Crazy Guy on the Veldt

This is one book I have hunted for in bargain bins for almost 6 years

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. I 1st heard of this book from a short story ( The Day Before the Revolution) by Le Guin, it was about Odo during the days before the Great Strike which would eventually lead to the Revolution, sort of a prelude to the novel. I always wanted to know what happened to Laia Asieo Odo and her ideas.

Marvelous book. The point of view is totaly alien not because of some fundamental difference such as divergent chemistry or biology. The people of Annares are pretty much human. The "alien" feeling comes from their ideology. Which is ultimately depressing when you get to analysing it. Even now, having had time to think about it, I find it hard to actually grasp what Odonianism is although I know it's a form of anarcho-syndicalism, my capitalist grounded mindset refuses to accept even the possibility of such a society existing. People working for the common good of all, without any possession (even in their language any possessive case is absent or discouraged), no laws, no religion .... I'm stopping here before I burst into song.

How would you measure a man's worth and where would my place be in such a society?

Contrast also how Shevek felt and his feelings when he was among the Urrasti. He was the outsider looking in. And what he was looking into is a society obviously patterned on the West / U.S. i.e. our society (or what our society aspires to be) And here is where the ultimately depressing part comes in. His opinion on Urrastian ( our) society makes so much sense. I defy anyone to claim that they don't see the evils and injustices that Shevek describes in our very real world today.

This is one of the things I hate most.... missing to post for a goodly length of time. Now I have to recall the things I've read from then to now....

Nebula Winners Fourteen edited by Frederick Pohl
~Good bits: Nebula winners
~Bad bits: fourteen...I don't have one to thirteen

A Fearful Symmetry by James Luceno
~Good bits: if you've ever wondered what would it be like if America's president where a new-age hippie zen practitioner
~Bad bits: the world is almost destroyed by a bunch of octogenarian psychic Nazis.

Martin the Warrior, The Bellmaker, and The Long Patrol by Brian Jacques

Playgrounds of the Mind by Larry Niven
~Good bits: Mr Niven gives us insight into his works, his collaborations with Pournelle, sci fi fandom and conventions
~Bad bits: most of the stories are excerpts from his books....and reading a small tidbit, I can't help myself...I have to read the whole book.

And just now...

Taggerung by Brian Jacques.
~Good bits: Like all other Redwall book, food! I know it's completely fantastical but Mr. Jacques has a talent to make the food and the feasting seem so real.
If you can imagine the characters in "The Wind in the Willows" going at it and battling it out Braveheart style then this is for you.

~Bad bits: the mysterious riddle from the past gets a bit old (harhar) by the 3rd book and some of the riddles are a bit strained
Villains never get a break in Redwall books, vermin are there to be hacked up by goodbeasts or other vermin. As such they become predictable.

I loved this book, and if that makes me sound less than the mature adult I am, then HOORAY for immaturity.

I remember having watched a cartoon of The BFG when I was young. I can't recall the story but I do remember the BFG.

Inspiring and lifting, if you're looking for inspiration and lifting up. Just plain funny if you're looking for fun. This has sparked my curiosity, I'm now hunting for more of Roald Dahl's work.

Good bits:
~ whenever you're lost for an adjective just thumb through this book for some creative ideas.
~ the illustrations reminded me of some of the Educator Classic Library books that I read and loved when I was growing up.

Bad bits:
~ this isn't required reading in our elementary schools.

These gals are just amazing.

I should be on my way right now to take an entrance test to MENSA but I thought..."fuck it, I'll listen to their songs instead"

Garfunkel and Oates are Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci. I hope they make an album soon.

Sample their songs and vids here

And a couple of videos from YouTube not included above:

"I Would Never" which should carry a warning: CAUTION ! DO NOT DRINK (anything) AND WATCH

"Dear Deer" a cute video starring Kate only. If you've already had your RDA of cute for the day this will cause you to OD.

Ahh the absolutely perfect image for this book. It's lucky that this is the 2nd Knights Templar book I've read, forsooth if I didst read this swill ere I did, never would I continue to purvey the works of master Jecks.
(*groan* your pardons, I've not slept 20 hours)

My major gripe is the inconsistent viewpoint used throughout the book. This is supposed to be a murder mystery, actually 3 sets of murders done by 3 different perpetrators. Some of the times we are provided insight on what the characters are thinking and at other times, sometimes suddenly, we get to watch the scene unfold as impersonal spectators. This makes the whole reading experience, for me a bit.... blurry (hah!)

