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.

adventures with the stroller

so, janelle and i purchased a stroller from sears on tuesday. it's a fairly nice one but it came in a big heavy box and we didn't have a car and we were in a bit of hurry, so we left it at the store and promised to come back and pick it up the next day.

wednesday, i returned to sears by myself to get it. i claimed the stroller and the counter person asked if i would like to have it delivered to the loading dock so i could put it directly into my vehicle. well, i don't have a vehicle, so i asked if i could just unbox it right there and carry it out. but they said, it's all in pieces and needs to be assembled. so, right there i decided i would take it home on the bus, in the box.

right. well, i picked up the box and started carrying it out and it was okay at first, but by the time i got out of the store it was abundantly clear that there was no easy way i could carry it onto the bus and from the bus stop to my house. so i set it down in the mall, next to a bench, near a garbage can and cut open the box with my keys.

then i pulled out all the pieces of the stroller and assembled it, right there with lots of people going by and watching me. it was a little confusing and i had to keep referring to the instructions, but i eventually got it. i threw out the packaging into the conveniently located garbage can, but the box the stroller came in was too big to dispose of easily, so i tucked it under my arm and pushed the stroller with my other hand and i wheeled the thing the whole way home, carrying an enormous folded cardboard box under my arm.

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor

Summary
Jeremy's father lives in Vancouver's Stanley Park. That makes their relationship a little awkward because Jeremy never knows how to find him. He has to set up an appointment with his own father through a dirty homeless man who talks to himself.

Jeremy is a prize winning chef who got his training in France, of all places. He divides the chef world into two classes: the Crips and the Bloods. The Crips are the hipster chefs who experiment with their food and make outlandish stuff. Jeremy is a Blood, he loves traditional cooking, he likes the idea of food that has personal and historical roots. Incidentally, he owns a restaurant called The Monkey's Paw, where he makes traditional worldwide dishes with local Vancouver food.

To say that Jeremy owns the Monkey's Paw is a little inaccurate. You see, Jeremy is no good at managing money. He went two hundred thirty thousand dollars into the hole to buy the restaurant and open it and since then, he has been getting further and further into credit card debt. The bank actually owns the Monkey's Paw. And his cosigner, the devilish Dante Beale of Inferno International.

What I liked
Great story. Really interesting. The archetypal themes were fascinating and created suspense. Also, the food descriptions were mouth watering. And I love the idea of local looking and guerrilla grill.

Also, I loved that the story made the homeless people into real live people with stories of their own. I found myself investing emotionally in the homeless characters. That was unexpected. And neat.

What I didn't like
Long and a little clunky. Not the writing, the writing was actually pretty smooth and nice. But the story. There were chunks of hundreds of pages where I could only bear to read two or three pages at a time. But that's my only complaint.

Conclusion
One of my favourite books so far this year! 5/5 guerrilla chefs.

Patrick's Outrageous Bucket List

Things I want to do before I die:

1. I want to meet Janelle Monae and hug her and tell her she is totally rocking and quite possibly changed my life (or at least my musical preferences).

2. I want to meet Kate DiCamillo and hug her and tell her that her stories are super awesome and they sometimes make me cry.

3. I want to meet Deborah Ellis and/or Patricia MacLachlan and pick her/their brains.

4. I want to skate in St. Petersburg.

5. I want to be baptized by an African rainstorm.

Alligator by Lisa Moore

Summary
Frank sells hot dogs on George Street in St. John's Newfoundland. He has a secret crush on Colleen, who's doing community service for vandalizing some bulldozers. Colleen's mom, Beverly is upset about Colleen. Madeleine, Beverly's sister, is directing a movie about Archbishop Fleming. Isobel, one of the actresses in Madeleine's film is seeing this Russian man named Valentin, who lives in the apartment above Frank's. Carol, the woman who lives in the apartment below Frank's thinks Valentin is up to something...

What I liked
The writing is poetic. The sentences are well put together and it is kind of nice to read because it flows really well. The storytelling is also well done, it's deep. It shows how all the characters are really real people and I like how it shows that people who don't even know each other are connected one way or another.

What I didn't like
Well, the first two chapters made me think there would be a love story going on but then it just didn't materialize. That was disappointing. And then it just went on and on for over three hundred pages jumping back and forth from one character to another without developing any kind of cohesive plot. And my, was it boring.

