Nick's Graduation

Yesterday, my dad turned to me frankly and said: Today is the last day I am officially a parent. If I were a certain kind of person, I could walk away now and give up all responsibility for you two kids. As he said this, we rose to watch my brother’s high school graduation ceremony unfold, with pairs of black robed, smiling young adults proudly walking down the centre aisle. It was strange to see these kids turned adults - kids we had known since they were yea high – taking a stand as the new leaders of our generation. And it is funny to think that only three years ago, I was standing in exactly the same position.

Now, generally, I am not one to start my posts in a romantic fashion. However, I have to say that I was overcome by a funny sense of jealously, partly because I wish I could turn back the clock back to my last days of high school, and partly because I missed the important event of graduating with all of my classmates. As many of you know, I was away in Japan when my graduation took place. In the end, I graduated a year late at my brother’s high school among a group I hardly knew. Actually, it wasn’t that in particular that bothered me. The most saddening thing was that they didn’t know me. In this way, I am happy for my brother as he was given the opportunity to graduate with the people who have made the last four years of his life the most interesting and fulfilling of his life. This is one chance I threw to the wind, though the sacrifice was far from being in vain.

The graduation itself was well thought out. Three of my brother’s friends made a video presentation in which my brother appeared about ten million times. The high school band also played a few jolly tunes, though I swear upon my life that I never, ever want to hear Land of Hope and Glory again, thank you very much. (It was repeated 20 times over easily as the graduates walked in and out of the hall.) The highlight of the graduation was the piano performance by a grade 9 student named Amanda who writes and sings her own songs. The song was called Goodbye and was written especially for the graduating class. Another interesting note is that Nick’s class is the first to have completed four full years at his high school, and graduated. The previous grades had all attended my old high school at some point since Nick’s high school was still under construction. Nick decided not to come home with us after the ceremony since a party for the entire class had been planned – let’s just say he had a lot of fun. *rolls eyes*

My grandma also came over for the occasion. Since my parents were downtown for the day, we had planned to meet at the mall for a day out. As I was waiting for her, I passed the time by eavesdropping on two elderly couples, obviously unacquainted, who had somehow become deeply engaged in a conversation about the Second World War. The first couple appeared to be completely Canadian, while the other professed to be Italian. The part of their conversation that made me laugh was when the old Italian man rubbed his great, big bobble of a nose and casually said in a thick foreign accent: You know, it was really us that won the war. The old Canadian couple’s words suddenly hung in silence, biting their tongues for fear of turning the conversation in a very uncomfortable direction. After a few awkward seconds (for me just as much as my four unknowing companions) the Italian man laughed, saying: “Yes, we all won the war…because we are all still alive!” You could almost hear the Canadian couple’s sigh of relief as the tension fizzled. Then the conversation continued, as lively as ever. I smiled to myself, and within moments, my grandma walked into the food court and I went over to meet her. She and I went to Casey’s for lunch, and then shopped for bargains around the mall. We made a great find in Bootlegger since they were selling pretty descent t-shirts for only $3.13 each! We each picked up two, but looking back I should have picked up a few more considering the price. Because of yesterday’s thunderstorms, she decided to stay overnight at our place, and we ended off her visit by meeting my mum and dad at Main Street for lunch. I may not see her again until I get back from England, but even if I don’t, we had a very nice couple of days either way.

Well, that’s about it! Only FOUR DAYS until England!! I’m extremely excited!

And I wish all of my fellow Canucks an early HAPPY CANADA DAY! I’ll be off to Toronto to see my friend Erin tomorrow to raid Chinatown, and if I can convince her, maybe Harbourfront as well. Happy celebrating!

New Keane Album

Hehe, looks like I'm pretty computer savvy myself! The error turned out to be nothing more than a result of my spyware blocking the installation of a few things, so now everything seems to be running fairly smoothly.

