Hey all! I must first of all say thank you to Chuck, who reminded us all that this blog exists, and second of all apologize for promising to write yesterday and then not writing. Sorry!
I'm currently on Spring Break, which I am spending with a friend at her house in Ventura. It's about 30-45 minutes away from the college; nice to be off campus for a bit but still in the same lovely area of California.
I have to keep this post short because the internet here is sketchy at best and I don't want it to die before I can post what I've written.
A couple of things I have to say: Congratulations to Kim on being accepted to that program! I'm so happy for you! Congrats to Chuck too for graduating high school and getting ready to go to college and all that good stuff. And Sim, I hope you are feeling better. :)
The most interesting thing happening to me of late is that I am taking music composition lessons this semester, and this past week I finally finished the choral piece I've been working on. Now, I just have to put together an ensemble to sing it for the Composers' Concert in April. Hopefully I'll be able to share the recording with you after the performance as it's a really big project for me that I've been working on for several months.
Sorry this is not a more interesting post, but I need to end it now as I think the internet is about to give out on me. I'll write something more interesting next time. Maybe I'll write a story! Yay!
DFTBA,
Emily
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Ill and bored
Hello All,
Nice to see some extra blogs this week...though I'm not really too sure what to talk about. Seeming as I've been sick today, I thought I'd talk about things to do when your home alone and ill.
Number 1. After taking some medicine, building a blanket fort out of pillows in front of the t.v is the best way to start. Of course making sure your comfortable and have enough blanket left over to wrap yourself up when/if you fall asleep.
Number 2. Watching inordinate amounts of daytime t.v can get a bit tedious, so having a bit of a marathon of your favourite shows and movies is a good way to shake it up. Also because you're ill, no-one will bother you, so you get to watch it all in peace.
Nice to see some extra blogs this week...though I'm not really too sure what to talk about. Seeming as I've been sick today, I thought I'd talk about things to do when your home alone and ill.
Number 1. After taking some medicine, building a blanket fort out of pillows in front of the t.v is the best way to start. Of course making sure your comfortable and have enough blanket left over to wrap yourself up when/if you fall asleep.
Number 2. Watching inordinate amounts of daytime t.v can get a bit tedious, so having a bit of a marathon of your favourite shows and movies is a good way to shake it up. Also because you're ill, no-one will bother you, so you get to watch it all in peace.
By now I'd fall asleep...
Number 3. Another thing you could do is to take a bath. A soothing bath will probably help you feel better.
Number 4. If you play an instrument, now is a good time to be improving. Play wrong notes and you don't have to feel bad. Or else learning to play a new instrument could be something you could do.
Number 5. Get loads of colouring pencils and go crazy on some paper. Get creative with some scissors. Transform some old clothing into stars to decorate your ceiling.
Number 4. If you play an instrument, now is a good time to be improving. Play wrong notes and you don't have to feel bad. Or else learning to play a new instrument could be something you could do.
Number 5. Get loads of colouring pencils and go crazy on some paper. Get creative with some scissors. Transform some old clothing into stars to decorate your ceiling.
Number 6. Reading a book could be something to do, though personally I find it difficult to concentrate on words when I'm ill. Yet it can be something to do to kill some time.
Number 7. If you don't want to read, you could write your own story or diary. Something long and fantastical or short and horrifying. (I always go for the short and horrifying :P)
Number 8. So the last one I can think of at the moment is listening to music. Closing the curtains and laying on my bed, listening to some golden tracks really can make you feel better.
I may be 18, but acting like a little kid is the best way to make yourself feel better!
I can't really think of any more at the moment, but it would be interesting to hear if you guys have an more ideas (also it'd give me some more things to do 8-) )
On another note, it was great to hear from Kim and Chuck this week.
