Tuesday, July 31, 2007

There is a rumour going around that I might be gainfully employed. It turns out to be true. The job, which was one that our illustrious Maureen sent out, is not glamourous. It's a tech writing job. But the company seems to be amazing, the people seem nice, and the office is only 10 minutes away from my house. I could ride a bike, if I had a bike.

Thank you to everyone who listened through my whining and who read my cover letters. You're the best.

Now I guess that I have to change the name of my blog...

Monday, July 23, 2007

I often go to amazon.com to read reviews about things I like, just to see what other people are thinking. I enjoyed the final Harry Potter book, but had some minor issues with it. So I turned to amazon.com to see what other people thought.

When I do this, I'm usually most interested in the 1 and 2 star reviews. I'm curious to see what people consider to be so wrong about a thing. I found this guy (I'll assume), and his crazy reviews. For example, the first line of his review for HP and the Deathly Hallows goes a little something like this:
It seems that before I launch into this review should tell you that I know some satanic, malign cutthroats who contend they once overheard Joanne Rowling say, "I want to reap a harvest of death when you least expect it".

But did you like the book?

For a laugh, I read the review for the dvd of that movie 300. Crazy Reviewer has written...
Although I generally believe that the less said about 300 the better, I do feel obligated to say a few things about 300's self-aggrandizing disquisitions. To organize my discussion, I suggest that we take one step back in the causal chain and embark on a new path towards change.

Whatever happened to the thumbs up/thumbs down system?

Friday, July 20, 2007

If I was more techno-savvy, I could post a video from one of my favourite Britcoms, Black Books. But I'm feeble, so instead I will post the url for the video called Bernard's Letter. It's a letter written in response to a publisher's rejection letter. I hope that for none of us, it comes to this. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU4S2BIqoHY

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

I waited until today, the rainiest day in several weeks, to hoodwink Rita into being my personal photographer for the day. Against my better judgement, I agreed to be featured on the Contributor's page for the December issue of alive. This involves providing a photo, which is no easy feat. If I know that I'm being photographed, I'm usually able to pull off some kind of pained expression. If it's at all bright or sunny outside, then that expression usually has an undertone of anger (because the brightness causes me to squint). Nevertheless, we fearlessly embarked on the photoshoot, starting in Tynehead, a park in my neighbourhood.

I have to say that Rita admirably took on the role of photographer, suggesting different places and faces for photos. At one point, she got me to walk out on the slippery rocks in the salmon spawning creek (ie. environmentally protected) in the park. Most of the photos turned out a little blurry due to the slippery footing. However, she did manage to capture this stellar shot which I'm very tempted to use:

I look like I'm taking a (stubborn) crap into the water.

Thanks Rita, I owe you one. I really mean it.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Yesterday was good, although it started a little bad, sort of.

I had promised my mother that I would take her to the annual Critter Care Wildlife Society open house. We have gone the last few years, and she has really enjoyed it. In spite of the new animal stink (babies can be little poop machines), I enjoy it, too. The open house is quite the affair. On Saturday, they had over 2,000 people visit the site. During the open house, volunteers take the public on a tour of the facility, affording we-the-people the rare (once a year) chance to glimpse all the unfortunate little critters. This year, we saw many raccoons, a young beaver (never mind, you perves), young skunks (a little stinky), opossums, three fawns, and a young coyote. There were also three bear cubs, but they keep them away from the public.

To raise money, CCWS sells tix to raffles, sells stuff, and outright asks for money. Some time while we were there, and sometime while we were filling out raffle tix, my mother put down her glasses case. Considering these were her new glasses, and it was The Best Case Ever, we had to go back. This little detour made me late-ish for the rest of the day.

But it was okay, because the rest of the group that was meeting at The Grunt gallery to see friend Hillary's art show was late, too. It was nice to see everyone again, especially in the context of Hillary's art. We were all in such a good mood that we couldn't be brought down by Bruce, the Cairn Terrier, who was still in a mood because his mommy had been away for a while in Italy.