Oh, and if any of you are looking for a CD to listen to, I recommend the new Keane album as my number one choice. It's better than their debut album in terms of variety and artistic growth, but still retains the catchy lyrics and tunefulness of their older songs. In particular, the opening song, Altantic, is a musical masterpiece. The closest comparison I can make is to the anthems written by such 70's rock groups as Queen, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles since, like many of the works of these artists, the song doesn't follow the average pattern of lyric-chorus-lyrics-middle eight-chorus-fade. Rather, it has three very distinct parts that could all have been taken from completely different songs, but are melded together through perfect transitions into one piece. While the masterpiece begins the album, the rest of the songs do not leave you disappointed even though they are more in line with your everyday rock song. My personal recommendations as of now are Crystal Ball and Nothing In My Way, though given a few more listens, I'm sure this list will grow. Funnily enough, the so-called "hit single" is always the one song that irritates me the most, no matter which album or artist. Keane's single is called Is It Any Wonder? and while it is a catchy tune, I find it is too similar to the style of their first album. Perhaps they decided to release it as a single so as to slowly break their old audience into the new tone they have embraced. But who knows, huh. Either way, the album is fabulous and hard to tire of. If you want to hear Atlantic, see below. But beware, the video is kinda creepy!

Video courtesy of YouTube.com

The Accursed Error Message

Hey, guess what everyone?? I got myself a brank spanking new laptop today! Only 1300 dollars! Haha...ha...oh god... :P (Well, I guess its a damn good thing I got that scholarship, huh!) I've spent the last four hours or so transferring everything from our two desktop computers and finally finished about a half an hour ago. What an accomplishment. My hands will be paying for this tomorrow. The only problem is that my Microsoft Office CD doesn't seem to get along with my PC, bringing up a weird error every time I attempt an installation. (This is what it looks like.) If a computer savvy individual out there could possibly give me a hand with this, I'd be eternally grateful. (And no I won't give you candy if you succeed... :P)

On another note, I went strawberry picking with my mum this morning which was a jolly good time. We couldn't have asked for better weather, and the season appears to be just right for strawberries. I guess mum wanted to get it over with before I take off to England. But yeah...overall, a very nice, relaxing day. :-)

Double Dosage of Italian!

I'm going to keep this post short - I just wanted to sum up my day before I forget. Trin and I had originally planned to see The Lake House at the Silvercity today, but an email invite from our mutual friends Brock and Scott gave our plan a spin in a different direction! Instead, we went to see 'Click' starring Adam Sandler, a story very loosely based on the well known Dickens tale, The Christmas Carol. Except this time Scrooge is represented by a budding architect (Sandler) who forever makes the mistake of placing work before family. One day when he is feeling particularly stressed with his life, he is given a magical remote by a mysterious gentleman (Christopher Walker) in a Bed Baths and Beyond store (wonderful publicity for this store, I'm telling you!) that has the power to control everything in Sandler's universe. While at first this naive architect believes that its powers are limited to switching the television on and off, and opening the garage, he soon realizes that its powers extend far beyond that of your average household remote. It was an enjoyable movie probably because it had its roots in a classic novel, but beyond that, Sandler's performance didn't really strike me as moving, and it was only near the end when the tone of the movie became more serious that it actually began to interest me. Either way, it was an enjoyable enough watch and I haven't really lost out since I had a free movie ticket to use up.

Afterwards, the four of us went to a little Italian restaurant near the cinema. Trin and I chowed down on a bacon, mushroom and garlic pizza for $16.50 while Scott had a garden salad and Brock had pasta with meatballs. This was followed by a tasty portion of tiramisu - a first for Brock apparently. It wasn't a bad little place but everything was overly priced. All in all, it was a fine day. I always like catching up with people I haven't seen in ages. In a way, it's more fun that seeing them everyday because you have that much more going on in your own life to share that the conversation never really runs out! Anyway, that's a wrap! Ciao!

Countdown 'til England: 8 days

Review: 'The Kite Runner'

I just finished a book called The Kite Runner which left a deep impression on me, so I had to make mention of it. It is about a man named Amir who is your average immigrant residing in America with a lovely wife and a stable job as a writer. His father, a wealthy Pashtun*, made the move to America after Afghanistan had fallen into the hands of war. The catch to Amir’s perfect life, however, is the one dark incident he has sent to the backwaters of his past. At the age of 12, Amir witnessed a horrific crime committed against his Hazara** servent and best friend, Hassan, back in his native Afghanistan; a crime so terrible it would plague him day and night with regret that he had not the heart or nerve to help his friend. Nearly thirty years later, Amir is forced to atone for the damage he has inflicted by returning to Afghanistan to seek out the one thing that would relieve him of his burden, and right the wrongs committed against the one person who brought light to his life.

