I happened to read part of this book - Fatal Seductions by Douglas Lee. It read like a deliberately written cautionary tale warning readers to stay away from casual sex and, if they had to indulge in it, to use condoms. I could hear the author lecturing me from behind my shoulder. Moralistic content aside, the book isn't particularly well written too. It's in its 5th printing in 8 years (1993-2001) and it still has many glaring typos/english mistakes, including one in the blurb on the back cover! Interestingly, though, an imaginary JC is referenced in the book - Clementi Junior College (CJC), where all the girls sleep around. When I read about "CJC", I almost choked. Unlikely coincidence or conspiracy? :0

Why does Geraldine, and probably all girls, want to be attractive or desirable? Whenever I insinuate or assert the contrary, she gets pissed off and huffs around. Must be another gender flaw :)

More thoughts on advertisements: Many ads on Malaysian Television are suspiciously similar to those shown outside Malaysia - except that the Caucasian actors are replaced by Malaysian ones. What a waste of resources. What unnecessary duplication. Anyhow foreign commercials tend to be funnier and more effective than local ones - at least those I've seen, partially due to the higher budget and manpower resources available overseas. My sister is a believer in the "adverts shown in Asia should have Asian actors" fallacy, but then she's always had weird prejudices.

Was at Nadaman at Shangri-la today. Staff in japanese restaurants always have this habit of shouting stock Japanese phrases (the meaning of which I doubt they know) at you. Today, we got a Filipino waitress. They're quite desperate for labour now, apparently.

Later, I was bullied by my parents into buying clothes at John Little. I don't really care for the size, extent and condition of my wardrobe normally, but this time the coercion was impossible to ignore, for among other things, my father got this strange notion that I'd run out of shirts, since I'd grabbed a shirt fresh off the clothes line to wear out. My protestations that this was because I liked my British Museum Lewis Chessmen shirt and not because I'd run out of shirts went unheard. So I got dragged along on an unpleasant chore. Pants were easy enough to choose, but the shirts were another matter. I am fussy in some ways and unparticular in others - I don't like table cloths, so chequered patterns are out and Aloha-wear's not really my style. More importantly, there's the business of collar comfort. Since I've a small neck, I'm discomfited by small or oddly cut collars (and hate ties too). So in the end I didn't get any shirts. Maybe I shall go to Export Fashion, frequented by my sister when she was here, next time.

I'm not a purist, but The Two Towers really deviated quite a bit from the book. They also added in a lot of typical US movie humour, quips and witticisms. And somehow, I don't think Eowyn fancied Aragorn in the original. At least not that much. The emphasis, in this part of the trilogy, seemed to be on gratuitous battle scenes. Not that I'm complaining - it's nice to see a storm of arrows cutting down the front ranks of an advancing army, sappers blowing up walls, a spectacular cavalry charge (even if it *is* down such a steep slope that the horses will more likely flounder), the thick of combat atop crenellated battlements and more. So I'm shallow. Oh, and the song they played during the ending credits sucked.

Deliciously scathing post on the IMDB boards, most probably a jibe at the ridiculous campaign to change the name of the movie from "The Two Towers" to honour the memory of September the 11th:

"there have been a lot of discussion about changing the title because of 11th sept. and I know all of you are against it, but I don't. Can't you think about how some people can be hurted because of that title? I know lotr was written years ago, but nowadays this title is politically incorrect. Besides there are some things in the fellowship of the ring which really are not politically correct, and they should have been changed in order to not hurt some people.
here are the changes:

- All the characters in FotR are white and straight. It can hurt some minor groups, so some characters should have been black (for example Aragorn and Merry), some latinos (arwen and Elrond) and some gays (Legolas and Gimli).

- Hobbits are really short, that surely hurts short people, so they should have been taller, or at least every 20 minutes some member of the fellowship should have said: You are not short, you are low-heighted people, but we love you.

- Sam is quite fat. That can hurt fat people, so he should have been thinner.

- Elves are really thin. That can provide a bad example to teenagers who would become anorexic. So they should be fatter.

- Elves have also long blonde hair. That can hurt bald people, who would feel jealous. So some elves should have been bald, for example Legolas and Celeborn.

- Saruman is an evil wizard. That would hurt David Copperfield, so Saruman should have changed his job. He could have been president of USA instead of wizard.

- Orcs have a really crooked-horrible teeth. That can hurt dentists. They should have had a perfect smile.

- A ring contains the evil power. That would be bad for jewelers. So instead of a ring, the evil would be contained in a small box. So it would be called, 'the lord of the small box'

- There isn't any kind of church, that would hurt catholic people. So every sunday, the fellowship should go to the church, except the people who belong to other religions, for example Sam would be budist and Boromir islamic.

I haven't seen TTT already so I can't say a word about it. but I'm afraid that ents, oliphants and wargs would hurt ecologists.

If all this changes had taken place, fotr would have been a more politically correct movie."

Strike a blow against Political Correctness!

Anyhow Tolkien, Star Wars, Star Trek and love are all overrated, so.


Quotes:

[On my doing pushups] Wo3 bang1 ni3 suan4... Ni3 pian4 wo3 wo3 jiu4 bu4 gei2 ni3 nigthsnack chi1 (I'll help you count. If you cheat me, I won't give you any nightsnack to eat)