WorldWideWaterCooler

Yes, I’m still here. Just totally uninteresting.

Remember all that stuff I did the weekend before last? Now that it’s finally been done, last weekend was full of all sorts of nothing. It was bliss.

I’m pretty happy that the strike didn’t mess up my class at all, though I wonder just how far the mediation talks will get when the schools have been ordered to offer nothing more than 0-0-0, and the unions are asking for anything but that.

Speaking of class, it’s still going well, and I’m still a slacker when it comes to actually doing my readings etc. I guess some things never change. Also, I hate being the smartest person in the room aside from the instructor. Or at least being the only smart person who’s willing to demonstrate that fact. I alternate between feeling like a pretentious twat, or being bored. Also, to the Bob-Barker-Tanned Blonde who plays dumb: stop it. I’m here to learn and be challenged, not listen to you twitter and giggle.

Back at work this week, and training again. At least they’ve fixed the heating in here. Lust has again returned for the 21′ LCD. I am also thinking I might perform a clandestine swap of the chair at my desk for the one I’m using in here. That’s the extent of the excitement in my world these days.

Also, I am ill. Thankfully training was put on hold for tomorrow (since the room was booked by someone else), so I won’t feel as guilty for taking a sick day.

That’s what the can says on the little Coca Cola Olympic Polar Bear on my desk. It has nothing to do with anything.

It’s really, obscenely difficult to find a family doctor ’round these parts. Apparently doctors are only accepting new pregnant patients, and if you are with child then they’d be happy to book you an appointment sometime next August, which is the doctor’s next available opening is.

Seriously. What the fuck. I’m totally going to drop dead one of these days, because all of the clinic doctors tell me to “ask your family doctor” every time I have a question, and the family doctors won’t take me! Fuckers.

Other than that small frustration, things in my world are looking amazingly good these days. I’m finally starting to feel like this is really going to be my year. If I don’t die first.

It’s a slow week at work. Next week I’m in another training module, but today and tomorrow are exercises in “looking busy.”

I’ve been refreshing my RSS reader like a mad-person. Nobody is updating. The only feed that’s showing new content is a not-safe-for-work blog.

I wonder how much longer until I crack and read it anyway…

I finally went back to the gym yesterday, after a month-long hiatus. I know, I meant to go more during the holiday season, but it just didn’t happen. Until yesterday. And it felt good.

Perhaps it was the endorphins, or just a full-moon or something… but that good feeling prompted me to do something completely insane.

New Goal in my world: Run the Vancouver half marathon in Spring 2006. That give me about 16 months to go from doing about 3.75kms on the treadmill, in 6 x 5 minute intervals of 2min. running and 3min. walking – to doing almost 22kms of running. All at once. Without stopping.

I just filled out the online registration form to volunteer for the 2005 marathon on April 28-May 1. That should give me a good idea of what the event looks like, and what I can expect. After doing the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, I know I can make it 35kms in 1 day – but that took me 8 hours. Obviously the half-marathon is do-able, but it’ll force me to kick up the training just that little bit more.

I’m giddy with excitement. May as well lock me up now and throw away the key.

From bree (aka Brian), for (blogless) todd.

Which Family Guy character are you?

I was saving this for a day where it actually meant something – but I felt like just posting it already. My brilliant metaphor. Boys – pay attention. I came up with this one for a guy friend, and I think the analogy finally made him realize what exatly was going on, and why he and his girlfriend would never get back together.

Relationships are like car engines. Love is like oil. Keep a good amount of reasonably clean oil in the engine, things will run smoothly. Let it get too low or too dirty, things will not run as smoothly, though putting some serious TLC into the engine will get it back up to snuff. However, if you let the engine run out of oil entirely, eventually it will sieze and be COMPLETELY UNREPAIRABLE. All you can do at that point is move on and replace the engine.

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I don’t really have anything else to say. Funny how the blogging is prolific when life goes to shit, and when life is good, the blogging goes to shit. Ah well. C’est la vie.

You can just call me Diva Martha Vila.

Today I have:
-Cleaned off the deck (including finally getting rid of the dead plants)
-Cleaned the weather and grime off the bbq and bought it a new cover
-Fixed my squeaky chair
-Poly-filled some holes in the walls (damn wall anchors leave large-ass holes)
-Painted over the poly
-Two loads of laundry
-Cleaned enough clutter out of my posession that I have 2 garbage bags full of clothes and junk for Big Brothers to come pick up, and another one for the dumpster
-Unclogged the bathroom sink

Before the day ends I’ll:
-Get my eyebrows shaped and a mini facial (a girl’s gotta look good!)
-Whip up some homemade spaghetti sauce
-Blaze through the vacuuming and dusting that’s long overdue
-Settle down on the couch with a G&T and whatever’s on the movie channels the new episode of Desperate Housewives!!!

Shit I’m a productive bugger when I get on a roll.

Went out to 80’s night at Shine last night. Funky little club. Well-stocked and almost reasonably priced premium liquors. The DJs were decidedly unenthusiastic and seemed to have a lot of trouble matching beats and keeping the playlist flowing – but I don’t usually expect a lot from DJs in this city anyway.

