doodidooda

It's 2012, but where did my 2011 go...

2012-01-11T17:54:00.000+08:00

I guess I should wrap up the 2011 year and talk about my 2012. Well, first of all I really did not write a lot of stories and poetry in 2011 which was a shame. I shall hopefully do more this year. But I did manage to read quite a few book. I think I read more this year than last year. I will probably focus more on writing this year rather than reading. A balance is very necessary, for me to be inspired by great writing and try to emulate and create with my own writing. I have no more qualms about borrowing ideas and structuring techniques from the greats because that is the only way to build art and create better work.

Second is on my work, and hopefully I graduate or am close to graduation by the end of the year. Also, I hope to finish writing a journal paper by mid year. My supervisor has pretty much given me the nod to do the work and write up of the paper. Hopefully this is pretty straightforward. I have been stuck enough on the last thing, hopefully the next phase goes more smoothly.

Think I'd probably drop my music; guitar and piano. I cannot juggle so many things at the same time. So those are the things that have to do. Also, I'll be starting French classes in February, so that takes time also. It want to immerse myself in this learning and also read lots of French things. I really like the sounds of the language, and the food. So yeah, it will be a very French year, and hopefully the years to follow.

Last but not least, (well, actually it's probably the most important thing) is that I'm now in a relationship and very much in love. Her pseudonym will be Grocery. Don't ask why, she probably hates that name but I like it, so I'm sticking with that. Grocery's a beautiful and wonderful person and I really hope it works out. Would love to spend more time with her and go on holidays. I guess my wish for the new year is more of everything: books, writing, art, love, Grocery.... 2012, be good to me.

Steve Jobs

2012-01-09T17:07:00.001+08:00

by Walter Isaacson

This was a book that I really wanted to read and just completed it during my trip to Beijing and Harbin, China. It is the autobiography on Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple and Pixar Studios. It is a wonderful book on the creative genius and his process, his temperament, relationships and life. Before I never understood all the hype about Apple products but after reading this book I have a better appreciation for the philosophy behind Apple products and where they sit within the technosphere. Steve Jobs is a truly enigmatic and unique individual and one could just wonder what wonderful things he would have come up with if he was still alive. Isaacson does Jobs justice with a comprehensive and detailed account of his life's achievements, events and tribulations. A wonderful read; an inspiring and insightful book.

Rage of Angels

2011-12-14T11:40:00.003+08:00

by Sidney Sheldon

I started reading this book 2 days ago and finished this morning. I must say Sheldon books always read like soap dramas, and they are really easy to read and finish. It was 500 pages but they are such quick books. Feels a bit like junk food, in the sense that you just keep munching and munching away and when you finish you still end up with a slightly empty feeling like you didn't eat much at all. The content doesn't feel all that feeling, but that doesn't mean that the ride wasn't entertaining.

This book is about Jessica Parker, a lawyer and she gets intertwined with the lives of Michael Moretti, a Mafioso and a Adam Warner, an aspiring lawyer and politician. Their lives become complicated when Jessica Parker struggles to hold her ideals while dealing with the reality of the real world.

Actually, I was 200 pages in when I asked myself whether I read this story before. Sheldon's story set ups are quite similar for most of his books and it read very much like other stories I have read from him. But about midpoint, I realised that no, I have never read this story. The pacing of the story is decent and character development is mainly focused on Jessica while less focus is given to the other characters. This isn't a criticism of character development, just an observation. As a whole, it just felt like a run-of-the-mill Sheldon story of a heroine's initial struggle, rise to power and eventual falling back in to reality. Nothing more and nothing less.

Tuesday with Morrie

2011-12-08T10:01:00.001+08:00

by Mitch Albom

This is the second book I read by Mitch Albom. First was Five People You Meet in Heaven. This is a sort of autobiographical book about Mitch's time spent in the final days of his former university lecturer Morris Schwartz, Morrie. These meetings occurred mostly on Tuesdays, hence the name of the book.

It is wonderful story about life, how to live and how to die. It puts into perspective the things in our lives and what is really important. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels lost in their lives and wish to discover for themselves and ask themselves what's really right for their lives. Also, this book is a pretty short read. Took me about 3 hours to finish. So it is really one to keep and read through again and again as the book's lessons are timeless.

Aftershock

2011-11-30T21:22:00.001+08:00

by David Wiedemer, Robert A. Wiedemer and Cindy S. Spitzer

This economics book on the US Bubble Economy is a good read. Seems pretty comprehensive and plausible on the events occurring during the housing market crises, and also predicting the ensuing things to come in the economic sphere.

The writing itself is quite hard to read at times as the writer seems to treat it's audience like idiots and repeating things over and over in an overly simplified manner. I do agree with the analysis made but it just seems to be a very abrasive way of writing that will not please anyone, even those who agree with them. The writing tone could have been more diplomatic. It is a very pedestrian way of writing.

Well, any advice from books like this should be taken with skepticism and so one should do their own research and study economics and the market for themselves before agreeinf with this sort of thing too completely.

What Every Body Is Saying

2011-11-19T21:09:00.001+08:00

by Joe Navarro

Finished reading this several days ago, recommended by a friend. A rather good book on reading nonverbal body cues and what they signify. It is written by Joe Navarro who is an ex-FBI agent specializing in this area. It teaches one how to recognize the emotion others are feeling and also what you yourself are feeling given how you react.

I bet I won't remember all the stuff in this book and may warrant several re reads. Some of the things are quite insightful and the techniques in general I believe to be very useful. Well, it gives me an extra thing to do now when I find conversation boring. I do however believe some of the things are not right, as I have caught myself in some certain physical position that are mentioned in this book and I am not feeling how the book says I am supposed to feel. So there are lots of variables that needs to be put together to have a holistic view of what one is feeling.

Overall a good book and really useful if just for one's additional knowledge.

Dune

2011-11-11T20:09:00.004+08:00

by Frank Herbert

Just finished reading this book again. Really good, I sort of forgot the latter bits of the books, and there were some things after reflection on the book that I thought a bit rough. I say this with respect to the continuation to the second book (Dune Messiah) which I read a little bit of last night. There seems to be introduction of new factions without any mention at all in the first book. So that is a little disjointing. But as a book itself, Dune is pretty much perfect. If you can overlook some minor flaws, it is still a wonderful read. Herbert's mode of storytelling is wonderfully grand without being let down by the weight of the event's scope and gravity. He holds the level of plot very well. What I mean here is he is going through the story in terms the most pivotal characters in that universe and pretty much focussing on them. One does not feel the story is a self-serving prophecy, though it does mention this all throughout the story. For instance David Eddings books, one believe that the end outcome is only that one outcome, where the hero ultimatley meets his great destiny. Although Paul Artreides (Muad'Dib) is prophesized for greatness in this book, one always feel the weight and the tension to decisions made and nothing is ever set in stone. That constant tension, and criticality of events makes the whole story suspenseful. Good book to learn good fantasy writing.

Was

2011-11-03T20:55:00.000+08:00

by Geoff Ryman

This book is a piece of fiction with some elements based on real people. It revolves around the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The three main characters are in three moments in time. First is Dorothy, which is the Dorothy in the real world who suffered a hard life whose substitute teacher (Frank Baum, original author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) writes of her life. Second if France Gump, also knows as Judy Garland, the actress playing the role of Dorothy of the original movie adaptation. Lastly is Jonathan, an ailing movie actor who trails after the history of Judy Garland and the original Dorothy to piece together their lives and in doing so figure out his own.

This book began well enough but about halfway through I began to not like this book at all. This probably began when Dorothy's Uncle Henry sexually assaulted Dorothy, repeatedly, then she goes slightly mental. She eventually flees her home and then later in life is admitted to a mental institution. Judy Garland actually has her story concluded about 1/3 into the book with a section of the recollection of Judy's mother at the moment before she dies. Then with Jonathan, he is actually a gay actor and is ailing and going slightly mad in the end. Pretty much all the characters met bad endings, if not literally than poetically very sad.

First I did not like the overall gloomy plot of the story. The original Story of Oz is encouraging, with a story of redeeming characteristics at the end. This has none of this. The message I sort of get from this story is "Life screws good people over, deal with it". Life is shit as it is, I do not need to read 450 pages for anyone to tell me that. When I read a book I want to be inspired, at the very least I want to feel for the characters and care. I ultimately fail to engage with any of his characters. Okay, even if one wanted to make this a really sad story, that's fine. Worse still is the jolting form of story-telling that leaves the reader unsatisfied with the prose being used to describe the full breadth of the situation and emotion. By the end of the story, I simply did not care about the characters and wished the story would just end.

Second, Ryman tags on characters about 2/3 into the book. For instance the character of Bill, the counselor for Jonathon. This is the most glaring introduction of a new character. Furthermore, several new concepts are introduced pretty late into the story that again pulls the reader out of being totally immersed in the story. Ryman seems to tag on plot points just for the sake of moving the story along. It is a very cheap approach to story telling. Overall, this book started off well enough. By the last 50 pages I simply lost interest and could not wait to be done with this book. I feel Markus Zusak's Book Thief is a better book (in tackling the themes of tragedy and living a hard life) compared to this. Very poor read.

The Big Short

2011-10-31T17:21:00.005+08:00

by Michael Lewis

Just finished this latest book by Michael Lewis. It is a study of financial market through the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis. It focuses on the players behind the creation of this problem, those profiting from it and the resolution (albeit unsatisfactorily) of this period in time.

This again is a great book to read. Again, some of the financial jargon is over my head but Lewis' approach to the subject matter is very well-presented. I realise now this is because he tells it like a story from inception to conclusion, through the view of the various players in this problem. Being Wall Street though, none of these characters are particularly saints, nor are there evil (though some do come close). They are just human beings driven mostly by money. It goes to show if one removes government regulation that is effective and strict what can happen, the GFC.

Moneyball

2011-10-29T21:59:00.004+08:00

by Michael Lewis

Just finished this book several days ago. It is a wonderful book about the Oakland A's baseball team and the changes under their manager Billy Beane. Through the use of mathematics and teh scientific approach they were able to change the team from a struggling one into one that was successful and challenging the best in the league. Short synopsis here.

I actually don't know much about baseball except the few movies I've watched on it or around it. But it does seem like a pretty interesting game. Plus, there is a movie based on Moneyball out in a few weeks here. So I am looking forward to that. On the book itself, it is insightful, though baseball terminology is over my head at times. But overall, the way Lewis writes it is engaing and entertaining, so very enjoyable.

Liar's Poker

2011-10-26T16:57:00.003+08:00

by Michael Lewis

This is a wonderful book on Wall Street bonds trading, the majority of which from Michael Lewis' time in that profession, from late 1970s to late 1980s. Short synopsis here.

It is wonderfully written. Though I do admit, some of the financial concepts were quite over my head. Though the narrative used by Michael itself did not make the story too tedious for those inept in financial matters. So it was a very witty and interesting read. It does show how much disparity of how money is valued by Wall Street and how it is valued by the rest of the world.

Angel Time

2011-10-23T22:52:00.003+08:00

by Anne Rice

This is the first book of the Songs of the Seraphim Series. Short synopsis here.

I found this book a bit slow to start and actually thought of not reading through to finish. But after the first 50 pages things did picked up a bit and I carried on all the way to the end. It is typical Anne Rice style, in the way she narrates the story. I can also draw strong similarity between the main character here Toby O'Dare and that of Lestat and the like in the Vampire Chronicles series. Though, I do feel that this story is so thinly veiled in material that it did feel very pedestrian. It did not have the layer upon layer of complexity that The Vampire Chronicles had. I guess it is very difficult to write to the high level that is that. Probably also the subject matter is not that familiar to Rice as this topic of angels and the historical context in which it is set. Well, I just felt it was not as rich as the Vampire Chronicles. Well, I will still give the second book a try, perhaps that would fare better. But I am going to read some other books for now.

The Little Prince

2011-10-23T21:19:00.004+08:00

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I read this book for the second time, and it was as lovely as the first time. It is a story about a Little Prince from another planet that visits Earth and finds a pilot that has crashed in the desert. This book is the account of the pilot of meeting this strange boys. The pilot writes this story down lest he forgets his time with this strange but wonderful prince. The original story is in French, called Le Petit Prince.

I really love this book. Second time around because I still remember the story roughly, I found it less sad than the first time I read it. Because it was sort of like meeting an old friend again rather than the loss of a friend. One does feel the longing and sadness of losing a friend when reading this book (first time round), but second time around one feels the joy in cherishing the memory of such a wonderful character. I would definitely read this book again and again from time to time. One should never forget to see the elephant in the boa, and not a hat in a child's drawing.

Rich Brother, Rich Sister

2011-10-16T20:59:00.004+08:00

by Robert Kiyosaki and Emi Kiyosaki

I bought this book end of last year because I've heard of Robert Kiyosaki and heard that he was pretty good with explaining motivational and financial generalities. But I found this books horrendous.

Well, first a short synopsis. This book is about the life paths of Robert and Emi Kiyosaki, they are brother and sisters. Robert is a successful enterpreneur, businessman and investor. He is the famous author of several books of the same vein as this I believe, books on investment, life, etc. His stories is about how he got to where he is today. Emi is a Buddhist nun, and this book looks at the other side of being rich, that is spiritually rich. This book also describes her life path. Thus the book finds similarities and contrasts between the two's life journeys.

Okay, not my review. I must say I have only read about 2/3 of this book. I cannot take any of it any more really, it is really not to my liking. For me, it is horrendous. Not my cup of tea at all. The book's concept in itself of the contrast between the material and spiritual pursuits of life is very good. However, the execution and explanation of concept I find to be very incognitive. As in I feel I am dumber for reading this book. I don't know why, Robert is such as successful person, and Emi is a Buddhist nun. I have great respect for what they have achieved in their life. But the reasons they explain for them doing what they do, and the logic behind it, that is simply wrong to me.

Here are several examples. First is connection made behind concepts on life. One thing was something on generalized principles. Robert speaks of having right and wrong answers. He says that the World is at war because there are issues like people believing in only one God and everyone's God is different. So that gives rise to tension and ultimately war. Then he goes on to say there are many ways of doing something, and not one single way is right. Up to this point I agree. Then he moves on to say, that is why we have a right hand and left hand, not a right hand and wrong hand. Then I think what is the point in that statement??? I know that is true, that we have a right and left hand. But then that is just words, there is no meaning behind it. Why would I call one hand the 'wrong' hand? It is empty statements. Oh, and this book is filled with plenty of gems like this.

