What Does Blogging Mean to Me?

I am a blogging virgin.Well, not any more, but I’ve never maintained, written, or even read a blog before I started this one. I’ve learnt that it is way for anyone to express their opinions publicly, even though there is a possibility that no one will read it. I’ve learnt that blogging should come from the heart. When you try to write a blog, but you have no ideas, nothing can be more difficult. Luckily, for most of my entries, I have had ideas that I was passionate about, but even trying to extend onto those ideas can be a daunting task. Blogging really tightens up a person’s writing skills because they must provide an opinion or out-look and express it clearly and properly. Developing an audience will take time, I hope. I have not yet built up an audience like some of my classmates, but it is probably because what I’m writing about does not interest many other people, but this is why it’s called a “personal” blog. It’s my ideas and thoughts on what I’m interested in.


a little video to help everyone understand what blogging is all about

The concept of blogging has really sky-rocketed in the past few years I believe. Anyone who’s anyone has a blog now. All celebrities are asked to write blogs, along with athletes, politicians, and anyone involved with the media. Most journalists maintain blogs as well which I would find to be hard for them as they now have to switch back and forth between two writing styles constantly. Basically, it’s just doubling the workload for journalists, and frankly, I just don’t find that to be fair. Perhaps these journalists in question WANT to keep a blog, well, all the power to you my friend.

This guy was blogging before laptops. That's what I call greasy

Blogging, to me, is a place to just spill out the ideas in my mind. Maybe they won’t be some amazing ideas with really thought-provoking topics and such, but it’s just what’s on my mind. A lot of the blogs I’m reading now are really funny, really helpful, and really interesting. It’s great to have such a variety of information at my choosing. Lots of people keep blogs just to write about what they dislike, but most of these people are people that don’t matter. Sure, everyone has the right to say what they want, but if some greasy teenager in a basement is saying that the way Canada is being governed is wrong and should be changed, well I just don’t really care. That greasy teenager should grow up; learn everything there is to know about politics, become prime minister, and then blog about the government. Maybe then I’ll actually care. That’s exactly what I’m trying to steer away from in my blog. When I write a post, I want it to be on a topic that I understand. I’m not going to blog about cooking Chinese cuisine because I’ve never done it.

There are several blogs that I read and keep doing so because they make me laugh. Anything that can bring a smirk to my face is worth coming back to read over and over. One example of this is http://memoirs-of-a-gentleman.blogspot.com/2009/10/chevy-chase-is-alivefunny.html. Always gives me a chuckle and talks about things I understand.

To me, blogging can never unintentionally hurt anyone. Unless, of course, they do it on purpose, then they are just dumb. Blogs can be viewed by anyone in the world so just watch what you say. Personally, I intend to offend no one, and will always be that way.

Expired foods: A very touchy subject

Recently, I brought a delightful lunch to school. It was leftover macaroni and cheese that I made some time late last week. Is it wrong that I wanted to eat the food I already made? It had been taking up space in the fridge and sadly, I just never noticed it. So finally today it caught my eye and I was excited.

In macaroni and cheese there is the noodles themselves which never really go bad, the cheese sauce powder, which they provide ( I assume it’s made to last), milk, and butter. So out of the four ingredients(excluding those of the cheese powder), only milk and cheese can go bad. I assumed that if the milk and butter mixed with the preservatives of the cheese powder, then the milk and butter will have preservatives and they’ll last forever. Well, not forever, but much longer than usual.

So, with that in mind, I heated up the mac and cheese and was about to put the first bite into my mouth, “Stop!” Glenda instantly brought me to a halt and questioned my reasoning. “I’m hungry and this stuff is good.” She kept on with the argument that any dairy product will go bad quickly and stay bad. I reluctantly gave into her side of the argument and bought an overly expensive sandwich from Tim Horton’s.

The reasoning behind my wanting to eat the old macaroni and cheese you ask? I was raised to never waste food. “Can’t leave till you finish your plate,” was my fathers motto. The fridge at home was never re-stocked until everything in it was finished. Just last week I had to throw out an entire casserole dish full of hamburger helper. It had been in the fridge for about two weeks so I made the decision to get rid of it. I shed tears as I scraped it into the garbage bin. My girlfriend, on the other hand, has no trouble with it whatsoever. She can throw out food at the drop of a hat.

I consider myself very lucky to even have food so why waste it?

Assignment: Buyer Beware Blog

For my Buyer Beware project, my group compared frozen meals to their homemade counterparts. We did this for the average college or university student. Basically, we wanted to know which the average student would prefer, a quick frozen meal that might lack in taste, or a well-prepared homemade meal that can be boasting in flavor!

To conduct our experiment, we began by heading to the grocery store to find the best products for the best prices. So we decided on two dishes, chicken alfredo and vegetarian lasagna. For the lasagna, we decided on purchasing Bassili’s Best 6 Vegetarian Lasagna which cost $11.98. For the chicken alfredo, we bought Stouffer’s Chicken Alfredo which cost $5.99. Now all we needed to do was find a very basic recipe similar to these and buy the ingredients.



All the ingredients for the lasagna cost $24.30 which was, of course, much more than the price for the frozen dish. All the fixings needed to make the chicken alfredo were, to our surprise, very close in price with the frozen meal.

