Chill Nights-Review

Hey everyone!

It feels like decade since the last post. My apologies. But without beating around the bush let's get right down to it. 

I love reading. It's just the most amazingly relaxing thing to pick up a book, sit on the couch and just go on a journey with the author. To whole another world, a totally different dimension. To forget the world and escape reality even if it just for a few minutes.

"Every time you open a book, a little magic falls out." - Anonymous.

My cousin sister and I on the way back home from a movie went to the library and got ourselves some books. I got myself a pair of books after such a long time and I was so excited to read but I had my exams going and promised my cousin that I wouldn't read them till they had ended. I had two more exams left but I also had two whole weeks to finish reading the books. 

The books I had gotten were 'Just After Sunset - Stephen King' and 'Chill Nights - Dean Koontz'. The minute I saw a Stephen King book I picked it up instantly because King is a famous writer known for his supernatural fiction, horror works and me being me couldn't help but grin like crazy as soon I read the summary on the back cover of the book.  On the other hand, the other book that had I picked out was solely because of the title and the very horrifyingly captivating cover of the book. I wasn't aware of the story line of the book as the back cover just had a picture of the author. It's probably the first book that I bought without knowing what the story was actually about. 

After my exams were over, while everyone was hyped about being able to go to their native or go out to the movies, I was excited that I could finally read my books. Being a book-lover, having to stare at the books and not be able to read them while they were right infront of me was nothing but pure torture BUT I endured it and finally was at bliss. I decided I would read 'Chill Nights' first and read Stephen's book later. I wanted to save the best for last. 

I started reading but couldn't stand the inner-nagging of constantly wanting to know what the story was about and I eventually ended up searching about in on Google. NOW I was truly at bliss. Let's get into it. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

The concept is about 'subliminal perception'. The ability to control the sub-conscious mind.  The whole book discusses about 'behavioral modifications' and gaining control of the sub-conscious. Apparently, the sub-conscious mind is much more superior to the conscious mind comparatively ,what can not be achieved or observed by the conscious mind is done by the sub-conscious mind. Advertising agencies also try to promote their product through subliminal advertising. More about that in the book.

THE STORYLINE:
***********************
The whole story goes on about how a scientist named Ogden Salsbury with the help of a millionaire Leanord Dawson and military general Ernst Klinger come up with what they like to call a 'key-lock' program and subliminal drug that would help them control the sub-conscious mind that would help them take over the world inheriting more money than they could have ever possibly dreamed of.  The subliminal drug however, like any other drug has it's own side-effects such as nightmares, insomnia, nausea and night chills- hence the title. These three cunning men decide to use a little town named 'Black River' with a poor population of just 400 people as a 'test field' for their subliminal drug.

Meanwhile, Paul Annendale along with his children Rya and Mark Annendale  go to 'Black River' on vacation which became a family traditional getaway of sorts after the recent loss of Annie Annendale. They spend the first week of the vacation with Sam Edison and his daughter Jenny Edison. The story revolves around how the town and their lives are affected by the program and drug and how they manage through all the chaos that follows.

MY REVIEW:
**************
The book in general is a good read. It isn't a big book. Quick read if you got a lot of time on your hands. It's divided into three parts. The Conspiracy, The Terror and The Ending. The concept of sub-conscious control was very interesting. You tend to learn a few things and it does come to a bit of shock that subliminal advertising and such started in late 50's-60's. 

Generally books are a bit boring at the beginning which would explain why not many people like reading as they tend to get bored reading the first few chapters. But in every book as the chapters go, it slowly builds and gets more intriguing. On the other hand with this book the interesting bit starts instantly. 

As every other book the story does build but that's about it. It never gets exciting like other books normally would. After all the havoc that occurs, everything just seemed to have happened a bit too easily. Everything falls into place in the blink of an eye and just like that it's over. I was never fully satisfied and felt that there was still a part or a chapter a two of the book that I had left out. At the same time, the characters and the background of it all is a bit depressing and gray. The scenes don't come to life and the characters aren't vivid enough. Was a bit too plain but relatable in a way.  Honestly, the 'Terror' part of the book wasn't really terrifying at all.

All in all it was a pretty decent book. Probably not the thriller that I expected but worth the read. Though I believe the author's note was a bit exaggerated. He said, "By the time they have finished this book, many readers will be uneasy, frightened, perhaps even horrified". I definitely wasn't frightened or horrified but I could say that the character Ogden Salsbury did have a tendency to make me uncomfortable and cringe every now and then so partly true. I wouldn't recommend the book and it isn't exactly a page-turner but if you find yourself interested then sure go ahead. 

I'm reading 'Just After Sunset' as of now and shall get back with another review once I am done. Till then good bye. 

Take care and keep smiling :) 

Jezi

Quotes

Hello everyone! 

It has literally been over a year. I posted last April '14. Now it's May '15! Crazy how time flies by! So much has happened in the past few months. Some good some not so good. 
I realized it was about time I posted something. But unfortunately, as always, I have no interesting topic to discuss with you all. 

Though, just quite recently, I started getting into the habit of reading quotes. It's not really a big deal, but some are just very inspiring and eye-opening and just puts a smile on my face. And there is nothing more I love than trying to make people smile. So here are some of my favourite quotes and some random ones. Hope you all like it just as much I do. 

