The Economic Crisis and Me

I read a lot a blogs. Probably more than one person should. I particularly enjoy sports blogs but I also like reading people's personal blogs. Some people's lives are just so much more interesting than the average person. 

One common theme that I've noticed in my reading of late is people's worry about the economic situation. A lot of people are randomly losing their jobs. I always feel horrible for those people. Because no job means no money, no money means no rent, means no place to live and so on. It makes me feel kind of guilty about complaining so much about my job. At least I have one. Okay so it's not the greatest of situations but it exists. 

I just can't help but wonder why I go to work sometimes. And the answer is so that I can pay my bills so that I have a place to live. Unfortunately my thoughts turn slightly morbid after that and it really puts a damper on my whole perspective on life. 

Well at least someone agrees with me

The last couple of days I have been a bit of a Debbie Downer about my work situation. But you know at least I'm not the only one who sees it. It may not be a ringing endorsement of my persistent bitching but, knowing that I'm not alone in my outrage makes me feel just a little bit better about being outraged. 

Anyway I'm sure you're all sick of hearing me complain so instead I'll just offer this picture of Larry Fitzgerald who likely would have been the Superbowl MVP if Arizona would have won instead of just looking hot in a suit. 

It's Done, It's Done

Thank god there are 24 hours in the day. I nearly forgot to post today. Today being my last day of NaBloPoMo. It would have been a shame to put in all that work only to see it fall apart on the last day. 

Now I can go back to my regularly unscheduled blogging. Also because I haven't mentioned it tomorrow is the SuperBowl. I will watch but I could care less about the outcome.  

My Last Vacation Day

Today was the last vacation day I can take before my trip to Scotland. I need to save up everyday between now and then in order to go. But I think it'll be worth it. 

I only accomplished some of what I wanted to do today. I attempted to check on my graduation status but they apparently have to get back to me. I did go to the bank to see about mortgages and have discovered that I will never be able to own a home. Life just isn't made for single people. I also got my hair cut and colored. It's short and dark but I love it. I had wanted to get together with some people I hadn't seen in a while but it just wasn't going to happen. And I only got some of my laundry done. Oh and I didn't call my potential grad schools. 

Funny story about that. So I went to the bank for 10 and didn't get home until about 11:30. Then I had a little bit of stuff to do before I left for my hair appointment at 1:00. So I figured I'd call when I got home. Unfortunately I had left my phone on my desk so when I went to make my call the phone was dead. I wonder if it's kismet? You know the universe telling me I just really shouldn't be going to grad school.

I also did some unexpected stuff. Like go to the mall for supper/shopping and then go to watch my brother play volleyball. That was nice. I haven't seen him play in a while. And I bought and expansion pack and a stuff pack for the Sim 2. I realize that the Sims 3 is coming out soon but I'm probably not going to buy it right away anyway. 

It's been a really weird week

Today was my last day of work for the week and thank god for that. I'm really tempted to give notice. It seems like there is nothing settled in my life right now and since I'm not really a big fan of change this is really difficult for me. 

The whole job situation is really messed up right now. I feel like everyone is conspiring against me. I'm probably just being a little more paranoid than normal but it's hard not to feel that way when there is lots of gossip surrounding my job that I don't even know about. I get that there are things that can't be said until they are finalized and who knows if a lot of what we're hearing is crap but if it does turn out to be turn then I'm not in a very good place work-wise. 

As for my living arrangements well my lease is up in a couple of months which means I either have to commit to staying put or try to find somewhere else to go. On that front I'm going to see the bank about mortgages tomorrow. Just to see what they'd offer me so that I can decide to buy if I find something I want. Otherwise my brother and I will probably be moving across town. 

Which brings me to my next point, grad school. I'm almost at move it or lose it time on this one. I graduated from University almost 2 years ago so it would be hard to get back into the whole school thing. It also brings more uncertainty with the having to move and where do I want to go and where might I get accepted. Right now I'm think about doing a distance ed program. It's not exactly what I want but it's a Master's degree and it doesn't require me to make any real hard choices. But first I want to make sure that by doing this I'm not closing any doors for doing a full research/thesis Master's at some later point, you know just in case. 

Just 4 Days left

There are only 4 days left in this month which means only 4 days left of the NaBloPoMo. Thank god. Also 4 days (well 3 actually), until my nearly faithful reader KEG is off on vacation. Am I jealous? Hells yes. 

Today I'm going to focus on all of the things I want to do over the next month: 

1. Finish reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. I'm currently on page 135 of 1070. 
2. Finish watching Season 4 of Weeds. Is it weird that I'm 2 and a half seasons in and I still haven't decided if I even like the show? 
3. Research and determine 3 grad schools to apply for. 
4. Set a tentative date for the GRE
5. Watch some college hoops. It's almost March and I need to get myself caught up. 
6. Finish sewing the dress I started last year 
7. Buy and elliptical machine or a bike. I'm more likely to use the bike but have you seen the thighs on cyclists?

Yeah that's enough for 2 goals each week which is far more than I'm likely to complete anyway. 

On the Budget

It was budget day today. Usually this sort of thing happens in April but since we had that election thing and then that economic update thing and what I've starting referring to as "The Coalition Debacle of 2008" the government felt that it was in the best interest of Parliament to take a little break and come back with this. Yup, that's 343 pages of what I like to call "How We Plan to Waste Your Money". There are 4 pages of Table of Contents.

I don't usually even looking at the budget because no one cares about the details, what I want to know is how you're going to spend the 1/3 of my income that you steal from me annually. In case you couldn't tell I'm incredibly bitter about frivolous government spending. Don't get me wrong the government does need to spend money on some things but there are things that the government need not and should not touch. 

First and foremost I wonder why the government has taken and "unprecedented consultative effort" to create this budget. Some one want to tell me what all of the past budget consultation meetings have been about? How is it that they managed to get more input in a shorter amount of time to release their budget 3 month early? 

The thing that gets me the most is the $85 Billion dollar deficit. Any one remember why we're dealing with this whole global economic crisis? Likely because people have been taking on HUGE amounts of debt for years by living beyond their means. And here comes our government to save us, by doing the exact same thing! 

But here are some things I DO like about the budget: 

-income tax cuts. Increasing the basic exemption and the upper levels of the two lowest brackets. Good move government. Leave me more money to make decisions with. 

- business tax cuts. If they're paying less taxes they can afford to keep more people. 

- $1.5 billion for job training. 

I'm sure if I wanted to read the whole thing I could find some other good stuff but right now I think I've said enough. 

Why do I only do this stuff when I'm alone

When I was a kid I used to love all sorts of paranormal ghost-y, UFO, crytozoology stuff. I always thought it was really cool. We used to have this book in the library that dealt with all of that stuff and my name was all over that sign-out card. As I got older I found that I didn't have nearly as much time for it as I used to.

So there is this show that deals with these sort of things ghostly and demonic called Paranormal State, where these college students investigate weird phenomena. I don't even know if the show is still making new episodes or if I'm just watching back episodes but anyway it seems like I only watch this show when I'm alone. For example, my brother is away this week so I'm alone in our loud apartment. I make sure not to watch it at night because I know how things I'm thinking about just before bed tend to seep into my dreams. But even so I find that when I wake up in the night I get a little spooked which is weird because I'm not actually afraid at all when I'm watching the show.

Well that sucked

So for the last couple of weeks I've been spending my Friday nights watching Miss America: Countdown to the Crown on TLC. The actual Miss America pageant was last night and I watched it while flipping back to the NHL All-Star Skills competition. 

I found that after watching these girls for 4 weeks I started to pick out some favorites. The same thing happened last year when they did a reality show for last year's pageant. Last year I really wanted Miss Indiana to win, this year I wanted anyone but Miss Indiana to win. And who do you think won? Oh right Indiana. But then I knew after the talent portion that she was going to win. I just found her a little annoying and kind of odd looking. I mean I guess she was pretty but in a non-traditional way. Also every time her name was called she looked like she was going to fall over. I mean okay you can be surprised but really this was a little over the top. 

A couple of changes

I can't say that I'm going to miss NaBloPoMo. It's annoying to have to write everyday instead of just writing when you really have something to say. But at the same time it does force you to think of something to say each day even if it's just "I've got nothing to say today". 

