New Chuck Palahniuk Book! and Bacon Flu

New Chuck Palahniuk book (the genius who gave us Fightclub).

http://bit.ly/127zGs

Pygmy, coming 5 May 09

Last night, I was at a poetry/short story reading at a very seedy looking warehouse-turned-bar place, and one of the readers had a bit of a cold, thus, her voice was thick with not a handful of throat-clearing here and there.

"IT'S HERE! BACON FLU!"

Poor girl.

Oh, and I almost killed my friend, again. I blame Bertha, my GPS navigator. She really takes her time when tracking satellites, and refused to adhere to the windshield. I called it quits with Bertha last night, and added "GPS Navigator" to my list of things to buy before heading for England. I'm going to need a very handy one anyway.

Oh wait, an iPhone can do that. Ha!

According to a NY Times article, which I do not have the energy to find right now, the first confirmed bacon flu death in the USA is here. Sadly, it is becoming more and more evident that a zombie outbreak is far from the horizon. My apocalypse readiness kit shall have to wait another day. Did you know, a few weeks ago my mother bought a box of green tea, nothing special, except it's a box that could last a nuclear fallout. She also happens to love spam, and our pantry and cupboards have stacked to the ceiling with it, sardines, garbanzos, chicken noodle soup, campbell cream of mushroom/asparagus, boyardee spaghetti, cans and cans of diet coke (actually we ran out of diet coke 2 days ago so I ahve to pick some up on my way back from my upcoming French exam), Arizona sweet tea, and A&W rootbeer.

Now, all we need is a fallout shelter

minus the deluded happy family.

Still no zombies!

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

The first pandemic we've had in half a decade and STILL NO ZOMBIES?!

Btw, people, it's freaking treatable, as long as you tell your doctor that you've been having flu-like symptoms. This isn't SARS (Severe Asian Racism Sydrome) or Bird Flu. Gawd you guys. I've seen people going vegetarian 'cause of this shit. :rolleyes: Seriously, viruses don't cope very well with heat, especially flu viruses. That's why your vagus nerve stimulates your hypothalamus to increase your temperature when there are foreign bodies hanging around, it also stimulates other things critical for an inflammatory response.

This isn't the freaking Ebola or West Nile, or Spanish Flu or the Plague (yes, the plague still exists, and not just in level infinity military bases).

Manchester! not London!

It's funny how my mother tells people (specifically relatives in the Philippines) that I'm leaving for London.

Probably because Manchester is not as popular.

But I'm going to Manchester ! Manchester ! Whose football club beat the crap out of someonethis weekend ? Heh...

Film : Osama

A pre-pubescent girl has her hair cut off by her widowed mother, her body wrapped in a gallabiya, and is sent into the streets of a newly liberated Afghanistan as a boy. The first film from a post-Taliban Afghanistan, guaranteed to leave you feeling queasy and nauseous from its gripping rawness with a backdrop of beautiful snow-capped Afghan mountains.

In the news : New Afghan law to allow marital rape and other Taliban-like feminine restrictions.

Now, I always like to view things in light of cultural relativism, but rape is rape, and this is certainly not protecting women from men other than their husband.

Yay!

Yay! I finished translating Alizée's "Mes Courants Electriques," so now I can finally move on to Psychédélices, then Najoua Belyzel.

o.O

Exam week. Please end now!

Film : Pan's Labyrinth

El laberinto del fauno

Pan's Labyrinth

Best film I've seen in a while, and I watch a lot of films.

Actually I've been putting it off since it came out, so shame on me.

Umm, I don't know what to say other than I am still awed by its depth. Can fantasy save us from authoritarian oppression ? It's like a fairy tale for adults and children. Take it at face value and you'll be viewing something Walt Disney would've conceived but never put to parchment. But what's the point in that ? I say we take the magic chalk and draw a door into the labyrinth.

Moral I got from it ? Everything that politicians tell us, left, right, and center, they're all fantasies. We create our fantasy from their words, then create more fantasies to escape the reality of impossibility. Pan's Labyrinth is ultimately a politically charged film. It could be a criticism of Marxism, an insinuation that any form of Marxist rebellion is bound to be useless, just like Ophelia's fantasies did not save her from bodily death. Or it could be a criticism of how useless and disenchanted we all are with our hi-def tv's and 24/7 broadbad internet, how oblivious we are of our lack of authority over so many things.

I take that back. I'll take it at face value as it's so much more enjoyable that way. :P

Charlie horse be gone !

Rosel, next time, stretch for at least 15 minutes before jogging for 3 miles straight. Thank you.

And make sure the stretches are actually good stretches, you know, pilates-ish stretches. Stretch those damn calves dammit, and those thighs too. And warm-up considerably before attempting to do a 5k. It's really unhealthy. Now you have severe tenderness in both your legs, and your thigh muscles are as hard as rocks, in a bad way.

And for the love of everything beautiful, start studying!

Thank you !

--your soul