YES! it's finally done with...(at least the Reasoning Part, hopefully i won't need to take it again...) i am soo relieved...

the test....,since i'm not supposed to talk about it... well

funny thing, there were a few very loud americans( at least i think that was what they were)... one with a bandanna. i think they were from lingni's school, and boy, were they LOUD..."

throughout the "waiting for the test to start" part, they were talking and laughing with such gusto, i almost envied them. me? i was a bag of nerves. then one of them started asking his friends whether they remembered the theme song from KnightRider ( perhaps he meant the 70s or was it 80s television show), and when none of them remembered, he called his friend on his cellular and went "do you remember that song? are u near a computer? could you check for me?" and "man, i've taking an SAT and if i can't get the song i won't be able to concentrate.."

i was trying very hard to hide my smirk....it WAS very funny....

anyway, saw Da vinci code yesterday, it was not even half asd bad as they said it was... in fact i found it pretty good. too bad for the people who didn't understand. but FYI, if you never understood or intended to make an effort to understand, you should have saved your money in the first place. No point blaming other people for one's own inabilities....and keep an open mind, it IS after all fiction and just a movie? Did your mum ever tell you King Kong existed just because they made a movie about it?(ignore that remark if you believe in Big Foot." :P

few would remember that some time ago i bought the book Mr Darcy's Daughters (heck, the review is still posted here). today, i was again in MPH and stumbled upon yet another sequel to Pride and Prejudice, and then another one... and another one, ALL by DIFFERENT authors!

the book was pricey. 59.90 to be exact. so i wasn't willing to part with my money for it(being because i am pretty dry this month... too many childish acquisitions). but upon reaching home, i decided to do a search on such books, and got quite a long list.

a few i AM interested in( and may buy later are):

• Mr Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll
• Pride and Prescience, a Mr and Mrs Darcy Mystery by Carrie Bebris
• An Assembly Such As This by Pamela Aidan

Pity some of them aren't actually available in Malaysia....

chinese weddings.... well, are never that much fun...

don't get me wrong, i am very much a pro-chinese tradition person, but sometimes the traditions are just not that suitable. chinese weddings are loud(in terms of people), and colourful(in terms of red), and are loads of fun(if you like sharing too much to eat dinners with people who REALLY like to scream YUM SENG), but lack a sense of meaning that makes a wedding really memorable...

What prompted this train of thought? i was reading a book that had a passage that really touched me, and you know what? would be really suitable if you needed something to read at your friend's(or your) wedding, that is, assuming they can hear you above the "YUUUUUUUMMMMM SEEEEENGs".. well

"With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls,

For stony limits cannot hold love out,

and what love can do, that dares love attempt."

p/s:it's from Romeo and Juliet.

p/s/s: my cousin's getting married soon. another brash and loud affair...sigh

take the STPM.

i am serious. yes, every year you see news of top scorers plastered all across newspapers, but let me tell you, those are certainly superhumans, not something that a commoner like me can ever be compared with.

all my life before form 6 could be categorised as smooth sailing. i took test, sometimes i aced them, i played, i studied, i cried when i was stressed out... but nothing ever made me feel as worthless as the STPM.

every test serves nothing but to sink my spirits... Pn linet probably thought she was being kind when she scolded us for not taking our studies seriously, that we should be revising and we played along, telling her how, "no, we haven't done anything" but that was a bloody LIE.

There is not a single person i know ( with the possible exception of Shy Jer) that didn't work for this test. i worked harder that i have ever worked in any period of my life so far, and my reward for my efforts???? A miserable 62/100, 68/100 after adding my monthly test scores. I smile, grin even. say "it's just a test", but inside i feel about as happy as a pig pulled to slaughter...hoves dragging on the ground...

Throughout my life so far i have perfected the art of telling people i haven't worked for something... it's hypocritical, but it was a twisted way of self preservation. like convincing yourself and telling people u don't really want something somehow made rejection easier to bear... but let me tell u something....

I really worked hard for this test, chemistry especially. i was confident that i had studied hard... but u know what i find out? the highest score in my class is a 59. and thats not even ME!!!!!!!!

call me self centered... call me a bumptious bitch.. but rejection hurts, and self-worth? it's not overrated.

STPM has robbed me of what made me. I am no longer FUN, just a depressed, nerve-wrecking, sick. psychotic bit**, and i apologise.

p/s: not many people read this blog. the few who do, i think of u as my best friends. so excuse my ranting...

