The start of a dream; the start of a new beginning.

In less then a weeks time, the event that started vegetarianism and animal activism in general begins. That’s right boys and girl, the brutal seal slaughter in Newfoundland is back.

I’ve been given a whole lot of grief about this throughout the years, but it’s something that matters a great deal to me. It’s not an issue of vegetarians fighting for cute fuzzy animals, nor is it a matter of protesting for attention (as many like to tell me). The fact that as Canadians we live in a time where brutal happenings like this still occur fills me with rage.

Some common misjudged facts the government attempts to tell everyone:

1)      Every part of the seal that the hunters kill is used.

FALSE: In the commercial seal hunt, no part of the seal is consumed or eaten. The seal pelts are sold to fashion houses. Often at times they are left as waste to rot. Burberry is looking pretty good right about now eh?

2)      The hunt is there because there is a problem with seal overpopulation.

FALSE: If anything there is a severe shortage in the population. When European explorers landed on the East coast of Canada, there were an estimated 30 million seals. Between 1950 and 1970 it was estimated that the seal population had declined  to 2 million. This prompted the US government and European nations to ban the importation of seal products.  The Canadian government worked afterwards at population stability but in recent years has moved away from this in order to employ out of work fishermen. The reason behind this is false scientific logic and scapegoating the seals for a decline in the cod population. Cod were over fished which resulted a collapse in the Canadian fishery industry.  In 1999 a survey reported the seals to number above 4 million. This report was severely flawed.

3)      The hunt is necessary for fishermen (non-aboriginals to boot) to make their post winter earnings.

FALSE: If those fishermen require on average 300 dollars for a week’s worth of slaughter, then they should stick with government funding. In the past, they would make even less so the government would spend up to 20 million in subsidies. It’s not significant enough to call it a necessary trade.

4)      Government law states that only adult seals are allowed to be hunted. Implanted are the 3 necessary steps to be taken so the seal is killed humanely.

TRUE: But? These regulations ARE NOT FOLLOWED. Hundreds of videos online prove it. Defenceless pups being targeted, and skinned while still conscious. This my friends is why the seal hunt is so controversial.

Sure. Activists have a reputation to fight upon all grounds of animal rights. Often the seal hunt is related to slaughter housing because of the consumption and inhumanity. But fact is, the seal hunt is an old tradition gone wrong.

It is no longer necessary. It is not something Canada should be proud of. And it is not something that should be supported. Every year the protests get worse and worse, and more and more progress is made each year. With Italy being the last country to promote the ban, the UK and United States came before it.

Do YOUR part and simply fill in your name and email and click send. PETA has a ready made email template, with contacts in place. You just provide your name and email. You can make a differences.

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?page=OnScreenThanks&id=2943&JServSessionIdr004=rz8v8nvvi2.app332a

I’m actually typing the notes as I go, and I’ve read ahead for this class. I’m a good student, promise.

So much to get excited about in the near future guys!

To start, storm the wall is well on its way. Since I’ve taken up the bird-coop since September, the idea of a marathon seems a bit more realistic to me. There’s a good chance I would have laughed in your face if you ever asked me to run one beforehand. This event is huge, and I’ve been stoked to participate in running myself silly, and then climbing a 10 foot wall with the help of some friends.

Missing the Olympics? Get ready because round two is on its way. Paralympics is a go, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint. I’m thinking about getting some sledge hockey tickets and cheering on team Canada. Maybe some more moshing downtown? Speaking of which, I still need to visit the Olympic Store downtown. A friend that works there says stuff is 50% off, granted a good chunk of it is gone. But man, I seriously want a life size Quatchi.

Another tidbit, my inner vampire freaked out when I saw the 10 second preview of eclipse. Full length trailer comes out tomorrow.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k33DEEI-15c[/youtube]

And lastly, my housing fiasco is done and dealt with. I’ve been admitted as an RA in totem, woot!

I feel like the past month has been one of the most amazing in my life. Not only have I met tons of new people, plans for next year are becoming a bit clearer as well. Not to mention the Olympics. That was a once in a lifetime gong show that I will surely miss having in Vancouver; who doesn’t love screaming the national anthem and high fiving random cannucks while moshing on robson square? Last but not least, the RA position is over the horizon. I find out if I got the job sometime tomorrow.

I’m pretty sure both myself and Erica Baker are stoked on life / kinda maybe freaking out. Not only would I love to mentor a group of 30 chilluns next year, I’m banking on it for housing. Those whole search for off campus housing makes my head spin. There are fees needing to be paid coming out the caboodle.

So then comes the hard part. Kind of where I’m at now. Mark has neglected homework a bit and needs to jump right on that. Kind of soon. Second mid term? Crap. I’ve got some of those now that I have 3 science courses.

Hope your semesters are going well! I’ll let you guys know the news tomorrow when I get the phonecall or letter.

So being here in Vancouver with my friends from Ontario, during the Olympics has probably been one of the most epic experiences of my life.

Back when I was still applying the presenters talked about this “UBC moment” that you’ll eventually have once attending. It’s the moment where you just realize where you actually are, the moment where you start appreciating everything around you. Well I had that moment when I was down on the waterfront near the torch. I had the towering sparkling buildings, the mountains, the Canadian cheers, ocean, and the official Olympic torch, all within eyesight. I just remember standing and thinking…holy crap. I LIVE here.

After like an hour of that, me and my Ontarians composed ourselves and walked around Van. We hit up everything from the downtown madness, to the Stanley Park totem poles.

I asked them if they wanted to move out here yet, and they were definitely on their way to being converted, haha.

And this inked deal? Myself and two friends got tattoos done. An hour of pain, but so worth it. Just try and keep it on the DL, my family doesn’t know…at least for the time being!

First off, I’d like to congratulate Mel on her housing lottery win. I can imagine, it really does feel like a one in a million.

“We regret to inform you that your application for a place in residence was not selected in the residence lottery for the 2010/2011 Winter Session. All applicants not selected in the lottery have been placed on a waitlist based on their lottery number.  Your wait list number is L 1382.”

This is the news I received on a Friday evening. What a buzz kill; literally. I knew the lottery was hard to get into, but not this hard. Of the group of people I was supposed to share a home with, no ne got in. The odds baffle me.

So yesterday I found myself on the internet looking at local housing prices. This may be a bit of an issue, since the vast majority are already signing contracts for September within the next few weeks. I feel like I’ve just been hit with a tsunami of responsibility and independence. Too much at once UBC!!

What’s even more unfortunate is the amount of international students that didn’t get in. I’ve got a friend from Japan, South Africa, and Germany, all of which are on the waiting list. If they don’t get off campus housing, what other choices do they have?

Hopefully some magical force will throw an answer at me soon.

Tons of updates guys!

To start, I’ve got midterm in 5 days. Three in a row: natural disasters, psychology, and sociology. I’ve been so caught up in everything else the past two weeks that I haven’t even had a chance to start studying. That’s where the week long study binge occurs. Fairly optimistic that I’ll do well.

As for job interviews, I’m completely stoked.

First was the Front Desk position I applied for during the summer here on campus. I’d basically be working for the hotel services in Marine and Gage during the summer, full time, with one graveyard shift a week. Pretty manageable in my opinion. I recently had an “online interview” which consisted of me being sent a link to a quiz that had to be completed in an hour and a half. This quiz had me answering questions involving basic math skills, problem solving, prioritising what seemed to be catastrophes in certain scenarios, as well as basic know how of Vancouver tourism attractions. I think I did pretty well in that.

Second was the RA carousel. I’ve been hearing about this shindig since October from my advisor, and it was quite the experience. We were put in groups of 5 to 7 people, and then later led to stations such as scheduling and “speed friending”. It was all very chill, and for a legit interview experience; not that stressful. The last station was indeed a legitimate one on one interview. Or two on one rather. Can you believe I was asked this question? “If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?”. Theresa question you don’t typically expect. The one thing that has me worried though is the amount of people that applied. Its something like 500 people applying for 150 positions? That’s not including the returners who get a much better chance of getting the job. I find out the results March 8^th, keep your fingers crossed!

Third was my MUG Leader group interview. This was similar to the carousel, only the activities were shorter and much more creative. The first station involved being grouped with two other people, and creating a short skit about UBC. We had a specific theme. Next, your whole group of 6 had to recreate a lego structure that one of your group members saw. I, in this case, saw the lego structure, and had to explain using fingers and words to guide the group into building it. We beat the other group easily. The last station included picking up a completely random item and relating it to UBC, or an experience I had. I had a mug.

So tons and tons of participation in leadership roles, get included if you already haven’t, loads of fun!

So, Totem’s Dene is participating in the epic game of sock wars, or “assasins” as called in Ontario.

Essentially, the name of the game is to get socked. At the beginning of the game, everyone participating is assigned a target. This could be anyone in the building. There are also safety items. If you have this item on you, and your target sees you, he/she can’t sock you.

So rules of the game are as follows;

1)      You must sock your target when he/she doesn’t have his/her safety item on them.

2)      Your room is a safety zone unless you invite the person who has YOU in.

3)      Bathrooms of the same sex are safety zones.

4)      You must report that you hit your target within 24 hours to the house president, otherwise the hit is void.

So the past week, everyone has been on edge. Our safety item were a pair of sunglasses. Doesn’t sound like much right? Wrong. It’s kinda stupid when you’re wearing sunglasses on your head at the birdcoop or in class when it’s a rainy day! I got some weird looks. But whatever, its all part of the fun. I’ve been forced to condition myself to always have those glasses on me.

Thursday, 1:34 AM. Fire alarm goes off in Dene and Nootka. I’m groggy. I’m annoyed. I reach for my regular glasses, and completely forget about my sunglasses. We all walk outside to the commons block, and the second I walk out of Dene, I realize how vulnerable I am. I start freaking out, my heart skips beats. I’m desperately trying to find sunglasses. We all walk into the commons block, and I see the person that has me as a target, on her tippy toes, searching and scoping me out.

I’m not sure how you guys feel right after waking up, but stuff doesn’t make much sense to me. For the longest time I hid behind my friend while my assassin searched for me. Next thing I know, she’s sprinting at me, sock in hand. Instead of running to the guys bathroom, which was 2 steps away, I ran to the other side of the commons, screaming bloody murder and making a commotion. Mark ended up in the girls bathroom. Inevitably, I got socked. So so bitter.

Now everyone around me gets to wear their next safety item for a week straight, which I can happily say would go against my hygienic code. Those still in have to walk around in their Dene house shirts. Sucks, because you cant wash it without being scoped out, and almost nothing goes well with orange.

That`s my rant.

On a side note. I hope everyone voted. Its kind of a big deal!

Ok that’s going a bit far, but my life has been a ridiculous abyss where everything is lost everywhere. Before I’d misplace the occasional item, get upset about it, and then get over it. But, this problem seems to be getting worse.

For example, I misplaced my rez keys 6 times since I’ve been here. That’s a $95 dollar surcharge because they have to completely replace the lock if its lost.

Next is my wallet. That was a borderline nightmare. Scratch that. That WAS a nightmare. It happened right before the Christmas break, and I almost didn’t get to fly home because I had NO identification. Luckily though the Translink Lost and Found centre downtown had it. Getting there is a whole other story, haha.

And the icing on the cake is the helmet and goggles that are somewhere in Whistler now. This past weekend, I was double checking for my phone, wallet, and keys every 20 minutes. No word of a lie. As I was walking out of the change room, guess who forgets to check for the helmet! Ces’t la vie. I get to use my spare goggles and go helmetless and be stupid until I get a new one.

So for those of you like me, here are three key rules I’m going to start following to avoid losing and misplacing things:

1. Organization: Your things must have a special place. Never leave your things wherever you are. Go put each thing in its specific place so that you’ll be able to find everything automatically, even if your room is messy.
2. Verification: Always verify if you are bringing with you everything you need when you are leaving the home of another place. Always check to see if your keys, wallet, cellular phone, umbrella, etc., are with you. Verify even if you are sure they are with you. This way you can make this verification an automatic reaction that will help you prevent future problems.
3. Attention: Since you know you have this problem: you are always forgetting and losing something, pay attention to everything and don’t be indifferent to this characteristic of your personality, because it will make you suffer.

I really hope these rules help. By the way, anyone going up to Whistler any upcoming weekends? Give me a shout! Maybe we can shred together !

Kinda obvious what I want to do. I didn’t see Ebakes there, but I was over on the right hand side of the room, laughing at the fact that the RA alumni were practically all married to eachother, so to speak. One of the guys mentioned he had 4 UBC RAs in his family? Makes sense.

Being an RA has been an interest of mine for a solid few months now, and it all started with befriending the advisors themselves. I went to the “Make Your Mark” presentation and I came out with an even cooler outlook on the job. Not only do you get to meet tons of cool new people, you also learn tons of life skills that look really good on a resume. Who knows, maybe I’ll even meet Mrs. Right and join the society of married advisors, haha.

Watch out future first years, Mark is about to do his rounds.

Yesterday I went to the coop since like…start of exams? And let me say that I’m slightly disgruntled. My body has gotten so used to not working out, that it basically went to crap and shut down on me. I was lifting 10 – 20 pounds less on certain exercises then I was before. Kind of a let down. So basically, Mark is kicking it back into high gear.

When I first signed up for the coop, my goal “plan sexy by December” was to look so different that people back home wouldn’t recognize me. Majority of the people couldn’t. This had to do with my drastic hair change (hair-apy after thinking I failed my first midterm), and me filling out 17 pounds. Yet, I didn’t get the results I wanted!

So the new years resolutions is to work out 4 times a week, an hour and a half each. Only trouble is, sometimes its hard to group certain body sections per day; I tend to jumble workouts.

I’m taking the same supplements as before, only this time I’m trying to not forget about them. There were days where they were just not taken due to oversleeping and leaving in a rush, hah.

I’m taking:

Whey Protein Supplement, low calorie (NOT a weight gainer)

Genuine Health products, including Lean+ and Abs+, these both contain natural ingredients such as green tea extract, and tonalin CLA which supports faster fat loss, and increased production of muscle fibres.

So in any case, I’m hoping, the new revised “plan sexy by birthday (april)” will be a bigger success then the first.

What are YOUR resolutions guys? Best of luck!

P.S. I noticed a huge increase of people at the gym, which could only mean that many others have the same goal in mind.

P.P.S. My pecks hurt today, whooo! Yesterdays workout must be new and more intense muscle tears. Stoked!