Reading Ondaatje makes me want to write poetry.

I love how his phrases sound on the tongue, whispered into my yellow-cornered copy of The English Patient. My pencil markings are still there from high school. Circled and underlined passages jump out at me... but somehow, even then, I knew what was at the heart of the novel. But sometimes, lines are underlined for no good reason. "Knees" are underlined a lot. As are the words "brown" and "black" and "river." I apparently skipped over the chapter "In Situ" (as there are no markings to be found), I assume because it's the most technical of the chapters, but I quite enjoyed its details this time. I pictured the fuse, the bomb, the cold. I, like Kip, was half-buried beside the ticking puzzle. Only, on my end, I was figuring out the inner workings of Ondaatje's mind, as opposed to the German bomb master's in the novel.

As Almasy has difficulty expressing his love for Katharine, I find it difficult to put the beauty, the poetry of his writing into words. This post doesn't, and could never, do Ondaatje justice.

I'm just running out the door to do some studying downtown, but I wanted to share these two things.

One. This Zefrank had me laughing for SO long.

Seriously. The last minute of it is priceless.


Two. This page of rabbits yawning is too cute. Kinda scary, but cute.

Updates-a-Go-Go

Hello, friends.

I'm 1 1/2 weeks into my fourth year. Crazy. I'm actually really enjoying all of my courses, although some more than others. The Michael Ondaatje class is amazing -- great class, great and enthusiastic lecturer, the best Canadian fiction around (in my humble opinion), and I'm actually contributing quite a bit in discussion. Could it be that the typically quiet Mandy is FINALLY coming out of her shell? Who knows. The plagues and peoples course is really interesting but the prof is completely insane. And I'm not saying that like, being funny. She really is off the wall. One minute she's pissed off that someone had the nerve to walk into her class 2 minutes late (which I somewhat understand), then she's depressed because no one's laughing at her jokes, then she's insecure ("are you having fun?" "still having fun?"), then feeling her age ("I bet you're all guessing how old I am" x10) and finally crying hysterically only to snap out of it again in seconds. Seriously, manic depression.

See tomorrow's cartoon -- I plan on drawing one based on something she said in class today. But I'll mention this other funny thing she said in another class many years ago. Firstly, you have to know she's VERY animated in class. She jumps around and is hyper all the time. Ok. So she was teaching conduction to non-Science students, and no one was getting it. So she picked out one guy in the front row, and said "TOUCH ME!!! I'm so hot! And when you touch me, you'll get SO HOT too!" I wish I had been there. The thing she said today isn't that good, but... yeah. I killed the buzz. You should look tomorrow at the cartoon tomorrow (link to right).

So much about plagues. Chris and I really enjoyed the Ring Cycle last week. The new Opera House is so nice, and the sound was great. Good times.

I've been reading like a madwoman lately. I read everything for this week, and starting on next week. I read the play for Tragedy last night, I've read about half of In the Skin of a Lion this afternoon, and I've read the first chapter of Orchid Thief. Huzzah. I like this reading ahead thing -- I feel so productive right now. Grand plan: Finish the Ondaatje ASAP so I can reread The English Patient in order to write a paper/presentation for October 10. Wish me luck.

Ta ta! Must go a-stationary-biking now, while watching Jeopardy (a daily tradition).

-Me

I received a message on facebook from someone who went to my high school (we had never met, had been in different years and never had any reason to converse), and who apparently has been in some of my university courses. This person feels that I resent him/her for some reason, and has misinterpreted my lack of acknowledgement or any looks in his/her general direction as a sign of my hating him/her.

Such a stupid, high school thing. But why do I feel so horrible?

My Duty, As Being "Tagged"

I won't go into the connotations and so forth, as Chris did on his blog. I will, therefore, just get to the meat of this meme.

Once you have been tagged, you have to write a post with 8 facts/things/habits about yourself and say who tagged you. In the end, you will need to choose the 6 people you tag and list their names. No tag backs. Here are 8 things you may not know about me:

Thanks, Chris, for tagging me... Now I have to think of eight facts...

1) I like music, but I don't like music enough to actively seek out new bands or styles. Every cd I purchased this year (admittedly, it's been like, two) have either been bands that I love and have all of their other cds, or they have been cds that I had experienced through Chris and genuinely liked. I don't know how to change this habit of mine... I don't really know if it's THAT bad, either. Obviously, Chris has good taste, and I don't know how to go about looking into new music.

2) I wish I had read more this summer. I read like, eight very early in the summer, but that stalled in July and I've only read two books since. I'm less than 100 pages into my current book, and would like to see it finished by the time school starts next week.

3) I wish I could write more. I sometimes feel like a failure as a writer when I don't (or can't) write. How can I expect to write for a living if I can't now when it's for fun and without the pressures of it being my only means of income?

4) I'm desperate to go back to school. I don't know what to do with myself here. And I want to stop working at the bookstore, which is only 2 shifts away. But I know that I'll miss everyone horribly. On a related note, only like, five people are coming to my goodbye party. I guess others aren't as worried about missing me, or saying goodbye. Sigh.

5) I feel bad about losing touch with friends in my past. I'm trying to make an effort to keep in touch with everyone, even if I don't often see friends in person due to our schedules. I recently found an elementary school friend's email on Facebook, and we've been emailing each other twice, three times a day since then.

6) I have an unhealthy obsession with The Price is Right, and obssessing over what MY decisions would have been, and whether or not I would have won that fancy new car.

7) I have a cycle of blogs/websites that I visit daily. I rarely deviate from this list, and I rarely visit any other websites. I look forward to Thursdays the most out of every day of the week, as most cartoon websites and other update-able sites update on Thursdays.

8) I bought an agenda for school that says "Slacker" on it, which is funny because I never EVER use an agenda although I buy one every year. It's cute, hardcover and the size I wanted. I wish, for one second, I could convince myself to BE a slacker, though. I hate feeling such pressure and stress to always be doing something, and feeling like a failure when I procrastinate.

What were the last 10 books you read?
1) Athena - John Banville
2) Headhunter - Timothy Findley
2 1/2) 200 pages of Ulysses - James Joyce. I know it's not a full book, but I thought (given the book and its reputation), it was worth mentioning.
3) Son of a Witch - Gregory Maguire
4) The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
5) Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
6) Mean Boy (advanced reading copy) - Lynn Coady
7) V for Vandetta - Alan Moore
8) In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
9) The Sandman Series (Volumes 6-8) - Neil Gaiman
10) Fidelity - Michael Redhill


I tag: Ashley, Gillian, Justin, Melissa and Tiffany, as no one else with a blog reads this, or they have already been tagged. Apologies for not having tagged 6 people. Please do not harm me, meme God!

A Nice Story From My Dad

I liked this comment from dad, and (since it was posted on Aug 20), I doubted anyone would read it. Therefore, I repost it here:

"I'm glad your piggy is ok, I've always had a soft spot for them. That story reminds me of what happened to me at the cottage recently. I caught a small fish, and he was badly hooked. I desperatly tried to unhook him before he died. As I finally removed the hook, I thought that he was so small, and one of God's little creatures. I was scared he was too far gone. When he happily swam away I was pleased. I hoped someone upstairs saw the frantic effort I'd put in to save this poor wee fish. Then the next day. while I was golfing, I sliced a drive into the trees on a hole which I usually par(or sometimes birdie). I cried out "Oh God please, not in the trees!!" The ball hit a tree and bounced right back into the fairway, and I promptly parred the hole.Methinks gentleness to creatures sometimes is rewarded. I hear Alex spent $120 on [Marshmallow, our guinea pig]. His time will come."