My new ISP at home is blocking this site and I don’t know why. I’ll have to figure out a way to bypass the restriction but I’m just more than a little bit lazy right now. That’s reason enough to write this down, yes.

Who, me? Uhm … sort of. You can say I’m busy trying to schedule my badminton sessions or about trying to finish the book The Secret History as soon as possible because I want to jump right away to The Book Thief. I don’t even have time to watch my TV episode downloads. Then there’s my sister whom I’ve been trying to teach how to do blogging about weight loss pills and other stuff she doesn’t really have much idea about.

And, also, I really need to blog.

Now that the longish (mine started on Friday) weekend is over, I’m not at all excited about the coming work days (who’s gonna be, really?). I can’t say that I had a productive, nor what should have been reflective, weekend. Like most of my nonworking days, I spent the entire holidays inside my apartment, with the exception of Saturday night when I went out to play badminton.

Here are a few notes on what kept me busy and some news that caught my attention:

I started watching season 1 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: so far, so good. I’ve read that season 2, which had its finale last Friday, is even better. I’m not really drawn into action TV shows, or movies for that matter; guns ablazing and explosive action sequences do not interest me much, but I’m a sucker for dramatic voiceovers, so when TSCC started with that, with Sarah Connor talking about the love of a mother to her child, it got to me. I hope to finish the series before the Christian Bale Terminator movie comes out (although I don’t think the movie’s plot is tied to the show).

Next, Angel. The Buffy spin-off is the only remaining Whedon show I haven’t finished watching (I’m currently on season 3, out of five). It’s a good show. Not Buffy, but good; funny and witty as well, although with less of the emotional punch. I’m trying not to like the characters so much because I know for a fact that they are all doomed, one way or the other.

 
The current Whedon show, Dollhouse, is getting better and better. Episode 9,  A Spy in the House of Love, is filled with plot twists and more revelations that kept me at the edge of my seat (make that my bed) for the entire 40 or so minutes. With this shot of Echo, though,I can’t help but think of Faith (the rogue-turned-good Slayer). Make that glass shard she’s holding wooden and she’s all ready to do some vampire staking.

In celebrity couples news, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Sarah Michelle Gellar are soon to become parents. Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec, also expecting their first child soon, tied the knot.

My book reading project – three books a week – didn’t go as well as planned, but I’m slowly going through the volumes I currently have while trying not to buy more books, at least until after I’m down to two or three remaining unread ones. Here are a couple of titles I’ve been reading for weeks now (hopefully, I’ll have the time and the inclination to write decent reviews later):

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood: One of the best books I’ve read. Ever. The prose is exquisite; the language is masterful and eloquent, which is not really a surprise because Margaret Atwood is a poet. The plot, not so much if you’re looking for a thrilling page-turner, but major kudos to originality: It has a story within a story within a story. As the narrator for almost half of the book, Iris Chase-Griffen, is laying down the events of her life and that of her troubled sister, Laura, we simultaneously read the novel that made Laura famous, The Blind Assassin, which tells the tale of mysterious lovers in hiding. Within Laura’s novel, the male half of the clandestine couple is spinning a science fiction yarn to keep his love interested.

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula Le Guin. Now this is one book I wouldn’t recommend to everyone. Le Guin’s science fiction is easy enough to access, as she writes about ordinary actions and transactions of day-to-day living albeit set in a futuristic and intergalactic setting (utopian societies, as they are called), but her themes may be a bit of a head scratcher, especially for conservative point of views. In this volume of short stories, of which I’ve read only the first two for now, the recurring themes of exploration of sexual identity in an androgynous society and its political and cultural implications are rife. Forgive my ignorance because I’m rather new to science fiction, but if this genre is meant to be otherworldly, then this book definitely represents it. It presents an entire new world of thought, with its own terminologies (say, wombsib for “brother” or “sister”). I feel incompetent to say much about Le Guin’s works so to quote a Guardian reviewer: “If you can manage the sentence ‘None of my hearthsibs had been sent off to the Fastness before their kemmerday’ without either laughing or falling into a rage, you will get on with this book. If not, there may be some issues.”

