Weekend Meme: 30 Days Challenge (Third 6)

We're continuing on the 30 Days Challenge that a lot of blog pals are doing this week. Since there's no mention of any of this week's categories have to be my favorite, I'll just talk about the recent ones I've encountered and worth mentioning.

Day 13 — A fictional book



There's a Chinese idiom saying "pick up a jade belt on the street and go bankrupt" that perfectly describe my current situation. We have a practice in my building that occasionally some tenant will left some unwanted reading material, dishes, glass, used furniture or electronics on the stairway so interested parties can benefit from it. Well, one day I picked up James Patterson's 8th Confession and started reading. I like detective novels and found out that I didn't exactly hate James Patterson's work, so I went around used bookstores and found 1st to Die and 2nd Chance, went on Amazon and bought the rest.

Day 14 — A non-fictional book



Shameful to admit but I seldom read non-fictions, the ones I have are mostly cookbooks. Of course, depending what kind of food I'm in the mood for, they are all useful. The one that get me the most bang for my buck is probably William Mark's The Chinese Gourmet. Usually Chinese cooking require a lot of ingredients in small amount, so cooking Chinese is really troublesome and quite impossible to remember all these little things. William Mark being a famous critic in Hong Kong, his book has some of my favorite Chinese recipes in authentic taste. I picked this up some 10 years ago at a Borders on sale for only $1.99 and it remains to be my favorite Chinese cookbook. (Well, I only have about 5 of them.)

Day 15 — A fanfic



Fanfic? Let's see I have had read some small erotic stories about different TV characters having sex but I don't think they count. Well, I used to read a series of comic book about the adventures of the grandson of a fictional famous detective in Japan. Does that count? The original story of Detective Kosuke Kindaichi has 77 installments and they were all written by Seishi Yokomizo between 1946 and 1980. The comic books called Kindaichi Shounen No Jikenbo depict a high schooler who's Kosuke Kindaichi's grandson and not related to the former stories at all. So I guess it's sort of a fan fiction?

Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)

I don't believe there is a song that makes me cry but there are songs to help me express my emotions when I'm sad. I can't cry if I'm not already sad no matter what songs you're playing. I guess Mary J.'s Not Gon' Cry do a pretty good job to bring out the melodrama in me, so is Nina Simone's Little Girl Blue but there's nothing like a song repeating the word 'cry' a million times hammering it home again and again that really brings out the tears.



Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)




When I was going to the Urban Bear event I happened to see a viewing booth of a cutout background. It was an installation done by artist Richard Galpin who is famous for creating geometric shapes through cutting out photographs of famous landmarks.

Well, I lined up not fully understanding what it was for and the pictures I take probably didn't do it justice. This is what it was intended to be but notice the designs of the cutouts are slightly different and in real life, it's quite hard to get it lined up perfectly. (Which is a long sentence to say I didn't get it.)



Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy



Lately I've been collecting a series of Kidrobot toy figurines. The series is called Cucos by Argentinean artist Patricio Oliver. They are kinda cute in a Tim Burton kinda way. I also like how you can mix and match their body parts around.



Anyway, have a good weekend!