Letter to Erin 20150426

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello Melancholy Baby.  Is that how you feel right now?  No, you've cheered up a little by now.  Sigh.  Well, I don't want you to be unhappy.  Because since you are in a high position, it affects the rest of us as well.  I want you to know that I have chosen to marry YOU, and I'm not about to go back on my decision easily.  This is because I love you, and I need you.  I need you to be my Queen, and to carry yourself as so with due dignity.  I wish I could buy you something to cheer you up, even if it were just a trinket.  If you were here, I would.

Grass grows so fast here, it's like I'm always cutting grass.  Today, I cut the grass over at your house inshaAllah.  It's a big area, and the growth is always thick with many rocks and stumps, so I can't do it all in one go.  It takes me 3 passes, therefore 3 different days.  I bought a huge compound for your house in Sims 3!  I had to cheat to get the money, but it's just a game and there's no other way.  Besides, my purpose is to design your house, not to play the game for the game's sake.  Why am I feeling so guilty?  I wish it were this simple in real life.  It's going to take me a long time before I have anything worthwhile to show you, so please don't anticipate it!

Floofy is so fat.  I tried to put her on a diet, but it doesn't seem to affect her.  It's as if she never lost her pregnancy fat.  Right now she's in my bedroom: she's the only one allowed in my bedroom because she's the most well-behaved of the bunch.  Which means she is the least likely to destroy something, make a mess, or commit the 3 dreaded P's (pee, poop, or puke) in my bedroom.  But she's still very active: running, jumping and climbing around all over the compound.  Even though her momentum is great, that she can't come to a sudden stop without doing a little sliding around.  Which goes to prove that one can be athletic, but fat.  A linebacker can be fat, but I don't want to have sex with a linebacker.  And Floofy?  She's a fat cat.

Letter to Erin 20150425

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  Darling!  Today I got to try that home made chocolate bar I made yesterday.  It tastes OK, it had snap like a chocolate bar should, but I can't seem to get that cooking chocolate flavor out.  You know, that taste of grease... I have half a kilo of cooking chocolate left.  I think I know a way to get rid of that taste.  InshaAllah.  Maybe I'll recook that chocolate bar I made, but that would make me lose my starting point, you know what I mean?

Grass grows very quickly here and it had been raining a lot lately, so I always find myself cutting grass.  Today I cut the grass around my little house.  The weather was so comfortable, it felt like autumn in Salt Lake City.  Almost.  I didn't break a sweat, though.  Which is great.  I like it cool.

You be cool too, dearest.  Many many kisses from me, the one who loves you and needs you.

Letter to Erin 20150424

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  Sweetie!  And how are you feeling today?  There's nothing much going on.  Just another mundane day.  I took Bat Cat III to the vet this morning.  There seems to be something growing on his earlobes.  It's been so wet lately, I'm guessing he needs an antifungal shot.  At the vet, I saw an interesting poster: the vet now has a dress code!  Would you believe that?  All male visitors must wear a long sleeved shirt, long pants, and no open toe sandals.  Next thing you know, they'll have me wear an ascot and a smoking jacket with pointy yellow shoes!  Do I have to make Batty Watty wear a tie for him to get an anti worm shot?

I tried to make a chocolate bar this evening.  As you know, I can't find cocoa butter anywhere in this town.  So I had to use generic cooking chocolate.  Cooking chocolate tastes greasy, and when I heated it up on the double boiler, there seemed to be a lot of grease pooling.  I had plenty of powdered milk and powdered malt, so I mixed that in there to the best of my ability.  So it does taste better than cooking chocolate, now it's cooling in the cooler.  It's not particularly what I want, even though it tastes OK.  Where can I find cocoa butter in this town?

Erin, I pray you are taking good care of yourself, maintaining your prayers and staying healthy.  Please know that I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150423

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Erin, I saw your video of your Global Citizen Ambassador stage appearance.

I've been practicing house design on the Sims 3 game.  Needless to say that it's not a professional architecture program, but it's one that I can relate to since I'm so obtuse at drawing.  It will be a while before I have something appropriate to show you.  Second Life has superior graphics over Sims 3.  You can see the difference when you compare my Sim to my Second Life avatar.  Buildings are also superior in quality in Second Life over Sims 3, but that's way beyond both my capability and motivation.  When I play Second Life, I just wanna look pretty and dance.  Plus you have to buy most things, while in Sims 3 everything is already paid for, including the money.  You should play Second Life.  Intelligence goes a long way in that game, and perhaps we can meet there and chat in real time.  I'm always at MyAnimation.

Whoops!  I stand corrected!  Bat Cat I and Bob Cat are facing off.  The problem is that they are both my friends, so I can't take sides.  Damned macho shitheads.  It's not as if I'm going to let the females in my house loose so they can get pregnant, but how do you explain that to a cat?  I'm just going to have to break up their fights without hurting anyone.  What a drag.

