Smells Like Burning

JennB came back inside from walking the dogs this morning and said that it seemed like something was on fire outside, that the air smelt smoky and looked foggy. When we both left to catch the bus I noticed that this was indeed the case and assumed it was from one of the many houses with fireplaces or perhaps someone with a big backyard burning leaves (I think one of our neighbours does this on occasion.) It smelt very nice, like a camp fire. I would think that a house fire wouldn't smell very good. Once we got downtown, it was still there!! Checking with a few co-workers and it was smoky near their houses too, all over Ottawa! The current guess is that it is from the huge forest fires in central and northern Quebec. More than 50 forest fires are burning right now in Quebec, including eight that remain out of control.

Tattoo Pictures

My Tattoo

By Stephanie Beach Photography

Check It Off The List

First thing checked off my Ottawa Mini Bucket List last night. Jerrica and Erin got me the tattoo that I have been wanting forever! Thank you so much girls, love you!!

Questions I keep getting asked:
Where and what is it?
I have a black outline of a maple leaf, not totally perfect like the Canadian flag symbol but not super natural looking like a real leaf, in between the two - a stylized maple leaf. It is pretty small, larger than a toonie but smaller than my palm. Just above my waist and below my bra line on the right side of my back. Pictures will be coming...
Did it hurt?
Yes, but not really that badly. It wasn't pleasant but it wasn't super painful either. Felt like hot scratching/pressure/dragging. It didn't take long to do and I can imagine the pain would have gotten to me after a while if I was getting something big and needed a longer session. Afterwards and still today it is fine, a tiny tiny tiny bit sore, like a mild sunburn.

Good Job Old Spice

I need to find me one of these...

26!!

I turned 26 today, lets look back at 1984:
• The Apple Macintosh was introduced at a price of $2,495.
• There were approximately 1,000 hosts on the Internet.
• Sony Corporation introduced a 3.5 inch diskette
• The term cyberspace is coined by William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer"
• Mass marketing of cellular phones to the general public started.
• Chrysler introduced America to the Minivan.
• Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, was assassinated.
• Researchers for the first time positively identified the virus that leads to AIDS.
• Ronald Reagan was re-elected to his second term as US President.
• Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered space walk.
• Trivial Pursuit revived the board-game industry. Developed by a Canadian entrepreneur, the game is introduced in U.S. stores and records sales of $777 million during 1984.
• Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown after nude photos of her appeared in "Penthouse" magazine.
• Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire during the shooting of a Pepsi commercial.
• Motown legend Marvin Gaye was killed by his father in a domestic dispute.
• The Cosby Show first debuted on NBC.
• The first infomercials appear on TV due to deregulation by the FCC.
• While working at WNBC-AM New York, Howard Stern appears on 'Late Night with David Letterman' in June. The appearance launched Stern into the national spotlight and gave his radio show unprecedented exposure.
• 1984 Academy Award winner, Best Picture: "Amadeus"
• 1984 Grammy Award winner, Record of the Year: "What's Love Got To Do With It?" Tina Turner
• The Wayne Gretzky led the Edmonton Oilers to win their first Stanley Cup, defeating the New York Islanders in 5 games and ending the Islanders run of 4 straight Stanley Cups.
• The Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo.
• The Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles.

When The Bee Stings - Literary

Favourite Books
The Narnia Series, Franklin Books, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, The Time Traveller's Wife, A Brave New World, Slaughter House Five

Favourite Authors
William Shakespeare, Douglas Coupland, Robert Fulghum, Audrey & Don Wood, A. E. Maxwell, Marian Keyes

Favourite Poets
A. A. Milne, S. T. Coleridge, Mary Roberts

Favourite Plays
Shakespeare!, The Importance of Being Ernest, Good Night Desdemona - Good Morning Juliet, The Sandbox, Mini Putt

When The Dog Bites - Electronic

Favourite TV Shows
How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, House MD, Glee, America's Next Top Model, Cougartown, 30 Rock, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report

Favourite Movies
A League of Their Own, Fifth Element, Aladdin, Labyrinth, Wag the Dog, 10 Things I Hate About You

Favourite PC Games
The Sims, World of Warcraft, NeoPet's Games

Favourite Music
Hotel California - The Eagles, Come Together - The Beatles, Starlight Express - Musical, The Phantom of the Opera - Musical, Les Mis - Musical

Totally Love It!

