Needless to say, I am stoked. Because in my opinion, there’s nothing better than being adorable and a complete geek at the same time. I’ve been rocking that lifestyle for 22 years and it’s still going strong!

Have you watched A Very Potter Sequel yet? I have! I loved it. Not sure if I loved the first one better or not. Hmm. In any case, I’ve downloaded some of the songs from iTunes, and I’m super stoked for the rest of the soundtrack to be released tomorrow! “Those Voices” + “Days of Summer” + “Hermione Can’t Draw” = <3 I also may be in love with Darren Criss’s voice, in general. Kbye.

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Usually, during the summer, I try to read more, see more movies and catch up on random TV I missed during the winter. This summer, I’ve gone horseback riding, and… um. My time is spent working, commuting and trying to keep something resembling a social life going by having frequent dinner dates with individual friends, attractive people and groups of friends (some people may or may not fall into more than one category). I think my hobbies had quite a bit to do with the Internet, but now that I spend 9 hours a day on a computer, coming home to spend more time on a computer does not seem enthralling.

So! I need new hobbies! Here are a few I have thought of:

Oscar-award winning actress: I took drama and performed for a loooong time. As a result, I feel quite at home on stage and I’m pretty good at acting. I think that this is probably enough to win an Oscar. All I need is either a well-known director or an unknown directing prodigy to put me in their film, and magic would happen. I daresay they would move the Oscar ceremony up from February, to the end of August, so that I may go back to being hobby-less and continue my studies.

Grammy-award winning singer: I’m sure that you all remember this clip from that time during my show where I serenaded you. As you can tell, I was really feeling the emotions behind the song, despite not actually being the writer. I’m quite certain my album could be recorded, sell millions of copies, and get me a Grammy award before September.

Helen Hunt: More specifically, Helen Hunt in Twister. Calgary gets a lot of storms, and I could chase them. I’m not sure which award I could win for such bravery and valour, but I’m quite confident it would be gold plated and awesome. Maybe it would be called the Ling Award for Bravery and Valour in the Eye of the Storm. Or the LAFBAVITEOTS for short!

It could be totally awesome (although hopefully I could do it with nicer hair. The snow pants from the 12 year old boy section can stay).

So, those are my ideas! Please tell me which one you think would work best, so I may get started right away! Or, if you have other suggestions, I’d love to hear them as well!

(P.S. No, I’m not going to tell you the name of the book. Don’t you think that question is a little bit too personal? ALSO, I enjoy the new Avenged Sevenfold album!)

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Nellie thinks it makes me “cute” and potentially a good girlfriend. Whatever, Nellie.

Anyway, it kind of made me think a bit more about the quirky thing that is My Life, and how I equate it to a strange indie film (sitting in the dark, listening to some Jay-Z followed by some Rachael Cantu, but I’m singing a different song out loud, in French…). More specifically, those moments of serendipity in such films where the awkward, intelligent lead notices something about the beautiful, artistic soon-to-be romantic interest. In such films, the moment is fairly (sometimes painfully) obvious. But what is that moment in real life?

Could it be something as simple as watching someone you recognize from riding the same bus every evening gathering their things, and feeling a strange rush of random feelings as they close the book they were engrossed in, and recognizing it as SOMETHING SO UTTERLY FANTASTIC?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Obviously, I’m not in an indie movie, and so from here, my life doesn’t become a web of chance meetings and planned rendezvous, with my best friend egging me on to save the day. But I’m trying to remember if I’ve had a moment similar to the one I experienced today, and I’m not sure I can recall.

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Question	Circa January 2009	Present Day
Name	Ash	Ling
Age	20	22
Hair Colour	Dirty blond	Red
Living situation	Living at home with mom, dad, brother, 2 cats and one dog… probably forever.	Living at home with mom, dad, brother, one dog, with frequent guest of brother’s girlfriend… desperately wanting to move out.
Occupation	Part time miserable organic food clerk.	Full time super stoked New Media student, part time webmaster for the Weal, summer-intern-student-type person at online marketing agency.
What do you do in your spare time?	Sit at home, watch movies.	Go out for dinner with friends, go shopping, take photos, travel, explore… & sit at home and watch movies.
Worst habit	Being over-dramatic when really unnecessary.	Not answering my iPhone. Just letting it ring while looking at it like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP.”