So as I was trying to come up with something to say for last night I tweaked some of the features of my blog. First you'll notice the new background. Every once in a while I like to see if there are any new templates out there that catch my eye. I kind of like this one, at least for now. Secondly you'll notice the new GRE word of the day. I'm in full GRE study mode now as I intend to apply to grad school in the fall for the following year. And really it never hurts to expand your vocabulary. Also you might notice that I got rid of the labels along the side. They'll probably return at some point but for right now I've decided to go it without them. Oh and the Archive drop down menu. Instead of it being an expanding menu I'm going with the drop down just to make things a little neater. 

What a rotten day

There was nothing in particular that was bad about today. It was just kind of an all around sucky day. The weather was brutal today after a lovely warm stretch we were back to -40C windchills. Work itself was okay. Although I was feeling both overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time if that's possible.  Well I guess it must be because that's how I felt. 

I was just in a really shitty mood all day and it's not really any better now. I feel bored but at the same time don't want to do anything. I can't even try sleeping because I went to bed at 8PM last night. Maybe I should just become a shut in. 

Far, Far Away

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. I don't know if that's true in my case. When I'm in the middle of a sports season I usually pick up a "boyfriend" for that sport. College basketball, college football, actual football... well you can see where this is going. But quickly after the season I tend to forget about them and move on. I mean I rarely mention Jay Cutler anymore.

Perhaps it's a good thing then that my office crush is taking some time off soon. Perhaps not being around him all the time will help me get over it. I'd really like to move on although the way things have been going in my dreams lately maybe I'm better to just stick with what I've got.

It's interview time

Alright so I'm running out of things to write about so when I saw that SA had done this interview thing and was looking for people who wanted to continue the tradition I jumped at the chance. Here's how it works if you're interested:

1. leave me a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I’ll email you five questions, of my determination not yours!
3. You update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Before we start the Q & A I'd like to say that these questions are incredible and incredibly difficult.

1. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? How different is it (if it is) to what you now are/want to be?

Well my kindergarten yearbook says that I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up. My parents have a farm and I grew up thinking there is nothing greater you can do with your life than provide food for the world. However like everything that is good for the soul it pays next to nothing. So by the time I had graduated from high school I was looking more at a career in the agriculture industry as opposed to primary production. At my current job I do talk to farmers every day, so I guess it's not so far off. I also own some cattle, but I don't make any sort of decisions about them. I leave that to my Dad.

2. If you got to live in any city in the world where you live? Why?

I always thought I wanted to live in Paris. Back in my high school days I loved french class and languages in general. I now live what is considered the french quarter of Winnipeg but don't speak a lick of French. I'd still like to visit Paris and Prague and London but I'm not really a city girl at all.

3. What food have you never eaten that you've always wanted to try?

Another difficult question. I've eaten a lot of weird foods, bears ear, chicken feet, muskrat, beaver tail. But I've never had escargot. The idea of eating snails is not particularly appealing but still something I think I should probably try at some point.

4. You get 10 minutes alone with any one person in the world (currently living). Who is it and what happens during this 10 minutes?

This one is probably the most interesting and toughest question of the lot. This could easily turn smutty rather quickly but I'd like to think that there are other, better things I could do with this question. So I think I'd like to talk to Stephen Harper for 10 minutes, conduct some sort of quick interview. I don't think anyone should be too surprised by this, I'm generally a Conservative supporter but some of the stuff they've done in the past year is kind of questionable. So trying to figure out that political strategy in some of the moves they've made would be very interesting and since it's said that he doesn't allow his cabinet to make any decisions one can only assume that he had some sort of reason to do the things he did.

5. What's one thing you want to do before you die?

I've actually thought about this question a lot during my lifetime and I really don't have an answer to this question. For example, if I was diagnosed with cancer and given a 3 month prognosis today there is nothing that I would say I need to do in the next three months in order to make my life complete. Quit my job and I'd spend the time with my family. I probably should admit to office crush that I have a crush on him but you don't do that to someone when you know you're dying.

And there you go, that's my interview.

My real life as described in movies

So you know that scene in Love, Actually where Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister and he's just met his staff for the first time and he closes the door behind him and says "that's unfortunate"? Well I think I had that moment today. 

I was in a meeting today with my boss's boss's boss along with a group of my co-workers to discuss new corporate strategy so as you can imagine it was a little dry. So I started looking out the glass windows of the meeting room that look out onto the rest of the floor when I see this headless body walk by. Okay not entirely headless but there's this frosted decal about 3/4 of the way up so it seemed like he was headless. Anyways headless body was clearly male and looked pretty good. Until I got out of the meeting and realized who it was. 

Without going into too much detail let's just say it was a bad sign, especially given all of the weird dreams I've been having. Can some body please help me? Maybe something like Chinese water torture or needles in the eye? Partial lobotomy? Full lobotomy? I'll take anything at this point. 

Dream Diary Episode 7: Okay now this is just getting weird

There are a lot of theories out there about the meaning of dreams. Some people believe that they are subconsciously trying to direct you in a certain path. I certainly hope that's not the case. I keep having dreams about a certain co-worker of mine who seems to be a really nice guy but totally not my type. He's not anyone's type. In fact anytime I happen to mention to someone that I'm having these dreams I get a certain reaction from the other person in the form of some sort of retching sound or a disturbed face, or even a laugh.

So last night I dreamed a bunch of things that aren't even true about him. But anyways apparently I was going with my parents to meet his parents (possibly for the first time I'm not entirely sure). But instead I met his 8 siblings (trust me he doesn't have 8 siblings, plus I'm not sure I would want to get involved with someone who comes from such fertile stock). Each kid had their own washing machine (yeah, I don't get it either). And one of his sisters wouldn't leave us alone. It was all very odd.

If anyone has any experience interpreting dreams I could clearly use the help.

Maybe it's time to shut down

I've been trying to come up with something to write about all day. Which I suppose one could call writer's block except that I don't consider myself a writer given that mostly I just talk about things I do or like.

But it kind of got me thinking about the blogs I read. They all seem to be written by actual writers or at least people with some journalism training. The closest I come to that is the class I took in grade 11. Which was total crap and taught me nothing. But anyway, I also noticed that even though I've posted every day this month (so far) there has not been a single comment. I also tried that break thing for December and while there was a single slight protest everyone made it through unscathed.

So I'm thinking perhaps it's time to pack it in and get out of the blogging business. There are a lot of great blogs out there but this isn't one of them.

I'm losing my mind

The hardest part of the whole post-a-day thing is remembering to do it on weekends. I'm terrible for that. If my internet wasn't connected to my laptop I wold have forgotten to post all together. It's a little easier to remember during the week because everytime I need to look up something online for work I have a reminder to post.

I don't actually have anything interesting to say at the moment. I get the feeling that this is going to be another one of those lazy weekends spent watching tv and playing games.

Dream Diary Episode 6: What the hell was that?

Before I get into the ridiculousness of my dream a little background about where I work. At my company we have a help line. You know like the ones on the candy bar wrappers that you call if you have questions, comments or complaints. I've always admired these people because I've never thought I'd be very good at it. Well for the next 5 weeks I'm going through an occupational familiarization exercise with this people.

This week I'm just listening, for the next two week we're getting details about all of the things that go on at the company. After that we do a week of transcription where we take notes on the calls that we get and then we're on the phones. In all of this time we have mentors to help us with any questions that we might have about the job or the things they do or the things we do at the company as a whole.

So now the dream. I dreamed that my mentor decided that I was ready to actually take calls today and then instead of sitting with me, in case I didn't know how to deal with the call they just took off and left me to answer these questions. Not only that but they were questions about things that don't even exist. And then I started getting sick. Of course I couldn't just hang up on the guy so I was trying to finish the call. Then I really was sick, but I was throwing up clothes. And then my alarm clock went off.

So that was my extremely messed up dream. I really wish I had decided to stay home today. Dreaming about being sick is not a good way to start a Friday morning.

I'm half way through

I'm now 15 days into the whole posting everyday for a month thing. So very close to half way there. I am an idiot though for picking a month in which there are 31 instead of just 30 days. That means I've got to post one more day. Than had I pick another month and 3 more days than if I had gone with next month. But I'll get through it I'm sure.

I may not be able to sleep for the next 2 weeks though. Jay Cutler with mouth eyes is just all sorts of wrong. I actually thought the first one they did with Philip Rivers was kind of funny but this is just disturbing.

Is there such a thing as harmless flirting?

