Battle against Boredom

Penang Life

2011-08-12T00:04:00.000+08:00

The Inevitable Drive

The inconvenience of work has coerced me into driving 200 miles up north. Sitting behind the wheel, I chose to listen to Beau Bristow's CD and music from my USB drive alternatingly. Cruising at 120km/h, the humming of the engine sounded as if it was trying to make its own music to compete with the more pleasant tunes from the music player. Of course, being that competitive person I am, I would sing out loud to join in the battle. At times, John Mayer's rythmic licks and Jason Mraz rapid lyrics would remind me of the guitar sitting back home, which no doubt, would always be in need of my embrace.

The Arrival

After about three hours, I finally arrived at my destination at midnight. Putting my Proton Saga FL to a halt outside of No.35 Lorong Sutera Prima 4, I killed the engine and stepped out to the lonely neighbourhood. The street lantern hanging on an 8 meter pole illuminated the ground. Though being an efficient light source, its bad colour rendering made everything seem gloomy and lifeless. In the stillness of the night, I unloaded my trunk and entered into the three storey terrace. The night would end when I climb into the squeky bed in the ill-furnished room upstairs.

Everyday..

I wake up to Jason Mraz's "Did you Get My Message". The unreliable fabric of the curtains fail to protect my eyes from the penetrating sunlight. The snooze button on my cellphone never works for me here, given the condition of the room. So without much effort, I get out of bed and head to the bathroom for the routine of wash up. Once completed, my breakfast (Julie's Cheese Crackers) awaits me on the desk in one corner of the room. Because my work attire is pretty much a polo-t and a pair of jeans or khakis, I only need the shortest time to get dressed.

At work, I am usually confined in an equipment room where all the telecommunication infrastructures are stored (Optical Distribution Frames, Base Station Controller Cabinets, Routers and more). This room is basically air-conditioned around the clock. Thus, it gets a bit cold sometimes but I never complain because it is better than working in a hot and stuffy environment. To describe it in layman's term, my job is too be in charge of the installation of a new equipment. What I would do is make sure the equipment is up and running normally and to perform necessary trouble-shooting procedures whenever needed.

At times when workload is minimal, I slip out of workplace to a nearby mall - Sunway Carnival. I would either sit down, sip coffee and read online news at Starbucks or catch a movie in Golden Screen Cinemas. So far, Caramel Macchiato has been my choice of Starbuck drink and "Fast Five", "Kungfu Panda 2" & "X-men" are the movies I've watch (alone) here. However, I try not to make too many of these excursions to prevent any detrimental damage to my wallet.

As the sun sets at the far horizon, my tummy yearns for another refill. Dinner is always eaten at a nearby hawker street. There, a row of stalls are set up along the enitre stretch of the street where you can find chicken rice, wantan mee, hokkien mee, mixed rice, luk-luk, nasi lemak, claypot rice/noodles, char kuey teow, lobak gou, fried chicken, dai gau min (chinese pancake?), yao zha guay and many more. With such a wide range of choices, deciding on where and what to have dinner has never been a problem.

Highlights

There was a week when Nelson came to Penang to visit a "friend". He needed a place to stay. Of course, the room I'm staying in was out of the question as it was the "company's dormitory". The only solution was for me to book a hotel room. While driving around shoplots near Sunway Carnival Mall few weeks ago, I noticed a small hotel named E-Red and it looked decent enough. So without much contemplation, I headed to the hotel and booked a room for three nights. With the hotel being in a shoplot, I did not expect much. Turned out, the room was new, tidy and looked similar to any other standard hotel rooms. Only difference was perhaps the shower. Looking modern and unique, you couldn't tell if there were any pores on the shower head. That's because they're so small that the water that came out from the little tiny pores was of a piercing force.

Staying on mainland penang, I had never wanted to make that drive to the island until that day when I had to pick Nelson up at Queensbay Mall. Using my sense of direction and at the same time adhering to road signs, it didn't take me long to arrive at the mall. Because I was a wee bit too early, I had to roam around the mall while I waited for Nelson to be done hanging out with his friend. Sat down at StationOne cafe which served me one of the most tasteless coffee ever (should've picked OldTown instead). I then headed to Borders bookstore and to my delight, they were having 70% discounts on some old books. Although I spotted a few titles that might interest me, I left without any purchase. Not much done on this trip to the island but I will definitely come back if I choose not to drive back to KL on a weekend.

