Sunday, December 09, 2007

B Gone Mister, B Gone!


I am a fan of Clive Barker, that’s for sure. I like his books, I like his art. But his latest work really disappoints.

Behold Mister B. Gone. The book supposedly contains the soul of a demon from the Ninth Circle of Hell, the lowest level in the worst place you ever want to be. When he was young, he was an abused child (if you can believe it) and forced into this world by ‘Fishermen’, people who purposefully went out to find creatures like demons, trolls and such. So, he was caught by one these people around the 15th century, I think and thus began the journey of Jakobok Botch aka Mister B.

Oh yeah, I forgot to explain my previous statement. When I said “contains the soul of a demon”, I meant what I said. When you read it, Mister B is actually telling you the story from within the pages. He lives inside the pages and at every moment begging you to stop reading and burn the book. It was kind of creepy and after a while I was tempted to burn the book but for different reasons.

For someone who has interest in good and evil, angel and demons etc, what could be better than having a demon reside in a book. However, I’m not really sure about Clive Barker’s execution for this one. The setting is very interesting. After he was caught (and escaped) he quickly found another demon who was travelling the world looking for great inventions that might/will change the world. Until finally they heard a man called Gutenberg of Mainz.

Everytime the story gets interesting, Mister B, the narrator and resident demon, would try to convince, scare or threaten me to burn the book. And he would just go on and on and on and believe me I almost obliged his request just to make him shut up.

All in all, this is a disappointment. But then, I’m not swearing off Clive Barker yet. I’m waiting for the continuation of Abarat. I just wished he would concentrate on that after this.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A sad year

Review: 6 Dec 2017
Something drew me to open up this post again. 10 years later. I don't know why. I knew it happened right after Nurin Jazlin died a gruesome death.
Where was I 10 years ago? Baru start keja Media Prima
"First, my friend's father" - My friend Peoih.
"Another friend's mother" - ??
"Father of my ex-boss" - ex-boss Sulaiman
September 2007 - who died? A guy close to my age? around 30 years old. fara's classmate - Tangkak

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I remember 2004 being a year of weddings.

And now I will remember 2007 as a sad year.

There were so many deaths this year. Not particularly close to me but I still feel the pain.

First was my friend's father. I knew him when I had a sleepover at her house. Then it was another friend's mother. Then, it was the father of my ex-boss.

Last month, a school friend died suddenly. It was really hard when someone close to your age pass away. I didn't know him that well. He was in the class next to mine so I saw him occasionally. My close friend was very close to him. So me being the very empathatic person that I am can't help but feel the loss. He had 3 kids.

One day, I was visiting all the blogs that I haven't visited for a long time. I was so shocked when I visited Along's Blog. She had another miscarriage, this is the second time this year. It's like once was not bad enough. But she's a strong person.

Then there was this heart-breaking, never-should-have-happened tragedy with Nurin. I think everyone of us is asking the same thing...

How could anyone do this to a child?


We can't even do it to an adult, let alone a child.

I guess humans ARE capable of doing ANYTHING. We are the only creature on earth who could kill each other for sport. Even the most ferocious animal wouldn't do that to their own kind. They only kill to survive. But we...

I am this close to losing my faith in mankind. Watching Criminal Minds every week does not help either. But I still believe.

Help me believe

and remember...

Another update!

Another step up in the world of Kampung Gal!

I've updated my blogroll. (What did you think? I'm taking it one step at a time.)

I have to delete a few, add some. Have to delete those that doesn't exist anymore. I found blogs of people that I know, so I added those.

Not being in the blog for a long time has its setback. One of it is missing other blogs that you like to read. I like reading Social Cafe. They're a bunch of crass guys but they do have a point sometimes. I kind of miss them. I don't know if they stopped or moved. So if anyone know if they have a new site, let me know.

I gues it's not too late to say Happy Halloween!

Witch



Monday, October 22, 2007

New Layout

Spaz

HA! HA! HA!

Behold! The new blogspot layout feature!

It took a lot of tweaking but it's worth it. I love the archive setting. Very easy. Now I can delete that sorry archive post. Also added Shelfari. Very cool application. Now I don't have to find picture and change the template manually everytime I read a new book. I wonder if there's a way I can put a song in there...

