THE NEXT ACT

The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield My rating: 5 of 5 stars It's a great book unsurprisingly. I have finished it without knowing I am in the last page already. It is a gathering of all the principles of great of books of the same aspect. And some of the great books are also recommended in this book. What contains in this book is nothing new out of several great self-help books but it stands on its own to represent this generation I suppose. View all my reviews

When Bad Christians Happen to Good People: Where We Have Failed Each Other and How to Reverse the Damage by Dave Burchett My rating: 4 of 5 stars The title itself is very catchy. Once you read the title and you have been involved in one way or another to one or more certain community of believers, you know you wanna grab it from the shelves and browse it right away. The browsing part is a turning point to decide whether you want to sit and read or not. I decided to carry on. Some readers may be offended. Yet I would say the ones being offended are the ones who need to read this book most. It is a fact that there are horrible people in the church who act righteous. And this makes the outside world difficult to find them faithful. In the Bible, James talks about Faith and Deeds. One has to prove that he is faithful through deeds. The book hits hard in a funny way sometimes. And it's very creative to lessen blow in getting accross to readers. I was touched with a certai...

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is the Ultimate Book to understand Christianity. I have read so many books about being a Christian. And when I read this, I found that it contains the combinations of all the Christian Books and Teachings I have absorbed in the past. Could it be that the teachings in several Christian Seminars I have been with were based on this book? Some of it are fun and some it are hard to partake. Definitely five stars. View all my reviews

Seriously... I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres My rating: 3 of 5 stars It was funny. Same old Ellen the way I know her and about her in her stand-up stints and her show. Good leisure reading. No pressure. It is completely filled with not so serious stuff. A book that's kdding around. View all my reviews

Watchmen by Alan Moore My rating: 4 of 5 stars Cleverly written. Showcasing the dark side of superheroes. View all my reviews

Inferno by Dan Brown My rating: 4 of 5 stars Dan Brown executed the same formula of his previous works. But hey.. the formula works for me. I like it. http://jonsaintrandom.blogspot.co.nz/... View all my reviews

The Aladdin Factor by Jack Canfield My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have read this book over 15 years ago. Then, it has opened for me several doors of understanding of how important it is to go for what you want. I remember sharing this to my mates back then. And I still want to recommend it for others to read. I would like to recommend myself reading it again. View all my reviews

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid My rating: 5 of 5 stars One of the best graphic novel. A masterpiece. Love it. View all my reviews

One good habit that I want to keep at lunch time is spending time reading or meeting up with Claire at the library which is a few walks from the council.   The frequent meeting place is at the library, outdoor in the library garden whenever there is wonderful warm day or indoor on a not so warm day yet occupying a good spot by the huge window overlooking the garden.   Sometimes Claire wouldn’t make it but I keep the habit.   Another habit that I want a keep is to bring a mug of mocha chino which Claire and I enjoy.   Reading by the window is so much amusing yet it becomes more amusing when a glance through the window captures my attention to what’s going on outside in the garden: some colleagues jogging which makes me wonder if I should do the same, a friend who is a mum who takes walk with her baby in a stroller, fellow engineers fixing the rivers, young skateboarders having fish and chips, the yellow leaves in autumn which prompts Claire to ask me to take photos ...

I finished reading the book Inferno by Dan Brown.  In this book, the author’s imagination took him to make Dante’s Divine Comedy the main tool to stir up the story.  I had no knowledge about the Divine Comedy until Dan Brown made Inferno.   And so because of curiosity I just needed to find out what Divine Comedy is all about.  Wikipedia, Goodread, Youtube and Game.  Yes there is a game called Dante;s Inferno which is based on the first part of the Divine Comedy.  And there was this black and white and no talk film of Dante’s Inferno done in the days of Charlie Chaplin’s time I guess.  I watched a bit of it and I got bored and nauseated because the screen was wiggling once and a while and there was no sound – no talk and no music.  And my impression was that it was badly made.  There was this scene that there were dozens of naked guys sleeping or dead and lying on the ground and there was this one naked guy who raised his head and looked...

