Greg just pointed out to me (like 10 minutes ago via Messenger) that there's another blog called Brain Spillage.
And I thought I was being original.
I assure you I didn't know about this one (which precedes mine actually).
And the only difference between my blog's URL and Rachelle's is that I have a hyphen in my URL. Strange world.
brainspillage.blogspot.com
Guidelines: Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. (+) The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. (+) The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. (+) The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. (*) Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. (*) A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. (*) A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. (*) Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. (+) The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. (*)The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. (*) Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. (+) Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. (*) The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. (*) Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. (*) The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. (+) The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. (*) I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. (*) The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. (*) The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. (*) The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. (*) She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. (*) The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. (*) The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. (*) The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. (*) The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. (*) Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. (*) One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch–22 (Joseph Heller)
69. (+) Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. (*) The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint–Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. (*) Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. (*) The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. (*) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. (*) The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. (*) Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. (+) Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. (*) Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. (*) The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. (*) Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. (*) In The Skin Of a Lion (Ondaatje)
92. (+) Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. (*) The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. (*) The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. (*) White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. (*)The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
And in the end? It's the equivalent of dropping the pants and bringing out the ruler for people who consider themselves bookworms. To be a considered a serious reader, apparently there are books you must read.
If I were to create a list like this, this is how I'd do it. I'd list all the books generally accepted universally to be great books. Then I'd fill the gaps with my favourite books and authors. This looks somewhat like what happened here.
I dunno. I read because I love to read.
Maybe I'm just ignorant.
You tell me.
Previous book related postings:
Books I Read
Why yes, I do read
I watched the Manchester United vs UEFA Selection XI this morning. Among the stars on show was Marco Materazzi. According to the commentator, he's the man "who provoked Zinedine Zidane into headbutting him."
Just a goddamn minute.
Yes, Materazzi provoked Zidane. But how come he's "the man who provoked Zinedine Zidane into headbutting him." Why isn't he "the man whom Zidane disgraced himself and his country by headbutting"? Why is everyone so eager and intent on sucking Zidane's dick? Yes, he is a great player, no one will deny the skills. However. Zidane appears to be deified that he is beyond criticism. Last time I checked he's a citizen of planet earth no different from you or me.
Materazzi's only real crime was his chest was in the way of Zidane's head. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Zizou. I admire the man as a football player. If I were playing a footy game and an opponent gave me serious crap, I'd put my foot in his gonads. However, I'm a weekend player. I wouldn't do it if I were a professional player and playing a game for the team that employed my services. I'd just wish evil on the bastard is all.
Football is the world's most popular game (despite what some Americans think!). The World Cup is the biggest football competition. The final of the World Cup is therefore in my opinion, the biggest single game in the world. What a setting at which to do something like that. I loved the commentator's take on the event. He said it was 'uncharacteristic' and went on to say that Zidane has a 'history of having a short fuse'. Make up your fucking mind you moron. When you do, take the man's dick out of your mouth before you speak.
My point of this posting is that no one should be beyond criticism and justice and no one should be denied equal rights and a fair trial.
Football is just a metaphor for life after all.
In case you were curious as to what Materazzi said to Zidane it was this - "Hey, ci รจ una certa formula di sviluppo dei capelli sulla parte anteriore della mia camicia!"
It's Italian for "Hey, there's loads of hair growth formula on the front of my shirt!"
Now you know.
Aaaahhhhh..... the wonder that the world has. That an old jaded relic like myself in the new digital age of the internet, satellite TV and cell phones can learn something new. Last year I wrote in my original blog introducing a word to whoever read it. It wasn't a new word to me but it puzzled me that so many people had no idea what it was or meant.
I pinched the posting and posted it here November last year. Here's the link: Learn a New Word Today
And I have a new word for you kiddies today. It starts with the question: What is the opposite of (boob) cleavage? The answer and your new word for the day is neathage (as in a combination of beneath and cleavage). Also known as Australian cleavage cos obviously it's down under of a boob or a pair of boobs.
And you lucky lucky people I have a picture of an example of neathage for you. It's the cover of the Chocolate and Cheese album by Ween. Enjoy!
This is neathage!
Flashback #BST47835G
When I was in primary school there was this one question a teacher asked the class. It was during the religious studies period and being a heathen non-believer I was in the class of leftovers. Yes yes, I know I'm going to hell. I've been told many a time already. Don't bother, I've heard it. Even from my own girlfriend 2 relationships ago. She told me with a look that said that it was so sad it had to happen because I was going to burn even if I didn't really deserve to but I could save myself if I wanted to.
Please. Gimme a fucking break.
