Monthly Archives: November 2018

KIANA CAPTURES WHALLEY

The other day, I went for coffee with one of the high school students from my youth group. Her name is Kiana, and she is the sweetest soul. As we were talking, she told me about her love for photography. If you know me, you know I am not the best with a camera. So when Kiana told me this, it caught my attention. She told me about how she went with her photography class to downtown Vancouver and took a few pictures of people. When she showed me these two pictures, I knew I needed to ask her if she could take some pictures for this blog.

These were exactly the type of pictures that I want to have. Ones that represent people as they are. I told Kiana about my blog and the type of pictures I dreamed of having, and asked her if she would want to partner with me. She thankfully said yes, and we made a plan to go to Whalley the next week.

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, I picked up Kiana from school. We stopped at Mcdonalds to pick up some coffee for our friends in Whalley. When we arrived in Whalley, it was golden hour and the city looked beautiful. I parked my car, looked at Kiana and said “Are you ready?” “Yes!” she responded with a smile.

We walked across the street to find some people hanging outside of NightShift. There were about five or six people there. I offered them coffee and casually talked to them about their day. A young couple was doing drugs and began to put them away while I was talking to them. After giving them coffee and talking to them, I told them about what Kiana and I were doing. A few people let Kiana take pictures of them, but most politely declined. They seemed a bit suspicious of us and what we were doing, which is understandable. Despite that, I feel that we were able to connect with them. Here is a picture of an amazing guy who is doing his best to make a difference for addicts in Canada by working closely with organizations and sharing his personal story.

After we spoke with everyone there, we headed over to Surrey Central to see if we could speak with anyone there. We quickly met a man who claimed the area to be his spot, and said that everyone knew him. He wasn’t lying. In the 20-30 minutes we were there, many people stopped by to talk to him. We handed out the rest of our coffee and spoke with these people. They were kind and warm. A couple people let Kiana take their picture. One guy posed for her against a tree, it was awesome. These people were open to talking to Kiana and I. They were not scary, they were not mean. They had found a community with each other in Surrey Central. I am thankful they let us have a window into that community, even if it was only for half an hour. Here is a picture of the man who posed.

 

I am so grateful to have partnered with Kiana for my blog! She is an incredible photographer at such a young age. She captures people authentically. More pictures to come throughout my blog! In the meantime, follow her instagram here.

MORE CHANGES AND CALL OUT CULTURE – Process Post #11

A big focus for me this week was to bring together a few missing pieces of my site in time for the end of the term. I needed to: finally decide on fonts for my site title and tagline; make email subscription possible; respond to feedback from my last peer review by making a few changes; and review course readings and incorporate them into my process posts retroactively. I am also trying to read more extensively what makes a book review or reading response successful and incorporate that into my material.

I did some research on Youtube to make email subscription possible and I found this video helpful for that. Now, I have an option to subscribe in my bio at the bottom there:

I received feedback from a classmate that because of the nature of the material on my site, it isn’t necessarily easy to digest for an online passerby, and recommended to have some sort of visual aid for readers. To break up the large chunks of text, I decided to add a featured image to each post with a photo of the author of the work I was reviewing. Previously, I was dissatisfied with the way the “Recent Posts” presented on my page with grey squares in the place of pictures, so I thought this would be a good way to remedy the effect of think chunks of text as well as the emptiness on the sidebar. Now, I hope that my site will be visually easier to digest.

 

I also created genres of work in my “Reflective Review” menu, responding to another classmate’s feedback that my menu will likely become too long and overwhelming. Readers can search according to genre rather than be presented with a long list of authors whose genre isn’t immediately decipherable based on the name of the book.

I’m hoping this is the last time I change the appearance of my site title and tagline, but who I am kidding, maybe I will find my way back onto Google Fonts this week. I had a friend who is a coder help me, and now I know how to change it myself, which I’m very happy about. Here is what I have at this point, changed from the site default font:

If you were to tell me that I would be happy with my site at the beginning of the course, I don’t know if I would have believed you! I’m really enjoying having a writing schedule and reading so many good books.

