Welcome to the 28th edition of the screaming pages Thursday Thirteen.

Working for a place that treats you with respect and dignity is a new adventure for me. Yipee!

Thirteen things I did at work this week. Got an ID, office keys, email address, all that fun stuff. Met a bunch of my co-workers in the department. Attended one of 4 WebCT classes (next 3 are scheduled for a few weeks from now). Attended a MERLIN class. Wrote questions for a summative evaluation. Brainstormed ideas for icons for eLearning platform. Got a parking pass! Surfed the Internet. It was work related – honest. “Shopped” for office supplies in the Admin’s closet. Created outlines for course modules. Reformatted module introductions for online courses. Converted a tonne of docs to .pdf Signed up for classes. Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati Tags: thursday thirteen, t13, meme, work

Welcome to the 27th edition of the screaming pages Thursday Thirteen.

Yesterday I mentioned that my new job will mean that I’m likely not going to be able to afford the new pair of shoes I want anytime soon. Nicholas commented that overpriced designer shoes are useless. I beg to differ.

Thirteen reasons I need more shoes. My hubby has more pairs of shoes than I do. Honest. We counted. I have very small but oddly wide feet. It’s hard to find shoes to fit me outside of the children’s department. Most children’s shoes are very poorly made with cheap materials. Sure, I may only spend 20$ a pair, but they hurt my feet and fall apart within months, resulting in my needing to buy MORE shoes. A well made pair of shoes can last a very long time. I once had a pair of Doc’s that I wore for 5 years straight – until I wore out the soles. Anyone who has previously owned Doc’s can tell you this is no easy feat. Price tag on the Doc’s was over $250. The shoe stores that carried them wouldn’t order children’s sizes because no one in the right mind would spend that much $$ on a pair of shoes for a kid who would outgrow them in a few months. I had to have them special ordered in and waited over a month for them to arrive. I once spent 3 weeks searching for a pair of simple black dress shoes with a small heel (less than 1 in) appropriate for daily wear at work. I think it’s far better to spend a lot of money on a good pair of shoes that will last a number of years than on a cheap pair that will fall apart in a matter of weeks. Over a given period of time, it’ll actually cost less $$. Rockports and Naturalizer shoes cost approximately 75% of the price tag on a the Prada shoes I want. If I’m going to spend that much money anyway, I might as well save my pennies and go all the way. I need something comfortable on my feet when I walk up 9 flights of stairs in the parking garage at the end of the work day. It’s terribly embarrassing to only own one pair of black shoes (Doc’s) that you can wear to work. Have you ever tried looking business-like in a skirt and Doc’s? They fit properly. They’re appropriate for work or play. They’re comfortable. If I bought them, I’d have shoes that match my purse and wallet 😉 Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati Tags: thursday thirteen, t13, meme, shoes

Susan Helen tagged me for the 8 random things meme.

She who must be obeyed tells me the rules are as follows:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So without further ado, here’s eight random things about me, some I’ve likely blogged about in the past.

1. I orginally started blogging in 2003 when I traveled to India the first time so that my friends and family could know what I was up to. The contents were more of a travel journal and can be found at Daemon-ink.net under the Travel Journals section.
2. I have two dogs and two cats (dogs: Fenris and Hypnos, cats: Thanatos and Beelzebub) and at one point we had a third cat (Manx: Grendel) who just couldn’t get along with the others once we brought the first dog into the mix. My parents adopted her and brought her home to NB approximately 6 years ago.
3. After living together for a few years, the hubby and I eloped. This was back in the day when he had to obtain permission from his military commanders to get married – something I believe is no longer required. We had planned to hold a renewal of vows ceremony for the family a few years back, but when dad was diagnosed with cancer it became far more important to spend time with him rather than spend $$ on a second wedding. The renewal didn’t happen.
4. I’m allergic to peanuts and mosquitos. Peanuts will kill me, while mosquito bites will result in really ugly welts and massive scarring.
5. When I returned from my latest trip to India and the Philippines in March of 2007, I quit my job. It’s horrific being unemployed when you’re a workaholic. That said, I’m pretty picky about where I’ll be working next, so I’ve turned down every job offer I’ve received to date. When choosing my next place to spend my energies, I need to make sure that I’m working at a company whose ethics and vision match my own.
6. I’m the only one in my immediate family that was born in Canada.
7. I’m a published poet. I really haven’t been writing much lately. A large chunk of my work was reviewed and edited by Fred Cogswell in the early to mid 90’s. Despite this awesome pedigree, I tend to get far more rejection letters than acceptance. There’s no accounting for taste.
8. As children, my sister and I spent a lot of time Highland Dancing. It seemed a large chunk of our summers were spent shuttling from competition to competition. Years later, my dad began playing with pipe bands so when we weren’t dancing we were watching dad compete. I have dad’s pipes and will be slowly learning to play them thanks to Wendy (Edm Girls Pipe Band).

