This kind of shit is my jam

And also the reason people probably don't believe I actually have decent taste in music.

Because awkwardness knows no bounds

Remember the other day when I confessed my childhood love of Star Trek and Capt. Janeway (Voyager)? Well, I stumbled upon this gem on Awkward Family Photos, and while it's TNG-inspired, it still warmed my heart a little.
I'm wondering how 10-year-old Lauren reconciled her Star Trek love with her Star Wars love? That shit's like Romeo and Juliet.

Come on gravity, you just keep bringing me down

If J-WOWW (from Jersey Shore)'s tits defy gravity, I just saw a pair that very much have embraced it (gravity).

Nobody appreciates orangu-tits.

Dreamcatchers work, if your dream is to be gay

I think that when you get dressed in the morning, sometimes you're really making a decision about your behavior for the day. Like if you put on flipflops, you're saying: 'Hope I don't get chased today.' 'Be nice to people in sneakers.'

Demetri Martin, comedian

Enjoyable typos/typing too quickly

Degrassi's Tuesday night episode: Jenna is determined to try out for a realty show.

Inappropriate online behaviour

Or
How to ensure that I stop following you on Facebook and Twitter
Or
How insecure can you be?

KM (this whole abbreviating names things get tough when you know 3+ KMs) asked a question via Twitter today and I had SO MANY OPINIONS I couldn't really fit it into 140 characters. The question was: TWITTER: help me. what is an appropriate amount of online PDA? i.e. lovey public wall posts, relationship statuses, nonstop @replies.... are picture albums of a couple socially appropriate? statuses that relate to couples? what traits do ppl who do that have?

My response was this: Seems to me that people who over-do online PDA are the ones who are least secure and comfortable in their relationship.

Now I'd like to expand on it.

We've all seen it in our newsfeed. At least, those of us who aren't very picky about who we add (not anymore though!). There's always that couple who can't seem to write on each other's walls enough, can't post enough pictures of themselves together, can't seem to ever get enough. As I said to KM, I think it's all about insecurity. The need to show everyone (and I mean everyone, because these people also tend to add everyone they've ever come into contact with) that they are a)in a relationship and b)happy happy and in love (or luv, as they probably type it).

The absolute worst part of this online PDA pandemic, in my opinion, is the 'couple albums' on Facebook. They are just brimming with photos of the couple looking at each other, kissing, walking, sitting, breathing... it goes on. Those are personal photos. I mean, I don't understand why you'd want them in the first place. I guess you could tack them to your wall and stare at them when you aren't staring deeply into your partner's eyes. Or you could, you know, be happy when you're with the other person, and not a complete stalker when you're not.

The other thing is these people treating their boyfriend/girlfriend's wall/Twitter page like an email account. I don't need to sign into my profile and have 20 of your personal love messages pop up. If I need to press the "hide button", I don't. I go right for the "remove friend" (/unfollow) button.

I guess what my final answer is is this: What is an appropriate amount? A little. What is a necessary amount? None. What traits do these people share? Insecurity (!) and more insecurity.

For Pete's sake people - go live your life (and relationship) irl.

The li(v)es we lead

Sometimes I hate making decisions. And when I say decisions, I don't mean the trivial ones like what I'm going to eat for lunch or which movie I want to see at the cinema. No, the decisions I am referring to are the "big" ones. What do I want to do for a career? Where do I want to go to school? Where do I want to live? And you know what? Sometimes I don't want to make a decision. Making a decision makes me accountable and maybe I don't want to be accountable. What if I make a bad decision? I guess some may say that making no decision is a decision in itself.

Regardless, I do make the tough decisions. My parents taught me that you can't go through life letting someone else decide things for you. In fact, I'm sure there are lots of quotes about that very thing. Jim Rohn comes to mind with, "If you don't make your own life plan, you'll fall into someone else's. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." Or something like that. Point is, I make the decisions, albeit reluctantly.

