To Snowboard, or not to Snowboard?

It's been put off for two weeks, and finally the day is here. Yes, the ski hill at Stony Mountain is finally opening on Saturday, and I couldn't be more excited.

The opening date for this season has been postponed several times already due to the erratic weather. All the regular snowboarders and skiers of the hill are just as bummed out as I am with the lack of snow. Daily updates on the ski hill's website have been putting the opening day off more and more, adding to the mutual feeling of sadness felt by all the disappointed boarders.

But the day is finally here; there is snow on the ground, the lifts are running, and everyone is excited to ride for the first time of the season.

What's Wrong With the '90s?

SO apparently discrimination extends further than race. I have experienced discrimination on several occasions this past week, simply because I was born in 1991. Comments such as "

Adam was a fetus when Smells Like Teen Spirit came out," are hurtful. Maybe I have always wished to be around for the whole Nirvana thing.

Anyways, how about we all stop discrimination, and just accept each other. I have nothing against the '80s or '70s, and hope some people learn to accept their peers for who they are.

Twitterrible!

It was horrible! I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when hundreds of people in matching robes came up behind me, following me, trying to put a giant '@' in front of me. Suddenly, I woke up.

I was never a fan of Twitter. I thought the whole idea of it was pointless. It seemed like a bare-bones version of Facebook, without all the extras.

My first Twitter experience began back in September, when Glenda and Jasmine challenged me to join Twitter for 3 weeks, and then say I still didn't like it. I took on the challenge, and won, but can't help but feel like I cheated them. My first 2 months of Twitter use comprised one tweet the day I signed up, and never going back again.

Now, I feel like the only person I cheated in that little contest was myself. A PR assignment, requiring singing up and following classmates, changed everything. Seeing the true potential of Twitter is exciting, and I can't believe how closed-minded I was back in September toward the website. It was a hatred, an ignorance-fueled hatred to all that is Twitter. Any mention of it, and good beginnings of rants would begin playing out in my head. The problem is that these little rants never had a point to make, and the argument of the seasoned Twitterer always prevailed.

I now realize the true potential (or at least part of it) of Twitter. Not just for sharing with friends, but for networking, for learning, for seeing others' views on a particular subject. Want breaking news? It's there.

The best way I have seen Twitter used in the short 3 days I have actually logged on regularly, would be tonight, where all of us CreComms helped each other. It was like a business conference, but more fun because there is a picture of a bird in the corner! Of course, it is more than that. Twitter takes instant messaging to a whole new level.

The capabilities with not only the web-based Twitter, but cell-phones as well are endless. Wireless messages to a cell makes connecting to the world so much easier, especially for us non-iPhone people. Simply sending an SMS to send a tweet, or retrieve another, I think that is remarkable.

So after a few months of hatred, anger, and ignorance, I finally see Twitter's potential, and not as a cult stalking me, or feeding me pointless information about what they are doing.

Lights!

The recent review assignment for journalism was cause for me to attend a concert. I thought this would be a great opportunity to go see a band I enjoy, however nothing in my interest was playing within the deadline of the assignment. I went with whatever I could find, and attended LIGHTS at the Garrick Centre.

My first impression on the idea of going to the concert was that it would not be very good, or of interest to me. the main audience LIGHTS has is 13 to 14-year-olds. Standing in line before tthe show, I felt awkward and out of place. I could see over top of everyone's head all the way to the front of the line.

Entering the building, getting my ticket ripped, I noticed a second table that all the concert-goers were skipping right past. I asked them what was hapening at that table, and it turned out it was to get a wristband as proof of age.

Several minutes later, i was in the theatre and ready to watch the show. the opening act, although had decent sounding songs, had very poor prescence on stage. the lead man made an attempt to connect with the audience and be exciting, but teh rest of the band remained motionless and he just looked awkward.

After a boring 40 minutes, the roadies began setting up the stage for LIGHTS. A wild array of keyboards and synthesizers filled the stage. eventually the stage was set, the audience was getting ancy, and the lights dimmed. The moment the stage was black, a supersonic soundwave rattled the theatre. I was worried about my eardrums breaking from the sheer vo9lume and pitch of the screaming fans.

LIGHTS took the stage and began playing a song off the new album. Issues with sound during the first two songs made first impressions of the show poor, but LIGHTS quickly won back the audience by her third song, February Air.

