Getting caught up

I do apologise, I am a little behind! Let's see I last posted on Tuesday, so what has happened since then...

Wednesday, woke up early to catch a flight to Montreal. (I have never been before!) my flight's departure is delayed, but we catch up so much time that we get in early, My Bag is literally the first off the carousel. (That's also never happened to me before!)

I drop my bag off and get changed at my sweet hotel. We depart for a concert. I have 3rd row floor seats! I watch Avril Lavigne , John Mayer, Sarah McLachlan and a number of other performers. The above mentioned three perform a combination of duets with one another! We return to the Official After party which is at my hotel's lounge/bar. Avril, Sarah and Alicia Cuthbert are present with their respective Entourages. I then leave with some of the Hotel staff to a local club to dance the night into oblivion. (Overall an amazing night!!)

I wake up in the morning to do a tour of the hotel and necessary renovations that I will be managing, an exciting experience. I join our project manager for dinner, I have a great Italian fresh gnochi with a gorgonzola sauce (possibly my favorite meal). I meet with a couple of friends for a some drinks, we head off to another nearby club for me to explore the city a little. nice pleasant easy and enjoyable night.

It's Friday. I work through the day. retracing my steps through the hotel, trying to ensure I have a solid grasp of the space and needs of staff. I take a gigabyte worth of pictures and video. I go to have a relaxing dinner on my own at a nearby Italian restaurant. I can't pass up the opportunity to enjoy another bowl of Gnochi, this time with a veal ragu, my starter is an excellent four cheese pizza, I finish off with a Tiramisu that almost rivals my mom's, a double espresso and a limoncello as digestivo. hmmm, soo good. 

Tonight is a friend's birthday, so we shall see where the night takes us! I will be toasting to Montreal... in English!

Best Quote Ever

Fortune Magazine never ceases to amaze:

"Thank God for Microsoft," ....

Just kidding, that's not all it said. Here it is really:

"Thank God for Microsoft," says Kennelly, "because they created Windows, which is so inefficient. That helped create our company."

The article is actually worth reading, here it is:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/21/magazines/fortune/kirkpatrick_fastforward_riverbed.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007112705

Remembering Names

This is a sweet way to remember names, while having your own little inside joke! This is going to be useful to me, I can't wait to try it out!

Curtesy of Wired: 

http://howto.wired.com/wiredhowtos/index.cgi?page_name=memorize_anything;action=display;category=Live

"I know a guy, Frank (we call him Frank the Tank) who makes a rhyme with the names of everyone he meets. For example, Mel becomes "Mel who fell into my wishing well" Sometimes its slightly awkward, such as when he meets a Chuck, or a Pam, but he never forgets a name. I decided to try this myself (not out loud, of course) and I've found that for me (a person who is horrible at remembering names) this technique works perfectly. I will never forget the names of my new friends, such as Scott (who smokes pot), and Karie (who's kinda hairy)."

Thanks Wired!

anthropomorphizes

It's Just a cool crazy word, maybe one day I will be able to use it in a sentence, but if you want to see someone else actually make use of this word, take a look at this article about Apple and its naming strategy.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/apples_not_so_secret_branding_advantage

P.S. If you are wondering what it actually means:

anthropomorphism |ˌanθrəpəˈmôrˌfizəm|noun

the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.

New shoes

I bought new shoes yesterday! sweet, Porsche design Adidas. I also joined my parents for dinner, which was great. a little family time, dinner and a movie, is always wonderful. 

Cabinetry!

I finished "building" my cabinet yesterday. "building" because it's from Ikea. still, I made a few minor adjustments. I added legs to lift it up off the floor, I painted the backing with a design so it was less plain, and I added lights on the inside for both visibility of contents (it has a glass door) as well as to make it look a hundred times better than the way it comes from Ikea! 

I therefore feel like accomplished something, not only did i build something, but I improved on it as well. I feel great.

Glutes

Yes, I said Glutes, as in the muscles in my buttox. they hurt, they hurt good. Solid closing of the day yesterday. Consisting of a wonderful Subeez Dinner, a Solid Game of Squash (that's why the glutes hurt), a relaxing Hot Tub, and a couple viewings of Arrested Development before hitting the pillow. Beautiful!