The start and development of Simon and Baldwin's friendship is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the book. Indeed, the character dynamics between the two saves the book from being a very predictable and boring read.


Good bits:
~The scene of Jacques de Molay's execution during the Prologue.
~Seeing Simon's relationship with his wife and daughter.
~And the very lenghty recap of Baldwin's life story at the end.
~well researched examples of medieval life and property laws.

Bad bits
~The whole chase across the moors.
~The way that the first mystery is dangled in front and then the characters being sidetracked by another murder, and then another. Brewer's murder could have been dealt with by the 9th chapter but instead we had to wait near the end to finally see who (as if we couldn't take a wild guess already) did it.
~The description of the countryside and the landscape was a bit excessive no? It almost became Jack Londonish. I have nothing against scenery but do I have to be reminded what the bloody place looked like every paragraph?
~some of the main characters go through an angst-y routine that is a bit too artificial and ... well angst-y for my taste.

A collection of short stories about precisely what the cover says...Men Hunting Things.

Nice collection.

I was a bit put off by the cover, though. What is that thing?

Now, after reading the book I found no creature in any of the stories that vaguely looks like it....except one.

The puudly.

Now notice that Mr. Simak never did elaborate on what the puudly looks like, he just mentions that it buds to reproduce. Could this thing on the cover be the puudly budding?
Then why the difference in the heads?
As you can see one is distinctly feline the other reptilian.

Normally, I don't care that much about a book's cover. But the puudly has a especial significance for me. I first read "Good Night, Mr. James" when I was 8 or so. To my young mind I always imagined it to be vaguely anthropoid with wicked talons growing directly from it's hands...kind like a sloth's claws. The budding part had me thinking about plants, and thus my puudly must be green... actually my puudly looks like an anthropoidal arrangement of....err.... cucumbers. Don't laugh, I was 8.

My puudly is way cooler than that picture. It just is.

Anyway, great collection.

Finally finished with this tome. Somebody told me it was a good read and she was absotutely correct. I would have happily kept on reading... except it ended.

Have any of you ever tried reading while constantly trying to sneak a peak at the next few sentences just to know what's going to happen next?

And then seeing a word that suddenly makes the sentence you're currently reading make perfect sense only to get to that word then seeing another word right at the periphery of your vision about 3 or 5 sentences away that has absolutely no connection to and blows the current makes-sense-of-the-whole-paragraph-word seem suddenly irrelevant?

No?

Then read this book... but be prepared for some major eye strain. By the end, my eyes and my brain were locked in a pretty fierce race trying to out read each other.

Humor? ... let's just say that I've personally discovered that reading something in public that looks like a bible while emitting a sound that sounds suspiciously like constant chuckling (or a chicken being slowly strangled) is evidently frowned upon in some places. The public (especially mother types with children and granny types) also does not appreciate when you close said bible-looking-book to savour a choice line while grinning for apparently (to them) no reason.

Memorable quotes and phrases....fogedaboudit. There's too darned many of them.

The perfect companion: as I've said before; Monty Python. Just don't make the same mistake I did and tried reading this while going on a Monty Python marathon...It'll wrong your brain in so many ways.

...

...

MARVIN LIVES!

apologize for the previous post. That insult was not very good....
I must be losing my touch.
...
No, see there's definitely no rhythm to it.
...
I'll try better next time.

In the meantime...

"Love in unexpected places"
...
Like... the SPLEEN!.

Bayani Fernando for a Darwin Award. I know that there are some requisites for the award but, heck there's nobody more deserving than Mr. Fernando, and to that end I would gladly like to be the one to assist in making him eligible.

Right now I just saw a news flash about his beloved MMDA tearing up trees along Katipunan. One of his goons claimed that "they were not killing the trees just facilitating their transfer to another area"
.... Yeah right

And that "we have specialized equipment to transport the trees unharmed and safely"

.... "equipment" looking suspiciously like chainsaws and axes and "transport" looking convincingly like dumping-them-on-the-backs-of-trucks-headed-for-the-nearest-landfill.

Enough of that fungus-faced, black arm-pitted, acne besieged, genetically flawed, pie bald, vertically challenged, race disgracing, pin headed, brain numbingly stupid, hamster sired, nit witted, I FART IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION! individual.

