Current update - 30/11/05

Why do I do this?

Read: Imajica, Abarat & Abarat 2 by Clive Barker
Reading: Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens, The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte
CD: None
Favorite song: Dare by Gorillaz
Playing: Luxor (MSN)
Watching: Desperate Housewives, Amazing Race: Family Edition, The Drew Carey Show, Monk

*No. of times asked if I have a boyfriend: 6
*No. of times asked when I will get married: 19
*No. of times asked when I will have kids: 2
Note: * Since I started this blog of course. I've been getting these questions lots of times before but you can't honestly believe I would count them, right? I just thought of this lately. It's interesting to know the average number of times a single girl at a marriageable age get that million dollar question. I hope other single bloggers would do the same. Maybe we can write a thesis on it! I also change "ppl" to "times" since one person can ask all three questions.

Other news:
1) Joined NaNoWriMo with no success
2) Started my part-time work as a tv show translator
3) Bought a digicam (more on this in later post)

Dah pancit dah

If eyeris stated this as the reason for him not finishing his Nano, my reason would be this...


I had to place an order for the bookstore to bring this in, I don't know why. It is such a precious book, nice story filled with illustrations done by the man himself. Great artworks in my opinion.

I've waited for one year for the book to come into paperback and when I finally got my hands on it I was in the midst of trying to write my own 'precious' book. After 2 weeks of trying, I couldn't resist the temptation. Why bend your back creating your own crap when you can read other people's gems right? I just had to pick it up and start reading it.

However, it was postponed because I realized that, apart from the fact that the main character came from Chickentown and ended up in Abarat, I couldn't remember anything else from the first book. So I read the first book again before jumping into this one. So there goes my Nano.

I'm still blown away by Clive Barker's great artistry. I just cannot comprehend how these could come out from one person's head.




I wanted to scan my favourite illustration out of the two books but I can't decide which one I like the most, I love them all. So I gave you the most beautiful and the most gruesome and something in between, which describe the range of subjects in his art.

I can't explain why I like his paintings. But then it's not like you can always explain why you like some things and not others. They just struck a chord in me, that's all I can say. I just want to look at it again and again. He himself may have sold his soul to the devil, I don't know but I'm sure enjoying his sacrifices.

So imagine my delight when I found out he recently put out a book showcasing more than 400 of his drawings and oil paintings.
I've placed an order for it last week. The price is a bit steep but like they say, it's a must-have for all fans and that's certainly what I am. Can't wait for it's arrival. Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War is the second book out of a quartet. I can't wait for those too.

Now, if only he would think of making a graphic novel with his own drawings. Those that are already in the market are done by other artists and they just don't quite cut it for me. They include his other novel for children, The Thief of Always, the Hellraiser series featuring short stories inspired by The Hellbound Heart, and Tapping the Vein, a visualization of some of the stories featured in his Books of Blood. I might consider getting this one because some of the stories are so unbelievable I have to see it to accept it. Especially for In the Hill, the Cities. You just have to read the story to understand me on this one.

Anyway, I just want to make it official that I've given up on trying to finish my Nano. No regrets. I finished 3 good books this month and in the middle of another great one, The Dumas Club.

Will I ever do it again? Sure why not. Recently I opened my Nano again, albeit reluctantly (I was just too ashamed to face my own substandard work ). The experience was not that bad. In fact I think I will work on it again whenever the mood comes, just for my own personal pleasure.

The flesh is not willing

Raya this time was uneventful like always. The only difference was instead of having nasi himpit and kuah kacang for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I didn't have any. I don't know why. Maybe I knew that this year's kuah kacang was tasteless. It turned out that the kacang tumbuk my mum bought to make things easier was spoiled. So there goes a pot of kuah kacang down the drain. Thankfully my sister brought some and the future in-laws gave us some as well. So I did get to eat nasi himpit and kuah kacang, just that one time. I prefer ketupat actually. But I compensate my breakfast lunch and dinner with lemang because this year my mum make rendang tok... very nice .

This year I also seem to have a hightened appetite for kuih raya. I didn't get to make any this year. I always make at least on type of kuih raya every year, except this one. I don't know why. Could be the new job or maybe it's because I'm blogging this year .

