Anyone who doesn't, haven't tried reading. Or, they just have missed good books to read.
I dream to have my own library in my own house. And how do I even do that. As far as I know, my collection of books would only count to, let's see, minus the textbooks handed from generation to generation, I think I have nine.
1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- very nice book. Just bought it this year, before I graduated.
2. Q&A by Vikas Swarup
- now known as Slumdog Millionaire - I hope they didn't edit the book version to fit the movie version. I still think the book was better. The movie did good justice to it. But still... It was good that this book was in a bargain shelf at that time. I bought it at around P199 or lower in Powerbooks. When I checked the National Bookstore, it's P299. Ha-ha!
3-4. The Children's Hour (Stories on Childhood) Volume I and II
- i haven't read all of them yet. Favorite so far: The Bread of Salt by N.V.M. Gonzales. Partly because it saved me from the Spanish recitation of how to translate bread of salt - yep, it's pan de sal.
5. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
- favorite: The Pendulum, Maelstrom, and one about a cat whose title I can't remember. But I must say, it's really hard to read his works with all the old English in use. The most vivid I could only imagine are these stories.
6. If Tomorrow Comes by Sydney Sheldon
- good story. It's just nowadays that I appreciate such endings.
7. Three stories in one book: Bloodline/A Stranger in the Mirror/Naked Face by Sydney Sheldon
- it's not actually mine. I don't even know who originally owned it. I found it in our bookshelf when I was looking for a book to read. But out of the eight of us in the house, it's just me, dad and mom who have read it.
8. The Tale of the Girl who turned into a Fish and other Filipino Folk Tales
- erm, it's somewhere filed in the cabinet. I was still into our own folk tales by then. I was glad I told my mom to buy it together with the following book..
9. Philippine Ghost Stories
- whose author I can't remember but I'll do if I ever hear it somewhere. Actually, it's... oh! i remember! It's Marivi Soliven Blanco. But I lost it somewhere in the house. It comes up once in a while though... We bought it in a shop near the Manaoag Church/Parish. I was still about elementary at that time... ah, memories.
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- how can I forget. The very first Harry Potter book I ever owned. I've just incidentally dug out my things in search for an encyclopedia, and looked! It popped out!
11. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Yep, the fifth installment of J.K. Rowlings' HP series. My sister gave it to me as a gift as far as I remember. Wow. But it's nowhere to be found though. I can't remember where I put it.
So there you have it. My dream of a library, still decades away from materializing. So now, I'm going a step closer to it in a form of luck.
So there you have it. My dream of a library, still decades away from materializing. So now, I'm going a step closer to it in a form of luck.
Chery Rainfield, teen fiction author, has opened a contest to win $15-$50 gift certificate to online bookstores plus her own book with her autograph. Well, actually, I think it's to promote her book too. And I'm taking the bite to her bait. Haha...
I hope I can make it too.
So here it is, her promotional video. :))
You can go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuAfTLFBDGo&feature=player_embedded
You can go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cTST4Bhcw8&feature=player_embedded
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
What Fear Makes In Us...
The saddest thing reality can give me, is showing that there are things that are not meant to be.
Am I still dreaming? Maybe I am. And I haven't woken up. And maybe I refused to wake up. That I still slumber under my parents house, maybe that's why. That I fear facing telephones. I fear facing the interviewers. I fear almost everything that has reality ringing on it.
What have I learned in school? For almost twenty freaking years?
I have been irresponsible. Were my calls of support empty, after all? Am I not in the position to say something that supports or encourage my friends? Not simply because I am a friend, but because I have something to tell? That there is something better than good. That happiness is not just something that passes by, but also something that we earn.
What are these?
Is it empty positivity? Oh, there it is - naivety?
After graduation, I have succumbed to a promise with my parents. What's there behind my willingness? Is it really compassion for them? Or is it an extension to my teenage freedom?
People regard me as someone with full of optimism with a promising future. What was that? A masquerade? I wished to be someone infectiously optimistic as one of my idols, Luffy. I want to face reality head on, and throw what things I can throw. And if ever they don't come back, at least it's better to have tried at all.
But people seemed to have regarded me as that. Optimistic. Childish. Patient. A girl with simple pleasures.
Who was that?
Pessimism resided darkly in me as well. It could have probably saved me from what I'm feeling right now, if I bred it right. If I listened to it intently. Why, I have survived high school listening to it mostly. And trying to convert that energy to living.
But I did not want reality mess with me. I did not want it to blemish my colorful look of tomorrow, even though I foresee something bleak on it. I did not want to show that to others, seeing as they already see it as bleak. They already have a feeling as to what lies ahead.
