Props to Roberto Luongo for his team record-breaking three shutouts in a row!!
Due to his spectacular on-ice performance, I am obliged to offer to have his babies.
Showing posts with label shout outs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shout outs. Show all posts
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
Addicted to Scrabble
My name is Beth and I'm addicted to playing Scrabble online. And the thing is, I'm terrible at it. I don't have the patience, the vocabulary or the inclination to do math that Scrabble requires. Jorge was giving me tips the other night, but I'm still no good. Yet.... I. can't. stop. playing. it. As I type, I have 8 games on the go.
Perhaps I keep playing because I do things that amuse me, like this:
Hee hee. I played sex for 10 points.
Also, amusing is:
Hee hee. My rack.
It helps that I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy.
I will say, however, that I'm improving. As evidenced by this screenshot:
That's right. I played sex for 30 points this time. I'm now officially 3 times better at playing sex. It must be true, because it's on the internets.
Perhaps I keep playing because I do things that amuse me, like this:
Hee hee. I played sex for 10 points.
Also, amusing is:
Hee hee. My rack.
It helps that I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy.
I will say, however, that I'm improving. As evidenced by this screenshot:
That's right. I played sex for 30 points this time. I'm now officially 3 times better at playing sex. It must be true, because it's on the internets.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
The Wisdom Teeth Extraction Adventures of Beth
So, I'm feeling much better today - my jaw is only a wee bit achy so I'm off the T3s which were making me all loopy and unable to type properly all day yesterday.
My adventure at the oral surgeon's office started off with the unpleasant discovery that they lied to me about the cost. I was told that my insurance covered most of the cost, I just have to pay the specialist fees1 - they had gotten a pre-approval for the cost of what an extraction would be if I went to a regular dentist and for the deep sedation. They told me that since the sedation is through my extended health benefits, rather than dental benefits, I had to pay the $190 for that upfront (despite the insurance company pre-approving this, they said they "didn't trust" that the insurance would actually pay for it), and then they would pay me it back once they got the money from my insurance company (as opposed to the rest of the cost, which is covered by the dental benefits and so they would just charge to my insurance directly, trusting insurance would cover it). But when I go to pay for my part of the fees, I notice on the receipt that they've charged me $375, not $190 as I'd been told. And when I asked them about it, they are like, "Oh no, the insurance covers all except $190, you have to pay that. But we charge you the full amount and then reimburse you the difference when we get it from them." And so I'm like, "That's not what I was told and, in fact, I have it written down on this piece of paper exactly what you guys told me and that was that sedation costs $190 and my insurance will cover it." So they begrudging apologized that I "was given the wrong information" and so I told them that I supposed that it's too late to do anything about it now, but they should make sure they aren't giving people incorrect information like that, because $200 is a lot of money to suddenly be out of pocket.
Then I went and sat in the waiting room and caught up with Rachel, who I hadn't seen in ages, and it was good that we had the chance to do that because I couldn't talk much after the surgery (although the poor other guy in the waiting room sure got an earful about all my drama and our ensuing analysis of said drama). They finally called me to go into the surgery room and then I got to act like a big baby about the fact that they were going to be stabbing me with a needle. And putting a blood pressure cuff on me. I hate those, they make me feel so confined! And why, when you tell a nurse "I'm afraid of needles" do they always say "it's not that bad. It's just like a little bee sting"? Is this really supposed to make me feel better? I mean, seriously, am I supposed to say, "Oh good! Bee stings tickle!" So I say, "Um, I'm terrified of bee stings too. But thanks." So she takes my blood pressure and that gets me all freaked out and then even putting the little heart rate monitor on my finger freaks me out, so they strap my arm with the blood pressure cuff on it to the arm of the chair "too keep the blood pressure cuff in place" (translation: "to keep you from flailing around, you big baby") and by the time the surgeon comes in and puts the tourniquet on and tells me to open and close my hand to pump up my vein2, I'm literally curled up in a fetal-like position (except with one arm strapped to a chair and the other arm raised as I make feeble attempts to open and close my hand without totally passing out from the queasiness of it all and saying, "how long until I can be unconscious?" and "I promise I'll be more compliant once I'm asleep!"
The thing with me and needles is that I have to watch the needle go in. My imagination of how big the needle is, and my terror at not knowing the exact moment they are going to stab me, make me more of a basketcase than just watching it happen. So when I say, "I have to watch" and the surgeon literally turns my face away, saying "look at this lady over here," I wanted to scream "you paternalistic bastard, I know myself and I have to watch"... but I restrained myself and left out the part about him being a paternalistic bastard. So the needle goes in fine and doesn't hurt too bad and then he says, "This will feel like a cold drink being poured into your hand when I put the medicine in," and I say, "Yup, that feels cold", followed shortly by, "that feels really uncomfortable" and then the next thing I know is some vague feeling that something is going on in the bottom left side of my jaw and then they are telling me to wake up, it's all over, get the hell out. OK, maybe they didn't say "get the hell out." It was more like, "we are taking you to the recovery area, be careful, you'll be pretty wobbly." So I stumble to the "recovery area," which is literally a bench, and they bring Rachel in and she's like "I can see why they insist on an escort, they really rush you out of here. You were only in there for 20 minutes." And that had to include 10 minutes of blood pressure taking, needle stabbing and my being a big wussy baby. Then the nurse proceeds to explain a bunch of instructions to us and thank god Rachel was there for that because I was so doped up, I totally felt like I was extremely drunk and the only thing I remember was some vague comment about not having caffeine. Of course, even in a drug addled state, I pick up on the caffeine comment. At this point, I can't feel my face, because of the local, but I notice that my hand, where they IV had been, was killing me and, despite the Dora the Explorer band-aid, is covered in dried blood. So I put some pressure on it with my opposite hand to try to lessen the pain a bit and that takes about all the brain power I have at the time.
We get a cab to the Shopper's Drug Mart by my place so we can pick up my prescriptions and the pharmacist is like "There are several people ahead of you, it will be at least 15 minutes and Rachel is like, "She just had her wisdom teeth out, can't you possible let us jump the line" and the pharmacist is like, "No. Besides you have 3 prescriptions." And why the hell does it take so long to fill prescriptions? I mean, you have to count 8, 15 and 18 pills out big bottles and put them into little bottles. My 2 year old niece could do that! So anyway, Rachel decides to bring me home and she'll come back for the drugs, 'cuz it's just a few blocks. I decide to buy some juice in Shopper's 'cuz the nurse said to try to get some sugar in me as soon as possible, since I wasn't allowed to eat since midnight the night before. And as I take the change back from the cashier, I realize that my hand, with which I'd handed over my Shopper's card and my cash to the cashier is covered in dried blood, from having used it to put pressure on my IV wound. It takes a minute for this to register as my brain is still all messed up on the sedation and I feel really bad for the poor cashier, and a bit surprised she didn't say anything like, oh I don't know, "Um, you are covered in blood."