Kids coming over are a bit lesser. I don't know if it was because they've learn the value of being decorous or I wasn't around when they came. I went to work one fine Saturday morning, the third day of raya thank you very much . I don't know if it's just me, because I'm such an anti-social, but I find it annoying when kids from God-knows-where just knock on your door. I'm sure that they don't know who you are anyway and just came over for the money. I've even had some who came in with shabby clothes, sweating like a pig. I was wondering if they gathered for their normal playmeet and when they get tired they just thought,
"Wei, jom gi raya. Boleh makan lepas tu dapat duit lagi."
[Let's go visiting. Can eat and even get money after that]

So far I've only been to one house for raya, no open houses yet. But I'm sure the invitations will come any day now but then I probably would not be able to come because of the shift work. On the other hand, working here, I get to taste so many kuih raya ... even kuih Deepavali also got.

Other news...
To date I'm down to 11,446 word for my Nano... so far to go! And my spirit has suddenly dwindled. I felt like there's so many other stuff to do like finish the books that I started a long time ago, go out with friends with feeling guilty, watch more tv or take more naps. I kind of feel that no matter how hard I try, even if I write everyday, I won't be able to reach the target. But I also think that what if I got so close like getting to 45,000 words on the 29th? I know that I will bang my head for skipping a day of writing. If only they can extend the dateline ...

It's so hard to change your habit. All those years of doing academic writing has taught me to keep the sentences short and simple. That certainly will not work for Nano. My sentences don't make sense, my paragraphs are full of crap and discrepancies appear everywhere. Like would you talk a walk in the middle of the afternon summertime in New York?

Writing this post makes me realize.. I miss blogging.

Happy Holidays!

The house is relatively clean, the rendang and nasi himpit has been cooked, the cookies are laid out on the table. Clothes are ironed, the takbir has been heard, money packed into small green packets and my nano is shelved for the time being.

I just want to wish everyone who ever visited me at this little corner of cyberspace a Selamat Hari Raya or Eid Ul-Fitr. If I have ever said anything that might offend anybody, I sincerely apologize. A girl do need to vent out sometimes.

Jobot says Selamat Hari Raya!

A ghostly tribute

It's Halloween, my favorite day. If I was in US I'll be glued in front of the tv switching through channels, devouring whatever horror prgrams they're showing. Some of the channels would even have a Halloween marathon for 24 hours. Ahh.... a horror fan heaven...

Anyway, since this is the first Halloween that I have a blog, I would like to pay tribute to my favourite horror movies...

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
I saw this movie as part of a film course I took in US. I believe this is the first movie with the central plot of a group of people trapped with monsters or zombies or fog or birds or whatever it is that's threatening them gathered outside. They need to survive at least until the sun comes up. It's not enough that they have to face dangers outside their confinement, there's always a struggle within those protective walls. A very nice black and white horror film that started a whole new genre.


The Sixth Sense
I remember watching this movie alone because I was so bored and I haven't been to the movies for the longest time. The first half of the movie I was pretty bored and my mind even wandered off a little. But the story finally pulled me back in. The part that really got to me was when Cole peeked under the bed. Well, it was pretty obvious that he's going to see something there, but the girl looked creepy and sad. And that mixed display is something I cannot forget. I also love the part when Cole got locked inside the small hole by the stairs at the party. It wasn't as much as what happened to Cole inside that was scary but the fact that the mother outside couldn't do anything to protect him. Isn't that one of our worst fears, knowing that a loved one is suffering and there's nothing we can do about it.

Hellraiser
I love this one for its gore factor. It's a mystery how a man that looks like this

can create gruesome creatures like these...

Pinhead and Butterball

The Others
I liked this one because I didn't expect it will end like that. I liked it even more that they decided to stay and do whatever it is they were meant to do even though they were shocked with the nature of their existence.

Shadow of the Vampire
The story behind the filming of Nosferatu, the oldest vampire movie ever. Max Schreck the man who played Nosferatu was believed to be a real vampire and Willem Defoe played him perfectly. John Malkovich was also perfect as the eccentric director, Frank Murnau. My favorite part is when Max hang out with some of the crew one night and explained the sad existence of Dracula.

