Liars

Do you know that on average, a person lies 15 times a week especially to his/her nearest and dearest? And people lie most to people of opposite sexes. "I Love You.", "I'm not usually like this", "I don't have anything to wear.", "I'm not feeling well today." Familiar???

It is hard to spot a lie because our first instinct is always to believe, in fact, we can only spot lies correctly 15% of the time. Who can blame us when we are told the turth more than we are being lied to?

Most people thought that the eyes tell the truth, but in actual fact, our entire face is a mass of information to spot lie. Our face can have 46 seperate movements which combine to form different expressions. We can control our expression most of the time, however, when we are stress, our real expression just leak.

There are two reasons why people lie. First and most basic reason is survival. We lie because we want to protect ourselves. Under difficult circumstances, we have to lie to get a job, save our job, be accepted in our social group, stay away from trouble and save our life. Not only humans do that. In fact, many animals camouflage themselves to either protect themselves or aid them in catching prey. The second reason is because we lie to avoid hurting people. We have empathy of other people when we place ourselves in their shoes. Picture yourselves in this situation, if you are viewing a piece of art that you feel a three-year-old can do better than that and then the artist walk up to you and started to explain his feelings, his ideas, motivations and story behind this piece of art. Much as you denied his sincere explanations, would you actually tell him straight in the face that his art work is junk?

The information is gathered from a documentary show call ExposedLiars. Please comment if you feel that any part of the above are not correct. Thank you!

Anime: Asatte no Houkou

Official website: http://www.tbs.co.jp/asatteno/index-j.html

This anime is about a little girl called Karada Iokawa who made wish through a stone one summer. Her wish came true and she turned into a woman. Her brother's ex-girlfriend, Shōko Nogami became a little girl. I think Karada Iokawa was very adorable.


This is Karada Iokawa when she was a girl. Cute right?

Episode 1: "Wishing Stone"
Shōko returned to Japan, and met Karada kneeling in front of a stone shrine. Curious, Shoko asked her what she was doing. Karada replied that she was praying. Then Hiro came along. Shoko was shock to see him. Shoko was Hiro's girlfriend when they were in America, but Hiro left fo Japan and never returned. Shoko joined Hiro, Karada and their friends, Tetsu and Tōko at the beach. Tetsu was Karada's classmate although he looked like a college student for his height. Toko was Tetsu's sister. She worked at a coffee shop. Shoko watched how Hiro adored Karada and was feeling jealous. She purposely offended Karada by saying she was childish. Karada was upset because she dislike being treated as a child. She ran off crying with Tetsu running after her to comfort her. Hiro commented that Shoko should not have make such a remark. Shōko slapped him for not saying anything when he left. Shoko met Karada in front of the stone shrine. An amazing thing happened. Karada suddenly became a woman and Shoko became a child. Karada was scare and upset.

Karada and Shoko by the shrine

Episode 2: "Chance Encounter"
Karada and Shōko switched ages after Karada wished to become older. Shoko took Karada to her apartment. She was very calm and tried to comfort Karada. Karada cried herself to sleep. She was afraid to go home. Hiro spended the entire day and night trying to find Karada, but was unable to find her. He tried calling Shoko but she refused to pick up his call. Hiro remembered that Karada liked to visit the shrine. He reached the shrine only to find a woman and a child he don't recognised. He left after apologising.


Hiro did not recognised Karada and Shoko

Karada was upset that Hiro did not recognised her. She felt it was her fault for making such a silly wish.



