my cat peed on the carpet today and my mom wants to kill her so i sneakily cleaned it myself so my mom wouldn't notice. except cat pee is so strong that i needed to use a lot of cleaners to get rid of the smell and i think that i made mustard gas and now I can't stop coughing.
i don't know why i keep doing stuff like this to save a cat who viciously growls at me if i am within ten metres of her and attacks my feet at night until they bleed.
| ::taracool |
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005
so today brock and i woke up at 8am to drive to waterloo and gather the remaining items from the place we were subletting. it was pretty boring. i saw all these cars with these tacky magnetic yellow ribbons on them that said 'support our troops'. that interested me for a while. i noticed that my moms partner had one before we left that morning, but i thought nothing of it because he just retired from the military last year and already has one that says navy on his truck. it was unusual seeing other canadians having it though because canadians are ususally pretty apathetic to this kind of stuff. after much thought, brock and i decided that we supported our troops by not supporting their participation in war.
i also noticed that cars and trucks look like beavers. the headlights are the eyes, the side mirrors are the ears, and the license plate is the teeth. it works from behind too. usually music can entertain, but i'm bad at the radio. toronto has a lot of stations, so i need to keep changing them to find the best possible song playing at that very moment. except there are never any good songs playing, just lots of shania twain and amanda marshall and Sum 41 because the radio stations need to fill their Canadian content regulations. the Edge was playing this OLP shit so i needed to turn that and i found a station playing the new Franz Ferdinand song which totally rocks and was a good move on my part. coldplay was everywhere and also that song by the killers which won't ever get out of my head. Hot Fuss is the best name ever for an album. when I get my cats i'm naming one of them Hot Fuss and the other Archduke Franz Ferdinand. there are three fruitflies on the screen and they're distracting me. i know that somehow my mom is going to blame their existence on me. i can't believe i'm living at home again, even if it is for just a month. posted by tara @ 11:46 PM
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Monday, August 29, 2005
today i was listening to the radio and there was this advertisement with this teenage girl or something talking about how she lost her virginity to a football player in high school and felt bad about it and now has herpes and wishes she would have waited to have sex. the commercial was a proponent of abstinence and for planned parenthood or some other lameass organization.
This ad pissed me off so much, first because who the fuck in Canada loses their virginity to a football player? I could see a puckbunny with a hockey player, or something like that, but not a football player. no one plays football in Canada. maybe only the people who suck at hockey or something, but they're really quite rare. I mean, its a natural fact that all Canadians are super-amazing at hockey, right. And second, this girl was so lame. so she had sex and got herpes. and now she's all regretful because she didn't wait for marriage and is ruined for anyone out there. what a fuckass. So all these girls read magazines and watch tv and look at the internet and are bombarded by media daily. all these mediums are pushing sexsexsex. but the christian roots of our society force pre-pubescent girls whether they are christian or not to morally consider and privilege the idea of waiting for 'the one'. by doing so they will remain pure and all that shit. but in reality they have sex because everyone else is and its natural but then feel like shit afterwards because they've gone against the moral standards of what is purity and how a good girl should act. so here is my idea: teach girls in school that sex is great and that they should have it if they want and not have it if they don't want to and teach them all about protection but mainly teach them that sex is natural and right when consensual. No conflicting messages, no guilt for girls who lose their virginity. there will be nothing to feel guilty about, except that you were so much of a dumbass that you ended up with herpes. end of story. posted by tara @ 10:40 PM
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hi. i guess you've figured out that things haven't really worked out between us. i needed some time alone, some time to think. i tried and i tried to find ways to make us work, this relationship. i know that times have been rough lately. hell, times have been rough since day one. but i also know that we've had some good times: at the park, living downtown that one time, at the huether for drinks or the lions den for brunch, going out that rare night, watching all the ducks waddling anywhere and everywhere. some of the friends we've made that have made this whole crazy adventure worth it; others, of course, not so much.
