Financial Modelling.

I see that I forgot to blog about this last week. My, oh my...

Anyway, as of last week, we had a 'changing of the lecturer' (for some obscure reason which I can't really recall, right now), and well, the new Chinese guy came along. Honestly, I couldn't make head or tail what the guy was talking about. Literally. Like, I could hear him and all but the whole thing was basically unintelligible for me (I know, I'm being really cruel here), because his pronounciation was really, really awful. I thought it was just me, but even Aira and Li Ling couldn't get him. (Li Ling didn't go for the lecture today haha). Seriously, 20+ people upped and left before the first hour was up. Usually, hardly anyone leaves the lecture.

Today wasn't so bad. I could pretty much get what he's saying this time around, although I missed out on some of the words. Like, I thought he mentioned 'dungeon' a bunch of times during class, but then at tute, Aaron told me that he was actually talking about the Dow Jones. Hahaha. At any rate, I guess I'm getting used to the way the guy speaks now.

I saw that someone posted up a message in the discussion boards last week requesting that administration change the lecturer, because well, we paid for it, we'd like someone that we can understand. So far, the 5-6 replies aren't very promising. The general consensus is that the lecturer CAN be understood, and the only reason I'm not putting my two cents into the fray is because these people are marking our assignments and exam papers. You REALLY don't want to highlight yourself to them when it comes to this. And besides, it's my final year and I wanna go out with a bang! I WANNA! *pouts*

IN OTHER NEWS:

Pamela told me that she thinks Zac Efron's hot. I was like, "Did you see him with his shirt off? 'Cuz there's a picture of that on PerezHilton's." Then she was like, "Nuh, Kid's Choice Awards." I was like, "Okay..." 'cuz usually, guys with shirts off tend to be clinchers for me. Because I'm shallow like that. I told her I've seen better, then she was like, "O really." Then I was like, "Ya rly." Haha. Anyway, she asked for examples, so I showed her pictures of Chace Crawford. And yes, she agreed with me. Teehee.

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Ah! Stupid scheduling!

I just found out that both my electives for the next semester have classes at the SAME TIMES!! Music's between 10am to 1pm on Thursdays, and Math is at 12pm on the same DAY!! ARGH!! I mean, I get that they're total opposites, but the lectures don't have to be at the same time now, do they? Luckily, there're like, four Math lectures, and only ONE of them's overlapping with the Music, so I'll have to see whether I'm able to catch up on the Math class I'll be skipping. Sigh.

At least I don't have any classes at 8 in the morning. Like this semester.

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Internet connection = Lousy

My internet connection's kinda crazy these few days, since it's gonna be the end of the month and practically all the bandwith's already used up. Unlike back home, the internet's But the weird thing is, the connection only slows down (to the point where it's practically non-existent) between 8pm and 11pm. After 11pm, everything begins to load normally again. It's been like this for the past three to four days already.

Nowadays, to create more noise pollution and stop myself from being bored, I let about 4-5 YouTube videos run in the background so that when the lag hits, I still have crap to watch.

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To-do list for the weekend.

As I'll pretty much be UN-preoccupied this weekend, I'll be sticking all the crap I need to get done here, since if I write it down on paper I'll lose the bloody thing.

1) Start the difficult crapnubbin that is my Auditing assignment.
2) Clean room. Before the infestation begins.
3) Do laundry.
4) Combine Treasury Management assignment and send it to Queena for submitting.
5) Finish off arranging the Money And Capital Markets assignment. (Just need to confirm things with Zoe.)
6) Tidy room. Again with the infestation issue. (Now, to keep it that way.)
7) Play Fairway Solitaire. (This is more of a ongoing process rather than a one-off thing.)
8) Do Free Cash Flows for Financial Modelling and double-check on some of... the other... um... stuffs... (Done, but accuracy to be ascertained later.)
9) Uhhh... start studying...? (Ha! Fat chance!)
10) Cut down food intake. And snack intake. And the pretty-much-anything-edible intake. (Tummy aches can work wonders.)
11) Work through Bag Of Bones and The Great And Secret Show. (Another on-going matter. Surprisingly, Barker's more interesting than King.)
12) Do stock market research so that I can get back on the first page of the Uni Ranking. (Dangnabbit!) (Oh, screw the whole thing!)

