Weep Upon the Spot for the Starving of Me

****NOTE: I wrote this two weeks ago, and never posted it. My apologies, but here it is****

Hey all! It's been super long since I posted, and I apologize. So here's the first of a few entries for today! We'll start with my passover adventure at home!

For starters, going home is a fun experience, especially considering I get to have a meal with extended family. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but my aunts and uncles and even my cousins can be a handful.

Ok, so passover dinner is called a "seder" and is accompanied by a mult-course dinner and reading from something called the Haggadah. I'll spare the excess of the dinner, but basically we talk about the story of the Ten Commandments, if you've ever seen the movie or just know the story. The jist of the holiday is to not eat leavened bread for 8 days. Not sure why 8, but I know the unleavened bit is because "our ancestors had to high-tail it out of Egypt without time to leaven bread" so we're stuck with the magic diahrrea inhibitor, matza. Don't get me wrong, once a year it's cool, but 8 days!

Anyway, it takes a long time for the dinner to get started, because you have to point at things, ask questions, say a tonne of prayers, do some other crazy stuff, drink way too much wine, and THEN you get the food. So there's Matza Ball Soup in chicken broth, Gefilte fish, chop liver, then veal, chicken, cow tongue...the works. You can imagine I had a great time trying to find food to eat being a herbivore. I rawred my way through the meal scot-free...until my cousin learns I'm a vegetarian and suddenly the whole table is up in arms.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Asks one aunt. "You should really see someone about your diet!" Says another. "What a stupid idea." One cousin. "Yea, like that'll last." Another cousin.

The funny thing is, both my brother and the cousin who belted it out have been vegetarians in the past. My brother didn't criticize, but who are the rest of the family to do that?

What's done is done now, and meal was delicious, of what I did eat (maybe a little fish :). My family makes for quite the adventure...I'm looking forward to my brothers' engagement party. Should be swanky :)

Heard this sweet new song by Mariah Carey. Yup. Mariah Carey.
"Touch My Body" by Mariah Carey

If there's a camera up in here
It's gonna have to leave
When I do, if I do
If there's a camera up in here
I'd best not see this flick
On YouTube, YouTube

Stay frosty!

There Was A Booming Above You That Night

So I'm just checkin' in for now, no long and rambly blog about random things today. Well, maybe later, but not now! I'm currently at my brothers' apartment in downtown Toronto, and whilst he naps I use his computer! Hurray!

Anyway, I'm in Toronto seeing my family for a holiday this weekend. I still have one more exam, but it won't be much to study for, so I should be fine. Funny thing about this weekend is two very big dinners, one with extended family and one with just the bros, the 'rents, and the g-rents (if that makes any sense...I'm not cool). My grandma told me the other day she made all the things I like for this dinner: gefilte fish (a delicious fish thingie), chicken soup, and tongue (yes, cow tongue). It was kind of hard to remind her that I'm vegetarian now, so I might just let myself eat some meat this weekend (not that I want to, but whatever).

I hope this is a good weekend...I mean, being stuck at home for a few days can't be so bad? Regardless, I'm going to miss Soaking up the Sun and Grey Eyed Girl. And my roommates too, I'm running out of time with them. And Quinn! He's been crazy lately, I almost thought he'd run into the door like he did one morning. Once again, Quinn is a cat (also known as Quinlan and Q-Ball). Damn, this weekend is going to feel both long and short...it'll be good to go back. But hey, I get to go shopping tomorrow, see my brother's wedding place, AND hang out with one of my best friends who I haven't seen in a while! Ok, this weekend will be totally worth it...I just may have to call aforementioned Sun and Girl once...or twice...

Anyway, I'll leave you with that, I'll give an awesome special-edition update tonight or tomorrow on the happenings of family dinner!

"Canadian Flag" by Daniel Field and the Suburban Cowboys

The Leafs can’t stop losing and you’re getting bitter
You tried to watch baseball but he’s got a no-hitter
A stranger in your homeland, you’ve nothing to catch
And on your bag you sowed a Canadian patch

Stay frosty, y'all!

Tearing Green Down Off the Vine

I decided I would actually put a lyric to my own song as the blog title today. This is from one I wrote today called "All That." It's pretty swanky, but I can't figure out how to end it. Hmm...

I'm going to make a short entry today, mainly because I just finished writing an essay and I'm sick, and want bed. So, here I go!

