Interviewed by Lilian Chan!

Woohoo! Lilian sent me her Five Questions! Surprisingly, they're on the serious side. But I am still pretty thrilled.

1) Aboutblogreader - That's a unique name. What inspired it?

In 2004, while I was stuck in Malaysia waiting for my visa to the USA, Ash Ox wrote on his old blog (The Insane Ox Speaks) that he was looking for a girl to go to the movies with. Naturally, I volunteered myself, under the nickname "blogreader". A few months later I started my own blog so he could learn more about me, and maybe begin to include me in his circle of PJ-bloggers. Unfortunately, just as I started my blog, he ended his. So those ambitions came to nothing and shortly afterwards, I left Malaysia.

2) I read that you are married and yet to have a kid. You have had a globe-trotting childhood. So, I wonder...if you have a child, which values will you choose to bring up your child? Western or Malaysian.

So far I'm not committed to the idea of having children and neither is my husband. If we got around to it, we would certainly have to create a new value system because he is a non-religious Azeri Turk from Tehran, Iran, and I am orang Minangkabau and Jawa from religious Malaysia. Ideally, we would pass the traditions of all those societies down to our child, but much would depend on the country in which the child grows up. It would be convenient if our jobs took us to back and forth between the three countries, USA, Iran and Malaysia, so that our child would be equally immersed in all three cultures. But that scenario is not realistic.

To make a long story short: I don't know the answer to your question.

3) In blogging, what thrill you most? Readership, friendship, traffic, the dirt of the politics (hahaha) or someting I have yet to learn?

I get a thrill from the fact that my parents, siblings and relatives can glimpse my mind through this blog, as well as through my journal at Diaryland. We are connected by blood, but not enough in the imagination.

4) World Cup - Who will win?

I have no idea. But this morning I asked the Mexican guy at the bagel shop who's going to win, and he said Mexico would.

5) How did you get hold of my blog and which blog oasis (blog directory) do you normally hang out to catch the latest?

I found you on Sentraal Station. I don't hang out anywhere special. Right now I'm reading a lot of American blogs that I find through word of mouth. I'd be reading more Malaysian blogs, but I'm so out of touch with what's happening back home that I have a hard time relating to their content.

Also, many Malaysian blogs are about sex, love triangles, pulling, being dumped, tits, ass and other cheap thrills of a sexual nature. I know sex is supposed to be funny, but geez, it's not that funny.

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The Official Interview Game Rules (copied to be passed on)

1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying “interview me.”

2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person’s will be different.

3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.