family bonding

I'm sitting at the dining room table, my work is splayed out, all my THESIS good-ness is just dominating this space, and my father meanders by and sits down.

"I'm going to do some work here too."

"Cool."

He opens his laptop -I'm on mine and I've got some Aretha Franklin playing, because I'm just in an Aretha kinda mood.

In the middle of Dr. Feelgood and I hear some beats, some radio-esque sounding music.
I shrug, thinking it'll probably only last for a couple seconds, maybe my brothers cell phone is going off?...but it doesn't stop.
As Aretha is belting one out and this club music is hits its chorus, I look up at my dad,

"Is that your music?"

"Great jamming...our music"

[at this point I am laughing]

"WHAT IS THAT?"

"Monkey business by the Black Eyed Peas"

And so, despite my sister and I refusing to purchase this CD for him, he has bought it.. and it will not stop.

Perhaps I should buy him headphones...

lazy

'Hand wash cold' just means another shirt I will probably never clean.

canadian winter

So I left university to come home for the holidays and packed 4 different dresses, 4 pairs of jeans, probably about 8 different shirts, a bunch of cardigans and sweaters, all the makeup and jewelery in the world YET somehow managed to forget my jacket.


Also: my mom just told me to buy the CD, Black Eyed Beans for my dad....

sometimes

"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise."
-Aldo Leopold

Saw this on Twitter from Mayor Miller

Itssss really small but if you click it it'll go to his original post.. which is bigger.

ITS HARPER and it SAYS, "I'm sorry. we could have stopped catastrophic climate change ... We didn't"

oh zut... as one might say if they lived in the french part of canada.

winter BOOTS

I have a lot to say about fashion but I hold back in fear that this would turn into one of those weird fashion blogs that quote a million different designers no one can afford. Oh and I don't want to come off like some sort of "expert" although... I clearly am one.

I guess I am also scared you will steal my personal sense of style... but since I can't find an amazing pair of these in the ladies section and have already bought a pair of witch/beatlejuice shoes....

I will give you this. My gift to you, I guarantee it IS 'cool.'

Military boots.

For men & women. LIKE these Tim Hamilton ones:

















I'm really frustrated I can't find girl versions of these shoes and have literally been on the prowl for a pair for the past two winters.
The closest I've come are these Frye boots:




















These are stupidly expensive and quite uncomfortable and I dono if its just me, but all that faux "rocker chic" studding is a bit tacky.

ok. HAPPY HOLIDAYS

winter banter

"Jeez its 5.30? Looks like 10:30. Its sleepy time. Gah, winter"

"Yeah well especially cus of the time change"

"There was a time change??"

"YEAH!!!"

"OH shit, WHEN?!?!!"

"like a month ago"

"idiot."

CHAI TEA.... :|

Elli has a chai tea latte mix from starbucks and makes it at home all the time. Usually she makes me a cup but lately shes been strategically brewing it ONLY when I'm in my room or not in the house because she secretly despises me for my charm and good looks and hates sharing all the lovely chai good-ness. What a bitch. Jokes. grrls4lyffff :|

So anyways, to spite her I decided to make my own chai. HOME BREWED though, none of this starbucks garbage.



















I look in my cupboard and inspect all the spices my mom gave me in zip locked bags. I vaguely recall the stuff my Grandma in England used to put in the indian chai tea she made on the stove, seooo I decided I'd ad-lib it and hopefully make Elli jealous.

So im simmering some water, some milk, a tea bag (ha), some cinnamon, sugar and some cardimum. Then I see this one shaker in a zip locked bag. I dono wHAT this stuff is, but it smells pretty right and it looks like something my granny used to put in so I'm lik YEAH live and let LIvvEe (or whatever) and throw it in...

Then I start to wonder... what was that?
So I open it and take a bit of a closer look. It looks lik pepper but doesn't SMELL like pepper.. or does it?
"Elli, whats this look like to you?"
"Pepper"
"But what does it SMELL like?"
"Pepper"
"No, it couldn't be..."
"Taste it?"
(I taste it)
"Yep its pepper"


AND NOW MY CHAI TEA IS SUPER SPICY

Point. Match. Game...?

Luke: How was the poetry slam? did you read any of your poems?

Me: Yeah it was good, I won first prize for my poem called, "Dear Luke"

Luke: Congratulations, I can't wait to hear it! This "Luke" in the title sounds really cool and good-looking

Me: Yeah thats the irony behind the poem

Luke: I have no come back for that. Well played.

Does "allspice" mean combine all the spices you have?

Today I made carrot cupcakes.

They turned out crap.


Did I fail Martha, or did Martha fail me?
I guess I'll never know.






I should have probably put some paprika in. Whenever in doubt with cooking, add cinnamon and paprika...and i guess sometimes cayenne peps for a kick.

i guess that would make me... sandra bullock (ew)

YESTERDAY I was on the greyhound and we are basically in Toronto, still kinda on the highway (dont ask me which one.. something with a 4 in it probably) and theres a lil announcement from the bus driver thats all, "the reason we are going so slow is because the transmission wont get out of first"
sOooOo i don't really know what this car lingo means (transmission? first?) but i grasp that we probs aren't going to be going 2fast2furiously as we head in.

AND THAT'S WHEN IT OCCURRED TO ME that MAYBE just MAYBE this is some sort of scheme that some dude who wants a ransom or something set up in the bus so that it blows up - SIMILAR TO the movie SPEED who stars Keaneouau Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

Seo... I'm trying to remember how this movie ends just in case I am right and the bus driver stops in front of union station- and then says - "I'M SORRY, i cant let you off the bus... it wont go into neutral so i can't take my foot off the brakes"

WE ARE STUCK ON THE BUS. STUCK.

