Monday, June 29, 2009

Summer Happenings

So Summer is going well. I just finished reading Foundation by Iscaac Asimov, and it was a great read. I loved the book, and I'm very much looking forward to reading the rest of the Foundation books. I have to thank ViCtoria for recommending it, I wouldn't have read it if it wasn't for her, so thank you Vic!!!

We've also been watching some movies lately, some good ones I may add. I didn't think I'd like He's Just Not That Into You, but it was a really good movie as a matter of fact, they had a brilliant cast, and you're never bored because the relationships the movie is based on are very real.
We also watched The Proposal, which was also a good movie, and it was hilarious. You have to looove Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. They're great together.
And we finally got around to watch Ratatouille, it was a really nice movie. I liked it!!!

This week mom's been out of town, still is actually. So the cooking is left to us. We're not so bad, we're pretty good really. I can cook rice!! Finally! I've been wanting to learn ages ago, so I finally learned a few months back and it's nothing to it really. We also made some macaroni last night, which was yummy. Yes, we can be counted on to make lunch or dinner now, which feels awesome really.
And what else? I just keep wishing that I was sitting on a beach-chair on the beach, with an umbrella over my head, a juice on the table beside me, and of course a book in my hands, and I'd just spend the day this way. That image has been stuck in my head for a while, so I just had to let it out. It's hard to actually do that since the beach is way too hot in the afternoon, and these days everybody seems to be occupied with something, which is understandable. That's why I'm not complaining, I'm simply voicing my thoughts out loud. Next time I'm reading, I'll just imagine that I am there, and yeah.

Rock on!

That's pretty much really, I'm hoping everyone's having a nice Summer.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Books!!

Here are the books that are waiting to be read by me:



If I finished half of them during this Summer, I'd be happy. I've never had this amount of books unread, I usually get three or two, finish them and then get some :)

Here's what I'm reading nowadays:

The Road




I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy a few days ago. It's a great read that I would recommend to anyone. I'd like to share a couple of quotes that I loved when I read them:

-"You forget somethings, don't you?"
-"Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget."
Page 11

"Ever is a long time."
But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all.
Page 28


(The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Picador)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Her Little Adventure


It was 1.20am. She wanted to read, so she left the bed. She didn't want to disturb anyone, so she decided to go to the deserted room, she turns the light on, and sits on the floor. She starts reading, and she wasn't sleepy yet.
After a while, she felt she read a lot, and she knew she couldn't finish the book that night, so she decided to go back to bed, feeling all thrilled of her little adventure. She thought it was 3 or 4 am, which made her excited.
Before she closes her eyes, she takes a look at her mobile phone to see what time it really was.




2.00 am.
Are you kidding me??!!! How depressing, as I tried to sleep, I felt how disheartening that was, I wanted it to be later so that I could've felt like I actually did something.


Photo Courtesy: http://www.patriciascott.org/winding/

Friday, June 19, 2009

Thought or Action?

What matters the most? The thought, or the action? I'd like to contemplate this out loud, maybe I won't be able to come up with a conclusion but its worth the try.

This debate has been going on in my head for a while now. The thought is very important, it shows that you've actually been thinking about something, which is very important. Yet the action matters as well. Let me give you an example, I've seen a Rachel Ray episode that talked about husbands getting their wives flowers. Mostly they got them red roses from the mall, gas station, etc. The husbands defended their action by saying that it was the thought that counts, which the wives complained that they got the typical red roses from the mall which is absolutely devoid of any thought, because if there was a thought, it'd have been the kind of rose they loved, in a nice bouquet. I sort of agree with them, it's nice that the husbands thought of it, and actually got their wives flowers, but still, the action here counts as well.

One of my recent reads touched this subject a bit, it was how one person thought about killing a person, and that person being dead, the person felt guilty since he might have had a hand in it since he thought about it and wished it. It's not exactly the way I mentioned it, but it's somehow like that. I know it's not his fault, and as long as he didn't do it, it shouldn't matter. But doesn't it really? I think it does matter, the thought also counts, it's not the same as having done the action but still.