I wanted to be someone who can tell them, it's alright. You just have to do what you gotta do. Do what you want that you know you'll never regret. Smile once in a while. Laugh at your problems. Cry if you have to but don't forget to raise your head after. After night is day. And the world has 365 days to live for.
But. Think about it. Who am I to say these things. I know nothing of their sufferings, their pains, their sacrifices. I may have been informed, but I don't know what that feels like. I don't know how they start their mornings, what they see when they ride a jeep/fx/taxi, what they feel when their boss demand of their presence.
So who am I to just suddenly blurt out nonsense like this in an effort to make things light? How could they feel it if my words are nothing but an empty words of a kid who has only opened windows but not doors towards reality?
I really feel foolish. I came to believe that they believe me. I believed I believe myself.
I simply wanted to help. I can't even help myself.
What use is that?
Am I still dreaming? Maybe I am. And I haven't woken up. And maybe I refused to wake up. That I still slumber under my parents house, maybe that's why. That I fear facing telephones. I fear facing the interviewers. I fear almost everything that has reality ringing on it.
What have I learned in school? For almost twenty freaking years?
I have been irresponsible. Were my calls of support empty, after all? Am I not in the position to say something that supports or encourage my friends? Not simply because I am a friend, but because I have something to tell? That there is something better than good. That happiness is not just something that passes by, but also something that we earn.
What are these?
Is it empty positivity? Oh, there it is - naivety?
After graduation, I have succumbed to a promise with my parents. What's there behind my willingness? Is it really compassion for them? Or is it an extension to my teenage freedom?
People regard me as someone with full of optimism with a promising future. What was that? A masquerade? I wished to be someone infectiously optimistic as one of my idols, Luffy. I want to face reality head on, and throw what things I can throw. And if ever they don't come back, at least it's better to have tried at all.
But people seemed to have regarded me as that. Optimistic. Childish. Patient. A girl with simple pleasures.
Who was that?
Pessimism resided darkly in me as well. It could have probably saved me from what I'm feeling right now, if I bred it right. If I listened to it intently. Why, I have survived high school listening to it mostly. And trying to convert that energy to living.
But I did not want reality mess with me. I did not want it to blemish my colorful look of tomorrow, even though I foresee something bleak on it. I did not want to show that to others, seeing as they already see it as bleak. They already have a feeling as to what lies ahead.
I wanted to be someone who can tell them, it's alright. You just have to do what you gotta do. Do what you want that you know you'll never regret. Smile once in a while. Laugh at your problems. Cry if you have to but don't forget to raise your head after. After night is day. And the world has 365 days to live for.
But. Think about it. Who am I to say these things. I know nothing of their sufferings, their pains, their sacrifices. I may have been informed, but I don't know what that feels like. I don't know how they start their mornings, what they see when they ride a jeep/fx/taxi, what they feel when their boss demand of their presence.
So who am I to just suddenly blurt out nonsense like this in an effort to make things light? How could they feel it if my words are nothing but an empty words of a kid who has only opened windows but not doors towards reality?
I really feel foolish. I came to believe that they believe me. I believed I believe myself.
I simply wanted to help. I can't even help myself.
What use is that?
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Bad Habit
That is, thinking of something else when I'm already writing.
I'm into fanfiction writing. And I've always wanted to finish one. (I had one unfinished way back in my high school years... and I still couldn't put a good end to it.)
I've written a dozen of them, I think. And still, some of them remains as plot alone. Laying silent in My Document, hidden from trespassers. I've even set up passwords, in case some people came to explore my files and accidentally open them.
Still, I couldn't pass through chapter two on the one I wanted badly to publish.
Dammit.
I've done dozens of something else - updated this blog twice, updated my other accounts, helped my brothers in their assignment... hah... and when I come back to my chapter two screen, I would be reading, and rereading them again, all night long, and still... nothing.
Urgh.
I hate thinking a lot of things. Especially when I'm doing something I wanted to write down asap.
I'm into fanfiction writing. And I've always wanted to finish one. (I had one unfinished way back in my high school years... and I still couldn't put a good end to it.)
I've written a dozen of them, I think. And still, some of them remains as plot alone. Laying silent in My Document, hidden from trespassers. I've even set up passwords, in case some people came to explore my files and accidentally open them.
Still, I couldn't pass through chapter two on the one I wanted badly to publish.
Dammit.
I've done dozens of something else - updated this blog twice, updated my other accounts, helped my brothers in their assignment... hah... and when I come back to my chapter two screen, I would be reading, and rereading them again, all night long, and still... nothing.
