Questions, Answered, Part 1

I decided to break up the Q&A into parts, because there were so many questions and I found my answers to be a bit long..
Here's part 1:

Marjolein : What was the first thing you cooked for Taufik, do you remember?
Elisa: hm.. I’m trying to think..I don’t think I remember. It has been 15 years ago! My earliest memory of cooking for him was making sambal ikan bilis (anchovies in spicy sauce) for nasi lemak (rice with coconut milk) when we were in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Blue: how come ur such an awesome online friend to me when islam forbids hom0s3xuality?
Elisa: Wow. Good question. Tough, but good.
Yes, Islam forbids hom0s3xuality.
The Quran also tells us not to be judgemental. Who am I, to judge whether a person have sinned or not? Who am I to say I am better than the next person? Only God can be the judge. Because only God is all knowing, he knows what went on in the past, he knows what will happen in the future. Who knows, maybe a sinner today will die a martyr the next day. Maybe a pious man today, will commit suicide the next day. Only Allah knows.
I don’t feel that it is my place to judge people based on just one thing that they do. The best I can do is see them for who they are.
Furthermore, If I had stopped looking past your physical attraction for women, I would not have seen your love for nature, poetry and the humankind, and I would have failed to see the beauty of God’s work in you.

Novo : What is your favourite thing about Taufik?
Elisa: tee hee. How many can I list down? If I could choose just one thing, I’d say how he makes me feel secure. And goooood. ;)

Marjolein: Does Islam forbid hom0s3xuality? Or is it like the Bible - where preachers deformed the original scriptures to fit in their own alleyway... ?
Elisa : Yes, it is very clearly stated in the Quran, that sod0my is strictly prohibited. Basically, any sexual acts outside the sanctity of marriage is considered a sin, irregardless of who (or in some cases, what), you’re doing it to/with. The Qur’an’s contents is still preserved in its original form till today. Deforming the words in the Qur’an is a grave sin.

futuredoc : why or how did u pick ur blog theme to be "jams"?
Elisa: when I started blogging on modblog, I chose a preset layout that was titled ‘strawberry’, designed by PB. I decided to add ‘Jam’ into it, as an ode to Pearl Jam. So it became Strawberry Jam. It finally evolved into ‘Spread The Jam’ , when I decided that the purpose of my blog would be to spread the love, for children, for food, for everything good and wholesome to my readers. When I was drawing my previous logo (the jam jar with the stickman on it), I decided to add a piece of toast, to emphasize it’s a jar of jam, instead of a jar of red stuff. That’s when I got the idea for my tag line, “toast life, spread the jam”, calling my readers to celebrate life and spread the goodness.

nonah : do you like living where you are now?
Elisa: I really like the feeling of security. I am not scared that someone would be climbing into my window to rob or rape me in the middle of the night. I am not scared that some psycho would kidnap my kids on their way home from school. I am not scared of drunk drivers (though some people here do drive like they were drunk). I am not scared of accidently eating pork. I am not scared that some floozy will seduce my husband. But I *am* scared of spending too much money. :)

Jajan : is a stranger allowed to ask question?
Elisa: Yes, shoot away.

Onde-onde : apa nak tanya ni ya? (What should I ask?)
Elisa: tanyalah apa2 pun… (Ask Anything)

Yellowcabbie : where do u get all this positive energy in you and creativity for everyone to enjoy? don't u get bored or tired? how come u so nice heh? i like ur positive energy and friendly attitude..can u give some reciper on that?
Elisa: Aiyoohhh how to answer this question??? I don’t know. Maybe it’s all the food that I eat. Maybe it’s coz I believe in “what goes around come around”, so I try to be nice to everybody so that people are nice to me back. Maybe I just like feeling happy, so I do stuff that makes me feel happy. I don’t know!!!

Uglybutadorable : What would you do if your kids throws tantrum at you?? Tantrum yg tahap daasysat.. hempas2 pintu..menjerit2... how do you act on that?
Elisa: Well, so far the worst tantrum I ever got from my kids was from Ihsan. (Zan & Famygirl has probably heard this story so many times, they are sick of it.. coz it’s the only tantrum story I have). Ihsan was 3 or 4, I was pregnant with Anis, my maid had quit, and I lived on a 4th floor apartment. I had stopped by Giant to buy groceries on my way home from work. I just picked up the kids from the nursery and had 2 boys, their bags and two bags of groceries to bring up to my unit from the ground floor car park. Ihsan decided that was when he wanted to be carried. He cried and screamed and sat on the asphalt. After trying to reason with him for what felt like an hour, I got tired and decided to just leave him. But actually, I didn’t. I hid behind a pillar to make him think I had left him, but watched to make sure nothing bad happened to him. He finally came to his senses, I went to reason with him again, we negotiated a deal and we went upstairs together.
My kids learned that tantrums are not tolerated nor entertained in my house. If we say no to something they want, they are better off negotiating for it (or asking very very nicely) than screaming for it. Good behaviour is often rewarded with ice cream or snacks they don’t often get to eat.
If I get really mad at something or somebody, I usually go away into a room to calm down. That’s what I let my kids do too. They either get left alone to simmer and cool down, or get to go to the naughty spot, where they are forced to simmer and cool down. After calming down, then we have small discussion about what happened and how it could’ve been different.
Sounds so calm and orderly, eh? Well, things don’t always go as planned, but at least we have a plan.

okay.. part 2 coming soon...