Mishmash of stuff

This always happens. I go on vacation and then want to blog about it, but am too lazy to do so, and I don't want to blog about new stuff when I haven't blogged about the vacation, so then I just don't blog, until I have the need to blog and then I blog and then the vacation post just gets less and less probable of ever getting written. I'll try and write it. Maybe on the way to Minneapolis...

Anyways, here's what's happened in the last little while:

• Volleyball
  • Started practicing outdoors on concrete. Let the scraping begin!
  
  
  • Played my first ever 9-man game! It was fun! Not as much of a difference as I thought it was gonna be. It was still volleyball. Plus, we've been practicing a lot, so I was prepared.
  
  
  • Saw Gizelle leaving Scarborough Town Centre in her car while I was in the parking lot and we stared at each other, half recognizing each other, but not 100% sure it was the other, especially since we were way out of our usual environment.
  
  
  • Saw the Columbians (or some sort of Spanish speaking people) play on the 10' high volleyball net with a soccer ball again. I need to bring my camera to practice to snag a picture for you guys.
  
  
  • Finished my second week in a row of 20+ hours of volleyball. That's without playing beach... I've been going to the girls' practice to help out and get some extra practice.
  
  
  • Learnt how to fist serve and serve with a lot of top spin. Working on fixing my arm swing when hitting and snapping my wrist. Chris was very observant.


• School
  • Bio is not inspirational
  
  
  • Finished my poster! My first poster for a conference. I would have rather had a talk. You can't do posters too last minute b/c you have to get it printed and crap. It's an ok poster. Not a great one. At least it was pretty easy b/c I just needed to pull stuff from the paper.
    
    
  
  
  • Patent pending. All I had to do was sign some documents and now I have a patent pending. Neb filed it for us for the work above. We had to get it filed before the conference otherwise prior art would have been an issue.


• Procrastination
  • Procrastinated by coding. Hacking facebook to be exact. Details to appear later.
  
  
  • Tribal Wars. Justin and I are addicted. I need more wood!!!
  
  
  • Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
  
  
  • Usual dicking around online
  
  
  • I get the National Post now. I'm not a big fan. I'd rather have the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, or Winnipeg Free Press. But, it was free b/c of my Citibank credit card for 90 days.


• Outings
  • Serena Ryder in concert. Jeremy Fisher opened. The guy in front of me was really annoying b/c he was tall and he kept moving his head. It was obvious that he wasn't really paying attention and was there just b/c his boyfriend dragged him.
    
    
  
  
  • Clubbing last Friday
  
  
  • North by Northeast and FCUK fashion show with Tina, Donna, and Newton.
    
    
  
  
  • I was on the subway and someone was reading a Russian newspaper. I was able to read some of it over his shoulder :)
  
  
  • Lunch with DT fancy pants.
  
  
  • Seeing Chris Bosh at Holt Renfrew in Yorkville
  
  
  • Dinner with Cris and Teresa b/c I didn't want to break the streak of seeing Warriors everyday for the past week. Random event of the night: being served by Marieke at the restaurant.


• New music albums
  • Kelly Clarkson - My December
  
  
  • Missy Higgins - On A Clear Night
  
  
  • Mandy Moore - Wild Hope
  
  
  • Maria Mena - Apparently Unaffected
  
  
  • LeAnn Rimes - Whatever We Wanna
  
  
  • t.A.T.u. - Dangerous and Moving

Christina Aguilera in Concert

Opening act: The Pussycat Dolls

The Air Canada Centre was packed

Christina Aguilera

Many set and costume changes

A circus theme, which reminded me of Michelle Branch's Hotel Paper album, Jenny Schecter's childhood issues on The L Word, and the creepy carnies on The Taken.

Some audience participation during "Nasty Naughty Boy"

Another interesting set. Stripper poles and a carousel horse.

More pictures and videos

I went to go see Christina Aguilera in concert at the Air Canada Centre last Saturday with Jamie. The Pussycat Dolls opened and surprisingly actually sang live and didn't just lip sync. Christina Aguilera was amazing live. She just has an incredible voice and is a great entertainer.

She went through 13 costume changes by our count, which includes some easy ones like taking off her coat, but some more dramatic ones like her large white gown and having her pants put on her while on stage. When she was in the white gown, people were taking pictures like crazy. Cameras were constantly flashing and I took a video of it. In general there was a "cleaner" feel to it than her last concert according to Jamie, where she was touring with Justin Timberlake for her Stripped album. There was a lot of leg though.

The set changes were for the most part pretty smooth and subtle. They didn't have these big mover guys coming out and having long set changes while we sat in silence. Rather, it seemed like one giant performance with no breaks. A lot of times, the dancers would bring out part of the set and incorporate it into their act. The sets were pretty simple for the most part, but were effective. I don't really get the circus theme in what is seemingly more and more popular in pop culture. Michelle Branch's Hotel Paper alum had this circus theme, Jenny Schecter from The L Word had all these circus delusions, and on The Taken there were these creepy carnies that were persistent through the mini-series.

I took some videos of the concert, but had to cut some of them short because security was periodically roaming around and I didn't want to get caught like at Chantal Kreviazuk's concert. Our seats were pretty far up, so there was no security behind us to see me tape it, but they did go up and down the aisle a few times. Here are the videos I took.

The Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu

Christina Aguilera - Understand (camera flashes constantly going off)

Christina Aguilera - Oh Mother

Christina Aguilera - Candyman

Christina Aguilera - Hurt

Christina Aguilera - Beautiful

Chantal Kreviazuk in concert

Raine Maida as the opening act with Chantal Kreviazuk on piano

Chantal Kreviazuk in Massey Hall

Chantal completely unplugged with no microphone, amplifier, or back-up

I went to go see Chantal Kreviazuk in concert on Saturday. Woo!! Go Winnipeg!!! I had seen her live before - at a free concert at Assiniboine Park (like a 10 min. rollerblade from my house). She's good live and I quite liked her most recent album, Ghost Stories, in addition to her older stuff. The concert was at Massey Hall.

The opening act was her husband, Raine Maida, the lead singer for Our Lady Peace. Chantal was on the piano, but in a hoodie to hide herself, but it was pretty obvious that it was her. After that, she came back to play her set for an hour and a half.

I taped part of one of the songs, but midway, one of the security guards told me to stop and threatened to kick me out, hence the abrupt end to the video. I was quite surprised at the audio quality of my digital camera. I expected the volume would've saturated the microphone and it would've just been crap, but it was actually quite good.

Ghosts of You

Her two kids (toddlers) made appearances. I couldn't tell if they were predetermined interruptions by the kids, but twice they came one and one time they sang. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the intended audience for the concert. She also was rather mocking about the encore, telling us that she was playing her last song, but if we wanted more that we should applaud and she'll come back. Encores nowadays are such a bastardization of what it originally made out to be. It used to be that encores were real and not scripted. Now you expect an encore and the artist typically saves one of their best songs for it. It's kinda dumb, but I guess it's tough to go against tradition.

Chantal came out and did a cool encore. For one song, she sat on the stage with just a guitar. No microphone, no amplifiers, no back-up. Just her voice. It was pretty amazing. She was able to project her voice throughout the entire place, even up to the second balcony. Everyone was completely silent and you will notice in the video that there's a long delay between the end of the song and the clapping to make sure that she was actually done b/c there would be no way that she could be heard over the applause. I wasn't sure if my camera would pick-up the sound, but again, it did a good job despite not being blaringly loud. There's only sound and no video b/c I had to hide that I was recording it :)

Far Away Unplugged (no video, just audio)

Canadian Idol Season 4 Finale

Me and Emily with Eva Avila. Winner of Canadian Idol Season 4.

Melissa O'Neil. Winner of Canadian Idol Season 3.

I <3 Elena Juatco. Canadian Idol Season 2.

Fellow Winnipegger Rob James. Canadian Idol Season 4 and also from McMaster and James. A little bit of asian glow :p

More pictures

I am not a Canadian Idol fan. I did not go watch the finale of Canadian Idol Season 4. I did not go to the after party. I also didn't stalk the idols nor did I chat and take pictures with them. I did not get kissed on the cheek by Eva, oh wait, I did :)

The rest of this post is encrypted to protect myself and others from repercussions.

Decrypt text using the "friend" key (ask me for it)

KELLY CLARKSON CONCERT, BITCHES

Free poster!

This is how I find a suitable radio station when I'm in a new city:

1. Press the "scan" button


2. If Kelly Clarkson is playing, stop.
   Else, goto #1

3rd time's a charm. First time, it was Sarah's fault. Absolutely 100% of the blame is on her. That was like Dec. 2004. Then, it just so happened that while I was at MSR, Kelly Clarkson was on another tour and was playing near Seattle! I had the ticket in my hand, but she cancelled the concert b/c of laryngitis. That was Sept. 2005. Another internship, another tour, and another coincidence! This time, I finally went!

It was awesome.

If you have anything bad to say about Kelly Clarkson, you will be kindly asked to leave this blog.

For the sake of professionalism, please refrain from making any comments about jailbait or insinuating that I went soley for that purpose. Yes, there was jailbait (and plenty of it). Even "Canadian" jailbait.

What happened to the 3 posts per day?

Well, when you have a conference paper deadline and you're trying to submit 2 completely different papers to it while having to work full-time during the day (and evening) and playing 8 hours of volleyball in 3 days, you kinda become short of time.

I'm gonna go on vacation after Friday at midnight Pacific time (the paper deadline). Still up in the air if I'll come back from vacation. Check back Monday to see if I do.

Happy 666! This could only be better if I was blogging from my apartment in Toronto (666 Spadina Ave.)


Song of the day: Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man (listened to it like 50+ times today)

I...umm...don't watch Canadian Idol

 

I also didn't go see Rex Goudie and Melissa O'Neil in concert on Friday (who I didn't know were 2nd and 1st respectiviely in Canadian Idol 3) with Sarah, nor did I go see Hedley tonight (and I didn't know that their lead singer, Jacob Hoggard, placed 3rd in Canadian Idol 2) with Kevin. I also never went to any live Canadian Idol 2 shows and saw Jacob Hoggard back in the day, nor do I have his and other Canadian Idol 2 contestants' autographes. And I didn't want to go to the live tapings of the Canadian Idol 3 shows, but couldn't because I was out of town in Seattle at the time.