on books and DVDs

As I mentioned before, I love anything that tells a story. That means that as much as I hoard love books, I also love DVDs. Last year, I was hooked on F.R.I.E.N.D.S., which I appreciated so much more now that I'm in my twenties. Then I watched Sex and the City, The Apprentice season 3, Pushing Daisies season 1, Top Design season 1, and How I Met Your Mother seasons 1-4 (and this is the only series that I'm downloading!). Now, I'm hooked on this:

After much consultation with other fanatics, I finally decided on getting the boxed set of CSI Las Vegas seasons 1 to 7. I just finished watching the first season and I'm currently three episodes into the second, already I'm showing signs of being addicted. For one, I go to bed at night with the feeling that maybe someone is just outside my door, or that I will suddenly see the curtains blowing to reveal an open window big enough to fit a human-- until I remember that my windows are not that big and I don't even have curtains in my room. So I sleep a little easier after that realization. I also caught myself looking at my cellphone and, upon seeing my fingerprints, thinking, "Wow, this cellphone is loaded with prints. Let's hope one of them is our killer's." Then I realize that it's my phone and there is no killer. I just love how they solve crimes, how they connect the dots to lead them to unlikely suspects, how sometimes they discover that the killer is someone who was right under their nose. I have yet to really compare to CSI Miami and CSI New York (my brother thinks Miami is too action-loaded, while a friend thinks the crimes in New York are too similar), but I think that after this, I will buy CSI New York just for Gary Sinise, who I think rocks.

As I go on CSI marathons, I have somehow found the time to finally get started on the one book that I've really put off reading-- The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (how strange that Amazon doesn't have a synopsis of this book). I bought the book primarily to compare it to the movie, but I've been putting off reading it because it's too thick. I got intimidated. But after finishing my last book, I realized that to finish my reading list, I would have to get to this book sooner or later. So I decided to make it sooner. I've been reading this book steadily, which means I've been bringing it with me to the dentist and leaving it in the car so I can read while waiting for parking. But hey, at least I'm making some progress with it!

I cheated. Just when I said I wouldn't buy any books, I went out and bought this one. In my defense, I had seen copies of Something Blue by Emily Giffin, but it wasn't in this particular edition, so I didn't buy it. My thinking is that sequels should be bought in the same editions. Apparently, this particular edition was hard to find. So when I saw three copies in Fully Booked High Street, I didn't think twice about buying it. Of course, this goes on the bottom of my list, and I will have to resist the temptation of finding out what happens to Darcy now that she's pregnant and all alone. My reading list is now 9 out of 18, which means I'm exactly halfway down the list. Once I finish reading The Other Boleyn Girl, that will make it 10 out of 18, and I can't wait!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Spotlight: "Doctors" and "If You Could See Me Now"

Midway through April and already I've crossed off two books on my reading list. Here's where it stands now:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin --I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin

In between my Holy Week Cleanup Project, I read this novel by Erich Segal. As I mentioned before, I had read this when I was very young, maybe more than ten years ago. Reading it again, I now have newfound respect for anyone who is entering medical school. I knew it was difficult, but reading about the journey of two childhood friends from the first day of medical school all the way to becoming doctors of their own chosen fields was really enlightening.

What I liked about this is that the novel begins by introducing us to Barney and Laura, the protagonists. It establishes the bond that they have in childhood, a bond that remains all through medical school and beyond. But midway through the novel, when they actually begin going to med school, we are introduced to their classmates and their respective back stories. This makes the story even richer as these people weave in and out of Barney and Laura's lives, making all the stories intertwine. More than just the story of Barney and Laura, then, Doctors is really about their batch in Harvard Medical School, at a time when women and black doctors were not generally accepted in their field, when a cure of polio had yet to be discovered, and new medical advancements slowly unravel as time passes and the novel goes along. It was a very informative and engaging read.

As a Christmas gift, my boss gave me a copy of If You Could See Me Now, her all-time favorite Cecelia Ahern novel. Having read the summary at the back cover, I wasn't very intrigued by the premise. But after taking this book with me to the dentist yesterday, I just couldn't put it down.