Dracula hasn't had servants in 400 years and then a man comes to his ancestral home, and he must convince him that he... that he is like the man. He has to feed him, when he himself hasn't eaten food in centuries. Can he even remember how to buy bread? How to select cheese and wine? And then he remembers the rest of it. How to prepare a meal, how to make a bed. He remembers his first glory, his armies, his retainers, and what he is reduced to. The loneliest part of the book comes... when the man accidentally sees Dracula setting his table.

And then he grabbed a bat out of the air and sucked its blood dry. Nice...

Amityville Horror
The ultimate haunted house movie. A classic.

Nightmare on Elm Street
Who wouldn't love good ole Freddy Kruger. Heck, even my mother knows who Freddy Kruger is. Being in a nightmare that never ends is pretty horrific to experience.

Poltergeist
A girl inside a tv, a sweet talking psychic, using the strong bond of family love to defeat evil, young actors die in untimely deaths. What more can I say.

Bram Stoker's Dracula
I like this movie more on the art rather than its horror factor. I love the book and I love movies that uses bright colors, and this one is a feast for the eyes. It has some great shots like the way Dracula's red amour contrasted very strongly with his wife's green dress in the flashback scene. In addition to its beautiful and lavish costumes, this movie is quite stunning indeed. I must admit that Keanu Reeves was particularly very bad that even I couldn't back him up this time. But fortunately Gary Oldman was there to level it out.


Ju-On
I've watched a lot of horror movies but nothing compared to this. I might be terrified by Freddy, forrified by Hellraiser and stupefied by The Sixth Sense but nothing compared to this. One simple reason, I couldn't sleep after watching this movie. I kept hearing the sound and seeing her face. I like to sleep under the covers and this movie covered that area as well. I considered chucking the blanket. But I'd rather have the blanket than leave my feet uncovered, so I kept the blanket and made sure that I don't peak under it.

It's 1:06 now and I don't even dare look for some stills for this movie.

So that's it. That's my list of movies that thrilled, chilled and scared the desire to sleep out of me, for a while. I'm not afraid to go to sleep now so goodbye and goodnight. I wish everyone a Happy Deepavali.

A pleasant doom

Another game to movie adaptation. Hollywood has proven time and time again that they really are running out of original ideas.

This movie is not one of those highly anticipated movie of the year like Harry Potter 4, King Kong and Sin City was. So I didn't know that this movie is coming out until they started to run the promos on tv. I saw this weird scene where you can only see the front of the gun and monsters getting blasted one by one in front of you and I thought, that looks very familiar....

Oh yeah... I've done that before. I've had my share behind the gun and shooting a significant amount of monsters back in the day. I played Doom before although for a very short time. I was in US and just got my very first computer. Of course I was very gung-ho to try all those cool games I was only able to watch other people play. One of the perks of being in the US is that they sometime sell old game titles really cheap and that's how I got my hands on Doom.

I guess it's true what they say, there's nothing more satisfying than blasting the heads off of some stupid, ugly monsters without the risk of hurting yourself. However, I did kind of hurt myself playing Doom. The interface was a bit confusing and moving around the maze while keeping your eye out for monsters and crazed scientists gave me a headache. This was my first first-person shooter type game. After a few rounds I called it quits and decided that this type of game is not for me (I'm more of a role-playing, strategist, Gabriel Knight, Civilization, Zeus type of gamer).

I was excited that someone wanted to adapt the game to the screen. Finally, something familiar for a change . And I was excited that they brought in the first-person shooter view into the movie. I was even more excited to learn that The Rock is going to be in it .

But the excitement didn't end there when I got another pleasant surprise a few minutes into the show. This guy was in the movie too.

Hehehe... Karl Urban... aka Eomer aka Ceaser from Xena the Warrior Princess
He was like icing on the cake .

What was I talking about? Oh, the movie... yes... ehemhem... focus Kampung Gal...

The plot was as unoriginal as the basis of the movie. I don't remember the story of Doom the game but the movie is nothing new compared to other sci-fi action movie. A group of soldiers were sent to some far-way place to answer a distress call. The whole team seems to carry personal baggages heavier than their guns and survival kit. We got a psycho, a nervous wreck, the guilt ridden and a horny toad to name a few. For an elite team they don't look pretty elite to me. I wouldn't trust these guys to exterminate the rodents in my house. I'm afraid they'll end up blowing the whole house and the tenants along with it. But don't worry, they don't last very long. The only different thing about this particular movie was that a black dude was not the first to die.

