UPDATED AND EDITED!!! Poetry.. Good or Bad? You Be The Judge!

The Road Not Taken - by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

       Just thought I'd share some poetry with you from American poet laureate (national poet) Robert Frost whom I love so very very much.  I'm definitely open to having some ongoing conversations, debates and discussions about this particular poem or any others by this poet ( or any other poet for that matter)..  I'm interested in what you all have to think about it... in my next post I will certainly give you all my opinion, thoughts and feelings on it and you can comment on those as well.. but first I want time to mull it all over in my brain so i can get a good critical reading of it.. just because the semester has ended, doesn't mean I should stop doing what English majors do.. read and critically analyze.. WOOOOOOOOOOO!

      Anyway, hope you have all been enjoying my posts so far, THANKS! To those of you (Ange&Faffles) who have taken the time to leave me a comment (P.s I know profs have just as hard a time as students do with essays, even more so as I only have to write mine once, but they have to read the same or similar topics over and over and over again..My heart goes out to you Dr. NPG hang in there!!!).. I look forward to more comments, so look forward to more posts ASAP! and don't forget you can always e-mail me!

THANKS TO THOSE YOU WHO'VE MADE ME AWARE OF MY MISTAKE!! ROBERT FROST IS INDEED NOT CANADIAN, BUT AMERICAN AND I AM FORCED TO SUBMIT TO HUMILIATION AND SHAME FOR NOT HAVING CHECKED MY SOURCE PROPERLY BEFORE  POSTING!! Thanks to A&F for having hope but regretfully Dr. Smarty Pants is correct.. this time... *sad face*  I will never make such an error again.

Thanks to those who commented beyond my mistake and left questions and analysis..  I will get back to you with my response to it shortly... My Deepest Apologies once more for having led you all astray! I hop you can find it in your hearts to forgive me..  Though i blame the Canadian education system that led me to believe that Robert Frost  (and Robert Munsch for that matter) have links to Canada or are Canadian.. *haha*
 
XOXO
Cristina

Sew What?

This morning I got up around 10.. I had breakfast and watched some shows on television that have been airing since waaay before I was even born and are about stuff I have no working personal memory about.. but hey, its always good to reflect on "the good ol' days" right.. right??

Any who, I watched Emily of New Moon, a Canadian television series based on the novels written by wonderful Canadian authoress Lucy Maude Montgomery who is famous for the Anne of Green Gables series which has become a Canadian phenomenon (P.s can you believe Anne is 100 years old?- insane right?).  Emily of New Moon is set out in the East Coast of Canada in the early 1900's.  The story is about a little girl, Emily, who goes to live with her relatives in, yes you guessed it, New Moon- which is the name of the Murray family manor- because her father can no longer take care of her and her mother passed away.  She is a bright whippersnapper which a creative and overflowing imagination and the books and tv series take the audience through her daily life with all of its colorful antics and quirks, commotions and troubles, joy and sadness...  Emily wants to be a writer when she grows up- maybe thats why I connect so well with her....hmm...

Every day she writes a letter to her father explaining her life at New Moon (though, she doesn't send them..) in delightful detail and her writing tends to get her into trouble with family members and friends... It's all very thrilling.  There is enough drama in each one hour episode to make you die laughing, cry your eyesout of their sockets, scare you, anger you and keep you wanting more! and the best part it, there is little to no violence and blood involved! Ah! Now that's good television!  Call me old fashioned but I just love spending an hour of my day curled up on the cough under my afghan seeing what hilarity or trouble Emily and her best friend Ilsa will get into.

For a more recent turn of things, my family and I LOVE watching M*A*S*H, an American show based on a mobile army surgical hospital in Korea during the war in the 1950's.  With the gang of zany doctors and nursing staff, the likes of Captains BF Pierce AKA Hawkeye, John McIntyre AKA Trapper,  BJ Hunnicut AKA Bje,  Majors' Margaret Houlihan, Frank Burns, Charles Emerson Winchester, Colonels Henry Blake and Sherman Potter, Enlisted men Walter AKA RADAR O'Reily, Maxwell Klinger, Fr. J. Mulcahy and the lot, This show really shows the insanity and destructiveness of war and the hilarity of the human condition.  If you have yet to watch an episode of M*A*S*H I suggest you do so now.. It'll have you in stitches within the first 10 minutes and you'll be so sad to see it end...

