Marsha Maung: Write. Cook. Read. Watch. Try. Innovate.

The boys are already geared up for the time of lives this year, setting new resolutions and goals but one thing we did not see coming was...Apple products in this household. We are Windows people through and through. What the hell am I seeing here? How are we supposed to use this? LOL I can give people tutorials about how to handle things in a digital marketing and branding perspective but DAMN, we have no idea how this works and how to set it up. Apparently, the SG company that hired Son2 thought that this was all he needed. Apple....in a Windows world.  We are so clueless even now but he's going to be on-boarded today and we will figure out how the home-settling is gonna be like.  We have 2 work settings here, 1 for me and another for whoever needs it. Son1 is mostly on-site so, he doesn't need the workspace. So, I had to set up the extra workspace for Son2 for Hybrid so, this is my new setting. (typing in the dark is so fzzzzng hard which is what I am doing now). I ...

Ever since my built-in stove broke, I've been relying on my infra-red cooker, 2 air-fryers, electric pressure cooker, rice cooker, and ANOTHER rice cooker to make meals at home. I also have some sort of a phobia about stove and...you know...flammable gas. So, even if there was the slightest smell of gas in the air, it sends me into a panic. But you know what? Someone said something to me one fine day and I totally agreed. "Nothing beats something made over a fire on a good ole stove". So, despite not knowing the nuts and bolts of anything to do with stove (did you know they sell stoves without the damn pipe and stuff...whatever you call that that attaches to the gas tank? Like OMG...why?), I went ahead and bought one. With my innocent face, I asked for all the help I can get from the staff to make sure that when I finally lug the thing home, all I need to do is to place the damn cap on and twist whatever needs to be twisted. And I expect no gas to leak from ...

Boys will be Boys - Image Credit :  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/85568461639537983/ I don't know how to say it because most women won't understand. In fact, I've only come to face this male phenomenon as my kids started getting old enough to insult each other with 'I froggin' hate you', 'you're such a boinger' or equivalent replacement words. They do it because...well...duh, I'm there. But it's essentially true, this video. Boys/men are just mean to each other because...that's the way they love. Women just don't get it. In fact, a friend once commented, 'Gosh, Marsh. I can't stand your boys, they are sooooo TOXIC'. In reality, they're far less toxic than many friends I know in real life. Some people give you compliments in your face and then spew poison behind your back. When it comes to things like these, men, you have my vote. Men are the best best-friends. Don't get me wrong, I don't con...

Admit it, we all get worked up about things. It could be that fella who took your parking spot, the woman who won't stop complaining about you or maybe it's just the bank that keeps calling you about a new loan they want you to take advantage of. pppfftt...I know. Anyway, we all have moments we wish would just go away and disappear. I found this neat little tool on the internet and it is so simple, you will smile in the end. Promise. Feel stressed? Take a 60 second break right now . XOXO, Marsha

Today is Malaysia's Independence Day and....not even feeling a thing except that the malls are very packed. Even smaller scale neighborhood malls are packed to the brim. And it wasn't even lunch time, it was kinda Tunch (tea-lunch) time and yet it was still packed. It's a holiday, shall go to mall. That's a Malaysian culture, really. Anyway, it's been some time Facebook introduced the 'like', 'haha', 'sad', 'wow' and 'angry' buttons and I have made an effort to use those instead of the conventional 'thumbs up' just because it is there and I want to see what difference it would make to the post and the things that Facebook decides to show me on its own accord. Nothing much has changed, actually. Still seeing the same thing from the same people until I have to go to the 'Most Recent' feed instead of the normal 'News Feed'. So, I think this needs to be done. New buttons. Here are some which I think a...

I am not a Bieber fan although I think this spunky kid has grown up pretty fast and furious. Justin is an incredibly good-looking guy but I feel a little sad that he has to grow up under Hollywood's spotlight this way. He is a young man deserving of a normal lifestyle, devoid of all those negative attention. Yes, I am beginning to feel sorry for him...and his parents who are doing their best to give Bieber the correct direction in order for him to grow up and at the same time, keep to his dreams of being a singer and star. He is a Hollywood star so, naturally, there would be papps everywhere. Like friggin' flies. They look and behave like it too, I guess. Sorry, flies. After the most recent ATV episode with the law , it seems like people are being really mean and nosy and being creeps. A couple of years back, I saw on an Entertainment website, a video of a celeb walking out of a pub with papps following closely behind. Initially, the celeb just walked ahead and maintained...

