First of all, my apologies to those of you who've been checking the site religiously this past week, and probably getting pretty frustrated by the lack of updates. It's basically just been a really hectic period, and right now -- as usual -- I'm blogging during a night shift, aargh!

Survivor:Vanuatu has begun, woohoo!

18 new castaways, and the return of the very scrumptious Jeff Probst, who looks better with each passing season. :)
I caught the earlier half of the show last night - before having to scamper off to work - and already, I can tell you John P. and Brady will be the stars of the show, for very obvious ( ie. aesthetic ) reasons. Plus, the latter's an FBI agent. Oh my... :P

Singapore Idol

The finals will begin in 2 weeks, and all I can say is, I was doing the I-Told-You-So dance a couple of days ago when Sylvester Sim, the Ah Beng rocker dude, was voted the People's Choice. This is a guy whom I spotted during the preliminary rounds, and whom I voted for ( though he failed to go through the first time, while a rather lousy Christopher Lee did, hmph ). I was elated when Sly was brought back for the Wild Card, and believe it or not, even though I was working when the episode aired, I told my mom to make sure she voted for him no matter what. Interesting eh? :D

Will he win though? Only time will tell. He's the most unusual of the finalists, no doubt, favouring Bon Jovi and Firehouse, unlike the mainstream pop his peers gravitate towards. And he sounds very competent, like Kurt Nilsen and his U2 renditions ( Norwegian Idol, you may recall ). But I admit it's pretty much a long shot, 'cos the masses are famous for preferring the more palatable genres rather than something as edgy as rock / heavy metal. So I think beautiful-diva Jessea will excel in this respect.

The coming months will certainly be extremely interesting. I'll be keeping my eyes and ears peeled. :)

Books, Books, Books

An Unquiet Mind -- Kay Redfield Jamison: A proper review will be published in the SMA News sometime soon, with a possibly more detailed version on The Lingual Nerve. In short, however, this is the 2nd best book I've ever laid my hands on, just behind the absolutely fabulous Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil by John Berendt. A great pleasure indeed.

Lucky -- Alice Sebold: I actually wanted The Lovely Bones, a first-person account ( or first-ghost account ) of a rape / murder involving a teenage girl, but that was out of stock, so I decided to try Sebold's autobiography instead. Sadly, I didn't like it at all. Past the first chapter ( an admittedly graphic account of the crime itself ), I found her narratives too long-winded. Or perhaps her friends are just uniformly melodramatic. But that's just my opinion.

Dave Barry's Complete Guide To Guys: A veritable treasure, this one! You know I'm a GIGANTIC Barry fan, and this is so good I decided to keep the book, even though I originally rented it. A lot of the traits he describes hit the nail right on the head, and by golly, my dad is practically The Quintessential Guy, even though Barry's Caucasian and my father's more of a typical Chinese patriarch figure. Believe it, gals -- guys everywhere are exactly the same. It's in their genes ( according to Mr. Dave ), and the chapter on Guy Medical Conditions is priceless!
Also, there's a short quote from an article in -- get this -- The Straits Times, about a man who was bitten in the netherparts by a python hiding in the toilet bowl.
( Gentle warning: DO NOT read this book in a public place, unless you couldn't care less about other people thinking you're insane. )

Anyone You Want Me To Be -- John Douglas: Just started on this today, but I have high hopes for it, 'cos I'm a big fan of Douglas -- a pioneer FBI profiler whose novel Mindhunter served as inspiration for Thomas Harris' Hannibal series. After his last effort -- the very very very excellent The Cases That Haunt Us ( with retrospective analyses of everything from the Lizzie Borden and JonBenet Ramsey murders to the Charles Lindbergh kidnapping ), his latest effort dwells on an Internet serial killer, with fascinating insights and a breezy writing style that never fails to keep me glued to the pages. More on this another time.

My break's ending soon. In conclusion:

1. Gigli really isn't that bad, though neither is it very good. But I wouldn't suggest watching it, unless you're a rabid Ben Affleck fan like myself, haha.

2. Foreign films worth seeing -- The Experiment ( German, very enjoyable ) and Possessed ( Danish, starts off as a medical thriller then meanders somewhere else halfway through -- really depends on how flexible you are; I wasn't too happy about the switch, but my mom liked it ).

3. Clay Aiken updates ( yes! he still exists in my world! ) -- X'mas album due out in October; he's also apparently writing an autobiography which will be published very soon, AND I still get goosebumps listening to him sing. :)

Have a good weekend!