We come to university to learn, or at least that’s what my dad says when he sees me blogging and shakes his head. It is true that classes impart a lot of useful (or not) information, but it is also true that much of what we learn comes not from lectures or exams, but from frantically preparing for lectures or exams. By half-way through their first year, the average student has mastered the all-nighter, the cram session, and the ability to meet a seemingly-impossible deadline on nothing but determination and Red Bull. We learn these skills to help us learn other things, of course, but it’s also so satisfying when we can apply them to other situations.

Take, for instance, Lost Episode Festival Toronto‘s upcoming 50 Hour Film Competition. A creative contest open to anyone and everyone with a camera and some friends, this local challenge encourages aspiring film-makers (or anyone else interested in winning terrific prizes) to re-create “lost” scenes from famous TV shows, or to make fake advertisements or trailers, all in only 50 hours. Remember those consecutive all-nighters for that econ final? Remember cursing the time and energy spent in learning something you thought could not have any practical application? Well, now you can put at least some of that experience to use.

The competition begins on the night of Friday, May 3, when each team is given a character, a line of dialogue, and a prop to incorporate into making a film. The teams then have only 50 hours to write, shoot, and submit their masterpieces. The entries will be evaluated by the festival’s judges and the winning teams will be awarded cash, prizes, and all the glamour and prestige that comes with winning a film festival. There’s also an audience choice award, for the film-makers who somehow manage to go commercial in under 50 hours. All entries will be screened in the big, beautiful, fully-licensed Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, only a few blocks from campus

To participate, simply sign-up on the festival website here. Participation costs less than a statistics textbook and is, I’ve been told, at least twice as enjoyable. Anyone of any level of skill and experience is welcome to enter, and a team can be of any size. It’s the perfect activity for those, like me, who have only a few weeks between the end of exams and the beginning of summer school to have a little fun. Or a lot of fun. Or 50 hours of fun.

For those out of the social media loop, student news feeds were overrun today by links to a public Facebook note by Sana Ali, the unopposed Team RENEW candidate running for the position of VP External in the on-going UTSU election. In her note, Ali  forfeited the election and terminated her relationship with Team RENEW, and offered some heavy criticisms of the party’s practises regarding open discussion and diversity of thought. She describes attempts to “squash dissent and individuality”, and reveals that her official candidate statement was written for her by the team. She accuses Team RENEW of drastically altering their platform from past slates’, of choosing her because of her ethnicity, of restricting her communication with opposition, and of manipulating students’ ignorance and apathy so as to gain political advantage. Her criticisms are concise, clear, and specific; entirely unlike the whole of her former team’s platform.

At time of press, over one thousand students have liked Ali’s note, an impressive number considering how few follow student politics and how little time the content has had to spread. There are dozens of comments as well, almost all of which are complimentary, often lionizing. Ali’s note is being heralded by some as “an inspiration” and indeed it should be: she’s got us all caring, though perhaps just a little, about a one-sided election.

There is something unintuitive in commending Ali’s action, though. How, exactly, is forfeiting noble? Why are we commending inaction? The answer is both chilling and condemnatory, not of Ali but of the campus that has nurtured the rise of Team RENEW: our state of political affairs is such that the most brazen, powerful action taken by one of our political candidates in recent memory is refusing to take part in something unethical. Ali’s decision is impressive because it is brave and principled, but the consequences of her decision are important not because they are good but because they are not bad. So surrounded are we by the haze of political doublespeak and the murk of self-serving governance that plain honesty’s dim glow is enough to draw us near.

I’m not going to chastise a body of tens of thousands of students, including me, if only because I know it could do no good. We, students, are among the most opinionated and vocal demographics in the world; we are surrounded by geniuses and innovators whose insights we absorb and analyze daily. The discord between our beliefs and refusal to act on them is so immense that there must be an underlying cause so powerful it not only compels us to apathy but blinds us to the extent.

I don’t believe, as Ali suggested, that there is a campus-wide epidemic of mass ignorance. Nor I believe that we are too lazy to mobilize. Apathy is a thing of its own kind; it is emotional inertia. We act only when we care, we care only when we must. We are not an active entity conflicted by the obstacles of ignorance or oppression; we are a motionless body with no apparent incentive to get up and improve our environment. There is, fortunately, unfortunately, simply nothing so terrible or unjust to compel us to take action at all.

Yet.

There’s an episode of the Simpsons in which Bart realizes that he has only one day left until school starts in the fall and he’s accomplished nothing he’d intended to do over the summer. So, true to cartoon form, Bart finishes off his checklist of summer activities – including his first romance – in under 24 hours and when school starts the next day he feels he’s had a complete vacation.

That’s kind of like how I feel with summer classes looming so soon after spring exams end. Sure, there are differences between me and Bart Simpson – one of us is cartoon, the other is not; one had one day, the other has a few weeks; only one of us is able to get a date – but the pressure to make the best of my time in these glorious sunny days in the prime of my youth does not go unnoticed. That’s why, in the two or so weeks until UofT’s scaly academic claw drags me back into the depths of cram session hell (as you can tell, I study writing and rhetoric) I’ve decided to do as much as I can to truly make the best of summer 2012. To aid me in my noble task, I have prepared a list of the summer attractions for the summer school student.

