Friday, April 20, 2007

That Crazy Redhead

well, since i was just visiting my uncle, i had a chance to do some catching up with archie comics, a guilty indulgence of mine that i only participate in at his house, because my cousin still collects them. i wish i still had my old books... maybe ill start buying them again. anyway, so i was trying to avoid learning about cell migration for the second time when i decided to go on the archie comics website. needless to say, the "note to parents" is hilarious. it discusses, in detail, how the website is supposed to depict the characters in "the wholesome manner in which they are depicted in the books" and they adhere to a number of guidlines to meet this standard the last of which is, AND I QUOTE: "[that the characters] never be shown engaging in any activity which is contradictory to the commitment of ACP to the use of the characters to promote good dental and personal hygiene."
HAHAHAHA there it is folks, archie and the gang exist, in part, to help promote good dental hygiene!!!! in all my years of reading archies, ive RARELY seen any of tehm brush their teeth, and i dont think ANY of them have ever been to the dentist. not to mention the bottomless sundaes and piles of candy and bubble gum jughead goes through. dental hygiene. man, that made my day.

HAPPY EARTH DAY

well comrades, here it is, another beautiful earth day. looks like spring was just waiting for earth day to make its appearance. this has been a great earth day for me, i spent almost the entire day lolling about in the sun with sabrina. first we went to the park, and i read her the lorax. i read her the lorax almost every week (shes probably sick of it) but i was extra excited to read it on earth day. then we played on the swings, and once my ass got sore from being crammed into a swing, i just laid in the sun and watched sabrina swinging away. then we went back to her house and had snack outside in the backyard, which was great. then her dad came home and we hung out for a little bit, and now im back home, the sun is setting, and i have to get to work on biology. what a beautiful day. i cant even bring myself to be that miffed about needing to miss swimming to study. so i hope all of you found time today to appreciate this glorious planet we have, and maybe those resource wasters among you have realised that this is our spectacular planet, and we should do what we can to make it sustainable forever.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Pheonix


this is the piece i did for clancy for Christmas "pheonix"

Pussycat Dolls???

DISCLAIMER: I AM ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT EVERYTHING I AM ABOUT TO SAY HAS BEEN SAID BY SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALREADY
ok so, i know this is a little behind the times, but in an attempt to avoid studying for logic, i found myself looking up stuff on the pussycat dolls. the first time i heard about them was on ryan's blog: www.ryjuice.blogspot.com, where he reviews their album, and i strongly reccommend you check out his review... it pretty much says it all. anyway, based on his review, and my boredom, i decided to watch a couple of their videos, and heres what i have to say:
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS?????
are they supposed to be singers? because they arent! theyre almost strippers masquerading as singers, and really, only one of them does any singing, and she sucks. man, this band is so ridiculous, its not even FUNNY. ALSO, i would like to add a side note, that dancing like a stripper is EASY. the only thing that makes one stripper better than another is how hot she is. as far as that goes, all of these girls are smokin. and thats it.
so, to sum it all up, the pussycat dolls suck, and dont make any sense
in other news, check out the fratellis... flathead is amazing and so is got ma nuts from a hippy.... these guys are rolling in as a close third for my favourite band...
also, check out ryans blog. ryan is a hilarious blogger (although he doesnt blog that often) and a talented artist. :)

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

"Drama"

"Courtland and Callie" (with their portraits)

Some More Art

"Caleb"



"Fireworks"


"Flower"


"Mountain by the sea'


"Courtland and Callie"

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Tim


this is a painting of a parrot i did for my uncle and aunt. i named him tim.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

