Slight Change in Plans

So as previously posted, I am moving to Calgary. The original plan was to leave Wed, Feb 8 for Calgary, find a place then come back in March and pack up the rest of my stuff. All of that has changed: my roommates decided that it is better for them to move out sooner. Now I have to postpone when I am going out to Calgary, find a moving and storage company and pack up all of my things. This move now is going to be way more expensive than originally planned. Not much I can do about it.

The word is spreading at the bookstore about this being my last week of work. I had to tell the big story a couple times this evening about my new job.

A week from today I get allergy testing. I have been off my allergy shots for over two weeks. Do you know what is not good for a girl who has not had an allergy shot in over two weeks? Construction going on at work that leaves sawdust everywhere. There are some maintenance work happening while the store is closed. One of the tasks is sanding and staining the doors. They will be back tomorrow night. I'll have to call the allergist offices to see what I am allowed to take so close to my testing.

I love being hip and current

Last night on The Hour, my future boyfriend (and fellow Habs fan) George Stroumboulopoulos interviewed the head of the Nettwork Record Label in Canada. This is the company that is paying the legal bill for the man who is being sued for illegally downloading music story I posted a link to yesterday.

I wish The Hour website had posted a video of the interview. This music executive was saying that the music industry needs to rethink how they do business instead of alienating fans with lawsuits. One of the suggestions was releasing songs immediately instead of waiting for 12 songs for a CD. I guess that is kind of what Motown Records used to do. He also suggested that recording artists focus on revenue from live performances and merchandise. It makes sense to me.

Five More Things

What were you doing 10 years ago? I was 17 yrs old and in my last couple months of Grade 12.  I had already applied to U of R faculty of Education but had not yet written the essay yet. Most of my days were filled with many choir practices and trying to get my friends to procrastinate from homework.

What were you doing 1 year ago? I finally had got on the sub list in my area so the work was picking up.

Five snacks you enjoy:

• London Fog

• fries with sour cream and melted cheez whiz

• Lindor chocolates

• ketchup chips

• fuzzy peaches.

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics: I can listen way more than 5 songs so I'll list ones I learned in choir 

• "Beginning to See the Light" - Bobby Darren 

• "Eli is Coming" - Three Dog Night

• "Age of Aquarius" - Fifth Dimension

• "Can't Help Falling in Love" - Elvis Presley

• "The River" - Garth Brooks

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire: 

• Pay off all debts

• Build a house

• Travel all over the world

• Contribute to deserving charitable organizations

• Invest

Five bad habits: 

• TV ( I know I watch lots of TV and I don't have a problem with it)

• Procrastination on the Internet

• I'm messy; I'd rather be doing anything else instead of cleaning

• Underestimating how long a task will take me

Five things you like doing:

• Cooking

• Watching TV/movies

• Hanging out with friends and being witty about stuff

• Listening to music

• Harmless flirting with cute boys

Five things you would never wear again:

• short skirts

• jeans that go above my waist

• pants that are too short (it was hard to find pants that were long enough in high school. I had to start wearing men's pants)

• large floral prints

• neon anything

Five favourite toys:

• Shasha, my doll from when I was 1 year old

• Glow Cricket

• Clever, my soft stuffed puppy I got from Kristin

• My stuffed monkey but I don't remember what I named him (sister, do you remember?)

• My "#1 Student" troll, given ironically from a friend in high school

Unusual Lawsuit

Record Label Supports Man Accused Of Sharing Music Illegally

Those Pretentious People Must Be Incensed

duet
Pronunciation: du-'et also dyu-
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian duetto, diminutive of duo
: a composition for two performers
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

I saw an ad today for Il Divo's new album. It claims to have a "stunning duet with Celine Dion". I'm not sure how 5 people singing makes a duet. Unless the men from Il Divo combine like Transformers to make one super singing machine. I don't know for sure, I have never seen them perform live.

I can imagine it now...

Il Divo,
More than meets the eye!

Urs Buhler, Sebastien Izambard, Carlos Marin & David Miller wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Celine Dions

Il Divo,
Robots in disguise.
Il Divo,
More than meets the eye.

Il Divo!

I wish this moment would last forever

Have you ever had one of those moments where you step back and think how perfectly that moment was? You remember that moment for the rest of your life. Prepare for one of those moments.
David Hasselhoff's video for "Hooked on a Feeling". Enjoy such moments as:
* fist pumping
* a flying Hasselhoff
* Randomly appearing wiener dogs
* Little girls dressed as angels almost being blown away by a wind machine.
No wonder he is a star in Germany.

Life of Janny

I finally got my hair trimmed two days ago. I really should have gone before Christmas. The hairdresser straightened my hair after. It took her such a long time. Oh well, it looked good in the end.

Last night I went to a reading by Yann Martel. He read a draft of a book about the holocaust sort of. You really had to be there to hear it to know what it was about. It was very interesting.

