Elizabeth Tai's Blog, page 22

Review of A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back

KEVIN Hazzard was a reporter with a comfortable life. Then, Sept 11 happened, and he was suddenly thinking about "all the things I hadn't done."

Listening to his soldier friends recount life-and-death experiences of war, Hazzard suddenly felt that his world was too safe, too routine. He wanted to test himself and see if he could handle the pressure of facing death in the face.

So, he became a paramedic.

Hazzard quickly tells the reader that he didn't do so because he had the noble thirst to sav...

My first AirBnb experience

I love staycations. My friends find it weird that I'd check into a hotel at least once a month ... in the same city. But by staying somewhere new every month, not only does it feed that wanderlust beast in me, it feels like a relaxing day at the spa!

But hotel prices have been astronomical lately, and I've been getting more and more curious about the Internet phenom that is AirBnB. Since it was my first time, I made sure I booked with a host that has gotten a few good reviews. Here's the studi...

Review of Love Sick by Cory Martin

At first, Cory Martin tried to brush off the unexplained pain and tingling in her body as the protests of a worn-out body. After all, how could she not be tired when she was leading the ultimate single girl's life?

Martin was 28 years old, beautiful and living her dream job writing scripts and tie-in novels for the hit television show The OC. Her life was a constant whirl of activity -- socially and career wise. Something has got to give.

Still, the nagging pain never went away. Reluctantly, M...

Writing when you're sick

Sometimes I look at my Twitter and Facebook feed and get depressed. I look at the books being put out by my writer friends and the prizes being won by my colleagues and fellow creatives and I feel more than a twinge of frustration and despair. I wonder where their well of energy comes from, I wonder how they beat the obstacles - inside and outside of them - and think that I'll never catch up with them.

My health has not been the greatest the last few months. I'm tired all the time, my digesti...

Books I read in April and health is wealth!

I initially had a post about the artist formerly known as Prince, Chyna, death and the dangerous illusion of success ... and then my edited version was munched on by Internet gremlins.

But you know? I'm not in a terribly philosophical mood today. So I'm going to let the gremlins have their meal. I mean, I've spent most of last week over a toilet bowl (TMI, sorry) thanks to a violent IBS (I think) episode, and am just thankful for the simple pleasure of being able to keep down my food without p...

Su Tong's allure

Some people consider Su Tong China's best writer in the 21st (and 20th) century, and they're right. Well, I consider him that. I got to know about Su Tong after watching the immortal Zhang Yimou movie Raise the Red Lantern. Then I found his book, Rice, and was enthralled. In the book, you get to see the disintegration of a family. I seem to remember with great clarity that one of the characters is really disturbing. She has a feline quality to her character, and an undercurrent of vengeance i...

Review of Get up! by James A. Levine

James A Levine has always been obsessed with movement - measuring, studying, performing experiments around it ... when he was a child he used to collect snails so that he could let them loose in his bedroom to study how they moved. (The conversation he must've had with his horrified mother...)

LETHAL SITTING

He makes this bold claim: Sitting too much not only makes you fat - it could kill you.

From 2012-2015, I had a job that demanded that I be on my feet at least 6 hours a day. When Once, I me...

Out and about in Geogetown, Penang

These shophouses are nearly a century old, but they've been spruced up for the 21st century.

Penang folks are rather proud that they are Penang folk. We are proud of the fact that we have the best food in Malaysia, and the Chinese is most certainly proud to speak the genteel Northern Hokkien dialect. Which is why I jokingly refer to the state where I was born as "the motherland".

After an arduous 9 months slogging for the CIM Diploma in Digital Marketing, I was super excited to celebrate my e...

Rebuilding: Resignation, joy, acceptance and sadness

Apologies! I know I'm three days late with this post. Goes to show that my idea that "I'll have lots of time to blog during vacation" didn't pan out. There was the bad Internet, that bout of food poisoning and general exhaustion after a day of too much fun ... :P

But here I am, finally closing my long-running blog series, My Shifting Faith, which is inspired by Kathy Escobar's book, Faith Shift(which you should so get, of course).

My series covered the stages of faith that she describes in her...

Batman v Superman - Should you even watch it? (Spoiler free)

Well, the reviews are in and it's NOT good. The critics are baying for blood. As I write this, Rottentomatoes rates it at 30%. It seems doomed to failure.

So, should you listen to the reviewers?

NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

I remember walking out of the cinema, dazzled by what I have seen, moved to the point of muteness, and eager to see what others are saying about it ... only to read vitrolic reviews. I was frankly gobsmacked.

Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice has got to be the most unfairly reviewed...