I have just finished reading this book 1 hour ago and I highly recommend to anyone who loves books that you cannot bear to put down once you pick them up.

The title of this book is The Running Man, written by Stephen King under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. This is a science fiction cum thriller novel. The year is 2025 where the world is in a state of delusion and people are controlled by this thing called "Free-Vee" where people watch free television broadcasting cruel games by the Games Federation. Games include "Treadmill to Bucks" in which contestants with heart conditions are made to run on a treadmill and answer questions at the same time. When they answer wrongly, the treadmill is set to move faster and the amount of money (termed "New Dollars" in the book) is credited by the amount of time they survive on the treadmill. Another game is "Swimming with Crocodiles" which I think is very much self-explanatory.

The male protagonist, Ben Richards, is a poor man from the ghetto of this deluded world. His daughter is dying from flu and not wanting his wife to continue with prostitution in order to pay bills, he turns to the Games Federation. After careful selection by the Federation, he is selected to take part in the game which offers the greatest reward, called "The Running Man". He is portrayed as enemy of the state by the producers of the show and is given a 12 hour head start before the hunt begins for him. Upon release to the outside world, his family receives one hundred dollars per hour he remains alive and an extra 100 for each law enforcement officer he kills along the way. If he manages to survive for the whole month, he will be awarded 1 billion new dollars.

Sounds like a good deal huh? But it is an uphill task as the technology in 2025 can track him wherever he goes and the Hunters are professional hitmen. The game is also open to the public. The Network awards anyone who reports a confirmed sighting of Ben Richards and if the sighting results in a kill of the runner, the civilian will be duly rewarded. How's that for reality TV? To make things more difficult, Richards has to mail back two video clips of himself (of course the clips and video recorder are provided by the Network) to the Federation everyday. These clips will be aired on Free Vee everyday. If he did not submit the tapes, everything is defaulted but he will still be hunted down. Along the way, Richards discovers many hidden secrets of the Network and how the air produced by General Atomics (Something like General Motors + Microsoft combined, taking over the world.. muahahah) is slowly killing everyone with air pollution. The main aim of Free Vee is to keep the public at home so that they die slowly and not all over the street (the rich have a solution for this called "Nose-Filters" selling for 6000 bucks a pair!!!).

With resource and wit, Richards manages to escape death many times and the story slowly builds up to the end, where he settles his scores once and for all with the untouchables - the Free Vee Network.

Stephen King conjured a realistic view of the future (note that the book was written in 1982) and the technology can very well be realised by the year 2025, judging at the exponential rate of techno-increment in the world today. The story will leave you gripping at the edge of your seat wanting for more. A good and easy read.

I have never read Stephen King' s works before and this is my very first book (thanks to Kian Siong for this wonderful read). Stephen King not only does one genre but many others ranging from Sci-fi to fantasy to mysteries. I am going to borrow more of his books from now onwards. (Jeffrey Deaver is still my favourite but his new book The Cold Moon always some stupid F**Ker borrowed liao)

Good news for myself... My understudy is coming THIS FRIDAY! I am so happy.. hahaha.. (hopefully he's alrite and i dun curse and swear the next time i blog about him.. lol) I am so gonna pick him up personally from his training camp cos my upperstudy did the same for me.

And with an understudy undeniably comes the "ORD Mood"... it signifies the passing of the torch to someone else and that THE DATE is imminent. 8th June 2007... a little more than 4 months away... YAY!

Sorry for the no show for such a long time. I have been soooo lazy to blog cos there really isn't anything interesting to blog about. Anyway, happy new year 2007! (wah liao.. 20 days into the new year then wish everyone) but hey, still got 345 days to be happy what right?

My New Year's eve was spent in the office doing Company Orderly Sergeant (COS) duty. Not that i committed some offence or what but my armskote man Eugene Tan (remember "fart ur mother" guy during the army half marathon?) didn't want to do it so he paid me for it lor. The amount shall not be disclosed. Muahaha. Virtually spent the day in the office surfing the net and watching Countdown 2007 on Channel 5. Basically the very first meal of the new year was Chu Qian Yi Ding original sesame instant noodles. I also bought some cheese cocktail hotdogs ($1.60 for 200gm from NTUC) to go with the noodles and it was really nice. What a wonderful first meal of the year! Enjoying the noodles ALONE in the whole bloody building. But it was ok cos it was easy money. Played pool on New Year's day with Kianming, Lingli and Wenqi. Lingli and Wenqi are Kian Ming's tuition students and i rarely see gals so interested in pool. Kids nowadays really different lo... Think we are getting really old aren't we, Tok?

The first movie that i watched this year was Night at the Museum. It was an incredibly funny film starring Ben Stiller who works as a guard in the museum. The only thing is he doesn't know that everything int he museum comes to life at night and thereafter sets off a series of funny and thrilling events. As usual, evil characters (in this case the former guards of the museum) comes back to steal the amulet of the pharoah that brings everything to life at night. Ben Stiller thus discovers his leadership skills and tenacity when faced with hunting down the robbers. This show is a roller coaster ride and being a sucker for comedies, i give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The starting of this year I have heard many good news. Isaac you finally got your work permit! All the best for ur job stint in M1 and glad to be able to see u in singapore again. And Elisa you're also back from your studies.. Not a very long time you took as well eh?? Gerald you're in Germany for half a year of exchange program. By the time you are back, I would have ORDed loh! I am looking forward to it but at the same time, apprehensive as well of what is gonna happen to me after this. Well.. Changes again. Just got to face it and hope to get a good job, maybe fall into the rat race as well? haha..

Well for friends who stumble onto my blog or wanna see how i look like after so many years, here's a recent photo taken for my permanent camp pass (bloody hell it took me 9 months to get the pass)

They asked me why i look so happy in the picture.. Got problem meh?? Just because I wearing the green uniform issit? haha... well very soon i will not be donning this uniform any more. 4+ more months... My life as a NSF will be over. I had my share of good times and bad ones, mostly good memories. NS really gives u a different outlook in life and u appreciate things better, and will treasure the things that u have and not until u lost them. So im a happy man!

(shit lar.. i grow so fat liao.. wat to do, everyday travel on 4 wheels and no need to run.. hahaha)

Oh and I am currently star-stuck with this actress from China. She is so darn beautiful:

Her name is 袁泉 and she protrays Su Ying, a chinese physician in the drama series 小鱼儿与花无缺. She is 30 years old this year and is already an accomplished theatre actress with many awards under her name. Anybody got friends that look like her or not? Introduce to me leh.. hahahahh