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud"
- Maya Angelou

"I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There is no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it" 
-Eminem

"God gave you them shoes to fit you, so put them on and wear them. Be yourself man, be proud of who you are. Even if it sounds corny, don't let no one tell you, you ain't beautiful"
-Eminem

"I think scars are like battle wounds- beautiful in a way. They show what you've been through and how beautiful you are for it"
-Demi Lavato

"No one can hurt me without my permission."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"If you can't get a miracle, make one."
-Nick Vujicic

"They don't know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love someone more than you love yourself"
-Robbie Williams

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time"
-Marthe Troly-Curtain

"Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears"
-John Lennon

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners that make our souls blossom"
-Marcel Proust

That's all for now. My next post will hopefully have more content and have something more. I hope the quotes put a smile on your face or changed your day. I will from now on try to post more on a regular basis. 

There is something else I would like to mention. Despite the lack of posts, I have frequent readers, which is amazing by the way. There are actually people who visit and read my blog everyday. Every single day there is at least one person reading my blog, which, makes me very happy. It's the fact that people actually take some of their precious time and spend it on reading my silly posts. So, to those people, a massive thank you! 

Take care and keep smiling :) 

Jezi 

Short Forms and Internet Slang

I haven't had a clue on what to blog about but not because I didn't know what to blog about, but because I had tooo many ideas and was confused on what to which topic to pick! 

Laziness is yet another reason. So to keep this very simple yet somehow helpful, I decided to tell you all folks about short forms and internet slang. The older generation have a hard time figuring it out so I made up my mind to tell you the full forms of the abbreviated words and tell you what some sentences actually mean. 

I don't quite know alll of it and I don't remember much of it either so I might miss out on a few, so forgive me if what you wanted was not on the list. 

G2G or GTG- Got to go

ASAP- As soon as possible

AFK- Away from keyboard

B4- Before

RYS- Are you single? [I personally never known that people used this but it seems to be common. It can also sometimes mean 'Are you serious?']

LOL- Laugh out loud

ROFL- Roll on the floor laughing

IKR- I know right?

IDC- I don't care; IDK- I don't know

DIY- Do it yourself.

WTF- What the ****? [I need to clear this out. Majority of the adults somehow came to believe that WTF meant 'Well that's fantastic!'. It is NOT what you think. So kindly refrain from using too often.] 

FTW- For the win.

TBH- To be honest

A3- Anywhere, anyplace, anytime

A1T- Anyone there?

GR8 and L8TR- Great and Later

ATM- At the moment

OTP- One True Pairing

GIF- Graphics interchange format. [I don't quite understand this, it's still a bit confusing but from what I think, it's basically making an image that moves over and over again in one particular way.]

Shipping- When you want to people to be in a relationship. For example "I ship 'Brangelina'," [Meaning you want Bradd Pitt and Angelina Jolie to be in a relationship]

Well folks, that's all I could remember. Apologies if anything was rude, vulgar or offensive. 2-3 were from my trustee friend Google and not quite sure if they were used but they seemed to be common phrases so I managed to squeeze that in as well. Hope it helped cleared some of your doubts. 

If you think I left something out or got something wrong, tell me in the comments. Hopefully, next time my post will be of something more meaningful. Till then Au Revoir! 

Take care and keep smiling :) 

Jezi. 


 

Weird Obsessions

I just recently realized that the blog's title is 'Me, Myself and My life' but I haven't really written anything about me, apart from the 'Huge Introduction'. So I thought maybe I should do a post on me and help you know little more about me!

From my 'Huge Introduction' many of you would have realized how weird I am. [If you didn't, now you know] It's like I was born that way.  Crazy, shy, social and weird. Not only am I weird, I have weird obsessions as well. Here are a few that I can remember.

My weird obsession over Youtube. Now it's not the fact I am obsessed with Youtube that's weird,it's the fact that somehow it's not normal. One fact that adds up to the weirdness is, if I'm on Youtube for more than an hour, I end up watching the most random things and end up loving it. For example, Guilty Cats compilation 2013. Nothing very astonishing about it but still I love it.

The next one is cleaning my nails. You'd all think it's not that bad, it actually good and hygienic, point is, I do it too often. Even when I've cut my nails and have no nails, I would be trying to pick the 'invisible' dirt out of them.

I did mention in my intro that I loved kitchen playsets. I'm 16 years old and if anyone got me a kitchen playset now, I would throw myself at it and start cooking for you, invisible yet delicious meals. [Notice how I said DELICIOUS]. The kitchen playset isn't very age appropriate. Well atleast not for me. Though, can't help it, obsessed.

Scribbling! Whenever I see a pen and a paper, it doesn't necessarily have to be just a paper, it could be a book, newspaper, magazine any writable thing, I get this itch to start scribbling. Just because of this one soul reason that I have a pen and I can write something with it makes me just scribble the most random crap. Weirdly enough, the things that I doodle or scribble 95% of time is hearts, flowers,weird wavy lines [to check if the pen works] and obviously my name. 

I am obsessed with cute little bottles and boxes. These bottles and boxes can vary from a cute little water bottle to nail-polish bottles. I would just buy a nail-polish because the bottle looks cute and would not use the real thing at all. That's why it's weird. Though, if you come home expecting some sort of huge bottle and box collection you wouldn't really find any. 

A dirty room annoys the hell out of me! Just like the scribbling, when I see a messy room, I get an itch to clean it! No matter whatever I'm doing and how important it may be, unless the room is cleaned I can NOT be at peace! Bit of an OCD case at times.

There's definitely plenty more but that's all I remember for now. When I remember more, I'll update the post! I'm sure I'm not the only weird one. Lots of you are weird too. Being an adult doesn't make any difference.

Anywayss jokes apart, if you have any weird obsession feel free to comment! Who knows? You might be a fellow weirdo! 

