Something Unpredictable

Bookworm catchup

2010-02-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

I realise it's been a long while since I posted. When I found out that Blogger would no longer support FTP, it really drained me and made me not want to post. Disheartening to say the least.

I will be moving the blog over to wordpress, but that's going to take me a lot of work. So if my entries are few and far between forgive me (not that anyone reads this, but I'd like to think they do lol).

Anyway, as such I've fallen behind on posting my one book a week reviews. I'm not behind, I'm actually a book a head. But here is a quick little review of the books I've made my way through so that it doesn't seem like I've given up.

Week 4
True Colours
By Sue Haasler

Week 5
Chill Factor
By Rachel Caine

Week 6
Last Summer of You and Me
By Ann Brashares

Week 7
Can You Keep a Secret?
By Sophie Kinsella

Mostly all very light reading, but it's what I've been able to get myself into. Right now I'm sluggishly making my way through an Agatha Christie (usually I really enjoy them but it's been like pulling teeth), and I'm reading a Jennifer Weiner book (not enjoying it as much either). I think they are both jus tvery serious books and I can't bring myself to do serious right now. Oh wells.

Total Buzzkill

2010-01-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

Here I was, on a complete design high working on my friend Kelsey and I's forthcoming Disney blog. Originally I had intended to have it publishing with wordpress, the same case for this site. Using wordpress was a pain in the backside... I had just started to get a grasp on their coding and dashboard when... then went and changed it all.

Wow, was I annoyed. That's when I gave up on wordpress, transferred all my posts to blogger, and totally changed something-unpredictable to what we see today.

So working on my disney blog I go looking for fun gadgets that might be good for us to have on the site. And I come across the Blogger Buzz blog and this post.

Well crap. As of March 26, 2010 I will no longer be able to use Blogger for my blog. Why? Because I paid for two very nice domain names, hosting space, and all that fun stuff.

I'm so frustrated right now.

Thanks Blogger, much appreciated that you make my life suck.

Week 3 - Fly Me to the Moon

2010-01-25T18:29:00.000-08:00

I'm not behind reading (I'm actually a book ahead), but I didn't want my blog to be entirely made up of my crappy book reviews. That why we have a break in between.

Fly Me to the Moon
By Alyson Noel

This was a fun book. Definitely a chicklit book, but it was so much fun that I breezed through it in no time.

One of the things I find with these books, however, is that they are utterly predictable. As soon as the main character and the guy she would end up with (this is a chicklit book after all, they always end up together) made his first appearance, I knew that was who she would be with. And they hardly had a passing glance together.

This is a shot review, I know. :P

NERD OVERLOAD

2010-01-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

OH MY GOSH!

I just discovered there's going to be a Star Trek Convention here in Vancouver!!!!!!

*Andrea's head ruptures from excitement*

One small step in design, one giant leap for Andrea

2010-01-22T13:54:00.000-08:00

It's days like this that help me get over my worries that I"m not a good graphic designer.

My friend Joseph works for an airline in the States. It's his job to create those computer base training modules, so that pilots can refresh / learn their stuff. He is a pilot himself, not a graphic designer. He can, however, manage through okay. But what does he do when he hits a block and cannot work through it?

He asks me.

Today he needed a flash box, that he could update the text it, and it would scroll. Kinda like the iframes of internet yore, the ones that I loved so much. Plop the box in, pick your size, type in your text, and away you go.

Unfortunately for Jos, he doesn't know Flash. Doesn't even have Flash on his computer. So how could he make a box like this, without knowing a bit of action script.

So he fires me an email. While I always assumed I was crap at Flash (despite the fact that my Online design portfolio is completely Flash based).

I have never made a scrolly iframe type box in flash before.

So I dig out ye-ol tutorials. Turns out to be easy enough.

The tricky part?

Make the text work dynamically so all Jos has to do is plop the text into a word file and voila! Magic scrolly text box.

Dusting the filing cabinet in the brain off, I remember actually doing dynamic text in class. And video. And pictures. Do I remember how? Just.... hardly.

And what do you know? I managed to get it to work :D So now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside that I don't suck completely.

Yes I am probably silly for having such low esteem when it comes to my own creativity, but I will take whatever small steps I can. I know I can do this. I mean, look at my blog? It was several hours of work figuring out layers and textures and all that, but it's beeaaauuutiful (except if you use internet explorer, but that is because IE sucks).

So yes, I am a good designer. I just need to smarted up and do a better job at taking days like these to heart.

And now he tells me he needs it in actionscript 2 instead of 3... joy.

Week 2 - Heat Wave

2010-01-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

So in an attempt to get ahead on my "one book a week" resolution, I have been reading like crazy.

Heat Wave
By Richard Castle

If you haven't seen the TV show Castle (starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic) on ABC yet, then you are crazy. It is a terrific new take on the standard procedural crime shows like CSI and NCIS. While it's still your traditional person gets murdered and the police/forensics/navy guys have to figure out who did it and why, they give it a much more lighthearted spin. In the series, it is Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic), a police murder detective, who has been slumped with Richard Castle (played by Nathan Fillion). Castle is a novelist, who called in a favour to the mayor to be allowed to follow around a police team so that he can research his new book.

The pair make a great comedic duo, but not in typical "slapstick" comedic way. It's very witty humour, typical stuff you'd get from the characters that Fillion usually plays. There is also that relationship connection / spark type thing between Castle and Beckett, that leaves you wondering what if...

Throughout season one, Castle is researching for his new book, based on a new character (since he killed off his usual protagonist in his last book). At the beginning of season two, the book is released and the series is now peppered with jokes about the book that Castle has written.