Now, all we needed to do was prepare all the meals for a taste test the taste test we planned to hold in the atrium at school. We did all the cooking at Fresh Café where Jim was connected to the owner. This worked out to be very helpful because it provided us with all the resources we needed to prepare the meals. This whole process was quite enjoyable as none of us in the group had much cooking experience. We divided the tasks between us evenly and managed to complete the lasagna first in approximately an hour and a half. The chicken alfredo process was very similar. We split up all the tasks evenly and completed it in about 45 minutes.

Luckily for us, Jim’s connection to Fresh Café also had catering equipment so she was able to bring all the food to the school and keep it heated. We could not have held this taste test without her and we’re very thankful for her help. We had all the equipment and food set up in the atrium just to right of the elevator which we thought would be alright with the school officials. Turns out it wasn’t. It violated the school’s policy of serving food without charging for it. We did it anyways with the support of our trusty instructor Kenton Larsen. He took all the blame from the authority figures, but luckily for him, he didn’t get in trouble either. So we had all our food set up and we were ready to go. The students started piling in quite fast and our food was being talked about all around the school. Each person who participated in the taste test had to taste one of the frozen dishes, and then taste it’s homemade equivalent, all the while not knowing which was which. Then, they had to fill out a small survey which asked which meal they liked better and they also had to score 1 to 4 on the factors that were their main priority while shopping; taste, price, health, and convenience. We predicted that price would be the clear winner in that survey, but to our surprise, taste came in first getting 53% of the first place votes. Price did however come in second getting 30% of the first place votes. Health and convenience were far behind with 11% and 6%.

When it came to which dishes were actually preferred by students, the homemade vegetarian lasagna beat the frozen with 76% of students preferring it. Then out of nowhere, the frozen chicken alfredo managed to beat out our home-cooked with 53% of the vote. Many of the comments on our chicken alfredo were that it needed a much creamier sauce. This problem couldn’t have really been avoided as we prepared the meal the night before and all the sauce had pretty much vanished. All that remained on the food was the flavor, which we were praised for.

We came to the conclusion that what students prefer depends on each persons individual preference. If they prefer taste, they should cook their own meals. If they watch how much they spend, they would be better off sticking to frozen meals. If health is the number one concern, cooking a meal themselves with ingredients they choose would be best. For all the students with no time on their hands, the convenient choice is frozen dinners as they offer no preparation time and very little attention.

The entire group had fun working on this project even though there was lots of disagreement and confusion. The confusion coming mostly from Alexa…Just kidding. We all had equal parts in the planning, preparations, and presentation. The report was split into sections and each member of the group wrote a section. We all looked over the report to edit it, but Sandy did do the majority of the editing and composing of the final draft.

It almost made me cry

On tonight’s episode of The Office, the long-awaited marriage between Pam and Jim finally happened. Of course, as a fan, I have been patiently waiting for this to happen ever since the very first episode. I would love nothing more than to see a happy ending.




Their relationship started off right at the very beginning of the series. Pam had a boyfriend, but Jim never gave up hope because he always secretly loved her. After a few seasons they became an item and it seemed like there was really nothing else to be established on the show. Then Pam moved to New York to go to school and Jim felt that they were drifting apart. The show had reached an all-time high for awkwardness, and that, if you didn’t know, is really saying something. The Office provides an immense amount of opportunities for you to feel awkward and embarrassed for the characters on the show. So, throughout all of the awkwardness, Jim managed to propose to Pam and once again, the show seemed like there was really nothing left to establish. I found myself wondering, “so what are they going to do now? Jim and Pam are together so who cares?” When I caught wind of the news that they were going to tie the knot, I melted inside.

I have never experienced a feeling like this in my life. While watching this episode, I found myself getting angry at the guests of their wedding because it was ruining the whole event. First, Michael Scott, both Pam and Jims manager, broke the news during the rehearsal dinner to Pam’s grandmother that she and Jim are pregnant. I cringed. I wanted nothing more than for the wedding to go off without a hitch and everything be perfect. Where am I getting these feelings from? My girlfriend, on the other hand, felt nothing whatsoever. Even though there was a beautiful love story unfolding on the screen, she was stone. Usually, she cries during Law & Order.

So why did this feeling come over me? I actually found myself getting choked up when it showed the scene of Pam and Jim tying the knot while on the “Maid of the Mist” in Niagara Falls. My girlfriend still stone cold.

Is it because I’ve been following this love grow ever since the very beginning that I felt this way? I don’t exactly know. All I know is that it was strange.

Who's got it better?

Approaching strangers isn’t for everybody, and from what I’ve noticed, it’s especially hard for men. This subject is a touchy issue because all men will say that it is much easier for girls to approach strangers and get them to open up because girls have sex appeal, but all girls deny this and say it is based solely on their personality. This may be true, but even the shyest, most shut in girls are able to probe information out of unsuspecting strangers.

On Saturday, September 26th, I attended a football game with my entire class and on the following Monday, we discussed our experiences. One male brought up the fact that girls had it way easier because they just be nice to some stranger and instantly, that stranger, if it’s a man, believes that the girl is flirting with him. He then said that all they have to do is hit on him just a little bit and they can get anything. Even if the girl is not trying to be flirtatious whatsoever, most men will still think that he is being approached because he is good looking and must be a really cool guy.

Instantly, every girl in my class had an opinion. Each one disagreed and said that it was just their social skills and their confidence that aided them in the process. Most girls truly are just much more sociable and have no problem going up to a stranger and striking up a conversation. But are they unconsciously flirting with this guy? Are their conversation skills based around flirting? Who knows. The answers will vary between every single woman. Each person has a different personality and the situation will not always be the same.