Here, futon futon futon...
Why is it that the hardest things to shop for are what should be the simplest, most basic items? Jeans, watches, plain black shoes or trousers, bras -- they're all things I hate shopping for because I hardly ever find anything just as I'd like it; it's not the right fabric, it's uncomfortable, it looks cheap, it's too expensive... Topping that list, for me, is wallets, which is why I usually end up using the same (cheap) wallet for years, until it starts coming apart at the seams and I'm rather embarrassed to be seen with it. My current one, for example, is in a pitiful state, threads hanging loose and the fake crocodile skin rubbing off. Since I happened to be in Shinjuku yesterday, I thought, "If I can't find a wallet I like for a reasonable price in Shinjuku during the summer sales, I'll... keep on using this ratty old thing until it falls apart."
Thankfully, I found something nice, something on sale, something metallic green on the outside, purple on the inside and with pink trim. It's kind of painfully me. And while it's not the perfect wallet (as if such a thing existed!), it'll do quite nicely.
Yesterday I also managed to make myself a futon cover, so that I slept on my futon for the first time. I like it! Tabitha also approves, because it means that she can curl up next to my chest so that I can pet her. She also approves of it being folded up by the wall during the day, because it's one more comfortable thing to nap on.
When the end of June rolled around, I thought I should make some mid-year resolutions, or at least revisit the ones I made in January and try to get back on track, specifically regarding writing reviews and posting to my Travelpod. I haven't written any reviews in over two months, so I have a rather long queue of things to write about (25, to be exact) and I think the best way to go about it is to make myself do them all before M-P arrives on the 4th of August. I've written all the titles out on slips of paper and will draw them randomly, except for the ones I want to do reviews in pictures for. Those ones are the Japanese doramas and BL movies, of course, because they always amuse me and inspire snark, and it's much funnier with images. Also in this batch are a "romantic" "comedy" (quotes because it was neither romantic nor comedic) that made me want to claw my eyes out, some very good books, and anime porn.
Hee. :D
First up,
Les identités meurtrières (Amin Malouf):
This book, a rumination on culture and the difficulty inherent in having dual cultural identities, written by a Franco-Lebanese man, was a short read. On one hand, it echoed many things that I've thought, and put them in a slightly different perspective. On the other hand, there were a lot of, "Well, duh!" moments, when I got the feeling Malouf was dumbing it down for an audience of (French, I presume) people who see themselves as having a single cultural/ethnic/national identity.
Do you remember, back in enseignement moral* classes when we had to trace the various circles of belonging? You'd start with a dot for you, around which was a small circle representing your family, then draw a larger circle around that for your neighbourhood or town, etc. etc. We didn't get into culture or ethnicity back then, but I was always aware of the fact that I was part of two different cultures, even before I understood what that meant beyond the fact that I spoke two different languages at home. And even though my two cultures are not light-years apart, they're still different enough for me to feel defensive when I'm with anglophones and there's talk of "Quebeckers..." (not that I call myself québécoise, because a) I wasn't born in Quebec** and b) it implies certain political leanings that I don't agree with, but I'm still a member of the group they're referring to) or when a group of francophones says something about, "Les anglais..." (and the pedant in me always wants to shoot back, "We're not English, we're anglophone!")
Anyway, the book is interesting, though it didn't really touch on anything I hadn't thought about before. It was written back in 1998, well before the riotting in the Paris suburbs, but Malouf predicted such things happening if France, as a nation, didn't manage to address the fact that a larger and larger segment of its population is made to feel that it is not "really French", especially the children of immigrants, who were born in France, sometimes speak nothing but French, yet are seen as unwelcome foreigners, fresh off the boat.
* For those of you who weren't educated in Quebec, enseignement moral is the class you have if you're not Catholic and so not in the enseignement religieux class. As my mother put it, it's a class that teaches you "how to be a good person without Jesus."
** I was very confused when a former Nova Scotian coworker called me Franco-Ontarian, because I'm (half) francophone and was born in Ontario. To me, Franco-Ontarian is a specific cultural identity that is not mine in the least. Sure, I was born in Ontario, but my mother is from Quebec City, my father is from Vancouver, and we have no roots whatsoever in Ontario.
Final verdict: 7/10
Thankfully, I found something nice, something on sale, something metallic green on the outside, purple on the inside and with pink trim. It's kind of painfully me. And while it's not the perfect wallet (as if such a thing existed!), it'll do quite nicely.
Yesterday I also managed to make myself a futon cover, so that I slept on my futon for the first time. I like it! Tabitha also approves, because it means that she can curl up next to my chest so that I can pet her. She also approves of it being folded up by the wall during the day, because it's one more comfortable thing to nap on.
When the end of June rolled around, I thought I should make some mid-year resolutions, or at least revisit the ones I made in January and try to get back on track, specifically regarding writing reviews and posting to my Travelpod. I haven't written any reviews in over two months, so I have a rather long queue of things to write about (25, to be exact) and I think the best way to go about it is to make myself do them all before M-P arrives on the 4th of August. I've written all the titles out on slips of paper and will draw them randomly, except for the ones I want to do reviews in pictures for. Those ones are the Japanese doramas and BL movies, of course, because they always amuse me and inspire snark, and it's much funnier with images. Also in this batch are a "romantic" "comedy" (quotes because it was neither romantic nor comedic) that made me want to claw my eyes out, some very good books, and anime porn.
Hee. :D
First up,
Les identités meurtrières (Amin Malouf):
This book, a rumination on culture and the difficulty inherent in having dual cultural identities, written by a Franco-Lebanese man, was a short read. On one hand, it echoed many things that I've thought, and put them in a slightly different perspective. On the other hand, there were a lot of, "Well, duh!" moments, when I got the feeling Malouf was dumbing it down for an audience of (French, I presume) people who see themselves as having a single cultural/ethnic/national identity.
Do you remember, back in enseignement moral* classes when we had to trace the various circles of belonging? You'd start with a dot for you, around which was a small circle representing your family, then draw a larger circle around that for your neighbourhood or town, etc. etc. We didn't get into culture or ethnicity back then, but I was always aware of the fact that I was part of two different cultures, even before I understood what that meant beyond the fact that I spoke two different languages at home. And even though my two cultures are not light-years apart, they're still different enough for me to feel defensive when I'm with anglophones and there's talk of "Quebeckers..." (not that I call myself québécoise, because a) I wasn't born in Quebec** and b) it implies certain political leanings that I don't agree with, but I'm still a member of the group they're referring to) or when a group of francophones says something about, "Les anglais..." (and the pedant in me always wants to shoot back, "We're not English, we're anglophone!")
Anyway, the book is interesting, though it didn't really touch on anything I hadn't thought about before. It was written back in 1998, well before the riotting in the Paris suburbs, but Malouf predicted such things happening if France, as a nation, didn't manage to address the fact that a larger and larger segment of its population is made to feel that it is not "really French", especially the children of immigrants, who were born in France, sometimes speak nothing but French, yet are seen as unwelcome foreigners, fresh off the boat.
* For those of you who weren't educated in Quebec, enseignement moral is the class you have if you're not Catholic and so not in the enseignement religieux class. As my mother put it, it's a class that teaches you "how to be a good person without Jesus."
** I was very confused when a former Nova Scotian coworker called me Franco-Ontarian, because I'm (half) francophone and was born in Ontario. To me, Franco-Ontarian is a specific cultural identity that is not mine in the least. Sure, I was born in Ontario, but my mother is from Quebec City, my father is from Vancouver, and we have no roots whatsoever in Ontario.
Final verdict: 7/10