The goal is to read all of these novels by summer. At the rate I’ve been going I don’t see it being too large of a problem. If you have any to add to the list please do so.

In, for the first time in my life, ABC order by Title:

Atonement, Ian Mcewan

Effigy, Alissa York

Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland

Life After God, Douglas Coupland

Lullabies for Little Criminals, Heather Oneill

Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

No One Belongs Here More than You, Miranda July

The Assassin’s Song, M.G. Vassanji

The Birth House, Ami Mckay

The Road, Cormac Mccarthy

I got a job at Shoppers on Dunbar. The kids are nice, my boss is easy going, the wage is decent. Unless something better paying comes along I should be there for a while.

Jin and I are moving out. Know anyone who has a 2 BR basement suite for 1000 or less? Didn’t think so. We want something with a decent travel time to UBC (though, since I’m only on campus 1/week next term I don’t really care). Nothing around here is cheap enough though.

I’m reading James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, and regardless of the scandals, I think it’s an incredibly powerful moving novel for anyone who believes they should give up on anything. Whether or not Frey embellished details doesn’t matter; he lived a life, and based on those events he wrote a novel for people to read as a self help book. I completely support him.

Oh, and by the way. Watch “Where the hell is Matt?“

Here are a few summer films I might want to check out (once the cash flow begins again, anyway).

Boy A I like the debate between rehabilitation and punishment, so this should be interesting.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button This looks so interesting! I’m reading the short story to set me up for the film. Can’t wait!

Choke Chuck Palahniuk’s mediocre novel is turned into what looks like will be a mediocre film. I might check this out since I read the novel, but I’m not entirely sure yet.

The Rocker Hmm.. the announcer dude says this is ‘the movie for the rocker.. in all of us,’ but I’m not quite sure. It looks silly enough.

My Winnipeg I.. don’t really know what to say about this, but it looks weird enough that I might like it.

Bloodline Documentary trying to prove/disprove the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had children. Looks interesting; of course, it reminds me much of Mr. Brown.

Hamlet 2 I think this film just looks absolutely hilarious!

Towelhead I like coming of age films, what else can I say?

Dave showed me this really cool article about sound called Five Great Auditory Illusions that everyone should check out. 1 and 2 are the best.

I’ve decided that my eagerness to fly is really getting out of hand, so I’m seriously thinking about hang gliding. My dad’s cousin lives in Abbotsford and showed us clips of his hang gliding experiences, so I might have to take him up on his offer.

I’m excited to move off campus, but things are not looking as positive as they were yesterday. Wish me luck.

I’m only going to be on campus once/week for school next semester. This means I can work full time at my new job.

Sea Wolf was wonderful. Going alone to Sea Wolf was lame/loser-esque. The Media Club is a nice venue.

I also liked the opening act, The Jealous Girlfriends a lot, and will purchase their album in due time.

Steph’s visit came and went faster than a beautiful summer’s day in Vancouver, but nonetheless we had a wonderful visit. It was nice just to relax and catch up while watching episodes of What Not to Where and John and Kate Plus 8. Her flight was canceled from Calgary because apparently the plane she was supposed to take was struck by the fire in the sky.

No one knows what happens when a plane is struck by lightning. Do you?

In other news, please visit Indigo’s Love of Reading Campaign site and sign the petition to stop the illiteracy/excruciatingly small budget allowed for books in public school. As an avid reader and lover of literature it’s physically and emotionally painful to realize that children do not have access to books. According to the documentary, Canadian Public Schools can only afford 1/3 of a book/child. One third! To think my nephew will be attending a school with such a lack in books within the next couple of years frightens me.

So watch the documentary and sign the petition!

I failed my first Bio midterm, and and now studying for the next one. If I don’t pass it I’m going to drop the course and try my luck with something either late summer or next term.

If I get into the College of Ed I might not go, and might finish my minor here by December or May (not sure) and apply next year. If I don’t get in, the plan is to stay anyway.

I’m a happy kid these days. I think I’m finally growing up.

Watch for Shawn Feeney to morph Dave and me together into BFF.

Worth 1000: Cartoons in our world Some of these are really, really good. I have a hard time deciding my favorite, though.

This deli meat you want a juicy sandwich, doesn’t it?

I really like Lisa Congdon’s work, especially her ‘art’ link.

Have you ever wondered what a giant field of me would look like? Check it out!

I’ve been listening to AOL radio lately, too. The Indie stations are pretty decent.

This is why guys should never ask out girls at the bar. P.S., everyone should always read Bizarro; it’s funny shtuff.