What I had never thought to do was live like we're all going to be wiped from the earth. You've heard of the Mayans, yeah? How they predicted the end of the world for 2012? Well, I met someone when I was living in Halifax that was putting her life on hold until December 2012. She was going to spend the next 4 years (I met her in my third year of university) partying and spending money and getting high (on drugs and life and drugs).

I must say, I thought she was a complete idiot then, and I still think that now. But it's an interesting perspective. And man, if the world does end in 2012, she did her thang.

(Did I really just say thang?)

So, you can keep making the tough decisions and making your life plan, or you can get crazy, get wild, party all night.



If the world doesn't end, that kind of sucks for you though, right?

Nice weather we're having

A standard Monday morning activity in elementary school was to go over what everyone had done on the weekend. Thinking back now, I’m surprised any of us really had much to share – what do ten year olds do on the weekend? I had no money, no interests, and no driver’s license. The most exciting weekend activity during those years would have been going grocery shopping with my father and picking out a special treat. Actually, in those days, after grocery shopping on a Saturday (almost always Saturday), I’d go home and settle in front of the TV and watch Star Trek: Voyager. You couldn’t speak to me during the one hour that the programme was on. My mom likens me to a zombie if she ever tells anyone about those days (and she loves to tell everyone about those embarassing days). I was glued to the TV, watching Captain Janeway’s every move. Actually, as an aside, I dressed up as her for Halloween one year. All that to say, I never really had much to share with the class.

I completely digressed though. My point being, Monday mornings were often spent discussing, in great (and unnecessary) detail, what we had done on the weekend. In junior high this activity usually fell by the wayside as teachers really didn’t care, and more often than not all everyone had to say was that on Friday night they’d gone to see a movie at the theatre. Grade seven was nothing if not predictable.

Surprisingly, the what-did-you-do-on-the-weekend activity returned in my first year of university. In the same grade seven predictability, all anyone ever really had to discuss was an episode of binge drinking, except most of us felt this wasn’t the best story to share with the professor (that is, if you even remembered the story to begin with). The professor who made us participate in this activity is the same professor that made the class, on the first day, stand up one at a time and say your name and one thing you enjoy doing. It was like being back in the first grade, except that everyone had already hit puberty and we were paying a lot of money to be there.

Now, at work, every Monday inevitably leads to the same discussion: How was your weekend? This question, to me anyway, is in the same category as setences like “We should do lunch” and “How are you?” It’s something that we just say, and we’re all guilty of it. No one wants an answer, really. It’s just something to fill the conversational void, like talking about the weather. Even so, I always say something when asked. Saying “nothing” is the ultimate conversation foul. It goes nowhere and both parties are then left trying to escape or salvage the wreckage.

So, how was your weekend?

Today's post brought to you by Luke Surl

So baby don't lie to me

Had lunch today at Leonhard's (for like the 100th time this summer, really) with two of my favorite people, HJ and KM. It was HJ's first Leonhard's experience and I think he enjoyed it. The soup was amazing, as always.

If you haven't tried Leonhard's, you must.

Nothing left to lose

I kind of don't recognize myself anymore. I don't mean that in a depressive, I'm-so-lost kind of way. I am just amazed at how much this summer has changed me. Or maybe it's not me, but circumstances. Either way, I feel barely recognizeable.

I'm dating someone great, which is not what I am used to. I don't expect a pity party, but let's be honest; I've had terrible choice in suitors in the past.

I've graduated and, with almost certainty, will not be returning to school next month. There's still the off-chance I will be accepted off of the wait list, but I'm more than willing to work for the year and re-apply.

My grandmother passed away. Last summer my dad's mom passed on, and this summer my mother's mom has left us. This leaves me with no living grandparents. My mother's mom was always the grandparent I was closest to, so this death hit me the hardest. Still, her quality of life was no longer good, and as everyone likes to point out, "it [was] for the best."

I don't hang out with the same crowd or in the same fashion. The only carry-over from last summer is really music trivia, and even that is slowly losing its charm. I'm not sure where I stand on this issue (not music trivia). I've never really been a social creature, but I feel like I need to take some initiatives in this regard.

