Yesterday DH and I attended the Seventh Tun Razak Lecture on “The West and Islam: Rethinking Orientalism and Occidentalism” by Professor Dr. Carl W. Ernst. DH was invited as he is OU alumni and got permission for me to tag along. It was very interesting, especially because some of what he said is stuff I have been thinking myself - except I obviously don’t say it as well as he did. But I have often wondered at the whole Islam versus the West thing. It may sound simple enough, but as a Muslim with Western roots I know that it isn’t. Because what exactly is “the West” and what exactly is Islam? Neither is a uniform and unvarying entity.

I går fik jeg hjernemad til frokost. Var til en forelæsning af Professor Dr. Carl W. Ernst med titlen “The West and Islam: Rethinking Orientalism and Occidentalism”. Den var meget interessant for mig fordi han talte om et emne som jeg selv har tænkt en del over, nemlig den evindelige opstillling af “islam mod vesten”. Det lyder jo enkelt nok - og er det tilsyneladende for mange, men som muslim med vesterlandske rødder er jeg meget bevidst om at det er det ikke. For ingen af de 2 størrelser er jo een stor homogen masse.

Tags: islam

Vatkuglehoved, dryppende vandhanetud og frøkvæksstemme. Der håbes på snarlig bedring.

Tags: øjeblikke

Happiness is a fully functional washing machine, as in all the programmmes on my new washing machine work! Can you say warehouse sale and big discount?

Lykken er en ny vaskemaskine hvor alle programmerne virker. Kan du sige fabriksudsalg og stor rabat? Til Fru Hansen kan jeg oplyse at det er en Bosch

Tags: happiness, lykke

Happiness is when DS2 is safe and unharmed after a couple of thugs tried to rob him on his way home from school.

Tags: happiness

We are not regular concertgoers, but yesterday DH and I attended the matinee performance at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas. The reason I wanted to go (and DH was kind enough to agree to accompany me) was the guest performer, which was Michala Petri. I am familar with her work and knew what we were in for, but I guess some were pleasantly surprised, as I overheard this during intermisssion: “Wow, I never knew a recorder could sound like that!” Ms Petri was awesome!
Other than Vivaldi the classical ear candy included Telemann and Mozart. Can you say “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”?

Tags: music

Was DH’s response to my question about he wanted to listen to after spending most of the evening down my musical memory lane with Gasolin and Mireille Mathieu.

“Hmm, hvad med noget jeg kan forstå?”, var DHs svar da jeg spurgte ham om hvad han gerne ville lytte til efter at det meste af aftenen var gået med genopfriske mine musikalske minder. Kan du sige Gasolin og Mireille Mathieu?

Tags: øjeblikke, moments

Happiness is when the washing machine is not broken after all!

Lykke er når vaskemaskinen alligevel ikke er gået i stykket!

Tags: happiness, lykke

Happiness is when DH returns from a 10-day trip to Europe bringing with him an assortment of cheeses, knitting magazines and most importantly: liquorice candy!

Lykke er når DH vender hjem med godter i bagagen fra en 10-dages arbejdstur til Europa: oste, blade om strikning og sidst, men i alt fald ikke mindst: lakrids! Kan du sige Piratoser?

Tags: happiness, lykke

Submitted DH’s tax return :dizzy: removed a dead snake from the car :shocked: and celebrated DD2’s 12th birthday :heart:

Tags: a day in life

My pc has been a bit slow lately, and on Monday it almost ground to a complete halt. I would start it up and barely manage to log on to Windows before it would freeze. Ironically the freezing turned out to be caused by an overheated cpu - more than a 100 °C.
Did some research and concluded that a fresh application of thermal paste between the cpu and heatsink might help as what was left of the old stuff was pretty dry. So off to the shop I went.

Unfortunately computer shops in Malaysia are for the most part manned by young males, who works on the assumption that if you’re female you may know how to use a computer and its peripherals, but you can’t possibly have any idea about what actually goes on inside the casing. This was proven to me once again.

Young guy: “Yes?”
Me: “I need some thermal compund, please”
Young Guy: ” Huh?”
Me: “You know, the stuff you put between a cpu and the heatsink”
Young Guy: “You don’t need that!”
Me: “My computer is overheating. I’ve cleaned the fan on the heatsink, but it is still overheating, and the old stuff is pretty much gone, so I think perhaps I do”.
Young Guy calls out to another Young Guy and asks what he thinks.
2nd Young Guy: ” You don’t need that. What chip is it?”
Me: “Pentium 4″
2nd Young Guy, shaking his head: “No. You don’t need it!”
Me: “I still want to buy some”
Young Guy, looking very doubtful: “Ok then”
Young Guy: “Why don’t you just bring your pc in for us to look at for free?”
Me: “I prefer to fix it myself”
Young Guy, looking even more doubtful: “Ok, you try this then, and if it doesn’t work just bring it in and we’ll find out what’s wrong with it” - said in a voice that says he’s sure I’ll be back for help.

Went home, applied the thermal paste and since then my pc has worked at its old speed and a resonable 57-58 °C.