The ImPerfect Mom » Imperfect World

Answering the difficult questions

jennemede — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:26:44 +0000

Another one bites the dust. This kind of news always makes me wonder what to believe. Is it more ludicrous to believe that there is a god that allows these sorts of tragedies to take place just to make us need him more, or that this 17-year old boy will not face an afterlife of [...]

10 things I’ve learnt in life so far

jennemede — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:50:44 +0000

Inspired by Stefan Sagmeister’s TEDtalk, I have decided to make this post on things I’ve learnt in life so far: 1. Fair or not, beauty has its uses. The need and want for symmetry in our lives make us both human and terrible beings. 2. It is better to love someone more than they love [...]

I am dealing with it

jennemede — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:19:25 +0000

Pain has a sweet odor about it I think of that moment that pang and I taste saccharine like a fake sick sweet My heart, my chest really a bruise forming sick thumping, slowly beating pumping holy shit it hurts Someone pass me another round of rum

Summer hols are here!

jennemede — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:44:03 +0000

Where I come from, people hide in coffee shops and air-conditioned malls in the day, making snide remarks about crazy Gwailos lying in the nude on rooftops and front yards in the sweltering heat, searing their skins thin to a leathery texture. Two years in Seattle is enough to turn even the most UV-phobic Malaysian [...]

Vaccination as a Social Responsibility

jennemede — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:10:13 +0000

A few days ago, KUOW’s Ross Reynolds was discussing vaccinations. Basically, there have were some recent outbreaks of measles and naturally, the media milked it. Reynolds called for comments and naturally, pro-vaccination AND anti-vaccination people (moms mostly) responded. There was even a doctor present and everything. One woman, who was clearly of the “I’m not [...]

What’s in a name?

jennemede — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:54:04 +0000

My name is Jennifer Tai, and I am a Malaysian Chinese. Malaysia is a moderate Muslim country, which means its official religion is Islam. However, I am not a Muslim. I grew up in a small town named Ipoh, and I attended a Methodist Church for a number of years. There are no laws against [...]

My Sister’s Keeper, now in real life

jennemede — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:21:49 +0000

My knowledge of this is only as far as Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper , which poses a fair supposition of what happens when the harvester and harvestee grow up and the cancer is still not cured. ... I pray sometimes, to a Christian God, and live a mostly culturally Christian life, but am on the path towards believing that religion may be moving towards Atheism,

Forget China babies – here, take a man!

jennemede — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:14:12 +0000

Before coming here, I’d thought the whole China Baby thing was a few celebs adopting kids blown out of proportion (saw it on Sex and the City). Having lived here for two years, I can vouch that it’s not. Just here in Seattle, American families with Chinese or Asian babies are everywhere; at the playground, [...]

Mean girls

jennemede — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:03:30 +0000

Along with the rest of connected America, I was swept away by the shock of what happened to the Victoria Lindsay, the 16-year old cheerleader (although she claims to be 18 on her Myspace) who was beaten up by six other girls, an event which was videoed for the intention of web release. Like every [...]

In which I try to figure out veganism

jennemede — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:38:00 +0000

Ethical veganism. To the die-hard omnivore, these two words inspire serious smirkage or shakes of head in barely restrained resignation to yet another ‘new age’ idea whose profundity escapes mainly because there’s none. To an average meat-eater who doesn’t really care either way, it is a over-encroaching ideal that is not unlike, say, Christianity, for [...]

Won’t wear clean second-hand clothes? You may be racist. And how that has something to do with Senator Craig.

jennemede — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:39:37 +0000

I read with interest this latest study by some Canadians about how ‘interpersonal disgust’ (as opposed to ‘core disgust’) indicates that you may hold some right-wing authoritarian beliefs. While I don’t put much stock in statistics about psychology and human behaviour, I find these studies fascinating (and great conversation starters), more so since these may very [...]

Only in America

jennemede — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 01:31:53 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/debates

Nat speaks

jennemede — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:15:50 +0000

Nathaniel Tan, the blogger who was incarcerated for four days under the OSA, has written an entry regarding his ordeal. Read it and weep. I did. Excerpting: Entirely by a stroke of luck, a lawyer at the magistrate’s court was able to assist me in contacting my lawyer, R Sivarasa. Had said lawyer not been [...]

Free Nat now!

jennemede — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 06:52:16 +0000

Nat is Malaysia’s first blogger to be arrested under Malaysia’s OSA. Get your updates at Liz’s. This is censorship of the Internet, plain and simple, which is in direct contravention of what Tun Mahathir promised eight years ago in the MSC Bill of Guarantees. More importantly, where are his basic rights? Do what you know [...]

SAHM vs FTWM: Who the fish cares?

jennemede — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 06:20:31 +0000

Hasn’t this issue already been talked to death? Apparently not, since MSNBC’s Today Show is still milking it for all it’s worth. Are women their own harshest critics? Do dogs bark? Horses neigh? Pigs wade in their own shit? I’ve put my two cents in and I’ve even been on the other, unforgiving side of [...]

RIP, Shearwey

jennemede — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:28:54 +0000

The night we came back from Winthrop, I read about Shearwey. About how her mother allegedly left her next to her car, went to pay for parking, and that her daughter had disappeared in a mere ten minutes. My first response was deep sorrow mixed with anger. After so many, MANY reports of kids being [...]

Siti Aisya needs your help

jennemede — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:55:20 +0000

Saw on Marina’s blog a sad piece of news regarding three-year old Siti Aisya, who has Fraser Syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes hidden eyes or webbing of fingers etc. Originally from this post. An excerpt: Little Aisya went for surgery to create eyelids for her last December, using tissue from her lips. Unfortunately, [...]

Stay in your tempurung, katak!

jennemede — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:10:37 +0000

(translation of title: “Stay in your coconut shell, frog!” This is a popular Malay saying to refer to someone who is poorly exposed). For someone who’s all about travel, I would really like to know from which skanky tempurung did Tengku Adnan, Malaysia’s Tourism Minister, crawl out from. Marina Mahathir’s Rantings blog linked an [...]

Get C in BM, join the force!

jennemede — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 19:41:02 +0000

I was reading a report in TheStar.com.my today of how the govt is encouraging more non-Malays to join the police force today and it says here that “Those intending to join the police force as constables need not have a credit in the SPM Bahasa Melayu paper under a move to encourage more non-Malays to [...]