Ah Ha Ha (don't mind the language)

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Happy Birthday Poppa B-Ruce

Bruce Stewart, a man worthy of portraiture. Happy Birthday Dad, I love you.

We're On A Bridge Charlie

I was reminded of the fantasticness of this: http://www.filmcow.com/charlietheunicorn.html
Which then reminded me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMUsXnHdGbA

Tender Loving

My car gets to park in the garage this week and next as one of the other cars is gone for that time. I think Jean Grey (yes, that is my car's name) doesn't quite know what to do with herself. I hope that when she has to go back to sleeping outside she won't have developed a hateful morning complex.

CMO

Hawksley Workman's Los Manlicious - almost the whole album. Daaaag, so good.

Surprised

I watched the Obama inauguration. I actually teared up when he was announced for the first time and when he was sworn in.

It was an important piece of history (whether or not you believe he will be a good president). I was surprised at my emotions.

Con-Text

You know when you're starting a new job and you have to wait a bit to feel out what you can "get away with" and what you can't. You learn that some things are ok as long as they don't interfere with your work. You also learn some things are just not ok. I am sort of waiting to see/hear about cell phone use - mostly for the text messaging. I don't want to take calls, but I do want to respond to texts.

For the first couple of shifts, I waited until I had my break. Then I got a little bolder and if there was a minute without clients waiting at the desk I would flip open the phone (from the vest pocket in which it had been hiding) and quickly read messages, but still wait until break to respond to them.

I think I have found some middle ground - texting during pee breaks. Yup, toilet texting (sorry Dad). I work shifts at many different times in the day. I just wanted to put that out there so that if you get a text from me, well, you never know what I could be doing. Grin.

#darkto

I woke up to reading about the power outage in the west end of Toronto. I also woke up to reading about how Twitter has been really helpful in communicating things during the outage.

• Twitter
• what's going on in T.O
  
• how twitter is helping

The hash tag (techie way of marking topics/conversations) the Toronto power outage is #darkto. People put that tag in their tweet (what its called when you post using Twitter) and then you can read allllll of the tweets that have that tag.

If you go to see all the #darkto tweets you can see how people are using this to keep each other updated. People are reporting when their power has come back on; others are talking about how the public transit is going (or not going); some are posting tips from the city on how and what to do about your water pipes.

I, of course wanted to get in on this action (from the comfort of my warm bedroom in London, still in my pjs). So I started reading the tags. I answered one guy's question about where the outage was because he thought the tag was vague. A little later a woman had read a tweet about the city having set up places where you could be to get warm. But there was no indication of where they were. So she asked where they were. I had read where they were in the CBC article about the outage, so I posted a reply to this woman. A good few minutes later someone else sort of tried to point her in the right direction. She replied with this:

MissHC: @conniecrosby Thanks, but I already got it from @Lstew gotta love #darkto! :)

Hooray, I got to help someone find shelter and be a part of the current most popular hash tag. I think I deserve 2 naps today for that.

The Best Job Ever

I am at this place in my life where in many respects I am very free. I am not married; I do not have children; I do not have a house or a mortgage; I do not have car payments; I do not have a boyfriend; my job does not have a contract. And in the more immediate sense I am not in any weddings; I have not been asked to sing in any weddings; and no one looks like they are on the brink of death. The only real commitment I have is loan payments. Those can follow me anywhere - even beyond grave.

You can imagine my excitement then at hearing about this. It's being called The Best Job in the World. The gist of it is - you go and live in an amazing 3 bedroom place on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef as the caretaker of the islands. You get paid, they fly you down and what do they want in return? They want you to take pictures and videos so you can blog with them. Ex-squeeze me, baking powder? Oh and maybe I should mention the 6 month position pays around 120,000$. So lets recap - if I got the position they would pay for me to fly down (and give me medical coverage for the time I was there), I would live in an island paradise where they would have a number of touristy things set up for me to do, and I would have to blog weekly about all the beautiful things while getting paid to do it. Can anyone tell me why this would not be the perfect job for me?

The initial application consists of making submitting a minute long video explaining why I am a good candidate for the job and showing some of my knowledge of the Great Barrier Reef and a brief application. Rest assured, when I finish the vid, I will put up here for your viewing pleasure.

Wish me well.

Heads Up

Just so you know, that internship in Tennessee has been canceled. They had a few very understandable reasons. So I'm trying to figure out what to do next. There is a plan.

Nerd

Starting a new job this week I have thought a bit about first impressions and the assumptions and stories we create about/for people when we have spent only a little time with them.

So I wonder what my co-workers would think if they knew how excited I got last night when I received a hand delivered, specifically requested gift from Italy - a recording of Giacomo Carissimi's oratorio Jephte (the CD also contains his Jonas). I played it shortly after I got it, and it is simply some beautiful baroque music.

If they didn't think I was a weirdo after that - I wonder what they would think if they knew that during my shift today I had an Agnus Dei running through my head and I was eager to get home to my iTunes so I could figure out which composer had written it.

I'm a nerd.

Y?

Work is still going alright. I'm exhausted. My brain is so full it feels like it's going to vomit. I need to get my feet back into the routine of standing that long again.

I can do this.

Highlights of the First Day

• repeatedly being told that it was ridiculously busy
• having it be so busy that it made training exquisitely hard, as it was all hand on deck for most of the day
• randomly being called into the nursery twice to help
• meeting dozens of people
• working in an area with sunlight
• having very helpful, cheery, patient co-workers
• getting to work with some awesome volunteers
• getting a name tag
• getting a hug from Annette the cafe lady
  

That's A Load Off