I'm not sure where the first two days of the week went. Actually, I do know. All those bloody drawings that I've been packaging and distributing. We're back to normal programing now (thank goodness!).

The weekend was good fun but I don't think I EVER want to repeat Saturday. It was one of the busiest days I've ever had. It started with a 5AM wake up call so that I could be at the Costuming Guru's house in time to get to the parade at 9AM. The parade went from 9 'till noon, at which point I was lucky enough to get a ride to the sea bus (Thanks serenalita and hubby) and then off to the fabric store because I bought the WRONG SIZE PATTERN when I purchased my fabric). New pattern in hand, I was off to the Muggles for Magic meetup to meet the organizers and some of the members. After that, a hurried bus ride to the downtown core for a 6PM Meetup with the Movie Group. Dinner and finally home (Thanks to S for the ride home. I'm indebted to her for that. Made life soooo much easier for me!)

Here is a short clip of the parade. It's not the greatest quality because it's soooo big and the clip was just little when I uploaded it but you get the general idea. These guys were behind us the entire time and were great fun. Also, I'm happy to report that that is NOT the cosutme I'll be wearing on Saturday. I'll be sporting my very regal gown. Seeing this, I'm also thinking I seriously need to put some effort into losing a few pounds. Oh well. Enjoy!

Ok. This is the BEST 6 minutes of the last week. I laughed so bloody hard I had cover my mouth so that I wouldn't wake up the sleeping hubby in the next room. Enjoy!!!

At 1:45PM yesterday afternoon, I go married. I married 35 million people including mom and dad (gross!). In all seriousness, I took my Citizenship Oath yesterday and I am now a full fledged, voting Canadian. When people ask me where I'm from now on - I'm from Canada.

To celebrate my first day as a Canadian, I'm going to share with you a little something that has become as much a part of Canada as anything else. And to think this was a commercial for beer! Truly Canadian.

Hey.

I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader, and I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dog sled, and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I'm certain they're really, really nice.

I have a Prime Minister, not a President. I speak English and French, not American, and I pronounce it "about", not "aboot".

I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack. I believe in peacekeeping, not policing; diversity, not assimilation; and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.

A tuque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced "zed"; not "zee" – "zed"!

Canada is the second largest land mass! The first nation of hockey! And the best part of North America!

My name is Joe! And I am Canadian!

... Thank you.

Here's something else I've been meaning to post. Nearly deleted it before doing so!

The game is this: I was given the letter "C" by The Webmiztris. I need to list ten words that start with that letter that mean something to me. If YOU want to play, leave a comment saying so and I'll give you a letter too. Come on...you KNOW you wanna play!

1. Couch - I spend quite a bit of time on mine usually watching a movie (usually a good one but occasionally a really crummy one).

2. Cigarettes - I was trying to leave this for lower down the list but it just kept coming up. I'm not sure what they mean to me but I do like them. Sadly enough - I know.

3. Coconut - I hate coconut. Whenever I even smell it I just want to be sick. Something to do with drinking Coconut milk growing up.

4. Cranberry Juice - I *love* cranberry juice. White or red matters not. As long as I can mix it half and half with water, I'm happy. However, D recently created a new martini for me: Cranberry Pineapple Twist YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
5. Cheese - Especially the kind Grandma brings back from Portugal. More yummy in my tummy.

6. Cry - A good cry once in a while re-news the soul. At least mine.

7. Compassion - Something I have a lot of. You've got to REALLY screw up to bring out my nasty side.

8. Compromise - I do a lot of this too. Usually not in my favour. I'll learn. One day.

9. Conditions - I hate these. If you're going to do something - Just do it. I avoid conditions at all costs.

10. Communication - They (friends, employers, strangers) tell me I'm good at this. I just like to talk. If that's made me a good communicator all the better!

What a weekend. Rather than lots of rest, I had a busier than usual weekend. I did manage to get a bit of extra sleep but not as much as I'd like (probably because of the gross weather).

My camera and MP3 player, which have been acting up a bit lately, appear to be working in tip top shape now. I have a feeling that the overly warm, damp weather may have been tinkering with these "sensitive" electronics and now that things are a little dryer (though it's been raining for a few days and it's suposed to stay wet for the week), they seem to be back to normal.

I did get a lot done this weekend. I don't think I've mentioned it yet but I've been asked to wear a costume at an upcoming parade as a member of the BC Costuming Group. I've never been involved in something like this IN MY LIFE but it sounded like fun. I've found a pattern online so the only things left now are buying it, buying the fabric and sewing the entire thing. And I only have 2 weeks. In reality, I only have one week because I don't have time to hit the fabric store until the weekend. I'm stressing over it a little but mostly, I'm really excited. That's the pattern! How exciting!

