Jan 312011
 

Like a Choose Your Own Adventure story
Every day has numerous possibilities.

Sadly, we cannot bookmark a page in life
And must make choices
Without being able to go back to said point
When we find we’ve come to a gruesome end.

Instead, we must bravely and confidently choose our path
Some with great cynical optimism and others in hopeful pessimism.

Our saving grace is that every day begins anew,
Allowing us the opportunity to change
The course of our lives
With every decision we make.

So, in God we trust…
So, in faith, hope and love…
So, in believing that there will always be a better tomorrow…

The real question still remains,

What about today?

-T
~January 31, 2011

 Posted by at 16:45
Jan 302011
 

_Room_ by Emma Donoghue

This was probably one of the most interesting fiction novels that I’ve read in a long time in terms of a unique story from an unfamiliar perspective. Donoghue writes the entire novel from the point-of-view of Jack, a curious five-year-old, who shortly after his fifth birthday has to learn to shoulder a great deal of responsibility and expand his mind beyond his own imagination.

Not only is there an element of crime thriller in this novel, but also one of wonderment, confusion, awareness of the overwhelming nature of life and most importantly the importance of family support and love.

As I don’t want to give too much away in case my viewers want to read the novel for themselves, I’ll leave it at this. It’s definitely definitely worth a read. I think I might be getting into contemporary literature finally! πŸ˜€

More to come…

-T

Jan 282011
 

It feels like the past few months have been just a blur in my life. In fact, it’s like I’ve come out of a dream where I was sleep walking through my life. I think for the time-being the worst is over – so let me catch up.

My post on depression was me peeking out into the “real” world again only to find that it was still too overwhelming to write, talk to people, hang out with anyone other than R, or to even accept there’s a whole world out there. However, it seems that the darkness that was surrounding me has passed over and each day I feel a little lighter, a little happier, a little more motivated to study/work and a sense of re-discovering and renewing myself.

Signs that I’m feeling myself are in that in the past week I’ve completed and submitted a work research proposal and another draft of my dissertation proposal. While I still have a list of other things to do, especially while I am on a two-week holiday from work (and for the first time in two years not traveling to some other country), I feel good about my progress so far.

It’s important for me to log what it’s taken for me to reach the light because I imagine that I’ll face the depression again at some point in the future – though I hope that I’ll catch it sooner. First, the love and support of my close and trusted friends has been immeasurable. Normally, I would lean on my parents, but they are far away and sometimes such conversations just can’t be had over the telephone. Also, with encouragement I’ve started seeing a counselor. Despite my lack of trust and confidence in therapy, I think it’s been helpful and I promised to give it a real go this time and work on not putting up my guard when I’m there. This combined with some anti-depressants has also been effective, I think. While I still don’t know what I should be feeling with the Cipralex – I think my lack of panic attacks in a few weeks and a general sense of conscience calm could be signs that it is having an effect.

Anyway, so that’s my blabbering update on my life the past few months and why this has been a quiet space other than updating the books I’ve been reading. I’m *hoping* that I will post more regularly now as I’ve got some new goals and action plans that I want to keep in the front of my mind always as 2011 continues to pass on by.

Until next time…

-T

 Posted by at 16:11
Jan 242011
 

book cover of   Cross Fire    (Alex Cross, book 17)  by  James Patterson

_Cross Fire_ Β by James Patterson

Patterson continues to develop the character, Alex Cross, and his ongoing antagonist, Kyle Craig, in this novel. It has hints of being the last in the Cross series, but that’s just my own opinion.

The story starts to get a bit predictable and too convenient from the clues of the crimes, intertwining of different cases, antagonizing between Cross and Craig, and Cross’s own family/love story. While I did keep turning the pages on my iPad at a rather quick pace, it was more out of the ease of the read rather than anticipation of what was coming up next.

Maybe it’s time for me to start branching out my contemporary authors and genres because I’m starting to get bored with these kind of crime thrillers (at least for the time being). In any case, at least I can say that I’m caught up the Cross saga by Patterson for now. πŸ™‚

More to come…

-T

Jan 182011
 

_Under the Banner of Heaven:Β  A Story of Violent Faith_ by Jon Krakauer

This book was a doozy of a tale of the foundations and progress of the Mormon religion. Jon Krakauer writes in an easy-to-read journalistic style telling the story of the beginnings, divisions and transformations of the Latter Day Saints centered around the story of the Lafferty brothers who are supposedly told by God to kill a number of people. They manage to complete the murders of their sister-in-law and baby with no remorse or guilt regarding their actions.

Krakauer weaves the history and varied beliefs and practices of the followers of Mormonism from the spiritual visions of Joseph Smith to its current-day position.

I don’t want to give much more detail as there is so much information and many stories that he shares throughout the book. It was a great read. I have/had friends who are LDS members and at various times was curious about their faith and the religion. Religion has always played an unsatisfactory role in my life and remains a topic that I cannot fully accept in all its various incarnations, sects and divisions. God does exist, I believe. Satan does exist, I believe. A spiritual presence does exist in man, I believe. Beyond that, I have questions and doubts.

The LDS church has always seemed a mystery to me. A friend many years ago sent me a book when I began to ask her about her faith. I was not satisfied with what it said as the Bible, which I have read numerous times front to back and back to front, did not match up – not just didn’t match, but contradicted. Laws seemed to be conjured up upon convenience and the role of women in the religion just didn’t vibe with me. Still, I respect everyone’s right to believe as s/he likes or feels called/moved to believe. I’m interested in all spiritual movements even if I don’t agree or they scare me.

So, I’m glad I read the story. I’m not sure if the author’s intent was to inform or to shed a certain tinted light on the religion itself, but I was drawn to his writing and the story. It’s not easy reading or necessarily good for the faint of heart, but it definitely opens the mind. πŸ˜€

More to come,

-T

Jan 102011
 

Okay, so this post is a little bit late, but that’s the way things have been going lately. So, at least this will be written within the first month of the year. πŸ˜›

We have survived to experience 1-1-11 not to be seen again for another hundred years. In another 11 years we can see 2-2-22 – that’ll make me in my mid-40’s. SCARY! πŸ˜€ Ever wonder why we have a fascination with numbers matching up like that? I mean, next year will we be excited when 12-12-12 comes around? Were you excited when it was 10-10-10? I wasn’t…and yet there are times when I stop and think – Huh…that’s interesting. Then the moment passes….

So, moving on from that random tangent….

The new year was rung in with a small group of friends at my place. We had a lovely time catching up and celebrating.

I’m still working on my yearly reflections and goals so that will come later, but things are in motion and I have high hopes for a great year to come!

More on its way…

-T

 Posted by at 12:13
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