It's training season,

I go to a school for ages pre K-12. It's divided up by pre K- K, 1-6, 7-9, and 10-12. Traditionally, we don't frosh, but rather we introduce some grade 8s and 9s that we deem cool into highschool life. Last years group was unsuccessful. This year we're doing pretty good so far, made up of a few young punks and skinheads. The trick is we don't introduce kids to anything new, we just give them more stoner culture experience and partying experience. I like to think it's a nice alternative to Froshing

Thank God It's Friday(tomorrow, anyways)

Only two classes to get through, two spares.
Usually fridays are Beer and Bong fridays, which is a tradition with me and my bestie but this friday is Hookah and Hash!(and rum, it just didn't flow so nicely).

My dear friends are playing a show and I'll be ducking in the back after hitting the hookah bar with some friends of mine tomorrow. I don't often smoke Hookah, but it's a soothing experience. I like the classic fruit flavours best, but unfortunately the tasty food that often accompanies it is NEVER vegan.
I expect a good show accompanied by a few shots knocked back
A close friend of mine that moved here from T.Dot a few years back picked up hash and it's been way too long since I used my bong( I haven't had to buy lately and I only use my bong at home) and all I can figure is we're getting FADED and making some MAD art while listening to pink floyd and watching my lava lamp. Yes, dorky, I know.

"I've been trying to get stoned, but it won't happen. I've been smoking since I was born."

Has anyone(as if I have any readers, ahaha) ever seen a movie called "SLC Punk!"?
It is absolute genius! I can't even begin to explain my love for it, the characters remind me of my friends, reckless, goofy and a tad stupid on occasion. The idea is fresh and well filmed. Also I may want to date the main character, who is hysterical. Is that nerdy?
The best scene takes place in Wyoming where the characters are mistaken for mental patients and explain their odd looks by saying they are from England and the mohawk one of them has was a result of medical experimentation.

Watch it!

Also watch Welcome to the Dollhouse. It's weird.

Don't dwell on what has passed away or what has yet to be

An ex-con came to my Psych class today. I was expecting him to be hardened and rough, instead he was just real. He told us some pretty vile stories, but in the most honest way, without a hint of editorialization. Uncharacteristically of my class, everyone listened and were it seemed, truly interested.
My friends came back from Mexico today and brought me the prettiest little bracelet, all earth tones and everything. So sweet <3

Origaudio!

I was at the Organic Market today picking out enough lunches and breakfasts to feed a village because eat an enormous amount and while I was looking at a shelf full of handmade recycle material scarves, slippers, etc something caught my eye. What could have distracted me from such beautiful textiles? Oh, only the only speakers I have ever liked. For the last few months I have been looking for affordable aesthetically pleasing speakers which is really not as simple as I expected. I was almost ready to settle for CrosleyRadio(http://www.crosleyradio.com/) which makes nice old fashioned styled products that I quite like, but they're a little more than I want to spend(although I have a turntable via Crosley) until I came across the Origaudio. As seen here:http://www.origaudio.com/products
Orgiaudio makes affordable recycled material speakers that require no batteries or external power source, the sound produced isn't loud, but the quality isn't awful for the $16 price tag and I don't need to deafen my household anyhow so these stunnas are perfect for me!
I got this set: http://www.origaudio.com/products/flowers

Adorable no?

Also have you ever peed in a bathtub whilst standing on the ledge of it? I have, and it turns out the noise makes everyone giggle, even the owner of the house that you are currently mistreating.

Personally I've always been a fan of the concept of "coming together"

It seems to me, and I'm definitely not the first person to observe this that high school is divided by clothing styles. This is disturbing, especially when you attend an art school which is intended to be a mecca and hub of creativity, that breaks free of the mould of a conventional institution.
I'm not really in one particular group, I am a floater, although I have a main group of friends that I generally go to shows with, party with, etc, but at the same time my best friend is very much separate from them, physically and mentally.
Just the other day I received a comment about my jacket, a baggy denim plaid fleece lined creation with a waist drawstring. I got the jacket at Value Village for just five dollars, and I like it. The comment made, was by an acquaintance who used to be a close friend, accusing me of being trendy. The comment in itself didn't bother be, except that the girl it seemed, thought she was somehow less trendy than I. I had news for her, which I gladly shared. She is a punk, which is trendy, a Mohawk is not anymore creative than my jacket. We are all trendy, anything that any of us is doing has been done before, or has been inspired by something that someone somewhere has done before, which doesn't make your thoughts and ideas any less valuable, just unifying. I was physically wearing clothing that had been worn before, of course I knew I wasn't original, and it strikes me as odd that someone wearing a concept worn first by a Native tribe and then by thousands of punks would fail to recognize that they are not anymore creative than I.
However, all of that said, I thoroughly respect punk culture, just like any other culture a lot of interesting ideas and music was either developed or popularized by it.