So what did ABC do? They released the book that Castle wrote! It's got FIllion as Castle on the back as the author and everything.

The book is great, and reads just like an episode of the show. There is still that same partner dynamic, but this time between Castle's fictional characters Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook. All the references to the book in the TV show match up exactly with the book (yes, the sex scene is on page 105, and the dedication on the front of the book is exactly the same).

When I ordered the book into the store, I was surprised at how thin it was (it's only 208 pages in hardcover), so I didn't have high expectations for it. But it was definitely a great book to read, especially if you're a fan of the show!

Week 1 - Ill Wind

2010-01-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

So in my endeavour to keep up with my resolution to read more books, I figured I would try to keep a record of them all here my blog. You may not be excited for that, but I certainly am!

Ill Wind
By Rachel Caine

This is the second book in the Weather Warden series. I don't normally go for fantasy books (I read them if I have them). But we got a few of this series in at the bookstore a few weeks back, and I loved the cover design of them. I didn't really think about reading them until a customer ordered in one. For some reason I decided to read the blurb on the back and thought that it sounded interesting enough. I'd read enough Star Trek books to do me until 2020, so something different might be a change of pace for me.

So I went and ordered in the first of the series.

Oh my goodness, I was addicted. I polished the first book of in a couple days. And the next tiem I was at work I ordered the next one.

It was just as good. The ending was one of those that made me want to jump up and say "what?! No!" It was totally NOT what I was expecting, which is probably a good thing considering predictable books can be booooring. And if a book is boring I WILL stop reading it, that's just the way it is. I mean, why should I keep reading a book that I'm not enjoying?

Anyway, the main character, Joanne, is one of those kick butt heroines a la Charlie's Angels or Alias. It's always fun to have female leads who aren't dumb bunnies who always need to be rescued. Of course, sometimes even a kick butt chick needs to be saved, but usually she's at least put the sweat in to try and get herself out of the situation.

All in all I enjoyed this book. Can't wait for the next one to come in so I can devour it too. :D

My new calendar has the Mr Men Little Miss on it!

2010-01-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Happy (belated) New Year everyone!!!

There's something about a new year that makes a person feel extra optimistic and hopeful. Sure, new years is just another day like any other on our trip around the sun. Yet as we throw out our old calendars and look foreward tot he fresh, new, unscribbled in ones, there is just something so invigorating that makes us look foreward to the next three hundred and sixty five days.

I'm not usually the type to make New Years Resolutions, but for some reason I figured this year I ought to (perhaps if I did it would give me better years than the ones gone past). They are very lighthearted, but are things that I would very much like to work towards.

1- Read at least one book a week.
During university I found that I barely had time to read all of my assigned textbooks readings, let alone anything for my own personal enjoyment. I think I maybe read 10 books for myself in the entire 5 years that I was in post secondary - and I call myself a book lover, yeesh! Now that I have more free time, I really want to get back into ready. Prior to Christmas I attempted this, but I ended up falling about 5 weeks behind even though I was reading almost ever night - yikes! I know it's a big thing to attempt, but I"m going to give it a whirl and see how it goes! :)

2- Draw more!
Drawing has always been one of my passions in life. If I wasn't doodling on notes, I was drawing this silly square-a-day comic strips about adventures my friends and I supposidly went on. It even got to the point that I made one about my best friend, calling her Super-Amy, and coming up with a big plot surrounding it. Over time, this evolved into Snowpirate, a supposdily weekly webcomic. Yet even though I've been doing Snowpirate for going on 5 years now, I don't even have 52 strips in the archive!!! It's rather gloomy, I know. So, my goal is to start drawing some more. Hopefully at least once everday, even if it's in my drawing journal. I also have a few friends who have promised to kick my ass and get me motivated to work on snowpirate some more.

3- Stop being a lazy duff!
Yeah... this one is rather all encompassing. I have a habit of just falling into lazy ruts and not doing anything. On days I don't work I'll sometimes sleep in until 10, and then just act like a slug and not do anything productive (even as I write this I'm still in my pyjamas; of course, I am blogging, so that is being productive). There are so many things that I want to do in life, I just have to remember my motivation (that was buried under dust while I was in school) and get back to it! There are so many great things to see, people to me, goals I want to achieve... if I could just get out of bed and get to it!

So those are my three. I know, they seem rather silly, but I want small goals that make me a better person, instead of those basic go-to resoluations like lose weight and eat healthy. I'm also going into this realising that it might take more than the three months to actually achieve these resolutions (most people give up on their resolutions by March). These are more like goals I want to work towards, not that I'm going to dive into feet first.

I've already gotten a good start on the first one, with a book almost halfway finished. Of course, I started it technically last year... but we won't split hairs.. he..hehehe. The second one I have been doing a little bit of sketching here and there. Not much, but its better than nada. And lastly.. well... I'm blogging aren't I? Yes yes, I know I'm still in my pjs, but at least I'm working on something!!

So cheers everyone! Here is to a new calendar year, and to a refreshing start!

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

2009-12-30T12:22:00.001-08:00

There are often times when I wonder if the path I've chosen to go down was the right one for me. Of course, usually the answer is YES because I am having a silly amount of fun. But once in a while that little tickle of self doubt crawls into that inner voice that really makes me worry.

Currently: Was graphic design really that great of a choice for me?

If any one of my worries were to shine out, that would be it. I often wonder if I am creative enough for the job or if I am just a fraud. Can I really come up with all these beautifully designed products? What happens if I stop being creative and just hit the wall and can't produce anything further?