Last night I hung out with my American friend from Minnesota, who I will call Bango due to a hilarious misspelling by Soaking up the Sun that I have now officially adopted. It was a fun night, but we started out having no idea what to do. First we went to see a friend's recently displayed art at a coffee shop in town, but we had no idea the coffee shop would close super early (it WAS Sunday and everything). So from there we went to a restaurant/bar thing, and Bango had a little trouble trying to get some beer (they didn't believe his real Minnesota driver's license, even though he's definitely of-age). We were with a random assortment of people, especially considering a friend of mine from my program also happens to be the girlfriend of another friends' roommate! Wow, confusing. Anyway, I spent a lot of time making fun of Dri-Dri, my Sri Lankan friend. That always makes for an exciting evening.

Afterward Bango and I went to play some pool. Final tally of the games? 3 losses to 1 win. And the only reason I won was because HE put the 8 ball in on his turn by accident. I'm actually terrible at pool, even though my grandfather had a pool table and I always used to play. Oh well. So it was 10.30 when we decided we should leave the pool place. But we were both like "it's 10.30...stupid night being long..."

I suggested we rent a movie, and off we went to Have You Seen, an awesome local video rental place. As soon as we went there we knew exactly what we wanted, but still looked around (which amounted to nothing). We rented a movie called The Darjeeling Limited directed by Wes Anderson. Sidenote: Have You Seen's rentals went up to 5 dollars! I was shocked!

Anyway, I hijacked my roommate's PS2 (I asked, of course) and we watched the movie on the terrible TV in the living room. Bango loves cats, and lucky for him, Quinlan loves Bango! My kitty jumped on the couch almost right away and slept on Bango's leg. Q-ball doesn't do that for me, but that's probably because I gave him a bath once. Yea, that makes sense.

The night ended similarly to how this one is about to end. Bango headed out and I told him we'd best see each other again before we both leave town. See, Bango is not only going home to Minnesota this summer, but he's travelling abroad next year for school, which means I won't see him again for more than a year.

Overall, it was an awesome night. Tonight, instead, I did an essay. But ooooh, I kicked an awesome dinner before that! Get this: peanut satay tofu pasta! What a wacky combo, but it worked, and now I know how to make my own Thai peanut sauce! I'm really excited!

"Only Skin" by Joanna Newsom (wow, I did that really abruptly)

Scrape your knee; it is only skin
Makes the sound of violins

Powerful lines, eh? I think so. Stay frosty and have a good night!

We're Still Young/We Still Need Intensity

Yes, I stole the title of today's entry from my old band's album. I was at a concert last night at a local coffee bar (yes, coffee and bar) and it got me thinking about the days when I was part of the rock scene in Toronto.

That might come as a surprise to some people. Actually, a lot of people, myself included, but whatever. I was a Melodica-player, hand-clapper, lyric-writer and back-up vocalist for a 9-person alternative independent rock band called Happy Party. This was back in Grade 12, and constituted pretty much my entire school year and a little into the summer before first year of university.

Happy Party was quite the experience for me on so many levels. I kind of joined the band in a novelty fashion, my only instrument being my brother's Melodica (kind of a handheld piano that sounds like a mix of harmonica and organ...and you blow into it). I used to be able to sing when I was younger, but that talent had been gone by the time high school came around. As my time with Happy Party progressed however, I discovered that my singing voice could come back if I practiced (duh), and it did, so I did some back-up vocals behind our leads Lanny and Dave. If you heard Lanny's voice you would just melt, wow.

Anyway, I had a lot of problems in the band too. For the most part, I wasn't nearly as musical or musically creative as the others (who had other bands on the go as well), and so sometimes I wouldn't always be doing the right thing when writing a song. I wrote lyrics with Lanny and Dave, but I had the same problem there with my lack of experience. But problems that there were (and there were definitely more than these), I enjoyed my time in the band in those moments when we were all on stage. 9 people crammed onto a tiny stage with three guitars, a bass, multiple percussionists, a piano, and the vocalists/other instruments...we got pretty warm up there.

But it was that feeling, that wash of energy and blast of heat from the lights, that made it all worth it for me. Some of our shows played to packed houses of a hundred people or more, where others, as some can attest, played to our closest friends in a venue that could definitely fit more. When the band would rehearse, it would be a test of everyone's patience and teamwork skills, but in the shows, it all came together.

