It's Madness I Tell You, Sheer Madness

Oh my god, what has happened to my city? I mean, first we have the earthquake (first one in like a zillion years. I didn't even know we could have earthquakes in Toronto). And now, we have these insane violent protests:

It's the G20 Summit this weekend in Toronto, and the whole city has been going crazy for weeks to prepare for it. Apparently, it cost us like a billion dollars to put on, which has made a bunch of people mad, such as these insane protesters. I thought they were just being paranoid when they canceled all the schools yesterday and everything. But apparently, their paranoia was justified. This city has gone insane. They're burning cop cars and smashing Starbucks (ooh, lots of alliteration!). Half the city has gone into lockdown to try to avoid these nutcases. The protesters are throwing bricks at cops and tear gas is being used and people are being arrested left and right. It's madness I tell you, complete madness.

I must say, these protesters make me angry. I'm fine with a peaceful protest. I've actually participated in protests in a the past. But protesters have no need--and no right--to destroy the city. How is smashing the windows of a family owned business making a point? They are protesting the overspending on the G20, which is a fine issue. But they shouldn't cost the city of Toronto more in the process! That defeats the entire purpose of the protest! Idiots! Complete and udder idiots!

So, now, half the city is destroyed and it going to cost millions of dollars to fix! Yay! Great protest! I was in the library, working on my summer homework when it started, and my dad bolted down to the library to pick me up because the protesters were getting near and the library might have to go under lockdown. Yah. That's make sense. To protest G20, let's attack the library. I mean, what are these people thinking?



I can't wait until this G20 nonsense is over with. There are planes flying over my house all the time (and man, do those military helicopters make a lot of noise!) and these protesters are freaking maniacs. I want my city back.

I love you Toronto. I hope you'll be okay.

The One with All the TV Shows

As I may have mentioned, I watch a lot of tv. An abnormal, unhealthy amount. Some shows, like Glee, are actually of some quality (in my opinion, at least). Some are complete garbage (Secret Life of the American Teenager, I'm lookin' at you). Generally, though, it seems to me that shows can go one of two ways. Either, the first few seasons can suck, and the show gets better as time goes on, or the first few seasons are great and the show gets run into the ground. In fact, I think I can sort most of the shows I've watched into those categories. Let's see:

Shows that started bad and got better:

1) Big Bang Theory

The first season of this show is AWFUL. I cannot stand to watch it. The show just hadn't hit its stride. There was too much Leonard and Penny and not enough Sheldon. The jokes just weren't funny. The dynamic wasn't there yet. Then, second season, the show was great. Penny was more involved in the group and there was way more Sheldon. The show worked so much better. Season three continued improving in the same way. Here's hoping season four is just as good! (with lots of Sheldon! And his girlfriend!)

2) Friends

I love Friends. It is easily my favourite show of all time. But even I can admit it has faults, the biggest being the first two seasons. They just aren't entertaining. I mean, Ross and Rachel are sweet, but the show wasn't funny. I have rewatched season 3-10 hundreds of times. I have only watched season 1 and 2 once, just to find out what happened. Friends is a great show, but only in the later years (personally, my favourite season is season 8).

3) Sex and the City

I don't think I made it through all of the first season of this show. It wasn't entertaining. The characters just weren't there yet. And I couldn't stand that weird thing where random people talked at the camera. I absolutely loved season 2 of Sex and the City. It is probably my favourite season of the show. But I just can't take that first season. Awful, just awful.

4) Project Runway

The first season of Project Runway is so weird! I mean, in the first episode someone actually makes a dress out of a shower curtain. That's it. He just takes the show curtain and wraps it around his model. No fancy shapes or layering or even any sewing I don't think. And he wasn't even in the bottom three! How is that possible? If someone did that in the current season the judges would destroy them. I mean come on! That's the problem with the first season (and to a certain extent the second season) of Project Runway. The designers just aren't talented enough. I mean, I know the show is supposed to be about discovering new, raw talent. But there has to be some standard. Half the fun of the show is looking at the pretty outfits. If the designers all suck, what's the point of watching? Thankfully, things got better after the third season. There designers got more talent and the show was edited a lot better. Now it's a great show (the highlight of my thursday!).