i really tried. i contacted so many people to keep us going. i even thought about living with naders mom. when i did find a place, it was with a 40 year old man who drove a concrete truck. i was going to do it, to move in monday. but things fell through. and i guess that we fell through because of it. i'm far away now, somewhere temporary, and hopefully somewhere more permanent at the end of september. i'll visit of course, but it will never be the same. days here and there, to keep appointments made in the past. but i don't think i'll ever really be back. things will never be what they were. i hope you've grown from me, as i have from you. i hope you'll remember how you can be good, how you can flourish and fulfil others. i'll certainly remember how being with you taught me so much, grounded me and forced me to appreciate how life can be lived. All the best, Tara posted by tara @ 10:04 PM
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Sunday, August 28, 2005
today i woke up and the sun was bright and shining in my room so i put a pillow over my head to block it out and continue sleeping. i sleep on my stomach which is so great and cool and everything. i couldn't get back to sleep so i got up and stretched and went to brush my teeth which is always fun first thing in the morning and your mouth is full of gunk from sleeping with your mouth open all night because your allergies are bad and your nose is plugged.
so I go to brush my teeth which feels wonderful because i have had a great sleep and the day looks beautiful and I am so free because i am naked and no one is around and my hair is all messy but it looks kinda sexy mussed up which is the great thing about having blonde hair and i wish i could wear it outside like that all day. i love the mornings, when your stomach is beautifully flat and your breasts are round and perfect and your skin is glowing and smooth and you feel like dancing to glorify the beauty of everything. i go back to bed because my blanket is wonderfully comfortable and brock is in the bed waiting for me. but it is sunday which means that the best kind of meal is in abundance and i can't think about anything else but eating the glory that is brunch. so i got up and brock got up and we picked up old clothes lying on the floor without showering or anything and got into the car and drove downtown so i could eat eggs benedict at my favourite place. we walk downstairs and sit down and the air is kinda humid and my seat is kinda low and the coffee is so strong brock thinks it tastes like gasoline. but it's all good. i wanted to go for a drive because the car is not ours and the gas is free and i wanted to see what waterloo looks like on a sunday morning. we drove and we drove and i could just sit and look at all the suburbs, but also at the beautiful old trees and the fields of corn, and the beauty that is a freshly paved road. we drove so much we were driving in circles, but i just wanted to keep driving, to keep looking. tractors and churches and synagogues and streets named hemmingway and keats and sanford fleming. a street named albert and a parking lot at Wilfrid Laurier University and me leaving to car the go to the school and write five more pages. and that's where i am now, a beautiful afternoon outside and me inside a school working on a thesis. posted by tara @ 1:15 PM
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Saturday, August 27, 2005
i'm going to look at a house to live in that pretty much doesn't exist. i looked all over mapquest and everything and no cigar. it's the end of august and i have no place to live. i just need a place for one more month.
it's pretty bad to be reading all the time about the conflict management process in Bosnia and all the things that went wrong and created the brutal conflict and everything. it's pretty bad to be reading it all and see the exact things happening in Iraq right now. I mean, the US pressured for a quick solution, even if it meant the exclusion of Serbs from the question of Bosnia'a sovereignty. not at all like pressuring for a quick constitution in Iraq, even if it means excluding/failing to accomodate the demands of the Sunnis. posted by tara @ 12:36 PM
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Friday, August 26, 2005
I saw the 40 year old virgin on wednesday. it was the funniest movie i've seen. ever. i was crying i was laughing so hard. go see it. you'll laugh.
posted by tara @ 11:08 PM
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posted by tara @ 2:46 PM
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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
almost done almost done almost done. i am almost finished the first draft of this friggin monster of a paper. my allergies are so bad my nose is bleeding from constantly rubbing it. i thought i missed big brother and INXS last night but came home and found it playing at 12. digital cable does come in useful i guess. i'm all for janelle or james winning it, or possibly maggie. at first i was opposed to her winning it, but she really is one of the better players.
