Can I Expense That?

Although I have been thinking recently that I should write a blog post sometime soon, I have to admit that the real motivation behind this post is to try out my new wireless keyboard. Ever since I had my internship last summer with a dual screen set-up, I haven't wanted to go back. Having two screens made my life a lot easier, if nothing else. Especially when working on design projects, the added screen space was a big benefit.
So, I've slowly been working my way towards a dual screen set up. I got a monitor for my birthday last year, as well as a laptop stand. The laptop stand brings the laptop screen up to a higher level. But with that, it also brings the rest of the laptop with it. This makes using the trackpad and keyboard a tad awkward. So now I needed a mouse and keyboard as well. Wireless was the preference. I stole recruited a mouse from home and then all I needed for my set up to be complete was a keyboard. I didn't get one for Christmas, so I've been keeping an eye out since then. However, during school it wasn't high priority because I didn't really have the room to have an elaborate dual screen set up, and thus didn't need the keyboard.
But ever since I've started my job and have been working from home, it's becoming increasingly important to me that I have a decent desk set up (I'm already wearing a wrist brace while I work to control the pain I get from being on the computer all day).
The real kicker about needing the keyboard for working at home meant that there was a pretty good chance I could get work to pay for it. I explained to my manager why I thought I needed a keyboard to work at home and he understood. I told him I wanted the $160 wireless full size Apple keyboard. He said try again. So I went with a Logitech keyboard with solar panel charging, designed for use with Macs, at half the price. (He doesn't know all that fancy stuff though, he just knows I got a keyboard under his $100 price limit). And so far, it's working great. The only downside is that it's not bluetooth; it needs to use a USB port. I might have to look into getting a USB port hub, since now all two of my USB ports are being used for my keyboard and mouse. I wonder if I could get work to pay for that too...
I also got work to pay for the wrist brace :)

As for other updates, I'm all settled into my new apartment. It's a really nice apartment. The floors are a pale laminate, which looks great but shows every piece of dirt. Sweeping has already become a regular occurrence. The kitchen isn't huge, but has a lot of cupboard space. I'm still waiting for my couch to arrive...the friend I asked to deliver it is apparently much busier than I anticipated. Hopefully I have it by the end of the month; I'm tired of sitting on folding chairs.
The building has some really nice amenities, which I will need to make an effort of using more often. (Using more often...I've only been here two weeks!) There's been some issues with the elevators the past couple days where only 1 out of 4 will respond to calls. In a building 42 stories tall, this can cause some serious delays. I overheard a man saying that he waited 25mins for the elevator! Being on the 4th floor, it's not too hard to take the stairs. But the stairs only end outside; there's no way to get to the stair well on the main floor inside the building. This means I usually take the stairs when I leave, but not when I arrive. (I haven't tried it yet, but I don't know if my key would even open the door to the stairs from the outside).
I started hand embroidering. It's been slow going, as it also tends to hurt my wrist, and I want to learn some proper stitches instead of just going at it head on. I started a flower last night, and you can tell which petal I started on and which one I did last because they get better as you go around. I'm still keeping up with practicing lettering, although no longer daily. And I bake. And fold origami. That's pretty much what occupies my evenings!

Observation + the Power of Branding

I've always thought that I'm a fairly observant person. I tend to notice little details that slip by other people. But more recently, I've started to notice that I might not be as observant as I might think. Or more accurately, I notice the tiny details, but the bigger picture might slip past me. A few incidents recently have been about branding.
For those who don't know, there is a bike share program in downtown Toronto. You can rent a bike for a couple of hours or the whole day and there are spots to pick up and drop off bikes just about every other block. The logo for the bike share program is two shades of green. And ever since I've been spending time in downtown Toronto (since last summer), I've thought that TD sponsored the program. Imagine my surprise last week when I was looking at the bike share stand more closely only to realize that TD is not mentioned anywhere. TD has got nothing to do with the bikes. I only thought that TD had something to do with it. Any guesses as to why? If you said because of the logo colour, you're right. My brain connected the shade of green of the bike share program to the colour of TD and assumed they were connected. It just goes to show the power of branding and the effect it can have on how we think about things. (Ever notice in Bell ads that every accent is blue?)
Not much going on for me other than work. I'm starting to get some more interesting things to do and my team is still as awesome as they were when I started. I've been practicing my hand lettering in the evenings and doing a fair bit of shopping. I'm finally fulfilling my dream of lots of summer dresses! I still can't cook meals for one. The apartment hunt is ongoing, but I'm going to see one tomorrow which I'm hopeful about. I'm excited for Emily to come back to Toronto, because I don't really have friends to hang out with right now. I'm planning on doing some baking tomorrow, and will probably take some into work, since I can't eat an entire batch of cookies by myself (let's not kid ourselves. I could easily eat a batch of cookies by myself. I just probably shouldn't).