Anyway, Rachel gets me home and gets my drugs and I take my Tylenol 3, which was quite challenging because they said to take it when the local starts to wear off, which you will know is happening because your nose will feel tingly, but at this point your mouth and tongue are still frozen and I have trouble swallowing pills at the best of time. But, after several attempts, I manage to get the pill down somehow and spend the rest of the day in the following routine: take a T3, try to email or chat or read blogs but go all loopy, then get all drowsy and fall asleep on couch with laptop on lap, wake up when someone calls/texts/pings me on msn/google talk to see how I'm doing, feel better, watch something on the internets, notice my jaw is sore, realize that I was supposed to take another dose of T3 an hour ago, so then take another T3. And repeat. Always repeat. Oh yes, and rotating ice packs on my face - take one out of the freezer, strap it to my face, replace it with an alternate when it loses it's coldness. For the entire day. During one of my less loopy phases, where I could actually figure out how to send an email, I emailed Rachel to find out what exactly they had said about caffeine, and it turned out that they said to just not have caffeine in my first drink. Which is a relief, since I was afraid they were going to have said, "don't have caffeine for the next week". Or something equally insane.
I end up watching 2.5 movies and a bunch of clips of Stephen Colbert, catching up on most of my blogs and even watching an episode of good ole Young & the Restless. My friend Clayton brought me pudding in the evening, because I discovered that the pudding mix I bought to make for myself had gelatin3 in it and I'd somehow missed that when I read the ingredient list when I bought it and somehow noticed when I took it out of the cupboard to make it. I had taken a T3 just before Clayton got here and apparently I was in my loopy phase, but didn't know it. I totally thought I was acting normal until he said, "You are on T3, aren't you?" And I was like "Why? I am acting weird?" and he laughed "Yes." But I really, totally didn't think I was! The T3 seemed to make me act like I had ADHD or something - I'd be like "I really should write down that I just took that T3... hey, what is that shiny thing?" And I also didn't notice that there was blood on the hand towel in my bathroom, which may have been from my IV wound, or possibly from when blood was dripping out of my mouth, but most certainly was not appropriate to have hanging on my towel rack when someone was over!
I took my other meds with my dinner (mango pudding), which is what the nurse had said to do. My other meds are an antibiotic, which apparently "should only be used for serious infections because infrequently there are severe, rarely fatal, intestinal problems," (which seem like an odd choice for a prophylactic antibiotic) and a corticosteroid, which may decrease my immune response (which seems like an odd choice for someone who is trying not to get an infection) and may stunt my growth (which is an odd choice for someone who is clearly due for a growth spurt any day now). And I followed Ann-Oni Mouse's advice and sprayed my gauze with Chloraseptic, which seemed to work well for killing pain and I'm hoping will contribute to infection prevention.
I took my last dose of T3 just before I headed to bed with Stephen Colbert, at about 12:30 am, figuring I would wake up about 5 hours later in need of another dose, but I slept right straight through until 11:30 am. And my jaw only had a dull ache, which seems to be the most prominent in my lower left side of my jaw, which is appropriate because that's the only place I remember feeling anything happen during the surgery, so I'm guessing that was the most difficult one to get out. Anyway, since the pain is fairly minor, I haven't even taken a single T3 today. I figure I'll be careful about taking my other meds as scheduled (I set the alarm in my Palm Pilot to remind me when to take it and then record that I took it... I'm kind of like that guy in Memento), gently clean my teeth as my surgeon recommends and keep my fingers crossed that I don't get any infections. My mother thinks I have inherited my father's propensity to heal really fast. I think that time I accidentally stabbed myself with that needle contaminated with rat blood in the lab, I took on the rat's super immune system capabilities4. Because we all know that super powers are gained by science lab mishaps.
I spent most of today sitting in the sun, either goofing around on the internet or talking on the phone (and then having my landlord make fun of the amount of times I used the word "like" in my conversation with Sarah... "not that I was listening in on your conversation, " he says, "but I counted that you used the work "like" 75 times since you came outside on your phone. Stupid, really, that everyone uses the word "like" so much.") Went for Frappuccinos with Kalev, who came to hang out a bit after he finished work and before the movie he was going to.
And to top off my crappy week, I did some laundry, during which I pulled the genius move of putting my bluetooth headset through the wash. Like I said, genius. I'm going to give it a few days to completely dry out before I try turning it on again. Which I've heard works for when you dump an entire bottle of water into your purse and soak the hell out of your cell phone5. But August 2007 Crapweek started last Saturday, so I figure that it's scheduled to be over in 7 minutes6. And, so long as I still feel as good tomorrow as I do right now, I'm hitting the town with some friends tomorrow night. 'cuz I so need a night on the town right now!
OK, probably time for little Bethy to take her med (need to check my notes to remember which one!) and hit the hay. Beth sleepy. Beth has comfy bed with soft, freshly laundered sheets in which to sleep.
OK, I just went to take my night time meds and discovered that I took the wrong med earlier today. I'm supposed to take my antibiotic three times a day (like morning, midway through the day, and night), and my steriod twice day (morning and night). But, for some unknown reason, I took my steroid in the middle of the day instead of my antibiotic. I think I can kiss that growth spurt goodbye.
1I figure if someone is going to be messing with my face, it's really worth the extra money to go to the best of the best.
2For the record, just typing that out made me queasy.
3Since I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat gelatin, which is made from horse hooves and cow bones. Ick.
4Lab rats seems to have ridiculous awesome immune systems.
5For the record, this was not me.
6It was 11:53 pm on Friday night when I typed that.
My adventure at the oral surgeon's office started off with the unpleasant discovery that they lied to me about the cost. I was told that my insurance covered most of the cost, I just have to pay the specialist fees1 - they had gotten a pre-approval for the cost of what an extraction would be if I went to a regular dentist and for the deep sedation. They told me that since the sedation is through my extended health benefits, rather than dental benefits, I had to pay the $190 for that upfront (despite the insurance company pre-approving this, they said they "didn't trust" that the insurance would actually pay for it), and then they would pay me it back once they got the money from my insurance company (as opposed to the rest of the cost, which is covered by the dental benefits and so they would just charge to my insurance directly, trusting insurance would cover it). But when I go to pay for my part of the fees, I notice on the receipt that they've charged me $375, not $190 as I'd been told. And when I asked them about it, they are like, "Oh no, the insurance covers all except $190, you have to pay that. But we charge you the full amount and then reimburse you the difference when we get it from them." And so I'm like, "That's not what I was told and, in fact, I have it written down on this piece of paper exactly what you guys told me and that was that sedation costs $190 and my insurance will cover it." So they begrudging apologized that I "was given the wrong information" and so I told them that I supposed that it's too late to do anything about it now, but they should make sure they aren't giving people incorrect information like that, because $200 is a lot of money to suddenly be out of pocket.
