wierdo 1am

wierdo 1am, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.

the average American will eat 21,000 entire animals in his lifetime

Yeesh. I believe when I first decided to cut meat from my diet I was 19 going on 20. I thought of it to be unethical, cruel, contradicting, and it made me lose a good 10 lbs over the course. I ate seafood, then gradually cut out the fish, then milk, and eggs. I did this for about 4 more years (even in the PI)... and then I sometimes ate chicken wings <3, then I ate all seafood, then I had steak in Argentina..so on and so forth. I am still a conflicted person, but I did read this over dinner of a hot link, and after buying from the store hummus, soy bacon, drumsticks and a pack of salami. I do like wings and love sushi, but it's true that being free of meat gives you a clear mind. All of a sudden you're no longer conflicted with your ideals.. but the trade off is you get all the annoying 'why don't you eat meat' fuss dealing with everyone and anyone else in every meal you don't eat by yourself.

We have been disconnected with how our food is made, and have a disregard for animals because of the way we perceive their role in our social and cultural existence. A lot of what Foer describes in here is similar to Schlosser, Cook, and Pollan in their pov of the food industry. It's even the same sentiments that Sinclair expressed in Jungle, which is that factory farming is as unethical as life gets and what is in the meat we eat is really making us sick. Foer dug deep in his research, and he mostly proves points on how animals, even fish are intelligent and have the receptors for pain and emotion. Not too much of a influencing point (animals communicate and have feelings too?), but it is true that most of us can't eat a porkchop, after seeing a pig get his snout cut off and skinned while conscious. Or even how our Thanksgiving meals are nothing like what the Pilgrims had...and chickens get dipped in 11% chemicals (apparently it says on the label) and the water used to clean contaminated birds (feces soup). Are we really that ignorant? I know I am...

..how about if not eating meat is not such a big deal. and the USDA sucks.

I'll try it again...

I really enjoy Bolano. .. okay. Well I have ditched a couple...
So it's a half half deal. Really. The plot was interesting, a doctor (Monsieur Pain), who goes to treat this woman's husband who's dying of hiccups, but two spies are on his tail and bribe him leave the husband be... then some weird shit happens and then he's in a movie theater, then things don't make much sense... I'm kind of tired of trying to find some deeper/ hidden meaning amongst all this. Everyone was raving about this book... but I say mehhh. I'll do a reread and get back to you...

its' ez

I have a terrible habit of getting distracted and reading halfway through a book, then abandoning it for something else (Okay with the intention of returning to it.. abandon is such a harsh word). It's not that whatever I am reading is such a boring book, but I am an impulsive person. I am! I go with what I feel with a lot of things in my life, which leads to a lot unfinished business, but a lot of nice surprises. One would think that I also have regret from being impulsive, but I've learned that I become more embarrassed than regretful, and that's okay.. and maybe explains why I am an awkward being...



So I'm single damnit and being a late twenty something, I started/am becoming anxious about it. I'm in a new city and friends aren't around as often. I am used to being with someone and having attention... I'm narcissistic ... I am not trying to justify reading this book in the span of a night alone in the creepy neighborhood bar over well whisky sodas, then over my cataloging lecture in the morning. I loved it.. it's exactly what I needed and it makes me realize I'm not a f-ing lunatic girl with unrationalized emotions.

I like her cause she's gutless, honest, and even though I'm not promiscuous...it's good to hear that the guys she's been with have sucked like the ones I have dated (well Pavel was okay), and she reveals a lot of truth to the situation. I also appreciated her late twenty going onto thirty spiel at the end. The twenties do suck.... and when you're thirty you can just say "NO".

Poetry Chain (just started) and made my Monday...

From a long time friend...

"here is an adam sandler-ish email:

i really miss eating pie with my old friend, sarah
because she now lives in oakland, being a ballah

it was nice chatting with you once again
hopefully, an email tag chain we can begin

we can talk about anything, including philosophy and art
or the big and little things we bought from wal-mart

i'm glad we got in touch
so much it made me want to rhyme as such

so here's to a good beginning with this email chain
during sunny days and also when there is rain

i'll be waiting for your reply
if it is in rhyme, that would would be pretty fly"

A terrible response -

"How did you find any time to write a rhyme?

