Because I am broken-hearted, I keep finding myself in the bed lying on a fetus position and weeping out to Jesus. As a workaround, I read books. One. After. The. Other. Whether my brain absorbed it or not, it doesn’t matter. It kept my mind off the bad stuff and kept me from doing that fetus thing.

So here are my December Reads (with partial not-so-helpful reviews and ratings) in no particular order:

Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins ♥♥♥♥♥

Re-read. Hated Peeta. Loved Peeta.  Couldn’t put this book down. Can’t wait for the movie. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY.

Got Fight? The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat – Forrest Griffin ♥♥♥♥♥

UFC fans, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS THING. Sure, Forrest Griffin is not the best fighter in the UFC right now, but he sure is the FUNNIEST. This is no autobiography, although there are some anecdotes about Griffin’s life (but I can assure you that all of them are humorous and worth reading). Not recommended to those who get easily offended by profanity. Not recommended to those who doesn’t know Forrest Griffin too. LOL

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) – Steig Larsson  ♥

I didn’t like this book. It is too painful, if not too stressful to read. The first 100+ pages were a complete bore-fest. I still read it with persistence because I feel that my patience will be rewarded. Disappointed. As a mystery/crime fiction novel, it has all the right to present many details, but the details the author presented are not really the useful ones. Ironically, the details/information that I feel important are missing.

I don’t understand why this book is so wildly raved. I bought the entire trilogy but I just won’t pick it up again. Maybe it’s just me and my attention span or my minimum number of brain cells.

I hated this book so much, I had to sell my copy of the entire trilogy. Whoever got those, see for yourself. I hope you can tell me what I might have missed that I didn’t appreciate the book.

Mockingjay  - Suzanne Collins ♥♥♥♥

Too much talking. Less adrenaline than Catching Fire and Hunger Games. Sorta hated the ending. I still like Gale. This is not a helpful review.

Looking for Alaska – John Green ♥♥♥♥♥

Similar to Perks of Being a Wallflower and Catcher in the Rye. This one’s got some humor to it though. Not a stressful read; will not make you cry although there are parts that will make you sad.

Also, watch out for the fox hat; love that one.

Blackest Night – Geoff Johns ♥♥♥

What I liked about this: Flash as Blue Lantern. Sinestro as White. Lex Luthor as Orange. Diana’s costume changes. Mera.

What I didn’t like: I don’t know what the heck happened to Bruce Wayne’s body.

Sidenote: All these didn’t make me feel better altogether. It made me miss someone. He liked books too (although not Green Lantern in particular) and I seriously wanted to talk to him about these books but he’s no longer willing to listen to my stories.

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall – Kazuo Ishiguro ♥♥♥♥♥

Biased. I love Ishiguro.

And I love short stories.

Conceptual Physics – Paul Hewitt ♥♥♥♥♥

Cause I need to be reminded of: Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Theory of Relativity and Quantum Theory.

They are essential to life. Paul Hewitt can present Physics in a non-intimidating way. You will still have to get a pen and a paper though, to solve all those equations and find yourself some answers. This is still in my currently-reading shelf. WHAT.

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood ♥♥

The plot was interesting and I have always loved Atwood’s choice of words. However, I was really not into this one when I was reading it. Handmaids are basically women whose wombs are “for rent.” Not your typical surrogate. Was already made into a movie. Got his book for 50 10 pesos. Not for kids.

Strange Pilgrims - Gabriel García Márquez ♥♥♥♥

Because he won a Nobel Prize for Literature. Read this while I was nearly drunk.

Still good.

Paper Towns – John Green ♥♥♥♥

My second John Green novel. Young Adult. I actually LOL’d at some parts. You get to decide for the ending. Black Santas. The leading lady is a closet hipster. I got reminded of the movie Superbad. Protagonist is Michael Sera-ish.

Having said all that, add me up on GoodReads will ya?

Thanks!

