jonathoncomfortreed

Yeah, that's right. I'm updating my journal. Hello, citizens.

Here's what's what:
I can't wait for it to snow. It seems like every year that goes by, I love snowboarding a little bit more. Right now I can't wait to hit the slopes.
I just made a banana-kiwi-banana slice sandwich. It was amazing. (Oh, that reminds me of a story. I'll add it at the end.)
I was at a youth retreat all weekend. Had a superb time.


I know, surprising right. I got pretty far and I was pretty determined to go through with it. But the overarching purpose of my participation in Project 52 was to ensure that I kept up with photography at university. As you might have noticed, it's not working. I actually feel that Project 52 is holding me back and limiting my creativity. I mean, it's not as easy as it used to be to come up with an artistic interpretation of a song by Manchester Orchestra – and some of the ideas that I do have aren't immediately possible. I'm feeling inhibited rather than motivated by Project 52, and since it's actually doing the opposite of what it was meant to do, I'm dropping it.

I apologize if you were absolutely captivated by my collection, but I'm not really sorry. I enjoyed Project 52 for what it was, and I'll certainly considering giving it another try in the future.

In the meantime, I'm interested in more in-depth work with Photoshop editing. I've tasted what's possible, now I really want to get into it. Right now what's got my imagination is lomography. I'm trying to find my style, you know? My groove. Maybe this is it. ;]

Thanks for being with me through all of this, though. Art is great.

Oh, and if you're wondering why my Tumblr hasn't been updated in forever, it's because I sent my iPod away to get repaired. I'll be back on it soon.

And now:


(This happened back before I knew that taking fruit from the cafeteria wasn't allowed – it actually happened several weeks ago, but it's an enjoyable story.)

Server: That's a lot of bananas you have on your tray.
Jon [friendly]: Yeah, well, my pockets are full of apples and a kiwi.
Server [with an edge in her voice]: You know you're not allowed to take food from the cafeteria, right.
Jon [nonplussed]: Well how am I supposed to get fruit in my room, then?
Server [severe]: You buy it yourself.
*awkward silence*
Jon: Should I put it back?

I don't know what happened after that, sorry. Fun, neh?

All right, see, my journals are a lot less intense if I update regularly. Bye for now!

Wow, okay. So remember that plan I had to post a journal every week? Yeah, um. I'll try to do that from now on, maybe.
In the meantime, here's some snippets of my life:

My friend Huckleberry came to visit me at university. Here's what I posted on Facebook that night:


I volunteered at We Day.
Here's what We Day is, from the website:

"Harnessing the energy and passion of a young community of changemakers, We Day brings youth together in an unparalleled setting to show them that they are not alone in their journey to make a difference.

Within stadiums full of cheering young people, We Day brings some of the greatest social issues of today to the forefront, and – no matter the cause, no matter the issue – provides ways in which every young person can find their place within the movement to create global change."

I was a crowd pumper, which means I spent the day dancing and cheering and inspiring the young folk in my section.
Awesome.


I went to Nuit Blanche Toronto with marikob-k and CityAcrylics. Here's what I posted on Facebook:


I went home for Thanksgiving.
This is worth mentioning because it was so nice. On Friday, I was at the wedding for my aunt and uncle (I played 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing' by Aerosmith during the wedding), and on top of witnessing their beautiful marriage, my cousins and I tore apart the dance floor until the early hours of the morning.

Then at home the next day, my family and I canoed out into the middle of a nearby lake and watched the sun go down (and then my siblings and I did it again the next night with marikob-k and her sister). Autumn leaves, deep red skies, still waters and the moon rising in the east. I cannot describe the tranquility. It was stunning.

And then I had the classic roaring Thanksgiving family gathering, which was a ton of fun – my extended family is superb.


I turned seventeen.
Which was really nice (thank you for the many birthday wishes on my profile, I really appreciated it!). CityAcrylics walked through the rain to bring me some cake that he stole from someone else's birthday party, my floor mates decorated my door, another friend bought me a cupcake, and I got sang to in the cafeteria. Also, marikob-k got me a chocolate frog (so I now own the wizarding card for Rowena Ravenclaw), WanderingHere wrote me a letter and gave me a notebook in which I am supposed to compose music, and ProvenParadox is sending me a wooden pipe and tobacco. But hey, don't think I'm all into presents and getting material objects – I wanted to mention those because I like what they say about the type of person I am. :]

And oh, in Ontario, Canada, guess what changes when you turn seventeen!
… nothing. At all. My life is exactly the same. See you in a year.


And some other things:

• I fought in multiple fencing tournaments. I didn't do that well, obviously, but I learned a lot and witnessed some amazing fencing.
• I got hired! My first job ever – I basically get paid to hang out with cool co-workers all night and walk people home. Legit.
• I had tea with one of my professors (and yeah, I've gone to see all of my profs multiple times – I am the coolest of cool).
• I attended a TED^x event at Queen's.
• And there's a ton of other stuff I could tell you, but I know you don't want to sit at your computer for hours and read about my life.

I really wanted to go to Toronto – or even downtown Kingston – to participate in the October 15^th rally, but I had a fencing tournament and I was volunteering at a fair trade co-op. So to sort of make up for the fact my busy life made it feel impossible to feel involved, I spent hours upon hours making this video:



And since then, I've kept up with #occupy on Twitter (like, check out this tweet) and the news, and I've gone down and talked with the occupiers in Kingston several times.



I'm going to close with a brief explanation of why I seem completely gone. I disappeared from deviantART in order to have time to create that video, and since then all of my time on deviantART has essentially been spent on theWrittenRevolution. Also, I am currently well over 6,000 messages behind in my inbox, and I honestly have no idea how I'm going to ever get over that.

