Le Comte de Monte Cristo
Wow, after about a week I finally finished the masterpiece known as The Count of Monte Cristo, about 1000 pages of pure enjoyment. Never had a book had such a profound effect on me; I was utterly amazed at how quickly the time passes when I read it and found it to be strangely accessible for a book that was written over a hundred years ago (although the Penguin Classics translation by Robin Buss was done fairly recently). The language used is amusing to say the least and the story really play up your emotions.
Reading Monte Cristo really had a great effect; in that I would love to read more classics. I recall going through half of Les Miserables and then the book was put on hold by some rascal so I had to return it (in reality it's my fault, since I started reading 3 weeks after I got it out), even though it was a highly enjoyable experience. Being appalled at the fact that the book was not available in 2 libraries I visited I took the matter in my own hands and bought the Les Miserables myself. Thus begins another 1000 page journey.
A few days ago I was going through my anime collection and noticed something interesting, and it was a certain title named 'Gankutsuou'. Memory served me well; Gankutsuou is the name of the Japanese translation of Le Comte de Monte Cristo and is also the name of an animated series. Interestingly the series is somewhat based on the book; the pacing and order of story events are different and is actually set in the future. Chateau d'If is actually a planet in the distant borders of the galaxy, the Count and Albert has their encounter on Luna (the Moon) instead of Rome and so on. However this does not take away the elegance of the presentation; it's as if the world has reverted back to 19th European customs and dress in 3000 years time. It also has a very unique art style that uses overlays and Photoshop-esque effects with lots and lots of CG. Impressive so far.
In other news I got the tickets to the Opeth show on the 27th of April. I'm not too excited as the date is still very far away and the new album (Ghost Reveries) just plain sucks in my (and a few of my friend's) opinion. However they are still one of my top bands and the chance to see them live will definetly go unmissed.
Okay, so it's about a month until university starts again and I think I'm all but decided to choose mining as my engineering major. It's one of the top paying jobs right now but it has catches in that I'll probably have to work in rural mining towns for a while, but the holidays are long and the money is excellent, as are the privilages. Compared to something like civil engineering, which most graduates end up doing CAD and other small-time stuff it's quite exciting, because as a mining engineering you can do anything from blowing up rocks with tons of explosives to overseeing kickass machines the size of houses.
Reading Monte Cristo really had a great effect; in that I would love to read more classics. I recall going through half of Les Miserables and then the book was put on hold by some rascal so I had to return it (in reality it's my fault, since I started reading 3 weeks after I got it out), even though it was a highly enjoyable experience. Being appalled at the fact that the book was not available in 2 libraries I visited I took the matter in my own hands and bought the Les Miserables myself. Thus begins another 1000 page journey.
A few days ago I was going through my anime collection and noticed something interesting, and it was a certain title named 'Gankutsuou'. Memory served me well; Gankutsuou is the name of the Japanese translation of Le Comte de Monte Cristo and is also the name of an animated series. Interestingly the series is somewhat based on the book; the pacing and order of story events are different and is actually set in the future. Chateau d'If is actually a planet in the distant borders of the galaxy, the Count and Albert has their encounter on Luna (the Moon) instead of Rome and so on. However this does not take away the elegance of the presentation; it's as if the world has reverted back to 19th European customs and dress in 3000 years time. It also has a very unique art style that uses overlays and Photoshop-esque effects with lots and lots of CG. Impressive so far.
In other news I got the tickets to the Opeth show on the 27th of April. I'm not too excited as the date is still very far away and the new album (Ghost Reveries) just plain sucks in my (and a few of my friend's) opinion. However they are still one of my top bands and the chance to see them live will definetly go unmissed.
Okay, so it's about a month until university starts again and I think I'm all but decided to choose mining as my engineering major. It's one of the top paying jobs right now but it has catches in that I'll probably have to work in rural mining towns for a while, but the holidays are long and the money is excellent, as are the privilages. Compared to something like civil engineering, which most graduates end up doing CAD and other small-time stuff it's quite exciting, because as a mining engineering you can do anything from blowing up rocks with tons of explosives to overseeing kickass machines the size of houses.