reminder

i just watched a video on dallas green's myspace page of live concert footage from his tour with dashboard confessional and i was reminded of why i love him. his voice is as calming as listening to the ocean. i want more city and colour songs! at least alexisonfire is coming out with their new CD soon and i'll see them at the virgin festival in september. woo hoo!

i'm not technologically inclined enough to know how to post videos on my blog, so go on youtube and do a search on dallas green. or check out www.myspace.com/dallasgreen.

and if you don't have his CD yet, go buy it. sometimes by city and colour.

please, no comments on dallas being too emo. he's perfect.

"who do you think you are? hilary duff?!?!"

i went through my clothes and purged an equivalent of a garbage bag worth of clothes. some of it was stuff i brought to toronto with me when i moved here, but still haven't worn once yet. that's pretty much a signal for me to get rid of them. there's still some stuff i couldn't quite let go of yet, even though i haven't worn them in a year, but the next big purge, i'll let it go.

even though i got rid of a significant amount of clothing, it still doesn't feel like my closet and dresser are that much lighter. is that a sign that i have too much clothes? probably.

the last time i did a big purge of clothes in edmonton, i think i got rid of 3 garbage bags of clothes. to my defence, some of the stuff was really old, like from junior high, and i just hadn't donated them yet. when i told my friend how much i got rid of, his response was "who do you think you are? hilary duff!" i wish i was her, then i'd be dating joel madden.

and some of the stuff i donated still had the tags on them, and i'm sure there were a number of things i had only worn once. i have a problem. i recognize that. my roommate is equally as bad for shopping as i am, and i think we feed each other's addictions because we love showing each other what we bought. so we were saying that we should try and not shop for a month, and we'd do it together, so it won't be as hard. we have tentatively picked october because we're both going away in august, and september is my birthday, so october looks like the lucky month. damn, it has 31 days in it too.

i haven't even gone through my shoes yet either, but those are harder to get rid of.

what's the deal with...

...the ridiculous heat, humidity and smog in toronto. it has been scorching these past two days. temperatures around 34 degrees and over 40 with humidity. on the worst days, there are heat, humidity and smog alerts. i'd like to call it the triple threat. thank goodness for air conditioning. i thought i'd try to sleep without it last night, but i think i lasted about 5 mins before i had to turn it on. so much for conserving energy.

...the new fad of wearing thick belts right under your boobs? i'm all for the empire waist, but not when you create it yourself. i really don't understand this trend, it just looks ridiculous. it's part of this new 80's revival of fashion. it looked ridiculous back then, and it still looks ridiculous now. i completely believe that belts are an accessory item for women, and not a necessity. your pants should never be that big that you need a belt to keep them up, its purpose is to complete an outfit. but not up around your rib cage.

...wireless bluetooth technology. great for driving, but unnecessary when you're just walking around on the streets and your hands are completely free. does it really take that much energy to hold a phone up to your ear? if you can't do that, you shouldn't be talking on the phone.

this concludes the random rants for today.

concert count

#15: Panic! at the Disco (15-July-06) - Molson Ampitheatre

a friend of mine won tickets to this show and asked me to go, which was awesome because i wanted to go to this show when i heard they were coming, but wasn't sure who would come with me.

i must say, panic! puts on a great show. it was very theatrical and almost like a circus, must be their hometown influence (las vegas). if anyone has seen their video, they had dancers and performers dressed like how they're dressed in the video and would perform during the songs, which is kind of odd for a rock show, but kind of refreshing. at one point in a song, the lead singer did a little dance routine with the performers, which was cute. i definitely have a new musician crush (i just read that he's only 19! whoa, i feel even older now).

i was curious at how they would put on a show with only one CD of 13 songs, but only add up to 40 mins. i'm pretty sure they sang every song and they did a cover of tonight, tonight by the smashing pumpkins (which was great), and in the middle of the show, they had a little intermission where their performers came out and talked to the crowd a bit and said something about each member of the band (they said the lead singer was still a virgin, he's in a band and is so cute, i highly doubt he's a virgin). when the band came back, they had all changed their clothes, which was probably a good idea b/c it was hot today (mid afternoon, with humidity, it felt like 38 degrees!) and they were all in long sleeved shirts and other things.

the other neat thing about the show was the array of instruments. they had a cello player for most of the songs and the lead singer played the piano for many of the songs, and they used a banjo in one of the songs too.

they have a really young fan base, which just made me feel old. but it still was a great show, they have really happy upbeat music and it's definitely fun to listen to. for the last song, the lead singer jumped into the crowd while he was singing.

so they ended up only playing an hour set, and there was no encore. i think this is only the 2nd concert i've ever been to where there was no encore. i think that's fine, might as well play all your songs and only give an encore when the crowd really makes you want to come back to play more. in my opinion, encores shouldn't be planned.

all in all, a great show from a great band. how could you not like a band with song names such as "lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off" or "there's a good reason these tables are numbered honey, you just haven't thought of it yet." i've made a comment before how i like songs with weird words in them; panic! uses "aubergine" in one of their songs. i didn't even know what the hell that is, i had to look it up. who knew music could be educational too!

