I think everyone should watch the following two clips. They're recordings from Chasing Daylight, an up-and-coming band comprised of a fe...
Alright, I admit...
Time to admit stuff I've never really wanted to admit. I hear it can be quite liberating. I actually love the saying Live Love Laugh....
Zipadedoodaaaaa, zipadeeday
You know, getting up early to take a shower, put on your best pair of perfect butt sweatpants and a cute tank, straightening your hair only ...
Is the beer half full or empty to you?
It often seems like I have the best of times when nothing turns out as planned and everything seems to be going wrong. Two nights ago, I spe...
Dear Nestle:
I just bought a tub of jam-packed Peanut Butter Rolo ice cream, and it was fucking bullshit. Clearly, you and I have a very different defin...
OBE and my experience with SP
Clearly, I've failed the ten post challenge. It's alright, it was honestly preventing me from talking about the things I wanted to t...
Day 9: 9 things I like or seek in a guy
Again, random order: 1. Honesty 2. Humility 3. Humour 4. Inner geek 5. A good dependence/independence balance 6. Spontaneity 7. Enga...
Day 8:8 artists I've seen live
In no particular order: 1. Paul McCartney With: Shanel Belanger, Gabriel Bertrand Where: Plaines d'Abraham, Quebec 2. Hedley (x2...
Day 7:7 more achievable items on my bucket list
Yes, I want to go skydiving, to see the seven wonders, and to shake hands with my idol. However, when making my bucket list, I decided to ad...
Day 6: 6 video games I was obsessed with back in the day
NES Tetris, Mario Kart Double-Dash (GC), Animal Crossing (GC), Fable 1 (xbox), sword of mana (gba), and any pokemon game (gb, gba) Good ol...
Day 5:5 reasons I`m still living with my parents
1) I wouldn`t be able to fit my new, extra-comfy bed in an apartment 2) I can't afford to move out 3) I still get along with my parents...
Day 4: 4 things I like about myself.
I thought about doing the whole four things I hate about myself, but I'm trying to stay positive. Also, there seems to be a wave of ...
Day 3: 3 places to travel
I've only got 7 minutes to do this.. but I made it! Faithful to the challenge so far :) So far, that exact cruise ship you see is the...
Day 2: 2 favourite eateries
My two favourite places to eat are Deluxe Hamburgers and The Hourglass Restaurant and Lounge. The former, Deluxe , is a cross between fast...
Day 1: 1 favourite television show
So my fellow blogger J has inspired me. I'm doing a ten day challenge and I'm committing to it. My favourite fictional television ...
My day was incredibly busy and yet it felt terribly uneventful, as reflected in this post
Picture yourself in your kitchen, afraid to move, surrounded by a million tiny razer-sharp shards that are scattered all over the floor of t...
After the other night, I feel the need to glorify my phone.
I was writing a reflective paper on my laptop the other day while watching a movie in music class, when I looked up and realized that I had ...
25 Things That bother Me
I've got ten minutes to think of 25 things that bother me...Go. 1) Running out of repels in a cave while playing Poke...
With A Little Luck
The most amazing thing happened today. The girl who was sitting to my right in my Mass Media class turned to me and told me I was really org...
Living The Dream
I feel like Cary 2.0. I haven't fixed every glitch yet but at least I'm aware of my major setbacks, what triggers them, and what hel...
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I think everyone should watch the following two clips. They're recordings from Chasing Daylight, an up-and-coming band comprised of a few of my friends. The two songs are acoustic covers of Kings of Leon and The Animals.
Members include Dustin Montpelier, Valerie Boivin, Justin Trottier And Gabriel Bertrand. They're super talented and fresh and I think everyone should know about them! I believe they're working on covers right now because they're just getting started but hopefully we'll get to see some original work soon! Also, Valerie and Justin are playing for the Sudbury Telethon Saturday, December 3rd at 9:40pm. Stay tuned!
Time to admit stuff I've never really wanted to admit. I hear it can be quite liberating.
- I actually love the saying Live Love Laugh. Its overuse does not disconfirm its powerful meaning. Really, truly, wholeheartedly living, loving, and laughing, are three things people should be doing way more often.
- Sometimes, when I hear someone singing, I start to cry, because I can't sing and I would give up all of my talents for a decent voice.
- I've never actually watched the entire Rocky Horror Picture Show from beginning to end. I don't really have the time to, but I feel like it's the sort of movie I should have watched. So I constantly quote the first 30 minutes of the movie because it's all I've ever seen.