Kim - It sounds like it was an amazing trip, and well done for getting the place! You'll find that London's an amazing place to be a student and there's plenty more for you to see in and out of London, more things for you too see in your 100 years :P
Chuck - It was brilliant to year from you after so long! Thanks for discussing a situation that is very controversial at the moment. It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Hope everyone is having a good week, and like always,
Dftba,
Sim
Number 7. If you don't want to read, you could write your own story or diary. Something long and fantastical or short and horrifying. (I always go for the short and horrifying :P)
Number 8. So the last one I can think of at the moment is listening to music. Closing the curtains and laying on my bed, listening to some golden tracks really can make you feel better.
I may be 18, but acting like a little kid is the best way to make yourself feel better!
I can't really think of any more at the moment, but it would be interesting to hear if you guys have an more ideas (also it'd give me some more things to do 8-) )
On another note, it was great to hear from Kim and Chuck this week.
Kim - It sounds like it was an amazing trip, and well done for getting the place! You'll find that London's an amazing place to be a student and there's plenty more for you to see in and out of London, more things for you too see in your 100 years :P
Chuck - It was brilliant to year from you after so long! Thanks for discussing a situation that is very controversial at the moment. It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Hope everyone is having a good week, and like always,
Dftba,
Sim
I apologize for my disappearance but there's something that bugs me about KONY 2012 and I need to talk about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc
(For anyone who may not know what KONY2012 is)
(For anyone who may not know what KONY2012 is)
1
2
First of all, click those links and you'll know most of what I'm about to tell you.
There are many reasons not to support the charity group Invisible Children among them include:
- Joseph Kony probably isn't in Uganda
- Many of the facts mentioned in the video are outrageously misrepresented
- Joseph Kony isn't abducting children for no reason, it isn't a good reason but he's not abducting raping and murdering just for the fun of it as the video blatantly portrays
Not to mention the fact that the "policy makers" and "culture makers" that Invisible Children is so obsessed with getting the attention of really have absolutely no power in the conflict itself, only in American public opinion and intervention.
Invisible Children wants the people of the United States to force the government of the United States to assist a group, who until a few years ago was using child soldiers to fight AGAINST the LRA, in using military action against Joseph Kony.
What Invisible Children does is take sides in a complicated conflict that truly has no transparent "good guy" or "bad guy". If you're okay with taking the lesser of the two evils to temporarily save kids who will most likely suffer under the current Ugandan government then by all means continue to support this cause.
However, if you want to stop rape murder and abduction I challenge you to realize that giving power to a group that is also infamous for rape, murder, and abduction isn't going to solve much of anything.
Do the Ugandan people WANT the United States to come into their homeland, guns blazing, to take out one man and then leave? Or do they want a peaceful end to a conflict that has already left them broken? The KONY2012 campaign doesn't ask that question, but it gives them an answer.
DFTBA,
Chuck
Postscript: I seriously think we should consider getting this blog back up and running, (sorry for stealing whoever's day this is)...
Postpostscript: Just in case you were wondering about me, I am officially a High School graduate. I've decided to take a semester off before starting college. I've also decided that I'm going to attend Purchase College in NY instead of Bowling Green State University in OH, it's a lot closer to home. I've been occupying my time by interning at a Gender and Sexuality Resource Center at a local college and partying... I hope you're all doing really well! Best wishes!
Let's Pretend We're in Hawaii
It's warm and sunny and tropical and lovely in Hawaii. It's also still Thursday there (I really need to work on my time management :P). I've seen so many pictures, watched so many films/shows/etc set there, and heard so much about it, Hawaii is a place I'd love to go to sometime.
There are a lot of places I'd love to go to, a lot of things I'd love to do. As a child I spent so much time reading books about fantastical places and watched movies set in magical worlds. I couldn't get enough of it. As I grew up came reality, and the realisation that so many of those places don't actually exist. The places of my fairytales were replaced with an education of the world and the even greater realisation that while fairylands don't exist the real world can be just as magical and wondrous.
There are so many places to see and things to do. I want to spend my life traveling the world and trying to see as much of it as I can in the little time I have on Earth. Even if I live to 100 I cannot possibly see everything. But I'll do my best, and I've had a good start. Even just this month I've done more and seen more than I usually do in a year, and for that I'm grateful.
