So I must have fell asleep in the Quidditch supply locker since I got stuck in there and missed blogging last week. Sorry all.  I was hiding from the rain and reading a really good book, sadly the supply locker is spell proof to avoid other teams tampering with our equipment.  I had to wait till the next practice and Waverly was startled when she opened it and found me curled up all cozy with the old uniforms and a good book!

This week I’ve been very busy and I have made a lot of knits this month.  Here’s a picture of the pile’o'knits.  There are some missing as well as some in this pile were finished in October.  Not bad for two months.  Lol it doesn’t show all the other projects I have started between those times that I’m working on either!

We had homework too!  Some things that I’m thankful for is my family (mini-me, his tallest and all), Faye, Faye’s trainers, Jenny (Faye’s puppy raiser), our wonderful guide dog school GDB and staff (who not only offer free travel to the school for training, but also dorms and delicious food!), books and all the wonderful folks I’ve meet due to knitting and Ravelry!  Oh I almost forgot the tiny, but helpful vision (my left eye has some central vision, it’s a fantastic small window into the world of seeing) I have left, accessibility toys, accessibility in general, allergy shots and all my doctors and staff

As for what makes me happy, there are lots of things tea, mini-me being goofy, hugs, all things geeky, cuddles with his tallest, books, dragons, lace, knitting socks, coffee, chocolate, tasty food,  the sun, and Faye!  There is more, but I thought I’d just put down the short list

I’ve not yet quite figured out why i’m obsessed with this car.. anyway, if anybody cares this is what I’d like for Christmas.

Even though I live in chilly Northwestern Ontario, the snow has still not fallen! And, yes, I am a little peeved.

Usually the late November snow signals me to bust out the Christmas decorations and movies (can anybody say Elf?!) and indulge in the holiday spirit. But this year I’ve had to create all the spirit myself.

Besides watching Christmas special after special, I’ve turned to cozy holiday books to get myself in the mood, and The Gift, by Cecelia Ahern, is just perfect for the job. Many of you may remember this blockbuster hit from last Christmas season. Well, it was originally a book and I managed to snag myself a bargain copy of the hardcover a couple months ago. I decided to wait for a more appropriate time to bust it out and – seeing the Christmas lights being hung all over time – that time finally arrived!

“The Gift” switches between two seemingly parallel stories. One is of Lou Suffern, an overworked business man who is constantly faced with the conundrum of being in two places at once with his busy life. The other features Raphie, an older policeman (or Garda as they call them in Ireland!) and Turkey Boy, a young boy who threw a turkey through a window and is now at the Garda station. Lou’s story is actually being narrated by Raphie, who is telling Lou’s tale as a warning to Turkey Boy.

Lou’s story essentially begins when he meets Gabe, a homeless man who sits outside Lou’s multi-million dollar office building in Dublin everyday. One day Lou decides to purchase a coffee for Gabe and they end up chatting. Gabe seems very wise and intrigues Lou. Gabe also tips Lou off on a suspicious lunch meeting that Lou’s co-worker and boss had, so Lou decides to get Gabe a job in the mail room of his building. He figures that Gabe will be able to keep his eagle-eyes on Alfred, Lou’s suspicious co-worker and also, that it’s a good deed.

However, once Gabe begins working for Lou’s company, Lou quickly regrets his decision. Gabe magically seems to be able to be in two places at once and everyone else in the office (including Lou’s hard-to-please boss) are beyond impressed. Lou instantly feels threatened and regrets his decision…until Gabe also helps Lou to be in two places at once. Through his journey Lou learns about what is truly important in his life.

I found “The Gift” to be a wonderful, uplifting and perfect Christmas read. It was light-hearted and kept my attention. It is the typical “chick-lit” read and was a great way to relax in between studying for exams. The characters are believable and natural and I found it interesting that Ahern was able to make me feel compassion for both Lou and Gabe, even when Lou resents Gabe.

I think everyone who reads “The Gift” will also learn a lesson about what is truly important in their lives. And there is no better time to appreciate the people around you and blessings you have than this holiday season!

Check his smooth moves out at about 1.30. I want to be this dude.

It’s been a very good month for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. The sales figures have been monumental: 4.7 million copies of Modern Warfare 2 were sold in the first 24 hours alone, breaking the record for most successful entertainment launch of all time.  

Worldwide, Modern Warfare 2 grossed $550 million worldwide since last week’s launch – another entertainment industry record. For its part, retail chain GameStop recently announced it had unloaded 2.5 million copies of Modern Warfare 2 within 72 hours of the game’s release, breaking the previous company record and helping to buoy Q3 earnings. 

Now Activision has another trophy to add to the shelf. According to Reuters, the Call of Duty series – which includes Modern Warfare 2, along with Call of Duty: World at War and others – has surpassed $3 billion mark in global retail sales. That $3 billion comes from the estimated 55 million Call of Duty units that have been sold since 2003, when the series launched.

“If you consider the number of hours our audiences are engaged in playing Call of Duty games, it is likely to be one of the most viewed of all entertainment experiences in modern history,” Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said in a statement. The $3 billion figure is based on internal company figures, and data from a handful of tracking firms, including NPD group. 

The official Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer

MAKING A SLED, WATCH IT HERE!

So I was trying to catch up with my web reading (tech and design stuff, some news) and I came across an excellent article. I have been thinking about doing a group blog for quite awhile, but I have not felt inspired. Now after reading this article, I think I know what I want to do. I want to make magazine style blog that will only focus on a few articles a week. The site won’t have a real theme to it or maybe it will. It is going to depend on how many people I can convince to help me out with. I think it could be a lot of fun. I can imagine tons of reviews, opinions, tips and whatever else people can write about. The best thing about it, it will be something different than most of what we are seeing now.

