Whenever I go on a trip, one of my must-haves is at least 3 good books. (It's not a secret. I'm a nerd.) Usually they consist of an entirely new book that I've yet to read, a fave book that I can (and probably have) re-read a million times, and one more of either case. The longer the trip, the more the books.

But I've also got this weird thing where I like to bring books that are based on a journey. There's something very cheesy about that, I'm well aware, but it's a thing. And it's been such a thing that since 2006 I've brought at least one of three specific books in my collection on all my trips.

American Gods, Neil Gaiman:
The journey of Shadow as he leaves prison and re-enters the world of real life only to fall straight into the world of the gods. Dark for the most part, but filled with so many excellent moments of perfect fiction that only Neil Gaiman can pull off. Plus it's like 500 pages long so that always lasts me for a bit.

The Solitaire Mystery, Jostein Gaarder:
The journey of a young boy with a pack of cards reading a book of a journey of a man living with a pack of cards. Bizarre at times, but absolutely lovely with the parallels and metaphors. Also, it's a book that I can read at different times in my life and feel something different every time. I never look at a pack of cards the same way after reading this.

On the Road, Jack Kerouac:
The quintessential journey of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, chasing their dreams of the Beatnik generation around America. Kerouac's autobiography of leading a life by following where the road leads, with it's highs and lows, and the sweet, sweet music we call jazz.

Three books that couldn't be more different in terms of genre, author (and their respective countries of origin) and writing styles, but are ultimately about the journeys we take in life.

They are books that remind you to stop and take a look at the beauty amidst the mundane, to take a breath and taste the difference, to listen to the sounds of life that are both music and noise, to simply open yourself to the possibilities of what makes this world such a fascinating place to live in.

the fabulously happy day

Had my first TOFFEE NUT LATTE of the year today. Anyone worth calling yourself my friend should know what this means. Heh. Didn't manage to ask for extra sprinkles, mostly because it inadvertently became a free drink and I was kinda embarrassed to ask for extra sprinkles. However, that will definitely be rectified tomorrow morning. (It really is a bonus having a Starbucks situated directly en route from the MRT to the shuttle bus stop.)

And the other fantabulously perfect thing to happen today was this:and what I've been coveting for five years since I saw him do this in Hwee Ying's Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes:
Am so thoroughly deliriously happy today :):):)

(BTW, I love HY, who deserves a superduper YAY for helping me get my copy of The Graveyard Book signed!)

Hurrays and hurrahs! I love love love today :)

The CW's preview of its new show The Vampire Diaries is up on Youtube, and, oh my oh my oh my, Ian Somerhalder is just smokin' as Damon Salvatore.



Wasn't too surprised to see a vampire show on a FTA network lineup considering the success of True Blood (dark and creepily cool) and Twilight (cotton candy for the brain - fluffy and of little substance).

According to my research (ie What Wikipedia Says), The Vampire Diaries is an adaptation of a YA fiction series. From 1991.

Move over, Bella. Elena was around wayy before you even popped on the radar.

My interest now sufficiently piqued, I hunted around for the books and, er, it's not great. In fact, it's kinda crap. BUT. The TV series apparently bears little resemblance to the books, so that's a good start. Also, there's Ian Somerhalder. With his piercing blue eyes. And a dark twisted sense of humour that just makes him oh-so-charming.

Something tells me I'm going to like the villain of this series much, much more than the hero. Heh. And let's hope the show lives up to the trailer (because Twilight certainly didn't).

(In other news, the New Moon teaser trailer is out and while am still not blown away by anything, Jake's morph has a way better special fx look than Edward's retarded glittery skin.)

updates

Introducing my new internet addictions:
- The Penny Arcade Comics by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Absolutely love their tongue-in-cheek snarky comments on all things techy, geeky and nerdy.
- Someecards for the words you've always wanted to say, but simply couldn't.
- And, of course, YouTubing the previously mentioned absolutely fantabulously amazing PS22 Chorus.

In movie news, saw Angels and Demons, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (and certainly better than Da Vinci Code since I actually stayed awake all the way). Plus it has Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor and music by Hans Zimmer, so yay.

There's apparently going to be a Toy Story 3, which is weird on so many levels. Also, seriously can NOT wait to see Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. And finally, Yesterday Was A Lie looks like a super cool modern-day noir film, and I will probably have to stalk Borders/Gramaphone/HMV for its DVD since I doubt Singapore would show such a cool indie film.

In related news, Two Steps From Hell is apparently the composers behind the music for the Star Trek and Up trailers among others. That's a pretty cool gig.