I was so struck by Jon Ronson’s Ted Talk, in which he outlines compassionately the utter senselessness involved in the world of online public shaming. He clearly identifies something that we all know, but are unwilling to acknowledge when we are angry or participating in mob-mentality like behaviour: we cannot know what is going on inside of a person – the degree of remorse or repentance someone is feeling, or their intentions in the first place. He discusses the ways in which those who participate in public shaming – or, when callout culture goes too far – seek to dehumanize those who they are shaming. He says “it’s because we want to destroy people but not feel bad about it” (Ronson). While I tend to use the internet to weep while watching heartfelt videos of kids with colourblindness see the world in full colour for the first time, I couldn’t help but feel called out, if you will, by Ronson. It made me reflect on the ways I dehumanize people in my own head in order to treat them poorly or disregard them. The problem with what online anonymity affords us as a public is becoming a concept that increasingly worries me. This will be in the forefront of my thought process as I create my community guidelines and how I implement them.

 

 

Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! – Nintendo Switch

I always say to my friends “Pokemon is the greatest game ever made”, when I say this, there isn’t a particular Pokemon game I’m referring to (Ruby, Sapphire, Fire Red etc…), I’m referring to the general game of Pokemon created by Gamefreak that we all know and love (90’s kids will know, I know it sound snobby and being born in 96 barely makes me a 90s kid). Furthermore I’m not even referring to a specific aspect of the game, not graphics, not mechanics, not the narrative. Sure, there are a lot of games out there nowadays that are better in all those aspects. But to me Pokemon will always be one of the greatest games ever made because it was the first game I fell in love with – catching my first legendary (Groudon), failing to catch a legendary because I didn’t save the game before trying (rookie mistake, I know). So you can imagine my reaction when they finally released a Pokemon game for Nintendo Switch, I was through the roof!

Mid to late 2018 Gamefreak and Nintendo released the games Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s go Eveee. These games are not exactly conventional Pokemon games, now I know a lot of hardcore 90s gamers will freak out if the game isn’t an exact 1 for 1 copy of the old ones, but bare with me. The game now has way better graphics, meaning the characters will finally have dynamic emotions on their faces. One of my favorite features they introduce in this new game is that they offer more immersive Pokemon battles now. The Pokemon is now shown actually attacking each other, instead of the old Dungeons & Dragons like mechanics.

In my opinion, if you’ve been a big fan of the Pokemon franchise you really should search up some gameplay online (Because I know not everyone has a Nintendo Switch). It offers a more contemporary game style to an all time classic!!

Process Post – 9 (Developing Community Guidelines)

Online trolls are an inevitable subsection of a content creator’s audience as the content gains more attention. This is why all social medias and platforms for content creators have community guidelines, to control the toxicity nature of the comment section.

In my blog’s niche, a community guideline is prominent, because the gaming community is full of kids and teenagers who don’t think that they’ll have to be held accountable for what they say. However, as a gamer myself, I dont believe that there should be a profanity filter because being censored takes some fun out of engaging with the community. That being said, I strive to build a harmonious community where everyone is welcome to engage in.

(tentative) Community Guidelines:

  1. No pornography (links, videos, comments)
  2. No discriminatory comments towards and not limiting to – Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation
  3. No spam advertisements
  4. No exchanging personal information (emails, phone numbers)

I feel that the above tentative community guidelines are a good starting point to creating a safe and harmonious environment for my audience.

A Look At The Future Of College Football – 2019 Recruiting Class

With week 12 being a big down week in CFB, and the only big upset being Oklahoma State beating #9 West Virginia 45 – 41 in a massive offensive showdown, we are going to look ahead to the 2019 recruiting class. Recruiting is possibly one of the biggest parts, if not the biggest part of having any success in college football. In order to win games you have to have stand out players and the only way to get those players is by going out and recruiting them. The recruiting scene is a major part of every university, with hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into it whether paying staff to go out and recruit or flying out future prospects to convince them to come to their school. One sub par recruiting class could be a major setback for any program as with a week class they might not win as many games and in result not get many top recruits the next year which can be hard to reverse. We can see this by looking at the top teams and noticing that they get all the best high school players since they are the best teams in the nation. Players want to play on the best teams and as unfair as that might be for teams that are not doing that well, that’s just how it is.

