Life List Update

Now that summer classes are officially over, I have a glorious amount of time on my hands. As in, I read 4 books in the last 8 days. On weeks where I don't have any assigned reading I'm like a racehorse bursting out of a starting gate. That is, if the starting gate were a book. And the race was a relaxing evening with a blanket and tea. Then it's a perfect simile. With all this time, I will be writing a bunch more blogs, which is something that I look forward to. The best advice I keep reminding myself is that "A good writer writes. A good writer writes." Simple as that. As I write more for this blog, I also organize it more. I've collected a whole handful more of experiences for my life list--my ever-growing, sentient list. Here they are: (the bolded ones are ones that I've already done--my list serves as a challenge and as a reminder.)

Work on a house with Habitat for Humanity
Learn and perform the Thriller dance
Read everything by Ralph Waldo Emerson (How am I a fourth year university student and never read anything by him before?!?)
Attend a large music festival such as Lollapalooza/Coachella/Sasquatch
Memorize USA state geography
Watch the Cirque de Soliel perform
Go around the world and find my own personal 7 wonders
Meet Sol
Memorize the flag for every country
Start a compost
Go white water rafting
Get a Eurorail pass
Ride in a hot air balloon
Get in a fight (I just finished Fight Club. Sue me.) (Do people still use the term "sue me?" Is that still a thing?)
Catch someone reading a book I wrote
Climb the Grand Canyon
Throw a surprise party for someone
Graffiti something
Start a dance in a public place
Be in a parade
Take in and appreciate a busker
Be a completely different person in a different city
Help someone cross something off their own life list
Be on tv, a magazine, the front page of a newspaper
Kill something and eat it
Make a list of everything I own
Have something/someone named after me
Pay for someone's groceries
Actually make a tangible New Year's resolution and keep it

And two more that are a little more dear to my heart:
1. Give a TED talk. The second this came into my mind my heart started racing. I have spent countless hours being inspired by different TED talks, and it would be a serious achievement if I could every cross this off. Some of the things on my list I take more seriously than others (as in, if I died before memorizing the US state geography I wouldn't need to come back as a ghost to avenge myself). Not to say that if I die before doing a TED talk I would be disappointed, it would just be really really cool, that's all.

2. Perform a spoken word poem in front of a large audience. The reason why this is dear to my heart is because a) it achieves my childhood dream of making poetry cool again and b) I'm crossing it off today! Well sort of. I showed my pastor my video from the last post and he said that he wanted to include it in a Sunday service. A part of me really wanted to do it live, but I'm still really jazzed about getting the to opportunity to show it for all 3 services this Sunday. While I'm not sure whether I can technically cross this one off as I'm not performing it live, it's still right up there. I hope that this is a day that I can look back on as the first of many opportunities like this.

(Fun fact: I didn't realize it at the time, but my last blog post was my 150th post, as well as my 10,000th view. Considering how long I waited to post it, it's cool that it just worked out like that. Coincidences are fun! Also side note, if you have a blog/tumblr/whatever they've come out with now, could you link to my video? I'm still working on getting it out there and the more links there are to it, the higher up it goes on Google search-- this is the one thing that I learnt in Computer Science 1000.)

Day 5 - I Feel the Need to Apologize

So today's an exciting day for me. Instead of talking more about creativity, I want to finally reveal a project I've been working on for a while.

When I did 5 Days for the Homeless, I had planned on getting insane amounts of reading and writing done. Turns out, boxes are not conducive to comfortable reading times, mostly they're for curling up in a ball and attempting to sleep. BUT I did manage to scratch out a page or two of my thoughts. I've had a lot going on over the past couple of months and it was nice to spew out all my ideas in one sitting.

Once I finished 5 Days I immediately went home and turned those pages into some spoken word poetry. I have been really interested in spoken word for a long time now and have only just begun to realize how truly passionate I am about it. I will be posting some of my favourite poets in the future. (Side note: At one point I even became Facebook friends with Taylor Mali--a fairly well-known spoken word poet--but then I realized that he didn't have very many friends, so I just felt kind of creepy and de-friended him. It was awkward.)

Soon after I wrote the poem, my friend Amara told me that she had access to a recording studio at Lethbridge College. Sweet! It turns out that recording yourself speaking for 3 straight hours is an enlightening and unnerving experience. I have spent many hours during the editing of this project debating over whether or not I have a speech impediment. :/

THEN I went home and spent the next week working on a combination of sound editing, accompaniment editing, video recording, splicing, and more editing. I used a very, um, MacGyver-esque tripod (piano stool, bar stool, books, mirror, camera, and lamp)

and then spent a whole lot of time staring at this:

I used many different programs and even spent an entire day attempting to learn the whole of Adobe After Effects in one day, but it turns out it's just a ridiculously complicated program.

Then, fear hit. Confession time: I finished this project in totality back in March--and I was so excited and immediately wanted to put it up--but then I started thinking about how many hits it would get. Then I started thinking about what would happen if people don't like it. Then I started thinking about how it has to be absolutely perfect and I can't release it unless I am 100% satisfied with it. Well, turns out, I need to get over myself.

1. I am not 100% satisfied with it. Am I proud of it? Yes. Will I ever be completely satisfied with it? No. Over the course of working on it I have learnt that perfectionism is just a disguise for fear.

2. It's not about me. It's not about whether my voice sounds funny or the graphics aren't perfect. It's not about whether each rhyme is perfect. There's a lot of truth in this project and I want to share it with people because I wholeheartedly believe in everything that is said. As anyone who works in ministry can tell you, it's not about how many people you reach, it's about making an impact on the ones that you do.

So without further ado, I present: "I Feel the Need to Apologize": (If it's too small you can get a better size with the link below the video.)

I would really love if you could share this video with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever because, like I said, there's a lot of truth in it. Here is the youtube link to just copy and paste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOUocB4Jvm4.