Krystle Chow’s Online Portfolio

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the March/April 2006 edition (Vol. 6, Issue 3) of Ottawa Insight.
April 2006

Anne Cottingham prepares for another trip.

OTTAWA - Summer is nearing, and Anne Cottingham is planning a trip to Europe after graduation.

One thing she says she’s never considered when preparing for travel, however, is what transaction costs may be incurred with each different kind of payment method.

“I just think, ‘OK, I’m going,’” she says when asked if she’s thought about whether it’s best to use a credit card, debit card, traveller’s cheques, or to buy foreign currency. “It’s not something I’ve really looked into.”

Cottingham has just returned from Vancouver and was in New York City in late February. She says she plans to indulge her newly discovered passion for travel even more once she has finished her fourth year at Carleton University.

It’s an expensive hobby, to be sure; Cottingham says she spends about $500 to $1000 for a short-term trip like her New York weekend jaunt, excluding the cost of travel and lodging.

She adds she brought $200 USD in cash for her New York trip, mainly for cabs, meals and some stores. For the most part, she used her credit card and didn’t use her debit card much at all. (more…)

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa West Edition of The News EMC.
April 27, 2006

Chad Nesrallah of Fat Dog Productions chuckles as he tells the story of how he played a practical joke on some of the young musicians who participated in the company’s summer program.

“We told them this was the cover for their demo disc,” he says, holding out a grainy black-and-white computer printout on plain paper. “I said we’d worked all night on it.”

Of course, the actual demo disc was full-colour and glossy - a professional production from one of the few large studios left in Ottawa.

It’s part of Mr. Nesrallah’s philosophy for Fat Dog Productions; especially with his two-week Rock Star Camp program to train youth who are interested in becoming professional artists (more…)

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa West edition of The News EMC.
Apr. 20, 2006

Kelda Whalen recalls a beautiful day in 1997 when she walked 10 blocks up Elgin Street.

“I was smiling at strangers,” she says. “It was the happiest I’d been in 15 years.”

That walk was the result of a temporarily successful operation on her brain - one of 12 to treat a disorder known as dystonia, which causes sufferers to constantly jerk and move involuntarily.

However, the surgery’s effects only lasted a few months before the deep brain stimulators implanted in her skull malfunctioned and had to be removed.

Ms. Whalen has had the condition since (more…)