Tuesday, December 22, 2009

gift giving (and getting) season!

Its been a while since i blogged anything that decided to pop into my head. Its the holiday season (yay) which usually means one thing … NO SCHOOL!!!! The good thing is that I passed with flying colours! The bad news is is that there’s only 2 weeks of holiday vacay (because of how exams are scheduled). BUT that's not the reason for this blog entry thing.  

It’s gift giving season! The only time in the year when malls are jammed packed with people and people are willing to seat their children next to (or on top of a) creepy old man in a costume. Competition is fierce this time of year especially in this economy (even though its steadily rising from the dawn); sellers are trying to get you into the store, buyers want to pay the lowest price possible. Its funny that all these stores have the wackiest gimmicks in order for you to drag you butt into their premises, but once your in there, its disappointment all the way. I think you all know what I’m talking about, such as ‘would you like to try a free sample?’, ‘I’m sorry but only selected items on sale’, ‘Sorry but it’s all sold out, and my favourite, ‘I’m sorry, the only sizes are the ones on display’.

Even though we as conscious wise consumers try to get the best gift at the lowest price (especially those who are broke) whatever we buy is NEVER the lowest price (unless you are those people who wait in front of the store before it even opens). I especially love the stores who say that the product is ‘on sale, for a limited time only’, but in real life, they just jack up the prices ever so slightly, probably to up their margins and what not. The worst things I find are electronics where you thought you got the best deal, but you haven’t, especially the fact that it either goes obsolete and the new model comes out a month after your purchase (considering that the return/price match/exchange policies are 30 days or less).

But there is a slight difference to the last days of shopping compared to last year, the malls are a little but not overcrowded, as in ‘this might be a fire hazard’ overcrowded. A few years ago, it would be packed, you were basically getting ‘acquainted’ with the person in front of you and ditto for the person behind you. The check out lines were snake like and usually take up 3/4 of the store, and the product you want is usually gone, or has been destroyed by who knows how. All I remember is that leaving the malls would be slow and painful, and it seemed like we were all headed for the slaughterhouse (mooo)!

Today, I finished getting gifts for my two closest friends. Usually, by definition, I am an isolated person, or in laymen’s terms, a loser … oww or better ye a loner! I learned from Social Networking class that people usually have 3 friends, and that’s already very isolated (which means no hope for me). Naw, I’m gonna be hosting a party next week, so I’ll get gifts for my other friends then, but these two I see them like every day, so its an obligation. Anyways, I didn’t have any boxes for these gifts because the stores decided to make nice flat boxes that can fit clothes and books, but i could never find any normal square box (unless they are a multi-pack if sizes I don’t need), so, I thought that I had these plain boxes at home that would fit, but I was totally wrong. So I compromised and wanted to freak my two friends out (btw after this posting, I might not have any friends) by using household boxes I found around the house.

For the sake of hilarity, I jammed one of my friend’s gifts with a cracker box (it was a unopened and my mom thought I was gonna use them to feed the squirrels) and wrapped it neatly with penguin wrapping paper. For my other friend,  decided to use the box that came with my bio-filter (for the aquarium) which is an added bonus considering that this friend was hinting soo much stuff she wanted to get and she doesn’t own an aquarium. Hopefully this experiment will not go overboard, plus I’m saving the environment by reusing boxes that just sat in the dark of my basement, waiting to be recycled in the blue bin.

I had too much fun wrapping the presents because for some reason the pattern on the wrapping paper made a funny design:

 

Stay tuned to see my change in friend count next!

Monday, December 7, 2009

yay, its snowing!

I thought global warming had the best of us and took away our snow … but not anymore! I’m happy that its snowing, because it’s weird to be a Canadian and not see snow (well, cold for that matter) for the majority of the year!

