I'm here!

So the day has finally arrived! I'm now living in Toronto. I got here yesterday and I unpacked my room with help from my mother. We had to stop by a mall to pick up an odd or end that I forgot about. I took the subway for the second time ever. It's actually really easy and fast. I don't have wifi in my room at the moment, so I'm using the wifi in the student lounge. The lounge is in the basement of the building and you can hear the subway trains go by XD
It's pretty quite, which is nice :) The bed seems ok, a little on the hard side. The wall paint colour is... intresting, but I covered it with posters.

After my mother left at noon, and i wasn't really hungry so I skipped lunch. I made tea, and talked to my boyfriend. I told him about all the shit I have to do this week, when it hit me. I should get started! So I started by going to my bank to drop off my birthday money. It was a farther walk then I anticipated. My feet were killing me by the time I got there and I still wanted to go to the mall that was the opposite way. So I trek back up the street, past my res and continue on to the mall. The mall is a lot closer to my place then the bank is, so it wasn't so bad. After walking in the mid-day sun for half an hour I welcomed the over air conditioned building. First I had to find a kiosk for my cell phone provider, because not having a local number is the root of all the other problems that need to be solved. I got that set up, and the guy said that it should activate in about 15 min. ... Well 2 and a 1/2 hours later (which is right now as I write this) My phone knows it has a new number... but the mobile network doesn't seem to... yay... I'm sure it'll fix it's self... if it doesn't I have a number I can call to fix it... but uhm no phone? ... Like I said it's all good.

The next thing I did was find a store for my Internet provider. I got that all set up and made an appointment for the guys to come set it up. When I got home I opened the box and said to myself "this is easy!" I started to set up and it was all easy and dandy until I got a message saying that the DSL wasn't turned on for my phone line and to contact the provider... I guess I'll wait for the guys to come Tuesday to set it up. Darn... :( The only problem is that I gave them my new cell number to contact me... and It doesn't work at the moment... shit
Like I said, I'm sure I'll get the phone issue solved well before Tuesday.

Tomorrow is another busy day... and/or another day of disappointment... Tomorrow the financial aid office starts handing out OSAP. They only see 120 students a day for this. That means I have to be there at 8:30 am sharp to get in line. It takes 10-15 minutes to see each person. I think I might take a book with me...

It was a really busy day and I still have a drama lama to deal with. I thought I left him at home...

I haven't gotten around to putting up posters, cause they are all sill curly from being rolled up :(

My orientation is is the 1st and 2nd of September then I'm not sure what happens. Guess I'll have to see.

~Ashley
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Making a bag of Potpourri

First of all I'd like to start by asking, who the hell came up with the spelling for potpourri? I think I will shoot them! =_=

 Anyway, on to what this is about! I had a pile of dried roses, I received these roses (freshly cut of course) for my graduation back in June. Sadly it was time to finally put the roses out of their misery, they were shedding petals and leaves everywhere.

 I saved the petals from 4 roses and made potpourri with it. I made a bag for it today. The only thing that I don't have is some rose essential oil, so I'll have to add that later.

Here is the lace I used to tie the bag.

 And this is some stitch detail. All done by hand.

And the finished product....

I'm glad I took the time to do this today. It's been awhile since I've actually finished something I've started. I didn't take long to do. Maybe about 1 hour.
(and by the way, it took longer to format this blog post then to make the silly thing. I had to do most of it html coding, which I'm very proud of myself. It's been 4 years since I've touched html code. Blogger really needs to work on the formatting issues with Compose mode)

~Ashley
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Update: School stuff exploding in my face...

Not anymore :D
yay!!!!!
I talked to the guy for the Faculty of Design and he said that they are opening up more sections for the winter semesters! That means everything is all good. I just have to tell osap and resp that I will be registered full time and everything will be good! :P I hope
yay!!! Today was a good day :)
That's what I chanted to myself last night before going to sleep "Everythings going to be all right" XD

Stay tuned; because I'm going to be posting a project I've been working on today, later. (Don't you like archaic phrases?)

