When To Buy and When To Borrow

I love books. I think I've made that pretty clear on this blog, but loving books usually comes with a price, literally and figuratively. When it comes to reading books there are two very basic ways to acquire your reading material.

1. You buy the book or
2. you borrow it.

Seems simple enough, right? Wrong. Now comes the all important decisions on which one of these two options to choose. I have compiled a list of things to check and ask yourself before you do either of these.

• Is the book you want to read a classic?

I have a very strong opinion on this. If your answer to the above question was 'yes', then buy the book. Classics are always a good investment to make, since you'll probably pass it on to your kids, read it again or lend it to someone. You can borrow the book from the library, but it just won't be as significantly gratifying as having it on your bookshelf for the rest of your life.

• Is the book you want to read a textbook for school/college?

If 'yes', buy it. Buy the book as new as possible at the cheapest you can find it and when you're done with, sell it to someone else at a ridiculous price. You'll make a profit and be rid of the book when you're done. It's a win-win situation. Just remember that textbooks change over the years, so make sure the book you're buying will be used again, otherwise you should try to find a way around buying it or buy it from the previous year's students. They may give you a good deal on it.

Important note: If the text you wish to acquire is a Math textbook, buy it and then burn it when you're done. It'll be way more satisfying than making money off of it.

• Does one of your friends own the book already?

Borrow it, you idiot. If you know someone who owns the book (and it's not a classic), why are you even considering to buy it. Be glad you read this entry before you carelessly went and wasted your money. Not that buying books can ever be considered as wasting money, but still.

• Can you get the book for a good price?

This is up to you. If it's a book you really want, then maybe buying it will be a good option, but always ask yourself if you wouldn't rather check it out at the library. If it is available at your local library, rather check it out than buy it, unless of course you want to own the book, in which case see if you can't buy a new version of the book. Second-hand bookstores are always a good place to look.

I ♥ Books: Smile For The Camera by Kelle James

Name:   Smile For The Camera
Author:   Kelle James
Pages:   392 pages
Publisher:   Simon and Schuster

Summary:
Kelle James is a sixteen-year-old girl who moves to New York to get away from her abusive father and to see if she can make it as a model in the late 70's. She encounters more than one problem in her new home, or lack thereof, and struggles to find her place, along with trying to cope with a friend of her being accused of murder. But she makes new friend, gets an acting job, gets her own place and learns a lot about men during this journey. The epic tale of perseverance!


As far as memoirs go, this one was awesome. I found it hard to concentrate in the beginning, because it's so factual and especially since I couldn't really relate to her problems, but the more you read, the more involved you get, to the point where it actually hurts when you realise you've finished the book.

Like I said, I couldn't relate to her circumstances, but I could definitely relate to her way of thinking. She had a very random sense of humour and saw things in the weirdest ways. Totally me.

Romantically, this book wasn't satisfying, because I'm a hopeless romantic and I'm not particularly into dating guys from Arizona with 'severely sun damaged skin'. Ew. But I am a sucker for happy endings and this one more than just delivered.

I'm not trying to give anything away here, but I almost cried when Buddy... He... *sniff sniff*

My Favourite Line

"Like sharks in shallow water."

My Verdict

Read it. It could only make you a better person, or at least teach you a thing or two. So do it. Or the terrorists have won.

Rating:

Sacrebleu! J'aime le Français!

Let's face it,
                    Everything sounds better in French.

Therefore I have started learning this wonderfully fluid language and am trying to stick to it, unlike the times I tried learning Japanese... And German... And Turkish. So this time I'm taking it seriously. I got a dictionary, a learning program and I've joined a pen pal website in the hopes that I can get someone to teach me a little.
  Today however, I've read through a few old notes of mine and I would like to share its contents with you:

My Ten Favourite French Curse Words

1. Merde!   [Maird]

Let's start off with an easy one, a word that we've all used at some point during this day or somewhere in our lives. A word that is quite possibly my favourite curse word ever: Shit. A lot of times people in France will actually stretch out the word, saying “MAIR-duuuhhhh” instead of the shorter and more accurate Maird. Either way though, shit is shit and it sounds better in French.

