Nomoshkar! Apni bangla janen?*

I leave the comfort of our lil' red dot once again for a week to face the harsh realities that confront the South Asian nations daily. We go at a time of monsoon and floods in Bangladesh, and two days ago there was a huge downpour in Dhaka that caused some flooding and killed 9 people who stepped on live wires during the floods.

I hope I'll not sink into the floods with my heavy camera bag.

Lucky my haphazard Nepali is still not rusty yet, and Bengali is similar to Hindi and Nepali. (Mutters to herself: ek, dui, teen, char, pach...)

*Hello! Do you understand Bengali?

Ami bujhi na! (I don't understand!)

"It was a time of love and laughter, happy ever after."

I recently read an opinion piece in the ST about how Americans are starting to feel discouraged by the breakdown of the marriage institution in the States with a recent spate of high-profile breakups. Maybe not many people here watch Jon and Kate Plus 8, but I actually follow the show whenever I can (it airs on weekdays at 11am on SCV Ch16). It's pretty amazing how this couple can take care of 8 kids (a pair of twins and a group of sextuplets). Imagine my dismay when I read on the ST story that the couple have called it quits recently. My first thought was, what'll happen to the poor kids now? Even while growing up, I've seen my fair share of friends/relatives coming from broken families. And perhaps that's why I've become cynnical in the marriage instituition. Often, the children suffers the most when it's not their fault. So if you are planning to start a family, please be less selfish and more responsible. Otherwise, don't have kids if you decide to get married. Don't be tempted by what the Singapore government offers in exchange for more babies.

Dixie Chicks - You Were Mine (Official Music Video) - The top video clips of the week are here

"He's two and she's four and you know they adore you. So how can I tell them you've changed your mind?"

The nerd

On average, I read one book a week, which means 4 a month, 48 a year. Considering that I really started seriously reading in Primary 1, it would mean that I have been reading for the past 15 years. This works out to be 720 books in all. Tsk. Still short of the targeted 1000. But these are the books I read for leisure. I suppose if I factor in textbooks and books I read for some purpose other than purely leisure it will make up to a thousand. But that would somehow lessen the satisfaction.

Last book I finished reading was John Steinbeck's 'Of mice and men'. Short but powerful novella. Next up: Kipling's 'Kim'.

Just taking a break from my Bangladesh trip preparations. I leave in 4 days. Wish me luck.

Signals and Scott

This song has been stuck in my head for months ever since I was woken up every morning by Zak's hp alarm which was set to this song. Funny how he never wakes up to switch it off until at least the second verse. Sometimes it even got to the chorus before he wakes up.

Snow Patrol "Signal Fire"

And another piece of news. Scott is coming to town for a visit! I think he got tired of teaching Korean brats already...

Get ready for some crazy antics because Mr and Miss Unmeltable are sure to have some up their sleeves!

Frustration rules

Nothing beats the feeling of wanting to tear your hair out when you realized you are totally uninspired and fast running out of ideas. And you have no one but yourself to blame.

"I killed Sirius Black, I killed Sirius Black!"

Funny that's the most memorable line for me in the latest Harry Potter movie (now you know who is my fave HP 'evil' character). This time round, I thought it was pretty awesome, although my favourite will always be Chamber of Secrets. I was wondering how the scriptwriters were going to portray the details required in such a complex plot of the penultimate HP series, and while some subplots were left out, the decisions to keep and leave out what scenes were pretty well-made and some even cleverly altered to suit the movie without the audience feeling pretty betrayed such as Azkaban as directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who proved too good at what he does best-making controversial films. My only concern for the HBP movie was that it seemed to be made for the young adults/older audience than for the kids. Almost every scene was pretty dark, and some downright scary. I saw quite a few in the audience "eject" during some of the scary scenes. If you watch the B-rolls, you'll see the amount of work the crew put in, especially the animation and graphics peeps. They seemed to transform the raw footage into the magic that JK Rowling created more than a decade ago. Here's the first part of the B-rolls if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUlv0NUmQXg

I thought the movie was a refreshing change from the all-wow effects of GOF and OOTP, and focused more on the nuances of the development of many of the major characters. Especially commendable performances from Emma Watson, Tom Felton, Helena Bonham Carter (Go Bellatrix!), Alan Rickman and Evanna Lynch (who plays my fave HP 'good' character). And newcomer Jessie Cave (Won-Won!) was irritatingly like what I imagined Lavender Brown to be.

