Thankfully, my one and only break on Thursday was during the time the torch bearer, Joel Pineau (a BCIT student), would be set to pass BCIT. The crowds gathered and cheered, waving Canada and Coke flags alike, watching and waiting for Joel to come.

It looked as though the weather gods were on our side, because as the time came closer, the rain kept away. Umbrellas closed and views got better. Fast forward another 30 minutes, and the view of two torch bearers exchanging flames is visible from a distance (from my view on top of a small hill at least, and not pictured here unfortunately). 10 seconds later, Joel passes, waving at the crowd, who is cheering back at him.

I managed to get a somewhat shaky and not-so-great quality video from afar of the run.

Now that I’m free from the chains of school, I obviously have more time on my hands. And what have I done with my time so far? I watched the Opening Ceremony from the comfort of my own living room. I was stunned by everything during the ceremony. Until that will-be-infamous mechanical glitch with the last cauldron. Embarrassing much, Vancouver? I’ve seen all the Twitter posts about it, from how they handled it well to the fact that Canada invented insulin and not Viagra (@uranowski).

I was disappointed with that snafu. I will say though, that other than that, everything was well done. There were just a few minor things, like lip-syncing, canoe-guy and his shadow movements not matching up, tap dancing clicks not sounding at the correct time… but overall, I was very impressed. I can only hope now that the closing ceremony won’t have silly glitches like the ones in the opening ceremony.

I’ll hopefully be going around the city touring, checking out the sights and sounds, and snapping them photos. Needless to say, I’m now so glad I get a two-week break to recoup, watch the Olympics, and be proud to be a Vancouverite, and a Canadian. Despite our embarrassments.

Now we’re trying to get as many votes in as we can. But first, watch the commercial. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Sure hope you weren’t disappointed Now, please visit this link http://3bn.bcit.ca/entries/#8185 to vote for our commercial! A Macbook Pro is on the line here! Ask all of your friends to vote for it too.

And as for incentives… it’ll be lots of appreciation Thanks so much!

NOTE: The post below is purely based on my opinion. I rarely ever (or maybe never) write opinionated blog posts but because the subject of this has been labelled “big” and there have been many debates and whatnot, I just feel the need to rant. You can choose to agree with everything or agree with absolutely nothing, but remember that this is just my personal opinion. And if you’re going to leave a comment, please no inappropriate language (or subtle inappropriate language) or it will be deleted.

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Whoever leaked it out that DT would turn into Forks High School for a week, what the hell were you thinking? But whatevs, right? It’s been leaked out onto the Vancouver Sun and just about every Twilight fan site there is. Watcha gonna do about it.

Since this is all out into the public now and the “Untitled Sports Movie” is now “New Moon”, I feel that there’s no point in keeping things a secret myself. After all, they already filmed the cafeteria scene(s) today which caused the shutdown of the entire cafeteria and turned that hallway into a dreaded traffic jam. And they just had to leave a wonderful crack in the doors for those 5 ginormous wires which in turn led to the halted traffic.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I find it cool that a big blockbuster film chose my school to be their high school. For once I’m actually proud of going to DT, but give me a break.

First of all, these dudes have got to learn to scheme better. If you’re gonna lie to the entire school and tell them that some untitled sports movie is gonna be here filming next week, why hand out a release form to the art students that says “New Moon” all over it? And what’s the point of telling them, “If anyone asks, tell them it’s an untitled sports movie.” Yeah well, this is most likely what happened:

A: “Hey, guess what? We got this release form thing from art for that movie they’re filming here next week. And the teacher said, ‘If anyone asks, tell them it’s an untitled sports movie.’”
B: “Oh, sweet! I just have to tell everyone else!”

Score! All of DT now knows. Don’t they know that teenagers love to gossip?

And did it ever occur to anyone that they said “Untitled Sports Movie” for a reason? Although I have to say, they probably knew that we would figure it out eventually, and the “Untitled Sports Movie” was probably just a way of prolonging the secret.

