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By Aneesah, 10 Jan 12

Many thoughts, but most have yet to be written down. They are short thoughts. Which is why they tend to be published as Facebook statuses. I shall continue my rambling in point form, apologies if this format irks you.

1. Facebook and Tumblr are where I’m at. With the former, I filter friend-requests, but don’t mind subscribers (I do make a lot of posts public, usually links). Tumblr has mostly reblogs or quotes from articles/lectures. Oh, crafthings go on this Facebook.
2. I’ve started writing notes in my cellphone for later use, one of the notes contains a checklist with this item: “I have been zipped into a suitcase, once” . I suppose I thought that personal fact was faintly worth sharing. I was a kid, and it didn’t even last a minute, I think. 😛
3. Another note is quite a bit longer:
   “With friends and acquaintances getting engaged or married front, left and centre, do you ever feel like it’s not a big deal anymore? Marriage, I mean. And the whole ‘who do you finally end up with’ question. I bet when we were giggly teenagers in school, marriage and soulmates and ‘love’ were hot hot topics. You ‘matchmaked’ friends, you wondered who everybody would marry one day, whether so-and-so’s relationship would last beyond graduation, etcetera. But now that I’m older, and know the reality of marriage (along with its challenges) being just another step in the ladder of life (as opposed to the fairytale-leading-to-happily-ever-after concept)… the whos, whens and hows just aren’t as exciting anymore. Or maybe I’m just saying that because it’s not my time yet, nor any of my closest-est friends (yet).“
4. Ikhlas (sincerity) is something that I’m keeping a watch on. It is super difficult to do things only for Allah, without any other selfish, egotistic reason. Maybe that is why my writings are few and far in between now. I need to straighten out my intentions. But ikhlas is important because it makes all the difference. I refer you to Jinan Bastaki’s article (while you’re there, feel free to read the rest in the series. Personally, I find them brilliant, mashaAllah.)
5. Coming at it from another angle — perhaps I am treating my words and blog entries with too much preciousness. I used to write essay-length entries about … anything I went through, without giving much thought about whether people would even want to read it, whether there was any point to the words at all, I just wrote. I now feel like that was a good thing, because I was free of the pressures that I seem to feel now. (Why? What? From where? I’m not sure I know.)
6. My TV-watching habits has dwindled to very near zero, as a consequence of my three years in the UK. We did not own a TV license for the whole three years (licenses cost money *_* ), and once you got used to not-spending-hours-just-channel-surfing, it’s pretty easy to stay away from the box. I still watch movies, and also recently rediscovered such a thing called the radio. (There’s always a radio on at the office. Oh and I find that Capital FM 88.9 has a pleasant, old-but-not-too-old range of music. Who doesn’t miss Michelle Branch, Clay Aiken, The Calling?)
7. I happen to keep a list of architectural pet peeves of mine. Currently it includes inadequate suraus (typically in shopping malls), messy and random billboards and banners (includes stencilled/spray-painted ads on bus stops and street curbs), messy and random rumah kedai signage (seriously, they are all different sizes and types and styles and — I don’t think I have OCD but — they would just look so much better in a uniform design) (actually I’d say that shoplots themselves are a pet peeve too. Shoplots here are far from having the charm of a British high street, for example) (and I know that is a baseless comparison) (lalalalalala), and actually I also very much dislike the look of high-rise condominiums and apartments. I find them so obtrusive. 🙁 Maybe it’s because I much prefer looking at the sky / hills behind them.
8. Oh, related to point #6, the lyrics in today’s current “hit” songs are becoming increasingly, ridiculously revolting. I wonder if music is “religion” to some people in this world. If yes, then it’s no wonder the world is where it’s at. And this next bit refers to songs of all times too: it would make a whole lot more sense if what these people were singing about is God instead of… whatever they are singing about. For instance phrases like; without You, if I lose You, You the One, etcetera. How idealistic of me, but really, it seems like the age of “innocent” songs (in the mainstream media) are far gone. If there ever was an innocent age, that is.

… Byes!