An Ikea vlog.

I will learn to cook I swear

Sandwiches, sandwiches.

Hi! My god, why am I blogging so much?!
These are the last pictures from the first Diana Mini roll, and they were all taken in Hawaii.


Yesterday evening I went down the street to my friend's apartment building and a bunch of us watched hockey and ate sushi and shot pool in the club room. The actual reason for us being there was so that I could take some pictures of a girl I met through my friend. She's moving back to Japan soon and I'm not sure what the pictures were for but she wanted some nice photos of herself so Matt asked me if I could do that and I said okay. It was fun to use my digital camera again.


Kara and I have started going out for lunch every Friday, since there are so many restaurants and cafes that we think look cool but never go into. Last week we went to an Italian place in Little Italy and I had an excellent zucchini and red pepper panini. On the way back we stopped by an ice cream parlour that had one-dollar hot chocolate and chatted with the cute guy behind the counter about the decemberists. Then we went to Soundscapes record store and spent all our money on concert tickets. The week before last we went to this place in kensington market called the grilled cheese. It was a tiny place that looked like a log cabin inside and there was one woman working there and they had all these different types of grilled cheese you could get. It was amazing and pretty much my favorite place to eat in Toronto now.


On days that are not Friday I have been eating a lot of slightly expired Starbucks sandwiches that I get from my friend Shane who works there. I like how the wrapping makes the same crinkly noise as the wrapping on the sandwich that Beyonce gives Lady Gaga in the Telephone video. (Actually I'm not sure if that was a sandwich. It might have been something else.) Right now my roommate is having her soccer team over for a potluck or something and they are quite loud. I have to go out to the kitchen to wash a plate but I think I might just wait until they are gone.


My dad's and my brother's birthdays are coming up. As I was thinking about what to get them it occurred to me that I'll be turning 20 this year! Wtf! After that I will never be a teenager again!
......
...YAAAYY!!


(I should clearly be a knee model)

I think that's all. Tomorrow is Monday, so, 9am calculus with the prof that hates us.
Baaiiii!!

A problem that should not be such a big problem

Hi!
Here are some more pictures from my first Diana Mini roll. The first three were taken at the Hawaii airport, and the rest are from the yurting adventure on the Oregon coast. Overall I am pretty happy with how they turned out, and I like how I can do overlapping exposures with this camera easier than with the Holga. Plus it's a very pretty camera to carry around!
Anyway, you may notice that I never post photos of Toronto. (Well I mean I have pictures from going around different areas with Kara and Rifqi and stuff, but never any actually decent photos that I put thought into). Even though I almost always have at least one camera in my bag, I can never seem to stop, take it out, and fire the shutter. WHY?!


One thing I have noticed about Toronto is that most people seem to be either in a rush, or very concentrated on getting where they're going. Usually both. So I think I kind of got into a fast-paced habit like that too. When I'm walking to class I always look around and see and think about the things that are weird or pretty or in any way remarkable, but I keep up my pace and walk on by. Now that I'm used to passing though and seeing things on the move, it takes a lot more effort to stop and think about a still frame. Sometimes I'll turn on my ipod, shove my hands in my coat pockets and arrive at class without even having thought about photography.


Another thing is that there are actually people here. A lot of people! Everywhere!! And it makes me self-conscious and paranoid about taking pictures. I am certain that no one will care or think about it for more than a second if I stop and take out a camera. Even if they did think it was weird or something (why would they?), why should it matter to me? And people take pictures in Toronto all the time, anyway. Plus you are more anonymous in a city than anywhere else! But these reasonable arguments can't stop me from thinking:
"They'll think I'm stupid for taking a picture of a tree!"
"I'll look like a tourist!"
"If I take a picture they'll think I'm stalking them!!"
"I'll look like I'm trying to be arty and they'll think I'm all pretentious!! OH GOD, AM I PRETENTIOUS?!?!"
I love looking at street photography in particular and it's something I would really like to practice, but these thoughts are kiiiind of getting in the way.


I'm also not used to taking photos in such a dense area. Things seem to be all smashed together and it feels more messy and less natural. Also, I know that there are tons of amazing photographers swarming around Toronto, so I feel like everything I could shoot has been done before, and better. Maybe the fear of coming up with terrible pictures is subconsciously keeping me from trying at all, like people who procrastinate because they're perfectionists and so they sabotage themselves so that later they can say "I only did poorly because I left it until the last minute." But it would actually be kind of good if my pictures turned out bad, because you have to suck at something before you can be any good at it. So I'm not taking pictures because I'm afraid I'll suck, but I suck because I'm not taking any pictures?!


It's the people that are most interesting in the city, but I never really got the hang of photographing people. I think it takes a lot of patience and intuition and some luck too. And the best street photographers are the bold ones who can get up close to strangers and, like, not freak out or apologize or anything but just take a picture and move on. That is something I'll definitely have to practice.


This sounds totally crazy and like I'm over-analyzing things! I should just throw all this away and go take some fucking pictures! I've already tried that though and all this shit keeps coming back to me so that's why I wrote this post, so I can stop it from cluttering up my brain and get it organized. Now my anxieties are out of my head and onto my blog. This was probably a reallllly uninteresting post to read but at least it is over now! Thank you for reading, or skipping to the end! Baaaiiiiiii!!

This is mostly about weather, sorry

Hi! The first week of the new semester is over and the snow has arrived in Toronto. I forgot how sparkly snow can be. Queen's Park is now white, and everything glitters as you walk through. From the second floor of Pratt library I'm distracted by the Christmas-card images out the window. The old stone Burwash buildings adorned with crisp white play host to twinkling icicles while flurries of snowflakes dance in the wind. Spindly tree branches stand out like black text on a white page. Everything is untouched and silent and perfect.
....On the other hand, God seems to have spewed a huge dirt-flavored slushie all over the streets and sidewalks. I guess city winter has its ups and downs. Invisible rivers of wind tear like frozen hell between towering buildings. It's ridiculous.
To get my mind off of the cold, I'll post some warm-weather Hawaii photos. These were taken with my new Diana Mini camera on expired Costco film I found at Goodwill.













That was nice.
On Tuesday I'm trekking out to Ikea with Bachan to buy cooking things so that I can finally be able to cook things. I am very excited. The other night I got really really hungry before bed and everything was closed (except Rabba, the hobo-y all-night grocery store, but bad things happen when I go there) and the only food I had was candy from going to see Tron. I ended up eating some Kit Kats and going to bed but it didn't exactly fill me up. I'm sure that once I become a master chef I won't have these kinds of problems anymore. Literally the only things in my fridge right now are vodka and film.
I was just looking over concert listings and apparently Randy Newman is going to be playing at Con Hall, the Mean Girls building where I have physics and anthro, in March! Hahahaha, what the hell?
Ok I am going to go chill at the library for a while. Baaiiiii!