Lowther Rinse Repeat

Remembrance Day: Thank You Granddad November 11, 2008

Every Remembrance Day, we take a moment to remember all the sacrifices that have been and are being made by our country’s soldiers in defense of our country. My Granddad fought in World War II and every year on this special day I think of him and everything that he has done. Unfortunately, I was unable to join him this year at the cenotaph to commemorate the friends he lost during the war.  This year has been a particularly hard one for him, as he lost his loving wife of 57 years this summer. I know that Remembrance Day is an extremely important day for him and I want him to know that I am thinking of him and sending all of my love over his way.  I am very thankful for everything that he and his friends and colleagues did for us.

The details of what he did during the war are still somewhat sketchy as he was flying top secret missions that he was not allowed to talk about for 50 years. This time frame has just passed, but as you’d imagine, after not being allowed to talk about it for that long, one has grown accustomed to keeping the secret.

From what I have heard either from my Granddad or second hand through my Mom, Granddad joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) when he was 17. He flew a number of planes, including gliders. One of his missions was to fly a massive cargo glider carrying a large number of troops behind enemy lines. This was achieved by the glider being towed by a large powered plane until they were close to enemy territory. At that point, the glider was released and Granddad flew the plane to a secret field and safely landed the plane. They used the gliders because they were so quiet, they couldn’t be heard by people on the ground. Once down, and the troops were deployed, the plane was abandoned and Granddad had to rendezvous with people that helped him get back across the border without getting caught.  His plane was shot at on one of these missions and he still has the shrapnel from that in his back to this day.

I know that this is just a small part of what he did during his time in the Air Force and I will probably never understand the true extent of everything he did during the war. As time passes and each year we have fewer veterans with us to tell us their stories, we need to make sure that we take the time to hear and learn about the stories from the war - lest we forget.

So I took a small portion of my day to say thanks to everyone who has ever fought a war in defense of this country and remember the great sacrifices that they made so that we can live with the freedoms that we take for granted every day.

Finding Your Passion November 5, 2008

I’ve spent so much of my life pursuing major goals that I’ve set for myself - namely school and work - that I’ve realized that I’ve lost my passion pursuits.  I find myself pouring this drive into my life goals and relationships, but it’s really not the same.

When I do something, I want to do it really well and will focus much of my effort and dedication into these pursuits, but I’ve been realizing as of late, none of these things make me a better or more well rounded person because of it. Yes, it’s great that my career is going so well or that I finished school, but there needs to be more than that!

So I’ve decided that I’m going to do something about this, I just don’t know what that is yet. When I was younger, I had music - I played the clarinet for 10 years.  Once I graduated high school, I let this hobby fall by the wayside. I’m not particularly interested in picking it up again, so I’m crossing that off of my list.

So as I sit here on the verge of my 29th birthday, I’m trying to figure out what my passion is. Even with the thought that I’ve put into this as of late, it’s still not come to me. So I’m thinking that I would like to try a vast assortment of things to see what piques my interest.  I’m never one who sets a resolution on New Years, but I think I’m going to do it for my birthday - like a present to myself.

Over the course of the next year, I am going to do things that take me past my current comfort level. I want to take an art class, help people less fortunate than myself, learn how to be a better photographer, maybe pick up a sport or enroll in cooking classes, who knows? But as a present to myself, before my 30th birthday, I want to try at least 10 new things and maybe, I’ll develop a passion for one of them that I will continue on with throughout my life, wherever that takes me.

I’m always open to suggestion, what are you passionate about?

The 5 Things Meme October 25, 2008

Linda Bustos tagged me in the 5 Things You Didn’t Know about me meme. I’ve been extremely negligent as of late in blogging, so this is as good of a reason as any to finally sit down and put fingers to keyboard - pen to paper really does sound better. Thanks to Linda Bustos for tagging me in this meme.