180 Turn

A lot has changed since I last blogged! I am no longer a student living in Stratford, but a working woman in downtown Toronto. I was very lucky to have my manager from my internship last summer offer me a full time position to start after I finished school. So as of Monday, I've been working as a User Experience Designer, which is what I want my career to be in. It's been slow going so far, but that's to be expected with the first week. Lots of reading forms and signing up for accounts.
Now obviously with working in downtown Toronto, you also need to live in downtown Toronto. So far I've been sleeping on my sister's floor. Searching for an apartment has been stressful to say the least. I'm hoping to find an apartment with a friend of mine, so that I'm not coming home to an empty apartment every day. But two people means two sets of needs and wants, which is making the entire process more difficult. I went to see an apartment that looked promising this afternoon. Let's be honest, it's just about the only apartment I've found that meets all of our requirements and is not a sketchy looking 4 floor walk up. The apartment was nothing special; the bathrooms and kitchen are run down, but look functional. The bedrooms are big, which is its main selling point. It's definitely an older building, but it has some nice amenities. However, the apartment isn't available until June, which still leaves me looking for a place for May. Needless to say, I have some thinking to do and have to come to a decision in the near future.
My life doesn't have much else going on at the moment because of my temporary residence and the mental exhaustion of starting a new job and looking for a place to live. I'm hoping to do something fun this weekend. I want to start a bullet journal, so I'm going to go search for one at the mall. Also might go to the aquarium!

The Final Countdown

A lot has happened over the past couple days, all building up to tomorrow, when we have our last class of our undergraduate degree. On Thursday evening we had our last SSC event, a dinner at Pazzo Pizzeria. We had 21 people show up, which was awesome (and I'm fairly certain our largest event ever). Marissa had made photo booth props for people to take pictures with. Luckily there wasn't many other people in the restaurant, so we were free to be silly and take a bunch of pictures against (fun fact alert) the oldest wall in Stratford. It was nice to have a sit down dinner with people as a bit of a send off.
Friday began on a high note when Mara's mom bought coffee and muffins for the entire class as a celebratory parting gift. For lunch, a lot of the graduating class went to the Parlour Inn for a GBDA send off that the GBDA Society had organized. There was some small lunch items, which enticed most of the people who went. But they also got a handful of professors that we'd had over the years to say a few words. It was kind of sweet to hear what they had to say.
Saturday was the GBDA gala. I'd never been to one before, so I was excited. A bunch of us got ready together at a friend's house. It was at Fed Hall in Waterloo, so we had a shuttle bus to take those of us living in Stratford to main campus. The theme was space/gala-xy. It was a little slow getting started because people showed up fashionably late, but eventually there were lots of people dancing. Unfortunately the DJ was repeating a lot of songs so for those of us that had been there the whole time it was getting repetitive. They had a photo booth with the popular giant letter balloons, which was pretty cool. Overall an enjoyable evening. There wasn't a ton of fourth year students there, ironically it was most of the people living in Stratford. It was also nice to see people all dressed up.
Today was Stratford's Annual Swan Parade, where the city officially welcomes spring by releasing the swans back into the river (they have a shelter that they live in during the winter). Another fun fact: the swans belong to the Queen. It's ridiculous how many people show up for this parade which lasts about 10mins. Last year they had 5000 people show up. I don't know if there was 5000 people there today, but it was certainly up there. There's lot of other things going on as well; there's a kids comedy act, colouring booths, and a long line of food trucks with even longer lines of people waiting to buy food. I spent the duration of the parade in a tree which gave me a much better view of everything than those who were on the ground. They had great weather for it. It's currently 14 degrees out and sunny. They couldn't have asked for anything better. I'm writing this on my rooftop patio, it's so nice out!
You can see pictures on Facebook in the near future.

