Three sheets to the wind and you

So, Toronto just had an earthquake - the most minor earthquake ever. My desk shook EVER-so-slightly. However, it was supposedly worse in the States and the Pentagon and the White House were evacuated. Crazy nature! Twitter went CRAZY, of course, and the funny part was that even Torontonians went crazy tweeting about the quake. Imagine if we had a real disaster!

Remember the idea of 'six degrees of separation' - that we are all hypothetically connected to eachother by 6 friendship links. Well, Facebook and Yahoo are actually trying to prove/disprove this. Stanley Milgram did it in the 60's and now Yahoo and FB are tackling the concept.

I don't doubt that for the most part, we really are connected by that few links. Especially here in Toronto! You can go participate in the experiment yourself here.

Dancing invisible

Reading Week! My favourite week of the (school) year. I'm actually reading for the first part of this week, but I'm off to Montreal Thursday for a weekend away. I'm looking forward to lots of delicious bagels, awesome espresso and BYOB restaurants. I love Montreal! I will take lots of photos to post on here.

In the meantime, here are some of the links that have kept me occupied today:

For an interesting visualization of the decline of Detroit, visit this link via the Guardian.

And hey, this Egyptian man named his first child Facebook!

I'm surprised that the Egyptian government allowed this name to slip by, but I guess they have more important things to think about.

Today's pretty musical moment:

The triumphant return...

I'm back! It's mere months until my university graduation, and I am so behind in what's happening online, but that will all change soon. I'm looking forward to making this blog awesome again.

Stay tuned... But until then, here is what is making me happy these days:

Food moment:

I made myself some delicious Armenian barley soup - barley, red onions, yogurt, mint, parsley and green onions. Yum!

Consumer moment:

Gotham city on a ring??? Gotham city on a ring!

More at Noir Jewelry's official website here.

Inspiration moment:

EF, the language company, commissioned Albin Holmqvist to do a series of videos about learning a language. Each one features a different city, Paris, Barcelona, Tokyo, and London, and has different typography that complements the city scenes. As I am about to embark on learning the French language, I found the Paris one particularly inspirational. Regardless, they are all gorgeous little ode to linguistics.

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

'I want to cook this' moment:

Sweet potato crackers

Dog moment:

Hi friends,

sorry to have vanished for such a long period! I have been technology free during the past month and few weeks since I have moved back to Toronto. I've missed my online blogs, my facebook friends and the like, but in the absence of the online world, one is forced to live in the REAL ONE.

I'm happy to say that moving home to Toronto is undoubtedly the best decision I have made all year. While I miss a few people and a few things about the city I left behind, they cannot compare to how much I missed Toronto while absent.

I have a new apartment which came equipped with a ton of fleas that I had to (and still am trying to) kill. Luckily the cheap rent and awesome location make up for the unwanted company. I have a new job that pays less and gives me less hours, but somehow keeps me saner, and is in a much more convenient location that my last (which required a ferry across the ocean).

Best of all is how great it feels to have my friends back in my life. Gorgeous scenery has NOTHING on the sight of your best friends. Sentimental, but true.

And so, I have traded green grass for the dark alley goodness of the Green Room; I have traded the ocean for a polluted lake; my window now gives me a view of cobwebs and brick, instead of trees and the mountains; and I am not complaining.... in the slightest.

Soon I will even have the internet back... and I will get back to updating this thing more often. How is everyone's summer????

all the long gone darlings

Alright, time for some rambling and you will have to excuse me for revealing too much or too little and for being too sentimental and for going on... and on.... and on. It's been a long time coming!

So....

I moved to Vancouver because I wanted a change. I saw myself on a continuum of bad habits with no foreseeable way of changing my life, without extricating myself from the situation. So I moved. I wanted a complete severance from everything that I thought was wrong with my life in Toronto, and everything that I felt I was letting interfere with my personal growth.

Moving across the country, changing jobs and going back to school certainly meant a life change. Suddenly my nights of partying turned into late nights of studying; my Sunday morning brunches turned into early morning shifts at the coffee shop giving other people the coffee that I myself desired; my 9-5 office job turned into a 7-11(am-pm) shift at school; and my amazing and attentive friends disappeared and I was left to try to find a new group with which to align myself. For awhile I felt like I was changing in good ways. I started appreciating nature again, I took yoga classes, I stopped drinking and spending every night at the bar and I even found new friends who brought out different parts of my personality.