Volleyball, Soccer and...Laughing

2011-06-14T01:33:00.002+08:00

The heat was dissipating through the air after a brief downpour in the afternoon. Not only did it not help cool the weather down, it intensify the humidity, making it impossible for us to walk outdoors without leaving dark patches on our T-shirts. Nonetheless, the sun was kind enough to take a rest behind the clouds to leave us with a bearable weather.

Being that punctual person, I arrived at KBU promptly and was greeted by an empty field. The next thing I noticed was the wet volleyball court and the yellow flaky stuff - which was later refered to as "Asian Snow/Porridge" - that had fallen from the trees. I then abandoned the luxury of being able to stay in my my air-conditioned car and got out to the overwhelming heat to wait on my "Station" friends. It wasn't another 20 minutes when they finally came walking into the campus at a leisurely pace. Along with them, of course, were some of my local friends who I had already expected would be late in the first place. Afterall, Rubber-time is part of our Malaysian culture.

We started off tossing Frisbee around as our warm-up exercise. We then formed a circle to do some pre-game volleyball juggling. Though not very successful, we learned the key element to playing a good volleyball game - Communication. "When it's yours, say it's yours." I must say that Jake did good job when it comes to communicating in the game. Later in the game, whenever a ball would come his way, he would take charge authoritively and everyone on his team would acquiesce obediently. Only problem was, he would duck last minute and ended up faking out all of his own teammates.

When the game started, we had about 7 a side. Between the two sides of the court, my team got the side that was mildly flooded. I didn't mind the small puddles as i felt like Nick Carter in "Quit Playing Games With my Heart" music video. Not quite. But still the puddles added to the fun and laughter. Furthermore, they're adorned with little yellow flakes which Suzanne thought was porridge. The game started off with most of us misunderstanding the rules of the game. Instead of hitting the ball over the net, we make it go under the net. Then, there was the epic serve by Jason who chose to do it the dodge ball way by throwing the ball to the other side of the net. However, we couldn't blame him for his creativity. He is an art student afterall.

Another highlight came when our photographer/ audience/ referee/ scorekeeper/ linesman of the day almost became the victim of a mishit by our devout Bieber Believer, Billie-ber. The only thing that prevented the mishap from occuring was the pole between Elizabeth's head and the ball. The next highlight involved our multi-role Elizabeth again who managed to escape from yet another life-threatening situation. However, this time, it wasn't the ball that she had to avoid but the ever-energetic charging Roy. While picking up a ball that was rolling out of bounds, she was also aware that Roy was racing towards the ball. In one swift move, she scooped the ball up and spin agilely away from Roy who was right behind her. In this situation, I wasn't sure whether to applaude Roy for his persistence in exhibiting chivalry (in this case, picking up the ball without having Elizabeth to do it) or to reprimand him for his aggressive act (I am exaggerating, I know). I ended up laughing with everyone else.

In between these highlights was the "Asian Snow" caused by the intermittent blowing wind. Whenever the wind blew, the yellow flakes would come falling down from the trees and be part of the game again. One time, someone started saying, "What's this?". Then someone picked up from there and said, "It's snow". And then came all the ridiculously amusing comments, "It's snowing in Asia", "It's Asian Snow", "Let's taste it", "I wanna make a snowman", "You have Asian Snow on your hair". Of course, after the comments came the laughter.

Towards the end of the game, our "fielder" on our team, Lauren suggested a game of soccer after seeing Roy do a step-over soccer move when picking up a rolling ball. (Yes, if there's one thing Roy's good at, it's picking up the ball when it rolls too far away. He's quick and beats everyone to it ..well, except for the Elizabeth incident). So, after the volleyball game, we had a short game of soccer. This time with Suzanne and Jessica opting to watch from the sidelines. Most of them said they hadn't played before but that wasn't the case when the game started. Andrew, Roy, CJ and Sarah were dribbling and passing the ball around so well that their team scored the first goal. At other times, Sarah was taking charge of the left side of the pitch by defending and also dribbling the ball into our danger zone. On the other hand, their goalie, Kathy proved to be an intimidating figure when Jake wasted his opportunity in front of goal, kicking the ball over the bar. As for my team, I had the good players (Jake, Lauren and Hamed) and also our defense duo - Billie and Stephanie. That's also the reason why we won the game. Overall, the main highlight of the soccer game came when CJ scratched his knees after doing a powerslide to celebrate his goal. "It's totally worth it" were his words.