Keep smiling and take care. :) 

Jezi.

Bullies, Abuse and Self-harm

 The most awaited post is finally here! [Or so I believe it was awaited]. Though it makes me want to sort of cringe to talk about it I still have the strong urge to. The fact that several teens are out there thinking about ending their lives at this very moment and that the soul reason is because they're being bullied is crazy.

I had mentioned in my earlier post that bullying was a serious issue and many had taken their lives because of it. It sickens me to know that somehow people get pleasure out of hurting someone else. We're all human beings! No has the right to hurt anyone else.Bullying is mostly taken out in either one of the two ways, one is physical abuse and other is verbal abuse.

We human beings, hate being humiliated in public, yet still tend to do it to others. Though bullying takes humiliation to an aggressive level. A more violent way. Kids come home from school with a black eye, a bleeding wound, a big ugly bruise. Thankfully, not every child is going through it. As terrible as the physical abuse is, verbal abuse is worse. A scar on the outside can treated, healed even. The scar on the inside though, not very easily. [I can be cheesy sometimes]

Children are called fat, dumb, whore, gay etc. You're probably gasping just looking at these words but those poor kids listen to it everyday. It's worse that their helpless about it and can't seem to fight back. Schools don't seem to be taking this issue as serious as it is. It's really frustrating! If the school itself took these issues in their hands and punished bullies accordingly, the rate of bullying would have gone down by now. There's alot of videos on Youtube titled 'You know my name, not my story.' Basically, it's about teens telling the world about their story on being bullied by using flashcards.

Amanda Todd, was a teen girl who made a similar video on how she was bullied AND cyberbullied. I later on learned that she had died. She suicided. I never knew her personally but it was a bit of a shock. It was so sudden. 

Now, certain kids aren't as brave to suicide instead they find relief in cutting themselves. Apparently, matching the inner pain with the outer helps them cope. This is a yet another serious problem. Self-harming can go to the extreme where even the slightest thing that upsets them can make them cut. What's worse is, they self-harm with anything and anywhere on body. That's very dangerous. 

Though a few children are lucky enough because they have good, loving parents that show them immense amount of love, so they atleast have a good life at home. Unfortunately, not all are that lucky. Some unfortunate kids, have to deal with the bullies and the parents. Some parents are alcoholic, some going through a divorce, some molest their own kids [which is horrifying]. 

I think you've read enough and I've typed enough. Though the whole point of this is, if you're a person who's being bullied or you have a friend who's being bullied, just tell somebody. Do whatever you can to help them. If you need a friend to talk to, always here! :) 

This is probably the most serious post ever! But, I needed to spread the word! Everyone be aware! Please do you're best to help if you know someone being bullied. 

Anyyways keep smiling and take care! :)

Jezi.

Fault in Our Stars

To all those book-readers out there, you're in luck today! Some of you probably figured what I was going to talk about by looking at the title. Well, good guess! You are absolutely correct! I'm talking about best-selling novel 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Greene.

For those of you unfortunate souls that has not heard of the book, well now you've heard of it! And I highly recommend you read it too.

The book is just amazing. It's only 25 chapters long so it won't take much of your time. I finished the book in just a day. [Maybe I'm just really jobless]. I'm sure you might like it. The book is from a cancer patient's perspective named Hazel Grace Lancaster. Obviously, since it has cancer involved in it, it's emotional and very touching. Yes, it's one of those books that leaves you with that 'feeling' after you've read it.

Though, I don't get what the hype was all about. It IS a great book but I guess it was a bit exaggerated. A few may agree to this. I guess it was just the hype that made you expect too much and then when you've finished reading, you realize it's just a simple, beautiful book. Whatever it is, I loved the book and I wanted to share it with you all.

The book was also made into a motion picture. I haven't really watched the movie. I'm afraid the movie may not do justice to the novel. People who have watched movies that were made from novels would understand. [We share a mutual feeling] Though I am a bit curious to see what the movie is like. If you've watched the movie please do tell me.

The amazingly crazy thing is that the author 'John Greene' has written only FOUR novels. One of them named 'Looking for Alaska' turned out be a best-selling book and then came 'Fault in Our Stars'. John Greene is actually a nerdy Youtuber! Which is the most surprising part of it all!

Anyhowsss, I hope you all get yourselves a copy and start reading because it's beautiful. There's a sick urge wanting me to give away a lot of details but I don't  want to spoil it for you. Hope you love the book just as much I did. Feel free to leave a comment telling me your opinion on the book.

Take care and keep smiling! :)

Jezi.

Flappy Bird!

A lot of people love certain things. Love can grow to an extent where it becomes an addiction. Many people get addicted to different things. Some get addicted to alcohol, smoking and drugs. Some get addicted to make-up, shoes, clothes. Some get addicted to games and well in my case, get addicted to 'Flappy Bird'. 

Now I'm not a person who's into games and it's highly unlikely for me to get addicted to any of them. Though, recently there has been this big thing on Youtube of people reacting to 'Flappy Bird'. At first I didn't understand anything at all. It seemed peculiar. It was later after a while I discovered that Flappy Bird was a game and it was very famous. It was released on May, 2013 and somehow became really popular in 2014. In about a few months, millions of people had downloaded the game!