Beyond watching TV, I decided to be nice to my sister and fix some of her clothing which no longer fits her after having lost over 60 pounds! I worked tirelessly on taking-in tee-shirts for her yesterday so that she didn't have to wear tents to work-out in the gym, and I raided her closet today and took out everything and anything shirt-wise that needed to be or could be altered.  I spent 5 hours turning 12 shirts from 1X or 2X size into XL or L so that she can wear them right now instead of worrying about having no clothes to wear to work anymore and having to shop for new stuff that won't fit in a few weeks anyway once she drops more weight..  Now I'm no professional seamstress, I have a sewing machine and I know how to use it enough to make table cloths, pot holders and place mats and curtains, hem jeans and dress pants, shorten skirts or dresses, attatch decorative material,  repair rips and fallen seams but I am no where near advanced enough to be altering clothing.. but surprise surprise, with al ittle imagination and a whole lot of patience I was able to do it! and if I may say so myself, the shirts look pretty dark good! My sister couldn't believe how professional they looked, and trust me I had to take it in 2-3, sometimes 4 inches on each side, and work with sleeves and all kinds of fabrics and shapes but I was able to do it and she couldn't tell the difference!  I was able to make her happy and feel better about how she looks because it was eating her confidence.. and you cannot face a full day of being a supply teacher if you are worried about ill- fitting clothing and when you wear the same purple dress shirt to 4 different jobs it starts to get on your nerves...  So anyway, we're both happy and that's what counts! Good deed done for the day! Go ME!

Sorry, A little pat on the back and a high-five to my ego there ... i'll try to let it get to my head again.. soon..

So, that's my rant for tonight.. hope you all enjoyed my post from last night..and you get a chance to read and comment on this one too.  As always, feel free to comment on my posts about anything, or e-mail me if you want to know more or discuss something/anything i've posted about.

By the way, if anyone needs their pants hemmed, shirts taken in, skirts or dresses shortened, or is interested in some table cloths or curtain for the new year please e-mail me and I will be happy to work something out with you.. I assure you my prices are the lowest you will find any were, virtually under a dollar. Cheers & Thanks

XOXO
Cristina

All my posts just seem so far away...

So this past month has been totally disastrous for posting and I apologize to my lonely faithfuls who have been checking every day, or maybe multiple times a day.. maybe.. so thanks to all of you who have been checking and I apologize for the giant lack of posts..

Since my birthday on November 15th I have had every intention of submitting posts, and had hoped to churn out a decent sized wonderfully written something at least a few times a week but that didn't happen because I had so much school work to do I was so out of words every week I just couldn't bother myself to lift a finger to the keys even for the sake of fun or writing contest (which I didn't finish by the way :( oh well there's always next year...)

I've decided to give you a list of all of the written assignments, essays large and small that I have submitted this term (so from September-December 2010) mostly so that you have an understanding of why I stopped posting around the times I did and also so I can finally compile it all together and look on it in wonder..

So, where has the term gone you ask? how much work does a 4th year English an Cultural studies university major do in a semester??

Well...

From October 5th until November 3rd I wrote and handed in 3 small 500 word assignments or- as one of my professors fondly named them- "Very Short Papers" (VSP for short).  I also submitted 15  responses of 200-250 words two courses which were written and turned in weekly all term.  From November 3rd til December 6th I wrote and submitted major essays of varied lengths and values which span across many a topic and have left me absolutely spent!

So you can see how insane my months have been I will lay out each essay by due date and give you the exact topic and length.  If anyone would like to see my papers on any of these topics please e-mail me and I will gladly send or post (depending on demand) OR if you wish to discuss or have me discuss any of these topics in a post I will oblige just comment about it or e-mail me at bilichc@hotmail.com... Onward!

My Academic Writing for 2010: (By Due Date)

OCT 5th - English 2I06 (Modern British Literature); 500 words (VSP) discussing the theme of Masculinity in the novel Prester John by John Buchan.

OCT 6th- English 3Wo3 (Contemporary Native Literature in Canada); 500 word essay:  In the video "If The Weather Permits"- Inuit youth are shown as being caught between contemporary Canadian society and traditional cultural values and beliefs- Briefly discuss the significance of these conflicting ideologies as presented in the film.

NOV 10th - English 3R06 (Post-Colonial Theory, Culture and Practice); 1500 words explaining the following quote by Edward Said, "The Orient was Orientalized not because it was discovered to be "Oriental"..., but also because it could be- that is, submitted to being- made Oriental".

