TiLT #9

Julia Pike

*2009 (two thousand and divine): I said hello to 2009 by chatting (via gchat) with my bud Rachael and then running outside with 10 seconds to go with my family. My family and I lit candles and made our wishes for what we would like to accomplish in 2009. I'm not sure why but I feel really amazing/wonderful/invincible about this year. Here's to hoping my hunch is just the start of good things to come in 2009.

*My birthday: I'm 17 tomorrow! 16 was a transitional year I guess. Not too good but it could've been worse. And even when I was here last year, I wasn't that pumped about turning 16. 18 is the year that I get thrilled thinking about because it's University and independence to me. I'm not into driving and won't be getting my driver's license for a while so there wasn't much allure to 16. Just the sound 2009 and 17 gets my heart pumping. I'm very excited to see how I grow and what I accomplish during my 17th year.

*Nail polish: This is my new addiction. I'm getting obsessed with the sophistication or other dimensions of personality that nail polish can add to someone's hands. I only have 3-5 colours (all OPI or Nicole by OPI) and 2 clear base coats (1 for hands and the other for hosiery). I'm very drawn to dark and shimmery colours, especially the almost black shades. As in a very very very dark auburn or purple that appears black until the light hits it. I'm getting addicted to hand ornamentation in general, so in the coming months I'm going to try and get my hands on some rings as well.

*PrettyMuchAmazing: PMA is a pretty amazing music blog. My speakers have been running around the clock with tracks that I've found on that site.

*You Are Among Friends: This is a free podcast version of a webzine. It's advice to every little sister that Lindsey never had. It's pure gold and you should definitely spare 18 minutes to listen to it.

*My 2nd semester classes: Beginning Jan 30th, I have World History, Photography, French, and Mixed Math. I've heard through the grapevine of some of the people who will be in my photography and I am most pleased with what I've heard so far. It's definetely shaping up to be an epic class. Same goes for French because the teacher that teaches that class is hilarious but still manages to get stuff done. My other two classes are with teachers I've never had before but that isn't dulling my excitement much. Just 3 more days to go, then exams and then my kick ass 2nd semester starts! I can't believe High School is going by so quickly. My little sister is choosing her grade 9 classes right now and deciding whether she wants to do IB or not. This time next year I'll be fretting about University applications.......

TiLT #8

Credit
1. Bathroom Stories by nebulaskin on deviantart
2. Louise + Park
3. Alix and Felix

Google Reader: I'm subscribed to 113 different blogs and I would not be able to keep up with these blogs without some sort of RSS feed "collector". Since I'm down with Google's plan for world domination, I immediately turned to google reader after I got around to finding out what a RSS feed was. For some reason I would always look at the Subscribe buttons on different sites in apathy. I can't believe I wasted all that time and lost track of countless sites because I was lazy. But oh well there isn't really much that I can do about it now, but I'm really grateful that it's so easy for me to keep up with websites now.


The Hamilton Spectator: Last week, or maybe the week before that, there was an announcement up at my school. The announcement pertained to the Hamilton Spec and how they were looking for a High School student to update their Pulse website weekly. And yesterday I met with this really nice lady and I got the volunteer position! I'm so excited, and even though I'm very passionate about becoming a journalist, I have zilch experience. Now that I have my foot in the door, I can hopefully get myself involved in other things at the Hamilton Spec. Or maybe even other newspapers. Not only did I get the volunteer position but JWS liked me so much that she said she would "personally advocate" for me for me to be chosen for an internship. There's a high chance I won't be able to do the intership because it might be limited to University/College students. But the fact that I got along so well with JWS so quickly was amazing.

My New Tripod: Money makes the world go round and I've been thinking (okay, I've actually been stressing and calculating) about what I want to do, where I want to go and what I want to buy. Annnd how much money I need to get to be able to do these different things. Later this week I'll be doing a "Lust List" post that'll have everything that I want to do/buy on it. A tripod was one of the things on this list. I was walking around LimeRidge and I was supposed to get some credit for my cell phone (I'm on a pay as you go plan) but I saw this neat tripod for sale at Black's Photography so I bought that instead. I really like it, and I'm looking forward to playing around with it and my camera to see what I can come up with. No more dinky 2 inch tripods for me!