Even though the 2018 season has still not yet completed, many teams have already raked up many top star recruits. Georgia and LSU lead the nation in 5 star recruits, each having 3. Alabama however, as expected has the #1 ranked recruiting class of the 2019 season so far totaling 290.39 points. So far they only have one 5 star (Pierce Quick), but have an astonishing 19 players committed that are 4 star recruits. Clemson might have the most rounded recruiting class so far as they have two, 5 stars, nine 3 stars and thirteen 3 stars as they come in with the #6 ranked class. Other big schools that make up the rest of the top 5 classes are #2 Texas A&M, #3 Georgia, #4 Oregon and #5 LSU. Oregon is the only team in the top 6 who still doesn’t have a 5 star commit, but will likely gain more in the months to come as they are the only western American team in the top 16. One surprising thing about the ranking classes is that Oregon and Texas A&M are ranked to high even though they are not ranked in the top 25 of the college football playoff standings. These teams both however have a long lasting history of success so that would likely contribute to them still being able to recruit at such a high level.

Image result for elite 11Finally, you can’t talk about a years recruiting class without looking at the future top level quarterbacks coming out of high school. This year it looks like most of the top quarterbacks are going to teams that either need a star, their quarterback is graduating or is going to the NFL. Standout and Elite 11 MVP, Spencer Rattler leads this years strong quarterback class and has committed to Oklahoma where he will likely take over for Kyler Murray who is leaving to play baseball for the Oakland A’s. Filling out the top 3 quarterbacks are Bo Nix who has committed to Auburn and Ryan Hilinski whos committed to South Carolina. Both competed in the Elite 11 competition where the best of the best quarterbacks go to learn, train and try to win MVP. Overall this year’s recruiting class is shaping up to be very strong and college football next season looks very promising.

The post A Look At The Future Of College Football – 2019 Recruiting Class appeared first on The World of College Football.

Week 11- Abdominis (ABS) Exercise

Photo by Pedro Araújo on Unsplash

In this following week, I am going to introduce some abs exercise for you guys. It is essential to building up an abdominal muscle to support the upper and lower body. Abdominal is like the bridge between your upper body and lower body, it is crucial to have the muscle to support such works.

Rectus Abdominis

  • Push Sit-up – 3 sets (12,10,10,8)
  • Lying Leg-Hip Raise- 3 sets (12,10,10,8)

Transverse Abdominis

  • Incline Twisting Sit-up- 3 sets (12,10,10,8)
  • 45° Side Bend- 3 sets (12,10,10,8)

For the abdominal exercise, the reason it only has 4 exercise because abs training usually does before or after a workout. Since the abs muscle considers as a small muscle, the training will come along with other primary muscle training. There is the reason why abdominal exercise is not part of the split routine and distribute it into different training section. I suggest training the abdominal three to three times a week or work on the abdominal every two days. Be careful of overtraining your muscle, always monitor your body condition to prevent injury. For more details, please check out: https://exrx.net/Lists/ExList/WaistWt#Obliques to get more information. 

Process Post Week #12 – Community Guidelines

In my process post for week two, I outlined three specific goals for my blog. Essentially, I wanted to create a platform encouraging hockey fans to express their views and openly discuss and debate opposing opinions on relevant subjects. As I strive to achieve these goals, I intend to establish community guidelines to set boundaries that will ensure a positive environment on my blog. I, The Hockey Singh will moderate all comments before they are published onto my blog using the criteria outlined below.

1) Discussing and debating opinions is encouraged, however, it must occur in a civil manner where views are criticized and not users. Any form of discrimination or hate speech will not be tolerated. So, treat others how you would like to be treated.

2) Post relevant comments. Conversations can veer-off into many directions, however, comments that are deemed to be off-topic are not allowed. Additionally, comments that are advertising in nature or spam-like are not allowed.

3) If abusive or irrelevant comments are posted in error, they will be taken down as soon as they come to light. Lastly, the opinions expressed in the comments are not necessarily those of the blogger.

The guidelines mentioned above will promote a positive environment, and they will assist in attaining the goals outlined in my week two process post. I plan to implement my community guidelines as part of my about section so that they are readily accessible to readers.

Some of my community guidelines were inspired by CapFriendly.

