Gaga for Gaga

We’ve been watching the occasional American Idol episode this season, and tonight I just watched the episode where Lady Gaga made a guest appearance.  I like her music, her videos are odd to say the least, but after watching her A.I. performance, I have a new respect for the lady, partly because she was sitting behind a plexiglass piano filled with bubbled and drowned in pink lights, but mostly because she actually plays the piano, she has fun and sings well and dances her heart out.  Her singing with the violin shows that she’s more than just an eccentric personality.  I bought the video on iTunes.

Watch the video here.

After goggling her, I discovered she learned to play the piano by ear at the age of 4, she spent some time in University studying arts and writing essays and analytical papers on intellectual topics, and she has done song work for other artists such as the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears.

Everything should taste like bacon

I haven’t hid that fact that lately I have been a bacon devouring machine. As a result, I have been given a few bacon alternative suggestions.  First it was suggested I try turkey bacon – hideous, foul taste in my mouth!  And the texture was gross.  Not crispy like real bacon.

Then there was the suggestion of Baconnaise.  that’s just wrong!  Who thought it would be a good idea to fuse two ultra-fatty foods? Why not just save your own bacon grease and smear it on your sandwich?  I believe bacon in a sandwich should be something you chew on, and should not be available in a spread.

 

Today I received an awesome suggestion, one that has my mouth watering and has me wanting to race out to Safeway to see if they sell it: Baconsalt.  Oh drool, I think it would taste delicious on baked potatoes or French fries, when you just want a subtle hint of bacon flavour.  And it comes in 9 flavours!

Finally seeing the world

For the past little while I noticed Miranda was squinting a lot.  I didn’t know if it was sensitivity from the light, glare, or because she read it in a book or saw it on TV and thought it was a cool thing to do. 

I scheduled an eye exam and when the optometrist put up the first row of letters, I could tell right away (from her ability to read them!) that she was going to need glasses. 

Last Friday she picked up her 2 new pairs of glasses.  My mum to her to pick them out, which I think was better than me going, because I see M every day and was too close to judge what did didn’t want to be overbearing when it came to her selection. (Pretty brave that I let Scott and myself shell out $300 without even seeing what we were paying for!)

Before I talked to Miranda, I asked my mum how it went.  She said Miranda was thrilled, and Miranda said the world looked brighter.

I was brought to tears when Miranda had exclaimed to her, “Not only can I see those trees, but now I can see where the branches separate!”

When I finally did see her, I was please with her attitude.  Afraid that she would not like the glasses or think of them as an annoyance, her attitude was just the opposite.  To her, they were a facilitator to opportunity, the opportunity to see the world clearly and more vibrantly.

In the car, she pointed across the street to the red stop-hand signal light and said, “Now it actually looks like a red hand,” then sliding her glasses down her nose, “and without all I see is a red blob.”

This week has been Spring Break, and she has been vacationing at grandparent’s houses so I haven’t seen her long enough to take a better picture.

New Music

	Depeche Mode : Sounds of the Universe The first song I heard was fragile Tension and I thought, Meh, this is ok, but kind of boring.  Then I heard Wrong and I though, Ya! this is more like it!  DM is my most favourite band of all time, but at first I found this album mellow, and the lyrics not young and fun enough, and the spiritualism seemed preachy to me, although I know that is not the intention.  This new album is definitely not one of my DM faves, but it’s starting to grow on me. - Miles Away/The Truth Is - Wrong - In Sympathy - Perfect - Fragile Tension - In Chains
	Silversun Pickups : Swoon I wish I could go back to the days when I was the only one I knew who had ever heard of Silversun Pickups.  I’m selfish and I don’t like to share!  Plus, sometimes bands can go down the drain as their popularity increases.  This is so not the case here.  Swoon makes me swoon!  I can’t decide which track is my least favourite!  My top faves, - Panic Switch - Catch and Release - Sort Of - There’s No Secrets This Year - Draining - Growing Old Is Getting Old
	Metric: Fantasies I’m totally burnt out on all the radio play Help I’m alive has received, so much so that it’s pretty much turned me off from the song, but I do like the acoustic version, and some others. - Sick Muse - Gimme Sympathy - Help I’m Alive (acoustic) - Satellite Mind - Call Collect
	Röyksopp: Junior This is a fun and catchy album.  There are ultra synthy pop songs and then you have the melodic tunes like the instrumental Röyksopp Forever.  I love it. - Girl and the Robot - It’s What I Want - Happy Up Here - Röyksopp Forever - This Must Be It - Vision One

How I feel today

WTF?

Oh yeah, I want this!

www.simplystamps.com 
It comes in Black, Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Purple… WTF? no pink? :(

Happiness Is…

… having a friend who sends you the purrrrfect little surprise pick me up when you’re not feeling like yourself.  It’s so me, and I haven’t even shared with her that I once thought about getting a purse puppy so I could walk down Whyte Ave in the summer looking Über chic…

I want ONE red shoe

I was looking at the Grand & Toy website for a tape dispenser for ISG because ours is leaking sand all over the place.  I found this one! A Scotch Shoe Tape Dispenser.  I showed it to my boss and he was quick to run to his office and give me his tape dispenser.  I think he was worried I would actually put it on the company order sheet.

