Hopelessly Romantic

Me: "Hello, my name is Alexa and I have been a hopeless romantic for 22 years."

At least that's how I assume some sort of support group would start off. 

Let me explain.

Today I watched Justin Timberlake's video for his new song Mirrors. (see below)

For the first time I actually really listened to the lyrics as well, and while JT is no legendary poet I found myself really touched by the premise of the song: To find your other half in someone else. The video is also quite nice. Aside from some spectacular videography (in my opinion) the video focuses on one couple in what seems to be flashbacks. I'll admit this one took me a while to figure out. 

The video is actually inspired by and dedicated to JT's grandparents who were soul-mates and were married for over 60 years until his grandfather's passing.

It sparked a bit of a love song chain for me on YouTube which is never a road to anywhere good. I watched Pink's Try, Rihanna's new one called Stay, and of course, some Savage Garden. But it just got me thinking about that kind of love you see in movies, read about in books, hear about in museums while you're looking at a painting. That kind of love where, it may not be easy, but it's always worth it because without it you would have no purpose.

I know that sounds dramatic but that's where this all connects, I got to wondering, do you have to be a hopeless romantic to believe that kind of love is out there? I mean, I feel like we see it in music, or hear stories, or see couples that are the living embodiment of this but still so many people don't believe.

I have to admit, I believe in that all-consuming, suffocating yet freeing, can't-live-without-you kinda love. I think that when you're truly meant to, you'll find it if you want it. Or it will find you. I guess that means I believe in fate, but hey, why not. And I don't think that makes me naive at all. I think if you're going to believe in something, why not love? I found a beautiful definition that explains what it means to be a hopeless romantic in much better terms than I can muster right now, this subject always leaves me scatterbrained.

Hopeless romantics believe in love and fairy tales. They dream of roses and candlelight, walking on the beach at sunset, and dancing in the rain. They know that somewhere out there is a knight in shining armour ready to carry them off, or a beautiful princess waiting to be carried off into the sunset. Hopeless romantics believe in true love, and the eternal bliss that comes from being united with one's soul-mate is what they crave most.

Hopeless romantics recognize in themselves the ability to love infinitely deeply, and they ache to be loved with the same fervor in return. When a hopeless romantic has someone to lavish their affection on, lavish they do. Hopeless romantics sometimes write love letters full of poetic phrases and send flowers, but mostly they try to find a thousand thoughtful little ways to show their love. They make romance into an art form.

Hopeless romantics wear rose-colored glasses. In their eagerness to find "the one," a hopeless romantic may either be extraordinarily picky or not discerning enough. Hopeless non-romantics think that hopeless romantics are delusional and too intense. Other than the seeming futility in the search for a soulmate, nothing frustrates a hopeless romantic more than a significant other who does not understand the hopeless romantic temperament.

Sometimes, in this cynical world, it seems like the population of hopeless romantics is declining. One has only to look at the number of movies and songs about love that are currently popular to prove otherwise. It may also seem that there are many more hopelessly romantic women than romantic men. This isn't surprising in a culture where a man might get snapped at for opening the door for a woman. Men and women often have different ways of expressing their emotions, and the number of hopelessly romantic men is probably much higher than anyone could tell simply by observation.

Hopeless romantics are the idealists, the sentimental dreamers, the imaginative, and the fanciful. They give the world its once-upon-a-times and happily-ever-afters. Hopeless romantics may have their feet on the ground, but their souls fly somewhere over the rainbow.

I think that's just lovely.
I know that this romanticism leaks into other areas of my life, but I wouldn't consider myself a "dreamer" type. I just feel like certain parts of your life stand out as the moments where you really truly lived (like driving down a highway with your best friends and your favourite song on with the windows down and you just realize if you could freeze time like that forever, you would) and I think that a hopeless romantic searches for that feeling in their love life as opposed to something that just feels nice, or comfortable.

A hopeless romantic would see no choice between a dysfunctional relationship with their soul-mate or a simpler relationship with someone who is just very compatible with them. They'll stick with the person "meant for them" regardless of what that means. (Just think Noah and Allie from the Notebook, or Tristan and Isolde.)

I'm personally still working on my on-again/off-again relationship with myself and am nowhere near ready to consider someone my other half, but I have unwavering faith that I will one day. Lucky for that person I picked out our wedding song 16 years ago. Probably before I knew people had wedding songs...



Most romantic song on the face of the planet and my all-time favourite love song without a doubt.

Then again maybe I'm just PMSing and this will be an Alanis Morissette tribute tomorrow.

Kisses.
xx

A Book Lover's Explanation

Today I'm going to do my best to explain what it is about books that I think makes people like me complete literary junkies.

Where to start...