To sum it up, the most intense exercise of the day was the laughing!

End.

Top (from left): Jake, Jason, Andrew, Elizabeth, Suzanne, CJ, Roy, Sarah, Hamed, Sophie, myself.

Bottom (from left): Jessica, Stephanie, Billie, Kathy, Lauren

The Colour of Law

2011-06-01T21:23:00.001+08:00

Author: Mark Gimenez

Genre: Legal

This book tells the story a young, ruthless lawyer Scott Fenney with a well established career in a prominent law firm. He owns all the luxury a lawyer could ever dream of having - a big house, a Ferrari and a impeccable trohpy wife. All this changes when he is assigned as pro bono lawyer to defend a prostitute/drug addict who is wrongfully accussed of murdering a senators son. Scott has to choose between his conscience and his perfect life.

The story is well told. Mark Gimenez makes the whole plot of the main character's willingness to abandon his wealthy lifestyle convincing and believable. Although the courtroom action is brief and not as thrilling as those in John Grisham's novel, the book as a whole is still gripping. Definitely a page-turner.

From the book:

"What's the difference between a dead snake and a dead lawyer in the middle of a highway?". "There are skid marks in front of the dead snake."

Shenzhen

2011-05-31T12:13:00.000+08:00

The boeing 777-300 finally landed in Chek Lap Kok airport. Passengers started unbuckling their seat belts even before the "we have landed" announcement was made, as if they were all rushing to the hospital see their first new born baby. Then, there were those who were busy turning on their oh-so-sleek-smart phones, eager to make that 100 million worth of business call...or just to make that ridiculously unecessary tweet about their safe arrival at their destination - "Just arrived at Hong Kong. Already missing Malaysia", "Just touched down and I already know this is a better city than Malaysia"... Pshhh. Why do people do that?
After the much dreadful but compulsory process of queuing at the immigration and collecting of luggage, I finally departed from the airport in a limousine taxi to my planned destination - Shenzhen. It wasn't the most pleasant ride as I had to squeeze at the back of a Toyota Alphard with 6 other passengers but thank God the cramped up ride was much alleviated when three of us switched to another vehicle at the HongKong-China border. It wasn't long until I finally reached the Hotel. With just an acceptable appearance at the entrance, I didn't expect the 3-star hotel to provide me with a luxurious bedroom for my entire stay in Shenzhen. Turned out, I was wrong. I'll just let the picture below do the describing:
My company sure knows how to balance out a hectic training schedule. With daily training classes from 8.30am-8.30pm, 6 days per week, this is the place I looked forward to the most everyday. The soft and comfortable standard-double bed complemented by the warm lighting gives this room a heavenly ambience. For some of you, this may only look like a normal hotel room but you'll see it differently if you were to endure 12-hour classes almost everyday. In order for you to have a clearer grasp of what I'm trying to convey here, look at the dull and monochromatic picture below and compare it with the hotel room picture. It is a picture of my training classroom.

Yep, so my stay in Shenzhen was pretty much a routine of bouncing back and forth between these two places. Of course, there were weekends too, SHORT weekends and they were mostly spent doing one of the things I love doing most - playing Ultimate. Prior to my departure to Shenzhen, I googled "Ultimate Shenzhen" and came to a website with the pick up time and venue stated. Personally, I'm not much of a planner so me doing all this "research" beforehand just shows my ultimate love for Ultimate. During my first weekend, I went for pick up and ended up playing for Guangzhou in a Shenzhen vs. Guangzhou game. I must say that it's a little bit different playing there b/c of the dry climate (when compared to Malaysia's humidity). I found myself constantly in need of a drink of water during the game. Overall, pick up there was adequately fun with the only turnoff being the balding field we played on (Check out picture below).

