don't you have a better movie to watch? Like the just-as-buffed-up Rain's 'Ninja Assassin' or something? Oh, the girlfriends. Probably trying to date the girls or something, eh? Yeah, reel them in by pretending to get all that mush. You earn points for being emo. I to.ta.lly. understand. For one, my sister who used to side with Edward in the whole saga is on Jacob's side now because of the flash of abs. OK, fine, I was mildly persuaded for a while too – hey, you'd have to be a heterosexual male not to love the washboard abs. I can imagine that when he strips off his top, all females starts peeing on themselves. I didn...

Oh boy, reminds me about how my kids fought sleep when they were younger. No, wait. They continue to fight sleep at 9 and 7. Sigh... Then again, so do I. This baby does it in living colour and I don't know how the parent (or the one holding the camera) refrain from laughing out loud.

This boy of about seven-years of age was hobbling along slowly. One crooked leg after another, slowly inching his way past the checkout counter. He had to bent to flip one leg in front, and then bed and flip the other leg in front. And he had the contraption around both his arms but and it probably hurt a little to walk the way he did. But it can't hurt more than the stares that people were giving him. He walks alone headed towards the exit. I don't know what it must feel like to have people gawp at you like that. Like you are not normal. Like you are a caged animal. I don't know how his mother's heart must break whenever he cries over why he isn't the way other seven-year-olds are. I don't know how he learns to contain his anger over his situation and why people stared so openly at him. And yet, he inched his way to the exit. Alone. The cashier stopped working altogether just to stare. One of them even walked closer to get a better look. It was his bac...

I love the piano piece 'In the hall of the mountain king' and was just lurking around the internet to see if anyone else had a different interpretation than I. Indeed....indeed. This duo created one of the most awesome and fantastically jaw-dropping presentation ever! The pace is just right. Build it slow and the end it with MAYHEM!!! LOL. The ending was a little too explosive for me but in general, it was A.MA.ZING

Repost from digital diary from 2002 *** *** ‘The dinosaur got red, yeah mom yeah?” “Yes, Josh. There’s blood inside the dinosaur” “The big T-Rex wants to eat other dinosaurs, yeah mom yeah?” “Yes, Josh. Sometimes dinosaurs eat dinosaurs. Like Joshua eat chicken, you know” “There’s red inside the chicken and dinosaur, yeah mom yeah?” “Yes, Josh. There’s blood inside the chicken and dinosaur. We are all living beings, we all have blood” “Mom, when dinosaur eat dinosaur, the other dinosaur die yeah, mom?” “Yes, Joshua” “When Joshua eat the chicken, the chicken die yeah mom?” “I’m afraid so. It has to be dead before we eat it, Josh” “It’s painful, yeah mom” Pause. “Look, there’s a spider on the wall, Josh! GO catch it!” “The chicken is painful yeah mom?” Pause. “You want to read a book now, Josh?” “No mom” “Yes, it’s painful” “The chicken and dinosaur die yeah mom, yeah?” “Yes, Josh. They die” It’s difficult to explain why we inflict pain on anima...

Sunday is a time for rest....while that is true, I think there is something to be said about taking advantage of the silence, the calm, the lack of need to hurry anywhere or do anything to just...work on stuff that's been backlogged. Call me a workaholic and I continue to stand by my decision to do a little work today. I can't sit here and watch that to-do list of mine and not do anything when the kids are out for a movie (something that I don't or CAN'T watch....Christmas Carol. Eugh ! Horrors! Not even kiddie horror for me, thank you very much). As a freelance writer, every second of time that ticks by is money. And besides, I've already taken the kids mall-crawling yesterday and they had a blast playing in one of those play areas that they will SOON outgrow since all the kids there are itty-bitty little ones still learning how to walk. And I went full blast with my spending on books too yesterday. I'm telling you, the only way to break my bank account i...