Urgh.
I hate thinking a lot of things. Especially when I'm doing something I wanted to write down asap.
Time for a Film Break?
So in almost four months after graduation, what have you become?
Me? Hehe. A surfer.
*crash! the large wave crashes into the seashore, and spreads far like a live liquid carpet, scaring some little tourists who had come to watch surfers and instead found themselves wet to the hips for trying to sunbathe from what they thought was out of the waves' reach. But my surfboard had gone over that wave and succesfully rode on it...*
Oh, not that kind of surfer though. Haha.
The net has been the ocean for me - breaks, after-office hours, weekends... If I remember it correctly, the last time I visited a real beach was the last week of June, even though I live near it. With this, I also have given up watching television, so I'm a bit outdated with news/shows - well, except if I come across big news like Hayden's camera, MJ's death, electronic elections...
Being withdrawn from my second home - the library - I've been reading bits online, the huge chunk of my time was set on reading manga. Reading e-books on a computer surface is tiresome, after all. Too much light exposure blurs my vision (hah! and how long do i read manga anyway?)
Well, not really withdrawn, seeing as my dad had been pestering me with reading his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter - book of investing knowledge. I dodged that initially, but I soon found my nose stuck on it for a while.It is a good book after all. Then, he's also pushing Og Mandino's Greatest Secret in the World. And I was... okay. Maybe after a year?
So besides missing books, I am also a bit film-deprived, so I started surfing YouTube.com. And I've struck luck.
Here are six of the videos I liked.
1. TANGHI ARGENTINI
Nominated for 2008 Best Live Action Short in the 80th Academy Awards, Guido Thys' Tanghi Argentini tells about a clerk who pesters his office mate into teaching him to dance Tango, after telling the girl in the chatroom that they will meet in a tango gathering. But the clerk seemed to have something up his sleeves, for this Christmas gift he wished to give.
You can also watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isDtYDmANkI
Comment: You'll just have to be a bit patient with subtitles though. But the learning of tango is a laugh. The years' worth of mastery of tangocrammed to two weeks? The girl was a bit a surprise herself. Maybe I do have a chance for tango too, haha :))
2. MARRY ME
A girl likes a boy, and the boy likes his BMX. So what should a little girl do for a little attention? This is a very light story of how far a girl can give for someone she loves.
It's a film finalist directed by Michelle Lehman for the 2008 Tropfest Australia Film Festival.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFdbZHMBxfg
Comment: It's very light, that even my brothers took their time to watch it and laugh with me. I also like the background music, it adds to the pinkish atmosphere between this guys (so if there's anyway you have it or knows how to acquire it, please buzz me here!) And the kids can really act. It's cute! Go girl power!
3. SPIDER
(I really like this summary, so I'll just copy-paste it here.)
Jack and Jill are always hurting each others feelings. But like Mum said, Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
It's directed by Nash Edgerton.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmbv8kevQ-E
Comment: Like they said, it's a symbiotic relationship. Karma plays big on this film. The guy could've been sweet, save for the lame flowers. And the girl's really severe (oh, not the acting though). But the chocolate saves the day.Until the spider came to take it away.
I just have trouble following their conversation. It's either the volume was too low, or they just like talking in the volumes that they'd hear. I'd prefer subtitles though.
The title and the film's quote "It's all fun and game, until someone loses an eye," reminds me of an episode in xxxHolic, when Doumeki and Watanuki suffers eye loss after destroying a spider's web. Haha, just a trivia.
4. BEYOND WORDS
A deaf woman finds herself being stalked by a guy. Is he really a stalker? Or a rescue? This thriller is a finalist in 2009 Tropfest Australia Film Festival, directed by Armand de Saint-Salvy.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJlVNxBbrU8
Comment: It says it's a thriller. But it's just that at the beginning. Anyway, the dark scenes with noises were terrific portrayals of a blind world, while the same can be said to the opposite world of the deaf. It's a real wonder how to find oneself in another's world, despite the gaps of senses.
Though I find it odd why the blind man tilts his head to, coincidentally/not, the direction of the girl, which freaked her out. It's as if he knew she was there.
And the girl. She was, erm, talking to herself, right at the beginning right? Does she really need to use sign languages, though? She can understand what she's missing, and all that...
5. I'LL FOLLOW THE SUN
"Is your child lonely? Call today to find your child their very own imaginary friend!"
