too fast

in grade three, i tried out for the 100m sprint against the rest of my classmates. i always came second to my friend, Elias - a much taller, and much more Greek kid. my theory was that he had longer legs and Olympic genes. i was a very competitive kid, and on the last race of the year i purposed to win. but win, i did not. as fast as i could pump my little legs, Elias' longer stride made up for his slightly slower acceleration. at the halfway point i just put my head down and ran as hard as i could. as i shortened the gap between us i felt a twinge of confusion - my legs were moving faster than my brain could comprehend. in that moment, 11 strides from the finish line between the white rusty soccer posts, i tripped. and fell. and finished third.
this morning, i finished learning the rest of that lesson.

that's not periwinkle...

but the hair sure is fancy.
i think this will be the first harry potter movie (harry potter and the goblet of fire - my favourite book of the series) that i am looking forward to, even though i still haven't seen harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban. hopefully costco will play it. or maybe they'll rent it for a daycare movie day.

speechless

or maybe it's because you cannot hear
me when i mumble (all the time). you make
me smile. thank you for your letters... and yeah...
they were interesting =P

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

plot: as the driving force of this expository tome, the plot truly thickens in rowling's sixth installment in the harry potter series. the stage is set for the seventh, which will obviously have the requisite showdowns and epilogues. the plot progresses at a good clip for most of the book, bordering on breakneck speed at the end. relative to the pace of the fifth book, anything would feel fast.

character: thank you! harry potter is not an angry git anymore. romance is laid on more heavily than usual in children's fantasy books; but harry potter wasn't a children's book to begin with. the budding of certain relationships is contrasted with the dark times that have befallen what is supposed to be a key growing time. it offers a glimpse of what life for harry and co. would be like if there was no war raging.

notes: you have to take it for what it is: exposition. this book is laden with exposition. Voldemort's backstory is revealed piece-meal: an evocative tragedy of circumstance that sort of parellel's Harry's own history. readers should expect heavy plot movement and action-packed chapters. fans of quidditch will be disappointed, but in the face of open war, who really has time for sport?

4/5 - mildly bloated, though it's pretty clear that rowling was keeping it as short as she could. detentions were glossed =P the big death was obvious and necessary, but no less painful.

The Disciple - Oscar Wilde

When Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort.

And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of their hair and cried to the pool and said, `We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he.'

`But was Narcissus beautiful?' said the pool.

`Who should know that better than you?' answered the Oreads. `Us did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he would mirror his own beauty.'

And the pool answered, `But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw ever my own beauty mirrored.'