The year that I thought would never end has ended.

For those who may have noticed my absence from cyberspace (and if not, all is forgiven), my school, York University, shut down for several months due to a strike. Upon the conclusion of said strike, I was thrust back into a hellfire of essays and readings and exams, which lasted for 3 months, and is now, finally, over. As of yesterday when I handed in my last 10,000 word essay. Fun times.

Now that I'm back in the real (er, virtual) world, what do I have to talk about?

Not much.

I discovered an awesome no-knead bread recipe which I will share here with all interested. It's very spongy and good for dipping, and most importantly, labor non-intensive.

Ingredients:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp dry yeast
- 1 & 1/4 tsp salt
- Herbs, if so desired.
- 1 & 5/8 cups of warm water

Steps:
1) Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a big bowl.
2) Add water and mash it all together with your hands. This gets really sticky.
3) Once you have managed to free your hands of the goopy stringy clutches of your bread dough and all the flour is incorporated, cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
4) Let the bowl sit for 18 hours. By the end, it's swell up a bit and bubbles will form.
5) Dump the dough into a buttered bread pan, knocking down all the air bubbles in the process, and again cover the pan either with plastic (buttered plastic) or a damp cloth. Let that sit for 2 to 3 hours until it has risen again.
6) Preheat the oven to 425 and bake for 45 minutes.

In other news, managed to nab 2 jobs for June and August, and I have booked a trip to Nice, France, for the whole of July, where I will be attending a French language school. It is going to be awesome.

Haven't had time to write any stories lately, given the essay/exam/reading hell, but I have a whole bunch of ideas hopping around in my head rearing to hit the page soon.

So first off, I have not checked lj in a while, but I just did, and congrats to Rachel on her publication! Can't wait to read the story. I'm sure we're all slightly jealous and more than slightly proud of her. ;)

As for the topic of this post, I am currently struck with a conundrum. Alpha or France? I can only afford one this summer.

You see, for my planned future graduate studies, I am going to need to have proficiency... er... fluency in another language for the various programs I'm interested in. (I especially need to be able to read in a second language.) And I figured I would pick the language I actually have some basis in: French. There's a French language course in Nice that lasts a month, and it's about 2500 dollars + airfare and expenses. That 2500 includes accommodation and tuition. It would mean not being able to apply to Alpha, especially because I would need to get a job when I get back from France, to make back money for the school year. Maybe I would be able to drive up for Confluence... maybe. But I need to do this thing now or never. :( I'm torn. Learning Parisian French would also enable me to do graduate studies in France if I wanted, and university there is free even for foreigners. Big plus.

In other news, I've been hacking away at a new story these past few weeks. It's going well, I think. It has required research into farm life in Saskatchewan, evolutionary biology of trees, the Hudson Bay Company, Cree folklore, and the dull occupation of stenography/court reporting. Much of the research won't be used except in vague, general ways, but it's been fun! I don't know if the story will be done in time for the Dell Award submission date though. In fact, I highly doubt it. I'm a slow worker. In fact, I only have 1 story that I feel sort-of-but-not-really comfortable submitting. It's still missing something, and I kind of know what it's missing, but I have really lost the passion for the story. I've moved on to this greater, fresher, current project of mine and my heart is there now.

Other than that, life is just boredom and depression right now. And Mad Men. What a great show. I tore through both seasons in just over a week. I think it is also having an influence on my current story.

I just returned about 10 minutes ago from seeing the film 'Synecdochy, NY' - the directorial debut of the great Charlie Kaufman. For those of you who don't know who Charlie Kaufman is (shame!), he is one of the greatest storytellers of this age and one of the greatest screenwriters of all time... in my humble opinion. He is the writer behind 'Being John Malkovich', 'Human Nature', 'Adaptation', and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. For the first time, he has directed one of his own screenplays. 'Synecdochy, NY', starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, is the result.

