Puntabulous

1. I updated my BOOKS page to give you folks a bit more insight into the books I read. I hope to start keeping it more updated than I have been.

2. I made my first Netflix queue. How exciting! I took a lot of your recommendations into consideration. I’ll be filling you in on which recommendations I chose and give my reviews of the movies as I watch them.

So my friend gave me this book the other day for my birthday called Working for the Man. I’ve been reading it on the train on my way to work (which adds a certain sense of irony) and it is hysterical. It’s basically a guide for surviving life in the office. Actually, surviving life in the cubicle to be more exact.

In fact, it’s pretty much like reading a really long episode of The Office. But not one of those hour long one’s where they drag out the same joke too long. It’s like those really good half hour ones where you wish it was really an hour, but it’s over in 22 minutes, but in book form.

Here are some tips the book suggests:

1. Conduct breath-holding contests during boring meetings.
2. Plot out a “sick day” calendar to maximize time off.
3. Write your novel on company time.
4. Become the “crazy person” in the office by dedicating your cubicle to a theme (UFOs, Sophia Loren, Dr. Seuss, clowns) and decorating it with reckless abandon.
5. Hand out your own Employee of the Month awards.
6. Anonymously send your boss a Happy Secretary’s Day bouquet. (That one’s my favorite. It’s genius!)

I’d also like to recommend another one that I came up with myself:

7. Change your company’s logo for your own devious purposes:

I did this over a year ago. And now I have the book to prove that it was probably one of the healthiest work activities I performed.

CHECK IT OUT: Working for the Man: Inspiring and Subversive Projects for Residents of Cubicle Land

WARNING: YOU WILL PROBABLY THINK LESS OF ME AFTER READING THIS!

I was talking to a friend the other day and we discussed how you can fall in love with literary characters. Me, being the complete dork I am, fell head over heels for Anakin Solo. Not to be confused with Anakin Skywalker, Anakin Solo is the third child of Han and Leia Solo, after their twins Jacen and Jaina. The Solo children obviously weren’t in the movies and therefore have no representation in real life. But the way Anakin Solo was writen, you just knew he was the most gorgeous Jedi to ever have lived.

Not only was he gorgeous, but he was the most powerful of the young Knights of the New Jedi Order that was established after the fall of the Empire. In the books, Jacen was the intellectual child, Jaina was the amazing pilot, and Anakin was the most powerful in the Force, not to mention bravest.

In the books, Anakin dated another Jedi named Tahiri. I wanted to hate Tahiri for stealing my man, but she was adorable, so it was damn near impossible.

Then came the book “Star by Star“. By this time, Anakin had stepped into a leadership position. Did I mention he was only 17 at the time? Laws are different in the Galaxy Far Far Away, so my complete and utter admiriation is completely within the legal parameters of the Galactic Alliance. I was also 19 at the time the book was published, making the age difference less icky.

Anyway, they had definitely set him up to be the next Luke Skywalker. He lead a mission to destroy a base where an intruding species from another galaxy had set up a colony of Jedi-hunting creatures known as Voxyn.

During this mission, the team of Jedi are overrun, and Anakin sacrifices himself to allow everyone else the time they need to get free. Right before he dies, while he is fighting back the overwhelming number of enemies, he sends a telepathic message to his brother Jacen: “Kiss Tahiri for me”.

How fucking romantic is that? If I’m lucky, I get a slap on the ass, and Tahiri has romantic wishes telepathically sent about her from the most powerful Jedi in the Galaxy DURING HIS DEATH!

Seriously, I had to put the book down for a good while before I was able to continue reading. Sad I know, but tis the life of a lovelorn gay science fiction dork.

So now I turn to you, dear reader, have you ever been in love with a literary character without the aid of a movie representation? And don’t pick Mr. Darcy. We all know that only stemmed from the Colin Firth wet shirt scene in the A&E version of “Pride and Prejudice“.