From the bottom of my heart

I missed his actual birthday like an idiot so I tried to make up for it with texts and 2 hours on this.

And I gave Sahil your number. Happy belated birthday J <3

Skating at Nathan Philips Square

J and I recently met up with some more high school friends over browsing a used bookstore (BMV), outdoor skating (Nathan Philips Square), and having dinner with even more friends at a sushi restaurant (Masa Sushi). It was wonderful.

I hadn't skated in about 10 years - the last time I remember skating was back in the fourth grade, when I used to live in Peterborough. It was shaky with a lot of screaming at first, but I got better. I'm still not very confident in my stopping though.


I was nervous about leaving my bag in a small pile of our stuff on the bench unattended, since it was a public outdoor space. But what should I be worried about in a Canadian city when we're all angels and super nice to each other? ... -_-"

When we arrived at 4pm

When we were leaving at 5:30

All kidding aside, once I got over this paranoia (I kind of had to) it was completely fine - nothing of ours got stolen. Even after a couple of paranoid glimpses of strangers using our bench to put on their skates and more strangers just standing around it, everything was fine. I can't guarantee that every time because there are always crazy rude people out there, but it's still a relatively respectful place. There is a change-room at the rink, although I can't say if there are methods of more secure storage there.

Skating in the evening is beautiful with all of the lights. It's a great place to be with your favourite people.

Nathan Philips Square rents skates for $10/2 hours and a piece of photo ID (and less for children under 12.. I think it was $8?)
Skating is free and they close this season on March 10, 2013.

Things that I think about

Phone Ownership Life-cycle:
1. Holy crap that new phone looks so cool!
2. I can't believe I finally got the phone! What does this button do!? Awesome!
3. How do I change this little interface thing? Oh I can't? That's okay, still a good phone though.
4. God damn it this thing is bothering me so much. Why can't I freaking change it?
5. This phone sucks and I want to throw it at a wall. I hate it with all my passion and I never want to see it again.
6. Go to step 1.


My Hair
See, my hairstyle is an odd and complicated matter. On one hand, long hair is very easy to deal with and all I have to do is give it a little shake and it's presentable. Short hair is a much harder affair. Since short hair needs to strict and disciplined at all times, I'm constantly making adjustments and fixing it at odd parts of the day. But it looks better. Hair is a dilemma that I don't think I can solve any time soon. Also short hairstyles lasts much shorter than long hairstyles.

Time is an illusion

Lunch-time doubly so. So everyone experiences time differently depending on how long it takes for your brain to process things and how big your head is. Oh you thought I was joking? Nope, not joking. If you snapped your fingers right next to one of your ears, it would make sense that as the sound travels across your head into the other ear, it would take time. So why is it that you hear one distinct snap instead of two snaps in super quick succession? Your brain does that for you. If it hears a sound, it gives a little bit of buffer space afterwards. We're talking nanoseconds here but if it hears something that it was expecting, it combines it together and guesses what it should be. This happened back when video and audio were transmitted separately on televisions. People would need to sync up the audio to the video but it was noticed that there was about a tiny margin where the brain would get the audio signal or video signal and buffer for a little bit and hear or see something that it expects and matches the two together. So even if the audio was off by a little bit, your brain would adjust accordingly and you'd never notice it. Interesting.

The Bony Bangers

Lou: "What should I make for Richard?" (Richard is my stuffed dog)
Me: "A drawing."
Lou: "Okay. I'll draw a doggy biscuit. Singing. With a band group."

J moved today.

... and I am indeed one sad potato.

Sometimes catching up with old friends is great, but sometimes I wish I didn't.

I was writing a bunch of things down lately because there has been a lot of human interaction lately, although most of it just made me want to crawl into a hole and never speak to anyone again. On the other hand, this has started to stimulate and inspire some story ideas for the Nanowrimo project I always say I'll participate in and always fail to do.