Another thing that is worth to be highlighted is the meals I had in Shenzhen. Though not anywhere close to any fine dining or mouth-watering cuisines, food here is generally cheaper and comes in much bigger portion. People here are all rice coveters and you can tell by looking at the amount of rice they have in each meal. The rough amount is about a 12cm in diameter x 10 cm in depth bowl full. Aside from noodles, "man tous" are also the surrogate of rice. Although different in form and texture, they all have one thing in common, they (rice, noodles, man tous) are all eaten using chopsticks.
<---One of the most memorable meals I had in SZ. Checkout the dish in the middle. It's like a vege, fish fillet soaked in a huge bowl chili water...
Since I mentioned the word cheap earlier, I can't leave alcohol out. People here love drinking. They have their locally produced beer so it's extremely cheap. If I remember correctly, even the imported ones like carlsberg, tiger etc. are comparatively cheaper than in Malaysia. I don't really enjoy drinking but I just love how a little bit of it loosens people up. I don't mean consuming too much until you get all raucous and obnoxious, of course but just enough too break the rigidity in the atmosphere. I guess that's about it for my entire SZ trip. Not exactly interesting, I know, but hey I had limited time to do other stuff like sight-seeing or shopping and after all, this is my 2nd time in SZ. Had already visited attractions like Window of The World, Dong Men shopping area etc. during my 1st visit. This time, I did get to ride around a lot in buses though and it was already enough to provide me with a bit of experience of the local customs. That's because when I ride in a bus, I get to see the people/pedestrians around and how they interact with their surroundings. Well, kind of.

End.

The Lost Symbol

2011-01-15T17:01:00.000+08:00

The Lost Symbol - A book that I've finished reading recently. It's a Dan Brown book so the time when I bought it, I already knew it would be good and I was right. It's another one of those books which I only needed a short period of time to finish and that's obviously when you can tell if a book is good.

Generally, the whole book is very much similar to The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons. Some people say that they're too similar that it's not good but I beg to differ. After all, the book is written by the same author so it's bound to have some similarities. The similarities that I see are pretty much the masonry ideology and how it's embedded in historical elements (artworks, architectural structures etc.). For me, this is what totally makes his books awesome. Reading about detailed descriptions of historical buildings is just like having a pre-tour the to actual spot. This time in Lost Symbol, the author chooses the Capitol building. Well known structure to the world in the sense that it's the "operatig centre" of the states government, but obscure to most in the historic sense. But in The Lost Symbol, it is introduced in a whole new different way. A way that would subtly urge readers to google pictures of the building and stand (or sit) in awe of a photo of the structure. (Yeah, this totally happened).

Another thing to highlight bout the book is Dan Brown's never-ending fast paced suspense in his style of writing. It's suspense but it's fast-paced. Picture this, you're in your office working and you have a paperback with you. However, you're so busy working that you don't have time to read..On top of that, your boss would be pissed if he sees your reading a fiction at your working place. Plus, there's a CCTV at the corner of the room just right next to your desk. Given all these reasons, you shouldn't be picking up the book and reading it right? But in this case with The Lost Symbol being that paperback you have with you, every ramifications of your action would be ignored and you would eventually pick up the book and READ IT. That's how enticing this book is!

Go get a copy at the nearest bookstore now! =) Don't even think bout borrowing mine cause my books are like diamonds to me.

Goodbye 2010.. Hello 2011!

2010-12-31T00:12:00.001+08:00

Given that there's 365 days in a year, every year can be eventful. But sadly, I only have a few highlights this year (2009).

1) I turned 22. I know it's nothing special but it's highlight worthy. You can't just ignore it when you grow one year older, especially when the second digit in your age matches the first.

2) 50 books!My paperback/fiction collection has reached a total number 50, which also means that I have read 50 books.

*Not all books are shown in the picture. There would be exactly 50 altogether if the ones that are with my mom were included.

It's a big deal (to me at least) when you put in the fact that this hobby only started about 2 years ago. If you do the math, it's 2 books per month! This is kinda over the top for a slow reader like me. Anyway, I'd like to name a few that I liked the most:

1) Dan Brown - Angels & Demons

2) Stieg Larsson - Millennium Trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Girl who played with Fire, Girl who kicked The Hornett's Nest.

3) Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith

4) Dan Brown -The Lost Symbol

3) Graduated in Bachelor's Degree of Electrical & Electronics Engineering (with Honours) "In the year of 2006, he flew from his hometown, Sabah to the big city - KL to pursue a degree in engineering. When he first arrived, he couldn't hide his excitement. He was like a fledgling with the first few flying feathers on its wings. The colossal shopping malls amazed him. The countless flyovers, heavy traffic and reckless driving were all new to him. He could still remember his first ride to the hostel. The whole time having his nose stuck onto the window of the car, just to gawk at the massive man made structures in the concrete jungle. He could also never forget that time of waking up early in the morning on the second day of his arrival, just so that he wouldn't waste a single minute of his day to roam the nearest mall... Then, there was that first day in college, meeting new friends, absorbing the new environment, getting disappointed over lousy canteen food and more. For the first few months, he worked hard. He was never late for class, never falling asleep in class and always getting assignments done in time. He was a student on a mission. Then another few months went by and he started meeting more friends. Friends that introduced him to the real college life. That was when he discovered the true meaning of being a college student. It was a balance of fun and studies. A balance of two opposite elements or forces. Just like Newton's Law or the Yin & Yang concept. Then.. in the blink of an eye, he was already standing on the stage with his graduation robe on, receiving his Graduation Certificate.

