Where is the world when exams are the biggest problems?
Every one is forced to grow up; some face it faster, the others later. Eventually, there are times when everything is not a color by rainbow and answers to questions, but being forced to face complexity of life and learn how to accept things that don’t go to our way, and that everything is fragile. Is it time for me to stand in the corner, wear a spectacle, eat properly and nod my head when I read newspaper? Is it the time when I’m being afraid of climbing high because of my calculation of risk, when anybody playing around me is noisy and useless?
But, being a grown-up doesn’t mean not playful anymore.
In fact, imho, it’s one of the ways to survive.
Survive the craziness of life! YEAH! Yeah! YEAH! Crap.
Noisy and useless? There are some. Last week, we boarded a train and heard this ring tone. I think it’s an old Nokia ring tone that sounds like Kitaro’s style of music. At first, we paid no attention to it, but because it kept ringing, we located the owner. She sat still with eyes closed and callllm face just like those Butongs or Shaolins in meditation. I wondered why she could sleep hearing that and whether somebody needed to tell her about the ‘miskol’. Then the music stop, she opened her eyes, pressed few buttons and the ring tone echoed around the train again. I stared with disbelief, so did many people. She repeated it again, again, again. Every time she replayed the music, she went into meditation mode. Ten minutes and I started to ask Hubby to bail me out from jail if anything happened to her. I think the stares got hotter and hotter, and the train was getting packed, she finally plugged into earphone.
Hey, Lady Kunyuk. Why didn’t you bugger off earlier?! Soumpruet!
And those ‘You think you are funkeh kind of person’ who likes to choose ring tones in public, or plays game with maximum sound. Without bulletproof vest and rubber skin, you better not. It’s hot bloodedly annoying. And do check the earphone before you use it in public. Some earphones have same specification with speaker, they broadcast you songs out loud instead of isolating the sound.
So do screaming children. Hey, lock them up! Or teach them how to control themselves; being cute doesn’t help when they start to scream like mad. One time, I was having a ten out of ten toothache, feeling nauseous and had swollen face. Few kids were playing chase and run and scream in the train and bumped into me. One by one. If I had the power…whosh Super Sanya Tiga! Anak-anak monyet, gue bor gigi loe!
So many anak monyet, kunyuk nyebelin dan sompret2 jahanam.
Saw news this morning, about somebody who dug out a kitten’s eye. Damn it, this people. Once I saw a dog, his upper quarter of head, I swear, was chopped off. So he walked around with flat head covered with blood. Or the one who visit my aunt’s house, half of its snout was hanging out from its face. Sometimes it’s sickening about how human think that they have right to abuse animal and get away with it.
I bullied my pet too, not abusing but playing. One time I tied plastic bags on my dog’s feet, and they got confused as they couldn’t sense the floor and walked funnily. Or played hide and seek but went watching TV when it was my turn to search. But from my experiences, it’s not easy to bully a dog. They are always friendly and forgiving and their understanding look makes it hard to do. While for cat, they are funnily tricky. When I woke my cat and pinched her cheeks every time she slept, she was pissed off, then she hid behind a wall and jumped to surprise me when I passed by. The funny thing, she could pick up signs to play. If I acted suspicious, pretended to be a spy, she would chase after me. For dogs, no matter what, they would come, spin the tails restlessly and put their front leg on the knees with puppy eyes.
They are smart and loving, nobody should harm them for fun.
In Jakarta few weeks ago, I went to wet market with Mom and Sis-in-law. I always like to go wet market, as long as I’m the ‘carrier’ not the ‘bargainer’. It’s just fun to see this simple activity, people get busy, fresh veggie and good price, and at the end of the hunting, we would grab some jajanan pasar.
The market I went was nice, clean and neat, unlike most of Indonesian’s wet market. And inside, everything is type coordinated, row of eggs seller, meat, veggie, and in between the corner, there are fashion shop, jewelry (!), toys, quite weird.
While strolling around happily, I walked by a fish row. Then I saw it. People were selling catfish/lele, they put the catfish in one-meter square ceramic, with no water. So every one of the catfish was flapping and swiveling around themselves. When a customer came to buy, the chosen fish was put in a black plastic bag, and the seller would hit them with a stick. Bang! Bang! Bang! Followed by a sickening thud.
Doh.
Not that I hadn’t seen that before.
When I first introduced to roadside pecel lele, I ordered and the cook grabbed one from the bucket and banged the catfish’s head into the edge of the bucket. I stood there speechless, lucky that time, I ordered for someone else.
In supermarket, those with live fish display, when my Bro chose a Gurame, the seller fished it out and banged it into the wall.
Bang, still flapping.
BANG! Not dead.
BANG BANG BANG! A little bit of movement.
It was put on the chopping board, THUD, hit with the side of the big knife.
All the way home, I disturbed my Bro, “Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!” He was also quite shock, but he did enjoy the gurame, so did I.
I won’t go to the street or parade in the boat holding “Save The Whales” board, haven’t into that level, but I do wish that people treat animal better. It’s true that we need to kill them in order to eat them, and they are delicious, only some type of killing made me wince.
Roadside catfish, ‘wall-ed’ gurame, uhm, I can’t think of many other ways. But to put the catfish together in packed area, without water is cruelty. Fish can survive very long without water, in agony. It’s like put human, packed, in the room and fill the room with water, with enough head room to breathe but not shallow enough to stand, some environment that’s not suitable with our internal organs. The difference, it’s how long the time and how much suffering you need to be dead.
They are not human, but they do have senses. They scared, fear, feel and build up adrenalin too. There are many articles about that.
Makes me remember what my crazy nun teacher taught me,
If you tied a dragonfly and made it flies like a kite, it’s a sin.
If you deep fried the dragonfly, and eat it for dinner, it’s fine.
Maybe it’s the easy way to differentiate, but sure, it doesn’t work for everything.
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Sharkfin makes you impotent. Spread the words.
- From a public forum.
Monica Seles: I'd hate to be next door to her on her wedding night.
- Peter Ustinov.
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.
- Robert Frost
My mom was a ventriloquist and she always was throwing her voice. For ten years I thought the dog was telling me to kill my father.
- Wendy Leibman
So one day as a kid I was at the local Zoo. I was bored and kept pestering my Dad to go and play. Eventually he agreed, took me over to the lion enclosure, threw me in and said: "There ya go, play dead..."
- Robert Paul
A positive attitude will not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
- Herm Albright.
I never eat sushi. I have trouble eating things that are merely unconscious.
- George Carlin
I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick, not wounded, dead.
- Woody Allen
Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.
- Steven Wright
