The First Few Days of Fall

Well its that time of year again.  The leaves are beginning to change colour and fall off their branches.  The temperature is starting to crawl down to the single digits and the sky is frequently overcast with clouds.  Its autumn.  And this is perhaps one of the most ambiguous periods in the fall semester. 

Its ambigious for one reason really…midterms.  Midterms usually begin sometime between the first week of October to the third week in October in some cases.  Theoretically as students, we should always be studying for our classes and reading our textbooks…theoretically.  In reality however, its much more complicated than that.  Its one of those times were it still kind of feels like that school has just begun (even though its the third week of classes already).  So its kind of early to study for midterms.  And if you have a paper that is due, its normally not due until late November or early December.  So what is a student to do?

My suggestion is to hang out with friends.  Right now is prime time to conduct as much socializing as possible.  Why?  Because every ones schedule is so light.  People can afford to waste time and procrastinate, even miss a class here and there.  As long as you keep up with your readings and stuff (which in reality is not all that hard) socialize away! Do it now because once midterms hit, everyone is going to be a stranger and nobody is going to have time to hang out and chill…unless they have a sever case of procrastination.  If that is the case well then…I have no advice for you.

So waste as much time as you can now because you can comfortably afford to do so.  Go out with friends, stay out late and be merry because as soon as midterms hit, surely you are going to regret not getting it out of your system.

Don’t Bug Me, I’m Cranky

I am totally cranky at the moment right now.  Last night I got home really late.  After finishing an assignment I had found out about a few hours before, I ended up going to Tim Horton’s with a few friends of mine.  I got home at around 1.00am and didn’t get to bed til around 2.  I was then awaken at 5.30 for Sehri (those that are fasting in the month of Ramadan know what that is).  I then fell asleep again an hour later.  But this time it was more of a restless sleep.  I finally forced my tired old self up at around 11ish today and barely got to my 12.30 class.  I got there at 12.37 to be exact and ended up sitting next to this really annoying guy who kept exhaling really loud, making funny noises and talking to himself.  I figured after class I would go to the library and take a small nap like I normally do to rejuvenate myself.  The only problem is that just at the moment where I was about to fall asleep, I hear this loud horn go off…HONK.  Its some stupid construction worker right outside the library honking his loud truck horn every like 10 minutes.  On top of that, these ditsy first years came and sat down across the cubicle from mine and wouldn’t stop whispering to each other or digging through their purses and exchanging lip gloss. 

I have class in a bit.  I am hungry because I am fasting.  I am sleepy but cannot sleep.  On top of that I have a whole pile of studying to do and so little time to do it in.  My last class ends at 8 and it might possibly go beyond that.  I am scheduled to eat at sunset which is approx. at 7.35 if I am not wrong.  Everything in the food court ends up closing at 8.  And by the time I am out of class, I am sure the MSA will be out of food that they give out to all that fast.  This is going to be a long day… 

Just keep reminding myself…patience is a virtue.

Dark Sunday Evening

Tonight is one of those gloomy Sunday evenings.  The sun hasn’t set yet but the light outside is beginning to fade.  The clouds are thick and dark and the rain is subtly pitter pattering over the city.  And I can’t stop listening to this… 

Life in Suburbia

I believe it is in Urban design or Urban Planning where you study a theory that essentially asserts that the whole concept of Suburbia is inherently flawed in that a suburb is designed in such a way that it is not sustainable and thus self destructive.  The theory goes on further to assert that it is quite possible that the suburb and its entire lifestyle is perhaps the greatest misallocation of resources in human history.  This is because the suburbia is dependent on non-renewable energy.  In new developments, one has to drive to the corner store, to a shopping centre, to work and so forth.  Is not possible to simply walk or take the bus to these places because the design and layout of these living areas is as such that one needs a vehicle to get around.  Thus when non renewable energy runs out, it will be the end of suburbia as we know it. 