It was kinda funny though, espesh cus I was listening to this chick talk to her friend on her celly about "how crazy is this? like woahzaza, im going to be so late to meet the president and then watch the hills, bloohbleeblabla. lyf sux etc."

ANYWAYS we get to the other main bus docking place, and life is wine, its all sorted out with the help of another bus driver dude, and i am free to continue on with my journey to be reunited with my dog RALPHIE.....and I GUESS the rest of my famjam.

DO YOU REMEMBER BOB ROSS? I DO

GRIZZLY BEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

I always miss this band. When they were in Canada, I was in Leeds, England. Now they are about to play in LEEDs, and of course, now I'm back in Canada. lekfjlsdjfldjfsfdf I must see them!!!!

Anyways, premiere of new vid for "ready, able"

boom boom pow.

I was really indifferent about this band.. then I watched this, laughed for a long time and decided I love them.

Grizzly Bear - Foreground

Two days ago I saw Peter Victor speak at the university. His book is called Managing without Growth, Slower by Design, Not Disaster and I recommend you take a gander at it if you are interested in economic ecology.

Do you really think its possible to have an economy without any sort of growth in Canada? He proposes a stable economy is just what we are need to fix our problemos and reduce our GHG emissions. Very interesting, however what about businesses that are always seeking to maximize their profits.. Specifically in the stock markets -if you aren't maximizing, won't a stakeholder buy it up to boost those profits? I have minimum to no knowledge about how the stock market works... so I think what I'm saying makes sense.

just click it ok?

http://pelfusion.com/awesome-graphics/40-stunning-and-creative-graffiti-artworks/

reunion

yay i cant wait to see thinkaboutlife again. i saw them last year.. er maybe 2 years ago in toronto and it was so much fun wooooh eeeeeep

bzzzz

My phone vibrates profusely whenever someone texts me. I really don't know why its so violent in its shaking.. Its almost as if its having an orgasm, and really I wouldn't be surprised if it was given the minute amount of people that ever try to contact me.

Yesterday I did a radio show with Elli and B-Wong aka Gingy. I spoke in a british accent -which didn't seem to go over as well as I thought it would- and then proceeded to mispronounce the dj/remixer/whatever, A-trak's name. I called him 'A-trax.' I personally think 'A-trax' sounds better than 'A-trak.' Plus when you put an 'x' in something it looks like its pg 13 and is seven times cooler. PAH-SchAW

cell phones and driving

Driving cars and using your cell phone, BANNED starting October 26th YO. Fines are from $60-$500.

This thing is graphic...

walking home from school

Ok so today I was walking home from school and this really elderly woman approaches me and hands me a pamphlet. Usually I wouldn't take such a thing but it had a picture of a dog on it, and ever since Ralphie was introduced into my life I have an uncontrollable love for all canines.
So I continue on and open this pamphlet --preparing myself to read about blind dogs or something similar-- ONLY TO FIND, that this bloody thing has used false advertising as a ploy to try and convert people to Christianity. The text is just a little story about God himself.

I'm kind of annoyed and I start to have an inner conversation in my head debating "should I should have been all, no thanks, I'm an atheist (insert grim face)? ...And anyways, am I an atheist or am I agnostic? I thought I confirmed with myself a couple months ago that I was not going to be an atheist but rather, the lesser of extremes, an agnostic.... "

This inner discussion continues until I get to my street. I look both ways, car passes, cool I can go, and whilst crossing this CAR, this stupid shiny SUV almost runs me over. In fact I have to run, yes, RUN so that the car doesn't seriously injure me.

My heart is racing and I scramble into my house. I look down at this pamphlet and think, WOW! I almost DIED because of this piece of paper advocating the big mister.

Suffice to say, the decision has been clarified. I am an atheist.

HA!

I have this really weird urge to take a shower with my rubber boots on.

On another note, I plan on being Beatlejuice for halloween. I decided I should probably publish it so that no one else can steal my idea. I SHOT GUNNED it. Now all I need to do is get some fancy plans so I can show off my costume. Hopefully I wont end up at a place that has 87% of the crowd barely dressed.. being cats or slutty boxers orrrrr I dono a red bikini and devil horns. HOW CREATIVE!



Maybe I'll go to uni dressed up. Is that too much? I miss grade 1/kindergarten where we would dress up and then walk as a class in single file through the other grade 1/kindergarten-ers rooms showing off our costumes.

food

My mom made me an omelet. I said, Mom... I really hope there is ketchup. I have a thing with eggs and Ketchup.
mom says, Hmm I don't know if there is ketchup but there is definitely green chutney.

then all i could think about was doctor suess....and how my mom could ever think that green chutney would be an adequate substitute to ketchup.

zombie street

Robotic me needs a deep blue sea.
Lets cut the umbilical cord to this desolate and automatic world.
GET RID OF YOUR CELL PHONE

Honors Spec. in Environmental Sillybillysauce

Sometimes i wish i could just take every course in the world.

Quest que cest? fa fa faf a fa f fa a ff aafafafar better

Today my mischievous little pup ran out of the house when greeting my dad at the door. This behavior isn't out of the ordinary as he is a bit of a loose cannon, which why I often sing the song psycho killer by the talking heads to him, except switch the word 'killer' with 'puppy.'