So, here i go, i am again writing about a book written by Mary Janice Davidson, because frankly speaking, i've kinda gotten addicted to her books...i know, it's horribly juvenile, and the language is so simple, i should be reading more serious stuff... but i digress...

anyway, on with the story

Main character: Elizabeth Taylor ( not THAT elizabeth taylor, this is Betsy Taylor, but they do poke fun at her name)

What happens: she dies in an accident, and instead of resting in peace, she wakes up at the morgue... and all hell breaks loose...

first of all, the funeral home can't find her body, so they couldn't have her funeral... then Betsy realises why she WOKE UP...

SHE's....

A...

VAMPIRE...... and the queen of vampires, to be exact...

My thoughts:

read between the lines, =i am addicted=.....because, well...it's side splitting funny. it's a bit like reading becky bloomwood, but the difference is instead of being a chronic shopaholic, this one is a chronic shoeaholic(addicted to shoes, if u know what i mean), and a vampire to boot....and there is a totally delicious male lead... (definitely an author after my own heart)

so, again, like all chic lit/romance novels, there are a  fair bit of compromising situations involve, but nothing biggy, compared to those of you who have read M&Bs...

my favourite part when it comes to romances?

imagine this, the guy is snobbish, arrogant, doesn't dare admit to the girl that he is hopelessly devoted to her and

suddenly,

something happens, she is in a life-death situation(or a situation that potentially involves great humuliation for her family, if you remember Pride and Prejudice) and suddenly, he jumps in, saves the day...

(and best of all, you can hear his thoughts),

you know: the

"please... please... please don't die...."

or

"if he does anything to her, I'll...."

or

"YOU DARE HURT HER!!!" (proceed with fist work)

you know what, i AM a feminist, yet i can't help feeling a bit weak in the knees for a hero who jumps in and saves the day.... i am definitely a romantic at heart, what can i say, i am a contradiction of the worse kind...

p/s: this whole article sounds a bit disjointed...will see what i can do when i get my next fix. that is to buy and to read the 3rd Installment :Undead and Unappreciated

p/s/s: confused? i already read the 2nd one... told u i was hooked...

What can i say? once again, i've proved that i'm not actually that much of a writer...hahaha

well, at least, this time i did send in an entry... :P

but anyway, if i was discouraged that easily, i ain't me, so, people, u can still expect to see more of this obnoxious, annoying person in the future....

exams are less than a week away, and i am sick, literally...

i got up this morning, coughed a bit, and voila, i now have a full blown, kick ass cough+sore throat... and tomorrow is my MUET speaking...

i already don't hold much hope for my MUET this time round(cause of the writing, everyone i know probably aready KNOWS that by now, seemingly because i couldn't help but to blast my dissapointment at everybody i know... what's misery without a bit of company eh?) but i would want to be able to speak tomorrow...

congrats to andrew loh, whom i do not know personally, but have in action at the HSBC public speaking thing(plus hui fen knows him), for proving that he is not only a speaker but a writer as well... unlike moi(there i go again...:P), pity he didn't get into Yale or Princeton though, which goes to show that the competition IS really tough...

Am very bummed out lately, 'coz of the MUET...

i admit it, i was nervous, but i sure didn't expect the total blankout i had...

never in my life have i had such a profound moment, where i totally did not know what i was gonna write...everything did not make sense, didn't sound right...

at then, the animal instincts kicked in...

it was fight or flee...

and u know what?

i actually wanted to run...

get the h**l out of there,

but

i couldn't

so

i wrote a whole bunch of nonsense...

total junk...

and my hands were shaking as i tied the string on the papers...

i wanted to cry...

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I dread going to school tomorrow...

Not because i've done anything horrible or anything... but i just can't face the thought of going to school looking as i do now...

well.... first of all, my hair is now back to the stage where it looks like i'm just starting to keep it long...you know, the embarrasing stage where everything kinda looks a bit messy( make that VERY messy) cause the hair is a bit too short to stay in its place properly...it looks fine when i just leave it down, but when i put it up... well...

I wish i could just leave it hanging as it is, but school rules(haha) dictates that it must be up in a ponytail if it's long enough to cover your collar... problem is, mine's not even a ponytail, chicken feather's more like it...

whatever propelled me to cut my hair that short i have no idea... perhaps it's the inner me, who is sick of all this s*** lately trying to CHANGE something...actually, i kinda like the new do, if it didn't make me feel so silly...