I'm not going away, and although I disappear every now and then, for school or anything else, I love deviantART and I love being able to share my artwork and meet new people through this website.
But just, yeah. Life is life. deviantART isn't everything in the world. (Nevertheless, I'm going to try to update more often so I don't have to create huge long journals like this. So good luck to me on that.)

And really, if you need more of my art, go to my Tumblr page for Project 365.



If you read all of this, you're a champ. Now go do something more productive with your time. ;]

It's been so long since I last posted a journal, I don't even know where to start. So much has happened.

Things I did during the summer:

Okay, I posted that last journal in late July. I was gone from deviantART for all of August; here's most of the things I did:
• Camping for a weekend with my family and marikob-k's family. It was great. We had a bonfire, played on the playground with a bunch of random children, went swimming and good ol' Apples to Apples.
• The GO Project: A United Church mission project for two weeks in downtown Toronto. We volunteered at different sites (a food bank, a youth shelter, etc.) and learned more about providing aid to those in need. It was a really eye-opening experience (for example, one night we had a walking tour of the city led by an ex-convict who was recovering his life with the help of a Salvation Army shelter) and I had a really incredible time.
• Rendez-vous: The first-ever national rally of youth who are part of the United Church of Canada. This was stunning. We did workshops, drum circles, had a MuchMusic dance, and more. It was wild.
• Taking a road trip to Newfoundland. The Reed family got back together and we headed east for two weeks of an amazing cultural and natural experience. We went to the most easterly point of Canada, checked out several National Historic Sites, saw live musical performances, icebergs, moose, caribou and Vikings. We also did a hiking trail in Gros Morne National Park – 45 km of rugged terrain (with essentially no trail) over the top of the Long Range Mountains. It was simply unforgettable.

And now I'm at university:
I'm having a stupendous time. It's been really fast-paced (hence me not posting a journal until now). I love all of my classes – actually, I've told other people that my favourite prof is for global development studies (although the psych prof is a great lecturer too), my favourite lectures are classical studies and my favourite textbook is for history. So basically I love all of my classes. If you didn't know I'm in Concurrent Education, studying history/international development to become a teacher. Five year program.

Frosh week was so insane. There was no official drinking, because Queen's now bans alcohol during frosh (that's how bad of a reputation its got). And the Con Ed frosh was like, all hugs and bunnies. As in, very little hazing. We did get a bit, but we also got a retro road trip, crazy cheers and a lot of booty shaking. And bobbing for apples at midnight on an island in Lake Ontario. Yeah. Basically the Con Ed group is really tight knit and we love each other. A lot. ;]

And like I said, classes have been great. Beyond classes, though, I'm also involved in fencing, badminton and intramurals (dodgeball and water polo), the Free the Children team, Equality on Queer Issues Project, a couple of Queen's publications, volunteering to promote the upcoming provincial election and choir. I auditioned for musical theatre, got a callback (like, 30 out of 200 to do so, yay) but didn't make the final cast. Good times.

Made lots of new friends, gotten lost several times.
Loved a bit, laughed a bit, lived a lot.


Actually right now I'm recovering from semi-major muscle damage from attempting to do fencing, badminton and dodgeball all in one night. And you know me, I don't do things half-heartedly. I took on four phys-ed majors at like, 11:00 pm in a dodgeball game. Kicked some ass (and in doing so, gave myself a series of strained muscles). I hate having limitations like damn muscle exhaustion but that's just the way life is, eh?

Anyways, I have a class in fifteen minutes so that's all for now. I'm working on slamming deviantART back into order (check out my profile update, it's mildly interesting), and I'm making serious progress. Cheers, everyone.


Check out this video. I love it.



Tell me how your life has been. If you've read this far, I figure you must be a worthwhile individual.

I couldn't keep you up to speed on all of the things I've been doing if I tried. Which I won't 'cause I'd much rather go outside and race the wind.

My life has been a blur of laughter, playing cards, coffee breaks and sweaty cheerfulness. It's summer. :]

Oh, and I guess this is worth sharing: I went to a big concert on Saturday – Edgefest. It's an annual thing, with 20,000+ people there and a lineup of known and unknown alt. rock bands. It was really, really amazing. I saw bands like Dinosaur Bones (signed DB shirt, woo), The Reason, Arkells, Hollerado, KO, Tokyo Police Club, The Weakerthans, A Perfect Circle and Rise Against. It was a little bit like this:


I was there for about ten hours. Extremely exhausting but totally worth it.



Yes, that's right. I have a Tumblr now: puzzles and wonders, mysteries and such.
_{(that's a quote from my current favourite music video, Magic by The Sound of Arrows, which was shown to me by the lovely cherrichan13)}
I'm doing another photography project that I will affectionately refer to as Project 365. Yes, that's right, a photo every day. Why, you ask, am I choosing to do another photography project when I'm still behind on my weekly project? Well you see, Project 52 is a lot different from what this is going to be. With the weekly photo, I use my DSLR and take several hours to create the photo. This new project will be much more about me artistically expressing myself – it's a way for my creative side to remain intact without hours of intense work. I just take a couple of minutes each day to snap a photo, and then edit it with Instagram and voilà.
Here are some of my latest shots as an example:


If you want to follow me, that's lovely. I'm flattered. I regret that I won't follow back – I'm not letting myself integrate into the tumblr world because I have not enough time in the world as it is. I'm sure anyone that's noticed my failure to keep up here on deviantART will understand.


Well, that's all for now.
Oh, excuse me. HARRY POTTER ZOMG yeah, I'm going to see the midnight premiere. And dressing up as a Snatcher for the occasion. ;] If there's pictures, I'll show you my costume.

Bye for now.