How's that for truth?

Time heels all wounds

Why do women insist on wearing high heels if they can't walk properly in them?

It makes me feel sexy.

Is it sexy to take 5,000 (extra) baby steps with your ass stuck out and your arms up for balance?

Oh, it is? Oops.

For a Science student, this joke never gets old

Sorry to the rest of you suckers.

Wham bam thank you mammary gland

I've come to the realisation that a new iPhone will cost me the same as a new BlackBerry. This leaves me wondering which phone to get.

Thoughts?

I want an iPod Touch, so an iPhone could play a dual role.

Hope grows in a dump

My boss is sitting in his office with the door open and he has whoever he's talking to on the phone on speakerphone and SHE SOUNDS JUST LIKE JAN.

Does that make this The Office (as opposed to the office)?

I call not being Meredith.

I'm just a love machine

Recently acquired albums:
-Crystal Castles s/t
-Pavement Brighten the Corners
-The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound & Senor and the Queen
-Sia Some People Have Real Problems
-Hannah Georgas This Is Good
-Arcade Fire The Suburbs
-Lights s/t EP
-Ra Ra Riot The Orchard
-Athlete The Getaway EP

People in glass houses

"It’s tempting to imagine that [you] could be forceful and self-confident without being arrogant or jerky, but that’s a false hope, because it’s other people who get to decide when they think you’re a jerk, and trying to stay under that threshold means giving those people veto power over your actions. To put yourself forward as someone good enough to do interesting things is, by definition, to expose yourself to all kinds of negative judgments, and as far as I can tell, the fact that other people get to decide what they think of your behavior leaves only two strategies for not suffering from those judgments: not doing anything, or not caring about the reaction. Not caring works surprisingly well."

Clay Shirky, via young manhattanite

Things that go bump in the night

The best way to describe it? You make me happy. Like, walk around with a goofy grin on my face all day happy. That happy.

Don't think of me

Keeping a journal is supposed to be therapeutic, but reading about my life circa 2004-05 is just cringe-worthy and kind of hilarious.

You wear your high-top sneakers and your sailor tattoos

How do I begin to explain the weekend I just had? While short, it was packed with a lot.

Friday, we (KW, AW, and me) departed Charlottetown at 8:00 AM. Took the most backwoods way to the bridge you could imagine. It’s what you would call a Walsh-cut (as opposed to a short-cut).

Speaking of backwoods, we took the most backwoods way to Montreal, ever. It’s what Google Maps lists as the “shortest time” drive. We drove through pure, undeveloped, uninhabited forest (no rest stops, power lines, or even yellow road lines!) for about 400 km. We stopped the car briefly and heard, for the first time in a long time, pure silence. My ears almost couldn’t handle the complete lack of sound.

I won’t bore you with the details of the drive, except that there was a Lady Gaga rock out and that I drove from a bit before Edmundston to the outskirts of Montreal. It was rather uneventful and we made good time.

Arrived at Auberge de l’est around 9 PM perhaps. Checked in and got settled in our room. The multi-3 suite we got ended up being quite nice. HJ and I had a double bed, desk, and decently sized closet all to ourselves, and then shared a kitchen (stove, fridge, toaster, coffee maker) and bathroom with MP, KM, KW, and AW. Great set up, and a great location. We were a 2 minute walk from the Metro and there was a Dépanneur right under us (convenience store that sells alcohol).

Friday night a crowd of us went to the Metropolis to see Of Montreal play. The venue is awesome. So huge and a big balcony. Of Montreal used to be a favourite band of mine, so it was cool to see them. They didn’t live up to my expectations of them, but I enjoyed it all the same. Had way too much wine though. Made for a bit of a grumpy Lauren and a very shitty Saturday morning.

Saturday was the start of Osheaga. HJ, MP, KM, and I took the Metro over to Ile-Ste-Helene (built for Expo 67) and headed to Parc Jean-Drapeau. We got there kind of early and also didn’t realize there was no re-entry to the concerts. We couldn’t leave all freaking day. That made for a bit of a poorly prepared Saturday.