Then I went and sat in the waiting room and caught up with Rachel, who I hadn't seen in ages, and it was good that we had the chance to do that because I couldn't talk much after the surgery (although the poor other guy in the waiting room sure got an earful about all my drama and our ensuing analysis of said drama). They finally called me to go into the surgery room and then I got to act like a big baby about the fact that they were going to be stabbing me with a needle. And putting a blood pressure cuff on me. I hate those, they make me feel so confined! And why, when you tell a nurse "I'm afraid of needles" do they always say "it's not that bad. It's just like a little bee sting"? Is this really supposed to make me feel better? I mean, seriously, am I supposed to say, "Oh good! Bee stings tickle!" So I say, "Um, I'm terrified of bee stings too. But thanks." So she takes my blood pressure and that gets me all freaked out and then even putting the little heart rate monitor on my finger freaks me out, so they strap my arm with the blood pressure cuff on it to the arm of the chair "too keep the blood pressure cuff in place" (translation: "to keep you from flailing around, you big baby") and by the time the surgeon comes in and puts the tourniquet on and tells me to open and close my hand to pump up my vein2, I'm literally curled up in a fetal-like position (except with one arm strapped to a chair and the other arm raised as I make feeble attempts to open and close my hand without totally passing out from the queasiness of it all and saying, "how long until I can be unconscious?" and "I promise I'll be more compliant once I'm asleep!"
The thing with me and needles is that I have to watch the needle go in. My imagination of how big the needle is, and my terror at not knowing the exact moment they are going to stab me, make me more of a basketcase than just watching it happen. So when I say, "I have to watch" and the surgeon literally turns my face away, saying "look at this lady over here," I wanted to scream "you paternalistic bastard, I know myself and I have to watch"... but I restrained myself and left out the part about him being a paternalistic bastard. So the needle goes in fine and doesn't hurt too bad and then he says, "This will feel like a cold drink being poured into your hand when I put the medicine in," and I say, "Yup, that feels cold", followed shortly by, "that feels really uncomfortable" and then the next thing I know is some vague feeling that something is going on in the bottom left side of my jaw and then they are telling me to wake up, it's all over, get the hell out. OK, maybe they didn't say "get the hell out." It was more like, "we are taking you to the recovery area, be careful, you'll be pretty wobbly." So I stumble to the "recovery area," which is literally a bench, and they bring Rachel in and she's like "I can see why they insist on an escort, they really rush you out of here. You were only in there for 20 minutes." And that had to include 10 minutes of blood pressure taking, needle stabbing and my being a big wussy baby. Then the nurse proceeds to explain a bunch of instructions to us and thank god Rachel was there for that because I was so doped up, I totally felt like I was extremely drunk and the only thing I remember was some vague comment about not having caffeine. Of course, even in a drug addled state, I pick up on the caffeine comment. At this point, I can't feel my face, because of the local, but I notice that my hand, where they IV had been, was killing me and, despite the Dora the Explorer band-aid, is covered in dried blood. So I put some pressure on it with my opposite hand to try to lessen the pain a bit and that takes about all the brain power I have at the time.
We get a cab to the Shopper's Drug Mart by my place so we can pick up my prescriptions and the pharmacist is like "There are several people ahead of you, it will be at least 15 minutes and Rachel is like, "She just had her wisdom teeth out, can't you possible let us jump the line" and the pharmacist is like, "No. Besides you have 3 prescriptions." And why the hell does it take so long to fill prescriptions? I mean, you have to count 8, 15 and 18 pills out big bottles and put them into little bottles. My 2 year old niece could do that! So anyway, Rachel decides to bring me home and she'll come back for the drugs, 'cuz it's just a few blocks. I decide to buy some juice in Shopper's 'cuz the nurse said to try to get some sugar in me as soon as possible, since I wasn't allowed to eat since midnight the night before. And as I take the change back from the cashier, I realize that my hand, with which I'd handed over my Shopper's card and my cash to the cashier is covered in dried blood, from having used it to put pressure on my IV wound. It takes a minute for this to register as my brain is still all messed up on the sedation and I feel really bad for the poor cashier, and a bit surprised she didn't say anything like, oh I don't know, "Um, you are covered in blood."
Anyway, Rachel gets me home and gets my drugs and I take my Tylenol 3, which was quite challenging because they said to take it when the local starts to wear off, which you will know is happening because your nose will feel tingly, but at this point your mouth and tongue are still frozen and I have trouble swallowing pills at the best of time. But, after several attempts, I manage to get the pill down somehow and spend the rest of the day in the following routine: take a T3, try to email or chat or read blogs but go all loopy, then get all drowsy and fall asleep on couch with laptop on lap, wake up when someone calls/texts/pings me on msn/google talk to see how I'm doing, feel better, watch something on the internets, notice my jaw is sore, realize that I was supposed to take another dose of T3 an hour ago, so then take another T3. And repeat. Always repeat. Oh yes, and rotating ice packs on my face - take one out of the freezer, strap it to my face, replace it with an alternate when it loses it's coldness. For the entire day. During one of my less loopy phases, where I could actually figure out how to send an email, I emailed Rachel to find out what exactly they had said about caffeine, and it turned out that they said to just not have caffeine in my first drink. Which is a relief, since I was afraid they were going to have said, "don't have caffeine for the next week". Or something equally insane.
I end up watching 2.5 movies and a bunch of clips of Stephen Colbert, catching up on most of my blogs and even watching an episode of good ole Young & the Restless. My friend Clayton brought me pudding in the evening, because I discovered that the pudding mix I bought to make for myself had gelatin3 in it and I'd somehow missed that when I read the ingredient list when I bought it and somehow noticed when I took it out of the cupboard to make it. I had taken a T3 just before Clayton got here and apparently I was in my loopy phase, but didn't know it. I totally thought I was acting normal until he said, "You are on T3, aren't you?" And I was like "Why? I am acting weird?" and he laughed "Yes." But I really, totally didn't think I was! The T3 seemed to make me act like I had ADHD or something - I'd be like "I really should write down that I just took that T3... hey, what is that shiny thing?" And I also didn't notice that there was blood on the hand towel in my bathroom, which may have been from my IV wound, or possibly from when blood was dripping out of my mouth, but most certainly was not appropriate to have hanging on my towel rack when someone was over!
I took my other meds with my dinner (mango pudding), which is what the nurse had said to do. My other meds are an antibiotic, which apparently "should only be used for serious infections because infrequently there are severe, rarely fatal, intestinal problems," (which seem like an odd choice for a prophylactic antibiotic) and a corticosteroid, which may decrease my immune response (which seems like an odd choice for someone who is trying not to get an infection) and may stunt my growth (which is an odd choice for someone who is clearly due for a growth spurt any day now). And I followed Ann-Oni Mouse's advice and sprayed my gauze with Chloraseptic, which seemed to work well for killing pain and I'm hoping will contribute to infection prevention.
I took my last dose of T3 just before I headed to bed with Stephen Colbert, at about 12:30 am, figuring I would wake up about 5 hours later in need of another dose, but I slept right straight through until 11:30 am. And my jaw only had a dull ache, which seems to be the most prominent in my lower left side of my jaw, which is appropriate because that's the only place I remember feeling anything happen during the surgery, so I'm guessing that was the most difficult one to get out. Anyway, since the pain is fairly minor, I haven't even taken a single T3 today. I figure I'll be careful about taking my other meds as scheduled (I set the alarm in my Palm Pilot to remind me when to take it and then record that I took it... I'm kind of like that guy in Memento), gently clean my teeth as my surgeon recommends and keep my fingers crossed that I don't get any infections. My mother thinks I have inherited my father's propensity to heal really fast. I think that time I accidentally stabbed myself with that needle contaminated with rat blood in the lab, I took on the rat's super immune system capabilities4. Because we all know that super powers are gained by science lab mishaps.