Anne found these and I love them. She equates "The Sassy Gay Friend" to Anthony from Sex and the City and Clinton on What Not To Wear on her blog. It think it is just such a fun juxtaposition between Shakespeare and pop culture. Basically I like almost anything with even the briefest connection to Shakespeare. Second City also did one for Hamlet and Othello which are super funny as well!!

The Undiet

I'm doing the Curves Weight Management program, which is a three phase diet. It is really working and I'm loosing a lot of weight, however it is too much food!! This is the reverse of what normally happens on a diet. I am having the hardest time finishing all the meals and snacks I have planned each day (3 meals and 2 snacks). I think it is the protein....

Mini Bucket List

Before I leave Ottawa at the end of June I need/want to...
-Get a pedicure
-Tour Parliament
-Have dinner at Signatures
-Get a henna tattoo
-Go to tea at Billings Estate
-Have a party at Die Höhle
-Go to the Currency Museum
-See a movie at The Mayfair
-Take pictures at Hogs Back
-Go to the casino
-Take a night swim at Mooney’s Bay
-Jog beside the canal
-Eat at the Elgin Street Diner
-Dance at The Pier or Heart & Crown
-Visit Rideau Hall
-Play in Brewer Park’s water area
-Get graduation photos done
-Eat a Beaver Tail
-Visit the National Art Gallery
-Go to Carlingwood Mall
-Canoe on the canal
-Get a real tattoo
-See my friends a lot!!
Some of these things I have always meant to do and never got around to it. Some of them are things that I have done and enjoyed, so want to do one last time before I go.

Good Quote

"I'd love to leave my door unlocked at night, but this ain't Canada."
- Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2

Money Money!!

I got notice a couple of days ago that I did not get the Ontario Graduate Scholarship that I applied for ages ago, which I was a little sad about. However today I got the following e-mail; This is just a quick note to inform you that we are now able to increase the amount of your funding: whereas before we had offered you $3000 in the form of a Ryerson Graduate Award, we can now replace this sum with a $7000 Ryerson Graduate Scholarship. This is in addition to the $8000 in combined RA and TA funding outlined in your original letter. You will receive official notice of this change by mail.
Thank you Ryerson!! $15,000, don't mind if I do!!

Making The Switch

There are many great things about this Curves Diet that I'm doing. The first being Jenn's awesome cooking! One of the things I can have is 8oz of milk but only if it is skim or 1%. Now I am a die hard 2% (or higher!) milk person. You can cook with whatever you want, but if I'm drinking it or putting it on my cereal than it has to be at least 2%. Sometimes if it is the only breakfast option and I'm really hungry I will have 1% on my cereal but I can tell and I'm not a fan. I guess my tastes have changed, and it has been long enough since I last had milk, but I am now a 1% girl! Even to drink! I have had two gasses of it today, delicious! I'm not sure about skim yet, lets not push things.

Lovely Ladies

Jeska, Jenn, Myself, & Jerrica
Heading Out To The Club

When I see this picture all I think of is - Well, that's the kitchen in Die Hohle not the greatest location for a photo - God, I love to dance! - I'm the only one not wearing a shirt of Jeska's, for a change - Wish my hair was straight all the time - Man, we are hot!!

RIP Jenn - The Fish

I came into work today to a dead fish. It was quite sad. Jenn, the fish, is no more. I'm not totally surprised since he was doing pretty badly on Friday. I originally got Jenn when JennB left, I replaced her with a fish. It is interesting that today, JennD started work. So really I was never without a Jenn. I had a boy co-worker come up to help me flush it, since I hate dead things. A few of us stood outside the boy's bathroom and said some nice words. RIP Jenn.