Then the winter came, and with it, 8 months of rain and grey. My body freaked out. I lost motivation to do anything. I hated having to study for school. Unless people called me, I made no effort to have a social life. Going to the gym and exercising was too much work for me. All I wanted to do was read, watch movies and sleep. I had no interest in anything or anyone.

I'm studying psychology in school and I always feel like I understand people fairly well, but yet, I have never really dealt with depression myself. I sympathize with my friends who suffer from it, but there is always a part of me that also feels like they could snap out of it if they just tried; if they just made a conscious effort. It's all psychological after all.

But that is scary part of depression, you cannot just "snap out of it". The further you slip into it, the less and less you want to get out of it. I began to feel comfortable in the nothingness; in the empty days. And as I began to adjust, I also began to resent Vancouver more and more. I could still see the beauty of the city, but I hated it for it. The beauty felt so vacuous and empty. Like staring at a famous painting and appreciating what other people see in it, but not wanting it yourself. Or feeling like you can only stare at the painting for so long, because all it really is, is escapism.

My whole time in Vancouver was escapism. Instead of trying to make changes within myself, I figured that I could make outer changes and the inner changes would eventually come. Really, I just ran away from my life. Because I was bored and not moving forward and everyone else around me was.

It's been 10 months since I left Toronto. I completed first year University with a good GPA that I am proud of. For that reason, I would not say that my time in Vancouver has been a failure, nor do I regret having come here. Maybe in order to transition into a new part of my life, I had to change my surroundings. What hindered me here though, was that I never severed my connections with my life in Toronto. I always wanted to keep my life there alive, but somehow also live here and really, you cannot be two places at once. It's exhausting and ineffective.

I've realised that I don't need pretty views and nature and wildlife to be happy; I need my friends and I need to feel like myself. I have to stop looking to my environment to change me and to better me, I can do it myself. And I don't feel like I can do it here in Vancouver. The constant grey makes it hard to look at the positives, and the absence of my closest friends makes it even more difficult. So, although I will miss the beaches and the mountains and the new people that I have met, I want to be back in Toronto where I feel most at home.

I made it almost a year, and people here think that I am crazy for leaving before the proper "summer" begins (I am still doubtful that it exists!), I am moving back to Toronto on June 24th. Two weeks from now. Maybe I am crazy for not giving the city a real chance, but somehow over the course of 10 months, absence made me grow SO much fonder of Toronto, and I cannot imagine being away for the rest of the summer as well.

Bring on the excessive humidity and the frizzy hair and sleepless nights.
Bring on late nights that I regret in the morning (and when I get my bank statements).
Bring on pollution and overcrowding and apartments that are never above ground.

Because with all of those negatives comes so many more positives. Perfect evenings on patios with sangria and good friends and conversation. Early morning coffee runs with friends or co-workers. Music by the water and dancing at the newest karaoke bar turned cool. Wandering down Queen West on a weekend and running into old friends.

Sunny days that you take for granted.

Okay that's it. My rambling; a month's worth of it.

I'm coming "home" to Toronto and I am not leaving for a LONG time.

nothing but buildings

32 degree weather and the first swim of the year constitutes a new mixtape. I am working on in, but in the meantime:

Zeigeist - The Lake


Zeitgeist - The Lake

No spring/summer can kick off without the perfect Swedish pop song.

Happy Spring/Summer!

i'm fooling somebody

Okay I am back, and as I have developed what kind of resembles strep throat, but also kind of resembles the flu, there is no better time than now to give an update. I am, after all, confined to the house with no possibility of escape. The last time I tried to walk to the kitchen, I had to stop half way in order to stop the world from spinning.

So... it has been a few weeks.. okay almost a month, and PLENTY has happened. I have some pictures to demonstrate the fun that was had, and lots of stories that may or may not be shared online.

I was home for two weeks and managed to see *almost* everyone whom I wanted to see - sorry to those who I somehow did not get to see, either by lack of time, scheduling or out of town reasons. I also realised just how much I miss that city. Oddly, even driving by my disgusting first apartment, or my old college made me homesick. Probably because it was the first city that ever felt like home for me - home that I had chosen, not that was chosen for me.

Anyway, to commemorate the trip, here are some PHOTOS (courtesy of my awesome friends!):



Bowling in Ottawa on a Thursday nite....



I lost horribly...



But we all had fun anyway. (Them laughing at my bowling inabilities and velcro kids shoes).



Montreal hearts PENGUINS.



Old Montreal.



