That this is accurate. I could use some of it:

You Are The Star

You represent the ultimate in truth and purity. Insightful and illuminating, you provide guidance for others. You also demonstrate unselfish, unconditional love. You posses many spiritual gifts, including the ability to heal. Your fortune: Your future is looking brighter by the day. The near future will be a time of both hope and healing. Luck is about to come your way, perhaps the best luck you have ever seen. Life is about to get a lot easier and much better!

It's Monday and I don't want to be here. I can't even think of anything to blog about so, I stole this from wiccachicky. I encourage you to play along!

1) Where did you graduate from and what year?
CHSS - Cariboo Hill Secondary (often refered to as "The Boo"), 1997

2) Did you have school pride?
Not really. I just participated in school stuff because I needed to meet more people. It apparently worked.

3) Was your prom a night to remember?
Yeah. We had a great grad class and the after party that we all went to was great fun. We showed that you CAN have fun without drinking.

4) Do you own all 4 Yearbooks?
4??? We had 5 and yes, I have them all.

5) What was the worst trouble you ever got into?
Almost caught drunk going into the halloween dance in grad year. The door I selected to make my grand entrance through was being monitored by the school's police liaison...It's a funny story. I'll have to share it at some point.

6) What kind of people did you hang out with?
Everyone. I was one of the few people who didn't really have a "clique". Instead, I sort of befriended everyone.

7) What was your number 1 choice of College in HS?
University of Toronto. They have a student paper that publishes daily so they have the only paper with a 24h news desk. I wanted to be a journalist. What better practice?

8) What radio station did you rock out too?
The edge - don't know what the number is. It's a alternative rock station from seattle that we could get in the neighbourhood. It STILL rocks.

9) Were you involved in any organizations or clubs?
Too many. Everything from sport clubs to organizing the first ever senior dance squad. We wanted to dance but we didn't want to be cheerleaders. It was awesome.

10) What were your favorite classes in high school?
Comparative Civ, English and Drama.

11) Who was your big crush in High School?
What grade? The one I remember the most was Jake. I loved that guy. He doesn't know it but he introduced me to RPG and comic books.

12) Would you say you’ve changed a lot since high school?
Not so much. I'm older and a fair bit wiser but otherwise, I'm the same person.

13) What do you miss the most about it?
Doing something fun every day, seeing friends daily and not having to work during the week. Those were the days.

14) Your worst memory of HS?
In grade 9, before I started liking myself, there was a nasty rumor going around that I was lesbian. it really hurt my ego. I think I ate lunch in the home ec room for over a month.

15) Did you have a car?
Nope. Still don't.

16) What were your school colors?
Blue, Orange and White. "GOOO CHARGERS!" Yuk.

17) Who were your fav. teachers?
Ms. McPherson. I've mentioned her before as someone who changed my life. I still see her once in a while. She's still amazing.

18) Did you own a cell phone in high school?
Nope. We didn't even know the meaning of hi-speed internet and the web was still a joke.

19) Did you leave campus for lunch?
Every day. We couldn't smoke on school grounds so we went accross the street.

20) If so, where was your fav. place to go eat?
If we ever did go somewhere it was KFC. It was the closes fast food to the school.

21) Were you always late to class?
I was never late (unless I had a legit reason). To this day, this is still something I'm known for. I'm rarily late.

22) Did you ever have to stay for Saturday School?
Saturday school? What's that? I took summer school because I wanted to finish Socials a year early.

23) Did you ever ditch?
Yeah. Don't tell anyone though ok? Actually, I still remember the day when I (I was the grade 12 rep) and the student body president ditched to go to a marilyn manson autograph session that ended in disaster. The next day, we were walking down the hall and the principal asked us how the signing went. We said "Great!", then we looked at each other and realized that we'd given ourselves up. It was pretty funny to see but she was cool about it. It's not like we got into trouble or anything...

24) What kind of job did you have?
I worked in the school caf for 2 years and then my mom got me a job working with her on the weekends at a kitchen for a boys private school. It was awesome. Lots of good stories there...

25) Do you wish you were still in high school?
Well. Yes and No. Yes because I loved it (good and bad) and no because I wouldn't be where I am today!