Furthermore, there are so many inaccuracies in world principles in his statements. He makes sweeping generalization that are just not true. Well in his defense, he does say in the book he is the type of person that wants to win, and is not interested in being right. I personally do not think I am the person that want to be right, but it is like nails on chalkboard when I see statements in this book that are clearly so wrong.

Ah, this is turning into a raging post on the book. There is a plethora of other reasons wrong with this book but I cannot be bothered listing all of them out. I must say I tried my best to give it a chance. Heck, I read 200+ pages of it in hopes there is some gem buried in it. Indeed there were a few, but it is all buried in so much garbage I find it hardly worth the read. I'll end this post on this note. I had less moments of inspirations that I had moments of pure frustration. In essence, this book sucked for me. Waste of my time.

To Kill A Mockingbird

2011-10-01T18:19:00.002+08:00

by Harper Lee

I bought this book, the 50 anniversary version of it. This book is a Pulitzer prize winner and amazing that I have not read such a classic till now. Well, actually there are many 'must read' books that I have still not read yet, so there you go.

Short synopsis from wiki here. This really is quite a simple story of kids growing up, but in the backdrop when black and white people were still very much segregated, the time of black slavery. The simplicity of the story simply makes the story of it better. I think the measure of a good piece of fiction is not only the plot and pacing, but the good writing style. This book is pretty direct and simple, but it just wants to make you read on. You just read on page to page without any rush, because each page is as beautiful as the last, as the next.

I see this book sort of like J.D. Salinger in terms of quality, obviously the style is very much different. But it is such a beautiful story. It really gives me motivation to read more book, everytime I read such a wonderful book.

All Written Out

2011-09-27T17:14:00.006+08:00

There is a very good reason I have not been posting much on this blog. I have been writing about 10 posts a week on a discussion forum I've been involved with for the past few months. That's part of my studies of research commercialisation. Spending so much time checking references on my posts and articulating my thoughts properly there has left me all but drained to string 2 sentences together. I would just like to go and type 'bla bla bla bla' there sometimes. Really getting to be no fun anymore. I have to say I have learn a lot from that experience though.

Anyways, reading To Kill a Mockingbird at the moment. I get quite sad sometimes that there are so many classic that I may never find the time to read, so many books, so little time. I must really restrict myself to read good books. From reading this book, my first thoughts are that plot is not that important. As long as the emotions and characters are believable, relatable, and loveable I will be more than glad to read a story that has been told time and time again.

Also, I just watched a movie called Howl. Though the movie itself isn't very nice, the story is quite good, about Allen Ginsberg and the trial regarding the publication of Howl and Other Poems. It is a really inspiring story of a poet and his journey. It may be to artsy-fartsy for some people's taste, it was bordering on that for me. But the story pulled through. So it was half decent.

SuperFreakonomics

2011-09-27T17:01:00.004+08:00

by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

This is the follow up book to Freakonomics. Pretty interesting read in the same vein of the previous book. If you enjoyed the last book you'd probably enjoy this one. This one covered prostitution, patterns and details, altruism and global warming.

This book felt a bit shorter than the previous one, sort of felt like just half a book. I would have liked to have more to read actually. Finished this one in 2-3 days, without even trying much to read.

Anyways, this is an easy, casual read. Nothing too heavy, I think I liked the first book better though simply for the breadth and length of the book.

Freakonomics

2011-09-13T19:13:00.001+08:00

by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

This book is about the economics of very weird situation. So really made a really interesting read. One study was on why the crime rate dropped during the 1990s so suddenly when it was expected crime rate to be continuously on the rise, as it had been for the past decade or two before. However it began to drop drastically without anyone knowing why. Many guesses were made, such as better policing, better living conditions etc. However this book said that it was due to abortion finally being legalized in US. People who would go through abortion are those with low socioeconomic living conditions. So if these children were never born, then there wouldn't be any criminals in the first place. I bet pro-life people just got in all sorts of bother after hearing this theory. Anyways, the proofs described in the book seems quite convincing.

Other examples are on what sumo wrestlers and school teachers have in common, why drug dealers still live with their moms, how the Ku Klux Clan like a real-estate agent, and what makes a perfect parent. These are really topics for economics study, though totally unconventional. Such a wonderful read.

I bought this books several months ago and have only been reading it since about a month ago. This book took quite a while for me to finish. The version I read is the revised edition, with new material. Still it's pretty thin, 250+ pages. Just been so busy with studies and research so yeah.

One final separate note on the theory of abortion as the main cause of dropping crime rate. In Malcolm Gladwell's book (can't remember which) he actually specifies a theory called the Broken Windows theory which was said to be not the main contributor to crime rate drop by this book. So even with these convincing arguments, one can never really be sure which is true. Even the experts cannot agree! So always take all this information with a grain of salt.

The Importance of Being Earnest

2011-09-03T21:36:00.000+08:00

by Oscar Wilde

This is one wonderful classic that I read several weeks ago. Just got around to writing about it because I've been so hectic with studies. Well, my recollection about it might be a bit hazy now. So short synopsis from good 'ol wiki here.

First, I did not even know that this was a play. I thought it was some highfalutin literature on life in Victorian England and several people being quite pompous about life and preaching how we should live. I thought they'd be teaching us how to live life, and that is by being earnest.

Oh yes, I was very wrong. This play was funny from start to finish. At times it read a little like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the way the dialogues developed. I would definitely go see it if they play it here. And probably would read it again sometime, nice short read.

Francis Plays Outside

2011-07-18T21:04:00.000+08:00

Once upon a winter morning, there was a boy called Francis. Little Francis who was 8 years, 3 months and 2 days old that day decided to go outside to play. It was really cold out, a good thick layer of snow had fallen overnight. He was so excited that morning though, he didn't bother with such things as a jacket, a scarf or mittens. He went outside to play in just his pajamas and wellingtons (he didn't want soggy feet).

Francis stepped outside - the snow all the way up to his knees. The white silky snow covering the entire neighbourhood and he was the only thing that was not white standing around that morning. Francis was careful not to be too loud. He didn't want to wake his parents who would definitely spoil his fun. A delightful feeling started to bubble in his little body. All this snow, all to himself. He didn't feel the cold at all, he was too excited to feel cold.

In his little wellingtons Francis ran in the snow all along his street. Well, it was actually more like hopping rather than running, as the snow was so thick he could barely move in a straight line. But he was having too much fun to care. Francis made snow balls and threw them at the snow-covered cars that looked like tiny bunkers. He imagined he was a soldier lobbing grenades at the enemies hiding in the bunkers. All the while the snow was still lightly layering more snow on everything - more for him to play with. He ran and he threw, he ran and he hid, then he did it all again. He did this for quite a while, entertaining himself immensely.

After about an hour Francis was tired. Having had all the fun to be had, he was ready to go home. So Francis looked up to see which way he should go but he didn't really know. The snow had continued falling and everything was white. All the houses looked the same. He was running (hopping) and playing so much he had not kept count of how many houses he had actually passed or which direction he actually went from his house. And really all the cars that looked like bunkers still looked the same. He couldn't recognize dad's red car because all of them was covered in white. Francis started to feel very cold now; his hands were shaking, his nose was running, his little body was shivering, even his knees were knocking against each other. Only his feet were not that wet in his wellingtons but that really was no comfort to him right now. Little Francis out in the snow alone, poor little Francis.

Committed

2011-07-18T20:22:00.001+08:00

by Elizabeth Gilbert

Just finished this book. I bought it a week or two after it was out. I read the first chapter at Borders, bought it, and have not touched it ever since. But now, I felt I need a change of pace and book after so much of the fiction I have been reading. So I decided to give this a go, and it was a wonderful change it was. I finished the book in three days, which was surprisingly quick for me.

A short synopsis. This book is a non-fiction semi-autobiographical account by Gilbert as she is about to get married for a second time. It follows on from Eat Pray Love, where she has fallen in love with a man she met in Bali, Filipe. When they go back to the US, the face difficulty at customs as Filipe cannot stay in the US indefinitely because he is not an American citizen. So they have to actually get married for Filipe to stay in the States. They apply for a visa to enter America again and Gilbert is with Filipe traveling in South Asia whilst waiting for the visa to be processed, and this process takes about a year or so. Though the 'forced' marriage is inevitable, Gilbert is still unsure of the justification of marriage, especially after her first failed marriage. So too, Filipe who has also had a failed marriage. So this book is Gilbert's contemplations and study of what it means to be married, what it means to her and what can be different this time around. She explores the many aspects of marriage; the history, social, moral and material implications.

This book is wonderful from start to finish. It is however less personal and less emotion driven compared to Eat Pray Love. I would say it actually is more Malcolm Gladwell-ish in style. It was perhaps more fact-based and as it needed to be, because Gilbert was exploring the meaning of marriage. For me, it was very eye-opening and some of my preconceptions of marriage and even relationships are now forever broken. I would say this is a life-altering book. It clarifies the differences between what love and infatuation are, and also the expectations of marriage in this generation and past. There is so much to talk about from this book, which I will do in some other post.

Gilbert's writing itself is witty and never boring. Her logic is reasonable and where parts that it seemed emotionally-charged, it is broken down into understandable bits. So you always get to know what is happening, and what is being felt. Great book about marriage and relationship for anyone who is absolutely clueless about such things like me. Even if you do know about these things, it would be a good book to read anyways if just to open your perspective on marriage, love and relationships.

A Lie of the Mind

2011-07-15T19:30:00.003+08:00

by the Blak Yak Theatre Company

I went to see the last showing. Description from the Blak Yak website.

Set in the gritty American West, the story alternates between two families after a severe incident of spousal abuse leaves all their lives altered until the final collision at an isolated cabin.

The two families, one composed of Baylor, Meg, Beth, and Mike, the other composed of Lorraine, Sally, Frankie, and Jake are connected by the marriage of Jake and Beth.
Beths beating and subsequent hospitalisation at the hands of Jake initiates the beginning of the play. Exploring family dysfunction and the nature of love, the play follows Jake as he searches for meaning after Beth, and her family, as they struggle with Beth's brain damage.

Directed by Matt Longman and featuring Shell Berg, David Bowyer, Ben Kotovski-Steele, Marsha Holt, Alan Kennedy, Alex Jones, Joy Northover and Julia Hern
23, 24, 25 June. 1, 2 July Midland Junction Arts Centre 276 Great Eastern hwy (cnr Cale st) Midland

First the story. I am not sure whether it has been altered in any way or not because I have not seen the original but what I felt is the plot seemed to be great in the first 2/3s, felt like it was building up to something very interesting, a climax. But it sort of just fizzled down with any substantial explosion of clarity of where the plot was heading. Even the people beside me were saying, "So what was all that about?" Perhaps it takes a very observant or smarter person to get what was happening at the end. Well, I felt I got the message pretty well, unless there was any double entendres going on. But I think not, what happened in the end is actually all the characters are just plain crazy and they suit each other just fine. I feel it may work in some instances, not in this story. It just felt like lazy story-telling. Sort of like, 'let's just wrap this shit up because I can't be bothered to resolve all the tensioned dynamics created in the first 2 acts.' Anyways that's what I have to say about the plot, first 2 acts great, third act crap. The dialogue and pacing was good though.

A great positive I have to say that the acting was great though, the characters were acted out pretty well. However I question the need for American accents. It was clear some of the actors were struggling with it. If they adapted the whole play to be 'Australianized' I feel they would have been more authentic and believable. Perhaps it is a copyright issue that they cannot do this. But still, a great job by BlakYak, they are one of the best community theatre groups in Western Australia. I will watch pretty much anything they put on.

What I've Been Up To

2011-07-15T19:12:00.001+08:00

Okay, I haven't blogged in a while. Couple of reasons; had to do a conference paper, colloquium presentation and other stuff too. Well, the final one is I've been sick for the past week (how can it be so long to be sick?). Anyways, I am getting better now (hopefully).

I have not read much either I must say, been dispirited somewhat. No idea why. Have not written much either, have gotten rejection from AHWA for the competition though. Well, dispiriting times. Anyways, I think I will be getting my groove back soon.

Anyways, I have been back playing the piano again. Getting reacquainted with Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1 and also the Flight of the Bumblebee. Anyways that's beside the point, I will get back to reading soon. Feel I have gotten out of this rough patch rather unscathed. Ready to forge onwards soon enough. Second half of the year, let's get it done.

Thoughts on Writing Epics

2011-06-26T23:09:00.002+08:00

It is hard for me to write sometimes, because when I have an inkling of an idea of a story I begin to quickly blow the idea out of proportion and think of such grandeur and scale that I lose all sensibility of what I was writing in the first place. Then comes the crushing realization such an epic would take years to complete, and at the end of the day it is so risky whether the story would be any good at all. So at that point I would plunge into hopelessness and despair of never doing to be a writer.

Well, I said it was hard for me to write sometimes. But this is not one of those times. I guess the line of thought I wrote in the previous paragraph is prevalent in any writer. And that sort of insecurity and hope surely makes for better stories, that constant need to improving and being better at your craft. So the thing is, should I quite trying to write an epic story? No, absolutely not. I shall write it in such a way that it can be tolerated by me, to be do-able by me. I will write in small increments of the whole series, which again, being realistic, I know WILL take years and years. But I don't really care because I know it will be worthwhile. But what do I do when that crushing uncertainty comes along and doubts myself if this work will ever be done? Well, I never said I will ONLY write the epic stories. When I write, I have so many ideas sprouting out that I will use one of the marginal ideas to write short stories to submit for publications. So that will give me a sense of continuous improvement and progress.

