bring on the sunshine!

i might be sick. and i might be feeling a combination of anger/frustration/stress/anxiety/depression as a result of writing my macroeconomics final. nonetheless the sun was shining and we went down to mooney's bay for the first tennis match of the season! good for my first sunburn of the season also.

but i say, bring on the sunshine!

i have been listening to coury palermo this week, and i have almost decided that he has the best voice i have heard all year. and he can also be heard here.

coury palermo -sunday black

I am studying, I swear!

i was surfing the internets and came across this band, and now i realize why neither the name or the faces are unfamiliar: we used to live around the corner from Arkell, and i used to see some of these guys at school all the time.

great song i thought, the lyrics probably don't sound all that unfamiliar either :P

sooooo not interested in macroeconomic theory ....
in fact i should be having a beer celebrating/mourning the last Senators game of the season! score is tied, 2-2, Go Sens Go for the last period of the season! UPDATE: stupid, stupid game.

neverending white lights (and scott andersen) - i hope your heart runs empty

because it ain't over until the fat lady sings ...

and that is why we went to overtime. and shootouts. and despite taking flack for being an unbelieving and disheartened fan, most senators fans do not bank on a win when the ice is being cleared for the shootout ... despite our history of you know winning the first shootout (if i know my history ... correctly?)

just a late night thought ...

... it was so much easier to stay up late to work on a project when everyone else was staying up late too.

it is 11:11 and all my roommates are sleeping-ish.

broken strings - james morrison and nelly furtado

Because it is not over until it is really over

So, as the hockey fan as I am, it has been rather disappointing that I have moved to Ottawa, and that I have not even gone to see the Senators play since I have been here. In fact, I have been more likely to see the team play when i lived far away ...

but that is coming to an end,

even though the season is almost done, the team has played their worst season since I have lived in Canada, I am finally going,

and I am super excited !

just thought I would share that.

Now I am going back to write 10 pages of what I would like to think is pure genius. Because maybe if I think it enough, it might magically be just that?

Numbers Game

since I am working with numbers, and more numbers these days, here is an interesting number to throw at you ...

this is from my itunes generated top 25 most played playlist ... so it does not count all the times I was at the computer lab and was streaming music online. you should also know that I downloaded the first song on march 23.

Yikes.

Talk

Songs I must remember:







and newest of all
Talk - Ross Copperman

Psalm 42:5

Maar de Heer zal uitkomst geven,
Hij, die ’s daags zijn gunst gebiedt.
‘k Zal in dit vertrouwen leven
en dat melden in mijn lied;
‘k zal zijn lof zelfs in den nacht
zingen, daar ik Hem verwacht,
en mijn hart, wat mij moog’ treffen,
tot den God mijns levens heffen.

I am neither agreeing or disagreeing ...

from catandgirl.com

Blof - Mooie Dag

Ik overdacht mijn zorgen en de wereld
En alle keren dat ik wakker lag
Ik besloot
Wat een mooie dag

because when you are from the countryside ....

.... you usually don't take a taxi.

So when I was the last one to be dropped off at home last night, I had to ask the cab driver if it was custom to give them a tip. The driver's eyes went wide open with surprise when I started my sentence with "This might be a funny question, but I have never taken a cab before and .... "

At least then I had keys to get into my apartment, unlike this morning .... which is a whole other story that won't be told until a later day ...

death cab for cutie - soul meets body

Ville de Montréal: ma première visite

Despite the driving, the getting lost, and the loads of work on my mind, Montreal was great! While we stayed on an island in Laval, we did make it (although with some difficulty) downtown, and Old Montreal.

Remnant of the Montreal 1967 Expo.

Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal - front of the chapel

St. Joseph's Oratory

On a whole other sidenote I came across this website, passiveaggressivenotes.com, I think if you have ever lived, not alone really, some of the stuff on this website might seem very relate-able. It makes me think of this note I left someone who kept parking in the parking spot ... it is not on the website, so I don't think it was taken very badly. Now if only the person that put their bumper into my car would have left me a note ....

A Starry Night

So because of the incoming weather I made a quick decision to drive home to Owen Sound yesterday afternoon. I made it home from school in about 15 minutes packed and ate in half an hour and hit the road. It was by far the most boring and tiring and painful trip I have undertaken. Painful only because I have a terribly sore knee. Given all that though it was also a beautiful night. It was dark and in the middle of Ontario I saw many many stars.

Now, even though I spend all my summers star-gazing, on the trampoline, on the beach, wherever really, I have never seen a falling star. Until last night. It is the middle of the winter, I was on the road, and there was the first falling star I ever seen.