So I quit the band in July of the summer after grade 12. It was super liberating, but it was strange to leave them behind too. Over the course of that summer, the band recorded a full-length album, which I only guested on. It took a year (all of my first year), but the record was finally finished, edited, and ready to go. Throughout that year as well, the band played a bunch of shows, without myself and Lanny, who had also left the band.

One of my all-time fondest memories of Happy Party - and this is why I was reminded at that concert last night - was the CD Release party last year at the Tranzac Club. This was a great show, but it wasn't just our crowd pleasing openers, literally hundreds of audience members, and the large stage (for once). Instead it was the feeling of playing a large venue, and being able to perform with Happy Party one last time to hundreds of dancing, screaming fans. We weren't called an "independent rock spectacle" for nothing in the Toronto online press.

I'm really going to miss Happy Party, and now that they've taken a brief break I kind of wish they'd get back together (without me, of course) to keep making some great music and play a show here or there. You never know, even though I've played my last show with the band, it might be nice to see the band for once :).

This post goes out to Seb, Eric, Dave, Stuls, Stephan, Lanny, Joel, and Goodman of the Happy Party that was. You can check out some of the tracks from "We're Still Young/We Still Have Intensity" at www.myspace.com/happyparty (frig, I have to stop pimping myspace here...Google don't like dat!)

And of course, how could I possibly do lyrics from anyone else today?
"Summer Sometimes" by Happy Party

All the hearts pulling down on my sleeves
Elbows pushing into me
It's all undone
It's all undone

As an addendum to this post, I thought I'd share something extra from today. Observation: People are awesome. Today was a training day for our fall orientation week for first years and it went super well. Big shout-outs to the peeps of CC, OC, LEC, Not-A-College, OOSA and G-ski! That's all for now, folks!

As usual, stay frosty!

You Make Me Look Legitimate

So clearly I am among the worst bloggers ever, because, as Grey Eyed Girl has so kindly put it "I'm not up to the challenge." So what if I can't post EVERY DAY. Whatever. I'm still awesome, and that's what counts.

I guess these daily-ish accounts of my life might be straining to some, considering it seems to be getting repetitive. But fear not! I'll probably end up discussing something or other and ramblings won't be THAT bad today. For the most part, I'd be pretty happy if I can get through this without also stealing Grey Eyed Girls most recent - and awesome to the max - poem "if i could." Check it out on her blog (Scribblings of a Grey Eyed Girl) or also on Soaking up the Sun's blog too.

Anyway, the last few days have been a whirlwind of activity, matched with moments of severe non-activity. Since last Tuesday's entry, I've been busy with working on an essay and a project for my music class (that I perfectly intend to write after I'm done blogging) and studying for an exam. Ok, I wasn't that busy with that stuff. I actually slacked a little bit with my studying, but that exam was yesterday and went fairly well (plus I got a paper back that I did awesome on). The rest of my week has been, believe it or not, taken up by doing other things! GASP! That's right, now that my job is done (as of last Saturday), I've been free to..DO THINGS. So of course, boredom set in hardcore! Pretty sweet though. For instance, last night I just sat in my room and watched an awesome show called jPod for a few hours, and then when one of my roommates came home, we built a gingerbread house. That's right. A gingerbread house. When I finally went to sleep, I was worried that our kitty would eat the gingerbread house, but when I woke up it was safe. Unfortunately for us, Quinlan (our little black cat) had thrown up in the living room. Another roommate came home and we pretty much deduced that he got into an open bag of Ringolos. Q-ball can be a little crazy sometimes. He's sleeping on my bed right now, actually.

Other stuff in the recent past? Well, I had planned a wicked Monopoly party with friends for a couple nights ago. One person showed up, but we still had a rocking time, so there! The night before that me and Soaking up the Sun had fun choosing courses for our future. That's right, one of my exquisite methods of cheering people up is by making them focus on something completely unrelated, like the fact that our university's academic calendar just came out! I hope the night helped you, Soaking up the Sun, and I'm really glad I could be there for you.

