In My Daughters' Eyes

So you know that song by Martina McBride called, "In My Daughter's Eyes"?  Most little girls think of their dad as a hero (as the song says).  Someone who is big, strong, has no fear, can beat up a bear, maybe even Superman.

I wonder what I am in my daughters' eyes.  Well, I wrote back in July about how M3 told the neighbour's kid that I was only a little bit strong and I wore glasses.  This weekend I was goofing around with M2 and she asked if she could wear my glasses.  When she put them on the first thing she said was, "Do I look like a nerd?"

Perhaps I should consider wearing contacts.

Big Oh

Good Reads

Recently a friend of mine posted on FB a list of  10 books that had an impact on her.  And it got me thinking about some of the books I've read.  I wanted to come up with a meaningful list but I think my books are better described as just a few of my favorite reads.  Almost all of them I've read more than once.  I wanted to include some children's books that I've gotten to love since having my kids, but I decided to make a separate list of those.  And speaking of lists...this exercise has motivated me to make a few more "favorites" lists which I hope to share later on.  So here are my favorite books (in no particular order):

1. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
2. The Memory Keepers Daughter - Kim Edwards
3. Roots - Alex Haley
4. Waiting - Hai Jin
5. An Astronauts Guide To Life On Earth - Chris Hadfield
6. Flowers In The Attic - V.C. Andrews
7. Tuesdays With Morris, The Five People You Meet In Heaven, For One More Day - Mitch Albom
8. Harry Potter & Philosopher's Stone; Chamber Of Secrets; Prisoner Of Azkaban; Goblet Of Fire; Order Of The Phoenix; Half Blood Prince; The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowlings
9. The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Y.C.

Back To School

First week back to school is done!  Yeah!  I was very happy to be home with the kids this summer but I won't lie - I am even happier that that they are finally back in school.  I know that my kids are happy to be back too.  Last week was almost a blurr - it went by so fast!  My youngest, M3, started JK and although she was excited to go, carrying her backpack all the way to school herself, and walking hand-in-hand with her older sisters, when it was time to go into the gate, she had a complete meltdown!  I guess it was too much for her to handle all at once.  So M3 gave all the parents waving off their little ones on the first day of school quite a show.  It first started with a little whimpering and "Don't leave yet..." but quickly turned into a full fledge wail with tears, "I wanna go home!  Don't leave me!"  while clutching my leg as I am trying to walk away.   The teacher meanwhile trying to pry her off me.  Fortunately, this was only on the first day.  By Friday she was all good, waved a goodbye and headed off to line-up herself!

I think it'll be a while before M1 or M2 posts anything to this blog.  They did a good job in writing some entries and I didn't even have to force them (most of the time) this summer!  Hopefully if they have time during the school year, and when some exciting events happen, they'll feel the urge to write it down and share it.  But if not, there's always next summer!

YC

It Ends With a Whimper

Back in July I wrote about how I fell in love with The Big Bang Theory.  I'm proud to say that I was one of the first viewers amongst the people I know to discover the show.  I was watching it before it became popular.  I guess it's lucky for the show that at the same time, Marvel superhero movies were taking off, Comic Con was becoming mainstream, and geeks were even setting fashion trends.  You could see more and more people wearing superhero and sci-fi t-shirts.

But sadly my love for the show began to dwindle after season 3.  I think it coincided with Leondard and Penny getting together.  I felt it was too early in the series.  There were so many storylines left to explore.  The writers didn't need to resort to that so soon, did they?  Many times, Leonard gets close to Penny, only to see her go off with another guy.  Usually this is done in a comical way, but at the same time the audience feels Leonard's pain and agony.  It gives us more reason to root for him in his attempt to woo her.

As the guys start to get girlfriends, I feel the show is losing the very essence of what made it popular.  I want to see their "geek" problems - and the main geek problem is the inability to get girls.  So if Howard gets married, Raj can now talk to women, and even Sheldon has a girlfriend, then this sitcom is now just like all other sitcoms out there today - mainly focusing on s?? (my daughters may be reading this) and relationship issues.  The unique geekiness is gone.  They don't talk about superheroes and sci-fi as much as they used to.  Now Howard has marital problems with Bernadette, he feels awkward connecting with his father-in-law, etc.  These storylines may still be funny, but they are not what The Big Bang Theory is about.  It's like if Wheel of Fortune stopped using a wheel and instead used a 20-sided die or a dartboard!  How would you feel if the 2 Broke Girls won the lottery?

The worse thing to ever happen was Howard getting married.  His character was so funny before.  Watch any episode from the first 2 seasons and I would say you have a 95% chance of it being better than any episode after the 3rd season.  I expected that Raj would one day learn to talk to women and actually looked forward to the day Sheldon would get a girlfriend (perhaps in season 6 or 7) but Howard getting married was not necessary.  It has rendered his character useless.  He was so funny before, with his rude and obnoxious comments.  But now those days are gone.

Now the writers are trying to make Sheldon more normal, too.  He's starting to care about others, have feelings of guilt, and he even kissed Amy!  The worse part was that the writers used an episode about National Star Wars day to have Bob Newhart appear as the ghost of Obi-Wan to tell Sheldon that he's wasting his life with his geeky ways.  That's a kick in the face to geeks everywhere!  The people who supported the show at the very beginning are now being insulted by the show itself.  I know the show was built on poking fun at the geek lifestyle.  But the difference up to this point was that they were showing how geeks were happy with their lifestyle, as strange as it may be.  We choose to live this way and we love it!  But now I fear Sheldon is going to come back from his summer road trip a changed person.  He will slowly shun his geeky and anal ways in season 8, thus, making the show lose even more of its essence.

So is this how my love for The Big Bang Theory ends, not with a bang but a whimper?

Big Oh