I almost snorted my gum out my nose after watching this:

Roundabout Dance
(click on above title)

Seriously, take a moment to watch this - it's worth a good laugh. I understand the need for education about pedestrian safety but could it be a tad less cheesy?

I feel guilty tonight/morning. My sister wanted to borrow my car overnight and into tomorrow and I said no. I'm not going to go into details but basically I've hit a point where I need to be selfish at times and say no. It is my car and she doesn't live with me anymore which makes things more difficult. I don't need to be the "mom" of chauffeuring people around because it makes their life easier. There are times that I really don't mind going out of my way but not when it becomes frequent and disruptive to my life it takes a toll.

I shouldn't feel guilty and I need to get over it. I'm too emphatic and person pleasing.

Lottery Kiosks Closing
http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/477729
"Local kiosks also sold about $100,000 a month worth of bus tickets and passes for Grand River Transit. Affected locally are kiosks at Market Square and Fairview Park malls in Kitchener, Conestoga Mall in Waterloo."
That really bites for bus riders - the lottery ticket booth is the only place in Conestoga Mall to buy bus tickets. I really hope some other store steps up to the plate or GRT takes care of this.

Landmark Waterloo Hotel sold to local developer
http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/477705
Hopefully this doesn't ever affect the Symposium Cafe.

How about some controversy right off the bat?

I was surfing through Relevant Magazine and came across this article

Role of Women
http://relevantmagazine.com/releblog/editorsblog/the-role-of-women/
The blog posting itself is fine and outlines the basic questions about women's roles in the church. No big deal. It's the comments that irk me:

Eg. "I think Biblically we can expect women to use their spiritual gifts (which could be teaching), but I think any ministry done by a woman should be done under the leadership of a male." Matt

Geesh. This guy would fall out of his chair if I told him as a 24 year old female I'm an Elder in my church! Talk about breaking the stereotypical role eh? I know not everyone sees this as okay but I love being such a huge part of my church! I'm gaining so much being in this position. It's not as if I sought out this role - I consented to being nominated and the congregation voted me in. I love belonging to a church that doesn't stick so much to traditions! :)

Anyways, there is my blurt for the day. Time to go home and SLEEP.

Eep! Another week is here! My weekend was fairly packed with dinner plans on Friday with my friend Heather, orientation at Goodlife (post for that coming soon...so not impressed), Snow Tubing and grocery shopping on Sunday. It was nice to hang out with people this wkend...it has been a while!


GRT Pilot Bus Route to Elmira starting in May

Also, my co-worker I work with a night brought me dinner (well his wife made it but that's beyond the point)! It's the Chinese New Year and they wanted to let me in on a bit of the traditions. It was delicious! :)

My church is doing something different during our services this year and that is someone shares their life story** in a 5 minute review.  It's amazing the feedback you get from people when they are honest about themselves.  One guy in my church last Sunday mentioned to the effect that when you are doing through rough times in life sometimes you honestly don't give a crap about other people.  This got me thinking and nodding in agreement.

First off, I've drank one too many caffeinated drinks this shift but yet I'm still sluggish. Hmm, I think this wonderful developing cold has so much to do with it. Should have knocked on real wood the other day when I told someone I was very fortunate to not be sick. BOO. Hopefully this is short lived.

Secondly, thanks to my friend Dee for sending me a review of LOST season 5 premier:
http://blog.zap2it.com/ithappenedlastnight/2009/01/lost-does-the-time-warp-againand-again.html
Seriously some people have too much time to think about said show. So freaking fascinating though. If you find the review too wordy, just read the comments as they are almost more interesting.

Lastly, going snow tubing for the first time tomorrow night at Chicopee Tube Park . I'm hoping it's as fun as being a kid whipping down Haden's hill on krazy karpets.

Other tidbits from web surfing:

Obama keeps his BlackBerry
http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/475830

LOST Addicts Blog
http://www.lostaddictsblog.com/

LOST Season 5 started last night and all I can say is AWESOME. So excited!! (This included chills during some moments!)










(Courtesy of ABC.com)
Wish I could find this photo in high rez. I wants it!