Episode 3: "A New Lifestyle"
Shōko and Karada began adjusting to their new situation. Shoko took Karada shopping. She helped Karada to buy new clothes and advised her how to act like an adult. She nearly forgot herself when she was choosing a bed and talked to the salesperson in her usual calm and serious tone. She quickly changed to a childish pitch when she realised that the man was watching her curiously. Meanwhile, Hiro who was not able to find Karada was not able to concentrate on his work. He remembered Shoko's rude remark about Karada and was suspicious. Unfortunately he did not know her address. By luck, someone was asking for direction. Hiro recognised the name as Shoko. He paid a visit to Shoko's apartment only to be greeted by a little girl who claimed she was Shoko's sister. Shoko invited him in and lost herself when she suddenly lost temper over a conversation about her 'sister'. She ran out of the house. Hiro chased after her and revealed that Karada was not his real sister, but Hiro felt responsible for the child after his parents died. That was the reason why he could not returned to America as promised. Shoko tried to tell the truth about switching of ages between her and Karada. He did not believe her. Karada was very sad that Hiro refused to believe

Kid Shoko and Adult Karada

Episode 4: "I Want You to Believe"
Hiro was forced into believing Karada and Shōkō's age switch, which was quite hard for Karada. They went to the Summer Festival because that was the activities that Hiro and Karada used to do. Shoko excused herself to allow Karada and Hiro to reach an understanding. Hiro took Karada to a place he had brought her before. It had a very beautiful view of the firework display. Hiro asked why Karada would want to make such a wish. She revealed that she did not want to be a burden to him and started to cry. Shoko was glad that the siblings were back to normal and tried to leave. Karada insisted that she should go home with them. Shoko agreed. Meanwhile, Tetsu who had always adored Karada was anxiously searching fo her.

Adult Karada and Hiro

Episode 5: "A Place To Return To"
Karada persuaded Shōkō to come live with her and her older brother. At first Shoko was uncomfortable, but slowly she got use to the new lifestyle and tried to help around the house. Both Karada and Hiro was glad that Shoko was around because both of them do not know how to face each other in their current stage. Shoko commented that as usual, Hiro was only thinking about himself. Shōkō met Kotomi (Toko and Tetsu's relative) who came to back town to stay. She was two years older than Tetsu and was his playmate when they were younger. Kotomo saw Shoko sitting on a bench watching some children play. She understood the meaning of being new in town and tried to make her play with the children. Shoko refused. After being alone for a while, she decided that she should take it easy and accepted the children's offer to join their game if tag. She had great fun and enjoyed herself very much. Meanwhile, Tetsu was being forced into staying home studying while he wanted to look for Karada. He visited Karada's house and met the adult Karada. Of course, he did not recognise her. Karada lied that Karada was visiting with her relatives.

Kotomi Shionzaki

Episode 6: "Summer's Eternity"
Tetsu did not believe Adult Karada because he had a feeling that Karada was still in town. Adult Karada secretly followed Tetsu and saw him walk all around the town looking for Karada. Testsu caught Karada following him but did not mind. Instead he took her to the school to tell her of some of their sweet memories. Then Tetsu took her to a secret place up in the hill where the source of a stream is. It was a beautiful sight. Tetsu revealed that he tried bring Karada once, but she got scared half way through the hill and went home. Adult Karada asked him to bring Karada again when she came back because she felt sure that Karada would love the view. Under Shoko's suggestion, Karada wrote a postcard to Tetsu informing him that she was staying at a relative's house.

Tetsu taking Adukt Karada to the top of the hill

Episode 7: "The Moment Between Them"
It was Hiro's birthday. Karada decided to bake a cake. It was the first time she was baking one. Shoko allowed her to use her apartment because she had an oven. Both went to borrow and book on baking cakes and went shopping. Shoko offered to help. She remembered that in the past, she messed up on her cooking and failed to cook anything for Hiro on his birthday. Shoko was a bad cook. She messed up a bit, but Karada was able to rescue and the cake turned out perfectly. On the way home, they saw a commotion at the stone shrine. They met Kotomi was explained that the people are angry because someone had played a prank because the stone became ash. It was a myth that when a wish was granted, the stone would become ash. When Shoko and Karada turned to leave, Kotomi asked Shoko whether she had made any friends. Without thinking, she pointed at Karada and blushed. The birthday celebration was perfect. When Hiro and Shoko went down to the store, Shoko commented that Karada was a nice girl. While both were gone, Karada found a photo of Hiro and Shoko and realised that they were a couple. She decided to leave town.