Today seems to be a good day. Good enough to write about it. Not really a day that I would mark in my calendar but compared to yesterday, today’s quite fine. I know that it was me who probably brought upon myself whatever distress I had been dealing with the past few days, but today, I never let out one single hint of profanity. Yay, right? I could have gone on an 8-hr hate-fest on my annoying co-worker but surprise, it only lasted for a few minutes (after I tweeted bout it on my twitter account that no one really follows). Also, I have been delaying on working for this one report for some weeks now and I finished it today too. I should buy myself some sort of reward just for that.

I had an interesting call earlier today as well. It involves job (possible promotion, even) opportunities in a city up north (hint: 8 hours travel from Manila). Sounds very inviting cause I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a liking to that particular city. But this person who just called, is someone very much synonymous to the words unpredictable and desolation damage. I hope I can tell you more about this person but I’m not really sure if you can keep a secret.

Belle and Sebastian is blasting from my iPod right now. I guess this is what the kids call good vibes, eh?

I hope everything’s going well with everyone.

~Title is from a Belle and Sebastian song

I was crying the entire weekend. I was crying while on the cab, while drinking tea, while taking shower and so on. I cry every now and then, at any random moment, for as long as I remember Beastie, the 2 year old beagle.

I was sitting somewhere in the dining area while I was being told how she looked like before she died. Her legs were heavy that she could not walk, she couldn’t move her head and she just have to give signal thru her expressive eyes. It was the same dining area where I remember rubbing her tummy while she was wearing her Santa Claus costume.

Beastie was not the most obedient dog, she’s very stubborn but very adorable.

She’s quite sociable too. When we took her to Eastwood for the PAWS event, she even had her photo taken along with a Husky, an older Beagle and a Scottish Terrier. She was very very tired that day. But I guess she had fun because I did.

I remember when the breeder kissed her goodbye before placing her on the puppy bag we bought weeks ahead. She did not stay long on that bag as I carried her on my lap on the way home. The next day, I was crying on the floor when she started to rub her tiny self on my feet with a quiet whimper. I sat next to her and she rested her head on my legs, still doing that comforting whimper. While I type this, I remember that maybe that was the feeling John Grogan was writing about when he wrote that eulogy to his Labrador, Marley.

There are many beautiful memories of Beastie that I can recall, but I guess those would not amount to the whatever Case and his family had with her. They gave her a home and took care of her more than I did. Every dog owner knows the feeling when a dog awaits your return, they would start waggling their tails at the mere smell of your presence and jump right at you upon greeting. I never had this kind of moment with her, but someone did. I also cry at the thought of that it will not happen again, not with the same dog.

But there are times that I just had to blame her death to someone. She was my gift to that someone to begin with.

I hope to immortalize her in this post and in every photo of her that I put on the internet. It was an awful lost of a beloved soul, but her death also signals the things that will no longer happen, the relationship that will never mend and the excessive amount of time crying as I attempt let her go along with her owner.

Here, I list down the reasons why I discontinued it.

1. I already cheated 3 times. I uploaded photos that were not taken the day it is supposed to be taken. At first, I told myself that – that’s the ONLY time I’ll do it; but then again, I did it again and again. I’m afraid I might continue cheating and it totally defeats the purpose of the project. Since I already admitted this, here are the 3 photos:

2. I posted a photo that I did not take or has no participation in taking/shooting. My brother took this photo using my camera and I didn’t even give him proper credit. I just edited this in Photoshop and claimed ownership since we err, share the same genes LOL. This won’t ever ever happen again. I should be ashamed of myself.

3. It’s becoming an excuse to take mediocre photos. There are photos on my Project 365 set that I am NOT really proud of. I uploaded these just to have something for that day. Even if I know myself that these are just plain snapshots, I still upload it and just rationale why it looks that way. I own a dslr for 2 years now, I should learn to take better photos. I will have to delete some of these photos soon.

4. I am now required to get a “pass” from our facilities department whenever I want to bring my camera inside the office. Alright, this part I don’t get. I don’t work in the call center operations anymore and there is no company-owned dslr that I know of; so WHY employer, WHY.

5. I only have one working lens for the moment. OK not good enough for a reason. No need to explain.

Although I stopped, I had to admit that it was fun doing my (uncompleted) 365. What happened when I did this shot? ALL FUN, yeah. (please read story, LOL)

Hands down to people who were able to complete their Project 365 last year, and kudos to those who are still in the process of completing theirs. I should attempt to do this again next year. Yes?

