In which I remember pretty much everyday of last week, which rarely happens.

Hmm I wonder if I'll be able to finish this post on time... let's see. (11:21)

On Saturday I went to meet some people from the Anime Club for a couple hours. We went to one of the senior members' houses and oh my god you guys should have seen her collection of manga. It was fucking insane and pardon my swearing there, but I am like soooo jealous and in awe. The collection was sorted alphabetically and it took up most of her moderately sized basement. And she said that she probably had somewhere around $50,000 worth of manga there. Do you realize how amazing that is... I want that much money to spend on manga....

After that I went out to celebrate my friend Monika's birthday. We basically ended up fooling around the mall for a while and then going to watch The Avengers and then Total Recall back to back in the movie theatre in the mall. And god you guys the movie tickets at that theatre only cost $5 (only $2 on the cheap day!). I am going to go there all the time to watch movies now, it's so cheap and so close to my apartment. I feel very lucky.

On Tuesday I went to this thing the uni was holding called Sexy Bingo with a friend (I don't think I would have been able to go alone). It was like bingo, but the prizes were all sex toys and things and there were free condoms everywhere. And the entertainment was a drag queen doing some lip singing. It was pretty fun I must say, didn't win anything though lol.

I ended up missing my first class this week. It was on Wednesday right at 8:30, calculus. I slept through my alarm, but luckily I have a friend in that same class so I was able to borrow the notes off her.

Thursday was mainly spent finishing a calculus and physics assignment that were due the next day. I had been working on them, but two questions stumped me on the physics on so I went in to the help centre after my super short chemistry lab. It ended up taking me and a big group of people basically two hours to figure out those two questions, even with help from the TAs, it was horrible. I went and bought a giant chocolate bar afterwards to cheer myself up.

And yeah that was basically my week, the good parts anyway, everything else has just been doing work and falling behind in work and boring school stuff. Tomorrow is the first official Anime Club meeting so I'll be going to that, it should be fun.

Adam, I was feeling the same about my summer posts and wow I'm super jealous of your discounted movies. I would join a film club if my school had one, but I don't think they do. And honestly... I haven't been on youtube for several months now.. so yeah...

Kate, it's not as fun as it seems, in my opinion anyway. Like yeah it's nice to have more freedom and not have people telling you to do things. But at the same time you have to make sure to keep yourself in check, get things done, and like Deidra said, there is always something you could be doing for school, always. Also I don't like having to pay for all my food, it makes me want to not have to eat at all because I'm always wondering if I'm spending too much on food... but I love/need food so it's not like I can help it at all...

Kira you should basically get used to having that happen to you all the time in chemistry and in a lot of other things. A lot of the time you get taught generalizations in school just to make things easier to understand and it isn't until you get further along when the teacher will be like "yeah this is the real stuff" and even then I feel like it will get changed again if I looked into it more.

Campion my favourite video games that I can think of right now are probably: Pokemon Silver (I always played that one while my sister played Yellow), Legend of Zelda Wind Waker (the animation and story line and everything was just the best), and maybe Animal Crossing because why the heck not, I enjoyed that game. Honourable mention to all Lego games (but more specifically Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter) because I just had a ton of fun with those.

And yeah anyway so its 12:02 now, but I cheated and posted this earlier and just edited it so it would look like I finished on time. Hope you guys have awesome weeks. I'm going to go drink some beer and watch some Teen Wolf so later.

DFTBA
Kayla

Please Don't Kill Me

     I totally almost forgot to post. If it wasn't for the Skype call I am about to make while I write I would not have posted. Despite the fact that two out of three of my classes for today were cancelled, it has been very busy.

     This weekend we had a floor hockey tournament between the houses. Surprisingly our team came in fourth place, which is awesome considering we are in a quiet house and those houses usually don't even participate. I quite like floor hockey, much better than actual hockey since I am terrible at skating. I like to play defence, since I am not afraid to be a bit rough. I ended up with a few nasty bruises, but it was all fun.

     We also went to the pool on Monday and also this evening. It's a really nice and big pool. I love to swim, and have decided to try to go at least twice a week. Great way to get exercise, spend time when I'm not in class, and have fun, since I love to swim.

     Katie, I think you need to get a hobby. All of that school work can't be good for you. I suggest learning a new skill that is independent from school. 

     Adam, I haven't watched Vlogbrothers in quite a few months, so I haven't gotten to see the 1000th video. I joined the English Students' Associated and also a club-type thing for writers. I am also half of the media representatives for our house. I will write and another student will photograph. Along with the swimming and actually going to school, I think I will be set for this year. 

     Kate, I think we are really glorifying the university experience. Personally I don't get too much homework, being a first year English major, but I know some people who have tons of work. Keeping up with it isn't too difficult, but I can tell you that you won't have a problem with having too much time on your hands. There is always prep work and reading and studying to do.

     Campion, I am not really a fan of the Halo games. I've not ever played them, but I have seen them be played and they just look terribly difficult. Also, I am not good at shooting and strategy games. And I LOVED Spyro: Year of the Dragon. I grew up with a Playstation and that was one of my favourite things to play. That and Crash Bandicoot. But I agree, Spyro was a good one. I liked the skateboarding mini-games. I was amazing at those. And of course, Pokemon always remains a number one. That about sums up my video gaming experience though. 