I for one hate rain and everything that comes with it. Rain makes you dread going outside, at least its not the same feeling with snow! You would always have to carry an umbrella and question whether you would have to buy a new one at the end of the day. Radio stations suddenly start obsessing with the song ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna. Rain means pedestrians become a target for splashing, I swear, i feel that cars intentionally drive closer to large lake- like puddles just for the fun of it.Rain means that public transit is packed with soaking wet people (because cyclists like me don’t wanna be splashed (or hit for that matter). Rain means not being able to sneak into a lecture without people noticing you. Rain just means problems (for those in the city).

I’m psyched that its snowing (but sad that I cannot bike so often), because now i can re-live my childhood by making a snow… thing! We use to live in an apartment, and I felt funny (an immature) if i went outside to build stuff with snow. Now, i can build stuff in the comfort of my backyard (please, no gawkers invited!).

For some weird reason (i think its a genetic defect), i actually like shovelling snow! I think its fun and relaxing, its a workout, and when im done, i look like Sid from Ice Age, popsicles coming out of my nostrils and all! I use to shovel snow for my neighbours, but my mom usually yells at me after i reach my next door neighbours’ neighbour door. Seriously, i wanna have a mini shovelling business for the neighbourhood and charge people based on their laziness and ability (ie seniors get huge discounts, lazy bum watching TV will have to pay a high premium!). I think i wanna pursue such venture because (a) i have no money because of university, (b) it would mean people don’t have to venture outside to shovel, (c ) people wouldn’t slip and fall, and (d) i can lose weight from all the holiday goodies (and stress eating from exams). Everyone wins! Plus, i wanna make a cool flyer.

And if anyone is interested in someone to shovel them snow in downtown Toronto, pls comment on details! and BYOS (buy your own salt) because i for one an NOT lugging around KGs of salt, plus, i already feel too much sodium overload from the food!

Btw, Joan, if you’re reading this, the snowman contest is on (on condition that there is enough snow on the ground)!

Friday, December 4, 2009

one of my many pet peeves …

This morning @ 7:59 am, my home phone rings. Since it is exam time, i usually sleep a few extra hours, hoping that the extra sleep now can cancel out the sleep i missed since school started (too bad it’s highly unlikely). But anyways, my mom usually gets to work at around 8am so i thought it was an emergency, turns out, it was one of her friends she haven’t talked to in a whole, wondering if we were interested in buying a used Metropass for December.

Is this really that important that you have to call me this early? Is this a life and death situation that can be solved with one phone call. I don’t understand why you couldn’t what an extra hour or so to call!

The problem is even though you tell people ‘hey, it’s kinda early, and everyone WAS asleep before you called, you mind holding your stories?’ My mom now has a friend who calls like clockwork at 8:30 am on a Saturday and Sunday! And what does she talk about this early in the morning? Her work life and the (lack of) social life. Unfortunately, she’s less of a listener and more of a talker.

I mean there are other options to block out the ringer, but in the case of an actual emergency in the middle of the night, that phone call is crucial.

So for all the people in the world who like to call early in the morning just for a ‘meaningful’ conversation, please withhold your comments until later in the day. Better yet, email or text them (hopefully they wouldn’t have those awful ringtones on their cells) that way, at least you’ve considered all options.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

why profs, why?

Aside from the title, I’ve been having a crap day except for 5 hours when i was hanging out with my friend (where we browsed at food and window shopped). I’d say stuff about my day for therapeutic purposes, but i’d probably leave this until this stuff calms down with all the possible legal implications and such. What great fun for a university student with less than 1 week before exams.

Anyways, exams brought me back to the subject. Is it just me, or is it that there higher the university level you are, the more stuck up the profs are?

I remember in 1st year, profs usually introduced themselves for like 10 minutes max and started class, after that you’d never heard about their personal life ever again. Now being in 4th year, seems like the profs spend most of the time talking bout how successful they are, somewhat rubbing it in. But seriously, reflecting back to my notes, all the key points hat actually got embedded in my head were those dumb facts about the prof that would definitely not help me during the exam unless at the end of the exam, i can congratulated them for whatever achievement they talked about in class for bonus marks.

