Media vs. Real Life

I follow 62 people on Twitter at this point. Compared to a lot of people on Twitter, that's really not many, but with only 62 people to tweet I still have days when I check my feed after a few hours and I have 100+ tweets.

tweet! tweet! tweet!
even the sound of birds get annoying

How am i supposed to read and retain all of that?!

Plus on a daily basis I try my best to read the Winnipeg Free Press online, the Metro, and any important article that CBC Manitoba may tweet. Plus I have my friends and classmates linking me to news articles all day on Facebook and Twitter from different news sources which I try to read as well.

I still feel like I'm constantly behind in the media.

Information overload will claim the sanity of countless students every year.

It is so difficult to feel like you have all the correct information on a new story when it's easy to find and read countless articles, blogs, and editorials about the topic. How do you know exactly what's relevant and what's not? How do you know if you're reading something completely slanted to one side of the debate?

I just want to be able to hold my own in an intellectual conversation about recent events. But wait... that's another way we gain information. Word of mouth.

So there's really no way to escape information overload if you want to feel like a working member of society, is there?

outside can be nice too

To be as properly informed as I would like to be I would have to:

-watch the morning news when I get up

-listen to the radio on the way to school

-read the papers when I'm in line for my morning coffee

-check the blogs as soon as I get to class

-simultaneously have my news apps going on my iPad

-tweet about all that I've read so far, then read the replies I get

-repeat previous steps using different papers, stations, and blogs

With all that crammed into my day plus all day school and all night work, sleep would become obsolete. Oh yeah... and assignments and studying.

Maybe that's the way some people live, but I can't do it. I have deadlines, study material, my job, and some days even a personal life bouncing around my mind.

I love being informed. I love feeling like I have a grasp on reality, and on the world around me but sometimes I need a break. I need my time to enjoy music, and outside. That's the real world to me.

lazy cabin days. No cell service, internet, or TV.

Not my computer, my iPad, or my Twitter and Facebook feed.

I would rather have a couple hours a day of ignorance to enjoy life.
Information is important, but when you look back on your student life you can remember your iPhone, Twitter, Facebook, and news apps.

OR

You can remember the people in your life, the relationships you formed, and the moments you enjoyed and really lived. Real memories.

This is what I want to remember... not my iPad.

Car Band

I'm a drummer / percussionist / singer
In my car.
Elsewhere I'm terrbile at all three... Rock Band told me so.

Today my car beats have been Bloc Party's album Silent Alarm.
Bloc Party is not meant to be played quiet and my one gal air band is not either.

I've figured out over the years how to keep my band hidden though and I've assembled a few rules:
-Never perform when oncoming traffic is busy
-Never perform when following behind someone you know
-Never perform around your desination point, especially when its work
-Only perform to your full capabilities when alone.
-Never begin a performance until you're out of your driveway

Follow these quick guidelines and your one man car air band will remain anonymously.
Keep jamming.

Sweatpants

My addiction to my sweatpants is ruining my life.

It is currently 2:30 pm sunday afternoon and i have only poked my head out of my room twice today.
Once my mom made pancakes and bacon. necessity.
The second was to shower. necessity.

My sweatpants trap me in my comfy little cave.
The outside world isn't ready for us.

I used to study and do homework at starbucks or the UofM... now i study in my sweatpants in my room because that's the only place we're fully accepted. My UofW sweatpants got wierd looks at UofM.

I used to go on osborne shopping days or make the trek out to Polo Park.. now I shop online because the girls at stores dont help people that look homeless get stuff off the top shelves.

All I want to do on weekend is sleep and spend quality time with my sweatpants watching TV on my laptop.
I don't watch TV on the TV anymore because I think it's even unacceptable to be in sweats in the middle of the day in my own house.

I can hear the wind blowing from my room so that's a definite NO on the leaving my bed until I have to go to work.

This is how my sweatpants make me feel:

(cover your ears kids, there's some language...)

Cooking Rice

Everyone is good at something. That thing for me is NOT cooking. 

I have never been able to successfully cook rice which has bothered me for a long time; so my mom walked me through it the other day.


1.  Measure rice and water. Put in pot.
I can handle that.














2. Bring to a boil
Clearly I couldn't handle that quite as well. Overflow!

I also made veggies and chicken.... pretty big accomplishment.
They did not burn.
*something I wish I would have remembered - mushrooms don't take as long to cook as carrots*
Mushroom mush.

3. Get mother to take rice off heat...
I was watching Modern Family... whoops!

That's better than usual! No black pieces.
4. Let pot rinse for a long time. Not my fault rice sticks to everything.

5. Mix all that crap together. Add soya sauce. If you're more
skilled then me add stuff that skilled cooks add.

That's about as far as my cooking skills go.
I typically live in a world of grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken fingers.
I can make a mean stir fry; but that's really my only talent.
Anyone have any easy student friendly recipes for me?

Not a Nose Job

The ego trip my immune system has been on lately came to a screeching halt last night; I think I've finally caught the dreaded CreComm cold.

The sniffles have been showing up for the past couple days but I've been in denial. Now it's time to accept the truth.

Granted, I am proud of my immune system for fighting this long; see, I had surgery on my nose in June, and this is my first cold since then.

And no, it wasn't a nose job.

I had a Septoplasty which no, is not a fancy word for "nose job".

Up until June breathing through my nose has been impossible to very challenging at best for my entire life. My nose was shaped like this:

More exaggerated... I'm not that much of a whiner.

So I got that straightened out. And yes, it is considered reconstructive surgery but no, I maintain that I did not get a nose job.

I'm no doctor, but between my "not a nose job" nose job and my recent health, I've got to believe that my surgery helped. I used to get a cold every two weeks or so.

Having so many people together in confined spaces at school however, has defied my belief that my surgery had cured the common cold. You guys are just too germy.

Election Night

I had an awesome time doing election coverage in my own riding Tuesday night with CreCommers. Here's a blurry unedited snapshot of what went down for me on election night!

Enjoy!

Heading out to see Theresa Oswald

                                        Global brought some stuff...

                                                    ...And so did I

                                                Results starting to come in

                     We won! I mean... I wasn't rooting for anyone but journalism.

                                                    Alright lets start writing!

                                                         ...what cha doin recorder...

                                               NO SERIOUSLY. WHAT. CHA. DOIN?! 

                                      Lost all my recordings Angry Birds therapy session

                                           Pulled myself together to get a story going

                                                          Yay! all done.

                                               Gunna go drop this off in sketchville

                                                      1:18....

                                             ...And I'm out of gas. awesome.

                                            Back on track! An abandoned Main Street

                                                   Red River College!

                                                         And.... sleep.