Single mom takes this chance to make her child happy. And exactly whose imaginary friend is he? This film is a finalist in the Tropfest NY 2008, directed by Ben Thompson and Emily Marcuson.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar3HcPgwGlA
Comment: At first, I thought it was magic. Then I concluded that it is really magic. Simply Imagine Inc. sure knows who to pick up in times of lonesome crisis. I must say, I find the story touching. For as far as I understood the story, it's a tale of a person who try to fill the absence of someone significant in their lives, by seeking another person into it. And in the end, the mother sees significance in herself, as someone who can fill that gap.
Though I should also say, I couldn't understand her conversation on the phone. Someone should require them to put subtitles in it! (hehe). So, the last conversation with sunflower man is still a mystery to me.
6. SKELETTI GARDEROBEN (Skeletons in the Closet)
A woman wakes up in a dirty room, with no memory of she was, where she was, and who was the man in the same room with her. Trying to piece it together, they discover their relationship and their destruction.
It's directed by Ulrik Friberg for the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. (Not sure whether it's really 2007 or 2008 though.)
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEdwi7XfdMk
Comment: Poor guy in the basket. He's forever condemned to see their little skit repeat every time they wake up. Unless, of course, they decide to shoot him. Though the film doesn't really appeal to me, I think it's a good portrayal of two people who can only be treated as a destruction for each other. If there's such a thing as time loop, then this story is.
7. MORSURE (Bitten)
A girl named Clara flees in the night from a man who was intent on shooting her. However, things aren't what they seemed. Why is a man whose sanity seemed intact, is trying to pursue his injured wife?
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvFAy_NSncg
Comment: It was a bit unexpected for me, since neither did I read the plot nor expected anything at all (brings suprises in store all the time.) Cool cinematography though. Just one thing, why didn't the police pursue him immediately? With his injury, he couldn't have escaped as quietly as he wanted to. And given with their ability to gather info fast and hunt people on the run quickly... but oh well. The husband is doomed after all.
Light, dark, gloomy, sad, scary, romantic - just in short while. And free. Ah, the power of the internet is indeed like the ocean.
Powerful and also destructive. Hypnotizing and then stimulating.
Want to watch them?
Me? Hehe. A surfer.
*crash! the large wave crashes into the seashore, and spreads far like a live liquid carpet, scaring some little tourists who had come to watch surfers and instead found themselves wet to the hips for trying to sunbathe from what they thought was out of the waves' reach. But my surfboard had gone over that wave and succesfully rode on it...*
Oh, not that kind of surfer though. Haha.
The net has been the ocean for me - breaks, after-office hours, weekends... If I remember it correctly, the last time I visited a real beach was the last week of June, even though I live near it. With this, I also have given up watching television, so I'm a bit outdated with news/shows - well, except if I come across big news like Hayden's camera, MJ's death, electronic elections...
Being withdrawn from my second home - the library - I've been reading bits online, the huge chunk of my time was set on reading manga. Reading e-books on a computer surface is tiresome, after all. Too much light exposure blurs my vision (hah! and how long do i read manga anyway?)
Well, not really withdrawn, seeing as my dad had been pestering me with reading his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter - book of investing knowledge. I dodged that initially, but I soon found my nose stuck on it for a while.It is a good book after all. Then, he's also pushing Og Mandino's Greatest Secret in the World. And I was... okay. Maybe after a year?
So besides missing books, I am also a bit film-deprived, so I started surfing YouTube.com. And I've struck luck.
Here are six of the videos I liked.
1. TANGHI ARGENTINI
Nominated for 2008 Best Live Action Short in the 80th Academy Awards, Guido Thys' Tanghi Argentini tells about a clerk who pesters his office mate into teaching him to dance Tango, after telling the girl in the chatroom that they will meet in a tango gathering. But the clerk seemed to have something up his sleeves, for this Christmas gift he wished to give.
You can also watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isDtYDmANkI
Comment: You'll just have to be a bit patient with subtitles though. But the learning of tango is a laugh. The years' worth of mastery of tangocrammed to two weeks? The girl was a bit a surprise herself. Maybe I do have a chance for tango too, haha :))
2. MARRY ME
A girl likes a boy, and the boy likes his BMX. So what should a little girl do for a little attention? This is a very light story of how far a girl can give for someone she loves.
It's a film finalist directed by Michelle Lehman for the 2008 Tropfest Australia Film Festival.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFdbZHMBxfg
Comment: It's very light, that even my brothers took their time to watch it and laugh with me. I also like the background music, it adds to the pinkish atmosphere between this guys (so if there's anyway you have it or knows how to acquire it, please buzz me here!) And the kids can really act. It's cute! Go girl power!
3. SPIDER
(I really like this summary, so I'll just copy-paste it here.)
