I'm back to my old insomniac behaviour. Got up just to write this post down that has been festering in my mind since I don't know when.

Went to watch plainsunset's 2nd ever Manila gig over at Mag:net Bonifacio where they played alongside Urbandub. It was awesome to finally see them live after listening to their music obsessively and somehow intertwining their music with images of Singapore, despite never having seen them play before.

Sister and I were going crazy and melancholic and giddy-happy when they went up to play. My sister more so than me but god did their song "River" make me all maudlin. Talked to plainsunset and got my sister's "the gift" cd signed for her. It felt good to feel myself dropping back into singlish while talking to the bassist. It got us wanting to go "home" even more.

I still find it strange to think that you get more mosh pits back in Singapore gigs than over here, I would have thought it to be the reverse. Oh, and saw Surreal's lead singer with them although we didn't accost him for an autograph. Kinda sad to find out Surreal is breaking up though.

I was doing my philosophy homework and I got to four pages of mindless answering when it struck me that I've expended more words on that piece of blah report than I've ever spent on the current crush. It's depressing somehow and a situation I want to remedy.

What's not so depressing is having two new books to read! I got a bit disheartened that I couldn't get Douglas Coupland's jpod at the book fair after pining after it all this time. Got Eleanor Rigby instead but it's alright since it's been a great read so far. Other book is Flowers for Algernon, chosen by my sis. Reading again has got me wondering, will I ever be known at school as "that guy with good books"? I mean, I'm resigned to the fact that I'll never be known as "that guy with good looks" but the former would be such an awesome reputation to have :D

Although I'm quite sure my sister will be quick to point out that all my good books, in fact, are hers. :p

The book fair was fun, just wish I had more time. Apparently we missed you at the book fair Mia! Our driver says he saw you there, you weren't at the RoD booth when we went by. Saw your prints, they're lovely! Wish I could have seen the books though, they sound rather pretty!

Douglas Coupland is surprising me yet again. I fell in love with his writing when I first picked up Microserfs at the library, the book that affirmed my belief that geeks can have love too :) Then I read Girlfriend in a Coma, a post apocalyptic book thats very humanistic which was a very different read from Microserfs. I've read a few chapters of Shampoo Planet and it surprised me again with the lead character's pretty cynical worldview.

And this time around Douglas Coupland is writing a heart breakingly lonely novel that I have to put down once in a while to recover emotionally from. Though the main character, Liz Dunn, is a female I can just see myself in her shoes and its just so painful to imagine the loneliness. I didn't really flinch at all when I watched the anime Welcome to the N.H.K, a series that gets bandied about in anime circles as the one that gets geeky loneliness but something about the way that Liz Dunn is written hits so close to home for me. And then Coupland has scenes that recall the creepiness of Girlfriend in a Coma which sends shudders up my spine.

I look forward to finishing the book. It's shorter compared to his other works but none of his other books has had me as emotionally sympathetic to the character as I am right now.