Before Yann Martel, there were two poetesses who read. The first one was trying to be shocking and original but really was completely boring. There was nothing clever or interesting about her. The next one was pretty neat -- I liked her poems. I guess she is a prof at the university.

Strange note of the evening: I am convinced that the woman sitting in front of me was wearing orangutan boots. They were orangish fur boots! Her hair matched her boots too. It was pretty bizarre.

Five Oddities

I know I should have done this forever ago:

1. My ears are super-bendy. I have to position them before I lay on my side or my ears will be suctioned to the side of my head. It is habit for me so I don't even notice it. My sister pointed out to me one time.

2. I hate the feeling of my ankles and wrists being restricted. This is why I hate socks and don't wear a watch.

3. If I am planning to call someone I do not know well, I try to call at a seemingly random time. I would never call at time that ends in 5 or 0. I also would never call less than 11 minutes before or after the hour.

4. Every time I walk past the university map on Wiggins St, I get the song Radar Love by Golden Earring stuck in my head.

5. I have crushes on two Scandinavian poker players: Gus "The Great Dane" Hansen and Johnny "Batman" Backman.

Minor Confusion

Every time I hear Pope Benedict XVI's real name Joseph Ratzinger, I think they are talking about the guy Cliff from Cheers.

Voter Turn Out

I have been looking for a story on this all morning.
Voter Turn Out Up

Nearly 64.9% of eligible voters turned out yesterday which is better than the record low of 60.9% of the last election. Sadly only 25% of "eligible youths" voted. I am not sure what they define as youths.

Some Big News

There has been a specific reason why I have not posted an entry for a couple days. I got a full time job and I'm moving to Calgary. There were certain people in my life that I wanted to tell first before I posted it on my blog.

So let's start the story from the beginning:

In mid-November, a business man, who I know from church camp, approached me with the idea of coming to work for him. This wasn't a job offer at this time but a option to explore further. I sent him my non-teaching resume.

In about mid-December, we tried to set up a time for me to come to Calgary for a formal interview and weekend-long trial run working for him. Due to a death in the family, the weekend plan was canceled.

A week and a half ago, he paid for my plane ticket and I flew to Calgary. I stayed for about 4 days. We had out interview and I worked for him for a couple days. At the time, I was very unsure what I wanted to do. There was no option that seemed to be the best. He had not decided either since he still had two more interviews for the position.

After I arrived home, I spoke with my parents and my sister about the situation. They didn't tell me what to do but it helped me decide that I wanted to go to Calgary. I contacted him and told him of my interest in the position. Sunday night, he contacted me and told me I got the job. I have been making plans ever since.

Some details about the job and my new life:
* It mostly involves research and organizing
* There is the flexibility for me to take some university classes. His office is walking distance from the University of Calgary. I would work towards my Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.
* This would just be a pause from teaching. He is only making me commit to 6 months of employment. It gives me the option of going back to teaching in the fall. The plan is to receive my second degree then go back to teaching.
*His main business is electrical engineering but he is personally involved on many community committees. one big project he wants me to work on is for a charter high school. It would involve finding resources and developing a curriculum.

Warning: Bad Beatnik Poetry Ahead. Proceed with Extreme Caution.

The Falconer ponders his mortality.
The crowd waits.
The crowd waits for the bird to take flight.
The crowd waits for the Falconer's command.
“Fly Mortimer! Fly! Symbolize the acceptance of my inevitability!”
The bird disappears from view; the Falconer finds peace.

Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap

Early Morning Blues and Greens

I have to get up early tomorrow so I can turn on the slow cooker. Blah. I hate waking up early. It is so hard to go to bed early after 3 nights in a row of having to stay up late.

I forgot to tell a story about work last night. The cleaning crew was just finishing up when I past the boiler room when one them was changing his pants with the door wide open! I quickly averted my eyes and pretended I didn't see. Yikes!

I spoke with my friend who is teaching in Korea. I have not spoken with her since she moved there. We had a good talk.

I am slightly bitter. My roommate invited people over to watch a movie. They promised me they would save me chips but they never did. Boooo.

Tomorrow I will be working with the manager on returns. Booo again. No one will to chat with me with him around (keeping them from their work). It will make for a very boring day.

thissentenceisforKYiteasebecauseilovedontletgrammargethebestofyou

Election 2006

It is a shame how people in North America people don't realize how good our lives are. A couple nights ago I learned that one of the men from the cleaning crew is a refugee from Ethiopia and one of the cooks is from China. Both men have been in Canada for less than a decade. They got into a discussion with the head of security about the upcoming Canadian election. Both are very update on current events and were discussing the merits (or demerits) of the various political leaders. After they had left, the head of security told me that both of those men really love living in Canada -- they think it is the best place in the world to live. Last night as I was working I got thinking about their discussion again: no matter what party is elected next Monday, our lives will still be pretty good.

