it's the most wonderful time day of the year.

this december, strip away the layers of commercialism associated with this (holi)day; it's more than the cards, presents wrapped in pretty paper, trees, lights and store-bought baked goods. yes, Christmas is about so much more. it's about spending time with your friends and family and letting one another know that you love each other and are loved by each other. but most importantly it's about something much bigger and better than anything we could ever imagine...

amongst everything that comes along with this season, let us not forget the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas. :)

*tick tock, tick tock*

so i finished up my last exam on monday and came home yesterday night. i'm not completely finished my term *yet* since i have one more music therapy group session to do and the placement binder to finish, but at least all the studying is over and done with.

thank goodness, one more day of studying and i would have gone crazy.

for the first time all term i don't have a reason to rush or panick. instead, i have a lot of time on my hands. it feels kinda wierd but don't get me wrong i'm not complaining; i suppose i'll just sit back and enjoy it while it lasts.

i just have one concern: i hope i don't waste it. ;)

hang in there...

(heehee, i love this picture.)

as students we know that when it starts to snow in late november/early december, it can mean only one thing: exams are coming/here.

oh exam time...the time when all-nighters are most common, under-eye bags become even darker and more prominent, messy rooms become clean for the sake of procrastination and better studying, coffee and study/junk food sales are at their highest, stress levels are peaked, spontaneous panicking occurs more frequently, usually empty libraries become full, study sessions are plentiful, cramming is inevitable, eating habits become even worse, sleep becomes a luxury and students become zombies. good thing finals usually only come twice a year. aghh. :P

to those writing exams this month: all the best! study hard!

to everyone else: keep warm and remember, stay away from the yellow snow. :)

"the little university that finally could"

so i was doing some thinking in an attempt to figure out the 'real' reason behind why i was so into the whole vanier cup championship thing. i mean, i've never been into sports before, i've never followed sports and i've never even sat through a whole football game until this past saturday. so imagine my surprise when i flipped through the pages of the cord as i was eating my grilled cheese sandwich (with tomatoes and cucumbers) from union market, and came across an article with a headline that inspired my blog and kinda laid a lot of things out for me. (actually, i stole it word for word. bah hah.)

in a nutshell, it was basically about how laurier students (and alumni too i suppose) celebrated more than just a football victory when the golden hawks football team won the vanier cup. to many students/alumni, they also celebrated the fact that our school, wilfrid laurier university, finally got it's turn to shine after being in the shadows of other bigger schools...

being a laurier student i've heard all the jokes and all the cracks people take at my school. it's been called the "high school down the street from the university of waterloo", the "second best university in waterloo" and a lot of other things...let's face it, these jokes are old and laurier students have heard them all (in fact, sometimes laurier students are the ones that crack the jokes) and more often than not, most of them are in reference to the size of our school. we know it's small. our campus spans one block by one block, we're not stupid. haha. :P

as a result, generally the feeling i get is that many people underestimate our school and don't give it too much respect. to a lot of people laurier is a second-class university. yah, it may not be the most prestigious when put up against more established schools like the University of Toronto or Queen's, but we shouldn't forget all the good things that laurier has to offer (which is a lot and impressive considering its small size.) we have one of the best music programs in the country, we're the only school that has a full-time masters of music therapy program, we have one of the most reputable business programs in the country, we have one of the leading masters of social work programs, we have community and now we have the best university football team in the country. :)

as a result of last saturday's victory, the football team did more than just win the vanier cup. thanks to them, laurier is finally getting more recognition and respect. it's finally our turn, the small usually-forgotten-overlooked-or-completely-ignored school, to be in the spotlight.

so where exactly is all this laurier talk coming from? although i've always worn my laurier sweatshirts and t-shirts with pride i've never really been one to talk about it all that much. well, over the past week (and especially this past weekend) the fact my time here is slowly coming to an end, has really begun to hit home. when i first moved to waterloo in first year i couldn't wait to leave but now that i'm nearing the end of my undergraduate university career i'm starting to get all nostalgic. (saying goodbye was never one of my strong points. :P)

am i going to miss laurier when it's time for me to go? you bet.

"the battle of the unbeaten..."

today the wilfrid laurier university golden hawks and the university of saskatchewan huskies (both were undefeated going into this game) played against each other in the 2005 desjardin vanier cup. today was also the first time in my whole life, that i sat through an entire football game. yup, i watched the vanier cup championship game from start to finish. (i know. even I was surprised. haha) even more surprising though (to me anyway, since i usually have minimal-to-no interest in sports) is the fact that i thought it was exciting! (but only because laurier was playing.) :P

after watching this game, i kinda regret not watching ANY of their games during my time here at laurier. i mean i literally lived ACROSS from university stadium for two years before this year. actually, i think i may have smiled and said "hello/morning" to gary jeffries (the football coach) once or twice as i was walking down seagram to get to school for my morning classes as he looked kinda familiar. whenever i saw him on seagram heading towards the stadium/laurier football house he seemed really nice and friendly. too bad the season's over and next year i'll be a laurier alumni so it won't be the same. (oh my lanta...scary.)

anyway, i seriously thought i was going to have a heart attack, a stomach ulcer or pass out on several occassions during the last couple minutes of the game. i had my doubts at times, but they certainly reminded me that i'm totally clueless when it comes to sports and that even one minute left in a game is enough time to impact the outcome of a game in a huge way.

i've never been ashamed of being a laurier student and i generally really like laurier but sadly my school pride is pathetic compared to others at my school. for example, my neighbours painted a truck PURPLE and wrote GO HAWKS in big yellow letters, then dressed up in "hawk wear" and were partying it up in the trunk of their truck, on their driveway while making a huge ruckus. *i wish i took a picture of them! it was hilarious!* yep, i would probably never do anything like that but today i'm extra proud to be a laurier student!! hmmm...maybe i will end up buying that purple golden hawks sweatshirt i've been eyeing lately...heehee. we'll see... :P

congrats to the laurier football team, the 2005 desjardin vanier cup champions!!! woot woot!! GOOOOOOOOO GOLDEN HAWKS!!! :D

oh. my. gosh.

