First of all, I would like to thank you all for the views and likes the two days. Please be patient with me as I work on making this blog pretty.

Life Bits

My external hard drive (EHD) was left neglected in the closet for almost a year and I wanted to play with it. But I couldn’t find it at first. I was SURE it was in the closet but didn’t find it. I gave up looking for it that day. Two days later I went to look for it again. My gut is telling me IT’S IN THE CLOSET! and there it was, in a box on the shelf. Yay!! So yesterday I took the day to clean out 4,250 (unnecessary) pics. Now the picture count on the hard drive is 2,000+. Wow!! Definitely a flashback, good memories. Feels good to to get a fresh start with my EHD.

Facebook Talk

This post about Facebook got me thinking, so here’s my thoughts:

This morning I got on fb to check the status updates and see what’s up…. and it’s full of game requests and those picture thingys,whatever you call them. ugh annoying!

• They have a separate websites just for those picture thingys, Use them! Hello!! This is getting old!
• I do like the ticker tho. must have! i freak out when i don’t see it (due to the screen being zoomed in, duh me!).
• I don’t like negative statuses. Do you have anything good to say?!
• I do like the Auto Game Collectors (third party app). I remember a few years ago I was wanting a easier way to collect game stuff instead of clicking one by one, takes a long time. Well my wish was granted! A must have for me.
• While we are speaking of games, when I send out game requests, the Select All check box is my friend. Makes it easier. Now I tend to use the gamers list instead All Friends so I don’t bug the non-gamers with the requests. But if you are getting requests and don’t want them, please block the app. Problem solved. So now there should be less pictures of Madea saying “Send me another game request…” floating around on fb
• When it comes to games on FB, I only stick to Zynga. Love their GUI and attractiveness. The other game companies, I don’t care about.
• Who needs 2000+ friends??!! I only add people I know and like. Don’t need a ridiculous amount of “friends”.
• Oh, I do like the fact that other websites allows you to login with fb. It’s easier when you forget your original username and password for that site.

I’m sure there’s more but that’s all I can think of right now

ok… i’m gonna end this post with a drink recipe. I’m gonna call it Fruit Slushie. I have tried various drinks recipes such as smoothies but find it milk and yourgut upsets my stomach so wanted to make something without those Also I don’t eat alot of fruit so this is a way to get fruit in my system. I came up with this:

Fruit Slushie

in a blender, combine:

• 3 ice cubes
• 1 c Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea (already made)
• 3 frozen strawberries
• Handful of blueberries
• Bit of honey (to your taste)

Blend, pour in your favorite cup and enjoy!

One of Jesse’s bands (Jason Maas and the Lower Companions – check it) was recording at Private Ear this weekend. I had initially intended to sit in for a bit and write a post about it, but unfortunately I spent the majority of the weekend running errands and cleaning my apartment instead. Still, it deserves mention and you should check them out because I said so. Oh, and they’re pretty rad. And I said so.

There’s something about the music scene here in the ‘Peg that makes me swoon. Can you blame me?

JP Hoe was just lovely last night. More about that next week. Happy weekend!

Then we got bored. Then this happened.

All serious blanketeers tie their forts to the ceiling.

Stay cozy, kids.

Nothing makes you forget about being itchy quite like building a blanket fort, and that’s a fact.

Tonight I’m heading out for the JP Hoe CD Release Party at the West End Cultural Centre. It’s going to be super wonderful, I can feel it.

I began my day being squished into my bus seat by a large, middle aged man with what would appear to be some sort of learning or mental disability. He recognized me from a bus ride yesterday and just had to sit next to me and talk again. Ok, fine by me, so talk we did. We talked about the newspaper and about hockey and about how he was going to take his $5 McDonald’s gift certificate in today and get lunch and coffee. It was a weird bus ride and not particularly stimulating conversation but hey, at least this dude was about ten times friendlier than your average transit passenger! That’s a-ok in my books.

When I arrived at work and was reminded today was AP Day, I was sort of taken aback. Umm…didn’t this day just happen, like, a month ago? Apparently not. Anyway, I got these:

Since it was a bit too busy for us to actually leave the brewery the boss lady (aka Nicole, or “that really cool chick who owns that place I work at”) picked up lunch for us from KG Saigon, which is this sweet little gem of a Vietnamese restaurant in Winnipeg’s West End. If you haven’t gone there GO. GO RIGHT NOW. I WILL WAIT.

I may or may not have snuck in some time on this bad boy as well:

What? That’s not how you shake off stress at your place of business? If not, I think you should be seriously re-evaluating your choice of workplace, friends.

Yep. Happy Administrative Professionals’ Day to all of my fellow phone answerin’, business handlin’, bookkeepin’ badasses. Now go out and get yourself a desk monkey why don’tcha?

This blog is the media I dump my brain regarding this topic. Bon Apetit!

