Friday, October 30, 2009
I Promise
When I get out of this house-- and I will-- I will never again put myself in something that even resembles it at the slightest. I cannot wait to live alone for the rest of my life. It's the only thought that's keeping me sane.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Oh, Sembreak
Morning of day four, semestral break.
The first two days were spent outside, pretty much, including a visit to my old high school. After, oh, around eight months of not seeing the place, it was a pleasant surprise. There's a new principal, and a lot of new teachers I didn't recognize. But the teachers I did recognize: whoa. It was like seeing long lost friends. The familiarity was overwhelming. The sections are different now, and so are the names of some of the rooms, but the ambiance is still there.
When I got there it hit me how different things are now from what they were before. I haven't worn a uniform in two years, and the days of random games during break have long been over. I'm a very different person now, too. I have learned to edit myself, to restrain myself from, in a nutshell, blowing up in everybody's face like I so often did back then. Am I growing up? Now, now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Segue: They are going to teach French in Mandaluyong Science. Tres bien! Finally catching up to MakSci. My former trainor in journalism is going to handle the classes, and I'm going to help her review for the teacher's exam. Yey, yey! Mico, if you're reading this, Ma'am F needs French help so, allons-y!
Anyway. Yesterday, I read Michael Crichton's "Airframe." Again, Crichton is entertainment, not literary appreciation. (God/dess bless his soul wherever he is.) Airframe was pretty good, I liked the treatment of the characters and the imagery of the plane accidents. I think I even dreamt about it. Plus, I learned A LOT about planes. That's the thing with Crichton: read him and you'll definitely pick up some stuff, without realizing you're close to information overload. My favorite Crichton is still Jurassic Park. If you just watched the movie then you wouldn't understand why. Jurassic Park is genius, questioning genetics and explaining paradigm shifts without getting people bored. And the dinosaurs! (Other Crichton must-reads: Sphere and Andromeda Strain.)
Another book I read recently was Stephen King's "Cell." This is the first King novel I actually finished, as all the other ones I tried reading were rambling pieces that felt aimless around the middle (Hello, The Dark Half). Cell is good, entertainment-wise. It's about a "pulse," a kind of signal that the human brain receives when a cell phone is answered. It wipes out the brain except for the most primal instincts (in this case the "state of nature" as defined by philosophers like Hobbes and Rousseau is employed). The result is total chaos, because a lot of people receive the pulse. I mean, who doesn't have a cell phone? It's like watching a more sophisticated Dawn of the Dead for five hours. I LOVED the characters, especially the graphic artist and the teenager Alice Maxwell. The plot relied on a whole lot of luck, though, and it never told the readers why the entire thing happened in the first place. Nevertheless it was a fun read and even induces a little paranoia.
I'm reading Rovin's "Conversations with the Devil" today. So far it's been good, a lot of psychology in the story. Maybe I'll get to read a little more of Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House." I want to reread "Slaughterhouse Five" but I have a book backlog I need to catch up on, including Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" and "The Red Badge of Courage." I'm in for a lot of war stories. Oh well. Here goes. I'm going to spend this break wisely before I have to face three PolSci majors and Econ 100.1. :)
The first two days were spent outside, pretty much, including a visit to my old high school. After, oh, around eight months of not seeing the place, it was a pleasant surprise. There's a new principal, and a lot of new teachers I didn't recognize. But the teachers I did recognize: whoa. It was like seeing long lost friends. The familiarity was overwhelming. The sections are different now, and so are the names of some of the rooms, but the ambiance is still there.
When I got there it hit me how different things are now from what they were before. I haven't worn a uniform in two years, and the days of random games during break have long been over. I'm a very different person now, too. I have learned to edit myself, to restrain myself from, in a nutshell, blowing up in everybody's face like I so often did back then. Am I growing up? Now, now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Segue: They are going to teach French in Mandaluyong Science. Tres bien! Finally catching up to MakSci. My former trainor in journalism is going to handle the classes, and I'm going to help her review for the teacher's exam. Yey, yey! Mico, if you're reading this, Ma'am F needs French help so, allons-y!
Anyway. Yesterday, I read Michael Crichton's "Airframe." Again, Crichton is entertainment, not literary appreciation. (God/dess bless his soul wherever he is.) Airframe was pretty good, I liked the treatment of the characters and the imagery of the plane accidents. I think I even dreamt about it. Plus, I learned A LOT about planes. That's the thing with Crichton: read him and you'll definitely pick up some stuff, without realizing you're close to information overload. My favorite Crichton is still Jurassic Park. If you just watched the movie then you wouldn't understand why. Jurassic Park is genius, questioning genetics and explaining paradigm shifts without getting people bored. And the dinosaurs! (Other Crichton must-reads: Sphere and Andromeda Strain.)
Another book I read recently was Stephen King's "Cell." This is the first King novel I actually finished, as all the other ones I tried reading were rambling pieces that felt aimless around the middle (Hello, The Dark Half). Cell is good, entertainment-wise. It's about a "pulse," a kind of signal that the human brain receives when a cell phone is answered. It wipes out the brain except for the most primal instincts (in this case the "state of nature" as defined by philosophers like Hobbes and Rousseau is employed). The result is total chaos, because a lot of people receive the pulse. I mean, who doesn't have a cell phone? It's like watching a more sophisticated Dawn of the Dead for five hours. I LOVED the characters, especially the graphic artist and the teenager Alice Maxwell. The plot relied on a whole lot of luck, though, and it never told the readers why the entire thing happened in the first place. Nevertheless it was a fun read and even induces a little paranoia.
I'm reading Rovin's "Conversations with the Devil" today. So far it's been good, a lot of psychology in the story. Maybe I'll get to read a little more of Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House." I want to reread "Slaughterhouse Five" but I have a book backlog I need to catch up on, including Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" and "The Red Badge of Courage." I'm in for a lot of war stories. Oh well. Here goes. I'm going to spend this break wisely before I have to face three PolSci majors and Econ 100.1. :)
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