A long way down

Before anything else -- I did it! I went out there and started a book blog. You can check it out over here. It's pretty sparse at the moment, but I have quite a few entries planned and a thing that I hope people will enjoy.

* * * * *
Last week, I posted on my Facebook Wall the agonizing last words of programmer Bill Zeller. It's a suicide note written by Zeller, wherein he recounts being sexually-abused as a child and the damage it has inflicted upon him for the rest of his life.

It's a well-written farewell note, and I particularly related to this part the most:

I've told different people a lot of things, but I've never told anyone about what happened to me, ever, for obvious reasons...It feels incredibly lonely to realize you can never share something with someone and have it be between just the two of you. I don't blame anyone in particular, I guess it's just how people are. Even if I felt like this is something I could have shared, I have no interest in being part of a friendship or relationship where the other person views me as the damaged and contaminated person that I am.

I've had my share of childhood trauma, and trust me when I say that it isn't being forced to sing in front of a group of visiting relatives. What I've found out from the five times (yes, I've only told it that many times) I've shared this trauma is that...it only results to more trauma.

The first time I told it was to friends I had when I was a kid. That...ended up badly. Let's leave it at that.

The second time I told it was to a classmate in freshman year, who then insisted that I tell it to our other friends. Other friends then went on to be...not receptive, to put it mildly. That sure taught me to shut my piehole.

The fourth time I told it was in junior year, when I was in a particularly vulnerable situation and was quite frankly overwhelmed by the presence of a guy that I liked. I felt that I was around people I could trust and who would sympathize with me. While I wasn't mocked, I didn't exactly get any sympathy either. More like an apathetic shrug.

The fifth and final time I told it to someone face to face, I was told that I was just using it as an excuse. That stung. On the bright side, the person was extremely apologetic afterwards, and I've learned to dismiss it as just the product of us being stupid kids.

But I did tell myself, never again. Evidently, trusting people with that kind of pain will really just get you a whole bag of nothing in return.

* * * * *
To continue with this delightfully morbid note, check out this depressing item from Valleywag: Facebook suicide note gets mocked, turns out to be real.

Books and a boy

Question for everyone: Should I start a book blog? An honest to goodness one, without any random entries about The Pee Lady or The Condom Shunner.

Also, should I do it on Livejournal? A lot of my friends who are also book bloggers seem to prefer Wordpress. Any other blogging platforms you guys think I should try out? Or is this whole idea of putting up a book blog a bad and misguided one?

* * * * *
While that book blog is up in the air, let me tell you about this book i just finished reading: "Halo" by Alexandra Adornetto.

This is the fourth novel for the 18-year-old author, and is being branded as "Twilight with angels". The story is about an angel who falls in love with a mortal and the challenges they face. The epigraph is from Romeo and Juliet and Beyonce. Yes. Beyonce. Beyonce. BEYONCE.

The book starts out well enough. Adornetto isn't bad with description, and the way she depicts her heroine, Bethany Church, as being overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the human world after coming from the all white Kingdom of Heaven is done quite well.

Of course, all good things come to an end. The only problem with "Halo" is that the good times end less than a hundred pages into a 400+ page book. OHMYGOD.

With Bethany being an angel, you'd think that for once, we'd have an actual female lead in a YA supernatural romance with a backbone and who kicks ass. A heroine who takes control and schools the man for a change. But what we get is even more insipid teenage girl whining that everybody else has already lived through in the 10 million similar books that have come out in this genre.

It's hard to sympathize with Bethany as she is often portrayed to be overly naïve and constantly swayed by the other characters that surround her. For someone armed with the sum of all human knowledge, Bethany comes off as being no better than the mortals she is supposed to protect.

All the characters are flat and the world-building is crap. There is no dramatic tension or compelling plot for about 300+ pages and when the complication does arrive it is absolutely worthless and disposed off in the schmaltziest way possible that I kind of want to vomit poop.

Everyone knows about my problems with "Twilight". I have a lot of those. But it is absolutely depressing to me to find books that ARE EVEN MORE HORRIBLE. To haphazardly quote , "'Twilight' may have had lots of bullshit, but that bullshit struck a nerve." The sort of bullshit that you are fed in "Halo" isn't just unappealing, it is uninteresting as well.

* * * * *

And since we're on the subject of bad books anyway, Snooki from Jersey Shore is now a published author!

It's been getting a lot of press (duh), with Jezebel dissecting a date rape scene and Slate interviewing Snooki's "collaborator".

My favorite tidbit about this book so far? That these lines were actually committed to paper: "Gia danced around a little, shaking her peaches for show. She shook it hard. Too hard. In the middle of a shimmy, her stomach cramped. A fart slipped out. A loud one. And stinky."

Wonders never cease.

* * * * *

Finally, you all know I have a James Franco obsession.

