The Macbook Air craze

It's not mine! Picture taken from here.

Do you own a Mac computer or laptop? I don't. I've been using an HP Compaq laptop since 2007 (I think) and it's served me well even until now despite a few mishaps over the years.

Anyway, the new Macbook Air has caught my attention (whose isn't?) simply because, well, it looks really sleek and cool. I admit that I found myself getting caught up with all the 'thinnest laptop in the world' kind of hype and have been salivating to own one myself.

But it's so pricey and I wonder if I should get a Macbook or another brand of laptop. I did a search on Google for reviews and there were so many that I got even more confused. I understand that I should get the laptop that meets my needs.

Oh well, I hope it'll just be a phase for me. I'll just wait. In the meantime, any thoughts on Mac products? :)

Geniuses On The Rise?

How on earth do they do it? How did she manage to score 20 As in her recent SPM exam?? Honestly, I find it really hard to believe. During my time, which was 5 years ago, the top SPM scorer was a girl who scored 17 As.

So what will it be in the next 5 years? Someone who scores 23 As? And then 26 As in 10 years' time? Haha!

Each year, during results announcement time, we are bombarded with news of top and straight-A scorers in the newspapers. No, wait! The number gets higher each year. Looks like we're being surrounded by geniuses!

I'm not being cynical but logical here. Are the students that smart just because they can obtain distinctions in their exams? People even wrote in to newspapers expressing their belief that the marking standards have become too low.

If it's so easy to become a top scorer now, then I wish that I had been born 5 years later!

ETA: Yikes! Looks like there's a reporting error in Bernama. It's written that the 20 As student is a boy. She appears as a girl in NST.

Do Something Good Today

While browsing through Maw Books Blog's latest posts, I came across her post on the Book Wish Foundation. Click on the link to find out more about their mission to provide reading relief for people in crisis. Check out their About Us page too.

They also have this Holiday Campaign: Donate $1 Per Book You Received. If you want, you can donate $1 for every book that you received as presents for Christmas or for any other celebration this year. To read more about it, go here. You can choose one of the four options given on how you prefer your donation to be put to use.

By donating, you are doing your part in providing reading materials for the Darfur refugees in Chad. Think about it. Someone was nice enough to give you a book as a present. Now it's your turn to give something to those who really need it. What goes around comes around.

I've already donated. I hope they get to read lots of wonderful books!

Check Out My Authors Page!

I've created an Authors A - Z page in my book review blog. That's where I list out the authors I've read in alphabetical order. I got the idea from Nymeth's and Maw Books Blog.

If readers want to find my review of books by a particular author, they can check out the Author A - Z page to see if I've read anything by the author yet. But there are only around 58 authors listed there! So not a really extensive list. It'll get longer as the days go by though. :)

Well, not much going on right now. I'm just starting The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray. I bought the book from Better World Books for only USD18. Quite a good price. Shipping was also only USD2.97 for international orders! Now it's already USD3.97... :(

Sigh, school starts next Monday, 3 days before Christmas!

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There's a book giveaway over at Em's Bookshelf. Hurry! Leave a comment on her blog post before December 19, 2008 to enter.

St Anne's Church, Bukit Mertajam

I was just fiddling with Google Maps, figuring out how to get to nearby places, and I decided to check out a few places, BM for example.



St Anne's Church, Bukit Mertajam


Do you see the brown cross? That's St Anne's Church! Hah, all the years I've been going for mass there and I've never realized that it's a solid, brown cross if seen from above. That's one of my most interesting discoveries ever.

My father used to wake me up at 7 a.m. sharp every Sunday morning and I'd always grunt in response. If I wasn't up five or ten minutes later, he'd come back and call my name again. "J..., wake up. It's already 7.05/7.10." Then, he'd wait to make sure that I woke up. Grunting in response wasn't acceptable anymore. I had to really wake up, brush my teeth, etc.

He'd always leave home at 7.30 a.m. sharp and the rest of the family would have to rush to get ready by that time. At 7.25 am, he'd be sitting in the hall, wearing his shoes and then waiting patiently for the rest of us late worms.