I'm still happily buried under Douglas Adams' The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide so no review yet. Also, I've been re watching The Jabberwocky and The Meaning of Life and also the 3rd and 4th season of Monty Python's Flying Circus.... and reading Romeo and Juliet in between.

.....my head hurts.

Also, I wish I knew the CBCP's (Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines) email address so that I can send them this link. Watch it for yourself and try not to laugh and wince and squirm at the same time....

Hmm, then again, why not? And so I, without a moments forethought, composed and sent the link to the CBCP.

If they take offense....I'll just blame it on The Bard.

Seriously, everyone knows how funny this book is. Even more funnier is if you have Monty Python on the brain then you can imagine the characters being played by the Python actors playing Python characters who play Hitchhiker characters being played by the Python actors......

Oh, poo.

Arthur Dent = Michael Palin
Ford Prefect = John Cleese
Zaphod Beeblebrox = Eric Idle or here
Tricia McMillan = Graham Chapman
Eddie and Marvin = Terry Jones or here

Then the book just becomes BRILLIANT

Having finished Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays I was struck by a peculiar thought (well several actually, but who's counting?) ...

~Am I some one's Bunbury?. What if?

~Isn't blogging just a modern form of Bunburying? I mean some of us are making personas who are quite different from our real life personalities.

~How many of the people I know are Bunburys or are Bunburyists (Bunburiers?)? You could be one right now... and does it make a difference?

Salome - It's been several years since I've read the New Testament, but I'm pretty sure that Salome doesn't kiss John's severed head. The play does make Salome's character more fleshed out, if monstrous. In one hand I thought that she was acting out of rejection and then spite, on the other I have to consider that she was acting very much like a child... not knowing the consequence of her actions nor comprehending the permanence of Death.

Lady Windermere's Fan - utterly unpredictable. In the end, I think Mrs. Erlynne the better of the two main female characters. Being willing to suffer humiliation and the frustration of her plans in order to save her (unknowing) daughter from a mistake, I think, is a more innately "good act" than faithfulness, constancy, and saving social face. I wonder if that form of social tallying still exists today... do people still really judge you on who you know and the society you keep?

The Importance of Being Earnest - In a word - charming. Right from the start, you can foresee the difficulties that the setup will engender. And that's without the meddling of Algernon. Because of Algy's meddling and his views the story becomes completely delightful.
~ "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his"
~" One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them"
Had me quietly chuckling. I suspect that he has met his match with Cecily, though.

Hello everyone, call me Figs. I am a CB addict. It's been 4 days since my last fix.

I affirm that I have a problem.
I understand that the first steps in stopping my addiction is understanding and admitting that I have a problem.

At first it was only a casual thing. Me and my friends would have CBs once a week. Once a week became every 3 days, then everyday, till I was having it twice a day. More than anything it was the taste that I craved....that salty sweet taste with a slight tangy bite. And the overwhelming aftertaste that you can lick from your lips and the roof of your mouth.

But that is behind me now. No more will I fall into it's evil clutches. The last few days have been hard; the craving hits unexpectedly. But I have tried and am trying to sublimate the craving. I read, I keep a journal, I chew gum and suck on hard candies...anything to keep my mind of it.

And I feel that I am succeeding. I know that I am succeeding. I will beat and am going to beat this addiction.

My name is Figs and it's been 4 days since I last had a Cheeseburger.

It's been 700 odd years since Dante traveled through hell. Since then you'd expect things to have changed a bit even in Hell. This book is the account of an agnostic sci-fi writer's own journey down through the circles of Hell seeking his own escape/redemption.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are great writers in their own right, together they're just brilliant. I can't imagine any other author/s that could have the guts to do a follow up to Dante (except maybe Mark Twain). I had no idea what the book was about aside from the fact that Niven and Pournelle wrote it and it must be good. I thought the book was:

~ about a world of high temperatures and the creatures there
~ the earth's core
~ a building or something else on fire
~ creatures who survive in space and live in and around stars.

Not once did it enter my mind that the book's title meant entirely that: "Inferno". Dante's hell was all well and good for the 12th century but in the book we see that there's been some developments in hell itself... some sins have become obsolete, we've invented some new ones of our own, and several whole new takes on the standard 7 deadly sins.

