The Arena

Intermap Business

2007-08-24T18:17:00.000-05:00

Hey all... I know I don't really do the blog thing anymore (sorry), but I wanted to share a press release with you from the company in which I am now employed. Most of you now understand what I do in general terms, but are still not certain "what for" and how it's used. This article explains one example of a cool (environmentally friendly!) application... I hope you find it interesting.

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Intermap Technologies and Auburn University Use GIS to Reduce Fuel Consumption

DENVER (August 6, 2007) - Intermap Technologies Corp. announced it has provisioned a grant to Auburn University to investigate and evaluate ways to save fuel using the company’s GIS 3D road geometries. The project’s initial focus is on achieving simulation results and designing a predictive cruise controller and automatic gear shifting algorithm to calculate optimal vehicle speed and gear selection that improve fuel economy and operating costs.

A significant amount of the fuel expense in the heavy trucking industry is attributed to changes in road slope. In an effort to address this problem, Intermap has sponsored a research team headed by Dr. David Bevly, assistant professor in mechanical engineering at Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

Eaton Corporation, one of the world’s major suppliers of heavy duty transmissions, is serving in an advisory role and sees significant efficiency opportunities in the project. “We are looking forward to the results of this work,” states Daniel G. Smedley, manager of advanced automation & control for Eaton Corporation’s Truck Technology group. “It opens up a new avenue of pursuit to help our customers get more miles out of a gallon of diesel fuel.”

According to Wei Huang, a member of Bevly’s research team leading the research effort, the project is unique in two ways, "First, the designed system is tested with real commercial 3D road geometry. Then, the influence of the road geometry and sensor accuracy on fuel economy is investigated. The 3D road geometry and GPS- based control system is designed to reduce the heavy trucks’ fuel consumption. The system consists of vehicle state estimators, the road geometry, and an optimal control system."

GPS technology is applied to estimate the truck position, while Intermap's 3D road geometry is used to identify information on the road slope that lies ahead. An optimal control system is then designed to predict and achieve ideal truck velocity and/or engine speed, based on the road geometry, with the consideration of fuel consumption and travel time. The basic function of this optimal control system is to automatically gauge when best to accelerate, decelerate, or change gears going into and coming out of slopes and curves.

"Early results have shown that truck fuel consumption can be reduced up to three percent without significantly increasing traveling time, when compared with a conventional cruise control system," adds Huang. According to the American Trucking Association, motor carriers spent $103.3 billion on fuel in 2006. Increased fuel efficiency will help carriers reduce their fuel consumption and overall operating costs – potentially saving approximately $3 billion dollars and a billion gallons of diesel per year. The Auburn study will also look at the tradeoffs between increased travel time and additional fuel savings.

“This is exciting news for the industry,” states Eric DesRoche, senior vice president of Intermap’s Automotive & Consumer Electronics division. “We are proud to be part of such a unique and visionary project that has the potential of reducing our vehicle carbon footprint and providing a substantial savings for the trucking industry.”

change

2007-03-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

i was just reading julie's blog when i was reminded of something i forgot to mention in my previous post. during out time of prayer at medeba last weekend, sarah said something that i had not realized about myself... it really stuck in my head and cleared up some fog in my mind because she's right... it's true! so thank you so much sarah... your love and friendship has been a blessing to me once again!
i had be asking for prayer regarding some decisions i have to make in my life about jobs in alberta, ottawa (even thailand!) and stuff like that, and sarah pointed out that i have the gift of handling or dealing with change. then she went on to say that not only do i embrace change, but i search after it... it gets me excited! how profound that thought was for me! no wonder my life has never settled down! i never really thought of this as a "gift" before because it just comes so easily for me, but i guess now i understand why it's so challenging for so many other people... maybe i'm not "the norm"?! : ) and i'm ok with that. hehe... now this is a gift that i can use! ; )

speaking of gifts (whether you would consider them spiritual or not i don't know, but they still come from God)... my mom has always maintained the gift of hospitality. i have never met anyone in my life whose home (and refrigerator) has had an open door policy like my own parents. and now that i am living on my own, i believe that i have inherited this gift... actually, it's really just a way of life that i have learned. my apartment has become a common ground for the uac college and careers and yesterday i was able to see in a tangible way the blessing i have been to others, and then i was blessed in return. andy and andrew were celebrating their birthday's this week and wanted to go to the movies to see 300 last night. so i decided to invite a number of people over to my place to hang out before hand. I made a lemon/green marble cake with green icing and sparklers (kinda a st. patty's day theme, haha) and we sang for them and took pictures, etc. i then received an email this morning from andrew expressing his gratitude for my generousity as he has not had a birthday party with friends since he was 12 yrs old (and he's now 28)... that made all my efforts worthwhile and put a big ol' smile on my face today. i never thought that something so simple could mean so much to someone else. i love friends.

anyways, i mentioned a few weeks ago that i went to a lacrosse game and i loved it... so i'm going back again tonight! the Rock are playing the Colorado Mammoth... can't wait! : )

alright, i'm out. have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

p.s. my daddy is going back to work on monday (which he can't wait for)... pray for him as we're not sure how much he can handle at this point with his heart rate

graphite and medeba

2007-03-12T22:18:00.000-05:00

a few weeks ago i had the chance to return to my first love and my second home. i spent most of my younger years at graphite bible camp in bancroft, but since i've been in university and now working, it is rare that i get to go back, even just to visit. i can't tell you how much i love it there... there are so many memories packed into that place. i went back to graphite for a college and careers retreat. i got to see so many long lost friends and co-counsellors from previous years (and even one of my klbc teachers cause he was the speaker!). as soon as i arrived on friday night i felt at peace... back where i belong. i was just in awe of how big the sky is there! that was the first thing i noticed when i stepped out of my car. you just cannot appreciate the beauty of nature when you live in the city. life itself is so much different. and the snow was so crisp, not like the sloppy stuff here... so much more fun to play in! while at camp i got to play broomball, soccer in the snow, go tubing, tobogganning and snowboarding (ramps and rails included on site). i also went snowmobiling at high speeds through the bush and across the lake (even caught some air off a few ramps!), and played floor hockey in the gym... so much activity for one weekend! i love it so much. it makes me feel so young and really good about myself when i get that much exercise. there was alot a lot of joking around too on the weekend... most of which revolved around my brother. it started on friday night with my brother getting up at 2am to ring the camp bell (which echos across the lake and woke up a bunch of people). he then went into the kitchen and duct taped the refrigerator door shut. this kind of thing happens on a pretty regular basis during the summer, so the camp director and cook easily saw the humor in it and laughed it off. kenton knows the boundaries... in fact, he's probably the one who drew the lines! unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for kenton, since he likes the attention) everybody knew exactly who did it without question, so there was no mystery in it. on the saturday kenton and his friend teamed up to try to subtly pry some information regarding the girls dorm... then in the middle of the night, as pretty much expected, the pranking began. they snuck into the girls dorm, more specifically the room i was staying in with a few other girls, slide a pot just inside the door, lit some firecrackers in the pot, and took off running (and laughing uncontrollably). it was definitely loud and woke up the entire building very abruptly, but it was a good one! props to him! : ) haha there was quite a mess of ashes left in the room afterwards, but apparently it was a well thought out plan... kenton was in charge of making sure the fire alarm didn't go off, and his buddy was delegated the task of ensuring the carpet didn't burn. also in tales of humor, kenton co-wrote a song entitled "click click double-click" during the weekend, which came about from a dinner table conversation regarding the online dating experiences of those who were sitting at our table during that meal... including the time kenton found kim on Lavalife (LOL)! the video coverage can be found here. i find it quite entertaining... but maybe you just had to be there.

this past weekend i got to go on another college and careers retreat at camp medeba near haliburton. it was completely different, but just as awesome. there was less activity and structure to the weekend, and the jokes were lacking and pranks were non-existant, but the prayer and worship (with the Mike Albano band) was amazing... not to mention Gary Weekes' messages. and i got to spend so much time girl-talking (including many tears)... much needed! and had the chance to strengthen a number of friendships. i also got to go on the zip line twice, and we went tubing, and had a campfire and smores before bed. unfortunately because of the warm weather, i didn't get to go on the ice climbing wall : ( the one good thing about this weekend as opposed to the previous is that after it was all over, i got to go home with all my friends and hang out with them some more... i didn't have to leave them behind to go off on my own direction, making goodbyes difficult as i did at graphite.

point form

2007-02-10T16:35:00.000-05:00

I am officially BAD at writing on my blog, so here we go again with another summary of things that are significant to me over the past couple months.

* I am now a volunteer for Hockey Ministries International and I am very excited about it! This is a Christian organization that runs a chapel program for NHL, AHL, and OHL teams (not exclusively... many leagues across North America and Europe are involved, but I am currently only involved in the Ontario chapter of HMI) and hockey camps for kids, as well as variety of other outreach events such as fundraiser tournaments and banquets with high profile hockey personnel. Their purpose is to combine high quality hockey instruction and practical training in Christian living to prepare young athletes for challenges both on and off the ice. The chapel programs support the spiritual needs of players and coaches and reaches out to those who have never heard the gospel of Christ or experienced His love before. I first learned about HMI when Mike Fisher was drafted to the NHL in 1999 and became an instructor at HMI summer camps. A few months ago though, Mark Osbourne, former Toronto Maple Leaf and now HMI Ontario Rep, came to make a presentation at my church. I spoke to Mark afterwards and he got me connected with Paul Allen, the HMI Ontario coordinator. Since then Paul has been thrilled to have me onboard to assist with the administrative side of things (as he is known to have technical difficulties when it come to computers ; ) Before Christmas I was involved in mailing Christmas cards and a Christian sports magazine subscription offer to all OHL and AHL players, including Boyd Devereaux, Mikael Tellqvist, and all kinds of other guys that you may have heard of before if you watch the major junior leagues at all. I can't tell you how happy it makes me feel to be able to do something that combines my two greatest loves in life -- my faith and hockey!

* I am involved with a small group Bible study for college and careers aged people held at my apartment once a week. It is quite enjoyable! We just finished studying the book of James two weeks ago and have now started a new series called 'An Ordinary Day With Jesus'. I have made quite a few great friends through this group. Blessings of all kinds!

* My landlords finally announced their wedding! They have been living together for a few years already with their kids from their previous marriages, but just last summer, shortly after I moved in, they got engaged. They are planning a SMALL backyard wedding on July 14 this year and I am invited (naturally, since I live here).

* I got new hockey skates this year and my landlord put in a backyard rink. w00T! I used to only skate with figure skates, so I've been having fun practicing on my new skates. I love it... it feels more like "me"... I don't know why I didn't tell my parents this is what I wanted many years ago?!

* After years of saying "I love all country music", I finally officially decided that Toby Keith is my favorite! I mean, I still do love all country music, but I didn't a favorite before now. Not that it matters...

* Bon Cop Bad Cop is my new favorite movie : )

* I got a new Canon Powershot A630 digital camera for Christmas (yay) and new silverware! Those 2 things alone made it a good year, nevermind all the other great gifts.

* I was able to make it back to Montreal again on my Christmas vacation for a short visit (3rd time in less than a year!). Keith's New Years Eve party was MUCH fun! But since Lindsay was not in town, I also made a side trip this time to visit her (and Taylor) in Ottawa. Wow, was it ever great to catch up on some much needed girl talk with her... loved it! And to eat a burger with kraft dinner on it... yummy! I also made a quick stop near Hawkesbury (half way between Montreal and Ottawa) to have lunch with Ange Wade... lucky I did since she just found out that her husband got a job near Edmonton, she's moving there this week so I probably won't see her again for a very long time.

* Lindsay was invited to speak at an Aerospace Engineering conference at Ryerson University back in January, so her an Taylor came to visit me! I attended the conference with her and then we went for dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory and spend the night at a hotel downtown in the Penthouse Suite, all expenses paid by the Federal government! :-D hehe Good fun. We also went to The Corral (country bar) in Oshawa that weekend... which leads me to my next point ; )

* The Corral has local bands to do live music every night, and it just so happened that on the Friday night I went with Lindsay, Taylor, and a few other friends, Blair Smythe, a guy I went to highschool with, was there that night doing the live music. I wasn't really close friends with Blair in highschool, but I did know that he did gigs around Stratford fairly regularly, so I was really happy to see him in Oshawa that night. He's really good! Anyways, we talked and he bought me a few drinks and I went back to see him play again on the following Tuesday night. We've been keeping in touch since then... : ) Enough said.

