Open Day

"Is this just a theory, Lady? Or something you've observed?

"It's a theory I've developed on the basis of what I've observed."

Sigh. I guess I should at least try to make my Fire quotes have some relevance.

I missed Open Day today. Due to my toe's intolerance to shoes. Or yesterday, since it's after midnight, whatever. I feel kinda sad. I like duty-ing during Open Days. Don't stare at me wide-eyed. I just do.

Last year, I was one of those people. Photo from Ishaq Danial.

Lol at Joey telling my dad she was really proud of me and forcing him to say the same. Ily babe. It got to me.

One day I'm going to post on how much my girls mean to me. How much being able to call them that, 'my girls', means to me. I can tell you one thing right now, though - it means a lot.

Embarrassments

He caught her coolly and propped her on her feet,
 his face impassive, as if it were routine for her to launch herself at him every time she dismounted.

After Tuesday's brilliant show of stupidity, and after missing school Wednesday, I decided to show up for another I-just-slept-for-two-hours day. The pain had lessened from excruciating (whole of the first day and night), I could walk again, and my parents wouldn't let me skip.

But I hadn't factored shoes into the equation.

The whole day was horribly embarrassing. I couldn't walk by fourth period, had to take off shoe and sock, and stay in class for recess. I had to do my English oral sitting down. But most embarrassing of all? It's the answer to this question:

"What happened to your foot?"

Shush, those who know. It's embarrassing. Really.

And it's not like it's a honkin' big bump or something that can silence people into sympathy. It looks like an innocent black spot but hurts like hell.

Oh, English oral. I had to be pretty well-prepared. Since dear Pn. Manjeet only accepts cheesy speeches that have to do with your feelings. My class was beautifully kind to me by letting me go through with the cheesiness of it all. And thanks Joey and Nicole, for your appearing suddenly with the applause. ;) I think I got a 29/30?

Xin You, you saved me with the ice, and the obsessions over Fire. Truly.

Reminiscent

"Poor boy. Who punched up your face?"

It was during Monday assembly, when something hit me, hard. Something other than the usual pangs of gastric pains I suffer, week after week, as I try my best to stand upright and keep an eye out for misbehaving students. The librarians were doing their promotion thing, you know, promoting new books that students wouldn't actually be able to take out of the library anyway. They were promoting encyclopedias.

I used to read encyclopedias. Yeah, when I was younger. Page by page, like I would a story book, albeit a v. v. thick one. I used to love them. And then on that Monday, I realised that I might still actually do.

And now I wish I had an encyclopedia to read. Probably one on geography or history, or global cultures, or just general knowledge. Even on the evolution of science, but nothing too deep, due to my distaste for that particular branch of knowledge. But now I see the main reason why I stopped - encyclopedias that are not for children are just far too expensive for me to afford. Or my mom. She doesn't really appreciate my being a bookworm, methinks.

I don't know who I am.

I think that's the first time I've said that here. Usually I avoid talking about this kind of thing, because this is the real world, and not a storybook - we aren't beings that can be summed up using any known words.

I think, though, that I used to be smart.

Addiction

I've finished reading Fire for the second time and am planning to start on the third. I'm experiencing the normal symptoms of addiction, like I do to any book I love or movie. I'm reading Fire obsessively, careful not to miss a word, repeating sentences over and over sometimes just to memorise them. I'm scrutinising the writing style, the tenses, until I would recognise this writer's flair anywhere. I have Fire, and Brigan, in my head, and they're real to me now - I could predict what they would say, how they would sound, what they would do - I know them so well now, they could grow in my head by themselves.

I get attached, obsessed, whatever you call it, so easily. I'm listless now when I'm not reading Fire. (Doesn't this post sound listless to you?) This always happens to me. Which gives me a new reason to remind myself to never try drugs. There's no saying that I only get addicted to books and movies.

So now, another familiar part of this process I have reached. Unable to contain my fixation with the book, I now begin to plague the poor souls who have the misfortune of being my friends to share in my fever.

Going through the Fire, I come across parts that I think my friends would love reading - parts that I think are really good, that have such a message in them that would be very good to be spread to the world. Fire is no bimbotic book - it's full of morale, and the characters put into words ideals and beliefs I've been subconsciously holding on to myself. And I always think to myself that I would post the excerpts here. But then, after a while I come to realise that I would be typing out the whole book here sooner or later.

It's a girl's book, actually, but if you're an open-minded guy you can still read it. Xin You must, definitely. Hui Jan too, and Chalystha should give it a try. Joey dear, you want to borrow Fire when I'm done with it, but if you want to read it before you die in an armoured car robbery you should download it HERE. But I already have it on my computer, so I can give it to you via msn.

By the way, I am such a hap for romance - the ones that appeal to me. The parts I re-read the most are the parts which have Fire and her soulmate in them.

Fire

I finally bought this book, after I finished reading it in Borders. I knew the minute I saw it, or rather, the minute I read the back, that I would love it, and that I would buy it. Because it is the closest thing I've seen to a Tamora Pierce book. Tamora Pierce is my favourite author - I have 22 of her books and am anxiously awaiting the twenty-third in paperback. I love them all because they have heroines as remarkable people, warriors, who make a difference in the world by their own journeys in life, and altogether are such people as I would want to be. And they're all set in worlds that are medieval, with swords and armies and kingdoms and monarchs and knights and archers and horses and magic and romance, but in fictional worlds, so no worrying about history here. These type of books, are my kind of books. It's not that I hate all other books, though.

Hey. 4 Adilians. This was my English oral in F2.

But I finished reading Fire before buying it because I have OCD when it comes to buying books. If I buy a book it means I have to be able to re-read it to the end of time. If I buy a book and I find I can't re-read it more than at least 4 times, I'll get depressed for weeks.

Anyway, Fire. Fire, in Thayaalan's words, is the name of the hot chick on the cover. (I brought the book to school.) She lives in a kingdom called the Dells, which have monsters living in them. Monsters are like any normal species of animal in the Dells, but are vastly different - they are brightly-coloured beautiful enough to capture your mind. Fire is a human monster, devastatingly beautiful. She is the daughter to the monster whose tendency to control minds for his own destructive fun turned the kingdom to ruin. And Fire, at seventeen, is going to overcome her fear of her powers and help the royal family fix it.

And surprisingly, Kristin Cashore does not follow the trend of the books nowadays which come out in series. Fire is the second book she's written, but it's not the sequel to her first, Graceling. Graceling is set in a neighbouring kingdom, about 30 years after Fire, and only has one crossover character. So the books aren't really connected.

This is Graceling.

I want this too.