Mood: Festive and a little broke (damn you santa!!!)
Currently listening to: The Impression That i Get - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Was too exhausted to post yesterday, somehow managed to collapse on my bed at about 10pm which is novel for me... ;p

Not much happened yesterday anyhow, just the usual gym + swimming although i did do a large amount of gardening with my mother, decorated the house for Christmas, and washed my car with Paul. Yeah it all added up... *groan*

Hung out with my brother most of today, he says he'd like to write a post sometime in the future but he's usually never around at this time - the damn party animal (in fact he's out christmas carolling with his girlfriend right now). Anyhow, went shopping at Megamall and Bangsar Shopping Center and in the end we didn't buy anything - except for my Xmas gift, which consisted of 10 Villige cigarillos (is that how its spelt?) and one large cohiba... awww, thanks bro... (now whaddaya want?) ;p

Well, at least we got an idea as to what to get for my mother and father - full body massages at RM150 each! Its sort of like a 'de-stress' program (which, given sons like us i'm sure they'll appreciate), and its right next to our place to boot... how's that for convenience? Also need to buy two generic gifts at RM10 a piece... its a new family policy where instead of our usual Xmas buying/guessing wars for 'non-direct' (and i mean that in the loosest way) family members, the mature ones, just get a bunch of gifts together and dump it in a bag whereby its distributed to them, luck draw style, on Xmas... Seems a bit thoughtless but gifts are a major hassle in my family so this was some sort of mutual agreement they all reached together... (that and i'm sure one of my evil aunts will still buy some 'thoughtful' and 'expensive' gifts just to screw it all up *grin*) ;)

Hrmmm... what to get for my bro? Thinking of a PS2 controller which he needs but i'm not sure if his girlfriend is getting one for him as well... AND i don't have her number! *argh* In the meantime Paul is pissing his pants with trying to figure out what to buy for her dad that would impress him - oh, and he's not a judge (my bad!) but the number 2 dude at RHB bank... what DO you get for a guy who has literally got everything? Good luck bro... i still say some tickets to the Philharmonic (courtesy of mom's membership) would be much appreciated by him... ;)

Played some squash and then had dinner with the parents followed by a bit of 'road exploration' by yours truly... (its just where i drive aimlessly around for an hour or two trying to get a grip on the KL road system - which i maintain seems to have been designed by some insane, cross-eyed architect on a number of exotic, and VERY illegal, substances).

Well finished the book i was reading... The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein (courtesy of Australian National University! Hehe, thanks again to Janice's hostel). Its set in the near future in a sort of post-nuclear world, with a cold war still going on, which is invaded by sentient alien parasites who attach themselves to the backs of people and take over all control of their bodies in order to quietly take over the world (by taking control of our key leaders of course). The book follows a special agent named Sam (yup, just Sam) and his boss The Old Man, who try to expose what is happening to the US government and stop the alien menace... I found the book pretty damn good altogether (then again, i'm a sucker for sci-fi), with some pretty cool characters and technology, the society he predicts in the near future, and some cunning plot twists... but best of all are the absolutely hilarious moments in the book when, in order to combat the alien menace, the US government orders Operation 'Bareback' forcing everyone to walk around topless... and then when the aliens manage to get around even THAT, Project 'Suntan'... Imagine a world where everyone is pretty much just wearing a g-string and... er... you get the picture. ;)

Great book, i would heartily recommend it to any sci-fi afficionados out there! On a side note, Abe told me that this was the book that started the whole 'alien parasite taking over human host' thing (and admittedly its a pretty old book)... that and Heinlein is actually the author of Starship Troopers - one of my fave movies of all time! ;p

Hmmm... what to read next? Currently reading through Readers Digest Vanished Civilizations but that's not really a book now is it? Noticed a copy of Lee Kuan Yew's From Third World to First - The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 so will pick that up for a change of pace... Also saw a copy of Daughter of China by Meihong Xu and Larry Engelmann but i think i've read it before (UPDATE: just realised that i HAVE read it before - Lee Kwan Yew it is... hmmm, signed copy no less)...

Wah, haven't read anyone's blogs for a while now! Must get around to it... but in the meantime, need sleep...

Today's Links:

Computex 2003 Booth Girls - I looooove booth girls! Check out the crazy outfits! ;)

VH1 Behind the Music: Saddam Hussein: Can the Baghdad Fad Stage a Comeback, or is he Vanilla Iced? - Parody article putting the whole Iraq war in the way those glossy tabloids talk about various rock/music stars have their little... er... 'issues' with each other. "You know, most other people six feet under are dead, and it’s really a wonder he isn’t, with all he’s been through," said Hussein’s former bass player, Donald "Rummy" Rumsfeld. "I mean, I can’t tell you all the times I’ve seen him bombed. No one else could keep up with that lifestyle. We left whole neighborhoods buried in rubble, yet he’d bounce out of it smelling like a rose. You almost thought he was immortal. But then he vanishes, and the next time you see him, they’re picking lice out of his hair."See what i mean? Hilarious! ;p

As a consumer thinketh... - "Simply using focus groups, surveys, or common sense just isn't good enough anymore for the marketing industry. Now it is eyeing a medical technology known as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to see how people's brains react to certain products." Welcome to the new world of neuro-marketing people...

Let them eat war: Why do the very Americans who have been hurt the most by George W. Bush's policies still support his presidency? - "George W. Bush is sinking in the polls, but a few beats on the war drum could reverse that trend and re-elect him in 2004. Ironically, the sector of American society now poised to keep him in the White House is the one which stands to lose the most from virtually all of his policies -- blue-collar men." That's a real good question right there...

Frontline Photos - Courtesy of the US Marine Corps. These are pictures of the lives of the soldiers posted there in Iraq and Afghanistan, quite interesting to browse through as it gives a better feel for what they're doing down there.