so, other than spending unneccesarily on quirky tees online, she also spends unnecessarily on… other stuff.

very unnecessary. but very cute. and they add to the radiohead and the cure ones that we have already. this is indeed a frightening trend, our adult cd collection slowly being overtaken by kiddy ones. so much so that i immediately went out and got myself the latest tori amos cd to restore the balance in universe… but er, i digress.

i haven’t gotten to the coldplay one, but i think the best of the lot is definitely smashing pumpkins. the instruments they use fit the cover versions so perfectly, you can imagine them being part of the ‘mellon collie and the infinite sadness’ album.

what instruments, prithee? why, the glockenspiel, the vibraphone and the mellotron, of course. how exotic! well actually, some sound like the gamelan. alah, semua adik beradik lah. (incidentally, tori amos also uses the mellotron in her new album! ok, i’m such a cheat, i wiki-ed that.)

another thing i like about this series of cds is the packaging. yes, i’m a sucker for good copywriting. you can sell to me anything short of a ball of twine, just make sure it has good copywriting.

example on the smashing pumpkins rockabye cd:

“Twilight fades and we’re ready for a little cherub rock. Smashing Pumpkins will always be known for shimmering pop and crunchy rock. Their lyrics reflect a mind awash in its own dreams. Tonight, tonight it’s time for a dream, Siamese or otherwise. This album is going to be the soundtrack that lulls your little space boy or girl into the arms of sleep.”

hehe. ok, if you’re not a SP fan, you won’t geddit.

and as much of a follower of all things U2 that i am, the songs here don’t really work with the glockespiel-vibraphone-mellotron combo – some were almost unrecognisable…

i wish this was a, ahem, paid entry, but unfortunately it isn’t. nevertheless, if you, like me, have forsaken the GSS yet wish to spend unnecessarily, you can go to babyrockrecords. there’s nirvana, tool, nine inch nails… and once again, no abba, ok. tsk.

that’s it for a veeerrrryyyyyyyyy slllooooowwww thursday.

rock on, baby! \m/

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they’re the new breed. haven’t you heard?

from the time they’re conceived, to the months in the womb, to every milestone and newly-chartered territories, their lives are being scrupulously detailed by us, their parents.

wait, what were we again – gen X-ers? slacks & cynics, yeah. we’ve grown soft. X has turned XOXO – hugs and kisses.

will they one day plow through our blog archives and find themselves aghast at the amount of public scrutiny we’d subjected them to in their childhood heydays?

perhaps. especially when they find almost-nude pictures of themselves (and their freaking potty, for heaven’s sake!) online for the world to see.

well… not that i care, really. (coz you just sho keeyutt.)

lol!

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the Quiz says that he is almost ready, but not quite yet. however, being the ever-kiasu first-time mother that yours truly is, i’ve been psyching myself up for the moment, and thinking up of ways to tackle the issue when it comes.

it’s SCARY, you know, going through this for the first time, teaching a life skill. we take it for granted as adults, but to a child, it must be tough, having to learn it. i mean, there are SO many steps to remember – take off pants, wipe yourself, flush, put on pants, wash hands, wipe hands… and not to mention, having to actually HOLD THEIR BLADDER before they reach the toilet! gosh.

(as a side note, even the washing of hands bit is a problem to bigger kids. i’ve seen them kindergarten-aged ones do a pee-and-run, conveniently skipping the sink, thinking no one is watching, some even wiping their hands against the wall. arrgghh! HFMD, anyone?)

anyway, at the library the other day, more on a whim than anything, i’d picked up this cute illustrated book of a boy going on the toilet on his own, with his dog as companion, and his parents AND grandparents cheering him on and patting each other on the backs after he’d successfully done his business. the little one was eager to imitate, patting his diapered groin and making a whole lot of animated gibberish when we read it together. also, he’d been observing me (yes, me!) on the toilet doing MY business, and seemed rather impressed by my special “potty” in the bathroom.

ok, i thought, what the heck, let’s go Kiddy Palace and get a spiffy one for him.

so $5.90 later, he had a test drive…

*poke poke*

“seems comfy…”

“here we go…”

*oof!*

“hmm, fits my butt!”

the first few times or so, he played with it while bathing, happily scooping water in and out of it. i must say, it looked like fun. (then again, bathing with him is invariably fun, coz i have someone to scrub and splash MY back, for once.)

but today, he carried in his potty again, and this time, he ordered me to sit on mine while he did so on his at the same time. i did my exaggerated ‘teran’-ing ala hiro nakamura trying to teleport himself into the future, to emphasise what i’m doing, and he grunted along, facial expression and all – “ERRKKK!”

i didn’t think anything came out of him, but to my utter surprise, he stood up and i looked in…

(now, what kind of mother would take a picture of pee in a potty? why, only the blogger kind, of course, LOL!)

