2015 Resolutions

Resolutions are quite popular now. Give it until a month for people to follow through until they break. I'm not being pessimistic, I'm just a realist. I believe it's human nature to deviate from the hard resolutions. It's human nature to modify along the way. Don't get me wrong. I applaud those who gun for their aspirations head on, no negotiations, no compromises. But for me, like most of us, we tend to be shall I say, flexible and forgiving and no one is going to penalize me except my conscience. I choose to live on my own failures and demons.

But making resolutions is free, so I'm making one for myself right now! I promise to take it into heart. A lot of life changing events happened to me last year so it's quite impossible that my perceptions have not changed. I'm living on a new lease now and I'm made up of the stronger stuff than before so my resolutions have a better chance at surviving now!

To start with, here are my 10 Resolutions for this year. These are things that I have not being doing religiously..ever. Others goals I have developed and maintained within 2014. No point in putting those  which I am already achieving. For now we'll focus on the

1. Perform my morning Thank You prayer as soon as I wake up.
2. To visit the gym and use my membership at least thrice a week, weekends included.
3. To do either short distance or long distance travel every month. This comes with planning it well.
4. lessen my credit card use by 50%
5. To be more organized and productive in everything - stop being idle and lazy.
6. To consistently write at least 2 hours a day, 1 paragraph to a sentence each day. Blogs are included.
7. To spend more time with my dogs, me giving them a bath once a week.
8. To be more forgiving of stupid and hurtful people.
9. Quit my vices (read: desserts everyday). Lessen it at 25% this first quarter
10. Learn new things, educate myself consistently, perform a new positive habit.

Other resolutions are goal-specific and I will divulge in future posts.

See, that wasn't so bad. It's always been easy to make resolutions. I've always known what needs to changed and I know what I want anyways.

HAPPY 2015!

Hello! Hello! Hello! Yes I'm alive...

And just like that, it's 2015! New Year always gives me goosebumps. Always. Once the clock strikes 12 MN and you see your family cheering along with the rest of the world, everything gets silenced out and I feel peaceful and grateful. 

But what I really like about New Year's is that it gives you that extra encouragement to start all over again. Sure you can initiate change and start something within the year, but nothing beats a clean slate on Day 1. Everybody else gets to start at something at ground zero. There won't be any judgments of whoever's being left behind. New Year is always a day of fresh start and it always generates a positive feeling. Everyone needs a dose of that.

So do what you wanted to do, but you weren't able to do last 2014!

Lose and discard what needs to be discarded and bury it with 2014!

Achieve what your want this 2015!

Start to be that better person than yesterday!

Do not lose heart and vision!

You and I are no different. We all get a taste of a free ride. 

So from my blog to you, reader,  I wish you well. May 2015 be whatever you make it to be. 

Life is Good

Life is Good

I got home at 1:00 pm, right after lunch. I can get to relax, eat my leftover rainbow cake and sulk in cable movie channels.

The bad part is...it's hot and I have an intense HEADACHE bordering to migraine.

Once migraine hits, I wouldn't be able to function anymore so best if I get home now.

Thank you for my flexible job. Thank you for the giving me the time to rest. I think I'll have a migraine..but at least I'm home.  

I love my IPAD

I got my IPAD 3 in the summer of 2012 while I was in Hong Kong. I won that from an online Apple Lottery system after a month of trying because everyone was crazy for it. Well, I was not. I’ve always been a laptop person if I need to connect and surf. I initially found IPAD to be a trend and nothing more. I just wanted to get it at that time to test my luck and eventually sell it in the Philippines. When I finally bought my Macbook air, I got lucky and bought the IPAD 3 a week later.

I opened the IPAD and looked at it like I don’t know anything to do with it. I was not overly interested. The first thing I did there obviously was surf. Then I downloaded apps that meant something to me.  Then I started surfing through my IPAD everyday, checked and answered emails everyday, watch videos and research everyday while I’m on my pajamas and lying down. My brother borrowed it from time to time and inserted games. And the rest is history.

I am not a techie, but I was completely wrong with the IPAD. It changed my life. I do my travel bookings quickly. I surf while lying on the bed. I shop while lying on bed. I can quickly just drag and drop that piece of tablet. Take photos with it. Take it with me wherever, whenever. It’s an electronic book-laptop-game platform in one.

My mother who was a cavewoman before needs to have my father’s IPAD with her 24/7. She does her online shopping with the IPAD while watching news. She answers her emails there and watch re-runs of her favorite shows. The IPAD was originally my father’s, but she indirectly claimed ownership to it.

