Went to the Junos award show today... it was awesome. I get the feeling that for the artists, the Junos is kind of one big conference where they all get to hang out, collaborate, network, and inspire each other... it's just got an awesome vibe - I feel like all the artists out there really support each other. This may not be true, I'm going to pretend it is. It's very cool. Also, Michael Buble is seriously funny.
Highlights include Brian Adams missing a line in his song to chuckle because of a face his duet partner made, Micheal Buble doing an East-Indian accent, and Sarah McLachlan just being lovely as always.
If you're ever in or near a Juno host city - get tickets and go. People get super dressed up and it's just a big love-fest. Totally heartwarming.
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Sunday, March 29, 2009
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Thursday, March 26, 2009
Another contest to enter, and a chance to see a great thrift-store dress revamp:
Win an adorable dress: Summer of 69 Thrift Store Refashion Frock| 0 comments | | |
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Random ThingsOne of my favorite random things about Vancouver is the guy who walks around singing opera. Seriously - an older gentleman who sings opera as he walks down the street, and he's quite good. Every now and then he walks by my window at work, sometimes I happen to walk past him in Kits while I'm out and about. It's random and odd and awesome.I also get to hear a lot of sirens while at work. We're on a major arterial street that's near the hospital so we get all emergency services going by (and we're in an old building with single pane windows so we really hear them). I like the drivers who kick it like DJs on their sirens, mixing it up as they go. Glad they have fun with it.I can also tell you that the B-Line express buses that stop outside my window have an automated voice that annouces the route to passengers getting on (like a subway does). "99-B-Line to Broadway station" in the funny automated lady voice. I hear that about 3927 times a day. I kind of can't imagine work with out that in the background, that will be weird. I do wish TransLink could have hired Majel Barrett for the voice announcements, that would have been sweet - she did the computer voice for all the Star Trek shows (TNG, DS9, Voyager)... I wonder how many people would have recognized it?
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Check out this fabulous silver and topaz ring.... it's the prize in a giveaway on a blog called Chocolate and Steel. Go check it out!| 0 comments | | |
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Friday, March 20, 2009
Things I'm excited about:1) The Canada Line - a rapid transit line linking downtown Vancouver with Richmond and the Airport (which happens to swing right by my office on the way) - is probably going to open early! Maybe as early as September! I love rapid transit. I love trains. I love not having to wait outside in the rain for a bus that may be stuck in traffic. The Canada Line will run underground for most of its journey across Vancouver and then will be elevated to cross the river to Richmond and the airport. The largest danger for me with the Canada Line is that it connects me very conveniently with the mall in Richmond containing Daiso.... the Japanese dollar store which is filled with ridiculous amounts of cool stuff that I don't really need but want anyway. Danger. Right now the bus ride out there is sufficently long and crowded and the bus stops in Richmond sufficiently undignified (essentially waiting on the curb of a highway) that I don't go. But if I can take a shiny new train there in some ridiculously short amount of time?? Danger.2) The JUNOs! Are being hosted by Vancouver this year. Whoo! I'm particularly excited about the Street Party. We need more street parties in this town. I don't know that March is the right month, but we'll make it work.3) We've booked our trip to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick for May. I haven't been back home in ages, so it's a long overdue trip. Bonus - we were able to use points to get the flights, so we didn't have to pay the painfully high airfare to get there (it kills me that it's always cheaper to fly to London,UK than Halifax, NS). The bummer is that my sister won't be in NS until June so we'll miss her.4) EDOs - Earned Days Off - something the City of Vancouver does where you work an extra half hour every day and get a stash of EDOs you can use when you need a day off. Like today. Just because. Peter took a vacation day and we're just chillaxing at home. Awesome.| 0 comments | | |
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Thursday, March 19, 2009
Hello blog world.I'm still here, really.Life got kind of busy, as it does sometimes.... now I'm not crazy busy, just regular busy..... One of my projects at work is winding down - a big one, so there will be some changes in the future, starting a new project, moving to a new office (by 'new' I mean I'll be moving to a different old industrial building that has a slightly more dignified entrance but a less cool interior - I have mixed feelings), splitting up from the engineers I've been working with. It's going to be strange. But new things are exciting!| 0 comments | | |
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Thursday, March 12, 2009
This is one of my favorite 'events'. Earth Hour. I love that it's growing to be so big, that so many people pause in their busy lives and think about how much we consume and that we need to all together change the way we do things. Turning out the lights for one hour is a symbolic action of our collective desire for change. And, it happens to be a wonderful, peaceful way to spend an hour - by candlelight, moonlight, in the dark, whatever you choose to do. I want 2009's Earth Hour to be HUGE.
Wherever you may be on March 28th, 8:30pm your time, I hope you turn out the lights and ponder things.
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Work craziness has ended! Yay!
People - if your City employees ever do any public consultation and you're all "this is lame" - please stop and give due consideration to the insane amount of work the event was for someone. Also, you should know that public events are EXPENSIVE! Holy cow. Printing and sending out flyers, newspaper ads, venue rentals, printing presentation materials, etc. It's nuts.
Since I'm on a rant... you should also know the vast majority of city planners really deeply care about their work, so feel free to disagree with them about things, but don't paint them with the 'lazy municipal worker' brush... if it helps to know, almost every planner (and in Vancouver, planning assistant) has a masters degree in planning - so they've taken some time to study these issues. (I don't mean to be all 'bow to the masters degree', just, give the planners some credit and consider that they probably aren't clueless.)
End rant.
Soon, a return to normal blogging!
(ps it's -5deg C in Vancouver right now. That is very very wrong. It's supposed to be spring. Flowers started to bloom. What's going on?!)| 0 comments | | |
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
An interesting study in Washington, DC that looks at the combined costs of housing and transportation.... turns out, any housing savings that a family enjoys by living 15 miles or more away from work (i.e. in the cheaper suburbs) are offset by higher transportation costs.Would be really interesting to see the results of a study like that for some Canadian cities.| 0 comments | | |
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Friday, March 06, 2009
Just in case anyone has any illusions that working for The City is some glamorous affair.... here's a picture of the entrance to the building I work in. I think the razor wire adds a little something special.
(While I sometimes deride my building - I love the inside - high industrial ceilings, windows that open, daylight.... it's awesome in many ways. The entrance is lacking dignity though.)
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On my way home last night I noticed that Le Chateau (a Canadian clothing store) had a new window display set up, one featuring bikes! I optimistically think this is a sign that bike culture in Vancouver is on the rise - but maybe it's just because they couldn't fit a Hummer in their window. ;) Seriously - window displays are all about selling lifestyles - usually Le Chateau is displaying their out-on-the-town clothes - very glitzy stuff, this time they're all about spring and the awesomeness of riding a bike with a basket full of flowers. Sounds nice to me!
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