current favorites
Hello! I've got a lot of cool stuff I want to blog about (Sagada, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro) but this post has been quietly sitting in my Drafts for some time, just waiting to be published, so I'll start with this.
(One thing about me and music is I don't listen to entire albums (Taylor Swift being the only exception, because she is Taylor Swift). I'll usually hear a nice recommendation from someone else, and it will end up in my playlist. And if I really like that song, I'll look up its music video, and if I like that music video, the more it will solidify the song's spot in my playlists.)
It's a great song, and this video is probably one of my favorite music videos ever. At first it seems like a bunch of random shots that don't seem to tell a story, but you can see that the shots do get darker - both literally and metaphorically - as the song progresses. It's unsettling, inviting, and has a Wes Anderson vibe to it. I dare you not to hit Replay.
2. "Someone New" by Hozier
This music video is also a new(ish) favorite. The song and the video perfectly capture what I feel on the lonely weekend nights where I walk around busy Ortigas and silently, desperately wish I were somewhere else, living somebody else's life. Oh, and who knew Margaery Tyrell could work an undercut like that?
1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - ★★★★☆
Celia and Marco, two rival magicians sworn to compete against each other, find love in the Circus of Dreams. I was honestly not won over by the story. It was interesting for the first half but then it just wore on and I got pretty tired of it. It was Morgenstern's lovely writing that kept me reading. She has a way of making everything sound so magical and charming, something like Harry Potter, or Neverwhere (by Neil Gaiman). I'd give the story a 3 but the book gets 4 stars overall, because of magic~
2. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins - ★★★★★
This book was on my wishlist when it came out in 2005. Mom and Dad got it for me as either a Christmas or a gift for my 12th birthday. It was expensive (or at least my childish mind thought it was), so I was sad when I finished it and it seemed like nothing had happened. Just a bunch of teenagers talking to each other and doing mildly interesting things. When my parents asked me if I liked it, I had to act like I enjoyed it more than I actually did.
Now that I'm 21, I read it again and IT BLEW MY MIND. So much of it speaks about what I experienced growing up. Despite the simple plot, it really takes some maturity to appreciate parts of the story that it isn't any wonder why my eleven-year-old self missed out on the real beauty of this literary gem. The way the author wrote the book is so familiar and lovely, I feel like she is a friend whispering in my ear while we eat snacks out in the summer breeze.
3. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding - ★★★★☆
The night before my family and I left for a vacation to Cebu, I figured that I should bring some light reading material to the beach. I rummaged through our shelves and found a copy of Bridget Jones's Diary, with its Booksale tag still on (we bought it for just 20 pesos!). Even though it was an impulse read, I was pretty hooked after a few pages. Bridget is funny, clumsy, and kind of pathetic - a thoroughly relatable character for me. Some of it was too British (and 1990's) for my taste though. I couldn't relate to a lot of cultural references she was making. But it was still a great book. Fun fact: I went to Booksale some days after I finished this and found the sequel (Edge of Reason). I bought it for 20 pesos!
4. The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey - ★★★★☆
In a post-apocalyptic world, Melanie is a little girl who is infected with a parasite that makes her crave for human flesh. I'm too lazy to give a proper synopsis now but I will say that it was a pretty awesome story. It was a zombie thriller, but with more well-rounded characters. I was pretty sad at the end of the book, not because anything sad happened, but because the story was over. I really liked the characters and I was so sad that our time together was over. I am in desperate need of a sequel.
In case you didn't know by now, a lot of colleges in the Philippines are shifting the academic calendar from June-March to August-May. Since Ateneo de Manila is one of those colleges, for the first time ever our year will start in August 2015, and our second semester will end in May 2016. Which means that basically everyone in an Ateneo de Manila school (from grade school to post grad) is going to get a four-month break this year! Well, except for the seniors who graduated this year, because they're headed straight for unemployment (mehehehe).