     Going home this weekend. Not that I want to, but I have an optometrist appointment. I really like being here, especially on weekends, since there is always something fun to be done. I am going to a hockey game tomorrow night before I leave. It is the first official game of the season. I am quite excited, even though I don't particularly like hockey. Anywho, I hope you all have good weeks. Don't cry too hard over the Ponds, especially since we get Oswin. Don't forget to be awesome!
-Deidra

Schools almost over........ well sort of (and another top 5)

Well school ends for me tomorrow, sort of. It's the last day of term for me and then I've got holidays and after that and then just four weeks of school left for me. This last week of school has been fairly easy, which is fortunate since my year has been pretty difficult and I should finish most of my projects over the holidays so I should actually be able to post more regularly.

You know what I haven't done in a while. A top five list.

My Top 5 Favorite Video Games

Now, of course this is all just my opinion and I'm really interested to hear about your favorites. So with that out of the way, let's begin

Before I start the list I need to make an honorable mention of Sly 2 band of thieves, I liked the first Sly Cooper game but the second one did it for me. The first game was a decent platformer with some stealth mechanics put in. It had an atmosphere which is reminiscent of a cartoon set in the 50's but the second game is really got good. The stealth parts were improved, the animation was much better, the combat mechanics were taken beyond just hitting the other guy, the games atmosphere was much better and i would just feel really guilty if I didn't include this. Now on with the actual list.

5. Halo
There is a great deal of hate surrounding Halo and first person shooters in general but I'm not one of those people who dislike the genre and is my favorite of the genre. I remember first playing the game when I was about 12 or 13 and hearing it's iconic theme song.  Some of the best parts of the games are blowing up aliens to the great orchestral theme and the last levels of the game. What I loved about this game was playing my friends for hours on end. On my last day of primary school (or elementary school depending on where your from) me and some friends of mine brought our X-Box's to school, linked them together and played Halo all day. Some games have complex stories, complicated game play and explore themes like war, death and morality. And then some games are about blowing up your friends with rocket launchers and chopping them in half with a laser swords for hours on end.

4. Spyro Year Of The Dragon
Spyro is one of the classic platformers from the original playstation that was apart of many gamers childhoods, especially mine. To date I have played every Spyro game ever released except for two of them. The first three were always to the best in the series in my opinion, with the third one being my favorite. The controls for Spyro were tight and responsive, he was a fun character, the level design and enemy designs were superior to the previous games and with the wealth of mini games throughout it always managed to break up the gameplay in a nice, fun way that was quick enough to be fun but not overstay it's welcome. Looking back on it now, the game is really easy, when I fist played this it took me months to beat now but now that I've grown up a bit I can beat the thing in about a day. But despite this, it's still fun to play through and it really does feel satisfying to collect all the eggs and the gems in the game.

3. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Usually video game adaptions of movies tend to suck but Star Wars video games are surprisingly good. With KOTOR actually being considered as one of the best games for the old X-Box. What I liked about this game was how it was an RPG, moving away form the other games which were usually shooters or hack and slash. What makes this better is that it's set several centuries before the films, so we get to see a time period in the Star Wars universe which we usually don't see in a video game. The combat was fun with it having combat similar to an MMORPG and the fact that it's a Star Wars game makes it even better. Forging your own path through the galaxy as a Jedi chopping down hoards of Sith is a lot of fun. And something that I loved about this game was the interactions with the other characters. With the driod HK-47 being my favorite character in the game. There was a sequel, which was okay and there's also an MMO based on it, which was shortened to just The Old Republic, which I'll get to playing as soon as it goes free to play.

2. Chrono Trigger
This used to be my favorite game of all time but it's fallen down my list because after playing through it a few more times, it's just not as good as the number one spot, but it's still good. A classic RPG for the Super Nintendo made by the same guys who made final fantasy. To describe what this game has allow me to list them for you. Dinosaurs, robots, time travel, aliens, magic, monsters, demons, knights, zombies, guns and swords. Need I say anymore? One of the main focuses for this game is time travel and the ability to travel between multiple different time periods at will (hence why robots and dinosaurs are in the same game) I always found this game to be really fun and the story to be very interesting. I've always loved being able to time travel  between the different time periods whenever I wanted to be cool mechanic. But why this fell down my list is because it's just so easy, even without level grinding I can out match the majority of these enemies. But despite this, it's still a fantastic game.

1. Pokemon
Not a lot that I can say about this iconic series that hasn't already been said. It's just fun. Collecting all the different Pokemon and battling my friends with them are some of the best memories from my childhood and the music is some of the best that I've heard from a game (seriously try to get the battle theme out of your head, I dare you). One thing that I thought was really cool about this game is that all the enemies that you fight in this game, you can eventually catch and have them fight for you. I have played and own nearly every game in the main series and while I love the series in general, I still have to pick my favorite. While I do love them all, if you put a gun to my head and made me chose, I would pick Ruby. For some reason people seem to dislike the third generation but it stands out as my favorite. It was the first video game that me and my brother saved up and bought ourselves, so it meant a lot to us. When we started playing, we knew nothing about the game, we went in completely blind being fascinated by every new Pokemon that we met. I noticed that since me and my brother knew everything about the next game that it wasn't as fun as Ruby was, so that contributed a lot as to why I love it so much. Also, something that me and my brother would do is that we would get opposite versions of the game, we would trade back and forth to get all the Pokemon and we would regularly battle each other. I also played with my other friends who had the game and playing this series has been a lot of fun.

So that's my top five done and now it's suddenly 2 in the morning and I really need some sleep. But what are your favorites? I'm really interested to know what your favorites are and why. If you don't like video games, then whats another top five you might have?

Anyway guys. Have an awesome week
DFTBA

Geeky Confusion

Hey, everyone. I hope you all had good weeks. Mine was tiring.

