November 10, 2010 • 5:22 pm 0
So, it’s November 10, 2010 and the official countdown to my 6th month spending/shopping ban begins today. The ban begins on January 1st, 2011 and runs until July 1st, 2011. I figure as I hit another milestone in February when I turn 30, it’s about time that I stopped pretending to be financially responsible and actually become financially responsible.
Filed under: Financial Responsibility , Bright Ideas, Finance, Plans
November 5, 2009 • 1:48 pm 0
lets list some more of the more recent books that I have read. I haven’t done this in a while, and really, I haven’t been reading too often, which is so not good for my new years resolution. I have this funny feeling that I may end up making this same resolution once again for 2010, but I’ll actually keep track of it this time.
My lack of reading has changed recently due to my purchase of an ipod Touch and a lovely little app called Stanza. Now on my two hour commute into the office and home each night (that’s two hours each way), I can read books on my ipod. Normally I don’t like to read in digital/ebook format, but considering how many hardcover books there are that I want to read, this is a better alternative that damaging my back from lugging them around all the time. Plus, it’s a great way to read all those trashy books without anyone knowing what you’re reading.
On to the books!
Generation Kill – Evan Wright 
Ok, so this book has become my recent obsession. I have this thing for war books, specifically modern war books. This one was one of the better ones that I have read in a long time. It’s not a cautionary tale, or a tale about the difficulty of military life. This is just simply the story of the First Recon Battalion of the United States Marines and their experiences in the opening days of the war in Iraq. The book is actually very humourous without actually trying and I frequently found myself laughing out loud while reading it. This was not such a great idea as everyone sitting near me on the train now thinks I am some kind of degenerate for laughing at anything that is found in a book called Generation Kill. The book of course is a longer version of the critically acclaimed series of articles that appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine back in 2003 called ‘The Killer Elite”. There is also the critically acclaimed HBO series Generation Kill, which follows pretty much to the letter some of the events found in this book.
August 13, 2009 • 12:57 pm 0
why going on a vacation/staycation is so exhausting? I really should not be this tired at all. Don’t even get me started on the fact that I now have a cough. If I have the swine flu, I am soooo not going to be happy.
Filed under: Uncategorized
July 17, 2009 • 11:50 am 0
that because I work in a University administering two programs, it would be pretty easy to arrange my own schedule. Apparently not. I have been trying to make this crap work for a week now, and it’s just not working. Stupid tutorials! I must admit I am kind of nervous to be starting courses again in September. I have to get myself back into the routine of the whole thing. I guess this year, I am actually going to go to lectures instead of just showing up to drop off homework or do tests. Must maintain the 4.0 GPA.
In other news, I only have two more working days until my staycation begins. Now if only I could get my mother out of the house for the 1.5 weeks that I am off, all would be well.
Filed under: Uncategorized , school, staycation
April 1, 2009 • 3:19 pm 0
So here is my new book haul. I think I seriously have a problem here!
The Heretic Queen: A Novel
The Heretic Queen: A Novel – by Michelle Moran
Nefertari, niece of the famed heretic queen Nefertiti, becomes part of the court of Pharaoh Seti I after her family is deposed, and she befriends Ramesses II, the young crown prince. When Ramesses is made co-monarch, he weds Iset, the granddaughter of a harem girl backed by Seti’s conniving sister, Henuttawy, the priestess of Isis. As Nefertari’s position in the court becomes tenuous, she realizes that she, too, wants to marry Ramesses and enlists the help of Seti’s other sister, Woserit. But when Nefertari succeeds in wedding Ramesses, power struggles and court intrigues threaten her security, and it is questionable whether the Egyptian people will accept a heretic descendant as their ruler or if civil war will erupt. Moran (Nefertiti) brings her characters to life, especially Nefertari, who helped Ramesses II become one of the most famous of Egyptian pharaohs. Nefertari’s struggles to be accepted as a ruler loved as a leader and to secure her family’s position throughout eternity are sure to appeal to fans of historical fiction.
The Well and Mine
The Well and Mine – by Gin Phillips
A tight-knit miner’s family struggles against poverty and racism in Phillips’s evocative first novel, set in Depression-era Alabama. Throughout, she moves skillfully between the points of view of miner father Albert, hard-working mother Leta, young daughter Tess and teenage daughter Virgie, and small son Jack. They see men who are frequently incapacitated or killed by accidents in the local mines; neighbors live off what they can grow on their patch of land; and blacks like Albert’s fellow miner and friend Jonah are segregated in another part of Carbon Hill—and often hauled off to jail arbitrarily. When Tess witnesses a woman throwing a baby into their well, no one believes her until the dead child is found, and few are shocked. Tess, hounded by nightmares, and Virgie, on the cusp of womanhood and resistant to the thought of an early marriage to the local boys who court her, begin making inquiries of their own, visiting wives who’ve recently had babies and learning way more than they imagined. With a wisp of suspense, Phillips fully enters the lives of her honorable characters and brings them vibrantly to the page.
Filed under: Uncategorized , Book Haul, Books
March 13, 2009 • 3:25 pm 0
So apparently, I will not be able to watch the Manchester United vs. Liverpool game tomorrow and I am not very happy about it.
Instead of being in front of my 52 inch television watching Liverpool get spanked (I hope), I will be in a car with my mother driving to Windsor for the day. If this wasn’t for a dying family member, I wouldn’t go but even I am not that insensitive.
I wonder if I can hijack the radio and find the game to at least listen to it on the way. This may or may not be a good idea as I tend to get a little nuts when watching football.
Memo to self: Life gets scheduled around the football watching schedule!
Filed under: Uncategorized , Fail, Football
March 13, 2009 • 2:32 pm 0
So I received my new book haul from Amazon.ca the other day and this is what I got. The last book is a replacement for the one that I left on the subway.
Shut Up, I'm Talking
Shut Up, I’m Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government — A Memoir by Gregory Levey
So I have been interested in this book for a while and finally decided to buy it. The author goes for an interview for an Internship at the U.N. only to be told that they are not offering internships and being offered a job as a junior speech writer for the Israeli delegation. Needless to say, it snow balls from there and he soon finds himself about to vote on a U.N. resolution, only no one has told him how to vote and he doesn’t know what they are even voting on.
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader in 1680s United States, when the slave trade is still in its infancy. Reluctantly he takes a small slave girl in part payment from a plantation owner for a bad debt. Feeling rejected by her slave mother, 14-year-old Florens can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master’s house, but later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives . . .
At the novel’s heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter – a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
Filed under: Uncategorized , Book Haul, Books
March 13, 2009 • 2:00 pm 0
Yes, I am aware that it is March 13 and we are 79 days into 2009 (thank you blackberry). But I am going to tell you what my New Years Resolution for 2009 was anyway. I normally don’t make resolutions as I can never ever stick to them, but so far so good.
My New Years Resolution for 2009 is to read at least one book a week.
Seeing as we are currently 11 weeks into the year (thank you again blackberry) and I have read 16 books so far, I would say that that is pretty good. Never mind that I read 8 of the 16 in one week. In my defense or shame, those 8 were not particularly challenging.
Below you can see a list of the books that I have read so far. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Uncategorized , Books, Resolution
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