They don't make it in pink :(

I want FAIL

from LOLmart.com

IT Humour

My Nike+ Mini

On this lazy Sunday afternoon, I made a mini Angel to attach to my Nike+ running profile. My mini like to listen to her iPod and play video games, just like me!

Album Cover

A Facebook activity that could have been a mess, but for me the pieces actually fit together in a cool formation.

Create Your Own Album Cover...

1. Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to "Random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5. Post it with this text in the "caption" and TAG the friends you want to join in.

My Band Name: The Sphere (The Sphere is a large metallic sculpture by German sculptor Fritz Koenig, currently displayed in Battery Park, that once stood in the middle of Austin Tobin Plaza, the area between the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan. After being recovered from the rubble of the Twin Towers after the September 11, 2001 attacks, its fate was initially uncertain and it was dismantled into its components. Although it remained structurally intact, it had been visibly damaged by debris from the airliners that were crashed into the buildings and the collapsing skyscrapers themselves.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sphere

My Album Title: "Attacked By A Mad Notion" (original quote: Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion. -- Robertson Davies )

My Album Art: Lea las instrucciones de este medicamento y consulte al farmaceutico. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheslaau/3349616110/

Who's who in the zoo

At Milestones...

Hanging Around

Using my new Dr. USB stick looks kinda sadistic.

Kitty City

Last month my Dad & step-mum went to Aruba, and Mojo got a 2 week stay at Kitty City in Nisku.  Kitty City should be a feline paradise, with individual rooms (looked like a jail’s cell block) or kitty suites, a common area with play equipment, stairs, couches, chairs and a fireplace, scratching posts, hammocks, and other kitty-guests.

 

Sounds like a kitty club med, but being hauled out to the middle of nowhere and abandoned by her owners for 2 weeks, Mojo looked miserable when we went to pick her up.  She was looking skinny, and she hasn’t been grooming herself, and overall she looked stress out.

 

She sat on my lap  for the car ride home, claws kinda digging into my leg, not sure what was happening, and occassionally watching out the window, probably apprehensive about where we would take her next.

 

 

Eventually she calmed down in my arms.  I could actually see in her face that the stress had subsided.

 

 

 

 

A happier kitty!

IT Girl

I now know why guys laugh when I tell them I'm in IT.

Today I had to carry a (in girl terms) backup power thingy, (in IT terms) UPS, out of an office, down the elevator (a lady waiting for the elevator commented to me how there's never a man around when you need one...), through the hallway and out to my car. Then I drove it to my office, decided I would park in my regular spot (in the alley on the opposite side of the main door to the building) instead of being a sissy and dropping it off at the front door, then going to park my car.

Here is a picture of it. It doesn't look too intimidating.



As I was walking up to the building, there is a contractor getting a little drill from his truck and he goes into the building and doesn't even have the courtesy to told the door open behind him for me. So I struggle to put this heavy thing down so I can open the door, because it's so heavy that I can't put my leg up against the door and prop the thing on it while I pull the door open.

How heavy can it be? and why am I making such a big deal of this? When I got up the elevator and to my desk, I looked up this thingy online to see how much it weighed. 24kg!! (for the anti-metric peeps, that's 53lbs.)



No wonder my arms are still shaking 45 minutes after I put it down.

USB Stick

I have a new USB stick. It's a girl doctor! Last time I think they
only had boy doctors.

Getting Her Fix

Mojo loving da pets.

Go Team ISG!

Go with the BizAgi Flow

With a case of ITIL enthusiasm ripping through ISG, we have started using BizAgi, a program to design process models, to create and document the processes in our department. I like that I was able to change the UI to pink! And if I want, I can even colour the icons pink.

I was supposed to design a process for checking out and returning one of our resources, a digital recorder. I designed a nice little "happy path". I coloured it pink and proudly showed it to an analyst. He chewed it apart like a pitbull!

It was then that I realised what a difficult job analysts have! In order for me to create a return process, I had to create an entire checkout process first, because really, it's stupid to design the end process when you don't have the starting process in place. And there are so many "what-if's" along the way! You have to think about everything! I mean, I like analyzing things, but I guess I like to do it for fun, and I don't ever have to document any of it. Plus, it's a lot harder when you have to analyze your own processes since you take so many steps for granted. I was being prompted to break things down more and I asked, "At what point does common sense come factor in?"

Bale Out

I know this happened weeks ago, but this is now one of my favourite songs!

WARNING: f-bombs galore

When I die...

BEWARE OF IMITATORS

Shamwow!


But when we were at the motor bike show last month we didn't get the authentic Shamwow guy... there was this immitator instead.

Pink Truck

I bought a pink truck today… a bottle of Pink Truck wine, that is.

www.pinktruckwine.com

Screenshots

Lock screen

Home screen

Charging screen

But it’s not pink

Last weekend I skinned my iPhone, and to the surprise of many, it isn’t pink!

I want my cheesy poof!

Make a Southpark you here

Rat Bug Loves Her Teddy Bear

Isn’t this the cutest thing ever?!  We totally want a pet rat now!

This girl has pictures of her rat, Bug, on Flickr.  She has taken some super adorable pictures!  (but none top the teddy bear hug)

Here are a few more of my favourites:

Breakfast in bed

M and her friend M had a sleepover last night. While I was in the
showed this morning, they brought a surprise up to my room.

Tea, water, mandarin oranges, and crackers with peanut butter and red
sprinkles. The tray was dprinkled with candies I didn't even know we
had!