Somewhere on Vancouver Island, there is a privately owned campsite with no real toilets. It has way too many mosquitos, but makes up for it in the presence of a beautiful beach full of wildlife. I came back with a bunch of pictures and swollen hands and legs, but spending time with a friend on a beach at a campfire may be worth a bunch of mosquito bites.
Or maybe not.
I’m still unsure about that.
This year, I have decided that I will be posting a playlist each month.
Because I want to. That’s, like, the only reason.
So here it is, my August Playlist.
This song was one that I stole from my sister’s iTunes library, and I never listened to it until this month. It’s kind of sad and sweet but I really could not stop listening to it this month. It outlines a relationship where it seems like both people are settling, and it obviously ends in complete failure.
Favourite Lyric: He lays down beside her, she gets up to yell / Now you’re sleeping alone, and I hear wedding bells
2. Friends by Ed Sheeran
I’ll admit that I’ve been listening to this song for a couple years now, but it has made a resurgence in the past couple of weeks. It’s Ed Sheeran, which automatically makes it some of the best.
Favourite Lyric: I know there’s a limit to everything / But my friends won’t love me like you
3. I Don’t Even Know Your Name by Shawn Mendes
I didn’t actually start listening to Shawn Mendes until after I went to his concert in July, even though I downloaded his album months ago. After seeing him live, I do have to say, that kid has some PIPES. According to my dad, he’s the next Elton John. I don’t know about that, but I do know that this is a fun song.
Favourite Lyric: Oh, you dressed up so nice / But all I could see was your eyes
4. Breakdown by Jack Johnson
Is it even a summer playlist if you don’t include Jack Johnson? No. No, it isn’t.
Favourite Lyric: This engine screams out loud / Centipede crawls westbound
5. U.N.I. by Ed Sheeran
THE WORDPLAY IN THIS SONG IS SO GREAT. Ed Sheeran is the first double offender on this list. That’s okay, of course, because we all need more Ed Sheeran in our lives. So much. Where is that third album?
Favourite Lyric: And I don’t get waves of missing you anymore / They’re more like tsunami tides in my eyes
6. Air by Shawn Mendes & Astrid
The second double offender on this list, Shawn Mendes comes back with a punch. I just started listening to the album, so of course I have to include more than one song. This song kind of sounds like it’s from a really really bad teen movie, but I like it anyways.
Favourite Lyric: And I, I’m trying hard to breathe / But you’re suffocating me, this time I’m coming up for air
7. Fire and Rain by James Taylor
I first heard this song on Glee a few years ago. It was in the episode where Finn dies so of course every time I hear it I just think of how sad it is that Cory Monteith died, but I still love the song. It’s sad, but it’s also really chill so it isn’t too sad.
Favourite Lyric: Well, there’s hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come / Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground
8. I Loved Her First by Heartland
This is another song I stole off my sister, and I’m slightly embarrassed to like it enough to publically advertise it on the internet. These are the kind of songs that big hulking southern men cry to at their daughter’s wedding. Still a good song, though.
Favourite Lyric: And I prayed that she’d find you someday / But it’s still hard to give her away
9. Better Together by Us The Duo
I don’t know wether to count this as another count for Jack Johnson or not. It’s his original song, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard Us The Duo sing a cover that doesn’t make the song 10,000x better. Either way, it’s a beautiful song.
Favourite Lyric: Love is the answer / At least for most of the questions in my heart
10. Goodbye Forever by Us The Duo
Another count for Us The Duo brings us to the end of our playlist. The only thing I have to say about this song is that you’ve probably never heard it, and you should listen to it.
Favourite Lyric: You’re cool but I am cooler / You’re pretty but I’m cuter / And smarter
That marks the end of my August Playlist. Here’s the entire playlist, if you feel inclined to listen.
I did many things this summer, many of them I am not going to write about on this blog because they are either insignificant (like work) or not proud of (five Harry Potter movies in one night). But for the things I am willing to advertise to the world, I have collected them here for your entertainment. You’re welcome.
Camp Ignite (article, video, video)
Camp Ignite was unlike anything that I have ever done in my entire life. What Camp Ignite is, well it’s essentially a firefighting camp for teenage girls. For someone who has a phobia of fire bells, going to that kind of camp is kind of a stretch.
Although, I did it, and there are a few main things I can really point out from this experience is that I really respect firefighters, but not for the reason you would expect. Like, there’s no say the job isn’t really hard and grueling and stuff, but the reason that firefighting is hard is how hot you are in the turnout gear.
At one point during the camp, we put on our full turnout gear (jackets, bella clavas, pants, boots, helmets, gloves) along with SCBAs. We then proceeded to walk around the training institute we were at in 30+ degree weather. We were only wearing that stuff for like, 10 minutes, but it was like we had just gone for a swim.
So. Sweaty.
All in all, the experience was very rewarding and fun. It’s very hard to explain what we did, though. I learned a lot of stuff about firefighters and first responders in general. I think learning about emergencies might help me become a little bit less afraid of them.
For more on Camp Ignite, check out these blog posts.
Although this part of my summer happened before exams, I’m still going to count it as the first thing I did in summer because I went on a plane and that counts, dammit.