Process Post Week 11

Last week in my process post, I talked about how viewership on my website was almost at zero and that I need to find new ways to get word out my website exists. One way I was thinking to gain viewership would be through social media, specifically, Instagram. Instagram would be a great place to post smaller updates and individual highlights and I would have my website linked so if someone wants to read a more bigger article then can do so on my website. All of my blog posts online are way to long for Instagram, but Instagram does have its own set of advantages where my website does not. For example most things that happen in college football such as a highlight, update or score are not meaty enough to make in to a full article but can be put in to a couple of sentences which is great for Instagram. For example, if there is a great catch in a game and everyone should know about it, it’s a lot easier to get it out there through Instagram rather than my website. Linking back to my website on every post will be key as reminding viewers to go to my website is a main reason of having an Instagram account. Another great part of Instagram which I can take advantage of is Instagram Stories. I can do polls and viewers can ask questions about college football which I will answer. This will hopefully be big in growing my account which will translate over to my website. Finally, Instagram would also help make my website in to almost a community as there can be lots of interaction between writer and reader. Overall, the first step I will take in marketing my website and trying to gain viewers will be through Instagram.

The post Process Post Week 11 appeared first on The World of College Football.

Anticipated Visits

Here are some places I plan to visit, but have not tried yet! Let me know if there are any here that you have been to and how you feel about their food.

I can’t wait!

The Chick Pea food truck: I have always wanted to try this place, it looks really healthy but so tasty at the same time…. fun fact: I did not know hummus was made of chickpeas for the LONGEST time.

The Frying Pan food truck: Of course there is another fried chicken craving…. But this has been really popular on Instagram and I definitely want to give it a try.

The Praguery food truck: This one has been LONG over due. I always walk by this but never get it because I already stuffed myself with too much food before dessert. Such a perfect festive munch especially for Christmas

 

LET ME KNOW IF ANY OF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS ! Eat awayyyy

Week 11: The Merciless Internet and Human Empathy

The readings this week reaffirmed that I made the right decision in deleting Twitter. I have deleted Twitter twice already. The first time I deleted my account was in grade ten, but I made a new account in grade twelve when my basketball coach entered the Twitterverse (everyone wanted to follow him because he had hilarious posts). About a year ago, I deleted my account again and no one seemed to notice. It was peaceful. I just disappeared. I deleted Twitter because I hated the negativity that flooded my newsfeed. Negative posts came from celebrities, family, friends, everyone. One of my last tweets addressed pessimism on the internet: “If you’re looking for optimism, go offline. Negativity is everywhere.” This was posted with an emoji of a waxing moon.

I was never shamed on Twitter, I never directly experienced the type of abuse Justine Sacco faced, but I hated the constant personal attacks going viral and starting aggressive reply chains. The first time I made a Twitter account I wanted to see the thoughts and ramblings of celebrities and authors that interested me. The second time I made an account was to follow people I found funny, such as my basketball coach. But as I followed other people I knew out of the social obligation to maintain friendships, I discovered I didn’t like the thoughts of many of my own friends. Their outlook on the world and mankind was so nihilistic. I felt like my newsfeed was begging me, day after day, to hate mankind and accept life is meaningless. Twitter became a bitter poison for my mental health.

Jon Ronson’s TedTalk connected deeply with me when he began discussing empathy. Ronson looked deeper into Justine Sacco tweet and the problem with the extent of the harassment that followed: “She was got because she was perceived to have misused her privilege. And of course, that’s a much better thing to get people for than the things we used to get people for, like having children out of wedlock. But the phrase ‘misuse of privilege’ is becoming a free pass to tear apart just about anybody we choose to. It’s becoming a devalued term, and it’s making us lose our capacity for empathy and for distinguishing between serious and unserious transgressions” (Ronson). After Sacco tweeted a joke that landed poorly, the internet begged her employers to fire her, the internet begged for her to get raped and get AIDS (Ronson). Nobody punished the people who called for such serious threats. Nobody gave Justine the opportunity to explain herself. One of the biggest problems with the internet is that I think it is destroying our ability to accept that people make mistakes and can be sorry. I think the internet is destroying our ability to believe that people can change. We see their words in black and white text on a screen, devoid of human emotion, and immediately assume this one horrible thought (or poor joke) defines them.

I am not an overly optimistic person, but I believe that people can better themselves. I understand that younger people sometimes have ignorant thoughts because they are still learning. People continue to grow and change over the course of their entire life. By all means, point out bigotry, privilege, racism, sexism, and more. Point out the inconsiderate and inappropriate things people say and beg for better behaviour. But after you identify ignorant or harmful behaviour, ask yourself why you are doing this. Are you identifying this behaviour because you want to see a change or improvement? If so, you also need to believe that people can change. We need to the internet to become more democratic but, above anything else, we need the internet to become more human.

 

Work Cited

 

Montreal Canadiens Rebuild Part 5

All images are from NHL 19.