Anyways after he did this, he ran off to a house a couple doors down with a huskie that's always tied up in their garage with the door half open (ahem, rude). I knew this was troublezz because our very untrained Ralphie aka Ralphalfa always barks passionately when passing this house/dog (which gives me the feeling there may be some beef over chickitas and/or bone thugs-n-harmony.)

When my sister brought him into the house she told me shit went down with the huskie and he and falfalfa had gotten into a tiff. I went to pet him I noticed he was shaking and bleeding near his eye!
Both my mom or bro weren't home --by default making me the most loved by Ralpha outta the family members left-- so he was pretty compliant when I trimmed the fur around his cut and tried to clean his wound. I handled it so well, it occured to me, if I had not been allergic to cats and find the concept of birds trapped in cages horrible, I may have made a pretty decent vet. Minus doing gross surgery.

Anyways, when my mom came back Ralphy loved her but mostly came up to me to be pet and to play. Seoo suffice to say the main goal of my voyage back to Canadia has been achieved and now my puppy probably loves me the most in the family. Woop wooh. Of course completing uni was second on the list of goals.

CAREER MATCHMAKING RESULTS

1. Director of Photography -Poor Match
2. Motivational Speaker -Fair Match
3. Clergy -Fair Match
4. Director -Questionable Match
5. Acting Instructor -Fair Match
6. Image Consultant -Fair Match
7. Art Director -Fair Match
8. Costume Designer -Poor Match
9. Corporate Trainer -Fair Match
10. ESL Teacher -Fair Match
11. Artist -Questionable Match
12. Special Effects Technician -Poor Match
13. Announcer -Fair Match
14. Actor -Good Match
15. Comedian -Fair Match


NO "extremely good" matches!

if you love the national like me

ya ya ya i've got nothing to say

ex oh ex oh

I'm noticing a weird trend in people writing messages or blog posts and then signing them with a dash and the first letter of their name.

-A

Like so. Except my first name doesn't start with an A. Its all part of my elaborate scheme to stay anonymous.

One would think it caught on from Gossip Girl, yet I'm finding majority of the people I see doing this are of the male gender.

Six Questions of Socrates

I'm in a summer rut.. All I seem to be doing is making "to do" lists, trying to grasp some sort of foundation in philosophy through silly watered down books I borrowed from the library, and listening to Candy by Paolo Nutini on repeat. Occasionally I watch reruns of Freaks and Geeks on tv or watch youtube clips of Russell Brand and wonder what it would be like to be friends with him. But thats about it.

I feel like I should be establishing some sort of talent or developing ideas and experiments to build myself a future full of CREATION.


Candy

I'm Confused

Every time I am forced to listen to the ludicrously repetitive and anti-climatic art form that is hardcore electronic music, I want to hurl into a brown paper bag. Then throw that bag at the closest shirtless male who would inevitably be bopping to it with one arm extended into the air.

Times have changed. When Pink Floyd experimented with electronic music, we got amazingness. Today, the only thing we get when experimenting with electronic music is alcohol and american apparel.

AND another thing: I dislike the label 'electronic music' because its thrown around quite a bit and I have NO idea what people are actually talking about.

Are they talking about influences on a band? Like Handsome Fur's Face Control album?

Are they talking about the Christian Cross..? Or the mister craft..master of crafts?..MSHTRUKFRT???

Or are they talking about the dreaded hard core intense (?)dance(?) music played at large clubs, where you are unsure when the tempo will change, so you dance and sing along (if there are words instead of beepy robot sounds) in this "safe" way --sans extra arm flings or dance embellishment in fear that you may get the next part WRONG?

I'm Confused.

its quality not quantity (duh)

I decided to facebook clean.
I wonder how many of my "friends" are actually frivolous.
So far 10 people whose names start with an A.

Do people take offense to this? I'm always wary when deleting people because I get the feeling they either

• a.) think I really hate them to have gone through all the trouble of deleting them, espesh when its supposedly cool to have tons of fb friends.

-OR-

• b.) --for ex's--they think I might super love them and that it tears me up inside to see they're lovely faces and read about their feelings and blooblooblabla.

Effort = care (?)

Dunno, cus like.. Its really not that much effort. You just press 'x'
Its actually rather gratifying knowing you will never have to see another emo note from a someone who is still going through an identity crisis.

Anyways I vow never to talk about fb again. It seems to be taking over the world just like the blackberrys.

this may be of interest to you

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Cyberspace is no place to be private ...(click it)

spain

I had probably one of the craziest night of my life last night in Madrid. The streets were PACKED with people, essentially it was like going outside and walking into a club.
I loved it, and the people we met at the hostel were so key. SO key. Loves travelling. Loves me some aussies. I think I´m going to move to Australia.

On another note, I forgot how much i missed travelling with Sara. We are huge morons together and feed off each other´s idiocy. For instance, we had a serious conversation about what life might be like if TIME was in a different currency. Oh and this conversation:

"Take the metro or bus? Both look a bit confusing"
"Metro, we are such seasoned travellers, we´ll sort it out"
"Totally seasoned.. like salt and pepper"
"Don´t forget the Garam Masala"
"OHHHH man, we so gots some Garam Masala on us"

O Canada

So I'm going to Spain on Saturday for lik 5ish days then Paris for 4 days. After that I have 3 days back in London with my family before I return to CANADA.

I haven't had much time to digest the fact that I am going back but it does randomly hit me. Its a bittersweet sort of thing, because I am SO psyched to go back see my family, my new puppy, ELLI, my friends from home and uni, but at the same time I DON'T WANNA GO.

