R.I.P. Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy's first novel. Picture coutesy of www.qbd.com.au.

Hi everyone! 

Sorry for the length of time it has been since my last post. I'll try to post more regularly.

A few weeks ago, I thought I'd visit the website of Maeve Binchy, an author who's books I've enjoyed for the last 10 years.  I was shocked to find on the home page of that site that Maeve had passed away back in July 2012. I instantly felt sad as I've read quite a few of Maeve's books and have really enjoyed them! It also brought back the memories of when I first heard of Maeve Binchy and her great stories.

I first became interested in Maeve Binchy's novels back in 2002 while I was in my final year of high school. I somehow heard of a Brisbane radio station called 4RPH, which is a radio station for the print handicapped. When I tried the station for the first time one night, I discovered that at 9 o'clock every weeknight, they had a book reading segment for half an hour called Late Night Story, where they do unabridged serialised bookreading. That night, the story was Maeve Binchy's Light A Penny Candle, read by Kate Binchy, Maeve's cousin. Sadly, I missed the beginning of the story, which must have been many nights before. When I heard the story, I was hooked, and kept listening every night! A couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd tune into 4RPH again and I heard they were reading Maeve's book "Silver Wedding"! Sadly, I keep missing it each night, now they're no longer reading that one.

Since that first night listening to 4RPH, I've read many of Maeve Binchy's books: Firefly Summer, Circle Of Friends, The Copper Beech, Evening Class, Tara Road and Minding Frankie, just to name a few. I would recommend all the books I have read. Maeve's final book, A Week In Winter, will be released in November 2012 for some countries or sometime in 2013 for others. I am looking forward to reading it and telling you what I think, though I won't spoil the story for you!

If you'd like to find out more about Maeve Binchy and all her books and other works, I recommend you explore her official website (link above and in the side under Sites I Like to Visit). You may also want to read more about her on Wikipedia's Maeve Binchy page. You can also read a nice obituary about Maeve.  I thought I'd also share with you 2 videos I just found on YouTube, part 1 (above) and part 2 (below) of Maeve Binchy's life story.

R.I.P. Maeve. You will be sorely missed by your family, friends and fans, but your stories will live on forever!

Steve Jobs - May Your Legacy Live On

Steve Jobs holding a model of the video playing iPod.

Picture courtesy of Lusakatimes.com.

I felt so sad to hear the news that Steve Jobs had died on October 5th.  It's hard to believe we've now lost one of the greatest minds in the Technology industry.  If it wasn't for Steve Jobs, a lot of things that are easy to use today may have ended up more complex, or not have existed at all.

Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple Inc, the company behind many well-known products such as the Macintosh (Mac), the iMac, MacBook, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and most recently the iPad!  I, for one, love my iPod Classic and use it daily!  I don't really know much about Steve Jobs, apart from what I've mentioned above, but I've read on the Internet that he invented a lot of things and pretty much gets looked on today as the modern day Thomas Edison....a great honour!

Fans of Apple may be concerned about the future of the company, but only time will tell.  A lot of people looked on Steve Jobs as a genius, and from what I've read, he certainly was.

Steve, you will be sorely missed, not only by your family, but also by those who knew you as a friend or business partner, and the many fans you have accumulated over the years.  You changed the world with what you did and the world is a better place for it.

May your legacy live on through Apple and may Apple keep doing great things even though you're no longer here.

RIP, Steve.

May You Rest In Peace, Michael

This picture is courtesy of Fishpond.com.au.

Mum woke me up on Friday morning with the very sad news that singer Michael Jackson died of a heart attack.  I could not believe what I was hearing.

I still feel shocked with the sad, sad news and yet part of me doesn’t want to believe he is actually dead.  Michael Jackson has been one of my favourite singers for many years, it is just a shame he had do die so young and just days before his final concerts in London as well.  Michael Jackson will be missed by many people the world over.  I feel sorry for Michael’s family, especially even more for his 3 kids; Prince Michael, Paris and Prince Michael II, just imagine how devastated they would be to know their dad will never be there for them again.

I remember when I was much younger, my brothers and my sister watched a video of Michael Jackson’s Bucharest concert back in 1992 and I remember Michelle, Beau and Reece would learn Michael’s dance routines while watching that concert!  Aaahhhh, the good ol’ days!  My first ever Michael Jackson CD was his single “You Are Not Alone”, but my first ever full CD of songs was his HIStory double CD set.  Since then I started getting some more CDs of him, but I’ve still got more to get (the CD pictured above, Visionary: The Video Singles is just one of them)!  Right now while I’m writing this, I’ve got my iPod Classic 80GB shuffling through Michael’s albums and compilations I have put on it.  I don't have one favourite song.....instead I have many and all his hits are among them.  Michael’s video clips are all pretty good too, especially the Thriller one.  Michael didn’t like to call them video clips, he called them films.

I've watching the news reports and tributes for most of the day. It is still very hard to believe, especially when Michael had a lot more years ahead of him.  Michael was and always be a great legend!  From what I read earlier on in the year, Michael Jackson was working on an album, but time will tell if that album was completed or not, because if it was completed, we can expect it to be released, otherwise if it isn’t, Invincible will be Michael’s final studio album.  I really enjoyed Michael’s dancing, especially in concert (even though I’ve only seen him on TV).  Michael’s music will forever be an inspiration and he had a great talent that no one can beat.

MICHAEL, WE WILL MISS YOU GREATLY, BUT YOUR MUSIC WILL LIVE ON FOREVER!