The Silhouette

He was in the dark sitting on a wooden bench. He was under the shade of a tree, the name of which he doesn't know for he doesn't care to know.

He always went by this spot every Friday afternoon. It was during this time when the park is least animated.

He leaned back on the bench and looked skyward. It's a particularly fine day today, with little clouds and a fine breeze.

Just a few minutes more and the sun would start to set. It was few of the things he went here for, the sunset. His bench was facing west giving him a clear look of the beauty that is about to unfold. The ground was a little bit sloping but not at all steepy. In front of him is a lake. He was, as he calculated, 5 meters above lake-level.

Minutes later, the sun began to lazily crept behind the horizon, leaving a tinge of assorted colors in the sky as the lake brightens up to an orange glow. And before the last rays fade, a streak of pale-yellow  light mingled in the pastel-colored sky. It was like a postcard-scene. Every painter's dream.

Now the park is getting dark, light posts started to flicker and one by one the lights went on.

Nighttime's just around the corner. It was now time to go home, he decided..

Slowly he stood from the bench and cast a last glance on the lake. Something caught his attention. Directly in front of him, just a meter from the lake, he saw a silhouette..

P.S.
one of the few stories i wrote a few years back (unfinished obviously). just stumbled upon an old notebook where i kept some of them. i also write love poems those days.

Faraway in a lonesome place
Faraway where there's quite and peace
It was a place so faraway
And I made that place my runaway.

I remembered writing this lame poem. It's for my first teenage love. geez.

I'm gonna look for the original notebook and I'm gonna post all my earlier writing attempts here..

Perry Mason

Since I've promised (to no one in particular) to update this thing once a week, here's some Perry Mason-related stuff..

Perry Mason just happened to be my all-time fave protagonist, followed by Nero Wolfe, then Archie Goodwin, then some random character on some random novel I've read.

According to Google, Big G as I call it, the image on the left contains the complete list of Perry Mason novels by Erle Stanley Gardner.

And if you're wondering about the red/black stuff on the list..no, they're not for aesthetic purposes. Those highlighted in red were the books I've already read, the black ones are the soon-to-be-read-if-I-stumble-upon-em books.

But I'm starting to lose hope. I think those books no longer exist. I mean they really don't have them here where I can read them. I swear I've hunted and searched for them in my home province. I joined book clubs, became a member of local libraries, checked out all the bookstores and some other pseudo-bookstores to no avail. No one has them. Like really.

Those other Perry Mason books I was able to read were either borrowed from a local library or rented from a bookclub I was once a member of. Some were e-books downloaded, as a birthday gift for me, by a very dear friend (who also downloaded the Nero Wolfe e-books I have now).

So, yes..I'm still in search for those Perry Mason books. I want to collect them all. And the Nero Wolfe ones as well..

..(this is totally unrelated to my post)..just want to mention that a friend told me to post something interesting other than my personal preferences, opinions and goings-on..told him it's a personal blog so the posts mostly are gonna be about personal stuff..i told him however, that i'm gonna make a website of 'interesting' stuff soon..i've been actually planning to make one for months now just been too lazy to get started..plus i haven't really decided yet what domain to buy but i'm really trying to work on it now. :))

The Good Earth

..is the latest book I've read. It took me 2 months to actually finish this one which is so not like me.You see, if I like a book a lot I do my best to finish it in one reading. Otherwise, I put it down..never to be opened and read again.

So what's with this book?? Why the heck did i keep coming back to it for 2 months??

Reason 1: It was summer. I read during summers, no matter what.
Reason 2: We don't have internet yet so there's nothing to occupy me when I'm home.
Reason 3: The only other worth-reading book I have in my room is 'Anne of Green Gables' which I already read twice last year.
Reason 4: It's actually an interesting book.
Reason 5: Ditto.

Now on to the book..

It's a story of resilience. Sorta like Charles Darwin's Survival of the Fittest theory.

There's this Chinese guy, Wang Lung, who has a piece of land he religiously cultivated and revered. The land became his life. It was able to sustain his entire family through the hardest and most difficult ordeal: drought, floods, famine and revolution.

