My Infamous Life Updates

Hello readers! How is everyone doing so far? I hope everyone is feeling good. For this post, I shall be sharing some updates on how things has been doing so far. Bear with me.

Let's begin with buying more books part. So, as you all know I am a big fans of books. I bought some few weeks ago and those books has finally arrived. I am super thrilled as the parcel arrived at our doorstep. I know that the questions is whether or not I have enough time to read them all. Well, for me when it comes to books, its always good to have extra than to have less and facing miserable empty moments while waiting for the next book to be read or bought. So, why not buying more while you actually have more you haven't even read. I'd say why not? Especially when they appear at the right time with the right offer?

So, here are the newly arrived/purchased books I got from online store:

So, here are all three parcels I received and two of them contains books!

This is how the seller wrap the books! How kind and thoughtful he is right?

These are the books right after I have just unpacked them!!!

It's wrapping time! Never let them go unprotected!

Secured right?

I loved it that the seller gave free gift card and bookmarks for every purchase! Love it.

This book is from my favourite author! Love it!

So, as you can see I have three new books in my collection. The one entitled More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera was bought from an online bookstore called Bookurve. You can click this link here to check on their site https://www.bookurve.com/ This is a Malaysian site but impressively they are selling books from all over the world. Trust me when I say ALL OVER THE WORLD because even self published books are available here, perhaps the forbidden or banned books are also available here. Well, forbidden doesn't means it is bad, maybe it is too sensitive for some culture, people or country; that is why they are called forbidden. Also bear in mind, it may be forbidden in your area but not as bad in other places. So, if you have any interest in finding or buying rare books or genres, do check on the site! ps: they are offering free lifetime memberships that enables you to collect points or cashback so you will enjoy more benefits on your next purchase! And not to forget, they give cute adorable bookmarks too!

As for the next two, Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick and Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick, I bought them from Instagram. It is an online book store selling brand new and used books. These two are used book but they looked quite new to me. I can still smell that new paper scent from the pages inside. Each book costs me RM15 (MYR15) and RM15 for the postage fee which in total I paid RM45 for the two books with postage fee. How cheap is that?! The seller has also gave a cute bookmarks with a sweet small note (Which I will use as a bookmarks too). So, if you are interested to buy books or view any offers they currently have, please go to Instagram and search for thespinesbookstore or just click here https://www.instagram.com/thespinesbookstore/?hl=en 

Enough talks about books. Now let's move on to the next thing; My Craving for cakes!

So, yesterday I suddenly have that feeling of eating something sweet like cakes so I said, why would I find any reason if I feel like eating one though there is no occasion or whatsoever right? So, I asked my lil bro to go and buy one whole cake for us and to not waste the space and candles, I told him to write my car's name on it, so there you can see how do I call my cute little car.

It's Tiramisu!

Next on, just now I went to the bus courier service to get the traditional pastry sold by my former student. He told me that he is selling a traditional pastry called Kuih Cap. So, to show some support and encourage him to do more stuff like this in the future, I decided to buy a big pack of it and asked him to send it over using bus courier. I love the taste! It tastes soooo good!

This is where I went to just now with Mr John

And this is how the food looks like. Yummy!

Now, I would like to tell more about my debut novel that I am currently working with. Last week, I had a serious issue with my laptop. I couldn't log in and that was my greatest nightmare! I was mad and sad at the same time. The first thing I had in mind was, what will happen to the novel I was working on? What will happen to all my personal files and documents inside the laptop? I tried to type every possible password but it was not accessible that I almost do something violent on it which I did not since I chose to go to sleep instead. 