The game is actually based on a very simple content. The main objective of the game is to keep tapping on the screen to keep the bird flying through sets of pipes without colliding into them. If the screen is not tapped, the bird will fall and that will end the game. People will earn points on the number of pipes they've successfully passed. Apparently if you reach 50 points, plants will come out through the pipes and try to eat you and 100 points will bring Mario into the game. [Or so I'm told]

The funny fact of the game is, it looks very easy but in reality it's not as easy as it looks and is quite a task to even reach the score of 10! [Looks certainly can be deceiving] What's funnier is, even though it's extremely frustrating when the bird bumps into the pipes, there's a sick urge to keep playing it over and over again! That sick urge is what develops into an addiction. It took a WHOLE DAY for me to get used to playing the game and I'm not even joking but my highest score is 10! For those of you, who are probably now very eager to download the game, I'll give you a heads up, that at first you might get really stressed out. A few people actually might be pretty good from the beginning of the game. 

Maybe a few of you already know about the game and are still playing it. But for those of you, who are now wanting to download the game, remember you can't get the original version. Apparently, the creator of 'Flappy Bird', Mr. Nguyen Ha Dong felt really guilty about the game and it's addictive nature, so he took down the game from Apple's App stores and Google Play stores. Though, a lot of people have copied the idea and the closest thing that you could get to 'Flappy Bird' would probably be 'Floppy Bird' or 'Splashy Fish'. I also have to apologise in advance for introducing you to the game. It is VERY addictive. Plus I'm sure many of you are now probably itching to download the game! [Your welcome!] 

Anyways if you've already got the game or you just downloaded and started playing recently, tell me how many points did you get? And what you think of the game! And by the way, Happy Women's Day to all the beautiful, amazing, inspirational women out there! 

Fun fact:
Nguyen Ha Dong- Creator of Flappy Bird received death threats after tweeting that Flappy Bird was going to be taken down. 

Keep smiling and take care :)

Jezi.   

Horror movies

Okay! Okay! I am very disappointing, I agree. I don't ever think I'm going to be posting about 'bullying' anytime soon. But I will post it! You got my word! 

Now some of you are probably looking at the title and getting all excited! Because come on, let's face it, no matter how scared you get by watching horror movies you still love the thrill of it. It's funny how some people watch horror movies despite the fact that they're probably going to be alone for the next week or can't take a bath for a month! But I guess that's the whole point to horror movies! It's like the directors have a competition on how long they can keep a person scared and then direct the movie accordingly.

If you've noticed every horror movie follows a certain pattern. No matter how good the movie is, you'll realize they all seem to lack common sense. Things that people do in horror movies, people would never dare to do in reality! And that's exactly what I'm going to be talking about. Things that people do ONLY in horror movies! 

1.Moving into the new house: Now if you've watched a lot of horror movies you would have noticed, atleast half of the movies begin off with the family moving into a new house. That's fine. Everyone moves into new houses! What I don't get is, why would they buy a house that's in the middle of nowhere? Literally nowhere! No neighbours! No people! Okay. Fine. You decided you wanted peace and quiet. That's acceptable I suppose. But then again, it's so clear that the house looks more darker and more scary compared to all the others houses! And you've clearly heard the rumour about the house being haunted! Yet they decide to move in!

2. The weird noises: After moving in, eventually after a few days the ghosts get impatient and want you to know they're there and they start making noises. Trust me, if I heard a weird noise, 12 in the night, I would be so scared and not move out of my bed till I see daylight. The people in the movie know it's WEIRD noises and yet they feel the need to investigate! 

3. The lights: Following the 'weird' noises is bad enough. Since it's a horror movie it's obvious the noise is going to come from the DARK ROOM! But somehow those people seem to lack common sense to switch on the light and decide to walk around with a candle, which obviously goes out a few seconds after entering the room. I'm sure all of you switch on the light before you go into a room even without hearing weird noises. Seriously, who just walks around the house without switching on the light? Apparently, they do.

4. The enquiry: Now since they were obviously brave enough to follow the noise and go inside the room with no lights, they obviously have the tendency to be polite and ask "Is anybody there?" First of all there's not going to be 'weird' noises without anyone being there. Second of all even if the ghost was there it isn't very likely for the ghost to say "Yeah I'm here in the kitchen! Want a sandwich?" I just don't understand why they would do that.

5. The ghost-hunting crew: It's has become quite obvious after few days of continuous paranormal activity that the house is haunted and there's a ghost trying to kill them. Instead of running for their life and moving out of the house, they just have to call the ghost-hunting crew [or whatever they're called]. It's funny even how in the middle of nowhere there's a ghost-hunting crew. Everyone knows that when they come, as soon as they step foot into the house, they're going to 'feel' the 'dark spirit'. All that those people are going to do is just confirm that there's a ghost and it's very BAD! [It's obviously not Casper- The friendly ghost] Yet,the brave souls decide to stay in the same house.

6.The recording: Okay so they've already called the 'ghost crew' who confirmed that there's a VERY DARK SOUL trying to kill them. Why would anyone just move out of the house because a ghost is trying to kill them? Why not just stay there and film the ghost? And that's EXACTLY what they do! It's like these people are purposely trying to provoke the ghost. Who in the right mind would do that?! It's pretty obvious the house is haunted so eventually when you replay the 'recorded tape' in the morning there's going to be a ghost! No use in being frightened then! 

7. Splitting up: So everything is perfectly terrible. What do you do now? Of course! Split up! Go your separate ways so the ghost has absolutely no chance of killing you. Atleast if they were in a group and one guy was murdered the rest would be aware! By the time that ghost was occupied killing the other guy, they could've run. But that's just sensible. Can't be sensible in horror movies. It's a crime.

Well that's all I can think about for now! Though all this is just for entertainment purposes and no one really is that stupid [or brave] it still does kind of annoy me. But it's still super fun and I loovee it! What better than a bowl of popcorn and non-logical, thrilling horror movie? 

