Barney Stinson's 'Dictionary'...

So, I like this particular TV show, which is called How I Met Your Mother...
Maybe some of you know it.

Maybe not...

Anyway, this show is interesting for me because of one particular character... Barney Stinson... Have you heard of him? Well, he's kind of a ladies man, slept with many girls, and EXTREMELY narcissistic (<-- do I spell this right?). What I love about him is that he has a good humor (the TV show producers made his character to be seen that way obviously), throwing some of the witty ones to any of the characters in the show, and that he acts like doesn't care of what people might think of him, a happy-go-lucky and easygoing person as he is, he seemed 'never' get sad, although he caused so much trouble for the main character, Ted Mosby, his 'best friend' as quoted from him in the first premiere episodes.

SOooo, today is a fine day to go to Aksara bookstore @ eX Plaza, and while I was rummaging into shelves and more shelves of endless 'love themed' books, I stumbled upon this book here:

I was, like, "Okay, yeah, you know what? If Barney Stinson really exist in the world, he WILL someday gonna write a book", and there it stood in the shelf. The Playbook. Shiny and new.

At first I just cringe my head, but it's to good to pass, so then I took the book from the shelf and began reading.

The purpose is for fun of course, and it's obvious, you can see it clearly from the book cover (what can you expect from A Barney Stinson anyway?), with the first many pages dedicated to 'the usage of the book' etc etc.

And then, "This is sooo go into my blog!" (<-- This one is quoted from Barney, I didn't remember exactly of how he said it, but the essence is just the same)

Anyway, if you haven't seen the show, go and SEE it!!!!! It's a must watch TV show... :D

SO, that's all I want to share tonight... Thanks for reading... G'nite everyone!!

Barne-diction... :P

Living Dead Girl - Elizabeth Scott

If you think your life is miserable, think again. 

A heartbreaking and haunting book this one was. I was reading it at my campus's bookstore that particular morning, some time in March, after I had my mid-exam week finished. I admired the design of the front cover of the book when it stands on the shelf, the 'mystery' it gave me, and the mysterious title. Living Dead Girl. So then I took it off the shelf and find a most comfy spot near the big windows of the bookstore, and started reading. To tell you the truth, I was actually not ready for this kind of story when I read it (for 2 hours straight). But then again, I thought this book is one of the amazing books I've read, and so I'll share it with you.

The story is about a girl, 15 when the novel started, remembering her once perfect life shattered by an encounter with a stranger when she was 10. The stranger, a man, kidnapped her (as what he was intended to do in the first place), and treated her as his 'property'. For 5 years her parents searched for her until they think she was killed and search no more. The story takes flight from there, a little bit blurry and full of questions in the beginning, and as the novel advances, it became clearer... About the kidnapper, the poor innocent little girl  turned teen, and her dark fate. The writer, Elizabeth Scott, really knows how to capture the tragedy happened to once innocent girl, elaborate it to a moving and heart wrenching story. As the novel advances, so are our knowledge of what was going on -and questions of what will the heroine of the novel a.k.a the girl, will do to escape her dark fate- those tremor and broken feelings will switch to a hate and disgust toward the kidnapper.

The book is first published in 2008, and has won many awards since then. Elizabeth Scott wrote the novel in a first person point of view. She clearly finished the novel in that manner of a haunting effect, shown in the ending of the novel which pretty much wrapped up in an abrupt and, unfortunately cut on the climax of the story. I don't feel the ending is right for this novel, after all the build-up of feelings, the abrupt completion does not give the conclusion, solution, nor fulfillment to me as a reader. It is like the novel toyed with my feelings, giving me some kind of whiplash, and then WHAM! Smashed me onto the ground, with no other explanations. (In fact I kept reading the last few lines to finally grasp of what was going on, and kept peeking the next page, as though a word or two might actually appear on the blank white paper, giving some kind of conclusion, explanation, or anything, but no, it doesn't).

Yet I admired Scott's effort in making the image of the girl and the kidnapper so vividly real inside my head, haunting, kept me silent and lost in thought afterwards. I thought this is a great novel to be read, not to be read as a light reading on your usual spare time though. This book will rip your heart until the very end, yet it was told in an amazing way you can imagine.

Little Red Riding Hood... (no, it's not a movie review)

Little Red Riding Hood. What comes up to your mind when you heard this? Hmm...

A girl, young, wearing a red hoodie that looks more like a combination of a rapper's hoodie and Superman's  cape...

The reason I blogged about this girl is because I am intrigued by the story behind this legendary children story...

It is told that the story has different meanings to all people... Some people thought that the little red riding hood is a girl before she encounters the wolf in the forest, and that The Famous Big Bad Wolf itself is a symbol for a man, seducing the little girl (its like a pedophile, don't you think?). And it is a very interesting idea, because the red cape symbolizes the blood from the periodic cycles a woman has, and The Wolf, which symbolizes the man, bears a symbolic warning for women, in terms of sexual predators... In the story, Red Riding Hood encounters The Wolf inside the forest in a way to her grandmother's house. Little Red talks to The Wolf, in which she's told not to talk to strangers by her mother. The Wolf started to persuade her to pick up flowers, while he is busy finding the grandmother's house and eat the grandmother, dressed himself and take the grandmother's place. Waiting for the girl to arrive.

I personally think that this is an interesting children story, because, well... It's a Children Bedtime Story that is told by every parents in the whole world, and there is this 'other' meaning to it, rather than just the story itself. There is something more to it, the 'darker' side of it, the mature side of the story, that children in the world could never understand (as they grew up they will). In this perspective, we, as a mature person, see this story in a different angles from children, and thus, we saw a mysterious crafted timeless bedtime story that is still enjoyable for adults... The message is clear: Stay away from the forest and the Big Bad Wolf (for children), and don't talk to strangers (this also suited for the kids as well as adults), and to be careful of "predators".

P.S.: Anyway, in case you're not believing me, check Wiki for sure... :)