I love my grandma's cooking, my aunt and uncle who are completely hilarious and I don't know what I'll do without my cousin Ravi who is basically my life coach.
I don't want to leave leave leave, there is so much more to do in London, there is so much more to see in the UK, in EUROPE! But mostly, I don't want to go back to reality. Summer is always a tough point for me because I have time to think, and when I think I realize I'm not so sure about my life. I'm not sure how much I am genuinely interested in pursuing a career in Environmental Science.

Anyways, so I woke up at 9am, lying on Lisa's floor (roomy from Canada living in central London till August) and these thoughts plus tons of others (boys, fam, work, etc.) came back into my silly head.
Then out of no where I just started to sing:

ITS MY LIFE, and its now or never, I ain't gonna live forever, I just wanna live my kinda life, CUS ITS MY LIFE, my heart is lik an open highway, blabla I DID it MY way, I just wanna live my kinda life, cus its my life.

So yeah. The thoughts disappeared after that. I guess I'll just sort it out when the time comes. Hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

For the record I hate bon jovi.

curiosity killed the cat

I'm annoyed with school. Why am I taking stupid elective courses I only have a hint of interest in? Oh right because they fit into my schedule.

My course selection is and has been utterly confused... enviro sci courses sprinkled with philosophy and some mass communication class, film and who knows what else... maybe that 'rock and roll' class everyone seems to be drawn to.

P.S. I hate you irritating people who have goals and love your courses and all that blablabla-nes.

I should just drop out like I planned to after first year. I guess its a bit late now.

I'm a slave for you Brittney. (for reals)

SO yeah. I saw brittney last night. Despite the obvious lip synching it was an amazing show... I mean I almost understand the lipsynching deal now that you see how much she runs around and dances/humps stuff. I almost wanted to give her more money because I only paid 6 pounds for it and it was definately a 20+ pound show. Apparently britt doesn't perform unless she has a full audience.. and at this arena, tickets for the nose bleeder seats hadn't completely sold out.. so when I went to purchase the tickets earlier that day, they were actually 0 pounds. It was a 6 pound tax that brought the price up haha.

I think maybeeeeeeeeeeeee 25 percent of the reason it was so good was because of the crazy circus performers.. although I was really looking forward to seeing an elephant and well there wasn't one. Hopefully her next tour will be "the zoo."

gross

facebook sort of seems like one giant competition or something.
if i wasn't so overseas i would delete it.

Sad Day

goodbye leeds.
Its strange to think i have just finished a whole chapter of my life. The last 5 months have gone by in the blink of an eye, and I can't believe how much I've grown and how INCREDIBLE my friends and experiences have been.

My last exam was on Wednesday and when i got out i was pleasantly and drunkenly greeted by two of my besties carrying bags of cider, port and other goodies. It was SUCH a lovely last night. I had the absolute best time dancing the night away to motown topped off with a dip in the little ornamental pond on campus at 4am. It was the perfect send off and I will miss you Leeds.

Now I'm back around London, about to start an internship soon. After that, traveling for a week and a bit and then Canada. Where does the time go?

blarghaaahahaha

this is spinal tap

PIGS hahaha we are idiots.

Britains Next Top Model

my cousin just asked me if i specifically go through the channels and choose stupid shows then force myself to watch them as some sort of a challenge.
haha

the national -> all the wine = ultimate, 'just finished an exam' song

WOOP. I finished 2 of my 4 potentially life altering exams yesterday. One exam was worth 100 percent of my mark and the other 70. Yikes.
AKA its time to go out and celebrate. So I did.

OK so background info- at a Motown bar (which is the best kind), dancing, etc.. ok:

I had to go to the bathroom, so I go downstairs, and there are two doors. I look at the first one, and it does not look like a woman. Usually the woman's dress is accentuated to symbolize, 'hey this is me, I am a woman and I wear skirts, come pee here.'

So I go to the next door, which has a buncha stickers over it. By process of elimination I decide this is the womans bathroom and go in.

Its weird in there. There are only 2 stalls, and no mirrors. Im a bit perplexed but, whatever, soooo yeah I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for almost 5 minutes, trying to look under the stall to see wtf is going on .....and then a BEARDED MAN comes in HA.

He looks at me and quickly turns around and leaves (thinking he had made the mistake), BUT no, he turns back around to face me.

I say, "Umm.. wait is this the mens bathroom?"
He replies, "err yeah....."
"Oh.. Woops"

Once I got into the womans bathroom life made sense again, there were lots of mirrors, and millions upon millions of stalls. I guess in retrospect that weird metal looking thing on the wall was probably a urinal, but it seriously didn't occur to me because I just thought it was a new wave hand washy fountain type things hahahahaha HEY I'm not frequently exposed to urinals so, its possible you (if you are a female) would have thought the same thing.

POW: tribute to some fwends via the united kingdom

Meet Sara (no 'h')

She swears an awful lot.
Her mom says, "I hope you aren't getting into the wrong crowd"
Sara is the wrong crowd.
Exhibit A. steals wine opener in Italy. Tisk tisk. But at the same time, GOOD CALL.
Exhibit B. Waterbus blagger in Venice & real bus blagger in Florence.



She taught me the phrase "Pash Rash"--when you M.O. with someone with a beard
I taught her the phrase, "you're the boss apple sauce," but it doesn't rhyme when she says it because of her Aussie accent.

She is a frequent practitioner of unnecessary text messaging to boys. She has no fear of running the risk of looking like a crazy. We should all not learn something from this.

Speaks fluent French when drunk.