Shisha cafes by night.



Smells sooo good...



We are all scratching our five o'clock shadows.



Pam's first shisha experience.



Are we happy because of the company? the alcohol? the shisha?



See, Toronto has plants too, they just grow in odd places.



Twist and shout?



Back in Toronto... my birthday evening. Ben made a friend.



Ha Penny Cash!



Post-birthday celebrations.... a few drinks in!



Film friends, Mauricio and Lyndsay.



38 Carling Ave-rs, Jennilee and I.



Hi Luke!



??? This photo still baffles me. What is the focus?



Kitty the pirate!



Cute. Bonding time.



Dancing in the Montreal discotheque.

More to come when I get my own photos all uploaded.

It was a great time and worth the two weeks of lost wages, for sure. And now I am back in Vancouver, working full-time like an adult again, but hopefully there will be some changes in the near future.

i breathe in and breathe out

(north van version of a palm tree, meant to signify that I am ON VACATION. officially ha!

had the last of the psych exams this morning. i now welcome RELAXATION. i even sold all of my textbooks (for the measly sum of 50 dollars, ouch!)

in an hour i will be heading to the airport, where i will be spending the next 9 hours awaiting a plane. unfortch vancouver has a rather shoddy transit system which does not run early enough in the morning for me to leave my house in the morning. oi.

so i am making friends with the airport; possibly i will take some pictures of myself with the giant stuffed bear, or maybe the totem poles; maybe i will have a coffee or three at the starbucks (unless HORROR it is closed); maybe i will start talking to random people, desperate to make friends. either way, an unusual way to spend the early morning of my birthday.

i will be photo-documenting the next two weeks and any strange happenings, of which i am sure there will be plenty.

oh fyi to anyone who has itunes radio, under 'ambient', go to the 'All Chilled @ 181.FM' station. it's basically like my iPod has taken over a radio station and is trying to flirt with me by giving me good playlists.... i highly recommend.

ok that's all... i have no fun links again today, because well, who has time for fun during finals?! but finals are over, as of today, so bring on le fun.

au revoir vancouver: bonjour toronto!

high and dry

Radiohead perform 'Nude'..... erm the song that is. They are fully clothed... I assure you.

Listen, listen!

And watch (as they perform, again: with clothing on):


Humour me, I'm just a little bit excited about seeing them in August...

Alright, so today I managed to study 2 of the 3 psych chapters for my Friday exam AND complete two 750 word essays... so to celebrate, I am off to have a drink or three with a friend. I have developed one of those lovely, sexy, raspy voices that come with sore throats and foggy heads, but hopefully a drink won't push me over the edge into actual illness. I drank plenty of matcha and chamomile tea (with honey! mmm) and went for a jog so my body should be happy....

One week until my (temporary) departure from fair Vancouver; a date that I have determined to be the official start of my summer - and conveniently enough - also my birthday. So lots to look forward to. If my body can just hold up!

You made me untouchable for life

Haha okay as a follow-up to my last posts exuberance over classes being finished: I do still have final exams, up until next Wednesday, but it still feels PRETTY AMAZING.

I got to sleep in this morning, go for a jog (okay a REALLY quick one around the block, before I remembered that I live on a rather steep upwardly slanted mountainous street AND I hate jogging AND no matter how in shape I "think" that I am, it is never enough for jogging), study for my final this evening, walk to school through the strange forest.... summer is awesome. (Although, it is cold out and rainy... and summer still feels distant, but technically, it is nearly "summer" for us students)

Okay so today is my marketing final, Friday is psych #1 and next Tuesday is psych #2 and then I am OFF on the first of my summer adventures: le Toronto.

Other updates: I will be in Germany - just outside of Berlin - for most of July, working in a "peace village" called Storkow and perfecting my 'Deustch sprechen' (German) and if money permits, I may make a few additional European stops along the way. WHICH necessitates the quick search for a second job so as to once again pay for a flight overseas.

Second update is that RADIOHEAD have finally updated their tour list to include a VANCOUVER date. August 19th at the Thunderbird Stadium, Vancouver will be witness to Thom Yorke's truly inspiring imp dance. I love that dance.

Beyond that, I have no internet suggestions or links because I have no time these days to waste stalking musicians and designers... but the links will return soon. I am stoked on Toronto and Montreal shopping - both clothing and music - and catching a few concerts, hopefully!

Alright: I am off to my first final exam.

I'm DONE!

DONE.

DONE.

DONE.

