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July 27, 2005
The View From The Mirror: Wimpy guys & strong girls
I've _finally_ finished The View From The Mirror quartet by Ian Irvine. It's four unnecessarily thick volume which I started reading waay back in 2001 but couldn't finished it. I got stuck in the last few chapters of book 3 and totally lost interest in it. Recently I decided to pick it up again and decided to re-read book 3, this time I managed to finish it.
The story set in Santhenar, one of the three worlds in the book story. A place where the secret art (magic) is hard to use and exact a horrible price on its user. The book follows Llian, a teller, which gotta be the most wimpy lead character of all time in the history of fantasy novel. Most of the time I feel like want to scream to Llian face to say "Get a grip". In fact all of the male character in Ian Irvine's world are either wimpy, or weak, or annoying, or proud to the point of folly or corrupt.
Luckly for Llian, he met Karan, the other main character in this story. Unlike Llian, Karan is strong willed, hot headed and really can take a pounding. And that pretty much describe the rest of the women characters. Irvine definitely put women as the heroes and foes in his book, while the male (apart from Llian) are just fillers. The books then follow the journey of the two.
The story actually is quite good with multiple layers of plot and sub-plot throughout the book. The problem is often Irvine started to wandering in his story and preoccupied with describing things that totally unnecessary, like the 2 full pages about Llian dinner. Please ... is "seafood" not enough? This is why I think 4 books of about 600 pages each on paper back is too long - that's a total of 2400 pages. He could have done this in a lot shorter (say 3 books!) and keeping the pace a lot quicker. Had he done that I would have recommended this book to others.
My brother seems to like it, he bought the first book in the second quartet, "Geomancer". I've read the first chapter and much to my dismay it has another strong female character, another sneaky female foe and just as thick (600+ pages). Nope don't have the time for that now Ian, I think I'll re-start "The Farseer Trilogy", yet another series that I abandoned near the end of the second last book (this time the second book).
Posted by vhadiant at 10:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 24, 2005
Kate Monroe: MATBlack
I've just got the latest CD from my favourite DJ, Kate Monroe. Like her previous compilations, Kate Monroe always get my grooving :) I love it!! I've been to many of her gigs and of course many many many visit to her set down at Cargo (Sublime). Not once she ever disappoint me .. that's how much I love her. Haven't been out clubbing for a while and listening to this CD, I couldn't believe how much I missed this ... clubbing I mean. Note to self: must try to go out clubbing again soon :)
MATBlack is a house CD compilation, because of her limited budget, Kate have to find lesser known tunes, however those tunes rock! Well In The Mix has reviewed it in much better way that I could possibly have, I can only confirm my devotion to Kate Monroe and tell everyone that I can't wait for the next CD (Mat White) to come out.
Posted by vhadiant at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 23, 2005
Slater won 2005 J-Bay!
Wow ... what an incredible final. Andy Irons had the lead for most of the final before Slater found that final wave in the less than 1 minute left on the clock. He needed massive 9.23 ride to get past Irons and he scored 9.5. At this time Iron already went back to the beach since he wouldn't have had the time to get back to the line-up after his last wave with about 3.5 minute left. What a tight final, this gotta be one of the best win ever for Kelly, such a close one. I thought Irons had it until that amazing final wave from Slater there.
Posted by vhadiant at 12:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 22, 2005
It's Slater vs Andy Irons on the J-Bay final
Wow I couldn't believe my luck. I just got home a few minutes ago and check the aspworldtour.com site to find out what's happening with the J-Bay contest, only to be presented with the last half of the live webcast of the second semifinal between Andy Irons and Greg Emslie. Unfortunately for Greg, having the home crowed advantage couldn't get him past Andy Irons. Andy won the heat with a better surfing and better strategy. He used his priority much better than Greg was.
Anyhow, what even better is the result on the other semi-final. Couldn't you believe it, it was Kelly Slater! Wow Slater and Andy Irons final in 20 minutes and I'm about to watch it, this is absolutely fantastic! This will be the first time they met in a man-on-man final, a history in the making. In 2003 title race, Andy Irons and Slater each had 4 win but not once they met in a final. Isn't that amazing?
Don't you love web-streaming technology?
Posted by vhadiant at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 21, 2005
Bondi bliss ...
This AquaBumps guy is really awesome. It's always a pleasure to browse through his photo of (mostly) Bondi breaks. And that what make it even more amazing .. come on it's Bondi for chrissakes ... of all places, AquaBumps makes Bondi looks like one of the top surfing spot in Sydney :)
Posted by vhadiant at 09:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 16, 2005
Submarine cable map
Pretty amazing huh for all these cables running around the world
Posted by vhadiant at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 06, 2005
Vienna Sandwich
A few years ago when I was working in North Sydney I discovered what I would say the best sandwich shop in Sydney. It was called Norths Sandwich then. The bread is excellent and their daily specials is just mouth watering. Really the saddest part moving away from North Sydney is not being able to have Norths Sandwich anymore.
When I started working down here in the city near Martin Place, I lamented about the sandwich quality in the city to a colleague. Well Being shop nearby is good, and that gourmet Italian place in the Strand Arcade is yummy as well but no where near the quality of Norths. My colleague pointed out that there's this nice gourmet place on the corner of Barrack and York St called Little Vienna, not only that they also wrap their sandwiches in aluminium foil ala Norths.
So I went to check it out sometime last week and I fell in love straight away. That is by far the best sandwich you can have in Sydney, period. I am known to make bold claims of things, but I do mean it on every single one of them. Anyway little did I know that Little Vienna is actually Norths! Norths changed their name to Vienna Sandwich a while back and opened a branch in the city called Little Vienna. The old menu hasn't changed from 4 years ago, only now the original menus are called Vienna Classic, while their daily specials is now on everyday ha :) You just have to try every single item on the menu, there's grilled chicken, sausage, risoles, tuna, leg ham etc. Oh and they make a really good coffee too, just make sure it's the asian dude with glasses who make it for you. He's a good Barista.
They even have a couple of chairs just outside their place to eat in. I've been taking a few of my friends there and introduce them to Vienna :)
Posted by vhadiant at 06:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 01, 2005
That much rain and still not enough ...
I hate rain. Let me say that again. I really .. really .. really ... really hate rain. I wish there's 366 days of sun in a year - in Sydney, please rain go west to where the farmers are. Sydney is drenched in wet and windy weather for the past week, since last Saturday if I remember correctly. Today was the worst of all. The almost gale force wind make my umbrella pretty much useless against the wet weather, and I've just dry clean my suits last week!!!
Not only that, to add to the insult all those rain fall in Sydney not in our catchment area. Now that sucks ... big time.
Posted by vhadiant at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)
The Producers
I just came back from The Producers, Mel Brooks' new musical - so they said. A good show although our crappy seats kinda ruined it a bit. We sat at the Dress Circle which I will not recommend to anyone. Not only it's too far at the back the sound system around the Dress Circle is so bad you have to strained your ears to listen to what the actors are saying. Or maybe it's just the sound system for the night was bad.
The show was quite funny, but none of the songs really stick to me, I mean I could hardly remember any straight away after the show finished. It's not bad but nothing special.
Posted by vhadiant at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