The next day, I woke up at 4 in the morning and tried my luck. After trying the same thing for more than 10 times, I violently pressed on the touch-pad and keyboards, guess what? Miraculously it was accessible. Without wasting any seconds, I went into the room and transferred everything starting with the novel draft. I uploaded them to my email, in case the files got corrupted. Once everything was transferred, I asked my lil bro to format the laptop but I never had the courage to use it or keep any files in it, it was too risky. So, not having my own laptop for the past few years (the one with the issue mentioned was a laptop I borrowed), I decided to go and buy my own laptop. I did not want to spend too much money on buying an expensive one but at the same time I would love to have a small in size and light in weight while good enough for me to do my works. Well, of course there wont be any that is small, good and cheap because usually if its cheap, it will be big, heavy and poor performance while the one in smaller size, lighter weight and good performance will surely be expensive. Fortunately, after going ups and downs the whole building at the mall, I found the one I was looking for, not too big, not too heavy, good performance and affordable price. It costs me RM1399 (price shown is just for self reminder) and I got some free gifts from the shop. The sales assistant was so friendly and I love it! 

The size is just nice right? I love it!

Hopefully, with this new laptop, I would be able to keep on writing and finish the novel as soon as possible since the biggest goal is to get it published within this year. Do support me once I did publish it okay?

And for self records too, I have written 63,943 words so far and going to end the story real soon I hope. I am expecting the total words counts for the complete novel is somewhere between 70,000 - 80,000 words. Need to keep it within that range. Do pray for me.

Last but not least, I think I had mentioned it before that this year I am applying for a scholarship under the government to pursue my masters. I had submitted two applications for a scholarship to the UK but both was rejected, this year I am giving it a shot for locals. The lists of candidates who will be called for an interview will be announced this coming Monday and I am super nervous. Please pray for me so that I would be in the list and hopefully would be able to pursue my masters under the scholarship within this year.

This is the one I applied for. Do pray for me, please.

Well, I believe that would be all for this entry. I hope you enjoy reading though I believe that my life isn't as interesting as any celebrities or your crush that you would rather read into but I truly appreciate your time and kindness to drop by and read my post. Please pray for me for the scholarship and also, do support me once I have got the books published. I am super excited and nervous at the same time.

With Love,

Adam Jodrie

(Soon-to-be-Author)

Love you all!

Bye!

BEING PRODUCTIVE

Hello people! I am back for another entry. For this one, there will be several things that I will be sharing on. It would not be a long one I suppose.

Before I begin, I would like to thank you for dropping by and double thanks to those who leave your comments. I love reading your comments because it keeps me motivated. Thank you.

So, let us begin.

On May 10, 2020 (Sunday), we had the Mother's Day celebration but I think it is not too late for me to once again wish all the mothers out there, a happy blessed Mothers Day! I actually found out about it on Saturday morning when I woke up early and bumped into people's post on social media wishing a happy Mother's Day for their mom. I am so bad with dates and numbers. So, I considered myself lucky because I get to know about it a day before. I was thrilled, so I discussed with my other siblings on what we should do for the celebration. I actually messaged one of the cake seller on Facebook asking for the price of the cake. I was interested to buy one with the supermom cartoon sketch. Unfortunately, when he told me that it will cost me RM80 for a 1 KG cake, I think that it would not worth the amount of money that I will be paying for. I do want to support local businesses but there will be more than ten mouth to feed with the cake later that I think spending that amount for a small cake would be a waste of money. Thus, we agreed on buying the Chocolate Indulgence cake from Secret Recipe. It costs us RM95 for a +- 2KG cake. See the difference in terms of price and weight, not to mention the heavenly taste. We bought the cake on Saturday and celebrated on Sunday evening since my sister was fasting. It was a pleasant one. 

By the way, my siblings and I managed to get the ceiling and main gate painted white. We dd it! That is one of the productive activity we did for the week. 

Are you ready for the BIG NEWS?!

Yesterday, I managed to find my time (midnight as usual) to continue with the novel writing. I am always excited and nervous about getting the novel done and the most nerve wrecking part was to reach my minimum words count goal of 50,000 words count. I managed to add 4270 words yesterday. I started writing at around midnight while enjoying my Korean drama about doctors. It was a distraction because I obviously incapable of writing and watching at the same time. So, I literally spent more time watching than writing. With that 4270 words added up, I finally reached that 50,000 words count target! I stopped at around 7.30 in the morning with 50,675 words. I felt super excited and proud of myself for the achievement. This is one of the most serious project and wish list that I have been putting into my current life priority. I am serious about getting it done and published. I felt drowsy so I went to bed at 7.30 till 10.00 am this morning and woke up to entertain my cousin who visited us, asking for help with his laptop. I had my nap before dinner and here I am now, blogging about it and everything. 