4) Participated in Singapore Ultimate Open 2010

For those of you who do not know what this is, it's an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. Still have no idea? Go youtube "Ultimate Frisbee" and then come back here to tell me I'm a cool guy cause I'm an Ultimate player. Yeah so this year i went to Singapore with a few of my friends. It was fun to be able to stay in a backpackers' hostel, hang out my frisbee mates in another country and eat "ice-cream" blocks! Look at the inserted picture. It's heavenly. I had three of those the first night. I would've stayed next to the vendor and had more but my friends had other plans. They wanted pictures with the merlion.

OKAY, back to the main talk - Ultimate Frisbee. I've joined quite a number of tournaments but i guess what makes this one special is because it's out of my country. Felt like I was in an International Professional competition........ Sad thing is I was there only to get my butt kicked by the ever dominating Singaporeans (with the cool hair, cool jerseys, cool tan, cool 'tights' etc). I'm not lying. Just check out my jersey in the picture below.

It's a Carebear jersey! With a huge red heart shape right in the middle! Worst of all, it's pink! Now you know why I think the Singaporeans have cool jerseys. We definitely need new jerseys. Anyhow, the fun of the game still overwhelms everything else, including the pink jersey.

5) Bought my first pair of sunglasses. After four years of contemplating, I finally got a pair of sunglasses...... at pasar seni.

All in all, I think this list needs a whole lot of improvement. That's what's gonna happen in year 2011. Happy New Year!

Battle Against Boredom: The Dialux Episode

2010-12-01T00:06:00.000+08:00

It was a sunny Sunday morning - the only day in which he could sleep in late. And so he did. He woke up at 10 in the morning and started off his day in a sluggish pace. In a way, this was a method that helped fill in the free time he had for himself on a free day like this. Even so, there was always plenty left ad what's left would always be spent in front of the computer. Today was not any different. Slouching in his chair, he went online and started browsing the internet. It wasn't long before he got bored. For 10 minutes or so, he continuously performed the routine of logging into facebook, looking at pictures, refreshing the news feed page and logging off. It was then when he had a whim. The arbitrary idea he had was to build a 3D model of his room using a software - Dialux - that he'd learned at work. For the next half an hour, he built his room using geometrical blocks in Dialux. It might seem stupid to others that he spent his Sunday morning doing what he's already doing everyday at work but the result of his random idea was otherwise.

Another Battle Against Boredom : Relationship? No thank you. (Part I)

2010-11-21T20:34:00.000+08:00

Relationships have always been the thing to talk about among your friends. It is inevitable that in a world where having a relationship is one of the main element that spurs your life, you encounter different problems when it comes to dealing with it. Sometimes, or most of the times, you benefit from a relationship. For example, you have the support and encouragement of your partner. Or you get to talk to him/her whenever you feel like talking. Nonetheless, there are still moments when relationships can be disastrous. The ubiquitous break-ups that we hear around us is what make relationships a pain in the butt. Because relationship has the capability to brighten up your day by giving you this oh-so-special feeling, it also has the power to tear you apart. You could choose whatever positive adjective you like but you must agree with me when I say that - "The BETTER a relationship gets, the greater the PAIN when it falls apart". This is why I sometimes (when I'm not in a relationship) wonder if I should give it all in a relationship. Though I say so, I believe most of us are blinded when we like someone. That's why when a relationship falls apart, you experience post-relationship stress.

