Naoko Kensaku

Sigh… Having had a day to calm down and to let my godmother talk to me has worked wonders for my thinking. I know what I want to do and I know how to get there. The thing is, I have a general road map of what I want to do. Now all I need to do is to figure out the detailed itinerary.

She also reminded me that at the end of my college education, my parents would have spent RM54k on my education (fees only-not including daily expenses, etc.). She said that I could not repay them even in ten years’ time. I of course, beg to differ. I guess that she has a point. She reminded me that well, I should not be watching television all the time, that the industry is very competitive, etc., things I already know.

I know that my parents are working their butts off to put me through college. I know that it entails a huge sacrifice on their part. I guess that I have been taking things for granted. But I also know this. Though getting a degree and a job is great, it does not mean that I abandon my life. We live in this world after all. We are not hermits.

Mom, Dad, please forgive my ranting in the previous posts. I appreciate what you’ve done, truly, I do, but I also want my own life. I want to live as an individual. College life is not just simply about studying, it’s an educational experience for the parents as well. Let me go. I know how to sail my boat.

I love you both.

As I have mentioned before, I’m a fanfic enthusiast. I love reading and writing fanfiction. I generally focus on the anime titles I’ve read as well as English books that deal with fantasy and/or science fiction, e.g. The Belgariad, Star Wars and Harry Potter, just to name a few.

Reading and writing in this genre gives the opportunity for the fans to tweak the story to their liking, and to add their own touches to the world. Some authors like this so much that they allow others to write and publish fanfiction stories based on their works.

The first ‘universe’ (for the lack of a better term) that comes to mind is the Star Wars universe. You can find books dealing with the time before Episode 1: The Phantom Menace ° right up to the latest series, The New Jedi Order, which deals with the descendants of the original Star Wars. Might I mention that upon reading these books, one can see that the strictest measures have been taken to ensure that everything proceeds in a orderly and linear fashion? In fact, at the beginning of the book a layout shows which novels have appeared and in what order they took place in the Star Wars universe.

However, there is another universe that is far more populated, and in my opinion, opened the door for fanfiction to gain recognition, is the Dragonlance series. In MPH Midvalley, the largest bookstore in the Klang Valley here in Malaysia, nearly three-quarters of a four-tiered rack is given over to the series. That may seem little, but if you compare it to the amount of titles in other places, it gives you an idea just how popular the series is, and how dedicated the universe is. Unfortunately, you would have to read the Dragonlance Chronicles ° first to understand. After that it’s what I call the Twins saga ° of the series.

If you’ve managed to reach this far and are still wondering what I’m talking about, fanfiction is generally written by people other than the authors themselves. The authors contribute only the ideas and the characters. The fanfic authors take the ideas and see if they can run away with it. The best ones succeed. I know cause I’ve seen it. ; p

Many people turn their noses down at this genre because they assume that writing fanfiction is easy. In fact, it is far harder than any of the other genres. The challenge is to take something that originally belongs to someone else and to make it uniquely your own, yet at the same time, recognisable.

A quick look at the number of Harry Potter fanfiction (not fan) sites will attest to this. I have yet to find any that do not deal with slash (if you don’t know what this means you’re too young to know) but keeps the meaning of the characters, or do not keep in character and makes the OOC (Out Of Character). This includes mine, of course. * Grin * Here’s the link

I brought this up because well, it would make you understand about the references to my Matrix post. I write fanfiction because I’m either not satisfied with the ending, I want more, or, I fell in love with the characters (Sigh… Kurama… Drool… Hakkai *whack!* *Ouch!* * sounds of someone snapping out of a trance *).

Ahem! * hack! Cough! *

The Matrix does not make me feel any of these. In fact, it is one of the very few things in my life that I’ve either seen, read, or understand, that I want to dissemble it and to talk about. It’s quite hard to find a movie that raises so many philosophical questions at one go.

Oh well… I’ve run out of ideas so far, but please, stop by my other blog and tell me what you think about it. See ya around!

° Star Wars Ep. 1= If you don’t know what this is, google it.
° Dragonlance Chronicles: Dragons of- Autumn Twilight, Spring Dawning, Winter… something! (Not in that order)
° Twins saga: Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, something of the twins.