More Award Show Fun! (Slightly Delayed)

"There was a young lady who swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly; I guess she'll die."


The delightful Colin Firth and Emma Thompson entangled in a furry octopus.


A nightmare in aubergine. I am confused as to why people think Chloe Sevigny is a good dresser.

"That's a paddling"

I had such a pleasant evening last night at work. There is this lady who normal works during the day who was in the back with me visiting. Work seems to go so much fast when I can visit while I work.

I think I am getting repetitive stress injury from taking off labels. I can't believe I have 3 more days this week doing it.

Tonight some child (I suspect it was only one), made a complete mess of the kids' section. I had to use a shopping basket to carry all of the books that were strewn all over the floor. I even found one book with sticky finger prints all over it. It was rather disgusting.

Despite the kids' section, the rest of the store was in excellent condition. Business at the store was very slow today. Business was so slow, the security guard spent about an hour in the back because there was no one in the store. I only worked for an hour and half at shelf straightening but I was visiting lots. I ended up leaving about the same time as usual.

I figured out that between now and inventory on the 29th I will only have two days off -- Sunday this week and Saturday next week.

Face Recognition

So the newest craze apparently has been to see what celebrities we look like on myheritage.com

My first picture results:
Emma Watson (57%)
Renee Zellweger (56%)
Yasser Arafat (54%)
Stan Lee (49%)
Condolezza Rice (46%)
Kim Basinger (46%)
Bipashua Basu (43%)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (42%)
Kofi Annan (42%)
Katie Holmes (42%)

Then my goal was to try to get higher percentage matches:
Annika Sorrenstam (48%)
Annette Benning (47%)
Natalie Portman (44%)
Margaret Thatcher (44%)
Andie MacDowell (42%)
Gillian Anderson (42%)
John Cleese (41%)
Elijah Wood (41%)
Pedro Almodovar (41%)
Grace Kelly (41%)

I finally put in a picture that gave me a little higher percentage match:
Katie Holmes (68%)
Christina Ricci (68%)
Andie MacDowell (65%)
Camilla Parker Bowles (64%)
Mario Vargas Llosa (63%)
Thomas Klestil (62%)
Naomi Watts (62%)
Brad Pitt (62%)
Pedro Santana Lopes (61%)
Yehuda Levi (60%)
Jeff Bridges (58%)

Not too shabby. There are some highly attractive people in the mix.

Funniest Things Said to me Today:

"You don't look like you have a prostate."

New Word

Cursh -
an illness inflicted on those who insist on liking someone that's no good

Further Proof that I am a Klutz

I worked approximately 14 hours yesterday. I subbed out of town plus I worked 7.5 hours at the bookstore. I have been told I can have as many hours as I can handle this month at the bookstore. Working so much and a lack of sleep might explain the following stories:

Yesterday while I was subbing I put a pencil in my back pocket. This is not unusual for me. What was unusual? The pencil broke without my knowledge and the next time I sat down I got a pencil lead right in the butt cheek. Ouch. It was still hurting when I went to bed last night. Unfortunately, I probably have not learned my lesson about putting pencils in my pocket.

Last night, I was once again working on returns at the bookstore. I set down the xacto knife and grab the book to stack it. I managed to jab the corner of the book into my finger near the nail bed and it bled like crazy. A co-worker had to show me where the first aid kit was. I have been using a sharp knife all week and I cut myself with a book. I was once again the laugh of the evening at work.

Fun with Fire Excellerant

I can't believe I have not updated since Sunday. I intended to on Monday.

Anyway, the past two days I put in extra hours at the bookstore helping prepare books to be returned to the vendors. Right now the job consists of me removing any stickers. That's right people, I am removing stickers. As it gets closer to the end of the month I will be working more with organizing the books by vendor.

Removing them quickly and efficiently is an art form. Sticker removal as performance art. It's the new thing. I mostly use an xacto knife to start and lighter fluid to remove any stickiness that may remain. As a result, my hands are all cut up (no blood drawn though) and I occasionally smell of gasoline. So overall it is a win-win situation. I actually am really good at removing the stickers now so I barely ever have to use the light fluid.

When I first started, someone who was waiting for a shipment to arrive and had nothing to do was helping me. When he tried using the lighter fluid nothing much happened. After much frustration, he joked that maybe the purpose of the lighter fluid was the burn the book whose sticker would not remove. He figured that would remove the sticker well enough.

So right now I am waiting to hear if they need me to come in for extra hours today. The lady in charge of returns today me that she probably will need me.

In other news, I had to wait nearly 2.5 hours at the doctor's office to get my allergy shot. It was a combination of problems. First there were lots of people there and then all of these people took soooo long seeing the doctor. Some of them you really can't blame why they took so long. There was a girl who came in and needed stitches. They understandably let her in right away. I have no idea why her mother did not take her to the emergency ward at a hospital. Walk-in clinics are mainly for non-emergencies. The girl needed stitches, it wasn't like they were going to turn her away.

