You’re The Best

Aww shucks…someone thinks I’m awesome.

I’ve received an award from Hippie Cahier, and she is just swell.  So swell in fact, that she has not once bothered me about the fact that it’s taken well over a month for me to get to writing this post about it.  You see, it takes me a really long time to write blog posts now that I’m working at the speed of the internot up here in Iqaluit.  So I tend to put things off.  A lot.

Maybe I should just learn to write less in one post.  Or not overanalyze things.  Am I overanalyzing this right now?  Sheesh.

But I digress…on to the award…

It took me a really long time to come up with a good post title, since I don’t know of too many songs related to winning awards.  Maybe I need to listen to some happier stuff?  In any case, I was hit with a bolt of lightning as I recalled that super fantastic awe-inspiring moments from the All-Valley Tournament and decided that Daniel LaRusso was the kind of winner that I was starting to feel like.  Look, I’m already starting to meander back off topic…

The Memetastic Award

Originally given to the Mayans for their use of cacao beans as currency in 250 CE (or created by Jillsmo sometime in January of this year – whichever comes later), the Memetastic Award was developed to honour the memelicious spirit in which blog awards are typically given.

Yeah, I don’t know what that means either.

Either way, there are rules you have to follow when you receive this award, so I’m not about to be the first to break them here.

1.     Display the obnoxious graphic associated with the award.

2.     List five things about yourself, where four of them are bold-faced lies.

3.     Pass on the award to five bloggers – there is no specific criteria for this selection.

Jillsmo then goes on to post a threat that could be used against her in a court of law…I think.  But fun times anyhow…

Candies and Rainbows and Gumdrops, Oh My!

The graphic is described as “absolutely disgusting”, but I happen to like it.  It has a kitten in celebration.  You have no idea if you do not cohabit with kittens, but they – contrary to popular belief – do not celebrate in this way.  Kitten celebrations include claws extended in poorly placed locations – such as the fatty part of one’s thigh, or over one’s shoulder into their back.  The rest of the time, they sleep.  Or eat and poop.  But celebration is limited.

Four Lies and A Truth (in no particular order)

I can’t just tell you some things about me…since I’m a storyteller, I’d like to tell you some of my adventures.

1. After meeting my husband while visiting South America, we lived in a marital stalemate for several years with perceived domestic bliss until I found out he was hired to kill me, while I was hired to kill him.   An extremely violent confrontation in our kitchen let to a rekindling of romance followed by the explosion of our home when those who hired us realized we were both threats that must be eliminated.  We have since made peace with all involved and are living quite happily now, but are not allowed within 50 metres of any big box store in North America.
2. When I was quite a bit younger, my brother and I found out that we were going to have to move.  We learned that unless we were able to raise enough money, developers would be buying us out and building a golf course over our neighbourhood.  I stumbled across this treasure map, and got my group of friends to come with me to help look for the hidden fortune that the map seemed to indicate was somewhere in a cavern.  While searching for it, we discovered an evil gang of thieves lived in a house above the entrance to the cave.  After all was said and done, our adventure ended in the bad guys getting caught, and my brother and I finding the treasure and enough money so that our family could stay!
3. I recently spent three weeks with Angelina Jolie as a houseguest.  That woman is a handful!  I couldn’t believe how much trouble she got herself into…drinking, gambling, and having an affair with Orlando Bloom.  We had to lock up all of our liquor for fear that she would cause trouble with some of the residents of our home.  Sneaking out to the airport almost caused an international incident.  We’ll think twice about allowing such an insane houseguest into our home again.  Thank goodness she’s on her way to Newfoundland now…
4. In high school, I once came up with a very elaborate plan to ditch school.  I left behind a dummy in my place with a great recording of a snoring effect to make sure no one would think I wasn’t there if they briefly checked on me.  I made sure to bust two of my best friends out of school for the day too…there was no way I’d do it alone.  Everyone thought I was so sick, that people started to send me flowers and balloons…it was really nice to know everyone cared.  Meanwhile, my friends and I were living it up at a major league baseball game, a fancy French restaurant, and local museums.  What a great day it was…if it wasn’t for my principal almost catching me sneaking back into my house at the end of the day, I’d say it would have been perfect!
5. Camping is one of my favourite ways to spend a vacation.  So when I received the opportunity to go to this old cabin way out in the woods with four friends of mine, I wasn’t about to pass it up!  We made the long drive out there, and when we arrived at the cabin, it was perfect.  Until we found this ancient looking book.  It had a cassette tape with it, if you can imagine…and luckily the cabin owner had a cassette player so we could listen to it.  That was a mistake.  It was a really evil book…and the tape was a translation of it.  Whatever it was, it released…something that possessed my friends, one by one.  We had to lock one of them in the cellar of the cabin to prevent her from attacking us.  After a harrowing night of having to fight and destroy all of my possessed so-called friends, I decided the only way to end this was to burn the evil book.  I threw it on the flames in the fireplace and watched it burn as the sun came up.  A fitting end to a hellish night.  Needless to say, I don’t jump on the opportunity to go camping too often anymore…