However, they saved the best for last. It was what we were all waiting for... the first-person shooter view that they've been promoting left and right for.
I have to admit, it was pretty cool. I even remembered shooting this little guy,

Pinky Demon

But it was too long for my comfort, I started to get dizzy and I recalled why I stopped playing the game in the first place. I think it would be better if they didn't focus all the first-view shots at this one sequence. They could have used it a few times throughout the movie with different characters and different weapons, then the audience would really get the feel of the game.

To conclude, let me just add one more good thing about this movie, this makes one hell of a cool group photo

Shoulder your weapon soldier!

Current update - 30/10/05

Why do I do this?

Read: Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton, The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
Reading: Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens, Imajica by Clive Barker
CD: None
Favorite song: Eleanor by Low Millions, Other Side of the World by KT Tunstall
Playing: Freecell
Watching: Desperate Housewives, Amazing Race: Family Edition, The Drew Carey Show

*No. of times asked if I have a boyfriend: 6
*No. of times asked when I will get married: 16
*No. of times asked when I will have kids: 2
Note: * Since I started this blog of course. I've been getting these questions lots of times before but you can't honestly believe I would count them, right? I just thought of this lately. It's interesting to know the average number of times a single girl at a marriageable age get that million dollar question. I hope other single bloggers would do the same. Maybe we can write a thesis on it! I also change "ppl" to "times" since one person can ask all three questions.

The weird bunch

The other day I went out on a limb and join my friend for buka puasa with a bunch of strangers at least for my part. The event was organized by the guy she's currently dating and she wanted me to meet him. He's a doctor, good looking but supposedly confused about his sexual preference i.e. is he gay or not? He even admitted to my friend that he's attracted to her contract fiance.


You remember My Best Friend's Wedding where Julia Roberts made a pact with her guy friend to get married if they haven't found anyone at a certain age. I forgot the details. For simplicity's sakes I will call it a contract wedding, and the intended, contract fiance. Well my friend signed up for one of this contract wedding, her idea actually, with a good friend who happens to be relatively open about being gay. He has a boyfriend and she knows about it.

This friend of mine, let's call her N, seems to have a lot of gay friends because I met more of them for this buka puasa at Kelantan Delight KLCC.

We started the day by getting our hair done. Well, she had her hair done, I just desperately needed a haircut and this place I frequent is terribly cheap albeit quite far from my house. Wash and cut for RM17, where in KL can we get that? Then off we go to KLCC at about 4pm to catch a movie at 4:30. I wanted to watch Doom but she wanted to watch Goal. no football movie for this gal. So we took the middle road and agreed on Transporter 2. But I don't know what she did when she booked the tickets online, Transporter 2 was not at 4:30, it was 5:15. Not enough time until buka puasa.
"What's on at 4:30 then?" she asked.
"Doom", said the person at the counter.
"I guess I'm doomed then."
So that's how we ended up watching Doom. Hehe some things are just meant to be. More on the movie if I have the mood to blog about it.

After the movie, we met up with her friend who's going to join us for the buka puasa. Total, four guys and all of us headed to Kelantan Delight where another friend is waiting.

The next part might be confusing. Heck I'm still confused so just bear with me.

After a while, the table started to fill up minus a few. The doctor (the guy that N wanted me to meet) couldn't come because of an emergency operation and another girl, O was going to be late. N's fiance was invited but he couldn't make it. By 7pm there was 9 of us.

Looking around the table I thought, man I couldn't be with a weirder bunch than this. Keep in mind that not all of us at the table actually knew each other. Most of us just met each other for the first time that night. Me and N were seated next to each other at the middle of the table laid out for 12. On N's right are the four guys we met earlier consists of her friend with his boyfriend and his ex-boyfriend with his current boyfriend. Ok, let me rephrase that, beside N is B1 with his bf B2, in front if B2 is B1's ex-bf, B3 and next to him is B3's current bf B4. Got that? Good. Let's move on.

