Through a series of fortunate coincidences, events, and interaction on my part, I was able to connect with some key figures in the Telecommunications industry who were starting a Canadian based Android focused web blog. Canadiandroid is run by Andrew Graham, Chad Valiquez and Kelly Niemala with more information about them here, for those interested. Anyways like I was saying, I inquired about writing content for them, and through some great luck, I even managed to get an invite to the Sony Ericsson Xperia event in Toronto representing Canadiandroid.
Now I’d love for you guys to just click this lovely link here and view my content. Simply put it is an excellent, if I do say so myself, piece on the evolution of Android, complete with an infographic by Chad. Of course, you guys can critique it all you like, just make sure you do it in the comments so I can see what improvements you guys suggest. Alas my writing is pretty damn superb though, and I’ll be surprised if there is a big problem with it.
Now lastly I would just like to focus your attention on this post here, where I was cordially invited to attend the Sony Ericsson Media event, and had some great hands-on experience with both the Arc, and Play. Here is a picture with me holding the Arc, obviously those are my hands!
Well folks, thats all for now, stay tuned for more updates in the future!
Freedom has finally begun for me, I get whole whopping 1.5 months of freedom before I begin summer school courses. For those curious, I am taking Finance, and Advanced Business Process Methods, and unlike most courses, these are not fast track courses. This means that I get 3 whole months to really acquaint myself with these courses, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, every Wednesday and Thursday. Fun times.
This summer will also mark the arrival of a very important friend of mine, who will try to attach herself to my hip. This means I will be participating in various events and activities such as:
Yoga
Salsa/Tango classes
Gallery openings and curations
Modeling, and photographing
Whatever else hits her fancy, maybe even cooking classes!
As you can see, I am going to be a very busy man and I don’t even know how she’s going to arrange all this. Let us hope I can survive intact and become the man of every womans dreams by the end of this foray. Bwahahaha.
Here is a picture of the… positions I will force my body to accomplish. If I don’t survive, I hope someone will auction off all my possessions for my funeral casket. They are atrociously expensive.
Hello lovelies, alright so this is about half a year late, but don’t mind that too much. As some of you may know, and now the rest of you shall know, I was part of the creative collaboration that did the Nuit Blanche exhibit called ‘At Different Angles’. This was an exhibit at Zone B, hosted by Ryerson’s Graphic Communications Management division. Here is the official description by Scotia Bank:
Ryerson University – Faculty of Communication & Design
LIGHT UP THE NIGHT: At Different Angles
School of Graphic Communications Management – Toronto, Canada
Video Installation, Multimedia Installation
At Different Angles is an attempt to deconstruct the complex field of information and media. This multiple video installation takes the audience on a tour through the history of communication and the evolution of different information technologies, examining their impact on society. Through an accompanying timeline of significant milestones, each viewer will also be able to look at different concepts of communication – allowing them to reflect on how information technology has changed the way we communicate, as well as the implications this may have on our future. www.ryerson.ca/fcad/nuitblanche
I am so very proud of everyone that was involved with the project, and a special shout out to Ruth Tupe, who brought me along. It was quite the experience, and you know what guys? I have some really good news, we shall be hosting an independent exhibit for Nuit Blanche 2011! I can’t let out any details, but it’s going to be very mind blowing. I’ll post updates here, and we’ll see how it all goes.
Here is the sign that I’m just so very proud of:
And finally here are some videos of our exhibit, one of which is a making of video may I add:
I know I’ve been neglecting my own little personal corner, but I cannot help it. I will say that I will be redesigning this space, and organizing it to be more tighter, so hang tight and wait for the update. Once it’s in effect I’ll devote some good time to this space. Till then contain yourselves!
I promised Alicia and Chelsie a poem each ages ago and I’m not one to back down on my promises. Unfortunately for me poetry is one of those things where I need to be in a specific state, an emotional emphatically driven state to write something good. These usually occur in the wee hours of the night, and at times when I get really emotional and become jealous, or envious, or most likely both, of people in relationships with significant others to cuddle and do romantic gestures and cute couple things. Argh! It doesn’t help that I’m also listening to a bunch of love songs, such as:
Desire by Deepak Chopra feat. Demi Moore (From the Buddha Bar series)
Amsterdam by Luminary
As well as chillout or lounge music to appropriately set the mood, one of my favourite being:
A Balearic Dinner by Sunlounger
Now back to the matter at hand: Poetry. This lovely piece is for Chelsie:
Chelsie Pouliot
Chilling the hearts of all, Her touch gentle yet firm, Eyes piercing to ones soul, Little dost thou know, She wears her heart on her sleeve, In long walks on the beach, Endlessly following her dream,
Perhaps tis her fate, Or lady lucks meddled affair, Undeterred she smiles and reaches out, Lusting after her prize, Its almost within her grasp, Ostensibly it flutters further away, The endless dream.
