Welcome to the world! A newborn girl, Facebook...?

Egyptian man named daughter 'Facebook'

Thursday, 03 March 2011

An Egyptian man in his early twenties has named his newborn daughter 'Facebook' following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution which was almost solely organized on the social-networking site Facebook. The father, Gamal Ibrahim, told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram that he gave his child the name to "express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth." The protests, which were largely organized on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, began on January 25 and led to the end of Hosni Mubarak's 30-year reign as president of Egypt. The Al-Ahram report stated that, "The girl’s family, friends, and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. 'Facebook' received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name. A name that shocked the entire world." The Egyptian spelling of 'Facebook' is فيس بوك. Information from: Wikinews, http://www.wikinews.org/ http://www.bizarrenews.org/content/view/152/1/ So basically, a man named his daughter Facebook in honour of the fact that protests for the Egyptian Revolution were almost all organized on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter! Obviously most people find this to be an odd choice for a name, but after reading the article, I can understand a little bit better the reasons behind it. Obviously the name has sentimental value for the family and many of the Egyptian citizens.

Dancers

"You are dancers, all of you. Life moves you; life dances you. To dance is to investigate and celebrate the experiance of being alive. Like life, a dance creates and destroys itself in every moment. Like love, it is beyond reason. Ephemeral as breath, concrete as bone, dance i made of you. You sculpt space. You write with your body in a wordless language that is deeply understood. You grace the space within and around you when you dance. Force, trajectory, inertia, and recovery: dancing is a ride, a duet between your instinct and imagination. To dance is to heighten your experience of the present moment. Your body is your location - when you dance, you are profoundly engaged in being there. To dance is to feel the resonance of your life, todelight in your existence. To be human is to be danced by experience, energy and emotion."

-Crystal Pite

This quotation was said by an extremely gifted choreographer to dancers at International Dance Day. It speaks volumes to me, and I'm sure to other dancers around the world. Over the weekend my dance teacher read it to us as inspiration for our show we were about to perform as inspiration. It was also her way of saying goodbye, as this is her last year as Company Director.

This is the first year that dance shows have sadness involved in them. Knowing that it is my last time makes me appreciate them more, but is also really hard to have them end.

SIGNS OF SPRING< REALLY LATE

Well I love spring...but it seems to not want to come. I'm unimpressed (that's a word by the way, WHO KNEW?).

After being in Costa Rica, where it was warm, sunny and beautiful, I was looking forward for the flowers to bloom, grass to grow all of that wonderful stuff. But as we sit here, on the 6th of April it is SNOWING.

I remember being a kid and absolutely loving spring. I could finally wear my spring jacket and not a snowsuit. And the best part was playing and doing stuff that only really happened in the spring. Like skipping and playing with chalk on the driveway. Another great memory is restocking on our yearly supply of maple syrup!

Hurry Up Spring!

JOB HUNTING

I NEED A JOB! ASAP in fact. I'm kinda freaking out to be honest. Due to the price of getting a university education, if I don't get a job, I will be screwed for my future. Which is why I'm freaking out!

The issue is my job experiance is all related to dance. So I'm not sure how hirable I actually am. But before I go to CHICAGO next week, I am handing in my resume at every place I could possibly work, and I'm hoping that one place will give me a job.

Last summer I ran a dance camp in Wellesley, which was so much fun. But I doubt I can make enough money to fund my education. So it is a "normal" job for me. I'm worried that I won't enjoy my (possibly) last summer before university. But I guess those are the sacrifices you gotta make.

The Golden Days Are Over

Oh the future. I've been thinking a lot about it, being that I have to make some pretty big decisions about next year. 

Nothing in my future is decided yet (blessing and a curse) because I haven't even done auditions for Universities yet. So while all my friends are contemplating their early acceptances, I'm waiting and worrying about even getting into any school.

However, if all goes well, I'm hoping to get into York's AND Ryerson's dance programs...that way I can choose which one :)




One of the last dance shows :(



The problem with going forward in the future is saying goodbye to the past.

I have a bunch of really big goodbyes coming up; to W-O and to my dance studio. Both of these places have meant so much to me, and as exciting as going off to university will be it will be really hard to leave them.

And the bandaid solution to saying goodbye is taking a 5th year, but I'm not sure if that is for me. I've heard from so many people that they regret staying for a victory lap, and I can see why. Even this year some classes seem like such a waste of time. And when I already have all of my credits I'm not sure I will have the motivation to go to classes and get good marks. 

So, at this point, I don't know what I'm doing next year. Time will tell! 

Boston Bound!

Imagine this. You are on a coach bus, laughing with your friends. The seats are reasonably comfortable, Friends is playing on the miniscule tv screen, there are some snacks to eat. Life is good.

UNTIL, the room of boys sitting across the isle from you decide it would be fun to make up a "happy birthday" song for the many people who are turning one year older. And of all the songs to base it off of, these boys decide to base it off of Justin Beiber's 'Baby'.

Now although I'm not a huge Justin Beiber fan, I can deal with his music as well as the next person. But they decided they needed to practice every spare moment. We girls, tried hinting at them to stop, "you guys sound awesome, you should rest your voices!", to "alright guys, let's watch a movie now." To "OHMIGOD YOU GUYS ARE SO ANNOYING SHUT UP AND NEVER SING THAT SONG AGAIN!!!!!!"

They didn't get the hint.

I have many wonderful memories of the trip down to Boston, however this particular memory sticks out in my mind. Even though we had a lovely dinner on the way down, with all you can eat dessert, the Happy Birthday remix is still more prominent.

Roadtrip!

Many moons ago, a group of my friends and I decided to stray from the comforting town of Baden and go into the big city of, wait for it, London, Ontario.

You see, our dear friend who we shall call Susanna, goes to the University of Western, and since we missed her very much, we decided to visit her! The plan was to go out for dinner, and then see the movie Country Strong, with lots of time to spare so we could get amazing seats...that did NOT happen.

We picked her up, squeezed into a tiny car and drove near the theatre. We went to three different restaurants and all of them were full! FIRST flaw in the plan.

We finally finished up dinner, and it was cutting close to the start of the movie. We RAN over, bought our tickets and rushed into the theatre. THEN a terrible thing happened. There were only 5 seats left, and none of them were together.

Well, we weren't going to sit with randoms, so we thought it would be a good idea to sit on the stairs at the side of the theatre! Unfortunatly, there was a lovely couple who went and tattle taled on us and some evil security type teenager who worked at the theatre told us off, and we had to sit with random people. The couple beside me were unable to comprehend the un-intellectually challenging film and talked to each other throughout the film to clarify the plot development. Gaao;sidgh!

But classic mixups always make great stories to tell.