Sunday 31st December 2006

2006's last write up

Happy New Year to all you lovelies out there!

Well, as some of u have found out over the last couple of weeks, i'd been spending most time in the hospital keeping my mom company. I'll leave out all the details and sufficient to say, it has been a very heart warming holiday season having so many relatives and close friends come and say hi and keep us company not to mention the barrage of sms and phone calls.

Anyways, mushy mushy stuff aside, since the hospital is situated smack in the city, I'd taken a few more x'massy pics and my pocket money is depleting horrendously shopping in all the malls nearby.

Currently reading: The Isle of Battle (The Swans' War) by Sean Russell - This is the continuation of The Swans' War. Pretty nice book. Not too bad. Bearable.

Just finished reading: The One Kingdom by Sean Russell (Book 1 of The Swans' War) - A story about Ciern, Siath and Sianon, chirdren of Wyrr (the River Wyrr is named after him). They died, became nagar, and many many centuries later, made bargains with men and a woman and again walked the earth. It is also about Tam, Fynnol and Baore. Their adventures on the river with Cynddl.

Saturday 16th December 2006

Horrific record

Friday 15th December 2006

Festive symbols

Pictures taken at Wheelock & Taka...

Like, I totally dig all those red leaves. So happy looking. no?

No x'mas is fit to be one without at least looking at a formidable looking pine tree. Even if it is a fake one.

Sparkly snowflakes. Yay!

Thnx J for accompanying me for the diary hunting. I am happily writing in mine now, and thinking hard about all my plans next year.

Is everyone else doing similar stuff?

Tuesday 12th December 2006

Christmas!

Ah... the Yuletide season is around the corner once again. Such time of the year always bring a much needed blanket of joy to envelope our little souls.

I'm now in a shopping mood, excitedly counting down the hours till tomorrow when J & I will be scouring the city looking for some good buys. Any special requests from anyone? If not, u guys will be getting chocolates from me again, yo. Don't say I didn't warn y'all. hehehe...

Put some glittery stuff in ur house people, to invite the angels to come and visit, and according to my little witchbook, it'd be a good time to display some Yule-themed ornaments like golden suns and stars, sparkly snowflakes, crystal icicles and metallic star garlands to add a little enchantment to ur home.

Let us all welcome the season of peace.

Currently reading: Chainfire by Terry Goodkind - Only just started. It's a continuition of the Sword of Truth series, but, silly me, I didn't realize it and jumped right into this book 8. It's about (Richard aka Lord Rahl) who awoke to disvover his wife, Kahlan, missing. To his disbelief, no one remembers her or her existence. So now, he must find out whether she is alive and/or if she was ever even real. Having not read anything prior to it and initially not knowing otherwise, I really thought he was just making her up. It's most probably otherwise. Afterall, it is Book 8.

Just finished reading: Transformation by Carol Berg (Book 1 of Rai-Kirah) - Having completed the 4 books of D'Arnath, I have ventured to an earlier series by Berg. This series is about a slave who his relationship with the crown prince. Pretty exciting. Looking forward to reading the other 2 books of the same series.

Wednesday 6th December 2006

bu liang jia zu

*clap clap* A pretty nice korean drama to share with ya'all. Bu Liang Jia Zu (不良家族) is about a 9 year old kid whose whole family got killed in a car crash except her. She became amnesiac instead. Her only jiujiu (mom's bro) left who was not in the accident suspected it was not a simple accident and set about trying to make her regain memory. He enlisted the help of a newly reformed mafia member who had opened a 'extras' agency to make up a mock family for the girl. This ex-mafia became the uncle in the picture above.

This new 8 members family all have their vices and slowly learned to come together. There were plenty of endearing moments encountered along the way, and *sigh* it was a pretty cool ride.

The 'uncle' is so barbaric in his actions, he looked like a caveman everytime his temper flies. His favourite threatening phrase "Do you want to taste the smell of earth?" became everyone's favourite too. The little girl is a very talented actor, making our hearts wrench when she finally regained her memory and was told that all her real family members are dead.

I loved the rap-like song the show have dat starts with... "I love my mother, I love my father, I love my sister, I love my brother... "

J, wanna meet nxt wk? I'll pass u the drama. :)

Tuesday 5th December 2006

a virtual world

While taking a short break from reading the fiction book 'Wicker' by Guilfoile today, I felt a most disconcerting displacement sensation. He had been describing the actions of two TTL players in a computer game called Shadow World.