i wish i could go invisible, but i also wish that this paper would magically write itself. here is my idea: create a specialized computer programme with attachments that directly go into your brain (the creative part) and they compile information and desires and wants for a particular subject by channeling your subconcious and the computer automatically generates a perfect paper and the great part is that the paper is entirely yours. cool, right? and wtf is up with blogrolling? posted by tara @ 10:45 AM
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
tara says:
i changed my blog tara says: a bit tara says: i was thinking that it would be really cool to get some wicked cats eyes staring in the dark as a header tara says: meow Brock says: okay i will check er out Brock says: i dont see all i see is the tracks. Brock says: the definition is a nice touch though. tara says: i know. i added the definition tara says: i couldn't decide whether it was a verb or adverb though Brock says: hmm. i think it is a noun. tara says: you are so taracool tara says: that is one taracool dude Brock says: nope. Brock says: you are Taracool tara says: nono, taracool is not a person tara says: it is a state of mind tara says: duh Brock says: it is an advanced state of civilization, honey. Brock says: it has a more global meaning. posted by tara @ 10:55 PM
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once, when i was a kid, my mom chased me around the house with a vaccuum. it was the stand up kind, but she lifted it up off the floor and started chasing me with it on. well, she caught me and my long glorious hair and she had to cut it off because it was all sucked up into the machine. she wasn't mad at me or anything, but just felt like chasing me.
that's my mom in a nutshell. posted by tara @ 3:02 PM
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i am motivationally inadequate. a term i use for my paper, but equally applies to myself. brock is interviewing for jobs in toronto. when he gets a job there, i will be moving there.
i plan on getting two kittens immediately. i got a booster juice this morning, and felt lame ordering it. specifically the booster - "go girl". they were playing our lady peace, and you know what? I hate our lady peace. rather, the shit they've come out with since clumsy that could easily pass for christian rock. ever since i lived with a girl who was into christian rock, and was all newly saved shit, i can't stand that scene. but now i have this line in my head where the girl wishes she was a dancer and had never heard of cancer. i met the band when i was 16 and they were playing at maple leaf gardens in toronto. i went back to the dressing room and raine was a dick. the other guys were cool tho. all in all i was more interested in the zamboni that swept the ice of the toronto maple leafs. the second thing i plan on doing when i go to toronto is watch a leafs game. when i met porno for pyros and red hot chili peppers i had no idea who they were. can you believe that? i met rush and thought they were lame. i was only 13 though. my brother has neil perts drumstick. i think he lost it. he thought they were lame too, but he was only 11. when i went to edgefest, the original edgefest and the one after that, i preferred to hang out back and eat the sandwiches and drink the bottled water. now that was fun. i went to a record release party when i was 17 and got alcohal poisoning and threw up all night. various people dropped in while i was puking and told me their favourite alcohal poisoning stories. that was a memorable night, only because someone took pictures. at least i looked pretty while i was throwing up, if you can look pretty while throwing up. i'm going through a nirvana renaisance. i never appreciated them back then, but i'm starting too now. i also like beck. tegan and sarah are pretty cool. i like that one song by hawksley workman "smoke baby". i'll probably like some more when i can actually do something other than write a fucking paper. posted by tara @ 12:26 PM
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Monday, August 22, 2005
i want to have a pair of shoes that have built in wheels. why do kids get to have all the fun stuff?
posted by tara @ 2:55 PM
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Sunday, August 21, 2005
 posted by tara @ 10:17 PM
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i'm all alone at the school on a sunday morning. freakishly alone. nobody is here. the feeling is unique, because this is a school usually full of insane people who are constantly screaming and yelling and finding ways to demonstrate something called 'school spirit'. gross. i'm glad i won't have to witness the atrocity they call 'ice week' here, which is basically a brainwashing exercise for first year students. people at wilfrid laurier pay to volunteer.
