Hooked On Bookz

A good friend of mine asked me to blog about this. And I'd like to thank him for sending me this great reminder. It is a great video, with a very important message. This song made me realise a few things: 1) I'm very very fortunate to have all my basic needs fulfilled 2) I must learn to appreciate what I have On the other hand, it also made me think how it would feel like to be in their shoes; stranded in the streets, ignored, forgotten and unwanted, and how I'd wish that someone would hear my cry for help. Instead, I see signboards like "Please Don't Give to Beggars. They cause traffic." How thoughtful is that? We get so involved in this rat race that we begin to want more of everything; more money, more cars, more houses, more riches, more fame, that we care only for ourselves. Our greed and selfishness have led to consequences that are affecting everything around us - the earth, the economy, the level of poverty and sickness, the people, the earth and natur...

My dear friends...who always say "Wah you must be damn free now..." or "So free now, come out yum cha lah" (Come out for drinks). Please do not misunderstand this term "Freelancer".... It doesn't mean FREE as in goyang kaki, doing nothing at home...Don't get me wrong....Not that I don't wanna come out and yum cha...I reaaaally want to,trust me, but really, I mean it when I say 'busy'. Freelancers WORK, and we WORK HARD :P We are the writer, the sales person, the telephone operator, the traffic controller, the accountant and the HR executive. With all these roles in hand, HOW TO HAVE FREE TIME???? :P In fact, this job requires alot of discipline and dedication. That's why you gotta love what you do. If not, you'd be burnt out in no time! But you know, I really wish that one day I could answer, "Yes, I'm free!" HAHA But I can't...coz I'm NOT! At least not yet la :P Who knows, maybe one day, I strike lottery!...

Came across this while surfing. Kavita, if you're reading this, some inspiration from here maybe? hehehehehe Weirdest Celebrity Baby Name s Here are the nominees: 1)Sunday Rose Urban (Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban's daughter) 2)Bronx Mowgli Wentz (Ashlee Simpson's son) 3)Zuma Nesta Rock Rosdale (Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rosdale's daughter) 4)Knox Leon & Vivienne Marcheline Jolin-Pitt 5)Nakoa Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa (Denise from the Cosby Show) 6)Atlas Heche Tupper (Anne Heche's son) 7)Mars Merkaba (Erykah Badu & Bf's daughter) Guess which one won the title? haha No. 2 I would have voted for No. 5 maaan....What was Denise thinking?! Source: http://celebrities.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=365088&showcomments=true

My hubby shared this with me today (twas also in The Star), and I totally agree with the writer. In fact I shared the same sentiment with my hubby just yesterday haha TheStar - Wednesday March 25, 2009 Earth Hour is a mere publicity stunt I READ with amazement and irony the efforts of WWF Malaysia to latch on to the Earth Hour event and all the celebrities, media and corporations that have come up in support. It is amazing that people are so easily taken in by a mere publicity stunt that fails at the very essence. Turning off our lights for one hour on one designated day of the year to save our planet surely is a PR event at best. It shames the thousands of devoted people, government bodies, scientists and environmentalists that have for years been working on finding real solutions to address this global concern. Malaysians should see past this gimmick by international NGOs and start changing their lifestyles. Surely we can be more proactive and not be fed by an agenda of internationa...

I recently picked up Her World for an assignment I was working on, and I was drawn to one particular article titled 'From the Heart'. This story is about Elizabeth Tan, 52, who was a regular homemaker until year 2000 when she was hospitalised. After a successful operation, she was determined to pursue a more meaningful life. So she prayed for guidance, and this led her to joining the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). And in less than a year later, she decided to help out at Rumah Perlindungan Social, a shelter for girls and women. Now she dedicates most of her time to running the home and remains on call 24/7. Btw, she has a full-time job to juggle with as well. Her story really inspired me. So I called her and asked her if there's anything I could do to help. W e spoke for awhile, and guess what? I'll be paying the shelter a visit this weekend! Not sure what I can do yet, but I hope I can be useful! :) To know how you can help too, click on this image!

To my dear friend, Thank you so much for meeting me and my husband today. I'm glad we get to catch up! :) Talking to you has always been fun, and now, we have Phil to talk crap with too! haha Ben and I really enjoyed our evening. I'm sure we'd get to meet again. But this time, it shall be in Melbourne. What say you? ;) Also, I'd like to thank you for sharing with me The Secret. Honestly, I didn't quite like the book. After flipping a few pages, I just put it aside and thought that it was a whole lotta bull HAHA But....when I watched the DVD, the experience was amazing...And I realised too, in some ways, it's true. We attract what we want to attract. Our minds are really that powerful, huh? :) (Did you know that I've long dreamt of going to Maldives and had had one of the islands in Maldives as my wallpaper before? It had came true :)) Those who didn't manage to read The Secret, try get a hold of it. Psst...MPH giving great discounts now hehe But if you...

The book, Slumdog Millionaire, written by Vikas Swarup (who's a high-flying Indian diplomat btw) was called Q&A when it was first published. Swarup wasn't really happy with the change of names, but since it sold better, he let it go. These are some astonishing facts I'd like to share with you: 1) The book was written in 4 months, 6 years ago (!!!) 2) It barely caused a ripple when it was first released in Singapore in 2005 3) Fewer than 100 people turned up for Swarup's reading in Singapore (Imagine those who went and got their books autographed!) 4) After the film's success, MPH has sold 15,000 copies since the start of last month 5) At a warehouse sale at MPH last year, the bo ok was sold for only RM18.50 (The price is doubled now!) 6) The male protagonist's name in Q&A was Ram Mohammad Thomas, and not Jamal Malik And I learned something from all this: Believe in your passion and work on it with all your heart. Stop giving excuses to yourself. If you...