Thinking

I finished The Book Thief, still planning to write a review but not at the moment. No mood.

Now I'm reading the Gorillaz autobiography. Wasn't such a huge fan. I mean I don't buy every single CD, DVD, merchandise from them (not that I can if I want to. One setback of living in Malaysia. Nothing cool is available here!) I bought the book it was on discount and I love to see the artwork, every page is illustrated. It also features a discography page and every cover that they've been on. Pretty cool to see.

But now after I read the book, I appreciate the band, the music, and the idea behind their concept. Now I can say I am a fan of Gorillaz.

And yes... I've downloaded the smiley program...

Smile away!!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Quick update

So!

My friend already make noise that my blog sudah "bersawang" already. Aiya... So hard to please everyone nowadays.

So!

I'll just make a quick post, record what's going on since I last blog, anything I forgot to mention, etc, etc...

First up!

I quit my job at the bookstore. Frankly, I like the job, I don't mind the workload (which is a lot!), I don't mind the hours (in fact I enjoyed it) BUT... I just can't stand the people.

I have to admit it, I'm not a people person. If someone were to come up to me with a stupid question, I get annoyed. If someone were to come up to me making unreasonable requests, I get annoyed, if someone get offended with something I said when I didn't mean to offend them, I get offended, if I pick up the phone and someone starts yelling for no reason, I WILL GET SUPER ANNOYED AND OFFENDED!!! I will also get super-duper annoyed if that caller started title-dropping, "Do you know who I am? I am Datuk *tttuuuuutttt*! I'm a professor!"

F*** you la, Datuk! I guess your 'profesor' and 'datuk' school didn't teach you any manners!

Ok .... ok.... deep breaths...

But...

That's all in the past now. I'm thinking I can still enjoy books without working at a bookstore. It's better for my mental and physical health anyway.

So!

Now I'm working at that TV station, doing translation or subtitles whatever you want to call it. Previously I was a part-time employee but they offered me a full-time position. It didn't come at a better time. I was so ready to blah....

Before, I may have dropped excuses that since I'm working 7 days a week, I don't have time to blog. But now... hehehe I still don't have to blog because.... because... because... okay just give me a day or two to give a good excuse. I need time to adjust. Yeah... that's my excuse. I need time to adjust my body clock to 9to5, 2 off days working mode. Ha ha ha... (bear with me, I haven't installed any smiley applications yet).

In the meantime, I also bought a new car, a Kelisa, black which I dubbed "The Grim Reaper". And since I got it on 30 Dec 2006, the poor thing got hit by a motorcycle when he was 3 months old. uhuk...uhuk... another sad thing is that I still haven't fix it.

I'm also a proud owner of an iPod video now. That thing is so great only those who have one know what it's like. I wonder what Pak Lah and Datuk Najib did with their iPods?

Coming up!

I'm hoping to update my photoblog with photos from my recent trip to Pulau Perhentian (We had so much fun) and maybe some photos from my upcoming trip to Singapore in November to visit that noisy friend of mine (I hope you're satisfied Nora Sakura!)

I may want to talk about a book that I recently entered into my favourite book list, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was also the reason why I named my car "Grim Reaper". It is so wonderful, the best book I've ever read for such a long time. I can't stop talking and thinking about it. That's why I think the best way to let go of all this emotions is through blogging. If I've somehow incite your interest, you can go ahead and read it. I'm reading it for the 2nd time now. You can get the book at Kinokuniya for 25% until end of this month.

Lastly, you may know more about me in the future. I've registered to facebookand it's quite cool. I 'may' put a link to my facebook here. We'll see. I'm still shy la...

So that's it for now. See you in another... 6 months!

Just kidding or am I? (Shucks... there should be a smiley here)

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Mission: Possible?

I'm on a mission!

For those who don't know already, my name is Kampung Gal and I am a book-shopaholic-maniac.

I'm buying books faster than I can read them. (Buying that speed-reading book didn't help either.) And now (surprise, surprise) I don't have the space to stash them all. I'm short of stacking them on the floor. And I would've done it if I'm not living with my parents.

I was one of those people that won't get rid of the books after reading them. A lot of people has told me to give it away, sell it, throw it, do whatever but I still can't see the meaning of it. I bought the books with my hard-earned money. I'm not gonna throw it away, mom!