- I get a little rush of elitism when I understand a passage from a book or a poem that no one else gets.
- When I say it doesn't bother me that I don't have anything in common with normal girls because I would rather hang out with guys all the time, I'm lying. I love my guy friends to death. But I honestly want nothing more than to fit in with girls.
- I can't tell the difference between good wine and box wine.
- I am a recovering strategic manipulator.
- My favourite Led Zeppelin song is Stairway. But when people ask me, I tell them it's either Ramble On, Going to California, or Black Dog, because saying Stairway makes me seem like it's the only song I know. It's just so iconic. I do that with a number of other bands but I really need to stop.
- I've been such a fake in the past that I now struggle to genuinely be myself. Part of my struggle is admitting things that go counter to the person I've been trying to present myself as for, like, ever.
- I actually think I'm good-looking. And I don't think there should be any shame in saying that. I don't think I'm Aphrodite or anything. I'm just content with my looks and I think it's a bad habit to deny it. Also, girls who know they're pretty and constantly complain about how ugly they are diminish the credibility of those who truly can't stand to look at themselves. As a result, everyone just ends up looking like attention-craving narcissists fishing for compliments. Not cool.
You know, getting up early to take a shower, put on your best pair of perfect butt sweatpants and a cute tank, straightening your hair only to "throw" it in the nicest messy bun the world has ever seen, doesn't count as not caring. It doesn't qualify as not having gotten ready. It's not an example of a lazy or an ugly day.
You want to know what counts as an ugly day? What I look like right now. I got two hours of sleep last night. I fell asleep in the same jeans I'm wearing and they're falling off because I was too exhausted to put on a belt. I didn't put my hair in a ponytail, I kept it in yesterday's ponytail because it's too knotted to let it down. I had exactly five minutes this morning to choose between brushing my teeth and taking off my flaked makeup and I chose dental hygiene. I'm wearing a baggy sweater that I absolutely detest over a tank top that doesn't even remotely match anything else on me. I also started a cold, my eyes are red, and my nose is peeling. My mascara's everywhere, my face looks gross, my hair looks like a cross between a caveman and Cruella Deville.
You think you're having an ugly day? Take your tight little sweatpants and shov'em.
It often seems like I have the best of times when nothing turns out as planned and everything seems to be going wrong. Two nights ago, I spent a lot time getting ready and excited to go clubbing with girlfriends I hadn't seen in forever. I was stoked because I hadn't gone out in so long and I was really looking forward to a good night with the girls. A friend of ours dropped us off at the bar at around 11:30. The lineup was humongous, but we figured we wouldn't be out there much longer than forty minutes. We were very wrong. An hour an a half later, we were still outside in line, wearing nothing but mini-dresses. I was truly colder than I had ever been. It was now nearly 1. One hour left 'til last call, and the club was at full-capacity. The lineup hadn't budged in almost fifteen minutes. Finally deciding to call it quits, we chose to go defrost and drown our sorrows at the nearest establishment. We didn't care where we were going, as long as it was inside. Don't think it's possible to sprint in a dress and heels? Think again.
When we got to Peddler's, a small irish pub, we were happy to feel our extremities once again, but we were miserable. What a waste of a night, we all thought. There was a little over fifty minutes left 'til closing, our pre-drink buzz was long gone, we were still shivering, and we weren't at the club! The first thing I did when I got inside was make up for lost time. I ordered a shot of tequila, a whiskey sour, and a Coors Light. 5 minutes later, I started complaining. And complaining. I had the right to do so though, didn't I? I mean, considering everything we had gone through throughout the night? It wasn't until the last half hour that I realized I had been choosing to be miserable and angry, and in doing so hadn't paid notice to the great live band covering everything from Journey, to Big & Rich, to Britney Spears. Instead of staying in my seat and sulking even more, I joined my friends, who were pretty well the only people in the entire pub dancing. I chose then not to let even some of the shittiest two hours ever ruin my last half hour at the bar. And so we warmed up, pubclubbed, had a great time, and did what everyone knows you should do when things go wrong but hardly anyone ever does:
we quit our useless bitching, and imposed a great time upon ourselves. As those tired, over-used, yet horribly under-applied sayings go, we found the silver lining and made the best of our situation.
I just bought a tub of jam-packed Peanut Butter Rolo ice cream, and it was fucking bullshit. Clearly, you and I have a very different definition of "Jam-packed". My boyfriend and I ate the entire thing in one sitting and I think we found a total of eight Rolos.