And what is that result? One of the most ambitious, convoluted, self-indulgent, overwrought, mind-blowing, heart-wrenching, disturbing, surreal, impossible, perfect yet imperfect films ever made. Period. The best way I can describe it is that the myriad of intertwining themes that compose the story are woven so incredibly tight that they are ever-tightening but drawing no closer together, as an infinite distance separates each thread. It feels like the most compelling sprawling mess you've ever seen, yet you realize that's precisely the point, and then you realize that what you took for a mess was actually an order that you were just too close to see so you take a step back. But then you take another step back and it's a mess again. Then you take another step back: order. And on. There are no throw-away lines, yet every line is a throw-away line; every symbol, theme, plot device, is there from the beginning, yet each is unexpected. The ending is a twist, yet it was always coming. If this film does not completely shatter any coherent conception of narrative structure, I don't know what can. Love it or hate it, and you will undoubtedly feel both emotions, it is undoubtedly a work of genius. This is Kaufman's magnum opus.

This trailer does not do it justice:






I also saw a concert recently. NIN. Here are some pics. They put on a fantastic show.

So I finally got my rejection slip back from Realms of Fantasy today. And it's a yellow one! What that means, I don't know. I hear RoF colour codes rejections. What does yellow mean? A good sign: it was personalized! Basically, they said the story had some nice elements but didn't quite gel together. That and I can get responses back via email, because I'm international, so I don't need to include an SASE. Score. More money saved in future.

My classes have been indefinitely canceled during the CUPE strike, which I fully support. (I hope the TAs are able to get pay that's above the poverty line.) Thus I have oodles of spare time. What have I done so far? Edited my short story, a new draft of which should be complete by the end of today, read some fiction, and watched 2 films. One of the movies was 'Burn After Reading'. A mediocre affair. The characters were frustratingly stupid -- as in complete idiots. That's probably what bugged me most. Though watching John Malkovich hack a guy to death with a hatchet was amusing and rather disturbing.

The other film, which my family rented, was 'Fugitive Pieces'. (I've posted the trailer here.) I must say, it has beaten out 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' as the most touching film I've seen this year. Truly beautiful. I dare say it was one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. It inspired me to start keeping a journal again. You'll notice I don't put much in the way of private thoughts into my posts. That's because they're private. I miss having a place to be honest with myself. Watch the movie and you'll understand. Gorgeous.



Note: The trailer is kind of cheesy, mainly because of the music, but the film is fantastic!

Me Animal! You Animal! ME ANIMAL! YOU ANIMAL!

Sorry, I'm listening to the band 'Duels'. They have that effect.

So it's been a while, again. I'm really bad at this posting thing. But I'm here now. First off, congrats to Obama. Though he is just a politician like any other (thus proving a black man can play the political game as well - hurah!), it is a huge step for America to elect a black President. I'm happy, in a sort of detached fashion. A friend told me the other day he was going to get high and watch the election, which in itself is a statement I don't think I've ever heard before. There were parties here in Toronto. We don't even get to vote in the election and we were having election parties while glued to our t.v. sets.

News updates... oh, where to start. In the time since my last post I got a record player, got a ton of new music, went to a concert, dressed up for Halloween, went to a Dave Gibbons signing, read several books (all philosophy), wrote a new song for my guitar, began editing my short story, celebrated my birthday... yeah, and there were other things, but I don't remember it all. Here are some pictures.





(My mask was all crooked at this point, mainly from me tugging at it all the time, but it still looks alright. You should have seen the looks I got on the subway. I made one girl scream. Hehe.)




(The sock that was my mask, all smudged after a night of festivity.)




(The Dave Gibbons signing. It was packed. We didn't stick around for the signing itself, just the Q&A. Which was awesome.)




(The 'of Montreal' concert. The above pic features a bunch of performance artists dressed up in golden monkey suits. Kevin Barnes got nearly naked and danced around with pink liquid latex smeared all over his body. It was awesome. Actually, stepping out of an 'of Montreal' concert is a lot like waking from a bizarre, neon-coloured, erotic orgy of a dream. You don't remember exactly what happened, but you remember it was wonderful and there was a lot of dancing involved. The stage saw the traffic of men with pig and donkey heads, faeries and satyrs, a fully functional gallows from which Kevin hung himself, weight lifters, a giant dismembered monster that reassembled itself, a cardinal, cowboys and indians, centaurs, and more. Listening to 'The Rejector' live was absolutely devastating. And they closed the show with an encore cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which came out of nowhere, but the crowd loved it.)