Another note on epic. More to myself than anything. I will want to write the whole epic story before I even consider submitting for publication. This is because I do not want to end up with something like the Harry Potter series. See, I am not saying the series is not wonderful. It is great. I absolutely love the story and all the characters in it. The storytelling is wonderful in that series. But reading through the whole series I felt a great balancing problem. One could see the first three or so books are self encapsulated within themselves but also had an overall ongoing plot going on. In the latter books, this is less so. The latter books feel they are STILL organically produced with a great sense of progression in the series that is very natural. BUT you can feel at times it is like going through the motions. One could almost tell by the length of the books, each longer than the last. The same sort of goes to Frank Herbert's Dune to a lesser extent. The first few books were wonderfully coagulated, but the rest felt like extensions of the original work. Sort of tying plotlines where they would fit.

One of the best in the epics that I have read would be of course the Lord of the Rings. It is so well balanced and paced that you feel that immense sense of scale and wonder only from a properly planned out book. Even more impressive would be the Narnia series. Seven books, seven. And each of such balanced scale, it is just wonderful. Though Narnia did not have that intertwining of plot and characters, it is however very consistent and strong in its hold on balance. I guess for Narnia, it is perhaps an easier task than LoTR though in a way, because the stories are inspired by Christian stories. So it is easier to keep that consistency of pace and story, when you have that overall outlook to look out for. What I'm saying is though, all these authors have the power of making every point of the story interesting and progressing at a good pace, while always maintaining what the big picture is. So it IS really important that I have a clear idea of what the whole story is before I submit anything at all. I, having never written a full length novel really have to finish writing a book before I have the necessary experience to plan forward. I would just be happy to be 10% of what these writers are. But one can dream, what can one do But dream, dream of the epic.

The Langoliers

2011-06-22T21:02:00.001+08:00

by Stephen King

Just finished this a moment ago. I remember first watching a movie of this when I was little and how much I was creeped out by it. Not really pure fear, but a slow feeling of foreboding. It was really quite wonderful. And the thing is I don't think I watched the ending of that movie. So now I've picked up on reading the story (which is always better than their movie counterparts).

A complete synopsis here. The gist of the story is this. A bunch of people board a plane. 30 minuets into takeoff, almost the whole plane is empty and the remaining passengers awaken to this strange situation. They are finally able to land at Bangor Airport, Maine. When they get there, they discover it is almost exactly like the world they were in before, except that this world is utterly void of people and any living creature. And also there is the sound, the crackling sound. Sound like rice crispy popping from afar, as described by one of the passengers. This sound, it is getting closer too. The crackling rice crispies, coming closer and closer...

This is one of my favourite stories. The pacing is quite good, you never get out of breath or feel it is being dragged out too long. There are also several interesting themes and plot elements to it. The characters also, are unique and believable. Great story all in all.

Memnoch The Devil

2011-06-20T19:16:00.000+08:00

by Anne Rice

This is the fifth book in the Vampire Chronicles. Short synopsis on wiki here.

To be honest, I don't know what to make of this book. It is decent. But the bulk of it can be considered taking vampires as the subject matter. It seems more a discussion of theology and evolution. And for that matter, it almost read like some simplified version of the Bible. It is very different to the previous book. Well, I can at least say the style of writing is still the same. Maybe that is just the way Anne Rice writes. Very, very descriptive. It could be painfully slow at times. At times, I even skip over details. Because really, I do not need to know the hue of the curtain. In real life I am not the type of person to go up to a piece of fabric and analyze, smell, touch, like the thing. So that is perhaps a personal preference thing. I tend to skip over these bits.

In terms of the overall plot of the Vampire Chronicles, it is flowing along quite well, and the character growth is good. But now everything has grown to such epic proportions, it is just very difficult to reduce it back to the previous scope of just vampires. It is as I have just been watching the whole Season 6 of Supernatural. The scope just is blown too big out of proportion that the story becomes generic and superficial. I would have enjoyed things more if things were kept at a more micro scale, and the details of the character relationships be described that way. Also, revealing everything of the known universe, that simply removes any mystery and wonder from the story. Again, I quote a movie I loved. The Matrix. If they left it at that it would have been wonderful, one would just imagine the rest. But they made the next two movies and that just killed everything. It became too superficial, generic. This is particularly true for horror and vampires. They are mysterious and dark creatures. This story sort of puts them in their place. I don't like vampires being put in their place, I like to NOT know, I like to guess and never know. Ah, it can't be undone anyways.

I think I will take a break from the Vampire Chronicles, the story telling style can be weary if one reads too much at once. It is like rich food. Even if you have the loveliest dished for a week, if it is the same thing, you will get sick of it. So it's time for a change for me. Need to return to my horror roots, and read up on more horror fiction.

The Tale of the Body Thief

2011-06-14T08:47:00.001+08:00

by Anne Rice

This is the fourth book in The Vampire Chronicles. I skipped pass the 2nd and 3rd book because I read them before and after reading the 1st, Interview with the Vampire, it came back to my memory what the other 2 were about. So no harm just reading the fourth. The synopsis is quite long and you can read it here.

This book is still great. But after the first 3 books, there seems to be some limitation in scope now of the story. This is what I mean. The first book is set from 1790 to the present, second book from the 18th century, third book almost spanning from the beginning of the vampires. This book however is set entirely in the 20th century. So, I am wondering is it the case now that the story is written into a corner. Hopefully not. But I will read through the series and see where this story goes. I like my vampires old and ancient, spanning from ancient times to present. I don't like to read just modern day things. Also after Queen of the Damned, I don't know what kind of story can top that kind of epic. Reading on, Memnoch the Devil next. Book Five.

Interview With The Vampire

2011-06-14T08:32:00.000+08:00

by Anne Rice

This is what I call the good kind of vampire, not like that Twilight nonsense. Here is a synopsis.

This book as the title suggest is an interview by a journalist with a vampire, in a dingy hotel room. The vampire has arranged this because he wants his story told. The story is as follows.

Louis de Pointe du Lac is a plantation owner in New Orleans, and his beloved younger brother has just died under very strange circumstances. After this, he struggles to get his life straight and goes to drinking and brawling. His life is going down the drain. Then one evening as he is doing this, a vampire takes him and turns him. This vampire is Lestat de Lioncourt. Louis, though he wanted to die after his brother's death did not want to be a vampire. So this story goes on about the early years of Louis as a vampire and his struggle with the life of a vampire.

Okay, my synopsis does not do the story justice really. I had a looked at the wikipedia summary and it's the length of a short story, so you know how complex and intricate it is. Firstly, about the writing. The first time I read this book several years ago, I found the story quite dry for the first 3 quarter of the books. And if you are not into vampires, this book will probably bore you to death. It goes into such painfully slow detail of their life. But if you DO love this genre, then Anne Rice is the gold standard. The details would then give such life and richness to this world of the undead. I still love this book, though it's the second time reading it it's still great.

1984

2011-05-08T22:06:00.000+08:00

by George Orwell

Here is a short synopsis of the book 1984 on wiki.

Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes written 1984) is a 1948 dystopian novel written by George Orwell, about an oligarchical, collectivist society. Life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control. The individual is always subordinated to the state, and it is in part this philosophy which allows the Party to manipulate and control humanity. In the Ministry of Truth, protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party's propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct, yet his meager existence disillusions him to the point of seeking rebellion against Big Brother, eventually leading to his arrest, torture, and reconversion.

I will first review the book's plot. I is solid and the pacing is good, the story never really drags for too long and the turns in direction are at times unexpected. If not unexpected, they are at least developed very organically without any force to an ends.

The characters are well developed and believable, fully fleshed out and the writing style is suitable for this sort of dreary dystopian scenery. Orwell really is masterful in conveying the dread and hopelessness of his dystopian world. There is close to no space for questioning the logic of his world as all his loops of logic that one may question are closed off, and the reasoning behind every action in the story is well explained. Even if there were to be any question, he leads the reader on with such strange logic that you could only find one possible line of logic is possible at the end.

As a whole, this book is well written. However, after reading it I just felt crappy because the ending was so hopeless and crazy. I need to read something else, so freaking depressing.

Vltava River, Prague

2011-05-04T19:11:00.001+08:00

Original photo by the TheAppleScientist

Just coloured these in just now, I think this is one of my best ones to date. The colours and tone work is perhaps getting better now.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

2011-05-04T17:43:00.000+08:00

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Short description from wikipedia.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective and illustrated by Sidney Paget.
The 12 stories in this collection are:
"A Scandal in Bohemia"
"The Adventure of the Red-Headed League"
"A Case of Identity"
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
"The Five Orange Pips"
"The Man with the Twisted Lip"
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band"
"The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb"
"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor"
"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet"
"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

I love these stories. He has a way of analyzing the minutiae and using those to solve mysteries. Some are fairly obvious, but his skills of deductions are still amazing. Shall carry on next with the Sign of Four which I am halfway through.

Bridge To Serenity

2011-05-04T16:59:00.000+08:00

Based on a photo by AliEnX7587

Back to doing a pencil sketch for this. Have a thought of doing something with colour for this but maybe I will try that later.

Waiting

2011-05-04T16:44:00.002+08:00

I did three interpretations of this picture by Flying-Fossa

First one is sort of minimalistic forms using simple colours.

Second one is playing with lots of shapes and patterns to form a picture.

Third is heavier on the colour and working on tones and colour mixture.

By The Water

2011-04-29T11:21:00.002+08:00

Original photo by MMortAH

I decided to colour this, here it is.

Before, here it was.

Did this in an hour or so. Free form sketching again. And experimented with some sections again. I sort of like the sky, but not really the water. Like the brickwork on the river bank also, and the miniscule people was alright. I have more thoughts of the sky that I will try it on something else probably.

A Study in Scarlet

2011-04-26T14:54:00.000+08:00

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Short synopsis from Wikipedia.

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which was first published in 1887. It is the first story to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, who would later become one of the most famous literary detective characters, with long-lasting interest and appeal. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes to his companion Doctor Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."^[1]

^{This is the first of the novels of the whole Holmes series and it is where it all starts, how Watson meets Holmes and their first case together. I have found this website here, that has all the Holmes stories for download for free here as the copyright has ran out already and is free to be read. So I am not my lovely Kindle, going to read all of it in order. Month long this will probably take. Lovely.}

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

2011-04-19T16:49:00.000+08:00

by Malcolm Gladwell

This is the last book at this time that Gladwell has written that I have not read. Short synopsis below from wikipedia.

This is a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell. It presents in popular science format research from psychology and behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious; mental processes that work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information. It considers both the strengths of the adaptive unconscious, for example in expert judgment, and its pitfalls such as stereotypes.

This is quite a good book, thought I feel that some of the arguments are debatable and can be open to so many interpretations and results of what are the causes and effects. However, Gladwell again succeeds in showing there is something to be considered here. The topic itself is very interesting and well worth a read.

Dresden Sketch

2011-04-09T14:57:00.000+08:00

This is a 1 hour sketch, original picture by The Apple Scientist called Rainy Dresden. Good fast one. Sort of used the same approach to drawing as I did for Rue de Orfevres. Just on A4 paper using a regular mechanical lead pencil. Did not erase anything at all for this, completed in one attempt. I am getting more comfortable with this style now.

The Tipping Point

2011-04-07T13:56:00.001+08:00

by Malcolm Gladwell

Short description from wikipedia.

Gladwell defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point."^[1] The book seeks to explain and describe the "mysterious" sociological changes that mark everyday life. As Gladwell states, "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do."^[2] The examples of such changes in his book include the rise in popularity and sales of Hush Puppies shoes in the mid-1990s and the precipitous drop in the New York City crime rate after 1990.

This again is a great book by Gladwell, though I personally like Outliers the best because it is the most personal. This is more of broad strokes of social behavior. But still it is a wonderfully insightful read on what causes a tipping point to occur. In all, I think it presents great ideas, though I believe it is subject to quite a bit of reasoning and one can argue one way or another whether these hypothesis are true or not. A great thing with Gladwell is he forms his arguments in a very comprehensible way, keeping one engaged. So even though you may not necessarily agree with what is said, you would at least stick around to find out what he's on about..

The Curtain and Window

2011-04-03T19:01:00.002+08:00

Once there was a curtain. He was very proud of himself because he felt his role so important. He said so to the window, "Look, see. I have colour and sway in the wind when you are left open. I have such grace and culture. What have you, dear window, you are but opaque panes of glass. No one notices you, you are transparent."

The window replied, "Indeed that is the case. But people will look through me and they will never look at you. Who ever heard of looking at curtains to being something of any value?"

This sort of bickering went on for a long time, the back and forth going on for weeks, months, then years. Then one day the old curtain having been hung for more that 10 years was losing colour and getting tattered. The old curtain was thus replaced by a new one. Its colour even more vibrant that the old curtain.

The new curtain said to the window, "Dear old window, see how beautiful I am. My colour reflect the colour of the sun and I serve such fine purpose as to block out the sun when it is too bright, or let the sun in when our master wishes it."

The window replied in turn as he had with the previous curtain and also added, "Think about the old curtain having been replaced. One day you will be replaced too."

With that the curtain was silent. But that evening, while the children were playing in the street, a baseball went astray and crashed through the window and shattered it into pieces.

Moral of the story: All things are replacable.

Outliers

2011-04-03T18:02:00.002+08:00

by Malcolm Gladwell

Short synopsis from Wikipedia

Outliers: The Story of Success is a non-fiction book written by Malcolm Gladwell and published by Little, Brown and Company on November 18, 2008. In Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. To support his thesis, he examines the causes of why the majority of Canadian ice hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year, how Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates achieved his extreme wealth, and how two people with exceptional intelligence, Christopher Langan and J. Robert Oppenheimer, end up with such vastly different fortunes. Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.

This was a very inspiring or very dispiriting book depending on how you look at it. The main point I think is that success is not attributed to just your personal effort, where the modern story of success is someone who goes it himself without the help of anyone else and succeeds. This book says even for the cases where you think this is the case, it actually it is not. There are so many factors coming into play that their success is no matter of just hardwork and luck. Of course these two factors are extremely important, but there are other underlying factors that are so weird and trivial that one would just ponder in wonder at such strange correlations to success.

One may not totally agree with all the points made in this book (though I personally agree with most of them), but what is important here is to get you thinking of how these things may have an effect on your life and not be oblivious to the factors affecting you. Ignorance is bliss, and more knowledge may bring more worries and stress, because some things are just out of your control. But I believe there is a third stage after that where if you know enough and know your limitations, you will learn acceptance and work within those frameworks for personal betterment. So it is better to try and be defeated rather than to not try at all. Like the common addage, Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

The Alchemist

2011-04-03T17:44:00.000+08:00

by Paulo Coelho

Short synopsis from Wikipedia.

