Spring, if you ever return.

It's officially spring here in Ontario, Canada. I live in a mining town in northern Ontario and by looking outside right now you'd never guess that its "spring". April starts in a few days while there is still ample amounts of snow outside. Just thins morning it took me ten minutes to brush the foot of snow off my car. It wasn't the fluffy stuff either; it was the heavy, damp stuff that instantly turns into one thick mountain when you try to move it. I have to admit the temperature outside was quite nice considering the condition of the roads. Even though it was probably +2 degrees Celsius outside I still had to get out my heavy duty winter boots to trudge through the fresh snow.

By the end of the day everything started to turn into slush. By the weather reports it should warm up and hopefully spring might make an appearance instead of this "second winter" people are predicting. Spring happens to be my favourite season for a multitude of reasons. Instead of making another list like I've done in most of my posts ill describe a short spring time scenario which describes exactly why I love it.

The morning is gloomy, making me feel drowsy and yet I have the will to get out of bed due to the enticing, unfamiliar sound of birds outside of my window. I am finally able to take out that light leather jacket in replace of the heavy, hooded, fur trimmed coat. Stepping outside doesn't require nearly as many layers and preparation. Breathing in the damp air without the struggle of that harsh cold that makes your lungs hurt feels refreshing. The sensation of being able to comfortably go for a casual walk around the block. The sun finally beats down on the newly revealed pavement. The sound of water running down the street drains. The dry patches of road sprinkled with dirt from covering the slippery winter roads and the sound it makes when you drag your feet across the pavement. Then comes the rain again. The calm taping on the side of your house from another drizzle. And finally the search for that fly that you keep hearing buzzing faintly by the window sill. Where it came from? you have no idea. Sneakily hibernating in your house all winter. The precursor to unveiling my summer wardrobe.

"Black is such a happy colour"

In design class we discuss colour a lot and the many types of combinations. Complimentary, analogous, triadic, split complimentary, etc. Eventually we got into the topic of wearing colour. Since we're a group of artists and graphic design students you might think that we would be bold and eccentric with the colours we wear. That is not the case. In fact when we looked around the class most of us were wearing neutrals and a lot of black.

I am a culprit of wearing black 99% of the time. My closet is more than 50% black. I happen to be a very picky person when putting outfits together. I tend to wear just one pop of colour and everything else has to be neutral, and by neutral 90% of the time that means black. For example, most people wear blue jeans on a daily basis with any colour of shirt and its a normal part of society. If you see me wearing blue jeans it is a very rare occasion and I'm probably at camp. Something in my mind tells me that blue jeans do not match with anything, unlike everyone thinks it does.

I took the challenge my teacher gave us and wore colour for her next class. Not to be dramatic, but, it took everything I had to put this outfit of colour together. So, I pulled out the pair of pastel yellow jeans from the bottom of the drawer I never open and paired it with a electric blue sheer top with a daisy pattern bandeau underneath. I happen to have my hair dyed magenta at the moment which made this outfit even crazier. I felt pretty uncomfortable for most of the day. Moral of the story: Wear what you feel comfortable in, no matter what, even if it happens to be all black.

Here is the colour combination together. The grey was the colour of my boots.

Terrifying.

StarWars Virgin

Recently I have watched the Star Wars series for the first time. I managed to go almost 19 years of my life without watching a single star Wars movie. I finally caved and decided that I was tired of the overwhelmingly shocked responses when I told people that I've never watched them before. Since Star Wars is a big part of pop culture and one of the largest sci-fy movie franchises, I was already familiar with the characters.

Suggested by a friend, I watched them in chronological order according to time within the world of StarWars instead of based on the release date of each film. I managed to watch four in one day and then later had two more sittings to watch the last two. I've heard from others that the storyline in a little confusing to figure out but with the previous knowledge I picked up I basically predicted everything while watching the first movie (The Phantom Menace). Everyone knows the classic line, "Luke, I am your father.", unless you happen to live under a rock. With that bit of information it was not hard to figure out what was going to happen.

First impression was a little overwhelming because a lot of information and characters were thrown at me at once. There is no lack of action and dilemma in this series. Overall the first three that I watched were pretty impressive on the grand scale. I had an issue with the graphics used to create Jar Jar Binks. I know that the species in StarWars are obviously supposed to be unique and aliens but his character moved in a way that was not natural feeling along with the colour to a point were I could tell he was animated into each scene. Later I found out that basically no fan of StarWars actually like Jar Jar Binks character in general.

I was more impressed with the last three I watched, which happened to be the older ones, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I personally prefer the old school special effects and costumes to animation. Although costumes sometimes look a bit cheesy; the look and feel of something actually being there interacting with the actors appeals to me. A few things that stuck out to me were:

1. The strange rat creature that was attached to Jabba the Hut.

2. The scene where Luke finds out Darth Vader is his father is pretty comical due to the weird chipmunk face Luke made when he freaked out and found out.

3. Chewbacca would spaz out in every situation.

4. The transitions were varied and looked like they were made by a grade-schooler using iMovie.

5. The excessive amount of arms and hands that were chopped off.