If New York Yankees tickets are what American sports enthusiasts go crazy about, there’s one event on the European side that I am very much looking forward to. Of course, I won’t get to be there in person but just the thought that Wimbledon greats Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf are going to play at Centre Court on SW19 after all these years is a dream come true for any tennis fan. For any tennis fan who don’t hate these two. But why would anyone hate either of them? Geez. So I’m a total fangirl when it comes to the Agassis (Andre by association; Steffi is my tennis hero along with Federer).

The husband-and-wife team will play a doubles match, in front of 15,000 audience members, on May 17, five weeks before the Wimbledon tournament. The event is dubbed as “A Centre Court Celebration” and the opposing team will be composed of Kim Clijsters and Tim Henman. This exhibition will serve as the try out to check the Centre Court playing conditions under the newly constructed roof. 

From AP:  The program will feature a men’s singles, a women’s singles and a mixed doubles match. The matches will be played in a pro-set format — the first to eight games, with a tiebreaker at 8-8.

According to Reuters, a recent American study shows that women who have a history of migraine headaches are far less likely to develop breast cancer than other women. Good news for me, huh?!

Although the link is not clear, researchers suspect that hormones maybe playing a big role – higher estrogen means higher breast cancer risk, and women with chronic headaches “may have a chronically lower baseline estrogen.”  

…the reduction in risk was for the most common types of breast cancers — those driven by hormones, such as estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, which is fueled by estrogen, and progesterone-receptor positive breast cancer, which is fueled by progesterone – compared to women who did not have a history of such headaches - Dr. Christopher Li, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA

The husband-and-wife team of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf stepped out for the 13th Grand Slam for Children, last Saturday, October 11.  

The annual event, a project of The Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, featured a host of talents, including this year’s performers Natasha Bedingfield, Sheryl Crow, The Killers, Lifehouse, Ray Romano, Rod Stewart, and David Spade. Charice Pempengco was among the list of performers that night (lucky girl). Other A-list celebrities, including Mariah Carey as a surprise guest,  were also in attendance. 

It’s a musical extravaganza with the aim of raising money to support the education of underserved children in the Agassis’ hometown of las vegas nv.

Heh, life’s been churning out quite a lot of surprises for me and I’m a little disoriented.

- I agreed to partner with ven for our home court’s first anniversary badminton tournament. I didn’t think I’ll have the guts.

- Justine Henin retires. Why, Justine, why?! No no.1 ranked player has done such a thing. Now that TheFed’s running low in gas, too, who will I cheer for? Sad.

- I thought I’ve been handling work duties just fine until I started dreaming abour workmates with me waking up feeling stressed and tired. The most vivid one was when I dreamt about having a spat with my boss; I was shouting and crying at the same time, saying that “I’m so tired; I can’t do more work anymore!” Gah, I woke up with a bad migraine and had to take the day off. Talk about releasing stress, heh!

- I didn’t know nor expected that I achieved a 4.0 (met all or exceeded expectations) “grade” in the office. Should I start jumping up and down now? *snicker* Hey, they gave us free massages! Apparently, there’ll be a photo-op. I’ll try to convince them to use my warped photo instead.

- A friend managed to pull off the best surprise of all – announcing her wedding just a month before the actual date. We had no idea! Congrats Rizza and Carlo!

Just checking my video plugin capability.

Someone made a video with one of my most favorite couples. Not Keira and Matthew. Lizzy & Darcy. And one of the earliest Mariah Carey songs – Music Box.

I’m definitely flipping over this cool new gadget from Amazon, Kindle.

It’s a good thing its full functionality is not available outside of the U.S., though. I can flip right back now.

I haven’t decided on a ‘permanent’ theme yet. It’s either too dark, too fancy, or too boring. I’m still trying out themes (so many to choose from!) so please bear with me.