The Book Bully

 I don't take pictures very often for several reasons: 1) I forget a lot, 2) I'm not a very good photographer, and 3) my camera is so old that it's almost an embarrassment to be seen with it. I mean, I'm past the Polaroid stage, but my friend has a phone that has more megapixels than my camera. Pitiful. But anyway, I figured that I might want some photographic memories of my time at UBC, or my life in general, so I should sometimes take pictures. Yesterday was one of those days. So, as a special treat, I thought I'd post sort of a "Day in the Life" type post. And so we begin where, arguably, most days start: the morning. When I wake up, this is normally the first thing I see: A poster given to me by my father as a sort of house-warming gift. It reminds me of England and how much I love it and, consequently, how much I miss it.  In the mornings I usually get up and make coffee and stare out the window while sipping on my cup of sludge (I still h

I’ve decided to write a blog every day for the next seven days. What inspired me? None other than Wheezy Waiter. Wheezy Waiter is a YouTube vlogger who is sort of insane and obsessed with inside jokes, but he makes me laugh out loud on a regular basis, and I think his humour is really clever. He also posts a video every single week day. That’s a lot of videos and requires him to be super creative, or else he’d have absolutely nothing to vlog about. But aside from the fact that I think he’s really funny, he also talks about setting goals - whether arbitrary or not - and just accomplishing them. He decided a while ago to make a video every day, just because, and he ended up getting really good at video filming and editing. As such, he got a job with his film skills and could finally quit his job as waiter. As for me: I feel like I’m lacking purpose lately, no direction or demands on me, so I’m going to start setting demands for myself. Starting with this blog thing. I’m not

I know this is very meta of me, but I’d like to discuss two important points: The titles of my posts The newly added “Quote of the Post” (see right ->) First: For those who are well-versed in Children’s literature, or just have a vast amount of useless trivia stashed away in your heads, you’ll have recognized the title of each entry as a reference to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events . Each title in the series begins Book the (insert serial number here) , followed by the title of the book. For example, book number one is called Book the First: The Bad Beginning . Anyway, the reason I decided to pay homage to Lemony Snicket is two-fold: I had just finished reading The Bad Beginning  when I started this blog, and I thought the title so clever and catchy I decided to echo it in my writing, AND I think Lemony Snicket’s work is absolutely brilliant. What I like specifically about his writing is the way the narrator interacts with both the audience and the characte

Sometimes I have thoughts. As I was sitting in my English class the other day, not listening to my prof repeat verbatim the same announcements that she gave the previous three classes, I wrote some of them down: Russian is my favourite language (well, a close second to English, anyway). Those “romantic” languages that everyone else goes wild over - French, Italian, Spanish - are not particularly pleasing to my ear. They all sound like whoever is repeating them is just trying to woo the listener back to their hotel room; or, at least, that’s what I imagine they’re saying. Russian and other Eastern European languages have this lilt to them that sort of sound like the speaker is chewing bubble gum and their tongue got caught in the wad they were gnawing on while trying to ask the grizzled postal worker the price of stamps. It sounds like the pleasant glob noise that honey and other sticky viscous substances make when they hit the inside of a ceramic bowl. *dreamy sigh* I like a lot

I’m currently sitting in my room, satisfactorily filled from a deliciously epic salad (I mean epic. I cooked chicken and made homemade croutons and everything!), content and cozy after a pleasant day. I don’t have class on Tuesdays, so this morning I met the lovely Michelle Stoney on W10th Ave. We ate Chinese food and discovered that we share the same passion for beef and broccoli, and then indulged ourselves on Coldstone ice cream. Michelle is a more dedicated fan than I; even though she is lactose intolerant, she popped pills and forged ahead. Michelle is a die-hard Canucks fan, so I’m going to see a game with her in October! This is actually a huge deal, as some of you may recognize, as I am a self-proclaimed hockey ignoramus. However, I believe there is still hope for me yet, and all of Laura Fagner’s hours spent trying to teach me about the conferences and points might not yet be in vain. (An aside: Michelle was having trouble seeing today. She thought she might have lost a con

I am completely anonymous here. Well, I suppose, I’m not completely unknown here. I have a few friends from Newfoundland who’ve made their home, some temporarily, in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. But on campus, aside from my room mates and a few girls I’ve met so far, I’m essentially The Invisible Man on campus. And I love it. For the last six months of my undergraduate degree, I really felt exhausted. Not only was I tired from school work and the late nights and coffee highs that come along with it, nor was I just tired of working two or more jobs in addition to a full course load. I was tired socially . I know that sounds weird or ungrateful or pretentious, but hear me out: People are my drug. At MUN in my classes and various jobs, and especially at the Writing Centre, I found people who nourished me mentally, emotionally, academically, and spiritually. And, like an addict, I threw myself into my substance, my people “crack,” if you will. I loved it. I loved seeing so

Since being here, I’ve decided two things: 1. I’m really glad I got my hair cut, and 2. Buying sunglasses before coming to Vancouver was a very wise decision. I’m happy about the first decision because my hair takes 3 minutes to dry and I pretty much am happy with how it looks every day. I suppose I could have made this discovery even if I had a haircut at home, but it somehow seems more important in Vancouver. Secondly, it has been so sunny here and we’ve been walking around outside so much that my sunglasses have been an absolute blessing. It is important to note how monumental it is that I’ve purchased sunglasses, as I’ve never worn them in my entire life. It’s amazing what I’ve been missing out on! No more squinty eyes in pictures or when trying to see something in the distance. Also, I can watch people and no one can see where I’m looking. Yes, I am a supercreep. Last night I slept in my new apartment for the first time. I have been moving stuff in over the past four days, b

Hello loyal fan following (or Mom, as the case may be): I have arrived safe and sound in Vancouver. And by “I” I mean “we” - myself and father Sexton have landed and are currently chillaxin’ in our hotel. But before I ramble on about V-dot, a word about my last week in Newfoundland: I’m still pretty tired from the past week’s events. Between Kayla’s bachelorette party, last minute wedding prep, and the actual event, I am exhausted. For all that, though, Kayla and Gavin’s wedding was superb. The ceremony was beautiful and fairly short, which is always a plus. I didn’t cry as much as I thought I would, which is also a plus. However, I’ve discovered something that I’ve always known but never fully realized until the wedding day: once you start to cry, your nose starts to run. And once your nose starts to run, it becomes independent of your crying, and becomes and unstoppable force. This is a particular problem when you are holding two bouquets and glasses in your hands, and then must