I spent most of today sitting in the sun, either goofing around on the internet or talking on the phone (and then having my landlord make fun of the amount of times I used the word "like" in my conversation with Sarah... "not that I was listening in on your conversation, " he says, "but I counted that you used the work "like" 75 times since you came outside on your phone. Stupid, really, that everyone uses the word "like" so much.") Went for Frappuccinos with Kalev, who came to hang out a bit after he finished work and before the movie he was going to.
And to top off my crappy week, I did some laundry, during which I pulled the genius move of putting my bluetooth headset through the wash. Like I said, genius. I'm going to give it a few days to completely dry out before I try turning it on again. Which I've heard works for when you dump an entire bottle of water into your purse and soak the hell out of your cell phone5. But August 2007 Crapweek started last Saturday, so I figure that it's scheduled to be over in 7 minutes6. And, so long as I still feel as good tomorrow as I do right now, I'm hitting the town with some friends tomorrow night. 'cuz I so need a night on the town right now!
OK, probably time for little Bethy to take her med (need to check my notes to remember which one!) and hit the hay. Beth sleepy. Beth has comfy bed with soft, freshly laundered sheets in which to sleep.
OK, I just went to take my night time meds and discovered that I took the wrong med earlier today. I'm supposed to take my antibiotic three times a day (like morning, midway through the day, and night), and my steriod twice day (morning and night). But, for some unknown reason, I took my steroid in the middle of the day instead of my antibiotic. I think I can kiss that growth spurt goodbye.
1I figure if someone is going to be messing with my face, it's really worth the extra money to go to the best of the best.
2For the record, just typing that out made me queasy.
3Since I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat gelatin, which is made from horse hooves and cow bones. Ick.
4Lab rats seems to have ridiculous awesome immune systems.
5For the record, this was not me.
6It was 11:53 pm on Friday night when I typed that.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Going Under the Knife
- needles
- pain
- getting up early
I've needed to get my wisdom teeth out for a while now, but never had the dental coverage for it. UBC claims to have medical and dental for their students (they make you pay for medical and dental at any rate), but it pretty much doesn't actually cover anything. But now that I have a big girl job, with actual benefits and suchlike, I can do such things as have parts of my body taken out, for the low, low price of $5001.
I'm going to be knocked out by IV sedation - I talked about it extensively with the surgeon at the consultation but, of course, don't quite remember all the drugs included in the cocktail2 - I think it was some combo of benzos and opioids. I'll have to remember to ask him again tomorrow. Apparently this will cause me to sleep through the whole procedure3, but is nowhere near as risky as general anesthetic (i.e., unlike a general, the risk of dying from sedation is pretty much nil)4. And when I get out of surgery, I'll feel like I'm drunk. Thankfully, Rachel is coming with me to make sure I actually make it home in my altered state - she has experience in this realm, so I'm confident that I'll be fine.
On the way home from work I figure I'll stop at work for frozen fruit (for smoothies) and ice packs. Anything else you recommend?1My insurance doesn't pay the specialists fees which, apparently, aren't cheap.
2because I did ask him for all the details.
3Why does "procedure" sounds worse than "surgery" to me?
4*knocks on wood*
Note: That pic is not me, but that's pretty much what my bottom wisdom teeth look like. The pic was stolen from the interwebs, but not really stolen 'cuz it's under a Creative Commons license that says I may "copy, distribute, display, and perform the work"... and look ma, I'm even linking to the license.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Choose His Adventure
Jeremy, who you may recall I met at the Northern Voice blogging conference because I felt the need to ask him why the heck he was wearing a dragon costume, is about to embark on a trip to Europe followed by Australia & New Zealand - a trip where *you* get to tell him where to go and what to do while he's there. Seriously. His blog, Choose My Adventure, provides a forum where readers get to make suggestions on where he goes and then vote on those suggestions. Right now, there is a poll where you can vote on whether he should go to Spain for a giant tomato fight.
So if you've ever had the desire to control someone else's life, you should check out his blog.
So if you've ever had the desire to control someone else's life, you should check out his blog.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Congratulations Shalu & Deepak!
Yesterday, I was privileged to witness the marriage of two fantastic people - my good friends, Shalu & Deepak. I've known Shalu for several years - ever since she started her Masters in my lab. Shalu was, if I recall correctly, thrown into the middle of my (ridiculously large-scale) experiment and informed that she was to learn our lab protocols by "helping out with" (translation: doing half the lab work of1) my PhD experiment with me, at the same time as taking her graduate level courses. Once my big experiment was done, we soon moved on to her (also ridiculously large-scale study)... oh wait, there was her pilot study before that, and a pre-pilot, and a pre-pilot-pilot. Plus, we decided to do a "small" (translation: normal size for anyone else's lab) unrelated side-study during her pilot, because "wouldn't that be an interestingly little study to do and sure, we have enough time to do them simultaneously"2. What this meant was that, for stretches of three or four months at a time, we were together in the lab from about 8 am to around 5 pm, with no breaks, 7 days a week3. And the astonishing thing about all of this was that, when a study ended, not only were we not sick of each other, as you would imagine two people spending that much time together would be, but we actually missed each other after a day or two of not seeing one another! Shalu is just that kind of awesome person - so much fun to be around, such a great person and a great friend!
Fortunately, after she finished her Masters, Shalu and I have stayed in close touch. Blog That Needs a New Name readers may remember her from such events as:
- helping me move on a moment's notice
- my softball team
- the Seattle trip
- the Seattle trip that involved less 151 and more shoes
- my half birthday
- potentially healing my injured foot through magic
- showing up on my doorstep bearing a New Year's present because my 2006 had been so miserable, to make sure my 2007 started off right
- being my BFF and she knows why (although I bet she doesn't remember now!)
- my first ever trip up the Grouse Grind
I'm trying to remember the first time I met Deepak and, although I'm not positive5, I think it might have been the Seattle trip. And I do know that he bought me my first ever Jager Bomb, on my half birthday. And he was there to help me move too. Like I said, Shalu and Deepak are awesome peeps. And now they are married to each other - how cool is that?
And speaking of cool, their wedding ceremony was the coolest thing I've ever seen6. Coolness included (but is not limited to):
- Deepak making an entrance on a horse, led by a marching band and surrounded by his family, dancing
- Shalu & Deepak wearing absolutely gorgeous outfits
- seeing Shalu & Deepak so very, very happy - they were smiling, and laughing, throughout the ceremony and you could just see how happy they were to be wife and husband
- more delicious Indian food - there was a lunch held at the temple after the ceremony
- I got to wear a sari! Shalu & Deepak helped me pick it out - I absolutely love it!
And the festivities continue tonight - the reception! Stay tuned for more photos and stories!
1our lab couldn't afford a lab tech, so we had to do all the lab work ourselves.
