Music Monday: Young Blood in Singapore

Alright, so in my last blog post I shared a video of the UBC Okanagan campus, where I've been studying the last four-ish years. Initially I had wanted to post a video of each of the three universities I have attended, but the University of Victoria video was extremely hokey and the National University of Singapore video was, well, corporate. Both were very much unlike what I experienced on the respective campuses.

But Music Monday gives me a chance to at least showcase one of my favourite cities/countries/islands in the world: Singapore. Yes, I've posted tonnes of photos and blog posts about my five-ish months in Southeast Asia, but this video is just amazingly well put together and deserves to be shared. I hope that you'll quickly see why I fell so deeply in love with Singapore.

The song is "Young Blood" by The Naked and Famous, a group out of New Zealand. You might recognize the song from the trailer for The Cabin in the Woods (which I highly recommend seeing). The music fits perfectly with the video, and it's great in it's own right, too. So take a listen, watch the video, and let me know what you think of the Lion City.

That University I Attended

It's been such an important part of my lift these last four years, so I thought I might as well share it with you all. I talk about UBCO quite a bit, and a lot of the people I know have never even seen the place. So here's a video that UBC made to promote the Okanagan campus. It shows a bit of the city and region I live in, too, which is always interesting. Now, if only they would tell me what to do now that I have that degree. Hmm.

Music Monday: Work Work Work

So this post is gonna be really short, as a lot of the Music Monday posts are. I've been picking up lots of hours at work, so I've been busy busy busy almost everyday. I spend lots of time at the Gap now.

The benefit? Besides a fat paycheck every two weeks, I get to listen to the Gap soundtrack. I'll admit that I cannot stand some of the songs (WHY must we play the Biebs!?), but there are a few gems. One of 'em is "Rock Lobster" by the B-52s. I love those guys. I also love seeing people's reactions when Kate starts screaming after Fred hollers something about a bikini whale (which Wikipedia tells me is not an actual whale, but an overweight woman in a bikini). Video is below!

Discovery, Publicity

Just dropping a note to say that two of my photos have been featured in an article on Treehugger, which is a site owned and maintained by Discovery Communications. You know, those guys who run the Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet (among many others)? Yah. Them.

Suffice to say, this makes me happy, excited, and just a little bit proud.

You can read the article here. It's on the supertrees being built in Singapore's Marina Bay Gardens, an area of the city I had the pleasure of visiting during the Singapore World Orchid Show 2011. All of my photos from that are up on Flickr. Enjoy!

photo by me

Music Monday: Everybody Come Down

So after my last blog post I went ahead and contacted some of my old friends. Caught up with one of them, exchanged a couple messages with another, and have had total radio silence from a few more. One of the people I really want to reconnect with has deleted herself from the internet, apparently, and so I have absolutely no way of contacting her. Sad panda. But I'm happy to be speaking with some people from my past.

The job front isn't going any better. If I don't stumble across something soon, or get a call back, I have some insider information that Starbucks is desperate for male employees. Sigh.

For Music Monday I've got "Everybody Come Down" by the Delgados. They were one of my favourite bands in high school, and I've just started listening to them again. I swear this must be a phase of some sort.

on Graduations

Something about my "Downtempo" playlist gets me all emotional and nostalgic every time. This time 'round, I'm reminiscing on the long lost days of high school, which I was also considering back in Singapore. I'm not just missing some of those old friendships (and wishing I had done a better job at maintaining them), but the lifestyle high school offered. Carefree certainty. You always knew what to expect, always knew what you would be doing a year from now.

Life was simple: do well, get the grades, next year you'll move up a number.

Come to think of it, university has been somewhat the same. You go through much the same motions, moving from year to year until BAM. You've graduated. And then what?

It's been odd, though. "Real life" hasn't hit me the way that I expected it would. Maybe it's because my degree is still pending, maybe it's because I only finished up on Tuesday... maybe the truck full of bricks needs some time to arrive.

But back to high school and that other graduation. I really screwed up there, and I've learned a lot since then. I coasted through my first year at UVic as if it were grade thirteen, but slowly started cutting off the ties to my high school friends. Upon moving to Kelowna and UBCO I cut nearly all connections to my hometown, and have been continually pruning my list of friends with each passing year. It's at the point where every time I go home to the Island I can visit pretty much every friend I still have, even when I'm only back for a few days. It's convenient for sure, but a little disheartening at the same time.