(My friend Patrick at the of Montreal concert. He was more than happy to pose for a pic with the new album he purchased.)

And that's all for now folks. Time to get back to my school work. Speaking of which, CUPE may go on strike soon, which means the University will be closing until they resolve their issues. Thus I may have an abundance of free time soon... and a school year stretching into the summer. Joy.

It has been an inexcusably long time since I posted anything. 3rd year of the undergrad is crazy, apparently. I guess it doesn't help that I'm volunteering with Best Buddies and to coach curling, and I'm a research assistant, and I am addicted to Fringe, House, and the Tudors. Sigh.

But what have I been doing lately?

At the moment, I am currently assembling my Halloween costume. I plan to be Rorschach. I have all the stuff (trench coat, fedora, pinstripe pants, gloves, scarf -- alas, I couldn't find a pinstripe jacket), and last night I used a large white tights sock to make a mask. On the internet, those who've made Rorschach masks before advise you to use Sharpies to colour in the blotches... I used a cheap 'permanent' Staples-brand marker. Oh boy. It worked at first... but then the marker began to bleed, and when I tried it on it looked awesome, but when I took it off I looked like I'd just walked out of a coal mine. I had to scrub my face with cleanser to get the marker off. My face (still red) has not yet forgiven me.

So I ruined one sock, but luckily, socks come in pairs. Attempt #2 will be with actual Sharpies. Never again will I doubt the internet when it comes to costume-making and marker brands.

In brighter news, I got a turntable yesterday! Huzzah! I can now listen to all my dad's old records. I immediately listened to The Beatles' "White Album". it sounds so good!

And of final note, tomorrow I'm going to a concert! The band is called "of Montreal". Happy-sounding electro-pop with depressing/and-or/ridiculous lyrics if you actually pay attention to the lyrics. They're awesome. Go listen to them. :D

For my American friends... which is all but 1 of you.

Tonight, "The Office" makes way to... leadership debates! The American Vice Presidential debate is on at the same time as the Canadian Prime Ministerial Debate. (Guess which one most Canadians are watching?)

I will be watching the Prime Ministerial Debate. Last night was the French debate. I missed it, but I caught the recaps, and if it's any prediction of the English debate, Harper is going to be fielding attacks from all sides, so it could be entertaining. (Though I don't get to watch the Green Party leader Elizabeth May butcher any more French. Sigh. "Beaucoup fun." That was classic.)

Also on everyone's mind is, of course, the current American financial... um... troubles. According to Harper (Conservative Party Leader and Prime Minister), Canadians have nothing to worry about. We're insulated. Yeah, ok. Sure. *Recession!* I swear, that was a cough. People have been harping on Harper's stance on the whole... let's call it 'thing' that's happening south of the border. I feel kind of sorry for the poor guy. (No, I don't.) Shit, did I say that out loud? I'm still bitter over Harper calling artists spoiled rich children, or something along those lines, as justification for his stance on government funding of the arts.

An interesting observation made by one of my profs today on the recent overturn of the U.S. bailout package:

While yes, he understands why the bailout is "necessary", we of our generation have witnessed something unprecedented. Democracy in action. For once, both Democrats and Republicans did what the people wanted. Being so close to election, they had no choice but to obey popular sentiment on an issue. And so what if the fate of your average working stiff is tied to the fate of Wall Street? Yeah, it's not a Wall Street issue, it's an American issue. Thanks Obama. But for the briefest moment, the synthetic flesh covering the American Body Politic was torn asunder and the public got to see the gears beneath, the synthetic life within. And what did the public see? That they (we -- as Canada's no different) live in the illusion of a democracy? Yup. That these are the guys who are screwing them and it might be nice to screw the screwers for a change? Double yup. Of course, the Body Politic was quick to suture the wound. (The bailout passed in the Senate and now America is waiting on the House's verdict, as everyone knows.) But for the briefest of moments, the power was in the hands of the people, and the people saw who held the reigns of power, and they didn't like it.