The plan for yesterday afternoon was to visit a friend after my allergy shot. I approximated that I would be at the doctor's for about an hour. This would have given me a couple hours to visit. Instead of being done at around 3:30, I left a little after 5. By the time I got to her house, I was able to stay for about a half hour. Boooooooo.

Vicki Loves Me, This I Know

It is 7:20 pm and I am struggling to stay awake. I stayed up way too late last night. When I did go to bed an electric heater in my room kept on making a buzzing noise and waking me up. At first I was too tired to be bother but then it was keeping me awake so I had to turn down the temperature.

I set up alarm to get up at 8:30 but I slept right through it. Mom woke me up for the first time at 9. I fell asleep again and I was awoken the second time at 9:20. I was out the door in less than 20 minutes.

I had a 2 hour nap in the afternoon before my brother and his girlfriend came over to visit. It was not enough, I need to go to bed early tonight. I was considering going back to Saskatoon tonight but I am too tired. I am going to try to go to bed at 10 and wake up early to go home.

So you are thinking to yourself, "why is Janny so tired?" Well I am very foolish. I stayed up way too late talking with Lyn.

I was in a really hyper mood last night. I spent most of the evening at Bronwyn's but we left her house was to get some groceries. This was quite a surprise that Bronwyn wanted Lyn and I to come along since we were so weird last time. Despite doing the Running Man several times last night, Bronwyn was not annoyed with us. Last time Lyn I went grocery shopping with Bron, she asked us to leave after we were giving high fives to a lady on a magazine.

Jen, your song about waiting for the bus reminded me that I wrote a new song last night about Uncle Al's dogs to the tune of Jesus love Me. (Lyn helped me with some of it).

Vicki loves me this I know
For the Lynnie tells me so
To Uncle Al they belong
Vicki's weak but Monty's strong
Yes, Vicki Loves me
Yes, Vicki loves me
Yes, Vicki loves me, the Lynnie tells me so.

I'll have to tell more about my weekend another time.

The Light Bulb Incident of 2006

Last night I was again working a couple extra hours at the bookstore stocking shelves. Near closing time the store was pretty quiet. I was putting some tall hard cover books on the top shelf of the "Regional Interest" section when I hit a fluorescent light bulb with the books! It was one of those long tube ones placed at the top of the bookshelf. It didn't break but it wobbled. I was trying to be careful to get the books up there when I hit it again! This time it fell. Praise the Lord for quick reflexes. I caught the light as it fell with one hand and pushed the books into place with the other. I tried to get in back in but I was laughing too hard to figure it out. I had some strange looks from the other workers as I arrived at the checkout area red faced, laughing with fluorescent light.

After quite of bit of teasing, I figured out how to put the light back in. Stoic security dude even was teasing me about it. This guy never even looks me in the eye and he was laughing and joking with me -- it was a little surreal. He was telling me that is the janitor finds out life as I know it will end. Apparently there are only 2 people who are authorized to change light bulbs. I don't know if it is the truth or newbie teasing. He was threatening to show the janitor the security tapes.

It is so nice to be working while there are others are around! I have worked there since the end of July and I barely get to visit at all. Having other people around makes the time go faster. Although today I realized I was the only female working on the main floor last night. How could I have missed that? No wonder I was getting teased so much (not only about the light bulb).

Welcome back to my life

As of yesterday I will be working some extra hours at the bookstore. They need someone to come in the store on an as need basis to stock the shelves. They person who was doing it before broke his elbow before Christmas and now requires surgery. He cannot do the work now. The other work they asked me to do is help prepare for inventory at the end of the month. I would help prepare the books to be returned to the publishers. I would not start until the middle of next week so they asked me to help with stocking in the mean time. This works very well for me since with the end of the semester coming up soon there will be very little substitute teaching.

The strangest thing happened to me this morning. I was sorting laundry in my room when I got a paper cut on the side of my baby toe. There was an unused gift box under my bed and my toe ran along it. It was worse than a paper cut; it was a cardboard cut. Man, did it bleed.

When Beautiful People Look Bad with Mustaches

Actor Brandon Hillcock plays Deputy Sacks on Veronica Mars. Further proof that NO ONE looks good with a mustache.

When Beautiful People Look Soooo Fine

My future boyfriend Rory Cochrane

When Beautiful People Look Bad

Supermodel Helena Christensen and actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers at the after party for Match Point

A Gentle Reminder: Narnia is Not a Real Country

A financial new agency reported that Narnia representative Susan Aslan walked out of World Trade Organization talks. The story was picked up by several other news agencies.

The Lion, The Witch and The World Trade talks (from The Age)