In an unrelated note, I got a new album from one of my favourite artists, Kathleen Edwards, called "Asking for Flowers." This is one of the best albums I have ever gotten, and easily Edwards best performance after two previous albums. I didn't get the chance to see her live when she was in town recently, and I totally regret that, but whatever. I highly suggest buying this album or heading to her myspace (www.myspace.com/kathleenedwards) and listen to some of the tracks. Buffalo is one of my favourite songs so far this year, right up there with Basia Bulat's "I Was a Daughter" but on a completely different level. One of the most powerful songs on this album - an absolute beauty - is "Alicia Ross," the true story of a girl from my hometown, you may have heard of her, and the song perfectly captures her family and the way people were encapsulated by her back home.

Anyway, I have to get to my homework (like actually, for real). Tomorrow I'm up at campus again all day for training for this fall's orientation week for first year students. It should be fun, and we get fed tomorrow, which is always good for me.

Keeping with my current Kathleen Edwards addiction, here're some lyrics from the title track of her new album, "Asking for Flowers."

My life is like a picture left
out too long in the sun
Now I'm trying to remember all
the faces of the names I've loved
And all that's left of me now is
a cigarette burning bright
And a fading memory of all the things
I tried to get right

Stay frosty folks, and I'll try to be more frequent in updating!

Pretty Words Doled Up on Silver Platters

Ok, don't be mad at me, I KNOW it's been a long time (5 days!) since I've posted! Way to keep up a blog, Utahraptor. Anyway, I'm back now, for real! Believe me! I'll actually post and everything!

So if you haven't gathered from my absence, the last few days have been exceptionally busy. It turns out winding down my job would be a lot harder than I had initially expected, and I totally did not think I would have three 12-hour work days in a row. But I pretty much did. When my job ended last Saturday at midnight, I pretty much exhaled my entire life in joy. Not that I hated my job, as people here know, I just had some problems with it and the stress was killer.

But anyway, that's over with. Classes are done too, which is a huge relief, leaving me with an essay, a project, and three exams to work on. That's not much, considering my standard workload. If things work out, I won't over-busy myself and get work done, and even have the occasional hour of free time! Oh, I miss free time.

This weekend was pretty sweet. I worked on Saturday and had a sweet Saturday night. I had to work again on Sunday, even though I kinda wasn't paid for it, but whatever, it ended kinda early. Sunday night I saw Soaking up the Sun's AMAZING "Acting Politricks" performance. It was truly awesome. And coming from a dino like me, that's sayin a lot! I only saw one of the two performances, so I hope some of you got to see the second one last night, which also went well.

Speaking of last night, there was a huge party at one of university's residences because it's the last time it will be a residence. There were a bunch of bands playing and a lot of people. Best part was the free barbeque, but there's something at this university that makes me laugh every time... So there's this long line-up for the barbeque, but when you finally reach the food, it turns out everyone is waiting in line for veggie burgers, and the people making the food keep calling out "who wants a hot dog or a hamburger?" and only one or two people come out of the line. Pretty funny if you were there...oh vegetarians. Keep in mind that my breed of Utahraptor is a herbivore too.

Anyway, my stomach is rumbling to the max so I should go make food. Peace out everybody!

"Cannon Fodder" by Laura Veirs

Every war is brutal, stupid, expensive and mean
If you take her, you also take me
Hiding by the water
Innocent cannon fodder

When You Need to Shout, And No One's Ever Listening

Tonight's entry will be shorter than last, mainly because my body is being like "Hey, Utahraptor, slow the shit down and get some sleep." In response I say "Listen up, body, you do what I tell you to do, and if I say stay awake, you damn well stay awake." But it stopped listening today, bright and early in the morning, when I almost fell asleep at work. Very embarassing.

Today was eventful as usual. Had my school bag with me right from 9 am till I was home again at 1.30. Balls. That's all I can say. This has got stop. Now don't get me wrong, I had a sweet dinner with friends tonight, but I am just barely home anymore.

Since I am almost ready to pass out, and still have that blasted essay to edit again, I'm going to draw this to a close early. Before I sign off, I wanted to draw your attention to the "mad skillz" of Grey-Eyed Girl and her awesome writing in the links to the right. It's, to say the least, pretty sweet. Plus, Grey-Eyed Girl owes me some help in skillz, but not writing, oh no....I mean crochet skillz. That's right. I am SO going there.

That's it for tonight everyone!
"Oh, My Darling" by Basia Bulat

There are two things I will carry
In my pockets at the end,
Oh, my darling
You are one of them

("What's the other thing?")...

Stay frosty and goodnight!

Postscript: Mules. Awesome? Discuss.