ordinary every day sounds: You know those Skullcandy ear buds I was raving about a week or two ago? Welllll I still love them to death but dear god when I'm not adamant about the volume, they kill my ears. So to avoid headaches (or 'cause I left the mp3 player at home in my rush to get to school), or when I don't feel like listening to music anymore, I chose to listen and really pay attention to those every day sounds, especially when I'm on the bus. People talking, cars rushing, wind, leaves rustling, babies gurgling... I'll still take Roisin Murphy over those sounds any day but that fact doesn't make the fun out of listening to supposed "boring" things any less fun. There are so many interesting and infinite details that you can find out about people if you listen closely enough. Also, eavesdropping on conversations on the HSR* is another interesting thing to do. And most of the time, since the people don't know you they don't even bother to whisper.


The Me2We conference: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's the most succinct way that I can describe how I felt after going to the Me2We conference. Oh my god, it was amazingly empowering and positive. I took pictures and recorded videos so I'll be doing a post on what went on at the conference in a couple of days.


SYTYCD America tickets: So guess who got tickets to see the American SYTYCD tour live!?!?!? My mom bought the tickets (for me, my sisters, and herself) on Aug 1st but only told us yesterday. Holy crap me and Veronica screamed and screamed when she told us. We're in the 28th row and we'll be going Oct. 29th. *___________*


sewing machine: I don't even know how to use this thing. But last year when my grandma heard I was interested in learning how to sew, she ordered one and had it delivered to our house. The only thing that sucks is that I'm guessing that she didn't look into what she was buying and the sewing machine seems to spazz whenever someone uses it. But that's besides the point, the fact that my family (despite their gossip-y nature) has such relentless faith in me and what I want to do with my life and what I dream to achieve is something that is completely priceless.


online window shopping: In my opinion, online window shopping is the best and most effective form of retail therapy. I don't have to walk anywhere, I can be in more than one store than once, and because I'm broke in real and online life it's impossible for me to make impulse buys that I'll regret later.


being on Mr. B's good side: B is a teacher at my school that is infamous for being a big meanie. Seriously the man has valid points most of the time but fails to communicate these ideas to students in ways that don't piss them off. So basically whenever he wants people to listen to him, he pisses them off, and the student mouths off at him, or scoffs at him. And then B gets more angry and wash, rinse, and repeat. Anyways, this is the first year that B has taught me before so we have a clean slate. If I ever get frustrated with him I just listen to what he says without a fuss. And in return I'm on his good side, which is pretty sweet.


DIY: In the blog post that I did yesterday I posted a picture of Rumi's DIY customized Zara boots. The same day that I bought the tripod at LimeRidge I also got some lace thigh highs at Sears. The last 3 days I kept thinking that I'd have a really nice outfit if only I had a black dress. And then I saw some ghastly leather pants (that I got from a relative) and had an epiphany for a dress that I could try and sew. Before I was following different fashion blogs, I kept up with a couple different LJ DIY communities and now I have the DIY bug again. I'm excited to try and get this dress out of my head and into my hands.


Any pictures with legs sticking out of things: Any time I see a picture with legs sticking out of anything (bonus points for hosiery) I'm instantly more endeared to the picture. I'm not sure why, but these pictures just make me happy.



*HSR= Hamilton Street Railway = Bus

TiLT #7

Zink Magazine - Because I'm a blond

my new skull candy earbuds: A classmate of mine named Harvey randomly gave away an HMV gift card because he didn't know if it had money on it. I think he also said something about how he never shops there anyway, so I was lucky enough to get the card. When I went to LimeRidge today to see if there was any money on the gift card, I was pleasantly surprised by a 25$ balance =D. So I spent most of the money on a new pair of pink skullcandy earbuds and they are wonderful. They block out sound really well and were only around 23$ with tax.

choir: I was only interested in choir at first because Ailish told me that the choir is going to be going to NYC this April. Today after school I went to the first choir rehearsal and it was intimidating at first since I know zilch about music and pitches and notes, but Mr. Abell (I think that's how you spell his name) is really nice and easy to talk to. I had fun and I like the atmosphere of the group and how we sound. I'm Alto in case any of you are curious.

ugly betty: =DDDD I'm actually in the middle of watching the 3rd season premiere right now. I love this show.

not much homework: My light homework load hasn't changed yet and that makes Valentina a happy camper. That's going to change soon since I'm gonna have to start working on my Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology culminating soon. But the fact that I'm really really happy with who I'm working with is easing the pain ;)

my new-old mp3 player: Martha gave me her old mp3 yepp player today and I've got my music on it now and I'm ecstatic that I can listen to music on my bus trips to and from school now. Thank you Martha!!