Give Me A Conversation Starter

I'm in a bit of a mood that I don't know how to describe. It's almost like I'm lonely, despite being around people. And not just being around them; I'm interacting with people. I even went out for coffee with friends today. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that I had pie for lunch (happy pi day). While it felt great at the time, my body was definitely craving some real food by the end of the afternoon. So I decided to make KD. Perhaps not my smartest decision, but we all live with regrets (I did have some spinach salad on the side though).
I think part of it is that how I interact with people has changed a lot over the past 4 years. I was always on the extreme introvert side. I didn't enjoy hanging out with people all the time. I would max out at one social event per week. Over the past 4 years though, I've become more comfortable in who I am and have moved from 'extreme introvert' to 'introvert' (maybe even veering into ambivert...but let's not complicate things). I enjoy hanging out with my friends more often and will even plan things myself (unheard of prior to high school expect for special occasions such as my birthday). Especially after my term abroad, I'm much better at communicating with friends and putting effort in on my end of things.
The point I'm trying to meander to here, is that I always relied on other people to initiate things. And not just for hanging out; I would wait for other people to start conversations. I would wait for other people to message me or reach out to me first. My conversation starting skills are on the lacking side and it is my long-formed habit to wait for other people to start the conversation.
Now, with most people, this is not a problem. People will choose a topic and I'll go along (I'm also a big fan of joining conversations that are already going). The same cannot be said for my roommate. She is also an introvert, and also tends to wait for other people to start conversations. Do you see where this is going? If you didn't know that we were friends and watched us in our apartment, you would think that we were strangers who got along well enough to live together peacefully. When we're at school or out in other places, or there are others around, we talk well enough. But as soon as we're in the apartment, there is hardly any conversation. Obviously, I'm not expecting that we talk all the time. But we hardly have casual conversations about stuff. For all of last term, we wouldn't say anything to each other in the morning as we ate breakfast. Sitting at the same table. Across from each other. That has changed slightly, because I started saying good morning when I emerged from my bedroom. Even then, she'll say it back, and we'll go on without saying anything else. We don't even say anything as we get ready to walk to school. We just watch each other and the clock, getting ready when we know the other is ready to go. It makes me a little sad, especially because in three weeks, I probably won't see her often at all.
And I know that there is an obvious answer to this problem: talk to her. Strike up a conversation. But this is where I'll ask you to recall my earlier point that my conversation starting skills leave something to be desired. Our devices definitely has something to do with it. About 90% of the time, one of us has our headphones in, which naturally prevents conversation. I had hoped that saying 'good morning' would be enough to get a chat going over breakfast, but to no avail. Maybe my goal this week will be to start a real conversation over breakfast. This will also help me in my goal to get out of bed at a decent time, since I've been pushing that to the closest I can get it to 9AM. Wish me luck.

T-28 Days

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? Certainly not the longest period I've gone without blogging, but I had a bit of a good run going there.
Reading week was good. I didn't have any work to do, so I could just relax. I managed to keep busy though, meeting up with friends, finishing my camp quilt, and playing lots of board games.
The main thing going on with me right now is the fact that there are 4 weeks of school left. Ever. It's kind of hard to believe. We've started our final group project of our university careers. We were allowed to choose our groups this time, but I ended up staying with the same group I was with earlier in the term because we worked well together. Our project is to encourage interactivity in a public space in Stratford. I think it will be good. The hardest part will be completing everything in the 4 weeks left (our first project got 7+ weeks).
After that, it looks like I'll be moving to Toronto after I graduate, so I should probably start looking for a place to live there. Whenever I've visited Toronto, I've always though I wouldn't want to live there. There's so much going on and I find it overwhelming. That changed a little bit last summer when I lived in Mississauga, but still wouldn't be my first choice. But now that I'm moving there, I'm excited. I don't want to stay there forever, but I think it will be a lot of fun. And I can finally go to all the cool things I see going on through various forms of social media. And I'll be living in the same city as Alison again, so it will be nice to be able to see her more often again.
Yesterday the campus hosted a day-long conference about blending business and design. It was really well done. Lots of interesting speakers, good food, and great networking opportunities. I got to meet a UX designer from Indigo, which was probably my favourite part. It was a long day with lots of sitting though. They had an 'after party' at the end of the day at the Parlour Inn just down the street. I was surprised, because the Parlour is a pretty nice place. We went, but not a lot of the mentors and speakers came, so there didn't seem to be much points for us to be there. We left early (after eating the food).
Not a lot else going on. The 3D printer is up and running again, so I've been getting a few things printed before it either breaks again or the term ends. I printed a settlers of catan piece, since one of my wooden pieces had chunk missing.