OI! NOT GROSS OK! :D

and no no, that’s not my pee (or izad’s). really. sumpah.

i couldn’t help laughing and gushing at him simultaneously, coz it was just so… funny, and amazing at the same time. he was mighty pleased, but probably more because of my rapturous approval. i’m not sure if he really understood what he’d done, but i guess he got the concept of how potty makes mummy happy.

it just takes a bit of hiro nakamura-style ‘teran’-ing!

of course, i’m not gonna make him go all the time, not for now. i just thought i’d get him used to the idea of being able to control his bodily functions. admittedly, he still needs a bit of growing up to do.

plus, i need a bit of mental preparation myself. messy floors, dirty carpets, wet bedsheets, waking up in the middle of the night, etc… did i mention this whole exercise seems mind-boggling?

for now, i’ll just chalk this up as one of my many ‘experiments’ on my guinea-firstborn. hurhur.

ps: happy eighteenth month, babe! mummy’s gotta open a fresh new folder to dump your pictures in now. “aniq 18-24mths”. oh my.

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during one of my many evening runs, i often pass the overhead bridge which leads to pasir ris park. this bridge overlooks the TPE and SLE expressways. the view on top of the bridge opens a great photo opportunity for me. so during one of my non running days, i decided to take a couple of pictures on the bridge, and boy, i wasn’t disappointed!!

for the rest of the pictures, check out my flicker, here!!

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yes, its finally here!! the olympus e-510 dslr camera had arrived in singapore!! sweeet!!

i’ve been waiting for the successor to my e-500 ever since it was announced at pma 2007 back in march. olympus singapore has been doing an advertisement blitz on the new camera in the straits times for the past 3 days, which makes me drool even more…. :)

so what’s good about the new e-510 as compared to the e-500??

for one, they upped the megapixels from 8.0 to 10.0, so you can print out really big pictures of yourself or someone reading the newspaper ;)

there’s also a built-in image stabilizer for times when you need to take pictures with long exposure time without the tripod which helps to keep the image from being blurry.

but what sold me to the camera was the live preview function which you can’t find in other dslr camera. what it does is you can take pictures without looking into the viewfinder, you just need to look at the live preview LCD screen at the back of the camera,  something like your ordinary digital camera. it really helps when you might need to lie down to get a shot.

there are many other new cool features and updated improvements found in the camera. for more info, you can check out www.dpreview.com. 

but it seems for the time being, i just have to admire it from afar, as i just got the e500. end of the year, perhaps?

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“As his eighteenth month at Hana’s-warts School of Blogcraft and Blogwizardry approaches, Aniq Potter is in full-blown toddlerhood, complete with regular outbursts of rage (“Nak! NAAK!”), a nearly debilitating crush (more objects-falling-on-his-toes than the romantic kind), and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion (*self-explanatory*).

It’s been an infuriating and boring June holiday with his cousin, Dadam Dursley, their physical rows often leaving The Dark Mark on each other. Our hero has minimal contact from his non-Muggle friends from the magic playground world. Aniq is feeling especially edgy with the lack of new Sesame Street and Barney VCDs, always dreading when the evil Lord Zzzz will strike. There is even talk of a Dementor Mother with plans of training the young boy on a – gasp! – potty.

Returning to Hana’s-warts will be a ‘relief’ — or will it?”

Coming soon to a theatre near you.

