The last week of the school year is finally here.
Unfortunately, towards the end of every semester I tend to catch the flu. That means I have to try to buckle down, get all my assignments done on time, and study and write my exams with a stuffy nose and a headache. It is horrible.
Luckily, it’s just one short week until everything is over for the summer. Now I have to start job-hunting, which I’m sure is something everyone else is doing too.
I’ve heard the best places to apply are restaurants and bars. You get paid a little less than minimum wage, but the tips can get pretty good. Plus, you get put on a lot of evening shifts, which means more time to sleep in during the day.. win-win.
Summer
Topple
Recently I have been addicted to playing Topple 2 on my iPod Touch.
For those of you who don’t know what Topple is, it’s a game you can download for iPod Touch and the iPhone that times you on how well you can stack up different shaped blocks.. not much unlike Tetris.
It’s actually a lot harder than you might think. Each level gives you a platform – in the beginning you get a nice flat block to build on, and later on the game makes it more complicated by making you stack blocks on jagged surfaces and a set of scales. You also get bonus stars for reaching a certain height, doing everything within a certain time limit, and for a certain amount of points. But mostly, you’re just trying to get past the main finish line.
If you own an iPod Touch or an iPhone, I recommend you download this game now.
(I’ve been playing so much my computer screen is wobbling from side to side).
Graffiti
Yesterday, I had to present a photo essay for photojournalism. We got to choose our own topics of what we wanted to photograph, and we only had to have around 20-25 photos that told a story.
Originally, I was going to go different tattoo parlors and photograph their studios, artwork, equipment and maybe even a few people getting tattoos/piercings. I visited a few places in Burlington, but each shop was slightly sketchy about letting me photograph their equipment and their clients. It was hard to get good shots, so I switched my idea. I decided to photograph graffiti art instead. A few weeks ago, I had been to Toronto and took some shots of all the cool art murals and graffiti around Queen Street and in Kensington Market. Since I already had these shots done, all I had to do was travel around my town, Waterdown, in search of some teenage graffiti. I found that all the graffiti in Waterdown had many drug references, curse words and were just a jumble of words. It wasn’t appealing to look at, and was more an act of vandalism than an expression of art like it was in Toronto. In Toronto, graffiti artists took the time to add to the scenery of the city, and used huge wall space to display their designs and pictures. One restaurant was even covered in graffiti from top to bottom, which suggested that they asked, or even hired, a graffiti artist to do work on their building.
It’s interesting how different graffiti can be. In most suburban areas, it is vandalism and really has no purpose. However, in cities like Toronto, and New York City, the graffiti is an artistic expression and something enjoyable to look at.
My Name Is Earl.
I recently started watching My Name Is Earl on DVD. The show follows around Earl Hickey, also the narrator, who is a middle-aged man that has had a life of crime and robbery. The show kicks off with Earl buying a scratch-and-win card from a convenience store (with stolen money). He scratches the ticket only to find that he is the winner of $10,000. He then gets hit by a car and loses the lottery ticket.
While in the hospital, and after getting divorced by his wife Joy, Earl discovers Karma. He decides that he needs to turn his life around drastically or else it will kill him. He makes a list of all the bad things he’s done in his life, and decides that he needs to find a way to make each one right again. Along with quitting smoking, dancing with an extremely tall girl in her living room and going to a gay bar with someone he used to make fun of, Earl has to do some crazy things to cross people off his list.
My Name Is Earl only ran for three seasons until it got cancelled for lack of viewers, and supposedly it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. From what I’ve seen so far, the show is funny, has well-rounded and easy-to-like characters, and is quite addicting. For those who haven’t seen an episode of My Name Is Earl, I suggest you go rent the seasons now.
I’m wide awake, it’s morning.
I know that with good, there is always bad. But I never knew that with bad, you could get the good as well.
If that makes any sense.
it was so easy, and the words so sweet.
some moments just don’t last long enough.
I’m a little bit lost, but I think that’s okay.
Shiloh
Right now, I’m watching a documentary on TLC about a little girl that suffers from “mermaid syndrome”, or Sirenomelia, which fuses her two legs together. She was born with no bladder or vagina, only one ovary, and only a portion of a liver. She has to take a mixture of drugs two times a day to ward off lung infections. She can’t go to the bathroom so she needs to have two bags with her all the time.
This little girl, Shiloh, is only ten years old.
I don’t like to think that I take things for granted, but honestly I think most people, including myself, do. I live my life, day by day, going to college and coming home to a warm house with dinner on the table every night. I should feel lucky that I have everything I do. This week, I had a minor eye infection, and I was actually disgruntled when I found out I had to wear my glasses all week to school. I complain because my glasses get in the way of my hair, and I feel like I look stupid with them on.
Watching this show makes me feel sick. What gives me the right to complain about such trivial things when this little ten year old girl has a condition that gives her just one leg, and has to go through so much more than any other kid I’ve known. And she’s so happy, and full of life.
It makes me feel so self-centered and arrogant. Is it arrogance, though? Aren’t most kids just like me, complaining about trivial matters while taking for granted the things that some people have to live without?
We could just blame it all on ignorance, what we don’t see or hear or read about, we don’t think about. But is this a valid excuse?
It makes me so angry sometimes. Why is the whole world so selfish, so self-involved? Why is it that when I flick through channels on my tv, there are shows about the rich and the famous, being followed by cameras because they’re getting nose jobs or having babies, or shaving their head and whacking ex-boyfriend’s cars with umbrellas?
Some could argue that a lot of good people are doing a lot of good things for other people, other countries, which is true. But is it enough?
