UR a tiger.

to-do.

1. Make my sister a mix.

2. Make a BFF a mix. (Pretty adorable, if you ask me. An entire package of adorable)

3. Make a mix for a cutee friendo.

4. GET TO VANCOUVER THIS WEEKEND.

5. Get myself organized.

Love, Keiko.

listozmania.

i love:

- driving by myself
- airports
- when the perfect song comes on the radio/ipod shuffle
- cute things (ie. market collective)
- the olympics
- good company: family & friends
- a week off to relax
- laughing lots at ridiculous things
- eating, drinking, laughing, rolling around on the floor
- breakfast foods at any time of the day
- poems/rhymes
- napping in the sun
- skating outside in the fresh air
- the look of frost on trees
- surprises

kaur.

Albums, 2009

So, I forgot to post my weekly ten... but it would be boring anyway, mostly all I have been listening to is my Twenty Fave Songs of '09 playlist - it would be just be a repeat of my last post. Instead of my weekly ten, here is my Ten Fave Albums of '09 list!

1. Sainthood - Tegan and Sara (obviously)

2. xx - The xx

3. Manners - Passion Pit

4. Lungs - Florence and the Machine

5. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

6. Far and Wide - Rachael Cantu

7. I Love You - Amanda Blank

8. The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga

9. Where The Wild Things Are - Karen O and Kids (soundtrack)

10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Love, Keiko.

Songs, 2009.

I'm slowly going to put together some Faves of 2009 lists. Here is my top twenty songs of 2009 (the order is partially based on itunes play counts).

1. Light Up - Tegan & Sara

2. Heart Skipped A Beat - The xx

3. Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear

4. Moth's Wings - Passion Pit

5. A Love Song - Amanda Blank

6. This Love Is Fucking Right! - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

7. Go Square Go - Glasvegas

8. The Cure - Tegan & Sara

9. Your Hips Are Bad - Rachael Cantu

10. Sleepyhead - Passion Pit

11. No Intention - Dirty Projectors

12. Brackett, WI - Bon Iver

13. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

14. You've Got The Love - Florence and the Machine (The xx remix)

15. Gimme Sympathy - Metric

16. Pursuit Of Happiness - Kid Cudi ft. MGMT & Ratatat

17. Building All Is Love - Karen O and the Kids

18. Rome - Phoenix

19. How Deep Is Your Love - The Bird and the Bee

20. Imma Be - Black Eyed Peas

Love, Keiko.

go.

Movies, movies, movies. This morning my aunt and I thought up a list of movies to see while she's in town for the holidays, here is what we came up with:

• Up In The Air
• The Hurt Locker
• An Education
• New York, I Love You
• The Young Victoria

And here are some that I want to see that didn't make the list...

• Precious (she has already seen it)
• Brothers (I love Natalie... and Jake)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Invention of Lying

Love, Keiko.

p.s. Christmas eve!!!!

blaaaaagh. bored.

more things that kept me entertained/busy while 'studying':
- people of walmart: www.peopleofwalmart.com
- let me google that for you: www.lmgtfy.com
- why the f*** do you have a kid: www.whythefuckdoyouhaveakid.com
- ugliest tattoos: www.ugliesttattoos.com
- this is why you're deleted: http://tiwyd.tumblr.com
- picture is unrelated: www.pictureisunrelated.com
- sexypeople: www.sexypeople-blog.com

thats it...not that great.

kaur.
ps. im so excited! my friend gave me the 'stuff white people like' book for christmas!

they said goodbye in 2009

a friend and i were talking today about the numerous celebrities who died this year.
sparked by the recent notice that brittany murphy passed away.

we made a list:
- brittany murphy
- michael jackson
- patrick swayze
- dj am
- farrah fawcett
- david carradine
- john hughes
- billy mays
- ed mcmahon
- bea arthur
- natasha richardson
- jett travolta (yes...not a celebrity, but almost)

2009 has been a rough year for celebrities.

kaur.

I do what I want, too.

What do I want?

• Snowboard more than once this season.
  
• Celebrate the end of statistics - worst time of my life (with an 8am exam).
• Give up on studying and make mixes and christmas cards (only one exam left!).
  