Personally I believe some people deserve to be offended, creationists for example.

I'm not really one for Doonsbury, but I've always been a fan of this one particular cartoon that's been taped to my fridge for a couple years.

As I said, some people deserve to be offended, I'm sure to offend on a regular basis. Enjoy.

If you tolerate this, your children will be next...

It might only be November but we all know how quickly the holidays will creep up on us. At a certain age I think most of us have discovered how nice it truly does feel to give a gift, but at the same time the majority of us still enjoy getting a thoughtful gift. In my opinion the ideal gift is to give the gift of giving someone else a gift that goes to someone else. Confused? I don't blame you, let me explain. Organizations like World Vision offer gift certificate-esque gifts that rather than offering the person on the receiving end money, it lets you know that the money that you would have received went to something like a goat for a village, schooling for a child, or crops for a year.
I've heard that a Sponsor child is not the best use of the money, however I feel like they help people form a personal connection to the causes involved
https://children.worldvision.ca/Sponsorship/Forms/Child.aspx

Other gifts of various costs are available here:

https://catalogue.worldvision.ca/gifts/Forms/preHome.aspx?mc=4136586&lang=en

Another idea, instead of traditional Secret Santa do a "Toys for Tots" exchange in which everyone spends the 10-20 dollars that would have been spent on a gift of a toy for the charity(It's called Toys for Tots here, but elsewhere I am not sure of the name). Imagine being five and on Christmas "Santa" has brought you nothing, it would be hard on a kid and a parent to be in that position.


And for the music lover, every year War Child Canada puts out a album of Peace Songs, in my experience they're great mixes and people often ask me the name of the album and I've even had a few ask for a copy.

"Dude, is that fucking YODA?"

I've been off school on a break(for some reason I must have missed) since Tuesday and I have just been BURIED in events. To be honest I'm so tired and well...perma-inebriated that I'm not entirely sure what I have been up to.
However last night, after a bike ride and a hour and a half Bikram/Hot Yoga class I caught a ride with a long-time friend to a party on the other side of the city. After lurking in the house saying hellos, a friend pulled me off into the garage where we found the host's uncle with a bong...a Yoda bong...with multiple tubes! A hit of this and I'm good, and my friend is a wreck. Likely you're wondering why his uncle was there, but we were in Crip-town with an unlocked door. From there it's a blur.
I don't know about you, but I like my clothes cheap and generally attractive.

Wednesday meant a trip to Superstore, which has a clothing brand know as "Joe Fresh". Joe Fresh is generally affordable and often cute(although it can require some digging through). My friend who never shops and wears the same clothes for about 5 days in a row, my friend who came from the a commune in the States, and I went shopping and all got at least 3 items for under 50, I spent just over 30 and got two pairs of the most beautiful knit socks and a so, so, soft sea foam green coloured pullover sweater. We hopped a bus and arrived at the house of the same girl who would give me a ride to Thursday's party, where everyone was watching my personal least favorite film Silence of The Lambs. I lasted an hour and got so grossed out that I went home and had disturbed dreams and have been hearing in my head "It puts the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again" non-stop since.

Tuesday brought a nap on the couch at a friends place with a little help from some bud her mom had and a viewing of Boondock Saints followed by Chicago. Upon leaving there I headed to the house of my best friend's sister and her "Mormon" boyfriend. The Mormon immediately offered up some Jagger-bombs and Vanilla Vodka(Smirnoff I assume) and Root beer(tastes like a Root beer Float!). After downing the drinks a friend picked me up and we made clothes at her house until another friend finished his radio show and picked us up and drove us to a house a bit west of where we were, upon arriving a bowl was passed and at some point the owner of the place disappeared only to reappear with this month's Playboy. The centerfold? None other than Marge Simpson! After that we went to pick up a deuce and they grabbed McDonald's, while I mopped about not being able to eat McDicks the guy that picked us up sped around recklessly and I silently worried for our lives and anyone he could hit. Arriving back at the house where I made clothes I fell asleep within seconds of crawling into bed, Utterly exhausted.

As tired as I feel I am leaving in about 20 minutes to see a local show with 3 bands, 2 of which I am close friends with all of the memebers. Not only do I know them, but hey, we're art-school kids, and they're actually good.

"...do you know why I think George Bush is so pissed off at Arabs? They brought us algebra."