I think there must be a job out there perfect for someone with my interests. Primary interests include: movies, books, computers and breaking technology. If you know anyone who's looking for an individual with this assortment of interests, I'm the gal for you! Now enough about selling myself and onto more interesting things...

I finally had time to take a closer look at Microsoft's soon to be released new OS, Windows Vista. If you haven't see it yet and want all the dirty and techy details, I suggest the Wikipedia entry as it has lots on development, requirements etc. Note of warning that I'm not sure how accurate all of the information is, but it's better than what Microsoft is providing. This is the first time I've ever been interested in a Windows release. When we went from Windows 3.2 to 95, I wasn't as much of a geek as I am now and to be honest, I didn't care. By the time XP came out, I was on the anti Gates wagon but after only little success with the use of various Linux based OS' I've reverted back to XP. And I think my relationship with Microsoft is now love/hate. I hate the fact that the whole thing is really one man's vision (and $) but on the other hand, you have to give the guy credit for believing in something that everyone else told him would never work or was an unfulfilable dream.

The best part of this upcoming release is the use of a new user interface known as Aero. The best part about this is the 3D windows. It looks really sleek. The downside to this is that a larger percentage of current users aren't going to be able to run this. It requires a higher end graphics card that is currently not standard with most PCs. However, have no fear. If past Windows releases have set precedent, computers being manufactured for the end of 2006 and on will come standard with the hardware required to run it. Dan thinks this is overkill. Personally, I like the esthetics of the tilted windows.

So if you're anything like me you want to try this baby out before the official release which will happen sometime this year. So during my Googling, I came accross this cool thing called SphereXP. It's very similar to this new windows user interface except it's much, much cooler. When you run this application, it turns your desktop into a 3D sphere that you can scroll around. Instead of minimizing windows, you can statically pin them to the desktop. For me this is particularly useful when working with multible files. There is also a Explorer program that goes with it but I haven't had a chance to really play with it yet. I suggest that you check it out for yourself. The website has more screenshots and documentation on the software. It fills my geek quotient for the week!

And to boot, I just picked up the latest WIRED. I'm now more excited than ever about A Scanner Darkly (click here for the savy version! - look on the bottom of the screen for the movie name) I'm glad that the sci-fi king of Holywood is a major hunk. YUM! Oh yeah, and I'm not the only one that thinks so....

Happy Friday everyone and a great weekend too!

I'm been here nearly 17 years and I'm still not a citizen of this great nation. Last year, I decided that I'd had enough of sitting back and letting politicians make decisions without being able to voice my opinions and so, after much discussion with my parents and discovering that I can hold dual citizenship, we, as a family filed the papers. Citizenship is much like the green card. We currently hold the status of landed immigrants which allows us all the benefits of citizenship except for the most important, voting.

The process of application is rather tedious and, from my understanding, it has changed radically over the years. Our process started last March with a request for documents and a payment for the processing fees. Since then, the only thing we've received was a summons for fingerprinting. But Tuesday we received the summons to write the citizenship test. It's a one hour, multiple choice test that can be writen in either English or French and it tests basic knowledge of Canada and it's history. They even send out a booklet to help you study. So now, I have to write the test next Friday and then we wait for the final step, the taking of the citizenship oath.

Once everything is said and done, we'll be citizens of both Canada and Portugal! WOOHOO!

It's been rather quiet at work the last few days. I'm just waiting for the bomb to drop and all hell to break lose.

Talking to Baby Girl yesterday. She was telling me about her job search and how there are TONS of jobs out there. She mentioned that there were a few that I might be interested in. I'm not sure if I should look or not. I haven't yet because all things considered, I'm quite "content" here and I know this isn't were I'm going to be in 5 years. To be honest, I don't want another learning curve until I'm ready to do what I really want and that's not going to happen until I'm done with school so...for the time being, I think I'll stay put. One the other hand, I start to think that maybe there's something out there that would better suit my skills and that I might enjoy more! I just don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

The end to this week can't be coming soon enough. I'm tired. Really tired. I think that the last two weeks are finally starting to catch up. It's rather quiet this morning with all of the guys out at a meeting so I'm doing a bit of catch-up. Lots of filing and stuff. Fun eh?

