The year two thousand and eleven anno domini.

Just got back from a dinner/karaoke session to mark the end of this year, and now I'm about to watch The Return of the King with my family, which will be an amazing start to the new year.

Spent my holidays somewhat fruitfully; grew fat, read books (only eleven, which makes me sad), sort of maybe learnt how to drive.

School starts soon, I'm flying off tomorrow, but for now I'll leave it as it is.

Have a good year ahead.

P.S. Oh, and 'Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter' is awesome.

Lobbed together.

It's been many days since I last posted (besides the obvious).

The Christmas hype has built up, and Christmas has come and gone. But since I don't really celebrate Christmas, let's talk about what happened prior to the Christmas quiet at home.

Went to Hong Kong for a week, where I had the most delectable egg tarts I've ever set my eyes upon, felt some Disneyland magic, saw the Cirque du Soleil in Macau, amongst other things.

Have footage of our trip to Ocean Park and Disneyland with my cousins, so will probably edit out the stupider things I did on camera and post it as a vlog (which I haven't done in quite a while now, because I'm too ashamed to do it in front of my family).

It's quite sickening how many rides end in some kind of shop which baits little children into wanting to buy toys and various other trinkets, but I admire their genius. And it's quite interesting how being in a Disneyland makes me want to prance around and burst into song every few minutes despite my um, age.

The Cirque du Soleil performance was really good, but it was the stage atmosphere that made it so brilliant. Quite stunning; totally enjoyed it.

Visited a casino, and honestly, I didn't like it. Not in a "I disapprove of this sinful behaviour" kind of way, but more of a "I say, this really is an ingenious concept I can't help but feel a sense of admiration for whoever's running the place, but this is really quite disgusting how people can sit there all day being cold and calculating and in a generally pissy mood" kind of way. So uncomfortable.

And the pollution was disappointing, too. It could be so beautiful, but most of it was a foggy mess. It's like being in one of those video games where you could only see a few squares around you and everything else is in shadow. Just like that.

Watched 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows' with my parents yesterday, and I loved it. All that strange, lingering sexual tension between Holmes and Watson, and the general feel of the movie. And Stephen Fry, oh Stephen Fry.

Then watched 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked' today, and it was quite a flop compared to the Sherlock Holmes movie. No no no. The chipmunks were awfully cute, but no. At least little kids seem to love it.

Okay, should go off now.

Adieu.

P.S. Also, have a new pair of glasses and it's awesome.

P.P.S. Oh, and I also read the Hunger Games trilogy, which was honestly quite awesome. Terribly unputdownable and so action packed you're finished before you even had a chance to breathe and go "whoa, okay" (and there were too many of those moments in 'Inheritance'). I sort of hate Katniss at times, but I don't blame her; I'd go crazy too. So yes, it deserved all those awards. Hope the movies turn out fine.

Inheritance.

All right, I'm done with the Inheritance Cycle. It's not as huge an achievement as, let's say, writing it, but I feel that I deserve the right to talk about being done with reading it.

So yeah, spent a ridiculously long time on it.

The first two books were as good as I remember, and then things got all touch-feely by Brisingr, and then Inheritance.

Yeah, it was quite consistent and I liked it, but somehow I like all the other characters more than I like Eragon. I love Roran and Nasuada, but whenever we come back to Eragon, I kind of involuntarily inwardly groan. Perhaps it's just that I don't like him talking about his feelings all the time. I'm unsure. It's good for a main character to have flaws, but sometimes Eragon has complete control of himself and makes great decisions, and the next moment he does some stupid thing.

I figure it must've been really hard for Christopher Paolini to end the book, and he did quite a decent job of it. I wish (spoiler alert) Murtagh stayed with Nasuada and Orrin didn't turn into quite the asshole, but there's nothing I can do about it because that's how the story goes, and no matter how I complain, things won't change.

Overall though, it was a really good experience (apart from realising the author's increasing lameness in his sense of humour).

Also, started driving and broke my glasses (although not at the same time).

Oh heck. I will drive like a boss. I'm only human. And I can keep telling myself that. I will be awesome.

Night.

P.S. Forgot to mention I saw 'Puss in Boots' on Sunday, and it was fun. Egg totally weirded me out throughout the movie, but Antonio Banderas' voice as Puss is so incredibly brilliant. And loved the soundtrack, too. Hooray for children's movies.

Immersion.

Oh goodness, hello there. It's been such a long time since I've spent such a significantly long time on the Internet (mostly I do short Twitter updates and Facebook notification checks, but it's still enough to prove how much my life is dictated by social networking sites).

I've been lounging around here and there, occasionally heading out for food and meeting relatives and stuff.

Watched 'Fellowship of the Ring' once with my younger cousins, but they didn't seem to get it and I was disappointed. I love the movie trilogy to bits (and I can't seem to say this enough) because it's a reasonable and wonderfully made portrayal of the book, and I don't understand how anyone would be able to not like it.

Some people think it's bad to be this into "unrealistic events" and worlds totally unlike our own, but in it I find a sense of comfort because there's still a place you can escape to while our world is in turmoil; albeit within the confines of our imagination. But what we believe in shapes us, and that's interesting to take note of.

And as I make my way through the Inheritance cycle (and yeah I admit I've been going at it for almost two weeks now), I find myself admiring Christopher Paolini's guts for plunging himself so deeply into Alagaësia in order to describe things with such detail and precision at such a young age. Sometimes I think it's dangerous to immerse yourself in such a way that it becomes hard to carry on without it when you're finally finished with your piece of work. Maybe that's why Tolkien wrote so many stories concerning Middle Earth; he stumbled upon something so brilliant he couldn't let go.

I'm out of date with Glee and The Big Bang Theory, although I've had no choice but to watch How I Met Your Mother for fear of spoilers Woan Chyi might shove at me.

Will go and update myself soon.

Night.

P.S. I passed my highway code test, which means I can physically start driving. Oh no.