Oooo…

I was perusing the iTunes music store and this album caught my eye.  I love the artwork!  So pretty!  And the colours!  Oooooooh!  The artist is called The Fireman, and this album is called, “Electric Arguments”.

Oh Tannenbaum…

I have a Christmas tree!!!  For the first time in four years of school, I actually have a Christmas tree in Toronto!  What is it about Christmas trees?  I hope my roommates don’t mind much, although I know Mark has expressed his disinterest in Christmas trees……maybe you just have to participate in an action-packed, ridiculously awesome arts and crafts hour making and decorating Christmas tree ornaments!!!!  Or gingerbread houses!!!!  Hurray!  So yes, I quite like my tree, and thank my mum for giving me one of the best Christmas gifts of all….spending time with one another, searching The Bay for a Christmas tree (one that WASN’T $500…sheesh!)

Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, but I find that December goes by in a flash.  I need to be on my game this Christmas as there is much I wish to accomplish, or just experience.  Which’ll also mean I have to work very hard working…I need da monies!

And I always love asking people what they love about Christmas, or just generally about this time of year.  Family traditions they remember, warm memories…and the like.

Goin’ to Noeva Sciosha

Well, it’s that time again!  On December 9th I will be embarking on a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia to pick-up my friend Sam from school.  She’s moving back home for a wee bit-o-time before jetting off for Liverpool in January to do her PHD.

I’ll be accompanied by my friend Tasha for the journey, as it’s never good, nor fun, to do road trips alone unless you have unlimited iPod battery life and a playlist of enganging songs. lol

I’ve made the trip to Halifax, by car, two times, so the drive is nothing new to me.

1) In April 2005, to pick Sam up from school after 1st year.  I drove along with my friend Kyle, and I think we made it in 19hours.  Never will I do the drive again straight.  Maybe a good night’s sleep before would make a difference….hm.  On the way back we saw a billboard for PEI…”45 minutes to fun!”……of course we wanted to test this time test, and sure enough!  PEI was great but it was the off season so not much going on.  But I got my precious Anne Shirley’s Raspberry Cordial

2) October 2006, for a doc shoot.  I was accompanied by Alex, Brad, Ashleigh, and Nikolai from Film Studies (Ryerson).  The road trip was long but fun!  Hilariousness ensued when I went to have a nap, and must not have given the map I had to the new driver (YAY TWO DRIVERS!) going the wrong way and almost ending up in Northern Quebec instead of the east coast.  Oops!  But we made it to Halifax and back in one piece, and I had a great time!

So what hijinks will occur on this trip?  I hope it’s okay driving though…sheesh this would be the one December in a long while with actual snow.  With my luck, a blizzard.  But I’m not complaining…I’m hoping for a white Christmas!

Cold days, warm thoughts…

Well, it’s been an unusual day.  Normally I’ll just be waking up now due to my ridiculous sleeping pattern, but a nightmare woke me up at 6am and I’ve been up since, and running errands and such.

It’s one of those days….chilly, rainy, windy, gray…a great day for errands of course (sarcasm).  I have mixed feelings about these days…I know they put me in a certain “funk”, but there’s something comforting about a rainy cold day, if you’re on the inside looking out of course.  So that is something I’m very thankful for.

Today I met Rebecca, and we were doing a hand-off.  I was buying her band’s self-titled EP (pictured above….AMAZING COVER ART!).  They’re called Europe in Colour and I just love their “Last Flight to Paris” song.  Very catchy and a song I catch myself humming.
I just love the cup art!

Then as I mosied home, I decided to stop by Starbucks.  I thought I’d be riding my bike today so I was wearing a different bag and was disappointed that I thus didn’t have my new travel mug!  So I told myself that I’d just get a paper cup this one time (hopefully the only time this winter at least!) also because I love Starbuck’s holiday cups and menu offerings.  I got a peppermint mocha TWIST (lol) and for fun, because I never get them, a polar bear cookie.

I remember in first year I was all about Christmas in rez…lights in the room, my mini tree, Christmas music up the wazoo….it seems I’m not jumping into it as fast this year, but hopefully it’ll change.  I love the feeling I get when the holidays are near, and around…there is just something different in the air.  *sigh* I’m such a nerd.

Throughout the blog are some pics that document my aquisitions today.

Mark Scott, 43, Oshawa…

…I hope you are rightly charged with the hate crime you committed.  And I hope you get a lot of time to think in jail, which is where you belong.

http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Lesbian_parents_attacked_in_Oshawa_in_front_of_son-5839.aspx

In Flanders Field the poppies grow…

I don’t think Remembrance Day has ever not been an emotional day…and I hope we’ll always remember.

Although that is something to think of…it’s 2008.  The war ended in 1945, sixty-three years ago.  And to think that about now, or in a decade or so, there may be no one around who personally experienced the war.  We can only then remember the war through the memories, the stories passed down, documents, films, photographs, etc…not through individuals per se.

It’s just so strange to think of it that way, and makes me a bit sad too.  It makes me think about the program I have chosen…Documentary Media…and how important documentary is to me, whether in the form of a film, photography series, or even paper records, diaries, anything that is a document of a time, a person, a thing.  I guess it’s why I cling onto photographs.  They help me to remember, and I appreciate them for that purpose.

