Blah Blah Blah

It’s back to work again in a few hours. Though I ache to say that I’d really rather be doing something else, I wouldn’t. I don’t think it does me any good to emit bad vibes out into the world anyway.

I just really hope that my allergic rhinitis doesn’t get triggered while at work later. And I hope my headaches don’t come back once I’m there. Please, I need to be able to concentrate on my work. The only way I can be efficient in the office is to avoid distractions as much as I can. Having an office to myself would be good, but I haven’t earned that. The platform is my domain (one I share with 9 others?) and it was designed to make us very accessible so having people come and go is already a given. Not having to bother about sniffles or headaches would just make things easier, you know?

Perhaps the office should invest on a dehumidifier? It’s probably a wise investment too. Less people would get sick, less absences, more billable hours! What do you think?

Oh well.

How’s your weekend? Read any good books lately?

Kindle for iPad

I finally gave up on getting the ebook from Booksneeze to open on iBook. Much as I love the feel of pages turning in that app, I knew I had to find an alternative. Or else, I wasn't going to read The Little Red Book of Wisdom.

So I downloaded the Kindle for iPad.

kindle is free to download from the App Store. I have so far been successful at opening the Kindle version of the book that I downloaded from Booksneeze (yay!), and I've tried to get a feel for the reader.

So far I've found a few thoughts that I love about Kindle:

I can change the viewing options to a white, black or sepia background. I like black better, and sepia is a close second.

It's easy to bookmark and add notes. This is especially important for books that I'm reviewing. No need for an extra notebook or sticky notes.

Since the book I'm reading is a freebie in exchange for a review, it says that on some pages of the book. I don't mind, specially since I have no intention to distribute copies of the book. I am no pirate. :)

So I am looking forward to reading my book. I just hope I would actually find the time to do that.

I also look forward to using Kindle more. So far I have this book, and the Oxford Dictionary loaded (free). I might purchase the Kindle edition of Bakerella’s Cake Pops too.

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Earlier this afternoon I was watching a movie on the Diva channel, Expecting Mary. It was about pregnant teenager Mary who ran away from home, and was hitchhiking her way to her Dad’s place. She ended up finding a family in a trailer park. It was truly a non-conventional family. She was taken in by a former Vegas showgirl who was still doing shows at her local small town Casino. She lived in a trailer park and was constant companion to another elderly lady who had a small pig farm.  It doesn’t look like any of the homes in their tiny ‘village’ needed any rv repair as none of the RVs actually worked, they were parked forever. Anyway, I didn’t get to finish the film though so I’m hoping there would be a replay. Did anyone else catch that film?

ePub

I checked out a book from Booksneeze in digital format. Problem is, I can’t get it to load on iBooks on my iPad. I’ve downloaded the book in epub format but when I try to access it and click to open in iBooks, it doesn’t do that.

Looks like the alternative is to load it via iTunes. I have yet to try that option.

So I’ve been using my iPad more lately, right? The other day, when the boyfriend came home from work and we had had our lunch, we fought over the PC and he won. I was banished to the sofa to either watch TV, or entertain myself with the iPad. I chose the latter. And a good two hours passed without me noticing. The only way I knew I had been immersed so long? Two and a half Cinema One movies.

I would probably have stayed longer if I were seated on a more comfortable chair. A lazy boy would do, or a nice big power lift chair, haha! Oh but I can’t be too comfortable otherwise I’d most likely fall asleep.

FlipBoard

Last week, when I decided to give my iPad another chance at seeping into my daily routine, I actually pored over two apps and spent a good two hours going through my social network feeds. I’ll talk about one of those apps today.

 

Flipboard is your own magazine. The content is exactly what you would want to read about because you control the feeds you get through it. Add your Facebook account, your Twitter, and feeds from websites you like frequenting. Indeed, it’s your personalized social magazine.

What I love about it is that it allows me to view photos, videos, and links shared by my friends without having to leave the application. That’s wonderful! I can delve into what they’ve shared without having to leave the timeline – I can go back and go through the rest of the shares without a problem.

You have to experience Flipboard to understand why it’s one of my favorite apps. If you have an iPad – get it and download this app, you will not regret it. In fact, you might even jump for joy! Yup, jump as if you were taking off one of these trampolines New York!

Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado

I have had this book for as long as I’ve been working in Cubao. I’ve also tried to write a review many times but have come up black on all those times. But don’t let that lead you to thinking that it’s because I didn’t like this Max Lucado title. I did. I do.

Maybe the fact that I picked it up as I was starting a new life at my new job wasn’t the best time to take it all in.

Outlive Your Life is a call to action. It provides the nudge to open ones eyes to how much each of us can contribute to make the world a truly better place – that we can all make a difference.