Now being agnostic myself, I could relate pretty well to the character. I also liked the interpretation of Hell's purpose within the Catholic structure... and strangely (or perhaps maybe not) this interpretation made a whole lot more sense to me than the one that the Catholic church has been preaching. Basically, within the book, Hell is just another barrier/test a soul had to surmount in order to merit heaven. Bible Hell is inescapable and forever, Dante's Hell is peopled by souls who do not want to get out and are punished forever, but this Hell (Hell 2.0?) provides the chance for the damned to change. The punishment is still there; for every sin a corresponding punishment and several new ones have been added and old sins reinterpreted, but there is Hope, something seriously lacking in the standard Bible Hell.

This being based on Dante's journey it wouldn't be complete without the characters meeting some people of note, I ain't telling who exactly they meet but it seems the authors have several people (or class of sinners) in mind.

In the circle for the Heretics who could they mean by ~
AC: "A science fiction writer who lied about being a science-fiction writer because hr got more money that way. He wrote whole novels in baby talk, with sixth-grade drawings in them, and third-grade science, and he new better." ~
B: "If I judge rightly by the size of his tomb, he must have founded his own religion. And possibly worshipped himself."
AC: "No, they where jokes, sort of. But he did found at least two, not that there were any followers..."

And after seeing a particularly corrupted form in the bolgia of the Sowers of Discord:
~ " He founded a religion that masks as a form of lay psychiatry. Members try to recall previous lives in their presumed animal ancestry. They also recall their own past lives ... and that adds an interesting blackmail angle, because those who hear confession are often more dedicated than honorable."

Loan sharks are also given their very own place as are corrupt defense lawyers.

The ending is also a surprise and the action leading up to it is simply genius.

Having finished the book, I can sum up my reaction in one word:

MORE.

or in two words:

MORE, Please.

I think there's still a huge amount of stories that can be told about Worthing World and I for one will be all too eager to read them.

The book is composed of 3 "chapters"; Worthing Chronicles, Tales of Capitol, and Tales from the Forest of Waters. There are inconsistencies between Chap1 and Chap3 but they don't detract from the overall theme of the individual stories.

Overall, the book is standard sci-fi fare... you have psi powers, galactic empires, a pseudo immortality through technology, etc. Yet a large part of the book concerns a society barely out of the medieval stage; Only in Chap2 is high technology found and even there it's the characters that drive the plot. The book almost feels like a fantasy and not sci-fi the same way that the Pern series does, a style that I love.

My my, I do sound entirely too pedantic and serious.

And now for something completely different.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavatory
On Wednesdays I go shopping
And have buttered scones for tea

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day

I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers
I put on women's clothing
And hang around in bars

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day

I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspenders and a bra
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear Mama!

Some of my speculations about how the Worthing Chronicles part of the book was going to develop were not that far off.

Warning
For those who may pick up this book; there's a woozy of an emotional roller coaster right around the parts where Stipock is introduced. I advise reading it in private as readers prone to sudden moistening of their ocular apparatus may suffer exaggerated spasms of their blepharo organs in an effort to minimize a potentially embarrassing lachrymal situation.

Notable passages/s:
"No society can stay the same, because the young ones have to change things to show there's a reason for them to live."

"And they saw in Jason's mind the things he treasured most, the memories that were strongest, and they were all the times of fear and hunger, pain and grief. And they looked into their own hearts, and saw what memories had endured ~ and they where the memories of struggles and accomplishments ~ these had lasted , while the simple contentment had not. They saw that this was what had made them good, even in their own eyes; and because they had left the rest of man no evils to overcome, they had robed them of the hope of greatness, of the possibility of joy"

Now deep down isn't that why we like to watch epic adventures? Why we feel all choked up with emotion during the "hero moment"?
We ask ourselves
'Where now can I distinguish myself like that?'
'Where my chance to be heroic?'
'Where the struggle and the glory?'

Ponder that awhile as I finish reading the book.

Not finished yet with this Orson Scott Card book. Actually I just finished Waking the Children, the 6th story in the Worthing chronicle.

As far as it goes.... Lared is writing the story of Jason Worthing. Simple enough, but this is sci-fi so simplicity won't cut it for long.

Jason Worthing is the name of God for Lared's people and as far as I have gone in my reading, I think I can guess how that came to be. Prominent in Jason's story is somec which I am guessing is a substance used to induce Sleep. Sleep in this context is a state of hibernation which the people used to cheat death; waking for a span of time then returning to sleep thus prolonging the actual years of their existence. Jason is a Swipe, a limited telepath. Limited in a sense because he can pick up people's thoughts and memories but can't project his own. He is accompanied by a girl named Justice, a full telepath... I think.