To quote the new TV on the Radio album, because I can't get the fucking thing out of my head, "Never you mind, death professor. Your shocks are fine. My struts are better. Your fiction flies so high. Y'all could use a doctor. Who's sick, who's next? ... This is beginning to feel like the dawn of the lose of forever."

ps. - A reminder: Listen to the new TV on the Radio album on their myspace!

I am currently writing an essay, but I decided to take a minute out (to procrastinate) to announce that the new "TV on the Radio" album entitled 'Dear Science' is AMAZING! I am addicted. Been listening to it and "of Montreal's" also wonderful album "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" on constant rotation while working.

If you have not already, go listen to TV on the Radio!

You can stream the whole album from their myspace.

http://www.myspace.com/tvotr

My favourite tracks:
DLZ
Love Dog
Family Tree
Golden Age

In that order.

Above is random picture by that artist Tim Cantor I've been harping on recently. He's awesome.  That is oil of canvas!  No computer touch-ups. Just plain old oil on canvas!

In recent news:

1) I got a research assistant position, which is exciting.  I'm sworn to secrecy about the research.  It's for a sociology prof.  Tedious work, like mining quotes and putting together bibliographies.  You know, national security clearance required and all.

2) I am on the verge of finishing a short story first draft!  Huzzah!  I also, however, have multiple essays approaching.  Eeps!

3) Everyone seems to have a head cold in Toronto.  I am no exception.

4) I got tickets to a Nine Inch Nails concert in November!!!!  A Japanese band called Boris is opening.  I have no clue who Boris is, but what a terrible band name!  Their stuff on myspace sounds decent though.

5) Burble.  Don't ask.

Oh, and for my 20th b-day, my parents decided to spoil me with an early gift.  An iphone.  I'm now officially hip.

It has been a while.  Since my last post that is.  Since the last time I had sex?  Alas, there is no point of reference, so the actual temporal value is non-existent.  Unless you believe in reincarnation.

But I'm off topic.  What was my topic?  Oh, I don't have one. 

What shall my topic be?

Well, maybe some of you are wondering where I've been, what I've been doing, who (in my fantasies) I've been doing, etc.  Or maybe you weren't wondering.   But you are now!

Well, last night I dreamed that I went to my bank and it had been replaced by a farm where an old couple tried to trap me in a cellar in order to chop me up and possibly eat me, and then I escaped and found myself in a steampunk London and... well, it got weird and scary and very China Mieville.  And for some reason the apartment where I was staying in the dream (on a pull-out couch no less) became a forest clearing with furniture scattered across it.  Alas, nothing erotic happened on said outdoor furniture set.

But seriously, you say.  What have I been doing?

Well, I had a near death experience, actually.  I nearly drowned in school, only recently surfacing for air.  Since my last post, I have reread... practically 3/4ths of the Bible for multiple unrelated classes, I tackled "The Phenomenology of Hegel's Seriously Messed-Up Mind", Descartes Meditations, OMMMMMMM, 'The Time Machine', the bloody awesome 'Titus Andronicus', 'The Epic of Gilgamesh', several short stories from my pile of magazines, and some other stuff I can't remember right now, which is not a good sign.  I never got around to finishing 'The Light Ages', but I will at some point.  I also managed to land a service bursary position as a research assistant, for which I will get $2000.00 toward my tuition.  I had 2 interviews for that.  I went to some job workshop that was useless.  I wrote a new song for my guitar.  Um... I met some new folks.  (Why is it that the smart and gorgeous female new person is a devout Christian?  Where are the atheist girls?!?! )   I hung out with friends.  I attended lectures and seminars.  I have done no writing.  I applied to 'Best Buddies'.  I got new music.  Deerhunter is awesome!!!!  I did conceive of a fantastic idea for a full-length novel, or rather came up with some fantastic developments for an idea that has been bouncing around in me for years.  Gasp!

