Missed a Few Months...How....

Wow. I have never missed two months of blogging since I started this blog a few years ago. It is not that I don't have things to blog about, it is about the time factor.  Now that I am in the workforce full-time again, I have a position of management, I continue to write my thesis (despite sacrifices of my recreation time and other life activities), and I moved to a new adult, grown-up, professional apartment. All of this means less time to sit and write creatively for this online space. I don't want to be the type of person that abandons one's blog so I will quickly add this update and a photo from my new balcony and say that after I defend my thesis this Fall (cross my fingers and get to work), I shall be back to blog on a regular basis.

Thanks to my mum, Aunt Arta and others who may read, I do enjoy writing this blog so I shall be back. In the interim, I shall be staring out at this view and I sit and complete my fourth rewrite for my final thesis document.

Thanks to Photosynth, I can give you an almost 180 degree view of what I see every morning and night. Lucky me!

A bien tôt!

Zoe at the Special Olympics

Life is really busy right now with a new job, finishing thesis, and now a flood in my hometown and I am making sure my house is not being washed away.  The good news is, my sister competing in Alberta' Special Olympics this weekend in Devon, Alberta.  Despite the flooding, the event is going on as it is further north and not in the flood zone.  Here is a blog post my mother wrote about the event.  More to come later.

Zoe at the Special Olympics

Apparently the Olympics went very well and Zoe won a silver medal and three bronze medals.  One medal for each event she entered.  Very cool Zoe!  I shall call in the next few days to hear her stories.

Zoe Wins Four Medals

Women of Note Concert

Come one come all to the concert of Women of Note here in Winnipeg on Sunday, May 5.  We are performing a variety of songs including ABBA, a song from Zambia, a song written in Mexico called Oye, beautiful French tune by Faure and Rutter, the very difficult piece Laudate Dominum by Hovland, one of Eric Whitacre's lullaby's set to music, spiritual Heaven Bound Train, and finally the interesting and progressive song Past Life Melodies by Sarah Hopkins.  You will have the chance to listen and sing along as an audience member.  Come and have some fun this Sunday!

Crunch Time 4

My body crashed and burned this weekend.  It appears that both my brain and my body realized that major parts of my life are ending and both decided to just stop and rest.  I am very lucky that I get to take the time to relax and recuperate as most of the weekend was spent cleaning my apartment and being exhausted.  I am hoping I get my energy back early this week.  My exhaustion level has been ridiculous.  So tired.  3.5 hour nap today and I may even go to bed on time.  To all you people thinking of grad school, do it but know that, like with other large projects, utter exhaustion is inevitable multiple times throughout the process, especially at the (almost) end.  Something productive will happen tomorrow.....

Holi Easter Birthday

Good Friday was March 31, 1972 back on the day I was born.
Easter Sunday is March 31, 2013 my 41st birthday.
Easter and, as it turns out Holi, has always hovered around my birthday, gone off into April, then returned to hover.  This year it is an alignment that is encouraging me to spend time with my closest friends who have shown long term kindness and mutual consideration with a few fun but subdued gatherings.  I will chat with family long distance and enjoy their company further afield since none live in the same city.
Nothing crazy like last year.  Just a few sweet memorable moments.
Enjoy your weekend, whatever you do or do not celebrate.
Thanks for reading!

Nutty Professor

This week has been strange.  Many things occurred but in all I am concerned I will never, ever, ever get a job.  Ever.  Let alone one I enjoy.  I expressed my concerns to a full-time instructor from my university, when I saw her at a conference, and she gave me some advice:

"Tonia, quit trying to look into the future and do what you need to do now.  Focus on finishing your thesis.  Become the typical nutty professor who has documents, papers, and pens all around, writing, reading, sleeping and writing more.  Give into this time period and really experience it for the next few months, then worry about the rest of it later.  Be in the moment, this moment."  

Tough advice for someone who is always looking into the future, who has student debt, and is anxious about the next few steps of life.  The more I think about her words, the more they are sinking in.  Listen to the people that have come before you and do what they say.  They know more than I and this is actually advice I have heard from several people on campus.  So I let go.  I focus.  I trust in those who know more than I, immersing myself in this experience.  The only way to enjoy the road and the destination.

