Archive for January, 2009
Blabber
by jon laa on January 21st, 2009
Because of my fluttering heart and mind, I ended up blabbering. I blabbered a lot for the past two days and I can’t really resist the temptation to not. And so, if I have been talking to you, do consider taking everything said with a handful, or sackful of salt.
Moving on from all that, I don’t think I am fluttering anymore. The right word will be sinking.
Damn.
Books
by jon laa on January 19th, 2009
It was good to revisit animal farm by george orwell. I suppose one’s ability to understand a book changes with time, I found myself enjoying animal farm a lot more than the last time I read it.
Now let me compile a list of books I will like to read or re-read. It has been a thought drifting about for years and it’s about time I penned them down to have a reading-reminder to fall back on.
- 1984 by george orwell
- to kill a mockingbird by harper lee
- the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger
- pride and prejudice by jane austen
- catch-22 by joseph heller
- lolita by vladimir nabokov
- brave new world by aldous huxley
- great expectations by charles dickens
- les miserables by hugo victor
- one hundred years of solitude by gabriel garcia marquez
- the kite runner by khaled hosseini
- a tale of two cities by charles dickens
- i, claudius by robert graves
- life of pi by yann martel
- never let me go by kazuo ishiguro
- saturday by ian mcewan
- celestial harmonies by péter esterházy
- everything you need by a.l. kennedy
- fear and trembling by amélie nothomb
- the ground beneath her feet by salman rushdie
- enduring love by ian mcewan
- cocaine nights by j.g. ballard
- birdsong by sebastian faulks
- mao ii by don delillo
- are you there god? it’s me, margaret by judy blume
- a handful of dust by evelyn waugh
- light in august by william faulkner
- lord of the flies by william golding
- the painted bird by jerzy kosinski
- jonathan strange & mr norrell by susanna clarke
- bel canto by ann patchett
- waiting by ha jin
- the chocolate war by robert cormier
- ulysses by james joyce
- a portrait of an artist like a young man by james joyce
- darkness at noon by arthur koestler
- the day of locust by nathanael west
- kim by rudyard kipling
- illusions by richard bach
- the boy who lost his face by louis sachar
- i saw esau by iona opte
- a dog’s tale by mark twain
- the brothers karamazov by fyodor dostoevksy
- the grapes of wrath by john steinback
- east of eden by john steinback
- gone with the wind by margaret mitchell
- war and peace by leo tolstoy
- a clockwork orange by anthony burgess
- the sound and the fury by william faulkner
- as i lay dying by william faulkner
- the call of the wild by jack london
- dharma bums by jack kerouac
Flutters
by jon laa on January 19th, 2009
Been sometime because I have been writing, trying to write something more substantial than blog entries.
But obviously there is little, or almost no success.
My heart and mind is fluttering. I think there has been an information-overload. I feel sick every time I log into the net to have the entire shit-load of information stuffed into my face.
Now, what I really need is to read a book with a cup of chamomile on a comfortable seat accommodated to my height under a shady tree that hopefully does not rain bird shit.
:D
I’ll try to write, and sort out the fluttering heart.
By the way, life absolutely sucks when all you have is a sea of confusion.
Busy
by jon laa on January 15th, 2009
I have been writing, a little too much for my own good.
Quite a bit of discovery, a lot of relief.
For those who read my blog via rss, you have access to those extra bits.
But either way, I trashed them. It was a little too inconsistent for my liking.
Now life goes on, with something new.
Education
by jon laa on January 13th, 2009
Even the young are not spared. Ruthlessly segregated and categorised according to so-called academic potential based on tests and exams that rewards rote learning and mindless regurgitation. Your fate could be decided at an age where you probably don’t even know the meaning of the word. So when you think about it, would anyone in their right mind want to make singapore their long term home when they have a choice
The above is taken from the hotel in the jungle.
To some extend, I’ll agree. But there’re many other places I’ll rather not be at, so it gets kinda complicated. Maybe it’s the greed for a better life.
Discovery IV
by jon laa on January 13th, 2009
I enjoyed this read too. It does get a little vulgar at the end, but I suppose it’s the easier way out when you run out of the appropriate words.
In all honesty, I believe knowledge is the beginning of all evil and I am glad to have some support here.
And with all these excessive reading, I am starting to question my purpose here.
I am contented but at the same time despaired, not with life but with how little I am doing.
The painful realisations of knowing what I can do without being able to do them as it would please me.
Moving on, it’s another four weeks of internship. I saw the light at the end of a fearfully despairing tunnel.
Discovery III
by jon laa on January 13th, 2009
I came across this and I am thoroughly impressed. Perhaps we should digg it.
Now, isn’t the worldwide web such an amazing place?
More to come, I am sure there are more good reads hidden somewhere.
Discovery II
by jon laa on January 13th, 2009
This article sums up all I believe in. And explains why those in our immediate social circle tend to be of the same colour, most of the time. The only non-chinese close friend I ever had, as far as I can remember, was this indian classmate in my early primary school years. Later in life, I found out that he has completely forgotten who I am, or perhaps grown up to not acknowledge I was once part of his life.
There were other non-chinese friends I met along the way, primarily in junior college, but they never made it to the degree of closeness the ingrate did.
If there is only one thing I can do for the rest of my life, I will like to empower others with themselves.
Back to work at an ungodly hour, nothing pretty.