I have been writing and blogging for ages, much like the writer from Zen Habits who wrote something about this and I completely agree with him when he said that even for experienced bloggers/writers, you can never escape the fear of being judged. Worse still, the fear of being caught writing lame stuff for a perceived learned audience. It is a fact that I no longer enjoy the kind of readership that I used to enjoy. But it is all out there, the (lame) and (good) stuff that I have ever written since the dawn of the internet. A large number of blog posts I wrote were wiped out when Wordpress took out my earlier blog for being a little 'politically incorrect' but it is a fact that once you get yourself out there, you are subjected to fear, judgement, and rejection. But isn’t this what life is all about anyway? Writing in public, especially about your own personal thoughts, opinions and life is scary as hell. It is pretty much like public speaking. And there are very few of...

Told myself i have to blog about something today so, here i am. I am on my phone so if u r a grammar-correcting activist, dont continue reading. Lol. I am not sure if i have the patience to manually capitalize each and every 'I' and i am not really sure how to spell apostrophe w/o autocorrect. I hope the spelling is correct, oh hell. Lol. Anyway, just wanna share an article i saw on Time about the advantages and disadvantages of optimists and pessimists. I was born a natural optimist. How else would one explain a legal officer jumping ship from a desk job of suing people to a rock band member, right? after becoming a mom, the reigns of control in my brain turned me into a pessimist. A parent is supposed to be an all-knowing being, choonow so, in an effort to know everything, i had to be able to read the future. Like predicting the next time my kid is gonna want to poop, fall or is he going to be a doctor. This type of thinking naturally turns people into co...

The Asian mentality is as such. So is the 'entertainer' culture. We say sorry way too much. We say sorry, sometimes, not because it was our fault. In fact, we say sorry when we should be saying 'Excuse me, I didn't quite catch what you said. Can you please repeat that?' Granted, sorry is an incredibly important word to use but there are things that we should not be sorry for:- Who we are Our sexual orientation Our feelings Our situation Our problems Our emotions Our tears Our regrets (we shouldn't have too many of this evil thing, anyway) Our dreams ....I can go on so, feel free to add your thoughts if you want to Sometimes I am sick of feeling sorry for making others feel the way they do, which I can't help them with because it is their feeling after all. It's like a huge cycle. So, at the end of the day, we should just acknowledge our feelings and say 'sorry, I am making you feel that way. I am sorry but not all that sorry be...

I do not fault bloggers for taking on sponsors and I do not fault sponsors for sponsoring bloggers but.... ....reality strike. How many of us who are readers and crawlers of the great big In-ter-net actually give sponsored bloggers the time of our day when we know that the blog posts are sponsored. I mean, come on, there are very few bloggers who would actually tell it as it is. 'The chicken is a little salty for my liking' 'There were some dust mites in the bed!' 'The pool water was a little greenish' 'The LCD display came with a hairline crack' Watch the sponsors walk away. Hence, I find myself walking away from sponsored posts unless the blogger tells it like it is. The whole point of reading the entire article is to find creatively expressed opinions from another person who was given the privilege of enjoying something that I may consider PAYING for, right? So, I don't want to waste my precious time reading sugar-coated blog posts...