I’ve realized that what we see, hear, feel and do affect us in many strange and different ways. Just this morning I was about to continue my nap when a chapter of the Legion of Mary in my district came to my grandma’s house. (Gosh, I hope that’s the right term.) I was touched by their simple dedication to their faith and the way they helped my grandmother. All they did was to offer some prayers and to give the Communion (the Eucharist) to my grandmother, but the way they did it was simple but at the same time, profound.

I think I can safely say that devotion has kept my grandmother alive. Not faith, but devotion. The problem with most people these days is not only their lack of faith, but their lack of devotion. I should know that, cos it describes me too. I believe in Christ. I believe that the Father sacrificed Him in order to redeem us, but I don’t show it very much. Like most people I go to Church and I say my nightly prayers, and that’s it. I don’t live my faith. I don’t observe all of its tenets.

One of the most basic tenets of Christianity is love. It is not only describing romantic love, but more importantly, I feel, filial love, the love shared by friends, and the love of those not romantic in shape. Love is very closely related to compassion. It is very hard to feel compassion for others if you don’t have love in your heart. Those of you who have read the Bible would know the meaning of the phrase “Let him who has not sinned cast the first stone.

Much has been said and written about the recent debacle about how DBKL (the City Hall for Kuala Lumpur) had handled the Bolehwood Awards that was staged by ICT (Instant Cafe Theatre) as a sort of political satire. Perhaps they were hoping that by doing so, they would be able to stay in power. Perhaps they also meant to show that they were good little Muslims. MIGHT I add that I think they were also trying to show those who are coming here in October that they were trying very hard to protect the morality of the people but those non-Muslim ‘infidels’ and their ‘Westernised’ Muslims were vereeeeee bad.

All I can say that this is not the first time it has happened. A few years ago they also banned the production of a rather interesting show called “The Vagina Monologues.” Apparently this ulamak (And I mean that in the nastiest way possible, whic is really bad cos lama can either mean old or long (time) in Malay) who was living under a coconut shell somewhere heard the dreaded ‘V’ word.

BLASPHEMY! CORRUPTION! he said.

We are exposing our children to the grossest kind of indencency, he continued. It’s a dirty word! he concluded.

Sigh! Need I go on?

Tell me what ya think about that.

Just how prevalent is the race issue in Malaysia? If one were to read the latest debacle by the Klang Municipal Council (MPK), it is a very prevalent issue. It is a sign of contempt to me though, as it shows that some politicians would do anything to avoid accountability to those who are paying them.

Then there are politicians who claim that wearing certain garbs demeans Islam and show that people are using these garbs to get off the hook easily. Again, I disagree, for there is no one rule that says a person cannot wear certain garments because they demean a religion. In fact, I think the demeaning of a religion is tied closely with the actions of the few who insist that their way and their way alone is the true religion.

Islam is not the only religion where there are many schools of thought. The most obvious is Christianity. They are similar, but they differ on certain points of theology. The effect may be likened to a large family with most of the family members having different ideologies and willing to die for them.

Compared with some of the others, Christianity, and more importantly, Catholicism, seems to be a very ‘loose’ and easy religion. Believe me, it is not. And by the way, if I offended you I did not mean to, as I am a Catholic. I do not have in-depth knowledge of the other Churches, so please forgive me. If you don’t like what I have to say, feel free to email me. I’ll post my email address at the bottom.

I know about being a Muslim though. One of the most obvious answers to that is because I’m living in a secular Muslim country. Unlike other Muslim countries, in which there is only the Syariah law (the Muslim law, for want of a better term), in Malaysia we are guided by the Constitution. Though many Malaysians feel that the Constitution favours Malays and bumis, I for one, am perfectly content with it.

(Note to self: read up again on the Constitution). ;-p

The alternative, as proposed by the Opposition party, is a scary and terrifying one. I have always believed that religion and governance should be kept as far as possible from each other (think of the Dark Middle Ages), unless you are speaking of governance of the religion itself.

The Opposition party I am referring to is Pas, also known as Parti Islam Se-Malaysia. Now, the only thing I have against Pas is their extremism. They came out with a declaration recently, cleverly couched in terms to make it non-threatening to non-Muslims like me. However, the crux of it is still terrifying.

Pas proposes to place the Hudud and Syariah law above the Constitution.

I’m sure that most Malaysians would immediately understand the implications of these. And to tell the truth, my arms are getting tired, so I’ll stop now. Oh, and here’s my email add:

Hot_gal84 at cuteandcuddly.com
Replace the at with the @. I’m paranoid about spam.