I'm no dating expert. But I was having a discussion with a co-worker yesterday about my office crush situation, which turned into a discussion about some harmless water cooler flirting that happens around here. Which got me thinking is there really such a thing as harmless flirting?

I suspect that if you've got really good self control you could consider it harmless. But really the thing is there is generally some sort of underlying emotion behind it. Just because you're flirting doesn't mean that anything has to come out of it. But if you're not careful it could.

How did I forget about this?

Thank god for NaBloPoMo. I have been scratching my head all morning about what I should post today and randomly clicking on random blogs to help me out. When I clicked on Kicketteand saw a picture from some soccer awards thing when I remembered another picture that I had saved from that site quite a while ago, which I have labeled "greatest picture ever" I still know exactly nothing about soccer but at least I can identify some of the players. I know that is Rafael Nadal in the middle, not looking as hot as usual but I'll forgive him. Iker Casillas is on the far left, Sergio Ramos in the hat on the right of Rafa and of course David Beckham on the far right.

Nope, that wasn't awkward at all

There is clearly something wrong with me. I am generally a serial crusher. They usually come and go and I get over it. This last one though has been sticking around forever. Every time I think that I'm almost over it, or when something happens that reminds me why I haven't made a move to this point. Seriously we're even past the flirting stage of the relationship. There is nothing there and yet sometimes I find myself thinking "what if...?"

I don't even have my fall back athlete hottie since at the moment everything is on pause. Okay I could get into hockey again. I did enjoy the World Junior's after all. But I think I've outgrown that phase. College basketball, maybe? Yeah that might work if I make sure I'm sticking to juniors and seniors otherwise it's just wrong.

Am I self-centred?

I just realized when I looked to see if the post I had scheduled for yesterday actually worked that this blog is all about me. It says so right in the tag line. That makes me feel like a jerk.

Perhaps I need to find a little more focus for this thing. But usually I do just write whatever is on my mind at the time. Which of course is harder when you're trying to write everyday for a month.

The thing about blogs is that I think they should give some sort of insight on something otherwise they're just kind of there. And what do I have more insight on than me? Nothing. But I think I should probably change the tagline so that I don't sound like people actually care what s going on in my life.

Knittin' Mittens

I've been knitting on and off for about five years now and I've got a rather large collection of little bits of yarn that are just kind of hanging around.

So I decided to adjust my favorite mitten pattern to add a little holiday flair.Two hockey games and one episode of the Outer Limits later I ended up with these mittens to add to my collection.

I'm rather proud of them as this is the first time I've added a color pattern beyond basic stripes by creating my own pattern to follow.

It also used up a little bit of that extra cream colored yarn that I had originally bought to make a sweater that I never finished. Now I'm going to have to find something else to work on.

Uh-huh

So a co-worker of mine was talking about watching the story of stuff. So she sent it to me to watch. Here's the thing, none of this stuff is hidden from the general public. They're right though it really is all about that golden consumption arrow. But not because the government or the TV says so, it's because people are stupid!

Look if you see something you want to buy then buy it. Do you need a new car every year? hells no. Buy a car and be done with it. I still drive a car that was built in 1995. Do you need to buy a Wii just because it exists? well no. But if you want a gaming system and it's available then go for it.

I don't know about this pollution stuff. There is a law in science that says energy can be neither created nor destroyed which always leads me to question how polluting pollution really is. Really we're just changing something that already exists in to something else.

BSC Bowl reminder

I had a whole different post lined up for today, but then I changed my mind so I'll just save that one for another day.

Today's post is a reminder that it's BSC championship day. Oklahoma is playing Florida. Which means more Tim Tebow. Even though I should hate Florida, he's just so damn likeable. However the guys at work did convince me to join in on their Pro Line ticket where they picked Oklahoma. I felt a little bad but as one of them aptly pointed out now I'm in a no lose situation. If Florida wins then yay and if Oklahoma wins then I get money. Well provided we win the other 4 bets on the ticket but whatever it was 2 bucks.

So why do I love Tim Tebow? I don't really know. Well except that he's left handed so we could have tiny little left-handed babies. Actually I don't know if he's actually left-handed or he just throws with his left hand. Either way I'm cool with it. Also I'm kind of loving this picture of him But what's up with the rubber bracelets? That's kind of gay.

My emotional roller coaster

Everyone knows I love Peyton Manning. If you believe the guys I work with you might say I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession. So when Lisa told me that he would be coming to Winnipeg to speak at a fund raising dinner I was all over it. Until I looked at my calender. He's coming exactly 2 days after I leave for Scotland. So I guess I have to decide. Oh who am I kidding I'm going to Scotland.

Good lord is this what it's like for teenage girls when the Jonas Brothers come to town? What am I, twelve?

How I spent my Winter Vacation

As I'm sure I've mentioned several times I've been off work for the last 5 days. So what have I been doing?

Well I've been playing the Sims2, which passes the time quite nicely. Don't worry I'm not one of those people who trying to make a new life for them self in the game. I just like to see what kind of new challenges I can make up. I never play 2 sims the same way.

I've finished watching the 4th season of House. It's one of those shows that I really only watch when I can't come up with anything better to do. I've watched the first 4 seasons now and I'm still not sure if I like it. But I must if I keep watching it.

Also I've watched every televised game of the World Junior Hockey championships except for the one Sweden-Russia game on New Year's eve day. I was at work for that one. Well most of it, I was on lunch for part of it. Congrats to Canada on taking home the gold.

And finally I watched the entire 7th season of Smallville. I generally like Smallville but I can't be bothered trying to keep up with when new episodes are or when it's changed to a new time. Also I know that my younger brother will be getting the most recent season on DVD for Christmas. You know what I like about Smallville, besides trying to find inconsistencies with previous seasons ("continuity error"), the men they find for this show. First it was Tom Welling who is totally hot. Then Jensen Ackles who played Jason Teauge. Any one remember when he played Sammy's twin on Days of Our Lives? I was smitten. And then there was Justin Hartley (see right), who was Fox Crane on Passions before he was on Smallville as the Green Arrow/Oliver Queen.

Just for the record I watched Days of Our Lives in high school but haven't seen an episode since and as for Passions I don't watch that one either but I did see the very first episode of the show ever so I thought perhaps I owed it just a little bit of loyalty.

Mission Accomplished

I've had all sorts of big plans in my life thus far, most of which revolve around leaving Canada. Sure everyone loves Canada and most of the time I do too. But have I mentioned that it's -32 outside which means it likely feels very much colder.

Anyway in order to do any leaving of the country now I'm required to have a passport. Okay wait that's technically not true, I can still drive across the U.S. border until June, but to fly anywhere I need to have a passport.

So I've been planning to get one done for months, since September actually. But every time I had a day off I decided that I didn't want to get out of my nice warm bed and venture into the frigid wilderness (okay it's just Winnipeg) to go to the Passport office. Which is of course ridiculous since I'm one door away from the Passport office every time I go to work. There were also a lot of setbacks, first the photos which I got done in early November, then finding 2 people that have known me for 2 years who have passports and aren't related to me and thirdly the whole going outside thing.

Anyway today I hopped a ride with my brother on his way to work he dropped me off and one stop at Starbucks and an hour later I was home and now I'm just waiting for my passport to make it's way to me in the mail.

It must have been a good Karma day for me because not only were they super nice at the passport office, since I showed up early and they didn't make me wait at all. But my bus home was also the 2nd bus to arrive at the stop. In fact I was just coming to down the stairs when it arrived.

One slightly funny incident from this morning. I apparently spelled my name wrong on my passport application. Brilliant. But I don't ever use my middle name except in official documents. So I guess that explains it.

I get the feeling this is going to be a long month

I'm 4 days into this blog-a-day thing and already I'm forgetting to post. I could be because I did two yesterday but more likely it's because I've spent the whole day being lazy and therefore not connected to the Internet.

In my general laziness I watched exactly no football today. Mostly because I'm still pissed that the Colts lost last night.

I also feel that I need to mention that it's freaking cold out right now. It's -37 Celsius with the windchill which is extremely freaking cold. Makes me glad I barely left my bed today.

Just wow.

I just finished watching the Russia vs. Canada game. If you weren't watching it, well really you missed out. Even if you're not a big hockey fan or a hockey fan at all that game was amazing. Canada tied the game with just over 5 seconds to go. So needless to say I've missed most of the Colts game.

But, CANADA IS GONG FOR GOLD ON MONDAY!

