please. look up the definition of sarcasm.

Heyy,


So I am intensely hyper right now and it's kind of hard to concentrate but there is something I just MUST get off my mind. This will be a rant BY THE WAY. The topic of this rant is ..... SARCASM.

There is an account on twitter entitled "sarcasm". I'm not going to say their full name just in case they maybe get offended by this. I say, if they end up reading this, they should FIX THEIR ENTIRE ACCOUNT SO THAT IT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE. Anyways. Let's go. 

I'm trying to find a good example of how their tweets aren't actually sarcasm, but since none of them are sarcasm, it's hard to chose between the billions of tweets that could easily prove my point. So let's just start at the top:

"ugly starts with u"

^ So what you actually mean is ugly doesn't start with u?

"I can literally tell which one of my family members is coming up the stairs or walking about the house just from their footsteps."

^ ... did you just use the word "literally" to describe something in your non-sarcastic-yet-on-your-sarcastic-twitter-account? I'm mean come on.

"Can you just like 
                                               not"

^ Translation: PLEASE ... continue :D 

"Wake me up when i'm rich"

^ Oh don't worry, I won't. 

"I think i might be the saddest happy person and the meanest nice person to ever exist"

^ Not sure what's going on here, but it has ~2000 retweets and 800 favourites. 

"I hate texting people who don't use smileys. I feel like I'm texting Kristen Stewart."

^ This is the funniest one I've come across, but if it's sarcasm, then it completely defeats the purpose and is no long amusing. 

"I have unlimited texting and only text about 3 people..."

^ Congratulations.

"I wonder who's still going to be by my side 10 years from now..."

^ Probably someone else who doesn't understand the concept of sarcasm. 

"School hasn’t even started yet & I’m already stressed about it"

^ They have medication for that

"I respect those that tell me the truth, no matter how hard it is.👌"

^ I don't. I seriously don't need more people pointing out my flaws. I do that well enough myself thank you!

"Can you imagine if twitter just decided to shut down and you see all these confused teenagers coming out of their house squinting at the sun"

^ Can you imagine if one day dictionary.com magically appeared on your computer screen and you realized your twitter account was incorrectly named?

"Guys be 21. Looking 18. Acting 14. Girls be 14.  Looking 18.  Acting 21."

^ Girs be 14. Looking 18. So they get pregnant. And their mother takes care of the child because they are still one themselves. Is that what you meant?

"Condom commercials should just be videos of kids crying & whining & shouting if that won’t convince people to use protection, idk what will."

^ Who watches commercials anymore. Seriously. Get ad-block. 

"If i'm a sarcastic asshole around you it's either because i'm comfortable teasing you or I hate you... good luck figuring out which one 😏👌"

^ If you said anything sarcastic, being an asshole or otherwise, I would give you a standing ovation.

And who knows. Maybe everyone following and retweeting this account is actually in on some sort of joke being like, "it's funny that this isn't even sarcasm." If this is the case. Well, I apologize. Maybe. 

peace

going to the gym

Heyy,


A few perks come with being a student other than the epic amount of knowledge you will absorb in your classes ~ one of them being a free gym membership (well, the cost may be added into your tuition, but hey, then I guess you really better use it, right?). 

I am not a gym person. I had free access to the gym at my previous post-secondary institution as well but I never used it because when I finished class I just wanted to go home. Living on campus give you the ease of being able to practically roll out of bed and magically end up at the gym with minimal amounts of effort. I, personally, am more of a sports fan. I like to play volleyball in particular, and that is how I got most of my physical activity hours in other than going for hikes on the weekends. Truthfully though, while I attended my previous post-secondary school, I did a lot of sitting at my computer and was really just too lazy to do anything. That's why I've decided to change. Well, for now that is. 