Jack and Jill are always hurting each others feelings. But like Mum said, Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
It's directed by Nash Edgerton.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmbv8kevQ-E
Comment: Like they said, it's a symbiotic relationship. Karma plays big on this film. The guy could've been sweet, save for the lame flowers. And the girl's really severe (oh, not the acting though). But the chocolate saves the day.Until the spider came to take it away.
I just have trouble following their conversation. It's either the volume was too low, or they just like talking in the volumes that they'd hear. I'd prefer subtitles though.
The title and the film's quote "It's all fun and game, until someone loses an eye," reminds me of an episode in xxxHolic, when Doumeki and Watanuki suffers eye loss after destroying a spider's web. Haha, just a trivia.
4. BEYOND WORDS
A deaf woman finds herself being stalked by a guy. Is he really a stalker? Or a rescue? This thriller is a finalist in 2009 Tropfest Australia Film Festival, directed by Armand de Saint-Salvy.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJlVNxBbrU8
Comment: It says it's a thriller. But it's just that at the beginning. Anyway, the dark scenes with noises were terrific portrayals of a blind world, while the same can be said to the opposite world of the deaf. It's a real wonder how to find oneself in another's world, despite the gaps of senses.
Though I find it odd why the blind man tilts his head to, coincidentally/not, the direction of the girl, which freaked her out. It's as if he knew she was there.
And the girl. She was, erm, talking to herself, right at the beginning right? Does she really need to use sign languages, though? She can understand what she's missing, and all that...
5. I'LL FOLLOW THE SUN
"Is your child lonely? Call today to find your child their very own imaginary friend!"
Single mom takes this chance to make her child happy. And exactly whose imaginary friend is he? This film is a finalist in the Tropfest NY 2008, directed by Ben Thompson and Emily Marcuson.
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar3HcPgwGlA
Comment: At first, I thought it was magic. Then I concluded that it is really magic. Simply Imagine Inc. sure knows who to pick up in times of lonesome crisis. I must say, I find the story touching. For as far as I understood the story, it's a tale of a person who try to fill the absence of someone significant in their lives, by seeking another person into it. And in the end, the mother sees significance in herself, as someone who can fill that gap.
Though I should also say, I couldn't understand her conversation on the phone. Someone should require them to put subtitles in it! (hehe). So, the last conversation with sunflower man is still a mystery to me.
6. SKELETTI GARDEROBEN (Skeletons in the Closet)
A woman wakes up in a dirty room, with no memory of she was, where she was, and who was the man in the same room with her. Trying to piece it together, they discover their relationship and their destruction.
It's directed by Ulrik Friberg for the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. (Not sure whether it's really 2007 or 2008 though.)
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEdwi7XfdMk
Comment: Poor guy in the basket. He's forever condemned to see their little skit repeat every time they wake up. Unless, of course, they decide to shoot him. Though the film doesn't really appeal to me, I think it's a good portrayal of two people who can only be treated as a destruction for each other. If there's such a thing as time loop, then this story is.
7. MORSURE (Bitten)
A girl named Clara flees in the night from a man who was intent on shooting her. However, things aren't what they seemed. Why is a man whose sanity seemed intact, is trying to pursue his injured wife?
You can get it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvFAy_NSncg
Comment: It was a bit unexpected for me, since neither did I read the plot nor expected anything at all (brings suprises in store all the time.) Cool cinematography though. Just one thing, why didn't the police pursue him immediately? With his injury, he couldn't have escaped as quietly as he wanted to. And given with their ability to gather info fast and hunt people on the run quickly... but oh well. The husband is doomed after all.
Light, dark, gloomy, sad, scary, romantic - just in short while. And free. Ah, the power of the internet is indeed like the ocean.
Powerful and also destructive. Hypnotizing and then stimulating.
Want to watch them?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Beginner
Ah, finally. Managed to settle down this site.
I'm not new to blogging, but I'm new to this site. I guess, I just wanted a wider circle, and be a bit adventurist and anonymous.
I'll try to post as soon as I manage to pick up my mind.
But this is rather cool. Ha-ha. Just suck in fixing my layout.
Hello to myself to a new world. And hello to you, who may accidentally tumble across this blog. :)
Kudos!
I'm not new to blogging, but I'm new to this site. I guess, I just wanted a wider circle, and be a bit adventurist and anonymous.
I'll try to post as soon as I manage to pick up my mind.
But this is rather cool. Ha-ha. Just suck in fixing my layout.
Hello to myself to a new world. And hello to you, who may accidentally tumble across this blog. :)
Kudos!
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