I must now proceed to finish my readings for tomorrow and them maybe, just maybe, I will be able to work on the short story I left half-finished several weeks ago.
        

I was so bored, I just wrote the following facebook message to a friend:

"The trips were good.  Awesome, actually.  'Things' in the wake of said trips are now in a state of 'boringness'.  Extreme boringness.  And I can't believe that boringness is actually a word.  I typed it thinking the spellcheck would flag it, but no, boringness is a word.  What a lame word.  I'm sure this little monologue tells you the extent to which boringness has taken over my life.  I am so bored!  Time to go read some Ranciere, then some Descartes, then The Epic of Gilgamesh!  Yeah, a good dose of philosophy and an epic poem should clear that boredom right up."

Actually, philosophy and an epic poem does clear up boredom!  It also clears up acne.  Don't take my word for it.  Try it! 

On the note of philosophy, that Ranciere fellow I just mentioned: golden.  Not literally, no.  But his book "The Ignorant Schoolmaster" I am currently reading for a course is.  Literally.  Gold.  I swear.  It's also brilliant, and every human being should read it.  It's a book masquerading as the story of one Joseph Jacotot who dared to challenge Enlightenment thinking with a radical teaching method.  The book isn't just about the teaching method.  That's where it starts.  Jacotot was faced with the task of teaching a bunch of Flemish-speaking students French when he  himself knew no Flemish.  He succeeded, and his success led him to conclude all people are of equal intelligence (though the strength of individual wills vary) thus overturning intellectual hierarchy and sowing the seeds of intellectual emancipation.  The book goes far beyond this, and in great detail, branching into metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, politics etc.  I won't restate its arguments because that would be counter-intuitive.  I'll just say this, again: read it!

In other news.  Kiwi saw a black squirrel for the first time today!  I'm sure she will tell everyone all about it.  And she took pictures!  

Squirrels are evil.  Band against them.  Fight the rodents!  Break their little opposable thumbs so they can't use tools!  I've had too much coffee!        

(Currently re-reading "The Light Ages" in preparation for reading the sequel "The House of Storms".  Also watched "2001: A Space Odyssey " today.  Maybe that's why I'm bored.  Space fetus!  According to my sister, I am the space fetus, and my mother is the "momolith".  Yeah, I think I busted a rib laughing at that one.)

Haven't done much in the way of reading this week.   Or writing. (What have I done lately?  Um... I've been lazy, watched television, felt mopey.  I also took a bike ride.  Go me!) 

However, I did make my final push through the last 50 pages of Nalo Hopkinson's "Midnight Robber" today.  What did I think?  While I enjoyed the refreshing new voice and the Creole infusion, it left me unsatisfied.  Maybe it's just the funk of a mood I'm in, but it didn't make me jump and scream "THAT WAS AWESOME!"  Instead, I closed the book, nodded to myself, said "that was kind of neat" and went on with my day.  

I'm not in the mood to really "review" the book, so I'll leave it at that. 

In other news, school starts soon!  Gah!  Is it wrong for me to be eagerly awaiting the first day?  I need to see new faces, meet new people, get myself out there and do something.  I always write more (and better) when I can get out for the day and DO something.  The busier I am, the more I get done, somehow.  Maybe diving into the new school year head first will help jolt me out of the rut I'm in with my current short story.  (I find myself hating it more and more as the days pass.) 

Oh, and I finished making mix CDs for diatryma yesterday... 4 of them.  Yeah.  I really need school to start.

My second full official day home has begun to wind down, and I am now, once more, in the mental space to get back into the regular rhythm of life.  Only problem is, after over a month away from home, I no longer know what such a rhythm feels like or if said rhythm really even exists.  (Existential crisis!)  Of course, school starts again soon, so I better adjust fast.  That and with my bank account steadily draining, I really need to find a new job.  Sigh.

But enough about the woes of the lazy, middle-class, North American, young, half-white male (who passes for white) in the city.  Instead, lets see what a spoiled young man with time to burn does with said time!

The answer: he watches the entire first season of "The Big Bang Theory."  That's what he does.  And it is an awesome show.  Buy it, stream it, download it, do what you must.  Just make sure you watch it, because it's awesome, and Season 2 premieres September 22nd.   

