Hangin

Hangin on. Hangin out

more books

In the bookstore i have read
'Tis - Frank McCourt
it was a tad dissapointing. was forced to read Angela's Ashes...and admired it though i didn't really like it.
The Devil Wears Prada
yeah, i read chick-lit sometimes. It could be worse
Jarhead
i liked it... sort of. i guess i need to see the movie now

I recently went to the library and borrowed books... it was on the way home. So I read
The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing
more chick lit. but good
Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres

I've also ended up with a livejournal... see sidebar.

nami-nami

I found it the damn thing. Its the ad for the Nami-Nami. I saw this damn ad everywhere when I was in HK. All over the subways, all over the buses. The tv ad is even worse, they're chanting nami nami nami nami nami till i wanna kill them all. haha. This bra gives hope to flat-chested asians everywhere.

turkey-holiday

I wonder how my little cousin is going to write his assignment on turkey dinner when we didn't touch anything turkey related. poor sucker.

100 most challanged books

I found this on metafilter. The 100 most frequently challanged books in the US. Maybe there is a canadian equivilant but i'm too lazy to find it.
So just for my interest i have decided to figure out how many of them i have read, read part of, heard of, intend to read or specifically intend not to read.
A legend:
R = have read
P = read part of it and gave up due to not careing, not liking, got bored, ran out of time etc.
H = I've heard of it
I = I intend to read these at some point
N = Nope, i don't think i'd even pick it up in a doctors office while bored

So lets see how this goes. I'm sure i'm gonna have to look some of these up on amazon because i can't always remember from the title if i've read it. I guess that will change the I and N settings but oh well.

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz - R
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite - H
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - I
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier - R
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -R
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck -P
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling -R
8. Forever by Judy Blume - P
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson -R
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman -HI
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier -R
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger -R
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry -R
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris -N
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine -P
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck - I
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna - H
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson - R
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle - R
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous -R
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard -R
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl -R
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein -N
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane -I
32. Blubber by Judy Blume -P
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam -I
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier -I
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry -I
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood -R
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George -P
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison - I
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras -H
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee -R
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison - H
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton -HI
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard -R
46. Deenie by Judy Blume -H
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar -R
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz -R
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein -R
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley-R
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)-P
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King -N
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl _R
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell -P
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy -N
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest -I
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis -R
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by
Lynda Madaras -N
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume -P
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier -HI
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney -R
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut -HI
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding -P
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King -H
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume -P
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King -HN
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain -R
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern -HN
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford -R
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene -
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Whats up with judy blume, I never really liked her books but i had no idea she was corrupting our youth.

man, i got bored of looking stuff up.

Race Abandoned - Seasick

I went sailing this weekend. I was supposed to be in this offshore race on saturday, crewing for these guys who had never been racing before. Haha, we went out and the waves were pushing to almost 3 metres. thats like 9 foot waves. I kid you not. We couldn't see out of them. They were fucking huge. It wouldn't be such a big deal on the ocean because the distance between waves is much larger and so big waves tend to be big smooth waves. Luckily for us on lake ontario big waves are short cresting waves and it was worse than a roller-coaster.

Actually I would have been fine if I hadn't drank the coffee that one of the guys made as we left the dock. That shit was terrible and as soon as we got out I wasn't feeling so hot at all. I've never puked from being seasick, drinking, yeah but man, on the sea i have an iron stomach. Boy was I ever sick, I managed to unload the coffee out of my stomach but at least mu breakfest stayed down. Everybody else got pretty sick too. One guy puked 3 times and looked as pale and as green as fuck. Haha, all in all it was kind of funny. It would have been nice to do the race but then the race comittee couldn't set the marks. Apparently it was just too wavy for the little runabouts that they had. After all that puking and getting soaked it was abandoned. I thought we canadians were a tougher lot but I guess not. Really it wasn't that windy out. maybe 16 to 20 knots. So not a huge deal but the wind was from the east and these waves must have been building up for at least a day or so. At least it was interesting.

Next weekend is the UofT regatta out of PCYC. Lets hope I actually get to do some racing.

zzz

I was watching Anderson Cooper 360 with my folks. Something about Madonna falling off a horse. I was in the middle of saying something snarky and then I look around and they're both passed out asleep on the couch. It was 8:15.

I can't wait to get old.

I went to the bookstore and read "Sky Burial" by Xinran, the lady who wrote "The Good Women of China" It was fucking amazing. Great book. I tried to find "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" but i couldn't find it on the shelf so instead I read some Rankin book. I'm working my way through the series.

The problem with reading books where the author is still alive is that you have to wait around while they write the next one. And then you might forget about the series. Or get really agitated while you wait. Or it takes so long between books that you forget where in the story you are. Case and point, harry potter. The books just come too far apart. That's why i don't really like being totally into a living author. Their body of work isn't done yet. You get dissapointed if they write some shit book later on, like Helen Fielding. When the authors are dead, they've already written all the books possible. There's no waiting around. I can then read their body of books from start to finish in chronological order of when they were written and then be satisfied that i've read all their books. Of course there's always the agatha christie problem where there's so many books you can't remember which ones you've read. And you can't be sure of the order they were written in because they re-release them under different titles. Drives me fuckin nuts. Libraries don't often have all the books in the series, or they've lost some of them. So then you're forced to read the books they have first, and then go running around sourcing the rest of them. That's why I go to bookstores. They usually have the whole frikin series.

I also recently polished off the whole SinCity comics series. Its fuckin amazing, but now i have to wait around until he writes more or the movies come out again. I didn't go to the comic book shop though, fanboys drive me nuts. I just downloaded some compilation of all the series. Maybe when Frank Miller dies and they put out a box set of everything I'll buy it.

This blog sucks.

In other news here's a really ugly dog

Sam, the world's ugliest dog

bye baby bye

So the motorcycle is gone. No more '84 honda shadow. I feel sad about selling it, but it was just collecting dust in my garage. It was the first major thing that i ever bought with money that I had made myself. It may have been an old shitbox but it was my old shitbox. Even though I didn't ride it for the last season, having it there felt like i had accomplished something. One of these days i'll buy another one. Probably a low cc sportbike or cafe racer.

The windsurfing was good. It actually wasn't that hard to learn. Knowing how to sail helped alot. There was some good wind on saturday and though the morning sucked it cranked for half an hour on sunday so i got to see what it was all about. I think i need to buy a board at somepoint and maybe try out racing. I guess I have a new sinkhole for my money. I joined the Toronto Windsurfing Club on cherry beach. Its pretty inexpensive and lessons are 10 bucks a pop. The people seem to be nice and everybody was very helpful.

I was listening to some old cranberries stuff i have and i remembered this weird thing i heard in hong kong. They had taken the music from the song "Dreams" and changed the lyrics into something in chinese. I can't remember exactly what the song was about but it wasn't a direct translation. Other than the words, the music and the tune of the song and everything else was a direct rip off. They didn't even change the tempo or nothing. Covers should do something to change the mood or theme or something of the music. Otherwise its just kareoke The state of cantonese pop music is terrible. I had the oppertunity to meet a VP Universal Music asia pacific. She was nice enough to show me around and she told me how they just try and grab up the next big thing and push them out and market the hell out of them, just like here, except more than half of them can't sing at all. Then, as soon as they're no longer popular they're dropped like a farting baby. Most of the so called talent that they groom are really just personalities as opposed to musicians. She said that there was some hope. Many of the newer acts they're finding are from china and taiwan and they can really sing. But they don't sing cantonese.