This novel is the first written by Khaled Hosseini who without actually experiencing the personal heartbreak of his protagonist, masterfully details Afghan life before and after the emergence of the Taliban using his experiences as a child there. As a reader with very little tangible knowledge about Afghanistan besides the slew of bad impressions imposed on me by the newspapers and television, it was an awe-inspiring experience to read about handful of characters I could so easily bump into on the street, yet placed in a country so clouded from my view. It is pleasing to see authors such as Hosseini introduce Afghanistan to us in a new light because within whichever country you may name, only a few individuals make the rules while the rest suffer for it, and the Middle East is no exception. I was also impressed by the upbeat pace of the novel, and Hosseini’s ability not to dwell on the details and in colloquial terms “get on with the story.” (I place this as a comparative example against Ian McEwan’s ‘Saturday’ – a novel which took 5 chapters to explain five minutes of a man’s life.) It isn’t an overly lengthy read, so I suggest you give it a try. It is a wonderful ‘time filler’ (meant in the best sense of the word!) in between finishing a monumental read, and looking for something else that will blow you off your feet. Hope you enjoy it!

*The Pashtuns are considered to be the group of people that rightfully belong in Afghanistan.
**The Hazaras are a group of Afghans that face discrimination because of their Mongol heritage.

Tennis and Italian Food

Hello world! It's Saturday again meaning that I've been out of work for a whole week! It is amazing how quickly the week goes when you're not working. Mind you, freetime, which felt like a precious commodity while I was working, is now over abundant and I'm finding it difficult to fill up my days with worthwhile activities (would anyone consider Lemmings a worthwhile activity? lol). Has anyone noticed that when you have tons to do, it is easy to get motivated to do important things like studying or cleaning your room when you find yourself with a smidgen of freetime? But when you have all the time in the world, it is so easy to procrastinate and bore yourself to tears. Anyway, that's how I feel right now....lethargic, bored and dying to escape from the mundane. :P

Luckily, I had a pretty fun-filled day yesterday. I called Trin up for a game of tennis, and the two of us along with her boyfriend Dany went to the park at the end of my street to knock the ball around for a little while. Unfortunately, Trin has been having some hand problems as of late so our game didn't last very long, but I think all of us were feeling the effects of the sun by that point anyway so we didn't mind. Afterwards, we parted ways with Dany who had to work at 5:00, and Trin and I went on to eat at Big Papa's Italian restaurant in the W----n's Plaza since she had a coupon for a free meal. Although I live quite close to that plaza, I had never heard of Big Papa's until Trin pointed it out to me. (I guess that could be due to the fact its only been around for a year?) And boy am I glad she did! The food was absolutely divine! We ordered the veggie lasagna, one of the specials of the day, and a pizza topped with roasted chicken, mushroom, red peppers, goat cheese (mm!) and mozzarela cheese. We were almost pushed to the point of ordering a puff pastry filled with goat cheese and chicken as an appitizer but pulled back because of the expense and the size of our stomachs...but next time I go, I'll definitely order it! Another nice touch was that the manager and all of the wait staff knew Trin because Dany used to work there. (Extra good service is always an added bonus!)

Also, on Sunday, we are going to go and see The Lake House - I'm always screwing up the name calling it The Light House, The Long House, and any other word you can come up with beginning with L besides 'lake' lol - starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Now, I know that Keanu isn't exactly known for his romantic roles, but I live in hope that the concept of the story will pull the movie through to the end. And the concept seems pretty interesting, though a little bit unbelievable. It's about two people who live in the same house, except one person is living in the year 2004 and the other in 2006. Somehow, the two manage to start communicating through letters left in the house's mailbox and fall in love. The problem is: they can never meet because their respective realities belong to different points in time. Confused? Not anymore than I am, believe me. If it's any good, I'll report on it here.

Oh yeah. And Japan is out of the World Cup after giving up all dignity by losing to Brazil 1-4. That's enough of a sob story for anyone. T_T Well, there's always next year. I'm now rooting for Spain!!

England In Two Weeks!