2upon retrospect, that was a rather silly idea. Although we did get a published paper out of it, so I guess it was OK in the end.
3we would also often have to come into the lab late at night, around 10 pm to midnight-ish, to take blood samples, but we usually traded off so that only one of us would have to come in, whenever possible.
4different group though, doing different things, but in the same building complex
5at Shalu's wedding shower, we discovered that Shalu can't exactly remember the first time she met him either, so I don't feel that bad.
6granted, it was almost all in Hindi, so I couldn't actually tell what was being said, save for the odd word in English ("exemplary couple," "McDonalds," "pizza", "you have to buy her beautiful clothes now Deepak"), but Shalu had written up what each part of the ceremony means in the program, so we could follow along.
7I didn't get any good ones during the ceremony as the scene from where I was sitting was back lit, so my photos came out grainy. I can't wait to see the ones from the professional photographer which, at last count, will number over 3 billion.
Monday, May 28, 2007
I <3 the Giants!
A (belated) shout out to the Vancouver Giants, Memorial Cup Champions 2007!
Let us savour the sweet, sweet victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers. From Medicine Hat, Alberta. And you know how I feel about Alberta.
This season was the first one where I really took much interest in the Giants. Remember the time I went to a Giants game and got to see 5 simultaneous fights? Or the time I went to the game and saw them play a team that was named after me? Or the time that the Seattle Thunderbirds backup goalie smiled at me*? Yes, we certainly had some good times this season. Congrats boys! I'm looking forward to cheering you on again next season!
*upon searching my blog for a link to this, I discovered that I did not, in fact, blog about the time that the Seattle Thunderbirds's backup goalied smiled at me. But rest assured, it is true. He had a mohawk and, I believe he is 20 years old. Which substantiates my claim that this team was named after me.
Let us savour the sweet, sweet victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers. From Medicine Hat, Alberta. And you know how I feel about Alberta.
This season was the first one where I really took much interest in the Giants. Remember the time I went to a Giants game and got to see 5 simultaneous fights? Or the time I went to the game and saw them play a team that was named after me? Or the time that the Seattle Thunderbirds backup goalie smiled at me*? Yes, we certainly had some good times this season. Congrats boys! I'm looking forward to cheering you on again next season!
*upon searching my blog for a link to this, I discovered that I did not, in fact, blog about the time that the Seattle Thunderbirds's backup goalied smiled at me. But rest assured, it is true. He had a mohawk and, I believe he is 20 years old. Which substantiates my claim that this team was named after me.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
I Still Love Them
After more periods of overtime in one playoffs than any person should watch, the season has ended for my boys.
It might be carryover effect from the cursed chocolate bar. It might be that Dave K went to watch the game at Mike O & Liz W's, even though I specifically told him that that would jinx us. But whatever the reason, my boys are hanging up the skates for this season. Don't worry, we'll come back next year, bigger and faster and stronger than ever! And I still love you.
I love you, Bobby Lou, who is going to win the Hart trophy. MVP!! MVP!! MVP!!
I love you Alex Burrows, scoring our only goal tonight. And I love you too, Dany Saborin, who stepped into the most stressful situation a player could ever imagine and withstood the pressure while Lou raced to fix his equipment.
I love Taylor Pyatt, of course. I always have. Your hussle out there was much appreciated by this fan!
I love you Sedin twins, and Jeff Cowan (the long, lost Sedin triplet who missed the last few games with an injury - we missed you out there!).
Trevor Linden, the consummate Canuck, I love you and hope you come back next year! You've got a few good years left in ya, I swear! Naslund, a lot of people were doubting you, but you stepped it and I love you! I love you Mo and Smolinski and Greene and Bulis and Bieksa and Ohlund and Sopes and Salo and Mitchell and Cooke. And Rory, I voted for you, because I love you.
We'll get them next year boys. In the meantime, I will have all of your babies.
It might be carryover effect from the cursed chocolate bar. It might be that Dave K went to watch the game at Mike O & Liz W's, even though I specifically told him that that would jinx us. But whatever the reason, my boys are hanging up the skates for this season. Don't worry, we'll come back next year, bigger and faster and stronger than ever! And I still love you.
I love you, Bobby Lou, who is going to win the Hart trophy. MVP!! MVP!! MVP!!
I love you Alex Burrows, scoring our only goal tonight. And I love you too, Dany Saborin, who stepped into the most stressful situation a player could ever imagine and withstood the pressure while Lou raced to fix his equipment.
I love Taylor Pyatt, of course. I always have. Your hussle out there was much appreciated by this fan!
I love you Sedin twins, and Jeff Cowan (the long, lost Sedin triplet who missed the last few games with an injury - we missed you out there!).
Trevor Linden, the consummate Canuck, I love you and hope you come back next year! You've got a few good years left in ya, I swear! Naslund, a lot of people were doubting you, but you stepped it and I love you! I love you Mo and Smolinski and Greene and Bulis and Bieksa and Ohlund and Sopes and Salo and Mitchell and Cooke. And Rory, I voted for you, because I love you.
We'll get them next year boys. In the meantime, I will have all of your babies.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
My Last Word on the Canucks-Dallas Series
Now, I may have yelled "Turco, you dirtbag!" many, many, many times during the first round of the playoffs. But in truth, it was always when he'd made some amazing save, robbing my beloved Canucks of much needed goals. You won't often hear me say something positive about an opposing team, but even I have to admit that Marty Turco played one hell of a series.
In related news, Melanie apologized for getting me a cursed chocolate bar.
Turco broke the Stars's franchise record for a shutout streak at 165:45. Ed Belfour held the previous Stars record with 164:35. Turco's three shutouts also tied an NHL record for most shutouts in a seven game series.Props to you, Marty Turco!
In related news, Melanie apologized for getting me a cursed chocolate bar.
Monday, April 23, 2007
They Don't Call Them The "Cardiac Canucks" For Nothing!
Shout out to my boys in blue!
I nearly had a heart attack watching tonight's game! It had been very frustrating to watch my boys lose the last two games, where they could have ended the series, but didn't, resulting in tonight winner-take-all matchup. Then it occurred to me what the problem was... my chocolate bar was cursed. Two games ago, I was watching the game with a bunch of friends at two of my friends's apartment and during the intermission between the third period and OT, a couple people decided to go to the store for snacks* and I got a big bar of dark Swiss chocolate. It was quite delicious, but certainly more than I could eat in one sitting. We lost that game in OT, and then we lost the next game. I had eaten some more of the chocolate bar over the past few days, but still had quite a bit left when this game started. I started to have an inkling that my chocolate bar might be cursed, preventing the Canucks from winning, but when Dallas scored first in tonight's game, I decided it was time to take action. I ate the rest of the bar. And shortly after finishing said bar, the Canucks scored. Did I ever mention that I'm supersititious?
