After our last meet-up last month & the movie, I thought she would not agree to meet up again (or perhaps find reasons not to). Meeting up just to spend time with me and talk, about random things in life. Socializing is a rare occasion for me and most of my life I hardly have any close friends that I meet up occasionally with. So this is rare, thankfully I really enjoyed the time. We meet throughout the years but not as often as this past few years.
I wish we started sooner, and I hope she enjoyed her time too.
Ps - Ms. Chin is my former English teacher when I was 15.
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2 weekends ago we did a potluck CNY party at my brother's house - with my siblings + mom. I made pumpkin soup and chicken curry (because my sister made roti jala). It was a good potluck party because everyone participated and was home-cooked. Then this weekend we did another potluck party and this time with my dad, but I just bought some sushi because I didn't feel like cooking anything.
I think getting older teaches me to appreciate real connections with people, or at least I promise myself to make a bigger effort in maintaining social relationships. I realized that a special relationship is a rare thing in life; having someone to talk to, to fully be yourself with, to have engaging conversations with, or to just be. Friendship is a rare commodity.
The older I get, the clearer I see, that we are all strangers.
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Here are the books I read and listened to in January :
Matilda by Mary Shelley. I read this book in 2018 and I don't have any recollection of the book. How odd, it was that plain.
I realized that I don't enjoy reading Dostoyevsky's classics at this moment, perhaps I can't appreciate his pessimistic views on life, and most of his characters seem a bit too depressed for me. I might try again next year after I try Tolstoy?
I also don't really like Mieko Kawakami's style of writing - I already listened to 3 of her books and I can't really appreciate it.
I love Noor Naga's If An Egyptian Can't Speak English, so I'm trying to get her other early book - Washes, Prays about a young woman's romantic relationship with a married man and her crisis of faith as a Muslim.
Mona Awad's All is Well was a bit odd, experimental maybe? A nice twist in the end, I don't think I will reread this one.
Frank Bruni's The Beauty of Dusk is written by a journalist, so I appreciate his direct tone, it reminds me of Joan Didion.
I decided to love Yiyun Li. In the past few months, I listened to The Book of Goose, Gilgamesh, and A Sheltered Woman, all I enjoyed and want to reread.
Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux is an eye-opening realization of how humbling falling in love with a married man can be. It is a pain that we can't really share with the world because of how scandalous it is but Annie Ernaux wrote it from her heart and she shared it with the world. Not for the man that she loved, but for herself and I salute her for that. I needed that.
I'm making a promise to read Herman Hesse's books this year. I just finished The Journey to the East, and I'm reading Narcissus & Goldmund at this moment. I forgot Steppenwolf because I read it in 2016 and gave it 2 stars on Goodreads, so I might listen to it to refresh my memory this year.
The End of Getting Lost by Robin Kirman - Did I enjoy it? I'm not sure. It's a meh story, just to fill my time while working. Nothing really profound from this.
Is this an age thing? Is it because I just starting to leave my mid-30s? Is it because of the work stress I've been facing? Is it because of just the pure pain of missing something? A lot of mixed emotions that I'm trying to understand. Bitter and confused.
I tried finding books that can put my feelings into words but I haven't found them yet. Been living in my subconscious a lot lately and it is not a good sign.
I need a good distraction for now, like perhaps a Herman Hesse's book, or maybe Elif Shafak. Honestly, I think Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a depressed pessimist that I can't handle this year.
I got no title for this. Let me just post this to the Maya world and I'll get back to it in another 10 years' time.Here is my post exactly 10 years ago.
And those people you'd thought about, call them, text them, meet them.
Tell them that they matters to you, and having them is the best thing that happened in your life. Be thankful for having those people in your little circle.
Live like it's your last day, and you will never see people in the same way again.
Nope, apparently, I don't want to listen to my own writing. This is not applicable to every situation.