VIPs and the Ritz

I'll keep it quick, 

My boss invited me to a special VIP function to celebrate the introduction of the Ritz Carlton Hotel within a building designed by Arthur Erickson in Vancouver. There was free Don Perignon for all which was quite tasty, but the highlight of the evening was that Diana Krall was doing a 20-30 minute session at the event. Drinking a glass of expensive champagne while listening to Diana Krall, not too shabby!

Puppies and Doors

I left the door to my apartment open last night, and suddenly out of nowhere, my neighbours Puppy came storming in, ripping through the place. IT WAS AWESOME! you may not know this about me yet, but I love Dogs! I don't the 'owner' was too happy, since i ended up hyping the dog up even more before she finally was able to get it out of my house! This all happened at about midnight, it may have been one of the best things that could have happened before going to bed! A great end to a great day.

OLPC

One Laptop Per Child, 

The OLPC Foundations has designed a program, and a laptop, whereby you can purchase a very child-centric laptop for, presumably, your child, and another one will get shipped to a child in a developing country. The Laptops cost $399, and this is the total price for both. 

I haven't done enough research or had a chance to actually use the laptop itself, but in general I like the idea. This is a step in the right direction, initiatives like this make me feel a little bit more warm and fuzzy about the world!

http://www.laptop.org/

Business Trips

In the word of a great friend of mine: Woot Woot! 

I am currently working remotely on a project in Montreal (I live in Vancouver) and i finally got permission to book my flight over there. I have never been to Montreal before, and i guess one could even classify this as my first official business trip. To big birds with one little stone, needless to say I am excited!

More good happy times to come,

Computers

I got to help someone who was having problems on their PC today. I wont get into details, but the fact is that I got to use Windows for the first time in a long time today. This was a wonderful experience... why? because the relief I felt when I was done and sat down at my Mac again was like nothing I have ever felt. My head was raised, my shoulders relaxed, it was just bliss. 

I had that wonderful experience of realizing how wonderful my Mac is, sometimes I feel like i take it for granted, what  a great feeling it is, when you relearn to appreciate something you have!

Day One!

So this is officially the beginning.

Yesterday I attended an introductory session for a course called "The Landmark Forum" 

http://www.landmarkeducation.com/

Although I went in sceptical, I actually found it very interesting. It applied concepts and ideas that many of have previously heard, and dealt with negative symptoms in our lives that we may already be aware of. The interesting bit was how they dealt with it, the language they used and how they allowed the student to be aware of the cause of said symptom. The idea that there are things that have happened to us in our lives, which may seem small, but at the time they had a profound affect on the way we approach the world. The idea being that if we can identify what created us or caused us to be the way we are, then we will be able to change or adapt those causes that we feel are having a negative effect on our lives. 

Anyway, the point is that I feel I learned something valuable from this introduction, I may well take the three day, four evening course. I left feeling intrigued and interested to learn more, about the course and the myself. 

All in all it was a great way to end the day, a short yet insightful look at what I am all about, and a couple tid bits of how I can improve myself, starting now!

Why My Euphoria?

Because I realized that too many people, including the news and other media, only report on bad news. I also realized that I like good news. This means I encounter a problem when searching out what has happened in the world, without becoming depressed or at least saddened to some degree.
I look back at my mother's photo albums that she has kept from the time I was born to the most recent of family occasions. When one looks through photo albums, one only sees happiness, very few people keep photographs of sad times, in fact, very few people take pictures of sad times in their lives. My roommate pointed out to me, that one of the few pictures he has of himself in a sad situation was when he cut his knee at the park.... because he was having such a good time!

We were chatting about journals and diaries and other forms of personal not taking and reflection, we found that often, for us at least, people write the most when they are in a heightened sense of emotion, this usually occurs when one is sad. It also happens when one is happy, but the last thing I want to do when i am having a great day is stop to document it in my diary to myself, I just want to keep enjoying the day.

This is silly, why sit and sulk and document the bad times, and never remember the good times? In light of the above, I decided to create this blog. Think of it as a photo album of words. A place that I can document the good times, just like my mother's albums, and remind everyone else that was involved about them.

I want to emphasize the good. That means, that I won't only write when i have a great day, but if something good happens on a bad day, I want to document that too. so when I look back, all I see are positive thoughts, I want nothing to remind me of the bad times.

So that's it! The good times journal, for remembering, learning and embracing what is great about life, love and happiness. The creation of Euphoria through an elevated view of the past, an adapted view of the present, and a chosen path for the future.

See you soon,

Dino