• Take LOTS of photos.
  
• Banff day.
  
• Bowling with a BFF (comes home Monday!).
  
• Family Q.T.
  
• Holiday baking (gingerbread houses...)
  
• Zoolights! Tobogganing! (I put these two together because I have a brand new parka that will keep me nice and warm for both).
  
• Have the best break ever, basically.
• Start thinking of a 2010 to-do list.
  

Love, Keiko.

i do what i want.

want:

- to watch up in the air (so so so bad...i need to see this right now)
- to snowboard (i haven't tried out the snowboard i bought earlier this year yet!)
- to get rid of this headache (i never get headaches...so this sucks)
- to go to higher grounds and get a dublin mist
- to see more of keiko...(i think i last saw her at work a few weeks ago)
- to watch peak season
- to go to new york for new years
- to be done with finals (my last exam is at 7pm on the last possible day - the 21st)
- to have a games night (its been a long time since i've played any games)
- to go to zoolights (i've never been, like i've said before, and want to go 'cause its christmas-y)
- to bake and toboggan
- to go on a roadtrip (anywhere...)
- to fall in love with a new band/artist (last year was bon iver, this year it was phoenix & the xx)
- to buy new books and read them all

kaur.

get to work

Things I've done instead of studying:

- Dexter (oh.my.god! can't wait for the finale!)

- 90210

- Gossip Girl

- Criminal Minds

- Peak Season

- and I've been sleeping way too much.

Love, Keiko.

imma be.

i should have known today was going to suck as soon as i slipped and fell in my driveway.
i woke up extra early to get a bunch done today and got dressed up all nice.
too bad i forgot my wallet at home.
i ended up wasting half my day which i could have used to study.
when i got back home with a throbbing knee i decided that i might as well watch a movie.
i decided to watch (500) days of summer...i forgot how heartbreaking it was.
poor choice, 'cause now i don't feel like doing anything.
anyways...
in order to motivate myself i'm going to make a list of all the fun things i'm going to do during break!

- snowboard any chance i get
- get back into doing hot yoga
- watch all the movies i've been meaning to see
- read all the books i've been meaning to read
- knit a new scarf and hopefully some mittens
- go christmas shopping
- go out for dinner (i haven't gone out for dinner in agesss...since summer i'm sure)
- tobaggan
- skate (i have a newfound love for skating)
- go see zoolights! (i say i'm going to go every year but have never gone)
- hopefully hit up the banff hotsprings
- be more interesting and blog more
- shoot a glock at the shooting range

that's really all...in fact i don't have all that much to look forward to except for the fact that i won't have to worry about school.
i guess thats nice.

kaur.
ps. i really feel like watching love, actually...so cute and christmas-y

wintertime

Since I am already two days late, I'm skipping my weekly music list. (I have a good excuse, I was busy in Vancouver... and the five songs wouldn't be all that impressive anyway).

A quick to-do list (taking a 1:00am break from writing my statistics assignment).

1.  Buy a parka.

2.  Begin work on making beautiful mixes as christmas gifts.

3.  Ace final exams.

4.  Organize my christmas shopping/christmas holiday activities (aka make lists of everything).

5.  SNOWBOARD.

Love, Keiko.

p.s. I really need a parka...

Lately I've been listening to...

1. Rachael Cantu - I was all about Rachael Cantu in grade 12 when she released her first album, Run All Night...(Saturday= my fave song off it). I was pretty stoked when her new album, Far and Wide, came out a couple weeks ago, and I've been listening to it a bunch since. Overall I am diggin' it more than Run All Night, it's got the same feel and it pretty similar... just better. My fave song is Your Hips Are Bad - Back when I was still a frequent myspace user (2007?) this song was on her page and I loved it and was always super bummed that I couldn't find a download of it anywhere.

2. Tender Forever - I forget when I picked up her album (spring? early summer? late winter? who knows)... I didn't listen to much of it other than the song that I knew I liked (How Many) (I fell in love when I saw the cover she did of JT's My Love... I know I blogged about it). Last week someone that I follow on Twitter tweeted about her A LOT so I decided to give her another more thorough listen. 

