Gonna Try This Again

Gonna try to do the thing where I take one picture a day for a whole year and post them online. I think this is like the third time I try this?

Hopefully I'll stick with it this year. I've made a tumblr blog entirely dedicated to it: One A Day.

We'll see how this goes.

(Also my brother didn't come back home for Christmas, so that was a miserable experience. Our first Christmas without him. Hopefully this won't become a regular thing, but he lives clear on the other side of the country, so I fear it will.)

Volunteer Work

Volunteered at the cash at a school book fair all day. 

On one hand it sucked that I had to wake up early and I didn't get paid, but on the other I just got to sit around and read for most of the day. It evens out I suppose.

Also I read Raina Telgemeier's Drama (though my copy was in French) and was totally surprised at the openly (somewhat) gay characters and a full-on boy-on-boy kiss (with one of the boys in a dress) (long story). It was good in a way that the situations were all presented as casually as one would with a hetero couple, which was brilliant. Also the fact that the summary on the back never even alluded to any gay characters in the story.

My first reaction was to be surprised that the publishers had gotten away with it. I have never seen gay characters in junior-high/YA books and their storylines treated like this (like it was perfectly normal) and it was great. There were gay characters going through their own story arcs that didn't revolve around their being gay (despite the romances involved), so that was a breath of fresh air. 

And then I came across some of the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.com (specifically the 1 star reviews) and discovered all the homophobic arseholes who will no longer be recommending this book to children they know. Of course.

There was also a scene where one of the characters went to a bookstore and asked an employee about finding manga and IT WAS PRETTY MUCH EXACTLY LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO ME ONE TIME AND IT WAS AWESOME AND IT WAS LIKE SEEING MYSELF IN A BOOK (except for the part where I've never been a gay teen boy, but there you go)!!!

ALSO A CHARACTER READING MANGA WHO ISN'T DEPICTED AS A CREEPY NERD!!! OR A LONER AND A LOSER!!! SEE WE'RE NORMAL TOO!!!!

Too Much Sleep

Holy shit, it was almost three in the afternoon when I woke up today.

I absolutely hate sleeping in that late, it throws everything off.

AUGH!

Setting my alarm now, not waking up any later than 11 o'clock tomorrow. Then maybe I'll be able to get things done.

3 o'clock in the afternoon, jesus shitting christ.

Sometimes I feel that there is something very wrong with me and I don't know how to change or fix it.

Swearing is really the least of my problems and it's one of the least problematic things I am capable of.

There is a wounded hatred in my soul and I don't know where to direct it. Or what to do with it.

So I'll go watch another children's movie and be shamed for it because I'm actually an adult, but what else am I supposed to be doing when all I keep hearing is that activities that are traditionally normal for adults are all frowned upon and bad.

What am I supposed to be doing here, exactly?

A Day at the Movies

Got to see Danny Boyle's Frankenstein on the big screen today.

It was AWESOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!

To be honest though it wouldn't have been anything I would be interested in if Benedict Cumberbatch wasn't in it. But he is, and he was amazing as the Creature, and next week I'll get to see him as Victor Frankenstein (played this week by Jonny Lee Miller, who was also awesome).

I'm so happy I got to see it in the theatre though.

My dad ended up coming to see it with me and managed to not fall asleep during. Though that did make the parts where an actor was nearly naked a bit awkward. Whatevs.

CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK!!

Single-Minded Focus

So I pretty much just spent the last week or so binge-watching four seasons of Teen Wolf. 

I'm done now until season 5 is all out, so I'm a bit at loose ends here.

I just finished reading a Teen Wolf fanfic and this is what it's come to.

It's like the first time I read Fruits Basket and Hana-Kimi straight through: now that it's over I'm just wandering around between things.

At the moment I'm back to watching true crime shows and playing with random things. Which is usually what I do before the next big thing takes hold. Hopefully I'll get back to knitting in a significant way because I have a blanket to finish.

Also Mark Gatiss has apparently started writing on Sherlock and I'm screaming.

Yes I Remember All Your Names

First day of work at the French board for the school year. Only recess and preschool supervision, but whatevs. Money is money (also hours).

A lot of the kids were happy to see me back. A few of them came up to hug me. And then there was a short game of 'Do you remember my/his/her/their name?' and I only missed one by a bit. BUT I GOT IT IN THE END!!! They find it funny that I still remember all their names after long breaks where I don't see them. I have very little problem with names in the French school, gotta know who it is I'm shouting after.

