Staircase Wit

Things I learned from Ryan Holiday's Ego is the Enemy: 1. Do your work. Do it well. You may or may not be rewarded for it, but that's not important. Recognition and rewards are a bonus. The effort is enough. 2. Never stop being a student. Never forget that there is much you don't know yet. Seek criticism and feedback. 3. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. Being the absolute best you're capable of should be the metric to measure yourself against. 4. Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room—until you change that with results. (Part I Chapter 5).

Two thoughts on FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened 1. We all have a friend like Billy McFarland: charming, ambitious, and always cooking up some grand get-rich-quick scheme, but once you see through them, you will realize that they are actually just lazy and incompetent. Let this Netflix documentary remind us that wild, revolutionary, epic, and obscure ideas will not make you a success. Discipline, conscientiousness, attention to detail, hard work, integrity, and pa tience will. 2. FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened also shows us how vain and shallow society has become. The organizers of Fyre Festival made people believe that they can party with the cool kids, the influencers, and beautiful models like Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, thanks to an unrealistically gorgeous video of a beach party and a few vague social media posts. The attendees relied on the endorsement of a few models, thinking about how attending Fyre Festival would make their Ins...

Copyright: HarperCollins Publishers Limited Hyeonseo Lee, a North Korean defector, writes about life under one of the harshest dictatorships. Her life in North Korea, as described in the early chapters (the ones about her life in North Korea) is so similar to the lives of the people in George Orwell's 1984: friends and neighbors rat out on each other when they are suspicious of each other's loyalty to the Dear Leader and the Great Leader;  the regime forces its citizens to always be in the company of other people to keep them from having individualistic and private lives; food and resources are dwindling, yet the government consistently feeds them propaganda that they are the greatest and richest nation in the world. Hyeonseo Lee is a courageous, adaptable, and resilient woman, sharing her fascinating story of escape to China, and eventually, to South Korea.

Copyright:  Windsor-Brooke Books, LLC Sultana, a Saudi Arabian princess, tells her story to American writer Jean P. Sasson. Sultana lives an obscenely wealthy and luxurious life filled with private jets, palaces and lavish gardens in the middle of the desert, yet she feels trapped in a gilded cage. While studying, working, driving a car, traveling on their own, dating, and getting married to the person they love are things women all over the world enjoy and take for granted, control of their bodies, lives, and happiness is still something women and even princesses in Saudi Arabia have to fight hard for their entire lives.

Copyright: St. Martin's Press Behind Closed Doors starts by first making it appear that Grace Angel, the heroine, has the perfect marriage, and that her rich, handsome, and loving husband absolutely adores her. The ugly nightmare of her marriage masterfully   reveals itself, a kind of slow torture befitting the pain the heroine goes through. A horrifying and macabre read, but a great psychological thriller. Rating: 4/5

Copyright: Flatiron Books Black Klansman is the true story of an African American undercover cop who led a sting operation against the Ku Klux Klan. He joined the KKK, phoned regularly with then KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and the local organizer Ken O'Dell, and used the information he got from them to preempt the Klan's activities. The subject itself is amusing and entertaining, although the writing is a bit flat. However, Sgt. Ron Stallworth is primarily a police officer, so he can be forgiven for not being a spirited storyteller. Looking forward to watching BlacKkKlansman, the movie adapatation direcreted by Spike Lee.

Omarosa Manigault Newman, former Assistant to the US President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison, wrote a tell-all book that reveals juicy, appalling, and intimate secrets about President Donald Trump, his family, and his aides. She claims that Trump is a racist, is suffering a mental decline, and is extremely narcissistic, among others. In her book, Omarosa constantly tries to justify why she stayed loyal to Trump for so many years, despite knowing that, according to her, he used racial slurs, objectified women, and lied countless times. She tries to convince her readers—and herself—that in her entire stay at the White House, she was just trying to do the right thing. This book is actually quite an entertaining read, which, of course, must be taken with a grain of salt.

Copyright: TBA Studios/Artikulo Uno Productions (Full of spoilers if you didn't pay attention to your Philippine History class, you lazy student you) 1. Think 300 or Rogue One, but so much sadder. There are no victories here, not even small ones. This film even makes one wonder: Did Goyo die in vain?  2. For someone who hasn't bathed or washed in weeks, Goyo, portrayed by Paulo Avelino, sure looks well-kempt and pretty?  3. The best thing about this film is that it  entices you to read more about Philippine History.  First in my reading list: The Letters of Apolinario Mabini by Apolinario Mabini.  4. The film reminds us to not be guided by people and idols but by our principles, and that blind loyalty to the President does not equate to loyalty to the country.  5. Gwen Zamora is captivating as Remedios Nable Jose, Goyo's love interest. Her eyes speak volumes, even if most of the time she barely speaks or moves.  6. Excellent screenplay by Pa...

Copyright: Bloomsbury/J.K.Rowling I think I was sixteen years old when I first read this book. Reading it as a teenager was so exciting and magical. My sister and I had to share a copy: I had to relinquish the book to her after reading two chapters, and get it back only after she reads her two chapters. Re-reading it as an adult, after more than fifteen years, is nostalgic. I think we can all agree that the Harry Potter series are the ultimate YA fiction.

Copyright: Warner Bros. 1. This is the most gorgeous and expensive tourism ad for Singapore ever made. 2. Have you seen Wolf of Wall Street? What about The Great Gatsby? Now imagine the wild parties in those movies. The best party you can think of is just a boring afternoon for the characters in this movie. 3. Go to the moviehouse with a full stomach. Better yet, watch at a cinema that has a Din Tai Fung or a Paradise Dynasty nearby. This film showcases mouthwatering Asian cuisine. 4. They took a simple, almost soap opera-ish plot, and executed it in the most glamorous, ostentatious, over-the-top way possible. This is rom-com at its finest. 5. I have read the book, and I love how faithfully the characters were portrayed. Bernard Tai and Kitty Pong, especially. They were every bit as horrendous as I imagined they would be. 6. That wedding. Wow. And those parties! Surely, that must all have been CGI! They can't be real. 7. Kris Aquino as Princess Intan had a sh...

Bill Clinton, a real former American President, co-wrote this novel about the presidency with James Patterson, one of the highest-paid fiction authors. This novel gives its readers a peek into President Clinton's inner thoughts: his gripes about opportunistic politicians, the press, Russia, and being impeached (unsurprisingly, the novel's main character is facing an impeachment trial), among others. This novel paints us a picture of the kind of president he wishes he was. Don't take the plot too seriously, because it can get incredible at times. Just take it for what it is: a blockbuster and an entertaining page-turner. Rating: 3.5/5

Copyright 1997, Sony Pictures 1. This movie massively failed the Bechdel test. 2. This is the first time I've watched this movie in almost two decades. I forgot how witty and well-written the dialogue is. 3. GREAT ACTING. Never expected less from Julia Roberts. 4. Every girl deserves a guy best friend like Michael. 5. And no guy deserves a female friend like Julianne. 6. This is the crème de la crème of rom-coms.

AsiaPOP Comicon just outdoes itself year after passing year. The event was so organized, seamless, and most important of all, FUN! Netflix's booth is bigger than ever! I rubbed elbows with Daredevil and Archie, watched Josie and the Pussycats perform on stage, hung out at Pop's Diner, played '80s arcade games, and spoke on the phone with Will, who as stuck in the Upside Down. The Bears from We Bare Bears were there! The members of the 501st Legion Philippine Garrison posing for pictures with Star Wars fanboys and fangirls for a good cause. And no pop culture con is complete without cosplayers!