It's true. Canadian's have something to be proud of other than the fact that we live in "The True North Strong and Free". Canadian musicians are now standing up against the music industry who is trying to have Canadian Laws changed so that they can sue poor music downloading folks. The full story is here.

They're also not happy about the digital locks now popping up on CD's. I totally agree on this. The two cd's I purchased most recently have the bloody copyright lock thingy and I when I tried to extract the songs and convert them to mp3 so that I could put them on my player, the songs didn't transfer. It's gobbledy goop.

I'm sorry but I like to have an album and be ABLE TO LISTEN TO IT on supposedly acceptable technology.

I have nothing to say except: IT'S FRIDAY!!!! And it looks like it'll be another great weekend. Plans include "Kinky Boots" at the movies and brunch with the girls. Otherwise, relaxing.

I saw this on Amy's blog. Watch out vampires and all things undead and threatening to the peace of Vancouver - I'm coming to get you!

You Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"We saved the world. I say we have to party."

The boss has been talking for months about changing the company logo. They've had the same one since 1982 (and trust me, it's looks like it's right out of the 80's). Of course, being cheap, she's asked if I knew anything about "these sorts of things" and me, being the crazy go getter that I am, said that although I handn't designed a logo, I'm sure I could whip something up.

And so for a few days, I've been looking at samples and hashing ideas and I've come up with two samples that I'm going to present to her today. Hopefully, she'll like one of them and I can run with it. On top of that, I'm also working on a proposed website. She's worried about the information people will be able to get from the site. I just want to tell her that it's doing her more harm not to have one but she just doesn't get it. I'm having trouble uploading the samples but I will put them up at some point over the next day or so. I'd love to get some feedback. At this rate, I'm going to set up my own marketing business.

On another front, now that I have my MP3 player back, I decided to delve into the new (to me at least) world of podcasting. I downloaded a few that I'd been eyeing for a while and of the 5 I downloaded, I think I'm only going to download one of them regularly. One of them was a movie blog who's announcer sounds like he's runing his voice through one of those distorters. I couldn't bear to listen to more than 5 minutes. It was bad. The Firefly Talk one was kind of cool but not really my kind of thing. As much as I love the show, I skipped through all of it and got right down to the second half of the Joss interview. But the jem here was the Movie Blog cast. Funny and well put together. I really enjoyed it. Definately a keeper. However, I have a couple of other casts that appear to have downloaded but that I can't find in my folder to drop into my player (I don't have an ipod so I can't use iTunes to transfer directly). If anyone can help me out with that little snag, I'd really appreciate it.

Workin’ 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin’
Barely gettin’ by
It’s all takin’
And no givin’
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It’s enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

Dolly had it right! I heard this this morning in my "massive shuffle" and I can't believe how appropriate it was. I danced along the street for the final block of my walk to work. I'm sure the people that saw me thought I was crazy. Oh well!

The week seems to be flying! At this rate, it's going to be Friday afternoon in no time at all! I only hope the rest of the day goes quite this quickly. I can't wait to get home tonight and put my feet up.

Every once in a while I see something that really makes me steam. I just had one of those moments.

I was reading a local news headline and I noticed a poll on the left hand side of the screen. The question:

Should the Canadian government consider the Olympic program to be a high priority for funding?

The responce from participants:

43% Yes: it's a significant issue
53% No: there are bigger needs
3% Don't know/not sure

Um....WHAT??? Ok. I'll admit that I do think the Olympics are important but let's see...what's more important:
Winning metals at the Games or shrinking the wait lists for surgeries and providing more adequate coverage for those in need? Let me think. Oh yeah...HEALTH CARE! What planet are those 43% of people on???

Vacation's where I wanna be
Party on the beach where the fun is free
We don't need a holiday, it's time to celebrate
Cause I need a break, I need a vacation

-Vitamin C , "Vacation"

Yesterday was a total nightmare at work. All hell broke loose in the office and I ran around for one end of the office to the other for the majority of the day. NOT pretty.