* Um, my dad nearly died on Dec 21. He had a massive heart attack 2 days after he had a double hernia operation, and then the combination of these two things lead to a number of other complications, so he ended up being in Intensive Care for a week over Christmas. It's a really long story and I don't really feel like going into it too much more, but he's doing pretty good now and is scheduled to go back to work on March 19. Many of you have already heard all the details, but if you're interested in knowing more, feel free to ask.

* I'm back into interviews again this week. I've been casually looking for a new job for a while cause the job I have now is only half good (haha, if that makes any sense) and it pays poorly... and I simply cannot stay living in Toronto for forever :-P So I had an interview for a job in the municipal government at the County of Grande Prairie in northern Alberta (~4 hrs northwest of Edmonton) on Friday. They don't currently have any GIS people working there, so it's a pioneer type position that they're hiring for, so it sounds like an exciting challenge to me. Anyways, the interview went really well and they're willing to fly me out there for a meet and greet, buuuuut.... I have another interview coming up on Monday morning, so I'm gonna wait to see how that one goes first before I decide on Grande Prairie. This second interview is a federal government job at Environment Canada in the Canadian Ice Services department as a Satellite (primarily radar) Order Desk Representative in Ottawa (Sussex Drive, actually hehe). It's a very similar position to the job I had working at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal a few years back, so I'm feeling pretty confident about it. I've been looking for a job in the remote sensing field for a long time (ever since I left Montreal, actually), and I'm excited about the possibility of being able to live with Lindsay again (cause she quit her job at the CSA in Montreal and is starting a new position in Ottawa next week)! So ya... wish me luck! I'll let you know later how it all turns out.

* Last weekend I went to my very first Toronto Rock lacrosse game. All I have to say is WOW. I absolutely loved it! I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time. It's a very rough, exciting, fast-paced game. I wanna go again! I almost like lacrosse as much as hockey now : )

* Facebook -- if you're not on it, you're not anybody! (and what are you waiting for?!?!) Be warned, however, if you're gonna join (and you should), this online community is highly addictive! It's such a good way to reconnect with old friends and see what they're up to these days and see how so much has changed. I've already got/found nearly 175 friends in the few short months that I've been a member. I've found all kinds of people from elementary school, highschool, bible college, camp(s)... even people I met when travelling in Europe! It's pretty crazy and so fun. The site allows to you create a profile, send messages, share photos, write blog-like posts, join interest groups... and even serves as a handy birthday reminder!

Ok, I'm done. For now. Bye.

Europe 2005 Photos

2007-01-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

Well, the long awaited first release of pictures from my trip to Europe with Trisha and my Mom in the summer of 2005 is finally here! This includes pictures from Egypt, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland. Greece and Italy are still on their way (sorry). There's a lot to take in, so I would not recommend that you look at them all at once... pace yourself! : )

PLEEEEASE leave your comments here whenever you get a chance to see my albums. Let me know what you loved (or not), where you've been if you've been there too, if you have any corrections or comments to add to my captions, or anything else you want to say! Just let me know you were there.

You will find a link to my photo album on the side bar to get you started. Thank you so much for taking an interest! I will let you know when I make the second release of photos.

VOTE (it's your civic duty!)

2006-12-04T13:18:00.000-05:00

I got this idea from watching Leno... he did a special show with an audience of military personnel for the American Thanksgiving and he sent people out on the street (the JayWalk) to get the opinions of some random people. Sorry, it's an American question, but it's good fun so I want to hear what you guys have to say. Guys can answer this question too... more than 10% of the military is female!

If you had to date someone from the military, which branch would you want him/her to be from? Or which division of the US military do you think is the sexiest? and why?

Army
Navy
Air Force
Coast Guard
Marines

YouTube has it all...

2006-12-02T02:41:00.000-05:00

Worst. Video. Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgX-hiQdfFw

Greatest. Video. Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

FREE HUGS!!

2006-11-11T17:01:00.000-05:00

"I love my horescope for today... "A spontaneous hug may cause injury" haha Perfect! Those are my favorite kind of hugs : ) "

When I posted this comment on my messageboard the other day, I never expected it to turn into a 'bloggable' comment. But I just came across this link on a friend of a friend's blog and it relates. I like it. It made me smile, so I thought I'd share it with you.

http://www.youtube.com/v/vr3x_RRJdd4

Unionville

2006-11-02T21:39:00.000-05:00

Some places Julie might miss seeing now that she's gone to Australia....

Wine & Cheese Party

2006-10-31T23:08:00.000-05:00

I hosted a nice social evening at my place about a month ago, so I thought I'd share a few photos from that night that I just received... mostly just for Julie's benefit ; )

me and santo (one of my co-workers)

igor (co-worker), me, santo, leslie (santo's girlfriend), and heather (my cousin)

yes, we had a little pillow fight after the majority had gone home....

Ovation Revisited

2006-10-31T22:57:00.000-05:00

This is the closest I've ever been to a famous person!

count your blessings...

2006-10-26T11:24:00.000-05:00

i normally don't like it when people send me forwards, but i have one friend who sends them to me all the time (grumblecakes). today, however, she sent me one worth reading.... it helped me put things into prespective.

******************************

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.

If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive, you are very rare, especially in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer God's healing touch.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.

You are so blessed in ways you may never even know.

how many of you?

2006-10-17T20:13:00.000-05:00

as is routine for me, i was listening to the radio this morning and found their topic of conversation interesting (though much less serious this time!) and worthy of mention, haha. According the the US Census Bureau POPClock Projection, which is a ticker that estimates the population of the US based on a few variables at any given moment, the USA reached 300 million at approx. 7:54 am today (w00T for them! althought they've long passed that number by now, since it's late in the day), making them now officially 10 times larger than Canada in terms of population.

anyways, this lead the conversation to this cool website that you should check out!

www.howmanyofme.com

you just type in your first and last name and it tells you how many other people have your first name, last name and full name in the USA. Pretty sweet!

Here's my stats, just for entertainment value:

There are 169,482 people in the U.S. with the first name Katie
Statistically the 355th most popular first name (tied with 2 other first names)
100 percent of people with the first name Katie are female ; )
Names similar to Katie: Catherine, Katherine
There are 350,963 people in the U.S. with the last name Bell
Statistically the 58th most popular last name (tied with 2 other last names)
Famous people with the last name Bell: Alexander Graham Bell, Bobby Bell, Catherine Bell, David Bell, Jamie Bell, Kendrell Bell, Kristen Bell, Monta Bell, Rex Bell, Tatum Bell, William Brent Bell
There are 198 people in the U.S. named Katie Bell!

things about stuff

2006-10-10T21:24:00.000-05:00

* this past weekend was SO good for going for a long drive through the country... the trees were absolutely beautiful. God is a great creator! simple life pleasures....

* i got to go to the Stampede Ranch in Guelph again this weekend with some stratford friends (the greatest country bar in all of ontario, as you may have heard me say before)... this is the first time i've been back since julie's initiation into country scene more than a year ago. it was just as much fun this time as it has ever been. i love it there tremendously!

* i got a crock pot! so many new recipes to try... the options are endless! yay

* i discovered that you can get the Veggie Tales "The Hairbrush Song" as a cellphone ringtune (but it's not Larry's voice... for shame!) .... who knew?!

* there's been a lot of shifting around going on in my office lately, so as one friend of mine was cleaning out his desk today to move to a new desk, he re-gifted to me a still wrapped video entitled "Gold Rush 2002" about the olympic mens hockey team in salt lake city that he found in his desk... i watched it already and it brought tears to my eyes (for serious) cause that was such a proud memory for me... best gift ever! (i was also given a poster that says "Adversity: Whatever doesn't kill me only prolongs the inevitable")

* october marks the start of a new fiscal year at DMTI and so i found out today that not only do i get an expansion of my benefits package to include vision coverage, but there has been a company-wide salary scale adjustment... in other word, pay raise for me!! yay : ) and also tomorrow we're all going to Black Creek Pioneer Village for our annual meeting. fun!

take 2

2006-10-04T22:07:00.000-05:00

i'm gonna try this musical horoscope thing again... i'm feeling better today cause i gave my playlist a good shuffle ; )

1. Don't Stop Dancing - Creed (i never do...)
2. Memories - Manic Drive (i've got lots of them...)
3. Love Song For No One - John Mayer (you can say that again...)
4. It's A Beautiful Morning - Young Rascals ( i loooove thunderstorms!)
5. The Last Days - Evanescence (...until julie's gone)
6. I Hope You Dance - Lee Ann Womack (...and don't stop!)
7. Somewhere Out There - Our Lady Peace (ya... uhhh, i've got nothing)
8. Figured You Out - Nickelback (that'll never happen...)
9. Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day (i hope not... that's just sad)
10. The Show Must Go On - Queen (amen! haha)

BONUS:
11. Hurts So Good - John Cougar Mellencamp (i'm not convinced...)
12. Take It Like A Man - Michelle Wright (bad advice.)

Interpretation:
I have great memories of dancing non-stop to love songs and hoping that someone would join me. I would often get strange looks from people like they just couldn't figure me out, which is probably why i walked the boulevard of broken dreams and sang and danced to no one. But one beautiful morning in the last days i came to a realization that the show must go on so i just needed to take it like a man. I know there's someone out there somewhere who can appreciate this about me, so it's a good hurt.

Wow, that was a stretch... painful. Sorry again.
(Disclaimer: this horoscope is NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!!)

p.s. the hockey season as well as my hockey pool is off to a grrrreat start!! :-D

horoscopes

2006-10-03T21:24:00.000-05:00

...i definitely don't believe a single word they say, but in the lunchroom with my co-workers they certainly do have a high entertainment value! We have a free newspaper delivered to our office everyday. And because it's of the "free" variety, it's pathetic. So around 1:00 every afternoon, we all gather 'round the table and skip to the back of the paper to read out our horoscopes to each other, and then laugh histerically because we're so confused. They're usually three unrelated sentences that don't mean anything at all. So even if you wanted to believe it, you'd never be able to figure out what it was talking about. For instance, earlier this week Sergei (a Sagittarius) was told "A tree will suddenly become important to you" (no joke!), and Jeff (a Capricorn) was supposedly a loner for some reason, and one day Igor (a Gemini) was told to rearrange his furniture... and then we always make fun of Warren just for the heck of it, regardless of what his horoscope says because he's a CANCER, haha. I'm a Taurus, just so you know.

Anyways, a few days ago Julie posted a Musical Horoscope on her blog and I thought it was fun (and fitting for me), so i decided to do it too! All you have to do is put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up. Ok, so here it goes... (i'm scared)

My Musical Horoscope

1. Clarity - John Mayer
2. Are You Ready? - Creed
3. Getting Into You - Relient K
4. Crawling - Linkin Park
5. Best Years Of Our Lives - Baha Men
6. I'm With You - Avril Lavigne
7. Don't Forget Me - Glass Tiger
8. Cry In My Heart - Starfield
9. Concrete Angel - Martina McBride
10. Flowers - Brad Paisley

BONUS:
11. Start The Commotion - The Wiseguys

Uhhhhh... I don't get it. This doesn't mean anything, just as i suspected. They're not even good songs. Maybe I'll have a better day tomorrow.

hockey's back!!!!

2006-10-03T19:52:00.000-05:00

i know that none of you really care, but i don't care cause i'm very excited! : ) hehe We had our hockey pool draft picks after work today and I was the only girl... i gotta represent ; ) haha I'm up against some stiff competition, but i'm pretty confident. Here's what I got:

Forwards
Daniel Alfredsson (#11, RW, Ottawa Senators)
Sidney Crosby (#87, C/W, Pittsburgh Penguins)
Brian Gionta (#14, RW, New Jersey Devils)
Brendan Shanahan (#14, LW/RW, New York Rangers)
Mark Bell (#7, LW, San Jose Sharks)
Marian Gaborik (#10, RW/LW, Minnesota Wild)
Brenden Morrow (#10, LW, Dallas Stars)
Martin Havlat (#24, RW, Chicago Blackhawks)
Ryan Smyth (#94, LW, Edmonton Oilers)
Shane Doan (#19, RW, Phoenix Coyotes)

Defense
Scott Niedermayer (#27, Anaheim Ducks [who, apparently, are no longer mighty])
Bryan McCabe (#24, Toronto Maple Leafs)
Sergei Gonchar (#55, Pittsburgh Penguins)
Joni Pitkanen (#44, Philadelphia Flyers)

Goon
Chris Neil (#25, RW, Ottawa Senators)

Goalie
Martin Gerber (#29, Ottawa Senators)

I'm so embarrassed that i have a Leaf on my team but no Habs... sorry daddy! : (

seriously concerning

2006-09-30T21:38:00.000-05:00

The other day I was listening to the radio in the morning while I was getting ready for work and the topic of conversation really got my attention. They were discussing a poll that was taken asking people whether or not they think that the dolls they have out there these days for little girls are too provocative. The results of this question were an overwhelming 'Yes' (thank goodness). These dolls include the Bratz dolls, Bling-Bling Barbie... and I don't even know what else. Particularly troubling to parents are their knee-high boots, mini skirts, midriffs, and makeup. But it's not only that. These provocative dolls portray a certain attitude as well.