So if you asked anyone from Ateneo what they've been up to, likely you'll get an answer involving the word "bum." Sometimes you'll hear "work." I have a couple of med school friends who have gotten internships and research assistant positions and are going to be earning moolah over the break. Meanwhile, I am (mostly) at home in Cagayan de Oro, catching up on leisure reading (more on that later), watching random movies (more on that later), and attempting little projects (more on that later). But I've been keeping busy too, sort of. I recently applied to this job as a data collector, and I've also got some work lined up for the International Federation of Medical Students Associations Asia Pacific Regional Meeting 2015 Philippines. Yeah, it's a mouthful. But if you're a med student looking for something to do around the last week of June, you should definitely join. It's going to be an amazing learning opportunity. Check out their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/aprm2015!
I've also spiffed up this blog's layout a bit. There's now a navigation bar at the top where you can navigate to certain posts. The sidebar looks much better now too, if I do say so myself. And, perhaps the biggest (and least visible) change of all, this blog is no longer synced with my Facebook. Which means that whenever I post new content, it will no longer appear on my Facebook feed, and nobody will know that I've come up with something new unless they deliberately go to my blog.
Essentially, I'm moving towards taking this blog off the grid, making it less findable. I've decided that I want to take my blog back and continue writing for myself instead of for other people. Why not use a diary? you may ask. Even though it is none of your business, the short answer is that I like typing out my thoughts and seeing them appear in a neat, clean blogger format. It works for me. And I'm hoping that if I take it out of Facebook, I will feel more free to write as if nobody else were reading.
So starting with this post, I'm going to post something completely uninteresting to other people. If you are another person reading this, I don't mind, you're not interrupting anything private. But be warned: you are not going to enjoy what you read, and I do not feel obligated to make you enjoy. This first post in my Blog Renaissance is a boring compilation of stuff that I enjoy (clarification: the compilation, and not the actual items in the list, is what's boring). Okay, that's enough of an opening statement. On with the show!
Music (videos)
(One thing about me and music is I don't listen to entire albums (Taylor Swift being the only exception, because she is Taylor Swift). I'll usually hear a nice recommendation from someone else, and it will end up in my playlist. And if I really like that song, I'll look up its music video, and if I like that music video, the more it will solidify the song's spot in my playlists.)
1. "Riptide" by Vance Joy
2. "Someone New" by Hozier
This music video is also a new(ish) favorite. The song and the video perfectly capture what I feel on the lonely weekend nights where I walk around busy Ortigas and silently, desperately wish I were somewhere else, living somebody else's life. Oh, and who knew Margaery Tyrell could work an undercut like that?
Games
Ragnarok. My classmates Suar, Gino, and Dan convinced me to play DreamerRO, a high-rate server where killing 5 Porings gets you quite easily to Level 80. The game makes it really easy for you to level up, which can be a good thing and a bad thing.
In the glory days of my Ragnarok obsession (which, as with many other Filipinos, happened around 2004-2007), I had a lot of fun meeting new people, going on quests, and exploring maps by foot (er, cursor). One of the coolest things that happened was when I found a group of friends to help me in my quest to become an Acolyte. They were on their way to some fields to help their novice friend become an Acolyte as well, so I teamed up with them and killed monsters and gathered items until us Novices became Acolytes, and eventually after days and days of grinding, Priest and Priestess. (Note: "Grinding" means to mindlessly kill monsters in order to gain experience points and level up. It's usually the least fun part of level-up types of games).
Playing a high-rate server now, I find that it doesn't have the same appeal as before. Whereas before I would have to traverse through several dangerous maps, slay hundreds of evil monsters, and die a couple of times in order to accomplish a certain task, now I can just warp anywhere, kill (mostly) anything, and get what I want instantly. It's satisfying at first, but now that I've maxed out my character's level (quite easily too, since DreamerRO has a "merceneray" function in which they rent out this super-strong "mercenary" character who does all the grinding for you), I don't really know what to do anymore. The goal of the old game used to be to level up until you become the strongest you can be, while in the new game, the goal seems to be to level up so you can compete in the Player-vs-Player tournaments and kill bigger monsters that give you items. It's getting old.
So I'm thinking of switching to a low or mid-rate server, where things aren't as easy and more player cooperation is required.
In the glory days of my Ragnarok obsession (which, as with many other Filipinos, happened around 2004-2007), I had a lot of fun meeting new people, going on quests, and exploring maps by foot (er, cursor). One of the coolest things that happened was when I found a group of friends to help me in my quest to become an Acolyte. They were on their way to some fields to help their novice friend become an Acolyte as well, so I teamed up with them and killed monsters and gathered items until us Novices became Acolytes, and eventually after days and days of grinding, Priest and Priestess. (Note: "Grinding" means to mindlessly kill monsters in order to gain experience points and level up. It's usually the least fun part of level-up types of games).
