NNOS: Revived!

I confess, I logged back into this account with the intention of deleting this blog. However, upon arriving at the page, and looking at my posts, I was flooded with nostalgia and suddenly couldn't bear to part with this digital record of a part of my life.

What have I been doing since failing NaNoWriMo? Well, I've NOT failed at lots of other things. Like music. I played a few shows locally, made some cash and started working more at the cafe. So I'm making more money, doing what I love and improving life. I began reading again for fun. I finished reading The Happiness Project just days after I got it for Christmas and have since picked up where I left off on Tom Wolfe's bestseller, The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Speaking of Christmas, this year was one of the best in terms of actually spending time with family. Granted, I had to go days without seeing my husband and didn't visit any of his family, but it allowed me to really relax and enjoy my own family.

In closing, I think I might just stick around and resume to regular posting!

Epic Fail

For those who are unaware, this month is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. There are a number of copy-cat versions involving blogging, poetry and comic books but I am not concerned with those right now. The idea is that you write 50,000 words of fiction in one month. It's supposed to help get you writing and working past writer's block.

I fully intended on completing this challenge. However, when day one rolled around and I had no plot and only a few vague character outlines, I realized I was not likely to reach the word count. So I decided to modify the challenge for myself by making it about time. I decided that I would spend 1 hour each day writing. Alas, I haven't even been able to keep up with this demand. Not because I lack the time, but because I lack the will.

Four years of writing papers that you hate and researching things that mean very little to you really drains you of your drive and ambition. I used to be full of that stuff. Now I'm only full of that stuff when it comes to non-mental activities. I can go for walks, mindlessly web-surf or make cappuccinos for hours on end, but once I have to write something, my mind shuts off and decides that it hates me. The whole process just feels like a punishment.

I used to love writing, and to a certain extent, I still do. I think where I catch a snag is coming up with ideas. I've become conditioned to think that none of my ideas are good enough or planned out enough to go with. So I just sit there shooting down ideas until nothing is left.

Perhaps this is why I enjoy blogging. There's no fabrication of content because you're writing about your thoughts and experiences. It's all about describing what you know and feel. None of this tedious researching time periods and proper slang, no developing plot points or characters.You just say it like it is....and maybe fancy it up a bit.

Anyway...I suppose the point of all this is that I am publicly (sort of) confessing that I challenged myself and lost. I don't care to step up for this one. Which makes me a little sad, but I'm coming to terms with that.

Abandoned Houses

I came across this beautiful photography project online, 100 Abandoned Houses, looked outside and felt nostalgic. It was days exactly like this one when my friend and I would walk over to the abandoned house near our high school and spend our spares there. We'd invented identities, explored the decaying interior and imagined it was ours. Those were the days of adventure.

I hope you can sense the adventure in these pictures.

Technical question

If you wanted to write an autobiography, would you have to get permission from everyone you mention to put them in the book? I know you can alter names to get around that, but....sometimes people's names complete the person such that a different name would make them less interesting.

Thoughts? Comment?

Deep Thought of the Day

No one cares what you do. No one cares what you don't do. So, do what makes you happy because it's inconsequential to everyone but yourself.

Happy Atumnal Equinox!

Today at 9:04am was the autumnal equinox, but don't worry, you can celebrate it all day if you like. This day is all about balance, reflection and thankfulness. Apparently it is also traditional to eat or drink things that have been spiced with ginger.

I am thankful for a great many things. I've been fortunate enough to find my soul mate and to have the support of great friends and family. I was able to go to and graduate from university. And though it's not my ideal job, I do have a job which is a difficult thing to possess in this economy. I have my health, as do those around me. All in all, I'm doing pretty well.

But, for things to work toward, I would like to have a job that actually allows me to save money and thus pay off my loans. I also would like to push myself to take advantage of all that I can while I am young enough to enjoy it. Yes, I'm only 23, but I'm aware that it feels like I was 19 not long ago and thus I'll be in my late twenties in the blink of an eye. For some reason I feel a tremendous amount of pressure right now to make all the right moves and do all that I can before it's too late. I want to spend time with friends and have great adventures with them. I want to build fond memories. I want to be able to say with all honesty that I really lived my life.

What about you? What things are you thankful for and looking forward to?

