Finding a Romance Article in an Unusual Place

Every once in a while, I am surprised by an article that I read in the Wall Street Journal... because it doesn't seem like the type of article that the WSJ might carry. The weekend edition carried an article about a relationship (titled "A Long-Distance Connection") that started just before the guy left for Iraq. Literally, the day before he was to ship out, the couple met. And their relationship basically started as a long distance relationship. It's a touching article, and when the news is full of dismal economic crisis day after day, it's actually refreshing to read something that reminds us of hope.

Must Be for the Principle

Most of my snail mail these days consist of bills (the little that I don't get by ebill), junk advertisements, National Geographics (once a month), and solicitation of my money for random charity organizations. So I was quite tickled by something I received by mail yesterday.

I moved in December to a different unit because my old unit got flooded after raining. Apparently after paying the final bills of all my utilities, I was owed some refund from AT&T (internet, phone, tv). So according to the stamp, AT&T spent $0.42. The refund? $0.02. Basically, AT&T spent 21 times more to deliver the refund to me ($0.02 times 21 equals $0.42). Not very cost effective. I have to admire AT&T's principle to deliver me my refund!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So, it's Valentine's Day. And I heard long time ago that it was tradition that if a woman asks a man to marry on Valentine's Day that the man cannot refuse. So ladies, if you dare, ask your men! ;)

Anyway, one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost is "The Rose Family." And it may just be appropriate for today. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Rose Family
by Robert Frost

The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But now the theory goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is, and so's
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose--
But were always a rose.

Koala Saved by Tree

Couldn't help but notice the name of the firefighter (Tree) who helped a Koala bear in Australia in this article. The other big news... other than the stimulus package news, that is. ;)

My Favorite Movies and Books

Whenever someone asks me to name my top 5 or 10 movies, I am completely stumped. You would think I would know my own taste. I think the problem is, I watch too many movies. Same thing with books. (Just counted from allconsuming.net -- I watched 11 movies in last 2 months and 9 books in last 2 months)

Instead of remembering the last movie or book that I saw or watched that I didn't like, I decided to sit down and really think about what my all time favorites are. The simple test is, would I want to watch the movie again? And would I want to read the book again?

And I came up with this list for movies:

1. When Harry Met Sally
2. Princess Bride
3. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
4. Welcome to Dongmakgol
5. Stardust
6. The Lakehouse
7. The Way Home
8. Maverick
9. Sneakers
10. Charade
11. Clueless
12. Office Space
13. Matrix
14. Ever After
15. Matilda
16. Wall-E
17. Bad Boys
18. Speed
19. Spiderman

It's kind of a long list, but I wouldn't ever mind watching any of these movies over and over again. In fact, I actually have dvd's for some of them. Sad that only Wall-E made it to my favorite list from last year after all the movies I watched!

As for my recommended book list? I actually ranked my book favorites in the order of preference. But 1-6 are really tied as far as my preference goes.. And "We Wish to Inform You..." gets to the bottom only because it's too heartbreaking to read it over and over again.

1. Poisonwood Bible
2. Watership Down
3. The Centaur in the Garden
4. Life of Pi
5. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff
6. Oryx and Crake
7. Invisible Man
8. Blindness
9. Straight Man
10. The Stranger
11. Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
12. Candide
13. Ender’s Game
14. Harry Potter books
15. Reading Lolita in Tehran
16. The End of Poverty
17. Supercapitalism
18. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
19. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families

I was thinking of doing a post of books I really enjoyed of all the books I read in 2008. But looking at my above list, I realize that only one impressed me ("Blindness").

So now that I have made my list, I'm going to see if this year adds anything to this list. It's kind of sad that the list is composed of movies and books that I had consumed quite a few years ago... I don't think I'm going to delve deeply into what that means on quality of movies and books I consume so much?!?