How I fell in love with books

I started reading at a pretty young age, I know I always loved having stories read to me, my mom happens to be a complete lover of books herself. We took many a trip to the library across from my house when I was very little, I went to readings and spent hours in the section just for little kids. I can recall more hours spent with books than a TV when I was four or five.

So as you can see, I was doomed.

I remember my first "chapter book". It was in grade one and our teacher Mrs. Hamelin, directed me over to the big white, spinning, wire-rack shelf where we kept the big kid books. It was there I found "Ramona Quimby, Age 8". Oh Ramona, the times we've shared... But in all honesty, after I read Ramona there was no going back; I was a chapter book addict.

Why I fell in love with books

What is it exactly that had me hooked? It's like this drug for the imagination. Once I was introduced to Ramona, I read through the first real character description I'd ever seen. It was difficult to understand at first, but I remember figuring out how it worked: The book would tell me what everything looked like, and then bit by bit, piece by piece, I could build this imaginary world, with these fictional characters, and then play the story out in my own mind. It's like a screenplay that's been written for you, but then you get to pick the cast and direct the movie so everything is exactly as you imagine it. It's entirely up to your own interpretation. You get to truly exercise your imagination to its limits; construct entire towns, buildings, people.. inside your head.

It took me a couple weeks to finish, and man, did I feel a sense of accomplishment. I won't lie, there may have been a little bit of a superiority complex that went along with that. It's like you've gained access into this new world and no one knows about it but you. It was something that attracted me to other chapter book seekers as that year went on, kids I knew were experiencing the same new thrill I was.
I realized quickly that there was no going back to those picture books with their simple sentences. It was all chapter books from there on out. But it wasn't that simple, I couldn't just pick up any old book, I wanted to revisit the same world I had in my head, Ramona's world.

The dangers of the series

Over the years I did re-enter the world of Ramona Quimby, out of curiosity, even though I'd outgrown her, I wanted to check up on her, see where she was after all this time. There we more book series; Baby-Sitters Little Sister, graduating to The Baby-Sitters Club, The Jewel Kingdom, The Bailey School Kids. The list goes on. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that we indulge in so many worlds as we get older but there's something you have to realize. For the most part as a book lover, once you enter a world or characters, that world never leaves you. Once you enter the mind of a character, you know that person's every thought, you begin to know them in an impossible way. You share a bond, with a completely fictional character and when that series ends you're left feeling a little abandoned. It's like your friend moves away and you are never to speak to each other again. God bless writers like Tamora Pierce who tell stories about different generations of people living in the same worlds over and over again so we can feel satisfied with knowing what happened to our favourite heroines (in this case always female, sorry boys). But that's not always the case...

Learning to deal with death (of a fictional character) *Spoiler Alert*

Sometimes, stories don't have happy endings. Sometimes, unfortunately, for the sake of the story, people have to die. While I can appreciate the need to not always have a Disney movie ending... it always sucks when someone dies. Sirius Black, we hardly knew ye. Katniss, doll, your life is just not fair. And Jodi Picoult you have got to be f*cking kidding me, YOU KILL EVERYONE, AND IT'S ALWAYS A SURPRISE! And don't think I've forgotten about you Sparks, you sonofabitch. There's something so ridiculously painful about investing your time and hope and emotions in a character. Making their life, world, friends, dreams all real. And then having that person die. And fully feeling the effect that it has not only on you, (sometimes feeling as though you've been killed off, sometimes just because of the bond you've formed to this character), but also on the other characters in the story. I'll admit, I've spent hours sobbing over fictional characters, multiple times. Some stories will forever leave an imprint on my mind because of the emotional journey I had to go through with a character only to have tragedy ultimately consume their life. Seriously, as a serious reader, we take this stuff hard.

Like, tub of ice cream lights off crying to sad music hard.

Learning to deal with book movies.

... we will never learn to accept book movies.
Rule 1: The book is always better (99.9% of the time)
Rule 2: No. Stop making book movies.
Rule 3: I can't even get into this topic, just, anger.


I think that everyone can enjoy reading if they find a subject they really enjoy. While I enjoy a good mind-bender, honestly I'll always love reading a good teen drama about crushes and high school. There's no wrong way to read, I think it's the key to opening up your mind and learning to understand people by stepping into their world and their shoes. Reading is just a form of magic to me and I don't think I'll ever stop looking for a new great series, or entrancing novel. Yeah, I guess you could say maybe I've made this all seem a bit intense... but I was also essentially paralyzed with depression for three days after finishing The Hunger Games, and let me tell you, that shit was intense. (Thanks Laura)

Now go read a book.
I'm going to go come up with a pen name.


P.S. Fact: If you didn't effing sob when Dobby died, you have no soul.

13 Going On ...13?

First, allow me to preface this post by saying I SWEAR I tried to come up with a better, classier, more adult name for this blog, but after 3 years of failing miserably I'm just going to admit defeat. I'm tired and uninspired. ...And all the good names are taken (especially anything with the word "musings" ugh).