Shows that started out great and got worse:

1) The West Wing

The first season of West Wing is possibly the best season of tv ever made. And the second and third season aren't bad either. After the fourth season, though, the show plummets. I mean, it still a good show, but it's not GREAT. Part of it was the timeline problem. Seasons 6 and 7 were election years, which meant the show had to change because Bartlett was leaving office. And by changing, the show lost some of its magic. There are still some great episodes after third season (The Supremes with Evelyn Lange and Christopher Malretti comes to mind), but no consistently good season.

2) How I Met Your Mother

Season one of the show is good, but season two is the best. It's really fun with Robin and Ted dating (everyone knows I like a good couple) and Lily and Marshall getting married (and Barney is awesome, as always). The later seasons, the fifth season in particular, are weak in comparison. It's like writers are running out of material and just throw stuff together. The characters (Lily especially) are going from funny to annoying. Plus, I really want to find out who the mother is!

3) Gossip Girl

Okay, so this show has never been great. But it has been better, during its first season. I mean, the show was still ridiculous, but it wasn't quite so unbelievable. Plus, Dan and Serena were together and Dan wasn't all corrupted yet. Of course, there was no Chuck and Blair (well, actually, there was, in the limo, but it wasn't the same). But it was still a better season than the two that have followed.

4) Gilmore Girls

Again, the first season of this show is AMAZING. Every episode has so much in it, and so many layers. After that, things went down hill. Seasons two and three were average. Season four was pretty good (the finale kiss being the highlight, of course). Season five and six were interesting, because we finally got to see Luke and Lorelai together. Season seven SUCKED. The show's creators left and toke the funny with them. The show was no longer witty or funny or entertaining in any way. I watched the season to see what happened between Luke and Lorelai and to see where Rory's life went. But it was pretty bad television. I bought the first 6 seasons on DVD. I didn't buy season 7.

Obviously, it's better when a tv show starts out bad and gets better. You may ask why I would watch a show if it started off so bad. Well, I usually watch shows out of sequence. I watched the third season of TBBT and then the second, and then the first. I started watching Project Runway during the fourth season. Then, once I finish all the later episodes, I usually go back and watch the first couple seasons, which I can only get through because I am so invested in the characters by that point (and I like Heidi Klum so much!).

The sad thing is, these are just a few from a grand list of tv shows I have watched a significant part of: Northern Exposure, Party Down, How I Met Your Mother, Brothers & Sisters, The Big Bang Theory, Flight of the Conchords, Gossip Girl, Friends, Seinfeld, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, 30 Rock, Make It or Break It, Dawson's Creek, Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, My So-Called Life, Radio Free Roscoe, The Lizzie McGuire Show, Grey's Anatomy, Everwood, Life, Unexpected, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Project Runway, Glee, Being Erica, Corner Gas, That's So Raven, Life with Derek, 10 Things I Hate About You, Survivor, The Amazing Race, 8 Simple Rules, America's Next Top Model, The Apprentice, Boy Meets World, Paris Hilton BFF, Felicity, Reba, Judging Amy, Law and Order: SVU, Zoey 101, The OC, My Boys.

Here is a good article on tv shows that suck that you can't stop watching, much like the phenomenon described above.

Ahhh, I just fell asleep while typing. Must go to bed now. Sleepy sleep. Bye bye.

Cue the Hallelujah Choruses!

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HAL-LAY-LU-JAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's over! It's finally FINALLY over. All my exams are done!

Yay! I get my life back! Double yay! Oh god, this feels good. After an entire month of working around the clock (no sleep + no food=no sanity), it's done. Four finals done. Four more credits earned (12/16 done! YAY!!). And, the best part is, IT'S SUMMER!!!!

You will probably agree with me that summer is awesome.

First of all, there's the lack of things: lack of homework (YAYYYYYYYYY), lack of school, lack of annoying classmates, lack of winter coats (yes, we do get sun in Canada!), lack of responsibilities all around.

Then there's all the fun new additions: SUN, swimming, Canada Day (American translation: Fourth of July), visiting family, traveling, relax

ing, reading at the beach. All good things. Very good things.

