fragileheart's journal

Where there is good heart, there are good times to be had. It’s no secret that DefineTO was a very different event than [the event that everyone is comparing it to from] last year. I wish I could run you through the night but I was dealing with some personal demons that night so I got there pretty late.

I was only a little nervous about having to defend my title as reigning champion of Nat&Marie‘s Karaoke Twidol Challenge. I lost. But only by a lot of votes. Jameel totally deserved to win though – don’t you worry about it. He also says he’s retiring while he’s still on top. Not I. I’ll be back next year.

In case you’re interested, I sang No Doubt’s Don’t Speak. It was very Emo. I made people cry. It was good.

Even though I missed some of it, I happen to know that they had some pretty awesome activities throughout the night like a Draw Something Contest (!!!), a Kissing Booth with Saul Colt & Casie Stewart. Damn it.. I could have definitely been kissed that night. Ah wells.

I did get to see performances from The Remix Project and Ryan Creelman who were all so very good.

I also got to play around with sweetgif. What’s sweetgif? It’s an app that allows you to make your own gifs with the simple click of a button. Best of all, it’ll be ready to share on the internet in milliseconds. Here are a few from DefineTO:

So. Much. Fun. Check out more sweetgifs on their website, and heck: make your own. Get wild!

I enjoyed myself greatly and want to congratulate Melissa, Fahima & their awesome team on a job well done. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next year!

More sweetgifs from DefineTO featuring yours truly and a few other gorgeous people:

Oh, the social media generation. How I love thee. How I hate thee. How I love to hate thee. This¹ industry is slowly taking shape before our eyes and for the first time in the history of new industries we are able to watch it in virtual-real-time, on a global scale. It’s exciting. It’s terrifying. It’s just plain awesome.

DefineTO is an event inspired by a huge, twitter-festival that was celebrated globally -more specifically at the Fifth Social Club- last year where a certain fragileheart² you may know won the first ever Nat&Marie Karaoke Twidol³. Beating out worthy opponents like Sean Ward, Michael Nus and so many more. Yup. It was glorious. I wore blue. I may wear blue again this year, who knows!

The aim is to celebrate those who are redefining what it means to be passionate, ambitious and successful while doing what this generation does best: Support great local causes⁴. These are the people who refuse to accept previous generations’ rules about what it takes or means to be successful⁵.

Last year $18,000 was raised for The REMIX Project. I sure hope we can beat that amount this year. The REMIX Project provides a helping hand to those who need it the most, they did such a great job of writing about what they do on their website I couldn’t dream of rephrasing it:

The Remix Project was created in order to help level the playing field for young people from disadvantaged, marginalized and under served communities. Our programs and services serve youth who are trying to enter into the creative industries or further their formal education; The REMIX Project provides top-notch alternative, creative, educational programs, facilitators and facilities. Our mission is to help refine the raw talents of young people from across the GTA in order to help them find success as participants define it and on their own terms.

The venue, The Fifth Social Club, is fantastic for such a night; not only because it can hold so many people. The layout, aesthetics⁶, the secret back-room where the karaoke twidol competition was held last year. Ah memories.

I’ll stop jibber-jabbering now and give you the details you need to make sure you can attend this awesome event and support the boys and girls of the REMIX project.

When: Thursday, April 12th starting at 7pm
Where: The Fifth Social Club, 225 Richmond St. W.
Why: To meet the Molson Girls⁷
How: Click here to buy your tickets NAOW ($20)!

I was going to keep it a secret but there’s no fun in that, so I’ll answer your question before you even ask: I will be putting in my name for the Karaoke Twidol Lottery and will be summoning all the forces I can so that my name gets picked. It’s $5 to enter your name. Wanna take me on? Twidol entry tickets can be purchased on the same eventbrite page as listed above.

Photo stolen from Chris Luckhardt Photography‘s flickrstream⁸.

How do you define yourself?

