Sunday, December 30, 2007

I am...

Going to Melaka... Wheeeeee!!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Books! Books! Lovely Lovely Books!

This post may have arrived way late beyond its ETA.

But yeah, since I am practically on holidays now so WTV la.

WTV = whatever

Note: EXTREMELY AFFECTED BY THE FESTIVE MOOD.

But truthfully, this is my study break and whatever short time I have left to buck up in view of my MEGA-SCARY-HUMONGOUS-EXAMS -OF-UNIVERSAL-IMPORTANCE!!!

Which is arriving on the 5th day of the Chinese New Year. Talk about getting a big angpow!!!

As a matter of fact, I don’t want to get a grade deserving of a red ink by any means.


And ahem, to think that I have had it bad enough. There’s more.

The following dictates my duties on the public holidays:

Christmas Eve and The Day itself: Internal Medicine attachment in Penang
(and the whole week thru, mind you!)

New Year’s Day: General and Family Medicine posting at a government hospital in a district, which does NOT HAVE BROADBAND COVERAGE!
(well, at least they have 80 sen per scoop ice-cream)


I digress, again.

Well, as you may have read on Ah Bong’s blog (too lazy to link html-ly), there was this Penguin Book Fair last month, which apparently only happens once every 5 years or so. It was at some factory zone/lot/place near Menara Axis. Hence, being the book-whore that I am, I paid the fair a lil visit of course.

(Yes, my landmarks are mostly gym buildings or malls. I am only able to recognise of such nature. I am a fag. Sue me!)

44 books!

Anyways, wanna make a shoutout to the friend who told me about it and brought me there. I don’t get the surprise element you wanted to pull off that day though. People, this guy is the official Google Earth – Klang Valley on legs.

O.M.F.G. *signature jawdrop* Yup, it happened to me, like I was on tetany when I grabbed a book and saw the price tag saying ‘RM10’

Dirt cheap, yes! Fabulously.

But the very first book I encountered was The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, Booker Prize winner 2006. Which I paid RM49.90 for, at Borders, 3 months prior.

WTF. (Acronym for what the f**k!)

My personal version has a little small dot on top of the 'F'. Recall your maths. You will get what I mean.

In short, I went book-crazy and grabbed like a dozen books and it was a rush, alright. We got there at 5.00 p.m. and it was bound to close an hour later. I definitely got some new reprints of some classics, leaped at the chance, literally.

There was no way I could finish getting new stuffs for my ever-expanding classy *cough cough* literary collection in time.

So I went back the next day. And the day after.

Total number of books acquired = 44

Total DAMAGE to bank account = RM 569

An average price of RM12.9318 for each book. Good buy no?

Anyways, to summarise things. Here is the purchased list.

RM22 for a hardcover novel!!!

1. Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman

2. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman

3. Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman [Bought this as the first copy I had, had book-pneumonia on a sampan ride in Redang]

4. Panic (signed copy) – Jeff Abbott

5. Saving Fish from Drowning – Amy Tan

6. The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler

7. Lion Boy – Zizou Corder

8. Trouble - Jesse Kellerman

9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

10. A Walk to Remember - Nicholas Sparks

11. The Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint – William Shakespeare

12. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

13. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer [Elijah Wood on the cover!!!]

14. Single Professional Man – John Womersley

15. Odd One Out – Lissa Evans

16. The Undercover Economist – Tim Harford

17. Wicked – Gregory Maguire [Gay! Gay! Gay! married author]

18. Never the Bride – Paul Magrs [Younger Gay! Gay! Gay! author]

19. Hospital – Toby Litt


On the backcover:-
LOSING WEIGHT: "Keep on bearing children as long and as often as possible."
DRINKING WHISKEY: "Whiskey cures a great many ailments, infallibly by killing the patient."

20. A Book of Curious Advice: Most Unusual Manners, Morals, Medicine from Days of Yore – Ruth Pepper Summers

21. The Man who Ate Everything – Jeffrey Steingarten

22. The Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ - Sue Townsend [LOVE THIS BOOK LONG TIME!]

23. Number Ten – Sue Townsend

24. Animal Farm - George Orwell [The BF's purchase]

25. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibson [The BF's purchase]

26. Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of China’s Peasants – Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao [BANNED IN CHINA!]

27. The New Life – Orhan Pamuk

28. The Art of War – Sun Tzu [Who knows? Maybe someday we will go to war?]

29. Don’t Eat This Book – Morgan Spurlock [Another book to spur me to lose me flabs!]

30. Desperate Housewives: Behind Closed Doors – Marc Cherry?

[OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I have always always always wanted to buy this super cool coffee table book! A memorabilia from Season 1. Always too broke for the ₤12.99 price tag! BUT NOW I HAVE IT!!! Wheee! *gleeful sinister laughter*]

31. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby

32. The Anatomy of Hope – Dr Jerome Groopman [Medicine-related book, ‘nuff said!]

33. The Merlion and The Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia

34. Best Man – Matt Dunn [Err what's the male versh of chick lit? Dick lit? Someone enlighten me please!]

35. The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook – Matt Dunn

36. 4 Blondes – Candace Bushnell

37. Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse – Philip O’Ceallaigh [Fancy cover plus some donno-what book prize winner la!]