The visuals in the backdrop were fitting and exciting, telling the stories of the songs. Most of them were images of space and planets flying by, a field of stars moving around the screen. also in between songs comic book style cartoons were shown, depicting "captain LIGHTS" travelling around the universe searching for sounds to sample.

Overall, the concert was surprisingly well done, and I really enjoyed every part of it. It was very different from cocnerts I have been to in the past in the space themed visuals and musical style. When LIGHTS comes back to Winnipeg, I suggest going to it, I know I will.

The Doe on the Road

Driving home,
family dinner tonight,
I saw a sad,
and terrible sight.

A truck up ahead,
hazard lights flashing,
I apply the brakes,
(no sense in crashing).

slowly creep forward,
to the front of the truck,
and see what's the cause,
for all of this muck.

Framed in the headlights,
clinging to its life,
a single doe in a pool of blood,
as if stabbed several times by a knife.

Its head still moving,
trying to get up,
legs flailing wildy,
like a newborn pup.

Why the doe; what did it do,
to deserve an end in this way?
was the driver of the truck just too busy,
to slow down a moment in his day?

Or was the doe scared and tried to run,
wanted to escape its fate,
but wasn't agile enough to clear the road,
and moments later, too late.

the gravel road is a sponge to the blood,
cleaning it all away,
to be recycled into a new life,
to live another day.

so for that poor doe while it lies on the road,
as I look into its gaze,
I shed not one tear because I know,
god works in mysterious ways.

I Don't want Your $#@&* BALL!

A phrase commonly heard in my house in the evening, due to the persistence and irritation caused by a whole eight pounds of furry fury. of course, I'm talking about my little doggie, Pookie.

Pookie has been memorable since the day my family got her. She found comfort in calmly climbing up onto my lap and curling up. All in the house was quiet, and we liked it that way.

The month of quiet Pookie was Merely a calm before the storm. The dog was settled in finally, and I had discovered her natural ability to fetch, which was cause for excitment because we had never had a dog before that fetched. Any who, Pookie learned a game she could play, and we had a blast throwing a little stuffed lamb across the kitchen floor.

The following months showed a transition from sweet little puppy, to an insane beast, hellbent on getting a stupid little red ball thrown repeatedly for hours. Her persistence is astounding. She will try every tactic possible to get that ball in the air, and does it too. She uses the sweet puppy face, sitting at the edge of the couch staring. She will even try sharing, maybe to show just how fun fetch is, and she'll climb up onto you with the ball and try to put it in your mouth. Of course, the offer is appreciated, but you find yourself forced to throw the ball in an attempt to prevent future 'gifts' like those. Throwing it is exactly what Pookie wanted, and I give in every time, without even realizing it.

Give it half an hour of throwing the ball, anybody would be done in, and say, "that's enough Pookie," over and over at each of her attempts to lure you to throw it. every time she tries, your voice gets angrier and angrier, as the annoyance increases, until finally you feel the urge to just throw that damn little ball away so she can't find it. Of course, that is her goal, and she will chase after it, happier than ever. Outsmarted by a dog. How embarrassing!

If you're thinking of starting a blog, maybe what I have learned so far can help. As a weekly blogger for the past two months, I’ve learned a few things about the challenges and joys of maintaining a blog.

Posts
I’ve learned that it’s difficult to come up with an interesting topic every week. In the first week or two of having a blog set up, it was easy to come up with a new post every few days. Now, with increasing stress school work, it’s getting difficult to find the time to write just one every Friday. I don’t understand how anyone can have daily or hourly posts like my Ad instructor, Kenton, and still have it be topical and interesting. I suppose skill and creativity in writing a blog comes with time and practice. Just as a famous Winnipeg blogger who once came to speak to my class said, you could start your blog on one topic, but after a while in maintaining that blog, realize what you are actually writing about every time, and see that your topic has changed. When that happens, your blog becomes so much better because the new topic is something you are actually good at writing about.

Networking
I’ve learned how much fun it can be to have a blog. Knowing that your opinion is read and responded to with comments left, is the fuel that keeps the blog alive. Writing your views on something, anything, feels rewarding knowing that it is now accessible to the entire world. Having 25 classmates that also keep a blog, and read and respond to yours is good social practice. The thrill of typing out a post or reading one that is clearly directed at my class brings us all closer together. It is cause for conversation and debate at school the next day, which can quickly get very heated.

