help, i'm alive.

It's starting to take it's toll.

Something must be done.


For the record I'm loving "Help, I'm Alive" by Metric; "Paranoid" by Kanye West; "The Fear" by Lily Allen; and "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon right now. Not that any of you care....

best supporting actor.

I saw something the other day on the train that I thought I would never see in real life. It made me so sad I almost cried, and so fearful I almost wanted to spend the rest of my life in bed.



The horror.

hussel.

Awesome.

a thousand miles.

So, I know we've all heard so much about this, but this truly is the first time people have been excited about American politics in a long time. Sure, all of us know about American politics due to their super-power status, but when was the last time people were excited about it? I'm drawing a blank here.

The thing is, I love Barack Obama. I think he's exactly what the world needs - not just what the United States of America needs. The US has a far reaching effect on the whole planet, so the decisions they make have consequences for all of us. However, I am also slightly worried. I realize Obama is just one man. The amount of people who cheer for him, cry over his victory, feel privileged to have a man such as him in power, the amount of people is staggering. The amount of pressure he must feel is overwhelming. No matter what he does, he'll always be remembered and that's a frightening thought. What if he fails to live up to the unrealistic expectations people have set out for him? After all, he is just one man. He's not Jesus. He's simply Barack Obama. The last time someone had expectations of me was in the summer and I remember being scared of that - what if I wasn't everything they were expecting me to be? The less you expect from me, the less likely you'll be let down. The expectations for this one man stretch as far as the most remote locations on Earth.

Is it weird that I feel both sorry and scared, but still hopeful for this one person?

lollipop.

I love my life, don't get me wrong.

I love my job; I love my campus; I love how far I've come.

But sometimes I can't help but feel that life is passing me by. How many countless people do I know that have gone off somewhere, seen places, done things, experienced so much more than I could ever conceive, and yet, here I am. I don't even go out on the weekends anymore, and for me, I used to always be out. The trials I have gone through have been enough to warrant my place among those people, but I can't help but feel that life is passing me by.

sad robot.

So, I had previously mentioned in a post that I would blog about my new year's resolutions, and this post is that. Instead of trying to join the herd and go on about how I'm planning on making life encompassing changes that will falter at the 2 week mark, I've decided that I'm going to see if I can make small incremental changes that are actually within my control that will benefit my quality of life.

1. Drink more water. I'm hoping that if I increase my water intake that a lot of my problems will go away. Supposedly, if you're thirsty, even if you don't feel like you are, you've already hit the dehydration process. By trying to remain in liquid I'm hoping to boost my energy by diverting the processes that would have gone into dehydration, into remaining healthy. Plus, the benefits of increased water intake for your skin alone are something I'm hoping to achieve.

2. Drink pure coffee once every 2 days and cut back on *$'s to once a week. I had 4 cups of coffee yesterday and that's not good. As much as I love coffee, 4 cups is too much. One delicious cup every 2 days is better than 4 nasty ones every day. As for Starbucks... Well, it's a challenge I'm willing to accept.

3. To try and develop normal sleep patterns. What does this mean? I will no longer pull any all-nighters. This means that I'll have to be on the ball for a lot of school stuff because I really love sleeping.....

4. To go see more films and listen to more albums. As is, I pretty much only go to the movies for the big blockbusters and I rent like.... never. My sister is taking care of the renting problem, and I'm going to try and see more movies this year that aren't big Hollywood blockbusters. As for albums? I know I listen to a ton of music as is, but I pretty much listen to an album once, keep the songs I like and that's it. I would now like to try and give full albums a couple of listens to before I make my verdict.

life in technicolor ii.

So, 2009 is officially underway, and with that I thought I would tie up some loose ends from 2008 - mainly, my 10 favourite tracks from the year.

10. Stars - Undertow This song is incredible. It's so delicate, yet it also has this weird surreal dream like electronic trance about it.

09. Britney Spears - Circus I actually preferred this over Womanizer for the mere fact that it instantly reminded me of vintage, 1999 Britney.

08. Grand:pm - God Save the Scene This was a random song I heard on MTV from this awesome Ontario indie band.

07. Travis - Closer This track reminds me a lot of the song Sleep by the Dandy Warhols because it has this depressive quality about it, and that really appeals to me.

