Author: neilandia

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Take your pick Tuesday

Today is the Friday before Election Tuesday here in Canada. Lots of choices and you should do your part to help make this election worth it. Even though I get the sense that many hardcore party supporters are considering making a switch in their vote this time, we still have a strong possibility of another minority government. This would mean another run without much government power.

I was surprise to hear that the number of parties in my riding have gone down to 5 from 8. Even though I always voted for the same party I enjoyed having 8 to choose from on my ballot. I am considering changing my vote this time around but still haven’t made up my mind. I assure you though it will be made up by Tuesday when I hit the polls. For those of you not in Canada here is an example of the parties I used to be able to choose from.

Old Parties

 
Below are the parties I can choose from this election. (Note: These are just for my neighbourhood! Your riding may have other alternatives. Check out www.electionscanada.ca for information on your riding by postal code. For example if you live in Quebec you may also have the Bloc Québécois to choose as a party)

2008 Parties

 
So on behalf my good buddy Jean Chrétien (former Prime Minister of Canada) and myself “VOTE!”

Jean Chrétien & Me at the airport in New York
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Theme = Nothing

I ask you have we lost our ability to party for the sake of partying? Think back to the last few parties/events you have gone to. Are the majority of them not themed? Yes I know themes can be fun but I’m personally getting a bit sick of them.

I was trying to figure out what started this phenomenon rolling and these are some ideas I came up with:

  • Facebook showed up and suddenly that was THE way to invite people to parties. Therefore since you are actually “creating” a party and “inviting” people the regular show up at my place or meet at this club doesn’t seem important enough so you feel compelled to add a twist.
  • We have all become so busy that we had to chop out some events and decided to drop the ones without proper names.
  • Some dork started the trend, it was a good time and it stuck.
  • In order to give enough advance notice in today’s faced paced world people felt the need to annualize their parties and it seems odd to pre-plan a regular party a year in advance.
  • There are too many parties now so people need to make theirs stand out

What do you think is the cause of this trend or do you even agree? If you take away all the theme parties we are left with category parties such as birthday, wedding, goodbye, and house warming.

Was there a “death of the house party” party and I wasn’t invited?

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Cracks in our foundation

Finally a day when it fits to share this video with you. Since almost the inception of this blog I have wanted to write a post with this video in it.

Today was one of those days that just blows. Yes, I realize that is ironic following yesterdays post about “you creating your day”, or “positive thinking”. However it isn’t really. Had I not had those ideas floating around in the back of my head I am sure the day would have turned out 1,000 times worse.

So what went wrong? It was just a day when lots of stuff hits you at work, miscommunication occurs with co-workers, friends, & family. A day when you find stuff out about people that doesn’t sit right or people you normally tolerate get under your skin.

So all that said, one deep calming breath and a long hot bubble bath in the dark later… I bring you “Foundations” by Kate Nash…

“You said I must eat so many lemons, cause I am so BITTER”
-Foundations by Kate Nash

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Misty eyed

When you hear the following do you think they apply to you and your life?

  • Ask and yee shall receive
  • You create your day
  • What you give out you will receive back tenfold
  • That which you focus on will be
  • Karma

Yes? No? If not those how about these?

  • Serendipity
  • Luck
  • Fate
  • Horseshoes up your a*s

Or maybe you are like me and believe in them all! My life is often full of little surprises that I love and cherish. For the most part I chalk them up to the first group but sometimes they definitely feel like they belong in the second group. The line between them both can get blurred “Are you lucky, or did your actions and thoughts create that outcome?”

Well the whole trigger for this post came from a small surprise I received Sunday morning that I wanted to share with you all. You may have read that my favorite season is Fall, so I am in my glory right now.

I was thinking on Saturday I haven’t seen Fog for a very long time. I enjoy a quiet, moist, mysterious, cool fog. Then Sunday morning I woke up to drive to Calgary and BOOM! FOG! I was so excited! So on the drive down I snapped this photo of the highway to share with you all. Enjoy!

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wow, Wow, WOW, WOW!

Yesterday was a day filled with karma, fate, luck, and serendipity! I GOT MY KYLIE MINOGUE TICKETS FOR PERU!

Kylie Cheerleader

I have been watching faithfully everyday for over a month now for the tickets to go on sale. They had announced every other South American country except Peru on Kylie’s website. I was really starting to get nervous because the concert is on November 6th! Well yesterday’s events caused a wonderful whirlwind!

  • It all started with a good-bye party for a co-worker
  • At this party a retired co-worker I have been meaning to phone showed up
  • I have been meaning to phone her because she is from Peru
  • I had a great visit with her and got lots of good advice, then I told her my fears about the concert not being on sale yet
  • She asked me “Where are they holding the concert? At the Stadium?”
  • I didn’t remember the name so I took her to my office and looked it up online
  • The first result in my search was a comment from someone to the webmasters of Kylie.com it read…”The Peru tickets have been on sale for awhile now, why haven’t you told anyone? Here is the link to where you can buy them”
  • I almost fainted! So the two of us in excitement rushed to the Spanish only website and quickly read all the details. The only thing we weren’t quite sure on was the proper way for Canadians to get their tickets. Not wanting a repeat of my ticket hassles with the Czech Republic I grabbed the phone, called Peru and handed it to Maria. She spoke beautiful Spanish to them, found out all the details and all I had to do now was purchase my tickets online with VISA and pick them up whenever I arrive in Peru
  • Well by the time the phone call was over our Corporate Security department had blocked the ticket purchasing website. NOW WHAT! Did I have to go home? I phoned Bev and she told me we should go to the library downtown and use their computers!
  • So off to the library we went. Pulled up the website. Tried to purchase the most expensive ticket. (I was going to purchase a second balcony ticket or something but Maria told me “Ummm you got a round trip ticket to Peru for only $425, I think you can afford a good concert ticket”)
  • So I managed to read the entire website very successfully in Spanish, navigated through the screens, registered as a user of their site, and put in my request for tickets
  • Turns out for foreigners you need your passport number! Where was I going to get my passport number? After a bit of thinking I phoned Nick as his Guarantor on his passport application my passport number was on his form! He just happened to bring the form with him to work that day so I was back in business
  • Then after signing up for Verified by VISA, drumroll please ……… I GOT 6th ROW TICKETS TO KYLIEX2008!!!!

Phew! Now that I have my tickets I can finally start to plan the rest of the trip. I haven’t been able to book hostels or anything because I didn’t know if I was going to the concert or not. I leave you now with a 30 second clip of Kylie and her male cheerleaders performing the title of this post LIVE from her tour “WOW!”