So if you agree with all the stupidity, leave a comment below and tell me some not-so-sensible things you noticed when you watched a horror movie! 

Fun fact:
Man passed out watching 'The Exorcist' in 1974 and sued Warner Bros. 

Keep smiling and take care! :) 

Jezi  

Dreams

Great day today! Good enough to blog about stuff! In my previous post, I did mention that this post is going to be about bullying and things that revolve around it. Unfortunately, I've kept that for the next post. Sorry folks! I just thought after a deep, quite emotional post, it might be better to have a little more fun post!

Everyone has dreams! Some quite often, some not that often. There are one which are weird and some that seem very vivid, while some which make absolutely no sense and have the least bit of common sense in it that it even makes you wonder if there's something wrong with you. I've had quite a few dreams like that. Trust me, they're very bizarre. But it's fun to dream! It's like you're own personal little world full of fun,stupid,crazily amazing things stored in the back of you're subconscious mind, which when put to work,makes it seems like reality for awhile in your sleep.

I've heard a lot of people say that most things that happen in your dreams, are somehow related to things you think of very often during the waking day. Now, I don't really believe that! Like I told you, I have really bizarre dreams and they have absolutely nothing to do with anything that I think about during the day. Though I do believe it could be something to do with the books I read or videos/movies I watch. For example, I read this one book called "The Secret of Crickley Hall" which is basically a supernatural thriller novel by James Herbert. If you're a 'reader' then I highly recommend the book for you, it's really good.[But if you're not into horror then I don't think it's a good idea] The way the author had written the book and portrayed the characters was just very realistic. The point is, I was so into the book and loved it so much that I actually had a dream with the characters and the ghost from the book. Thinking of it now is really hilarious but at that moment, when I just woke up from the dream it was terrifying! So I'm not sure if it was a nightmare or a dream. Basically what had happened was the 'ghost' was asking me for 'Lily Peel' who was the psychic character in the book. Obviously, I didn't know where 'Lily' was so the 'ghost' decided to break my back bone. [Thank you ghost. Who needs a back bone right?] Like I said, BIZARRE.

Not all of my dreams are that crazy. There are some nice ones which seem to be sensible. I've dreamt of sitting in parks, watching the sunset and some stuff like that. There are also some other few dreams that are pretty relatable and I just figured out a few weeks earlier that it wasn't just me but quite a lot of people have had the same dream! I don't know how many of you reading have had this but I had quite a lot when I was a kid. I would dream that I already got up and was getting ready for school in the EXACT same routine I would do in reality. It was when someone would wake me up, I would realize that it was a dream and I'm actually 10 minutes late. [I always get up late] Now this is quite embarrassing but then again I'm not the only one. I used to dream as a child that I needed to go the bathroom and so I would go to the bathroom just to wake up to find that I have wetted the bed. [You may stop laughing now] A lot of kids have had this dream atleast once, so for parents who were really mad at you're kids for messing up you're bedsheets, this is the story behind it. [Or so I believe.]

You know how people say that dreams are better than reality? Just imagine if you could make your dreams more realistic! If you could control your dreams? Well guess what? There are a few who have the great ability to do so by lucid dreaming. For those of you who are wondering what it is, let me explain. Basically 'Lucid Dreaming' is just pretty much you dreaming as always and BAM you realize that you're dreaming and can start controlling your dream! Lucid dreaming has been on my 'To-do-list' for quite some time now! Though it's not that easy to do. To lucid dream, it takes a LOT of patience. You don't just sleep and realize you're dreaming! If you're interested and seem to have the time and all here's a link on 'Lucid Dreaming for Beginners' http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/first-lucid-dream.html  .It was from the same website that I learnt, somehow practising something whilst lucid dreaming makes you do the thing better in reality. It sound insane but it works! For example, if you practice your Karate moves during a lucid dream you literally improve during the waking day! Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the link to that page. Sorry folks! 

But lucid dreaming, normal dreaming whatever it may be, dreaming is amazing and I am VERY thankful that I'm not a zombie! Proves how our mind works in mysterious wayssss! 

So why don't you share some of your weird dreams? It'd be cool to read!  And I will try to post about the bullying and all. Till then, SAYONARA!

Keep smiling and take care! :) 

Jezi. 

Pain

Words are very strong. Things are best expressed through words. People get to express how they feel through words in various ways. Some through blogging, some very talented folks would do it by writing a novel, let their imaginations run wild. Some others would go by song writing etc. Though I would really like to go through four- lettered words in particular for today's post. Somehow, all four-lettered words all are very fascinating and strong with such deep meanings and emotions. It's amazing how the word 'WORD' itself is a four-lettered word and how people put together a lot of these words and make a difference. There are a quite a few that are very common, for example;the word 'KIDS', the word 'WARM', the word 'SOUL' and so on. Then there are the ones which are deep and so very emotional and are very commonly out there such as 'SOUL' that forms when we take our first breath and then 'LOVE' through which we care, nurture, admire and trust loved ones and then there's 'HATE' through which again we express our anger to the not-so-loved ones and then comes the one that a majority out of the 6.9 billion people in the world experience and that is 'PAIN' and that's really what I want to focus on here for today.

Now, just because I'm focusing on pain doesn't necessarily mean it has to somehow relate to me! Thank the good Lord, I am not experiencing any sort of 'pain' whatsoever. So a lot of you are probably wondering (or even probably talking to the screen) "Then why do you want to talk about it so badly?". Well you see, the reason I came up with this topic is because what I have seen, heard and felt. We'll start with the 'felt' part first, which by the way would make it more clear that I'm talking about pain that people experience mentally and not physically. Well yes, physical pain is pretty painful but it's the mental pain that makes you go beyond limits. [Ok! Ok! Jeesh! I'll get to the point!]