I still lack the time to write a decent post, but I guess I can do better than I did last week...maybe. We'll see.

I am an awkward person. My friend and I were talking about comics for a really long time yesterday. We came to the conclusions that we are world class dorks and that Jason Todd was better as Red Hood than as Robin.

I'm really excited for this Thursday. Season 6 of the Big Bang Theory is starting. I think the show has really started to decline, but I still like it. The Big Bang Theory and Doctor Who are really the only TV shows that I really watch. Speaking of Doctor Who - Weeping Angels are amazing. Enough said.

School's going all right. I really hate chemistry. One minute, you're told one thing, and then - bam. You learn that whatever it is isn't exactly true.

I should probably go do SAT stuff or something. Bleh. Well, a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. Have a good week and don't forget to be awesome.

-Kira

My Life is the Same

...or at least it feels the same.  Thanks to school, I don't really do much out of the ordinary.  The most exciting things I do are volleyball related, and even then, it's not that exciting.  I haven't gone out to hang with friends in awhile.  Hopefully that'll change next weekend when I go over to a friends house to watch the Pond leave on Doctor Who.

I'm glad you have enjoyed Sherlock so far, and I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on the second series.

I would have nerded out if I had been with you, Kayla.  Wind Waker is my favorite Zelda game and it's awesome the conductor used it to conduct.

You are all making me feel excited for University.  The idea of being independent, having more time that I can decide what I want to do with, and being to be an adult... it just sounds awesome.  Of course there are some aspects of adult life I'm not looking forward to (taxes, managers, etc.), but I'm not to worried.  Heck, my biggest fear is about how I will get along with my future roommate.

I've got to go.  I need to get a start in the new book we are reading in American Literature.  O Pioneers by Willa Cather.  From the looks of it the story takes place in our state, which only makes me think the story will be even more boring.  Even our teacher said it had a simple plot.  Eh, well, it's too early to tell.

Kate

Freshers Week

So, time to post again. I'm glad that i'm back at college as it gives me something to actually write about. There were times over summer when my weekly post just reminded me how little I was doing each week.

I'm glad people seemed to have good weeks in general. :)  Mine was pretty good, it was freshers week so I got to join all the clubs and societies. I joined Physics soc, Film soc, Gamesoc, Lawsoc and L&H (the two big debating societies). The only sports team I joined was ultimate frisbee, I'm hoping it'll be good fun.

The Phyiscs society are having a trip to Cern at Easter so fingers crossed I'll get to go on that. UCd, the university I'm in has built a new student centre with a cinema in it which is run by the Film soc and they have discounts and free popcorn for members so it's pretty awesome. I rejoined Gamesoc because I find myself getting nerdier as time goes on. I've really gotten into comic books and I started playing magic too, I play Black/White if anyones interested :)

I'm guessing everyone saw the 1000th vlogborthers video, I thought it was just amazing, I got all teary eyed watching it. What did you guys think?

DFTBA
Adam

What a Wonderful Life it is

I have the best Peace Day hangover. Let me explain. Yesterday was the International Day of Peace and I had a wonderful day... mostly. Now as for the hangover, I just mean the buzz of happiness and all its worth is still lingering. It was a really good day, and I wish all days were like it. Oh and sorry about not posting, I wasn't busy. It was just one minute I remembered I had to write and the next I was off to go to bed. And by bed I mean watch Sherlock.

Oh yes. I have watched most of Sherlock, seeing as there is yet to be a season three. Season one was on Netflix so I decided with all the hype I would give it a go. To say the least, I love it. In fact I started at the right time, because yesterday they put season two up. Next Saturday I'll let you know what I think.

I finally figured out my locker, but have yet to get it open on one try. I usually miss the mark and have to start over. As for the bus. Just...no. No no no no no no and no. I'm loving Geometry so far. Even with the larger class, the teacher is still the same. Mostly we've been using an online program called ALEKS. It's basically a tool to help students progress at their own pace and learn more comfortably. I work really well with things like ALEKS, so I've actually been exceeding. Chemistry still scares me. Not the teacher, or the learning, but the work. I am so unbelievably scared of not knowing. Which is weird because science isn't about not knowing, but discovering. So it's weird that I'm scared of something that is meant to help understanding. 

I went to a Collage Fair this past week on Wednesday I believe. I'm a sophomore so it wasn't a mandatory thing, but my sister's a senior so I tagged along. She's been to a lot of Collage Fairs so she was a great resource. I met up with a group of mostly seniors from my school and a teacher, and walked with them for the last half hour or so. Overall it was a really great experience, and I met a lot of cool people. I even found a few collages I might have interest in going to. Even though I'm still not entirely sure on what to major in I've at least started to think about it. The first collage representative we actually talked to was a women from Drew University in New Jersey. My mom and brother know her some way or another which is mostly why we stopped at her booth. I wrote this about my experience: http://ihaveopinionstoo.tumblr.com/post/31949835136. It wasn't a bad thing, but there is a lot of truth to it. I like learning and school and sitting in class. And when I'm at home I relax by doing some form of learning or school related work. Which is why it's so hard for me to fathom not doing school work all the time.

