The Lecturer's Fangirl

It's that time of the year again. Time for the shortest month of the year! Which also happens to be my favourite month... for obvious reasons.

This semester has been going quite well. The subjects are interesting, the assignments are not as taxing (or maybe I've just gotten used to handing in 15 pages for each assignment every semester), and the lecturers are brilliant.

I get to see Dr. Eugene for 2 classes every week. That's 6 hours per week! This has to be the best semester I've had since I began on this psycho path. Needless to say, I'm a little bit of a fan of Dr. Eugene. His classes are always interesting and I love listening to him speak. It sounds to me that sometimes his brain wants to get the words out a lot faster than he his vocal cords can keep up with so he stumbles. Or he sounds like he's about to stumble. He's brilliant and no one can change my mind about him.

I also have Mr. Alex who is a joy to have, especially since he's the Biopsychology lecturer. He explains things really well, in my opinion and his notes are concise. Mr. Alex is to me in HELP what Pn. Nik was in secondary school. I love Bio and he makes me love it more each class. I'm actually caught up on all my biopsych readings! I was quite surprised when I realised it.

Now all I need to do I keep up with all the readings that Dr. Eugene gives us. Seriously, almost every scientific research journal is a bore to get through. The introductions are sometimes interesting but when they're not, 6 pages of a scientific prologue can be a little too much. After that, I get lost somewhere around the Methods and Results sections. The discussions are fine if you know what you're looking for. And of course, the conclusions are the best part but also the most useless section of the journal if you're looking for a line or two to explain the gist of the paper.

Anyways, this post is really just something I wrote because I feel like writing. And I really needed to get all my excitement over Dr. Eugene out to somewhere other than Davina's ears. The poor lass has been listening to me fangirl over him for the past 3 weeks now.

Happy New Year, y'all!

Les Robots!

Singing la-da-da-da-da~

So, y'all know I'm a huge Simple Plan fan. Well, I have recently become a fan of Sebatien Lefebvre too! Now, if you could, you would ask me who is he? Well, he's one of the guitarists in SP (SP fan's are going, 'duh!'). By the way, I was already a fan of his collectively as a band with the others but now I'm also his fan, solo-wise. 

I know that he has an iTunes podcast with Pratick Langlois (former SP web guy) called Man of The Hour. It's like a radio thingy (I'm quite sure that there's supposed to be an 'idobi' in there somewhere). They're now on their 8th season! Sadly, I've never listened to any episodes. They talk about music, they sing and lots of other stuff too.

Anyway, that's not the point. Here's the point. Seb also has an EP (I'm googling that as we sp-... erm, as I write). He released the first EP (An EP, short for extended play, is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album) in 2008. I only heard one song from that called "I Fall For You". I heard in on Youtube. The video was directed by Chuck (SP drummer). It was amazing! 

I've always loved Seb's voice. It's very different from Pierre (lead singer) or David (bassist). It's kind of soothing and light. Another way I can describe it is that it has this smoky-ish quality to it when he sings low. He also has this unique pronunciation. Mostly it's normal but his tongue is either longer or shorter than normal. I love his voice.

So, I decided to go looking for his second EP, "Les Robots" which means "Spam" according to Google Translator. I wanted to listen to the previews at least (I think his first EP costs 7.90 USD or something). To my delight, I found that Seb put the EP on his website (I don't know about it till today) and is allowing everyone to download it for free! YES!

That's exactly what I did. I downloaded the entire EP, all 7 songs. Now to the important part; "Les Robots" rocks! It's so different from SP. Seb's songs are laid back and light. It really suits his voice. One song is just instrumental, one is in French and the other five are in English. The French song sounds wicked! It's called "Tu Me Manques" which means 'I Miss You'. I Google-translated the whole song so I could understand it. 

One of the songs he recorded was with Katie Rox (Googling it) called "Catch Me". They sing it together (Katie Rox, born Katie Biever is a Canadian singer-songwriter). Seb sings really low and when I hear it on my headphones, it's like he's right next to me. No joke! If I close my eyes, I could easily imagine Seb singing straight into my ears. I get goose bumps every time.

So, this is my message today: Listen to Sebastien Lefebvre's EP!