I've been going to the gym everyday for at least half and hour, normally an hour. I go at 630 am on monday, wednesday and friday. On tuesday and thursday I like to do something in the afternoon, so I'll go for a run/jog/hike through the woods out back. Saturday I like to go for a longer adventure in the woods and sunday I like to not be purposefully physically active :) 

Having a break is important I think to really motivate yourself to go again. Or maybe that's backwards, because when I have a break it is really hard to get back into it. Just try your best and think of the goals at the end. 

So because I have never been a gym fanatic, I don't really know what I'm doing there at all. For the most part I stick to the elliptical and rowing machine. Today I ran on the treadmill but it wasn't facing the window so I wasn't that happy. If I'm going to just run, I prefer to do it outside in the fresh air. 

Basically, my advice to any new-gym-users is you don't need all those crazy, hardcore machines. If you want to get someone to teach you how to use them that's fine, but you don't need them. Stick to the easy stuff, especially when starting out. Also, go outside. Don't be confined to a gym. Yeah, they're nice, especially in the winter when the snow is 2m deep, but even then, don't be afraid to break out a pair of snowshoes and go on an adventure. 

Make sure to take breaks, and please don't let going to the gym become who you are. Those people that have to go to the gym to get all buff and tough really just aren't appealing. I would much prefer to be someone who goes for hikes in the woods everyday than go to the gym. 

Anyways. You have a gym membership. Use it. Go once in a while. Go more than once in a while. Use it to your advantage. Use it to get healthy and fit :) 

peace

learning to cook

Heyy, 

Since moving out there is a topic I think is very important to cover. Food. Because I lived at home with my parents for the last 19 years of my life, I have never had to be self-dependent for food. The most I ever did to prepare my own meals was to either find a snack in the cupboard or left-overs in the fridge. I know that most students going off to college of university resort to the meal plan their school offers. Even with a 15% discount, I think that eating at the cafeteria everyday for each meal would cost way more than buying your own food from the grocery store and cooking yourself. Even though I think this way, it doesn't really help the fact that I've basically never cooked a meal in my life. I mean, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but at home I would much prefer to bake something unhealthy than cook a balanced meal. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that I'm a noob in the kitchen. 

This post should give other kitchen virgins hope, in that they can actually make edible meals and don't have to waste money on cafeteria food.

My first meal actually turned out really well. It was a simple soup with asian noodles and tons and tons of vegetables. It consisted of carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc. It took a long time to make as I was constantly checking my recipe to make sure I was doing things right. This, I think, is how all people start off in the kitchen and we will eventually not even need to measure out a cup of bean sprouts :) Well I may not measure bean sprouts, but I do definitely measure out a cup of water when the recipe calls for a cup of water. 

My second meal was a broccoli and cauliflower bake. It also has chicken and mushroom soup and I topped it off with goat cheddar cheese. This one also took a bit of time to make, cooking the chicken first and steaming the vegetables. I love this meal though and would make it all the time! 

Third, and least healthy of the bunch, is this wiener pasta pot. Basically made of what you can see ~ pasta and hot dogs, tomato soup and mushrooms. Although it is obviously the least healthy, it is, by far, the easiest to make.

As you can see, I don't cook every day. I try to make a good amount of left-overs so I can take it for lunch and not get tempted to by things from the cafeteria :) 

Another thing that is important to talk about for school residence dwellers, is sharing food with suite-mates or room-mates. Since I decided to try and be as healthy as I can living away from home, I try to eat lots of greens and cook things that are relatively healthy. I especially try and stay away from those unhealthy snacks most of us find ourselves eating when we get bored or after a long day of classes. Only problem is, my suite-mates are super unhealthy and it is very hard to eat greens all day when everyone around you is eating a nice, juicy hotdog. Basically, STAY STRONG. I've told my suite-mates that I don't really want to share my food, even though they are all sharing their food with each other. Laying out those ground rules at the beginning is important because then I can't just eat the chips and drink the pop in their cupboard. 