Seriously, y'ever try to reprimand a child whose name you don't know? Doesn't work very well. Turns out a lot of them won't answer to 'hey you'. Some days in the English school I come close to naming them after whatever they happen to be wearing at the time. 

Although there's a new preschool class in the French school this year, so there's a few more names I need to learn. I got a few today. We'll see how much I'll retain for next time. Ha ha. At least their chairs are all labelled so I know who they are when they're sitting down.

Also a new thing is that some of the older kids are able to use the soccer field during recess.

Anyway it was nice to see all the kids again. I have no idea why some of them even like me, but they do. They're all getting older now, it's a lot like watching younger brothers and sisters grow up (although some of them are actually my cousins). The kids I first met in my senior year of high school are in grade 5 now. Man, how time flies.

Well This Certainly Isn't Nostalgic

Luckily morning bus duty went much better today than it did the other day. I actually went on the bus this time, so there's that. I'd still rather not make a regular habit of it, but what can you do right? A job is a job.

Also today (again at the English Board) lockdown practice. Dear holy fuck I will never get used to this idea. We actually had to hide in the storage room in the gym.

This is fucking terrifying. I never had to do lockdown drills while I was in school. Never. I think my school started doing them the year after I graduated (the 2009-2010 school year). I've had maybe one drill at the French school where we ducked in the classroom. But this is the first time I've had to hide in a gym storage room for anything.

Is this what the world has come to these days? I know that America has way too many school shootings (like waaaaaaaay too many, far too many, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT PLEASE), but Canada generally doesn't have many. 

I never thought I'd have to worry about that kind of thing around here. Not that I'm really sure we'd ever have a school shooting around here for real (and if we ever do I'm moving to Mars because that would be the last fucking straw).

So my brother moved across the country last month

• Don't even ask me how that week was. Just don't. 
• Living in the arsehole of nowhere is a pretty shit deal when there aren't many jobs around. A lot of locals (especially the younger ones) are having to look elsewhere for employment. Most of the time 'elsewhere' means clear across the fucking country. My dad had to do that when the mill closed a few years ago (or last year, everything blends together these days) and that also was a miserable experience. The difference here, though, is that my dad was doing a fly-in-fly-out deal (two weeks up there and then he'd be back for two weeks) and my brother has moved up there. He's got a job anyway, and hopefully he'll be down for Christmas. (I don't even want to know what'll happen if he isn't.)
• Also this summer I got a chance to hang out with one of my cousins in a way we haven't for years. And, um... I think I know why we haven't really hung out for years. My cousin is great, really, and I love her to death, but it became really obvious this summer that we are really different people. Really, I've always known that, but this summer just highlighted it. Though I get the feeling that most of the problems came from me being absolute shit at socializing. I dunno, it's weird. I'd really like things to be like they were when we were kids, but people eventually must go different ways (middle school has taught me this, unfortunately). Eventually I'm sure I'll figure out socializing and we'll be able to hang out together and interact like normal people do... whatever that means.
• I turned 23 this year and the main thought I had on my birthday was that another year had gone by and I had absolutely nothing to show for it and had done nothing with my life; which is the exact same thought I had last year when I turned 22. If that isn't the most pathetic thing than I don't know what. When I was a kid I had thoughts and dreams about what high school and college and adult life would be like, I have been sorely disappointed by my experiences so far.
• I've taken up knitting recently... like last week or so. I've knitted before, a bit, when I was a kid so I wasn't a complete stranger to it. That might be why it didn't take me long to pick it up (don't even talk to me about crochet). So far I've got three new scarves and a baby blanket. There is, sadly, no baby for the blanket (but there is also no job, no partner, and no house either, so that's to be expected really).
• The wool for the baby blanket is hella soft though, which is literally the only reason I even bought the wool. SO. FUCKING. SOFT.
• Along with the no job thing, my unemployment ran out and I don't have enough work hours to open a new claim. Fuck. LUCKILY THOUGH! I interviewed for a job at a local daycare that's opening (though I'm not entirely sure this would be my first choice if I had other options, definitely not really something I wanna be doing in the long term, OH WELL), not sure if I'm actually gonna get it since I don't really have the correct training and I'm pretty sure I fucked up the interview in a dozen different ways (one of my answers to 'tell me about yourself' was to tell them literally that there wasn't really much to tell... there really isn't much to tell about me, not without completely fucking up the interview at least).
• There are potential teacher's aid positions opening up at both local school boards, so there's something. Hopefully. But then seniority. So fuck.
• Also the French school board might have a temporary opening in the library (yay) because the current librarian, who is also my aunt, has cancer (not yay).
• Why is everyone getting cancer? Fuck cancer.
• Had a day of work at the English school board today. First one of the school year. The Terry Fox Walk was today, which I didn't find out until I got to the school. I'm not sure my ankles have even bothered to forgive me yet. I'm almost afraid of tomorrow.
• Also: fucking morning bus duty. I have it again on Friday and hopefully will go much better than it did this morning. Fucking anxiety.
• Oh well, getting paid. Also my car insurance price went down a bit, so, yay :D.
• Also yesterday was kind of a shit day, but Sherlock fanfic generally makes things marginally better in a cheering-up sort of way. Except for the angst fics, they don't tend to help much. Especially the post-S3 stuff. Christ this fandom can do angst, like fuck though.
• Speaking of Sherlock... NEW SHERLOCK SET WITH BLU-RAY AND DVD AND OUTTAKES AND DELETED SCENE AND FEATURETTES AND OH MY FUCK WANT!!!  It ended up costing 180-something$ by the end but WHATEVER WANT (I ordered it before my unemployment expired so... also it's only being released in November so paying for it won't hurt so much by then... hopefully... I need a job).
• Also with things I bought: TWO TICKETS TO NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE FRANKENSTEIN ENCORE SHOWING WITH BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AND JONNY LEE MILLER!!!! YES PLEASE!!! It's finally playing again in a theatre a reasonable distance away from my house (how sad is it when an hour-and-a-half away is considered reasonable). The last time was when it was playing about 3-4 hours away about two years ago. Anyway, I booked tickets for both showings (they're only showing once each) and I AM NOT MISSING THIS TIME GODDAMMIT!!! I AM GONNA SEE THIS ON THE BIG SCREEN SO HELP ME FUCK!!!
• God I need a job.

