Thursday 23 May 2013

Who Moved my Cheese??

Who Moved My Cheese??

No, I'm not a mouse and I'm not looking for cheese. I'm not a cheese lover though I don't hate it either.
I'm talking about the book "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson.
It's a self help / business book about how to deal with change and the book tells the story of mice and little people who live in a maze, looking for cheese and how they deal with the situation when the cheese is moved unexpectedly. The cheese in this case is a metaphor of what you have in life; for example, work, money, relationships. Unlike most business books, it's very thin and use simple easy-to-understand words; perfect for a gal who reads for the fun of it.

We are sometimes too attached to our own 'cheese' that when change comes unexpectedly, we can not accept the fact that it is gone and therefore, unable to adapt to the change needed.



Change is healthy especially if you are already too long in your comfort zone, as if you have been stuck  for a while.
Gees, I sound so serious in this post. I think I better finish my mozzarella spinach sandwich before writing the next post.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Raining of books and books

A friend of mine went home for good last weekend and for the love of God, her suitcase was almost 20 kilograms overweight! Two years in Europe surely adds some pounds to the suitcase and her stuff. Sadly for her, she needs to leave some of her stuff here and fortunately for me, most of the stuff she had to leave are  books!
So suddenly I received tons of good books - she has good taste in books by the way- which will occupied me for the next gazillion weeks! Thanks friend! From "Freakonomics" to "super freakonomics" to "Three cups of Tea", can't wait to read them, if I have time of course ;)
In the meantime though, I need to finish my current book "Poirot Investigate," typical Agatha Christie mysteries with Poirot. My guilty pleasures! The book is a birthday gift from my friends anyway, thanks ladies!

Cloud Atlas

Just by chance me and husband decided to watch "Clould Atlas" on AppleTV last weekend. Not knowing the story nor reading the reviews, we have no expectation of the flick. It lasted almost 3 hours and we needed to have a one hour break in the middle just because it's too long for us to bear. By the time it finished  hubby was already in bed, leaving me alone the last 1 hour of the movie. It is not a mainstream kind of Hollywood movie - directed by or somehow related to the guys who made the Matrix- but I kinda like it. There are six stories which are somehow related to each other spanning different time periods, from  the slavery era to the distant future / post apocalyptic time.
What interest me the most is probably the way the actors play different characters in different stories, which leave me guessing the whole time which actor play which character in which story. More interestingly, the actors would sometime play characters from different races than their own, so we are talking about 'yellowface' make up here!
For example, this is Jim Sturgess and the second pic is him in character as a Korean. (pics from movieline.com and jimsturgessonline.com).



Here are some more pics I got from nytimes.com

Definitely a must watch!.

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Star Trek into Darkness


Thanks to my Mom who is here on vacation, I was able to watch "Star Trek Into Darkness" in cinema last Sunday eve, leaving Rania under her care and dragging hubby of course to accompany me. 
It's probably a bit weird to see a woman in her 30's going eagerly to see a Star Trek movie. Have to admit, I'm a trekkie. I have always showed an appreciation towards science fiction movies or stories since I can remember. When I was five, I saw this Japanese robot TV show and decided I wanted to be an astronaut to explore space. I did not become one but I ended up taking Physics as my major, and graduated with a degree. Pfffuuuh. Not bad for someone who chooses physics as major, expecting to discuss warp machine, time travel and klingon in the classroom (which were of course, never discussed). Mom said that when she was expecting with me she read "Close Encounter Of The Third Kind" and that probably explains my tendencies on science fiction babble. FYI, the movie is about making physical contact with extra terrestrial. Ahem.  
Anyway, about the STID movie, I loved it, totally totally loved it. It cleverly shows a good combination of action, mystery and drama. I like the fact that the characters stay true to their known personalities and some connections to a previous movie, in this case "The Wrath of Khan", are added.  
Of course there are some inside jokes that only a Trekkie would understand, such as when Chekov is asked to put on a ‘red shirt’, but the rest are reasonable.  
A friend who happened to watch the movie in the same theatre told me, a reason she watched it is because of the actor of one of the main protagonist: 
Benedict Cumberbatch. 
He’s probably best known as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series “Sherlock.” 
I, along with other 30-40 millions female viewers who have watched the show went head over heels with his blunt, sharp gaze and deep voice. 
Here he is as Sherlock.
 And here he is as "John Harrison" in STID
He can be seen again in Season 3 of "Sherlock", but in the meantime, I will have my twinings tea and watch a re-run of Sherlock season 2. 

Sunday 12 May 2013

Another "guilty" post. What matters most.

...And it's been another 4 -5 months after my last post. *raise hand and scream "Guilty"*

It's been a little hectic nowadays, except for my home-office work, I've been busy doing some 'research' on something. I'll tell all later what the research is all about when the time comes  :))

My book has been doing well but I'm stuck with the nationwide distribution, though many have sent me their praises privately; and for me that's what matters most.

Once you get older, life is all about priority and putting what matters most upfront and what less behind. Yeah, now that I'm a year older 2 weeks ago (happy birthday to me!!), I have some thoughts spinning in my head such as, work vs Rania vs my book vs (taking care of) house vs other stuff. Of course Rania and the house should come first and the rest second and third and forth and so on.

Perhaps not everyone knows that my little cupcake is not the easiest child to manage in her pre-school, as she is unable to speak to certain teachers or adults in some situations. Since she is now 4 years old and next thing I know, tomorrow she'd start kindergarten and primary school. So I'm really thinking to 'drop' everything and focus on her and her alone. You see, Rania is different to other child her own age when it comes to personality. She's an introvert girl who sometimes unable to express her feelings to total strangers or people she does not trust. Sadly, most of the adults who sees her behaviour thinks that she has this stubbornness or resentment towards authority figures, such as a teacher. And this makes her behaviour even worse in some situations.

Now, about what matter most. During my birthday two weeks ago, I learned that it's important to surround yourself with people who are smarter than yourself, friends who love you and respect you for who you are, friends who are sincere and won't expect anything in return. Life is too short to spend it with friends or people who suck out the happiness out of your life.