Conclusion
Well it's sometimes interesting and has some good characters and the writing is good. The last one hundred pages are decent, they've got some suspense and some action. But it's so tedious. It's like a dozen or more short stories all fragmented. So I'll give it 3/5 alligator-people metaphors.

The Saints of Big Harbour by Lynn Coady

Summary
Guy Boucher, an Acadian teenager from Cape Breton, kind of likes this girl, Corrine Fortune. They danced together a couple times at one of those school dances or something. I wouldn't say he's in love with her or anything like that, he just kind of likes her. She seems to like him too. But then she totally, coldly, dumps him for this guy named Brian. What's up with that? And then, before Guy even knows what's going on, everyone in town is out to get him. He doesn't even know what he's done.

What I liked
It was well written, very funny, interesting, and easy to read. The characters were mostly vivid, except for two or three that I really didn't get. And it's a little philosophical, asking questions about the meaning of life without going too deep or being preachy.

What I didn't like
It was weird. It painted a kind of depressing picture of Cape Breton, making it seem like an endless cycle of redneckery, But it wasn't nowhere near as bad as Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall On Your Knees.

Conclusion
The hilariousness and the vivid characters totally make up for all the depressingness. It's really good. 4/5 hockey playing redneck Acadians.

Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

Summary
In this book Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle answers questions like "Is Jesus the only God?" and "Did Jesus rise from death?"

There are twelve questions and each question gets its own chapter. At the end of each chapter, well-known theologian, Gerry Breshears briefly answers a few further questions that may have come to the reader's mind while reading the chapter. For example, at the end of chapter eight, "Where Is Jesus Today?" he answers the following questions: "Is Jesus reigning as King today?" "Are we under the power of curses?" and "Can people who are with Jesus see us?"

What I liked
The book has a fresh and unique flavour. It's the same old topic, don't expect any new arguments or groundbreaking discoveries in this book. But the writing is interesting. Mark Driscoll tries to bring in some humour, and he answers the questions in a way that demonstrates the topic's relevance. Also, he puts in a lot of statistics like polls on what the average American believes about the resurrection or the virgin birth and information like how and where Jesus shows up in pop-culture or what other religions believe about Jesus. So the topic is both interesting and relevant and the book is sometimes fun to read.

What I didn't like
Mark Driscoll can put a sentence together and knows how to use words but, in this book, he's not such a great writer. And this is my only complaint. The writing itself is good but the structure is poor. For example, at the end of chapter two, "How Human was Jesus?" the following three points are introduced by headings: "Jesus was Funny" "Jesus was Passionate" and "Jesus was Bummed." The third point briefly outlines some arguments to support Jesus being bummed and then goes on for a page and a half about how Jesus has been portrayed in film during the twentieth century without concluding the previous topic or introducing the new one, the one topic just runs into the other. And the chapter ends abruptly, no summary, no conclusion. Stuff like that happens repeatedly through the book. Also, it seems like the book is written based on a sermon transcript (which is generally a bad idea), so a lot of the jokes fall flat because they're written the way they would have been spoken and are so dependent on vocal cues, in the book, it just seems like he's purposely trying to push buttons and upset people because you can't write a joke the same way you say a joke.

Conclusion
A good book, relevant and interesting and informative. Well-researched, too. It has the potential to be a fun read. But poorly structured and poorly assembled. I hope Mark Driscoll's editors do a better job on his other books. So 3/5 redneck jokes.

Tomorrow, When the War Began

Okay, Janelle and I watched a movie last night called Tomorrow, When the War Began. I just have to say it's one of the best movies I've seen in a while! Afterwards, we looked it up on Wikipedia, and it turns out, the movie is based on the first book of a seven book series called the Tomorrow series by author John Marsden.

After I am finished with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, I intend to begin reading these Tomorrow books. Have any of you read them? If so, what do you think?

I think the relationship between books and films is the same as the relationship between a product and its TV commercial.

sick christmas, janelle is my hero

So, on Christmas Eve, my parents had a bunch of the extended family over for a big dinner and some games and nice stuff like that. I ate some generous portions of turkey, mashed potatoes and turnip, stuffing, salad, and delicious Christmas food. Afterwards I had a huge slice of cake for dessert, and then I sat around visiting and playing games with the family. It was nice. I got to reconnect a little bit with my long lost cousin, Josee.

