Dr. VoiceInTheAbyss

So I'm going to be filling out a form on Monday in order to audit a half-year course for the Winter term: 20th Century Children's Literature. I've talked to the prof, and she was more than happy to give her permission. Just a matter of getting through the red-tape now. So I'll have a whole pile of extra books for next semester, but considering the reading list includes:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling

and more, I think I'll be juuuust fine with the added material.

With this on my transcript, it should look marginally better when I start fishing for schools that will allow me to work with Children's Literature for grad work.

Listening to the BSG soundtrack. Makes me want to re-watch the show, but I don't have that kind of time. I am contenting myself with catching up on Fringe: Season 2. Finally finished Warehouse 13: Season 1 (which was bloody brilliant!). My weeklies (Heroes, Castle, South Park and Venture Bros.) are all up to date, so I'm good on that front. On paper it seems like a fair bit of television, perhaps, but I'm still spending a lot more time at the books than with the telly. Northanger Abbey, The Tin Flute and Ovid's Metamorphoses (selections) over the past couple of weeks, and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass left for the semester (alongside a number of shorter articles and essays).

While doing some online roaming on the subject of Greek philosophy and mythology, I came across Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. I'd seen it in stores on and off for the past few years, but nothing ever pushed towards picking it up. I read up a little, and it seemed like an entertaining premise which was getting good reviews, so I went down to ye olde BMV to see if they had the first book, The Lightning Thief, in stock. Well, they didn't have the individual book, but they had a box set of the first three books (out of the five currently published) for $10, so I said to myself, "what the hell." Started The Lightning Thief and it's not bad. Not terribly far into it yet, but the writing is good enough to keep me at the table. Always nice to come across good youth fiction.

Several papers coming up over the next couple of weeks. I have to get down to brass tacks presently. The semester is starting to move towards its inevitable conclusion, and I mean to breathe easy through the winter break. I've got good momentum going into these papers, and I'm damned if I'm going to let that fizzle now.

I've been spending a portion of the evening cleaning, and it's been an odd experience. Let me clarify.

I am a pack-rat. Trinkets, mementos, little things collect wherever I reside. They may end up on shelves, in drawers, in boxes, in bags. I accumulate this personal debris over long periods, generally unaware of the fact that I am doing so. At least, the process is not a reflexive one. So, every once and a while, when I engage in a "deep clean", poking into the recesses of the aforementioned shelves, drawers, boxes and bags, I stumble across all manner of artifacts from my past. They awaken memory after memory, until I have unearthed enough of my past to start thinking about my present.

It makes me remember old friends who are now happily married, friends who are now dead, and some friends who are now simply strangers. As the years roll by, we all shed friends and acquaintances like the snake sheds its skin. It doesn't make me feel old; I'm not so silly as to think like that. But it becomes harder and harder to remember who I was.

I don't think I was going anywhere with this. I 'm just trying to remember who I am, since I can't seem to remember who I was. And I honestly don't know whether that's good or bad. It simply is.

That's all.

Brief Notes:

• Book hunting went well. Grabbed all but Alice's Adventures used, so I'm happy on that count.
• Finished The Iliad this afternoon. Man, I do enjoy a good epic and Homer is one of the best!
• Almost caught up with Warehouse 13. Four more episodes to go! I have to say, I've been really impressed with the quality of this light and fun show.
• Cleaning continues. With luck I'll have finished clearing out my old room this afternoon.

"To Do" List for Today:

• Finish last book in Gulliver's Travels.
• Get in my NaNoWriMo word count for the day (have to make up for a lackluster Thursday!).
• Run Post Office-related errands: packages to pick up, letters to mail!

Right, better get crackin'!

Attended my first writing session of the Toronto NaNoWriMo season this evening. Got ~3000 words in, which makes up for the lackluster effort I put in yesterday! All in all, I'm back on schedule. The session was fun; it helped to get away from my usual writing station. I'm hoping to cap the episode in the ROM around the 10000 words mark, so that should be by Friday evening if I can maintain momentum.

