Saturday, December 31, 2011

Grading my year

After making it, I had described my list of 2011 resolutions as "eensy and doable". I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time, because when I read over it now it seems pretty lofty and huge– and this is the second version, which is smaller than the first one.

So let's see how I did:

Get a 9+ average one semester. My second semester, which ended in June (I think) was my best semester in University, so far, with a 9.0 average. So this resolution has been met (never mind that I failed half of my subjects in my third semester, which just ended a few weeks ago. Rough patch).

Talk to people more. Compared to how the year started out, yes. I can talk to people more easily now, and all it took was practice.

Make my own school lunches. Healthier and cheaper! I don't always do it, but I bring food pretty often. I don't like to depend on packaged granola bars (unhealthy) or cafeteria dinners (sometimes tasty, but sometimes... well, not. Also I don't alway have time to choose, line up, buy and eat).

Brush my teeth more often. I did at first, but then I reverted back to twice a day.

Learn to drive. Nope. But I did get my licence, so at least that was a step in the right direction.

Stay reasonably informed about the going-ons of the world. See the teeth-brushing resolution.

Read 100 books. Failed. Read only 53 books in eleven months (started counting in February).

Finish a 5k race (and get a free T-shirt from it or something). Nope, but I did run a 7k race!! This is the only one where I went above and beyond.

Eat 8-9 serving of fruit and veggie a day. Nope. I did go through periods where I ate this much, but there were other times when I'd have 2 or 3. Currently I oscillate between 4 and 7.


All in all, not bad. Not good, but pretty decent. I'd say 7.1 out of 11.3.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Books 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53

It was by Tolkien, it was tiny, it was about a dog. It's also a children's book, and has a sort of a simple, old-timey feel about it that is reminiscent of The Moomins. Cute, but I didn't enjoy it too that much because it felt a bit tedious at parts.

I need fast reads to rack up my numbers before the year ends tomorrow. Pathetic, I know, but this is a good book so it's not as sleazy as it seems. Hopefully.

I read the Unfortunate Events series once before, when I was in secondary school. It was the end of the school year so we were obliged to go to school, but there was nothing to do there except sit around and talk and play. I'm a boring person so I sat on a desk that last week and read all the books (there's 13 of them) except the first one. We don't have it anymore because my eldest sister lent it to her then-boyfriend and he never gave it back.

Actually, we do have the first book, but only in French and I'm too lazy to read in another language (also, my I take this moment to express my admiration for the people I know who do read in English even though it's not their first language? You guys are ballsy and awesome).

  • Books 50 and 51 were the first and second Death Note graphic novels.
Yes, they count as books. They're a bunch of papers bound together and there's a story in them, even if it's mostly pictures. Shut up, I'm not cheating!

I watched the anime a few years ago and bought the first four volumes of the manga version because they were cheap, but I never actually read them. I'm making up for it now.


Someone mentioned it in a review of another book and it sounded good, so I asked my mom (holder of the Card of Credit) to buy it online if she saw a good used copy. She did, but it got lost in the mail so she bought it again after a few months.

It was good, but I would have liked it more if it had been written for an older audience (it's for ages 12 and up) because although the story is pretty far-fetched*, the themes it deals with could be developed a little further.

I really liked the idea of having only 75 possessions because I'm a fan of decluttering. Well, sort of– I love the idea but I have too much damn stuff to find a good home for (and I'll be damned if I'm throwing out my Darth Vader spiral-straw cup).


* 17-year-old genius dude writes short lecture/sermon/rants about consumerism, hypocrisy, etc. and posts them on a website under a false name; eventually he becomes an anonymous celebrity and struggles to keep his identity secret. He's also in love with his best friend, so there's a side story about that, too.


If you want it and you promise to LOVE IT FOREVER, give me a shout.