Let's see how much of those up there get done when the week's over.

EDIT: I should do this kind of thing every week. See how much of the list I actually COVER.

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Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives

I finished this book in one day. I'm back, baby!

(Well, the book IS about 110 pages long, so yeah...).

Anyway, as with many of the books I've read, I've always seen the screen adaptation of it first. So goes this one as well, which means that I've already seen the ending coming. But that doesn't make it a bad read; I just know the entire story already. The back cover states that the book shows how far men would go to stem the 1970's feminist movement, which I feel is a great description, since back then, equal rights are still something entirely novel.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, here's what happens: Joanna and her family move to the town of Stepford, and find out that the Men's Association runs the town, and the housewives there are subservient drones who only care about housekeeping activities and making their husbands happy. *winkwink*. Joanna and her friend, Bobbie (also a newcomer to the town, but had moved in a month before Joanna), see their friends drastically change, and try to move their families out, but too late for Bobbie, she also becomes another Stepford wife. Joanna does more digging, and finds out that originally, the town had a Women's Association (of 50 members, no less), before it got disbanded due to declining membership. She also finds out that most of the men in the Men's Association are either scientists or engineers. *coughrobotscough*. Joanna rushes home to collect her kids and get out, but too late, her husband's also in on the, um, evilplot, already. Poor Joanna also falls afoul of the Stepford men, and well, let's just say she's never her old usual self again.

The only thing I don't really dig is the bit before the end. Joanna runs away, before three dudes from the Men's Ass corner and confront her. She voices out her suspicions that all the women have become robots; the men say that their wives are still human, and that to prove it, they'll take her to Bobbie (whom by then, has no mind of her own anymore), who'll cut herself and bleed, disproving Joanna's robot allegation. So she goes with them to Bobbie's place.

At Bobbie's place, Joanna hears loud music upstairs, and as Bobbie picks up the knife to poke herself (Yeah, right!), Joanna realises too late that the music's to drown out any hanky-panky (and I don't mean that in the 'usual' way) that's about to happen. Her last thoughts are that Bobbie poking herself would prove that she's human, and that everything would be okay.

(At this point, I was like, "Whuh-?" I mean, I get that she's trying to fight over her paranoia, hoping against hope (I got that phrase from Robin Hood: Men In Tights hahaha) that she's not overreacting about something which she could be entirely wrong about, but honestly, robot or no robot, Things Have Changed!! Who cares about the robot issue, even if you didn't foresee that Bobbie holding a knife = Not very good circumstances, run and fight for your friggin' life, ya moron! 'Last thoughts...')

At least the 1975 movie showed Joanna getting strangled by her robot alter-ego.

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DeScribe.

I'm in dire need of a scholarship (who isn't, nowadays?) and since the Music Club's out of the fricken' question (because it's not bloody running this year), I don't have anything to be active in (I joined the Commerce Society, but my friend says it's pretty much dead. Haha. Which is actually the best kind of club to join, I feel).

So anyway, I found out that they just set up a Creative Writing Club this year (hence, the DeScribe), so I figured, what the heck, I like to write, I'd very much like to improve on my style of writing and creative output and whatnot, I'll join the club. Yay.

The Flasher is organizing a writing competition this month that I plan to join. The theme this time around is, well, to put it plainly, a letter. Of any sort, which is good. I just found out about it last week, and I hope I get something by next week, before the month ends.

Oh, Inspiration! Creativity! why do you hide within the deep, dark recesses of my mind?

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I cooked today! Ha!

Yes, you read right. I, who can't/refusestolearn/doesn't cook, has finally whipped up something in the kitchen. And here's a picture:

(So I get a kick out of typing like an illiterate berk. So sue me.)