Welcome to part five of the Montreal Canadiens rebuild in NHL 19’s Franchise Mode. Click here to catch up on part one, part two, part three and part four. As mentioned last week, this week’s post will entail a captaincy announcement, season simulation and much more.

 

Captaincy Announcement

The Montreal Canadiens are proud to announce that E. Pettersson is now the captain of their franchise. Additionally, F. Forsberg and E. Karlsson will serve as assistants.

 

Signings and Trades

With extraordinary depth and many players who could be lost on waivers since they have one-way contracts, there was a flurry of trades. N. Scherbak was traded to San Jose for R. Merkley and two late draft picks. B. Elliott was signed to a one-year deal to backup S. Bobrovsky. A. Lehkonen and J. Korpisalo were traded for draft picks. We received an immense upgrade on the blueline by acquiring B. Skjei from the Rangers in exchange for two first-round draft picks and T. Lindholm.

 

Lineup Analysis

Forwards: The team has four strong lines and minimal weaknesses up front.

Defence: There is a need for a top-four defender to fill the void on the second pairing as J. Ryan will not suffice.

Goalies: The team has two goalies who are very capable in their respective roles.

 

Season Simulation

I simulated until the end of November, just prior to December 1st, 2019. Surprisingly, A. Copp was still an unsigned RFA who would be an upgrade as a fourth line center for our team.  The Jets did not match the offer and due to the minimal salary involved no draft pick compensation was required. Upon inking A. Copp, I made a trade to fill the need for a top-four defender. J. Ryan and four draft picks including a first rounder were traded to Edmonton for D. Nurse.

 

Upon simulating into mid-February, it was apparent there were some players who were not interested in signing contract extensions with the team. These players included S. Bobrovsky, R. Murray, D. Brassard, J. Skinner and M. Domi. While a majority of these players had just been brought in, the lack of interest in signing an extension with a contending team worried me. I decided to explore trading these players and it resulted in a frenzy of trades.

 

New Lineup Analysis

Forwards: Stronger than ever.

Defence: No more weaknesses.

Goalies: A little bit weaker but still capable.

 

This team is in a win now mode. Tune in next week for the remainder of the season simulation and hopefully a long playoff run. Also, if you have any comments and/or suggestions please share them below in the comments.

INTERVIEW 3/3 : MEET MARYANNE

My last interview was with MaryAnne, the founder of NightShift. MaryAnne represents the heart, mind, and soul of the organization. During a frightening winter storm in 2004, MaryAnne was overwhelmed with the thought of people without homes having nowhere to sleep. She drove out to Surrey in the middle of the night, where she served sandwiches and kept watch over everyone in a small church for the night. This was the birth of NightShift.

Previously a high end real estate marketer, MaryAnne made a drastic life change in starting NightShift. When I asked her why, she replied saying

“There was a shift in my heart. There was really no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ All of the people I talked to were dealing with pain and trauma. As someone who had had a significant amount of pain and trauma in my life, I decided to be vulnerable with them. My vulnerability encouraged their vulnerability, and I saw people with completely different lenses.”

MaryAnne’s mission statement, to love unconditionally and help each other find hope and purpose, came out of an arm wrestle with God, she said. She was struggling with the fact that the people she was helping on the streets were not changing. They were still using drugs, still without homes, and she felt she needed to do more. In that moment, she felt God say that all He asked her to do was love them. So, MaryAnne learned unconditional love through serving these people. To love others without expectations of change and no judgement; to love them exactly where they are.

When asked what her hope was for the future of vulnerable people in Surrey, MaryAnne responded that she wishes to do complex trauma training. From her experience and the people she has interacted with, she believes that 100% of these people have suffered abuse in some form. By educating these people and providing another way to deal with their trauma, NightShift can get to the root of the problem. MaryAnne dreams to bring people along the continuum of recovery so that she can place people in transitional housing to be stabilized. She acknowledges that in this, NightShift has a responsibility to “hold the hand of someone for the rest of their life.” Although dealing with people’s trauma and addictions is  extremely hard work, MaryAnne is willing to do it.

In taking this step of faith back in 2004, MaryAnne has seen great transformation in the community she serves. She is someone who sees these people for what they are – people with stories and struggles, just like you and I. In all of this, MaryAnne can’t separate her work from her faith in God. Through faith in Him, she is able to serve this community and trust in His plans. She says that “He is a God of the impossible,” and hopes for the vulnerable people in Surrey to experience His love just as she has.

