A Multi-faceted Diamond...

Is my blog... because almost everyone sees different sides of the same thing. Bleah argh eek.

Overwhelming opinion is that the right column with the tagboard seems to be 2X the size of the left column. Damn. Totally the opposite of what I usually see on my screen. This is probably due to the HTML code I used, for tables. Someone more versed in HTML please give me an answer to this... Doshitte??? *hunts for her Idiot's Guide to HTML*

And all hail me, proponent of Graduate Issues. I can just see myself in Parliament...

"You con all these parents into thinking that the only way their children can have a future is to have a degree, and then you pick on them for trying to carve out that future for themselves? Shame on you, Mr Goh, shame on you!"

Right..... The only problem is that if I appeal to the grads for votes, seeing as how little a number we are compared to the entire Singaporean workforce, I don't think I'll ever make it as far to Parliament. Unless I'm standing on the lawn having my picture taken as a tourist. :p

Thankfully the rest of my life is sailing smoothly along. The online comics are still coming up, *grin* my real-life comics all came, and I'm on an Agatha Christie fever.

Blood, Gore, and the Little Grey Cells

There's a good reason they consider Agatha Christie one of the best selling mystery authors of all time. Because she's just so damn good! I've been reading her Hercule Poirot series, ["use the little grey cells, mon ami" "order and method!"] and by Jove, they're stunning! One yardstick by which I measure how good a book is is how much it pulls you into its world. i.e., a really good book should be able to make you oblivious to everything around you, because you're too absorbed in it.

Another measure could be the number of MRT stations by which you overshoot your stop, because you were too engrossed in reading the book... :p

Ah... murder, mystery, and mayhem. Brings me back to my childhood days.... When I first read Sherlock Holmes. [don't worry, my childhood wasn't that traumatic] How exciting it was to hear of the murder, and then follow eagerly on the trails of the detective as he sought out the villian, eventually roughly pulling off the mask of the suspect, and exposing his dirty, murderin' face for what is was. Of course, Sherlock Holmes was also a most polite, civilised Englishman. Despite a cocaine habit, he also played the violin and was well-versed in many subjects. [all pertaining to the art of murder, unfortunately. His knowledge of literature, for example, was described by Watson to be dismal]

Then in secondary school, I discovered the mangas Detective Conan and Kindaichi. Again, both fantastic murder comics. Conan being a young high-school detective, who was induced to swallow a mysterious drug by black-robed villians, and then turned into an 8 year old with the mind of a teenager. Don't ask. Sometimes it's best to just accept it as it is. In fact, this manga became so popular in Japan, that the town that the writer/artist, Gosho Aoyama, has declared itself the Town of Conan and there are statues and memorials to the young boy detective everywhere. The power of fame...

Kindaichi is also a high-school detective. No drugs, just the grandson of a famous detective in Japanese mystery literature. He goes around solving cases too, like Conan, but his cases tend to be longer, and usually involve a lot more blood and a lot more bodies. :p In fact, there is a pattern that runs throughout all of the Kindaichi comics:

1. Kindaichi fumbles into something, or joins something, for eg, a mystery club in school.
2. The first murder occurs. Kindaichi proclaims dramatically that "The Murderer is within our midst!"
3. Kindaichi goes about solving the crimes. Nanase, his childhood sweetheart, is usually put into danger.
4. Kindaichi, after coming across an important clue near the end of the story, says, "The riddles are all solved. I know who the murderer is!"
5. Kindaichi exposes the murderer in front of everyone. Sometimes the murderer takes his own life to avoid the shame of prison, sometimes he takes a hostage, most times he goes along quietly.

It's too bad that the Kindaichi comics have ended, but the authors have released a new title called Detective School Q, revolving around a famous Japanese Detective School, which teaches its students the art of crime detection! The main lead here is Q, [don't ask either, just accept it] who's a 10 year old boy [i tink he's ten anyway] and a prodigy at solving crimes, with a great sense of observation. It's just too bad, that, just like Kindaichi, his general knowledge is woefully poor.... sometimes not even knowing the most general of knowledge.

And now I come to Hercule Poirot... all I can say is masterful. Simply masterful. The crimes, the methods, the human psychology behind it all. In fact, Agatha Christie's main interest in all her mysteries seem to be the human psychology. The way a murderer thinks, and the way that influences the way he commits his murders. Of course, there is also plenty of physical evidence to back the psychology, but you will find that the way the criminal thinks is just as important to her. No wonder that her books are one of the world's best books, and only outsold by the Bible and something else, I forget what. :p

For people with too much time on their hands, [:p] and a good love of murder, I suggest The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie for a mystery novel with a wild twist like no other. If anyone has read this book before, don't reveal the ending!