50000 words, here I come!

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be searching for some more sacrificial vict...er, reading material...for the next couple of weeks.

• The Tin Flute - Gabrielle Roy
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordecai Richler
• Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

York's Bookstore tells me I need to cough up $48 for those four books. I say thee nay! Used book store time. I feel hella-confident that I can tackle that list for $30. I'll report back on my progress.
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Spent last night and this morning listening to two bands.

Firstly, the Gaslight Anthem ("The '59 Sound"):


A friend put me on to these guys a few months ago, but I only really getting into them now. There's a lot of Springsteen influence, but I love The Boss, so that's a-okay with me.

Secondly, The Nekromantix ("Return of the Loving Dead"):


Haven't really listened to these guys in earnest since my Backstage days. I would have been better off rediscovering them just before Hallowe'en, but they're a lot of fun no matter the season.


Alright, that's it for me. See you later, space cowboys.

I've now had two essays marked and returned and it seems that I'm on track. The marks on my Literary Theory and Satire papers have been above the class average in both cases, but neither without problems. I was surprisingly happy to have my papers back and the attached feedback. This is not something I experienced the past two years. Anthropology was an interesting and engaging mental exercise, but I did not feel a great excitement for the written component. While I'm still no grand fan of writing essays, I am warming to them as I improve. And I am improving. My essay structure is tighter; my analysis is more refined. All of this is preamble to the statement that I am happy in school again. I am loving the fact that I get to read a plethora of excellent books, listen to fascinating investigations into the texts and learn how to cultivate a greater understanding, and subsequently a greater appreciation, for these works. In that respect, things are going well.
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Living alone again is proving as uneventful as anticipated. Despite starting to read Stephen King's The Shining, I have yet to go mad. Perhaps when the snow falls I'll start buckling, but as of yet I seem the model of mental health. I've been cleaning and rearranging bookshelves and closets. A little change is good now and then, methinks, and I'm definitely pleased with the shifted look of the apartment. I'm in the main bedroom now, Britt being off and away in the distant Southlands. I like the space. I can spread out a little, keep my computer area tidy and have my desk dedicated to note-taking and creative writing. Any work I do has to be away from the Internet, knowing how easily distracted I can be. The cleaning continues, an ongoing work-in-progress, but it definitely feels like my space now.
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Returning to bookworm-related geekery, I was fortunate enough to come across paperback copies of Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey at the BMV near Yonge and Spadina. I already have copies of that particular translation (Robert Fagles), but they are hardcovers. I have a problem with hardcovers, in that I ride the subway and bus a great deal, and find hardcovers heavy and cumbersome. Therefore, when I come across softcovers on the cheap, I am a happy Colin. And as further evidence towards by descent into book-nerd status, I recently discovered that, just a couple of years before his death, Mr. Fagles completed a translation of Virgil's The Aeneid. I have yet to read The Aenied; this edition demands that I pick it up. I have resolved to give in should the semester end well in early December. I mean, for goodness sakes, I employ the handle Virgilius, or some variant thereof, in most of my online adventuring (present site excluded, though not for want of trying!) so I should probably get around to it!
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That's about all for the moment. Felt like geeking about classes and books. Thank you for indulging me.

See you later, space cowboys.

So Beatles Rock Band came out and Zoe picked it up.
So I tried playing some of it, mainly doing Ringo duty on drums.
So I started liking Beatles Rock Band. A lot.
So I listened to some of The Beatles's albums while working the other day.
So I listened to, like, all of The Beatles's albums while working the other day.

This is all to say that my long-standing philosophy of Splendid Isolation against Beatlemania came down this week. I am officially a fan.

At this time, while I am in the process of getting over myself and jumping on a 46 year-old band wagon, I would like to make the claim that Sgt. Pepper is my fave album, but that I have a soft spot in my heart for Please Please Me.



That is all.

