Kino Kitty

I popped by at Kinokuniya very briefly on Wednesday to do the last of my main Christmas shopping and came across this little collectible. I bought one. I somehow can’t resist Kinokuniya merchandise.

It’s a Trexi toy [site] produced by Play Imaginative and it retails for $13.90. If you’re a member you get 30% off which makes it about ten bucks. It’s about three inches tall. Limbs are articulated so it’s poseable to some degree. The top half of the head is removable so that you can change its expression [see here]. I didn’t photograph the other face, but it’s cuter, I think. The red eyes can get a little freaky. But otherwise I quite like it.

Meanwhile, I also went to the National Museum that day in the wonderful company of Huitian. The Pompeii exhibition is pretty good, but it might have been better if both of us had had a little more sleep.

Most of my Christmas shopping is done. Plans for the new site are becoming more concrete. FYP sees a bit of progress (not enough maybe) but I’ll keep at it. Oh and I have a new monitor; the old one had some problems.

Also, I’ll have to plug the new Humble Indie Bundle. [via Humble Indie Bundle] Five excellent games (well I haven’t played all of them, but that’s as far as I can tell) under a name-your-price scheme (DRM-free and available for Windows, Mac and Linux too) with the proceeds going to charity. What else could you ask for? I remember the first bundle being excellent and having great service too, which I was not expecting at all. (They’ve recently negotiated for activation on Steam, for instance.) So give them your support, do some charity, get one for yourself and some for your friends, so we can all have a merry Christmas.

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Books And Wilco

Book Outings

Kinokuniya is having a Thursday-to-Saturday sale, and I’ll be down twice, I think, with different people. Got a couple of special things to look for, a couple of orders, and a couple of gifts. Apart from that, I believe it’ll be the usual stuff, just hoping to spruce up my own library with a mixture of new fiction, classics and non-fiction.

I hope I don’t spend too big, but sometimes, you see a really pretty and rare photography book or the like and it’s just too hard to resist.

So, just to make sure I don’t go crazy with my cash, I’m going to try to keep it to about five novels comprised mainly of new books and one or two of the classics. Then I’m going to add a science book, and possibly a general interest book. If anything else strikes my fancy, I’ll cap it at a maximum of two. And if there really is a rare photography book or some other sort of lovely tome that I feel I just have to have, then I suppose it’s just too bad.

In any case, I’m not planning too much this time. I’ll just pop by and improvise.

Been Busier

I’ve been writing, as you probably know. Finished drafting the third chapter yesterday. I got stuck on what to do for the fourth, so I didn’t do anything. I’m making reasonable progress, I think. I’ve been busier, but this pace has been pretty good. I just hope I don’t neglect The River and fail to make any sort of submission. The writing on Bukit Merah is somewhat unplannable (if that’s not a word, I made it up), but the submission is something I can actually arrange into some kind of a schedule, so for now, I’m just going to go with the writing.

That’s assuming, of course, that my mind doesn’t go blank when faced with the prospect of making a submission. I suspect it will, and if you take it that way, I suppose you can call this self-denial instead.

80

Faber & Faber, one of my favourite publishing houses, turns 80, and has a bunch of celebratory events lined up. [via Faber & Faber]

Entitlement

I was checking my RSS feeds and I saw Neil Gaiman with a nice journal entry about writing and the nature of the job. [via Neil Gaiman]

Signal Leakage

Wilco’s upcoming album was leaked, and this article describes the sort of buzz the subsequent actions taken by the band and vendors that was generated. [via billboard]

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New Loot

Dropped by at Kinokuniya, got a couple of presents for a couple of people, and also added to my library. Here’s what came in through the window:

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
Mark Haddon

I’ve read this before, actually, but I just had to add it to my library. It was also a long time ago since I read it, so I thought it would be a good time to make the purchase. It’s a book I remember being tremendously amused with, actually, and I’m very fond of it.