I promised Alicia hers would be ‘better’ than Chelsies, although what exactly does better entail I haven’t the foggiest clue, but I’m sure since it’s personalized for her it would mean it’s better, right?
The Ballad of Lady Alicia
Oh fair maiden, oh fair maiden,
Trapped in her castle in the sky,
Her dream to be free,
Waiting for her true beloved marquis.
In a castle far far away, Lady Alicia strides in,
All the noblemen pause and stare,
She sings out a melodious lullaby, and dances with flair,
Yet a stranger does appear quietly without fear.
She becomes cognizant of him, her hearts a flutter,
He approaches her with aplomb,
An grandiosely bows before her, with a flitting smile,
And takes her hand for a dance in style.
Oh fair maiden, oh fair maiden,
Trapped in her castle in the sky,
Her dream to be free,
Waiting for her true beloved marquis.
That night magic was abound, and some mischief was around,
She longed to stay in his strong arms,
Alas it was not so, he whispered his goodbyes all told,
Her heart was crushed and so she cried.
But the stranger had a wicked plan, one to set Lady Alicia free,
After his sorrowful goodbyes,
He beseeched the Moon, to release the castle in the sky,
‘I will not’ was his simple reply.
Oh fair maiden, oh fair maiden,
Trapped in her castle in the sky,
Her dream to be free,
Waiting for her true beloved marquis.
Our stranger being cunning, set out to trick the Moon,
He went back stammering his apologies,
Asked her to sing a mournful tune, a dirge to move the Moon,
She acceded but only if he would never leave.
Hand in hand they present to the Moon, a dirge unlike any before,
Voices in unison and hearts intertwined,
Even the Moon cried, after a few tears he let them free,
A couple free to follow their dream.
Oh fair maiden, oh fair maiden,
Trapped in her castle in the sky,
Her dream to be free,
Waiting for her true beloved marquis.
I hope you two love my poems, and I hope it met expectations. I reworked yours a little to get it to rhyme, just for you Alicia!
Well I finally got some time to write something for this blog of mine. Between having two fast track courses, two online courses at Ryerson, and of course the work I do for BITE TV I had a pretty hectic time organizing my time. Having 3 exams in the span of three days plus some assignments and projects to hand in is brutal. Although with good grace I will say I survived. Now onto the first mini recap.
Now that I lost your attention we can get started. Last week at some time Ree and me were planning a #ricekrispieTO because if you know me, you know I have a soft spot in my soul absence for baked goods. While frantically researching where are some awesome rice krispies/bakeries around downtown (I’ll save you the trouble they’re pretty much in Kensington and the Annex) Ree told me that Joallore and Jessica were having a #rotiTO. Well suffice it to say that we ended up going for some roti, and while Ree was nervous I dragged her out with me like a real gentleman. Classy. Which was awesome, there were some amazing people there (see: @jasbanwait@robsarj@randycity@randeepk@jonezy@ellerich@kellyldewolf@bgonsal) and we were probably the loudest group of people the place (which I forgot to mention is Bacchus Roti) ever had. I won’t bore you with the details but lets say many jokes were passed, good moments were savored and pictures were taken (and tweeted).
Randy is a classic joker, Elle doesn’t like potatoes and cannot do any accents which makes me sad I wanted to hear something funny in an accented voice. Bgon has a nexus one, which I am jealous of, beats the daylights out of my HTC magic. Rob works at putting edge and his business card is a free putting edge admission. Kelly has an awesome last name De Wolf, I mean really now. Also she works for Massey Hall, so she knows when the good events are happening. I didn’t get a chance to really talk with Jonezy or Jas but on their end of the table was a party, and some sort of beat down on Joallore. While Jessica and Ree were repping Spain for the FIFA WC2010. Terrible taste in soccer teams I know. Oh I’m just kidding don’t get too worked up. Oh and Randeep was making some awesome artistic sketches, I only got to catch a minor glimpse but let me tell you that they looked nice.
Afterwards some of us hit up The Rhino for some drinks, debauchery soon followed, oh sorry I should say light indulgence instead. Ree, Joallore and me got into a discussion concerning relationships and women, and pet peeves about the opposite sex. I’ll let you know that one of mine is women with lack of intelligence, in case you were wondering. Ask me one time to get more into detail if you ever see me. And you know who showed up? Breanna. You know, that blonde girl with the dating blog and is @unbrelievable. Yup that girl. With wine glass in hand what followed was some good stories about her trip to Bonnaroo and, you guessed it more relationship/dating discussion. It was a fateful encounter I must say since we were talking about relationships. Perhaps it’s like her Bat signal. I could see her spontaneously appearing with her own theme music! As for the relationship/dating discussion… well I shouldn’t give away any secrets now should I? *cue evil cackle* Maybe if someone takes me out for some tea I might be willing to open up (read: definitely willing to open up).
