THE SHADOW OF THE WIND

I have been reading the book (by Carlos Ruiz Zafon) for a week now. I would love to just sit and read the book but I am not feeling too well.

As always with good books, you feel for the characters and hope for the best. Well, it did not turn out for this book. I still have less than a quarter to read and that's when Zafon tells it will end.

And it is a shocker. For those who have read the book - well you know what I am talking about. But shall I reveal it here, nah!! All I can say that it will not be a happy ending.

Those who want to know, post to me so I can tell you. Else please go grab the book - it is worth reading and keeping.

Rachel Roy

I have found a new love, in fashion that is. I have been a subscriber to Oprah's newsletter. She will highlight everything from fashion to food/diet to books.

For the new newsletter she highlighted Rachel Roy, the "Fashion's Next Big Thing". Maybe its the way they commented but I really loved how she chooses the color and still maintain the needs of an everyday woman. Here is an example I got from Oprah's preview of the spring collection.

Rachel says these two looks—especially the gray skirt—are flattering on most women. "That skirt is good on a lot of figures," Oprah says.

These outfits also serve double duty as office attire and evening wear. The sparkly cashmere T-shirt (pictured on the left) can be removed to change the look completely.

Unlike many designers, Rachel prefers her pin-striped pants to fit a little loose. "The slacks, I love because they're baggy," she says. "I like to size my pants up a size so that I can get a smaller size."

The next step is where to find her line. When I looked through Rachel Roy's site, listed some of the international stores which are based in Dubai, Hong Kong, and of all places Indonesia (!#??) but none in Malaysia. We need to change that.

Rights for an abortion

THE CIDER HOUSE RULES primarily deals with abortion - the right of a woman to have an abortion. And should it be legal.

Personally, I agree that a woman has a right for abortion. Not that I'm touting for sex before marriage but there are certain conditions where the baby is not wanted. And the womem should have more rights to what they have now. We came from the rib of Adam, which is also a creation of Allah.

A situation taken from the book. The setting was at a 'clinic' where they perform abortion (in an unsanitary environment) for a big sum. Larch visited the clinic and saw two woman - one young enough to be a sister or daughter. It turns out that it is the daughter which was impregnanted by her own father (or was it step father, but that is beside the point).

Now in Malaysia, the same scene does happen here. The victim was brutalized by either her uncles (still acceptable), but by own father or brothers. Today there was an article in Tumpat, the mother undressed her eight-year old daughter for the stepfather to have sex with the child WHILE SHE LOOKED ON. How much worse can it go?

What has the world become? Is not people, or the so called Muslims know the right or wrong? Can they not control themselves? If the victim was an adult or at least reached puberty, I would not be so verbal as this.

This post was suppose to be my thoughts of the book but I got carried away.

Meeting up

Finally after three weeks, I managed to meet up with Taty - at work that is.

While waiting for the techie to fix my email, I sat with her and Sam while they were having lunch. But it was a bit difficult to negotiate - not sure what to talk about since we both wanted certain things known only between us.

Cars the movie

The first impression I had of this movie is that Imran (my nephew) would love this. I would too with all the advertisement and that cute red car. Then I bumped into an ex-DiGi who brought her family to the cinema for the movie - but it was a full house. (At that time we just caught The Da Vincci Code.)

Since we got our own copy of the DVD, we have been watching or listening to it to death. Last weekend - the children were home. My brother and Imran got into a standoff because of that movie. I could even recognize from the music the scenes that are currently showing.

What I wanted to say is that I find the movie very sad. Especially during the scene on the way to California, where McQueen got dislodged. I cannot bear to hear that soulful music (Life Is A Highway - Rascal Flatts) because it leads to how he bonded with the people or Radiator Spring only to go back to racing. I mentioned this to dad last night and he told me the ending is nice. WHY? He decided to stay on and live in the town.

That goes to show that you should sit and ride out to the end. You never know what will happen.

American Idol 6

It is the time of the year again to reunite with Paula, Randy, and Simon. American Idol Season 6 is back on Wed and Thurs at Astra Ch 70.

So for now, my tv viewing is AI and Project Runaway. Plus the weekend for the EPL.

What Malaysians read

I found this article in the Straits Times Amir Muhammad on Thursday: How we love to 'cinta' in Bahasa.

It is so true here. And they are planning to implement a new education bluerprint which going to make young Malaysians more 'international, innovative, ..." This has been going on for ages and yet no change. I think it is getting worse where one ministry can handle everything and now they created more ministries. If you want to make a better Malaysians, start from the top - we are what you built. Except for those hardheaded who don't careless what will happen if we don't change.