38. The Magpie Bridge – Liu Hong

39. Jennifer Government – Max Barry [The BF MADE me buy it!!!]

40. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewycka [THIS LADY IS SOOOO FUNNY!]

41. Curse of the Mega-boobed Bimbos – Grace Dent [Haha... I wanna write the Mega-endowed Himbo version!]

42. Traditional Chinese Medicine for Women – Xiaolan Zhao [For Mummy Dearest, I Swear!]

Note the size difference, but only RM3 difference in price?

43. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (Large Print)

44. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro (Budget Print) - For the Ex Down South punya birthday!



This adds up the number of books I have bought but YET to read to a grand sum of 61!!!

*gasp!*

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Because I Can Can Can!

I am going to wear happy whacky colours.

ALL WEEKEND LONG!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Tongue Tied

Bright cold silver moon
Tonight alone in my room
You were here just yesterday
Slight turn of the head
Eyes down when you said
I guess I need my life to change
Seems like something's just aren't the same
What could I say?

I need a little more luck than a little bit
Because every time I get stuck the words won't fit
And every time that I try I get tongue tied
I'll need a little good luck to get me by

I stare up at the stars
I wonder just where you are
You feel a million miles away
I wonder just where you are.

Was it something I said?
Or something I never did?
Or was I always in the way?
Could someone tell me what to say to just make you stay?

I need a little more luck than a little bit
Because every time I get stuck the words won't fit
And every time that I try I get tongue tied
I'll need a little good luck to get me by

I need a little more help than a little bit
Like the perfect one word no one's heard yet
Because every time that I try I get tongue tied
I need a little good luck to get me by this time

I know it feels like the end
Don't want to be here again
And we could help each other off the ground so we never fall down again
What it takes I don't care
We're gonna make it I swear
And we could help each other off the ground so we never fall down again

Friday, December 07, 2007

Revolution



How often do we lose control, lose sight of our direction? Of a central focus?

When life pushes you (however unwillingly) further and further onwards, and you feel all the adrenaline from the exhilaration and excitement. The magic of simply moving.

Staying put is soooooo boring, no?

But you know you are stuck in a twilight moment. The counting seconds, minutes, hours and ... years just disappear off the very edge of your orbits.

It is cold and you start to shiver. Rigor overwhelms. Those limbs you call hands, are no longer steady. Draw them close to cover your eyes. Then let your sight soar.

Stop and stare.

You know you are moving but you're going nowhere.

What is there for you in here? Instead of racing forwards, you suddenly fall into what seems like a dark, pitch black bottomless pit.



Are you afraid of the infinite?

Then you remember.

You are caught in between.

Those times when the mirror's not your friend, but you are in such need for a friend, a friend that comes from within yourself. There's absolutely nothing to do, for the mirror shows what you think others see in you...

What now? What will cushion your fall before you break your cervical spine and turn paraplegic... either that or this may be your fulminant ending if the concrete is catches you instead.



Enough with the labels.

You can change everything. Everything.
Your own revolution.


Do you see what I see?

Sunday, December 02, 2007

F.Y.I.

I am feeling groggy.

LOL. Ever wondered how to get a hangover without even drinking alcohol?

Try falling unconscious on the bed, unresponsive to attempts to 'resuscitate' at 9.30 p.m. and rising at 4.30 a.m.

Oh my, my innate clock is going haywire, I know?

Anyways, I digress. (Gosh, I am developing a habit of this!)

I have not been blogging much as of late, (although I was really planning to revive the regular posting schedule as per prior), *cough cough* I am just really a failure at meeting deadlines, more so if they're self-inflicted.

Writers' block, or bloggers' block, in this case, stinks more than a block of rotten cheese.


Therefore... I am inviting YOU, my lovely, huggable, snog-worthy readers to be my Muses; to shower me with inspirations.

Each person is entitled to ONE question about ME, MYSELF, AND I...


Just leave it short, simple and sweet in the comments section, alrighty?

I will attempt to answer questions in the 'most interesting way' on the blog, provided it does not divulge too much of my personal life, or a trap to make me say something controversial that will see me locked up in 'the local neighbourhood gaol', for longer than forever....

That being said... HAPPY GREAT MALAYSIAN SALE QUARTER 4 2007!!!

Dots. The follow-up to this post (being the answers to the questions asked) will be up within the week... =P