New Moon

After finishing the 1st book in 3 days, I carry on with the second book, "New Moon".When you finished the 1st book and you read that Bella and Edward are together, you'll be thinking what more can I get from the second book? They already have a happy ending, what else is waiting for them?

Well do continue if you want some spoilers. So from where we left off, it was prom, so the book started on a new school year, they don't exactly mention much on dates, so you'll have to estimate it. It's time to celebrate Bella's birthday although she wasn't keen on it. Something happened at her celebration and this is where the story took a big turn. Edward and family have left and disappeared, it cause Bella tons of devastation and 4 months passed.

Then a new friendship begins, Jacob Black and Bella Swan. From Book 1, we know that Jacob adores Bella, most guys do and get rejected by her. So Bella and Jake hang out and became good friends, but Jake wanted more than that, but Bella only loves Edward. So the climax, a vampire from book 1 came back to hunt Bella, that's when a pack of wolves showed up. I won't say who they are but you can have a good guess. Bella figured it out, and she hung out with them while getting protection from the wolves. Vampire vs wolves, it has always been like that.

So what had happened to the Cullens? Just as I was thinking that the story is coming to a bore just on Bella and Jacob, someone came to visit. It was Alice, I won't say why. Alice and Bella rushes somewhere after Alice having a vision and so it goes on. A lot of excitement there, new characters entering the story. The Volturi enters and we get to read a bit on them.

If I were to compare this book with the first, I prefer the first book. But the climax for second book is much more exciting and unexpected compared to the first. Introducing more characters to the story definitely gave it more hype. Other than that, more mysteries are revealed, relationship developed. Stephenie Meyer did a great job with the second book, the excitement I get from reading reminds me when I was reading Harry Potter, the same feeling, wanting to know more and more, keep on reading.

Twilight

When I first saw this book in the stores I was curious because it had an interesting cover, just a pair of hands holding an apple and also an intriguing title, Twilight. So I bought it, wrapped it up nicely and left it at my bookshelf. For months it sat there, probably 3-4 months, in the mean time I was reading "Heroes: Saving Charlie". When the movie was out, only did I realise it was made into a major motion picture, but I didn't get the chance to watch it, will wait for the DVD though. There fore I decided to pick up the book and read it before watching. I like to see how well the book was implemented in the movie. I was really disappointed at Harry Potter movies, there were many parts that are worth being shown but not found in there.

Stephenie Meyer did a good job describing the characters, therefore I have a good image of how they look like. I already know that this book is about a vampire love saga because of the summary. It's almost similar to the tv series Angel, vampire who is good and kills other demons and vampires. But of course our heroine is not like Buffy, she is just an ordinary girl who fell in love with a vampire. Vampires in this book is different, they are not the typical turn to dust under the sun vampires. Nor are they the type that is afraid of garlic and crosses.

You see they go to school, that how Bella met Edward. Not because he was looking for a prey and he fell in love with her. Nope, they are classmates in a biology class. Now Edward ignores her acts weird with her, that triggered her to find out what's wrong with him. The interesting parts thus begins with her curiosity. I would say that the book is partly predictable, as you can tell what's coming for the starting of the story and somewhat into the middle.

Well the climax is what's got me reading on and on, many of the mysteries and questions in your head are likely to be revealed. It's definitely unexpected and fresh, compared to other books from this genre (fantasy and love). It circles around family, friends and love. There isn't action such as fighting, because a typical fantasy book will have it. I put it in the fantasy side because it involves monsters that are not real. In the end, you'll figure how the title ties to the book.The good thing of this book is the writer builds the characters really well, a bit of mystery and some clues to get you guessing. I would definitely recommend this book for reading before watching the movie, because the movie might give a bad impression to discourage people to read.

Looking back and Looking Ahead

Well, it's been long since I've blogged. I wanted to at new year's eve or new year's day itself, but I got lazy :p. Anyway at the last day of 2008, I got to do a lot of thinking, looking back at all the 365 days not counting the eve. As I try to recall the memories, there were many that I've forgotten.

Things were tough before and during chinese new year, my grandfather was hospitalised and luckily got to go home to celebrate CNY but still he was having difficulties walking. My aunts from Paris and Belgium came back to visit my grandfather and we got to spend CNY in Malaysia for the first time after many years (probably I wasn't born yet). My dad's cousin brother from England also came back to celebrate, we got to play mahjong , it was quite fun but sadly my family didn't get to go back to Johore. I definitely missed spending CNY there.

After CNY is when I started my first full time job at Accenture Technology Solutions, my first project is in Shell Cyberjaya. It lasted till the end of the year. I had a lot of fun with my team members of the project. Performed in BUM, participated in DOTA competition, went cycling with the guys at BUM. The team also went to Malacca for two days. We ate and ate and ate so many food. I will put in some pictures from the trip. It was a lot of fun. I think we had 6-8 types of food eaten in one day.

