Love Story by Erich Segal

I was around KLPac yesterday. While waiting for an appointment, I got the chance to grab a book at their reading corner for a short read. It is interesting that they placed the tables and chairs we used to use in primary school there!!

The thinnest book I found which caught my attention was "Love Story" by Erich Segal. (Hmmm... familiar author. Where have I seen it before?)
I read the first two chapters and chuckled away. I must admit. It is entertaining. I loved the verbal banter between the hero (Oliver) with the heroine (Jenny). Here are some of their lines, reinterpreted by me by my vague memory...

"Jenny, if you're so convinced I'm a loser, why did you bulldoze me into buying you coffee?”
She looked me straight in the eyes and smiled.
“I like your body,” she said.

There was this scene where Oliver kissed Jenny and she said she didn't like it. Oliver kissed her again and she replied the same.
"Why don't you like it?" Oliver asked.
Jenny replied, "I don't like that I like it." (I like the way she twist her words around!)

Oliver even retaliated. When he walked Jenny to her dorm, he didn't kiss her good-bye but said, "Jenny, I think I won't be calling you these few days."
Jenny was quiet for a moment before she asked, "Why not?"
"Because I'll call you immediately after I get back" answered Oliver without looking back.
"Bastard" she replied. And he chuckled as he walked away.

I got an A minus on the exam, coincidentally the same grade I assigned to Jenny’s legs when she first walked from behind that desk. (Oliver's thoughts)

There's another scene where Oliver and Jenny are studying together. Jenny reprimands Oliver by saying, "I think you are going to fail. You are not studying. Are my legs really that great?"
Oliver answers, "I only look after a chapter."
"That book must really have a lot of chapters"
"Your legs aren't really that great"
(I loved how she sarcastically remarks that the book has a lot of chapters!! haha)

However, I only read the first two chapters, therefore this is not a book review. It is more an account on my amusement and enjoyment of reading the conversation of the two characters at the beginning of their love story. :)

Some of the reviews of the book can be found here.

An overview of the Love Story is found in Book Rags.

The sequel to Love Story is called "Oliver's Story".
His books have been made into movies in the 1970's as seen in the poster for Love Story above. Hmm... wonder if I can get a hand of the movie to see how it is like, or should I just get the book?

They were showing Paul Loosley's Tennessee Williams on Film in KLPac. Since I was in KLPac, I got hold of two free tickets to watch Richard Brook's Cat on A Hot Tin Roof for the screening end of this month. I might have watched it but I can't recall. I remember TV2 screening a number of Elizabeth Taylor's movies as a child. Hope I get to watch it! :)

I just love the style of those days... the writing of novels... the script and story line... the actors and actresses! Not like these days, where the "art" of award-winning movies are special effects, sex, explosion and foul language!!

Charms

Remember seeing somewhere an elegant simple chain with little charms hanging on it?
Or those little silver charms for handphone strap or key chains?

Well, I am one of those people who fall for that small cutesy stuff.
I will buy a small shoe charm for the handphone chain. (bought one in Korea but it came off… where did I put that charm).
I even bought one cute elephant handphone chain but the charm fall off into the lift shaft. So coincident that it fell in between gap of the lift car and the door!!
I will also buy small cute butterfly dangling earrings.

Not really a weakness or an addiction but if I happen to like it, I’ll just buy it. (take note my mind perceives small = small items and less than RM20)
Snowlights

Therefore, by some coincident, I manage to surf till I found this Snowlights blog. She is a Singaporean who hand makes necklaces, bracelets, key chains and earrings. She twirls the wire to create the framing for the pendant and add a few charms, crystals and beads to spice it up. Lovely creations.

I am in the midst of ordering a few myself especially I want to have the locket which I can put pictures in it. (Like in the movies!) Sigh.. I am, after all, a girl and romantic at heart.
Dainty Dreams

Then, I was browsing my friend's Female magazine for this month. They featured Dainty Dreams as an affordable site to get custom designed charm bracelets in Malaysia. I was not disappointed.
The charm bracelets were exactly what I was looking for. I am currently waiting for the charms I have ordered to arrive. In fact, I found a cute naughty little handcuff bracelet featured there. It was the perfect gift I was looking for as an engagement gift!

I've decided on a hand-cuff charm-bracelet for the gal and a hand-cuff keychain/handphone strap with a little plaque saying "Cuff for life" for the guy. ;) I will upload the pictures of these items once I get them.
In the meantime, I am satisfied to find one of the items in my wishlist! :)

Online Friendships

Talking about net friends, I’m glad to say I have manage to keep in touch with some of them after 13 years! This makes me realise how life passes by quickly.

When I first chatted with some of them, they were still studying in their colleges. Then, off they went to universities overseas and after a few years, they somehow came back home here too. Now, they are married and have kids of their own. Wow…

Obviously, some of them are still the same. Some was working when I first knew them and they still are. (I mean you, Uncle. :P).

