The 'C' In Broken

Teri was typing conversations for me on MSN. I was wrapping presents and she was on my laptop when people started talking to me over Messenger. I asked her what they were saying and she typed my responses. I soon realized that people would know that while it was my words it was probably not me typing, as everything would have puncuation, capitals, and be spelled correctly. I started telling her to purposally put errors in the messages so it looked more authentic. At one point I asked her to type a sentance that had the word 'broken' in it and I said "Now go back and take the 'c' out of 'broken' so that it's spelled wrong," and she responded with, "Chris, it doesn't have a 'c'."

Night Devine

Christmas Day is drawing to a close. It was a really nice day. We went in the early evening to go and see the Simcoe Light Display. I think it is officially called 'Simcoe Panorama.' A long time ago, whenever we celebrated Christmas in London at my Grandmothers house we would go to Victoria Park to see the lights and stuff there. It was always really fun as a kid. Big industrial paper-mache reindeer, wisemen, and such. There are even pictures of my and Mike as babies bundled up in a sled and being pulled around the displays in Victoria Park. The Simcoe Display is obviously closer to home as it is only a half hour drive away. Not ever on Christmas Day but sometimes during the season we would go and visit it. Sometimes we went with our family friends, The Smiths. We have also seen the Christmas Lights at Niagara Falls but they are more something to drive around looking at than walk. Also I think a few years we saw something in Orangeville where my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins live. It was cool to do a light display thing again on actual Christmas, like we used to in London.

Time Off

I have just under two whole weeks off. (I'm going back to Paris to spend them with my family.) No school! No work! I'm super excited. It is time for a little R&R, and I don't mean rap and reggae.

And Obsession

Ok, it is official. Jerrica and I are obsessed with The Lonely Island again. We never stopped liking them, but meeting The Dudes in New York City really upped the love. Also they just came out with another great music video that compares to the awesomeness that is 'Dick in a Box', 'Lazy Sunday', and all the classics from their old website. This song is on repeat in our apartment pretty much constantly now. (Look at me embedding YouTube videos!! Also customized to be pink.)

Photoshop

Steph loaded Photoshop onto The LittlePet (my laptop) and taught me the very basics. I really miss Kodax Easy Share, which is a photo editing program that I swear is designed for 4 year olds. I got it when I got my first digital camera. After that first one was stolen at a party and I got my current one I still used Easy Share. Right now, all I do to my photos is rotate them, crop them, take the red eye out, and sometimes turn them into black and white. On rare occasions I might mess with the lightness or saturation, but not often. My current camera is a Canon so it came with PictureProject, which I hate as a editing program. I use it to get the photos off my camera and that is it. Despite wishing Photoshop was easier, I am really excited to learn how to use its more advanced features. I have a Media Photography class coming up next semester and I hope I learn something about it there. Once I get really good I may post some Before and After shots.

New York City Highlights

I still haven't had a chance to go through my many pictures from New York but I thought I would share some thoughts on the trip:
-Jerrica and I can only recognize three buildings: Rockefeller, Chrysler, and Empire State
-free New York bagels for breakfast at the hostel really hits the spot in the morning
-the Staten Island Ferry is a free way to see the Statue of Liberty and New York skyline
-at night people play Beatles music at the Imagine Circle in Strawberry Fields
-Trump Tower is huge, he is definitely compensating for something
-the Village is so clean is actually smells like bleach
-standing outside all night in the cold is worth it for SNL tickets
-Central Park is truly a haven
-the frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity is really as good as all the rave reviews say, and we stayed at the table used in the movie
-I love art deco architecture
-saw a real New York rat, both a live one and a dead one
-Brooklyn is a ways from the island of Manhattan
-waiting to see if our #16 and #17 stand-by tickets were good enough to get into the dress rehearsal of SNL was the longest 30 minutes of my life
-it was really good to have stayed with Matt for the first few days, nice to have a familiar face in a big city
-from Top Of The Rock the city is beautiful and romantic at night but more impressive during the day
-you have to pay to get on most ice rinks and no one owns skates, they pretty much all rent them
-there was a creepy man at the When Harry Met Sally table in the famous Katz's Deli
-American money looks weird
-we met Andy, Jorma, and Akiva from The Lonely Island!!!!
-the Chrysler building is my favorite and Jerrica got me a model of it for Christmas
-4:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon is worst time period for trying to take pictures
-got to go through the Lincoln Tunnel
-if you go to Canal St. to haggle for a purse be sure to take small bills as it makes the entire process easier
-the Statue of Liberty is really small
-when I told someone that I lived in the capital of Canada and they asked me if Ontario was the capital
-saw the Friends apartment building
-Ground Zero isn't very moving but the memorial to the servicemen that is beside it is heartbreaking
-the Christmas window displays are breathtaking, super intricate and move
-I forgot how many toll booth there are in the States
-spent so much time at Rockefeller Centre we started calling it "our 'hood"
-train had to stop in Albany because of trees down on the tracks and we took a bus the rest of the way
-Matt may have made fun of us for our pop culture location visits but he has been to a lot of the Seinfeld ones
-the southern Financial District isn't very recognizable and reminds me a little bit of Toronto
-truly "the city that never sleeps" and we spent our days from 2:00 in the afternoon to usually about 4:00 in the morning
-I look super awkward when posing for pictures with celebrities
-10 hours is a long time on a train
-Jerrica and I split a potato skins appetizer at T.G.I.Fridays as a meal and couldn't finish it
-skated on Wollman Rink in Central Park and the rink at Rockefeller Centre
-you have to be very very rich to live in Manhattan
-there was so much to see and we barely scratched the surface, I can't wait to go back and visit again

