book recommendation: 'hello i'm special' by hal niedzviecki. ever wondered why timewarner uses the slogan "the power of you" on their ads? i have, and it always bothered me. i mean what does that mean in terms of purchasing cable television? though not directly addressed in this book, i think i now have my answer. they're just doing what everybody else is doing, selling us the dream that we are somehow unique and special even while urging us to buy a mass produced and distributed product.

do you hate paolo cohelo's "the alchemist" as much as i do? i hope so. in any case remember how the universe conspires to help you as long as you want something bad enough? i do. i also remember that at the time i was reading this book (an international bestseller in case you're from mars) i saw a story on the news about people in the philippines that live in landfills. bad enough? no, one day the mountains of trash that were surrounding them collapsed and killed hundreds. their problem you see is that they just didn't want to live somewhere else bad enough. if they did, the universe would have helped them! what does this have to do with niedzviecki's book? well in my mind cohelo in his book was just articulating the same myth of uniqueness and easy success, albeit in a new age wrap, that hal attacks so eloquently in his book. in any case wherever you stand in terms of pop culture (and hey a lot of good things have come out of pop - however you want to define it) this is a must read as far as i'm concerned. i'm sure however that being intelligent readers as you are, the irony of addressing this issue on a blog read by an average of 3 people a day is not lost on you. and by the way i do think that the book's website is a bit lame in terms of even existing.