And then, there's always a period of time when you've gotten over a relationship. When your relationship status on Facebook says "Looking For A Relationship" or "Looking For Friendship" for those who prefer to be discreet and subtle. This, somehow, seems like the fun part for some people. After months (days..for some that have greater recuperating rate) from being liberated from an agonizing relationship, they experience the freshness and excitement of being single again. They have all the freedom they need to invest their time in someone new. For me, this stage may be a bit challenging and sometimes tiring. Getting to know someone new is just like picking up a book of a new author. You don't know if it'd be your type of book. You could just skim through it but then you wouldn't have a full grasp on it. You could peruse every line carefully but you might end up wasting your time if it has a crappy ending. Maybe you could use the reviews on it to assist you during your selection process but then, everyone has his/her own cup of tea. What seems like a good book to others may not have the same effect on you. Having said all that, I believe I can conclude that finding a girl/guy that you could be together with in a happy relationship is not that easy. This is what I call pre-relationship stress.

To be continued..

2010-11-21T20:01:00.000+08:00

An illustration of my desk at work. I know, battle against boredom happens too when I'm working.

2010-11-21T02:51:00.000+08:00

Welcome back..not really

2010-11-14T20:29:00.000+08:00

It's been almost half a year now and he's finally back. I guess this just shows how dull his life have been because people often blog about their lives or things that happen in their lives. So, a long hiatus without any posts would only mean two totally different things - one, you're totally busy having fun out there that blogging would seem like some time-wasting activity that you would only consider when your fingers needed some exercise. Two, your life is just as boring as sitting on the toilet for more than an hour when you're already constipated. Well obviously, the latter is the reason why he hasn't been blogging. What is there to blog about when you're life is routinely fixed. Sigh. Sometimes he would wonder what he could do to add some colours to his life. It's all black and white now and he just...wants to add...say maybe....gray into it. It would certainly be more invigorating than just having that alabaster white and monotonous black that you see everyday.
I need that gray.

Idle

2010-04-02T21:22:00.000+08:00

What a long sabbatical from blogging

(well it's not like i'm an avid blogger anyway!)

Been kinda lethargic the whole day.

Going to watch american idol on 8tv

Even though it's gay..

Beloved Books

2009-09-12T19:30:00.000+08:00

These are the books that I have read so far after "The Brutal Art". I just decided to put their covers together in a post because I thought it would look nice. And wow..I'm right about it. So colourful. I'm in love with my books. Oh...FYI..These are not the exact paperbacks that I own. Some of mine have different covers. And again, I love my books. Haha..

A Day Off...

2009-07-31T16:59:00.000+08:00

It was his offday today. He had been anticipating it since the day he started working in MPH bookstore. Work had been tiring for the past few days and finally, he was able to enjoy a sabbatical day.

Waking up at 10 this morning, he got off bed in a jovial mood, knowing that he could do whatever he wanted to for the rest off the day. So..he started off with the frustrating visit to the bathroom. He had never liked using the bathroom, brushing his teeth or washing his face in the morning. These 'menial' tasks, he thought, were just an obstruction to the more entertaining activities he had for himself. They consumed his leisure. So, briefly, he brushed his teeth and splashed his face with cool water, not wanting to waste a single minute of this precious day. After the "drudgery", he sat down in front of his computer. Facebook was first on his checklist. But before going on the page, he played Beau Bristow's CD and started singing along.

All I carried was a grin and a tw0-cent lollipop....

The line in the song cracked him up a little. He remembered getting the lyrics wrong when he had first heard the song.

All I carried was two grand and a two-cent lollipop.... "Why would someone still be eating a two-cent lollipop when he's carrying two grand?", he had used to think.

Ha..ha. A muted laugh playing in his head. The short hiatus came to a halt and he resumed facebook-stalking. It wasn't long before he got bored. Okay time to get off the internet, he thought. He then turned his attention to the book on his bed. It was "The Bodies Left Behind" by Jeffery Deaver. A book he bought two weeks ago along with another two that came in a 3 for 2 deal. He picked the book up and started reading. Being a slow reader, it looked like he was perusing every line carefully, as if trying to decipher a riddle.

Ten minutes past and he had only read 10 pages...

I'm hungry... With that, he decided to take an excursion to the 'Mamak' downstairs...

'The Brass Verdict' & 'The Brutal Art'

2009-07-19T14:12:00.000+08:00

I'm a crime/mystery/thriller/legal fan. Well, i called myself so because everybook i read falls into one of the genres mentioned. I like reading and books make me happy, though i wouldn't called myself an Avid Reader. Somehow, i feel like i'm not qualified to be one yet.

Ok. So the past two weeks, I read two books - 'The Brass Verdict' by Michael Connelly and 'The Brutal Art' by Jesse Kellerman. Both of them real' good though I would say that the latter fails as a page turner if compared to the former.