When the creators of these dolls were confronted about this image they were creating for young girls, of course they denied it. They claim that they are creating a child-like fantasy for girls and "they (the young girls) know" that it's not reality [...jaw drops...speechless...in shock...still can't believe what i'm hearing!!]. WHO ARE THESE MONSTERS THAT ARE WORKING THERE?!?! Do they not have any kids of their own?!?! Can they not see what our culture is turning into?!?! Who does the hiring there and what is their sceening process?! Honestly.

I took a Christian Ethics course in my last term of university and we did a class on "Buying Into Sexy: The Sexing Up of Tweens". (If this subject is as interesting/infuriating to you as it is to me, then you will definitely want to read this article or download the video.) We talked about the sad role that men and women in our culture are expected to live up to (a.k.a. "gender scripts"). But we also talked about the one thing that disgusts me the most... "age compression". Even just 10 years ago manufacturers and marketers of the sexy image targeted the 16 to 18 year olds. Now the focus is on the 10 to 12 year olds (Tangent: did you know that La Senza sells bras size 30AA?!! Who the heck even needs to wear a bra at that size!!! Seriously... it's all for image... it's supposed to be cool if your straps are showing). I know for sure that fashion was not a big concern for me at that age... big t-shirts and baggy blue jeans was the extent of my wardrobe. I believe it's our culture and its hunger for the almighty dollar that has changed that.... and it makes me so sad because there's such a huge maturity gap between 10 and 16 years old.

Candies, a shoe company manufacturer targeting tweens (8 to 14 year olds), has a shirt that reads: "Be sexy: It doesn't mean you have to have sex", which is worn in advertisments by Ashlee Simpson as part of their marketing strategy. Candies' CEO says, "Although some people could say it's hypocritical, we think it makes a lot of sense. Just because a girl wants to dress up and look good and maybe look sexy doesn't mean that she should have a baby or doesn't mean that she wants to have sex." Talk about mixed messages being sent to, and moulding, the minds of children right at the age when they are most easily influenced as they just begin to discover themselves and find independence... !! Sound like a recipe for trouble?

This doesn't only influence girls though. Boys these days are consuming a bimbo image of women... and that will be how they treat women later in life obviously, because that's all they've ever known or been shown. It's there for the guys in music videos, sports (cheerleaders), and video games (Ex. WWE -- there are women wrestlers who rip each others clothes off; and Tony Hawk Underground -- a game about skateboarding which, interestingly enough, has a strip club in it, which statisically is more frequently visited than other areas of the game).

When I was living in Montreal I was watching the news one night and (I'll never forget this) in one of their segments they said that 25% of kids between the ages of 10 and 14 in Montreal have had sex already!!! And what's even more horrifying is that their parents are ok with this as long as they're using protection (which they can't confirm because parents don't talk to their children about these issues anymore... it's easier for them to just ignore it than to try to bring it up in conversation because they know that they're taught Sex Ed in school. I don't know about you, but my school's Health class sure didn't teach me about safe sex at age 10!). Thinking back, I think I was probably starting to notice boys and get crushes at age 10, but I'm sure I was too scared to talk to them. And at 14 years old I was thinking about holding hands and my first kiss (no tongue!)... NOT sex. That didn't cross my mind for a while yet.

It's really no wonder there's sooooo much sexual sin these days.... so much rape, STDs, pornography addiction, adult entertainment, promiscuity, affairs, divorces, broken families, single parents, unwanted children and abortions, workplace harrassment when our generation has faught so hard for equality... and the list goes on and on... all stemming back to this "simple" influence from our childhood to emulate whoever or whatever it is that's out there that we look up to.

Julie was over at my house on Thursday night and we were flipping through the channels after Survivor and just happened to stop and watch for a bit when we came to the Life Network where they were showing The Nanny. My goodness, that was scary! It definitely got both of us thinking and talking about how our culture is creating kids with bad behavior and developing unacceptable habits in them. They are becoming completely out of control and their parents just cannot handle them any longer. If kids are like this now, then what are they going to be like in 10 years when/if I have kids of my own to raise?! How good are my parenting skills gonna be?! It can't be an easy job. I'm definitely going to have to retreat to country!

At church last Sunday the pastor's sermon was entitled "Sex in the City of God". He talked about how we all struggle with sexual sin of some sort, Christians and non-Christians alike, whether it be in thought or in action, but the point he was getting at is that we need an intimate relationship with God. We can try many things to try to keep us from falling into sex-related sin (ie. firewalls on our computers, stay away from certian places, don't watch certain shows on tv, don't associate with people who influence us in this way, etc.), but when it comes down to it, God is the only answer. Only He can give us the strength that we need to resist, and only He can save and protect us from our sinful nature. Therefore, the closer we are to Him, the more in love with God we are, the better off we'll be. Sexual sin will no longer have a hold on us because God has made us clean. I think it's time we start showing our kids a real love so that it's not merely peer approval that they seek after.

I hope you can see the connection I've tried to make between all these stories and real-life issues that I've talked about. And I hope you can understand the vastness, complexity, and importance of it. Now I'd like to end on a happier note. Going back to where I began, the discussion I heard on the radio Friday morning... they also talked about some of the dolls that we had as kids growing up:

Raggedy Ann/Raggedy Andy (nothing sexy about that!)
Strawberry Shortcake
Cabbage Patch Kids
Care Bears
Pound Puppies
My Little Pony
Rainbow Bright
Barbie (the innocent kind)

Can you think of any others?

new beginning

2006-09-23T20:41:00.000-05:00

i was sitting at my desk diligently working away on friday afternoon, my supervisor who sits next to me was no where to be found, and then my boss (who is the head of my department) came over to me and said "can i talk to you for a few minutes?". i was like "ya sure!", and then he motioned for me to follow him to his office, so then all of a sudden i panicked in fear cause i had no idea what this was all about.

this is HUUUUGE for me... i was told to keep it a secret for a few days until my boss had time to let my supervisor know what's going on, but... i'm terrible. immediately after i got back to my desk i messaged my friend ashleigh and told her to meet me in the bathroom cause i had an exciting secret to tell her... i couldn't keep it to myself, haha. and then i went to a house party with a bunch of my co-worker friends on friday night and i ended up telling all of them too... and now i'm telling you, so the secret is officially out!

anyways, when my boss called me into his office he told me that dmti was having a hiring freeze right now. however, the product development department is super busy and in need of more people. he had already had a talk with my supervisor knowing that i was stuggling to find things to do to keep myself from being bored each day. he asked my supervisor if he really needed 2 people helping him (there's 1 other guy in our area who's been there longer than me) considering the inconsistancy of the workload in the client services department (where i am right now). even though my supervisor keeps telling me that things will begin to pick up in the fall, so far they have been empty promises... and i started in june, so i've been waiting a long time and wasting a lot of time it seems. so anyways, my boss asked me if i would be interested in transferring over to the product development department! YES i said! eventually i will be fully responsible for one particular product. i haven't been told which product i will be working on yet, but i suspect that it will be our Platinum Postal Suite, which is postal code points and regions for all of canada. this opportunity will allow me to finally use my skills that i have worked at so long and hard in university (nevermind the money i spent to get there), it will challenge me, and it won't be repetative. it will also give me a lot more potential for advancement/promotion. client services seems to me to be a pretty dead end department. having said all that, i don't want to get my hopes up too much, because it may not pan out to be a good as i'm anticipating once i really get started into to. afterall, i was initially very excited with the sounds of working in client services, but then i ended up being very disappointed with how things turned out.

so after i accepted my new position, my boss told me where my new desk would be.... : ( it's in quite possibly the worst spot in the entire office! i really like my current desk, but the new desk is in a very high traffic area near the lunchroom. it's also smaller, darker, and wide open for everyone to stare at my computer screen as they walk by. not only that, but it's right next to my new supervisor and 2 other guys who are slave-drivers and very serious. no games and no more jokes. i'm thinking that just the atmosphere alone will be very stressful for me. they're not exactly known around the office as everyone's favorite people. i really like my current supervisor. he's the nicest guy ever and he brings me treats. and i've become really good friends with some of my co-workers in my department, so i'm gonna miss not working with them. i won't have as many cool friends in my new department, so i don't know... i hope i still like it.

so there... i got a new job again that i didn't even have to apply for this time (i wish it was a promotion though as opposed to a transfer cause i need the money!). so it's back to training again for me starting oct 2. hopefully it goes better this time (or goes, period), although i haven't heard too many good things about the training in this department, so it could be worse than client services training. oh man, i can't imagine.

p.s. new beginning #2, my life insurance contributions kicked in this week. how odd is that?! i feel old now. too bad that my beneficiary would still be left with debts if i died tomorrow, haha.

Dog

2006-09-20T20:14:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. I think I'm starting to develop a mild obsession for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Julie urged to be come forward about this, but it was my brother who got me hooked initially.

For those who haven't boarded the Dog train yet, Dog the Bounty Hunter is a show on A&E. It's kinda like a reality show, except not the competition type. It basically follows Duane Chapman and his crew (mainly comprised of family members) around as they do their job... capturing criminals and helping them get their lives turned around using compassion, respect and humility to help restore their dignity, in return for reward money. The kicker is that Dog himself is an ex-convict who now has a strong faith in the Lord and is a devout born-again Christian (yay!). Aaaand Leland, the Dog's son, is a total heartthrob (of course, there's always one in the bunch)... he's got the whole bad boy image, but he's such a great guy.

Anyways, there's one specific story involving the Dog which has brought me to write about this today. It's a story that you may have seen or heard in the news/media recently.

I don't know what you've got stored away in your memory bank, but you may remember the case of Andrew Luster in the USA back in 2003. He was a convicted serial rapist and the famed heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune. He was convicted of drugging and raping three women over a four year span. During his trial in 2003, Luster fled the country to Mexico. After months of an unsuccessful search by US police, Dog and his team tracked the fugitive in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in June 2003, where he was living under an alias, and they arrested him. It was this capture that catapulted the Dog to fame. However, as bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, Dog, Leland and Tim (Dog's brother in gangster terms, not for real) were arrested by the Mexican authorities and Luster was handed over to the United States government by the Mexicans. Luster was subsequently found guilty and is currently serving a 124 year prison sentence. Dog, Leland and Tim were thrown in jail in Mexico and denied their reward for the capture, but were released on bail one week later.

Then, early Thursday, September 14, 2006, to much surprise, Dog, Leland and Tim were taken into custody by U.S. Marshals in connection with the charges stemming back 3 years ago. Thankfully they were put in prison in the US though, rather than being extradited to Mexico again, but they were separated and put in an area of the prison with the worst of the worst criminals. They were threatened and harrassed while they were there and had a real fear that their lives were in danger by other inmates. After all, some of them were there because of Dog, therefore making him a real target. Again, Dog, Leland and Tim were all released on bail on Friday, September 15th, 2006, as the judge concluded they are not flight risks. While out on bail, however, they are required to remain in Hawaii and wear electronic monitoring devices around their ankles until they return to court for extradition hearings to face trial in Mexico. No date has been set for those hearings yet.

Funny part of all this is that bounty hunting in Mexico is only a minor felony and not even a Mexican citizen would be treated like this or face this kind of scrutiny... and even so, these guys did a good deed to benefit society! In addition, the charges against them are for bounty hunting which, by definition, necessitates payment for their work, which they never got.

Anyways, I highly recommend watching the full story of Dog: The Family Speaks on A&E on Saturday, September 23, 2006 at 5pm. There's sooooo much more I haven't told. I got all choked up when I watched how they were treated and yet saw their strength in prayer and believing that "where mercy is shown, mercy will be given." And since this trial is very present, if you could, please visit the Dog's website and sign the petition (and pray for them!). I also recommend reading each of their bio's (especially Tim's)... they were all headed down the wrong path in life at some point and it's incredible to see how God's has changed them miraculously and is now using each of them in a great and mighty way. I don't mean to sound like a groupy... I really do strongly believe in these guys. And I pray that justice prevails.

click to go to The Dog's website

Picture Highlights/Storybook

2006-09-18T21:51:00.000-05:00

... of a day in the life of the adventures of Katie and Julie (a.k.a. Belly and Hazelly).

