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Upsides of living in Guelph: City with a smaller town feel, university oriented, friendly and environmentally-conscious people, and lots of opportunities to get involved.

Downside of living in Guelph: Perks of Being a Wallflower doesn't play at the Cineplex!

Although I was not able to see Perks on opening day, I came home to Toronto this weekend to volunteer at the Ontario Universities' Fair (OUF) and took the opportunity to see both my family and Perks!  I'll talk about the OUF a little too, but most important is Perks.

After years of anticipation, the movie arrived and lived up to expectations!  For anyone who has read the book, you'll definitely see the parallels as Stephen Chbosky was the director and screenplay writer.  There were some parts that were not developed as they were in the book (such as Candace's relationship with her boyfriend, Charlie's relationship with Patrick, and the poem Charlie gives to Patrick at Christmas), but it still made for an emotional and hard-hitting film.   I found that the minimizing of the darker elements was for the best as it is difficult to balance a film with drama.  In a book with more room for imagination, all of the ghosts are up to the reader.

For those of you that haven't read it, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel (a novel written as a series of letters) through the eyes of Charlie, an introverted freshman in high school that discovers the world outside his own mind alongside Patrick and Sam - two seniors that befriend him.  A "wallflower", Charlie prefers the sidelines to "actively participating" in social situations.  He come to terms with some tough issues with the help of those that accept him and all of his quirks.   

SUPER BONUS: Emma Watson speaks in a non-Brit accent (trailer here).  It's kind of really awesome.

Now back to Friday, the OUF is rather exciting for someone that loves their program as much as I do.  A proud ASCI, I was glad to spread the word about our small program, and hopefully convince some grade twelves to join us at U of G.  I highlighted the perks of being an ASCI, like the ability to combine anything (I really mean pretty much anything) as a degree.  I had some students ask if they could take Chem & Music or Music & Computing.  And the answer was of course yes.  

I also took some time to poke around the other booths and chat to students about graduate programs in Environmental Psychology.  This did not succeed in terms of finding such particular programs, but it did in terms of me finding out a little more about graduate studies applications and feeling pretty good for once about where I am in my university career.  I'll be sure to update on that once I wrap my own head around the excitement of it all.

I'll try really hard to keep up better with posts from now on.  We had no internet at my house for the first few weeks of September, and then school insanity began.  Things are settling down a little, and now that Perks finally got released, I think I can swing it.

I'm off to be infinite for a little while.

-Kamelia

The Perks of Being a Chameleon

I've wanted to write a blog for the longest time, but never really had a unifying theme to tie my thoughts together.  I suppose I still don't, but with the impending release of The Perks of Being a Wallflower in theaters (aka one of my favourite books), and my name (Kamelia) often getting replaced with "chameleon" in conversation, the lovechild of these two ideas was born in blog form.

Welcome to the beginning of something beautiful!  I read waaaaay too many blogs/web comics/internet things for my own good, so hopefully channeling some of this interest into my own digital doodles will be a nice chance to contribute to the blogosphere.

I should probably introduce myself or something!  I'm a 20 year old student at the University of Guelph in the Arts and Sciences program.  The beauty of my program is that we get to design our own degree in a way with each an art and a science specialization, mine being Psychology and Ecology.  What a great way to make interdisciplinary connections in an interdisciplinary world! Now that I'm in third year, things are getting quite involved!

So here's me:

Credit goes to one of my best friends, Katia, over at Kitty Snooks

I also like many things.  Very different things, in no particular order.

Cycling (with my bike, Bessie)

Running

Painting

Writing 

Reading the newspaper

Reading in general (Fave = The Catcher in the Rye)

Pin-making

Squidging my toes in wet sand

Studying fungi (they're cool little guys!)

Feta cheese

Petting my kitty, Nemo (he's named after the fish!)

TED talks

Philosophy

HIMYM, Dexter, Arrested Development, New Girl, Community, Survivor, and Modern Family (I've got my roommate and boyfriend to thank for my exponential increase in shows to watch)

Pretty notebooks

Crunchy leaves

Cracking my knuckles/toes/back/anything that cracks (FYI, wrists are best)

Talking

Blanket-fort making

Puns (I'll be sure to share some gems)

Word puzzles

Grammar (though I've been known to slip up sometimes)

Colourful lights, posters, and curtains to any room

Saying "Oh, beans!" when things don't go my way

Lire en Français (particulièrement Harry Potter!)

Cyclone popsicles

Kayaking

Dyeing my hair (either red or purple)

Winter hats (these will certainly make an appearance as the weather cools)

Snow

Tokyo Police Club, Hollerado, The Killers, Of Monsters and Men, Jónsi, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Shins, and too many bands/artists to list quickly

Cows

Emoticons

Dr. Horrible

Jenna Marbles

Blowing bubbles/drawing with chalk/Play-Doh-ing with my little sister

Roller coasters

Tea

Dancing

When things match.  Either intentionally or not.

But I guess my number 1 is probably laughing.  Yes, I love that very, very much.  And I do it a lot!

So there you have it!  A whole bunch of things I like, and hopefully it's enough to convince you to keep reading.  I'll try my best to stay at least semi on top of this as I figure out my blog identity and what I would like it to contain.

Best!

-Kamelia