So don't be surprised if I direct you guys to an interview where James Franco says "Maybe I'm just gay."

The Cassandra Clare dilemma

I'm supposed to review Cassandra Clare's latest release, "Clockwork Angel", and to bone up on the mythology I spent the past two weeks reading her series, "The Mortal Instruments".

Overall, the novels are entertaining enough, if a little predictable at certain parts. Besides, the predictability is offset a little bit by the possibility of an incestuous relationship between its two main protagonists. If I didn't know more about Clare, I would have had no trouble recommending her novels to YA-reading friends.

But the problem is that I know all about Clare's tumultuous past. And by "tumultuous past", I mean she is an "alleged" plagiarist. Do click on the link if you want to know more. It's a great read in and of itself.

This is where my problem lies. Even if I do find good stuff in Clare's work, there is always a nagging voice at the back of my head asking "But are these her actual words? Or did she just copy them?" It doesn't help that Clare's background in Harry Potter fanfiction makes the derivative elements of her work become even more prominent.

Would it be fair to bring this up in my review? Or would that be too unfair? I've always been told to separate the author from the book, but what if what the author has done something as serious as plagiarism?

* * * * *

Growing up, the big author rivalry was between Christopher Pike and R. L. Stine. I always favored R. L. Stine, although for the life of me I can no longer remember why.

ANYWAYS. It turns out that my preference for Stine was well-placed, as Christopher Pike has turned out to be a major douchebag.

The high points:

1.) Christopher Pike's editor telling a Turkish woman that he, an American man, knows more about Turkish culture than she does.
2.) That "editor" turning out to be Christopher Pike himself.
3.) And Christopher Pike, through this "editor", has been leaving orgasmic reviews of his own books on Amazon.

There is so much more wank than I've outline here. And the best part is that Amazon still hasn't deleted most of the comments coming from the "editor".

Chillin'

Chaos Rings

I know that I've got a few gamers on my f-list, most of whom are SquareEnix fans, so I'm pretty sure they know about Chaos Rings, which is a SquareEnix exclusive for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Having played Final Fantasy from its SNES days to Final Fantasy IX (I only stopped playing because I couldn't find a good enough emulator), I was immediately interested in this game. The price tag was a little off-putting at first, but then I realized that I've bought games for my Wii that cost twice as much. And I certainly can't carry around my Wii like I can do with my iPod Touch.

I've only just begun playing, but so far I've been having a great time. It reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy VIII, and so far it has been running smoothly. It certainly looks like I will once again have another reason for not getting any work done here in the house or at the office.

In somewhat related news, here's a history of gay rights in video games.

* * * * *
There's a series of books that's going to come out set in "Modelland", which is described as a place

"where 'Intoxibellas' are trained. Intoxibellas are drop-dead beautiful, kick-butt fierce and, yeah, maybe they have some powers too."

If you haven't figured out by now who is going to write this future classic, then there is no hope for you. Or maybe you could just find out who it is over here.

I can't wait to get my hands on this thing, if you know what I mean.

Holiday homophobia, pregnant weightlifters, and pretty books

The holidays are just around the corner, and while that may mean a less stressful workload for most people, I'm not sure I can say the same for those of us in the office. Things haven't slowed down at all with regards to work, and we're not even sure if we're going to get Christmas off. I'm hoping for the best, though.

It's that same work week crunch that's prevented me from putting anything up on the blog until today. Throughout the past two weeks I've amassed quite a number of open tabs, some of which I've already had to discard because the news is stale already.

There is also the fact that nothing really exciting is going on with my life. I was supposed to go to a party yesterday, but my ride had to leave before I could leave the office. So there's that.

* * * * *
As most of you guys know, reviewing books is part of what I do at my job. When I first started doing this, I was given instructions not to be so hard on local authors, especially when they were just starting out. Through the years, I've been given more freedom to write what I really think of a book, and I'm immensely thankful for that.

Being free to sat what I want does have its drawbacks: Saying a book sucks balls is bound to get a reaction from the author. Thankfully, I've only had one author go after me because of a bad review, and her points weren't very good ones at all.

Besides, the irate author I got is nothing compared to Candace Sams, who I believed is often referred to as "Crazy Lady". Her book, Electra Galaxy's Interstellar Fellar is given a one star review on Amazon and she goes nuts. I would recommend following Making Light's suggestion and "Remember to click on all the links that say Customers don’t think this post adds to the discussion. Show post anyway.'"

Trust me, it's an absolute trainwreck. The only thing I have to complain about is that Sams flounces away after page 19.

* * * * *

"White Horse, Gold Dragon", written by "Lan Pam Thi"

The author name is in quotes because it turns out that "Lan Pam Thi" doesn't actually exist, or at the very least, didn't even write the book. This wouldn't normally be a problem, except the book won a prestigious literary prize in the Czech Republic.

