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new york city


new york city
Originally uploaded by mudpig
It is Sunday. Tomorrow is the last day of May. Holy crap. Wow. I'm so excited. Really, school to be done with is so exciting!!

I am pretty happy with my final oral presentation that I am presenting tomorrow. I worked pretty hard on it and feel I did it really really well. So I'm pretty excited to just go and get it over with, and get it over with well :)

I checked up my teacher online at ratemyteachers.com, and found her at a 1.6/10 rating with every single review describing how horrible of a person she is, and how she picks on students for no reason. I'm pretty glad to be out in less than 2 weeks!! :)

This weekend was pretty uneventful, and the upcoming week seems to be as well. All week we're having students present their presentation, so I think it's gonna be pretty laid back except for when I have to present. Oh well, it will go by fast, and then Friday's off for Grade 12 Grad.

I'm planning on doing some big blogs once school is out, and hopefully getting started on planning some of the projects me & Braden wanna work on this summer :)

Here's a small idea of one we want to do.
A Photography / Videography collaboration, where we both find a few strangers in NYC (Who don't look to be Tourists, we want people that have lived there for a long time) and ask them a question like "What is your favorite thing about NYC?" And then ask to take their portrait! I think it could be really neat! Being able to talk to somebody (Hopefully of older age if they've lived there all their lives) and find out their most favorite thing, and then being able to express their soul through an image to combine with the video footage to publish to Youtube, Vimeo, Flickr etc. We think it could be a hit! :)
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Tuesday...

Well, it's Tuesday. School's done, so that's good.
I survived my Macbeth written final test in it, and I feel really good about it too. I filled in everything, wrote a ton, and I feel I knew everything I was writing down very well! :)

So, after that was done it was a big relief. So much stress was gone. Until...the teacher, (Who is looked at as racist by majority of the class) decides to throw on another book to it, and yes, it's another "play."

Are you kidding me? Two weeks left of school! Seriously? We have a god damn Final Oral Presentation, AND then our Final Final exam....And NOW you're going to speed up and throw us another book. The book isn't even in the curriculum, we're just getting it because she has nothing left to teach as we got done Macbeth early. This is a god damn joke. I hate school, I hate the teacher, and I wish she wasn't such an ass. Honestly. I hope her kid suffers just as much as all of us do in school, and oh boy I sure hope her kid gets sarcastic and racist comebacks at him when he tries to answer a question...

Can't wait for this crap to be done with.
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Alot to talk about...

So, today is Wednesday. I just got home from going out and purchasing....my new lens!! Welcome to the family Sigma 10-20mm! :) You're going to work hard for me this summer! Hehe!
I'm pretty happy! :)

But, let us go back a little bit...All the way back to yesterday afternoon. I figure I will go in the order of the day, instead of the order of topics. (You'll understand towards the end of this)

Anyways, yesterday afternoon. I walk into English class. All is well, I just deal with how much I hate that class and try my best and give my full effort at everything we do in it. (Even Macbeth, although I dislike it too.) Alright, so it was a normal day. We went through our readings as usual, got into the "understanding" of the latest Act we read. (We're mid way through the last one now, yipee!) Anyways, it was going well. The teacher decided to go around the class and ask each student if they had any questions. We each HAD to ask a question or comment on something we may not understand, of something we do understand. So she got to one of the students. (Who happens to be from somewhere far East. No idea where, just over there somewhere...) So he asks her a question. He asks her if Macbeth actually wants to speak to the Witches, or if he may be hesitant when he pursues them. Alright, I must admit the question isn't the best. But hey, she was forcing us to ask, and we had to think of something! The teacher asked where he got the idea that Macbeth may have not wanted to be talking to the Witches. He told he he wasn't sure, he just felt that way from reading and wasn't sure if he was interpreting it right. So after he told her that he wasn't sure about where he got his "motivation" from, she straight up replied "What kind of question is that? Are you Chinese?"

Woahh woah woah. Let's hold on a minute here. Did I hear correctly? Did she just make a racist comeback to a student, better yet, a student who is clearly not anywhere close to Chinese. (And I must add, my school being on the top of the IB Program list in Canada, is FILLED with multicultural people from all over the world who come specifically because of the IB.)
The room went silent, and the teacher knew what she said. She even was silent. You could hear the mumbling of the students, and she quickly moved on and stopped asking students questions and moved into the reading. (She left the other 3/4 of the class question less.)

First off, this is not the first time this teacher has been rude, or make a sarcastic remark like that. Even today she actually made one about how nobody put up their hand to answer a question so she would be giving us all zeros. I cannot believe it really, and you really cannot go to a single person in the school as they all work together and will somehow find a way to brush it off. Some of the students have been talking about talking to the learning administration of the entire city about it. I'm not sure, all I know is that I'm super happy to be on summer holidays soon!

