Personal Addition #7 - Snail Mail

As quick and convenient communicating over technology may be, there's still absolutely nothing like receiving mail! It is so much more personal - it takes thought and effort - and it just brings me excitement and joy. It's a little silly, really. When I know that something should be coming for me, I find myself checking the mailbox every time I happen to be by it... like an addict. My reasoning for this is probably the fact that until recently, I didn't get much in the mail. C'mon, the dog used to receive more letters than me! (Though they were from the vet...)

Anyways, I guess the purpose of my writing this is to draw attention to how enjoyable "snail mail" can be and to make sure that our generation doesn't ignore it or look past it all together. In the end, it doesn't have to be something that's extremely time consuming or a burden. I'm sure that just a simple greeting card with a little message could put a smile on anyone's face!

Personal Addition #6 - Cornelia Bean Review

I've been meaning to go to Cornelia Bean for a few months now, but didn't get around to doing so... until last week. Two bus rides and a lot of built up anticipation later, I stepped into the doors, defrosted my ears, and really enjoyed it.

For those of you that don't know, Cornelia Bean is a loose leaf tea and coffee store on Academy Road. They sell tea/coffee accessories, some small appliances, and sweets too! Driving by in the summer, I noticed that they had some outdoor patio furniture set up, which led to the assumption of it being a cafe more than a store. My assumption wasn't a very accurate one. Either way, the very cozy log cabin feel of the bulding and the friendly staff made my experience a pleasant one. Their lined up jars of teas on the front counter made it easy to smell as many as humanly possible without feeling bad for having the worker get them all down for me (bonus!)

I ended up picking up a few treats for the family too. Their Mango Honey is delicious, pure, and local. (Great Christmas gift add ons, guys!)

I definitely reccomend checking out Cornelia Bean if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, are wanting to try something new, or if you simply want to spice up your tea collection. This is their website: http://www.corneliabean.com/

Reading Reflection #11

Already know so much about the characters of The History of Love (78). Still waiting for the story to come together. @Cre8tiveHavoc RR#11

The writing style is so similar to Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Turns out the two authors are married! Wow @Cre8tiveHavoc RR#11

Reading & Writing Reflection #10

Twitter Fiction

Once I settled on the idea of doing very short stories, my Twitter Fiction went quite well. Through reading some examples and making a list of what I enjoyed about them, I was able to get some inspiration as to what I wanted my Twitter Fiction to look like. Something that was rather frustrating was finding enough topics to talk about. I guess having complete artistic freedom was more stressful than expected. In the end, my favourite tweets ended up being those that were silly or had some sort of twist to them. I’m not usually proud of the things I write, but in this case there are some tweets that I would willingly share with people. I tend to use long, descriptive sentences whenever I write (sorry to those that have ever had a conversation with me through text messages,) so this assignment was a bit of a challenge to do the opposite. I learned that I really am capable of summing up my thoughts in a shorter way. In some cases, the use of a thesaurus helped a lot with this.

Publishing myself on Twitter made me a little uncomfortable at first. I have never used it before, therefore I was unfamiliar with how everything worked and felt strange about sharing my writing with others. It made me think twice about what I would and wouldn’t want the public to see, which really controlled what I tweeted. Once I understood the concept of Twitter, I had realised that I could really get creative and use it to my advantage. I found myself wanting to tweet things from my everyday life (as most people do,) follow things/people I’m interested in, and simply go outside of the box. My perspective of Twitter changed drastically over the course of the week. I originally thought that Twitter was just for joking around, posting stupid things, and making sure that people know exactly what kind of sandwich you’re eating at 12:34 on a Thursday and what it looked like before you consumed it. As great as those things are, I didn’t even think that Twitter could be used for intelligent things. There is so much extra information and things one could learn from the Twitter feeds of others that I never knew about (some cool contests too.) This was in fact surprising to me, and shows me the potential of Twitter/social media in general.

I read the Twitter Fiction of my classmates – mostly VSS as well as some extended stories. I think that the VSS interested me more because they were quick, entertaining, easy reads that often had twists or unexpected endings.  When it came to following an author from the Twitter festival, I chose @elliotholt. Elliot Holt’s writing really impressed me! She went as far as to make 3 extra Twitter accounts for each one of her characters, and retweeted their tweets in the correct order to form a story. She said that the process was rather tiring, and I can definitely see how that would be true. Her extra effort was appreciated, and I found the story to be quite captivating, which made me interested in finding out the verdict. Something that I really enjoyed is how Elliot Holt tried to get her readers involved. She had asked them whether the mysterious death was a suicide or homicide, and left the subject open to discussion.  This shows just another way writers today can use social media to share their talent and get the audience’s input while doing so. I really enjoyed using class time to read Twitter. It was a nice way to spice things up and keep me awake during the first period of the day. Sometimes I’m in a bit of a sleepy daze during reading periods, so it was a nice change.

#TwitterFiction

1. She used to tell me stories of the past. How she met my gfather, her adventures as a young girl... It fascinated me, yet it was all untrue.