Last night I made the totally spontaneous decision to accompany my dad on his trip to England in...yes...two weeks! I mentioned when I first started this blog that I had been thinking about going but had to can the idea after discovering a rather annoying medical condition. Well, it turns out that I can't get the treatment this summer as I first thought meaning that there is no reason why I shouldn't go except for the unexpected chunk it will take out of my bank account. But hey, what's money but a material nuisance? Plus, I made such wonderful memories in both Japan with Trin, and in St. Louis with Ayumi (both which cost me an arm and a leg), so really, what is another thousand if I am going to have a great time?? (I am verbally reasoning with myself here - bear with me!!) It will also be lovely for my grandma as it is her 80's birthday and all of the relatives will be there. The best part is that my dad and I have opted not to tell anyone I'll be going, and surprise my grandma on her doorstep! Haha. It'll be hilarious!

So, in case anyone is curious about the plan, dad and I will probably stay in Wolverhampton for about two weeks, celebrate grandma's birthday, and for the last four weeks, use our cottage in Aberdovey as a base as we pop off to different areas around Wales. Being 21, I pretty much have the option of heading off by myself if dad feels like sticking around Aberdovey doing nothing, so one option I am playing with in my head is Scotland. What do you guys think? Any other places you've heard about in England that might be worth visiting? :-)

So yeah! I'm really excited! Hopefully I can post while I'm over there but from what I've heard, I may not have much access to a PC. But who knows, eh. ^^

Quiz: Random Nicknames

Since I'm jobless, I've been reduced to filling out silly quizzes. Have a gander, it's kind of fun ;-)

1. YOUR SPY NAME: (middle name and current street name) Kathryn Bes-ick

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your dad's side, your favorite candy) Hillary Cadbury

3. YOUR RAP NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your last name ) H-Bro (meh...)

4. YOUR GAMER TAG: (a favorite colour, a favorite animal) Purple Kitty (can you saw 'ew'?)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Kathryn North York

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name) Broishbee (cute!)

7. JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards) Nyrhtak Hsiuhlem

8. PORN STAR NAME: (first pet's name, the street you grew up on) Tchai Bes-ick (doesn't work lol)

9. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, the automobile your parents drives) The Purple Echo (now that's a name ^^)

10. YOUR ACTION HERO NAME: (First Name Of The Main Character In The Last Film You Watched, last Food You Just Ate) Oliver Moussaka (hahaha..)

More World Cup Babble

I would just like to quickly quote something that I saw in an article in our local newspaper today in regards to the spirit of the World Cup in Canada. I found that this quote speaks not only for me as a soccer fan, but for the rest of my fellow Canadians without a home team to support.

"...This Beautiful Game is able to dissolve, or should I say absorb, all our complexities and contradictions...Because I don't have a team to speak of that makes it to the World Cup, I live and die with an oddball mix of loyalties and affiliations that are curious and make sense only to me. It's part of the magic."

This is a beautiful quote because it describes how the lack of a home team can unite us all, not through the bond of shared nationality as in the case of Brazil or Korea, for example, but the sheer love of the sport and the exhileration we feel through seeing the world join hands over something so simple as a game.

The author then goes on to describe his experience with a Portuguese man he met on the streets of Toronto...

"The Portuguese man and I talked football. He asked me which team I supported. I began to explain but then stopped. It would take too long. I said I hadn't yet settled on a team. That's when he lowered his voice in a hushed conspiratorial tone, looking this way and that. 'To tell you the truth, I don't really care who wins, not even Portugal - just so long as it's not Italy' he said, a huge smile breaking out across his face. A Toronto moment, I thought to myself. There was something sweet about it. I don't know why. I just felt happy and giddy and told myself it was going to be a good World Cup - once again."

'A Toronto moment.' I just love that. I know exactly how the author feels. We, as Canadians, pride ourselves on the multiculturalism of our nation, and the spirit of the World Cup is the epitome of this pride. Though I will undoubtably be excited once Canada's team gets into the World Cup (we are getting a massive stadium apparently!), there will be a certain something missing when the sea of different coloured flags on people's cars and windows will be washed out by a wave of Canadian nationalism. After all, is it really right to cheer for another team when yours is in the ranking? In short, I feel that it's good to be Canadian, but it's also good to experience nationalism as it is experienced by the rest of the world.

For Shame, For Shame...

Ahh...Japan!! How could you tie with Croatia??? Now you're doomed to play a death match against Brazil!!!

Last Day at the Plant!

