[Book Review] "All That Matters" by Wayson Choy

"Why not?"

Indeed.

--

Just finished "All That Matters," a Wayson Choy novel who's setting is Vancouver's Chinatown in the 1930's and 40's.

This time period of societal upheaval (The Great Depression, Japanese invasion of China, WWII) serves as the backdrop for a story that keeps a theme of balancing Old World beliefs and New World logic. The narrative has a sort of to-the-point yet very earnest quality to it that I positively adored.

However, I really don't think I have the time to write a full review that would do it justice, so I'll let Amazon try to say it instead.


(Time to buy Wayson Choy's first novel, "The Jade Peony," which, incidentally, follows the same basic story except from the viewpoint of the three other children in the family.)

Edit: Fucknuts, don't read the review for "The Jade Peony" on Amazon. Stupid spoilers...

(And "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" just keeps getting bumped on my reading list.)

Week 4, 2006

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.

- Pablo Picasso

I drew a yellow spot today. I can't wait to see what it becomes.

Items of note:

• Finally resumed salsa lessons.
  
  
• Finally resumed cardio training.
  
  
• Finally resumed strength training.
  
  
• Finally got paid - my bank account just jumped up by a factor of 45!
  Finally I can afford lunch.
  (related note: Holy freaking taxes, Batman!)
  
  
• Finally turned off the radio... wait... wait... no I didn't. I just cranked up the volume, baby! FREAK OUT! (C'est freak, c'est chique!)
  

Quotes:

• On competitions:
  A: "So how's it going?"
  B: "Last I checked, I was in the lead."
  A: "So you think you're going to win?"
  B: "Honestly? After 10 days of not shaving, I don't think either of us will be walking away a winner."
  
  (And no, I am not planning on posting any pictures. The sexy ruggedness - or cheesy patchiness - is something that can only be experienced in person.)
  
  
• On causes of memory loss:
  K: "Maybe she slipped something in your drink (wink, wink)"
  B: "Oh, I hate people who do that. Especially when they don't have to!"
  
  
• On SHIT THAT ISN'T YOURS, YOU FUCKTART!:
  B: "Have you seen my Stoli?"
  H: "It's over there on the counter."
  B: "Why is it filled with garlic?"
  H: "I'm making a tincture. It's supposed to lower your father's cholesterol and blood pressure."
  B: "Let me rephrase... why is there garlic in MY BOTTLE OF STOLI?!"
  
  
• On money, money, money, money... MONEY!
  B: "Check out this fat paycheque!"
  C: "Nice. But dude, that's your pre-tax gross earnings. THIS line shows your actual net earnings."
  B: ". . . wtf, I got raped!"
  

Contemplations:

• I think I know who's jacket it is. It should have went in the showbox.
  
  
• I'm really starting to get annoyed by "an"'s and "am"'s.
  (stop mocking me you near-rhyme grammar particles!)
  I do, however, still appeciate a good can of spam.
  (mmm... canned spam...)
  
  
• I liked it better when I didn't earn enough to have to pay any income tax.
  
  
• I keep the promises I make. Just not the ones I make to myself. (I haven't been kicking ass in the right places)
  
  
• I, I, I, I, I.
  

Truly great stories don't have endings...

A brief candle; both ends burning
An endless mile; a bus wheel turning
A friend to share the lonesome times
A handshake and a sip of wine
So say it loud and let it ring
We are all a part of everything
The future, present and the past
Fly on proud bird
You're free at last.

--Charlie Daniels

Week 3, 2006

"Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad."

Christina G. Rossetti quotes (English Poet. 1830-1894)

Items of note:

• Two and a half hour paid lunches are fun.
  
  
• I heart my paper shredder.
  
  
• Shoeboxes burn awfully well, even if it's not an actual shoebox.
  
  
• What's wrong with wanting to kick some ass?
  
  
• Burlesque? Classy!
  

Quotes:

• On drinking and memory:
  "I'm coming over."
  "Are you ok to drive?"
  "I'll walk."
  "To Delta from East Van?"
  "Yep. Wait a minute..."
  