The BIL is still with us. At the suggestion of a friend, I actually did some work on his behalf on Saturday and called around to a couple of places which have vacancies. There were a couple that are possibilities so yesterday, I gave them to him. He seemed happy for the help but you never really tell with him. I will admit that he was very tidy and orderly over the weekend and he may have even found a place on his own. The bad side of things is that he's probably staying until the end of the month. If he does stay, he'd better be prepared for a couple of nights in the front room while I sew away into the long hours of the night next week. But I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I'm also not quite sure what happened this month but I seem to be low on money. It's usually not this tight but this week I have even less money than usual. I'll have to check at some point to see where things went amiss but I have a feeling it was the trips to the dentist. That's two this month already and sure, it wasn't that much, but they were expenses I don't usually have. Oh boy. I guess no lunch time coffee this week! I'll have to drink tea! I'll try to post the meme. I know I said I'd do it Friday but I just didn't get around to it!

So the BIG movie is out today and the reviews are all over the place now but this morning I read this one and I burst out loud laughing at this line: "And then there's Ian McKellen, who could have walked on a sound stage and read the entire Bible and made it worthy of a $10 movie ticket." Oh hell yeah! Oh YEAH!

D told me last night that his brother is spending the weekend at our place. Hold on a minute. He's WHAT?????????????????? This is the dude that KNOWS months ahead when he's coming back to town and HE DOESN'T BOTHER TO FIND A PLACE TO LIVE???? Supposedly, he can't get a short term lease because of bad credit. How the HELL is that my problem? Exactly. So why do I have to put him up? Come on! The guy makes twice as much money as D but he can't pay his bills? D keeps saying it's just for the weekend but the last time he came to stay with us "for a few days" the few days turned into almost 3 weeks. It would be OK if he was a clean guy (or if I had a spare room) but he's the BIGGEST SLOB I've EVER met. Oh god. My beautiful house. I'm cringing just thinking about it. However, he's D's brother and I'll put up with it until Monday but then I'm going to have to insist he find somewhere else to stay. Am I a bitch for not wanting him there at all?????

I feel bad for disliking him so much but I just can't see how someone who has had so much luck has managed to screw up so badly. It's not like he's 20. The guy is nearly 30 for goodness sakes! I just don't think it's fair that D is always going out of his way to help his family (mom, and brother - his dad has been pretty good over the last couple of years) when they don't do anything to help him when he needs it. Yes, I realize it's family but mine isn't like that. We all help eachother. I just think he's always being used and abused.

But that's enough ranting for now. I'll be back later with a super cool (and happy) meme. Promise.

I've only recently been interested in the whole YouTube and GoogleVideo stuff and yesterday, while paroozing the latter, I found this little clip. Now, after some digging, it's come to my attention that it's not "official" footage but it's still damend cool.



Sort of related is the video below. I'm kind of pissed about this one. I WISH we could buy this car here!!! But don't be fooled folks! That is VANCOUVER in the background. Keep an eye out in the background for the Harbour Tower and the BC Hydro building. I think I even know the lot that is being used. Kind of scary.

YEY! It's almost time to go home!

I'm freaking out a bit. Yesterday was the deadline to fill out the Census questionaire. This means that I have to go home tonight and get it done. I didn't realize that you could be fined if you didn't fill it out! That's just insane! So now I have to fish the bloody form out of the TRASH in order to get my pin so that I can fill it out online. What a nightmare.

The day was full of printing, adding adhesive and sticking in order to get PO's out of the office. They've been here for almost a week and I've been waiting to get approval to order "Sign Here" and "Initial Here" stickies and I just gave up waiting and made my own. It was an all day job but it's very nice to be able to see the top of my desk again!

Thanks to everyone for all the input on the logos. I'm going to have to put up the banner for my other "project" so that I can get some feedback. I'm thinking of having some T-Shirts and buttons printed with it once the site is up and running!

Oh yeah, and just a note on TDVC - the movie had its pre-screening today at Cannes and initial critic reaction has not been stellar. I think the rotten reception may have something to do with all the hype and then, disappointment. Only the weekend box office numbers will tell the real truth and we won't know the reality of it all until Monday.

So I finally remembered to post the bloody logos. Here are a couple of examples I've been playing with. Thoughts?

