A Cheesy Boyfriend Post

Here is a cheesy boyfriend picture of Keith and me. I haven’t put one up in a while but I thought I should put one up. Its been nine months now and we’re still having a lot of fun. He continues to challenge me and support me when I need it. He speaks Truth to me about how I’m acting or when I’m wrong. That’s tough to take sometimes but, I’m thrilled to have someone in my life who speaks honesty with such love. He’s very good for me.

The Frontenac Feast!

Well the Frontenac (American) Thanksgiving Feast went off without a hitch yet again this year. The menu included turkey and 'all the fixings' and of course, for Allison, Pumpkin pie! A good time was had by all! thanks to my housemates for putting up with me being the kitchen nazi and not letting them in it all day. I look forward to making the feast again next year!

How Ernie failed Bert

Now you might wonder why I’m writing a post on two puppets from a children’s TV show. Well friends, this is because I think that their friendship has a lot to teach us. Putting aside any rumoured plot twists about their supposed romantic relationship, I would like to turn to a more surface level observation. You may notice from the picture that the two ‘best friends’ look very different. Esp. Bert. You may notice that he actually only has ONE EYE BROW…now, not to say that people should be obsessed or overly concerned with their looks, I just think that if God gave you TWO eyes, he also gave you TWO eye brows. Friends, a unibrow is just not cool. If Ernie really was Bert’s best friend he would have told him this. He would have told him that having a unibrow will cause potential employers to pass you over, girls to not give you a second glance and your own mother to airbrush family photos. There is no shame in plucking. Yes boys, I’m talking to you. It doesn’t take long, and yes, people may notice a difference…but THIS IS A GOOD THING. Don’t shave it, that’s dumb….waxing? only professionally…plucking only takes ten minutes and will make a huge difference. If Ernie had really cared about Bert he would have told him this. Because frankly, Friends don’t let friends have unibrows.


PS. Girls please leave a comment voicing your support for the elimination of unibrows so that all the boys who read this post don’t think I’m out to lunch. Thanks.

The Paper Lottery

I handed in another paper today and somehow as I plopped it down on the Prof’s desk, I felt like it was all out of my hands. Which I suppose is true, to a degree. Once you hand in the paper, technically you’re not supposed to worry about it anymore because you’ve done all you can do. Unfortunately, the more papers I hand in and get back, the more I find myself feeling as though handing in a paper is more like entering some sort of bazaar lottery. You do what you can, yes, and generally you know that you haven’t failed it. but its pretty difficult to predict your mark inside of 10%. I suppose that’s the nature of arts papers, its all so subjective but somehow I feel that its all out of my control and that really, its almost luck. Is the prof in a good mood when they mark it? have they just marked a fantastic, publishable paper directly before mine? Is the prof experienced at marking? Who knows… all I see is the number on the piece of paper at the end of it all. Its rather scary I think to put your academic future in the hands of someone whose biases and marking tendencies you don’t really know. But there is no other choice I suppose. And so I enter the lottery again and again. And, like most games find myself winning some and losing some.

Eddie Goldberg stole my nachos

Well, I suppose it might be important to tell you who he is first. Eddie Goldberg was Jean Chrétien’s Chief policy advisor for his entire tenure (except the last year or so when he was chief of staff). And tonight he was the guest speaker in my night class. It was probably the best lecture we’ve had all year in that class. Its been all guest speakers and as I like to say its all “boring talks from interesting people.” So anyway, after class we all went out to the QP ( which is becoming my après 310 haunt of choice these last few weeks…or twice before and probably next week). We all grabbed a drink and there were nachos circulating. Mr. Goldberg was chatting away with us about the Gomery inquiry and the Liberals and what we should do with our lives etc. There weren’t enough nachos and so my friends Bryana and Diane and I ordered our own. We were sitting beside Mr. Goldberg and he clearly didn’t notice that we’d paid for our nachos separately and so he started taking nachos from our basket. Well, what do you say? “No Mr. Goldberg, no nachos for you” so we just let him eat them. And so he did. So tonight, I shared my nachos with a man who helped Chrétien decide if we should help invade Iraq, a man who watched the 1995 referendum from 24 Sussex and a man who looked an awful lot like the mayor of munchkin land.

