Monday, November 27, 2006

Out of the Dark, Into the Pain

So, big storm here. Lots of snow. Three days of snow and counting. In fact, it's snowing right now. I always used to laugh at Vancouver because it shuts down every year when it snows. But this stuff is wet, and heavy, and has taken down trees which in turn take down power lines and trolley bus lines. So that is why my power went out at 2am last night. But on the bright side, I finally get to profit from what I used to make fun of, because all classes were cancelled today. And I went out for the morning and came back to find my power back on. So hooray for that. Oh, and they FINALLY lifted the boil water advisory. Not that I was actually boiling my water, but it's always good to not have an advisory in place....

But the bad news is I pulled something in my back this morning. While stepping onto a low-rise wheelchair accessible bus. I don't know how, but I managed to do it, and am now in pain. That and I can't stand upright. I can only stand if I'm bent over, so I'm thinking of investing in a cane. Anyways, I went and saw a doctor, and he prescribed me ibuprofen and robaxacet, and said if in five days it wasn't better to get it checked up on. So we'll see. But in the meantime I plan to drug myself up, and lie on the couch moaning and watching TV. There's Star Trek and CSI on practically ALL DAY! And hey, if it's still bad tomorrow, maybe I can get out of orchestra! Score!

Friday, November 17, 2006

I'm Still Alive

So, apparently the news has been talking a lot about the big storm we had here yesterday. In fact, when I got home from orchestra today I had two worried messages on my phone from my mom. So this is just a little public service announcement to let anybody who cares know that I am in fact still alive. I have power. I was not evacuated. I (sadly) still had school. And I will try not to drink the dirty water....it's just SO TEMPTING!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Ugly Leno



So I was lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, and started thinking about an annoying segment Entertainment Tonight has been running for the last week. So I decided to get out of bed and rant about it. It's called 'Ugly Vanessa', and they dress up MTV hottie Vanessa Minillo in a fat suit, braces, and glasses, and send her out on the streets of New York doing various things and seeing how people react to her. As opposed to when they give her a blond wig, green contacts, and a Gucci wardrobe. There are a few things that piss me off about this. First of all, in making her fat they gave her this enormous prosthetic chin. She looks like an ugly, latin, female Jay Leno. Seriously, just because you're fat, it doesn't mean you have a huge chin! Secondly, they picked a girl who's gotten everywhere she is in her life because of her looks. She was Miss Teen USA, then an MTV VJ and ET correspondent, and all because she's cutesy and hot. So naturally she hates the way she looks, and while she's out as the 'fat' Vanessa she basically transmits how ugly she thinks she is to everyone around her by the way she acts. But at the same time, she tries to be all cutesy, because it works for her when she's skinny and hot. Honey, being cutesy gets you nowhere in life. Unless your skinny and hot.

My other big beef is the things they have her do to test how she's treated differently. First she had to approach people on the street to give them a survey. As the timid, big-chinned girl, New Yorkers just passed her by. As I would have. People laughed at her when she rode the subway, which is admittedly pretty mean, but she looked really ridiculous. She's not used to being that size, so she moved awkwardly like somebody who's used to being much different. And she just sort of stood around awkwardly, in people's way, waiting for them to have a negative reaction to her. If you're standing in the middle of the steps to the subway staring at everyone who passes you, I'm probably going to laugh at you too. Another test was going clubbing. They sent her one night as a hottie, and then next night as a fugly. Well, big surprise the bouncers at NYC's hottest club didn't let in the fugly girl with unwashed hair and horrific clothing. Seriously, they could have at least put some effort into her attire and made her look a lot more presentable. Today they had her go lingerie shopping on Madison Avenue. Dressed in ill-fitting, cheap clothes. And then she wondered why no salespeople would give her the time of day. Those people are trained to smell money, and fugly Vanessa just had the stench of insecurity and cheap clothes coming off her.

My roommate Lisa and I proceeded to have a big discussion about this. More than half of what people perceive you to be is in your attitude. People who are self confident (NOT cocky assholes) and secure in themselves are perceived as 'hotter' than perhaps they actually are. Lisa and I both thought about it, and with both of us the guys we've liked have not been 'hot' in the conventional sense, but we were attracted to their personality and attitude. So there you go Vanessa. If you walk around with the attitude you're awkward and ugly, you will be seen as awkward and ugly. And Entertainment Tonight, next time give that girl some clothes that actually fit! The character on Ugly Betty is a comic stereotype. Not a real phenomenon. Idiots.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

It's Really Quite Easy. I Swear.

