Census Forms = Supporting War?

The Big Man has spoken - "Complete your 2011 Census Form today. Your sharing of information is important to the world," he says on the radio - or something along those lines, anyway.

What he didn't tell you, though, is that the organization that is contracted to process the information from the forms is the largest weapon manufacturer in the world - Lockheed Martin.

The same people who make fighter planes, guns and bombs are being paid millions of dollars to process the information that we are expected to provide to the government.

Ironic, considering the weaponry Lockheed Martin fabricates is intended to kill and end human lives.

I opened the envelope in which the form came in, today, and thought to myself I would fill that out tonight. Upon hearing this news, however, I am no longer willing to participate in something that feeds the construction of warfare.

Here's where it gets tricky though.. By law, one must complete the shorter of the two forms.

By all means, I understand that the collection of this information is important, but knowing who is behind this entire operation is maddening and unfair to those who would choose peace over war any day.

Royal Bells Are Ringing..

I am honestly so sick of hearing about the wedding.

It's on the news, it's the talk of the town in my home, it's on magazine covers at the store..

Two people are getting married. Yes, I am happy for them, but I'm also happy for the thousands of other couples who get married every year, and is that on the news 24/7? No, it's not.

As a journalist, I understand.. Some people do care, and in order to get people to give you the time of day as a writer, you have to write about what people want to see.

I'm just shocked that this has been in the news for long, and continues to be so.. craved for.

What dress is she going to wear? Who's on the guest list? Will they cry?

You know, I have a question of my own - who cares?

The High Road

In two weeks from now, I will be packing up and leaving this place that I currently call home.

Though I don't know where I'm going yet, it will be my next home... the next step of my life.

I will be leaving behind a tiny room filled with good & bad memories, many students that I've made incredible friendships with, a job that has dramatically changed my life, 40 astonishing resident assistants, three incredible resident life coordinators, smiley front desk staff, and most importantly, an unhappy Ashlee.

I've made a list of things I want to accomplish this summer, beginning with a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. My plan is simple - buy a plane ticket, get on the plane, go.

Life is short.

Gotta enjoy it while we can!

Perfection, in one afternoon.

This morning, I woke up feeling exhausted. Physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted.

My day started to shape up while I was doing residence tours, answering questions, and pumping people up for moving into residence.

Afterwards, I decided to take a nap, but soon realized that it was foolish to be wasting such a beautiful day away, laying in bed.

I got my butt up, threw on my flip flops, grabbed my sunglasses, found a book, and made my way out the door. I didn't know where I was going, but I felt like I was on some sort of mission.

I generally don't like being alone, but I felt like I knew where I was going, what I was going to do, and why.

I made my way out to my school's arboretum, where I found a sunlit bench. I sat down and braced myself. For what? I'm not sure. But I sat there for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of nature. The feeling of serenity that took over my body is unexplainable. I feel like someone grabbed me by the collar, and shook every negative thought out of my body.

It's difficult to explain, but I feel like I was awoken by something. Silly, I know. But it happened.

Anyways, the book that I'm currently reading is called Eat Pray Love. I began reading it in the summer, and for whatever reason, I couldn't get into it.

Today, though, I couldn't put the book down. I felt like I was relating to every single word that appeared before my eyes.

The sun rays shining, the wind blowing, the birds chirping, people laughing, and all of my thoughts at ease. Everything about this afternoon was perfect.

I need to do this more often.

Love.

In this moment I just feel so alive.

Things that inspire me...

- Acoustic guitars

- Travel

- Photographs

- Lyrics

- Stories

- Sunflowers

- Rivers, Lakes, Oceans

- Sunrises & Sunsets

- Love

- Laughter

- Time

- Intelligence

- Friends

- Quotes

- Abandonment

- Joy

- Children

- Mountains

- Literature

- Sadness

- Colour

- Large bridges

- Roller coasters

- Tattoos

- Sunday mornings

& more

:)

What does it mean to grow up?

I realized tonight, that I'm a point in my life where I feel I am grown up.

Standing at 5'4, with 20 years of life behind me, it is now that I am completely independent.

From this point on, I will no longer be "going home" to Ottawa, because home doesn't technically exist for me anymore. I don't need my mom and dad to cook me dinner, pay my bills, or hold my hand through a difficult situation. I don't need a familiar room in what I used to call my house.

I am what completely makes up my person, my identity, my life.

Though it's slightly scary, it's a good feeling.

I don't need anybody to rely on, and nobody needs to rely on me.

Because after all.. Me, myself and I, that's all I got in the end!

Dear Anyone Who Will Ever Read This,

It has been exactly 3 months and 9 days since I have last posted. I feel as though this needs to change.. So guess what - it's going to!

I feel like a fool posting this now without writing anything significant, but I'm unfortunately lazy and inspired at the same time. So I shall write to you about what is currently going on in my life.