I've often heard that you always remember your first love

Apparently it's true.

Rainbow Loom #5

I didn't have any pink when I made the Heart Bracelet, so I used black... BUT IT DOES GLOW IN THE DARK.

Rainbow Loom #4

BEADS THOUGH!

Also flowers.

Rainbow Loom #3

Rainbow Loom #2

The day I discovered the Camo bands was a very good day.

Also the Neon ones are awesome as well.

Go Me

Fried an egg for the first time today (all by myself, might I add) and managed to not set anything on fire. 

I AM UNSTOPPABLE!!!

Probably gonna try for a grilled cheese next time, see what happens there.

Rainbow Loom #1

Making Rainbow Loom bracelets is very addicting. I can see why they're so popular.

It's also something great I can do with my hands and generally less of a hassle than cross-stitching. Less sharp things around as well, which is a plus (nothing to stab my fingers with).

I found a thing

For a while I've been looking for physical copies of the Phoenix Wright DS games and SIMS 2 Freetime. I've looked on Amazon and Wal-Mart and I've asked about them whenever I went into a store that sells games.

The other day I checked out eBay.

Why I didn't think of that sooner, I have absolutely no idea. These games are pretty much out of print so really eBay should've been my first stop.

So yeah, depending on how much I get paid this week (if at all) I'm gonna get on that.

I've also discovered Rainbow Loom. Those bracelets are so addictive to make, I swear. I just wish the elastics weren't so expensive (I have to buy them online from the Rainbow Loom store with 12$ and up shipping, yeesh).

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to get those games soon.

Also maybe some new Benedict Cumberbatch magazines, maybe, hopefully.

Sherlock - Pink Iro no Kenkyuu - Jay

An adaptation of the BBC re-imagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, Sherlock, which aired in 2010 (season 1) and 2012 (season 2), with season 3 currently in the works.

In this series:

V.1 – Pink Iro no Kenkyuu

(from Baka-Updates Manga)

John Watson has been recently invalided home from the war in Afghanistan – where he was a doctor and a soldier – and now lives in a tiny bedsit in London. He’s got a limp, a hand tremor, and a therapist and he is bored. One day he runs across an old friend who introduces him to the most interesting man John has ever met: the world’s only consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock is strange, brilliant, and probably a bit mad; but he’s got two things to offer John right off the bat: a new flat and excitement.