so you think you can dance

i know i can't dance, but i love watching the show. i'm in awe and a little jealous at how these people can move their bodies. it's amazing. and i love shows where i can pass judgement on something i know nothing about and can't do myself. cases in point: so you think you can dance and canadian/american idol. i can't sing or dance, but i sure can judge others at it.

one of my favourites on so you think you can dance cried tonight after he finished his solo routine because it was the first time his mom could come to the show. it was so cute. so what if he's a momma's boy, i'm not dating him.

my favourites, travis, benji and ivan were all safe tonight, so i get to watch another week of them dancing. there's a two hour show next wednesday! i can't wait!

speaking of reality shows, has anyone caught lisa loeb's reality show to find a man? it's on the life network and i think it started two weeks ago, but i keep forgetting when it's on, so i haven't seen it yet.

and for all you miami ink fans (sorry i don't watch inked on a&e), the new season starts next week too. another great reality show. my friend loves ami james, i love chris nunez, and we both think yoji is hilarious.

ah, reality tv, what did we do watch before you existed?

rain rain go away

it started raining on my way to work this morning. i would have taken the bus or the subway if it was raining when i stepped out of my building, but i was already halfway to work and had my umbrella, so i decided to walk the whole way. then it started crazy raining. by the time i got to work, my pants were wet up to the knees! good thing i was wearing black and you couldn't really tell. i saw someone wearing white pants, and pitied her for her mistake.

if the store was opened, i would have bought a new pair of pants to let the other ones dry. but it wasn't opened yet, and my friend said i didn't need to buy a new pair of pants. damn her voice of reason!

my pants dried in a little over an hour. but the next time something like that happens, i'm going into one of the sample rooms and putting on a pair of pants from there!

and i hate holding an umbrella. moreso for the reason that i hate fighting against the wind and looking like an idiot when my umbrella flips. maybe i can't live in vancouver if i hate the rain so much. but ideally, i'd have a car by then, so it wouldn't be as bad?

my sixth sense

i swear i'm psychic or have a sixth sense or something, at least when it comes to my phone. my friends seem to call me at all hours of the night, and i always seem to be up, or just wake up a few minutes before my phone starts ringing. it's weird, it's like i know someone's going to call me, so i wake up.

ah, italy just won the world cup. i'm surprised i'm not more into the world cup considering i love watching sports, and what sporting event is bigger than the world cup. meh, maybe i'll start watching in 2010.

south edmonton common in downtown toronto

i love south edmonton common. it's a great shopping destination, and i don't mind that you basically have to drive to each store. so living in downtown toronto without a car, means i can't hit up the big box stores like i used to because they're usually in the suburbs.

until now...

they're opening a best buy right by eaton centre. woo hoo! but i used to just go there for CDs, and now that HMV is priced well, best buy isn't as enticing. now as exciting as...

a superstore! and they didn't just take any location, they're renovating the old maple leaf gardens to be a giant superstore! if i was a torontonian, i might be a little more outraged at them turning a sports icon into a giant supermarket, but i'm not from toronto, so i'm looking forward to getting all my home needs where they used to play hockey. superstore is a relatively new thing for ontario folks. they're not used to supermarkets selling housewares, or anything more than just groceries.

i don't know what else i need, but i'm happy that big box stores have infiltrated downtown toronto. but i have to draw the line somewhere, i do not shop at walmart anymore. can't support a competitor!

finished my first 10km run

i did it!!! woo hoo!!

i finished in 1:09:24.2. our run clinic trainer had predicted that we would finished between 1:10 to 1:15, so i hit that mark. i ran with a friend the whole way, and stuck to our regiment of running 9 mins and walking 1 min. we did that 7 times, and finished the run. i didn't have a time goal before the race because i really just wanted to finish it since i have never done anything like this before, but i wanted to stick to the 9 and 1s our trainer set out for us. i must say though, sometimes that 1 min of walking couldn't come fast enough and definitely wasn't long enough!

here are some of my stats:

total money raised: $605 (all proceeds to canadian amateur athletes - part of Hbc's commitment to support amateur athletes and the olympics)
place (total runners): 831 out of 1042 (at least i wasn't last, phew!)
place (total females): 366 out of 524
place (total category: women 19-29): 107 out of 138
pace km: 0:07:06
official time: 1:10:50.7
chip time: 1:09:20.3 (it took over a minute before i crossed the start line because there were so many people, so the chip time is from the timing chip attached to my shoe, it starts timing when i cross the mat at the start line, and stops when i cross again at the finish line)

the first place runner finished the run in 0:30:20.8. the course is 5 km one way, and turning around to run the 5 km back. the 1st place runner lapped us when we were at 3km, and he just hit the 7 km mark. when we were at our last km, he was already at his car and cheering for us as we ran past him.

the last place runner finished in 1:46:16.4. i think she was one of the speed walkers, which is pretty incredible.

there were olympic athletes at the finish line who gave us the finisher's medals, which was pretty neat. i will hang that medal somewhere proudly.

so thanks to everyone who supported me, either through a pledge and/or words of encouragement. i'm not too sore the day after the run, but i feel really proud that i actually did it. i might just make this an annual tradition and try to improve my time each year.