quote of the day

On her favourite wardrobe items from the movie The Devil Wears Prada, Hataway said she prefered

The Galliano gown that I got to wear at the benefit was just absolute heaven. It felt like the fabric was made out of sex. It was so good.

hum... can i have one?

you've got to be kidding

last night i finally got around to setting up my computer desk, aka, cleaning up the mess and making it usable and such. part of this setup included installing my new printer, which came with my laptop.

well, let's just say that i was really disappointed with my free 3-in-1 printer. it looks and feel like it's made from the cheapest materials possible. it does crappy printouts. it's huge. and the USB cable that connects the printer to the computer is sold separately. say what?

who was the idiot at dell (or genius, depending on how you choose to look at it) who thought that most people 1. wouldn't want that necessary cable included to that 2. would already have their own cable?

earth to dell. what's going on here???

10 plates of chinese food later...

holly, i am full!

i attended the last bit of my training tonight, which lasted 4 hours (!!!) in a fancy chinese restaurant downtown. my time was compensated with free tsin tao and 10 courses of chinese food - and not the cheap stuff either: we had everything from lobster to crispy peking duck skin.

after this last bit of training, i am even more convinced that i picked the best company (in the world) to work for. and i'm not saying this because of the food. i'm saying this because i am *so damn proud* of working for such an ethical company. so damn proud.

Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama in Chile
Originally uploaded by Gabriel Ortega Berger.

on a different subject, i have managed to score tickets to see HH The XIVth Dalai Lama speak in vancouver in september (let's pretend that the money i am saving from the free internet and cable is being applied towards this!). i got 9th row, ground level. at least i will get to see him, and not just a tiny dot for a person dressed in safron red. i'm quite excited about that!!!

hopefully i'll get to take a few good pictures as well.

and hopefully his lecture will be quite inspirational (although i can't see how it could not be).

and so i'm back i'm back!

... from the frustrating state of being computer/internet-less.

my brand-new, ubber shiny silver and white dell laptop arrived this week and i've been spending a little bit of time setting it up. putting all of my files on the computer is taking a long time (i have about 9 DVD worth of pictures!) and downloading desired software to bring me up-to-date has been taking even longer since i've been using (read: stealing) a wireless connection in my building. the damn thing either works fantastically or not at all, and i guess that i'm too cheap right now to pay for my own internet.

unfortunately, i'll have to cough-up the cash soon though, because i figure that i can't keep going about it this way, with the internet so unreliable. in addition the internet is provided by the cable guys, who have been nice enough to not disconnect my cable. i'm sure they'll figure that out at some point and then i'll have nothing keeping me from calling them up and asking for services. but for now, i'm afraid that if i call for one, i'll lose the other! (je suis gratteuse, non?)

corporation

so i've now joined the world of "9 to 5".

i used to say, back in the days, that i would never work 9 to 5 shifts. i didn't want to work in an office, i didn't want to work in a cubicle and it's depressing coloured carpet walls. i did not want to join the corporate world. i wanted to be free. or at least, free of an "office" life.

well, today this all changed for real. while i've started my job with one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies (the biggest???) in the world three weeks ago, it wasn't until today that i started a 9 to 5 shift.

i thought about it yesterday, while walking in the warm grass, leaving the office. yesterday was my last day. before this, i did work offices and cubes. before today, i had kept my word. but you know what? this corporate thing isn't so bad. i know when i start and when i finish. i have my weekends off. i don't work overtime. i get to work for a great company. i get to make friends. i get a nice view of the mountains from windows around the office or from the kitchen/patio area. i get to have this freedom and stability that i wanted.

would i have preferred a different, earlier shift? yes. but is this new end to a belief of mine a bad thing? no. being like so many other people does not make me less of an individual, and it doesn't hinder my dreams.

i guess that now i'm even more grown up (or appear to be?). just in time to fit my brand new "26" in two weeks.

time flies...

i ♥ wood

Robert Charlebois
Originally uploaded by CAZASCO.

went to the trois accords / robert charlebois concert on saturday night, right out in the street in vancouver for the festival d'été. the shows were great, with incredible energy. it was wonderful to be surrounded by so much french-speaking people, to immerse myself in québec without the 5 hour flight! even the smell of poutine was in the air throughout the night.

with a beer in my hand, i sang the night away. charlebois was fantastic, playing some of his greatest hits. i never thought i'd hear people cheering for "graziela" but it happened, although he did not play it. so, no walk down memory lane to the 4th grade for me! haha (it was the name of my teacher at the time).

i had a great time, even though i went there alone and didn't end up running into people i was expecting to see there. i'm glad that i decided to attend my first solo event! yé for me!

no end in sight

my laptop still hasn't arrived. there was a manufacturing glitch and so it is still in production... i should be getting it at the bare minimum in one week from now. it's quite frustrating how promises of 5 to 10 business days can turn into 15 to 20 days. damn my high expectations.

thus, i am sheltered from the world. at least, that's how it feels to me. it seems that technology is this thing that we take for granted and as soon as it isn't there anymore we don't know how to deal with this big empty space. somehow i needed a little time in china to realize that and my weeks without a laptop at home to get antsy.

dell: gimme gimme!