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.

Ha, ha. Man, I so dislike that I let myself go so much in the last year. I was so much slimmer and trimmer last year...oh and way more energetic! BAH. So getting back on that train once my gym membership comes in the mail this week. Looking forward to taking some classes and not just doing boring cardio and weight training. Anyways, what I wanted to blog about was health issues. I have a couple and they are um, slightly odd.

1. Asthma. Not a odd health issue but it was dormant for quite sometime until I had an asthmatic allergic reaction to mildew and mold at a camp that I worked at.

2. Keratosis Pilaris "is a very common skin condition often referred to as "chicken skin". While KP resembles goosebumps, it is characterized by the appearance of small, rough bumps on the skin." There is no cure but having a cleaner diet, more exercise and moisturizing bodywash has helped me tremendously.

3. Plunging Ranula. "A ranula is a type of mucocele found on the floor of the mouth. Ranulas present as a swelling of connective tissue consisting of collected mucin from a ruptured salivary gland duct, which is usually caused by local trauma." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranula). Want to be grossed out? Keep reading.
I developed a hardish sak under the left side of my tongue in 2002. It didn't hurt very much but it was large and annoying! I went to the doc to get it diagnosed and they did say I could have surgery to remove it but it didn't have to come to that. A couple weeks later the ranula broke and drained. Nothing like getting a mouthful of hot, salty mucous in the middle of the night. Yummy! Now I only get smallish ones once in a while when I don't drink enough fluids (or so is my theory).

4. Hearing loss. Not odd either but I burst my eardrum in 2004 after a severe sinus infection and since then my hearing isn't the same.

5. PCOS. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder that affects approximately 5% of all women .[1] It occurs amongst all races and nationalities, is the most common hormonal disorder among women of reproductive age, and is a leading cause of infertility. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycystic_ovary_syndrome). I was just diagnosed with this a year and a half ago. It's an interesting "disease" as it can be controlled by weight loss yet it causes weight gain. Strange! I am on medication to control the hormonal part of syndrome.

People may find it odd that I'm blogging about such personal matters but to me it's a bit fascinating! And I know I'm not alone. I could name off a handful of people that suffer from at least one of the above issues.

Are bodies are wonderful yet interesting machines!

That's enough health talk for tonight.

I hate driving in this crap.  I'm tired of sweeping off my car, spinning my tires taking a corner and shoveling my way out of the driveway. BUT tonight reminded me how much I do love snow.  It's fluffy, white sparkly-ness, it's ability to quieten the neighbourhood, it's blanketed warmth to the earth....

Disappointment is failed expectations.

I had expectations about something and it was not what I expected. I thought my life was going to get back to "normal" but it's far from that.

Apparently God works in mysterious ways. I trust everything works out for Good and for His purpose but I have to remember to constantly trust.

"How you were raised has absolutely no impact on your personality at all"

I saw this quote on a friend's facebook page tonight and it's "got my goat". I'm not even going to state where it's from because maybe it's a good book and this is totally out of context but regardless...

WHAT?!?

Um. Seriously. How you were raised plays a huge role in your personality! The way you treat others, how you look at finances, how you perceive and get ideas about politics and religion, your morals, what's right and wrong.

That doesn't mean you BECOME how you were brought up but it does impact a lot about you!

Please don't feed me this junk. I'm grateful for how I was brought up and it helped me appreciate things other people may not. I am who I am because of that!

So take that book quote!

I have yet to drink any eggnog but I'm getting my fill so many other ways. Just typing that makes me want an eggnog latte...*drool*....

mmmm....latte...

Anyways, tonight my sister gave me a pre-Christmas present and it's this delicious smelling candle! If only I could post a "scratch n sniff".


Fragrance: a sweet marrying of warm caramel,
buttery accords, vanilla and a hit of rum to finish

HAIR of course. :)

First photo shows how long my hair got after 11 months without a haircut:












Bye bye dead hair, hello short haircut:












The photo isn't the greatest and at the end of the day but you get the idea. Definitely going to grow it out again but progressively and with less dead ends/knots involved.

Think this is noticeable? If not, you can join the ranks of my entire church. No one noticed! (Excepts are my sisters and roommate upstairs).

- bought a tank of gas for 75.6cents a litre!!
- just watched Rihanna's new song ft. JT and have decided it's "meh". I heart JT.
- had an uber overwhelming 4th day on the job
- LOVE LOVE LOVE the new gmail themes!

Day 1 of orientation - found out tomorrow is another full day of orientation. Sheesh, talk about mental overload! Today was a mixed bag but spent 2.5 hours being educated about ESD - talk about FUN.

"Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is the sudden and momentary electric current that flows between two objects at different electrical potentials. The term is usually used in the electronics and other industries to describe momentary unwanted currents that may cause damage to electronic equipment."

And scored a 97% on the test! Also came home with yet another pair of specialty safety shoes. Otherwise it was a good day!

I am so in the holiday spirit right now even without decorations up or being at the mall. It's all because of what happened tonight:

I have a love/hate relationship with the white stuff. Love to look at it, play with it and build things with it but when it comes to driving in it - not so fond.





I've also decided that "O Holy Night" is my favourite Christmas carol especially sung by Josh Groban. *sigh* It almost makes me tear up, almost. Oh and my favourite Christmas cd is "Believe" by Natalie Grant - it's beautiful!

Anyways, it's late and only slept 4 hrs last night. :S Looking forward to church in the am!

I haven't gone shopping for myself in a very, very long time! Today I had a couple hours to kill from dropping my sis off at work to going to work myself so I went to Fairview Mall. Which of course was already turning into a zoo with Christmas mere weeks from now.

Anyways, I only bought two items for myself.

These awesome boots:
"This sleek boot features a faux leather upper with a covered button detail, a squared toe and a 2.75" square heel. Side zipper. Padded insole for comfort."

I heart Payless Shoes. Not uber amount of selection for my 10w feet but it's pretty much my only hope/place for finding shoes.


And...oh goodness. Had a coffee break at Second Cup - had a gingerbread latte which was lovely - and happened to smell some coffee beans that were displayed in bags on the counter. I made a very impulsive buy (I don't do that often) and left not only with my gingerbread latte but also 200 grams of Spiced Egg Nog coffee beans. I sooo can't wait to sip on some of that!

This is the coolest website I've seen in a long time:

Why does no one believe that I drink coffee? An old colleague of mine that I talked to tonight didn't believe that in the 4 years that we worked in the same office I drank a cup of coffee.

I do drink coffee. All the time - but - in my time/when I want it. Back in that office I had a cup a couple times a week and sometimes daily. Although that coffee was waaaayyy to strong so I usually mixed it with hot chocolate.

While at the roofing company, my consumption sky rocketed. It was sometimes two larges of Timmy's a day. That was one habit that became hard to kick after only 2 months.

Now I drink coffee when I want it - at a friends house, after the church service and sometimes I just want a cup of Java Moose coffee!

If I'm going to get healthy again, I'm going to have to totally kick coffee to the curb but we'll see when that happens...