Maybe it's time to pull at some threads and see what unravels.

Photo by me

Done Done Done

So I've finished all my courses and papers and exams now. In just under two months the University of British Columbia will hand me my very expensive piece of paper, proclaiming to the world that I have been transformed from Jordan Rockerbie to the new and improved Jordan Rockerbie, B.A.

Uhm, now what?

Well, I've got no real answers to that one. According to CanadianBusiness.com I'm a part of the lucky generation with the least job prospects and highest unemployment rate in Canada since 1976 when someone decided to start making statistics on it. Hurrah?

So I'm staying at the slightly above minimum wage retail job that I've had for five years and looking for other things to fill the gap. And not the income gap, but the experience gap. I'm also a part of the generation that has seen the highest ever Masters programme enrolment (and will therefore likely have the most student debt of any generation). So in order to get ahead, I have the joy of trying to network my way into volunteer or unpaid positions in my actual field of study. Again, hurrah.

So, uh, let's just say that the future holds absolutely no certainty at this point. For me and all the other graduates in the last few years. Canada, I hope you have some sort of plan up your sleeves to deal with us before everyone with an education up and leaves. Aieah.

a Sandwich to be Shared

At the beginning of the week I dedicated Music Monday to a sandwich (which I affectionately call "sammiches" in real life, but will refrain from doing here; Monday's post was very, erm, impassioned). I had a second go at it today, and followed my own advice to try Nutella.

Suffice to say, the combination was mouthwatering. Chocolate and peanutbutter are the perfect power couple. So here's the "recipe," a little bit more sensical than the last one.

You will need:
- two slices of bread
- one banana
- peanutbutter
- Nutella (optional)
-one tablespoon butter or margerine (optional)

 Spread peanutbutter on one slice of bread, and Nutella on the other. If desired, fruit jam can be substituted for Nutella. Raspberry or strawberry would probably be really good.

Chop banana into slices and layer onto the peanutbutter. I prefer thin slices, around a centimetre. Use as much or as little as the banana as you would like.

Place second slice of bread Nutella-side down over the bananas and peanutbutter.

Bring a frying pan to medium heat. Grill both sides of sandwich to desired level of browning. If you're using butter or margerine, melt this in the pan before grilling. This will help with even and crisp browning, but the sandwich will be fine with or without.

And that's it! Serve warm, and I'd suggest a glass of milk and orange slices. The peanutbutter and Nutella combo is quite sweet, so you'll want something tart to balance the flavours. While looking for photos, I also came across some variations that used strawberries in addition to bananas, and marshmallow cream in place of peanutbutter for a s'more taste. They all sound good, eh?

photos by, 24oranges, Greatist, cuttlefish, and me

Music Monday: Your Song and a Sammich

I'm feeling a little unorthodox today. Why? 'Cause I got one of those research papers finished up, a whole three days before it's due. This is absolutely unprecedented. It called for a celebration.

And so celebrate I did.

How, you might ask? With a sammich. But not just any sammich, it was a deliciously triumphant sammich. I'll give details on it below, but first we've got to get the Music Monday portion of this blog out of the way.

This week I've chosen "Your Song," specifically the arrangement from the film Moulin Rouge as sung by Ewan McGreggor. Moulin Rouge is a favourite of mine, and for good reason. The musical arrangements are prefect and suit the film beautifully, the casting was spot on, and the acting was just over-the-top enough to make the movie campy but not unbearable. If that makes any sense. Anyway, I love a lot of the songs from the film, and I have the album ("Nature Boy" by David Bowie gets a tonne of listening time, by the way).

So why "Your Song?" 'Cause it's the song that I wanted to sing to my sammich. Seriously. Here's the video.

So instead of Nicole Kidman, picture a sammich. In particular, a grilled peanutbutter and banana sammich. Yah. And just how does one make one of these? Read on!

1. Peanutbutter up one slice of bread.
2. Layer thinly sliced banana on peanutbutter.
3. Peanutbutter up second slice of bread. OR use fruit jam, Nutella, kaya, honey...
4. Heat a non-stick frying pan to medium heat.
5. Melt a small amount of butter or margarine in the pan.
6. Place sammich in pan.
7. Grill, flip, repeat.
8. EAT THAT SAMMICH-Y GOODNESS.

That is all. You can thank me later.

a Photoblog: Singapore, Dithered

all photos by me