The Reason I Jump

by Naoki Higashida (translated by KA Yoshida & David Mitchell)

I just finished this book today. A good short read, it was written by a 13-year old autistic kid. Very insightful into the mind of an autistic person and their struggles, conditions and aspirations. One point to note was that one will never know where the austism starts and the personality ends. What I mean is what trait is due to the individual's personality, and what is due to the condition that is autism. However, I am very much able to draw a lot of similarities between how I feel and the experiences described by the author. This is either a great testament of the author's ability to connect with the reader, or simply I am perhaps exhibiting some autistic tendencies as well. Or perhaps it is simply these emotions are commonalities for all human beings and autistic individuals are simply more sensitive and atuned to their emotions. Overall, a very good read and breaks a lot of taboos on the subject of autism.

Reads Update

I have not been updating my blog because work has been hectic and PhD. has gone a bit on the wayside lately. But here's the stuff I have read lately and some notes.

1. For One More Day by Mitch Albom - This is a nice book about appreciating life and what if we had one more day to spend with our loved one when they say their final goodbye. The themes of Albom's book are pretty much all the same. Same vein if you have read any of his other work, just as good.

2. The Associate by John Grisham - Who can write better law thrillers than Grisham? Not many. Good solid story about a lawyer caught between his conscience and an industrial espionage ploy.

3. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – This story is about a family who have a daughter that has cancer (I think?), then the family has the idea of genetically engineering another child to be a perfect donor match for their sick child, so she could donate bone marrow and blood for the sick child to survive. This book is about their life journey, struggles, etc. The book started off well enough, but I felt the story towards the middle and especially the end was really terrible. Firstly I did not like the ending. Secondly all the subplots are very self-serving and too nicely encapsulated within themselves. Very predictable, not organic.

4. The Street Lawyer by John Grisham – Another lawyer book. This is about a lawyer who decided to trade in his high-paying corporate law job for a public interest law job for the homeless. Defending the weak and poor as it were. He decides to do this after undergoing a traumatic experience. I love Grisham books. Perhaps it is his story-telling, very straightforward and to the point.

It made me wonder how colourful and stressful lawyers’ lives are. Then I thought about my own work as an engineer. I mean both are professional jobs, but I think if there is an engineering story, it’d be like watching paint dry. If there are good engineering stories out there, I’d be all for reading those too though. I guess there would be great stories in the form of industrial espionage, the inspiration of engineering creations. Nah, there is space for nice engineering fiction, just need to find out who writes those…but for the moment, I am still very much into Grishams. So will read a few more before I move on.

Bonk

by Mary Roach
Very interesting book about sex. Sex is such a fundamental thing to humans, and to most living creatures. But there is so much taboo surrounding it, due to society's beliefs, religion etc. This also has hampered the progress made on human sex in the field of science. There is so little research done on this matter, because, well, it is awkward. Where would researchers get funding, and they get skeptical looks from their peers, as being perverts. Well, this book gathers all there is to say about the matter, about science and medicine and sheds light on the many taboo topics of sex. Like did you know, a person paralyzed can still achieve orgasm. I did not know that, so that was interesting. The book talks about mechanics of sex, and also people's reaction to matters of sex, and most interesting to me as a fellow researcher, the scientific process in sex research. Anyways, nothing too technical, easily understood by the layman, and Roach does amazingly in talking about the subject matter with such wit. Wonderful book.

Fat Sugar Salt: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

by Michael Moss

This is a very well-written book about the three tenets of the processed food industry. It describes in detail how the industry manipulates each of these components and combine them to create the most delicious things, that are actually no that good for your well-being. But hey, they are cheap and they taste awesome. That's why they sell. A very insightful, I definitely changed the way I have been eating, or at least look at the nutrition label with a new-found criticality now. Great book by this Pulitzer prize winning author.

Matilda

by Roald Dahl

I read this when I was little but have forgotten the story, so re-read it again. My dearest bought the whole set of Roald Dahl books and this is the second one I've read now I think. I read all of them in the past, but my memory being what it is today, it all feels like new books every time I read it. Anyways...

This book is about Matilda Wormwood, a little girl. She is a very smart girl though her parents cannot see that and are very ignorant and unpleasant folk. Matilda being very smart, begins to learn to read and loves reading very much. She starts going to the library on her own and reads all the nice books there is to read there. So by the time she starts school she is already way ahead of her classmates. Her intelligence not only stops there. When the teacher, Miss Honey teaches math, she finds that she can already to amazing some all by herself without even using a calculator! She is indeed very very smart. Miss Honey wishes to help her excel and to put her in a higher class. Though the headmistress Miss Truchbull disagrees and keeps her in the lower class, because she inherently hates little children. There are many twists and turns in this book, and the ending is wonderful.

Anyways, lovely book by Roald Dahl. I love all his books.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

by Douglas Adams


Second book in the Trilogy of Hitchiker's. This was alright still all very silly. Love it. I actually read this a while back but just have not written the review. Well, I don't write proper reviews nowadays anyways, just whether I like the book or not.