I am currently coming to this realisation as we speak.  I knew of these theory and the ideas and logic behind it for some time now.  But I never experienced or lived these ideas up until now.  How did this all happen? I simply did not maintain my car.  Apparently there was a knock in my engine which meant something inside my engine is broken.  Now I have to spent close to $2000 to fix this problem.  And as it stands at this moment in time, I am trapped in my house and have nowhere or no means to travel anywhere. 

The area where I live in is still being developed.  As I type this right now, there are cement trucks and earth movers roaring away right behind my house.  They are busy digging large holes for basements, paving streets and so on.  Because of all this development, we don’t really have any buses coming out this way.  There is a bus that comes every now and then but its schedule is so messed up that its better to consider it as not having a bus come by.  And within the community itself, there is not one store or plaza where I can go to grab a slurpee or a snack.  There is a shopping centre close to the house actually.  In fact, I can see it from my kitchen window.  It has literally has everything you could ever want…a Rona, Shoppers Drug Mart, KFC, Starbucks…some furniture store, etc.  But as it currently stands, its not easily accessable.  If I wanted to go to grab a coffee for example, It takes a good half hour walk to the Starbucks that I can see from my kitchen window.  This is because there is only one road in and out of the community.  So I have to walk around the entire community.  Not only that, I then have to cross a major artery that is frequented by bulldozers and large dump trucks filled with earth just to get my coffee.  THEN I have to walk all the way back.  So it takes me literally, one hour just to get my chai latte back to my house.  And by the time I get back home, into my comfortable sofa, the chai is cold. 

So if it takes me that long just to get a warm beverage, one can imagine that I am literally paralized in this suburban wasteland.  In order to live in these areas, one absolutely needs a car.  And not just any old car, you literally need a car that will not ever…EVER break down on you.  Because if you have a car that fails you, consider yourself to be a dead man because you’ll never get out of your house. 

As of right now, I literally don’t know how I will get to school tomorrow.  And if I do get to school, I don’t know how I am going to get back. 

Thus is my current life in Suburbia.

Start Wearing Purple!

So I got lost yesterday in the Youtubes of the Internets and I happened to stumble upon the Urban Prankser/Improve Everywhere website.  These are the guys that do live public art all over the world.  Anyways, one of the guys from Improve Everywhere was approached by Yahoo to do an ad for their ‘Start Wearing Purple’ website.  The jist of this add is that a women (an actor or agent as IE terms them) gets on an elevator and begins singing “start wearing purple” by Gogol Bordello.  Meanwhile there’s another agent in the elevator that tries to stir a light reaction from the other two strangers in the elevator.  She sing is kinda aloud to herself until they hit the next floor where another agent gets on seeing that the first agent is singing the song.  Before you know it both the agents begin singing.  By the time the third floor comes there’s a young guy (agent) who’s listening to the song on his IPod very loudly.  All of a sudden all three of these agents begin singing the song and dancing.  The forth floor surprises the strangers in the elevator when a guitarist and a drummer add to the festivities on this weird elevator ride.  As soon the 5th floor (what I am assuming to be the main floor of the building) arrives, all the agents stop abruptly and get off the elevator.  The strangers (and the actor agent stirring them up) are literally floored as they don’t know what just happened.  As they get off the elevator, four other agents get on to the elevator wearing nothing but purple. 

Watch the video below and you’ll get a better sense of the ad.  Its actually a very creative and brilliant idea on the part of IE.  Not only is the song catchy and sticks to your brain like glue, but the fact that they did it live with hidden cameras to total strangers made it all the better.  They ended up doing the same bit 15 other times to various people who were fortunate enough to step into that elevator that day.  You can find the rest of the videos and behind the scenes stuff at www.startwearingpurple.com

This sorta stuff only happens in New York City.

(P.S For all you Y! purists out there, here is the original link to the vid, playing in a yahoo video player which I don’t know how to embed into my blog: Yahooooo!

Target Dorm Commercial

I’d be watching some of the American channels every now and then and I couldn’t help but notice Target’s new commercialFor those of you that don’t know, Target is a store similar to Walmart.  Anyways Im watching this ad and its like one of the coolest ads I’ve seen in a white.  It has these two first year girls (Im guessing they’re first years) in their dorm dressing up the place while dancing to Calabria 2008.  There’s nothing really wrong with the commercial except that, what University has dorms this big? Their dorm is like bigger than my basement!  By the way, Target must have some really progressive (or young) people in their marketing department because stores like this normally don’t use songs like this. 

