My favourite quotes from Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

I love this book. And I've recently the movie version too, which, I must say, is really not bad at all and I highly recommend them. Both of them. The book and the movie. As I have mentioned before, this is not the most delightful story ever, though there are delightful moments in the story. But this is one that deeply and intensely touches the heart.

These are some of my favourite quotes from the story:
[SPOILER WARNING]

Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.

Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out.

I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.

The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.

If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter.

A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.

I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.

A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.

He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.

His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say "I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come." Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.

Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.

She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on...

I am haunted by humans.

Spectre 007 - Directed by Sam Mendes

Without giving away the plot, it is my personal opinion that the story moved a tad too slowly for me. Maybe because I was used to the quick pace of previous Bond films, that I walked into the cinema expecting something snappy and would keep me constantly on the edge of my seat. Instead, I was pushed through one abrupt sentimental scene after another. It is not bad. It was just too much drama.

Despite the slow motion storytelling, Daniel Craig reminds all of us why he is still the most perfect Bond ever. I wish there were more scenes of Q though, because his role in progressing the plot is actually more important than he gets screen time for. And M too. I'd have like to have seen more action by M.

CK, who is more familiar with the Bond history gave the film more credit, though. If you are that kind, and can connect all of Craig's Bond series together, then you would probably find Spectre more fascinating. However, if you are like me, and take this movie in its stand alone glory, you'd need to exhaust a few more synapse connections to put all the pieces together. It is not a bad thing. It just puts this movie a little on the heavy side as far as I am concerned.

So here's my tip to make the experience of watching Spectre more manageable: Go to the bathroom before you watch the movie. Get lots of snacks and chew through them slowly. You're gonna need the sugar and all your brain cells alert for this one.

Thank you, everyone!

Last weekend, my team received this year's Festival Director's Award in conjunction with Short+Sweet Theater Malaysia 2015 for our performance of the play 'Do You Believe In Fairies.' I am the playwright for this play and besides myself, my team was comprised by undergraduates pursuing degrees and diplomas in the performing arts.

On behalf of my team, I would like to convey our sincere appreciation to everyone who has been a part of this journey with us. Of course, there were bumps on the road, but I am proud of how we rose above the odds with both humility and good humours intact. We could not have achieved this without the support of all those who believed in us - and to them, we dedicate this award.

This is a recording of our performance. We hope you enjoy it.

Bonus video: Behind the scenes footage of the boys' warm up session with the director.

Rembat, Just Duit - Directed by Shamyl Othman

We went to watch this movie quite by accident actually. It was late in the evening and we wanted to watch something but most things were either off timing or heavy or received unexpectedly bad reviews. Or we were just not interested in them. And then we scrolled into this and thought, oh-kay. It was about Harimau Malaya fans and we were Harimau Malaya fans. Not that Harimau Malaya had a whole lot to shout about these days. And we have not really heard, well, anything about this movie in the first place. The publicity (I will get back to this in a bit) was so low key, it was next to nothing. When we got to the cinema, the cardboard poster of this movie was literally next to the restroom corridors. And there was no digital poster presence either. Not that we saw any, anyway.

There were approximately ten people in the audience. Including us. You can imagine our expectation of the movie at this point.

The movie begins and it was immediately A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

I kid you not. It is up there among some of the best movies I have seen this year. Fine, it has been a year of pretty lousy movies, but that makes a gem like this one even more surprising!

Rembat is a laugh-out-loud comedy that any Malaysian can relate to, with the right amount of racist jokes to boot! There was a lot of thought behind the writing and directing and it was packed with Malaysian flavour. Sure, it could use a hairline more snappiness, but that is just me being petty. I cannot get over how great everything was packaged into the movie. Great story. Great directing. Great casting (no star studs here, but everyone falls so perfectly into their roles).

No spoilers here. I just really want all of you to go and watch this. On the drive home, we were talking about how we had to accidentally stumble into a movie like this just because we didn't feel like watching anything else. This brings me back to the point of publicity. We could have easily missed on this amazing movie. And God knows how many of such great movies like this that we have missed already just because we did not know they were showing! In writing this post, I scoured the net looking for other reviews or even a site that promoted this movie. Na da. Just a Facebook page and one 15-second YouTube trailer. Even the poster wasn't easy to find (the Coming Soon poster is more popular than the actual poster!).

I am obligated to write this post because I think every Malaysian should watch this movie. Yes, it is slapstick and no, you'd probably have never heard of the actors. But you should still all go round up all your friends and watch this together. It is fun. Lots of fun.

I come from beyond, the King of Lies, the dream-wrecking Spookshow Demon

Our yet to be named motley crew staged yet another original at this year's Short+Sweet Musical. To me, the most exciting and fulfilling part of this year's experience is just how incredible the journey had been leading up to our stage. The synergy between myself, CK and AD was something that I really admire. We were creative and production was silky smooth - but most importantly, we had an incredibly awesome time at it. We played off each other's strengths and we were all passionately invested into this project.

We did not get into the gala finals of this festival, but personally, I earned something so much more valuable. I got to experience a great production.

This is a recording of the staged Spookshow Demon. We'd like to thank everyone who embarked on this amazing journey with us. They say that the journey is more important than the destination. This is so true in this production.