Sherlock correctly deduces John’s military career and injuries just by looking at him; then invites him to come look at his flat on Baker Street. John arrives on Baker Street to check out the flat and ends up getting completely involved in Sherlock’s latest case. He spends the night visiting a crime scene, getting ‘kidnapped’ by Sherlock’s arch enemy, waiting for and then chasing down a suspect, and then chasing down a lead to find the actual serial killer.

By the time the night is over John has shot one man to save the life of a man he’s just met. He no longer has the limp, but he has a new flat and a new flatmate to go with it. He’s also certain to never be bored again with a friend and flatmate like Sherlock Holmes.

BBC’s Sherlock is a modern retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. The first episode, A Study in Pink, is based on the first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet. If you’ve seen the episode of ASiP you already know what happens in the manga version.

Pink Iro no Kenkyuu is basically a scene-by-scene retelling of the episode, so if you enjoyed the episode you’ll most likely enjoy the manga as well. There are, of course, little differences here and there but nothing major.

The art is gorgeous, and also slightly different from the ‘traditional’ manga style. This is especially obvious in the characters’ faces. The characters were drawn to look like the actors in the show, and the designs are pretty spot-on. The artist even included Benedict’s eye freckle in Sherlock’s design.

There isn’t too much of a focus on backgrounds, but there are a few that are drawn that are brilliant and basically look exactly the same as they are in the show. There’s even a two-panel spread of the living room inside 221B that is very detailed, right down to the wallpaper. There’s also a nice panel of the park where John runs into Mike, and Roland-Kerr Further Education College (where Sherlock and the killer have their final showdown).

The physical volume also includes some colour pages, which are beautifully done and reflect the colour scheme of the TV episode.

I can’t say much about the dialogue, though I’m assuming it’s basically the same as in the show (with an extra line added here and there, usually from John thinking to himself). The manga hasn’t been picked up by any English publishers and the copy I have is in the original Japanese. There are scanlations out there, but no official translations. Though considering the show’s popularity (and the fact that the manga series got a second volume for the show’s second episode, The Blind Banker) there’s a good chance of it being brought over.

So if you’re a fan of BBC’s Sherlock definitely check out the manga; though since it more or less re-tells the episode scene-by-scene you won’t be missing any new material if you don’t read it. It’s also worth checking out for the art alone just to see the actors in the show in manga-style form.

Sherlock – Pink Iro no Kenkyuu is published by Kadokawa Comics and is not available for purchase in English at the time of this writing.

The Vision of Escaflowne Volume 1 - Katsu Aki

Hitomi Hoshino likes to dabble with tarot cards but one day, her hobby somehow leads her to a world called Gaea. She soon meets up with Van Fanel, prince of the kingdom of Fanelia. However, no sooner does he return home than the forces of Zaibach destroy his kingdom. Hitomi must choose between searching for a way home or staying to save the world with her newfound powers. (from Goodreads)

This review contains spoilers

This book was so not what I was expecting.

Hitomi Hoshino is a fairly normal high school girl (I’d like to say she’s 15 or 16, but I don’t really remember) who likes to predict the future with tarot cards. She hangs around with her best friend (whose name I’ve forgotten) and has a crush on cute upperclassman Amano.

Everything in Hitomi’s life is pretty normal until the day she suddenly gets transported to the kingdom of Fanelia on a world called Gaea, where she can see the Earth in the sky. The first people she meets in this strange world are Van Fanel, the prince of Fanelia, and Balgus, Van’s mentor. They tell Hitomi that she is the legendary Energist that is needed to power up the also legendary God figure of Fanelia, Escaflowne.

Hitomi isn’t there for very long before the kingdom is attacked by enemy forces and Prince Van has to pilot the Escaflowne, which ends up being some sort of fighting robot/suit (something vaguely similar to a GUNDAM) called a guymelef, to try and fight them off. Things go spectacularly badly and Fanelia is destroyed, a large number of citizens – including Balgus – are killed, and Van’s mother is kidnapped by Dilandau, one of the enemy leaders.