It's about 2 geniuses (Leonard and Sheldon - an experimental and theoretical physicist respectively) who live together.  They have 2 friends, Howard (the token Jew) and Rajesh (the token Indian) who are just as geeky as them.  If you have seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, you may recognize the actor who plays Howard.  He also played 'Moist' in said blog.   The premise of the show is simple.  Pretty girl named Penny moves down hall.  Leonard falls hopelessly in love.  Sheldon is the most unsupportive but AMAZING friend ever.  Voila!  It is by far better than "Chuck." 

And how did I find out about this series? 

I get home and suddenly my sister starts calling me the (so-called) "Leonard of Literature."  Go figure.  Though there are some uncanny behavioral similarities between Leonard and I, I do admit.  Especially concerning the fairer sex. 

   

Currently at Trillium Curling Camp.  Too busy to post much.  Or anything.  Gah!

As the subject line implies, I finished reading Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin" today!  So the time has come to take sides.  Do I take up the banner of Cassie or Thomas and Rebecca?  Weeeell, I think I have to lean more toward Thomas and Rebecca on this one in saying that I really did enjoy "Spin."  While it is another "one of those" dreaded books featuring genius twins, it was a damned good one of those books. 

For those of you who don't know what "Spin" is about, essentially it's about Earth being enveloped in a semi-permeable membrane outside which time moves many many many times faster than Earth time.  Thus the Earth's existence is put on the clock, as once the Sun reaches a certain age, it should mean the end of Earth.  The story is told from the perspective of one Tyler Dupree, who is friends with aforementioned genius twins, and who has to deal with the implications of "The Spin" as it's called.   It's a very angsty story, but the angst doesn't overwhelm the book, and Wilson even manages to pull off a hopeful ending.  Its indictment of humanity's rapid consumption of Earth's resources does occasionally slip onto the preachy side, but the confidence of Wilson's storytelling along with the constant dialectic of hope and futility battling it out both in the story's protagonist, Tyler, and in the world around him, make these slips forgivable.  I'm going to give this book two big toes up.  They're clean big toes mind you.  Not smelly ones.  I just had a shower.  And my thumbs are too involved in the business of typing.

Unfortunately, I need to put the reading list on hold for a week, as I'm an assistant at Trillium Curling Camp in Guelph Ontario between the 17th and the 22nd of August, and there won't be time to read.  When I get back, I will either start "Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson or "Midnight Robber" by Nalo Hopkinson.  Haven't decided which yet. 

   

So Diane's last post had a link to the Hugo award winners...

http://www.denvention3.org/hugos/08hugowinnerlist.php

Which I have reposted here.  And Gene Wolfe, once more, did not win one!  Gah!  If ever there was a man who deserved a Hugo, it's Gene Wolfe.  While I am sad, I also hope this means he'll whip out something even better in the coming years and steal a Hugo with that.

In other news, I saw Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises' today.  Finally.  I'm tempted to say it's better than 'A History of Violence,' but I really can't decide which was better.  Both were brutal.  Both were brilliant.  Vigo was also brilliant.  He fought naked in a steam room!  Come on!  Not much more to say there.  If you haven't already, go watch both.

I am currently counting down the days until I leave Toronto again for Trillium Curling Camp, where I get paid to be an assistant.  (Curling, for the record, IS a sport.)  Yesterday I went to a neat little costume shop in Toronto called 'Malabar' to buy face paint and a bald cap for a costume I'll be wearing at the camp's climactic shootout.  I'm dressing up as a blue man from the blue man group.  (Following in the footsteps of the great Tobias Funke played by David Cross in 'Arrested Development.')  If you have not been in a theatrical costume shop, you must, at some point, go.  They are full of expensive wonders.  Yeah, the makeup cost more than expected.  (Sixty dollars.  *Cough.*)  And here I was complaining about subscriptions. 

Luckily, I'm getting paid for this.

