Pillars of the Earth

Finally I'm done with my third book of the year, this one had approx a thousand pages, 973 to be exact. Took me about 20 days but it was a fun read, definitely a very entertaining book. So I have fifteen more books to read for the rest of the year. I started with Half Blood Prince last night. I can't wait to finish the Harry Potter series. After this, I have one more to go before the end.

Anyway Pillars of the Earth is by Ken Follett and it's his best selling book ever, which is ironic because he usually writes thrillers. POTE on the other hand's a spellbinding epic set in 12th-century England, and tells the story of the struggle to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known—a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother. The characters in this book; Tom Builder, Alfred, Martha, Jonathan, Prior Philip, Ellen, Jack, Aliena, Richard, William Hamleigh and Waleran Bigod will forever stay with me.

Oh I forgot Happy Leap Day!!

Since my last post, I went in to St Louis one more time for my second interview with Nordyne. I also went in to talk to FKI Logistex. The interview with Nordyne went pretty well, got there at 9:30am and I didn't get out till 3:45pm, the whole thing was very well put together. FKI on the other hand was totally disorganized, probably won't accept even if I was made an offer. I won't find out from Nordyne till next week, so keep your fingers crossed :) The night before the interview was Valentine's. I went out to dinner with Dwane at Little Saigon which was sweet. Then on Friday night we had drama at Mangia's and then between Patricio and Dwane and we ended up going to 1111 again. I stayed in all weekend, didn't go to any bars at all! The next day I had dim sum and then later that evening we went to Matt Reeg's dinner party which was fun. And the next day, had brunch with James and Nick at Mokabe's and then I drove home. Last weekend, I didn't do much, just stayed in and relaxed as it was my first weekend in town in four weeks. Went to watch Jumper with Don but I wasn't too impressed. Hayden looked great but that was about it :)

OK I think that's it for now...looking forward to this weekend, the weather's supposed to be real nice, 60's! I'll probably be out more. I'm really tired of Winter and Spring can't come any sooner. Later y'all and enjoy the weather this weekend!

Interesting Fact: Did you know that every fourth year's a leap year unless it's divisible by 100 and not 400? Like 2000 was a leap year because it was divisible by both 100 and 400 but 2100 will not be a leap year and neither is 2200 or 2300. I had no idea!

The Jungle

This book by Upton Sinclair is quite interesting. Set in the early 1900 and talks about Chicago's meat packing industry and immigrants that worked it. Due to the popularity of this book coupled with the public outcry, it led to the passage of several acts, which established the FDA. This book's usually reading material for most high school and college kids in America but I decided to read when I noticed that James too was reading it. I wanted to gain a further understanding of America. So I'm still on target for my resolution, I finished this book in late January it's beginning of February and I'm starting on my 3rd book; Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett which looks like it's going to be good as well.

Anyway this past weekend was Mardi Gras which was full of fun, friends and drunkenness. I'll be posting about what happened over the weekend along with the pictures soon so hang on tight :)

The last few weeks prior to Mardi Gras was spent keeping warm. The weather was so cold and just this week it's starting to thaw and show little signs of Spring. Not much happened so therefore no postings, here are the few things that were worth mentioning; there was a weekend when we celebrated Doug's 30th birthday where I was out till 6:30am and on the way home my car's thermometer registered at 1 degree. I think there was another weekend that I just spent relaxing and watched Cloverfield which gave me motion sickness. I have also been going to the dentist to have a crown put into my chipped tooth. Everything's finally completed and it looks and feels pretty good. The crown cost about $370 which I had allocated funds into my FSA. I talked to my aunt and looks like crowns in Malaysia's WAY cheaper. Last week though was mainly focussed on interviews. I talked to 3 companies; FKI Logistex, Nordyne and Monsanto so we'll see which one works out. Anyway I'll be posting my Mardi Gras pictures next so I'll be back soon!

James and Dave w/end in CoMo

The boys were in town this past weekend. We just hung out and had a good time. Unfortch, I came down with a cold and had to call in sick to work on Monday morning. We went out to a bunch of bars over the weekend; On The Rocks, Generic, Deuce and Heidelberg. The weather is cold again after a Spring teaser last weekend where it went up to 70 degrees. Now I just need to get through January and February and it'll start getting much better, weather wise that is. Monday morning, I also had a phone interview with BJC for a Performance Improvement Engr position but I don't think it'll be a good fit as it's a new department and they want someone with experience in healthcare to come in and implement changes. We'll see where it goes.

PS - I just got done reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Not too bad of a book, I guess good enough for me to want to read the 2nd book, The Subtle Knife. I'm about half way through The Jungle by Upton Sinclair now. Looks like target of three books every 2 months is well on its way :)

Happy 2008!

