only a geek would have cooked up something like this, to be appreciated by fellow geeks. (hear the loud geek shout ‘Yeah!’ in the background).
and only a geek would post it in her blog. haha. by far the coolest thing i saw all week. 🙂
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
i’ve been devouring books lately, mostly because i’m taking advantage of the sembreak. admittedly, i got drawn to buy james frey’s ‘a million little pieces’ because of its cover (the piece looked like candy sprinkles… how can i resist?), but the story turned out to be not bad, not bad at all.
it’s about an addict’s account of his stay at a treatment center. although it claims to be an autobiography, a friend just told me that the author owned up to making up some of the parts, but still that does not make the book less of a good read.
it’s the type of book you guzzle in two sittings. the author writes in such a way that you can peek into an addict’s mind, and find out that whatever you thought about how being addicted must feel — YOU JUST HAVE NO IDEA. i like the part where he goes off at a tv show for glamourizing addicts & alcoholics; he’d like to lock the show’s writers in room, feed them all the crack they could swallow and then watch if they can make their doctors fall in love with them and walk away with their pet golden retrievers. honestly, i don’t think i’ll be able to relate to a person who’s not sarcastic or ranting at least half the time, and the author did not fail me at all.
the only thing that put me off was the love angle. the book throws me grit, cursing, despair, and then magically, love conquers all. i was like, ‘what the hell?!’. seriously. here he was: broken. hardened. furious. an addict, an alcoholic & a criminal, who at 23 has been through hell so many times it’s like the park for him. and then the only thing that makes him say the ultimate ‘NO’ to drugs is the girlfriend he met at the treatment center. dang. the author let me down on that one. because if love is the only thing that can save the utterly hopeless, then i’m seriously screwed.
The Man in my Basement by Walter Mosley
“If suicide meant giving up, then I’d be dead by now.”
I got chills from reading. I don’t know whether it was because of the book’s dark theme, or because never had I identified this much with a book character — and he was a grown black man who was also a drunk unemployed thief. It was as if someone has found the words for me to articulate not just my thoughts, but my angry musings.
And to think I almost passed this book up. Powerbooks was having a sale, and although I’ve never heard of the title nor of the author, the premise was promising, so I spared 99 bucks. 99 bucks for this surprise whack in the head. sweet.
I also liked the part wherein the lead was asked the quintessential question, ‘Have you ever been in love?’. He did not pretend to stare off deeply and say ‘yes’; for him, if others described love as like gravity for its unexplicable but irrefutable attraction, then he was a floating astronaut. ditto.
thumbs up for walter mosley.
blast from the past
while spending the whole weekend bumming at home, i caught the spice girls comeback video in E! earlier. could you believe it? then i saw backstreet perform their new single on jay leno.
who’s next, Take 5? the moffatts? (oh wait, there’s Same Same already…) 911? woohoo!
stay in the room
that’s what she managed to say despite the tubes stuck through her nose and mouth. he fought back the tears and tried to shut out the pain.
the news of the cancer struck them so hard and fast, that they barely had time to reel. like the pang of their first fight. the throb of their Nth quarrel 40 years later. the slap they felt when they realized they somehow became total strangers. like the heartbreak in her face when he said he was leaving. then this.
so he stayed.
how can one feel numb?
it’s a sad, futile cycle, really. we prod, we stress, we overcompensate — only to find a void still there, which eats away from inside out. sorry, i know it’s so emo, but i can’t seem to shake it off for now.
it’s both amusing and sad, actually, how articulate we get when we’re down.
————
they say luck is the lazy man’s excuse for not working for anything.
well, come to think of it, yeah. the only question is if the lazy are whiny, or if the optimistic are delusional.
tayo na’t maki-mega
nothing’s more driven than a worn-and-beaten woman out to do some shopping.
and nothing’s more satisfying than when you find the single thing you’ve been looking for! i hauled away a blouse i’ve been eyeing for half the price, and the jacket that i’ve scoured so many malls for. in less than 3 hours! my shopping batting average has improved, i must say. just fab.
and i have great books to go home to! i dropped by the quaint used-book store at UP and got myself a thriller, an Anne Rice, and a Pear awardee. sweet.
i correct myself. nothing’s more satisfying when you find yourself slapped in the face with a great day when you least expect it.
eeek.
Today on my Daily Quote Widget:
“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.” – Ovid
Fudge. My crop must be hideous then. More like crap.
ppr woes
it took me 5 hours straight to draft my performance plan rating report for the year. 5 hours to document everything you’ve done for the past 12 months. every obstacle you leaped over. every person you had to deal with. 5 hours. eeek.
and i’m so glad it’s almost over. oktoberfest na!
astounding.
Most times, I take it for granted, but I just realized that I really am surrounded by AMAZING people.
For example, to my sister Ate Ting — you’re amazing. You have the biggest vault of patience out of everyone I’ve ever known, and you’re not stingy with it. You never asked to look after a little sister like me, and I know for a fact that I can be quite a handful. You know when to just be agreeable, and even more, you know when to give me a good smack in the head. You turned not only me, but also Ikay, into Photoshop nuts (and I haven’t even gone around to teaching you the guitar or HTML yet, after all these years. You’re simply amazing.
To my teammates, Mike & Jan — you’re amazing. As I’ve already told Jan, you two are among — if not the biggest — the factors why I probably am still sticking around. I never really saw myself in something so corporate, but you guys make it seem homey — no, actually, it’s more like a playground. You guys are amazing.
To my partners in goofiness and all other crimes, Rhea & Liz — you’re amazing. There’s never been a time when you guys failed to crack me up. Yet, even when I’m in the lowest of lows, you guys are also the same ones I turn to. I consider myself soooo lucky to find buddies with the same wavelength. You’re amazing.
To Bugsy — need I say it? You’re amazing. We all are so into our own things, yet we never let each other forget that we still have kindred spirits out there, egging us on. We have something time nor distance can’t break. You’re amazing.
To my parents, you’re amazing. Putting up with a know-it-all brat like me is a feat. You accept with without question — even in my ugliest moods, even if I shut you out, even after I lose my phone for the nth time. You’re amazing.
And what’s better is I know there are lots more amazing people not yet mentioned in this post. Hay. I should have posts like these more often.
surprisingly, sometimes, things do look up
the past few weeks have drained so much even beyond my usual tolerance of stress, that i’ve finally imposed an albeit escapist non-work thing on myself tonight. both Neil Gaiman fans, rhea and i caught Stardust at the cinema. LOVED IT. i loved it so much that i didn’t mind seeing claire danes almost for the entire movie. i was so ready with my criticisms that i was caught off guard. it was just what i needed, thank God. (thanks also to one of my best destressing buddies, rhea. we have so much to catch up on pa! haha.)
i keep on telling myself that the hullabaloo will all be over once October passes, but i know that it’s a longshot. but now, oh well, on a time when i can hardly catch my breath, i’m taking a breather, lounging out on the lazy boy (a VERY rare luxury), flipping through the channels. sometimes, it defies logic, but you find that it’s just all good.
.: ishcapades 