My reading list for the next few weeks

If you live in the Klang Valley and you are not aware of it yet, the MPH Warehouse Sale is currently being held at that big public hall in front of Brem Tower (where your friendly LHDN staff works) in Kelana Jaya.Yesterday and today are days restricted to MPH Readers Circle members and their 3 guests. I was privileged to be famygirl's guest yesterday.So here's what I bought and why I bought them:


Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven - coz bertique recommended it. :) and he's always giving inspiring anecdotes, I'm sure this one would inspire me. Even if it is half as good as Tuesdays with Morrie, I would be happy.

Paul Coelho's Veronika Decides To Die - coz ummi said it was good and I have read The Alchemist before and I had enjoyed it immensely, so I believe her.

Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl - coz primarybasic had it on her shelves, and I'm wondering what all the hype is about (more on this later).

Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran - coz someone who won't admit being related to me wrote a review about it and got me piqued. (I tried to find the specific post but I gave up. You can search her archives for it).

Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Jingo and Nightwatch - I was *so* tempted to cleanup the whole shelf, but I remembered that I am poor, and that borrowing somebody else's books (read: my siblings) don't cost a dime, So I called my Kak Long, who obligingly went out of a meeting to recall what she already have on her shelf and what I should buy. "Anything with witches and Lord Venturi". So I got those first 2 ones (I don't know if they had witches in them) and the latter 2 had Commander Vimes, so I'm assuming it will also have Lord Venturi innit. Yes Firhad and D.. I now see why


Oh I also bought an Enid Blyton book for my neighbor's son who had hurt his arm in a car accident on Sunday. Can't remember the title. The Mystery of .. Something about a house.


I also bought 2 cute small purses with 'Hot Cat' on them. Somehow I thought of Ray The Arab Cat... maybe she's psychic and remotely controlled my minds to buy them for her.. They're really cute tho.


I wanted to buy some Neil Gaiman, but alas.. they didnt have any!! And I was also looking out for something from Edward De Bono that riza is reading, but couldnt find that either.



okay..So the first book I decided to devour was Artemis Fowl.I have so far only reached the 3rd chapter. There is some hyrogliphic code running along the bottom of the pages of the book and you're supposed to break it and reveal the 'secret message' and .. heh heh.. weep puny kids! I have solved the code!! muaha ha ha.
it was pretty easy, really.. maybe because the book's target audience *are* children..
anyways.In the first chapter, I loathed Artemis. I thought he was some cruel, arrogant, spoiled snob.. I had actually imagined him looking like Draco Malfoy. Then they revealed the mother and revealed the sad mother-son relationship, and I kinda pitied him. So now he's a pitiful cruel, arrogant, spoiled snob..But then, I never judge a book by its first few chapters.. the story is intriguing enough to make me keep on reading.
So far it's like a cross between Dan Brown and erm.. I hate to say it, but Neil Gaiman. Detective work in the magic and fairy territory.. and watered down for juvenile consumption.

Oh and I also bought a book on paper planes for my kids. So aside from reading these books, I will also be spending my time making them paper planes and launching them off my mom's balcony.

Looks like I'm all set for the next 2 or 3 months.

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Original post is on my original blog

more woah

Mood: Pleasantly surprised Playing: Fortune faded by RHCP

woah ...
I was really suprised by this.
When my sis in law sms-ed me last night to ask me whether I knew Hansac had written about me.. I was like, "Oh no.. what dirt did he dish out??" (I may have been a nerd, but I wasn't really an angel, you know..). But then as he said, I am "amazonianly combative" so.. yeah, I was about ready to bring out my guns (He wasn't really a saint either) heh heh.. but I didnt have to. I thought what he wrote was quite nice.
So I am very pleasantly suprised :)

I was asked about the article I mentioned in the previous post. I thought a lot about whether to reveal it. Coz it is kinda embarassing.. and it does touch on some events that might hurt a particular person who I know reads this blog.
But then, I figured.. we are all adults, right? I think we're mature enough. And the article is about me, how I had felt, how things had affected me and how I react to things. And it was such an old article. I have grown and changed since then.
anyways, so if you're still interested, here it is.

Comment, don't comment.. whatever.

woah...