What prompted this was working on a freelance design project. It was going so well and then all of a suddenly WHAM... design block slams me in the back of the head.

I took a little break away from the project just to take a breath and see if that would help. I've tried a few of my cure-alls, and they aren't really curing anything.

So if I get mentally blocked on a simple project, what will happen when I get a full-time job designing, and will be required to come up with stuff every day, five days a week, for the next forty to fifty years.

...gulp...

I guess what it comes down to is me following a few simple rules. 1) Don't panic. 2) Take a breather, get some caffeine / sugar / comfort food / other item of food into my system that cheer me up. 3) Tap into a creative well by looking at other things that inspire me (guess my office better be well stocked with nice cookbooks and pretty things).

And failing that... 4) Picture a big rock in my mind, and me throwing that rock at the stupid creative wall. The wall can bugger off and leave me alone, I have work to do!

I wouldn't have graduated university, been production director, or been doing this for so long now if I didn't have creativity, right? I wouldn't have been hired for a freelance job if I didn't have what it takes.

Now I need to buckle up, settle in, and get back to work darnit!

Faith in myself, trust that I can do this job, and (maybe just a little) pixie dust in the form of chocolate. That's all I need.

Feed the Birds

2009-12-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Am I the worst blogger in the world? Most likely yes.

At any rate, here is a funny story, perhaps you will get a chuckle (I know I've been shaking my head in amusement at myself all day for it).

Today for my lunch break at work, I decided I wanted to eat something really bad for me. So I hopped in my jeep and went to A&W and got a hamburger and fries, etc etc. I ate it there, since the breakroom at work is pretty cold.

With half a thing of fries, my gravy, and most of my pop still left, I figured it would be okay to head back with the leftovers.

I am a clumsy sort, and as such, took precautions so that I wouldn't spill food or drink on my still new vehicle. I get to my car, door unlocked, purse chucked to driver seat. Everything is good.

Then as I go to put the food into my car... the fries spill ALL OVER the pavement.

Crud.

I totally saw this coming, tried to be careful, and I still couldn't prevent it.

So then I just laugh (there's nothing I can do so I might as well get a good chuckle out of the matter), pick up the non-biodegradable items (the fries container, and the gravy container), and get in my car.

Just as I do, two crows swoop down on the spilled fries, happy for the free eats.

As I'm pulling away I see this swarm of seagulls swoop over my jeep and divebomb the fries.

Man am I glad I wasn't walking that day.

So I lost half a thing of french fries, but I got a good laugh, fed the birdies, and probably saved myself some calories on the hips.

See? Maybe I can do this blog thing better.

Drives me crazy

2009-11-16T22:32:00.000-08:00

I'm not a scrapbooker. I have tried it, and its just not me.

Yet when I come across scrapbook paper I go weak in the knees. It's always so beautiful, such gorgeous designs and colours. And for someone who happens to love stationery (not to mention having an appreciation for great design), this paper can be my undoing.

Up until now, I've been pretty good - I drool over the gorgeous papers, hoping one day that the pretty designs will come in regular stationery, keeping my pocketbook free of unnecesary spending (I mean, what would I do with scrapbook paper?).

And then my boss brings scrapbooking paper into work to make signage with. Uh oh.

It's all I can do not to drool little puddles onto the floor. So many colours, beautiful textures, stripes, polka dots, patterns.. oh my!

I may not get to take the beautiful papers home, but oooh mans do I love getting to use the paper for something.

Am I crazy?

... nah, I'm just a designer.

Yum books

2009-11-12T22:10:00.000-08:00

There's something infinitely pleasing about finish a book, particularly one you enjoyed.

I found that in the past handful year my school work kept me away from reading books that I actually enjoy. Even post school, it took me a while to get back into the swing of reading books for pleasure, but I think I'm finally getting into it. Considering at the moment I've got four books on the go (three, if you believe my facebook).

For someone who spends at least ten hours a week surrounded by books (not to mention the ones in my own bookcases), finishing a good book is like the icing on the cake. Working in a bookstore is dangerous work, so if I don't devour (serious... ) a good book once in a while I can start to get a bit nervy. It's like all those good books are sitting there, just waiting for me to open their covers and discover the prose within.

Though I suppose once a person finds something that they love, they should keep doing it? I guess that's why I began a publishing specialist. Tehe.

Ugh my blog posts sound so random when I'm sleepy.

My friends...

2009-11-06T22:41:00.001-08:00

... are the best inspiration in the world.

Thanks guys. I love you. <3

Scarves are Held Hostage by High Prices

2009-11-06T16:49:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if its due to the crummy economy (which is supposidly getting better, if you can believe what the news and government tells you lol), or if its due to the fact that I am being exceptionally stingey with what I buy these days, but has anybody else notice how outrageously priced things are lately?

I went out to the city today to get myself out of the house and seen a change of scenery, with the mini-mission to find myself a new winter scarf (since I am totally obsessed with scarves) that was in the $5-$8 range.

Do you think for the life of me I could find one? Most of the scarves I saw were in the $18 and up range, unless I went to the clothing stores which were $28! Twenty-eight dollars for a scarf! Are they nuts? What in the world is their scarf made of, super fancy cashmere or something? I nerely pooped myself when I saw those price tags. The lowest price I could find on a scarf was $12, and it was only a piece of fleece cut up into scarf shape, and not nicely knit like I was hoping to find.

What is going on with the world when I can buy four good movies for less than a price of a scarf!?

Luckily a scarf isn't one of those necessities that I needed to haveomg or I would die. I might just go to the Army & Navy next week when I need to get out of the house again. I'll probably have better luck.

