Author: blissfulsteep

Brad and I have always talked about taking a trip to Jasper. See, I am from Calgary, and though we both live in Edmonton now, it’s no surprise that I spent a lot of my youth in Canmore and Banff. Surprisingly, however, I had never been to the town of Jasper before, while my St. Paul native boyfriend had, and man, that drove me insane.

We decided one day in May of this year to just do it. The campsites were just starting to re-open again, and the weather was finally starting to heat up. We packed up a tent, a cooler of food, and some other supplies, and drove off.

Thursday.

The campsite was very cute, and seemingly popular among campers (it was pretty full, and is a mere few minutes from the town). The only downside? Where there were once lush forests shielding your site from the ones next to you, there were trees no longer. We learned that the trees were infected with a dangerous species of pine beetle, and the trees all needed to be cut down, and burned to eradicate them. As a result, we got nice and cozy with our neighbours.

We built a fire, and had some s’mores. I read my book (I believe at the time I was reading Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, the second book in a trilogy set in Victorian England, in which a race of Angel-blooded mortals fought demons and other nefarious villains). We enjoyed a nice night in before our big upcoming adventures.

Friday.

We woke, headed into the town, and did what we do best. Got coffee, and walked around. We browsed the shops, checked out some of the parks, and then we had a delicious lunch at Harvest Food & Drink. That wasn’t all we did. We went to Maligne Canyon, and did the entire hike. It was gorgeous.

That evening, we walked around the campsite, and then hung out by the fire, me reading my book, and Brad reading his.

Saturday.

We spent a lot of Saturday on the road. Brad loves to drive, and the driving in the mountains is so incredibly scenic. We went to Maligne Lake, which was about an hour from the campsite. We were scheduled to go on a boat cruise, which was cancelled due to the weather, but we still wanted to see the lake, and walk around. We did some light hiking, and had a picnic by the river next to the lake. A bird kept eating the seeds that were falling off my everything bagel.

While we were driving around, we encountered Annette Lake, which ended up having a beautiful, if not random, sandy beach. The water was blue. Like, really, really blue. I have never seen water so blue. We sat on the beach for hours, soaking in the sun. That was where I got my very first sunburn of 2021.

Sunday.

Gone was the reckless sense of abandonment from real life and responsibilities, as our impending trip home was on the horizon. We packed up, as slowly as possible, to extend our vacation, and we set off on our drive back to Edmonton, stopping on the way for snacks.

I put together a slideshow of the alarmingly little photos and videos I took, attempting to piece together the memories we made.

The Internet and media have changed the way we speak, interact, and share, not to mention the ways we spend our time, conduct business, and govern countries, so why wouldn’t it affect our storytelling too? The answer: it does. Our attention spans have decreased, and we spend hours upon hours scrolling mindlessly through our feeds for some gratification, whether that comes from short-form storytelling like TikToks or reels, memes, or tweets, or long-form storytelling, like an article, blog post, or even an e-book.

How can we tell stories effectively online? How do we keep an otherwise distracted audience invested in our stories? The answers are in the infographic below.

Summary of the infographic

1. Have a clear message: have a moral of the story. Make sure that you are offering some kind of lesson or value so that your audience has an incentive to stick around.
2. Keep it structured: have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Do not deviate! This will only confuse your audience, and make it less likely that they will stay.
3. Make your story engaging: in addition to just having an interesting story, have some interactive elements to keep your audience engaged with the story.
4. Know your platform: know what does well and is expected on each platform. Your story could be great, but if it is in the wrong format, or does not serve the audience you are catering to, it won’t matter.
5. Keep it simple: keep your story to the point. The excess will only serve to distract your audience and drive them away.

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Storytelling is an art, but anyone can do it with a little thought. There will always be an audience for your story online, all you have to do is make them listen. Good luck!

My family has always been a baseball family, much to any Canadian’s dismay. Canada is a hockey country, everyone knows that, but the Laferriere family has never cared much for hockey. We love baseball, through and through. My parents met in their twenties playing baseball (on opposing teams, funnily enough), which basically made it destiny for the rest of us to love the sport. My brother is especially invested. He has autism, and as a result, he is hyper-focused on and passionate about baseball, and only baseball. In order to support him and his dedication to the sport, my family makes sure to watch as many games as we can. That way, when he talks about how the Jays’ starter was sluggish on the plate, the argument isn’t totally lost on us. That is why for this assignment, I decided to live-tweet the baseball game on Saturday, between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays.

