Little Miss Apple Pie

A Thousand Tomorrows by Karen Kingsbury is definitely my favorite novel of all time. I know there are far better novels written, but this certain book have captured my heart ever since the first time I have laid my eyes on it in the bookstore. When I saw it during my freshmen years in high school, I immediately saved up for it and bought it the following week. The best thing was it did not let me down.

I swear, every part of the book is still with me up to this day, even if I have lost the book itself from my numerous apartment transfers in the past few years. The story tells the wonderful love story of a Bull Rider by the name of Cody Gunner and Ali Daniels, a Barrel Racer. The story revolves around the complicated childhood background of Cody, and Ali's battle with Cystic Fibrosis. Having been angry at the world, Cody Gunner have met Ali Daniels, who, in the most critical stage of her illness, still managed to keep a smile on her face and motivate herself to go on and pursue her career as a Barrel Racer. As expected, they fell in love, but Ali eventually dies in the end.

I am probably a fan of tragedies as I have often fell in love with stories with such themes. (Consider Shakespeare and Nicholas Sparks, for example.) And this novel is a good addition to a Romance and Tragedy reading lists, if you ask me. A sequel has been already published and it's entitled "Just Beyond the Clouds" I will definitely make a review of that once I finish reading it, but with my pile of work, I cannot promise to do it soon.

It is really hard to tell a story this good without going in to so much details but I do not want to spoil every detail of the novel. To keep things short though, all I have left to say is that this book is great! It is a must read for every book lover out there.

Rating:
I will not be using stars, instead I will use cookies to rate the books I've read. The mechanic is the same as the stars though, I just find using cookies more unique and this novel deserves five cookies.

Decided to finally post book reviews. :) Hope you enjoy reading them! :D

A Thousand Tomorrows by Karen Kingsbury is definitely my favorite novel of all time. I know there are far better novels written, but this certain book have captured my heart ever since the first time I have laid my eyes on it in the bookstore. When I saw it during my freshmen years in high school, I immediately saved up for it and bought it the following week. The best thing was it did not let me down.

I swear, every part of the book is still with me up to this day, even if I have lost the book itself from my numerous apartment transfers in the past few years. The story tells the wonderful love story of a Bull Rider by the name of Cody Gunner and Ali Daniels, a Barrel Racer. The story revolves around the complicated childhood background of Cody, and Ali's battle with Cystic Fibrosis. Having been angry at the world, Cody Gunner have met Ali Daniels, who, in the most critical stage of her illness, still managed to keep a smile on her face and motivate herself to go on and pursue her career as a Barrel Racer. As expected, they fell in love, but Ali eventually dies in the end.

I am probably a fan of tragedies as I have often fell in love with stories with such themes. (Consider Shakespeare and Nicholas Sparks, for example.) And this novel is a good addition to a Romance and Tragedy reading lists, if you ask me. A sequel has been already published and it's entitled "Just Beyond the Clouds" I will definitely make a review of that once I finish reading it, but with my pile of work, I cannot promise to do it soon.

It is really hard to tell a story this good without going in to so much details but I do not want to spoil every detail of the novel. To keep things short though, all I have left to say is that this book is great! It is a must read for every book lover out there.

Rating:
I will not be using stars, instead I will use cookies to rate the books I've read. The mechanic is the same as the stars though, I just find using cookies more unique and this novel deserves five cookies.






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Most people I know are desperate to lose weight, especially now that summer has come. Those people I know have considered dieting, exercising and even surgeries! Yep, believe it or not, my good friend has seriously talked to me about a series of surgeries wherein the doctors take out a part of your stomach to make you eat less.

Such surgery is risky, I know and so I made a little research on it to share with my good friend. Upon browsing the net, I have come across a site called My Surgery MD wherein I found a couple of information about the procedure that my friend and I were talking about and found out that it is called “Bariatric Surgery”.

One of the surgeries I found under Bariatric is Gastric Bypass Procedure. This procedure is said to be for extremely obese patients who have found little to no success at all in a weight loss diet. This particular procedure decreases the stomach size of the patients, which then in turn becomes a gateway to successful weight loss.
This procedure also costs around $18,000 to about $30,000 and would depend upon the surgeon who would be performing the procedure and the technique that he or she is going to use.

Another was Gastric Sleeve Surgery, some tend to call it Sleeve Gastrectomy and this particular procedure that costs around $10,000 to $25,000 involves the removal of the large portion of the patient’s stomach.

The last procedure I found is called Lap Band Surgery. This procedure involves a silicone band that would be wrapped around the patient’s stomach to limit the amount of food that they would be eating. This procedure costs around $15, 000 to $20,000.

Just imagine that. My friend’s eyes literally bulged at the tremendous amount.

And although these procedures do have their benefits, still nothing is better than the natural way of trimming down other than proper diet and exercise.