And as we move into the month of June (aka the all-out shoot month), my life as I know it dips from miniscule to nonexistent, so this blog will probably be less updated (though it wasn't even very updated to begin with). However, having discovered TweetSG and the wonders of text-Tweeting, my Twitter will probably see more action.

(Speaking of, Jeffrey Donovan just tweeted that Burn Notice returns in a week! Yay!)

Just finished reading Mike Gayle's Life Of The Party which was both sad and awesome, while listening to my superawesomesupercoolsuperfab limited edition of Jason Mraz's We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things CD (more here). Am now off to watch Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist since it's due in three days. Ta.

hempel's sandman artwork

Two of six very awesome drawings on sale at eBay by Sandman artist Marc Hempel, genius illustrator of The Kindly Ones arc. My favourite illustrations in the whole series, making The Kindly Ones one of my favourite story arcs in Sandman as well.

Dream contemplates the CorinthianDelirium
(More info available here.)

rediscovery: thursday next

So Stacey was talking about re-reading Jasper Fforde the other night. As always, with the power of suggestion, I found myself doing the same thing a few days later, taking down The Eyre Affair from my bookshelf and plunging straight into the first Thursday Next novel.

Days later, and I'm now in the midst (well, near the end, really) of the third Thursday Next book, The Well of Lost Plots.

Man, I can't believe I forgot how good the whole series is. This is the series for lovers of good literature who enjoy tongue-in-cheek references to literary references that run the gamut from the blatant to the truly obscure.

Ever wanted to find out what the original ending of Jane Eyre was? What sounds do dodos make? What does Miss Havisham do in her spare time? Why does American spelling have less "u"s than English spelling? Wanted an answer to the perennial question of why everyone was always waiting for Godot?

All these questions and more, answered in the illustrious world of Thursday Next as she goes from battling the Goliath Corporation to being a Jurisfiction agent in Jasper Fforde's well-and-truly-amazing Thursday Next series, beginning with The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, a short detour into the Nursery Crime Division with Jack Spratt in The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, before tripping back with Thursday into First Among Sequels.

To find out more, click here.

the fourth realm

So was browsing through the shelves of the Central Library the other day and chanced upon The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. It sounded cool, with pretty fascinating concepts as written in the blurb, so I borrowed it.

And finished it in one day. In fact, if I hadn't needed to go for a family lunch, I'd probably have finished it in one sitting. Was so gripped by the story and finding out how it was all gonna end, I was just racing through the book.

Only to find that it's book one of a trilogy. The Fourth Realm Trilogy, to be exact. So much for wanting to read a one-off novel. Book two, The Dark River, was released last year. If this keeps up, book three will probably only come out next year. Which obviously doesn't help when you're just dying to find out what happens.

Still, I'm now on the hunt for The Dark River in the libraries. Although knowing me, I'll probably buy the boxed set if it comes out. Which won't be till at least late next year. Blah.

Anyways, since I'm still pretty caught up by the whole thing, I'm not gonna blog the synopsis because I'll probably give everything away. Instead, I'll leave you with the Amazon link to it. Don't wiki it unless you wanna be pretty spoiled for the story. But as I was reading it, I was thinking, this will make a pretty darn cool movie. And looks like someone else thought so too.

All in all, it's a good day when you find a new book that rocks. Beams.

I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars.
- Bella Swan/Twilight

The Neil Gaiman Update

Neil Gaiman's Coraline movie is out February 2009! And it's directed by Henry Selick (director of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, in case you were wondering). Yippee!

Check out the totally cool Coraline website.

In other Gaiman-related news, his new book The Graveyard Book is out in Kinokuniya now apparently.

to the storytellers

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved stories.

One of my earliest memories is of me sitting in my old living room reading Read It Yourself Books, which were extremely simplified versions of morality tales like The Emperor's New Clothes and The Stone Soup. I never had a clue what the hell they meant, but I just read them anyway.

Then I started watching Snoopy cartoons and reading Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts strips. I didn't get the satires then, but I was still continually fascinated by Charlie Brown's sad attempts at baseball, Lucy's "The doctor is in" booth, Linus's blanket, Schroder's piano, and most of all, Snoopy's little red doghouse. I do adore Snoopy :)

Then, as I got older, I started reading books like Encyclopedia Brown and Babysitter's Club (which I have since found out was almost entirely ghost-written. I feel so cheated). Then I started reading Sweet Valley and The Nancy Drew Files (all ghost-written. Bah). I wanted to be a detective like Nancy Drew when I grew up.