But what makes this situation worse? DT students telling students from other schools who then leak it out to total outside people. I had Googled a search last week to see if there were any leaks that filming would take place at DT and indeed there was one on Twilight Lexicon. Some girl from DT leaked it out, which sparked an insane “debate” if you will about how it’s great and how it’s stupid. Then, last night, I Googled the exact same thing and what do you know, some “insider” goes babbling to the Vancouver Sun about how DT is the new Forks High School. Of course, by morning, almost 20 results came up on Google with basically the same article the Sun had about “FILM CREWS AT DAVID THOMPSON SECONDARY”.

Dude, if you’re gonna leak it out, why not leak it out after it’s over? That way you can brag about how everyone else missed the big trucks and tents and trailers parked outside and how you got to see the foyer and cafeteria all dressed up. But of course, everyone wants to be the first to know and to let it be known that you were the first to know to everyone, right?

Then, there are the other inconveniences and problems that occurred at school. (Don’t think that just because some big shot movie’s being filmed at DT means that the students have it so good.) Our cafeteria got closed down today because of filming. They covered up our beautiful murals in the foyer which supposedly will wreck the murals after the wallpaper’s torn off. And they apparently took power from a class with guest speakers the other day. Oh I’m sure the guest speakers were so pleased with us.

Now, don’t go thinking that I hate the fact that Spunk Ransom and Kristen Stewart and all the rest of them are at my school. I don’t. This is probably a great opportunity for DT to perhaps get more students enrolled and maybe open up future filming possibilities. The thing I hate the most is the fact that some people are that insanely obsessed that they’ll go to a filming location and stand there for so bloody long for what, catching a glimpse of someone?

And if you think I’d rather not have outside people know anything so DT people can have the stars to themselves or whatever, think again. We have classes to go to. I mean, I was “fortunate” that today was the day that I have like 2 spares, so I walked around checking out the filming area, but really, there’s nothing to see after 5 minutes. Okay, so New Moon decided to film at DT. That’s great, but if they were filming in some other school I would not skip class and trek there for some famous people I probably wouldn’t get to meet.

I like the Twilight series to a certain extent, but what happens when people discover new filming locations? They flock there like mad shoppers on Boxing Day. I did not want crazy fan girls at my school trying to get a glimpse of Spunk Ransom or Taylor Lautner, but what do you know. There they are, walking around INSIDE my school acting like they belong. If we’re not even allowed to go into other schools when we have Pro D Days and whatnot, what makes them think that they can just waltz into this school just because they’re filming a movie here? There could be a real intruder for all we know and no one would call out the bloody Code Red. Of course, there are the moms with their teenage daughters and friends and the 30-somethings who stand outside of the cafeteria on the lawn for hours upon hours hoping to see someone famous.

Do they have nothing better to do than to stand outside where they’re filming for hours on end hoping to see cast members who if they are even remotely visible will have crew hold out umbrellas to avoid being seen by exactly THEM? That’s exactly what seemed to happen after school as I was passing by the outside of the cafeteria. A cast member (perhaps Spunk Ransom or other) tried to make his way into the cafeteria with an umbrella held out to the side so he wouldn’t be seen. I mean, give it a rest.

Alright, so whatever happened to privacy around here? Actors may be famous, but they’re still people. Just like you’d probably like some privacy every once in a while, so would they. What’s the real point of meeting them? They’ll “know” you for 2 seconds, write down your name for the autograph as if you are the nobody that you are, give you a hug, take a photo, and move on to the next person. Let’s face it. Celebrities only like you, the fans, because you’re the ones that give them their paycheque. They jumble you up as a group; they don’t look at you as an individual. They don’t give a rat’s arse about you otherwise. Then, when you become the crazy diehard stalker fan, you’re just another person who can’t give them their privacy and has to stalk them everywhere they go which is why they avoid you too.

There’s a reason why famous people and us nobodies don’t live in the same world.