Decisions, Decisions

I had the perfect plan for today to watch the semi-final games at the World Junior's, until I remembered that NFL playoffs start this weekend so there are games today. The first choice was easy, Atlanta vs Arizona wasn't even a game I wanted to watch so I can skip that and watch Sweden very likely kick the crap out of Slovakia, although they only beat them 3-1 in the prelims.

The second one is a whole lot tougher. The Canadians are playing the Russians which should be a fantastic game unless the Canadians get out in front early and often. The football game is the Colts vs. the Chargers. Which is probably the game of the weekend football wise. While the Colts are generally my favorite team I haven't been very good about watching them this year. There always seems to be something else to do whenever they happen to have a televised game. So I guess it will depend how the first period of the hockey game goes. If it's ugly then I'll turn to football. If it's close then I'll really have to make a game time decision.

Boy am I Glad I Took Today Off

Oh how I love the World Junior Hockey Championships. Canada clinched their semi-final spot on New Year's Eve by beating the USA and finishing first in their pool. Sweden got the other bye to the semi-finals. Today is quarterfinals day. I just watched what is so far the upset of the tournament. Slovakia beat the USA 5-3. Mind you 2 of those Slovakia goals were into empty nets but still a win is a win. Also the Slovak goalie was pretty amazing given that they were out shot 49-19. The win was promptly followed by the traditional Slovak circle jumping thing that they do.

So Slovakia will go on to play Sweden for a shot at the gold medal. Canada will play the winner of Russia and the Czech Republic which is going down tonight.

I suppose if I had been sneaky about it I could have watched the game at work since TSN was streaming it but I wouldn't do a thing like that. Well except for when I did it last year. But that was different.

Happy New Year

So I'm only half a day in and already is posting everyday for a month seems like a bad idea. I guess now that I've set the goal I'm just going to have to prove that I can do it. 

I'm not really one for setting New Year's Resolutions because I know that I'll never keep them but I think I can commit to this for a month. I guess you'll just have to keep checking in to see if I make it. 

As 2008 Comes to a Close

Is it still 3 days until 2009? Yes it is. Am I supposed to be on Blogcation? Yes I am. Did I just make up a word? Apparently. But here I am still posting. 

Good news (or bad I guess if you think my blog is terrible) I have signed up for NaBloPoMo (or National Blog Posting Month) in which I will attempt to post something everyday for the month of January. I was inspired by SA who attempted NaNoWriMo which involves writing a novel. Now, I don't have the kind of dedication to write an actual novel and as some of you who have read my short stories know things kind of end up going in crazy directions when I write so I thought I'd do this instead. 

This is probably the worst time to be doing this though given that one of my readers is about to become my temporary boss (you know who you are). But I'll try to ignore that and just do what I would normally do, just not on work hours. 

So Christmas Wishes Do Come True

Last week I decided that it would be excellent if we had a Broncos/Chargers AFC West Championship game to end the regular season. Of course that was dependant on a couple of things. The Broncos had to lose this week to Buffalo (which the did) and the Chargers had to beat Tampa Bay (which they did).

I can't really lie I was hoping that the Broncos would clinch a playoff spot. Even if they're terrible I like to watch them play. Okay that's not really true it's all about Jay Cutler. But really this game was going to happen whether it was for a championship or not so the fact that it means something is even batter.

Oh and while I'm on the topic of football, I lost in the first round of the playoff in fantasy so I'm out of the money but I'm in a 3rd place match up this week. Not that it means anything. Much like Saints beat down of the Lions (not that it was unexpected).

I love a good suit

I'm sure I've mentioned that I don't really watch college football. But I do watch/listen to enough American Sports Talk Shows to have at least some clue what's going on. For example the awards were handed out. I do break my no watching college football rule for the Florida Gators and only as long as Tim Tebow sticks around.

Now there was no Heisman trophy for Tebow this year but he did win the Maxwell Award. Don't ask me what it's for, but it does give me an excuse to post this picture of him in a suit.

Economic Stimulus

So apparently the Bank of Canada has officially declared a recession. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the economic stimulus package I have put together. Here's the thing it's Christmas and I just got a Christmas bonus. I've also probably spent about $2000 in the last week or so.

First of all there was the Christmas shopping as I've said before I have a fairly large family and the average gift price they will be receiving is about $65 a piece. I also haven't been very thrifty when it comes to buying stuff for myself. I would guess I bought $400 worth of clothes over that last week. Hey it's not my fault. First there were necessities and then some really good deals followed by a gift certificate. How could I not spend?

No wonder I don't have enough money to go back to school. Although with interest rates taking another cut this might be a good time to hit up the bank for a loan.

Taking a break

Barring some sort of change in my general mood over the next little while I will be taking a blogging break. I may drop in from time to time if I have something particularly interesting to share but for right now I'm saying that this is probably going to be my last post until the new year.

Given the current political situation which is well frankly retarded and the fact that I'm not seeing a whole lot of positives in my life in general I thought it would be a good idea to save you all from the bitching and complaining I'm going to be doing leading up to the new year.

See you in a month.

The fight for power

Anyone remember that election we had in Mid-October? Perhaps you were still in a turkey coma and didn't notice it happened. But it was before the American election. Clearly the Liberals, NDP and Bloc missed it because they're trying to form a government.

I've taken some Canadian history so I know that technically the Governor General can ask the official opposition to form government if the sitting government is defeated. I also know that the opposition parties didn't like that the Conservatives weren't spending like there's no tomorrow to stave of recession. I also took some economics in my time at university so I know that Keynesian economics says that it's okay to go into deficit in hard times in order to "prime the pump" as it were. As long as that debt is paid back in good times. And yet I see that we still have a national debt so someone must have missed the pay it back part of the lesson.

I have to say that I find what the Liberals and NDP are trying to do just a little bit offensive to the voters of Canada. Less that 2 months ago we went out and told you that we didn't want them governing and yet here they are trying to govern. I realize that elections cost people money. But if they wanted to form a coalition government perhaps they should have run in the election as a coalition. They certainly won't be running in the next one together.

What gets me the most is the absolute glee in the voices and faces of the people I work with. I generally accept that we have political differences. But this is despicable. I also believe that if it were my party doing this sort of thing I would be appalled. I get that the Conservative Party of Canada was formed by a coalition but it ran as a coalition and it won as a coalition. And even though I could have cared less at the time I'm kind of proud of that fact now.

Only on MY fantasy team

This was another terrible fantasy week for me. Well actually it wasn't completly awful just that the other team was way better. Actually if only I had played Eddie Royal and Donald Driver I would be very very close. But I didn't so I lost by over 35 points, 36.5 points to be exact. Terrible.

Even worse is when you look to finalize on Saturday night and find out one of your top recievers (and yes this explains why I lose by over 35 points) has shot HIMSELF in the leg. Makes me want to look up the Wonderlic score for Plaxico Burress. Can you have a negative Wonderlic score? Well if you can I'm sure he did. FRICK!

Also for the next 4 Weeks since that's all I've got left of my fantasy season I will be posting my fantasy player of the week, the player with the highest point total that week as of Tuesday morning. This will include bench players. So far it's Jay Cutler but I still have a couple of guys playing tonight.

No Regrets

After all the over analyzing about what I would do if I got the job I applied for it turns out that the decision was made for me. I didn't get the job. That's okay now I have fortified in my mind the idea of stalking Jay Cutler, mixed with pursuing grad school. I even have a fool proof bench sitting plan provided by my friend Lisa.

No but seriously in a way I'm kind of glad it turned out the way it did. I don't have anything to regret about the experience and I'm not entirely mad at my company. At least I wasn't until I heard that one of the applicants was actually given the interview questions beforehand. That seems a little odd to me. I guess life isn't fair.

Sometimes I wonder

I'm starting to wonder about the symbiotic relationship I have with some other people. It's funny to me, I'm in the middle of a mini-breakdown and the some of people that I consider my friends are all too busy with their own stuff to help me out.

Do I just have very bad judgement when it comes to people? Do I satisfy myself with just dealing with whoever is around at the time? Never really building up true friendships but only casual acquaintances?

It's not that all of my friends are bad people, but the constant reminders about how they have other stuff they should be doing but their spending time with me. Or changing the subject when they know that what we're talking about is important to me. I admit that I can get a little annoying sometimes when I dwell on things and a little goofy about other things on occasion.