Well it all began on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Hazelly picked up Belly at her belle apartment and together they commuted to the land of cigarette ads for faces and edible oil products (which we ate for lunch -- although we did avoid the BK Quad Stacker so as to not vomit all over ourselves).

1st stop: Toronto Convention Centre

We attended the Go Abroad fair and got quite a few on tips on travel. We also entered our names in a large quantity of prize draws.

2nd stop: CBC Museum

After Belly and Hazelly were done at the fair, they had nothing to do until 3:00 and therefore an hour of time to kill with no plans... so why not cross the street and check out Peter Mansbridge's headquarters?! (Credit goes to Belly's Li'l Brudder for inspiring her to check out this 15 min treasure). Upon arriving there, Belly and Hazelly were greeted by a beautiful sign indicating that there were only 22 days left to go before the start of Hockey Night in Canada... much excitement! Then upon further investigation and much more excitement (for real), Belly and Hazelly met up with their dearly beloved childhood....

Mr. Dressup's tickle trunk

and Casey and Finnigan's treehouse

and many more (like the Friendly Giant and Bazil Bear).

3rd stop: Destination Nowhere

This resulted in many random skyscraper skyscape photos...

and subway ridin'.

4th stop: John Mayer Concert

After meeting up with 2 of Hazelly's friends at the subway station, the 4 amigos walked to Yonge and Dundas to be entertained... although they had to wait a long time in close quarters with sore feet for it. There were about half a dozen video billboards to watch in the meantime though, including the latest breaking news on the condition of the Montreal shooting victims... just in case you're ever walking by the Eaton Centre and feel the need to know something of this nature. Then Cheryl Hickey and Rick Campanelli finally introduced us to the one and only....

class act/awesome possum. One full hour, in fact. All for free! And right on the heels of his new CD release (Continuum).

Immediately following this concert extraordinaire was the most Toronto Trash/Downtown Dump that Belly has ever known! And among this was the most randomness that Belly has ever known!

Yes folks, that really is an artichoke where adherants of The Mayer once congregated. But the artichoke was nearly outdone by a tiny dog wearing a pink t-shirt, pink tutu, and pink booties... only in this netherworld do you get authentic experiences like this, people! Belly then saw a horseback riding policeman for the first time ever and decided that that was pretty cool.

5th stop: Belly's Pad

Apres le musique, Belly and Hazelly made a long trek back to the M-ham and had Belly's leftover slop for dinner while watching "Dog the Bounty Hunter" marathon on TV.

And so concludes a wonderful adventurous day in the life of Belly and Hazelly.

Ovation Concert

2006-09-12T21:20:00.000-05:00

I was at a concert in Stratford this past weekend and had a really good time. I also had a really good view! I took a few pictures with my cell phone camera that I thought I'd share with you, but unfortunately the picture quality isn't prime.

Stabilo (my new favorite band)...

Hedley (Jacob Hoggart from Canadian Idol)...

Sloan (the lead singer guy, whatever his name is)...

Nelly Furtado (when she came down off the stage I got to touch/hold her hand!!)...

Press Release

2006-09-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

Many people still don't really understand what I do at work with my education (other than the fact that I make maps, in general terms), so I thought I would post this press release. It's kinda interesting (to me anyways... and my mom). It's just one example, but it's written in a language that will make sense to you.

Home Depot Canada Maps National Delivery Fee System with Help from DMTI Spatial™
Markham, ON September 12, 2006 - DMTI Spatial, Canada’s leading provider of comprehensive geospatial products and services is pleased to announce that Home Depot Canada, a division of the world's largest home improvement retailer has implemented DMTI Spatial’s digital map data services to optimize and standardize their home delivery services.
DMTI Spatial services assist Home Depot Canada by providing an effective means of presenting their national delivery fees structure. Home Depot Canada’s employees now have the ability to provide their customers with clear, illustrative, and standardized pricing based on their customers postal code location.
These maps represent a nationally consistent delivery fee structure; distributed across 123 outlets nationwide. The delivery zone mapping supports Home Depot Canada's leading customer service and satisfaction policies.
"Customers can receive the cost of a delivery to their home or business instantly," said Jason Brown, Delivery Services Manager of Home Depot Canada. "With the assistance of DMTI Spatial, our store staff can quickly ascertain the location and the cost to ship products from the retail outlet to the customers’ given shipping destination."
By providing custom mapping of their delivery zones, DMTI Spatial map services reduced the time of Home Depot’s previous mapping efforts by 50%. Consequently, the delivery zone standardization and reduction in time provided a tremendous return on investment to the Delivery Services Division’s bottom line, supplying the department with a substantial cost savings.

See! I am doing something good in this world! Anyways, hehe, sorry I don't have anything more entertaining for you today... maybe later.

the rest of the story

2006-08-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

CONTINUED from the previous post...

Well, over the past 6 months I haven't really had much of a social life... other than the two random trips to Montreal that I had in January and March. The first couple months of the year I was writing cover letters and submitting resumes like mad... and when I wasn't doing that, I was writing my final co-op work report to complete my requirements for graduation. And when I wasn't doing that, I was creating my online photo album, which I swear is still coming... please excuse my extended holiday from that while I am experiencing an upheaval of everything that was my life. I was not doing anything fun or exciting during this time.

Beginning the end of March at some point I started working nearly full-time as a cashier at Canadian Tire... along with my Dad, my brother, and my sister... a real family affair. Being a cashier was certainly not glamourous, but hanging out and laughing with my sister all day and wearing the same clothes every day was cool (ok, so half of that is a lie...). I really needed the extra money though... and the staff discount on so many things that I needed to get for my new apartment. Actually, I got to see a ton of people from highschool and stuff that I hadn't seen in years, so I enjoyed that part of it. Everybody shops at Canadian Tire for something at some point, and I hadn't lived in Stratford for so long that I had lost track of many people.

Anyways, after submitting ~150 resumes I officially moved to Markham on June 2. Since I was given only 2 weeks notice from the day I was offered the job until the day I was to begin working, finding a place to live was an urgent matter.... and the May 2-4 long weekend was only holding me up... and I still had some shifts left to work at Canadian Tire. Anyways, I printed off the York Region classifieds from the internet and then drove to Markham with my mom's cell phone for the day. I ended up being able to view 6 apartments that day. I was not overly impressed with any of them. They were either tiny, filthy, far far away, or any combination of the three. But beggar's can't be chooser's, so I decided on a place in Richmond Hill. However, when I called the landlord back to let her know that I had made my decision, she didn't have time to talk so she asked me to call her back again the following day. I happily complied only to find out when I called back that I got screwed over. Someone else who had also seen the apartment managed to call her back first... so I lost out. Not a happy feeling. So I called my second choice to let them know that I would like to move in.... only to find out that they had been keeping a secret from me. They required me to sign a 1-yr lease. I quickly decided that these were sketchy people and I did not care to do that... especially for a crappyish basement apartment in a house with three kids under the age of 6. So it was back to Markham again the next day for me. I had much better luck on the second try. Again I saw 6 more apartments and found two places that I really liked. I ended up getting a really great basement apartment in a beautiful neighborhood with an awesome young family. They're so nice! I love it here a lot. I have my own BBQ and they have a pool that I am welcome to use (as well as any friends I have come over), and in the winter they take the pool out and put a skating rink there. It's also very big and nicely painted (I have a red kitchen... Yay!!), and my patio windows look out into a forested park area in the backyard... not like the cemetery or highways I know some people have ; ) hehe. Looking back I can see God's guiding hand in my first attempt and failure at finding an apartment and now I can thank Him SO much for that!

Anyways, here's a funny/not-so-funny story... First off, it took me two trips with my dad's van to move all of my stuff to Markham. So on the first trip we made my dad had strapped a large pantry-like cupboard on top of my mattress on the roof rack. Obviously this caused a lot of wind resistance, so before we got onto the 401 my dad pulled over to check all the bungee cords to ensure they were holding up ok and to make sure there were no problems, etc. Everything was a go and we were on our way... Then, just as I began to doze off, there was a loud smash and I jumped out of my seat like never before, except not really cause my seatbelt locked up and practically choked me. My dad subsequently slammed on the brakes, started swearing (which he NEVER does), and pulled over two lanes to the side of the road (this all happened just before the Hwy. 6 North exit). One of the bungee cords had snapped in half, smacking the back window of the van(not breaking it though, thankfully), and caused the cupboard to fly off the back of the van, taking the mattress with it, and smashing into sawdust on the road. Good times. Praise be to God though because the highway was really quite busy that day and somehow it didn't hit anyone and nobody hit it. Had anyone been driving close behind us there could've easily been serious injuries and damages. So then my dad reversed down the shoulder of the road back to the scene of the accident to pick up the mattress. But just then some stupid driver decided to trample it for me... thanks, jerk. It would've been fine before that happened. Anyways, then because the van was packed too full, we had to reattach the mattress to the roof rack (whatever was left of the cupboard was left on the side of the road), however, all of the bungee cords that were needed were now all over the 401. So me, being the stunt devil that I am, ran back and forth across 3 lanes of highway whenever there was a break in the traffic to collect them... and somehow we then ended up with more bungee cords than we started with, hehe. Anyways, once that was done, we carried on our way... but, oh no, the story is not over yet. Later on down the road my dad noticed that everybody was staring at us as they drove past, so my dad asked me to stick my head out the window to check out the situation, haha. When I looked up I saw that because my mattress had already been winded and squished by a stupid driver in a little car, the bungee cords were now holding it down for the most part, but that still wasn't enough to hold down the damaged front end of it... so it was now folded in half and sticking straight up. I'm sure that was entertainment for everyone, but we didn't care and my dad just kept driving. But there's more! Then when traffic got thick around Mississauga, we heard more banging on the back window of the van. So we pulled over again on the inside shoulder, which only exists to a minimum, and only between lamp posts. This time another cord came loose and wasn't lost but was flapping in the wind (my dad didn't let me play any risky highway tricks this time). Anyways, from that point on there were no more troubles. We arrived to Markham much later than we had anticipated and found a nice little dumpster for my good old university mattress.

A couple days earlier I had been furniture shopping and had bought a couch for myself. Isn't it pretty?! : ) It's comfy corduroy and I love it cause it's perfect... exactly what I was looking for. Buying a couch for the first time made me feel so grown up! Crazy. Another transitional moment for me. Anyways, so after this unfortunate incident on moving day I called the furniture store back to ask them to add a mattress to my bill and delivery. And I also went out and got a new cupboard from Canadian Tire. That turned out to be a +$300 mishap... not cheap! Thankfully my dad paid for them both for me. But DO NOT tell this story to my mom or anyone else in my family if you're talking to them (please and thanks) because they have not heard about what happened on that day and my dad does not want them finding out about the money it ended up costing! (They don't read my blog, so I'm not worried).

Also in the "Major Purchases" category of Katie's transitional life... I BOUGHT A CAR! Funny thing is that when I was shopping for a place to live in May, I knew that I wanted to get a car relatively soon, but I figured that it wasn't in the budget for a least a few months yet. So finding an apartment along a public transportation route was a major concern for me. Then when I was agreeing to the terms of the lease with my landlord, we agreed on the cost of rent without a car vs. rent with a car for future reference. My dad was thinking one step ahead of me though. He knew that I was interested in getting a car soonish, and clearly I know nothing about cars, so he decided to start browsing around on my behalf. He then learned that a family friend was selling his car... So my dad ended up taking it for a test drive and talked the whole situation over with him. I was vaguely aware that all this was going on, but I had no idea my dad was actually getting serious about it. Then one day I came home from work and there was a car in my garage that I had never seen before. When I went into the house the first thing my dad said to me was "That's yours. Here are the keys. You can pay me back later. Sign here." Sudden randomness! I find it pretty humorous that I bought a car without having even seen it before or known anything about it, nevermind having driven it at all. But I totally trust my dad (...I would never trust myself anyway, that much is for sure), and it turned out to be a pretty good looking car and in great condition. Our family friend couldn't believe my dad was doing this without consulting with me, but my dad knew I would like it and he was right. Besides, I was WAY too busy with everything else I had to worry about before moving to Markham, so I really appreciated him taking care of this business for me... one less thing on my stressed out mind and checklist, which I needed and was quite thankful for. In addition, because my dad got the car from a family friend, I ended up getting a sweet cheap deal on it... plus he gave me a reciept for even less than what I actually paid him to help cut my GST/PST costs. And on top of all that, I'm quite impressed by how good it is on gas, and my insurance is super low. So anyways, the reason my dad put out the money for me is because he knew that I couldn't afford it yet and it was too good of a deal to let go. My dad had compared it with other similar ones on the lot and decided that now was the right time. I really do have the greatest dad on the planet... so helpful! YAY for not having to ride the bus to work! My landlord was surprised on the day I moved in to find that I already had a car when two weeks prior it really wasn't even in the plans yet... it was good cause that meant more money for him, but he just wasn't expecting to exercise the "future" clause of the lease so soon. Anyways, I guess I should tell you that my car is a silver 2-door standard 2001 Pontiac Sunfire. The fact that it's a standard is another good reason my dad took it test driving and not me. I had driven standard a few times before but I was by no means an expert. I was forced to learn on the job. My first attempt to drive my new car wasn't until a few days after my dad had brought it home for me and i had to drive by myself (cause my dad works during office hours, so he couldn't be there to help me) out to the insurance office (~20kms). Let me tell you, I have never been so terrified in my entire life. I was soooo nervous. I was shaking, my heart was racing, and I think I forgot to breathe a few times. Even my insurance agent was worried about me on my way back home. I tried to avoid going anywhere the following few days, but my parents forced me to go out to get some practice. I was SO scared. I even cried because I knew that I had to move to Markham and face Toronto traffic in only a few short days. Anyways, I've got the hang of it now, but I still don't love driving a standard... or maybe it's just that I really hate driving in this insane city traffic every day... 30 mins to drive less than 10 kms between home and work. I'm turning into the kind of person I never wanted to be.

