What do you get when you combine moustaches and the month of November? The answer? You get something called “Movember”. If this is your first time hearing this I know what you’re thinking, “What the heck is ‘Movember’? And what the heck do moustaches and November have to do with each other?”

Movember is a global campaign aimed at raising awareness for prostate cancer. It combines the month November with the slang for moustache, ‘mo’. Although it started out in 2003 as an inside joke to bring back moustaches and do something for men’s health, it has grown into a global movement. In fact, in 2009 the Canadian campaign was able to raise $7.8 million in honour of Prostate Cancer Canada!

For the entire month of November, men who in this case are called mo’ bros are challenged to grow their own ‘stache in order to raise awareness about prostate cancer. On the 1st of Movember, they are to start out freshly shaven and for the next month allow their ‘stache to grow out.

While this campaign seems to be aimed strictly at the mo’ bros, women (appropriately named mo’ sistas) can also help; mo’ sistas can help their mo’ bros to create a team and spread the word about prostate cancer. Each team or individual mo’ bro will raise funds that go straight to Prostate Cancer Canada which will aid them in doing further research, testing, and support groups for men with prostate cancer. Now I know it’s already the 3rd day of Movember, but it’s never too late to get active with this creative and informative initiative. So mo’ bros get out there and grow that ‘stache! As for my mo’ sistas, support this movement by donating to someone participating in Movember and just spread the word!

For more information please visit: movember

So how many times a day do you complain about all the readings you have to catch up on? Or how the TTC is delayed (yet again)? Or how you just can’t figure out what type of jacket to wear because the weather keeps changing from hot to cold to warm to windy in a matter of just a few hours?

Yes, we all do it. We all complain and groan about how “life isn’t fair” or just how “things just suck”. I probably complained about 10 times today just on the topic of school! But that’s the problem, OUR problem. We tend to focus SO much of our time on the negativity all around us that we forget to stop and smell the flowers. We often overlook the little pleasures of life because we’re just so incredibly consumed in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. One book however, takes the little (universal) pleasures of life and shows you that “life ain’t that bad”.

This book is called “The Book of Awesome”. It’s filled with all the little pleasures of life that we completely forget about. Don’t believe me? I dare you to head to the bookstore and flip through a few pages, tell me you don’t laugh at how true everything is. I’ll give you a little preview, one of the pleasures in the book (and in life) is “Finding your keys after looking forever”. Tell me you don’t have that sense of accomplishment when you find them hidden at the bottom of your bag.

The best thing about this book is that whenever you’re having a bad day (or even a bad streak) you can open any page, read a few lines and instantly remind yourself of how awesome life is!

This book was actually based on (the author) Neil Pasricha’s blog 1000awesomethings.com. He started it to remind himself about how amazing the little things in life are and how happy you can become after acknowledging these little pleasures. In fact Neil Pasricha was in town for the TEDxToronto, to have a talk about his book. Fact: he was born and raised in Toronto (AWESOME!). So fellow students I urge, beg, and plead you to go out and buy or borrow and read this book! I promise you that it WILL brighten up your seemingly bleak and miserable day!

Here’s a clip from Neil Pasricha’s talk for TEDxToronto, please take 18 minutes of your life to watch it, I promise it’s worth it. You’ll even feel a bit happier and motivated yourself.

In an age where technology is all around us, it’s only natural for us to adapt to our environment. But what happens when you become so immersed in these technological advancements that you miss out on certain things? Think about it.

Smartphones today come equipped with apps like BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Ping! and Kik. You know, instant messaging on the go. Although it’s amazing to see how far technology has come since the development of the cell phone, I feel as though this might have taken us a step back in terms of social interaction. Now I know this is a cause for debate, but let me make myself clear. It’s a good thing that we have cell phones with this type of app. It gives us the ability to contact people within seconds and to receive a response from them quicker than you can say “I know, right?!”.

On the other hand, how many times have you been SO immersed in your SMS conversation that you missed things that were going on around you? We’ve all seen people in the city with their heads down and their eyes glued to their cell phone. This is where I’ve got to say that we’ve taken a step back.

We’re taking a step back in actually interacting with people face-to-face (FaceTime and Skype do not count!). I think that if we all just left our phones in our pockets, purses or even in our hands (without looking down at them), we can finally take in the beauty of face-to-face interaction with both people and our beautiful city. I’ve actually tried to make it a habit now to stop looking at my phone while walking, so that I can take in how pretty it’s getting now that autumn is really settling in. As a recovering BBM addict, I can definitely say that doing this has definitely changed my perspective on the everyday things I take for granted.