Adult Karada


Episode 8: "A Direction Of The Day After Tomorrow"
Karada took a train and leave for another town. She did not know where to go because all the apartment's rental are so expensive. She came across an recruitment advertisement and decided to tried for the job. The fast food owner refused her because she did not have a CV. Karada managed to obtain a CV. The next employer refused because she was writing her CV in pencil and there's no photo and the CV stated that she was 12 years old. She tried again, this time with a photo, a fake name and pretended that she was 20 years old. The employer was touched because when Karada talked about her history that her parents died when she was young and she had been living with her brother. However, the interviewer could not decide because she was not the boss. She spent the night at the playground under a slide to escape the rain. She recalled her childhood. She was introduced to Hiro through a photograph by her adopted parents. She accidentally over-heard that she was not the real daughter of the family, but her parents loved her even more after that. Unfortunately, the parents died and Hiro came home to find Karada alone in the house. Karada had been practising how to introduced herself to her big brother, so when she finally met her, she bravely introduced herself. Hiro could not bear leaving the child alone and chose to stay in Japan. He rented a small apartment for himself and Karada. Karada always felt she was a burden especially since she was not Hiro's real sister. She knew Hiro sacrificed a lot for her. Once she asked him what America was like, but he claimed that he had forgotten. So when Karada found the photographs of Hiro and Shoko, she realised that Hiro had made a big sacrifice and was very upset. When morning finally came, she went back to the train station and was indecisive of whether to get onto the train. Meanwhile, Hiro and Shoko back at home were very worried. Hiro received a phone call from a stranger who asked for Karada. It was a taxi driver who found Karada's CV outside the train station. Hiro left to search for Karada. He spotted her, but Karada quickly stepped into the train. By the time Hiro reached the train, the door had closed. Karada mouthed the word "Sorry". (This episode was really touching. I was crying throught it.)



Karada found the photo of Hiro and Shoko

Episode 9: "Signpost"
Tetsu decided to leave home to find Karada. He refused to go home until he find her. Kotomi who happened to be visiting her teacher's house decieded to help him. She printed posters of Karada's photo to distribute to people. Tetsu was hesitating about this method but still helped in the end. Karada found job and place to stay at a bed and breakfast inn. Shoko at home received a phone call from Karada from a public phone. She refused to say where she was but ask Shoko to tell Hiro that she well. Shoko passed the message to Hiro. She commented that it was a stupid excuse to leave home just because of their past relationship. She suggested that maybe Karada might already had known that she was not his real sister. Hiro refused to think about the possibility and Shoko scolded him a coward. She confessed that she was lonely ever since Karada was gone. Kotomi invited Tetsu to stay at her teacher's place.



Episode 10: "Real Name"

Karada was surprised to see Tetsu. She was surprised to hear that Tetsu like Karada very much as was still looking for her. When Tetsu was caught in a heavy rain looking for Karada, Adult Karada ran out to look for him. She found him fainted on the road and helped him home. Tetsu had a high fever and Adult Karada stayed by his side to look after him. She was very sad and wanted so much to tell him who she really was.

Anime: Ghost Hunt

by Fuyumi Ono



Description: Ghost Hunt follows the adventures of Kazuya Shibuya, the president of the Shibuya Physic Research Center (SPR) and Mai Taniyama, a first year school student. When Mai and her friends to attract spirits at a creepy and decrepit high school building, they find that none of the rumoured ghosts appear.

Mai Taniyama
Instead, Mai and her friends meet Shibuya, the owner of Shibuya Psychic Research, who has been hired to investigate paranormal activity at the school. When Mai accidently breaks some of Shibuya's expensive equipment, she reluctantly takes up a part-time job at the company to pay it. Unfortunately, Mai and Shibuya do not get along at all.