For example, one prof said talked about their expensive car, Lululemon, their published work and why they will not be able to answer emails (like they ever does) because they will be travelling. Another constantly talks about their son, raking leaves, how the Leafs are the greatest, and for some reason how Ryerson is much better than UofT. Seriously, if these were points, I’d ace the exam because my brain is usually full of useless information.

Anyways, what if they were high on themselves and everything they said was an exaggeration? It would be like Kowalski from The Penguins of Madagascar (yes i watch Nickelodeon but to defend myself i watch it online), he said, ‘Everything I learned is a LIE!’ which i believe in so dearly because i believe everything i learn is probably exaggerated or obsolete when i need it.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

the media cannot stand a man-on-man kiss?

Last Friday, instead of talking about work in our group meeting, we managed to wander into entertainment gossip. What was the topic of the day? Adam Lambert’s performance at the American Music Awards.

Seriously, what is wrong with a kiss? Seriously! I think that kiss was blocked or censored from the network. What that really necessary? I mean, a lot more stuff happened far worse than that, and i for one didn’t really think that it was a big deal.

I think the most ‘extreme’ thing that has happened on tv was that Comcast incident during the Super Bowl where somehow, someone broadcasted porn during a break. Im in Canada, but i wonder if they did get a refund for that. Here’s link in regards to that:

http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/02/03/comcast-offers-customers-10-rebate-after-porn-incident/

Like seriously (damn it, I blame Grey’s Anatomy for embedding the word ‘seriously’ in my brain) i would be thankful if i had those clunky TVs if i was watching it, i don’t think it would be pleasant watching that on a big screen HD tv (especially when its eating time).

But back to the kiss. Was there any precedence with a same sex kiss? Well, i think Will and Grace did it (when Jack wanted a gay kiss on national tv, Will kissed him in when Jack was talking to Al Roker)  … and Friends (when Chandler wanted someone to kiss him on new years, Joey did the honours!). And now, they have the ‘Kish’ storyline on OLTL (and what kind of demographics are watching that?). Anyways, people have been bombarded with way worse with advertisements and cable tv. The youths today probably seen much worse than the youths of yesteryear.

Is it a gender thing? Girl on girl kiss seemed like it was always encouraged (like in Friends where Chandler and Joey were willing to give the apartment back to Rachel and Monica if they kissed). Or how about the Madonna and Britney kiss? Too bad the Christina and Madonna kiss didn’t catch on. But still! People should embrace the fact that since it happened once, its bound to happen again. So in conclusion, accept change damn it, because without change, there would be no evolution and life would suck indefinitely!

flu season and germs alike

A few weeks ago Monday, I had a minor fever and a nose that resembled Niagara Falls. I had no other symptoms.

As paranoid as my mom would be, she’d thought i caught the swine flu (or H1N1) and advised me that I should go to the doctors. I went to my family doctor.

The last time I’ve been there was a few months ago in June while working as a summer student at a bank. At that time I had the chills, congestion, high fever, tried as hell … basically the whole nine yards to be exact. Went into the doctors, told me that i was a young adult and would fight through this fine. Gave me a prescription but said that I didn’t need them, Tylenol is good enough. Suffered 3 days, felt like a furnace.

This time i went to the doctor, he told me that I had pneumonia (i had it when i was young) and said that my left lung sounds horrible. Asked him if i’d have swine flu, he said that i wouldn’t be stilling in front of him without vomiting a storm. Gave me a prescription for antibiotics. My mom thought that my doctor was getting old and told me to get some herbal medicine instead.

In a panic myself, I decided to use the university’s doctors for reassurance. Booked an appointment for Friday morning.  Had a group project right after that. Really friendly staff at the health centre. The nurse took my temperature and said i was normal. went in to see the doctor, she checked my out and said I’d probably just got a virus and its completely gone. Yay!

