I’m taking a moment out from typing up my take-home exam to reflect on my DS Lite (or as I affectionately refer to as “The Thing That’s Going to Make Me Fail School”).

I recieved it in the mail last week and I haven’t been able to put it down for more than 3 hours (this is only to charge the battery). It has, in many ways, improved my life exponentially by giving me something to do in place of getting my B.A Degree. And I’m pretty happy about this arrangement.

I ordered a decal from Decalgirl.com that promises to protect my DS from light scratches and cooties. So far, it hasn’t budged and it looks so fabulous that I’m almost not embarressed to be caught playing with it.

90% of my time on the DS lite I spend playing Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and New Super Mario Bros. WiFi play on these games are fairly frustrating especially since Mario Kart offers no kind of consequence for powering off before a race against opponents is finished. Since I practically reduce my thumb to bloody stubs trying to get second place, having the third place player drop out of the games is, oh I don’t know, really fucking infuriating. Fortunately, Animal Crossing offers me some solace since it’s easy to visit other towns and sell fruit, shells and all sorts of shit that I waste hours of my precious youth collecting. If I have not blogged for a while it’s because I am trying to grow pears and you have to understand that these things take time.

You can find me at Animal Crossing Community trying to get someone to allow me access to their town. Search for username:pinkbishie. Otherwise, if you’re using a DS please feel free to contact me so that we may exchange friends codes. I desperately need friends, real or imaginary.

I finally finished Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami which has completely blown my mind away. Kafka is a 15-year-old runaway who is ultimately lost in direction and motivation. The story appears to be a coming-of-age tale of the most unique kind since Kafka is coming into something completely different than simply adolesence. The story is far more surreal and metaphorical than I expected, leaving me feeling slightly disturbed and unhinged. According to Wikipedia, Murakami has been reported to have said:

Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren’t any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It’s hard to explain, but that’s the kind of novel I set out to write.

This does little to shed light on the novel. I picked up themes of violence, spiritual and physical sexuality, mysticism and metaphorical allegories but I can’t even begin to dissect their meanings. Not all of the novel is coherent which adds to the appeal of reading the novel multiple times to discover the riddles and any kind of satisfying conclusion. Murakami sucks you into a story that you can barely understand and yet you’re perfectly happy to be there.

Tags: book review, Daily Jibba Jabba, nintendo ds, video games

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