BEDA 30: Tha.. Tha.. That's all folks!

Hi fellow bloggers and BEDAers,

Today is a sad day, the end of BEDA. Even though I didn't stick to it every day and missed some sadly, I am quite proud of myself.

I used to blog once a month perhaps if I thought about it or once every two or three months. With BEDA, it helped me to blog "almost" every day. I achieved the goal I set for myself, to blog more and thinking of writing down my thoughts of the day, what happened, opinions about news I read, books, etc.

All in all I am proud of myself.

I missed yesterday because I went to bed at 8:45pm. Yes I know that is early but I was tired and needed the rest, sometimes it is needed.

Moving on...

How about this swine flu? Wouldn't you agree that the media has this way of creating more fear and panic than needed.

Let me explain, I know this is serious and needs to be dealt with and contained before it gets out of control. By stopping trips to mexico for a while until they contain the outbreak, I know some people don't want to because it won't be good for their economy but if you think about it, it is quite needed. Otherwise the virus will spread even more.

I read online that this virus is not new, there was an outbreak in 1918 I believe, I can be wrong with the date and far worst than how it is right now. I saw 50 cases in the US, people who contracted the virus, didn't die from it and are being treated. I also read that the virus is not spreading as quickly as the media is saying it is either. And that the cases in the US, Canada, etc. are much milder than in mexico hence the reason why it isn't spreading as quickly.

It is always the same, there are a couple cases of a flu and the media blows it out of proportion causing more fear and panic and I don't know if it does that to you but every time I hear of symptoms, my subconscious tends to make me believe I might have the symptoms and end up fearing having the disease.

And that is one of the reasons why my TV has been off for months. The other being that I can't find one decent show that catches my attention for me to want to follow it every day. Aside from House MD, mind you I missed a lot of episodes since my soccer games are on mondays and most of the times at the same time as House MD. Boo.

Since this is the last day of BEDA I may not cross post to Maureen's ning, probably will still check the page and see if I have comments or people who added me, I love making friends so don't be shy add me as a friend and talk to me if you want.

I plan on keeping up the posting, probably not every day since summer is on its way and as you read on another post I set myself a lot of goals and things I want to do. lol But I will post when I have something exciting to share and talk about so you can check out my "real" blog. Like this isn't real, haha. I have other blogs that you can get to from this one (recipe, books) check them out too.

http:sweetgirlrants.blogspot.com

I also plan on using my dailybooth a lot more, picture a day with a haiku for the description. Check out my dailybooth:

http://www.dailybooth.com/sweetygirl

I will try to update twitter as well more often, here is the link:

http://www.twitter.com/sweetygirl00

I am also planning on making and editing some videos, here is the link to that.

http://www.youtube.com/sunshinebear00

And also taking lots of photos, I want to take my camera every day with me and at least snap one picture a day. Well I know I will snap more but one good picture that will be worthy of flickr. You can check my photos but I am warning you, there is A LOT!

http://www.flickr.com/sweetgirl32

Well, that is it for BEDA, I might take it up again in august, it will work since august is the other month starting with "A". Who is with me? Will you do this in August as well. And this time I will condition myself to blog EVERY DAY to sort of beat my record. Big challenge now. Yikes.

If anyone wants to see what I am up to just check out the links above.

My last healthy tip of the month:

Include more fiber to feel full. Eat lentils, dry beans, peas, vegetables, fruits, brown rice, and whole grains.

BEDA 9: Chocolate Long Weekend

Hello everyone

Day 9 of BEDA, I am currently packing to go visit my family, four hours away from where I live. It is currently 10 pm and I am still packing, I am such a last minute person. 

On Friday I am taking a four hour trip to visit my parents in light of this easter four day long weekend. Well-deserve I might add, this week has been tiring. 

How will you celebrate easter, if you celebrate it?

I know it is traditionally a religious day where a lot of people go to church. As for myself I do not. So easter is mainly about chocolate, I need my chocolates of course. Also, the main easter tradition in my family is to go to the sugar shack. 

I am originally from Quebec and churches aren't so popular anymore, not many people are so religious or practicing by going to mass. In fact, we often joke that during easter you need to reserve a year in advance for the sugar shack and churches parking lots are completely empty. 

For those of you who would not know what the sugar bush is, i will explain. Basically it consist of a restaurant, a shack in the wood where you eat traditional quebec meals and drown everything in maple syrup. 

I know that doesn't sound that healthy or good for your weight that is why we usually only go once a year.  My favourite thing at the sugar shack is the taffy on snow. That is MY reason to go.

Some sugar shacks have live music as well.

I decided to do some research about the history of easter, instead of just believing blindly that it is only about jesus' resurrection and here is what I found out.

Did you know?

There are a lot of pagan elements in the modern easter celebration. The word "easter" derives from Eostre, the anglo-saxon lunar goddess. Eostre feast day was held on the first full moon following the vernal equinox and a sam calculation is used for easter among western christians. 

Two of Eostre's most important symbols are the hare and the egg. The hare being a symbol of fertility and because ancient people saw a hare in the full moon.  The egg, which symbolizes the growing possibility of new life as in spring time, trees and flowers bloom, usually animals have newborns as well. Curiously those are symbols that christianity hasn't really incorporated in its own mythology preferring to make it about the resurrection of christ.

