#le-gecko

[decompound-braininess]

The k-pop mania has it our shores. I have one friend who's a very big manga fan, and she's recently "made the switch" to being obsessed with korean boysbands that have waaaaay too many members. (thirteen guys, really?) So, after weeks and weeks of resisting, I cracked. I'm sure there's a scientific reason as to why these songs are so hard to pull out of your head, there has to be.

[decompound-braininess]

Second Round

we’re back! (yes, I know we said that last time) missed us? (calm down, calm down, no need to be this agitated, we’re fine, really...) (wait...what? are those...pitchforks....?wait! please, put the pitchforks down, please!) we had very, extremely good reasons to be absent, really. as the super spy that I am (shhhh-don’t tell anyone), I’m not free to *tell* you why this duo has been missing. but there are no rules against you *guessing* the reason! (I hope...) so, what do you think....that our heroes were: a) being all social... b) fighting the undead maybe both...none...who knows? Yes, I know it’s not Monday, but screw that! The theme are songs that are bad, not musical masterpieces -at all- but that you listen to regardless, because they’re so damn catchy. An let’s face it: you can’t be awesome *all* the time. So, there will be no judgements. Even if it’s...Justin Bieber. (but, really? Justin Bieber? what do you see in -no, wait. not judging. I’m going away. not judging.) May the Gods help us.

[decompound-braininess]

Here's something a little bit more sad. This song is used all the time for the parts where someone is dying.

[decompound-braininess]

It is I, le-gecko!

You say classical music, and I think EPIC music! I don't understand why people think that Classical music is boring. Just hear the epicossity above. Boring? BORING? Get an ear brain check mate.

[decompound-braininess]

le-gecko hasn't been around

Yes, I haven’t been around, but praise the Gods, I have a very good reason. For the past three days I’ve been playing Uncharted 3. I’ve only payed full price for two games in my life and I can say with absolute certainty, it’s has been worth every cent. Yes, because while I’ve finished the single-player campaign, the multiplayer mode is waiting for me. I don’t want to turn this post into a review, but it’s really awesome. So I’m totally forgiven. right?

Please don’t be so quiet? It’s Christmas, don’t look at me like that! Ok, I’ll articulate something to compensate my lack of posts this week!

I hate this theme.

I feel like I should tell you something about myself, that she-boyfriend shouldn’t be exposed all by herself in the hostile environment that is the internet.

So let’s give you more evidence that people are very nuanced and even the most awesome super heroes have dark sides.

A appropriate segway to this topic escapes me, so I will just say it.

This little gecko has been battling anxiety for the past two/three years. And by anxiety, I mean it got to a point where I refused to leave the house, and was painfull to get out and interact with people.

And it was a situation that could be solved in two ways: medication or endurance.

So I went to school, for about three months, in pain, hopping that the next day would be easier, but knowing that probably it wouldn’t be.

This quote stuck with me:

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.

(Ambrose Redmoon)

Or, as I like to put it: Courage in not the absence of fear, is being scared shitless and keep going, because it’s the right thing to do.

I was pushed and dragged (in a more literal way than I would like to admit) to school during that period but, slowly, the pain went away and so did the panic attacks.

It made me appreciate the moments when I’m not in pain. As in, I’m in a park and I find myself thinking: “It doesn’t hurt. I’m outside, there are people here, and it doesn’t hurt. This is awesome.” And I’ll be really really happy. Whoever I’m with will be confused, “what’s up with her?”, but like she-boyfriend said: Fuck them.

(Actually, she-boyfriend, I made a little picture with your quote, I hope you don’t mind)

Part of the lesson is that you’ll never be “anxiety-free”, nor should you aspire to be, it’s part of who you are. The other part is that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

So, following that logic, school doesn’t kill you, so…..it makes you…stronger? So…I’m saying that school is…good?

Oh my Gods, the things that I’m saying. BLASHPHEMY!

So, anyway, yes, super powered geckos have Achilles tendons too. And this is the part where you all say: “But we love you anyways le-gecko!”

Oh, you’ve all gone quiet now. Again. Ah. Ah. Are you always this funny, or is it because it’s Christmas?