The Reincarnation of GBDA X

Last term I was a part of GBDA X, which was an extra curricular run by a staff member of the UWaterloo Stratford Campus. I was very excited to be a part of it again this term, because I had a lot of fun in it last term, and it gave me something to do on Tuesday evenings. So when it was eventually revealed that GBDA X would not be happening again this term (cause UWaterloo admin sucks), I was disappointed (as were many others).
A girl in third-year GBDA and I were talking about how we were sad it wasn't happening again and off-handedly I mentioned how it wouldn't be hard to run it ourselves. A couple days later, she took me up on my comment. She asked if I would be interested in running it with her. We could still use campus to meet and use the things the campus provides, like printers and tech. I was totally down. It wouldn't be that much more effort to run than just participate, and since the entire concept of the group is that the students come up with the idea, we wouldn't have to actually prepare anything. We would just need to gather people together.
We talked to the guy who ran GBDA X last term to ask if it was ok/allowed. He said it was, as long as it was kept under wraps. The university can't stop students from working together on something, but they could stop 'a group from using University spaces'. So we're a 'secret' group, with an unofficial mentor in the original GBDA X facilitator. We call ourselves Project X.
We just had our second meeting; we meet once a week for a couple of hours. I really like the idea that we've come up with. We're going to create a sort of data visualization program that people can influence by interacting with an interface. It will create a generative design art piece which will hopefully be displayed on the micro-tile wall in the atrium. I've been assigned the role of coder along with 4 others...it will be interesting trying to code something with other people. I'm going to have to brush up on my programming skills, because I haven't coded since second year. I'm really excited to have something on the micro-tile wall and be able to say 'I made that'. Hopefully we can pull it off!

The Five Part Journey

I spent the past weekend in Toronto. It was lovely, up until precisely 5:39pm on Sunday evening. But I'll get to that in a bit.
Marissa and I wanted to see the Mystical Landscapes Exhibition at the AGO, so we took a trip to Toronto. I also took the opportunity to visit Emily and Alison. We arrived very late on Friday evening, so much so that we just chatted for a bit before heading to bed. On Saturday, Marissa and I went for brunch with her aunt at FRANK, the restaurant at the AGO. (Emily had brunch with her roommates and friends celebrating a belated birthday). The brunch at the AGO was lovely. I started with a pastry platter, which had two mini croissants with butter and jam and two mini chocolate croissants. For the main course we all had eggs benedict: a croissant with smoked trout, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce with roast potatoes on the side. Marissa's aunt insisted on having dessert, so I had tiramisu gelato with a delicious caramel sauce and 'churro dust'. To top it all off, a lovely cup of tea.
We then met up with the others to see the exhibition. The exhibition had timed entry, so we looked around the rest of the AGO for a little bit before heading to the exhibition. The exhibition was advertised as "Mystical Landscapes: Monet, Van Gogh, and more". I was under the impression that it would be primarily Van Gogh and Monet, with some other artists. To my disappointment, it was the other way around: primarily other artists with a handful of Monets and two Van Goghs. Overall it was still a great exhibition; there were some paintings by Emily Carr and Paul Gauguin, who stayed with Van Gogh at one point. One of my favourite paintings was Crystal Castle in the Sea by Wenzel Hablik.

One of the Van Gogh paintings was Starry Night over the Rhone, which was on load from Musee D'Orsay. Which is where I had seen that painting for the first time. So now I've seen it twice (still just as good the second time around). The Monet paintings were some of his famous Rouen Cathedral paintings, some of which I had also seen before. I enjoyed the exhibition, but had been hoping to see more Van Gogh and Monet. And the audio guide was on the artistic interpretation side of things, whereas I prefer to hear about the facts of the painting.
After we finished the exhibition, we continued to look around the rest of the AGO. It's much bigger than I thought. And as with every gallery, very easy to lose track of where you are. I'm not sure if we actually saw everything or not. We did see most of it though. The last section we walked through was in the basement where they have the miniature boat models. Miniature is a relative term, some of the models were the size of kayaks. But all very impressive; the amount of detail on the models is astounding.
We then went out for dinner where I had chicken wonton nachos (very good) and stopped at Michaels to grab some supplies for a t-shirt making party we are having later this week. Then we headed back to Emily's apartment for a pit stop before Alison, Marissa and I went to see the Toronto Light Festival. It's a collection of light installations in the Distillery District. It was pretty neat and I got some cool pictures of some of them.

