Birthday Laziness

Tags

friends, random

Since it’s my birthday, I figured I’m allowed to get away with this single, slightly (okay, very) terrible shot of my birthday cake. Which I made. Completely chocolate with mini eggs baked into it. There was a banana cake as well, and two pizzas, but those weren’t quite as pretty. 

When I showed it to my mother while Skyping earlier, I think she got that look that said she wished I was home, but only so I could bake for her. I miss her too. 

It was a bit impromptu but in the end there was ten of us, homemade lentil soup, chicken wings, chips & salsa, rum & cokes, pizzas, cakes and Apples to Apples. To me, it sounds like a pretty good way to bring in a new age. 

Actually, to take pictures for my birthday, I bought a disposable camera and all my friends took pictures. We’re ~unique like that. Once I get them developed, don’t worry: you’ll be the first to see if us digital camera PhotoJs can handle the old fashioned-ness of film. 

 

Things I’m Loving:

+ My new necklace – I normally wouldn’t scope out what people have bought for me, but I love it so much that I figured I’d share with you guys. It came as a surprise on Friday from one of my oldest friends and the sentiment that came with it just made it so much more special. 

+ Can I Have Your Number? – I’m sure everyone’s seen this already, because I’m always late to the parties (hell, people from our small town back home have been quoting it for awhile!), but my sister and I had a laugh together this afternoon. Which rarely happens, so it’s something I have to take note of.

+ Extreme Chocolate Cake – This is the recipe for the cake pictured above. Seriously: my friends were proposing after the first piece and promising eternal love after the second. You guys: people had thirds of this cake, okay? You have someone to impress? This cake is your answer.

+ Reik: Involvidable – No, I don’t speak Spanish. But! Yes, I’m attempting to learn. Yes, listened to Reik’s entire youtube play list (or pretty damn close). Yes, I think the acoustic guitarist’s smile is adorable. What else does a girl need? 

Long Weekend Ahead

Tags

assignment, fourth semester, published!!, winter

It’s Thursday, which, for me, is like your Friday. Which means, since my stories are up (and can be found here) and I have nothing else to do, I get to have a late lunch with my friend and then to the pub for trivia. Now that’s living the good life. 

I know I’ve talked about this project before, but I’m pretty sure this is the last time (for now) that I’ll bring it up. 

My piece on Sandra and how she teaches kids at the daycare sign language was published as an InFocus piece here. There were six of them published and all of them are really quite interesting and can be found here. 

 

There’s only one more issue of the paper left and now I’m starting to wonder what I’m going to post for you all when it’s over. I’m really not as interesting as when I’ve got pieces to screen cap and brag about. But I’ll see what I can do.

 

Things I’m Loving:

+ US Women’s Boxing: The Road to London - New Olympic sport for women, plus a 16-year-old being awesome and taking names. Always something that’s awesome to see.

+ Star Wars Travel Posters - Posters for trips on the Millennium Falcon, to Dagobah, Mos Eisley and Hoth. Personally, I’d be the first in line to sign up. But if I can’t go, hanging the posters up on my wall is the next best thing.

+ Colourful Collections in a Neutral Space - The first two pictures are my absolute favourite. The white walls of the second two are nice, but, eh, too much white. But the point is: all the colours. And all the really, really neat/pretty/eye catching objects. 

+ Linguine with Clams - Super easy, fairly quick and oh so delicious. What more can you ask for?

Hearts Everywhere

Tags

assignment, entertainment, fourth semester, local, published!!, social issue, winter

Just because it’s Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean we PhotoJs get a break. Nope. It’s Tuesday which means there’s a paper to put out (which can be found here, actually) and deadlines to meet and people to call and all people really want to do is finish and get home to their ~person.

(My person was me and I took myself out shopping for a new pair of shoes. I had a great time with myself, actually. I think I might take myself out more often, now that I think about it.)

Anyways, back to the grind stone that is the paper and our deadlines: I got my story handed in yesterday (yes, that was some slight bragging), and here it is:

Because of the layout, there were no pictures to go with it, so, I’ve included some. Because it’s Valentine’s Day and I feel like doing something nice for you all. This is what you’re getting since I’m keeping all the chocolate to myself.

Since this isn’t the news article, I figure some of my objectivity can fade off, just a smidge.

Essentially: it was done fantastically. The amount of emotion and caring that this group of high school students put in to this production was inspiring. I was sitting in the back, crying throughout the last scene. I’m not the hardest person to make cry, in all honesty, but just…the emotion and the intensity and the horrible, horrible fact that it’s all true just hit home and I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Even though the hall was freezing and it was a long play and I didn’t get home until late, it was all so worth it, just to be able to hear what happened, why it happened and how things have (or haven’t) changed because of it, or since then.