I remember those chatting years when sometimes, people organise gatherings for members who chat in their same channel. I never attended those. Don’t like the idea. I prefer to leave it anonymous and in the internet.

Well, somehow in between those years (about a decade later), I finally gave in to meeting up with net friends. Thankfully, we can still be friends and more than that for some. :P

In the meantime, in between my strut around the merry-go-round of my life now, I give them a call and ask, “Married yet? Babies yet?”; just to check with their progress in life. ;)

(I do call and check up on my coursemates too because if I don’t, suddenly I’ll be like “Congrats on your new baby!! But err, when did you get married?” ;)

LOL

I remember when I first encountered this abbreviation "LOL" in Form 3 while chatting in mIRC. I remember chatting with net friends in “channels” and frantically changing “windows” to chats with friends. Sometimes, when I chat with too many people, I accidentally type in the wrong window. Then I have to say “Oops, typo” or “Wrong window”.


Occasionally, some inconsiderate person will come in and “flood” the “channel” with spam and repeated advertising/vulgar messages. The admin of the channel will then kick the person out of the channel or black list him/her. LOL (Laughing out loud).

Then if you encounter lagging through your slow connection, other people would "ping" you to check how long you lag. Those were the days...

That was about 13 years ago. Since, then I’ve followed the transition of the trend. I have changed my chatting from mIRC to ICQ. Remember the green flower? Remember when someone messages you, ICQ will play a sound that goes “Oh oh!” I still keep my account but I don’t use it anymore. My net friends have migrated to the next latest software.

Next off, came Windows Messenger/ MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. You could chat through you microphone and webcam. There were more added features too like Yahoo Launch Cast which could play unlimited music while you chat. Not long after that, other companies follow suite with Skype, G-talk and many more. Skype even allowed you to call to land line for free at the beginning!

I remember testing it out by calling my friends overseas through land line. Now they charge you for a reasonable fee for the same privileges. With time, technology changes in a blink of an eye. We, as the users try to keep up. Or so I thought I did…

After not chatting online for sometime, I realized I’m outdated. I tried this online game recently and the “terms” they used are different! In fact, the smiley face of :) has turn into ^_^.

No one uses the word “newbie” anymore. Everyone refers to the new “guy” as a “noob”. Argghhh The horror!! I am such a dinosaur.

I look back at those days when I first learn words like BTW, FYI and ROTFLOL. I wonder who creates all these terms. Some of them are very descriptive. Have you noticed the different effect of laughing when you type “lol”, “rotflol”, “hehe”, “haha”, “muahaha”, etc? Oh yeah, I found some interesting blogs on LOL too.

I find “lol” more of a polite laugh. Although, I still like the term “ROTFLOL” the best. (Rolling on the floor laughing out loud). I find it best described a person who is very tickled at a joke or comment (very graphic).
In the meantime, I salute and let the new generation continue swimming by with the flow of change in technology and internet. While I slowly trail behind (finally started to blog after years it was out and trying out those online games), I realized I’m ancient in the internet age. Help! :P

Smile

I was feeling a little down today, but I noticed nature has different plans for us.

While I was driving, the sky was painted in different hues of blue. As the sun sets, the clouds turn grayish and the sky has tints of pink and red. This picture does not do justice to the real scenary.
A smile appeared on my face as I appreciate the beauty of it. :)

Sexual offender

What prompts my outrage on sexual offenders in my previous entry? I saw this image in Ms. Gan’s blog. :P (Kidnapped from her multiply page without her permission.. yet.) It shows a hand over a women's breast.

It reminded me of an incident which clearly shows men disrespect for women’s body.

I was in my lower secondary school. I was waiting for my parents to pick me up after Pn. Asiah’s tuition (which was in her house in a housing area). I think most of the other students have left so I lingered around waiting outside her house next to the road.

A young boy came cycling around the area and on pretense asked me for some directions. Naïve me, I looked around to see where he wanted to go when that happened. He molested me like that image and then he cycled of. Sigh.

Looking back, I wondered how I could have prevented that? Should I have stayed inside my tuition house? Should I blame my parents for being late in fetching me? Or was it that everyone went back on time? Whatever it was, it was in the past but serves as a reminder to myself to be careful and more cautious in the future.

I suspect this young boy was being mischievous and daringly tried something when no one was around. Therefore, when you think you are alone, take a good look around your surrounding and listen to your instincts. There could be a crazy inconsiderate person lurking around to cause you harm since “no one is looking”.

I wonder is that the beginning of a sexual offender?

Competitiveness

I mentioned previously in another blog entry, I’m playing an online game called Legend of the Golden Plume(LGP) with my fellow friends in Singapore (AC and CP).