The Alchemist details the journey of a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasure. He then tells a lone gypsy about this treasure. As he leaves, the gypsy mentions one thing. If he does find the treasure, she wants 1/10 of it. On the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity, disaster and learns a lot about himself around the impact he had on the people he met. One of the significant characters that he meets is an old king named Melchizedek^[5] who tells him about discovering his personal legend: what he always wanted to accomplish in his life. And that "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and motto of the book. During his travels, he meets a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima who explains to him that if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks. Santiago then encounters a lone alchemist who tells about personal legends. He says that people only want to find the treasure of their personal legends but not the personal legend itself. He feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states "Those who don't understand their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings."

I actually read this book several years ago and decided to read it again because it is just so wonderful. Plus it is not that long, so it is a book you can finish in one or two sittings. The story is wonderfully inspirational, it motivates for one to be brave and chase their dreams because that is the only life worth living. One would rather be poorer and take a risk in doing something they love, rather earning more money doing something they don't like. So I read this book over and over just to remind myself of why I am here, and what I should do. This is one must buy book because it has infinite re-read value, a modern day classic.

Aesop's Fables

2011-04-03T17:37:00.002+08:00

by Aesop

Short synopsis from Wikipedia.

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. His fables are some of the most well known in the world. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" derives), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Ant and the Grasshopper are well-known throughout the world.

Who does not know some of Aesop's Fables. Though, I actually did not know there were so many fables by Aesop. By the end of it I was sort of sick foxes and asses and lions and birds.

An interesting thing about Aesop's Fables are their morals are as applicable today as they are then, barring a few. There were only about 5 stories which moral of the stories I did not agree with. In a few of those I also did not feel the moral was what was being represented in the story. But that maybe due to subjective opinion. Overall, it was a good read and good (or bad) to see human nature has not changed much in the past few hundred years.

The Raven

2011-03-28T10:49:00.000+08:00

by Edgar Allan Poe

Summary from wikipedia.

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,^[1]^[2] is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.

I love this poem and is one that I read over and over as it colours the slow transition towards madness very well. The pacing is beautiful. Everything about is wonderful. Nothing will ever come close to how wonderfully dark it is. Nevermore.

The Mysterious Stranger

2011-03-28T10:42:00.000+08:00

by Mark Twain

This story is about three boys in a small village who stumble upon a stranger in the woods one evening. This, the mysterious stranger, turns out to be an angel and when questioned what his name was, he replied that his name was Satan. Following this encounter the boys' life are changed and so too the whole village as the stranger stays in the town and meddles with the affairs of the villagers. He does this to highlight the Moral Sense of humanity and how trivial the sense of right and wrong and how hypocritical the human race really is.

A full synopsis of the story can be found here on wikipedia.

It really is an amazing story and surprising how relatable this story is even though it was written about 100 years ago. It is the sort of story I hope to write in terms of the theme and plot. It also shows me that books do not really need to be scenic and full of descriptive prose to fully-colour the world. Twain here has very efficiently created his world in broad strokes and allow the reader to fill their own worlds with their own details, I would analogize this to a minimalist artist but still not cause a wanting of more description.

What The Dog Saw and other adventures

2011-03-28T10:27:00.001+08:00

by Malcolm Gladwell

This is a strange book for me because I have never read anything like it. It is a non-fiction book that reads so much like fiction. It is a collection of short pieces that Gladwell wrote in The New Yorker magazine. They span a wide range of issues from the Dog Whispere, as you might have seen on TV, Mr. Cesar Millan, to the Heinz ketchup story, to the crash of Enron, and breast cancer imaging scans. As you can tell, it makes for strange reading.

Here is a synopsis from wikipedia.

What the Dog Saw is a compilation of 19 articles by Malcolm Gladwell that were originally published in The New Yorker which are categorized into three parts. The first part, Obsessives, Pioneers, and other varieties of Minor Genius, describes people who are very good at what they do, but are not necessarily well-known. Part two, Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses, describes the problems of prediction. This section covers problems such as intelligence failure, and the fall of Enron. The third section, Personality, Character, and Intelligence, discusses a wide variety of psychological and sociological topics ranging from the difference between early and late bloomers and criminal profiling.^[3]

I just read article after article because what is amazing is not the story persay, because truth be told. some of the subject matter could be quite dry, the stuff found in medical journals or government documentation. What makes it exciting is the angle and the prose used by Gladwell. He is certainly a masterful writer and journalist who knows how to use the human angle. You feel you are taken along the ride with why these issues matter and their consequences on everyday life.

Overall, it is a great book with insights into areas that one would never think of even thinking about. Certainly broadens your mind on common issues and be more open to other perspectives of social norms.

Zastrozzi

2011-03-15T16:02:00.002+08:00

at the Melville Theatre

Summary of play from Melville theatre website.

Zastrozzi tells the story of an amoral and charismatic criminal mastermind and master swordfighter who cuts a swath of destruction across Europe in the 19th century.

Zastrozzi relentlessly pursues revenge against Verezzi, a naïve and disturbed artist who has been one step ahead of Zastrozzi for the past three years thanks to his tutor, Victor. But Zastrozzi, with his not too bright sidekick Bernardo, and Matilda (the greatest seductress of Europe and lover of Zastrozzi), have finally caught up.

Now, it is time for all to meet, and what is left to do is decide if you on the side of goodness and purity, or evil… or like Julia, being simply thrown into world you know nothing about and hope to land on your feet!

This is a play adaptation of the classic story of Zastrozzi by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The first half of it was pretty good but the second half seemed a little hastil wrapped up. At the end of it I felt the characters deteriorated from the plot, in that I did not have a clear idea of why the characters do what they did. Their dialogue seemed slightly off character and in the end I do not see the purpose of what Zastrozzi as done. If Zastrozzi was as smart as he claims, more should have came from how things ended. If one were to bank on wit and charisma to be his strong points, I would have liked to have seen this being brought through to the end. Overall, it was average. Plot could have been better developed, maybe keeping to the original story more would have been better.

Darkness Comes

2011-03-12T16:46:00.001+08:00

by Dean Koontz

A short summary. This book is about a police officer, Jack Dawson who is assigned to a case investigating the strange deaths of the Caramazza mob family. Their deaths were very peculiar with their whole body seeming to be bitten by small creatures and bleeding to death. One by one, the Caramazzas are dying, and although they are scum Jack must solve the case before more people die. And even worse, it seems these creatures are going to come for not only Jack but his young son and daughter. The tiny creatures are coming, they are coming for them all...

I loved the first chapter of the book, where it was a scene of Jack's daughter in the dark with the creature coming from who knows where, the fear and anticipation was electrifying. Then after that scene it was pretty much flat all the way through. The whole story was predictable and all the characters were very corny. It seems the story was written like a cheap movie production; stringing along one horror scene to the next horror scene and some of these were decent but it all felt too rehearsed. Like okay I will scare you now a little, then we will have a little break, then I will scare you again. And by the end I felt there was some glaring holes in the plot. But I finished the book nonetheless. There are some good moments in the book, but overall I think it is not that worth reading. Koontz is said to be comparable to King, and I can see at moments his style works. However, based on this piece of work, I think King is much better story telling wise. I perhaps need to read a couple more of Koontz's books to have a better idea of things. But definitely will hold off buying any of his books until I have read a few more from the library.

Red Rose on Piano: Pen Sketch

2011-03-12T16:21:00.000+08:00

in pen and marker

This is based on the photograph Red Rose on Piano by yhdenenkelinunelma

It took me 2.5 hours to do. Preliminary sketch with pencil then used black ballpoint pen to draw the outline, and shading too. Used a marker to colour the keys. Used a water-based pen to do darker lines and of course red ballpoint and water-based for the rose. From this I got a feel of how the the pens and markers work and what they can do.

Rue de Orfevres

2011-03-11T22:57:00.001+08:00

in Pen and Marker

I did this in about 4 hours. It is based on a photo by Gimpy-Dexter. This was done using pencil and then a ballpoint pen to draw the main lines. Used marker to shade in the areas. Then I went a bit crazy with the pens and the marker, but I think it turned out alright. The joys of experimentation...Also, the quality of the picture is crap because I only have crappy mobile camera and that's what I used to take the picture. Couldn't scan it, was drawn on an A0-sized paper, so it's quite big.

photograph by Gimpy-Dexter

The Eyes of the Dragon

2011-03-11T13:22:00.002+08:00

by Stephen King

This is a dark fantasy book set in a sort of medieval age, of castles and wizards. It is a story of a young prince, Peter who is framed by Flagg, the magician/advisor of King Roland, Peter's father. He is then sent to live out the rest of his life in the top of a tower that overlooks the whole city, called the Needle. In the meantime, Peter's younger brother Thomas takes over the kingdom and being so young and not very bright, Thomas is simply a puppet to Flagg's will. In all this while, Peter sets about setting things right and starts to hatch a plan to escape and reclaim his throne and clear his name. All this Peter must do before Flagg causes the whole kingdom to riot in arms from the high taxation and injustice of the courts he has imposed.

I think this is not one of King's best works. It seems to simple and the world's coloring and texture is very thinly veiled. The concept are also not explored into much depth. I felt there was very little to make this story have any sort of fantasy feel, or is it not supposed to be fantasy but just set in medieval times. I wonder. Anyways, it is also not dark and scary enough.

With other King books I have read, I always felt sick to my gut about how mentally disturbing it is. For instance, when I read Rose Madder, even thought the overall plots was not very well put together, the depth and substance of the characters are enough to make you feel and sick with everything, which is where I set the bar for King's fiction.

Overall, the story is decent and the characters are likable but at the end of it I felt it could have been so much more and I did not feel particularly horrified by any of it.

Hay Fever

2011-03-11T13:06:00.000+08:00

at the Garrick Theatre

This is the synopsis from their website.

Hay Fever, a luminous and entertaining comedy, introduces you to the Bliss family: a retired acrtess mother, a novelist father and two children for whom all the world, literally, is a stage. Their outrageous antics alternately infuriate and astound their hapless weekend guests, all of whom have been individually invited for a weekend tete-a-tete.
Rousing fights, surprise engagements and fevered declarations of love drive the poor guests from the house, leaving the family happily bickering and playing amongst themselves as this stylish comedy bounces to it's inevitable and intoxicating end.

It was quite funny and light hearted. They were absolutely the most melodramatic family I have seen and their acting was very good. I especially liked the mother and the 2 children, they played their roles well. Start to end, it was quirky and a really off-beat sort of comedy. It you do not get wit, you probably won't get this. Quite peculiar sort of humour.

Hunger

2011-02-26T16:57:00.000+08:00

by Knut Hamsun

This is the first book written by Knut Hamsun about a struggling writer living in Kristiana and the desperate times faced whilst trying to make ends meet and even have a place to stay or food to eat. All throughout the book the character is constantly hungry and cold and damp, and one gets to feel this misery in great realism as the character feels it. And slowly, page by page, the character's condition degrades further still as he is subject to whatever situation his life and luck would have upon his well being. But still he is proud and stand by his principles of how he should behave as a decent human being. So he is the man that would rather go hungry and be in the cold that be slighted and be thought of as a fool.

This book reminds me of reading Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger in its content but the style is quite different, both beautiful books. Both has turns in pace that are constantly unexpected and so you would not know what would happen in the next page or even the next paragraph. Sometimes reading a book, you get the sense that this has been copied from somewhere else and this is not the case here. It is so real and organic but yet so unique that you can't help being surprised by what is happening. That said, I found it really hard to first get into this book when I just read a few pages now and then. Then I had to get my car serviced one morning and was stuck at the waiting area for about 3+ hours and finally I really got into the book. Some book have to be slowly savored (as with most classics) but with this one (which is also a classic), I really had to take large chunks of it at once. Maybe it was as the namesake says, Hunger, and so must be consumed with ravenous intent. I was so influenced by this book that I decided that I would now eat a thick slice of cheese and several pieces of bread for lunches from now on. This is just as a reminder of how simple things can be nice too and always appreciate the simpler things in life. But also, I was running out of ideas of stuff to make for lunch and am too lazy to make anything complicated. Always have to have multiple reasons for doing anything. Ah, what drivel. I am getting off track...

It is said that Knut Hamsun is the father of 20th century literature and I could not comprehend this at first. But after thinking back of how people before that period wrote and after, Hamsun is probably the person whose writing seem to bring about that transition. From the older style of writing that I would deem more smooth, controlled and 'poetic'. To the modern more raw, straightforward pace of modern fiction. Hamsun also describes very well the way the human mind works, in all its logic and lack of. His writing is a timeless capsule of how the human thought process has not evolved that much in the last hundred years and people are as irrational as they ever were.

Valentine's

2011-02-14T16:52:00.000+08:00

for a friend

The picture is of a couple walking into a forest, which symbolize the unknown. The bushes and crooked branches are characterizations of challenges and friction. And arching above the couple are branches that for an imperfect heart, which symbolize imperfect love.

The outer frame is of red tulips and black roses, which means if one were to let go of all the trivialities and endure challenging situation, a more perfect and wholesome love will form.

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark

2011-02-14T16:45:00.000+08:00

by The Old Mill Theatre

Description of play from the Old Mill Theatre website.

Production: February 4-19, 2011

The Old Mill Theatre is opening its 2011 season this February with one of Shakespeare’s all-time greatest blockbusters. Directed by the experienced and well-known John Milson, Hamlet has been described as “the greatest play, by the greatest writer who ever lived”. The play is set in the kingdom of Denmark and tells the story of Prince Hamlet gaining revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering the king – Hamlet’s father and Claudius’ brother – after he gains the throne and marries the widowed queen.

Overall, it was good. To date the longest play I have seen, 2 intermissions. I think the whole thing was close to 3 hours. Good that the acting and directing was decent, if not I definitely would have walked out half way through.

A little bit to say about costume though., The younger characters in the play seem to be dressed up almost like vampires in Twilight, which was sort of lame. And Hamlet seems like a whiny teenager. On that note, most of them seem like whiny teenagers. I don't know if that is how it is supposed to be but in the end I was actually happy they all died. All the characters complain too much about how crappy their lives are.