Van and Hitomi escape with the Escaflowne to the nearby kingdom of Asturia, where they come across Allen Schezar, a knight, and are taken in as prisoners. Van manages to convince Allen that he is the prince of Fanelia and, after seeing what’s left of the Fanelian kingdom, Allen agrees to help them track down Dilandau.

--

Alright, so I imagine that anyone who has been an anime fan for any length of time (and/or grew up in the late 90s) has at least heard of the anime Vision of Escaflowne. I certainly have and I pretty much love it. It’s a very good fantasy series with a good plot and strong characters. I count it as one of my favourite anime series; and that’s the main reason as to why I just hate this manga adaptation.

I haven’t read beyond the first volume, and I don’t plan to, so I might be wrong here, but this manga has basically nothing to do with the original anime beyond the characters’ names and the bare plot (and even that’s fairly generic). To add to my frustration it takes really good characters and plot and dumbs them down. Severely.

Hitomi Hoshino (Kanzaki in the anime, but that’s really just nitpicking I suppose) is a girl who uses tarot cards to tell love fortunes for fun. The manga makes it seem like it’s just a hobby she’s just picked up on a whim, while in the anime she has a deeper connection with her ability to use her tarot cards and to predict the future in general. In the anime Hitomi’s psychic abilities are ultimately what get her tangled up with Van and Gaea; while in the manga she’s summoned to Gaea by Van and Balgus to help power the Escaflowne. Hitomi now has to be in the Escaflowne with Van in order to power it, and this could’ve been an interesting new element were it not just a reason to have Hitomi transform into a nude, blonde, large-breasted battle goddess thing for every fight scene (on that note, Katsu Aki is also the mangaka for Futari Ecchi, and I really shouldn’t have been surprised at the sudden naked woman).

While Hitomi is in this transformed state she’s either possessed or changed into (I can’t remember which, though it still confused me when I did remember) the goddess-thing that is part of the prophecy that told Van and Balgus to get her to power the Escaflowne. So Hitomi isn’t even a strong character in her own right in the manga, she’s just a vessel for someone who is. That is a massive slap in the face to the original Hitomi from the anime, who does a lot more than serve as a power source for the Escaflowne (which she doesn’t do in the anime).

Van Fanel is the prince of Fanelia and his most prominent trait in the manga is that he’s short, and he’s got a bit of a complex about it. Imagine Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist, only not funny and with little to no personality. In the anime he’s a bit of a brat and he’s starting to take on responsibilities he may not yet be mature enough to handle. In the manga he’s reduced to one unfunny short joke with a bad attitude and he’s not really mature enough to handle much of anything. The impression I got from him was that he was kind of like an annoying-younger-sibling-to-a-main-character character; and not even an entertaining one.

We don’t see much of Dilandau in this volume, so I can’t tell exactly how much has been changed with his character. Although he does seem to be less insane in the manga; overall not leaving much of an impression. His character design is also a lot different; the thing readers will immediately notice about him is his now darker skin tone, which leads me to suspect that Dilandau and Allen won’t have the same connection in the manga that they do in the anime.

Another change is that Van’s mother is alive in the manga. I’m not sure why as she certainly doesn’t add anything to the story other than providing someone for Dilandau to kidnap (which he does). She doesn’t seem to have much of a personality beyond being a stereotypical benign queen type.

Allen wasn’t in this volume for long, but from what I saw of him he’s more or less the same as his anime counterpart.

The story so far is, as I said earlier, more or less the same as the anime. There are a few small changes here and there but the main points are pretty much the same:

Hitomi gets transported to Gaea > she meets Van > Dilandau and his soldiers attack Fanelia > Fanelia is destroyed > Hitomi and Van escape in Escaflowne > they wind up in Asturia and are discovered by Allen

The art in the manga is completely different than the art in the anime. It’s not just that the manga is drawn in a different art style, but the character designs are completely different as well. The only thing that makes these characters recognizable to fans of the anime is their names (that, and I suppose that Allen’s design hasn’t changed too much, he still has the long blond hair).

Also, and I’m not quite sure if this has more to do with the art than the story, this volume was very confusing to read. It seems like everything happens really fast and we don’t get any explanations for most of it. It’s been a while since I read it, but I remember the art not helping at all with the confusion. The action scenes were cluttered and if they contained more than one guymelef it was hard to figure out who was who because the enemies all looked the same and the only different one was the Escaflowne (piloted by Van and Hitomi).

