CreComms go Twitter crazy!

Twitter became mandatory for PR students this morning!

In PR, Melanie assigned Class 2 to sign up for a Twitter account if we haven't already.

The Twitter-newbies learned how to tweet, follow, reply, and direct message people in the Twitterverse. Let's just say, I've never tweeted collectively for 2 hours straight before. What a rush! We are epic Crecomms! I'm thinking Twitter just got a lot more interesting for me...

The initial reason why I joined Twitter was simple- because everyone else was doing it. At first I'll admit I didn't get the appeal. I thought it was just status updates, but then I learned that it's much more! I looove finding out what people are up to! Especially celebrities! My favourite people to follow are Strombo (my love), Kim Kardashian, CosmoOnline, and JLo. It's really cool to feel like you're a step closer to them in real life.

Tweet is no longer just an R&B singer!

It seems Twitter has taken over the world! And it's not surprising that us CreComms were told to jump on the "twitterwagon". It was a little funny that with all of us ceating new accounts and tweeting for the first time simultaneously that we slowed down the entire system! Maybe we'll learn to take it easy, though tweeting for two hours was really fun! I wish we could start every Tuesday that way.

What I find really useful about Twitter is the abundance of information available. From other people's links and hash tags, there's always something new to learn about, and even news sources have twitter accounts where you can follow and get your news regularly.

One thing that I'm not sure Melanie mentioned in class was that you can receive people's tweets on your mobile phone. Simply go to the follower and beside their name is a little white circle with a cell phone picture in it. If you click on it, it will turn green and tell you that you now receive that person's updates on your phone. Voila! You will always be up to date on who ever you want. Today I definitely received an overabundance of text messages from CreComm status updates!

Since we are all now officially on Twitter, I think we should have a competition to see who will have the most followers and tweets by the end of the semester. I'm sure there will be an advantage for those who have twittered much longer than just this morning, but it's still an idea!

Happy Tweeting all!

Movie Premieres: Are they worth the wait?

Lastnight I went to the New Moon premiere at Silver City Polo Park. The movie's start time was 10 pm. I've never been to a movie premiere, and I don't think I'll ever go to one again.

 My roommate (who got me a ticket), her friend and I got to Silver City at just after 6 pm.  That's a whole four hours until the big show. When my roommate (and self-professed Twi-hard) told me we were going early, I figured we'd get there around 8:30-9 pm. No, it appears when we got there, a line for the line up had just begun to form. We weren't allowed to line up in front of the ticket taker, or anywhere in the carpeted area. So two separate lines started to form around 6:30 pm right before the entrance to the theatre area. As we stood there, a lady from the other line asked us if were waiting for New Moon. No lady, we're just standing here because we can. She said the line was starting on her side. Sorry, we were not going to stand behind her, so we just formed our own line. I hate lines. And waiting. And waiting in line!

Right before 7 pm finally rolled around, a manager told us we could line up single file, no running, to hand in our tickets and get in the "real" line right in front of the theatre. Silver City was only using two theatres, one on either side for the screening. While I was rushing to get my ticket ripped, I ended up dropping it among all of the frenzied people. I was freaking out! No way was I going to let my ticket get trampled by all these crazies. As if anyone wasn't running. Someone actually pushed me out of the way while I tried to hand it to the ticket taker, after she saw me finally grab my ticket off the floor between all the madness. We still managed to get ahead of her in line. Second among everyone else, might I add. Hey, If I was gonna do it, I'm doing it right.

So there we were, standing in the real line waiting to get into our seats. Zombieland was playing during our waiting game, where we could hear explosions and a Nickelback song playing. Another rule about the line was that we weren't allowed to sit down. Not at all, unless you were pregnant like the girl in front of us. I think last night was the only time I wished I was with child. I thought to myself, Taylor Lautner with out his shirt had better be worth this ridiculousness. For the record, he was. Much better than Rob Pattinson!

Standing there for about 3 hours was pain enough, but then right before they let us in at 8:30 pm, my rommates friend wiped out in front of the theatre doors where someone spilled a drink. Everybody would've just trampled her to get to their seats, but luckily a big beefy guy was right behind us and he stopped the line while she got back up. You will not find very many civilized people doing a movie premiere. Thank goodness for that guy.

At the beginning, I felt like such a loser being one of the 500-ish people waiting to see this movie. But by the time I got to my seat, I was starting to get excited. There was about another hour of sitting and waiting. Luckily, I brought a book a long, and they were handing out Famous magazine while we stood so devotedly in line. After getting drinks and popcorn, and taking our last bathroom break, we all settled in before the trailers began. Everyone cheered as soon as the lights went down. I guess a cool part of the whole thing was being able to witness the hysteria. It wasn't actually as bad as I had imagined. And I didn't notice as many young screaming teenage girls as I would've thought.

