Summer

That's how I usually spend my summer...minus the beach.

This summer will be different. Sure, I want to watch anime. I plan to. And I'll read manga too if I get the chance. And, of course, I'll indulge myself in some Pokemon.

I also plan to read some books. I haven't yet completed the Left Behind series that I started over a year ago. I haven't even read Wuthering Heights yet. I gave Wuthering Heights a start so now I'm at chapter 3. I've got a long way more to go, though. I've set it as the book I'll read at night when I'm ready for bed. Considering the language, I understand it best when I'm relaxed at the end of the day. My treat before I sleep.

But I intend to get into doing more useful things in life. I've mentioned before that I'm starting to learn Mandarin. I haven't learnt as much as I would've liked to over the semester but I have learnt just a little bit. As I may have the opportunity to go to Shanghai for the expo (not confirmed yet), I'll do my best to study the language more rigorously as I have the time.

I'm not sure of what other productive stuff I'll end up doing but it'll be interesting, I'm sure.

As yesterday was Mother's day, I figured I'd show off a little of what I did for my Mum. I made her a card and some origami flowers. I think this one big flower turned out quite lovely. My present was well loved. ^_^.

Wuthering Heights

I was staring at one of my bookshelves last night while waiting for my Dell to be responsive and I kept eyeing this one particular book: Wuthering Heights.

It's a book that I got from my Aunt years and years ago and it belonged to one of my cousins so it's fairly old. It's been sitting there on the shelf in its wonderfully nice cover for so many years. I attempted reading it awhile ago but it never did quite work out. I can't recall how much of it i managed to conquer but I'm pretty sure it wasn't much at all. I was probably about 11 or 12 and I really just couldn't handle the language! I believe I gave it another go around 14 but still it was too much...and so after the second attempt, it was placed on the shelf and has been settled there ever since.

So I picked up this age-old book to find the cover looking as nice as ever whilst the pages brown away on the inside. Yup. So old they've gone past yellow and started turning brown. Looks a little like parchment. I flipped the pages. I read two chapters. I needed a dictionary.

I don't know if you can really tell but it's not white as it should be...and the edges are the prettiest of browns

Haha it's quite sad really. I can take on the language now but the vocabulary is still as foreign to me as ever. In all of 2 chapters, I looked up about 5 words but no matter. I still found it enjoyable. Exams are coming up though, so I'll pick up from where I left off during the vacation...after I return from my trip.

There are many books for me to read over the vacation! And so little time to do it in. I guess we'll see how much I can accomplish in the new year. =]

The Logos Experience

Logos Hope - "bringing knowledge, help and hope"

At the moment, the Logos Hope sits in the port in Bridgetown Barbados until Monday night. Everyone knows it as the "book boat". It's more or less one of the biggest, if the not the biggest, floating book fairs in the world!

A lot of people just visit the ship for the books. Arrive, search, buy, leave. Some others get a chance to talk to and be friendly with crew members. My friends and I befriended one of the staff and we were offered to have a tour of the ship.

Books galore. Seriously.

The Logos Hope, part of Operation Mobilization (OM), is an international Christian organisation aiming to spread knowledge, help and hope to people around the world. All the crew and staff on board are Christians and volunteers looking to help others. With over 47 different nationalities and over 300 people working on board, all crew and staff - from Captain to cook - are Christians and volunteers. Persons work on a contract - from 2 weeks to 2 years - and are exposed to different cultures and identities all over the world.

The Logos Hope has a sister ship, Doulos, which mainly visits the countries on the other side of the world - Asia, Australia, etc -. Currently, it's harboured in Singapore. And it's an apparently very old ship...sailing from the days of Titanic. =o

I'd like to participate in the experience, sometime later in life, for a couple of months. It's inspiring to see how these individuals interact with each other and with the locals of the countries they visit.

Life, Love & Dreams

I've been taking my time reading this amazing book, entitled "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. I had heard so much about it in various places and through various people. The basic gist of it all was this "It's a wonderful book. It's truly inspiring."

I just had to read the book for myself but I couldn't remember seeing it in the bookstore here before. One random day, I decided to browse the bookstore and see what was around and I found one single copy of The Alchemist. Unfortunately, at the time I didn't have much money on me so I couldn't make the purchase. Of course, I returned just hours later, to buy it.

It didn't cost too much and it was smaller than I expected, having less than 200 pages. If I had the time, I could finish the book in just a few hours. Instead, I chose to take my time reading it whenever I could find the time between classes, work and other responsibilities.

So far, I have been really enjoying it. I can understand why people love this book so much and why it's sold so well. It truly is inspiring.

For anyone who hasn't read it, read it! I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

A book about life and love and dreams. It's definitely one of my favourites.

Logical or Illogical?

I've finally restarted the Left Behind series. A couple of months ago I had left off at Book 5: Apollyon. Now that summer is in the air, I'm more than happy to continue reading the series. Starting with, of course, Book 6: Assassins.

I've been doing stuff in between and keeping busy, so I haven't really gotten far in the book. Tomorrow I'll be picking up from Chapter 7.

I'm still madly and insanely happy about watching Star Trek. I'm even happier that it was the first movie of my Summer vacation. I love that movie. Seriously. That's a must have on DVD for me. How can I not have a movie that I'm this in love with on DVD? There are few movies that I'm usually THIS enthusiastic about so that's saying quite a lot, in my opinion. My obsessions normally only last for a month, at most, so I'm curious to see how long this one will last =] Next movie to see: X-Men Origins - Wolverine.

And then there's the Jonas Brothers. I've been a huge fan of theirs since August last year and I still am, surprisingly enough. As previously mentioned, I don't usually have long lasting 'obsessions' so I think the Jonas Brothers have definitely made an impression on me. It's not just how they sing or what they sing about, but also the way they live their lives everyday and see how they can truly motivate people through music. Unlike some certain tunes out there in existence that are, honestly, just crap. They may sound upbeat and great to listen to, but the lyrics are awful and disgusting. Really. Crap. Of course, I hardly care about what other people think of my taste in music =]

Star Trek isn't my only recently picked up obsession. But Zachary Quinto is as well. An impeccably talented actor. He portrays his characters so well that I can't help but get caught up in them. I'm only still learning about him little by little but reading about his past, after graduating from University reminded me of something: Every successful person in life has a story. Every person who is introduced into the prosperity of their successes has had an incredibly "down" period of their life. 

I think that staying true to oneself is key.

Zachary Quinto

From: GQ Germany Photoshoot

Apollyon

Book 5 of the Left Behind series!

Yay! I've finished the first 4 books and it's just so riveting! I really love reading these books. They're so interesting =] I always wanna know what's gonna happen next and what happens to certain characters. So despite the fact that I've got tests and stuff coming up (one in 6 days actually) that I haven't studied for (and it's not like I've been attentive in lectures), I'm still reading these books =D too bad they won't really be of much help in my courses haha.

Books 3 (Nicolae) & 4 (Soul Harvest) of the series. =]

Left Behind

A friend of mine introduced me to the Left Behind Series just recently and even though I told myself I'd read them when summer comes around, I couldn't help but start reading the first of the 16 books: Left Behind. I saw the movie Left Behind about 8 years or so ago and it was quite intriguing...I guess remembering the movie made me curious to read the book. And since I started, I don't really wanna stop the series.

Due to the existence of this thing called University, I took forever (more like a week) to complete the small book. I started the 2nd book, Tribulation Force, today and I'm already more than halfway through it =D

I'm such a delinquent (still). I've been reading these books during most of my lectures! But shhh that's our little secret ;P