SO there I was, mooching around a large MPH bookstore, when I came across the bestseller list of the Malay fiction section.

Since we are all aware that Malay fiction is going through a boom in sales, and since I am always eager to keep my finger, but nothing more, on the pulse of popular culture, I made sure to jot all the titles down.

I shall keep you in suspense no longer. Here are the 10 best-selling Malay novels for the past week:

1. Kasih Yang Tercalar
2. Mahligai Cinta
3. Izinkan Ku Bahagia
4. Berikan Cintamu
5. Saat Cinta Bersemi
6. Bahtera Kasih
7. Takdir Cinta
8. Sepi Tanpa Cinta
9. Jika Benar Cinta
10. Beginilah Cinta

Alert readers will have noticed something by now. Nine out of the 10 books have cinta or kasih in the title. Yes, love is all around.

The lone exception is the title in third place: Izinkan Ku Bahagia by Leeya Myra. How did Leeya get to become such an iconoclast that she dared to go against the cinta/kasih hegemony? Is her book really not about love at all?

I picked it up and read the blurb at the back. The first sentence is: Setiap manusia mencari cinta dalam hidup mereka. (Every person is looking for love in their life.) You said it, sister! Especially if that person is in the market for some Malay fiction.

I tried to browse through the books but every one of them was tightly encased in shrink-wrap plastic. Was this a prophylactic measure to protect us from all the love inside?

I hate purchasing books without even knowing what the font looks like, so they all remained unbought by me. (But I am sure they won't complain. They are gettin’ enough love.)

I walked a few feet — the things I do for this column! — to the other bestseller list. You know, the one for books in English. And the Top 10 there are:

1. False Impression
2. Slow Burn
3. The Five People You Meet In Heaven
4. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
5. The Inheritance of Loss
6. Every Breath You Take
7. The Alchemist
8. For One More Day
9. Seven Ancient Wonders
10. The Historian

Where is the love? Even the lone book whose title is taken from a pop song (title number 6) chose to reference The Police, a curmudgeonly band that never released any singles with "love" in the title. When you read in English, does this mean you’ve lost that loving feeling?

Now, there are two opposing ways we can interpret this data:

1. People who read Malay novels are so filled with love that it suffuses every facet of their being. It affects all their choices, including what to read.

Love is all they need. They feel it in their fingers, they feel it in their bones — just like chilblains. That is why they want to share the love, including with book manufacturers.

2. People who read Malay novels are so deprived of love that they need to seek it out in books, just to catch up on what they've been missing. They got no love, which is why they want love.

The recent report by Google Trends on Internet search words, of all things, would tend to bear out the latter theory.

Surfers in Kelantan are more likely to look for porn compared to other states. This might be because they are not allowed to see much flesh in real life.

Not, of course, that I am suggesting that love and porn are the same thing. One is slightly more expensive than the other.

Not to mention easier to unwrap.

Jogging to the music

After a loonnng break, I started jogging after work. This was the second week and it felt good. No wonder the saying that music does your body good. I felt there was wings on my shoes. If that invisible man were there I won't mind going another round with him, but he goes in the morning.

Anyway, this week starts the Australian Open (tennis) and American Idol. Means more TV time and less for reading. In a way its good, keeps my mind away from work which is beginning to be a dread - and its only the 17th day of 2007. Not good at all.

The OST of my life

Got this from all my friend's blogs and how nice the timing of the arrival of my iPod. This is the problem of not compiling all my favourite music - not able to take part in this immediately. Shared this with some of my officemates and one showed me his result - it was errrm, interesting. Trisha's HOW CAN I LIVE WITHOUT YOU (*raised eyebrows*)??

The collection is as complete as can be so here goes:

Anyways, per the rules of this game, I do not seem to have a choice since this is how it's supposed to work.
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don't lie

Opening Credits: TWO OUT OF THREE AIN’T BAD – Meatloaf
Errm - love this song. Looks good so far.

Waking Up: WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T GO HOME – Jon Bon Jovi

First Day At School: SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE – REM & B52’s
Yeah right – leaving my family and home to this strange place

Falling In Love: UNDERNEATH YOUR CLOTHES – Shakira
Hahaha – I’m leaving this to your imagination

Fight song: PUSH – Matchbox 20
Yes - PUSH

Breaking Up: BABY I NEED YOUR LOVIN’ – Four Tops
*eyebrows raising*

Prom: HEY JUDE – Beatles
Yep – if I had stayed long enough in US to go to my prom

Life's OK: BED OF ROSES – Jon Bon Jovi
Amen

Mental breakdown: BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY LIVE – Guns N Roses & Elton John
Just had one, well a slight one …