Mood: Pleasantly surprised Playing: Love Song by The Cure

Surprise #1

I went to LHDN (the Malaysian IRS) today to settle our taxes and met the lady officer Taufik had been dealing with all this while. She commented that my name sounded familiar like that journalist. I managed to not roll my eyes and said yeah, she's my sister. She gave a suprising smile and asked whether we were really from Trengganu and I said sure and she said she was from Trengganu too.
Apa lagi .. tubik slang lah...!
So there we were, talking in the Trengganu dialect like two old friends.. hee hee..
So my tax is settled. ;)



Surprise #2

I opened my e-mailbox today and got a pleasant suprise. Somebody wrote to me to tell me that in 2001, he had blogged about an article I wrote in 1996.
I was, like, dayum!.
Someone, besides the late Suhai and the elusive Mr. Rizwal, actually kept a clipping of something I wrote? And 5 years later, actually blogged about it?
dayum.
I am so flattered.

Would you fight for your love?

Mood: ermmm so so

After watching Outback Jack last night,
yeah yeah .. we're still talking about this stupid show .. I am just a sucker for reality shows.. what to do..
it got me thinking..
here were 6 women, right, and they're fighting to win the love of a man.
I wonder whether I could ever do that.

I mean, if Taufik were ever captured or something (na'uzubllah - God Forbid) I would definitely fight to save him.
But, if I did not know whether he loves me or not and I was just trying to figure that out, I don't think I would have the gall to compete for his love.
To me, love just happens. You can't like force it or win it or something. You can show it, yes, but to have it reciprocated, that is not something you can control. And if it is not reciprocated, what can you do? You move on.

One of the few things I made clear to Taufik before we got married was this:
If he ever fell out of love with me, he should tell me. Don't stick around so as not to 'hurt my feelings'. Just -ing tell me and get it over with. I cannot take drama. I cannot take disloyalty. I cannot take infidelity.
I also told him that if he shows any indication of not loving me, I will not fight for him. I'd just let go. I will not go and see a bomoh (a shaman) and plead for him to be cured of this 'ailment' .. I will just leave him and move on.
Is that cruel?
I think it's just practical. It's for survival.
Does that make me seem that I love him any less? I don't think so. I think it only means that I love myself more than I love him.
If i ever lose him for whatever reason, I think I would be very sad. But would I fight over him with another woman? I don't think so. I am too proud. Is that bad?

So anyways, back to what happened in Outback Jack.
Last night the other girls voted out Marissa, who seemed to be getting really close to Jack, and whom I think is his favourite.
"With Marissa, there is this connection that I cannot put a finger on" he said.
When she got voted out , i thought, Oh my god.. what if she is really his true love? Would he really pick another girl for the sake of the show's format and would never know? That would be so sad.
But then again, I believe in fate and destiny and that God has plans for everyone. If Marissa and Jack were meant to be, they'd hook up sooner or later.

I can't believe that stupid show is making me think so much..
its prolly all writen out and contrived anyways.. eh?

Miss Identity, Miss Haps and Miss Kiss

Mood: same ol same ol Playing: Fatal by Pearl Jam


Thanks to modern technology, my mother became an Indian Man

I accompanied my mom to the immigration office today. She wanted to renew her passport. She had one of those new passports with the 'smart' chip embeded in them.
I saw the immigration officer put her passport in this contraption that reads the chip and saw an Indian man's face appear on the screen.
The officer took a look at my mom as if to verify the resemblance.
"Hm.. You don't look like a Siva Raman" he said.
Then he conferred with the officer beside him, who asked him to re-enter my mom's data manually.
I told my mom, who couldnt see the screen, that they had turned her into an Indian man.
After a few click-clacks on the keyboard, the officer took my mom's thumbprints, then he asked us to wait to be called to the cashier.
While waiting, my mom and I tried to speculate about what might have happened.
"Did someone steal my identity?? Or forged my passport or something?" She said.
"I don't know ma. When was the last time you travelled?"
"A few months ago when I went to Sarawak"
"And they didnt notice you weren't an Indian man?"
"Well, I got through with no problem"
"Maybe they didnt even check"
Hm... and they wonder why we have problems with illegal immigrants..

I broke my hose!!