  
• On memories and change:
  "I thought you were bringing your shoebox?"
  "I did."
  "What's with the garbage bag?"
  "That's my shoebox."
  
  
• On change and progress:
  "Remember back when... ?"
  "Yeah."
  "Yup."
  "... still?"
  "Yup."
  "Oh."
  "Yup."
  
  
• On progress and surprises:
  "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
  
  Oh, that still gets me everytime.
  

Doodle doodle

So I'm at work and without an assigned project. What do I do? Listen to mind numbing online training modules, (take extended lunches), and doodle.

The majority are non-referenced. A friend said my personal drawing style comes out when I'm free drawing as opposed to the referenced-sketches I've posted before; a simpler and stylized style.

I say it's just me being lazy since I can never picture proper proportions or lighting effects in my head.

And yes, I realize the irony of using an Accenture notepad at work.

Front of sheet:

Note that there are three (3) hotspots on the above picture that you can click on. Clicking on them will open a new window with large closeups of the sketches (really for my benefit more than any of yours).

I started with snowmen, being inspired after viewing a Calvin and Hobbes Snow Art Gallery. On a semi-related note, I love Bill Watterson. Yes, you read right, I would commit sweet man-love all night long if he would just put out some more Calvin and Hobbes strips.

I started with the shaded snowman on the left. Then decided I didn't like it and went for a more simplified approach.

The coffee cup is referenced from the stuff I drink at work. Was never really a big coffee drinker, but free good quality coffee has changed my mind.

Back of Sheet:

Note that there are six (6) hotspots on the above picture that you can click on. Clicking on them will open a new window with large closeups of the sketches (really for my benefit more than any of yours).

No references used here except for the IBM logo.

I'm a little disappointed in how the head of the draconian figure in the bottom right turned out. More dull-witted and less menacing than what I was going for. Although like most of my non-referenced sketches, I had no idea what I was drawing until part way through. It always starts with a couple of randomly drawn lines which I keep building upon until my mind clicks on an image.

updated 1:25am: fixed broken links

Week 2, 2006

(I snuck Week 1 in a post below... forgot to publish it after I wrote it)

Items of note:

• All expenses paid brainwashing adventure to TO... (1943! 1943! 1943!)
  
  
• Discovered I cheer up too many people. Decided it's about time to make somebody miserable.
  
  
• "On the bench..." (not really that notable)
  

Quotes:

• Me: Hey person one, here's your coat!
  P1 : That's not mine.
  
  Me: Hey person two, you left your coat at my place.
  P2 : No I didn't.
  
  Me: Hey person three, missing a coat?
  P3 : No.
  
  (repeat ad nauseam)
  
  
• Big Blue: Yadda, yadda, yadda, 1943!
  
  (repeat ad nauseam)
  
  
• Me: Cough, cough, hack, hack...
  
  (repeat ad nauseam)

Like a Horse and Carriage

Apparently, drinking and being a consultant for a prestigious multi-national corporation go hand-in-hand. This I tell you brother, you can't have one without the other.

Try, try, try to separate them
It's an illusion,
Try, try, try, and you will only come
To this conclusion

(Local time in Toronto, 10:45pm)

Stuck in a rut

I'm going to stop drinking.

What the heck for?

When my mind isn't occupied with thoughts of gin, it's daiquiri...

Frozen daiquiri or the original?

Original, don't dig the ice all that much. But that's besides the point. The point is that this line of thinking isn't healthy.

Denying yourself what you want isn't healthy, you know.

I can't have it anymore.

Why not?

It's complicated.

Try me.

Let's just say it involves bouts of gut wrenching and self loathing.

I thought you were pretty good with your alcohol.

I thought so too.

And you're usually a pretty happy drunk aren't you?

Yeah, I suppose.

So what happenned?

Things change.

Everything changes.

Some not quickly enough.

... what are we talking about again?

(Local time in Toronto, 11:58pm)

Week 1, 2006

2006 Week 1
Items of note

• January 4th, 2006.
  . . .
  