Note: after reading this a second time, I want to apologize in advance for the possible overuse of parentheses. I have a hard time leaving the irrelevant out of my writings and find my justification in the fact that the brackets/parentheses indicate the lack of direct relevance. Actually, this is my personal blog. I can bracket the entire thing if I wish! [{(Jokes)}]
I've been reading a lot about the out of body experience (OBE) lately. Until recently, I didn't believe it to be doable because I associated it with ghosts, spiritual travelling, and the movie Insidious. However, I've been doing much research on the matter and from what I've read, OBE is merely the sensation that one is no longer attached to his or her physical body and the feeling of floating over and looking down on it, whatever the cause. Now, I'm not saying that the phenomenon as explained by the numerous texts I've been consulting disconfirms the notion of astral projection in any way. Little is currently known about the process through which one attains OBE, but the fact that it has been known to occur spontaneously during near-death-experiences (though it can happen in many other instances and can be self-induced) tends to point toward an actual leaving of the physical body.
While I was searching for methods of self-induction, I came across many research papers, experimental reports, and tutorials, nearly all of which stated at one point that sleep paralysis is central to a successful experience. PERFECT!
I know a great deal about sleep paralysis. This is because it's been the source of much panic at an early age. It happens when, at sleep onset or upon waking up, you are fully awake but find yourself unable to open your eyes or move move any part of your body. I actually remember the first time it happened to me, and I recall panicking my way through the following steps at the approximate age of six years old:
- I slip out of a dream and into consciousness. My eyes are still closed. I feel my bed underneath me and I can hear everything going on.
- I hear the sizzling of a frying pan and I smell bacon; mom's cooking breakfast. I want to get up and go eat!
- I realize that I can't get up, move my limbs, or open my eyes. What's going on? I don't like this. I conclude that though I'm awake, my body must still be sleeping.
- I flip out and try to get myself out of it. I violently try and shake my whole body until it starts actually moving. It takes much time and effort. Finally, I free myself. As I will find out later on, the violent panicking actually worsens matters and can extend the state.
I used to think that these entire episodes weren't real, that the fact that I could hear, feel, and smell what was going on was but my senses transcending my dreams, much like a song on a clock radio becoming part of a dream. When I realized there was more to it, I accepted it as something wrong with my body that I just had to deal with. (for some reason, I never sought help or information on any abnormal behaviour or phenomenon I experienced from the time I was a child. I wish I had, for many of my problems could have been assessed, dealt with, and possibly eliminated instead of becoming larger, more serious or inconvenient problems later on. Side note rant over.) Soon, I started learning not to panic, as this was happening more and more often (it still happens, about once every few days, usually on restless nights). I quickly developed my own strategies for coping. If it happened at night, I would just remain calm in my paralyzed state, clear my mind, and let myself fall asleep, at which point I would nearly always lucid dream without doing a reality check. If it was morning, I would wiggle my fingers and toes while rolling from side to side in my mind, until my mental movements became physical movements and I was paralyzed no more.
Little did I know that my curse of sleep paralysis was an aptitude sought after by OBE enthusiasts, as it is the first step to the experience. In the past week, I learnt that to achieve this goal, you need to get yourself to the paralyzed state, but instead of falling asleep, you must trick your body into sleeping while mentally staying awake. Rather than remaining unable to move in your body, you're supposed to remove yourself from your body using certain specific strategies. I'm trying it sometime this week, so I'll be blogging about the method I used as well as the results yielded. Stay tuned!
Again, random order:
1. Honesty
2. Humility
3. Humour
4. Inner geek
5. A good dependence/independence balance
6. Spontaneity
7. Engaging conversation
8. A winning smile
9. A positive attitude
... And much more. I just picked the first things to pop in my head.
Oh, or he could just look exactly like George Clooney.
In no particular order:
1. Paul McCartney
With: Shanel Belanger, Gabriel Bertrand
Where: Plaines d'Abraham, Quebec
2. Hedley (x2)
With: Mom first time, dad second
Where: Sudbury Arena
3. Coldplay
With: Justin Trottier, Connie Trottier
Where: Ottawa
4. John Mayer
With: Justin, Connie
Where: Ottawa
5. U2
With: Justin, Connie
Where: Toronto
6. Great Big Sea
With: Mom, Dad, Shanel, Zackari Trudeau, Justin, Connie, uncle Ian, aunt Linda
Where: Sudbury arena
7. Jack's Mannequin
With: Maxine Vincent
Where: Dallas Night Club, Kitchener
8. Barenaked Ladies
With: Dillan Gravel, Zackari, Maxine
Where: Massey Hall, Toronto
Below is a picture of my friend Shanel and I at the Paul McCartney concert.