Anywhoo. Moving along.

So tonight I was rifling through the Mt. Everest of paper stacks I keep in my room containing all of the decently preserved schoolwork I've done over the years and I came across a few things that kind of made me stop and think.


1. Old Homework

Now when one comes across one's old projects, assignments, annoying math exercises, etc., it's only natural to kinda check 'em out and give 'em a read. You know, grade yourself 5+ years after the fact. If you're anything like me, this may come with the realization that you were a hell of a lot smarter at 17 than you are almost four years into adulthood.

Brutal.

I have French notes that I can barely even comprehend now. I have 5 verb tenses listed but can barely remember which passé composé verbs use être and which ones use avoir. I'm proud that I even remember which verbs are the helper verbs quite frankly. Let's not even get into trying to understand my calculus notes, you've got to be kidding me. It looks like I've just written and scrambled up the English and Greek alphabets with a couple random squiggles and the word 'sin' everywhere. Why do we always invert things? And then there's the chemistry homework. Dear god, kill it with fire.

But really, all of these things that were second nature to me then are like complete gibberish now. Long division?? No bueno, friends. But when I stop to think about it, I can't think of what I've replaced this knowledge with... it's just disappeared. I feel like I had way more knowledge stored at a younger age than now, despite currently being in post-secondary school. Or maybe it's just that we are simply incapable of seeing our own level of intelligence until we are reflecting on it in later years? I don't know. Sometimes I feel like university isn't giving me as much as I got in high school. I'll have to get back to you on this one...

...in a couple years when I'm crying over my B.A. telling myself it makes me feel "less stupider".


2. Sentimental Stuff

Oh god I'm the freaking worst for getting attached to things. I still have pictures drawn for me by my friend Tanya when we were 13, most of which feature Michael Jackson, the girl from the ring and/or fat stick figures with Revels.

I also, sadly, have a diorama I made in grade two, or maybe three? Any and all school pictures I got from my friends (don't worry, I won't post them). Beanie babies, class notes between friends, everything.

My mom says I'm kind of a hoarder, I disagree, I just value these things probably more than all of the expensive nice looking things.



I'm not entirely sure what my intention was with this post, maybe just sharing my opinion on the value of reflecting every once in a while. You've done a lot of stuff in your lifetime.. good, bad and yes, sometimes ugly... but at the end of the day sometimes it's worth stopping to take a look at some of the parts that make up the rich tapestry that is your own personal history. Seriously though, clean out your closet sometime, you'll understand.

For the NON-morning folk

beep...beep...beep...Beeep...Beeep...Beeep...BEEEP...BEEEP...BEEEPBEEPBEEP

*SLAM*

snooooze.


Good Morning Sunshine!
Sound familiar?

If it does, well, then I suppose I'm not alone when I say...

Eff you mornings, eff you alarm clock, eff you stupid beeping sound I hear in my dreams, eff you 9 minute snooze setting that feels more like 3 minutes, eff you school, eff you work, eff you responsibilities, eff you bus schedule, eff you traffic jams, eff you hard to find parking spaces, eff you line up at Tim's, eff you all.
But especially you beeping sound.

Confession: I am NOT a morning person. ...surpriiise.

I have to do a myriad of things to ensure that when my mother%&*#ing alarm clock goes off in the morning, I actually drag my sorry behind out of bed. In case you haven't already figured out by my previous posts, I like lists. So, I'm going to make you all a list of things you can do to *try* to make getting up in the morning a little easier.

Preparation: Try to get things together the night before. As sad as it sounds, remember how much easier it was to get ready in the morning when your mom picked your outfit out for you? You just woke up and threw it on! Easy peeasy. Yeah, well, it still works! I can't explain how nice it is not to have to search for that stupid sweater I had imagined wearing with 3 minutes left before I have to catch my bus. Stress central.
Also, if you get your books, work stuff, keys and all that together, it takes a lot of running around out of your morning, and you'll be surprised how much time it will save you, therefore making getting out of bed less dreadful, and much easier to convince yourself to do.

Routine: Having a morning routine can take the guesswork out of your mornings. Plus, if there's one thing we know people are good at, it's forming habits. My friend told me that when her alarm clock goes off in the morning, she turns it off, then she lies back down for 60 seconds to let herself wake up and to make a list in her head of the things she has to do that morning. Then she gets up, turns on her morning playlist and proceeds to get ready! Making a habit that you can maintain for getting up can help you find something that works for you, like, actually.

Music: What's your favourite pick-me-up song RIGHT now? The one that makes you feel like you're on cloud nine, that makes you just wanna dance? Here's an idea, put it on in the morning! Sometimes it gives you the extra little bounce to make a bad morning good, or to get you to roll out of bed. Make a morning playlist that helps you start your day off on the right foot, sometimes morning talk shows on the radio just don't do the trick.