It all began in a sleepless night…

The reason I questioned the basics of language learning was the result of a previous ‘aha’ moment back in 2004: an idea flashed in my mind: was I taught HOW to learn? The answer was a pain striking NO. I realized that the most essential skill of life – efficient learning – was missing (and sadly is missing) from the school Curriculum. I started to research the topic like mad and found promising bits, some funky techniques but not an overall, coherent systemized approach. And sadly that is true for language learning as well.

I took language and myself as a guinea-pig to unbind the threads of acquiring a specific skill. I grabbed the most popular language materials and tools then dissected them to see the mechanism. As a next step I took my findings about learning in general and compared them to see if the two can add something to each other. They did but I was surprised how current “cutting edge” language programs lacked basic neuro-laws. A lot was missing and I decided to fill these empty holes to build a simple coherent system. I decided to scratch my own itch. I questioned everything that others consider as axiom – compared hundreds of different mnemonics and repetition spacing techniques to and such geeky tiny details that I’m embarrassed to tell you. This blog, the VocabJunkie is where I will publish my findings, hacks, guestioning of basic dogmas and much more which I can not disclose right now… My mother language is Hungarian but during the last 7 years I dived in English, Spanish, German, French, Danish, Dutch and Icelandic language as well. All I can say, there are many tricks of the trade that are not disclosed in any classic language learning “schools”.

Ok, enough for the intro, let’s begin, shall we?

{source: 9gag.com}

See? Being alone on V-Day ain’t so bad. Could be worse…we could be toast!

I actually get to have dinner with a friend before launching into a full-blown, eat-all-the-chocolate-consume-all-the-wine-paint-all-the-nails Valentine’s Evening For One. No complaints.

Yeah. That.

Let’s just talk about sleep for a second. I’m getting SO MUCH. It’s amazing. There really is no better feeling than being well rested and able to function. Do you realize how many work tasks I busted my way through this week in little to no time at all? Because my ma’fuckin brain is working. Damn!

This album has pretty much been the soundtrack to my life this week. I CAN’T HELP IT. So good. So, so, so good.

Oh, and this album as well, because Leonard Cohen is just…damn. Can you believe that at 77 years old there’s a chance he might plan another tour? Unreal. What a trooper. I would do all sorts of unmentionable things to catch one of those shows. In reality I’ll probably just max out a credit card to get myself wherever I need to go to make that happen but STILL.

Any excuse to travel, right? Right.

]]> http://rosebeergoggles.com/2012/01/06/farewell-dear-friend/ Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:53:01 +0000 Vanessa Meads http://rosebeergoggles.com/2012/01/06/farewell-dear-friend/

Dearest Swingline,

You were the coolest office tool I have ever had, hands down. One glance at you always got me giggling over one liners from “Office Space” (they never get old). You always had a way of keeping my papers from falling apart, and my desk looked just a little more interesting thanks to your bold red paint job.

I’m pretty sure I was a jerk and dropped you on the ground and that’s why you broke. For that I apologize. Know that you will be greatly missed, and your shiny metallic non-Swingline replacement will never hold the same place in my heart that you did.

xoxo

Vanessa

My beautiful twins were born earlier this year and my life has drastically changed! Gone are the days of working 4 hours just to create the “perfect” card, or spending hours on a single scrapbook layout! Frankly, these days it’s a huge success to end a day wearing a shirt not covered in spit-up. (so far, that has not happened yet!) still, I wouldn’t trade it for the world and adding these little blessings to my life have made this journey so much more interesting. I have discovered a whole new world in becoming a mommy again after 11 years, and every day is a fun new adventure. I hope you’ll join me in my little chaotic, but crafty corner!

xoxo
Alex

I don’t have high hopes for you, because I’m a lousy pessimist with a big sad outlook on life who really just wants to hide under the blankets and try to get through you as unscathed as possible.

But hey, you’re just around the corner. I can’t really hide from you, and I’m sure 2011 has already told you whispers of how I have a habit of cowering in the corner of the couch with a blanket over my head whenever the year throws something awful my way. Yeah, I bet you think you’re prepared to handle me, don’tcha? You’re all “Ha! Send her bawling to the couch? Fuck that, bitch’ll be hiding under the bed by the time I’m through with her.”

Nasty calendar years, always trying to one-up their predecessors. Not this time Jerkface.

I have a plan and it involves having no plan at all. I might skip town for a weekend by myself. Maybe I’ll move to Alaska and take up fishing. Perhaps I’ll become a professional housewife with no child or husband and spend all day making myself sandwiches. I don’t know, and that’s the point.

So be forewarned dearest 2012. We could be great friends, but you need to know that messing with me will be very difficult. There are no plans to screw up because I am just not making any. I’ll go where you take me…so make it good.

xoxo

Vanessa