Books to Read: A Void by Georges Perec

This is one novel I definitely want to read. My attraction towards the book goes beyond the story.  It’s more than your usual mystery novel.  It’s more than the plots and sub-plots.  No, my desire to read this book is to see the brilliance of how this book was written.  This novel was written without using the letter “e”.

I can only imagine how difficult an undertaking this was.  But I bet it was a challenge that is hard to refuse by a man who is a member of the oulipo group.

Hope I can find a copy of this book soon.

Docto Who: The Bells of St. John - A Prequel

New episodes of Doctor Who

We're getting ready for the new episodes of Doctor Who and so is Matt Smith. :D

*I'm sorry but I can't remember where I got this photo.

The Total Tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet

Source: Amazon

Quite a funny book.  It's about, well, a girl named Hamlet who not only had to deal with having a boy's name and the troubles of being in eighth grade but also having her seven-year-old genius sister share classes with her.

It's definitely one of my fave reads for this year.  It also introduced me to Erin Dionne. Have now added her other book - Models don't eat chocolate cookies. 

The real private journals

There are still some things best written on paper than posted somewhere on the internet.

Puppy Parvo Watch

Wednesday morning we woke up to a sick puppy.  My brother recently brought home a puppy, only last Saturday.  Having lost a puppy recently to dystemper or maybe worms (not sure), I wasn't keen on making a connection. I still feel bad about Max (our last puppy) and I miss him.  Anyway, back to the new pup.

Last Monday, I took a photo his photo playing with our dog.  He was having fun.  That night, however, I noticed that he wouldn't eat.  I thought he just didn't like the food, so I asked my brother to feed him something else. The following morning I learned that he not only didn't eat but that he was vomiting and at one point vomited blood. So, we quickly brought him to the veterinarian. Normally, we bring our pets to the Vet Med in the nearby university.  But we took a chance with the vet clinic nearer our place.  It turns out that the doctor at the clinic is a graduate of the same university.  I was still a bit wary but she's proven herself to be very thorough and smart (of course!). She quickly tested him for Parvo infection, using a test kit that resembles a pregnancy kit. (The vet seemed tickled about the kit, when she showed it to me).  After a couple of minutes, it was slightly pink meaning that our puppy has the early onset of the infection. (She also tested for worms, but showed he had no worms.  Yay!)

Quickly, an IV line was placed for fluids and several shots.  As she worked, she kept telling us that our pet had a 50-50 chances of survival.  She didn't want us to give us hope.  I appreciated that.  She did say that chances will increase if our pet survives after three days. Since then, we've been on puppy watch - observing his breathing, checking his conditions, cleaning him and giving him shots.  (Thank goodness that there's an IV line that giving him shots is easy) My brother would tell him that he better get well soon because he's already spent a lot of money.  (The meds alone cost almost P600 per day)

We're on day 3 now.  I'm happy to report that he has improved.  Though still sick, he has stopped vomiting.  It seems that he has stopped bleeding as well. He's still weak but he can stand now and his eyes no longer look glassy.  I am allowing myself to hope now.  I keep reminding our puppy to fight the virus and survive. Be a miracle dog - according to the vet, the survival rate is one out of 10.

Tomorrow will be another trip to the vet for his shots.  Now, we're counting down to day 5 when our new puppy will have 90% chances of living. 

Rose reboots a Dalek, I reboot my laptop

I'm typing this on my mobile. I've been having issues with the laptop lately. Well, mostly my browser. I tried to figure out what was wrong for a while but I got tired of playing tech support. To make things easier, I just opted to restore it to its factory settings. I am just about to start installing MS office. I would have finished earlier but I got waylaid watching the earlier seasons of Doctor Who. By earlier seasons, I mean the season of the 9th Doctor.

Rose Tyler meets a Dalek.

I've just finished watching the episode where they go to Satellite 5. It's quite a forgettable ep, if you ask me. I like te one before that, Dalek. Now, I started watching the series with the 11th Doctor. I haven't seen how the Daleks could be a very scary enemy. Then I saw the 9th Doctor's Dalek. I understand now why it can be an arch-enemy. Seems indestructible and the bloody thing can (SPOILERS) levitate! This explains that scene in the Big Bang episode in season 5.

Though I am somewhat enjoying season one, I must admit that I'm have been having problems watching this season. I like Christopher Eccleston but am having a great difficulty liking Rose Tyler. (Now don't crucify me. As far as I know most people who like Rose, don't like Amy Pond, who I adore.) I feel like she's going to throw a tantrum if the Doctor doesn't let her have her way. In every episode, I wait for her to die. But of course, she doesn't. (This is pretty much the same when i "read" Twilight. I kept hoping Bella would die, but the author kept her alive. Disapppointing) I will continue to struggle and finish this bloody season. I just want to be rid of Rose Tyler.

Oh look, MS Office has just finished installing. Now to finish reinstalling the other programs so I cam get back to watching Doctor Who.

Image Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Third Time's the Charm (I hope)

Since I started blogging in 2004 (?), this is the third time I am rebooting this blog.  I really can't remember why decided to archive all the content back in 2005 and start all over again. Not that it matters now, actually.  Then rebooted again last year after with Writer's Block.  For the new year, I've created this new blog - using a new URL even.  For the last two, I just lost the inspiration to write. There are just too many months when I didn't write anything.  For the past year, I was busy re-posting gifs and memes and photos on Tumblr. Let's not also forget that I became quite addicted to the idea of pinning.

Now here we all are in 2013, still alive despite the apocalyptic prediction of the Maya.  (Please don't bother correcting me.  It is actually Maya because mayan is an adjective.)  I figured, what better way to convey survival of the non-existent end of the world (aside from screaming "I'm alive!") than to start blogging again.  But having a bit of a morbid side, I thought why not put an "end" to something belonging in the past?   So I decided to kill resign the old URL and just start fresh.  Hopefully, I will have more interesting content and be able to regularly update it too.

Now, we all know that the most common piece of advice on maintaining a blog  - schedule the update. So let me now say that I will do my best to update this every Sunday night (+8 GMT).  Now for the content - this site will cover things that distract me from writing - like shows I'm obsessing on, like Doctor Who or Bunheads, or Sherlock; movies and books i love and hate; news around the world that has got me thinking or riled up.  Every now and then I will repost photos from my Instagram account, as well.

There, I think I got blog 4.0 off to a good start. Cheers!