I think the scariest thing I saw was a tshirt for $38. And they weren't even nice tshirts.

Hurry up economy and get better.

Yippie!

2009-11-04T22:14:00.001-08:00

It's always nice when the design and creativity bug hits you again. It feels like its been absent for too long.

<3 New design up for something-unpredictable. Woo!

Sorry IE fans, the layout won't display properly for you. Get with the times and download Firefox arleady!

2009-10-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

After working in the customer service industry for over seven years now, I think I've got a reasonably good handle on the what it takes to help a customer and make the sale (and if I'm lucky, make an even better sale). I know the ins and outs, the how-tos and why-fors. I have been a greenhorn, and I've been someone training the greehorns. I've worked for three different companies, two of which are Fortune 100 ones who are renowned for their customer service practices.

Given all the above, one could easily assume that I have been in many different situations, both as the customer and the service rep. Indeed this is true and I do have many stories to tell.

And yet, it never ceases to amaze me at how utterly stupid service people can be. Don't they realise what they need to do to make a sale? Okay, so perhaps greenhorns haven't been in the industry long enough to read the signs a customer will give, I will relent there. But people who claim they have been working in the industry for a few years and yet... deliver nothing but inferior service? When I see that I am often torn between laughing until I cry or smacking the person.

For example, a few months ago I was in search of a new vehicle. My poor Honda Civic was heading to its last ends, and so I needed a reliable vehicle to get me to and from school without the worries of it breaking down (or me having to shell out massive amounts of money for repairs). Me, being the good little consumer I am, started doing my research. I knew I wanted either a crossover or a small SUV, since I wanted to be higher up when driving in traffic. I'd done my safety checks, looked up prices, and narrowed my choices down considerably.

My Mom and I then decided one day to go look. Not buy, but just look.

Since the Golden Ears bridge was brand new (and free), we decided to scoot over to Maple Ridge and check out a dealership there.. particularly because in our local newspaper they advertised "smashing bargains".

We arrived at the car lot, and started wandering around to have a look at the vehicles I was contemplating. They certainly looked nice, but we noticed there was a distinct lack of pricing on many vehicles. Eventually an older woman approached us, saying she was a manager and could she help us. When my Mom indicated I was looking for vehicles, this lady jumped right in and said she'd get someone to help us look.

And then sends us to the most handsomest salesman on the lot.

Immediately I was dubious, but I went along with it (He was good looking after all).

Now at this point anyone with proper customer service training would do the right thing: find out what the customer is looking for. If you can do that you're on the first step in the right direction.

So I will give props to Mister Hottie Salesman (we'll call him MHS for short) for doing that step.

"I'd like to get a crossover, either a Jeep or a Dodge, that has reasonable gas mileage. It's got to be safe, and doesn't need a lot of features. "

From that point on, MHS totally lost sight of the main point: Sell them what they want, not what you think they want.

HMS pointed out a very nice, brand new, Jeep Compass (which I had admittedly been eyeing), with CD player and fancy speakers, and in the colour red. He asks me what colour I want, and I reply that it doesn't really matter (of course I'm thinking Anything is fine as long as it's not puke yellow). I state that yes the car is nice, and I like the red, but I don't really need the CD player. We go for a test drive anyway, so I can see what it rides like. It's nice, but the CD player isn't really anything I need. Plus 21,000 is a bit out of my price range (actually VERY out of my pricerange, but my Mom is good with salesmen, so I let her do all the haggling).

He shows us a preowned Dodge Calibre. Points out the radio system (did he not hear me say I didn't care about that?). It's nice, apart from the puke orange seats. Seriously. Puke. Orange. So I test drive this and it's equally nice. Price is still too high, dont' care about options.

I say I like the red one better.

Suddenly MHS is pushing me back towards the red Compass, saying how I \b{really} want it because its red. I try to tell him I don't care about the colour. Or the cd player. I just want it to have air conditioning and automatic transmission. He keeps trying to sell me on the colour. MHS insists this is the car I want, it's red after all.

Andrea: But what about Safety features?
MHS: Who cares its red.
Andrea: Is it automatic?
MHS: It's red.
Andrea: I dont' care. What about power locks? Or Immobilizer?
MHS: Red, and red.
Mom: What kind of engine is it?
MHS: (Looking at me) You know you really want it, it's red.

At this point my Mom decided to just start toying with him, since she and I were getting pretty upset.

If MHS had a clue, he would have noticed that I didn't care about the colour, and that my Mom were indeed interested in the vehicle - just not interested int he colour.

We ended up coming back to our side of the river, going to another car lot.

The Sales Lady asked us what features we wanted, not what she thought we wanted. Only a/c and automatic? No other perks? Crossover or small SUV? Decent price (don't even get me started on MHS pricing... oye, he thought we were morons) ? Great safety record? Don't need 4WD? We dont' have it in the Compass or the Calibre... but I think I know something that fits your criteria that you'd like... have you seen the Patriot?

I ended up buying a Jeep Patriot that day. And it's exactly what I wanted.

See? All it takes is knowing your sales. Sell the person what they want.

Oh... and my Jeep is green.

Have you ever...

2009-10-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

... had one of those days where you don't feel like doing anything?

Yeah. Me too.

I Just Haven't Met You Yet

2009-10-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm Not Surprised
Not Everything Lasts
I've Broken My Heart So Many Times,
I Stop Keeping Track.
Talk Myself In
I Talk Myself Out
I Get All Worked Up
And Then I Let Myself Down.