On Sunday we slept in and spent the afternoon at a board game cafe. We discovered a game called Codenames, which we all really enjoyed. I'd like to play it again in the future. At 4:30 we decided to head back to Emily's apartment so that Marissa and I could get ready to catch our train.
And this is where the weekend derails (no pun intended).
Our train back to Stratford leaves at 5:40pm. We leave Emily's apartment at 5:20. It's cutting it close, but Google says it's a 15min walk so I'm not too worried. But despite walking quickly the whole way there we arrive at the station at 5:38. Our train isn't listed on any of the screens around the station. Panicking, we ask the info desk where train 87 is leaving from.
Info Desk Attendant: Train 87? I don't know about a train 87! Where does that go??
She was less than helpful and was wasting valuable time. I go to a different desk and ask if they know where train 87 is boarding.
Info Desk Attendant #2: Oh, that's probably left already. *checks with someone on the walkie talkie* Yeah that train just left.
I know you're all thinking we should have given ourselves more time to get to the train station. That's probably true. But I would also like to state that the train left 2mins early. And Union station is a nightmare.
That was the last train to Stratford for the day, so we were not going back to Stratford by train Sunday evening. There were a few options:
1. Stay at Emily's another night and take the Monday morning train to Stratford and be late for class.
2. Somehow get to Waterloo and sleep at Marissa's parent's house and get a ride with a carpool to Stratford Monday morning.
3. Somehow get to Waterloo or London and get our parents to drive us to Stratford.
We decided to try #3 via Waterloo. Marissa called her mom to make sure this was a plan that could happen and we quickly got on the 6:00 GO bus to Mississauga, where we would switch GO buses at Square One and go to Waterloo from there. Neither of us are sure whether our presto cards have enough money on them to pay for the ticket. Mine had just enough; Marissa's did not. We think that we'll have to get off but turns out you can pay with cash (who knew?). I lend Marissa some cash and we're through. We get on the bus, and while still shaken, I'm glad we've figured out a way to get back to Stratford fairly quickly. Although, I had the issue of not having enough money on my presto card to pay for the second bus ticket.
Around 6:45, Marissa is not sure we're on the right bus because she doesn't recognize the route we're on. I check the map on my phone and sure enough, we are nowhere near Square One. We are on the edge of Mississauga and about to go to Milton. I suggest we get off, because Milton definitely is not where we want to be. At this point, we're both tired, cold, and desperately want to get home in one piece.
So I decide to call up Sheila, whom with which I stayed with over the summer. I asked if she would be willing to come pick us up and drive us to Square One, so that we could get on the next bus. Thankfully she wasn't doing anything and was willing to come rescue us. The drive from the edge of Mississauga to Square One was explaining to Sheila the night Marissa and I had had. When we arrive at Square One, we see the bus that we are supposed to be getting on to. Marissa and I decide that instead of rushing and potentially missing it, we'll wait for the next bus which comes in just under an hour. We grab dinner at the nearby Starbucks and buy tickets for the bus at a kiosk there.
Finally the bus arrives and we get on, this time sure that it is the right bus. It take just over an hour to us to get to Waterloo. The bus stops at the university; it was strange being back there. I haven't been there since second year. Entire buildings have gone up in the time I've been gone.
Marissa's mom met us there and drove us to Stratford. I have never before been so glad to see this apartment. I had intended on doing some school work Sunday evening because the train would've arrived in Stratford around 8pm. When we finally pulled up in front of our apartment, it was 10:30. I was going to bed.
That, my friends, was our five part journey. It will surely become something to laugh at in the future, but for now we're simply calling it a comedy of errors.

The Real Ending

To minimal surprise but some disappointment, there was no new Sherlock episode last night. On Saturday I was starting to have my doubts. But here we are a week later and there's nothing to show for all the hope we (the fandom) had. There are still some who are clinging to their last shreds of hope that it will actually air next week. Their reasoning for this is because the date will be 1/29, which is a time that Sherlock stopped a bomb going off in a previous episode. But that's too much of a stretch for me. Season 4 is over. The producer of the show even tweeted that there's no fourth episode. I'm going to watch TFP again to watch it with less expectations than I did the first time around. A number of people who originally didn't like it have come around to it. All I can hope is for them to make another season. But enough about Sherlock.
I went home this weekend and managed to finish the top of my t-shirt quilt. I won't be able to quilt it until reading week, but I'm very happy with how it's going so far. I'm really excited to show it to people, because I know camp means a lot to so many people. Tomorrow I get free lunch at Crabby Joe's because I'm helping with some UX testing. They're even providing transportation so I literally am losing nothing out of this.
I've decided to start eating based on Canada's food guide. I know that I don't eat enough fruits and vegetables and I also eat too much meat. I think I might have to increase my grain consumption though, which was not something I was expecting. It will take some adjusting, but hopefully in the long un will lead to healthier eating habits. The plan is to make a tracker that I can use to keep track. Im surprised that no apps exist for this type of thing. I'm also going to start going for walks every other day as a form of exercise. It would appear that if you're not just strolling along and are actually going at a quick pace, walking can be just as effective exercise as going to the gym. And I'm not a fan of the gym, so this is the compromise.

