Game of Thrones board game [#needs]

Pin It Apparently rich people can afford to have all kinds of cool stuff made just for them. This beaut' was created by Fay Helfer for some lucky son of a gun that isn't me.

Zombie Duck [#needs]

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And to think, I could have been making one of these in high school art class rather than making a pencil holder....

Book Review: Canada by Richard Ford

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My review:

Clearly part of me felt a closeness to this book simply because it took place in my homeland - in fact, the title was the entire reason I chose to pick the book up in the first place. However, even given my major bias, Richard Ford did an incredible job crafting together a very complex, heart-breaking story. He told a very dark story while still managing not to make it too depressing or heavy.

I'm sure that this is probably a book that will speak to certain people while others will absolutely hate it but fortunately I belong to the first group of readers. I absolutely adored this novel and will definitely be checking out more Richard Ford.

From the book jacket:

"First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later."

Then fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of normal life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed.

His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border, in hopes of delivering him to a better life. There, afloat on the prairie of Saskatchewan, Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and charismatic American whose cool reserve masks a dark and violent nature.

Undone by the calamity of his parents' robbery and arrest, Dell struggles under the vast prairie sky to remake himself and define the adults he thought he knew. But his search for grace and peace only moves him nearer to a harrowing and murderous collision with Remlinger, an elemental force of darkness.

A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare, elegant prose, both resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a classic.

Being awesome on a budget

Pin It Despite being poor as poop, I like expensive things. I'm basically a rich kid with the budget of a bum. In order to appease my inner rock-star, I have come across some awesome sites that basically give you a crack at living like the 1% while remaining with the 99.

Here are some of those places. Check 'em out.

Dang astigmatism!

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How I feel when there is nothing else scheduled for the day and I can leave clinic early

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Changing my underpants

Pin It If I'm not simply talking to a non-existent audience somewhere in the cloud, you might have noticed my blog has changed a bit. You might be saying "Blogger!? WTF!!?"

And I'd say: Exactly. I feel the same way. Fact of the matter is, though, that I am too cheap to keep paying for hosting and since I've been too lazy to update the blog on a regular basis, advertising hasn't been paying enough to cover the cost. Boo hoo, right Mike.

Honestly, my Tumblr blog is usually more interesting if you like superhero stuff or art (click the link up top). However, this is where I'll record all of my verbal diarrhea for you to enjoy.

Enjoy. Or not. Whatever.

Oh, and BTW, if you wanted to enjoy old articles, too bad. You should have read them while you could. I'm not doing the work to recreate them.