and you're acting shockingly cavalier,

just got back from a music class at bangsar village. my teacher and i just spent and hour and a half in starbucks checking my theory of music paper because we are so ~*~cool~*~ no, actually it's because the school is losing money and we can't use the studio before one SO. we shared an an ice-blended green tea which was, suprisingly, very yummy. and we giggled at the mat sallehs with thick accents because we are awesome like that.

and! they played sigur rós while we were there and it made me go :D:D why didn't i apply for a job here at the beginning of the holidays? bad working condition rumours aside, air-cond and delish pastry and great music sounds like a pretty good deal. i am so dumb.

anyway, i'm stuck at my mum's office till latelate (six in the evening, because my sister finishes at six today WHAT THE) because i can't drive and i have no means of transportation unless i shadow my mum for the day. and i met one of my mum's students today and she might possibly be the most intimidating person i've ever come across. i'm like, omg you must be totally viciousssss during debates.

something rather random, but fairly amusing: you know, when i watch the news, with the election coming up and all, i always always giggle when the newscaster or pak lah or whoever refers to the malaysian citizens as 'The Rakyat'. with all the glorious capital letters, like we're oh so important, like 'The Plan' or 'The Powers That Be'. kata nama khas; power to the people! oh, democracy.

on another note, (obviously, this post is perfectly kelam-kabut. i have no sense of direction, sry) i'm almost finished with nick hornby's book, how to be good. after every sitting, it always manages to make me feel 'bad' and i'll do something good, like memorizing the performance directions for the string family of the orchestra, or washing the dishes. reverse psychology, ooh!

reading this makes me want to read high fidelity which makes me want to watch high fidelity which makes me want to watch say anything.

"i mean, like, what are you?"
"i'm llyod dobler"

and while i'm on the subject of books, i found a copy of tolstoy's anna karenina in my mum's office. which is great, because they're selling it outside for 50 plus. it's very rustic-looking (yellowed pages) and oxidised by time (smelly) but hey, beggars can't be choosers so i'll take what i can get. it's next on my reading list ;)

explosions in the sky gets a full-page story on today's startwo. YESSS. and i quote, 'more impressively, the fans that showed up were clearly not your typical unresponsive malaysian variety'. which, i must deduce conclusively, malaysian teens got class, yo. ;p 29 second video of their song, yasmin the light i found on youtube:

which pretty much makes me cry truly, madly, deeply and unashamedly at the fact that i missed this. AAAAHHH. i feel like i could induce bodily harm on myself. apparently, they closed the show with the only moment we were alone which is my most favourite song by them and just...*IMPLODES*

or a tongue full of sympathy

my room is starting to look like a pigsty.

and i have developed a bad habit of chucking things on the floor beside my bed. although, it's amazing how it's all bundled at one spot, yes?

everything is illuminated by jonathan safran foer (which i finished this morning! i love foer. i do. i really do) and lolita by vladimir nabokov (still in the process of reading) and though you can't see it, the jane austen book club is under there somewhere (waste of time).

bags, my mp3 player (i'm horrible to put it on the floor, but it's hardcore. really), a house slipper. also, the battery charger (wtf), kinokuniya plastic bag and under it, a neatly folded newspaper from which i tore a book coupon from. not forgetting, laundry from god knows when.

today's my sister's thieteenth bday :) she's considered a 'teenager' now, if you want to listen to what the oxford dictionary says, the big baby.

(my eyes look crazy as shit, but what the hell)

had lunch at marche yesterday to celebrate. and then we went to borders because my sister wanted to look for her present (for which i forked out half the cash, haha) and she settled for a x-men comic. how weird, when i was thirteen i would've chosen something chick lit-y.

i did not buy anything although i was so so tempted to buy nicole krauss' history of love. i'm abstaining from buying books this month, if you're wondering. why?

that's why.

READING LIST, oh eight.

(1/sept: SOMEONE SLAP ME! MAKE ME READ A BOOK! I AM SO ASHAMED)

(huge post in the making)

so i was at mph earlier with aisyah and i realized how much mph has been dissapointing me lately. i mean, i have not been able to find a lot of titles i've been looking for. but anyway, that's not really the point.

the point is, i'm trying to read as many books as i can this year. 50, at least. 52 weeks, 366 days; should be manageable, right? right. they say, the average malaysian reads about two books per year. let's change that, shall we?

have read
(as of 19th may)
01. 'extremely loud and incredibly close' by jonathan safran foer
02. 'the great gatsby' by f. scott fitzgerald
03. 'the inheritance of loss' by kiran desai
04. 'franny and zooey' by j. d. salinger
05. 'sweethearts' by sara zarr
06. 'wuthering heights' by emily brontë
07. 'boy next door' by meg cabot
08. 'the jane austen book club' by karen joy fowler
09. 'everything is illuminated' by jonathan safran foer
10. 'lolita' by vladimir nabokov
11. 'the history of love' by nicole krauss
12. 'love in the time of cholera' by gabriel garcia marquez
13. 'the unbearable lightness of being' by milan kundera
14. 'how to be good' by nick hornby
15. 'white teeth' by zadie smith
16. 'little eartquakes' by jennifer weiner
17. 'the namesake' by jhumpa lahiri
18. 'what is the what' by dave eggars
19. 'the echo maker' by richard powers
20. 'middlesex' by jeffrey eugenides

want to read
02. 'the children of men' by p. d. james
03. '1984' by george orwell
04. 'middlesex' jeffrey eugenides
05. 'the book of lost things' by john connoly
06. 'atonement' by ian mcewan
07. 'anna karenina' by leo tolstoy
09. 'fight club' by chuck palahniuk
10. 'the lord of the flies' by william golding
11. 'a clockwork orange' by anthony burgess
12. 'to kill a mockingbord' by harper lee
14. 'kafka on the shore' by haruki murakami
15. 'pride and prejudice' by jane austen (i obviously suck big time for STILL not being able to finish this book. woe is i)
16. 'the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' by douglas adams
17. 'alice's adventures in wonderland' by lewis carroll
18. 'perfume' by patrick suskind
19. 'good omens' by neil gaiman and terry pratchett

this post will be updated (hopefully, frequently) troughout 2008. lists will be kept up to date, and all that.

i would love any recommendations from any genre. also, places to rent books or get books for cheap or second-hand books in good condition would be of great help. 12:57 AM and i'm feeling ambitious.

EDIT (19/5): so it seems that there's a 90% chance that i won't be able to make it to fifty this year. aiming for at least 25 before i leave home. hah.

strings that tie to you

"then the carousel started, and i watched her go around and around"
- the catcher in the rye

i just finished reading the catcher in the rye this morning. it was so awfully nice. the ending made me really sad, though. but i guess that can't be helped.

i always get weirdly excited when i find out the meaning behind the title of a particular book. and the meaning behind this one was very, very nice and it made me feel tingly in both a good way and a sad way. which actually is a good combination.

(picture taken from my first roll of the fisheye, yay)