 

Got back home today.  My flight was delayed 4 hours in the end, so I'm pretty wiped.  I slept a bit on the plane, but 2 hours of plane sleep just doesn't cut it. 

The first thing I did when I got home, before unpacking, was open my mail.  Lo and behold, I received my rejection letter from F&SF!  Yay!  Don't know what the other Alphan rejections look like, but mine is pretty form.  My summary of it goes something like...  Tale didn't grab interest, good luck with it, thanks.  Tomorrow I think I'm going to look for a binder and follow in DBK's footsteps (imitation and flattery, you know).

One more thing.  I have a big new beef to share.  After Alpha, I vowed to subscribe to a few magazines.  So today, I went to the various magazine websites: Locus, F&SF, Weird Tales, Analog, Asimov's etc.  And what do I find?  International subscriptions are bloody outrageous!  (For the most part.)  I particularly want to subscribe to F&SF, Weird Tales, and Locus. 

For a one-year subscrip, F&SF is 35 bucks in the States and 47 bucks in Canada (Gross Sales Tax included.)
For a one year subscrip, Weird Tales is 24 bucks in the States and a whopping 54 bucks in Canada!  $54.00!  WTF! 
Most of the rest tend to be about ten dollars more.

 It will cost me $144.00 just to subscribe to Locus, F&SF, and Weird Tales!  Gah!  With the school year coming up (tuition + school books) and being broke and all after that vacation, I think I will have to hold off on the subscriptions. 

Oh, and here are some vacation pics:


Me and my sis (Sierra) on a drum bridge in a Japanese garden.  That's my mom beside the bridge.


Me and my sis shopping.


A fish storm.


My dad feeding the ravenous Californian wildlife.


We are Rock Stars.


And a seagull.   He's a rock star too.



        

I am currently posting from the Las Vegas airport, where all of the food stands/stores etc. are closing (mostly already closed) now.  It's about 3:00 am in Toronto and midnight here.  My flight has been delayed about 2 hours (so far).  Ugh.  So far it has not been canceled.  That's the good news.

So what shall I post about?  My last few days in San Fran were mostly uneventful.  I did get to go on an Alcatraz tour today, my last day in the city.  It was an awesome tour.  I bought a(nother) book at the gift shop.  A memoir by one of the former inmates.  Darwin Coon.  The book is called "Alcatraz: The End of the Line."  I started reading it in a San Francisco park while waiting for the cab to the airport, then I read the last 20 pages while at the San Fran airport.  It was certainly a fascinating read.  It's hard to believe a man could actually live that way.  Most of his life was spent in various prisons.  When he wasn't in prison, he was moving from small town to small town with a buddy of his.  At each small town it seemed, he and his buddy would say, "Look!  A bank!  Let's go rob it!"  Then they'd rob it.  With barely any effort, actually.  It was kind of sad how easy it was for them to rob banks.  Then they'd take their spoils to Chicago where they'd pick up some girls and go on a spree... before heading out to rob more banks.  Then when he was 26, he was sent to Alcatraz.  Alcatraz closed and he was sent to another prison.  Eventually he managed to fight some of his charges and got released, and eventually became a born-again Christian.  You know how it is.

He signed the book for me at the gift shop.  Seemed like a nice man.   Very quiet. 

I highly recommend going on the Alcatraz tour if you're ever in San Francisco. 

While on my first plane, I read the December 2007 issue of F&SF, except for the novelet "Bone Man," which I'll get to eventually.  Finisterra was pretty good.  My favourite in the magazine though was "Stray" by Benjamin Rosenbaum and David Ackert.  It was a haunting story (for me) about the burdens on a god's conscience.  "Who Brought Tulips to the Moon?", also in that issue, by S. L. Gilbow, reminded me of my story "The Forty-One Second Killer."  It was better than mine, of course.  Institutionalized suicide.  Gotta love it. 

Just started reading "Spin."  Cassie has tempered my excitement, but Thomas liked it, so we'll see.

Now my father wants to usurp control of my laptop to check his email.  Adios everyone! 

(Oh, and I keep seeing that damned 'Twilight' series everywhere in these bloody airports!  Ach!)