Hey everyone!

I've really missed Xanga, and I'm sort of sad that Facebook took away from it in the last few years. I used to be so faithful! Updating at least once a week... and really detailed posts, too. I think I'm going to continue, just because it's such a great place to talk about what's going on in my life.

Well, tonight I participated in PIDSSA's All Candidates debate for the general election, taking place March 18th, and 19th, 2008! I'm running for the position of VP Finance (Vice-presidente aux finances). I'm really excited about this campaign, because aside from yearbook, I wasn't overly involved in high school, and I really came to uOttawa to put myself out there, try to step out of my comfort zone -- and considering the state of my nerves, I think I'm succeeding! I think running for Year Rep was the best decision I ever made, and I'm really glad that I'm going out for VP Finance. Even if I don't win, I think I brought some great ideas to the table, and I hope that they can still be implemented next year without me - which isn't to say that I wouldn't still be involved next year!

So what's been going on in my life since my post in like... August?

WELL. I was a 101-er at the University of Ottawa. It was a good time, and I met a lot of people, and made (at least at the time) good friends. Unfortunately, these friends became friends of my roommate as well, and there has since November developed a rift between us. I think this was mainly due to the fact that I asked them not to use the words "gay" or "retarded" (which anyone who knows me at all knows I ask of everyone, and has probably heard my reasoning). This apparently built a "mal-rapport" which no one expressed to me, and they would have liked me to "compromise" on the issue, though I didn't know it was an issue at the time.

I'm going to be very frank in saying that the eventual fall-out was hugely hurtful to me, because it was silent, nobody explained to me what the reason was, and I'd like to think that something could have been worked out instead of just shutting me out.

I can also understand how it's a conflict of personalities, though. I get that if you don't like being around someone, you don't want to invite them places, but I also think that if it's because of one specific thing that that person does (maybe it isn't though, I never know), then communication is really the best solution, than just not inviting them to things anymore, ESPECIALLY when you live with them, and they can't get away from the group of friends, and it basically just destroys their self-confidence because it appears that all their friends now hate them, and they have no idea why.

One of the people in that group of friends explained to me that it was really between me and my roommate, that she wasn't stealing my friends away from me, and that I should have sought them out socially by bypassing her. I think that that's definitely what my future course of action will be, but I'd also like to express that from November until last week, when I finally brought this up, it appeared from all angles that the general consensus was that Tamar was disliked, and that she wasn't welcome at gatherings. I think it's fairly reasonable to understand that I was overwhelmingly crushed by this, I didn't have a clue as to why it was happening, only that it was, and that I wasn't about to put myself out there, into possible awkward situations with people I believed disliked me. It's all over now, and I have since reconciled with two dear friends of mine - I am so glad that we were able to talk about what happened, and I value your friendship so much.

I don't really expect anyone to read this, because it's Xanga, and nobody comes here anymore, but I really just wanted to write somewhere what I've been going through, and what I've been experiencing. I really wish that socially, this year had turned out better, but I definitely think I've matured a little, and I've really realized that it's not worth compromising your values, or trying to hide who you are, or censoring yourself for people who would rather make jokes than possibly understand the offensiveness of their comments and the slang that they use. This experience also made me realize how fantastic my friends are back home, because they accept my values, they take the time to understand how important things are to me, and even if they don't agree, they try to be supportive and respectful of my values. <3 you guys.

In any case, academically, this year has been pretty positive. On a side note, I can't believe the year is almost OVER. Just... wow. Way to be ridiculously fleeting, time.

Over-all, I'm really glad I got involved with PIDSSA. It allowed me to find confidence in other areas, besides "how many friends do I have?" and I think I really helped the Association out, and I really hope I get to kick ass on next year's Executive as VP Finance!

VOTE FRIEDMAN!

Total Number of Songs:
3958

Sort by Song Name:
First Song: A - Cartel
Last Song: <-- - Andrew Bird

Sort by Artist:
First Artist: Abandoned Pools
Last Artist: 5ive

Sort by Album:
First Album: ABBA Gold
Last Album: [1999] Brothers and Sisters EP - Coldplay

First 10 Songs on Shuffle:
1. Get Gone - Fiona Apple
2. Skin - Andrew Bird
3. More Than Fine - Switchfoot
4. The Sun and the Moon - Mae
5. Sh-Boom - The Chords
6. Dan in Real Life - Sondre Lerche
7. 1000 Times A Day - The Early November
8. Breathing You In - The Whitlams
9. Beautiful Surprise - India.Arie
10. Into the Blue - Sunrise Avenue (play count 0... have no idea what this song is)

10 Most Recent Tracks Played:
1. On The Radio - Regina Spektor
2. If I Only Were A Goth - ThouShaltNot
3. Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches
4. I'm Safer On An Airplane - Copeland
5. Control Freak - Copeland
6. Up The Spout - Mateo Messina
7. Lonely Days - Dariustx
8. Together We'll Ring In The New Year - Motion City Soundtrack
9. Drops of Jupiter - Train
10. Dare You To Move - Switchfoot

Top Artists Overall:
... I don't know how to figure this out, but it's probably Andrew Bird, Dariustx, Death Cab For Cutie, Brand New and Motion City Soundtrack... oh, and Disney.

Top 10 Song Plays:
1. Longer - Caleb Kane (22 plays)
2. I'm Safe on an Airplane - Copeland (22 plays)
3. Control Freak - Copeland (20 plays)
4. Love Affair - Copeland (20 plays)
5. Out There - Caleb Kane (19 plays)
6. Dan and Marie Melody - Sondre Lerche (18 plays)
7. Simple X - Andrew Bird (17 plays)
8. In Your Own Way - Caleb Kane (17 plays)
9. Eat, Sleep, Repeat - Copeland (16 plays)
10. Lir'ot Et Ha'or - Efrat Gosh (16 plays)

Wow... That doesn't reflect my tastes AT all. This probably would have been more telling on my iPod.
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On another note, I miss Xanga.