I've finally been summoned to write my citizenship test. As per usual, I'm starting to freak. I have an issue with tests. Especially test that lots of people pass. I always get this feeling that I'll be a total disappointment if I have to re-write it. Well, that's the case with this one too. Now I get to worry about the bloody thing for2 weeks. It'll be nice to have the whole process done with though. It's been well over a year since this all started.

Baby Girl is coming by tonight to watch North Country with me. I think I'm going to pop by Safeway and buy a couple of pizza's for dinner. YUM.

Here's something fun which has recently made an appearance on a number of blogs. I thought it looked like fun!

Naturally Smart You're a naturally smart person. Your intelligence comes to you naturally, rather than from instruction - and you are better with applied or more real-world things... which comes in handy, here in the real world. 40% applied intelligence 40% natural intelligence

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Holly molly. What a crazy few days. For nearly a week I've been re-working a promo package that was created a few years ago by a marketing firm. The original package cost 6 thousand dollars and when the bosses went back to get it updated, they wanted another 4 grand. So, they ask me if I could do anything with it and I said "Sure, I can try!". So I started typing, editing, scanning, proofing, placing, editing photographs. This would all be fine and dandy if I had a decent computer here but the truth be told, the computer I use at work is ancient. It's slow and my final package - all 54MG of it, was nearly impossible to work with. To boot, I had to do all of the photo editing at home because I don't have the software of PC power to do it here. I finally had a proof printed yesterday. Came back this morning and bloody thing looks wicked. I've since made some minor changes and it's finally gone off for print. What a nightmare this turned into though. There's no burner on this bloody PC and I had a hell of a time getting this into a manageable size. The final product ended up being uploaded to my personal website and downloaded onto my laptop. I'm glad this is done with for now. I can't take another day of working on this thing though to be honest, I love working on things like this. I think that's why I loved my old job so much. I did stuff like this all the time.

The boss lady spoke to me this morning about Friday. She asked me if the temp agency would pay for the day and I said no (no work=no pay according to the agency - regardless of the reason). She said she wanted to pay for my day. I told her not to because I don't want her to get into any trouble with the agency if they happen to find out (thought trust me, it wouldn't be from me!). She insists on paying though. I didn't argue with her any more. Plus, I'm not one to say no to money.

I went to see Mrs. Henderson Presents yesterday as part of my Oscar catch-up. I wasn't overly interested in seeing it but I'm sooo glad I did. What a fabulous little movie! Judy Dench is such a riot. Not to mention that her performance with Bob Hoskins is unforgettable. Totally witty and hilarious. I highly recommend it. It was thoroughly entertaining! :)

Tonight, I'm meeting up with a friend from school who emailed me yesterday. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't talked to him in a while.

And the holiday thing that I've started to add to the bottom of my posts is starting to get some comments! I discovered a calendar last week that lists all kinds of holidays including some I didn't know existed! Most are not national holidays but they're interesting none the less!

In Norway today the folks are celebrating the Birthday of King Harald V and in Bangladesh we have Ekushey Day (Martyr's Day)! Happy holidays everyone! :)

At least for now. I went to the funeral on Friday and taking the entire day off caused a bit of heartache for my boss but she got over it. It was sad and difficult but the worst of it is over. Now it's just a matter of getting through the day to day. I think we'll all be ok.

From an exhausting Friday, I slept like a rock and didn't get out of bed until rather late on Saturday. The girls and I got together for dinner and movies in North Van. Didn't get home until ater 2AM. Sunday, I stayed home all day. I needed some pampering time and so I went through the exfoliating/moisturizing/beautifying routine. My skin feels AMAZING this morning.

It's been a quiet morning but it's only 10:30. I hope the rest of the day flies.

Happy Heritage Day to all the Canadians out there and Happy President's Day to the American readers! :)

I've been avoiding a bunch of stuff that's come into my inbox so this morning, I dealt with most of it. I'm feeling like I'm in a bit more control now. Honey worked late yesterday and instead of going home after work, I went to the movies. I saw Good Night and Good Luck and I must say, was impressed by how entertaining and well done it was. I was particularly impressed with the conclusion of Murrow's speech (which also begins the movie) in which he talks about television and how it can be used to educate. It's a powerful message and one that I think major networks need to re-visit. I still haven't changed my mind for my Best Actor Oscar pick but I do think that a few of the performances that I've seen are making it a bit of a tough choice.

I'm not sure what else to write about so I think I'll just leave it at that.

Happy National Flag Day to all the fellow Canadians out there!

This is an appropriate post for Valentine's day. On my way home tonight, I have to pick up some chocolate kisses and a nice card for my honey. He's such a sweety!

I sent out my OSCAR party evitation this morning. I can't wait! Now I just have to go and pick up some stuff for the goodie bags, I have to pick up some movie theatre coupons and a mini Oscar from the party shop. I think this year, I'm just going to pick up stuff at M&M's and make my life easier all around.

Happy Valentine's day everyone!

Your Famous Movie Kiss is from The Empire Strikes Back

"Captain, being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited."

If nothing else, recent events have caused me to re-evaluate life. I've always considered myself a chipper gal with very few "bad" days and my moto has always been "carpe diem" and I stick to it. However, with the sudden death of my uncle, it's made me reconsider other aspects of my life.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the heathiest person around. As of Thursday, I've quit smoking. So far so good. Walking is going to be added to my daily routine and somewhere down the line, I'll also have to add some other sort of activity like weight training or something but I'm starting small.

I've also never been much of a saver. Short term goals are good by me but anything long term, well, I sort of lose sight of the "big picture" and the savings plan usually dies along the way. So, D and I have made arrangements to talk to a financial advisor. We need to seriously start saving for 1)car 2)wedding and 3)a home.

So, things are slowly going back to normal. A mass has been scheduled for Thursday night and the funeral is Friday. I'm feeling much better now though sometimes, a little thing will trigger a cry response. I hope this goes away soon.

Happy Monday everyone! :)

I couldn't come up with a title this morning (not that my titles are ever any good but still). I have some sad news. The family was informed on Wednesday night that my uncle was brain dead and they would not perform any operations. Yesterday the immediate family met with the doctor to discuss the next step and a strong suggestion was made to remove the machines. Everyone decided it was for the best and after the arrival of the priest, everyone went home.

It was good to have a day for everything to sink in. They're a strong bunch and though there's still a bit of crying left to do for my aunt and the kids, everyone is doing really well. I was most concerned about my quiet cousin S. He's such a big teddy bear. A big, quiet guy. He's doing well though and as we left the hospital we joked about taking the tv from the family room. All things considered, everyone is doing really well.

The final information from the doctors is that he was dead when he arrived on Sunday. The fall was not the cause of the injuries. He had a massive stroke which collapsed a major artery to the brain. The sudden stop of flowing blood caused him to collapse and fall. The doctors indicated that the lack of broken bones supports the fact that he was already unconscious at the time of the fall. He assured everyone that a stroke of that size is very uncommon and is not something that the kids need to concern themselves with.

I decided not to see him. I want to remember the happy, cheery man who was always in a happy mood, always smiling and always telling a little joke.

Thank you to everyone who said a prayer and sent well wishes. All of your thoughts and gestures were and are appreciated. Thanks again guys.

The last few days have been particularly long and trying but things are looking up. Last night, they removed the neck brace and the swelling around my uncles face has began to recede. This morning, they took him in for another CAT scan and the plan was to lower the dosage and remove completely doses of other medications and monitor him to see how he is responding. We'll have an update from the doctor this afternoon. Everyone was looking a little better yesterday and short naps seem to be coming a little more easily for my aunt and my cousins.

The boss lady has given me an extra hour to tack on to the time she owes me so I'm off at 2pm today. The plan is to go to the hospital for a few hours and then home to meet a girlfriend. We're going to watch the Grammy's together. Thought I agree with a few people that it seems a bit of a gip this year, I'm still a sucker for awards show and will gladly watch something fun to lighten up the mood. I'm looking forward to it.

Again, thanks for all the well wishes. More tomorrow.

Warm thanks to everyone who sent well wishes yesterday. I really appreciate them. As for an update, he seems to be doing much better. Yesterday's report was that they believe it may not have been a heart attack but rather a stress related shock of some sort which caused his heart to overwork itself. This is good news because that means they can bypass the treatment of a heart attack and move directly to the head injury. Good news indeed. Everyone is doing well considering the situation. Not so many quiet moments yesterday as there were on Sunday. I think that's a good sign.