Recently I was talking with a friend I hadn't seen in a while. We were high school friends, and as such friends that have moved on to separate university paths, the question of our future aspirations was brought up. I talked about mine, and the purpose of those aspirations was questioned by her. Now she's had a fair bit of drama in her high school career, she's a bit of a shit disturber herself, although nice and friendly as she is. So I should've expected it. I felt slightly insulted at her uprooting the purpose of what I wanted to do in the future, and found myself trying to bring up backup ideas and plans that I also had been thinking about. I was running away.

Hard hitting questions to Santa from an 8 year old.

1. Are you a Christian?
2. How many old people or young dressed up as you?
3. There are many shows and movies that's come up with Santa. Are you in it?
4. If not, do you like it?
5. Did you compose "jingle bells" and "we wish you a merry Christmas"?
6. If you ride on a sleigh, is Rudolph real?
7. How do you stay old for so old?
8. How many elves do you have?
9. How did you train your reindeer?
10. WHEN WERE YOU BORN?!

Slowly putting myself back on YouTube...

I'm in the process of putting myself back on YouTube. I had been making videos as a campus eAmbassador throughout my first year of uni, and despite the eAmbassadoring being my job this year I just couldn't get it together to make more videos. 5 days into my winter break and (and a full semester after my first video this year) I just sat in front of my camera to do something about my problem. Here's what happened when I got distracted with the features on the webcam software.

I'm just going to start back at square one. All I have in terms of camera equipment is a flip cam and a monster tripod. At the moment I have no video editing software (although J is going to help me with that) and I also lack the personality that could potentially make up for all of that.

It is a bit different for me because people (mostly high school students) are clicking on my videos not for an entertainment value but to hear and see things about campus life. I just ended up comparing myself to professional YouTubers and focused on the aesthetics of creating content rather than focusing on just getting content about the campus out there. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track and post for videos as an eAmbassador because really, it is a lot easier to be an eAmbassador YouTuber with a pretty much guaranteed audience than having the pressures of being a YouTuber to attract an audience with my own wit, skill, or talent.

Everyone should be more like Timmy

I'm brilliant... at slacking.

I'm still a student, and I'm fucking brilliant at slacking off.

I literally cannot bring myself to do anything until the weight of a hippopotamus is on me.

I try to motivate myself to work in small steps by making little incentives for completing each step. But I'm too ballsy and tell myself to go the fuck away and indulge in these incentives until the night before what's due.

Even when I can't finish an assignment on time and it's going to be late, I find myself detaching myself from the situation so that I cannot feel the gravity of the situation and even reach the point where I imagine myself not handing in the assignment.

I'm brilliant, I'm a student, but I'm a fucking dumbass too.

Mystery of the Summer

"Holmes, put on your coat and hat, we're going outside for some fresh air" I demanded to the silhouette of the detective framed by the light of the fireplace.

"This room is dreadfully smokey and you haven't taken one step outside for weeks" Our doorbell of 55 Baker Street hadn't been disturbed for almost three weeks. I took it as a blessing of two folds. First, no new cases meant that I could finally catch a break from the breakneck pace of my eccentric partner and manage to write these memoirs and case papers that have been piling up recently. Secondly, no new cases meant that all was well in the world of lawfulness and justice. Holmes felt differently than I and he had caught a case of crushing boredom.

"You really should read today's paper Watson," Holmes said finally after an hour of silently staring at the roaring fireplace.

"Page 7, lower left corner"

J is an awesome possum

and I will be one sad potato when he moves.

It's impossible to concentrate in my Phonetics class... so I people creep.

Things I notice while sitting at the very back of the class (yes I'm one of those people).

Evelyn's nails.

Jill's hat.

Mikhaela's back.

In other news, J and I have added our Instagram badges to our blog so you can check out the sources of our inspiration. Enjoy ^^

Hey J, Sherlock was a fake.

Elliott for FHP

Joe for FHP

I think it's safe to say that's a pretty accurate representation of how he would react. For Human Peoples is having a sale today for Cyber Monday on all of their shirts and posters :)

Today's YouTube playlist: Geeking out on education and stuff

Despite my having an essay to write and two assessments to study for, I decided it would be best for me to try and catch up on what I've been missing on YouTube. To my delight, some of my favourite YouTubers in terms of thoughts and discussion on changing the world had uploaded some new videos that I found relevant to me.