  
• Happy Birth-week, Debs!
  
  
• Met Laura DiBattista, Co-Anchor of CityTV News
  

Quotes:

• January 1st, 2006 - 2:00am in Vancouver, 12:00 somewhere else in the world:
  "Happy F'n Honolulu New Years!"
  
  
• Karen says White Flower Oil is a variant of opium.
  I say it's a variant of AMAZING.
  Perhaps we're both right.
  
  
• Talking to background while leaving a voice message:
  "You're lucky you're hot!"
  
  
• Eureka!
  "After the fact, my respect for them vanishes. It's really rather pathetic... for both"
  
  
• Me in delirium:
  "Oh honey, you're so sweet. That thing you do with the throat? Amazing!"
  
  
• At the Cactus Club:
  Ladies: "So your both 23?"
  Buddy: "Yeah, that's right."
  Me: "Dude, you're n..."
  (kick, kick)
  
  
• At Yuk Yuks (you really had to be there):
  MC: "Peanut butter!"
  
  
• Always with the dis:
  Me: How did you spend new years?
  She: Nothing special
  Me: Did you spend new years with [him]?
  She: Ya
  Me: I see. yeah, nothing special.
  
  (zing!)
  
  
• On backing out of roadtrips:
  "Do you want me to cancel now? Or wait until tomorrow once [she's] already in your car?"
  
  
• On winter cruises and suntans:
  "Are we talking 'nice tan' or 'omg, you're black!'?"
  
  
• On doing what I do best:
  "So is this the point where we make vague promises?
  

New Years Resolution 2006

I've got it on my bedroom wall to remind me when I wake up and when I sleep.

(It's a quick sketch with a sharpie. If you're going to critique it, you best be ready for a donkey style ass kicking! Wapow!)

I've got it on my phone to remind me when I'm out and about.



That's right, motivate THIS, mother suckaaaah!

A Fresh Start

Let the count begin anew.

One...

(It's not what you think... or rather, it's not what I think you think. I think.)

It's All About Me

"Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure."

-- Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

If I'm only mostly satisfied, does it mean that I'm only mostly a failure?

I have said that I am mostly satisfied with the path and direction of my life. Really, I think I have actually just been complacent; dispassioned even.

“If we resist our passions, it is more through their weakness than from our strength”

-- François de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

At first, my new year's resolution was to "be content". On further contemplation, I thought of making my resolution instead to "be discontent". Now, I have decided to make my resolution to "be passionate".

What is my passion?

Gin? Don't be ridiculous... wait... is it?

Make with the clicky

Clickity clickity click.

The Chronic(WHAT!)les of Narnia (SNL Skit)

The internet is for... **** (WoW machinime musical number)

Scorpion (Mortal Kombat) VS Ryu (Street Fighter) (cool flash animation)

Hilarious Patrick Stewart (Picard) skit from HBO show "Extras"

Damn you people, quit sending me web links! I'm trying to be productive (no I'm not. Keep them coming :D)

Yes, more highlighting required.

My Christmas weekend plans?

They involve the following:

• a farm,
• scarfing into a Tom (turkey),
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
• mountainous snow (or snowy mountains?), and
• me being out of Vancouver for about 96 hours

Hopefully this will let me clear my head, from images of Christmas past and Christmas present.

Some people know my issues with Christmas past. Forgive me if the season doesn't exactly fill me with cheer every year. Is it because I want what I don't have? No... I'm pretty sure that's not the problem at all. The problem is I don't know what I want... besides you.

OMGWTFBBQ!

The full series of Firefly is now on sale at HMV for $29.99, regular price $69.99. (Ignore what the website says, the price in-store is $29.99 and HMV Metrotown still had quite a few copies in stock today).

Add on to that the fact that the movie (Serenity) is selling for $24.99 and you have the perfect equation for a great christmas gift for any fan of great storytelling (hint hint).

