Book Review: Beautiful Darkness

2nd installment of the Caster Chronicles, Beautiful Darkness is another amazing novel. I have no idea why some people said it's boring. It's far from it. Maybe it doesn't have much lovey-dovey stuff, since this is about Ethan and Lena being apart, but it still has plenty of action and a continuous great plot.

I'm starting to think this is so much better than Twilight.

In this sequel, Lena Duchannes is trying to live with the fact that her Uncle Macon died after the battle at the end of the first book. She is also the only Caster who has one green eye and one gold eye, meaning she's stuck in the middle of Light and Dark, and she wasn't coping well with all the shock and started to act strange, especially toward Ethan, trying to shut him out of her life.





After Lena ran off with a guy, Ethan met someone called John Breed (who was the guy) while trying to find Lena. He also met a girl at the library, Liv Durand, and became friends. Lena noticed and appeared to be jealous and upset. Desperate to understand what was happening to Lena, Ethan also went to the Caster Library to find Marian, a Keeper who revealed a lot of secrets and surprises about people around Ethan and also himself. Later Ethan also realized why Lena had been acting strange, and what she was trying to do, setting off a string of events that would bring someone back from life.

That's what the book is about. The atmosphere is moody and dark, sort of gothic. As with most books with sequels, the middle sequels are always weaker than the first book. Beautiful Darkness is no exception, but it is interesting enough to keep readers wanting to follow up on the third book, Beautiful Chaos, and hoping the third will be better.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Book Review: Point Blanc

Point Blanc is the second book of the famous Alex Rider series by British author Anthony Horowitz. It tells of young Alex on a mission sent by M16 (British version of CIA). Alex is to investigate into the suspicious deaths of some billionaires which seems to be the work of the same people. All of the dead billionaires have sons studying at an academy called Point Blanc, and Alex is supposed to enrol into the academy under the cover as the son of a billionaire who runs supermarkets.


Upon enrolling into the school, Alex befriended a boy called James Sprintz, who agreed that there was something weird going on. All of the boys who came were rebellious, but somehow became the opposite after some time. Alex also discovers something on his own and wondered what all those could mean. After a while even James turned weird and Alex decided to actively find out what was going on.

An interesting read, with a plot that isn't very new but skilfully crafted into something worth reading. There are some nice twists and suspense is served in good amounts, which made me finish this in one night. It's easily understood and digested, and at times quite thrilling, especially nearing the end.

Pick it up if you like James Bond kind of books and want some light reading with plenty of action.

Rating: 4 Stars.

My Little Cute Nephew--Henrick

Henrick came to visit again~

He's the cutest nephew I've ever had...and he's the closest nephew I can get by blood relations...

He's my half-brother's 4 year old son..

(truth is, he's only 3 years old, because he was born on Christmas Day..)

He's FULL of energy, spoilt rotten by his mom and has a "naughty" streak...but he can be SO cute as well. He has eyes that melt people...@@

I only see him about once a year, but we still remember each other.

I love him!

Grow up well, 'kay, Henrick?

His various face expressions:

Hmm...what's this?

Let's blow and see if it flies~

I catch!

My other nephews...playing with iPhone 4

Even Henrick likes iPhones..

See, we're friends XD

Yu3n~

Form5 life is...

Terrible.

 It's only January and the pressure is suffocating. SOS, anyone? Nobody bothers about a possible 2012 apocalypse...according to everyone, SPM is still on...

and the thing is, even if the 2012 End-Of-The-World happens, it is after SPM...T.T I feel strapped to a bomb about to detonate everytime I saw the red numbers on the countdown clock at school...=.=

And that makes me down~ :(

 Not looking forward to another year full of subjects that I absolutely dislike but must score for the sake of my future~

This year I'm sitting with GinYin...a classmate I barely know and barely talk to for the past 12 months...but we have talked more than 12 months in just a week. Haha.

What's good is I have someone to talk to in class this year..last year I spent a majority of my time talking to the wall and daydreaming at the back of the class.
So for the sake of my SPM I opted to sit in front of the class this year to maximise my hearing and vision of whatever teacher's teaching...

 So far I've been ok at my studies and GY has a sense of humour which means fits of laughing almost every 5 minutes...(stopped by JinYing's "SHHH" beside me...@@)

 My social circle has improved after being exposed to classmates previously not having anything to do with before...which is a good thing since this means I can survive when both JM and WQ are absent..haha.

Sejarah teacher has expressed his concern "tak patut terjejas oleh kawan di sebelah kamu..."

