Fourteen Great Novels

The following books all appear in five randomly chosen online lists of 100 best books. They can therefore be considered as the fourteen great novels.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known."
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
"No battle is ever won...They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools."

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
"Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them."

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
"Then I'll be around in the dark-I'll be ever'where-wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there...I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'- I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready. An when our folk eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build-why, I'll be there."

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
"Doublethink is the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth."

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
"Brooding, she changed the pool into the sea, and made the minnows into sharks and whales, and cast vast clouds over this tiny world by holding her hand against the sun, and so brought darkness and desolation, like God himself, to millions of ignorant and innocent creatures, and then took her hand away suddenly and let the sun stream down."

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
"He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next."


Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
"I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?"


Animal Farm by George Orwell
"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
"Fear can't hurt you any more than a dream."

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
"I thought I had paid for everthing. Not like the woman pays and pays and pays. No idea of retribution or punishment. Just exchange of values. You gave up something and got something else. Or you worked for something. You paid someway for everything that was any good. I paid my way into enough things that I liked, so that I had a good time. Either you paid by learning about them, or by experience, or by taking chances, or by money. Enjoying living was learning to get your money's worth and knowing when you had it."

Light in August by William Faulkner
"A man. All men. He will pass up a hundred chances to do good for one chance to meddle where meddling is not wanted. He will overlook and fail to see chances, opportunities, for riches and fame, and welldoing, and even sometimes for evil. But he won't fail to see a chance to meddle."

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
"What difference does it make after all?--anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind."

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
"Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?"

Sources:
All Time 100 Best Novels List
The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: The Board List and The Readers List
Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels List
Best 100 Novels of All Time

Rabbit in the Year of the Ox

What should Rabbits expect in the year of the Ox? This is what I've found.

Rabbit Overview

The past year may have provided the Rabbit with many challenges and difficult situations, but this year will be a relief. The Rabbit has a very favorable outlook this year. Though it is not part of your usual plan, you may find that being assertive and bold will allow you to achieve unforeseen success. Your attraction to the finer life may lead you to living it. Personal relations are of great value to the Rabbit and will be emphasized throughout the year. Put your best foot forward in the year of the Ox and you will reap many benefits and rewards.

Rabbit Rating

67% (7 favorable and 5 neutral months)

Rabbit Career

This year is one of change. Though the Rabbit is not prone to taking risks, you may benefit greatly from taking bold new steps in finding the career you desire. Complacency in your current job could lead you to such actions. September and October are two months that are favorable for a change. You may want to seek a position that allows you to utilize your social skills and your abilities to relate to people on a personal level. Set your sights high and you will get what you want in this highly favorable year.

Rabbit Relationships

The Rabbit's family and friends will be a source of great pleasure for the you this year. They will offer support, encouragement and will be the wellspring for meaningful and enjoyable times. Personal relations are held in high regard and could be taken to a new level. Rabbits seeking new friends or romance should make an added effort to go out more and come in contact with others-you will be well rewarded for your efforts.

Rabbit Health

The Rabbit should not encounter any major health issues this year, but you may want to take precautions during certain times of the year. The Rabbit's sensitive constitution may leave you vulnerable to colds and flu during the winter months. You may want to get a flu shot during this time and make sure that you get plenty of rest to avoid any setbacks.

Rabbit Wealth

The Rabbit should enjoy a new level of wealth. If you are inspired to make a career change, this will prove to be a successful venture financially. You will be particularly pleased with some of your purchases this year, as many could relate to redecorating or changing the appeal of your home. Beware of any risky investments and continue to do the things that accumulate your level of savings.

Source:http://shine.yahoo.com/astrology/chinese/rabbit/yearly-overview/

Stress Busters among Filipinos

I've read an article in today's issue of The Philippine Daily Inquirer that, among Filipinos, gossiping and videoke singing are the most common stress busters. Interesting, isn't it?

Dr. June Pagaduan-Lopez, as cited in the article said that "when Filipinos talk about the lives of other people, they tend to feel much better about themselves because they think that the people they talk about have bigger problems [than them]".

Read the full article here.

Good Performance Is Relative

Wanna know what I mean? Play these videos and see for yourself!

Learn Something

Quoted from Terence H. White's The Once and Future King

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world around you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things to learn, pure science, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a million lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics, why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics until it is time to plough."

Crocodile

Here's another quiz I've taken. Just like the previous one I took, I agree with four of the six statements in the result. The first statement is not one of those.

Quiz taken: What Reptile Are You?

Here's the result:

You Are a Crocodile

You are incredibly wise and knowledgeable. In fact, your wisdom is so deep that it sometimes consumes you. People are intrigued by you, but you find few people intriguing. You are not a very social creature. You are cunning. You enjoy deceiving people a little. You are able to find balance in your life, and you can survive anything.

Abstract and Sequential Thinker

Curious about what kind of thinker I am, I took this online quiz. I agree with four of the six statements in the result so the quiz is somewhat reliable.

Quiz taken: What Kind of Thinker Are You?

Here's the result:

Your Thinking is Abstract and Sequential

You like to do research and collect lots of information. The more facts you have, the easier it is for you to learn. You need to figure things out for yourself and consider all possibilities. You tend to become an expert in the subjects that you study. It's difficult for you to work with people who know less than you do. You aren't a very patient teacher, and you don't like convincing people that you're right.

On Numbers and Mathematics

What will happen if one spends his time mostly on numbers and mathematics? One blogger pondered on that question and crafted this poem.