So, what happened during the game?

The game itself was slightly disappointing (which I will get to). Rays were leading us 1-0 until the top of the third inning, when we had a two-run homer, bringing the score to 2-1 Jays. Exciting, sure, but short-lived. In the bottom of the third, the Rays had two homers, making the score 4-2 Rays. The rest of the game felt entirely uneventful, the Jays clearly not putting their best foot forward. This being said, their defense was okay, given that they prevented any more runs from coming in until the ninth inning. We still had a small chance of at least tying the game up to go into extra innings, with someone on 1^st and 3^rd, but we were down to our last out and didn’t manage to bring them home. The final score ended up being 5-2 for the Rays. Drats!

I live-tweeted relevant updates about the game, but nothing too detailed as I was more enraptured in the game than I expected I’d be. This link will bring you to the first tweet of the thread if you want to see the abbreviated updates!

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As a full-time university student and part-time procrastinator, I don’t have a lot of time to read books for pleasure. Any time I am inclined to pick up a book for leisure, I feel guilty knowing that time could be better used to read academic resources, watch lectures, or work on assignments, not to mention all the menial tasks that come with adulthood: cleaning, grocery shopping and meal preparation, working in order to afford the rent… Regardless, the moral of the story here is that from September to May, I don’t read. Not for fun, anyway. Every summer, though, I read until my eyeballs are popping out of my head. I read early in the morning, late at night, while I’m eating, while I’m doing dishes; literally any time my eyes are not preoccupied. To understand the veracity with which I read in the summers, I can tell you that in one month, I have read 25 novels, and not short ones.

One of my favourite series of the summer thus far was The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo.

The Grisha Trilogy includes Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising. For your information, I bought the paperback boxset off Amazon CA for pretty cheap, you can find them here. I was inspired to read this trilogy because Netflix has now come out with a Netflix original TV series using this storyline plus other overlapping stories in the GrishaVerse. The trilogy centres around a girl named Alina Starkov. She was orphaned at a young age, and wound up at Keramzin, an orphanage where she met Mal, who becomes her long-time best friend. They join the military together, her as a cartographer, and him as a Tracker. During an expedition through The Fold, a dark and horrible curtain of death and despair dividing the people, Alina displays a very sought-after power, the ability to summon light. This ability is said to be able to banish The Fold and save the people of Ravka, and she is the first of her kind, rumored to be a Saint. She embarks on a journey to the Little Palace, where she is trained to use her power in order to save the Ravkans, but she must leave Mal, the only sure thing in her life, behind. The books detail her journey attempting to defeat The Fold, and the evildoers plotting to use her for their gain. Out of fear of giving away spoilers, I have really condensed my summary, but you can read a more detailed synopsis here.

Let’s talk about themes…

Any good story is universal, structured, simple, and has a character you want to root for. This trilogy has all of these qualities. Universality is always more subtle in fantasy novels given the subject matter, but some themes still ring true. In particular, this series tackles themes including abuse of power, the impact of division in society, the value of confidence and self-actualization, and they even tackle the idea of blind faith in religion. Most importantly, they explore the negative impact of greed the greedy person, and on society. Click here to read an interesting article about Greed Syndrome and how to recognize it. These are themes that we can read and relate to as they ring true for us too, even if we can’t manipulate matter like the Grisha can. The series itself is structured, and simple, and it is easy to read. The narration is third person omniscient, which makes the story easy for us to follow as we have insights into many of the characters’ points of view. Lastly, Leigh Bardugo masterfully wrote her characters in such a way that you almost want to root for all of them, even the ones you know to be villains. Every character has a quality about them that makes you want to hug and protect them from the tragic world they are living in, and you want to keep reading to make sure that whatever happens, they are safe.

Overall, The Grisha Trilogy is a skillfully written story, with evidence of all 4 elements of good storytelling: universality, structure, simplicity, and a character you can root for (or in this case, characters). As an added bonus, once you’ve read the books, you can watch the new hit series on Netflix.