My logic is simple. People are gonna talk. Whether you like it or not, they are going to talk. So, whether you are on THIS side or THAT side, you have got to do what you believe in. What inspires you, what works for you. Once you figure out what that is, all you need to do is to keep that path. People are going to question, people are going to ask, people are going to demand. People are going to come up to your face and speak. And you have to listen and think and answer as best to your knowledge, as honestly as you can. That's life. That's progress. That's growth. That's learning curve. That's improvement in progress. Keep a few close to you and the rest are going to question you. To the few who are close to you, you don't need to answer anything. They already know the answers, anyway. Image credit: IStockPhoto Have a fab Monday, folks, Marsha

This little camera is nothing fantastic. It is your everyday point-and-shoot camera which is, I think, not even as great as the camera on my phone. People have asked me why I would carry this camera with me everywhere I go since I have more than 1 'camera' with me already considering the fact that I carry 2 phones and 1 tab along with me most of the time. The reason is simple. The internet. I am not as intrigued with the Internet as I used to be, it used to be my everything....but that was before EVERYONE was in it. I love people, I do, but I just don't think we human beings are meant to click with everyone ALL AT THE SAME TIME under the critical gaze of only THE REST OF THE WORLD. It might seem odd for a blogger or someone who has been on the Internet for as long as I have but once you are 'out in the digital world', it doesn't make you a celebrity (there is no such thing as celebrity blogger or celebrity youtuber because...you know...a loooooooooooOOOOOO...

Referring to article from CNN First off, the headline. 'Former soldier at center of murder of Iraqi family dies after suicide attempt' which is interesting because the former soldier, Steven Green, died of a 'suicide attempt'. So, in other words, his suicide attempt was a failure but he died anyway? So, he died not because of his own effort? That aside, the article itself is a sad piece because of the sheer evil that it shows human beings are capable of. Rapes and murders are very unforgivable. If one was to place oneself in the shoes of family members and friends of the victims, you will know that the acts were not just cruel but it shows power. Uncontrolled and unbridled power of one human being over others. The lording of humankind that should never happen, much less in a war-torn country where fear is already pushing people past their limits. On the other hand, it shows repentance. Steven Green is a man in a war zone and I believe when people are placed in suc...

You know how you watch a sports game and you are cheering your favorite team on, hoping that they do their best and go on to win the game? Well, this was something like that. For about a minute, I was staring at this ant trying to move something which was twice its size along a wall. I was hopelessly intrigued by how it kept trying to move the thing, it didn't even occur to me how I don't even know what and why it is trying to move. LOL. I came back a little later after taping this video but both the thing and the ant was gone. Think it was successful. =) And in the meantime, we are living in a world of Selfies (still can't believe this is now an official word) and got something from Mashable that induced massive laughter! This could be the greatest Selfie fail of all time!

I tweeted this morning that I had one of the best sleeps I have ever had in ages... Yes, I did the unthinkable (for workaholics). Hey, did we not read about 2 people who just recently...like, literally, fell dead because they were overworked? One was in Indonesia and the other was from China . I have been in the advertising industry before and yes, it works like that and it's really sad to see these news. Maybe for the really large firms...people just don't sleep. And hey, guess what I called myself when I first started freelancing back in 2000....the freelancer that don't sleep. It was a tagline I was intensely proud of. People didn't have to know that a part of the reason I didn't sleep was because my kids were waking me up all the time. They were young then.  I work at copywriting and you just can't rush copywriting. If the idea isn't there yet, it isn't there yet. If it isn't there, it's because you're trying too hard to f...

One day, after lunch with my kids, we were walking past a pet shop near our home and I decided to go in. For some of you, you might have known about the fact that we, the three of us, have a deep love for puppies and overall general cuteness! I have been contemplating for YEARS ON END about whether we can have an additional family member and right to this day, the commitment continues to scare me . And I am, unfortunately, not really a cat person . Anyway, we went in and I saw a bunch of treats for dogs and grabbed a few. Quite random is Marsha. The guards outside of my apartment complex 'rare' a couple of dogs, a mother and son dog. Bear in mind, these dogs aren't your regular puppies or home pets. They are raised by the guards, sleep in the shed, sometimes consistently drenched by the rain and are not pampered, taught to shake hands, play dead or even sit. They have a tendency to bark and chase people off. SO! What the hell I was thinking is beyond me. I wanted to...

Yes, I admit that I am one of those who have quite a severe case of trust issues. I am sure I am not the only one, it is a matter of admitting it outright or hiding behind it. So, I am not going to do a long one and shall let this picture speak for itself. I can't be Zen all the time, you know. LOL! Just be weary of these people. XOXO, Marsha