I go to seek a Great Perhaps

I should probably write about this terrific book, or how testdisk saved my life the other day, or how I recently remembered three non-depressing songs I used to like years ago, or how good a translation challenge “mă apropii de pietre şi tac” is, or rant about why Moldova didn’t go to IOI this year… but instead I’ll just say:

KIV -> FRA -> BOS

This is surreal.

Quotes from “Lock and Key”, by Sarah Dessen

Which was not as impressive as her other works.

Quotes from “Theatre”, by William Somerset Maugham

(which is unfortunately unavailable online)

• People don’t want reasons to do what they’d like to do. […] They want excuses.
• It’s like lying and not knowing you’re lying, that’s what’s fatal. […]
• The tragedy of life is that sometimes we get what we want.
• When I’ve seen you go into an empty room I’ve sometimes wanted to open the door suddenly, but I’ve been afraid to in case I found nobody there.
• “the origin of poetry is emotion recollected in tranquillity”
• […] It’s we, the actors, who are the reality. […] They are our raw material. We are the meaning of their lives.
  […] Why, it’s only we who do exist. They are the shadows and we give them substance. We are the symbols of all this confused, aimless struggling that they call life, and it’s only the symbol which is real. They say acting is only make-believe. That make-believe is the only reality.

Citazioni da “Cento colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire” di Melissa Panarello

• Ma questi schiamazzi mi stanno dilaniando, so che stanotte qualcuno vivrà più di me.
• La solitudine mi sta distruggendo forse, ma non mi fa paura. Io sono la migliore amica di me stessa, io non potrei mai tradirmi, mai abbandonarmi.
• Là dentro troverai la morte. Non potrai più riprendere il cuore, bambina, morirai, e qualcuno getterà la terra sulla tua tomba. Nemmeno un fiore, nemmeno uno.
• Ero inerme. Lo sguardo basso e spento. Vuoto. Non ho voluto guardare.
• Dove sei finita Narcisa che tanto ti amavi e tanto sorridevi, tanto volevi dare e altrettanto ricevere; dove sei finita con i tuoi sogni, con le tue speranze, le tue follie, follie di vita, follie di morte, dove sei finita immagine riflessa allo specchio, dove posso cercarti, dove posso trovarti, come posso trattenerti?
• Paura, tanta paura.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

by Barry Lyga.

(Try to ignore the bombastic title.)

Skinny guy living in his mother’s basement, computer and comic book geek, bullied at school, convinced everyone hates him. Self-proclaimed brainiac loser and his bullet, good liar, surviving from week to week between gym classes, hoping to start over in college. Sounds familiar? Sometimes it’s good to know, there are people worse off.

With more than a fair deal of unrealistic moments (IM date, Dina) and obvious plot turns (stolen bullet, step-fascist helps, she’s at the con), this novel is only as good as its sarcastic narrator. I liked the ending a lot, though.

Quotes: