Post-Finals Exhilieration, Point-Form and Ranked

It's the most wonderful time of the year! - in my humble opinion (I could type IMHO, but considering it took me months to finally figure out what the hell that meant, I'll spare the ignorant the trouble), next to Christmas, of course. Don't agree? Here's my list of why spring is the (second!) best time of the year (try and deny these babies):

1. University is finishing up - all that's left is exams, and are they REALLY that hard? (guaranteed you spend more time researching for papers, writing papers, editing papers, and finishing up your course work then you do studying)
2. The days are getting longer - the sun is barely down at 8pm, giving you much more time after school/work to enjoy outsideage
3. The summer outdoor concert series line-ups are announced
4. It's warm enough to go out without a jacket and enjoy the outdoors, before the smog alerts, sweltering humid heat that makes your clothes stick to you, etc., etc., generally making it impossible to do anything productive.
5. Tax Return Time - Whole loads of cash money in my hand. The myriad of ways I could enjoy it dance like sugar plums in my head.
   
6. My birthday! - That's right y'all. May 17th, part of the May 2-4 weekend in Canada. A looong weekend of BBQs, Drinking, Fireworks, etc. in the spirit of spring and the 22nd year of my birth. Mark it on your calendars.

By the way (btw - there's another, not so difficult one), May is definitely the best month of the year to have your birthday. For all the reasons listed above, and additionally,

1. Not too close or too far from Christmas - if you have your birthday too close to Christmas, you often get jipped out of presents/celebrations. Right in the middle of the year, people have paid off their christmas credit debt and are in the giving/celebrating mood as the winter lifts and the warm weather sets in (sounds greedy, but it's true!).
2. May 2-4 weekend: Since my birthday always falls directly on or around Victoria Day Weekend, my parents told me when I was young that they were in celebration of my birthday. I still choose to believe it to this day.
3. You (most likely) get to be a Taurus: Best zodiac sign by far. Stubborn, loyal, and a hell of a good appreciator for the finer things in life. Don't I know it. (If you are born after May 22, you're a Gemini. God help you).
   

For these reasons, Spring and May bordering on the horizon have made me a very happy person. Now if only I could get myself a better job and I don't think I could be any happier...for now. :)

Easter for the Mindboggled

Since I'm bollox deep in essays and haven't slept in something over 30 hours at this point, I'm merely going to share something someone wrote and totally appropriate it as my own. Happy Easter!

Easter this year is: Sunday March 23, 2008

As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).

This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

A couple more things you might be interested in!

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population (aged 95 or more) have ever seen it this early. And none of us have ever -- or will ever -- see it a day earlier! Here are the facts:

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!)

The next time it will be a day earlier (March 22), will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.

So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

ENJOY THE UNIQUENESS OF THIS SPECIAL DAY AND THIS LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Never was there said a truer word. Erin Go Bragh! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What it Means to be a Torontonian - The Urban Dictionary Definition

I came across this in my travels today and I simply had to share. Any Torontonian will definitely get a kick out of this, in that "it's-funny-'cause-it's-true" kinda way:


Torontonian

noun.

1. A person who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

2. A gracious and tolerant sort of guy or gal who listens with Herculean patience and nothing but a sad sigh now and then as every ill-educated sheep-shagger, penniless cod-kisser, sexually confused lumberjack and soulless oil tycoon befouling the rest of the country badmouths him tirelessly because they don't have half the cool shit that he does.

3. A person who starts feeling suicidal every year around the time of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

4. Someone who pays fully half of their income in taxes so that a bunch of miserable ingrates living in shacks can spend half the year on the dole, scratching their Molson muscles and bitching about how much they hate Torontonians.

5. A person who can find everything she needs within a twenty-minute walk or bike-ride from her front door.

6. A resident of the 416 area code, but mercifully not of the 905.

7. Someone who is too polite to tell his best friend, who lives in Vancouver, that, 'No, frankly I really don't wish I lived in Vancouver. Not everyone on the whole fucking planet wants to live in Vancouver, for Christ's sake. Besides, your whole goddamned drug-infested city's going to slide into the ocean some day, be it global warming, act of heavenly retribution, or one tremendous motherfucking earthquake. So there.'

