one class down two to go!!

so, today i went to my first last lecture. the professor graciously ended the class two days early because the exam is so soon. not that i'd use the time to study or anything...

so i handed in the essay, which i spent the last two days writing. wow, between essays and the baby, i'm not getting much sleep at all these days.

i have another essay due tomorrow that i haven't started yet. i foresee a pretty busy day ahead of me... i wish i had the impetus to work. i just feel like sleeping and hanging out with sam & janelle... i guess that will come soon enough.

i also applied for a bunch of jobs. home depot e-mailed me yesterday to tell me that they wouldn't be hiring me. haven't heard from anyone else yet. the ibew exam is still up in the air. if i passed, it was by a narrow margin but i can take it again in october.

janelle and i are also shopping for a new phone/internet provider. mainly because we're now with shaw and kodoo and shaw is giving us a student rate on the internet that expires in april and a cellphone/internet bundle might be cheaper. so let me know if you have any suggestions. i'm kind of leaning towards virgin mobile at the moment.

oh yeah, and i'm as addicted to figment (figment.com) as ever. what makes it so addictive is that i get pretty much instant feedback on my writing. some of the feedback is garbage (so is some of my writing), but for the most part it's pretty decent. and i'm an approval junkie so "that was pretty good" also gets me a little high.

here's the cover of my entry in the cereal contest, 'all along the watchtower' to pique your curiosity:

anyways, i should get to work.

What We All Long For by Dionne Brand

Summary
Tuyen lives in Toronto in an apartment downtown by herself. Her family immigrated to Canada from Vietnam before she was born. They run a successful Vietnamese restaurant. Tuyen has cut herself off from them and only goes home when she needs money. She has a mad crush on her neighbour, Carla. Tuyen's oldest brother, Quy, was lost on the move to Canada. He disappeared mysteriously as the family was getting onto a boat. This has devastated the family. Quy's parents never recovered from the loss.

After disappearing, Quy became a part of the East Asian criminal underground. He's on his way to Toronto. Cue suspenseful music.

What I liked
The story and the characters were interesting. The description of Toronto was just like I remembered it. Although I felt that Brand was a little hard on the city... the city probably deserves it. This story is about immigrants and minorities, and their children who are in limbo between the cultures of their parents and the culture of their city. Above them is an impenetrable ceiling of white heterosexual homogeneity, preventing them from escaping their places in cultural limbo.

What I didn't like
The book was a little academic. I found the story interesting at first, but as it went on it seemed more like Brand was trying to make a point and not that she was trying to tell a story. That kind of irritated me.

Conclusion
An interesting read, not one that I invested into too much, but definitely worthwhile. 3.5/5 lesbian Vietnamese-Canadian visual artists.