I'm falling asleep on the job
and this is the only thing that's keeping me from being a slob.

I miss the pie and the nachos at midnight,
those days felt like my youth without the hindsight.

But the emails are fine,
they remind me of when I first met you in 1999!

Let's talk life, art, music, and the rest
the only thing I wouldn't speak about is Tara Patrick's .....

(Oh wait.. yes I would!)

Let me continue...
how does the world spin for you?

Mine has become blurry and my memory is faltering
I am hoping that I will finally land a job that is life altering

Books keep me calm and keep me busy,
and they never question my morals like Friedrich Nietzsche.

I hope next time this will make more sense,
But I don't have the caffeine in me to form my next sentence."

I really liked his set of short stories, and I thought that this would be just as interesting (see below). Maybe my comprehension is out of whack, but I wish I spent the time reading this on Crime & Punishment instead, which is far more engrossing read than this was...also considering I have 300 more pages to read vs. this 160 page booger. It's a book is a narration of a bunch of imagined different cities by Marco Polo. I did like the city without walls and roofs, and only water pipes to define it, as well as the city and death segments, which is more of what I was hoping to see with Calvino. But maybe I just don't get it... or I like things more literal. Life: a User's Manual by Perec (another book I have 100 more pages left and never returned to...yet) is by far more interesting and structured if you want to talk in terms of space and buildings and people and things.

It's difficult to define this guy. As a collection of more than 30 or so stories, some ranging from a couple pages to ten, he doesn't have one focus or perspective, but 20. Some stories reminded me of Arenas and Borges, others sounded like text from a Stephen Hawking book. What I liked the most that they all had a tinge or more of social commentary and I also enjoy stories that reveal a bit of truth about us or humanity. Some things I didn't enjoy too much were the streams of consciousness that consisted of too many details and things I didn't care about, even though some times after explaining a drip of water that traveled through a long maze of pipes to hang at the tip of a faucet, he somehow was able to incorporate a sentence or two about why it matters... Okay I don't think it all matters... I even tended to skip over the dialogues, which are terribly irksome to read for me. But I enjoyed his mysticism, insightfulness, and the element of surprise that many of these short stories throw at you in the end.

This was the story he ended with, but this part reminded of my friend Justin and the conversation he carried on the 22 hour train to Berlin.

"Today, after time has churned its way through billions of minutes, billions of years, and the universe in unrecognizable from what is was in those first instants, since space suddenly became transparent so that the galaxies wrap the night in their blazing spirals, and along the orbits of the solar systems millions of worlds bring forth their Himalayas and their oceans according to the cosmic seasons, and the continents throng with masses whether jubilant or suffering or slaughtering each other, turn and turn about with meticulous obstinacy, and empires rise and fall in their marble, porphyry and concrete capitals, and the markets overflow with quartered cattle and frozen peas and displays of brocade and tulle and nylon, and transistors and computers and every kind of gadget pulsate, and everybody in every galaxy is busy observing and measuring everything, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, there's a secret that only Nugkta and I know:
that everything space and time contains is no more than that little that was generated from nothingness, the little that and that might very well not be, or be even smaller, even more meager and perishable. And if we prefer not to speak of it, whether for good or for ill, it is because the only thing we could say is this: poor, frail universe, born of nothing, all we are and do resembles you." Washington Post, 3 June 1985

cathedral v.2 - feathers

cathedral v.2 - feathers, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.

I think I'm starting to slightly peeve about collections that have stories that I already have read... well at least this had a handful of new ones. I always will adore you...