Read the full story over here.

* * * * *
Homophobe and notorius money-grubber Oral Roberts is finally dead.

He has this to say about gay sex: "The waste matter comes out of the body as poison, and he penetrates that part of the body in homosexuality. It's not to be put in the mouth of the man, or the mouth of the man or the woman…. It is the male organ, penetrating the vagina of the woman, the male and the female."

Here's a great response from one of the commenters on Gawker: "Isn't it fascinating how these folks like Mr. Anal Bob really seem to have the most vivid imaginations as far as what the sex lives of so called sinners are like?

A gay guy is like, 'yeah, I thought this guy was attractive, we went back to his place and had sex.'

Oral Dick here thinks like 'he drooled long spindles of saliva across his chest as he took the hard veined, throbbing penis across his moist lips, into the cavernous wet mouth, suckling the tip with his tongue, aching, throbbing, praying to the heathen gods for the seeds of sin to splatter his wide eyed eyes with hell fire. This is wrong. Insert penis in vagina. Ejaculate. Rinse. Repeat. Amen.' Ugh. Rest in a world without heaven or hell because neither exists, dumb fuck. Peace out!"

Also, what kind of evil parents would name their kid "Oral"? I mean, REALLY.

* * * * *
In other gay news, you can now get gay married in the District of Carolina. New York may have been a disappointment, but at least there is still some progress being made.

Which is more than I can say for the Comelec, which rejected Ang Ladlad's appeal to be allowed to run for party list. Here's hoping that the Supreme Court comes up with a much more favorable ruling.

* * * * *
A weightlifter in Chile gives birth during practice while a dad in England delivers a baby using Google.

Sometimes I love the world.

* * * * *

PRETTY.

I am so happy that I haven't completed my collection of Nabokov novels, because that means I can still get to buy these beautiful editions. You can find the rest of the covers here.

"Love is a dangerous angel"

I honestly can't remember when I first heard of the Weetzie Bat books. It just seemed like they had always been there, in the back of my mind, waiting to be uncovered. But it would really take me quite some time before I actually went out there and got myself a copy.

I only got my hands on Dangerous Angels, a compilation of all the Weetzie Bat books, a few months ago, and it would take me a few weeks more before I would start reading it. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing it much earlier.

In case you're not aware of them, the Weetzie Bat books are made up of Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, and Baby Be-Bop. All the books are told through the eyes if Weetzie and the members of her family, specifically her children Cherokee and Witch Baby, as well as her gay best friend Dirk McDonald.

We are first introduced to them in Weetzie Bat, where we follow Weetzie and Dirk as they look for the love of their lives in the city of Los Angeles. The other books revolve around this central theme of love, with variations that give each novel a flavor of its own.

Witch Baby, for instance, has the main character looking not for romantic love, but for love from her parents. Cherokee and the Goat Guys have the characters grappling with adolescent love and their self-esteem. Missing Angel Juan is about loving someone enough to let them be on their own, while Baby Be-Bop is about a young Dirk struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality.

After reading Weetzie Bat, I had initially thought that this series was merely overhyped and not really as good as everyone made it out to be. Despite being a charming work, I found Weetzie Bat to be a little too thin -- in plot and characterization -- for me to keep on going.

It's a good thing that I still kept on reading, though, because the series keeps on getting better and better with each book. Block has the ability to balance her whimsical prose and the heavy topics she often takes on, and the combination makes the books moving without being too overly heavy for younger readers.

And Block certainly isn't afraid to take on some pretty daunting topics. In Cherokee and the Goat Guys there is a harrowing scene filled with drugs, booze, and underage sex, while the latter chapters of Weetzie Bat talk about the AIDS crisis, if in a roundabout way.

My personal favorites are Missing Angel Juan and Baby Be-Bop. It is in these books that Block is at her very best, telling stories of heartbreak, loneliness, and homophobia in hopeful tones usually reserved for fairy tales.

I also love how Block tackles homosexuality in her novels. When Dirk tells Weetzie that he's gay, Weetzie's reply is a simple: "It doesn't matter one bit, honey-honey." Then the two decide to look for boys together. I can only imagine how empowering that is for a young closeted gay man reading these novels for the first time.

And it's not just gay men. All throughout the series there are lesbians, bisexuals, there's even a transgender couple with a baby. It's a delightful and idealized world that one can't help but wish for.

The fact that Block doesn't hesitate from showing the dark side of life either -- Dirk, for instance, is almost mauled to death by a homophobic gang of neo-Nazis -- just makes her idealized Los Angeles even more precious and beautiful.

Dangerous Angels is certainly something I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone looking for a good read. Multilayered, poetic, and unafraid to tackle some pretty sensitive topics, it is a young adult book that is both challenging and entertaining.