[decompound-braininess]

"And here’s my favorite part: a time will arrive when you’ll actually be OK with it, when you won’t mind that you don’t belong, that some people can’t (and probably never will) see you. Fuck them; you’re a proper superhero, don’t let anyone tell you any different!"

she-boyfriend, in this post

[decompound-braininess]

Last one. (I liked this theme)

For my final pick, I present to you, the Phantom of the Opera. I read the book first (so in my mind the Phantom is a walking corpse, not a handsome irishman) and then watched the movie, but I still enjoyed it, regardless of its faults.

We always compare book’s to their movies but in the end, the books will always win. Because there is not that much room for our imagination in movies. In a movie, a futuristic earth is only as good as the film’s special effects. In a book, the limit is your imagination. How much we believe in a character’s motives is limited by the actor’s quality and the prettiness of the picture by the cinematographer.

Karen Marie Moning said:

"I love books, by the way, way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself. Movies show you the pink house. A good book tells you there’s a pink house and lets you paint some of the finishing touches, maybe choose the roof style,park your own car out front. My imagination has always topped anything a movie could come up with. Case in point, those darned Harry Potter movies. That was so not what that part-Veela-chick, Fleur Delacour, looked like."

They’re different mediums. And while I can see that it’s not the most amazing movie of all time, I liked seeing a story that I loved in the flesh.

This time, there isn’t a unrelated song that I associate with this book. Just my favourite type of songs, the ones that tell a story.

[decompound-braininess]

Oi! You’re blaming me for only watching starting to watch Doctor Who with the Matt Smith’s Doctor?! Now I am outraged. Because, our very loved 4 followers, it was SHE-BOYFRIEND who, when I asked where I should start watching, said to start in the most recent series! Do not fully believe every word that comes out of this unicorn racer’s mouth, my friends, for they are a source of deception!

Maybe I wasn’t clear, I haven’t always read books while listening to music, in fact, I don’t think I ever listen to music if I’m reading physical books.

(Which, presently, means the Memorial do Convento, because I promised myself I wouldn’t read any other physical book until I had read that…thing. Also, considering how hard it has been keeping focused on the book, if there was music, I would read it even slower.)

In fact, this now habit started with a book called Little Brother (one point for le-gecko for a good segueway!) by Cory Doctorow.

After some calculations, I figure it was on the summer of 2009 that I was on vacation, and my father had recently bought a iPod Touch (touch screens were such a new thing at the time good touch screens were such a new thing at the time) and the big potential that I saw in it was for reading.

My father had downloaded Stanza, and I’m not sure if the ebook came with the app or, most likely, he downloaded before going to where we were (no internet. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!), but the fact of the matter is that the book was there.

Reading a book in English was very daunting task at the time, but I figured, it was FOR SCIENCE! just to see if reading on such a small screen was a that big of a challenge.

I ended up reading the book in less than a week, reading only at night, after everyone else was asleep.

But, at night, when the house was quiet, was when this big, monster clock ticked louder, apparently, and that ticked me off, so I put my headphones on I put one of the first albums that I downloaded acquired in full, All American Rejects' When The World Comes Down.

So what is it about, you ask? Present day. Marcus Yallow, 17, is skiping school with friends when the Golden Gate Bridge is blown up by terrorists. In the middle of the panic he and his friends are arrested and taken to a not-very-legal prison for questioning. After he’s released and comes back to school, all these “security measures” have been implemented: security cameras on classroom, rfids on cards, the metro cards are monitored, the internet is censored (doesn’t that remind you of something? what is it? hum….) and monitored by creepy black vans.

It’s the story of a generation’s battle for freedom from surveillance and how they turned it against “them”. Hence the name “Little Brother”, which is not a reference to the reality show (like someone in class said-I was horrified), but to Orwell’s book Nineteen-Eighty-Four, that wholeheartedly recommend.

(Wow, talk about long posts. Hell, if I’ve written 561 words a few more can’t hurt. right?)

An no need to run to PirateBay for the download, the author has the ebooks available for download on his website, for free.

“Wait. What?”

You though, “that makes no sense.” Well, it doesn’t look like it makes sense, but he explains it here, if your interested.

tl,dr: most people who pirate books wouldn’t buy them, so no sales are lost. free books means more sharing, more people reading the books and potentially paying for them.

And the song is cool.

(What do you mean “the song is supposed to be the topic, le-gecko”?)