I also discovered today (as my brother scoffed at me for being so slow to figure out) that you can pair your phone with your computer so that you can control the YouTube videos you play on your computer screen with your phone. Your phone becomes your remote control for your computer :O

For some CGP Grey, Crash Course, and owlssayhooot, read on.

Yenny log: Photography

I want a photographer boyfriend. Or I want to be a photographer. I just want some photography in my life.

I'm not sure exactly what it is but photography just has this appeal; it seems to create this real sense of intimacy. (Get over it I'm not trying to sexualize anything) (Nor is this a disguised form of venting loneliness. I hope)

The obvious choice, answer, response to this declaration would probably be a roll of eyes and "go buy yourself a camera then."

Oh, I did. Expecting a DSLR are you? NO.

My new pet: the CMYK clone of the Lomography Diana F+ collection.

Despite some other good reasons for me to purchase a DSLR or even SLR camera, I am a poor university student. I just don't have enough to invest in something to foster a hobby yet. Maybe next year ^^

But why an analog camera instead of a digital camera? It was cheaper (although I'm pretty sure that having to buy film and getting it processed will eventually add up to quite a bit of money) but at the same time I really like the creation process without the digital part of it. The photos are created in that moment, the filters, lenses, lighting affects are chosen in that moment you are trying to capture. It's so raw, I find it thrilling.

I spent $50 on film.....

I love Instagram, but I got bored of it pretty quick. I loved being able to play around with the filters to improve the highlights and shadows on my photos taken from my cruddy camera phone (first generation of Samsung galaxy) but at the same time it just seemed so empty. Maybe I just didn't want a point and shoot relationship.

I plan on documenting my progress and adventures with my Diana F+ through a series on this blog. I just bought all the film and batteries I need for the camera and just need to go take some pictures. Join me, I'm so freaking excited!

How to Draw a Cat

People that have the magical power to suck you into a conversation about yourself.

1. People that say "how are you" like "how Are you?..." You know who you are and it's incredibly therapeutic. I will do a linguistic analysis on it one day.

2. Korean hairdressers. They don't know how to shut up. And if you don't answer their questions then it's a sign of disrespect which is never a good thing because they're attached to the sharp scissors flying around your head.

3. Old men on the bus with Dumbledore beards, a bamboo stick cane and a huge Roots backpack. You'd think they'd be the one with incredible stories to tell but no, they manage to get you to pull out your art portfolio of your drawings in plastic sleeves and go over all of the details and get you to tell the story behind each one. I actually think the artist missed his stop.

Jellyfish and Squirrels

I once found a dead jellyfish in the ocean with my brother.
We dug out a hole in the sand and filled it with water.
We spent the next two hours trying to revive it.
We kept the water fresh and flowing.
We gave it pieces of food.
And plenty of sunlight.
It stayed dead.
Zuzu, the squirrel.
Was a baby squirrel.
It's mother was killed by a cat.
My brother brought him home in his shoe.
He was weak and he hadn't even opened his eyes.
We nursed him back to health to try and make the night.
We were going to call animal control to save his life.
The offices were closed and so we waited.
We researched and gave him food.
We kept him warm and cozy.
He looked very healthy.
He died in the morn.
Ups and downs.

Only in LA

Only in LA

she whizzed by

in an ugly tan sedan

insides exploding with hello kitty pink

tapping on her new iphone

into the row of palm trees


(written summer 2009, on my first and so far only trip to LA)

English profs are always daring you to recognize and identify the sexual connotions in literature.

"A burlesque performance is not necessarily about how much you reveal, it's about the play.

I don't know how I know this... maybe its my past life coming through."

- my English Literature Professor

Go stand on a highway

One of the amazing people I work with is Kaela, the photographer/blogger at Bitches of Kensington.

She runs the blog with roommate/best friend/actress Allie, and they post some awesome stuff from their photo shoot projects and great snap shots from moments of everyday life.

They also post music like this. It's exactly how I've been feeling these past couple of days.


Go. check them out.