Winza

For the first time ever, I realise that my iBook G4 is getting old. I got it in July 2004 (a year ago) and it is starting to get slow, the battery’s flattening. It lasted up to 6 hours the first time I got it, but it only lasts for three and a half hours now. I have upgraded iLife ‘04 to iLife ‘05 and got iWork at the start of the year, but I haven’t upgraded to Tiger yet (despite all the hype about it back in March/April). Now the iBooks are upgraded so it starts from a 40 GB hard drive and a 1.33 GHz processor speed starting at $1599. A year ago, the 12 inch iBook at its cheapest came with a hard drive of only 30 GB and 12 GB of it was already occupied with Panther and other software.

My iBook is just out of warranty and what used to be a white, shiny box is scratched all over now (thanks to my cat). If I waited for a little bit longer - a year perhaps I would have gotten a better iBook G4.

I have been waiting for this article to come up in the media for a long time. Just a quick comment: Signs on escalator etiquette should be put next to the escalators like in the MTR in Hong Kong..

When I was 18, my parents wanted me to get my driver’s license.

And so I did and I got my probationary license in June 2004.

Now they are getting increasingly reluctant to drive me around when I go out.

And so today, I drove all the way to Glen Waverley for lunch.

In case one or both of my parent are unable to drive me around, I would have to drive myself instead.

And if I get a blue permit by early 2006, I will be able to drive myself to and from work by the time I graduate.

Another series of explosions has occurred in the London Underground.

It seems that London was well prepared as thousands were evacuated just as smoke was sighted coming out of a train and no one was injured.

This is the second time in a month that has happened. Hopefully, people will still be travelling through the London despite the bombings.

In Melbourne here, people here are still driving in preference to riding on public transport (or are evading train fares) because of a hugely unreliable public transport system, not because of potential terrorist attacks.

Update: According to TVBN Chinese News Channel, at least 1 person was injured from the explosions

I’ve just finished reading the Half Blood Prince yesterday - it took me 3 days to finish it not bad huh?

Overall, I am not too pleased with it. I always found the Dursleys part amusing, but it was hugely lacking in this book. Instead, I had to read a whole chapter about Muggles, and how they are starting to find weird and strange things and the connection they’ve got with the wizarding world. I didn’t like that chapter to start off with because it seemed awkward and if that chapter was placed right at the beginning of the series, I wouldn’t have read any further as I don’t like politics much. The second and third chapter was much better as it was more relevant to the rest of the book. Snape was forced to make an “unbreakable vow” to help Malfoy, which made me feel uneasy as to whether Snape was good or evil and that was why I wanted to read on.

Harry, on the other hand appears to be much more maturer and calm, despite the death of his godfather in the preceding book. He thinks fast and his curiosity and suspicion with Malfoy’s strange behaviour has landed him into troubles that have somehow delayed his quest to discover more about Voldemort and his focus on his favourite sport.

Though the major plot was well written, I didn’t really like the way Rowling described the romantic sub-plot. There was too much snogging and kissing in the book, which was probably a little inappropriate for younger (pre-teen) readers. It was however, necessary to include that in the story, as it illustrated the urge of teens to experiment and the growth of peer pressure within the trio and Ginny.

The finial lead-up to book 7 was surprising. Rowling shocked the readers with the death of one of the most respected wizards that we have looked up to since book one. However, there were at least two obvious clues throughout the book about Dumbledore: one is his “blackened hand” and the other is that Dumbledore himself acknowledges that he, like any other man makes mistakes. His biggest mistake is he overlooks other people’s loyalty and this has led him to his death.

The sixth instalment raps up with the response to Dumbledore’s death and leaves readers with many questions that will be answered in the last and the final book of the series. It was maybe deliberate to leave this open ending because this would motivate reader’s interests to stay around for the final book of the series.

Reading this book was like riding a roller coaster for me, with ups and downs, romance and humour and a bit of frustration in some parts.

My rating: 7 out of 10.