Cali-fornia

Last week Matt, Richard and I planned a trip to California next week. 

Details? Okay.

Leaving on Thursday at 2am. Drive straight through Washington, Oregon and all the way to Chico California. Remember to make pee stops along the way. Make a couple more. And food stops. Some gas for the car might be good too. Get to Chico by 6pm the same day. Have a tiring dinner at our good friend Kira's house. Celebrate because we are in summer. Have five day fun with Kira and random Americans and sun. Visit San Fran sometime during our stay. Say goodbye to Kira the following Wednesday. Head to Anahiem. Visit the happiest place on earth. I mean Disneyland. Stay a day or two. Take random routes back and visit road side attractions. Get back to BC by the 26th. Have a super happy, warm, fun time. Hurrah. 

The end. 

Jealous? Because I am. Of myself? Who isn't. 

Can you feel the pressure?

I sure can. Let's list my pressures, shall I?

-I have a 5foot x 4foot painting due on Thursday

- Start and finish a 24 x 30 mixed media drawing today

- Start and finish a 24 x 30 mixed media drawing next Wednesday

- Revamp my art piece for the Emergence show before I drop it off on Sunday

- Find a job so I can pay my bills and be able to afford gas

- Have two weeks to complete two 24 x 30 nature vs. culture paintings 

This is art up the wazoo. Normally I wouldn't care, I like art motivation, but deadlines drain me. I'll get it all done except maybe the job one, I'll just be sacrificing my life and sleep. I'll put up pictures in my other blog my-illustrated-life.blogspot.com of all the stuff when I get them done. 

Potential Proposal with Kleenex

This past weekend I thought perhaps Matt was going to propose to me. We hadn't been on a date in several...months? so for him to plan one and not tell me what we were doing seemed like a surefire thing. I did think, "well he could of been sneakier about it and not even tell me we were going out", which also made me think, "oh you silly nilly, he's not asking you on Saturday, get that out of your head!" which of course is impossible to do once it's in your head.

It actually was a well planned day. In all of the time Matt and I have been together, we have never spent a day walking downtown together, so Matt decided it was time. We went to the Van Art Gallery (which he so slyly told me on Friday we would go on Sunday when I told him "I WANNA GO"), and then we went to a super yuppie/trendy place called Joey's,

(waitress: so have you been to joey's before? 

us: *look at each other, look back at the waitress* nope

waitress: *disgusted look* ooooohhhh...)

and then we basically wandered around the streets, the chapters, and the mall. That night we were suppose to babysit Matt's niece Isabelle, but I started thinking, "maybe it's a ploy..." but reassured myself it wasn't...sort of. It would of been perfect to ask me that day, besides the fact that both of us were sick.  I'm actually glad he didn't ask then because the proposal would probably sound like this:

Matt: *gets down on one knee but needs to balance himself on near by bench because he feels faint* just a second

Amanda: *stuffed nose* nohka

Matt: Amanda will you *cough* marry *cough* me?

Amanda: ES, ES ni mill mairy new! *kleenex*

Matt: I think I'm going to hurl...

Amanda: *HACK*

So my hunch ended up being wrong (not the first time), but the day went well besides being sick. We ended the day at Matt's brother's house to babysit for the evening, which always proves to be entertaining; Isabelle is quite the attention getter. 

Here are some shots Matt and I took from our day! 

one of the interactive art pieces in the "how soon is now" exhibit

the exhibit was amazing. one of my art teacher's work was in it.

the problem of having short arms

isabelle think's fingers belong on the lens

just like uncle matt

haha the best is when she shakes her head

Valentine's Day: girls get presents, but what about guys?

Flower's, boxed chocolate, stuffed teddy bears, cut out cards, jewellery, all of the many things that women recieve on Valentine's day. So what do the girls get the guys? I don't know.

I've heard some guys think getting flower's on valentine's day as a reversal thing is cute and sweet, but I'm pretty sure most guys think that flower's are for girls; so then what? What can us ladies get you guys?

I've been thinking about this for some time, and I can't really come up with a lot of suggestions. I think I have two...maybe three.

1) Make him a mix CD with his favorite genre of music in love songs

2) Bake him dessert

3) Make him a card

Yes, not very in depth, but these do take time to do, and I believe something is even more valued when the significant other spent a lot of time doing it.  I'm going to post a list of love songs that people can use for mixes later, but for now, what are your suggestions? What can girls give their guys on Love day?

