.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park.

I don't usually read books from the best sellers or top 10 list, I tend not to be a sheep, reading completely different stuff from an eclectic range of genres.

My bookshelves are filled with hardcore hacking tomes, fantasy, sci-fi, biographies, crime books, martial arts manuals, health and philosophy books and so on.

For once the last few months when I was traveling so frequently I decided to devour some of the tops picks, the best sellers..

The first I chose was this, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I thought it was some kind of sappy self-help book, but I wanted to know why fairly sane people kept raving about it.

Mitch Albom got famous with his previous book Tuesdays with Morrie, another massive hit. I might read that too given time.

It's a cute story, it's easy to read and it's enjoyable. It's well paced, not patronising and kind of sweet in a non-sickly way.

Really though it's the same old tale, what goes around comes around, karma and all that but told in a slightly different way.

Definately worth a read, easy to pick up and finish in one shot.

It's not ground-breaking, or fantastic, but it's good. It's beauty is in its simplicity, yeah there's pages of cliches, but its straightforward it's not pretending to be artsy or intellectual or bourgeois.

It is nice to read a book now and then that is just easy to read and enjoyable.

Worth a try, I give it a good solid 7/10 - A good one to put on the xmas list for people you care about.

'Blah, Blah Blacksheep' is a helter-skelter ride through one week in your average journalist's life (no, really). Maggie Gibson's latest offering is fluid and full of Irish humour - the perfect comic beach read.

This is another one of those cheapo British trash novels I pick up for around RM5 at Popular/MPH, I always look for these, and 90% of the time I really enjoy them.

I suggest buying a bunch of these everytime you pass through.

It's indeed full of Irish wit, twisting and turning, her editor has a nervous breakdown and is replaced with someone nicer..

Following this she is immediately immersed in the dirty, sweaty world of human trafficking, sweat shops, murder and a nasty little extortionist drug dealer with the wonderfully Irish name of Broylan Grillo.

Somehow she ends up friends with Georgina Fitz-Simons who has has just overcome a flourishing cocaine habit, together they go deep into the world of durgs and murder end up in possession of a rather inconvenient corpse, being chased by a Serbian hitman and involved with an ex Glam rocker..

It's a well written, well paced book. Rather easy to pick up, not hard to put down and can be devoured quickly in a couple of sittings.

If you see it sitting around on the bargain shelf for the price of a drink, do pick it up.

Not much more to say about it, simple book, simple read, simple review.

I give it an enjoyable 6.5/10.

Midnight Cowboy is the powerful and unforgettable novel of the compelling need of human beings for one another -- a wrenching story of pain and loss.

Freewheeling loser Joe Buck arrives in New York City and embarks on a quest to live the American dream. Along the way he meets street hustler and petty criminal Ratso Rizzo. Together, the two form an extraordinary relationship full of heartbreak and hope, resulting in a compelling American novel about the bonds of friendship.

An academy award winner in 1969 in spite of having an X rating, this is one of those classic films that I guess many of you have watched (Midnight Cowboy Movie), I saw the book in popular so decided to pick it up (it's the UK paperback edition).

This is a very well written and well-paced book, it has excellent character development and has a certain way of strolling along that keeps you firmly in its grip.

It raises some interesting moral issues, and a lot about self-perception and ego.

Genital Joe as we could call him is the epitomy of lost youth losing his virginity to some Annie Rottencrotch, he has all the wrong ideas about sex and sexuality.

Being a good looking lad, tall and well built he goes out to make his millions in the world. Like most of us, he ends up finding reality stinks and not much more than that.

The book rolls along and it's hard to put down, it's not lightning fast but it sucks you into the dirty seedy world that Joe falls into.

I finished the whole thing in about 3 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The writing may seem a little simplistic to some, but that's what gives it such a raw and honest charm. It's very real, real people and a real story.

It's gritty at times, explicit, violent and raw but can also be touching showing interesting aspects of humanity.

If you want to read something 'different' than all the pop shit churned out a the moment, take a look at this.

I think it cost me the grand total of RM5.90.

I give it a solid, well-paced 9/10.

So I'd heard about the local production of Homecoming, which was somewhat surprising as Harold Pinter is a genius, but a twisted one at that.

Harold Pinter has been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature, the highest honour available to any writer in the world. In announcing the award, Horace Engdahl, Chairman of the Swedish Academy, said that Pinter was an artist "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms." Pinter will travel to Stockholm in December to accept the award.