Well I did previously mention that I am not experiencing any pain and that I am happy but I think it would be only fair if I shared a bit of my past 'painful' experiences. Starting off, with my mother's passing away, which, I am sure a quite few of you are very well aware of.My mother's death came as quite a bit of a shock to me. I'm sure it did to everyone! But as a child, who believed so strongly that somehow no one in my family can die, it was a terrible shock. I still remember how I understood what everyone meant when they said "She left us!" but I just could NOT take it in. It was like my brain just couldn't process that piece of information. I still tried to believe that the 'SHE' was someone else and not my mother. It took me awhile. But gradually the words did start to sink in and my brain eventually did process the fact that the 'SHE' was none other my mother and she was DEAD, which leads us to our other strong four-lettered word. See? How just saying dead sounds so raw and just out there? That's exactly the feeling I had! How could my mother just be dead?! That was the first ever pain that I've felt in nine years and trust me it wasn't light. After that horrible I-don't-know- what-to-call-it had happened, I came to India for PERMANENT stay. The lifestyle and the school and the people everything was just so different and overwhelming! To adjust and get used to it was really quite the task and it kind of still is but mucchh better now! Yes, I have had other quite mentally painful experiences but we don't want to get too personal now, do we? MOVING ON..

Now I'll tell you about what I've seen. There's not much to what I've seen but I would like to talk about 'bullies'. Quite a few people get bullied and that's another topic that I will talk about more on the next post( just don't know when). For those of you who do not know what 'bullying' is, let me explain. 'Bullying is aggressive, unwanted behaviour among school children. The behaviour is repeated or has the potential to be repeated over time. Bullying includes attacking someone physically or verbally. To put it in simple words, bullying is when you constantly keep picking on someone just simply because you believe you are better, smarter, stronger than them. Bullying is what we would refer to as 'Ragging' here in India. The small difference is ragging happens more commonly in college whereas bullying ALWAYS happen in school. Bullying/ Ragging has great effect on children. It leads to various amounts of problems. More than the physical abuse it's the verbal abuse that seems to leave such an impact. If the impact is big enough, it could lead to suicide. A great mass of lives were taken due to ragging/bullying all at or under the age of 19( at least from what I know). Sure we were wandering around as little kids telling people, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Though, I guess that in a particular way it is true because words don't just hurt, they scar. Leading us to another two deep and painful four-lettered words! This all happened because of the uncontrollable amount of pain emotionally.

Well that's all I've got to say about 'PAIN' for now. I have to apologize though for posting just an emotional and deeep post after all those fun and childish ones. I hope after you read this post you don't end up with that unexplainable weird feeling you get after reading great novels or watching an inspiring film (Not saying my posts are very novel-like or inspiring! Just saying you know!).  I really hope to do something good and make in a change in the future about bullying/ ragging. The fact that it can lead to various amount of things (which I will more specifically write about in my next post) is just such a tragedy. Very honestly, after watching videos and a reading a few articles also has left a bit of an impact with me. You could always do you're little bit and help change the world. (Now I'm just going a bit over the fence!)

I will try to keep publishing more posts at a regular basis. Till then AU REVOIR!

Keep smiling and take care! :)

Jezi. 

Boredom

Hey everyone! 

Been a very long time since I had posted anything at all. Surprising at how the days just fly by, isn't it? Well today I'm going to talk about boredom. Yes,  I said it! Boredom. Seven letters that can kill you. 

Ever had that feeling where you just so bored that it was going to eat you alive? Well I've had that feeling too many times. When you're bored, you just don't know what to do. Just sitting there and staring at the television wishing you had something to do. The thing is that when I was a little kid there was NEVER a word called boredom. I never used the word 'bored'. Back then I always had something to do. 

I know I'm talking like I'm all grown-up and I have kids and this all happened 10 years ago but to be honest, that's how I feel. These days all I ever say is 'I'm bored'. It's just that kids now days don't go out much anymore (Mine is a totally different case) and all they do is sit and watch T.V or play games that are very addicting or just go on a social network. There is no recreation or fresh air! (As my family would say) So all they ever do is get bored! (Including me!) 

The thing is when you get bored you feel tired and sleepy and when you feel tired and sleepy you feel lazy and when you lazy you don't move and when you don't move you become fat. And that's exactly how everyone is today!(Including me! No offence.)  For me, I just miss those days when I used to go down the building to play for 2-3 hours and never EVER got 'bored'. Either I would be too busy cooking with my kitchen playset (which I still love) or playing news reporter with my brother (we used a garbage bin as a chair and a milk can as camera! How exciting right?). 

Now, we don't do anything. It's either the T.V or the laptop. Sometimes it really annoys me how I'm always bored and feel really REALLY lazy. The feeling of being bored just sometimes wants to make me rip my hair and run around the house! ( Don't worry I don't) 

But out of all this, there is one advantage of getting bored. You see sometimes when you get bored you don't just sit, you sit and stare at a particular place and think.  Sometimes, it's nothing much but then sometimes you think really deep. About life, about your future, your career and many things. But me I just thought I about making a new post on my blog! 

But even after all this, we will eventually get bored. So the next time either one of you gets bored read my blog about BOREDOM and much more and it will blow your boredom away! ( For a few minutes atleast.) 