Seated in front of me slightly to the left, there's this girl who works at the same office as B1. This girl, as N described her to me, is a pengkit but not really a pengkit. If I'm not mistaken a pengkit is a tomboy lesbian (someone better help me here, I'm too kampung to know about this stuff). Definitions aside, she really looks like a man, if she doesn't go around with her real name I can go on the whole night thinking she's a man. However, N told me that she has expressed her desire to be married and have a family (with a man to set the record straight) but realized that her appearance doesn't help. Let's move on.

On the left and right of this girl sat her two friends. On her right is her old friend from school Juan aka Juanita (not his real name). Yes he's one of those effeminate guys. Ok, ok I'll say it... he's a maknyah, I don't know what's the politically correct term for them. And on her left is Juanita's roommate another maknyah. They sure do talk a lot. It was like they haven't seen each other for years. It's interesting listening to them. But after a while, their conversation turned into a friendly bicketing on who left the condom by the bedside table last night which was when I stopped listening and pretend I haven't heard that.

Then O finally turned up, better late than never. This girl I do know from my student days. But as time passed and we all went abroad and came back, she got more affiliated with N than me. She was a colleaque of N's ex-boyfriend and after awhile started to hang around with the same bunch of people as N. O also has something special going on. She's jealous that N has a fiance, no matter that he's gay, that she wanted a gay contract fiance for herself and she's got her eye on B1. I don't know if it's suppose to be a joke among friends or she was being really serious, but I was so overwhelmed with all these new people and strange lifestyles to believe that she was serious.

So there I was with four gay men, a pengkit who's not really a pengkit, 2 maknyahs, a girl short of her contract fiance and a girl who's looking out for a contract fiance. Where do I fit in with this picture? I was supposed to meet N's friend who didn't turn up and of course I was there for the food .

Hehe... If I was somewhere outside of Malaysia, I could turn this bunch into a movie.

Howhow.. Howwwwlllll!!!

I finally ventured into Diana Wynne Jones after finding out Hayao Miyazaki did an animated adaptation to one of her books, Howl's Moving Castle. This happens a lot, I would read a book just because it's being adapted to the big screen which is also the one and only reason why I read The Da Vinci Code. Darn it, if they didn't think of making it into a movie, I'd still won't touch that book with a 50-feet pole.

The first rule of comparing one form of art with another is to evaluate it at its original form, in this case the book. I read the book last month. It's pretty short and not really my cup of tea. But I like some parts of it. I love the idea of a moving castle having the efficiency of going to four different places with a turn of the knob. I like the characters like Sophie with her newfound spunk after being cursed, Howl the powerful wizard with his eccentric and diva-like personality, and Calcifer the living breathing fire devil with an attitude.

After finishing it I have the trouble accessing the movie. But a solution arrived in the form of another book.

The movie was adapted into a comic book in four parts. A practice also done for Spirited Away and My Cat Tortoro. However the downside of 'reading' the movie is that it's very slow. To date the forth part of the film comic series still haven't come out yet.

One day, a colleague saw me reading the film comic number 2 in the locker room (something that's frowned upon around here).
"Hey, have you seen the movie?" she asked.
"No, I don't know where to find it."
"They sell it at S&M."
S&M! Why didn't I think of that. I thought the vcd is not available yet. Aiya... so slow la nowadays...

But I was saved again when she said, "I have it, I can lend it to you." hehehe

This is the forth Miyazaki film that I have seen and I love them all. His animations are always simple but stunning, the story a bit formulaic (sweet innocent girl thrown into a strange world, ended up doing a great deed) yet still interesting. His visions always save the day. Check out the details from this scene in Howl's room.

I'm grateful that his visions played a big part in this adaptation. I love the way he depicts the moving castle, the dog, Calcifer and of course, Howl the man himself. I love the way he played around with Sophie's various stage of ageing to coincide with the way she feels at the time.



The movie is claimed to be 'loosely' based on the book but the first half of the story is still intact. He still maintains some parts that I personally like, like Calcifer's fiery personality and paranoia of being put out, Howl's diva-like persona (though a bit toned down in the movie), and Howl's sludge-attack. There are some cute factors in here as well. With Spirited Away it was the three heads and baby that was turned into a fly (or was it a mosquito) and the fat mouse. In Howl's Moving Castle you can get it by watching the dog. He was so cute trying to roll over at the top of the stairs with his short legs flailing trying to get some leverage. Kawai! And the Michael's voice is cute too.