IPAD became my portable gateway to everything online. Now that I’m gearing up for my Hong Kong Trip in two weeks, I’m thinking of getting the IPAD Air!

Well, as to my laptop…well…I’m lucky to use it once a week.

Weird Withdrawal

There is a current constant effort on my part not to splurge on books until I get my book backlogs down on a considerable number. Since the year has started slow for me in the reading department due to work and life and everything else, it will be quite a challenge to get things down. My only source of hope is that it’s still the beginning of the year. There is no need to panic.

But I’m quite impressed that I haven’t bought books lately, not even one, for the past 3 weeks. It could be the strong desire to save and be true to my resolution. There are so many great titles that I have already acquired that need to be read anyways. Or is it because of E-Books?

My rekindled and renewed romance with e-books is partly to blame and be thanked for. Almost all the new titles out there are already available on E-Books sites for free! With E-Books, I don’t have to spend immediately not unless I really want my own physical copy of the book, which is supposed to be so good that I want to spend for it.  I won’t increase my already bloated book tower backlogs. I can easily feed my shopping desires with only a fast internet and an IPAD on hand. Most importantly I can get to risk a lot since I don’t need to waste resources.

I already have multiple collections on my IPAD and I’m finding the proper control not to go crazy in bookstores as before. But don’t get me wrong. Books are still the best thing. I still find myself wanting to visit the stores and inevitably purchase books I’ve really thought about. If my goal this year is curb my expenses, manage my shelf space and be more exposed to books real time, then (I never thought I would say this but) Thank God for E-Books!

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

This book is a hands down classic love story. It even became one of the most classic love story movies adapted on the big screen starred by cinema big-weights Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. I’ve always wanted to read this book. I’ve somehow penciled it in my mind, but it just didn’t materialize. And I’ve seen the movie played in HBO a couple of times (years ago!) but I made a conscious effort to skip it because I had to be honest, it looked pretty “country” and boring. All I know about The Bridges of Madison County before reading the book was that it’s a love story of two middle aged folks, which I wouldn’t assume really be compared to a rush of a roller coaster ride.

Boy was I wrong. The book proved me wrong!

If the book is about a quiet love story of two middle aged folks in the country, I was a bit surprised that it was not a bore at all. The novel was short technically a novella of 154 pages in E-Book, but the words and pages were used wisely. There were no lengthy histories of characters nor was there any excessively flamboyant use of narration. It was straight to the point, concise yet very poetic. One of the no-nonsense love stories I’ve ever read without losing the sense of passion and raw emotion. Being straight to the point, the book is very easy to read, but conversations between these two people and their raw thoughts and emotions told in a 3^rd person perspective supply the poetic high and romance that we rarely see nor experience in this day and age. The words of Robert Kincaid to Francesca captured me that no Edward Cullen could utter. You’ll immediately feel affinity and support for Francesca who was initially a complete stranger to the reader who transformed from being a simple, country and plain housewife to an individual woman who has dreams and inner strength. Robert Kincaid is not your typical prince charming either. He doesn’t impose himself nor tries to sweep you off your feet. He just does with his innate independence, gentleness, sincerity and intellect. Beneath his character’s strength and passion, is still a man of control.

The story started off with Robert Kincaid’s journey as a photo-journalist. From the get-go, we find that he is a unique individual and very independent. In one of his trips to cover wonderfully constructed bridges all over the country, he crossed paths with Francesca, a farm wife, who was incidentally sitting on her porch enjoying her solitary day. Francesca ended up assisting Robert Kincaid to get to the Roseman Bridge and thus the beginning of their 4-day romance. 

I have mentioned that the book was short, but from their initial observation of each other and their first interaction, the reader could get to feel the intensity of their attraction. But it’s not the interaction of teenagers and those individuals only up for a fleeting romance. Their attraction is deep and controlled. Probably this wouldn’t have worked well in 20 something characters when they still have the world at the palm of their hand. What makes this romance interesting is that here are two middle aged people who have a good sense of who they are and who have their own responsibilities and their own ‘lives’ to lead. The gestures and scenes in the book are magnified. I loved the scene when Francesca was in Robert Kincaid’s truck having a cigarette. I knew they had to be together!

Robert Kincaid pulled a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, shook one halfway out, and offered it to her. For the second time in five minutes, she surprised herself and took the cigarette. What am I doing? she thought. She had smoked years ago but gave it up under the steady thump of criticism from Richard. He shook out another one, put it between his lips, and flicked a gold Zippo lighter into flame, holding it toward her while he kept his eyes on the road.