Footnotes:

1. new[↩]
2. please tell me you know more than one[↩]
3. Thank you Melissa Etheridge[↩]
4. like The REMIX Project[↩]
5. hopefully while still taking note of the important lessons we’ve learned from said generation’s mistakes[↩]
6. of the lounge and the staff[↩]
7. oh wait, had I not mentioned that before? *grin*[↩]
8. also, if you complain about the photo being too small it means your penis is small. If you don’t have a penis, then I’m right! HA![↩]

Finally, someone put this oh-so-valuable information into a fun and easy to follow¹. Fat doesn’t make you fat. Carbs do. Found on facebook. Click on the image for enlargement goodness. If only it were that easy in real life, huh?

Thank you, Andrej!

Footnotes:

1. at least I think so[↩]

See the lady on the left, that’s my mother. We used to fight a lot. We still fight every now and then but it’s easier to see things from her point of view these days¹. I worry about her and I’m sure she worries about me². Sometimes I wonder about whether she would have preferred raising us with her own family around but she does well³ to keep in touch with her siblings and my Grandfather. I know she would still be keeping in touch with my Grandmother too if she was still with us today. I could learn a thing or two about keeping in touch with people who are millions of miles away from her.

I have learned a lot of things from my mother; not necessarily through any intention of hers but I learned them all the same. I’m attentive like she’s attentive. I’m incapable of being unproductive like she is incapable of the same. I snack a lot… but that’s something both of my parents do. I am good at baking… but again that’s something both my parents are good at. I can talk a lot like she talks a lot⁴.

Anyone of my friends who has met my Mum always goes on about how cute she is. And if you look at her, you’d see why: at 5’1″⁵ she’s petite but it’s more than her height that makes her adorable. She is ever-caring and a gentle soul; she wouldn’t hurt a fly⁶; and she’s always smiling, yet another thing I learned from her.

We’re going to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Markham China Town to celebrate her birthday tonight even though it’s a school night because that’s just how we like to roll. I’m glad my Mum is my Mum. She’s beautiful, talented, intelligent and patient⁷. I can only hope I make her just as proud of me as I am of her.

Footnotes:

1. and potentially vice versa[↩]
2. Nothing major, typical stuff I am sure[↩]
3. better than anyone else I know[↩]
4. she is usually the one talking when the four of us get together[↩]
5. sorry if you are taller than this Mum, but this is how short you feel to me[↩]
6. but do not be fooled, if you ever get her upset you better be prepared[↩]
7. and so much more, but that is all I’ll list out for now[↩]

Whoops. Apparently I need lessons in how to make hand-hearts…

Learn CPR and save a life. Is there really more to say? I’m a little ashamed to admit that I have been wanting to take a course on how to administer CPR since I can remember but I never bothered to. I always had an excuse… for shame.

But now, thanks to the Canadian Red Cross (CRC), I am certified for 3 years! I can only perform CPR on adults but maybe I’ll just stay away from infants and children until I can get the full certification¹.

Last week I was able to attend a 4 hour CPR class, compliments of the CRC, where I got to learn about the importance of being able to act quickly and accurately in emergent situations. Brain damage can occur in something like 4 minutes when its deprived of oxygen and ambulances average about 8 minutes to get to its destination. Sadface.

I’ve can remain pretty calm when most people would panic and it makes me feel even better that I now have the accurate information I need to know that can help save someone’s life. Of course none of it would matter if there wasn’t real help coming.

It was one of the things they stressed during the class and I think that it’s something that can easily get overlooked: it doesn’t matter if you know what you’re doing because chances are you don’t have the right tools to do what you need to do²: For heaven’s sake, don’t forget to call for help; call 9-1-1/EMS in emergency situations.

Are you certified in CPR? Are you going to get it? Soon? Call The Red Cross!

Footnotes:

1. that shouldn’t be a problem, I’m not around them much anyways – kids at heart still count as adults, right?[↩]
2. and let’s face it, we can’t all be McGuyver[↩]