She said, 'who is this band, theyre good.' I said, 'THE NATIONAL-AKA FAV BAND.' --aka Sara and I are now in love.

Says things like, "im quivering with anticipation."

Didnt bring any form of technology with her to England, seoo, when busy not studying, can often be found between the hours of 12-3pm in the same computer clusters at the downstairs the Parkinsons building.

Has never been to the library.. Except to take out a book on my behalf. P.S. Thanks, I returned it on time.

When watching 'Pink Floyd- Live in Pompeii' at our lovely couch surfers place in Italy, I said, 'I just wish I could dive into that magma.' She said, 'I just wish I could dive into those colors.'
Hers is way better.

She survived the Roma Earthquake of '09 with me.
We also survived being stood up by a creepy couch surfer in Florence. Weird.

She wears thermals. ALWAYS. Its too cold for her in any country other than Australia.

Her dog is named Boosh. After the Mighty Boosh.

We met whilst watching Scrubs, which coincidentally was foreshadowing for Rome, where our two couch surfers turned out to be the Italian equivalents of JD & Turk... Filippo & Marco haha

Can be found in a leather jacket and a plaid scarf. She may or may not be wearing her traveling hat depending on the distance of our journey.

Has been to China and France.

See you in Africa Sara. But otherwise, see you in Hamburg, Budapest & Co., and Spain. Or in twenty minutes for a pint?

EMILY MCGLENEN

i woke up and had the strangest urge to do this dance.



then after watching this vid 3 times, i got side tracked and started watching this



and then realized i was only on the computer to wikipedia the structure and function of grass. My course is really interesting.

thug life

so the other day i saw this guy with the word L-O-V-E tattooed on his knuckles annnd now all i can think about is what happens when he punches someone.
why the word love?
its like when people tattoo their names on themselves... they're planning for an inevitable identity crisis or something

anyways this spurred me to look at knuckle tattoos and yeah, found some truly inspirational stuff:

yah don't say

this boy is a keeper.


never give up friend.


foreal?


I just put this pic in for anyone who was thinking about getting "knuckle tats" and needed an idea. Kewl font too.

i hate eggs&hams(in)nations .........examinations

the cheese i bought on sale did not work out well.

one thing i did today (4luke)

Today I was walking to school and I saw some flowers. I said to myself, hmm if I was a flower, what flower would I be? I WANT to say daisies because Meg Ryan said that daisies are her favorite in "you've got mail." She says they are "the friendliest flowers." BUT mostly I just want to be associated with that movie because sometimes I wish that I too owned a childrens bookstore that went under because of a stupid impersonal big bookstore corporation called FOX (f-o-x). It would give me another reason to hate The Man whilst -in an ironic twist- I chat with him via old school AOL dial up internet connexxionnesss (its french, dont worry about it).
Anyways after thinking about this for a good 2 minutes I realized the fate of my hypothetical situation has already been decided. Duh 'saffron.'

Click the link.

I woulda posted the vid from youtube b/c i think it would encourage yall to actually look but the resolution etc etc is much clearer if you just click this link instead:

WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2009

i know we suffer for fashion orrr whateverrr

Do people really like what they say they like/love&live? Or is it all just for fashion?

It just annoying when I meet people and am completely disappointed by them and their lack of actual real passion in what they claim to love&live.

And I mean, I don't care if you aren't into what's fashionable (eg: electro music), or just have a slight interest or EVEN, oh hey that songs good, its catchy, I like it...But to act like it (whatever it may be) is your whole entire meaning for existence or something... is kinda ridiculous.

But then again, it could be because I'm in Leeds which is a major student town where the people are quite trendy. Theres no 'hipster' here. Its more like.. people just dresses that way because its whats in style. Sidenote, 'vintage stores' have seriously cashed in on this, charging 20 bucks for a shirt you could find for 4 from value village.

I think where the confusion lies, is that from what I'm used to seeing in Canada, -- as horrible as it sounds-- listening to indie music CAN come with a look.
Here, (some bars atleast) its kindof like people dress indie-ish/hipster-ish, cus its trendy, then say they like indie music, also for fashion.

I have been to quite a few bars with really good music& a good crowd, but I have a funny story that has to do with what I mentioned above.

So I go to a so-called indie bar andd umm they were playing pretty crap stuff. Like.. Oceans Avenue by Yellowcard from when I was 16 or something... So I got sick of the blast from the past and asked the DJ to play Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Cus hey, lets be honest, Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a crowd pleaser and they are pretttty popular, so I was confident with my request.. "Date with the night" comes on, I look around and about 4 people are screaming "WOOP!!" in excitement. The rest who, were previously singing along to the oldschool poprock music just looked confused. Heavily tattooed, and confused. Hahaha, it was really strange.

Don't worry Yellowcard, I still be "sleepin all day and stayin up all, niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight"

Do you really think I want to be in the position of handing out D's and F's to people who are packing pistols?

Friend from Texas sent me this:

Texas campuses may allow students to carry concealed weapons

FRiGGiNOMETRY things are too far gone.

"We are all different, just like anybody else"

When we were in Rome we saw a great art exhibit called Exactitudes at the Palazzo Incontro. It was hilarious and completely on-point. These two artists from Rotterdam collected and took photos of people for over 14 years from a bunch of different places - Rotterdam, New York, Buenos Aires, Paris, Milan etc. While looking at dresscode and how people were trying to distinguish themselves from others, they were able to capture how these people actually fit into very distinct and predictable groups. The line, "we are all different, just like anybody else," from Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek, sums up the entire project quite precisely.