NOV 16th - Cultural Studies 2S03 (Spectacular Bodies); 2500 words discussing the following quote by Michel Foucault, "One had to study what kind of body the current society needs", explaining how power functions to produce specific kinds of bodies in a particular socio-historical context.

NOV 22th - English 3W03 (Contemporary Native Literature in Canada); 2000 words: Spirituality and religion are predominant themes in many of the words we are looking at this term.  Discuss the impact of Christianity on Aboriginal communities as portrayed in Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and at least one other poem, short story or video. What effect has it had on traditional beliefs and contemporary Aboriginal identity?

NOV 24th - English 2I06 (Modern British Literature);  1500 words Focusing on Mrs. Dalloway AND Jessie Pope's "The Call"&Siegfried Sassoon's "The Glory of Women", discuss war as a gendered sphere of action & experience. How is was, both as it is conducted and as it is experience, shaped by ideas about gender (i.e femininity and/or masculinity) & gender relations? How does war shape gender relations & ideas about gender?

DEC 6th - Cultural Studies 3AA3 (Gender and Sexuality: Queer Theory; Queer Lives); 2500 words that Compare and contrast the analysis of queer life in two thinkers of the course.  Engage their positioned with an eye to bringing out how and why there are these differences. 

I know, your overwhelmed just looking at this list and the various and challenging topics.. or you might be laughing at me behind my virtual back as you finished scanning through the list.. either way.. Yes I successfully wrote to the finish of each word limit for every aforementioned essay/topic.  On top of this daunting list I wrote 1 short response every week for English 3R06 (Post-Colonial theory...) AND 4 responses for Cultural Studies 2S03 (Spectacular Bodies) which were submitted to the same Professor, whom i love so very much and am thrilled to be able to continuing dealing with into next term! Take a bow Dr. Chakraborty!!!

Now Thankfully, my exams for semester one do not begin until December 15th so I have some time off now in which to rest and gather together the bits and pieces of my shredded imagination, dust off the old creative brain and get into some good writing :D

Come November 15th I will be writing final exams for English 3W03 (Native Canadian Lit)@ 12:30pm AND Cultural Studies 3AA3 @7pm.  A short days later on November 17th I will write the winter midterm exam for English 3R06 (Post-Colonial theory).  Then finally, on December 20th at 7:30pm I will write my final exam for Cultural Studies 2S03 ( Spectacular Bodies).  And I CANNOT WAIT to be Finished!

I know I was all excited come November 1st to compete in NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month, but alas! my essays and readings got in the way and tapped me out of words.. I scarcely wrote  3000 words for my 50 000 word month long novel, thus making November 2010 my worst year for the competition since I begin it in '08.  But I will continue to strive to achieve this impossible goal and hopefully I will be able to blog about its success in 2011.. maybe. Who Knows...

So now you know where my days have gone and where my days will go before this term officially ends and 2010 as well. 

I will try to keep posting more regularly now since I have the time to get back into my nightly posting habit..  So please, keep reading and keep commenting and e-mailing.. you know how I love feedback!

Thanks again to all of you who do read my blog, to my 2 followers and to my nightly faithfuls (you know who you are ^-^)... time for some sleep.  Night

XOXO

Cristina <3

What does it mean to be 21?

Well,
In the states it means being able to legally drink at a bar.. Well I've been able to do that since 19 living here in Canada.. so no news there

And according to my Parents, "Apparently" at 21 I am "supposed" to be "responsible" and use the wisdom of my years to make good choices, stand firm on opinions I should have already formed on topics relating to religion, politics, society etc. as well as pass judgements not only on myself as a person but also on my life and my choices in it.

Funny how I've been doing that since my late teen years but no one ever really took notice of it until now..

21 means not being able to get out of or escape making mistakes, bad choices, or anything else damning or condemning..

It means I am supposed to kill the child within me and then live out my life as a tired, over-worked, depressed, cheated member of the adult world

21 means saying good bye to childhood/teen dreams and kissing the life you wanted for yourself good bye

it means going out and getting a job, getting your drivers licence ( if you haven't already done so) and working towards a career going no where so you can pay off debts that are now staring at you blankly with hands reaching..

Considering I am not much of a drinker, my initial ideas of how to be properly celebrating being 21 Do Not include grabbing a bunch of loud rowdy drinking buddies and going to Buffalo to drink in a bar in the States...

