Killer Lines 2

I really like your scarf, it brings out your vagina.--Kitchen Confidential (Becky to Seth, the pastry chef. I can't believe this show got canceled! It's pretty funny.)

I'm worn out by the civility... full of conversations with nothing to say.--Mansfield Park (Well, at least something like that. Edmund to Fanny.)

50 More Things You Didn't Need to Know About Me... Grabbed From Noel

If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 50 things about your friends, and let them learn 50 things about you!

1* Do you like cheese? yes... it has to be worth the cals though.

2* Have you ever smoked heroin? Never

3* Do you own a gun? No.

4* Your favorite song? Ikaw Ang Lahat Sa Akin... at naagaw pa sa Magic Mic

5* Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? No, just really, really bored.

6* What do you think of hotdogs? They're better fried.

7* Favorite Christmas song? Don't really know...

8* What do you prefer to drink in the morning. Black coffee.

9* Can you do push ups? Haven't tried recently and I have no plans.

10* Favorite super-hero? Batman... gaya gaya ka Noel... hehe!

11* What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My earrings and pendant set with aquamarine. Sabi nang piece eh... Teknikal ba tayo dito? Sino kumausap sa sarili???

12* Favorite hobby? Watching free stuff online.

13* Secret weapon to get the opposite sex? Secret din sa akin, kaya nga wala eh.

14* Do you have A.D.D.? Selective ADD only.

15* What one trait do you hate about yourself? Slightly have OCD

16* Middle Name: Cruz

17* Three thoughts at this exact moment a.) What are my three thoughts??? b.) Mind is blank. c.) Mind is blank.

18* Name 3 things you bought yesterday? a.) Dr. Scholl's massaging gel insoles b.) Lotsa nuts c.) Fruits

19* Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? a.) Water b.) Coffee c.) Silk chocolate soy milk

20* Current worry right now? Moolah (as usual)

21* Current hate? My cold 22* Favorite places? Beaches, Manila, NYC

23* How did you bring in the New Year? Was in a Cambodian New Year's Eve party, dancing their traditional dances after having their version of the Chinese lauriat.

24* Where would you like to go? Europe

25* Name three people who will complete this and return? Medyo huli na ko eh, so si Roomie, Noel and Karla... :-)

26* Do you own flip flops? Lots

27* What shirt are you wearing? Blue and white striped cotton shirt

28* Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Don't know, haven't had the chance. Not sure I'll like them too slippery though.

29* Can you whistle? Yes

30* Favorite color/s? Black and red

31* Would you like to be a pirate? No, I like taking showers.

32* What songs do you sing in the shower room? Ikaw Ang Lahat Sa Akin

33* Favorite girl's name? Sophia

34* Favorite boy's name? Miguel

35* What's in your pocket right now? Lint

36* Last thing that made you laugh? Out Loud... Episodes of Kitchen Confidential last night.

37* Best bed sheets as a child? Don't remember... I only remember my unan baho. Hehe!

38* Worst injury you've ever had? Rub burns from head to leg from my fall from the treadmill.

39* Do you love where you live? Apart from the car alarms going off and street brawls at 2AM and the jologs on the street, I like most of it. I certainly love our apartment.

40* How many computers do you have in your house? 3

41* Who is your loudest friend? Noel! Gumaganti lang... pero yung totoo, maybe si Cha Cha. Love you, my friend! Miss lang kita!

42* How many dogs do you have? No pets, just the dust bunny hiding behind my heater.

43* Does someone have a crush on you? I'm sure, hindi pa lang nya na realize. Hoy!!! Umamin ka na, duwag!!!

45* What is your favorite book? Right now, The Namesake... All time, my Indian authors! God of Small Things and Midnight's Children, too.

46* What is your favorite candy? Hirap mamili! Chocolate.

47* Favorite Sports Teams? Yankees? But not really a team sports fan.

48* What song do you want played at your funeral? Haven't thought about it, should I?

49* What were you doing 12 AM last night? Kitchen Confidential Marathon

50* What is the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Five minutes pa...

Killer Lines 1

"Is that what you think of when you think of me?" Gogol asks him. "Do I remind you of that night?"

"Not at all," his father says eventually..."You remind me of everything that followed.--The Namesake (after his father explains to him that he was reading Nikolai Gogol before the train accident that almost killed him)

"You can't do that," she'd told him then,..., and when he'd asked her why not she'd simply said, "Because you can't. Because you're Gogol."--The Namesake (after Gogol informs his sister that he is to have his name changed)

Against instinct he tries to imagine life without his father, a world in which his father does not exist.--The Namesake

He envied her the specificity of her task, so unlike the elusive nature of his. He was a mediocre student who had a facility for absorbing details without curiosity.--A Temporary Matter (in the short story anthology, Interpreter of Maladies... this hits close to home, too!)

Jhumpa Lahiri rocks!--Me

The Namesake

"He wonders how his parents had done it, leaving their respective families behind, seeing them so seldom, dwelling unconnected, in a perpetual state of expectation, of longing. All those trips to Calcutta he'd once resented--how could they have been enough? They were not enough." --The Namesake

So roomie must already be expecting this, seeing that I could not even get through the second chapter without crying my eyes out. She'll probably say that that's not saying much since I cry over everything on TV, in books, and what not. But to someone so far away from home as we are, The Namesake so perfectly illustrates the lives of those who have been transplanted from everything that they've known. The novel focuses on the family of Gogol (later on, Nikhil) Ganguli--how his parents came to America from Calcutta and had to adjust to the American culture for their kids who were born Americans, how they struggle to keep their culture alive in the foreign country and how ultimately these contrasts and combination of cultures play in Gogol's own story.

Lahiri is able to capture the nuances of being a foreigner so perfectly that when she describes the longing that Gogol's parents feel for home, I felt that she was writing about me. In particular, the novel touched me so much because it captured that unspoken fear that I've had since coming here--apart from the regret of missing milestones such as births and weddings, one of the greatest fears that I've had is that someone passes on and I'm not there. It is an unimaginable feeling that I push to the very back of my mind but somehow I'm always aware of.

The novel should also enlighten people who are left behind. When you have to live away from all that you love, it is scary to think that to the people you've left behind, you might actually become anonymous. You will be somebody that they send an occasional email or text message to. Or somebody that they take out to an obligatory dinner when you're in town. But there are details about you that are just lost. During visits, there are new things about them to learn, private jokes to be understood, but before you have once again become part of everyday monotony, you have to leave.

Lahiri's storytelling is brilliant in that it is so matter-of-fact and effortless. Her character's emotions, strengths and imperfections are so known to her that you feel that she's drawing it all from within. A wonderful read.