4. Taman Tasik Titiwangsa
Crowd: Crowded on weekends and 5-7pm on weekdays
Distance: 2.5km per loop
Level: Easy, flat track
Public transportation: MRT Titiwangsa
Night: Open until 10pm
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5. Taman Tasik Perdana ( Botanical Garden )
Crowd: Normal, crowded on weekends
Distance: Vary, the park is huge
Level: Vary - Stairs, hills, flats
Public transportation : MRT Muzium Negara, LRT KL Sentral
Night: Closed
You need to cross the small road, towards the museum. There is a pathway between of MRT construction side and the museum that lead to the small entrance to the park :
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6. Putrajaya
Crowd: Not so crowded except on event days and weekends
Distance: Putrajaya is huge, fewer cars, and you can try new routes every time
Level: Vary, open road, mostly flat sometimes hilly
Public Transportation: No trains, just bus
Night: It's an open road, quite calm
Paths to try: Putrajaya Botanical Garden, Taman Saujana Hijau, Putrajaya Wetland, Taman Putra Perdana, Taman Canseri, Taman Wawasan, Taman Empangan
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7. Taman Pemaisuri, Cheras
Crowd: Normal, crowded on weekends
Distance: Vary, the park is huge
Level: Vary - Stairs, hills, flats
Public transportation: LRT Cheras, but you need to walk 15 mins more
Night: Not quite sure
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8. Perdana Lake, Cyberjaya
Crowd: Normal, crowded on weekends near the playground
Level: Easy - Flat
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9. Desa Park City
Crowd: Normal, crowded on weekends
Distance: 2.2km loop
Level: Easy - flat
Night: Open
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10. Taman Botani Negara, Shah Alam
Distance: Vary (Short 5km, Medium 10 km, Long - over 15 km)
Level: Moderate - Hilly
Night: Closed
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11. Kepong Metropolitan Park
Distance: 3.8km loop
Level: Easy - moderate
Night: Closed
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Hiking or Trail :
1. Bukit Kiara Park, KL
Distance: Vary
Level: Vary - several kinds of trails: Mont Kiara entrance or TTDI entrance
NOTE: Book Depository closed down in 2023, so Amazon bought it, then decided to close it down - perhaps to remove one of its biggest competitors. I hate you, Amazon. TheBookDepository, there is nothing like you T^T
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Hey guys,
I think I need to update this post, it's been 8 years since I wrote this original post about The Book Depository review and people keep coming to this particular post when they are having problems with TBD or thinking about buying books there + worried about the shipping all the way to Malaysia.
I first started to buy books from TBD in 2011
I ordered >30 books from them (18 orders)
1 parcel was missing and I got a full refund (in 2011)
Other books arrived safe and sound
I also ordered a book during Covid19 pandemic in Sept 2020 and got the book a month later in Oct 2020
I ordered again during the pandemic on the 23rd of April 2021, and I received the books on the 25th of May 2021. This time the postman left it right in front of my apartment door (anyone can actually take it - but thankfully another postman was sending another parcel and we noticed the parcel). I ordered 3 books by Beatrice Blue from the same publisher, they were bigger than A4 size but quite thin, so they were packed together in 1 parcel.
I ordered the last Carlos Ruiz Zafon book on the 30th Jan 2022 and received my book on the 15th of Feb (around 2 weeks later)
I preordered Hanya Yanagihara's To Paradise in Nov '22, it was released and posted on the 1st of Jan 2023 and arrived in my letterbox less than 3 weeks later.
These are some of the books that I bought from TBD in 2 different orders :
So let me update this posts :
Shipping: Yes, they are still sending books without any shipping fees. From what I can see, whenever I bought 3 books, 3 different individual parcels would arrive, they were never packed into one parcel. I think that's how they manage to send parcels for free (I'm assuming). So don't worry about the postman can't send your parcel safely when you are not at home. As long as you have a 'locked mailbox', those parcels will be safe. Pos Malaysia will deliver it to your home.
It is safe to send it to your uni/office? : Reminder, anyone can take your parcels. No one will have to sign anything, so if you trust your co-workers or people from your mailing centre, please do so. But you can't blame anyone when it goes missing.
Book quality: They are all new books, I don't think they are selling second-hand books.
Tax: No tax fees. You just have to pay for the book.
How long it will take? : I once received a book 2 weeks after I bought it, and I once received a book 2 months after I bought it. So it depends on the shipping situation I guess.
How to pay for the books: Credit/debit card (default) + Paypal (You can change to Paypal payment after you set the currency setting to USD$ )
Lost/missing parcels: Please write to their support centre after 2 months of the order. I'm not sure how they deal with this problem nowadays. In the older day (several years ago), I once lost one order and I asked the support centre. They gave me a full refund. I double-checked my address and my mailbox was locked, so I genuinely didn't receive any parcels. No lost parcels afterwards.
For me, TBD is still the best place to buy books online.
They are way cheaper (with sales) and have free shipping. Cheaper than books sold in bookstores in Malaysia. Plus, you can find books that are not sold here / hard to find locally (especially graphic novels and visual books). I don't mind waiting longer ❤
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The old post was written on the 23rd of March 2012 :
Yay! 2 weeks ago I ordered this book from Depositorybooks and it arrived last weekend from the UK.
