One Minute Writer #3

Today's Writing Prompt: Entrepreneur
Write about a business you would like to start.

I have dreamt for years of starting my own photography business. I have been in love with photography for as long as I can remember and despite the fact I graduated from university with a degree in environmental engineering, I have always wanted to be a photographer. I am currently taking night courses in the field and am advancing my skills as much as possible. I am hoping that one day my dream will turn into reality if only as something I do on the side.

Quarter Century

Today is my 25th birthday - I am officially a quarter century old.
Being 25 seems odd as when I was little, 25 was the absolute oldest I ever pretended to be. I never imagined being older than 25 as that meant I was almost 30 and to a young kid, 30 is not cool.
The past year was pretty eventful - I graduated from University, found a job in my field (after working outside of it as well), moved into a place with Dave, was a bridesmaid in Tyler's wedding, traveled to London, and so much more that I can't seem to get into words right now. It was a good year. In the past I have more or less known what the big events of the upcoming year would entail but this year I have no clue. It should be interesting though.

Today...

Today is officially the first day of spring and to reward us for a long, cold winter Mother Nature has delivered us ... a freaking cold Spring day. Anyway, the spring equinox is basically the day when both sides of the Earth receive the same amount of light, in other words the Earth isn't tilting above or below the equator. Neato huh?!


Spring is not my favourite season, as discussed in a previous post, but it is up there. I am not a huge fan of the heat in the summer, or the blistering cold of the Ottawa winter. Spring leads to the tulips and other flowers and generally pretty things, which I love so much as it is slowly but surely getting to the point where I can go outside and take photos pretty much whenever I want.

Today is also the 40th anniversary of the Hungry Caterpillar, the book by Eric Carle. Admittedly I didn't know his name until Google told me, but I definitely remember this book. It was everywhere when I was growing up. My family didn't own a copy that I know of, but it was at school and daycare and most of the babysitters had it as did the majority of my friends. The book follows a little caterpillar growing from egg to cocoon to a beautiful butterfly as it munches away all the time teaching children good nutrition and other valuable information.

Maritimes

I am starting to plan our vacation out east for this summer (I know it's a little early, but that is how I roll). I have really no clue as to where to start in terms of the route - I can Google it but I don't know where the good places to visit are. Since I know many people have done this trip before I am asking for help - any suggestions would be very much appreciated. I am currently thinking of going through Canada on the way there and stopping in Quebec City for a couple of days and then returning to Ottawa through the states (crossing the bridge at Prescott/Johnstown for comfort sake). Anyway, this is pretty much all I have so far as I really only started my research today - I am sure more will come as I play around in Google.

One Minute Writer #2

What is missing in your life? Are you trying to find it?

Simply put, I am missing a sense of direction. When I started university I somehow thought that by the end I would know what I wanted to do and where I was going in life. Since then I have discovered that none of these things really happen when you are struggling to get through classes and to hand in assignments. I enjoyed school for the most-part and have found a job in my field and yet I still don't know what I want to do with my life or if I am in the right field at all. My attempt to find direction has only lead me down a more confusing path of discovering my true passion and this winding path is getting more complex every day. My only hope to finding the end of this road is that I have great people in my life in terms of friends and family who keep me grounded and yet encourage me to move forward with my dreams.

One Minute Writer #1

One minute writer is a blog that I have been following for quite some time. The idea is that you always have at least one minute every day in which you could write. The author posts writing assignments every so often which are supposed to get the creative juices flowing. People then start a timer built into the site and leave their written blurb as a comment to the original post. It is a really clever idea. Up until now I have not participated in the writing, but have found it very intriguing. The following idea is from a few days ago and as such I didn't comment on her blog, but it peaked my interest enough for me to post it here.

Kids often carry around "loveys"--comfort items like blankets or teddy bears. If you could still carry a lovey now, what would it be?

For the past year or so I have found that I take my camera pretty much everywhere. At first I thought it was solely due to my love of photography but since I started going to my boyfriend's family functions I have found that it is my "lovey" - the thing that keeps me comforted and calm during almost every event. It keeps me company when no one will and draws attention away from me somehow. I love my camera for many reasons and now I realize that the comfort it gives me is another one.