Anyways, it is after all Shakespeare. And the words are delicious, like caramel coated sweets.

Meditations

2011-02-09T22:42:00.001+08:00

by Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius, he was a Roman emperor. This book is of notes that he made through his life of things he learned, thoughts, philosophy and everyday occurrences. It is a wonderful look of such a strong person. He was a great man with every great virtue I could think of. Well, the important ones anyhow. Good book to just pick up and flip through, it's like looking through a really old dead man's diary. Well, putting it that way makes it kind of creepy. What's even weird is it was probably written in Latin and someone actually took the pains of translating his personal journal. What weird people scholars can be at times. Oh, well. Good read anyways.

Perth City

2011-02-04T17:55:00.001+08:00

by Lawrence

This is my first attempt at some line art, and halfway through it turned out to be a little not like line art. Well, it was pretty experimental for me, to try different techniques.

It is a drawing of Perth city. If you google, Perth I reckon this is the shot you would get because there is pretty much no other scenic shots of Perth. It is a good start to me looking for nice sceneries to draw of Perth. So I would probably look for places to draw some time but this is the first.

Cosy Street Completed Sketch

2011-01-28T15:14:00.004+08:00

by Lawrence

I liked it because it was a quiet street with no people around, unspoiled. Looks quiet and serene. This took about a week to do, well mayb 3-4 days of actual days I drew. Here is the intermediate sketches from bare bones to semi-shaded.

The completed sketch of the photograph was by Br0kenGlass entitled Cosy City

photograph by Br0kenGlass

The Divine Comedy: Inferno (Post 1)

2011-01-28T11:44:00.000+08:00

by Dante Alighieri

This is the first part of The Divine Comedy which Dante wrote between 1308 and 1321. It maps Dante's journey down into hell, then to purgatory and ascendancy into heaven; thus the three books Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

The original book is in Italian which was then considered vulgar when all other serious writing was written in Latin. But it is a testament of this work that it has survived the ages and now translated to English. There are plenty of translations out there on this, and because the art of translating is not an exact one, one just has to make do with the interpretations of Dante's work (unless of course one would take the trouble to study classical Italian). The version I am reading is translated by John Ciardi and is mentioned not to be written with the most flourish and exact wording, but it evokes the most precise emotions of what Dante means to say, which is why I chose this version.

As of yet I have only read the first section of the book. Even the foreword and introductions took me quite a while to read. I normally do not read these, because there is so much to take in in this book, I figured a proper frame and construct of what I am reading is required.

As of now I have read that Dante has fallen from the straight path and has seen the great light upon the mountain. But his path is blocked by three beasts, that is a lion, a leopard and a she-wolf. Each of these creatures signifying a type of sin. So being turned away from the direct path to salvation (the mountain), he is turned deeper into the forest. In the forest, he meets Virgil his guide who says to him he needs to take the long way round and descend into hell and purgatory before he can come into salvation. But there he shall be guided not by Virgil himself for Virgil is the embodiment of reason, and reason can only take you so far. Into heaven he must follow Beatrice who will lead him there.

This book really has to be consumed very very slowly to take on the full effect of the writing. So it would probably take me a long time to finish this whilst I read other things along the way. But as the title suggests, I shall periodically post to wherever I have read.

Victoria

2011-01-28T11:19:00.000+08:00

by Knut Hamsun

I read this short story a moment ago. It is a story about a miller's son, Johannes who falls in love with a girl of the upper class, Victoria when they were children. And all throughout life they struggle with their love for each other and having to deal with the reality of their lives being so different. Johannes grows up to be a successful writer and Victoria was to to be married to a rich lieutenant. After his, Johannes finally was also engaged to a girl he who he has saved her life when she was younger called Camilla. And after all these occurrences, Johannes and Victoria still loved each other.

This is a good light book to read, the words are simple but deep in meaning. Its take of human emotion and logic (or lack of it) behind the character's actions are interesting and very believable. Hamsun captures the irrationality of the human condition perfectly. It is a compact book and is worth a read, and a re-read. That said, it is a very sad book so you may wish to allow some space in between reads because the emotions evoked would not be dampened by knowing how this book ends, as is the sign of any good book. Perhaps it would even compound emotions by hearing a story familiar that one has forgotten and remembered again, like the embers of a long forgotten love.

Cosy Street

2011-01-23T21:45:00.004+08:00

by Lawrence

Here's the preliminary sketch.

This is based on Br0kenGlass's photo Cosy City on dA as seen here.

photograph by Br0kenGlass

Really like this picture because when I see it I think how nice it would be just to relax and be sitting along a street like that and just....well, if I were actually there I probably would be drawing it too! Anyways it's lovely and I would love to live in a place like that. As it is, cosy.

Here are the shades I did, first with the front block, picture below. I thought the bricks turned out alright. I was really happy with the window, that looked really nice.

Drawing the foliage was a new challenge for me as there were lots of dark areas and the original photo resolution was quite blur. I was actually going for a really exact picture for this sketch, but because it was slightly blurred I had to compromise a bit. But it turned out alright, the experimentation turned out well.

I complete this picture just now and the final sketch can be seen here.

Laura Portrait

2011-01-21T23:40:00.004+08:00

by Lawrence

original photograph by Laura Lin

This is a sketch of a girl that I don't actually know, just found the photo on deviantArt and felt like drawing a portrait. Did not come out really good but at least still looks decent. At any rate better than my last one, so am improving. Will hope to get better with more practice. Next one would probably be a scenery sketch.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

2011-01-19T21:41:00.000+08:00

by Ursula Le Guin

Just read this after my friend Dawn has send it to me like a few months ago! Okay, I shall never procrastinate to read whatever she sends me anymore. Because this was wonderful! Absolutely beautiful writing.

This story is a description of a Utopian city with something dark underlining its existence. The story in itself is simple enough. What is amazing about it is its imagery and it wit in presenting something that you feel is too good to believe, and prodding you, and questioning you in what is acceptable and not. It is a wonderful peace with good progression throughout. It flows beautifully. I am glad it is what it is, leaves a lot to the imagination of what Omelas was before and what will happen.

Though if it were to be expanded upon, it would take a lot of skill to pull off that level of wit consistently throughout. Like the movie The Matrix was great just on its own. And the sequels were rubbish, this short story is perfect as it stands.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

2011-01-12T22:47:00.001+08:00

by Stieg Larsson

This is the third and last book in the Millennium trilogy. Note that this summary may contain spoilers if you have not read the first 2 books (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire) It follows on from where book 2 ended. Lisbeth Salander had just had a confrontation with Zalachenko and is badly injured and so too Zalanchenko. They are both sent to hospital and awaiting recovery upon which they would be awaiting trial. In that confrontation, Niederman had managed to escape and in at that moment still at large. Whilst this is going on, there are powers working deep within the crevices of the Secutiry Police, known as The Section, that look to undermine Lisbeth and would see her again locked up in a psychiatric ward. In all this, Mikael Blomkvist and a barrage of people are trying to build a case to see that The Section's plan does not come to fruition. The result is about 750 pages of nonstop action and political espionage.

I started reading this book 4 days back and could not stop. The writing is realistic to the point that at one point or another one wonder if one is really reading piece of fiction. The plots is so disjointed at times that you really do wonder if these events actually occurred. This halting plot however does not take away the pace of the story, it is well-paced for such a tome of a book. To the contrary, it makes you wonder what is at the next turn as things are just so unexpected. Things however do tone down approaching the last quarter of the book, and I felt it went slightly anti climactic. So again, it just felt so much like actual occurrences.

Adding to the realism is that the characters though numerous, are very believable and moreover one can relate to them and their situations. My favourite character has to be Lisbeth Salander because she is one of the most unique female protagonist I have come across. She is a recluse, uncommunicative but extremely resourceful. The characters in this book are quite multi-dimensional and comple, so not at all cliche.

Some minor criticisms is that as a whole, books I seem to be quite disjointed from II and III in that I could have sat alone. But this was Stieg's first major work of fiction so I guess it was reasonable for the first book to be more self encapsulated, for fear that he was ever allowed to publish the first one. But I would also have liked books II and III to be more self encapsulated whilst maintaining intricate interweaving with revelations from books I and II. But all this is perhaps is just nit picking in an absolutely wonderful trilogy that I would probably re read again all three together.

What a great loss to the literary world it is that Stieg Larrson has passed on. RIP.

Room For Nothing

2011-01-10T19:59:00.008+08:00

by my crappy phone camera

I was tidying my bookshelf. I rearranged them by their genres; classics, thrillers, horror, children's books, biographies. I methodically removed all the books and wiped out all the dust on the surfaces. I then replaced them in a better, tidier order. In the end, there was one whole unfilled compartment. I had more space! I looked at it and thought what I should put there. I was at once excited by the prospect that I could get more books to fill this space. But this excitement subsided as quickly as it came, giving way to a pang of guilt. I have so many books that have not been read. For me to fill this space with even more books would be excessive. The reason I was tidying the bookshelf in the first place was because I did not have enough space!

Now there is an empty space on my shelf. The spaces to its left and right are filled with books, this space in the middle lay barren. I stared at it and felt uneasy. How did I end up with the empty space smack in the middle, not the compartment to the left or the right? The empty space seemed wrong. A compartment should serve a function. An empty compartment on the shelf seemed unclean, blasphemous even. Space is provided to me and I put nothing there? The emptiness just did not make any sense. Other compartments being filled to the brim with books. Why should this compartment be empty? What made you so special? What made you different from the rest? Did you not know that you serve a purpose? To hold things, to keep things in order. This compartment had the tenacity to be empty? If I have an empty space would that mean my life is empty, that I am living a hollow existence? What the hell am I thinking? This is not right, not right at all! The longer I stared at the space, the stranger and more uncomfortable I felt. The roaring voices continued to pound at my mind.

Why? Why? Why...Why Not?

Then all at once there was silence. I stared at the empty compartment. The gaping hole stood out amongst the other compartments filled with books. The empty space that is not filled, does it yearn to be filled? No, it yearns NOT to be filled. As I continued staring transfixed, calm came over me. Again I asked myself, why is this space empty? Why do I not use it?

But it IS being used, for emptiness. No, not emptiness. For nothing. It is my personal room for nothing. Things will always fill spaces. It is altogether far more difficult to keep spaces empty than it is to fill them. It is totally my choice for it to be filled or not. This nothing space is escape from the encroaching stress and incessant noise of life. It is space for possibilities. It can be anything I wish it to be. It is space for new things and experiences. The room for nothing is my liberation, my freedom. I had room for nothing, so I need to make room for nothing.

...Snowman...

The Witch of Portobello

2011-01-01T13:17:00.001+08:00

by Paulo Coelho

This is one of the better books that I have read, certainly after the last one. This story is about a woman and her spiritual journey that brought her from the desolate villages of Romania, being adopted by a well-off family in Beirut, and migrating to England due to war. As she grows into a woman, she ventures on a career in the Middle East then ventures back to Romania to find her roots. On the way she is guided by several teachers to find herself and have a better understanding of the times we live in and how she fits in the the grand scheme of things, or should I say not fit in. Sherine Khalil dies a brutal murder as was said in the early pages of the book so is know secret. But this book is worth the read nonetheless.

This story is told through transcription of accounts by people who knew her, so the opinions are hyperbolic at times and certainly subjective to the person speaking of her. This was a very interesting way of telling a story, through the perspectives of the people who surround her. As always with a Coelho book, the theme is deeply spiritual and talks about life and how people live it. It is both enlightening and impresses upon us to reevaluate what we live for, why we live and how we live. Coelho speaks of universal issues that affect everyone and even if you do not agree with his views, you would at least stop and consider what is being said. In all of us is a struggle for peace, contentment and happiness. The Witch of Portobello speaks of the courage to seek these things.

Year's Resolution In Review: 2010 Edition

2010-12-29T21:32:00.001+08:00

Ok, so it's closing in on the end of 2010 and here I would like to reflect on how my reading and writing have gone this year. I look back at what these were in my past posts Resolution 2010 and Mid Year Resolution. Well, I reckon I've read about 30 books at least this year. I guess that's pretty alright.

And I have also written a bunch of short stories and poems. Two good things happening was having my poem Shapes being published in a Drop of Ink which is not really anything because that's a web publication and they published all submissions anyways. Also, the website now seems pretty much dead. Secondly I got my short story Peculiarity published on Receipt Stories which was encouraging.

But I wasn't able to complete the book-length story I was working on. Just thinking of this year makes me wonder where reading and writing is in my list of priorities. I should probably stop watching so much mindless television and read and write more. But it is strenuous to the brain to have to think of things to write after working, and I just feel so tired most days to muster up the energy to do it. Moreover, approaching December when I had my research conference, I absolutely did not write anything at all. It must be months since I last wrote something. I must reignite my flame for it, I feel very dead inside from not expressing anything creatively for too long. Feels like my soul is rotting.

All I can say about the new year is that I will try my best to write more stories and poetry. I will only publish flash fiction on this site from now on, and keep the short stories and longer stories for actual publication. The flash fiction and poems can act as catalyst to the longer stories. I hope next year is good, because this year I do not feel I have done sufficient at all in the upkeep of this website and in my reading and writing in general. Hope everything works out in the coming year. 2011, I shall enter it with some apprehension.

Furnace

2010-12-28T21:51:00.002+08:00

by Muriel Gray

I'll just come right out and say that this book was horrible. I bought it from the bargains section in the from the local bookstore and decided to bring this one along on my trip to Shanghai, China to kill some time in between traveling. What a bad choice of book that was and no wonder it was in the bargain bin. One might discount that as being the point, it's in the bargain bin after all. I have however found some gems from the bargain bin like Sheldon's and Katzenbach's, so I usually take a chance on some books. But again, this choice was badly warranted.

I will get into the book good and proper. The plot is simple. Josh Spiller, truck driver goes to some Utopian town in the middle of nowhere and 'accidentally' kills a baby. Actually the mother purposely pushed the baby in the pram onto the road and Josh squashed baby. After that, weird things happen to Josh. People start avoiding him, his phone calls to other people turn out to be just static, during a hot shower there is something moving in the mist behind him, etc etc, regular run-of-the-mill horror elements.