I don't know why he liked to leave at half past 7 since mass only starts at 8 am. And it's only a 5-minute drive to church! We were always one of the earliest there each Sunday morning. He'd also sit at his favourite seat at one of the church pews facing the priest and the altar.

Anyway, I don't attend St Anne's Church anymore as we've already moved. My father doesn't wake me up at 7 am sharp on Sunday mornings anymore. Why? I guess he felt that I should be old enough to know what time I should wake up. And he's probably busy having a fun time up above while watching over my family and the church where we used to attend.

Give These Animals A Home

10 minutes ago, I found out about a blog called Adopt A Rescued Animal Today. It's about animals like dogs and cats who are looking for nice owners and homes. These animals were rescued.

If you're looking for pets, look no further. Visit that site today! Do give these poor animals a chance. You can help spread the word by blogging about the blog and linking back to it. Do it for them, the animals. I hope they find themselves in nice and loving homes with responsible owners.

Happy Merdeka!!!

Well, it is Malaysia's 51st Independence Day today or also known as Merdeka Day. What are your plans for this lovely Sunday? It's a holiday tomorrow too! Yahoo!

I don't think I'll be going out...not sure if there'll be traffic jam or not but still I don't want to go out and join the mad crowd of honking cars. I have to finish reading Understanding Journalism by Lynette Sheridan Burns as soon as possible. I'll need to review that book and hand in my review paper this Friday!!!

So, I'm wishing all Malaysians a Happy Merdeka Day again! :D

The NST advertisement

Did you watch the latest New Straits Times advertisement on TV? The one with the schoolboys on a public bus and a Caucasian woman asking for directions to the National Monument? My sister and I saw it on TV3 and when one boy in the ad blurted out the sentence, 'You don't belok-belok', we burst out laughing.

That sure was one funny ad! And a really good one too. Here's a 'summary' of the ad:

