So this afternoon I’m in a cab, going to class, down Broadway. In the middle of a stoplight, this woman opens my side of the door and looks at me as if I’m going to be getting off. I look at her with, “What the fuck’s your problem?” considering I was blocks away from my destination. She’s not fazed. She says “Where are you going? I need to go down to Wall Street.” The cabbie tells her to hop in on the passenger’s seat in the front and she does. Several more blocks and I’m at my destination where I pay my fare and get off. If this were Turkey, I wouldn’t have been surprised a bit, but in a city where people don’t even look at each other in the eye, the entire experience was all too strange for me.

While writing the next scene in my novel, I started thinking about shrinks and how the relationship is so one-sided. Here you are pouring your heart to a person whom you know very little about. You don’t even know if this person is married or has children. They never relay any personal stories of their own, yet you sit there and tell them every little thing about your soul. You pay them to listen and, hopefully, give you some clues into your problems and ways to find resolution. I’m sure this is no news to anyone, but it just made me think today.

In my art class, we looked at different paintings depicting the same story. It was interesting to see how the same biblical story was shown in so many different ways. Actually, the similarities were more interesting. The pose in which a character stood over and over again regardless of painter or period is really fascinating to me.

Before?

Make sure to watch the debate tonight. It’s bound to be interesting. I’m not eligible to vote and I’ll be watching.

Last night, I stayed up late and finished Pay it Forward. I started it at 2pm yesterday and was done the same day, which must mean some positive things about the book. The interesting thing is that I didn’t really enjoy the way the book was written and organized. I didn’t like the jumping of viewpoints amongst several characters and I didn’t like that she switched from 1st Person to 3rd and back. But the story was engrossing, at least for me. The idea that you can change the world is always a good topic of discussion for me.

I love the rush of reading a book all day long cause I can’t possibly put it down. Especially when it’s not pure trash. .

3 days till I go home! Yeeeaaaaay!

My signature file contains the following quote:

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” –Mark Twain

I totally believe in the above sentence.

People who are truly good at what they do will never undermine others. They make it seem easy and possible. They can explain things in a clear, concise and easy to understand manner. The only person who can’t break something to chewable portions is someone who doesn’t truly understand it.

Many people, to cover up their lack of knowledge, will try to make things seem confusing and complicated. They will put down the efforts of others. I’ve heard people say, “Why does everyone think they know how to write a book?” The same sentence can be applied to many professions, especially ones involving artistic ability.

Why is it so awful if anyone can do what you can? I don’t take it offensively if I meet another coder. I don’t turn my nose at someone who’s just learning how to write programs. I try to help people who are learning a language I can already speak.

If other people can do what you can, does it make it less important? Does it make it less impressive? Less cool?

Not at all.

The fact is, even if someone can also write a novel, they’ll never do it the way you do. We are all unique creatures and have our own way of thinking, our own creativity, our own stories to tell, our own voices to tell them with. Even if everyone in the world were a painter, all the paintings would look different.

Next time you see someone making an effort, instead of bashing her, offer her advice and encourage her for trying. Remember that while that particular thing might be your forte, you have weaknesses too. If we all helped each other, we would all improve collectively.

If you try to do something and people make fun of you, remember Twain’s words. Only the little people belittle your ambitions.

Cause it’s so much harder to be nice.

I convinced Jake and a bunch of other friends to go to Neal Pollack’s reading tomorrow. After having read the interview with Dave Eggers, I’m interested to see what their readings are like. I’ve never been to an actual book reading before but I have a hunch this one will be quite unique.

Bond market closed and we all got sent home. Yeay!

I finally got A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius from the library. I haven’t read it yet, but even the blurbs on the back cover are amusing. I’m sure this book won’t disappoint me.

Ash: A Secret History has a full version published in the UK while it will be published in four parts in the US. Hmmm, a marketing ploy you think?

A Clockwork Orange was also published differently between the UK and the US. Actually, the US version didn’t have the last chapter. In the intro of my book, which did have the entire set of chapters, Burgess talks about how his American publisher thought the book ended better if the last chapter were left out. When Kubrick made the movie, he used the American version of the book, therefore, left out the actual ending. Burgess said that, for years after the movie was made, he got letters from his European readers asking why the ending was excluded. He was quite pissed about it.

Btw, that was one strange book.

I’ve just finished reading the smell section of Diane Ackerman’s A Natural Histroy of the Senses and I learned an amazing number of fascinating facts. The Book talks about a disorder called anosmia which means that the person lost her sense of smell. (Or never had it.) It’s interesting to me that when someone is blind or deaf, we can tell quite easily but I’ve never even thought of someone losing her sense of smell before. There even is an Open Smell Directory Project for people who suffer from anosmia. Quite interesting how many of us won’t spend time thinking about something that we can’t see. Or is it just me?