Could Someone Get the Woman A Napkin?

Hello friends, trilobytes, cave-dwellers, and fossil-hunters. My day reaches its end, which, if I do say so myself, is awesome. Just like me.

Today has been hella long, with an early morning class that I just could not miss. From there it continued on a spiralling whirlwind of pedantic necessities and unneccesary word lengths. Fortunately for me, I had an awesome meeting and an essay to edit to look forward too all day! Ok, well the first thing I actually was looking forward to. This evening I met up with some members of incoming student government here at my university, and we had the opportunity to talk about some fun stuff for next year as well get to know each other outside of the stickler-rific formal atmosphere that some meetings can give.

That being said, I have a sweet-ass meeting tomorrow morning bright and early to interview applicants for a job within the student union. So much effort is involved to get up and go there that it's ridiculous. I sleep in once every three weeks and it's never past 10, and of course, looking at my schedule for this week, I'm up at 8 every day from now till Tuesday (Saturday being an exclusion, I get an extra hour or so). How am I ever going to survive? Well, I know how: my late night ritual.

So lately as I've gone to bed around 1 or 2, I've developed a couple habits that I both enjoy but also find hard to break. Usually, I start my homework around 10 or 11 pm (late, I know), and work on that whilst distracted by Gmail or Facebook for a couple hours. Usually, I'll find myself so distracted near the end of it I give up on homework till the next day, and either have in-depth conversations with people on Facebook/Gmail/MSN or find myself looking up random TV shows at length. For instance, last week I was learning about the new season of Trading Spaces. Last night? Found this show called "Make Me a Supermodel" from the American Bravo television network. I don't recall whatsoever how I got there, but it didn't look like too bad of a show considering one of my fraudulent friends (that's surprisingly not a negative thing to say at all!) is trying to get me hooked on Project Runway. Anyway, today I was introduced to "Improv Everywhere" by Soaking up the Sun and have succeeded to watch like 5 of their videos on YouTube. It's pretty sweet.

What will tomorrow be like in the late night ritual? I dunno, but I guess I'll find out pretty soon. Tomorrow is always sooner than I think. Anyway, I should wrap it all up for the night as I ponder both my essay (which I did actually finish editing) and just how awesome I will continue to be tonight. I also work towards finding some miniscule wiggle room in my schedule over the next couple days to spend some "no-talking-about-work-or-school-or-issues friend time" with Soaking up the Sun and a friend of ours who made me the most amazing card ever and manages to miss me everytime she comes to my office and I miss her everytime I go to hers!

Here's today's lyrics:
"Lost at Seaflower Cove" by Laura Veirs

Pretty words doled up on silver platters
Chanting sea shanties
The words that matter
Oh how they shatter
Me...


Stay frosty folks!

It's a Sequence of Measures that Keeps us Together...

That's lyrics from a super lame song of mine. Ok, maybe it's not that lame, but it is in my opinion. And I am entitled to my own opinion. I'm the writed of said song.

That being said, I want to make it clear that my blogs's actual title is "inSequence," not the more probable and less strange "insequence," which could be like "inconsequence" or "consequence" or a combination of the two. Still, it is "inSequence." There, I have done my due diligence for taking care of that.

Anyway, I got this blog for a few reasons. First of all, there are people in the world who care far too much about the mundane and mediocre aspects of my life to not read it in a daily, or every-other-day, blog. Also, this serves as a companion to the blog of a certain Soaking up the Sun, who you may or may not be familiar with.

To make things very clear, however, I am currently procrastinating "h to the core" on a big essay that's coming up. I also have Kraft Dinner cooking downstairs. WAY TOO MUCH GOING ON AT ONCE.

In short, you will soon find that my humour takes some getting used to.

I'm going to end my blog today, and hopefully everyday, with a song lyric or group of lyrics I like/reflect something. I will do my best to keep it from being lame. Postscript: I owe this idea to a certain Ms. Education T. Thanks!

From the song "Biomusicology" by Ted Leo and The Pharmacists:
But look beneath the glassy surface
All the songs you hear down there
They have a purpose

That's all for the night folks! See you tomorrow!

Oh, and as an endnote: If you're wondering where I get "Utahraptor" from, go ahead and check out the amazing work of a Mr. Ryan North at http://www.qwantz.com/ THEN YOU WILL SEE WHY!