3. The Blow - Tender Forever sometimes reminds me of The Blow, so after listening to her for awhile I had to dig out the album Paper Television (I never got around to uploading it when I got my new Macbook last year). I forgot how into The Blow I used to be. Parenthesis is my fave song - so fun and so cute. Or maybe True Affection is my favourite.

4. Wolf Parade - I was really into Wolf Parade at the same time that I was into The Blow (winter '06/'07 these were my two fave bands), so naturally I've also been listening to the album Apologies To The Queen Mary (because their second album was shit).

Love, Keiko.

just blog!

I hate times like these when I feel like school+work take up all of my time (which isn't too terrible, I mean, I am getting pretty sweet marks so far... better than ever!). I feel so boring, especially going back a reading some previous months blog posts. I've been sitting here for a while trying to think of something worthwhile to blog about, and I just feel like i have nothing to say. Which, really, is stupid, because I've done some fun stuff the past little while. 

I guess I will just make a list of six things that I am looking forward to:

1. Ohbijou playing @ Marquee on Wednesday.
   
2. SWTBTZ @ Habitat on Thursday.
   
3. SNOWBOARDING.
   
4. The (nearing) end of the semester.
   
5. Learning to knit.
   
6. Friends home for the holidays.
   

There are more, but six is enough. Well, there is also the obvious - UNDER A WEEK UNTIL NEW MOON!!!

Love, Keiko.

Not too happy

There is so much I would rather be doing right now, but I am stuck completing a Stats assignment (part of which, I copied wrong from the program at school - and the program isn't compatible with my Macbook, so I can't even do the parts that I want to) and studying for midterms.

Some things I wish I could do:

1. Play Scrabble and/or Bananagrams

2. Clean my room/Organize my room (sometimes I can be a little bit OCD with organization...)

3. Shop.  I need more tights, maybe some skirts, and some sweaters

4. Catch up on Gossip Girl + The Hills + Glee

5. Bake! I've been in a bit of a baking mood (but lack the funds to buy ingredients).  Cupcakes, please.

Love, Keiko.

p.s. Fuck the snow.  I'm not ready for this.  Today after work I had to scrape the ice/frost off of my windshield.

hova is legit.

jayz provided o mag with a list of six books that 'changed his life'.
here it is:

1) the seat of the soul - gary zukav

there are two books that i absolutely live my life by. this is one of them. growing up, i was always curious about religion. this book made the most sense to me; it’s about the way you live your life. i believe in karma and doing the right thing even if it may not advance you as far as you want. if every single person felt the same way about karma and intention, then the world gets fixed tomorrow. but temptation gets in the way. zukav is right: it may take lifetimes to learn.

2) the celestine prophecy - james redfield

this is the other book i live by. it’s fiction—a guy travels to find a secret book that has a series of principles. the story is a metaphor for life: i could go left or right, i could be stuck, or i could keep advancing. some people are happy where they are. i tried to hire a guy once, and i said, “don’t you have ambition to be bigger?” and he said, “no, i’m good.” i had to respect that, but for me that was the wrong relationship.

3) the odyssey - homer

this epic poem was kind of difficult for me to get through, but it has a beautiful rhythm. i got lost in reading about odysseus’ struggle to get home and his longing for someone so strong, as his wife was, waiting for him. that’s like a dream—that kind of strength, love, loyalty.

4) outliers - malcolm gladwell

this book is about the principles of timing and repetition—about preparing yourself for luck, really. he talks about a hockey team, and how the players born in january had a year up on the guys born in december. they were fortunate that their birthday was early, but they also practiced—they put the work in. the book resonated with me because i was born at a time when there was an influx of incredible music into the culture, and i was lucky that my mom and pop were huge record collectors. in my house, i had music by michael jackson, marvin gaye, prince, and the commodores, and i’m listening to it every single day.

5) purple cow - seth godin

this is straight marketing advice: your product has to be a purple cow—it has to be distinct to have any success. you have to be clear on your product: what are you? what are you putting out there? for years i never did an ad for [my company] rocawear, because i cared more about the quality than the face in front. i hadn’t read this book back then, but when someone puts words to feelings you have, it’s like, “wow, that’s exactly what it is.”