My idea of 21 doesn't involve me purchasing, leasing or in any way shape or form owning my first vehicle or apartment, or being the assistant manager of a clothing store or other commercial establishment either.

It doesn't bring up any desire to one day have made memories to look back on and keep the hope alive of being "forever 21" and enjoying the year of my life living recklessly, stupidly or immorally all "because I can"...

I'd have to say that at 21, I am now quite content to live in this world continuing to take one day at a time and enjoy each moment before it passes me by.. 

If my biggest goal is to walk with my head up and one foot going in front of the other than I think 21 will suit me just fine.

It seems to me that at 21 the biggest thing anyone can hope to achieve is the very tiring very demanding deeply humbling but completely gratifying accomplishment of working towards Finding Yourself.

So, all I intend to do from now on til the end of my days is spend every moment of every hour of every day of my life hunting for who I am and who I want to be... with all the bruises, scrapes, bumps, trips, slips and falls that come with it.

it is 10:21am and I am honoured that this post is the first thing I have written today, my twenty-first birthday.

Now I've got to  go write a large cumbersome essay for "spectacular bodies" which I will post in all its horrific-ness once it is finished.

XOXO
Cristina-age 21

Hallowee'en replayed!

 SO I got an e-mail about costume labeling and I have posted here a picture of the group from hallowe'en night with each person assigned a number and explanations will correspond to each person.

So if you're interested in meeting the crazy characters I interact with daily/weekly and their costume choices/ie alter egos... keep reading down

1-Cousin Erica dressed as a spider mistress/sorceress 2- cousin Vicky dressed as an 80's flash dance girl, 3- Me dressed as a rose vampire, 4- my friend E dressed as Rorschach from the watchmen, 5-"aunty mary" as a she-devil, 6- my sister T as the Corpse Bride, 7- cousin Daniel dressed as golden mask ghoul, 8- sisters fiancee pedro as a Private Eye, 9- brother M dressed as himself I.E Death, 10- sister S dressed as a dead punk-rocker 

1- cousin E again as spider lady, 2- cousin V again as flash dancer, 3-cousin Dan again as golden masked ghoul, 4- cousin C as the Ace of Spade card, 5- Grandma the housecoat witch, 6- Cousin Nessa as a dead nerd, 7- sister T Corpse Bride, 8- brother m as (blending in with darkness) Death

As Above: 1-friend E as Rorschach, sister S=punk, 3-cousin dan the golden ghoul, 4- pedro the private eye, 5- me the vamp, 6- T the corpse Bride, 7- Bro as Death

Hope that clears it up, sorry for the repeats and if I missed you in my pics (of my readers who were present that night) I apologize.  Wish you all could have been there it really was spooktacular! muhahahaha!

XoXo
Cristina

All Hallows Eve

So here are the long awaited pictures of my Hallowe'en fun!

I spent it with family and friends who are like extended family and we had a spooky ole' time, everyone in costume lined up on a dark driveway that is on the side of a house next to a parking lot..  It was a lot of fun, and even though we didn't have very many children come to receive free candy this year everyone enjoyed dressing up and wandering about..

Four Spooky Cousins

Grandma and(some of) her little ghouls

My Sister as The Corpse Bride

Sibling Devilry

The Vamp and the Spider Queen on a Date with Death

Cugini Love: Punk/Rocker and the Golden Ghoul

The Lady is a Vamp!

Death meets Rorschach (a Watchmen)

Family&Friends Having a Frightfully Good Time!

The Corpse Bride And Her Brother Death

Forever Engaged, only a Corpse Bride!

SO I did a lot of make-up Hallowe'en night but the best person I worked on my the above picture, my sister whom I make to look as the Corpse Bride! Now it isn't exactly the Tim Burton Corpse Bride but its the closest I could come to the real thing... and I made her entire costume!

         Well, to be honest with you, I cheated a little...
We went to a local thrift store called Talize and purchased a wedding dress for $7.99 and the blue material I used for her veil I had purchased a few years back for $5 a yard at discount fabric on Ottawa Street.  The Blue on the lace and the at the bottom of the dress was done with blue sparkle hairspray which i purchased at $2.50 a can and I used 4 cans...and I just cut up  so altogether I spent about $22.99 on a totally fantastic costume that my sister loved and everyone else that saw her loved as well!!!    Please scroll back up through the pictures to see the full view of the dress. and Let me know what you think about it!