So how did everyone's holidays went? I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I finished the fifth Harry Potter book shortly before I left for my Christmas holidays in NYC which turned out to be a really fun trip (I'll have more in my next entry). I started reading up on The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman while on the trip. What is it with me and fantasy books? So far GC's going pretty good and it's a real quick and easy read anyway. The next book I have lined up after GC is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and followed by The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Oprah's book club). I am trying to read more books as you can see, that's one of my New Year's resolution. Here's the rest of my New Year resolutions:

1. Would like to seriously pursue a new job that will facilitate my move to St Louis, hopefully by end of Summer 2008.

2. Need to start saving more (ie Max out my Roth IRA for 2008 and have my 2nd home mortgage paid off). I have let 2007 slip in terms of savings...too many trips and buying the new car will definitely do just that!

3. Toning up and shedding some extra lbs. I'm currently at 145, would like to get down to 135lb range. (Beau & I are going to join Dave & Wes in attempting The Abs Diet which is not too different from what we're already doing)

4. Definitely need to start calling home more often, at least twice a month. I rarely call home anymore. I need to improve my relationships with my brothers, Dad, Aunty Bee, Uncle Soohee in NZ and other relatives among others.

5. Be more generous to my close friends and try to donate time/money to a good cause. Would definitely volunteer when I do move to St Louis.

6. I want to be a part of a Professional organization (ie IIE and others) and get more training and schooling for my profession.

7. I want to read at least three books every two months, totalling 18 for the year. So far The Golden Compass will be first for 2008.

This is just a preliminary list of my resolutions, so I'm sure I'll be back to add or make changes to the list further down the road. So far it seems pretty complete as it covers the four very important areas of my life; Family, Friends, Finance and Career. I never really have put any resolutions down in writing before but I was sold on doing one when Dave started reading one from his own list. I think it is quite important for it creates a visual goal for me to achieve for this year and by having it published it will hold me accountable to achieving it.

So back to Order of the Phoenix, totally good book. I can't wait to finish the other books I have lined up so I can start on Half Blood Prince. This book gets darker as you can see from the movie. Harry starts having very dark thoughts and his connection to Voldemort strenghtens. Harry also loses his godfather, Sirius and almost lost Mr Weasley as well. According to Chadd, JK Rowling had originally intended to kill off Mr Weasley but she thought that it might be too traumatic for Harry. I've heard that the next two books are going to be even worse, characters are going to start dropping like flies. As usual there were many many scenes that were different comparing the book to the movie. I understand why they have to do what they did in the movie for dramatic effects and time constraints but I sometimes wished it matched the book pretty closely.

Goblet of Fire

Man this is definitely the longest HP book I've read so far. It feels like it's taken forever to finish -- 734 whomping willow pages! Lately I've been making many HP references, I hope my non-HP reader friends will forgive me :) Like the other day, I described some person I knew as having a Hermione hairday. So the big news couple weeks ago was JK Rowling revealing that Dumbledore's gay! Well of course he is, who else but a queen would use "lemon drop" as a password to his office, LOL!

Well I'm finally done with this book! Just like the last few, it was really good, I can't believe I didn't read HP series much earlier. Somewhere along the middle, this book got a little slow but the end was great and I liked how everything tied together and it all made sense. This book is definitely setting up the scene for the great Voldermort to go all out and declare war. I especially liked how in the end of the book, Dumbledore went into aggressive mode and started giving everyone instructions in preparation of what is about to happen. Now it's time for me to go get Goblet of Fire, the movie eventhough I just recently watched it with Chadd. I have also gone to the library and picked me up the next book Order of the Phoenix. Woo hoo...can't wait :)

Boo, Happy Halloween guys! I didn't do much this past weekend, just rested and stayed home mostly. Gym on Saturday morning and later that night watched 30 Days of Night, starring Josh Hartnett. It had been out for about a week, so the theater wasn't too busy. It was a pretty good movie, a little too gory for my taste but it's good compared to a lot of the scary movies lately. After the movie, we (Chadd, Beau and me) went to Houlihan's for dinner and it happened to be happy hour and it was half off drinks and $5 appetizers. We had a feast and the bill only came up to be about $10/person. It was awesome! Will definitely have to do it again. Sunday, I stayed in all day, did some cooking and cleaning. It was nice after the last few hectic weekends I've been having.

Prisoner of Azkaban

I just got done reading and watching this title! I am now officially a HP fan! I have immediately started reading Year four: Goblet of Fire. The book was absolutely astonishing but I was a little let down by the movie. The book was full of details and did an excellent job at expanding on the three favourite characters; Hermione, Ron and Harry. The end, like the first two books, were also filled with twists and turns, revealing the good from the dark side. I thought the first two movies followed the book pretty closely but left out a few minor details but for Year three, the movie decided to leave out, sometimes even changing certain plots from the book. The movie was still entertaining but in my opinion absolutely cannot be compared to the book. Like how the movie completely left out why Black, Potter and Pettigrew became learned how to become an Animagus. It was because they were very compassionate of Lupin's condition and wanted to keep him company during his transformation. They were best of friends, just like Hermione, Ron and Harry. The movie also completely left out the second quidditch match, where Harry rode his Firebolt, that won Griffindor the cup. Another character development that was left out was how Snape was almost killed by a prank only to be rescued by Potter but suspected him of causing it all to begin with, therefore the huge hatred Snape has for Harry. Ok enough HP for now.