Ideas
Probably the most important thing I’ve learned about blogging is that inspiration for the next post can strike at any moment. It could be while you’re working, driving, on the bus, you never know when, so carry a pen and paper everywhere to jot down ideas. Even if the idea you came up with is super lame, it could be a lifesaver when it’s Friday afternoon, and you have no ideas for this week’s blog. There is bound to be a good story in every idea you came up with.

Freedom
My favourite thing about blogs is that there aren’t any rules. I have the freedom to write about anything, it doesn’t necessarily have to be related to the main topic. Of course, if it is related, all the better, but if you’re feeling like writing about something completely different, nobody is going to dock marks or criticize. The blog is, in my opinion the freest way to write. It is similar to poetry, in that if you want to make ridiculous statements or comparisons, you can, and nobody can dispute what you say. If you want to talk about why apples are the best fruit, nobody can say they aren’t because a blog is your opinion. Just as in poetry, it’s all how the author interpreted it while they wrote it.

If you are looking for a new way to write and get your opinion out, the blog is the way to go. I think they have the perfect mix of challenge in coming up with and writing an interesting topic, and the fun of sharing your piece with the world.

Those Darn Teenagers and their Grafitti!

So I'm doing kind of a sixth reason for Glenda's Five Indicators that you've sold your Soul to CreComm.

While driving home from the wonderful Red River College, I had noticed a new ad on the side of many city busses. It read,
"COMM NITY without YOU there would be no way."
It was for the United Way, and, I thought, very clever. Anyways, upon seeing it, I had the urge to snap a picture of it as I drove by, which turned out to be very dangerous to do while in rush hour on portage avenue. But I did it for the commitment to CreComm! I simply could not pass up the chance to apply some newfound Photoshop skills in conjunction with the COMM part of the advertisment.

You can only imagine my excitement to get home and post it on facebook, and my frustration at the construction on route 90 preventing me from doing so! A few quick strokes of the paintbrush at home, and voila! A tell-tale sign that I have sold my soul to CreComm! Within moments of the post on Facebook, I believe the word 'superlike' in all capitals was thrown around a few times. Anywho... Enjoy, all you CreComm addicts!

Buyer Beware: Chemical-Diluted Cleaning Products Should Not be in the Air!

This past month or so was dedicated more or less to the Buyer Beware project, which required my Ad class to break into groups and come up with a product to warn, or provide more information to the consumer about. My group comprised of Jasmine Tara, Jeffery Ward, Jérémie Wookey, and Zachary Samborski. We decided to test out how "green" cleaning products measured up against more traditional, chemical-based cleaning products.

First off, we had to decide what exactly we were testing in environmental products. To do so, we conducted a survey on the streets of Winnipeg, asking what people found most important in a product, if they would switch to more "green" products if they worked as well, not as well, and if they costed 23 percent more. To narrow down who we asked these questions of, they had to of answered yes to one of these questions: Are you responsible for buying cleaning products for your home? Are you responsible for cleaning your home? After brewing all of this information in our heads, we landed on the idea to test if environmentally friendly products measured up to the traditional, and trusted products.

After much debate, we decided on the Clorox Green Works line of natural cleaning products. They were perfect for what we were looking for. Because we had no access to a lab, or chemist to test how environmentally friendly, and chemical-free the products were, we needed something that had third-party authentication. Green Works had that. It is verified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) as containing only low-risk chemicals, used just as preservatives and colouring. Another reason Green Works had the products for us was their accessibility. They could be found at pretty well any large retailer such as Wal-Mart, Sobeys, Safeway, and Superstore. The last thing that made Green Works the perfect product to test was that they claimed to work as well as the traditional cleaners.

We eventually decided on Green Works Natural Dish washing Liquid, its competition Palmolive Original, Green Works Natural Bathroom Cleaner, its competition Tilex Bathroom Cleaner, Green Works Natural Glass & Surface Cleaner, and its competition Windex Original.

Now that we had our products chosen, it was time to get down to business. In order to keep the results un-biased, we each took turns taking the products home, and using them as we would for general cleaning to see if they work in normal conditions. In addition to that, we kept the results of those tests secret from each other until the final group testing was complete.