What will that destination be?  Dang, still looking forward.  Need to go back to writing but I will be updating my Nutty Professor posts once in a while.  Bring on not showering for four days, wearing the same clothes day in day out, and ordering in food keeping my brain and body in top processing shape (maybe a little cooking would be better for the last one).

Nutty professor.  Here I come.  In costume?!?

Canada Reads! Yes We Do!

It is Canada Reads time!

Five more books to add to my reading list.

One or two are twenty years old; several new to literature.

I love Canada Reads, in particular the radio debate.

Keeping books and radio alive!

The contenders:

(Excuse the fuzzy books.  Read them anyway.)

Canadian Geographic Nod

We take a break during this regularly scheduled thesis writing time to make an important announcement.  About one month ago I was re-introduced to Instagram, one of the big 2012 website explosions.  This website is a photo sharing site on which those who post retain the rights to their own photos (unlike Facebook and others sites), can use quick filters to alter shots, and look at other people's creative talents.  I only have about 52 pictures up so far but I am finding a great place to post current pictures and past travel pictures that are sitting on my hard drive but deserve to be seen.  Here is my Instagram feed: toniavoyage (pics also on the right hand side of this blog).

Like all social media there are tricks and tips on how to increase traffic to your pictures and connect with other photographers.  By photographers, I mean people who actually take interesting shots with creative perspectives and interesting compositions, not people who take selfies (pictures of themselves) or food pics (just eat it, don't capture it every single day).  So I have been connecting with people, making comments, learning what hashtags connect with the type of people I am trying to connect with, etc.

This week I received a nod from a magazine that I look at on a regular basis and have a goal to be published in some day, Canadian Geographic, one of the premier photo magazines in Canada.  They liked the following picture that I took back in early December:

Art Books Architecture

The photo is a combination of a new art installation on campus near the University Centre, winter and architecture.  In the foreground on the left, the art installation includes old brown and black books encased in decorative plexiglass or plastic, suspended in a larger decorative rectangular prism also made from plexiglass.  The gold, dark yellow and brown leafing and designs set around the books and prism enhance the artwork's details and compliment the colours of the books.  The middle ground leads the eye down a lightly snowed on path, lined with planter boxes and trees, until the eye extends into the background, the Administration building enveloped in a sunset, the most iconic structure on campus.

This small but significant nod made my week.  Approximately 80 million photos are uploaded onto Instagram on a regular basis, and I was LIKED by Canadian Geographic.   Go me!

Back to thesis work I go.  More photography later!

Crunch Time

So it is crunch time for me and my thesis.  I have nine weeks to complete the document and can't afford to take any longer, not professionally, not financially, and not personally.  The number of participants I have is great, if I get a few more, then fantastic.  The data has been organized and now I will sit at a computer for nine weeks and try to find themes, relationships, patterns and create categories to organize all the information.  I hope this part goes well and I complete a thesis of which I am very proud.

Since I take on too much and stretch myself a bit thin, mostly because life is worth experiencing and living, I have had to remove everything from life that would be a distraction.  No work for my faculty, no favours available for friends, and some time away from other responsibilities so I can get this done.  It is interesting to me the number of people I have met in the past three years who have said they started a Master's degree but never finished.  Now I know why.  It is all on the individual in the end.  No one can make you do this work.  There are no due dates, they are self imposed.  You forgo an existence of participating in the world around you.  No one really cares as much as you about finishing.  It is not relevant to others if you have money or not to finish.  And in the end, you have to want to finish this document and move forward with your life.

Hence, I will not be blogging as much in next few months.  I have to save all my good thoughts, words and ideas for my thesis, as there are only so many that go around ;), so all 10 readers, bear with me.  And if you are travel blogger who has participated in this research, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Against the Grain

I have a friend who is having some troubles lately.  I am having some troubles with a few friends. Love this song because it reminds me that I don't have to fix everything, but I do need to be honest and follow my own instincts and heart.  A dedication to both of us.



I have seen City and Colour in concert twice, once at a festival and again at a performance hall.  Both times I come out having spent several hours just pondering his lyrics and feeling a melodic calmness make its way through my body.  Mind, body and music.  Wonderful.

Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a book I could not put down and spent several nights in a row during my Christmas holidays staying up far too late to finish it.  Every morning I would wake up and wonder what it would be like to not remember anything, the panic, the fear, the attempts at reconciling information others gave about who I might be and how I came to have no memory of such a person.  The main character suffers from such a plight as has no memory of her life or who she may be.  As the book moved on, Watson, the author, shocks the reader with a few surprises and as the reader, I could not help but try to find a part in the book when the heroine understands her life through the journal she is keeping.  Read this book for the excitement and nervousness that will seep through your imagination.


View all my reviews

New Places to Get Lost

Here are a few blogs and websites I have recently discovered as enjoyable or awesome.  Totally distracting myself from my actual work.  Yay for holidays!

For all you design lovers and home project do-ers out there:

Design Salon

A funny look at life, work, family and sarcasm:

I Am Prepared to Give Up At Any Time

Need a t-shirt?  I have not ordered any and I am unsure of their quality but a quick gaze through these is an historical walk through modern times:

6 Dollar Shirts

Since I am in grad school, here is a person who is on her way to a tenured track professor position.  Funny and honest:

Fumbling Toward Tenure

Enjoy!

December 21: Are We Gone Yet?

It is the end of the world today.

Well, maybe not.  

Most likely just a normal December solstice.

Either way I am repeating the same questions I posed to friends and family as I did several weeks ago on the day 12/12/12 near 12:12 PM.  

Shuswap Pictures

My cousin is having a new stain glass window made with the colours, shapes, and textures from photographs that the family has taken on the family property on Shuswap Lake.  I finally added some of my pictures to the medley.  I hope they will prove helpful.  It is one of my favourite places to take pictures and I shall continue to capture the natural, least altered beauty of one of my favourite places on earth.  Enjoy!

Larch Haven Blog: Shuswap Pictures

Holiday Concert with Women of Note

After one year in Winnipeg, I joined a choir.  It is my second year with them.  We are a 70 voice women's choir, with a 25 voice smaller chamber group within.  We have our holiday concert on December 2 at Westminster church in Winnipeg.  Start time is 3 PM (not indicated on the poster, oops!)  Last year I had one friend come.  This year more friends have purchased tickets.  As a group it turns out we have sold almost 500 tickets for our concert and we are going to print more.  Thank goodness our concert hall can handle about 900 people.  Come and get in the Christmas and holiday mood while listening to our fantastic voices.

The first half of our concert includes Christmas songs and other works.  The second half of our concert is a small string orchestra, soloists and the choir all singing Vivaldi's Gloria.  I had never heard the piece before singing it with this choir and I consider classical music something I was raised on.  Glad my repertoire and knowledge of this type of music continues to grow.  I do enjoy singing Vivaldi (Handel on the other hand.....)

Here is a Vivaldi sample:



Come and listen to us sing and pay attention to the low notes because Alto 2's rock the musical basement!

Summer 2012: Pottery

There was a chance this past summer to begin creating ceramic pieces again.  I have not touched a wheel for two years so I was really excited to ensure the skills I have been developing over the years were still there, and that I could hone a few more skills.  Over time I have given away most of my pieces and this time I decided I was going to keep the pieces and make what I wanted to use every day in my own eating, cooking, drinking and for my own enjoyment. 

I was able to take some time to make several functional pieces but there was not enough time before the pottery area was going to be shut down for me to make any complicated items with lids, spouts, and other accoutrements.  There was little time to glaze as well and I had to complete all of it in one night, which amounted to about 5 hours of glazing, completed very quickly, without a great deal of forethought for more pieces.  Next time I will try to secure more time.

Yes, I made mugs because there aren't enough of them in the world.  When I make mugs I try to create interesting shapes, fun handles the size needed to actually get one's hand or fingers in there.  Too many uselessly small handles in the world.

A funky twist on a handle.

A geometric addition to a handle.

I am reminded every time I get to the wheel how physically demanding such work is.  In fact, in observing friends of mine who complete many different types of art, I am always reminded that they physical literacy that one is demanded to learn in the arts is often as physically demanding as the literacy required for those who participate in sport.  As well, art can get just as dirty as European football or rugby on a rainy, wet, muddy day.

A medium size bowl whose circles of shape and glaze I enjoy as my new counter-top fruit bowl.

This is the piece-de-resistance for the summer.  A white bowing shape onto which I flicked underglaze of green and black.  Several coats of high firing clear glaze and I loved it as soon as I saw it at the bottom of the kiln.  As much as one can decorate, plan and co-ordinate a piece of pottery, the kiln always surprises you.  In this case, a wonderful surprise.