Anyways, roughly, this book continues on the adventures of Arthur and the crew and they are still being chased after. So they wanted something to eat, and went to the Restaurant at the end of the Universe. Which is temporally, it is at the end of the Universe's time, they time travel there. Still a good book, but question is why so many books in the series. I feels like just a section of a book rather than a book in itself. Anyways, still a good story.

Have just been so busy with work and research. But I care not anymore. Fuck it. I need to continue writing someplace to keep my sanity, to collect my thoughts.

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams

First book I have read in a while. It was great. Quirky, funny. Absolutely my kind of book. It is about a bunch of people being hitchiker's around space. And Earth being one big experiment by the things we run experiments on. Adventure, lovely adventure. Too exhausted to elaborate. Currently reading the second book in this trilogy of five, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

NO! Must Blog...On the old year

I just looked to the side bar and saw how neglected my blog is. Last year I posted a grand total of 9 posts. Less than a post a month. And on my other blog? Have not blogged since March 2012. How is this possible? Have I done much work in that time? I think I will just carry on now blogging. I thought my stopping to blog would help me finish my PhD. quicker. Not so, I am still not there. And still like very far away. I feel even less motivated to finish now, than when I stopped blogging here. I need to blog again. I need an outlet, an escape, from the daily drudgery. This is horrible.

Well let's see. First part of last year I was very busy writing up a conference paper so I could attend a conference in the US. I remember waking up at 4 am and sleeping at 10 pm for almost a week or so. I worked really hard to get that paper published. On top of that my supervisor was actually on long-service leave and my co supervisor was on holidays. So basically it was only me doing the stuff, without much guidance. I was very happy when I did finish it on time. And it was an ASME conference paper too, peer reviewed. Very strict guidelines I was told. Well, I got in in the end. I also remember by the end of that week, I did have heart palpitations for quite a few days. I was really stressed during that time, and the lack of sleep did not help either. It was that time I felt really pumped and motivated. But right after finishing that paper I hit a bad patch, and became really demotivated. PhD. is such a love-hate relationship. If you had such a relationship with another person, one would be wise to seek help from a counsellor or psychiatrist. It is like this thing that you cannot stop thinking of, no matter what you do. One just go to it over and over. I ramble...

Well, next, being very aware that I needed to seek employment soon. This was the year I needed to start to work, because my scholarship money was running out the end of the year. So I spent the next few months looking for a job. And juggling that with my usual research work load, and also tutoring at university. It was crazy. I was stressed out of my mind. Oh, plus I needed to then search for a new place to stay, because the landlady was kicking us out. I hated that landlady, such a rotten person. Very petty and calculative. Well, anyways the next few months were spent dealing with all these issues. Quite stressed out.

Then with all those things not even partially settled, I set off for the US conference. The conference was for a week in Chicago. I must say it was pretty nice, the people I met were very nice.I thought I could see more of Chicago, but my supervisor wanted me to finish this bunch of work for the presentation, which I did not really manage to do. I spent the first few days, and even the flight over to the US working on it. That was quite crap. I wished to enjoy the trip more. But then again, it wasn't a holiday, it was a business trip if you like. Lesson learnt. Don't do business trips next time. Well I mean if I must. More correctly, don't expect a holiday out of a business trip. Not going to happen.

When I got back, over the next few months, I sorted out my house, got a job. But ever the restless. Now what, starting work. PhD. Juggling the two right now. So that is where I am. And I must say not juggling very well at the moment. I need to do this better. Why can't I be like one of those people that seem to just be just oh so graceful and just glide through life? I am not saying my life is hard. It is very comfortable. But there is so much internal struggle within me. I feel like cracking at the edges with all these things to do. I really need to have more elegance in life. I need to find time to read, to write. To love life.

So here is some reflection. Would I have done anything differently in 2012? As much crap that happened, I wouldn't change anything. I am a realist. Shit happens. But I do wish that I handled things better, and be more graceful during difficult situations. That is the challenge I put to myself. Be more graceful, be more humble. I want peace in my heart. I do not want to be restless anymore. I want to be comfortable in my own skin.

Update A Bit?

I am so busy. I want to stop saying that!!! When will this end. Well, anyways. I'm still not going to start writing that much on this blog but I have read some books lately, so worth a mention.

Read Esio Trot by Roald Dahl, it was alright. Other books by Roald Dahl were actually better. Then I read Around the World in 80 Days, because my dear is going to teach it at school this year. I just thought I never read it before, so worth a read. Any I loved it, very good. Then I read Bourne Identity. It was quite good. Did not know the movie was quite different then the book, then read wiki and found that the movie was just loosely based on the book. So yeah, I sort of like the book better after reading it. But I started reading the second book. Bourne Supremacy I think it was. Don't really like the start of it, so still a bit stuck there. Finding something else nice to read....

But like I said, very stupidly paralyzed by all the work and research I need to do. I'm not saying I'm being super productive. But all I can think about is work. Even sitting in front of the IDIOT BOX and at the back of my head is work. I need to learn to switch off. Getting quite stressed out over everything...