So this one is worth heading to the cinemas for, and it will be interesting how they are going to split Deathly Hallows into two-parters for the next two years. I think it will be split at the part when the first Horcrux in Deathly Hallows is destroyed. But that's just my guess. Sigh, another year to look forward to the next movie. And no more fantasy books to escape into. Christopher Paolini hurry up and finish the last Eragon book!

The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift

"Maybe I have been here before, I know this room; I have walked this floor, I used to live alone before I knew you. I've seen your flag on the marble arch, love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah..."

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, performed by Rufus Wainwright

How can anyone write such great songs?

On holiday

I recently spent a week rearranging my entire bookself. The result is this:

Serious books

Equally serious books

Fantasy book section which is dominated by what else:

Imagine about 10 shelves worth of these books and you will have an inkling to the number of books I have in my room. My mum says I should start charging library fees to those who want to borrow my books.

A recent primary school class gathering. Bad turnout, good conversations and I realised we have all changed but yet we are still the kids we were 10 years ago.

Man, those were the days.

Why don't they ever get Mansfield Park right?

"Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch." -Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Download the e-book for free at: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/141

Of all of Austen's novels, I must say my favourite is Mansfield Park, the one which Austen fans seemed to hate the most. Simply because it is very different from the rest of her better-known ones such as P&P and S&S. To me, it is a wonderfully complex novel that is totally unlike her fluffier novels and the closest she'll ever get to the style of Elizabeth Gaskell. So imagine my surprise when I recently discovered that BBC has made a TV adaptation of Mansfield Park in 2007 and someone put that up online. So I gleefully sat down to watch it all at once. Now I've watched the movie version starring Frances O'Connor, and I didn't really like it because the director kind of changed the essential parts of the plot, simplified and sensationalised many parts of the novel. So I was hoping that the TV version would do better justice to the novel. Well it did in some ways, although I'm not sure if Billie Piper was a better choice than Frances O'Connor as Fanny Price. And I'm still not satisfied with this latest adaptation of Mansfield Park, because while it's less dramatic as the previous version, it omitted many parts of the plot and the many important issues were not conveyed in the tv adaptation. I should think that almost all of Austen's novels have been adapted well-enough except for Mansfield Park. Maybe because it's the most complex and deals with many different themes such as education, perception, slavery and morality that makes it difficult to adapt into a screenplay. Or maybe it's simply because the great Andrew Davies has not tried to adapt Mansfield Park. His versions of P&P, S&S, Northanger Abbey and Emma gave justice to Austen's novels. So I really hope he does Mansfield Park soon.

If you don't understand why I get so caught up with movie adaptations of classics, well it just means you haven't read any yet. Mansfield Park is not something I would reccomend as light reading, but if you can get through it then I assure you it will give you plenty of food for thought.

PS: And you'll also discover why JK Rowling gave the name of Mrs Norris to the cat companion of Argus Filch in Harry Potter.

Déjà vu

There are times in life when even before you try, the odds are so insurmountable that you know you are going to fail. And yet you are unwilling to just let it go. And so you give it a shot anyway. Only to make yourself more depressed after that because you were right, that nothing you did could possibly have helped you to succeed. You know you are good, maybe even above average, but that you are never going to be the crème de la crème. It dosen't help that your college life is filled with examples of such gifted people, and that you are so close yet so far. The feeling of defeat, of being never good enough for what you are trying to reach out for. Perhaps that's how we strive for the better, but sometimes, it can get pretty tiring. And you know there is no point being bitter about it because that's just the way life is, and that someone is always going to be greater, more brilliant and much more accomplished than you are ever going to be. It dosen't help that I am not easily contented. I sometimes look with envy on friends who can live their lives accordingly, for the moment and can make the best of whatever life throws at them. These people are much more happier the way they chose to lead their lives. Not that they are complacent, but that they are generally people who are very grounded to their lives. I used to view these people with contempt, because they seemed to me people who have no goals or targets for their futures. But lately I've realized that there is a simple value in choosing to live for the moment. You stop regretting your past and do not fret too much about your future. The feeling of being 'que sera sera' in life.