Feeling sluggish today, lethargic. Played some Katamari Damacy for the distraction and it worked well for the most part. Took a bunch of books back to the library and started in on Stardust. It's been in my pile for several months now, but I felt like waiting for some reason. It was as if I was saving it for when I needed it, and I certainly felt that need today. Sinking into Gaiman's words is always such a joy for me; nobody transports or ensorcells me in quite the same as he.

Wandered around for Nuit Blanche tonight. It felt somewhat dimished this year, in that there were fewer installations and exhibits within the core. My memory recalls far more last year. It would probably behoove me to do some research and plan a path of action for next year's show. My lack of an October Metropass certainly hampered my movement around to the outlying exhibits. All that said, there were some fascinating works, most notably "Beautiful Light: 4 LETTER WORD MACHINE, 2009", by D.A. Therrien. Excellent use of light and sound at Nathan Phillips Square. I'll see about posting a pic or two from the installation, but without the sound, it loses a great deal of its impact. Had I been thinking properly I would have taken a video of it. Alas and alack.

I think I'll get a little more Katamari in before bed. Night, all.

I currently have:

• Seven (7) Graphic Novels
• Five (5) Manga volumes
• Twenty-Nine (29) Novels
• Five (5) Short Story volumes
• Four (4) Non-Fiction books

on my desk at this time. None of these are for class purposes. This is the perpetual state of the desk in my room, constantly nagging at me to finish reading it all.




Spoiler: I don't finish it all.

Reading The Iliad, Confederation-era Canadian poetry, excerpts from those Roman masters of satire Horace and Juvenal, digesting the Canadian Writer's Handbook and selections from "The Talk of the Town" section of the New Yorker.

Hoo-ray for switching majors!

All the while I'm reading Hammett's The Maltese Falcon on the side, as well as the Starman and Books of Magic graphic novels. Yes, I am still reading recreationally while making my way through all of this. For once I am managing my time reasonably well, so I don't feel overwhelmed! We'll see how long that lasts.

Classes have begun in earnest now. This month features Confederation era Canadian writers, The Iliad, and something undoubtedly hilarious for my Satire class which begins tomorrow.

Tuesdays are rough this year:

8:30am-10:30am - Satire (class)
12:30pm-1:30pm - Satire (tutorial)
7pm-10pm - Literary Nonfiction

Guess I'll be getting well acquainted with the libraries and bars this year.