I almost forgot my convocation was in august, it was okay but not worth the money paid for. I get to meet up my college mates that I haven't seen since a long time. Took a lot of pictures here and there but I don't it was with everyone though.

Well, now my project in Shell has ended and I'm back in KLCC office. Now it's just online trainings and reading on programming. I have to wait for myself to be scheduled into a new project. I hope the coming project will continue to make use for .NET cause I'm starting to like it a lot :P. 3 weeks more then it's chinese new year, time really flashes by. Hopefully this new year will bring new beginnings and better opportunities for me. I definitely don't have any resolutions because I'm afraid I might not succeed but I definitely have plans for this year and it all depends on timing.

Lastly, Happy New Year!! I hope to blog more, kinda lost the inspiration to but I will keep trying.

Just Stand Up

Beyonce: The heart is stronger than you think
It’s like it can go through anything
And even when you think it can’t it finds a way to still push on, though

Carrie: Sometimes you want to run away
Ain’t got the patience for the pain
And if you don’t believe it look into
your heart the beat goes on

Rihanna: I’m tellin’ you that
Things get better
Through whatever
If you fall, dust it off, don’t let up

Sheryl: Don’t you know you can go be your own miracle

Beyonce: You need to know

CHORUS
Sheryl: If the mind keeps thinking you’ve had enough
But the heart keeps telling you don’t give up

Sheryl/Beyonce: Who are we to be
questioning, wondering what is what
Don’t give up
THROUGH IT ALL, JUST STAND UP!

Fergie: It’s like we all have better days
Problems getting all up in your face

Leona: Just because you go through it

Fergie: Don’t mean it got to take control, no

Leona: You ain’t gotta find no hiding place

Keyshia: Because the heart can beat the hate

Leona: Don’t wanna let your mind keep playin’ you

Keyshia: And sayin’ you can’t go on

Rihanna: I’m tellin’ you that

Miley: Things get better
Through whatever

Rihanna: If you fall

Miley: Dust if off, don’t let up

LeAnn: Don’t you know you

Natasha: Can go

LeAnn: Be your own

Natasha: Miracle

Carrie: You need to know

Ensemble: CHORUS

Mary: You don’t gotta be a prisoner in your mind

Ciara: If you fall, dust it off

Mary: You can live your life

Rihanna/Carrie: Yeah

Mary: Let your heart be your guide

Rihanna/Carrie: Yeah yeah yeah

Mariah: And you will know that you’re good if you trust in the good

Ashanti: Everything will be alright, yeah
Light up the dark, if you follow your heart

Mary: And it will get better

Mariah: Through whatever

CHORUS

Fergie: You got it in you, find it within
You got in now, find it within now
You got in you, find it within
You got in now, find it within now
You got in you, find it within
Find it within you, find it within
Everyone: THROUGH IT ALL, JUST STAND UP!

This is truly an inspiring song. It's sung for stand up to cancer and I think it doesn't apply on only that, there are many people who suffer in different ways and often want to give up. This song gives me strength and reminds me that I can stand up. The lyrics is for the recorded version:

The live version is sung on stage but with a slight difference in people where we have Nicole Scherzinger

Privileged

Two rich girls, having big rooms, drivers, parties to go to. Shopping at any time they like and having no limit to their credit card. They think they own the world, they see themselves higher in society. Ditching school whenever you like, I wish I could be them too. Sadly, they have no one to supervise them as their grandmother is busy, and their parents died in an accident. The sisters have always stick together and do practically everything together. In comes tutor, hired by their grandmother to help their grades improve. Their grandmother wants them to enter a prestigious college, The Duke.

Based on the book "How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls" by Zoey Dean, it has been made into a series called Privileged by CWTV. Set in the beautiful beaches of Florida, with all those big mansions, our main character Megan Smith starts a new life, a path to help her pursue her dreams (to be a writer). Of course, that's just part of the story, her main job is to tutor two rich brats.

Throughout the series, sister relationships are highlighted, we see the relationship of Megan and her sister Lily and the rich brats, Sage and Rose Baker. It shows how strong sisters can be and how they could also drag you down someway. Other than that, Megan also have a fear in dating, she is afraid that whoever she dates will cheat on her, a phobia brought on by her sister who dated her 1st boyfriend. Not so nice a scene if you ask me, not easy to deal with either.

So far into three episodes we see three handsome guys appearing, we have Charlie (her best friend), Will (her neighbour, more like the Baker's neighbour) and Jacob (the headmaster of the school Rose and Sage goes to). The are quite good looking, different types of men in terms of looks and personality. I'm definitely rooting for Charlie because you can see this best friend of hers has always been there for her, don't know what he's waiting for anyway.

