~*Random Picture of the week

~*Criminal Minds: Good Bye JJ !!

If you're a BIG Criminal Minds fan (like me) you would know that the character JJ (A.J. Cook) left the BAU team in the episode that aired this past Wednesday. Although, the news of her 'exit' from the show was plastered all over the internet it did not make it any easier to watch JJ leave. Apparently the company had to perform some cutbacks due to financial reasons (as it is always the case). A.J.'s character wasn't the only one who was affected by this cutback but Paget Brewster's character (Emily Prentiss) is only going to appear in ten episodes of Season 6. In my opinion I'm not really sad to hear that Agent Prentiss' time is being cutback because well I'm not fond of her and in all honesty I wish it was her who left and not JJ. Although, all of the characters on the BAU are of significance I truly believe that JJ had an integral role; being the BAU's liaison (communicating with the media). She's the one that lets the outside world know what is going on with that specific case and she answers any questions that they may have to the best of her ability. With that in mind she is a very charismatic person, she obviously has good people skills and she displays empathy/sympathy towards the victims. All of these qualities that I just listed aren't really shown by the other characters; Emily may be able to do her job (but her time is being cutback), Reid would just annoy every one with his randomness (dragging out his answers), Hotch well he isn't really approachable, Rossi is just plain intellectual and Morgan would most likely just get pissed off. Anyways, as you can probably tell I am upset that JJ left!

Link to a tribute video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEwpfeEue4k

~*Glee: Britney Spears Episode

Ah Glee; a show that I have heard so much about but haven't really gotten in to. In fact the very first episode that I ever watched of Glee was the one that aired this past Tuesday (the Britney one) and I'll admit I won't be watching it again unless they're doing an episode on one of my faves. In all honesty I found the show to be I don't know...eccentric..I mean sitting in the dentist chair and falling asleep then breaking out in to a Britney song is quite strange. The show itself is supposed to be a comedy but I just wasn't feeling it (to be fair I have just watched one episode). Anyways, enough blabber about the show in general and more focus on the Britney episode. The Britney songs that were sung/performed in the episode were: Me Against the Music, Slave 4 U,  Baby One More Time, Toxic and Stronger. In my opinion Toxic and Stronger were the best ones while Slave 4 U didn't really vibe well with me. I liked the twist that they did with Stronger; instead of a female character singing it they had a male character do it (it was interesting to hear a guy sing this song). I'm glad the character (Artie) did a good job on Stronger because it's one of my fave Britney songs. The other performance that I was quite fond of was Toxic, which is a song of Britney's that I don't really like all that much but the Glee cast did an amazing job on it, perhaps better than Brit herself. (I posted the performance of Toxic down below). During the episode Britney herself made a few cameos; as a teacher, a cheerleader and as 'Madonna'. Her cameos were very small but were cute (not all too funny but still is was good to see her).  One thing that I have to say is that Britney is looking A LOT better than she has been in the past - but you have to admit make up and editing do perform miracles. All in all the episode was a good one and it was really nice to hear the 'vintage' Britney again, which is something that I really miss.

Toxic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCAiLq8ICrQ&feature=fvsr

~*Smile Cookie

WARNING: 
To my fellow Haligonians if you planned on getting a 'smile' cookie from the Tim Hortons on Barrington Street please save your gas because a friend of mine (i won't mention any names *cough Rebecca cough*) purchased all 22 of them (wow I know what I pig eh?!)...just kidding. She actually bought them for her floor mates (awe).
Just in case you were craving the presence of the scrumtrulescent (word from SNL) cookie I have posted a picture of it for you...so go a head salivate all you want!

Awe the cookie it self....

Please support the smile cookie by wearing it proudly across your chest!

                                                                                  

~*The Week of Season Premieres

The month of September is known for a lot of things; the beginning of a new school year, the end of summer & the beginning of fall  but most importantly it's associated with the season premieres of your fave shows as well as series premieres. This upcoming week (Sept 20th - Sept 24th) is filled with premieres of some of my all time favourite shows:

Criminal Minds:  The 6th season premieres on September 22

Modern Family: The second season premieres on September 22.
~ MF won an Emmy for 'Best Comedy Series'
~ MF won an Emmy for 'Outstanding Writing for A comedy Series'
~ MF's Eric Stonestreet (Cameron Tucker) won an Emmy for 'Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series'

The Big Bang Theory: The fourth season premieres on September 23.
~BBT's Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) won an Emmy for 'Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series'

~*Album Collection: Christina Aguilera

Since coming on to the music scene in 1999 Christina Aguilera has put out 4 studio albums, plus one spanish album, a Christmas album and a Greatest Hits album. Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions as to which album is her greatest piece of work (Stripped being the fave), but I decided to share with you my ranking of her albums (excluding the Spanish, Christmas & Greatest Hits albums).

