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.

Handwriting Fonts

Create your own font here.
All of my free time is now going to be spent creating fonts.

Typography

I have a typography assignment. What are your thoughts on these? Specifically in terms of: which letters are larger than others, letters beside each other, patterns, and colour.

      

Twolips

This is my second go at my drawing tablet, using the software that came with it. I used a feature called trace, so I was only responsible for the strokes and the program gave me the colour from the image below. It would choose the colour where ever you started the stroke and then keep that colour until you lifted the stylus. So basically, it did everything that would resemble talent. But, you have to start somewhere.

Art! Creativity!

I got a drawing tablet for Christmas (!!!) and I wanted to try it out. So to celebrate the Cumberbaby, here's Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter.

Sophie's dress was a pain. Eventually I'll colour it in or something. But not bad for my first time using a drawing tablet and...tracing a picture!

I'm Going Abroad!

I'm going to study abroad! Well, I've applied...to be able to apply to study abroad. I've just submitted my forms to (hopefully!) study at the University of Leeds during 2016. It's pretty exciting. My friend (who has also applied to Leeds) and I were looking at google maps today of Britain and looking up places that we wanted to visit when if we go. So far, I want to go to the Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising, The Sherlock Holmes Museum and Madame Tussauds London. :)
Also, check out this cool art installation (by Paul Cummins) at the Tower of London to commemorate fallen soldiers:

"Each of the 888,246 blooms [which are ceramic] represents a British or Colonial military death during the First World War, which began a century ago." Really makes a statement, doesn't it? 

Lest we forget. 

images taken from here.

~Breath~

So I'm scrolling through Pinterest and I come across these obnoxiously large wooden boards/pallets with quotes or phrases painted on them. And most of them are pretty cheesy, in my opinion: "Love" "Every little thing is gonna be alright" kind of thing. But then I come across this one

And I just...I don't know if this was a mistake, or if the meant to say breath? Because I would not want "breath" on my wall. And definitely not of that size. And it's not even like there's enough room that you could add the 'e' yourself. I don't even know what to think about this.

Hashtag This

I don't know if you guys would have seen this at all, but my english professor, Aimee Morrison, has been in the news a lot recently over a tweet about sexist baby onesies; check it out here. She says that she's done about 10 interviews in the past week. She's pretty cool, I really like her as a professor. (I'm wondering if this post will show up if you search her now? Hopefully not...) Jeopardy also recently had a sexist moment, with a category called "What Women Want" (and the answers were not "What is equality?")

In other news, I can't believe another week is done and I can't believe how much work I have to do over the next 3 days. I'm going to Stratford tomorrow with a couple of friends to see Crazy For You at Festival Theatre.
Last year in our ARBUS 200 class, it became a bit of a tradition in my group of friends for one of us to buy a box of Oreos to eat during class. This week while I was at the grocery store, I walked by some Oreos, and they were on sale, so I bought some to take to class. Then my one friend said (in our ARBUS 300 class), "You know what guys, I think the reason this class sucks more than last year is because we don't have cookies." And I thought to myself, "Perfect. This couldn't be more perfect!" So I reached into my bag and pulled out that box of Oreos. The look on my friend's face was great. She cried out in that way that she does, she was so happy and excited. It was a great moment. (That, my friends, is why we share. It makes you feel so good inside).
Also, my mom got Facebook, which is not only something I thought would never happen, but really funny to think about. (love ya, Mom)

259. Most embarrassing moment.
This might not be my most embarrassing moment, but it's the first one that came to mind (okay, then maybe it is my most embarrassing moment...) When I was a camper at FCC, I went horseback riding. Dallas was leading my horse. I had gone around and was back at the fence, ready to get off. Dallas told me to lean forward and slide my leg over, so I did that. However, as I started to slide off, still leaning forward, my bra got caught on the horn of the saddle. So I was hanging off the side of a horse with my shirt stretched up around the horn of the saddle. I had to climb back up and unhook it. -_-