Caffeine: But not any caffeine, get a hot coffee or a hot cup of tea. Especially in those frigid fricking cold Winter months, having a hot beverage can help give you that nice inner warmth you need to push yourself out the door and into the snow... or just stop you from climbing right back under the comforter on your bed.

Goals: When I say goals I don't mean like... I want to lose 5 pounds this week. I mean like, find a light at the end of your tunnel, give yourself something to wake up in the morning and be excited about. It's amazing how fast you can jump out of bed on Christmas morning, because you're EXCITED! So give yourself some incentive! Like, "ou tonight after work is the finale of Big Brother!!!" or "Oh baby, I have a dinner and yoga date tonight with the bff" anything like that! Make everyday have a Friday quality as opposed to a Monday quality.

for the hopeless...
Now, some of you may be like me, where just managing to get out of bed and not sleep through that alarm is challenging enough. Here's my advice:

one: Go to bed earlier, you know you're staying up too late, seriously, just go to sleep. You know you'll end up regretting not doing so in the morning.

two: Move your alarm clock. Are you so used to the placement of your alarm clock that you can hit snooze or turn it off without even waking up? Move it! Put it somewhere across the room so that you HAVE to get up to turn it off. And I'm telling you, when that damned beeping starts in the morning, no matter how tired you are, you'll get up to turn it off. I promise.

three: Coffee, coffee, coffee. I started drinking coffee just recently, because even if you drink decaf, your mind is telling you you're getting an energy boost! Placebo effect for the win. First thing in the a.m., still in your pjs, make coffee.

four: Wear warm pajamas! If your room is ice cold like mine in the winter, it can be easier to get out of bed if it doesn't feel like stepping into a freezer. Keep a small fleece blanket nearby or a warm sweater, and slippers too! Make that bed to bathroom transition as easy as possible.

Now I'm going to tryyy to take my own advice.
Bon nuit my friends.
Sleep tight.
Don't let the bed bug infestation get the best of you.


Oh yeah, and here's my current morning jam. Enjoy.
P.S. I don't mind if you steal it.



ugh. so good.

5 Bar Phrases: Translated

Let me paint you a picture...

You're on the dance floor, it's girls' night out, you looove this Ke$ha song, life's great. Then some dude in a douchey T-shirt comes sauntering up behind you. You feel hands snake around your midsection and this creep's nasty moist beer breath on your ear.

"Hey baby, wanna dance"

And all you can think is "ew ew ew ew ew ewww ewww ewww EWWWWW"

But you're polite, so you gently pull yourself out of the grasp of this randoo and you turn to him and say oh so kindly with a half smile on your face, "Sorry, I have a boyfriend."

But this guy ain't takin' no for an answer.
"Where is he?" "What's his name" "Who cares, it's just a dance"
And then comes the hands again.

At that point, it's just bewildering. What is it that guys DON'T understand?
Ahhhhh yes, that's right. Subtlety.

Well, I am going to help you all out by decoding 5 very VERY simple dance floor phrases.
This way we all understand eachother.
Girls, please take note. We all need to speak the same language in there.



5. "I have a boyfriend"

Translation: "While I may or may not actually have a boyfriend, it really doesn't matter because I find you unattractive and would prefer if you didn't rub your junk on my backside for the next three-and-a-half minutes before I feel compelled to signal to my friend and excuse myself to go to the "bathroom". At this point I will go, check my hair and outfit, hide out for the next 45 seconds, then proceed to stealthily lap the bar to make sure it is safe to return to my friends; after which I will spend the rest of the night using my peripheral vision to avoid running into you again."


4. "Outside?"

Translation: "I feel like I'm getting a litttttle bit on the sweaty side, it's hot in here, and I didn't spend 2 hours making my hair look absolutely PERFECT just to sweat out the hairspray. Also, this pink dress shows sweatmarks so I need to get outside air here to avoid disaster."


3. *screams* "OH MY GAWWDD" *hugs*

Translation: "Wow ________, it sure is great bumping into you randomly at this bar. I haven't seen you in at LEAST a week and I'm quite excited as I am particularily fond of you. This has made me very happy. While I am maybe a little embarrassed about our squealing exhibition, It is cancelled out by the fact that I can't help but hope that other people have noticed how many friends I have at this bar and how totally popular I am.


2."I'll be right back"

Translation: "I WILL BE RIGHT BACK! And I expect you to be here in this exact spot on the floor. If you move, it's gonna take me 20 minutes to find your ninja ass and during that time they may play all the good songs and I don't wanna miss them cause I'm searching all over for YOU.
SO STAY PUT!"



1. "Bathroom!"/"Bathroom?"/"Bathroom."