So how was it, you might ask?

Tasteless.

And here's where I went wrong:
1) Not enough garlic.
2) Not enough eggs (I put two, but since I'm an egghead, this wasn't really unexpected)
3) The most important ingredient: Salt. Well, I did put in the salt, but I didn't put enough. Now I have the salt sitting right next to me. Haha.
4) Cooking too much of teh pasta (even though I was cooking for dinner as well).

I think the only things I did right are, 1) the boiling of the pasta, and 2) the pepper. I put so much of it just now that you can see black specks everywhere. Hahaha. Oh, and I also forgot: The cracking of the two eggs. Teehee.

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Stephen King's Danse Macabre

Despite the title, it's non-fiction. Why have I chosen to read this book instead of his other works? Because I'm so daft that I can't tell that the book's non-fiction even by reading the back cover. (See? This is what happens when I don't go on Wikipedia to look up book's summary beforehand.).

Anyway, the book is basically King's commentary on the Horror/Suspense genre, touching on books (Lovecraft, Poe, and some of his own works, along the way), TV (like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits), film (mentioning a few of the many movie adaptations from his books, plus Rosemary Baby's and The Stepford Wives (1975)).

Surprisingly, I found that I was able to 'read on', so to speak, as I very, very much prefer woven tales of enchantment and mystical lands, or anything made-up, for that matter. Might be because I could identify with most of what King was talking about, since I do pride myself on my knowledge of pop culture. Yay, pop culture!

All in all, it was a pretty good book. One bit that caught my attention was his summary of this movie called X – The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. Yes, it sounds corny, but what made it, well, rather eerie (for me) was the inclusion of the rumoured alternate ending in King's retelling. X is about this scientist (Dr. Xavier. Get it? Dr. X... Emphasis on the X... Hahaha.) who creates eye drops that enables him to heighten his sense of sight, and occasionally, being your typical man, cheat in poker and see through women's clothing. Initially, he's able to control it, but as he keeps using the drops, he finds out that he's slowly losing control over his X-Ray ability, and towards the end, his eyesight has increased exponentially, enabling him to see even up till the edges of the universe. What he doesn't like seeing is this, massive glowing entity of sorts (I can't describe it; I'm still looking for the movie on YouTube) that seems to have taken notice of him (because usually, when you can see something, it sees you pretty well, too). And that doesn't sound very nice now, does it?

So, at the end of the movie, he drives out into the desert, takes his sunglasses off (he uses them to hide his eyes, which by now, has gone totally black, devoid of any pupil) and gouges his own eyes out. They even show you the bloody sockets (if I'm not mistaken).

"If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out..."

And here I was thinking that he was just gonna blow his brains out. Well, whaddaya know.

King describes the alternate ending for his readers: Supposedly after Dr. X takes his eyes out, there's a wee bit of footage that got cut out of the final ending because apparently, it was 'too much', so to speak. (At that point I was thinking, hellooo, bloody sockets, what else could there beee?).

Anyway, that bit of footage is rumoured to be, that after removing his eyes, X looks up, and screams, "I can still see!"

Okay, now that part really scared the crap out of me. I know, it's not much to go by, but seriously, when you think about it, it's like, the chemicals from the drops had seeped in WAY beyond the sight nerves(?), and onwards to the brain (yeah, my Biology sucks. Happy?), meaning that he doesn't NEED his eyes to see anymore, and that he can't ever escape the sight of Mr. Glowing-Entity looking right back at him (as they say, ignorance is bliss). Which, in my most humble opinion, is the most terrifying fate he would have to live with for the rest of his life.

(That is, until he gets that gun.)

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The one with another food rant.

Today, I totally overspent on lunch. I bought a penne(sp? The sign was handwritten, so I couldn't tell whether it was a Double-N, or a Double-R.) with cream, cheese and bacon, plus something which looks like a quiche, only much much bigger, with cheese and ham in it. The bad news is, food poisoning. The good news is, I feel like my weight's gone down a lil' since I practically pooped my brains out just now.