 2. "Trust me," he said. His eyes were focused on mine, gleaming like a child's on Xmas morning. I agreed, though it didn't feel right. #vss

 3. He got down on one knee. She'd been waiting for this moment her entire life. Stubborn shoe lace dealt with, he stood up and carried on. #vss

 4. She licked her upper lip, the salty taste of sweat filling her mouth. -30 pounds later, she felt indifferent. #twitterfiction

5. The girl's bloody scream echoed in my mind. I forced my legs to run in the sound's direction. The spider was killed and peace was restored.

6. "Mom?!" I shouted loudly across the large store. The isles seemed to have no end, much like tunnels. How am I supposed to find her now?  

7. "What do you like about bagels?" asked Johnny's mom with a chuckle. "The hole," he replied. "It's just as empty as I am," said the 9yo. #vss

8. While making polite conversation with my date I came to the realization that I have more chemistry with the waiter. #vss

9. Walk up the steps, throw the coins in, greet the bus driver... "You have beautiful eyebrows," he says. "Umm... Thanks?" #vss #twitterfiction

10. "Hey guys, I love this song! What is it?" "I don't know, it's your iPod. Share an earphone." #vss #twitterfiction #twisters
 
11. Waking up to the earthy, familiar scent is her favourite way to start the morning. #coffee #vss #twitterfiction
 
12. Belt in hand, the old man forcefully grabbed his son by the arm. Skin red and stinging, the boy fearfully carried on in silence. #vss
 
13. The roads were hectic, the snowstorm only making me more anxious. Everything could go wrong in a glimpse of a second.

14. "There are no words to describe how much of an impact you've made in my life," she admitted. "Don't leave me." #vss #twitterfiction
 
15. Cigarette in hand, she pushed the stroller towards the liquor store. The baby was the consequence of one of many bad habits. #vss
 
16. Grabbing some frozen yogurt at the movie theatre. He hands the cashier a card. Aww, how sweet. He's trying to pay. He yells, "SCENE points!"
 
17. There's something so beautiful about the billowing grey smoke being released from the old factory, I thought while driving by in my hybrid.
 
18. At the party. Drinking to look cool. Drank too much, acted like a fool. #vss #twitterfiction
 
19. His watch glistened in the light. Rolex. Freshly stolen from the men's locker room. He's from a well off family, no one would assume. #vss
 
20. Identify the body - cold, dead. White sheet lifted. Not my brother. #twitterfiction #vss
 
21. He was silky to the touch; fur white as snow. She wished he was with her, and not just all over her black pants. #cats

22. The world would continue spinning with or without her. This thought was encouraging her to make a lethal mistake. #vss #twitterfiction
 
23. Shivering with cold sweat, he made his way across the dark alley. Paranoia had him watching his back, while fear helped him hold the knife.
 
24. Nothing like the warm, pleasant feeling of the blanket cocoon that's your bed. This feeling is intensified 100x with the morning alarm. #vss

25. "It's not you, it's me," she said and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. The mark of red lipstick was all he had left of her. #vss

26. Her plaid pj bottoms and UGGs combo didn't give me the impression of carelessness. It was laziness she seemed to portray. #twitterfiction

27. The new city made her feel disoriented and out of place. Why did they have to move again? #twitterfiction #vss

 

 

28. Music playing, candles lit, romantic bath for two. He forms a Santa beard with the bubbles, I knew this would fall through. #vss #twisters

 

29. Concentrated, serious, ready for battle. It's war. No, it's the mathematics exam. #twitterfiction #twisters

 

30. Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who fell in love. The love was considered invalid since the joker was not brave enough. #vss

Personal Addition #5 - Winnie the Pooh

Above is a video of the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh. The little song is one that my parents and I still often recite when going on walks. Growing up, I had watched the cartoon quite often. In the last few years, I found out that Winnie the Pooh is actually related to the city Winnipeg - it was named after it. Now living in Winnipeg myself, I'm wondering if this was some sort of foreshadowing of my life.



Winnie seems to be wondering as well.
http://goo.gl/GwrgK

Personal Addition #4 - Holiday Spirit

 

Work/homework/my dad’s birthday aside, a good chunk of my weekend was dedicated to doing festive things. This included baking cookies, painting mini snowmen figures, and my new favourite, holiday card making. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been into giving store-bought cards for any occasion. Instead, I spent hours upon hours working and putting together the ideal card for a specific person. What was different about card making this time around was the fact that the cards were mass produced. I had incorporated different paper, packaging, and fabric I had lying around the house or saved for future use. In the end, the cards turned out lovely (if I do say so myself,) but it felt more like an artsy craft rather than an artistic, time-consuming challenge. The company of friends helped too! It was an activity during which we could catch up and chat, and seemed much more productive than watching She’s The Man for the tenth time. I’m very excited about being able to give out more cards this holiday season, and about the fact that I’ve recycled things that most people would throw out and created something useful.