So if you want to be a part of something new, shoot me an email or something. I have always wanted to do something different, how about you?

Hopefully by now, we have all been well fed and have slept off most of our turkey-comas. What better occasion to announce the winners of our “I’m A Creative Fan” contest for November, than now? Think of it as icing on the “What I’m Thankful For” cake.

Our Twitter winners are Cindy Hickman, or “LifeOnPrint” who won a 4GB Vado HD and Susan, or “Grumpy1970″, who won an 8GB Vado HD.

Congrats to our two winners on Twitter!

Our winners for Facebook are Michelle Rosborough, who just landed a 4GB Vado HD and Manusha Rabel who won an 8GB Vado HD.

Congrats to our two winners on Facebook!

For YouTube, our Subscriber “lostdahlia” is the winner of the 4GB Vado HD, while friend “andrewlee67″ wins the 8GB Vado HD.

Congrats to our two winners on YouTube!

Congratulations to all our winners. Remember, we are picking 6 new winners at the end of December-so if you didn’t get it this month, you can still manage to grab one by the end of the year.

Winners,  please send your full name and mailing address to socialmedia@creativelabs.com so I can get your shiny new Vado HD pocket cams out to you!

Take care everyone, and enjoy your holiday weekend!

-Tawnee

Native Instruments is offering a number of their top synthesizers for just $99 this weekend, including, amazingly, Reaktor 5 (which normally retails at around $400). Quite a fantastic deal, especially for Reaktor; if I had more money available, I’d probably have picked up Absynth and Massive too, but at least now I’ve finally acquired Reaktor (after drooling over it for ages).

A quick caveat that this is for “download only” versions, so if you want the boxed copy, you’d still have to pay $400 or whatever. But I can’t imagine that would dissuade anyone.

Tip acquired via Create Digital Music

Native Instruments’ site

A few weeks ago, I received this video in my comment box along with a very brief  explanation that simply said, “You should blog this video,” from some guy by the name of Ryan Lewis.  That’s it.  No other explanation at all and no I don’t know who Ryan Lewis is.  Of course, at this point, however, my interest had been piqued and I was soon deep into his mini film.  Upon first view, I’ll admit I didn’t know what to think of Ryan’s production, only that he made some really good use of some beautiful stop motion photography and I sensed that he was attempting convey some profound message. I just didn’t know what it was.  At any length, I was further intrigued to perform due diligence on this cat and found that Ryan Lewis is actually a very talented, versatile and well rounded artist which is what persuaded me to honor the request and “blog this video”.  You see, Ryan Lewis is , not only,  a very skilled and creative photographer, but he’s also an audio producer… he makes beats, designs album covers and promotional fliers for artist as well… my kinda cat!!

I viewed his video for a second time on Thanksgiving morning, I awoke to my usual morning of getting straight to business- logging onto my laptop and grabbing my mobile, simultaneously.  It was time to clock in- log onto my blog, check my email,  glance through my text messages etc, get my day going with a cup of freshly brewed organically grown fair trade java and a whole world brought to me via cyberspace. After viewing, Ryan’s video, while, responding to more than a dozen well wishes for Thanksgiving, it dawned on me that while, I seemingly was more connected to the world, I was less connected to those who impact me most. Furthermore, I realized and actually came to grips that some of my connectivity was simply fake, I was no more than psuedo-connected to the vast majority of people with whom I was connecting, chatting, texting, emailing!  I accepted the fact that I knew no more about my cyber world than what it’s citizens wanted me to know. It was jolting to think that I interact with people on the daily whose voices I would never recognize, not to mention, whose faces I would not,  either; I share my views and opinions just like I am doing now with complete strangers more than I do my closest friends and family members. All this connectivity brought to us courtesy Myspace, Google, Gmail, Starbuck’s , etc., has silenced us, often has  kept us so busy trying to connect that we have not connected with those closest to us, our loved ones. Just like getting a card in the mail, or jotting down a note to a friend, or sending a letter to someone you love, plain old fashioned face to face communicating is becoming rarer and rarer as we become more and more intrigued, entranced, even, swallowed up by our cyberworlds. So on Thanksgiving, I put my cyberworld to the side for a few hours and gave thanks for being able to give and receive an actual hug, to laugh with my neighborhood, to sit down to dinner with friends and talk, to really connect with those who are important to me, the plain old fashioned face to face way, no waiting for a signal, no logging on, no dialing up, no texting, no transmission errors, no avatars. I could be experienced by the living, the breathing, the actual and moreover,  I could not be silenced, I was present and loving it, thanks to God and thanks to Ryan!

Full thing’s here.

Came across this funny video of Stormtroopers talking about the 1 year anniversary of the Death Star explosion.  Check it out  HERE.

Check out this:  Its facebook status updates from star wars characters.  Funny!  See it HERE.

HA!

bg

There’s a bit of a catch, but they may have figured it out.

So I haven’t blogged about BBWs in a while so I thought I’d do so shamelessly now.

Here is a rather feisty one to enjoy. Enjoy.

It’s friday so I thought I’d share this cracking picture with you all! Unfortunately it was part of a showcase on Behance rather than an actual resignation note, but imagining someone leaving it on their computer still makes me chuckle!

I challenge anyone to find a better resignation letter!