1. A group of rowdy schoolboys board a public bus and sit at the back.
2. They start teasing another boy who was reading an NST newspaper.
3. A Caucasian woman comes up the bus. The naughty boys notice her and wolf-whistle at her.
4. She smiles at them, approaches them and asks, 'Can you tell me how to go to the National Monument?' Something like that.
5. The boys look confused and start asking each other about what the National Monument is.
6. In the end, one boy answered the woman, 'You straight...You don't belok-belok.'
7. It's the woman's turn to look confused now. She was like raising her eyebrows and was like 'What??'
8. The poor boy continued saying, 'You don't belok-belok! Straight saja.'
9. Then, the hero aka The Boy Who Was Bullied For Reading NST told the woman, 'I can help you. You get down 3 stops from here and follow the signboard.' Something like that.
10. The woman looks relieved and says, 'Thank you. You've been really helpful.'
11. The naughty boys look embarrassed. The smart boy smugly advises them to read NST and gives them his copy.

~~~~~End of the advertisement~~~~~

Scrambling With Scrabble

My mom and I just finished an arduous game of Scrabble! Haha! Why did I say something like that? You thought Scrabble is an easy game, didn’t you? Well, to those who play the game as frequently as they shower, then it should not be a problem for them to come up with words in the blink of an eye.

I haven’t played Scrabble in ages and I’m not going to start with my mom. But it’s good that tonight I managed to persuade her to play a game with me. Since there was nothing nice on TV and there’s not much else to do, she agreed to play. Hmm, I wonder if I can convince her to play another game tomorrow???

My brain was not so perky as I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for hours earlier but I did come up with some 4-letter and 5-letter words. I even helped my mom think of ways to use up her letters. She even scored 62 points for using the valuable but utterly dangerous letter ‘Q’! And with my help, too!

You must be asking the ultimate question of the day.

Who won?

Well, ahem, the winner is………………………ME! I scored 307 while mom scored 280 despite having a 62-point-score for 2 very short words containing the letter ‘Q’.

So…how’s your Scrabble experience? When was the last time you played the game? Try to play it as often as you can. Yeah, you can look up the dictionary if you're unsure of any words that may sound odd to you. Hehe! That's what we did! It's part of the fun anyway. Learning new words and all.

Discovering Bluetooth

I'm not really a techy person. Computer stuff, gadgets, etc are beyond my level of comprehension. Luckily, I do know some HTML stuff, a few easy codes, where to put them and how to place and so on.

Anyways, this morning, I learnt how to use Bluetooth. Yeah, yeah, laugh at me! But this morning, I fiddled a little bit with the Bluetooth in my computer and tried to activate it. I was a bit worried that something might go wrong somewhere because whenever I try to meddle in this kind of things, I usually end up with a not-so-good result.

When I think I've activated the Bluetooth in my computer, I quickly grabbed a mobile phone nearby, turned on the Bluetooth connection in it and put it beside my computer. Then, I tried to detect the phone. Hah! Success!

I just wanted to transfer the photos from the phone to my computer and I did it without any problems. Today, I learnt something new.

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Currently reading: In The Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce

Holiday Time!

Uh, not really lah, I guess since I'm planning to catch up on my reading during this one week of holiday, which is in conjunction with Chinese New Year. My friends went back home yesterday already. I couldn't rush home yet cos I had Spanish class today. But after the class, it was time to pack my stuff and head off home!

I have tons of readings to read and I'm still behind in my book reading. I know, I know, there haven't been any new reviews lately...just been so, so, so busy! Busy doing what, I have no idea. Busy wasting my time I guess!

I have an assignment due right after my holidays and I just found a book in my library but I'm not in campus anymore! How am I going to get that book from the library??? If only I had found it earlier, then I would have borrowed it before going home. I don't know when the library is open and when they are going to close. Ah...macam mana???

Also, there are not many sponsored posts for me to write anymore. There are NONE available for me! So sad...no income for a while...even though it's a little but it's still some income! Hehe...

Okay, it's late now....12.25 a.m.. Good night!

Shopping Before New Year

Wah....Queensbay was extremely PACKED yesterday, which was a Sunday. Suddenly, where did everybody come from? I didn't know that it would be so, so crowded and almost all the shops had at least more than 5 customers in it, even those expensive boutiques.

The people were definitely taking advantage of the sales that were going on. It's still going on anyway. I went because I wanted to get my eyes checked - time for new glasses and also to find out about optical goggles for swimming. I searched on the Internet and most people suggested using contact lenses but using contacts underwater is not safe. Even with goggles.

Then, luckily a helpful lady/optician from one of those eyewear shops told me that Jusco sells optical goggles. I was surprisedly happy! At least I don't have to wear lenses and I would not be blind as a bat while swimming. That's one problem solved.