I can’t recommend this manga to anyone who is a fan of the original series or movie. If you aren’t a fan I’ve heard that it’s a good series if you like fantasy and adventure stories, but even then I’d just recommend the anime (or a different manga altogether).

The Vision of Escaflowne was published by Tokyopop and is out of print.

SOCKS

Got my socks from The Sock Drawer in the mail today. These socks are awesome! And they fit brilliantly. Most of them are knee socks and I've not always had a good experience with them before (they never seemed to fit right, but they were cheap socks from Ardenes, so there you go), but these socks fit great.

Also the Batman ones have a little cape on them.

Acadian Star - Hélène Boudreau

Meg Gallant and her best friend, Nève, are competing in the Acadian Star talent competition, the biggest thing that’s ever happened in their small Cape Breton town. If the girls perform well enough, they might even make it to the finals in Halifax.

But Meg’s weird old aunt, Tante Perle, has been acting stranger and stranger – and just before the finale of the competition, she whisks Meg away from everything she knows. Meg is suddenly trapped in the time of the tragic Acadian Deportation, and she has to choose between escaping back to her own time and saving a girl who looks remarkably like Nève. Why is she trapped in the eighteenth century? Will she be able to save this stranger, so much like her best friend? Is true friendship really enough to change history?

Meg Gallant is a young girl living in Picasse Bay, a small Acadian town near the ocean. Big things are happening in town as an American Idol type talent show, called Acadian Star, is holding auditions to find young Acadian talent to compete in a bigger show in Halifax.

Meg is in an act together with her best friend and cousin Nève Gallant. All is not well, however, when Meg finds out that Nève’s father might not be able to find local work after the lobster season is over and the family will have to move to Fort McMurray, Alberta. This move would take Nève and her family all the way across the country (Picasse Bay is a fictional town, but it is meant to be in Cape Breton). This information certainly puts a damper on things, then Meg’s mood worsens even further as she accidentally angers Nève and then agrees to bring her Tante Perle to come see the Acadian Star auditions.

Tante Perle is Meg’s great aunt and has lived in Picasse Bay all her life. She’s fairly well-known around town for being a little off her rocker, talking about dolphins being in the bay and it being the sign of approaching ships.

Tante Perle seems even more agitated than usual when Meg arrives to pick her up. Instead of getting ready to go to the auditions, Tante Perle locks Meg in her cellar and sends her nearly 300 years back in time to the Acadian Deportation. Meg finds herself stuck in 1755 (or thereabouts) and finds out that she has a job to do. It turns out that Tante Perle has sent her back to be with her ancestors and to keep the family together when they’re put on the ships to be sent away. As a bonus, managing this will also keep her cousin Nève from moving away to Alberta.

Meg starts out not wanting to help, but she finds herself getting closer with the Galland family (her ancestors in the 1700s) and realizes that she can’t let them down. But her task isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are British soldiers all over the small Acadian village and keeping families together is not a priority of theirs and they’re hardly going to be taking any suggestions from a little girl.

Meg has to find a way to keep the Galland family from separating in the past so that it can remain together in the present.

Acadian Star is a fun novel, and a pretty quick read.

Things start out a bit slow; Meg’s interactions with her family and friends aren’t really all that exciting, although Tante Perle is pretty fun. Nève’s subplot about moving to Alberta brings in some drama, and the Acadian Star competition seems to just be there to give the characters something to do; but the story doesn’t really start to get going until Meg gets sent back in time.

Things pick up right away as soon as Meg lands in 1755, especially because she lands right in the middle of the action at first. Meg initially describes the situation as a nightmare, and it really is. Even when nothing much is happening there is still this sense of foreboding hanging over everything because both the reader and Meg know that something really bad is happening, but the Galland family have no idea of what’s really coming.

I don’t think that knowledge of the Acadian Deportation is needed to enjoy this book. The book doesn’t go into much detail about it, but it says enough to give a sense of what’s happening. There’s a lot of talking about the English ships taking the Acadians far away from their home; and that’s all you really need to know when you read this book. Obviously there’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the part that Acadian Star really focuses on.

