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December 17, 2004
A Pain in the @$$
Had a bad case of diarrhoea since Tuesday. At first my stomach felt bloated as though the digestion tract, somehow knotted at the duodenum, could not bring the semi-liquid belched food I had eaten to the next destination. My stomach, unable to withstand the pressure any longer, screamed for help. What started as a tingling sensation became a horrific throb of pain which increasingly intensified to a hundred times fold (actually it was not that terrible; I was known to have a low pain threshold). Okay, I blame myself for not eating an apple a day and, holy, a session with doctor saved my day. The doc at Malaya Clinic inoculated me with some sort of antibiotics, injecting the stuff at you-know-where. My god, the searing pain was unbearable. Thank goodness the position of the injection was not at dead centre, otherwise I won’t be able to sit properly for weeks. Complaints aside, the jab did wonders; I threw up instantly when I reached home and gradually became better. Had a few rounds of diarrhoea, ate some medicine and slept for 12 hours a day, a luxury only available during holidays.
Luckily, the homebound period gave me the time too finish ‘Deception Point’ by Dan Brown. After savouring every moment of adrenaline-packed plots and intellectually-defined sub-plots, I can’t help but admire the knowledgeable, succinct and prodigious mind of the author. Meshing clear-cut facts with fictitious yet believable storyline, Mr. Brown proves to be one of the best writers I have ever known. The story follows Ms. Rachel Sexton in a roller-coaster ride from knowing the biggest discovery by NASA to exposing the mastermind behind the wonderful flawless fraud. Not unlike the other 3 books by Dan Brown, an unexpected twist towards the end of the story pushes the plot to the climax; as the story progresses midway, I suspected Marjorie Tench, aided by Lawrence Ekstrom, to be the controller who planned the fake meteorite discovery and ordered the assassination of Rachel and other civilian scientists trying to expose the trickery. As usual, I was wrong; William Pickering, the NRO director, is the unexpected nemesis in hiding the truth of the discovery for an ugly political conspiracy. All in all, ‘Deception Point’ is as much a satisfying novel as an academic reading for it showcases a multitude of information such as NASA’s Earth Observation System project, the function of NRO in the intelligence community of USA, the issue of space privatisation, the truth behind UFO sightings and the enhanced telencephalon olfactory lobes of hammerhead sharks which enable those carnivores to smell blood from a mile away.
Posted by peixin at December 17, 2004 12:42 PM