Fith Buisness

Well I finished Fifth Buisness a few nights ago (first book in The Deptford trilogy) and I must that I really enjoyed it. This book was right up my alley, so thanks to Rod for lending that book mine and Danielle's way. The book is by a Canadian, Mr. Roberston Davies.

So about the book, well it's basically the life story of this Dunstan Ramsey character who was born in Deptford, Ontario. What I liked about the book was the way that Davies just sort of throws information at you. For example here is the opening of the book, which, in my opinion, just grabs you:

"My Lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o'clock p.m. on the 27th of December, 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.

I am able to date the occasion with complete certainty because that afternoon I had been sledding with my lifelong friend and enemy Percy Boyd Staunton..."

So the book is basically a memior that Dunstan (who became a History teacher later in life) writes to the headmaster of the school that he taught at for 40 years.

The book is very well writtern, witty, funny, and even moving at parts. So my reccomendation is that you go out and read it, however be warned that it will keep you up late at night reading...I'm already half way through The Manticore, the second book of the trilogy.

mark.

Jokes and jokes and jokes and jokes. Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti

Q: Why is a marrige between two archivists considered a perfect match?

A: Becuase as they get older they both become more interested in each other.
------------------------
A MAN pestered the librarian every day to see if any new books had arrived. One day the librarian palmed off a Sao Paulo telephone directory on him, telling him it was a modern play. Three days later the man returned the book. "I didn't understand one word of the plot," he said, "but boy, what a cast!"

What did the two librarians say to the archivist on the couch? We're very fonds of you.

Easter

Well Danielle and I went out to Waterford Ontario for a lovely Easter Dinner with Rod, Laura, and Laura's family. It was a really good time, the only bad part was staying up till 3:30-4:00am with Rod, not that the staying up was bad, but the getting up at 7:30am was the bad part.

It must be said that, according to Laura, getting up at 7:30am is a sign of normalcy. I for one prefer to be abnormal and rested, but I digress.

Laura's family and parents were very nice to us and very hospitable, and for that we thank them, not that they will be reading this blog but still.

Late Review

Ow, I don't think I posted this earlier, but I did finish the book Paris to the Moon, a week or so ago and it was quite good. It's basically written by this guy, who was/is a writer for the New Yorker, and decided to move from New York to Paris with his wife and baby boy. The book is half memoir and half essays he wrote for the New Yorker during his time in Paris.

It is a well written book that can be read by anyone in a week or so (well if you have the time).

Either way I would reccomend this book to anyone who has an interest in Paris.

Here is an excerpt.

Bulls 94 - Raptors 85

So I went to my first Raptors game last night, and well it was dissapointing (I guess) becuase the Raptors lost, but the tickets were free so I wasn't that upset. Still it was neat to go, my first trip inside the Air Canada Centre, and for all those Winnipegers out there, no they do not have a large painting of the queen hung inside.

Tickets were pretty good, we were in the upper bowl (deck) but had a good view of the court. Bought a large beer (Molson Canadian, blech) for $12.00, at leat it was big. I figure the general crappiness of Canadian has given me this headache this morning.

I hope the "fans" that were sitting beside us did not get to annoyed since we didn't spend that much time watching the game, instead we spent it talking. Either way it was a good time and I'm glad that I went, so thank you Kristen for taking me.

I wish they could see us now
In leather bras and rubber shorts
Like some ridiculous new team uniform
For some ridiculous new sport

Two cats sleeping on the couch, what a way to live.

Curling, I thought I posted this already...

Hmm Crazy Blogger

Hmm this blogger and hello stuff is acting kina weird, there are supposed to be two photo's here of curling and my cats, however they just don't seem to be up there anymore, wacky?

Either way a re-cap of the good old weekend that I had, I went snowboarding with Fiacra and Claire up to Horeshoe Valley on Saturday afternoon, that was pretty fun. Except for the fact that Fiacra hurt his arm, had to stop and then I had to drive home.

Then Saturday night I went curling, which was also a lot of fun. I must say that I think I would make an incredibly average curler if I put some time and effort into it.

Then on Sunday it was movie watching time and Danielle and I watched: Metallica Some Kind of Monster, and I have to say that it was a fantastic movie. Danielle and I both really enjoyed it. I know that you are probably saying, but Metallica I don't really like there music (or maybe you do?) but this movie is more about relationships then Matallica music. It's an extreemly intersting movie and I give it two Eberts, way up in the air.

The life aquatic with steve mediocre

Well, I saw the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou tonight at the goold ole Bloor Cinema and it was alright. Definately not as goot as the Royal Tennenbaums or Rushmore, good but it seemed a bit to forced. Like they really wanted to make it quirky but without providing a solid enough outer shell for said quirkyness.

Granted I like Wes Anderson but I think that there was a reason that this movie didn't do so hot.

All in all I'll give it 6 out of tem, well maybe 7, nah 6.


we'll lie in the back of black cars,
with the windows rolled up,
joining the precession of emptiness,
if we say these words,
it will be too late to take them back.
So we hold our breathe and fold our hands,
like paper planes (and we're going to crash)
We don't have to be alone ever again.

Ow St. Patrick

Ow so it's St. Patrick's Day today or at least it was. Clinton's was a nice warm place to go for a pint or two of Guinness. So that was fun. Danielle and I went there with Marge and Fiarca from above.

It was pretty good, Danielle got to sip on some green Creemore spings ale, which I must say looks pretty strange. This was my first introduction to green beer and breen foam is pretty weird.

Ow well, to bed!

