I remembered when I was going to get interviewed for a job, I kept playing this song and it kept me from freaking out. Thank you Regina Spektor!
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Some thoughts about Looking For Alaska
I stole my sister’s book. Originally she was supposed to read it but since she has to deal with her high school projects and stuff and I have loads of free time on my hands, I picked it up.
Looking for Alaska by Green.
I read the first few pages of the book and I thought that the writing was not bad. I originally expected it to be horrible like other books popular among teens or shall we call them, ‘Young Adults’. As for the plot, oh gosh, I wish I could say that it was also ‘not bad’, but I’m thinking I might abort this project midway incase it reduces itself to partying, losing friends, populaaarity, high school sweethearts and what not.
Oh gosh, totally reminds me of TTYL and its sequel. Oh goodness, never again.
I’m having a feeling that it’s going to be another Less Than Zero.
Book Review:1q84
So, it seems that I have a thing for dystopian novels. There was 1984 (one of my favourites), then Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange, The Hunger Games (Oh, regret…) and this, 1q84 by Murakami.
It’s a big book and a week into it, my best friend was making fun of me because it takes me forever to read 1000 or so pages of awesome. Clearly you can see that I will be giving quite an objective and fair review. Ha! Anyway, from what I have read on the internet, apparently, it was released in three parts in Japan. When it was translated into English, they decided to sell all three volumes together, thus resulting in one ginormous book.
Well for starters, I thought that it would be one of those books where I would lose interest half way and toss aside until the library notifies me that I have a $5 fine on some crusty ol’ book I forgot about. That was not the case. I am happy to say that I read the book until the very end pages. The plot may be slow if it were to only focus on one character at a time, but it is set up so the story will alternate between the two main characters (later there will be a third character, Usikawa) Tengo and Aomame. So, basically leave a cliff hanger at the end of the chapter and you’re all good in terms of readers.
Uh, about the plot. It was one of the most creative and original plots which I have every read in a long time. A good handful of twists, but my only gripe was when Aomame was trying to find her way back into 1984. It was somewhat obvious since she just had to do the reverse…. ahem. I’ll try not to spoil the thing.
Overall while I was reading 1q84, I really felt like there was a special type of atmosphere which I imagined the scenes of the book in. Really cool (temperature wise) and quiet, even if there was a busy street, the sounds would be muffled like wearing ear plugs… Or maybe it’s just me being too imaginative. However, I know that it was in the quality of the writing, er, translation which resulted in a really nice, atmospheric feel of the book. The writing was really elegant like in The Language of Flowers.
Of course the book wasn’t completely plot driven, there was a lot of symbolism and stuff which I was too lazy to connect the dots. A LOT of character development for Ushikawa at the end bits, but not so much for the main characters. In the middle there was a spiritual awakening for the both of them, but I did not see that coming.
The ending, I thought, made sense. Not the best ending, but certainly far from the worst. I was sort of sad once I finished reading it since I don’t have any more books lying around for me to read.
Owls confirmed to be the creepiest birds ever. LOOK AT THE FUCKING THINGS. If you fail to notice the one on the left fucking SWALLOWING a rat, then you have the dude singing some satanic chant or something next to him, and then you have those two other fucking psychos synchronized to make you feel creeped the fuck out with their soulless dance of FUCKING DOOM.
To go with the post of ‘Music Regression.’
Music regression?
So, late one night, I came across some songs which I listened to when I used to be a young teen. It felt nostalgic and sort of comforting to be listening to them again but, the current me kept on thinking about how the lyrics were just drenched in teen angst. This really highlighted how much my taste in music has dramatically changed in 6 or so years.
After a while, I started to wonder about why I was listening to this music. I didn’t stop…
After going through tonnes of links and videos, one vastly stood out from the rest. Clearly it was by the same angsty artist but, I noticed a real improvement in the song writing and the composition. I was really taken aback by the abrupt change in quality, thinking that the once angsty artist has grown up a bit only to find out that it was a cover.
She was singing ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. Ahaha, silly me.
Well at the end of this trail of breadcrumbs, at least I didn’t find death in an oven but rather a pot of gold.