Bottle Service

Jeska is here for the weekend visiting, she came with her boyfriend, Duke, who is a DJ. We wanted to go out last night, but to a club instead of our usual pub-type experience. After much discussion and research, we picked Manson (which was Heaven last time I went.) We decide that we wanted to go all out and get bottle service, which isn't cheap but is awesome. It has changed my club-going experience forever.
-Our own VIP entrance and coat check
-Escorted to our booth by our waitress
-One of 6 booths in a separate private area
-Our own waitresses and bouncers
-Very few people were allowed in our section
-View of the dance floor
-Jugs of mix; cranberry, 7-up, OJ, Diet coke
-40 of Absolute on ice
-Lots of glasses and a bucket of ice
-Right beside the DJ
-Allowed to do pretty much whatever we wanted
-Basically treated like rock stars all night
It was great to have a place to get away from the crowded dance floor, though we also danced in our booth and in the area in front of it that was above the dance floor. I got to take my purse, with an extra pair of shoes, because there was a safe place to leave it - our booth. Seriously, it rocked. I always want to get VIP Bottle Service from now on. (Luckily a lot of the places I go don't offer it, so it isn't even an option.)

Notice Anything Different?

So, my blog renovations have started! I'm happy to now have 3 columns, I think it makes Always Standing look more professional, more like a website and less like a blog. (Or maybe just more like the famous blogs.) I made the tiniest of changes to my header (font and font size) and love the new look! There are some more changes coming so stay tuned. What do you think so far?

I'll Never Quit Facebook

10 Reasons You'll Never Quit Facebook

(Even If You Think You Want To)

1. You're not going to go back to waiting an hour to send an email to 30 people with 40 photos.

(Photo sharing is one of my top reasons for having a Facebook account. Also, it keeps, be it a shitty quality, version of all my photos in case of a totally computer and external hard drive crash.)

2. How will you remember anybody's birthday?

(Hey, I have a planner!)

3. How will you stalk your college boyfriend's new fiance?

(Umm, this is sadly true. So true! I love the stalking aspect of Facebook.)

4. Without Facebook what are you going to do when you don't have a friend's email address or phone number? Facebook messaging blows. But at least you know you can reach anybody who has a Facebook account.

(I have recently realised that I have friends who's only contact information I have is Facebook. Seriously, people I consider really close friends actually! I am now trying to get e-mail address and phone numbers for them, because it is just sad.)

5. Forget Facebook. 80 million of you are addicted to Zygna's Facebook game, FarmVille.

(I do not play FarmVille, or CafeWhatever, or MafiaThingy, etc. I have absolutely no features attached to my Facebook. Yet, am addicted and on it 20 times a day anyways.)

6. It takes 2 seconds to "join" a new site through Facebook Connect. It can take a good 10 minutes doing it the old way. (Care to subscribe to these magazines?)

(I don't really understand this point, but I am a follower of a couple of pages on Facebook, mostly SNL related, and I love the updates.)

7. How will you hear about parties? How will you remember where and when those parties are? Evite?

(If you aren't on Facebook - you will miss out on parties/events. As someone who often hosts people at Die Höhle, I know how annoying it is to try to remember to tell the people who don't have Facebook. Often I forget.)

8. You don't care about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg's sometimes sketchy past.

(He has a sketchy past? Didn't he go to Harvard? Oh, well, yeah, this is true too, I don't care.)

9. Sure, Facebook has privacy issues, but you don't care about privacy anymore. Remember when you wouldn't use your real name on the Internet?

(Yes I do, and not say where you are from. That is where "Chrisbinx" came from, and I remember being scared that the "Chris" part was in there. Now my full name is everywhere, even at the bottom of this post.)

10. You've never quit before. Remember News Feed? Beacon? You didn't quit then and won't now, either. Not even if you want to.

(Facebook does tons of things that piss me off, but I never leave. I think I was able to shut down my wall for an hour before I caved and put it back up. I won't quit.)

-

Original list by Nicholas Carlson - Business Insider

Not At All

Sitting in a co-workers cubical, reading something: I asked him a question then proceeded to stop paying attention, as I was reading, and started to just mumble responses. After a while of this he got annoyed and asked, "Hey, are you going to be an equal participant in this conversation?" Made me laugh. Also perked me right up and I paid attention from then on. I think I want to start using this line with my Dad.

