NEVER TOO OLD FOR CARTOONS

One of the best ways to destress after a tiring or stressful (duh!) time at work would be to do it with cartoons. Yes, cartoons. Preferably one that you thoroughly enjoy watching. It doesn't have to be funny, smart, well drawn or one that makes sense, so long as you enjoy it. 

My favourites are Phineas and Ferb (disney channel) and Chowder (cartoon network).

Phineas and Ferb

Stepbrothers Phineas and Ferb are engineering prodigies who produces engineering marvels during their summer vacations, right in their backyard. Candance, their sister tries to get them 'busted' by running to their mother every time she finds them 'up to no good' with one of their projects. 

Lucky for them, mom never really gets to see any of their projects (unless they are making it for her) and they get away scot-free while Candance vows time and again to 'catch' them on their next attempt. 

It's predictable after awhile, but the formula really diminishes any form of suspense (and in at least one of the episodes, they actually got caught!) which gives you peace of mind after a long day at the office. The writers' level of creativity in trying to replay the formula in every episode is also mind-blogging. And they write damn good songs too!

Oh, and before I forget, that teal and orange coloured animal at the edge of the surfboard with the two lead characters is their pet platypus who is a secret agent, Agent P. Got your attention yet? Here's what he looks like when he is not Perry, the platypus.

Agent P receiving orders at his headquarters interrupted by the Disney Channel crew.

Some of the favourite catchphrases that fans of the show would know are:

Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today - Phineas

Busted! - Candance

Hey, where's Perry? - just about anyone in the cast 

Oh, there you are Perry - just about anyone in the cast who sees Perry

Mo-o-om! Phineas and Ferb are [insert current project description] - Candace

What-cha doin'? - Isabella, girl who has a crush on Phineas

... and etcetera

Keep an eye out for Perry's nemesis, Doofenshmirtz in some of his crazy, wacky schemes to take over the Tri-State area (he's starting small, people), his tendency to monologue to Agent P before he carries out his plan, and his inability to trump Perry every single time (just gets better every time).

Doofus... I mean Doofenshmirtz, Agent P's arch enemy and playmate

Professor Doofenshmirtz's wacky contraptions (usually machines that end with the word -enator) destroys Phineas and Ferb's projects, right before they get caught by mom. So, he's good for something after all!

Chowder

 It's Chow time!

This is Chowder. I don't know what he is. Some say he is a cross between a bear, a cat and a rabbit. I just call him a boy with an incredible fascination for food who is an apprentice to a chef that makes weird food for their customers. Anyways, he gets to work in a kitchen and does not complain about anything except being denied access to any food, tasty or not. He lives with his si fu, Chef Mung (although I think that sometimes Chowder just calls him Mom - Mung and Mom sound alike to my old ears), Shnitzel (a stone-like monster that only says Radda radda but the characters still understand him anyways) and Truffles (Mung's wife who seems to have forgotten that women were supposed to be the feminine and weaker sex). 

 From left: Schnitzel 'Radda', Mung 'Mom', Chowder and Truffles 'Hardcakes'

Chowder also finds a friend in Gazpacho a fruit-seller who looks like an elephant and who works at the market, and a girlfriend (although he usually screams at her that he is not her boyfriend) in Panini.

 From left: Gazpacho

 From left: Chowder, and Panini in one of her hyperventilating mode

Panini and Chowder probably shares the most powerful love story in the history of cartoon network. I kid. His level of panic-ness speaks for itself about how much he loves her deep down inside. I kid again. Basically, he shows openly what most men feel deep down inside (especially after a one-night stand with a psychotic woman). 

Have fun, people!

 

Book Review: The Angel's Game

I attempted Zafon's second book, The Angel's Game last week. While I took close to a month to finish The Shadow of the Wind (see review below), also by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, having read TSOW somehow sped up my reading speed on the Angel's Game. Now on to the review.

Yes, I read this. In three days. 

I preferred TSOW, that was safe enough to say. Simply because I didn't feel cheated by TSOW. With the Angel's Game, I am tempted to say that Zafon did not try hard enough. 

But first... a synopsis (partial spoilers included)

David Martin, the protagonist, was given a chance to write a short story when the editor at the newspaper he was working for could not find anyone to replace a spot in the paper at the very last minute. Martin wrote with all his heart, established a storyline that left his readers wanting more and became a regular at the column until colleagues started succumbing to the evils of envy and start ocstracising him. He was subsequently fired and commissioned to write installments of City of the Damned for two blood-sucking publishers that milked him for all he had, but not before he was able to secure a mansion worthy of mention in the gothic series he created. 

Halfway through the writing process, Cristina, a girl he developed a crush on seeks his help and pointed out that he is better than the dark novels he is writing. He sets out to prove her right, and impress her, by refusing to continue writing what his contract required him to... and started writing what his heart tells him to. 