Breaking News

I have just read something both incredibly mind-blowing and incredibly intuitive (as many mind-blowing things are) : Having strong relationships and friends that you can confide in can increase your life span more than quitting smoking!

So, just imagine the emphasis everyone puts of quitting smoking these days. These days, smoking is treated like a contagious disease. No one wants it near them and so many people judge smokers as harshly as any criminal. The primary complaint that people have is that it is wildly unhealthy, which it is, but so is having meaningless relationships, or no relationships.

It's easy to publicly acknowledge that someone smokes because you can't hide it very well and really, it's largely just affecting you (unless you're not a very considerate smoker who blows smoke right in people's faces). But even though you can identify (usually) when someone has no friends, we know instinctively that it is an awful fate that no one would wish upon another. It's so awful, we can't bear to acknowledge it publicly.

So, if you've been thinking that you'd like to see some positive change in your life, go make some friends. Say hi to a stranger, help someone out or call up an old acquaintance. It will serve you far better than just about anything else you could do for yourself.

Nuit Blanche : Guelph Style

Last night was a busy night for taxi drivers. Not only was it Orientation week, it was also the Jazz Festival AND Nuit Blanche and just as an added bonus, it was also a full moon! Downtown Guelph was packed with students, artists and patrons of the arts all taking in the vast array of entertainment.

There were free music shows all day and all night at the Jazz Festival Tent, as well as in various locations around downtown. There was funk in an alley, a brass band in the square and improvised jazz in City Hall. The art installations were also at least as good as anything I saw in Toronto's Nuit Blanche last year. A drum set being played by water dripping from IV bags, paper butterflies hanging in trees by the water's edge, and a video showing how children see the world accompanied by apples and penguin crackers for snacks. Even the gimmicky stuff was cool - an advice booth, an artist drawing portraits through verbal description alone, and fire-breathing buskers.

It was quite a spectacular night to behold and though I wasn't able to do or see everything, I was constantly entertained and amazed by the creativity coming from this great city. I greatly look forward to next year's round of installations and who knows, I might even join in!

Extremists

A close friend and I were discussing people from our past who had radically changed over the years since high school and this brought up a point that I'd like to share. Extremists are making good causes look ridiculous. This happens all the time, for every cause and it's annoying.

The particular evil that these people were combating was sexism. First off, sexism is pretty bad and has led to awful things, but there are worse evils. Like dying of starvation, or the ultimate sexist acts that make us wary of sexism to begin with. Second, there is certainly a scale of sexist offenses...rape being a pretty awful one and say 'mankind' a fairly mild one. Third, descriptions of factual observations are not sexist. Raising money for a women's shelter by selling kitchen products like aprons or oven mitts could be seen by some people to be sexist and may even contribute to the propagation of traditional gender roles...but it's raising money to help women. The overall good outweighs any possible bad. And let's take a look at the bad, shall we? No one is saying these aprons are to be used specifically by women. No one is saying that women must use aprons. But, ya know what? A lot of women enjoy cooking and many of them do so while wearing aprons. Not only that, but kitchen ware is a safe thing to sell because EVERYBODY EATS FOOD. And, might I add that I would vastly prefer buying an apron that I might actually use than one of those ugly little rubber bracelets all those charities are fond of these days.

Also, marketers do market research. It is also widely known that marketers do what they do, how they do it for one reason only and that is because it sells. "Green" products are everywhere these days because it sells. Food is marketed to women because women take up a large portion of habitual grocery shoppers. If you want to change who is targeted by certain products, change who buys them. Targeting a middle aged housewife for frozen dinners is actually progressive; it implies that they have better things to do than to sit around cooking.

I could go on about this, but I grow weary of this tired argument. Think before you complain about the state of the world. No, things aren't perfect, but a lot of people are trying really hard to improve things. Problem is, opinions differ as to what is an improvement. For some, it's all or nothing and for others, it's a slower progression of steady increments. Some people are realistic, and others are not. There must be some give and take, some compromise on some things in order for things to ultimately improve. To be honest, I think things have improved an awful lot, especially over the past century, so I'm pretty happy with things.

