The Time Traveler's Wife

I had just finished reading this book by Audrey Niffenegger. I got it a month or two ago during the MPH sales. I'd picked the book up idly, read the preview on the back-cover and thought it'd make an interesting read. Time-travel, afterall, is most exciting and intriguing. However, despite what most of the online reviews say about the book, I didn't like it. In fact, I plainly hate certain parts of the book, and couldn't care less for most other parts. The only thing I'd give credit to the author for, is the novel idea of a person who time-travels as a result of a genetic disorder. It is also rather sensible of Ms Niffenegger to write that Henry, the time-traveler, takes nothing with him when he time travels - not even his tooth-filling (which is why he appears naked a lot of times in the book). However, at one part, Clare, his wife, found him beaten-up and bleeding on the kitchen floor, naked of course, back from one of his time-travels. The description of him included "dirt under his fingernails". Hey, the dirt was not supposed to have followed him home through time, remember? (unless she meant the dirt was from the kitchen itself, and had somehow ended up under Henry's fingernails after he returned *rolling eyes*)

Anyway, what I really hated about this book was that although the author did not describe any sexual activities explicitly, she used words that I found most displeasing, most downright distasteful - words that should never have found their way into a book, what more a book that's supposed to be on love and endurance, and patience and cherishing the now and here - they're just so, SO inappropriate! Amongst these words which I despise, the awful four-lettered "f**k" can be considered one of the not-so-rude ones (in my opinion). Imagine! I am not about to list the rest and stain my blog.

Other than utter rudeness in diction and crudeness in style, certain parts of the book are just plain boring - over-describing of petty events (no-head-nor-tail meetings / outings that leave you "Huh?!?") and stuff (a list of 20 or so grocery items Henry bought).

Reader, if you're thinking of getting this book and reading it, for whatever the reason, I will not advise you against it. Perhaps you'd enjoy the rude shock better than I did. Seriously.

No Laughing Matter

Last week, driving to work, I saw an "AWAS" sign, placed on a very curved road for the obvious reason, was knocked over and left lying helpless and pathetic in the middle of the road. I had to laugh. A sign telling road users to becareful was knocked over by a careless driver. It reminded me of the many times (in the distant past) I had seen HUGE piles of rubbish right under signs that said "Dilarang Membuang Sampah. Denda RM500". Funny!

The public buses I take to get to my work place stop in the midst of going around a roundabout to pick up or drop off passengers. Really funny. I've also encountered a driver who stopped the bus in the middle of the road, left the bus (with the engine still running and all the passengers bewildered), strolled into a mamak shop and strolled back out a couple of minutes later carrying a plastic bag-ful of teh tarik ais, then nicely climbed back into his driver's seat on the bus and continued the journey. Not bad huh.

I haven't been to many places outside of Malaysia, but I bet that some of these things one could only get to see here. Still funny? After a while, they're no more mere laughing matter.

Continuing the talk about road users - many times, when driving, I encountered impatient drivers that swerve out from behind and accelerate whenever I slowed down to let somebody (another car or pedestrians) pass. Once, I slowed to a stop to let a mother carrying a child and holding the hands of another to cross the road, and one of those impatient people was directly behind me, and did exactly what he shouldn't have done - swerved out of the lane and accelerated forward. He nearly rammed into the woman and her children. If I were a six-foot tall bully with muscles like Superman, I'd get out of my car, break his windows and break his nose. A couple of months ago, it happened that I was trying to cross a road, a kind driver slowed down to let me, and another accelerated from behind, only to hit the brakes when I was in sight of the #!$*& driver. If I'd died that day, I'd haunt him for the rest of his life. Really.

What else? Drivers running the red lights, driving and parking wherever they pleased, bullying bikers and Kancils... Where are the policemen when we need them? (Why, they're always up and about - taking bribes from offenders. Shushhh! You're not supposed to say that! Wanna end up in jail? Oops. Sorry.)

And BRAVO to columnist Goh Ban Lee of The Sun newspaper (got my free copy from KTM station! heheh), for he mentioned about the vast occurrences of petty traffic offences (which add up to be a BIG problem) and public littering, and how these remain unresolved, whilst the government wants policemen to spy on couples behaving "indecently" in public parks. *eyes rolling* But please - don't say anything about bribes. Nobody wants to go to jail.

First Year

Twelve months and eighty-two posts and here I am - exactly a whole year since I first started. There were good posts, bad posts, there were long and boring posts, and there was a post which resulted in comments-shooting. There was even a post which so risked controversy that I deleted it the day after it was published. There had been times when there were so many things on my mind I didn't know which to write about first, and there were times when I so wanted to write but there wasn't much to write about.

All in all, I must say it's been an eventful first year, and it's been a grand adventure. Thank you, readers!

Disbelief

When what could have been a clever piece of satire becomes a blatant, cowardly barking of accusations from behind the cover of the Web, it has me in utter disbelief. The fact that it has happened more than once leaves me flabbergasted.

What was that, the reader wonders? Well, sorry, readers. Ignore this post.

"Do unto others what you want others to do unto you"

I think its time we grew up a little, stop being so petty, so trivial - and stop making a mountain out of a molehill.

