| Food, Festivus and Falalalala... |
[Sunday, 26th December 2004 @ 09:56] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  listless | ] |
If I could just be in only one LJ community - out of the 60 something I am currently in - it'd have to be ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) picturing_food.
The photography is incredible, the food always looks tasty and it's a reflection of true personal journalism when you see what someone's about to have for dinner that day.
Festivus is possibly the most ridiculous attempt at an alternative holiday, even if, or perhaps especially since, it's the result of a Seinfeld show. I've never found Seinfeld particularly amusing - the characters were boring and predictable - the script was often lame. Perhaps it's just me - because apparently Seinfeld had hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide. The way it was written into Seinfeld was as if they'd run out of fodder - although it seems that way with most of the episodes, you'd have to be a discerning disbeliever like myself to spot it. Lots of people on my friends' lists have been wishing Happy Festivus - truth be told, I just grimace and move on. Heh, sorry. It's no reflection on the people who have attempted to cult-ivate festivus.
The word, festivus, itself is derived from the Latin festus / festivitatem. Basically, it just means feast / holiday - which is not entirely accurate of the season, although the elements of Festivus as set out in Seinfeld has little to do with this concept of feasting and enjoyment. Wikipedia has an entry on Festivus, if you're curious enough to understand what it's all about.
How many of the people out there who wish you a Happy Festivus Aired their Grievances on December 23rd? How many locked heads (for lack of horns) with each other, smushing braincells in an activity that could only have been the brainchild of a man in an exuberant machismatic moment? I see no photos of unadorned aluminium poles - plenty of christmas trees but no poles.
I think what grates on me about Festivus is that it has been popularised by the very medium of expression that has twisted and commercialised the spirit of so many other holidays. Festivus is regarded now as the anti-Xmas, and yet it is - by reason of its popularity - become anything but. I doubt that Dan O' Keefe, who coined the family tradition of celebrating Festivus ever intended it so. Considering that the man worked in Reader's Digest - chances are, if still alive, he'd be grousing about the way it was written in to the show. Or not.
I do hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. |
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| Earthquake! (sorta) |
[Sunday, 26th December 2004 @ 13:29] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  moved | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Neutral Milk Hotel - Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2 | ] |
I initially felt my bed moving - yes I'm in bed [online] at 9 am on Sunday, shoot me - and thought that I was triggering the movement by tapping my foot unconsciously. I tried tapping my foot again, and the bed kept up a steady vibrato. It lasted for about a minute, several waves of tremors, at least three that I consciously felt.
It didn't occur to me at the time that it was odd the wind chimes in my room were ringing despite the lack of breeze due to closed windows. I honestly thought that I was making my bed do the shakes by tapping my foot - madness. Ever seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks?
"The earthquake measured 8.1 8.5 (as reported on AP) on the Richter Scale. Its epicentre was located off the coast of western Sumatra at latitude 3.4 north and 9.5 east.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire'' around the Pacific Ocean basin."
~Earthquake hits Indonesia, tremors in Malaysia, Singapore, Bangkok
On BBC - Tidal waves and tremors hit Asia
So yeah, the earth moved for me today - in more ways than one.
EDIT: It's raining crazy heavy here - six hours after the tremors. Heavy overcast sky; Thor playing with fire again. I don't know if it's a result of the consequential tsunami, because tropical rainstorms are relatively common round these parts.
Reactions and more links on Malaysian blogs via the Petaling Street Project
More links to realtime news/blogs via Jeff Ooi's Screenshots
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