Christmas = Glamour

Merry Christmas from Me and The Kardashians

THERE IS NO TIME.

Running short of time, for this week I've decided to share my favourite work of the year.

YAYAYAYAYA BRIAN FAWKES DAY

peace love and chloe

Notebook #3 - Short story Review

Short Story: Diary of an Interesting Year

Source: The New Yorker Online- December 21, 2009

Author: Helen Simpson

Helen Simpson

Published work:

In-Flight Entertainment  2010

The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea: The Art and Pleasures of Taking Tea  2006

Constitutional 2005

Hey Yeah Right Get A Life 2000

Dear George 1995

Four Bare Legs in a Bed and Other Stories 1990

Prizes & awards:

2002   E. M. Forster Award   

2001   Hawthornden Prize   

1991   Somerset Maugham Award  

1991   Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 

Helen Simpson was born in Bristol, and educated at Oxford University in England. She started off her career as a journalist, and has five years at Vogue on her resume. After her time at Vogue, Simpson left to focus more on her freelance career.

Diary of an Interesting Year

Simpson’s writing correlates well with the situations her character finds herself in.  She portrays the voice through thought and dialogue extremely well and believable. The story is recounted in a diary format; therefore you only hear the voice of the protagonist.  Having this format is perfect for a short fiction of only four pages. I find the diary style interesting and concise. There is only one voice for the reader to connect with.

The pacing is what Simpson excels at within this story. The story chronicles a year in the life of a women embarking on her 30th year of life. Each entry in her journal is short. The topics are all related but she bounces around a lot on her opinions and ideas. This keeps the story interesting and the readers’ attention alert.

The story idea itself is cliché. The story is set in the year 2040th. The story is a projection of what the future will hold. The future world has experienced a big collapse of technology and humanity. There is no long Internet, computer, cell phones, or safety.  The protagonist and her husband are on the run from rats, dirt, a government who doesn't care and anyone else who is against them. 

The story is interesting because it shows that even if the world is stripped down to what it has been built up to be, people's problems are still the same. In any kind of world climate people fight with their significant others, have opinions in relation to their governments, and are confronted with the dangers of their world.

In-depth look/excerpts from story:

 Although the future is in turmoil, the same problems face humanity:

"Another quarrel with G. O.K., yes, he was right, but why crow about it? That’s what you get when you marry your tutor from Uni—wall-to-wall pontificating from an older man."

The loss of the internet/loss of modern day society and "common sense" provided by Internet:

"Really sick of bartering, but hard to know how to earn money since the Internet went down." 

"Nobody else on the road will have a clue what to do now that we can’t Google it."
 

Whether you are rich or poor, or in the present or in the future, life's necessity can regularly be the same:
"Can’t sleep. Bites itching, trying not to scratch. Heavy thumps and squeaks just above, in the ceiling. Think of something nice. Soap and hot water. Fresh air. Condoms!"

 The central idea of the story (clichéd but well worked throughout the whole):"

"The earth has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed”

Notebook #2: Found cellphone poetry

I love you, 

Don't overdose.

I'm going to, 

Little stress reliever.

Typical behavior,

I'm leaving.

HUG IT UP

A new week has officially started. Thank goodness we can leave last week behind us.

*Here is a bear hug for all those who thought last week was a little rocky.

The Blonde Poncho has not been DECODED.

Winnipeg is what it is. I feel like people constantly complain about the city, while they’re dreaming of how to break free from it. I am one of those people. But I can go through spurts where I become enchanted with the city and all its happenings. I forget for mere moments that I want to leave this city. But then something like this happens....

I wake up Tuesday morning, specifically November 16, 2010. I know today will be a great day. November 16, 2010 is the day Jay-Z’s autobiography is released. His autobiography is titled Decoded. This book will complete.

I go to school and have trouble focusing. Give me a break teachers, I HAVE JAY ON THE BRAIN. I leave school and race to Chapters. They don’t seem to have the book on special display anywhere in the store. WEIRD. If i was in charge the book would have been front and centre. *With a life size cardboard version of Jay standing next to the table displaying the books

I venture over to a computer. And it says there is no Decoded in stock. I venture over to a worker and ask about the possibilities of another Chapters having the book in stock? She looks it up on her computer. And then, she looks up from her computer screen. She looks me directly in the eyes and says NO. They haven’t been shipped yet.

 (Book signing. NOT IN WINNIPEG.)

Sorry Winnipeg, but this would NEVER happen in Toronto.

Winnipeg, you lose.
Jay, I’m still your biggest fan.
Decoded, I will conquer you soon enough. (actually not soon enough, but eventually)

Using the word Crunk appropriately.

Last week I was raving about mustaches, yes yes yes so fantastic. This week I am ranting about a mustache event! Pretending I still have a social life, I ventured into the Facebook Events page to see what was going on in the month of Movember. (Fooling myself to think that I have any time for fun activities with only four weeks left of this term.) Anyways, I came across a couple events for Movember.

OBVIOUSLY WE ALL KNOW I WANT TO PARTICPATE. 

But as I continued searching I became a little disturbed. Can I just say a mustache must have rubbed me the wrong way! (HA!) I am not promoting these events, but you must get a visual on the posters to understand what is happening here,

First Event: Movember at The Pyramid

Second Event: Movember at 4 Play Sports Bar & Grill

Third Event: CancerCare Mantioba Fundraiser at Mystique

Sooooo this is where I begin to feel awkward. Clearly this is only my third month in the fake marketing world (aka school) but, this last poster is giving me the mad creeps. Now I can get crunk from time to time. And I can even say the word crunk from time to time. (SO EMBARASSING, I only use it when I'm already "crunk" clearly) And I am a hundred times more likely to attend an event where the money is going to charity. Now I may or may not attend this event, even though the mesasge is POOR the money is still going to the right place.

Soooo let us just focus on the tagline... CRUNK FOR THE CURE.

Is this making anyone feel awkward? Or in the end, it doesn't matter because the money we pay at the door is doing some good in Manitoba?

I don't know why it bugs me so much. I guess I feel like it is just lazy marketing or something….