Saturday, July 28, 2007
July 28th - Simpsonized
A couple of days ago, while I was watching Fox Major League Baseball, they showed an ad for free Simpsonization. By submitting a closely cropped picture of someone's face to www.simpsonizeme.com (and, as I figure out later, www.simpsonizeme.co.uk) the little program will turn this person into a Simpson-esque character. It's a tie-in to the new Simpson's movie that opened today in North America. I took the .png's that you can save and added me (the guy on the left of Homer), Guy (the naked guy), and Sabrina and Narv (far right) onto a picture of gonch-Homer I found by "the Google". The program is impressively accurate. Below are the actual pictures I submitted and close-ups of the Simpsonizations the website kicked out. Unfortunately, there are a few bad thing about the site. One, it doesn't do kids well (my 20 month old niece comes out as a 30ish Chinese Pipi Longstocking double) and, due to high traffic, the site is hard to get on to and when you do get on, it's very, very excruciatingly slow.
Friday, July 06, 2007
July 6th - Kwik E Mart
Woohoo!! With the eminent arrival of The Simpsons Movie on the 27th, Fox decided to convert 12 North American 7-Elevens into replica Kwik-E-Marts and they opened on July 2nd. Thankfully, rather than having the only Kwik-E-Mart in Canada open in Toronto, Montreal, or Calgary, those corporate Fox brainiacs put it in a small suburb near Vancouver called Coquitlam. (1198 Lansdowne Drive.) It's truly amazing, too. We waited in line for thirty minutes to get in, which was a kick in the pants but it was probably worth it for the hardcore Simpsons' fan. 
Not only does the outside of the store look pretty close to Apu Nahasapeenapetalan's in Springfield, it also contains cool signs inside and out reading slogans that you could very well imagine being found in the real store. The store was to carry some exclusive products, including Pink Kwik-E-Mart donuts, and Squishees but by the time we arrived they were far and away sold out of the more interesting items, such as Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's cereal. We were able to come away with six donuts ($1.29 for two) and 2 Squishees ($2.29 each). Plus, I double-cupped the squishees so I got four of the cups, which are made of plastic and arenneat-o souviners of my visit to the Kwik-E-Mart. I was crazy inside with people carrying around loads of Squishee Cups and one guy actually bought 48 donuts. (He was a little on the portly side and I was actually wondering if he was the real world Comicbook Guy.) 
Here's a picture of me outside of the Kwik-E-Mart with my Squishee and my pink sprinkle donut. (I really need to get a hair cut.) You'd think that the Kwik-E-Mart stuff would be exclusive to Kwik-E-Marts but Norm and I were a little surprised to find the same stuff at the 7-Eleven we stopped off on our way home. Not only did they have the Squishees and pink donuts but they had the Buzz Cola and the 
Krusty-O Cereal in stock, which was sold out at the actual Kwik-E-Mart. So, note to all those that want paraphenalia but don't want to get lost in scary Coquitlam looking for the Kwik-E-Mart, you can go to pretty much any 7-Eleven and find the goods. As I mentioned before, there are 11 others in North America besides this one in Coquitlam. They're in:- Bladensburg, Maryland
- Washington, DC
- Burbank,California
- Chicago, Illinois
- Dallas, Texas
- Denver, Colorado
- Henderson, Nevada
- Los Angeles, California
- Mountain View, California
- New York, New York
- Lake Buena Vista, Florida
- Seattle, Washington
Now, bring on the movie!
ed
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
May 30th - Book Twenty-Eight: The Trial
Similarly to the embarrassment that I felt when I went to Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam before reading her journal, I had some regrets of not reading Franz Kafka before visiting his grave in Prague this summer. (This is a picture of Dwarf wearing a yarmulke next to the famous F. Kafka's grave.) Thus, I promised myself that I would read one of his books sooner or later. Well, I finally got around to it. I've tried numerous times to start this book, which many say is his best piece of work, but they were all false starts because I couldn't get into the translated pieces. This is - seriously - the fourth copy that I purchased and finally it was a great translation which I was able to read completely. Now, I don't know if you've read Kafka before, but it seems that he's got some psychiatric problems. Paranoilia is a running theme and I don't think that there is a large seperation between Kafka and the protagonist, K. Obviously, you'll have to read it for yourself and determine your own ideas but, damn, the characteristic correlations between what I read about Kafka and how K. acts in the book are striking.
I won't lie to you. The book is somewhat a complicated read, even after finding a well translated copy, and there are certain parts of the book that I didn't understand at all. However, the mysterious possibilities that may have resulted in the charges against him make the book a great one. I give the book 4/5. Find a copy at one of your local used book outlets. (254 pages. Total for the year: 7311 pages).
I won't lie to you. The book is somewhat a complicated read, even after finding a well translated copy, and there are certain parts of the book that I didn't understand at all. However, the mysterious possibilities that may have resulted in the charges against him make the book a great one. I give the book 4/5. Find a copy at one of your local used book outlets. (254 pages. Total for the year: 7311 pages).
