New Year wish

I know its not new year yet but bleh...

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Perspective

I went through my yahoogroup looking for this message posted by Socrates. It's so sarcastic, it's funny.

How do you explain the fact that 87% of the students passed the
examinations of the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM)
recently? When during your grandfather's time only 10% would have passed?

Are students getting smarter? Or are STPM questions getting easier?

Let me put things in their proper perspective.

During your grandfather's time, they would ask exam questions like:

In what year did Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka?

The correct answer was "1402", and they found that only 10% of the
students managed to answer the question correctly. This didn't go down
too well with the authorities, because the objective of the exams was
to pass people.

I mean, what's the point of having exams if people fail?

So later, they found another way to ask the same question:

Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year:
(a) 2001
(b) 2004
(c) 1986
(d) 1975
(e) 1402
Tick the correct answer.

The results were better in that 20% of the students passed. But it was
still not good enough, so the authorities tried a different tact a few
years later.

'Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year1402. True or
false?'

Well, half of the students guessed "True" and the other half guessed
"False". Fully 50% passed. The results were getting pretty acceptable
by now.

Most other countries would be satisfied with a 50% passing rate, but
not us. We are a better country, because we are a boleh country.The
authorities then cracked their heads and then came out with this one:

Read the following sentence carefully.
"Parameswara, the cousin of Proton-Iswara, founded the kingdom of
Melaka in the year 1402."
Underline the name of the person who founded Melaka.

60% underlined "Parameswara", 30% underlined "Proton-Iswara" and 10%
underlined "1402". Hooiyoh......60% managed to pass! So krever!

But for some reason, the authorities were still not contented.
So last year, they came out with this gem:

One day in the year 1402, Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka.
Then he went home to have dinner. What did he eat?

13% handed in blank answers, 57% wrote "Maggi Mee", and 10% wrote
"Kentucky Fried Chicken", and 20% wrote "Tree bark". The official
answer was "Food" of course! After the marking was over, it was found
that 87% of the students had passed. 87%............now that's pretty
impressive!

So it's true. The students are indeed getting smarter.

Me and No One (I mean, no one) but Me

I'm addicted to sushi and there's no one to blame but me, me and me.
Hahaha...
I dont remember how this has came to be but I am now.

Yesterday, I went to Jusco and bought some sushis and while I was shopping, I neatly ate the sushis one by one.

Although I didnt look fishy, I smelt fishy.

Hahaha....like really. I did.

So uncool. Meh.

Like I care. (Though maybe I should care cause sushi is not exactly cheap)

Words can be Beautiful Too

John Mayer - War of My Life

Come out Angels
Come out Ghosts
Come out Darkness
Bring everyone you know

I'm not running
I'm not scared
I am waiting and well prepared

I'm in the war of my life
At the door of my life
Out of Time and there's no where to run away

I've got a hammer
And a heart of glass
I got to know right now
Which walls to smash

I got a pocket
Got no pill
If fear hasn't killed me yet
Than nothing will

All the suffering
And all the pain
Never liked to label

I'm in the war of my life
At the door of my life
Out of time and there's nowhere to run

I'm in the war of my life
At the core of my life
I've got no choice but to fight 'til it's done

No more suffering
No more pain
Never again

I'm in the war of my life
At the door of my life
Out of time and there's no where to run

I'm in the war of my life
I'm at the core of my life
Got no choice but to fight til it's done
So Fight on, fight on everyone, so fight on
Got no choice but to fight til it's done

I'm in the war of my life
I'm at the core of my life
I've got no choice but to fight til it's done

Dreams

I dream a happy dream today.

This is weird because I'd never dream about something happy. This dream was so happy, I think I chuckled in my sleep. What's more weird is, the dream was not about me. Nothing to do with me. I was just an observer. The dream was almost like I was watching a movie or reading a book.

The plot was nice and I had a mind to put it into writing only that, after an hour, I have forgotten all about the dream. The only thing that I remember is that it was a happy one and it left me contented.

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game

I think I wanna do some review on books that I've read. This is one of them.
Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Sci-Fi

Ender's Game is book one from the Ender's Saga series.

I don't know how I stumbled upon this book because if I have to be frank, I don't like Sci-Fi. And I'll be honest and confess, I dont think I'd ever read a Sci-Fi book to the end before. So why this book?

Okay, actually I was sifting through the GoodRead.com lists and I found this "Books that you'll never forget" list. The title intrigued me so I clicked it and wallaa....lots of interesting books.

You must think this book is the first on the list. Alas, no. I think this book comes twelve or something. In fact, the first on the list is The Hunter's Game (which I'm yet to read).

Anyway, I decided to read it (the reason is too boring to tell).

This book blew me away. Wow is an understatement. I mean, I've never read a book that makes my heart beats faster the whole time I was reading it.

Reading this book feels like playing a great game. Everytime I turned a page it was like I advanced a game level. I wanted to keep reading to see what was beyond the game and what reward I could get by advancing.

And it never disappointed me. Really it never did. It was like every words are important and if you skip any of it, you'll miss something out.

To be truth, psychological-point-of-view of Enders was what drew me in actually. The way it was told enabled me to be in his shoes and subsequently let me experienced the world created in Ender's Game.
It was detail, it was intricate, it was sharp, thus it was beautiful to me.

Contrary to popular belief, I cant seem to hate Ender. Throughout my reading, I just want to hug and cuddle him. He was so miserable and smart and strong and sad that he was cute.

The author brilliantly control the universe he created such that he didnt give me a chance to find loopholes. I just kept reading until I reached the last page. Meaning, I didnt notice I've reached the end until I couldnt turn a page anymore. (And that was a tragedy, I tell you). And that was a very good thing to me because I'm always bothered by loopholes. This is the first book that managed to fool me that it doesnt have loopholes.

I'm going to read the second book. Hope it will be better than this or as good as.
Can't wait.

On reading

The first time I saw The Ad at the underground tube--I was on my way to Dilla's in Surrey or was it during my visit to El's?-- I instantly wanted to read it. The title and the illustration was calling to me so strong that I wasted no time searching about it on the net. Yet, till now, i haven't had the courage to read it because Les Miserables is a big book.

Like Mick Foley said, "A big book is like a serious relationship; it requires a commitment. Not only that, but there's no guarantee that you will enjoy it, or that it will have a happy ending."
And I always want my happy ending.

This proves to be a problem because as far as I know, majority of big books is tragedy.

*sigh*

I hope someday I will....hmm... I don't know...is it worth it? Like really, is it worth it? I just know that if I finish reading it I'll be miserable afterward (apt title, eh?). Do I want to be miserable? Hell, no. Thankyouverymuch.

Maybe I'll pick it up when I go on a journey somewhere because books always feel better during traveling.

Favourite list

I wonder what people have in their favourite list.
Mine is quite plain. Most of it is recipes. Others are for my books, you know, like goodread.com and stuff.
Then, some links to dl drama and anime. But those are long forgotten. I dont even know whether those are still working or not.

Sure, I have the usual links: Facebook, youtube, banks, dictionary. But then again, who doesnt, right?