Another character, and the one I find most interesting, is Abner Doon. To Lared's people he is the Devil to Jason's God. His viewpoint is one I have previously encountered in my reading.
To sum: The world needs change. Only through entropy / chaos is there any progress.

First time I encountered this idea is through Dune, which I read when I was Gr. 6. In Dune this is expressed thus; ' the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation.' I've thought on it since then and I must express my affirmation for this principle. In this view the actions of Abner Doon was better for mankind as a whole.

Ich spreche sehr schlect.

Wha?

From Mel and Joey:
"....hindi magiging kasing puti ni Lucy Torres"

And I thought:
Of course no one can be as white as Lucy Torres...
Heck
Even Lucy Torres can't be as white as Lucy Torres
Besides... Lucy Torres isn't white
She's The Color Out of Space.

Hier spricht man Englisch

Wha?

I'm going to skip what actually happened during the swap.

Thanks guys for making me feel welcome!

Also, my abject apologies for running out like that but I think this will go a long way in excusing my actions in part.

People there may have noticed me fussing with my watch. I'm sorry but I was stressing about becoming late for work. I have a reputation; I am never late. I always arrive at least 30 minutes to 1 hour early, get to read the patient charts (( I'm a Nurse, by the way (and yes I capitalized that on purpose)) and help out before patient endorsement. And this night I was on duty starting 10:30pm.

Anyway I said goodbye when I could, exchanged "nice-to-meet-yous" with some and waved or GANed (grin and nod) to others and hastily made my exit (stage right).

Now the choice.. walk back or ride a trike. Trike won because my watch said so. To the Mini Stop DriverMan! Now when I got (err) off I was looking at a highway with an overpass running down the middle with a walkway huddled under the foundation. I did not remember coming across this on the way to Xocolat...and where was that LRT station? (totally forgetting that it's underground) so I crossed the street hoping to spot the station on the other side. It's pretty dark and my already weak eyes are even weaker in the dark...it's a problem as headlights tend to fill my field of vision, and what little low-light-adjustment that my eyes have achieved is stripped away, leaving me dazzled and in the dark - not fun. Anyway I manage to orient myself and turn myself around (thank you Street Vendors) Walking down the LRT station I turned on my MP3 and judged it time for a little unwinding...cue Bod Dylan.

With Visions of Johanna in my ears I puzzled over the card vending machine. Having scored a minor victory and claiming my terminal card I hurried to the turnstile, entered, and promptly got lost as to which way I'm going, finally got turned around and arrived at the platform and proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait. After Ballad of a Thin Man and halfway through Brownsville Girl the train finally arrived. Ahh, sure feels good to sit down; The Ballad of Franky Lee and Judas Priest, You're Gonna Make me Lonesome, Highway 61 Revisited, Desolation Row, Percy's Song, Romance in Durango, Highlands, Tangled up in Blue, Day of the Locusts, Masters of War, With God on My Side.

As Bob was warbling out the first stanza of Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, I exited the Recto terminus and glancing at my watch (8:56 pm) made my hasty way to the D. Jose station. Surprise, surprise a schedule informed me that the last trip fro passengers going from Baclaran to Monumento was 9:00 pm on weekends and holidays. Good thing I had time to spare.... 2 minutes exactly by the time I purchased my card.

Father of Night and about halfway into All along the Watchtower the train finally arrived. Now I was seriously thinking about dinner... fast food or street food. You know you're running late when you don't have time for "fast" food.

Talkin World War III Blues, Gates of Eden, Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol, Jack-a-Roe, and I was going down Blumentritt station when I decided, street pchops it is. 70 pesos for 2 greasy chops with extra grease and 10 pesos for 2 orders of rice with nothing extra please thankyuoverymuch. (2 of each as one is for my sister which will take a bit of convincing for my part..."These porkchops? they're err gourmet pchops." "Yes, yes, yes the restaurant had a sidewalk theme." "All the grease? It's uh virgin coconut grease." "Yes, you know from coconuts......")

Now from Blumentritt station to point A, it's about 8 blocks as a pigeon flies and 12 blocks as an askal runs.... a 50 peso trike ride, Shelter from the Storm, and Quinn the Eskimo later, I was home. Time: 9:40 or so, dare I lay out plates and kubyertos to eat? Ha! Eat from the plastic and hope I don't choke on the boulders they always put in the brownish 5 peso rice. Now a glass of water, a 15 minute bath. And by 10:25 I was on my way to work.