50 Signs You Might Be An Asshole Student

well, well, my favourite blogger, waiter, of www.waiterrant.net , published three seperate lists entitled "50 signs you might be working in a lousy establishment, 50 signs you might be an asshole customer, 50 signs your waiter is an asshole" the lists, for the most part, were great, and the comments following them up were great also. so, i have been inspired to write two lists of my own, in kind, and here is the first:
50 SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE AN ASSHOLE STUDENT
1) you DEMAND that the teacher post lecture notes, and berate them on internet forums if they dont
2) you DEMAND that the teacher post readings, and berate them on internet forums if they dont, instead of just using the INDEX
3) you DEMAND that the teacher post practice exams
4) you DEMAND the teacher post readings, after you have already looked up the relevant readings in the book and posted them
5) you haggle with your ta/the teacher over a mark, when, if you get your way, your test mark will only increase by 0.5%, and therefore make NO contribution to your final mark in the class
6) you make a point of telling everyone about your upcoming med school interview, but act like you dont really care
7) you make a point of telling everyone that youre re-writing the MCAT, after you tell them how "bad" you did, only getting in the 90th percentile
8) you tell your teacher, in front of everyone, before class begins, that "this course is going to make or break my 100% cumulative average for graduation, i only got 97% on the midterm"
9) you tell teh teacher its his or her fault you did poorly on the test
10) you cut off your peers in the middle of a discussion
11) you dont show up for group meetings
12) you start showing up for group meetings a week before the project is done and then start trying to commandeer the whole thing
13) you ask lab mates for primary literature, but ignore the same lab mates when they ask you for somethign
14) you are passive aggressive
15) you make sure everyone who comes within a 5 mile radius of you knows that you dont drink because youre "serious" about school
16) you find it appalling that some people take time off from school
17) you find it appalling that some people work for a living
18) you eat at the establishments where these "appallling" peers of yours work and throw up on the tables after binge drinking
19) you eat at these same establishments and punch holes in the wall
20) you eat at these same establishments and have sex in the bathroom
21) you wear any sort of engineering faculty clothing
22) you call people "retards"
23) you use the word "gay" to mean "stupid"
24) you think family guy is a great show
25) you think you are incredibly intelligent but you dont know what the word "rhetoric" means
26) you think you are incredibly intelligent but you dont know what "mutually exclusive" means
27) you wear your skankiest clubbing outfit to class on the first day of spring, no matter how cold it is
28) you give smokers on campus the evil eye, but have no problem bumming smokes at teh bar because youre a "social smoker"
29) you bum smokes on campus and dont say please or thank you or im so sorry to do this and then jsut walk away like i owed you a favour anyway
30) you go to the library "to study" and just talk on your cell phone in the non-designated areas
31) you use the library computers to talk on msn when other people need the computers to print of assignments
32) you go to the second cup and have really "sophisticated" "philosophical" conversations loud enough for the whole world to hear
33) you relay some story to a girl about when you were in germany and make sure you say the dialogue once in german and once in english just so that she KNOWS you speak both languages.
34) the days leading up to reading week, every sentence has the words "bathing suit" "cancun" and "tanning" in it
35) you make sure to tell lower years that youre working on your undergraduate thesis to make yourself feel important
36) you have a blackberry (who are you? a lawyer?)
37) you get a new ipod every six months
38) you have never been downtown. not even once. not even to go to a movie
39) instead of using your supervisor's computer which has all of teh software you need for your project, you decide to waste a group meeting that everyone had to juggle their schedules to attend, to download trial software on to your laptop instead
40) you consider yourself an "activist" but all of your clothes are from places like the gap, banana republic, club monaco, etc, (my MOM bought them for me! what are you, six?) and you talk down to everyone in the service industry
41) you have never. ever. had a job
42) you consider yourself and environmentalist, but you drive an SUV (but i recycle!)
43) you think being a maroon (spirit leader) actually looks good on a med school application
44) you think that it takes 6 people to make a collage
45) you think that the teacher is talking to you, and you alone, during class
46) you think you and the teacher are friends
47) you are just pretending to like a teacher so youll get a good reference
48) you stop going to your volunteering job once your med school application has been processed
49) you think getting on the guest list at the campus bar is really cool
50) you think the campus bar is a club

Russian Caravan

as promised, i am going to review any new teas that i try. so, here we go, tea #1. RUSSIAN CARAVAN is a tea that i bought one, maybe two, weeks ago by Choice Organic Teas. Of course, i only bought it because it said "'russian caravan" on it, and it is a black tea, of which i am running low. anyway, so the back of the box informs us that "organic russian caravan tea features the bold flavours so highly sought by the 19th century Russian Czar. Camel caravans laboured over a perilous route from China, and months of nightly fires added a heady aroma to the tea cargo. Our select black tea blend combines rich yunnan with distinctively smoky lapsang souchong"
alright, so once i saw this tea had yunnan in it, i was pretty excited, since golden heaven yunnan is my favourite tea ever (see post: sweet elixer of life!), but i had never tried lapsang souchong. after doing a little bit of research i found out that lapsang souchong is a smoked tea, which is where this tea gets its strong aroma. upon opening the box, i was assaulted with the strangest smell. at first, the smell is mild and nice, but then the overpowering smoky pine smell is enough to knock you off your feet. it smells like wet, burning wood... not that pleasant. so i was a little apprehensive, but i made a cup anyway. i thought maybe once i poured the tea, it would smell better. no such luck, once it was steeped, it still smelled pretty awful. but, once i put a little milk in it, the smell was neutralised somewhat, and the scent became more of a subtle smoky aroma. surprisingly, the taste was alright. with milk, the tea tastes more like a mild black tea, with the faintest smoky aroma, and its not that bad. all in all i would give this tea a 3.5 out of 5. not terrible, not great... im sure i will finish the box. if anyone is thinking of trying it, dont be mislead by the offputting aroma before theres milk in it. the milk really settles it down.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Gifts From God

today, i want to send this post out to my dear friend amit. in this trying time of my life, where i have been struggling with just about everything, i have really learned that friends are gifts from God. amit and i met one fateful day in plant biodiversity lab, and we have been adventuring together ever since (see posts about my birthdays, and many restaurant reviews, and just general posts about my adventures). today i had some trials. i was struggling to come up with a thesis for my ecology paper, and then at swimming, in spite of acheiving a personal best, i had a bit of a run in with my coach. long story short, i wasnt happy with my performance during a set and my coach hauled me out of the pool to give me a talk about how im doing well and he didnt mean to push me too hard and that i should take pride in the team no matter what and so on and so forth and since im a big overachiever, this display of kindness in the face of feeling lousy just made me more upset. so anyway i just got home, and im feeling like crap, and then theres an msn message on my computer from amit that im not answering my phone. so i call him back and i didnt even tell him about my lousy day and hes like want to grab coffee. and im like, yes, yes i do. and so i want to thank you, amit, for always being there for me. and i want you (and everyone who reads my blog) to know that i am so thankful to God for bringing us together. weve both had our trials and struggles, and weve both driven each other up the wall at times, but if there's one thing im taking from four years of mcmaster, it is our friendship.