So here's an update on what's been going on this crazy month, apart from being sick, and working and looking into scholarships and student loans and all those things associated with money that you unfortunately need to be able to travel *sigh*.
First off I spent a week in London with my parents! I love London, so much. It's an amazing city, one I'd always wanted to see. I had the chance to spend all of two days there in 2010 and ever since then I've been trying to get back.
We tried to do a lot of the touristy things: a city bus tour, the London Eye, seeing Trafalgar Square, and Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, etc. I dragged my parents through art galleries like Tate Modern and the National Gallery. And we saw shows! Phantom, Les Mis, and Billy Elliot. The weather wasn't too great but I still loved being there.
For many reasons, along with London having amazing theatre and just being an amazing city in general, I applied to a school there for a Theatre Design program. While my parents and I were in London I had an interview at the school. I spent there day there, getting a tour of the facilities, seeing one of the school's productions, meeting staff and students, along with the actual interview and portfolio review. It was a really fun day and I found I was really happy with the school I'd chosen to apply to. Which is good because shortly after coming home the school contacted me and offered me a place in the program! So I'm really excited to say that, providing I'm approved for a student visa, I'll be moving to London for school in September!!! =D Haha, I'm kind of really excited!
Could my month have gotten any better?! Well no, but I did go to Vegas, which was, well, I went to Vegas. Here's my thing with Vegas, it didn't live up to expectations. It has this reputation as this glitzy, fabulous, party city, and I think when you first get there it is pretty cool, but after a while the charm definitely wears off. We had gone for a whole week, which was waaaayyyy too long to be in that city. My parents, as well as my sister were there and we all ended up agreeing that it was too long of a trip and we were getting bored. There is a fair bit to do, but not quite enough to fill a whole week. And the party atmosphere definitely gets old. Seeing people walking down the street drunk at all hours of the day is not very impressive, the casinos are smoking and loud and crowded and gaudy. It got to a point where as soon as I stepped into one I had a headache, and it's hard to avoid them, there are everywhere and in the middle of everything.
We also had the misfortune of not being able to do a lot of the things we wanted to do. We heard there was a Guggenheim art gallery, after looking all afternoon we found out it closed about a year ago. We wanted to see the Lion Habitat at MGM Grand, it closed two weeks before. We wanted to go swimming and the pool at our hotel was closed for maintenance. We heard there was really good deals on shopping, which there was, but when the sale price is still out of range for you...for example I saw a really nice pair of Stella McCartney snow pants in an Adidas outlet, normally $350, on sale for $90. That's insane! Yes, that's like $260 off, but there is still no way I'm paying $90 for a pair of snow pants! The most disappointing though was the Celine Dion concert. She was the main reason we wanted to go to Vegas, it's supposedly an AMAZING concert and we were so excited for it. Unfortunately, when we got to the theatre we found out she has some sort of virus that's affecting her vocal chords and can't sing. Her shows have been cancelled for 6-8 weeks. There were so many people crying outside the theatre.
So yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of Vegas and if I ever go back it would be for no more than a weekend with friends. However, it wasn't all bad. The Secret Gardens at the Mirage was fun, and it had BABY DOLPHINS! Some of the architecture of the hotels is really neat. And it was good to get away from the snow for a while. The best thing to come of Vegas though was Cirque du Soleil.
Of course I knew about Cirque du Soleil, and it was something that had kind of interested me, but I'd never actually seen one of the shows before. There's 7 Cirque shows in Vegas and we went to 2 of them. The first one was "Love" which I enjoyed, it was really cool to see and the music of course was great, being all Beatle's music. I was fairly tired though so I wasn't as into it as I normally would have been, I also spent a lot of the time thinking "Oh my god, please don't die! Are you okay? Where is your saftey harness? How is no one getting injured?!" The second show I saw was "O" and I did a lot better during that one. Much more well rested, and more accustomed to the terrifying stunts, I was able to really get into it and enjoy it. And I kind of fell in love. If you ever have the chance to go see a Cirque show do it! It's amazing and incredible and I don't even know what adjectives to use! Cirque du Soleil has definitely gone on my list of dream jobs. And the international headquarters for the company are in Montreal, which my mom would much prefer, rather than me working across the world from her I'd only be across the country.
