Bluebird: culture

Sunday, 23 October 2016

Dark Heavens: Book 1, White Tiger

By Kylie Chan.

Image from Goodreads

[A young woman accepts a position as nanny to the young daughter of a handsome, wealthy, and mysterious Chinese businessman only to discover her new employer is really a god and every foul demon in creation is out to destroy him!]

I love Chinese mythology and just learning about the Chinese culture in general was fascinating which is what led me to read this book, along with a recommendation from a colleague at work.

The plot, I enjoyed.

It was action-packed and full of humour, especially between Emma and Leo. But, I did feel that a couple of things happened too quickly, like some bits just came out of nowhere.

And then there's also the dialogue. In some places, it worked (like with the humour), but in other places it felt like a filler and there were a handful of things said that the characters were implying that weren't obvious and never got fully explained.

The characters were great. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all of the different levels of Chinese Gods and their "true forms", at least the true forms as they were in this book (I don't know if that's how they're truly perceived). Simone was a cute asset and Mr Chen was a dutiful mysterious father.

I have to say though, the thing that let it down for me was, well, the protagonist, Emma, and the relationship between her and Mr Chen.

Every other sentence they'd repeat stuff like "I know this can never happen" or "we're complete fools for letting it go this far". Blah, blah, blah.

In fact, I'm pretty sure the second half of the book was just filled with these sayings and it got really frustrating.

I also noted that Chan likes to use a handful of specific descriptive words a bit too much, which also got annoying.

It turns out that this is actually part of a trilogy, but I don't even know if I want to read the rest of them if the writing was that repetitive. It wasn't all that enticing with the ending either so I may just leave it as it is.

✌︎

Sunday, 25 September 2016

Heart to Art

My final piece in Year 11

Think I've just watched the most traumatic episode of television for quite some time.

I mean, it was traumatic for me just because it was so heart wrenching. I even had to go and stand outside for a minute or two after just to think. Horrific.

Note to self: stop watching tv shows about viral outbreaks, they creep you out and they do not have happy endings.

Anyway, other than thinking about the tragic events in that last episode of Containment I have also been thinking a lot of late about art, especially with the timing of the new school year starting (not that I need to think about that anymore).

I never really hated school, but I never really liked it much either. It was so easy back then though and I kind of really miss it.

Roaming the hallways, getting to see your friends everyday, maybe even spend time with them after school sometimes, you'd have giggles over whether or not the guy you liked looked in your direction, or, even better, you actually spoke to him, and you'd learn interesting things and then go home to start on that massive pile of homework.

And then you'd get up the next day and do it all again.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the free evenings and weekends these days with no homework to do, but I miss the rest of it. The socialising, the learning, the growth as a person (physically and mentally).

You get older and you don't realise how much you took for granted. I never appreciated any of that when I was growing up and looking back, I wish I had. I wish I'd slowed down and enjoyed it more instead of wishing it away, wishing to be grown up already.

Okay, so I don't miss the bullies or the fact that I never felt good enough in my classes or for any of the boys I fancied or in the social click I was with.

It's weird. Although I mainly stuck to the one group with my best friend in, I did quite easily get on with a few others in different groups. So, from time to time I would hang out with them too.

I guess I never really let the type of music I listened to or the clothes that I wore get in the way of who I made friends with. A good lesson to learn so early on considering a workplace (although I still find it to have clicks) is a much easier place to get to know everyone from all backgrounds.

Well, I'm getting rather off topic.

I actually started this post intending to show you a bit of my secondary school art and that I do miss.

When I was back home, when my parents were visiting, I had a good flick through my art sketchbooks from Year 7 through to Year 11 and you know what? I was inspired.

I put so much work into it all, and not just the pieces of art themselves but the presentation and all.

I remember creating them all though, labouring on each evening with paints and colouring pencils and oil pastels just to get it all completed on time and to the best of my ability. This is the only subject in which you will ever hear me say that I know I deserved that A* and boy am I happy that I got it.

(Please ignore the terrible quality of these photos as they were just quick snaps to document my work as a reminder to myself to get drawing again sometime soon.)

I hope you enjoy them.

What was your favourite subject at school?