Well, another exciting installment of My Life. It's been mostly routine, with classes, rehearsals, and lessons. Last weekend was the string fest. Nothing really exciting happened.

Yesterday we had a UBC NDP social, which basically involved about five of us meeting up to eat pizza and watch The End of Suburbia. The DVD had two versions of the film - one rated G and one rated M for Mature. We of course picked the one rated M, and proceeded to discover that the decline in oil is like a clusterfuck in a shit storm. I kid you not, that's what one guy said. I guess that's why it was rated M. After the movie we got sucked into playing MarioKart in the Arts Undergrad Society office, with us all screaming obscenities (like 'clusterfuck!') whenever we screwed up. After that I was really quite tired and so went home and went to bed early. But some asshat decided to set off the fire alarm in my building at 1:30 in the morning, and we had to evacuate the building and wait for the firemen to come and turn it off. So needless to say my night was not as restful as I had hoped it would be.

Today we had our last rehearsal before the orchestra concert tomorrow, and holy shit am I getting really annoyed at this orchestra! It's like a trifecta of badness. The conductor can't conduct (it's really quite easy to count to three, but apparently out of his abilities), the players don't seem to understand dynamics (p means loud, right?!), and NOBODY CAN KEEP TEMPO! Now, it doesn't help that we have a weak conductor, but doesn't everybody realize that if you rush like a mofo, it just makes everything harder to play?! I really just feel sorry for the pianist who's playing Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto with us, because the second movement is just him playing straight (and fast) eighth notes, and we keep rushing him. Actually, we just rush him throughout the whole piece. And as a soloist it is the worst feeling - that the orchestra is not following you, but you are having to follow the orchestra. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that tomorrow during the concert we fall apart in the 3rd movement of the Rachmaninov Dances.

Is it bad that I miss the Con?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Tired for no reason

Well, seeing as how I'm bored and trying to waste time, I thought I'd do a little posting. Last weekend was a doozy, let me tell you. I blame Aida. Anyways, on Friday night I dressed up like post-pregnancy Britney Spears (minus the baby, because really when does she ever tote the kid around?), and went out with Vanessa and Aida. We first went over to Totem to meet up with some friends of theirs who are RAs there, and then proceeded to hang around and drink while waiting for people. I don't really know why. All I know is that it resulted in a lot of absurd drunken photos of Vanessa, Aida, me, and their friend Nathalie. After we managed to find everyone we headed over to the SUB to go to the Pit Pub, but in the mad crush of people trying to get in Vanessa and I got separated from everyone else. And then Vanessa got really claustrophobic, so we decided to leave the line and go to McDonald's in the Village instead. So we did, and then I escorted Vanessa back to Gage so she didn't get attacked by anyone, and went home.

The next morning I got up, and met some UBC NDPers at the SUB to head downtown to a peace march. So we marched around downtown, and then I had to duck out of the rally at 2:30 to head back to campus to meet Vanessa and Aida for a gig. We played a wedding reception, but the funniest part was that I was the only one who noticed it was a same-sex marriage. The other three were totally clueless, and only when both the 'best men' started giving speeches did they believe me. AHAHAHA. Anyways, I played violin, which was hilarious, but it was all good. Afterwards, Aida and I quickly changed into our Halloween costumes in Vanessa's car, and then Vanessa dropped Aida, Nathalie, and I off at the Blarney Stone. It's this pub downtown, sort of near the Lower East Side (ooh, scary) that everybody seems to love. I don't know, I wasn't so convinced. Of course, that may have had something to do with having to stand in line for and hour and a half before getting in. I never stood in line that long even in TO! So anyways, drunken debauchery ensued, and I somehow managed to catch the bus back to UBC. I vaguely remember meeting some random guy on the street, and him showing me how to get to Waterfront Station to catch the B-Line (because I had absolutely no idea where I was...).

Sunday morning was not a happy time though. It always seems like such a good idea at the time to mix liquors, but Sunday sucked. Majorly. But I managed to get through it pretty much alive, and am now back at the daily grind. There's this 'String Festival' weekend thingie on this weekend at UBC, so that means that I have two string orchestra concerts - one on Friday at noon, and one Saturday evening. Should be hilarious! I'll probably bring my computer to do some work on my Argument essay for English, seeing as my panel is on Wednesday. Anybody got any gems of wisdom on torture?