I told her she's only a christian because she was born into a christian family and she'd been fed propaganda in church all her life. I told her that I thought her sister who's a devout christian was a insufferable bitch and a hypocrite. That got her to thinking because she couldn't disagree with me there. I'm not saying religion is wrong. We'd all like something to fall back on when all that's left is hope. All I would like is a little more thought and brain processing thrown in.
Anyway, back to the question. The question was, what are the world's seven continents. I could name all seven so I put up my hand and provided North America. One down, six to go right? Wrong. The dumb cow screwed up her face, thought real hard and then told me that no, North America is not a continent.
It is of my opinion that if you are teaching primary school, you don't ask little kids a question you don't even know the answer to yourself. I was perplexed. This was a teacher. Scion of information and knowledge. Then another kid put up his hand and informed dear teechur that North America is indeed one of the world's continents. She accepted that from that kid.
When you're in school there are the kids that the teachers tend to favour cos they're more outspoken and hardworking. Hardworking doesn't equate intelligent. All you do in school is regurgitate lessons. I was one of the more quiet ones. I was one of them kids that didn't want attention while wanting it secretly. Self esteem issues you understand.
Anyway I remember one incident involving one of these fucking teacher's pets. The teacher marking the English essays came to show my class teacher one pet's essay. In a word it was shit. There was the teacher pointing out the mistakes, the little bastard giggling and my class teacher tut-tutting. Anyway, conclusion. She 'give chance' to the little bastard. I quote, "Sooooo lucky. I give chance." There were other kids who really tried their best but found it hard going. English isn't used in many a household here. They got a lot worse marks for their essays despite trying while the giggling little cunt got away with it when he didn't give a shit.
Anyway, it ain't over. How this little cunt further improved his standing with the class teacher was to rat on me. I wasn't particularly interested in what the teacher was saying once during class. It wasn't a lesson and I was more interested in a new story book. So I was reading the book under the desk (the book was under the desk Einstein, not me) and this little bitch was sucking up to the teacher by standing by her desk giving her love while she talked and then walked over to my desk and dobbed me in.
I would have loved to have smacked him a good one but that would have only landed me in worse trouble because you don't beat up tattle tale teacher's pets and get away with it. Anyway to top it off, this teacher didn't like me at all for some reason and loved to pick on me. This was pure joy to her. Anyway, I ended up in deep shit and it went all the way to the headmistress. That's how the headmistress, Mrs. Loke came to know me. Two years later, she was probably the only adult in the school to believe in me and my potential. Too bad the very next year I moved up to secondary school where I suppose I sunk again. I also suppose all I needed was for someone to believe in me. I did mention self esteem issues didn't I?
No wonder I'm a mess.
I just played the most expensive golf game in my life. I played Bukit Utama by myself this morning. It was pretty good. Quiet and I had the whole course to myself. Was the first customer of the day.
Here's a bunch of events.
1. It was still poor light so I was wearing my spectacles to drive there.
2. They gave me a cart with hardly any charge left.
3. Cart gives up at 5th hole.
4. Transfer stuff to new cart after I send out SOS to club house.
5. Discover spectacles missing after I birdie the 6th hole.
6. Search and backtrack.
7. No spectacles.
8. Golf game now has a value of just over RM500.00 instead of RM48.oo
9. I had to be wearing my expensive pair that morning instead of the cheap pair.
10. Goddamit!
I walked over to 1Utama for the first time yesterday for dinner. No. I'd still have walked even if I could drive my car. It's that near.
Shortly after I'd walked into 1U, my cell phone rings. It's the delivery guy with the faulty x-ray vision. He says he's here to make the exchange so I tell him to wait 5 minutes and I'll be there. I go in and grab the box containing the tap. It's a little box (about 1' x 1') how big can a tap be? And the guy is walking in from his van carrying a BIG ass box. Stunned, I ask him what the hell is that? It's a grey sink. I explain to him kindly I've already got a grey sink. It's the tap that I want changed. He grumbles a bit. There's a 'Miss X' involved in his mutterings who is surely the charming young lady I spoke to yesterday over the phone.
I think I know who Miss X is. I've seen her and spoken to her at the shop itself. Shame really cos she's a bit of a hottie. She's quite sexy even without the tattoos on her neck and lower back. Viva la tramp stamp!!!! She just doesn't seem that bright that she doesn't know the difference between a basin and a tap. Then again, my only interest in her would be happy fun time not engage in a discussion about medieval poetry (and other brainy stuff). That and I'd like her to get my order right, dammit!
Had an interesting phone conversation yesterday evening.
My glass sink and tap finally arrived. I have been waiting more than a month for these things to come. Apparently the sink needed to be imported in. So after a long wait, hallelujah! They arrived. Only the tap wasn't the right colour. They're supposed to match. They're supposed to be black glass. The tap was clear glass. In the business, black glass is called grey. So I ring up.
