It's Spring! Like, actually, sort of Spring!

It's brilliantly sunny today. I've been sitting on the couch in the living room, editing our video for ASTU almost all morning. The sun was so intense, I was almost sweating. And maybe I didn't have to share that with the world...but anyways...

It's nice--I'd like this weather to stick around for a bit, so I can take my spring wardrobe out of hibernation, and put my boots to sleep for the summer. I'm tired of having cold feet and a wet jacket, and having to lug an umbrella with me everywhere I go. And bus people smell bad when they're wet...blah...

But it's time for happy thoughts! White Rock beach is a 15 minute walk from my house, and I hardly ever go there. But what about gelato at the beach! Scrumptious late night dinners at the beach! Picnics at the beach! Sounds like I'm longing for some beach time, maybe I should plan an outing for next weekend...anyone care to join me?

The bus is a (fun/annoying/exasperating/infuriating) place

You have to love commuting by bus, especially when it makes you two hours late for school (Monday), or gets in an accident with a guy who speaks no English (Wednesday). Yes, I am having a bad bus week.

But there are still interesting parts. I am conducting an unofficial cultural study on "bus people". And, though I take the bus nearly every day to school, I'd rather not consider myself one of them. Today's discussion topic of choice:

"them darned gangsters"

The lady with the neon-pink lipstick says, "They oughtta just lock them up in BC Place for a night, and let them have it out right there."

The guy who takes up two seats replies, "Ha ha, let 'em clean up after themselves for once."

Huh? I'm pretty sure I read a similar proposition on NowPublic.com, but that scenario gave them full run of the PNE grounds for a night. Anyways, the topic got the whole bus excited. It is universally intriguing to walk around everyday knowing that you may by hit by a stray bullet, because, you know, the odds are so likely that that will ever happen to a random citizen.

Note: the excitement only extended to conscious persons. This does not include the Asian guy who was falling asleep on my shoulder. Why do people always fall asleep on my shoulder? Is it because I'm too polite to rudely awaken them with an elbow to the ribs? (I've seen someone do that before...the victim is usually too disoriented to realize what happened, so I could maybe get away with it...)

I tell myself, it's all part of the journey. It makes civilised company that much more enjoyable.

One more thing--I try really, really hard not to giggle when I'm eavesdropping on the bus, or when I peak over at the old lady next to me and notice she's reading a Harlequin Romance. I kind of hiccoughed today a little while attempting to stifle a laugh.

"...as the perspiration dripped off her delicate brow..." OMG! Funny!

Maintaining composure is difficult. Very difficult.

And the Oscar goes to:

I don't care that people think the Oscars are shallow, I enjoy them--for the clothes, the show, and the people. It's so amusing to see how human these people are...not just the big names, but more the behind the scenes people, and the actors new to the scene. Most of them look genuinely shocked (though some certainly fake it...), like they really had no idea how well their work would be recieved. I guess it's difficult to gage public reception to any artistic endeavor, especially your own work.

As limiting as the Oscars might be as a display of talent, they are still a worthy show. The Academy is a purveyor of mainstream film phenomenon, and that is all that really need be expected of it.

I always especially enjoy the short animated films, but these two are my favourites from this year’s picks—-Lavatory Lovestory, and La Maison en Petits Cubes (the winner). Lavatory Lovestory is just cute because of its subtle references to humanity, while La Maison en Petites Cubes is touching because of the way the character is esblished--his story and his memories are played in reverse, showing both how his life was built up piece by piece, and how it slowly fell apart. Sad, but beautiful :'(



Уборная история - любовная история (Lavatory-Lovestory)
Uploaded by alexeych

Tulip Studies

I'm supposed to be starting a painting right now, but it's not coming to me, so instead I'm randomly taking pictures of things around the house. Last year for IB art, I did a study on tulips. To quote myself: "I love the way the colours bleed into each other, the warm way in which the whites and yellows blend with the reds or purples, depending on the flower." Completely meaningless gibber-jabber. Looking back, I can't believe how much BS went into my sketchbook--we were supposed to reflect on everything we did, which is great (I suppose) in developing a critical and reflective eye, but what if I don't have a reason for everything? Maybe I just appreciate tulips, and that appreciation is really more of an emotional reaction, something that can hardly be put into words? Some things aren't meant to be articulated, but rather felt. That's how I prefer to appreciate some things--like art and nature (although the two are pretty much interchangeable)--as an abstract stream of emotions. So here are a few tulip pictures. I like them for their colour, for the way the light reflects off the petals, for the minute details you can hardly catch with a naked eye. Sorry, no deeper meaning...