In the actual exhibit, there was a sound recording of one of the artists giving a little witty description of each photo and after five or so, he would repeat the word 'exactitudes' a couple times. It was clever and excerpts were very amusing.

Here is one of my favorites, called French Touch, where he describes the boys as having, "rugged and confused hair" hahaha.

This image is copyrighted offa the exactitudes website and go to about for more info.

The whole thing is both hilariously true and perhaps a bit depressing.

crimes and misdemeanors

coWINKy

Theres too much pressure to write about italy.

Anways, I have been blessed with hella good luck here in ol blightly and its making me remember what this palm reader told me in Bangkok.
I'm starting to think I shouldn't have gone to the palm reader because random stuff happens and then I remember his 'premonitions' andd get mega freaked out because I realize he's right.
BUT is he right? OR is it, just you know, coincidence? And if he IS, then that must mean that everything he said about my life will actually occur? aka 2 children, married when 30, does not use the science background I will have attained for my future job, married to a business man, only gets good luck when i move away from home. etc, etc (there is more defining stuff but its secret)

AND if he isn't right (if this is all a big cowinky dink) but I still have in my head that he is... will I subconsciously make decisions to match his premonitions then write a book about it & my travels? (book may or may not be similar to Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert....Hahahaha)

From the Start

Our luck was umm DECENT until we got to Rome. Not the best, but it still made the whole trip a massive adventure. Anddd the fact that Sara and I are quite incapable of planning.. and making decisions sortof added to it haha but in a good way.
Anyways
I guess I'll start from the beginning. Venice. We got off the plane and it was raining. RAINING. Stupid England was following us. BUT we refused to let the rain ruin our first day (formally known as The Beginning To the Rest of Our New Lives).

So we wandered around beautiful, lovely, quaint -minus the infinite number of tourist shops- little Venice. We enthusiastically practiced the few Italian phrases we had memorized and tried our hardest NOT to be mistaken for tourists.. which is quite stupid seeing as anyone who comes to Venice is a tourist. It was really great trying to communicate in Italian because everyone replied in Italian (unlike in Rome and Florence where I would order something in Italian and they would respond in English knowing I'm not from there. At least play along!)

The rain finally cleared up and it was perfetto (that means perfect in Italian, just in case you didn't know). We bought cakes and wine and sat on a dock and watched boats go by.

Some favorite moments:

-The men that drive...steer (?) the Gondolas, that constantly question , "Gondola, Gondola, Gondola????" as you pass by. Haha. no. No Gondola for me. Its too expensive. Sara and I stuck to the 50 cent one that just goes from one side of the dock to the other and the water buses.

-Waking up to this in the morning:


-Piazza San Marco. Sara and I LITERALLY gasped when we saw it. It was just so startling because we were following our friend, not paying much attention to where we were headed, and then BAM you are in this massive square with this beautiful building that is like BREATHING or something. Its just so stunning and unexpected.

Department of Eagles

Every morning for the past week I've woken up at 7.30 am to the sound of my little 8yr old cousins voice saying, "doooont do it, dooont do it" in a funny voice. At dinner time he said, "hey rakhee, did you hear something weird this morning while you were sleeping?" and I said, "Yeah. Why were you saying that??" and he said, "I dont know, I think it sounds cool."
Hahahahaa. He's so random.

I've been at my uncles in Great Dunmow, a mini village-type town in England, working in his pharmacy. Of course I am the clumbsiest/most usless staff member on the team, constantly asking people to repeat what they are asking for, looking for the meds on all the wrong shelves, giving people money back and saying, "you're change is 78 cents" (its supposed to be pence). Then they say, "OH cents! I should hope not!" or something lame like that. Oh and I've probably put stuff infront of the cash machine lik 8 times and forgotten about it. Then when I ring peoples items through, and the cash drawer flings out, all the stuff I put infront of it goes flying on the floor. BUT on the bright side I haven't broken anything yet.



Anyways, I've have a lot of time to think when its not busy. ANDDDD what I've noticed is that I often pick up phrases that other people use repeatedly and incorporate them into my vocab. For instance, with this girl at the pharmacy named Claire. She asks 'is that right' after everything you say. Annnd she also says, 'thats it' when you get something right. I like it. So now i keep sayin it...Oh and i love to say, "I reckon" which I've picked up from my lovely Australian friend Emily. AND "ya'll" from my friend Christina from Texas. Anyways, I've done it so many times in the past with people and I've realized I'm like a giant mish mash of other people's characaters. It reminds me of this thing my drama teacher used to say about 'trying your character on'

I just keep wondering if people ever melt into me? Or, try me on. Is there a me to really melt into.. or am I a melt of like 3904839 other people.. aka, if you melt into me you are melting into all the people I've melted into?

you feel me?


p.s. its easter break - i have 4 weeks off- been with family for one week, going to italy tomorrow for 2 weeks then back with family in London when I get back.

oh italy. "Ho fame."

In the Kitchen

Initially when I moved into my accommodation here in Leeds, I did not like it. I somehow managed to make a mess and choose a privately owned international residence instead of a university residence. So it was annoying, not living as close to the uni and using the bus etc. but now I've really come to love it here.Its really diverse. There are people from India pursuing their SECOND MBA (and shes my age..) and doing gaming design, a girl from Czech doing film, Switzerland doing law, Manchester doing Chinese.

Its great. Its INTERESTING. I learn a LOT everyday and have made pretty hilarious friends. One of them is Micheal. My neighbor.