I just noticed that I answer the phone like the annying receptioninst in the movie classic Office Space. "Corporate Accounts Payble Nina speaking Just a moment!"

M-U-S-T C-H-A-N-G-E T-H-I-S N-O-W!

I seem to be on random information dispersal lately. Here's some more.

I went to the movies last night. Originally I was going to see "The Notorious Bettie Page" but when no one else from the group showed up, I decided to watch "Stick It" instead. So I was sitting int he theatre, listening to music and playing Scrabble on my PocketPC and Terry, one of my friends from the Portuguese group comes in. He decided that he needed to zone out for a little while too! It was quite fun.

It's bloody hot today. High of 26. I'm actually GLAD to be indoors with air conditioning. I went out for lunch and nearly melted while sipping on my coffee and reading my book.

I contacted the sales team at my web provider this morning and they're fixing my little glitch. If all goes well, the site (with nothing on it except an index page telling you to come back soon) will be up and running in a 24h. This weekend, I must really put some effort into setting up the page.

Last week, the dentist told me that my one of my 3 (yes, I only have 3) windom teeth was just under the skin. Well, it started coming in over the weekend and my mouth has been sore since then. So now I have this soreness from the tooth coming in on one side of my mouth and soreness on the other side from a cavity that is going to get filled on the 27th. My mouth is in PAIN! Any suggestions on something that can help me with the pain without making me drowsy - just until the dentist appoinment? Any help would be appreciated!

So I finally figured out why my new site isn't up and running yet. After nearly a week, I only discovered this afternoon, that I spelled my domain name wrong when I paid for my hosting package. What a moron. Now I have to wait until a decent hour in order to have it fixed. I must have been asleep when I did that. Oh well. I guess I was meant to continue contemplating the site layout. Still no decision.

Off to smoke and bed (not together of course!).

'Til morning!

The phone has been ringing OFF THE HOOK this morning. What's going on?

What a great weekend! We had record breaking attendance at BIFF on Friday night. Games Night always seems to attract quite a number of people and this was no exception. Even honey showed up with K. The prospect of cheap beer was too much to pass up and they ended up having a really good time. Good enough that they're planning a trip back! WOOHOO!

The weather was soooo amazing that rather than going to the movies, we decided to spend the day out and about on Saturday. We took a trip downtown, walked around Yaletown, took an Aquabus to Granville Island, walked around there, took lots of pictures and 2 short videos of a street performer "escaping" from a straight jacket then headed back into Burnaby, went for dinner and then home. It was absolutely beautiful, great fun and D and I took lots of pictures. For mother's day, we put together a little BBQ for mom and invited my aunt over. My mom was SOOOOO happy with it. We also gave her a gift certificate for a massage and European Facial.

All the sun over the weekend seems to have payed off! It looks like I managed to get a bit of a tan and my skin is a nice golden brown.

That was my weekend. I hope all the moms out there had a wonderful mother's day!

There's all this stuff floating around in my head. Here are some tidbits.

1. It's Friday!
   
2. The boss man has been complaining for weeks about the radio station so 2 weeks ago he changed it from the soft pop station we were listening to to an AM station of "lounge/soft" music (Sinatra, Krall, Bennett etc). I never realized how many songs are covered in this "genre" (if you can call it that). I just heard the Doors' "Light my Fire" in lounge format. Can you say W-E-I-R-D?
3. The weather is supposed to be magnificent this weekend and into early next week with highs to 28. WHOOHOO! Summer is almost here.
4. I'm really excited about going to see "Poseidon" this weekend - in IMAX - BONUS!
5. The boss lady just left again without signing my timesheet. Darn! The temp agency is going to be hounding me with emails on Monday.
6. I'm looking at flight information every day. Planning to book at the end of June or early July.
7. The DNS info for my new website hasn't been changed yet. This time it looks like it's actually going to take 72H. I'm still trying to wrap my head around whether I want it to be a blog or an actual site with a CMS system for updating the pages remotely. If I can figure out a way for this to work (with built in comments), it may be the way to go. HAAA! Something new to learn!
8. I have to pick something up for Mom tomorrow. I was thinking a massage certificate.
9. I'm happy with the court's decision of life in prison for this dude that "accidentally" killed a nine year old girl. Yeah, and I'm "accidentally" a girl.
   