New subject. When I moved into my apartment, I was "supposed to" be able to just put in my password and plug into the internet. I had also arranged with Bell Canada to have my phone set up and working by move in day. But nothing ever runs as smoothly as it sounds. After days of playing around with settings on my computer and installing and reinstalling drivers, I invited my genius friend Marc over "for dinner". Thank God for computer geeks! He said it was a difficult problem to find and fix, and it was by fluke that he figured it out because it was not what he was expecting (it had something to do with proxy settings), but it literally took him like only 3 mins to get it working for me. In the meantime, both my landlord and I were trying to contact Bell Canada and figure out what the problem was with my phone since it was still not working after a week from the scheduled hook up date. We then discovered that it wasn't Bell's problem, but a problem with the wiring in the house. So then there was more waiting until the technician could come and fix it all for me. So finally after 3 weeks of living here with no contact or communication with the outside world, I got both my phone and internet working on the same day, coincidentally. My mom was in quite a panic by this time, having not heard anything from me... apparently the phone was ringing on her end, but not on my end, and I have no answering machine, so she didn't know why I wasn't picking up and answering every night of the week. Apparently some of my friends had been trying to call me too.... sorry guys!

Anyways, here's a bit of a rundown of my first few weeks living here. On the same day I moved in I had my first visitor! Julie came over to see me and help me construct my new cupboard to replace the one I left on the 401. Day 2 of living in Markham I had my 2nd visitor... Julie again! : ) hehe This time though it was a surprise visit in the midst of my unpacking to invite me to join her for dinner at Sarah's house (my new friend). I was quick to say yes to that one since I had not been grocery shopping yet. Then after dinner that night we went over to Maria's house (another new friend) to play board games and cards with her (since she was stuck inside recovering from surgery on her foot). Then on Sunday, the following day, I hung out with Julie again (Yay! What a welcome!). She picked me up in the morning and took me to church with her. It was very enjoyable and I have been back a number of times since. Sarah and Maria also attend this same church - Unionville Alliance Church - which is only 5 mins from my house. Convenient! Actually, there's a number of churches within minutes of my house that I like, although I haven't had the chance to try them all yet because I've been away on weekends so much lately.

Moving along now... My first week of work was pretty good. My first day was full of orientation, signing papers, and touring around the office having introductions galore. Had I known I was going to be getting my picture taken too I wouldn't certainly chosen to wear different clothes that day. The picture turned out just about as horrible as it possibly could've been... and it was circulated throughout the company :'( Other than that I just did some reading at my desk the rest of the day.... In fact, that's pretty much all I did the entire week. It was the slowest start to a job that I've ever experienced. In fact, even now I feel like I've hardly learned anything yet. Oh well (I'll talk more of how I feel about that some other day... long beefy story, errrrr). Then on my second day of work we had our quarterly company meeting at the Howard Johnson where we were served a big free breakfast. That was certainly a good way to kick things off for me and get a good overview of what's going on at this place. I learned a lot that day (except how to do my job). Anyways... nevermind.

Times have changed, but I'll tell you a bit about this company and all the good I saw when I first started at DMTI. DMTI is a geographic data providing company, so that means that we have clients that purchase streets maps, hydrology data, topographic maps, etc. from us for whatever reason. The official company statement goes a li'l somethin like this: "DMTI Spatial is a leading provider of location based solutions that utilize the power of geography to help companies gain deeper insight into their customers, markets and competition, allowing them to optimize resources, realize greater opportunities and maximize profitability. DMTI Spatial maintains a comprehensive database of individual point address locations across Canada and publishes an extensive portfolio of award-winning spatial data products." We have a lot of big name clients such as Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility, the Yellow Pages, GM Onstar, the RCMP, Ducks Unlimited, Home Depot... and the list goes on for a long time. I was hired to do customized maps for our clients, however I was told that I would be helping with the Yellow Pages project for the summer while I was learning how to do custom maps because the Yellow Pages group is super busy this time of year. Most of the work I have been doing for the Yellow Pages has been creating maps for the delivery routes. It was funny... my first week working here the Toronto Yellow Pages book had just been released and our department coordinator came into work with her new phone book VERY excited to show off all the hard work we had done. I have now started doing much more work on custom requests at the order desk. I think that once I start being the expert in my area and having my own responsibilities rather than being someone else's assistant I will really enjoy working here. We'll see....

I've also had a lot of fun since I've been at DMTI. My boss and my supervisor are awesome, and I've made great friends with many of my co-workers. I really enjoy all of the people I work with (which has helped make some of the work I do a little less painful). On my third day of work I joined the company soccer team. By the end of my first week I was nominated for the social committee to replace one of the current members who was quitting (I lost in a coin toss though). And by the third week of work I had gathered up enough people for a summer baseball team. We're not doing very well because we're not all that skilled, but it's still enjoyable. I like all sports : ) We had our company BBQ my second week working here, but I've also hosted a few of my own backyard BBQ pool parties for my work friends, so that's been good fun times too.

Besides working, I've been very busy this summer on weekends. First of all, I took a day off on my second week of work for my graduation (finally) and was lucky to have my grandma and grandpa attend for the occasion! Then I was at Jessica and Ryan St. Pierre's backyard wedding near Goderich on July 8 helping with set up and clean up and organization and everything. That was such a beautiful day! I was the MC at Angela and Barry Wade's wedding on July 15 in Englehart (between New Liskard and Kirkland Lake). Everything went well considering my nerves and how terrified I was of public speaking. I was at my cousin Valerie's (and new husband Chris Goodfellow) wedding on July 29 in Burlington. I have never had so much fun at a wedding reception before! Great memories. I love my new relatives : ) I also went camping at Darlington Provincial Park with Julie, Maria, Sarah, Teresa, and Zulema on the July 21-23 weekend. I had a great time with all the girls, however, the park was nothing to get excited over. Then StevenG and Trisha both took the long weekend in August to come visit me. I loved having their company and conversation (and being home for a change on the weekend)! On the second weekend in August I went to Peterborough for Christine's birthday party. I stayed overnight and went to my old church there... and I ended up seeing my old friend Mike Fisher (he plays hockey with the Ottawa Senators for those of you who are unskooled), so that was exciting to get to talk to him again! I was also supposed to go camping at Turkey Point this coming weekend for Claudia's bachelorette party, but I had to cancel that plan due to budget limitations... so this will be my first free weekend in 2 months! Having no plans feels weird...

Anyways, I appologize for babbling on for so long and taking so long to get this posted! Hopefully now I'll get back to a little more regularity.

I would love to hear from all of you, so write me back and let me know what's up!

Out.

P.S. If this is your first time visiting my blog, please see my post from December 16, 2005!!

the longest blog ever

2006-07-05T22:43:00.000-05:00

Hi everybody! I'm back now after an extended period of silence. My appologies. This has been the craziest transitional 2 months of my life. As I'm sure most, if not all of you have heard, I now have a job and am living in the big city. Anyways, in my previous posts I talked a lot about my discouraging job hunt, so I just want to update you all on everything that has happened in my life in relation to that in the past 6 months.

So after I finished school in December I began my job hunt in January. There were a lot more job postings out there than I had expected to find, so that was good, but I ended up finding out that it was impossible for me to keep up and apply to them all. That was somewhat frustrating for me cause I didn't want to miss out on a potential opportunity. I was applying to jobs all over Canada and the US. Location is not an issue for me. I've always been willing to travel anywhere. Actually, I found that there really weren't too many jobs posted in Ontario, but then nobody in the US wanted to hire a Canadian entry level girl with no work visa or citizenship.

Anyways, early on in January I applied for a job at ESRI in Redlands (the king of the GIS world for those who don't know) as a Local Government Consultant. It wasn't too long until I heard back from them (which I kinda half expected). They informed me, however, that I wasn't being considered for the job that I applied for, but a position in the Technical Support department specializing in all things Raster (if you're a non-GISer and don't understand, nevermind). Anyways, the job process was 3 phone interviews and then, if you're still in the running for the job, they fly you out to California, do a final interview, meet-n-greet, and a bit of a tour around. I made it through the first 2 phone interviews but not on to the 3rd interview. That was ok with me though cause I really had no interest in the technical support helpdesk job they were trying to fill.

Somewhere around the beginning of February I had subimitted an online resume (no cover letter this time... too lazy) to a job in Minneapolis at Tier 3 Inc. as a GIS Specialist. Two days later, they emailed me back and said they would be starting their hiring process within a few weeks and would contact me then for an interview. Well a month went by and I still hadn't heard from them so I called them to inquire. I was told that they still hadn't done any interviews yet, but would be starting in another 5-6 weeks... WHAAA??!! Ok fine. They offered to forward my resume to one of their eastern offices though who they thought were going to be hiring sooner. Anyways, i never did hear back from them (at the end of April by now), so I gave up on that. I think what happened is that they didn't get the funding they were hoping for to hire anyone.

Then around the end of March, just as hope was fading, I decided (kinda as a last resort) to post my resume online on a GIS careers website. Then within a week I was pleasantly surprised... one of my former co-op employers (Dave from CRA in Waterloo who now lives and works in Palmdale CA) was just browsing around and found my resume so he decided to contact me. He let me know that he was hiring an assistant at the municipal government office where he worked and he would be happy to hire me, but it was already past the closing date on the posting and the interviews were beginning. He told me that they were interviewing 5 people from various distant places throughout the US and they were required to come to Palmdale to do a computer skills test, so if any of them backed out or if they didn't find what they were looking for in the first group of people, he would definitely give me an opportunity. They did end up finding someone though, so that shattered my hope. That's ok though cause Dave told me a lot of neagtive things about his boss and the unattractiveness and criminal activity of the desert city. And since then Dave has quit and moved to Denver, so that would've sucked for me.

Upon receiving the bad news from Dave of not getting the job at the City of Palmdale, he promised to forward my resume and a reference to any contacts he has in the GIS world, and he also forwarded me the email address of my other supervisor from my co-op job at CRA. So then I emailed Scott, who is now working at the CRA Ottawa office, and asked him if he had any leads for me. Scott then emailed me back and said that he was actually swamped with work, so he was going to talk to his boss about hiring another GISer. When I never heard back after 2 weeks though, I figured that idea didn't go over too well. And I never heard from any of "Dave's contacts" either, unfortunately. Oh well, their effort was appreciated anyway.

Hmmmm... what next?! Around the beginning of April I received a random email from a North Carolina consulting company looking for a GIS Technician to contract out to a hydro company in South Carolina. I still to this day have no idea where they found out about me from, cause I'm fairly certain that I did not send them my resume, so I assume that he must have found my resume online. Anyways, it turns out that I do not have the utilities experience that he was looking for (which you'd think he would've known by looking at my resume BEFORE contacting me), so he didn't interview me, but he said that he was still very impressed with my resume and just from talking to me a few times, so he was going to keep me in mind when a more appropriate position became available with them.