Haih...

today, as i was channel surfing, saw that NTV7 was showing Mulan(another version besides the disney one), and it got me thinking...

i guess not many know that before Mulan was dug out of the depths of chinese literature and history, she was actually just a character short passage in chinese...

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perhaps it was the idea of a chinese Joan Of Arc appealed to the people at disney.. perhaps by potraying a character that was so brave and her dilemmas in not being able to express her feelings to the ones she wanted to trust most appealed to the western romantics

but i am thankful, because they have started to make an effort to understand.

I knew it seem absurd to buy a book just because of the title, or because the book faintly hinted to a sequel of my favourite couple, NOT written by the original author, but some other person. Thankfully, after reading a book, i can loudly proclaim that buying the book was definitely worth while:

Mr Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston

 The story picks up about twenty one years after the events of Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth and Darcy are as in love with each other as they were before ( which seriously earns it some brownie points in my books), and elizabeth, who can't bear to be separated from darcy ( actually, neither can he) has followed him to constantinople( where Darcy has been sent for some diplomatic business), and leave their children in the care of their relatives.

well, in case your curious, they have seven children, five daughters and two boys. While the boys are left in the care of their grandfather(Mr Bennet), the girls are given a chance to stay in London with a cousin of Darcy's( Mr Fitzwilliam/Colonel Fitzwilliam, as some would remember from P&P) and his wife. The two eldest girls are of age, and Fitzwilliam's wife, Fanny, is determined to get them a good match as it is "The Season" in London, and gets more than she bargain for.

My favourite character in the book, is none other than the heroine, Miss Camilla Darcy. Hui fen has always teased me about my penchant for the main characters, which is sometimes consider rather shallow, because it is as if i only see what the author wants me to see, and nothing more, but there is no argument on this one. People who know me know i have never held much regard for people with names like Camilla, but this is one camilla that you can't help but symphatise with...

Camilla Darcy, is the second daughter, after Letitia, the eldest. Letitia, is annoying and hypocritical, which sort of dissapoints me, for she IS after all, supposed to be the first born of Elizabeth and Darcy, two such intelligent and sensible people...but Camilla is the one that is more like her mother, intelligent, book-loving, and independent minded.

so, the book is generally about the adventures of Camilla and her sisters while in London. and adventures is a nice way to put it, because life in london for the rich and the elite is not just about parties and dancing, there is also lots of scandal, jealousy and more scandal involved.

The girls, being Darcy's, are each heiress in their own rights, worth fifty thousand points a piece(this thread is mentioned throughout the book. why the people in the olden days like to refer to women as if they were properties with price tags on them i have no idea.) Although only 2 of the girls are of age, the arrival of the 5 of them stirr immediate news and interest in London. besides the two eldest, the next in line is Belle and Georgiana, both beauties, but resembling so much in their behaviour to their aunt Lydia that one really feels like slapping some sense into them. the last is Alethea, the musical genius, very likeable indeed in her intelligent observations, but a bit too tactless for her own good.

Many of the characters in P&P appear in the book. Lydia, Caroline Bingley, The Gardiners.Mr Gardiner, Lizzie's aunt and uncle are now very rich, but are not as respected as their money should dictate, for their fortune is from trade. though so, their daughter has managed to find herself a delightful match in one rich, handsome and influential man, Mr Wyntton.

Mr Wyntton hates Camilla at first sight. He has vowed to hate women who are too smart for their own good, and Camilla's wit annoys him. Camilla too, finds Wyntton annoying and rude, but all is not as it seems.... haha, this is the part where the cliche comes in....

Wouldn't spoil the fun for you, but Wyntton reminds one of Darcy, in more ways than one. Camilla is like a Lizzie and Anne rolled into one, and is superb, though sometimes a bit annoying in the fact that she doesn't tell her elder sister a piece of her mind like she should. The author has refrained from hitching too much on Lizzie and Dracy, so they are only mentioned in passing throughout the book....

All in all, very enjoyable read. one question though, why must they always refer to the men using their last names? i once berated myself for forgetting what Darcy's first name was, and only remembering him as Mr Darcy, but when i reread it to find out for myself, i realised that was because it was so seldom used.... why?