Kazuya Shibuya

Along with Shibuya's assistant, Lin, the SPR also finds itself assisted by various spirit mediums and exorcists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Hunt
Official Website: http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/ghosthunt/

I like the anime, because it's creepy!! It started with this girl call Mai who loves telling ghost story. One day, she passed by a known haunted building in her school and saw a video camera in the middle of the room. Curious, she decided to check out and accidentally spoil and camera and caused injury to the owner of the camera. The owner turned out to be an assistant of ghost hunter. The ghost hunter was the handsome senior, Kazuya Shibuya, she met in school earlier the day. He was actually the president of the SPR. He had been assigned to the school to investigate the haunted building. With the camera destroyed and his assistant injured, Kazuya made her compensate by being his assistant in the case. Her job scope was mainly to carry things around, setting up things and attending to Kazuya's order. Mai found Kazuya a true narcissist and call him "Naru-chan" is short. Mai sticked around and continue to be Naru-chan's assistant in future ghost haunting assignments.

21 December 2006:
The second case (Ep 3-6) was very scary.. It happened in a big house. The owner of the house report that the things were being moved by themselves. Kazuya Shibuya was called to investigate the case. After a few unnatural incidents, the team realised that the house was haunted by spirits of many children unable to leave. From research, it was discovered that the history of the house had many incidents whereby children around 8 years old died in the house. The little girl called Ayami now living in the house was caught talking to her doll, Minnie. After questioning, she finally admitted that Minnie started to talk to her the moment she moved into the house. When the team tried to burn the doll, the doll came out undamaged. It was only after John Brown, the Australia Priest exorcised the doll that it was finally managed to be burn to ash. The children ghosts were trapped by a woman ghost who killed herself after losing her only daughter. She jumped into a well. The well was where the current living room of the house was. Kazuya Shibuya finally used use a paper effigy representing the daughter of the ghost to purify her spirit. All the children spirits were finally free to leave the house. Houshou Takigawa, called him an Onmyouji (It was explained in the anime that an Onmyouji, a system for divination and for dealing with paranormal that blossomed during the Heian Period (circa 800 C.E.)). What Kazuya Shibuya did was, he used a piece of wood as a paper effigy. Wood was the original form of paper effigy used for curses. A Paulownia wood was curved into the shape of the person whom the spell will be put on, then write the name and birthdate of the person on the wood. Most people will believe that such method was a curse spell, but the anime explained that there are black and white spells. White spell helps people while black spell harm people. It is common that both black and white spell use the same spell. Paper effigies are vessel for holding a soul. Damaging the paper effigies will hurt the person it represented.

The Cabinet of Curiosities

by Preston & Child



I've finally managed to re-read this book. I've totally forgotten about the content.

The story started when the bodies of 36 young people were discovered in a long-buried tunnel at a construction site. It was a mass muder which took place about 130 years ago. Pendergast took an interest in this discovery and convinced an archeologist, Nora Kelly from New York City's Museum to help him to uncover the truth. Unfortunately, the owner of the development property, Anthony Fairhaven refused to allow the investigation to take place and because the police would not classify this discovery as an historical one. Without proper approval and permit, Nora was unable to carry out her investigation. She did managed to had a few minutes of rushed viewing of the scene and sneaked a dress she felt was important to the case. The dress belong to one of the victim, a teenage girl who scribbled a note with a blood and hid the letter sewed inside her dress. The content of the notes was just her name and her address. Nora was not interested in helping Pendergast, when she discovered that Pendergast was not officially on this case, especially when she got herself into trouble with her boss in the Museum for helping the FBI agent. She changed her mind after a modern-day copy-cat killer appeared and nearly caught her.

Four persons, Pendergast, Kelly, O'Shaughnessy (A police man without career luck) and William Smithback, Jr (An ambitious journalist and Kelly's boyfriend), were involved in the private investigation. The story took a turn after Pendergast was stabbed nesar his house, Nora was nearly killed in the museum, O'Shaughnessy and William Smithback disappeared. Pendergast and Kelly managed to track the movement of William Smithback and found the lab of the copy-cat killer. The investigation reveals a startling secret in the Pendergast family, a successful means of prolonging life, and a murderous obsession to achieve the eradication of the mankind 'disease'.

