First Message

I have now succumbed to online dating. I signed up just last night after hearing that a close friend did it. I feel so inept at meeting and conversing with people my own age that I now have to rely on the internet to find the "perfect match" as the website claims. I feel  a bit embarrassed to have to admit that yes, I do have a problem speaking to the opposite sex, especially when it's a hot guy. I just feel like, when I open my mouth something idiotic is bound to come flowing out and that will turn into word vomit and then he will be thinking "What the hell is this girl talking about?" Then he will make some lame excuse just to get away from the crazy chick.

That is how that scenario happens in my mind and a couple times have happened in real life as well. Talking to 40 year olds however is a piece of cake. Or the 70 year farmer. Maybe in the back of my mind I know I don't need to impress them and hence I can talk to them.

Oh well. This is the 21st century, the age of technology. They say that 1 out of 5 relationships now start online. I shouldn't have to feel embarrassed by this. I'm just stuck in the past with my romantic ideas that one day I will meet my soul mate at the coffee shop or bump into him on the street, it will be a coincidence and love at first site. Maybe the saying should be love at first message.

Books, I curse Thee!!

In every book I read, there is always a hero or a heroine that go on some grand adventure. They are always portrayed as your typical girl next door or jock boy, in junior novels and in adult fiction they have some no account job that they are generally happy with and are content with their subdued lives in suburbia. Then the lead role some how ends up going no the adventure of a life time, accomplish death defying acts and some how still get the girl. They get sucked into some secret service that protects the world and they hold the key to do just that. Or some orphan kid just happens to get away from the oppressive foster home and all of a sudden they have super powers that they use to protect the helpless citizens of whatever make believe city they happen to reside in.

Majority of the time the protagonist wish that they could go back to their old simple life where nothing exciting ever occurs. I repeat, they wish for their mundane lives! 

I call bullshit. I can't be the only one out there that wishes that they could be the star of the book, movie or video game. I would trade just about anything to have the adventure of a life time, to go from my boring routine life of; work, watch tv, shower bed, repeat. to be unexpectedly called forth to go fight some aliens in the deep dark space at the edge of the universe, to help discover the murderer of some gruesome homicide, find out that you got bit my a dog that was undergoing some experimental treatment and now find out that you have the ability to shape shift! I mean come on! Who wouldn't want to do something that would be so worth while? 

I know that there are a lot of people who say that if you want adventure just look for it in every day life, or create your own experiences. but when you have to do all the planning of your grand "Adventure of a Lifetime" well it doesn't seem as fun as if it was all spontaneous considering you know how long you've had to work to get the money to go to that far off exotic place for that adventure to begin, and the fact you know you can only stay for so long because the real world is still out there with bills that need to be payed and you can't stay out in your dream world forever. 

So what I say to all those characters is: man up and have some fun! Remember that there are billions of people who want that very thing to happen to their life because we are just so sick of the routine that makes up our lives. And to the authors and writers out there, let your characters have fun! Not everything has to be doom and gloom! 

I just hope that one day I hope that my mundane life will end and the adventure that I've read about all my life will come to seek me out….

Let me just say one more time, Books, I curse thee! 

Procrastination - It's a disease!

Procrastination must be a disorder, like ADD. Everyone always says that procrastination is only a lifestyle and that you can change if you really want to, but I can honestly say that I have tried and failed miserably on multiple accounts. A month before my project is due, I will look at and I’ll grab my pen and scribbler and just as I’m about to start writing down ideas, and then my roommate comes into my room and says, “I have a coupon for free wings! Do you want to come?” First there is a little voice in my head that says I just started doing homework, but then a larger, louder voice says Hell ya! Because face it who turns down free wings. Plus I still have a month to do it. 

Flash forward – two weeks to go. Well by this time I’ve had two weeks to look at the project and I even wrote down some ideas! Now that is impressive. I settle down, turn on my study playlist, put my feet up, binder open and I just start reading and answering part of my project (that’s worth30% of my grade), when all of a sudden, BANG, my door opens and my best friend comes in. We start talking about our favorite movie, Star Wars. We then have a brilliant idea! Call up some of our buddies and let’s have us a movie marathon, because admit it, Star Wars is amazing and you can never get enough of Chewie. Everyone comes over, we pop some popcorn and watch the opening credits. All the while The Project sits on my floor, forgotten, forgotten by the time R2-D2 and C3P0 are on the screen.