Yes my hose, not my nose. And not the one you put on your legs to cover the pockmarks either. The garden variety.
I was changing the the water for my goldfish's bowl. well, it's not really a bowl. It's more like a huge earthen pot. But if I said "my goldfish's pot", you'd think I have a marijuana puffer.
When I had finished, I had wanted to water the plants next (all legal, I did my weeding yesterday, remember?)
okay enuf with the puns. They weren't any good anyways
Anyways, I wanted to water the plants when the spray nozzel broke. I tried to fix it, but the erm what I call the 'male' part of the nozzle which you connect to the hose via insertion was the part that broke and was stuck inside the hose. I tried to get it out but I'm not very handy with tools (It's amazing how I managed to get my degree in Mechanical Engineering).
So I had to water my plants by creating a spray with my thumbs. At least some of that Fluid Mechanics and common sense they teach me in school were put to good use.
yay me.
Now I think I have to buy a new nozzle and cut the stuck bit off my existing hose or buy and install a totally new reel of hose. I just hope I wont have to pay through the nose for them.

Today the music died...

... in my car.
On the way home from the immigration office with my mom, a car that initially looked like it was parked by the side of the road decided to make a U-Turn while I was about 100meters away from him, stupid idjits.
I braked as hard as I could. I heard the car screech and Eddie Vedder's voice go silent. My engine stalled and when I had it going again, Pearl Jam's Live in Benaroya Hall was never to be heard of again. I tried the radio, the cassette player. Nothing. Nothing -ing works anymore. I can't even get the CD changer to eject (hint hint to those of you who have been asking to borrow my CD).
And now I think I'm starting to hallucinate coz I miss my radio so much. I am starting to get radio transmissions in my head or something coz I heard DJ's talking and fuzzy music playing while I was driving to Clicker's.

Boy refuses Mom's kiss

The day has finally come, when Ilham asks me not to kiss him anymore.
"But Why????" I whined. "Don't you love me anymore???" I pouted.
"I cook for you. I wash your clothes. I sew up your torn parnts. I let you watch TV. I make you ribena lollies.
You don't hug me anymore, You don't tell me you love me, and now you won't even kiss me?"
"I love you, Bonda" he tried to make amends.
"but why????"
"My friends.. they laugh at me"
"Okay then , lets kiss where they can't see you. Lets kiss before we go out of the house" I offered.
"Okay then" he bravely said, but I saw him wipe his mouth with the back of his hand after the kiss.
First I have to stop stalking, and now this???

That's all folks

p/s I love Foster's House for Imaginary Friends :)

Outback Jack

Mood: goofin'

everybody wants to be mark burnett

Have you watched 'Outback Jack'?
They showed the first episode last Thursday. It's like a cross between The Bachelor, A Simple Life and Survivor.
You have an eligible bachelor (Jack, who lives in the outbacks of Oz) and 12 ladies who is vying for his attention and marriage proposal. These ladies are pampered princesses from cities thruout the US of A and they complain about bugs, shriek at the sight of lizards and such. And the courtship is going on the the wilderness of Australia, where they have to survive in for the next few weeks. So far they've got ample food and there are no reward or immunity challenges yet.. so maybe it's not so much like Survivor.
Anyways.
I thought I would get sick watching it, just like I did when I watched The Bachelor and For Love Or Money, but I was quite suprised when I found myself actually rooting for some of the girls and pfft-ing some others. Yup, I enjoyed the show.
Is it just me, or do other people like laughing at girls making fools of themselves? One of them even sang to the guy!! I was laughing my head off.
Jack looks like a really sweet guy (he helped carry half of the ladies' bags) and he looks like he really knows what he was doing (as in surviving in the wilderness) but I can't imagine how he got roped into making this show. I mean he looked level headed and down to earth enough.. perhaps his other head got the better of him when the producer said "you're gonna have 12 skimpy sheilas fawn over you in the woild".
I really hope Jack finds the love of his life through this show.. or at the very least perhaps even change some of the ladies' attitude towards nature or something.
One thing I know, I'm gonna watching the next episode.



p/s riza, thanx for the offer, but I won't even go to my dad's house...
Don't worry folks. Taufik got things covered..

this sucks

not having my own computer sucks!