In a Frou Frou Kinda Mood

So today being Sunday, its only appropriate that as I write this, I am sitting in my bed, still in the state that I woke up which was about 3 or so hours ago.  Sundays are a perfect day to kill on youtube.  And thats exactly what I have been doing since I got up three hours ago.  I’ve been watching people’s variations of Frou Frou’s Let Go.  I don’t know what it is about this song but it always takes me aback.  Its like one of those songs that makes your day.  I am hoping this song will be stuck in my head for a few hours because I have to go to work in the evening.  This is the best variation of the song that I have seen on youtube today.  They are a Capella group called The California Golden Overtones from UC Berkeley. 

I Am Back and I Moved!

Greetings Strangers.

You may or may not have noticed that I have taken a break from blogging for the summer.  There are a few reasons for this.  The main reason is that I ended up moving from one house to another.  We built a house and after some delay we finally got possession about a month ago.  Before that we were busy doing renos for our old residence as we decided to put it up for rent and use it as a revenue property.  Getting that house ready for tenants was a lot of work I must say.  But yea…domestic duties have been keeping me occupied this summer and away from my precious blog.  School begins on Monday so I figured now is a perfect time to begin writing my blog once again.

This entry would not be complete without talking about the big move.  My family and I have been searching for a house for the last few years.  The only problem is that we began our search during the real estate boom in the city.  If we had bought a house early in the boom, we literally could have made something along the lines of anywhere between 100-200 thousand dollars.  But the only problem was every show home that we would visit would not have any lots to sell because they would be all out.  Then in the coming years, the prices of new houses got so expensive that we weren’t able to afford the house that we wanted.  The boom began to subside around last year.  And literally, this time last year my dad and I were driving around and decided to check out some show homes.  We went to this one builder and it turns out they were having a promotion on a house that was suited just right for our family.  We booked the house right there and then.  The odd thing was they didn’t have a show home for the house.  So literally all we had to go by was a rough outline that the builder had provided for us and some blue prints that they managed to give us.  You won’t believe this, the builders themselves didn’t know what the front of the house would look like as they hadn’t even designed it yet.  But by the grace of God, the house was built and it has turned out beautiful.

We have been busy for the last week or two trying to buy some furniture for the new place.  Mainly we were looking for sofas which we found.  We need some coffee tables and I am always on the lookout for decorating accessories.  I am starting to develop a good taste for interior design.  I actually picked out the entire colour scheme of the interior and exterior of the house when it was being built.  I am trying to go for that warm cozy feeling inside the house.  This involves a colour scheme with a lot of browns, light browns and earth tones in general.  I chose this scheme because for the most part, its always winter in the city.  Those browns and earth tones actually make me feel relaxed and cozy in the winter time.  Plus, they will surely fend off depression for my parents if it ever happens.  My whole philosophy behind it was that during the winter, one wants to feel good when they enter the house.  Hopefully, I will be able to achieve that look in a few months (decorating isn’t cheap!).

The area of the city we moved into is actually considered a higher end area.  Even though our house isn’t all that big (1800sq ft.) its a very sought after community.  The house itself has three bedrooms on top with a huge master ensuite complete with a shower and tub, a bonus room as well as another washroom for the top floor.  The main floor consists of a huge foyer, a living room/dining room and a family room.  We have a double garage as well.  Also, our basement is a walk out basement which is really cool.  The community itself has about a 120 acres of environmental reserve and so there are plenty of pathways to ride your bike and walk. 

Overall, I am really happy with the house.  To be perfectly honest, this is the first “nice” house that we have ever lived in so its kind of cool like that.  I feel like this new house is part of a new chapter in my life.  And with the new semester literally 36 hours away, I feel that this academic year is going to be filled with new and positive changes. 

*fingers crossed*