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
May 22nd - Book Twenty-Seven: Thirst
I used to buy and try to read a lot of short story books but I stopped this year because I know that I usually give up on them once I run into even one story in the compilation that I find poor. I haven't actually finished many compilations before. With my goal being to finish 50 books within the year, I've made an effort of foregoing anthologies to limit the number of discarded starts that could, possibly, reduce the overall number of pages I'll have to read to garner this goal by December 31st. In contrast, I have to read any other book that I start to its last page regardless if it turns sour somewhere in the middle. So, notice, this is my first book of essays this year.
Book 27 is a book that I bought at a London Drugs book sale a couple of years ago. I actually can't remember when I bought it, nor the amount of money I shilled out for it. I do remember that I purchased this Ken Kalfus book of short stories because I read the first story in the London Drugs and I liked it a lot. But, not all of the stories are in the same interesting level as the first two or three of the book. Actually, besides the great writing style, some of the stories drag and stumble to get to the end. Having said this, I do think it's an above average book and I'd recommend it to anyone that can get their paws on a copy of it somewhere, be it Abe's or Powell's or some other reduced price book peddler. 3/5 stars, baby. (207 pages. Total for the year: 7057 pages).
Book 27 is a book that I bought at a London Drugs book sale a couple of years ago. I actually can't remember when I bought it, nor the amount of money I shilled out for it. I do remember that I purchased this Ken Kalfus book of short stories because I read the first story in the London Drugs and I liked it a lot. But, not all of the stories are in the same interesting level as the first two or three of the book. Actually, besides the great writing style, some of the stories drag and stumble to get to the end. Having said this, I do think it's an above average book and I'd recommend it to anyone that can get their paws on a copy of it somewhere, be it Abe's or Powell's or some other reduced price book peddler. 3/5 stars, baby. (207 pages. Total for the year: 7057 pages).
Sunday, May 20, 2007
May 20th - Kore brings out the bling
Another individual at the N & S's engagment party was the famous and highly celebrated BC Hydro call centre phone jockey Corey W. Look at this beast. Good looks and perfect girth. And he looks increasingly more like George Costanza with every passing year. He may look outwardly like Mr. Costanza but the way that he's modeling that bling watch and pawing that gin and juice, he looks inwardly more like another famous George...George Burns! No, I'm kidding. I'm talking George Clooney! (Or, George Burns.) As if I have to tell you, he's pulling here.
May 20th, 2007 - The Proposal
Today, I attended the engagement party for my friend Narv and his fiancee Sabrina. This is a picture of someone and another person that also attended the party. They look happy. Actually, this is Narv and Sabrina. Though, I can say with some certainty that I don't know who the two individuals on the left of the picture are. (I think the one on Narv's right might be Keyser Soze; If memory serves me, I think he walked with a limp and he may have been holding his left arm with his right hand. However, I may be wrong. And this, certainly, wouldn't be the first time.) The curry served at the restaurant was the best. The best, I say. Well, at least, it's much better than the only other curry I've ever had: "Curry Point" at UBC. Very memorable event. I'm happy to see Narv growing up.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
May 17th - Book Twenty-Six: Londonstani
Sometimes I miss England and this sort of thing is a great reminder of just how much I miss it. This is a fantastic book that Narv leant me and it tells a story about growing up as a young,middle class British Asian (Indian) in current-day England. (It was released last year and it was actually a highly touted book that I saw everywhere while in England but I didn’t get around reading it then because it was (I thought) such a large book with over 300! pages. (Now, well, 300 is still a lot of pages but the Canadian print of this books seems to me (somehow...possibly thinner stock paper? Or dense ink?) to appear a little smaller and, thus, a little more manageable.) When I taught in Ramsey, I only had two or three Indo-Britians in all of the classes I taught and they seemed to have completely bought into being British so I don’t know how much of this book is really true but, based on the general experiences I had with young English society, I wouldn’t bet against any of this possibly happening. A great story with a very unsuspecting and shocking surprise ending, I recommend it highly to all those that are looking for a perfect summer read. 4/5 (342 pages. Total for the year: 6850 pages).
Thursday, May 10, 2007
May 10th - Book Twenty-Five: The Child Buyer
Written in 1960, Pulitzer Prize winning author John Hersey's "The Child Buyer" is my 25th - aka hump - book of 2007; I'm half way through to 50. As noted on the book's cover, it is a very Orwellian story that produces a surprisingly immoral story that I guess could have been considered plausible when it was writen. However, some will say that, with the advent, success, and proliferation of computers and other artificial intelligent machines, the story has passed its time. Yet, if you consider that every one in this generation owns digital gadgets that handily store information so they no longer need to learn or retain information as long as they are attached to these machines, possibly this fictional story, though using dated examples, is actually ironically prophetic. The book is very good. I liked it very much. Rating: 3.63/5. (258 pages. Total for the year: 6508 pages).
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