"And goD saw the blog, that it was good: and goD divided the blog from the forums, discussion lists, mailing list, instant messaging etc."

Blogging is good, it unleashes wit, sacarsm, humor and emotional chaos remembered in a state of restlessness.
 
This post "isn't about writing book reviews" (phrase hijacked from Raw Notes). Just a few titles from my fragments of what I can remember or care to remember:
 
The year preceding the title, indicates the year I started reading the book..
 
1992- Final Exit (known to be banned) (read from cover to cover and was smug that I could get hold of a copy)
 
1996 - How we die  (clinical and physician's perspective, wont help you much if you think you are suicidal and looking for a quickie way)
 
2000 - Learning Legal Rules (Someone, pl kick me, I was actually enjoying this one!)
 
1998-2001 Red Herring, MIT Technology Review (staple diet)
 
2001 - Wrong Rooms (out of print, read the chinese translation)
 
2001 - From Alchemy to IPO: The Business of Biotechnology (it was so "IN" to read abt bio-whatever)
 
2001-2003: From Third World to First, The Singapore Story (..and many many other books about my hero. I won 2 bucks writing about him "The person I admire most". I submitted the 50 word article to "Student World" 1970 issue. I spent the entire $2 on a Wall's ice cream from Yaohan)
 
1993 - How not to get pregnant (Men: be surprised but dont be surprised!)
 
2003 - God's debris (an old man in a rockin chair sending a postal man into life's journey - by engaging him in a mind boggling discourse)
 
1995- Idoru - Parallet stories of Chia and Colin - trailing Rez star of a Lo/Rez pop band - Rez is marrying an Idoru, the cyber woman named Rei. I like the character - Colin - he is a cyber data miner, epitomising "there is elegence in chaos" - colin has uncanny skills on mining from disparate nodes of data
 
1996- Neuromancer - Gibson's first cyberishdegook novel. Got me hooked on his other works.
 
2002 - Mere Christianity - magnum opus by my all time favorite C.S Lewis. Read all his classic apologetics one christmas - while house and cat sitting. Great defense and logic. Wit from the engimatic man from Cambridge. Regularly meeting JRR Tolkein, his fellow "inkling" from the Inklings Club (Lewis's room in the college). Both Lewis and Tolkein bonded by their common interests in myth and legends.
 
2002- Screwtape Letters - Ingenious - another by Lewis! Letters from the well honed and senior demon "Uncle Screwtape"' to novice junior demon Woodworm. Uncle advises nephew on how to corrupt a converted christian.  Diabolical and refreshing.
 
2002-The problem of pain - Another Lewis classic. Better to read this before "A grief observed" to catch the paradox.
 
2002-A Grief Observed- Lewis wrote about his wife's death
 
2002-The Narnia Chronicles - something fairy taley fantansy after heavy doses of the apologetics.
 
1992- The picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde. "the love that dares not speak its name".
 
1998 -If Animals Could Talk - Funny book. First person (i mean first animal) narrative of the mysterious designs of life in the animal kingdom. Picked this up for 3 bucks, from a MTR busker in Hannover.
 
1994- Moonshadow (series, # 1- #12) - see "review" on Raw Notes
 
1989- The Prophet -  A Gilbran classic
 
1990- Either-Or: A Fragment of Life. Philo stuff. Kierkegaard. Dead. Great conversational piece if you ever want to intrique strange danish men in Copenhagen pubs.
 
1993 - The Zen and the Art of the Internet. See my post "Ten Years Ago"

1985 - The Man on the flying trapeze. James Thurber. Chockful of wit and great drawings. Borrowed from Queenstown Branch Lib?.
 
1989 - The Book of The Law, The Golden Dawn - Alister Crowley.  

Chinese books  (akan datang. I need time to post my "review" in chinese, my pinyin is pathetic)

1988 -男人的一半是女人
2003- 蓝宇
2004- 孽子
1985- 边城
 
[post 21/1997]
 
 
 
 

Dear Long John

Dear Long John *
 
You wrote "Actually even for me, I still don't have a mental picture of what you are really like now.  Either time or HK* has tamed you.
 
And frankly speaking, I enjoy what you were at that time.  Ha :-)
 
John *"  
 
Yup, i was like a wild child. My motto was "do one thing daily that scares me".
 