Over the past few months I have had friends request and attempt to claim several pieces, but I am sticking to my guns for now.  I don't have any pieces of pottery in Winnipeg and I am keeping these until I leave....if I leave.

Holiday Greeting Card

The president's office at the University of Manitoba sent out an email notifying all campus members that he/they were looking for a photograph of any of the University's campuses that display a winter scene that can be used for the University's holiday card.  Well, as you can tell from my blog, I really enjoy taking photographs and sharing them with others.  I took the challenge and lucky for me over the past week, 42 centimetres of snow fell, which made for better snowy scenes.

On Tuesday of last week I went out at the golden hour of which there are two, sunrise and sunset.  My night owl status definitely encourages me to lean towards the sunset side of the golden hour.  Having scoped out the campus and noticing the sun set on the opposite side of the campus from where all the historic building are found, I ran about taking about 100 shots, only one set that I really liked.  It is kind of spooky and holiday-ish as the same time.

I cropped it a little, I altered the colour as the sun had set by then and the shot was a glowing blue, but I decided to leave the balls of snow in the bottom right hand corner so that the observer who sees the details would notice that the background of the photograph is snow.  A hint as to what I shot.

The second shot I was not really happy with and would have rather have sent in a picture I took last year at Assiniboine Park, but the request for photos was specific about campus shots.  It is of a piece of artwork near the music building.  The piece include holiday red and I do like the snow resting on the top of the graded coloured pillars but not stunning in any way in my opinion.

The last pictures is why the golden hour is so important to exploit, or use, or take advantage of.  The University of Manitoba, Fort Garry campus is nestled in a curve of the Red River, at which this picture was taken.

  
While I was taking this shot and several dozen others, I noticed that I am far more physically adventurous with a camera in my hand.  I was meeting a friend of dinner on campus after I finished taking the shots so I was in jeans and healed winter boots.  The shots were down a green, snowy stretch of land, then down a slope covered with forest floor dead branches, stumps and other debris.  No matter.  I had to get down there to see what kind of picture I could get from that perspective.  Having taken many shots, I liked this one and enjoyed altering it a little, enhancing the colour, lightening some shadows, and cropping the tree stump out a bit.  I am hoping this one, although a classic shot rather than a push the envelope shot, is definitely studied by the panel as they make the final selection.

I am not holding my breath.  There is little on this campus that I have ever won, money, awards, or recognition even though I have poured my time, intelligence, heart and soul into my graduate work, but I shan't give up.  Especially when photography is involved.

Good luck to all entrants and especially to me!

On the Road

Once again an inspirational song.  Many year ago a friend of mine, let's call him Joe (because that's his real name) introduced me to a new band after mocking my old school musical tastes.  Yes he did.  So I updated my music library (much like I had updated my wardrobe and bra selection several years earlier....another story...) and have purchased every album/CD/digital release since.  Oh yes, the band is Keane, a harmonious group with poignant lyrics, musical speed, a baby-faced lead singer, and songs that encourage you to ponder and question life.  Great motivators.  Love them.  Thank you 'Joe'.

Here is one song called On The Road from the album Strangeland, about finding your own road of life and helping others down theirs.  



P.S.  Keane, stop touring Europe and the US.  Come to Canada, more specifically, Winnipeg.  Thank you.

Summer 2012: Goth

My niece decided to scare me this summer.  She dressed goth.  Several days in a row.  She is far too cheery, positive and happy a tween to go goth.  But she did enjoy scaring me.

Thanks Alicia!
(don't ever do this for reals)

Trying not to smile

Pensive and creepy, at the same time

Thinking of sad, listless things

Beyond Somebody That I Used to Know

So most of us who listen to the radio or fully aware that the song of the spring and summer of 2012 was Gotye's, Somebody I Used to Know.  With many group covering the tune, the summer tanners who had it blasting out of their SUV's, and the amount of times it came on the radio, this song ruled the summer.  I too was sucked in and purchased the CD only to find out that there are several songs that I enjoy even more.  Here are the two I find just as compelling as the aforementioned song.

Save Me

Official Video on Vimeo

An artful and creative animation that is scare-crow-man-esque.

Eyes Wide Open

The end of the world with Star Wars-like characters trying to find the fertile soil of yesteryear.