Keep Your Head Up - Andy Grammer
I start to compromise
My life and the purpose
Is it all worth it?
Am I gonna turn out fine?
Had a very stressful and tiring day today. We had our ACL and core strengthening circuit training at Loyola International Multispeciality Clinic as part of the activities for internship. I almost fainted due to the exercise regimen given to us to test our endurance. As you all know, I am a very sedentary person and exercise or physical exertion was never my thing. And I hated every bit of movement I had to do a while ago. Here are the summary of the whole training:
With 5 lbs. ankle weight strapped on our both ankles we did the following:
And here goes the other exercises:
So you see how difficult it was for me to finish this training. I swear, I can feel like my legs will be sore tomorrow. They are aldready aching like hell right now.
As for my stress and weariness, I found a way to somehow relieve them. I decided to stop by Fully Booked Katipunan on my way home and voila! I found some books that I have been looking for for ages! Of course, it felt like my energy was restored. And so here are the books I got from today’s haul:
See? I am so happy with my mini haul. Now my only problem is the soreness that’s slowly creeping up on my legs and thighs. As for my mental capabilities, I think I can still survive a chapter or two of reading Gaiman’s book before finally going to slumber. :D
I’m sorry, I know that this is not in any way book-related, but I just cannot control my utter happiness due to my NMAT results. I took the test for the first time last April 7, 2013 and I was so very amazed to the point of disbelief that I got a very high score. I am really surprised because I found the test difficult and yet, this. Oh, this really made my night. I don’t have to re-take the test again. I am so contented with my score. :D
from Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
How could I not love this man?
I am so very sorry about not being able to post anything these past couple of weeks. It’s just that I have been quite busy since the start of this month due to our clinical internship for our last year as BS Physical Therapy students. My duty take up almost my whole day and so I barely had time to check my blog and even create posts. I hope you’ll stick around, though. I promise to catch up this weekend and I’ll be posting 3 book reviews I have been itching to post since the first week of April. I miss you guys so much. I’ll try my best to update my blog at least once a week. I hope you understand. :)
After so many months of persuasion and nagging from my fellow bookworms, both from the internet and in my tiny circle of book-crazed friends, I finally got around to reading this book. I had my initial doubts regarding the theme of this book like the ones I had while I started with Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. As I’ve mentioned before, I am not much of a fan of history, and so a story weaved from Stalin’s reign was a bit of stretch for me since I have no retention, whatsoever, of our lessons about his fight for power.
Okay, enough with my preferences and on to the book, itself. There have been a lot of books published regarding the World War II, focused more on Hitler’s rise to power and its repercussions. Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray gives reader a different view of the war, highlighting the harrowing rule of Stalin (the Soviets) over the Baltic states, Lithuania, in particular.
“Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother’s was worth a pocket watch.”
The story begins as Lina Vilkas, a fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl, and her family got torn apart due to their deportation to the cold lands of Siberia at the beginning of the war. Of course, at these times, people were expected to keep whatever they had in their minds about their grueling experiences hushed if they wanted to preserve their lives. But it was different for Lina. Somehow, she just couldn’t silence her opinions and so when words failed her, art became her medium, her channel to express and depict the hardships and challenges she and her fellow countrymen had to endure under the commands of the NKVD troops under Stalin. Lina drew everything she saw and felt in hopes of her father finding these drawings to serve as clues about their current location. She also drew to make documentations of their experiences which would, hopefully, be seen by everyone in the future when the war is finally over.
Like other books centered mainly around the World War II, Lina’s story gave readers a very visual and personal account of the inhumane and immoral things she had encountered throughout her journey to Siberia. From the starvation to forced labor to random killings to sex slavery, everything was given in this book. What sets it apart is the way it was written. Personally, it was a very light read, wording-wise. But then bits and pieces of flashbacks about Lina and her family’s life before the onset of the war are strewn across some chapters which, I think, helped greatly in making the readers understand more about the things that were happening to them.