Without getting into details (it's a bit difficult to summarize this book), it really taught me about friendship. How sometimes, people just really come into your life to fulfill a purpose --like to make you learn something about yourself-- and once they have achieved that, they have to move on and make a mark in other people's lives. I used to think of this as abandonment, as people never staying too long in life, but now I realize that it just means it's time to meet new friends who will teach you something new about yourself.

If you would be so lucky to find people who will stay forever, that means you should be open to growing together, always learning new things about each other, and learning new things about yourself whenever you are with that person. If not, well, the world is so full of people you can learn a thing or two from, as long as you keep yourself open to the opportunities that life has to offer.

While I read A Place Called Here first and it had an intriguing premise, I thought If You Could See Me Now really captivated me. It was so engaging and reachable-- the fantasy element was so woven in to real life, unlike in A Place Called Here where it was a tad too out there. It looks like If You Could See Me Now is my favorite Ahern book too.

So now I've hit 9 out of 17! Halfway down the list now! I would really, really want to start reading The Other Boleyn Girl, but it's so thick I think it'll take me forever to finish. Who knows though, maybe all I need is to just get started. Do I reserve the right to put it down if it proves to be a boring read? Let's see!

Have a great Sunday!

taking a minute on a Holy Thursday

Strangely, the shower is where I get all my best ideas and epiphanies.

Today, I realized that I love anything that tells a story. I love to read (hence the 17-book reading list), I love to watch movies (there is a DVDs-to-watch list that must be written down in the next few days), and I love hearing stories about other people's lives (yes, I'm a sucker for gossip).

But more than that, I realized that I also love to tell stories (about other people, myself, or random things I hear about) and I love to invent stories (anyone who knows me well knows that I like starting sentences with "What if". Oh, and have I ever told you where the pizza place called "Shakeys" got its name? *wink*).

Maybe that's the same reason why I enjoy working in this industry. Being a publicist is sort of like trying to come up with a story: what story can this magazine tell through a press release, a television segment, or a radio talk show? I cannot imagine applying the same metaphor to a corporate environment, so maybe that's why I can't imagine being anywhere else but here.

And life, to me, is one big story. People come and go, chapters begin and end. Friendships sometimes end with one chapter, only to be rekindled again many chapters later. There can only be more unforeseen twists in the plot, more characters introduced, but ultimately, I have faith that this story called Life will have a happy ending.

Okay, talk about random! My minute is up, so ciao!

hitting 7 out of 17

Here's my reading list as it currently stands:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin --I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin

The latest book I've crossed off the list is The Amber Room by Steve Berry. When Dan Brown came out with The Da Vinci Code (which I also enjoyed), so many other authors began to write with a similar theme. But Steve Berry was different. He may have come around the same time everyone was going crazy over the Jesus-and-Mary Magdalene love angle, but he chose to focus his attention on other historical mysteries: the third secret of Fatima, the story behind the Romanovs and Princess Anastacia, and here, the amber room.

It took me a while to finish this book, which is probably a sign that it didn't have me hooked from the beginning. For one, it doesn't explain the conflict straight away. I had the sense that the novel assumed I had some knowledge of Germans and Soviets, why they fought in World War 2, and what happened between them post-war. I have no idea why Czechoslovakia split up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but that's what I learned from the book-- apparently they had some rift. I think that to have a real appreciation of the book, you have to first understand why this Amber Room is so important to them. Yes, I can imagine that an entire room filled with panels of amber, making it seem like it's glittering in gold, could be very precious, but there was a more cultural and historical reason why they were all after it, and I couldn't quite grasp what it was. The explanations came somewhere in the middle, but by then I'd already been so lost. You know when you're walking through the forest, you know you're lost but you think, "Well, I'll just keep walking then, even if I don't know where I'm going," and then someone throws you a map, but you can't even begin to make sense of it because you don't know where you are in the first place? That's how I felt.

There also wasn't enough character development for the protagonists. The summary in the back cover says "a divorced couple race through Europe with trained killers swiftly behind". Well, I know more about the trained killers than I do about the couple. It wasn't a really bad book, but maybe I'm just cutting Steve Berry some slack because this was his debut novel, after all. So, I finally crossed this off my list with the conclusion that it was just a so-so read.