 I didn't go here for my first two years of university. I went to the University of Guelph, which taught me that a university can be different from a high school. Frosh week was about fun if you wanted it to be, or a time where you could personally adjust to being on your own. Guelph allowed me to sink into anonymity when i wanted to, but find my friends to hang out with when i felt like being with people. I lived here in first year. I can't wait to be done university. Last year I wasn't, which meant that staying on to do my Masters of Arts was a good idea. But now, i'm tired of it. I really like the department I work in, but I don't like this school. The wrong kind of environment is promoted here, one that blindsights students and allows for democratic accountability and legitimacy to become vague abstract concepts. A University shouldn't embrace the concept of corporation, a student union shouldn't be promoting themselves as a brand all over computer screens and food courts. Professors shouldn't have to teach five courses a year while expected to publish work as well. I shouldn't have to open up my BA degree package and find pleas to contribute to the school as an alumni. That's bullshit.posted by tara @ 11:28 AM
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Saturday, August 20, 2005
it has been a weird week, weather-wise. the lightening storm was crazy, and the tornados around here, and the gusts of rain. i always seem to get caught outside when it rains like that. we went to the grocery store to buy some weekend-food, then took the bus back, and it poured and poured. i ran down the street without shoes, removing my flip-flops in favour of nothing. running down the street, feet slapping on the wet ground, running through muddy puddles, trying to avoid sharp objects, discarded mcdonalds paraphenelia. we rented alexander. inside while the steam came off the ground, watching a movie so bad you can't take your eyes from it.
we went to booster juice. i wanted ketchup chips, but we are trying to be healthier than before. i'm always hungry when i'm in an air-conditioned room. i was still hungry when we got home, fusion booster and all. he got me red grapes and a glass of water. hold them up to the light to check for black widow spiders. carefully check for bruises, test for firmness. they weren't very good. i bought a book, a complicated kindness by miriam toews, lured by the governor generals award. the cover promised a great ending. that made me impatient, hurtling through the book like a bull to get to that ending, to find out why. i should have been writing my paper. i want to give up, make it go away. i want it magically finished. it's too big, too intimidating. i feel like i'm in a competition with the other paper-writers, to see who will finish first. finishing first meaning finishing best. posted by tara @ 1:01 PM
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Thursday, August 18, 2005
my allergies are insane today. i want to rip my nose off of my face and file my nails to their upmost point of sharpness to scratch every inch of that mothafucker. i don't know if they're bad because i cleaned the apartment last night and the cleaning agents aggravated them, or if its just nature taking its revenge on my sinuses for going home last weekend. you see, my mom lives across from a farmfield full of cows and hay. she also has a cat, which i made the mistake of petting then rubbing my eyes directly afterwards. and rubbing and rubbing and rubbing until it looked like i had been two black eyes.
at the beginning of january my roomate gave me a black eye. i made fun of him and he threw a water bottle at me and it hit me in the eye. i had to go to the hospital. i had a black black eye for two weeks. it was really marked because i'm so fair. i had to teach students and attend classes with it. my friends made fun of me. my professors made fun of me. i made fun of me. i wish i had taken a picture of it to remember. it was part of my week of bad luck. during that week, a bird shat on my head and i got a horrible case of the flu along with the black eye. that week wasn't very fun. if you're still reading this post, then i feel sorry for you. it's so bad your momma wouldn't read it. posted by tara @ 11:11 AM
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
When I started this blog, I originally wanted it to reflect the variety of my life. As a graduate student in political science, politics is a major part of that. I have a major interest in what is happening in the world today, and am always reading newspapers and websites to keep on top of articles and opinions. Things like the CBC strike, the housing bubble in North America, the constitutional process in Iraq, the situation in Zimbabwe, UN Reform, and Canadian politics in general are highly fascinating to me. I would love to sit down and write a full entry on why public broadcasting is so important, or what I think of the constitional process in Iraq. I can't though. Or maybe it's not so much that I can't, but that I just don't have it in me right now. My entire life is consumed with this vast paper, consumed by Bosnia, consumed by Northern Ireland, by people like Kymlicka, Lijphart, Belloni, O'Leary. Any analytical thought, any extra creative energy, is devoted to this paper. I just can't do anything else.