Hey, I just thought of this: I weigh less now, because my brains went down the drain. Teehee.

Sigh. How shallow I am right now. Although, my lacking-grey-matter situation would be a pretty good explanation for my current condition. Hahaha.

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Um... Hair?

(Sorry, a good title currentlystill escapes me).

Today I trimmed my hair ALL BY MYSELF! Yes, you read right. ALL BY MYSELF!

*ish happy with self now*

I just sliced a little bit of my bangs, but it isn't really noticeable since I want them long, but not TOO long until I've to keep sweeping them aside like an awful combover. Hahaha. Actually, it still looks like I'm having a combover no matter what I do. Sigh...

Anyway, back to the food issue, because that's pretty much what's preying on my mind now. I'm sticking to the one-sandwich-a-day diet, with half a pack of biscuits after dinner. Hahaha. It's still fattening, but at least I'm not eating non-stop anymore. Or maybe that's because I have classes and I can't stuff my face so much during class, because there are people around, and I'm self-conscious.

On another note:

A BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RACHAEL AND ROHINI!! MANY HAPPY RETURNS TO YOU GUYS!!

(I would've posted this up yesterday, but Firefox kept dying on me whenever I clicked Publish Post. Thank goodness for auto-save. Sorry y'all :P).

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The one with the food rant.

For some reason, I don't have much appetite today (maybe it's the Coke I just had), so I'm gonna start with my diet (even though the Coke most certainly would not help). Because I think I gained weight over the past coupla days by scarfing down 200gs of Arnott's Shapes in each day. Really, a pack a day. I eat it like popcorn at the movies. And I DON'T eat popcorn at the movies.

Anyway, what better way to be prodded into the non-eating, non-binging direction, than by way of a budget. Seriously. Everything's like, three times over here. Conversion, conversion, conversion... Just think about spending RM20 on one (ONE, mind you, ONE!!) sandwich, and that's enough to make you think about how so NOT worth it the sammich is (even though it's bigger than what you'd get back home), how you're spending that much money on just TWO slices of bread with just ONE chicken patty, etc., and you're good to go. Or I'm good to go. Huh. Anyway, that's my mindset right now.

You could always talk about eating at home, but I. Can't/Don't. Cook. Period. And besides, it takes too long, and there's the washing, and the actual COOKING, and the WAITING, and the WASHING...

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Accident.

An accident just happened right outside my window. Something which looks suspiciously like a Proton (I can't tell, because there's a tree with leaves blocking my view), bumped into the car (of unknown make, because I'm looking at the scene from the side) in front of her. Right now they're exchanging numbers. The hood of the knocker looks pretty banged up.

Right now they're squatting down by the side of their cars, but I can't tell what it is they're doing.

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Chocolat

Speaking of which, I haven't seen that movie in ages.

Anyway, I think it's safe to say that I'm on an official eating binge. For some reason, I just can't stop eating, and it's not the I-love-food-so-much-it's-a-replacement-for-TV reason. I'm thinking it might be because I ran out of biscuits, and I've absolutely NO snacks left to stuff my face with. Except instant noodles. But that's more like, a full-meal type thing. Argh.

weightupby100foldbythetimeIgetback*choi*

Edit: I just noticed an influx of reviews on my part. Hahaha.

Another edit: The title's Chocolat because I spent $2.40 on a Cadbury bar today. In the afternoon. After I had my sammich. See? BINGING!!

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It's done~!

And I'm referring to my half of my Money And Capital Markets assignment (groupie). It's finally done! Dun dun DUUUNNN!!! I only have wait for my partner to approve of it (or if not, tell me where I went wrong so that I can make the necessary amendments) then I'm be home free! WHEEEE!!! Now, to work on the other assignments piling up on my ass... And one's due this Sunday (yeah I know, SUNDAY??). But yeah, Sunday.