So the last two weekends, I didn't really do anything or go anywhere. The first of the two, Joe and James + Nick came in to town to visit. It was really good seeing Joe again after about a year. He seems to be doing well and liking his new life in Michigan. We spent quite a lot of quality time together and that was nice. James + Nick drove in to attend a wedding. Last weekend, was beautiful, weather wise. I just hung out downtown with my book and laptop for majority of the day. Tried going out on Fri and Sat nights but just getting tired of the scene here. I spent three whole hours washing and waxing my car on Sunday, so much for lazy Sunday afternoon!

Books and more

I just finished reading the book AND watching the movie. As always the book is much better but I must say the movie follows the book very closely. Certain scenes that I thought had been cut out were in the deleted scenes section instead. I read somewhere that JK Rowling refused to give up control of the films to some Hollywood executive, so she's still very much in control. I guess I'm still obsessed with Harry Potter :) Moving on to book number three, Prisoner of Azkaban. Derrick from work loaned me this book as it was taking forever to get them from the library.

This past weekend was spent recuperating from a cold. I'm actually still sniffling and coughing as I'm typing. Went to the Roots and Blues festival with Beau on Friday after gym. Saturday I had lunch with Justin and hung out with him and Chadd the majority of the day. Justin cooked dinner and then we watched couple of scary movies. They were dumb. That night I took two Benadryls and slept for almost 12 hours. I could have slept more if I hadn't made plans to meet Chadd and Justin at Ernie's for brunch. Watched Chamber of Secrets with Chadd and then later played some tennis with Justin. That's pretty much all I did for the weekend. Mainly resting from the labor day weekend before where I had gone to Chicago with Dave and Patricio. Anyway I'll have another entry for that soon with pictures :)

Wicked!

Well thanks to Chadd, I've been obsessed with Harry Potter lately. It started when I went to watch the latest movie (HP and the order of the Phoenix) and got all caught up in this world of wands and wizardry. He passed me the first book, HP and the Sorcerer's Stone which I just finished and today I'm moving on to th the Chamber of Secrets which I got from the library! I can't help it, I'm obsessed. I even have the third book (HP and the prisoner of Azkaban) on hold at the local library! I've always kinda wanted to read the books but have just been putting it off, but I guess the recent chain of events was just a great catalyst. I was also recently at Blockbuster and bought Sorcerer's Stone the movie. Now that I've read the book, it all make alot more sense. I finally understand the characters and storyline better and I also know how Quidditch works! Now I can't wait to watch the first movie again with my new found knowledge. I also like how this book reminds me of my school days especially since the schools I went to was based on the British system where we had to wear uniforms and had prefects on patrol. When this book series first made huge news, I put it off as a children's book and never thought very much about it, but now I understand how this book became as popular as it has. I have also noticed how big a fan base this book reaches. I mean people of all ages, races, backgrounds are totally intrigued by it. I somehow feel like now that I've started reading, I belong to some kind of underground HP cult club. Well I guess you all know what's going to occupy my time for this coming winter.

Oprah's Book Club: The Road

I just got done reading one of Oprah's Book club selection, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I actually downloaded a free audio book from Netlibrary which I get a free account via the local library network. Pretty amazing how technology works. I got it because I had a 5 hr drive down to Fayetteville this past weekend to visit some old college buddies. The trip went well but that will be a separate post.

Now more about the book. It was a very weird yet interesting book. I cannot decide whether I like or dislike it. Very much the same feelings I had when I watched Stranger than Fiction, Running with Scissors and Children of Men.

Here's a synopsis I got from the Oprah book site:

"Set in the smoking ashes of a post-apocalyptic America, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road tells the story of a father-son journey toward the sea and an uncertain salvation. The world they pass through is a ghastly vision of scorched countryside and blasted cities “held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell” [p. 181]. It is a starved world, all plant and animal life dead or dying, some of the few human survivors even eating each other alive.The father and son move through the ruins searching for food and shelter, trying to keep safe from murderous, roving bands. They have only a pistol to defend themselves, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.Awesome in the totality of its vision, The Road is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

I think the author did a fantastic job and describing the catastrophic environment that surrounds the characters and also amazing at building up the two main characters, the man and the boy. What I didn't particularly like about this book was the abrupt beginning and ending of the book, taking a strange clip from post-apocalyptic world. As suggested on Oprah's site and wikipedia, this book definitely had a religious undertone to it making it feel like the boy is the messiah. Anyway it was entertaining enough to keep me listening to it to the very end. There are many Study Questions posted on Oprah's site which are quite interesting too.