Lepak @ home

I've been back in Malaysia for the last three and a half weeks. Been having fun, but mostly just relaxing and reading a novel a day or so. Lina made it through shipment and quarantine and is doing okay even in the heat (remember this is a cat I used to take for walkies in -20 C and half a foot of snow), but my poor old dog Maxie is really creaky now.

Time is funny. I'm never bothered by seeing my siblings age (except when my brother hit puberty and growth spurt between my leaving home in 2001 and first visit in 2003 that was weird), nor my parents even though mum's hair has more white in it. On the other hand, meeting my California cousins for the first time in 8 years was really strange because the boys who were "kids" are now in the Marines and applying to Stanford, the girl I was helping to read is a high schooler taking college classes, and the toddler whose diapers I was changing is a bright young girl.

Those are all good things, but the lively, fierce guardian animal I left behind is now a sad old dog with a cauliflower ear and growing cataracts that you can see when you look into her eyes under artificial light.

I've been extremely lazy about writing, applying for jobs, art projects, etc., but three weeks really is enough unemployment so here I go. __earth asked me to write a guest blog post about facemasks and the flu situation in Malaysia. His blog is mostly about economics and politics and he also writes for the Malaysian Insider sometimes. I had some other thoughts about the mortality rate and hype/misperception versus facts, which were too long to fit in that so I'll post those on here later.

Also, have to start preparing for Potatoboy's and my wedding...