Well, I did it! Yesterday, I told Oscar that I had found a new job helping a disabled lady with her day to day chores, and that this Friday (today) would be my last day. I probably extended the truth a little since I told everyone I was planning to start the new job on Monday but actually, I don't think it will start until early July. Either way, my eczima ridden fingers and frazzled brain told me on Thursday that there was no way I could hack another day of misery on the line so I called it quits. The ultimate trigger was when my friend Al decided to leave along with a few of his buddies reducing our little posse to only me, Donna, and Pat. Not to mention that the radio station the guys had chosen as a substitute for discmans has Maureen Holliday on in the morning and she drives me absolutely insane with her banchee-like laughter. Yes, today was definitely the perfect day to end this stage of my life.

I took a few pictures if anyone is interested in what I look like in workman's get-up. It's quite funny, really. The other people in the pictures are Pat, Donna, John and Oscar. Enjoy!

Me out front of my house!

My assembly line - my work station is beside the gleaming pole near the back :-)

~Pat, Donna and me~

~John, me, Oscar (my boss) and Donna~

Final Free Milk Count: 97 -*- Savings in Dollars: $388 schmakeroos!

School Pranks - A Mistake From The Start

I know Amethyst2525 has already covered this in her blog, but I had to add my two cents. Today I discovered something that disgusted me to no end. As tradition goes, it is expected that every graduating high school class (in N--t at least) come up with a harmless school prank as a way of saying goodbye. When I graduated, the prank was to bring large barrels of hay and place it all around the school so that no one could get inside. This was so-so funny and relatively harmless, though it took a while to clean up, and annoyed the hell out of anyone who hadn't been involved...but all the same, it was cleaned up within an hour and we were able to return to class for a normal school day. My brother's graduating class of 2006, on the other hand, took it way more than few steps too far. According to him, each little clique in his grade had their own idea of what a "good" prank would be. As a result, the prank was completely uncoordinated and the school was absolutely trashed beyond recognition. Some groups took to spray painting racist remarks on walls directed at specific teachers, and others decided to cover everything with Saran wrap and defecate all over the building. The school yard was torn up by tire marks left after a group of kids decided to do wheelies, and the grass was covered in gasoline which thankfully was never set alight. Some of the less disgusting (but only slightly) pranks included setting up alarm clocks all over the school, spreading vaseline on the door handles, and breaking an $1000 manikin in the health department.

My comment is: Why on earth was this allowed to happen in the first place? The police know that pranks occur around this time of year. Why weren't they prepared? Or is behaviour like this accepted because it's considered just "kids having a bit of fun." Well, I have news for you. These are not kids. These are adults with the brains of kids because they cannot be trusted with the freedom which they are given. We give them one step, they take three. This is just as much the fault of the parents, teacher and janitors as it is the students. They say that from this point on, pranks will no longer be allowed at my brother's school. Well, good job. Too bad you didn't make that decision before this event happened. After all, the only consequence has been the hurt feelings of a few wonderful teachers, and a handful of students who probably hated being at school already anyways. I congratulate you all. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

A Well Deserved Day Off

This morning, for some inexplicable reason, I opened my eyes with the clear intention to skip work on the pretence of being under the weather. Usually, I don’t feel this apathetic toward working, and I’m certainly not one for cutting off the inflow of cash, but here I am anyway, sitting in front of my computer, catching up on all the things I have long put off. On top of cleaning the bathroom and hang out the laundry as I promised my mum, I also managed to write some long overdue replies to a few friends whose emails have been sitting in my inbox for ages, and catch up on some World Cup action. It has been a relaxing morning indeed.

A few interesting things have happened lately. First of all, I received a welcome email from the Dean of my college telling me that I achieved the highest average in my grade (wow…) and will consequently be receiving a $1,500 scholarship. This was really an unexpected turn of events – in fact, I had been a little soured by the fact that I hadn’t received any recognition for my participation in a very expensive exchange and effort to keep up high grades throughout the year so it’s nice to see they finally noticed. I guess, as the saying goes, all good things come to those who wait! New laptop, here I come~~!

It was also my dad’s birthday yesterday so we went out to celebrate and Casey’s restaurant in the mall. Casey’s has become a favourite with us lately because of its wide selection and good quality food, though the waiters can be overly perky at times. Overall, it was really nice to go out as a family – we had some really good laughs, and just an overall good time.