Saturday started off with the Walkmen (someone played before them, but I consider them the official start to Osheaga). They had a good set and were a great start to the day. After that, HJ was kind enough to accompany me to see Owen Pallett. I had only heard one song by him so it was a bit of a long shot to go, but we enjoyed him. Caught the end of Sarah Harmer’s set, which was enjoyable, then saw one of the best sets of the festival, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Super high energy and very entertaining.

After Edward Sharpe we took a little break and sat in the shade while Jimmy Cliff played. Got up for K’naan but wasn’t overly impressed by his stage presence. Music was just as good as if it were on a CD though. Ended with Waving Flag (no surprise there). K’naan also did a duet with Keane, who played later on Saturday after Stars. Stars had a good set, although I haven’t listened to them since high school and I didn’t know any of their new material.

After K’naan was another highlight, Pavement. Definitely one of the better musical acts I saw on the weekend. Not only great music, but excellent stage presence. Someone in the crowd chucked a beer and it landed square on the lead singer’s head. He didn’t even blink – just continued playing. After the song ended, instead of being pissed off, he just commented on the “good aim” of the person who threw the beer.

After Pavement, KW and I tried to see Robyn (you may remember her ’97 smash hit Show Me Love). I say try because we went over to her stage and sat there for 45 minutes and she never showed up. I was not impressed. When I got back to our digs, I ended up YouTubing the song and felt that was just as good.

After the Robyn debaucle, Arcade Fire came on the close the day. They had a fantastic set. I feel bad because I definitely did not appreciate it as much as I should have because I was freezing and tired (long day paired with being unprepared for the whole ‘no re-entry’ thing).

Saturday night I stayed in while HJ went out with friends. Best decision I could have made. I woke up Sunday morning feeling 100% better than Saturday morning. MP, KM, KW, and I explored the city by Metro and walking. Ended up on Ste. Catherine’s street. Apparently it was their Pride festival. Lots of men holding hands. We walked around for a bit and then made the best purchase of the weekend, hand sanitizer. Surprisingly, Montreal has no little hand sanitizer stations, even in the Metro. We felt grimy and dirty for most of the weekend (probably because we were grimy an dirty).

Headed to the concerts at around 3 PM, just in time to see Gaslight Anthem, another highlight for me. I had never heard them before and was completely blown away. After their set I sat down in the shade and listened to Ariane Moffatt, The Black Keys, Charlie Winston and The Cat Empire. We (and there were about 13-15 of us) ate snacks, talked, napped, hung out and enjoyed the music without being in the scorching sun.

At about 6 PM I got up and got situated for the much anticipated Snoop Dogg. He wasn’t scheduled to start until 6:35, but I wanted to be able to see him. He started about 20 minutes late, so it was a long wait, but completely worth it. He played Gin and Juice, and that was all I really wanted the entire time.

After Snoop, sat down for Sonic Youth, then eventually re-emerged for Metric. Emily Hanes is a big weirdo, but put on a good show. Gimme Sympathy and Combat Baby were highlights for that set.

After Metric it was finally time for the day’s headliner, and my personal favourite band since the seventh grade, Weezer. This was one of the major reasons I went to Osheaga and they did not disappoint. I got to sing-along to The Sweater Song and Say It Ain’t So live. It was unbelievable. Rivers was in good spirits and put on a good show. In their first encore they did a Kids (MGMT) and Pokerface (Lady Gaga) cover, which was really cool. Left before their final encore (Buddy Holly) to catch the Metro, but was fully satisfied having heard Say It Ain’t So.

Sunday night we hit up ES’s place after the concert. Beautiful apartment. Aside from a slightly scary roommate, it was a good time. I was pretty tired after another long day in the sun though, so when the boys headed out to the bars, I took it as my cue to return to res.

Monday we woke up very early (8 AM) and started the trek back to Charlottetown. Got a little lost, stopped more than our way up, listened to some good music, and eventually made it back in one piece.

And that brings me to now, back in the real world. Montreal was amazing.