I Totally Cry Over Spilled Milk

I've noticed something about myself that I'm fairly certain is a rare trait for someone of my generation. I can't stand wasting anything. It's like I was born during the Great Depression. I once even convinced myself that it wasn't that gross to eat kiwis with the skins on, just so I wouldn't have to throw it away.

What really brought this to the forefront of my mind was this morning's milk escapade. So, here's the story. I've been limiting my dairy and grain intake and trying to increase the amount of meat and veggies I eat, which has actually helped me lose a wee bit of weight. I was trying it out because I had heard time and time again from different sources and for different reasons that dairy and grains aren't as good for you as the Canada Food Guide would have you believe and that filling up on proteins and veggies will basically perform every bodily miracle you can imagine. From beautiful skin, to long, glossy hair to weight loss and even improved mood and mental abilities. I figured it was worth a try at least. Anyway, this ties into the story because it led me to buy a carton of milk as opposed to bags of milk like I usually get.

For some reason I guess I figured it was no longer important to check expiry dates until after I get home and have opened my purchases. I discovered that the milk was to expire the very next day. But it wasn't a tiny carton, it was a big carton of milk. But there was no way I was wasting that $4 worth of milk. So, I made smoothies for my husband and I, which took up a fair bit of milk, but certainly not the whole thing. So I made sure that when I fixed our coffees, we used way more milk than usual. Still, there was a lot of milk left.

This morning was the day past the expiry date and in an act of desperation, I made myself a smoothie. Despite not being sure if it would make me sick or not, I drank that whole smoothie. It tasted weird. But damned if I was going to pour it down the drain. Not only would that waste the expired milk, but also the peach and the mango that I put in it. Then, despite being pretty sure it was expired, I poured a lot into my morning coffee to try to get as much use out of that milk as possible.

Even still, I have yet to throw out that milk.

Party Intervention

I've noticed something peculiar over the past few years. People in Guelph don't even consider going to a bar until 11pm. But what makes it even more peculiar is that buses stop running at 12:15am, and on Sunday they stop at about 6:30pm. Taxis are incredibly expensive. There's no way people aren't drinking, so how the hell are they getting home?

I was just at an open mic night (on a Sunday!) which was supposed to start at 10pm, but no one showed up until 11pm -- not even the host! As a result, my husband and I sat around drinking Cokes for an hour and then decided to go home because we were sick of waiting. Not cool.

Normally I wouldn't be able to go because a) I don't have a driver's license, b) my husband hates driving downtown and c) even if I can convince him to drive, he often works early in the morning and therefore wouldn't be up to staying up late. I don't live near anyone who I could carpool with and I don't feel comfortable walking in my neighbourhood alone that late at night (see previous posts about where I live).

Anyways, this is not the first time that there's been an event that takes place later than I can realistically stay. Oftentimes there will be an event that starts at 11pm and doesn't really get interesting until 1am, but, feeling a bit like Cinderella, I have to catch the midnight bus home and therefore end up missing all the good stuff.

I'm sick of it. So, I propose that people start their drinking earlier. Pre-drink with dinner and then head to the bar at 9:30-10ish so that by the time the last bus rolls around, everyone's too hammered and tired for anything interesting to happen anymore.

Sure this problem would also be fixed if the buses ran later on prime party nights, but I don't think that's necessarily the best course of action. A lot of people have to work in the morning and there's nothing worse than having to work a full shift on less than 3 hours sleep.

So let's start a night life revolution! Get out there and enjoying yourselves before you're too tired to stand! Get there early so you can dance longer! You'll be making life easier and more accessible to those who rely on public transit to get where they want to go. It's totally win-win.

Lunchables : Tuna Wraps

So, I decided to make a variant of the Salmon Wraps which turned out amazingly well. Open a can of tuna, mash it up with a fresh avocado. Add some lemon juice and freshly ground pepper. Then wrap it up in a lettuce leaf. Well, to be precise, that amount of tuna mash should be able to fill 3-4 lettuce leaves. Voila! A very healthy, low fat, blabbity-blah, mumbo-jumbo lunch. Enjoy!

Lunchables : Salmon Wraps

I think I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I've been trying to shift my dietary foci from being very dairy and grain based to being more veggie and meat based. The reason for this shift in thinking is that a blog that I follow, Dooce, started talking about the Paleo diet and I thought it had some merits. I think it's a bit extreme, but there are some things I felt could improve my diet.