So far so good...

After a barrage of cruel twists of fate swarm Martin's life, he is approached by a gentleman named Andreas Corelli to write a religious-based book ala the Bible. That's when things begin to get weird. 

And don't get me started on the ending because you're not going to like it.

MAJOR SPOILERS ahead (here's when I start bitching):

Note: Bitching is a harsh word by the way but at the moment, no other word will correctly and quietly surmise what I'm about to do. 

For pete's sake (whoever Pete is, I'm sorry), is the guy schizo or is the devil he was making a deal with killing everyone? Who the heck is this Marlasca fella and what does he have to do with Martin apart from having lived in the home Martin bought? What's up with Irene, Valera, the witch and Salvador? And that last scene? What? Bringing Cristina back in the form of a child is supposed to make Martin feel better? worse? confused?

Sigh...

I want answers! But only because TSOW was so freaking awesome and easily explainable. By the last one-third of the book, everything began to take shape, falling into place in this huge jigsaw puzzle years in the making, and everything was explainable by someone, some reason or some cause. There were solid answers and it wasn't explained away by supernatural means like how TAG was... which left me sorely disappointed.

My futile attempts at sanity

Here are some of my answers as to what may have happened to David Martin during the course of the TAG storyline:

1. Martin died somewhere along the way and this was just something he was going through in purgatory. 

Status of theory: LAME - because you can't really make a deal with the Devil and still be able to meet with people you love, develop relationships with people you like and try to endure people that you hate (deep down inside). If you can, that's called cheating.

2. Martin was a schizo and he is going through a coping mechanism which was what Corelli was in essence.

Status of theory: WORKABLE - because let's face it, the guy has a lousy life and oh, let me count the ways.

(a) Dude had to contend with living with an abusive father.

(b) Dude loses abusive father to a bunch of thugs.

(c) Dude receives only a gun and not enough bullets from his father (hint hint)

(d) Dude develops a crush on Cristina, the daughter of a chauffer. She isn't even that interesting.

(e) Dude loses Cristina to Vidal, the only guy who made most of his life worth living for through multiple acts of charity and under-the-table opportunities.

(f) Dude finds out that Vidal was also the cause that his father died.

(g) Dude also gets the news that the book he wrote for Vidal was getting awesome reviews and selling like hotcakes, without him getting any credit, and worst of all, his only attempt at impressing Cristina gets shelved quicker than he can say "unfair-much".

(h) Dude's mom is not much of a reader - throws the book he wrote away like a piece of trash and that was the last we read of her throughout the whole book.

(i) If you are still looking for more things Martin can be sad about in this list, then you really should just read the book... I'm too sad to list anything else.

(j) At this point, any sane person would one, kill himself or herself or two, go crazy. I'm guessing Martin took route no.2.

So he develops Corelli who gives him something to do... write another book with an imaginary reward, a huge sum of money. And whoever gets in the way, get bummed off, permanently. What he experiences (as he narrates them, unreliably) and what really happened (as heard by someone else who had conversation with him) splits at the fork on the road, multiple times throughout the whole book, ending with him needing to run and live in recluse on an island somewhere because regardless of whether or not he killed all those people, they will hang him for sure, if they catch him. He finds refuge in Corelli bringing him Cristina in the form of a child, with partial memories of her remembering what they had before she was coldly taken away from him under a layer of ice.  

3. Martin did take up the bargain to write for Corelli and somehow Corelli is doing all the dirty deeds.

Status of theory: WORKABLE with conditions - At the end of the book Corelli is basically telling Martin that he only took Cristina away from him and he was sorry and so Corelli brought her back to him. The action was to be interpreted also as a punishment he had for Martin because Martin renegade on him about the book he promised to write but did not finish... Martin would see Cristina grow up, grow old and die, leaving him all alone as he is cursed, damned to live an ageless life all on his own.

This also basically tells us that everything else was done by him, as pointed out by Grandes who says that the angel brooch has always been on Martin's lapel since the first day Grandes met Martin. 

But it does not explain what Diego Marlasca and Ricardo Salvador had to do with all of this. There must be a link between David Martin and Diego Marlasca apart from the same initials and the fact that they lived in the same house, but the link is not apparent to this reader. Maybe whoever it is that lives in that house gets commissioned to write by Corelli. Maybe Marlasca disguised himself as Salvador to hide from Corelli. Maybe Zafon should have just left out that back story and work on expanding Martin's life more - like his mother, why she left his poor father - or Isabella - maybe listen in on more of her conversations with the bookseller, Sempere's son (Daniel Sempere's father) because her conversations with Martin are brilliant - the thing I enjoyed most throughout the book.