I Tried So Very Hard Not To Loose It
I Came Up With A Million Excuses
I Thought I Thought Of Every Possibility

And I Know Someday That It'll All Turn Out
You'll Make Me Work So We Can Work To Work It Out
And I Promise You Kid That I'll Get So Much More Than I Get
I Just Haven't Met You Yet

Mmmmm ....

I Might Have To Wait
I'll Never Give Up
I Guess It's Half Timing
And The Other Half's Luck
Wherever You Are
Whenever It's Right
You Come Out Of Nowhere And Into My Life

And I Know That We Can Be So Amazing
And Baby Your Love Is Gonna Change Me
And Now I Can See Every Possibility

Mmmmm ......

And Somehow I Know That It Will All Turn Out
And You'll Make Me Work So We Can Work To Work It Out
And I Promise You Kid I'll Get So Much More Than I Get
I Just Haven't Met You Yet

They Say All's Fair
And In Love And War
But I Won't Need To Fight It
We'll Get It Right
And We'll Be United

And I Know That We Can Be So Amazing
And Being In Your Life Is Gonna Change Me
And Now I Can See Every Single Possibility

Mmmm .....

And Someday I Know It'll All Turn Out
And I'll Work To Work It Out
Promise You Kid I'll Give More Than I Get
Than I Get Than I Get Than I Get

Oh You Know It'll All Turn Out
And You'll Make Me Work So We Can Work To Work It Out
And I Promise You Kid To Give So Much More Than I Get
Yeah I Just Haven't Met You Yet

I Just Haven't Met You Yet
Oh Promise You Kid
To Give So Much More Than I Get

I Said Love Love Love Love Love Love Love .....
I Just Haven't Met You Yet
Love Love Love .....
I Just Haven't Met You Yet

Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Bublé

Walk down memory lane

2009-09-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

I remember watching this when I was a kid. Gotta love the NFB archives. :-)

Typical

2009-09-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing I truly detest about being on holidays, is the return trip. Being at home is always such a comfortable thing. We have our routines built up, the easy things that put our lives into such an easy pace.

But holidays ruin that pace.

And getting back into some sort of rhythm can be such a tricky and complicated thing for me. To the point where it frustrates me that I can't relax at night because I can't get into that routine.

Crazy, I realise.

The worst part about it is, when I'm home I want to be away on holidays. When I'm on holidays, I want to be home.

Making things more difficult...

2009-09-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Is it too much to ask for an easy user interface? Seriously!

I installed a new version of wordpress, and it is not in the least user friendly. Why did they change up the navigation so much? They went from a nice, horizontal navigation menu that I found reasonably okay to navigate. This new one is vertical one is a pain in my ass! You click the link and the little box slides down giving you more features, but if you don’t click the right area of the box it goes to a different page. Not to mention the millions of links listed there in the first place. I don’t need all that junk, get it off my screen.

Just when I was thinking I was getting the hang of their design system, I have to give up on learning it so I can learn how to just plain make a blog entry, nevermind design something.

Would it kill wordpress to design consientiously? Remember not everybody out there is a computer tech who can figure out crazy interfaces in the blink of an eye. Even us who speak geek reasonably fluently will have a crazy time understanding it. They need to get a communications designer on their team who understands how to communicate product to the public, someone who understands how to design with a person’s pre-determined notions of how things should work (ie: Design, but keep the human who has to use the thing in mind).

Before their update, the navigation was simple and effective: Write, Manage, Design, Comments. Simple to figure out, even for the non-technosavvies in the crowd. Now it’s: Posts, Media, Links, Pages, Comments, Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools, Settings, csformsII, Cystats, Database, CrybookSettings. I don’t even know what the last few things are!

Talk about headache and a half… *grumble*

Edit @ 22:35 ::

So I have officially given up on wordpress. It is too much of a hassle to deal with. I am currently in the process of transferring all of my archives over to blogger, and then will have blogger upload to my domain. Unfortunately it means that all my comments will be gone, but ... yeah... thems the breaks I guess.

Litomerice (Aug 31)

2009-09-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

This morning we are headed to Litomerice! I was rudely awoken by a 7 am wake up call (though I did ask my parents to call then lol). Had a yummy breakfast on the boat, and probably ate way too much.

This morning we set sail through the Czech countryside. Went up to the top deck and sat in a chair, just taking in all the pretty scenery. It’s amazing some of the buildings they have out there! Took lots of pictures of the passing scenery, worked on my travel blog, and read my book for a little while. We passed through four locks this morning, and its so neat to see the process of the ship going into the lock, them closing the gate, and then letting enough water out so that we’re on the next level of water and then the gates opening up again.

In the morning we had a short lecture by our Cruise Director Martin about the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia. It was interesting, particularly because the people didn’t really have much say in the splitting up of the country but ended up going with it anyway. And I think it’s funny that they keep saying in four years they will bring in the Euro, and then four years later they say it again.

Following that it was back up to the deck to watch the ship sail through the pretty countryside. While up there they held a Blood Mary party, though I didn’t participate given the fact that I don’t drink (plus who drinks booze at 11 in the morning? Yeesh). There were, however, a few people who went for it.

Then it was lunchtime, so we just had the light lunch in the lounge with music and such. I am totally going to be several extra pounds heavier when I get home. Oh well… its gooood food.

During lunch the ship docked in Litomerice. There was an optional tour to the Terezin concentration camp, but my parents and I opted not to do that and instead do the included tour of Litomerice. It was a bus trip up to a local winery. They showed us these 800 year old and ten-meter deep man made caves that were originally made by monks in the area. The temperature outside the caves was boiling hot, but inside these caves it was nice and cold. They were really neat to see, and the fact that they could build something like this was incredible! Following the monks’ ownership, the local nobles took over the winery caves. It was that way for hundreds of years until the end of World War II when the winery became state property. Finally during reunification it went back into private ownership. In these tunnels there were bottles of whine dating back to 1923! I realise that’s not as old as some of the buildings we’ve seen so far, but its still amazing to me.