Next on my list is Doctors by Erich Segal. I had read this book years ago, maybe when I was still in grade school, because my older cousins had a copy lying around. All I remember is that it was one of those books I couldn't put down (along with Danielle Steel's Wings, but I don't remember what that was about either), and any book that kept me up till the wee hours of the morning must be something worth re-reading. I may also gain a new appreciation for it now that I'm much older. 

I started reading the preface, and I can't wait to dive into it this Holy Week.

So far, I've been successful in my pact not to add to my Reading List. The only addition was a birthday gift from my boss, and at least it was just one book. I'm making good progress with this list, so yay! :)

belated musings on turning 26

I realized this morning that I hadn't blogged about turning 26 yet, and the month of March is coming to an end. It made me think of how I spent my 25th year, and sadly I was drawing up blanks. I couldn't think of any personal milestones that set this year apart, and all I could think about was a rundown of work-related events that happened in the year.

Add to that today's quote in my Don't Sweat the Small Stuff calendar: 

"When someone asks you how you are, don't emphasize how busy you are. You're an interesting person with many other qualities besides busyness."

For the most part of 2008,  I think I have been guilty of responding to the question "How are you?" with either, "Stressed out..." or "Tired...", both statements punctuated with a heavy sigh. Somehow, work became a massive force that sucked out all my energy, leaving life to just happen within the smallest cracks and crevices. The rest of my life became little moments that got me through each day with my sanity intact.

I was prepared to accept that Year 25 just came and went, almost as though it never existed, when I realized that there was an underlying theme to the year after all: CHANGE.

Year 25 was a year of transitions, of saying goodbye to people I'd known for a while, and hello to people who would make a mark in my life. In 2008 alone, I've had to say...

... goodbye to the two girls in my team whose unique brands of craziness I will always remember and look back to with a big smile. 

... hello to the boss we had waited a year for, and found that she was not only a great mentor, but also a great friend and fellow book hoarder lover.

... hello to one girl who I found soooo incredibly loud and maybe even boisterous, but whose stories and antics I missed once she was gone.

... hello and goodbye to someone whom I first considered a mentor, and ended up considering a good friend.

... hello to one girl who was mysterious and quiet, yet opened up so much towards the end that I've found myself wondering how she's doing now that she's no longer with our team. 

... hello to one girl who is just so bright and bubbly, her optimism and enthusiasm is infectious. She brings such a positive energy to the team, and I feel good to have her around.

... goodbye to one girl who has so much potential, I'm glad that she's finally where she's meant to be.

In terms of work, this was when my area of responsibilities changed and mutated until an entirely new system was implemented. I finally began to explore taking on writing racket, and realized after three years that it could be done after all.

It was the year I "formalized" (in quotes because we didn't exactly formalize it in the "Will you be my girlfriend?" way and we don't celebrate any particular date) my relationship with the most caring, loving, patient, understanding, funny, strong, and trustworthy man I know-- aside from my dad, of course. And I've never been happier to be called a "girlfriend" again.

And finally, it was the year I noticed little changes within me, maybe brought upon by age. It may not be obvious as I continue to attack everything at break-neck speed, but I've slowed down: I think before I speak, I've learned when to hold my tongue, I take deep breaths and let petty concerns go, I let people finish telling a joke even if I've heard it before (and I still laugh as if hearing it for the first time), I resist the temptation to slam things around when I'm angry, I try to listen harder, I ask more questions, I try to smile more often. Yes, I may still have road rage and my occasional outbursts, but for the most part, I think I've mellowed.

Now, I'm on Year 26. Who knows what this year will bring? The only thing I hope for is that I continue to grow in love-- love my family, friends, and boyfriend, love my job, love myself, love life.

Here's to a great year ahead!

right on the money

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:

Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on education

Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

The right job for you:

You have many goals and want to achieve as much as you can. The jobs you enjoy are those that let you burn off your considerable excess energy.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

for once, i rooted for the cheaters

And this is the book that made me do it.

Anticipating a long wait at my dentist's office, I brought along Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. I figured getting absorbed in chick lit would be better than falling asleep in public, as I had done the last time. It was just supposed to be a way for me to pass the time, and I didn't really intend on spending the rest of my Saturday night reading.