Another reason I'm keeping away from the more unhealthy snacks is that I literally have no money. I am poor. I am living off a student loan and they shorted me on the amount. So I have to find ways to save cash. One way is to buy vegetables at the store rather than those gummy fruit snacks we all wish to believe are just as healthy :) 

More on food to come ~ hopefully I'll be making lots more healthy meals to share :)

peace

first week

Heyy, 


I've been at university for a week now, and my experiences have been varied. Going into this I thought I would love my classes and not really get along with my suite-mates. I thought my classes would be fun and I would learn new things and my suite-mates would be partiers that stayed up late and never cleaned. I was wrong. My suite-mates are great! Although sometimes they don't recycle things properly (and they habitually shop at walmart), they keep things tidy and don't make too much noise. Sometimes they even make me feel like a slacker when they end up studying and taking notes all day while I sit in my room and watch youtube! The only real down-side (because I have to find faults with everything) is that they constantly make immature and inappropriate jokes. This is mainly because they are young and immature but for the most part they are awesome and definitely not what I expected. 

My classes are also not what I expected. I'm taking two 100-level courses: chem, calculus, and three 200-level courses: genetics, ecology and plant biology. Since I am a transfer student I have to go back and take some of these "easier" courses purely because either my previous school didn't require them for my program or because the credits don't transfer over. For example, chem was not required for my previous program so I have to take it now but I have taken a plant id course but for some reason those credits are not transferrable to a plant biology course ... So some of it is a little frustrating as I'll be re-learning things I have already learned before. It is also frustrating because they're not hands-on courses and I won't be outside that often, which is ultimately where I want to be. 

Ok, so more specifics about the first week of school. I moved into my dorm on Sunday evening. My parents helped out and I met my suite-mate etc., etc. My room is miniature, and there's not even enough room to use the floorspace for push-ups. 

The closet is tiny and I can barely fit all of my clothes in it. What you can't see from this photo is the three drawers below the bed (the only storage other than the closet that is provided). Included in the closet space is a shelf above, which I use to store extra sheets, fishing gear, hats and a couple other things. 

Because I have so little storage space, I had to resort to storing things that I don't use too often, like extra towels etc., in a storage box I keep next to my desk, which also doubles as my shoe rack :) The desk is actually a good size and the shelving above it give me lots of space for my books and other odds-and-ends. The only problem in this corner of the room is that there is not enough space to pull my chair out straight as it will hit the bed frame. Because of this I have to sit at a slight angle. The desk is definitely the best feature of this room. 

I am also disappointed with the view I have out my window. 

My window faces east so although I get a beautiful sunrise each morning I have to look straight at the other dorm residence building and the parking lot in between. There is constant traffic of pizza delivery cars and the other building's fire alarm goes off constantly. I guess the main reason I'm discontent is because the west rooms get a beautiful view of the forest just behind the campus. I would much rather stare at trees all day than people, my suite-mates disagree. 

I will be further decorating my walls with posters when I find time to buy sticky-tack. It looks a little sad and barren right now I know.

Another thing you part in during the first week of school is orientation. I, being an extremely anti-social person, dreaded this. I do not like meeting people, playing groups games like duck-duck-goose, and being filled with this so-called "team spirit". What I consider to be a good time is to go for a lonesome walk in the woods, maybe find a place to sit and read a book. Sadly orientation was pretty much what I expected. BUT, it did end (after two days of pre-orientation and regular orientation) and I made it to wednesday. 

On wednesday I went to my classes and they basically just handed out the syllabus and that was it. My parents left early wednesday and I was really sad to see them go but I've been calling them regularly because I'm a dependent and obviously can't live without them. Thursday I didn't have class because there were not labs during the first week. Friday I went to class again. Saturday I walked around in the forest, checked out a nearby lake, made some food, etc. Sunday I went to church, saw the local orchestra play in the park, went for another walk in the woods, saw some moose, went home, blah, blah, blah. 

So that was my first week. I can't wait for things to slow down a bit and get into a regular routine, but for now I'm just going to have to deal with the stress :)

peace