Luck of the Irish

Today is St. Patrick's Day - the day we celebrate one of the patron saints of Ireland. There is tons of really great information on wikipedia about St. Patrick's Day and I totally suggest going and reading it all if you have time. I unfortunately don't have time to sift through it all and make an interesting post about it all as my workload is pretty intense lately and I am going slightly insane. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Blogger Ideas

Lately I have been having tons of ideas for posts on my blogs and have determined that there is really only one way of saving these ideas in blogger itself - create a new post with the idea. The problem with this method is that you have to create a new post, write your entry and then go back and delete the original post with the idea in it. This creates extra steps that I am not pleased about. There should be a little notes section in the post tab of blogger where the creator/author(s) can leave little notes to themself(ves) about possible entries. This is my great idea for the day - perhaps Google will incorporate it.

A Real Book

This comic comes from Penny Arcade and is simply genius. It has to do with the new piece of technology out there that is basically an electronic book. I had heard about this product on the Daily Planet a few weeks ago and thought it was quite ridiculous then too. Many of the selling features are mocked in this comic such as 'it feels like you are really turning the pages' - seriously though the guy displaying it on the Daily Planet actually spoke like that. Anyways, Penny Arcade is hilariously good and I felt like sharing this one with everyone.

Damn You Lone Star!

Dave and I have always enjoyed Lone Star's fajitas. We have pretty much only ever gone on Mondays since that is the 'all-you-can-eat' night. Endless amounts of meat fajitas, rice, beans and toppings. Did you hear that Lone Star - TOPPINGS! That means endless amounts of cheese, lettuce and the other bits I don't eat (sour cream, guacamole, salsa).
If you haven't guessed already, when Dave and I went last night we learned that they have changed their menu and lowered their 'all-you-can-eat' standards. There are no longer endless supplies of toppings to go with your meat and fajitas. I was seriously disappointed. How can you have 'all-you-can-eat' fajitas with a pathetic amount of cheese (~ 2 Tbsp) and lettuce (~ 1/4 cup). That leads to either about 2 or 3 proper fajitas or just crappy fajitas where you can't taste anything but the meat anyways.
Dave and I did our best to eat as much of the meat as possible, but I am not a huge meat person and really can't eat that much. The rice was mushy and gross last night so I really didn't have much of that and neither or us like the beans all that much to begin with. It pretty much came down to the obvious fact that last night was our last visit to Lone Star. It might have been a tiny bit sad except for the fact that the hostess was distant, the waitress was a little weird and no one said good bye when we left.

Garlic-Rosemary Potatoes

Whenever I visit Dave's family I know I am going to eat well. His sister can bake up the most delicious things and both of his parents are very good cooks. One of my favourite things they make are these roasted potatoes with rosemary. When I was there in the summer they made them and I finally worked up the nerve to ask about the ingredients. They are really simple actually.
You just peel and cut up potatoes into bit size pieces and then put them in a glass bowl. Put a little olive oil and/or butter on them then season them with some rosemary (I have since added garlic). If you add a little Montreal steak spice they get even better tasting. You pop them in the microwave for about 10 minutes and then wrap them up in tinfoil and either place them on the BBQ or in the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes. Alternatively you can just keep them in the microwave longer. Very yummy.

Pinky

I just saw this on Cute Overload and had to share it. It is a pink dolphin. Dave doesn't think this is true at all so I looked it up in Google and found some other pictures. Photoshop is such an amazing program. However, there are cases in the past where dolphins have had pink blotches on them along with their grey skin and markings (albino dolphins). Though I have a strong feeling that this guy is Photoshop due to its entire pinkness and not just blotches.

March Madness

March was always pretty crazy in terms of workload when I was in school. In highschool it tended to be when we had our midterms and the first round of large assignments were due. When I got into university it was the end of the winter term and therefore lots of assignments, term projects and tons of studying for exams. It was madness, so much so that my birthday often got overlooked (or at least downplayed) for lack of time and energy (and sanity). My friends wished me happy birthday as did my family and I received gifts of course, but we didn't have any large parties or anything like that. It was partly on my asking so I am not upset or anything like that (just to clarify). When I graduated I thought for sure that I would be able to have a real party or something like that on my birthday. Apparently I was wrong. March is an absolutely crazy time for DST Consulting. Our major client, like most consulting firms in Ottawa, is the government and their fiscal year end it March 31. There are so many projects due and so many starting up with absolutely no time to prepare or complete them let alone think sanely or rationally. I will be celebrating with my friends on my birthday weekend, but once again nothing big will be planned or done as I just won't have the energy from the crazy work schedule. Oh well, I enjoy nice quiet nights with my friends anyway - and at least there will be cake...mmm...cake.