Berkeley rant

throwback

I haven't been able to finish any books lately. I've been on the short story kick -
John Fante's Wine of Youth & the Essential Checkov. heart.



edit:Okay Fante's short stories was mostly a memoir of his days in catholic school and nutty Italian parents. I got a lot of kicks from it... the last two stories are even more of a kick cause they each are about Filipino guys that migrated to the U.S. and are trying to find their American girls. HAhahahha... okay I'm done.



My flickr account is expiring tomorrow. Should I really throw another 24.95 at something that essentially won't change my life?

, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.

ChrisT Apt 9 circa 2007

"A man does not exist until he is drunk." -Ernest Hemingway

Taoism rules school

Super cute and insightful all at the same time. I like how simple this was and how much it made me reflect on how I live my life. Taoism (DAOism) prospers in living in the nature of things, wisdom not knowledge, etc etc etc.

The Bisy Backson has to be the personality that is the most saddening because it seems like its in everyone and its killing.... wtf is a Bisy Backson? He is "a creature who is perpetually doing things and always running around frantically trying to finish things"... he has a goal in mind, but doesn't know exactly what... to attain a new ______ (insert material thing here). but then what? he has to accomplish another goal. when can he exactly live?

Perfect for a warm, sunny afternoon.

Jesus' Son: Stories

I tried my best not to get through these too fast, and I feel like I need to go back and do a reread. Each one is different, but have a layer of a good for nothingness, runaways, on the run, mildy perverted, meth head personalities. But each story is like picking the most sordid looking guy that no one wants to take a second glance at in a run down town and peering into a scenario of their everyday existence. In some stories the things that happen are insane to the 'tame folk', but johnson makes a conversation with a guy who has a scar on both cheeks from having a bullet blasted through his face a fish in water - solemn occurrence.

Edit: I should add that I took a second over to listen to this book, and it was still a scuzzy and wicked time. It still feels like walking in a desolate town in a winter's day in South Dakota, jumping into the only bar then sleeping with the town's only whore. haha like I know what any of that feels like.

silly

silly, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.

So how many people have read this book? Not me until today. For awhile I had all these preconceptions about it that kept me away from it.
1) it's high school curriculum
2)catcher in the rye is for boys, as the bell jar is for girls
3)the movie Chapter 27, which is about the guy who murdered John Lennon was heavily centered around this book... if you heard Jared Leto's voice reading some of it.. uhh I did not want to hear his voice when I read this.

"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants live humbly for one." quoted from the "flitting" English teacher that rubbed Holden's head while he was sleeping. A good quote said by a creepy guy!

But it's fantastic. Franny and Zooey was also wonderful, as well as Raise high the roof beam & Seymour an introduction. I'm so mad at myself for holding off until his death notice to read this. Plenty of what Holden Caulfield thinks about is it... its relevant angst. Even as a 26 year old. Ouch....

R.I.P. J.D. Salinger

edit A fast, but awesome read.... has the "and so on(s)." and the "hi-hos", but its an autobiography of a post apocolyptic president of the united states, who is a complete genius with his sister, when they have wild orgies and tear up everything around them. They are ugly monsters and when they were kids, raised as retards and pulled apart by psychoanalysts, but together they came up with theories and ideas that even the miniature Chinese sought.

I'm not kidding. What did you expect?

Let me clear a few things up... so this novel was supposed to be a couple of things, which is "funny" and a great "summer" fiction (light?) read.. that is why I picked it up. Well I don't regret it, but I can't recall a time it was a laugh out loud kind of book and I felt it was laborious more than a few times. I even felt like abandoning the damn thing. It also is supposed to be about a family...more specifically 5 siblings, but I really only recall four, and the story mostly revolved around one Tanner, which is Simon.

Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this, but it is appealing and a stimulating read. Simon pretty much wanders from job to job , city to country, house to backally room, and really it seems like he is never satisfied. The guy has something to say about everything.. like he literally goes off at every guy who hired him to the point that he doesn't have job reference or experience for anything - and doesn't want it for a matter of fact, but he somehow manages to talk his was into a new job and into a free place to live, etc. (He tends to say everything about anything that a lot of us have wanted to say those in the higher ups or about those around us..oddly). He is really onto something here... nothing too eventful happens, but it is as he is moving through life nonchalantly and through his interactions with others and insight into the way people move and work..he concludes that a profession doesn't merely make a man, cause either way we'd be the same as we age no matter what we end up doing. He appreciates the small things that he senses day to day, concludes that real freedom is from being what they say is poor, and having the disadvantage is not an ultimate tragedy...

I also read that this was the last novel he wrote before he landed in a madhouse... hrm.

India

India, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.

She's the sweetest thing in my life at the moment.

Her favorites: tummy rubs, yarn and feathers, lap naps, and a clean litter box

Dislikes: vacuums, slamming doors, too many treats, and being chased.

1 year, 2 mo.

Her previous name was JUJU Bee.ewwww.

This set of short stories weren't as exciting as I expected them to be, but they were still entertaining and a bit awkward in terms of plot and relationships between characters, but that's always a good thing in my book. In one story, the kid gets an erection from his mother that sleeps next to him in the nude, but they believe he's the son of God. Another is a giant frog that lands in a guy's living room and asks to fight the worm underground to stop the earthquake. Yea...err. The best is still "Honey Pie"... they all have something to do with the earthquake...but yea.. hrmm ahhh I think it's missing something... like insight? depth? mmmhmm

Darryl suggested this book, and my other girl pal loved his first book. I liked the photos and graphics and play with space and images, which made this book more entertaining that not. It's about a 9 year old kid in Manhattan, who is inventive, intelligent, but obviously traumatized about what happened in 9/11. He finds this key in his late father's closet and searches the burroughs of New York to find where the key belongs. Along the way he meets a handful of New Yorkers who all have their own interesting stories to tell. You also get to learn about his family ties (like his grandparents relationship), which isn't the most charming aspect of the book. This left me feeling more sad, then engaged with their family and his quest to find out about his father. My favorite parts have to be the 9 year old's inquisitive dialogue and correspondence with his hero Stephen Hawking.

Matilda rules. Dahl rules. This reminded me slightly of lemony snickets cause the adults are evil and assume that a child knows nothing. In this case her parents are nitwits and Mrs Trunchbull is the devil and a child abuser! Thank goodness there is Miss Honey who actually believes in Matilda. More so I wish I was Matilda and that I had the mental capacity to read Dickens and all the classics by the age of 5, possess the power to outsmart people 10 times my age and levitate things with my mind, and instead of crying and complaining when things don't go my way, I get even!

What a tripped out novel. So apparently this author has some kind of following, and his latest book received the national book award. I was able to pick up Jesus' Son for 10 cents at the craft depot by my apt, but only got to read the first story, which was insane... it was a hitchhiker that was picked up by a family and survives a car wreck. I think I'm saving these stories form some occasion or mood. Not sure what.

I found this one, which I read right away (rare!) and I could not put it down. A guy - Lenny English" who failed at hanging himself, travels to a town where men cross dress and women are mostly lesbians. He gets hired to be a detective, as well as DJ for a radio station. He spends his time with Leanna - churchgoer/lesbian/subject of his detective work; then searching for a missing son/artist; and trying to get by. He's odd to everyone around him and feels like he already died, but is likeable and you can't help but feel bad for the guy at times. I'm sure I am missing a lot of the underlined meaning and its filled with plenty philosophical, funny, and also too smart for my ass remarks. But one of my favorites is:

Leanna came back to his mind. She liked to put her head on his chest and listen to his heart. "How could one person ever hurt another after doing this?" She'd ask him the first time. "But we do".