As the evening wore on I headed home, meeting so many people and attempting to be funny and tease people just takes so much effort out of me. I’m so weak willed but alas it was a great evening.
Wednesday was a big day for me, I told Lisa of http://www.hipurbangirl.com/ that I would come to her website launch celebration and networking event at SpiceSafar. I would like to take a moment to congratulate her on a great success and turnout, and that I hope it was everything she wanted it to be, and more. I was really nervous at first because I did not want to go alone, and I honestly do not have any friends that would be interested in this type of thing at all. Although I did get one of my friends to come by and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Regardless, the situation was still kind of stressful for me since I’ll be meeting many twitter people, professionals, and people who are generally older then my 20 shy years. I was hoping I wouldn’t be too out of place and most importantly that I would not have to mission it alone. Also the weather was absolutely horrendous, it was pouring like no tomorrow. I got soaked by the time I got there, but once inside I dried off quickly enough.
As I got there though I felt pretty relieved since I saw Crystal Gibson and her friends Abby and Mel right off the bat! How lucky and fortuitous of me right. I was on my phone about to foursquare that I’m here, and hoping I can check twitter to see who’s here. That way I could join twitter people, at least people I somewhat know. As I was doing so… Crystal tapped me and looked at me weirdly and was like Roman? Let me tell you I definitely got ecstatic at seeing her. From there we instantly found the twitter booth slash corner, and I went through and made myself instantly personable, and sociable. It’s not difficult for me once I have introductions going, what with my cute smile, I’m sure I charm everyone, oh and my teases and jokes they are… arguably the best.
As the night went on I met a bunch of professionals, talked to many people and enjoyed the night. I met someone who was in the field I’m studying that shared with me her experiences and insights which I am so thankful for. As well as PR professionals, photographers, writers, oh so many different people with different things to say and great stories. I saw a burlesque show as well, and even talked to the owner of SpiceSafar, although admittedly it was just about their lattes which were well presented. I felt connected to everyone I talked to, and hoped I would be remembered somewhat. I met countless twitter people as well such as Joallore, Maria, Simone, Summer, Courtney, and many many more. As a 20 year-old thats just finishing his last year of University and not knowing exactly where to go, or what doors to open it was a great way to get insight on multiple industries and hopefully expand my network pool. As well as find some great people to spend time with, and hopefully connect further with. I’m proud of myself for the fact that I ended up going and I’m hoping this is one of my many steps in the right direction, whatever direction that may become.
Secretly I’m also hoping to be invited to many other events and make some awesome friends. I could definitely use some cool people to spend great times with.
Yesterday (Saturday) I get a call from my friend Jenya, he tells me that we’re going to go out tonight to an awesome bar scene downtown. I thought he legit had some awesome plans and the night was young and I had nothing better to do so I told him I’ll meet him downtown at 9:00pm. Side blurb Thursday I got a haircut, and the lady butchered my hair off, so my self esteem got more then a little shot, probably got shot twice and bled out, but anyways I decided to do the best I could and got to the subway station. Although I did notice I strike quite the handsome Commander Shepard figure from Mass Effect.
It seems tonight was just not my night, there seems to be maintenance going on around Bay station and so there was this whole diversion, and confusion thing happening and long story short I got out at 9:30pm. Of course if you know me, you know I seem to always be the fashionably late one, added stress on fashionably. As I’m calling my friend, he’s like yeah we’ll be there soon so I decided to get some crepes at Crepe It Up at Church and Wellesley. As I’m chilling outside waiting around for my friends, this really handsome young guy with a tattoo on his neck, comes up to and starts making small talk with me. Naturally I’m curious and start chatting up with him. There was the odd joke, some good stories, and I found out that getting a Hummer means getting… well I’ll let you guys check out Urban Dictionary for the definition.
Suffice it to say I was eventually asked out for a beer, which I had to politely decline since I’m still waiting for my friends (They are about an hour late, since they don’t show up til 10:30pm, geez). So he peaces out, and hopefully I didn’t break his heart but anyways my friends come by and guess where we end up going. If you guessed Andy’s Poolhall, then you win the grand prize of buying me a drink when we meet next. So it’s me, my friend Jenya, our female friend lets call her J, and her gay friend lets call him A, and J wants to experience going to a lesbian bar. Just awesome right? She just wants to make out with girls all night and is determined to do this. We end up humouring her.
It turns out tonight is Cherry Bomb at Andy’s. And so I’m kind of nervous since my friend Jenya and I are straight, and we tell J that we’ll probably not be allowed in. Well it turns out that I’m such a good seducer that… okay so I’m lying J just turns heads and gets us in, and our friend J is in heaven, getting attention from all the girls while me, Jenya, and A are dancing and drinking beer just enjoying ourselves. We’re having some fun times though since we know how to make any party a good party and met some gorgeous girls. A liked to hug everyone while I flashed my outrageous smile and teased everyone.