Following the tour of the winery they gave a wine tasting with two whites and two reds. Of course I didn’t partake despite the waitress’ attempt to pour me a round each time.

Then it was off towards the Litomerice city square, which was filled with lots of beautiful buildings. It still amazes me that they are all so close together, with nice cobblestone streets and stuff. We didn’t have much time, but we wandered the square and saw all the little shops. We found an electronics shop, so I managed to get an adapter (since the one we brought doesn’t seem to work in any plugs except the bathroom one… and not very well at that). So I can charge my computer! After that we stopped at a café and had some very delicious gelato. I got a scoop of grapefruit, lemon, and black current. It was a lot more reasonably priced than the stuff we get back home in Canada.

I still had a bunch of Czech Korunas left to spend, and since I have to pay for pop on the ship I ended up buying 6 bottles of Coke… except I have no idea how I’m going to drink it all before we have to get off the ship. Yikes. I don’t drink THAT much pop, so 6 liters of it in 7 days is a bit of a stretch for me.. yikes.

A short stroll back to the ship, followed by the daily briefing by our Cruise Director. Dinner was good as always, but I wasn’t feeling terribly well. I kept falling asleep! I think the time change is getting to me pretty badly, 9 hours is a big difference!

There was a lecture on the Elbe River flood of 2002, but I was so tired that I just went right to bed. I didn’t even stop to change my clothes or brush my teeth, just right to bed!

Prague and Melnik (Aug 30)

2009-09-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

Today we board the ship! I slept much better this day, which I was happy about. Got up and went down to the buffet to have breakfast. Then we had a free morning to wander around and see Prague some more. We decided to go see St Wenceslas Square, since we’d missed it the previous day. So we hopped back onto the metro and away we went. Because we had to check out, I had to lug my laptop around with me.

St Wenceslas Square was a lot nicer, as there weren’t as many people. You could enjoy the ambience without feeling stressed from crowds and the like. We wandered along the shops and down the cobblestone street. Got to go into a local bookstore that reminded me of Chapters because it was so big! It was fun to see titles and authors I recognized, but the books done in a different language. And their design section – wow! Knocked me off my feet. I contemplated buying a Czech design book, but couldn’t find one I liked. They had plenty of nice books, but design books in English meant I could probably order them back home through work. I did take pictures, but then realized there was signs saying you weren’t supposed to – oops.

We continued our little wander around the beautiful buildings. It’s neat to see the old buildings with new modern looking ones. Hard to think back home when a building gets old we just tear them down, where here they really try hard to preserve them.

I bought a souvenir of Prague at one of the shops, a garnet and silver ring. Garnet is mined in the north of the Czech Republic, so I figured it would be a great memento that I would keep forever (unlike tshirts and hats and stuff).

We made our way back up Wenceslas Square toward the statue and the old museum, where we stopped for lunch. I wasn’t terribly hungry, so I had potato soup in a caraway rye bread bowl. Quite yummy. I am finding however that Czech food is very salty.

After lunch we found a little Czech grocery store. One thing I’ve noticed is that shampoo and stuff they don’t sell a the grocery store here – it’s only food! To get hygiene stuff you have to go to the drugstore. Back home you get it all together in one giant shop. At the grocery store my parents got a couple of bottles of wine, and I managed to find something that my sister-in-law put on request if we managed to find – paprika potato chips! Unfortunately no Thome herb mayo yet, but will be on the lookout for that in Germany.

We then hopped back onto the metro and went back to our hotel. Once there we had a quick drink, before we got boarded the bus to the ship. I slept most of the bus trip to Melnik since I was feeling pretty jet lagged still.

From Prague the bus took us to Melnik where the ship was docked. My room is a lot bigger than I thought, with a Murphy bed that folds down at night. We had drinks in the lounge while the ship was boarded and everyone unpacked. Then there was a welcome cocktail party where the Captain and crew in their dress uniforms came and welcomed us with a toast. This was quickly followed by dinner down in the restaurant. It was a fancy looking hard-boiled egg, potato soup, then a raspberry sorbet palate cleanser, followed by veal and veggies, then dessert. I felt very full afterwards.

This was followed by going up in the lounge for a talk about the cruise itself by the Cruise Director Martin. With that was a little bit about the areas we would see, how the cruise works, and safety procedures. Following that I went down to bed as I was sleepy.

Prague (Aug 29th)

2009-09-01T22:33:00.000-07:00

After a rather tough night (Prague is 9 hours ahead of Vancouver, so it’s quite a time difference), I ended up waking about 6 am Prague time. I figured I wasn’t going to sleep more, so I got up and got ready for the day (as much as a person can without fresh clothes or their toiletries… at least a shower is nice).

Went down to the free buffet in the hotel, which served A LOT of food. It was all very yummy and I of course ate far too much. But its holidays, I can exercise when I get home (never mind I’m doing a lot of walking on holidays as it is lol). We checked in with the concierge to see if our luggage had arrived, but it hadn’t. But as we were heading to the front desk to see if they had any small deodorants our luggage was just arriving at the Viking Cruise desk and our Cruise Director was just about to bring it to us. So yay

We were set for a tour of Prague today. So we after changing into clean clothes, we loaded onto our designated bus, and then we were off to see our first stop at Hradcany (the Prague Castle) and the St Vitus Cathedral. It was so beautiful, on the top of a hill that overlooked the city of Prague. The palace part was built during the Austro-Hungarian empire times.