But this blog has given me a great opportunity to express myself in other ways. To allow me to practice writing on things not related to the academic arena. To give me a mental break from my thesis. I hope to get back to writing on political issues, and my passion for them. But for now, until October, this blog will be my outlet. A place where I can come and vent, or write about mundane things. Which is really great, and something I wanted to have as part of this blog originally, but just not as one-sided as it is right now. So for all the people coming here for political writings, come back in October when I'll bring that back into the blog. For now, it's all about idiotic fun. posted by tara @ 10:13 AM
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005
I have three mosquito bites on my feet and they are driving me nuts.
My theory is that when mosquitos really, really hate you (as they do me) they aim for your feet. I can't think of a worse place to be itchy. Especially if you are very ticklish. And if they manage to get you on the heel of your foot, where the skin is thicker, then you're pretty much screwed. The best I can do is get carpet burn by rubbing my feet on the stairs. posted by tara @ 11:02 AM
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Monday, August 15, 2005
i went home for the weekend. the wedding was funfunfun. we went up to brock's cottage and that was fun too. we played bocci ball (i have no idea how to spell that). we also played volleyball, and i ended up creating the best move ever: have a ball come at you, hit it, and ricochet it off your forehead. By doing that, it will magically propel itself upwards, over the net, and score a point. It's officially called taracoolvolleyballgoodness (patent pending). Other than that, i was awesome at staying out of the way while other people hit the ball.
posted by tara @ 7:17 PM
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Friday, August 12, 2005
the new backstreet boys video is some funny shit man. kinda fubarish, it made me laugh out loud.
i'm going to a wedding tomorrow. the people that are getting married are the only people my age i know that have been together longer than brock and i. they like the dave matthews band. i'm in a really bad mood today. i've been in a really bad mood this week. i'm poisonous. my hair is so silky and soft and blonde. the shampoo they used smells delicious. i want to walk up to random people and make them smell my hair. brock's been apprehended several times for this purpose. I watched kung-fu hustle last night. Like tony said, one of the best movies of the year hands down. it was wicked. there is this guy throwing a boomerang outside of my window. i didn't think they actually worked. posted by tara @ 9:27 AM
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Thursday, August 11, 2005
I am going to get my hair cut at 3:00 today. I have enough hair for three people. I always feel sorry for my hairdressers.
posted by tara @ 12:39 PM
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
I saw one of my favourite professors from my undergraduate years on Monday. She just got back from maternity leave, and was surprised to see me. She wondered why I was still around, and then joked about my inability to hand things in on time. I don't think I've ever handed a paper in on time. It used to stress me out, but it doesn't anymore. It's all about the system working for me, not the other way around. Alas, however, it has made me the department joke.
I'm just too cool for this school. posted by tara @ 12:30 PM
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Tuesday, August 09, 2005
I'm so mad at Brock right now because he made a sandwich for lunch this morning and didn't close the bag full of buns. We just bought them yesterday, and they were so fresh and soft, and now they are so hard and stale. No words can adequately describe the hatred I feel right now. He's lucky he's not here right now, or I might throw stuff at him.
Dr. Phil is on right now. There is this woman who is so upset and thinks that life is over because her daughter is going to university. Like what the fuck. Her only meaning in life is derived from making supper for her child? Hopefully she will commit suicide or something, then it would more interesting to watch. I hate Dr. Phil, who the fuck trusts a doctor who goes by his first name. His wife is even worse. If I could beat her I would. My cousin had a baby and it's the ugliest thing i've ever seen. It reminds me of one of the evil gremlins in those gremlins movies. She made me hold it and it totally freaked me out. The baby is premature, a'preemy', which sounds deceptively cute but isn't. If my baby was that ugly I wouldn't bring it out of the house. posted by tara @ 5:06 PM
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Monday, August 08, 2005
Today I photocopied a zillion* pages for the professor I research for. They were articles for the social science theories core course for the program. They were so dry and boring to look at, reminding me of the days when I had to read and analyze articles like that. Which clearly never happened, because these articles were so damn boring.