Currently (as in, right now, at this moment), I've only to worry about tomorrow's test. No wait, today's test, since it's past 12 already. I should really go to bed now. Toodle-loo~

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The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

The only reason I checked out this movie on YouTube was because I'd heard it was a cult hit. And Tim Curry. The movie's basically a musical-comedy parody on the ol' Frankenstein story. With a few minor adjustments, of course.

It begins with the newly-engaged Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, back when she wasn't famous yet) who get stranded because their car broke down, and they wander into this castle they passed on earlier to borrow a phone. And that's where the fun begins.

In the castle, they meet its seriously weirded-out inhabitants, first Riff-Raff the handyman, his sister Magenta, and Columbia the groupie, and then Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the cross-dressing scientist from Transsexual, Transylvania (played by the FAH-bulous Tim Curry!) who's just created this Greek God of a man called Rocky Horror. Come to think of it, the whole movie's the opposite of the Frankenstein mythology. The monster's supposed to be hideous; that's why they kept trying to burn him, and Frankenstein's most definitely human-looking. In this movie, well... you get the picture.

So the couple is forced to stay the night, because they don't have access to a phone, and is seduced by Frank in turn. Then Janet finds out that Brad cheated on her with Frank (teehee!), so she cheats on him with Rocky instead. Then Dr. Scott, a mutual acquaintance of Frank and Brad, shows up looking for his missing nephew Eddie, whom Frank has just slaughtered about half an hour ago. Eddie's dead and rather rotten body is revealed during dinner, which leads to Frank chasing Janet around in six-inch heels, because he's still cross-dressed, and Rocky likes her more instead of Frank. That part was rather fun.

Then Brad, Janet, Dr. Scott, Rocky and Columbia gets Medusa'ed (Frank has this machine; Columbia gets it because she likes Eddie and she's upset), and then they get DeMedusa'ed, and do this cabaret-type Floor Show. And then Frank comes in again, does his number, before Riff-Raff and Magenta come in all pissed, because they want to go back to Transylvania (in this movie, it's a galaxy, and Transsexual is a planet. Haha.).

So then they lasered Frank, and Rocky gets upset, and they laser him too. So both of them dies. Riff-Raff and Magenta let the humans get out before the house takes off. And that's how the movie ends.

To be honest (and I'm SOOO gonna get crucified for this), I thought the movie was a crock of bull (the only saving grace was Tim Curry, I've to say), but that was my first time watching it, so after my assignments let up a bit, I'll watch it more properly next time around. I still get a kick out of watching Tim Curry singing Sweet Transvestite in drag, though ;)

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Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic

So this book is a direct continuation of The Colour Of Magic, with Rincewind literally flying off the face of the ea–, I mean, Disc. He doesn't die, because the Spell in his head won't let him. Which is good for him in a way.

Trymon is introduced in this book, and is described as a young, ambitious wizard who likes things organized (i.e. the opposite of the messy wizards), and sends out memos and stuff. Sounds like the modern manager to me. Hahaha. Anyway, Trymon finds out that if he reads out all the Spells in the Octavo, which is like, T3H ULT1MAT3 SP311B00K(!!1!) because it was supposedly left by the Creator, he'd be able to get whatever he wants, and be super-powerful and take over the world! He would also be releasing monsters from the Dungeon Dimension, if I'm not mistaken, but no one really cares about that. Currently, he doesn't have all eight, because one of them's in Rincewind's head.

The main issue in the book is where the Great A'Tuin is heading. Turns out, he's heading towards this red star, which isn't all too good for our people on the Disc, since stars are hot, and well, they're not. So we have the usual massive panic.

In the end, Rincewind manages to get the spell out of his head, Trymon gets his comeuppance (he gets possessed by the Bad Creatures, pretty similar to how the condemned souls went into the bad guy in Ghost Rider. They don't need a portal to be opened; they could just use Trymon) and becomes a splat on the ground below, and Twoflower heads back home after the adventure, after giving the Luggage to Rincewind as a gift. I love the Luggage.