With :
1. Free shipping
2. Fast delivery
3. Discount
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This is my second attempt with The Book Depository. I've been searching for online websites that sell books and offer free shipping, and this caught my eye. Several months ago, I ordered 2 discounted graphic books from the web but they never arrived. After 2 months of waiting, I reported to them about my books and got a full refund in a week. Pretty neat. No fuss.
Email I received :
Dear Azreen, I am very sorry to hear that your order has not yet arrived; As this is clearly overdue we are happy to offer you a refund or a replacement whichever you prefer?
Kind Regards, Customer Advisor
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2 weeks ago, I decided to try it again. I was not convinced that their management is bad because I've read several good reviews about this website *and they offer free shipping! Who would refuse that? So I ordered again anyway. I was willing to give a second chance to answer my curiosity! :E
The payment was made via PayPal and credited to maybank2u, which was super easy.
Postage fees = free. Ordered, confirmed and waited. It arrived home after 2 weeks. Satisfied :)
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Anyhow, I did read some bad comments on Depositorybooks. So, it depends on your luck! Just be patient, they offer a full refund, you won't lose anything and you'll gain experience. Try to take from the good side of everything :)
It was a bleak birthday for me, so I didn't write anything about my birthday right away because it was a bit of a meh. But I should want to remember this as it is an important turning point in my life.
I got a birthday day off from work, so I scheduled a home body massage for an hour from the Sentuh app. Sofi was at kindergarten for her half-day playschool. Then after picking her up from kindergarten, I treated myself to a lunch meal from Fishermanhatten - Af and Sofi were there, but I remember it as a bleak lunch as well. Then my brother came by and treated us to croissants at Cristine's. We also took a picture of the machine, so that I would remember the day well.
That was the day I said to myself that I wouldn't want to wait anymore.
Note: I also used all the present money I received from Ma and my siblings that I was supposed to buy myself a new reading chair, to survive later on.
I finished Andor. I waited for a year for the release and subscribed to Hotstar just to watch the whole series - love it. Although I'm not into sci-fiction that much, I was intrigued by Rogue One from the start (it is the only movie in the Star Wars franchise that I watched more than once). Well, I am probably biased because I love Diego Luna. Finding out that he got his own back story was an excitement that I can't hide, and this whole writing is probably biased towards him playing Andor.
But, hear me out.
Warning - Spoilers ahead **
1. Andor and Rogue One weren't stories about superheroes/superpowers, this is a story of normal flawed people (and I really don't like superheroes' stories). These are normal people that are trying to make a change. This is the story of Andor, a thief, a refugee, an outcast, an accidental murderer (?) - that decides to become a revolutionary and joins the Rebellion.
The Star Wars franchise itself is based on a political theme of resistance and oppression. About fighting the big battle, the rakyat vs the oppressed totalitarianism, about making sacrifices and believing in a cause. At this age, Andor is relatable. A lone survivalist that decides to become an activist. If we scratch the Star Wars layer aside, you can see a normal battle we see in our own country. Also, it shows the consequences of inaction when dealing with a regime. Do you choose not to participate? Do you choose not to pick a side?
Even though it is one of the Star Wars movies, there's hardly any mention of Jedi (which I appreciate). I can't connect well with special people (with superpowers, with connections, with evil money), Andor feels more relatable, just a mere human being. It felt fresh compared to all other Star Wars movies.
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2. The script for Andor (the series) is amazing, you can get a lot of strong beautiful quotes from the series. You need to watch it to understand what I mean by this. At times it might feel a bit too scripted but the characters did them so well, it was just nice.
Have you read/heard Nemik's manifesto?
Nemik is a rebel and he wrote his thoughts on Imperial oppression and the need for rebellion, this was his manifesto :
There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many.
One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try."
I mean, this is a manifesto for us, for the ordinary people.
Not like the one that Yoda passed to Luke :
Can you see the difference? Luke gets the burden of his responsibility on his shoulder alone, he can't 'try', he is special, and it is expected of him to 'do'. But in Nemik's manifesto, it's for the normal people, for us, the small beings, for each individual that can make a difference, make a change. We need to 'try'. Andor came out right before the 2022 election, and it correlates well. We are still not over the GE 14 political fiasco and I know almost everyone remembers that well. If we want to make a change, try, even how small.
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And how about Luthen's words when asked about sacrifice?
"I'm condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else's future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see. And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything!"
"And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude". Oh my, this is an explosion to the ears.Will never have a mirror because he is too ashamed to look at what he has done, or an audience or light of gratitude, because everything he does, he does it in secret. He is the two-faced spy.