I re-read my favourite Vonnegut book(A Man Without A Country) today during psych class. It's not that I don't find psychology interesting, rather it's fascinating, however, not so interesting is my psych Teacher's birth stories and hidden abstinence agenda. While reading Vonnegut I temporarily felt lifted from my naturally cynical temperament and I could almost see the humour in the sickness of the world. I am under the impression that his most famous book was Slaughterhouse Five, which I do enjoy, but really I enjoyed this short little almost stream-of-consciousness style novel.

After school I payed a visit to a good friend of mine who has been home sick for a week and brought her Tabouli, which is a vegan(or vegetarian depending on whether or not you include feta cheese or not)salad that even my meat eating friends like. Here's a recipe: http://www.greatpartyrecipes.com/tabouli-recipe.html . My friend's brother is a bit of an Aime dork, and so we watched a movie of his called My Neighbour Tortoro. It was both delightful and bizarre, which I supposed is a very common western perception of Japanese pop culture. Anyways, it's apparently well known, but regardless, worth watching.

Upon arriving home I watched an old favorite documentary called "Paperclips", which is always heart wrentching. This documentary is about a Holocaust memorial project that began in a small Southern(American) town and spread all over the world.


Paperclips preview:

My Neighbour Tortoro preview:


It's such a strange feeling to drift between seeing the beauty of the world seeing the ugliness a moment later, it's when you cry and smile all at once.

I'm always hungry for Vegan

I'm sitting here listening to Leonard Cohen's "Anthem", which by the way is beautiful. And as usual, I am hungry. I'm filing through, mentally, all the wonderful foods I could be eating, allowing for the fact that my mom nine times out of ten with refuse to buy them and they will usually come out of my own pocket.
So when I am high I like to snack on:

Kettle chips
Pemium Plus Soda Crackers
Sour Patch Kids
Pom
Sunkist Smooties
Orgina
Arizona Teas
Hardbite Chips
Amy's veggie burgers with a slice of tomatoe and fake mayo!
Pink lady apples

You'd be so surprised at all the foods that are vegan! I know the apple sounds weird, but I got my bestie, who never eats healthy foods to try it while high and she ate 3. They're delish!

Top 10 T.V. shows to watch stoned

10. The Simpsons- Perhaps the most widely enjoyed television show. Simple enough to follow, but a fun colourful, and humorous show when high. Really, you can't go wrong with The Simpsons while stoned or sober.

9. Weeds- This should be obvious, the show is about drug dealing. It's got everything needed for a good show; a few laughs, drama, good acting, and well...weed. Not to mention Hunter Parish, who is, well, yummy.

8. Little Bush- This Comedy Network show was a priceless political animation that joked constantly and unrelentlessly about a child-aged Bush, Condelliza, Jeb, and even Micheal Moore. Their daily events and happenings, and even in my favorite episode, an explanation to why, oh why Jeb is darn stupid.

7. Family Guy- Okay, so maybe you think this isn't the best selection, but I feel like it's perfectly appropriate, after all you laugh at the short 30 second spiels with no correlation to the show while sober imagine how you'll laugh while stoned.

6. That Seventies Show- An oldie but a goldie. I actually just realized a few days ago how great this show is while high, and as a bonus while sober.

5. Bromwell High- A Brit/Canadian cartoon collaboration. A bizarrely drawn creation mocking Britain's youth culture.

4. Red vs. Blue - This show may be good only while high, I tried watching it sober once and I couldn't get through five minutes. Basically the show is a dubbed over video game. This is for sure not a show I'd pick to watch on my own, but it was shown to me by a friend of mine and ever since I've found myself glued to his couch.

3. Little Britain- A BBC show, that absolutely ridiculous and frankly, silly. Sketches featuring such ideas as Chavs, gays in denial about other's sexuality, and just the very ridiculous.

2.Robot Chicken- I doubt anyone has overlooked this when thinking about shows to watch while baked. It's an obvious choice, what with the animation style and silly/violent sense of humour.

1. Moral Orel- There aren't too many episodes of this show, but it's highly amusing and appropriately offensive. It's a short fifteen minute animated show poking fun at religion.

Stoner Space

I would say, and many would agree that to a stoner's personal space is sacred. One needs to feel at peace in their bedroom and well, it's nice to be able to trip a bit. The below picture is a little on the ritzy side, but it's GORGEOUS and believe you me you would trip mad on that carpet.


However for those of us on a budget that's just not feasible. There are many cheaper things that will still have your space looking great. Personally I love lamps. I have a lava lamp, a paper lantern with a floral pattern on it, an overhead light, and a bedside light I found for 20 bucks at a antique seller with a big sun on the stand. Posters are another cheap option. I have a Pink Floyd The Wall, 2 Woodstock images, several political posters, and vintage anti-nuke paraphernalia.
As far a prints go florals, paisley and tye-dye are all great options.
When looking for decorations and furniture for your room look at thrift stores, flea markets and junk sellers