Flash forward – T-minus five days until The Project is due. I start worrying about the time left to actually finish it, but thinking back, I’ve done a lot more in shorter time frames. I go to my room, lock the door so no more people can come in and distract me. First I sit there getting my mind ready for the big homework session. An hour later I’m felling pretty good since I’ve had a good start on it and may even be able to get 1/3 of it done tonight. I glance down at my phone and notice that I’ve had a message. Well I can’t ignore it, what if it’s important? I pick up my cell and begin to read. Then the excitement starts to build, because there is a party tonight! Parties with a live DJ don’t happen often so I quickly respond and say ‘Yes I’ll be there!’ I get up and start getting ready. After getting dressed and making sure that every hair is perfect, I glance down and catch the binder in the corner of my eye. I turn towards and justify myself for going out and ignoring The Project. It’s because you got so much done tonight and you deserve to go out and have fun! And I promise to do it tomorrow. Let the party start!

Two days to go and the panic starts to set in. How could I have let it get this bad! There have been 30 days to do The Project and now there’s only 48 hours left! How is it going to be possible to try and get over half of it done in two days? I sit down at the desk and work as hard as I can, scribbling down half sentences that don’t make any sense. Information from Wikipedia is my main source of information, even though you know that half of what Wikipedia says is wrong, but it takes too long to look for legit websites, and I need to get it done! Luckily I’ve been able to do two hours solid work without any distractions. I begin to relax because it could be possible to actually finish on time. There’s a knock on the door. Now who could it be? It would be rude not to answer so I go and open it and find my friend. She comes in and sits on the bed. You state that you have The Project to finish and so she responds, “I won’t stay long.” We both begin to talk and catch up on times past. The conservation flows on and begins to morph into gossip and rumors and who can resist good gossip? I glance at the clock and it reads 10:30pm. I know that I should be getting back to work but even if she leaves at 11:00 I will have enough time to get some more done. It’s 12:30am by the time she leaves, so much for a short visit. I’m tired so I just look over at The Project and say good night. 

The final day to complete The Project. 10 hours to go before I have to hand It in at 8am the next day. It’s already 10pm at night. I know I’ll be going for an all-nighter so I stock up on some coffee and energy drinks, anything to keep me awake tonight. I tell everyone, roommates, friends, even family that I cannot be disturbed tonight! I lock the door, turn off my phone and make sure that Facebook isn’t logged on. I think I’m just over half way done so it shouldn’t take too long to finish. 2am rolls around and I’m still typing away like a madman. I make sure to save every half hour because I’ve learnt that lesson the hard way! 4am and I’m almost done with 4 hours to spare! I think that I’ve done good. By 4:30 am I hit the save button one last time. I breathe a sigh of relief. I go to my printer and hit print. Beep, beep, beep- oh crap! It’s out of ink! And there’s no possible to fix that since every store is closed at this time of the morning. I think quickly and come up with a good solution. Save it on a memory stick and print it before class! It’s the only way. I turn off the light and curl up in bed and shut my eyes.

Way too soon, the alarm clock is buzzing and I hit the snooze without thinking. It goes off again and I get up slowly and look at the time. Oh crap! I should never have hit that snooze button. Now I’m going to be late. I through on whatever clothes that are on the floor and grab my backpack and the memory stick. I rush out the door at 7:45. Only 15 minutes, I can do this. I run to the library and wait another 5 minutes while the computer warms up and ‘loads your settings’. Finally its up and running! I hit print twice (because you never know what will happen) and log off. I glance down at my watch. 7:57. Three minutes to get to class. I run like my life depends on it, which it kind of does. I enter the class room out of breath and add my Project to the top of the pile and congratulate myself for getting there with a minute to spare! I sit down and say to myself, I will NEVER procrastinate again!

Flash forward- 3am with only a few hours left before to complete the next big Project….

National Past Time

"Baseball is America's pastime." This statement is widely accepted, meaning that the citizens of the United States of America are some of the biggest fans of the sport, watching and playing the sport. I do agree that States have a big following with their Major League Baseball Association, but I beg to differ that baseball is "America's National Past Time." I am a Canadian and proud of it. I have been playing baseball since i was seven years old and had my very own T-Ball set and later on in elementary my father was my softball coach. Playing catch with my dad was one of my favourite things to do and then in junior and senior high we played scrub as soon as the snow was half melted off the baseball field. We even went as far as convincing our teachers that we could continue to learn our lessons for the day while playing Canada's Past Time. In college, there were Snowball tournaments in February, playing in snow pants and a field full of a foot of snow. And don't forget that when your an adult, there are beer league teams for every company. So to say, baseball should be Canada's game. 