Summer 2012, Toronto: Abridged Edition

May 1: May Day
Toronto’s fair-weather revolution picks up in full swing on May 1 as activists – from a wide array of backgrounds but with the common goal of stickin’ it to the Man – will take to the streets to protest the government/the 1% in a rally at City Hall followed by a march to an undisclosed location. Employees of all jobs are encouraged to take a sick day to really show the system who’s boss and attend, if they can, the Occupy Toronto potluck at Queen’s Park. Even students who are not entirely convinced of the movement’s goals and ideologies may be interested in popping by with a camera for some interesting snapshots and the chance to document what may become an event of historical significance.

May 1 – 2: Toronto Blue Jays play the Texas Rangers
An obscene amount of research went into this blurb, including a search for the definitions of “baseball”, “inning”, and “Ricky Romero”. Someone with my lack of knowledge on the subject can’t truthfully say either way if the Jays’ games against the Rangers will be exciting or notable, but the Torontonian in me still roots for the home team.

May 1 – 8: The Tennessee Williams Project
Beginning and ending right in the middle of our mini-vacation, The Tennessee Williams project will feature nine theatre companies producing seven of Williams’ lesser-known one-act plays over the course of seven nights, each in a different neighbourhood. The Project seeks to unite Toronto over the mutual admiration and respect for the works of this giant of American theatre and will, at the very least, provide us with some exceptional local theatre and the chance to see some rarely-performed pieces.

May 4: Star Wars Day (“May the 4th Be with You”)
Nerds of the city awaken from their anime-fuelled slumbers and join together on May 4 to celebrate George Lucas’ ground-breaking sci-fi classic and its subsequent sequels, prequels, comic books, novels, TV shows, and general media empire. The epicentre is the Toronto Underground Cinema, which will host a trivia challenge, costume contest, fan films, and celebrity guests. Tickets are pre-sold, so make sure to grab some quick.

May 5: Free Comic Book Day / TCAF
Two fairly different cultural groups unite over one marginalized medium on May 5 as local comic book stores hand out free comic books, courtesy of corporate sponsors, while the Toronto Reference Library hosts a wide array of indie comic writers and artists to peddle their hip, and often depressing, wares. To draw in the crowds Silver Snail Comics will be handing out original, unique posters and bringing in artist Phil Noto for an appearance and signing - but if you’re really into being starstruck I’d recommend heading to TCAF instead to bask in the genius emanating from graphic novelist Alison Bechdel.
TCAF runs until Sunday but many headlining exhibitors and special guests, including Bechdel, will only drop by for the Saturday.

May 5 – 6: Jane’s Walk
As if choosing between TCAF and FCBD weren’t hard enough, those with prior obligations on Sunday must also choose between a day in comic book stores and libraries or an educational walk in the city. Jane’s Walks are public walking tours led by knowledgeable members of the community that provide attendees with knowledge of the neighbourhood while they promenade through. They’re often specialized to individual topics and offer in-depth knowledge on local culture, architecture, and history, and they’re well worth checking out.

April 26 – May 6: Hot Docs Film Festival
A Toronto tradition on par with not caring about Toronto or traditions, the Hot Docs film festival highlights the work of documentarians from around the world in a series of screenings at venues across the city. As Ally’s stirring review of The World Before Her shows, good documentaries have the power to touch us emotionally while also opening our eyes and educating us on matters we’d never even considered. Hot Docs brings in the best of the best of documentaries and provides us with a rich cultural and intellectual experience for a very modest fee. I strongly recommend seeing at least one Hot Doc before the festival closes on May 6.

Picasso at the Art Gallery of Ontario
One of the amazing benefits of living or studying in a city as cosmopolitan as Toronto is access not only to local art but to international pieces as well. Throughout the month of May, the Art Gallery of Ontario will be showcasing some of the greatest works of one of the greatest artists of the past hundred years, and admission is only $11 for students. If you have even a fleeting interest in art Picasso’s is some of the first work you should be checking out; at the very least drop by the exhibit so you have something to tell your parents when they ask about your summer plans.

May 13 – Mother’s Day
This is as much a reminder to me as it is to you. Though the students in us may protest the incorporation and commercialization of maternal attachment as a means of exploitation of the masses, there’s still no excuse in forgetting to at least call. Many local restaurants and shops will also have mother’s day sales, so even if you’re not into all this – or you don’t have a mother – you can still indulge yourself.

 

As the past eight months of blogs have shown, school is by no means a social death sentence. We can always find time to go to the theatre or a sports game if we manage, and we can always manage if we need to. UofT students are resourceful and, contrary to our memes page, capable of good grades and recreational activities. Despite all this, the liberty of knowing you have no assignments due and no essays to study for and no novels to read and no lab reports to write is a wonderful feeling to a weary student, even if it is at the cost of the pressure to enjoy one’s self. I’d gladly take it over school-work any day, or at least until May 14.

I don’t usually like writing serious stuff, but this needs some serious attention.