But then again some people surprise you with their willingness to discuss your issues and help you through a problem. People that you don't expect. And to those people I am grateful.

Just another reason to hate Brett Favre

I don't hate Brett Favre exactly I just can't stand the way that every announce makes a big deal about him. I can pretty much guarantee that if you watch an NFL game on tv there will be a mention of Brett Favre. Even if his team isn't playing.

Yesterday Favre and the Jets beat the to this point undefeated Tennesee Titans. So now not only do we have to deal with hearing about how Favre is a giant killer but we also have to put up with obnoxious Pats fans and their 16-0 for at least one more season.

On a more happy note, I won my fantasy match up thanks to a ridiculous game by Randy Moss. I keep starting him even though he's not been putting up great numbers and I kind of lucked into a good game this week. Although my starting Cutler because the Raiders suck move didn't work out so well. I just hope Brees doesn't waste his good game against Green Bay tonight.

I'm going to use the lack of sleep defense

Today was such an odd day. Work wise it was fine, busy but fine. I'm still waiting to hear about the other job but my current boss also went over a growth plan with me which sounds like they want me to grow into a promotion. Which would put me in a slightly better place than if I took the other job. Unfortunately time lines were a little vague.

So now I'm life with a couple of scenarios:
1) I get the permanent job I applied for
2) I get the term job I applied for
3) I get neither job

Each scenario comes with it's own set of challenges. Although number 3 means that I don't have to make a decision which means that I can't have regrets in the future. I'm not quite sure what I would do if either of the other two go down and I guess I won't know until Tuesday, since I'm off on Monday.

But because of my confusion I really needed to talk to someone who knows about what's going on so I did that with one of the guys at work and now I'm having these warm, fuzzy completely inappropriate feelings towards him. So I'm blaming it on the fact that I've not been sleeping well this week so my mind isn't in such a great place.

I'm disappointed

One of the disadvantages of having a rather large family (there are 6 of us excluding significant others) is that you have to come up with Christmas gifts for all of them. This was fine back when you couldn't afford much and neither could they. If you bought them a DVD or a book that was awesome. Now it's much more difficult. We all have our own money and you don't think twice about dropping $50 on something you kind of sort of want. Hell I just spent $500 shopping online.

On the other hand it's also difficult trying to come up with a list of things you want from them. So I started digging around online for things I might possibly want. One of my first stops was NFL.com. Where I discovered that I really want a Jay Culter bobble head for my desk. Except that it doesn't look like him at all. But I also discovered they don't have a Drew Brees bobble head. Does anyone else find that strange? I'm deeply disappointed in you NFLshop.

I guess not everything has stayed the same

3 years ago I would have been all over today's throne speech. Hell I likely would have skipped school to watch it. I know I would have watched CPAC later in the evening to get strategists reactions. This year Nada. I kind of half thought about it this morning and then proceeded to ignore it as my day went on.

It's not that it's not important or interesting to me anymore but I'm falling into that trap where my day to day things are more pressing than keeping tabs on the current political climate in our country. I guess this just proves what everyone told me. Politics don't matter in the real world.

The hard part is over, now for the waiting

So most of you know by now that I had a job interview today. Like most people I find job interviews stressful. Seriously if employers want to know how potential employees will handle themselves under pressure they need look no further than the interview.

I am the type of person who panics for no reason. Case in point every time I had to write an exam in University whether I needed a good mark or not I'd end up calling my parents bawling that I was going to fail. Like somehow that single test was the end of the world. So as it happens I called Mom and Dad last night, they weren't home. So I tried Dad's cell and ended up talking to my Aunt who gave me suggestions and tips on dealing with the interview.

Did it help? Probably not. But now that I'm done the interview all that's left to do it wait. The nice thing for me is that if I don't get the job I've still got something to fall back on. I'll still have my old job. It will be difficult to have to stay given that I told the people in my department that I had applied for the job but really what difference does it make. If I don't get the job then I'm just not the right fit, and that's okay. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself today.

Whether I get the job or not I've gained valuable experience, I've spent a little more time getting to know me. Also I may have used this interview as leverage for a potential salary increase at my current job. We'll see how that one plays out.

The more things change...

You know the saying the more things change the more they stay the same? Well after writing this post I realized just how true it is.

Someone who reads my blog occasionally, but sometimes forgets that there is a comments section told me that she read that post and she laughed. I couldn't figure out why she thought it was so funny until I really started to think about it.

It would appear that I'm exactly where I started a little over a year and a half ago. I'm about the graduate from my certificate program, whereas in May of 2007, I was graduating from University. I have the same job that I did when I first graduated, but in between I worked a term in a different department. I live with my little brother in an apartment, but he moved out for about 6 months in between. Even on the crushing side I'm still crushing on a QB who's mom probably cuts his hair, though I've switched from Eli Manning to Jay Cutler.

So really as much as things have changed in the past year I'm really back to where I started.

Goal of the week

As usual a review of last week's goal. Actually I know there wasn't a goal last week but let's go with the week before that then , I did finish my lesson 4 reading now I just need to do the assignment for lesson 4.

This is actually a big week for my personal goals. First and foremost I want to finish the lesson 3 assignment. I've only got one question left so that should get done tonight unless I'm too tired to do anything which it's looking like I might be. Then I want to finish lesson 4, which again is just the assignment and if I actually sit down and do it on Saturday that will be the end of the course.

The final goal is to finish knitting the left mitten of the new set I'm working on for a co-worker. I enjoy knitting while I'm watching TV anyway so I thought I might as well make something nice for someone else. It also helps me use up the grey yarn I was going to use to make a sweater but then got frustrated when it was miles too big and quit working on it. So now I've got 8 balls of this fuzzy, grey stuff that's perfect for winter wear and not much else.

My week off

So it would appear that I haven't written in a week. I guess it's mostly because I don't have a lot to say. I was also sick for about 4 days. I still don't have anything to say but I thought I'd better write something before ya'll stop checking back to see if there's anything new.

Frankly there is nothing new with me. I'm still at the same job, living in the same place with my brother, doing all the same stuff I've been doing for the past year and a half. Does that mean I'm in a rut?

Of adverse weather and ridiculous shoes

Whenever the weather is crazy bad I am almost inevitably wearing the most inappropriate footwear. First of all I should mention that I'm all about sensible footwear. I'm not one of these girls who has 30 pairs of shoes (although my shoe collection has been growing recently), I have 2 main pairs aside from my sneakers. Brown flats to wear with brown inspired outfits and a pair of black suede casual shoes for work.

But today I had to go and wear these new shoes I bought at Payless last night, as shown on the left (aren't they cute?). Of course because I hadn't had a chance to wear them yet I didn't realize that the would cause massive blistering on the sides of my feet. So I had to walk home in pain.


Not only that but we're experiencing our first winter storm of the year, a Colorado low that's moving through the next couple of days. Yeah, screw you Colorado just for this I hope the Broncos lose tonight. But not horribly and I hope it's a really high scoring game because I'm starting Cutler. It's more freezing rain than anything else but it's cold and wet.


But hey at least it numbed my extremely sore feet. I'm starting to feel it now that they're thawing a bit though.

Missed Opportunites

Last night's election filled me with an odd sense of nostalgia. When I was in university I had a little stalker. Actually he wasn't a stalker at all. He was just this guy in one of my classes who liked to walk me to my bus and talk about how well I would fit in with his family and friends. Okay so it was a little strange. But he was from Texas and so we shared alot of ideology. Maybe it's just because I'm going through a bit of a dry spell but I kind of miss those days. A least it was nice to have someone who agreed with me around once and a while. Anyway I guess the point is clearly he liked me and well it's been a long time since I found someone who really liked me. So uh yeah.

Election Day - Part I can't count that high

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html
Part 4: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-4.html
Part 5:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-5.html

I don’t know if I’m missing any important election news as I got a little distracted by other non-election blog posts. Well it was kind of election related but funnier.

Okay I’m back. I heard there was a big projection coming up. I’m quitting once they announce a projection for president. I’m tired and I suspect that we could have called it about an hour ago. Hooray for battleground states.

I’m still floored that McCain is under-performing Bush. Is it really more the popularity of Obama than the unpopularity of McCain? It must be. That’s the only explanation I can come up with.

Ohio called for Obama, that leaves us 194-69. Fox has bigger numbers for Obama they’re up to 200, but they’ve also got McCain’s numbers up a bit too. Not looking very conservative there Fox.