I have now gone all gross and weepy on you all and now I’m going to leave you all with some things I’m loving, besides this delicious bag of chocolate.

Things I’m Loving:

+ 4 DIY Projects – They’re all really neat, but the embellished tights? Yeah, I want those in my life. Stat. Now…to find the time, the energy and all of the things I’ll need, for one set time. Oh boy…

+ Valentine’s Day Playlist – One for if you want to be sexy, one for if you want to be subtle and one for if you want to be anti!V-Day!

+ 20 Common Grammar Mistakes – Oui, even I pull of one or two of these. As much as that is a surprise. (My mother is so proud of my humbleness.)

+ All The Single Ladies – An article on why it’s, you know, okay to be single. Oh, and why the rules are different between men and women, depending on age, the time period and how things have changed.

Family Friday

Tags

family, family project, random, winter

I can’t be the only one who got all excited that today was Friday and then remembered that they had things to do that went beyond the regular 9-5 deal. Though mine is (hopefully) going to be fun with an exhibition basketball game and then a play tonight. (Look at me, with my varied interests.)

But because I’ve already shown basketball pictures and I’m not counting too much on the play ones, I’m going to show you *gasp* older pictures. I haven’t shown too much from my time back home and I did a bit of editing on them a few nights back, so! I figured now would be a good time to share. You know, give a bit of a boost to all that work I’ll be doing this evening.

I promise that we have more rooms in our house than just the kitchen, as you can tell from the last picture on the couch. In our living room. However, the kitchen means you’re less steps away from the fridge, which houses the food. And we really like our food.

Things I’m Loving:

+ My Fault, I’m Female-  Blog’s description: “MFIF (My fault, I’m female) is a blog that shares stories of women who’ve been made to feel it’s their fault at work, at home, or wherever. It’s a little like FML, but with sexist bosses, stone age attitudes, pay gap stories, and plenty of ranting. We want to highlight what is still an entrenched problem in our workplaces, streets, and homes, while sharing stories on a non-judgmental platform.”

+ Top 10 Relationship Words That Aren’t Translatable – Words from other languages whose meanings can’t quite be translated into English, and the closest that we get. My favourite would have to be La Douleur Exquise. 

+ Jim Moray: Skulk – I’ve been listening to Jim Moray for years, ever since the song Lord Bateman mysteriously showed up on my iTunes. Here you can listen to his newest album online, with the option of purchasing it. Absolutely fantastic listen, really.

+ Tomato Tart – The weather is teasing us with hints of spring these days, and this just screams ‘warm weather’. Something I’ll definitely make for myself (possibly my friends) on one of those days that’s teasing us that spring’s going to show up.

Photobombing PhotoJs

Tags

fourth semester, random, sports, winter

When one of the only places to go shoot sports is your school, you end up running into issues. Issues like, “I have to get there half an hour early to get a good spot. Before the other PhotoJ students do!” Then, once you have that spot, it’s figuring out how to keep ALL OF THE PHOTOJS out of your picture. Which, quite honestly, is impossible. (Trust me. I tried.)

See the last picture as an example. Parts of three PhotoJs are in that picture. And I cut the fourth one out. It’s like there’s this unspoken sick game of ‘photobombing PhotoJs’ that we all play to see who has to awkwardly crop out the most PhotoJs from one picture.

The worst part is when it’s a really good picture and then there’s this guy in the background, just a little out of focus, with this huge camera/lens combo and then it’s the only thing you can look at. 

I’m at least consoled with the knowledge that most of them also had to try and crop me out of some of their photos. Some small satisfaction in that. 

 

Things I’m Loving:

 

+ Instantly Transform a Men’s Shirt Into a Dress – The video is so much fun and who knew there were so many ways to wear a shirt? BRB running to my Value Village to get all of the shirts. (Not that I didn’t already….)

+ 30 Must See Tumblrs – Because we all need one more tumblr blog to like, reblog and help us from doing productive things. *cough*Like homework*cough*

+ Roasted Winter Citrus – I love fruit. Either separately or else tossed together in a fruit salad. This just takes it and puts a new, fun, delicious spin on it. Definitely what I’m pulling out the next time my friends drop by ‘just because’. 

+ Sucker for Soccer – Simply designed typography football posters. All of them are beautifully done, and after my eyes were done wanting ALL OF THEM at the start, I think I’ve narrowed it down to a half dozen, possibly ten. Because really, they’d look kick ass clustered in groups of four in the middle of a wall. (Not that I have any walls to put them up on at the moment…)