Thanks to me devouring the cursed chocolate bar, the good guys prevailed and the bad guys... well, they got sent back to Dallas. Roberto made the big saves, the Sedins got their first points since Game 1, Trev got the game winner (and became the leading active player to score in game 7s) , my boyfriend sealed the deal with empty netter #1 and then Trev, being the upstanding guy that he is, passed the puck to Smoke to let him have empty netter #2 rather than taking it himself. I love my boys!! Tonight, I'm willing to have all their babies! And now it's off to Anaheim to kick some Duck!
Also, special thanks to the Red Wings for eliminating the despised Flames**. Flames, you are a team of dirtbags from a crappy city and your defeat brings me glee. That's right, glee!
Oh yes, and right here and right now, I'm calling a Canucks-Sens Stanley Cup this year! I know I call that at the beginning of every season, but this year I know that Roberto is going to lead us to the Cup!!
*we'd already had pizza and, after game 1, we had no idea how many periods of OT we were facing - we needed sustenance!
**please note, the Flames get no link love because I hate them.
I nearly had a heart attack watching tonight's game! It had been very frustrating to watch my boys lose the last two games, where they could have ended the series, but didn't, resulting in tonight winner-take-all matchup. Then it occurred to me what the problem was... my chocolate bar was cursed. Two games ago, I was watching the game with a bunch of friends at two of my friends's apartment and during the intermission between the third period and OT, a couple people decided to go to the store for snacks* and I got a big bar of dark Swiss chocolate. It was quite delicious, but certainly more than I could eat in one sitting. We lost that game in OT, and then we lost the next game. I had eaten some more of the chocolate bar over the past few days, but still had quite a bit left when this game started. I started to have an inkling that my chocolate bar might be cursed, preventing the Canucks from winning, but when Dallas scored first in tonight's game, I decided it was time to take action. I ate the rest of the bar. And shortly after finishing said bar, the Canucks scored. Did I ever mention that I'm supersititious?
Thanks to me devouring the cursed chocolate bar, the good guys prevailed and the bad guys... well, they got sent back to Dallas. Roberto made the big saves, the Sedins got their first points since Game 1, Trev got the game winner (and became the leading active player to score in game 7s) , my boyfriend sealed the deal with empty netter #1 and then Trev, being the upstanding guy that he is, passed the puck to Smoke to let him have empty netter #2 rather than taking it himself. I love my boys!! Tonight, I'm willing to have all their babies! And now it's off to Anaheim to kick some Duck!
Also, special thanks to the Red Wings for eliminating the despised Flames**. Flames, you are a team of dirtbags from a crappy city and your defeat brings me glee. That's right, glee!
Oh yes, and right here and right now, I'm calling a Canucks-Sens Stanley Cup this year! I know I call that at the beginning of every season, but this year I know that Roberto is going to lead us to the Cup!!
*we'd already had pizza and, after game 1, we had no idea how many periods of OT we were facing - we needed sustenance!
**please note, the Flames get no link love because I hate them.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Eagle Cam
Hired by Wavelit.com CEO Arthur Griffiths*, Erika is responsible for all things biological at Wavelit and recently oversaw the installation of this year's EagleCam** - a camera focused on an eagle's nest in Stanley Park 24/7 (they even have infrared for night-time viewing and a microphone, so you can hear the eagles chirping at each other). Right now the eagles come and go, but once the eggs are laid, there will be eagles there all the time and you will be able to watch the eggs hatch and the baby eagles grow! How freaking cool is that?
You can also watch orphaned grizzly cubs, Grinder and Coola, who live on Grouse Mountain on GrizzlyCam, Hummingbirds somewhere on the west coast of Canada***, and Nkorho Pan "a natural water hole in the prestigious Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, in South Africa" on Africam. I'm watching Africam as I write this and, although there are no animals at the watering hole right now, I can hear crickets!
omg omg! I just flipped back to EagleCam and the eagle is there!!! S/he is fixing up her/his nest! So cool! What a beautiful bird!
I have a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time watching these cams!
*a Vancouver businessman, former owner of my beloved Canucks and the man responsible for bringing the 2010 Olympics to Vancouver.
**apparently previous years's EagleCams have received over 14 million hits PER DAY.
**it doesn't say where. I was just watching them and they are so cute!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Shout Out to Dave B
In a few hours, Dave B. will be defending his Master's thesis. Go Dave B! Everyone send him positive thoughts about snow geese at 12:30 p.m. Pacific, k?
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Western Canadian Hijinks
As I write this, Sarah is in a cab on her way here from YVR. We spend now until Tuesday in Vancouver (I have to work on Monday & Tuesday, but I have tomorrow, Sat & Sun to goof off), and then on Tuesday night we fly to Calgary, where our plan will land within minutes of Dave's flight from Ottawa, and then our friend Justin will whisk us all away to stay for a week at his downtown abode. I am told by pretty much everyone I know that has lived in, or ever even been to, Calgary that we need to go to Cowboys.
I'll keep y'all posted.
Oh ya, and big props to my boys, you have clinched a playoff spot. I can practically taste the Cup.
Update: SARAH is here!!! (Apparently I'm a slow typist!) And you'll never guess who was on her plane! David. Freaking. Emerson!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!
I'll keep y'all posted.
Oh ya, and big props to my boys, you have clinched a playoff spot. I can practically taste the Cup.
Update: SARAH is here!!! (Apparently I'm a slow typist!) And you'll never guess who was on her plane! David. Freaking. Emerson!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Thesis Data Cloud
A while back, Darren mentioned wanting to make a data cloud for a presentation he was giving at Northern Voice - he wanted to find a tool that he could enter all the responses he'd gotten on his Why Do You Blog survey to generate a data cloud. This got me thinking about how data clouds are an interesting way of analyzing data - you get a visual representation of how often each word is used in your document. So then I had the bright idea that I wanted to run my thesis through a program like this - I was curious to see what words I used most often. I happened to be chatting with a friend of mine who is all computer savvy and asked if he knew of any tools that could do this (as I could only find one that required that the document in question be pretty small and my thesis may be many things, but small is not one of them). And the next thing I knew, he'd written me a program! We had to do a bit of tweaking (like not including common words such "and" and "then", not including punctuation and numbers, and, of course, I had to make it use pretty colours). And when all was said and done, it was just so friggin' pretty! I love my thesis word cloud! You can check out the whole thing here, but I've included a bit of it below, just so you can get an idea of how beautiful it is!
Seriously, go check out the whole thing here. It's friggin' cool.
Update: OK, that looks a little f'd up, since Blogger's formattin apparently doesn't work so well with the formatting of the data cloud. I guess you'll just have to go here to see how it should look.
binge biochemistry biol biological biology birth births bk black blank blind blinded blindly blood bloom blow blue boat bodies body bone bones bonjour born both bottom bouillon boundaries boundary brain breakdown breaking breed breeding briefly bringing brown bud buds buffer bull bulletin bullock burns but c ca cage cages calcification calcified calcifies calcium calculated calculation calendar caloric calories camera camp can cannot carbohydrates cardiac cardiovascular care cartilage
Seriously, go check out the whole thing here. It's friggin' cool.