10. Every time I hear U2's "City of Blinding Lights" on my 'massive suffle' my face lights up and I just want to dance and sing out loud.
11. I gave the boss lady more logo options yesterday. She LOVES them. She's passed them on to the boss man for review. It's funny. She told me that when she handed them to him, she told him that they were done by this pricy graphics/branding dude who has an office in North Van. She's not going to tell him the truth until he picks one he likes. Heck, maybe this is my TRUE calling (though I doubt it!).
12. I caught "ER" last night for the first time in years. OMG. I couldn't believe all the people! I was like "OMG, that's the dude from A Walk to Remember!" (Shane West). A few minutes later: "OMG. That's the chick from Bend It Like Beckham!" (Parminder Nagra). Still later: "Holy shite! That's John Leguizamo!" And fianly: "That's Darlene from Roseanne! I though she was dead!" (Sara Gilbert). Not to mention a bunch of other people who I recognized but couldn't be bothered to look up. Seriously, how many stars do you REALLY need on a show?
    
13. Did I mention that it's Friday! YEY!
14. Have a great weekend everyone!
    

It's insanely early on Friday morning (12:20AM) and I still haven't headed to bed. Insomnia has kicked in and I've ran out of things to do. I've been coding HTML for the past 3 hours and I think between that and the coffee, my brain is completely wired. I think I'll have a smoke and try going to bed. Maybe I'll manage to get in a few hours of sleepy time between now and the alarm which is going to go off in approximately six hours. Now I'm just rambling and I can't help myself. I'll try to be better later in the morning. Maybe I'll even manage to post a decent entry.

I can't tell you how excited I am. I was doing my genereal morning reading and discovered that the largest Canadian convention is taking place the weekend of Sep. 1 to 3rd. Since it turns out that I'm not going to be able to afford a trip to Dragon*Con, I've started looking at maybe doing this for the long weekend and I think it's totally doable! I have some friends from Toronto and they've recommended a couple of hostels in the downtown area that they've used and were thrilled with (and they're in walking distance to the convention!) and the flight is going to be about $500 (thought I have to book this soon because I'm sure the prices will go up as we get closer to the holiday). OMG! I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited! My furthest trip ever was to Salem Oregon in '97. And to boot, because it's a long weekend, I only miss one day of work (maybe two if I decide to stay an extra day and see the sights!) WOOHOO!

There's 2.5 hours left in the day and I have a headache, my eyes hurt and I just want to get out of the office. It's been a crazy day and there appears to be no end in sight. I'm in a bit of a lull at the moment because they're in a meeting but I just know that as soon as they come out of there, all shit is going to hit the fan.

I've been looking at the cost for going to Dragon*Con in September. I need a bit of a break and when this opportunity came up, I thought I'd look into it. As much as I want to go, I don't think it'll fit into my budget. Flying is going to cost about $700 return which is doable but I still have to find a place to stay and then spending money. I've looked at the hotel prices near downtown Atlanta and they're not too bad if you're going to share (about $90 CND per night) but for me to stay on my own, that would be a $400 bill. I'm not sure I can swing this. Maybe next year. Instead, maybe a trip to Seattle. Not as exciting, I know, but at least the Sci-Fi museum is there!

That's what I feel like today. So much for having a nice, relaxing, fun weekend planned. It all went to hell in a backpack when I got a call from my hysterical little sister on Friday night. She and her man went to the island for their anniversary. They had a fight at the restaurant, he took off and she figured he'd gone to the hotel only to find out later that he hadn't just gone to the room. He'd gone to the room, packed his stuff and left. I heard her message on Saturday morning (at like 2AM when I got home) and after a few hours of sleep and another phone call from her, I caught a ferry out there to get her. Of course, when you're not thinking straight all hell breaks loose and that's what happened. I was in such a hurry to make the bus (so that I could make the connections to make the ferry) that I left my phone plugged in at the house. That meant not calling D to tell him where I was because I haven't memorized his number! Instead, I let my mom know where I was going and had her call D.

In the end, she was already pretty calm when I got there. They've been together on and off for a couple of years and a few weeks ago, she told us that she'd left him for good. Now this happens. The guy is a FREAKIN' LOSER! I just hope that she's learned her lesson with this dude.

I finally got home late last night and by the time I went to bed, it was almost midnight. This morning, I squeezed myself into a tiny bus seat so that I could nap on the but ride. Then, I nearly missed my stop on the train. I'm exhausted and can't wait to power nap at lunch. I could use some shut eye for sure.

Now I'm off to catch up on reading and trying to find out what on earth happened on "The Sopranos" and "Big Love".