It doesn’t take an English student to find the hidden meaning in every type of literature…

Here’s the low down on Dave’s visit:

z) I waited for his shuttle in front of Chapters (a big book store), and to pass time I bought two small art books. When I came outside I sat at a table and began to read. A very drunk man got out of a bus and walked right over to me and began to talk to me about nonsensical thing–the kind very drunk men talk about. A security officer came over and stood by me (for fear of something happening?) and I told the drunk man that if he wanted to sit at the table I didn’t care, but I wanted to read my book. So, I got bored of his shenanigans and called Dave. I realized his bus would be stopped across the street, so I crossed. The drunk man followed across the street, but he didn’t care to use the cross walk and stopped traffic. Then he knocked over a newspaper stand and wanted to start fights with random people. Then the security officer crossed the road and asked if I knew where the drunk man went but I just said down the street in the general direction. It was a strange time

y) Dave showed up basically on time and we made out way to campus. He was cold and blamed it on being in a warm bus for so long. I was warm, and quite pleasant. He says he doesn’t have the extra layer of Canadian skin. Poor kid.

x) On the bus ride home he was quite impressed with the long buses that turn in the middle.

w) Once home we hung out in my apartment for a while; he didn’t meet Jin for a while because she was in the library studying for Law exams. Poor girl.

v) He finally got hungry so we walked toward the Village. We stopped at some place on the way but it was too expensive and the kitchen was closed. So instead we opted for McDonald’s food. Yum, grease.

u) The next day I let him sleep in a bit since he’d had little to know sleep for the past 98 hours. We went to Granville Island, took a small ferry to English Bay, walked around the beach and went downtown. We spotted this awesome 6 floor music shop which was somewhat deceiving because some floors didn’t have anything to do with music. One floor had a randomly large amount of grand pianos though. 45k for some of them.

t) That night we went to Student Kitchen Project and made random pizzas. They both received rave reviews, but neither of us liked the crust all that much. Pooey.

s) That night we went to Em’s place to say hello (and pick up some tasty treats she bought for me at T&T); then we probably watched a movie

r) Friday we met up with Em and Jen to hit the Aquarium and Stanley Park. We watched a dolphin show, saw the Belugas, and enjoyed a once in a lifetime (or so it seems) event of the huge walrus actually swimming. I think our favorite exhibit, though, was the jellyfish.

q) We went to the Stanley Park beach and found a purse. In a really (really) long and round about way we found the owner and returned her purse. Needless to say, she was definitely hung over, and told Dave and me that she “loses this purse everywhere, even on the bus.” Right.

p) After that we went back to my apartment and relaxed for a bit until…

o) Dinner at some crazy Korean BBQ/Japanese all you can eat place. It was really good food, but just way too much! Dave and I each drank a Molson Canadian and liked it.

n) We then proceeded to Moxies where Dave and I got shwasted. It was a glorious time, really. We did two rounds of shots (and one included two other people’s shots). The second round was gross, but we were both done in by the end of the night. Dave had to piss really badly when we got back to campus, so he Christianed some random bush. My friends left us to stumble back home, but we met up with them anyway. Slow, slow walkers. Somehow we stumbled home well enough, almost passed out on the couch but mustered enough energy to go to real bed.

m) The next morning we woke up really early, and this didn’t sit well with me for the rest of the day (no sleep make Heather not feel good). Neither of us felt particularly sick, but a bit more sleep would have been nice.

l) So, Emily picked us up and we went Go Karting! Emily drove us to Joyce’s house where I tried to get a sneak of her house. Sadly, all I could muster was peeking through the mail slot. It wasn’t as messy as she thinks. Anyway, Go Karting was a huge success, save for Joyce not knowing whether or not she enjoyed herself. Somehow it was behind Flight Simulation in ranking of ‘fun.’

k) We then went to some mall in Richmond which boasted a 2 dollar store. There Dave and I each bought a Happy Woody Doll, and I found an incredible pencil case. I think I might go back at some point just to remember how ridiculous it was.

j) This is an edit; I forgot a J.

i) Joyce came over and I made her, Dave and me some pasta with meat sauce. Joyce liked it (and Joyce never likes pasta) and even had seconds. We watched Robot Chicken and I think we scarred her. Joyce was fascinated by the use of a wooden spoon, and that despite me saying I have “no” food in the house, I actually have some. Dave suggested she start a television show, and guaranteed she’d receive great ratings/reviews.

h) That night we watched 3 movies (I think): Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Batman and Robin, and something else I don’t remember. Good times.

g) Sunday we slept in til 1:00 and the day disappeared really fast:

f) Dave did laundry

e) Dave borrowed music and movies from my external

d) We almost fell asleep on the air mattress putting off finishing his laundry until we realized it was already 6 and should get up. So we went for a walk around campus, trekked down to Wreck Beach and trekked back up from Tower Beach. It was a [good] time had by all, and I even convinced him to start walking more. Weee!

c) We talked about how much cooler it’d be if we lived in the same city (any city, really), and that hanging out in real life is much better than MSN (what isn’t, really?) and that we both enjoyed each other’s company. w00t!!?! BFF 4 LIFE!!??!?!!11one!

b) That night we got little sleep cause we’d been used to staying up til 4 watching movies and because he had to catch the shuttle at 5:30 (ew). We called a cab and the driver was really nice. We went to Timmy’s where we had really weird service from someone I think was new at the time, enjoyed scalding hot drinks, and ate some pretty nasty baking. Sadly, I didn’t appreciate the experience. What’s happening, Timmy?

a) The shuttle came right on time and took Dave back to America, away from the pouring rain and cold weather that even us Canadians hate. Grr.

If I forgot anything important (which more than definitely happened, I apologize cause I’m not about to edit all the lettering.