I am so thankful I was able to hear MaryAnne pour out her beautiful heart for her city. She inspired me to love others without limits, and I am grateful to be volunteering with her organization! With that concludes the Interview series.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

I know its a faux pas in the practice of book reviewing to comment on the author rather than the book itself, but books reviews aren’t exactly what I do anyway. Now that I have that out of the way: I love Mindy Kaling. She writes playfully, imaginatively; there is something so exhilarating about the story of someone who is now successful relay the way they bumbled, stammered, groped blindly their way to a career they love. As I get older, the concept of success becomes more and more desirable, though it remains elusive and hard to reach; and while Kaling never promotes her life as a model of success, I am certainly spurred on by her honestly, openness to finding herself in possibly awkward situations and yes, failures.

Kaling is always foregrounding her love of comedy with the comradery and belonging she found in female friendships. In fact, her female friendships were the context in which she describes her first real success: Matt & Ben. 

“Brenda and I have always done ‘bits,’ even before we knew they were called ‘bits.’ Bits are essentially ‘nonsense time’ or, to describe it more pejoratively, ‘fucking around.’ We would take on characters, acting like them for a while on the way to the subway, or getting ready to go out. For whatever reason, around this time our favourite recurring bit was when Bren played Matt Damon and I was Ben Affleck” (86).

This ‘bit’ turned into a play that they then entered into the New York International Fringe Festival and eventually would be the vehicle that brought her to The Office. It might be slightly idealistic to chalk up success to the result of hanging around with women you love and making each other laugh, but it sure sounds like the utopia I’ve always hoped for.

Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me? is largely narrative peppered with quippy chapters such as “Karaoke Etiquette” and “Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real” with a segment on “The Ethereal Weirdo” which I especially appreciated an extended explanation and description of because I really resent being called a manic pixie dream girl just because I have long messy hair. “This ethereal weirdo abounds in movies, but nowhere else. If she were from real life, people would think she was a homeless woman and would cross the street to avoid her, but she is essential to the male fantasy that even if a guy is boring, he deserves a woman who will find him fascinating and pull him out of himself by forcing him to go skinny-dipping in a stranger’s pool” (101). I, for one, would never force anyone to go swimming naked. I rest my case.

I was surprised by how seamlessly Kaling weaved together her recollections of a myriad of failures – one of which she identifies as “contributing nothing to SNL” – and lists of people and things she delights in. Its not everyday that I read a text that shamelessly relishes the pleasures in life rather than calling attention to all the ways the world needs to change (as constructive as that work is). My favourite chapter is “My Favourite Eleven Moments in Comedy”; I love that Kaling has made a habit of delighting in comedic moments in history, and in turn, delighting in the people that make those moments happen. We need more of that – remembrance of the exquisiteness of this life.

INTERVIEW: Ten — Julia Engström, Junior Graphic Designer

Julia Engström

Junior Graphic Designer

  • Age: 24 years old
  • Job situation: Student
  • Best memory with design: Making power points presentations in high school, which is what got me interested in graphic design in the first place. 
  • Favourite font/typeface: Berthold grotesk or other big bold fonts

You do a lot of different designs. What would you say is the best/funniest thing to create (logos, applications, etc.)? My favourite things to create are brand books. Instead of working with someone else’s design you get to build a brand’s design up from scratch. You decide the rules a future designer has to abide to.

What is your first priority when taking jobs? What is your favourite job to do? Since I’m a student I haven’t got the chance to choose certain types of jobs so this is a hard question for me to answer. What I do know is for future work application I will be looking for agency work were the jobs are varied and were you work in teams, which I have experienced during my internship and enjoy very much. If on top of that I got to work with up-and-coming businesses, helping them build their brand, that would really be a dream job situation!

Would you say that the design branch is man dominated or neutral? Why do you think that? My impression of the gender equality in the design industry is that it used to be dominated by men but in the past years it has shifted to a more neutral state. I do believe though that the higher positions in the design industry (such as art director and CEO) are still primarily men, which unfortunately is the case in most industries.

Want to connect with Julia? Write a comment and I will make that happen!

Common Comfort

Today’s been filled with homework. I went to a café out in Koreatown and stayed there for about six or seven hours. Comfort was my main priority today. I bought a few things from Aritzia during the boxing day sale and the Gwyneth sweater was one of them.