Finally…I know you will all laugh but I have to list my three favourite players at the World Cup! They say men watch the Cup for the sport, and women watch it for the legs and long lashes…I guess it’s semi-true!

~*-------------------------------------------------------------*~
Number 1: Cristiano Ronaldo

Easily the most handsome and talented newcomer in soccer. A native Portuguese, Ronaldo participated in the Cup last year and soon established himself as a World Cup hopeful. I have a soft spot for him not only because he is beautiful and quick on the field but also because he's only a month younger (younger...I hate that word...) than me! What's sad is that by the next World Cup, half of the players will be younger than me, and not by one month either! *sob*

Number 2: Hidetoshi Nakata

You knew I had to have a Japanese player on here! Although Japan hasn't been doing so well as a team, Nakata has a style on and off the field that no one can ignore. Plus, although he is extremely photogenic as you can plainly see, he is famously camera shy! (Bless!) Cudos to you, Hide!

Number 3: Ahn Jung-hwan

I have been into this Korean player ever since I saw him play at the Asia Cup while I was in Japan. I have fond memories of my host mum, Tomoyo and I sitting in front of the TV dreamy eyed as this player took over the field. And today, he scored the winning goal for Korea taboot!

World Cup Fever!

Yes, it's that time of the year again! The time of year when 1.3 billion people set aside their daily routines to watch a sport that has more viewers than the Olympics itself - The Fifa World Cup! Now, personally, during the 3 years and 11 months that the World Cup isn't on, it would be a cold hard lie to call myself much of a soccer fan, but just as with any sport that ties the world together, I cannot help but catch the infectious "footie fever" whenever that time of year comes around.

So far, the matches have been fairly uneventful with the British beating Paraguay by a measely point (note: a pathetic win for Britain never stops the English hooligans from driving by in their Union Jack-covered cars and honking at random people), and Germany easily managing to win it's first match against Cosa Rica, but it seems like today, the matches will begin to get interesting. The tip of the iceburg peeped out yesterday during the match between Sweden and Trinidad/Tobago. Most of the world expected this to be an easy win for Sweden, a country with significantly more experience in world soccer than Trinidad/Tobago. However, to everyone's surprise - though it should hardly be surprising because it happens every year - the star team was nearly shot down by the fiesty newcomers. In the end, the final score was a tie of 0-0, igniting tears of joy on the Trinidad/Tobago side. It may have been the first time in history that a team cried for joy at the prospect of a tie, because it simply meant that they did not lose. Today, three more matches will take place between the Netherlands and Serbia, Mexico and Iran, and Angola and Portugal. I am particularly keen on the Mexico/Iran match since Iran was the team that beat Japan in the last world cup. I am also considering buying some flags to stick on our car myself...it never hurts to be a little bit patriotic!

Experimentation With Methods To Keep Sanity

Hey everyone, guess what? I'm a piece of putty that can be moulded into anybody's hand! Haha... Why do I say this? Well...today at work, I resolved to tell my boss that tomorrow would be my final day since I cannot cope for seven hours on the line in complete silence with only the whir of the machine motors to preserve what little is left of my sanity. I said this to him on my third break, though far less eloquently, and the simple answer I got, in Oscar's thick Bahamas accent, was "Dat's a leeme reeson to quit!" catching me right off guard. My perfect plan of attack was ruined. I then started to babble about how it is so tedious to work on the line, and that I need *something* to keep me going...a train of ungrammatical sentences which was thankfully interrupted when he told me that tomorrow I should bring in what else but...a boombox. What's more, he said I can play whatever I like. And if that doesn't perk up my spirits, I am free to leave (though if I ever want to come back, I'm always welcome). So, it looks like I will be working at least one more day to give this boombox idea a try. My music of choice is Queen - I really hope it goes over well with everyone. And if things suck, I'll bid them all farewell. (Yet somehow, I think I will end up staying...*sigh*...Heather, thy name is putty...)

