178; i’m a ravenclaw (and already know it)!

Gryffindor:
• [x] You are loud.
• [] You like/d going to school to see your friends.
• [] You’ve had more than a couple detentions.
• [x] You always have something to do on the weekends.
• [] You like to be the center of attention.
• [x] You get above average grades in school.
• [x] You’ve been called bossy before.
• [] You’re a bit of a daredevil / you like an adrenaline rush.
• [] You are athletic.
• [] You are one of the best players on your team.
• [x] You would do anything for your loved ones.
• [x] You like the colour red.
• [x] Your favourite class is Transfiguration or DADA.
• [x] You would never break a promise.
TOTAL: 8

Hufflepuff:
• [x] You have many acquaintances, but only a handful of good friends.
• [] You get average grades in school.
• [] You’ve been called boring before.
• [x] You don’t like to brag about your achievements.
• [x] You value honesty.
• [x] You don’t mind working hard to get what you want.
• [] You like the color yellow.
• [] You have a job.
• [] You are athletic.
• [] You are a team player.
• [] You are in the middle of the social totem pole.
• [] You are easily amused.
• [] You like helping others.
• [] Your favorite class is Herbology or Divination.
• [] You like the music played on the radio best.
TOTAL: 4

Ravenclaw:
• [x] You get good grades in school.
• [x] You like to read.
• [x] Dumb people annoy you.
• [] You are creative.
• [x] You’ve been called a know-it-all before.
• [x] You would say your intelligence level is higher than most.
• [x] You hate cheating.
• [x] People often want you to help them with homework or projects.
• [] You are more into the creative arts : theatre, dancing, drawing, etc.
• [] You are extremely logical in your way of thinking.
• [] You are considered shy or quiet by people you don’t know.
• [x] You like the color blue.
• [x] Your favorite class is A History of Magic, Charms, or Care of Magical Creatures.
• [x] You tend to over analyse things.
• [x] You can focus and pay attention well.
TOTAL: 11

Slytherin:
• [x] You are very competitive.
• [x] You like the finer things in life.
• [] You think welfare is a waste.
• [] You’ve made fun of someone in the past week.
• [] You’ve been called a snob before.
• [] You think the end justifies the mean.
• [] You’re not afraid to say something to someone else’s face.
• [] You tend to think people are a bit jealous of you.
• [x] You’ve made someone cry by just saying something to them.
• [] You tend to root for the villains in movies, books, etc.
• [x] You are very good with words.
• [x] Above all, you want to be successful in life.
• [] You like the color green.
• [x] You love to win.
• [] Your favorite class is Potions or DADA.
TOTAL: 6

177; clearly i’m still impressed

Can I enjoy this feeling of great accomplishment for a while? :)))) 1,0151 pages! Get out!

176; just a matter of time

Hi. It’s 2.13 am in the morning right now and I just checked the Flood Map. And it doesn’t look good. The red line shows my neighborhood. And the blue areas the ones being flooded. It’s creeping ever so closer to me now. And I’m kind of scared.

I’m scared that if I had to evacuate, I wouldn’t want to. I can’t leave my books here to drown, surely. I can’t leave anything I have. I’m so emotionally attached to them that I don’t even care about saving my life first. I’m scared of that.

I really can’t sleep right now. My family’s already asleep. I guess I’d be sitting by the windowsill and watching out for the flood? :(

175; i’m feeling accomplished

Look! I logged into my Shelfari account and found that I’ve already completed my first reading goal!

I haven’t been around in Shelfari for some time now. I spent most time on Goodreads instead. They’re better at different things. My decision was that I would use Shelfari as my online database for English books. The number of English books I own and have read on Shelfari is more accurate than on Goodreads. I would also use it to keep track of my plan-to-read list. For Goodreads, I use it to post and read reviews, as they have better and more reviews here, and update my progress (I’m on page xx) because it has this feature. Still, I like Shelfari’s user interface better, because it’s so pretty. But Goodreads offers an option to create my own shelves, which Shelfari doesn’t. So I keep both. For different purposes.

Anyway. My first reading goal is completed. I have almost forgot that I’d set a goal of 30 books at first. Because last month, I think, I set my goal on Goodreads as 36. So that’s what I have had in mind all the time, 36. Now I’ve finished 31, have one book in progress, so that means 4 more books to go. Sounds so easy. Maybe when it’s done, I will make it 40. Hahaha. One must always push oneself to the true  potential one can reach.

You know, I’m really really proud of myself. I’ve always been a reader, that’s true, but it’s only since this year that I started taking reading seriously. In 2010 I’ve read 20 books, 2009 18, 2008 8, 2007 8, and 2006 17. I don’t remember having read anything worth mentioning before 2006. So this is a really big leap forward for me.

Here’s my Goodreads goal for 2011:

And here are the books that count towards this goal:

No chick lit! Can you believe that? If you look at my 2006-2010 reads you’ll be surprised at how many chick lit and teen books I have read. I guess I’m really growing out of it. Let’s see… 3 Harry Potter books in preparation for the Deathly Hallows film, 3 books on Greek Mythology, 3 Diaries of A Wimpy Kid (I love them!), 7 Classics, 4 Contemporary, 3 Young Adult, and so forth. Not bad. Not bad at all! I’ve been put through 3 shitty books this year: Norwegian Wood, The Alchemist, and New Moon. I don’t even know why I picked New Moon from the library shelf. Maybe just so I could justify myself when I bash the Twilight saga with the fact that I have actually read it (I read Twilight in 2008). But no, I don’t want to have to continue Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I’ve endured too much pain and annoyance from reading this saga, okay.