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do you know how much a few pieces of mahjong paper cost?

i was shocked! :O

hurhur. ok lah, i should probably have laid out scraps of newspaper and scotchtaped together all that junk mail that we get or recycle those unused return envelopes from the banks.

mahjong paper indeed, sheesh. hana and her ‘bright’ ideas. :D

look ma, i’m ambidextrous!

nevermind. first child punya pasal, kan? tenyeh lah tu crayon banyak-banyak ye, anak.

oh, and do you know how much jumbo crayons cost, too? not cheap to churn out an artist hokay! :D

working title: ‘squiggles’

so it’s no picasso or van gogh. just an aniq original, up for bidding in 2057 (must give some time for the value to go up mah)…

i wanna try out paints next.

hmm. easel… paintbrush… apron… plastic covers… woahh! let’s stick to those jumbo crayons first, shall we?

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i got us tickets!

the cheapest i could get, but it’s ok lah, can still see si kudut ni. i think we’ve been to every one of his concerts together, haven’t we? wahlao, we were like dating-dating back then, man. sooo lomantik.

yeah yeah, his songs kinda suck now, so let’s hope he’ll give us some of the old stuff. heck i won’t even mind stuff from the tears album. maybe he should really go back to being an androgynous drug addict and stick with his ex-BFF bernard butler. ah well, things change, people move on, etc… eh? such is the volatile nature of the rock & roll scene. (alah, blogscene pon kekadang gitu jugak. ah ah, joyah!)

oh, we’ll leave the wild one (aka aniq) behind, ok! then we can talk like proper adults without him around! wahh, what a change!*

but have to wait till august leh. meanwhile… we don’t need to talk lah! we blog with each other enough, ok!*

heehee.

(*private joke laki-bini lah tu.)

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well, its official! liverpool will be launching their away and third jersey any time soon.

 personally i think the white/red jersey looks more like a training top. but the black jersey looks cool!

we’ll see how they look when they use them during their matches because from the above pictures, you can’t really tell. anyway, jamie looks rather stiff, somebody please tell him don’t quit his day job!! :)

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mak nabil, your mms made my day. like, seriously.

“mum, i wanna see Abang Aniq’s antics too!”

well, it WAS a dreary monday after all… :D

if you have a gorgeous baby, especially with chunky ketak-ketak hands, mms me to make my day leh.

(if you have a gorgeous boyfriend/colleague/plumber, especially with hunky muskel-muskel arms, lagi can.)

thank you!

* * * * *

in other news, i would like to state on record the official demise of our friend, Lumix.

dear Lumix, you have served us well. well, except for that one time when your lcd screen cracked and we had to pay like a hundred buckeroos to have you fixed. and then now, you had to go and get your lens cracked too. this time round, no amount of resuscitation could revive you.

but bygones. i shall not name names. there will be no blame games. *looks at aniq with dagger eyes*

so, Lumix, since your passing, we have adopted a replacement in your loving memory.

in freaking pink, no less. yes, very “tak grunge”, as one of my associates would say.

i thus bestow upon her the name Lumixette, in reflection of her overt girliness. i dare say you will only be caressed by no one other than me (as the man is SO not going to be caught dead carrying a pink anything, gadget or otherwise), so prepare yourself to live a life of chastity, pure and unsullied.

hello, you.

no cracking of any parts of yourself now, you hear??

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mum had her fun celebrating some aunties’ birthday the other night.

WITHOUT ME, can you believe the nerve?? hmph!

but looking at her pictures, maybe i was better off with daddy and yai. i didn’t see any balloons or balls at her party, so it must’ve been downright dull. pbfftt.

so anyways, she more than made up for it coz she thereafter not only brought me to one birthday party, but TWO!

and they were really my kinda party. not only were there balloons and balls, there were also boogie-ing and babes! woohoooo…

the last time i went to kakak iman’s birthday party, mum dressed me up in a bear romper coz The Theme was animals. thank goat this time she didn’t make me wear some other kiddy outfit.

BUT! for my brudders, damdil’s birthday, she was at it again, dressing me up to follow The Theme. she and unty nur attempted to stick something on my arms, but they didn’t succeed, and eventually settled on my leg. it looked like a creepy-crawley, which incidentally is also the name of some ancient rock band. according to mum, they had long hair and wore tight pants. scorpions, i believe…? thankfully, my hair isn’t long, and my bulging diapers prevented any possibilities of donning tight pants, phew.

hmm… somehow, i have a feeling mummy thinks the parties were also for her. she was boogie-ing and rock-ing along like there’s no tomorrow and all.

oi mum! these parties are for little people like me, ok? please stick to your boring ones with the aunties! :p

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