Oh yeah, I also have a sad story from the plant today. Apparently, yesterday evening when the night shift was on, there was a jam in the machine that crushes up pop cans. A guy named J-- decided that it would be a wise idea to jump onto the conveyer belt and try to loosen the jam without turning off the power. You hardly even have to guess what happened next. All of a sudden, the generator sprung back to life and ground up most of J--'s right leg in the process. It was only because of the quick thinking of his coworkers that he survived. They managed to pull the emergency safety cord in time, and pull him out before he was sucked in any further. It was frightening to imagine that such an event could have occured not only in my workplace, but in the very area that I work. This was not a matter of the plant being unsafe, everyone. This was a case of pure stupidity that could have been avoided if J-- had left the matter to the professionals at the plant and waited until all machines were completely shut down. In any case, the incident hit me and the other workers pretty hard. I don't know how I would have handled such a crisis if I had been one of the workers who saved J--...what scares me is that I doubt I could have acted as quickly as they did.

Review of The Historian

Since this is the one day of the week my mind is not weighed down by the pressures of work, I think it’s an appropriate time to start writing a summary/review of the The Historian, the novel I just completed. (A nice change of pace from the recent slew of complaint-filled posts.) I promised you a review before and I am not one for breaking my promises, so here it is!

The Historian is not a novel I picked out myself, but a chance discovery I made while rummaging through the books mum had brought home from the library. A week before, I had seen the hosts of my favourite Japanese TV show interview the author, Elizabeth Kostova, and my interest was piqued after learning that despite this being her first novel, she had received 2 million dollars in advance of publishing it. This is very unusual for someone without a reasonably good track record in publishing and writing. In addition, she received the Hopwood Award for Novel-in-Progress from the University of Michigan, proving that the book was a very special read even in its rudimentary form. It was with this knowledge in hand, I began reading…

The novel takes the form of many other epistolary, or letter-based, novels such as Frankenstein or Dracula in that one or more stories are told inside that of another. In fact, there are three related timelines following three different characters in this particular novel, with two of the stories expressed through either dialogue or epistolary format.

The main timeline begins with Paul, a graduate student who discovers a strange looking book on his desk in the library with a single marking inside - a horrifying dragon print placed at the centre underlain with a single word: Dracyla. At first, Paul takes it to the front desk, believing that the book has been misplaced, but when the librarian returns it to him saying that it is not library property, Paul’s adventure begins. He is soon thrown into an upside-down world of supposed fantasy come to life when his advisor, Rossi, mysteriously disappears, with only a trail of blood left in his office. The urgency of Paul’s search is compounded by the discovery that Rossi, too, received such a book years before and followed the tracks of its owner to the depths of Eastern Europe. As a result, Paul immediately flies off to follow the clues left by Rossi, and finds himself mixed up in one of the darkest secrets kept by history: Dracula is alive and taking victims. Years later, Paul’s daughter finds the same book hidden away in her father’s library, and she too is drawn into the mystery her father has kept secret for so long…

Throughout the each character’s journey, the reader is simultaneously sucked in by the exciting pace of the story, as well as the plethora of carefully researched historical facts about the real Count Dracula, Vlad Dracula (son of the dragon), and his 15th century reign of terror. (I personally found the factual ring to this novel absolutely fascinating since it adds a sharp element of reality to the myth. For instance, it was intriguing to learn that the exact location of Vlad’s tomb has not been agreed upon by scholars, though there has been some speculation that it lies in an unmarked tomb in a Romanian Orthodox monastery.) Though I can’t give away much more of the story for obvious reasons, I can say that each character – the daughter, Paul, and Rossi - takes his or her own path towards unraveling the cloud of mystery surrounding Dracula, and subsequently, each encounters a unique set of horrifying dangers and secrets along the way. The question is: will be mystery be solved and the monster put to rest?

Kostova once said in an interview that it was her father’s stories of Dracula, not Vlad himself, which inspired her to write this novel. However, the true story of Vlad would be inspiration enough, as he is as interesting a subject of choice as one can get. His gruesome tendencies, and the fact that his legend was not confined to Eastern Europe but rapidly spread to most of Russia and the rest of Europe despite poor communication systems at the time is ample proof of this. The real Dracula was best known as Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes) since impalement was his favourite form of torture, though he employed many other methods as well which you can find here if you are curious. The remains of one of his castles, also described in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, can be found by the Arges River near the town of Poenari. The story goes that Dracula invited a number of nobles from the area to a grand feast in the year 1459. Unfortunately for the nobles, the feast turned out to be a trap – the older and feebler nobles were impaled while the rest were marched off to build the castle in Dracula’s honour. It is said that the nobles were never allowed to rest and most of them worked until their clothes literally fell off in rags if death did not take them first. This was just one of the many cruelties Dracula committed during his reign, and it is no wonder that his story has been immortalized numerous times through the image of the vampire we all love and fear at the same time.