Eh? Looks like some people still don't get the 1Malaysia concept geh? ah well...let's advertise, 'Cina pun boleh senang masuk UM'

It's been raining and raining and raining and raining and raining and raining and raining and raining here in PJ (KL to some others who are not familiar with the term PJ) and I think in a way, it's clogged my brain. Writing, which is second nature to me (first nature being going toilet), is slow because my brain just ain't functioning. Or maybe I just need to eat more Spirulina because it seems that Spirulina boosts brain activity. I get mine from Cosway and apparently, they are really good. Anyway, I'll leave that to you but according to me, I think there is some basis for those claims. Under normal circumstances, I love the rain...when I am tucked comfortably indoors with the comforter pulled all the way up to my chin and sipping on a cup of nice Chamomile tea but when you have to run around like a lunatic, it's just not cool. Which brings me around to the topic rain. Someone once told me that the world will end up like...you know, Water World . God will en...

Just had an emotional conversation and needed the mood-lifter. Here's one to share with you....you know, just in case you need a mood lifter too. :-) *** *** Once there was a church that had a bell that no one could ring. One day, a boy came and asked the priest if he could try. So the boy went up into the tower and ran straight into the bell, face-first. The bell tolled loud and clear. The shocked priest gave him the job. But one Sunday, he ran straight toward the bell with his face and missed and fell off the tower and died. "Congregation," the priest said before the assembled masses. "Does anybody know this boy's name? Because I don't know him, but his face rings a bell."

This Baby Sleeping Picture can be found here Sometimes I go out like a ton of bricks. Sometimes I lie there waiting for the sun to come up. Sleep, I think, co-relates with how old you are. I am NOT saying that I am old but hey, aren't we all getting there ? Anyway, I had a bit of the flu all weekend through. No, don't worry, it's not the AheeNee (AH1N1) flu. Just a normal sinus problem. But sheesh, people look at you like you have sprouted horns and became Lucifer when you sneeze these days. It's almost illegal to have the flu, you know. Anyway, spent Saturday moaning and groaning and since I had the flu, I had the perfect excuse to go my mom's house where I feel like a daughter and not the mother. Being in charge gets tiring, you know. So, whenever I go to my mom's place, I have every excuse to be pathetically childish. Then on Sunday, spent half the day either doing nothing or drifting in and out of slumber... .like pig . It's amazing because thi...

By Nora Isaacs Leslie Bradley remembers lying awake as a child, unable to sleep. "I've been something of an insomniac my entire life," says the 56-year-old owner of Blue Spruce Yoga in Lakewood, Colorado. But after she contracted West Nile virus in 2004, her sleepless nights became intolerable. "I was in really bad shape," Bradley says. "I couldn't sleep at all without taking drugs like Ambien." After the prescription sleeping pills became less effective, Bradley decided to explore an alternative route, making an appointment to see Ayurvedic doctor John Douillard, director of the LifeSpa School of Ayurveda in Boulder, Colorado. He put Bradley on a regimen of herbs, tea, self-massage, and breathwork. He also helped her understand the best bedtimes for her body type and encouraged her to make changes to her lifestyle, such as eating a bigger lunch, and not teaching evening yoga classes. Drawing on her yoga background, she began doing Sar...

Like this banana? Find it here The worst thing about doing creative work is that when you are facing a stalemate, then you are facing a stalemate. If the mind is not moving, there is nothing in this world that can make it move....except for you. I meant me. No inspiration, you write unintelligent things. Writing and coming up with stories is a lot like writing songs. One missing ingredient and you are not going anywhere. No amount of pushing, shoving, pummeling, tormenting, torturing, CPR, ice-cream, relaxing music, massage, love, coffee, hand-lotion, organizers, books, mozzie repellant, CDs, watches, cell phone....wait, where was I before I began naming the things on my table? Oh. Anyway, it feels like that. Derailed for a while. If you caught my last couple of 'posts', that's why. I am staring into the cracks of a bloody wall. Stalemate! So, for writers and musicians, we need to FIND inspiration to inspire words or music because this is how we work – passion dri...

The other day, I saw someone who reminded me about a lot of girls when I was younger. I'll stop beating around the bush and say, 'Yes, yes, yes...she reminds me of me as well' but the fact of the matter is that I outgrew that and she is still that way despite being only a couple of years younger than me. I guess some people are just stuck in the Looking For Love (LFL) mode all life long, you think so? OK, let me get this straight, there is nothing wrong with looking for love because love is everything. But when you are looking for love in the wrong form, then there IS something wrong. Without going on and on about how wrong this person can be, let's just say that she is looking for love in a man. She is looking for a man to complete her life, to complete her dreams, to fill her bed, to make her feel whole again. Without that man, she feels that her life is worthless. She thinks that with the man, she will find a dream life....she will spend days being adored and lov...