But now after some thought I finally understand. I can even pinpoint the exact moment when I change my stand on book-collecting. It was when I was browsing The Book Addict's Treasury about a month ago and I came across this quote,


I houseclean my books every spring and throw out those I'm never going to read again like I throw out clothes I'm never going to wear again. My friends are peculiar about books. They read all the best sellers, they get through them as fast as possible, I think they skip a lot. And they NEVER read anything a second time so they don't remember a word of it a year later. But they are profoundly shocked to see me drop a book in the wastebasket or give it away. They way they look at it, you buy a book, you read it, you put in on the shelf, you never open it again for the rest of your life but YOU DON'T THROW IT OUT! NOT IF IT HAS A HARD COVER ON IT! Why not! I personally can't think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book.

Helene Hanff, letter to Frank Doel, 18 September 1952

I think this is taken from the book 84, Charing Cross Road.

After reading that I thought, God, I'm just like her friends. I read the book, I keep it and probably will never open it for the rest of my life. And then I bought the book, the Book Addict's that is.

But I'm not as drastic as her. I'm not about to throw anything away. I guess the most comfortable way for me to let them go is sell them.

My friend suggested we join a flea market but that was about 3 years ago. So... suffice to say I'm still stuck with the books.

I tried the various used bookstores around town. I think it won't even cover my transportation expenses. Anyway, some of the titles are quite unconventional so I don't think they want them anyway.

I tried e-bay one time. No luck.

So now I want to try this. I will advertise on my blog because I think blog readers are more diverse than e-bay visitors. Who am I kidding, I think blog readers are more sophisticated too. I'll figure out the logistic of it later. I just want to know if this can work.

I will start of with these first.




Title: The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame
ISBN: 0786862084
Format: Hardcover
Condition: Quite good. A bit 'kedut' at the jacket edges. But content still OK. No holes. Bought this during my Hunchback-crazed days.
Price: Selling price is US50 but just for you, I'm selling at RM50.









Title: Secrets
Author/Artist: Luis Royo
ISBN: 1561631620
Format: Paperback
Condition: Very good. Pristine. Like New. I can't remember how, when or why I bought this book.
Price: I know this guy is some famous artist and this book is still good so RM65.




And these....

1) Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl, 0679729895, PB, RM25
2) Books of Blood Vol 1-3 by Clive Barker, 075151022X , PB, RM25
3) Winnie the Pooh Collection by AA Milne, 0603560792, HC BOX SET, RM40

All in good condition.
Hey, I take care of my books very well tau....

I also have textbooks.

1) INTERNATIONAL MARKETING (10TH ED), PHILIP R CATOERA, 0071156739, HC
2) CALCULUS (5TH ED), HOWARD ANTON, 0471594954, HC
3) DISCRETE MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS (2ND ED), KENNETH H. ROSEN, 0070537445, PB
4) ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE FOR THE IBM-PC (2ND ED), KIP R IRVINE, 0023596511, HC
5) CONCEPTS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (2ND ED), ROBERT W SEBESTA, 0805371303, HC
6) DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHM ANALYSIS IN C++, MARK ALLEN WEISS, 0805354433, HC
7) PLUG N PLAY JAVA SCRIPTS, KEVIN READY, 1562056743, PB
8) MARKETING MANAGEMENT: AN ASIAN PERSPECTIVE (2ND ED), PHILIP KOTLER ETC, 0130109800, PB

E-mail me if you're interested. We'll discuss delivery, payment etc later.

Friday, January 19, 2007

*sigh*

Muahaahahahahaha! (Devil laugh)

So, I guess I've given up trying to update my blog regularly. Too many things to do! Books to read, shows to see, DVDs to see, games to play and then there's work.

I haven't put up any of my 'Current Updates' too. I can still do it but what's the point.

I'm using the beta blogger but so what *sigh*

I still haven't installed any of my 'smiley' program since I got the new PC *sigh*

There were so many things I could blog about: The Amazing Race, Amazing Race Asia! And now American Idol has started again *sigh*

But I will prevail. This blog will not go anywhere (unless blogspot decided it's not worth it and delete it in time.)

Until that happens 'Kampung Gal in the City' is not going anywhere *fingers crossed*