Another custom/tradition that doesn’t make sense to me in this time and age is how the male’s family is placed in priority over the female’s.

Maybe it’s more relevant during the olden days when society viewed the female as being ‘given’ to the male’s family after marriage and as such, no longer has ties to her family. Which is quite silly to me because how can someone no longer be your child just because she’s gotten married?

But anyway, I digress a bit. In this day and age, all children are important regardless of their gender (but I was surprised to find out that there are still women my age who grew up with their brothers being favored over them). So when it comes to marriage, I believe that both families have equal priority, especially when it comes to festive seasons. I have read a number of stories of women, upon getting married, had to place their families second coz their husband’s family always comes first and it strikes me as plain unfair.

Or else, there’s a culture mismatch somewhere because I just don’t seem to agree with lots of things that are done culturally. I need to see the sense in doing things, not just blindly follow whatever’s been done.

An analogy that I can think of to relate to this is like when you do a system replacement. So you have this bunch of users who have been using their legacy system for eons and because it is a purely customized system, they can pretty much do anything they want because most likely, the proper controls were not built in. So then the management decides that they want to replace this legacy system with a new system to cater for improvement in technology or enhance scalability for future business needs. But then these users want everything that they can do in their current system to be in the new system, without thinking of the rationale behind it except for the fact that they have the functionality now, so they must have the exact same functionality in the new system. They don’t think whether (1) what is the main purpose of the functionality (2) does the functionality meet the business need (3) what are the implications of having or not having the functionality, to name a few.

There’s a reason why God gave us thinking facility that is more advanced than the rest of the living beings. Live up to His expectations and use it wisely.

Mixed up.

o_O

Not a good thing.

Things that are satisfactory, at this point in time, are :

1. The card (final artwork – yet to see the real thing)
2. The photog – thanks to him for finding her

Actually, we haven’t really done much Or maybe we don’t have that much things to take care of. Hehe.

I am not a big fan of customs and traditions because the meaning of them are lost to me or I don’t agree with the meaning of the custom/tradition. Most of the time, based on my observation, people just follow these customs and traditions just because it’s been done and nobody questions them.

Here are a few Chinese wedding customs that I found off the net :

Pig in cantonese “ju” sounds the same as “kong sa ju”, the chinese legendary sign of virginity. The “kong sa ju”, a red dot placed on a girl’s forearm as a virgin, was said to disappear when she lost her chastity.

If the groom was satisfied that his wife was married as a virgin, a gift of roast pig complete with tail would accompany the bride’s home visit. If not, the roast pig’s tail or ears were broke off.

My two cents :
(1) No pig is going to die for my wedding.
(2) What in the world does a pig have to do with virginity?
(3) Find me a guy who is a virgin at the time of marriage before expecting the bride to be such.

For the Chinese, the wedding banquet is a way to show off the riches of the host. Dish after dish of succulent meats, seafoods, noodles and rice dishes emerge from the kitchen.

My two cents :
(1) Why do you need to show off?
(2) A small, cosy banquet with people (family and friends) who sincerely care about the newlyweds and wish them happiness is fine. But what is the point of feeding your distant cousin 3 times removed (I don’t even know what this means) who doesn’t even know your name and you don’t even know him/her, and who probably thinks it’s a chore to have to attend your wedding? I honestly do not believe in doing things just so “people won’t talk” or to “save/give face”.

Another one that I found out from a friend’s wedding is that based on the bridal couple’s Chinese zodiacs, people who are of “clashing” zodiacs should not attend the wedding. So, if your best friend of 20+ years since you were wee kids happens to be of this “clashing” zodiac, you should not invite him/her. I think this is not practical because your best friend would the one of the few people who truly wishes you happiness and would be honored to be included in your wedding party.

I remember long time ago, at my uncle’s wedding, I was told not to sit on the bridal bed before the wedding (this was when I was about 12). Up till today, I still can’t figure out why.

I am not against customs and traditions but in this day and age, we need to consider the practicality of some of these customs and traditions. People who do choose to go ahead with them, that’s great. But don’t judge or look badly on those who choose to forego them.

Sources include :

http://www.weddingsatwork.com/culture_customs_chinese.shtml

http://www.chinese-wedding-guide.com/roast-pig.html

My colleague told me that he spent RM12,800 on his fiancee’s 0.7-something carat diamond engagement ring.

Wow! And here I was making such a fuss over spending about RM3K on a similar piece of jewelry. What can I say? RM3K is a huge amount of $$!