I am truly proud of the achievement on writing up to the 50,000 words count goal but of course the novel is not yet finish. I will keep on writing and try my best to get it done before the end of the latest 5th MCO (9th June 2020). Since I have written up till 50,000 words, I am giving myself a new challenge to write about 10,000 more words and make it 60,000. I may be writing more or less than 60,000 words but the goal for now is to finish the novel, that is the biggest aim of this project. I really hope that you are as excited as I am with the novel. I am not sure if the genre, characters and story lines will suits everyone's preference or interest but I wanted to write a sincere novel as my very first debut. If it goes well then more will be coming under the same genre. If it doesn't then I am still fine with it. As I said, I am writing it with sincerity. For the next project, I may want to write a non-fiction or another fiction on fantasy or romance or anything. Time will tell. Please bear with me and support me once I have got the book published. You may like or dislike the way I wrote the book but of course you are all welcomed to share an honest review and critics on the novel, once I have it published. Calculating the days, weeks and months spent on working with the novel, since I actually wrote the first three pages back in early February, I had actually spent about four months, working with the novel writing. I had no serious intention when I first wrote the first three pages because I just want to write something I feel like writing, something like journal writing and it was buried in my laptop for more than a month when I finally decided to spent my Movement Control Order (MCO) by finishing the novel writing. I am glad that I decided to treat it more seriously because that determination has driven me to go this far (50,000 +) words in approximately four months. I am proud with this achievement considering I spent years with the Malay novel I had been trying to write and after some years, I had only written 55,186 words and it is not even finished yet. Can you see the difference of time spent and words count written? That is why I am proud of myself for being able to take it up this far.

Right now, I should be spending time to add some more stuff to the novel but I am not really in the right mood to do so and if I force it, I may commit more mistakes or worst, write something that might not be favorable to my readers. So, I am writing a blog post instead.

After this post is uploaded, I will be watching the final episode of the Korean Drama (Doctors) and later on watch some videos on books and novels publishing, just to give myself some motivation to keep going.

I guess, that would be a wrap for the post. I did not keep my words when I said this is going to be a short one. Sorry, and if you read from top till this very word, I thanked you very much for dropping by and spending time reading my thoughts.

Till next time,

Adam Geordrey

(Soon to be Author)

New Normal Pros and Cons - COVID-19

Hello readers! I am back for another entry. I was supposed to sit before the laptop to continue with the novel writing but I am not so sure if I have the strength needed for that matter at the moment. Well, not because I am tired of writing or thinking but I do believe that in order for me to have the strength to start/continue writing, I should be in my most comfortable state. Well, I believe every writer would have said the same thing. I mean, I can just push it but that may not be the best thing to do for it will surely affect the way each word are typed and of course the way every ideas are arranged. Getting the novel done is of course the main goal but I do not want to do it just for the sake of doing it. I want to write something that I myself would love and hoping that my readers would love it too. How would I expect the readers to enjoy what I write if I myself are not enjoying what I wrote, right?

Going back to the topic as mentioned in the head above, I believe we all are now having our new normal due to the impact of the Pandemic that we are mostly staying home and adapt to the new normal of doing everything from home. Workers are working from home, students are studying and learning from home and there are also front-liners who may have to work extra hours due to the pandemic. This is our new normal. To me personally, there is a pros and cons in the new normal caused by this pandemic.

On the positive side, as I have mentioned in the previous entry, I get to be at home as this is the longest period I ever spent at home while having no extra needs of waking up early to go to work or even to spend extra hours in the afternoon on the weekdays or weekends as I always would since I am officially working from home. I will normally prepare my online quizzes generated using the google form for my students to learn my subject while staying at their respective home. I have shared one of the quiz I prepared for them in my previous post too. I purposely prepared maximum of 20 Multiple Choice Questions because I want them to learn in a more flexible and less pressured atmosphere. I know that their other subject teachers have been giving them works to do too, so I do not want mine to be a stressful subject or a burden on top of the other subjects. Now that is one of the new normal as an impact of this pandemic.