So, what are we looking at here? Well, it’s a comparison of superficial facts. It does not include all of the major changes in my life, the way I think, and the way I am. Now, the question is:

How can anyone who hasn’t interacted with me since the time of the first column, continue to judge me now that I am the person in the second column?

Discuss.

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Ahem. Yes. Well, it seems as though I am back in bloggy land. It suddenly became important to me to have some sort of way to connect to all of the amazing friends I have made over the years with this thing. I’ve been so busy since the end of June that I’ve hardly had time to breathe! This won’t be stopping any time soon, as my “leisurely” life of 9 hours at work, 3 hours (at least) of travelling, and social time with adorable people will only be continuing for another month or so. Then, school starts again (I AM SO STOKED OH MY GOD), and I’m even busier, trying to do all of the above (with less work), plus school. Then, it’s non-stop until graduation, and then it’s non-stop until retirement. It’s essentially non-stop for the rest of my life, as of one year ago. And I kind of love it.

But let’s discuss what’s going on around here. I stole the girl in the header (me!) from myself. I know, lazy right? The design is pretty monochromatic and light. I coded the theme from scratch, which isn’t to say that I don’t always, but that usually I just change around the template from the theme prior. This time I started fresh meaning it’s a lot more clean and manageable, with no extra straggling code from before. Yay!

Each page has a new template, so check that out. Also, there’s a new section called Spotlight, which is a sort of condensed version of the old Media section. If you’d like to see something added here, let me know!

The last thing to note is that you’re now able to register on Dreamling. This has become slightly necessary for times when I feel like I need a bit more privacy around here. Usually, it will be something controversial, an opinion I may not wish to share with everyone. Definitely won’t be random emo rants and memes since I have an LJ for that. With the registration option on this site, anyone may register (including offline friends), and I will approve them, in most cases. The Livejournal, of course, will remain online friends only, and I encourage those of you who haven’t to add me (I’m hardly ever emo on there, despite the name!).

So, take a look around, let me know what you think, register if you want (you wouldn’t want to miss anything when it does come time to post something “friends only”), and don’t look at this site in IE (.. just kidding, you can, but it hasn’t been tested there! However, if you’d like to test it for me, that’s cool too.).

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The benefits of both are pretty even. On one hand, I believe that education is important, I love my classes and instructors, and I only have 8 more months before I need to enter “the real world” anyway. On the other, I’m at an age where I’m craving independence, and want to move out on my own, and live with my own rules, and I could do that, and live comfortably, if I continued to work.

The downside of not finishing the last 8 months, of course, is wondering what would happen should I choose to move away, and don’t have the piece of paper that many companies want to see before they even consider an interview.

Then, because I am difficult, I recently came up with another idea, which would be to transfer at the end of next school year, and do an additional 2 years at a university. My program has the option of putting its credits toward several degrees, the two I’m looking at are a Bachelor of Communications Studies, or a Bachelor of Professional Arts in Communications Studies. The reason for this, I suppose, basically comes down to the fact that while I love code and design, I also love a lot of other aspects of communication, and that I’d rather have too much than too little, and to be able to get the education I need before I’m off trying to be an adult.

The downside of this, of course, is an additional 2 years of living at home than planned, and an increase in bills (although my parents have said I could have loans at this point). The upside would be an entire degree.

So, yes, that’s what’s going through my mind at the moment (well, in addition to the redesign I’m working on ), so PLEASE give me some input, so I can continue to explore all of my options!

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My friend, and former Katimavik family member, Anna Dell, has spent the last year representing BC as a BC Ambassador. The Ambassador program, from what I could gather, is a business-focused scholarship program open to former municipal ambassadors and royalty. In BC there are about 30 communities with their own representatives, and BC Ambassador is a step up from that. Each summer, 3 new candidates are crowned ambassadors, out of a competition averaging 15 contestants. After Anny served her year as the Williams Lake Stampede Miss Congeniality, she took on the challenge of BC Ambassador, won the title, and here we are nearly a year later!

Anny wanted to visit the Calgary Stampede as former rodeo royalty and as one of her last events as Ambassador. She asked me to escort her, so I went along, taking photos and showing her around.

First, we went to Premier Ed Stelmach’s Pancake Breakfast at McDougall Centre in downtown Calgary. There, Anny was able to meet the Premier, who was quite interested in the program.