I want to talk more about Peace Day. Only a little bit. We had this huge assembly type thing when we go to school. Filled with  presentations, guest speakers, musical performances, and awesome. At the end we were aloud to raise our hands and share something. Well, being full of nerd, I shared DFTBA with my entire school. Only my sister and one other Nerdfighter friend knew what I was on about. But I have a feeling there are other Nerdfighters on their way. I saw an upper class-man reading Looking for Alaska. That's not even the coolest part. In Chemistry the teacher says that what he looks for in group work is students doing act of awesome. And then. Oh then. HE USED DFTBA. In class, to the class. He reminded the entire class to be awesome. THEN he said to not FTBA. I just exploded, covering the walls with excitement. That was my Peace Day.

I finished Every Day by David Levithan and I must say, wow. I recommend it, and here's why. It's addictive. Not in the sense that you just eat through it in a day. I could actually put it down, and be able to pick up where I left off without having to back trace to where I remember. It was a comfortable read.  In English we started reading The Life of Pi. I don't if you guys have heard or read it before, but it's actually being made into a movie and premiering in December. Which I thought was kind of neat. I have a boat load of homework that I haven't started yet. So I'm going to go panic over that a bit and probably go to bed soon.

have an awesome week guys. And DFTBA.

~Katie

Everyone seems to be so busy. I am too.

Ah you guys I had so much fun in Toronto last weekend. It did end up being a really rushed trip seeing as I was only there for like one full day basically. I got there, went out for supper, had a quick trip to the CN Tower, then went to the Legend of Zelda Symphony. That was pretty awesome. My favourite section was probably the one for the Twilight Princess. One of the sections was about the Wind Waker game and the conductor used the actual wind waker to conduct the music, everyone got super excited about that. The next day I went to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) and then we had to go home again.

This week has been alright in terms of school I guess. It's been very busy. Just this week I ended up having to write three lab reports. But so far I seem to be hanging in. I'm trying to figure out some sort of schedule to keep me more organized and keep me from leaving assignments to the last minute. Hopefully, I'll find something that works for me.

Tomorrow is going to be fun if everything goes as planned. The first meeting for the Anime Club was postponed to next weekend so to make up for it one of the senior members is hosting a little intro get together at their place. I want to go to that for a couple hours so I can get familiar with some of the other members. Then after that, it's one of my friend's birthday tomorrow so we're going to play laser tag. I've never done that before but it looks really fun.

I'm thinking of getting my hair cut again (it's probably been like almost year or something since I did it last). I wanted to do something dramatic so I'm leaning towards getting a side cut (shaving only half my head, if you didn't know what that was). I'm not quite sure how it'll look, but I think it should be fine. If not my back up plan is to just even it out and get my hair cut really short again.

Oh also I made these super delicious burgers the other day. They were amazing. They were veggie California black bean burgers and honestly I could probably live off of those things. Definitely going to make them again sometime soon hopefully.

Hope all your weeks have been going well.
DFTBA
Kayla

I Like It Here.

     I find that the flexibility of a university timetable makes for a very long week. I like it, because I'm not in class for several hours a day, every day of the week. I have a pretty lax schedule, ranging from 1.5 hours a day (Monday and Friday) to 4.5 hours (Tuesdays and Thursdays). And then there is Wednesday, my happy medium of 3 hours. I like it because I start and end slowly and easily. 

    This weekend was the Terry Fox walk. It's a Canadian thing. Basically, there was this guy named Terry Fox who had cancer, and he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He only got as far as Thunder Bay, the city I am living in, before his cancer overtook him and he passed away. Anyway, it's become an annual event across Canada to do a run or walk and raise money for cancer research. My house (which is what I call my dorm and dorm-mates) did the walk together, and we dressed in bright and neon-coloured clothing to show our support. It was cool. 

     This weekend is going to be kind of busy for me. I am going to a university hockey game tomorrow night with my sister and niece. On Saturday I am playing floor hockey and participating in Fall Fest, which is something the university puts on. The main reason I am excited for that is because I will get to throw pie in my residence advisor's face to raise money. Then we will probably do something together on Sunday, or I will do some homework. My mother is kind of sad that I am staying here and not going home, but there is just so much to do here, so much fun to be had, and I don't want to miss it. Also, there isn't much to do if I go home other than see my family.

     I don't really have much to say. I have to get some reading done before class, so I will end here. Hope you all have good weekends, enjoy it! And don't forget to be awesome!
-Deidra

Yeah...I'm Still Alive

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've just been really caught up with school work. I'm going insane right now.

I really, really don't have time for a long post, as much as I'd like to make one. I promise, as soon as I have a break on a Tuesday, I'll type up a super long one to make up for my absence. I'm going to be giving short posts for a while.

Katie, I'm sorry school's been tough on you so far. I leave my house in pajamas quite often, actually, but never in the morning. Only at night.

Adam, glad to hear you're so excited about starting school. Campion, good luck wrapping up. Deidra and Kayla, nice to know you're having a good time.

Yeah, I've got to go finish up an essay. Have great weeks!
-Kira

Posted in a Hurry

By the time I was able to get on my laptop last Monday, it was too late for me to post anything.  I have a volleyball game tonight, so I'm going to try to type this all up by the time I leave for school.  I have plenty of time so I should be able to do it.

I have yet to decide which university I want to go to.  I have four in mind, but I can't really choose yet until I research more about them.  Distance, clubs, and classes (sizes and variety of) are obviously all factors choosing where I want to study at.  I haven't decided if I want to be a math teacher or a science teacher.  I would prefer Math because I like the subject better, but I do well in science and high-school level science seems to be a lot easier to teach than high-school level math.

This week is unfortunately busy for me. Well, not really.  But Thursday is going to be a pain. We get to fit the Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Reserve vollayball teams on a single, normal, yellow bus and drive three and a half hours to the town we are playing against.  There is a good chance we will be back in town and at home by midnight, but that is about seven hours of driving in a small cramped bus.  