I will post some updates SOON.

<3 you all!

it's just noise; always, it's just noise

When I was a kid, my favorite singer was Matthew Good. Here in Canada, he achieved a high level of success, but I always still considered him as "mine"; always still believed that his songs affected me in ways that no one else would understand. I purchased every album that he ever made - before and after Matthew Good Band - as well as his book of prose and all of his t-shirts. The first time I saw him in concert almost brought me to tears - something in his words touched me in a way that nothing else could.

As I grew older, I found more bluntly angst-ridden music to suit my moods. I embraced power chords and came to believe that screaming was beautiful too. My Matthew Good albums were put on my closet shelf and I replaced the t-shirts with ones from the Misfits, Sisters of Mercy and the Subhumans. They were my new ingroup. I had replaced intellectual and well-spoken lyrics with noise and dark symbolism; I was a teenager.

And yet, years later I find myself returning to Matt Good's pissed-off-but-still-poised songs, and appreciating the understatement once again. No matter my mood, I can always find an album of his that will complement it.

Being here in Vancouver, where he grew up, and re-listening to his earlier work, I GET IT. I get the feeling of looking out across this great expanse of time and not knowing what to do with it and feeling slightly depressed and insignificant at the concept. There was always a feeling of restlessness in his work, of questioning the ordinariness of one's life and feeling anxious of this being all that there is. I put on 'Hospital Music', his latest album, while taking the bus to Coquitlam yesterday. The bus takes over an hour and it curves all along the Burrard Inlet and showcases how geographically stunning the West Coast is. No matter how beautiful it is though and no matter how inspiring it is in that moment, it is so fleeting. I felt immensely happy as we rode further and further away from the city and through the trees overlooking the jagged cliffs; but then my cellphone rang and the moment was over and I could not recapture it later.

I want to take in everything that I can while I am here. I want to experience the ephemeral parts of my surroundings: the first buds and blooms of spring, the melting snow on the mountains in the distance, all of the parts of nature that we are not responsible for and haven't yet learned how to control; but I keep letting myself get distracted by the parts that we ARE responsible for. And as much as I try to deny it and I try to train myself otherwise, it still remains that I like those man-made parts best. I am happiest in the center of a bustling city, with people moving in every direction from me.

And I lost where I was going with this post. I had an idea and it came while I was listening to Matt Good, but now the CD is over and the thought is gone with the last of the notes. Maybe for the best. I have one week left of school and three big projects to do and my concentration level is currently negatively correlated with my stress level and I am just clinging to the anticipation of how good it is going to feel when this is all over.

And so, I leave everyone with the awesomeness that is the Presets and their new song/video. They are no Matt Good, but they are fun and right now, that is all that I require.



I <3 the Presets.

Happy long weekend everyone.

sail away, my vessel brave

I have an advertising project that is due soon, and my group is still in the brainstorming phase. Our product is a pool and my inspiration lies with rubber ducks at the moment. Can anyone think of any good ideas????

I don't want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover

A quick update before I run off to the gym: I am t-minus one month until this school nonsense is all over.

And what a month it shall be.

For my Toronto friends: it is a mere month until I visit. Let us start planning shows, events, patios, coffee dates, tofu stirfry dinners.

My favorite ads:

...but only if you are a little bit in love with me

My February obsession:



I am proud to be Swedish for so many reasons, and this video is one of them. There is so much amazing and unique talent that comes out of Sweden.
This girl is called Lyyke Li and you can find out more about her HERE. Or here.

I get old and I get humble

And as the trees grew higher and higher
And the fish began to fly
I went and stole some wings
And thought why can't I ...
- Yeasayer, 'Sunrise'

the blatant proof

BLAST. My timing is terrible this time......

Oh wait. That is no way to greet everyone, considering my absence of posts as of late. Let's start again:

Hi friends, I know it's been a long time, I bet you even thought that I had carelessly deserted this blog. Alas, not the case, I merely got too caught up in the academic side of my life. Blah blah blah, I am going to try not to neglect this blog anymore.

Okay, that out of the way: BLAST. My timing is terrible this time. I have a flight booked to Toronto for April and I fly back on the 29th and I have just heard word that Ticketmaster DOES have tickets onsale for the Verve on May 1st. THE VERVE. TWO Days after I leave Toronto. AND not only that.... but Cut Copy, my Austalian favorites, are playing Vancouver the day that I fly back to the city, but my flight gets in too late to make it feasible for me to catch them. Le sigh.
It's almost like when I moved to Toronto from Edmonton and the great DAVID BOWIE played Edmonton the day that I left it and Toronto the day before I arrived.... Many a tear was shed over that.

