Interesting Read -- The Case of the Missing Servant

Just a few days ago, the Harris bookstore near my house was having a storewide sale, and all books were sold at a 30% discount. Not wanting to miss out, I went in the bookstore and got myself a couple of books without hesitation.

To my pleasant surprise, one of the books I have bought was a great find. Prior to purchasing this title, I have never heard of the author Tarquin Hall himself. After reading through "The Case of the Missing Servant", I took an instant liking to the book.

The story starts off with the titular character, India's most private investigator Vish Puri (also known as "Chubby")in a midst of his investigation work. Ably assisted by his undercover assistants, namely Tubelight, Flash and Facecream (Being Punjabi, the detective had various nicknames for his colleagues, friends and family members. For example, Flush got his nickname because he has a flush toilet at home, a first for anyone in his village in the state of Haryana. Talk about convenience.), Puri handled his cases with the aid of modern techniques and the sharp wit of a detective.

When renowned lawyer Ajay Kasliwal is accused of murdering his maidservant, Puri's resources are finally put to the test. The only clue he was given is that the maidservant was known only as Mary, and his job is to find her whereabouts in a population of more than one million. To make matters worse, Puri becomes the target (and nearly victim) of a mysterious shooting incident, and his mother insists on playing sleuth to find out the culprit. How would Delhi's most private investigator handle the situation this time?

This book was first published in 2009 and was the first of the Puri series (Hall followed up with a second book "The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing" in June 2010). Hall's ability to brilliantly capture the sights, smells, sounds and foibles of modern India, not to mention the nuances of English-Indian speech, captivates my attention as I read the book. This is perhaps due to the fact that Hall is also a journalist and has lived in India for a period of time due to his job, that he was able to describe India so well. Even if readers have never been to India before, they can certainly experience the bustle of Delhi streets, to the remoteness of the mines of Jharkhand.

The many twists in the story also made the story all the more interesting and until the very end, there is no telling of who the real culprit was. Puri's wit and intelligence has also left me in awe, and his style reminds me of another fictional detective, Hercule Poirot.

So, do check out this book "The Case of the Missing Servant" and experience the spirt of India for yourself!

생일 축하합니다 Biwen!

Last Sunday, Biwen invited me to his birthday party held at SAF Changi Seaview Resort. As it was pretty far away from my house, I met up with a couple of friends first before heading for our destination together. In an attempt to make the party livelier, I decided to bring all my Korean songs music videos  to the party.

Birthday boy!

Truth be told, the weather that day was as unpleasant as one can imagine. It was pouring heavily as we traveled on the road and visibility was poor. Luckily, we still managed to reach Biwen's party on time and the weather got slightly better by then. Biwen's party was held in Changi Haven, a resort function room which is normally used for cohesion and meetings, hence the place is much smaller compared to a chalet. However, it is definitely good enough to hold a party as there are many facilities available, including two video players, a video projector and a large projector screen. Just as I thought my plan of playing all my videos was about to come true, it dawned on me that the video players are unable to play .mp4 format. Luckily, Biwen prepared a couple of movies on his own so we were not deprived of our source of entertainment.

A while after we arrived, the horrible weather returned for a rematch with us. The heavy rain that dogged us on our way to the party came again and many guests were delayed as a result. Fortunately, the party still went on as planned.

The food and the atmosphere was great! Although most of the guests invited work in the department beside mine, I do not really know most of the guests well. Through card games, discussion on K-pop etc, we managed to hit it off well and knew each other better.

At about 7.30pm, the big moment came -- it's time to cut the cake! The cake looks awesome!

Looks delicious! :P

The party ended at around 10+, and I must say I really enjoyed myself! Thanks for inviting Biwen, and before I forget, 생일 축하합니다! :D

Connect With The World...via Postcrossing!

Finally, November is here! :D It's been so long since I last posted, but better late than never!

Anyway, it's been an awesome month so far, and I recently came across an interesting hobby. If you are the sociable type and would like to make friends from around the world, this is the hobby for you!

Introducing Postcrossing, which is an online project launched in July 2005. Postcrossing allows its members to send and receive real postcards from random places in the world. As of September 2011, Postcrossing had over 251,000 members in 198 different countries who had exchanged over 8.4 million postcards.

Signing up to be a Postcrosser (as the members are called) is very simple and only takes a couple of minutes. Once you have registered as a Postcrosser, the first step is to request to send a postcard. The website will display (and send you an e-mail) with the address of another member and a Postcard ID. You then mail a postcard to that member. Similarly, you will also receive a postcard from another Postcrosser from a different country. Of course, where you send the postcard to and receive from are anonymous. You can have up to 5 postcards traveling at any single time. Every time one of the postcards you send is registered, you can request another address.

If you are an avid stamp or postcard collector, this is another good reason for you to join in the fun. You will be able to exchange and receive postcards and stamps from different parts of the world. If you are lucky, other Postcrossers may even generously send you more than one postcards or stamps at the same!

So what are you waiting for? Get started with Postcrossing now!

Interesting Read -- Crescent Dawn

I have always been a fan of Dirk Cussler's books, especially the Dirk Pitt series. It all started when I was in Secondary 2, when I had nothing to do at home and asked one of my friends to recommend something to read. He passed me the book "Inca Gold", which was first published in 1994 and is the 12th book in the Dirk Pitt series. And it all commenced from there.

Crescent Dawn is the 21st book and the latest installment in the series, and is co-written along with his son Dirk Cussler. It was only released in 2010, so it's actually quite recent. When I saw it displayed at the library shelves under the "New Titles" sections, I swooped in for the kill without hesitation.