American christians continue to celebrate easter as a religious holiday but public references of easter almost never includes religious elements. 

Christians and non-christians alike celebrate easter in non-christians ways: chocolate and other forms of easter candy, easter egg, easter egg hunts and the famous easter bunny. Most cultural references include these elements which are pagan in origin and have become commercialized, sometimes sadly a little too commercialized.

I am one to be curious and wanting to know the truth and therefore always try to do research before accepting something that is told or taught as being the truth. I would rather find out the truth for myself.

So basically for myself, my easter celebration is associated to going to the sugar shack and spending time with family as it has been my tradition in my family for years.

I hope you will all have a great easter weekend, however you celebrate it. 

That is about it for this 9th day of BEDA. 

See you tomorrow.

DID YOU KNOW?

Giant Pandas generally eat bamboo--for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! In their native habitat, more than twenty varieties of bamboo are available, so they do have some variety in their bamboo diet. Giant Pandas DO eat a few other edibles on occasion, such as mushrooms, crocuses--even fish and rodents.

And nothing could be cuter than watching a Giant Panda consume a bamboo stalk! Pandas sit with feet outstretched in front of them, bamboo in their hands, eating.

- C. Herold

BEDA 6: Haunted Apartment, Snow and Soccer

Hello everyone

Day six of Blog Every Day April.

I want to talk about three things today:

1- Haunted apartment
2- Snow
3- Soccer

Haunted apartment: A while back this weird thing happened when I was chatting on the internet with my boyfriend. Webcam was on and when I stepped away from the camera he saw this white shadowy ghostly figure. Since then not that much has happened except that this morning I woke up to the sounds of water flowing in my kitchen, well in truth I heard that only after I got out of the shower.

There is this dishwasher in my apartment, which I have never really used. I don't have that much dishes plus I can always managed to wash it by hand.

So I get out of the shower and I hear the sound of water running, at first I thought it might be someone in another apartment taking his/her shower and I heard the noise, but it seemed way too close. I decide to investigate and make my way to the kitchen, to my surprise I saw water coming out of the side of the dishwasher. And looking inside the dishwasher and it was filling itself with water. That is not the oddest part though, I looked at the knob and it was set to the OFF position.

Now I take it I don't know much about dishwashers but can a dishwasher just fill itself up? It could be that it was broken, but I do find it odd that it was filled with water when it was clearly OFF.

I emailed the landlord and they came over today and fixed it as it was fine when I got home, but I still find this bizarre.

Snow: It was snowing today. RAWR! In april, ok I know it is Canada and bound to happen but last thursday was so beautiful, warm and nice out, I cannot handle snow anymore. Spring please get here SOON.

Soccer: I started playing soccer at the beginning of this year with OSSC, Ottawa Sports and social Club, and I love it. I had a game today and we WON 11-8! Yes I am overly excited because we don't win that much but I think we played much better today and I seemed to be a better goalie.

GO BLUE DEVILS! I also designed the logo for our team shirts.

Check it out here and at the same time you can see my excitement: http://dailybooth.com/SweetyGirl/168620

I practiced in my apartment, kicking the ball and stopping it.



I definitely need to practice more. I am going to play spring soccer, this time it will be outdoors. Indoor soccer is great, the rules are quite different but being outdoor when it is beautiful and sunny, enjoying summer will be great.

Beda day 6 down... I feel accomplished.

See you tomorrow and in the meantime enjoy this:

Art tip of the day

TRACING THROUGH A WINDOW
Tracing implies the act of copying someone else's artwork or outright stealing. However, tracing can also serve as a valuable resource for artists. Perhaps you have a photo of a car that you just can't get right by simply drawing it out by sight. Well, there is nothing wrong with tracing the form of your image, then finishing it freehand to add all the details and originality. Tracing also has many other benefits, since it gives you the ability to overlay images, change an object, and locate your perspective.

Let's say you have something to trace, but you don't want to buy a trace-box. Well, here is a great idea for tracing through a window. Simply tape the image you want to trace on a window, and then tape your paper over that. The sunlight creates an instant trace-box.
- John Cleary

BEDA 1: April Fools History

Hello everyone

This is my first blog of April. Yes today is April 1st. It is also April fools Day, the day marked as practical jokes day on your friends, family, ennemies, neighbours or send them on fool's errand. ;) In which the aim is to embarrass the gullible.

Did you know that April was was counted the first day of the year in France, when it was changed to January 1 some people stayed with April 1, those who did were called "April fools" and were taunted by their neighbours.

I can honestly say I personally did not know that, never did any research on it.

In french is it called "poisson d'avril", the origin is the same as april fools but I believe the term poisson d'avril comes from the custom that kids stuck a paper fish to their peers back without them knowing so that it would make everyone laugh that he/she is walking around all day, as a fool, not realizing why people are laughing.

Basically it is about people making fun, or playing pranks, to the ones who don't accept reality or see it differently.

Though I don't agree that we should prank people who see things differently because we are all diffrent we shouldn't just try and fit in to the same mold as everyone else, we each have our own personalities, opinions and ideas. I don't like that this would be encouraging everyone to think alike as sheeps doing the same thing, thinking the same thing.

Anyways this is my first blog for BLOG EVERY DAY APRIL.

See you tomorrow.