I am currently in class, and it is stressful typing here and in my word document and following, but otherwise it's boring. I hope we finish soon. I need to finish reading a short story for English. Crap, crap, crap. I don't think we'll be finished in time... I'm gonna post this, and read while he talks...

Come back to Xanga, everyone!

Holy crap. It has been far too long. What was my last entry? February??? I SUCK. I remember at some point, I was like, "I'm going to update frequently, bitchess." Yeah, that fully did not work out as planned. This does not reduce how cool I am, however. In case you thought it did, you were wrong.

What has been happening since February?

I don't know if I ever wrote it, but I wasn't accepted at Cambridge. Unfortunate, depressing, but the truth (though I'm still just as cool.) I was pretty upset initally, but nothing could have guaranteed my being able to go. As it is, I'm still waiting to hear from Paris, though whether I'd be able to go anyway is very up in the air.

I did however, get accepted everywhere I applied in Ontario. I've accepted uOttawa's offer because they've been throwing money at me, and I'm very partial to money.

Two weeks ago, I took a trip with my good friend Rebecca to Ottawa. It was pretty sweet, because it was just us two, free in Ottawa. We went willllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllld. And by wild, I mean ridiculously tame... But we're still cool. So this is how it went down:

We took a train from Toronto to Ottawa with a brief detour to get an ISIC card for Becca. The train ride was about 4 hours, and we spent it watching The Holiday on Becca's portable DVD player and making earrings! Speaking of, I'm going to make an album on Facebook displaying the earrings, because they're pretty, and you should buy some. Even if you're a guy. Mother's day is coming up and all... =) Incidentally, tomorrow is International Give Tamar Money Day. So, you better dig deep in your pockets! Gratuities are welcome, as always. Haha...

So there was this random guy from Waterloo in front of us, and he was sneaking rum into his bottles of Diet Coke, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! It was too funny. I only saw him do it once, but apparently he'd been doing it a lot, and I just hadn't noticed. After an awkward conversation about Windsor, we were arrived at Ottawa and bid him adieu.

We took a taxi to our hotel, and then ordered pizza at almost midnight! I felt pretty special. Becca thought the delivery guy was hot, but I wasn't as impressed. However, she hid behind the door and fanned herself, which was actually hilarious.

Then we watched an episode of that Pussycat Dolls show. God. What a dumb show. So dumb. Have I mentioned how dumb it is?

The next day, we woke up bright and early and walked to the Rideau Centre for breakfast at Le Marche! It was very yummy, but super filling. We then made our way to uOttawa campus for a lovely and engaging campus tour. It wasn't that lovely actually, as it was cold and gloomy, and frankly, rather boring, but! Good exercise. Haha. And it's information that's good to have. I saw my faculty building! Desmarais Hall. Brand spankin' new, bitchesss! Hahaha!

After that tour, we had lunch (thai foooooddddd *drool*) and then went to Carleton for ANOTHER campus tour, just as lovely and engaging. Becca like their campus much more, but I don't like that they're so separated from Ottawa.

Anyhow, after the Carleton tour (that I carried around my thai food the WHOLE time, just waiting to eat it), we took a bus to Parliament Hill where we acted like tourists and took ridiculous photos of ourselves, up on Facebook. It was really fun! We then walked around, went to Chapters (a Chapters!!! I'm so excited to spend my weekends there, haha) and went back to our hotel.

Then we went out for dinner.

Then we went back to the hotel, and I can't even remember what we did. I think it involved studying chemistry, and watching SNL. Yeah.

The next morning we had to get up SO EARLY to get to the train station, and we had a very sleepy trip back to Toronto. Where we just slept. The whole way. It was lovely.

What else has been up since February? Well, I finished my EXTENDED ESSAY! For IB. I handed it in, 4000 words and all, with a woosh of satisfaction. It was pretty sweet.

I've been to several concerts since February. Jack's Mannequin, Snow Patrol & OK Go, Sherwood & Mae & Relient K (That one was AMAZINGGGG!!), and The Rocket Summer & The Early November (goodbye tour!! =( ).

I also spent some time at Martina's house, playing Kingdom Hearts. Hahaha, that was way fun. It's a good game, especially because of the Disney. I love Disney! She showed me the intro to KH2 and now I've been listening to Sanctuary for the past like, 72 hours.

What else was there? I'm not too sure. We had our English and French oral presentations. English was easy-peasy, but French was nerve-wracking as hell. They were sight-passages that we needed to analyze while being tape recorded. It was fun stuff... But totally not. HOWEVER, I did surprisingly well in French, though I haven't gotten my marks in English.

I've had about a billion tests and assignments, though I am none the worse for wear.

I guess the most exciting thing is that I have my IB exams beginning this Thursday. 18.5 hours of sit-in exams to go through in the next 3 weeks, but that means 3 weeks of no classes! I'm sorry, but this definitely calls for a 'sick'.

Today was also very fun. Alexandra and I implemented an evil plan (with the help of Crispy, of course) where we demonstrated more skill than anyone has a right to have. =P

I dunno. This is kind of a let-down, in terms of Xanga posts. However, I've used hyphens like eight thousand times, so that kind of makes up for it.

In any case, I'm going to go post those pictures of earrings, and all of you are going to bask in my glory!

My sister moved home! That's happy.

Until next time (maybe in another 3 months...)!