Why not use all the Mat Rempits we have instead, right?

I was sitting on a bench, reading. There was a book in my hands, 'The Girl Who Could Fly', and many, many thoughts on my continuously occupied mind. It was quite windy, tiny yellow flowers from the nearby tree were running along the breeze straight onto my head and the open book, so I was suddenly reminded of Piper McCloud. Now that's one girl who could just steal your heart. On the bench next to mine were two boys. Two boys I know. Now I'll keep the names secret. I have my reasons.

And so one of them said, 'I think this stupid thing called animal testing is animal cruelty.' Way to go, kid. Nice way to start a conversation. There should be more anger there, though. More.

The other was mild. More rational in his choice of vocab. So he said in response, 'I'm against it. I think it's very unfair to treat animals as such.' Hm. It's not like there was anyone watching. I thought he has cats at home? What's with the lame reply?

'Yeah, they should be doing all the horrid testing on themselves. They should be sticking all those needles into their own veins, cut off their own arms and bloat their own stomachs with drugs and lock themselves in dog crates at bedtime.' Good one. Rather childish, though. 'What's with treating animals like you f*cking own them? Just because they can't say 'No' to your bullshit doesn't mean they are agreeing to your f*cking needles.' Aha. Even better. Rather vulgar, though.

'Uh, how could they stick 'em into their own veins?' Man. Some people are just not fun. 'They're the researchers. Some things just need sacrifice, and sometimes they can't sacrifice themselves, even if they would.' God. It was elaborated.

'You got a point. Why not use all the Mat Rempits we have instead, right? Malaysia has an endless supply of those. Them d*ckheads are gonna be roadkills anyway. Why waste them, right? Rather than being killed on the road, shouldn't they be offering their bodies to the scientists? It's not like they care much about losing their lives anyway, right? Then we can stop animal testing or whatever shitty cruelty there is, right? After they're done with the needles and stuff, they'll just kill them off. Better than dying in a traffic collision. Their body parts would still be intact, unlike them dead rempit f*cktards whose heads were crushed under a truck or snapped off from the abdomens, right? At least they'd die contributing something to mankind, right? Less problems for the country, don't you think? And less humiliation for the race, no?'

Silence.

The words were stolen right from my mouth.

But not the vulgar ones, no. No, seriously.

More silence.

Well, I guess I wasn't the only one with such selfish way of –

And then it came. The retort that could have murdered me right there if it was a bullet. It went straight through my heart.

'Alright. You've been talking to Teacher Nani, haven't you?'

'What?'

Yeah. WHAT. WAS. THAT?

'Did you hear yourself just now?' Man. Bullet number two through the heart. *cough-cough*

Sheesh. So I come up with such selfish ways to solve things sometimes. OK, that's a lie. All the times. Happy? But there were supposed to be harmless (because no one could have missed it; I wasn't serious!). Argh.

Or maybe, I really should tone down my selfish way of saying things. *sigh*

"Watch The Arrivals for better understanding." Yeah, right.

After much persuasion from some friends and non-friends, I decided that I should try to watch some episodes of the steaming hot documentary called The Arrivals. Some of my friends are downright obsessed about the whole series, and some non-friends have been telling me how blinded I am as a Muslim based of the proof (yeah, right) they found in the episodes.

I think I went through three or four episodes and realized that rather than getting all excited like most people out there, I felt disgusted. To myself I asked aloud, 'This (with a frown) was ALL the freaking fuss about?' There weren't proofs or facts, just baseless accusations and coincidences. Speculations and unproved claims. And I don't think I'd want to proceed with all 40+ episodes with the contents being just that.

I sometimes enjoy reading speculations and controversies, but one so bland as The Arrivals just don't work for me. Everywhere in the three or four episodes that I have watched, fingers are pointed to some specific groups of people for no solid reasons but coincidences. One of the major questions was, 'Are all of these signs coincidences?' I was thinking, 'Why can't they be coincidences?'

I mean come on, where's the proof that the Disney's animated movies are made to draw us Muslims away from our paths? What's the proof that the tower you claimed to be drawn in the shape of a penis in The Little Mermaid's poster was put there to slowly nurture the brains of the young ones so that they'd embrace sex easily as they grow up? How many of you have already seen the penis before The Arrivals came out? Is Mickey Mouse really designed from the shape of a dick (I had to really focus on the picture when my guy friend was showing how dicky Mickey looks – and it wasn't even dick-like enough)? You really have to picture penises a lot in your brains to be able to see almost everything as sex-related objects. What does that say about them finders of the signs? And I can't hear Aladdin telling girls to undress no matter how many times I tried to listen. Seriously.

Really, they're claiming this and that, and pointing fingers here and there – but I don't see many people from the so-called team lead by the Hidden Hand coming into the defense of their community. I don't think they'd give a shit. Why waste time word-jousting on Youtube when they can spend the hours wiping out Palestinians? Modern Muslims believe whatever they want – Youtube is the new kiblah, it seems. Say, if Freemason is a secret organization, how could you have found out all those things you claimed to be facts about them? How would you even know it exists (if everyone knows about it already, it's not a secret anymore, is it)? What if Freemason isn't a secret organization, but an organization of secrets? How many of you have actually thought about things before claiming stuff?

One of the major claims was, 'The End of the World is speeding towards us faster than we think it is'. My obsessive friends and non-friends have been posting Youtube links of the episodes that 'prove' the claims, flooding my news feed like I don't know what – so I've blocked all of them crazy claimers. If you have so much time pointing fingers and believing some pathetically made slide shows of an unclear purpose, why don't you spend more time finding out what the kitab says about the signs? I'd say it's a bloody waste of time going through all the episodes – I'd rather spend my hours with the usrah team at school, learning from the truly learned – not some Youtube videos.

