Talking to yourself ...

... is not a bad thing. Sometimes a little navel gazing and self reflection is good for you.


Because if other people talk to us the way we talk to ourself, we'd kick them out of our life.


Is your personal equation killing you? Think about it.

Never ever

This Public Service Announcement is under cut for sheer NSFW-ness.

Dopamine addicts of the world, UNITE!

Why is pleasure such a dirty word? It's God's gift to us! It drives a lot of our motivations.

 

The pleasure principle is not necessarily the worst way to live your life. We should enjoy our present since there are no guarantee for tomorrow.

So take care of yourself. Take charge of your enjoyment. Don't wait for permission. Don't wait for others to please you.

Enjoy!

Sing along!

How apropos since I am going on a train ride tomorrow.

Midweek sh*ts and giggles

The rest is under cut for sheer tak senonohness.

Not snake oil science

Oh, Hank ...



You evil, evil man. Why do you rip away my veil of feigned ignorance?

*pouts*

Space is pretty.

Nothing wrong with this. Nothing wrong whatsoever.

Sweep hey derry!

I have unhinged love for everything Ilona Andrews. It all started with a novella featuring a shapeshifter in denial. I fell in love with Andrea and Raphael and wondered about the friend who cooks Hesperides apples for her boyfriend.

Then I came across Bayou Moon and fell in love all over again with a changeling warrior and his violent conman girlfriend. I have no words to describe my utter joy with the book; it hit all the sweet spots perfectly. Crazy characters who grew and evolve? Check. A roller coaster ride of a plot and twistier than Twister on steroids? Check. A horrible antagonist who may make a reappearance? Check. Just to name a few.

And now they give away free serial reads?

How fantabulous is that? Go there and find out how an innocuous innkeeper kicks the ass of a werewolf and lived to talk about it. And there're scary old ladies who could eat you up; literally. This urban fantasy sci fi is a super fun read.

Go on. Click on the link and enjoy the clever wordsmiths at work.

Boy and his dragon

I read this book because it was recommended by a friend who gave me an appreciation for Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. I was looking for new authors to read (as usual) and was contemplating other genres than those I am comfortable with. So when she told that Robin McKinley is super awesome and I should try her, I looked for her books in the place where I rent the fodder for my habit. To my delighted surprise, they do have two books by her and I took this one.

I like dragons. I like the mythology of dragons, be it Asian or European. Sadly I don't get many (try almost none) books about Africa, African mythology (that is non Egyptian, that is) or written by Africans. Do they have dragons in Africa? I suppose they should.

But I digress.

This book was written almost diary-like, but more like a mental diarrhoea. The time stamps were only mentioned in passing, and the voice was completely written from a single point of view of the protagonist. This isn't necessarily bad; I like a lot of books written in the first person from a singular point of view. But the protagonist started off as a fifteen year old boy who thinks in sentences the length of an average paragraph. There was a great deal of emotional urgency in many parts of the book, particularly elucidating his bond with the dragonlet he adopted. I suppose that it is the only way to convey how intense and unusual the bond was considering biology and psychosocial adaptation (this is my personal brand of psychobabble).

However, I find this style of writing tiring to read. The story line was actually very interesting and gave me food for thought about people and non-human creatures and our relationship with them in this shrinking world. We humans think that as the vicegerent of the planet, it is only our plans and our convenience that matters when making decisions affecting other non-human life forms. This brand of arrogance is awful and often comes to a bad end, not just for the non-humans, but us as well.

I did finish the book, just so that I could wade through what the author had in mind for the perpetuation of the dragons. It took me ... three weeks of off-and-on reading? It was still tiring. I didn't like it that twenty odd year old Jake still thinks in sentence structures and vocabulary of the fifteen year old. I didn't like it that adult Jake didn't seem to make the leap towards thinking like, well, an adult. I also didn't quite like how self-absorbed Jake was from beginning till the end of the book. The other human characters are just like window dressing to give the story some extra dimension. There was greater character development for the dragons than for any of the humans. It's like the other human characters are just there to give support to Jake and very little else. I don't know, it just feels weird to me.

But if you are in it for a glorious story about a boy and his dragon, then this book is it. If you are character driven, the way I am, you probably wouldn't enjoy it as much. The pace is too slow for my taste and the only enjoyment I got at the end of the book is the sense of accomplishment that I finished the damned thing. 

Protagonist: 2/5 stars
Storyline: 3.5/5 stars
Pacing: 1/5 stars
Fun Factor: 2/5 stars
Repeat Reading Factor: 1/5 stars (only if I was stranded somewhere and had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE to read)

Waving the red flag

Period.

Nearly all women between the ages of 8 to 58 experience the monthly haemorrhagic episodes. They have to deal with the inconvenience of leaking bodily fluid, physical discomfort that ranges from mild bloating to cramps that make you curl up and wish for death and emotional distresses brought upon by hormones gone amok.

Not just that, they have to deal with lousy jokes popped by men who snidely say, "Oh, it's that time of the month is it?"

And then this guy pops up on FB.

I would like to think that this guy was just being ironic. Of course, it actually just accentuates what a huge douche he really is and a total moron for thinking that the monthly bleeding is actually about puppy tails and candies for women.

And the reply by Bodyform?



Super awesome.

I came across this one and saw that many men would rather bleed to death than go inside a store to buy pad's for a lady.



You'd run through a hail of mortar shots to drag your friends from total annihilation but not walk into a store and buy tampons? What the fuck is wrong with this picture? Did you think that buying a feminine hygiene product will miraculously transform the junk you are so proud of with a bleeding vagina?

Women have to undergo cultural and religious persecutions for centuries because of misconceptions of a normal biological function. It is this self same function that allows women's body to accommodate a foetus (or more) and continue to perpetuate the existence of the human race. Yes, it can be messy and uncomfortable, but if men are the ones who have to suffer through menstruation and childbirth, I'll bet we'd all die out with Adam.

So gentlemen, next time the ladies in your life are going through menstruation, have a heart will ya?