After finishing Cathedral and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, we ran out of his books, and I want more! I don't know what it is about him that resonates with me. His stories are not the happiest, nor do they take place in any big city or near the coast (yes middle america here), but they are realistic and tell the most about people emotions, intentions, tendencies, etc., which I think is refreshing. They are absurdly funny at times too. Luckily, my coworker/friend who turned me onto Carver, also recently copped his last stories, which is only in print in the UK and let me borrow them. I have to say that they are a bit more dark and gloomy, but they all hold a lot of truth to the situations each story contains. I really feel like it's what I needed... it fills two voids..one the time it takes for a different Carver book to be sold back to us and two, which is reading something a bit more down to distract me from other happenings (like below). What do I read next? they say Cheever, Chekov, and then there's always Murakami...

What the hell

As dumb as it is that I am blogging about my fucking breakup, I don't have much of an avenue to dump this on. I hate it. All the energy, time, and emotions for nothing. We can go through the cliches: take and apply all that you have learned, there's always something more out there, etc. etc., but I hate it. I'm sick of self medicating or trying to meet this person or trying to put myself out there. What for? Just to get all worked up and throw a couple of decent years away.

Before the Hunger Games, Collins wrote a series of these books, which is about a kid who falls through a vent into a underland with killer rats, giant roaches, spiders, and bats. He also gets to find where is lost father has been all these months. I think it's a pretty interesting setting, it's also so predictable, but I think that's what happens with a book for 8 year olds or some age group like that. Her writing is still smart, but even though I copped the second one at the thrift store, I don't think I'll be reading onto the fifth, unless something really superduper interesting happens... sigh.

With my short attention span and curiosity, I copped this from work. I am usually against the "sampler" type of book, but I tried to take it more as "short stories" and I really did not want to dedicate myself to murakami and his plethora of books, but I did want to discover what all the hype was about. I am glad I checked this out. Not only did I find out what books I did not care about reading, I found a bunch that I want to check out, and my goodness is he a great writer. So really every story in here has been interesting and extraordinary, with the exception of the first part of the lieutenant story from the Wind up Bird Chronicles, which I think I will not pick up, but the second part that mentions the skinning alive of a soldier and the details being thrown into a well and pissed on was alarming. I don't think I'll be a Murakami ultimate fan so I'm into the mixed bag of stories in here. Really, he seems to convey something different in each story, and it seems you really can't get the gist of him from one stinkin' novel.

winter reads... I think this free time, as well as being stuck at my parents house has made my head whirl. I am honestly A.D.D, except for that last Carver book. So I'm really reading a few things at once. On top of the Underland Chronicles, Ender's Game, etc. a REALLY FUVKING good graphic novel that I found used a work and am reading it REALLY slow cause I dont want it to end...



"Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland."

The graphics are good, the story is well written, and much of it is way above my mental capacity, like getting all into that philosophy biz of existence. really! but I LOVE IT.

I keep wanting to read more and more... these stories aren't as 'complete; as Cathedral, but he leaves a lot to wonder about and I really dig each one. Of course it would be wrong to have all of them be sappy love stories, but he does have a few with happy endings and of course with a gin on ice. I want to read more more!

party with us!, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.

This is really good. I always have low expectations for sequels and things of that nature, but I think this is better than the first.. I don't think I can talk much about this without giving the story away... but the things that I like especially is the secret uprising, __________, ___________________, ________________, and __________________. I caught myself "oh my goshing" out loud and in front of my girlfriends... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really don't know why people are stuck on vampires.... how can one not want to read about a smart, independent teenage girl who is saving the nation from inequality, hunger, and a tyrant of a government? There is a slight love story, but not as gushing as that twilight business..

My two hour commute is probably the greatest thing that has happened to me bookwise. I get four hours a day to read and rest and read... the only thing is trying to catch the bus in time to walk home around midnight. Around this time I am paranoid!

A coworker/friend bought this book for me, cause it's one of his favorite authors. I've heard a lot about this guy, not only from my work, but apparently he's Murakami's fav and just a really contemporary classic guy. FYI: a first edition copy of his first book we sold for $260!!!

A book of short stories..