Some good news though, I finally got back my MP3 player! YEY! I had to send it away to have it fixed but rather than fixing it, they sent me a new one - an upgrade too! I know have a 6G player. Just what I need....more room! Now this afternoon I'll have to go off to the electronic shop and try to get reimbursement for the shipping costs. When I purchased the player, I also bought an extended warranty so when I had problems with the player, I took it into Future Shop to have them fix it. After much arguing, they insisted that the "extended warranty" did not cover items under a manufacturer's warranty. I was really ticked off. I pay for a 2 year extended coverage but in reality, it's only a one year coverage because it takes effect from the time you purchase the player, not from the time that the manufacturer's warranty expires. What a rip. It'll be interesting to see what they tell me tonight.

Other than that little hoopla and the crazyness of yesterday, it's been a nice couple of days. The weather has been beyond beautiful. I only hope it'll last for a while!

I jumped out of bed this morning re-energized. I started falling asleep last night on the couch so when 10pm rolled around and I'd already been napping for nearly an hour, I went to bed and when the alarm clock beeped this morning, I felt fresh. I couldn't even sleep on the commute in today. It's a good thing I'm feeling pretty good this morning because my work "TO DO" list is enormous today.

It looks like the weekend is going to be quite nice. Which is good because I'm spending the day in Maple Ridge tomorrow with one of my professors from 1st semester. I really hit it off with him and I haven't seen him in quite a while so we're going to get together for brunch and then I get a "sneak peek" at his soon to be published children's book. I'm very excited!

I hope everyone has a good day and a great weekend!

So I didn't manage to get to bed early yesterday but I did get a lot of "stuff" done. My face is thanking me this morning. The peeling skin is gone (YEY)!

I'm at a bit of a loss on the job front. I'm starting to dislike coming to work. I think it's just been the recent happenings around here it's been quiet and rather boring. Things are starting to pick up a bit but lately, I just haven't been "into it". If this continues for an extended period of time (I'm giving myself 3 months), I'm going to start looking for a new job. My only concern at the moment is that the boss here has pretty much agreed to working around my school schedule when the time comes for me to take daytime classes and I don't want to take the risk of going to a position that woun't be as considerate but for now, it's not really a big problem. I'll cross that bridge when (and if) I come to it.

On a completely unrelated front, I saw a funny bumper sticker yesterday.

When I first saw it I thought it was a joke but at closer inspection, I realized that no....it was for real. Mind you, the sticker I saw had no bunny and the name of the society was in tiny writing underneath but you get the idea.


I wonder if last year's outbreak has affected them in any way...

Yeah. It's ANOTHER one of THOSE days. I'm tired. I'm beyond tired. I'm exhausted. Yesterday came and went in a blur of activity. I went home and started tinkering around on the computer and by the time I looked up again it was after 1AM.

Plan for tonight:

1. Stop and pick up dinner or stuff for dinner
2. Eat dinner
3. Watch "America's Next Top Model"
4. Watch episode 5 of my newly arrived "Star Trek Voyager" season 1 DVD set
5. Go to bed at 11PM

Things I need to do before the end of the week (and I'm not sure I'll have time for it all):

1. Update website
2. Finish reading book
3. Home facial (this rainy/sunny/rainy weather is doing a job on my skin. My face is peeling like a "Flake" bar)
4. Type up contact list(s) for PBS
   
5. Watch Mirrormask
6. Return movies to Blockbuster to avoid re-stocking fees

Exciting eh?
*TGFHD=Thank God for Hump Day

The weekend did end up being very quiet and restful. I did little more than sleep late, get up, walk to the couch and slumber under blankets for the weekend. I did help mom with Easter dinner yersterday and we had a really nice family meal (with little sis too!).

This is going to be an insanely quiet day. Though it's not really a holiday, all of the civic workers are off today and it seems like many private businesses followed suit. To boot, the City passed a noise bylaw for today so all of the construction sites are closed today. It's making for a DEAD day. I haven't answered the phone yet this morning. I hope to be able to squirm out of here a few hours early. That would be superb.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

Sort of. Whatever, it's the last day of work before the long weekend so yes, it's basically Friday.

It's been a crazy morning. I ran out of cream yesterday. I run out of cream every two weeks. If I was smart, I would purchase extra cream to last me through but, I'm not that organized (yet!). And so this morning, I was going to stop at my usual coffee place on the way to the office to pick up a coffee and smokes and the bloody place was closed. For the long weekend. Of course, there's no other shop before the office so I suffered through the morning without smoking or coffee. The first thing I did when lunch rolled around? Buy smokes. Then coffee. Then drink the coffee and ordered another.

