Paring down your Christmas shopping list

I always spend too much on my Christmas presents. I look for my presents in November. I find little knickknacks or filler presents. For example I bought someone a hair brush. But I'm also getting them something bigger. I bough my boyfriend a hockey stick and still need one more thing to add to his present. I find myself spending and spending and spending so much on certain people that I have no way to pay for my presents for others!

 'tis the season to give and yet the whole process is stressful when you have very little funds. I tried to set a budget bit that was blown by the third present and the two birthdays this week. I suppose the only way around it is to get another job and keep on looking for presents. I'm a little concerned as I have to buy for my boyfriend's parents, two sets. I guess I'll have to start christmas baking now so I have enough to go around!

The Stone Diaries, the editing of life in the “retirement” phase.

Despite the seemingly carefree lifestyle she endures in retirement, Daisy still struggles with the chaos of her past. She deals with her unsettling past by following the routine of her life. But in this chapter the turmoil under the facade is evident with language and metaphors used.

Retirement the edited version

• Sheilds' uses words like "The real and illusory whirl about her bedroom in smooth-dipping waltz-time- one, two, three."
• “The synapse collapse; well, let them. she engarges on the available material, extends, shrinks, reshapes what’s offered; this mixed potion is her life.(282)
• The use of “mixing” action words are strong throughout these two chapters. The author is using them to conjure the theme of her mixed up emotions, her mixed up sense of who she is, and the way everything seems in order on the front and yet below the surface she is in turmoil

• she edits her life story(283)
• She's afraid to put her hand under Magnus Flett's covers for fear of uncovering decay.(306)Meaning she was afraid to uncover more  turmoil in her life.
• When Daisy goes to meet her father-in-law, she puts it off, because she fears what she may find there. She acts cheery and glosses over the whole visit.
• Wants the Reverand to leave and yet she is polite and says "So good of you to come."

It’s as if Daisy is looking for herself in her fathers.
Great niece thinks she’s content

• (269) In the winter time she is convinced her aunt has such an orderly life

• In fact, Daisy feels her life has no substance, this is described in the furniture at the home in Florida; the chairs are lacking in weight, hollow, lightness and loose jointed

(293) Victoria wishes her great-aunt had troubles that she could save her from when really her aunt sits amongst troubles of her past

Plume

• Cuyler Goodwill is building an off center stone formation. He decides he wants it torn down.

• He has been working with stone for years and should have it perfected, and yet this simple rock formation is not right, its off, and this upsets him

• Shows that the characters in the book are not quite right with where they are, no matter how they may appear to the outside world

Turmoil

• Daisy seems like she has it all together, she has her routine down pat, and yet she feels mixed up
• Daisy recieves conflicting advice about traveling to the Orkney Islands from friends and family
• "Each of them believed they lived on a fragile planet. Not one of them knew what the world was coming to." (288)
• memorized Woodsworth, "not because her professor required her to, but becasue she felt a longing to take the oracular, rhythmic lines of William Woodsworth into her body (296) She’s comforted by routine and regularity

Alice thinks her mother's life was ideal(Chapter 9)

• This reveals a sense of uneveness in her lifestyle

• Daisy's daughter knows that her mother's life must have not been completely perfect, she suspects turmoil but has no sense of what kind of turmoil her mother was faced with (315)
• Reverand Rick says "But I can't go on living a lie" and Daisy replies "why everyone does."

She is not "at ease" as the title of the chapter would suggest

• Helps the reader follow the common theme found in the novel; that Daisy does not know fully who she is
• Creates an unsettling, haunting feeling about the character
• Opens the readers eyes to the facts; sometimes things are always as good as they seem
• teaches the reader a lesson about the implications of life, through the eyes of Daisy

Stay on top of those social media sites!

Today I had to update my Linkedin account. I hadn't updated it since the previous school year and had a whole bunch of pending connections to make. My excuse was I had forgotten my password and was unable to log in on my phone. So yesterday I bit the bullet and changed my password, updated a few employment things and added all the pending requests. I realized that it wasn't very smart to leave this to the last minute. I should have figured out my password a while ago.

This is the problem with social media sites. They are always changing and if you don't have time to visit them often to update information, you could still be in high school according to your online profile on Linkedin.

A couple times a year I'll do an over haul of my online profile. I'll do a internet search of my name. (This led me to change my Facebook name so that my profile picture and name didn't come up for Facebook.) To me, Facebook is private for my friends and family. Mostly it's useful for sharing photos and organizing events with lots of people.(It's the easiest to correspond  with a large group of people when your say, planning a snowboarding trip or something.)

I check my blurb or profiles on my social networking sites to ensure that I'm still the same person I described  a few months ago. I make sure my schooling is up to date including the dates at each college/university.

All in all, I have cleaned up my profiles and I'm feeling better about my online profile as of now. I now have reached 29 connections on Linkedin and I'm actually adding new people instead of everyone just adding me!

Turn down the boring and turn up the interesting

I  have trouble making headlines for my blogs. Take for instance, my lack of variety on the right hand side. "Editing your interviews" "Editing my face" "Editing your eating habits." I just stick with the conventional. I used to be a little more creative. I would pick an interesting phrase from an article and use it as the title. But then I got lazy and look where that got me -with boring blog headlines.

