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//Begin Speech println (...)

Posted 2002-07-15 (月) 午後8:48 by terra

//Begin Speech

println ("
I felt like such a loser and moron yesterday when I discovered that I left my identity card at the Library in the loan machine after borrowing some PKD books mentioned in the previous blogs. The real tragedy was that I realised the card was missing only after the library sent a letter to inform me that they had found it.
");

echo ("
%bold *cue to applause* %bold
");

println ("
The letter states in its first paragraph:
");

println ("
“We are pleased to inform you that your lost [IC] was found and returned to the Library.”
");

println ("
Actuallly, it probably never left the library. Makes me wonder which is the greater moron in this age of one-click-instant letters and semi-automatic postage dispensers.
");

echo ("
*moment of silence*
");

Subjects: General

Mood: Bordom

Tags: found, library, lost, PKD

Minor gratification

Posted 2002-07-04 (木) 午後11:50 by terra

Minority Report was amazing. I’m going straight to the library tomorrow to satisfy my PKDickien needs. Hopefully Valis and Albemuth are there. There’s one line in the show that was driving me nuts: “There is no minority report”. I’ve heard/read that line somewhere before. No, it wasn’t a website or anything that one I’m certain cos I haven’t been searching to read stuff on the show/book on the Internet. On the other hand it may be that I’m a potential precog after all. =P

From one Science Fiction story to another: I just can’t get through reading Neuromancer. Honestly, it’s been description overkill. 50 pages into the book no hint of a plot has emerged. The Amazon review pages are pretty interesting. There are those who stand by the book altogether, others whom like me feel the same way. Anyways…back to the library shelves it goes.

Subjects: Books 書物

Mood: Gratifications

Tags: Amazon, library, Minority Report, PKD, precog, science fiction

Cyberpunk

Posted 2002-06-30 (日) 午前1:38 by terra

Borrowed a copy of William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” from the National Library. I’m currently at the end of chapter one of the book (haha). It’s been pretty good so far but I’m not quite so sure if it’s as revolutionary as it’s been hailed to be: the cyberpunk novel pioneer. I believe Alfred Bester achieved this years earlier in his 1956 novel “The Stars, My Destination” before cyberpunk was known as cyberpunk. What’s refreshing to me however, is the thrill of discovering the origins of the now common term “cyberspace”, and finding out what really was the Matrix.

As for Alfred Bester, who is in my list of top ten favourite authors, his book “The Demolished Man” reminds me so much of the film I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time: Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” based on a Philip K. Dick short story (another one of my fav authors). They both speculate on how murder can be stopped through the use of psychic abilities.

Subjects: Books 書物, Music 音楽

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Alfred Bester, cyberpunk, Gibson, Jeff Beck, library, lost, Matrix, Minority Report, PKD, psychic

A Beautiful Mind

Posted 2002-03-20 (水) 午後8:02 by terra

I just watched A Beautiful Mind. My God, it’s so much better than I had expected. The film’s well-crafted and wonderfully acted. The film never gets boring and is sentimental but not overdone.

I’ll have to read the book when I get the chance. Maybe after my exams and during the holidays. I’m pretty sure the community library has it. Why? Because I’d heard about the book more than a year ago from my grandfather, before the film even began its preproduction stage. One day, while I was at my granddad’s house, he showed me this white, hardcover book that he had borrowed from the library, and he was telling me what an interesting character, John Nash, a mathematician who had won the Nobel prize a few years ago had been. How he suffered from schizophrenia for over 30 years and eventually overcame his demons while in the process producing other brilliant pieces of work despite his illness. I thought then, “wow”. But never thought of reading the book even though I never forgot the story in the abstract.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: A Beautiful Mind, John Nash, library, Nobel, schizophrenia

Issac Asimov-obsession

Posted 2002-02-14 (木) 午後9:10 by terra

As you can probably tell from the side panel of this page, I’m having an obsession with Issac Asimov books right now On my wish list is the entire Robot Series which includes, in series order: I, Robot, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn and finally Robots and Empire. I’ve already read all of these books but they’re so good that I have to own them. I’m probably going to order the first 4 books from Acmabooks.com which is this pretty decent Singapore online bookstore.Unfortunately Robots and Empire appears to be out-of-print. The only places I can get a copy at reasonable prices are Amazon UK and some Australian bookstores.

I also discovered to my horror that my Foundation series (which I’m currently re-reading) is incomplete. It’s missing Foundation and Earth, the last book in the series, which is another out-of-print book. How did I know this? By accident actually. I was ..ahem.. downloading (illegally) some ebook versions of the Foundation series so that I could read them on my computer if I didn’t have my book with me, when I noticed one book that I didn’t have. At least it’s comforting to know that it’s quite possible to buy the book online even though it’s probably impossible to get new copies of them direct from the bookstores in Singapore.

Subjects: Books 書物

Mood: Gratifications

Tags: Amazon, book, Empire, Foundation, Issac Asimov, library, out-of-print, robot, yoga

15 mins before lecture

Posted 2002-01-08 (火) 午前9:54 by terra

It’s 15 mins before my first lecture. I’m at the school’s computer lab at the moment. Earlier, I had breakfast at with my mom and dad. Because my lecture on starts at 10AM, my dad dropped me off at the Arts faculty where I popped into the library to check out some novels. I borrowed Arthur Clarke’s The City and the Stars as well as Asimov’s I, Robot. The books are kind of yellowed and spotty, and a little dusty too. They smell…I don’t want to smell them. The Clarke book was printed in 1975 and the Asimov book in 1983. Strange, I’ve Raymond Feist’s 2nd Edition Magician at home, which I believe was in 1983, but it doesn’t look half as bad as the Asimov book. Oh well.

It appears that blogger’s publishing facility is down. So I guess this blog won’t get to appear until I get home. It’s now 5 mins before the lecture. I’m not feeling too good. A sense of dread maybe?

Subjects: Books 書物, School 学校

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Arthur C. Clarke, blogging, Issac Asimov, library, Magician, Raymond E. Feist, robot

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