To be perfectly honest here, I only read half the book. It's about 400 pages, and I did 200 pages. And that was a very painful 200 to do. And I'll take a shot at guessing the rest of the story to be the following. Demon that requires some sort of human sacrifice every now and then somehow latched onto Josh because he killed the baby. Then in the end either he dies, consumed by the fires of hell, or he lives happily ever after. Well, one way or the other I don't really care. I hope he dies, I hope the demon murders everyone. That would at least be a refreshing twist to what is an absolutely ridiculous book. I will now dissect.

From the format of the book one can tell something is wrong. Each chapter is about 10 pages. The 200 pages I read, I was up to chapter 23. That tells me one thing in that it is amateurish, like an unfit runner that requires to stop every other minute of running. The writing structure is also horrible. At one point, Gray commits the cardinal sin of actually changing character perspectives in the middle of a section.

One of the characters which is Korean is described to be pouring tea with movements that are 'Geisha-like'. Get your cultural references right! Geishas are Japanese, not freaking Korean, which just goes to sthe how cultural ignorance. At the very least, it is showing a lazy writer who does not do proper research.

I had the idea that reading some mediocre books would help me spot the mistakes in my own writing. Now I realize I can spot mistakes just fine if I analyze my own work critically. There is no need to subject myself to endure this gruesome experience of reading such a badly-written book.

In essence, this book is a wasted of paper. One of the worst books I have ever read. You do not know how many times I wanted to fling it against the wall, or into the Furnace as the title suggests so fittingly.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

2010-12-19T12:47:00.000+08:00

by Stieg Larsson

This is the 2nd book in the Millennium trilogy. The second book follows on where the first book ended with Lisbeth Salander disappearing from Sweden and spending time abroad. She has broken all contact with all her contacts in Sweden including Mikael Blomkvist and Armansky. Though they both still were looking for her for she left without any notice at all, and with no provocation. Lisbeth then returns to Sweden about a year later and is caught up in an entangled mess. A researcher and a journalist investigating the sex trade in Sweden is murdered in a very gruesome manner and the prime suspect is somehow Lisbeth. And the manhunt for her heightens when the police find a third body of Nils Bjurman, her social officer because she was deemed incompetent. So Blomkvist now has to find Lisbeth to figure out what is going on, and furthermore the journalist killed was working with Millennium magazine where Blomkvist is one of the editors. So it really is the perfect storm and from start to finish the book does not halt. Even up to the last word of the story.

I watched the Swedish version of this movie with English subtitles first before reading the book. Watching this movie, I felt the movie was quite a letdown, the story was very simple, so I was hesitant to read the book. But the book really is something else altogether. As movies always do, they take some liberty and changing the plot slightly to make it more understandable but it really took out what I felt was important from the book and took out the intricate plot weaving created by Larsson. It was no longer a wonderful web of suspense and intrigue, but what was left in the movie was singular plot direction. But the book is absolutely wonderful has the same high standard as the first. I cannot wait to read the last book in the series.

Tales of Love & Loss

2010-12-08T20:50:00.002+08:00

by Knut Hamsun (translated by Robert Ferguson)

I got this collection of short stories from the library and honestly I have never heard of Knut Hamsun before. I read several of the stories and felt the stories were really weird. It threw me to a time and place that was very unfamiliar and I did not know how to make heads or tails of the story. But after reading several more, the stories really were amazing, the characters vivid and the stories really stretch emotions.

The stories felt like the prelude to something bigger and greater, and I think the stories really were just that to his novel. I am looking forward to reading more of Hamsun's work to find out. Absolutely wonderful writing. I do not know this different style of writing is due to the time period, the place he comes from or just simply what a wonderful writer he is. Most probably all three and I am so glad I stumbled upon this book in the library, opens a whole new way of writing for me.

The Good Soldiers

2010-11-30T19:09:00.001+08:00

by David Finkel

This book is about the surge in Iraq from 2007-2008 and is an insider's look at the life and challenges faced by the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich. It looks at the personal experiences of the men on the ground, unbiased by political rhetoric.

Reading through the news, one can see soldier casualties as of perhaps one soldier KIA and may regard this as a low number. This book puts a face of that one soldier who died in the war is not just a statistic but a real person. It is someone's father, mother, brother, sister, best friend.

One of the most interesting part of this book is on a very disturbing video called Collateral Murder from Wikileaks. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the army was unethical and the soldiers were trigger-happy. After reading The Good Soldiers, I see another perspective. That the soldiers are so disillusioned by the war and are trying to help people and a certain section of these group of this people are trying to kill them for it. The soldiers themselves fear for their lives every single day, their nerves strained to such a degree that although they do not wish to kill anyone, the mentality is that of to pull the trigger before the trigger is pulled on you.

Last but also the most important, are the civilians.They are the victims in this as they always are in wars. To support the Americans means to betray your country and you may be killed by the insurgent militia. But to not help the Americans would mean when the Americans leave, they would be under the power of the insurgent militia which would likely be ruthless seeing even now they have no regard for them. The common Iraqi is caught between two evils and all they can do is just to keep quiet and hope for the best which is nowhere in sight.

This book is really an eye-opener of what the Iraqi war means and how it is really more of a war of winning hearts and minds but the payment are people laying their lives down for that cause. At the end of the day one has to ask is it really worth the lives given for this win and a more important question of what it really means to win?

A Christmas Carol

2010-11-27T22:59:00.000+08:00

by Charles Dickens

This is a musical adaptation of the wonderful book by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. The story of Christmas Carol is of Ebeneezer Scrooge, an old crooked rich man who is too selfish and cold-hearted to embrace the spirit of Christmas. During the night he is visited by his old partner Jacob Marley who have suffered in death because of how he lived his life as Ebeneezer is living now. To help Ebeneezer before it is too late, Marley says three ghosts will visit Ebeneezer and show him the errors of his ways. Through the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Ebeneezer goes on an amazing journey through his entire life and understand what Christmas really means.

But now to the play. It was horrible. First the music arrangements are bad, there are moments where the actors are just waiting for the music to come in for them to carry on the song and this just made it really drag on needlessly. The acting too was poor. It felt like they were just reading their lines. The singing was very bad as well, there was no energy and charisma from any of the main actors. At one point I actually wanted to sing along because I felt I could have sung louder than that and made it more lively. The only redeeming factor was the acting by the many children. The children actors were actually better than the grown ups. They sang, dance and acted quite well. Other than that everything was downhill from the get go. There was no climax in any of the singing and it was very difficult to get into the wonderful story that is A Christmas Carol.

It was just very painful to watch. I spent most of the play shaking my head and thought that this does not do the story justice at all. I considered walking out after giving the play 15 minutes. At the intermission I really wanted to leave but stayed on anyways in hope of giving it a chance to improve. But it did very little to redeem itself. All in all, this musical really sucked the Christmas spirit right out of me. I shall need to read Dicken's book to redeem it.

Maya

2010-11-25T21:37:00.001+08:00

by Jostein Gaarder

This is the first book I have read in ages! The story is quite convoluted, as always with Jostein Gaarder, stories within stories. Story synopsis from Amazon because I'm lazy. Don't read the synopsis (in italics) if you are to read this book.

A chance meeting on the Fijian island of Taveuni is the trigger for a fascinating and mysterious novel that intertwines the stories of John Spooke, an English author who is grieving for his dead wife; Frank Andersen, a Norwegian evolutionary biologist estranged from his wife Vera; and an enigmatic Spanish couple, Ana and Jose, who are absorbed in their love for each other. Why does Ana bear such a close resemblance to the model for Goya's famous Maja paintings? What is the significance of the Joker as he steps out of his pack of cards? As the action moves from Fiji to Spain, from the present to the past, unfolding further stories within the stories, the novel reveals an astonishing richness and complexity. As bold and imaginative in its sweep as Sophie's World, it shows again that Jostein Gaarder's unique and special gift is to make us wonder at the awe-inspiring mystery of the universe.

Here are my thoughts. I actually did not like this book very much, the story was labored at times. It was like I wanted to see the ending and that is all. The journey was not really that enticing. Perhaps that is a personal perspective. It had its moments and one realization by the character John Spooke made me quite affected. But the writing was a bit hard to digest at times. It was also written mostly in first person, so it was very difficult to read. Almost the whole book was internal monologue. But the content in itself is pretty inspiring, Jostein Gaarder always has a theme of writing about philosophy and in this case, it was on evolution theory and the meaning of life. It is quite intricate at times the concepts introduced, but again at times, this felt a lot like a lecture in evolution rather than a story. It really was bordering on being a evolution textbook bounded together as a piece of fiction.

As a whole, it is an alright read, though I still prefer Sophie's World and the Solitaire Mystery. But Jostein Gaarder's writing is unique and I aspire only to be half as good in evoking thought and emotion as his writing does.

The Road Not Taken

2010-11-11T20:47:00.005+08:00

by Robert Frost

photograph by gacek

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Reefer Madness

2010-11-01T11:50:00.002+08:00

by Paul Franklin (BlakYak Theatre Production at the Phoenix Theatre)

The play description from the BlakYak website.

Reefer Madness the musical – Inspired by the original 1936 film of the same name, this raucous musical comedy takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the hysteria caused when clean-cut kids fall prey to marijuana, leading them on a hysterical downward spiral filled with evil jazz music, sex and violence. You won’t be able to resist the spoofy fun of Reefer Madness. The addictive and clever musical numbers range from big Broadway-style showstoppers to swing tunes like “Down at the Ol’ Five and Dime” and the Vegas-style “Listen to Jesus, Jimmy,” featuring J.C. Himself leading a chorus of showgirl angels. This dynamic show will go straight to your head!

One of the most wonderful musicals I have seen this year! I at first just thought it would be a brainless sort of play like the one I watched last week, The Sorting Room. But this play was in a class of its own. Firstly all the actors were wonderful and sang absolutely beautifully. They were also faithful to the time period, and the characters spoke with American accents of the period, that of the mid 20th century. The props though very little, were more than compensated for with the great costumes and the charisma and talent of the actors and actresses. The only fault I have is with ending, which I felt with a bit rushed and wrapper up haphazardly. But then again the story is what it is, and the quality of performance makes up for this. Overall, the journey was just so much fun and entertaining that at the end you did not really care where it ended.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

2010-10-28T17:13:00.000+08:00

by Lewis Carroll (Illustration by Camille Rose Garcia)

This is of course the classic story of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland...down the rabbit hole...the growing and the shrinking...meeting the white rabbit...the mad hatter. the duchess...the Cheshire cat...the Queen of Hearts (Off with her head!)...and the Mock Turtle and Gryphon.

I just read the story again because I got the new version with illustrations from Camille Rose Garcia. Well, firstly the book itself is like Mr. Carroll was on some hallucinatory substances. It reads like it's written by someone high whilst still maintaining some semblance of sanity, a 19th century stoner if you will.

Well, to add to the effect the new Garcia illustrations are just very very strange and add to this weird world that Carroll has created, though Garcia's illustrations have a more modern and dark undertone to it. See the cover there, you would wonder if Alice is a suicidal, pill-popping alcoholic who really is just tripping on too much medication. I always pictured it to be a colourful world, sort of like when the kids from That 70's Show smoke too much weed. That said, Garcia's is still a beautiful set of illustrations. Great book for any collector of classic fiction, updated with lovely modern artwork.

The Sorting Room

2010-10-23T22:48:00.002+08:00

by Fred Petersen

I went to the world premiere of this play. Details below of the play from ASN website.

Fred Petersen is a Life Member of Garrick Theatre. He is a multi-award winning Director who in recent years has added Playwright to his long list of achievements. Fred has a huge following amongst our patrons and he knows what they like. We recommend that you book for this show as soon as possible.

When Mr. Sterner, manager of a charity clothing collection company, decides to employ a voluptuous lady with a predilection for fishnets and revealing clothing, in the sorting room, the well ordered working relationships and the happy dispositions of the other ladies fly out the window.

Throw in an innocent young truck driver, a drunken vagrant, a frustrated social organizer and a not too worldly Pastor, maintaining some semblance of order becomes a mammoth task for Mr. Sterner.

I found this play quite entertaining but not as intellectually satisfying as I would have liked. The humor was predictable and you sort of could have guessed what was going to happen next. The dialogue was also very ordinary where I would have preferred more wit. The emotions and tensions and humor could have been more intertwined and voluminous for it to be of more substance.

The acting was acceptable, thought I am not very sure what accent they were going with. It felt like it was interchanging between English and Australian accents. Some characters were better than others, but overall the plot carried through, but was a bit bordering on the feeling that they were reading from script. At least they did not stumble too much through their lines, only on one or two occasions did this happen.

I found it just alright. My sister enjoyed this play, whereas I perhaps enjoyed The Woman In Black better. So I guess not every one's cup of tea but it is still worth watching if you just want something not too heavy, not too immersive.

Eat Pray Love

2010-10-23T18:51:00.003+08:00

by Elizabeth Gilbert

This book I guess pretty much everyone have heard about it now, seeing the movie version of it came out starring Julia Roberts. Only picked up the book again after the hype about the movie after I read about a quarter of the book when I first bought it a year or two ago. Well, I have not watched the movie and do not have much inclination to actually watch it. I don't know how it would translate well into a movie because what made it special was most of it was monologue of her experiences and speaking out all the lines or conveying it through action would be quite difficult to do. Everyone interprets images differently from their mind and the past experiences they have.

Here is the synopsis from the back of the book.

Elizabeth is in her thirties, settled in a large house with a husband who wants to start a family. But she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a rebound fling later, Elizabeth emerges battered yet determined to find what she's been missing.

So begins her quest. In Rome, she indulges herself and gains nearly two stone. In India, she find enlightenment through scrubbing temple floors. Finally in Bali, a toothless medicine man reveals a new path to peace, leaving her ready to love again.

I liked the first two parts of the book of life in Italy and India. Perhaps these world are foreign to me and thus mystifying and unique. Indonesia is closer to to my sort of upbringing so I can understand what she says but it just brings out disillusionment. Or perhaps I was just in a bad mood while reading it. The writing is witty and smart. Her views are practical and easy to relate to. And she writes without pretensions, like a person now comfortable of explaining how she was uncomfortable in her own skin.