Micheal is from Poland, and a little clueless, but not in a rude way, just in a very funny way. He's never lived away from home and actually lost 15 pounds when he got here just because he was no longer eating his mothers cooking. He often goes to Morrisons (the grocery store) and buys RANDOM packages of anything. Then makes these strange, sometimes not thoroughly cooked meals.

Yesterday he bought this lentil mix with oatmealish stuff and beans in it. The instructions read to empty it into a bowl, add a cup of water and leave it for 24 hrs. So he did. Today while I was eating cereal and chocolate milk, he comes in and starts looking through the trash
"You can have some of my cereal Micheal... you don't have to look through the trash for food"
"I can't find my package!! It has the instructions! I don't know how to cook this?!"
"What is it?"
"I don't know. I don't remember, I just liked the colors"


This is Micheal.

So this strange MEALie sort of stuff has actually grown in the past 24 hours, its absorbed the water and today there is a big bowl full of it. Micheal is desperately trying to remember WHAT it was supposed to be, then decides, he must boil it as it is clearly soup.

"Are you sure? Soup? It doesn't seem like it.. maybe just drain it and cook it with rice and spices in a pan?"
"NO its a soup, I'm 60% sure. I haven't had soup in a very long time, I think that's why I bought it... Yes, definitely soup, I remember now."

At this point, everyone in the kitchen is beginning to tease Micheal, but he won't have it, "how can you make fun of a hungry man, that is shameless"

I went back to see how his soup was and he smiled and said, "its turned out great!" .......


He was also cutting what looked to be like a very large potato, only to find that it was orange on the inside.
"Oh, its a SWEET potato!"
"So, I guess I don't add salt to it then?"
Hahahahahahahahahaha

thanks from nicole

ahh english commercials are so rich hahaha

happy new year

Sometimes, when you see real... naked, frighteningly rich talent, in the most unexpected place... it really makes you wonder if your fantasy of being in a different program or doing something else in life, is merely another mode of procastination. Because really, if you knew you could do something different and be good at it-- if thats really where your passion lies-- Well you'd be out there, doing it. Wouldn't you?

I envy people who have such passion.

side note

if you are in London and are into electro, go to Up on Carling or "Up" -as the people call it- to see my 2 best buds drop beats. Tonight.

have you seen this? - the girl effect-

Wondering if anyones seen this. Its a program created and backed by a huge corporation you might be very familiar with... aka this vid is really well done and moving. Anyways, watch it:



So. Intriguing yes? Now if you click this link it will take you to the youtube girleffect user youtube place.. if you scroll down and read the left hand column you'll notice something interesting:

WHY GIRLS? Because when adolescent girls in the developing world have a chance, they can be the most powerful force of change for themselves, their families, communities and nations. But while those 600 million girls are the most likely agents of change, they are invisible to their societies and the world. So what can you do about that? Get yourself seen, whether you're a girl or just believe in girls. Tell us when your voice is posted, and we'll add it here. If you're ready to learn and do more, head over to girleffect.org.

(Nike Foundation created this page to help this movement along; opinions expressed here aren't necessarily ours. As a private foundation, Nike Foundation does not participate in lobbying activities and cannot host discussions of legislation on this page. We may remove any postings at our discretion.)

NIKE! NIKE FOUNDATION!! Thats the corporaion. Strange don'tchya THINK. Nike who had once/does still(?not sure?) operate sweatshops..

Ok so. Me personally. I dont know what to believe. Should I be critical of the fact that this campaign is being launched by Nike? Or should I accept that they are making an effort to create change. I mean this video is pretty powerful. What is a person to think.

Should I commend them for their efforts?
Should I?
Should I... "Just Do It" ??? Hahahahaha

interest is key

I wanted to see what this whole photography thing was about so I took a class. It seems like a bit of a fad at the moment, and everywhere I turn I see people with SLRS slung around their necks. I'm trying to understand why this is. I'm trying to get why Canon is advertising SLRS via not-the-greatest-questionable-celeb: Avril Lavigne. SLRS are pretty expensive... and Canon seems to be selling them to peeps like its the new sliced bread.

So first and foremost 'am-I-artsy-if-I-buy-a-dslr?'
To Canon & The Man: Why is it necessary to buy a camera to prove that you are trendy or 'artsy.' OK maybe you are into photography, which, I think is great. And if you are, you'd obviously know how incredibly technical it is. My prof explained that when you look back into history of the first photographers and artists, they were engaged in far more activities than just those subjects. For example William Talbot who developed the Calotype process (first negative and positive photographic process) was not only a photgrapher, but also an MP, botanist, classicist, physicist and Egyptologyst. Not to mention all the people who came after him were chemists and physicists etc.

So why make this distinction? Arts OR Science...Why is it split in our school system? For God's sake, ever heard of the term: renaissance man?!?


I guess I am getting carried away. Some people just want to take photos with a camera that is above what regular consumers use but below professionals. May it be pictures of their friends, family, squirrels in trees, whatever. But I think, if that is the case, its necessary to take a genuine and serious interest in it. I'll sit with my friend who actually is in photography and look at peoples pics on facebook, and its astounding how crap a lot of them are... Even though they are using such a fine piece of machinery. Because apparently SLRS are like Photoshop. They have zillions of features that hardly get used. Isn't that slightly depressing? Thats why Canon is bugging me a bit. Cus people out there will buy em, spend all that money, and then The Man wins. I do commend them for their advertising though. Even though no one really cares about Avril anymore...