As for the rest of life, things went well this morning considering that when I arrived I had a stack of work to do for 10am before the boss took off for a meeting. All done and now things are back to normal. I'm owed some time so I think I'm going to take it tomorrow, go to the hospital early and then head home. Steph is going to come by and we're going to watch the Grammy's together. I need something other than the hospital to get me out of this funk.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday and thanks again! Will keep you posted.

It seemed that with the conclusion of a rather bad January, February was turning out to be a little better. I think I may have been wrong.

Saturday was going to be our girl's day out but it didn't happen. The wind storm which hit the the Puget Sound area hit us as well though not as badly. Regardless, I stayed home Saturday. The power went out at 10am and didn't come back until nearly 2pm and when Dan and I ventured out to get dinner, there were debris all over the road.

Just when we thought we'd gotten over the worse of the weekend, Sunday turned out to be a very very dark day. Though nice weather prevailed, we had some sad news from my aunt. My uncle, a roofer, was out doing an inspection after the big storm when he had a heart atack and fell. He's in ICU at a local hospital. This is devastating. I was in some sort of shock yesterday when I was told and I don't think it actually sank in until I went to the hospital last night. I'm going back there tonight. Even just sitting there seems to be better than not being there at all.

So far, the year has not been a great one. I hope it improves.

I "borrowed" this from wiccachicky. I started this on Thursday morning so I figured I'd better post it soon.

4 jobs you have had in your life:
Cook's Assistant, Matron, Executive Assistant and Training Administrator.

4 movies you could watch over & over:
The Matrix, Interview with a Vampire, Legally Blonde, LOTR.

4 places you have lived:
Portugal, Venezuela, Canada - sorry. That's it.

4 TV shows you love to watch:
Star Trek Voyager, Family Guy, Firefly, The OC and I have to put in a fifth: Battlestar Gallactica (since Firefly is on DVD it doesn't really count right?).

4 places you have been on vacation:
Calgary, Alberta. That's it. Sad isn't it?

4 websites you visit daily:
My blog, other people’s blogs, GMail and Bookcrossing.

4 of your favorite foods:
Rice, chicken, cod and peas.

4 places you would rather be right now:
Back in bed. Somewhere hot. Ireland. With family.

4 bloggers you are tagging:
Not tagging anyone. Please go ahead and borrow if you'd like.

It's the begining of a new month and I'm not feeling any different than I did at the end of the last. Except for the fact that I'm now one month closer to returning to class. I can't wait either. I'm starting to get bored. Though my theatre outings are keeping me entertained, I miss the throngs of people, the chatter, the getting to know one another but most of all, I miss the stimulation of the brain. The arguments, the new ideas, the discussions. I can't wait to go back.

Yesterday, I saw a film that made me think of my previous job. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but I used to work at the locat utility company. While there, I learned much about natural gas and my friendships with individuals throughout the company made for interesting learning of different aspects of the gas industry. It's amazing what a lowly mail clerk can learn. Especially a friendly one who is easy to talk to. And they sometimes say that being nice doesn't pay.

Syriana is an interesting story and watching it brought to mind a recent major event in local business. The utility company was recently purchased by a much larger American firm, Kinder Morgan who, according to their website, are "one of the largest midstream energy companies in America". A number of things entered my mind when this purchase was originally announced. First, the Utility in question which had been operated as a public company since 1989 ceased being a Canadian company. Secondly, although to date the only people to have lost their jobs are the senior staff at Corporate HO, who knows what is coming down the line in the near future for the rest of the employees. Thirdly, and probably the most important, I'm not comfortable knowing that an American Corporation now owns pipelines that run through BC, some footage in Eastern Canada and most importantly, pipe that runs from the oil sands of Alberta and into the States. Don't be fooled. Pipe is pipe no matter what is currently travelling through it. Who's to say that down the line, that pipe isn't going to carry something other than natural gas? Though the events in the movie are far removed from the local utility company, I coudn't help but make some connections and all of these energy thoughts, the recent election of a pro-Bush leader and the current state of the world left me feeling tired when I woke up this morning.

Oh yeah, and I encourage you to check out AmyHCAlum's entry from yesterday. Made for interesting reading.