I am a horrible sports fan

The Olympics are almost over and this time, I have been following them with what can only be described as religious voracity. I know every medal we have won, and in which sport it was won. I know the story behind all of the Canadian athletes that are competing and winning medals for our humble little country. All of this makes me love Canada like a fat kid loves Rocky Road Ice cream on a hot day of eating nothing but celery. It makes me however, a horrible sports fan.

The Olympics are an odd thing, though. I am by no means a sports fanatic, I enjoy watching the occasional NHL game, and stumble through a conversation with a fan about Luongo and such. When the Olympics are on, however, I love hockey, I feel a connection with the sport that defines the country I love so much, yet I am not an avid fan. I am barely even a fairweather fan of the sport. I am an Olympic fan, a fan of Canada. It makes it easy, I don't have to know all about the Maple Leafs or Habs, I just have to know that I love Canada, and I want our boys to kick the snot out of the Americans.

I think Olympic fans are different from regular fans, and I am sure that if I was a regular, hardcore fan, I would turn up my nose at these horrible Olympic fans. Olympic fans don't really know much about the sport, when the games are over, we don't go over all the plays in the game, we switch over to another event and cheer on Canada some more. We don't know all the stats on the best players, and we don't really care who was the number one draft pick. All we know is that Canada is the best and we are going to cheer our little brains out until we win. I am fairly certain that Holden Caufield would have something to say about the phoney-ness that is the Olympic fan. We are worse than fairweather fans, we only care once every four, maybe two years.

Olympic fans are not all bad. Being one, I can see the benefits. While, we may not be constant, never-wavering, die-hard fans, we REALLY care about sports for two whole weeks, and by George are we going to show it. We buy all the Olympic garb, talk about the Olympics, update every person we meet on the current medal standings, and potential medal wins for the rest of the day, we watch and cheer for ALL Canadian athletes, and we paint our faces and cheer until our throats fall off.

Maybe I am not a genuine sports fan, and after the Olympics, I will most likely continue to watch re-runs of Family Guy in lieu of watching the game, but I am most definitely a Canada fan. I love Canada, and anything that shows the world how awesome we are, I will continue to support.

All that I have to say is

GO CANADA GO!

-ariel.

I, Heart Cake

Yesterday to avoid studying for my media law midterm (and because I am super sweet!), I made these rather adorable heart-shaped cakes for my boyfriend and roommates. Brittany convinced me to make them from scratch (as opposed to my usual cake-in-a-box) and I even whipped up a batch of buttercream icing to go on them!!! Thank you Sears and your beautiful spring form heart pans!

Here was the result...

Needless to say, I had cake this morning for breakfast.

-h

So I Smoked Some Salvia for School....

For my latest reporting assignment we had to do something that gave us “new insight” into a possible feature topic. Being the adventurous person I am, I decided to do drugs. Salvia Divinorum is an herb, much like marijuana, that when smoked or ingested produces a hallucinogenic high (similar to one experienced on LSD or magic mushrooms – I have not done those, it’s just what I’m told!). It is completely legal in Canada.

Here’s my trip… Enjoy!

It’s Sunday night, shortly after 9pm. While most of my friends are catching up on homework, I’m sitting at my boyfriend Dane’s kitchen table, with his roommate Rayne, carefully measuring the right amount of dark green salvia leaves into a lime green bong.

My mission however is purely academic. I’m smoking salvia divinorum, a drug that is legal in Canada, in the name of good journalism – hoping to find out firsthand the drug’s psychological effects.

Despite hours of background research I have no idea what to expect. The clerk at Crosstown Traffic, a marijuana paraphernalia shop, where I bought the salvia, told me trying to explain a salvia trip to someone who has never tried it, is like explaining the colour red to someone that’s been blind his whole life.

So I’m a little nervous.

It’s 9:07pm; I light the saliva, place my lips around the top of the bong and slowly suck in the murky air.

After a minute, my skin begins to feel tingly and refreshed, like I’ve just jumped into a cold pool on a scorching summer day. I become very aware of my surroundings. The lights, the smell of burning salvia, the music, they all seem more intense.