It’s playing on repeat and the instrumental version is just as wonderful.
An opinion: Less than Zero
Ugh, what did I just read?!
Well, there are certainly many disturbing things in the book. The whole drug culture made me a bit uncomfortable, but the author just glosses over it like it were washing hands.
I was thinking about the main character, Clay, he seems to be a very passive person (lol, obviously since it was stated in the book) in a sense where he’s not really a person. He just seems to go along with everyone and no really have an opinion…
In the beginning of the book, Clay was very pale and even sickly because everyone he spoke to asked if he was okay, as compared to everyone else who was tanned. Eventually, near the end of the book while he was in the elevator with Julian, it was noted that he saw a reflection of himself. He was tan.
I guess the purpose of a very flat character is to allow us to see a relatively unbiased view of life in the upper crust in L.A. Allows us to see how messed up everyone was? I don’t know. I don’t know what I read. Just writing down thoughts.
Criminology win… sort of
So,
I took a Criminology course at my university because I thought that it would certify me to become a knowitall whenever I’m watching Criminal Minds. Up until a few moments ago, my opinion of the course was neutral-positive; hey, it’s a branch of sociology and I happen to like sociology so it automatically garners a positive opinion right off the bat. It was all peachy keen until I read the outline for the essay assignment. That was when I totally fell in love with the course.
To give a brief overview most essay assignments are theory+research=assignment, but because this course is so awesome, there were three choices for the assignment. Our options were a research paper or an analysis paper or a paper outlining the different methodologies used in different core readings. Sticking to what I know best, analysis papers, I chose the second option. Upon reading the outline, I noticed some peculiar things.
Apparently, we don’t need to explain obvious things like why the theory selected was relevant. That’s just small potatoes, this is the big potato: we don’t need to make the research fit with the data if it doesn’t fit AND we get to point out WHERE and HOW the theory doesn’t fit!
I can’t remember the last time I got to do that. Must have been high school when I wrote all those research reports.
It feels so nice to finally tone it down and finally admit that what you’re defending has a bunch of holes in it! To admit that a theory can’t explain it all! To me, I see it as a way of having some sort of harmony with what you think and what you write because as rational people, we know that almost every theory out there has their pitfalls and schooling has taught us to keep on going anyway despite the pitfalls.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be criticizing Merton’s theory of anomie.
Simply gorgeous.
Rant
Now that I’ve taken sociology class, I became acquainted with the idea of meritocracy and how people may need an extra boost to go where they want and how everything is NOT ONLY based on how much effort you give, but also the circumstances you are given. With this in mind, I headed into my first day of ‘philosophy of life and death’ class. I was sitting among the small class. Near the end of the period, a student announced that he had a learning disorder and he needed someone to take notes for him.
I actually considered to take notes for him (due to the insight sociology class has given me) but given my tendency to completely skip over previously learned materials, write personal notes on my class notes, I figured that I wouldn’t be the best note taker. But ultimately, someone volunteered.
The second day of class approached and the lecture began with Aristotle’s De Anima. It wasn’t until the second half of the class when I realized that the special needs student was not present. Aha, I started to judge: “Oh, so this is why you need a note taker huh? Not going to be here in class at all?” But then promptly after, he came into the classroom and sat himself down quite unobtrusively. I guess he must have been running late this morning. Everyone has their off days.
Further into the lecture, my prof was still murmuring on about the soul and its existence and how we may have eternal life, etc. I was seeking some sort of break from the prof’s incessant talking so I unconsciously flipped my eyes over to the student with special needs. There he was, sleeping with his mouth hanging half open. No books, writing utensils, or even a laptop was on his desk.
Le sigh. Is he even trying? Just because he has a learning disability totally does not mean he gets to slack off. I’m just wondering what exactly is this learning disability he’s speaking of.
“You only got the front seat ‘cause dad made me put on pants!”
—
My sister
*note that she was wearing tights
Conversation
| Sister: | I'm not afraid to show it. |
| Me: | Show what? |
| Sister: | That I'm sexy and I know it. |
| This is what happens when you refuse to listen to the mainstream radio stations. Sigh. |