The story introduces the cabinet of curiosity (created by the killer Leng), and hints at something hidden in it, which is featured in the consecutive novels.

About Pendergast

Dr. Aloysius X. L. Pendergast is a special agent in FBI. He has a unique personality, unbeliveable knowledge and appreciation of culture and his almost supernatural competence. He is very talented in entering buildings without being caught and scaring people by suddenly appearing from nowhere. He travels frequently out of state to investigate cases which interest him.
His appearance: Pendergast's build is described as tall and thin, and he boasts a strong torso with lean muscle. His fingers are long and tapered. Pendergast has very light blue or grey eyes, a pale complexion, and light blond hair that appears almost white. Pendergast typically dresses in a black, hand-tailored, designer suit regardless of weather conditions, and is often described as looking like a well-dressed undertaker. Observers note that he moves with a "wraith-like" grace.

Accoutrements: Pendergast owns and drives a 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith. His personal sidearm is usually a customized and/ or expensive .45 caliber pistol. Normally kept hidden from view, Pendergast wears a chain with a pendant that depicts a lidless eye over two moons, one new and one full, and a phoenix. The Pendergast family crest consists of the same eye and moons, but a lion instead. Pendergast carries a variety of hidden tools, such as lock picks, flashlights of various sizes, test tubes, syringes, and forensic chemicals

Interest: Pendergast appreciates the finer things in life, including expensive cuisine and wines. He has a stock of 1990 Petrus, and another one of his favorite drinks is green tea, in particular Oolong or Black Dragon tea. Pendergast is a student of many languages. He is fluent in Italian, Latin, Greek, Chinese (some Mandarin, he claimed to be better in Cantonese Cantonese) and presumably Spanish and French. He does not speak German or Neapolitan.

What are cabinet of curiosities?

Thet are collections of types of objects. The collection is vast and can be of everything and any specimens natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art, cabinet paintings, and antiquities. Usually the valuable may belong to rulers, famous people or merchants. A cabinet of curiosity is not restricted to just a cabinet. It can be a big room or a big house. There's not restriction of the space size.

Information with help from wikipedia.

A Friend from Iran

I've always love making penpals. Anyway, I just put a bit of my profile on http://www.worldfriends.tv/ hoping to meet a new friend. I have a lot of emails from people most from a particular country which I dislike because they are like desperate and looking for lovers.. It's a sign once they start asking for photo and keep pestering abt it.. I give up on these people after a while.. I mean are looks so important to make friends? I don't share my photos around.. so that's that..

Anyway, I did meet this guy from Iran, and I learn a lot about Iran. In fact I know nothing about this country at all except that it's very near Iraq. Hee.. He's 20 and pretty much interested in Asia... I am happy to exchange knowledge and quite please to have someone to chat with because I'm very talkative one.. and love to chat anytime.. as long as there's no motives behind the chat..

That's what I've found out after a few emails.. Some interesting facts:

The old name of Iran is Persian. Most of Persian peoples are Muslims and also exist Christian and Zoroastrian peoples (old religion of Persian people). They have the third source of oil and the second source of gas petroleum around the world. The main race of Persian people is Aryan but they have other races like Turkish, Kurdish, Belouch and others. But in the base of constitution law the common language in Iran is Persian (Farsi). They however use English to chat and send sms. Most of girls in Iran don’t cover their faces. They must just wear their hairs and so most of them wearing scarf. Every foreign Persian visitor must wear scarf too. They do show their faces in the public. The ancient history and the culture of Persian is very different from other Middle East countries. Every country in Middle East are Arabic country except Iran. Iranian peoples are not Arab and they are Aryan about race. 30 years ago girls in Iran wearied like western country. Now 60 % of students in Iran (in university) are girls and from 80 years ago they can vote.

