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Books
I confess I haven’t been reading enough lately. Because I don’t seem to find the time to do so. Added to that, I am also very good at coming up with a lot of excuses not to find time to read. Bought a couple of books previously and haven’t even finished reading any of them. So what’s the best thing to do?

Buy more books.

Hahahaha.

You saw that one coming didn’t you?

I am currently reading Nicholas Sparks’ The Choice. I’m about to finish and already feel like crying, as usual. What I really can’t wait is to read Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker. Got it from Borders the other day. I will review this book another time, IF I can finish it. IF is a really BIG WORD here.

(While I googled for the book image, I stumbled upon Google’s Book Search webpage, check it out! Really cool! It’s like an online library google-fied!)

Career Advice for Nobody in Particular
If you think you’re a junior, then you will always be a junior.

Nike Human Race
I am so pissing mad that Nike closed the registration for the Human Race earlier than noticed. What is their problem? But I thought this is a race for charity or some sorts? Can there be too much charity? Bloody hell. This makes me so want to run for the Standard Chartered Marathon again.

Which I will. I will sign up this weekend. I’d probably run the 21km.

Spending Unnecessary Money
Guilty as charged.

SingFest
I really want to go to SingFest. I just want to see OneRepublic. I hope they’ll play all their songs in their album. I hope the concert won’t be full of posers. Cos I want to be one. Tee hee hee.

Nickelback
Nickelback ROCKS!!!!

Stupid Laptop
My stupid work laptop’s USB ports are all spoilt. It’s NOT working. Can’t use my mouse like I always did. Can’t plug in my speaks like I always did. Working takes twice as long because of this handicap. Tiuz. Heard that USB ports can’t be fixed. Shit.

Dobinmushi
I am so terribly in love with Dobinmushi. If you go to a Japanese restaurant, you gotta try Dobinmushi. The soup is out of this world. Best. I have it everytime I’m at Sakae or Ichiban Sushi. Lemon must be squeezed. Thank you.

—————-
Listening to: Chad Kroeger - Hero (feat. Josey Scott)
via FoxyTunes    

Today was all me.

I woke up at 8am to greet my maid. And I fell. Here’s the story.

I got up from my bed and used my left foot to walk forward.

I couldn’t feel my left leg AT ALL.

So with no support, I fell on my left thigh with a bang. My toes and toe nails went the other direction, so it was bleeding inside the meat area because of the split. Don’t know why but my ankle also had a scratch so it’s now bloody. Some of my toes had cuts too.

Apparently, my leg was still sleeping, and apparently, this is quite common ok stop laughing.

PAIN LIKE FUCK x INFINITY OK???

And nobody carried me up cos I was alone this weekend. Sobs.

Then amidst the pain, I went online to search for movies to watch in the cinema. But then again I have already decided what I would like to watch, and that is Across the Universe.

The movie rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mr JetLi was correct. And I am now a Beatles fan bwahahaha.

The movie talks about love, lover love, brother and sister love, friendship love, it has a very general theme, but centers around love. What’s absolutely wonderful about this movie, is that they took some of the Beatles song to sing and act it out, so it’s more like a play/movie, you know like Evita and The Phantom of The Opera. And I really loved the interaction between the actors and how they blend the songs into the mood. I love it so much I’m going to see it the 2nd time.

Cos I watched it alone earlier  and I need to share this joyous occasion with people who appreciate this kinda movies.

Actually watching movies alone in cinema is quite nice. Actually quite normal feeling cos if you go with a bunch of people, you won’t be talking to each other during the movie anyway. But of cos afterwards you get to debate if the storyline sucks or who’s boobs were bigger or why do they need to have one sex scene??? Something like that.

So liking the feeling of watching movies alone a lot, I decided to watch another one, so it’s like 2 movies in a row! Yippee! And I was Ms. Limping of the Day too. But don’t care lah.

I bought a ticket for The Darjeeling Limited and I was glad I made that choice because this movie rocks too!!! Well, not as meng-rock as Across the Universe; The Darjeeling Limited was more light-hearted and when you finished watching it you get that warm fuzzy feeling in your heart that goes "ahhhhh" kind. It’s starring Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson; actually I’m kinda surprised that Adrien Brody can act funny cos I didn’t like him that much after watching King Kong. The story is about 3 estranged brothers who traveled to India for some soul searching. And along the way they encountered many incidents, some of which were funny, others so serious it can move you to tears (some of the audiences were laughing at the wrong time, those muthafuckers). Love it love it love it.

Limping across to the next mall, I bought 3 books cos I haven’t been reading in a while.

One is by Nicholas Sparks called Dear John. Nicholas Sparks is my favourite writer cos he is super romantic in his words. I shed tears when I read his books. I like that kinda feeling.

Next, I bought Wild Swans by Jung Chang, it’s about the story of 3 generations of women in her own family - grandmother, mother and daughter - revealing the whole tragic history of China’s twentieth century. I am beginning to be interested in the history of China after reading The Rape of Nanking and after my travel to Beijing. It’s a bloody thick book.