Extremely Long Post Purely About Sherlock Season 4

I know I haven't 'fangirled' in a while, as I've tried to put that behind me and provide you with content that you might actually be interested in reading instead of me going "omg sherlock is the best show eva you defs need to watch it!" However, there are certain theories going around regarding Sherlock season 4 and I have to write about it. Here we go (hardly any but some minor spoilers, for those of you who haven't seen it yet).
Episode one of season 4 was The Six Thatchers (TST). A bit of an odd episode; a much different style compared to the rest of the show. And generally had some fishy stuff. The second episode, The Lying Detective (TLD), was amazing. It was back to the traditional Sherlock we know and have come to love. And left us on a big cliff hanger, as the writers are fond of doing. And then this past Sunday was the season finale: The Final Problem (TFP). There have been some rumours that this season would be the last season*, and the episode title seemed to echo that.
Going into this episode, I was expecting a lot. There were a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up, and they only had 90mins to do it in. The people on tumblr have created countless theories explaining what we've seen so far, why TST was so wacky, and what they predicted would happen in TFP. It's amazing what these people come up with, but it's also an identifying factor of the fans, and the writers know that. One theory stood out from all the rest, and proposed that TFP would tell us something along the lines that TST and TLD never happened, they were a dream/result of drugged/other altered mind state/unreliable narrator.
I go to turn the TV on at 8:55pm, ready for the 9pm airing of TFP, only to find that for this episode, the show got a 'special time slot' and had actually aired at 7pm. I was crushed. I had so many questions that needed answers and now I wouldn't get them. Luckily, after some hunting I discovered that PBS had already posted the episode online. So I was still able to watch the episode (thank goodness).
The episode starts, and immediately we're off. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. I didn't know I could hold my breath for 90mins, but apparently I can. TFP is go-go-go throughout the entire episode. We're racing through this mystery that seems to never end and suddenly I think to myself, "they're running out of time. There's so much they need to go over still and they only have so much time left." I hardly give it a second thought, lest I miss something important. (You literally need to give Sherlock your undivided attention because it's definitely a blink-and-you'll-miss-one-line-that-the-rest-of-the-episode-rides-on situation).
The mystery ends, we're given a montage of life after the mystery, and the credits role. Immediately I'm furious. Absolutely none of my questions were answered. None of the theories the fans came up with were true (there have been some disturbingly accurate theories created before, so I've learned to take them just a bit seriously). The episode didn't even mention half the things we (the fans) were expecting it to. I'd even go so far as to say that TFP contradicts some of the previous episodes. And above all else, TFP was the most atypical episode of Sherlock that has ever been created. We thought TST was off; TFP was never 'on' to begin with. Not that I've seen these movies, but people are comparing it to Saw and James Bond.
I immediately go to tumblr to see what the fans are thinking. As expected, there is outrage, disappointment, even hate for the writers for ruining the show. But what I did not expect was a split: half the fans were against the episode and the other half loved it. They couldn't stop singing its praises! (There was also a small number of people, myself included, who wondered what this would do to the fandom, if we were so split over this episode). After some time went by, I began to see where the other side was coming from. It was a good episode: never before had I been so captivated by a single episode before; it was exciting and got my pulse racing; I felt the pain of the characters. The actors did a lovely job. But it still didn't feel right. It completely disregarded everything we had been shown up until this point. One fan put it beautifully:

Great story, wrong place and time.

Wow, I've rambled on and haven't even got to the main point yet. But what good story doesn't have a backstory? Here's my main point:

fans think there's another episode.