The weekend is shaping up to be a quiet one. D and I were going to explore Granville Island tomorrow but the rain is going to put a damper on that. I guess I'll travel to my weekly meet in North Vancouver and then take the weekend as it comes.

I'm off now. I still have tons to do before the end of the day and only a short amount of time to do it (what else is new?). If all goes well, I may even manage to swindle some time off for Monday.

Have a wonderful and safe long weekend evryone!

Yesterday's post just came out of the blue. I had a bad morning trying to get ready and then I couldn't find any pants that DIDN'T need ironing. As I was flipping through the closet, I saw that the only pair that didn't require ironing also didn't fit. It totally messed me up for the rest of the day. I think I need a bigger closet too.

I hope the day, never mind the week, ends soon. I need a rest. Tonight, I'm going to skip the meetup and go straight home. I need to rest.

This is a bit rantish but I'm not sure if it's just me or if anyone else agrees. Does it seem to you that New Yorkers (even poor ones) seem to be or pretend to be (not sure which one) more refined than the rest of the universe?

For years I have been a "big girl". I have decided that this is no more. I am determined to lose it. I want to put on the pants that I have had in the closet for a year. This time, I'm determined not to fail.

I stole it from NailPolishNeuroses. She's fantabulous.

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, place an asterick* after the ones on your book shelf, and place (parentheses) around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown [Bad. But I had to read it to see what all the fuss was about. Good story, poor writing.]
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman*
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell*
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller*
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien*
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon [Another one that I read because it came recommended. I hated every moment.]
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*
1984 - George Orwell*
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Secret History - Donna Tartt [This is the best book I've read in recent years. I can't recommend it enough. I should have known from the very first page it was going to be a winner. After all, she thanks Bret Preson Ellis...]
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood* [My signed copy of this has quite the history. I hate the woman but I love the writing.]
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert [This is one of my favourites. It's a whole new world.]

Friday was a nightmare. When I arrived in the morning I had:

1. Broken photocopier
2. A computer which was not working
3. No relief
4. A group of folks for an unscheduled meeting

I think it may have gone just fine except that the photocopier technician did not arrive until noon, the IT person (me) was getting phone calls every 3 minutes ("Why isn't my computer working???"). It did end, eventually, but not soon enough.

The rest of the weekend was fun but busy and this morning I was oh so very tired I slept through the entire commute. I'm still not sure how I managed to wake myself up when I arrived at my station. I could have easily slept through it!

Hopefully today will be a little more controlled.So far so good.

It's 9:17AM and all hell has broken loose. IT'S ONLY 9:17!!!!!!!!

I think it's going to be a very very very looooooooooooooooooooooooong and tedious day.

I know it's not but maybe if I close my eyes real hard and wish and hope hard enough....this day will end sooner and Friday will come faster!

D is off for the weekend at his AGM so I've got free run of the house. I hope Season 1 of Voyager comes today. I'd love to get started on that tonight! Otherwise, I'll revert to Battlestar Galactica.

Here's something fun that I borrowed from wiccachicky:

Your Lucky Underwear is Green

You're a total go getter who will scrape and crawl to get to the top. And your lucky green underwear will help you get there without a struggle. A fast learner, you enjoy a good mental challenge - whether it's getting your law degree or running a successful business. Sometimes you push too hard to succeed, alienating friends and wearing yourself out in the process. If you want to reach your goals while still maintaining a full life, put on your green underpants. They'll help you slow down and enjoy life.

I was reading Rosie's post regarding chocolate chip banana pancakes and I had an instant flashback to 1994 and my first "real" job as a kitchen assistant at a highly regarded and respected boy's private boarding school located righ here in Vancouver.

My mom had been working there for years. I needed a part time job and they needed some extra help in the kitchen. What started off as a two week gig, ended after a 6 year engagement - and only because I finally gave it up.