And then one day, my mother took me to the Kallang Theatre. Les Miserables was in town. Right then and there, I fell in love with musicals and the stories told through beautiful music. Which was why I pretty much starved my way through London so I could watch Chicago and The Producers and, the one that started it all (and my fave of all time) Les Miserables. (I missed the 21st anni by 3 months which had Colm Wilkinson singing Jean Valjean. Bah and double bah.)

The years passed and I found myself drawn to television shows like Buffy and Roswell, taking your average teen dramas and tossing strange phenomena into the mix. Around the same time, my mother bought me the first Harry Potter book. And there I went, jumping right into the incredible reality of the fictional world, where literally anything and everything was possible.

Somewhere along the lines, I began enjoying the visual storytelling of film. I longed to sit in the DeLorean with Michael J. Fox's Marty and Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown. I wanted to visit Timon and Pumbaa's slice of paradise and live a hakuna matata life.

And then, at the rather late age of 16, I fell in love with the stories told through artwork. I was swept away by Neil Gaiman's Sandman series - with his bold, if somewhat disturbing, stories; with the broody and pale Dream King; with Lucifer, the fallen angel who gave up hell; with the bicolour-eyed Delirium; and, above all, with the most human of the Endless - Death, Dream's older sister.

The years have come and gone. I've read millions of other books since my hands first touched a Read It Yourself Book, from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to chick-lit candy-for-the-brain Little Black Dress books.

I've seen several (and still not enough) other musicals like The Phantom of the Opera and We Will Rock You.

I've laughed and cried with more films than I can count (and baffled by quite a number of others too).

I've gotten hooked onto countless TV series from all kinds of genres, from political dramas like the fantabulous The West Wing to family dramas like Brothers and Sisters to conspiracy theory shows like Alias to the wonderful decade's worth of the indomitable sitcom Friends.

I've been absolutely amazed by the genius of Will Eisner, enjoyed the crash-bang-boom of X-Men comics, and finally understood the satires of Schulz's Peanuts.

My love affair with the fictional world has lasted nearly my entire lifetime, giving me countless hours of pleasure and entertainment in realities that could not exist otherwise.

So here's to the amazing storytellers of the world. May your minds continue to create and flourish so the world of fiction can continue to sparkle and shine for the rest of us.

fanged friends

I like vampires. Not in the I-drink-blood-wacky-follower sort of way, but just the general idea of them.

The lore surrounding vampires is completely fascinating. Depending on whose theory you buy, there are a billion facts of what makes a vampire, and a billion ways to kill them.

There's Bram Stoker's Dracula with the beheading and the garlic and the sleeping in coffins. All in all, Stoker's vamps are not very charming.

Then there's Joss Whedon's vampires getting killed in fire and sunlight, staked by wood, burnt by crosses and holy water. There's a whole big sucking thing to become a vamp. And they live in fear of Buffy. Except if you're Angel, 'cause, y'know, love of her life and all that.

In recent years, there's been the Underworld movies where werewolves and vampires were not friendly to each other at all, and the (sighs) short-lived CBS series Moonlight with vamps that can walk in sunlight and sleep in freezers.

And finally - and the reason why I'm thinking of vampires - there's the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Granted, the books are more for a younger audience, but there's gonna be a very cool looking movie from the series, and it's about vamps. So. Here I am, reading Twilight. Let's hope it doesn't disappoint.

(Side note: Am pleased! Van's a fanged-fan too! Very cool.)

malacca, music, mraz, oh my!

I'm ba-ack! In case anyone noticed my conspicuous absence from MSN (especially after being told by many MANY people: "How come you're always online but away harh."), this absence was a result of a short three-day trip to Malacca with the parental units, who had to take care of some business there.

Have returned well and truly stuffed to the brim with food. Cannot believe how much I ate over the span of three days. Although on a very bright and happy note, I finally found the rocking kaya roti place that we used to go when I was a kid! Absolute yayness. Oh and I ate satay with the most yummerlicious peanut gravy ever. They mixed pineapple in! Yumms.

Also, got to make full use of my brand new baby - my iPod classic! Joy of joys, no more relying on my sister's crappy iPod mini that takes three days to charge (I kid you not) and lasts for a whopping one hour. Cue: dead silence, then whatt. Wholeheartedly, I concur.

Anyways, was basically shuffling all the songs I had inside for the weekend (and making notes of other CDs I need to add since iPod's still in the updating stage) and every time I hit a Jason Mraz song I'd start bopping along. I SO need to buy tix for Singfest because there is no freakin way that I'm going to miss watching Mraz live. Especially since the rekindled love of all things Mraz. Heh.