Well, everything’s got its pros and cons, right? In any case, for those Twihards out there who just won’t give it up and who don’t live anywhere near Vancouver but long to see something, anything New Moon related, I snapped a whole whack of pictures from last week to today. If you wish to use them for your own blog or what have you, please ask, don’t steal. Remember, everything’s copyrighted.

Oh, and I did happen to see Stephenie Meyer today at lunch.

Enjoy your virtual “tour”.

Hm… Untitled Sports Movie, right?

The crew wallpapering the foyer mural… parts of that mural now is just wrecked from the wallpaper.

Here comes the salad bar…

The trees outside the cafeteria… the day before filming.

Now everything’s blocked.

That’s the outside of the staff lounge, which they’re using as a classroom.

One of the displays in the foyer. Forks Spartans.

Another display in the foyer.

I’m gonna guess that those are extras having fun in our tennis courts.

That’s actually a parking lot.

This is artwork from DT students themselves (thus the release form).

Continuous wallpapering in the foyer. It’s the big chunk where the guy in the white is standing which has to be re-done. Elsewhere has damage as well.

And there you go. Good-bye DT, hello Forks High School…

I’ve been wanting to blog about something, anything for the last month or two, but I really don’t have anything to say.

My life is dull. I’m in a rut. I wake up, eat, go to school, come home, eat some more, do homework, eat again, and sleep. Then the next day comes and everything repeats. I guess that’s what happens when you go to school. Nothing’s new. Everything’s soooooo borrrrr-ring.

I’m supposed to be working on a project right now, but I’m waiting for one of my group members to finish tallying up a bunch of surveys, so I decided to blog for a little bit.

I feel like I haven’t been to school in years. All that work experiene and not coming to school has made me go nuts. Now it’s back into doing homework, working on projects, and cramming for tests. Wonderful, eh?

The upside to this is that Spring is coming! Hopefully. Everyday’s been a typical Vancouver day, with rain and/or showers mixed with sun and clouds. Supposedly there was snow for a couple of mornings, but I was too busy being a sleepy head to wake up and look out the window.

Despite the dreary weather, the cherry blossoms, trees, and flowers are starting to bloom! Hpoefully, the weather will pick up and we’ll have bright, sunny days ahead of us!

As you can probably tell in the title, I went to UBC today. On this dreadful, rainy, bitter cold Wednesday in the middle of March. I went there solely for 1 purpose: to get a degree—in one day! Haha, no. I went for an event called “UBC Degree in a Day”, where you start the day walking for 2 hours around different parts of campus, and then have lunch probably in the SUB (Student Union Building), which is mega jammed with people with nowhere to sit, and then there are 2 sessions in which you got to choose at the beginning of the day.

I got up bright and early (more like groggily and early) in the morning to take the bus all the way to UBC, which is a ~ 45 minute bus ride for me. And that’s taking the Express bus too. I had a map of UBC all printed out and ready to go, and thank goodness I brought it with me. As soon as I got off the bus, I couldn’t tell North from South. I was like a blind person in the middle of campus, just stumbling around trying to find out where in the world Brock Hall was. I decided to stop at Starbucks to take a look at my map, turning it around and around until I found out where I was.

After finally finding Brock Hall, I also found my friend sitting on a couch reading a book. We proceeded to sign in and also, to sign up for our 2 sessions in the afternoon. We chose for Session #1 to go to a Student Panel (which was insanely boring), and for Session #2, we went to an information session with a student recruiter-advisor (more interesting). But before all of that happened, we had a 2-hour tour of campus.

We went to a lot of places, including (off the top of my head): the SUB, Place Vanier (we went into a dorm and looked inside a double-room too!), the Chemistry Building, Angus High, the UBC Bookstore, the Aquatic Center, the Longhouse, the Botanical Garden, the Walter C. Koerner Library, and much, much more. Our tour guide also told us lots of interesting tidbits; for example, she told that the Chem Building is Lex Luthor’s mansion (in Smallville, I guess)! Probably just the outside, I’m thinking.

