Bye-bye Movember!

Well, it's been good. All the wispy staches, full-on beards, curly upper lip warmers, and struggling chin fuzz has been much appreciated. After all, there's nothing better than a man who grows facial hair for exactly one month of the year. But, November's over now and, for the most part, feel free to shave off any and all facial hair you have grown.

In other news, for you mac users who find "study time" quickly turns into "stalking time" (or twitter time, youtube time, online TV time, etc etc) there is actually a way to help prevent this! It's called self-control. Fortunately, for those of us who tend to lack this when it comes to studying, there's an app for it! Read more about it here. I intend to use this, starting soon. Once you start the blockage of a certain site, it's impossible to stop until time frame that you set runs out. So hopefully that will keep me on track. Maybe. Kinda.

I'm really good at procrastinating.

Music-wise, I'd forgotten about this song ever since I had to write a project about John Mayer in English 12 last year, which is a shame, because it's actually pretty rad.

Bigger Than My Body- John Mayer



For those of you who like to listen to obscure music that you can reference to your friends to sound more artsy (or something?..) I don't have much for you. However, you can listen to this (courtesy of my cousin) while you cry about how un-edgy your life is.

It's Thunder and It's Lightning- We Were Promised Jetpacks


You should probably give this a few listens, purely on the basis of this band name.

Last Week!

I'm studying like a gnome.

But not really, I'm about the worst studier ever. Good news, my last (two) exams are a week today! Bad news, I have three finals in the next two days. Best news, I found some new music yesterday :)

Hold My Hand- Michael Jackson with Akon



Now it's exam time fools-- get back to studying! (with relaxing classical music to help you)

"There Is Snow Lodged Up My Nose"

Well, it's happened. I lay in bed an extra three hours today, being too god-damn cold to get up, and when I finally dragged myself out of bed I looked outside to see that it had been, and still was, snowing. Usually I'm pretty neutral about snow on the west coast. I mean, it's snow, but it's usually on the wet side, with a distinct slushiness to it. But this is my first experience of snow in Victoria. It wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for the wind. See, the snow is very light (and dry, surprisingly), and so the wind comes whipping around from all sides, and blows a little whirlwind of snow all around you, constantly. I mean, the ground is barely coated because the snow doesn't have a chance to just chill before the wind comes like a big jerk and throws it six feet in the air. I would take a picture, but I don't want to go outside. (Thankfully, the class I should be in right now got canceled = no unnecessary walking in the snow for me!) This picture shows that pre-snow clouds of yesterday. Ugh.

Anyways, spreading the love, check out these sites for some potential ear candy:
http://www.myspace.com/pullincaseofire (this is my cousin's band, hey-o)
http://hypem.com/ (and this is just a sweet site for finding random music, mainly of the remix-mashup variety)

Erase Me

First of all, let me put one thing out there: it is way too cold for November. Technically, I think it's still above zero, but yesterday for some reason it was so cold I briefly considered going into hibernation, so I never would have to go outside again. At least until the spring. However, against my better judgment, I instead walked to the beach and took some photos. My timing was not really good for two reasons:
1) I went at a really awkward time, so it was just past sunset, but not really dark out yet. Result: it was really bad lighting, but not dark enough to get some sweet night shots, which is too bad because it was clear and the moon was big. I would have waited until it was dark, except
2) IT WAS COLD. Stupid beaches get extra cold. Kudos to the guy sitting on the log, still playing his guitar and singing. It sounded lovely, but I imagine his fingers must have been chilly.
Anyways, what I did instead was play around with some long shutter speeds for a very short time before wimping out and heading home. I've never actually tried long shutter speeds on moving water before, and I kind of like the dream-like effect it has. Sure, the actual subject/framing could be better, but I'll take what I can get.

On the music front, I recently heard a Kid Cudi/Kanye West song that I'm pretty sure is not all that new, but I've had it almost on repeat, because it is some good listening. (And PS. I wikipedia'd it. And it actually is kinda new. Sorta. Awkward not new-not old stage.)

Erase Me- Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West


Cuz I'm in the magazines, On the TV, No matter where you are you might hear me

La Belle Province

I got back from an almost week-long trip to Montreal yesterday. That city is ridiculously gorgeous, and there's so much to do. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to, but I got a few good ones. Here's a few:

One of Montreal's many sweet buildings

Slightly creepy, giant cross

Traffic light trails... without a tripod, but still kind of cool?

Calgary, with an epic sky above it.

In other news, this video makes me very, very happy. I know that some people aren't into Glee, but I AM. So watch this and smile:


If that's not for you, here are some other suggestions...
Girl Talk's new album is available (for free!) now: click here. It's pretty rad.
Also, here is another song for your ears: click.

I started this at 1:45am. I ended it at 1:02am. Happy Daylight Savings!

Wow.. two posts in 4 days? What's with that? Weird, I know, but I've hardly used my camera since I moved here and recently I've started playing with it again. Also, I spent 7 hours straight in the library today, and I could use some none research activity. Today (as of about ten minutes ago) I was just playing with the zoom on a bit of a longer exposure. Although this can be kind of iffy, it's kinda cool, especially if you have something with a circular focus. Say.. a mug?



Okay, so it looks kind of goofy with a whole bunch of them, but individually it's kinda trippy.

So for music, I'm kind of torn. I only recently heard (yes, I potentially live in a dark cold place under a rock) the some "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. Um, just about the lamest/most adorable song ever. I'll give it to Mr. Mars... between that and "Billionaire," he's so nice.
On the other hand, I heard a cover of "I'll Follow You Into The Dark," and a Cee-Lo Green song. Both of them just about blew me away. So here we go, let's go with no video today, because links are fun!

Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars (just saw the video.. it's kind of awesome.)
I'll Follow You Into The Dark by Tom Meny
The Other Side by Cee-Lo Green, B.o.B, Bruno Mars (Technically another Bruno song, but I think that Cee-Lo auto trumps anyone.)

There you go. G'night and happy daylight savings!

Mash-up Movember?

Yeah so it's like 3 in the morning and I'm kinda hungry and I went walking around campus today because it was really nice out and here's some of what I got:



..WHADDUP. Anyways a few days ago I downloaded a whole whack of sweet songs, mostly mashups, when I stumbled upon... a gem. Out there, in the world, someone kindly combined Rhianna and Eminem (love the way you lie), Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, David Guetta and Kid Cudi, Elvis Presley, Sean Kingston, AND THE LION KING. Are you curious? I know you are...



Pretty much, this guy, Mash-up Germany, (group of people?) puts together a whole bunch of random but kind of sweet mash-ups. Some other mash-up/remixes I found that caught my interest include Kanye West vs Mulan (um, I love disney mash-ups) and a Michael Jackson-Jason DeRulo-B.o.B-Bruno Mars-Justin Timberlake-Taylor Swift-Lady Gaga-Gnarls Barkley-Eye of the Tiger-Snoop Dogg-Ne-Yo-Britney Spears-Leona Lewis-Savage Garden song. ANYWAYS, sorry if you think mash-ups are lame, but I'm cheesy like them and I'm always down for listening to them. P.S. Have you ever seen Simba and Mufasa rap? Now you have.