So we enjoyed ourselves, we laughed, we danced, we sang, cheered, and did our annual traditional "Hocus Pocus" witches walk arm in arm down the drive way Capes and Skirts billowing in the wind! It was a night of splendor, wonder, fantasy, magic and horror and we loved every minute of it!  Even Granny got in on the fun (see the second image from the top) and it was awesome!!!...

We had all sorts of costumes, scary and other from the Ace of Spades, and 80's chicks, Nerds and Private Eye's,Punk Rockers and Watchmen, Vampires, Witches, Devils, Ghouls and Corpse Brides!  It was definitely a night worth remember and I'm happy you can all be privy to it thanks to the magic of technology!  

So there you have it, enjoy the look into one of my everyday moments...and please keep reading and leave me your commentary!

I'm off to do some writing now for NaNoWriMo now.. Until Tomorrow

XOXO
Cristina 

Some Catching Up To Do...

So I know I haven't posted in 15 days but I intend on making up for it this week...

For those of you who took the time to read through my Spectacular Bodies essay about  the Lady Gaga/Lady Liberty image, I can imagine you are all dying to know the grade I received!  Well, although it was a last day done type of assignment I was able to pull a wonderful grade of B!!! I'm pleased with it and terrified of the  next essay(s) that I will be writing this month.. If any are good, I will post them....so once again to those who read a giant THANKS!!

Now I had intended to post about thanksgiving and that didn't happen... and I wanted to post about Hallowe'en and that didn't happen.. YET!

Stay tuned folks as later this evening I will be submitting a post, with pictures, of the festivities so you all get to see what I dressed up as along with the costumes of my friends and family.

Right now I am sitting in the humanities library on campus as I am waiting for my night class which will begin at 7pm.  I started my day at 9:30am and sadly it will not end until 10pm but I intend to use this break between classes to get work through an assignment so that I won't have to work on it when I get home and therefore will be free to post about Hallowe'en.

!!Calling All Writers!! 

 Did You Know???
-Did you know that you could write a novel  in One Month?
-did you know that there is a writing  contest that takes place online? and its participants can get the chance to have their written work read and known by people around the world have little, no or much consequence to the literary world?
-Did you know that you could spend your entire November writing a novel?
-Did you know that there is something called Literary Abandonment and that it is sweeping the writing nation?
-Did you know that all of this is taking place in your own backyard and in surrounding yards in Canada, the US and various European countries???
-The contest is called NANOWRIMO which stands for National Novel Writing Month and you can sign up on the website listed here:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Some Inside Info:
      The contest is for anyone ages 13 and up, and it involves you giving up all excess time (and work/school/gaming/family/eating/sleeping etc time) to writing 50 000 words in ONE Month! Thats Right! From November 1st to November30th your sole task is to complete a 50 000 word novel.  You pick a genre, choose your title, can upload a book cover and then you just write!  and the best thing is, you are not allowed to edit your work until the final submission!  Seriously, imagine just writing without editing end? Awesome! 

Through the website you set up a profile, have the chance to meet and chat with other writers in your section as well as in your genre, and you keep track of and update your word count as you input the sections of your novel that you get written. 

I know 50 000 words seems like A LOT.. well that's because it is!   It averages to about 2000 something words that need to be written per day!  It is a monumental task which -to no surprise for some of you- I am undertaking as of yesterday! 

I know you are probably questioning my sanity and reasoning abilities and thinking "Why the Heck is a university student going to be trying to do a silly contest that isn't for credit! Especially during the semester's busiest month!!"

Well I haven't lost my sanity (not that I had much to being with hehe) but I have been attempting to complete this contest since November of 2008.. and to date have only ever reached 25000 words.   This year is going to be different.  I Intend of making the 50 000 word goal and I hope you will all be keeping up with me as I document my journey.  I am thinking about posting parts of my novel, or at least a synopsis and that some or most of you out there will read it.

So now I am going to return to my assignment so I can get it finished ASAP and then I am going to grab dinner before night class... am feeling like chicken teriyaki .. mmmmmm

Keep reading, I promise to keep up with my blog better this month as I know I really slacked off in October and some of you ( Ange&Faffles mostly) were saddened by it...

Cheers to university assignments in critical reading and interpretation!

XOXO
Cristina