I've heard quite a number of religious songs. Some of them traditional: Amazing Grace, Angels We Have Heard on High, Sifat 20, Selawat Maulid and so on. Some modern: One Way and some other new-age christian things. [The thing is Muslims are afraid of exploring new genres for their music. Who can blame us when we are persecuted by our own people for expressing an interpretation that is not a word-by-word replica of the mainstream ideas?]

But I've never EVER heard something as beautiful as this. Like always, I've put the lyrics here. Just listen to ol' George. Sing along. The song captures the message every religions' teaching, every religious song there ever was and will be. Immerse yourself in the moment. Lose yourself in the ecstasy. Lord knows you want to.





My Sweet Lord
George Harrison

My sweet lord
Hm, my lord
Hm, my lord

I really want to see you
Really want to be with you
Really want to see you lord
But it takes so long, my lord

My sweet lord
Hm, my lord
Hm, my lord

I really want to know you
Really want to go with you
Really want to show you lord
That it wont take long, my lord (hallelujah)

My sweet lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah)

I really want to see you
Really want to see you
Really want to see you, lord
Really want to see you, lord
But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)

My sweet lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hallelujah)

I really want to know you (hallelujah)
Really want to go with you (hallelujah)
Really want to show you lord (aaah)
That it wont take long, my lord (hallelujah)

Hmm (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah)
My, my, lord (hallelujah)

Hm, my lord (hare krishna)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
Oh hm, my sweet lord (krishna, krishna)
Oh-uuh-uh (hare hare)

Now, I really want to see you (hare rama)
Really want to be with you (hare rama)
Really want to see you lord (aaah)
But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)

Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)
Hm, hm (gurur brahma)
Hm, hm (gurur vishnu)
Hm, hm (gurur devo)
Hm, hm (maheshwara)
My sweet lord (gurur sakshaat)
My sweet lord (parabrahma)
My, my, my lord (tasmayi shree)
My, my, my, my lord (guruve namah)
My sweet lord (hare rama)

[fade:]

(hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)

Isn't that beautiful?

A person asked what's my religion yesterday and these words filled my head:

My religion is the religion of Love and Hate, Creation and Destruction, Male and Female, Anger and Compassion for what is God if He is not whole? Without Love there is no Hate, without Hate there is no Love. Who would know Compassion without knowing Cruelty? To attribute Love to God and deny His Hate is like saying God is incomplete. It is to declare that Hate is not from God, but is a separate entity on its own. It is to declare that God is not everything, not everywhere. It is to blaspheme in the highest degree.

The fable of Einstein's rhetoric to his atheist professor is an imperfect one. It claimed that as Darkness is the absence of Light, so is Suffering the Absence of God or His Grace. Therein lies the blasphemy. God is never absent, He is omnipresent. His Grace is all-encompassing and His Wrath is all-inflicting. But wasn't it said that When God decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book which is laid down with Him: My mercy prevails over my wrath?

I know, some of you might be offended by the Hallelujah and/or the Hare Krishna chants. Let me clarify them to the best of my knowledge.

Hallelujah - [Let us] Praise to Yah [Word used in Hebrew to signify God, since it is forbidden to use the name of God]
Hare - the energy of God
Rama - An aspect of God, word meaning He who is All-Attractive
Krishna - Another aspect of God - He who is the Source of All Pleasure
Guru Brahma - the teacher is Brahma - God as the Creator
Guru Vishnu - the teacher is Vishnu - God as the Preserver
Guru Dewa Maheshwara - the Teacher is Lord Maheshwara [Shiva] - God as the Destroyer
Guru Saksat Para Brahma - Verily, the Teacher is the Supreme Brahma
Tasmayi shree gurave namah - to that respected teacher I bow down

A rose by any other name indeed.

To those who are not in the know, Hinduism is a monotheistic religion. Meaning, they believe in the Oneness of God, Tauhid. Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma is one God, the Trimurti, but the different aspects of God: Destroyer, Preserver and Creator. The multitude of the Hindu Pantheon is actually aspects of aspects. Destroyer is a very wide concept = Fire, Death, Plague all destroy but they're different aspects of destruction.

I found this on DeviantArt by AikaresGirl

Read While umm... Partying? Wait let me check.

Oh, Read while Waiting Project!

Yeah, another flashmob stunt from RandomAlphabets. And it's for a good cause too! People read too little these days.

Read about the project here. Inspiration for the project:



True Event:
"You know... like the Three Musketeers."
Blank Stare.
"Alexandre Dumas, père?"
Blank Stare
"Disney Movie?"
Blank Stare
"Men in big hats and thin swords."
"Oh, dat wan izzit?"
Exasperated Stare

Some people do not even know Shakespeare. Granted, I was talking to some India Indians groupmates of mine but dear lord! I have not read 5 Shakespearan works but you gotta know ol' Shakey, man.

Another true event:
"Eh, you watched Count of Monte Cristo?"
"Eh, ya la ya la! Damn nice, ok. The Jim Caveziel is so hot!"
"Storyline's quite good, too."
"Ya ya ya."
"But I like the book better, though."
"Oh, they wrote a book based on the movie, is it?"
Exaggerated heart attack and dying act. I have to stress here that both the movie AND the book are good. It's just that the latter is more complex and has more appeal.