Les Robots - EP by Sébastien Lefebvre

My Platform 9 and 3/4

Warning, this post is for Harry Potter Fans (or people who don't really care).

If you are a Twilight Fan, please proceed to the italicised paragraph located at the end of this post.

If you are not a Twilight fan, nor a Harry Potter fan, I suggest you cease reading.

I've been reliving Harry Potter these past few days. No surprise there since I'm currently re-reading the entire collection. People have asked me, "Kath, how many times have you read those books? Don't they bore you already?" My answer to that, "No." Never. And I don't think they ever will.

J.K Rowling created a whole new world. A place of magic and wonder, somewhere we all wish we could go. The details are so in depth that I can find myself easily getting lost in it. I'd be very happy when someone asks me to explain what 'Hallows' were or why Harry didn't die in the forest when Voldemort used the Avada Kedavra curse on him. I'll be in my element! Explaining every little detail about the 'who', 'what', and 'why' to any one who is listening. Like a Boss!

It's really sad that the movies have finally ended. The actors have all become to intertwined with the books and their characters, it feels like we're saying good bye, not just to the on-screen characters, but to the original book versions too. I'm a visual reader. When I read the words in a book, I imagine the setting - the scene, the characters - in my head. It's how I immerse myself. Well, when I read Harry Potter, I see Emma Watson as Hermione, Rupert Grint as Ron, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, James and Oliver Phelps as Fred and George. They are the characters in the books as much as they are the ones on screen.

The end, the last movie, the last book; it feels very lead-like. As if there's something weighing down my heart. I know it sounds quite weird, me talking like this about fictional characters from a world that doesn't exist, but they were a huge part of my teenage life. Hogwarts was my home.

In fact, I'd say it still is. Even though the movies are at an end and everyone has said goodbye, but I still have the books. I can still dive into the wider wizarding world any time I want. The Ministry of Magic and Hogsmeade, the Knight Bus and Buckbeak; they're all still there, just waiting for me to come. So, it's not a complete separation. Of course, I'll be left with my own imagination about what happens next, but that's OK though. J.K Rowling has set up a great foundation, explained wizarding laws and histories, theories and wonders and creatures of all kinds. I feel well armed with knowledge to continue on this journey by myself.

I'm going to miss them. The last movie was out a few months ago, but I still have not let go. I don't want to. I'm going to keep reading Harry Potter, over and over again. I'm going to keep my connection to magic still as strong as when I first laid eyes on it. I will not relinquish this one, most amazing world I've been presented with.

No other book or fictional world has quite latched on to me (more like I've latched on to it) like this has; much like a that leech in Terra Nova, sucking the blood from the hyperoxic thief, greatly relishing the high levels on oxygen in his blood. Whenever I get bored of my reality, or if I find I need just a little relief, I will delve into the magic once more. As Emma says, it's escapism. My Platform 9 and 3/4 away from my reality of most Dursley-ish proportions.

I love Harry Potter and anything to do with it. And I'm all for supporting all the actors who worked in the movies in whatever they venture into. Also, J.K Rowling is seriously one madly talented woman. Honestly, she never has to write another book again. She will be up there on the wall of fame with the likes of Muhammad Ali and Micheal Jackson. She shaped a generation, my generation, and I'm thoroughly grateful for it.

I would like to end this post with something really witty that I found on Tumblr, especially to all the people out there who insist that Twilight is better than Harry Potter (I think someone might have slipped you a Befuddling Draught in your morning pumpkin juice):

Deαr Twilight, Our Chαrlie works with drαgons - yours is α bαd pαrent. Our Bella was a psychotic fighter - yours couldnt fight her way out of a paper bag. Our James was a Marauder - Yours was a creepy guy. Our Alice still loves her son even though she lost her mind - yours is an irritating, overly preppy child. Our Blacks are a complicated family warring between themselves over the rights of good and evil - yours are two idiots who think they know everything. Our Robert Pαttinson is good, loyαl, mαn who got murdered by Voldemort - yours spαrkled in the sun. Our werewolf died trying to creαte α better world for his son to live in - yours fought over α girl who wαs αlreαdy tαken. Sincerely, The people who wαnt you to stop steαling our nαmes.


No real offence intended :)

Maybe I should get an owl?