Anyways, I was alone in this little photocopy room for hours, photocopying page after page of boringness. For a while I pretended I was a robot, but that got old pretty quick. Then I saw a hole in the ceiling and knew, just knew, that there was a high-tech security system installed in the school and they were watching me photocopy as we speak. At this point I was getting pretty freaked out, because I figured that if there was this high-tech security system then it must go way beyond the university--it must reach to the highest levels of the Canadian government. Now this was a problem because I was clearly breaking every copyright rule (pertaining to photocopying) out there. Man oh man, I had to take a break then and calm myself down. So then I got back to work, and realized that no, this was not the case. This was actually a mandatory corporation-backed government activity for all research assistants out there (and also office interns) to break their spirits. It was meant to destroy any ounce of creativity, originality, and inventiveness that would mean the breakdown of the system. By engaging in this monotonous and mindnumbing task, I was contributing to the destruction of spirited and imaginative Tara as we know her. That got me down for a bit. Things changed, however, when I saw that I had only one article left. One article to freedom. I photocopied and photocopied and photocopied, each page finished equaling one more step to freedom. And then. It was done. I left the room. I walked down the stairs. Gave the pile of papers to the professor. And thanked him for the radiation I now probably have running through my bloodstream. and that is how you make hours of photocopying interesting. *taralogic: zillion = 600. seriously. posted by tara @ 4:50 PM
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Sunday, August 07, 2005
So yesterday I decided to do laundry. I was so proud of myself, buying stain removal and everything. I diligently sorted my clothes, deciding that my whites needed to be washed first. I put them in, put in the soap, then turned the machine on. When I heard it stop, I went upstairs to put the wet laundrey in the dryer. and then I saw it.
At the bottom of the washing machine was my USB key. It had been soaked, rinsed, and spun dry. Now, for a normal person this would be bad, but workable. But for the idiot who hadn't been backing up their thesis anywhere else, this was a disaster. So I freaked. Brock, probably thinking someone had died or I had been seriously injured, ran up to my aid. We went to see if it worked on our labtop. It didn't. Brock was all like, ok ok i can figure this out don't worry. He went downstairs to check it on our other labtop. and it worked! And the moral of the story is to check the pockets of your clothes before doing laundrey. And if you're ever writing a thesis or some other majorly important work that has taken months (months!) to write, remember to back it up in more than one place. And also, don't be lured by gingerbread houses if you're lost in the woods. posted by tara @ 7:57 PM
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Friday, August 05, 2005
 Today is Brock's 24th birthday. Brock, 24 years ago you caused your mother what was probably the worst pain of her life when your big head came through her vagina, probably tearing it substantially on your way out. Remember that. Anyways, I brought out my special cooking powers and baked you a cake. (by adding water). We'll eat it tonight over a wonderfully romantic dinner of takeout or something. But, there is leftover icing.... We'll make it a happy birthday. posted by tara @ 4:12 PM
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Thursday, August 04, 2005
i have a canker sore in my mouth and it hurts like fuck.
the end. posted by tara @ 9:58 PM
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Wednesday, August 03, 2005
I am a total avid reader. Fiction is like air to me, and good fiction is what i live for (well, i live for other things, but fiction is a big part of it all). i am a quick reader, most of these books were read in a couple of hours. i would read more, but keep in mind that i am a graduate student, and it's not uncommon to be reading anywhere from 200 pages of journal articles and academic books a week. i also like to challenge myself with books, and am drawn to novels that i know are well written. given that i am such a quick reader, it is often difficult for me to find the caliber of books that i like to read because not that many 'great' books are published in a year. i like canadian fiction, british fiction, and fiction from the former english colonies. when i find an author i like, i usually read all of their books. i am incredibly well read with canadian and british fiction, both contemporary and historical. i don't really like american fiction in general, i find it boring and difficult to relate to, but with that being said, several american books do stand out to me. i think that oprah's old book club ruined me for a good couple of years. in the future, when my capacity to think and analyze is not being completely focussed on my thesis i hope to start writing reviews of good fiction. for now though, i'll just overview some good books i've read lately, and hope it encourages others to read these great pieces of fiction.
