That Jimmy

Can I just say, him in his rocker look + the cap + the avocado + the TOTORO totally got me falling for him. =)

And really, can anyone be more talented?

(All right I know there are people way more talented but this is a rhetorical question, so don't bother answering it. Just agree with me. )

It's Friday, Friday

It's Friday! *wink* I woke up at 7 this morning (for a few seconds) thinking of jogging but went back to sleep anyway. Woke up an hour and a half later, switched on my laptop and haven't moved since. After checking my mails, I hit Youtube. Checked out Nigahiga. And hey, he has a new video. It's his off the pill rant on Rebecca Black's Friday. As usual, he's totally funny. Then he mentioned this Alexandra Wallace girl in the library. So I checked her out. Turned out she's posted this racist vlog on Youtube about Asians in the library. Before I went on to check out that video, this other video response caught my attention first. It's a song called Ching Chong! Asians in the Library Song. This guy, Jimmy is really talented. Got the song and video done in less than 10 hours. Cool. So I checked out his other videos, one of them is his Acapella cover of Super Mario Brother theme song. Very nice!

So, these are the videos that got me occupied on this fine Friday, Friday! =)

And no, I'm not on off day today. I'm on noon shift. =(

The Books and I

I got a mail yesterday, an e-mail. It was one of the numerous e-newsletters that I subscribed to. Why worth mentioning? Well, it brought me news, tidings from the distant land of Alagaesia. Christopher Paolini is coming out with the last book of the Eragon saga, Inheritance! God knows I've grown a few inches taller over the wait. (The neck, got it? Plus, I think I did grow taller, by centimeter though.) It's coming out in November. Yea, months to go still.

I still remember my first encounter with Eragon. It was back in high school. I was at the awkward age of 15 or 16. The shoes were white, the dress was blue, AND THE BAG WAS HEAVY. Sharp ten on bed for normal days, blazing light through the nights during exam week. (Granted, it was the light only. And yes, days were classified into exam day and non-exam day.) Life was as boring as it could dip, as crazy as it could soar. Time passed as fast as slow. Friends were as best and insane as they could be. Sleepy mornings, draggy afternoons. The sky was blue, and dreams were big: be an astronaut, own a bookstore, build a castle, write a book, etc. It was when we never complained of the cafeteria food. (At least for me.) It was when fast food was a luxury. It was when recess time meant library time for me.

I was always on hunt for books. When I saw Eragon, I'd just finished whatever there was of Harry Potter for the Nth time, craving for more like a vampire craving for blood. While browsing through the books, Saphira caught my eyes. It was love at first sight. I jumped right in, and days after, I resurfaced alive with the urgency of the Ice Age squirrel seeking his acorn, seeking the sequel. Ever since then, I have been waiting. And it has been more than five years.

So the mail actually reminded me of those books that accompanied me into adulthood(So-called). Harry Potter and Eragon are by far my favorites. The story sort of grew along me. I feel connected to it somehow. All those eager-waitings, those staying-ups whole night when I finally got the books were part of my awkward adolescence. They helped shaped it. They kept me alive. (Seriously. When SARS hit, I was thinking: Please don't let me die, at least until I finish reading Harry Potter. I was that unambitious. Or you can say 看破红尘.) There were the books that never made it to adulthood too. R.L. Stine's, Christipher Pike's, Hardy Boys, Sweep Series ( I do miss Hunter and Cal. Now that I've mentioned it, I really really miss them! =( ), etc. This post shall be my tribute to all these books, (mentioned or not), thanks for being there with me when I was as lost as I am right now. ;)

I shall leave this blank. No, I shan't.

I was out early in the morning at 8 o'clock. A beautiful Sunday, my favorite day of the week. Where to? 3K Sports Complex in Subang Jaya. For swimming. =) I've never been there before, so I googled it last night. It's estimated at 3.6km from my place. So, mode of transport? The eleven bus. Took me half an hour to get there, half the time I reckoned I needed. Now I can assume that my walking speed is approximately 7km/hour.