So U of T, I propose a challenge for you all (including myself): Take a day (any day, really) to just leave your phone in your bag or pocket. Walk around and do the regular activities that you would do at school. You’ll definitely see a small change. You’ll be able to take in the fact that “Oh hey! The leaves are changing colour now!” You might even be able to catch your friend walking right by you, and who just so happens to be looking at their own phone texting.

You miss and take for granted a lot of things by just looking down. By putting that ridiculously addicting piece of technology down, you’ll see that actually looking at the REAL leaves changing colour is a whole different experience than just seeing a picture of it on your phone; trust me.

If you haven’t heard of the “quarter life crisis” yet, you will soon be experiencing it. If you have experienced or are currently experiencing this life crisis, I know what you’re going through; and believe me it’s not fun at all. (Am I right or am I right?) For those of you who haven’t heard of this, I’ll give you a basic rundown: it’s that part of your life (mainly early to mid twenties, and early thirties) where you begin to question yourself. You question your future, your current relationship status, your friends etc. It’s the part of your life where you begin to doubt yourself the most. With all these questions, you become overwhelmed with the future and what’s to come. Simply put, you just freak out.

Personally I’ve gone through the “quarter life crisis” and will probably go through it constantly until I find some sort of stability in my life. The way to conquer this life crisis is a bit easier than you’d imagine. If you’re freaking out about the future, don’t fret; why not try internships, talking to people in your desired career, volunteer your time to potential places of interest for your career. You might have to go through a series of trials and errors to reach whatever it is you’re interested in, but I promise you it’s worth it. If you’re freaking out about your current relationship status, why not just stop thinking about the future and live in the moment. Enjoy being in a relationship, dating around or being single. Remember that sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side! (more…)

Well folks, this is the time of year where almost everyone makes their New Year’s resolutions. Some people aim extremely high and some people prefer to keep things within their reach. As with every new year, most people expect to have a fresh start and embrace the year with open arms. Those are the people who make endless goals and have big expectations for the year. Then you have those who just seem to accept the upcoming year without any particular expectations or goals in mind.

It’s always that fresh beginning in which people make goals to stay fit and go to the gym or attempt to become focused in their academics or job. It’s usually one of those two goals that fail within the first couple of months of the new year. Try making goals that you know you would be motivated to make or things you wish you could change about yourself. And I know the obvious choice would be to hit to gym or hit the books, but try goals like eating healthier, or keeping up with readings despite the crazy overload of papers.  Remember that goals that are more specific and measurable have a higher chance of being achieved.

Whatever your goals or expectations are for 2010, I hope you reach your goals above and beyond of what you have planned!

Now, how many times are you going to hear that phrase? Okay well, if you haven’t already heard, every Tuesday at the ROM is FREE — and yes I did say FREE — for post-secondary students! This is perfect for post-secondary students because first of all, it saves us about $22, and second of all, did I mention that it’s free?

Besides the obvious choice to go to the ROM for FREE, it’s a great way to compensate for not being able to travel. Personally, this summer I lacked the funds to travel anywhere around the world so I had to figure out a way to compensate for that, leading me to the ROM. Now, I know what you’re thinking, the ROM is probably the last place you want to go on your summer vacation. However, the ROM has definitely transformed itself to not only showcase history at its finest, but also to take its visitors around the world. You can go from Australia to the Philippines within a few steps, or even ancient Egypt to the Middle Ages within a few minutes. Why pass up this opportunity to travel around the world, and through history all for the price of well, free?

Okay, so how many of you have had a conversation with someone on msn/facebook and when you (finally) see them, the conversation is awkward? Why is it that it’s so easy to have a conversation with someone over the internet and phone (via text), but having a face to face conversation, is just borderline weird?

Technology allows us to connect with people around the world with a few clicks, but ironically, it takes us one step forward and two steps back. With the use of such internet sites as Facebook, Twitter, and services such as MSN, we are able to talk to our friends whenever we want. However, this takes away from socializing in person, which leaves us to fill that ‘technological void’ with awkwardness.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “what are you really trying to say?” Well, I’m not saying that we should just drop all those internet services and websites, because let’s face it, we need these sites to connect us to friends all around the world, or even those just around the corner. But I’m saying that we should all try to be more social face to face, as opposed to computer to computer, because like they say, “people all over the world, join hands…start a love train, a love train.” (A train of  face to face conversations of course!)

What do you think? What effect have social media had on your life?

Photo from Facebook