Yes, I want to go skydiving, to see the seven wonders, and to shake hands with my idol. However, when making my bucket list, I decided to add some easier-to-obtain goals to make the every day things seem exciting, rewarding, and worth commemorating. Also, if I do fail to carry out my other dreams, at least I'll have checked off a few numbers. These include:
a) Try every single sub at Subway
b) Go change-diving in a fountain (That's me living on the wild side)
c) GO TO COMIC CON
d) Have gone to 40 concerts
e) Do Karaoke night
f) Get married
g) Turn an apartment into a huge blanket fort and have a no healthy foods allowed rule (relive my kidness)
NES Tetris, Mario Kart Double-Dash (GC), Animal Crossing (GC), Fable 1 (xbox), sword of mana (gba), and any pokemon game (gb, gba)
Good ol' K.K. Slider
1) I wouldn`t be able to fit my new, extra-comfy bed in an apartment
2) I can't afford to move out
3) I still get along with my parents
4) I like being fed
5) My room's pretty badass
Pictures of 3 of my room walls
I thought about doing the whole four things I hate about myself, but I'm trying to stay positive. Also, there seems to be a wave of "over-modesty" taking over. It's almost like it's considered conceited to be confident and outwardly proud of one's achievements and good qualities. So, here goes. 4 things that I really like about myself are:
1) My analytical skills
2) My teeth
3) My pursuasive abilities
4) My taste in music
To the left is a picture of me listening to Walk Away by Gay Barlow, and smiling with my teeth, shortly after having used my persuasive abilities to get the driver to stop for McDonald's. As far as I can recall, no analytical skills were used that night (nor reasoning skills, nor common sense). The lovely lady sharing the back seat with me is my great friend, Brittany.
I've only got 7 minutes to do this.. but I made it! Faithful to the challenge so far :)
So far, that exact cruise ship you see is the vessel that has transported me the furthest from home. But I plan on going further. I absolutely love visiting new places.
My two favourite places to eat are Deluxe Hamburgers and The Hourglass Restaurant and Lounge.
The former, Deluxe, is a cross between fast food and sit down. As strange as it sounds, the feel of it is very St Hubert meets McDonald's. Apparently, the burgers there are delicious but all I ever take when I go eat there is the chicken on the bun dinner, which I would recommend to any chicken and gravy enthusiast. The best part though, is the fries. I just can't get enough of them, dipped in the best gravy on earth.
The second is The Hourglass. I can't explain what it is about that place. Don't let its location fool you, this restaurant is very nice and the atmosphere is great. They have some of the best steak I've ever had and the staff is always really friendly. I've recently taken to trying new things but my favourite entree would have to be the fillet mignon.
My favourite fictional television show is The Community. It follows the adventures of Jeff Winger, a lawyer whose falsified proof of education is deemed void by the bar. He attends a community college by the name of Greendale and unwittingly forms a study group made up of seven unlikely students. Through these newfound friends, Jeff will learn to be selfless, accepting, and he will get sucked in to all the crazy antics that seem to define Greendale and its students.
The best parts of the show for me are the satyrical elements, how the serious things are often comically approached, in stark contrast to the trivial incidents (the picture above shows how a lost pen can "tear people apart"), and the fact that Greendale College seems to turn every banal situation (a KFC space simulator, a school-wide paintball match, a fried-chicken mafia family) into an epic, yet heartfelt adventure. Even as I'm writing this, I'm thinking that this show sounds really stupid written down. I don't care. It's my favourite show, and I was hooked from episode one. Cast members, amongst others, include the asian criminal from the hangover (playing Spanish teacher Senior Chang) and Chevy Chase (playing study group member Pierce Hawthorn, a retired and bored-out-of-his-mind millionaire). It's a great television show for people like me, who are looking for light, over exaggerated comedic chaos.
Picture yourself in your kitchen, afraid to move, surrounded by a million tiny razer-sharp shards that are scattered all over the floor of the room. If the word "Corelle" comes to mind, you've probably been through it too.