It started out as a bait to lure CP to play it instead of Mousehunt(MH). When he saw me playing and proceeding to higher level than him, he started focusing on this game to catch up with me.

After a week, it worked, AC and I laughed at how we got CP to be hooked to LGP. But he is still playing MH at the same time. See how cute the "monsters" we are supposed to kill look like!
Second week came; I played after work (since it required installation of a programme). Then I knew I was hooked when in the middle of the 3rd week, my internet connection was out. I was frustrated at not being able to go online. I even played the few minutes in between whenever the connection was available. My character died whenever my line got disconnected!

I guess competitiveness does lure the person into doing something.

Now those two guys are laughing at me since they claim they have advanced to level 45-50; leaving me behind at level 38. Arghh.. should I try to catch up or go cold turkey? Stop playing altogether… hmmm….

8 Sept 2008
My friends quit playing LPG. So did I.. I only managed to play for 3 weeks and they got bored. Oh well, now I'm back to RL (real life)... haha

Lost Cash

I believe Earl will say something like, “It’s Karma. It will all come back to you.” (From the series: My Name Is Earl)

My colleague shared a dilemma he was in. He found a wallet with few hundred Ringgit. There were also some name cards, a driving license and ATM receipts. He told me that he was going to use the money to make some purchases like perfume or a new sofa. I was shocked. I told him, “No… return it. If it were your money, you would want someone to return it.”

He asked, “Who on earth would return money they found nowadays? If you lose few hundred Ringgit, do you think you will ever see it again?”

I answered, “Well, why not? You could be the first to do so. Just return it since there is an address and name card with the contact number.”

He said, “But I saw his ATM receipt which states he has a balance of 7000 plus Ringgit.”

I replied “That is not the issue. (I think he assume he has a few thousand; so losing a few hundred does not matter) He might have withdrawn this money to say buy milk for his child or do some payment.”

He answered, “Why you all say the same thing? The other colleague told me if I buy the perfume and use it, my skin will stink.”

I could only chuckled at my other colleague’s tactic quietly.

I ended our conversation with this final words, “Whatever you decide, at least mail back the driving license to the owner. I hope you’ll return the money. Quickly decide. If not, the temptation from the devil is there to use it.”

I silently pray he will return the money to the owner. If not, what more can I do?

Have you ever lose something? Have you ever wish it was return to you? What if the situation is reversed? Would you return the ten dollar bill you found? Would you return the extra change the cashier gave you? Would you worry about it?

I myself have carelessly misplaced stuff which makes me worry. These days, I’m amazed how things turn up when you don’t think too much about it.

My experience

Once, I was the treasurer to keep the money for the students of our batch for that year. It was money for some general purchases or small events we could hold. Somehow, I didn’t want to carry the money along with me, so I left it underneath the seat of my car. Imagine that, I forgot about it totally that day.
Few days later, I happily sent my car to be washed and vacuumed inside. On that particular day, I collected my car and went back. Suddenly I recalled about the money and I frantically ran to my car to check if it was there. Lo and behold, the coin purse with all the cash was still there. It could only mean two things to me. One, my guardian angel is looking out for me or two, the guys who cleaned my car didn’t really clean it properly. ;)

Anyway, I thanked God. (I was worried because it was not entirely my money!!)

p.s. He is returning the money to the owner this Thursday! Praise the Lord! :)

Women Equality.. not!

Despite living in a modern world and women have achieved equality, IMHO I think we are not there yet. The society itself vibrates the energy whereby women are still weaker and an object of their fancy. (When I say the society here, I’m referring to the leaders of the countries with power to do something that majority consists of men) They still do not punish severely the crimes against women.

Multiple Rape
For example, take a look at today’s papers. A man is sentenced a second time for raping for another 12 years and the defense ask for leniency since he is already serving another sentence for another rape.

This is what the defense counsel said, "Furthermore, he has been serving an 11-year jail term since December 2003 for a previous rape conviction in Teluk Intan, so I hope the court will consider giving him a lesser sentence.”

WHATT?? It means if you kill one person and serve time for it, when you kill a second person, you can get a discount for the sentence? Ridiculous!
Just because the overall statistics are slightly lower, the authorities can proudly imply that crime is better since less violent ones. There are still 3117 over young girls’ lives affected by horrible, perverted, sex-crazy men out there! Sad to say, many by their own family members who are suppose to protect you.

Blackmail Rape
If it happened to you or your loved one, would you say that? Take a look at this other case; a young girl befriended a man through SMS. Then he molested her and took nude pictures of her to blackmail her into having sex with him. Now she is pregnant.

First, the society will blame the parents for not keeping an eye on her.

Second, they will blame the girl for being “gatal” or dressing sexily or asking for trouble.