It is an encouraging story of an amazing journey. It gives one inspiration to stop, remove oneself from the pressures and white noise from day to day life, and be more rigorous in the pursuit of peace, contentment, love and happiness.

Writing Dialogue

2010-10-21T10:39:00.001+08:00

by Tom Chiarella

This is a book on writing dialogue as the title suggests. It talks of the idea generation process of dialogue, creating distinct voices to you characters, how to infuse emotions within dialogue (tension, nonchalance, anger, joy, etc), and when to or not to use dialogue.

I read the first 2 chapters and read parts of the other chapters. I did not find this book useful. The intention is there, but I felt it is more of how the author would go about doing such things but my processes for creating dialogue ( be it good or bad) are quite difficult. And some parts of them are instances of what can be done. I guess it is very limited to the perspective of the author (of how dialogue should be structured) which are not as widely applicable than what I would have hope for.

My dialogue at the moment is not perhaps as good as it can be, but I did not see how this book helped in making it better. Even Stephen King's On Writing book was more insightful than this. Overall, I think this book would be helpful for people who would like to see another perspective on dialogue writing but this book did not appeal to my idea generation process and writing sensibility.

The Woman In Black

2010-10-17T00:18:00.001+08:00

by Stephen Mallatratt

I watched this play just now at Stirling Players, which was directed by Dannielle Ashton. I actually was keeping my hopes up because the last play I watched there was not very good. But this is in a different class altogether. First the plot, as described on The Woman in Black site.

Eel Marsh House stands tall, gaunt and isolated, surveying the endless flat saltmarshes beyond the Nine Lives Causeway, somewhere on England's bleak East Coast. Here Mrs Alice Drablow lived - and died - alone. Young Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is ordered by his firm's senior partner to travel up from London to attend her funeral and then sort out all her papers. His task is a lonely one, and at first Kipps is quite unaware of the tragic secrets which lie behind the house's shuttered windows. He only has a terrible sense of unease. And then, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at the back of the church during Mrs Drablow's funeral, and later, in the graveyard to one side of Eel Marsh House. Who is she? Why is she there? He asks questions, but the locals not only cannot or will not give him answers - they refuse to talk about the woman in black, or even to acknowledge her existence, at all. So, Arthur Kipps has to wait until he sees her again, and she slowly reveals her identity to him - and her terrible purpose.

The Woman In Black treads in the footsteps of the classic ghost story, following the tradition of Charles Dickens and M.R James, of Henry James and Edith Wharton. It is not a horror story or a tale of terror, yet the events build up to a horrifying climax and instil a sense of horror. It relies on atmosphere, a vivid sense of place, on hints and glimpses and suggestions, on what is shadowy, heard and sometimes only half-seen, to chill the reader's blood to the marrow and make reading the book alone at night inadvisable for the faint-hearted.

Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation for the stage remains entirely true to the book itself and uses much of Susan Hill's own descriptive writing and dialogue, while transforming the novel into a totally gripping piece of theatre.

This is a wonderful play, the words in it so beautiful. And what is powerful is there are only 3 actors in the play, yet it is so gripping. In this particular production, the actors were all fantastic and I could not find fault at all. I were at times lost in their world and had forgotten I was sitting in a theater. The power of imagination is amazing, and in this play you are pushed to every faculty of your imagination effortlessly to dream this world that is dark and eerie. And you will be afraid, in the dark, it is scary. you feel alone, and a deep tingle down your spine. I love it and could not stop smiling at how wonderful this play is. If it comes along in your town, do give it a chance. You will not regret it, or maybe you would, depending on how much you like horror.

Absurdistan

2010-10-08T22:36:00.000+08:00

by Eric Campbell

Eric Campbel is a foreign correspondent for the ABC. He started out as TV presenter for travel shows promoting places around Australia. But he then found that absolutely boring and wanted to do reporting that actually mattered. So he applied relentlessly to be an international journalist. He finally got his break. This book is about a section of Eric Campbell's life as a foreign correspondent spanning 7 years. These included his time in Russia, war torn regions of Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, China and also Iraq.

This book has a different tone that Sebastian Junger's writing. Well, I do not know what makes good journalistic writing. But both their styles are different. Junger's style is more immediate and direct. Eric Campbell is more modulated, so you may not get the full emotional impact. But as a collective, Campbell's writing really highlights the absurdity of what goes on in this country by his quiet honesty and fairness of describing the situation. In all his lack of melodrama, you get the full impact of what he is saying. As if speaking to genocidal leaders is what he does before breakfast. And Campell just takes it all in stride and reports. Amazing person and an amazing time. A really absurd real life story.

The Black Cat

2010-10-07T22:04:00.007+08:00

acacello

Once there was a black cat. He did not care much for superstition. So one day just to prove it to himself, he walked across the road, up the road, down the road and in all other directions he could think of, crossing his own path over and over.
He had nine lives.

The next morning he went down to have breakfast. A bowl of milk with colourful treats in it. He finished the lot in one gulp. The cat overdosed on Froot Loops.
So he had eight lives.

Fearing of milk and food in the bowl now, the cat tried to catch a mouse. But the mouse was mightily hungry, and the cat ended up being mauled by its meal.
Then it had seven lives.

Then to clear his head, he went out and climbed atop a tree. A plane fell out of the sky and hit smack right into the branch he was on.
Down to six lives.

He pulled himself out of the wreckage and tried to lick himself clean. He choked on his own fur.
Five lives left.

He coughed out the clump of fur and at that moment the door from the crashed plane flew open and landed on him.
Arriving at four lives.

He stretched himself out from under the door and saw who it was that blew the plane door out. Chuck Norris. The cat had a heart attack. When he came to moments later, Chuck Norris was in front of him, staring at him. Chuck Norris walked past the cat. The cat dropped dead, because Chuck Norris did not get bad luck when black cats cross his path, black cats get bad luck crossing Chuck Norris' path.
Lives three and two gone.

He woke up and thought of his miserable day. What a horrible day. One life left. He stood still and waited. He waited for an hour. Two hours. Three hours. Six hours. Nothing else happened. He was safe. He took a step forward, stumbled on his own leg, and broke his neck.
Black cat dead.

Moral of the story: Do not cross a black cat's path, even if you are a black cat.....unless you are Chuck Norris.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2010-10-05T20:09:00.003+08:00

by Stieg Larsson

I thought this book was crap because on one of the book covers there was a picture of a young punk goth looking girl with a middle-ages guy. I thought it was one of those guy falls in love with girl half his age kind of story.

So goes the saying, Don't judge a book by its cover. And indeed that's true for this. Ok, I bought the book with this cover which looks better than the other cover anyways. And I bought it only after my sister told me it was a good read.

Well, it does not disappoint. it follows the life of Mikael Blomkvist, an economic journalist. He is convicted of libel case for writing things that did not have sufficient proof to back it up. And so his reputation and career was going down the drain. Then came the retired business mogul, Henrik Vanger with a very interesting proposition. He wanted Mikael to investigate the death of his niece who died almost 2 decades ago. Mikael was reluctant but agreed after Henrik convinced him by providing him with a significant financial compensation. Henrik also promised he would deliver him with a story to destroy the company that originally charged him with libel. So there begins the fun.

Parallel to this story is that of Lisbeth Salander, who is a anti social computer genius. The story gets interesting when Mikael and Lisbeth's paths intersect and they work together to solve the mystery of Henrik Vanger's niece, Harriet Vanger.

This is such a wonderful book. You get a feel that the characters are real people and multi dimensional. Sometimes reading books like Sheldon, thought the pace is riveting, the characters can seem to serve the purpose too well. But with this book, their development seem very true to their own personality and it really is a clash of all these personalities that bring about a truly remarkable story.

I love this book and can't wait to read the other 2 in the series. Rest in peace Stieg Larsson, I wish you had more time to write more wonderful stuff.

Book Reviews

2010-10-02T22:36:00.000+08:00

I am now branching out to reading a lot of non fictions these days and well, for some books it is very difficult to read cover to cover. So I shall from now also include books that I have read sufficiently much for me to form some opinion on it for a review. Like I've been reading lots of philosophy books. Reading the whole of these books, I might as well go get myself a philosophy degree also. Not happening, I'm reading just for the interest of it.

Also, there are books of poetry I'm reading, like Paulo Neruda. Those books you would not read cover to cover also, they are not really ordered that you need to read the whole book anyways. Maybe a few poems together but certainly not the whole book.

That said I should probably include genres and type of books I'm reading from now on in my blogpost tags, the range is getting quite vast for me to just tag the authors I think. Better way of ordering is required.

Another thing is I'm making up a full list of books I am to read, books I have and book wishlist. Probably going up on my blog soon. That is to track the books I have and the books I want! And which I have. That's because I actually 2 of some books. I have 2 Vampire Armands and 2 Witch of Portobello's. Giving it to my sister or something...So yeah, I'm not that rich to buy multiple versions of books.

War

2010-10-01T22:30:00.001+08:00

by Sebastian Junger

I have been waiting to read this for a long time. I finally got it from my sister and finished it in 2 days. Great book.

It's written in a pretty professional, journalistic sort of way, with references and fact checks etc. It is a sort of journal by Sebastian Junger during his attachment in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan with Battle Company during their deployment there.

He talks of the psychology and life of what the men go through, what life means and how they cope with all the crazy shit that goes on up there.

It is such an insightful look into all the things that happen there and what things are of value and realize what things are not important.

Also, you better understand the mechanics and motivations of the men going to war, be it agreeable or not to your beliefs, it is certainly not what I actually expected. But after reading it it made perfect sense. For instance, Junger said men on the ground did no really care for the moral implications and ideological beliefs as much as they just wanted to stay alive and do their jobs the best they can, and not let the their brothers. Everyone's lives is dependent on each other and if you screw up it really is due to the weakest link. A split second decision could be the difference between a total loss to a resounding win. And luck plays a huge part even in this day where technology is so far advanced.

As a whole, this is a great book of insight to humanize the battle and the very real, practical issued of war in Afghanistan with not much discussion behind motivation and the ideological (spread of democracy) battles. It is very humanizing look at the people on both sides and the very practical problems that they face.

Any Other Wednesday Morning

2010-09-16T20:06:00.002+08:00

photograph by FillyBlynn

He walked into the cafe and scouted the joint. Not too many broads. At the corner he spotted a decent looking bird, a blond in a cute blue dress. He walked over to her table.

"This seat taken doll?," he asked.

"Umm...." the girl said.

"It is now," he said again. He slid himself to the seat opposite and made himself comfortable. He leaned forward and held both of the girl's arms.

"The name's Harry. What's your name doll?"

"Mary...Clark."

"Mary. Mary. Sweet name. Look into my eyes, Mary. Aren't they the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen? You're just falling in love now, aren't ya."

"Err...," she said, not sure what else to say.

Mary looked around to see anyone was looking at their table. Everyone seemed to be carrying on with their business.

"Tell me, Mary. How would you like to be my date today?" Harry asked.

She shifted in her chair and did not know what to say to him. She steadied herself.

"No...no. I can't. I have something to do," she said.

"Come on, now. Surely you have time for ol'Harry. It ain't everyday you meet a handsome stranger in a joint like this is it. Come one now. Come with ol'Harry, he'll show u grand time."

"But I..."

"No. I won't take no for an answer now. Let's go."

He flashed her a wide grin and a wink and led her by the arm outside. Mary grabbed her handbag just in time with a swipe at the table.

---

Mary swung once around the table, then slumped back into her seat. She looked at the other people again. They were all still chattering away. She let out a deep sigh. Nobody even bothered that she was talking to herself, no one noticed her friend Harry. What a boring bunch.

The Pomodoro Technique

2010-09-15T21:16:00.001+08:00

by Francesco Cirillo

I read this by recommendation of one of the other PhD guys. You can get this book in pdf form for free here. It's a book on how to manage time, what time means and how you can use it in a way to do work effectively. The main point is not to only get the most out of your time but also remove the anxiety and stress associated with time. It gives very simple and easy to use techniques that seriously would not add to the amount of work you need to do to begin with. It rather allows you to focus and prioritize on what is important and what is not.

I have tried using the technique throughout the day and early signs seem to be encouraging. I felt absolutely stress-free, and for today out of all days that was odd given that I was given news that I have even more work now over the next 2 months. But the Pomodoro technique gives the task perspective and breaks it down into manageable activities. Also I was focused throughout the day and was not fatigued at the end of the day. Till now after hitting the gym for an hour I still feel pretty well vital. The technique removed a lot of the negative energy generated through the constant criticism and doubt in my internal dialogue.

highly recommend this to anyone who like me find it difficult to work for long periods with high levels of concentration. If you are the type of person that when reading halfway through something, then find something you don't understand goes and Google it, which leads to checking football news, which leads to Facebook, which leads to checking the email and leads to IM'ing several people, and when you look at the time an hour has passed and you wonder what you were doing and where the time has gone; if you are that sort of person, you really need this technique.

Meeting the quota & Expectations

2010-09-08T22:11:00.000+08:00

related repost from other blog.

I have for the past few months tried to read about a book a week, and well, although I enjoy it, I have been reading books that are fast-paced and thrilling. But I have been neglecting the more substantial, meaty books. So I think I shall give up on the 1 book a week and go with whatever books is beautiful. I mean there is no meaning to pressure myself to finish reading quick if I don't enjoy it. Say like eating, some foods you just need to eat slowly and savour. So reading Tess of D'Ubervilles and Dante's Divine Comedy, I will read this very very slowly to get the full effect of the beautiful words. And be totally immerse in that world. I mean, the important thing is not the amount I read but the quality of transportation to that dimension and how it is there. Reading fast will make it a horrible experience.

I guess the same goes for my story writing. Stop with the expectation on myself. I should just stop thinking of what I think people will accept and what is nice, what is cliche what is not. If my story is cliche so be it, but I need to have it be totally organic to me and be acceptable to me to be a story that I myself would read again without the apprehension that this story is pretentious, not genuine. There needs to be my heart, soul and honesty of my writing. Be it twisted or horrible, it is still my story. If I am happy with it, all I can do is hope other people appreciate it. I rather have fewer people appreciate my work than be a sellout.