I watched the whole episodes of the Bible shown in History Channel.  I like it.  I Like how they approach the story which is more like a mild version of Game of Thrones.  Each episode starts with a caption saying that the series would show as close as to what has been told in the Bible.  But in the line of telling it as it is, they highlighted as well humanity, politics, war, grief, sacrifices, brutality, death, miracles, faith, love, conviction, envy, murder and evil.  There are some who had made bad reviews of the series about inaccuracies in the story, too much violence, racial/ethnic portrayals and too Hollywood.  Angels are portrayed like warriors in hoods who know how to fight like Ninjas.  Satan looks like Obama.  I think it is also History Channel or maybe National Geographic that showed a study of how the parting of the Red Sea possible in a technical point of view which is maybe caused by a pulling back of water as preemption of a tsun...

Being obsessed with accolades would mean not allowing anyone to do the job even in the midst of doing another job. The praise hunger fella has difficulties delegating other jobs with the fear that the attention would be stolen. The poor guy tries to do a one-man-band not minding the tension and the time wasted. He tries to afford a frame of mind of all knowing so as not make room for others to grab the stage. I was a victim of these obsession when I was the director, script/libretto writer, melody composer of a 2-hour musical play Darklight sponsored by the community I used to belong. The story was inspired by C.S. :Lewis Book entitled Screwtape Letters. I also used the character of Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood in the story and the situation where Screwtape advising Wormwood how to be an excellent devil. It took almost one year of preparation with some spices due to some difficult interactions among the staff, crew and management not to mention the hang-ups within me who was still...

I have been a fan of detective stories in my youth. There has been a time that I was a frequent visitor of many bookstores in order to find out what latest copy of the Hardy Boys or the Hitchcock’s Three Investigators was. I was fascinated with mysteries being cleverly solved. During those times I wished that I would be a clever as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple and Charlie Chan. My favorite stories are those books which have endings I wouldn’t have the slightest idea they were coming. The more I couldn’t find a single clue, the more I admire the heroes who cunningly figured them out. I reckon that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is really a masterpiece of Agatha Christie. Geniusly written. On the other hand I was into action movies. I was also a fan of Bruce Lee. I copied his moves, his haircut and I knew how to play around with the nunchaku just like what BL did in Enter the Dragon. What I didn’t see coming was when Guy Ritchie reinvented the character Sherlock H...

Have I been true to the title of the blog Random Thought? Although my recent blogs came out from my random thoughts, they do not look like they are random but rather well coordinated and most of the time deeper thoughts. Believe me, they came out random in the first draft and some of which have been picked out and organised to put in the blog in a coordinated way with good title. I believe in random thoughts because in writing in unguarded and unsupervised moment is where I know myself more. Again, have I been true? First draft, yes. Second and third draft, not quite. Maybe in order to stay living the title, the final draft should be a collection of variety of random thoughts in which I should not bother too much in how I connect them. Here goes. SUBCONSCIOUS The subconscious plays an important role in our lives even when we don’t know it. it is proven. Why are my fingers coordinated with what I think? What is the matter? Type. Type. Type. I know almost the keys in the keyb...

I visited Special Word website. This is what God said to me: "Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you."-Ephesians 4:29 I am at present moulding a habit that would find something good to say on anyone I would meet aside from saying “Hello”, “Hi”, “Good Morning”, “Gidday”.“Nice jacket you are wearing.”“That is a neat outfit.”“Congratulation with your presentation a while ago. You did a good job.”Those little add-ons to your greetings are just small nice comments but they might be a big positive impact to the receivers. Putting a smile on someone’s face due to praises can be a permanent file stored on someone’s memory that can be most of the time recalled. Praises can never be forgotten. They are always on the top file of the most visited folder of someone’s memory. File of praises are meant to be pulled out and be recalled when someone is down. Files of praises a...