You can read his Bio here:

Harold Pinter Biography

A multitalented guy (Actor, Director, Writer, Producer and more!), but I have to admit I didn't think Malaysia would be the place for a play such as Homecoming. Although I'm thoroughly glad it didn't get bastardised by the censors or banned altogether like The Vagina Monologues.

I went off to KLPac (KL Performing Arts Center) Sunday afternoon for the penultimate showing of Homecoming, if you are interested you can read the production diaries at The Homecoming Diaries.

Unforunately the roads decided to change direction around Jalan Duta and I got totally lost on the way to Sentul West, I ended up doing a big detour to get onto another part of Jalan Kuching and eventually made it there when I recognised where I was (the HSBC on Jalan Ipoh).

Beautiful place anyway, made from reclaimed bricks by the looks of it.

Reached there about 3:20pm and the show started at 3pm sharp! Thankfully the nice lady let Kimberly and myself in even though we were late, she didn't even make us wait for the interval. Lovely.

We sat in the front row, feet pretty much on the stage, you could see the whites of their eyes, very intimate.

Makes a change from the normal theatre crap where you need a pair of binoculars to make out their facial expressions.

The show was very well done I have to say, the lighting was amazing, setting the mood perfectly and accurately and showing transitions between rooms and the time passing between night and day, plays of colours with blue and red mixed, cold blue for certain scenes, warm orange for others, it really added a lot to the performance.

The acting was good, Ben Tan was excellent as the somewhat confused protaganist Teddy, was he in control? Did he no longer love his wife? Did he have another 'bit on the side' or was he really gay? Did he love 'Uncle Sam' a little more than he should, vice versa seemed rather obvious, him always being the favourite boy, but then again, Sam could well be his father, another subtext, with Sams outburst about Jessie, and the way he looked after the boys..

That's the thing with Pinter, you never really know.

Then Ruth played by Jia-Wei Loo, she played the seductress, was she loopy? Or was she the one really in control, the line between mother and whore is blurred to a point where there is no longer a division, was she being used, or was she using them? 2 hours of 'love-play' with Joey? To me it seems like she's the one in control.

Although she could well be a slut from the comments Teddy made about her being popular and very 'social' back in the US of A.

Jia-Wei played the role very well, Pinter is extremely tough for anyone, especially a first-timer, I applaud her, something must have rubbed off when she was making all the sets She switched between dominant, winning over the Psycho Lenny and submissive, to the point the men could kiss her and touch as a sex object without reprimand.

Then the father Max (Thor Kah Hoong, a veteran), switched between charming and affable and mean, nasty and downright hateful, one minute he could be lauding Ruth, saying how beautiful and serene she is, next he'd be saying she's a dirty slut bag puss filled whore. Quite a contrast indeed.

The play was very British and filled with swearing as usual, perhaps that's why it doesn't shock me so much, I've grown up with Black Comedy and dark humour, you only have to look at our extremely popular 'comedy' series like League of Gentlemen to know what we enjoy, most people don't quite understand it, yet we love it.

Lenny (U-En Ng) was intense with a great pseudo English accent, he played the part to a tee, struggling with himself, falling for Ruth as she was the only woman who could stand up to him, play him and take control. I assume U-En wrote his own biography in the program as it was very funny. He appeared to be some kind of crazy pimp, offering the services of ladies to his high class clientele, with his 'professional opinions' on the whoring of Ruth.

Patrick Teoh didn't have much to do as Sam, the lovable uncle who had to take shit from Max every day, there is some hints that Sam might actually be the father of the 3 boys, which would explain why he still hung around to look after the old bastard Max.

Ian Cheang did well as a new-comer, but to be fair he didn't have to do much apart from stand around looking gormless, staring at Jia-Wei and pulling down his trousers occasionally.

All together a very enjoyable experience, I would recommend you go and see it, but well it's already finished so you can't. Tough luck.

I might take up acting, twisted things like this make me want to be involved.

Had a quick wonder round the Koi Pond KY blogged about, and then buggered off to have some excellent Sushi at Teppan Sushi in Bandar Menjalara!

Saw smashp0p there, he's actually really quite tall, he looks so short in his pictures.

The Others:

The Suan
The Kim
The Paul
The FA

Randoms:

Charley Bean
Glaring Notebook
AppleGurl
Midnite Lily
Mayakins

Martha had never progressed much beyond hating her father for being cruel to her and her mum, even though he was supposed to be a man of God. Martha was now 38 and eight months pregnant. She told everyone that she didn't know who the baby's father was, but she knew perfectly well it was Ugly Ted, who owned the lapdancing club.