The next topic, now relates to my first part of this blog. (I told you it wouldn't be in topic order)
So, yesterday after school I called a guy up who was selling the camera lens that I just bought today (from the store) He told me he was going to sell it to me yesterday for $465, an amazing price!! Anyways, he asked me to meet him at the Superstore. So we did. We waited...and waited...and waited...I eventually called him back and his wife picked up (Obviously his home phone number) and told me to call him on his cell. So I did. "Where are you, I've been waiting for 20 minutes already!" He replies "I couldn't see you so I'm driving back home..."
Are you f*cking kidding me?? You can't find somebody who went out of his way to make YOU money, so you drive home instead of calling ME?? (He had my # from the start, I had to get his form his wife...) You gotta be kidding. I almost lost it. I told him to come back immediately. So the call ended, and we waited some more...Soon I get a call from him. "I'm standing on the yellow lines of the crosswalk, where are you?" (As he said that, I get out of the car and walked to the crosswalk....He wasn't there...) "I'm standing on them too. I don't see you?"
He tells me to go over to the Liquor Store, and meet him at the entrance, so we did. Again, he was not there....
Then, he says "The police station across the parking lot..."
My mom could hear him on the phone, and realized...The Superstore with a police station is the one in Coventry Hills. You MUST be kidding me...I then told him he's at the Coventry Hills one, and I'm at the Country Hills one...Honestly, I checked the email, he said "COUNTRY."
There's a 20 minute drive difference between Coventry, and Country. What a dumb ass... Even on the phone he was saying "I'm at Country Hills" and I'm saying "NO you're at COVENTRY"
God damnet. Then he got mad and said "cancel cancel cancel cancel!" I just hung up on him there...
Almost was late for work because of this idiot. Honestly. I could barely even understand him on the phone, and I don't think he could understand me telling him there's a difference between COUNTRY and COVENTRY. I was pissed. But, like my mom said, the lens was probably broke, or destined to be broken soon, and it was probably for a reason that this happened.

So here I am, where a brand new one. That's good. But now I'm stuck for the end of the year with a crazy racist teacher. I found out my final is worth 25% of my grade, which is awesome as I'm not doing to hot in that class and may be able to bring my mark up a lot at the end of the year! :)
Here's my first shot with it :) SO wide! It fits my entire room in one shot! Don't mind the mess please...LOL.
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Monday

It's Monday. Well, the end of it!
Woo hoo! Already the first day of the final stretch of school is over.
16 days I believe? Pretty crazy. I'm not looking forward to the god damn stupid English oral presentation. The dumbest idea in the entire world. I hate school.

Oh well, I'll just accept it and get it done and over with and never look back. And when I'm graduated and become a successful Photographer making 6 digits a year, I'll go back and show my teacher I never needed to know Shakespeare in order to be successful.

The day went by FAST. And I love that. The evening is about to fly by too with work, and then tomorrow will be the same! :) Wednesday & Thursdays are good days, probably my favorite of the week. Then, no school Friday. No school Monday. No school the first Friday in June, and then my final week of school is the only full week I have. SO excited.

It's hot here. 28C yesterday, and today is similar. It's nice. :)
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I made it.


So I made it. The very first ride of the season. I made it all the way to my favorite lookout point, and back! I biked pretty hard too!

I brought 2 bottles of water, and downed both. It was a really good ride.
:)
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Sunday

Already May 16th...WOW.
I have a shorter week coming up, which is so exciting. (No school Friday)
And to make it better, the next week I have no school Monday, which means 3 and a half days of school. (4 this week)
It makes me really happy. Being able to just do absolutely nothing. It's beautiful out, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go bike after this!

Nosehill. I love that place. It's actually one of my favorite things to do, just go, all by myself. I tried going on Friday, and ended up with some pain in my chest and turned back before I even got to the hill. I'm going to bring a pack this time with some water.

There's nothing really going on right now. My current assignment is just to simply read the next (2nd last) act of Macbeth, which is EASY!! Reading is easy, understanding is slightly harder, and then doing projects on our understandings is pure BS... Oh well, soon I will not have to worry about it at all!!

Alright, I'm off to conquer Nosehill. Hopefully. Ps, I love my legs almost as much as my hair. Hahaha.
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A baby moose stumbled into the city yesterday!! (It traveled SO far!)
It looks so cute!

It didn't hurt anybody, and got so close to so many people. But it's just a lost baby, looking for it's mother. I believe they said it was a female. So thus making it a she. Haha.

I didn't take the picture by the way, I just found it to be a really cool event that happened yesterday :)
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New York City lights

T-minus 17 days of school left!! Whoo hoo!