A Typical Work Day

Idea taken from Chris’ Blog.
6:01am: alarm goes off. I tell Dave “That was the first alarm”. He grumbles and we both go back to sleep.
6:10am: alarm goes off. I tell Dave “That was the second alarm”. He grumbles and we both go back to sleep.
6:19am: alarm goes off. Dave gets up and head to the shower.
6:40am: My turn in the shower.
7:00am: I am dressed and I head downstairs for breakfast which is eaten while watching Shamey (Shamus) on Canada AM.
7:30am: Head out the door to sit in the cold car while it warms up. Dave drives us to work.
8:00am: arrive at work where I check work and personal email then figure out what I have to do that day.
8:30am: others start arriving at work. This also happens to be the time when my work effort goes up significantly. I work from now until lunch writing reports, answering emails and phone calls from clients and coworkers and whatever else comes my way.
10:00am: If it is Monday, I attend the Monday Morning Meeting (MMM) where I give updates on all of my projects and the ones I am monitoring for other people. I am usually assigned a couple new tasks which really suck.
12:00pm: head to the kitchen and make myself my usual lunch and then proceed to Dave’s office (for now) where we eat lunch while surfing the net and making plans for anything that may or may not be happening that night.
12:30pm: head back to my own desk where I usually surf the net for a few more minutes and then get back to my report writing and other such tasks.
2:30pm: generally this is the time of the day where my work effort goes down the tube and I begin counting down the minutes until I head home. Small tasks are given to myself for the rest of the day as my brain has officially gone home and I am no longer capable of prolonged thought or conversation.
4:15-4:30pm: sometime during this time we head home but not before writing a note of whatever it was I was doing so I can remember the next day. We also have to ensure Dave has enough work to justify coming in the next day. I drive us home while Dave reads whatever book he happens to be on at the time.
5:00pm: start dinner and determine what we are going to do for the night (this usually consists of some sort of TV, movie or game – or combination thereof). If it is later on in the week we may have picked up a friend on the way home to hang out with and have dinner with.
6:30pm: If it is Tuesday, I head to class at Algonquin where I am generally bored enough to write things like this (guess where I am right now).
10:00pm: If it is Tuesday, I leave or have just arrived home from class at Algonquin.
10:00pm: Unless it is Friday, head to bed – usually with a movie in hand to fall asleep to.

Shadowed Smile

Chris took this photo of my for the media photography course she is taking at Carleton this term. I have to admit I was a little nervous when she said she wanted to use me for her model but as I used her in the past for modeling (for almost an entire day) and she has barely used me at all for this course, I went along with it. Anyway, I am really happy with the way it turned out. The lighting reminds me of a 50s Hollywood starlet photo.

And the winner is...

I have never really been a big fan of the Oscars. In fact I don't know if I have ever watched one from start to finish. I remember when I was younger I would watch it while watching a multitude of other shows that were on (none of the shows during the Oscars timeslot are ever very good and it is therefore necessary to watch several of them at the same time). I would catch an award here or there and then make sure I caught the last 15 minutes or so to get the top three awards (top male and female actor and best movie). These guys however, have found a way for me to enjoy the Oscars.

My Birthday Month

March really isn’t my favourite month as it isn’t all that pretty outside; the snow is started to melt and therefore goes that awful dirty grey colour, whatever grass that has revealed itself is parch and brown and there are few animals running about. It is however, my birthday month which makes it pretty wonderful. Chris asked me this weekend (or perhaps last week) what I wanted for my birthday and just like I did when it came to Christmas presents, I drew a complete blank. The things I want are either not things one can buy or way too expensive for anyone to get me other than myself (and even when I get them for myself it takes a lot of thought).
I want to travel and take photographs. I want to no longer be working in a place I don’t really like and I would love to be able to go back to school for photography with the idea of actually being able to make money afterwards (and not work at Wal-Mart or Sears Portrait studios – fine jobs, but not the type of photography I am working towards). I would love for someone to come over and take away a few pounds or magically show me how it is done in a fashion that I understand and am capable of. I want to own a home and be fixing it up (perhaps this is just because I have been watching a lot of HGTV and other such fix-it-up type stations).
As you can see, none of these things really add up to anything someone can get me for my birthday. So I guess I will keep thinking about it and hopefully I will come up with something a tad more feasible for my friends and family.