After reading CPS (Caps and Spelling Stylebook) I realized this about myself. I especially liked what they said about editing your headlines to include key words. This is something we learn in the PR major when writing press releases. You want your work to be found through search engines like Google. Therefore you need to think carefully about what words your using. I found that there was nothing to my headlines. I needed to change. So below I've edited all my boring blog post headlines into something much more interesting and eye-catching:

• Editing my face- "The values of natural beauty"
  
• Editing you're interviews- "Improving the interview process"
  
• Culture, Language and Mentor Program- "The middle finger? Or pointing?"
  
• Editing your eating habits -"Poutine vs. salad?"
  
  
• Editing your spending habits - " Think before that purchase!"
  

 Check out the blog posts to get a better sense of what they are all about.

Editing my face

Editing my face by wearing makeup is one way I edit the way I look. I also tend to straighten, curl and blowdry my hair to manipulate it into ways I would like it to look. I almost always wear makeup when I go out. I use a lot of foundation to make my skin appear clearer then it is. At school you'll rarely find me without foundation. On very rare occasions you may find me with only foundation and no other makeup. But I usually wear mascara along with my makeup. If you find a guy that says a girl looks better without makeup, you've found a liar. (In my opinion.) I think almost everyone has a flaw or two they need to cover up.

Everything from that spot on their cheek to too think of eyebrows, makeup can fix. Some things are a little harder to fix like if you dont like the shape of your nose or your triple chin phenomenom. That being said, I don't think makeup needs to be used as a mask all the time. It can be used to compliment the wearer's natural features. (Most makeup companies boast they will bring out the natural beauty in person inctead of msaking or covering things up.)

Take for example Vichy's mission statement:

Since its creation in 1931, the brand has imposed a new vision of cosmetics through its founding idea: target beauty by making health the focal point of our approach, in addition to advances made by applying the rigour of a medical approach to enhance healthy skin.

To me makeup is a useful tool for editing ourselves so that we may be able to see our true beauty.

Tattoos on this town

My friends love getting tattoos. Some have one or two and a couple of them have up to 4 tattoos. This bothers me. I feel like tattoos don't contribute to the natural beauty of a human being. I think humans are beautiful just how they are. (or how God created them, depending how religious you are) To me, tattoos scar the skin in a permanent way. They don't "add" to the landscape of a human. They are such a sharp contrast to the natural creaminess of human skin. To me, images of dragons and flowers don't compliment the skin. They take away from it.

But don't get me wrong. I can appreciate a beautiful piece of art. Sometimes my friends show me their new tattoos and I'm truly blown away by the artistic detail put into them. But I still think the images would look better on paper.

Sometimes we change our bodies through tattoos and sometimes we change places we've been. But it seems no matter what we're always changing and editing how we act, do hings, and what we do and then the physical places we've been are  also changed by us. We can leave "tattoos" on almost anywhere. I remember putting our hand prints on the walls of our elementary school. It was a class project and from grade 1 when we did it all the way to grade 8 I remember seeing those handprints on the way. (Until the painted over it of course.)

"Tattoos on this Town" is a song by award winning country music singer, Jason Aldean. The song talks about the physical marks that him and his friends left behind on their hometown.

"There's still black marks on that county road, where we drag raced our pick-ups and mustangs
And weathered all the sun and rain
And to this day up on that overpass, even underneath the new paint, you can still see,
Allie, will you marry me? "

 It also goes on to say that the town left it's marks on them, physically as well.

"There ain't a corner of this hallow ground, that we ain't laughed or cried on, it's where we loved,
Lived and learned real life stuff
It's everything we're made of"

The song illustrates that nothing ever stays the same. That town still may have the print of you on it, or that wall may have my hand print under layers of paint but it's still changed. You're always changing like a tattoo on your side that marks where you've been and where you'll never be again.

Editing you're interviews

RC - Notre Dame Campus, before going in for the interview

My IPP is a video documentary. So needless to say I've had to do lots of interviews. I noticed that my interview tactics are improving however.
For my documentary I'm filming myself learning the basics of vehicle maintenance while interviewing experts, people in the street and a female student at RRC.

My first interviews were streeters. This means I basically would walk up to women on the street and ask them if they owned a vehicle. Then I would explain I was shooting  a documentary on women's vehicle maintenance habits. So one way I would start the questions would be with a few warm up questions. "How long have you owned your vehicle?" "Who do you typically go to for vehicle maintenance?' And the more I interviewed the easier it would be to remember the questions. Once I got over and technical difficulties I may be having, I find myself sounding more confident and much friendlier. I though at the beginning I sounded so nervous and clueless as to what I was doing, that my interviewees weren't confident.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to interview a girl in the automotive program at Red River College Notre Dame Campus and I found I was the most confident I had been. I wasn't as nervous of equipment failure (something did fail me however.) And I felt like it was more an conversation then me hammering out questions. I got stories from her - something I had trouble getting from people. I asked how it felt -  something I was always a little nervous asking.

So by trying it over and over I have finally edited my interview habits so that I ask the right questions and as a result I've started getting the right answers.

Emotions.. when to let them show and when to keep them in check

I had  to deliver an eulogy this summer for my beloved grandmother. Her death wasn't a surprise to us - she had been bedridden for the better part of this year from battling cancer. But it was still upsetting as I had a very special relationship with her and would visit her a few days a week, at least. So when iIwas asked to write and deliver the eulogy I had to think of ways to make it interesting and not too sad.

After all, it was a celebration of her life and not really a "funeral". I'm talking about this because of the article I read in PR Daily today called "3 tips for handling emotion during speech or interview". The article deals with emotion in speeches from a PR perspective. It talks about when emotion is appropriate (a few tears when discussing a  tragic experience as a burn victim) and when its not appropriate (as a speaker in the senate.)

It is appropriate to shed a few tears when giving a eulogy. But I felt like the message I was trying to get across was that she had a great life and I acknowledged the things that she enjoyed the most. As much as I missed her I didn't want to go up there and cry and cry. So I first wrote the eulogy and then I practiced, practiced, practiced. The first couple times I did cry and cry but then it got easier. On the day I was to deliver the eulogy I didn't cry- I only let my voice waver at one point. To keep from crying I smiled. It's a common fact that  if you feel like crying all you do is smile and the tears should stay away. I'm happy I did this as I felt my eulogy was more effective without tons of tears.

Photo courtesy of http://stephanieannsolis.blogspot.com/2010_12_18_archive.html

On the other hand, as this article says, sometimes tears help emphasize a point. Like a person that was domestically abused or recalling other accounts of horror in their life. Sometimes these are appropriate to stir up emotions in the audience. As long as the speaker can still get their messages across.
This article looks at editing your emotions when giving a speech. The flicker of a smile versus a tear, they all help communicate the meaning of the speech on a deeper level.

Culture and Language Mentor Program

 Non verbal communication, like the movement of a hand or the blink of an eye can often hodl many different meanings. I can look at my best friend and we indcate something to each other with just one look. Or we shake hands and can infer from a strong handshake versus a light handshake what th other person is like.

Last night I attended my first orientation on being a Canadian-born mentor in the college's Culture and Language Mentor Program.  It's run by the Diversity and Immigrant Support department at the college. basically the program consists of 10 hours you spend with a new immigrant student. You show them around Winnipeg and introduce them to the culture and traditions of Canada.

What does this have to do with an editing blog you may ask. Well, during the orientation the proram coordinator talked about some of the cultural differences that may occur between Canada and the countries some of the students come from.

She had an interesting example of a Japanese student who came to Canada. He confided in her that one thing that he learned right away was non-verbal communication of pointing. He went on to say that in Japan pointing was a rude hand gesture similar to the middle finger in Canada. So when he came here with very little English people would indicate things to him by pointing. This confused him until he figured out that they weren't being rude they were just showing him things. Later, when he went back to Japan he found that the Canadian way of pointing had rubbed off and he found he had to edit his non-verbal communications.

This makes us realize the differences in cultures across the world. Something as simple as pointing means something totally different in a another part of the world.

To learn more about the Culture and Language Mentor Program please see the video below.

The Cultural and Language Mentor Program from Red River College on Vimeo.

Editing your eating habits

Photo courtesy of winebuzz.hk 

I love food. I love wine. Sometimes I eat relatively healthy. But sometimes I go through a phase (usually in the carefree summertime) where I love bad food. I find myself eating poutines and burgers everyday because I'm spending time near snack shops at the beach or grabbing a quick bite on the way home from the bar at McDonald's. As much as I regret these lapses in judgement, I usually combat it with the amount of walking and swimming I do in the summer. I find myself outdoors more and in front of the TV less. But I do need to edit my summer eating habits to ensure they do not carry over to winter. Because in winter I find myself in front of the TV and computer much more and less time is spent at the gym (despite my best efforts) because of school, work and play.

Another thing is play. For fun, I like to go out to eat with my boyfriend or some friends where I usually consume the daily limit in calories from wine, steak, and potatoes in one evening. I try to order salads or other typically lower caloric foods but even those at a restaurant are packed with calories and fat. I find my belt tightening and feel sick every time I look in the mirror. But I know that once I acknowledge that I'm gaining weight I can look at my lifestyle choices and make a change.  Or at least attempt to.

I combat my bad eating out habits with frequent trips to the gym. But as Crecomm starts to get busier and busier I find myself up later and later at night which makes it hard to go hard at the gym. But I find if I pack my lunch, and my coffee I will be less likely to purchase breakfast and lunch at school during the week. This is easier when my mother manages to buy healthy food from the grocery store. For example having lettuce, vegetables salad dressing and tuna or salmon makes a quick easy-to-prepare lunch. Bu when there isn't any of that I find myself eating two balgona sandwhiches and a chocolate pudding for lunch - not very healthy.

Therefore my goal for this school year is to edit out all the bad food and make healthier choices for lunch and for eating out. I hope it helps my waistline and my health in general. Because if you're healthier, you're often happier. Which is a good thing.

Watch what you say!

Sometimes we use words in nice ways, ways that help people feel better about themselves, ways that make people smile or relay important information. Sometimes however we use words in ways that make people upset with us. We say things we don't mean. Or we say things in a nasty way that hurts others.

I am guilty of this on a few different levels. Sometimes the cutting words "What are you doing?" is called for. The person might be doing something completely strange like walking outside in the underwear. But on the other hand, I could say that same sentence with the same amount of incredibility to someone who puts their hand on my arm to get my attention. This then may offend them. This is where I need to edit what I say and how I say it.

Sometimes the wrong tone or words can skew the meaning. I find myself in this situation more often then I  would like to be. Therefore I am making the conscious decision to not only be a nicer person (think nicer, be nicer)  I want to edit my tone and words down so that I sound nicer. I can be harsh, and I need to change that.

So some steps to ensure total niceness is achieved:

1) Always think before you talk. Never speak on a whim. Always plot out what you're going to say very carefully.

2) Practice using a "nice" polite voice that will cause you to be more engaging and less hostile. (If hostile is your usual).

3) Body language. Even though I'm talking about the tone and words we use, the body language you use makes a big difference in the way you come across. Simply by smiling more, a person can seem more inviting and well, nice.

So next time you snap at someone unintentionally, think of these simple steps to make your true "nice" attitude show through. Let's kick the snappiness out of our vocabulary forever!

Editing your spending habits

Photo courtesy of provemewrong2010.blogspot.com

Spending money is my number one vice. Sure I love sweets and different alcoholic beverages, but nothing quite compares to the rewarding feeling of receiving something new by spending money.

I have been working since I was 14 (I started as a dishwasher at one of my current jobs, Larter's Golf and Country Club by my house) and have worked there part-time ever since. After my first year of university I started working at Citizenship and Immigration Canada which was 8-4 every work day during the week in the summer and I was even able to stay on part-time during my second year of university. While working there, I also stayed on part-time at Larter's. (It does close for 3 months during the winter though.)

Needless to say I don't have any credit card debt and I have a tiny amount of savings, but I do not own my truck (I'm still paying my father off) and spend every other penny on whatever I feel like.

When I'm feeling down I go shopping, when I have an event or occasion I like to buy something new to wear (not an entire outfit but one thing will do) when I go on trips I shop and spend more money then one might think possible.

When I'm lonely I go out with my friends and we spend money on food and drinks and bar entrance fees. Or we go golfing or to someone's cabin or to a Bomber game. All of which are not cheap excursions. This has taken its toll on my bank account - and my self esteem goes along with it. I hate looking at my Walmart bill and seeing my "everyday items" cost me $80. Not to mention gas for me is about $100 a week.

These things take their toll on me. I leave the mall elated about the great deal I got on my new Buffalo jeans until I try to stuff them into my overflowing pants drawer.

When is enough enough? I started this blog as a "editing my spending habits" and yet it seems to be ending on the same note as my last blog. I'm obsessed with clothing.

It has gotten to the point where I haven't even worn some of my new clothes because they are buried at the back of my closet.

By the way. My closet hasn't gotten its editing yet.

I hope I can  make time to create a "editing your spending habits budget" and "editing closet" session before I go completely crazy.

This will be my monthly budget.

Gas..................................$100
Food - including coffee.............$25
Parking............................$100
Entertainment..................$100
TOTAL:...........................$325



It's getting late, but I feel as if I left something crucial out. (Oh no, I don't believe I make much more then $325 a month during the school year. How is that possibly going to work?)

Comment if you can think of anything please.

Cleaning your closet and editing your clothing...

Can you edit your clothing?

The things that hang in your closet, side by side, awaiting to be worn each morning?

 Well of course.

You edit it when you pick what to wear for that particular day. You edit what message you want to send to the people around you by choosing a waist high skirt with that navy sweater instead of ripped jeans and an Abercrombie sweater.

But my closet needs a permanent editing. It needs to be trimmed down to the basics. I have things in there that I've bought and never worn before1 All because I just can't find them. I have things in there with holes in them because I've worn them too many times!

Just like a good editor will purge an article of all the unnecessary words and punctuation before adding to it, my closet needs to be rid of the out dated tops and skirts that are just "cluttering" it up.

 

A closet in the need of some serious editing

And the work is never finished. When I'm done editing out the old stuff from my closet -  I'll have to start working on my dresser. Sigh, life is so hard.

The dresser is no better then the closet, sadly.

The Windy City

From the shopping to the architecture to the skyline there's beauty to be found everywhere in Chicago. The shopping is some of the best in the whole US. If your hotel is on the Magnificent Mile like ours was, you will be able to walk to some of the best shopping destinations in the world. Tiffany's, Nine 1est, Coach, Zara, H & M, Cartier, Rolex, Guess and Bloomingdale's to name a few.  There are plenty of discount stores as well including one I've never been to be fore called Filene's Basement. It had all the big names in true Winner's style, 50 percent off. I got a dressy jacket for $6 and some dress pants for $8. What a bargain.

Another reason to visit the great city of Chicago is the view. If you choose to visit the Willis tower, you will not be disappointed. Nothing beats the view from the largest building in the western hemisphere, which stands at 103 stories.

The view of the Chicago skyline is unbeatable. I will never forget it. The view from the Shedd Aquarium is also something to see. As the aquarium in located on a jutting out part of land like a peninsula is shows the view of some of the highest Chicago buildings as they sit on the lake's shore.

The Art Institute of Chicago is a magnificent place. I've always heard of Renoir and Monet but I haven't seen anything in person so that was a really great experience. Some of the art we saw there blew my mind. The way they are able to manipulate paint into something so extraordinary is beyond me. My favorite was Monet's train station. The write up explained how he had to use so much coal in the trains in order to make all the smoke. He then depicts the two different colours the dark colour of the smoke inside the station and the lighter colour outside. The painting is so lifelike with its billowing smoke. That's why its one of my favorite.

Chicago has some of the best architecture in the world. As half the city burned down in 1871 the city was rebuilt and now has plenty of differing architecture styles. These are all what makes it such an appealing city to the eye. Walking down the street, you feel like your in a movie. And since many movies have been filmed there its not far off to think that.
Some unique experiences come from the Field Museum where in the underground exhibit you can experience being "shrunk" and then see some of the insects and plants that make up the Illinois soil. Sounds boring but some of those bugs are a little on the scary side.
We also went to visit a PR agency. It basically reaffirmed my major. First we went on a tour of the agency and saw some offices, then we had a short presentation. The PR firm Golin and Harris represent some huge names like Breyer's Ice cream, Unilever,BP oil (not the crisis communications though they were quick to point out)McDonald's, Nintendo, Wrigley, Dell, Purina and Magnum Ice cream. They have received 34 industry awards. They have offices all over the US as well as one in Toronto. It was truly interesting to hear them say what a great company it was to work for and how much they enjoyed their jobs. As we were leaving I was already day dreaming about moving to Chicago to work there. I definitely have plans to apply for an internship there.

Another thing that happened on this trip was we were in 7Eleven way past eleven at night getting something to eat when just as I was about to pay a man walks in. He is very intoxicated and begins to give the 7Eleven worker a hard time about not having any hot dogs. The 7eleven guy immediately starts to retort back to this intoxicated man. They begin arguing vigorously and I stood there at the counter very tensely. As I understand it my friends thought this entire thing was hilarious. Then the 7Eleven man come out fro behind the counter with a knife with the word "pizza" engraved into it so its practically like a holey cheese knife. He threatens the man until he finally leaves. This was the most intense 7eleven visit I have ever witnessed! I thought for sure the 7eleven man, who was acting just as crazy if not crazier then this particular patron, was gonna actually stab him right in front of us! It was a pretty crazy encounter that changed my view of the magnificent city. This 7eleven guy then went on to say he deals with stuff like that every night etc. I realized this touristy town is not all bright lights fun and excitement. There are problems there as well.

This leads me to the siren that are heard 3-4 times daily. You would not believe how many ambulances and police cars zoom by what seems like every half hour! Sitting at a cafe on Michigan Avenue you think there must be 5 or 6 emergencies in a span of an hour and a half! As annoying as this is there is one more tiny complaint that will make me glad to go back to Winnipeg or the quietness of St Andrews for that matter, the honking. In Chicago it seems like everyone for any reason is honking their horns! I've never heard so many honks. Especially during rush hour. Its unbelievable.

But as much as the city has its quirks (like the double buses that are connected accordion style and squeak when they go around corners) the city is amazing. You fall in love with the hustle and bustle and the architecture almost immediately.

Time to plan.

Florence Lawrence; inventor of the brake lights and turning signal.

Now that we are done school officially! (I never thought I would see the day I would say that.) I am relaxed and ready to ... plan out my IPP.  Yup, now that the school work is done we have to start planning out Independent  Professional Projects. These year long projects showcase our creativity in a book, event video, screenplay or musical EP of some sort. And while I don't have an official adviser yet, I'm still going to meet with someone who was on my panel in order to see what needs to be done this summer in preparation for shooting in fall.

Anyways my idea is to do a video documentary on the challenges woman face when it comes to maintaining their vehicles. This documentary will feature me trying to learn the basics of car maintenance without any formal training. As a side note it will also feature a woman mechanic showcasing her skills. It will feature the history of woman in automotives, candid interviews of woman who know plenty about car maintenance and woman who know nothing about auto maintenance.
It is a light humour documentary with plenty of opportunity to laugh.


Did you know
1)Askpatty.com is anall woman's automotive fix-it forum based out of California.
http://caradvice.askpatty.com/

2)According to the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, women are taking over the traditionally male-dominated responsibility of maintenance and repair.
http://www.ladieschoiceautocare.com/

3)An actress by the name of Florence Lawrence invented the first turning signal and brake lights.
www.aacamuseum.org/Pdf/WomensHistory.pdf

Armin Wiebe

The Sonata of Beethoven Blatz  started as a novel and ended up as a play. The playwright Armin Wiebe told his talk back audience on Tuesday that the play started as a novel and in a creative writing class he wrote a few short scenes for a screenplay exercise including the novel characters. This ultimately led to the creation of a low-German Mennonite play that takes place in southern Manitoba.

The play is entertaining and cleverly written. It's funny and managed to get all of us non-German folk rolling in our seats at some parts. The costumes were typical prairie farm early 19th century costumes that you would expect of them. The dialogue was flitted with low German but like I said earlier it was all easy to understand. There were some scenes that were beyond me and a few people who sat next to me. But other than that very-entertaining. He makes the characters relatable people with faults and worries and problems. But nothing extraordinary which is found in some plays that are completely unable to relate to. Looking at some of Wiebe's  earlier descriptions of his work. View here.

The website shows some excerpts from his book The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst which has a much different tone. It is however not his famous low-German characters that are speaking which is why it may not be as similar to the play. Interestingly enough he seemed to have another voice yet in Tatsea a book set in the Canadian Subarctic in the 1760's. I say this because of a comment that says, "This book should be in schools, Armin. You write like an Indian." Surely the way Indians sound and Mennonites must be different. And that is where I leave with this thought. That maybe it is possible to phase out the old voices and styles and learn new ones. It's certainly worth a shot.

Winding down and giddying up.

The school year is finally winding down - only 6 days left! And then we'll be off to Chicago and starting our summer jobs in the industry (hopefully). I am excited as I start to organize my summer holidays and appointments (that hair doesn't cut itself). But a part of me is sad.

Next year we will be without the all-knowing second years, we will actually BE the second years. This is a exciting and disturbing thought. (As I think back to how many notes I took in to the ProTools test to record one tiny segment). How could I possibly help someone with their technical difficulties? I'm constantly spelling things wrong  and I still haven't finished my montage. But I'm sure I could show a first year to the washroom. That's something isn't it?

Even though there still remains some things I am unsure about, I did learn a lot this year. I learned how to write an article (so much so that when I was writing an essay I kept thinking I need to add a quote from an actual person to liven it up a bit). I learned how to work a ENG camera (which my eye will be glued to for half the upcoming school year as I film my IPP video documentary). I learned how to edit said footage on the lovely Final Cut Pro, and I learned how to write a proper cover letter. Not to mention an entire PR proposal (another thing I'll have to get used to next year as a PR major).

But it was all a lot of fun. While my friends were studying for biology tests and sketching out architectural projects I was pretending to be an avid caller to BOY TOYZ on an infomercial for a call line specializing in men ready to talk to woman. Or creating a magazine on college life in InDesign. Or making a trade show to promote a fake magazine. These things will stay with me forever. Look at all these good memories of CreComm and we haven't even been to Chicago yet!

But now that we are all said and done the "hazing" period of first year and we've survived, we feel like we deserve to go out in the world and share our expertise this summer. I will be working at the same job at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which is a great experience and not far off from where I want to be after I graduate. (I hope to be in the public sector doing communications work.) But to kick off our summer in the professional world we had to design a personal profile and a business card. Now we feel professional.

The results are in!

So I drove straight home after class today with a shoebox filled with ballots from our magazine trade show tucked tightly underneath my arm. I went straight to my kitchen table and added up how many people came to our booth to hear about P.S. Magazine last Thursday.

And  the grand total is a whopping 109!

So out of those 109 people, 79 signed up for a PDF to be sent to them. I have 79 email addresses entered and I'm just waiting until I get to school tomorrow so I can send them it. The others checked no to signing up for one. But it is still a success!

We got people to fill in this ballot form. Almost all were happy to. And plenty (as the numbers show) expressed to us they wanted to read the magazine. So this final bit of research and evaluation shows the real success of our booth.

A success

After what felt like years, we finally finished our magazine. We did a magazine directed at college and university students entitled P.S. Magazine. It was a humorous lifestyle magazine that had articles such "How to get out of exams" and "Dealing with a schmuck professor."

Our cover photo, big thanks to Michael Tanasychuk for posing in the near-nude

My article "A guide to getting out of exams"

But after writing, editing, and laying out the magazine, we had our finished project. Now we had to promote it in a trade show. Our booth was set up alike a birthday party with streams and balloons, in the magazine colours; blue and yellow. The table cloth was yellow which made it stand out from some of the other table who had modest colours.

We started the fair off by giving away free pizza and root beer, in exchange for people to fill in a ballot with their name and email. This way we could see who came to our booth. We gave away all the pizza in half and our. That means we had 32 people come through our booth in half an hour. That's one per minute.


 After that we brought out a big wheel that you could spin to win prizes. The prizes were college themed like "Date Night" which was two passes for bowling, "Free Dinner" which was Kraft Dinner, "Study Motivator" which was candy, "Job Interview Survival Kit" which was a hair product, "Post Exam Relaxation" which was candles. Thanks to my group members for getting such awesome prizes! As the trade show wore on we ended up pulling out jello shooters and then P.S. cupcakes. This all was a great  success. The result? We haven't tallied it up yet, but the ballot box was full!

It was a success for five reasons:

1) People could interact with our booth
2) People weren't just interested in free food or prizes, the image on the front of the magazine caught their attention and they wanted to know more.
3)People had no problem filling in a ballot and now we know how many people came to our booth.(Well we will when we count the ballots)

4)People were invited to check off if they wanted a PDF of the magazine sent to them and plenty did.
 5) We got some positive feedback from patrons of the booth who loved the magazine.

***I had photos on my BlackBerry but they got erased sadly.

All in all it was a successful trade show and a nice payoff for the final step in the magazine project.

How stressed is stressed?

If you have a magazine to produce, a IPP year long proposal to write and not get rejected, a montage to shoot and edit as well as in class assignments blogs and whatever else is going on in your life(maybe take care of your elderly grandmother or get a summer job) your stressed. But is that enough?

If you still seem to have time to go to Red Lobster with your best friends, have people over for beers are you still stressed? Are you allowed to be stressed with so much downtime on your hands? Well, this is my life and I feel like maybe I shouldn't be so stressed?

Like maybe I should have a job and raise kids in between completing all these projects? But then I wouldn't have time to fall asleep to "Blue Bloods" or Eric Church on my iPod.

I would probably be even more insane. I would be going crazy worrying about all my responsibilities. In truth, my only responsibilities are school. The rest is just for my own personal enjoyment. But it takes time. It takes time to pack up and live with your Granny over night. It takes time to plan a meal that evreyone can make it to.

But in the end it all seems worth it. It seems to keep me grounded and moving forward. If not, where would we be between the projects that surround our personal lives? We would be nothing more then a CreComm without a personality.

Rocks, rocks and more rocks

Driving into Souris, Manitoba on a Friday morning, the hilly town south of Brandon is blanketed in snow. But even though there isn’t a soul in sight that chilly morning, the Rock Shop open sign hangs in the dingy window on the junction of First Street and Red Coat Trail.

The Rock Shop is a one-stop tourist shop with souvenirs (mostly rocks) and travel information. Upon walking in, one feels like they’ve entered a world of bedrock in the old souvenir shop. A young family comes in to admire the shiny rocks and a young girl, about four or five, lifts a shiny pink agate crystal off a shelf on the left. Cases with rocks from places as far away as Madagascar hang on the wall.

But Souris has its own agate pit, filled with glacial deposits left behind from the creation of the Rocky Mountains during the Tertiary period. The rocks found in the pit cannot all be pinned down to one time period, in fact they vary in origin from Precambrian time to the Ice Age. Fossil rocks such as petrified wood and gastropod agates (snail fossils) are found in the pits, the carcasses of these little creatures preserved forever.(sourisrockshop.com)

 “We do bus trips down to the pit starting in May,” says Val Dunbar, 50, who’s worked at the Rock Shop for three years. “We do the tours for kindergarteners to about grade sevens. After that they’re teenagers and don’t want to pay attention.”

She explains the bus trips cost one dollar per student and usually attract schools from the surrounding areas of Souris. They come to explore the rock pit and take home a souvenir from the Rock Shop before going home.

A popular souvenir is little stones glued together with small plastic hats to form “rock critters”. These guys are popular among the younger patrons of the rock shop.

Another popular souvenir, not native to Souris, is the peacock rocks. The shiny blue, purple and green rocks are a favorite because of the peacocks that wander the town in spring and summer.

“In the summer the peacocks go right up to people,” says Brendan Robbins, a grade 12 Souris resident. Dunbar agrees saying the grocery store owner feeds them blueberries.

“They eat them right out of her hand,” says Dunbar who has lived in Souris for 30 years.

When most people think of the little town of Souris, they often think of the suspension bridge. The town that’s home to just 1772 people, is famous for having Canada’s longest historic suspension bridge.(sourismanitoba.com)But in fact the famous attraction takes about five minutes to pass over. So when you’re through with the bridge don’t forget to explore the Rock Shop.

The shop is open from Tuesday to Friday 10 am to 5 pm and 12 to 5pm on Saturdays during the winter.

The Hidden Legacy Conference

This past week was a change of pace for post-secondary students everywhere. We had spring break, and while some of us spent it working, snowboarding, in Vegas or Mexico I mixed business with pleasure. I went to Asessippi snowboarding, which was blast. Out of the fifteen of us only one minor injury a nosebleed.(I went off a cliff and landed face first.)
After hot tubs and snowboarding I volunteered for two days at the Hidden Legacy Conference and the Convention Centre.

Brochure from conference

It was a first time conference of its kind to remember the children of residential school survivor's. Residential schools are a dark part of Canada's past.Founded in the 19th century across Canada, by the Canadian government to "civilize" the native peoples, by taking their children and instilling christian beliefs on them. The children were often taken from their homes, their heads shaved, often sexually and physically abused and told they could not speak their native tongue. Two years ago the federal government issued a formal apology and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which works with victims and was present at the conference to take statements. Their were plenty of social workers around confronting people and hearing their stories. The large auditorium where the first day speakers like Gabor Mate, Justice Murray Sinclair and Elijah Harper O.M. spoke, was filled to capacity with over 1500 people. It was a great experience to be a part of.

Ironstand's business card

The second day was workshops. I was assigned to help Beatrice Ironstand, an Anishinabe Helper. Her native name is Against the Clouds. She's from Valley River Reserve. Her "Tipi teachings and Creation Story" was reduced to just the Creation story because of time constraints. each presenter had an hour and fifteen minutes. She explained the story of her people and how each person is made up of four elements, the fire that burns inside them, the water that runs through them, the bear spirit and the wind or breath of a person. It was a fascinating story told by this soft spoken woman who also spoke of personal experiences in her talk. At the end of the workshop there was an offering of tobacco to the Creator. Each person took about a pipeful of tobacco and threw it in the basket where i threw some cedar on top. Then the next person would throw their's.

Picture of Beatrice Ironstand from the brochure.

From the few people I asked about their favorite workshop, many said that Beatrice's was one of their favorite. Several people took her pamphlet or card. The other workshop that was quite popular was Gabor Mate's. He talked about the way a person's childhood experiences shape their entire life. Therefore even children of residential school survivor's who's needs weren't met as children are at risk of substance abuse and other self harming things in their adult life. He explained how it transpires to their children and so on and without proper healing teachings they will never break out of it.

The other workshops were healing ones that helped residential school survivors and their children see that they are able to move past the horrific experiences in their lives. Through this conference I do think some people were connected with the resources in order to begin their own healing conference. As well the statements that were collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are extremely valuable to the legacy of the residential schools.

Tweeting vs. status-updating...

When I use Twitter, it is for one thing only, promotion. I use it to promote my blog. I throw the link up on it every week, hoping it will attract at least one intrigued follower to wander over to this blog. But when I go on Facebook, I am funnier, more outgoing and of course less predictable and professional.

On Facebook I try to be persuasive, say things that will get an reaction. But still I monitor what I'm saying. I make sure I am not a part of the day-to-day hub-a-lub. I try to step out of the box, that is when I step off the sidelines and decide to say something. But there are some people who use Facebook as a sounding board for their emotions. This is not what I or anyone else would like to hear. Except of course when the sounding off contains juicy gossip. Of course Facebook has a broader network with 500 million people world wide. Twitter sits around 70,000 registered users.

But each website is designed in a unique way that shapes the way you can share your thoughts. For instance, Twitter has it's 140 character limit where Facebook does not. Also Facebook is more versatile. You can not only see people's status updates but their new photos, interactions with other users etc.

All my friends have Facebook, and even some of my aunts. I know very few older males,(my dad's age) who have Facebook, it seems to be taking off wiht older woman. i suppose the interacting with friends and family and snooping on what they're doing in their lives is a woman thing(in my family at least.)