Now for the fun part, I get to tag my *ahem* victims. This was actually more difficult than expected, since many of the people I’d have liked to tag already have been. I choose Laughing Muse, Joy T, Haley-O, Fence, Mark, Robin, Candace, and Carwyn.

Technorati Tags: meme

Feast Number One Hundred & Fourty Three

Appetizer: Tell about a time when you had to be brave.

• When I was a little sprout, I was out jumping my bike off of a home made ramp with a lot of the other kids in our neighbourhood. Of course, the bikes landed in gravel instead of on a nice safe road. I hit the brakes too early and wiped out, shredding the skin on my hand and destroying my fingernails. I went running home screaming “mommy, mommy, mommy” but stopped in the middle of my front lawn and got all quiet – which freaked the other kids out. When asked what was wrong, I remember saying “mom’s at work, she’s not home” which started off a round of my screaming “daddy, daddy, daddy” for the rest of the journey into the house. Dad put my hand in ice and then bundled my sister and I off to the emergency room of the hospital (not the one mom worked in). There, the doctors kept sticking needles in my fingers to freeze them so they could remove the dirt, rocks and fingernails, but the medications weren’t working, so they evenually decided just to rip the fingernails out directly. This of course, set dad off since he “could have done this at home hours ago”.

Soup: Which upcoming movie are you excited about seeing?

• We have a rule in our house that we can’t go see a movie we’re both interested if we’re not together. Since the hubby is away playing in the mud at CFB Wainwright, there’s a few on this list that are already out. We’re looking forward to Hot Fuzz, Spiderman III, 28 Weeks Later, The Lookout, Transformers, Resident Evil III, and Harry Potter V at the moment. Update: I can’t believe I forgot Pirates of the Caribbean III!

Salad: Name an item you try to always have on hand.

• My driver’s license – and pens. Must have lots and lots of pens handy.

Main Course: Imagine the most relaxing room you can think of. Now describe it!

• I think I’m in it right now. It’s a small bedroom that was converted to a home office/library. Books and bookcases surround me on two walls. There’s a desk beside the third wall with shelves for storing office and scrapbooking supplies above it. The desk is decked out with computer equipment. The 4th wall has a window with a small fridge underneath it to hold juice, water and pop. To the left of the window is another bookcase while to the right I have a laser printer and other computer equipment. The only thing it’s lacking is a comfy chair to read in – but finding one to fit in the room has been a bit of a challenge…

Dessert: On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest), how spiritual or religious are you?

• I have no fondness for organized religion, but I do believe there’s some sort of higher power at work. I think, possibly because of my travels, that there’s good concepts in many religions, but people tend to warp a lot of those concepts. It’s like communism, on paper and in theory it might sound like a fair system where everyone works towards a fair and just society, but the minute you bring people into the mix, the entire concept becomes a huge mess! So, religious = 0, spiritual = 8.

Condiments:

1. We’re buying you a lifetime subscription to any magazine or periodical journal you want! What’ll it be? Oh my, I have no idea. Sure, I have a current subscription to McLean’s, but I don’t know if I’d really want a lifetime one. Perhaps the Journal of Educational Technology & Society.
2. We’re buying you any existing non-chain, one-location-only store and giving you an expert lifetime manager, so that all you have to do is make decisions and watch them succeed or fail! What will be the store, and what will be your first change? I wanted to choose my local independant bookstore, but since they’ve branched out to three locations in the city, they don’t qualify. *sigh*
3. We’re buying you any house within a one-mile radius of your own! Which one do you want, and why? I’ll take the mortgage being paid off on mine thank you very much. I adore my house. While I’ve been in many of my neighbours homes, there’s nothing so striking about any of them that I’d rather live in theirs than my own home.
4. We’re hiring someone to take care of any ONE specific household chore (except cooking) for the rest of your life! Which chore will he or she attend to?Laundry – I hate doing laundry!
5. We’re providing the start-up capital for any crazy idea for a business, service, or product you can dream up, giving you total creative control while we finance your dream for five years, after which it must fail or succeed on its own merit! What will it be? I’d open my own training and performance consulting firm. I’d hire Robin and Paul to deliver training, Dori-Ann and Dana to do the performance consulting and sales pitches, and I’d design and develop the training programs based on the individual needs of each organization.