260. Favourite subject
One would hope that it would be business or digital arts...but it's fine arts (and art history).

Things That Made Thursday Awesome

1. I managed to sell my courseware that I bought accidentally.
2. I found $20 on the ground.
3. I had nachos and dip for lunch.
4. I saw a Scion IQ in real life.
5. I ate brownies.
6. I ate Rheo Thompson Chocolates.
7. Laundry (ok, I know what you're thinking, laundry can't possibly be a good thing. But there is one thing I like about doing laundry, more specifically: my bed sheets. Remaking my bed, while a struggle at times, guarantees that my bed will be in perfect shape when I go to bed. All the sheet corners will be tight, everything will be even on both sides, and it looks nice :D I love going to bed after I've washed my sheets)
8. I (finally) got my mail key (I had the pleasure of going through almost 2 years worth of mail, because clearly the tenants before us never checked the mail. And out of all of it, only 2 were not advertisements. Also, Rogers needs to calm the heck down).
9. I got two late birthday presents (tea thermos and sushi!)
10. I actually got more done on my to-do-list than I thought.
11. The repair guys (or rather, the guy and gal) came and fixed everything we had listed on our deficiencies list.
12. Only one more day till Summit!

Things That Made Thursday Not So Awesome
1. I had to go to an extra 3hr class this evening.
2. Said 3hr class gave me more reading to do.
3. I missed my bus and panicked to find another one (I still made it on time).
4. Laundry
5. The repair guy did something to the toilet to fix it, but in doing that, created another problem with it.

258. Something you want to learn.
Crocheting (I would like to become good at it). How to use all the settings on my camera. How to force creative thoughts....

YO!

I'm (kinda) in the news! Check it out! I painted that piano! With my friend Croissant, we are the "high school students". Ah I'm so happy it finally made it to where it was supposed to be. We painted that over a year ago, and hadn't heard anything about where it was going or when. That just made my day :)

I can't believe I did this.

And so close to the end too. I mean really, the last week of my first year of university. And look at what I've done.

I skipped class.

My italian class. To be fair, we were just watching more presentations and doing some exam review. But since the exam isn't cumulative and she already handed out the review, so I didn't see the need to go. And I mean it's not like I decided to skip ahead of time. I was working on my digital art assignment cause I had some time before class started, and I just really got into my art I guess. I had only missed about 15 minutes of class by the time I noticed I was late. But then I figured, why go? So I didn't. I feel kind of guilty. But I also had this huge adrenaline rush and felt like a total rebel. :)

130. What do you want to do after high school?
(One would hope that the upcoming answer is "what I'm doing right now").
Yeah, probably what I'm doing right now. Not as in skipping class, but going to university, being in GBDA. It's a good life.

131. If you're being extremely quiet, what does it mean?
Usually I'm embarrassed/nervous.

Maybe the Internet raised us, or maybe people are jerks

- A World Alone, Lorde

Oh, and Happy April Fool's Day!

Ok so Josh does this thing where I'll be eating by myself and he sits somewhere else, because he doesn't see me. But then once he's seated he'll see that I'm also eating, more noticeably alone. However, by the time he works up the courage to come and sit with me, I'll have finished eating. I'll be getting up and leaving. And every single time (because it has happened multiple times), he'll be on his way over or just about to get up to move, he'll see me leaving and I can see how he dies a little inside. And now that I'm typing this out, I'm realizing: am I being mean? Should I just sit there and let him come over? Man, I dunno about any of this stuff.
I'm doing a project about digital worlds and our "second lives". I'm doing a wedding scene where the couple is texting their vows to each other. I asked Josh if I could take a picture of his hands holding a phone. And so now our phone conversation has wedding vows in it...

129. What are your favourite stores to shop in?
I'm going to limit it to stores where I could/would actually buy something, because for all you know, I could be taking the bus every weekend to Pandora and admiring everything I can never have. I like Winners, (Old Navy???), Forever 21 (kind of), I don't know. I'm not really a person who has to have branded clothes, it's really just whatever is cheapest. I've had a craving to go thrift shopping recently...(CAMP!)

You should all go play 2048. It's ruining my life because it's so addicting and I have studying to be doing.

Crayon Art

I think I mentioned that I would take a picture of this eventually, so here it is. I would take a picture of the weeping angel painting that I did (which I really like how it turned out), but alas, it is hanging on a wall in the arts building on the other side of campus, so you will just have to wait until I get it back for a photo.

Ok, based on input not through comments...