Triple B's, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - Christmas 2004. It's difficult to see in this picture how much rocking was actually occurring, but rest assured it was mucho.

Finally!

I have finally beaten Baten Kaitos, whew! This game took my forever to beat, and I think that was the developers intentions. They could have made it shorted but given the battle engine, it was probably super easy for them to just huck in a few more battles to draw the story out for a few more hours.

I won't go into great details regarding the accomplishment, but my final victory came with Gibari only have 1Hp left and then attacking. Why didn't I heal him? Well the Great Mizuti was up next and I know that he had a healing card, so I just attacked with Gibari.

Where was Kalas? Well Kalas had succumed a few turns ago and lay dead on the ground. So Gibari attacks, does some pretty good damage. Then the great Mizuti heals him. Malpercio attacks, doesn't kill Gibari, but he kills Mizuti. Then I use Gibari to heal Mizuti and raise him from the dead (with the two heal cards that I had). Then Mizuti attacks, some pretty good damage.

Malpercio attacks, kills Gibari but Mizuti is able to hand on, Mizuti attacks, and...victory!

Whew! It was intense.

If your heart gets in the way of what you wanted
To deny everything I say is not uncommon
The only thing that's definitely forgotten
Is what you wanted
And what you really needed

Funny Penny Arcade cartoon

Here is a funny Penny Arcade cartoon about the next Xbox. CARTOON

Ha ha.

Quiet Weekend

Danielle's friend Sarah came to visit us for the weekend from Ottawa, so that was pretty cool. I also got a chance to see "Hero", and "Code 46" over the weekend. "Code 46" was a pretty good film, done by the same director that did "24 hour party people" which was pretty good as well.

I wasn't so sure about "Code 46" since it is a science fiction type movie, but in the end it is more love story then science fiction. I'm pretty sure it was written by the same guy that wrote "24 hour paty people" as well, I guess you could call them a team.

Anyways pretty good film, and I have a weak spot for Tim Robbins.

I need a remedy

Just incase any one is interested Nintendo announced some details about its next generation console. Seems that it's going to include WiFi by default. That way you can play games again people that are close by over the internet.

Pretty cool, perhaps some connectivity between it and the DS?

I need a remedy of diesel and dust
Something I can taste whith a fix I can trust
Another high, more potent than lust.
Eating and repeating
like the workings of rust and time.

I found strippie up in the towel rack last night.

I don't wanna stay at your party

So last night I had a dream that this guy was going to play me this song called "Tom Cruise sucks" on a record. As I tried to get the record player set up for the guy, Danielle started to sing "Tugboat" by Galaxie 500:

I don't wanna stay at your party
I don't wanna talk with your friends
I don't wanna vote for your president
I just wanna be your tugboat captain

And now the song is stuck in my head. Sheesh.

Also here is an interesting site that I stumbled upon johnagust, he's the guy that wrote the movies "Go!", "Big Fish", the new Charlie and the Chocolate factory movie, and a Charlies angel movie. Here is his IMDB page. I just think that it's sort of neat to read about some of the stuff that a screen writer thinks about.

Spring Snow

The last book that I finished was Spring Snow, It was a pretty good book. It's by Yukio Mishima who was a relatively famous Japanese author and playwright. Spring snow is actually the first book in a 4 part series (tetralogy) entitled The Sea of Fertility.

On the day that Mishima completed the last in the tetralogy he led a failed coup against the government in an attempt to re-instate the Japanese Monarchy. Once he realised that the attempt failed he commited ritual suicide.

Here is what Gore Vidal had to say about it:

"Telling Bobby Kennedy to go fuck himself at the White House, is trivial indeed when compared to the high drama of cutting oneself open with a dagger and then submitting to decapitation before the army's chief of staff."

So there you have it, now about the book. The book is basicaly an allegory about Japan, or Mishima's dream of Japan. On the surface the book is about the forbidden love (so forbidden that the love didn't exist before it was forbidden, or did it?)between Kiyoaki and Satoko.

Overall I enjoyed the book, although I do think that some information was lost in the translation, as it always is. Mishima is a very descriptive author who likes to describe a scene in detail using very poetic terms. Whether or not this is/was a Japanese style I do not know. Aparently Mishima chose to mimic the style of 18th century English literature so I guess not.

You can check out this site here for a better/more detailed description of the book, but beware that the link does contain some spoilers.

So my suggestion is that if you want to read some Japanese literature this is a pretty good place to start.

Kingston is for lovers

Since I removed it, here it is again, I live in this photo. Sort of by where that large white open area is near the centre of the photo.

Strippie, looking good on the coutch.

Roar!

Roar!

Tuesday Evening

So, I'm sitting here on a Tuesday evening, just got home from grocery shopping, not much fun, ow no, not much fun at all.

Did a big shop since shopping isn't that much fun, ow no, not much fun at all.

I think I'm going to have a beer in a few moments and then play some vieo games. Worked out today, that was fun.

What else is rawking in the T.Dot, well got tickets to see the Weakerthans play, that's pretty cool. Just finished reading Sping Snow, pretty good book. I'm reading Paris to the Moon right now, seems pretty good.

Trying to find some songs for the old social but not much luck. One song that we might do is "Sweet Thing" by Van Morisson, great song but we worry that it may be too fast. The other song that we are considering is "Left and Leaving" by the Weakerthans, which we really like but are a but unsure of.

I told Danielle that we were going to tell the DJ that he could not play "Brown Eye Girl" or "Home for a Rest" at all during the social, but she said not to since people like those songs. Which was, of course, my point. Too bad!

Please, don't forget to rawk.