Waiting For Godot
Samuel Beckett

I have no theatre on my shelves, and I figured that that grievance had to be addressed. Something I know and love to begin with.

By Night In Chile
Roberto Bolaño

I’m devouring 2666 rather happily (more on that some other time), and so far the one affirmation I’ve had from it is that Bolaño is a magnificent writer. I’m keen to explore a bit more, so I’m starting with this.

Your Inner Fish
Neil Shubin

This volume is a natural history book exploring the evolution of the human body. I’ve had my eye on it for quite a while now, and now that the paperback is out, I’m happy to see my first science book in quite a bit. (I think the last Science book I bought was a Feynman, and that was the middle of last year, if memory serves.)

Selected Poems
T.S. Eliot

Eliot is one of the most important of writers to me, so it’ll probably seem more than a bit strange if I told you now that I gave away or sold all of my Eliot. A recent quote invoked by a friend of mine reminded me that it was high-time I restored Eliot to my shelf, and so here he is, in a lovely ff edition.

Murder In The Cathedral
T.S. Eliot

As a combination of the two previous points on Eliot and theatre, I also got my hands on an Eliot play. I’ve never read this before, and now’s as good a time as any, though that’s just a euphemism of a sort, since it’ll be a while before I get to it.

All in all, it went slightly over my budget, and I got a gift for someone whom I probably shouldn’t have got a gift for, but I think we’re doing well, especially with the return of science, the restoration of Eliot and the first seeds of theatre. All very good.

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Oh school again.

Oh Yes

Bright and merry on a Wednesday morning, it’s off to school again. Not so eager, not so keen, but hey, what’s the worst that could happen?

That said, I didn’t do quite as much as I’d have liked during the break. Some Math, mostly, as well as a bit of reading, visiting of my grandparents, confirmed that I’ve just been ridiculously happy ever since 2009 began, and just about nothing else. The plot goes good, however, the new one I was thinking of, and New Year’s Day is trickling along, though very slightly.

I didn’t get round to doing the querying for The River, although it did strike me that a couple of fairly large chunks would have to be edited. Quick adjustments though, so I’ll be jotting them down some time today, I think.

Happiness Is A…

Strange. This new mood. I think I’m getting old. Buzzing with positivity for no good reason at all. At best, that could be called foolish. At worst, dangerous. Ah but you shouldn’t complain about being happy. I mean, that just doesn’t make sense. Let’s see where this goes.

Short Weeks

School looks like this: Three days this week, short day today, then a long one, and one that is potentially long though most likely short; the weekend; Monday kicks off a brand-new week and it is one of the rare Mondays that will be long because of lab, though I get to work together with three very nice people for the lab; Tuesday is long; free Wednesday (phew); Thursday and Friday should be about the same as this week; and the weekend returns.

Not looking too bad.

And then it’s another week. Sigh.

Book Outing

I’m going shopping soon. If any one of my immediate friends would like to join me on my book outing to Kinokuniya, it’ll be Wednesday to Friday, depending on how it works out. I’m moderately flexible.

Off to school.

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I Will Not Yield, Deadlines!!

Have At You!

Curiously, this semester has the unnatural trait of having almost zero deadline pressure. Last semester, I was fighting with deadlines every other day, as if I had new projects every week. No such thing this semester. In fact, it’s been relatively stress-free as far as assignments have been concerned. It’s really been more a matter of tests and labs.

Well, that happy period is over and this week, all of the subjects come knocking with their own versions of projects. I can’t say I haven’t been expecting it, but it’s certainly starting to feel more like school.

Strange, though, it’s nearly the end of the semester.

In any case, it looks like it’ll be a busy time for me.

Book Outing

If anyone wants to go shopping at Kinokuniya, I’ll be at the central store on Friday. Unless something bad happens like my house gets attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and three ninja kittens. Then I’ll go on Saturday. Drop me a line if you’ll be there.

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