University: Ryerson, Carleton, Western or Wilfred Laurier. Those are the Universities I'm going to be applying to next year. I'm going to be studying Journalism somewhere and planning for my future makes my heart go all a flutter. I'm not exactly sure why I'm so in love with the idea of University but studying and immersing myself in something that I'm passionate about with other passionate people makes my heart pound in excitement. I'm going to Toronto tomorrow with my friend Tiffany, my mom, and my two sisters. The first thing we're doing there is going to the Ontario University Fair. =D The rest of the day we'll be doing sight-seeing things. Anyways for me University=love.

TiLT #6

Lonely Girl photoshoot shot by Louise Park (Vogue Girl Korea)

*my parent's clothes: Why bother buying new clothes when you can "borrow" your parents? Today I wore, this white shirt. I thought it belonged to my dad but it was (mine now =D ) my mom's. She wore it when she was my age and couldn't bear to throw it out because she loved it so much.

*Martha!: Martha is a friend from school. Martha is getting a new ipod soon. Martha is giving Valentina her old mp3 player for free. This makes Valentina a very very happy girl.

*the bus: The bus has been frustrating lately and has lead to me being late a couple times for class but I still love it. I like seeing all these people and taking my time going around the city when I need to get somewhere. Also the other day when I was busing home, the cutest little boy was fascinated by my briefcase/school bag. He played with my bag and tried to figure out how to open if for the 20 minutes that I was on the bus. His name was Jackson and he was beautiful baby. As I got off the bus I told him that my bag would never forget him, hehehe.

*Helena!: Helena is a close friend of mine who has mad drawing skills. I like the header I have for my blog right now but it's too confusing to tell what it is, if you don't know what to look for. Sooo I asked Helena to draw something for me to use and she said she would. She said she could most likely finish drawing it in her art class tomorrow. I roughly (and I do mean roughly, my drawing skills aren't as ummm nice as Helena's) sketched out some ideas I had and gave her the paper. I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

*SYTYCD Canada: I'm not falling head over heels in love with any of the dancers from the auditions (yet) and the different "vibe" of the show is a little weird to me since I've only watched the American SYTYCD. I really really like it thought and am anxiously waiting for the Toronto finals episodes to come on. Ugh I have to wait two weeks for that though.

TiLT #5

Peter Stanglmayr

my light homework load: I've been lucky this week in concerns to homework. I've barely had anything to do but at the same time I have enough that I'm not bored with my classes.

cool weather: =D The weather is finally starting to cool down and I couldn't be happier. Today was on the hot side though (booo) but Fall is still going to be here soon.

school clubs (model un, triune, SPA, classics etc.): Tomorrow is the first meeting for SPA (Students for Political Action) and I'm excited to see who's going to be leading it this year. I'm going to try and get really involved with this club in addition to Stage Crew, Model United Nations, yoga annnd sewing. Ignore the fact that the last two hobbies are not school clubs.

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter: I love this man, the quotes he puts in his newsletter and his belief in Pronoia. Here are some excerpts from his most recent newsletter that I got on the 9th.

"We are experiencing the initiation of the human race into a new level of
consciousness, and that is a very terrifying experience. It does no good to
turn and run from the terror of our darkness into light; we must sit it out:
zazen.

"We must take our counsel from *The Tibetan Book of the Dead* and
realize that these frightening projections of famines, economic disasters,
ecological catastrophes, floods, earthquakes, and wars are all only the
malevolent aspects of beneficent deities. If we sit and observe them, do
not identify with them, but remember our Buddha-nature, we will not be
dragged down by them into an incarnation of the hell they prefigure.

"If we run from them, we validate them; we give the projections the very
psychic energy they need to overtake us. Then, as Jung has pointed out,
the situation will happen outside as fate."

-William Irwin Thompson, *Evil and World Order*

SHARING YOUR BREATH
Quoting geneticists, Guy Murchie says we're all family. You have at least a
million relatives as close as tenth cousin, and no one on Earth is any
farther removed than your 50th cousin.