So yes, I should stop living in the future so much. I did lived in the present when I was in Mizzou and Nepal. Perhaps that's why I'm always running away to another spot in the world, because I know that my time there will be limited and I should cherish what little time I have there. Whereas here, I'm always thinking that I could be somewhere better and done something better, especially when I know that I could be so much closer to achieving success if only I had that foot in the door.

I'm facing alot of mental inertia at the moment and I'm living my life recently filled with "if onlys" and "what ifs".

Shutting out the electronic world

Alot of young Singaporeans claim that they simply cannot live without the internet or their cellphones. To me, it's as simple as switching off my cellphone and unplugging the internet router. These days, the mere sight of a missed call or unread message irritates me. And most emails too. It's as if even when I try to not go out too much and stay at home the world still wants to bug me. So I'm making excuses to friends about meeting other friends and having headaches recently because I just don't want to contact anyone right now. Whether it's for work or play. Especially work. It has come to a point where I have tried to ignored replying to these messages if I can. So forgive me if I seem to be "MIA" online or on my mobile. I'm just avoiding I know, but since I'm going to work for the rest of my life I figured I should just enjoy my one last break. One less month of chionging is not going to do me too much harm. Heck missed opportunities. I just want to be a lazy uncontactable slob.

And yes, much as I live and breathe the internet, I can do perfectly well without it. If you give me SGD100 I'll prove it to you I can be uncontactable for a week. Afterall, I did stay in my house for 3 days without ever stepping out of the house and not talking to anyone once when my parents and sis were on holiday and I did a Macualay Culkin. Ah, those were the days...

Hard Times

You know times are hard when your mother asks you out of nowhere how much your childhood stamp collection is worth.

To me, they are priceless, since they are my earliest gateway to the world. Through these stamps, I learnt about world wars, kings and queens and revolutionaries, where coffee and tea comes from, and which country is famous for what. So no, they are not for sale currently. Maybe when hard times turn into desperate times then I'll be left with no choice but to part with them. My mum said if each one can fetch at least 10K she'll retire and sit at home. Fat hope.

Miss X enters the heart of Bubble town

After her failed search of the elusive Yeti and the Royal Bengal Tiger in South Asia, Miss X returns once again to her Bubble Island which she lived for 2 decades of her life. From the cow-filled dusty streets of Kathmandu, she is transported back to the island of Gen Y strawberries and Gen Z mango puddings. Unlike her first return from the land of the free last year, she was wiser this time round to avoid heading straight to the heart of Bubble town to prevent herself from being suffocated by the artificial air that the Bubbles have learnt to live and breathe in. Despite her valiant attempts to avoid the strawberries and puddings, she couldn't avoid them altogether. She wanted to grab the leaves of the strawberries and give them a good shake, especially when she discovers that she knew much more about what was happening on Bubble Island in her absence than this tribe of strawberries who have spent their whole lives on Bubble Island. But then she knows that she'll probably squash them if she handles the strawberries too harshly. And she is starting to find it hard to control the impulse to smash those little puddings whenever they kick up a fuss on which latest transformers toys they wanted. She is at a point where she dosen't know if it is better to smash those wobbly puddings now so that they at least reform themselves into something sturdier in the future or leave them alone to the strawberries and risk them becoming spoilt rotten puddings. Worse of all, she looks at the strawberries sitting on top of those mango puddings and she wonders if the dessert combination is well, just nice, but not really that essential to the rest of main course meal.

So Miss X once again leaves the heart of Bubble town feeling irritated, depressed and alarmed by the rate of how the strawberries and puddings are morphing into full-time Bubbles that accost one in mobs and disappear as suddenly as they arrive, leaving one with a slightly uncomfortable smell of soup in the air and on one's clothes.

And so Miss X awaits for the onslaught of Bubbles in a month's time. Will she finally succumb and morph into another Bubble? Or will she X her way through the Bubbles to break free of Bubble Island? The end is near...


PS: I hate mangoes and puddings.