What are my summer plans, you may ask? Well, let's take a visual tour.

First I will be going here:

Yes, the classic amusement park visit. Prerequisite of any summer experience. Of course, I am deathly afraid of rollercoasters, so I'll just being going on the swings and the teacups and the water rides. But still, tons of fun will be had. Very, very excited.

Then, I will be going here with my mom to visit her side of the family,

I get to see all my cousins and aunts and my grandma. All very fun. A little nerve racking, with my plethora of social phobias, but fun nonetheless. I love my family.

Next, I get to go here: (I AM SO EXCITED!!)

Epic, I know. It's not only another country. It's not only another continent. It's half way around the world!!! SOOOOOOOOO exciting. I CANNOT WAIT!!! Also, while I'm there I also get to go to New Zealand, Tazmania, and maybe New Guinea! So many countries! (And so many stickers for my suitcase!).

So yes, I am looking forward to an awesome summer. Of course, I can never escape school completely. There's the typical summer reading (6 books worth!), and a world lit essay and a big freaking extended essay. All in all, 4000 pages of reading, and 6000 words of writing. Definitely NOT looking forward to that...

But, to make up for it, there's some great books/tv shows to look forward to. As previously mentioned, one my absolute favourite tv shows, Make It or Break It, comes back on June 28th (Emily and Damon all the way!!). But that's just the beginning. The Emmy nominations are announced in the beginning of July (if Jim Parsons isn't nominated, I will kill someone). Work of Art and Project Runway, my two favourite reality tv shows, are both airing. The Emmy awards are announced (if Jim Parsons doesn't win, I will kill someone else). And all these books to are released: Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner, The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June by Robin Benway, You Wish by Mandy Hubbard, The DUFF by Kody Keplinger.

Yes, summer is great (even if summer homework kind of sucks). But for right now, I'm just so happy exams are over. Cue the hallelujah choruses once again.

To Do or Not To Do, That is The Question

Right now all of my energy is going into NOT watching the season premiere of Secret Life of the American Teenager that aired tonight. As any regular readers would know (if I had any regular readers), I decided to cut Secret Life from my tv schedule. But tonight is the first new episode since I made that decision. I can feel myself bending. So, I decided to write a blog post, to stop myself.

Anyways, I am SUPER SUPER SUPER STRESSED right now,

This is the opposite of me right now. Fun.

I am right in the middle of culminatings, and a week before exams. I am working around the clock, and still, it never seems to end. Today alone I wrote two essays, wrote and rehearsed a french presentation, and made the visual aides for another presentation. And tomorrow I have to wake up and do it all again. I'm actually at the point where I'm skipping school to finish homework. New level of pathetic, I know.

I also know that no one cares about my homework, but I'd like to make a list so I can cross things off as I go along. There is nothing I love more then crossing things off a to do list.

CULMINATING/EXAMS TO DO LIST

1) Philosophy culminating essay DONE

2) Philosophy presentation DONE

3) Math Test #1 NOT DOING

4) Math Test #2 Modified--now a math assignment DONE

5) Tons of math questions NOT DOING

6) French presentation DONE

7) French culminating DONE

8) Study for math exam DONE

9) Study for french exam DONE

10) Study for biology exam DONE

There it is. Exactly 10 things. 10 huge things, mind you, but only ten things. I can do it. I can do it. Yes, I can. Only 2 more weeks. Only 2 more weeks.

In between all the madness I've been watching lots of tv and doing lots of online things, as I have some things to say:

-Brothers & Sisters fans read this article. Life is ending as we know it. The show is ending. How will I go on?

-How addictive is Yahoo Answers? I can't stop answering pop culture questions! Gossip Girl? Friends? Sex and the City? Make It or Break It? It never ends!

-Speaking of Make It or Break It, it comes back soon! Yah! Life is good!

Oh no, I've wasted to much time. I have french homework to do. And tv shows NOT to watch. Wish me luck (I need it!)