A bit of history: 2500 years ago two big empires exist around the world. Persian and Greece. Those days Persian Empire spread from India to Europe. Now many historical building exist in my country and thousands of tourists every year visiting these places. Iran is the 10th most sitghly place around the world. (U.N (UNESCO)) said that. Cyrus the great was father of Iran and well respected by Persian.

About Cyrus the Great: Cyrus (580-529 BC) was the first Achaemenid Emperor. He founded Persia by uniting the two original Iranian Tribes- the Medes and the Persians. Although he was known to be a great conqueror, who at one point controlled one of the greatest Empires ever seen, he is best remembered for his unprecedented tolerance and magnanimous attitude towards those he defeated. Upon his victory over the Medes, he founded a government for his new kingdom, incorporating both Median and Persian nobles as civilian officials. The conquest of Asia Minor completed, he led his armies to the eastern frontiers. Hyrcania and Parthia were already part of the Median Kingdom. Further east, he conquered Drangiana, Arachosia, Margiana and Bactria. After crossing the Oxus, he reached the Jaxartes, where he built fortified towns with the object of defending the farthest frontier of his kingdom against nomadic tribes of Central Asia. The victories to the east led him again to the west and sounded the hour for attack on Babylon and Egypt. When he conquered Babylon, he did so to cheers from the Jewish Community, who welcomed him as a liberator- he allowed the Jews to return to the promised Land. He showed great forbearance and respect towards the religious beliefs and cultural traditions of other races. These qualities earned him the respect and homage of all the people over whom he ruled.

Their New Year: Iran celebrate New Year in the first day of spring (20th March) for 3000 years. This celebration continuing for 13 days. On the 13th day people leave their house for one day and go to green places and eat their lunch under trees. This day named (natural day). By the way last Wednesday of old year before New Year they have Ash fire festival. Legend story said that every immoral and spite must be clean with fire. And in New YearEnemy and spite change to friendship and kindness. New Year every year start by different time but at(21 march). for example this year at (4:3:27 PM).every year add 6 hours to this time. At this time coming New Year and start celebration on time with fire the artillery. In every Persian house (poor and rich) in New Year for 13 days spread a tablecloths named 7 sien. In Persian language sien is the one of Persian letter (alphabet like (S) in English. In this table cloth put seven things that their name start with (sien = S).



1- Seer = garlic. Symbol of health.
2- Serke = vinegar. Symbol of power.
3- Seke = coin. Symbol of wealth.
4- Senged = love tree fruits. Symbol of love.
5- Samanou = Persian paste made from barley buds,Symbol of food.
6- Sib = apple. Symbol of freshness.
7- Sabze = a plate of wheat seeds that budding. SymbolOf life.
And also live red fish, candels and colored eggs and mirror. All placed on this tablecloth. After 13 day women in natural day throw the plate of wheats bud to rivers and wishfor good husband.
During New Year, schools and universities are off for 13 days. And the name of last day 13th day is (natural day) and peoples going to jungles and mountains to respect to nature. Of course other employees have just 4 days from 20 march to 24 march to rest and also nature day.

Another festival (soury) = (Ash Wednesday): They celebrate this ceremony for 3000 years. In Old Persian religious (Zoroastrian) peoples respect fire very much but they worship god like other religious. They think that fire is the symbol of cleanliness and ruin all of evils. So now exist many historical fire temples in Persia. Last Wednesday in the Old Persian year start this celebration. Every Persian peoples respect this ceremony and do it. 1500 years ago most of Persian peoples are Muslim. They also very respect to their history and culture and civilization before 1500 years ago. So they celebrate the ceremonies of ancient Persian and proud of them. There's an interesting flash clip which I have to find a way to put here. The clip starts with monsters invading a city The monsters are the symbols of evils, spit, unkindness, jealousy, hate and every of immoral things and also thoughts. Then the city caught fire. The ancient Persian peoples thought that fire can ruin all of them. So fire is the symbol of cleanliness. There's a king in the clip. He is Cyrus the great. He was the father of Persian Empire. As the fire burn, angels appear in the sky. This means peoples like each other and evil has been destroy