I went to my first FFP meeting last night.

Gather around the monitor while I spin my tale.

Now first, I had to get from point A to point B. Point A being Blumentritt and point B being Xocolat near Katipunan. Okay, easy enough landmarks and directions are provided and I could always google it to find out where it's at.

Here's where sleep deprivation becomes a factor. I was on night duty the day before and when I got home I thought; "screw sleep I'm going to watch Monty Python instead"... so 5 episodes or so later it's time to go. I hastily googled "map B. Gonzales" and right of I noticed a search result "Mirriam College is a place etc." and I says didn't c z a r mention something about Xocolat being near Mirriam college. So I click there and I find a map...and look there's an LRT2 station near there. Lucky. I then hastily scribbled down directions from Katipunan station to the nearest B. Gonzales...it went something like this;

"from LRT station L to along katipunan, L to xavierville, 3 kanto from katipunan corner xavierville"

Now those of you who know where I'm headed are obviously laughing right now. My judgment was a bit hazy what with the being-awake-for-20-hours and all, besides I've firmly believed that the best way to get familiarized to a new place is to get lost. And my definition of walking distance is fucked up, as most of my friends say, because walking distance to me is Blumentritt to Luneta. I once walked from Greenhills to the National Center for Mental Health just because.

So much for getting to point A to B. So back to the story. First time I'm going to ride the LRT2 line, but I knew there was a walkway from the D. Jose station to Recto station. No sweat. So I disembarked at Katipunan station and prepared to get lost. And there's nothing better to listen to when beginning to get lost as Kashmir by Led Zep. And so with Led Zep blasting away I began to walk (Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd)
...and walk (Wish you were Here by Pink Floyd)
......and walk (You Better, You Bet and Baba O'Riley by The Who, Purple Haze by Hendrix, Black Dog by Led Zep, Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, Changes by David Bowie.)
Then I reached a B. Gonzales street and I asked around there for a Cafe Xocolat the security guard was kind enough to point out the building across the street...but obviously my X didn't come across clearly enough as I found a cozy Cafe Chocolat instead.

No biggy it's bound to be around here, I mean how many chocolate themed cafes can a place support ( around 3 or 4 as I've seen). I asked inside the Cafe (Behind Blue Eyes by The Who in my ears) and I was directed that there was a Cafe Xocolat ( now with eXaggerated X ) around the next street over. Seems like I'm walking some more (Instant Karma by John Lennon)
...and some more (Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane, Me and Bobee McGee by Janis Joplin, Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer, She Loves You by The Beatles) right about here I'm turning in to another corner (Got My Mind Set on You by a Beatle, Wild Night by Van Morrison, Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult, Hair of the Dog by Nazareth, Tush by ZZ Top) and then I come to... a gate. A GATE!, seriously rich people are pretty inconsiderate towards people getting lost like me, barring perfectly good roads with gates and guards who start conversations like;

"Saan po kayo sir"

"Dito" I says

"Saan po kayo papunta"

"Doon" I says... right about know I'm waiting for an armored knight to enter off screen and clobber me with a chicken. (T.N.T. by ACDC...and I seriously have these songs set up like this on my MP3 player) I smile and ask directions to Cafe Xocolat ( with an even more eXaggerated X) and I'm told it's on the next road over with the ever so helpful hand-pointing-in-a-curve indicating my next path.

And now for something completely different.... me walking (Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne, Up Around the Bend by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Paperback Writer by The Beatles, Old Man by Neil Young, Your Song by Elton John, The Joker by the Steve Miller Band, Some Kind of Wonderful by Grand Funk Railroad, I Can See for Miles by The Who, Aqualung and Cross Eyed Mary by Jethro Tull, Dream On by Aerosmith) Now, isn't that a highway I see? There was a bank on the other side with another Manong Sekyu outside and I was told that "Nakalampas ka na ayun sya sa kabila oh".

And then I arrived.

I think this is the 3rd time I'm starting a blog. First one, I forgot the site. Second one, I forgot I started one....or two.

So this is the 3rd, and you know what they say about lucky number 3; .... 'then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.' Amen."

And now for something completely different .... or more of the same really. I'm going to discuss books, random thoughts, music, news, etc. all while trying futilely to get rid of the Python randomness that's taken over my brain.

Also check out my Shelf... if that isn't screaming out "Geek", I don't know what is.