 {Bi~On~ic}: I have put the latest effort by Xtina on top because it's one of the very few CDs that I can actually listen to in its entirety plus it's awesome!! It's a very experimental sound for Christina; futuristic and all that good stuff, but of course there are the breath taking ballads, which she is known for. My favourite ballads on Bionic are; 'Lift Me Up' and 'Stronger Than Ever'...both songs are quite moving and anyone can relate to them. I love 'Stronger Than Ever' so much that it may just be my favourite song by her.

B

Back to Basics: This happens to be the third album that Xtina put out (i.e. before Bionic) and just like the title suggests she went back to basics on it. Xtina describes the album as "a throwback to the 20s, 30s, and 40s style jazz, blues and soul music but with a modern twist". This album brought Xtina a lot of success including a sold out world tour. 'Candyman' and 'Slow Down Baby' have to be the standout tracks for me a long with the ballad, 'Hurt'. I also have to say that this album produced the best music videos from her; 'Hurt' and 'Candyman'.

S

Stripped: Okay so this is the album that MANY Xtina fans and critics deem as  her best piece of work, however, despite it being really good I wouldn't call it her best one. It is a very revealing and personal album (hence the name-Stripped) which takes the listener in to some of her darker times. Perhaps this is why so many people like it; you get to see who the real Xtina is. It's not that I hate this album because I don't it's just not as happy as her third and fourth albums,with that said I need to be in the right mood to listen to the album in its entirety. However, some of her biggest hits have come from this album like; 'Fighter' and the Grammy award winning; 'Beautiful' which has changed so many people's lives.

C

Christina Aguilera: Well what can I say this was her very first piece of work which was manufactured in to a collection of bubble -gum pop songs, which clearly isn't who Xtina really is. However, we can not forget about the song that put her on the charts; 'Genie In a Bottle' and she did beat out the very popular Britney Spears at the 2000 Grammy Awards for 'Best New Artist' with only this album under her belt. So, one should not discard of this album completely because this was the album that began her very successful career in the music industry.

~*The Polar Bear Prof.

Some of you may think that the title is a bit strange but those of you who know the Professor that I am referring to would get it right a way. Anyway, there is a Professor at the University that I'm attending that is famous for his off the topic stories and for his 'out there' personality. Though he teaches such subjects as Canadian Criminal Justice System and Penal Government & Federal Imprisonment, one should not expect this Professor to teach you much as the Prof gets off track placing the responsibility of learning about the topic exclusively on to the student. Many of the students know this about the Prof. so they don't go in with high expectations; most students take the Profs classes for the entertainment value and for a somewhat easy A. Last year I ended up having this Professor for one of the Core Requirements for a major in Criminology and well I learned quickly that this was going to be very different from my other classes. The Professor would spend maybe the first ten minutes of each class on something that was actually related to the course but then the Prof would go off track once a student mentioned something that would make him remember a specific event in his life. The story/event that sticks out the most to just about all of the students is the time where he shared with the class his adventures up North (Canada). He was apparently ice fishing where all of a sudden a polar bear appeared and started to chase him; hence the title 'Polar Bear Prof.' When someone mentions the Profs' name to another student the common question that they get is; "Is that the one that tells stories about polar bears?"
The whole point of this posting is that I have this Prof. again and I promised one of my friends that I would keep her updated about what happens in each class and what stories he happens to share. I've only had his class twice so far as it is just the beginning of the school year and well he hasn't really said many far out there things but that will soon change. Today, however, he did mention something that was a bit funny- we were talking about how music can influence violent behaviour in people where one student pointed out that from his experience as a bar tender he found that if a song would come on like 'the ace of spades' the boys would start jumping up and down & bumping in to others (as the music is getting them pumped up); when all of a sudden someone would accidentally knock someone's beer on to the floor which starts a brawl. However, he said when a song such as Justin Bieber is playing every thing/one is calm. With that the Prof. asked the class, "Well yeah but who here actually listens to the Biebs?" I just found this quite funny as Justin Bieber is very well known and this fifty plus year old man is calling him the 'Biebs' which many of his fans call him.
I will be posting stories about the Polar Bear Prof every week where I can promise you that it will get a lot more interesting as the time goes on and well the class that I am taking with this Prof. is for the full year so yeah..stay tuned....

~*A Little Photoscape Action!

Here is something that I just made with photoscape....it's also currently my desktop wallpaper!!!

 

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES ON 9/11 ...