Anyways, I had read somewhere in my researching that a good thing to do in place of bread or tortilla wraps was to wrap things in lettuce leaves instead. So, I decided to give it a try with salmon. The result was a VERY satisfying meal.

I took 1 can of salmon, mashed it up with some Miracle Whip (though I suspect it would be really good with avocado in place of Miracle Whip), then I distributed the salmon mash onto 4 Romaine lettuce leaves along the spines. Wrap and enjoy.

I particularly like having the crunchy lettuce with the salmon. I used to always add it to my salmon or tuna sandwiches to add a nice freshness to it all, but the bread always sat very heavy in my stomach. Without the bread, I just feel full and satisfied. It's a very nice feeling. I highly recommend it.

Anyways, that's my Friday Lunchable idea....we'll see if I can come up with another one for next Friday.

The Right Choice

You know how when you're growing up, you hear time and time again that "if it's the right choice, you'll know"? I don't believe that anymore. I've striven to make the right choices in my life and I'm pretty sure the average person would say I made the right choices, but you never know for sure.

I always expected this "knowing" to be a very real, very visceral feeling that was undeniable. Moreover, I expected I would get this feeling in all situations wherein I must make a choice, no matter how small. What shirt should I wear? Should I walk or take the bus? Do I want to eat an apple or an orange? I figured there was a right answer to everything (e.g. to breathe or not to breathe? right answer: breathe) and that somehow I would intrinsically know what the right answer was.

What I have found to be true is that when it's the wrong answer, or at least when it's the worst answer, you tend to know it but not until after you've done it. But some, in fact many, choices are irreversible. It cannot be undone. So really, the odds of getting things right on the first try are about as good as chance. Maybe a little better if you're particularly logical, however logic doesn't always help.

How do you know what the right thing to do is? How do you live your life to the fullest without suffering horrible consequences? Where is that fine line?

There is no line.

I've found that the world is dynamic and ever changing. I've also found that things tend to work themselves out. When we make mistakes, we suffer the consequences, but the consequences are not always all bad nor are they everlasting. One saying that does tend to ring true: This too shall pass.

So I suppose I'll say that whatever it is that you're yearning for in life, just go after it. See where it takes you. Just try not to be stupid about it.

Sick

I just started a new job a couple weeks ago, got booked for a show in two weeks and I'm sick. Fortunately it's not a head cold so there's no sore, runny nose or congestion. Up until two days ago it was just a sore throat and really wasn't bad. Then the coughing came, and it just would not go away. The worst part is that I'm not coughing up anything, it's a dry cough and it's set off whenever I breathe essentially.

I can put up with being sick, but being sick while having to work 8 hour days in the service industry sucks. My solution was to down as much cough syrup as I felt was safe. It certainly helped the coughing, but it made me very disoriented. Luckily I now have two days off, but if I'm not better by the time I go back I'll have a stretch of 5 consecutive work days. So...today I'm taking it easy. Eating healthy, drinking tea and resting up.

Hollerado

The most energetic show I experienced at Hillside was Hollerado. I was still on a high from seeing Mother Mother and I drifted into the Island stage tent in which an unimaginable amount of people packed themselves. They were packed in like sardines. People were standing on picnic tables which gave the illusion of a sea of people frozen in mid-wave. It was beautiful.

The music was energetic and the musicians were putting their all into it. It was a zillion degrees, everyone was sweating and dancing and having a great time. Massive glowing orbs bounced around the crowd and at one point a confetti canon was set off. It was magical. It helped that I was a bit tipsy as well....

At the show, they did a rehashing of Amy Winehouse's Rehab to commemorate her death, which was either the same day or day after it was announced. They also covered The Bird is the Word, which was surprisingly amazing.

The album Record in a Bag is a great party album, especially the song Juliette. I also really enjoy Americanarama, Fake Drugs and Hard Love. Solid band to listen to with an incredible vibe. Fantastic.