I’m surprised I bought it in the white. Usually, I would go for darker colours because I don’t think light coloured sweaters look as good on me.

I was eyeing this sweater for a long time but I held off buying it mainly due to its price. But last year Oak+Fort had something extremely similar, but it was made to be oversized. I was waiting for it to come back this year but sadly, it hasn’t . . .  yet. Although now what I have the Gwyneth sweater I probably don’t buy the Oak+Fort one if it comes back. But who knows.

I had the black jimmy pants for a while now, I think I mentioned them in an earlier blog post as well. This jacket is also (somewhat) new. I purchased it in November I think. Well, technically my dad bought it for me. He was nice enough to offer to pay and give it to me as my birthday present. Thanks, dad! I’ve gotten some good uses out of this coat.

I had a dilemma of whether I should wear my black Comme des Garçons converse or my regular white chucks. I went back and forth a few times but ultimately decided on the white. I’m still not sure why I picked white. Maybe I was feeling bright today.

Overall, this outfit was very comfortable. I could wear this to sleep. A downside, however, is that the sweater was a bit itchy but maybe that’s because its new.

 

Billie’s Bellyache

I have been listening to Billie Eilish a lot recently and my favourite out of all her songs has to be bellyache. Her voice sounds so mesmerizing throughout the entire song and that’s why I enjoy it so much. I also really enjoyed the music video. The colours used are so bright unlike the lyrics of the song. I just had to gif a section of the video.

Mini Assignment 6: Make a Gif

There’s been a lot going on with my family lately, so we decided to take a little mini vacation over the long weekend. I’ve never gone on vacation in the middle of a semester, but I managed to do so without missing classes or falling behind!

Yes… that’s my mom eating a salad on Big Thunder Mountain. I love my crazy family.

DIM SUM [CHINA EDITION]

Last China feature! Dimsum…who can say no to that.

Meatballs + Broccoli — tender and mixed with a lot of vegetables

Soup dumplings — some of them were lacking soup, but the ones that had soup were so juicy!

Spareribs — the softest meat I have ever had

Steamed buns with egg yolk — Perfectly round buns with the salty egg yolk that runs out after every bite

Sponge cake — made layer by layer, interesting texture but very moist

Durian custards — Alot of people do not like durian, but I loooooove durian. This pastry was not that strong and the outside crunch created a good texture. The oil that fried the crust was a bit old though

Overall rating:

Aesthetics: 5/5
Taste: 4/5
Price: Under $25 of everything in picture

Location: Taishan — not sure what name of restaurant was

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch (2018): Just Another Useless Remake (40%)

The 2018 reboot of The Grinch felt like nothing more than another thoughtless Hollywood remake created with the intentions of capitalizing on an already popular story. The original adaptation, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, was an animated TV special released in 1966. Since it was a TV special, the runtime was approximately 20 minutes and the film was basically just an animated version of the book. It’s a great 20minute episode (my family still watches it almost every year). The live-action version starring Jim Carrey was released in 2000, and it has got to be one of the best Christmas movies to this day! The jokes are hysterical, the costumes are amazing, and the sets and props are surreal! I was super excited about the new film because I love both of the other adaptations, but it was incredibly disappointing.

Unfortunately, the new animated adaptation of The Grinch had very little to offer. It felt like they simply took the extended storyline of the live-action version and stripped out most of the jokes. One of the slight alterations made to the plot was that Cindy Lou wanted to deliver a letter to Santa asking for help for her mother. Her mother is depicted as an overworked and exhausted single parent trying to take care of three children while also working night shifts. In the end, the mother’s struggles feel unresolved and the focus remains on the Grinch and his feeling of belonging.

The new movie had several well-known actors, yet the voice actors didn’t add anything special to the film. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the Grinch, but the film may have been more entertaining if they had cast a comedian for the role. Steve Carell, for example, would’ve been a great pick. Carell actually alters his voice dramatically to make exciting characters (example: Gru from Despicable Me).

There were a couple of laughs throughout the movie, but on the whole there just wasn’t anything special or new. Children might enjoy The Grinch, but I don’t think it’s worth the admission rate. Save your money for better holiday movies coming soon to theatres.

“Hate, hate, hate. Hate, hate, hate. Double hate. LOATHE ENTIRELY!” -How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)