After a brutal 2 hours, most of which was spent outside in the freezing cold, holding an umbrella with iced-up hands, we finally got a break and were able to go to the SUB and whatnot to eat some lunch. What bad timing. All of the students of UBC were at the SUB eating their lunch and doing homework on their laptops and whatnot, which meant insane lineups and trouble finding a place to sit. My friend and I spent half an hour lining up for food and then finding a table to sit and eat. That basically only left us 15 minutes to eat and then scramble and rush to look for the Buchanan Building, where we had our 1st session.

Our 2 sessions were basically just sitting there listening to people talk about UBC and what it has to offer and this and that. I was falling asleep during the Student Panel but the 2nd session was fairly interesting, and more “intimate”, considering there were only 10 people in the room. And our recruiter-advisor spoke really fast and never uttered an “um”, so that made it much more interesting.

Since my 2nd session was in Brock Hall, we simply had to walk back downstairs to end off the day with our “graduation ceremony”. We all got certificates with our names printed on it saying that we completed UBC Degree in a Day, a magnet with words that you can peel off and scramble on your refrigerator, and one of those university banner-flag type things that has the UBC logo and says University of British Columbia on it. My motivator! The second I got home, I pinned it up onto my cork board in hopes of making me work harder. (Work experience and Spring Break aren’t very good motivators. )

So that was basically my day. Tomorrow will be another grueling 8.5 hours of work and the day after that will be my one day to just ENJOY Spring Break! Hope you’re having an awesome March break as well!

School’s out and I get 2 months of somewhat relaxation.

This year was a hectic year but it ended well. So that’s good.

I can’t believe it’s almost July. :O Half a year’s already gone. It seems like yesterday when we celebrated the start of 2007. But I guess time does fly. In a good way.

3 more classes after this!! Next block is the last day of square dancing. YAHOOO!!

I hope I won’t do much in any of my classes.

Ooh and tomorrow’s my last shift of gift wrapping. It’s gonna be SOOO busy. Too bad I’m not volunteering on Christmas Eve. That would be good, but I’m going to see Beauty and the Beast again. I’ve volunteered on Christmas Eve the last 2 Christmasses but this year I can’t. WAHHHH Ohh well.

Listening to Christmas songs right now on the computer. Bored out of my mind. Waiting for a reply on my email.

Alrightt. I think I’ll leave it at this.

Happy holidays!!! And Merry Early Christmas!!

Projects:

• Marketing Futuristic Invention Assignment: due Nov16
• Planning 7 Habits project presentation: presentation date Nov23
• Socials Project: no due date yet

Tests/Quizzes:

• Marketing Ch3 Test: Nov14
• Marekting Ch9 Key Terms Quiz: Nov16
• Science Test: Nov14

ACTUAL Homework:

• NONE

Can you believe it?? No actual homework; all projects, quizzes, and tests. Aiyaaa.

I’d better get going on some of this, before I have to start cramming like crazy.

I got the book yesterday at Chapters and I’ve already read Part I and the beginning of Part II until Habit 2. I’m gonna read Habit 2 later.

The cartoons are so cute. I found some good quotes that I highlighted in what I read so far. Let’s see…

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” – Mark Twain

It’s so funny but so true. There was another one about imagination. “It is a remarkable gift. It allows us to escape our present circumstances and create new possibilities in our heads. It gives us a chance to visualize our futures and dream up what we would like to become.”

I like that cause sometimes I do it too. There’s these baby steps at the end of each chapter that I should try. I’ve tabbed all the ones that I should do. The whole side of the book is all colorful.

At the beginning of the book, there’s a list of the top 10 all-time stupid quotes by people many years ago. The people who said the quotes were experts in their field. At the time, they sounded intelligent, but then over time, they just sound stupid. Here’s the #1 all-time stupid quote:

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” – Charles H. Duell, U.S. Commissioner of Patents, in 1899

Oh how wrong he was.