But that's exactly what I did. After waiting for an hour and a half, I was so drawn in by this book that I couldn't put it down. I stayed up until 12:30pm, reading it until the very end. Even after reading, I found myself still thinking about it.

What does this have to do with cheaters, you ask? Well, the protagonist is goody-two-shoes Rachel, who has always played second fiddle to her best friend Darcy. Okay, fine, maybe I identify with Rachel because we're both rule players and seek approval from almost everybody, but I really hated Darcy-- selfish, "It's always about me" Darcy, who always screwed over Rachel and always made her feel bad. She stole Rachel's first love. She lied about her SAT scores just so she could be ten points higher than Rachel. She made Rachel believe that she had gotten into Notre Dame --Rachel's dream college-- when Rachel didn't. She led a glamorous life while Rachel was stuck hating her job. And most importantly, she got the guy that Rachel always thought was out of her league: Dex, who Rachel met in law school. After convincing herself that he wouldn't go for a girl like her, she promptly introduced him to Darcy. The pair is engaged, and Rachel is set to be the maid of honor in their wedding.

I hate Darcy so much that when a drunken Rachel and Dex sleep together on the night of her thirtieth birthday, I find myself hoping that Rachel gets her chance to screw over Darcy. That this time, she comes out on top, even if she is the maid of honor screwing her best friend's fiance. I hate cheaters because I always wonder about the girlfriend who is clueless about all these things happening behind her back. But here, I cannot bring myself to sympathize with Darcy as the clueless girlfriend. For me, it serves her right for being a terrible friend to Rachel.

Of course, this isn't an open and shut case. Dex loves Darcy. Rachel loves Darcy and values their 20-year friendship. Will they realize that Darcy is too important for them both to lose, or is what they have much more precious than they think? For chick lit critics, this isn't as brainless as one would think. I truly enjoyed this book from cover to cover, and find myself wanting to reread it on a lazy afternoon.

And a quick mention on the latest additions to my reading list:

I mentioned this book a long time ago on my Plurk, and I can't even remember how I found out about it. All I know is I was intrigued by the anecdote that gives birth to the title. The subtitle "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" has caused friends to say, "This book is so you!" I kept it at the back of my mind, yet found myself always returning to the English Reference section of the bookstore in our neighborhood mall, checking to see if the lone copy had disappeared.

Finding an open copy in another bookstore sealed its fate for me. The introduction spoke to me by giving an example of a badly-punctuated poster, followed by the statement, "If this didn't bother you, put down this book right now." I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Me, me, it bothered ME!!!" I put it back down, couldn't stop thinking about it for days, and finally put the lone copy out of its misery by buying it from said bookstore.

To be fair to the other books that made it to my Reading List first, I have not gone past the first chapter, which I read while having dinner alone immediately after buying it. Hey, I needed to pass the time!

I admit: this was an impulse buy. But in my defense, when you pick up a book with a boring title like Raising the Peaceable Kingdom, you don't expect it to be about an interesting experiment: what happens when you put a baby chick, a puppy, a kitten, a baby rabbit, and a baby rat all together? Do they end up hating each other, or do they live together peacefully even if they're completely different species?

I found myself reading the first chapter while standing next to the Sale Books bin, and I realized that I really wanted to find out the results of this experiment. Wouldn't the puppy and kitten be at each other's throats immediately? After all, the idiom "fighting like cats and dogs" had to come from somewhere. Wouldn't the kitten eat the rat, just like Tom always chases after Jerry (then again, I think Jerry is a mouse, not a rat, but still)? And the kitten might eat the baby chick, just as Sylvester always lusts after Tweety Bird. I couldn't resist not knowing, so it's a good thing that it would only cost me P65 to find out.

And so my current reading list reads:

The 2009 Reading List

1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin --I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal

14. Live a Little by Kim Green

15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason

Hey, 5 out of 16 books, that's not so bad! It means I'm one-third down my reading list, as long as I don't add to it! Maybe I'll read Like Water for Chocolate next.

Happy Sunday, everyone!