And the last book I gotten is by Andrew Grant, it’s called Death In The Kingdom. And it’s an autographed copy! Woooh!! I’m so a sucker for autographed copy books just cause they are autographed copy books. Well, it’s about a British agent who murdered the son of Thailand’s top underworld boss plus government conspiracies shit. Yay.

After that, still reluctant to go home and still limping, I went to karaoke for 3 hours alone, so now I am back. It’s 2:15am in the morning now and I just checked my leg injuries.

There is a big blue blackish bruise on my left thigh.

My 2nd left toe is also blue. Like sudah mereput.

My ankle has like a 5 cent red patch of dried blood scratch type.

And it’s still fucking painful.

Ok, definitely going to see a doctor tomorrow. Good night.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be ~~~

If you have paid attention to the right side of my menu bar, I am currently reading a book called The Rape of Nanking, The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang.

I’ve never been a person who read a lot of history books because I’ve always felt that books are for entertainment, like movies, and you’re supposed to feel like the world is beautiful again after you’ve finished reading/watching them. History books bore the hell outta me, partly because it’s always gruesome and it is the facts of life I’d like to avoid and ignore.

Like this rape of Nanking. I know this book has been around for several years but I just got to read it.

A little description about the book:

The forgotten story of one of history’s most brutal massacres.

In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered — a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combine. Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written the definitive history of this horrifying episode.

The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone which saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Among the heroes was the German John Rabe, a Nazi, whose diaries Chang discovered and whom she calls the "Oskar Schindler of China." More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. It also tells of the concerted effort during the Cold War on the part of the West and even China to stifle open discussion of this atrocity.

I’d like to point your attention to some of the details in the book, I find… disturbing. I quote direct from the book:

Using numbers killed alone, the Rape of Nanking surpasses much of the worst barbarism of the ages. The Japanese outdid the Romans at Carthage (only 150,000 died in that slaughter), the Christian armies during the Spanish Inquisition, and even some of the monstrosities of Timur Lenk, who killed 100,000 prisoners at Delhi in 1398 and built two towers of skulls in Syria in 1400 and 1401.

Indeed, even by the standards of history’s most destructive war, the Rape of Nanking represents one of the worst instances of mass extermination.

The Rape of Nanking should be remembered not only for the number of people slaughtered but for the cruel manner in which many met their deaths.

Chinese men were used for bayonet practice and in decapitation contests. An estimated 20,000 - 80,000 Chinese women were raped. Many soldiers went beyond rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, nail them alive to walls. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons their mothers, as other family members watched. Not only live burials, castration, the carving of organs, and the roasting of people become routine, but more diabolical tortures were practiced, such as hanging people by their tongues on iron hooks or burying people to their waists and watching them get torn apart by German shepherds. So sickening was the spectable that even the Nazis in the city were horrified, one proclaiming that massacre to be the work of "bestial machinery".

Yet the Rape of Nanking remains an obscure incident. Unlike the atomic explosions in Japan or the Jewish holocaust in Europe, the horrors of the massacre at Nanking remain virtually unknown to people outside Asia. The massacre remains neglected in most of the historical literature published in the United States.

What baffled and saddened me during the writing of this book was the persistent Japanese refusal to come to terms with its own past. It is not just that Japan has doled out less that 1 percent of the amount that Germany has paid in war reparations to its victims. It is not just that, unlike most Nazis, who if not incarcerated for their crimes were at least forced from public life, many Japanese war criminals continued to occupy powerful positions in industry and government after the war. And it is not just the fact that while Germans have make repeated apologies to their Holocaust victims, the Japanese have enshrined their war criminals in Tokyo — an act that one American wartime victim of the Japanese has labeled politically equivalent to "erecting a cathedral for Hitler in the middle of Berlin."

In contrast to Germany, where it is illegal for teachers to delete the Holocaust from their history curricula, the Japanese have for decades systematically purged references to the Nanking massacre from their textbooks. They have removed photographs of the Nanking massacre from museums, tampered with original source material, and excised from popular culture any mention of the massacre.

Yes, it is indeed very depressing. Iris Chang, the author of this book, committed suicide on November 9, 2004 after a depressive episode resulting from a nervous breakdown.

To you, I say, this is a good book to read. It is written in simple, comprehensible English language (compared to The Soong Dynasty I tried to read but ugh).

Truth to be told, I haven’t finished reading this book yet. And until I do, I shall reserve my comments for the moment. But it’s certainly something real to read compared to my other lovey-dovey romantic books.

rape of nanking iris chang war chinese japanese

Yesterday at mass, during the homily session, the priest stressed that we should all learn to relax, to enjoy the life that has been given to us and forget about work sometimes. As a human being, we need to be human. Hence the word, human being.