I was ready to spill blood yesterday. Let's just say that leaving things to the last minute when you've had ALL WEEK to get me to work on it is not the best way to get me to be productive. If anything it adds pressure, I make mistakes and then I get pissed off! To boot, this morning he gives me a bunch of the work back saying that there's errors in it. What the fuck did you expect when I cram 3 days worth of work into 1? And to boot, the project manager didn't pick up on them either. Heck, I wonder why? He basically told me he didn't care. If shit flies, it'll be the boss' fault. Well, the shit isn't flying yet but I think it may explode this afternoon - hopefully, when I'm NOT HERE.

I guess the "Bomb Iran" song/video thing wasn't as funny I thought it was. Did anyone actually see it? It is pretty funny - and the title is deceiving.

I was reading Time yesterday (I signed up when they had a deal where you get 2 months free or something) and their issue of 100 people who shape our world and was surprised to hear that the CEO of Costco, Jim Sinegal makes "$350,000 (plus modest bonus and stock options)". Yeah, it's a lot of money to me but compared to those other CEOs of massive companies, this is bargain basement. I have all that much respect for Costco after reading that. And then I read, not in Time but online somewhere, that Britney hired a husbandsitter. Yes, she's hired some woman to watch her husband 24/7 while he's club touring to promote his album. Brit, girlfriend, I may not know much about relationships but I do know this, if you have to hire some schmuck to follow your hubby around to make sure he stays out of trouble, it may be a sign that THE MARRIAGE IS OVER!

Oh. Oh. And then there was the news that George Lucas is going to release the original Star Wars on DVD. Wait a minute, I though he did that a few years back? Oh hell, this new release is the un-CGI, un-embelished, un-changed version. So what? Am I supposed to jump for joy? Freakin' hell man! How many copies of Star Wars can a person have? Yes, I'm a fan but I've dumped enough money into LucasCorp over the last few years. I'm not going near this release with a ten foot pole. Try pawning that release on the rick geeks of the world.

I'm going to dig a hole in the ground and hide away until Monday now. Maybe I won't be quite as testy then.

Have a great weekend everyone!

But the song is freakin' funny. Check it out.

The car accident I mentioned yesterday? Weird thing. I was telling one of the laides I work with about it and she showed me the picture that was in the paper. Funny thing is that what I remember, is totally different from what it really was. I had this bad, bad picture in my head and the one from the paper was not as bad.

I've registered a new domain name. I figure since I spend so much bloody time at the movies, I should try to make some money. I've registered my domain name (www.madaboutmovies.net). I think it'll still be a blog but with some "added" goodies. We'll see how it all goes. I'll update the links once it's up and running. For until then, 'the goods' will continue to be posted on the current site.

I picked up the new offering from Tool - "10,000 Days". Sounds great! I noticed this morning as I was listening to the title track that it reminded me a lot of Pink Floyd. Weird how I'd never made that little connection before.

Fianlly, a link that everyone needs to visit. It's a follow up on why the internet should remain free and commentary on the proposed move by big industry to control the internet. Check it out here.

Happy hump day everyone!

There was an accident on one of Downtown Vancouver's major arteries this morning. When I walked onto Burrard, the street was closed in both directions and there was police tape blocking people from a portion of the sidewalk. At first, I thought they were filming a movie but then I noticed that the tape said "Vancouver Police Department Crime Scene" so I took a second look (they say curiosity killed the cat...). There was a car, make, model and colour unrecognizable, on the street. It looked like the car was run over by a semi and then exploded into flames. I'm not sure what happened but that's what occurred to me from my quick peek. Not the best way to start the morning but I take what I can get.

It's another beautiful day here. A little warmer than yesterday but the breeze is starting to pick up. Although it was very pretty yesterday, the winds blew pretty hard causing power outages around the city. I hope it doesn't get quite that windy today.

The mail surprised me yesterday with a letter to attend my oath taking. On May 24th, I will officially be a Canadian Citizen. I'm really looking forward to it. This means that I'll celebrate the next Canada day and a "real" Canadian, I'll be able to vote in the next election. I can't wait to tell the girls. We're going to be able to take a drive to the States sooner than expected!

So busy in fact that I'm only posting now. Lots to do when I arrived in the office from a nice, restful weekend. Watched "Kinky Boots" with some friends (my thoughts on the movie are here), brunch with the girls on Sunday and a nice restful afternoon/evening at home.

The boss lady took me off just after four o'clock this afternoon to her friend's place to set up a wireless network. It's a good thing it was an easy set up, took all of an hour. It means I didn't actually finish "working" until almost 5:30 but I was up in a part of town that I don't usually go to so I did a bit of shopping while out there. Other than that, a pretty quiet day.