'The Brass Verdict' as suggested by the title (the word 'verdict') is a legal thriller. This book is what a good John Grisham book would be like. *If you hadn't known, I started off reading legal novels (mostly John Grisham)*. To give you a bit of a teaser (if you're going to read it), this book is about a lawyer who inherits a huge load of cases from a murdered lawyer, only to find that one of the cases is related to the murder itself. The whole story focuses on the theme "Lies", well kinda and is well-told by its enticing twists in the story plot. It's a book that would make you go "Oohh..now I get it". Well, it's not really what I said actually. What I said to myself at the end of the book was: "Wow, this story would make a good movie", cause that's what I always say whenever i like a book. Yeah, so overall, I agree with one of the "book review comments" on the cover which says, "Michael Connelly is a Master of suspense". If someone asked me if i would try another Michael Connelly book, my answer would be YES.

Moving on, the latest book that I've just finished reading -'The Brutal Art', is one with a good storyline. It is about an art dealer discovering a huge collection of sick but brilliant paintings, only to be dragged into an investigation of a crime four decades cold. It intertwines to separate stories, one being the present and one being the past. Both stories mutually dependant on the other, working like partnered detectives to help unfold the truth behind the mystery of the whole story. It is one book that is sure to bring the "Ooo's" and "Aaah's" out of you (if you get what I mean). However, I find it kinda dull at certain pages. Like, the pages and I just didn't click. Yes, the "Click" is something I look for whenever i read a book. Having said that, 'Brutal Art', in my "personal post-reading perspective", is an OK book. Am I ever gonna try another Jesse Kellerman? Maybe if it's a cheap secondhand or 50% off...

The End. Just another "I'm just too bored" post.

I was surfing..

2009-01-20T13:44:00.000+08:00

Thrilled by the speculations on the 100 million kaka bid news, I went online and read more about it. Apparently, the sum was affordable for Manchester City football club because of the major shareholder of the club, Syeikh Mansour. Some said that the colossal bid was ridiculous but personally, "I don't care". On the contrary, I think ManC should give as much as they could to get Kaka to be on their side, since they're balling out of control now with all the mint green. I would like to see what impact Kaka would be able to create in Man City (Got the latest update while writing this blog: Kaka rejected the offer). Anyhow, my curiousity compelled me to search more about this Mansour guy. From my results, he's friggin wealthy. Apparently, he's the chairman of
1) International Petrol Investment Company
2) Emirates Horse Racing Authority

3) First Gulf Bank
.

and shareholder of

1) ManC football club

2) Second biggest bank in Britain, Barclays.

Conclusion: Providing man city with 100mil is just an "easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy" task for him, with the opulence in his pocket.

***********************

This whole thing lured me into another search. This time I googled Dubai. And like a chain reaction it led me into another phase. I saw a picture of Burj Dubai, a building that once completed, would be the tallest skysraper in the world. It's over 800 meters tall, with 160 floors- double the height of our petronas twin towers.

The picture inserted here shows it all. Imagine yourself standing on the top floor, wouldn't it be a pant-wetting experience? Like you'd, literally, pee on your pants. Or imagine a suicide attempt. Your whole life would flash before your eyes. Falling from the top to bottom, there would be a whole lot of time for reminiscence.

******************

So then i started searching for more pictures to look at and I came across this.

Allegedly, they plan to build a mile-high tower, surpassing all the current skyscrapers. I'm not quite sure if it's true. The most source i got was from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_High_Tower

See for yourself.

So there, from Kaka bid -> Syeikh Mansour -> Dubai -> Burj -> Mile-high tower. I was Surfing the internet.

He was sick...

2009-01-09T21:06:00.000+08:00

With the greatest effort, he lifted his heavy eye lids and started scrutinizing the room. The room would have been in complete darkness had it not been for the luminous light source from the screen of his laptop. Lying there on his bed, he loathed the feeling of waking up at night after a long noon nap. His head was pounding so he rubbed his temples to ease the pain but it didn’t help. He could taste his own sour breath which wasn’t much of a difference compared to onions. Plus, he was drowning in his own pool of sweat. It soaked through his shirt and onto the bed sheet. Mustering all his strength, he forced himself to get out of bed.