Met up with a couple of my colleagues there, and happily dived into the water! (I'm skipping parts because you wouldn't want to know about how we didn't know that we have to buy the tickets at the counter and ... ...) I did 22 laps. Felt all so healthy. =) Went for brunch afterwards at Rock Cafe, bought myself newspapers, and headed home.

Switched on the laptop, did some surfing. Wanted to do some reading, but the room seemed to be suffocating on this fine Sunday. Grabbed my bag and walked over to Sunway Pyramid. Bought myself a medium French Fries in McD, found a place and got my book out. It was too noisy though. It drowned out my Yiruma. Plus it's hot in there. It made me drowsy. Finished my French Fries, closed my book and cleared my table. Wondered for a while, looking for a nice place to continue my reading. Nope, there's none. Started my way back. It was drizzling. A little more than drizzle actually. I had my umbrella. Brand new. I didn't use it though. Felt like I would be trying too hard if I used it. Trying too hard at what? Life? I don't know.

Got back here in the room, less suffocating. Switched on my laptop again, doing this. Maybe I should start thinking about dinner.

I'm sort of in the apathy mode. Can you feel it? Urgh!!!! Life is no brief candle!!!!

Invincible? Not so

This is sad news for me. I was looking up something on Borders, and I found this. Borders, filed for bankruptcy. They are closing about 200 stores in the States, and even though that doesn't affect me here in Malaysia, it's just so sad to think that there are two hundred less warm and cozy places to go to for all the book lovers in this world. (Warm as in the welcoming books, not the blasting cold air. Or maybe it's not so over there.) I never thought that bookstores will run out of business one day, (not that they really are) they always seem invincible to market downturn whatsoever, at least to me. And they are saying that e-books are taking over. I don't know how is it gonna be in the future, but for now, I'll never trade any of my books for an e-book.

And not that it's really related to the topic above, what has happened to this world with all those fightings in Libya and Egypt, inflation, corruption, recession... ... ? Or it's just recession?

It's Saturday

I was watching Nigahiga's video, and I heard this song, Handle With Care by JRA. Very nice. =) There's another song by him that I love a lot too - By Chance (You & I). He got me sticked to my laptop, keep hitting the replay button.

Reading 'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Safran Foer now. There's this one line that got me thinking: 'If nothing matters, there's nothing to save.' His grandma was a war survivor, when during that period of time life was constant starvation while running and escaping. Not all made it. She herself doubted whether she could survive another day, when a kind-hearted farmer came to her rescue by giving her a piece of meat. She didn't take it. It was pork ,and she was Jew. So the grandson asked her:' Not even to save your life?', and that's her answer.

On a lighter note, here's another line from a book,《鲸鱼女孩，池塘男孩》by 蔡智恒 that I read a while back: '世界上最遥远的距离，就是课本在你面前，你却不知道答案在哪里。' ' The greatest distance in this world is when the textbook is right in front of you and you can't find the answer.' (during an open book test)

世界上最遥远的距离，莫过于我在你面前，你却对我不屑一顾。

--照片中小叮当的心声

Killing Time

I should sleep. It's 11pm, and I'm morning shift tomorrow. But I'm still awake, waiting to harvest my watermelons for my Smurfs' Village, because if I harvest past the hour, the plants will wither. Urgh, this is so not right. Me, trading my sleep hours for this?? I'm glad it's just few more minutes to go.

Anyway, that's not my purpose of writing this blog. Like I said, I was waiting to harvest my plants. So while waiting, I checked out Wong Fu Productions Channel on Youtube. Saw this old video that I've never watched before, Up In Da Club. Heard this very nice song in the video, had no idea whose song is that. Then, from the list of videos at the right hand side, I saw this link to David Choi's Something To Believe, and I just knew that, this is the song. Nice song really.

Ah, my watermelons are ready! Sweet dreams people.