Walk the walk, talk the talk, but can you blog the blog?

My first week as a Creative Communications ("CreComm") student at Red River College was a hectic one. As true Communications specialists, our teachers described the results that CreComm will give us, and not too much about the process. At the end of our two years we'd have so much momentum from all of our relentless networking, we'd be able to produce our own radio and TV shows, have no trouble writing a 30 second radio-ad in only an hour and streeters wouldn't make us want to vomit (don't think that'll ever change). Sounds great, but it seemed a long way from where my abilities stood on that first day.

Among the many assignments that were thrown at me, we received the on-going task of maintaining a blog. Not only that, they wanted it to be interesting!

I wasn't very familiar with blogs, their uses and how they could be beneficial to this program. To me, the blog replaced Livejournal and online diaries of the like. It wasn't a way to get noticed for a job or market a brand, it was just a way to vent and talk about your life. Boy, was I wrong!
One Thursday in our seminar slot, a few famous bloggers, like Colin Fast, came to talk to us. I was very surprised that some blogs stood out from the rest and that you could actually establish yourself through this.

Blogging is a way for people to see how you write. It's a way for people to learn about you, your personality and the types of things that interest you. This is valuable to employers, especially in the Communications world. It's another way of social networking, like Facebook and Twitter. This just actually involves effort.

We are required to post one blog by 6pm Friday every week. Like true students, most of us put it off and post Thursday or Friday. None of us are opposed to writing earlier though if a moment of genius came to us. As for me, CreComm has slapped most of the creative right out of me, so I'm usually the Friday-at-noon poster. My blog doesn't really have a central focus; I don't really have one thing I can count on every week to give me enough substance to talk about it weekly. So far it's just a wish-wash of things I see.

My Favorites
Some of my fellow Section 2 classmates (insert applause here, because that's how we do) have really found their niche though. One that I most enjoy is Stacia Franz's blog about her terrors of customers while being a server at Earl's St.Vital. It is always thoughtfully written, quirky and hilarious. It has opened my eyes a lot, because I'm a non-tipper. Now I just feel guilty.

I also look forward to Kiran Dhillon's blog every week, because it always makes me smile and renews my faith in love and kind people. I really like the pick-me-up.

Blogging can also be pretty negative if you aren't careful what you say. Whatever you put out on the internet is there for anyone to see, take, and critisize. It can destroy you reputation and turn employers off, burn bridges and break ties. You have to be careful.

I love getting comments on my blogs, so don't hesitate to comment about anything! Happy blogging!

mediocrity killed the CreCommer

"You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God's creative principle works in you"

Paramahansa Yogananda

I've always been one that strives to break from the pack; to establish myself as an individual and do things that nobody else dares to do. I was the one who took initiative and was the over achiever. I was known as "that" person.

Now, i'm in a program that hosts 75 of these people. At first I was so excited to be among people of the like, but now I am finding it hard to break from the pack. Marty from the movie Madagascar, knows exactly how I feel.

Coming in to this program, I felt really creative and good at what I do. I did very well in University but now i'm the dreaded AVERAGE! But now, everyone is like me. I don't know how to raise the bar. How can I break from the pack? How can I prove to be (sorry Kenton), unique?

I guess it's just about finding my own way. I love it here and I love what we do! Just the mediocrity is eating me alive!

Buyer Beware: Halloween Safety Squad

Trick-or-Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! Not too big and not too small, just the size of Montreal!

Witches, vampires and Hannah Montanas will be invading the streets of Winnipeg at the end of this month. Some of them will be wearing masks, and other will be using face paint to attain their goolish looks. Reports on the dangers of wearing masks on Halloween have been popping up frequently, so face painting has become the go-to option for many families. But families are busy and don't have time to compare brands and test which product can outlast a Winnipeg Halloween. That's why we did.

During the course of five days, me and my gang (Kiley, Kiran, Stacia and Jeremy) tested six different products purchased from Walmart, Superstore, Dollarama, Value Village and Party Stuff, what we believed to be the most popular Halloween outlets.

We tested the products using a grading template with the following specs:

- Ease of Application (because kids will be squirming and antsy to get Halloween on!)

- Longevity (because kids should be able to go from day to night without re-applying)

- Removal from skin (because what's worse than having your face scrubbed until it's blue while on a sugar high!)

- Skin Irritability (because kids won't hesitate to scratch your beautiful butterfly artwork if it's itchy)

- Exercise test (because kids want to still look like a clown after running around)

- Removal from clothing (because moms don't like stains)

Day one

Brand: Dollarama

Store bought: Dollarama

Cost: $1

Colours: black, red, white, blue and green

Age group: 3+

Confusion: Product claimed to be non-toxic on the front of the packaging, but at the back read "if swallowed, contact the poison information centre or seek medical advice."

Overall results: 3.076/10 (Yikes! Last place!)

Day two

Brand: Fun world

Store bought: Walmart

Cost: $2.93

Colours: black, white, red, yellow and blue

Age group: 13+

Confusion: On the front of the packaging claims to be hypoallergenic, however; on the back reads "some individuals may experience an allergic reaction."