On a light-hearted note, I loved how he described Sempere Snr and delivered the backstory about how Isabella came to be Daniel's mother and how Daniel's dad is such a good-looking but 'slow' klutz. He didn't write much about the Cemetery of the Forgotten Books but personally I think he did a pretty good job about it in TSOW. 

I just wished he did better with TAG. I wonder if I am asking too much. On to the next book, woo-hoo!

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind

Haven't really had the time to update my blog much. Apologies aside, life is good and busy (which is to me, always good news) and look, I finished a book.

The Shadow of the WInd by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I bought the book from book vouchers awarded by my current company for hitting targets set for the team I was involved in. I had a thing for the cover, to tell you the truth and it was just about the reason that made me trade the voucher for it without a second thought. Who says you shouldn't judge a book by its cover?

It is the first time I find it torturous to read a book, but it wasn't because the book was horrible. In fact, it was... amazing.

The book was splendid, but I did not have the time to really sit down and devour the Shadow of the Wind in one sitting. And so, I scraped the minutes left at the bottom of the barrel (more precisely what little time I had after my daughter finally sleeps and before I had to) to run through the pages, sometimes 20 in one go, sometimes 5. It was the first time I understood what unputdownable felt like - doesn't mean I could stomach it though, mind you - but the storyline, it was spell-binding.

I seriously could not detach myself from the pages. I had to know what happens next - the book has that effect on you. The writing is beautiful, smooth and intelligent. Yes, I would use intelligent writing to describe the Shadow of the Wind, seriously. It makes you go, wow, if only I could write like that. And I have this habit of always guessing what the ending would be like. I had some hits, and some misses; but you know how it is that when you find an ending predictable, you just hate that you guessed it and ruined the story for yourself? Didn't happen for this book. It keeps you on your toes. The moment you find out the answer to one riddle, the next one is already pulling you along.

You can easily find the synopsis on the blurb or anywhere else online. You will see a pattern in all those synopses. No one is willing to divulge more than what is necessary and that is, the introduction alone. One, they don't want to ruin it for you and two, it is just not explainable in a single article. In short, you have to read the book.

And it would be a really fun experience.

In my own words...

Daniel Sempere, a boy of preteen wisdom is led to the Cemetery of Forgotten books by his father who tells him that he gets to choose any book that he wants from this library for of lost literature, and keep it. Daniel does and he brings home The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. After reading the story, Daniel felt that he needed more books written by Julian (I know how that feels like, Daniel) and is surprised to find that a mysterious figure has been going around buying and burning books written by Carax.

We then follow Daniel through the years as he uncovers layers upon layers of Carax's life, the people that he leaves behind and what actually happened to Carax. Along the way, we meet friends and enemies of Daniel. Fermin is a favourite character of mine - you either hate him or love him, anyways - and Fumero seriously scares the daylight out of me. The way Carlos writes, you can't help but enter the lives of his characters. Yes, his ability to turn characters on print into real people is astonishing. By the end of chapters, you suddenly can see Penelope, Jorge, Miquel, Nuria and Jacinta and remember what they went through in their lives. You feel their pain, horror, trials and tribulations. You experience their lives through Carlos' writing.

There are so many characters in the story that you lose count, but you know who they each are. We explore the lives of these people, how they are entangled with each other through relationships that came about from other relationships etc. Relationships is a huge theme in this book, as is Love - the kind you lose and the kind you wish you had lived for. The plots in the storyline are worthy of movie scripts yet the literature involved is worthy of being categorized as classics.

Apparently, he has several more books written already. The one that has hit stores here in Malaysia is the Angel's Game a prequel to The Shadow of the Wind.
Can't wait to get it. Also looking for the Prince of Mist but it isn't available here yet. Will Carlos be the reason I will attempt Amazon before I am ready? Time always tells.

CUT THE CRAP

It's the sixth day of the Chinese New Year and the 50th day of the year 2010.

I have three dead bodies behind me who somehow are still breathing (very loudly - kinda like a snore, oops... I've said too much). I'm freezing from the cold blaring air from the old and surprisingly still workin AC above me. Apart from the hiii-huuu sounds the background, it's all quiet.

Yes, CNY this year is very quiet. At home, it's because I've just lost an uncle exactly a month ago today, and we are not allowed to loudly celebrate or welcome the new year. But outside of the house, the fireworks are not as crazy, there is no music and even the atmosphere is not CNY-like. It just feels like any other holiday, which is really sad.

After the authorities banned fireworks and mercun or firecrackers, made it impossible to play CNY music unless it is really old or it is sung in karaoke version (so that we won't infringe any copyright and will die of boredom) and made the political situation in Malaysia dominate most of the newspapers out there... we have but the PETRONAS, tmnet and Digi ads left to remind us that it is already the lunar new year. And since we've lost Yasmin last year, frankly, I wasn't looking forward to much.