      She cupped her hands around the lighter to hold the wind in abeyance and touched his hand to steady it against the bouncing of the truck. It took only an instant for her to light the cigarette, but that was long enough to feel the warmth of his hand and the tiny hairs along the back of it. She leaned back and he swung the lighter toward his own cigarette, expertly forming his wind cup his, taking hands off the steering wheel for no more than a second.

With Francesca’s invitation for Robert to join her for supper and quiet company, it already gives the reader a glimpse of how powerful she can be. Francesca is a woman of ideals, responsibilities and morale, but she is also a woman capable of having dreams and passion. You know she will sin, but the reader would immediately fall for them so much that her husband (Richard) can just very well be a figment or a trivial fact of her life. While beneath Robert Kincaid’s independent and aloof persona, comes his gentleness and willingness to be tied down.

And did I mention that the most interesting part of this is that they were only together, exhibiting deep physical relationship and care, for only four days. They met on a Monday and ended their love affair on a Thursday. But what’s amazing is that in those four days we know that they should be together and no time was wasted. It was like finding your soul mate after years of searching and wondering but after the fourth day, it is inevitable to say goodbye. Robert Kincaid asked Francesca to tell him to make things right. He could be man enough to talk to Francesca’s husband and take her with him. But Francesca is a woman of responsibilities and sensitivity. She knew their affair might only last for four days but her relationship with him will last forever without tainting or giving any burden to her family or limiting Robert Kincaid’s independence.  On the fourth day of their separation, they carried heavy hearts and they both shed quiet tears, but probably that’s what sets them apart. Their passionate affair, their whirlwind romance, romance of a middle aged people, transcends time and space. They have the strength to endure pain and sacrifice. Their view of love transcends physicality and acknowledgement.

They never got together again, but the readers know that after their four-day affair, they already had each other forever. Francesca carried on being a wife and a mother contented with memories, old photographs and that pink dress she wore on that night they danced in her kitchen. While Robert Kincaid continued to be vagabond, taking pictures and never forgetting her.  Until their respective deaths, they knew that they had each other and the memories of those four days of happiness and passionate love were enough.

Before one starts to read their story, there is a chapter in the book that serves as a form of a caveat. The writer mentioned that for one to appreciate this story, one has to have an open mind. Romantic cynics and realists might not be able to ingest the words and accept that the memories of a four day romance were as real and as true as it can be. This story will reflect the image of our relationships if we indeed have found the Robert Kincaids and Francescas of our lives. It took them years and almost forever just to find each other and yet to separate after four days. But for them it’s enough for at least they know they have found the real love they deserve. 

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

This book came to my reading list because I was searching for the best horror-mystery novels to replenish my collection and this title came up twice. Plus the cover is eerie.

The story turned out to be more than a murder thriller than a paranormal one. Although there is one element that gives a supernatural distinction that sets it apart from the mainstream serial killer fare. The serial killer named Harper can travel through time with an aid of a house he magnificently stumbled upon in Chicago 1930’s. Harper is your typical psychotic serial killer. He kills the girls brutally while leaving relics to identify him by, which is quite egotistic on his part because with his time traveling ability, it’s one to a million that he will be caught unless he is that sloppy. He derives his kick from the gruesome acts and relishes the hunt. He feeds the house with the deaths of “shining girls”, girls who will make a difference in this world. I never quite got the explanation behind this force nor was his history uncovered. He started off as a sick serial killer and ended off as one.

He sets off killing girls in various eras, which gives the book a multitude of settings and landscapes. In some parts, you could empathize with Harper’s sense of power when he can wrong a right, visit places way before his time and witness the rise and fall of a period. One thing that centered on this story is by closing the unfinished loop when he failed to kill one girl named Kirby. Kirby, in her adult years, turned out to be this sarcastic scarred woman out to make sense and hunt her killer while working as an intern in a newspaper bureau. The two main characters, the victim and the killer, perform the confusing search dance hoping to collide with each other and close the gap.

This story is not your typical serial-murder story. At some points, the method of time traveling gives the order of the story complexity and detail. This book needs the reader’s full attention and imagination. It will also not serve answers but questions. What about this time traveling house? Why would the house need deaths of the shining girls? Why is Harper the way he is? Well, it’s best not to ask and embrace these given facts to be able to move on. It’s an interesting book, but it’s not for everybody. I might read it again sometime. It took me almost two weeks to finish it.