I'm a big fan of the thought, like if a person cooked for you, and it turned out to be a total disaster, then I'd say it's the thought that counts. But there should be a limit, when it's the thought that counts, and when the action actually counts as well, like when you're thinking about something, you should try to make the action equal the thought so that the person actually appreciates what you've done.
I wish I could write about how I feel about this more clearly, but I hope you got where I'm going.

Gifts

I always have a hard time picking gifts for family member, or friends. It's tough thinking it's going to be a "typical" gift that was impersonal. I always thought a gift should be personal. However, making it personal seems a bit hard. Do we have to gift each other extravagant things? Why not make it simple, buy the person the thing s/he likes? Why does it seem to me lately that when you're buying a gift you're trying to prove something? Trying to prove that you can get a person fancy things? Showing off your gift?
How lame does that sound? Why are we so caught up with what people think? I think it's become inevitable to think of what others would think about what we do, it's crazy if you ask me.

For me, buying accessories to people is always safe, for girls specially. I love getting them, and people (I think) like getting them. I try to keep my gifts simple. If I could tell people what to get me it'd be books!
My dad keeps it simple really, he simply gives us money. I think it's great. It's maybe my own frustration of not knowing what to get people, or it could be that from what I've seen in my life, I get frustrated how predictable gifts get; mobile phones, laptops, diamonds, etc. They're nice stuff, don't get me wrong, specially if a person is in need of one, but when it's simply getting it for show, or because they have to get the person a gift. Getting a person just a bag isn't little? I think some people under estimate things which is why they get fancy things. Why can't we gift people a book without feeling it's something little for them?
People are usually happy with their gifts, but for me, I think it's sort of vain. I get too attached things, I'm perfectly aware of it, and if people are happy then why am I complaining? But I just hate it if it happened to me, and I wouldn't mind it with people I didn't know, but my close friends and family shouldn't feel like that, getting me fancy stuff. I know sometimes people do it to show how much they care, and if you do it once or twice I wouldn't mind, I'm a vain girl myself, but I'd also love to get simple, yet personal things.

Hmm, that's all I have to offer on the topic really, I'd love to your feedback though. What do you like gifting people? And what do you love getting from people?

The Karamazov Brothers

I've finished reading the Karamazov Brothers a couple of days ago, and it was a great novel. I've read Crime and Punishment for Dostoevsky before, but this was nothing like it! It was a great read, a very rich novel if I may say so.
Here are a couple of quotes that really caught my attention:


"Now we are either horrified or pretend to be horrified, though we really gloat over the spectacle, and we love strong and eccentric sensations which tickle our cynical, pampered idleness. Or, like little children, we brush the dreadful ghosts away and hide our heads in the pillow so as to return to our sports and merriment as soon as they have vanished. But we must one day begin life in sober earnest, we must look at ourselves as a society; it's time we tried to grasp something of our social position, or at least to make a beginning in that direction"
Pages 781, 782

"His passion might well, for a moment, stifle not only the fear of arrest, but even the torments of conscience. For a moment, oh, only for a moment! I can picture the state of mind of the criminal hopelessly enslaved by these influences -- first, the influence of drink, of noise and excitement, of the thud of the dance and the scream of the song, and of her, flushed with wine, singing and dancing and laughing to him! Secondly, the hope in the background that the fatal end might still be far off, that not till next morning, at least, they would come and take him. So he had a few hours and that's much, very much! In a few hours one can think of many things. I imagine that he felt something like what criminals feel when they are being taken to the scaffold. They have another long, long street to pass down and at walking pace, past thousands of people. Then there will be a turning into another street and only at the end of that street the dread place of execution! I fancy that at the beginning of the journey the condemned man, sitting on his shameful cart, must feel that he has infinite life still before him. The houses recede, the cart moves on -- oh, that's nothing, it's still far to the turning into the second street and he still looks boldly to right and to left at those thousands of callously curious people with their eyes fixed on him, and he still fancies that he is just such a man as they. But now the turning comes to the next street. Oh, that's nothing, nothing, there's still a whole street before him, and however many houses have been passed, he will still think there are many left. And so to the very end, to the very scaffold."
Page 806

The Karamazov Brothers
Wordsworth Classics of World Literature

PS: Thanks, Ashok, for recommending it!!!