The themes of friendship and family are really strong in this book. Meg and Nève are cousins and best friends, and have been for pretty much their entire lives. They’re almost like sisters, so it’s really distressing when they find out that they’re going to be separated. Meg makes similar connections to her ancestors when she goes back in time. These people are strangers to her but they’re still technically family and Meg wants to do right by them. She starts out by helping them because of obligation, but by the end she wants to help these people because they are her family and she has developed a strong bond with them, and they with her.

One thing I’ll say about the time travelling in this book, that I really like, is that when Meg first lands in 1755 she is confused (understandably) but doesn’t spend any time trying to convince people that she is from the future. She quickly realizes what’s going on and then gets on with things. It doesn’t matter that she’s actually from the future because that won’t change anything. She then becomes more concerned with trying to figure out how to get the Galland family to understand what’s going on around them without explicitly giving everything away. Also there aren’t any pop-culture references while she’s in the past to confuse people for laughs.

Another thing I really liked about this book is that this is more or less the first book I’ve ever read (and I was in my late teens when I first read this) where the main character is a girl like me. I sometimes hear people complaining about never having a book or movie made about them. I honestly don’t care about seeing myself in movie/book characters, but I have to admit that it was nice to see myself in a work of fiction. I could’ve been a lot like Meg when I was her age (though probably a little shyer), a young girl with a best friend living in a small community with a close extended family. Picasse Bay reminded me of the communities where my parents grew up, and Meg’s family reminded me of my family. True, I don’t have a Tante Perle, but I do have aunts, cousins, and grandparents that can be very silly and go on about things and tell stories about the past. They also switch between English and French when they’re talking, which I have never seen in any other books (that I can think of at the moment), so that was nice to see for once. All this to say that Acadian Star reminds me of home.

I definitely recommend this book. Even if you aren’t from a small town/French/Acadian you still might get some enjoyment out of the time travel adventure, which is both exciting and suspenseful. There is no romantic subplot at all, just straight friendship and deep family ties. Also the main character is a preteen girl (with no superpowers, or emotional baggage, or anything to prove) who goes on a dangerous adventure and saves the day, which is different. 

Read-y Bits

Read some The Cain Saga earlier and was reminded of Cain's back-story for the first time in a while and holy fuck I forgot how messed up the whole family is. 

Jesus Christ.

Also, how old are the children supposed to be in the Cock Robin story that one of them is having sex with a grown man and nobody is bringing it up?

"Her grandfather is a priest, if this gets out it will ruin me!" Pretty sure you've got worse things to worry about there, buddy. I'm pretty sure this takes place in late 1800s/early 1900s London and surely pedophilia was as much a grevious offence then as it is now. I mean, they make a big enough deal about the incest.

... this is a weird series.

Greetings From the New Hardware

Just got my new HP Pavilion laptop today.

ALL THE EXCITE!!!

I'm liking most of it so far. The size is brilliant. It's pretty small, which is what I was looking for. Perfect for carrying around and a lot more portable than my Toshiba.

Good stuff.

Windows 8 is a bit of a learning curve so far. The start screen with the apps is starting to get a bit annoying because I can't really find anything I'm looking for.

At the moment I'm searching for the antivirus program. It's going about as well as you'd expect.

Also the new Microsoft Office edition costs 100$ a year to use. No. Not happening, thank you very much. I'm trying to find a download of an older version. I still have the disc for Microsoft Office Student somewhere in my house, though I have no idea where. Not that it would be too useful right now since the HP doesn't have a disc drive. Oh well, I'll think of something.

Also probably have to get a malware program before long.

But seriously, first I have to get Word. I don't think this laptop has a writing program at all. I must rectify that since that's what I bought the laptop for in the first place (typing on the go).

I did find a paint program though. And it's pretty awesome. Textures and things, yo.

Continuing Saga of the New Laptop

Upon further inspection of the Samsung 11" laptop I found on the Future Shop site, I found that it's not actually a laptop. It's something called a Chromebook (first I'm hearing about it). Apparently it's a computer that just runs an OS that is basically Google Chrome, or something. I'm not entirely sure.

I mainly use Chrome as a web browser now, and it's good and I like it, but I don't want that as an OS. Windows please.

So that option's off the table.

Some Google searching about buying laptops (which is technically the first time I'm ever doing it because my current laptop was a graduation gift from my parents and it's my dad that picked it out with help from my extremely tech-savvy godfather) led me to the discovery of the Microsoft Store.