So here it goes.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. I was going to Kwantlen College in Surrey. I was going to do my first 2 years of my criminology degree there, then I was to head to SFU to finish it and finally on to UBC to get my law degree.  If you know me, you’ll know that this isn’t the path that I ended up going down and couldn’t even imagine where I’d be now, if I had. I’d wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember, but I hated criminology almost immediately, so I ended up dropping out and wandering around aimlessly for a couple of years.  Although, I’ve still not completely ruled out going back to school and getting my law degree.
2. I was about to start working at the Boathouse in New Westminster. I worked there for almost 4 years. Starting off as a breakfast hostess and working my way up to serving at night. I had a blast doing it at the time and it was great money, but I’d never want to have to do it again.
3. About 10 years ago, I broke up with my high school sweetheart - we dated for just over 4 years.  It was incredibly hard to do at the time, but I have zero regrets about doing it.
4. I had just quit my job at Dairy Queen. Yes, I know I was far too old to be working there at that time, but I’d been working there since I was 14 and it was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. To this day, whenever I quit a job, I pretty much get physically ill.  There is something about leaving the people who I’ve had enter my life - far more extensively than as just coworkers - that tears me up inside.
5. I was getting ready to celebrate my 19th birthday. Yes that was the big one. We ended up going to a little pub in White Rock and I ended up drinking far to much and getting sick for half the night. I’m glad I lived through my late teens and early twenties and would never wish to do it again!

5 Things on my to-do list today:

1. Drop of 4 pairs my shoes to the shoe doctor to get re heeled.
2. Pick up some film at London Drugs that they couldn’t process and take it down to First Photo in Kits.
3. Drop of some clothes at the tailors to be mended.
4. Pick up some accessories for my outfit for the Parade of Lost Souls tonight.
5. Meet Nadia and go down to the costume warehouse blow out sale - the line up was about 4 hours long, so I skipped this one.

5 Snacks I like:

1. Any sort of candy
2. Ice Cream
3. Edammame
4. Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal
5. Cherries when they’re in season

5 Things I would do if I was a millionnaire:

1. Take some time of work and travel
2. Buy a house
3. Start my own company
4. Donate money to charity
5. Help out my friends and family as much as I could

5 Places I’ve lived:

1. North Vancouver
2. Surrey
3. Delta
4. Vancouver
5. That’s it pretty boring I know

5 People I tag:

1. Nadia Nascimento
2. Raul P
3. Dan Nedelko
4. Kris Krug
5. Gus F

I don’t normally pass along chain stuff, but I’d be interested in seeing these peoples answers. PS. I you don’t read their blogs, you really should:)

How Do You Communicate With People? September 10, 2008

It occurred to me the other day that I don’t like talking on the phone much, I greatly prefer to text, email, IM or twitter someone.  Don’t get me wrong, I still do call people regularly when it is needed, but you will no longer find me calling friends and acquaintances without a specific reason or spending copious amounts of time on the phone in a single conversation.

This struck me as somewhat odd, as when I was younger, I was on the phone constantly.  So much so, that when I was a teenager, my Mom actually gave me my own personal phoneline for my 13th birthday so that other people in the house could actually make a call when I was at home.  I would spend hours on end having random unfocused conversations.

This made me wonder, at what point in my life did my preferred method of communication shift from that of the traditional telephone to these newer methods of reaching out and touching someone.  The very first time I made an email account was in 2001, when I went back to University and they required us to have one for an online marketing class that I took.  And I never used MSN until I’d graduated University in 2006, when my job required it.

At first, I found IM to be very annoying and distracting from work and really only used email when I needed to send a file over to a classmate.  Today, at any given time I’ve got a dozen IM tabs open, am twittering regularly, and am constantly sending emails. Quite often now, my phone will ring and I’ll think why is someone calling me?

So I can narrow down the scope of this communications shift to the past 2 years, but why?  Is it because of what I do for a living and it’s just a natural communications progression, as you’re far more likely to find me infront of a computer than not?  I can’t really answer this question, but it’s got me thinking anyhow.

Has this happened to you? Do you still chat on the phone regularly with friends and family or do you pick up the phone to call a store instead of heading over to their website to see if you can’t source the information your searching for yourself? Or is this just me?

How to Negate my Bootcamp Body July 11, 2008

Invoke has a BBQ off coming up next Friday.  In preparation for the BBQ off, a couple of the designers decided to photoshop the biggest burger they could.  Well we were no longer satisfied with the amazing burger creations that we made…we had to do it in real life.

So what happens when you cross 2 Baconators with 2 Grandpa burgers with bacon.  Well wait no longer.  I present to you the Double Double Baconator Grandpa Burger. Just so you know, this contains 3184 calories, 199 g of fat, 150 g of carbs, 6186 mg of sodium, and 202 g of protein.

Well our lead developer Wes has taken up the challenge to eat this monstrosity.  We’ve got $40 in the pot if he can finish it in 30 min.  This is going to be fun!  And take notice of his T, I think it is quite fitting for the occasion.

We have a time lapse video of this happening as I type. Once the 30 minutes are up, I’ll link you to the vid.

*Update…evidently the Grandpa burger patties are heavier than the Baconator, but it has less cheese.