He told us that he sometimes goes for movies, especially during Mondays, and he has watched Harry Potter and Transformers. He said "don’t believe people who tell you not to watch Harry Potter because it’s evil and it’s witchcraft and it’s not the Christian way of life". Ah hah! Coincidently, my very own relative said those exact same words. But he’s a hypocrite himself. Well, I’m not going to talk a lot about him now.

It was quite funny, really. I’ve always imagined that priests only sit in confined spaces and pray all their free time away when they have absolutely nothing to do. Other than conduct mass, what else do priests do? Hmm, I’ve never really figured it out. When I was younger, I used to know a priest who smokes too! That was quite a shocker. But smoking ain’t a sin anyway, at least not defined in the bible or the Catholic law or something…

Did you read the news this morning? So many people queuing for the last series of the Harry Potter book. I have all the previous Harry Potter series (although I must say the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price was quite disturbing…) and I was too excited over Lee Hom’s album that I almost forgot about the release of this Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I need to re-read the Half Blood Prince again, cos I have forgotten the story. Have you gotten your Deathly Hallows copy? OK don’t tell me. And until I finished reading the book, I am avoiding all articles that are related to Harry Potter from now on. Not going to read about reviews and spoil my fun.

My brother cooked breakfast for us this morning, omelette with champignon mushrooms, parmesan cheese and chopped tomatos. Mum cooked ham and hash browns and brewed Hainanese styled tea. Yummmmmmm. I just ate. Did nothing of cooking or washing.

The rain has just stopped.

I’ve just finished reading this book called "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom.

Yeh yeh, I know it’s a bit olddddddddd and staleeeeeeee, but I finally got to read it when Ja borrowed the book to me since I was too bloody stingy to buy it.

Who spends money on motivational books anyway? Do you seriously buy a book, let someone tell you how to live your live happily? Sheesh.

Before I even read the book, I already know what’s it about. A professor called Morrie is dying and he’s giving some lessons in life to his student, Mitch. So cliche.

3 of my friends who has read it said it’s their life-changing book. Being the skeptic that I am, I read it and experienced NO life-changing whatsoever. I already knew all the lessons in life that Morrie taught.

In fact, I might even be a better author.

Just go to a bookstore and grab a book from "Motivational/Life" corner and you will realize that ALL books teaches the same damn thing and once you’ve read it once, the others are exactly the same. It’s like shitting, the feeling is the same, except that what comes out is always different. Sometimes you get some wet ones, some dry ones that hurts your hole, some oily ones, some green ones, but you always get the same feeling of shitting. So for these motivational books, the covers are different, the stories are different, but it’s always repeating the same damn thing.

Appreciate life. Appreciate your loved ones. Appreciate your friends. Live today as if it were your last. Acknowledge your feelings and move on. Choose to be happy. Don’t be a slave to money. Money is not important. Money isn’t everything. Yadda yadda yadda.

Say that to a father who is earning RM700 a month, feeding a family of 4. I bet your ass he’s not buying the "live today as if it were your last" and "money is not important" bullshit.

These book authors are rich themselves! Of course they bloody think that "money is not important" cos they’ve got loads! Geesh, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out!

OK, to prove my sincerity in teaching you life lessons, here are my top ten on how to be happy:

1. Watch comedies and laugh so hard until you fart. You must fart, but never force it. Let your stomach naturally pushes the gas out.
2. Delete your blog. Read mine.
3. If your friends backstab you, backstab them back. No backstab friends are worth keeping, even if you have none left.
4. Watch Heroes, Scrubs, Family Guy, South Park and The Office. Guarantee to make you do item 1. How to watch, you ask? YouTube or Torrent. Wait for it to load while you do item 2.
5. Sing Smurf’s theme in the shower.
6. Be incredibly stupid on purpose. Sometimes, being clever makes people sad. So be stupid.
7. Don’t look into the mirror.
8. Eat whatever you want without worrying about diabetes, cholestrol or calories. You can’t be that lucky.
9. Listen to music, any music that makes you happy.
10. Donate to charity but don’t tell anyone else about it. A RM10 may be small when you take it to the supermarket, but it looks big when you donate it.

See? And you got all these tips for free.

Lucky you.

Happy or not?

P/S: Anyway Ja, thanks for the book. Although I think The Alchemist seems to be more meaningful. I’m reading like page… 10. Patience is virtue! XOXO. 

"Agostino Carracci made this engraving, called Love Conquers All," he said. "What do you see?"

On the right side of the picture were two naked women. On the left side, a baby boy was beating up a much larger and more muscular satyr.

"I don’t know," I said, unsure which side of the picture I was supposed to be learning from.

"That", my father said, pointing to the boy, "is Love."

He let it sink in.

"He’s not supposed to be on your side. You fight with him; you try to undo what he does to others. But he’s too powerful. No matter how much we suffer, Virgil says, our hardships cannot move him."

Love conquers all?

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason