Emily’s Blog

Posted By Emily on August 13, 2010

Wow. I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve last blogged. Oops. lol.

So, my summer’s been pretty good so far and a bit more interesting than I thought it was going to be I guess. For example, getting your wisdom teeth out sucks or at least it did for me but I think mine was particularly complicated. At least it got me addicted to Big Bang Theory which is the best comedy I’ve ever seen. Well, Friends comes close and I guess Seinfield would be the more intellectual choice but screw that, there’s no romance or hot nerds in that one.

Has anyone ever noticed that in t.v. shows or movies men often have the career with more status? In Big Bang Theory, Penny is the only major female character in the show and she’s a waitress. There was a female scientist named Leslie on the show for awhile but she seemed to have a lot of masculine characteristics to me.  In Two And A Half Men, we never even know what Chelsea’s job is despite the fact that she’s been on the show for two seasons or more. And I was reading a book on gender relations, that mentioned in Love Actually, the president falls for Natalie who I think is like a secretary or something, another man has an affair with his much younger secretary and another man falls for his maid. Also, in Grey’s Anatomy, there are a few exceptions but in general, it’s a lot more common for the males to be more experienced doctors than the females.

That ends my rant on feminist issues for the day. I’m reading a book called Are Men Necessary? which is kind of an offensive title, but if you get into the book a bit, you realize that the author has a lot of respect for men and women, I believe she’s just trying to ask whether men are a necessary part of a women’s identity. I find it really clever and funny.

Anyways, I’ve stumbled into a lot of good books this summer. I loved Jane Eyre and Hunchback of Notre Dame and I think Emmie has an awesome taste in books. I also read a book called 500 Ways To Change The World which is incredibly inspiring and I’d recommend it to anyone. The book just consists of a many cool ideas people have on how to change the world and it covers a lot of different topics, such as personal relationships, environmental issues, education, health and many more. Also, this book is by global ideas bank which is a website where people keep sending their ideas on how to change the world. If someone’s interested in seeing it, they can probably just google it . I’ll probably find the link and add it to my comments section later or something.

Btw, this is random but there’s an actor named Robert Redford who was really, really, really, really attractive when he was younger especially In The Great Gatsby. He’s like a better looking, more talented Brad Pitt. How come I always get celebrity crushes on people that are either really old or dead now? I”m also kind of attracted to Jake Gatsby which is kind of creepy since he has a pretty unhealthy obsession with the girl he loves but hey, at least he’s polite and pretty romantic.

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Posted By Emily on May 31, 2010

Joseph Campbell has some of the most interesting quotes I’ve ever read so I thought I’d post some:

“God is a metaphor for that which trancends all levels of intellectual thought. It’s as simple as that.”

“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”

For more quotes:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/joseph_campbell.html

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Posted By Emily on May 27, 2010

Oh my gosh. I love exercise lately. It’s awesome. I think my running is going to improve a lot if I keep going about 5 times a week. Each week I try to run a bit longer to challenge myself a bit more and I really like it.  I’m also lifting weights and apparently the book has five different vartiations of exercises which challenges your muscles in different ways which is awesome.

I think I should try classes at the ladner leisure centre soon but I can’t decide between aerobics and yoga. Aerobics could be too much if I run earlier in the day but they burn more calories than yoga but yoga might be a really good way to relax and stretch my muscles so I don’t know.

I’ve also been eating out a lot lately so  maybe it’s good I’m exercising. Although going out for dinner so much lately does make me feel popular, I keep eating too much at restaurants. I don’t know whether the food is better or it’s just a subconcious social anxiety thing. I also had a fun time walking on the dike with Krystal after I had dinner with her, Kelsey and Katie. It was really fun and lately, it looks really pretty at night.

Btw, I have a new guilty pleasure song I can’t stop listening to. It’s called Mr. Immature and it’s super catchy.

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Posted By Emily on May 16, 2010

A winter’s day

In a deep and dark December;

I am alone,

Gazing from my window to the streets below

On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.

I am a rock,

I am an island.

I’ve built walls,

A fortress deep and mighty,

That none may penetrate.

I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.

It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain.

I am a rock,

I am an island.

Don’t talk of love,

Well, I’ve heard the word before.

It’s sleeping in my memory.

I won’t disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.

If I never loved I never would have cried.

I am a rock,

I am an island.

I have my books

And my poetry to protect me;

I am shielded in my armor,

Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.

I touch no one and no one touches me.

I am a rock,

I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;

And an island never cries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKY-smJ6aBQ

Yeah, I just really like this song and feel like I can relate to it a lot sometimes.

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Posted By Emily on May 12, 2010

So I’m at a resting and reflective period right now. The world in my head is more exciting than the actions I’ve taken recently so it’s hard to find something to write about.

The weather is beautiful and I’m actually starting to like running, like really like it. Like the whole process is becoming nice now, when before I had to struggle to get out of the door.

Jane Eyre went well. I found it said some very interesting things about love. It’s one of the first romance novels I’ve read where the two main characters aren’t very physically attractive. Plus, Jane Eyre was a very well developed character and the story had a lot of plot turns.

So, yeah. Nothing very exciting has happened to me recently but I’m very content about my personal life anyways. Not with the federal or provincal government or with that tragic oil spill down in Mexico but there’s not too much I can do about that other than vote.

I think the next book I’ll read will be a non-fiction one. I really liked reading Remotely Controlled. It’s interesting sometimes to read information about real life as opposed to reading about imaginary characters. Although if I recently became a  bit down after reading a fiction book, reality sadly isn’t where I should look to if I want to feel more uplifted.

I feel I need times like this. It reminds me to be proud of myself, to think about my future and to spend time with all of the awesome friends I have.

Sorry, if this blog is fairly similar to my other ones but I haven’t had a lot to write about recently.

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Posted By Emily on April 29, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMWIRbXPlIo

So I just finished watching this short documentary on utube that I thought was pretty interesting. I honestly don’t feel I know enough about the B.C. Energy Plan to have a strong opinion yet but this video gave me some pretty interesting things to think about.

I’d also like to learn more about the New B.C. Energy Plan so if anyone has any opinions on the issue please let me know.

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Posted By Emily on April 28, 2010

So today it felt really good. It was the first day off after exams and I’m definately not one of those people that has a problem with their spare time.

I just sat on the grass, read some Jane Eyre and started planning my goals for the summer. I think with the system I’ve got worked out, I probably can achieve most of them. They’re also not too difficult. I mean especially since it is summer.

I guess I can mention one of them. One of them is to exercise a lot. This isn’t too big of an issue for me since I usually lift weights and go for walks everyday, although lately I haven’t been running as much but now that it’s summer again I can run as much as I want to which is good. I actually tried running today for the first time in a long time and I wasn’t as good as I used to be but that’s probably because I haven’t gone for a run in a month or even more so I guess I’ll get used to it again. I’m also planning on starting yoga again and hopefully they’re will be some soccer events. I also want to try and get that new Bikini workout book from the same author who wrote Toning For Teens, I am truly grateful to that author for making my body look more tone than it ever used to, especially when it comes to my upper arms. I think it was fate that I found it that one day in Blackbond, walking in the snow.

Oh, btw Jane Eyre is awesome. Sad but awesome. I’m about 100 pages in. I have to say that other than D.H. Lawrence, I’ve found the Bronte sisters are more interesting than any other author I’ve come across so far. Actually, wait I did like Charles Dickens a lot but I still think the Brontes come out on top. Anyways, for anyone who likes Jane Eyre, I’d recommend Anne Bronte’s book Tennet at something Hall. ( just google her ). Also, for anyone who hates Wuthering Heights like me, the writing style of the other Bronte’s sisters is nothing like her.

Anyways, thinking feels good and to actually have control over what I choose to think about as opposed to having it forced on me. Some of my goals will be harder to achieve than others but I’ll just have to see what happens.

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Posted By Emily on April 15, 2010

Well, I have exams left but it’s my last offical day of classes. I feel kind of sentimental but I’m also really, really excited about UBC next year. Their third year psychology and philosophy courses look awesome.

I can’t believe I’ve finished four semesters at this school but it’s an amazing place and I feel like I’ve gotten a really good education. I’d recommend Langara as a good post-secondary option for anyone leaving high school. Not that there aren’t a lot of other good schools available but now I can look back and know that Langara was the best choice possible for me. I loved the small class sizes and most of my profs were amazing and it was a nice transition period for me after high school.

Wow. I actually have some time to myself now. I’m not really used to it. Feels kind of weird. I guess I shouldn’t procrastinate and maybe I should start on studying for English or something but the fact that I even have the option of procrastinating is awesome. I haven’t had that for a long time.

It’s weird how in life you can be so busy that you don’t even realize how much you’re growing up and I feel a lot older in the last two years than I did since I was seventeen. Maybe I should walk around the golf course with a friend or say goodbye to my profs. before I leave. I don’t know. I feel really proud of myself though.

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Posted By Emily on April 1, 2010

So I thought I’d have a bit of a break this weekend but my sociology paper is supposed to be twice as long as I thought it was going to be. Yay…

There’s an interesting part in Before Sunrise about getting sick of yourself. One of the protagonists thinks that the reason people get sick of themselves is because they’re always there. He says something like I’ll go to the movies and I’m there, I’ll go to school and I’m there and I’ll go to a party and I’m there too. It makes me laugh. I’m kind of sick of myself right now actually but I guess the solution to that is to concentrate on my good qualities, appreciate the life I have and try to make positive changes.

Hmm. What else? Even though this weekend isn’t going to be as fun as I thought it was going to be, I’m kind of proud of myself for getting through last weekend. Nearly every hour was alternated between an english research paper and studying for a statistics test. Yeah, not a lot of fun. So at least there’s time to go to anime on friday this weekend.

And this might make me sound like a control freak but I love making schedules lately. Like the day before, I’ll outline how i”m going to spend every hour the next day, it’s kind of comforting. I’ll also make a goal for myself of what I want to accomplish every hour and I find I often am able to meet those goals and it feels really good. So it’s an excellent motivator for me. Yeah, I am kind of a freak. Oh well. I’ll end with a quote I like because I find I beat myself up for making mistakes too much.

“The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never does anything” Denis Waitley

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Posted By Emily on March 16, 2010

So I took yesterday off because I was feeling sick. I could have gone I guess but I felt like I needed a day of rest and I think I’ve only missed one or two of my classes all semester. Luckily, I think that was the worst day of my cold and it should go downhill from here.

Lately, I’ve been trying to write really good dialogue in my stories which is a bit tricky. In my last story, I got one or two comments that the characters said too much of exactly what they mean so I tried to make the dialogue in my latest story sound more genuine.

It’s just interesting because writing about people talking to each other made me think about how people actually talk to each other. It’d be really nice sometimes if people said exactly what they were thinking, well as long as it’s polite. But anyways, when people talk to you they can have tons of inner monologue you’re not aware of. Maybe they don’t mean what they’re saying at all, maybe what they’re actually thinking is the opposite of what they’re saying and you’ll never know. Sometimes people can even reveal their thoughts when they’re talking without meaning too. Or one person can think they’re being clear but the other person can interpret what they were saying as something completely different. It’s just interesting that’s all and frustrating and kind of cool that you can have a private world inside your head that no one knows about.

And I think people need to listen better. I think that includes 99.9 percent of the population if not 100 percent. I mean do you ever have someone talk to you about something they’re really passionate about but you’re not even listening very well because you just really want to talk? It doesn’t even make sense sometimes. Maybe that’s just me. Not that I want to discourage anyone from talking to me, I try pretty hard to listen most of the time.

Once  in awhile, I’ve had the experience where I’m talking to someone and they don’t even really notice I’m there, like they could be talking to anybody else on the planet and it wouldn’t even matter. It’s just a shame. I think everyone could learn a lot more if they could listen a bit more and really think about what the other person has said.

I should probably work on a research paper now. Working on my short story was a lot more fun. Well not really fun but it felt good. It was about a boy losing his mother and trying to deal with that and it felt kind of theraputic for me. It’s nice to look back on the darkest time of my life and to know that I was strong enough to survive, even though I’ll always keep my Dad’s memory in my heart.

Btw, I like this song. Maybe most people have heard it before. I’m not sure. I’m not aware of that much music that isn’t classic rock or modern day pop.

Okay, well cutting and pasting the link isn’t working but it’s called Don’t Dream It’s Over and it’s part of the Adventureland soundtrack which btw, is an awesome movie if people still haven’t seen it. I’d recommend it to all romantics, english nerds and people who feel insecure about growing up.

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