Murchie also describes our kinship through an analysis of how deeply we
share the air. With each breath, you take into your body 10 sextillion
atoms, and—owing to the wind's ceaseless circulation—over a year's time
you have intimate relations with oxygen molecules exhaled by every
person alive, as well as by everyone who ever lived. Right now you may be
carrying atoms that were once inside the lungs of Malcolm X, Christopher
Columbus, Joan of Arc, and Cleopatra. (Source: Guy Murchie, *The Seven
Mysteries of Life*)

my 2 free razors: I filled out some questionnaire or survey a while ago, and the other day I got 3 new free razors as a reward. I got a Gillette Fusion and Venus. They're pretty spiffy and fancy compared to the ones that I usually use.


The fact that a possibly "New Most Embarrassing Moment" (TM) was avoided: There was a Stage Crew meeting after school on Wednesday. Rachael and I were finger fencing on stage and my scarf-as-a-shirt got loosened in the tussle and my bra covered breast was saying hello to everyone. Not to mention we were on the stage in the Auditorium with other people playing with the spot light. Rachael pointed it out to me and I fixed my scarf-shirt. I'm pretty sure Matt was the only one who noticed because he was looking at me funny before Rachael pointed out my breast to me. Anyways I'm glad this didn't happen when people were paying attention to what I was doing.

This cookie commercial: my friends fail and haven't seen this commercial. Anyways ever since I saw this I've been playing Rod Stewart's "Do you think I'm sexy" on repeat, on my computer and in my mind.

TiLT #4

Zipper Magazine

School: I had my first full day of school today and it's pretty awesome. The whole taking classes I'm much more interested in and thus more invested in won't hurt my GPA. The only thing I don't like is how hard it is to find my friends since I don't have classes with them and how crowded the school is. But those things aren't putting a damper on my good mood.

Camera Charger: This thing has been missing for at least the last 3-4 months and yesterday I was riffling for clothing to wash, I picked something up and there was my camera charger. Just sitting there. I'm telling you it was a pretty powerful moment. I can't say how relieved I am that I didn't rush off and buy another 30$+ charger.

Cold Rooms: I'm so ready for fall weather. No more of this beaming sun with no winds to balance it out. The cold rooms in Westdale are evening things out but for my future outfits sake I'd appreciate cooler weather.

My Hair: I love playing with it and finding different things to do with it. I usually wear it either pulled back because I didn't have time to do anything or out & down in crimped waves.

Self Timer & Mini Tripod: I got a pretty nifty mini tripod with my camera which definitely helped me earlier yesterday while I was taking photos.

My Friends: I don't get to see them that much at school since I don't have classes with any of them. But being able to see them every day or every 2 days in the hall for a quick chat or at lunch is really nice. I enjoy goofing off with them and I'm looking forward to my Valoween Halloween party and my 2nd Annual Virgin RHPS party =D

TiLT #3

Glynis Selina Arbas


-Veronica's Birthday : Veronica's 13 now! We had a laid back celebration in her name. We went to Chapters, went and watched Mamma Mia and talked for an hour eating Wendy's. I love you Veronica!

-Addicted To Race Podcast I've been devouring this podcast liiikke crazy. ATR is about America's obsession with race. ATR is created by the same people over at Racialicious. It's very informative and interesting and brings issues that I tend to not pay attention to to the forefront of my mind. Gives my mind something to feed on. I'm hoping I can find another podcast similar to this one except based in Canada.

-Photoshop I'm having a lot of fun playing around with this program. I'm no pro yet but thanks to Diana for giving the program with the crack I have it for life now. ;)

-Surf the Channel My computer is too slow right now for me to be downloading shows onto it right now. So STC is great for me because it has everything I'm interesting in watching right now uploaded there. FYI the site is having a contest at the moment. Go over there and check it out.

-my Westdale pants These are the perfect lazing about the house pants. They have the longest crotch ever on them but I think it adds a laid back charm to them.

-Google Reader This is such a life saver! The only 2 drawbacks are that 1) I tend to forget to check up on sites that aren't in my rss feeder and 2) Some people don't have the complete blog posts in the rss feeder, so that's annoying. But besides those two things it's really useful for keeping tabs on all the sites and blogs that I watch.

-Amazon(camera charger) I've resigned myself to my fate. I'm 99.9% sure that my charger was in my pencil case. The pencil case that got stolen when I was at the Classics Conference. I'm really tempted to buy the cheapest replacement but that could screw up my camera and/or my battery. The cheapest authentic replacement (without the bidding war) I can find is on Amazon.