6) nigger - dick gregory

i don’t know who turned me on to this autobiography, but his sense of humor and the hardships he went through stayed with me—especially the scene where he started running home from school. it led to his joining thetrack team, which led to a scholarship to college. running opened up a whole world for him.

kaur.

Something's happening somewhere.

1. So, Gigantic was my number one film to see at CIFF... I pre-bought tickets and everything - missed it.  We were on the train (already running a bit late) and we got one stop from my house and the train comes to a standstill... "There is a man covered in blood threatening passengers with a knife in car two" - What the shit?!  By the time the police dealt with it and the trains started up again it was after the movie started (filmfest rule: no entry after the screening begins).  Eff.  Luckily there is another showing that I plan to attend.

2. I am pretty excited to make my top10 this week, and you should be too.  I have a feeling that it's going to be a good one!  (I received a glorious mixtape this week from a super sweet friend, the majority of my top10 will be from it).

3. I think that I've narrowed down my UO wishlist to a price that I can afford - expect a blog post of these items (and probably some of the things that I had to remove) soon!

4. My roommates and I finally got around to getting internet and cable set up today! Unfortunately we only got basic cable... which means NO TLC OR FOOD CHANNEL (only the two best channels ever).  Not cool at all. This will have to change.

Love, Keiko.

just 5.

1. To follow up Kaur's last post, I just want to say that I am not looking forward to the ridic high temperature today.  I am all about the Fall clothes and layers and being cozy, I don't want to have to dress for summer today.  Eff.

2. Tickets for the film fest = purchased, for the most part.  Gigantic on Friday, Breaking Upwards on Saturday, My Suicide next Friday (not purchased yet, but soon) - and then maybe a couple more, I haven't decided yet.

3. Grey's Anatomy season premier tomorrow!!!!!! Yes!

4.  I need to create a reasonably priced wishlist (to be purchased in a few days) from UO but my internet won't load any of the photos.  Ughh soo frustrating.

5.  I recently finished watching the last 2 seasons of Dawson's Creek (last spring I watched seasons 1-4 online).  Even though most of the time I thought the show was really annoying/awful - I LOVED IT. Dawson is obviously the most annoying character on the show, I really dislike him.  Joey is obviously the best... sometimes she is pretty annoying, but back when the show was on TV I loved her, and I guess that love has carried over into my adult life (Katie Holmes used to be so awesome). Oh and I hate how the stupid Joey/Dawson/Pacey love triangle thing lasts THE WHOLE SERIES, they needed to get over each other, but I am glad Joey and Pacey ended up together (Dawson sucks!). Anyway, I might have teared up a little in the series finale - JEN DIES?! WHAT? I don't know how I wasn't aware of that beforehand!

That's all.

Love, Keiko.

fall back.

with the commencement of fall i have chosen to make a list of some of my favourite fall things!

- listening to metric (for some reason fall and metric go together in my head)
- turning down the noise & tempo and listening to jazz music...and nouvelle vague
- wearing all my pretty coats and dressing prettier (or at least attempting to sometimes)
- sweaters & cardigans
- pumpkin pie (for obvious reasons...)
- lighting vanilla & cinnamon candles
- once again appreciating the beauty of reds, oranges, and yellows
- wearing oranges and browns (also for obvious reasons)
- resuming drinking copious amounts of tea for the next 8 months
- scarves!
- leaving my window open for a fresh cool breeze (not like the summer where it was to cool down)
- stepping on crunchy fallen leaves
- watching gilmore girls (this was always a show that felt like fall to me...nice and cozy)
- halloween!!! (oh and the monster mash)

kaur.

Ten Day Countdown

There are only ten days until the Calgary International Film Festival!  I spent my afternoon narrowing down the list of movies that I want to go see. 

1. Gigantic - My number one pick. This is a movie I've been looking forward to for a while.  Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano... I am sold.
   
2. Breaking Upwards
3. My Suicide
   
4. White on Rice - I watched this trailer when it was release on Apple, it looks hilarious.
5. The Exploding Girl

I didn't go through all the films that are playing, I made note of the ones that immediately caught my eye... and then narrowed that list down. Tell me what you plan to see!!

Love, Keiko.