When I was practicing my violin yesterday, I realized I have four weeks until the All-State auditions.  I honestly do not think I have what it takes to make it, thought I would like to think I could.  The thing is I lack practice time thanks to volleyball practice going late into the evening.  Next year I will have a better chance to make the Orchestra as I will have more experience and I will not be in volleyball next year.

So I need to start getting ready for school.  It's Monday. Gotta love school on Mondays.

I hope you all have a great week and good luck as you start/finish the school year.  I may even have time to post next Monday!

Kate

Short

So one week of college over me. :) All went reasonably according to plan. It was birthday during the week, I genuinely forgot until the day before. Man, I'm 19 now, I was only 17 when we started this blog. I had a good night for my birthday, myself and five of my friends went down to a bar near where I live. It was really hipster and awesome. I got an appletini so I could feel like JD from scrubs :P

This next week coming is Freshers week so I get to sign up to all the clubs and societies. It should be really good. I'm going to try and get into magic the gathering this year. I really like the look of it and I've always loved fantasy card games. I'm also getting more and more into comic books. I'm torn as to whether or not I should buy them online though. It's cheaper to get them online but I love going into the quirky comic store in Dublin and flicking through the comics before I buy them.

I'm actually really tired now, so I think I'm going to get an early night for college tomorrow. I promise I'll have a longer post next week.
DFTBA
Adam

Darwin knows what marriage is all about.

Whew been a loooong week I tell yah. But over all not bad. I have a bunch of school stuff to do this upcoming week/weekend (that's to be expected though). There was a poster sale today so I ended up buying one that was a copy of Skull with Burning Cigarette by Van Gogh and a smaller Lord of the Rings one that's pretty sweet. Also today there were a bunch of guys raising money for their soccer team. They were wearing bibs and diapers and you could whip eggs at them for 2 bucks lol, gotta love university. 

I had my first Physics and Chemistry labs this week. It was all pretty simple stuff, they went well. And my lab partners seem to be quite nice. Actually it's kind of weird. Earlier this summer I met a girl at the orientation who was also named Kayla, and I was like woah okay cool, I know another Kayla here now lol. Then in my physics lab that same girl ends up being there which was nice cause then I know someone in our little group. Theeeen I randomly sit next to a girl and she ends up being my lab partner and guess what her name is? Kaila. And then I go to my chemistry lab and get randomly assigned another lab partner. And her name is McKayla. Maybe by the end of the month I'll know all the Kayla's in all my classes lmao.

Oh and I'm suuuuuper stoked for tomorrow. I think I mentioned this a way long time ago, but I'm going to see the Legend of Zelda Symphony in Toronto tomorrow. And since it's my first actual time being there I'm going to go to the CN Tower and the ROM and a bunch of other stuff hopefully (though I'm only there for like a day and a night). I will fit it all in somehow!

Katie, hang in there. I think we're all in the same "school is horrible" boat. Except maybe Adam who seemed pretty excited for his school lol. And don't worry about the locks, I started using a locker in grade 6 and it just takes a bit of practice to get it. But once you do it's so easy you just do it without thinking. I do wear pyjama pants outside sometimes, but not all that often. Pants are pants though so I don't really care if people see me in them. 

As for your question about university. I'll be 100% honest here and say that I still have no clue as to what I want to do in the future. Something that I like I hope, but I can't get more specific then that (forensics? vet? researcher???). I chose to go into biology because a) I always liked science, especially biology and b) I figure that it's general enough at the moment that it leaves a lot of job options open. The only other thing I might have considered to major in would have been art and to be honest I chose science because art is more of a hobby for me.

In terms of university choice... I wanted to get far but not that far from home for one so I stayed in the province. I had 3 schools to apply to so I chose Lakehead (Thunder Bay), UOttawa (Ottawa), and Guelph (Guelph). The Lakehead application was only for my mom's sake really, and as a back up. The main reason I tried Guelph was for their vet school, but I ended up changing my mind about that. So I went with Ottawa because they had Co-op (paid work program) for biology, my sister was also here, and I really liked Ottawa when I visited it. It's a nice city. 

So yeah that was long, but that was my thought process. Basically, go for something that you personally like because if you are passionate about something then you'll do good in it and you'll get farther than if you just try for something that you think will, for example, get you a really high paying job or something. 

On another note I joined the school's anime club. Our first meeting is next week. I really looking forward to it because to be honest I've never had friends that were really into anime or manga so I never had anyone to talk about that stuff if I ever wanted. I was chatting with an older member and I think I'll be having a good time. 

DFTBA
Kayla

PS - Did you know that Charles Darwin wrote down pros and cons for whether or not he should get married. It's pretty entertaining really. On the pro side he has "children" and "better than a dog" and for cons he has things like "less money for books."

Student Again

     So my school year has finally begun. I moved into my dorm on Saturday, and that went pretty well. I have a fairly big room, since my university went from double to single rooms. So basically I have a double room all to myself. I have more space and shelving than I can actually use. 

     It's been pretty good so far. My house mates are all really cool, and we are already pretty much a little family. Yesterday some of the guys toilet-papered our Residence Advisor's door. It was funny. I did have a little mishap the day that I moved in. We were in the lounge, and decided to go outside to play some ice breaker games. I had to go back to my room to grab shoes, and when I got outside I couldn't find anyone. I ended up going through a different residence building, joining a different house for stretching, and then being escorted back to my house. It was really embarrassing. But whatever, stuff happens.

