Canada

I was talking last night to Eric about my appalling general ignorance of the political system in Canada [for which he mocked me]. Sure, I know what the parties stand for, and that Stephen Harper is a total douche, but as for the nitty gritty details of the system, not so much. Thoughts:

1. Someone at school said something to the effect of 'a person easily becomes a nationalist by moving to another country' and there may be truth to that. The less people know about Canada here [and that includes almost everyone] the more I want to talk about Canadian politics, actors, movies, shows etc. As differences between Canadians and Americans become more obvious, I feel more fortunate that I am Canadian.

2. Eric pointed this out and I agree. We mock the Americans for being so self-absorbed, ignorant, and how their political system is ridiculous, yet most Canadians are watching presidential debates like it's a sport [including myself]. We watch Colbert and the Daily show religiously and talk non-stop about American issues. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se, but we may be forgetting to talk about our own political system and to watch shows like the Mercer Report, This Hour has 22 Minutes and the like. Admittedly, I don't watch them that often but when I do, I quite enjoy them.

3. I find a lot of people from Ontario never want to travel within Canada. In fact, it's the last place they'd want to explore. I think many people think there are no interesting places outside of Toronto, that it's all a boring wasteland when you venture out too far. Before I traveled around Canada I used to feel the same way - like, who would live in Saskatchewan? *shudder*. But I had the opportunity to go to conferences in Calgary, Ottawa, and Montreal and found that these places were alright. I was inspired to go to BC on a trip, then on a crazy roadtrip to Nova Scotia while stopping here and there along the way. My conclusion? Canada is a pretty neat country and I could probably live in a variety of provinces other than Ontario. Although I still have a general disdain for Newfoundland...is that wrong?

4. We have crazies in Canada too. There are creationist museums, people who believe humans hung out with dinosaurs, and political scandals. Let's not forget about the shit in our own backyard that we need to clean up. Not that it's on the same scale as the US but we should be aware of these issues nevertheless.

So, today why don't you check out one of these links:

Learn about Halifax: http://picnicface.com/videos.php?videoID=33

Read Rick Mercer's Blog: http://www.rickmercer.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/11/index.cfm

Watch 'Conservative Life Insurance' video: http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/

Shoes. OMG Shoes.

After not sleeping most of the night, I dragged my ass to class, slept through most of it, and felt awful. I pretty much looked like a hobo and probably smelled like one too. Realizing this was not good, I ventured into Payless to see what they had, and stumbled across these bitches:



Sure, they look like every other pair of shoes I own BUT with one important difference - they were $6!! BAM!! With new shoes in hand, I felt more energetic and decided to finally get my eyebrows waxed [$5 with coupon!!!].

So for $11 I was able to purchase better looks and, as Graham Coxen would say, a sense of enormous well being. My new eyebrows and I are now ready to take on the perpetual disaster that is my life.

On Naps

Naps seem like such a good idea at the time, much like drunk phone calls, buying something from the home shopping channel, and blow. But there is a dark side...

I had a splitting headache all day today, partially due to the insipid class discussions that have been horrifying me on a daily basis, but also due to the fact that I thought staying up really late and getting up really early was a productive use of my time. Unfortunately, when I came home from class [after learning that we don't actually need medications to treat schizophrenia - just sing songs together and braid each other's hair!] I succumbed to a nap attack and slept for 3 hours.

Now, it is 12:43am and I am wide awake. I'm unmotivated to do anything productive, yet sleep doesn't seem that appealing either. This wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have class tomorrow morning.

This reminds me of a story that is in no way related. This morning when I got off the elevator at school, I came face to face with A GIGANTIC COCKROACH on the wall. It was literally the length of my index finger. I had only seen bugs that big at the ROM and thought they only lived in jungles. I let out a silence scream, soiled myself, and ran to my class. When I told a classmate about my harrowing ordeal, he told me that some cockroaches actually HISS. I'm not even going to google that to see if it's true because I don't want to know.

That's all.

Watch This Now

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4f551b0252

*poof*

*poof*

Houseguests and Adventures

So the houseguests have all gone home now. Mom was here and I got her obsessed with Arrested Development and JS got obsessed with Klax. That's my second victim of the year!

JS and I had an entertaining weekend. The highs and the lows:

* After a failed attempt at skating [freak power outage, rink closed] and not getting in the art gallery [got there too late] our standards plummeted so we ended up going to the Freedom Museum. It was free [appropriately] and it was cold so freedom proved irresistible. It surprisingly wasn't that bad.

* After standing outside in the freezing cold for almost an hour, we went into the Art Institute of Chicago. Saw cool stuff like a very green van Gogh which looks like crap on a computer but was stunning in real life.

* Had coffee at Au Bon Pain and was served by a woman who pronounced it 'Oh Bone Pane' with extra emphasis on PANE.

* We went shopping on Michigan Avenue. JS bought some snappy shoes so look for him classing up the streets of Toronto.


* Took a picture of a giant bratwurst that was ushering in daylight savings time:




...and now back to the grind.

*poof*