Update: OK, that looks a little f'd up, since Blogger's formattin apparently doesn't work so well with the formatting of the data cloud. I guess you'll just have to go here to see how it should look.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
A scientific analysis of things that suck vs. things that rock
Dave from Touch You Last has returned from his lengthy, unexplained absence from the blogosphere, bringing with him his latest find: Sucks/Rocks. Now, don't be confused like I was when I first read that title... I thought it was a site about things that "Suck Rocks." In fact, determines if something "sucks" OR "rocks." Dave's explanation of the process:
Figure 1: Reliability Analysis
Thus, we can conclude that Sucks/Rocks is a reliable tool.
For something to be considered a valid tool, we have to make sure that it is accurate - in this case, that when Sucks/Rocks says that something sucks, it does, in fact, suck; and when it says that something rocks it does, in fact, rock. Since we know that things that suck, suck, and things that rock, rock, I decided to use the word "suck" as something that sucks, and "rock" as something that rocks for my validity assessment. Figure 2 demonstrates that Sucks/Rocks is a valid assessment tool:
Figure 2: Validity Analysis
Now that I have conclusively proven that Sucks/Rocks is a reliable and valid measure of that which sucks and that which rocks, I can use this new breakthrough in scientific analysis to test a few hypotheses. I decided to start out with an example for which we all know the answer, which will further strengthen my case that Sucks/Rocks is an accurate measure of suckiness and rockitude:
Yup, as we all knew, the Canucks rock while the Leafs suck! I was a bit surprised that the Canucks only scored a 7 (as we all know that they are a perfect 10... I hope that my use of the word "uglification" near the word "Canucks" in my in-depth trade analysis didn't decrease their score!). I suppose there is bound to be some margin of error.
Another thing we already knew:
Figure 4: Females are better than males
Interestingly, when I tested the phrase "Flying Spaghetti Monster," I received this:
I'm pretty sure that this means that either (a) the FSM rocks so hard that he cannot be quantified, or (b) he used his noodly appendages to interfere with the tool, just because he can. I'm currently working on a grant proposal to investigate this line of research.
OK, so now that we know that Sucks/Rocks is an accurate way to make measurements and comparisons (except in cases where the Flying Spaghetti Monster chooses to interfere, which, of course, is true of all measurement tools), I feel confident that we can use it to determine definitively the answer to the age old question: Ninjas vs. Pirates?
Figure 5: The answer to an age old question
"the site will search for all instances of positive phrase relating to your term versus negative phrases relating to your term (‘Peanut Butter Cups are wicked!’ as opposed to ‘I can’t stand me no goddamn Peanut Butter Cups!’) It then takes these positive and negative hits, factors in some complicated maths, and comes back with a ranking from 0 to 10, with 0 being a black hole of sucking, and 10 being something that rocks more than anything that has every rocked before."Now, being a scientist, I can't just go using any tool without first performing an assessment of reliability and validity. First, reliability demands that the tool give a consistent answer. Dave's analysis indicated that toques rock (with a score of 10) and american beer sucks (with a pathetic 0.3). As you can see from Figure 1, my analysis yields the same results:
Thus, we can conclude that Sucks/Rocks is a reliable tool.
For something to be considered a valid tool, we have to make sure that it is accurate - in this case, that when Sucks/Rocks says that something sucks, it does, in fact, suck; and when it says that something rocks it does, in fact, rock. Since we know that things that suck, suck, and things that rock, rock, I decided to use the word "suck" as something that sucks, and "rock" as something that rocks for my validity assessment. Figure 2 demonstrates that Sucks/Rocks is a valid assessment tool:
Now that I have conclusively proven that Sucks/Rocks is a reliable and valid measure of that which sucks and that which rocks, I can use this new breakthrough in scientific analysis to test a few hypotheses. I decided to start out with an example for which we all know the answer, which will further strengthen my case that Sucks/Rocks is an accurate measure of suckiness and rockitude:
Yup, as we all knew, the Canucks rock while the Leafs suck! I was a bit surprised that the Canucks only scored a 7 (as we all know that they are a perfect 10... I hope that my use of the word "uglification" near the word "Canucks" in my in-depth trade analysis didn't decrease their score!). I suppose there is bound to be some margin of error.
Another thing we already knew:
Interestingly, when I tested the phrase "Flying Spaghetti Monster," I received this:
I'm pretty sure that this means that either (a) the FSM rocks so hard that he cannot be quantified, or (b) he used his noodly appendages to interfere with the tool, just because he can. I'm currently working on a grant proposal to investigate this line of research.
OK, so now that we know that Sucks/Rocks is an accurate way to make measurements and comparisons (except in cases where the Flying Spaghetti Monster chooses to interfere, which, of course, is true of all measurement tools), I feel confident that we can use it to determine definitively the answer to the age old question: Ninjas vs. Pirates?
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
23 Reasons Why Danielle Rocks
Today is Danielle's Birthday. And since I'm poverty stricken and can't afford to buy her a really good gift like she deserves gifts that you make are so much more personal, I'm writing a tribute to here in my little corner of the blogosphere. Now, Danielle is not much of a technophile, although she is a photo-acholic. In fact, she doesn't read my blog postings unless they contain photos (and even then, I'm pretty sure that she only looks at the photos). So my "23 Reasons Why Danielle Rocks" posting* will contain plenty of photos... and I hope she reads the words to go along with the photos!
1. She's adventerous. Case in point: this is her packing for her trip to Belize! She decided that she wanted to do some traveling and she just went and did it!
2. She is very laid back. She has taught me to chill, to not take things so seriously and that sometimes it can be fun to walk to Shopper's in your PJs.
3. She's an amazing cook! Whether it's dinner (or a whole dinner party!), baking or a creative snack, if Danielle made it, you know it's going to be tasty!
4. She's a photo-aholic! She's the only person that I know who takes as many pictures of every crazy thing as I do (translate: she's the only person who would put up with me trying to take pictures of everything, let alone be taking the crazy photos right alongside me!) A photo to illustrate that: see above, where we took photos of pretty meals that we made.
5. She's bringing sexy back.
6. She's a vegetarian. Vegetarians rock.
7. She's extremely thoughtful. Exhibit A: Check out this sweet picture frame she made me for Christmas! She'll bake people cookies to thank them, or make them a card or present to let them know she's thinking of them. She's always doing thoughtful things like that.
8. She's a snowboarder. And everyone knows that snowboarders are just cool.
9. They say you can tell a lot about a person by the company that they keep. And judging by the fantastically amazing friends that Danielle has, you know that she rocks!! (My apologies to the many, many, many great friends of Danielle of whom I don't have a picture here! I just don't have photos of you all! If you email me a pic, I'd be happy to include it!)
10. She's a true Aggie! Aggies are cool! Aggies ride mechanical bulls.
11. She is really, really ridiculously good looking. Check out that model look (is that Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? Magnum?)
12. She has a tongue ring. It is cool. You know you are jealous (I know that I am!)
13. She is giving. OK, in this picture she happens to be giving away shots. But she is giving in so many more ways than that! She's giving of her time and expertise to help others with nutrition questions (whether through her many volunteer endeavours or when friends and family ask for help), she gives sage advice (and is wise much beyond her years!), she gives support when you need it most.... well, you get the picture! She's the friend/roommate/daughter/sister/cousin/etc. that keeps on giving!