In my opinion, I would've been fine waiting until a later date to watch this movie. It was not worth an entire evening standing in line, ovehearing stupid conversations, dealing with smelly people, and rude attitudes. Compared to Twilight, I felt it was better in terms of more action, but the special effects were kind of phony, though  the cast did look a lot better than before- better hair, wardrobe, set. I found out my roommate and I have the same Ikea lamp as Bella has in her bedroom. That was kind of neat. I also wouldn't have spent so much money on food had I been there for a shorter period of time. Pizza and a drink from Pizzahut cost $8.35. Then a small popcorn cost $5. Plus the box of whoppers ($1.66) from Shoppers I grabbed on the way, and a grande toffee nut white mocha ($3.49) from Starbucks for the walk over from Polo. About $20 in food and snacks, then another $10 for the ticket. To me, that's kind of expensive, considering I'm used to paying $5 on cheap night for a movie then about $4 for popcorn and drink at the Cinema Centre in Portage. The experience to me, was not worth the inflated prices.

Over all, the main reasons for me to waste an evening standing in line was to:
-Ogle hot guys with out shirts
-See if New Moon was better than Twilight
-Witness an unrealistic love story, with an awesome ending!

Cyclists vs. Bus Drivers

On my way to work the other day, I was sitting on the 20, the bus was in front of Polo Park, and out of nowhere came a cyclist, who the driver almost ran down. The driver ranted about how he knew the cyclist would do 'something like that', the something I'm not sure of because I barely noticed the cyclist until the driver was honking like crazy at him. This all happened the same day that the diamond lanes were just put in.

I've always felt really bad for cyclists in this city. The buses sometimes think they own the road, and I've seen them drive like they don't care about anyone else around them. I've read stories about people getting run over and being seriously injured, but yet it doesn't seem like the problem is being fixed. I really wish the city would get on the whole separate bike bath idea, we really need it. It'd be nice if I didn't have to witness another cyclist flipping off the bus driver when he honks at him for being in the way.

During my Environmental Ethics class last year, we had to do a research project on a sustainable city plan, and one group did the bike path idea, and they used examples from other cities like Copenhagen as inspiration for our city. Everybody seemed to ride a bike in the city, the streets seemed more peaceful and at ease than everywhere else.

That's all we're asking for right? A little peace and understanding? Respect your fellow cyclists, bus drivers. After all, you are both a form of sustainable transportation in your own right.

I Love Class 2!

I've been thinking lately about my classmates, and how by the beginning of next term all of us will be separated into new sections. I'm not sure how class 2 will handle this, it seems like we're all attached at the hip, I don't see how we'll survive a mass break up. The few of us that do get put into new sections together will most likely huddle in the corner of each classroom, and for those of us who get separated I imagine there will be many crappy cafe catch-up sessions and King's Head mini reunions every week.

Here's a few reasons why I think Class 2 is amazing:

1) We laugh at least once during every class, everyday. Someone is always making a joke, or laughing at someone's expense- Ie. Jasmine's dancing stint on CTV.

2) Everybody has each other's back. No matter what the situation, we seem to always side with one another.

3) We bake every week! What other class does this? I'm guessing it's just ours. We are awesome for satisfying each others' sweet tooth on a regular basis. 

4) We get along unusually well. I'm not sure if there are any two people in our class who honestly dislike one another. We are all peas in a perfect Class 2 pod.

5) Instructors love us. I mean c'mon, we all know that we have to be at least the favourite for a couple of teachers.

6) We are friends beyond the classroom. I've been to Jasmine's house a few times now, and I've grown to love it so much that I can't help but gush about her beautiful bathroom and kitchen.

7) So far, we don't seem to compete seriously with each other. We are all in the same boat together, no one is out to push us into the water.

8) We are each our own person. I love how distinct every one of us is, yet we have a lot in common and it makes for a peaceful environment.

9) We love to party! We need to come up with more excuses to drink together, we can be one rowdy bunch! I suggest we do a New Year's Eve celebration.

10) We respect one another. It's as simple as that, we all realize that with out respect we have nothing. We know how serious being in CreComm is, yet we know how to balance our workload with having fun, and so far we've done a good job.

I will truly miss being in class with you guys everyday. I hope we stay close no matter where we end up.
Love you! xoxo