Disneyland is my lifeline. If I were to die and go to heaven, I would be at Disneyland. I know when each ride and attraction opened, production facts, what used to be in that location, and have a prediction for the ride’s fate.
This is serious to me.
I went to Disneyland the week before exams, because I am a daredevil who knows how to have a good time. My grandma took me, along with my sister and cousin. We spent 4 days at Disneyland and we were EXHAUSTED by the end. The weather was over 30 degrees each day, and school was out for most Americans, so it was busy as heck.
But, yanno. Worth it.
Open the photo below into a new tab to get more photos.
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I would make a “one time at band camp joke” but I know everyone EXPECTS that of me. So I’m not going to do it.
There’s not going to be much to this blog post because what I have learned is that band camp is sacred. We just can’t talk about band camp.
I am sorry if you expected anything more from me about this.
Band camp is sacred.
So it’s time for yet another SLC. I’ve been able to do three of these already without curling up into a ball and wasting away, so I guess number four will be okay.
I think my cracking point would be about seven.
This year, we’ve done a lot of work…blah blah blah…showcase my work…blah blah blah. I’m sure by now, everyone knows what they’re in for, no? Lets just get started with it then.
This time, I’m supposed to showcase something I’m proud of, something I’m not proud of, and then discuss goals.
Me being proud of something is something that you’ll rarely see broadcasted. Personally, I think it’s kind of egotistical to be super proud of my own work, although I don’t seem to have much of a problem when I see other people do it. There’s always room for improvement, and that’s why I never really finish anything.
Except these.
My blog posts are the some of the only things that I actually sat down and finished beginning to end. That’s what I’m proud of. With these, I can just brainstorm an idea, pick the best one, and spend a few hours doing it. Each blog post takes about 2 to 6 hours to make, depending on what my plan is. I just sit down, and I feel motivated to get it done, start to finish. I actually kind of like doing them, and that’s why I think they’re good. And I think I’ve figured out the reason I like them. It’s all my ideas, I can sit down and do something, whatever I want, completely uncensored.
And example of this is my Deep South blog post. I just kind of wrote about my feelings instead of trying to make a
I think I do my best work uncensored. When I don’t have a project plan to follow, I’m not worried about completing a bunch of stuff that I really don’t care about. Writing a blog post is less like a project and more like when I try to memorize the history of Walt Disney Studios, or spend a week learning about Barak Obama for no apparent reason. Or when Blog posts remind me of when I was in fourth grade, and I would write an essay on Walrus’ for fun.
Or maybe it’s because I don’t really get anything out of the blog posts than fun facts, and I really like fun facts. To quote Jack Arthur: “So you don’t care about scientific facts but you care about which Pixar movies have the best animation, and which have the best story?”
Yup. And by the way, best animation is The Good Dinosaur, while best story will send me into a half hour rant about originality, critical acclaim, impact on the audience, and significance in film history.
Time for what I think needs to stay in the shadows. The things I ain’t exactly proud of. I picked two things, because I am an overachiever at underachieving. But I probably could have bashed every single project I’ve ever made, because I’m not happy with virtually anything I do, so maybe I’m not underachieving. I might just be too picky.
So first, I’m going to start with my Blue Sky.
The thing about Blue Sky this year is I made elaborate plans, and then when they fell through, I forgot about it until it was too late to make a good project. I think a lot of my problem is the fact that I
1) somehow just thought this project would do itself
2) don’t know how to build stuff, so I couldn’t take the easy build something in one evening route.
I’m not going to show my Blue Sky to you because I can’t do that without cringing, and here’s why: it has nothing to do with me at all. Blue Sky projects are supposed to be personal, yet mine somehow never are. They’re the opposite of my blog posts, and always some of the most mediocre projects I do. I guess a way to fix this would be to pick something I truly care about, but this is hard when the the things I’m interested in fall so outside of anything that could relate to a project. I would be happy to just talk about Pixar for hours, but that’s not a project.
Instead I guess I just put minimal effort into a mediocre project. It’s really hard for me to put maximum effort into a project I don’t care about. So I guess my only option is to pick something I am actually interested in for more that five minutes. If that’s even possible.
The second project of mine I am going to bash is my Little Big Story of styrofoam. My problem with this project lies completely in one thing, I did all my research, planned it out, and created the beginning, and then realized I needed to start on my civil rights one and shoved this one to the back-burner. By the time I went back to this one, I didn’t have time to do everything I wanted to do with it. In reality, my shortcomings in this video come from bad time management. I actually think if I had have had enough time, this video would have been really good. I just didn’t beat the clock with this one.
Time to discuss goals. My goal from my last SLC were to do this one without using the words “meh”, “it didn’t suck”, and “it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be”. I did my best to do that. It’s part of why I only actually showed you a little bit of work. To me, my work is never done, so “finished products” just make me want to defend how bad it is.
I’m also supposed to reflect on the year. It was a good year. I was overbooked in the winter, and honestly because the Panto is doing Peter Pan this year someone really has to talk me out of overbooking again. The overbooking hit my schoolwork hard, but I’m only doing two choirs next year, and one is in timetable, so I’m going to have a lot more free time on my hands. Yeah.
So I guess that opens it up to questions, then.