A narrow escape from a pirate attack by a Roman galley in A.D. 327, a mysterious explosion of a British warship in the North Sea in 1916, and a cluster of mosque bombings in Turkey and Egypt in the present day. How are all three unrelated events intricately linked together? As Pitt and his son Dirk Jr. investigate the truth behind the spate of strange happenings, evildoers Ozden Aktan Celik and Ozden's sister, Maria, who are bent on Muslim domination of the Middle East, are determined to restore the prestige of the Ottoman Empire. In addition, their investigations may well lead them to the existence of a mysterious "manifest" lost long ago. The plot thickens...

Generally, the Dirk Pitt series are written in the style of fast-paced action, and follow a simple storyline. Most of these stories start off with a historic event, which will ultimate lead to the main story and Pitt's intriguing adventures. In this latest installment, it covers the events pertaining to HMS Hampshire and Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, as well as the attack on a Roman sea galley. What attracted me to this series is the highly detailed descriptions of these events. Cussler's detailed style of writing also extends to the protagonists' adventures, as well as other events and technology that are not necessarily mandatory to get the story across.

Aside from being envious of the various places that Pitt travelled throughout his adventures, I have always been inspired by the protaganists' tenacity and determination to overcome adversity and near-impossible odds (in this case, the deaths of their allies and friends and of course, the relentless and mad pursuit of the Celik siblings). It has taught me to believe that nothing is impossible so long as one perseveres.

Overall, being a fan of the Dirk Pitt series, reading Crescent Dawn has left me wanting for more adventure! If you are new to this sreies, start by reading this book (and perhaps search for its previous installments as well) and engage yourselves in an adventures that will bring you across land, air and sea!

Start Your Season with FIFA 12!

Finally. The moment I have been waiting for...

My copy of the highly anticipated FIFA 12 is finally in my hands! (Cheers)

Prior to the game's release, there have been talks of how EA Sports have planned to give a complete overhaul of the franchise this year. This was more or less expected actually, as FIFA 11 was disappointingly more of an expansion pack to its predecessor than an improved game by itself. These are what I felt about the changes:

1. One of the most greatly discussed changes in FIFA 12 is Tactical Defending. Players should have known what they are in for when they start the game off with a tutorial on defending. The past iterations have been using Legacy Defending. To start off, let's differentiate between these two defensive styles.


Legacy Defending -- A button press will cause an AI player to hone in on the player in possession of the ball. Classic Fifa defending style.

Tactical Defending -- Pressing the Tackle button in this new system will not result in you going for a conservative tackle. Instead, it positions you to contain your opponents. This means gamers still have to do the tackle themselves, meaning timing and tactics are crucial.

To be honest, tactical defending is much closer to real-life defending, where players have to decide and know how to position themselves for a tackle or an important interception.

So after trying Tactical Defending for quite a while, it took me a flurry of red cards, matches strewn with defensive errors, and a losing spree to finally get used to this new system. Now I can interchange between both legacy and tactical defending. Yay.

2. Player Impact Engine is the new physics engine used in this game. It is built to deliver real-world physicality throughout the game. It also directly affects injuries sustained by players during a match. This makes contact and interactions between players more realistic, but I felt that the impact engine could have been too sensitive. A light tackle on your opponent will see him stumbling or falling too easily from the challenge. I think being a new system implimented in the game, the impact engine is not too bad, just that it has greater room for improvement.

3. Understandably, the AI of the players have greatly improved. Compared to previous editions, even playing semi-pro on this version does not guarantee the gamers to win by a landslide. ( But then and again, this could have been attributed to my poor skills. However, being an AWESOME guy, I prefer to push the blame on the enhanced Pro Player Intelligence.)

4. For the first time ever, two broadcast teams will be featured – Martin Tyler and Alan Smith and Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend. Fans can customize audio to their preferred commentators for any matches. However, the commentary seems to be off sync from the on-field action at times.

5. My favourite part of the game, Career Mode has been greatly improved with the calendar, news story displays and news feeds, which aim to make information such as upcoming events, transfers, and rumours more accessible. Transfer markets in Manager Mode and Player-Manager Mode are closer to real-life situations, with rival clubs targetting your best players and last-minute transfers. Unfortunately, Player Career mode seems to get too stagnant for me, as gamers only play matches like a real-life player and there is little interaction with other aspects of the club.

Overall, FIFA 12 is a great step forward in making the football experience more surreal for gamers. Possibly one of the best games to have this summer! :D

Something I Heard Off The Radio...(which I thought was good)

Heard this off the radio this morning...
I thought it was well-written, because it fully captures what the roles of a wife and a husband in order to make a family complete. What makes it more interesting is that both statements follow the numerical order from one to ten, using words with similar pronunciation to replace some of the numbers. It's in Chinese, but here we go.

To the husband:
一个温暖的家；两只操劳的手；三更不熄等你归家的灯；四季注意身体的叮嘱；无微不至的关怀；六旬婆母的微笑；起早贪黑对孩子的照顾；八方维护你的威信；九下厨房为了你爱吃的一道菜；十年为你逝去的青春……这就是你的妻子。

To the wife:
一个男人的责任；两肩挑起的重担；三更半夜的劳累；四处奔波的匆忙；无法倾诉的委屈；留在脸上的沧桑；七姑八姨的义务；八上八下的波折；九优一疵的凡人；时对家对子的真情……这就是你的丈夫。

And because my translation skills are pretty bad, I shall not trouble myself in case I mess it up. Anyway, the English translation doesn't really encapsulates the original meaning as well as its Chinese version or come across as poetic either. Yea.

New Design for My Blog! ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶

Haha.
As the title states, I have finally come up with a new picture to put as my blog design.

Enjoy. ٩(-̮̮̃•̃)۶