19(iv) perfume: the story of a murderer, patrick süskind

i can't be bothered to find a picture of the cover because it is freaky and also because the book was not that great. i don't know if it was because it was translated from the original german but it was not that well-written, it could actually have been a short story in my opinion. almost like a horror story. i actually didn't know that it was published in 1985 until just now, i guess because of the recent movie i thought it was also a recent book. i don't know how they are able to convey everything in a movie because we don't have smellavision? in my opinion it would be impossible otherwise. in any case, i wasn't that impressed.

45 - puffy feet

these are mine. they are much puffier in real life.

19(iii) the shock doctrine, naomi klein

this book took me a good 6 months to finish. basically anyone interested in capitalism, and the world history and associated economics of the last 3 decades needs to read this. i learned so much. my whole understanding of capitalism and globalisation has changed. this book was written before the global financial crisis but it points to the mentality which caused it to happen, i.e. sub-sub-sub-subcontracting with profits taken at every level, without checks and balances. basically any time that a country has had a violent political change or has needed economic aid, capitalist policies allowing multinational and private takeover have been forced on them, with tragic effects on the country's people, as always especially on the poor. this has extended to the position now that not only can these disaster situations be created, but that public works are now contracted out to private, meaning profits are taken again and again before anything is done or done at all. the companies which profit hugely from continued disaster are now also moving back into civilised situations to take advantage of fear and protectionism. luckily/inevitably things always go in cycles, i'm glad the book ended on a high note otherwise i would've had no hope for the future, that's how much it has changed my entire worldview.

48(i-ii) the thermals, the dead weather

i'm procrastinating because anatomy is a bitch, but i bought these today, the first at full price, breaking my only less than $15 rule but given i can't find their old albums to save my life that's ok. lalala in other news i have been listening to a lot of la roux and dragonette, dance dance!! in my mind mostly.

20(iv) not worthy of grammar

just watched love actually, some funny moments but overall, bleh

22(i) avenue q

saw this tonight at the theatre royal, it was hilarious, moreso in the 1st half perhaps. i wondered why they had real people characters and then 'human' muppets and then monster muppets? that was never really explained, but in any case i wonder if looking at a muppet while hearing someone speak or sing makes it sound more like a muppet voice. the acting and muppeting and singing were all really really good. i mean now i can totally understand why several people i know have seen it multiple times.

oh i also wanted to say that when we were finding our seats, i asked the guy in the seat next to me just to check his seat number and he didn't even respond, he didn't even look up, just waited for his girlfriend on the other side to clarify, what? why so awkward and rude? then he put his elbow on the shared armrest, but not just on it, over it, into my column of air over my seat. ugh.

20(iii) whip it

i was kinda excited about this until i read some mixed reviews, but it was quite enjoyable. maybe not as great as it could have been, but i think the low-key tone works especially when it is possible to try too hard to cater to a hipster audience (this is terrible as i haven't seen it yet but that approximates my preconception of '(500) days of summer', to say nothing of extraneous parentheses). basically i like that the characters are interesting and individual but that it's not shoved down your throat, nor are they annoyingly hyperaware of themselves. it's more a cute movie than anything great and epic but you could watch 'inglourious basterds' for that.

19(ii) the best american science writing 2007, ed gina kolata

so, i greatly enjoy many of the annual 'best american' anthologies, including but not limited to comics and non-required reading. being a nerd who reads books like 'a short history of nearly everything' and 'the fabric of the cosmos', i thought the best science writing would be really great. and it was!! so many interesting stories, from the preserved tissue of dinosaurs to the sequelae of research fraud and politics in mathematics. also now i want to eat an egg cooked at 65 degrees.

20(i-ii) movies on tv

in the past few days i watched a couple of movies on tv:
- the sound of music - haha probably along with mary poppins the movies of my childhood. still good. my favourite part used to be the puppet show, now my favourite few seconds is the very last note of 'do a deer' where they drop the tomato and traipse around the fountain etc etc, specifically where julie andrews hits the high Bb (i think) and puts her hand on her head due to the sheer intensity of it no doubt.
- transformers - the only thing i have to say is that it was pretty much a slightly inappropriate kids' movie. oh and that megan fox actually was better than i thought she would be, that's how high my expectations were.

19(i) the boat, nam le

short stories, the purest form of prose. i was impressed by the multicultural range, but they all had a similar structural style - looking into someone's life, whereupon they are looking towards a certain event, and yet we never get there. i guess for nam le it's all about the protagonist's thoughts and feelings about their thoughts and feelings, plus like, the rest of their life, but sometimes i want to know how it turns out and the aftermath. that's interesting too, right? maybe that'll be the theme for his next book.

42, 43

i haven't been swimming in at least 8 years

touch was never my favourite sport, probably because basketball season was always at the same time. or maybe because i didn't have awesome shoes.

day zero ends in t minus 1hr 18mins