What did you do on Valentine's Day?

So what did you do this Valentine's day? I had a sleepover/baking party with my friends. I was just going to stay home, but then we realized that none of us had anything to do, so we joined up and made our own party. We made this lovely ricotta mousse, which was absolutely scrumptious:

Then we made chocolate cupcakes, with extra chocolate chips, because that seems like the right thing to do on a holiday so obsessed with sweet things:

And then I amused myself by playing with the editing features of my new camera. Lots of fun, I must tell you :) Until the battery died...

After which we watched a marathon stream of Friends re-runs all night.

I would have taken a picture of breakfast, which was really nice too (goat cheese, prosciutto, salami, mmmmmmm), but my camera was dead.

So that, my people, was exactly how my Valentine's day played out. Very exciting :P Seems it centred around food consumption and photography...good thing my metabolism is still fast, because otherwise I'd get massively fat from all the tasty things I consume.

It's a beautiful day today, anyways. Hopefully the sun sticks around a little longer...

Just a thought...

I've been thinking about how we interact with different technological mediums, with concern for audience and self-representation. So, while I was on the bus after class today, reflecting on how inarticulate and uncomposed I was,and trying to decide what to change my Facebook status to (I went for a neutral homework-complaint-type comment in the end), I thought of how I might express my annoyance at being "inarticlate and uncomposed" on Facebook, in contrast with in a blog entry.

On Facebook, I would explain myself like this:

Angelina is bothered by the fact that she is inarticluate and uncomposed today, not to mention many other days... 2 minutes ago - clear

But now I'm here trying to decide how I might convey this in a more blog-appropriate format, and I don't know where to begin without writing a full-out essay. It feels like a blog warrants a little explanation, while on a status update it's the vagueness and mystery that give it its charm. Overall I'd have to say the status update is much easier, both because of its concise nature and because it doesn't reveal too much.

And now, I'm going to go join Twitter, because I've been trying to avoid it knowing it will swallow up yet more of my life, but I'm procrastinating starting that book report for Journalism...

Hyperlink Assignment

Okay, for our ASTU hyperlink assignment. Since I don’t have Convergences with me at the moment, I’ll have to simply make an “informative” paragraph, based on a Wikipedia format. But what topic to cover? I have to admit, rather than thinking up something clever myself, I just went to Academic Search Complete and randomly searched words until something interesting emerged. So here it is, something we’ve been discussing in Journalism recently (credit to Prof. Alfred Hermida’s lecture notes):

***Note*** You probably have to be logged on to UBC VPN to view the academic sources in the article.


The Challenge with New Media: Old practices, New Format


The media world is very set in its ways, and many of its current practices have remained unchanged since the advent of newspapers after the development of the Gutenberg Press in the mid-1400s. The role of journalists as singularly responsible for setting the standards for newsworthy topics is no longer entirely acceptable, as new media liberates the distribution of information. With this being said, anyone can be a “journalist”, in the sense that they are distributers information.


With the bulk of media in transition from old to new (that is, from the television and print media format it has followed for the last half-century, to new digital forms like websites, forums, and blogs), traditional media outlets, and the media business in general, are facing issues of audience loss, revenue loss, atomization of information, loss of diversity, and deterioration of quality. People are getting accustomed to free, fast, and quantitative information on the web, demands that are only enhancing the problems faced by traditional media.


While there are many positive aspects to the proliferation of information through new media, such as abundance, interactivity, and the collapse of geographical limitations, the potential extinction of traditional media due to audience and revenue loss could be catastrophic to the quality of information available on the net. Already, it is noticeable that less original information is out there—rather, many “amateur” sources are interpretations, or even copies, of traditional sources—leading to loss of research and information diversity. Add to this the speed with which modern journalists are expected to produce articles, and the lack of regulation with which amateur articles are produced, and a potential deterioration of quality ensues.


If the old media moguls are to survive this digital shift in the media, they will have to adapt new methods of production and distribution, and manipulate the prospectively limitless options of technology.