Un-nice

I'm not usually a 'fortune-telling' or 'horoscope' kind of person. I'm not really into astrology and zodiac signs.

Then again, I do admit that once in a long while, when I am bored and when I chance upon something interesting about my zodiac sign, or when someone offers me 'free' palmistry (I also know, it's such a lame excuse...) or reading of my personality, I lap it all in.

Sometimes, what I read only adds to my cynicism. Read it, laugh real hard, then bam! It's just poo-time reading.

Other times, I get plain shocked. It throws me into such complete disarray, it makes me wonder if it is honestly a joke or really an omen that I should encounter it in the first place.


The I.S. magazine has never really been my most favorite read, until I started hanging out at cafes in recent months.

What to do? So many free copies lying around, it's quite a perfect read when the internet connection decides to play punk.

Like it just did this afternoon.

Getting really bored and frustrated while waiting for some stupid page to load, and re-load, and re-load, I casually flipped the magazine from the back and something, which was really nothing extraordinary, on the last second page caught my eye today: "freewillastrology", said the heading.

Since I was really bored and the stupid page was still trying to load, I rolled my eyes down towards the paragraph subtitled "LIBRA (Sep 23-Oct 22)".

Almost immediately, the very first sentence stunned me into complete immobility for a few seconds.

"The disease of niceness cripples more lives than alcoholism," said writer Raymond Chandler.

The only Chandler I know has a last name Bing and sits on a couch drinking lattes and talking cock with his buddies almost everyday in a sitcom. I don't know who the fuck this Richard guy is, but why do I get the feeling he isn't a talking-cock Chandler?

Why do I get this feeling that he's talking to me, in my face?

Predictably, I read on.

That's an exaggeration, in my opinion, but I think his point is important - especially for you Libras right now. As much as I love your ability to cultivate harmony, seek out beauty, and find the common ground between people, I encourage you to let the sweet and polite sides of your nature recede into the background for a while. Emphasize feistiness and grit. Tap into the fiery, primal aspect of your nature that drove you out of your mother's womb and into this world in the hour when you were born. Be inspired by the creator gods and goddesses of ancient myth, who playfully forged millions of beautiful things using wind, mud, tears and lightning.

The last bit became a bit talk-cock and sounded a bit too deep.

But I get the gist.

Which was what I thought exactly just a few days ago.

Don't be so nice. Nice girls don't survive amongst rats.

But do run more.

Be the lean, mean fighting machine called ME.