I move to sit on Dane’s lap, feeling nervous, and put my head on his shoulder. I close my eyes. It feels like the two of us are flying. I look up, and see that we’re attached to a giant red balloon, speeding high above lakes and treetops. I can feel the wind on my cheeks and can smell the scent of pine, coming from the forest below. It feels so real, but as soon as I open my eyes the sensation stops.

I close my eyes again. Now I’m sitting on a swing high above the ground, under a red and gold tent, surrounded by a cheering crowd. I’m an acrobat. Beneath me I can see elephants and clowns, every face staring up at me. I lean backwards and forwards, while the audience applauds. At first I feel confident, and then I worry that I do not know enough tricks to keep them impressed.

I’m jerked back to reality when Dane grabs my arm. He says I almost swayed off his lap and onto the floor.

After that my high begins to end. My body still tingles, but my mind is sound. It’s only been about 5 minutes, but I feel exhausted.

So, with my journalistic curiosity fulfilled and my salvia mission accomplished, I head to bed, wondering how I’m ever going to write what I just felt into a story that makes sense.

-alex

TCM

There is nothing better than sitting all bundled up on the couch on a cold day watching TCM.

For those of you who don't know what TCM is, it stands for Turner Classic Movies, the best channel there is (aside from the Food Network...) it shows old movies all the time complete with an often brief, and sometimes long background usually by Robert Osborne.

Now, Robbie used to be an actor and now he is the host and resident film historian at TCM, and he is awesome at it.

Anyway, because we are poor students, we can't afford the fancy cable, where you get all the specialty channels, instead we have to settle for the basics, and Rogers-On-Demand, which has become my single favourite tool ever. You see, Rogers-On-Demand has recently let us watch movies on TCM, for FREE.

These movies are:

Breakfast at Tiffany's, the classic movie of love, New York, prostitution and drug rings. In this movie Audrey inspired every girl who has ever seen this movie to want to name her cat Cat, and parade around Tiffany's in the wee hours of the morning with sunglasses, pearls and a danish.

The Graduate, the movie that made Dustin Hoffmann and Mrs.Robinson famous. Of course, like many other classics, this movie isn't what you think it would be. Not only is Dusty ambivalent towards Mrs. Robinson, but he also could really care less about anything, except Elaine. Now, I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, it's a stellar movie and it makes me want to own a little red convertible and drive it up and down the Pacific coast until it dies.

There is also the movie In Cold Blood, based on the book by Mr.Capote. Now, I have yet to watch the movie version, but the book was amazing. It was creepy and chilling and I very highly recommend it to anyone who has not read it.

-ariel.

AWOL

Well, since I've had relatively little work to do in January, and finally had the scrapings of a social life, I have been rather missing from the blog. Apologies. Now that work has begun again (or should have last week - Sorry Mom), I'm sure my posts will become more frequent again.

Currently on the roster is tons of Stats, my Philosophy essay on the Propaganda of H1N1 (ya ya I know... bad ass), and a History of Political Thought essay. My PoliSci essay is contrasting Machiavelli and Hobbes' take on religion as linked to politics. I decided to Google Hobbes + Religion because after reading the chapter 'Of Religion' in Leviathan, one is needless to say left with more confusion than before. And instead of being miraculously informed on what exactly the hell Hobbes was trying to say, I fell more in love with the internet.

THIS is what came up when I google searched "Hobbes Religion":

Back in Middle School (okay fine all of High School) when I was a babysitter, one of my neighbours had almost every single Calvin and Hobbes comic book. They didn't have cable so once the girls would be in bed, I'd read the comics. I forgot how AWESOME these strips are. They are applicable to every part of life... from hating on school (see above)

to nerding out about science...

to explaining the complexities of supply and demand ...

Yes, the political nerd in me LOVED this last one. Whatever.

Alright. Now back to the "real" Hobbes, Lord give me strength...

(I just want to wipe that smug grin off Hobbes' face...)

-N