We walked around inside the Cathedral. It contains the tomb of Ferdinand I, as well as the one for St Wenceslas, among others. We walked outside along the cobblestone streets and had a nice view of the city. There was the palace itself where the President of the Czech Republic stays (though curiously there were no guards in their booths out front, the tour guide said this was the first time she’d ever see the boxes empty).

Back along the cobbles towards the royal gardens. There was the villa the Prime Minister lived in before the Communists took over. Since regaining their freedom the current Prime Minister refuses to live there (did not want to live in a place where the people who had imprisoned him had lived). Wandered through a little bit of the gardens, but had to turn back to board the bus.

Then we went back into the New Town quarter of Prague. The bus couldn’t go into the Old Town part due to the streets being too narrow, so we started on the walking tour portion of the tour. Went to the main Old Town Square. The buildings are absolutely beautiful. They are all built right against each other, and there is little green space. The roads are all cobblestone. The feeling I got being in this area was like I was in Disney World and all the buildings were nothing but scaled facades. It’s almost like it’s not real!

We wandered the streets and made our way to the Jewish Quarter. Due to lack of space they actually pull up the gravestones, put down a layer of dirt, and then put the gravestones back down and start burying more people on top. Some of the graveyards are so old they have 18 layers! Prior to World War II there were approximately 200,000 Jewish people living in the Czech Republic. A good number managed to migrate to Canada and Australia before Hitler arrived, but now following the end of Fascism and Communism in the Czech Republic there are only 5,000 Jewish people in all the country.

We made it to the Astronomical Clock in the square just before noon, so that when 12 came along we could see the clock do its thing. It was very awesome, and you could see how they would chart the changing of the stars / constellations with it. They say however they that the stars have changed enough that it doesn’t really do much to predict the change in the stars anymore. It’s still really neat to see though.

Our walking tour was finished after that, but the tour guide showed us where we could get a real Czech style lunch. Only my family and I, and one other couple – Ron and Joyce -, decided to eat there. The place was really neat; you went into this bar, then down two flights of stairs into the restaurant. There they served us Potato Soup, Beef Broth Soup, and fresh bread. Then for my entre I had the beef goulash, which came with bread dumplings, and (again) French fries. Then they brought us dessert that was a crepe with plums and whip cream… soooo yummy (I took a picture of it, a habit learned from Kelsey).

After that my parents and I wandered down to the Charles Bridge. It’s very pretty, and decorated with many statues. On the bridge there are many artisans and vendors selling things. It’s pedestrians only, and very busy to cross, but still a neat sight to see. It gives very pretty views of the Old Town and the rest of Prague. Wandering back we looked through the various shops (all selling the exact same things from Vancouver… except they say Prague). The neatest thing I saw was the giggling witches (I got a video of them… if I can’t post them now, I’ll post them when I get home – they’re hilarious!). We then went to their biggest shopping centre, which is built behind an old building. Really neat looking, but more or less the same things back home and the same price. But they did have a TopShop, which I wanted to go in and have a look (because they’re supposed to be really good but we don’t have them back home), but my parents were trucking along too long. The mall was really massive, comparison to our Metrotown back home – four floors, and tonnes of shops.

Old Town is very crowed with lots of tourists! For me to say that means a lot, because I worked in Disney during the summertime (the busiest season) and it wasn’t nearly this bad. This crowd makes Disney crowd seem like low season. The crowds make hard to get around. You also need to be careful to watch your things. One lady in our tour had her wallet stolen, and the thief was so slick he even re-zipped her bag up. We were feeling pretty tired after that, so we wandered up the streets and took the local subway back to the hotel.

Make that very tired. We were too lazy, so we ate that the little Asian restaurant in the hotel called Rickshaw (it was Asian, as it had food from several countries). I have to say… probably some of the best Asian food I have ever eaten, and that’s saying a lot because I live in Vancouver and have access to some of the best cuisine around!

After that I had to get some sleep because I was so tired!

Vancouver-Prague (Aug 27-28)

2009-08-31T22:32:00.000-07:00

I have been officially awake for 24 hours now. In this past day I have learned:
1. Breakfast on the other pre-security side: always better.
2. New products that come with rechargeable batteries don’t ALWAYS have said battery fully charged.
3. If there is a “random additional screening” procedure in place, I will always be the one selected for it.
4. Delta is actually a pretty nice airline (despite what Jos says).
5. Gone are the days of polite airline passengers.
6. When travelling despite being up for a certain amount of hours, your brain will not acknowledge said hours while your body will.
7. Do not use Amsterdam International. Ever. Never ever ever.

The day started out as a typical holiday would: getting up early enough to make the trip to the airport to get us there the requisite number of hours. Fair enough, that was simple. We got to the airport in good time, went to the Northwest Airlines check in, the customer service rep helped us check in and lah-dee dah.

Going through US customs at YVR, they had additional screening. Guess who was picked again to go through said screening. Yup. Stand there, let them wave the metal detector everywhere, get a pat down, lift both feet, get all carry-on items thoroughly checked out. Made it through that okay luckily. I guess I just have that “oh pick me pick me for a random inspection” look about me. Oh well.

Went to find something to eat (since we got up early and would have a 2 hour wait at the airport since we’re flying international). Nothing good, all nice sit-down places are on the other side of security. So we pick a fast food-esque place, which was alright.

Then as I was taking movies on the drive in I realized that the battery for my new vidcamera only had minimal charge. Great. So at our gate I hunted down a plug so the battery could charge fully and I could go back to taking movies.

