Reading list, past and present

I just wanted to write about a couple of books I read recently, both of which I got from the library here. One is Sullivan's Justice by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. The protagonist's brother is accused of murdering his girlfriend, and somehow the case ties up with something the protagonist (she's a probationary officer) is working on. It was an okay read, and the ends were tied up pretty neatly, but somehow I didn't find it that enjoyable. Just...okay.

Now the second book was better... a lot darker, though. It's The Traveller by John Katzenbach. It's about a serial killer who kills for fun. He gets a writer to travel with him so that she can chronicle his journey. (talk about immortalizing yourself...) The story is well told, from the points of view of four main characters: the killer, the writer, a policewoman going after the killer, and the killer's brother. A psychological thriller, the back cover (or was it the front cover?) says. And yes, you get to go inside the killer's head, and listen to his philosophy...

Neither of these books use the first person narrative. Not even the omniscient kind, which was a glad change for me. ;P

I'm now in the middle of Judith Kelman's Every Step You Take, which is about identity theft. Now this one is using the omniscient first person...argh! Hopefully the story will make up for it...

Edit: Oh, I've finished the book. Although the story is interesting, it is highly unbelievable... could you imagine that someone would risk her life to find out who is stealing her identity, without even making a police report first? And there are unexplained bits as well, though we could argue that some facts are just not meant to be known. Sorry, Ms. Kelman, this one doesn't get my vote.

Of stereotypes and leg room

I came across this blog post which looks for stereotypes for the different states in America. (which I actually found through this page)

Not being American, I was more interested in what people thought of the country as a whole. So I typed:

Why are Americans so...

And came up with:
fat
stupid
arrogant
rude

And why not search the same thing on Malaysians?

Why are Malaysians so...


It seems that we are:
stupid
ugly
rude
racist

Well? What do you think? Any truth in that?

I'm not hardworking enough to go and do the same on a world map, though (no way!!) :P


And on an unrelated note, this guy got into the back seat of my car and exclaimed, "It's so roomy!"

Um...that's because I'm short and you're sitting behind me... lol

Pikachu and a mighty bear god

Pikachu has been a little out of fashion lately. (at least in Malaysia...I'm not so sure about Japan) When it started out being popular, we could see Pikachu soft toys everywhere...but nowadays it's hard to even find one.

So I was surprised to see a bunch of Pikachu (yeah, the plural of Pokemon names don't take an 's'; that's what I learned from watching the US version of the series :P ) hanging out in a store in Queensbay Mall.

There's at least another one behind these four

There was another, bigger one (but not as furry).

There was a bigger version of this one on a higher shelf, but I didn't take a photo of it.

And at the entrance of the store, welcoming the guests...

The bear god and his subjects

With the lights shining above its head, it really looks like some sort of mighty god...and those little bears below it (they are on a bouquet) are his subjects! :P

This huge bear has been there for as long as I can remember...I'm not even sure whether it's for sale. It's sitting on a swing, in case you didn't notice...

I appreciate you. Really.

The other day C asked me to program a few test units for him (I'm doing software, remember?). But a wire had come off on the programming jig, so I had to go and get it fixed. When I was halfway back to my desk with the repaired jig, C and P came and asked me to do something else first. C says, leave this for afterwards. We were just beside the lab then, so I handed the jig to him and said, put it in the lab for me. I expected him to scold me and say something like "go and put it there yourself", but instead he took it into the lab without a word! :O

Not that he wouldn't have taken it into the lab for me if he had scolded me...but I expected him to complain...at least a bit! Something like, "Cannot do it yourself ah?" "So near also lazy to walk ah?" Something like that... that's what he usually does, after all...

And that's not all... later when we came back, he went into the lab and picked up the jig. (I was going to do that myself...) Immediately after that, R called him over to look at something, and he said to me, "wait a while", and went over to see her stuff. I was pretty confused then...because I could very well take the jig myself (it's so small!) and do the programming while he was discussing whatever it was with R. After he had spoken to her for a while (and showed no sign of finishing soon), I took the jig out of his hands and went off to do my programming...

*scratches head* Are you okay?? :P

Anyway... another time when I asked him to do something for me (not for the first time), he said "you should appreciate me!" Yes, I do appreciate you...that's why I'm posting this on my blog! ;)

Noisy birds

When I got home from work today, there were some birds chirping away out on my balcony. They were making so much noise that I looked out to see where they were. When I saw them, I dashed off to get my camera. :P

After a while, they flew off...down to join another bird, it seems.

the parking lot, below my balcony