Back From The NYC

I just got in after after a whirlwind trip to New York City with Jerrica. We left our apartment at 2am Friday and didn't get to New York until 11:30pm that night. We then promptly spent all night on the street, waiting in line for Saturday Night Live tickets. Things are pretty interesting at 4am on New York City sidewalk outside NBC Studios at Rockefeller Centre and the trip just grew in intensity from there. I will be posting some pictures and highlights later, as well as putting all pictures with commentary on Facebook. Stay Tuned!

Homonyms

--Antonyms are word pairs with opposite meanings. They can be words differentiated by a prefix (original/unoriginal, respect/disrespect) or can comprise two completely different words (old/young, big/small).
--Synonyms are words that have the same or nearly the same meaning. Some words have more than one group of synonyms. For example: big - large(extensive, huge, substantial), grown-up (adult, elder, grown).
--Homophones are groups of words that are pronounced the same way but which differ in meaning or spelling or both. For example: bare/bear,to/too/two.
--Homographs are groups of words that are spelt the same way but which have different meanings. They may or may not be pronounced differently.For example: sow (female pig) and sow (plant seeds), nail (as in finger nail) and nail (used with a hammer).

NHL Coalition

I really like the idea of a Liberal-NDP coalition in government. I have been following it on the news (CBC's website actually, along with the daily bus paper The Metro.) What I really love though is satire. The following was sent to me in an office forward and I think it is hilarious!! (Go Leafs!)

Canada was stunned Monday when it was announced that The Stanley Cup will be awarded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, possibly as early as December 6th. The cup will be stripped from the 2008 playoff champions the Detroit Red Wings and be awarded to the Leafs, who didn't even make the playoffs. How is this possible, Canadians ask? Well, the Leafs have formed a coalition with eastern conference semifinalists the Montreal Canadians, and conference quarter finalists the Ottawa Senators, now outnumbering the Red Wings. According to current Leaf coach Ron Wilson "the Red Wings have lost the confidence of the league and should hand the cup over immediately to our coalition". The new head coach of the coalition team has begun his PR campaign (with photo ops) to bring Canadians on side. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is cutting short a European trip to try to resolve the unprecedented hockey crisis that could force a second playoff series, or see an opposing team coalition take the cup.

A Christmas Tradition

Anna and I took each other to see The Nutcracker tonight for Christmas. I hadn't seen it in a really long time but am very familiar with the ballet and story. I had seen it performed in Oakville by a friends dance company a few times and done at The Sanderson Centre in Brantford as well, probably by The National Ballet Company. I even danced in it one year, I was a little clown that runs out of the skirt. I have also read children's books of the story and seen cartoon versions on TV. Up until this show they had all been very consistent. The choreography was often different but the story always the same. The version we saw tonight was a little different than what I'm used to, which turns out to be the 1954 Balanchine ballet. The Winnipeg National Ballet Company used instead the American Ballet Theatre version by Baryshnikov which premiered in 1976. Baryshnikov omits the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Prince Orgeat, and gives their dances to Clara and the Nutcracker/Prince; so that in his version, the two do not merely sit out most of the entire second act as they do in other productions (notably Balanchine's). In addition, although the Mother Ginger and her Clowns music is heard, we never see Mother Ginger herself. The one Anna always saw in Halifax actually had Clara as an orphan at a boarding school and a friendly janitor as the Nutcracker Prince. It just goes to show that holiday classics can contain a myriad of versions and interpretations making it impossible to determine what is traditional. The production we saw tonight was incredible. It was a fantastic performance.