You’re on the Internet right now, so you’ve probably already heard of SOPA and PIPA. That is, the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. And you probably know that many major Internet companies/groups have been opposing this bill. Wiki blacked out for a day to draw awareness, along with Reddit and other information-sharing sites. Google, Facebook, and Mozilla are opposed too, just to name a few.

In short: This bill, if passed by the US congress, will give big companies an advantage in suing non-US companies for copyright infringement. It will most notably not allow sites to have links to pirated material or to other sites that break copyright laws. In a way, it will censor a lot of the Internet. Considering that the Internet has become THE place to share files and information and, considering today’s global community, well… not the greatest idea from the US congress.

Basically, any site that links to pirated information is a target for this new bill, regardless of whether or not the site was responsible for the pirating in the first place. This is censoring the Internet of almost anything that is copyrighted. And it almost sounds legit until you consider that many people use the Internet as a way to share files that they legitimately own. YouTube videos can be taken down… hell, YouTube itself can be taken down. Going to share a link on Facebook? It better not link to a site that links to a pirating site. Even Google will have to watch out for what it shows in its results. Does this not go completely against the idea of the Internet?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought that the Internet would be humankind’s way to connect with other people. It’s a global community – a place for us to share our ideas, interests, and, yes our music, videos, and other copyrighted things. I mean, I’ve shared the Harry Potters movies in real life, so why am I not allowed to do so on the Internet? If they ban sharing of copyrighted materials on sites, then are they going to stop us from EMAILING files to each other too? What’s next? No more USBs because, clearly, we can copy and paste files and share with those as well!

As a student, I feel like this could have major effects on our lives. I mentioned the Wiki blackout – what if it got permanently banned for linking to copyrighted information? Sure, we can’t cite Wiki, but that’s always the first place I look when I start doing research because it’s a wonderful background information resource. And YouTube – there are a lot of good, educational videos that I would really like to stay there.

It’s unfortunate that, as Canadians, we can’t exactly call up a congress member and protest the bill… well, we could, but I doubt it would sway them much. But you should know that SOPA will have the ability to shut down Canadian-run sites, even if no Canadian laws were broken. Piracy certainly is a major issue, but there’s always the issue of when a law would do justice and when it would go completely against what’s fair.

The worst part is, SOPA seems unnecessary. The bill’s actually on hold now due to the Internet blackout a few days ago but, regardless of that, Megaupload’s founder was still arrested and Megaupload remains down. This is exactly the form of legal action that SOPA seeks to bring… but the US authorities managed to do this based on current copyright laws. The action was drastic, of course. Megaupload has been a big help to many of us, and few avid internet users are happy to see it go, but the point is that piracy has been thwarted without the need to censor 90% of the Internet.

But, really, growing up in the Information Age, I think we’ve all learned to appreciate the wonders of the Internet in all its file-sharing glory. And, in all honestly, I don’t think that SOPA, even if passed, would be able to stop the millions of people who use the Internet from finding a way to continue to share. It’s called the World Wide Web for a reason, and severing the threads that link things together will tear the whole thing apart.

Sites threatened by SOPA: http://www.thisblogrules.com/2012/01/top-13-endangered-websites-if-sopa-passes.html

How it could affect Canadians: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/What+SOPA+means+Canada/6019152/story.html

Google’s Anti-SOPA Petition information: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/google-anti-sopa-petition.html

Jan. 23, 2012: UPDATE! IT’S BEEN STOPPED!

I wish I had something more to say now, but I think I got my ranting done with. Opinions and thoughts in Comments, please!

My entire 2nd year was spent preparing for my exchange (or it felt like it sometimes). U of T sets up this particularly rigorous process to weed out those who they think may not be fit outside of the confines of St George Campus. But if you can take on U of T, you can probably take on another university. Not probably, you can. So after all the time spent writing a statement of interest, resumé, forms, etc etc I am here: in Wales.

Not that I’m not enjoying my time abroad so far, I am, but sometimes I wish I did a little more research or perhaps got a little more guidance from previous exchange students. One of the most basic things that I am missing desperately is THE SUN! When applying I wasn’t thinking about climate or weather I was too focused on organizing my credits (a very stressful and back and forth process, I might add). But it has come to my attention that I am indeed a sun lover. Not that I’m a cold blooded lizard and would literally die with out the sun, but the 3 hours of sun we got yesterday literally boosted my mood 10x over. And not that Toronto is a sun capital but at least if it is cold we still get some rays at least every other day. In the winter months there is not as much sun but it does seem to shine down more in Toronto than in Swansea. To combat my vitamin D deficiency I have literally booked every weekend with a trip somewhere. I mean that was the plan: to see as much of Europe as humanly possible. Last weekend was Amsterdam and next weekend is London. Mission accomplished. Hopefully the funds can last me this long…

So to all who are thinking of going abroad, think about what may seem to be menial details such as sunlight or warmth or the lack of trees there might be. Your emotions will be forever grateful.

UTSU’s eXpression Against Oppression week is coming up again.  From October 17th-20th engage in exciting events and seminars about the social injustices in Canada and around the world.  For more information visit their Facebook page.