Something tells me I should've known about it before now but whatever, I'm an idiot. What can you do, right?

Anyway I found an HP Panasonic 10.1" that fits the criteria of what I'm looking for (basically a tiny laptop that will be mainly used for Microsoft Office and Tumblr and things of that nature). It's a touch screen laptop and comes with Windows 8, which I really don't particularly want, but it seems to be the only thing available nowadays.

Not to mention that it was the cheapest one I could find.

So I found the HP on the Best Buy Canada website and someone in the reviews mentioned that they had found it cheaper at the Microsoft Store, so I headed over there to check it out. I found it there for about 30 to 40$ cheaper. 

Sold.

Ordered it.

Now I'm just waiting for the order to be processed and I'm hoping to get the laptop in sometime in the coming week (hopefully before Friday).

Very excited for this. It's been years since I had a new computer to break in. (The family desktop we recently got doesn't really count since it unofficially belongs to my brothers and they've done a very good job of 'breaking' it so far.)

Fun times.

Expensive shit

So I have to pay for some repairs done on my car. 350$ for replacing a piece that fell off the bottom.

Thank god for free healthcare (doctor's appointment today I don't have to pay for, woo).

Continuing on with the theme of expensive things (although this thing isn't at all necessary, just a pure want), I'm looking to buy a netbook or some other type of small laptop. 

My current laptop is 17", and I'm very happy with it (and hopefully I won't have to replace it for quite a while yet, touch wood), but it is really big and bulky and may set my thighs on fire if I sit it on my lap without the fan attached to the bottom (which doesn't help at all with the bulk of the thing). I really want a smaller computer I can carry around the house to type things anywhere. Right now I'm taking my iPod Touch around, but I can't type on that (not well anyway). 

I just need/want a smaller laptop that I can type on and probably check tumblr and Outlook at the same time. I probably won't be using it as often as I do my Toshiba, but I'll have it. Might put me off buying more paper and pens to write with anyway (haha probably not though, orz).

Anyway, I was looking on the Future Shop website and came across a Samsung 11" (or thereabouts) that isn't too expensive (under 300$). If I can't find one that is cheaper and isn't an Acer before Friday, I'll probably go with the Samsung.

And then paying for that, and then the 350$ for the car repairs, I will sit with my new laptop and write a blog post about poor adult decisions and who even lets me take charge of these things anyway? Seriously, the only real difference between me now and me as a child is that now my parents don't tell me what I can and can't do with my money. (All the character band-aids, man, all of them.)

And A Happy New Year

Well. That was a long break.

Oops.

Not much to report on though.

Christmas and New Years have come and gone and they were holidays spent well with family and friends. Way too much money was spent on Christmas gifts, but we did really manage to surprise Dad with a new TV that he really wanted.

Also I got a hamster kigurumi. Brilliant, that.

Season 3 of Sherlock started on New Years day, and I watched each new episode on livestream as they aired in England. A good season overall, though to be really honest I was a bit disappointed with it. There were things I was hoping for that didn't happen (boo), though there were also moments that were brilliant and I loved and yes more of that please (PARENTS). All in all though, I did enjoy it. Got angst that I did want and angst I did not want, along with the promise of more angst to come.

My grandmother is doing a lot better. She's not as weak as she was a few months ago (she's had a few treatments). She can walk over from her house (with help) now, and she barely has any trouble with the stairs anymore. Also she's staying alone at her place more and more. Progress, y'know.

I went to Hal-Con 2013 back in November. Stayed over at Meaghan's for the weekend and went to the convention with her cousin, who lives in the area. Wasn't as fun as Animaritime, but I enjoyed myself. Also we almost got evacuated because there were too many people in the convention centre, which I found more amusing than I probably should have. Also me and Meaghan went to see Thor 2 in 3D, which was great. 

Staying in the uni dorm was pretty interesting. It's a pretty unique experience and I've never been in a dorm before (and probably won't be again unless I go visit again). They had co-ed bathrooms, and they had bathtubs in. Mind blown. Tiny-ass rooms though. Although I imagine they're a good enough size when you don't have to shove in a cot for visitors. Details.

So yeah, not much else happened. 

Umm...

Dad fixed up my bookshelves the other day so they don't sag so much in the middle anymore. I had to empty all the books from both shelves and goddamn do I have a lot of books. Even my parents were surprised.