It's also a story of O-Lan's sacrifices - the sacrifice of a mother and a wife.

I'm not gonna make a full review of the book here so in summary, it's a good book bound to make any reader appreciate life beyond its trivialities.

BOREDOM in Uppercase

I started writing this entry 10 hours ago. I got distracted and wasted some few precious hours facebook-ing instead. Just basically checking posts of friends on my newsfeed. It's lame, I know. I do that a lot..WASTE time on facebook.

10 hours ago, before facebook got the better of me, I was gonna post how frustrated I am with my Friday night. 'Twas really been a busy week so I was looking forward to pulling out a really fun week-ender with some friends. Maybe have a drink or two, listen to some random live band, and then have another drink or two.

But after work, on my way home, I've decided I'm not ready yet for another friday-night hangover. So I texted my friends to tell them I'm not gonna make it. They replied with 'You're one lousy friend'. I didn't bother to reply. They'll get over it.

So yeah, I went straight home..just to find out no one's home. The fact that everybody's out partying and having a good time, while I'm alone at home with nothing to do, made me cranky. I grudgingly went to my room,  turned my lappy on, then posted on Facebook that I'm home alone.Geez.

A few minutes later, boredom started to set in so I scanned my files for a good movie, found nothing that would complement the mood I'm in, so I went back facebook-ing. I got even bored. Darn!

I then attempted to write this blog. But what can you expect from a bored, tired, burned-out mind?? Nothing. A full page of nothingness. The cursor just kept blinking and my screensaver, which was set to pop up after 2 minutes of idleness, kept popping up.

It's true..."Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time." ~Thomas S. Szasz

The blinking and popping went on for some time before I decided to give up and just call it a night.

But I just can't put myself to sleep with sheer will-power alone so I went looking for a sleeping pill.

A book! Any book! I remember the ebook emailed to me the other day by an ex-colleague. It was about programming and coding stuff. I read it. It did the trick! I was zzz-ing my way to dreamland in minutes!

So that's it. One boring Friday night.

And by the way, I ate dinner twice. Like really. I ate a full meal at around 8:00 and another full meal at around 10:00. I binge-eat when I'm bored or frustrated. Or stressed out or happy. Or just anything. I binge-eat. Period.

The Quote of Violence

I'm watching this American TV series right now. I'm on its 4th season and they've got this thing where they recite quotes within one episode.They were not doing that in the previous seasons. Well, actually, I can't be really sure. I didn't watch the 1st & 2nd season. I went straight to the 3rd season, then the 4th.

Anyway, about the quotes.. I kinda like them. I'm a "quotes" person you see. It's one of the things that cheer me up. Reading quotes.

It's sort of an escape for me. Like when you drink yourself off when you get too stressed out, I read quotes when I get depressed.

I'm not too obssessed with it though. I can't memorize who quoted what. And I don't insert quotes in conversations to make me sound smart. To tell you the truth, I can only recite this one quote:

"I am not conceited. I merely think it's common sense to like myself."

It's one of few from Archie Goodwin, one of my fave detective characters from my 2nd most favorite detective novel. That Archie, he's one arrogant smart arse just like his boss. That's why they both became a favorite. Well, I'll talk more about them on my next posts.

Okay. back to the quotes..and this American TV series.

I got this:

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats." ~H.L. Mencken

This reminds me of my tendency-slash-fantasy to go against the norm, defy authority, and to kick some arses off. I actually have a list:

1. Shoplift. This got to be the number one on my list.I wanna do it just to see if I can get away with it.
2. Prick balloons with a needle. Whoa! I always have this impulse everytime I walk by someone with   balloons. So tempting.
3. Get hit by a car. I want to know what it feels like when a 1.4 tonne metal, running at an average velocity of 50km/h, connects with my frail body.
4. Slap someone hard on the face. Real hard.  I want to feel that stinging feeling on my palm right after a good slap.
5.Get chased by the police. Then get caught so that I can finally have my first mug shot. Voila!

There were 8 or 10  in the original list. It got shorter so I guess I already outgrew some of those stupid urges.

My first post and I'm already talking about violence. yay. :))