Then I got an email reply from the Northern Forestry Centre in Edmonton at the end of April for a position as a Remote Sensing Analyst. It stated that i had been selected for further assessment. I was required to answer 4 test-like questions of 250 words each. It sounded like a cool job, but I didn't expect to get the offer... and I just found out two weeks ago that indeed I was correct in my suspicion. I also had a phone interview with the Alberta Infrastructure and Transporation in Edmonton as a GIS Technologist, but it didn't go well... in fact it went very bad. Not only did I not have the answers for their crazy questions, but they also called me 2 hrs before the scheduled appointment and I had only been awake for 30 mins and was totally unprepared. So needless to say, they didn't call me back.

And then everything started to happen all at once.....

At the end of April I was invited to come to an interview for a position as a GIS Technician at DMTI Spatial Inc. in Markham for the first week of May (which I accepted... obviously!). That same week I also got another random email from a company called EngHouse in Markham. He had found my resume online and wanted to know if I'd be interested in a postion they were trying to fill and coming for an interview. It was a TRAVELLING job (WooHoo!!) where I'd have to make presentations and do client training on their software products. Surprised and honored, I said yes and managed to arrange both interviews in Markham on the same day.... only 2 blocks away from each other in fact! Anyways, both interviews that day went really well. In fact, before I even got home from Markham that day, the people from EngHouse had already called my house (knowing I wouldn't be home yet) and left a message with my dad asking me if I'd come back for a second interview. So I drove back to Markham again the following week.

At the same time as all of this was happening I got another interview. This one was in Guelph (home of Ontario's best ever country bar!) as a Planning Technician for the Upper Grand District School Board. That interview went really well and I felt very confident coming out of it. It sounded like a job I would really enjoy doing and my co-op experience proved to be very relevant, but the problem is that it was only for a one year contract.

Anyways, while I was waiting to hear back from them, I got invited back to DMTI Spatial Inc. for a second interview. I also got another call to set up a phone interview with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Fort McMurray (northern Alberta). Then the day before my second interview at DMTI (Wed May 17), I was OFFERED THE JOB in Guelph! I was very excited, but I did not accept the offer immediately because of the other two interviews I still had pending. Then the following day after having another good interview at DMTI I was sure to tell them that I needed a prompt reply from them on whether I got the job or not because I had already been offered another (lower priority) job which I needed to respond to. They were very accomodating to my request and the very next day (Fri May 19) they OFFERED ME THE JOB!

So I turned down the offer at the UGDSB in Guelph and accepted the offer in Markham at DMTI. I never did hear back from EngHouse in Markham again, so I guess they must've sensed my politically correct falseness in the interviews and decided to hire not me. Anyways, a week later I had my interview with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. The interview went pretty well and I felt qualified with my relevant co-op experience, but I didn't give it my best effort because my mind was already set on the job I had already accepted. But that didn't seem to matter because on June 1st I was OFFERED THE JOB! They wanted to first fly me out there to meet me and show me around and help me find a place to live and stuff, and then allow me time to make the transition before starting work for the summer.

Now by this time I had already spent 2 days driving back and forth (~2hrs each way) looking for an apartment in Markham and was already partially moved into this awesome basement apartment that I now have. I already felt too committed to change my mind by this time, but I was very torn over this decision. Replying "No" to that offer was SO hard for me... and I'm still not sure I made the right call for me. I wish I could've at least accepted the flight out there for a few days!! Now I know that living in Fort McMurray is not something all our dreams are made of, but for me for a long time now (as some of you know) I've wanted nothing more than to live in Alberta. I always swore that the day would NEVER come where you'd find me living in Toronto..... Well, here I am now (not loving it yet). For those of you who are interested, this is where you can find me... at least for now until I get enough experience to make the next step in my life/career:

6 Hickory Drive
Markham ON
L3P 6S6
(905)471-MAPS

Obviously I have a lot more to tell you about regarding my new job and social life, so this post is

TO BE CONTINUED....

lucky duck road trip... (or something like that)

2006-04-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't heard yet... I'm on a lucky streak! Last week i got an email saying that i had won 2 free tickets to the hockey game in montreal against boston on Tues Apr 4 (just as a reminder, i had won 2 free concert tickets a month ago)... funny thing is that last time i was at a habs game it was also against the bruins. I won cause i am signed up as a member of the Habs fan club and my name was randomly selected. At first i just assumed that i wouldn't be able to go cause that's a long way to travel for a hockey game, and kinda expensive, so i offered the tickets to nick (my montreal friend) right away... lucky he had night class that night and didn't want the tickets, cause as soon as i told my dad, he was excited and wanted to go! YAY That means that i got a free ride to montreal (in the mini cooper)! So anyways, my dad got the time off work and we left at 5:00 Tues morning and got to the Space Agency at 12:30 where i got to see a bunch of my friends at lunch. I also dropped off some mint smoothie chocolates from the Easter bunny to the privileged few and picked up my apartment key from Ernest (cause Lindsay was gone on business to Japan this week and Ernest was given the responsibility of watering the plants while she is gone).

At supper time, my dad and i went downtown to Schwartz's for some famous Montreal smoked meat...Mmmmmmmm... and then found some really cheap underground parking right near the Bell Centre and got there just in time for the game to start. We also got a free t-shirt and towel for signing up for a mastercard (twice), hehe. Good times! Anyways, the game was AWWWWESOME! I loved it. I love hockey. It was tied up for pretty much the whole game... close games are always intense. And then in the last 5 mins montreal scored 2 back-to-back goals to win it 5-3. YAY!! We definitely proved to be the better team Tues night.

After the game then me and my dad went to Hurley's Irish Pub, just a few blocks away, where we met up with Nick, Steve M, Keith, Steph, Steve W, and Ernest for a beer and just chatted for about 2 hours or something. It was nice to get to visit with everybody again.... especially after just having been there like 2 months ago. Great and good unexpected random surprise road trip visit : ) Anyways, then Wed i just slept in and then stuck the key under the welcome mat for Ernest and headed home again at noon... made it back to stratford by 8:00... and that was the end of another great adventure. And my dad is the best.

slacker update

2006-03-22T00:48:00.000-05:00

ok, so i haven't said anything here in a really long time. Well, there's a pretty good reason for that... i have nothing to say! I have a very non-exciting uneventful life. For real. I'm almost like a hermit. Nonetheless, i will briefly let you know what i've been up to in the last little while for those who are interested.

On the weekend of March 11-12 i went to Niagara Falls with a bunch of friends... 10 to be exact. We never did see the falls, but we had lots of fun at the Midway and the casino. Actually, it felt like we spent half of the weekend just trying to get there and get home again. And then we spent much time just hanging out in the hotel room eating, playing cards, watching the hockey game, and swimming in the pool. On the way home we stopped at Ikea and i bought a new desk lamp... w00t!

On St. Patrick's Day i went to Kennedy's in St. Agatha with Connor and a bunch of old friends... that was good times!! ; ) I haven't had that much fun in green since living in Montreal. If you want more details, just ask.

And perhaps the most exciting thing (for me anyways) that has happened recently, is that i finally (after 2.5 years!) completed my co-op work report from when i worked at Hidden Acres Camp! I hadn't even thought about it beforehand, but i felt SO good and i was just beaming after handing it in last Friday and realizing that it was DONE and completely out of the way after so long and i don't have any more homework to worry about for the rest of my entire life!! What a relief.. the burden is gone.

Now it's back to the job search again... i have some catching up to do because i had slowed down pretty significantly with the applications while i was focused on my report for a few weeks. I'm very happy to be finding a lot of posting out in Alberta though (even ones that specify 'entry-level'!), but i'm not too thrilled that i haven't heard back from any of them yet. Anyways.... i keep pressing on! OH, and i also just realized that i now have more time to be working on that online photo album that i've been promising for a while now... stay tuned, kids!

In the meanwhile... my dad got me an interview tomorrow for part-time work at Canadian Tire while i play the waiting game for a real-world job... at least i'm keeping busy and earning some spare change. I've also spent some time teaching myself more HTML... that way when i post online applications and resumes, i can make myself look shnazzy... a cut above (some of) the competition, hehe ; )

Other than that, i've just been watching a bunch of movies with Trisha this week... she's been bed-riden for a while now cause of her swollen knee, so i've been keeping her company when she's bored. So we've seen North Country (eek!), Pride and Prejudice, and Crash (for the second time), not to mention hockey games, Trading Spaces, American Idol, and The Amazing Race.

I also just found out today that my cousin Cheryl, who just got married in January, is pregnant again with their second child... yay! : )

Aight, that's a wrap. Over and out.

it's all about the music...

2006-03-08T23:12:00.000-05:00

hey guys... there's 2 items on the agenda for today.

First item of mention is that i have ANOTHER NEW BLOG! It is entitled "Lyrics du Jour" (pretty self explanatory, i think) and there is a link to it over in the sidebar. Please visit there often and leave comments if the words there have touched you in any way. I set this one up so that i have a specific place just for music that means something to me. Also, there is a banner in the sidebar... this is NOT an advertisement. I put it there. Michael and Shawn Cavallo (aka Manic Drive) are long time friends of mine. I think their music is really great and i want to support them, so please click on it and visit their website and listen to their music sometime. Thanks!

Item#2:
Last week i won a pair of concert tickets off the radio station in Waterloo (Kool FM 105.3)! I was pretty excited when i heard the message in my voice mail : ) I had never won anything before! They were tickets for Scott Stapp in Toronto at The Opera House on March 7 at 7:00. At the time i had no clue who Scott Stapp was and i didn't even know if i'd like him or his music at all, but i didn't care, i still wanted to go! (I later found out that he was the lead singer from Creed, now gone solo... so that was good news for me). So then came the task of trying to find somebody to go with me! That was pretty frustrating, to say the least. Most people, much unlike me, have full time jobs and have to work til like 5 every day, which is no good cause i had to leave earlier than that in order to get there in time for the concert... so that's a legit excuse. But i had NO IDEA there were soooo many anti-Creed non-fans in the world! Seriously! I guess i must not be in the cool club cause i was totally out of that loop (as i found out after numerous invitation rejections). I've listened and liked for a long time and never knew i was the only loser. Anyways, i'm not bitter cause i got to go to a Scott Stapp concert last night and i loved it and had such a greeeat time!! :-D I ended up seeing Michael Cavallo on Saturday night (after i left the Homey House reunion and after he finished doing a concert in Kitchener) and invited him to go with me and he was more than happy to join me. This just proves that God really does have a plan for our lives (even in the little things!) cause Michael is a huge Creed fan and has all their albums and knows all their songs. I didn't know that at the time, but clearly all things worked out for the best. So anyways, after much battle with family members, i managed to get a vehicle and picked Michael up at his house in Mississauga last night and headed downtown with him. We even managed to get parking for FREE only 3 blocks from the venue! Pretty exciting, eh?! The opening band was called Breaking Point and they were just average. Actually, i did recognize one of their songs, so that made it worthwhile... hehe. Then Scott Stapp came on... he sang 4 songs from his debut solo album and then the rest were Creed songs... all the hits. He had such a great stage presence... very commanding. You couldn't help but give him your full attention and be totally enthralled. He really knew how to work the crowd. There weren't a whole lot of people there (you had to be 19 to get in, so there were no screaming teenage girls there...yay!), but everybody was really into it and singing along and everything the whole time. It was fun : ) And he really does sound just as good live and he does on the album, which is rare to find, so I was very impressed. Also, i learned that Scott Stapp is a very genuine person. He's a Christian but he's gotten caught up in the rock 'n roll lifestyle and has made a lot of mistakes (like a lot of other people who aren't in the spotlight). But he still has his faith and he's not afraid to share it even though he's been judged by a lot of people. His lyrics have a very spiritual content and his music seems to tell the story of his life.

I have an all new respect for this man.
And i was sooooo happy to get out of my house for a change... i really needed it.

flavor of the week...

2006-03-01T19:55:00.000-05:00

i don't know anybody else besides shelley that watches Invasion, which is sad cause it's a great show, so basically this comment goes out to Shelley...(hi shelley! *waves*)... so i was watching the Ellen Degeneres show today (cause it's the best) and one of her guests today was Eddie Cibrian (Russel from Invasion)!! :-D He's so cute... i was excited.

AND THEN.... i found out that he was formerly a member of the band called 3 Deep!! :-D In case you don't recall, they were a boy band one-hit-wonder who released an album ONLY in Canada. I'm sure there must have been at least one occasion when we (meaning me and shelley) did an air band in our dorm room to their single "So Into You".... : ) hehe If only i would have known about Eddie sooner i totally would've been aboard that bandwagon!

boy, am i ever feeling girly right now... and i just thought of our Canada Day experience at Ontario Place a few years back... ; ) hehehe

comic

2006-03-01T19:01:00.000-05:00

i love canada's men's hockey team through and through and i'm not bitter about what happened to them at the olympics this year and i'm not pointing any fingers of blame at anyone, but i had to laugh at this... i think it's funny cause there's a hint of truth behind it : ) hehe

Canada's Men's Olympic Hockey Team figures out how to win....