A few that stick out to me.. the first story "the feathers", is pretty much a guy who brings his wife to dinner at a coworker/friend's house, except his friend and his wife are pretty eccentric, moderately middle America - bad teeth, ugly baby, a peacock for a pet. Others were the dishearted baker who repeatedly calls the parents of a dead son to pick up the son's birthday cake; an man who looses his job and makes a place on the couch for months, while remaining optimistic to his wife, as well as misses that their fridge has broken; a father whose wife's leaves him and he has to rely on sitters for his kids, then he gets a fever that may be caused from more than his health;....err I know I can go one and on...

but the beauty of it all is even though many are sad, there is a tinge of humor in it all. It exemplifies the human condition, and in each story, its first person has a different voice and persona, where you can't always tell who they are (even if it is a woman or man), but you feel like you are a part of them...many with a hearty dose of cynicism... yes!

Now I just need to be a GREAT interviewee

Dear Sarah:

Congratulations! You were successful in the examination for the Library Aide.

Your name has been placed on the Eligible List in Category 1. The categories are as follows:

Rank 1 (90-100) = Best Qualified
Rank 2 (80-89) = Well Qualified
Rank 3 (70-79) = Qualified

Settling in

Somethings:

I have a new awareness - aka - don't carry anything important enough that you aren't willing to give up when someone has a gun in their pocket.

Right before closing, guy called my work looking for a job, and started cursing then said something about wrapping a head a hitting it with hatchet. Guns all of sudden didn't scare me as much.

I got my first Oakland parking ticket for street cleaning. $63!!! No parking late at night, car payments, and spilled pots of soil in my back seat = I hate having a car.

Attempting to hold in place the massive amounts of paper in my tilted drawing desk by a quart of paint, I managed to spill white paint in my new room.

Bart ride + Bus Ride + Light rail = 2.5 hour commute. The slowest thing is the F*ing LIGHTRAIL!!

I met my first friend taking public transportation. She's awesome. Her name is Keema. She's latina, tomboy, and mildly gangster, but she's 26, works at an organic food distribution company, likes to read, and "Cloudy with a Chance of meatballs" was also her fav childhood book. MINE TOO!!!!

I had three papers to write to end my semester. I finished 2, but the 10 page single spaced research paper, ended up being 9 paged double spaced. Well I'm not the only slacker.. did I tell you that my professor for this paper is in the hospital? and this is in addition to a deer accident and 2 funerals that she had this semester.

I haven't been reading, but now I can.. I did manage to finish the great....



Why is Vonnegut so nutty, but so true to the nature of man? In this book, the narrator is researching the scientist who created the atom bomb for a book, and digs himself deeper into the family of the mad scientist. Next thing it's the end of the world because of the "ice-nine" that turns all water into crystal and then nothing can survive. It comes with a made up religion and everything.

Really, with all the chaos, being here feels great.

loves in SJ (stolen moments)

Almost out of here...

After 26 years in this damn city, I am finally moving! Not going too far, but it's definitely a new place to explore. Goodbye San Jose.

I'm so sleepy

some odds and ends..

I got my first low grade on a paper (85%), but it was only cause of my bad grammar. (Which is okay, cause at least my thesis was good!) That's what happens when I wait until the day before to complete a 6 or so page paper, which is happening more often then not. I once had a professor tell me I should looking into ESL (English as a second language) writing labs. ouch.

a customer at work "You know what happens when you get older? you realize that everyone is full of shit. See the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan?"

after watching the horrendous Food, Inc. I started to think that I really should watch what I eat. Today my coworker did a run to McDonalds and I ate a hormone inflated McChicken. The fries were honestly stale and chalky. I also got laughed at for ordering an orange juice with my McDonalds meal. I figured after all the beers and bad stuff I ingested yesterday.. I think I needed a bad meal to do me over.


I put in $4 bucks (3 bills and change) in my gas tank and the gas light didn't turn off.



the end.

Darryl's really pushing the 3 star reviews or something.
(edit: the movie was gnar, but well done! if you read omnivore's dilemma it seems to be really similar in content)



For those that don't want to read Pollan's big adult book, there's a young reader's edition that I picked up which is cheaper, has less text, but more pictures! a little dumbed down , but good!)