Valentine's Day: Be my Kittentine?

...I don't even know. Haha

Valentine's Day: Setting the Bar to Impossible

Romance is key for a great Vday, as this video has shown us.   

Happy Valentines Day

I know what some of you ladies are thinking. Wow. That guy went to a lot of trouble to show his girl how much he cares for her, how sweet! And I know what most of you guys are thinking. Wow. That guy totally screwed himself over.

The key to a great Vday is to do something practical that is possible to top or match for future Vdays to come. If you do something as elaborate as this, you will have her melting in your arms; you'll also be expected to match/top this next Vday. BE WARNED. If you start high, you have set the bar, and you'll never be able to go below it. If you're up to the challenge, that's great! Personally I suggest to start simple and then work your way up to avoid disapointment. 

The lady of the man who made this video is going to be surprised next year when she just get's a box of candy and a "well I did to it last year" remark. 

Could have saved yourself a lot of trouble dude and just stuck with roses and candy for your first Vday experience together.

Valentine's Day: Intro for Men part III

The final part to this merry tale. I hope you don't take these too seriously.

Men Anonymous: Step Three

Valentine's Day: Intro for men part II

If you think you qualify as a certified male from the first video, then here is a follow up lesson.

Men Anonymous: Step Two

My Past Life: Grade 12

I love organizing emails into seperate folders and then leaving them to shimmer. The fun of it is when I forget about them and then reremember them a couple years later. I love reading old emails and old conversations from old friends; it's insightful about their character then and now. I find it also helps me figure out who I used to be when I didn't think I knew who I was. 

I was browsing through a folder for my friend Darryl - we had become penpals in highschool from a christian penpal site - and it surprised me how frank I wrote about myself. From reading it, I feel like I was much more articulate then than I am now and I wasn't even aware of it. It's kind of inspiring. I'm not saying it's some intelluctual thing because it's not, but everything I said then is still applicable now. It's funny how insightful your past self can be to your present.

"yeah, i have told my friend about Christ and everything, she goes to my youth and she's a catholic. I don't know though, she's stubborn haha we've  had good talks about God but there's certian things she believes that i can't change her opinion on, she will just have to learn herself. I don't even understand some of her views, it's strange; but i love her anyways. unfortunatly, she has made me immune to certian conversations, i am asshamed to say. it's hard you know, living in a secular enviroment, being a christian, expecially when there isn't a whole lot to encourage you,. sure theres church, and youth and christian friends, but it gets dangerous when it starts to become a routine; like it is for me. It's like i'm in a horrible repititive cycle and i don't care. it's hard to get out of, holy  moly is it ever. I'm still in it, and that's why i'm stoaked for the summer where i go to camp. i'm hoping it will help me grow closer to God. it's not like i have lost my way, but more like my flame. I mean everyone does, and maybe it's because grade 12 is so darn busy that i have "no time" for God,  which is aload of crap in a bucket, but thats what it feels like. I feel like i'm standing still and my life is just passing for me, llike i don't even have a say. And also like we were talking about before, the want for a relationship. i don't deny that i want one, but when i let it get in the way of my relationship with God, then i'm going over the line i shouldn't. doesthis make sense? who knows."  19 Feb 2005

Valentine's Day: Intro for Men

I've decided I'm going to post a blog every day up until Valentine's Day about relationships, love, or being single. Don't worry, 80% of the time (all the time) it's going to be video's that will help us understand the opposite sex and/or love. It will also help us understand humor.

When I used to explore the vastness that is myspace.com, I came across a guy who I believe (for the most part)  does hilarious videos. Thank goodness for us that most of them are about relationships.

Here is the first video of a nice introductin course on how the guy is different from the woman, and if he wants a lady how he needs to proceed in order to woo/impress/keep her.  

Men Anonymous: Step One

Pre-Valentine's Day

And this is why I have told Matt never to propose to me in public or on Valentine's Day.

Valentines Day Proposal Fail at NBA Game

Going to be honest, that really sucks. Also going to be honest, that girl has courage.

Lend me an idea.

I'm planning on submitting a proposal for an exhibition at an art gallery, and the deadline for submitting is March 6. Seems far away in retreospect, but that's not just the deadline for the title of the proposal, it's also the deadline for the works that I am proposing to be finished. I am aiming for 10 or so paintings... that's a lot in a month. The art peeps usually like a theme, and I need one fast that can work with my ideas, and preferably with some works that I have already started. It's a rush because what I create depends on the theme I choose, and I don't want to choose a theme where I need to stretch all my creative endeavors into making excuses why a certain piece fits with the theme "The house resembles the building struggle of man and nature which reflects the struggle between the tide and the ocean...cough...". 