This book was alright for me, I guess, although I enjoyed the bit about how trolls (who're made of rock) start philosophising about their existence and why they're here and stuff and stop being trolls and turn into part of the scenery. One of the trolls say that the rock on the end was his aunt, and she hasn't moved in two hundred years. Hahaha.

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Terry Pratchett's The Colour Of Magic: Part 1 (2008)

Now I'm reviewing the TV adaptation. Huh. It's supposed to be taken from The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic, since both books are back-to-back and the second one's a direct continuation of the first one.

So I watched the first part of this online (Part 2 isn't up yet; not sure when it will be) instead of doing my assignments. Damn, I suck.

Anyway, I found that it was pretty good. David Jason's a bit (well, I guess 'a bit' is pretty much of an understatement) old to be Rincewind, but he plays the coward just fine. Sean Astin's perfect as the naive and simple Twoflower; only thing is, Twoflower's supposed to be Chinese, even though that fact is only established in Interesting Times, 16/17 books later. Christopher Lee is the voice of Death (so what's new? Haha.). Tim Curry's evil (as usual!) as Trymon, an overambitious wizard offing everybody so that he could be ArchChancellor, although The Light Fantastic describes him as 'young'. But anyway, love the guy.

As with all on-screen adaptations, they leave some bits of the book out. Like the Bel-Shamharoth part. I really wanted to see that massive tentacled thing and the green dryads. And Liessa's supposed to have MASSIVE RED CHESTNUT HAIR! She seems more exotic than anything in this show. And they left out the Sea Troll! But I love how they rendered the Great A'Tuin and the four elephants and the Discworld. That part was amazing.

The best part in this TV special is the Luggage. It's this massive chest with hundreds of legs (human legs) under it that it uses to walk about. And they brought it to screen perfectly! I just love the part where they show the Luggage toddling across the scenery, following Twoflower and Rincewind, and it was just so ADORABLE!!!11!one! My heart's melting right now...

Jeremy Irons as the Patrician! I mean, I'd already found that out ages ago by scouring Wikipedia, BUT... when I first found out, I was shocked. I mean... JEREMY IRONS! Even though he was out for like, 5 minutes, it was fun to watch him while it lasted. Haha.

I'm guessing that Part 2 would be more towards The Light Fantastic, even though they showed Trymon's ascension to power alongside the events in The Colour Of Magic. Watching Tim Curry offing people never fails to bring a smile to my face =)

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Terry Pratchett's The Colour Of Magic

This is the first book in the Discworld series, and the copy I have right now (Copyright 1983; got it from the library) is the 9th edition, if I'm not mistaken. At any rate, the book still looks rather worn... But without further ado, background story and review:

The Discworld is looks like a disc. It revolves on top of four giant elephants (how friction doesn't burn up the hides of those elephants, I don't know. That's fantasy for ya), that in turn, stands on the Great A'Tuin, a very Giant Turtle that sails across the space, towards... well, something (my five readings thus far haven't established what that 'something' is yet, though.).

The Colour Of Magic is quite a lot of fun. It revolves around Twoflower, a tourist to Ankh-Morpork (the main city of the Discworld), his Luggage (made out of magic sapient pearwood, has hundreds of little legs, and is extremely protective of its master) and his hapless guide, the failed wizard Rincewind (the common character and sometimes protagonist in most of the later books), who only knows ONE spell, since that one spell is really, REALLY powerful and prevents him from memorising any other spell (unfortunately, we don't find out what that spell does. Even Rincewind doesn't know what it does, but he knows that major crap would be going down if he finished the incantation, eight words in all). From the other books, Rincewind has a hat that says 'WIZZARD' on it, but in this book, that hasn't been introduced yet.

Twoflower is from the Counterweight Continent, where gold flows EXTREMELY freely in circulation (that doesn't make everybody rich, ya know. They have peasants there. Mostly). The CC is further explored in much more detail in Interesting Times (which is my first Discworld book, and is by far the FUNNIEST book I'd ever come across, and is one of my absolute favourites), and based on that, the CC is mostly China, and some of Japan (because we have massive Tsimo wrestlers in one part). And they have a city called Sum Dim. And they also have the Forbidden City, and terracotta warriors, but they're called the Red Army in this instance. They even have The Art Of War, written by One Tzu Sung. Hahaha.