I know a lot of people who drink and drive after spending the entire evening at a friend’s house and it scares me that most of them might be involved in car accidents in the future, or worse—being caught in act by the authority.

Considering the fact that a person driving under the influence of alcohol is against the law, they might not be involved in a car accident (yet!) but they can be legally charged for DUI (driving under the influence) or DWI (driving while intoxicated) when they get caught by the police. While first offense only charges the offender a misdemeanor DUI, a repeated allegation would result to felony DUI.

Being caught DUI or DWI is like being in an accident as well, in the financial sense that is. Just diminish the finances involved in getting the area cleaned up and the medical fees, but in the same way the offender will still be charged for the crime he or she has committed. The offender would need to hire a special DUI lawyer for his DWI defense and that lawyer would need to let the offender understand the sentence of a repeated DUI offense.

See, all these commotion only for drunk driving. So friends, please do drive safely and sober!

I honestly did not anticipate on attending this school year's college tour. For one reason, I thought it would be boring and childish, considering the fact that our itineraries were The Myth of the Human Body and Manila Ocean Park, add to that having my batch to share the bus with the annoying freshmen. I thought it would be the worst tour I and my friends would ever have, but I guess fate has once again changed all those sentiments. As usual.

FIRST STOP : Myth of the Human Body - The Fort

Our first stop was The Myth of the Human Body. At first, I thought that the museum would have something to do with the Greek gods and goddesses, but it turned out that only the halls (and certain body parts) were named after some Greek mythological characters. Cameras were not allowed inside, so I was not able to camwhore with my friends during our hour-long tour of the museum.

I found this exhibit really creepy, knowing for a fact that the museum used real human bodies, preserved in a way that the bodies would not have a terrible stench and that the bodies would not dilapidate, they also arranged the bodies into sporty positions as to feature how our muscles are stretched as we do different activities, especially when we play certain sports. The bodies are all of Chinese decent, as mentioned by the tour guide and among the entire exhibit, only two were European. One of the highlights of the museum is featuring various kinds of internal organs, from its healthy state to its worse, due to poor diet and vices such as smoking and alcoholism.

Another was a disturbing exhibit of the different stages of a baby's transformation, and even possible causes of death. Most of them, if not premature, stillborn, or overdue were aborted as abortion is legal in China. I could barely look at the poor babies encased in thick glass, some are even cut in half as to show what was inside them and some even showed tumors which caused their deaths. Well, that was the last part of the exhibit, thank God, but the best highlight I must say is the thin red veins that forms the human body. I have no idea how the people behind the exhibit managed to pull those things off a dead body, nor how they managed to put those fragile things in a thick glass, but all I know is that, it was really amazing.

It is a really wonderful (but creepy) experience, if you ask me. It really was made for learning, no matter how some parts made my tummy churn in a funny way.

LUNCH : Mall of Asia - Pasay
After touring the creepy museum, we headed to the Mall of Asia for lunch. On our way there, I sent a text message to my high school best friend, Gel, telling her that I would be going to MOA, and asked if we could meet and have lunch. She agreed without hesitating of course, she studies in Manila Doctors anyway and going to Mall of Asia is just a jeepney ride away. It's been over five months since we have last seen each other, and perhaps almost a year prior that. I missed her so much.

We had lunch with Abby and Felice at KFC and we tried to catch up with each other's life, but an hour is definitely not enough, but we had to bid each other good bye after lunch. Having half an hour more of free time, Abby, Felice and I roamed around the mall and had coffee at our favorite coffee shop before finally going to the meeting place to get settled for our next destination...

Manila Ocean Park - Roxas Boulevard
Our last stop is Manila Ocean Park, and I would have to admit that I had so much fun in that place more than I ever expected I would. Upon arrival, we watched an amazing bird show that I enjoyed so much. Seeing such talented and witty animals, no one would dare to say that the place was boring despite of the fact that we had to share the entire place with younger children. Yes, that really was embarrassing at first but we managed to get the hang of it.

After the bird show, we watched sea lions do cool random tricks. They really are funny, and I find them really cute as well. I felt like hugging them tight ha-ha, I think they're cuddly despite of how they smell. They are smart animals too, they're practically more human to me than monkeys. Harmless and cute creatures... le sigh. I just could not help but fall in love with sea lions. We watched a sea lion show right after that, which made me want to take photos with them but it's just darn too expensive. T.T

We had a very tickling fish spa right after the sea lion show, and I guess it's my favorite part of the entire tour. I have long been whining about having a foot spa, but I just don't have the time...okay fine, I was just too lazy to go to the nearest salon to have one. :nyaah: So anyway, the experience was really fun--literally. Everyone was screaming and laughing when those cute little (janitor-fish like) fishes swarmed around our feet and started "giving us a foot spa". I was laughing practically all the time.