And I'd like to know if any one of you have ever thought of this; sticking your noses into Allah's business is not a noble thing to do – and The End of the World IS His business, right? So instead of cluelessly (don’t freaking tell me you DO have a clue when the world would end!) digging for the date of the Apocalypse, which equals to whatever time-wasting activity you could think of, shouldn't we use the time to improve our faith and ibadah? What's this behavior of suka menyibuk hendak tahu rahsia Allah? Buruk sungguh perangai.

I bet many of you haven't even tried to look at The Arrivals from this angle; what if the whole series was made by the Hidden Hand's team itself to cloud our views from the real signs as stated in the kitab? How many of us have found anything in the series that is in line with what we're taught? (Thanks to Kak Darling for the trigger.) How many of us really know the real religions of the producers? Some of my friends and non-friends ada yang sudah lupa tanda-tanda kiamat kecil dan besar sebab mabuk tengok The Arrivals. Meroyan tengok tanda-tanda yang manusia produce, habis lupa apa yang ustaz dan ustazah ajar di sekolah.

So I don't watch The Arrivals except for the three or four episodes that I've mentioned. I don't even remember which episodes they were. I don't think it's so much of a big deal that I have to tolerate the insane floods of Youtube links on my FB news feed.

I have better things to do.

"Because I Can Still Hear Them Coming"

was a huge success. It was a three months size of production done magnificently in 3 days, which to almost everyone, was a downright farcical effort in every single sense of the word. The whole team wouldn't have been able to pull it off if even one of us was sane. We were out of our minds, out of our souls, believing it to Heaven that we would make it. And yeah, that's what Houston and Carey did sing in their song, 'You will when you believe'. We did make it. We showed it to the whole college; that it can be done if you just put your heart to it. The right side of the heart, if I may add.

Truth be told, this is by far the biggest stage production I have ever done, fifteen performers on the stage at the same time, each with a different choreography; what with the crazy cool Firebending steps for the highly-spirited Firebenders (OMG I still can't believe I actually taught my kids to Firebend, with Zarif!!), the smooth waltz of the sneaky Sootbenders, the silent but expressive acting of the orphaned tiger cubs which made one of the teachers (as far as I know) cry, and the impressively ancient look of the Forest we managed to achieve in such a short time under such pressing atmosphere with such little cosmetics (BUNCHO poster colors as face paints - pathetic, I know), yeah, it really was insane. We were insane. That's why we made it.

The past three days were slightly lesser than hell for me, and for the kids. My co-director, Zarif almost lost it with the kids several times (if you expect 14-year-olds to act 17, you should just commit suicide), and there were times when it was such a funny sight to watch. Haha.

Narrator Hanym read from the heart, which was an over-the-top performance from someone who only had 3 days of practice. 'Thanks, Hanym, for reading from your heart,' was what I said when I gave her a hug. It was so emotional, jeez. Jatuh ego I, haha.

Azuan, Adil Isma and Luqman were awesome visual and score coordinators. The animal cruelty slide show brought everyone's jaw to the floor, and the credit video they did was royally praiseworthy, with Nakata Yasukata's Liar Game OST as the BGM. I mean seriously if that is not cool, I don't know what is. So yeah there was a tiny technical glitch at the end, but really who cares? The whole show topped almost everything school-level I had ever seen before! The best thing is; we got it on video, yay (thank you Kak Siti)!

And that's not the only good news I've had today. My Zone Champion Public Speaker, Alif, won the first place in the Minggu Bahasa MRSM Se-Malaysia; championed his category like the Alif he is. He's now the Johan Kebangsaan, which made me so proud I thought I would cry. But I didn't, of course. Habislah ego I nanti, God.

I was coaching the Firebenders with Zarif when he called (OMG, I really did Firebend didn't I?).

'Teacher Nani, it's Alif.'

'Yes?'

'Teacher, I got the first place!'

And the rest were incomprehensible screaming, squeaking, shouting, hooting and excited yelping of the theatre team who scrambled out of their characters right after I spilled the news. God. If excitement could kill. LOL. Storyteller Elmie won the second place, now the Naib Johan Kebangsaan. I'm so proud of both of them. A series of Alhamdulillah and sujud syukur just don't seem enough. But it was all I could do. Thank you, Allah SWT for making things go such wonderful ways. I could never thank You enough.

Alright. Enough talking. Pictures!

The beginning of today's show; the cub was reminiscing the days when his brother was still around.

The cub who was left alone after the raging wildfire, Asyraf (my Anak Homeroom - sumpah Teacher Nani bangga ah).

The cub who was claimed by the flames (sobs), Syazwan.

The Fangorn Brothers (back row from the left) - Fazir, Muhammad, Zhafir, Zulhafiz,

(front row from the left) - Zubaidi, Akmal and Azri.

The Firebenders (back row from the left) - Farrin, Mu'az, 

(front row from the left) - Ikram (my Presiden Homeroom) and Adzfar.

The Sootbenders - Wulan and Azzam.

Narrator Hanym and her favourite Firebender, Farrin.

* * *

Phew.

Now, how is everyone?

I painted

my sister.

This is my first face painting experience. Thrilling?

Not really.

Depan Kayangan Square, Kangar - 04072010

Sebenarnya Teacher Nani baru perasan. Beliau senang ter-excited dengan benda-benda yang meng-excited-kan budak-budak biasanya. Haha. Hati muda? You bet.