I'm in the middle of reading this one book that i found at a Pay-less book shop, and it defined undervalued. It is this little gem titled Letter's To Jenny, by the unofficial king of all things Xanth, Piers Anthony. Yes, I'm one of those fortunate Mundanians who actually does know about him, even though i'm located halfway across the world. Enough about me though, I would like to talk about this book.
First of all, what is this book about? Letter's To Jenny is actually a collection of...well..letters sent by the author, Mr. Anthony, to a little girl named Jenny. Please note that this are real people and the occurences mentioned DID happen. This is not a fictional review. Jenny is a nine-year old girl who sadly got mowed down by a drunk driver and ended up in a coma. Jenny happens to be a huge fan of the Xanth series, a collection of fantasy novels which had captured the hearts of many in America and the rest of the world. (in case you're clueless about Xanth, spank yourself, you moron)
Anyway, Jenny's mother, in deep concern for her daughter's condition, makes a desperate attempt to make things better. She came up with the idea of writing to Mr. Anthony about her Jenny, and asks him the favour of writing a letter personally to Jenny. Jenny's mother believes that upon hearing from her favourite writer, Jenny's condition might improve somewhat.
What follows is a string of letters written by the author to one of his dearest fans, and these make up the bulk of the book. It is a rather unusual piece of work, but, in my opinion, for whatever that's worth, it is a very important one. It shows a very human side of people and how sometimes the most wonderful thing we could exprience is to be able to make a difference in somebody's life.
The letters written by Mr Anthony are subtle, simple, yet exceedingly sensitive, showing how insightful and caring the man really is. He does care about his readers and has no qualms about taking an active role in their lives, in getting to know them and learning about them. Letter's To Jenny is sweet, touching, funny, and precious. It is a wonderful read and anybody with a heart would indeed something wonderful between it's covers.

Maybe it is true, that without total commitment and passion, true success can never be achieved, that to be the best at a chosen path requires total willingness to sacrifice whatever it takes. Of course many of us do not buy into this. We are afraid to give up a lot of things that we already have, yet we have our aspiratins and our ambitions to be something, to achieve something. As a result, we try to maintain a balance between honest effort holding back. I guess we are just worried that in the process of trying too hard, we might stand to lose the things that we already have.
I wrote about this once and now i realise several factors, issues that i had missed out,or rather things i never considered until today. It concerns the object of our passion and commitment and how it affects our decision making, the way we choose to live our lives and so on. For instance, if we were to go into a certain field, whatever it is, if we truly feel a sense of belonging in it, then we should give our everything to be the best at it. The catch here, however, is that it does not have to be so generic... the field that is. This is where I strayed earlier, a very important point that i think we should all know.
When we talk about an object/subject we have a deep-seated passion for, we talk about love. When we talk about love, we pretty much talk about everything. We might love words, music, people, whatever... the point is, to be the best at something, to make a difference in this 'object' of our interest, we must commit ourselves fully to it. There are many examples, whether it is the way two people who are in love are completely devoted to one another, a parents' commitment to their child and so on. It doesn't have to be something as obvious as being a legendary rock-star, or a formula one champion. It is also the little things in life. I realised this these past few days as i contemplate the fact that someone i deeply care for is leaving to another country to pursue her studies. I learned that I do have something to which I'm completely committed to, to which I would give anything, sacrifice anything, and quite simply, it makes me feel confident and complete.
So, i would like to revise what i had written earlier by including this new information, so that anyone who reads it won't feel like I'm an imbecile..lol..kidding.
Well, gotta go now... bye

I am starting to feel rather stronger these days...thanks in large part to the two week break i was on. I managed to take the opportunity to rebuild my self and now I feel like i am better prepared to face the world again. I am more confident that my self-doubt has lessened considerably and I am firmer now. Mostly this is due to me spending so much time with Allry and relaxing my mind. I realised that I was guilty of too much self-doubt. That is a bane upon my soul, something i can really do without. I know it now, and I know my self a little better now.
I haven't found the happiness and the completion i'm looking for, but I am ack on the right road again, thanks to my dearest friends, the ones I love.

i'm looking frizzled 

Had a really good day today with one of my best friends, Derrik... we came up with four spanking new tracks for our band, each one of them showing signs of maturity and growing ability. I am very proud of these new songs as they represent a milestone in whatever is in store for us in the near future.
Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and the catalyst of this band's evolution.

Me on a normal day 

Things have been on a serious upswing this past few days, even though i inititially had a bad feeling about it. I kinda feel i deserved a bit of good in my life after the stuff i had been recently going through. I've been having a good time since saturday, going out with friends, watching movies, generally having fun, doing stuff i want to do. Now, when was the last time i said that? hahaha....
Oh, I got my hands on Avril Lavigne's new cd. The thing about Avril is that i've always known she had a talent, good talent but her first album fell short, seriously short, and it gave the media the wrong impression about her. People got the wrong impression about her. I guess she was a bit immature, still young and all.
Well, she has grown up...a lot. That should be enough to tell the current story about Avril Lavigne. Maturity. Finding oneself. That's what we're all trying to do, right? Growing up. Learning through every thing we go through, all the shit we put up with, the mistakes we make, the success, and whatever. They don't really matter, its just the things we take from them..the lessons and satisfaction.