Having depleated our last good set of dinnerware and dealt with my father's incredulous "how is it you two always manage to break all the nice things we own?" gaze, my clumsy mother and my oaf of a self decided to opt for what numerous friends had described as the ultra-durable kitchen set: cups, plates, and bowls made by the company Corelle, from a type of glass named Vitrelle, said to be extremely break-resistant. For the first while, this notion proved to be true - we had dropped many dinner pieces and they had simply hit the ground with a short thud, nothing more. However, today, I learned two things. The first was a valuable lesson about linguistics. there is a monumental difference between break-resistant, and break-proof. The second was that when a Corelle dish does break, it doesn't just break. It shatters. All over.
I was writing a reflective paper on my laptop the other day while watching a movie in music class, when I looked up and realized that I had but a few minutes of battery life left. Having left my power cord at home and being without pen and paper, it seemed that I was going to have to forfeit the only time I had ever had a steady stream of clear, coherent ideas without being attained by any hint of writer's block. Then, I realized something. I sent myself an email and attached my paper. Next, I opened the email on my Windows Phone and saved it. I tapped the MS Word hub on my cellular and opened my document. I was able to finish my paper that day. Had my phone no other helpful feature, the Microsoft Office app would be enough. It may not be have the look, feel, or apparent complexity of now conventional smart phones, but it's a great messaging, social, keeping-yourself-organized phone with a clean, simple interface and my favourite apps organized in an orderly fashion with Live Tiles. Other neat features include Xbox Live, Maps, and the way contacts are sorted. This phone may not be for everyone, but it's certainly for me.
I've got ten minutes to think of 25 things that bother me...Go.
1) Running out of repels in a cave while playing Pokemon
2) Hiding behind a veil of irony to enjoy the things you like
3) Pretentiousness (though I must admit I'm often guilty of it)
4) Nutella commercials
5) The sound of forks on plates
6) The general rudeness of the Youtube community
7) Windows Vista
8) Dogs
9) Waking up at 5am every Sunday (The day of rest!)
10) Being clumsy
11) Overused, generic quote-garden caliber sayings
12) Overly negative and dramatic Facebook statuses
13) How the best tasting foods just have to be so bad for you
14) Condescension
15) Your computer conveniently freezing when you're in a hurry
16) Reality TV, and catching myself watching it, or momentarily being convinced that the characters are actually behaving naturally
17) The taste of sea water on my lips
18) My stomach growling in the middle of class
19) Admitting I'm wrong
20) Reoccurring troublesome thoughts
21) Finding out someone ate the last taquito
22) Buying a really nice item of clothing, then realizing I've nothing to wear it with
23) Dwelling on the past
24) Forgetting what you were about to say
25) How (pardon the cliché, but) you really don't know what you have until it's gone
This is my unofficial Goddaughter and her collection of Dora dolls. I went over the other day and she wouldn't let me leave her room until I quite literally OD'd on Dora The Explorer. Now, it is really fun to be a kid again (just the other day, I made my own Blizzard, pictures of that in tomorrow's post) but there's only so much you can sing "I'm The Map" without wanting to hurl. Had a great time though, felt good to take some time away from being so damned serious and spend some time with Baby K. Honestly, I've been so wrapped up in keeping up my new rep and preventing myself from falling back into that organizational no-man's-land that was my high school years that I sometimes forget to be the old messy, sloppy, childish freak I once was.
Thanks, Karina <3
The most amazing thing happened today. The girl who was sitting to my right in my Mass Media class turned to me and told me I was really organized.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal. In fact, for those of you to whom organization and neatness comes naturally, it may be about as attention-worthy as someone commenting on the colour or your shoes. However, I've been waiting a very long time for someone to say that to me. Truth be told, no one has ever said anything positive about my organizational skills.
Just wanted to share the little thing that made my day. With a little luck, maybe this newfound tidiness will last. I'll keep you posted on the matter.
Last year was my actual first year of University but I butchered it so badly that I'm counting this as my official first. After taking two summer courses to catch up, I'm back at school, still dealing with compulsive ticks, mind floods and anxiety, but keeping it under wraps. This isn't a fresh start or a clean slate, it's me learning from my mistakes, remembering what they did to me and never repeating them again. Everyone's got issues, misfortunes and disabilities. When faced with these, you can do one of two things; feel sorry for yourself, back down, and use the bad hand you've been dealt as your crutch, or make the decision to move forward, and fight like hell to catch up to the track you were once on.
I think I'll go with the latter this year.
I also think this year is going to kick ass.
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