She's a smart, smart girl

C'mon, it's Miss Teen USA. Life is fair. What you get enhanced in one area, namely cleavage, another area has to diminish, also known as the brain. Plus, she still came in third, and can spend the rest of her life teaching in Iraq or South Africa. She'll be an exemplary addition to their education system.

Barnes and Noble Observations

One of my favorite stores, if you didn't already know, is Barnes and Noble. This summer, with no summer classes, my weekends are free from homework and exams. Thus, I get to spend my time however I please. And one of my favorite things to do is to go to Barnes and Noble, pick out a book (from a million that I see and go: "Oh, I wanna read that....someday =0), and grab a comfy chair and read and observe. When my mind starts to wander from the book, the only natural thing is to observe. Since the comfy chairs are often grouped together (at least the one at the Galleria Mall), it's easy to observe the other readers around me. I don't know why, but it fascinates me what other like to read. I feel you can discern something about a person based on the book he/she is reading. I feel one can pass a strong impression based on what a person is reading. For instance, there was a woman sitting to my left today. Her arms were laden with fashion magazines filled with glossy cover of voluptous women airbrushed so much that their faces look like marble; smooth and unblemished, though entirely unrealistic. These editors forget human skin is porous. From there, I took a closer look at the reader of these magazines. She looked like a woman in her mid to late thirties. Her hair was permed. She wore a collared Polo shirt by Ralph Lauren. Her pants were also brand name. Beside her chair, a ubiquitious Coach bag was bulging from its contents. I suppose it wouldn't be too far-fetched to surmise she's a woman who pays a particular attention to appearance. To my right, a young man, probably a high schooler, with dark gelled hair, was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of frayed jeans. He sat, with his feet curled up on the sofa, reading a book whose cover was a mutitude of colors. I was intrigued by the cover. The boy managed to stop his fidgeting long enough for me to make out the title: Zombies of the Marvel Universe. Certainly a very manly book. Finally, as I browsed the aisles, I passed by a mother eagerly questioning her son, a boy about ten:
"Are you sure that's the book you want?" asked the mother.
"Yes," replied the boy.
"Are you sure? There's a lot of other books here, about history, science." asked the mother persistently.
I swiped a look at the book he was carrying; it was a comic book.
"Did you open the book? And looked at the words?" asked his mother again.
The boy fixed his mother with an exasperated look and walked away, while his mother continued to pester after him. Alas, comic books will rot the mind according to parents, and this concerned parent was trying her hardest to get her son to read a real book. I doubt this little boy will call Barnes and Noble his favorite store.

P.S In case you were wondering, I was reading a book called "Waiting".

Quotidian

School's around the corner, and I've been thinking a lot about what I've done this summer. Here's what I came up with:

1) Work is good! Learned lots of about Perl. Doing lots of regular expressions. Wondering why postmatch isn't working! It would make life so much easier if it did.

2) Read three books this summer: Kite Runner, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Atonement (almost done!). Also reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Suite Francaise and The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have so many books that I own but haven't read, LOL. I should really stop buying 800 page novels that take me years to finish, aka Sherlock Holmes, War and Peace, The Three Musketeers, etc. I vow to read them all one day :0)

3) Bought two video games: Kingdom Hearts 2 and Top Spin. Spent countless hours bashing the x button

4) Saw movies: Transformers, Rush Hour 3, Knocked Up, Little Miss Sunshine, Man of the Year, Last King of Scotland, Hairspray, Becoming Jane, Georgia Rule, Harry Potter 5, Elizabethtown. I only really liked Hairspray, Transformers and Last King of Scotland. In utter disgust over Little Miss Sunshine and Knocked Up. Nonplussed about Georgia Rule, Harry Potter 5. Becoming Jane was a waste of time.....go watch P&P instead.

That'll for now folks.

The Fragility of Life

Life is as usual. Traffic is slow, tempers are short, people are all on their way home or to the Twins game. You survey the people around you. You see many drivers on their cellphones, using this to pass the time in this traffic. You can imagine their conversations. The girl next to you is on her cell is just calling her friends and discussing weekend plans in this stop and go traffic. The man in the rearview mirror is calling his wife, telling her he would be a tad late for dinner. Then, without warning, you're in a free fall like on a roller coaster, except this plunge is into the Mississippi. All your senses jerk awake from the lull of the traffic that you had just been in a second ago. Your mind is reeling, trying to grab onto any coherent thoughts within reach. You're torn inside. You want this free fall into abyss to end, yet you fear the feel of concrete ground.

This isn't a story, it's life on 35W at 6:05 pm, Wednesday, August 31st, 2007. I keep wanting to wake up, like it was all a dream as these images flash before my eyes. It feels chilling to know I've driven across the bridge before, to know my friends could have been on the bridge when it collapsed. Just because its a cliche doesn't mean it's not true. Life truly changes in a blink of an eye. Life is fragile.