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.