Driving: EVERYTHING I OWN – Bread
Yes – all those BMWs, Mercs

Flashback: EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORNS – Guns N Roses
Life has its ups and downs

Getting Back Together: I’LL BE THERE FOR YOU – Jon Bon Jovi
I was a bit jittery compiling my soundtrack, but its getting real creepy

Wedding: THE INVISIBLE MAN – 98 degrees
Ooops – Anid you know who this is for

Birth of Child: SMOOTH – Carlos Santana & Matchbox 20
Right smooth

Final Battle: POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME – Def Leppard
Sugar – onto the enemy – it should work

Death Scene: HAVE YOU EVER REALLY LOVE A WOMAN - Jon Bon Jovi
But of course – and I hope I had lived a long life

Funeral Song: BECAUSE OF YOU – 98 degrees
Same as above

End Credits: IF YOU’RE GONE – Matchbox 20
Same as above

So you can guess who are my favourite groups:
Meatloaf – 1
Guns N Roses – 2
98 degrees – 2
Matchbox 20 – 3
Jon Bon Jovi – 4

My New Year resolution - sort of

I wore the same blouse which I wore for my exam. A lot of people complimented on it. And some even commented that my dressing has changed. YES!!

What a nice way to end a dreadful day.

Making Memories Of Us

I'm gonna be here for you baby
I'll be a man of my word
Speak the language in a voice that you have never heard
I wanna sleep with you forever
And I wanna die in your arms
In a cabin by a meadow where the wild bees swarm

And I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll earn your trust making memories of us

I wanna honor your mother
I wanna learn from your pa
I wanna steal your attention like a bad outlaw
I wanna stand out in a crowd for you
A man among men
I wanna make your world better than it's ever been

And I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll earn your trust making memories of us

We'll follow the rainbow
Wherever the four winds blow
And there'll be a new day
Comin' your way

I'm gonna be here for you from now on
This you know somehow
You've been stretched to the limits but it's alright now
And I'm gonna make you this promise
If there's life after this
I'm gonna be there to meet you with a warm, wet kiss

And I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll earn your trust making memories of us
I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll win your trust making memories of us

MY iPOD - again

I had a pleasant surprise to receive an email from Pak Adib.

Hi Zarina,
I read that you got your newe iPod.Congratulations!

I have been using iPod for the last few years and you can read how I use
or misuse my iPod at my side blog http://adipod.blogspot.com

--Adib

He even SMSed me to check his blog. LOL

Pak Adib - so far I am only using it to store all my favourite songs from MAKING MEMORIES OF US to Aerosmith.

By the way, you can see how it looks here.

THE CIDER HOUSE RULES

The movie is so different than the book. I sort of like the movie because Fuzzy did not die early.

It is true that this is the best book ever written by Irving in my opinion. It was heartwrenching how Dr. Larch and Homer informed the other orphans. They sort of knew. Here is what Homer say that made everyone 'happy':

"How could anyone adopt Fuzzy Stone, Homer?" Snowy Meadows asked.

"Who could do it?" said little Wilbur Walsh.

"Someone with a better machine," said Homer Wells. "Someone who had a better breathing machine that the one Doctor Larch built for Fuzzy. It's a family that knows all about breathing machines. It's the family business," he added. "Breathing machines."

Good night, you Princes of Maine - you Kings of New England!

Some people can be so thoughtless

Yesterday afternoon, I showed some pictures of the Penang's wedding to first two guest to the christmas eve wedding.

Suddenly, one them related what had happened that day. I introduced them to my sister, mum and aunty. What happened was when the other guests started arriving, my aunty said something to them which was very cruel (sorry am listening at the moment YOU'VE GOT TO BE CRUEL TO BE KIND from the OST).

Later that night I told mum which she immediately informed dad. It seems that this particular aunty has been saying this kind of things to other people. We suspect that the younger aunty that did not turn up for the wedding, had a mouthful from her.

ARES - how I love you

There was so much to write but have been very busy and also the Blogger was down (?).

After running around looking for songs to download, someone mentioned ARES. So now I have all the songs that I NEED to fill my iPod. As of now, there are about 68 songs. I even manage to burn a CD for the car fill with songs from the 10 Things I Hate about You OST.

Which also brings we to this someone who knows music and purchases albums. So there the first thing I ask was did he have the OST. He came back the next day no. The strangest thing, this morning he confessed to me that he thought OST is a group. *gag*.

Piracy in Malaysia

No wonder in Malaysia privacy is so rampant. I am willing to pay and yet I can't purchase it.