About two hours after dinner, my stomach started acting up. I had to excuse myself three times to have some violent diarrhea. Yeah, not at all pleasant. But otherwise, it wasn't really stopping my enjoyment of the evening until a little later, when my I started getting really clammy and shaking and feeling really nauseous. I tried to ignore it, but the frequent trips to the bathroom for diarrhea weren't making the stomach cramps and nausea go away anymore. It was actually getting much worse and I was worried that I would have to throw up, something I hadn't done in... well, ten years or more. So I started hanging near the washroom, just in case.

I was beginning to feel like I should head for the washroom and, with my stomach making some violent noises, I turned to go... and was passed in the hallway by another celebrant. I didn't want to take any chances so I headed to the bathroom downstairs. Going down the stairs must have disturbed my stomach even more because the contents of my stomach started to come up...

So I dashed to the washroom only to find that it was occupied... I could hear someone singing softly to himself inside. In a panic, I turned around and went into the adjacent office and immediately spewed forth into the garbage can... Well, I had aimed at the garbage can.

Uncle Louis, coming out of the bathroom, saw me and bravely lifted the garbage can to catch the tail end of my upheaval, then sent me into the washroom to clean up. Then, he must have told my dad what had happened because when I came out of the washroom, dad was starting to clean up... because my vomit had gone EVERYWHERE. It was so disgusting. There was so much of it. It was like all the vomit that I hadn't vomited over the past ten plus years had built up and exploded out of me all across my parent's office... Having thrown up, I was feeling a little better, so I sent Dad upstairs and got some paper towel rags to start cleaning up... Janelle came down with a clean shirt for me shortly afterwards and took command of the clean up. Upstairs, the visitors were evacuating.

I was starting to feel sick again. I stuck around until we finished cleaning up... And then I dumped my clothes into the washing machine and headed for the shower. I had more diarrhea before I could make it into the shower. And after that I was so exhausted that showering seemed like an insurmountable task and I ended up standing under the water for what seemed like forever because I didn't have the energy to consider getting out and drying off and getting dressed and going to bed... besides, I was freezing.

I did make it to bed without any significant events, and fell asleep quite quickly. And I think Janelle joined me soon afterwards. By this time, it was well after midnight.

In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time books, there are these women called Aes Sedai. They're kind of like wizards like Tolkien's Gandalf, but they're women and they have way more drama. Anyways, they've all taken an oath to never use their wizard power as a weapon, so they have these men with them, called Warders, to do all their dirty work. Each Aes Sedai is bonded to her Warder so that when one feels anything, the other feels it too. Anyways, sometimes I think Janelle and I must be bonded the same way because during the night I suddenly woke up with the realization that I was about to vomit again and there was Janelle, already shoving my head inside the bucket so I could vomit in it. Afterwards, I asked her how she knew I was going to throw up. She said she didn't know how it happened, she just knew she had to get around the bed and hold the bucket for me... Janelle is my hero.

Which, in retrospect, makes me a little ashamed of myself. I don't get sick all that often, but when I do, Janelle takes famously good care of me. When Janelle gets sick, I usually just sleep through it. Like one time, I woke up as Janelle was getting back into the bed and she said, "I just threw up." Instead of offering sympathy or anything like that, I said, "In the bed!?" I was horrified, apparently. (Now I know that the odds of Janelle throwing up in the bed are much smaller than the odds of Patrick throwing up in the bed.) And then I just went back to sleep! Can you believe how ridiculous I am?

Anyways, I was up off and on for the rest of the night with diarrhea and then I stayed in bed all Christmas morning. Sometime in the afternoon, I moved to the livingroom couch and lay down under a blanket so we could open presents. (Mom and Dad spoiled us rotten with Christmas gifts.) Afterwards I fell asleep and slept for most of the afternoon. I got up in the late afternoon to supply an answer to some kind of multiple choice question thing. I was feeling a little stronger. I ate some Jello and drank some water. A little later, I read a little and ate some chicken noodle soup... which I pooped out immediately afterwards. By this time my LBM had gone from brown to green to yellow to clear.

Thankfully, the next morning I was feeling quite strong. Strong enough to go to meeting in the morning and to eat some Chinese food in the afternoon and had only minimal diarrhea.

Now I am all better, and back in Thunder Bay. And Janelle is my Hero!