theCollectiveUs

I finally found some time to finish The Night Listener by Amistead Maupin, a rainbow-flavored novel about friendship, love and faith. I’ve read most of his books after being impressed by Tales of the City more than 10 years ago. There was nothing remarkable about the book – mere accounts of everyday life of a group of people strung neatly into a full novel – but it was decidedly bitchy and deliciously trashy. Maupin, if you aren’t familiar, specializes in gay fiction and Tales was a refreshing read because it didn’t shy away from the gritty, ugly issues that gay people are dealing with, from death to insecurity to love. It had all the elements of a soap opera and that was what made it easy to read.

The Night Listener though, is quite definitely the last book of his I’ll be reading. It’s apparently been adapted into a major film too but this is one of the worst books I’ve read in a very long time.  If anyone had needed further proof that Maupin’s a one-trick pony, this is it. The book’s formulaic, self-glorifying and downright ridiculous at times. I also find it very disturbing that while reading some of the worst bits in the book, it occurs to me that Maupin might just be reminiscing about some of his real-life experiences which would definitely explain why some of the events are completely random and doesn’t advance the plot.

I’d have thrown the book away but thought it wasteful since it *is* a book and it’s only been through some 2 hours of reading. I had intended to just leave the book on a bench somewhere but gave the book away instead.

Utter rubbish and a complete waste of my life. I’ll cleanse my brain of the filth with Confessions of a Shopaholic soon.

There’s recently been some construction work done at my place. For some reason, they built this sheltered area beside the lift landing, tidied it up by building a ramp so the disabled won’t need to mount any curbs THEN decided that that’s too easy for everyone and hence build a metal barricade.

It’s fair though – now we all have to make a detour to get to the main path whether we’re on foot, in a wheelchair or in a pram.

This is very very amazing stuff. Cocoa butter’s a moisturizer that according to the bottle, smoothes marks, tones skin and heals and softens rough dry skin. It smells like chocolate cream too so all is good. It really is amazing because I’ve got this keloid on my leg from a pedal bite which has been there for possibly a year. I’ve been using this on it on and off for the last 2 months and it’s almost gone now. I’m close to bathing in this.

I’ve been playing this on repeat and it’s a REALLY good track.

I found a live recording too which does without the cool monologue and instead incorporates the lyrics into a catchy tune. I don’t like it as much because the introduction instrumentals are a bit different and not quite as punchy. The lyrics are very biting and very smart. I like songs like that.

In a bid to speed learn Japanese, I’ve taken to sticking post-its of words ALL OVER MY ROOM. It’s effective because in 2 days, I’ve subconsciously learnt the Japanese terms for ‘on’, ‘under’, ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘inside’, and uhm, I’d really learn more words except I think I might have forgotten where I stuck some of these post-its.

Interesting side-note: I used to study for Chinese spelling tests during my afternoon nap (yes, during) by sticking up post-its of the spelling list on the bottom of the top bunk on my double decker bed. I’d look at one word, doze off for 5 minutes while having the word floating around in my head and repeat that for the entire list. Something to that effect. I’m very efficient that way.

I dozed off at Japanese class today. Specifically, I dozed off in the middle of writing an assignment and my hand kept going on. The teacher went around trying to spot mistakes and stopped at mine. Being Japanese and polite, she tells me nicely that a certain phrase is wrong. That’s about when I regained consciousness and realised I wrote half a line of random characters.

She points out the erroneous phrase.

I had to reread the entire paragraph because I don’t know what I just wrote. It’s comedy at its finest.

It happened thrice in one hour.

And why is it that when I wake up, nothing is ever better?

Apparently I chipped my tooth between 8 and 17 January.

And I can’t figure out how and when.

I do recall that there were 2 days when I woke up with a very bad toothache on a front tooth which I blamed on my retainers. It was bad enough that I didn’t wear my retainers for the next 2 days. That kind of falls within the time frame but it STILL DOES NOT EXPLAIN how I chipped the tooth.

I THINK SOMEONE’S WHACKING ME IN THE FACE WHILE I’M ASLEEP.

DID YOU KNOW…

… that FTP clients for Macs are generally slower than getting Starcraft 2 released if you don’t change the default settings of the clients?

Apparently, each file upload requires a new TCP connection, that is, your client needs to

1. Connect to the server
2. Authenticate your session
3. Upload a file
4. Disconnect your session
5. Repeat 234761 times til your files are done

Compare this to connecting with Windows where your client

1. Connects to the server
2. Authenticate your session
3. Upload ALL files
4. Disconnect your session

In short, you’re pretty much wasting half your life connecting and disconnecting.

See, aren’t you glad you’re reading this and learning something new from me?

*Edit* I forgot to state the solution to the problem. Most FTP clients (I actually don’t know one that doesn’t have this function) have an option somewhere in the menu that allows you to increase the max number of simultaneous uploads. If you’re getting webspace from a host, check what the maximum number of connections they allow and fill that into the field. That should significantly increase your upload speeds.

I hate people who put smileys at the end of their messages when it serves no purpose.