this is premium writing, no?

that’s me, i hope

Posted in Personal by isaiahlim on February 27, 2008

the ghost writer, pg. 34:

I don’t know anybody. I turn sentences around, and that’s it.

britainwar vs bombersingh

Posted in Culture by isaiahlim on February 26, 2008

Frankenstein Momin, Billy Kid Sangma, Adolf Lu Hitler Marak, Britainwar Dan, Admiral Sangma, Bombersingh Hynniewta, Laborious Manik Syiem, Hilarius Pohchen, Boldness Nongrum, Clever Marak and Tony Curtis Lyngdoh are running for elections in India.

Suze Orman

Posted in Business by isaiahlim on February 25, 2008

People criticize simplicity because they need to feel as though the topic is more complicated. If everything were so simple, they think their jobs could be eliminated. It’s our fear of extinction, our fear of elimination, our fear of not being important that leads us to communicate things more than we need to.

the antichrist is coming

Posted in Singapore by isaiahlim on February 24, 2008

ST:

A survey has found that Singapore women expect their dates to pay for meals, see them home and carry their handbags.

she doesn’t like norwegian wood

Posted in haruki murakami by isaiahlim on February 22, 2008

a colleague finds norwegian wood only ok.

she’s malaysian.

the best course ever

Posted in Culture by isaiahlim on February 20, 2008

the best course ever in the world is available at the Pickup School for Men Who Can’t Get Any and here is a testimonial from satisfied customer Hachioji Robocop:

Since joining Mr. Fujita’s school, I have had five successful relationships. I lost my virginity six months into the course, and now I can now communicate with women. I’m very grateful.

Link

scariest sentence of the day

Posted in Singapore by isaiahlim on February 20, 2008

the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) probes Ren Ci and the Health Minister says:

(Auditors) are accountancy-trained, so they look at the figures on a bookkeeping basis. CAD will have other skills and sometimes they are more able to get to some of the answers.

11 roses

Posted in Culture by isaiahlim on February 18, 2008

Time’s China Blog:

According to feng-shui, every mountain is the residence of a dragon. The peninsular part of Hong Kong, known as Kowloon or “Nine Dragons,” takes its name from this principle. But there aren’t nine mountains in Kowloon—only eight. Centuries ago, an astute counselor complimented a visiting emperor by calling him “the ninth dragon” (or mountain)—hence Nine Dragons.
Including someone in a flattering way, when you are enumerating something, has now become a common conceit. Hong Kong florists use it to great effect every Valentine’s Day. You order a dozen roses, but the recipient only gets 11. Challenge the florist and you will be told that your beloved herself is “the twelfth rose.”

Sandra Boynton

Posted in Business by isaiahlim on February 18, 2008

Sandra Boynton’s career and common sense is such an inspiration:

I love what I do, I love the people I work with, I care very much about the value of the work I create, and I don’t need more money than I have. This is not revolutionary philosophy. It’s just common sense.

Richard Yates

Posted in Quotations by isaiahlim on February 17, 2008

When a tough, honest writer can look squarely at all the horrors of the world, face all the facts, and still come up with a hard-won, joyous celebration of life at the end, in spite of everything, that can be wonderful.

Revolutionary Road

Posted in Books by isaiahlim on February 17, 2008

when i was in new york last october, i spent an indecent amount of time at the Strand bookstore where i picked up Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road. i did it because it was a staff pick and the comments were – “best book I have ever read – seriously.”

it isn’t the best book i read but it’s damm fine.

today i was surprised to find that the book was mentioned in Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down:

One of the would-be suicides in Nick Hornby’s novel A Long Way Down plans to go out in style with a copy of Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road in his pocket. ‘[It's] a totally awesome novel,’ the character, JJ, tells us. ‘I was actually going to jump with a copy – not only because it would have been kinda cool, and would’ve added a mystique to my death but because it might have been a good way of getting more people to read it.’ But JJ’s plans misfire when he forgets the book; fortunately for Hornby’s distinctly Yatesian novel, he decides not to kill himself. ‘I wouldn’t recommend finishing it on Christmas Day, in a cold-water bedsit,’ JJ says about Yates’s masterpiece. ‘It probably didn’t help my general sense of well-being, if you know what I mean, because the ending is a real downer.’

resolute refusal

Posted in Quotations by isaiahlim on February 17, 2008

Noël Coward writes to Harold Pinter:

I love your choice of words, your resolute refusal to explain anything and the arrogant, but triumphant demands you make on the audience’s imagination.

six-word memoirs

Posted in Personal by isaiahlim on February 16, 2008

how do you tell your life story in six words? (the book is out and i can’t wait to get my hands on it.)

i thought i separate my life into chapters and have six words for each of them.

primary school: very fierce mother, so i read.

secondary school: didn’t fit in, smash hits helped.

junior college: served God daily, flunked school badly.

army: fat boy in, fatter boy out.

film school: full of crazy people, we sucked.

love life: tried it once, and never again.

first job: stayed too long, should have stretched.

second job: set up studio, saw the world.

third job: work with slides, sat near kings.

this is a great exercise, highly recommended.

the finest cuisine of the west

Posted in Culture by isaiahlim on February 16, 2008

The Guardian:

Many Chinese local governments are still offering their best locations to McDonald’s, because they are told McDonald’s is the finest cuisine of the west.

Sumie Kawakami

Posted in Culture by isaiahlim on February 16, 2008

Well, in my opinion, all men – not just Japanese – are more or less potential mama’s boys. From a woman’s perspective, most of them are.

Link

August Dvorak

Posted in Quotations by isaiahlim on February 13, 2008

I’m tired of trying to do something worthwhile for the human race. They simply don’t want to change!

Atonement (2007)

Posted in Quotations by isaiahlim on February 12, 2008

Find you, love you, marry you and live without shame.

***

Come back to me.

American Gangster (2007)

Posted in Quotations by isaiahlim on February 12, 2008

… the loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.

my Mills & Boon story

Posted in Personal by isaiahlim on February 12, 2008

Mills and Boon turns 100 and even I have a M&B story.

When I was in junior college, we had a fun fair where each class organized a game and gave out prizes. We had a fishing game and everyone in class had to contribute something to be used as prizes. I had 3 rather new M&B books and I gave them away.

Some years later, I was talking to my then girlfriend and she said she remembered going to my college for a funfair, playing a fishing game and winning 3 M&B books.

Of course, the question of the day is not why despite all that, we never lasted but why the hell was I doing with 3 M&B books in the first place?

Javier Bardem

Posted in Quotations by isaiahlim on February 9, 2008

The fact of being a Spaniard, and living in Spain, enables me to see things from the outside, with a camera B. It’s good to go back to your roots and to see everything with a second camera. When you see yourself from the outside, you see how small everything is, how unimportant.

Link