aghhh...i was counting down the minutes of the fall finale today and was so sad/pissed when it was over. i can't believe they ended the episode the way they did; cliffhangers are the worst!! (i'm absolutely convinced that the writers of prison break are trying to kill us with the suspense.) i also can't believe we might have to wait until MAY 2006 to see the next episode... *sobs*

is anyone else as upset about this 6 month prison break hiatus as i am?

honestly, i don't even understand the reasoning behind the huge unnecessary break. it's completely moronic if you ask me. prison break, despite it being a new show, had some of the highest ratings this fall. it just doesn't make any sense. do they not realize how many viewers this show gives them? those idiots.

well, i happened to come across this. apparently there is a chance that it might come back in january!! :D

all i can say is fox needs to do some major shuffling. move house. or move bones. for all i care, cancel both shows if you have to. (let's be honest, who watches those shows anyway?)

fox, do whatever you gotta do...just please, don't make us wait so long. :P
___________________________________

update: prison break is coming back in march. still far, but better than may! yay!! :D

*click, click, click*

originally, i was going to switch from posting my pictures via imagestation to posting pictures using flickr, because it's faster to upload things to and frankly, i like the layout and stuff better. however, that dream was shortlived and ended when i realized that i was only allowed to have three photosets (essentially three photo albums) unless i upgraded my free account to a pro account - which costs $24.95/year. dirty scammers.

anyway, i downloaded the Sony Imagestation Express (ISX) uploading software whatever thing and it actually worked this time, so now uploading pictures is much faster and less frustrating. thank goodness.

as a result, i finally got around to uploading some more albums. you can view them here. enjoy. :)

the da vinci code

yah, so i read another book! i finished this book today after starting it yesterday. two books in the span of less than a week. (*sigh* i know i know, i'm a dork.) i don't remember ever reading this much in years, but i think it's something that i want to get into again. it's so nice curling up with a book after a long and exhausting day/week. :) when i was little i read tons, but as i grew up i slowly drifted away from it. (in fact, i remember getting in trouble a lot for trying to read during dinner at the dinner table. heehee.) fortunately, this summer i was able to reach my goal of reading three books, but really, three books isn't even that much...

sorry, i digress.

so yes. i've finished this book. my thoughts? it was a good book! i wasn't as impressed this time as i was when i finished reading angels and demons, although this books is still pretty impressive in my opinion. it's probably because this was the second time i've read his books so i kind of knew what to expect to a certain extent. in any case, he definitely has his own style of writing and i really like it. :)

there was, however, a plethora of controversial material in this book. at times i could feel my eyes widen, my jaw drop and my eyebrows shoot up so high they were probably three-quarters of the way up my forehead. errr...yah. i was pretty shocked some things at times and really shocked at others. :O

i feel that if you are going to read or have read his books, one thing needs to be made very clear: even though brown might use some historical facts and what not in his books, that doesn't change the fact that his books are fiction, and should be read as fictitious novels. they are good novels, but they are fictitious novels.

anyway, check this out if you're interested. it just solidifies the fact that 'the da vinci code' is indeed, fiction. (and if you're REALLY interested, there's a whole ton of stuff on the internet that you can easily find with mr. google.) :)

p.s. i promise my next entry won't be on another book. haha. :P

angels and demons

i just finished reading this, and oh me oh my it's a good one. i started reading it yesterday night and finished it this afternoon. :)

my thoughts on the book? i really liked it! i was even prepared to skip my intro to clinical psych class this morning in order to keep on reading, but don't worry. last minute i decided to go and i ended up not skipping. instead, i listened to my teacher talk about two treatments that are used with clients that have post traumatic stress disorder. lucky me.

anyway, i'm really impressed by the amount of knowledge dan brown must possess in order to write a book like this. it was so jam-packed with loads of information on art history, scientific facts, religious facts, symbology, the Vatican City...etc., but presented in a way that was really captivating and engaging. not boring at all! i literally did not put the book down unless i really had to. the storyline was also really great in my opinion. oh the twists. it was like reading a prison break! (only not, because the book is nothing like prison break...) but i was definitely surprised to see the story play itself out the way it did.

all in all, it's good read and very well written, not to mention some of the stuff that dan brown brings up is actually pretty deep and insightful, although it was a non-fiction book. :P in any case, if you haven't read it yet, read it. i definitely recommend it. :)

you are what you wear...

many people say you can tell a lot about a person by looking at the clothes they wear: preps wear preppy clothes, jocks wear jock clothes, posers wear avril lavigne clothes (oh shoooooot. haha.)...and so on and so forth.

well, according to that philosophy that means this woman is a lampshade/badly decorated mushroom.

i've never seen anything so buttcrack ugly* before in my whole entire life. and believe you me, i've seen a lot of funny looking clothes. heck, i used to wear funny looking clothes (oh the 80s...) but THIS. this just wins the buttcrack ugly award hands down. i mean, are those pom poms attached to that thing?!

ok, so i suppose that this picture is of a model who was probably paid (BIG money i hope for her sake) to wear this, but it was taken from a knitting patterns site. does this mean that there are ladies out there that will actually BUY this pattern, then put in work to knit it, and then WEAR it? in the general public?

not to be mean or anything, but i think i might just piss my pants laughing if i saw someone walking down the street wearing this. :P

*"buttcrack ugly": a term (i made up for the purposes of this post) used to describe something SO ugly that describing the item to as 'butt ugly' just doesn't do it justice.