First of all, my name is still Ashlee and I'm still a third year Media Studies - Journalism student at the University of Guelph-Humber. I'm in desperate need of an internship, and will hopefully be able to complete it this summer. However, I am lazy. And busy. So I haven't been applying. Apparently I don't know how hiring processes work.

Matt and I went to Quebec City for reading week, which was wonderful. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll be posting them once they've been edited. Speaking of photography, I'm the photo editor for my school's newspaper, The Radix - check it out, so that's been fun/ a learning experience.

That's all I've got!

Hope you're doing well :)

Love,

Ashlee

Better Together.

There is no combination of words I could put on the postcard
And no song that I could sing, but I can try because this is your heart and this is
Our dreams and they are made out of real things
Like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's so much better when we're together

Mmm, so much better when we're together
Yeh, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well it's so much better when we're together
Yeh, it's so much better when we're together

All of these moments just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone when the morning light sings
Or brings new things for tomorrow night you see
They'll be gone too, to many things I have to do
But follow these dreams might find their way into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression, I was somewhere in between
With only two, just me and you, not so many things we got to do
Or places we got to be, we'll sit beneath the mango tree now

Yeh, so much better when we're together
Mmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's so much better when we're together
Yeh, so much better when we're together

I believe in memories because they look so,
So pretty when I sleep
And when I wake up you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We're better together
We so much better when we're together
We so much better when we're together

Don't release me 'til it's over.

It's 1:30am, and usually, I would hate being up this late writing an essay but today is different.

I'm writing about how fcked up the food we eat is, and listening to some good tunes.

Probably shouldn't have left this until the last minute, but as of now, I don't care.

Talk to me in a few hours / tomorrow in class, and I'll tell you a different story..

I am on page 1 of 5. Ha.

Love.

Message in a Bottle.

A man who sent out a message in a bottle in Newfoundland was found by a woman in Scotland two-three years later.

This is so inspiring!

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/887168--message-in-a-bottle-travels-across-the-atlantic

I'm going to set a goal to send out ten messages this summer with a return address on each one.

I wonder where they'll end up...

I miss you's not enough.

Dear school,

I would appreciate if you could slow down and give me time to breathe. Maybe throw in some good grades in there while you're at it.

Sincerely,

Ashlee

I wish I lived in Spain.

Some nappers in Madrid decided to defend the traditional afternoon siesta by participating in a sleeping competition in the middle of a shopping mall.

Five at a time, they would lay down for 20 minutes, and were observed by a doctor. The doctors would give them extra points for snoring, drooling, or sleeping in funny positions.

The winner got close to $1500.

So funny.

Breathe In, Breathe Out.

Overwhelming is the word that I would use to describe this school year.

Third year is killing me. I feel like I'm in over my head in homework. All I do is try to keep on top of things, but as soon as I get to stand back up, I get pushed over again.

On top of the schoolwork that I have to do, I have a job in residence this year as a resident assistant (RA). The stress that I've accumulated from that (even though it's super fun, and worth it) is unbelievable. It's only one month into the school year, and I feel like I've dealt with so much already.

Also, I failed the first assignment that I got back, so that sucks. I usually do pretty well in school, and even though that's only one mark, I'm super scared that this is how the entire year is going to play out.

Sorry for this huge pessimistic rant, but ahhhhhhh.

hwgwbhirveutbqreitngkbwtekjbt <--- That is how I feel.

I need to get myself out of this funk.

HBD Dallas!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthdayyyyy dear Dallassssssssss, happy birthday to you!

Have a wonderful 30th year of life, you wonderful man! :)

What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

:)

As much as I hate feet..

This picture is adorable. ♥

It doesn't matter who you are.

I am nothing short of happy :)

My boyfriend and I came back from a two night camping trip today. We had a really good time just spending time with one-another. Chatting, relaxing, swimming, eating, cuddling, listening to music, and maybeeee a little bit of kissing :$ haha. Seriously though, it was really nice to get away from the world alone with my boy :) I don't think we've ever done that for more than a couple of hours before.

Anyways, I bought his first camera off of him, and I'm really excited to start testing out my photography "skills" haha. That will probably commence tomorrow once I get a memory card, or whatever the CF stands for :P I'm pretty excited! Hopefully I'm not too horrible, and maybe once I get some decent photos, I'll post some!

I move back to Toronto in six days for RA training! I'm so excited! All of the RAs in my building seem to be super chill. I'm stoked to get to know them, and everybody on my floor. It'll be an amazing experience, that's for sure!

Oh, and I'm not sure if I mentioned anything about my Super Nintendo on here. My brother sold both of ours, and I asked him to get one of them back, so he asked the guy if he could have one back. He gave me two really dirty ones, and told me that one of them worked. BUT he didn't give me the proper adapter, so I ordered one, along with some games online. They came in yesterday, and unfortunately, neither of the Nintendos work... Kinda bummed, but I guess I'll just buy the console again. Oh well.

That's all with me! FYI: I probably won't post again until I'm in residence because I'll be busy saying bye to everybody and packing and stuff, so yeah!

Love.