It starts with the story of a ship blown off-course and what the sailors found in uncharted waters. The captain steps foot on Father Benjamin’s island, and sees how the natives lived. He asked where Fr. Benjamin lives they pointed to all that he has helped built and develop for the inhabitants of the small paradise. Fr. Benjamin may be dead, but he continues to live through his work. Those were his legacy.
The author continues on to cite the problem of world hunger, and then the hard truth: there is enough resources to feed the world’s hungry. We have enough supply, but the problem is in distribution. What are you doing to help change that?

With so many things going on right now in the world, the disaster in Japan, the attacks on Libya, and the millions of homeless and hungry all over the world, we are given an opportunity to do something that will live beyond our last breath. To reach out and help. To make a difference in someone’s life.
The book builds up on this idea and reinforces the message as you go through the chapters like a guide book for living a life for others.

I received this book from Booksneeze.

Movie Review: The Reader (2008)

The Reader is a 2008 movie that I saw on cable in 2011. It was one of those films that I didn’t plan on seeing, but show started just as I was channel surfing and passing through Star Movies (or was it HBO or Cinemax?). I knew what it was about and have always wanted to see it and I was glad to finally have seen it one night last week.

Michael Berg is the reader. He started reading to Hanna Schimtz, a lady perhaps almost twice his age, right after recovering from Scarlet fever as a very young man. Hanna helped Michael get home when she found him outside her apartment fever, disoriented and vomiting. It was the day Michael got the fever. Three months later, he brought flowers to the lady who helped him get home. And that’s how their secret affair started.

But the film is not about illicit affairs or May-December relationships. No. Not really. In a way it is about how people come to terms with happened in Nazi concentration camps. To me, it speaks about judgment, and forgiveness.

I hated Michael as a law student. Why didn’t he speak up? Why didn’t he attempt to speak with Hanna and help with his defense? Was he embarrassed to be connected with her? I guess Hanna’s secret is as much his. Perhaps he was embarrassed not because of Hanna’s role in the death of so many Jews, but he just couldn’t admit that he had an affair with an older woman. But if it had meant a choice between life and death, between liberty and lifetime in prison – couldn’t he have stopped thinking of himself?

Maybe what happened to his family life was a result of his guilt – no, his resentment over himself. Perhaps taking up those books and recording them for Hanna to listen to was his way of redeeming himself in her eyes – though she wasn’t aware that he had known all along and didn’t do anything to help. So in a way I understand his decision then to remain quiet – in his mind he was respecting Hanna’s secret. If she didn’t want anyone to know of her illiteracy, then that’s her business.

Then where was justice then? Was it just to have sentenced her – a guard just like the other women, of equal rank possibly – to five times as many years behind bars than the rest? She was a guard. She was performing a duty. She made no judgment of the people under her ‘care.’ To her, what she did was not a choice. It was just something that had to be done. As she aged in prison, all alone, she had nothing and no one else. When the tapes started coming, it was as if she had a new lease on life. She had something to look forward to. And perhaps for the first time in her life, she had the drive to learn to read (and write) on her own.

But I still hated Michael. When she finally taught herself to write – why didn’t he respond to her letters? Has he not forgiven her for breaking his heart? Or has he believed in her guilt as a Nazi guard? So okay, she was a Nazi – but did she really understand what she got herself into?

I hated him when he went to visit her. To me, it was his fault Hanna did what she did in the end.

Putting her in prison for the rest of her life did not make a difference to anyone. I don’t think it made any difference to the two remaining survivors of the fire that killed 300 women during the death marches for which Hanna and the other guards were held responsible for. She could have done more good for herself, and for society in those years she spent in prison. But okay, someone had to be accountable. Someone had to be made accountable. That was her role.

But she was finally coming out. And she finally saw a familiar face – one that she might have even loved. But there was nothing familiar there. No love. Just… bitter cold. It was an obligation to be there. And he had judged her.

What was left for her? What else was there to live for?

Now this is also just my opinion of the movie. Nazi reign was a nightmare for many. Until now, many are still seeking justice. Finding closure. Seeking answers. I speak only about what was on the movie, I speak of Hanna and Michael and the circumstances they were in. I speak of their characters who could have lived in another time. Do not measure my words and assume that I am saying something I am not. 

Reading Goals

Do you have them for yourself?

Bookworms of the world, do you set reading goals? I don’t. But I was really hoping to finish a book this weekend. But thanks to feeling awful (cough, colds, and a slight fever) there goes my weekend. All I’ve been doing is crashing in front of the TV, some Internet time, sleeping, and eating.

But really just a lot of sleeping.

Ugh.

Sometimes I feel like going on vacation just so I can shack up in a hotel room, or lounge by the pool/beachside and read good books to my hearts’ content. Anytime I’d feel sleepy or heady, I’d just take a dip in the cool waters of the sea or of the pool. A no pressure vacation where I don’t need to go around touring the place – all I’m expected to do is relax and maybe take advantage of the pine beds they have to offer, or of the various comfy lounge chairs I could imagine all around my chosen resort. Oh well. I can always dream…

So anyway, do you set reading goals? Care to share?