Anyways all of you take care.
Keep smiling :) 

Jezi

Burned Alive by Souad

Hey everyone 

First of all I would like to apologise for the delayed post. But I seriously did not know what to write about but now I do ! Its about this book I read called Burned Alive written by a Palestinian woman named Souad. 

Burned alive is a shocking testimony , a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty that speaks of amazing courage and of one woman's (Souad:The author of the book) determination to survive.It is a also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices that ignores the plight of so many other woman who are also victims of traditional violence. 

Here is the summary of the story from the back of the book cover: 
   When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was a grave dishonour to one's family-a dishonour punishable by death.This was her crime,and her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment.One morning he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. In the eyes of their community he was a hero. (Horrible isn't it ? ) 
  Miraculously, Souad survived, rescued by the woman of her village, although she suffered horrific burns.It was the only intervention of a European aid worker that enabled her to recieve the care she desperately needed.She has now decided to tell her story to uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day. 

Here is a sneak peak from inside the book: 
 He came towards me , my brother-in-law Hussein in his work clothes, old trousers and a T-shirt. He stood infront of me and said , with a smile : 'Hi. How goes it ?' He's chewing a blade of grass. 'I'm going to take care of you.'
 That smile, and he said he was going to take care of me. I hadn't been expecting that. I smiled a little to, to thank him , not daring to speak.
 'You've got a big belly, huh ? '
 I lowered my head , ashamed to look at him. My forehead was on my knees. 
 'You've got a spot. Did you put some henna there on purpose?'
  'No, I put the henna on my hair. I didn't do it on purpose.'
  'You did it on purpose to hide it.'
 I looked at the laundry I was holding in my trembling hands- that's the last fixed and lucid image I have : the laundry and my trembling hands. The last words I heard from him were ' You did it on purpose to hide it.'
 He didn't say anything more , I kept my head down in shame, a little relieved that he didn't ask me any more questions. Suddenly I felt a cold liquid running over my head and I was instantly on fire. Now it was like a movie that had speeded up , images racing. I started to run in the garden . I slapped at my hair. I screamed. My dress  billowed out behind me. Was it on fire , too ? 
 I smelt petrol and I ran, the hem of my dress getting in the way. My terror led me instinctively away from the courtyard. I ran towards the garden as it was the only way out. I know I was running and I was on fire screaming. But I remember almost nothing after that. How did I get away ? Did he run after me ? Was he waiting for me to fall so he could watch me go up in flames ? 
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This is a must read book according to me , very interesting . Please buy and read the book . Not like any other random novels , reading it is worthwhile . Thought I would share it and spread the word (besides it has been quite awhile since I posted something). 

Anyways take care
Always keep smiling. 

Hope you had a good reading it as much as I did typing. 
Jezi. 

Annual Day-22.7.2011

Hey everyone 

Have you ever been so excited for something and then ended up being disappointed ? Well I'm sure lots of you are nodding your heads because,this is something that happens to a lot of people, including me. Especially when you are studying in a school like mine. Annual Day didn't go exactly the way I planned. My previous year English teacher told me that the principal told that I HAD TO host the show . I told my aunt she said ok and everything was set. Infact they told me to wear a Gagara Choli since I would be getting on stage.I told them if they wanted me to do the hosting I would wear a Grand Churidar but no way was I going to wear a Gagara. They accepted and I gave my churidar material for stitching and got it ready by Thursday evening. Everything was set. 

So, the day finally arrived . I mean it was a big thing for me since the Annual Day was been conducted after four YEARS and I got the opportunity to host it with BOTH my brothers , but it would have been a thousand times better if my father were here.  Anyway I went to school at 4:00 pm since the programme starts at 5:00pm . The Chief Guest was Gokula Indira , I had no idea who she was until yesterday. The principal told us that Gokula Indira was attending three functions on the same day and she would be in school sharp at 5:00 pm . So that meant we had to be here about an hour earlier and that's exactly what we all did. 

Remember how I told you that Annual Day didn't go the way I planned and it was really disappointing ? Well here is where all the disappointment starts. 

No.1 - My previous year English teacher told me that hosting was going to be off-stage not on-stage, which meant me wearing all that fancy Churidar with all those itchy jewelery was a total waste. But I was happy at least I was still hosting.(Trying to be a mature girl.)

No.2-It started to rain. Yep that's right after four years the school finally conducts the Annual Day and guess what?It rains , but then it stopped for about fifteen minutes and then it started again but this time it was raining heavily. All the parents were holding the chairs over their heads (what a sight huh?)  and some of the students got soaking wet. I started to get all itchy and sweaty due to the humidity and the rain especially with that dress. Disaster isn't it ?

No.3-The Chief Guest arrived one and a half hour late. The principal told she would arrive sharp at 5:00pm but instead she arrived at 6:35 pm. By then all the parents were getting restless and really bored.

No.4- Since the Chief Guest arrived late and time was running out the principal didn't allow me to talk in the beginning at all! She read the whole welcome speech. My teachers were yelling at me that I was not hosting the show properly and one of the Sirs just came up and told the hosting is horrible and that we were going to slow! Seriously?


No.5-The principal was reading out the students name who were hosting the Annual Day, both my brothers names were mentioned but my name was not on the list at all! The principal didn't mention my name AT ALL . Another fact is that one of my brother that is Abhi was not hosting Annual Day! He was supposed to be the host for Sports Day but they mentioned his name and not mine. Terrible isn't it ? I almost cried right there. My English teacher told me not to worry and just to host the show. So I did.(Again trying to be mature.)