Oh wow I've written a lot. If you're still reading I hope I've been interesting and not just rambling, it's hard to keep track of my rambling at 2:30am :P I should probably go to bed....
DFTBA,
-Kim
There are a lot of places I'd love to go to, a lot of things I'd love to do. As a child I spent so much time reading books about fantastical places and watched movies set in magical worlds. I couldn't get enough of it. As I grew up came reality, and the realisation that so many of those places don't actually exist. The places of my fairytales were replaced with an education of the world and the even greater realisation that while fairylands don't exist the real world can be just as magical and wondrous.
There are so many places to see and things to do. I want to spend my life traveling the world and trying to see as much of it as I can in the little time I have on Earth. Even if I live to 100 I cannot possibly see everything. But I'll do my best, and I've had a good start. Even just this month I've done more and seen more than I usually do in a year, and for that I'm grateful.
So here's an update on what's been going on this crazy month, apart from being sick, and working and looking into scholarships and student loans and all those things associated with money that you unfortunately need to be able to travel *sigh*.
First off I spent a week in London with my parents! I love London, so much. It's an amazing city, one I'd always wanted to see. I had the chance to spend all of two days there in 2010 and ever since then I've been trying to get back.
For many reasons, along with London having amazing theatre and just being an amazing city in general, I applied to a school there for a Theatre Design program. While my parents and I were in London I had an interview at the school. I spent there day there, getting a tour of the facilities, seeing one of the school's productions, meeting staff and students, along with the actual interview and portfolio review. It was a really fun day and I found I was really happy with the school I'd chosen to apply to. Which is good because shortly after coming home the school contacted me and offered me a place in the program! So I'm really excited to say that, providing I'm approved for a student visa, I'll be moving to London for school in September!!! =D Haha, I'm kind of really excited!
We also had the misfortune of not being able to do a lot of the things we wanted to do. We heard there was a Guggenheim art gallery, after looking all afternoon we found out it closed about a year ago. We wanted to see the Lion Habitat at MGM Grand, it closed two weeks before. We wanted to go swimming and the pool at our hotel was closed for maintenance. We heard there was really good deals on shopping, which there was, but when the sale price is still out of range for you...for example I saw a really nice pair of Stella McCartney snow pants in an Adidas outlet, normally $350, on sale for $90. That's insane! Yes, that's like $260 off, but there is still no way I'm paying $90 for a pair of snow pants! The most disappointing though was the Celine Dion concert. She was the main reason we wanted to go to Vegas, it's supposedly an AMAZING concert and we were so excited for it. Unfortunately, when we got to the theatre we found out she has some sort of virus that's affecting her vocal chords and can't sing. Her shows have been cancelled for 6-8 weeks. There were so many people crying outside the theatre.
So yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of Vegas and if I ever go back it would be for no more than a weekend with friends. However, it wasn't all bad. The Secret Gardens at the Mirage was fun, and it had BABY DOLPHINS! Some of the architecture of the hotels is really neat. And it was good to get away from the snow for a while. The best thing to come of Vegas though was Cirque du Soleil.
Of course I knew about Cirque du Soleil, and it was something that had kind of interested me, but I'd never actually seen one of the shows before. There's 7 Cirque shows in Vegas and we went to 2 of them. The first one was "Love" which I enjoyed, it was really cool to see and the music of course was great, being all Beatle's music. I was fairly tired though so I wasn't as into it as I normally would have been, I also spent a lot of the time thinking "Oh my god, please don't die! Are you okay? Where is your saftey harness? How is no one getting injured?!" The second show I saw was "O" and I did a lot better during that one. Much more well rested, and more accustomed to the terrifying stunts, I was able to really get into it and enjoy it. And I kind of fell in love. If you ever have the chance to go see a Cirque show do it! It's amazing and incredible and I don't even know what adjectives to use! Cirque du Soleil has definitely gone on my list of dream jobs. And the international headquarters for the company are in Montreal, which my mom would much prefer, rather than me working across the world from her I'd only be across the country.Oh wow I've written a lot. If you're still reading I hope I've been interesting and not just rambling, it's hard to keep track of my rambling at 2:30am :P I should probably go to bed....