I must, must share this with you :) Enjoy! Dude, thx 4 sharing this!

I had had such a great day today and am really excited to share it with you. All thanks to being a book lover! (Yes, this is my 2nd experience; the first being at a birthday party.) Today, my hubby decided to bring me to SS2 Murni for lunch, since I heard the food there was great and kept pestering him to bring me there. So we ordered our drinks and I decided to order this weird-sounding food (forgot the name), then was told, 'Oh, Western petang baru ada' (Western food only available in the evening). I was soooooooo...extreeeeeemely disappointed! My hubby felt even worse, coz he'd have to bring me here again! (And he doesn't really like coming here at night :( ) So...I just drank my Milo kosong panas (plain hot Milo). Sulking, I tried hard to put in positive thoughts like: ok, at least now I know they serve Western food only at night. (the monk book Then a petite lady, wearing something which looked a little like samfu, only her pants were 3/4 if I remembered corr ectly...

Cheesy headline huh? haha Anyways, when I spoke to LS the other day, she mentioned to me this book called 'The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari' by Robin S. Sharma, and that this author was coming to town. My dad had bought this book, my husband borrowed it, but nobody had read it yet. Truth to be told, I'm not a fan of such books. I thought they all beginning to sound the same. The last self-help book I read was eons ago. So anyways, since this was a much talked-about book, and seemed like a simple read, I thought I'd give it a try. The start was quite a drag. It didn't "wow" me. But I didn't want to give up on it just yet, because I wanted to know what I could learn from it. And I wasn't disappointed. This book is about this lawyer who had had a near-death experience, sold off all his possessions and headed off to India, where he found "enlightenment". Let me start off with these passages: "'...Have you had an afternoon at the office ...

I just spoke to a dear friend on the phone today who truly inspired me. We've known each other for not too long, but we work in the same industry, so we share some common interests. Chatting with her today has really inspired and motivated me to keep this blog going. (Not that I was planning to end it or whatever lah haha) But sometimes I do question myself; Why on earth am I doing this? Not that it has a group of followers like some other blogs...or am I paid to do this. See, keeping a blog alive isn't easy, especially when you're tied up with other things. You need commitment. And you don't earn a single sen from this, unless of course if you're some famous blogger who's paid to travel and write stuff, and your visitors are by the thousands per day. My brother always says, "Ay I think you should follow their style lah. Write what people wanna read." And I'd always give him the same answer, "What they want to read isn't what I like or wa...

The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger is set in the 1940s in New York. The story is narrated by a 17 year old boy named Holden Caufield, who has just been expelled from his school, Pencey Prep, which is his fourth school after failing out of three others. Before the school term ended, he took a train to New York, decided not to return home for he was afraid to break the news to his parents, and spent the next three days roaming aimlessly around New York City. Throughout the three days, he met some pretty interesting characters like the pimp, the prostitute, the two nuns (whom he quite liked), the cabbies (who both thought Holden was a nutcase), and dated his girlfriend, Sally. Holden is quite a bitter teenager, who basically doesn't like anything and anyone, except probably for his deceased brother, Allie, and his sister whom he affectionately calls old Phoebe . Oh and Jane too, someone whom he could emphatise with because she had also lost a family member. Besides them,...

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson won the Romantic Novel of the Year, so I thought of checking it out, since it’s been sleeping on my bookshelf for a couple of months already. Some of you may already know I don’t dig romantic novels and chic lit. I have this impression that they all have cheesy story lines and cliché endings of happily ever after. And this novel proved me right. Maybe this is the only way to satisfy a romantic reader’s insatiable hunger for a good ending. Although I wasn’t really happy that there was a happy ending (I was really expecting some sort of a twist), I did however, enjoy the ride. This story mainly revolves around three girls; Rose who was 19, the youngest of the lot; Victoria, or affectionately known as Tor, who was in her mid 20s (I can’t remember her exact age); and Viva (whose character takes most part of this novel) who were all on a trip to India for different reasons. Rose – to get married to a man she hardly knew; Tor her bridesmaid, who was glad tha...

These are some of my all-time favourite reads: 1) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Can someone GIVE me "Girl, Interrupted" please please? I've exceeded my book budget *sob sob* Yes, I HAVE A BOOK BUDGET >P) 2) Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah (You'll cry, laugh, feel the rage, sense of loss and betrayal...I'll never forget the range of emotions I went through when I read this book) 3) Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (the suspense was good) 4) Totto Chan (highly recommended to those who "hardly have time to read") 5) Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah 6) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand 7) The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng 8) The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (touching and inspiring) 9) The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (I don't exactly remember the story, but I remember liking it alot, especially the drawings.) 10) My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

There's a reason why God gave us one mouth and one pair of ears and eyes. In my opinion, it's because He wants us to talk lesser (talking excessively can cause chaos. Just look at what's happening recently. Even the newspaper's getting "noisy"!), and to observe and listen more. (Some may disagree to this) Anyway, I came across this interview with American Idol's Scott MacIntyre recently, when he was one of the top 12 this week, and his answer to one of the questions, reminded me the importance of listening. Q : How did you feel about Simon criticizing the lyrics of the song you chose? A : I didn't hear what he was saying at first, and I actually had an answer for that. It was probably good I didn't interrupt him anyways (and how many of us practice this??) , because he went on to say something very positive (Thanks to listening. You'll never know what the person might say next!) . The lyrics of the Bruce Hornsby song, first of all, they are gre...

This conference was in 1992. The people clapped, and teared...but has anything changed? If you've noticed the drastic weather changes, you'd get your answer. If you've not taken steps to do something about this, shame on you. Thanks Adryan, for sharing this!