After the Grunt, Josie, Sara, Rochelle, and I went to The Whip for a delicious dinner. I had the Blackened Chicken Sandwich with Yam Fries. It was nothing to rival JNads' Las Vegas fare, but it was good enough for me. Feeling nearly full, Rochelle, Sara, and I went up Main Street to Bellagio Gelato for a scoop. The conversation strayed only slightly onto the topic of former classmates; we grumbled about only a couple of them. That was a new high (or low, depending on how you look at it) for us.

Friday, July 13, 2007

So here's a funny story that turns out to be not so funny.

While taking half-hearted stabs at gaining employment, I've been making up projects to keep myself busy. One of these projects is an elaborate personal timeline of my life since graduation from high school. As I had written in previous posts, it's my 20 year reunion next year, and that got me to thinking "what the hell have I been doing?" Also, I was inspired by the disastrous interview with VBOT during which they asked me what I've been doing since 1998, and I couldn't tell them. Shameful.

For this timeline, I'm documenting education, work, vacations, and family medical history (because that has really affected my timeline in recent years). Doing this has been cathartic, instructive, and kind of depressing. And I'm still not finished doing 1988-1998.

But I ran into a problem which I couldn't quite figure out. I have been using past resumes and time markers such as graduations and holidays to navigate through my past. For instance, I knew that when I got my Bachelor's Degree from SFU and diploma from Kwantlen, I took vacations to Florida. I also knew that I went to California between those vacations to Florida. However, when I placed these vacations on my timeline, things didn't add up. There wasn't enough of a break between my educational experiences (I finished SFU in the summer semester and then started at Kwantlen in the fall semester).

Confused, I searched my memory for clues. I knew that the Canucks were playing in the Stanley Cup finals while we were in Disneyland; we watched the final game on a really big screen at Universal Studios. According to wikipedia, the Canucks were in the playoffs in 1994. I also knew that the Indiana Jones ride was under construction while we were there. According to my internet resources, the Indiana Jones ride opened in 2005. Both of these clues indicated that the California trip was in 1994. But that was weird because I was sure that I finished school in 1994.

Apparently not. I dug out my degree from SFU, which is dated 1993. Terrific. This means that I've had a glaring, significant error on my resume since I don't know when. I wonder what else I have wrong on my resume. I'd better check how I spelled my name.

Funny? NO. This all doesn't speak well of my copyediting and proofreading skills.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Dog day afternoon.

So it sounds like the surgery went well and the happy no-lucky puppy is on the road to recovery. He'll be back home tomorrow to start to start 2 months of a house arrest sentence stricter than Paris Hilton had to suffer. He’s not aloud to run and jump and lick himself. Actually, that sounds a lot like Paris Hilton’s house arrest.

My cousin sent a lovely, well-meaning email in which she advised that when Sunny the dog comes home from the vet tomorrow, he will need some pampering. I wrote back that I'm already carrying him up and down the street to visit his favourite trees and other pee spots. What more could he want from me? I guess we'll see.
The dog has been to the vet. The vet says that the dog has "totally blown his cruciate ligament." The cruciate ligament holds the thigh bone and shin bones together so they don't grind. The cruciate ligament is being repaired by the vet. The vet says that Sunny will have to stay over night. After that, he will not be allowed to run freely for two months, which means that he will need to be on a leash at all times. He won't be allowed to jump on and off the furniture (including the beds. We won't sleep for two months because the dog always jumps on and off our beds during the night.

Calgon, take me away.

Seriously.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Happy Canada Day!

It feels so weird to be saying that. To me, and I think to many others, Canada Day is such a non-holiday. I guess it's because it is inevitably compared to the Fourth of July. As Canadians, we're not as patriotic (or narrow-minded) as our neighbours to the south. I'd like to think that we're quietly patriotic. I'm not even sure of that.

However, I am sure that the dog hurt his leg today. That's fun. He was just running around the yard, excited because some kids were climbing the school fence right outside our yard. He always gets excited when people are on in the school yard. It's an extension of his territory, and therefore it is his to keep safe. Anyhow, this time he forgot to keep himself safe, and turned too sharply and hurt his leg somehow. We think/hope that he just pulled a muscle or something. He doesn't seem at all put out about it. There's no crying. He's doing all the normal stuff except putting weight on it.

But poor little guy. He's off duty for now.