     So far, my classes are all pretty good. It looks as though they won't be too difficult, but there will be a lot of reading (especially since I am an English major). I am taking an education class (that I am apparently not supposed to be in, but the prof is ignoring that), and at the start of every class he does magic tricks. It was a nice introduction to the course. 

     I am staying here this weekend instead of going home like my mother wanted. We are going to be doing the Terry Fox walk, which is a Canadian thing. Every year people walk and run for cancer research, like Terry Fox did years ago. An interesting fact is that his campaign to run across Canada stopped just outside this city. Anyway, apparently most of the residence houses wear their house colours and clothing, but we decided to do 'tight and bright', and we all bought bright neon clothing. So that should be fun.

     Katie, I had to take a bus to school when I was in high school, and I can tell you that it sucked. Generally the other people weren't too loud or rowdy, but occasionally they were really annoying. I mostly just slept or listened to music. Don't worry about your locker, if you use it every day you will become a pro in no time. In my final year, I didn't use my locker, opting instead to carry a backpack around. But on the few occasions that I did use it, I had to go into the office to be told my combination. 

     As for how I picked my major, English is just one of the only subjects that I was really good at. I liked reading and understanding texts, and have thought about being a writer before. I figured that it was the best option for me. As for the becoming a teacher portion, ever since I was young I wanted to be a teacher. There was never really any other options in my mind. So my advice is to pick something that you like. Don't torture yourself with math or science if it isn't something you like. If you hate English, then run far away from it. Don't let someone else make this decision for you, and don't choose to do something or go somewhere just because your friends are doing it. 

     Thursdays happen to be one of my busiest days of the week (along with Tuesday, which has the identical schedule) so I am hoping to get into the routine of writing my post around this time. Hopefully I don't get too busy or forget. So I hope you are all doing good and having fun and not going insane. Don't forget to be awesome.
-Deidra
P.S- HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY ADAM!

Oh yeah... I post here sometimes...

I am really really really sorry that I haven't been posting in the last few weeks. My school year is coming to a close soon so I have been very busy trying to get my projects for the year finished. I take mostly art subjects, while that take a lot of pressure off at the end of year exams, it means that I have three very big projects due right before they begin. So I'm sorry that I haven't been posting, my sporadic posting will probably only go on for a few more weeks... hopefully.

So anyway, today I had a shoot for my film project. to be honest trying to get my actors and crew to all focus and stay on task was a nightmare in the beginning, for the first hour or so we barley got anything done but once we got into it they were okay and we got a good amount of work done, was still pretty tiring.

Also, we have New Zealand, we have a convention called Armageddon Expo, I think that I've brought this up before but it's our equivalent of Comic Con. Anyway, sometimes they might get someone mildly famous, like last year they got two guys from the web series the guild to come and that was pretty awesome. Also a few years ago they got Seth Green to come and that was pretty impressive, especially since it's just a small convention in New Zealand, so it's surprising when someone famous comes. But this year, coming to Armegeddon are two people that I have always wanted to meet. They are people that me and my friends would joke about coming but we never thought that they would actually come. Coming to our humble convention this year is Little Kuriboh and Johnny Young Bosch. If you don't know, Little Kuriboh created Yu-Gi-Oh the abridged series, a fantastic web show that I love and have been watching and following for the past six years. And Johnny Young Bosch is a voice actor well known for his work in Anime, doing some of my favorite roles, like Lelouch from Code Geass, Vash the Stampede from Trigun and Ichigo from Bleach and he also was an actor in one of my all time favorite T.V shows.... MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS!!! I think I mat have mentioned that I love that show once or twice. I greatly admire both of their work and I can't wait for them to both come, especially Johnny since the guy is like a childhood hero for me.

Wow, sorry I got distracted watching videos while writing this and now it's 12:30. I really need to get to bed (and post more often).

So anyway guys. Hope you all have a great week, good luck with school and everything that you need to do and I'll see you guys next week (hopefully)

Don't Forget To Be Awesome

To be anything at all.

I'M BACK TO COLLEGE TOMORROW. I'M BACK TO COLLEGE TOMORROW. I'M BACK TO COLLEGE TOMORROW. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm kinda looking forward to it :P

So, this past week has been pretty boring, so I don't really have anything new to say, I think I'll just reply to other peoples posts.

Kate, I really loved the Avengers, it's one of my favourite superhero films. I think there's just so much to love about it, when it tries to be funny, it's genuinely witty. I think Hulk is just epic.

Deidra, don't worry too much about the start of college, I know it's a cliché but it's very true that everyone's in the same boat.

Kayla, you're first week sounded pretty made of awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Luckily I only watched the first episode with my parents, the second one would have been much worse!

Katie, I liked the second episode of DW, I agree that the trailers spoilt it a little bit but it was still a pretty good episode. I'm still not that fond of Amy though. She seems different than previous seasons.
 Never left the house in pajamas. 

Well, with regards to my college major, I know that in Ireland anyway you can choose a broad science or humanities course and then choose your major after two years of college. For me, I always thought I should be an accountant because I'm good with numbers but in my second last year of secondary school I decided to take physics because our guidance counsellor told us we should take a science subject. I ended up loving it, getting interested in popular science and then choosing Physics and Maths in college. In terms of choosing a university, Ireland only has like seven or eight and the structure of the UCD course just appealed a little more than the rest. :) Hope that helps, although now that I reread it, it probably doesn't.