110. Do you still talk to your first crush?
Nope.

It's the little things / That convince me to stay / It's your fingertips / And the music they play

- First Defeat, Noah Gundersen

"Self Portrait"

This is a "self-portrait" (kind of) assignment that I have to do. I've organized the pictures by theme horizontally and by colour vertically. I wasn't sure if the colour sorting was too weighted? As in, the the right column is too bland/neutral? Should I skip the colour organization?

Thoughts

Thought numero uno: Giphy is like my favourite new website. It's just GIFs. Endless GIFs. It's beautiful. They even have a reaction GIF section and I just

Thought #2: I don't know if this it old news or not, but Brad Pitt fINALLY CUT HIS HAIR.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole Macklemore look on him, but anything is better than the long hair he's been sporting since the beginning of forever.

Thought number 3: WHAT THE HELL DOES RUSSIA THINK THEY'RE DOING INVADING UKRAINE??? This could quite possibly lead to something bigger like  WWIII and I do not want that. No invading. Please.

Thought Num Four: this ever changing numbering system I've adapted is part homage to Margo Roth Speigleman and her Capitalization Equality (Paper Towns, John Green), part me being not myself, and part pissing me off because it is not me.

Thought Integer 5: Yo I got 85% on my econ midterm which is way better than I actually did because the prof bell curved the marks. I actually got 70%, which I'm still pretty happy with. I've done worse. (The class average was 49%. Out of 40, the highest mark was 31 and the lowest mark was 4.)

Thought Number Sei: I can't believe February is over already. On the other hand, that means it is now March and I will soon find out if I got the job at FCC. I CAN'T WAIT.

Thought # 7: I'm trying to watch all (well, most, really) of the Oscar nominated films before the Oscars happen, which I will be watching tomorrow evening. I even printed off a ballot card :) So far I've seen The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Gravity, and American Hustle in the Best Picture category.  So far my favourite is Gravity. It was truly an amazing movie, I really liked it. I enjoyed Her as well. I wasn't a huge fan of American Hustle, which kind of disappointed me. I didn't end up finishing it. I'm going to watch 12 Years a Slave this evening. (I've also seen Frozen, Despicable Me 2, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, Start Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 which are nominated in other categories).

Thought # Eight: I need to choose my courses for the fall term this week. Problem is I can't find the list of courses I'm required to take, so I don't even know how many electives I have to choose.

Thought number nove: I painted a Weeping Angel paint-by-number style and I really like how it turned out. Unfortunately for you, I'm such a lazy butt that you don't get a picture. At least not today.

Thought num 10: I should probably start reading one of 5 chapters I need to read this week but screw it it's the weekend I watched two hours of photoshop tutorials I'm going to do some fun reading.

au revoir

Feminism

OK LAST ONE I PROMISE.
I think this is the one I'm going to go with, word-wise. So just if you have any comments about composition, etc. I wasn't sure whether to do "fe" or "male" in red (or a different colour? Oh! Maybe I should match the not equal sign colour, whatever I end up choosing, to be the same in this one. yes excellent. Annnd I'm pretty sure that made no sense whatsoever. You know what? It's my blog, I do what I like).

speaking of my blog and I do what I want....

 hehehe i have so many of them :3

little benedict kitten

I feel like I should just let you all know that I have my Italian midterm tomorrow and I spent this evening watching Sherlock bonus features on my BRAND NEW SHERLOCK SEASON THREE DVD.

No Angels

Ok and what about this one?

I tried to make the words look like an equal sign...is it too subtle?

104. What are you 5 favourite songs right now?

(Funny this question should be asked now because I am obsessed with "No Angels" right now).

1. No Angels, mix of TLC's "No Scrubs" and The xx's "Angels", Bastille feat. Ella
2. All of Me, John Legend
3. Let It Go, Idina Menzel
4. Same Love, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Mary Lambert
5. Gravity, Sara Bareilles

And I will stumble and fall / I'm still learning love / Just starting to crawl

- Say Something, A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera 

Ok, forget that garbage image. What about this?

And So It Begins Again

What message do you get out of this?

(asap please :3 )

102. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?
Mom and Dad.

103. What does the most recent text that you sent say?
"Excellent" (in regards to my mom's baking)

So in a rhyme I wrote you down / Now you'll live through the ages / I can feel your pulse in the pages

...

I have written you down / Now you will live forever / And all the world will read you / And you will live forever / In eyes not yet created / On tongues that are not born

- Poet, Bastille