Erin, please be a good girl and take good care of yourself.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150422

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi there, my beautiful Erin.  How are you feeling today, my beloved?  I'm sorry, but I couldn't do my voice training today- I had to take my Dad to the clinic.  Yeah.  But while I was waiting for him, I played the drum in the park.  In the evening, I cut the grass over at your house inshaAllah.  Someone put 3 banana hearts on a stump.  A banana heart is a banana flower.  At first I thought it was witchcraft and I was about to throw it into the firepit, but Floofy seemed to approve of it.  But what does a cat know.  Ya Allah, thank You for all the beautiful cats You have given me.  Please heal and protect them.

As you know, Bat Cat is a black and white cat with a black mask and white socks, and I have 2 Bat Cats.  Bat Cat I is totally independent: he doesn't need me at all, but he hangs out here anyway.  The other cats don't seem to have a problem with him, and he doesn't bother them.  He has bigger balls than Bob Cat, I think that's why.  In cat politics, the cat with the biggest balls wins.  Bat Cat III is the great observer.  Like the Watcher in the old X-men comics.  I saw a black cat and a white cat in my yard last morning.  They were prowling together, and fled together when I approached them.  What's the connection?  What does it mean?  It means, "Meow".

Do you remember what you were doing when you were newly born?  Well, I was active in the Salt Lake City music scene.  The scenesters in this video were the popular ones.  The SLC music scene back in 1989 was like high school to me: not only did I not fit in, I was LOATHED.  But I can't blame them.  I was as corrupt and insane as you would expect a troublemaker to be, my music wasn't that great and if I seem any better today, it's because Allah has mercy on me.  The goody two shoes conformists you see in this video were the popular ones, so it's no wonder me and Shadowplay are never mentioned.  It's tough being a rebel.  And even today, I'm more loathed than loved.  I guess high school never ends.

But today I have you in my life, Erin.  You don't know how much that means to me.  You simply just don't know.  So please don't be sad.  Please be patient and pray, because I love you and I need you.  I'm going to play Sims 3 now.  Getting there, Erin.  I need lots of money to build your house, and to give you a good married life.  Please pray.

Letter to Erin 20150421

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello, my beautiful and sensitive soulmate Erin.  Please don't be blue because I love you, and I assure you my love is true, and I want to marry you.  I wish we were already married and together.  So please be patient, and keep your will strong and brave.  And you are brave, my sweetheart.  Sure our work in the Public eye can be weird and tedious at times.  But that's how we met and who we are.  And it is kind of cool, don't you agree?  Alhamdulillah.

Dinner was a big hit, alhamdulillah.  I had one more chunk of sirloin left, marinading in my teriyaki sauce.  I sliced it up and mixed it back in the marinade with ginger and Thai peppers.  Then I fried it up until done.  Then I fried some chopped garlic in a sauce made of sweet bean paste, hot red pepper paste and sugar until simmering hot.  Then I added a whole block of fresh tofu.  You know how fresh tofu comes in blocks.  The trick is not to disintegrate the block, and smother it with the fried mix until hot.  Push it to one side of the pan and add the steak back in to mix with the sauce.  Remove the block of tofu first, put it in a bowl, and pour the rest of the stuff on top.  Looks and tastes great.  The tofu cuts and tastes like savory cream cheese.  Would you like some my dearest?  As soon as dinner was about to be served, all those flying ants came back.  There seems to be more than usual this year.

Erin I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150420

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  Sweetheart!  Mwah!  How are you?  There's nothing much going on here, just the same old.  It's raining right now.  It's a noisy storm too, with plenty of thunder and lightning.  The bolts aren't hitting very close though, but it's still a very vocal storm.

I bought a big block of cream cheese yesterday when I was at the big mall in Alor Setar.  There's nothing really special about the big mall, it's just a big mall, and if you've seen one mall, you've seen them all.  I can't really say there's a wider variety of products, just more.  I'm probably bummed out because I didn't find any blue cheese.  I saw some Camembert cheese which I should have bought since my Dad was buying, but I have never had Camembert cheese and I had my heart set on blue cheese.  So I got a big chunk of cream cheese.  So for dinner I rolled 2 dough balls, stuffed them with cream cheese, then deep fried them.  With my marinara sauce on the side.  Simplicity!  I wonder how this cream cheese works for lasagna: I saw some lasagna noodles the other day.  It probably won't spread easily, because I had to shape today's cheese with my fingers.  But it was cold, though.

After the rain stopped, I played on my little snare drum again.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best drummer in the world.  I just play what I feel.  And nowadays, I just feel like pounding out rhythms of the Qur'an.

I wish you were here with me, my beloved Erin.  I want you to take good loving care of yourself, OK?  I love you, and I need you.