! Translation: "SAVE ME!"
? Translation: "I think you need to be saved, but I'm unsure, so if you say no then I'll leave you be."
. Translation: "We. need. to. get. the. eff. out. of. here. ...NOW."



There you have it.
This is of course not always the case, and of course it's just from my experience.
If only you knew what kind of experiences I've had.
*shudders*

Unfortunately I feel like I've described the experience a bit too accurately.
Soo, I'm gonna go shower away the filth now.



Oh, one more thing. This is a perfect opportunity for some Ricky J.
Then again, when isn't?

5 Ways Cosmo Makes Us Crazy.

If you're wondering why sometimes girls are bat shit crazy, you need look no further than where we get our advice. Cosmo. Or as I'm now calling it, the root of all paranoia.

Here's a list of 5 things Cosmo is telling us that contribute to making girls the irritable, weird, paranoid, psychotic, obsessive, Facebook-stalky creatures that we are.


5. "Eye Contact"

Or less specifically, guys' body language.

From a sooper young age girls are being conditioned to read and react to every tiny little thing guys are doing. Including every time they lift their eyebrows, tilt their heads, how they stand, how long it takes them to respond, what they say, how they say it, which direction his palms are facing, whether his pupils are dilated, etc...

Real Cosmo article excerpt:

"These 10 signals will let you know when a guy's just not feeling it...

8. He keeps breaking eye contact with you to look at someone or something else.

9. He doesn't look at you straight on — instead, it's from the side."

Or how about from the "Body Language Decoder"

"Although you may think he's smitten, he could be playing you. Holding intense eye contact for more than five seconds doesn't happen naturally, so he may be using the look as a seduction technique to get you into bed."

Next time a guy looks me in the eyes for 5.7 seconds, I'm gonna scream rape.

4. Change your wardrobe or die alone

Cosmo is the kind of magazine that likes to keep up to date on trends, but this article was so backwards. All it did was tell me what a panel/survey/random sampling (whaaaatever) of guys think about certain trends and assumed that would dictate whether or not I wore it.

Trends included:

tattoos
jeggings
uggs
too much makeup (duh, hence the 'too much' part")
legwarmers
neon
and...
pink

The colour pink was the second most hated thing. WTF guys, what did pink ever do to you?

3. Looking good is not enough

You have to look the right KIND of good.

According to Cosmo, there's "guy hot" and "girl hot"
Are you wearing blue eyeshadow? Gross, that's girl hot, you should've smokey-eyed that shit.
Is your hair curled? Gross, that's girl hot, you should've done beachy waves.

At this point I think I'm just gonna give up.

2. The "Does He Like Me" Quiz

And girls, you've ALL done it. It started when you picked up that first "Girls' Life" magazine in grade five.
And Cosmo still has it if you want it. Which of course you do, because with all the signs you've been taking note of, it's time for some REAL answers.

"Are you good girl hot or bad girl hot?"
"Do you know if he likes you?"
"Are you (insert adjective here) enough?"
"How do you know when it's over?"
"Is he a player?"

Fail? nah, just retake it till you get the answers you want.

And laaaaast but not least....

1. HE IS JUDGING YOU

Everything you wear, say, do, think. Cosmo wants you to know that every inch of your body and mind is being scrutinized at all times.

Found this one, I tend to get a bad case of the giggles, apparently I'm SOL:

"Your Laugh
Guys pride themselves on being funny, so they look for girls who can appreciate their sense of humor. However, there’s such a thing as laughing too much."

And they don't even mean like rolling around on the floor stupid "I didn't even say anything" laughter. They mean like if I laugh at one thing he doesn't think is funny, I'm a freak. ooookay.

You guys should actually read this next article for yourselves:

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/dating-advice/what-guys-notice?click=cos_new

The top ten things guys notice includes:

how thick your hair is 

the pitch of your voice 

and 

the size of your group

Maybe it's just me, but isn't Cosmo asking a lot of us?
At this point I'm tempted to just stay home and bitch online.
wait...

365 days.

Press play, this song 100% applies here.




It's funny how much can change in a year isn't it?

This time last year I was getting ready to start my second and (hopefully) final year of Creative Communications. I was blissfully unemployed, spending all my time with friends I'd been missing, getting ready for what would be my last season of competitive volleyball, writing a script I would eventually begin to hate, and working out religiously.

Not a bad start right?
I certainly didn't think so.
But then again, I was also wonderfully ignorant of all the "eventful" things that lay in wait that fall.

(I should probably warn you, this is starting to feel like a diary entry post. Apologies)

You don't feel anything coming right before things falls apart.
There's no sense of impending doom. No blatant warning signs of things to come.
You don't see omens, or have weird foreshadow-y conversations with people.
And you don't know that when you see someone for the last time, it will be the last time.