Too Much Numbers
by A. D. Darilay

if one person has been into too much numbers and mathematics, will he eventually lose all his words?

will his tenses become so terse and tight like the number one?

will his alliteration be lost in the logic of logarithms and be buried in the busy binary system?

will his metaphors fall like a hungry house sparrow gone astray in the forest; as abandoned as a boy inside the cartesian plane?

will his paragraphs lose their commas and periods, seemingly reaching their happy endings but turn into asymptotic narrative?

will his vocabulary shrink into one over infinity?

will his luck of hitting the bestseller become the probability of winning a 6/49 lotto?

Source:
http://aprilconspiracy.blogspot.com/2008/07/toomuchnumbers.html

Angels

I sit and wait
Does an angel contemplate my fate
And do they know
The places where we go
When we're grey and old
'cos I have been told
That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed
Thoughts running through my head
And I feel the love is dead
I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she
offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead

When I'm feeling weak
And my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
And I know I'll always be
blessed with love
And as the feeling grows
She breathes flesh to my bones
And when love is dead
I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she
offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she
offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead

Wolf Moon

Saturday Night Special: Biggest Full Moon of 2009

If skies are clear Saturday, go out at sunset and look for the giant moon rising in the east. It will be the biggest and brightest one of 2009, sure to wow even seasoned observers.

Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days.

But the orbit is not a perfect circle. One portion is about 31,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to our planet than the farthest part, so the moon's apparent size in the sky changes. Saturday night (Jan. 10) the moon will be at perigee, the closest point to us on this orbit.

It will appear about 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during 2009, according to NASA. (A similar setup occurred in December, making that month's full moon the largest of 2008.)

High tides

Tides will be higher, too. Earth's oceans are pulled by the gravity of the moon and the sun. So when the moon is closer, tides are pulled higher. Scientists call these perigean tides, because they occur when the moon is at or near perigee. (The farthest point on the lunar orbit is called apogee.)

This month's full moon is known as the Wolf Moon from Native American folklore. The full moon's of each month are named. January's is also known as the Old Moon and the Snow Moon.

A full moon rises right around sunset, no matter where you are. That's because of the celestial mechanics that produce a full moon: The moon and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, so that sunlight hits the full face of the moon and bounces back to our eyes.

At moonrise, the moon will appear even larger than it will later in the night when it's higher in the sky. This is an illusion that scientists can't fully explain. Some think it has to do with our perception of things on the horizon vs. stuff overhead.

Try this trick, though: Using a pencil eraser or similar object held at arm's length, gauge the size of the moon when it's near the horizon and again later when it's higher up and seems smaller. You'll see that when compared to a fixed object, the moon will be the same size in both cases.

More lunacy

If you have other plans for Saturday night, take heart: You can see all this on each night surrounding the full moon, too, because the moon will be nearly full, rising earlier Friday night and later Sunday night.

Interestingly, because of the mechanics of all this, the moon is never truly 100 percent full. For that to happen, all three objects have to be in a perfect line, and when that rare circumstance occurs, there is a total eclipse of the moon.

A departing fact: The moon is moving away as you read this, by about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) a year. Eventually this drift will force the moon to take 47 days to circle our world.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090109/sc_space/saturdaynightspecialbiggestfullmoonof2009

My Sister's Pics

(Date taken: 8/9/06) This was taken when she was just eight months old.

(Date taken: 8/22/06) Laughing her heart out.

(Date taken: 3/27/07) Wearing a hat and asking for a photograph.

(Date taken: 03/08/08)Looks signalling tantrums.

(Date taken: 08/23/08) Sticking her tongue out when asked about her gum. After the seventh gum, she learned that not everything chewed is meant to be swallowed.

(Date taken: 01/09/09)Her latest pic.

Ten Tips to Build English Vocabulary

Feeling overwhelmed trying to memorize so many vocabulary words? It doesn't need to be a daunting task! Check out these top strategies and practical pointers that can help you build your word power!

1. Connect: It's easier to memorize words based on a common theme. Make your own connections between words and possibly organize them in a spider diagram.
   
2. Write: Practically using vocabulary can help it stick in your mind. Write sentences with new vocabulary words or compose a story using a group of words or expressions.
   
3. Draw: Expose the artist in you by drawing pictures related to the words you study. Your drawings can help trigger your memory in the future.
   
4. Act: Get your moves on by acting out words and expressions you learn. Or, imagine and act out a situation where you would need to use them.
   
5. Create: Design flashcards in English and study them in your spare time. Each week make new ones, but continue to review all of them.
   
6. Associate: Assign different colors to different words. This association will help you recall vocabulary later.
   
7. Listen: Think about other words which sound similar to the words you're learning, especially complex words. Associate the other words with this new word to help you remember the pronunciation.
   
8. Choose: Remember that topics that interest you will be easier to learn. Therefore, carefully select words that you will find useful or interesting. Even the process of making the choice is a memory aid!
   
9. Limit: Don't try to memorize the dictionary in a day! Limit yourself to 15 words per day, and you'll gain confidence instead of feeling overwhelmed.
   
10. Observe: Keep an eye out for the words you're studying when reading or listening to English.
    

Source:
http://www.englishtown.com/Sp/article.aspx?articleName=149-vocab&etag=None-art149-vocab

Zossima's Advice

Zossima's advice to Fyodor Karamazov (Part I, Book II of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov)

"...Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so losses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love. And in order to distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures and sinks to bestiality in his vices - all this from continual lying to other men and to himself. The man who lies to himself can be easily more offended than anyone else. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn't it? A man may know that nobody insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and make a mountain out of a molehill - he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it. And so he will pass to genuine vindictiveness."