Franken is leading in Minnesota. That’s not good. What the hell is wrong with people in Minnesota. Hmm… scratch the grad school plans? Still haven’t heard from Indiana. Unless I just missed it.

Holy crap Hank Williams Junior is playing at the Republican thing. That’s pretty cool.

So CNN just went through the likelys, the maybes, and the extreme long shots for McCain and they couldn’t get to 270. Which means they SHOULD BE CALLING THIS THING. But they won’t. But looking a the map it was kind of funny. Easily 70% of the map was one shade of red or another and yet there was no way to get McCain to win. Gotta love those rural states. Even the cities in those states aren’t very big. Take North Dakota, Fargo and Grand Forks are extremely small cities.

New Mexico for Obama, Louisiana to McCain. Sadly I probably know more about the history of Louisiana than most Americans. Anyway we’re up to 199-78.

Wow that popular vote number is crazy close but not in the elector college. Funny we just talked about this at work today about how it’s not the popular vote that counts.

Oh I get why CNN won’t call it. 6 more hours of coverage. But I'm ready to call it. Let's welcome President Obama.

Election Day - Part 5

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html
Part 4: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-4.html


81 to 34 now. Sorry I missed the projection so I don’t know where those came from. Pennsylvania is Obama So now it’s 102 to 34. Can we call it now?

Okay now I actually am calling bias on CNN. They’ve got at least 2 and probably more reporters in Chicago to report on the Obama campaign. That doesn’t seem odd to anyone else? Oh I’m just paranoid, okay.

Okay it looks like the Republicans have thrown in the towel. Not that they’ve announced it yet but from the report it seems pretty clear that they know it’s over.

102-43, looks like Alabama is the one they called for that. More projections to come in 1 minute. I kind of hope this is quick. I’m almost election-ed out. And just I do like to make my own verbs why do you ask?

More projections just made. 174-49, I don’t know if Minnesota to the Democrats is a surprise or not. North Dakota went McCain though which I find kind of interesting because it‘s close to Canada. I’m still waiting for results from Indiana.

Here’s why exit polls are crap. 20% of people said race was important but 55% voted for Obama when race was important. I don’t for a second believe that. I think it was important to more than 20%. Oh and now they’re discussing the whole race issue. If Obama wins does that mean that the race card goes away?

And the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, interesting. I wonder if that means that the Democrats will take a lot of heat in the next election or if they’ll just keep blaming it on Bush (or Canada).

One of the Republicans called Al Franken a lunatic. I am kind of interesting in the Minnesota senatorial race. Mostly because all of my American network television comes out of Minnesota so I’ve seen a TONNE of attack ads.

Georgia just called for McCain, bring it to 174-64. Did Obama pick up all of New England? I don’t know if everything is in there yet but everything that I’ve seen has gone Democrat.

Election Day- Part 4

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html

South Carolina was just projected for McCain. So we’re at 16-3. That won’t last long. See 2 minutes later we get, 77 to 34 for Obama now. That’s cool, Maine and Nebraska can split up their electoral votes. I like that, it’s more reflective of the popular vote in the State.

Yeah those interactive maps are freaking awesome. I think we’ve already established that I’m a giant dork.

I don’t understand how everyone hates G.W. Bush but McCain is not even doing as well as Bush did in the last election. Don’t get it. Okay change in demographics explain some of it. Indiana is looking kind of red map-wise but it’s kind of population centered too.
Ohio and West Virginia and New Hampshire are largely Obama. Georgia is Republican.

It’s it odd that I’m live-ish blogging election coverage but watching Greek during commercials?

I temporarily switched to Fox. So funny. It’s all about understanding the bias and then adjusting the information to suit. Seriously, I do the same thing with the CBC. I don’t know if I’ve expressed my dislike of the CBC but it’s like the Canadian equivalent to Fox except on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

What’s with the creepy choir boys at the Republican camp? I’ve noticed that CNN is showing a lot of shots of the Obama party but only one or two of the McCain camp. Maybe they just think the Obama thing is more impressive and I don’t want to call bias on CNN but it I do feel that it’s worth mentioning.

Election Day - Part 3

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html

Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html

Oh hologram reporter, that’s some Star Trek shit right there. Awesome.

Here’s the thing about this election. If Obama happens to lose, which isn’t very likely but IF he does, I can already see a Michael Moore documentary about how McCain/Palin “stole” the election. God I hate Michael Moore. Actually I don’t hate because hating requires energy and well hating him would be a waste of energy. Sorry that was a bit of a detour.

Holy crap why does Florida account for 27 votes? Is the population a whole lot higher than in other states? Oh I like that CNN’s Florida polls are way off. As in they don’t add up to 100%. That’s kind of scary given the 27 votes.

Oh recession talk. Scary stuff. Recessions are that rainy day that people tell you, you should be saving for. I’m not actually all that worried at the moment about a recession. I guess if I lost my job I’d be a little more worried. But I’ve saved a bit and I don’t NEED to go to Scotland next summer. I want to but it’s all about tightening the belt. Sorry, that was some more tangent for you.

Oooo… Obama leading in N.C and Florida. Florida by 57%, that’s huge. Okay popular vote is 51% for Obama. But clearly the popular vote doesn’t necessarily give you a winner.

Alright this one Republican strategist is making me angry. I don’t know who he actually is, but he’s continuing to stress that “it’s early, it’s early”. Yeah we get it, you’re not willing to admit that your guy might not win.

Election Day - Part 2

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.
For part one click here:
http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html

Okay, okay so it’s still early. And now the pundits are talking strategy. You know, what worked and what didn’t. I like how the Republican strategist are wearing red ties and the Democratic strategists are wearing blue. I guess things really are black and white in the U.S. Or Blue and Red if you will.

I really don’t get the American system. I suspect the Americans say the same thing about all of the Parliamentary Democracies out there too. But whole electoral college thing confuses the crap out of me. And how the entire state popular vote determines how ALL of their votes will go.

I also don’t understand how both candidates promised tax cuts. Anyone seen that 10 trillion dollar national debt they’re running? Seriously if you can budget tax cuts you might want to try budgeting debt reduction instead. It makes me angry.
I’m kind of surprised that Obama had more money than McCain to run this campaign. Aren’t the Republicans supposed to be the party of the rich?

Oh they’re making projections for Vermont and Kentucky. One for each. They are usually pretty accurate because they don’t announce until they know for sure. But Kentucky is worth 8 points while Vermont is only worth 3 so that means McCain is ahead… for now. Wait they’re showing 0% for each and zero votes reported in 0% of the polling points in Vermont but they’ve declared Obama. Make sense of that one for me?

I can’t help but wonder how splitting demographics by things like race and sex don’t promote racism and sexism. I guess that’s one of the downsides of statistics. You can break things down so much that they don’t really mean much.

Election Day - Part 1

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commericals as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.

Okay well it’s not MY election day. We already did that a couple of weeks ago and everything that I wanted to happen there happened. Tonight is US election day.

I’m not going to pretend to be impartial and feel free to hate me if you want but I’m much more Republican than Democrat. To be honest I didn’t really watch much of the pre-election coverage it didn’t matter much to me and it’s not like I was voting anyway. But I know that they’ve been predicting an Obama win for a long time. But I think it’s going to be a lot closer than people think. That’s the joys of secret ballot, you can vote for whoever you want for whatever reason you want and not have to answer to social opinion.

I know that sounds terrible but it’s true. For example, if you want to vote for lower taxes because it’s going to benefit you, you don’t have to justify why it’s okay for children to live below the poverty line because you have lower taxes.

Holy crap it’s 49% to 50% for Obama in Indiana right now, can’t get much closer than that.

I just want to say that I probably would have been one of the apparently few people who stayed home for this election. I heard voter turnout is going to be huge. Well good on Americans. But I wouldn’t vote for either of these people for president. Actually that’s not entirely true, I wouldn’t vote McCain because his running mate would make a mockery of the U.S. internationally. It’s kind of the same reason that I wouldn’t vote for Stephane Dion in the Canadian election. I wouldn’t vote Obama because I don’t like the Democrats policies.


CNN has some really awesome stuff. They’re all about crazy exit poll stats. For example, the percentage of white evangelical voters that voted for each candidate and broken down by state. That’s some ridiculous stat crunching. And ya’ll know how I love stats.

