Letter to Erin 20150526

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

Of course, you don't have to use Sims 3 to design your house.  It's what I am using, only because I can relate to it, and you don't have to play along with me.  If you are already using some other design software, just go ahead and use that.  You don't have to rebuild everything in Sims 3 just because I use it.  I'm sure there are many other, and more professional, architecture programs out there.  All I ask is that you have a plan ready when the time comes inshaAllah, and I will show you what I have soon inshaAllah.

I just loafed around last night and this morning, so I got lots of sleep.  So I felt great when I had to sing this afternoon, and I totally enjoyed my singing practice.  I think I put out a great set.  I didn't have to do any Janis, though.  She always shreds my voice, even though I think I understand her approach, I will never acquire her range.  Which got my thinking, beauty sleep applies for girly voices too.  I guess I need to loaf around more.  Sounds great to me!

Nothing special on the menu today.  I had some leftover bean sprouts, so for lunch I made ramen noodles.  I also have all that sausage and dough left to finish, so for dinner was a couple of sausage calzones.  Want one?  Erin I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150525

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.  Ya Allah, please forgive the men and women who believe.

I'm sure you and many others are wondering how I relate to my immediate family.  Well, let me tell you.  My father is 78 years old and is a retired lawyer.  My mother is 77 years old.  She is a retired teacher, and was born here in this village I live in now.  I have an older brother who is 4 years my senior, he is a lecturer at a local college.  He has 2 sons and 4 daughters.  I have an older sister who is 2 years my senior, she is a lawyer at the nation's capital.  She has 1 son and 3 daughters.  I have a younger brother 13 years my junior, I don't know what he does.  He shares the same house with my parents who live next door to me, and he has one son.  I am a musician.  I have been a musician for 36 years already.  I have no heirs.

I have scaled down my little house in Sims 3 to make a more realistic representation of my current situation.  Well, not completely realistic.  In Sims 3, I am a multi millionaire and somewhat pretty.  But I do prefer small houses.  Like I mentioned before, inshaAllah this small house will be my office/studio located right next to your house (less than 2 meters away, actually), where you are my wife and we raise our family.  I'm not good at drawing and designing, so I am practicing home design on my small house first before I work on yours.  I pray you are playing Sims 3 along with me.  At first I was confused by the scale of things in the game: it seemed to me that a Sim would be 3 meters tall in real life.  Then I realized my problem is that a double bed doesn't fit into my bedroom in real life, so I put the double bed in the living room in Sims 3.  In real life, there will be a drum set instead of a bed inshaAllah.  Preferably a Ludwig Classic Maple set in Bonham sizes, or a Yamaha Phoenix set in Bonham sizes.

I've embedded a build cheat tutorial here for you to watch.  I've been watching speed build videos today, when I find one I like I will paste that in here, too.  Ya Allah, please grant me Erin's house with ease.  Please be strong, keep your faith in Allah, and maintain your resolve.  You will know who your enemies are by the tone of their voice.  Erin I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150524

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

Well it can't be helped, I suppose.  If I were 30
years old, I would have urges enough to complain,
but seeing that I'm an old man and have used up
most of my libido, I'm actually quite capable of
being patient and just waiting until Judgement
Day, and just doing whatever it is I do and have
been doing by my lonesome all this while, in the
meantime.  I look towards perhaps God would be
happy with me and allow me into heaven, then I
will ask to be pretty like Megan Fox (before the
plastic surgery) with a nice set of boobs and a
big dick, with a sexual appetite to match.  Hey
Erin, let's play.  But we've got to get to heaven first.

I went back to work on the yard.  That big mango
tree in my front yard needed trimming, so in the
morning I got up a ladder and chopped down the
low branches with my sickle machete.  It was
quite a workout because the limbs were thick and
heavy, and I was at a strange angle most of the
time.  Some of the limbs were too tall or tangled
up with the power lines, so I had to leave those
alone.  The weather was surreal.  It was as if
God was saying, "Maybe it'll rain, maybe it
won't."  But at least it was cool and pleasant. 
It rained heavily last night, but there were few
mosquitoes.  I figure that it is by doing
physical labor all day long is what wore me out. 
People may not think so, but singing is also a
form of physical labor.  Especially if one has to
jump around and do synchronized aerobic exercise
at the same time.  I don't know how others do it,
but I refuse to do it.  It affects my singing.

I may not have the same sexual appetite that I
had 20 years ago, but I was hungry.  I had
marinara sauce, I had home made halal beef
sausage, I had cheese, and I had dough.  Pizza! 
It's been a while since I had pizza, since a
calzone is quicker to make.  I made 2 sausage and
basil pizzas for dinner.  One for me, one for
you.  Oh I'm sorry, I ate yours since you weren't
here for dinner.  It's so romantic that I make 2
portions of everything when I cook, isn't it?  Or it could be that I'm hungry.  Whatever it is,
Erin I love you.  And I need you.  Please forgive me for my faults.

Letter to Erin 20150523

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

Hi Erin.  Oh, I'm tired.  Worn out.  I spent the whole day yesterday busting my butt, and today I can't do anything.  I didn't do much of anything in the morning.  Today was Friday, so I had to spend noon at the mosque.  So it took me everything I had to make my lunch, then I took a shower and vegetated until I had to leave.  In the evening, I had to go get gasoline and drinking water, but I did have time to make a batch of dough (finally!), and make something different for dinner.  I had a ton of mole sauce left- well, not a ton.  One and a half cups, so I made chicken in mole sauce, with fried onions and peppers with steamed rice.   I was about to put the rest of the sauce away in the cooler, but the cats stuck their noses in it while my back was turned washing dishes.  I had to throw the lot away.  That pissed me off.  More because it was my own fault that I forgot to cover the damned thing.