So, it's New Year's Day tomorrow. A whole new year and a whole new you. Actually, I think I'll still feel like my old self. =) And I haven't made any New Year resolutions. I will make resolutions every now and then, not only for New Year's. I make the resolutions but it doesn't mean that I'll keep them! It takes discipline and willpower. =D

Okay. Wishing everybody a very Happy New Year 2008!!! Be good.

Changing Templates - Risky!

I just tried to change my blog's template. Unsuccessfully. I went to the BlogSkins.com website and just browsed around for some nice-looking, fresh template, perhaps with a few nice pictures of books or someone reading books, etc. Many of the blog skins there are very cartoonish, lovey-dovey, and nah, I'm not going to use them. I'm still looking for the RIGHT one! I don't really know what the right one is.

So, I just tried to experiment with one skin that looked okay. But, it didn't look okay when I've copied and pasted the HTML code in Blogger. The font was too small. I tried to change back to my old blogger template and somehow, everything went wrong! It happened the last time too. I know there's a way to restore my old Blogger template but forgot.

Anyway, after a few clicks here, a few clicks there and a few anxious heartbeats and the crossing of fingers, finally everything was okay again. Well, it's not the old template anymore now, I'm using the same template like my new bookshop's blog. Looks kinda nice. A dotty nice.

Oh, imagine if all was lost. I would have to retype the links, put up the ads again, etc...that will surely take up my precious time. Luckily all is fine. *lets out huge sigh*

The skins over at BlogSkins are nice and creative. I really like some of them but they are not suitable for this blog. There'll be a lot of adjustments to do if I were to use them. Maybe for the time being, I'll just stick with the usual Blogger templates. When I really have free time, which I don't quite know when, then I'll try to change to one of the skins from BlogSkins.

Have A Merry Christmas!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Where's Santa Clause? Did he bring you lots of presents? I hope he did.

Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Have you read any books lately? Or if you haven't, then have you compiled a list of books to read next year since New Year's just a few days away. Time to make some New Year resolutions, too. No matter if you can't stick to them. The important thing is that you've tried. Right?

It's sad that I have no classes only on Christmas Day, that is today. Tomorrow it's all back to normal....sad! Even if it's just one week holiday, I'm happy!

Well, what are you gonna do today? Besides opening presents! =D Whatever it is, enjoy!

What are you getting for Christmas?

I mean what are you going to buy for family and friends for Christmas? I'm getting books for my nieces. Bought them from two online bookshops. I just hope that they'll like the books!

We really should take advantage of these year-end sales. That means no shopping for the first 10 months of the year and only start all shopping in November! Sounds almost impossible don't you think? Put shopping on hold for almost a year??? Ridiculous! Haha! Well, there's still the Merdeka sale.

Oh, I bought the paperback version of Shopaholic and Baby from MPH Online for only RM25! And delivery was fast! It's so much cheaper than the first version where it cost around RM60++. That was a great bargain, I'd say!

By the way, is everyone staying glued to the PayPerPost website? Almost all the opportunities were already grabbed up, so I'm like left with one miserable opportunity. Well, better than none!

Today is a public holiday, so no classes! There aren't any classes tomorrow too! Now that's fun.

Oh back to the main topic. So, what did you buy to give as Christmas presents? Books? Movies? Clothes? Whatever it is, I'm sure the receiver will be happy. It's the thought that counts, right?

Merdeka!!! Exams are over!

Muahahaha....I'm so happy! I'm so happy! My dreadful exams are finally over and I can do whatever I want! My last exam started this morning at 9 a.m. and it ends at 12 p.m.. I finished around 11.15 a.m. and I wanted to leave and celebrate earlier. But then I remembered that I had to get my assignment from my friend and I also had to collect my school's T-shirt...so I stayed in my seat and continued freezing in the air-cond. Why do they like to make the air-cond so strong? Like in Queensbay Mall too, where the air-cond is really cold. If you ever wanted to wear winter clothing, just go to Queensbay Mall. You can wear them there.

I can't believe my exams are over. Even now as I'm onlining, I keep thinking that I shouldn't go online too long cos I need to study or something. But then, I'll remember that exams are already over, so why study?

By the way, I ordered 'In The Hand of the Goddess' by Tamora Pierce from Acmamall and I only got the book on Wednesday but I ordered it, like, more than a week ago. It's quite long for a book to arrive, isn't it?

Recently, I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from 1childrenbooks.com and it took only one day to arrive! Now, that's fast you know. Really fast.

Did you know I enjoy getting books by mail? Oh yeah, it's fun. The thrill of opening the parcel knowing that it's a book inside and wondering what it looks like, etc. Ah, you know the feeling if you've ever ordered something to be sent by mail.

I've also bought the complete set of Roswell DVD - The Complete First to Third season! I ordered online from VCDDVD88.com. Has anyone else bought from them before?

All right. Now I'm going to continue experimenting with different WordPress plugins!

eBay Malaysia - A Whole New Look!

Have you checked out eBay Malaysia lately? If you're curious, just check it out. Now, it looks like other countries' eBay pages. The colours, the layout, and there are extra features too. Too many, in my opinion.