On the train, she got quite a bit of attention due to her large, sparkly crown, and banner. Starting at the train station, and throughout the day, she stopped to take photos with all sorts of people, including soldiers, police officers and little girls who were in complete awe of her shiny tiara.

We attended a few events, looked around at all of the kiosks and chatted to a lot of people. At first we tried to track down the Stampede Royalty, but they had such a busy schedule that they seemed impossible to catch! As per Stampede tradition, however, a huge storm blew in, postponing several outdoor events. So, I contacted the Stampede Guest Services, and they put me into contact with the Queen’s and Princesses’ coordinator. Soon, we were watching the Cowboy Up! challenge in their special suite at the Saddledome. They were absolutely lovely ladies.

It was beginning to get late, and we’d been out since 7am, so we left the grounds in the early evening. Anny needed to leave Calgary at 6am the next day to go to a coronation in Quesnel, and we needed some sleep!

But, it was such a good day! It was very nice to spend some time with one of my dearest friends after not seeing each other since Christmas 2008! And the Stampede Guest Services personnel were just so amazing and helpful while we were there. They answered all of our questions very promptly and went the extra mile to ensure we were able to meet with the Queen and Princesses! Thank you!

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But, most of us are not actual cowboys in the slightest. We live in one of the largest cities in Canada.

This year, I decided to get back to basics (or “back in the saddle” except that I was never in the saddle to begin with) and I embarked on my first ever trail ride, a.k.a my first time on a horse that wasn’t lead around by somebody else.

And, I did surprisingly well! Let it be known that I am not athletic, and while I am adventurous with things such as travel, I tend to avoid things that could involve me falling off something that weighs a thousand pounds, being stomped on, and suffering a brain injury. Call me old fashioned and chicken.

I was pretty scared to begin with, even after being reassured that my horse, Bonnie, would just slowly follow the other horses. The lady asked me if I was okay before we left, and I responded by saying “Oh yeah, I’ll just be the one softly sobbing the whole way.”

The whole way, by the way, was a TWO HOUR trail ride, because my slightly more experienced parents had a coupon which made the 2nd hour only $10. They like a good bargain, I guess, but two hours for my first ride? COME ON.

Anyway, it went pretty well, my horse was SO slow, she would not speed up even when I wanted her to! And also, she farted the whole way. But she was a very nice horse. Bonnie and Ling, in the Wild West, that’s what they called us <3 We were a team.

Unfortunately, my stirrups were a bit too long and I couldn’t bend my knees which meant NO shock absorption, which REALLY started to kill me about 1.25 hours in. Ow.

Still, good times, and I feel like I’ve earned my right to celebrate Stampede this year, in true cowgirl style!

Yee-haw!

P.S. Don’t forget to
and maybe check out me and Josh on our new YouTube channel of awkwardness.

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Kaden is currently in 5th place, and there are still 4 days left to vote for him! You can vote once per day, every day until the 14th!

Also, if you could share this on Twitter, that would be super! Write your own message, or you can use mine!

(P.S. My crush, Daniel Radcliffe, a.k.a. Harry Potter, supports The Trevor Foundation as well! How sweet of him!)

So, yes, my hits are down these days because I’ve been a boring blogger, and this design sucks (and you guys are shallow and only love me for my looks ), but I know there are at least 100 people clicking onto the site per day, usually a bit more when I post an entry. If you could even vote once, that would be so super. If you could stick a bookmark into your toolbar and vote every day, that would be even better. Show Kaden some love, because this dude is going places.

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Also, I take back what I said about scented razors. Yes, being scented is still beyond ridiculous, but since using them my legs have been so soft and wonderful. Thank you!

I’m really into YouTube vlogs these days. Not that I don’t love writing, but video is kind of cool too. I did a YouTube vlog once, but it was boring and there were no jump cuts.

On Canada Day (the 1st) I filmed an episode of The Ling Show… but I hated it. I don’t feel like I act like myself on TLS. Well, I do, but a way too hyped up version of myself. I’m a bit more laid back IRL. Anyway, the video was a lot of us wandering around and the only amusing part was me standing on a downtown street corner waiting for my dad to quickly pass off $60, because I’d left my bank card at home. Because, really, what is more hilarious than a good joke about illegal purchases!

My parents are off camping this week, I’m working as per usual, and I feel super pleased with myself in comparison to how I was feeling/ behaving/ living last year. I made a rather emotional video about it, but then I deleted it because I figured you guys wouldn’t be interested. Ah well!

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