Pretty cool!

the Quebec of Holland

I am working with some individual level data from the 2001 Census of Population, and I am very intrigued by the fact that all the guides to the census specify the group and language "Frisian" separately. Even though it is included under "Netherlandic" languages, I find it weird that it is even considered ... and why does Canada even care?

Out of the Shadows - Matthey Perryman Jones

Ps. Go Sens Go!

"You Gotta Love this City"

After the bus strike, the cold weather, and the drag of school I do now remember why I love this city so much. On saturdaynight we took a free bus to downtown to watch a free concert on the canal, followed by a light show and a walk by the ice sculptures. Despite the freezing cold there was a lot of people out, and we had a great time. Even though our dancing was probably a little sub-par given the boots and amount of clothing we were wearing, we managed to stay pretty warm. And despite the cold the artist and his band managed to stay pretty hot. Just sayin'.

Roch Voisine on stage

listen here (via youtube!)

***
a projection behind the stage

Happy Family Day!

Go Sens Go!

"can we walk this line together?"

I think once upon a time I wrote an ode to some delightfully scented laundry soap that I bought. Today I will replicate that thought ... well, it is a new lilac scented soap, and I love it. Thought you might want to know.

I should also write an ode to my classmates, without whom I would never make it through school. However, more on that when I graduate :D

2 days of classes until reading week ...

The Kin - Together

Slumdog Millionaire. Watch it.



Australia. Watch it.

"find the spark that is buried deep"

to understand how this can make me feel bad somehow ... you should know that in all of highschool the number of days I missed can be counted on one hand, and the number of classes I missed at Mac can be counted on half a hand, and the number of classes missed at Carleton need not be counted ... so when I went to the gym today for my spinning class, you can imagine I was pretty ticked that I pulled a skirt out of my gym bag instead of my shorts. and I could hardly go in my jeans, or the skirt. so I skipped. I know SHAME! (and not because I missed a class, more because I felt so bad about it ... maybe the best therapy for this worry I have should be skipping class for a week?)

matthew perryman jones - out of the shadows.

ps. go sens go?

all in a day ...

someone just told me today, "if you have to live with it, you might as well find ways to enjoy it" this is obviously referring to winter in Ottawa. now i am thinking of all places in Canada Ottawa is the one to be in in the winter. i mean, there is the canal, there is the canal, and there is the canal. and beaver tails. now, it is already almost february (eek!) and i still have not purchased skates, and despite a non-growing economy, and strict budgeting on my part, i should get some skates, at least i have to try find some second-hand ones. and i should get some people together to go tobogganing ...

now, today has been a long one! currently i am listening to some dutch music via youtube, studying macroeconomic models, and waiting for a movie to load, and carrying on a conversation via MSN, while also keeping an eye on the score of the senators - blues game. the score is 0-0 at this point. what also has been long is the time between my latest blog post and this one ... assuming that i remember to publish my post, or assuming that it is publish-worthy. or not for that matter. but i have been busy. busy procrastinating on life, ie. i have been doing some schoolwork, and i have been paying a lot of attention to the news, and to the latest budget news. definitely some interesting stuff.

today i opted to attend an optional, but recommended, class about DSGE modelling and Matlab. equally interesting stuff. kind of. not really. then i surprised myself by going to study at the library, which was precisely what needed to happen today.

i was about to update the score to 1-0 for Ottawa, but since I am so preoccupied with many things by the time i got around to typing this it is already 1-1. allright, so after the library i went home around 2 to beat rush hour traffic which starts at 2.30 in Ottawa (since the strike, which is finally over i just read on the news). i cleaned out my parking spot with a small shovel and did some groceries. i also picked up some socks for the LOVE Ottawa, a program initiated by our church here in Ottawa. this coming sunday we will be handing out soup and socks in the downtown area, and since my soup does not turn out here like it would back home, so socks it is! i also managed to spend some 70 dollars at the grocery store, and i even bought veggie burgers rather than real ones because for one, they are cheaper, and two, they are significantly more nutritious. no protein speech will make me change my mind about that.

i also watched two documentaries. one about teachers in thailand, and one about migrants from africa coming into yemen. i guess sometimes i am more interesting about learning anything other than economic theory. funny that.

anyways, since a lot of my friends have been completing 30 things about me lists, i am going to see if i can finish one over the weekend. after i complete a labour asssignment that is. still 1-1.

till later!

Virtual Greeting

Happy 23rd Anniversary Mom & Dad!