from zero to thirteen

no need to feel embarrased anymore! zero medals in the first week, but thirteen medals in the span of a few days in the second (including one gold by an asian - sweet!) we've already beat the medal count from athens, yay! keep them a comin' team canada. :)

p.s. how beautiful are these medals? those rings inlaid in the gold, silver, and bronze are 100% jade - i love the asian influence! china really went all out for the olympics (right down to the medals) and continues to impress me with their hosting of these games. canada has a lot to live up to for vancouver 2010. o_O

canada, where are our medals?

beijing 2008 has been so exciting to watch (especially women's gymnastics and swimming - the water cube is the coolest building ever!), but sadly it has also been a really bad olympic games for canada so far. with the US with their 29 medals (darn them!) and china with their 27 (yay china!), our zero medals to date has been nothing short of embarrassing. (no offense, but even mongolia has a medal.) i know that the athletes are trying their best and i recognize that i could never even come anywhere close to doing what they do so all the power to them, but i'd be lying if i said it hasn't been frustrating to watch. i think this kind of sums it all up.

nevertheless there's still time and so there is still hope. come on team canada, you can do it!

hnic anthem challenge

so i did it. i took the plunge and submitted my attempt to fill in the big shoes left behind by 'the hockey song'. at first i was pretty hesitant, but i figured i didn't really have anything to lose to at least try, so i threw something together using garageband (well, after i figured out how to work the program, haha), tweaked it a little bit here and there, and this is what i came up with.

i suppose the worse thing that can happen is that i don't win, but i'm not even really going into this with any expectations so i guess i'm in a pretty good place. let me know what you think.

the 29th olympiad

so the 2008 summer olympics in beijing have begun! hello days of sitting in front of the tv, watching hours of sports (usually unheard of for me), and trying to soak in as much of the olympics that i can while it's still here. can't believe it's already been 4 years since the last one...

i'm especially excited for swimming, women's gymnastics, diving, rowing, and some of the running. can't wait! i'll be cheering on canada, australia, and china. alright, let's go get us some medals!

carrying the banner

so i finally got my hands on a copy of newsies this past saturday and although the last time i saw this movie was at least 7-10 years ago, it was like being reunited with an old friend. i've already watched it 4 times (not including watching clips of the movie here and there), sung all the songs at the top of my lungs, and watched all the bonus material. hahaha. i'm freakin' amazing.

i miss good quality movies like this - they're just not the same nowadays. my apologies to the high school musical fans out there, but newsies totally kicks high school musical's arse over and over again. the dancing is better. the singing is better. the music is better. the storyline is better. everything about it is just better. oh and did i mention that christian bale is in it? (i love christian bale - loved him ever since newsies!) come on now let's be honest, zac effron has got nothing on christian bale. i mean can you imagine zac effron as batman? eww, gross.

p.s. speaking of batman, i watched the dark knight with justin last friday and it was so good! scary at times (yay for justin letting me peek through his fingers!), but really good nonetheless. heath ledger was phenomenal as the joker. it's easy to see why he would have been so disturbed and unable to sleep - that joker is one deranged lunatic - its too bad how things turned out. so tragic. in any case, he was great and i really do hope he gets that oscar.

crumbly crumbly crummy crummy

i've been feeling a little crummy today. not sure if it's the weather, the fact that i have a lot of things to do but no motivation to follow through, withdrawal from a great weekend (that's another post for another time), boredom, or because my room is messy (it really does make a difference.) in any case, i had high hopes for today to be a productive one but it has just been one of those days. here's to hoping tomorrow will be bigger, brighter, and better - good thing it's only a day away.

mute to the math, whut?

gotta love mutemath. creative bunch, they are. (this is honestly one of the greatest, and most random, videos ever.)


speaking of darren king, check this out.

is that not madness or what. he's phenomenal. crazy yes, but phenomenal. plus he's hot so yah. bah hah. ;)

thanks liz, for introducing me to mutemath way back and for showing me these vids. you always did have great ears. :)

goodbye old faithful

after four years of faithfully being by my side and taking picture after picture despite being dropped, pointed directly at the sun, and used in the rain and snow, my old faithful has decided to crap out on me - i guess enough was enough. :(

oh well, it was probably time to move on anyway. i've since decided on which one will be my new faithful: the canon sd850. it will never take the place of my old faithful (since it was my first ever digital camera and i'm sentimentally stupid like that), but at the end of the day i'm happy with my choice. and ready to take pictures. and done with this pointless post. bahahaha.

p.s. big ups to jon and nevin (dude, you gotta update) - i made it to their RSS feeds! :)

cottage weekend

^ view of the cottage from the dock

fun times in kawartha this past weekend! 3 days of beautiful weather, sunshine, paddleboating, canoeing, drinking, cooking, eating, and many periods of doing absolutely nothing - in other words, 3 days of awesome (minus the bugs.)

it's been a long time since my skin has seen that much sun in one shot. i'm now left with legs that are not quite as pasty anymore (yay!), a pretty hefty tanktop tan (nooo) and a right shoulder that is painfully sunburnt (owww). even so, i wouldn't have changed a thing. thanks for the good times guys! :)

some cottage pics can be found at my flickr. click either on the link to the left, or right here.

the fraser and the fitzsimmons

i went to see brooke fraser at the el mocambo this past wednesday and i must say, her voice is just as good and as beautiful live as it is on her cds. she put on a good show - her guitar playing, piano playing, and singing were all solid. not bad for a first-time concert in toronto. it was a great show for under $14 so really, on the music front, i can't complain at all.

william fitzsimmons opened for brooke and although i know a lot people will disagree with me, i thought that he did a pretty good job. his guitar playing was really impressive (at least to me since i can only dream of playing the guitar half as good as he does) and his voice was nice, breathy and soothing. yah ok, i'll admit his songs were a little depressing and maybe too relaxing for an opening act, but all in all i thought his music was pretty good. well, what i could hear of it anyway thanks to the rude people who comprised about 3/4 of the concert crowd. i honestly couldn't believe how incredibly annoying and moronic some people at the concert were, which leads me to...

...concert etiquette.

ok, if you're going to go to a concert, here are three things you should keep in mind:

1. Talking when an artist is playing.
This would be a HUGE no-no. When an artist is singing or playing, you stop talking. This is done out of respect to the artist and out of consideration for the people around you. Honestly, even though the really good ones make it look real easy, artists practice like crazy and put their hearts into their work, so show a little respect and listen. I don't care if you think their music is too sad and depressing so you decide you don't like them - when an artist is doing their thing, you shut your mouth.

2. Pushing your way to the front when clearly you were there last.
To all the people who think they can show up later and just push your way to the front, please get over yourselves. It is not ok and nobody appreciates it. This is especially true for groups of 3 or more people. It is not other people's faults that your lateness caused you to have to stand at the back or behind the pole with no view. It's first come first serve so back off.

3. Being obnoxious and loud in general.
This is just plain annoying for everyone around the obnoxiously loud, so if you're one of these types of concert-goers, please calm down. There's no reason to scream every two seconds or laugh like a bloody hyena on crack, so take a few deep breaths and at least try to be normal. And no, holding an alcoholic beverage does not mean you can be annoying.

so yes, if by chance you happen to be going to a concert, then try to keep these things in mind - i'm almost positive the people around you will appreciate it greatly. :)