Wild, right? I thought, you're off your rocker. You just want to try and justify this mess of an episode by thinking there will magically be another episode to explain everything. There can't possibly be another episode. But over the past two days (TWO DAYS - Sherlock fans never cease to amaze me in how fast they can come up with things), the fans on tumblr have gathered enough tidbits and facts to make me think, there might actually be a secret episode! Now I'm not one to get my hopes up easily regarding things I'm invested in so much, but they have a compelling case:

To start, before any of season 4 aired, the writers said "If we pull this off, we'll make television history." "It's kind of groundbreaking, they've done something that's never been done before." "Love conquers all." And, if you happened to skip everything I've written up until this point, TFP was certainly not groundbreaking and it was most definitely not something that's never been done before. And in some people's opinions, love decidedly did not conquer all. This is their jumping point: all of these quotes make a lot more sense with a secret episode than with what we watched on Sunday.

The remaining points can be summed up as such:
- they raved about some music written for the show and we haven't heard it yet
- a mysterious deleted tweet from writer of said music
- the DVD isn't being released until the end of January (why wait unless there was something else coming?)
- TFP took twice as long to shoot as other episodes
- numerous scenes that were shot and we haven't seen yet
- they talk about 'the lost special' offhand sometimes
- a promo picture was leaked prematurely and was very quietly and seriously taken care of, but the ENTIRE EPISODE of TFP is leaked early and they tweet and write news articles about it and make no action to take them down
And perhaps my favourite point of all, in TLD Sherlock says, and I quote, "Must be something comforting about the number three. People always give up after three..."
The writers have been known to lie in order to keep Sherlock secrets, so I'm not even going to mention them denying another episode.

Now up until this point I was still skeptical. Yes, there's lots of things that could point to a fourth episode. But I've found that if you're grasping at straws, you'll tell yourself you've found what you are looking for. But then this happened:

There are reportedly 3 separate TV provider websites that have a fourth episode listed (I say reportedly because I only actually looked at one to check). 'Why not check the cable listings then?', you may be thinking, 'Surely that will give you your answer'. As always, the fans have thought of this. And this is what they found:

In Sherlock's supposed time slot, there is a new series called Apple Tree Yard (ATY) airing. Most people would have stopped there and said, 'ah well that settles it. No secret episode'. But Sherlock fans are not most people. I did a little digging myself even, and this is what I found. There is a trailer on youtube (only posted a couple of weeks ago...) for ATY with legitimate actors and storyline. It has an imdb page. It doesn't have a ton of information on it, but there's a list of cast and crew. It has a storyline, as all imdb entries do, but this one was written by BBC Media, whereas most summaries on imdb are written by users. Thus begins the fake show cover up theory.
It seems a little extravagant to make up an entire TV series to keep a secret. But as I said before, the writers are known for lying to keep Sherlock secrets. I was getting a little skeptical due to the amount of information I was finding about ATY. However, I bring you my biggest supporting point: if you google the actors in ATY, nothing pops up about them being in ATY, or even being in a new TV show. And it's not like these are nobody actors. Emily Watson is one of them, who is a well known actor, having been in The Theory of Everything and War Horse, among many others. Wouldn't news sites be writing about a new project staring such a big actress? Surely there would be at least one google result that talked about the upcoming ATY show airing in less than a week. (Some people have also gone so far as to mention that a apple tree wall decal shown in TST indicates that ATY is fake, because the writers love those kinds of connections).

One last point (I promise). TFP didn't end on a cliff hanger. Every single season finale of Sherlock ends on a cliffhanger. Some say this supports the idea that there won't be any more Sherlock. I'm adding it to the list of things that makes TFP abnormal.

I don't know what to think. I know what I want to think. I also don't want to be crushed come Sunday evening. If there is another episode, that would truly be groundbreaking and television history, as they've been saying.

I'll get back to you on Monday. Regardless of what happens, I will surely have lots of feelings to tell you about.

*This may or may not be true. As you may or may not know, Sherlock has a sporadic production schedule and is infamous for its notoriously long waits between seasons. This is primarily due to the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have hit the big screen and just don't have the time to film Sherlock anymore. However, the entire cast and crew enjoys the show, enjoys making the show, and wants it to continue. It is just a tad difficult to make it happen. The writers have said nothing about season 5, other than the fact that they'd like for it to happen.