My attention was also caught by two other characters in the book: Andrius and Kretzsky—two very different yet intriguing persona. I won’t give detail description of these two because I want you guys to be the ones to learn about them once you read the book. The only thing I’d tell you is that these two people will be the image of hope and love, in opposing ways, in the story. And I thing they made the book much more interesting.
I guess by reading this review, it was obvious that I enjoyed the book. I finally get it why it was being compared to Zusak’s The Book Thief and Boyne’s The Boy in Striped Pajamas. Aside from these books being about the World War II, all three were personal perceptions of the war from children’s eyes. It was through their minds that we get pictures of the actual pains and sufferings of the people through those times.
Compared to The Book Thief though, Between Shades of Gray appealed less to me emotionally but it doesn’t mean that I did not like the book. It’s just that I can relate more to Liesel Meminger than Lina Vilkas because I am attached more to books than art. And I don’t know why, but I did not shed a single tear over this book even though some events were depressing enough. Overall, I will give it a 4/5.
Anymore Of This - Mindy Smith ft. Matthew Perryman Jones
An empty box of memories
And a heart full of regret
Do you know where you’re going?
Don’t even know where I am..
Lo and behold, I am abandonedmarionette and this is how I slowly ruin my eyesight. Yup, this is my favorite sex, pardon, reading position, featuring Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray. I dunno why, but every time I start to read in an upright position in my bed, I’d always end up like this. It may look uncomfortable, but trust me, it’s the complete opposite for me. My mom would always tell me that it would make my eyesight worse, but I never listen. Haha.
Oh well, sorry for this nonsensical post. Just wanted to share and hopefully find other people as weird as me. Gonna go back and continue reading. How about you guys, what’s the most comfortable position for you while reading?
Say hello to the motherfucking bitches and assholes who made my entire high school life miserable by making me think I am not good enough and that their “coolness” and “popularity” earn them the right to humiliate and mock other students like me for being “boring” and “uncool”. Just because some people don’t waste their time on looks, the latest fashion trend, who hooked up with who, and pleasing others doesn’t mean that we are free to be bullied and looked down upon.
Oh and look where you all are now. Some are still backstabbing each other, spreading rumors and shit about their supposed “friends”. Some are struggling with their academic lives. Some ended up knocked up and got left by their boyfriends.
Ha. I know that I am such an evil shit for saying all these stuff, but hey, at some point, some people just had to blow out steam before they really burst and explode. So, sorry if you knew anyone in this picture. But trust me, you’ll be better off not mixing with them.
This week’s reading agenda.
Since I won’t be having any summer break at all due to my clinical internship that would start on the 1st of April, I will be maximizing my time this week for reading these babies:
I hope to finish these 4 books before our Basic Life Support training on Saturday. I decided to do a reading marathon since my schedule would pretty much become hectic again next week for completion of the requirements, such as physical exams and orientation, for the said internship. If I do get lucky, and get through all these, I’d read more books from my overly huge to-read pile.
Right now, I have started with Sepety’s Between Shades of Gray and so far, I find it really interesting. I just feel that I need a bunch of tissues with me while reading this book. War-themed books tend to have that general effect. I just know that something terrible might come up. So, wish me luck guys! :)
How about you? What book/s are you reading today?
Tried reading somewhere other than my room:
Went to the living room, cannot concentrate while my mom’s talking on the phone. NOPE.
Went to my sister’s room, cannot stand Justin Bieber’s faces staring down at me from numerous posters. NOPE.
Went to the kitchen, unfortunately the smell and the noise of all the cooking distracted me. NOPE.
Finally tried going outside, in front of our house where the lighting was so nice, damn neighbor was hammering who-knows-what and my ears were bloody wringing. Plus passersby kept looking at me. First time seeing someone read?! Ugh. NOPE.
Conclusion: My room is still the best reading spot in our house. Ugh. I wanted to read outside. Effin’ neighbors. :|