Now to give you a little history on this fabulous sport. In the US, Alexander Cartwright has been given the credit of inventing the modern baseball field in 1845 and the members of his team, the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club devised the rules and regulations that were accepted for the modern game of baseball and the first recorded baseball game in the states was on June 19, 1846 at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken New Jersey. However though Canada's first recorded baseball game was on June 4, 1838 in Beachville Ontario. Now at this time there may have been slight differences in the rules from that of  Alexander Cartwright and his team, but this game was played eight years earlier. 

But this modest sport still has a much larger history then just the 1800's. The games of Beachville in 1938 and Cartwright's game in 1846 is said to be based on the English game of Rounders.

Rounders and cricket were both evolved form a game called stoolball which was a game consisted of a marked field with a batter and bowler, where originally the runner would be out if the ball that was thrown and if it hit the runner. Luckily for us they quickly disbarred that rule, or there would be plenty of more injuries out on the field. It is said that Rounders has been around since Tudor times (1485-1603), played with two teams with as few players as 6 or up to 15.  Rounders is still played in modern day England, mainly a game played on school grounds though. Games involving balls and what we call bats today, have been around for thousands of years, dating back to ancient Egypt. 

The debate on the origins of baseball will probably never be agreed upon the 'experts' of todays sports fans, but i think it can be agreed that modern baseball rules, regulations, and field were determined in the early 1800's in North America. I may be a little biased being a Canadian and all but I believe that the credit should be given to Canada for having the first official game 8 years prior to the Americans. And to all the Americans out there, you have enough actors, scientists, athletes, gold medals, and trophies; can't you let us have this one game?

The Beginning of Fallbur

This is the quick telling of my nickname and in turn, my blog name;

I awoke one night at 1:30 am. Now usually I am a very heavy sleeper, considering only two years ago while living at my mother’s house, I slept through the smoke detector, the sewer alarm, and a shot gun blast that my step dad shot off to scare off the coyotes. Anyways that night I must have been dreaming of dogs. Ever since I started living on my own throughout college and now in a major city with my first real job, I have always wanted a dog. I heard the click clack of dogs nails on the hardwood floor of my house in my semi sleeping state. I believed that my roommate had someone over who in turn brought their dog. Even in the middle of the night I wasn’t going to allow a dog to be in my house without me getting to pet and play with said dog. 

I drug myself out of sleep and a nice warm comfortable bed and into the living room at 1:30 in the morning to find the dog. I saw my roommate sitting on the couch watching TV. To my dismay, there was no dog in sight. So I asked, “Is there a dog here?” My roommate and landlord Dustin looked at my crossways and replied, “Why would there be any animal in the house in the middle of the night?” Well that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. However I just got myself a glass of water and went back to bed. I laid down, shut off my bedside lamp and began to think. 

My mother and many other people have told me that the best way to fall asleep is to empty your mind and not think of anything, just the deep black space of nothingness. That has never worked for me, since I diagnosed myself with slight ADD and can never empty my mind, so I think of a hundred different topics before I can ever sleep. The thoughts become debates, debates turn into discussion, discussions turn into memories, memories eventually turn into dreams. But for some unknown reason this night of all nights I could not fall back to sleep. I continued to lie there since I had work the following day hoping that the sandman would eventually make his way back to me and lead me into the land of dreams. In these wee hours of the morning, with dogs still on my mind I began to think of names of my future dogs. One thing you should know about me is that I am not a small dog person. I love my big dogs, the bigger the better. If someone is to get a small dog, why not just get a cat? That’s my two cents, but if I were ever to get a small dog especially a small fur ball of a dog then I would have to name it Fallbur, taking the first letter of Fur and switching it with the first letter of Ball to get the most awesomeness name ever! Unfortunately this thought should have stayed with me but the following day I was working closely with my boss and my sleep deprived brain thought I should tell him of these random stray thoughts of mine from the previous morning. He got a kick out of that statement and would not drop it even though I was slightly embarrassed by this statement. Only slightly however and from that day on my boss took it upon himself to let everyone at the office know that from now on I was to be called by Fallbur. Even my personal files at work are now renamed. And that is how FallBur got her name.