Bring It All Back

Around this time last year I talked about bringing back the word 'league' as a measurement and in February of this year I mentioned wanting to start using long speeches to curse people instead of swearing. Jerrica has been joining me as I stalk Shakespeare lately and we just came back from a production of Twelfth Night done at a local community centre. I could watch Shakespearean plays every day, I just love them so much. Jer and I have been talking for a while about using the phrase 'go to' more and have starting saying it to each other when trying to remind of the need to study. "Want to do such and such" gets responded with "No, we/you should really study, go to." Now, I also want to use the word 'knave' to mean a person who is a jerk. The actual definition is as follows:
knave -noun
1. an unprincipled, untrustworthy, or dishonest person
2. a Jack, in a deck of cards
3. a male servant, a man of humble position
I think it is best used with a good adjective in front of it like, "That dirty knave" or "He was such a foolish knave" or "She is an arrant knave" but then I guess we would would have to bring 'arrant' back too, which means unmitigated or notorious. Maybe we should just bring it all back.

NeoPets

I have finished my exams. Besides work and short essay due Monday I am looking at a nice long month of free time. I'm going to go to New York City, study for the LSATs, do some Christmas shopping, visit with family and friends, relax and party, but mainly play alot of guilt free NeoPets. I have had a NeoPet account since first year, when I notice Steph and Em playing and wanted to join. It is free, and designed for 12 year old girls. (I figure at least I have the gender right.) Basically you have these little virtual pets and you play games to get points which you can use to feed them and get them presents. You can even get a pet for your pet, known as a petpet. I always 'rediscover' the site right around exams, this time thanks to Erin, and it tends to provide a lot of distraction from studying. I didn't have the luxury of any wiggle room for procrastination this time so tried to avoid playing as much as possible. But now, I'm going to NeoAway to my hearts content. Feel free to join me (my user name is Chrisbinx) we can be NeoFriends.

I'm Overheard

Because Taylor, Kristen, and Heather have been involved with The Charlatan, I am occasionally in it. I also occasionally write for it but here I'm talking about when I, myself, am mentioned. Sometimes one of them needs a quote for an article but a few times I have appeared anonymously in the Overheard At Carleton section. This is a fairly new part of the school paper and contains submitted sections of conversations that have been overheard on campus. I always know when they have submitted something I have said because they tell me. "Oh, your in Overheard this week, remember when you said such and such." Usually something sex related and funny said at a party. Well unbeknowest to me, I was submitted by someone in my English class.

The student in the following is me:
Prof: And so they had Napoleon but they couldn’t bring him to England because of all these laws and they couldn’t bring him to France because the government didn’t really exist, so they put him in a ship in the harbour. . .
Student: Didn’t they put him in a bucket?
Prof: A bucket? This has been the weirdest class!

I got totally confused. I remember some kind of war hero being put in a pickle or rum or wine barrel to transport home for burial instead being thrown into the see. I thought it was Napoleon, it definitely wasn't. It looked really stupid and super random. So I showed up in The Charlatan a week or so later.

Not An Overload

I thought that perhaps my insane exam schedule was an overload. Even if it was I was still going to power through it since doing deferred exams later on really sucks. Out of curiosity I checked today to see if it was and turns out it actually isn't. Carleton defines an exam overload as:
3 or more examinations scheduled in 3 consecutive periods,
4 or more examinations scheduled in 5 consecutive periods,
5 or more examinations scheduled in 7 consecutive periods.
Well it turns out that I am 3 in 5 which is considered acceptable so it isn't an overload situation. I'm actually glad because if it was I would be really really tempted right now to bump one off until later since I'm super stressed about all of them. Each one is really demanding in its own way and while I have been fairly good about keeping up with my classes I don't feel prepared at all. It is all happening so fast but it will all be over soon.

Stupid Carleton

Seeing as this debacle attracted national media attention, I'm sure this is old news for everyone. I just hadn't really wrapped my head around how I felt about it. The Carleton University Student Association (CUSA) had voted to cancel our annual Shinerama campaign for cystic fibrosis, saying the disease mostly affects “white people, and primarily men,” and isn’t “diverse” enough for Carleton's continued support. This was badly researched and factually incorrect information. It obviously led to an outcry from students, alumni, and the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, all of which was reported by the local and national media. Carleton is not looking very good in the public eye right now. CUSA has since overturned the motion and decided to continue running Shinerama but some are calling for the member who brought the idea forward and the CUSA president to be impeached. I have always been a little weary of CUSA, coming into Carleton through engineering 'CUSA Sucks' is ingrained into my brain. Now, in light of recent events, I really think that they do 'suck' so impeach away.