I was really happy when the book has arrived safely in my hand!

Another thing that I would feel really grateful as an impact of this stay-at-home trend is, I get to read more on Wattpad, my novels (including Chicken Soup for The Soul - the one I least favor) and of course working on my very first English novel. On the writing part, I was super excited when I first began and trust me I still am. I may felt a little tired having the same routine daily which felt exhausting of working the same thing everyday and all are done at home. I kind of blame the 'being at home' all the time while trying to manage everything from works to personal stuff is a little too overwhelming. I am saying this because I literally feel that the only source of my connection with the outside world is by scrolling through my social media account or watching the television. It does not feel as great as compared to meeting real people in the real outside world. But then again, I know that this quarantine and lock down is for the sake of everyone. I am just expressing what I feel personally and it has no intention of blaming anything or anyone. I do not want to be too stressed out with what's happening, so I believe by sharing it on my blog writing like this is one of the way for me to avoid from being stressed out, or worse go nuts. Government offer counselling services if we need someone to talk to. So, if you feel stressed out and have no idea on who to talk to or how to deal with your emotions, please go and seek for their help. Do not be skeptical to see the word HELP because HELP in this sense does not means you are problematic or what, you just need someone to trust, listen to you and understand your situation, there is no harm in that. We all need that someone right? If we could not find one from our circles of family, friends or even social media friends, there are counselors who are more than willing to help. Who knows it may turn into a real friendship? We never know right? So, do not hesitate to call for help if you have such problems or issues. Or you can try to write a journal or just blog it like I am doing right now. You shall feel better after you have done so.

Open it as fast as I could as I was super excited to see how it looks like!

Anyways, I would like to share on the books I purchased online from Bookurve. I have received the parcel and as they mentioned in our WhatsApp messages, they will be sending the first two and the other one shall be delivered after the MCO is ended. Now, on the two novels that I have received. I was so happy when they postmen stopped at our gate and delivered them to me. Being a book lovers much, I could not wait to open the books and so I did. As usual, I never dig into the book before getting them wrapped. Thanks God that I found all the stuff needed for that matters. So I did. 

I never let the book go unwrapped, not reading before wrapping!

Actually, I do not want to start with a new book for my reading routine but I just can't help it. So, I grabbed the one of the book that I purchased online and started reading. To be honest, I do not feel the price RM89 paid for this book worth the quality of what I have received. I am not so sure why; it could be since USD converted into MYR that I have to pay so much for such a thin book. Not only that, the font was terrible to the eye of the reader (me in this case). There are too many repetitive words and narration which seems to be done purposely to make the story longer but obviously not as interesting. The cover was a little to exposing that I have to make it covered with something so it would not seem to be too erotic because the story was not that kind of erotic. Well, can't help it but people do judge the book by its cover. I read about two or three chapters and almost approaching the middle part of the book. I had to stopped before I ended up finish the reading and regret over my RM89. I still have the Chicken soup book and I am still reading one or two stories daily to make it more sense in my reading and of course in the effort of finishing the book.

This is the one I mentioned. Thin, terrible font and sad paper/book quality with the price of MYR89

Now, here's a little update on the English novel writing that I am currently working on. As I typed into this entry I have written about 40,487 words so far in the novel I am working on. The goal is to reach 50,000 words at least or making it goes till 60,000 or 70,000 or 80,000 the maximum I should be writing. It's actually almost there but I am kind of not into into writing as much lately but I must keep writing if I want it to be published as soon as possible. Finish the writing then editing and more works after which is more fun I suppose. Do pray for me so I could have the strength and ideas to keep on writing.

Anyways, I was thinking that I should do book review on the one that I have read. Was thinking of making a vlog for the review. Should I? Well, see how thing goes.

That would be all for now. Till next time.

Love.

Adam Geordrey

(Author to be)