The Cooks' Book: For the Cook Who's Best at Everything

2010-09-07T12:30:00.000+08:00

by Louise Dixon

Read this book on Sunday. Well, it's not fiction obviously. It's a good book for understanding the basics of how to use ingredients, cuts of meats, how to prepare seafood etc. It gave me ideas of how to cook better with minimal amount of effort. I'm trying to move away from processed foods. And this book really helps in that. For instance things like sour cream, Hollandaise and mayonnaise are so easy to make, I think I'll just make my own next time.Anyways, it's better to do the processed yourself, ensures the nutrients are kept and have higher content in the food eaten.

Also teaches how to decrease the waste that would be generated from produce. Like for instance the leftover from 1 recipe can be used for another recipe. And if some fresh herbs are going bad what you can do. Also the tips for preserving produce. For example, I did not know some produce cannot be placed with some others, because they make them go bad faster. Also, some should be put in the fridge, some should not, and ways to preserve freshness in your ingredients.

Overall, a good guide for cookins basics. It's probably a sort of Cooking for Idiots kind of book, but for me, very informative.

Windmills of the Gods

2010-09-03T23:26:00.000+08:00

by Sidney Sheldon

This story is about Mary Ashley, a university professor who is selected by the newly-elected president of the United States to be the ambassador to communist-ruled Romania. This is during the time of the Eastern and Western blocs, when the Iron Curtain was a massive issue. Book 1 follows the story of Mary Ashley's journey from being a university professor to becoming the ambassador. Book two goes to her life in Romania, the challenges she face and the dangers that ensue. There are many political enemies to the US, and also more specifically to the new administration who do not want to see Mary succeed in opening Romania to the world. Some would even go to murder to achieve this end.

This book is as always thrilling. But in book one I really did not like the feeling of the book. Mary Ashley is portrayed as quite dumb and arrogant at times. I do believe she could be more independent and a stronger character. She is a university professor and would be more suited to be a stronger woman. Also her reason for selection did not seem to be carried through to her job role much. I get the feeling the reason she was chosen, because she was an expert in Eastern European politics did not play into the considerations and actions she made later on. This is sort of an overall criticism.

In book 2 the pace picks up more and all those criticisms though I think valid, I simply did not care anymore. The pace was thrilling and the action was wonderful. I love the political issues she were faced with and how she overcame them. At moments, they seem a bit self-serving, the issue and solution format but I do not really care. And of course the ending has a wonderful twist. So overall a lovely book.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

2010-09-01T21:26:00.003+08:00

I've gotten some freebies this year. Like the tickets to Eros and Psyche and tickets to Splice. Well, they were both pretty crap but this one really was quite amazing. So the story is boy has prophecy to fulfill and is trained by a wise teacher etc. Well, it's all in the execution isn't it. I mean the plot is pretty standard fare, like a Percy Jackson or Eragon. But this one was really good, I was admittedly pleased with how good the movies is. Well, this year has been good with movies. I loved Prince of Persia, A Team and How To Train Your Dragon. Yay for freebies and Reading Cinema is awesome.

3 Idiots

2010-08-27T22:29:00.000+08:00

This movie is about 3 friends studying engineering at university and their lives during and after they graduate. There are undertones of social expectation and also every person's journey through life. What experiences we have, what our backgrounds are, the decisions we make and how they impact our future. And the main message is be brave and go with your heart.

This is such a wonderful movie! Actually I have not watched a Hindi movie in ages. Which makes me recall my childhood. I actually never liked watching them, but then my grandma had to watch it every Friday afternoon and Hindi movie beats the hell out of homework so...little by little, I started to love them. Then I don't know, I just stopped watching them again. Because they always had the same story line and the stupid dancing around trees.

Well, this movie is different, surprisingly so for me. The plots were excellent, the dialogue was smart, and the comedy was not overly cheesy. The different stories moving were well-paced, and each intertwining with the other smoothly like a velvety twirl of caramel, wrapped in fluffy creamy chocolate. Okay, maybe I just drifted to thinking of a Cadbury commercial. I digress. This movie is wonderful and I would definitely watch it again. Lovely. Certainly rekindled my love affair with Bollywood.

Bricks of Void

2010-08-26T21:59:00.002+08:00

Opulence dims and withers. It has no meaning. What meaning does anything have when there is no value. Things are things, they only fill space. In the moment of heightened senses, everything means nothing and nothing means everything. So trapped inside these four walls, I begin to think.

These four walls., they do not falter. They are strong to protect me, to give me security. But it also holds me in, keep me comfortable. I dare not venture outside, what is out there. I am comfortable here so just leave me be. Outside it may be better but do I dare risk, for I am in no need of anything more.

I am closed in but what is holding me in. Nothing. Only the cages in my mind which I cannot break. They are more impenetrable than the solid walls enclosing me. It is that I do not believe, trapped in self-imposed boundaries. The room seems tiny that it suffocates me. I cannot breathe. I cannot move. I am fixed in place, I stare at the closed space and just see limitations. I see no possibilities. With the compression, I am tiny. I am insignificant.

Crushed to nothingness now, the same room then seems so large, so vast, so empty. I am alone in this great big nothingness. I reach out for the ceiling, it is too high to touch. I touch the ground, it is cold and foreboding. I touch the walls, they are unyielding.

I am lost...miniscule in infinite space....clumsy and tangled in a complex web of my own weaving. I am forever looping in a broken track droning the message, these four walls which I will never fill and I will never be free of. In the end, all there is, the space I cannot fill.

Bloodline

2010-08-26T21:22:00.001+08:00

by Sidney Sheldon

This is a story about the Roffe family, a wealthy family who owns a large pharmaceutical company. Their annual profit is more than that of several countries combined. Sam Roffe, president of the company has died in an accident while climbing Mont Blanc and the whole Roffe empire is now left to his only daughter, Elizabeth Roffe. There is increasing pressure on all the other Roffes to make the company go public. The other Roffes are desperate and would go to any length to make this happen...even murder.

So I just picked to read this now because felt like something pacey. And yes, it really was! I started reading Monday evening and finished Thursday. Actually i finished the last 200 pages in about 2-3 hours. So that's how riveting it was. It is typical Sheldon but I wanted much more from some of the characters, because they were such wonderful characters. And the ending could have been a bit more conclusive. Nonetheless, it was quite good.

One side note, I just realize that Sheldon novels are a lot like soap operas. I would say like novelas, because those are always so much more intriguing and the people are hotter. So I guess Sheldon's books are sort of like soap books. But I still like them.

by the river piedra i sat down and wept

2010-08-23T09:41:00.000+08:00

by Paulo Coelho

Read this over the weekend. I actually read it about a quarter way before and just did not get through it. Then re read it from the start again this time.

This book is about a girl who like the title says, sat by the River Piedra and wept. The book went back to the start where of how this event culminated. She received a letter from a childhood friend who had now dedicated his life to the church. He was having a conference in Madrid and asked her to meet her there. She did meet him, even though the trip was 4 hours away because he was the first boy he had fallen in love with. After meeting each other, they found their feelings rekindled. It was a difficult situation due to her commitments in her studies and her life, and his commitments to his life and the church. And what ensues is the remarkable journey they go through.

Well, overall this book was good but at times found it a bit preachy. Not that is did not make good sense what it was saying, but just too much preaching for me. But the story is a good one and quite touching at times. It says a lot about taking a leap of faith and opening life to possibilities. And it does not focus too much on that of just love and relationships, but also on life in general. How to be open to new life and not to live every day like it is a repetition of yesterday. Also to invest yourself wholly into something and not worry about success or failure. All in all, it is a good read. And the ending is wonderful, so that's always a plus.

Ring Ring

2010-08-05T21:55:00.002+08:00

I called the psychologist's office to make an appointment and the lady on the line asked would 4 pm that afternoon be alright. To which I replied that would be too late. And she nervously inquired if this was an emergency. I did not quite get what she meant at first and said no. So I arranged to see the psychologist the next day. After hanging up the phone I thought about the conversation and chuckled. She thought I was probably going to kill myself right that moment. What a misunderstanding. I was only thinking of doing it next week.

Sophie's World

2010-08-01T22:08:00.003+08:00

by Jostein Gaarder

This book is about Sophie a 14 year old girl. Several week before turning 15, she received mysterious letters that introduces her to the wonders of philosophy. In this book she learns everything from the teachings of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, through to Descartes, Locke, Marx, Darwin and of course many more in between. She also feels the strange presence of a shady major of the UN army and her correspondence with her daughter Hilde. She received letter between the major and her daughter which were mailed through Sophie. And through this, Sophie's life is threatened by these strange string of events.

This is the most wonderful book I have ever read. It is very well-written and the story is beautiful. If you were to ask me the books that were tipping points of my life, this would be one of them. It could be the most significant book I will ever have read because it has opened my eyes, my mind. It has revealed to me the wonders of philosophy.

*As this is a book review, more of my thoughts here.

I'm just saying

2010-07-28T16:28:00.006+08:00

absolutely nothing and everything at the same time

Nothing can be everything

Everything is something

Something can be anything

And anything is nothing

Thinking you know something

Of what it means to know

Means understanding nothing

Of what you thought was known

Thinking you understand nothing

Of what it means to know

Means understanding something

Of what you thought unknown

But be sure of a certain thing

That you don't know everything

Though still know more than nothing

So surely you must know something

Therefore this is the way of being

That from learning something

Leads to knowing everything

And dissolves to nothing

Through understanding and learning

Comes some-every-any-no-thing

Which brings more questioning

And in the end still wondering...

Bulldog Drummond

2010-07-27T22:03:00.001+08:00

by Sapper

Firstly I will talk a bit about this book. The first Bulldog Drummond book was published in 1920 and several subsequent books were published as well as movies made of it. The protagonist is Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, a WWI veteran. The author of the book was also a WWI veteran.

This book is about Drummond who puts an ad in the paper because he had nothing to do and was seeking someone to call for him if they had any problems or something that needs solving or investigating. So a woman replies and from there the story starts. I will just break down the plot. Carl Peterson has hatched up a dastardly plan to overthrow England and revolutionize it into a Bolshevic republic. But this was just Peterson's cover plan. He really did not care anything about England for better or worse, he was just in in for the money, and with his right hand man Henry Lakington, they would toy with the fate of an entire nation to achieve this end.

I read this book, and it took me several weeks. I bought it with a set of 6 other classic books. To be honest, I really did not like it much. It seemed like a piece of the most corny things I have ever read. All the characters seem to stereotypes. For instance, the woman Phylis, would swoon at the site of Drummond and say the most typical things ever. And Drummond is really a man's man, he seem to be the ultimate man ever. He learnt a whole bunch of fighting skills from all his buddies, the could wrestle a gorilla, he had the most deft of instincts and reactions. He is basically indestructible.

There are also question marks with the plot. Say one part where Drummond is tied up. He tricks the guard buy saying he has money in his pocket. And he can only get to it if he unties it. Then this guard, a German, unties Drummond and tried to get to it. And of course, how surprising, Drummond knocks him out. Come on! If the guard had any sense, he would knock Drummond out cold THEN get the money. And this is another form of English idolization, showing the Germans as stupid. It is not realistic.

The plot itself was meant to be very grand with the revolution of all of England. But it did not feel grand at all, it felt like a bunch of thugs going at each other. Like I will go to this house and beat up this bloke, then because the other group of guys are pissed, they hatch a clever plan and beat up those other guys. Ridiculous. It is trying to portray something intricate and complex into a brash and brutish approach to problems. Even the attempt at intricacy can be seen through as having little substance.

I can go on and on about how bad this is but what is the point. I got to thinking that maybe it was written at that period of time where things were simpler, that the capacity of imagination of human behavior was perhaps not as complex. But then again I think, there are so many better book written before that time. This book seems like a cheap imitation of Sherlock Holmes, there is no cunning at all. And where there is some semblance of wit and devise, it is absolutely ridiculous that one can see clearly through it for the absurdity. I feel it was written very mechanically, like the author was saying "now there needs to be some clever ploy here" and so "insert clever ploy". It is a collective of cliche moments strung together by paper thin story. Utter waste of my time.

Bone-Chiller

2010-07-24T23:34:00.000+08:00

at the Garrick Theatre

Following description from ASN website.

This is a murder mystery with a touch of farce, will have you scratching your heads to solve the mystery and point the finger at the culprit. Thirteen people gather (no mean feat on Garrick's stage) for the reading of the late Josiah Travers will. Just who will be killed? Who did it? Who inherits the money?

I did not bother reading the synopsis for this when I went for it. I just seen the word murder and I was sold. And it really did not disappoint. It was wonderful, with light touches of funny between the episodes of serious scariness. The flow was perfect when moments of fear is dissipated gradually with humor, and halfway through that, it draws you straight in stark contrast back to the reality that there is murder going on. Also the pacing when things are to be revealed but then again, they drag it on a bit, really builds the tension and I in the audience really felt like going up to the stage and shaking the guy to ask him to just spill it already also. I think that's a sign of how involving it is.

It was a really nice story. And also the puzzles in the play were quite nicely done. The acting was also quite well-executed. All the characters did their American accents decently and their characters were quite believable. As a whole, I loved it start to finish and any unpolished point in the play can be overlooked because it was such a lovely experience.

Ageless Body, Timeless Mind

2010-07-18T19:46:00.001+08:00

by Deepak Chopra

I actually started reading this several months back but have only finished it now. It is a spiritual book and with that, I guess you cannot read it like a fiction. Really had to read it slowly and savour the advice.

This book in its essence, teaches one how to stay young and vibrant. He says a lot of things. And they are all very sensible. But I cannot remember all the things. I just remember three main things. Be in the present, love more, and meditate more. He lays out some very simple things that you can do. The things he says to do are not weird at all, and even if you do not believe in all this ageless body, timeless mind stuff, I think doing them served you well in your day to day things. Such as meditating everyday. Just taking maybe several minutes from each day and just calm yourself and empty your mind and breathe.

I got this book from the library. Now I'm thinking of buying it because it's the sort of stuff you can't really get from reading it just once. You just need to read it over and over till it sticks, and also not force it to stick in the meantime. When you have embodied the lessons here, I believe your life would be one that is richer and more fulfilling.