No.6- I hosted for only 4 dances the rest was done by other students. I was just standing there with heels doing nothing. Since I was standing for hours wearing heels my legs and back started aching. The teachers took up all the chairs, there was only one chair but it would be rude if I sat with all the teachers. (How long do I try to act mature?)

No.7- Biggest disappointment of all was that my dad couldn't attend the programme, He told me to at least record the entire programme so he could watch it after he arrived. Since I was standing next to the teacher I didn't have a clear view of the stage and my cousin brother was having my mobile so I couldn't even take a video for my dad.

Rather than that it was kind of okay , nothing really great. A few dances were good especially the Hip-hop done my 12th Grader boys. Annual Day turned out to be Annoying Day for me. I was standing there OFF-STAGE wearing a grand churidar and heels with my legs and back aching for no reason at all. Glad my dad didn't get to see all this or it would have been a big problem. So,now that you read my Annual Day story what do YOU think of it? Whats YOUR point of view ? Tell me in the comments. A piece of advice would be great too. 

So this is me signing off
Hope you had fun reading than I did typing.
Keep Smiling and take care.

Jezi.

My Appreciation to all.

Hey everyone,

Thank you all for your very kind comments and praises about my blog. (Even with 
all the grammatical mistakes).

I see that a majority of you like the introduction a lot. Thank you all for the great advice, which will surely help me to publish better posts in the future. Most importantly, a huge thanks for those of you who stopped and took a minute to pray for my friend Aj Johnson. 


Two or three people had told me to publish posts in Tamil later on. I am sorry but 
that won't happen in the very near future. (Though for the sake of the people who requested I'll try my best) I already have so many mistakes posting in English just imagine how it would be if I posted in Tamil. People who requested me to post in Tamil would regret it a lot.  But I'll still try.


Anyhow once again thank you all sooooooo much. Will publish more posts whenever I do have 
the time. Until then keep reading both my posts over and over again. (Just Kidding! ) 


So this is me signing off  
Keep Smiling and Take Care

Jezi

A Huge Introduction

Hello Everyone

My name is Jezira Fathima, well known as Jezi. This is my first post on my brand new blog! I never thought I would be actually writing a blog. [well actually typing] My father writes a blog which obviously you all are aware of. It is pretty famous. But then, my brother started a blog as well! It was well received. So I thought, 'Why not give it shot?' 

Giving it a shot is fine, but what do I write about for my first post? Well then it hit me, why not tell everyone about myself in a much more elaborate way? Besides not everyone starts off their blog with an introduction of themselves. And well, that's exactly what I'm going to do. 

Starting off with the fact that I am very talkative. At first, to new people, I do come off a bit shy. But eventually I will get used to them and I will start yapping. It doesn't have to be important. It could be the most random thing and I would still talk about. If I'm at a party and it's filled with absolute strangers, even if I get one person to talk to, I will. Trust me, that's enough for me to get through the entire party. Though, I never start the conversation.Someone has to come up to me and ask my name or how I'm doing or something like that. 

I believe that no matter how old I get, I will still have immense amount of love for my kitchen playsets. I was obsessed with it as a kid, and I still am. If anyone asked me what I want for my birthday that's the first thing that would pop up into my mind. But since that would be very embarrassing and maybe weird I do not ask for it. 

I am a songaholic or music addict or whatever you would like to call it. I will do absolutely nothing and listen to songs all day long. As long as the song is meaningful and relatable I will listen to it irrespective of the genre and language. I just love it that much. So for those of you who know me a little too well, that would explain why I spend hours on Youtube. 

I can never decide. It's because I can never decide, I don't have a favourite of anything. Though somehow over the last few years, I have developed to have a favourite colour, favourite number and favourite food. That's it. If you ask me something like my favourite movie or song or book I'll just stare at you. I just think it's the fact that no matter what it is, time to time it gets better. So if there's a good movie today, I'll love it till another great movie comes out so I can never have an all time favourite thing. For example if you were given the option to choose between pancakes and waffles, what would you do?! Both are good! You might get the satisfaction of having either one but you also end up missing out on the other good one. Basically I just want everything at once! 

I love cooking! Now that may come as a surprise to most of you but I genuinely love to cook. Though I do not know much cooking I love to cook the small things that I do. Even if it's just boiling an egg I still love it. I suppose maybe it's something I got from my mother because she used to be obsessed with cooking. She had a huge collection of recipes and cook books and watched alot of cooking shows too![Love you ma!] Just like I play alot of cooking games! [Not the same thing, I know] Though, alot of recipes require the oven. Not the microwave. A real baking oven. I don't seem to have one, so no baking! Sad luck. 

I am very clumsy. I will literally see the wall infront of me and then bump my head into it. Actually 'bump' sounds very light. Let me re-phrase that again. I will literally see the wall infront of me and then SMASH my head into it. The funny thing is, since I'm clumsy I try to AVOID bumping into things but that's when I actually bump into something and get hurt or hurt someone else! The times I've hit my head while being careful is more compared to the times I've hit my head when I'm careless. I drop things. I spill things. I hit things. [People also, not on purpose] VERY CLUMSY. Definitely not proud of that. 

I will do everything that I have to but if I'm not in the 'mood' I will not! If I have to wash the dishes or clean the room or arrange the shelf I will. Once I put my mind to something I will do it but you see I don't put my mind to it. It's like I don't even bother. If I'm in the mood for spring cleaning then I'll do the cleaning perfectly but if not, then I'll just dust off here and there and try to finish as quick as possible. 

Well that's enough of me! I hope my introduction made you smile and pursued you into reading my future posts. I will try to post on a regular basis. 

Keep smiling and take care :) 

Jezi.