I was trying to convert a lot of people into reading made-to-movies novels, especially the ones butchered by Hollywood. I stopped when one person told me that they like the movie better than the book. I like Disney characters, I really do, but the movies cheapen the hard works of great writers.
For those who didn't read the real books that inspired Hollywood movies, here's a few spoilers:

The Little Mermaid - Ariel didn't get it on with the Prince. Didn't get to go back either. She KILLED herself. SHE KILLED HERSELF!
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Esmerelda died as a witch, Phoebus ditched Esmerelda at the burning to go get it on with a rich girl, who he shall swindle, Quasimodo died of heartbreak. They found his deformed corpse hugging that of Esmerelda.
The Three Musketeers - D'Artagnan befriends the Cardinal after the latter bribed him.
Pocahontas - Pocahontas, who was 10-12, danced naked and that was actually what attracted the short and bearded John Smith
Man in the Iron Mask - All of the four Musketeers died except for Aramis who became an ambassador of Spain. The King stayed as King and he was really a wise King. There was a whole chapter on the death of Porthos. Not the process of the death itself, no, but a eulogy-chapter.

Sorry to pop your childhood fantasy bubbles but the original literature should be read.

GET CULTURED! Yeap, I'm gonna propose to the RandomAlphabets guy to make a Get Cultured flashmob or something.

Who knew that www.chedet.com and chedet.com are two different sites? The comment system on the former was blocked by the host and now Dr M moved to the latter with his legion of supporters.

Conspiracy theories:
1] Blogspot fuck-up. ALL the blogging site fuck up once in a while. No host is perfect. I believe this is most probable.

2] Government hijacked/influenced the host to do that. We're talking about the most IT-phobic government in the whole world, here. Years of cronism and dilution made sure the top cats are all backminded, uneducated in the ways of the Net and classify all bloggers as liars. I feel bad for those cooking/recipe blogs.
The state of our very own Multimedia SuperCorridor should tell you that no one in the government can figure out how do anything with a computer except for watching pornographic CDs/DVDs and looking for porn sites, probably not even that. You're telling me that they employ hackers to do this? Do they even know what hacking, in this sense, means? What they know about hacking is that it's a good word to make barbaric threat and used in protests against, well, anything. See: Khairy.

3] Dr M's own ingenuity to show that the government is afraid of him. To gain more support, I suppose.

4] Either Elvis is really alive and is hacking at random or Paul is really dead and is hacking from the grave.

Honestly, I find the title "Malaysian Artistes for Unity" a bit excessive. Malaysian Artistes want us to unite. Us other professionals: doctors, lawyers, architects... we want to keep the segregation, divide and rule. That's my first impression on it anyways. That's why I chose the not so 'Artistes' banner.

Some parts of the lyrics also I find not so amusing - 'You're not heavy?' Ok...

But that's me nitpicking at the bad side. I mean, put only one race in a group, I'll call 'em racists, but put each race in one group, I'll call them trying to hard to be politically correct.

The good side is legion. I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, these artistes really influence the masses. Sheep that we are, we look up to one figure, most of the time not even authorative, and we follow them blindly: the way they dress, their political positions, their philosophies. They're the most powerful, with all due respect, tool that we can use to send our message. But then again, I don't know if this has been played publicly on TV or radio back in Malaysia or not. With them being practically 0wnzed by the government, I doubt it. So, this thing can't reach those who do not rule their lives with internet. Oh well.

Stop being racists and support the cause, you lousy bigots.

Russia wins Euro, I'm gonna freaking follow Russian National Team matches wtf. This coming from a person who abhors sport fanatics.

It's Destruction, Hob Gadling and Dream from Gaiman's Sandman comic.

Gadling is a human from the 14th century, who said and believed, "Death's a mug's game..." "...The only reason people die, is because everyone does it. You all just go along with it. It's rubbish, death. It's stupid. I don't want to have anything to do with it."

This little speech was heard by Dream and his sister, Death, who got interested and decided that she won't be taking him unless he wants her to. Dream found this amusing, too, so he took the liberty to tell ole Hob of his good news. They agreed to meet each other at the same place every hundred years.

So, once every hundred years, Hob Gadling met up with Dream. Hob had been a knighted shipyard owner, a slaver, a beggar. The two became very attached to each other: Hob because Dream is the only person he knew since the 14th century; Dream because Hob is the only person who ever connects with him on a personal level, the fact Hob confronted him with in the 19th century, the fact that Dream angrily denied then.

But in the 20th, Dream came to Hob at the same tavern - now, a cafe.

Their friendship is one of the best I've read in fiction. And this panel always touches me, whenever I see it.

To not let it get to me, nananana
But sometimes I get so overwhelmed, dudududu
Sometimes I wanna say what I wanna say, dadadada
Without having bad consequences on meself, shooby doo-wop, shooby doo-wop

Oh why, oh why?
Do I have to be so nice?
And so community-dependant, aaaaaaaaaaaaah...

Fuck it, let's die
Fuck it, let's die
Fuck it, let's die

'I Dig a Pygmy', by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids...
Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats!

We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home...