Education system: Especially in big cities most of children going to kindergarten before primary school. Legal age to start primary school is 7 and the period of this school is 5 years. So after grade 5 start middle school for three years (Grade 6-8) after grade 9 students have a major examination. Their grades help them to choose their majors in high school or in industrial school. Most of diligent students going to high schools. And unfortunately most of weak students going to industrial schools. Parents like their children have office job or medical and other jobs in these ranges. How ever after 3 years in high school students take their diploma after 11 years and graduate from school. If they want to entrance to universities they must pass one more year (pre-university year) and after it they have permission to sit for universities entrance examination.

Language: Persia have two type of language. One type pure Persian language that most educated peoples speak and other not so pure and mix with Arabic words. Pure Persian languages is fluent and have nice pronunciation like poem.

Some translation:
Hello = Salam (Muslim) = douroud= (pure Persian) and
goodbye= khoda hafez (Persian). Khoda means god and Hafez means protect so khoda Hafez means actually (god protect you).
father = pedar and dad = baba.
Mother = mada
brother = baradar
sister = khahar.
Water = aab
bread = naan.

Food:
Most of Persian foods are sour about taste and eating with pickles and lemon.

There's a famous Persian actress. Her name is Niki and most girls wearing like her about scarf.

Attached is a song by a Persian singer call Sheila. The song is in Persian. The song means 'I like you and want you for ever. And also she says that I can't live without you and want the warm of your hands.'

Company's Christmas Party

I was at the Company's Christmas last evening. It was really a last min thing, because we only knew about this like a week ago. This was the first time I've ever attended such a Christmas Party. My previous company at most will just have lunch buffet in the board room.. Well, I think because this company was small enough to have something like that.. we took up a private room in a club near the Parliment... All of us took up 3 tables... The dinner was western buffet... I'm not ver great fan of western style buffet.. because like having cold dinner.. the usual.. salad, there's bread, salmon, beef, baby potatoes, cooked vegetables, chicken and pasta.. the dessert include bread pudding, cakes, tarts and fruits.. there's free flow of wine, beer and juice.. although the wine both red and white doesn't taste good.. I'm not a drinker and I can tell... Anyway, I like the salmon, beef and potatoes.. The pasta's yucky and I'm not a fan of raw vegetables... the cakes were nice although I didn't take much... The fun part of this party is actually the gift exchange.. now this is so unlike the normal gift exchange where you bring a gift and choose another.. there's rules to this game.. and I think it's a great game to establish bonding and there's plenty of interactions and helps to make the party fun and exciting... and sometimes funny too.. It also drags the time and at the same time preventing people from leaving the party.

Here's how it goes:

Everyone was asked to buy a gift of at least $20. All the gifts will be placed at the Christmas Tree. The first person, say A will have to walk to the tree to choose a gift and open it in front of everyone.. so everyone knows the content. Then A will pick a name from a jar full of names of the attendance. Say A pick B's name. Now B can choose the present. Now the fun part starts here. B can either choose to take a new present from the tree or steal the present from A. If B steal A's present, A will have to choose a new gift. Now when it's C's turn to choose a gift, C can either choose a gift from the tree or steal either A or B's present. The rule of the game is that anyone can steal anyone's present but they cannot steal back the present they have chosen before.. This game really can drag because when a lot of people starts to fight for a few particular gifts.. it become endless until someone choose a gift from the tree. Only when the stealing stop can the current player pick another name to choose a present. You may think that the luckiest person will be the one whose name will be picked last.. but that is not so.. because even though this last person Z can steal other people's gift.. once the stealing starts, someone will still be qualified to steal Z's gift and Z can't choose the gift back so Z can only choose something else.. The game will only end when someone volunteers to pick the last gift by the tree.. Haaa.. The game gets better when someone with a lousy gift adds money to increase the 'value' of this lousy gift. The intention is to get rid of the gift.. now, this lousy gift with money can now be the 'hottest' gift in the room... especially if the money value is $50.. haaa.. Cute harr.. I kinda enjoyed the party.. but it ended so late..12midnight.. and it's only a Thursday.. I dun have cab money left so I asked my sister whether she can fetch me.. Thanksfully, she could.. thanks to her, I could get home free.. heee.. Oh, for my gift.. I'm the first name to be called unfortunately.. i had a traveller speaker set.. this turned out to be one of the hot gifts.. I lost the gift almost immediately.. the second time I choose the gift, it's a Precious Moment weighing machine which nobody fancy.. yup.. I took that home loh..... the sad thing was.. I couldn't sleep you know... Gosh... i think due to the excitement and because I took coffee to keep warm at the party.. I was very cold there..