(side note: I do not mean to be controversial. I'm just pretty annoyed w/ media at da mo)

osaka banG

"The People's Dictionary"

Today I had a tutorial for my Philosophy of Film class. We were discussing a reading, and this one girl who was trying to prove her point, kept using the word 'irregardless'..."irregardless of that fact, he still blablabla (etc).".... She said the word almost 3 times while taking her stance and I immediately stopped listening to her and started to wonder if the word "irregarless" actually IS a word in England (I had to question it b/c they spell 'skepticism' -->'sceptisim' and I was completely thrown by that). Anyways I went home and dictionary.com-ed and then dictionary.co.uk-ed it, and NO 'irregardless' is NOT a word in England. Nor is it anywhere else.

Leo+Kate+Revolutionary Road = Oscars

boys & girls. it is completely imperative you go out and watch Revolutionary Road. It is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.

no words

While You Wait for the Others - Grizzly Bear

NO WORDS sdfjhuySJLDK*&*^&(IE*&(*£&$LRYOP DCNCWILu&£*(^$*&£$

(click me for further dets)

bangers & mash

thnx2jai

do you feel me?

I hope karma keeps a tally. I'd like to know where i stand right now on that tally... has my bad karma evened out yet or what? Who do I contact for this information? There must be some kinda email addy or something.
Music is off & onto a h-drive.
Reaaaally pissed about HP's death now.
Ugh wonder if ill turn into a mac user... all brainwashed & ish

RIP the HP

It been finalized. My dear ol HP is gone. (P.S. HP should stand for hazard prone). It was a good 2 and a half years. I made my best mix CDs on that computer. I shared endless hours with it watching great but soemtimes pointless and weird movies, i.e./ James and the Giant Peach.
I really thought it would pull through though. After that time in '07 when I spilt water on the screen - completely certain it was forever effed- it stuprised me. Resilient lil son of a gun. The water damage vanished within a week and THATS when I knew my HP was a keeper.

Anyways. Those days are over. Im not as upset about its death as I am about the fact that I may not be able to get my music off that lil ucker.
The guy at the computer place said he can probs get it off though. So I have faith. I always have faith in computer specialist peeps. Comps & how they work is so foreign to me...The fact that there are dudes out there who "get" computers really amazes me.

I just wish I could talk to my computer and ask him why he did this to me. Maybe the computer guy can somehow communicate with him and tell me what the deal is. I guess I never really thought about its needs.. Perhaps I should have done all those update install-ey things to make him feel cooler and more accepted amongst his other computer HP friends..

I've learnt a valid lesson. You can't depend on anything or anyone. Just yourself. And cold chocolate milk.

england hates me

seoo. The other day i got internet in my room and was prettttty ecstatic because i was without it for a week. Apparently, I have bad karma or something because yesteraday evening i found that my laptop would not turn on...

why is everyone blogging about cupcakes today?

zazagagagzaaaa
so im in leeds (wadup), england (wadup wadup). ON Saturday i went to liverpool to the Tate museum and saw a Picasso. A reeaaal mfing picasso. AH and a couple paintings my Jackson Pollock and stuff by Andy Warhol. YAaawhh

I have also learnt that my fam back at home have replaced me with a cute little dog called Ralphy...

Today was kind of funny.

I read this "interactive pre-departure workbook" the exchange office gave me at my orientation ages ago. The first page asks, "Why do I want to go?" with a bunch of bullet points underneath. I initially scoffed (ha-ha) and turned the page.. but then reconsidered, and started to fill it out. It asked me all kinds of questions, Are you a risk taker? How do you deal with uncertainty? What do you want to accomplish?
oooh... what do i want to accomplish? That's a heavy one. I read the blurb under it and it said something like, 'eat new foods?' So obviously, eager to fill out the list completely, i made my first point - try new foods. I sat, for a good while, trying to think of different things that didn't resemble what I had already jotted down for the section"why do I want to go," then suddenly I was flooded with ideas.
Be more independent, find myself, get a better picture of what i want to do for a career, determine if i could potentially LIVE in Europe when I'm older, network?, grow!
I sat looking at my list. Smiling. Then realizing, how is it possible, such a silly book caused me to ask myself the most simple and obvious questions one would have about any situation?

...Is it just me that is so short sighted? Or can i blame society for doing this to me. Well, if possible, I'd like to blame MTV.

I need to become more goal oriented. 'EYE ON THE PRIZE' and all that... now if i could only determine what that 'prize' is, oh and of course, if anyone has any hints as to how one would go about finding themselves, that would be great thanks.

IM CONFUSEDDDDD ---LISTEN TO THIS SONG. OFF THE NEW HANDSOME FURS ALBUM, you WILL love it

Im Confused - Handsome Furs

the golden globies

Slum dog millionaire won a lot of awards. Great movie although i didn't enjoy all of it. That doesn't make much sense but I guess you'd have to see it to completely understand what i mean. The second half of it sortof bugged me. I mean there was water under it, but in the end it was a sappy love story. I guess I have a Love/Hate Relationship with the storyline..It had the aftertaste of a typical indian bollywood film and I hate those films because they're a bit predictable. You still must watch it though, it captures a truth we aren't familiar with.. or even exposed to for that matter. Its just fuckin brilliant. Yup, I guess I'm in a bit of a Love/Hate mood.

DENNIS QUAID IS HERE

every passing day into the new year takes me one step further from the memories that really matter to me:




...and closer to buying an iphone:

the futures kind of bleak.

no 'years resolution' is the new 'years resolution'

The New Year - Death Cab For Cutie