Third, the extremist group will start banning sms or even start imposing women on a strict a curfew or perhaps force women to cover up like a mummy.Hello? Why can’t the system do something severe to punish men themselves? Should it be that extreme till we inject drugs to subdue these men's sexual desires as suggested by a reader in the newspaper? Why must you blame the female or perhaps you really think we are the weaker sex? Why must we the society be so condemning to the victim and not supportive of her?

If the society was more supportive to victims, we could have stopped that incident at the nude pictures. After all, the victim will only feel embarrass over a few nude pictures and who knows, she might get famous with that just like what happened to many other “famous artist”. Now it’s even worse, she got rape and an unwanted pregnancy. What kind of a future will she get? What about that poor life in her womb despite his/her monstrous “father”?

David and Bathsheba
History shows the weakness of men from the early ages. Even King David himself was succumbed by his own desires when he saw Bathsheba bathing. When he saw that, he started plotting a way to get her even though she was married. He plotted to get her husband killed. The eye is the root of evil for men. The painting below is called "David and Bathsheba" painted by Lucas Cranach in the year 1526.Pornography
That is why, young children, parents don’t allow you to watch pornography. It really is for your own good and the people around you. You’ll start fantasizing and getting ideas about girls, women and men! One day, when you can’t control yourself, you’ll act out your fantasies.

Robbery and Rape
In fact, our society is getting creepier by the minute. I have heard of many robberies being done in daylight near the shops around my office area. Even though there are CCTVs, they boldly walk in to rob your shop with all your workers around.
They are so desperate that they do go for men to rape them since no “weaker sex” is around. Just because statistics doesn’t show it is reported, it does not mean there is no such case. Men normally don’t report such cases.

My friend told me her guy friend got robbed in his shop and then raped by men who did awful things to him which she didn’t want to mention to me. She only said they bit him…. Let your own imagination do the talking.

What rights do we have as women when the men of this world condone such indecent behaviours with reasonable punishment and cover-up? We are still not an equal. Women still walk in fear by themselves in daylight or even the basement carpark. (Remember the Canny Ong's case?)

Final note
Since our society loves statistics and big numbers, we only come together as one to collect funds for disaster like tsunami or earthquakes, etc. What about the other statistics which are not compiled together through daily deaths from starvation, murder, rape, torture and so forth? These lives (and not numbers) are being ignored daily. The world is being attack by such evil crimes every second. Not just a sudden major natural disaster.

With my one voice, I plead one person at a time. Every life counts, women or men, child or unwanted child. Our body is just a physical vessel. Do not succumb to the devil temptations to satisfy your bodily desires. It’s just temporal and makes you want more. It does not truly satisfy your true needs. Attempts to enlighten the society are being done by ERA Consumer Malaysia through a book entitled ‘Rapist & Rape – Who & Why’,

Indeed, you will ruin the lives of many other people here on earth and on judgment day, I pray God will have mercy on you when you finally face the wrath of God.

Below is the painting "Last Judgement" by Michelangelo.

Doubtful

I was driving home from work today when I noticed two dark-skinned men fumbling with some electrical cabling of the lamp post by the road side. I wouldn't have noticed if it there was no traffic jam. Therefore, I just observe and wonder. ..

First, I noticed a man at the first lamp post. I thought it could be an electrician worker but he was wearing a collared-t-shirt which didn't seem like a uniform. Then I noticed a second man at the next lamp post, who wore a green collared-t-shirt which was different than the first guy. That definitely rules out workers from Tenaga National Berhad (TNB) since they weren't in their typical gray-coloured shirt and dark blue pants.

Second, as it was rush hour at about 7pm, who would still be working at such an hour?

Third, I managed to snap two pictures of their handiwork when the traffic jam slowed to a halt. I couldn't take a picture of the men in action because I was driving as the traffic was still moving slowly.
Take a look at the opened chamber with the wires sticking out. I didn't manage to take the lamp post with the cover thrown messily on the ground. No time to zoom and adjust! Does this look like qualified workers? Or as my hunches tell me, looks more like people stealing electrical wiring?

No one would have bothered about them as everyone was rushing home and getting frustrated at being caught in the daily traffic jam.

I have to check if the lights are on at night to confirm my suspicion.

Anyway, with the increase of living cost, petrol and everything, the desperate are resorting to find additional cash from stealing manhole covers to electrical wiring. While the bold and "ugly" decided to be robbers of shops, banks, jewellery shops and homeowners!Be careful when you walk on a pedestrian walkway, you might drop and hurt yourself in the exposed manhole!!

Update on 14/8/2008.
Guess what? When I drove by these few lamp posts, I noticed the covers were put back into their original place and most of the lights are working. And something else! They put two strips of metal bar to keep the cover at place. As if, that will deter thieves! I will take a picture of it tomorrow and post it here.