A year ago today I was visiting my hardworking friends on the Projector staff.
I was telling crazy stories about the ridiculous month I'd had and those of you who know me will probably groan and roll your eyes because you've heard the stories a TRILLION times. (sorry)

School starts. You make new friends. Realize you missed some friends a lot more than you thought. And for me, I was full swing busy again. 8 hours at school everyday, (more if you were in media production like some of us *sob*) plus practices and homework and the harmless seeming IPP.

September was a medley of things for me personally. A crazy weird "high school reunion" (coughcoughblackpathpartycoughcough) that took me back to being 16.  Realizing, I was glad I wasn't 16 anymore. Getting hurt by friends (and "friends"), dealing with it, and trying to focus on other things.
And here I was thinking that was complicated.

October proved me wrong.
October. Fucking sucked.

If you've ever lost anyone I don't need to explain to you the strangeness of it all.

It's like playing peek-a-boo when you're little, but one time you open your eyes and the other person is just

gone.


Watching your best friends suffer through that, is really, really hard.
It's even worse when you don't know what to say.
...
And then it happens again.
And it's un-fucking-believable.

I won't get into it. Last fall, was not fun.

But life goes on. And while some relationships in your life become SO important, others just kinda fall by the wayside. And of course that "life is short" perspective doesn't last forever. And other personal drama comes back again, and again, and again, and AGAIN.

I learned first hand how much fun the domino effect can be.

Then you realize time has passed. And it's March.
And you wake up from that winter long slumber of academic hell, just in time for the grand finale of course.

Then it's over. April. May, Summer.

You reset. refresh. reflect. re-evaluate.

I would give anything to go back a year and relive today.
But you couldn't pay me all the money in the world to relive the past 365 of them.

Things are different.
No more extracurricular activities. People have moved away.
I wonder if that really great conversation I had with that person is an omen.
I take last looks before I walk away from a friend, just in case.
We don't get drunk and run around the streets.. as often.
I'm working all the time, and I wonder if I'll ever have time for all the people I miss.

At the same time, a year ago feels like yesterday.
It's almost fall again.
I'm getting ready for school again.
Have stupid personal drama that makes me feel like the sky is falling, again.
Work out religiously again. (at least that's what I tell myself)
And I have crazy stories to tell again.

It's funny how much stays the same after a year isn't it?

Spring Cleaning.

So, Winter's kind of, sort of, maybe, close to over.. and it's that time of year again.

You know, the time when we all emerge from our Winter hide outs and look around only to find a huge mess of the things we've neglected for the past four, five, or six months.

This year my blog is one of those things.

SO I've given it a make-over, a big fat face lift, and have renewed my vows to the blog post gods.

I solemnly swear to pay more attention to my blog, and try my hardest to post things of interest at what can be considered some sort of consistency.

Hopefully more soon.
AND stay tuned for a better blog title.
MY goodness, let's hope.

baha,
from me.

Broadcast Journalism?

Well it's supposed to be!
But the only thing truly newsworthy about this video is that it's awesome.
Sorry Steve.

Hump De Bump by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Our video featuring the oh soo talented CreComm band.
Shot by myself (of course) and Adam Smitzniuk.
Enjoy!


Broadcast J music video from Alexa Lacroix on Vimeo.

We've got to save Ginny Weasley from the Basilisk

There are some things that words just can't describe.
They give you a feeling, a sort of warm tingly, well, warmth in your heart.
Harry and the Potters is my warm heart.


Seriously. I discovered for myself HATP around 3 years ago as a nerdy, nerdy, again, nerdy teen trying to find myself in lame music and various trends. I'll have to admit, if I had one regret it's that I didn't try out WRock, aka Wizard Rock.


Groups such as:


Draco and the Malfoys
The Whomping Willows
Ministry of Magic
Roonil Wazlib
The Neville Longbottom Experience
Ginny & the Heartbreakers
Potterwatch
and
Lord Voldi and the Darkmarks


are only a small taste of what the WRock world has to offer us, and what they've got to offer is something quite unique. 


although filled with plenty of incredibly nerdy Harry Potter references, this stuff is actually quite enjoyable for the light Harry Potter fan as well.


In closing. Here is a gift from me to you. Trust me when I say. This is good stuff.

When One Takes A Picture Of Oneself

Is there like a picture taking etiquette?

If I happened to have a set of rules, I think this would be mine, although I'm probably guilty of breaking at least one of these rules.

Here we goo:

Do NOT take a picture of your eyeball and use it as a profile picture.

Do NOT try to CONTORT your body to take a photo from a certain angle and fit your whole self into that photo, it's not pretty.

TRY not to give us a clear shot down the cleav girls, a little bit is whatever, do your thing, but really? I don't want to see your stomach through the top of your shirt.