From a very gleeful Ashley
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Music that makes me think - A Home Grown War

I used to post songs I really liked on Facebook, and I'd put one or two words summing up the emotion or feeling that went with it. I think I'm going to try the same thing here.

I was digging around in an old playlist when I found this one again. It's been months since I've listened to it and I've been meaning to put it on my Mp3 player.
This song is called "Count Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of The War Drum" by A Perfect Circle, from their album "Emotive".
Along with the song's really long tittle, it has a somewhat disturbing but true message. The masses being nothing more then sheep, blindly following it's leader. "[I will] Isolate and save you from yourself " is the last line in the song. The oil extractor thing(picture to the left) turns and brings up a red substance. The red stuff is blood, and there are 2 different means for what this blood represents. The first, obvious one, is the raping of the earths natural resources. The second, it's the blood spilt to obtain this oil in the wars out east. The last part, with the sheep jumping off the cliff into the fire, has been interpreted by many people, as a Holocaust representation. If you listen closely to the music, you can hear sound bits that I believe to be a Hitler speech. If someone knows what that is, I would like to know. And while your listening for that, you will probably come across the sound of a women moaning. A lot of people have commented about that on message boards, but no one has a theory to why it's there. The only thing I could come up with is something I've heard before, the moaning women represents sex, and sex is a human distraction. "Go Back to Sleep." That seems to fit well with this theme.
The music video helps you understand what the song's about. The song lyrics are here.

It's obvious a political song. eMOTIVe was a political album, which included a depressing, but neat version of John Lennon's Imagine. The music video for this one is good, and it defiantly fits the tone of the song, but it has some weird baby dolls that kind of freak me out.

Ok, so if you've gotten this far, that means you actually watched the video for "Count bodies like sheep...", right? If you haven't I really think you should.Scroll back to the top and click that link. (but please come back here after :) )

There's another version of this song. "Pet" from their album "Thirteenth Step". The artists say this is like a part 1 to "Count bodies like sheep..."(Thirteenth Step came before Emotive) I really like the music in this, it's a little less hypnotic.
 As "Count Bodies like sheep..." is about war, "Pet" is about drug abuse. It's as if the drugs are signing this song to the drug addict.

A little band news... A Perfect Circle is supposed to be returning from their now 6 year hiatus, but that was announced 2 years ago. :( How long do I have to wait?

Well this post was intended to be about one song, I ended up talking about 3... I really like this band if you hadn't noticed. If you guys like it, I think I'll do a couple more posts about other bands and songs in the future. I should warn you though, I like a strange variety of music, including a surprising amount of Eurotrans and Eurodance. Maybe I'll spare you those guys. Or not...:P

~ashley
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School Plans are Expolding in My Face

I feel like Charlie Brown sometimes....
It started last Friday when I was trying to solve 2 simple problems.
1. I forgot to say that I had a permanent disability(Learning disabilities count apparently) on my OSAP forum.
2. For some reason I couldn't sign up for the winter courses (I already signed up for the fall ones, so I wasn't too concerned)

I need to say that I have a permanent disability to get the grant that is award to those with disabilities. I started by phoning the financial aid office, because I was told that they can fix it. I did. When I finally got through, the person at the other end told me what to do and that I had also messed up another part of the application. I accidentally selected that I was a crown ward... which I'm definitely not. So I have to send a letter to them stating that I made 2 errors on my OSAP forum.

Ok, so that's done and taken care of. Thank god.

It turns out after much confusion, that the courses I tried to sign for were all full. When I realized this (which it took about 3 weeks for me to realize) I signed up for the other ones, but i still have 3 mandatory classes that are full, that I can't sign up for. I pretty much had a melt down by this point. What the hell am I supposed to do if there are 3 classes that I can not take because they are full, but I need them to go on the second year...

After sending about 5 different emails to the registrars office, re-wording my question each time, I finally got a real answer. They passed the buck off the the faculty of design saying that I have to make an appointment with them to have this solved.
The only reason this has been as stressful as it is, is because my RESP relies on the fact that I am a full time student in both semesters. (Actually so do OSAP, I believe.)