Cloud Atlas; by David Mitchell; a series of short stories jumping chronologically through centuries, then reversing to its starting point with several narratives that are beautifully connected. this is definitely one of the greatest books i've read ever, let alone this year. It was up for the man booker prize, but lost out to hollinghurst. in my opinion, this book was far superior, more innovative, and seriously a work of creative genuis. if you're going to read any book this year, read this one. The Line of Beauty; Alan Hollinghurst; a homosexual university graduate's experiences in thatchers england, living with an MP and enjoying his many lovers see, i needed a book to read, and had already read cloud atlas. i saw that it had lost to this book, so i picked it up to see whether it was a better novel. while it was good, it just didn't reach the same creative level as mitchells work. it works on several levels, with an interesting narrator. i would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in thatchers 80s. The White Bone, Mister Sandman, and We So Seldom Look on Love; Barbara Gowdy; white bone is narrated from the perspective of an elephant, mud; mister sandman is about the canary family; we so seldom look on love is a series of short stories Barbara Gowdy is highly creative and unique. I remember reading her short stories years ago, which were definitely interesting (at the time i considered them 'weird', but they stuck with me for years). I read her latest book last year and was disapointed, but was completely blown away by white bone. it is such a unique perspective, and so compelling, i just couldn't put it down. mister sandman and we so seldom look on love were pretty good, but definitely read white bone if your bored by every other book out there and want something new. Living to Tell the Tale; Gabriel Garcia Marcez; an autobiography of his life i'm actually still reading this book. i liked all of his other works, and this book is interesting in that he tells of where the stories came from in his life and what inspired him to write. i never read autobiographies, and it's taking me a while to get through this one, but it's a beautifully written work, as with all his work. The Time Traveler's Wife; Audrey Niffenegger; a man who sporadically time travels and meets his wife when she is a child and marries her and it's really too complex to tell you about i kind of see this book as the 'it' book of the year. i always saw it displayed at the book stores, and one day read the back of it. it was such an interesting concept. so i read it, and enjoyed it, and then put it down. that's it. it's the kind of book that would belong in the oprah book club if it had been written seven or eight years ago. Possession, The Little Black Book of Stories, A Whistling Woman; A.S. Byatt A.S. Byatt is one of my favourite all around authors. i've read all her books, re-read them, and look forward to any new books from her. these were all great. possession was beautiful, the little black book of stories had some nice short stories, and a whistling women was a great conclusion to her four part series. she is a very 'academic' writer, very englishy, and really, you could see her work lasting like all the old english greats. The In-Between World of Vikram Lall; M.G. Vassanji; the place of an indian boy/man in kenya (in between white settlers and black natives) this book won the governor generals award last year. it takes place in Kenya and centres around the Mau Mau uprisings. it was a good read. i think i had better expectations for it and was slightly let down. also, i have a (bad) tendancy to compare vassanji to rohinton mistry, with vassanji not always coming across for the better. but it's a good read nonetheless. River of the Brokenhearted; David Adams Richards; the life of janie mcleary over time richards is a great writer. in fact, he's probably one of the (aside from mcleod) greater writers to come from eastern Canada. his last book was amazing. but this book, while good, makes you remember why you stopped reading eastern canada fiction in the first place. it's depressing. and kinda boring. so, you can read it, but you may feel generally depressed afterwards. posted by tara @ 10:16 PM
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Monday, August 01, 2005
If you haven't heard about it, the vice-president of Sudan John Garang's helicopter was shot down today and the country is erupting into wide-scale violence.
You see, right now would be a great time for the international community to show that it remembers what happened in Rwanda, and they are seriously committed to never allowing such a wide-scale genocide to never happen again. As many of you probably remember, the catalyst of the Rwandan genocide was when Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down in 1994. He was trying to bring about a peace deal to stop inner tensions, as was Garang with his January peace deal. This is a serious development that could turn into something far more dangerous, and everything should be done to stop what could turn into another Rwanda. posted by tara @ 2:31 PM
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::stats Age: 25 City: Toronto
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