Silverthorn

by Raymond E. Feist




This is sequel to the book 'Magician'

The story happens about a year after the riftwar in 'Magician'. Description as cut from wikipedia:

A year since Lyam's coronation, Arutha returned to his city as Prince of Krondor, to begin plans of his wedding. He met a young thief, the very same Jimmy the Hand, who warned him of an assassination attempt on Arutha. Arutha bought the cooperation of the Mockers guild of thieves to obtain more information on the assassins. Setting a trap, they captured two agents, who were revealed to be from the temple of Lims-Kragma, Goddess of Death. During interrogation, both prisoners willed themselves to death rather than divulge their plans. As the High Priestess of Lims-Kragma sought the truth from beyond the grave, one of the prisoner rose as a creature of the dead and begin slaughtering many royal guards, addressing Arutha as "Lord of the West" before being destroyed.
Injured in the attack, the High Priestess warned Arutha that the forces which opposes him were so powerful that they held the gods in contempt. Regardless, Arutha proceeded with his wedding. Another assassination attempt was foiled by Jimmy the Hand, but the poisoned bolt struck Anita.
With scant clues and a race against time for an antidote, Arutha led a party to the one place where any question may be answered, the great library at Sarth Abbey. Undeterred by Sarth's mighty defenses, two separate attacks were made with powerful sorcery, and both were barely repulsed. However, Arutha found that the poison was made by a plant, silverthorn, and that he must journey to the elves of Elvandar.
Now warned that Arutha's foes were formidable magicians, Pug asked the aid of one of his island's resident scryer. The vision of the future revealed a dark entity, speaking in ancient Tsurani, and was even capable of perceiving the scryer past the barriers of time and probability. With that knowledge, Pug recreated the rift to Kelewan, and with two companions, went to find out more about the enemy they face.
In Elvandar, the elven Spellweavers revealed that the silverthorn grows around the lake Moraelin, in moredhel-held territory. Nevertheless, Arutha and his band sneaked past sentries, picked several silverthorn shrubs, and made their escape, barely escaping a moredhel general and his horde of undead Black Slayers.
In Kelewan, Pug and his companions were captured in ambush by Great Ones of the Assembly of Magicians for his role in the destruction of the Imperial Arena a year ago. Tortured by Tsurani inquisitors, his Greater Path magic neutralized, Pug turned to Lesser Path magic, becoming the only magician ever to master both paths. Gaining time, he explained his reasons to the Emperor, and was given reprieve to continue his search in the Assembly's vast libraries. Following a clue, Pug travelled to the northern wastelands of Kelewan, and discovered a lost race of people living in a forest under the ice.
With the antidote made by the elven Spellweavers, Anita is saved, and Arutha's enemies set back by the death of one of their generals. But the leader of the moredhel, Murmandamus, vowed that in a year, the long-awaited invasion into the Kingdom would commence

This book is as nice as the Magician. Maybe because I find the characters familiar, thus quite happy to see them back in action, especially Pug who had to travel back to Tsurani to research on the origin of the dark forces and spotting Tomas who appeared for a few pages show how well he had been living among the elves. I also like the new characters such as Jimmy turn from a street thief to a Squire and got the chance to travel with the Prince in search for Silvethorn to save the princess. Nice..