So here's what I've been reading...
I just polished off The Birth House. I normally try to avoid books about birthing or rural Canadian life in the early twentieth century so I certainly wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one... and I didn’t but it was a much better read than I was expecting.
I found the midwifing what-have-you interesting but it sort of lost me with Doctor Thomas. Now I’m sure that doctors in this period may have been hostile to midwives but I have a hard time believing that they were all downright evil. He tries to have Dora institutionalized, has several mothers and their children die under his care and does everything in his power to support the drunken, abusive father’s in the community all while bleeding the community dry through health care payments.
As for the ending [SPOILER ALERT], if you’re going to write a novel about the injustices done to midwives by the medical community shouldn’t it not end with the women of the community chasing the evil doctor out of town forever? Isn’t that sort of the opposite of what really happened?
Anyways, next up for me is Essex County, a graphic novel about hockey. This could be the best thing for me since that album Kurt Vonnegut made that album with the Ninja Turtles in the 80’s.
I just polished off The Birth House. I normally try to avoid books about birthing or rural Canadian life in the early twentieth century so I certainly wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one... and I didn’t but it was a much better read than I was expecting.
I found the midwifing what-have-you interesting but it sort of lost me with Doctor Thomas. Now I’m sure that doctors in this period may have been hostile to midwives but I have a hard time believing that they were all downright evil. He tries to have Dora institutionalized, has several mothers and their children die under his care and does everything in his power to support the drunken, abusive father’s in the community all while bleeding the community dry through health care payments.
As for the ending [SPOILER ALERT], if you’re going to write a novel about the injustices done to midwives by the medical community shouldn’t it not end with the women of the community chasing the evil doctor out of town forever? Isn’t that sort of the opposite of what really happened?
Anyways, next up for me is Essex County, a graphic novel about hockey. This could be the best thing for me since that album Kurt Vonnegut made that album with the Ninja Turtles in the 80’s.
And watching...
I watched Crazy Heart on Friday. It was so-so but I watched on the new Netflix channel on the Wii which I’m really enjoying. Also the music reminded me of 12 Golden Country Greats by Ween, not a bad thing.
I’m pretty sure the last three movies I’ve seen have been Crazy Heart, True Grit and Tron. Jeff Bridges is everywhere these days.
I watched Crazy Heart on Friday. It was so-so but I watched on the new Netflix channel on the Wii which I’m really enjoying. Also the music reminded me of 12 Golden Country Greats by Ween, not a bad thing.
I’m pretty sure the last three movies I’ve seen have been Crazy Heart, True Grit and Tron. Jeff Bridges is everywhere these days.
And here are my thoughts on EA's NHL Slapshot...
I was making good progress in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (which I somehow never played growing up) but in the past few weeks I’ve gotten sidetracked by EA’s NHL Slapshot. The game is fun and admittedly addictive but it doesn’t quite feel like hockey to me.
The mode I’ve been playing is Peewee to Pro where, instead of controlling a whole team, you control one player and get points for certain your play which you can use to build up your skills. Basically this motivates you to run around the ice throwing hits and taking shots whenever possible. You get points for passing too but not as much and you lost points for making “risky passes” even if they make it through (most of my best passes get tagged as being risky).
On top of this the rest of your team sucks. If you want to keep pucks out of your net you have to rush back and hit the puck carrier before he cuts through your defense. If you want to score you need to do it on your own though occasionally you’ll want to use your teammates to set you up for a one time.
When I was younger and learning to play hockey I remember learning a great deal from EA’s NHLPA 93. I was the only player on my team (in real life) who understood offside and it was largely thanks to playing this game. I worry that kids today are playing NHL Slapshot and thinking that this is how hockey works - that you win by doing everything yourself and working towards personal accomplishments.
On the other hand, maybe this is what hockey was like for Wayne Gretzky. Maybe they asked him how to design a good hockey simulation and he said “well basically I just did everything myself but every once in a while I’d bank shots in off teammates instead of scoring myself.” If that’s the case then this is just what being Gretzky was probably like, only with more hitting.
I’m also proud to report that I was drafted 5th overall in the OHL by the Bellville Bulls 3rd overall by the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL which would have happened to me in real life as well if I hadn’t given up my competitive hockey career to pursue an English degree.
And here's a great television show idea I'd like to share...
I was making good progress in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (which I somehow never played growing up) but in the past few weeks I’ve gotten sidetracked by EA’s NHL Slapshot. The game is fun and admittedly addictive but it doesn’t quite feel like hockey to me.
The mode I’ve been playing is Peewee to Pro where, instead of controlling a whole team, you control one player and get points for certain your play which you can use to build up your skills. Basically this motivates you to run around the ice throwing hits and taking shots whenever possible. You get points for passing too but not as much and you lost points for making “risky passes” even if they make it through (most of my best passes get tagged as being risky).
On top of this the rest of your team sucks. If you want to keep pucks out of your net you have to rush back and hit the puck carrier before he cuts through your defense. If you want to score you need to do it on your own though occasionally you’ll want to use your teammates to set you up for a one time.
When I was younger and learning to play hockey I remember learning a great deal from EA’s NHLPA 93. I was the only player on my team (in real life) who understood offside and it was largely thanks to playing this game. I worry that kids today are playing NHL Slapshot and thinking that this is how hockey works - that you win by doing everything yourself and working towards personal accomplishments.
On the other hand, maybe this is what hockey was like for Wayne Gretzky. Maybe they asked him how to design a good hockey simulation and he said “well basically I just did everything myself but every once in a while I’d bank shots in off teammates instead of scoring myself.” If that’s the case then this is just what being Gretzky was probably like, only with more hitting.
I’m also proud to report that I was drafted 5th overall in the OHL by the Bellville Bulls 3rd overall by the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL which would have happened to me in real life as well if I hadn’t given up my competitive hockey career to pursue an English degree.
And here's a great television show idea I'd like to share...
I came up with a great sitcom idea along with some friends while having lunch this week. The premise would be that The Edge (of U2) and The Edge (the Wrestler) are roommates, somewhere in England and they’ve retired from their respective professions to become knife sharpeners. They’d get themselves into a lot of trouble however because they’d always insist on sharpening both edges of whatever people brought in for them. Maybe they’d also fight crime at night, I don’t know. The rest would pretty much write itself. It would be called Life on the Edge or 2 Close 2 the Edge or something like that.
If anyone from the CBC is reading this and would like to produce the show please let me know.
1 comments:
It's obvious: the show needs to be called "Double Edged"
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