    2.   Salope!   [Sal-OPE]

If you want your French teacher to slap you, go ahead, call her this. This word translates as Bitch, used exactly the same as in English. There's a masculine version to this as well: Salop, pronounced sal-OH. You can also through in a 'son of a' here and turn it into Fils de salope, which I'm sure you can figure out on your own.

    3.   Casse-toi!   [kass-twah]

This is a rude way to tell someone to leave you alone or go away, as in telling someone to "Fuck off".

    4.   Foutre   [FOO-truh]

What other ugly word starts with an "f"? That's right! Fuck! As probably everyone knows, this word is incredibly versatile, so here are a few ways to use it:

• Je m’en fou   [I don’t give a fuck]
• Fou-le-camp   [Get the fuck out]
• C’est foutu   [It’s fucked up]

    
    5.   Ta Gueule!   [ta-GOOL]

I've used this on one of my friends a few times and he always gives me this insanely satisfying WTF expression. This phrase is probably the rudest possible way to tell someone to be quiet, being Shut the fuck up. It's only kind of like saying this, because it doesn't have a direct translation in English.

    6.   C’est des conneries!   [Say-day-KOHN-ree]

The best translation of this is "This is bullshit". I've have muttered this to myself many times while sitting in Math class, but it didn't make much of a difference, because luckily the only foreign language my teacher speaks is German.

    7.   Con or conasse or connard    [cohn] or [con-ASS] or [con-ARD]

This is the French word for ass, but it can also be translated into something much lamer such as idiot.

    8.   Chiant or ça me fait chier   [CHI-ant] or [sa meh fey CHIay]

This translates into a more vulgar version of "That pisses me off". So you can use it when you want to express a negative opinion to a friend, but don't want anyone else to hear. Unless of course they speak French too.

    9.   Putain! or Pute!   [Poo-TAHN] or [poote]

The literal translation of this means Whore, but in some cases it is even used as the English version of fuck. Remember in #4 how I mentioned that "fuck" is very versatile? In English the word can be used for pretty much everything and in French it's almost the same. You can use putain  as an emotional word or you can direct it as a specific person.

    10.   Sacrebleu!   [sacre-BLEU]

I really don't have to explain this one, because you've probably said it before to sound funny, but you never actually knew what it meant. Well, this word, my friends, is an old French profanity to be used when you are surprised or angry. As simple as that!

Well, there you have it. Use these words wisely. Remember: With great power comes great responsibility and these words can be very powerful.

The Freshman's Guide To Surviving High School

Whether we like it or not, all of us are the new kids at some point in our lives. This is very much the case when most of us start high school. It's new, not all your friends are there and everyone is bigger than you. I was there five years ago, so I'm going to give the little fishies in the big pond some pointers on staying alive.

• No Eye Contact

Don't look anyone in the eye if you're trying to stay inconspicuous. Especially avoid seniors. Those guys just love picking on the little guys, mostly because that's what happened to them when they were freshman.

• Incognito

Don't hang out where there are a lot of seniors. The point is to keep a low profile, at least just until somewhere in the second semester. So stay low and make sure to pick a safe spot to hang out.

• Shut Your Pie Hole!

Whatever you do, don't talk back to seniors, or anyone else that's older than you for that matter. Having a bad attitude will get you nowhere, in fact, it's just going to make it worse. Everyone else before you went through the same stuff and they survived, so going through the same initiation is not going to kill you. It can only make you stronger and you'll even have fun if you play along.

• Marty McSmarty

Do your work. It's as simple as that. If the teacher see you aren't doing what you're told, the news will eventually spread to the other kids and they'll pick on you for it. The teachers themselves will pick on you a little. Just because you're in high school now, doesn't mean you get special treatment for slacking.

• Early Bird

Get to your classes on time. In a lot of high schools, they have what some people call a 'warning bell'. This is the bell that rings after the bell that signals the next period. When this bell rings, it means you're late and depending on the teacher, you might be EATEN ALIVE! Or end up in detention.

• It's On Like Donkey Kong!

 You are in high school now, so it's time to start enjoying yourself. Yes, you have to work hard and get good grades, but you have to play even harder when you get the chance. I'm not saying you should do something stupid like set your Math class on fire, just have fun, legally.

And that's all folks!

If you follow these few rules and use your common sense, your freshman year will be a breeze and so will the rest of your high school career.