Wednesday rambling

It's Wednesday already! Or should I say it took too long? Making chocolate amaretti with Cynthia last night was fun, even if we ended up with ginormous blobs of crisps because I don't know how to space it properly ehehe. Hopefully we'll make more things out of her new dessert cookbook every Tuesday from now on!

I'm counting down until Thanksgiving Day. Can't wait to spend the weekend with the Hasegawa family! All the wonderful people and the wonderful food. I'll miss the Thanksgiving food/clothing drive and celebration at my church, but mainly, I'm worried about missing our youth rehearsal since the winter concert is the week right after. Speaking of singing, the church aunties want me to sing more with them. Why can't they request that I sing with the youth? Sigh. Then again I don't know who would sing with me, people tend to enjoy singing solo. ._.

I finally got around to reading Inferno by Dante, translated by Anthony Esolen. It's got great atmosphere but it's been a while since I've read old literature, there's too many references that I can't recall. (Oh no, retrograde memory loss! At least it's not amnesia, wait a minute, I've wiped certain memories before...) I find myself spending more time reading the appendix and introduction than the cantatas themselves. After reading Esolen's introduction, and if the story compels me enough, I'll find other translations to read. The introduction, however, was quite the spoiler, because now I know how Dante's journey is going to play out and what the goal is. It's not necessarily a bad thing, I guess, but I'm just tempted to focus more on how the story will illustrate beauty and love rather than focus on the journey itself. Or is that one and the same, one of those paradoxes are supposed to make sense? It's stimulating to be reading something that tries to portray high ideals than the crude and simplistic models ideals implicate. I mean, I like reading low literature too, but it's about as engaging as a movie when there's really not that much to think about so I wind up with rapid circles of thought. Something that leaves me feeling good, bad or somewhere in between just isn't stimulating enough for further investigation, but as I said, it doesn't make it bad or not worth my time either. Harry Potter was one of the funnest reads ever, watching the adolescents unfold into adulthood, but there just wasn't a lot of depth there. The Pendergast (and other Preston and Child authored) novels had more depth, but analyzing it frightened me. The fear was good for me, to some extent, because it forced me to confront some of the darkest parts of my mind, but at the same time, it allowed me to indulge in my secret desires that should never see the light of consciousness. The worst part? I connected, sympathized, KNEW what these people felt and thought. It wasn't because it was written in the books, it was that I saw a distorted yet fantastic reflection of myself. Relating to these people worried me, those are the last people I want to have any connection with! It makes me think, if people see them as evil, then what am I? I'm not that far off, and it's times like these that I realize how corrupt we are as a society. We internalize so many things unconsciously, and sometimes consciously, but see them as necessary evils. Does that justify ourselves to do and think evil? No, not at all, and it's characters like Diogenes Pendergast who illustrate it clear as day. It is not acceptable, it is not okay, CHANGE, but change does not come easily. People who read books like these generally think of it as a fantastic trip, and some people avoid them by accusing it as a sign of evil prevalent in our society, but there is a lesson to be learned, however simple. If you realize the darkness we are all capable of, go towards the light. Do not allow yourself to be consumed. I'd like to think the authors have such a genuine purpose. ::shrugs:: Richard Preston and Lincoln Child write really good stories, by the way, better than watching a movie. X3

Now I miss those novels. Their next Pendergast novel is scheduled for release next summer. Must find more!

Wednesday Thankful Three

01) Friends who help me analyze my actions

02) Hour-long nap during lunch time

03) Souplantation last night! I love Souplantation!

And I'm really hungry right now...