Did I also mention that those loud mouthed know it alls (see 2nd blog down) also had a thing against hemingway? maybe that's why I felt inclined to punch 'em in their wannabe literary chinky faces.



A biography of his time spent in paris, it talks about his friends, the likes of G. Stein, E. Pound, Joyce, and Fitzgerald. Here he is 25, hasn't been recognized as a writer yet (sun also rises was just in the works).. he's poor, but happy. Some nice insight into the personalities of some classic writers. After this I understand that Fitzgerald is a controlling, asshole of a drunk, but there's a part called "a matter of measurements" where he feels inadequate and confides with hemingway about this..cause his wife said his curve and size couldn't make any woman happy. wanky!

Okay..so if you are ever with a friend in a cafe... mind the people studying around you. If you have to be such a narcissist (where you must talk so everyone can hear you) and like to talk about people, watch what you say..cause I really think the things a person says about others is a reflection of what they really are and trying to hide... i.e. hipsters who talk shit about hipsters. Have you realized only hipsters really use that word?

I HATE that word.

the end.

Current State of Living v.2

loud mouth know it alls in a coffee shop.

How obnoxious are little asian hipsters who "don't like new york, more specifically brooklyn because there are too many hipsters, but love san francisco because 'even though they crunch granola' they are more 'real'."

yea she has the droopy forever 21 beanie, skinny jeans in her boots, and everything.

Just get over yourself and shut the fuck up.

I am a bad book clubber

It sounded like a good read...
I honestly didn't read through every chapter, cause I didn't care for a lot of the things he was saying. Some of the shorts sounded like an a narrative of the episodes I have seen on tv. I am a huge Bourdain fan..I've read kitchen confidential and cook's tour, which were great, but I realize that these were the pieces that didn't make it in any other publication, other than this book and therefor fell short. He is self-actualized in this book, which is a huge problem. He sounds like a rich tourist trying to act cultured that's telling others not to do the touristy things.

hrmph. I did like some of the shorts, especially his rants about the pesky customer and how all the restaurant workers remember, his visit to Brazil, old Manhattan, and his 4 friends.. aka his fav novels (one which was Down and Out in Paris and London ...I knew Bourdain wrote too much like Orwell at times.!!!) I did go through every chapter and picked what I actually wanted to read through. I realize that maybe I actually had enough of this guy where his food writing and traveling has become uninteresting-ly predictable.

Sorry Julia... I failed.

the librarian of all librarians

I have been sitting on this book awhile.. it's apparently some of his most famous stories, and I have to admit with library school, it's not necessarily an appealing read because it's very demanding. Once you're engulfed in one of his stories, you find it to be profound and so unique... kind of dream like with a some mysticism. Some of the more memorable ones:

Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius- Uqbar is a place he discovers as a result of tracing the origins of an encyclopedia

The Circular Ruins - a man and his dreams

The Babylon Lottery

The Library of Babel

Funes, the Memprious - a man who suddenly regains a memory beyond belief -a young man with an old soul

Death and the Compass

The Secret Miracle - a man has a death sentence and asks God to prolong his life a year longer so he can finish his story...the year is granted, but it's right before his execution and only in his own mind

what day is it?

"I just let it roll. Like a hot turd down a hill."




I haven't read this guy in awhile, cause I think I was happy - well happier, but I feel tired and anti social. I guess that is what retail does to you, especially when customers need the author of this book and can't find the section for that book and then feed ISBN the cat chicken nuggets while I'm the only one who knows that human food makes him barf...so now I'm in the mood for this.
This is one of the last things he wrote before he died, which is mainly a journal he kept about his daily happenings and ramblings. He's 71 and is self-actualized; not afraid of death; hates dealing with people, but keeps on writing, gambling, and drinking..pretty much what he always does, knows it, and still doesn't give a shit. He knew that when he was dead people would love him and they do. I know its Bukowski, and this isn't all very new... but something about his senile character shows a bit of honest wisdom that only comes with age. (a bit meaning a whole bunch).