06. Tokyo Police Club - In a Cave Oh man, oh man, did I ever love this song. I still do, actually. There's something about TPC that I can't get enough of - maybe it's the short length of all their songs, or their extreme catchiness, but they always leave me wanting more. I used to think that Be Good was the best example of how good their work was, but in reality, In a Cave is so much better.

05. Coldpay - Life in Technicolor The first time I heard this I literally hit the back button my iPod because I  needed to listen to it again. The fact that it contains no vocals cements the fact that Coldplay are an actual band with other members than just Chris Martin.

04. Sara Bareilles - Love Song For some reason this song reminds me of San Francisco, which is especially odd since I've never been there. But those are the images this song conjures up in my mind. It could almost be the perfect "white person" song - singer/songwriter, self accompaniment, somewhat obscure, San Francisco, it has it all.

03. Cut Copy - Feel the Love Ah, my Australian/hipster/indie-electronic band. I don't think much more is needed to be said.

02. Coldplay - Viva la Vida Coldplay. Again. I was really nervous for their album after I heard Violet Hill. I assumed I was going to hate the new record. But then I heard this song. Everything about it is immaculate. The use of strings, the progression and the climax, the regret-tinged lyrics, everything.

01. The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go I bought this song the night before my trip back to PEI on a whim, and I listened to it on the flight over. Then I listened to it over and over and over again. There's something about the sheer quality of the song that doesn't allow me to listen to it just once, but I have to repeat it. It has dance qualities, assertive lyrics, a hint of British accents, an indie street cred about it, and it's all rolled into one. Success!

There are 2 Coldplay tracks in the list, which is simply because the album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends was fantastic. With that said, honourable mention goes to their song Lovers in Japan, which narrowly escaped placing in my top 10. Other songs that deserve honourable mention include: Bruises by Chairlift; Hot N Cold by Katy Perry; 4 Minutes by Madonna; American Boy by Estelle; Time to Pretend by MGMT; and Pork and Beans by Weezer.

postcards from far away.

So, 2009 is upon us and I have yet to blog. Oops. I'll post about my new years resolutions soon (and don't worry, they're actually kind of normal), and I'll make my yearly "best tracks of 2008" post soon as well. In the meantime, I guess a life update?

I just got back the other day from skiing in the Rockies. Spent 2 days at Sunshine and 1 day at Lake Louise. The second night featured a snow storm which led to Sunshine receiving 20 cm of fresh powder. Oh man, skiing on 20 cm of fresh powder is unbelievable. Fantastic, really. Lake Louise on the 3rd day sucked because they didn't have enough snow to cover a lot of their runs, so there was a fair bit of rock still laying around. I was told by some of the people who work there that they tend to get more snow later in the season as compared to now. Oh well, maybe it's for the best they didn't have the nicest runs this time of year because I was exhausted by the 3rd day. We got about 6 runs in the whole day due to us being so tired. I don't remember how many runs we did the first day, but the second day, even though I was sore from the day before, I got something wicked like 12-15 runs in. It was awesome. I think I've actually become kind of addicted to skiing, because ever since I got back I've only wanted to go back on the slopes. It felt so nice getting all that physical activity as well. My muscles were so sore from all of it, but it was a good kind of sore. Maybe I should try and become somewhat active again, no?

Aside from that, Christmas came and went. Surprisingly enough I got a ton of stuff from my wish list. I got my Nixon watch (score!), close to $100 in Starbucks gift cards, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, countless items from American Apparel, and Prospekt's March EP among other gifts. And now that the surprise has come and gone, I don't need to be so secretive about the fact that I gave my sister an iMac for Christmas. Needless to say, it went over very well.

It's been a month since the fam and I moved, and we're just about finished settling in. We were really on the ball at the start of the move, having set up camp within 2 days, but just now we're finally getting around to putting pictures up on the walls. Plus, I finally went down to IKEA and got myself some new things for my room - including lucky bamboo (which is supposed to be near impossible to kill) that is now pretty much dead. Oops.

OK, I'm off to bed. Stay golden, Pony Boy.