After we all had a turn, we got together to test the products in a more controlled atmosphere. To test the dish soaps, we smeared two plates with chocolate sauce, and ketchup, letting it dry on for about an hour. We then filled up two sinks with water, and added an equal amount of soap in each sink. Letting the plates soak for 15 minutes, we examined each, concluding that there was no difference in how well each soap performed. To test the glass cleaners, we separated a window with tape and cleaned each side with the cleaners. We did the same with a mirror, and also smeared olive oil on a mirror to see how the products would do with an extremely filthy piece of glass. Both products worked equally well, cleaning the window and mirror satisfactorily. Our final test was the bathroom cleaners. to test them, we separated a bathtub, again with tape, and cleaned each side with a different cleaner. we did the same with the bathroom sink. Again, both products performed similarly, the only difference we found being the "power of the spray" in the Green Works product. It was much more powerful than the Tilex product.

In addition to our primary testing, we conducted secondary research. Zach found information on US EPA, discussed above, Jasmine found professional reviews of the products, and I found what the average consumer had to say in consumer reviews on the Green Works website.

What I learned about these products was that they are, in fact, just as good as the traditional cleaning products. From the testing we did, all products performed identically. Very small differences were present, such as a little more chocolate sauce had dissolved off one plate at the one-minute mark, and then at the three-minute mark the other plate was doing a little better. I think those sort of differences are irrelevant, as after the full 15 minutes, the plates were identically clean.

Should everyone switch to green products? Yes. There is really no reason why anyone should not. With Green Works, far less chemicals run down the drain and into the lakes and oceans, causig damage to the environment. Also, the cost is pretty insignificant. While most environmental products cost 50-100 percent more than traditional products, and can only be found online or in specialty stores, Green Works cost just 23 percent more per millilitre, and is available at most grocery stores.

In summary, Green Works products perform as well as traditional cleaners. They have all the muscle needed to remove stuck-on-food, and any soap scum on the bottom of your tub. They also leave your windows invisibly clean. So next time you're at the grocery store, instead of reaching for that Windex, or other chemical-based cleaner, grab the bottle next to it, the one that reads Green Works. You owe it to the Earth.

Dessert Day!

Imagine arriving at school to a plate of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, or getting out of a seminar to the smell of delicious brownies. Good idea? I think so!

In class today, just before Public Relations started, Kiran and I were discussing sweets, and other baked goods when we came up with a wonderful plan. Every Thursday, 2 or 3 of us should bake something tasty, and bring it for the class to share at some point during the day. Of course, it would be different people baking every week. I believe this would make the long, eight-hour Thursdays go by so much better, and some of us may even start to look forward to the now dreaded Thursday.

This would also be a great opportunity to try out more unique treats. I'm sure we all know a recipe that nobody else has ever heard of. Imagine the possibilities!

C'mon guys, let's make our Thursdays the most exciting day of the week! Who's with me?

This past summer brought lots of crazy adventures, including snowboarding in July, wild bonfires, and general mayhem. A particularly mayhem-filled event was the spontaneous decision to construct a potato cannon with PVC pipe.

A short trip to Rona Home-Building Centre, and 40 dollars later, we had all the materials necessary to build an impressive looking cannon. The first attempt ended in failure, with nothing at all happening. Cannon 2.0 worked a little better, but still needed work. A few modifications later, and we were finally getting ignition of the fuel, only it was shooting flames out the top, side, and everywhere but the barrel of the cannon.

Cannon 3.0 involved a fair amount of duct-tape added on, after the whole backside of the cannon shot off and hit me in the stomach. It was now igniting the fuel every time, but still having problems. It was back to the work bench, trying to make it work. While doing so, a friend that was “helping” us build the cannon, decided to look around at the various screwdrivers and other tools, and found an old pair of children’s’ handcuffs, the older all metal kind.

He started to play with them, closing and opening them, and told another friend helping out, Krystal, to try them on. She was skeptical at first, of course, but agreed once he showed her that the safety unlock tabs worked. Krystal put them on, and when the novelty of it wore off, wanted to take them off. The only problem was the safety on one of the handcuffs was malfunctioning. Krystal began to freak out, getting anxious about the thought of going home to her parents stuck in handcuffs. It was simple, she had to get out of them, by any means possible.