Our tour eventually ended with a Musical Fountain Show, and I must say it' a perfect way to end a very tiring (yet fun) day. I would really love to go back to Ocean Park but next time with my fiance...

being a theatre actress.

That dream started when I was in the sixth grade when I was asked by my music teacher to star as Mary Magdalene in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. It was really a nice experience, and exposure if you ask me. Even if my teacher literally dragged me to the first rehearsal. LOL. I carried that dream until I was in High School but eventually dropped it when I found out that writing and web design is my forte in life.

But I still go to opera productions when I have the time these days, or when our school invite theatre groups to perform in our school. When I watch a production, though, I make sure that I inform my elder sister what I'm going to see, especially if it is going to be a musical. She lives in the states, and is a sucker for musical plays, I don't know why.

She also happens to love off-broadway shows, which I think are pretty cool. She would often send me photos of the tickets she bought for a show that she would watch, yeah... that really get me envious as I don't have as much free time as her. Pfft. :blackcloud: haha She often get her tickets online from Ticketamerica.com , she said they have many tickets for all different genres of music including musicals and or plays, plus off Broadway productions and all opera and classic music.

Sometimes, when I watch a production I still day dream that I am one of the people performing. I guess, my love for theatre never left me after all, perhaps I'll give it a shot again when I get the chance. Who knows right? :)

Sorry for the French title, but if you're quite into films, especially French films you'd know that the title is from a French movie. The English title, if I am not mistaken, is said to be The Singer, or When I was a Singer. Meh. Sorry for the confusing information, so not an expert. :P The movie is written and directed by M. Xavier Giannoli and it stars Gerard Depardieu and Cecile de France, and yes, I watched the movie because I was fan girling over M. Depardieu. You can't blame me though, he's such a good actor, and his performance in the movie bagged positive feed backs from French movie critiques. It was even nominated in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and the main actors were nominated as best actor and best actress consecutively in the Cesar Awards that same year; the movie won Best Sound in the said competition.



The movie tells the story of a middle-aged, ballroom singer (Depardieu, as Alain Moreau) who fell in love with a younger woman (de France, as Marion), who happens to be working as an intern in one of his friend's Real Estate company. The two met in one of Moreau's gigs, and they had a one night stand, which Moreau cannot seem to get over with not only because she left him without even saying a word, but also because he was really attracted to her. Being friends with Marion’s boss, Bruno, he went to her office one day and asked Marion to help him find a house for him. The two eventually fell in love, but were hesitant to fully show and give what they feel and have for each other because of a lot of reasons and because of the different situations they were in.

It’s a really great film, if you’d ask me, and I’ve been looking forward to watching it for weeks since I have seen its trailer on YouTube. As a growing fan of Gerard Depardieu, I got curious so I tried to get my hands on a copy of it, and when I finally did, I eventually went gaga over it. The chemistry between Depardieu and de France was quite unexpected, but came out to be wonderful after all. Gerard Depardieu has that something in him that makes him suddenly match a random actress that plays alongside him in movies, and it’s really one of the factors that make a movie better.



Apart from the chemistry that both lead actors possess, another factor that swayed me to watch the movie was the music. I suppose that this is not the first time that Gerard Depardieu was seen and heard singing in a movie, but it’s definitely the first movie where he sang seriously. He has a soothing voice, typical deep male voice, but he definitely carried out his role as a singer throughout the entire film by performing well known French songs and giving new life into them. The song selection was really good, and my personal favourite song in the movie is “Save the Last Dance for Me”, a song which I admit I don’t feel like listening to in the past, but I learned to love and appreciate because of this movie. As a matter of fact the song has been stuck in my head for over a week now, and I’m really having a hard time trying to get it out of system. I also happen to really like the finale, which is Quand J'etais Chanteur, wherein Gerard Depardieu has surprised me with a powerful vocal ability at the latter part of the song. Gerard Depardieu proved himself to be really talented in this movie when he swept along the dance floor with Cecile de France. Cecil de France has also showed her flexibility as an actress and not only did she feature it, she also did it well.



The story progression was good as well, it was neither rushed nor slowed down, it went on smoothly and orderly, in my opinion. But it lacked character background, especially on the part of Cecile de France’s character. I personally find her character background mysterious, even if her personality shows that she was ironically a strong yet fragile woman. I yearn to find out more about her character, since the movie focused on Depardieu’s character background quite well. I feel that some part of the movie was cut during final editing because of this.



The movie ended well, and the director really made it a point that the audience hold their breath at the story’s ending. It was even heartbreaking at first, especially when the lead actors parted ways, but like a fairy tale, it ended happily ever after just when I thought that the credits would roll.

It’s really a great movie, and I highly suggest it to movie fanatics like me who are looking for something easy, simple yet magnetizing. It’s a movie with a very simple plot, typical as some might find, but it was beautifully and superbly told and performed.


Nota bene: All photos are all screen capped by moi. :)