Screw You, Kyle Orton

Also (too), what the crap Braylon Edwards? Way to have a good game when you're sitting on my bench. Once again my fantasy team got killed. This was a freaking terrible week. I should have started Jay Cutler, not that he was much better and he doesn't look nearly so much fun to drink with.

Although the injury to not-so-drunken Kyle Orton did lead to the return of Rex Grossman. It also lead to the return of the Rexy-Back video. Seriously every time I hear Sexy-Back I start singing these words instead. There is also a Matt Hasselback version of the song but it's not as cool.

Pre-game Jitters

There's a saying that goes "no one cares about you fantasy team" and you know it's probably true. But that's not going to stop me from talking about mine.

As you've seen I like to keep you updated on my team. This week I'm starting Kyle Orton at QB because well Drew Brees is on a bye week, Jay Cutler has a sketchy finger and Chicago is playing Detroit so there are points for the taking. So I'm a little nervous about the outcome.

Also if I lose my match-up this week then one of the guys will be overtaking me for first place. I've been having fun being in first place. Also because the guys are not taking the whole losing to a girl thing very well.

I think I'm probably a little too into this whole fantasy thing. It's pretty apparent when you boss starts asking you about it. But it's not like I'm checking it out at work because well it's blocked.

Yup, this is my starting QB people. If this doesn't go well I might have to pick up my own bottle of JD to ease the pain.

Holy Crap I just watched College Football

I never watch college football. Mostly because unlike everyone in the US I don't have a cheering interest. Sure I'm probably going to end up there for grad school one day but at the moment I've got nothing. I also have this thing about college football. It's kind of like watching junior hockey, yeah it's fun but it's not as good as the real thing.

I lived on Campus for 3 years while I was going my undergraduate degree and I didn't go to a single football game, even though my school's team was one of the best in the country. I preferred to check out the volleyball team instead.

So why would I spend most of my Saturday watching Florida vs. Georgia, instead of say sleeping? Well it's simple really, Tim Tebow.

I know that I should hate him on principle because he plays for Florida. It's kind of like Duke or Notre Dame, you don't need a reason to hate you just do it. But then he goes and spends his spring breaks doing missionary work, so really it's almost a wash.

Okay that's enough Tim Tebow for now. But if I had to pick a College Football boyfriend this would be it.

Goal of the Week

I usually save this for a Friday post but I thought I'd give myself a little extra time. Not much mind you given that I'm going to be going to bed in about 1/2 an hour.

This week's goal is to read lesson 4 for my Cattle Nutrition course. It's the last lesson and then I have to do the assignment and then I'll be done the course which means I can apply for December graduation. Yay more graduation.

Once I'm done the course I'll have to decide on my next course of education. Do I take Psych courses by distance ed? You can do almost an entire psych degree through DE so I wouldn't have to quit my job or anything. Do I wait until summer and take my Lab pre-reques? This would in fact, require me to quit my job and I wouldn't be eligible to start the lab program until fall 2010 anyway. Or do I study my but off to write the GRE so that I can apply for Grad school? Which would happen either Fall 2009 or 2010. So many choices. The only things I've decided is that I plan to do something more. I love learning.

Dream Diary Episode 5: I hope I never have that dream again

Last night I had not one but two dreams about work. The first one was not so much about work but two of the guys I work with. I don't even remember all of the details I just remember waking up and going "what the hell was that?"

Explanation:This one is pretty easy to explain since a couple of days ago at coffee break we were discussing that I never checked out any of the guys that I hang out with at work. One of them then accused me of being a lesbian. Which if you read this blog you'd quickly find out I'm not. Then someone mentioned that me and one of the other guys would be "perfect for each other". So clearly my mind was trying to determine what would happen if we actually did get together. Damn logical brain. Let's just hope this isn't a recurring dream because that might actually mean something.

The second one was actually related to a job that I recently applied for but am now considering not interviewing for. Let's just say that the dream showed me what would happen given the most likely outcome of the interview process.

Explanation: Again pretty self explanatory. I fear change. At the same time I'm always looking for a change. So this was my subconscious saying perhaps you'd better re-think this career change thing.

What's a girl to do

I'm so confused. I went from excited to scared to worried in a matter of about 15 minutes.

Every couple of weeks I get the idea that perhaps it's time to take myself out of the corporate world and wander back into academia. I've now been out of school for about a year and a half and I've saved up a little actually a very little bit of money but enough to pay for one semester of my Master's degree anyway. After that I'm sure I can get funding for the rest of it. Anyway, I had convinced myself that it was too late to apply for next September as one my top choice has a December deadline for fall admission, but then I found out that some of the other schools I'm considering have deadlines as late as June.

So my first issue is to school or not to school. There's the whole "what would a Master's degree do for me?" thing. Sure it's something that I want to do but do the benefits of doing it now outweigh the costs of quitting my job and leaving all the friends I've made at work. At the same time perhaps this isn't a big deal. Not that it wouldn't make me sad but in reality I'm probably going to have to move on from here anyway.

So the second issue then is am I just looking for an escape from my current position. I think the answer to this one is a resounding yes. Last week I was ready to quit and seek training for a medical profession. This week I'm looking at continuing on my current career path that I also give up on every other week.

Oddly enough, even though I'm not looking to do anything for almost a year I really have to move fast to get stuff done. There is the testing, and the gathering of references and the transcript ordering. It's a mess.

I just don't know if it's the right time yet.

Things I've Learned from Reading Blogs

The boys at work tend to give me a hard time about my obsession with the blogs. I think the issue actually comes more from the fact that I know things weeks before they do an they're a little jealous. I also mentioned some of the "things you can't unsee" that have come up on some of the blogs I've read.

One of the nice things about blogs is that you can be as involved as you want to be. There are several blogs that I read only for readings sake and have no desire to comment on. One of these is Deadspin. I'm a regular reader but not once in all of the time that I've been reading it (roughly 2 years) have I ever had the desire to "audition" to comment. I do however comment regularly at Ladies... and of course I write my own blog. Outside of the sports world I also enjoy my politics and often visit sites that are part of the Blogging Tories blog roll. I very infrequently comment on some of those blogs. And then there is TechKnitting which I like to find knitting tips for when I'm trying out new patterns and am frustrated when they don't work out.

Phrases I need to find a way to work into everyday conversation:
Attainable Hot - I used to describe Tony Romo as regular people hot, this is a much more articulate way of saying it.
Cutlerfucker - Seriously I did a bit of a spit take when I read that one.
Politicalism - I can't remember where I picked up this one but it's really a violent reaction to an opposing political opinion.

Got a blog you think I should check out? Let me know in the comments

Why I hate fantasy football

I joined a Fantasy Football League at work this year. I was actually pretty psyched that the boys asked me to join. I'm also currently leading the league. So what's not to love, right?

Well this week my opponent in head to head has 4 players from my favorite team (I have none by the way). This makes it awfully difficult for me to cheer for the Colts knowing that every time someone on the Colts who isn't Peyton Manning touches the ball he's probably getting fantasy points. My fantasy team is also done for the week so I don't really have any excitement about tonight's game.

I hope the game ends 3-0 in favor of the Colts. At least he doesn't have Vinatieri kicking.

Who Needs Two Computers Anyway?

It's times like these that I'm really glad that I went out and bought myself a notebook computer. It looks like I really messed up my desktop. My technologically inclined brother says it's either a power source issue or a motherboard issue. Both of which are going to cost a pretty penny to fix.

You see I accidentally unplugged my computer while it was on. It's kind of a long story which involves the speakers that it's attached to and my annoyance with sounds when I'm sleeping. But it's really going to mess with my morning routine which includes things like watching stuff that I've downloaded and checking my e-mail. I can do that last one easily enough, but damn.

All I'm Asking For is a Little Consistency

Once again Drew Brees put up Ginormous numbers this week. Which is good because Denver is on a bye week so I had to play him in fantasy football. Not only did the Saints score a ton of points but they also beat the Chargers. I think I've mentioned that Philip Rivers is a giant douche. It would be nice though if Brees could at least be a little consistent. I mean I won last week's match up but only barely.

I won't actually know the results of this week's matchup until Tuesday because my opponent has 3 guys starting in the Monday night game. But I do know that I shouldn't have played Plaxico Burress since you know didn't start. I even checked to see if he was starting this morning and there was nothing to say that he wouldn't. Frick! It's still probably a better choice than Braylon Edwards.