Me: I just got my delivery and the tap is clear glass. It's supposed to be grey.
Her: Let me call the driver and call you back.
I waited over and hour and I didn't get a return call. So I call again.
Me: Hi, it's me again.
Her: I called the driver. He said he delivered a grey tap to you.
Me: (thinks: so both of you think I'm an idiot and I don't know the difference between a grey and clear tap?!) He didn't. I have here a clear glass tap.
Her: He said he gave you a grey tap.
Me: Oh really? Should I bring the tap over to you and you tell me what colour it is?
Her: .........
Me: Tell your delivery driver his x-ray vision's not working properly because not only did he give me the wrong colour he also didn't open the box in front of me to verify its contents.
Her: (after a pause) We'll exchange the tap as soon as we can.
Me: Thank you.
Yeh, I know I haven't been posting at anything like the rate at which I was going before I moved house.
Sorry. My bad.
But it's been one thing after another. Of course with the shift I was totally occupied with that. After moving, I went back for CNY and after I got back home I had to move my phone line over and get my internet connection going. TM took a while with the phone line. That's okay. They didn't move over my broadband connection till I called to complain. It was supposed to be done within 3 days of my phone line being active. So on the 3rd day with still no connection I rang TM.
Me: Another two working days?!?! (This was when I realised they hadn't done anything about activating my line.)
TM rep: Sorry....
Me: (sighs) That's alright. It's not your fault.
It wasn't her fault. It's the damn system.
I did post a coupla postings after that but then I fell ill and some fuckhead broke into my car and stole among other things, my car road tax. WTF?!? If I wasn't ill I'd be hiding in the bushes right now with a baseball bat near where I'd parked my car. Them bastards took my road tax, my SmartTag, all the money the could find in the car and (get this) my air freshener. They left behind my cheque books and two pairs of expensive sunglasses. And I know they didn't look in the boot. Guess it could have been worse. However, if I smell Ambi Pur on some bastard hanging around that area, I won't wait. I'll tag the cunt with the bat and without asking questions first.
So yeh. I been stuck at home all week. Surely with all the time I spend at home now, I would be connected? Nope. Not really. I don't have a place to sit down properly with my laptop. Don't have wireless at home so I am plugged into my modem which is beside my bed. The phone outlet which is in my office doesn't work.... That, where an office is concerned, is a HUGE stick in the spokes. Sitting on the floor with my laptop on the bedside table tends to put pins and needles in my legs and my ass goes numb after a while. It's already started to happen as I type this. Sitting on my bed with the laptop on my (well....) lap kinda gets really hot after a while.
I plan to buy a wireless router modem. I just need to get my road tax so I can actually go places. On the bright side, I haven't been spending much money since I can't go anywhere. The downside is is that I haven't been eating regularly since I haven't been able to drive my car. Eat at home? Cook? Sure. I just need to go get groceries yeh? Hop in the car and head out to buy some. No wait. I can't drive my car. Well.... that's fucked that.
If it wasn't for Barbsie bringing food for me, I'd have starved by now.
Oh yeh. And you might have realised that there was no way I could have taken to tap to the sales rep so she could have told me what colour it really is unless I walked all the way there. It's a really good thing she didn't take me up on my offer!
I'm getting rather concerned about the post office and their employees. I suppose it's good coincidence that I'm reading 'Going Postal' by Terry Pratchett at the moment.
I think my postman is illiterate, dyslexic, drinking on the job, smoking weed on the job and/or blind.
My house number is 27. I get both my next door neighbours' mail. So I put up my house number. Nice and big next to the mail box slot. I still get mail for #25 and #29.
I also get mail for #27. Only it's the wrong street. I get mail for 2/5, 2/1 and 2/9. I used to drop these wayward letters on my way out (or in). Now, I can't be bothered. To the residents of BU2, if you want your missing Astro Guide, it's probably with me.
Today, the second of March is a historic day. I am finally online. I would like to thank TM for getting me connected to the world once again. I also would not like to thank them for taking a week to move my phone line and another week to get my broadband connection going.
Ya bastards.
On a lighter note I have discovered why I had no signal for my sat/cable TV. There was No Satellite Dish. My thanks to the electrician who did such a good job of putting in the cable and concealing it within the walls and then forgetting to tell me that there was no dish on the roof. But it's ok. I had my Astro connected at 11pm last night. Crazy hardworking Astro installers. My next door neighbour was wondering what I was doing sending 2 guys up onto the roof at 10 o'clock at night.
Phone, broadband, cable.
Hello world!