Albertan: Torontonians are a bunch of Jesus-hating faggots. We should separate from Canada to get away from them.

Quebecker: Torontonians are a bunch of money-hungry conservatives. We should separate from Canada to get away from them.

Newfoundlander: Torontonians are a bunch of self-centred arses. We should separate from Canada to get away from them

Torontonian: I wish all those fucking leeches would separate from Canada so that I wouldn't have to pay for all their goddamned cigarettes and health care any more.

idespair

Today my MP3 player played its last song. It passed into technological oblivion at approximately 4:30 pm EST when it refused to move from the welcome screen into the main menu, and is now caught in an eternal cycle of flashing "SanDisk" and "Goodbye" - this is what MP3 player's hell must look like.

I have decided that after many years of flash-based players and little to no space (two years ago having 2GB of space was considered generous), I'm going to try an ipod classic 80GB. However, with school coming to an end and no relief from papers and exams in sight and therefore hardly any shifts at my store (which, btw, is so desperately bankrupt head office has predicted we won't be open by the end of April), which leaves me too financially unstable to purchase said item.

Which leaves me in a state of desperation - no music to walk to, public transit to, exercise to, drive to, etc. etc. well, just the thought makes me shake in my boots.

Is there anything anyone would like to buy from me? Pretty please????

Snowpidity

I found that a lot of my posts lately have been drawing back to the topic of weather. But with the winter we've had here in Toronto, do you blame me? One thing I can't help but commenting on is the way people in the city, regardless of age, gender, race, or any other difference you can think of, collectively act during winter storms and bad weather.

I was actually excited for this winter storm that is currently upon us simply for the fact that I'm up to my ears in assignments, final papers and impending exams and know that I literally need every hour, minute and second I can get to work on assignments. When I heard there was to be X amount of centimeters dropped overnight and into Saturday I was overjoyed since I had to work this morning and into the afternoon, and a deserted store = time for readings. While the store was much more deserted than usual, I was shocked and almost disturbed at the amount of people who did come in. And not so much over the act of coming to a pharmacy/grocery store, but rather for why and what they were buying.

For example, a man faced trechourous roads and an icy, unplowed bridge (our store is is situated just over the railway tracks) with cars sliding all over the road and buses stalling, unable to get up and though, to drop of two shirts to be laundered at our dry cleaning service. Laundered mind you, soap and water, like what your washing machine does at home.

Another came in to buy a cartload of Dr. Pepper and nothing else. Just Dr. Pepper. I watched him struggle to get the cart though the snow and to his car. 10 minutes later, he dragged the cart though the snow to buy another cartload. Did anyone fail to tell me the Dr. Pepper has excellent snow and ice melting properties?

Earth Hour 2008 - Think Globally, Act Globally

So it's officially one month until the world turns off its lights for 1 hour in awareness for energy consumption and global warming. I first heard about this amazing event in December. Last year, Sydney Australia turned off all unnecessary lighting and appliances (homes, office buildings, commercial buildings, billboards, etc.) for one hour. The energy and carbon emissions saved from that one hour was equivalent to taking thousands of cars off the road for one day. This year, cities from all over the world, including 35 alone in Canada (Canada is, so far, the country with the largest amount of confirmed cities), will be participating on March 29th, 2008, by turning out all unnecessary lighting and appliances for one hour, between 8 and 9 pm.

Of course there will be the skeptics and nay-sayers that will quickly jump on the idea and try to slit its throat. Yes , I understand that one hour can hardly change the world and stop the negative effects of global warming. But the event is about awareness, to make each and everyone of us understand just how much wasted energy we consume each and every day which is completely unnecessary. I am confident that every step taken to raise awareness will drive the point home to the extent where it can no longer be ignored.

Once you know something you can't un-know it. You can just chose to be ignorant and part of the problem. Or you can do something about it.

Many cities across the world are organizing public events for Earth Hour. Here in Toronto, Nathan Phillip Square will be hosting an event. I urge everyone to participate and spread the word to others.

For more information, please go to:
www.earthhour.org
www.wwf.com