---
Read this during my web surfing this morning.
Wescast announces Wingham foundry closure










http://www.wingham.com/index.php?article=313

This is just brutal for this community. There are two Wescast plants in Wingham but even with just one closing this is such a blow economically for the town. 140 jobs lost out of a population 2,885? Wescast supports so much of the town...sad. I, myself even worked for Wescast for a time in grade 12 as a co-op student. I hope at least the one plant stays!

----
A friend of mine got engaged recently and I'm slightly left in shock. Again this shows me how "absent" I was last year. Here but not here. So focused on my own situation I wasn't making an effort to keep in touch with some friends. Ouch. Well here's to catching up in 2009 my friends!

---
Praying for travelling mercies and safety while a group from my church are in Mexico on a missions trip. I hope they bring me back a tan!

Heinz Ketchup Makes 'Major' Change To Product After More Than A Century
Heinz Ltd. has confirmed it's doing away with the little green pickle that's been on the label of the world's best selling ketchup (top left) since the 1890s.
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_31128.aspx
Awe, bye bye green little pickle.

City of Waterloo reaches agreement with its outside workers
http://www.swo.ctv.ca/news.php?id=3726&PHPSESSID=69631599953cb0ba9aba16ca73f3585c
THANK GOODNESS is all I can say.

Ewan McGregor













"I will love you until my dying day!". Le *sigh*. Need I say more?

Yahoo News Canada

Links of Interest

Twitterholic.com
- see your stats (eg. when you joined, how many friends are following you, etc)
Tweetwasters.com
- how much time do you waste on twitter? So far I've wasted 2.8 hrs of my life away.
Sticky Screen
- totally love this! I love office supplies, even if this is virtual and doesn't kill trees

Local Happenings

Walmart has opened in Waterloo/St. Jacob's! I don't care what people think but I like shopping at Walmart especially for basic things. I'm so happy that I don't have to drive all the way down to Fairview Mall and deal with the pain in the butt parking lot! I'm so going to the grand opening after work on Wednesday I think...
http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/473481

Weather Facts

University of Waterloo Wather Station recorded that "we got 11 cm of snow between Saturday night and Sunday morning" this past weekend.
"As of January 9th we have had 154.0 cm of snow this snowfall season. This compares to only 79 cm last year at this time."
http://uwweatherstation.blogspot.com

Scrapbooking is a hard thing for me to do for many reasons and namely the trip it makes me take down memory lane.

High School prom. Looking at the picture of me and my date thinking about that summer after that night. The long phone calls, the "dates" and the end of the "almost" relationship. And the end of that friendship a few years later. He went
off to school and so did I. He met a girl and is now happily married (last I heard) for the past 3 years.

Kingdom Bound. Remembering how rude the girls in the youth group were to me, excluding me in everything so instead I hung out with the boys. Sleeping around the campfire and watching Switchfoot perform before they became popular.

Graduation from High School. Wearing the stupid caps. Actually receiving an award besides my diploma but having my name said as "Michael" instead.

Trillium Formal. I covet one picture on this page - one of me, my gr 12 best friends Kathryn and Bob as it's the only picture of the 3 of us. Bob's been on my mind a lot lately and I lost contact with him 2 years ago. He was my second biggest crush in high school. I miss that guy and wonder where he is.

Sweet Sixteen birthday. Why did I think I was such a fat kid? Seriously! Wearing massively oversized tshirts. That was the only surprise party I ever had even if most of the people there I wasn't even really friends with.

MWSR. The summer I piled on weight thanks to the crap food and stressed job. But the summer of great change for me. I missed my parents. I grew up. I went to my first drive-in movie.

Just glancing through the pages I see faces of people I knew never really liked me (gotta love youth group). Boys I had major crushes on. Acquaintances that are now married. Landscapes I want to see again. Jobs I slogged through just to make money for school.

This bugs me as you can tell! I don't want to let myself entertain the past - the what if's, the could have's, the moments I missed, the person I was, the people I didn't stay connected to. It's not healthy! So my goal ladies and gentlemen is this - catch up on my scrapbooking and to regularly update my book so in 5 + years I don't have to walk down memory lane again.

"I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger."
(Ooh La La - Rod Stewart)

Anyways those are my thoughts at 4:04am.

Weather. Or so it seems lately next to the economy.