My major beef however: if you did not dress that way the first time around, and cared more about Strawberry Shortcake than Duran Duran, you are not allowed to show up in 80’s garb, and you are most certainly not allowed to act like a fool during the songs and holler “I haven’t heard this in forever!” – as if the music holds some sort of special meaning for you.

One other thing – I’m not sure what you saw on MTV when you were younger, but hopping from foot to foot and kicking your legs out in front of you like some sort of bastardized version of a Russian Trepak in leg-warmers has NEVER been cool.

Granted, I’m pushing the envelope myself in terms of being able to claim some sort of stake to really appreciating 80’s culture, but at least I was alive through the entire decade.

And a special note to the semi-creepy mid-to-late 30’s latino guy with the shirt that looked like a radioactive kelp field threw up on you: Watching you dance with ridiculous abandon all night long totally made my evening.

I just received an email from Nick about posting a link to promote all of the local events taking place to raise funds for Tsunami disaster relief. Holy cow are there ever a ton of them. Find the official listings here. There are also many bloggers who are trying to find a way to help – and kudos!

The amazing outpouring of generosity and the show of the human spirit at its very best has been overwhelmingly beautiful. And at the same time, I’ve found it phenomenally sad.

Every single person I know has donated something – whether it’s $1 or $100 or more to the Tsunami relief fund. But only a handful of people in my circle make it a habit to be so generous with their time, capital and spirit during the rest of their lives. I know I’ve been guilty of the same thing. I never donated to charities to help the homeless and destitute here at home until I had to walk through the Downtown East Side of Vancouver to get to work every day.

The phenomenon is easy to explain – it’s the oldest advertising trick in the book. Give the people a personal connection to an event or product, and they’ll fall all over themselves to be involved with it. Use this toothpaste and you’ll have a brighter smile and fresher breath and be more successful. Buy these clothes and you’ll snag a fabulous mate. Donate to this cause, and you’ll save both the friend/family member that was affected, and perhaps the world! With Indonesia being such an international vacation destination and the sheer numbers of those affected by the disaster, it’s hard to find someone who wasn’t directly impacted by the event.

It’s much harder to find people who have been impacted by the trouble in the Sudan (where over 50,000 have been killed), or the hurricaine in Haiti earlier this year. What about the thousands of homeless and struggling families right here in our own city that are so easy to ignore as we float above them on the SkyTrain, or drive past them in our cushy SUVs? How about the kids who could really use a big brother or big sister – when’s the last time you volunteered or donated your time, money or goods to help these causes? Have you ever been inspired to organize a fundraiser for any of them?

MSF (Doctors without Borders) has already released statements that they have more than enough funding for their relief efforts in South East Asia. Will you still donate to them for other important efforts? Red Cross representatives have said that managing the well-intentioned but ultimately useless donations of goods is referred to as “The Second Disaster” in the non-profit relief-aid circle. Have those goods made it out of your house yet to organizations such as the Salvation Army that could really use them as the weather turns for the worse?

I’m not trying to slag anyone for anything they have or haven’t done – it’s still an amazingly powerful and inspiring thing that so many around the world are so inspired to give. I’m just trying to say “keep the flame alive.” Use all of this positive giving energy to keep your fundraisers going, and keep up the efforts to donate your time and capital to not only the Tsunami victims in South East Asia, but those who need your help around the world, and right here at home. Find a cause that matters to you, and do your best to strongly support it, not just in times of extreme (and well-publicized) disaster and peril, but all year.

If you’re out there, anywhere, I’d love to talk to someone who’s highly experienced in piercing.

Specifically, multiple nipple piercings in relation to breast feeding. I’d like to have mine re-pierced (after a rejection), and want to know the likelihood of scar tissue blocking the ducts. Not that I’m thinking of reproducing any time within the next few years, but I’d like to eventually.

If this is you, or you know anyone who can answer my question, please let me know.

More metal in 2005!

You know a sneeze is powerful, when you cover your mouth with your hands, sneeze into them, and the sneeze-spray ricochets back onto your face. Pass the tissue.

That one’s for you, lurkers.

It’s officially De-Lurking day.

So comment already. Come on baby, tell me you love me.

Just thought I’d put it out there – lest the Universe smite me for failing to acknowledge this tidbit – I registered for my HR class after work tonight, and aside from the long lineups, everything went just fine.

Four days down, 361 to go.

Canada 2-1 over Russia at the end of the 1st.

Best colour commentary line of the first period: (Referring to the Russian players) “These guys go down faster than free beer at a frat party!”

I wish all hockey was this good…

I have officially dubbed 2005 The Year of the Obstacle.

Seriously, every time I try to do something these days, I run into some sort of wall that I’ve got to find a way around, over, under, whatever.

January 1: Hard Drive Fails (on the first day after the warranty expires too…)
January 2: Attempt to procure Hard Drive – computer store closed
January 3: Computer store open, 1st choice for HD sold out, go with 2nd choice. Install HD. Try to install OS – nothing works on the first try. Motherboard throws small fit. Eventually get things working.
January 4: Get to work freakishly early. Locked out of computer. Wait 75 minutes for Help Desk to fix it.

Not that any of these things in and of themselves are terible, but every damn day it’s something. You sould even say I was pre-emptively thwarted from an impromptu tropical vacation, because there were no acceptable return flights on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

I would really, really like just one day to go smoothly.

Maybe tomorrow….