So anyway, Twoflower is an insurance agent (in Morporkian, there's no such word to describe the word 'insurance', so it's spelled as 'inn-sewer-ants'. And reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits is Morporkian 'echo-gnome-ics', which we know as 'economics'. HAHAHA!). He, being extremely simple and naive and good-natured, gets into trouble, and Rincewind, even though he makes a break for it, is commanded by the Patrician (the ruler of Ankh-Morpork) to follow Twoflower around and keep him alive, since if Twoflower dies, they'd incur the wrath of the CC, which is a massive continent indeed and so, has massive army.

Later on, the CC changes its mind on Twoflower, and orders him assassinated (because if he comes back bearing photos and stories of his travels, well, the CC operates feudally; loads of that in Interesting Times), so Twoflower and the reluctant Rincewind gets bounced around a lot on their adventure. Rincewind even meets Death on several occasions (they pretty much know each other for a while now. Death comes personally for wizards and witches, instead of delegating to lesser minions, as we see in Mort, Death's apprentice of the same name. That book wasn't too bad either). In this book, Death just doesn't come across as characteristic of what he's like in Mort. But this is the first book, so... Death has a soft spot for cats, by the way, and there's no underlying meaning in that statement. He just likes cats. We get that from Mort, as well.

Anyway, back to The Colour Of Magic. Twoflower sells insurance to Broadman, who owns the local bar The Broken Drum, and Broadman proceeds to burn down the bar, and unintentionally, a huge part of the city as well (Broadman doesn't make it though, as we see Death making an appearance prior to the fire-starting). Rincewind and Twoflower manage to get out in time, and proceed to almost be sacrifices for Bel-Shamharoth (a Lovecraftian creature with one eye that eats souls. Bel-Shamharoth, that is, not the eye. They defeat it when Rincewind took a picture and the flash blinded Bel's eye. Eight is Bel's number, by the way, so Rincewind's spell has something to do with Bel. Just that we don't know what it does), get involved in a power struggle in Wyrmberg (with dragons!) and finally, reach the Edge of the Discworld (the people of Krull, who stay near the Edge, want to find out what the gender of the Great A'Tuin's is. We find that out on the first page, but they didn't. So they need two volunteers. Guess who.).

There's also this sub-plot about the Gods playing games using people as game pieces. The two left standing in the book is Fate, and the Lady (her name isn't given, but Interesting Times call her 'The Lady in the Last Chance Saloon'. I don't get it, but apparently Google does. She's Lady Luck.). Fate is controlling everybody else, and the Lady seems to like Rincewind (she also uses him as a piece in Interesting Times.).

By the way, little bit of a continuity quibble. In the chapter 'The Lure Of Wyrmberg', Liessa's name changes to Lianna when she finally catches up to Hrun the Barbarian. Hmm.

I'm glad that The Colour Of Magic is actually revealed to us in the book. Without giving what that colour is away, it's basically a combo, so there. All in all, the book's pretty good (even though the ending's a literal cliff-hanger), but I still find nothing beats Interesting Times.

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For some reason, people think I'm from Singapore.

Yes, it's true. In the span of almost a month and a half, I've gotten four hits, so far.

First two was on the same day, ironically, both are Singaporeans. First was this Monash girl at the airport who's doing post-grad, and the second was this girl at Orientation. Second said I spoke like one.

Then the third would be my Money And Capital Markets assignment partner. She said I sounded like her Singaporean friends.

Fourth (that is, today) is from this girl (Malaysian) in charge of the OSHC booth when I went to collect my health insurance card (in line, for like, an hour. STANDING!).

Huh.

I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. I mean, about the way I speak.

*cough*PhuaChuKang*cough*

Oh well. I guess I'll take it in stride. It's too early to make anything out of it anyway.

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