Had my sweet dreamy sleep interrupted by two dudes doing a market survey about a possible hypermarket opening near my place, would I consider to going there regularly (and stop going to Giant Supermart?), how much I spent on groceries each month (I told a vanilla lie: RM200 - yeah, in my dreams...), how many people live in your apartment (I held two fingers up - another miscommunique, I really wasn't in the mood for this), gosh mister you've got a lotta books in your place haha (yes yes very funny), did you buy or rent this place (what difference does this make?), etc. A nice blot on a Sunday which included a three-hour church service (it was Pastors' Sunday, so...), a great lunch and reading about Spurs matching an 11-year record i.e. winning two games in the row at the start of the League. Defoe takes the place of Ginola, Klinsmann, Lineker and Gascoigne among Tottenham greats (sorry, my names don't extend earlier than the late 80s', for obvious reasons).

Caught my first episode of Boston Public last night. I may just get the whole series on DVD, given that it deals with the anguish and joys of teachers. Very interesting nugget-story about the use of the 'N-word'. The principal tried to ban discussion of it, telling the teacher involved, a certain Mr. Hanson, that he - being white - didn't have the answers for issue. Hanson replied, and I frickin' salute him, that education should be more about raising questions than providing answers. "And you can fire me or stop me from pursuing the matter, but you can't stop the students! So why don't YOU teach the class, my friend!" The story also introduced a book written by a Harvard Law professor, Randall Kennedy, with the title ...



Some blood spilled, too, it seems. Like the serious version of the scene in Rush Hour where Jackie Chan got into his first American slugfest when he copied Chris Tucker's, "What's up, mah nigga??"

Personally, I think a word can 'stay' as long as community's built or enriched. For some people, even good words (e.g. father, God[!!], sex, counselling) are a launchpad for negativity, skepticism, superficiality. Should we ban those, too?

The flip-side of this is that friendships really ought to be stronger. In the episode, two black kids got into a fight because one kid didn't like the other using the word. I mean, am I the only one who feels that maybe there are better ways of responding to people, even ASSUMING there was an insult intended? Maybe we should be thinking less about, "When is it appropriate to use a historically derogatory word?" and more about, "How do we turn an enemy into a friend?" or "How do we transform what was once used for evil and use it for good?"