It was a saturday. He read his calender on the wall that said 3rd of january 2009. Just three days venturing into the new year and he was off with the worst start he could have ever imagined. He had been sick since the day before (2nd Jan). He had a fever, bubble-guts (diarhea) and had been vomiting and defecating liquid. (I guess no further description would be needed?). It wasn't a great "new year deal" at all. Every 20 minutes or so, the excruciating tummy ache attacked. All he could do was to lie on bed and roll himself into a fetal-like position while he clutched at his belly. And every hour, the twisting pain along with the bloating belly gas, would coerced him to use the bathroom. The "hourly regimen" was how he spent his day.

Despite all that agony, he was grateful that it was happening two days after the first day of new year and two days before his birthday.

"Yep, was sick on the 2nd and 3rd but was back all healthy on the 5th (my bday)..'m 21 now"

Mishap

2008-12-31T23:40:00.001+08:00

"Ok, I'll be there soon", he ended the phone conversation with his friend and started walking from college to centrepoint. Little did he know, the 20 metres of casual walk was about to turn into an unpleasant one. Nonchalantly, he walked at an average pace out of college. Crossing the road, the vibration of his cellphone notified him of an incoming message. He pulled the innocent gadget out of his left pocket, not knowing that this faithful communcation medium of his would soon fall into the hands of an unworthy owner. The peaceful journey was immediately disturbed by two ruthless bikeriders as soon as he withdrew his phone from his pocket. In a split second, those two bikeriders had turned into snatchers. Abominable snatchers. Everything happened so quickly that there was an interval of obscurity. There was no time for any reactions. The snatchers had already sped off the moment he wanted to react. So, standing there helplessly,.................

...

He was left.... "phoneless".

This is just a story of how I lost my phone on new year's eve". Way to end a year huh?

"Happy New Year!"

The Battle against Imaginary Zombies (partially fictional)

2008-12-30T23:28:00.000+08:00

After a long and frightening game of "Left 4 Dead", he realized he was alone in his apartment. He had been so into the game that he neglected everything around him. He couldn't remember his brother, who had been with him earlier, leaving the apartment. Nevertheless, the explanation was simple. He was caught up in his own world of adventurous zombie slaying. The first-person shooting game was so addictive that killing zombies with shotguns and rifles had merely been fun for the past hour. But now that the game was over, fear crept inside of him. He thought he heard noises. Those that resembled a pitiful moan of sickly patients in a hospital. He wanted to distract himself. He wanted to withdraw himself from his frightening thoughts. So, he started humming a worship song. It helped a bit. Then, he was reminded of one his "sweet childhood" memories. He remembered how he had gotten a small scar on his head. The one he had acquired after running into the stair rail in his childhood house while trying to evade imaginary zombies. "How dumb!", he thought to himself. He was glad that he had not shared this with his girlfriend because of the fact that how he had always made fun of "her and her imaginary fat". After all, imaginary zombies were indisputably more unrealistic and much dumber than imaginary fat. He thought about his girlfriend for a while. She was about a hundred miles away, back in her hometown and he missed her..very much...(sigh)

Soon, his thoughts were shifted back to flesh-eating zombies. So.....................he was ready..........ready.......to....................

...........to........to...........

..................

shower!

*The end*

The battle against boredom

2008-12-29T15:28:00.000+08:00

The sun hung high up in the sky, emanating furious heat and there he was sitting behind his desk in his warm and stuffy room. He was alone in his apartment. Forget about the mellow mood and the coziness. Today was a totally different day. He locked himself in his room with curtains shielding the penetrating sunlight. His bed was still in a mess since he had woken up in the morning. For hours, with huge pile of papers stacked on his desk, he battled with his lab assignments. Half of the day had gone by, he had only managed to type out a few lines in his lab report. The frustration was building, making its way into the most vital part of his head. He knew it was coming because he had experienced it before. He knew what it would end up in - a dreadful headache. So, there he stopped the battle with the malicious papers and the fiddling with the tedious calculations. But he soon realized there was nothing else to do besides the same old things that he had been doing for ages (msn-ing, youtubing, movie marathons etc). He was fed up with the routine entertainment he had for himself. He contemplated a swim downstairs in his apartment but was reminded by the burning heat of the sun that swimming wasn't the perfect idea. Not to mention the fact that he would be swimming alone by himself. "A swim ALONE in a VAST swimming pool", that would intensify the loneliness.

So there he sat in his room.. and out of the blue, the idea of blogging came into his mind.
This is how he started this blog entitled, "The Battle Against Boredom".