My initial duties were pretty low key: clear tables, wash dishes and generally, keep it clean and tidy. Three years into it, the weekend cook left and rather than hiring someone new, I got a promotion: breakfast cook. My job included preparing brunch and hot breakfast for a group of growing boys (and mooching teachers) between the ages of 9 and 17.On average, I had approximately 40 customers for breakfast. However, every few weeks, I would wip up my secret chocolate chip pancake recipe and EVERYONE would come down for breakfast. On those days, the average breakfast crowd grew to 60. Those pancakes reached the same status as the banana pancakes with butterscotch sauce - the all time number one requested breakfast item and my mom's specialty.

I sometimes miss those mornings. Creating a meal in a state of the art kitchen with every ingredient necessary at your fingertips. A grill the size of a 52" big screen tv, a massive walk in fridge and shelves upon shelves of utensils, pots and pans. but most of all, I miss the boys. I miss their happy hello's and from some, the grumbling g'mornings muttered under a still lingering blanket of sleep. I miss being asked what I thought, and how to do this or that or when I was going to make those famous pancakes again.

I'm a bit miffed by my experience with the bus driver yesterday. It started to rain pretty heavily in the evening. Because the day had started off so well, I and (apparently) many others must have looked outside and decided that rain was not going to come. So last nigh, we're standing at the bus stop, waiting for the bus, with no umbrellas, and the rain is falling harder and harder. Waiting with everyone else is a lady in a wheelchair. She's got a hat on and a pncho that cover not only her but also her entire chair. The bus pulls up and everyone was staying back, waiting for the wheelchair lady to get on she said no please, go ahead. I'll get on last which I though was very nice of her considering that she was the only prepared for the weather. So people start to get on and the busdriver puts up his hand and doesn't allow anyone to enter. He peeks out of the bus, tells the lady he's going to get her on. She asks him to let everyone else board and he either didn't hear her or pretends not to hear her and he continues to lower the stairs. So the lady gets on, I can hear her saying that she can manage on her own but the driver insists on helping her. Usually, this would be fine by me but usually, the driver also lowers the stairs so that everyone else can board. Not this guy, he left the stairs up.

So the driver is helping the lady get strapped in and the rest of the folks (20 people or so) are standing out in the rain getting drenched. Seriously, this doesn't really bother me all that much. What really irks me is that he didn't just strap her in - he then sat down and chatted with her for a minute. We're still standing in the rain.

No joke - 15 minutes later he puts down the stairs and lets everyone else on. I was in a bit of a tizzie but got on without so much as a hello. The lady behind me wasn't in as much control. She ripped a strip off the driver right there and to boot she made a big deal as to how we were now leaving 15 minutes behind schedule and she was going to be late (late for what at 9:45 PM I'm not sure).

After that, I was sort of torn. I was upset that he didn't consider the rest of his customers and on the other than I felt bad that the lady really did a number on him.

I hate unexpected rain. It puts people in a bad mood.

It's amazing how quickly information travels. On Saturday morning there were rumours floating around the Browncoat and Slither boards that Nathan had attended the first screening of SLiTHER in Vancouver. I would like to CONFIRM that this is indeed true.

We took over the theater shortly after 6:30. As we came in, we noticed a row of seats that had been reserved. We didn't want to get our hopes up but secretly, we all hoped that he would show up. The movie started to roll at 7:20 and was abruptly stopped and the lights were turned back up. A few more minutes passed and the lights went down again. This time, we hears a lot of rustling and people coming in. I briefly turned around but didn't recognize anyone that was sitting down.

After the show (you can read my thoughts on it here) and after the credits had rolled, I head someone mention that Nathan had been there, watching with us and his friends and that he had quickly exited after the film. We thought the star spotting was over then but I did manage to see him while I stood outside. I was very much in control of myself. I didn't approach him and I didn't stare but I did occasionally look over. He was very friendly to the few individuals who approached him but it was apparent that he just wanted to be left alone and most of us let him be.

It WAS awesome to see the show with Nathan in the audience. Sure, many people had premieres with red carpets and special guests but how many had THE star in the audience? I'm sure he was amused by the girls comments, the clapping and cheering with his appearance on screen and at the end with the rolling of the credits.

The afterparty was also a great success. A few individuals who didn't come to the movie still managed to come out for the party and at the end of the night (after 1AM). The entire evening was a great success! I can't wait to do it again!