I am still pretty much the same, less reckless but gutsy when least expected (and when expected of cos). But I have mellowed over the years and 4 years at K* has transformed me a great deal too, especially on dealing with seniority, superiors and the eccentrics (they are not mutually exclusive).
 
Someone * once said to me "To manage, first you must learn to be managed" - that advice  was a retort when he saw the slogan on my tee shirt "I am unmanageable". Next advice, from same person "Respond, not react".  The inalienable truth is, I am still pretty much unchanged "Carpe Diem" - except that my pleasures are less dangerous over the years.  
  
And I'll still do the funky chicken when I am 85 - hopefully not in funny farm.
 
Yours as always, Dancer On Your Grave 

 
* Any resemblance to reputable companies. world class organisations, famous people dead or half dead is strictly intentional.
 
[post 20/1997]

Disco Lab

I am not blogging about more discotheques. "Discolab" is the name of a network centric computing laboratory. A stab in the dark guess why it is named Discolab : Dis (distributed systems) Co (computing, convergence). Innit cool?  
 
[post 19/1997]

我爱 （邓）小平

A tasteless bad pun on Deng's name "Xiao Ping". Each time I tell my friends I am going to Deng XIaoping, they know what I am referring to - shopping (siow pin, get it?).
 
Ivan has a blog on the books he has read or reading. I find it a great way to keep a "I read therefore I am" log. That gave me an idea - how to create the scariest blog on this planet - a shopping blog.    Dated entries on
 
1. who we shop with
2. where we shop
3. the modus operandi
4. what we bought
5. what we bought and regret later
6. what we almost bought and 
7. what we almost bought  but left in a huff (and regretted like hell later) - just becos our non-metrosexual, insenstive boyfriend or husband muttered with the interest of a fly: "buy lor.... quick lah, if like, buy lah!".
etc etc
 
My blog can be titled "The more you buy the more you save" or "Sunzi and the art of shopping".
 
To many women (including myself and the shop‘ping 精＇ｓ in my family), shopping is not merely walk around and hope to buy. Shopping is COMBAT man! We devise strategies, requiring actions on both our physical and psychological levels.
 
 
1. Basic Equipement Considerations
Plan carefully as not to overload. You can consider the following optional equipment. Measuring tapes* (you cannot trust the size labels on factory outlet items. A bottle of mineral water (you may get thirty from price negotiation). Wet tissues (cleaning your hands from the dust and dirt while ravaging through cartons of sales items). Plasters/Bandaids for corns and blisters.
 
2. Rookie training
If you shop with a group of rookies, they need training. Take them into the heat of a summer sales.
 
3. Take a mixed set of "weapons"
Cash, Octopus cards, Credit cards, Vouchers, VIP cards,
 
4. Load craft.
Another friend with larger range of weapons. Sizeable friends to block off other attackers on the same item you have set your eyes on.
 
5. Spread out and cover each other
Call each other on cell phone or walkie talkie to compare prices.
 
etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc
 
 
Shopping is also a sacred act. You can be ordanined as a shoppinguru bodhishoptra once you can tell the novice shopper friends -  what brand, how to pronounce it, which shop, how to get there by land, sea, air, best time to be there, and which floor, which rack, how often they have sales and even the opening hours, and the locations of the nearest ATMs and toilets.
 
Malls and factory outlets are our niravana-land. Men do not and probably never will understand the karma of shopping.
 
[post 20/1997]

Insomniacs in a Discotheken

Insomnia, an aptly named opened for 22-hours dance club. Open 8 AM - 6 AM, meaning you need to go find somewhere else to hang out from 6 AM - 8 AM. 
 
I arrived at the club at Lan Kwai Fong just slightly before midnite - a Philippino gig. Saving grace was that the DJ spinned great 70s, 80s, 90s dance tracks. I left the club at 6 AM. A line of cabs were in waiting.
 
The only time I could better my record of clubbing marathorn was a Summer of decadence in Gronigen. If my memory hasnt failed me - 10 PM to 7 AM in a discotheque named after Andy Warhol and somehow I managed to stay sober and touristy enough to buy a Andy Warhol designer tee from the club merchandising counter. 
  
 
just blabbing. I am suffering from Insomnia after Insomnia. At 8 AM I was still lying on my bed - eyes wide open and swearing that I would cross my heart and hope to die if I ever ever indulge in any forms of night life again... in the next 5 years.
 

[post 18/1997]