Anyway, DFTBA
Adam

Wear and Tear

This first week was brutal. Absolutely awful. Summer is ancient history now. I didn't miss a whole lot when school let out.

First off the bus. I hate my bus ride to school so immensely. The kids I ride with are so awful. I forgot such personalities existed. Those people who think they're cool because they do or have certain things. I just can't...

Last year we didn't have lockers, just hooks. So this year, due to several thefts in years before, they put in lockers. Not the long lockers, but the three to a row ones. I've never gotten a locker before, and I've only been able to open mine by myself once. I know my combination, just not how to use the dial. It's been a terrible experience.

And last, but not least on my already long list, classes. The only two classes I seem to so far have trouble in, not including advisory, is geometry and chemistry. Geometry I'm sure I'll get over, the class size is just a lot bigger than my math class the year before. Meaning less one-on-one and more catch-up work. And I'm sure I would do fine in chemistry, if I wasn't dumb and decided to take the honors course. I don't know why I did that to myself. I'm afraid to drop it because then it will look bad to potential Universities that I dropped an honors SCIENCE. So I'm stuck in a course that I'm practically unfamiliar with.

Besides that my week was just tiring. Thankfully I don't have school Tuesday due to Rhode Island elections.

Adam corn dogs, in my experience are not all that awesome. And so far, Ever Day is great, I'm really loving it. About Doctor Who. I didn't really like last weeks episode very much. It had its really great moments, but it could have been better. However this weeks episode. Oh yes. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was absolutely wonderful. All my favorite things but zombies. Just everything about it made me squeal and jump for joy.

A few questions for you guys. Have you ever left the house in your pajamas? I have, almost all the time I go to the grocery store or just a store in general in my pajamas. Half the time I do I see someone I know though. Which is fine. And if you have, how did you come to the major in university that you did? How did you narrow the options, or come to options? My advisor has been hounding us to choose what we want to major in and what University we want to go to. I thought your feedback would be nice.

Anyway I think that's pretty much my week. DFTBA.

~Katie

I've been having fun

Okay so basically I'm forcing myself to write this now because I might be busy later and just forget. And forgetting to post twice in a row is not something I like to do.

101 week has been pretty amazing so far. It started Saturday and it's ending tomorrow. I'm not really that into doing stuff like this, but I felt it was necessary since I knew absolutely no one here in Ottawa. So I went to icebreakers, a concert, a carnival, a karaoke night, a museum visit, a costume dance party, and a bar night. I've already made four friends and got acquainted with many others from my classes. It's all been really fun. I won't go into a lot of detail since that would take too long but, some highlights are: 

• Dragonette performing at the concert (I got them to sign my t-shirt too!)
• dressing up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz at the dance party (some other people's costumes were hilarious)
• eating tons and tons of free food, I have basically been living off of free food all week
• going to a club and drinking for the first time ever (since it's legal for us to do in Quebec woot woot!), it was alright but I don't feel like I've been missing out on anything by not drinking before this point

Besides all that my classes started on Wednesday and they've been going fine so far. It's all been basic introductions and a little review so far. The serious stuff doesn't start until Monday. I still have to buy some lab manuals and stuff, but I should hopefully be set by tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to set myself a schedule to follow for once I start having to read, work, and study otherwise I might just flounder around and struggle to keep a good balance with my life. 

Adam, yeah that's the show I was talking about and wow, yeah that would be really weird to watch in front of your parents lol. 

Anyway got to go for now.

DFTBA,

Kayla

Bleh.

     My summer blues have turned into complete apathy. I am kind of just a jumble of emotions and boredom, and I don't know what to do with myself. I move in to my dorm in two days, and start classes in four. I don't even know if I'm excited or not. I mean, I am excited, just at the same time I'm not. I'm kind of having weird second thoughts about everything. 

     I spent all afternoon yesterday baking chocolate chip cookies and banana bread, which was fun because it was just me at home and it gave my mind something to focus on. Also it means that I will have cookies for in my dorm, at least until I eat them all. Cookies make good comfort food. 

     I've been feeling really tired lately, even though I've been getting a lot of sleep. I ended up falling asleep earlier this evening, only to be jolted awake by my sister's music suddenly blasting. I can tell you I won't miss that. I didn't feel especially tired, but now I am really exhausted. It's probably from nerves.

     The book Every Day sounds really interesting. I've been wanting to read something ever since I finished Clockwork Prince about 3 weeks ago, but never brought myself to actually start anything, and now it's kind of too late.

     Anyway, I feel like this post is just really complain-y, but I don't have anything else to say. You all sound like you've got lots of stuff to do, are busy and enjoying things, which is good. That's about all I can think to say. Don't forget to be awesome.
-Deidra

The Avengers and Things

I don't have school today because it's Labor Day in the US, so that's nice.  I have been looking forward to a three day weekend since the start of school.

The Avengers was back in theatres for Labor Day Weekend.  I had my chance to go see it last night with a friend.  I can't say I liked it better than The Amazing Spider-Man, but I do love the characters more.  Ironman is my favorite Avenger with Captain America as a close second favorite.

There have only been three weeks of school, but I can't decide if it feels like we never left for summer or if it feels like we've only been in school a week.  At least this year is kind of going fast.

For the most part, I enjoyed the new episode of Doctor Who, though I feel like Moffat tries too hard to come up with unexpected twists that are supposed to blow our minds.

Even though there's no school today, I have quite a bit of studying to do.  Plus I need to practice my scales on my violin.  So I'll leave this post how it is.  I'll write more next week!
Kate

I've never had a Corndog.