In his words, in Shadow World,"... everything is an exact replica of the real world, and every player begins the game with a character representing himself. You start with your real-world family, your real-world education. But in Shadow World, the player can do all the things they are afraid to do in real life. You can choose new destinies or take outrageous chances. You can ask models out on dates or tell off your boss. The price of failure/death is nothing worse than the forced start of a new game, beginning again as the real you, with another shot at deciding what choices will make you happy."

"Different players use the game differently. Some tried to live their dreams in the game, hoping to become actors/musicians/etc., others use it as a practice or dry run at real life but many (1/4 of the players) mirror their real life in the virtual world down to every detail, going to work in the morning, ordering lunch from the same places. These players are called True-to-Lifers (TTL)"

In a particular chapter of the book, two players have been trying to catch a serial killer in the game and their avatar got injured in the process. The whole scene was described vividly, leaving the impression that it was happening in the real world but the two players were actually still unharmed. Subsequently, he started talking about the incidents in the real world, where people do get hurt. After the intensity of the chapter, when I got around preparing to head for school, I was abit displaced, feeling as though I was in the Shadow World as well.

Like, cool.... wish I had the ability to make readers so disconcerted as well.

Currently reading: Wicker by Kevin Guilfoile: Wicker is Guilfoile's first novel. I think he did a pretty great job as a writer. I loved the way all the characters were written, best of all Justin. And I loved the way Guilfoile kept me in the dark, wondering whether Justin would turn out to be a serial killer like Sam Coyne or not.

Just finished reading: 'B' is for Burglar by Sue Grafton - The 2nd Kinsey Millhone mystery. The writer Sue wrote all the Kinsey mystery books in alphabetical order. My occasional anal-self assert herself and decided to follow through in order. Although the book was written back in 1985, I enjoyed reading her investigation process. The only dissapointment was having guessed about the identity switch of the current case from the very beginning.

Monday 4th December 2006

remote desktop

Since a few months back, thanks to L's assistance, I've been enjoying the duo desktop life. Each of us 4 have a laptop of our own and thanks to some recent purchases by the school lab, we now each have a pc of our own too and we've been making use of the remote desktop function like crazy, constantly having another desktop an icon away.

In fact, it has become such a habit, I'm always trying to access my PC through my laptop just to have the assurance that it's there. I finally got a hint of how silly it is when I managed to access my PC from my laptop at home during the weekend and gave a hoot of satisfaction. LP buoyed by my excitement asked "So what are you going to do now?" After looking at the screen a moment, I disconnected replying "Nothing actually."

Sunday 3rd December 2006

sky

As I tumble through life, trying to decipher our existence like everyone else, my little way of glimpsing the universal truth on God and stuff like that is to read an assortment of stuff, capture an idea or two, embellish it till high heaven regardless of it's accuracy and subsequently make my own judgement of this mutated "idea".

Whenever discussions stray to the regions of religions and beliefs, I would curiously listen, deciding whether to add or subtract it from my own bag of ideas. Due to my lack of partiality in accepting a new idea, my storage of beliefs is like a jumble of entangled strings going nowhere. Consequently, I end up feeling totally detached from all the intense arguments, indifferent to any sides of the topic and am the ignorant person that I am. hehe... blissfully so.

One of my tangled strings about Islam was an article I read once, a long time ago (embellishment may have been added in along the years). In it, the person wrote that whenever you feel troubled or sad, a true believer should look into the skies and find some clouds, for looking at clouds is the best way to let your troubles wash away. Whenever I look at some pretty clouds, I'd feel that Islam is a pretty cool religion too.

Saturday 2nd December 2006

scratch my back

Continuing along the same thread of grumbling I had made last month regarding unrealistic drama phrases a.k.a. 'cutting a kite loose', today, my pet disgruntlement is over the 'scratching back' cliche.

As we all know, our elderly folks occasionally have some problems scratching a particularly itchy spot on their backs, attributed to old age and tired bones. This gives us the excuse to purchase for them one of those tacky wooden sticks with a miniature wooden hand at an end for their 'scratching' pleasures. This particular item is a rather famous vacation gift, i noticed. You r bound to come across a version of such a thing anywhere in the world.

In two of the dramas I watched this month, the 'scratching back' idea was employed. In one, a girl was complaining that her back itched. Her companion asked her why she does not scratch it. She answers that it is on the spot where it cannot be reached. He proceeds to scratch her back for her. In another drama, this lady told another person, "The unscratchable spots in one's back is made so that another person can scratch it for you."

Try as I might, I can't find a single spot on my back which I could not reach. Can you? Employing the logic that when I can't reach with my left hand from the top, I reach with my left hand from the bottom, and failing both, I employ my right hand either from top or bottom. Doesn't that pretty much cover all the area on your back too?

Friday 1st December 2006

BMI craze