Overall results: 6.408/10 (Honourable second place)

Day three

Brand: Rubie's

Store bought: Superstore

Cost: $2.99

Colours: white, black, red, green and blue

Age group: 8+

Confusion: No confusion on packaging. It even came with a sharpener!

Overall result: 5.872/10 (Mediocre Third) 

Day four

Brand: Seasons

Store bought: Value Village

Cost: $1.99

Colours: white, black, red, yellow and blue

Age group: 8+

Confusion: The packaging reads "Do not swallow or use blue makeup sticks on lips." Does that mean we can eat the red one?

Overall result: 5.412/10 (Right-in-the-middle fourth)

Day five (A)

Brand: Danson Decor

Store bought: Party Stuff

Cost: $2.19

Colours: green,white, yellow, blue, red and black

Age group: 5+

Confusion: Claimed to be non-toxic on the front, but on the back read, "contact poison control if ingested." It also claimed to be labratory tested, but we weren't really sure what that meant.

Overall result: 5.195/10 ( Ouch! Second last)

Day five (B)

Brand: Lucky Art

Store bought: Party Stuff

Cost: $1.99

Colours: blue, black, yellow, green, red and white.

Age group: unspecified but says "children under six years old should use ONLY with adult supervision."

Confusion: No confusion.

Overall results: 8.915 (Tada! Our winner!)

Another thing we concluded was that face paints aren't meant for people with darker skin. The only one that actually worked well on our group member with darker skin was Lucky Art!

After our experiment was conducted we talked to dermatologist, Dr.Earl Minuk. He spread some light saying that "non-toxic does not always mean safe for the skin." He also said the hypoallergenic means it's free of the most common allergies, but it is not a guarantee. 

We also talked to Simbo the Clown who told us that if we wanted great quality, we'd have to dish the cash.

My advice for consumers would be: Trust us! We tested these products and Lucky Art won by a landslide. But as always, test the product on a sensitive part of your skin before putting it all over your face . Happy Halloween! 

If you want to know more about why masks are unsafe for children this Halloween, please visit the following sites (shortened by http://bit.ly)

http://bit.ly/tka4v

http://bit.ly/UIGuu

http://bit.ly/Ua7kh

http://bit.ly/IoAKa

& they live happily ever after.

Children’s literature is full of images of princesses meeting their prince. It’s a beautiful scene , and of course they always live happily ever after.
With these kind of expectations drilled in to my brain since I was a child, how can a regular relationship ever live up to my ideals about love?

Or are they even really ideals, or things we should all strive for?

I find a lot of people settle in love. Not so much at my age, but I see couples that are older that are nothing more than long time roommates. They have kids and a mortgage and joint bank accounts. But where is the love?
I find comfort often mistakes itself for love. Most times it makes love even better. People get used to the way they live their life and dedicate so much time and effort in to something. To suddenly drop that doesn’t even make sense. If you spent a year on a certain project, there would be no reason for you to give up on it forever. After dedicating yourself for that long, you find it hard to rationalize giving up. At what point does love become something you feel bad for giving up because you’ve spent so much time on it? And at what point do you keep pursuing it because you know how great it can be?

When you are on the outside looking in on a situation, you imagine the ways you would react. At those points you are strong and unbiased. It’s a product of what you truly feel. But when you are in those situations your biases come in to play that you never considered when you were on the outside looking through the glass. How do you go back to that time and try to look at your own situation with being swayed by emotion and commitment?

In love, what things are you willing to compromise? What things are you never willing to give up?
There are barely any real life prince-meets-his-princess-fantasy stories. People don’t usually live happily ever after without ever having anything go wrong, no arguments, no hurt. But just because that’s not the norm, does it make it okay?

In the song She Will be Loved by Maroon 5, it says “it’s not always rainbows and butterflies, it’s compromise that moves us along.” I really believe that. I think that there are some things you can never work at. Love, a connection and that twinkle in your eye, giddy feeling cannot be created or forced. It just is. That is the nucleus of a relationship. Every other detail you should be able to figure out. It’s about communication. Arguing doesn’t have to be destructive. A lot of the time it can be constructive for a couple if both people exercise active listening and constructive thoughts. And just because a couple argues doesn’t mean they are a bad couple. I think it’s the result that comes out of an argument that is a true reflection of a couple. And those things can usually be worked on.

 

Although every little girl dreams of being a Jasmine or Cinderella, it hardly ever works out that easily in the end. But the take home message, I think, is that love prevails through everything else. And that “love,love, love…love is all you need”. Everything else is just details.

 

….I think. I hope.  

just so you know

If you were ever in a position where you would have to eat a fellow human being, the liver would be the most beneficial part to eat. Although the brain has a lot of vitamins, it does not have nearly the nutritional quality of the liver. The spleen doesn't have anything. Bones are tasty but they are more like empty calories. So yes. Eat little jimmy's liver if it ever came to. 

Oh, and ayyy all ye pirates. (Ack, my pirate is getting rusty). Instead of looking for gold on the ocean floor, you should look for whale vomit. It's actually more valuable than gold. You can sell it for $65/Gram. 1 pound can earn you about $30 000. They use it for perfumes and fragrances. Apparently it solidifies itself on the surface and turns in to a rock. 

These are two things I have found out after watching 7 minutes of "Manswers" on that weird guy channel. Thought it was valuable information to share.