Just one more week until college, I'm so glad it's getting close I don't think I could handle much longer here at home without going crazy.

Coffee crisp and ketchup chips both sound a little weird, but it'd be cool to give them a try someday. The one thing I'd love to try that I always here mentioned on US tv shows and movie is a corndog, they sound really nice. Hopefully I'll get to try all these things if I get over in the summer.

A J1 is a work visa to America. It's usually used by students to go there for the summer, work to finance the holiday and then use what money they have saved at the end of the summer to go on a roadtrip. It's usually done through companys who organise everything for you and have contacts in different workplaces. People are always given jobs where there's interaction with the public, like waiter or something, appparently the accent helps them get loads of tips.

Kayla, is that show Misfits the english one about the teenagers doing community service? I absolutely love that show if it's the same one, it was INCREDIBLY awkward watching it in front of my parents.

I watched the new Doctor Who last night, I enjoyed it quite a bit, there were times when it felt a little cheesey and I'm getting a bit sick of Amy but it was still a good all round episode and I'm really intruiged by the new girl in it, I thought she had great chemistry with the doctor.

Katie, I'm really hoping to get Everyday by David Levithan, it sounds like a brilliant premise for a book.

Anyway, other than that I think I'm done.
DFTBA
Adam

In the End

I'm not even sure how to start this. There, glad that's out of the way. It's a bit hard to remember what happened this week before Thursday. Let's check Twitter. Okay, that helps.

Monday I just listened to some really nice music and finished A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Tuesday I just listened to some more good music and relaxed I guess. Wednesday I watched The Husbands. I don't know if you guys watch Kristina Horner, but that's how I found out about the web series The Husbands. It is too amazing for words. Thursday I got my hair trimmed because it grew out really fast, and got red highlights. I've never colored my hair before, but I think it looks nice. Thursday I also had to go to an open house type thing and pick up my supply list and schedule. I am not taking Spanish. The class must have filled up so I was placed in American Sign Language. I'm a little disappointed, just because I've done Spanish for so long, but very excited to try something new. Friday I washed dragons. Yes, I washed dragon statues that were going into today's yard sale. And today I helped manage a yard sale. Never will I underestimate the work that goes into yard sales. I'm not very good at it though, being socially awkward and all, so I pretty much stayed quiet. 

Adam if ever there was a city to go I would recommend San Diego. California is is full of wonders, but I found my share of it in San Diego. And Kira is right about Boston. I live just an hour or so away and I try to visit as much as I can. It's full of history. New York City is just as wonderful too. But in both New York and Boston, carry a map or know where you want to go. The locals like to point you in all the wrong directions. New Yorkers don't like to help people from Boston and people from Boston don't like to help people from New York. Kate I did get to go to the Omaha zoo. It was a much better experience then the San Diego. There weren't an overload of people, it wasn't as hot, and it was overall much nicer. The inside areas were relaxing and a nice break for the animals and myself! That is one thing San Diego didn't have were inside exhibits.

Because my school is so new things tend to change as often as possible. I just found out one of my best friends isn't coming back, and one of my favorite teachers left. I finished the books! It was rough but I got through it! Doctor Who is in two hours for me. Oh and I bought Every Day by David Levithan on Thursday! I haven't started but I'm really excited. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it but I bought Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs while in California. Haven't started that either, but it gives me something to do when school starts!

I think that's it for me, have an awesome week!

~Katie

I'm trying not to be overwhelmed by things right now.

Ah crap I totally forgot to post yesterday. Dang. Well whatever it happens I guess. 

Basically a bunch of stuff has been happening this past week. I did get my bed, and my room is all sorted out minus all the stuff that I'm going to hang on my walls. I'm waiting a bit to do that because I might buy some more posters so I want everything to fit nicely. 

All last week I attended a Science Prep Workshop. A lot of it was boring stuff that I already knew, but there were some interesting bits and I did manage to talk with some people that I'll probably have classes with so that's good. 

I got my bus pass, but now I need to get all my text books, my 101 week kit, my lab manuals, and a locker. I plan to try to do most of that today, but we'll have to see because today is the first move in day for those people in residence so campus is going to get super busy from here on out.

My sister and I were planning a trip to Montreal today, but unfortunately that's been postponed to some later date as she has been sick all week and we need to sort out some uni stuff still. But on the plus side this means I'll probably be able to watch the new Doctor Who episode today if I can find it online.

I started watching this TV show called Misfits and man has that been throwing me for a loop. It's a really funny show, and I love the characters in it. Seriously though, it just gets all dramatic and sad so suddenly at times and then sometimes it'll just get fixed right away because of reasons I won't reveal in case you want to watch the show. It's an emotional roller coaster I tell yah. It's definitely become one of my new favourite shows.

Katie, good to hear that you had an interesting trip, good luck on finishing those books, try not to get stressed out. 

Adam, the only place I've really been in the States is Minneapolis, it's a really nice place in my opinion, but I'd rather go to New York probably. Also Lays Ketchup chips are gross (again, in my opinion) so if you ever get the chance I'd recommend Old Dutch instead. They're really good though, my favourite as a kid, and I still enjoy them now. And since Kira didn't really explain a coffee crisp is like a layered wafer chocolate bar, that tastes a little like coffee. It's super delicious, probably in my top 3 chocolate bars.

Kate, I hope your allergies go away if they haven't already. 

Kira, I know exactly how you feel about french class. I felt the same for french and for math classes in high school. It's like a love-hate relationship. 

DFTBA

Kayla

P.S. Classes start on the 5th for me, so wish me luck!