And if you have already bought a gift for somebody, that's still no excuse not to buy this. Buy it, wrap it up, wish your loved one a Happy Wednesday, then relax in front of your TV and bask in the awesomeness that is Firefly.

Oh, and in case you couldn't guess, I love this series.

My Christmas Check List

• Shop for Christmas gifts ............... check
• Shop for Christmas cards ............... check
• Deliver Christmas gifts and cards ...... pending
• Watch A Charlie Brown Christmas ........ check
• Watch Monty Python & the Holy Grail .... Dec 23
  
• Watch It's a Wonderful Life ............ pending
• Read The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe. pending
• Read When Heaven & Earth Changed Places. pending
• Read How Murray Saved Christmas ........ pending
• Ski/snowboarding on Mount Baker ........ Dec 26
  
• Have Turkeytastic Christmas Dinner ..... Dec 24
• Attend Festival of Lights .............. check
• Attend Singing Christmas Tree .......... check
• Attend Winter Solstice Lantern Festival. Dec 21
• Attend Christmas party ................. check
• Get drunk at Christmas party ........... check
• Drunkenly hit on women at said party ... check
• Remorse that all I really want is gin .. check

Oh so much to do, oh so much to do.

Oh, and check out Najin's website. She's a local and modest artist, a friendly neighbourhood ninja, and quite the hot tomali. Just be careful not to ask her to marry you.

But they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!

What's your favourite?

Gin.

But you're drinking a daiquiri

So?

There's no gin in that.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't prefer gin.

Alright. So what and gin? How would you want it?

Don't need anything else. Just straight-up, neat, gin.

That's pretty 'core.

I 'spose.

But what about freedom? Didn't you say you wanted your freedom?

We're not having one of those metaphorical conversations again, are we?

Is there any other kind?

You're making my head hurt.

Are you sure it's not the gin that's causing the pain?

Dude... seriously... shut up!

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Just enter your email in the form along the right side of the screen and you'll be emailed my blog posts as I write them.

True Story

Last night I was reading in bed. I shifted positions and felt a twitch in my neck which made me succumb to uncontrollable spasms for what seemed like forever but was more likely around 60 seconds.

I woke up this morning at around 7:30am. I didn't get out of bed for another 5 hours. I wanted to get up, but I couldn't.

I physically could not move.

Well, I could still move, but my neck was in such excrutiating pain whenever I tried that I chose to lay in bed for a few extra hours. It's like the muscles that support my head had gone on strike and cried out in protest whenever I tried willing them to work.

There's a metaphor here about support, expectations, and the lack thereof... or maybe prolonged build-up of tensions and unexpected consequences... whatever it is, I'm in no mood to find it.

I just want my support back.
(Is THAT the metaphor?)

To the memory of Lee Matasi

How will you be remembered after the fact?

Three memories stick out in my mind: Scratching on your ghetto blaster... smuggling booze in a pink flamingo prop into the prom... sporting a smooth looking top hat and cane at the prom.

I think it's safe to say that we were no more than acquaintences, really. Friends of friends who never really talked. But still, there's an impact when there is a passing of somebody you actually met and knew in person. Especially when that passing is unexpected.

Shock is what I'm feeling right now.

Rant about media spin and hidden agendas to be respectfully addressed another day.

Rest in peace, Lee.

Please join us this Wednesday, Dec 7, 2005 at Leeside
at 3:00 pm for a memorial for Lee Matasi.
Directions: Leeside is the tunnel under hastings and hwy 1
head down hastings turn right at the playland gates, make your first left go to the end
and park somewhere(its right close to the ecomm building).

There will be a Wake for Lee Friday, December 9th, 2005 at
Anti Social on Main Street.

Please join us for our Monthly Meeting
where there will be a meeting regarding a skatepark to be built
in honor of Leeside Lee - Lee Matasi.

7 PM - Wednesday Dec 7, 2005 at the
Round House Community Centre
181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC


Anybody who would like to share their memories and photos of Lee -
Please email them to - secretary@vspc.ca - and we will forward them to Lee's Family.

http://www.vspc.ca/