Who Am I?

-Watching The Ugly Truth, rented it
-Playing World of Warcraft, so addicted again
-Chili simmering on the stove, which Jer and I made earlier
First off I never cook, and secondly who plays an MMORPG while watching a chick flick?

Really?

A new study reveals,
"Obesity is now a bigger overall threat to people's health than smoking... Obesity causes as much or more disease than tobacco... While smoking rates are starting to decline, obesity now shortens as many or even more healthy lifespans than tobacco use..."
-Read the full story in the Financial Post
I'm glad that less people are smoking, that is such a good thing since there really was a global push to create awareness of the dangers of cigarettes. However, it is horrible to hear that obesity is on the rise at such a drastic rate. I wish we could just blame America, but Canada is bad for it too!

The Very Short List

This is an e-mail thing, which I don't plan on signing up for but the site itself is cool to visit. Very Short List is a collection of distinct, free, daily e-mails that each recommend one must–see thing a day. (All of their daily e-mails are archived.) The website is in a blog-like formate and points to excellent new (and sometimes vintage) entertainment and media that haven’t been too hyped. Each weekday, they recommend a single gem from the vast mass of films, TV shows, books, websites, music, and more. The focus is on products that deserve attention but haven’t already been subject to giant media pile-ons.

Oh, The Russians

Jer drew my attention to this story,
"A Russian MP has asked President Dmitry Medvedev to investigate claims by a regional president that he has met aliens on board a spaceship. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the leader of the southern region of Kalymkia, made his claim in a television interview. MP Andre Lebedev is not just asking whether Mr Ilyumzhinov is fit to govern. He is also concerned that, if he was abducted, he may have revealed details about his job and state secrets."
- Read the full story on BBC News

It's In You To Give

I like to challenge myself, find little tasks that I'm scared of and force myself to do them. I think that the last thing I really counted as this was giving a guy my phone number out of the blue, it went very badly. Luckily, tonight's face-my-fear-challenge went amazingly! I donated blood!!! I have been wanting to for a while but, like so many people, have been too scared of it hurting, fainting afterwards, or just the needle in general. I was quite apprehensive and a little bit scared, as you can see from this photo... However, it hurt less than when they take blood at the doctors. I get blood taken for tests at least 6 times a year, I'm not a fan of it but I have gotten used to it. I actually had 3 tubes taken last week, so I can remember what it feels like - donating blood hurts less. I felt fine during and after. Actually, after the needle went in and I realised it didn't hurt, I felt better than I had beforehand. The relief, after being so nervous, was amazing, as you can see from this photo...

The pictures were taken by JennB, she had forgotten that she had an appointment to go donate this evening and asked if I wanted to go too. I figured it was a sign to finally do what I keep saying I'm going to. Anyway, she finished ahead of me, partly because she got through the screening process quicker and partly because she was able to donate in 5 minutes and it took me 8. (I was trying to race her but there isn't much you can do to speed it up.) I'm very glad I went, it was seriously a breeze and I hope to make it a regular thing. (You can go every 56 days or something.) I'm going to try to go again once I'm home before I leave for my trip. However, I will have been recently vaccinated for a bunch of stuff and they may turn me away. I then will probably be ineligible to donate for a year after visiting China and Mongolia, I doubt they are on the safe list. So please, as I might be unable to for the next little while, go donate!! One donation can save up to 3 lives. It is really a worth while thing to do!!!

It Is Almost Time

At The Beach
By Taylor Collicott
Taken last year (2009) at the cottage, Long Point

Mental Health Week

The first week in May is Mental Health Week! The Canadian Mental Health Association has some good information about depression and other mental illness. (I list depression obviously because I have it, but there is information on stress, eating disorders, anxiety, psychosis, and all the rest as well.) It is a good site to help better understand what the different mental illnesses are and answers some basic questions about them. It also has some resources about employment and education, as it connects to mental illness. On a less official note, I have been meaning to share this site for a while. It is pretty random, but I find it really provides some really good concrete advice and tips for helping someone with depression. There are then links all around that site that provide further information and advice.