Speaking of teachers, the choice of teachers we had this year is the same as last year save for a few...even if we dislike a teacher's way of teaching, we really still have to accept...for the sake of ourselves..because teachers always win...:( (Learnt that the hard way)

Emotional life is fine now~had a fling (not anything serious), and now back to single life with no attachments except toward the various subjects I'm taking and am having a date with SPM in November.

Life's gonna be tough now~
But I will survive.. (hopefully)
Yuen~

有时候，朋友也会让自己失望

不懂是自己想太多？
知道友情不会每天都是完美快乐的，可是当朋友让自己失望时，常常会失落地想，他/她怎么突然变成这样，说出这种话？
是不是自己太敏感？
但因为不想失去朋友，
也只好忍了。。
不然就找不到人谈天咯~
真正了解自己的人，有几个？
说话时会想到别人的感受的，有几个？
对于一些人，就只能说一些话。跟错人说错的话题，反应只会让自己失望~

伤太多后，不会再轻易信任别人~
很多事情收在心里，不是内向，而是不想收到负面的反应~
算了吧
只有自己，才会真正地了解自己~

One Direction~My New Craze

I've been singing One Thing and What Makes You Beautiful whenever they're on the radio...
And now I'm finally posting about the guys behind them.

One Direction.

I like Niall the most...he's the cutest...:P..he has puppy-look eyes!!!
The rest don't look so good (mostly due to their hairstyles which I dislike)

I love their songs~b'cause they're very catchy and light and easy to sing to. And it doesn't make me sad, but rather it makes me happy and smile =)

I think Niall looks so much better than Justin Bieber. Haha.

And I think their songs are way better than Justin's.

<3 ~ Way to go, One Direction!

Brothers Nostalgia (Picture Post)

Captured some photos during my visit to my dad's side of the family...these are my nephews (cousin's sons), aged 9 and 6. Not easy to take their pictures since I had to do it subtly to avoid them noticing (which would largely ruin the effect) coupled with the fact that they're very active bundles of energy...@@

Took the pictures in sepia to create a nostalgic effect~because they remind me of when I was young and playing with cousins my age in the very same house...

They're cute, aren't they? And very close to each other. That's not something you see in every family. ^^

Yuen~

Viva España, Again!

The photo above says it all.

It couldn't have been a better birthday present.
Spain won the finals! Of Euro 2012!

As promised (with myself), I had agreed with myself to watch the finals live IF Spain enters, but not if it didn't get past the semis. So I stayed up until 5am and watched the live coverage on my PC.

I had expected to get bored since their games have always been dull and short on goals, but as it turns out, they scored 4 and blew everyone's minds off.

Spain reverted back to their widely-debated 4-6-0 formation, no strikers, but with a false 9. For those not familiar, this means they have 4 defenders and 6 midfielders, but the false 9 who plays deep into the field can turn into a striker whenever needed.
Dropped for the semi-final against Portugal, Cesc Fabregas returned to Spain's starting line-up to occupy the 'false 9' role he had taken up against Italy in the 1-1 draw between the sides in group match.

The first came from David Silva, quite early in the first half. It woke me up just as I was gonna doze off.

Second came from Jordi Alba, interestingly enough a defender, four minutes just before half-time. Defenders are supposed to defend, not strike and score, so this just goes to show how amazingly well-balanced the Spanish team is.

Half time. Spain 2, Italy 0.

Game started to dull down after that, and I was quite sure that was all, even though I badly wanted Spain to score more, they aren't famed for many goals. Italy's side was left with only 10 men on the field after injuries on multiple players.

Torres came up, replacing Fabregas. Wanting to score a goal, he played fast and managed to get the ball in during the 84th minute. By now I was jumping up and down in excitement, silently egging them on to score another. Hahaha.

Lo and behold, assisted by Torres, Juan Mata scored the 4th for Spain! Yay!

And even more great is Italy didn't get even a goal in. Let's not forget that was because of the totally amazing goalkeeper of all time, Iker Casillas whose hands are insured. Haha.

It's a great score because to me, one goal lost have to be compensated with one goal won. Which means that a 2-2 is no better than a 0-0. A 5-4 is just like a 1-0. A team isn't much good if it allows the other team to score that many goals. So I was extremely glad that Spain didn't have to lose any goals to Italy, or worse, resorting to penalties, which are really 70% based on luck. That wouldn't prove anything even if they'd won.

It is the biggest winning margin in the history of the tournament - beating West Germany's 3-0 win over the Soviet Union in 1972.

Dazzling in possession, rapier in their attacks, regal in their control of proceedings, this was the moment for Spain to lay down their law.

Any reports of the empire's demise were very much mistaken.

They had a point to prove to the world, and they have proven it.

Once again, I can happily say: Viva España! ^.^