Griping

The DVD drive in my new all-in-one computer DIED on a Sunday night when I'm trying to pretend work doesn't exist and the alternate-reality of Gossip Girl does. Arrghh.

Trying to make do now with 500 Days of Summer which I inexplicably missed at the cinema but this chick flick is really not improving my day. Fluffy. Quirky. I can see (at 10 minutes into the show) why Zooey is a MPDG (and why girls want to be a Zooey) and how guys cannot help getting zooey-ed. Arrgh.

Back to the books

Weather forecast: Rainy for the next 3 days. Time to go under the covers and read a book! 

I’ve dusted the covers of The Crosswicks Journals by Madeleine L’Engle which have been in my bookshelf for years and started on the first book – A Circle of Quiet. These are some sort of L'Engle's memoirs but read more like journals which she have kept over the years.

I always call my Madeleine L’Engle books “soul-refreshers”; books which I turn to when I’m tired, frustrated, sad, angry simply because they lift my spirit and calm my soul. Whether they are fiction like my favourite Wrinkle in Time series, Austin and O’Keefe family series or non-fiction like The Crosswicks Journals, she illuminates the world for me with her honest and personal thoughts on life, love and faith.

The Tyger

You would be familiar with the first stanza of William Blake's The Tyger - I see it at epigraphs of books (such as Margaux Fragoso's memoir of her childhood sexual abuse Tiger, Tiger) and I see it quoted here and there in books and articles. 

I've never really understood that few lines until I got down to reading the whole poem and with alot of help from SparkNotes (the best guide for lazy Lit students). Read here! 

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forest of the night

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And What shoulder, and what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye 

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 

Evernote

Am I the last person to have found out about Evernote?

I love the user interface and its function satisfies my uncontrollable urge to make lists and jot down random notes. The Evernote collaboration with Moleskin is also the coolest thing ever.

A text alternative to Pinterest and the best thing? you get to save pictures for inspiration as well.