Mourning

You are dead to me
A stone cold corpse
Beneath the earth

Your honeyed words
So sweet in their insincerity
Do not reach me now
Buried beneath 30 feet of dirt
60 layers of silence

Yet here I stand at your grave
In mourning for a statue
Breathtaking but selfish
Those actions meaning more
Than honeyed words could convey

I was the worm that now
Crawls through your flesh.
I was to you a trifle
You were to me my heart

I mourn as the worms
Pick at your skin.
I struggle to restore to my life
Through the void you left.

I wish the grave were empty
Although I placed you there
With my own two hands

Stripping you of your life as you did me

I live and you remain dead

Uh oh...

The Magicians

Were you one of those kids who, after reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe went around testing every cupboard and closet in your house for a secret portal to Narnia? Or were you one of those kids who tried to learn magic tricks because it was as close to magic as you could get?

I was one of those kids, and so was Quentin. The difference between the two of us, though, is that Quentin found his magic portal to the world of Brakebills college.

I suspect Lev Grossman was one of those kids too.

The book reads like an adult Harry Potter or a dystopian Narnia. The characters in this book, upon discovering magic, do not suddenly find that their problems are over, but rather that their problems intensify. Quentin believes that once he finds his way to the land of Fillory (the book's version of Narnia), the emptiness in his life will be over and learning magic is just a stepping stone.

It's a great read, definitely an adult fantasy novel, but many of the themes would be appreciated by non-fantasy readers as well. Pick it up and give it a try, especially if you've ever gone searching for Narnia yourself!

Avatar

Now, I know that everyone in the free world has seen this Avatar:

Don't get me wrong - it was an amazing movie. Beautiful scenery, awesome special effects, etc. Kind of a Pocahontas-meet-Dances-With-Wolves-meet-Ferngully, only more blue.

The Avatar that I'm especially looking forward to is this one:

Which is a live-action movie version of this:

Which is one of the best non-anime cartoons I have *ever* seen (and I watch a lot of cartoons)!

So even though The Last Airbender (I guess they couldn't call it by the full title the show has, which is Avatar: The Last Airbender) is a live-action movie directed by M. Night Shamalan (or however you spell it), and I know it can't compare to the sheer awesomeness of the cartoon, I still can't wait to see it!

*movie squee*!

 

Rough start to 2010

So, thanks to the magic of Facebook, it isn't a secret that the guy I've been seeing and I broke up. It happened Jan 2nd (after he didn't spend New Years with me) and I've been kind of reeling ever since.

But, thanks to the wonderful support of my amazing friends, I'm getting by. But I'm not going to turn this blog into a sob story ... I just wanted to highlight two amazing books that are really helping me out now.

Have you seen the movie, "He's Just Not That Into You"? Did you know it started out as a book?

Anyway, the book is not like the movie (which was also very good). It's a great way for you to clue in whether or not the guy you're seeing is actually into you. Believe me, it was an eye opener. I was sure my guy was drifting away, but I didn't think that he had fallen out of love for me until I read this book and realized that he wasn't into me anymore. It was sad, but reading it has helped me come to grips with his feelings.

So, one you've realized he's not that into you, you can read this:

Same author, but this time he's writing with his wife. Ways to cope with your break up, and stories by other people on how they reacted very badly to their break ups to help you out. Great advice, and if you feel yourself slipping into the "maybe I'll just call him to see if he's suffering like me" phase, they have steps you can take to ensure that you don't.

Currently, I'm in the "Don't See Him Or Talk To Him For Sixty Days" phase. After that, sometime in early March, I'll see if I still miss him or even care.

(And if you're thinking "What if he reads this public blog?", well, I don't really care if he does. And also, I don't think he will. If he's not into me anymore, why would he go out of his way to read my blog?)

There's one more book by the same author of the previous books, which I can't seem to find in Canada or the U.S. but I would really like to own:

I've only seen in on the UK version of Amazon. It was published 2007, so it's not that old. I'll have to see if I can get this somewhere. Thank goodness for the magic of the internet!

As for me, I'm doing ok. But if you're concerned, drop me a line or invite me out someplace!

End of a Decade

Well, I haven't really posted here in a long time... lots of stuff going on in my life that I didn't really want to share with the internet, and the stuff that I could share was kind of boring ;) So here's my annual year-in-review post.

2009 was certainly a year of ups and downs. Lots of trials, not just for me, but for a lot of my loved ones. Lots of firsts. Lots of joy. Lots of sadness. I grew up an awful lot this year, learned about myself, and am resolving for 2010 to take it a bit easier on myself.

2009

January

Skiing with friends at Blue Mountain
(got a new ski outfit for the occasion!)

February

My awesome 29th birthday
(shopping, pool, pizza, good friends ... who could ask for more?)

March

Trip to Montreal with Dee!

April

Medieval Times!

Weekend at the cottage
(putting Mark to work)

May

Science Centre!

June

Book singing with Neil Gaiman :D

July

Ah, the cottage in the summer...

August

Canada's Wonderland with Corinna!

Zoo!
(The banana plant tried to kill me)

Michael's birthday
(yes, we got him a remote controlled Dalek)

Stitch 'n Pitch 2009!

Annual cottage vacation
(with a visit to the Haliburton Highlands museum)

September

Bedroom Redecoration Project
(still not complete... gotta buy new furniture)

Choosing Halloween costumes
(this was *so much fun*)

October

Nuit Blanche

Pumpkin carving with Heather and Mike D

Halloween cruise!
(*so much fun*)

November

Bowmanville adventure
(went for a job interview, Alex tagged along, had fun exploring!)

Hamlet steals my knitted goth bee

December

Saw the King Tut exhibit at the AGO
(awesome!)

Baked gingerbread cookies with Corinna

Christmas!

Bloggin' at the cottage!

I love vacations. I'm having an awesome fantabulous time here. It soooooo relaxing I don't want to leave! I'm sitting outside, on the deck, in the sun, typing away on Ophelia (my netbook - I have a thing for Hamlet inspired names right now) and watching the annual chipmunk eat peanuts from Corinna's hand.

The chipmunk just ran across my keyboard! He was so light he didn't even push any keys! And all because Corinna ate his peanuts ;)

Ok, back to my vacation. The first weekend was kinda rainy, but during the brief non-rainy parts, I went out and took some pictures:

Playing with the colours... everything is black and white except for the blue of the hummingbird feeder

Then the weather got a bit better... and I got a bit bored with reading, knitting, and FFXII so I played with the timer on my camera:

Trying to look all thoughtful...

Look at that beautiful sky!

Then Corinna came up and we went to the Scuplture Garden and Haliburton Highlands Museum. We were trying to get all edumacated while we were up here, relaxing :)

Not a statue - a real deer! So pretty!

And finally, for this post anyway, this year's chipmunk that Corinna has named "Alvin"