Able was I ere I saw Elba.


Dictionary.com, which has been faithfully sending me new vocabulary daily (my Word of the Day subscription, which comes together with complete definitions, pronunciation method and excellent examples), mailed me the word Palindrome the other day, and Napoleon’s Lament (the title sentence) was one of the examples.


I’ve forgotten what palindrome meant, so the word stuck deep enough for me to remember it, but what amazes me is how palindromes are conceived.


Surely, we can only boil enough possibilities to render it a coincidence, but it seems to me that palindromes at large is created, perhaps not so coincidentally, as we may (sometimes) see. Still, I guess it takes quite an effort to come up with a something like Napoleon’s lament that meant the same thing either way and actually mean something at all.


Or, it does take quite a mind. But *shrug*, this is not a thing to ponder immensely, does it?


Well, semester break is coming to an end. I can announce with all pride and glory that I’ve not managed anything worthy of an achievement throughout my 3 weeks of freedom from forced education (I said forced even though I choose to go through it, because I still have to go through it). Well, there’s of course the picture-taking job for Pauline last week, which I shall not deem as an achievement until I see the photos published or commented in any way (bad or likewise).

And working for Uncle Fook, not counting the other 2 jobs I have to decline hesitantly due to other responsibilities, and I’m still not paid… so it ain’t something to talk about, right?


Right, sem break is now at an end… resolutions are up and sticky-noted all over the desk, and it’s down to self-perseverance that I’ll see through every one of them.


Mhmm.


Self-perseverance.


Right…


So, here’s a picture for you to look at; something I took on Melawati Hill and what I hoped as a fairytale shot… only to ruin it.


And here’s an anime you should check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genshiken


And here’s the Word of the Day:


agglomeration \uh-glom-uh-RAY-shuhn\, noun:
1. The act or process of collecting in a mass; a heaping together.2. A jumbled cluster or mass of usually varied elements.

Midnight.







8 minutes past.

Ben Folds playing through the speaker.

Sleepy.

Bored.

Melancholic.

Lonely.

And Wishing..

I have…

Half-life 2 on the Laptop.













Midnight.

Sucks.

Sometimes.

I was having a funny dream when the lights came on in all of its blinding fury, followed by dad’s quick and ultimate words of “Wake up; time to get to work.”

Work?

And then I heard something about parangs and rakes and getting rid of the leaves once and for all, and I knew that there was something about Cutting the Mango Tree.

Perhaps cutting is the wrong word to use. Trimming would sound better, only in an ‘understatement’ manner; so elevate it as you can imagine, and you’ll probably get a picture like this:

The 10 year Glory, reduced to a bald humiliation (it happens to us sometimes)

No before-and-after picture though; I saw little need to photograph the mango tree on regular times. Now the sun and wind reaches our door unhindered, and I swear my handphone signal notched up a bar. But most importantly; no more leaves to rake. Yep. I don’t have to literally feed the mosquitoes while having to pile the fallen leaves to be discarded; I feed them while feeding the rabbits and bird and dogs (one option down).

It came at the price of sore limbs and fatigue, on my part at least. Of course, my family didn’t have to walk around a hill for a good part of 3 hours, then hitch off to PJ and back to Kajang on a very crowded train.

Melawati Hill is a beautiful place. Apparently some developers are thinking of clearing it for construction, and if the Save Melawati Hill T-Shirts that I saw every now and then (mostly on Pauline) didn’t quite say how important it is for construction to be stopped, the serenity and beauty of it sang a song of pleading; gee, it’s not right to build on lands like this (listen to me; the place I sleep now used to be acres of lush green forest). Secondly, though, building anything there is suicide. It’s a hillside. It’s a hill. Landslides and mudslides and catastrophe, people!

You don't get something like this is Kajang

(I live on a hill, too. A highland. Damn, I’m a hypocrite).

But it isn’t quite the hills and placidity that entirely won me; it was the winds and the freshness of things. Think fresh mornings where roaring engines drown under calls of cicadas and wispy mists; think waking up to sunlight peeking out of the hills and growth; think walking up the hill and watching rays piercing through the canopy painting fairytale beauty on reality.

No wonder rich buggers go there and retire.

I want to wake up to this daily... now i wake up to a bald mango tree

Some of the plants there... this one reminded me of Junji Ito's stuff.

It’s a lost cause, I heard, but at least there’s a cause. I guess there are things worth protecting, even if you’re probably never going to win it.

Here’s a good luck, and someone pass me a T-Shirt, perhaps?

(P.S: This are only the few pics i have on my Nikon. Pauline, will send you the others once i work out the drivers for the Canon 350D)

I simply stopped wondering.

Sometimes if it takes stopping to forget, and to relocate the mess you’ve got in your head, then I daresay we ought to learn to stop once in a while. Perpetually going on will get you somewhere; but you’ll arrive tired and beat and frustrated.

Stop, if it allows you to rest, if it allows you to take a breather and pant and bend over your knees with a chest-clearing sigh. Then stand up and take in some fresh air. Then get along on your way.

****

If I can tell myself that I did a good job in progressing things (things, as in fundamental necessity of living and a prosperous future) over the holidays, I wouldn’t actually be lying; I’ll just be a hypocritical nutmeg. But it’s the holidays, which meant days for me to frolic and prance in uncaring relaxation, only that if I tell it to someone older they’d give me a worthy scorn and let me get on with it, with a scorn to plague my memories.

But hey, I worked, sorta; and I wrote about it in a long and ultimately meaningless post. At least somehow I bagged a 50 bucks in the wallet, even if it’s not in the bag yet. And there’s the matter of the R.AGE article, which Pei Ling confirmed was published, and it’s an extra 160 bucks(?) in the bag as well. Not quite here yet, but yeah, I’m waiting.

Thanks to Pauline for the R.AGE op. And for the Melawati Hill pic taking trip today, which was -- literally -- an excellent breath of fresh air over a stagnant, recycled sem break.

Ah, here’s a fine introduction from Pauline this afternoon, when we were waiting for Brian (Bryan?) to fetch us to lunch.

http://www.boltcity.com/copper/

Cheers.