April 18, 2006 Archives

Yeah, ok. We're in the playoffs. Rabid hockey fan ritual:

Ottawa b. Tampa Bay in 5 (Sean Burke is no Khabibulin)
Montreal b. Carolina in 6 (Whatever)
New Jersey b. New York in 7 (NY has Jagr, but NJ has Deviled Egg)
Buffalo b. Philadelphia in 6 (Buffalo hasn't finished 4th in East for nothing)

Edmonton b. Detroit in 7 (from my dream partition)
Dallas b. Colorado in 6 (Theo sucks)
Calgary b. Anaheim in 5 (Kiprusoff rules :D)
San Jose b Nashville in 4 (Thornton-Cheechoo == bulldozer)

I'm getting 6 for Game 3. And then 6 other for Game 6 (with someone else's card). Details here.

(Edit: I don't know what sort of wild luck I had to get *four* of the cheapest tickets at 4PM, but this time, the ticks were sold out at 1:30. >_>)

Banana Boys by Terry Woo.

I can't describe what made that book so extremely entertaining to read. Was it the fact that it was about twenty-something Canadian-Chinese (or Chinese-Canadian?), or was it b/c their drama was so ordinary-seeming that it felt so interestingly refreshing?

The experiences related in the novel seemed so normal that one could probably deduce that it was an autobiography with a multiple personality disorder (the novel was told from the five "Banana Boys'" perspective). By chance, I came by an award-winning essay on responsability written by the author of the book, where he mentionned his life in small town Ontario, and which was a starter for two of his main characters. But an autobiography is probably too simplified of a conclusion. The experiences of the Banana Boys at times seemed so similar to mine and of other banana kids around. Growing up not knowing whether you're Chinese or Canadian - whether you can identify as both, or neither (the latter probably being the closest to a real answer, says one of the characters).

I've not read the last chapter of the book yet (more an epilogue). It's a book I prescribe to all Canadian-Chinese (or Chinese-Canadians, w/ or w/o the hyphen, etc), b/c it's not everyday that you find a Canadian-Chinese writing about Canadian-Chinese, especially Canadian-Chinese who *love* drinking hole talk.

I just heard now that one of my friends/colleague had an operation for a peritonitis this weekend. Yikes!