I wake up to the shining light coming from my bedroom blinds.  Every morning, because my mom wakes up earlier than I do, she tends to open up my blinds so that when I do wake up later on it is bright and sunny in my room.

Lights come in all forms.  Now while that may sound funny, I have a point I am going to make here.  There's nothing wrong with a bright light here and there.  Waking up to a sun everyday means that there is always another day, there is always another reason to wake up, another bright long day to look forward to, new possibilities and new opportunities.  Lights can stand for being "enlightened" with new forms of knowledge, new ideas, and "bright" ideas.  Bright lights can stand for not only the coming of a new warmer season, Spring, but for the fact that days will be longer, the light will shine on and stay brighter.  While we keep the lights in our house off longer due to the sunlight, the "light" comes from the warmth we experience.  Lights are for the warmth feelings we get when we are around people we enjoy being with, be it friends, family, etc., the warmer weather because of the sun and the warmth of a fire in the night as we fall asleep.

So what is your light?  My light is my life.

I know, I know... this started off as only a class assignment and once class was done, I realized that I couldn't part with my blog!  I want to continue but instead of all the rants, I wanted to have more positive things to talk about.  Ranting was a way I thought I would attract people to my blog because it would give something to talk about and have people share their common stories and situations as well as advice.  I would much rather be a positive person now, rather than someone who reflects upon the bad stuff in their life.   This is sorta a social experiment to attract more positive things in my life and perhaps create some element of change.

Today I heard my favorite song on the radio and I am so glad and thankful for that!  The song is "Going Wrong" by: Armin van Buren.  It's a trance song as I tend to enjoy a bit of trance music.  Despite what the title says, "Going Wrong," the song has very powerful lyrics which inclue despite the fact that things go wrong, there is always something to look forward to.  This song is truly beautiful and I am thankful for having heard it recently and becoming immediately addicted to it   Kudos to Armin!

~Melissa

As many of you may know, the weather was TERRIBLE this entire weekend in Toronto!  30-something centimeters and very slippery roads and high winds. Not a very good time to go out and "enjoy" the winter.  Besides, it's freaking March... I want the damn sun, temperature in the plus and I am dying to wear my spring dresses!  None of this crappy snow anymore, ya hear me mother nature?! NO MORE!

My parents went to a wedding last night.  I don't know HOW they survived that.  But they did.  I guess I was glad to stay inside, warm and toasty, I must have had about three hot-chocolates and curled up in my Victoria's Secret PINK University Blanket (at least thats what it says on the blankie!) and I got surprisingly alot of essays done.  If you notice in my last report, I had a nasty POLS essay to do.  Well, I managed to get more then half done.  That's right! 8 pages! I am ever so proud of myself.  After scrapping with my ex on the phone, it felt good to, through my anger, get everything and MORE done!

Aside from worrying about the weather, I reflected upon an incident I endured just after a storm hit Cozumel when I was on the Caribbean cruise.  Yes, I know, I got to escape winter, blah blah... but when we arrived in Cozumel, they had suffered from a major hurricane!  I have included a video I took and uploaded onto youtube of the scary incident that took place when we were trying to get back onto our boat.  So while you may complain about being somewhere WARM during the winter... we had no choice but to get DRENCHED in order to get back on our boat... Enjoy!

As the title suggests, it is yet another snowstorm day! Whoopie! We've literally been getting snow storms and snow falls every 3 days, or so it seems.  I for one am sick of them!

I went to the Blueberry Hill pub and restaurant at school today with a few close friends from class and we discussed how these snow storms are a pain in the ass. They literally make me depressed.  Lately, I've been taking Vitamin D pills in addition to the Multi-Vitamins I've been taking for over a year and apparently Vitamin D is supposed to be good for you in terms of preventing some cancers and especially preventing depression due to lack of sunlight. Now let me tell you... it's NOT WORKING!  I am probably really depressed, even more so then I ever was before because of these frequent snow storms occurring so close together and my Anxiety are at their highest.  So high, that when I went out with my boyfriend last night, I had an extreme anxiety attack and begged him to take me home because I was having trouble breathing and feeling dizzy.  I must also include that I have PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) so that is also the reason why I randomly have anxiety attacks and suffer from night terrors every so often.  But  with the dark gloomy winter days re-occurring and freezing wind blowing in my face as I was walk home from the bus  - today it hit me hard!  I realized that I really can't take it anymore... well I never COULD! But today, I've really had enough and I just want spring to come.  Enough with the cold, windy, -23 degree weather... let's get some sun, please? For health reasons?!

Since my professor admits that he has a tendency to read our blogs, I figure I'll give him something to read.  There is something that me and fellow students have noticed about him when he lectures that we want to point out as a sort-of-joke thing.  I hope he doesn't take it personally.  Then again, he can always rant about it in the FORUM!  This is afterall the place to rant.  Anyhow, without further ado...

Ravi, for the past several lectures, maybe since the beginning of January, myself and several other friends of mine in class (names, I will not disclose) have been taking a tally of how many times you say the word, "fascinating."  It's annoying because you say it so many times, but hilarious that you don't use any other synonym for the word, "fascinating." There are times where our tally reached 23 ticks in one lecture and today unfortunately, you only said it three times.  Perhaps you are catching on? Who knows.  Since you don't notice our little ticks in our notebooks, we have counted how many times you've been saying "fascinating" in each lecture and I personally find it hilarious.  It makes you, YOU and I am not saying this out of any disrespect.  We all of course engage in great topics for class discussion and you run the class as if it were a grad course - self-directed by students - which is great preparation for a student such as myself who plans on going to grad school.