With my new iPod, I want to compile all my favourite songs so I can listen to them till death (last night was Beatle's LET IT BE). I am willing to buy for USD0.99 for the song MAKING MEMORIES OF YOU (I know its a totally sappy song but I fell in love with it when Chris sang the song during the last American Idol). And I am also willing to buy the OST of Ten Things I Hate About You.

But noooo - the only countries you can purchase these songs from iTune are only in US, UK, Germany, Australia to name a few. And the country wants to stop piracy???

Come on - do something about it. Get us on the map...

Anyone who can help me on finding alternatives, or maybe borrowing a copy so I can download into my iPods?

My first day of work for 2007

After laying off for two weeks and completing the exams yesterday (should be an A- if not full mark), I'm in the office. Its 11:30 and I only manage to clear my emails of any spams (note - no emails read except from one of my fav colleague).

But what really made the day - EVERYONE got an iPod, iPod nano that is. Now I need to know what color I will be getting (either pink - what I'm hoping for), blue, green, or gray).

So what will my day be like - searching for free downloads and titles of songs I need for the download.

Oh yeahm thank god for the earthquake. NOT that I am a sadist or terrorist but it means NO work to be done now. My major responsibility is to get connected to other international carriers. The next few weeks we are concentrating on the China/Taiwan/Hong Kong region. So you guess it - NO WORK.

My paper today

I am drained - my second paper this morning really caught me by surprise. The paper is for Writing for Science and Technology.

There was not much (the module was so thin) and it was practically learning about the English grammar, writing in clear and concrete style. I mean who does not know how to write in good English (well a lot but the people I know has powerful English). Plus the last seminar, the facilitor gave us great tips on using MicroSoft Words (which most I already know, what a bummer).

We had to answer all the questions. The first question is quite theoritical - explain in detail global revising and secondary research. The next three questions - correct the passage and one of them is a letter. In the first few readings, I was trying to understand head and tail of the passage.

I felt good about my answers. The lowest score that I should get is an A- (am I being very presumptious? But I did enter the course aiming high).

What really get to me is that I could not find any mistakes in this sentence. I answered as 'NO corrections made'. The others were surprised I answered this way. Can someone tell me if I'm right? Here is the question: Neither the engineers nor the technicians were hurt in the blaze.

Classifying Knowledge

In my review for tomorrow's exam, Writing for Science and Technology I came across a very interesting fact - how people categorize knowledge.

Here is an exert from The Straight Dope site:

Many librarians thought it would be useful to organize books by subject matter. The problem was, what does "subject matter" mean? Francis Bacon, in the 1600s, said there were three branches of knowledge: history (deriving from memory), poetry (from imagination), and philosophy (from reason.).. That formed the basic classification system of the few libraries that bothered with such things. The Vatican library, for example, used only two classifications: sacred and profane.

Am pondering, how can the church be so narrow minded. Well, after reading THE NAME OF THE ROSE (Eco Umberto), THE MEMOIR OF A GNOSTIC DWARF (David Madsen), and THE DA VINCCI CODE (Dan Brown) it shows that the church are narrow-minded. Their main purpose is to eradicate all teachings that goes against the Church. It is to the expense of hiding away literatures from the world.

Is that a way to produce new knowledge, facts. Well according the postivist, true knowledge is in the scientific or the physical world. Knowledge is not gained from the divinity.

The New Year

It has started - dressing to kill. Tomorrow is my first of three exams to finish off the second semester (finally - it's been ages). Already I am thinking what I will be wearing and the bag to match.



The blouse and


the shoes.


Unfortunately, all my exams are during the time when the traffic is heavy. I will be taking the commuter and the LRT (noway am I going to be stuck in the morning rush) so I will be wearing my new Clarks Originals (sneakers). The top will be the new brown blouse I bought at Jaya Jusco.



Hee hee - this is going to be a great year.


And while I still remember, these are the party shoes.

A visit to the dentist

It's been a long while since I went to do scaling. My normal visits include normal cleaning and gum filling for the gum abrasion. I have this 'disease' (mum and brother having same thing) where the gum recedes which exposes a big amount of the teeth. It has reached to the level just before the nerves is exposed. Fortunately, the dentist says that I do not need to worry about carries.

For my last day of nothingness, I visited my dentist for scaling. Oh god - it hurt so much plus with my receding gum it makes everything hurt and bleeding. To add to the misery, while waiting for my turn at the dentist I visited the EPF to submit my nomination (the division of the fund if I am no longer living) form. It seems that they have changed the form. Beside providing a copy of my ID which I am ok, I have to also provide for the nominees - which is three for me. The wait was for one hour and to be inform that there is a change of forms.

Well, looks I need to visit the office again. Most likely before going to the office sometime soon since it closes on Saturdays.