When people say that Malaysians are a loveless bunch of duds waiting for a boat out of the peninsular all the time, I strongly contend otherwise. Malaysians love Malaysia. No, come on.... stop laughing . Deep down inside of you, you know you love the country. We love the earthquake-less-ness. We love the fact that we've got some breath-sucking laksa you will give up your chance to date Megan Fox / Robert Pattinson (yeah....right) for. We also love the highways....gives us the chance to play a game on Facebook with your iPhone. Farm some vegetable, rear some cow or something. We are so totally in love with Malaysia. But just not with the people who did injustice to some of us. Just not in love with unfairness and underlying, suppressed feeling of bitterness than just simmers. It has been simmering for ages and we have, some of us have (at least), learned how to either look the other way or think it is a lost cause and should just sit there with our legs crossed and listen for th...

The importance of the smiley.... :-) You should never do without it if ever you are joking about something or poking fun at someone. One good example would be this.... You dumb-ass. Always saying the wrong thing, aren't you? ;-P This, I would take lightly if it was coming from a close friend whom I knew was just picking on me for fun or just jesting around. Without that ;-P at the end, it would have been like this. You dumb-ass. Always saying the wrong thing, aren't you? My thought would be, what the hell is up your arse???!!! Get a life, b*st*rd! Or if you are really excited about something, you do this: :-))))))) or if you teasing someone, of course. Then they know you have too much free time on your hands or something. Just a thought. :-))))))

Image Credit I think single mothers are heroes of the world. No, I think mothers are heroes of the world. Hang on...there are fathers out there as well...so yeah, single fathers are also heroes of the world. You know what? I think ALL PARENTS are heroes of the world!! They can save anything. What is this all about? Well, I am talking about them just juggling everything there is to juggle on their plate and still not die from exhaustion. Seriously, if you are not a parent, you don't know what I am talking about. On top of making sure the bank account is not empty, the letters are opened, the bills are paid and the dining table filled with food, there is also the consistent worry about whether we remembered to bring the kids for their vaccinations. God did not give us enough nerve cells to handle this, I swear. If not nerve cells, then we should be given a few extra hours of time, at least. That is why human beings like us need to explore tactics on how to make the most of ...

My client sent me hair through the post. Outside of Marsha's world, it is also known as those clip-on DIY hair extensions. Currently, she sells them here and is looking to expand, I think. To be honest, I've never dealt with fake hair before. I mean, I have....but not when it comes on a clip or anything. You should have seen how we tried to put the hair on!! Gord! The maid, in particular, was fascinated by it clipped it all the way over all my hair making me look like pontianak (ghost)! and then we slipped it to the side and then over the hair line....somehow I had to say that it was the most unnatural looking fake hair EVER !! I was wrong. And then I go to....hehehe....you guessed it....YouTube (but of course!) and discovered how to clip them. You're supposed to hide the sucker pins under your real hair, dudettes!! Oh. I see. Now I go make myself look and sound absolutely caveman. Anyway, you wouldn't believe it (and I don't do commercials) but the hair is ...

Some people....don't feel like saying too much but some people just try to be nosy and meddlesome. It is like if they don't try to correct you, they cannot live with themselves. Trying to be too smart makes one very annoying. So, I take a big trash can and cover the conversationalist.

About two years ago, when JJ was still with Rudy, working the Morning Crew for Hitz.fm, my kids and I spend most mornings during our drive to school listening to the antics of JJ and Rudy. They would guffaw at the jokes while I maneuvered my way past cars, showing my middle finger at rowdy drivers, cursing under my breath when someone cuts me off. I don't think they understood all the jokes but they laughed whenever JJ cackles. :-) There STILL are some posters of these two dudes around promoting the Gotcha prank calls. I've seen them. I might as well have announced that I am taking their Nintendos away forever when I told them that there will be no more JJ and Rudy. Now, it's JJ and Ean. ' Who?? They fired Rudy ?' I assured them that this wasn't the case. The way I am connected to JJ is funny because it's multi-layered like lasagna. One layer after another. There's the cousin who is married to a man who used to go to school with JJ (I think). Then...