14. She's the best hockey captain ever! We met when we both started playing for the Aggiettes hockey team - "We are Aggies, we are great! We will score and irrigate! Go AGGIES!"
15. She is disciplined and hard working. You'd be hard pressed to find a more studious and responsible individual!
16. She may know when to be disciplined and responsible, but she also knows how to party!
17. She practises what she preaches. As a dietitian-in-training, she's preparing to educate others on how to eat more healthily. But she's not one of those people who is all talk - she takes her healthy eating seriously! And she loves it!
18. She has a fantastic sense of humour. It's hard to capture something like a "sense of humour" in a photo, but I think this photo of her and her best friend Tamara does a decent job of it.
19. She's intelligent. What to put as a photo for that, well, if I were more intelligent perhaps I would know!
20. She looks great in neoprene! Not everyone can pull that off, you know!
21. She's environmentally friendly! She's the one who inspired me to take my travel mug with me wherever I go, bring my own bags to the grocery store, wrap my Christmas gifts in magazine pages and all the other things I do to try lead a more sustainable life. She leads by example! This is a picture of her on public transit (she often rides her bike to school, but I don't have a photo of that!).
22. She's super athletic. She plays on ultimate, football and ball hockey teams this term. And she's training for a triathelon right now. And after that she'll run a half marathon, her fourth since last May. See that shirt she's wearing? That's from the Seattle half that she ran!
23. She's the best roommate that a girl could ever ask for!! She took me in when I would have otherwise been homeless, she made me feel welcome from the day I moved in, and has continued to make me feel well each and every day since. She made her home into our home and for that I will be eternally grateful.
*note: this is not to imply that there are only 23 reasons why Danielle rocks, nor that these are even the top 23 reasons. The ways in which Danielle rocks are too innumerable to count, so I've picked 23 that came to mind. And for which I had an appropriate photograph or two.
1. She's adventerous. Case in point: this is her packing for her trip to Belize! She decided that she wanted to do some traveling and she just went and did it!
2. She is very laid back. She has taught me to chill, to not take things so seriously and that sometimes it can be fun to walk to Shopper's in your PJs.
3. She's an amazing cook! Whether it's dinner (or a whole dinner party!), baking or a creative snack, if Danielle made it, you know it's going to be tasty!
4. She's a photo-aholic! She's the only person that I know who takes as many pictures of every crazy thing as I do (translate: she's the only person who would put up with me trying to take pictures of everything, let alone be taking the crazy photos right alongside me!) A photo to illustrate that: see above, where we took photos of pretty meals that we made.
5. She's bringing sexy back.
6. She's a vegetarian. Vegetarians rock.
7. She's extremely thoughtful. Exhibit A: Check out this sweet picture frame she made me for Christmas! She'll bake people cookies to thank them, or make them a card or present to let them know she's thinking of them. She's always doing thoughtful things like that.
8. She's a snowboarder. And everyone knows that snowboarders are just cool.
9. They say you can tell a lot about a person by the company that they keep. And judging by the fantastically amazing friends that Danielle has, you know that she rocks!! (My apologies to the many, many, many great friends of Danielle of whom I don't have a picture here! I just don't have photos of you all! If you email me a pic, I'd be happy to include it!)
10. She's a true Aggie! Aggies are cool! Aggies ride mechanical bulls.
11. She is really, really ridiculously good looking. Check out that model look (is that Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? Magnum?)
12. She has a tongue ring. It is cool. You know you are jealous (I know that I am!)
13. She is giving. OK, in this picture she happens to be giving away shots. But she is giving in so many more ways than that! She's giving of her time and expertise to help others with nutrition questions (whether through her many volunteer endeavours or when friends and family ask for help), she gives sage advice (and is wise much beyond her years!), she gives support when you need it most.... well, you get the picture! She's the friend/roommate/daughter/sister/cousin/etc. that keeps on giving!
14. She's the best hockey captain ever! We met when we both started playing for the Aggiettes hockey team - "We are Aggies, we are great! We will score and irrigate! Go AGGIES!"
15. She is disciplined and hard working. You'd be hard pressed to find a more studious and responsible individual!
16. She may know when to be disciplined and responsible, but she also knows how to party!
17. She practises what she preaches. As a dietitian-in-training, she's preparing to educate others on how to eat more healthily. But she's not one of those people who is all talk - she takes her healthy eating seriously! And she loves it!
18. She has a fantastic sense of humour. It's hard to capture something like a "sense of humour" in a photo, but I think this photo of her and her best friend Tamara does a decent job of it.
19. She's intelligent. What to put as a photo for that, well, if I were more intelligent perhaps I would know!
20. She looks great in neoprene! Not everyone can pull that off, you know!
21. She's environmentally friendly! She's the one who inspired me to take my travel mug with me wherever I go, bring my own bags to the grocery store, wrap my Christmas gifts in magazine pages and all the other things I do to try lead a more sustainable life. She leads by example! This is a picture of her on public transit (she often rides her bike to school, but I don't have a photo of that!).
22. She's super athletic. She plays on ultimate, football and ball hockey teams this term. And she's training for a triathelon right now. And after that she'll run a half marathon, her fourth since last May. See that shirt she's wearing? That's from the Seattle half that she ran!
23. She's the best roommate that a girl could ever ask for!! She took me in when I would have otherwise been homeless, she made me feel welcome from the day I moved in, and has continued to make me feel well each and every day since. She made her home into our home and for that I will be eternally grateful.
Happy birthday, roomie!!
*note: this is not to imply that there are only 23 reasons why Danielle rocks, nor that these are even the top 23 reasons. The ways in which Danielle rocks are too innumerable to count, so I've picked 23 that came to mind. And for which I had an appropriate photograph or two.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Northern Voice '07 - Post #2
Home from the conference now. Sitting in my toasty warm bed with my laptop (we got spoiled with a beautiful sunny day yesterday, but today it was rainy and freezing and this is the first chance I've had all day to warm up!), trying to process all the stuff I learned today! It might take a little while for me to do said processing, so you can expect a more insightful post once I've had a chance to check out the blogs of the cool people I've met over the past two days and to review my notes. Yes, I took notes.
In the meantime, here are a few photos to entertain you. First, I thought y'all would like to see that I wore my favourite boots* today:
And speaking of footwear, one of my new-found blogging friends can be found over at wanderingshoes.wordpress.com and I have to give her props 'cuz I stole this cool camera angle from her:
Oh ya, if you'd like to check out all the photos from the event, go to Flickr and look at the "nv07" tag. As I type this, there are 1,312 photos from the conference, and people are still uploading stuff. This is what happens when you put 300 techies and their multitude of cameras in a wifi-enabled area for 2 days!
*And hopefully people were looking at my boots because, based on these photos, the rest of me looked like crap today. I looked much better yesterday.
In the meantime, here are a few photos to entertain you. First, I thought y'all would like to see that I wore my favourite boots* today:
*And hopefully people were looking at my boots because, based on these photos, the rest of me looked like crap today. I looked much better yesterday.
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