Kostova’s novel is a great achievement for many reasons. One might think that a story that has become so ingrained into our culture (think Halloween and the numerous Hollywood productions that have been spun out over the years) would have little left with which to work. Yet Kostova manages to take a completely new spin on the worn out tale by taking a figure of fantasy and turning him into a tangible being with historical roots. Perhaps, in this way, she makes him all the more terrifying to us all. Moreover, the fluidity of her writing and her ability to give life and personality to her characters does not seem forced, though the story is obviously meticulously calculated given that it took her 10 years to complete. Rather, character development seems to occur very naturally, and each individual rarely, if ever, performs an action that defies the paradigm set for his or her individual character make-up. All in all, the book is a perfect package and deserves every honour it receives.

So, as a final word, I would love it if all of you would give this novel a try, and let me know what you think. And if any of you have a recommendation for me, I’d be glad to hear it because I need a new book to sink my teeth into (no pun intended)! The end!

No More Music (T_T)

Man...I just had the most unwelcome news at work. Apparently, a new rule is in place banning us from listening to music while on the line because it is a "safety hazard." It is so stupid because we were only allowed to listen with one headphone in the first place making it easy to hear what was going on, and there is no way we wouldn't hear the emergency alarm since it sounds louder than a fire engine. Plus, I could always hear someone calling my name and would make sure to take out my headphone before speaking to them. Grrr!! So, in short, the one thing that kept me going on that assembly line is now gone, thus prompting me to actively search for a new job somewhere else. (I was always half-heartedly searching but now I'm in full force search mode!) I guess the job was only prolonging my cold anyway, and who knows what's in my lungs after breathing in dusty air for 5 weeks straight. So yeah...that's my sad story for today. (T_T)

Never Been Deaf In One Ear Before...

Hey peeps~ Sorry I haven't felt like posting for the past few days. To be frank, I've been having a bit of a rough time. My cold has gotten worse and on top of that, I've been diagnosed with an acute ear infection meaning 3 drops a day in the ear for a week. :-( Originally, I thought it was a bad thing that I can't hear a thing anyone says from the right of me, but my coworker changed my mind when she said "Who wants to hear what Oscar (my boss) says anyway? Now you have an excuse to ignore him!" Haha *sheds tear*...it's so true! In any case, I made it through a half day of work and then piggybacked on my dad's appointment this afternoon to get my meds. Sigh...I really think my body is falling to bits and pieces. :P Just as long as none of this happens while I am away, I should be fine!

In a completely different vein...how have all of you been liking this nutty weather? I didn't get to see much of it yesterday - the thunderstorms I mean - since I was inside the factory most of the time, but I was affected indirectly by it! It only took about a half an hour for a bolt of lightning to shut down not only our factory, but the factories in the surrounding area as well, so for about a half an hour, we were stuck inside gazing out the windows at the neverending blackness of the outskirts of N--t and S--e. It was quite spooky in a way! In the end, we did get the backup generators on and continued with our work. In fact, this isn't the first time the factory has shut down this week. Two days ago, the main engine literally blew up and caused a major shut down of all assembly lines. From about 9:45 to 1:30, we were assigned to various back-breaking jobs including yanking out wads of plastic with plyers out of 10 foot high blocks of bunched up cardboard, and sweeping up dirt and other crap from the main driveway which continually gets dirty anyway because trucks are always delivering new recycling to that area. I don't think I have to remind any of you locals that the temp was around 33 degrees with humidity, and I was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and black jeans. Despite all of my complaining, however, in terms of relaxation and catching up with my coworkers lives, it was a worthwhile day. And I pretty much got paid for doing nothing! So yeah...good times, good times...hehe.

Well, I better be off! I plan to indulge tonight by watching my favourite show, and if he will let me, help my brother register for his university courses (it's been an uphill struggle to even get him interested, let alone make him get down to work on actually selecting his courses...sometimes I can't even believe that he is related to me :S).