Given the long car rides (not adding the time we took wrong turns and got lost. Time to invest in GPS.), I got a bit of reading done too. Finished the first volume of Will Eisner's The Spirit. Very cool stuff. Frank Miller's doing a film on The Spirit, out next year, in a style reminiscent of Sin City (at least from what I can tell via the trailer.) Gonna head to the library tomorrow to get volume two. Read a chickie book (because holidays are all about brainless books) and read a mystery book (because there's nothing more entertaining than murder and mayhem).

Relived a couple of childhood moments at the arcade while my parents were off having a meeting. Yes, I was that bored. Played Bubble Bobble and some psuedo Street Fighter game. And if you don't know either of those games, boy, do you need a childhood.

Felt so guilty about all the eating and sitting and not walking that I'd been doing, so went for a swim this morning before we checked out. Weirdest hotel layout ever. The pool is right next to the ballroom, so you gotta walk past people having seminars to get to the elevators. Which I did. Dripping trails of chlorinated water behind me. Right.

But still feel heinously piggish, so shall pester my sis to put in an extra hour of tennis with me on Thursday. Or maybe tomorrow night, if the hairdresser okays me to wash my hair after the haircut and soft straightening. Then again, if I look like crap then I'll probably just stay in with a paper bag over my head till everything grows out. We'll see how that goes. Fingers crossed.

So. That's a not-so-little update on whassup with me these days. And now, I shall return to communing with my inner whatever over the fine tunes of Mraz.

A man, a woman and a discussion about Eskimos

'Do you want to hear an interesting fact?' said Jo. 'Eskimos apparently have over fifty different words for snow. Snow's really important to those guys - I suppose it's because sometimes the difference between one type and another can mean the difference between life or death.' She paused and laughed self-consciously. 'You know they've got words for dry snow and wet snow, fluffy snow and compact snow. They've got words for snow that comes down fast and for snow that comes down slow - they've thought of everything.'
'That's a lot of snow,' commented Rob as his eyes flicked to a scruffy-looking mongrel crossing the road in front of them, oblivious to the night bus hurtling towards it. It only narrowly missed being hit, but continued coolly on its journey to the bin outside the off-licence, which it sniffed studiously, then cocked a leg against.
'So what's your point?' asked Rob.
'Well, it's like this,' replied Jo. 'If Eskimos can come up with fifty words for snow because it's a matter of life or death, why is it that we've only got one word for "love"?'

- Prologue to Mike Gayle's "Brand New Friend" -

I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend. – Destruction
The Sandman: Brief Lives - Neil Gaiman

(Delight is in Endless Nights! Beams~)

momentary happiness

considering my first paper is in less than 36 hours, i shouldn't be here.
but obviously i am.
not for long, though. my notes on verbal communication is sitting next to my laptop, freaking me out. my journ notes are just next to that, really freaking me out. my singapore society notes are next to that, and once again i'm made to realize how fucking screwed i am.
but nothing is going in so here i am.
also wanted to share my glee that I GOT ANANSI BOYS AT THE MPH EXPO SALE!!!!!!!!
beams thanks amy!!!
muahahaha......momentary happiness....brought down by the fact that i can't read it till the 14th (but knowing me i'll start after blardie 106 paper this thurs anyway. hahahaha)
sighs. okay back to verbal communication.
why do i have to do this? why oh why oh why? sobs.

oh, to meet you....

So. I was reading Neil Gaiman's journal on www.neilgaiman.com when I saw this link to an interview he had with Joss Whedon, from Time magazine, and I suddenly thought of the people I want to meet in this lifetime. And not just meet, but hold entire, lengthy conversations with them. Or watch them perform live. (Thus the new list on the sidebar) So:

1. Neil Gaiman: if only I could be Hy Bender. If you've read the Sandman Companion by Bender, and are as crazy over Neil Gaiman and Sandman as me, you'll get why I want to be Bender.
2. Joss Whedon: because who can look back on his miserable high school years and create Buffy?
3. Colm Wilkinson: the one-and-only man in my opinion who can sing Jean Valjean in Les Mis and the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera
4. J. K. Rowling: where on earth did Harry Potter sprout from? And also, bring back Sirius Black. And Dumbledore. Sighs.
5. Jim Brickman: I want a piano lesson from him. :)
6. Jason Hahn: who exactly are Saffy and Amanda?
7. Craig Armstrong, Hans Zimmer: just for their unbelievable skills with film scores

Edited 4th October:
When Stacey saw this post, she said how this list of people was basically everything you need to know about me (or something along the lines of that). Which is pretty accurate, because it does cover all my top interests.
Funny how that works out, huh? Wonder who others will put on their list of people to meet. Anyone who does this, let me know. I'll want to check it out. Hehz.