I finished several months ago, but I didn't mention it because I read it in parts. It lived on the breakfast table, so every time I sat down to eat, I'd read a section or three. First the ones about chocolate and desserts, then the ones about kitchen equipment, then the parts about temperature, and so on, until reading the ones dealing with salt. Plus all the recipes. Eventually, I ran out of sections because I'd finished it all up. It was excellent.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Books 45, 46, 47

Book 45: Historias de Diván, by Gabriel Rolón

The only book in Spanish I'll have read this year, it seems. It's made up of eight short, true stories about the patients an Argentinian psychotherapist has treated. Apparently the author is quite famous in Argentina, having shows on television and radio wherein he dispenses advice to the public; sort of like Dr. Phil, but probably less annoying. Hopefully.

I bought this at a book fair last Saturday for a measly 39 MXN (instead, I could have bought 4 liters of bottled water, 19.5 packets of gum or a movie ticket if it were a Wednesday. Fun fact for you.) The book, anyhow, was pretty good although not spectacular. Gave me a few things to think about.

Book 46: Princess in the Spotlight, by Meg Cabot

The second book in the Princess Diaries series. I had a long journey via public transport ahead of me, so I picked this up because it's easy to read and very entertaining. Unlike, I might add, the last few books of this series which are kind of boring.

Book 47: What I Was, by Meg Rosoff

Good up until the last quarter or so of the book, at which point it became very good. I liked that the main character wasn't entirely likable, yet I still sympathized with him. Usually when you don't entirely like a character it's because you hate them. At least, that's true in my case.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Books 42, 43, 44

Book 42 was Away Laughing on a Fast Camel, by Louise Rennison.

This is part of the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series, number five or six, I think (can't be bothered to look it up). I picked it up because I wanted something I could read on the bus during the weekend I spent on a field trip; our copy of this book has relatively large print (good for bus-reading) and is covered in plastic (essential for avoiding cookie crumb impregnations and accidents involving filthy pond water).

Anyway, as for the actual book, I'm pretty sure I've read it before, because it seemed quite familiar. It was very, very silly but also entertaining and a fast read.

Books 43 was Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers, also by Louise Rennison

Next in the series of the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson. I read this because I wanted to know what happened after the last book, but this one didn't answer the big question (does Georgia end up with Masimo, the Italian Stallion Sex God?). Pfff, I thought, have it your way. I'm done with these for now.

It was fun, but I don't think I can read more than two of these in a row. My brain could quite possibly melt.

Book 44 was my comfort book, my favorite book, the one I save for when I really want it. Bellwether, by Connie Willis.

I don't know what to say about this book. I like the format: short chapters (less than 10 pages, in most cases) that start with a short description of a fad. Much like Scott Westerfield's Peeps does, actually. Except Peeps is about parasites, and Bellwether is about fads.

When you see a movie, read a book, listen to a song, look at a picture repeatedly, with enough time between viewings, you notice things that you hadn't seen before. Like in Shaun of the Dead, there's little jokes that hint at the end of the movie but you only catch them when you see the movie for a second time. Or the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets VHS that's sitting on top of a pile of movies in Mean Girls, in the scene where they're watching scary movies on Hallowe'en.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. Anyway, repeated readings of this book make me notice things that had previously gone in through one eye and out the other. One of the fads described at the beginning of a chapter was the Dr. Spock books (Spock the childcare expert, not Spock the Science Officer from Star Trek). A few months ago I was in a bookstore sifting through piles of used books from the bargain table with my mom and I found an old edition of Dr. Spock's Baby and Childcare. I was all "Hey, look, Spock!", and my mom looked over and briefly explained that Dr. Spock was really famous back in the day.

It wasn't a hugely important moment to me, and I probably would have forgotten it completely if I hadn't been reminded of it by the mention of Dr. Spock in Bellwether. But I think it's interesting that my brain formed the association immediately and without effort while I was reading what I had repeatedly skimmed over many times before.


Here's a picture of Shaun the Sheep, because sheep are an important part of Bellwether. In a herd of sheep, the bellwether is the leader sheep that the other sheep follow around, sheepishly. And Shaun is obviously the bellwether of his flock.