Sims ReVisited Again

After The Sims and Livin' Large Expansion Pack, there came a few more - House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Superstar and Makin' Magic. Phew! I played only until Vacation I think - perhaps a little Unleashed, but not enough to make an impression. With House Party, came new objects and new actions - most obviously, the ability to host parties for entire neighbourhoods. There were buffet tables, caterers and even a Mime, who'd show up occassionally, uninvited. It was a great way to get to make acquaintances, which can later be slowly developed into friendships for career advancement.

There are lots to do during a party. You can buy a birthday cake and get a Sim to blow the candles out, or you can get a turkey and carve it for all. And as for adult entertainment - well, there's always the strip dancer :D If you want the party to be a costume party, just get a costume chest and the guests will automatically change into different costumes. If there is a campfire, a Sim can light it and entertain a few other Sims around it

With more expansion packs, my roomees and I discovered more tricks and actions. For example, if a Sim looked through the telescope long enough, he will be abducted by aliens - and only be returned a day later.

A Sim can die from electricity shock. To kill a Sim by electricity shock, just buy a chemistry set and make potions - one of the potions that can be made will turn any Sim that drinks it into the monster in Frankenstein and it will go around breaking stuff in the house. If the monster breaks the TV, get a Sim (the one you want to kill) to fix it (better still if the Sim has none or very little mechanical skills). Now, you have a high chance of that Sim being electrocuted. Once it happens, Death (Grim Ripper) will appear and collect the soul, leaving a grave / urn behind.

However, if there is another Sim nearby when Death appears, the Sim can beg for the life of the dying Sim that is about to be taken - and if Death grants the dying Sim its life back, the Sim will continue to live as a zombie.

A zombie Sim can do pretty much everything a normal Sim can (eat, sleep, work, go partying etc.), but it will appear greenish, like a ghost.

... to be continued (again?). Well, yeah, maybe. ;)

Mini Skirts

They are skimpy, they are fashionable and they show off your "great" legs - BUT do you need to wear them into the EXAM hall? Why - first of all, it's verrrrrry cooooold in there; secondly, you'd be in a sitting position for 3 hours and everytime you move your legs, you're at risk of opening your coffee shop; and lastly, you distract (or should I say, "attract") all those hamsap male invigilators!

Shame on all of you who love to wear super-short mini skirts to exams. Also shame on all of you who wear low-cut / strapless / transparent blouses with push-up bras. Shame!

More Sims ReVisited

One of the first tricks we learn in playing The Sims is to have a baby grown into a child without any parent losing his/her job, and without any social workers showing up - let the parents take turns skipping work and staying home to take care of the baby. A Sim will not be fired if he skips work on alternate days. And the baby will take about 3 days only to grow into a child. Of course, at first before we knew this, we had to let one of the parent Sims stay at home for the baby (and subsequently be fired!) and find another job once the baby is a child. Once, I tried to cheat my way through. This is what I did - I left the baby alone at home (both the parents at work) and when the baby had cried long enough, the social worker came to take it away. Once the social worker reached the cradle, I went into the build mode and made a fence around the social worker, cradle and all. I thought I could "trap" the social worker there until one of the parents came home at least - but well, after some hours standing there, the social worker simply went "poof" and disappeared into thin air. Not a very good way to cheat, I saw.




A better cheat (which we discovered while surfing around Sims fansites) to make lots of money - the best get-rich-quick trick yet - is to manually duplicate a family, then start the game and move that family into an empty lot in the neighbourhood of the original family. Then, kill all the family members of the clone family and get the remaining member to move in with the original family, bringing in all the duplicate wealth - after that, kill the remaining clone as well. In this way, for every duplication, moving in and killing, the family wealth doubles. I had a Sims family worth over 2 million Simoleons (Sims currency) and a private graveyard! Such then, in that house, there would usually be 4 or 5 ghosts lurking around every night, and spooking incidents occurred very often.





And how to kill of a Sim? Well, put one in a room with a lighted fireplace, take the door off to trap the Sim in, and if a fire breaks out.... well. However, fires happen randomly so to use it to kill a Sim would not be so easy. I have tried also to trap Sims in a room with a TV (so the noise from the TV would prevent the Sims from falling asleep on the floor) and without doors. The Sims would then die of exhaustion and hunger. But it'll still take a few days. The most efficient method, however, a sure-die way, would be to build a small swimming pool, get a Sim to swim in it, then remove the steps by which the Sim can get out of the pool. In a few hours, the Sim would have been so exhausted that it will fall asleep and drown in the pool.





Of course, we can also make same-sex Sims fall in love.



One of the very weird things that happened in my Sims neighbourhood, was the accidental death of the repairman, who was electrocuted while trying to fix a broken TV or computer - I can't remember which. As there was only ONE repairman in the neighbourhood, everytime a family called for repair, the ghost of the dead repairman would appear and do the repair - and would even charge the normal price!





After the original Sims and the Livin' Large expansion pack, there were House Party, Hot Date, Vacation and many more. My roomees and I didn't manage to play all these expansion packs together as roomees, but what we had, we definitely enjoyed very much.

Well, will post more next time if time allows.