h/t to Caylynn’s Contemplations for the FF graphic. I shamelessly swiped it from her site.

Technorati Tags: Friday’s Feast, condiments

Welcome to the 26th edition of the screaming pages Thursday Thirteen.

With Mother’s day around the corner, I figured I’d join many others in dedicating my TT to my mum this week. *smarmy TV infomercial voice* But wait, that’s not all. In addition to a TT complete with facts about mum, you’ll also receive a list of words and phrases my parents used that the hubby had to learn after hooking up with me!

Thirteen things about my mum. Mum is the 4th of 10 (living) children and was named for her mother. The four eldest all immigrated to Canada. Mum was a registered nurse, retired, and then went back to work years later as a teaching assistant in the NB school system. Mum immigrated to Canada and landed in BC with her eldest sister. They eventually moved to Ontario to be closer to their eldest brother. Mum met my dad at a legion dance (in Port Credit, I believe) in the late 60’s. Mum and dad moved back to Scotland for a time but decided to return to Canada in the early 70’s (after my sister was born but before I came into the picture). Dad was already back in Canada and working when mum gave birth to my sister in Scotland. She returned to Canada on her own with an infant. Despite having her driver’s license for donkey’s years, mum has only recently started driving. When I was in school, mum took upgrading classes from STU and Grant McEwan. Mum’s an extroverted people person. She’ll talk to complete strangers and know their histories in no time. Mum’s outspoken and not afraid to tell people what she’s thinking. Mum’s the keeper of the family history. She has a phenomenal memory but needs to write it all down cause I have a memory live a sieve some days. The hubby tells me (and everyone else, if I were being honest) that my mum has a thick accent and when she’s excited, speaks so quickly he has difficulty understanding her. I’ve never noticed. I guess you don’t hear accents in your own parent’s speech. Mum’s incredibly strong. She’s survived the hell of my teen years and dad’s illness and subsequent death with dignity and grace. Bonus: Thirteen words or phrases I grew up with that the hubby had to learn late in life… This was a difficult one, since lots of words and phrases my parents use had to be translated when the hubby and I started dating – and through the years. To make it easier on myself, I’ll admit to falling back on ones that not only have I had to translate, but ones that I’ve been known to say to the hubby myself. So, no mention of argie-bargie (argument), tattiebogle (ragamuffin), sweeties (candy), swally (swallow; devour), feart (afraid), hoose (house), moose (mouse), cludgie (lavatory; toilet), heid (head), ta (thanks), wallae (wallow), gie (give), or wean (baby, child) on the list, although they certainly deserve a mention somewhere. Oh wait, I did mention them 😉 Bog – Loo; Bathroom (also twa-let) Whinge – Whine; Whining. As in quit your whingin’ and get over here to help. Tatties (also Tawtie) – Potato Bahookie – Buttocks. As in get your bahookie up here. Knackered – Exhausted; Very Tired. As in no the noo, I’m knackered. Daft – Stupid; Silly; Insane; Crazy. As in don’t be daft. Dram – Tot of liqour. As in gie us a wee dram. Knock me up in the morning – Knock on the door to wake me up when you get up in the morning. I still remember the look on the hubby’s face the first time my mom said this to him. Knocked up definitely means something different in Canada than it did to my parents. Deid (also Dede) – Dead Blether – Babble; Chat; Talk Nonsense. As in stop your blethering. Beastie – Bug; Insect. As in the beastie bit me. No the noo – Not right now Whish – Hush; Be quiet. As in would you whish? Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati Tags: thursday thirteen, t13, meme, mum, Mother’s day