I'm happy with the way the story folds out in the movie. I'm glad that Miyazaki chose to totally eradicate the love triangle, quadrangle or whatever angle that was featured in the book. Instead he chose to focus on the war and Howl's struggle to get out of it.

Conclusion: I prefer the movie than the book.

Things to do before I die 1 Nov

1. Send raya e-card to everyone
2. Finish Imajica
3. Buy kuih raya
4. Clean the room or try to, at least
   
5. Iron baju raya
6. Put money into raya packets
   
7. Blog as much as possible
8. Watch Howl's Moving Castle I borrowed from friend (and maybe blog about it)
9. Think of 50000 words for my Nano
   

I'm way overdue with the raya cards. The ideal time of sending the e-cards should be last week because most of my friends use their work e-mail. Since I'm working until Tuesday, I kind of assumed everyone is working as well. I guess they will get their raya wishes a bit later than usual. Kira ok la... raya is one month wat...

Read 200 pages in 2 days... that's impossible considering my reading speed. But I want to finish it as soon as possible because I'm overwhelmed with books that I haven't read yet. And I think like any other bookamaniacs, more books are joining that line. I have two books on hold at my office right now just waiting to be bought. I imagine if my books have lives they'll be screaming and jumping, "Read me! Read me!" like the numbers in the Digi ad.

I predict that I'll be spending all the free time I can get Nano-ing, so I won't be blogging as much. I hope I'll be too busy to blog. If blog a lot next month, it's very likely that I got stuck or gave up. So better pray that I don't blog next month.

Yes, I did it. I signed up for NaNoWriMo. I'm prepared to get stressed out, pressured, or just plain go crazy next month. What's my Nano?

I got the rough plot, got some character names picked out already, some possible outrageous plots in the event that the ending came before I hit the 50000 words mark. It involves a man who got it going (or so he thought), a hot mama, her angelic but obnoxious daughter, a stray cat and Jesper the Talking Hamster. One or maybe two of them will die.

Still haven't join? Still considering? Come la... let us all go crazy together this November.

Go K.G! Go K.G!

*tut tut*

1 message received

"You can start on 15th Nov. Will notify u once de agreement is ready"



It's not easy to make this girl do the happy dance. But dance I did.

I am now a semi-official translator for a local tv station, one step towards financial stability, hopefully.

The pay is not much and the job is time consuming but this is something that I need to do. It may ruin whatever's left of my social life (like I have any) but at least I'll sleep better at night. But, this also tips my scale towards NOT joining the NaNoWriMo.

Dumb waiter

No I'm not talking about that marvelous invention for the rich and famous so that they can spend more time on their ass than bring their own plate to the kitchen.

Why do waiters or anyone in the food service like to give these little remarks that are really inapropriate?

I went to Shakey's one fine day for buka puasa, and the waiter, instead of taking the order and walked away like he was suppose to went ahead and asked me, "Ni puasa ke tak?" [Are you fasting?]

I gave him a weird look and I hoped he saw it.

"Nak serve sekarang ke?" [Want the food now?]

Hell no! There's a guy sitting in front of me who's obviously fasting. Or maybe he thought he's so 'hip and trendy' to admit that not all Muslim fasts in Ramadhan month and this guy happens to be one of them.

The nerve of that guy to ask me that. No matter that he was right and I wasn't fasting. But did he really think that I was so disrespectful to eat in front of a fasting man. Some nerve .

This incident reminded me of another one.

I bought papaya from a food court at a major shopping mall. And when he brought my order, he said, "Untuk senang berak ye... ". That was his exact words, I swear to God, I will never forget it for the rest of my life.

I don't know what annoyed me more, that he used the word 'berak' while serving my food or that he was right (I was a bit constipated at the time ). But the fact remains, what goes in through your mouth and come out from your other end do not go together.

I don't understand. I don't know what part of their brain thinks that asking this 'little' questions is appropriate. Did they think it was cute? Did they think it was charming making those remarks? Is that suppose to be a pick-up line or something? Heck is not even funny.


Man, the things you have to go through for some decent food.