So if the cny celebrations goes kaputz in a decade or so, I am blaming the authorities, yes, the government for making it so hard for us to celebrate who we are. And no, 1Malaysia does not cut it. It is a propaganda, not a culture. It is a ploy, not tradition. And for those who think it better to merge all the different riches and cultures that make up the people of Malaysia, I say to you, cut the crap.

Look at yourself. You are who you are. Not what the news, a party or a man says who you are. Call me old fashioned if you will, but I am one kacang who will not lupa my kulit.

SEPARATION ANXIETY for parents

Okay, it has been a busy start to the new year but people need to eat and blogs need updating. And I found the perfect think to write about: Separation anxiety.

It's baby-related okay?

Anyways, once a baby starts recognizing people around her, like her mom, or pop, it will develop a sense of security and thus can sense when there is a lack of it. Hence, when the baby is around strangers or people that they do not know, they will cling on tighter to those that they do, suckle on the pacifier more frantically or try to not move as much as possible until a person that it is familiar with enters the room, upon which it will do whatever it takes to hitch a ride on that familiar person out of the room that is filled with strangers.

I had to learn about separation anxiety the hard way.

Yesterday Eva was taking her one-hour nap in the evening. Seeing as she has gone to sleep, I went off to take my evening bath. My husband is in another room, tapping away on his laptop, absorbed in work. When I was done, I heard the frantic crying of Eva from inside the room and rushed to her 'rescue'. Judging from the amount of teardrops pooled on her cheeks, she had been crying for a while. It was quite hard to get her to stop but eventually she did and she slept off the fatigue after a bottle of milk.

At 325 am last night she began crying again, this time for milk. I was too tired to get up and so my husband did, only to come back with water instead of milk. By that time, Eva had been crying too long that she refused the milk that I made after and would not, for the love of god, STOP crying. This continued for a good half hour. The father and I kept awake until we could get her to finally stop crying by giving her toys to play with and showing her colourful pictures on the PC. In the middle of the night. Yes. It was torture.

I was beginning to think that a bug might have bit her or she had an upset stomach but it wasn't any of that. It was due to separation anxiety, which I only found after my dinnertime just now, at the babysitter's place.

According to her, babies need a sense of security by the people they know. When you leave the room, they cry immediately or if they have a particular favourite, they would cling to that person regardless of who else was in the room. In my case, the first time I left her in the room crying cemented an idea that her crying will not get me in the room quick enough, and so she has to cry really long, hard and loud. Which was why the second crying session happened in the middle of the night.

Her advice? "If she makes a sound or two in the middle of the night, reassure her that you are around and that she can continue sleeping because you are there. If she returns to sleep, she just needs reassurance. If she stirs some more, she needs something, perhaps she is thirsty or hungry, or her diaper needs changing or she is warm and needs to be relocated."

She adds that "being a mother is a full time job where there is no one to listen to your complaints. You just gotta be there for your kids and be the one that they fully depend on until they grow up and leave the house."

So true.

New Year, New Everything

After leaving my previous company on the last day of 2009, I had what, three days of rest, which did not amount to much when you have an 8-mth old slave-driver.

I started at my new job on the 4th of Jan, worked all the way until yesterday, the 15th of Jan before I could turn my alarm clock off and sleep till the sun shines on my butt. But I am not complaining because it was a whole lot of fun.

The best part about it was I had a chance to work with young adults (old kids) physically, and it was good in the sense that their enthusiasm and willingness to learn rubbed off on me, a sceptic that has been through four years in the working society. After being put through the working class crash course, we see our dreams drift away, unfairness in the office and see ourselves being taken for granted or overworked for peanuts. So, it was a good experience to forget all this and for awhile (even if it was just two days) remember what it was like to have dreams, and the world at the tip of your hands.

The new office was a huge change to my previous two jobs, working-condition-wise. One of the best features was that I did not have to punch in or out; nobody keeps track on when you come in to work or what time you left for home the previous night. The downside to this is that there is a reason this came to be, and I'm quite sure it's not because the boss is a generous bloke (he's in truth a really nice guy, down-to-earth and gets his hands dirty all the time).

Whatever it was that they told you in the interview room, they expect more from you when you are become an actual staff member. One, you have to help out with the events that were carried out by the company, including fairs, dinners, team-building adventures, get-together lunch, seminars, etc. In this month alone, I helped out at a fair and next week there will be an appreciation dinner for company clients.

The new job truthfully is taking a lot of my personal time, either from introducing me to fatigue that prevents me from enjoying my daughter's company after working hours, or by making me work weekends and staying back after the dusk. But I do have a better sense of accomplishment in what I do, and I'm making more of a difference (even if it is just a little bit more) currently than I have in the past four years.

I'm just hoping that the sacrifices I've had to make is worth it on the long run.