Self-Medication for Brain Constipation August 2008

Brain constipation is my affliction at the moment I suppose. I'm sure I got it from talking too much about Filipino entertainment gossip. I swear I've developed a case of intermittent headache attacks from not producing anything substantial in my brain, a total lack of cerebral activity or what I like to refer to as mental gymnastics.

So I sought to shake the disease that threatens to render me virtually brain dead. My therapy started last week when I purchased a DVD box set of the West Wing -- all seven seasons. In the same time, I also bought three books, two romance novels and a Second World War novel by Daniel Silva called "The Unlikely Spy". The romance novels would act more as the drug delivery device, or a soft lining to cushion the seven seasons of the West Wing and Daniel Silva. So I fed all of these to my brain last week and I really don't know if I feel any better. I'm thoroughly satisfied with the West Wing, because its quite similar to documentaries, which I love. Its all talk and the subtitles are all correct. I am at season 5, where the MS of the US President (played by Martin Sheen) has become more pronounced and is hindering his work. Jimmy Smits also made his appearance in this season as a straight shooting Democratic congressman who dared to dream of becoming the next president. I particularly liked the episodes when the President's staff was trying to get their nomination of the first Hispanic Supreme Court Chief Justice (played by Edward James Olmos) confirmed by Congress.

Daniel Silva's novel was well written with a bit of a barren ending. Its about secrecy and espionage at the thick of the allied and axis deadlock in World War II. The lives of an MI5 special agent, a Nazi spy and a handful of their handlers were depicted backdropped by Operation Overlord, the big allied war plan premised on deception and lies. This operation misled the Germans into guarding a different part of their occupied territory when the Allied forces landed in Normandy, France and signaling the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler and his Nazi rule.

I'm still medicating with the last three seasons of the West Wing but I finished all my books. So a few days ago I finally succumed to "Twilight". Well I bought the novel to heed the call of my friend who won't stop yaking about how good it is and how Stephenie Meyer is the next J.K. Rowling. Also, the motion picture will come out in November and I want to be able to see if the movie is faithful to the book. This is an exercise I bet I share with all readers (which usually ends with us being disappointed over and over as the film adaptation always falls short of expectations). I've read it, liked it and I might just go for the three more installments.

Vampires are my monsters of choice, very old world, crisp and formal, mild-mannered, educated. The book did not really elaborate on the lives of the coven before resettling in Forks, Washington. The book fell short of Anne Rice's rendition of the lives of vampires in her series. Rice's vampires are all designed to make you seek your own Marcus or Lestat or Armand and be reborn into their world.

This whole exercise of reproducing fresh brain cells is fun and fulfilling. When you consciously saddle the brain with activity and feel it actually kick back to life you feel generally happy with the world once more. A little perspective re-arrangement and the brain is sizzling again, creative juices freely flowing. This could well be the equivalent of a neurological pacemaker for Parkinsonism.