PS. Of course I will still use Flickr, the flickr-ers are such nice people. And there are many other shots I would love to take and share.

No, its not Star Wars (you geek). I won’t write about that, there’s plenty of those already. Although I may blog about WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE ME A LIGHTSABER one of these days.

Alright. Here’s what’s coming: (There will be no explicit *spoilers*)

Title:  IP MAN
Tagline: The celebrated Kung Fu master of Bruce Lee.  Behind Bruce Lee’s talent lies a legend in his own right.
Starring: Donnie Yen
Directed by: Wilson Yip
Running Time: a blasting 108 minutes

The plot is simple. The movie is about the life of Wing Chun master Ip Man and his life in the city of Fo Shan during the Japanese invasion. What may have sold this movie though, is the fact that it says he’s the master of Bruce Lee. I didn’t know Wing Chun until I saw this film. If you are getting clueless already; Wing Chun is a chinese martial art, Bruce Lee is an action star. Google should help you; but do that later.

What I really liked about this film is; unlike most Chinese martial arts movies, you won’t see kung fu masters flying from one bamboo tree to another or walking on the water or fighting in mid air; you get the drift? The fight scenes are flawless, in the sense you can see the discipline or fighting style one is using. In all honestly, the fight scenes are realistic.

My favorite scene would be when Ip Man (or Master Ip) had to fight 10 Karatekas at once! Oh boy, he’s a like a woodpecker on amphetamine when he threw his punches on one of the Japanese Karatekas. Donnie Yen’s non intimidating looks makes the fight very unpredictable (unless of course you’ve already seen him in Iron Monkey). He cracked their legs, punched their face and threw them all in a classy, classy way.

I just had a bad morning kids.

My second favorite would be the fight scene between Ip Man and General Miura; Karate vs Wing Chun, Japan vs China,  black vs white – it is amusing in so many ways. What’s really interesting about this scene is one (or at least me) would realize that these martial arts are so anchored to the originating country’s culture and beliefs, that it would reflect on the fighting style. Ip Man even said that Chinese martial art, in it’s true sense is Confucian in spirit; that’s why the Japanese (who, according to Ip Man, abuse power) do not deserve to learn it. At least during that era.

Ip Man: Welcome to The Matrix

Its been said that Wing Chun was invented by a woman, although the moves are not as graceful as Taijiquan it is still graceful in its own way. Donnie Yen gave so much justice to it, that I feel he was made for this role. And  yeah, the most comical scenes were between Ip Man and his wife and son.

This may not appeal to your interest but I am putting this on my blog because: (1) I love this movie (2) Ip Man 2 will be released a month from now; April 29 to be exact.

Now, why do you need to see this?

1. It is historical.
A city like Fo Shan existed. It is a martial arts enthusiast’s heaven. Japan bossed China for some time. This is a historical drama anyway.

2. The movie was successful.
It won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Action Choreography among others on the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards. Nuff said.

3. The fight scenes will make you want to enroll yourself in some wushu class.

4. Ip Man’s Costume
It will remind you of Neo from The Matrix.

5. Because I said so.
I have so much love to this movie that I want you all to see it.

Then again, if you just stumbled upon this blog (out of your boredom and internet lurking); allow me to tell more of  what you can expect of this blog, we might just get along.

• I like photography so you will definitely see pictures
• My taste in music ranges from Broadway music to those at  Pitchfork (but no RnB and Hip-hop for me)
• I love to read; mostly compilation of short stories and non-fictions. However, if my friends suggests a book, I try my best to read it.
• Martial arts and UFC matches.  But please do not regard me as a violent person because I am not.
• Phyics (but not hardcore, haha)
• People
• Anime and video games
• Movies
• I like charts and diagrams especially flowcharts and algorithms; either for systems, programs or real life.

There will be times that I would just talk about myself but I’ll try to make it very minimal. I must remember that whatever I put on the internet will always be there.

Cheers!