We, of course, had a solution. It was simple really, a hacksaw, piece of Kevlar, and a big vice. Krystal put her arm in the vice, with the Kevlar between the handcuff and her wrist, and my friend Alan pulled out his trusty hacksaw, proceeding to cut the cuff off. In tears, Krystal watched as the razor-sharp blade passed just inches over her arm, slowly freeing her.

Alan stopped about 5 minutes in, realizing it was going nowhere. We needed a different tactic. Alan pried off the casing on the handcuffs, and mangled the locking mechanism inside, freeing Krystal, finally.

The outcome of that night was not only a hilarious memory, but an impressive potato cannon, that we were, and still are proud of.

Rock Band: Failure Edition

Picture a calm residential street, a cool breeze blowing, some birds chirping, all is calm. Suddenly the sound of feedback comes roaring through the trees. Amateur sounding music blasts out into the street from a garage, disturbing the peace.

From the other side, however, the loud disturbance is so much more thrilling. The feedback from the amplifiers sends chills through each band member as they blast into a full-force heavy-metal song. The thrill of a rock band with a few friends is a great experience for the rebellious teen.

It was about two years ago when i started a rock band of my own with a couple of friends. We successfully could play a total of half a song, and the intro to one other. the guitarist and I had been good friends for several years, and always talked about starting a band, but could never find someone who played the drums.

When we got to high school, we found a fairly talented percussionist, and decided to get together one day. It went horrible. We didn't know any of the same songs, and it turned out my friend could hardly play the guitar. I had to teach him songs, despite his refusal to learn because he "already knew them".

After a few practices, we could play the first half of one song (poorly), mostly because we started arguing. It soon got to the point that we could not even agree on a song we could potentially learn all together, and when we would start to play something, one of us would stop, and play something completely different to show off our "amazing talent". We fell apart quickly, and decided it was best to be friends, and not the world's next Rush.

I have not had a laugh this good in a while. On The Jay Leno Show this evening, two very quirky characters named Hamish and Andy introduced a brand new 'sport' they invented called Ghosting. What this 'sport' involves is closely following people around to see how long they can go without getting noticed. The result of it is... well, see for yourself.
The actual 'sport' begins at about 1:53.



I also found this video featuring the same guys, only this time, believe it or not, they take things a step further by 'ghosting' tag-team style.

the event starts at 2:10. My favourite part is definitely at 5:48 where they do the unthinkable by performing the 'Double-Decker Ghost'. You are guaranteed to laugh.

Remember to Tip your Waitresses!

Everyone knows this phrase from the end of cheesy stand-up comedians' performances, but why only the waitresses? Why not everyone else that contributed to the meal you just polished off? If it wasn't for them, the 6 oz. steak you just devoured would still be the backside of a cow.

Most restaurants do give cooks a percentage of the tips the waitresses make, but when people tip something like a couple of quarters, which is all too common, 10 percent isn't all that much. When the menu says it is made to order, they aren't kidding. A lot of work goes into every meal.

It's not only the cooks, but what about gas jockeys? Those people freeze beside your car, filling it with fuel as you sit inside with the heat cranked, only allowing the icy wind to enter through the small crack at the top of the window when you say "20" and pass through a crumpled bunch of bills. Minimum wage does not suffice for the frostbitten hands and toes, and snot icicles making a rash on their upper lip.

All I ask is that you keep this in mind the next time you are enjoying an expertly crafted meal, or sitting in your car thinking, "I'm glad I'm not out there." After all, if it wasn't for them, you would be freezing your butt off, or at home cooking a pot of KD.

The Love of a Vehicle

Today, I thought I would talk about my car, and the way I acquired it. I absolutely love my car, despite it being what most people would consider a piece of crap. The story all started in the beginning, the day I got my license.

when I first got my license, I used my moms car to get around when I wanted to go see friends, or work. The summer following brought a job that required a vehicle for everyday, so I asked my dad if I could borrow our minivan while
I needed it for the job. He was happy to help, and I had a vehicle that was (almost) all my own. I was the only person that ever drove it. Having a vehicle was the greatest, it gave me freedom to go where i wanted to go, and in style too. Sure, it was a minivan, but it also featured a TV, VCR, excellent sound system, and incredibly comfortable seats.