In the end the night was epic, there was huge amounts of fun, alcohol, and semi pseudo-intellectual conversations going on, I also got stuck with taking J’s car and driving all of us back home. Thats what I get for being such a nice guy, they couldn’t even let me enjoy myself those greedy jerks! Back at J’s place we start playing Kings, a drinking game, and more hilarious conversational outtakes featuring J and A getting into fights. Oh those two, like brother and sister, I swear if I have to hear someone say ‘Seriously I love you but…’ I’ll start to facepalm.
So that was the story of my Saturday Night, it seems I always get dragged out to something that makes for quite a story, of course there are more details but you need to converse with me to get the real Juicy pieces from my story, I can’t reveal all my secrets at once, right? As usual leave your comments below and tell me what you think, or share your own stories.
Well it’s almost May and that means that summer is here! Which means going to amazing parties, enjoying the sun and water, and most importantly finding cool things to do WITH your friends. I got to thinking that I should make an epic big to-do list for this summer. Awesome things, weird things, all sorts of things, as long as its something!
You all know the great saying, your best memories are those you can share with someone right, so I’m going to make sure to do it with whomever has a burning desire to actually get out of the house and get stuff accomplished. If you guys want to suggest things, leave it in the comments or tweet me @romanswietlik I’ll even go with you. That is if you like a guy who likes to be overly sarcastic and is more then a bit eccentric. I’m great though, I swear! By the hairs on my chinny chin chin I’ll never get around to making this list! Okay no more distractions from you guys, time to make the list!
Go rock climbing
Go hiking/camping
Go to the beach
Learn to bake amazing pastries Meet new friends/people
Check out the ROM
Also check out the AGO
Go to Montreal
Attempt to be a VJ for a day
Join the gym and actually work out
Go to multiple festivals
Learn Russian PROPERLY finally
Learn Greek – intermediate
Learn new origami figures
Go to a sports game for once
Participate in an eating contest
Participate in Causes
Meet Toronto celebrities
Get autographs and pictures with said celebrities
Visit awesome lounges in Toronto
Try my hand at modelling
Attempt Yoga and meditation
Spend more time with my friends
Join any competition and win first place
Hmm thats all I could think of for now. I’ll come back to this list and add more things when they come to my mind. Hopefully I’ll be able to do these things, I know some are broad but I wanted to try my hand at anything and everything to comes to my attention. Yup I’m adventurous that way. I’d really love to meet new friends though, thats why it’s bolded. I love meeting new people! Oh, wait no don’t go away, I swear I’m good at conversations!!
I recently found my poetry that I did a few years back… okay well I didn’t find it I just remembered it was in my facebook notes! But anyways they are quite the fun read for me considering I went through some phase thinking I could play with words with the best of them. Just read this one I titled as “Hot Anger”
Malevolent, furious, burning deep inside of me
just waiting for me to give it release
it’s pulsing without cease
it’s maddened with desire, it wants its way
to rage furiously, to burn its own path
what would happen if I let it go
would I regret what I do, or find immense satisfaction from it too
it’s waiting, furiously patient
it knows it can’t be stopped it can’t be controlled, it’s seething
it just want to knock the smile out from pesky peoples mouths, it’s such a desire,
it’s overwhelming my cautious demeanour, oh how it yearns to be set free,
oh how its waiting for me.
As you can quite possibly tell, I must have had some teen angst and anger hidden deep inside me waiting for release! Thankfully I also posted another poem a few days later which totally depicts me as a romantic sweetheart. This one is entitled “Special Someone”
Someone to take me out one night, lead me by hand around the city. Showing me all the nice sights, telling me her stories, her desires, and dreams. To reminisce about old times and put to memory new moments. To leave me breathless with laughter, know what teases me just right, so I smile in delight. In the end a single kiss from her side, and a nice cuddle from mine. Then to look up into the starry night, spot the constellations, and watch the moonlight. Watch it hit the watery fountain just right, to send silvery streams everywhere. I soon take you by the fountain, it’s so warm, I splash water all over you, you laugh. You then come up close to me, then push me in, I’m all soaked! Oh I drag you in with me, have a splash fight, we’re both drenched, but the night is so warm, the night is so nice. The night…
I’m thinking I’ll brush up on my writing skills again and set about organizing some writing projects to really polish up my communication skills as well! But really aren’t I just such a sweetheart, sure it’s not in an elaborately verse/prose style but one they’ll be more where that came from! Now to find the other poems I wrote, they should be just as interesting. Ahh this brings me back a few years to a time where things were… well somewhat more simpler, but not really.