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This is like reading a passage from a book, words by Kleya Marki:
I don't have lately. I have always. I have a constant blur of plates spinning and knives on the floor, and needy, panicked faces at the window, of which you are but one of many.
A constant blur of plates spinning and knives on the floor, and needy, panicked faces at the window, of which you are but one of many?
"Constant blur of plates" - like juggling balls, spinning plates needs constant movement and precision to avoid them crashing own, "knives on the floor" - the need to be careful, to constantly watch your step, "panicked faces at the window, of which you are but one of many" - there are many things on her mind to worry about. This is a gem!
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This is Kino Loy's words of strength :
.."There is one way out. Right now, the building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out! One way out! One way out!"
And Maarva's final speech? :
.."There is a wound that won't heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow, and now it's here. It's here, and it's not visiting anymore. It wants to stay. The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness, it is never more alive than when we sleep. It's easy for the dead to tell you to fight, and maybe it's true, maybe fighting is useless. Perhaps it's too late. But I'll tell you this... If I could do it again, I'd wake up early and be fighting these b*stards from the start. Fight the Empire!
This is top-notch scriptwriting.
I'm in awe of the proses mostly because I love how beautiful spoken/written languages can be in conveying a message. In this case, this might relate to my own personal love of words as a reader/listener of a story. If I noticed such things in a movie, that probably means they put extra effort in the script-writing to make someone like me notice this (because I usually do multiple things when I watch something, not 100% commit to only watching it).
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3. Complex and growing characters.
The characters are complex, they have multiple facets of personalities, morally grey, and their development slowly grows with the story.
Cassian Andor starts off the series as a thief and he accidentally murders 2 guards, then becomes a fugitive. He doesn't care about anything bigger than his life and his close circle. As the series progress, we can see his personal development. There was incident upon incident to make him realize the need to step up and be reborn. Even after the robbery in Aldhani takes place, even after he is stuck in the prison in Narkina 5, he then decides to change in the end. After a defeat. A death. A reminder.
Syril Karn is an odd character worth mentioning as well. An ambitious inspector with a strong need to accomplish something, his need to impress, and his obsession with trying to do something right (right in his case doesn't always mean right to everyone else). He takes his duty very seriously, he loves order, discipline, and justice. Remember the one mention about his tailored uniform to fit his body right and added pockets? Who would put such detail into creating a character? I laughed at this scene when I saw it, because we can see how anal he is about everything (an anal-retentive person is a person who pays such attention to detail that it becomes an obsession and may be an annoyance to others). Aside from that, we can see why he is like that after the Ferrix incident when he is fired from his job and returns home. A nice side story to see when he is home with his mother (it all makes sense !).
Almost every character in this series is morally grey characters: Andor, Syril, Dedra, Luthen, Maarva, and Mon Mothma. We can't decide whether they are purely evil or purely good. The heroes that would cross the line for the greater good (even by deciding to sacrifice 50 people in order to send a bigger message), or seemingly villains of the story but with a strong point that they are holding on to (like Syril and Dedra - I think they really believe in being in the right place, just doing their job, a bit too obsessively), are they in the evil side? Andor himself is a thief and fugitive, when he decides to pick a side, does this means he is now on the good side? Luthen sacrifices people for a greater message, does this mean he is on the good side?
These are all moral questions worth debating.
Who decides what is good and what is evil when we are fighting a big battle? Isn't both sides will do something that crosses the line? In Andor, we don't only see the bigger evil power lurking at every side controlling the lives of the universe, we also see the people trapped in the situation - the political side (Mon Mothma), in their job (Dedra and Syril). These people on the seemingly evil side believe they are on the right side. Is Dedra truly evil because of her dedication to her work?
I appreciate them making each character with their own little story to make sense of everything, to humanize them. Nicely progressed character development. What makes good character development good? They have backstories, goals, flaws, personalities, world views, personal traits, values, and beliefs. I think Andor hits that part well.
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It's a bit weird for me to post this on my 36th birthday, but here it is, finally finished this post after 2 weeks of drafting it. A short review of 3 things that I want to mention about Andor: the relatable political wars between the rakyat and the oppressed government, the beautiful script-writing, and the fictional morally grey characters with complex & growing development. I'm not a Star Wars fan, but I'm glad I ended 2022 with a great story.
Here is the official trailer :
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And the small downside :
Half of the early part of the series is slow, the characters are slowly developed and it was a bit boring. Nothing much really happens. The next half is good and strong. I didn't know it was separated into 3 chapters (1-3, 4-6, 7-9) when I first watched it, if I'd known from the start, maybe I expect the pace better. I think I was bored for the first 5 episodes.