When the summer ended, and school was back in, sadness swept over me, as I knew I would have to give the van back. However, it was agreed that I could use it for the rest of the year in school, as long as I kept it in good condition, which of course, I always did.

Fall and winter came and went, and many great memories were made in the van involving good friends, and usually large amounts of fast food. In the following spring on my way home from school, the engine temperature light came on. Upon further inspection, I discovered a leak coming from underneath. The van became immobile, left derelict in the driveway. I was stuck taking the bus, getting rides to school from friends, and even from my mom sometimes. (How embarrassing)

A friend told me of this guy that he bought his car from, and said he could sell me a really nice car for cheap. Of course, I was thrilled to hear about all the details of it, and the special features, the sunroof, heated leather seats, Bose sound system, powerful engine, it had it all. The only downside was that this guy's shop was located in southern Manitoba just before the Floodway, and it was spring. That meant flooding and lots of it. I had to wait. I waited three weeks, and finally got the chance to head down to see my car, only to discover that the car my friend described was not even there! I looked around at what other cars there were, and decided on this sporty little red one, it was quick, comfortable, and, my favourite feature, had a standard transmission. (I always wanted to learn how to drive stick)

I took the car home, with not too much trouble, considering it was the first time I handled the manual transmission, and tried to practice whenever I could in the following days. Just two short days after bringing it home, I was obviously doing something wrong with my shifting, and blew up the clutch, causing that car to become immobile. I called the guy that sold it to me, and he said he could fix it, thankfully. the problem with that was I no longer had a vehicle, again, and had to drive the newly repaired van. All felt right in the world, I had my van, some more memories were made, life went on.

A call came one fine day, and my car was ready, again. I went down to pick it up, and this time did not make the same mistakes that led to my demise previously. Eventually The manual transmission became second nature to me, and I have never looked back.

that pretty much says it all, my new car is still running great, I drive it every day, and would never want to drive anything else.

Dipping My Toes in the Water

So this is my first post. I'm not entirely sure what to do here, I guess I will talk a bit about what my blog will be about.

so basically, I would like to share the spontaneous adventures I have with my close friends that we come up with while bored with nothing to do. In addition to that, i would like to talk about news, or what other crazy stuff people do for fun, and give my opinion on how great or terrible of a plan it was.

So I guess that's all for now, more posts to come shortly.

The City at 3 in the Morning

This past weekend, sitting around with a few friends in the small town of Stonewall late at night proved to be very boring. On a whim, someone said, "Hey! Lets go catch a midnight movie in the city!" That seemed like the perfect Adventure for our boring Saturday night, so we all piled in my tiny 2-door, and hit the road.

Twenty minutes of loud music later, not only were our ears ringing, we arrived at the theatre where sadly, there was no midnight movie. We were all very disappointed, But being someone to never miss a moment, we used our trip to the city to find something to do; we were not going to head home, that would be boring again. First, we stopped at Wal-Mart to discover it was closed. Next we decided to head down portage avenue to see if any nice cars were out driving around. That was entertaining for a little while. We suddenly found ourselves on main street, so not to

end our journey there, I said, "Hey! Lets go explore the city!" That sounded like a great idea, so we started to drive around. We flipped a coin to decide which way to go, and eventually got lost in the depths of Winnipeg. The city is an interesting place. Me, living in small towns my whole life, have never been able to experience what it's like to be in a place so busy, even in the dead of the night.

The sights we saw were very exciting. We checked out Osborne Village, which is always exciting, drove down the Corydon Strip, which was also full of excitement. We turned down the music for a moment, rolled down the windows, and just listened to the sounds of the street, the people talking, cars whizzing by, chiming of the "Don't Walk" signal. It wasn't just the sounds that were exciting, the sights were also fascinating. There were people all dressed up for a night on the town, walking down the streets. Some buildings were lit up with all sorts of neon lights that changed colour over time. In the trees, bright colourful Christmas lights were strung. It was almost magical. It is difficult to think that this sort of stuff goes on every night, while back at home, its dark, and absolutely no one is to be found outside.

That trip was an eye opener to how much really goes on in the world that I was oblivious to. Now, my friends that went on the trip and I plan on having similar trips regularly, and once the last of us reach legal age, will maybe even go walk down that Corydon Strip, and join in the nightlife, making some memories of our own.