Stars - Take me to the Riot

This isn't the most exciting music video, but I really love this band and this song. However, this vid does make me wanna take off on a road-trip with my friends. Anyone down??

Cass Bird

So I'm taking a photography course this semester. I have a feeling I won't get a chance to really learn how to become a great photographer, but I still have always had a love for great photographs. I'm a big fan of photographs that have people in them, but with the candid/un-posed look (even if they are posing, they look like they're not...know what I'm sayin'?). I discovered a really good photographer named Cass Bird. Some of her photographs are a little scandalous ha, but I really like a lot of her stuff. Perhaps someday I can be good like her. She does a lot of black and whites (so classic). I think if you can learn how to really work black and white photographs, you can rock coloured photographs. I really like a lot of her style.
Take a look at some of her stuff: http://www.cassbird.com/.

Hit 'Em Up!

If you've ever had the desire to hit someone...or if you've ever had the desire to hit someone and make a sweet beat out of it, please click on the link below. Also, on that page, watch the original video:

http://poirier.departement.ca/

A Diva is a Female Version of a Hustler

Beyonce can get away with anything....even stealing my dance moves and my shades. Check this.

I am clearly going crazy

So, this year was the first season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada. One of my favourite shows out there. The dancers are absolutely amazing (I wanna be like them when I grow up). Unlike the Idol shows, these people are actually talented and the judges have productive things to say. I was a dedicated viewer this season and I definitely called Nico winning and Allie being runner up.

Enough with the prelude.... Here is the big news:

I AM GOING TO THE SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE CANADA TOUR!!!! On February 9th I will be in heaven for the evening!

Anyway, Christmas gatherings are finished and I am exhausted. I love my family, but I think this year I would make a bet that someone probably secretly made a plot to see how long we could make my gatherings. Christmas still will continue for me, though, until Jan 2nd when my sister and bro-in-law come up for St. Paul, MN for some quality time with us.

Also, watched episode 20 of The Hills... Spencer! Did I see a twinkle in your eye when you didn't force Heidi to marry you ghetto style in the court room?! Nice.

Merry Festivities

Today is the merry day of Christmas Eve. Apparently I bought my last present today in a mad rush. Well, not so mad, but I just absolutely hate going out shopping on days like this. Too many people not heeding to the traffic laws of malls. Seriously, do we need to stop in the middle of doorways when there clearly is a jam already??

I'm feeling in the Christmas mood...perhaps I will watch Love Actually. This, along with White Christmas, is in the list of the top movies for me to watch in the holidays.

Also, I think everyone should check out this band and listen to the best rendition of the song White Christmas ever: http://ca.myspace.com/amosthetransparent

Apparently my family is starting it off early here and eating alcoholic chocolates at 3 in the afternoon...my preference: chocolate filled with Bailey's. It is time.

Merry Christmas!

The HILLS at JILLS?!

So apparently The Hills is a show that I have been missing out on. At my apartment I don't have cable, so I didn't get MTV to watch The Hills ever. Going home to my parents house for the Christmas holidays, I got excited that I had cable and would be able to see what I was missing out on for so long. Nope. Don't get MTV. My little heart was crushed. Then today, to my surprise, I came across CTV which by chance happened to be airing The Hills. Better yet, a total marathon of The Hills! Luckily I was feeling flu-ish so I had an excuse to lie around and watch it all day! HA! So now I can keep up with the latest of The Hills gossip. Haha.

By the way, I hate living where I do. Not far enough away from the city to call it "soooo far" but just far enough away that I have to plan the trips out there and not be able to make lots of events because of it (and not having my own car)!

Ps- I HATE SPENCER!!! Ugh..

Get off your Ashley furniture

I did not grow up with gaming systems in the house. So when I read the article by Steinkuehler and Williams called Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" I was quite impartial to what they were discussing about the gaming world. I've always had a bit of an opinion about about gaming, but I often don't know what to think about online gaming where you connect with other people and play against them and interact with them.

Being someone who has been quite an active person her whole life, seeing people spend hour upon hour in front of the television playing video games. In my opinion I think online gaming is a poor excuse for socializing with others. I have a friend who is a complete "gamer" and I have to admit, he is quite socially awkward when it comes to public situations. I'm not basing my opinion on solely him, but I have seen this in many "gamers." In the article, Sennett states "people can be sociable only when they have some protection from each other." I find this to be a plausible statement to me. Maybe it's because I'm a sociable person that I'm bothered by the whole gamer lifestyle (I don't mean to offend any of you readers out there), but I feel that there are much better things that these people could be doing with their time to benefit their minds and health (those two even co-relate). How can anyone expect to get decent social skills when a majority of the interaction that hardcore gamers get it through online contact; there is no direct face to face interaction. Like Sennett said, there's protection there. Please realize that not everybody gets their dream job of being game testers, so you're going to have to get up and learn a thing or two to make ends meet, and gaming probably won't be one of the acceptable things on a resume.

I guess I just don't really know how to respond to these chat parties about games and such because I just am quite unfamiliar with it. I've just never been too gung-ho about it.

Praise the god WWW-Dot

When I read the article by Cheryl Anne Casey entitled Online Religion and Finding Faith on the Web: An Examination of Beliefnet.org I was struck by a few key sentences and basically couldn't focus on much else, one of these sentences being "God created a set of conditions from which life would emerge. Like it or not, the Internet is one of the most dramatic examples of something that is self-organized. That’s the point. God is the distributed, decentralized system" which was a quote by a woman named Sherry Turkle. I was actually taken aback by this comment!! It hit me how people are actually treating the internet like some sort of god! Yes, lower case "g". Lately, I've been feeling that religion is being more of a fad than a deeper-self choice. And what an easier way to pick what kind of god to worship than one that is right at your finger tips where you can pick and choose and explore different faith's and basically make a little spiritual collage of what you believe in, all in the house of the god of "www-dot".
But woah now, I am not saying that the internet is like the anti-christ. I love the internet. It is so handy. I am talking strictly in terms of religious uses, like beliefnet.org. Let's not go personifying the world wide web. Yes, the internet has really helped to tighten different types of communities in the sense that they can communicate with each other and church bodies can connect (and obviously in more ways than just religious reasons...), but please let us not forget what is on the other side of that screen sending out those emails, posting those bulletins, updating those web pages: real people!! People like you and me, not some sort of gadget god or godess.
Alright, now that you know what one sentence out of the entire reading said, I apologize for not really responding to much else. This little tid bit of the article just got my heart a-beatin'!!

Rant done.