Anyhow, this may have not been a rant, but I really wanted to at least share it in my blog and see if other class members have noticed your constant use of the word, "fascinating!"  Quite fascinating if I do say so myself...

Alright, so I was working at my second job, a retail store (we'll leave it at that!) in which we blast the radio.  Well, on the news, don't I hear Jamie Lynn Spears (Britney spear's sister is knocked-up!).  Just when we thought that FINALLY the Britney "shizzle" is all over and done with, BOOM, they attack her little 16 year old sister.  She's pregnant! Can you believe this?! All over the news and in seconds blogs started discussing it.  So I decided to jump on the bandwagon as well as put my Blog up on the "Britney Spears" search engine, so people can come to my blog... because.. well... its lonely.. and other than a few folks from my class, NOONE visits.  Okay well maybe my boyfriend. But that's it.  And my dad.  Alright, I'm done.  Here's several links to a variety of blogs/news articles that are discussing the Jamie Lynn Fiasco:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10483481
http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/12/jamie-lynn-spea.html

But in all seriousness though, want to know my real thoughts and opinions on this whole britney shizzle?  It's fucking stupid.  Teenage pregnancy is NOT uncommon, NEWSFLASH!  Here's another shocker, anything a celebrity does will make headline news... If I were famous, I could throw pie in my face and that would probably make headline news.  Another thing... they keep mentioning Jamie Lynn and her "long-time boyfriend"... how long was it, since she was 3 years old?!  Long-term relationships in my opinion shouldn't count when you're in your highschool years.  I had a boyfriend for two years when I was in highschool.. I wouldn't go around saying "oh, hes my long-term partner" even though we were together throughout the lastyear of highschool, age 17 to just after turning 19! (first year of College) before he turned Satanic and broke up with me for no good reason... but that's a whole other story.  Important thing to note here is that "long-term" boyfriend/girlfriend should not even exist.  here's another interesting link... apparently BRITNEY herself is clueless and doesn't know about it...
 http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2007/12/confused-britney-spears-says-jamie-lynn-not-pregnant/

I found a few links on the possibility of Jamie-Lynn's boyfriend - who in an article - reportedly met in CHURCH (LOL!!!!) may be facing charges because he slept with a minor, for he is 18 years old.  And the Saga continues.  Here's a link on THAT!:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317535,00.html

Wow this is such a sad entry.  Anyways, I NEEDED to rant... seriously.  This kind of celebrity gossip just grates my nerves.  Enough with Britney, Jamie Lynn, K-fed or any one of those idiots already, I've had enough of these clowns.

Well hello and welcome to my lovely blog.  Okay, it's not lovely its fricken pink and by the first glance at this layout, you probably already know the kinda person I am and my type of personality.  I'm bubbly, outgoing, very friendly and I am easy to get along with.  I had to do this blog as part of several distinct media assignments to complete before the end of the year and a blog happened to be one of them. Upon thinking that I've had nothing done half way through the year, i figured I can start SOMETHING - ie: the blog aspect of this big media assignment - so I feel like I have accomplished at least one aspect of this assignment. 

I'm the type of person who has very big dreams... I've always had the fantasy of being some famous actress some day - that is, in clean films - let's not get carried away, now. I want to literally have a romantic-novel love life - in real life, and live in a mansion in Florida.  Okay, so I am high-maintenance as well... ask any one of my exes, or current boyfriend!  But despite knowing this, I am also very religious, I believe in a God, a place that we go to after we die, meeting my deceased relatives,  and the stories that are associated with it.

Now let's start with this blog idea.  I find that there are many options available for me here.  I can customize my own layout, create a working title, make it my own even though it is in a fairly controlled environment.  Hmm, this sounds like an assignment I completed for this class a while back where we had to discuss how some user-created content gives the illusion of freedom in a well-controlled and heavily manipulated environment.  Anywhich way, it feels good to start something new and learn about creating something that has attracted so many people. It's like a diary - but everyone sees it.  When I was between the ages of 7 and 16, I wrote in a diary everything that I felt passionate about and it was sorta my "escape" from the usual life I had.  Now being able to have the internet as that leeway, it's a whole different feeling.  Something else I noticed about this blog, and many of the blogs I visited from fellow class students...is that there is always advertising. It cannot be escaped, let's face it.  We're supposed to find a blog or website without advertising... ain't gunna happen... unless you pay for that.  This is how they make money.  Simple.  Another thing I find fascinating about blogging - when comparing it to other things such as facebook - is that one can rant on it and noone really has to know.  I mean, yes it is of course open to the world, but if I were to do something like this on a facebook note, it would then appear on everyone's newsfeeds and people will become either extremely annoyed or bothered by it.  Here, I believe, people make a CHOICE to visit my blog whenever they chose to.  Like facebook, it's got a comment section... which I changed to "make a STATEMENT" because I don't just want people to simply reply with "wow that's interesting, Melissa"... I want people to literally, "MAKE a STATEMENT" and say something that can either be an add-on to what I say or further comments of their own, good-or-bad.  Don;t worry, this won't be on my notifications home page of facebook.

Cheers!
~*~Melissa