You might wonder what I’m currently reading. Here is it:

Stones by Timothy Findley. I picked it up at a secondhand bookstore because it was so cheap and looked promising enough. I am now struggling with it. I think it’s extremely boring. I’m thinking about giving up on it. I’m not really the kind that gives up, you see, so when I give up on a book, it’s a big deal. It’s so boring I could die.

Now that this post is the first real one to ever be concerned with reading, I think I might post some of my reviews here. Things are easier to keep track of when they’re on my own blog, you see. Or maybe not. Because I haven’t exactly overcome my fear of expressing my own opinions in public yet, though I’m making a good progress, if I say so myself.

With this post, I created a new category: reading. Now, back to Stones.

174; on life

Well well well. Hello again. I hope you  have missed me. Hahaha.

I’ve been on school break since October 1st. If it hadn’t been for the flood crisis in Thailand, today would’ve been the first day of my second semester at Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. But due to the said cause, the semester had been postponed from October 26th to November 7th. And just a few days ago it was said to be officially postponed from November 7th to November 14th. As for me, personally, I can’t be more happy to have more days off. However, some of my friends (okay, a MAJORITY of my friends) have been complaining that they wanted to study already (Hmm..).

During the break, I actually haven’t been doing anything much. Same old routines, more intensity. Of course I’m not talking about working out. I can’t bring myself to work out, though I know I should. I just hate to work out in this goddamned hot weather. It makes me cranky and I would throw a bitchy tantrum at everyone who happens to talk to me. Anyway. What I meant was my same old hobbies. I read every day, and have finished more books than ever in this month alone. I sleep longer than anyone in their right mind would, that is, I go to bed later than midnight, usually around 1 or 2 am in the friggin morning (well, I’m caught up in reading) and get up at around 11 am or noon of the same day. The funny thing is I set my clock to go off at 3 specific time everyday (8.30, 9.00, 9.30 am), but I don’t even hear it ring. Or when I do hear it, I just go right back to sleep anyway. So there’s really no point in setting alarm clock during holidays. So yeah, that’s the two things I’ve spent most time on: reading and sleeping. And I also play the Sims Social too.

Meet the book I was reading last week:

It’s actually not mine. I borrowed it from Bank about two weeks ago along with 1984, both of which I have already finished. Before Kafka on the Shore, I have read Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood (also borrowed from him), and found that it was absolute shit. Since then, I couldn’t bring myself to believe the hype that goes around about Murakami’s awesomeness. Bank, being a huge Murakami fan, couldn’t stand to hear me bash his Japanese hero, and thus lent me this book, in desperate hope to change my mind. And alright, he succeeded. The book is really good. Maybe Murakami isn’t all that shit. But I’m never going to forgive him for having written the shit that is Norwegian Wood.

Also, I’ve discovered that I don’t feel like blogging when I have time. I know that sounds weird and logically invalid. I did some observation, and I saw that I tend to blog less during holidays than during omg-i-don’t-have-time-too-many-assignments school time. I’m trying to change that. I need to write constantly so as to not forget how to write. When I haven’t written for a long time, it’s hard to start writing again. Like now, I haven’t written any songs for about half a year, and I’ve totally lost the will to start again, and the ability to bring words to life. That’s a catastrophe, but I’ll deal with that later. I just don’t want it to happen with blogging. When I’m too lazy even to write, I would remind myself of a Stephen King quote (that is on the menu bar of my blog for this same purpose): If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. I guess I don’t have to worry about reading, because it’s something I already am obliged to do on a daily basis like showering and eating, or else I would be cranky. Though the concern would have to be whether I gain anything about writing and words from it. For this reason, I like to take time when I read. I like to reread sentences and paragraphs, so as to absorb the style and linger on the subtle flow of them and enjoy the beauty. You can say I’m a slow reader, and I know I am. But writing is so easy to ignore, you know. There are just too many excuses. “Oh, I don’t have time. I’m reading!” “I don’t know what to write about.” “My fingers are sore.” “I just got my nails done.” and all that jazz, and all of which I have used to justify myself. But I’m determined to not do that again.

Two days ago I went to MK restaurant with my mother and brother where I brought up a conversation about my idea of my future which I wanted to announce. It might sound stupid but who knows? it could happen. I told her that when I’m ready, I will fly to America and try to get my book(s) published there. She, of course, was confused. My further explanation was that I would write in English because it’s the language I feel most comfortable with, though I don’t know yet what it will be about, or how I will get it published. She didn’t seem to protest or start discouraging me. She’s that kind of mom, she never pushes me to become what she wants me to be (because I’m sure she doesn’t know what it is, to begin with) and she considers everything I have to say about my future a possibility. Which is nice. She didn’t try to make me feel like I should stay in Thailand, as I have told her a thousand times before that I don’t feel like this is where I belong. When asked whether she would move to America with me when that dream/idea/plan is realized, she refused, saying this is where she belongs. Though my brother happily declared that he would. Well, okay. I suppose I should worry about having that dream/idea/plan come true first, then all else would follow. I feel that I have so many things to say to the world. I have to start now to figure out what I’m good at and what I want to write.I want to write words that move people, to joy, to laughter, to tears. I want to have that power. In other words, I want to be to the world what Jonathan Safran Foer is to me.

I guess at this point, that’s all I want to say about life. Maybe I will be successful, maybe I will fail a googolplex times and give up. Maybe I’ll end up doing other things instead. Maybe I will be nothing at all more than a loser. Maybe‘s. Our life is full of uncertain possibilities. I don’t have any idea yet about in which ways possible my life is going to turn out. Let’s wait and see. All we can do now is dream and chase it. Don’t settle down for anything just yet before trying everything. That’s what I think. As Oscar Wilde would say, “To define is to limit.”