Alright well over in Milan it is Fashion Week and the clever kids at Fendi have adopted some crazy technology to... ahem... add gold to their fur? I don't get why, but the details: HERE. Personally I would prefer cotton... and silver.

And recently in my favorite city, London, it was the (obvious here!) London Fashion Week. Which I am partial too, even tho critics tend to mock it. However, sometimes even I have to admit, they do go a bit... overboard:


Courtesy of the talented, but CRAZY, Gareth Pugh. Robot from the future somehow ended up getting mistakenly wallpapered over? I don't know what to say here. But I cannot take my eyes away from it, even though it hurts.

Because Iceland is one of the coolest places, well on earth, it only figures out that they would come up with something like this:


Undoubtably, the best thing ever for two reasons:
a) it's a toque, that looks like a beard. Ingenious really.
b) now the boys have NO possible excuse for having facial hair. Not a one. Thank god.
More ridiculously cute Icelandic knitty-stuff HERE.

Okay I cannot resist, just one more picture of theirs:

Seriously, best stuff ever. Has anyone seen the movie Eagle Vs. Shark???? (If not, DO IT). This is like the girl's shark costume... but knitted.
My house would definitely be a happier place if I were wandering around it in that.

This is definitely catch up day for me. I have ignored all of my own favorite blogs for ... uh weeks, same as I have ignored my own. There are amazing things that you miss when you live inside a text book. Things that I didn't even know that I was missing out on, like this:

Future Me
I just wrote 'future me' an email to remind myself in the summer to look around and APPRECIATE the sun. What in the world am I talking about?
FutureMe.... is a website where you can send yourself a 'post-dated' email to remind yourself something.... or you can cheat and post-date birthday emails, so you don't forget. Clever, no?

Oh and like this:
The 'Learning to love you more' project started by Miranda July - writer of the movie, Me and You and Everyone We know, which i loved.

And that's allllll for today. I made up for my absence, right?
Oh except that I forgot to include any personal updates. Alright, I can do that quickly: it's midterm time and my life = school, occasionally interspersed with outings and work. That's all.



(Courtesy of Postsecret)

it wasn't free....

Holy time lapse Batman. Where have the past few weeks gone?
Somewhere along the line, it became "midterm" and "midterm" took my freedom with it.

I have five essays due within the next two weeks; one of which is finished, four of which are still pre-embryonic. Oi. It's going to be a grand few weeks, please don't expect too many updates on my end. Fashions are changing for the season and new music is being released, likely good music at that, but I am so caught up in the history of the media and the different psychological perspectives that I hardly even know who this years Juno nominees are.

I think they call this stress, my friends. It has been absent for my life for so long that I *almost* forgot all about it.

Anyway, stress and school aside, everything is well. It's a lovely, snowy world outside. Snowy and rainy, somehow at the same time; only in Vancouver. I have heard growing whisperings about spring coming though, and I am pretty sure that I am ready for it to come. Any day now.

I have resumed my strict workout schedule in preparation for some surf lessons and lots of beach lurking this summer. I also purchased some form of pilates DVD, I cannot bring myself to go to a pilates class - something in me rebels against the idea - but the DVD is strangely calming. It might be the fake palm trees and cooing birds in the background. I'm always a sucker for those. Pilates DVD's and red wine are the antidote to stress.

The parents are in town as of tomorrow, so I am to give up my (freshly laundered) bed and move upstairs onto the leather couch, which if I am lucky, I will not slide off of in the middle of the nite. That or the blow up mattress that we purchased for guests. I am partial to the blow up mattress, it is a whole world of fun.

What other updates can I share? Oh, thanks to a heads up from the ever helpful Caitlin, I have purchased myself a ticket to Toronto for April 17th.... soooo I hope that everyone back home is ready for a lot of sushi and Bovine trips and H&M and Queen Street shopping trips! I miss you kids and cannot wait to see everyone!

Alright that's it... for now. This is all about me, I have become narcissistic in my busy-ness.
How are you all doing?

do you feel electric?

It is almost - 50 degrees in Edmonton today, or so my sources tell me.

THAT, right there, is why I moved!

I woke up complaining that there was a TINY bit of snow in North Vancouver.... but it is about 4 degrees now and the snow has melted. I am not allowed to complain.