Oh, I'm tired.  I think I'll just lie and watch TV and snack on sunflower seeds.  Wanna snuggle and make love?  Oh, you're not here.  Sigh.  Wish you were here with me.  I love you, Erin.  And I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150522

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

Hello there, my beautiful Erin.  How are you feeling today, Sweetheart?  I love you so much.  Lots of manual labor for me today.  Chopping and burning in the morning, then pruning and harvesting mangoes in the evening.  I actually don't like manual labor, but if I don't move around then I'll bloat.  Now the huge, strong mango tree in my front yard is not a harumanis.  I don't know what kind of mango it is.  My Mom, who watched the tree grow, thinks it's some kind of hybrid, so it doesn't really have a name.  Let's call it the USA mango.  Some of the branches were hanging too low, and dragging the fruit on the ground, so I chopped them all off.  The fruit has to be brought and kept inside to ripen.  This particular mango is not as tasty as a harumanis.  It is more fiberous and thicker in flavor.  And there's a lot of it.  A LOT.

I didn't really bother with much cooking today.  Chicken nuggets for lunch, some cold chili after the Asr prayer, and dinner at Ina's.  I'm not much of a traditional person.  Not in demeanor, nor in palate.  But I do love "nasi lemak bilis telur" (rice steamed in coconut milk with crispy anchovies and boiled egg with spicy sauce) which is as traditional as it gets around here, and if fresh and done right, I can eat copious amounts of the stuff.  I don't bother cooking it myself because everybody around here makes it.  What is comfort food for you?  Besides chocolate mousse?  I haven't really heard you mention it.  InshaAllah, I'll make copious amounts of it for you.  But we must work out.  We don't want to get bloated, right?  Sweetheart.  I love you.  And I need you.  I have to go practice guitar now.

Letter to Erin 20150521

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

Hi Erin!  How are you, my beloved?  You are the love of my life, and you are the most beautiful woman in the world to me.  I love you, and I need you.  I thought I woke up late this morning after going back to sleep after the dawn prayer, but it was only 7:30 am.  So after the preliminaries with my cats and plants, I started working on my fried flat noodles with clams.  I completed it by lunch, and it turned out OK.  Not great, but OK.  Cockles taste better with fried flat noodles.  So for dinner, I dumped the rest of the clam broth into the leftovers, and it tasted better.

In the evening, I cut the grass over at your house inshaAllah.  I find that I can get more grass cut if it's not too long.  Kind of like working out: it's better to maintain a routine than to let it go and catch up later.  After that, I planted one of my harumanis/harumanis hybrids into the ground in front of my little house.  I already have two harumanis in my front yard which I planted 2 or 3 years ago.  Not hybrids, and I didn't take care of them other than trimming them and some bug spray.  Allah is the One Who watered them.  I estimate they will bear fruit in about 4 years, and in theory my hybrid should bear fruit sooner than that.  InshaAllah.  So this is a comparison test for my mango hybrids.

Letter to Erin 20150520

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

Oh God, I'm stuffed.  Alhamdulillah.  I went to pay my power bill this morning, but I forgot to bring money, so I had to go back home and get my wallet.  By the time I finished the chore, it was already 11 am and I knew I wouldn't have time to cook, so I stopped by the Tuesday market to pick up some lunch.  11 am is getting late in the day for raw foods.  Thus, after after buying some rice, I browsed around to see what was left.  And this guy offered me almost 2 kilos of clams for RM2.  I couldn't refuse.

Now these are the teeny weeny clams, about the size of a dime or less each, which the locals call "Lala".  Any normal person would think, "What the hell would I do with clams that small?"  Well, I say that if you have patience with getting the meat out, then there are many options of dishes.  Let's just say that a kilo of Lala generates more broth and meat than a kilo of large clams.  It has something to do with density.  So the first thing I did when I got home was wash the clams, then steamed them.  You can't let clams sit around!  Then I watched them steam through the glass lid, while I ate my lunch.  I saw how the broth is generated: the clams squirt the broth out in their dying throngs.  Grotesque, huh?  All food is grotesque if you think about how it leaves the body.

ANYWAY!

I separated the broth then put everything in the cooler.  I didn't have time to get the meat out until 6 pm, which is a tedious task considering each meat is about the size of 3 grains of rice.  Or less.  What I did was hold a bunch of clams in my right hand and flicked the meat off with my left hand.  I got about 3 cups of meat by the time they called the sunset prayer, I guzzled half of that and I still had about a kilo of clams still in the shell so I stuck that in the freezer.  Dinner was simple: noodles in clam broth.  It was a huge helping.  I'm stuffed.  Alhamdulillah.  Tomorrow, I'm going to have to finish off all the clams and broth because it doesn't keep.  So I'm planning to rearrange a local recipe: keow teow kerang (fried flat noodles with cockles) but with clams.  You wanna join me for dinner?  It's going to take me all morning to shell those clams, but maybe I'll make it in time for lunch, but you're welcome to join me.  I love you, Erin.  And I need you.

Oh by the way, Ramadan is one month away.  This year it's about June 18, one day after my mother's birthday.  Ramadan is when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset everyday for a month.  Ramadan is my favorite time of year, because of the things that happen, strange or deep or whatever.  What are you going to do?