I was intrigued by the question posed by the book: why is it that we destroy the things we love most? And after reading The Valkyries, I’m astounded at how insightful Coelho’s answer is!

This book has made me wonder about the life I lead and has inspired me to really really “live”!

I totally enjoyed Along Came Polly, starring Ben Stiller (straight-laced, senior insurance risk analyst, Reuben Feffer) and Jennifer Aniston (no-plan, live-for-the moment Polly Prince).

The one part (or two) in the movie that made me pause, grab my notepad and write down is when Reuben’s father, Irving, spoke for the first time in the movie. He was making a point to Reuben’s old friend, Lyle (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman):

It’s always the same story with you, huh, pal?
You did this one movie a hundred years ago.
From then on, you thought your were better than everybody else.
Why don’t you let go?
Move on with your life.
It’s not about what happened in the past…
or what you think might happen in the future.
It’s about the ride, for Christ’s sake.
There’s no point going through all this crap…
if you’re not gonna enjoy the ride.
And you know what?
When you least expect it, something great might come along
something even better than you ever planned.

The wisdom of Irving Feffer rings so true for me. I believe it will serve an important reminder on how I should live my life from now on.

On a lighter note, I’d leave you this little gem from Reuben himself, as he made up his mind to change his life…

Oh, and by the way,
I destroyed all your little throw pillows.
Yeah, because throw pillows sick, okay?
They serve no purpose.
They’re purely decorative.

from: www.shooperman.com

Yesterday, I took hold of The Replacements, starring Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman and the lovely Brooke Langton. The movie starts when the players of a fictitious pro football team went on strike and unconventional coach Jimmy McGinty (Hackman) is hired to form a replacements team with Shane Falco (Reeves) playing for quarterback. I admit The Replacements is a feel-good movie and oh it does it so well.

One thing that resonates with me in this viewing is team-building. I’m doing that right now with Spiragram and cannot help but notice all the right things that McGinty is doing with the Washington Sentinels. I’d like to leave you with some quotes from my memory:

Falco: Why me?
McGinty: When I see you, I see two men: the one that you are now and the one that you ought to be. Someday, the two of them are going to meet.

And of course, there’s this gem from Shane Falco… hmm, I wonder if there’s one that can be crafted for Rails programmers.

Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever.

from: www.shooperman.com

Having only recently gotten interested in cooking, and for someone who’ve never cooked French before, Simple Soirees serves the most elegant selection of recipes one can hope for.

I’ve done about 5 dishes from the book and will be using them for the X’mas dinner party in a couple of weeks. Wish me luck.

I think it’s just me… I have a deep background in physics and mathematics. Which means when Janna Levin tries to romanticize Godël’s and Turing’s lives, it didn’t stick on me. I find myself wanting to skip through paragraphs of slow but beautiful prose and get to the ingenuity behind the math. That’s why I didn’t enjoy the book.

Lately, I’ve been fascinated by movies made by multi-talented, multi-tasking, creative and passionate people. The first one I came across is Zach Braff, Miranda is the second. Simply put, “Me And You And Everyone We Know” is about people, and how they connect. It’s very well made because every single character has been given time to develop in the movie. Everyone of them seem to have something deep and insightful about them by the end of the movie, even six-year-old Robby.

The part that moved me the most about Garden State is Andrew sharing with Sam how he lost his home. That the notion of a home has just disappeared. And later on, rediscovering what makes a home at the boat house.

I think I’m gonna making “making a home” a new goal in life.

I watched Two Weeks Notice for a second time after a couple of years and boy, I didn’t recalled enjoying the movie so much! I guess this is one of the rare ones which get better everytime you see it again.

An Internet love story that’s worth watching over again and again.