i could go for a little camp right now

I just watched a little bit of the ‘illegal advance’ copy of the camp DVD that I have. I’ve gotta say, I could go for a little summer right now. Not just the beautiful sunny days or the hanging out with friend, I could also go for that kind of stress. The ‘stressful’ decorating and planning games, the intensity of needing to have 6 garbage cans filled with water in an hour …or just the craziness of the golf cart breaking down or Melissa falling off the stage. Officially, Cara, Melissa and Clare are all hilarious. I was watching the DVD and seriously, those girls are nuts. I miss GC prog right now. I’m probably not going to be back up at camp this summer which makes it even worse. I watch some of these videos and think about how tired I was making them or in them and looking back, it was totally worth it and totally fun. I could go for a little more lying around in the summer and a whole lot more sleep but camp has been fantastic. So many jokes, “hello, I’d like a baby in a cup” “my computer has a lot of ports” so funny. Also a song that I can’t quote on my blog as its not really appropriate but the tune is to “London bridge is falling down” and its extremely funny. (that one is for you min)
Anyway, I should get back to my essays and the gloom of november

Learning From The Best

Well, I spent that weekend writing a group essay. We worked for about 40 hours this weekend and ended up finishing at 5 AM on Tuesday AM. We had all our research done when we started …it was just a really long process. Despite this, it was probably one of the most beneficial academic experiences I’ve been a part of. Not only was it intense in the time period and the amount of work we did but it was also extremely collaborative. The girls I was working with are extremely intelligent and motivated. Our paper was held to everyone’s highest standards and as such, we pushed each other constantly to pack each sentence with our full meaning. I learned a lot from them and I have some excellent ideas on how to improve my papers in the future. Generally I hate group work. I hate dragging people along who don’t put in the effort but in this case not only was it a good paper but it was also a surprising amount of fun. We were good at taking breaks and ate some really good food. I’ve never been to starbucks so much in my life but the combination of highly caffeinated beverages, good senses of humour and a drive to write the best darn paper that prof. Leuprecht has ever seen really made the experience worth while.
So, thank you to my group. Firstly for the anticipated A. Secondly for teaching me lots of new tricks, and finally for some new friends. (Which sounds entirely cheesy but is entirely true). I hope that I have the privilege of working with such sharp minds in the future b/c after an experience like that… I don’t think I could deal with anything less.

For Ashley

A lot of my posts are results of conversations with my housemate Britt. Eg. Rapping 101. and I’m afraid that one of my other housemates, Ashley , is getting a little jealous. And so, in her honour, I dedicate this post.

A poem

My housemate rolls like thunder
Across my ceiling-her floor
And when my light fixture rattles
I know she’s shut her drawer

The phone is always for her
i rarely get any calls
Her laugh is loud and merry
And resounds through the walls

She screams when she drops things
Or when I walk inside
She sleeps with a teddy
Where Adam can’t reside

Ashley is my housemate
She is from Oshawa
And sometimes if she’s changing
She’ll walk around in her bra

But we still think she’s alright
In fact I think we’d say
that Ashley is a as nice
as a bright an sunny day


THE END
There Ashley, are you happy now? Are you? I mean, heck, I wrote you a frickin poem. I hope you like it. it took a lot of effort. I hope you appreciate it.
Goodnight

Rapping 101

Well I have to say that I’ve watched an unfortunately amount of much music in my day and I think I’ve discovered the secrets that rappers employ in their success. Don’t worry friends, you too can be a rapper and no, it doesn’t take any talent what so ever.

Phase one "basic rap" (Kanye West freestyle)
Today I heard Kanye West rhyme shoulder, sofa and some other word that didn’t rhyme. The secret here I think is just to talk really fast and pretend like your words rhyme.
Eg.
Check out my bling
I have a sexy woman
Don’t hate me
Man, I have a nice car.

Once you are able to achieve perfect fast talking and pretending that your words rhyme, you’re ready for step two.

Phase two "easy rap" (sean paul style)
All you need to do here is add and A to the end of every word in order make it rhyme.

Eg. I like my furniture-a
I got it at a store-a
It’s made of dead cats-a
Sometimes I dance-a

And just keep going with that adding and a where needed and eventually you two will master the art of basic rap

Phase three "intermediate rap" (ludicrous style)
The secret here is just to go with one rhyming word. Generally ludicrous goes with his own name and runs out after ludicrous, ridiculous and conspicuous. Then you see him pop out the rhyming dictionary and puzzle for a few minutes. If you’re a beginner I suggest starting with something like BAT to rhyme.
Eg.
I like to have a bat
To hit my cat
And then make it fat
Or make it skat

Now, please note that it DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. This is pretty much the point. If you can actually make out a story line you are clearly beyond phase 3.
But that’s another story for another time. Until then, good luck with your rapping and maybe I’ll see you on much music.