 

And the Award for Best Meme Goes To…

1. For his promotion of Winnipeg, Manitoba…Bob of Bob’s Place:  Exploring Winnipeg and Beyond…
2. For his fantastic insights into movies and thoughts on life…Cal of Confessions of a Self Proclaimed Megalomaniac…
3. For hardly excessive use of blood in a blog background…The Gore Whore of The Gore Whore Reviews…
4. For amazing photography and a kick ass blog name…Sandra of Enso Monkey…
5. For some truly meme-worthy recipes that I drool over fairly regularly…the anonymous mom over at Try It You Might Like It…

PS…I’m not letting you explicitly know you won this from me…you’re all subscribers, so hopefully you’ll catch that I sent this to you…eventually…  🙂

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

Every year around this time, people start to feel a little sentimental.  I don’t know if it’s the fact that families and friends are usually together over the holidays, or if it’s the closure of yet another year that makes us want to reflect back on what we’ve accomplished (or not) in the past twelve months.  Regardless, the sentimentality of the season tends to morph into some (often) misplaced desire to better oneself.  What I wish that people would understand is that it shouldn’t take December 31st to make you realize that there may be things in your life that need changing…working on…improving.  There’s no need to wait to resolve to do something.

It’s almost comical to see the commercials on tv this time of year – they almost always have to do with weight loss.  Considering losing weight is one of the top ten New Year’s resolutions on anyone’s list, I’d say the weight loss companies out there are anything but wasting money on them.  Another extremely popular resolution is to get healthier – be it through quitting smoking, exercising more or eating better.  Personal finances are also usually mentioned on the list of resolutions people make – people want to make more money, save more money or just plain get out of debt.  While all of these resolutions are really nice, unless you really just tackle them in the here and now, you’ll probably just get stuck in that resolution cycle of making and then breaking the promise to yourself.  But probably everyone I know has made a list of resolutions at some point in their life…

Even this guy makes resolutions...least he never tried to invade Canada... (Source: Nature's Graffiti)

I haven’t made resolutions in a number of years, but I almost always do spend some time in retrospect towards the completion of the calendar year.  I like to think about where my life is headed, and see if I’m on track.  I don’t really have a five-year plan or anything as stringent as that, but I have a general idea of what direction I’d like my life to be taking.  When I look back on this year, I start to think of all of those things that I’d never have dreamed I’d have accomplished had I tried to imagine them exactly one year ago today.

So instead of coming up with a list of resolutions for myself for 2011, I’ve decided to come up with a list of resolutions for 2010 that I never would have made in my wildest dreams last year.

1)     Get a better job

Don’t get me wrong – my previous job was truly full of opportunity for me.  I learned a lot, and absolutely loved the people I worked with.  I miss them all dearly.  However, I never expected to be able to land a job within the field of study that I spent years of my life in school for.  I’m so excited to get back into GIS again…I love cartography.  This is right where I’ve wanted to be for a long time.  Some people never get to experience this for their whole lives.  For me, being able to land a job in my field within a decade of finishing school makes me feel very fortunate.  My hat’s off to Andrew for putting me on to this opportunity!