Anyway, whatever the features are, eBay is one of my favourite online haunts because other people are selling stuff that they don't need at cheap prices. Especially books! Hey, some people buy new books from bookstores and they don't like them, what'll they do? They sell them at a cheaper price of course! So, not only will you be able to get the book that you want cheap, you'll also get a book that looks like new too. Now isn't that a great bargain?

That's what I'll do too. However, I don't have the heart to sell away most of my books. I'll somehow feel that each book is not worth selling because I may want to read it again. Also, now I only buy books that I'm sure I'll read over and over again. I'm only a poor, sad student so I can't spend too much money on story books. Perhaps when I become a millionaire later, I'll probably buy over Borders. =)

Incidentally, I'm reading The Best Little Girl In The World by Steven Levenkron now. The story is about a girl, Francesca or Kessa as she calls herself, who suffers from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder where the sufferer thinks she's fat and decides to lose weight in an unhealthy way.

I'm at Chapter 18 now, almost reaching the end of the book. Will put up a review soon so look out for it!

Vote For Your Favourite Books At Cybils

Just a little quick update for today. I was merely blog hopping and found a blog called 'the cybils blog'. If you have recently read a good book that was published this year, 2007, you can nominate it in its respective category on cybils' blog. Be part of The Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards (The Cybils 2007)! Nominations are open until 21 November 2007.

There are 8 book genres involved and they are Fantasy/Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Fiction, Non-Fiction: Middle Grade and Young Adult, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Fiction.

Remember, the books that you want to nominate have to be published in year 2007 and do nominate them in the right categories! If you are not sure, you can post your question in their comments section. Someone will most likely help you out with it.

By the way, I've added some extra stuff in my blog. Check out the ultra-cool FeedJit widget! I like knowing where my visitors come from and so far, FeedJit works for me.

I've also updated on my 'Shared Items' section. I've picked interesting posts from other blogs and you can read them when you click on a post's title in my Shared Items box.

In addition, I just found out that Blogger has a new add-on, which is the Polls widget. Do check out my poll (How often do you buy books?) on the left side of this blog and cast your vote! I'm curious to know how often other people buy or don't buy books. It'll only take a few seconds of your time to vote. =)

That's all for now. Have a pleasant day!

Buka puasa stalls and food

It’s that time of the year again where there are numerous Raya stalls springing up everywhere, including outside of my university hostel! The hawkers have begun setting up their stalls around 5 p.m. and I’m not sure what time they close. But when I checked around 10 p.m. something, there wasn’t a stall in sight! They must have gone home to continue ‘buka puasa’.

Anyway, yesterday I bought some food from them for the first time. Beef kebab, murtabak ayam, leng chi kang and some jellies. That’s a lot of food for one person, huh? Well, never mind. For me, it means only one thing. Party time!!!

It’s true; I can be a glutton at times but this only happens once in a while. I don’t always stuff myself with food. Ah, I like to stuff myself with books. Story books. ;D

Well, the summary. The beef kebab was okay. I first tasted kebab when I was in Form 5 and I’ve never tasted the same kebab again. The kebab I ate in Form 5 was absolutely delicious!

The murtabak ayam came with the pink-coloured onions. The murtabak was just fine, too. When I bought from them, it was already cooked long ago so it wasn’t hot or even warm anymore.

Next up: the jellies. I love jellies but not these jellies. My favourite jelly has always been the regular dark pink, syrup-flavoured jelly that you can usually find at Malay stalls. Anyway, I bought three kinds of jellies. All were multi-coloured and had ‘nata de cocos’ in them. I like ‘nata de cocos’, if that’s the right term for those quite solid cubic jellies.

The ‘best’ one was the leng chi kang. I’ll never buy leng chi kang from that stall ever again. Yeah, sure it had all the jellies and fungus and those small frog eggs in it. I still don’t know the right name for that. I’ll find out later.

And all that was my dinner yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll buy other types of food from other stalls. It won’t hurt to try. =D

Time To Pronounce Words The Right Way

I get annoyed when I hear some people pronounce some words wrongly. When I tell them the right way, some will change the way they pronounce while some.....are still adamant of pronouncing their own way!

Well, if you want to sound intelligent, here's a website dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, that you can go to to get your pronunciations right. No, this is not a sponsored post. I'm recommending this site because I think it's good. For you and also for me.

First, type any word you want in the box available. Then, click on 'Dictionary'. You'll get the meaning of your word and if you want to hear the way it's pronounced, click on the red speaker-phone icon. A box will pop out and then, you'll hear the right pronunciation of the word! Click 'hear it again' to listen to it as many times you want.

There, you're on your way to pronouncing every word right! Have fun!