Sunday, April 26, 2009

Das Ist Der Perfekte Tag (...Not Really)

So I wrote my French Cinema exam on Friday, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't have to BS my way through any of the questions because I actually knew the answers. Go me.

I still have one more exam on Monday, English: Drama. It means I actually have to write a decentish essay, which is never all that fun. It's also at 7:00-9:00pm! I want to find the exam scheduler people and bang their heads together, then maybe they will stop hating students. However, I can't particularly complain, I suppose, it gives me almost all of tomorrow to study as well.

On the Tuesday after that, I'm going to a friend's to play... You guessed it! ROCK BAND!! Apparently she got a whole bunch of new songs. I have been slated to be the lead singer for a particularly catchy German song by some German rocker chick. I think I've been studying the lyrics to that song more than I have been studying for my English exam. It's called "Perfekte Welle" by Juli if anybody is interested.

I saw "The Soloist" yesterday. It was really good. I thought Robert Downey Jr.'s performance was the best part about the movie, and I'm not just saying that. He is extraordinarily talented. I envy him. Jamie Foxx was OK, usually one-note, but he had a few good moments.




Got a new lamp for my bedroom. It has an easy on/off switch, unlike my last lamp that I may or may not have intentionally broke...

Got some chocolate-covered ju-jubes. That was enough to make my day.

OK, back to studying... Or at least avoiding studying by watching my dog play with her stuffed lobster toy.

Auf Wiedersehen

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Some Bad Short Stories

Since I recently found a little program to convert my Word documents into PDF files, I have decided to post some of my short stories in my blog. They aren't particularly good, but I have fun writing them. If you are deathly bored at any time, take a look a them and let me know what you think! They range from five pages to one page. Who knows, maybe once I actually get semi-decent ideas for stories, they might get longer. OK, these aren't really in any special order. I guess they are somewhat chronological (most recent at the bottom). I may post more in future blogs as I write them, but for now these are the ones I've written so far. These have all been written just for fun, for no reason. However, I did submit "Vinny and the Other Wiseguys" as an English assignment in Grade 11 and I got a 97 (I think).

OK, enough blab, here they are.
Click on the button that says "Click here to start download..." and then just click "Open" in the pop-up box. You don't have to save it, not unless you want to, if you're that strange...

Impression

Vinny and the Other Wiseguys

Wally's Kitchen World

Let's Walk

The Astronomer

The Accident

Small World

The Usurer

Cue Memory

I Don't Know If You Remember Me But...

Infomercial (This one might seem slightly controversial to some overly-sensitive people, but it's the shortest of all of my stories; it's only one page.)

Don't judge me, I already told you they aren't that great.

Did my first exam yesterday: Linguistics. Pretty easy actually. Anyways, I've still been playing Mafia Wars, which is still awesome. Not much else that's new.

OK, I'm off to watch American Idol and tomorrow I'll start studying for my French Cinema exam on Friday.

Toodles.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

John is Definately the Cutest Beatle

So regular classes are over now! Hoorah!

Instead of studying for the three exams I have approaching, I have been playing online Mafia Wars and Tetris, simultaneously. I am that talented...

As I am typing this, my dog is franticly searching for a place to hide from the evil force that is the vacuum cleaner. Personally, I don't see its evil side but if Luna-bear sees it as evil, then it must be. What does she think it's going to do to her? Suck her into a black hole or some vast abyss occupied by dog-eating giant worms?

Amongst my inactivity, I did spend a lot of my time yesterday cleaning my room; which, before yesterday, was nearly uninhabitable. You couldn't see the carpet, in other words. I spent most of that time reorganizing my bookshelf. It's very pretty now and only has books on it that I actually read. So if anybody is looking for any books for any 5-12 year olds, I have recently come across a bunch that I have no use for. We can negotiate a price later...

Searched for some Beatles videos on YouTube a few days ago. I found all three first appearances they had on The Ed Sullivan Show. Unfortunately, the scabs at whatever copyright "company" found the first and third shows and took them down. It proves their stupidity that they found the first and third but not the second. Losers. Anyways, here is their second appearance and only one song ("She Loves You") from their first appearance.

Watch this...



...and this.



My favourite part of any of the videos from The Beatles appearances on that show was seeing the "bobby-soxers" (sort of) faces as they are watching "The Fab Four". How can they hear the music above their screaming? It's a wonder why most of them didn't go into cardiac or respiratory arrest!

Well, that's about it for now.

R.I.P. John Lennon

La-dee-da.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Clucking Bunnies, Speaking French, and Bermuda Shorts Day

Here are some news items, coming at you fast! Catch!

Well, I spent Easter at the cabin with the family. That was fairly fun, got some Easter-themed sugar loot, which is awesome, of course. Eggs and bunnies and all that.
Just finished the three essays that were required by my classes this semester. They are OK, not great but I hope they are at least worth a Charlie or a Bunny (FYI - that means a C or a B).
I found a Learn French by Podcast thing on iTunes. So, I have been listening to Hugh and Amelie teach me how to speak random things in French. There are a total of 126 audio lessons so far. I am on lesson 2. Go me.
This is the last week of school before exams. This is cool because then I can chillax at home studying and then, after exams, just doing NOTHING (which happens to be one of my favourite things to do).
The weather is warming up (for the time being).
This means that once school is over and now that the weather is warm, I can go clubbing!! Woot!

The Friday at the end of this week at the University of Calgary is called Bermuda Shorts Day. This day is meant to be a day of partying for the students at some place called Lot... I forget, but it's a number. Anyways, you have to buy a wristband as an entry fee for the party thing. I didn't buy one. I'm not really into strictly student parties, they sound kind of cliche. The good thing is that it means that profs are very reluctant to schedule class for that day, so both of my classes on Friday are pretty much unnecessary and I'm not going! One day of school left!!!

OK, that's really it. Except, I want to share with you two of my current favourite videos. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!





Au revoir.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Vive! Sort of...

Punched myself in the face on Friday. Don't think I'm some crazy masochist who likes to beat themselves up, no. It was an accident. Still hurt my mouth area though.

Saw a guy in Future Shop with the worst comb-over I have ever seen. Literally, his hair was long and it looked like he had used immense amounts of hair gel to glue it from one side of his head to the other, across the bald top in various-sized strands. I wish I owned a camera phone so I could have taken a picture of it.

Saw "Monsters vs. Aliens 3D" last night. It was really funny and the 3D-ness was awesome! I love Hugh Laurie and he played Dr. Cockroach.
"My PhD is in DANCE!!!"



Went to Schanks afterwards for drinks, that was also very fun. The hockey game had just ended when we got there, so the crowd had somewhat filtered out.

Have to write two essays within the next few days (which I've mentioned before) as well as a presentation and some more homework. This sucks.
Please e-mail me if you could offer some wisdom on any of the following topics:
- the stylistic choices in the French film "Amelie" by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- the separation of the actor from his setting in the absurdist play "Krapp's Last Tape" by Samuel Beckett
- a crucial moment of substance from the film "American Splendor"
- tree diagrams in the analysis of syntax in linguistics

Pity me. Thanks.

I'm gone.