PLEASE if you're taking some form of mirror photo, try to keep the camera out of the shot. This is only forgivable in group photos.

WEAR PANTS.

Try not to get your whole ARM in the photo, we understand that you are holding the camera, mainly because your elbow takes up 2/3 of this picture.

...WEAR PANTS

Do not CRY, as you take photos of yourself.

Check to make sure that whatever's in the background isn't completely embarrassing or something of the sort.

and again, I would like to stress, a long plaid shirt that barely covers your behind is not a dress. WEAR PANTS.

signed, me.

Facebook vs Twitter

I don't know if that's even a fair comparison.

I mean there's a HUGE difference between the two.

FACEBOOK

An online network of QUADRILLIONS of people with profiles, photo albums, chat, written notes, wall to write on, message sending capabilities, fan pages, groups, events, and thousands of applications to customize your Facebook experience to they way YOU want it.

Facebook is a place where you can find almost everyone under the age of 21 these days. This is how the youth of today talk to eachother, make friends, keep friends, stay in touch and just generally entertain themselves.

My mom, however, uses Facebook to get back in touch with her old grammar school friends who still live in London, and my aunts use it to say happy birthday to me when they can't make it in town.

Facebook connects people in a way that feels so personal you don't realize the distances that sometimes seperate them.

TWITTER

Twitter is a long list of updates from a list of people you should choose to follow. People can choose to share links and links to pictures.
the max length of each "tweet" is only 140 characters.

Now all of this closely resembles what is called the status update on Facebook.

Twitter is also largely used by people to follow people like celebrities and news sources, which to me seems to be the only real use for Twitter, as a news source.

I personally have found that the only people who enjoy Twitter are people with iPhones or some sort of way to stay permanently in contact with Twitter, or else, what's the point?

I think in this round of Facebook v. Twitter, Facebook wins.
Until Twitter has the amount of users that Facebook has amassed, it really won't be competition.

We Interrupt This Broadcast

To inform you of just what is required to write a radio drama.


Hours and hours of thinking.


Writing a radio drama isn't as simple as you might think. You have to come up with a story and characters that are interesting enough to entertain without visuals, that are going to be complex enough to come across many different problems episode after episode and not become repetitive. Not every story translates into a workable radio play. 


When writing a character, you have to remember that no one can see what your character looks like, walks like, or what their physical mannerisms are. You have to convey all of this audibly. If your character walks slowly, you can show this by giving them a slow, dragging low voice. If they walk rapidly, you can create a higher-pitched more scattered speech pattern. Basically, with creating a character for the radio, you really exaggerate characteristics to create a feelings that can be conveyed audibly using sound effects and dialogue.


When coming up with a story, you have to leave room for progression, change, and new problems. At the same time, your story has to have elements of consistency, from familiar characters to settings and the speed at which time passes.


There are plenty of parts involved in writing a drama that are only increased in difficulty with the radio drama, but the work is well worth it and a radio drama can last anywhere from a ten minute segment to a series that will last for ages.


over and out

TGIF finally makes sense.

Another long week for the CreComms.
LOONG week.
I mean at this point I don't have anything interesting to post on here..
I've got bloggersblock.
yep.
I got a disease, the only cure..

well maybe some sleep.

I'd like to add that the mac and cheese has not been up to par lately in the crafé. not, up to par.
sub par.
below my expectations.

I think I'm slowly losing my mind.
What if I turn into  one of those crazy old people who drink like an inch of scotch like constantly. The glass never seems to empty.
And well, I guess that's usually men.. but ignore that for now. just imagine.
...
Man, I can't wait to meet me in fifteen years. What a piece of work.
This is starting to turn into one of those useless diary blogs...
damn it.
owell, maybe that will at least be interesting.
I'll call it...

The Deterioration of a Glorious Mind.

or something like that.

ehn. I'm out of steam. I need CARBS and SLEEP.
to hell with you fitness!
it's too cold out there to take extra warmth for granted.

Auf Wiedersen.. :)

Speaking of Musicals...

Here's one that I did one year with a couple friends.
Musicals are fantastic, can you blame us for wanting to be a part of the magic?

Enter The Chamber At Your Own Risk

Friday night, there's a slight chill outside as sixty-something CreComm students enter the Rachel Browne Theatre for a night of entertainment. Little did they know what they were in for.

This year, the In The Chamber series put out a show called Last Men. The show consisted of two pieces, the first, called The Last Man in Krakendorf, and the second, The Last Man in Puntarenas. Both pieces were one man performances, centered around men having an identity crisis.

The show begins with a peculiar and seemingly completely unrelated scene as we witness a couple in bed fighting over the covers which leads into one of the most awkward handjob scenes I could fathom. After about a minute and a half the "woman" exits the room and we see actor Steven Ratzlaff fighting a disembodied voice as he screams from the bed that he still has chaos in him.