Went to meet my group at the library in a study room (school forked over a lot of mula to make the library nice). Anyways, the room was able to fit probably 6 people max with a conference table. 2 actual walls, 2 glass walls, a door, no windows or fresh air. There was 5 of us, one of our group members were missing and we’d haven’t heard from her via email or anything. Our last group member shows up coughing up who knows what and says, ‘guys, i think i have the flu’. She sat down at basically the ‘head’ of the table, while all of use started to shift over to the far side of the glass wall, personal space violated indefinitely  . For the 1st few minutes, we basically complained saying that ‘you should have stayed home’ ‘you should see a doctor’. But, she decided to stay just to split work and such, but man, that hour felt brutal.

Anyways, the hour has passed and out most productive team member had to go, so we called it a day as well. Before the sick one left, she started to ask us what the procedures are to go to the hospital .. yes, that’s what we really wanna hear after being isolated in a room filled with your germs. When she left, we were kinda afraid of the door knob, so one of the our brave group members decided to use her foot, which locked us in temporarily, but none the less we escaped. It was funny that we scrambled to look for a hand sanitizer dispenser. Hilarity! Long story short, none of my healthy group members got sick, but i haven’t seen the last one since.

And if you are out there reading this, i apologize for the actions me and the group may have caused, and would like to have a beer with you to drown away the troubles (given that you’re allowed to drink alcohol and given that your not sick).

But its weird that this flu season, everyone’s taking precautions. What’s different though? My closest friends are nurses (which is good because at least they’d know what to do when something goes wrong, i think my other friends would just calculate how much taxes i owe to the government before i croak) and they say that every year people die from the flu. All i know is that the hand sanitizer companies are make tons of profits from people like us freaking out of the flu. I’m not entirely freaking out about the possibility of contacting those buggers, I just don’t wanna be hopped up on medicine while writing those exams. I think i’d probably be too happy with the medicine and forgot that i was writing an exam.

Introductions

Hi All. I was (and still am) the blogger @ http://www.beaversatile.blogspot.com but mutually agreed with myself that i would put that in the back burner until stuff gets cleared out.

I decided to create this blog to speak my mind, hopefully my thoughts would entertain you, even make you LOL. And if not, at least it would make you think or at least feel better about your life. I’ll write about anything that i actually have sufficient knowledge of (too bad its limited to entertainment gossip and business), but I will expand my knowledge in something (btw i need new pants from stress eating and exams). I named the blog ‘stuck in between delusion and reality…’ because that where my brain is from school, the world news, my problems etc…

Anyways, a brief introduction: my name is Connie and i am a university student. By the time i get out of school, i would be responsible for taking your money and profits in exchange for analysing a few key numbers and questioning your competence as a business person.

I haven’t been properly socialized into the world, which would explain why i have so little friends, why i can’t properly speak in public, why i love the TV so much and why i am still single. I get a decent amount support from home. My dad is basically Cotton from King of the Hill minus the war stories. I think my mom is the greatest mom in the universe except for the fact that she tries to play matchmaker (for example, the fat lady from Disney’s Mulan). She and my aunt tried to hook me up with my cousins single friends while i was in Vancouver (which I refused because all his friends are in the freaky mid-life crisis age). She also tried to hook up some of her coworkers daughters and sons. Its only been 1 month and she failed twice. I still thinks she’s the greatest person on earth … minus that aspect of her. I told my mom that if al else fails, i would be a single career driven lady with tons of dogs (because cats have claws and sometimes act arrogantly). Then i played the BeyoncĂ© song just to make a point. Its funny, my mom’s English is bad, but she’s able to say the word ‘single lady’ … i think that’s how she describes me to her coworkers.

I have a few friends but they are the greatest friends a messed up person like me can have. I would write their names out, but afraid that they would de-friend me from Facebook.

I wish i had a pet dog, preferably a corgi, so i would at least have a friend who’s willing to go anywhere with me, no matter how boring, no questioned asked.

I think that’s pretty much it i in terms of what i wanna disclose. If you actually read through this, thanks for having an interest and stay tuned.

I’m gonna study for my exams … and then blog again!