Playing a high-rate server now, I find that it doesn't have the same appeal as before. Whereas before I would have to traverse through several dangerous maps, slay hundreds of evil monsters, and die a couple of times in order to accomplish a certain task, now I can just warp anywhere, kill (mostly) anything, and get what I want instantly. It's satisfying at first, but now that I've maxed out my character's level (quite easily too, since DreamerRO has a "merceneray" function in which they rent out this super-strong "mercenary" character who does all the grinding for you), I don't really know what to do anymore. The goal of the old game used to be to level up until you become the strongest you can be, while in the new game, the goal seems to be to level up so you can compete in the Player-vs-Player tournaments and kill bigger monsters that give you items. It's getting old.
So I'm thinking of switching to a low or mid-rate server, where things aren't as easy and more player cooperation is required.
Books
Celia and Marco, two rival magicians sworn to compete against each other, find love in the Circus of Dreams. I was honestly not won over by the story. It was interesting for the first half but then it just wore on and I got pretty tired of it. It was Morgenstern's lovely writing that kept me reading. She has a way of making everything sound so magical and charming, something like Harry Potter, or Neverwhere (by Neil Gaiman). I'd give the story a 3 but the book gets 4 stars overall, because of magic~
This book was on my wishlist when it came out in 2005. Mom and Dad got it for me as either a Christmas or a gift for my 12th birthday. It was expensive (or at least my childish mind thought it was), so I was sad when I finished it and it seemed like nothing had happened. Just a bunch of teenagers talking to each other and doing mildly interesting things. When my parents asked me if I liked it, I had to act like I enjoyed it more than I actually did.
Now that I'm 21, I read it again and IT BLEW MY MIND. So much of it speaks about what I experienced growing up. Despite the simple plot, it really takes some maturity to appreciate parts of the story that it isn't any wonder why my eleven-year-old self missed out on the real beauty of this literary gem. The way the author wrote the book is so familiar and lovely, I feel like she is a friend whispering in my ear while we eat snacks out in the summer breeze.
The night before my family and I left for a vacation to Cebu, I figured that I should bring some light reading material to the beach. I rummaged through our shelves and found a copy of Bridget Jones's Diary, with its Booksale tag still on (we bought it for just 20 pesos!). Even though it was an impulse read, I was pretty hooked after a few pages. Bridget is funny, clumsy, and kind of pathetic - a thoroughly relatable character for me. Some of it was too British (and 1990's) for my taste though. I couldn't relate to a lot of cultural references she was making. But it was still a great book. Fun fact: I went to Booksale some days after I finished this and found the sequel (Edge of Reason). I bought it for 20 pesos!
In a post-apocalyptic world, Melanie is a little girl who is infected with a parasite that makes her crave for human flesh. I'm too lazy to give a proper synopsis now but I will say that it was a pretty awesome story. It was a zombie thriller, but with more well-rounded characters. I was pretty sad at the end of the book, not because anything sad happened, but because the story was over. I really liked the characters and I was so sad that our time together was over. I am in desperate need of a sequel.
Particularly enjoyed reading this post. I hope you're doing well and find the long break pleasant. Whenever I see someone rave about books it makes me wonder if I should put more effort into reading (it was effortless in high school, I don't know why).
ReplyDeleteOn blogging, I think I'm doing the reverse. I've since made my blog private because it freaked me out to realize I've had a few emotional posts out in the open. But it's also because I've started writing more audience-friendly posts in a new blog.
Low-rate servers can be relatively fast and you can reach level 80 in maybe ten hours. I've also realized that each private server mods maps and NPCs to its liking, and you can warp practically anywhere, but it's still fun to play where there's a thriving community. My boyfriend and I have been doing a bunch of EXP quests since we got a little tired of grinding. The quests usually require you to traverse maps, collect items, or kill monsters for items, so it's quite fun.
Helloooooooooo what are your reading habits? Just curious. How long does it take you to read a book? Do you read it in one sitting? Have you read a game of thrones?
ReplyDelete