"Miami will be lucky to get to 16C by Friday, and in a scenario that might seem laughable to us up here, some local media are warning residents to take precautions because of the 'excessive cold'. (See one typical set of warnings here.)"
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_30976.aspx

Too funny. 16C you say? That's almost shorts weather to us crazy Canucks! :P Think about it though, in the spring we can't wait to wear shorts and will before it hits 20C but come mid/late summer we start wearing pants if it's only 20C.

I suck at BrickBreaker on my Blackberry! Oh and I'm super stiff/sore on my right side from falling down stairs yesterday morning. Stupid snow that accumulates on the stairs. Oh and stupid city workers for toppling a snowbank into my driveway so at -25C after working all night I have to shovel my way in? I had a WONDERFUL morning yesterday. Shovelling and falling down stairs - awesome way to start my day (or would that be end my day since I went to bed shortly there after?).

Status: Waiting on machine to callibrate
Time: 5:34am
Hunger level: low
Thirst level: medium
Feeling: so sore on my right side from falling down stairs
Wishing: I didn't wear 2" boots to work
Current Song: Akon - Right Now

I was/am working! :P

Status: Typing up reports than lunch time!
Time: 4:12am
Hunger level: low
Thirst level: low
Feeling: the affect of 3 shifts on nights
Wishing: I didn't forget my chap stick.
Current Song: Kanye West - Stronger

Anyone remember when KFC's Toonie Tuesdays were just a toonie? (Isn't it false advertising otherwise if it's more than a toonie?)

Status: Working on the XRF, how do I dis-assemble a track ball?
Time: 5:27am
Hunger level: low
Thirst level: low
Feeling: The music! Listening to 91.5 the beat.
Wishing: I could stop yawning. Even typing "yawn" makes me yawn.
Current Song: Snow - Adore You

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's 1:31am and guess where I am?
I'm officially on my first night of being on nights! Let me tell you, it's odd to be driving into work in the dead of night. (Although talk about no traffic! :P) The lab is brightly light yet secluded from the production floor so all the corridors are eerily dark and shadowy. It's weird being here at these hours, weird I tell ya!

Anyways, so my official job is "lab operator" in the Materials Interconnect Lab at RIM working on an XRF machine Sun-Thur from midnight 'til 8am. Not exactly glamorous but it's a learning experience to say the least! For the first 7 ish weeks I was put on days just so I could get comfortable learning everything so that is why today is so different as I'm now on the shift I will always be on. Thankfully I'm not alone at night, I work with another guy as well except English is his second language so it's always interesting communicating!

Be prepared to see blog posts at random times at night as I will be bored and tired at times so I apologize in advance for any forth coming confusion in future ramblings.

Status: Very alert
Time: 1:54am
Hunger level: low
Thirst level: medium
Feeling: Glad I wore a warm hoodie
Wishing: My lips weren't so dry

In what may be a record of some kind, a 29-year-old Aurora man faces multiple charges that include driving while under the influence of alcohol after his Mercedes Benz SL600 was clocked on Toronto's Don Valley Parkway at a speed of 231 kilometres an hour.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090109.wspeeding0109/BNStory/National/home

Seriously?!? 231 km/h and drunk? So not cool even if the car is capable of going that fast. There is a place for that called....the race track perhaps?

So I have noticed the uh, sudden lack of blog readers of late and am wondering if my last post was just a tad much SO without further ado...

I will stick to more "fun" topics.

Unfortunately it's past my bedtime so I can't do a real "post" at the moment but coming soon! It's been a nutty week and I'm changing to night shift (it's been nice being on days for 7 weeks!) as of Sunday at midnight so I'm gonna be all wacked out with the change in sleep patterns WHICH could make for some interesting posts in the future. (Seriously, I'm allowed to blog at work so you could see random ramblings of a struggling night shifter at 3am).

Anywhoozers, my life is mucho better since...well...end of January 2008. A lot has happened and at this point I'm not going to post about it because, it's the past - learned lessons, had a rough year, made new friends, moved, worked a zillion jobs, church relocated, etc, etc..I learned a lot and my life is forever changed. THE END. Well the end of 2008 that is. :P

Stay tuned for more posting from...the Blackberry Slayer/Lab Rat.