In conclusion, I Charlie Brown'ed the whole dame thing.

to be continued...?
~ashley
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Long over due pictuers from my vacation

We spent the first week of our vacation in Quebec, visiting family. It's a 9 hour drive up through Montreal, Quebec City and along the St. Laurence.
Our cottage was along the beach, so we had a campfire out there almost every night. The tide came up really high every day, sometimes almost the the back door of the cottage.

We spent the second week in Nova Scotia. Halifax (our first stop) was another 9 hour drive from where we were in Quebec. We stayed in Halifax for 2 days. There we visited Citadel Hill and the harbour. Then we went to our next cottage and from there we visit Peggy's cove and the ocean beach. We also went whale watching.

 ~ashley
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Green movment isn't about the green

or should I say it's more about the green(money).

So many companies have jumped aboard this new fad, seeing the great marketing potential.

So as these corporations wave the green flag, claiming to support the environment, they take advantage of the uneducated consumer (which is most of us).
One of there main marketing tactics is to design a little logo, usually involving a tree or a crude depiction of the planet, that they stick on all of there products. Upon see this logo, consumers make a connection. The connection is that if it has a picture of a tree then it must be good. The company doesn't have to explain what the logo means, they know that the consumer will make an assumption based on the picture and the little catch phrase. As a general rule, these logos tend to be completely meaningless.

I never gave a lot of these logos much thought until on day a friend pointed out that the logo for the Heart&Stroke Health Check didn't mean what most people thought it meant. Now I don't want to put down the Heart&Stroke Foundation, because they do good, but you still shouldn't take this logo for face value.

If you have ever picked up a bottle, box, or bag that has the Health Check logo, check the back. It states that the company has paid a fee to the program. ("A fee is paid by each participating company to help cover the cost of this voluntary, not-for-profit program") From what I understand from the chatter about this, is that pretty much anyone can get this logo on there box as long as they pay enough.

Anyway, I digress.

The point is that an kind of "green" logo you seen on the corner of a box, unless it's a government run program (but then I still remain sceptical), it might be a shame.

I'm not an envior-hater, quite the opposite actually. I'm a pretty big hippy. What I hate is when people take wonderful, beautiful things, like the environment, and twist them to scatter fear into the general masses. Have you ever wonder how many times the government used the global warming fear factor to gain popularity.

I may be wrong, and if you believe I am, I would like to see the hard evidence. Other then that I'll probably disregard it. :) That's just how it works.

Maybe I'll have something happier to write about next time, but I needed to get this one off my chest.

On one final note: You should never stop doing your part to help keep your little corner of the world beautiful, and the best place to start is to arm your self with knowledge. (I'm not claiming to be an expert, you shouldn't take what I've said at face value either.)

~Ashley
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To go inside a tree

I wrote this last summer, and I felt that since summer is nearing an end I would post my tribute to trees

To go inside a tree and fell it’s energy

Flowing up and out of your body

The bark scratches and burns the skin it scraps

The fibers beat with the life of this tree

I feel the leaves extend from the ends of my hands

The sun warms the top of my head

The wind passes around me

The tree

~ashley

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Looking for a Place to Live Part 2

So I didn't take an pictures while in Toronto, but I did find a place to live :)

The New Horizon Tower. Ok so it's not a going to be a real upbeat place, because part of it is a seniors home, but its clean and has really good security. (plus house cleaning :p)

The trip was exhausting, but at least most of this preparation stuff is done. Now I have to start thinking about packing. It's not a very big room, so I can't bring to much. Right now I'm looking at acquiring a mini fridge. I think this will be helpful because the meal plan doesn't cover weekday lunch, and I don't want to be buying lunch out everyday. I'm also limited to what I can make, because all I have access to is a microwave.

Another thing I'll probably get is a small book self. Other then that, everything is pretty much provided for. :) I even have my own toilet and sink. :P

 ~Ashley
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Stopping the use of the R-word

I took the pledge to stop using the r-word in my everyday languge.

