Weeeeeeeeee!

Good idea: Gym

Bad idea: Gym at 11 pm at night.

I am hyped now. What to do, what to do? Oh well, at least when emo strangers on-line tell me they want to kill themselves, the endorphins flowing through my blood will make me try to be sympathetic and helpful rather than commenting "maybe its for the best?" (Just kidding, I 'd never say that - or would I? muhahahaha...)

Ok, time to play pseudo-counsellor. Laters!

P.S. I am training myself into blogging again, even if its arb shit like this... baby steps...

Coexistence

is a beautiful thing, even in its edited form :P

On Death & Mourning

I went to a school friend's mom's funeral last week. Said friend spoke about how death is really a part of nature, circle of life, equally as common as birth and as an atheist, all it means is that someone you used to see everyday will not be there anymore. There was a slant of relief in that statement too as his mom had suffered for some time. But no sign of resignation - more like bliss from acceptance.

Someone thought it highly disrespectful to his mom to have spoken like that at her funeral. I'm not so sure I agree with that statement though, as he and his mom had a bond - an appreciation that nobody outside of that dynamic should have the right to question, together with the bounds of honour and respect that come with that. Actually in a round-a-bout way, his attitude is refreshing in a sea of emo that 2007 has washed over people I know - but that's my personal context. Just like the person who objected - just because she would not not want an eulogy like that, is from her perspective she objects.

P.S. I'm shrugging off all this glumness, hence the white background change. Corny? you betcha, but sometimes silly tokens help get the ball rolling... :)

Books

For reasons that can be inferred from all my previous posts, I have read 30 books in the last 2 months. ooops. Some were amazing, some were crap - but I also notice my taste is changing over time. Books I know that I would of gobbled up years ago and added to imaginary best of list, had I read them back then, now leave me feeling empty and unimpressed. I guess that's maturing taste I think, I hope.

Rather than bore you with long reviews I will do the one liner reviews of the books and when I am less lazy I will insert links where u can read more in-depth about these books (but don't hold your breathe for you surely will suffocate...) So here they are in random order...

1. Paulin Reage The Story of O - I blogged this already
2. Iain Banks - the Business - zzzzzzzz, seriously once one of favourite authors, each book gets progressively worse...
3. Iain Banks - Dead Air - see above
4. Philip K Dick - A Scanner Darkly - sci-fi for hippies - blech
5. Michel Houellebecq - Atomised - Excellent, threw me off balance but in a good way
6. Michel Houellebecq - Platform - not very good, gratuitous sex and violence
7. Kazuo Ishiguro - Never let me go - thought provoking, well written
8. Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains of the Day - full of pathos, also well written (I should read more of his stuff in the future)
9. Jack Kerouac - On the Road - I hate the beat writers, not sure why i actually read this
10. David Mitchell - Black Swan Green - very different to his other books, still enjoyable
11. JM Coetzee - Disgrace - wow
12. Liz Jensen - Egg Dancing - frivolous on the surface, but truthfully more than just entertaining (this was the second one of hers I have read, will try more in the future)
13. Haruki Murakami - Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - not his best effort, but still good
14. Herman Hesse - Siddhartha - better than Steppenwolf
15. Zoe Wicomb - Playing in the Light - probably the best SA author you have never heard of
16. Damon Galgut - The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs - brilliant!
17. James M Cain - The Postman Always Rings Twice - I liked this
18. David L Hayles- Cannon Fodder - Black Humour short stories - fun
19. Tom Bissell - God lives in St. Petersburg - Nice stories, same themes tedious though
20. Melinda Ferguson - Smacked - It smacked me for sure, highly recommend
21. Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master & Margarita - it is one of the best books of all time as everyone says
    
22. Pierre Peju - The girl from the Chartreuse - forgettable
23. Isabel Allende - House of the Spirits - I re-read this actually - it still kicks arse over anything Garcia Marquez ever wrote
24. Michel Faber - The Fahrenheit Twins - excellent short stories (will read more of him)
25. Chuck Palahniuk- Diary - Enjoyable but nothing in it really
26. Kate Atkinson - Emotionally Weird - fairly good, may read more dunno
    
27. Ian McEwan - Atonement - I don't get it to be honest, another favourite author I am growing to dislike. And I still have Saturday to read on my shelf - may just skip it to be honest
28. Albert Camus - The Outsider - much better than The Plague
29. Ernest Hemmingway - The torrents of Spring - Still not a fan
30. Edgar Allen Poe - The murders in the Rue Morgue - another reason why I hate the crime genre

Still in my backlog list but to finish one day...

1. Haruki Murakami - Birthday Stories
2. Ian McEwan - Saturday (shudder...)
3. William Styron - Sophie's Choice
4. JM Coetzee - Life & Times of Michael K
5. Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's
6. James Clavell - Shogun
7. Anton Chekhov - The Steppe & Other Stories (this will be a second volume of his I have read- can't wait)
8. Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha
9. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime & Punishment
10. James Frey - A Million Little Pieces
11. Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time (because I don't read that much non-fiction)

One plus of moving to London is books are way more affordable there and actually in stock when you want it...

I did it again

1. Sorry I'm a bad blogger. I said I would blog and I lied. Truth is I am kind of busy, but not that busy as everyday I go to gym and come home and collapse into a deep slumber for a few hours until one of my roommate's daughter wakes me up so that I may have an opportunity to buy her make-believe waterproof muffins from her invisible bakery before she closes up shop for the evening. I get a good 7 hours in the evening too...

2. I'm going to London - not sure for how long - it really depends on what type of job I get, if i get one that is. If UBS can lay off 3000 people in a blink of an eye in London alone, and Citibank can follow suit, things are looking a bit grim methinks. I will travel - hopefully included in a job spec - I have seen such jobs exist - even if they pay less than sweeping dead rats off the tracks of the underground. And yes, I will endeavour to blog about my London adventures - at least I will have content for a change :P

3. Ex: I'm moving out of home - do u wanna move in with me?
Me thinking: there's a reason we broke up, we may be friends, but still...
Me aloud: I'm leaving the country. (Quickly changing subject) Hey, why we eating at a steak house?
Ex: I'm not vegetarian anymore - I don't get sick nearly as much anymore and now I have so much more energy
Me thinking: go figure...

4. Kate Nash is so bad, she is brilliant. It makes no sense, but I think I love her.

5. I'm an uncle. w00t!

6. I now know I own more than 45 underpants and pairs of socks as I have been too lazy to do laundry for 6 weeks and I am yet to run out of fresh underwear and socks. I knew I owned too many shirts already. (shorts and pants I rotate). Unfortunately this will only last another week unless I buy new underwear and socks so that I may delay laundry for even longer. Decent underwear is not very cheap though, unlike socks.

7. I refuse to blog about the dissertation, hence all other arbitrary point notes.

8. I need to get TB scans for when I go to the UK. I realised I have never had x-rays done in my life and now too have I realised that I have a phobia of x-ray machines.

9. I will read everyones' blogs tomorrow and post - sorry I have been sloppy - its my life theme apparently.