Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Harrison Hot Springs, BC

Ceroc's Harrison Hot Springs Weekender is this weekend, hurrah! I've been looking forward to this for months and it's (almost) finally here. I just bought a new camera so I'll hopefully have a lot of pictures (and maybe video??) to show for it, assuming I'm not too busy dancing. Or maybe Ryan and I can take turns taking pictures/video.

The lovely thing works like a DREAM. I liked it when I tested it out at the shops and after being mine for a mere 3 weeks, I am now in love with it.

Of all the features that come with digital cameras these days, my biggest concern was the shutter speed and image stabilization. When I went window shopping for a new camera (many months ago), I picked the brains of several different sales reps at several different stores, and the general consensus was that the Sony W80 was the best overall package, the most bang for your buck (another major concern!).

What about the Sony's penchant for using proprietary software (my brother's pet-peeve with Sony)? A matter of personal preference, really. I've been happy with my past Sony products and so far so good. The manual is easy to read (and yes, I did read (most) of it). The camera is user-friendly. And, best of all, the default shutter speed is press-click quick! If anyone out there is looking for a new camera, I'd highly recommend this one.

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Ups and Downs

What a crazy, hectic week. I didn't want to go to work on Monday and it wasn't for the usual reasons either. My boss was let go and I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. Wtf?? Shock, disappointment, confusion, dismay - I felt lost and adrift, suddenly cut off from the rest of the company, and I can't even imagine how he felt. Of course I didn't have much time to dwell on that; I had a company function to help finish planning for Friday and with the loss of one of the speakers, I had what felt like a million and one last-minute changes and other presentations to prepare. I was a frantic farmer trying to herd all the chickens into the coop and as soon as I thought they were all in, there was always one still clucking around outside. How in the world was I going to finish everything on time?

Furthermore, halfway through the week I find out that there may not be internet access at the location. Are you kidding me?! If I can't get internet, half my presentation is out the window! Then a family matter comes up, with it an obligatory commitment, and our organizer can't be at the function to set up, MC and clean up, leaving me to take over. Aaahhhhh! What else can go wrong?!

In the end, I managed to finish all the presentations by sacrificing my regular work (except for a last-minute proposal due Monday morning that required my attention) and I was saved from potential disaster by MW's laptop which gets minimal cellular internet service (dodgy service beats no service at all). Thank God.

Friday finally rolled around - hallelujah! - and I couldn't wait to get it all over with. Weeks of planning, information gathering, organizing and plain hard work coalesced into a successful day-long function. Relief! Now I can get back to that pile of backlogged work come Monday.

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Naked Cowboy

Who doesn't love naked cowboys?? Makes me want to buy the product.

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Untitled

Not sure if that last rant made any sense, but then, do rants usually make any sense? Good. So what the hell has happened in the last month or so? In a nutshell, my head happily exploded from an overload of Photoshop magical goodness, I banged myself up a bit while snowboarding, caught a nasty itchy-throat, exhausted-body, achy-head, voicelessness bug that completely wiped me out for a whole day (unheard of in my book), fell in love with Ben's Brother, started isotretinoin treatment (!) which first dried out my lips, then face, then scalp but will be SO FREAKING WORTH IT when I'm done, found a lovely (and very well priced, courtesy of a coworker) salon and spa for equally lovely pedicures, visited Bainbridge Island for the first time, filed my oh-so-boring taxes and am anticipating my higher-than-expected, surprising-but-not-really tax refund and attended my first Mariners Sodo Mojoness of the season.

All cheeriness aside, there have been a couple of tragedies. To those who have lost directly, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. (I love you, D.) To those who have passed, they will be missed more than I can express in words. May you find peace on the other side and hopefully we will meet up again in the next life.

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The Catch-All

Holy jumping mammoths, it's been ages since I've written (again). Life's been busy, trés busy! I feel like the proverbial 9-5 worker bee who comes home everyday and is far too tired to do anything more than sit on the couch and vegetate. Okay, so it's not that bad but some days it just feels like it. Especially when I've had an exceptionally long day. Like one of those days where everyone decides you need to fix their Word doc or the printer or label maker or the camera. "Accept all changes to get rid of the cross-outs and colored text; it's not printing because the toner is out/that tray is empty; you change the text style by pushing the same button you were pushing before until it says 'Normal'; the camera's battery is dead, use the spare that's in the bag" and so on and so forth.

I don't want to sound like an ungrateful chit - I am flattered that everyone believes I can fix just about anything - but sometimes being the catch-all is rough. And that's exactly what I am, in addition to my official title. Not to stroke my own ego but it does make me wonder how they ever accomplished anything without me. I've been very good at reigning in my temper for many, many years now but some things still try my patience.
At the end of the day, though, one should still always try to help those less capable and less fortunate.

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