There is the argument that too much time can be spent ensuring photographs are taken, so then you end up remembering more the photo-taking experience rather than what you were trying to capture.  Yeah, but there can be balance.  And I still think photographs are important.  It’s amazing how just seeing a photo can enable me to relive an experience.  And what’s more inspiring is that I can view a photo like the one above, and although I have not personally experienced the scene/environment/what is being captured, and can get a sense of the emotion in the subjects, and the emotion conveyed through the actual photograph.

Putting my life in order.

Well, not so much my life but elements of my life need organizing!  If that makes sense.  I feel so disorganized.  So much to do, so much I’ve procrastinated on, so many things I’ve forgotten.  I’ve still done a lot, but I feel like there is soooo much more I can do.  Time to get back on track.  Being sick didn’t help things, and I think I let it put me in a sedentary mood for sure.

So it’s back on track with school, work, my internship, and the lot!  Something I’m happy about too is it seems I’ve been able to reconnect with some people.  People I haven’t seen in awhile, I’ve had the chance to socialize with which is very nice.  Okay, back to organizing stuff!

I’ve moved…

…to WordPress!!!  I am using WordPress.com for blogging for class, and realized that it’s much more user friendly than blogger.com, with more options and features and the whatnot, or at least I feel.  I liked Blogger…but I liked WordPress a lot more.

So long Blogger!  Hello WordPress!

*cough* *cough* *HACK!*

Listening to some Lykke Li…beautiful music, from such a talented artist.

Also reading about coughs…I have one that doesn’t seem to go away. Of course the first hits on google are about coughing in children and the whatnot, and while I was reading, I came across some tips to help/ease a child’s cough. One of the suggestions was to use a cool-mist humidifier, and memories of being sick as a kid instantly came flooding back.

I remember the fascination with the cool-mist humidifier…allowing my hand to rest over top of the machine and feel the mist, remarking on its coolness. lol But also Vicks Vapo-rub, which is a memeory/sensation I had the pleasure of reliving. John’s Mom gave me a bottle from her reserve…the smell, endothermic feel (?)…ah I remember it well. I also remember the “barf bucket”…the large, brown bowl that lay next to the beside during those other particular sick times. Lovely. But handy.

My fondest memory of being sick, if such a thing exists (perhaps appropriate with the coming of Christmas…..yeah, it’s only the beginning of November, but you’ll blink and it’ll be here, so there)….was becoming ill right around Christmas. I couldn’t go to Christmas Eve festivities/Mass so Mom stayed home with me and we watched Christmas shows. I think Mom knitted or something, and made me my FAVE sandwich, Egg Salad!

What’s sad is I don’t often remember Christmastime for some reason, but this one stands out. I think I’m going to have to start a tradition of special Christmas Event Blog postings, which get added to as time passes through the holiday season, to document what it is that I do during that time!

But that’s why I like blogs…they’re like a diary. And so forth.

Blogging….and my music collection!

Okay, so two things. Okay, three.

I’m trying to customize my blog as I, as well as many it seems in the blogging community, have grown tired of blogger’s templates. However, trying to find a template seems arduous. I’m a creative person, I believe at least, and I’d love to make my own template. Yet, it seems like an insane process, and I don’t know the first thing about coding, or CSS, or CS?, or HTML, or XML, although I am learning a lot as I wander the interwebs in search of help and guidance. So the search continues, and I ask anyone who is viewing this blog that they have patience with my everchanging layout. Thanks!

After moving in two months ago, I have JUST! AT THIS MOMENT! FINALLY! uploaded my music collection to my new MacBook Pro! HURRAH! Oh Chromeo and Deerhoof, and Madonna, and Club Hits, I missed you so. Not that my iTunes library has remained empty…I’ve been listening to alot of new music lately, and MAN!

Just when you think, “How the hell can the music world top THIS music?!”, they come out with new stuff that is just amazing. Right now, I’m finding Land of Talk, Freeform Five, Lykke Li, Coldplay, CutCopy, and toooons more to be just amazing. Everyone’s tastes are different, but there’s new and exciting music out there. I can say the same for the graphic design/photography/art world, but I digress. I think I’ll go onnnn and on.

Finally, ugh sleep patterns. Now, it’s what I feared. I had been going to bed around 5am as of late, but had to get up at normal times. Since being diagnosed with Strep Throat, I’ve allowed myself more time to sleep, and thus I’m now in a pattern of going to bed at 5am and waking up at 5pm, and so forth. Actually, now it’s almost 6am…might not go to bed ’til 12pm today. I might stretch out the day, so I’ll got to bed at 11pm, and hopefully wake up at a normal time on Monday.

Here’s to hoping.

Also, today I discovered, thanks to the MoreProof new website, this awesome new application (for Mac only….sorry Windows lovers) called Poladroid. Visit their website, download the app, and transform your digital pictures into awesome-looking digital Polaroids! This app is a lifesaver, especially since Polaroid announced that it would be stopping all film production for their cameras.