It’s amazing how some people sanggup spend so much on a piece of rock. Phew!

~~~~~

I am quite obsessed with keeping in shape. Well, not obsessed to a point where I go on diets and nurse an eating disorder. I just like to keep my body toned and lean and with no additional flabs hanging out anywhere It’s pleasing to my eyes to see people who are in reasonable shape so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t keep myself in shape too.

And the best way to achieve this, in my opinion, is thru regular exercise. I don’t think I’m getting enough exercise as it is, due to time constraints Need to find a way to get more exercise time in my daily routine.

I’m thinking of looking for ballet classes for adults

Headlines now on Mkini :

MCM tells Malaysiakini: Take down videos
2009-09-04 13:42:55 Sep 4, 09 1:42PM
The commission which overseas online contents in the country wants Malaysiakini to remove two video related to the cow-head protest as they are deemed to be provocative and offensive.

So the MCMC thinks that the cow-head protest is offensive? And what did the moron of a Home Minister do? Support these barbarians. What happened to these morons? NOTHING.

What a laughingstock. I hope Mkini keeps the videos up for the entire world to see what idiots we have leading the country.

Time passes by so fast, it’s scary.

I’m reading this book, which talks about Hurricane Katrina. Which I could swear I read about its occurrence in the news at most 2 years back, but I discovered that it happened in 2005!

Where in the world has time gone?!

What kind of sick individual does something like this?

“…trained pit bulls for death matches in which spectators bet on the outcome…”

“…dogs that didn’t show enough fighting spirit, or that lost matches, were put to death by a variety of methods, including shooting, drowning, hanging and electrocution.”

Full report here.

A letter on this by Best Friends Animal Society co-founder, Francis Battista, in The Philadelphia Enquirer here.

Twenty-two dogs in various states of trauma were rescued.

“Vick personally drowned, electrocuted with jumper cables, and body-slammed dogs to death, when he could have paid a veterinarian to put them down with lethal injections. After all, he paid someone to meticulously remove the teeth – roots and all – of Georgia, one of the dogs now at Best Friends, so she could be bred without endangering her male partner.”

“Would someone who expressed that level of aggression and violence against another person, even without a death involved, ever be considered for immediate readmission to professional sports?”

“Animal cruelty is a proven gateway for violent criminals ranging from the Columbine kids to your run-of-the-mill wife-beater.”

While Michael Vick gets on with his life with a mere slap on the wrist, his victims are either dead or have yet to recover from the trauma he inflicted on them.

And this is in the States. Here in Malaysia, the perpetrator gets off scot-free or at most, slapped with a RM200 fine.

Makes my blood boil.

This moron is just full of bullcrap. Excerpt taken from Mkini.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said those involved in the ‘cow-head’ protest in Shah Alam last week cannot be blamed for the controversy.

Speaking after an hour-long closed-door meeting with residents’ representatives at his office in Putrajaya, he said the protesters “had no intention at all to bring the cow’s head and invoke racial sentiments or cause tension”.

“They are not going (to be let off) scot-free. But they just feel victimised because they feel there is another valid explanation and had no intention to cause racial (divisions),” he said.

Section 23 residents had mounted the protest against the proposed relocation of the Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu temple from Section 19 to their neighbourhood.

Hishammuddin said he was told that the “residents did not know the organisers and did not know a cow’s head would be brought during the demonstration”.

“When we sat and discussed this, they (said they) realised that they were in a situation they could not control.”

He further defended the protesters, saying that “they just wanted their voices to be heard”.

Oh, so when peaceful citizens participate in a peaceful rally, they just want their voices to be heard too. Then why the need for water cannons and tear gas and such?

They are not going to be let off scot-free? HAH! I’m just waiting to see what’s going to be done to them. Probably just give them a ‘warning’ not to do it again. Yeah, talk about double standards!

They felt VICTIMISED?! *speechless* How does the relocation of a temple to their area make them victimised?

Gawd, every time these so-called ‘leaders’ open their mouths, they spew out garbage. They should talk some more and show the people how so very ‘bright’ they are and how blatantly double standards are being practiced in our country.

Talk some more, dude!

I’ve noticed that a lot of guys have bad breath. Bad breath in women is rarer.

Especially now at work, where everyone is working late and stressed up about delivering what we’re supposed to deliver, I find that it is getting more and more prevalent.

I wish people would take care of their personal hygiene more. I, for one, am quite paranoid about it.

Hence, I’m perpetually carrying my pack of Fisherman’s Friend around.

I really don’t fancy talking to people with stinky breath It’s very distracting.