Here's a shot of NYC, no idea from where, but it's beautiful! :)
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There was only 1 helicopter. I just felt like messing around so I took a few picture, and made 2 of them :)

This is the police chopper, 1 of the 2 the city has. They're pretty crazy machines actually, and it sucks hearing them at night, always wakes you up. They're LOUD! They also shine is massive spotlight that lights up the entire damn neighborhood...
I once saw a Youtube video showing the HAWCS helicopter actually has a voice projector too, eg. They can yell "Stop the car" (or some police call lol) over some loud speaker on the outside that can be heard loud and clear on the ground.

Wouldn't wanna mess with these guys.

I remember one time biking Nosehill last year and they must have been doing some sort of training because they were flying back and forth over the park and they were very low! It was SO cool seeing them right above me, you could feel the wind from the blades!

Watch a video here
Probably one of the coolest jobs ever...
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Wednesday

It's Wednesday.
I hate getting non-stop shit piled on with Macbeth. Not even a day without a break, we get assignment after assignment. Honestly, the last assignments aren't even over presenting, and we already get another one? C'mon....

I finished the assignment in my photoshop class anyways. Photoshop class is ease, I'm WAY ahead in it, I can't even begin on the next assignment yet...So I just sit around in class reading photography blogs, lens reviews, etc. (Or doing homework for other classes, which was the case today.) I got my latest assignment done before I even got home today, which is sweet, I'm pretty happy with it.

We had to write a "missing" scene from Macbeth. A scene involving 3 lords after Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo at the banquet supper. I chose to make them suspicious of the way Macbeth was acting. (Obviously Macbeth saw a ghost, and the lords did not.) I used an Elizabethan dictionary and got all the words spot on, so I'm happy.

I'm kinda bored right now, listening to music, reading more photography blogs.

That lens from the last post is coming more and more into the picture. I found somebody today who is willing to sell his "like new" lens, with the original box, hood, everything for $465. Crazy price!! (Reg $800) so I'm pretty happy. Probably going to sell my 28mm for around $200 to buy this wider lens :)

19 days of school left!!!!!
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Taco Tuesday

I'm SO happy my English presentation is done and over with. It's always a good feeling getting something like that over with. Hopefully we passed....when we finished she rudely remarked "woah woah woah you guys aren't sitting down, you surely have more than that..."
So after she slammed us with questions (We answered every single one, but it took us a good 30 minutes of standing in front of the class...how boring) hopefully we passed. We were the only group she did that to. We're always the group she does that to. It's not fair. But it's done and over with. I know I'm going to ace the final worth 20% anyways, so I'm fine.

I'm off to work tomorrow. It's crazy to think that my next month's pay check will be sent to me when school is out. Crazy eh? Next month around this time I will not be in school. Woo woo!!

I'm looking at a new camera lens. It's kinda pricey. I wish camera gear wasn't so expensive.
I'm thinking of selling one of my other lenses (one I hardly use) in order to get this one, which is much wider. (10mm is CRAZY!!)

Anyways, I'm off to work. Perhaps I will take as many extra hours as I can get in June and get this lens? Not sure yet...
Have a good remainder of the week :) So glad it's finally sunny out!!
Lol, no idea why I titled this Taco Tuesday. It's the day Tacos are only $2, and I used to always get one on my spares in 1st term.
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Originally uploaded by katrina shafer
Okay, wow.
I want to see a Jellyfish. One like these, with these colors, in such water. I could just stare at this for hours. It's amazing. Wow.
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oops...

I forgot my password. Actually no, I had my password correct, but for some reason my sign in name I had forgotten. So stupid. Took me forever to realize I was missing the "6" at the end...pretty smart huh. When I tried to "recover" my password it wouldn't even work cause' I had the wrong email entered haha.

Oh well, I'm back. Finally.
Guess what we have here, more snow. Right now it's actually sunny, but there's snow on the ground. Paul said they have the pool set up already, I died a little inside when I heard that. We have -3 mornings.

School is....School. I don't know. Bleh. 22 days left I believe. 22 days of hell however. Macbeth is becoming slightly better, but still horrid nonetheless. Finished act 1 and 2, and now starting act 3. We have to take a different approach this time, we're each grouping up and breaking the entire thing down, and then "teaching" our part to the others...kinda stupid if you ask me. Right when I get comfortable with one way of learning we get thrown another way, it's actually frustrating. I am a student, I come to learn. I am not a teacher, I do not come to teach something I don't know. Ugh. I don't even know, I just hope I can get through it and pass. I guess I don't have THAT much to do. I need to do a project for the imagery of Act 2, I'm thinking of using the floating dagger as an image that symbolizes the guilt that is there for when Macbeth murders the king. It's not there yet, as he cannot grab the ghostly knife, but he sees it. To me it seemed like a reminder, a "If you do this, you will always be haunted" which seems to be easy to comprehend.
Then I have to read lines 1-80, completely understand every single word, line, tone, phrase, EVERYTHING. Then read them aloud, then explain them.

I just can't wait for school to be done with.
:)
 
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