About a year and a half ago, I fell completely in love with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir – a team of Canadian ice dancers. In light of their gold medal victory, I feel completely justified as many of my friends have expressed their awe after watching them. Personally, I also find it hard NOT to love them – I mean, they’ve skated together since they were 7 and 9, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of love and joy in their skating, they’re skilled, beautiful to watch and after meeting them at Skate Canada, I can say that they are wonderfully congenial people. In any case, let’s recap what they did at the Olympics, how they won gold and what their win means in the grander scheme of things. (more…)

I just thought that something like this would be amusing to write considering that I’ve been going through several weeks of non-stop total exhaustion all thanks to my courseload of 6 courses. Without further ado, here are 10 things that all or at least most of you should relate to if you are, in fact, a student at university. (more…)

“Oh, bless their souls, they’re using dial-up!” I exclaim as I watch You’ve Got Mail, but if we really put this into perspective, our generation has experienced a rapid change in the technology we use in our daily lives in the last two decades. This is a bit of an ambitious blog, so please don’t get huffy if I miss anything. (more…)

The holidays are here and reading for pleasure is in season, so as a fan of Japanese literature (even if I don’t study it), here are a few books I really think you should check out. (Yes, they are translated to English.) Some of them can be found at your local bookstore, while others will require perhaps a trip to Robarts or an e-mail to a Japanese literature professor who happens to have an obscure translation. Most books can probably be found at the Japan Foundation Library, where you can get a library card for free. (You’ll need to be a Toronto resident for at least 3 months and a piece of I.D. with your address.) The author’s names will be listed here with the last name last as in the North American custom since they will appear on the covers like this if you’re reading a translation. (more…)

It sounds like the perfect advertising campaign: tell people you’ve built the new generation of [insert product name here], and make them wait for an invite to use it. In theory, it’s the perfect way to build up hype. This must be what was going through Google’s marketing people’s heads when they chose this as the strategy for marketing Google Wave.

So what’s Wave? Well, that’s part of the problem.

Wave is Google’s new product. From my experiences with it, I would say it’s part email, part messenger, and huge chunk wiki. As their horribly-named video host, Dr. Wave, explains, instead of sending copies of the same message around (like we do with email), there is only one copy of the message, which anyone can access, modify, and comment on. Like wiki in email form. It’s a brilliant concept. (more…)

As December rolls right in, we are constantly reminded of our material desires as shopping malls are filled with Christmas trees, deals and stores with gift-wrapping services for the gift-wrapping-challenged. Nonetheless, although I can’t personally give presents to every single one of the wonderful readers at blogUT, I shall offer this article, which will hopefully offer fond memories and just maybe, reclaim the soul that you lost when you came to U of T. Think back to your childhood days as you slept in and had free time, do you remember asking for these things (or paraphernalia relating to these things) for Christmas/Hanukkah/name your winter holiday? (Warning: if you were not born in the late-80s or early 90s, these things may not apply to you. If that is the case, I entitle you to shake your head and mutter, “Crazy kids, back in my day…” and then write an entry on your own childhood fads and phases.) (more…)

After going to Homesense Skate Canada International 2009 this weekend, I figured I should write something about the competition. However being a Grand Prix event in which most of the skaters are barely known, I thought that it would be more helpful if I wrote about the athletes most people would cheer for by default – in other words, the athletes from Canada. Being in Canada, the competition featured the country’s best figure skaters in all 4 disciplines: men, ladies, pairs and ice dance; as a result Skate Canada is perfect for seeing how each skater does against the international competition, as well as taking a glimpse of the results of the backstage politicking that, unfortunately, goes on in this subjective sport. As subjectivity is fundamental to figure skating, I cannot promise a completely objective post; instead, what I can offer is a less nationalistic alternative to the blind pro-Canada garbage that CBC tends to spout. (more…)