The first play starred Gordon Tanner as a frustrated businessman as he works through confused feelings talking to a video camera. Tanner's character is going to send this video to his boss if he doesn't get arrested first and so the entire time he battles between not bothering to finish recording, and finishing in time.

Tanner delivers a passionate speech about the treatment of hogs on hog farms and about the business system in general, presenting us with the idea of a new and old system. Both systems consisted of sections, the old system; Who Fucked Up? You Fucked Up. You're Fired. and the new system consisted mainly of we all fucked up together, why did we all fuck up together, and what did you do to cause us all to fuck up together.

Another idea that Tanner offers us is one that his character claims to be the drive behind human error, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Both funny points and well explained, however, after this point in the play Tanner slowly lost my attention.
In a well acted and interesting performance Tanner's energy doesn't let down once, but one can only take so much. The entire play was a monologue and after a while begins to sound preachy. I think it definitely could've been a little bit shorter and it would've been more successful.

The second performance starred Steven Ratzlaff, and to be totally honest that's probably the most I can tell you. Ratzlaff as well delivers a well acted monologue.. that seems to never end. He gets into terms far too complicated to continue to hold the attention of the average audience member. Ratzlaff is giving a speech to collegues at a sort of dinner party and can't seem to stay on topic or within the boundaries of typical politeness.

Ratzlaff talks about the loss of his son, as well as his wife leaving him and their relationship's deterioration. He talks, well, a lot really, and by the end of it all I wasn't really sure what exactly to take away from what I'd seen.

Both actors did a superb job performing, and their energy was fantastic, you could feel their words as they spoke, however, their words began to lose effect as we drew closer to an hour in each monologue. I wasn't a huge fan of the production, but I would have to say I would see those guys act in another play anyday.

So I'm Predictable.

But I can't help but be excited for the upcoming Sex and the City sequel.

Especially as I'm sitting watching the original SATC movie you can't help but love the four girls in their never ending quest for love.

April Fools' from Taco Bell

After spending some time researching what one would call the pseudo-event, I have realized that I don't know what to believe anymore.

A pseudo-event in a nutshell is an event or stunt put on for the sole purpose of promoting something or someone.

I would have to say that from what I've seen so far in this field, Taco Bell seems to know what to do to get the public's eyes on them.

On April 1st, 1996, Taco Bell placed full page ads in 6 major American newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.

The ad read:

Taco Bell Buys The Liberty Bell


In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country’s most historic treasures. It will now be called the “Taco Liberty Bell” and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country’s debt.
 
In a press release, Taco Bell claimed that the bell would be dividing its time between Philadelphia and the Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine. Taco Bell compared their purchase to adoption of highways by corporations. Taco Bell's arguement was that they were “going one step further by purchasing one of the country’s greatest historic treasures.” The company continued, “Taco Bell’s heritage and imagery have revolved around the symbolism of the bell. Now we’ve got the crown jewel of bells.”
 
Later that day after being "hammered" by phone calls, the company issued a second press release admitting to the huge hoax and instead saying that they were donating 50,000 dollars towards the upkeep of the bell. According to Taco Bell’s marketing department, their sales increased by over half-a-million dollars during the week of April 1st, compared to the week before.
 
Success? I think so.
 
This isn't the only prank Taco bell has pulled.
 

 
You can read about this prank that Taco Bell pulled in 2001 here.
 
Crafty buggers.

"Let It Out Wet Head."

I don't know what to tell you, bad days happen, sometimes often.
I broke another mirror this week, I think I almost sat down right there and cried.

But there's something about a bad day that makes you remember to appreciate the good days.
So maybe bad days aren't all that bad? I think they're a necessary evil, and maybe that might make it a little easier to get through them.



he hits home.

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

Robin layed an egg, batmobile lost a wheel and joker took ballet, HEY!

I won't bother to give you the second verse, seeing as it's just plain vulgar, and it hasn't been considered cute for me to say certain things since around twelve years ago.

This, my friends is a list of the things I was most looking forward to this winter break:

1) Learning how to sleep again without waking up periodically to make sure that I don't have homework I've forgotten about, and that I haven't over slept.

2)Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Squeakquel! How exciting! everyone's favourite animated rodents hit the big screen again for what sure to be another gem of a movie! plus I get to put in my Alvin christmas CD which has mysteriously gone missing.

3) Road trips with good friends. It's been a while since there's been spare time, I for one intend to catch up with friends and spend some time just being stupid. It's refreshing some times.

4) Food! Already I've managed to destroy batch number one of shortbread cookies of the season. I urge you all, bake, fry, boil, grill, anything!!! Just take advantage of the holiday excuse and eat.


To be quite honest, these are the things that turned my break into a holiday. 'Tis the season.

Time to work back into the mature world.