Jo Brand is a pretty famous comedienne in UK, deadpan, lesbian-ish humour with classic one liners like "I'm anorexic, everytime I look in the mirror I think I'm fat".

Hilarious.

So when I was back in UK, I saw this book in one of the discount book shops and decided to pick it up as I love her Jo Brand's style of humour, I guessed this book would be right up my street.

The basic premise of the story is of 3 close female friends and the trials and tribulations they go through with the men in their lives (or lack of men in some cases), the weird relationship one has with her parents, the hippy lifestyle of another (with her overly paranoid boyfriend) and the bimbo-ish nature of the 3rd with the anti-hero in the story 'Billy' as her boyfriend.

It's a very easy to read book with the story flowing along nicely at a good pace, the character development is a bit iffy sometimes as it seems to be based well upon stereotypes, but I enjoyed the sarcasm and social commentary anyway!

More info on Jo Brand here and here.

You can check it out on Amazon now here:

"Deception Point" opens in Washington, DC, during a tight Presidential campaign. The incumbent, a man of strong principles, is a major NASA supporter. His opponent, who is basing his campaign on turning NASA into a private, non-governmental agency, thus saving the US taxpayer billions of dollars annually, is way up in the polls. He is also accepting enormous illegal campaign contributions from private aerospace companies who have billions to gain from the privatization of NASA. After many failures & much spending, NASA is badly in need of a success.

Dan Brown seems to have mastered the whole suspense/thriller for the masses thing, he writes gripping books with good fast paced stories, nice plot twists and excellent character development.

I've also read DaVinci Code (who hasn't?) and Digital Fortress, I'm just left Angels and Demons.

Catching the LRT does have it's advantages, time to read every day, which is nice for a change

This is, again, a very well written book, suspenseful, twisting, turning, full of political intrigue, trickery games and as in the title, deception..

As the synopsis above says, it's mainly about NASA and 2 other main parties, the president of the United States and his people and a power hungry Senator fighting for the Presedential slot..

Both are playing games that are out of their league.

The characters are very well developed, the lead being a female similar to those in his other books, sexy and smart, Rachel Sexton this time, daughter of the senator fighting for the presidents room..By the end you feel like you know them, as you should, you feel emotion, puzzlement, betrayal and intrigue..

Dan Brown seems to have mastered the art of writing screenplay style books, flawless dialogue and action scenes which you can easily translate in your head into real live motion, this makes his books very accessible and you never find yourself struggling with obscure words or weird 'poetic' similies. He's intelligent but doesn't try and baffle you with nonsense, he researches every topic he writes about very thoroughly, if you are an expert in the field he is talking about, of course there will be differences, it's a work of fiction after all, but for the majority it's convincing enough.

He deals with the dark arts of religion, politics and science with a perfect balance, now that in itself is a hard feat (DaVinci Code got the religion, Digital Fortress mostly science, Deception point Politics and Science).

This is a good book no doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed it and at points I couldnt put it down, kinda dangerous when you're driving on the highway (just kidding :P)..

If you haven't read it, do it!

If you haven't read it, and you know me, ask me and I'll lend it to you.

I give it a well worth it, 8 out of 10.

Woohoo I finally bothered to do the about page...was kinda bored last night..If you know me and think I should add anything else give me a hint.

Also...I suck at bowling, I knew it before, now I know it again..

Actually at one stage I used to be quite decent, now I fear all past bowling skills have evaporated.

Also I watched John Q last night, awesome...really emotionally charged film with another stunning performance from Mr Denzel Washington..I've been meaning to watch this film for some time actually, I heard it was good, but never actually had chance.

I also finished reading The DaVinci Code....

Really sometimes I hate books that gripping...hmm just read a couple of chapters before bed...turns into OMFG it's 2.30am and I have to get up in 5 hours!

Honestly a rollercoaster thriller, if you haven't read it yet, DO IT.

Seriously a good book, especially for those of you that think religion is mostly bullshit (especially those religions that follow 2000 year old values and standards which are no longer relevant in modern society and follow these values and standards that were made by humans to control other more naive humans..)

Ok this could turn into a religious rant...but I am a little short for time now...so perhaps I'll save it for later.

Hmm anything else new? I fear not...afterall I am still in Brunei.

Praise the lord anyway, Suanie got a new desk and perhaps has re-kindled her zest for writing abstract bullshit in a way only she can.