(Thanks Julie!)

Deal or No Deal?!

2006-02-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

My sister is the queen of game shows (seriously... Wheel of Fortune really gets her going!), so while she was home over Christmas holidays, she found a new game show on TV hosted by Howie Mandell that was running a one week trial to see how popular it was. The idea was that if it ended up being a big hit, they would keep it running regularly and if it was a total flop, it would be X-ed. So as it turns out people had fun with it (including in my house... it became a 5-day family affair that we all got intensely involved in, not excluding shouting and jumping, etc.) and starting Feb 27 it's going to be running on NBC regularly (or so I'm told). Anyways, the cool thing that my sister just had to call home to tell me today, is that there's an online version so that we can get warmed up! : ) haha The game is called Deal or No Deal and I recommend you try it out! (just click on the picture to get started)

So here's my rough description of how it works... First of all, there are 26 briefcases, all with a different monetary value inside them (these values are listed on either side of the game board). The lowest value is $0.01 and the highest is $1,000,000 and the idea is for you to win as much money as possible (obviously). So you pick your briefcase to start with, and then one by one you eliminate the other briefcases by revealing their value. Then there is a banker who will try to buy your briefcase off you by making an offer based on the values of the remaining briefcases (so it's good to try to get rid of the low value briefcases first to up his offer). If you choose to accept the banker's offer, then that's what you win and the game is over (and they reveal to you what was in your mysterious briefcase so you can see how much you would've won or lost), but if you say "NO DEAL" then the game continues and gets riskier and risker as it goes on as to how much money you may win or lose. It's easy, but if you need more help, just follow the instructions at the bottom of the game screen.

So that's the DEAL ; ) I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. Wheel of Fortune has an online version of the game too for your enjoyment if you please!

hockey talk

2006-02-16T01:38:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know anything about me, I'm a pretty big hockey lovin' girl... and for those of you who do know me, you might say that that was a little bit of an understatement : ) hehe Anyways, i was involved in a hockey pool again this year and i just have to say that it makes me happy... even though the guy who was running the website was not very punctual and often made errors on the scores... which is very frustrating when you're trying to win! Anyways, it ended this week (don't ask me why... there's no apparent reason) and i ended up placing 14th after 19 weeks of competition, even after having missed 3 weeks of picks. I didn't win a prize, but i did get bragging rights... and lose my humility along the way, heh. I think i was probably one of like three girls in the pool, and was definitely the highest placing female, Yay! :-D It makes me proud when i can keep up just as well with the boys... some of them aren't so smart after all! hehe Actually, there's a certain boy who i am friends with whose name starts with a T and ends with a 'vor' who i beat or tied like 70% of the time. w00t!! i used him as my measuring stick since i know that he's good and smart, and it looks like i measured up not too bad! i enjoy keeping up with the player and team stats and latest news in the NHL on a daily basis. I guess i'm not your average girl when it comes to sports... you can be sure that i'll know exactly what's going on in the world of olympic hockey these next 11 days too ; )

2 out of 3 ain't bad i suppose...

2006-02-15T01:03:00.000-05:00

well, love is not in the air, but chocolate is still in my tummy and flowers are still on my table, so i guess it was a good day after all... just to clarify, i spent the day alone, stole my brothers chocolates that he had left over from christmas, and thanked my dad for the flowers he bought my mom, but i get to enjoy also ; )

so julie and i were talking earlier this week and joking around and laughing together, having a real good time discussing how we would like to celebrate our 24th lonesome valentine's day.... julie recommended i write a singles advice column for valentine's day, but i don't feel like an expert in this area even if i do have the experience to back it up. i did, however, come up with an idea... i later realized though, that it was not such a bright idea. in honor of the season of love, i thought it would be fun for me and all my single girl friends to get together for valentine's and have a horror movie watching party! hehe : ) but then i recalled how much i hate horror flics cause they freak me out so i never watch them... except for this one time.... the only time i've ever watched a horror movie before was with a guy... this being so that i could bury my face in his shoulder when i got scared... which further leads to cuddling... awwwwww! : ) hehe Come to think of it, i wish i knew where he lived now these days cause he was super nice and cute and i would've asked him to spend tonight with me if he was still around

ok, enough daydreaming... i'm out!
*sigh*

The Tale of the Three Trees

2006-02-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

Once upon a mountaintop, three trees dreamed of what they wanted to become when they grew up.
“I want to hold treasure,” the first tree said. “I will be the most beautiful treasure chest in the whole world!”
“I want to be a strong sailing ship,” the second tree said. “I will be the strongest ship in the world.”
“I don’t want to leave this mountaintop at all,” the third tree said. “I want to grow so tall that when people look at me they will raise their eyes to heaven and think of God. I will be the tallest tree in the world!”
One day three woodcutters climbed the mountain. With a swoop of the first man’s axe, the first tree fell. With a swish of the second man’s axe, the second tree fell. With a slash of the third man’s axe, the third tree fell.
The first tree rejoiced when the woodcutter brought him to a carpenter’s shop, but the busy carpenter was not thinking about treasure chests. Instead his work-worn hands fashioned the tree into a feed box for animals.
The second tree smiled when the woodcutter took him to a shipyard, but no mighty sailing ships were built that day. Instead the once-strong tree was made into a simple fishing boat.
The third tree was confused when the woodcutter cut her into strong beams and left her in a lumberyard. “What happened?” the once-tall tree wondered. “All I ever wanted to do was point to God.”
Many, many days and nights passed. The three trees nearly forgot their dreams. But one night golden starlight poured over the first tree as a young woman placed her newborn baby in the feed box. And suddenly the first tree knew he was holding the greatest treasure in the world.
One evening a tired traveller and his friends crowded into the old fishing boat. When a storm arose, the second tree shuddered. But when the traveller stretched out his hand and said, “Peace,” the storm stopped. And suddenly the second tree knew he was carrying the King of heaven and earth.
Once Friday morning, the third tree was startled when her beams were yanked from the woodpile. She shivered when she was dragged through an angry crowd. She shuddered when soldiers nailed a man’s hands to her. She felt ugly and harsh and cruel. But on Sunday morning when the sun rose and the earth trembled with joy beneath her, the third tree knew God’s love had changed everything. It had made the second tree strong. And every time people thought of the third tree, they would think of God. That was better than being the tallest tree in the world.

I pray that God's dream, not my own, will be the story of my life...

To my dear friends...

2006-02-06T18:44:00.000-05:00

http://members.chello.at/thomas.jilge/Frei/I_Like_You.swf

Much love
: ) hehe

repost and update

2006-02-04T15:33:00.000-05:00

For those of you who read my blog and are not welcome members of my teen girl squad blog, i thought i'd let you in on a little post i made a while back...

From Tuesday, November 08, 2005:

Ok, so I'm doing my laundry the other day, which involves my new sweater that I bought in Switzerland approximately one day before Shelley got married, and, naturally, I decide to look at the tag on it for washing instructions (thankfully, they were in both German and English, so no problems there). However, I found myself laughing hysterically at the slogan on the other side. Here's what it reads:
"Get up, Get on up, Like a sexy washing machine."
LOL TOP THAT!! :-P

Today's Update:

Ok, so I'm doing my laundry the other day, which involves my sweater that I bought in Switzerland approximately one day before Shelley got married, and, naturally, after it's clean and dry, I decide to wear it again.... only to find that it has shrunk SIGNIFICANTLY after all this time!! My belly and wrists are VERY exposed... : ( So sad. DEATH to the sexy funny European sweater (pictured here back i the good old days, since I know you're all interested).

this could be for you....

2006-02-02T23:07:00.000-05:00

Now that we're into February, the 'supposed' month of romance, not surprisingly i found this article posted on the net this morning.... Annoying Things Couples Do ....i think we can all relate at some point... or at least i know i can!! When will people learn?! :-P Admit it, you know we were all thinking it, and now i'm glad somebody finally came out and said it... so please read! If you're a significant other, you can self-evaluate, and if you're single, you can find some humor it : ) hehe

Disclaimer: this was not directed at anyone in particular and was not intended to offend anyone... just a little piece of entertainment with truth for your enjoyment in the midst of your monotonous day ; )

something worth thinking about...

2006-01-26T23:50:00.000-05:00

so, as i laid awake in bed last night evaluating life's situations for both myself and some of my friends who i have talked to lately, i had a revelation. i'm sure i knew this before, but the reminder was healthy....

life is all about attitude! we have all been dealt a different lot in life... it's not always easy, but we're never alone. I've been so impressed by some people who i have seen have been through the mill and back, and have stayed calm though it all and still carry a smile on their face and joy in their hearts. i wanna be like that! what do we have to complain about, really? is it worth all the stress that's stealing our happiness? i honestly believe that no matter the situation, our response and our attitude is our choice. Personally, i'd rather smile and enjoy the ride wherever it's taking me than be consumed by grief.

This is my challenge to you... don't sweat it! Choose your attitude. And for goodness sake, LAUGH! : )

my eventful trip "home"...

2006-01-25T01:01:00.000-05:00

my return to montreal this past week reminded me of why i loved it there so much. there is an endless supply of fun to be had, and it's not hard to feel the love when i'm with them. from the moment i arrived, there were smiles and hugs all around. we have such a tight group of friends there... something that is rare to find and cannot be taken for granted. i also got to finally meet "the new guy" (ernest tan, another member of the st. bruno squad, with the infamous TSW) and discovered an instant friendship with him : )

after a sleepless night, i spent 8 hours on the train on wednesday. this used to be a pretty painful ride for me, but after this past summer, it's become quite comfortable ; ) when i got there, lindsay was there waiting to pick me up (thanks!) and we immediately headed to the CSA to go to the gym to play badminton with christophe, marc, and melodie for an hour and a half. it was quite fun : ) following that workout, the five of us went back to lindsay's place in st. bruno and the guys made dinner for us girls while we sat around and chit-chatted. they're great cooks!

on thursday, i got up early with lindsay and went into work for the day. i surprised the guys with my presence in the cafeteria when they came down for breakfast. they seemed pretty happy to see me after having been gone for a year and a half now. in the evening then we all met up at 'le Cage aux Sports' (a sports restaurant) to watch the hockey games... well actually, we met in 2 shifts in order to accomodate peoples schedules. there were 4 of us there at 7:30 for dinner and to watch the flyers game, and then some people had to leave while about 6 others showed up at 9:30 to watch the canadiens game.

on friday i got up early again and went in to work with lindsay, but decided to go home again at 10:30 because i really needed a nap (to catch up from tuesday's sleepless night) and also so that i could get a bit of cover letter writing work done. it turned out to be quite a productive day... i slept for 3 hrs and sent out 3 more resumes (yay)! at night, we all met up at steph's apartment and headed over together to Spurs... montreal's one and only country bar : ) despite the fact that none of my friends are real country music fans like i am, they all enjoy much fun when we go there... and they can't go without me, so this event was a given. i've always said, it's not where you are, but who you're with. anyways, for me, there's nothing better than dancing to the tunes from a live band and sitting around a table with all my friends, beltin' out the lyrics to garth brooks... ahhhh, good memories! this was also the first time i got to see nick since he couldn't make it out thursday night, so that was even more exciting for me. he's the best : )

saturday was sleep-in day, and then in the afternoon steve and ernest came over to lindsay's apartment so that i could show them my pics from the summer... well actually, we only got about half way through them... sorry, i have a ridiculous number of photos! then after supper, we got all dressed up in our hawaiian attire, and headed over to carolyn and eric's apartment for a party. they are moving to toronto, so they decided to have a hawaiian party for their going away. it was fun! they have this dance pad thingy that you hook up to the play station or whatever and you follow the steps of the dancer on the tv and you get points based on how well you follow, hehe. we ALL had our turn at it... we discovered that the boys are quite good at dancing! eric, nick, and steph were the dance masters of the night : )

on sunday, lindsay and i went out for brunch with jamie and melodie. they are both engaged to be married this coming summer, so we spent the whole time discussing rings and dresses, etc. it was a lot of girly-type fun : ) then we headed over to karen's house (bryan's new girlfriend who i just met for the first time this week.... she's a nice, very fun girl!) for bryan's birthday party. basically we all just sat around and played board games for the afternoon, had dinner, and then went home. since i was out at the time, i had to record my show... so when we got back home then, i watched Invasion : ) i love that show! and then it was my bedtime.

on monday morning, i went in to work to say hi to steve and robert (my supervisor and boss who were away on business on thursday and friday when i was there), and say goodbye to everybody else... then i caught my bus/train and was on my way back home again : (

i was lectured by pretty much everyone though for the fact that i purchased a return ticket for myself and wasn't staying indefinitely... i was firmly instructed to be back again within a month. if only i had the money! : ( oh how i would love to have a job back there again... i miss you guys already!!

my first picture post!