One of Those Days

You knows those days, when life seems so unfair? Today is one of those days. All week I've been killing myself (yes, literally. No sleep. No food. Body slowly deteriorating) to get all these culminatings done. History culminating. Math culminating. French culminating. I've been working my butt off (not literally this time. I've been eating junk food all week to sustain myself) and you know what I get for it? I get sick!! Are you kidding me?!? I can't afford to get sick now! I have exams in a week and a half! And I still have so much culminating stuff to do. This is NOT the time to get sick. But alas,

This sucks in SO many ways. I cannot afford to miss school right now. And I cannot afford to waste any time. But I also can't lift my head from my pillow. There's no way to get any work done. I was freaking out about the lack of time before I got sick. I have no idea what I'm going to do now. The suckiest thing, though, is that I am going to recover right before exams. Which means that I will be healthy enough to write them but not healthy enough to study for them. Yippeee!

Now, enough of this wow-is-me crap. I could have it a lot worse, I know. It's just hard to remember that sometimes. And besides, being sick has some benefits. Lots of tv watching (meaning lots of How I Met Your Mother, my new addiction, as well as a few Big Bang Theory repeats and a Project Runway clip or two). Lots of web surfing. I've found some pretty cool stuff:

1) The Tim Gunn Video Blog

As any Project Runway fan knows, Tim Gunn is awesome. And as I now know, his video blog is awesome. He tells his real opinions, and doesn't hold back like most celebrities. He's not right out mean, but he's honest, and very insightful. Sadly, only season 7 videos are posted on youtube, so the rest can't be viewed from Canada.

2) The Most Awesome TV Blog

I stumbled across this blog in a Google search of some sort, though I can't remember what for. Wow, was I lucky. It is an awesome, awesome blog. The author reviews individual episodes of some of my favourite shows, like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother and Flight of the Conchords. It really interesting. Also, the comments section is always great, reading everyone's different opinions. All together, one of the best blogs I have ever found. Hooray!

3) The Entertainment Weekly 100 Top Characters of the Last 20 Years List

I love me a list, of course. And I love me a pop culture list even more. So, of course, I had to go through and find all the characters I knew. The bolded ones are my favourites:

94) Truman from The Truman Show (awesome movie, but I don't remember anything spectacular about this character)

92) Christopher Boone from Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (GREAT BOOK!!)

91) Hancock from Hancock (meh)

88) Napoleon Dynamite from Napoleon Dynamite (a tad bit overrated)

82) Tracy Flick from Election (read the novel, didn't see the movie. Not Tom Perrotta's best work)

79) Elphaba from Wicked (my favourite character from my favourite musical)

69) Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada (good call, even if she was played by Meryl Streep)

66) Allie and Noah from The Notebook (Best Couple Of All Time)

65) Lorelai and Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls (Best Mother and Daughter of All Time)

60) Mary Jones from Push by Sapphire (AGAIN, GREAT BOOK)

56) Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother (been watching How I Met Your Mother for a few weeks. Barney is definitely my favourite character!)

55) Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock (pretty funny guy)

54) Juno from Juno (Ellen Page is awesome. And, incidentally, Canadian. Double awesome)

53) Edward from Twilight (oh dear god, KILL ME NOW)

46) Jerry Maguire from Jerry Maguire (only good Tom Cruise role)

34) Cher from Clueless (YES!!!!!!!!!!)

25) Woody from Toy Story (Childhood favourite)

24) Felicity from Felicity (awesome hair)

18) Sue Sylvester from Glee (Most hilarious character of all time!)

16) Bridget Jones from Bridget Jones (a little annoying, actually. And the movies sucked)

15) Shrek from Shrek (yeah, sure....)

9) Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City (I like Charlotte better, but Carrie's alright, I guess)

6) Rachel Green from Friends (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

5) The Joker from The Dark Knight (Did not like this film. Do not understand why this character is so high on the list)

2) Harry Potter from Harry Potter (Hermoine is WAY BETTER)

Good list. I mean Edward Cullen should go die (and, I know, he can't. He's a vampire and what not). And there's a lack book characters, which is annoying. And Homer Simpson won. The state of the world today, I tell you. But most of the shows I like were represented. And Rachel is 6th! Yah!

My head is officially THROBBING. Must go kill self. Or watch more How I Met Your Mother. Whatever makes me feel better (I'm betting on Barney, personally. Suit up!). Bye for now, dear readers.