Fight to Entertain

good ol' pun to start us off

This is me eating my words and wishing I had brought my sewing stuff to Stratford. Only a week in and I'm rudely reminded of how boring it can get in Stratford. I have to make a real effort to entertain myself and not just waste my days away on social media. That being said, I did do lots of fun things this week. 
It was Marissa's birthday on Friday, so on Thursday we drove to Kitchener to go trampolining. Mara and I had been to this place before, where they have 6 olympic grade trampolines. It was great fun. I almost did a full front flip (I just can't quite stick the landing and end up on my butt). Michelle however did gymnastics when she was younger and so was doing front flips, back flips, you name it. Definitely got my exercise in that day and felt it for the following two days. I'd like to go back at some point and see if I can't finally land a front flip.
Later that day we had our first SSC event of the term at a local pub. Much to our enjoyment, Thursday is now 25cent wing night. I made a slight misjudgement in how hungry I was and ordered 5 wings and a burger. Way too much food. But the wings were great. And I couldn't get over that it cost $1.25 for 5 wings! I'm no wing fanatic but even I know that's got to be a great deal. I might start making regular trips to the pub for 5 wings every Thursday night.
Friday morning started off great listening to Ed Sheeran's two new singles. I've come to realize that I almost always don't like a song when I first hear it if it's a song I'm expecting to like (i.e. from an artist I'm familiar with). So I didn't form any opinions until later. And as expected, I really like both of them. I'm not sure which one I like better; it might have to be Castle On The Hill.

Last night I had some friends over to play Catan (I won). I also made my new meal of the week: spinach salad with dried cranberries, chicken, avocado, and poppyseed dressing. To be honest I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It might just make it on to my rotation of meals. I haven't decided what this week's recipe is going to be; it will depend on when I get to a grocery store next.

I also made rice krispie squares but they didn't turn out great. I think the marshmallows were past their prime.
Didn't do much today. Watched a sermon from The Meeting House online. I've started doing a daily doodle where I practice my lettering/doodling. It's not much but I'm trying out the concept that doing something everyday will help you get better at it. I'm patiently waiting for 9pm to roll around to watch the next Sherlock episode. I've had to stay off social media since this afternoon to avoid any spoilers, since Britain has already seen it and there are already things being posted about what happens.

Am I a Baking Blogger?

Yes, but I don't have a baking blog (officially). I do talk about baking whenever I do it though. And I did lots of baking last month. It was great. I made mini churros, chai-spiced tea cakes, peppermint bark, sugar cookies with royal icing, and the capstone dessert: the gingerbread train. All of you who read this blog have already seen these, but, you have to do it for the blog so here we are.

I'm particularly pleased with how the gingerbread train turned out. I was skeptical about the support system and how the cars would stand on the wheels. It was a struggle to get the engine standing but I eventually got it with some extra hidden support (made of gingerbread of course). Unfortunately, the wheels started collapsing after two days, I imagine because of the humidity and heat in the house with all the people. I took it as a sign to start eating the gingerbread ;) The train had minimal candy on it compared to my previous gingerbread houses. This was because I was trying to go for a cleaner appearance overall. But I missed the candy, so I think next year's creation will feature more candy.

Christmas was great, if busy. We had 13 people at our house for Christmas dinner! Lots of good gifts, two of which are card games that I really like: Sushi Go and The Struggle for Catan.
The other thing I occupied my time with was a t-shirt quilt for a friend, which I got finished in time(!). She really likes it, which I'm glad of.
Having been inspired by finishing that t-shirt quilt, I decided I would start working on my own t-shirt quilt with my Forest Cliff Camp shirts (of which I have many). I started working on it just before New Years Eve, and almost completely finished the top of the quilt before I came back to Stratford yesterday. I've never moved through a quilt so quickly before. The main reason for that is because a lot of supplies I need to make quilts are at the church sewing group, so I was limited to 3hrs of sewing a week. But I recently received a cutting board and ruler which are the big things I needed. So now I can sew to my heart's desire at home! Now the only thing stopping me is not understanding a quilt pattern. Margaret often helps me a lot in guiding me through the steps of making a quilt.

I made up the pattern for the t-shirt quilts since you can't really fit the t-shirts to an existing pattern. I had been planning on bringing my sewing stuff to Stratford so that I could keep working on my quilt while at school but I ended up getting so much of it done that I didn't bother. I'll be able to finish the top within a couple hours the next time I go home. Then the first quilt of 2017 will be done!
The creativity continues in Stratford with a card for a friend's birthday later this week. We're hoping to go trampolining to celebrate :)
My new year's resolution is to make a new recipe each week. The hope is that I'll become more confident in trying new recipes, increase the number of go-to meals I can make, and learn how to pair foods better. This week is a chicken and spinach salad.