2006-01-24T16:42:00.000-05:00

My cousin, Cheryl, the daughter of my dad's older brother (Uncle Ed), got married on January 13th so I just wanted to share a few pics with you guys... I'm very happy for her! : ) I think she looks beautiful and she married a really great guy (Frank Smyslo). And their daughter, Stella, is so adorable! They live in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and had their wedding in Curacao (which is an island in the southern Caribbean). Unfortunately I couldn't go cause I'm poor, but my parents were able to go celebrate with them for a week. I'm not super close with her since she lives so far away and her parents are divorced and stuff, but she is the only cousin I have who's the same age as me, so we have some nice childhood memories together...

speak UP!

2006-01-24T02:33:00.000-05:00

there is history in the making with this little lady today! let me tell ya about it...

a) i voted!! for the first time in my life! : ) I'm quite proud of myself. (Side Note: my little brother who just turned 18 nine days ago also voted for the first time today.... so i'm a little slow... but that's besides the point)

b) not only did i vote, but i also went on the first day of the advance polls and waited in line for 45 mins! how's that for some enthusiasm?! i was actually thinking ahead this time (as opposed to the last election) knowing that i would be in montreal (again) on election day...

c) i actually watched the election coverage on tv tonight with interest!! never fear, though, my friends... katie was not abducted and replaced by someone who looks and talks remarkably like her (like all the creepy people in my favorite tv series -- Invasion)... i have no intentions of making a habit out of this political nonsense... although i must admit that it gave me the same kind of pride that i got from watching the Superbowl and the Calgary Stampede for the first time in my life. i guess i kinda had an invested interest this time since a family friend was running for the conservatives in the Nickel Belt riding... (she ended up losing miserably, but that's no surprise... no offense!)

and last but not least... on a somewhat unrelated subject...

c) i had to ASK for a goodbye hug from one of the chesters this morning!! (you know who you are... :-P) this has certainly never happened before... and should never happen again!

so anyways, now that we officially have a conservative leader for a change and are stuck with the minority government thing once again, i wanna hear what you guys have to say about it (being that i am completely uninformed), good or bad?! And steveng, i expect a full 3 paragraphs out of you ; ) ...you'll never get another opportunity to talk to me about your precious politics again when i actually care to listen! hehe

another lonely night...

2006-01-10T00:07:00.000-05:00

Since I'm thinking, I thought I'd write it down... (I'm aspiring to be more like Julie! hehe)

Well first of all, I finally have official plans to go back to Montreal to visit my most precious friends there... Oh, how I have missed them after two years or something! I am very thankful that so many of them have kept in touch with me since I have left and proven to be true friends. That has been a real blessing to me : ) So ya, I'm going there next week on Wednesday, the 18th... and Lindsay doesn't want to let me leave. Since she is currently living alone and my ex-bedroom is empty now, so she wants me to just stay and hang out there until I finally find a job (....seriously considering ; ) hehe). I love Montreal, the hockey capitol of the world... I had such a great time when I was there, great memories, and an awesome job (that I would love to have back now)!

On that note, the other thing I have been thinking about is this whole job situation (sorry to bring it up again). I have not had good luck finding job postings within Canada : ( but on a brighter note, there are openings in the US. I have actually found a few that look exciting to me.... I feel like I have very little confidence in myself though. The long silences or no response after sending out my resume gets kinda depressing after so many times. I really want to start working and being active with my life.... all this sitting around home unproductively sucks.

recap of recent history...

2006-01-06T23:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, so in order to appease my friend steveng, I guess it's time for me to write something here again. Honestly though, NOTHING is new!! But you all know that I can babble... so here we go... you asked for it!

Seriously, I have done absolutely nothing this week.... I have been the laziest and boringest person ever. I blame the influence of my sister for that. Thank goodness she went back to London today... I can finally start to be productive again instead of being trapped in front of the TV with her and her movies and stuff for hours! I did watch the movie 'Ray' this week though and I did very much enjoy that. What else... ? Ummm, well... YAY Team Canada!! :-D Of course I watched my hockey and was very proud of our junior boys! Then I applied for a couple jobs these past couple days... I need more patience I think cause I've been expecting immediate results and the world just doesn't work that way unfortunately. Tonight I also talked on the phone to my friend Ange who is getting married this coming summer... I'm gonna be her MC!! : ) yay I feel important, hehe. And I'm also trying to make plans to go to Montreal next week or something to pay a visit to my good friends there. Um, and now the only thing that I am doing is watching my Amy be a spazz. It's fun. Really. Not really. Oh ya, and also, Ryan now realizes that I hold insane sleeping patterns, so he thinks it's fun to come online and start talking to me at 4 a.m. now on a regular basis.... BAD! Must stop!! :-P I seriously need to fix my sleep life. No joke.

REWIND.
I forgot to tell you about New Years... although there's not much to say. It turned out basically the same as last year... maybe less dramatic... and that's good... kinda. Trisha and I went to Waterloo together to go to a house party with a bunchload of our friends. First of all, Trisha, Erin, Gaby, Eric, and I went to Ryan and Jeremy's place and Jer made a spaghetti dinner for us. Then we took a "short walk" (20 mins) over to Darcy and Mike's place to join in the festivities. The usual shanannagans went on up until midnight (ie. poker, fooseball, and gossip), and then things changed. It all started with Pat streaking as the clock struck 12, wearing nothing but a party hat where it counts. Following that was a wedgie war with Ryan and Rich targeting Jeremy.... and it was all captured on camera thanks to Gaby! Boys are so mean. Actually, the camera captured much of the rest of our evening, although nothing significant occured after that point... just lots of hugs. After we all starting crashing and people starting dispersing, Trisha and I went back and stayed the night at Ryan and Jeremy's place (since I no longer have a home in Waterloo). By noon we finally woke up and decided to be lazy and watch a movie (40 Year Old Virgin) before heading back home to Stratford. Good times had by all... and that's the making of memories.

Christmas Craziness

2005-12-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. This year was a bit different than years past though....

For starters, I got ALL my shopping done in one trip!! It only took me 5 hrs including travel time!! : ) That's very exciting for me. And this year, we didn't go on a family vacation as we have the past 5 years. We had been doing this since with 3 of us kids in university, in 3 different provinces at times, Christmas was really the only time when all 6 of us were together... usually one or two of the family members were missing the rest of the year. Also, this year my grandparents (on my mom's side) came over to our house on Christmas Eve and stayed overnight to share Christmas with us so that they didn't have to be alone this year. Our family has never done this before, but it turned out to be very nice to have them with us. Then we rushed off to be in Burlington for my dad's family Christmas at noon, and my grandparents joined us. It seemed kinda weird having both sides of my family Christmas together this year (my mom's side of the family is clearly very small!), but we all had lots of fun. We did a "re-gifting" gift exchange, which was lots of fun... a pretty loud and physical auction type game as it turns out. It's surprising how much everybody gets into it when all we're doing is trading each others junk. Also, now that all my younger cousins are growing up, it's been nice hanging out with them more and getting to know them better. When they were younger, they were just as annoying as little brothers and sisters, but now they're cool and i love them! This year, we also had the addition of 2 fiances to the family... 2 of my female cousins got engaged (yay)! They found some great guys and we had lots of fun together, so I'm very happy for them : ) Anyways, my brother got a Futureshop gift certificate for Christmas this year and had to spend it immediately, so he made me get up with him at 4:30 a.m. Boxing Day morning to be in Kitchener when the store opened at 6 a.m. Uuuugggh! My university life sleeping habits are not going away! I was soooo tired. But anyways, we were back home again by 8 a.m.... just in time for my parents to tell me that we're were leaving at 8:30 a.m. to go Boxing Day shopping in the States (Port Huron). We were pretty disappointed though... apparently the Americans don't make such a big deal out of Boxing Day shopping and sales like we do in Canada. We didn't find many bargains, so it was kinda a waste of a day.... oh well.

On a different note, I finally got a new laptop!!! My desktop computer was infected, ancient, completely out of hard drive space, and therefore, unbelievably slow. This upgrade has been in the waiting for like 3 years! So I'm very happy, however, it has been kinda overwhelming trying to figure everything out on this new beast... where are all my IT friends??!!

That was the gift I bought for myself, but other than that, this year I recieved a pile of kitchen utensils, 4 books (including a World Atlas... pretty cool for a Geographer!), lounge pants, a sweater, a CD carrying case, money and gift certificates, and a number other small things like stocking stuffers.

I wanna hear everybody elses Christmas stories now! : )

nothing new...

2005-12-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

Well, this has been a pretty uneventful week and I don't have much to say, but I thought I'd post anyways just to pass the time. Sorry for the randomness!

Sunday was a great night! A bunch of us went out to retro night at Phil's to celebrate Eric's birthday. I learned that I LOOOVE retro night and it was really nice to get to see my people again. With having so many essays and what not at the end of the term, it had been a while (~6 weeks) since the last time I had the chance to hang out with everybody.

Also, I finally got to go to the Embassy this week! I haven't been there all term because I've had a night class on Monday's. I was hoping Dom was going to be speaking because I haven't heard him yet, but it was Brandon. That's ok though, cause I like Brandon and it was good. It just means that I'm going to have to make an effort to make to drive and come back every week starting in January if I want to hear Dom. It was really great to get to see some old friends on Monday night too.

Last night Graham came over to visit me and I showed him my pictures from my summer trip. That was cool, but I realized that even though I've been back for months now, not very many people have seen my pics yet... sorry guys!

I was also pretty upset that the all-Canadian hockey game was not on TV at all last night, so I followed game scoreboard on the internet instead. It's stupid that just because I live in Leafs territory, the other Canadian games aren't shown. The Colorado/Nashville game was on instead... !?! Some of you may think I'm obsessive over hockey, but you should know by now that this is pretty common for me. Anyways, the Habs made a strong come-back with Kovalev to beat the Sens in the shootout. Many of you will not care at all, but those of you who like hockey can understand why this is so exciting for me!! I'm also not impressed by today's announcement that Spezza is ONLY on reserve for Team Canada.... bad decision... bye-bye Olympic Gold (j/k... i hope).

I also learned a little bit about HTML this week so that I could make some customizations on my blog... yay : ) hehe

So, tomorrow I think it's time for me to start my Christmas shopping. I hope I can get it done quickly cause I don't like all the busyness and stress of trying to figure out what to get people. I can't believe how fast Christmas has creeped up on me this year. Christmas is going to be very different this year I think.... I'll let you know later how it goes.

Let me know you're here!

2005-12-16T04:01:00.000-05:00

hey guys... i saw this done on another blog once before and i liked the idea...

If you are reading this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want to say, either good or bad. Prehaps it could be a first impression, a special moment, or a certain way in which I've impacted your life.

thanks : )

i became a blogger!

2005-12-16T02:38:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right... i'm aboard the bandwagon, for better or worse. Clearly my life is in transition, which is good!

For those of you who haven't seen me smile or heard me talk about it yet, i'm finished school! FOR LIFE!! This is quite an accomplishment, definitely a day to remember for a girl that never felt like this was the kind of life she was cut out for in the first place and hated every minute of it but stuck with it anyways. My dad pointed out to me that I have been in school for 10 years longer than him.... zikes!! (that was a steveism... sorry) I hope it pays off for me in the end... ie. i hope i find a job and start making some money soon. Unfortunately, i broke my hole puncher on the last day of classes, but fortunately i found a 50 on the last day of exams... so it all works out in the end (or better)!!! :-D Can you believe it?! Some poor person (no pun intended) dropped $50 on the ground, and I found it! Just in time for me to start my Christmas shopping! All this equals crazy happiness... YIPPEEE! HOORAH!! HOORAY!! PAR-TAY!!

So in celebration for myself, i spent all day today watching the finale of Survivor, the finale of Amazing Race, and the finale of The Apprentice (not to mention the prank calls i left on Steve's answering machine... hehehe). The temptation to watch them earlier this week was SOOO hard to resist, but i had to tape them in order to get my work done. As much as i love my reality shows, it was painfully difficult to sit in front of a TV for that many hours in one day.... i don't think i'll do that again.

Anyways, that's all for now.... something more significant may be said at a later date. Come back soon!