I pledge and support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.

I find the use of the r-word by people my age disgusting. It's completely insulting and it has a negative people it  effects.

You can take the pledge and find more information at http://www.r-word.org/

~Ashley
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The drama lama is eating cold soup for breakfast

This is a metaphor for something, but I can't remember how to explain the metaphor.

Pretty much this week has gone to hell in a hand basket. I screwed up big time and I hurt someone very close to me. I want to say things are getting better, but I'm not sure.

I've been a big ass much of this summer, and I feel really bad about it. I finally got my wake up call today.
I hope this motivation lasts tell tomorrow. I'm ambition tends to be a wavering thing, something I'm going to have to learn to deal with. :(

I just wanted to say sorry. And I'm going to try harder to get my shit together. Everyone has been trying to help me and I haven't been giving them the respect they deserve.



~Ashley
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Looking for a Place to Live Part 1

Well, my classes start in a month and I don't have a place to stay, yet. I've been freaking out a little, but things could be a lot worse, so I guess I'm not too worried, yet.

It looks like this weekend I'll be going down to go check places out. I worked out a list of places to check out. It's not a long list, but I guess it'll work.

I started my search for a place to live even before I had received acceptances/rejections from all the schools. At the time I had received my acceptance from OCAD, but I was still waiting on Ryerson. Since they're both in the same neighbourhood, I figured I'd might as well go ahead and look for places to live.

One place I found was a student Co-op, i heard from someone who had stayed there that it was a good place, and the rent rate was pretty good. So I sent my application... and never got anything back. I emailed them twice since asking if they had received my application and asking specific question about some of there policies. That was months ago...

So I moved on to looking at other places. My mother said she phoned them today, and apparently they have 10 rooms left, and are emailing everyone on the waiting list.... I guess I was on the waiting list. wth?

Anyway, there was another place that looked awesome, it was supper cheap, I did have to cook for myself, but still, half the price of any other place, and it came fully furnished... They are full. :(

Next place I looked at is this half retirement home, half student residence, and although the rent is more, the rent includes a meal plan and furniture, and pretty much everything and more then a regular student residence. This is one of the places we're going to check out this weekend.

If this doesn't work out my last option is a bachelor app somewhere... which wont be cheap or easy...

I'll update on the progress of my search at the beginning of next week, I hope that by then I can say I have a place to live for the 2010/2011 school year.

ttyl,
~ashley
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New design?

What do you think about my new design? I've bee working on my header for a while now, I'm still not completely satisfied, but it'll do. :) I also rearranged some things that were bothering me.

Comments or suggestions?
thanks
~ash

Quebec and Nova Scotia

I spent the last two weeks on vacation with my family. I left my camera at my mom's house so I can't post pictures at the moment. :(


The first week I spent in the little town of Saint-Flaive, Quebec. My family comes from that area. We go down to visit them every year. It's about a 9 hour drive from where I live. We rent out a tiny itty bitty cottage right on the water front.  It's so pretty, but it can get kind of chilly. Every night we have a little fire on the beach. My french really sucks, so sometimes it's had talking to my family, but we try. :) It was a very busy week and so i guess there wasn't all that much resting.


Sorry if my entry is a little dysfunctional, but I'm just distracted today.
But anyway...


The second week My brother and I went with my mother and her family to Nova Scotia. We spent the first 2 days in a hotel in Halifax, then we went to the cottage we rented for the rest of the week. We did a lot in Nova Scotia as well, so there wasn't much rest either. But I had a lot of fun :) I went swimming in the ocean (sort of, it's really cold, so I kind of just popped in and then out) and we went to Peggy's cove, and we shopped in Halifax and went to Lunenburg one day to whale watch. Actually the whale watching was totally spur of the moment :p

After all this I really need a vacation from my vacation. It was exhausting but I had fun.
My only regret is not reading enough, I brought like 10 books and I only got through half of the first one. Oh well, I guess still have a month before school starts.

~Ashley
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