Nat came up last week, allowing me to try God Hand, borrow Resident Evil 4 and finally beat Metal Gear Solid 3. We also got in a little Silent Hill 2, which I hadn't played in a while, but which is a bloody brilliant game. Good times.
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FanExpo was the previous weekend and it was quite good this year. A friend ended up having two deluxe passes in his possession and very kindly gave me one, so my weekend was free. As such, a quick recap:
Friday: Lines weren't too bad, overall. Not as bad as they would be on the Saturday. More on that later. Did a quick tour of the Dealer's Room, noting that the Gaming section returned to the West side of the room, an improvement over last year's shabby placement to the East. We took in the Walter Koenig panel in the evening (Chekov on the original Star Trek) and he was a lot of fun. I felt that he was the most intimate speaker; I couldn't tell you why I got that feeling, just that he seemed pretty normal. That and he has a fantastic George Takei impression!
Saturday: Wanting to line up for the Leonard Nimoy panel early (as we assumed it would be packed), Bruce and I got to the Con just before opening. We managed to get in without a fuss and get pretty far up in the line (ended up with 4th row seat for it!). However, friends of ours got stuck in a line outside which apparently had been created when a fire code had been violated, most likely due to the massive influx of one-day attendees trying to fill out forms and get their tickets on a small floor of the South Building. This resulted in a lot of angry people from all reports. Despite it, our friends got in and we saw the Nimoy panel which was a lot of fun. It was almost surreal seeing him in person, as he is so iconic, but that faded quickly allowing me to just enjoy the man, not the character, speaking. Good stuff. This was followed a line from hell to get into the Dealer's Room (ah, Saturday morning...), the Avery Brooks panel, and then the Bruce Campbell panel. Oh Bruce Campbell, you are the classiest asshole in entertainment. He was a lot of fun, and appropriately abusive to silly questions and statements.
Saturday evening: Silver Snail's Midnight Madness! Bruce and I hit this up, after the line had dissolved, so we got in easily. We did not get out so easily, though. I ended up grabbing the new Fables V.12 and Trigun Maximum V.8,9,10, all for 40% off, which was good by me. Bruce got in line earlier and ended up getting out earlier. As I had further plans after, I suggested he not wait for me as I was liable to be a while still in line. I was at that. I ended up chatting with my Line Buddy, Roberto, for about two hours on subject all across the geek-rainbow. After a lengthy wait, we finally gave the Snail our cash and had our booty in tow. We parted ways and like that another Midnight Madness Line Buddy disappeared into the aether...
Sunday: Alas, Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin from BSG) had to cancel for a personal emergency, so I was unable to propose to the President of the Twelve Colonies. Sigh. But a couple of tours of the Dealer's Room on the final day saw me pick up a couple of the Marvel Essentials volumes for cheap, and I look forward to further investigating those. This was about an hour before close, so we decided to head out and bring our Con-going experience to an end.
Overall it was a good Con. Did a lot more Q&A panels this year, grabbed a few comic deals, tried some upcoming video games, and hung out with friends nerding it up. I have decided to try my hand at cosplay next year, the kind that requires me to actually work at it throughout the year. I have a costume in mind, and I look forward to FanExpo 2010, in hopes that it comes together properly!
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And, that being behind me now, I prepare for classes to start on Wednesday. I'm now officially an Honours English major, I've got a lot of reading to do this year, and I am very much looking forward to my new direction. A little extra time to finish, but I can see myself continuing on with grad school after this. Eye on the prize, Colin, eye on the prize.

That's the scoop. I will try to keep you better informed in the coming months, all. Until then, see you later, space cowboys.

FanExpo looms ever closer, but I find myself having mixed feelings about the affair.

I've been going to the Toronto Convention Centre for the comic/sci-fi convention for almost a decade, and in that time I've normalized an optimal Con-going experience. I know who I like to go with, what I like to go for, when I like to go. This has changed somewhat over the years, but by and large these changes have been for the best. I find that this year my core group won't be attending; while I will have others to go with, something feels different. I know there are many panels I want to see, things I want signed, people I want to listen to. But it's a social event, so if I'm not going with my crowd, what will the experience be like?

I suppose we'll see come Friday.

Run, don't walk, to your local multi-plex to see Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated adventure. It's definitely reminiscent of the his older, simpler work. This is no Spirited Away. But it's great fun in a pleasant way that Totoro was. It's not a children's story in quite the same way as Totoro, but the visually simplicity reminds me of it. So yes. If you haven't seen it yet, do so. Miyazaki makes beautiful movies, visually and otherwise.

Well, it looks like anything I'd been reading at the moment just got co-opted by FanExpo panelists. Let me explain.

Turns out that horror/suspense author Jack Ketchum will be there, and a friend has lend me a book of short fiction by him to introduce me to his writing. Apparently he's great in person, so I'm reading in anticipation of a good panel. Also Max Brooks of World War Z fame will be there, so that panel will be the impetus to finally crack the copy sitting on my desk.

17 days till FanExpo. Woot!

Yikes, long time no post. I haven't been thinking about LJ, Facebook or Twitter much lately. I am a bad Internet updater.

Well, the most interesting news is that I'm changing majors. After two years at York as an anthropology major, I am making the transition towards English. I took every English available in high school and always assumed I was going to be an English student at Western until my first year there turned out to be a blow-out, regardless of what major I was thinking about declaring. I left Western, and slummed through London and then, later, Toronto working a variety of retail jobs to give me "direction" and keep a roof over my head. I knew that I could always go back to school, but I never really thought of it as a likely or realistic option. When that opinion changed several years ago, I went back because I wanted to work in a museum: I was still career-oriented (which can be seen as a positive thing, I suppose).