DFTBA,
-Kim
Friday, February 17, 2012
Let it Snow!
HELLO BLOG!!!
Sorry to have neglected you for the past few weeks, have been a tad bit busy being ill and what not. Not much else has been going on really in my world except for the fact that it snowed. I'ma just repeat that. IT SNOWED!!! Right, so it may not seem like much but for us, snow is snow and it is exciting when it is more than 5cm.
I love it when it snows, I love the way it blankets the ground and all the sound is just absorbed. It becomes so peaceful and beautiful, well that is until all the children (and adults) come out to play.We only had one bout of snow and its all gone now. It left in its wake two weeks of temperatures below zero, which is always interesting here as London seems to stop whenever it gets close to zero!
Hope that everyone's having a good week and hope to hear from you all soon,
Sim x
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Something Old, Something New
Have you ever noticed how new things can make you feel good?
Like how new sheets and blankets on your bed make you sleep better. Or a new hair style or new clothes give energy and confidence. A new toothbrush cleans your teeth better. New slippers are always warmer and softer. The first snowfall of winter brings excitement for skating and hot chocolate. The list goes on and on.
And yet, there's something to be said for things that are old. The comfort and support of something familiar. Something you know you can trust and depend on. With history and character and stories from its time.
There are cities throughout the world, especially in Europe, that are a mix of old and new. Tradition combining with technology, The hustle and bustle of a modern city fitting into a blueprint from the past. Architecture blending and jumping from crafted stone to sleek glass and steel. There's so much going on all at once, things that shouldn't fit together so nicely flowing in among each other. It's fantastic.
DFTBA,
-Kim
Like how new sheets and blankets on your bed make you sleep better. Or a new hair style or new clothes give energy and confidence. A new toothbrush cleans your teeth better. New slippers are always warmer and softer. The first snowfall of winter brings excitement for skating and hot chocolate. The list goes on and on.
And yet, there's something to be said for things that are old. The comfort and support of something familiar. Something you know you can trust and depend on. With history and character and stories from its time.
There are cities throughout the world, especially in Europe, that are a mix of old and new. Tradition combining with technology, The hustle and bustle of a modern city fitting into a blueprint from the past. Architecture blending and jumping from crafted stone to sleek glass and steel. There's so much going on all at once, things that shouldn't fit together so nicely flowing in among each other. It's fantastic.
DFTBA,
-Kim
Friday, February 3, 2012
I know it's not my day but...
I just wanted to post super quick so you know I'm alive, since I didn't post yesterday, and I may be m.i.a. for a few weeks.
Why will I be missing? I am traveling! And traveling sometimes makes things hard. I'm leaving for London this afternoon! I'm taking my laptop so I'll try to post next week but I may be busy doing touristy things. After London I'm going to Vegas and will not have a computer with me.
So yes, sorry for missing yesterday, and I will do my best over the next few weeks but even if I don't post I will still be thinking of you.
Kay I gotta go pack!
DFTBA,
-Kim
P.S. Sim I read the poems but didn't have a chance to comment, I promise I will though once things are less crazy since I know you wanted to share them with us.
Why will I be missing? I am traveling! And traveling sometimes makes things hard. I'm leaving for London this afternoon! I'm taking my laptop so I'll try to post next week but I may be busy doing touristy things. After London I'm going to Vegas and will not have a computer with me.
So yes, sorry for missing yesterday, and I will do my best over the next few weeks but even if I don't post I will still be thinking of you.
Kay I gotta go pack!
DFTBA,
-Kim
P.S. Sim I read the poems but didn't have a chance to comment, I promise I will though once things are less crazy since I know you wanted to share them with us.
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