R. Crumb does the illustrations for this too.


This is exactly what I needed....

100th Post (a blog about a blog)

I didn't realize how long I've had this blog and how many entries I had until I spent 1.5 hours tagging all my posts. I really just wanted that sweet cloud of words, but what I found out in the process is the next book I read would be my 100TH post! well who fucking cares. No, not all my posts are about that...

well before this I used to keep another personal blog, which I am not entirely proud of and it hasn't been updated since March of 2008. (remember xanga?) I have to mention that I have also had the thing since December 2003. I guess people write blogs because
1. they are narcissists
2. can't verbally express themselves (in an emotional sense)
3. have a bad memory
4. lack a social life outside of/cut off from technological means

but beyond all that, we have them to look back on and see how much we've changed for the better or worse. Looking back, I think I've become a nicer person.

See this was my old profile:


I think I've cleaned up nicely.

The END.

oh..and of you never seen the damn thing before, its linked somewhere in all this.

This guy resonates with me. Maybe its cause he was a sociologist (a focus in information retrieval!) and really picks at the lives of people... not necessarily their personalities, but their tendencies in their routines, how their minds work, and records every detail of the things that they have. I guess those things can say a lot about us. This is his first novel and it's somewhat sad...more so melancholy because it's as if you are watching this couple strive for happiness in the way that is so meaningless, which is through old 'valuable' things, appearance, experiences, freedom, but for the most part fantasizing of getting rich the easy way to have this ideal lifestyle. They never do get rich, but they never go hungry or homeless either. They know they can only have money if they give up their freedom to the grind, but they consistently give up the stable income because they feel suffocated and constrained.

What's sad is that these characters remind me somewhat of the routines that I have.. I can't give up my books, my coffee, and itch to get away and not be a part of the rat race. Yep it's that damn bohemian way of life... which sucks and I hate to use that damn word, but I think that's what a big part of our generation is.. well at least for the ones that decide not to rush in and get married, be corporate, and have babies in suburban neighborhoods. But I think it is meaningless when it becomes an endless routine and you don't have good friends, love what you do, or don't contribute anything to society. I think that this couple are merely wanderers..seeking happiness amongst things and nothing else. That is what's sad.

Yea... not a childrens book for once.

Man I had such a great spiel about this book, but then I fell asleep. Not a good sign I guess.

This book takes place in a Panem, which is a post apocalyptic society of what used to be North America. The Capitol hosts these annual hunger games, where a boy and girl from each district is chosen at random to kill each other, until only one person stands. The last person standing gets fame and pretty much doesn't have to starve ever again.

The premise is one of the best things about this. The Capitol is the richest and most powerful, they are big brother and no one can speak against them without retaliation. Each district has its own industrial 'crop', and as a result there is a large gap between the rich and poor. Then there's the mutations of animals/people and biochemical weapons. The hunger games was a way to punish Panem for their uprising many years back against the Capitol. Hrmm... maybe she's on to something.

Katniss, the lead character, is from the poorest district, and she pretty much does everything right. (not in an annoying way) She is smart and it's all realistic in the sense of the 'what would you do in this situation'. The characters are great, the games are good.....

but shit... how obnoxious the writing is. I get that she's trying to make a voice, but this narrator/ first person thought process is horrible.
like. I have an itch on my ankle that I need to scratch. I pull up my pant leg then pull down my sock to scratch it. I have been spotted. I need to run, but I need to scratch my itch.

The love story is a bit much too.. not as bad as Pavel made it sound, but enough to roll your eyes at times.

This one is the best one yet.. really. The only thing I don't understand is why they would release the thing in the fall, rather than before summer...but I guess because its a journal, so we're supposed to be reading about greg's summer?

My favorite thing about this is that all his mishaps remind me of me.. like when greg forgets about a library book so he hides it and never returns to the library because he's scared of what they would do when he can't pay the fine...