I applied to York, and they said yes. I wanted archaeology, and they said no.

York's anthropology program is almost exclusively social anthropology. I was a little put out by this, but by the end of my first year there, I realized that I'd be happier with the present, activist anthropology. So I continued on in that vein this last year. The strike hit, my motivation was shot and I wasn't satisfied with any of the work I had been doing. I was interested in some of the literature, but I couldn't see myself going any farther than an undergrad with it. I didn't realize it in those terms quite yet, but it was a case where I had no long term goals for anthropology. So, after some intense decision-making a couple of weeks ago, with advice from the English undergraduate director and my family, I decided to change, and return to my roots.
So.
Here I am, excited for school again. I can only construe that as a good thing.
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Aside from changes in major, it's pretty much the same old, same old. Still gaming as much as a can. A friend of mine and I are trying to come up with a list of our games that need playing on a more regular basis, slightly heavier ones that require more time than we usually schedule for, including:

War of the Ring, Android, Doom: The Board Game, Marvel Heroes and the always classic Twilight Struggle

It occurs to be only in writing up the list that most of those games are produced by Fantasy Flight, only cementing my status as a FF whore. Go fig.
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So now I am currently endeavouring to finish all of the games, books and comics lent to me by friends and family before I add anything else to the pile. Oy. I'm trying not to look at my book-shelves, for fear I'll see something of my own that I have yet to read or play and give it precedence. This is such a ridiculous process.

See you later, space cowboys.

Book Club was interesting. I joined a non-fiction club and a fiction club (for diversity, yes?) and the non-fic met up this past Wednesday. We had read a book called Super Crunchers. So interesting debate popped up, ranging from shoppings habits to political agendas, but overall it was an interesting experience. Lots of different perspectives, which is why I wanted to join in the first place. Though classroom or not, it would seem that some people just like to hear the sound of their voice when in a conversation. What can you do? Next month's book is Collapse, a book I've partly read before. I am hoping for hilarious arguments in discussing the rise and fall of civilizations. Hehehe.

Finally got around to reading Louis Riel by Chester Brown. Lord, what a good read. Everyone who hasn't read it yet should definitely make the effort. On a subsequent recommendation from a friend I grabbed I Never Liked You from the library, also by Chester Brown. I'm hoping for more good things.

Not too much to update on. Prospects for the first two points flattened out, alas. As such, the status quo reigns:

• Still job-hunting
• Still single
• Still reading too much.

Joined a couple of book clubs in an effort to become more social. It worked well when I joined my board-gaming club, and that was almost two and a half years ago. So we shall see. It doesn't require too much additional effort on my part as I read quickly enough, so I guess we'll see how the discussion element of it works. Hopefully it'll be fun.

Saw Moon on Friday and it was excellent. I don't want to offer spoilers, so I'll just suggest people go see it. It's smart science-fiction, the kind of science-fiction I try to write. So yes, it's good. Watch it.

It's hard for me to get motivated to do things these days. Without something particular that I have to do, such as work or school, I find myself floating around aimlessly. Guess I'll just try to buckle down and get some stuff done while I'm still job-hunting.

Wee.

I haven't listened to Collective Soul this much in close to ten years. Man. They must have been my absolute favourite band as a kid. Rediscovering them has been pretty darn fun, I gotta say.

Still job hunting, much to my chagrin. I guess I should continue to paper the city, though I am still waiting to hear back from a dozen or so places. Ugh. Searching for summer work is still the most soul-crushing practice. Something will turn up, I'm sure. What's more distressing is having so much free time and so many things dwelling on the mind; time drags so very slowly without something steady to keep me occupied.

I have an idea for a book, but am still trying to research some stuff. Mayhaps I'll head to the library and get some work done today.