Malaysian Booty

No, not taut, sweaty, pumping Malaysian buttocks.  That's already been done.  These are the things my friends brought me back from Malaysia after visiting relatives for the Chinese New Year.

Soon brought me back two ornaments.  Or at least that's what they are now.  They went into the Christmas tree storage area so they make it onto our Christmas tree.  Baby Jesus would approve I think.


Here's the other one.  I really like the knotting on this one, and the dragon on the other one.  However, the threading hanging off the bottom of this one reminds me of the two colors of beads your earn in the Boy Scouts.


And he brought Eryn a craft project.  So I made the first one.  I apologize that part of his hat is on backwards in this photo.  Soon said they're the Fu Lu Shou.

Fu Lu Shou (simplified Chinese: 福禄寿; traditional Chinese: 福祿壽; pinyin: Fú Lù Shòu) is the concept of Good Fortune (Fu), Prosperity (Lu), and Longevity (Shou). This Taoist concept is thought to date back to the Ming Dynasty,[1] when the Fu Star, Lu Star and Shou Star were considered to be personified deities of these attributes respectively. The term is commonly used in Chinese culture to denote the three attributes of a good life.

I could have used that Good Fortune one last year prior to the accident.  Hopefully he'll do me some good this year.  But Soon said the one I built is definitely not longevity, so I better get on it.  I don't really want to be prosperous, lucky, and dead.
 

And Ming, Ming brings me food.  Which is very cool.  I haven't tried any of it yet.  I've sort of been saving it for sometime special.  Like a Durian and biscuit/cookie coffee break when Kyle comes over.  We can sit around, drink a big, steaming cup of sugared, creamer-laden, durian goodness and reminisce about that time we saw Jean Luc at that cafe' in Paris.  I thought about dropping in "durian" for vanilla in the Jean Luc commercial, but I'm too lazy for that, and they'd probably sue me for use of something that's not under creative commons. (Hey! Giles is a sexy Nescafe coffee guy!)

Soon Ming.  They won't sit there for a year.  I promise to try everything.

Malaysian Pop Stars

Boing Boing has a post about Xeni's brother who's collecting memorabila about Malaysian pop stars. Apparently it's called Pop Yeh Yeh, from the Beatles "She Loves You (Yeah Yeah)". Considering about half the Malaysian in Minnesota work at my company (according to Ming), they might enjoy this post with all it's YouTube links.

A quick way for a friend and I to earn 1500 ringgit

We could go to Terengganu in Malaysia and pretend we were an Islamic gay couple who want a divorce.

"Malaysia's eastern state of Terengganu is offering free honeymoons worth up to $440 each to rekindle the romance between married couples on the brink of divorce." (Reuters)

Cultural Appropriators Thy Name is Malaysia!

I was reading this article at associated content about how Malaysia has been trying to steal the Pendet from Indonesia. Allegedly, they've tried to claim a number of items:

"The Wikipedia entry on Malaysian 'cultures' even mentioned more of questionable art forms which Malaysia had claimed: the song Rasa Sayange, the Javanese shadow theatre Wayang Kulit, the traditional dance Reog (Ponorogo) from East Java & the Ninang Tari Garinging dance from West Sumatra."

To the long list of countries annoyed with Malaysia for cultural appropriation, I'd like to add my own, as evidenced by this clip of line dancing the Achy Breaky.

Four Acquisitions

I own some new things! Item one, Ming finally picked up our Randy's Pizza Challenge t-shirts that proclaim, "I can't believe I ALMOST ate the Whole Thing!" I can now show off that I'm a loser because a.) I took a huge pizza challenge and b.) because I couldn't complete it.


Ming brought me some coffee from Malaysia. Notice the word "mixture"? It scared me. I was worried it might be full of secondary civet food or something. But I looked up the words for the additives and they translated as margarine and sugar, and that seems safe enough. This morning I brewed up the first batch and it tasted pretty much like Folger's or Maxwell House, but a little bit better. Probably because of the margarine and sugar.


Also from Ming. Durian candy. I haven't been brave enough to try one yet. But here's a fun vignette.

Eryn: "Dad, do you have candy?"
Me: "Yes, honey. I do. Here!"
Eryn, pops it in mouth: "I don't know what this is. What is this? ... Oh. This is BAD."
Me: "At least it wasn't ranch dressing."


The bicycle chain snake my wife bought me at the Mall of America while She Says and hubby were in town for JACL and to visit us. Ssssss..... I think Eryn calls him "Wormy". Very cool use of old bicycle bits.

I Shoe Malaysia

This is primarily for Ming. You have to get home. Now. Not your home here in Minnesota, but the home where your parents live. You have to save them! They're in dire danger!


AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!