Pounding The Keyboard

       A writer-friend begged me to promote his new novel here on my blog. I told him this blog has only got two readers, and he said it’s okay and that it will still help. The novel’s title is Incognito , writer is RN Danz and you can read it on Wattpad. It’s a dark, adult love story, a mystery-thriller that contains paranormal and supernatural elements. It’s free and ongoing, so the reader will have to be patient.      I asked him a chicken sandwich for my effort in promoting his novel.      “The novel’s free, dumbass,” he said. “I’m not earning anything from it, and your blog has only two readers.”      "Cheeseburger?"       "I can only afford French fries."     "Deal!"

       Two days ago, while I was in a public market, buying something, I saw a family (or so they seemed) busy hanging a tarpaulin outside a house. The tarpaulin had a picture of a smiling young woman in toga and the words on the tarpaulin were: Congratulations, (the young woman’s name), Magna Cum Laude . Magna Cum Laude is, of course, the second highest honor you'd get in college. While walking away from that celebratory activity, I heard a man quipping that the young woman’s academic honours surprised them, as she didn’t quite excel in high school and was often quiet.      And I could relate with that—I have a nephew, a sister’s oldest kid, and just like with our other niblings, we are close to him and would often spoil him, but I don’t know if he excelled in high school as I never queried his mother about it, but this nephew of mine is quiet, an introvert who would barely talk in family gatherings and would often be glued in front of ...

       I love nuts, the fruit types; the people types, not so much. Every time I’d buy groceries, there’d always be some types of nuts in my bags, and lately, I’ve been biased towards mixed nuts (I prefer those with berries). Sometimes, I’d order them online. And it’s quite pretty good to be a little obsessed with them because they’re good for your health (especially for your heart and your brain).      People who are nuts, I don’t order them, but every now and then, they would come into my life. And they are mixed, too. Men, women, old, young. Most of them don’t recover as brain is such a fragile thing. You break it and most of the time, it will remain broken. Heart can recover, a new love is all it needs, but a brain will always find it difficult to mend.      So I was quite stunned then when someone I knew recovered after being confined in a mental institution for months. He got well, got out and started functioni...