Thursday, June 11, 2009

"Cause basically this place is needing instruments of harmony, Spreading my philosophy of love and inspiration..."*

It's the holidays! So "ouais"!! I'm thrilled, I have a lot of lazying around to do, books calling for me to read them, and new movies to catch up on! I'm on my way through the Karamazov Brothers which is a very good read so far, and I can't stop buying books and I am not feeling guilty at all for having so many books waiting to be read. :)

There are a few things to be done in this holiday though, I have to start working on my "graduation project" for next year, which is somewhat a research about anything really, but something we're not used to. I don't believe in it, but I have to do to graduate. It's a drag, and I'd rather get it over with and not have to worry about it next year at school.

Anyways! Hope everyone's having a nice time, and leaving their special mark in this world!
Don't over think things (random but hey! it helps me out at times.), and remember to be happy. :)

*Try Try Try - Jason Mraz

Words

Do you know how when you plan things in your mind, and think of how you'll act in certain situations? I always do that, looking at the fact that I almost live in my head, I think you can relate to this, right?

Anyways, I always feel like I say the wrong thing, always! It's very frustrating, how you think you'll say the right thing, or even better not say much so that you'll say the wrong stuff, but I just can't stop. I try to stay silent and not say anything, and let the moment pass because other people will comment, knowing that if I voiced my opinion it'd mean that I'd probably end up saying something I'd regret later, and would be glad if I didn't say it at all. I know sometime's it's all about saying what you think, and I'm all up for that but in certain things I'm not. I'd rather keep my opinion to myself knowing that it wouldn't change a thing, and a couple of minutes later it'd be forgot, so why make people angry with something I wouldn't mean a few hours after pondering upon it?

It's just truly frustrating! Feeling that I can't stop myself sometimes. And how words sometimes get out of my mouth that just aren't what I think, and don't represent what I stand up for at all. And I wish I could be the person who simply forgets it, and moves on, because other people (thankfully) do. But I can't! I keep on playing it over and over in my head until I eat myself up with guilt. It's not healthy, that's why I'm trying to venture out my feelings here.
Words! Sometimes they can be totally working against me.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

It's Life

Life is fascinating! Don't you think?
It's just amazing how sometimes, just when you think what goes on in your mind is just different from the things that go through other people's minds; you find out people thinking the exact same things. It's just really so interesting.

The other day I was reading a book, and it was a nice little book that my friend gave me, and the author was talking about his early life and about his family and such and then he says something like 'I haven't truly experienced life.' It's just really really something that truly hit me when I read it. I know it may not sound that interesting, but I've always felt that I haven't still truly lived. I know that sounds very vague, and maybe even unbelievable, because even to me it sometimes does, since I have a life!

But it's just something that you can't help feeling sometimes, with me it goes something like: I'll definitely start to truly live when I leave school, get into college, and such things. Breaking away from school is such a big part of feeling like living when it's actually a very basic thing with life. I know that may not make sense, but I really think there's a big chance you may relate to what I'm saying. To just think that life is about living, in any way you choose to live, with family and friends and all the little experiences we've all had, everything we've been through and everything we'll be put through. What about the life you have? Your family? Your friends? The places you've been? You're passions? All of these things and so many more are there, and just to think that there's something good right there in you, and I truly think it applies to everyone why do we like to just make excuses? I'm done with all of that, I am!

We just need to realize that life already started, and we shouldn't keep on saying I'll truly start living when I do this or that or whatever. You are living! Stop trying to live, and just live and make the best out of what you have. I think I'll do my best to apply that, and just live. :)

<3