"alice in wonderland" - lewis carroll. ***1/2
ok so i knew it was going to be nonsensical but i kind of expected to extract something a bit deeper from it... some bits made sense from a social commentary point of view, but other bits were very puzzling, which i guess they were supposed to be, which i guess was the point of that letter in the courtroom chapter. i liked the puns and the mock turtle. though i don't get why in the illustration he had hoofs...
i enjoyed the ride and didn't really mind feeling like a fool at the end of it. will be watching the tim burton 'sequel', despite not winning that trip to the london premiere.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
37 - read 20 new books (4/20)
"oliver twist" - charles dickens **
i totally loved great expectations so i figured i would love long drawn out dickensian tales of destruction and redemption in general, but i just really didn't connect with this oliver fellow. it was soooo sentimental, oliver was so good to the core but just extremely unlucky and lucky and unlucky and lucky in turn... i mean, good social commentary blah blah blah, but overall it felt really simple and not that interesting. i really struggled to get through it. i felt so tempted to just watch the movie and be done with it, but then i would feel like a cheat, not much better than the heartless scoundrels in the bleak novel.
i'm glad i read it, but it was literally a marathon effort - you don't enjoy it, but you're proud you finished alive.
i totally loved great expectations so i figured i would love long drawn out dickensian tales of destruction and redemption in general, but i just really didn't connect with this oliver fellow. it was soooo sentimental, oliver was so good to the core but just extremely unlucky and lucky and unlucky and lucky in turn... i mean, good social commentary blah blah blah, but overall it felt really simple and not that interesting. i really struggled to get through it. i felt so tempted to just watch the movie and be done with it, but then i would feel like a cheat, not much better than the heartless scoundrels in the bleak novel.
i'm glad i read it, but it was literally a marathon effort - you don't enjoy it, but you're proud you finished alive.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
38 - read 10 christian books (1/10)
"mere christianity" - c. s. lewis ***
i like the way he writes - you really do hear the voice of a gentle old englishman carefully explaining how he came to believe in god and jesus despite being an atheist most his life. it's full of analogies and imagery to explain the concepts, and it's interesting to pick up on post-war sentiments and kind of gauge the mood of a population through that (the book was initially a radio series). there's a lot of theorising and it doesn't categorically prove anything, but he does present a gently persuasive argument that does explain (in my view, which is christian and i guess thus concordant with his views) the state that the world is in. i know i've used 'gentle' twice but i did find that to be a striking feature of the book :P
not life-changing, but then it did take me many months to read because i was getting distracted by stuff. so perhaps i was being unfair to it.
i like the way he writes - you really do hear the voice of a gentle old englishman carefully explaining how he came to believe in god and jesus despite being an atheist most his life. it's full of analogies and imagery to explain the concepts, and it's interesting to pick up on post-war sentiments and kind of gauge the mood of a population through that (the book was initially a radio series). there's a lot of theorising and it doesn't categorically prove anything, but he does present a gently persuasive argument that does explain (in my view, which is christian and i guess thus concordant with his views) the state that the world is in. i know i've used 'gentle' twice but i did find that to be a striking feature of the book :P
not life-changing, but then it did take me many months to read because i was getting distracted by stuff. so perhaps i was being unfair to it.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
37 - read 20 new books (3/20)
"perfect grammar" - penguin guide to english grammar & punctuation ***
a friend gave me this little pocket edition a few weeks ago because she knew how much i loved correct (and correcting) grammar and punctuation. it was a good overview of the basic parts of speech, sentence structure and common errors (that that iiiii made any of them heh heh) although because it was such a concise book there weren't enough examples of the more complex aspects of grammar to help you understand. my head hurt - i hadn't thought of phrases as nouns or verbs as adjectives before... a good refresher in many ways but i doubt i would be changing my speech as a result.
a friend gave me this little pocket edition a few weeks ago because she knew how much i loved correct (and correcting) grammar and punctuation. it was a good overview of the basic parts of speech, sentence structure and common errors (that that iiiii made any of them heh heh) although because it was such a concise book there weren't enough examples of the more complex aspects of grammar to help you understand. my head hurt - i hadn't thought of phrases as nouns or verbs as adjectives before... a good refresher in many ways but i doubt i would be changing my speech as a result.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
74 - lose 5 kg
whoohoo! most prompt post ever, just weighed myself and i'm chalking it up as mission accomplished. yes i know there's immense irony in that statement now, and dehydration is probably significantly contributing to getting me over the line, but i'm crossing this off my list!
my secret? eating in smaller portions and exercise, sustained by stress and a good dose of heartache.
my secret? eating in smaller portions and exercise, sustained by stress and a good dose of heartache.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
76 - wake up at 7am for a week
another boring post... oh well. this would have been around the second or third week of jan, there was a bit of turmoil going on so i wasn't sleeping properly and kept getting up really early. it even got me going to the gym before work :O !!!! craaazy.
Monday, February 15, 2010
63 - set up my iTunes
well, this one's not very interesting, but i've done it. and i kind of regret getting the 8gb instead of the 16gb. my music doesn't fit on it and it's a pain having to go through picking favourites. i don't like being so judgemental. in semi-related news, now that i've stepped into the world of apple i feel the urge to buy a macbook. but it's not like i neeeeed it...
Sunday, February 14, 2010
08 - perm my hair
i did this on 28 nov last year actually but i am really slow at updating this blog... anyway it's chinese new year so i felt like it was probably time to take stock of progress. it's a little depressing actually, overwhelmed by STUFF TO DO.
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