Also can Tony Romo please get better? I really need better production out of Marion Barber. Although given that Romo is dating Jessica Simpson I'm sure this injury is making him stupider. I can just imagine brain cells being lost every time she talks. On the plus side I know that my opponent this week would have normally played Romo and he got stuck with Roethlisberger instead.

Because I feel like the Tim Tebow tag doesn't get used enough

At some point when I was in the beginning crushing stages I decided that I would likely need a Tim Tebow tag. I've used it a whole once in conjunction with a jorts tag. But since I'm bored and this tag doesn't get enough use and his shirt is REALLY tight in this picture:

One other random note there is a guy at my work who likes to pretend he's Tim Tebow because I once told him that he kind of looks like him. In fact he called me one day at work pretending to be Tim Tebow. Funniest conversation ever.

And so it begins

As you know I'm not a huge fan of my job. It has it's good days and it's bad days. I would be really sad to leave some of the people I've met at work. Even sadder if I wasn't there to collect when I win fantasy football (you know if Drew Brees and Jay Cutler don't crap out on me like they did last week). At the same time I think perhaps it's time to cut the cord.

I've watched five of my former classmates crawl up the ranks at my workplace each making more money than I do all because I was willing to settle and scared to try something else. Well I've just fixed up my resume for an internal posting and well if that doesn't work out, hell I've got an updated resume so I might as well test the waters.

Maybe I'll get scared and not be able to actually take that leap. Actually that's the most likely scenario. But I'd like to believe that if it came to it I would be able to do it but I have issues with change.

Because I haven't mentioned him in almost a month

Here's some Jay Cutler pouty face. This is the new official face of my work day.

God he's cute. You know now that I look at it again I think perhaps he's stoned. Any thoughts on the use of marijuana to treat diabetes?

Nothing Like A Week Off To Give You A Little Perspective

I take it back.

I'm so very bored

Here I am on vacation with nothing to do. You'd think it would be awesome but actually I'm really bored. I would nap but I'm going to see my cousin's baby in just under 2 hours and I'm afraid I'll miss my bus if I nap (I don't do alarm clocks), I've already read a 1/4 of my book this morning, I could work on my assignment but I just don't want to and as far as sports go well there is a replay of a World Cup qualifying match but really I just don't care enough about soccer.

Goal of the Week

First an update on last week's goal of the week, the right mitt is finished so now I just need to attach the dummy strings. The problem I have is the thickness. Just attaching a single strand of yarn probably won't provide the strength I need, but my attempts to use an I-cord leave a large lump running across my back.

As for this week's goal, I'm on holidays so no goal this week just relax and enjoy my vacation.

Thank you

I just wanted to give a public shout out to a friend who helped me today when I was on the cusp of a breakdown. Thanks for taking time out of your day to help a friend.

OH MY GOD!

I promised myself I wouldn't write anything political today BUT this needs to be seen by people who don't watch the news or follow politics at all.

Some of you are still considering who you're going to vote for take a second to watch this before you cast your ballot. Some of you have already voted, you can't go back on it now but you should still watch the video.



And this man could be leading our country just five days from now. I hope anyone that was considering voting Liberal will at least throw thier support behind Jack Layton after this.

When did that happen?

Okay despite my constant complaining I've discovered today that I actually like my job. Well just a little bit. I think the shift happened when I took over one of our new programs. I think that perhaps management (and my co-workers) are perhaps starting to see that I'm pretty darn competent. Also it seems that the outside world (that is outside our office) like dealing with me. I even had a glowing review from one of my co-workers from another department.

So maybe the issue was never really the work but the way that I was always being beaten down by others in my department. It's funny what a little confidence will do.

Why October 14 will determine my life path

First a little public service announcement. As most of you are now aware there is a Federal election going on. If you haven't gone to vote in the advanced polls make sure you get out on Tuesday. Same goes for Americans though you still have some time to decide.

Okay on with the show. Has anyone noticed this "global economic crisis" that's going on? Can you name me one place that it has yet to really hit hard? If you guessed Canada well that *ding,ding,ding,ding*.

This is likely to change if the Liberals are able to implement their Green Shift plan. In a time where there are very few world economies that are still managing to hold their own Canada has. There is one sector in particular which is showing growth, the oil industry. Taxing oil companies (which are the big target of the Green Shift) is one sure fire way to limit future growth, tax them too much and they might leave all together.

If we were in a booming economy and not heading toward an imminent recession I would say vote however the hell you want, seriously vote communist if you want. But if you vote Liberal to stop a Conservative majority (which quite obviously not going to happen at this point anyway) you're being dumb. If the Liberals win this election it will prove to me that the Canadian public is full of dumb people. Now I believe in democracy so if more Liberals are elected to government than Conservative that's the will of the people. But I don't want to live in a country full of stupid people.

A couple of notes before I end here:
1) I was probably always going to leave Canada, I just never really thought it would be this soon
2) If someone is willing to take my bet I'm willing to bet $10 that the Green Shift will not be implemented in it's entirety (or likely at all) before the next election.

Why I don't feel the Need for Charitable Giving

Damn election, it's making me think about things. Also it's time for my company's annual charity campaign where they try to entice us to sign up for payroll deductions to give to charity. There is one guy at work that we tease about his scrooge-like attitude when it comes to stuff like this, but this election has got me coming around a bit to his way of thinking.

See I already give charitable donations through payroll deductions, although you might call it income tax. Now I've taken a public finance course so I understand that somethings are just better off being public goods. Fine, great agreed. But really 1/3 of my annual income (which is not the greatest sum in the first place) goes back to the government to spend as they please. And spend they do. Funny though how if you take away that 1/3 of my income I suddenly have as much disposable income as those considered low income who receive payments from the government to top up their incomes (not to mention live in subsidies housing).

I'm not sure that I'm all for a progressive tax system but even if I was, this clearly is NOT it. Don't get me wrong I definitely donate to charity when I could afford it, but I prefer to choose which ones I donate too. Not be told by the government that my money will be going to support their causes.

Warning: Political Content Ahead

I'm amused. I love elections because they provide a reason for people to talk about the way that they view the world. It doesn't really matter which side of the political spectrum you're on, your opinions are important. Informed opinions are even better.

I just checked out the Liberal Green Shift calculator . It's kind of fun. Seems strange to me though that I would get an extra $150 for living in a rural area, when that really means that I'm going to have drive EVERYWHERE and there isn't a hope in hell of reducing carbon emissions by say taking public transit for example (which I do in the city). As it turns out the GreenShift would give me an extra $362 per year. Or less than $1 per day. Wait a second isn't that what it costs to feed a starving child in Africa? My favorite part is under the "how much will it cost me" tab. It will increase "some" energy costs. Right so I'm paying more for gas, hydro, and heating, but I shouldn't worry because $362 should be enough to cover it. HA!

I also can't help but enjoy this little bit of geeki-ness. Sure I hate math, but I enjoy mathematical theory, which may just be why I studied economics in the first place.

Here's some more food for thought, if the Conservatives lose this election (which based on the most recent polls isn't a complete impossibility), Stephen Harper will likely (read: definitely) be turfed as Conservative leader and then who will the Liberals and NDP accuse of eating babies? I wasn't a party member during the last leadership convention (nor am I one now for that matter), so I can't remember who was up against Harper but if they chose someone with a slightly more moderate image, likely from the PC side of the party it might not be long before we see another Conservative government. One that's likely to keep things interesting for a long time.

Goal of the Week

Normally I do the goal of the week on a Friday night but I'm giving myself an extra day because if next week is anything like this week it's going to need it.

This week's goal of the week is to finish my right mitten. I'm knitting myself a pair in preparation for the cold weather that we all know will be upon us all too soon. This time I'm committed to putting dummy strings on them so that I don't lose time every time I take off my coat. I already did the matching scarf and if I'm really ambitious and learn how to cable I may even do a matching hat.

Gossip

I have to admit that I normally love gossip. Not malicious gossip but just stuff that I know that not many people know. So maybe it's not gossip so much as inside information. But lately I find that my inside information simply leaves me enthusiastic about my life prospects and then angry and bitter when things don't seem to play out the way I think they should.

I realize that out in the real world I have no control over what other people do or how my organization set their policies but the end result usually leaves me more baffled than anything else.

I also find it difficult to talk to people when I know something is going to happen that they don't yet know about. It's kind of like trying to throw a surprise party for someone without telling the suprisee what's going on. I manage to do it, but just barely.