Surprisingly my brother who is a engineering student doesn't have a cell, but has Facebook. My sister and I often communicate to him through messages on Facebook. The website is extremely useful for connecting people who don't know each other. For instance this spring break my friend Britt and I planned a trip to Assessippi. We each invited our siblings and starting a mass conversation that went out to all the trip-goers helped us keep in touch with everyone via one message. It was easier then finding everyone's email too.

Speaking of email I use Facebook to send links now. Instead of going to GMail which I barely have open on my computer anymore I just go to Facebook, type in the person's name and send it as a message. This usually means the person will get it right away too.


When it comes to adding people I don't know I'm more cautious then ever. I used to add people willy-nilly thinking I must know them if they added me. But I recently was quoted in the Free Press saying I do add people I don't know. Well, the stupidity in that is tehy had my full name printed. People could just search my first and last name and add me. This caused to be more of a hassle then anything. After that little eye-opening incident I remain cautious when adding new friends.

With Twitter it's different. I allow anyone to follow me as i believe it is not as personal as Facebook. I don't post photos of my birthday and camping trips up on Twitter. I keep it strictly to blog links and interesting saying I've heard throughout the day. Interestingly very few of my friends outside of school have Twitter. They all seem disinterested by keeping up two social networking websites. This does seem logical as after I signed up for Twitter more then a year ago i stopped using it until school.

So whether you are tweeting, status updating or posting photos you are using one of these two very popular social networking sites. They each have their pitfalls, but are extremely useful for communicating with others.

To publish or to self publish

 I think throwing an ebook online it a great achievement, not to mention environmentally friendly. But what if it's self published? Does it still hold merit? Do people still read it ? I think so. Referring to Book Madam's blog there may be some editing issues and as well as the fact that without the publicity attached to the publisher there's less of a reason for it to be sold. The publisher doesn't just edit, bind and distribute, they promote. A small one time writer has to be damn good in order to catch the attention of the people bombarded with advertisements and talk show promotions on other books.

On one hand self publishing could be seen as taking the easy way out. You didn't spend hours perfecting it to an editor's or the industry's standards which may have a huge impact on the quality of the work. But on the other hand you perfected something to the best of your individual ability making it what you wanted it to be. Does this mean it is the most untainted version of your work? It's sure something to think about.

On the other hand being published by the industry makes for a great personal victory. The fact that your work has been chosen, yes modified, but still chosen will remain with you forever. But then if you went to the effort of self publishing that project would stay with you forever well. So what it comes down to is circumstances. If you try and try to get published, take the feedback that you may get from the publisher, and then throw it up on ebooks it seems like a happy medium. So my route to take would be the final. I would try out the available resources like sending the book to an publisher and if it doesn't work out, there's always self publishing.

Bad Choice...

Thank God for BlackBerrys, as they allow you to capture some strange sights in our city. Like in this photo I took driving home from school today. It may seem straight forward, some cars and a billboard, but what upset me was the billboard.

The billboard on Main and Lansdowne is impossibly hard to read. The first problem is it is "reverse typeface" which is the only option for a black billboard. But the font chosen is so thin it disappears into the black background. The second problem is the type is near-impossible to read, in and of itself. The type could be described as "stick font" or "stick lighta" which is the name of the example below.

Looking at the example alphabet above, you can see the problem wiht choosing such an outlandish font, and pairing it with a black background. There is simply no easy way to decipher what it says. After about the third time being stopped by the billboard in quesiton, waiting for the stoplight to turn green, I figured out what it actually said.
"CLOSE ENCOUNTER, THE NEXT 500 YEARS"
It's an ad for an indigenous art exhibit held at the.... hmm didn't catch where, as the car in front of me was pulling away. But this only emphasizes my point that the designer of the billboard really wasted those advertising dollars if I didn't catch what it was for until the third time around.

All that snow...I've never seen so many people outside since summer!

I need a truck! But then I think of how it cost me 50 bucks to fill up my small car, and I am glad that's all. But still! I got to school fine. Highway number 9 had two nice ruts for me to follow cautiously to the city. I managed to park ok. Then about noon I went to my car to get some gym clothes and the snow was coming down like crazy. I made it there and back, with a little difficulty, and was surprised to find that so much snow had fallen my purse was filled with snow! I've never had that happen before.
Then, I was leaving the cramped parking lot downtown when my car wouldn't move. It was stuck! So I had to do some maneuvering and finally got it out. Then I went to my Granny's and the street wasn't plowed and got stuck trying to park on the street because i didn't dare try to go in her unplowed driveway. An observation though, was the amount of people I saw outside! It was like every second house there was a male furiously shoveling the snow out of the driveway. I didn't see any accidents, thank God for that.

All this snow is great for the snowmobilers and snowboarders, but it's bad for those of us that live on water. We have a creek in our backyard and in 2009 it was so high it looked like a river. It drops about 25 feet down and the water was all the way up to the grass level with teh house-no flooding though. But if it's any worse this year, I'll be sandbagging  like crazy! But hopefully all the snow won't melt at once and we'll be ok.

My biggest fear

So for lack of a better topic I will resort to a pre-thought up one I jotted down on a list not to long ago. My biggest fear is climbing into bed and something is in my bed or under the covers. So every night before I go to bed I make sure to turn on my bedside lamp and then go turn the overhead light off. That way when I go to climb into bed I know no one or nothing is in it! My puppy is often sleeping on my bed, but visibly and not hiding. Here he is tucked in.

My dog has scared me occasionally when I go into my dark room quickly to grab something off my bed and my hands hit a warm furry body. It's quite terrifying. Anyways if you weren't scared of it before, I hope you're not afraid of it now!