2)     Move to a new place

I had some thoughts about moving to a new apartment in the past year.  Perhaps even from Kitchener to Cambridge in order to be closer to work.  But wow!  Who starts the year thinking “I should probably move to Nunavut this year”?  I sure didn’t.  I’m not certain why I never had the thought cross my mind before, especially since, as a geographer, these are the kinds of opportunities that I should probably be looking for.  I suppose that I was afraid of taking such a huge step.  I’ve never lived more than a couple hours’ drive from my family, so out of the territory is a big step for me – especially sight unseen.  It was probably a hindrance to consider relocation expenses, so when an opportunity arises where you don’t have to worry about those, you take it!  And now I live in the Arctic…hmm…who’da thunk it?

3)     Get my blood sugars under control

As a diabetic with a candy fetish, it’s hard to keep good, tight control of my blood sugar.  I never would have expected – even though I recently acquired an insulin pump – that this would be the year where I would finally regain some sort of control over my blood sugar levels.  I’m very proud of myself for reigning in my eating habits a little bit too.  While the pump can help control blood sugar of even the worst of eaters, it takes more than a little bit of insulin to normalize oneself.  I’ve really been trying to behave this year, and it’s definitely helped.

4)     Improve my financial outlook

I have felt for a few years that I’ve been spinning my wheels.  I’ve been slowly trying to pay down my debt, but in not saving any money while doing so, it’s hard to prevent getting further into debt if you have a bad week or month.  This year however, I managed to continue to pay down my debt and open a couple of investment savings accounts to help me look towards the future.  I would like to retire someday.  Really, I would.  This should help.

5)     Become more active

Now that I live in the north, I have stopped driving again.  It goes without saying that I’ve been walking everywhere I need to go (save for a couple of cab rides when I haven’t known where I’m going or have a load of groceries).  I also live on the third floor of an apartment building, so I have stairs I can take instead of the elevator, and let’s face it – every little bit counts.  And these little things add up and help make it easier to just go for a walk when I feel like something recreational.  Hopefully more opportunities will present themselves in the coming months – I’m looking forward to winter recreational activities up here in Nunavut.

6)     Spend more time with my family

This has been a bittersweet year for that.  While I did get to spend a lot of time with my mom, brother and nephew this summer, now that I’ve moved away, that will make it very difficult to see them as often as I’d like.  However, this move has also facilitated my ability to spend more time with Ian considering my commute is effectively a couple of flights of stairs.  It’s very nice being able to come home for lunch and just spend that little part of the day with my husband and our kitties.  I’m sure it breaks the day up nicely for both of us – it’s a change of pace.

So there you have it – my unexpected changes that could have been resolutions, but probably would not have been accomplished if I’d made them last year.  You just really have to do what you know will help you work towards a change – you can’t put it off.  The time for change is now.  Don’t resolve to do something…just do it!  Hmm…maybe Nike had the right idea after all…

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Source: Steve Jurvetson, 2006

While there have only been three challenges in Hippie Cahier’s Algonquin Experiment, I’ve really been enjoying reading them, and participating in one of them.  The latest challenge is Diamantes in the Rough.  I haven’t written much poetry these days, save for my submission in the comments of Amy’s zombie, zombie burning bright post that was recently FP’ed.

Never Say Goodbye

If you’ve been paying attention even the slightest bit to my blog, you know that Ian and I are moving to Nunavut in just over a month.  Since we’ve both jumped into our own personal blogs headfirst in the last few months, we decided to create a new blog to follow our journey north and be a great way for people to keep up with this new facet of our lives.  That and Ian came up with the coolest name for it.  😉

We’d love for you to follow along as well.  So check it out and subscribe…because as the name says, I’ll Have Nunavut…

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

I have been inspired.  Ms. Hippie Cahier has challenged us out here in the blogiverse to share with the world the search terms used that have led people to our little corner of it.  I took a look at the my history and was a little shocked…a wee bit confused…and kind of frightened.

This is a real search that led people to me. What??

Because of the whole exercise, I think I’m just going to start doing some random Google searches now and specifically seek out WordPress blogs just so that I can pad some search stats in strange ways.  Might make for some interesting finds as well…