So here are some groupings of paintings/mixed media ideas I came up with (They aren't detailed so  when reading they seem kind of lame...just go with it):

saving yourself  

saving money

saving people    (obviously these three would be part of a collection)

flying low heron over cars

atop the dump  with a kite

ferris wheel with yellow balloon

saving virginity

white rhino (made with paper bags)

thread men putting in light bulb  (thread and paint)

mailbox

squirrel crossing telephone wire

bicycling (crayons and paint)

I have a couple finished paintings and it would be great to try and fit one it; that would mean one less painting to do!:

button tree

crow with blossoms

reflection in water

These are some theme idea to work with some of the ideas/finished works:

saving

dreams

flight

toys

environment

childish dreams

mere child's play

I'm leaning towards mere child's play, cause I figure I can probably fit more in there. I can fit some works in there that would consist of media that children would use ie. crayons, buttons, paper bags, along with deeper/lighter meaning ones.

 Suggestions or thoughts?

Songs for my Appetite

So these pretty much make up my favorite songs. There are about two that don't follow the  "have known for two years" rule, but I think they will qualify soon enough. I'm sure I have forgotten some, so I'll probably be posting an updated blog or a new one some other time. For all the songs I found a live verison, recorded version, or music video so that you may listen to it and maybe have it become your favorite too. Oh, and it's all alphabetical too for those of you that like order.

City and Colour - Like Knives

Coldplay - We Never Change

Counting Crows - Mr. Jones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHMTolJWKBs (embedding disabled)

Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter

Daniel Bedingfield - Girlfriend (hahaha this video is so cheese, but i guess the song is too)

Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body

Delirious? - August 30th

Delirious? - It's Ok

Delirious? - King or Cripple

Emery - By All Accounts (Today was a disaster)

HelloGoodbye - All of your love (Jimmy pop remix)  I think the main singer is trying to be geek chic

Jason Morant - Inside of Me

Jimmy Eat World - Polaris

Jonezetta - Backstabber (You can watch some random girls dance to an awesome song)

Mat Kearney - All I need

Mute Math - Chaos

Neverending White Lights - The Grace

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (remix) 

Playradioplay! - Elephants as big as whales (bonus track)

The Police - Roxanne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3kG-7I_Y6k (the embedding was disabled)

Sting - I'm so happy I can't stop crying

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VsenuJqZP4 (the embedding was disabled...but you should really watch this video...it's really classy)

Tegan and Sara - You wouldn't like me

U2 - October

U2 - Miracle Drug

Albums of My Liking

After reading a blog my friend Dan wrote about his favorite music albums, I thought I wanted to write my own list of cds I could listen to in any situation and still not get tired of hearing them. Sadly to say, I could only think of three albums:

 a) that don't sometimes annoy me

 b) that don't make me wonder why I like it in the first place

 c) I have owned for a period of 2 years or more (Dan's rule) 

d) where I enjoy every song on the cd

e)  that remind me of something significant in my past

Sometimes by City and Colour is an album I always seem to play when I paint. I think I cried the first time I heard it.


The second album is Promises for the Imperfect by Number One Gun. To me this album is all about my time at CBC, and even more significantly my time at CBC with Matt. It goes as far back as the first week we met.



The third album is Parachutes by Coldplay. I know they make a lot of rockin' music, but I believe by far this is their best.


Because there is so little that fits my criteria for awesomest ablum eva, I've decided to write about my favorite songs; songs that I always skip to on my ipod, songs that I always have on repeat. I'll be using the same defining criteria that I used to choose my favorite albums except "d)" for obvious reasons. That shall be my next blog, for it will be significantly more than three, I asure you.

EDIT: I lied. I actually have four albums, I forgot an imporant one:

Plans by Death Cab for Cutie is also stellar. That is all.

"No Peter I wasn't hidding, I only told you that so you would leave me alone" - Jesus

So my friends and I discovered these videos a couple years ago, and it's still getting quoted to this day. I originally thought this was making fun of Christianity, but then I discovered it was created by a church team. Here's a quote from the site vintage21.com: "In the Spring of 2003, Vintage21 had a four week series on Jesus Christ, taking a deep look at what He said and did. It was difficult at times to get past our preconceived notions that had been developed by staunch, starched Sunday School classes of old. This is a satirical look at what some people think Jesus is like. Thank goodness He's not."

There are more, and it was hard for me to decide which one was my favorite, but I think I chose well.

Pride and Prejudice.

I love this story. I love the two most recent movies. I'm not sure which one I like more, though the 1995 one with Colin Firth might perhaps be my favorite; it adds more detail to the story and it has Colin Firth in it.

Either way, the two actor's that play Mr. Darcy play him very well...so well in fact, I've decided that I'm going to marry Mr. Darcy. 

Toliet Hands.

Last week I had the pleasure to experience a coworker shoving her hand into a dirty (I was going to flush it before she cleaned it; she apparently didn't find that necessary) toliet. She proceeded to do this while she was talking about how she avoids the urinal because of how gross it is, all while not wearing any rubber gloves. Ya, her hands was nakes. She also didn't wash her hands after.

That's when I started to feel sick.

Electric feel.

The past couple weeks at work, my pointer finger on my left hand has been reacting strangely to objects. I think I'm conducting electricity. Only about half of the the objects are metal, and sometimes it happens when I haven't touched anything. 

Maybe I'm turning into a superhero.

That would be cool, I don't think there is an electric super hero, though what would I do? Spit electricity from my left pointer finger when I make a guy motion? Would I fly? Or maybe I would just skate around on electric currents. Ya, that would suit my powers much better. Also, I think my theme song would be "Electric Feel" by MGMT redone by Justice...though if they were making a movie, maybe the original song in the beginning of the movie (just to make it more classy), and then when I'm about to electrocute some butts, that's when the hardcore version starts! DOOOO DOO DO BA DOOD DOOD doo doo DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Oh yes, I can see it now...slow motion and everything.

Most of the popular superheros have simple but yet effect names that relate to what they do: Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Catwoman. I think I'm pretty set on a name as well. It's simple yet to the point. Electric Girl. Hot eh?

Recap of November

Because I didn't blog a whole lot in November (*cough*), I'm just going to recap what happened/what I learned/have come to realize in the month of mystery and no shaving.

1. I learned when looking to buy a house, ask if the water supply is well water. If so, decline. You don't want to be smelling sewage when doing your laundry.

2. I've learned I'm still mourning.

3. I've decided that I'm going back to school for a couple of classes in January. I can't stay away, I miss education so.

4. Chelsea and I decided to start our own cleaning company so we can reap all of the profits and not work as much. Lazy? I call it clever.

5. I've learned that Benylin and other cough medicines have little effectiveness (money wasters!) and that inhalers prove to be more effective for coughs.

6. Christmas is going to be different this year. It is also going to be potentially expensive.

7. I still want to buy a pretty dress...okay maybe a smokin' dress. One that doesn't smoke, but makes other people want to start when they see it.

8. I have a lot of things I still want to do before this year is over.

9. Some people have proved to be not what I had previously expected. 

10. If you suck at time managing, I think you should stay away from set designing. Set's are suppose to be done before the show opens.

11. Screamo concerts can rock hard, and even the non-hardcore can find a way to enjoy them. If it takes a pair of earplugs to be able to have fun, then so be it.

12. Family Guy has lost it's flare.

13. I orderd the first three seasons of Degrassi. Ya...maybe not proud of it, but I know plenty of people who will watch it with me. I'm not saying names. (By the way Shane, I just got the first two seasons in the mail today, so this weekend we should watch it! Tell Janelle.)

14. Even famous people live in messy homes.

15. I miss people who are far away from me.

16. My hair is green. I need a hair cut.

17. There is a woodpecker who finds my house quite tasty.

 

Fortune Cookies

I had Chinese food late last week, and it was good. It usually is. I think it's the msg...actually, I was reading the take out menu, and apparently you can specifically ask not to have extra msg: aka they already slathered it on before it's cooked, and then before they pack it to go, they put some more on UNLESS you ask otherwise. Gotta love the MSG. 

I very rarely get lucky with the fortune cookies. Everybody's crackin' open their cookie and reading the fortune's aloud, "You will be very successful this coming week", "Riches and beauty smile upon you", while I'm opening mine and it says "You will fail this week". Sigh. At least I got the only honest cookie.

Also, Pearls Before Swine is ensued hilarity. I love these chubby stick animals.