modern life continually nibbles away at your sanity. how can you keep your head while all around are losing theirs, in a world that includes two-minute answermachine messages, ikea, wayward supermarket trolleys, train delays, powerpoint presentations and white vans? minor irritations perhaps, but their cumulative effect is like your overdraft: you do nothing to encourage it but the wretched thing never really goes away. the sad truth is that the only sure way to banish life's minor miseries, the leaves rustling at the bottom of the beaufort scale, is to have real disaster strike, the force ten gale of bereavement or heartbreak. these are the moments you look back on your pre-tragedy life and wonder why you didn't bother to be happy when you had the chance.


see helaine, i'm trying the darnest to be 'normal'. whatever that means anyway.

did i mention? i love merci docteur rey. it's a hoot. those of you with cable, it's showing on hallmark channel. it definitely earned a place in my favourite movies list. i want to go see it again and again.

remember my aliah book club thingy? well, i think it's about time to introduce a book to the puny number of people who showed a smudge of interest in my attempt to rip-off oprah's book club. anyhow, here goes.

title: the eyre affair
author: jasper fforde (he is also the latest addition to my favourite authors list)

the book, in amazon.com:
Surreal and hilariously funny, this alternate history, the debut novel of British author Fforde, will appeal to lovers of zany genre work and lovers of classic literature alike. The scene: Great Britain circa 1985, but a Great Britain where literature has a prominent place in everyday life. For pennies, corner Will-Speak machines will quote Shakespeare. In this world where high lit matters, Special Operative Thursday Next (literary detective) seeks to retrieve the stolen manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. The evil Acheron Hades has plans for it: after kidnapping Next's mad-scientist uncle, Mycroft, and commandeering Mycroft's invention, the Prose Portal, which enables people to cross into a literary text. Worse is to come. When the manuscript of Jane Eyre, Next's favorite novel, disappears. The plethora of oddly named characters can be confusing, and the story's episodic nature means that the action moves forward in fits and starts. The cartoonish characters are either all good or all bad, but the villain's comeuppance is still satisfying. Witty and clever, this literate romp heralds a fun new series set in a wonderfully original world.

the book, in my own words:
quirky, funny, an addictive read. the ideas are so silly i totally love it. has alot of time-travelling. but get this. a person can move from one book to another through a prose portal. i think literature students will enjoy reading this book. it has suspense, comedy, romance all bundled up in one book. fforde is truly innovative and has tons of creative ideas in that head of his. some of his ideas are so far-fetched i have no idea how he came up with it. judging from the title, you know that it has something to do with charlotte bronte's classic, jane eyre. well, the book got 'kidnapped'. read the book to find out for yourselves. and tell me what you think of it, if you did. enjoy.

not to scare you people, there are sequels to the book and i've read em all. hah.

one word.

J A D E D

i'm getting bored of school. this coming right after an entry that says, 'ooh.. i love school! i'm having oh-so-much-fun!'. no surprises considering its coming from me. i'm so flippant about stuff. it's just that, it ain't fun when i'm not fairing as well as i should to get good enough grades to get that 2.5 gpa for this semester. for those of you who went, 'huh?!' it's the american system. i'll explain when there's time to sit around and chat.

besides, the 'kids' in class. yes, i call them 'kids' cause honestly they are younger than me. WAY younger. obviously. well, they're starting to piss me off big time. like the smallest details gets on my nerves. the way they whine. they way they yak. lets just say, it feels like i'm being transported back to secondary school. a moment in time i wouldn't want to experience twice. and they're making me relive it. it totally sucks. i just want them to shut up. but they can't and probably won't if i tell them to. heck. i guess, i got to get ear plugs or something. but if i do shut my ears, i won't be able to hear the lessons. then, it'll make everything worser than it already is.

all i can do is:

stay sane.

my everyday life is so colourful that there is rarely a dull moment. i've never had so much fun in school that it's starting to scare me. there's always a comment for everyone or any movement made. it's just one phrase accompanied by bursting laughter then another moron will add something to the first comment, more laughter. maybe a roar of laughter since there's 5 of us and we're quite 'intimidating' when we start spasm-ing after a marathon of snide remarks. all this happening in between lessons. much to the dismay of our classmates. heck. we tend to ignore their glares cause we close our eyes when we're laughing too hard. recently, spent a totally psychedelic experience in ngee ann alumni clubhouse where we bitch and give names to our fellow course-mates. what a joy!

let me introduce some of the characters i meet in school.

we have the fantastic four; the beatles sitting in a row near us. ringo shaves his moustache for a much more modern-looking stubble. john had blonde highlights done. george's eyes shut closed for reasons left unknown and paul being a kepo-king. there's helga, our fascist leader who likes to wear the communist colours. sometimes she has helga junior by her side but lately, helga junior seems to hangout with the jailbirds clan. didn't know black and white stripes were still in. we also have wayne and his sidekick. plus that annoying little guy called, 'para para sakura' cause of his over-the-beng-ish hairdo. sometimes we'll be greeted by the melodious sounds of, "my name is.." which always cheer us up.

we are the 'elitist'. mima goes ballistic when the indon pack took over our seats when she was the one who advocate project, 'mingling around'. dalina is ayam katek (don't ask). shamala enjoys waddling in her own bubble. oblivious to her surroundings. only realising something an hour after the rest of us did. lastly, we have cindy. the one who is trying to device an evil plan to get to know MY island. he's mine cindy. m.i.n.e. however weird he dresses. even with the tigers. yup. i admit it, i find them adorable. blergh.

no man is an island. one day he's decked in his hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. his chest hair, however minimal, spilling from the unbuttoned second button. the next, his hair is all combed behind held by a gallon of gel. looking suave in his black shirt. his 5 o'clock shadow gone. just now, walked in the air-con repairman. his glasses too big for his face. sigh..

everyone has someone.