p r etty+d e c e n t+obsess i o n

Staring at a maple leaf
Leaning on the mother tree
I said to myself we’ve all lost touch
Your favorite fruit is chocolate covered cherries
And seedless watermelon
Nothing from the ground is good enough
Body Rise
Look what’s over me

Oh chariot
Your golden waves
Are walking down
Upon this face
Oh chariot
I’m singing out loud
To guide me
Give me your strength
Remember seeing moon’s rebirth
Rains made mirrors of the earth
The sun was just yellow energy
There is a living promised land
Even over fields of sand
Seasons fill my mind
And cover me
Bring it back
More than a memory
Oh chariot
Your golden waves
Are walking down
Upon this face
Oh chariot
I’m singing out loud
To guide me
Give me your strength
You’ll be my vacation away from this place
You know what I want
Holding that cup that’s pouring over the sides
Make me want to spread my arms and fly
Oh chariot
Your golden waves
Are walking down
Upon this face
Oh chariot
I’m singing out loud
To guide me
Give me your strength
On chariot

~ it’s a wonderful thing to have someone to be with us along the hard waves of life…be it a friend or a family or a special someone..wish i have become that someone who always be there for my loved ones whenever they need me.. ~

I don’t need to be anything other

Than a prison guard’s son I don’t need to be anything other

Than a specialist’s son I don’t have to be anyone other

Than the birth of two souls in one

Part of where I’m going, is knowing where I’m coming from

I don’t want to be

Anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately

All I have to do Is think of me and I have peace of mind

I’m tired of looking ’round rooms

Wondering what I’ve got to do

Or who I’m supposed to be I don’t want to be anything other than me

I’m surrounded by liars everywhere I turn

I’m surrounded by imposters everywhere I turn

I’m surrounded by identity crisis everywhere I turn

Am I the only who noticed?

I can’t be the only who’s learned

I don’t want to be

Anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately

All I have to do Is think of me and I have peace of mind

I’m tired of looking ’round rooms

Wondering what I’ve got to do

Or who I’m supposed to be

I don’t want to be anything other than me

Can I have everyone’s attention please?

If you’re not like this and that, you’re gonna have to leave

I came from the mountain

The crust of creation

My whole situation–made from clay to stone

And now I’m telling everybody

I don’t want to be

Anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately

All I have to do Is think of me and I have peace of mind

I’m tired of looking ’round rooms

Wondering what I’ve got to do

Or who I’m supposed to be

I don’t want to be anything other than me

I don’t want to be

as hard as it is to understand our own heart, its zillion times harder to understand others and relate to their own feeling..so wat can we say to  people who do things we cant possibly relate to? wat can we say bout people whose actions are impossible to be comprehended? last few weeks of my final term as BLA student were pretty tough..things i never thought could happened to me did happened..n at that time only Allah become my strength and light shining me through the darkened tunnel..with Allah and a blessing of family n a handful of understanding frenz and lecturers, i manage to get through it all. and as a reward Allah gave me lots of blessings in terms of academic and career opportunity.

Now being part of Kl’s hustling urban dwellers, i found out city living is pretty hard if u dont have solid basic to fall back into. I’ve seen more people who wear baju melayu more often than actually pray…think ive seen enough. So is this city life? i beg to differ. i think no matter where u are, as long as u stay true to ur inner self, u wont be lost. hope Allah will be with me all the time, help shone the light to my heart, resolute in my thinking, making me stronger to be here…

~ they have swollen eye/eye bag (not because of the staying up, but because of the ‘qada’ sleep 24 hours straight after final presentation)

~ they have some masking tape stuck to their clothing (which have been use n reuse again n again)

~ they have the most up to date digital camera <mostly ixus or cybershot> which they cant afford but buy anyway

~ their PC have at least 512 RAM <important wen u wanna open CAD, Adobe n CoREL at the same time> n 100GB disc (excluding external hard disc 4 back up)

~ mamak stalls n crew regards them as family, cause they come everyday to their stall exactly at 2 am, 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm n 10 pm.

~ 7eleven guys would definitely be amazed if they don’t show up at 4 am to buy coke n pepsi twist for 15 persons load.

~ auntie at the photostat store considers them her “adopted children” , giving discounts, lending them her newest Korean soap opera CD, n even opening the store on Sundays wen they’ve datelines on Monday. She practically cried wen a batch graduate.

~ their hands (n face n tudung n sluar) have traces marker/ ecolyne/ pastels/ pelaka

~ they’re very punctual in studio class but come 30 min late for other classes

~ they travel practically the whole S.E Asia if not the world (no money)

~ they call pokok bunga loceng Alamanda Cathartica, pokok teh pagar Duranta Gold n regard Samanea Saman the most wonderful tree in the world

~ wen u go out wit them, they be point to “that water spouts, these pavement, that façade” n have to content wit them wishing over n over again that they brought their camera to captured that “beautiful stone cladding”

~ wen u call them 2 pm, they’ll be sleeping, the most strategic time to call is 2 am

~ they don’t know anyone from other faculty except if they knew them b4 they enter this course <really bad social skill>

~ they don’t go out/date wit anybody from other faculty except if they knew them b4 they  enter this course <real bad luck with love>

~names have been change to protect privacy (^_^) hahaha my dear classmates miss u guyz soooooooooooooooooooo much!!!~

SLAMAT BERGRADUASI 30 JULAI 2005…TO ALL MY OTHER FRENZ JEMPUTLAA DTG UPM TIME TUE..MY SESSION IS IN THE MORNING!!! NAK BUNGA BANYAK2!! ESPECIALLY GERBERA N TULIPS!!! MUAHAHA!!

there’s a report in the paper where our beloved minister smashed an MC for spending too much on landscape. "Tourist dont come to see our trees" she said "they have better ones at home."

I wondered curiously on the truhfulness of this remark, on how much this statement relied on factual data. Cause as far as I’m aware, the many beautiful places to visit in our country are being complimented by the beautiful tropical plants we have here.

Open any tropical plants books, and u’ll see more than just hibiscus or allamanda. Matter of fact is those two are not even native, they have been brought here by invaders during colonial time. Hibiscus: East Indies and allamanda: brazil.

Ever hear of Etlingera (ginger torch)? beautiful pinkish flower rising like a torch amidst beautiful glossy spread of green leaves. Ever seen Grammotophyllum Specionum (Tiger Orchid)? Amazing flower from orchidaceae family, with unique tiger-patterned like petals.

growing up we have a lot of plants around my grandma’s house. I used to play with Angelonia, purplish little flower, wen we stick the petiol to the bloomed flower, we have something exactly like a duck!! then we would sent these "ducks" swimming by the small stream in front of our house.

We also played with selaginella, a small bushy plants with lots of soft hairy branches. the game is we broke one of the branches, and stick it back to the mother branch (the hairy surface allow reattachment). then everybody have to guess which branch was the broken one!!

we used to pulled out the ixora and clerodendrum flowers, sucking the sweet honey (and sometimes an ant or two!!) from them. there are some beautiful heliconias growing wildly by my aunt’s house, which we cut up to decorate our "pondok".

wen one of our cousins get married, we would pluck the lush glossy bettle (piper bettle) leaves for our moms to decorate as sirih junjung. on the wedding day, all of us have red finger tips due to the inai leaves (lawsonia inermis) which we smashed down to put on our fingers the nite before.

it’s sad wen our own people regards our beautiful exotic plants as rubbish; wen in major flower show like chelsea show (where u have to be rich and famous to get a ticket); they have an exclusive spot for Malaysia’s garden.

they even have books on how to create a tropical garden in your own temperate home.

native plants have always been a part of our lives. we just dont care to much of it. now, being trained in landscape architecture, i began to appreciate them as precious heritage from Allah to us as stewards of this earth. please, please appreciate what we have right at our door step, cause if we dont, no one else will.