Paper Lions

Paper Lions played at the same time as Common Grackle at Hillside and therefore I didn't get to listen to as much as I would have liked of either. Since the show however, I have listened to Paper Lion's album, Trophies, and decided that I very much like it. There's quite a few good songs from that album. I suggest looking up Mr Strawberry Man and Travelling

They're pretty hipster, like many bands that were at Hillside with a strong rock influence. Electric guitar, drums, bass, vocals...pretty typical make-up for a rock band and it works quite well. Their songs are bouncy and have a habit of sticking in your head long after the last chord has been strummed.

Common Grackle

While I was lying in a tent with my friend at Hillside, we looked through the band guide and read aloud the more interesting descriptions. One of them was for a band called Common Grackle in which several somewhat conflicting genres were said to have been fused together to create their music. After reading it, we decided we had to check them out and see just how it all meshes together.

Unfortunately we didn't stay too long since there were several talked-about bands at that time to go see, but the few songs we listened to were pretty awesome. A little rockabilly, with a modern hipster twist and some questionable lyrics, strange I know, but the tunes were delightful and catchy. I since looked them up on Youtube and now I feel the need to learn to play At The Grindcore Show.

*For some reason the video won't cooperate*

Mother Mother

I missed a fair bit of Saturday at Hillside, but I made sure to come for Mother Mother. This is the band that I was absolutely the most excited to go see. I listened to their previous two albums quite a lot over the past year and couldn't wait to see how their live performance compared to their recorded music.

First off, if you haven't heard of Mother Mother, take a listen to (at least) their title tracks for the last two albums, Touch Up and O My Heart. Extremely catchy music that you just want to dance to. Honestly, I don't even care what it's all about or what the music is really saying. It's damn good music and I would listen to it even if it was telling me to hate the world and murder everyone. Which isn't at all what it's all about, but you get the point.

They just released their new album, Eureka, and I highly recommend it. I've been listening to it since Hillside, along with a few other albums, and so far I think my favourite song is My Baby Don't Dance, but all of the songs are awesome. This band just continues to go above and beyond my expectations.

They're very hipster and remind me a little of the B52s with the crazy female vocals and just the style of singing in general. However, it wasn't until I saw them live that I realized how phenomenal of a voice Jasmine Parkin has. Just incredible. The other thing that particularly impressed me was their outstanding showmanship. Many bands sound less good live because if you make a mistake, you can't erase it and do it over like you could in a recording studio. This is not the case with Mother Mother. They're a very tight band who know how to put on a good, flawless show. I didn't notice a single mistake, their sound levels were good and the transitions between songs were seamless. If you can get out to see one of their shows, I absolutely recommend that you go see them. I had high expectations for Mother Mother and they delivered!

Hillside

I will soon be posting about the different bands I saw at Hillside with a little more detail, but I wanted to write an overall post to prove that I didn't fall into a hole and get captured by gypsies.

First of all, I've got to say that volunteering is the way to go. You only pay $18, donate 12 hours of your time and in exchange you get full Hillside access, free food and a place to camp with other lovely volunteers. It's an incredible sense of community and fellowship while volunteering as well. You've all got the same bracelets and thus can easily recognize other volunteers, which greatly simplifies friend-making because you can always open with "So, what's your volunteer job?" and suddenly you're friends with William Lyon Mackenzie King's great great grandson and he's juggling an apple, a felafel and a cup for your amusement.

Also, the performers eat where you eat, and in a couple cases, camp where you camp. But no one goes all fan-crazed and stupid. Everyone remembers that musicians are people too, not superheros or rare magical creatures like we would all like to believe. You might get to talk to your favourite bands and realize just how much cooler and dynamic they are than you had initially thought.

Even if you're not volunteering though, there is just so much going on all at once and it's ALL amazing! There are cool workshops all day where you can meet fabulously talented people and have them teach you a new skill or introduce you to a new way of doing things. All the while, every stage has something cool going on. There are jam sessions between bands from all genres and you're guaranteed to hear something you've never heard before. There was a person who's instrument was a chain that they hit with a hammer, rhythmically.

Beyond the incredible workshops and mind-blowing music, there's a wide array of artists and vendors selling things that you'd never dreamed existed and all the food is great. But more than anything else, the best part of Hillside is the people. Everyone is happy and open to making friends. You feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself and far more meaningful. Everyone feels like a cousin or a neighbour and, in some cases, brothers and sisters.

I can't wait to write more about the bands that really struck a chord with me. There were a bunch!