I love that this show that talks about pursuing your dream, which is quite like mine (to be a writer). It reminds me of not being too side tracked. A reminder to me that pursuing my dream is not easy but you shouldn't be afraid to chase after it. Often people who are afraid of failing avoid the things they like. In order to not be disappointed, we avoid, we run away from it. We should at least try before being afraid of the outcome. You'll never know, we have to let loose and try our best. Life has up and downs, we all know it, we can't always have ups only. It's the downs that makes you a stronger person as you rise up from the fall.

Laurel and Megan

Charlie

Rose and Sage

Will

Jacob

Watch it!! I give it a 4/5 with great music, actors, fashion and also storyline.

Fall is here!!

Finally fall/autumn is here, actually it's already mid-autumn. Anyway what's so exciting? The new seasons of tv series are back again, not to forget the japanese animation will soon start their new titles for the season too.

On the 1st of September, some series have already started, Gossip Girl Season 2, One Tree Hill Season 6, 90210 the new one, Privileged which started last week. I like GG, One Tree Hill alot. These are still very good series to watch, Privileged is something new which I enjoyed too. 90210 on the other hand is kinda boring already at the start. Don't think I'll continue on with the series.

One thing that I truly can't wait is Heroes season 3. There will be a three hours preview on 22nd September, really can't wait. Everyone is wondering what more can this series bring to us. Next week itself we have many series back on air, Desperate Housewives (5 years later thingy), Ugly Betty (what's her decision), Survivor new seaon. These series always kept me busy in this season of the year. For me, summer is always filled with movies, fall with tv series. Yeah, I know I'm hooked up to all these tv shows and movies. It's really addictive for me.

Anyway, I've added a small thing on my blog, Quote of the week. I find that quotes gives me alot of inspiration and makes me think alot. It's able to at least help me point myself at the right direction. Hopefully I won't be lazy and will update the quote every week. Back to life and reality time :P

BUM 2008

It was a very fun trip that I've gone to in a long time. The meeting time was 6:45am at A&W at PJ, buses left around 7:50am. It was a long ride to the hotel, reached there at pass 1pm. After registering, I went to my room and put down my stuff, changed into shorts and headed for lunch. After lunch was the opening ceremony, it was good, didn't take any pictures cause I was busy watching :P. The next thing was meetings according to break up of industries of the company, I didn't attend because I had to practise with my performance team on stage. After practise, I got to rest a bit and then went to register for the DOTA championship that I'm taking part with my project team members at 10pm. Then rush to get ready for performance, we had to put on body paint on our faces, my group performance is on Greek fashion show, it was one of a kind where we have 3 Gods, Apollo, Poseidon and Aphrodite. The "gods" performer has to have body paint on the whole face and hands, where else the "workers" halfed face. I'm the so called workers so I have half of my face painted in silver colour.

It was a great performance. After that, I ate and went to wash my face for the DOTA championship. It was a tiring game, three rounds to determine the finalist, and my team (The Illuminati) entered the finals. For the preliminary, we won 2 games and lost 1 to KNN, they were very good. 2 more games in the finals, and we won 1 and lost 1, took second place. BTW, there was only two girls playing, myself and another girl, both of us used Lina Inverse (Slayer). I had great team mates, they are the good players and I'm still noob, but I still did not too bad, didn't die too much, had a few kills, manage to solo one on one too and killed ppl. They come backstab me and I manage to kill them back. I definitely improved my game :P.

Well the second day was good, I've always loved buffet breakfast :P. After breakfast it was time for games, lots of it too. Everyone was broken down into teams of 10-15 I guess, but my team only had like 10 of us. It was really tiring, we had math games, torch relay, throwing/hitting all kinds of balls (tennis, football, golf,...) into hoops to score points, creating protections for eggs and tossing them, synchronised swmming. It was all in the morning till lunch time. After lunch, I went cycling with my project team members, just me and some of the guys, the others went to rest. It was really tiring cause I havent been cycling for a long time. The view and the breeze was definitely good but cycling back was killing me >.<. Night time was dinner time, it was okay, then there was dancing, and people were tossed into the sea. There was also lucky draw and prize giving. It was the last night and I was really tired, went to sleep at 2am. The next day came and it was time to leave. Overall it was a wonderful weekend and good to meet new people. Okay here are the pictures below:

You can view the pictures in full screen.

Updates!!

There's quite a few of events that happenned since the last blog, didn't really keep track of time. Just gonna post a few pictures on it. 25th July my colleagues organized a Luau Party, hawaiin theme. So less story, more pictures, cause a picture is worth a thousand words.

So the next thing would be BUM, a company trip, there's gonna be like 300-400 people, I will be performing cause I'm a new joiner of the company. Will be leaving for Lumut this friday for the trip, 08.08.08, and yes it's on the 1st day of the olympics, won't be watching it on tv :(. Will update on BUM then.