Ponder why there is a Delta plane at our gate instead of a Northwest one. My friend Jos (who works in the US airline industry) always rags on Delta Airlines. The few times when I’ve flown Delta before I’d had no trouble with them (who can complain about being upgraded to first class for free?), but he was always so insistent so seeing the plane there had me worried – did our gate change or were we flying on a Delta plane? Indeed we did fly on Delta Airlines from Vancouver to Minneapolis-St. Paul, in row 6A, B, and C. Their flight team was excellent and we actually go in to MSP earlier than scheduled.

We did our looooong walk across the MSP airport, and then found some lunch at a Wolfgang Puck Express (hurray for Disney on the trip lol). The three of us split an Asian salad and a four-cheese pizza. It was just the right size for us, especially considering we’d eaten only three hours earlier. While in the MSP airport I also looked for a cheap watch to buy (the ones in Vancouver were too expensive for what I wanted). Ended up finding one for $10, which is good.

Then it was time to board the massive plane for the longest stretch of our journey. My parents and I weren’t sitting together this time. What happened was, when I went to do online check-in the day before, I’d found out that we were assigned to row 42 C, D, and E. On the A330-200, that is the centre aisle, right at the back of the plane. Definitely not what we wanted. Looking we could pay $50 a seat up and move to the first few rows of coach. My Mom agreed, so we paid the money and moved up. Only problem was they didn’t have 3 together. So I sat in row 11 C (centre row, aisle) and my parents got row 15 A and B (Right row, window and aisle). Lucky for me, there was no seat in front of me! Row 10 goes AB aisle DE aisle GH – the seat C was missing! I got extra legroom for the longest leg of our trip!

We were served dinner right away, so I ate… again, only an hour after we’d just had lunch. Then I watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past on my mini-TV. I attempted to have a snooze after that, but unfortunately people have become incredibly rude on flights these days. No longer to people whisper quietly to their seatmate or mind themselves. No, they have to instead grab the back of your seat (even if they aren’t sitting in the seat behind you!), talk loudly a couple aisles back while everyone is sleeping, and leave their reading lamps on even if they aren’t reading. Needless to say I didn’t sleep much that flight. So instead I watched X-Men Origins, and once it was done made another attempt at sleeping. While I didn’t sleep, I did rest my eyes, which was good because they were starting to burn pretty badly.

Then breakfast came along (if it qualifies as that). It was a soggy biscuit with something that looked like egg inside. When you got to the middle of it gross tasting cheese squirted out… blech. At least the banana and OJ that came with it tasted good. I decided then to watch I Love You, Man. It killed just enough time until our plane landed in Amsterdam.

If out of any of the things I’ve learned thus far is something for me to listen to (and you too!), it’s DO NOT FLY IN AND OUT OF AMSTERDAM AIRPORT.

Our flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul was early, and thus they did not have our gate ready. This is a frequent occurrence at any airport if a plane is early, so no biggie. The purser got on the comm and told us it would only be a few minute wait. Half an hour later the Captain got on the comm and said he was harassing the airport to get us a gate. During that time I think I got about 10 minutes nap – woo! Another fifteen minutes later and we finally get to dock at a gate.

Then there are no departure monitors anywhere. Not at one. How do they figure out what gate our next flight is leaving from? Finally we find a “Transfer Check In” that we have to scan our tickets to tell them that yes, we’ve checked in again. Then it’s yet another long trek across the airport to our terminal.

Halfway there this big crowd stops us. Not sure what it is my parents wait in the crow and I go look to see if we can go around. That crowd was European Union Customs and Immigration. Let me tell you… I worked at Walk Disney World, in the summer, and I have never ever seen such mass chaos and insanity. It was terrible! They didn’t have enough customs clerks on duty to begin with (you’d think they realise: gee, we have this many international flights coming in with this many people on board… maybe we should put on lots of staff?). We had 2 hours between connections, which typically would be enough time. A half hour delay plus a fifteen-minute walk across the airport to said gate left us with an hour fifteen to get to our plane (keep in mind planes board 30 minutes prior to departure). So 45 minutes to get through the mass of people, through security again , and then make the 20 minute walk to our terminal (I know its 20 minutes, because the sign at customs told me so).

The custom guy didn’t really ask us questions… not like they do when you are entering or leaving Canada. But he did stamp my passport, so I was happy

We made it to the terminal with enough time to go to the washroom. Then our flight was called and we boarded a bus. Typically when that happens you go on a puny plane (ie: one seat-aisle-one seat). But this was a fair size, a Fokker 70. It was on KLM City Hopper. This flight thank goodness was very short, only an hour, and then we landed in Prague. The airport there was rather quiet, and we didn’t need to go through customs or anything because we had already done so in Amsterdam.

However, apparently somewhere along the lines our bags and several other passengers’ bags did not show up in Prague. We waited an hour for the bags to show up on the carousel, and while some did, it seemed like many others didn’t.

Have officially been awake for 24 hours at this point.

Went to the desk and filed the paperwork stuff, then met our transfer lady from the cruise who took us to our hotel. When we got there our Program Manager was there and said she would continue to harass KLM for our bags for us. So we checked into the hotel, had a shower, and then we tromped up the street to get a bit of dinner from a local pub. I had turkey and broccoli with cream sauce, and croquettes as my side. It came with French fries (they have this thing where if they think you’re American or British they give you fries). When you order a Coca-Cola it comes in glass bottles, which is fun!

Tromped back to the hotel. Still no suitcases. I was tired, so I got a toothbrush and toothpaste from the front desk, and then went to sleep.