-The impending doom that is school By the way I phrased that it shouldn't be here right? Well it is because I'm have a love/hate relationship with school right now. Once school starts I'll have much more to blog about and I'll have stuff to do. Plus I get to see all my friends etc. But then on the other hand I have to re-do gr.10 french and I have no idea which 10-ers are in my class. It is going to be a lot of fun but I'm going to have a lot on my plate but I'll be doing stuff I love.


*Sorry for this being late. I was out all day yesterday for Veronica's birthday.

TiLT#2

GRANDIOSE?

smell of a freezer

I know that sounds weird. But haven't you ever stuck your head in a freezer before and smelt that cool fresh air? Sometimes in the winter you get that same scent outside. I love that.

cleaning

Well not actual cleaning, but the end result (aka me being able to see my bedroom floor*). I had to "half" clean my room on Tuesday to get bus tickets to head off to Diana's house, so I did. And I like what I see. Saturday is when I'll when finish cleaning.

-This video: ahahahaha.

twhirl

I downloaded twhirl a couple of days ago, I really enjoy using it. I have it with the "Black Magic" theme for now. It's very useful for when you're using programs like Photoshop etc. and you don't want to open up a browser to tweet.

-foto decadent: Wonderful place for finding fashion editorials.

Bay Front park

I went there on the 10th with my family. We went to the park for a bit, went on a trail and laid and talked by the water front. I was really vexed because I didn't/couldn't have my camera with me to take pictures. I shrugged it off eventually and enjoyed the sound of the water hitting the shore, mother ducklings leading her young, watching people row, walking between my parents with our arms all linked & crazy hijinks in our last car ride.

Tresemme Shampoo & Conditioner

When my Aunt Akilah and Vera went over to New Jersey to do some back to school shopping they got us some Tresemme hair care products. It's soooo nice, and after using it, it left my hair very smooth and tangle free. Not to mention how good my hair smelled afterwards.

new visitors

200+ visitors is nothing for some bloggers but every time I check my stats over at sitemeter and see that someone else has looked at my blog, it leaves my heart all a flutter~. Bonus points if the person actually read for more than 30 secs and/or left a comment.

Firefly

When I went over to Di's we watched 3 episodes of Firefly. This show is so kick-ass! I'm falling pretty hard for this show, it's going to be "Avatar" all over again when it's over.

fresh cool night air

the sort the greets me through my bedroom window.

twitter conversations

Reading Nubby+Gala+Gilda's plan/talk about Nubby+Gala's wedding is priceless. I wonder how much it would cost for me to go to NY for the week of the wedding. Hmmm.. I could dress up as a transylvanian (the wedding remix) over the top character for their wedding if I went. =D

My father's laughter

(Ahaha) While I was typing this I could hear my father's laughter from downstairs. He's laughs like a hyena and he has the type of laugh that as soon as you hear you start to laugh too. I've had many conversations with my sisters where there is a pause, and my father is happy to fill it with his laughter - which then sends me, my sisters and sometimes my mother off into hysterics.

TiLT #2 Photo Credit
1. Chadwick Tyler
2. Fashion Editorial 'The Women' by Sebastien Faena
3. Wenda Rogerson (1948) shot by Clifford Coffin
4. Unknown model (1948) shot by Clifford Coffin
5. Chadwick Tyler

*yes my room is that messy.

TiLT #1

*BtVS- I am an avid addict of any type of story telling format (books, tv shows, manga, anime etc). My new main squeeze is Buffy and I've been marathoning episodes for a while. Today I finished watching the 2nd season. 5 seasons to go!

*my sisters radio- Veronica has this Hello Kitty radio that my grandma bought for her a year or two ago. The radio's new home is in our kitchen and I love blaring it whenever I have to clean up.

*my new sunglasses- I didn't end up getting the willy wonka sunglasses (lack of funds) but I did find these snazzy pair of sunglasses in a dollar store. I lurve them. They're brown, 50's styled and wonderful.

*Twitter- Oh man, I signed up for a twitter account this week and I'm addicted. Today I downloaded a "desktop" app for it called Twhirl which just added to the awesomisity (yes I made that word up) of Twitter.

*This picture- I love Marilyn Monroe in general and this is one of my favorite pictures of her.