While the cat snores...

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and I'm sitting here at the dining table listening to Jean, the chubby cat, snore, rolling pennies (that is, putting pennies into rolls) and contemplating the future.

Why am I rolling pennies you ask?  Well, for anyone that knows me, I think pennies are absolutely worthless when they're by themselves.  Apparently a lot of other people feel that way too, so at work, we just ignore the pennies and throw them in huge buckets in the office.  We've had two buckets (plus some cups) full of pennies basically since I started working at the coffee shop three months ago... today I found out that anyone can take them home, put them in rolls, then take to the bank and keep the change!  So, I took home a bucket and a cup of pennies.  They were super heavy getting home, but now that I am here I am so glad I have them!  So far I have rolled $10 and I'm not even through one of the bags...  It may only end up being $20 or $30, but its more than I have now and only for a little time investment.  As I said, pennies individually are worthless, pennies in buckets are better than tips.

Thursday is the start of a fresh year, but I don't really believe in resolutions.... they work for some people, but not for me.  Instead, I think I will make my life list public and track my progress in accomplishing some of the things I want to do in my life.  I started a life list sometime last April or May... May 31 is the first time I dated a list, and it already had 50 items on it.  At some point over the next few days I will post the list.  The new year will also bring posts about things I want to accomplish that are 2009-specific (kinda like resolutions, only not).

Until then, I'll go back to rolling the pennies and listening to the chubster snoring!

One hundred words for snow

It's a popular urban legend that the Inuit have a hundred words for snow.  In fact, they have about the same amount of words the English language does.  Our most basic word is, of course, snow.  But then we have things like blizzard, slush, sleet and flurry which are all ways that provide further explanation of the same concept: snow.  

According to an article at State of the Canadian Cryosphere:

[Boaz] claims Inuits have four distinct root words for snow: aput "snow on the ground", gana "falling snow," piqsirpoq "drifting snow" and qimuqsuq "a snow drift".

So all those hundreds and indefinite amount of words relating to snow are derived from the four basic roots, same as most languages.   Further reading here.

Exciting xmas blog post!

Hello all. (and for those that care--I know there are some of you--Happy Christmas!)

My day was fairly uneventful... just another day off, except I put on a Santa hat and plugged in Christmas lights. But there's still snow outside (now there's at least a 18 inches on my balcony) and the fire is still on. I cleaned, did laundry, video chatted with my family (including Mom, Dad, Jack and the Michiganders (Celeste, Barbara and Tuko) who had just arrived into Lubbock!) and basically bummed around. The oven is still broken and I still have very little food (and am still feeling too lazy to go out).

Since I have no tv, and therefore can't sit around watching mindless shows, I've had to find other things to do to occupy my time at home. Aside from reading, the computer is generally my first choice (I don't have a lot of hobbies and growing bonsai really isn't that time consuming) but there are only so many things I can do on my favorite sites. And since I'm also not one to sit around and watch YouTube videos or Facebook stalk all day, I've had to search for more things.

So, I've been downloading random games to play. I've downloaded/purchased quite a few in the past... this past summer I really enjoyed Plant Tycoon for a couple of weeks, and of course games like Oregon Trail, Zeus and the various Nancy Drews always make for great entertainment. So of the 10-15 or so I've downloaded, most I've given up on because they're so bad, others I beat rather quickly and then there are a very select few which have not only kept me entertained, but I will probably continue to play for awhile... at least until I beat them.

The first is BigFish Games' My Tribe.... its a real time game sort of like the Sims (only a MUCH more basic version). You have people, you tell them to fish, farm, gather wood, harvest stone, build, research, etc etc and they will continue to do so, whether the game is running or not. Babies grow up without you having to watch their every step and their lives go on. This will run while I'm doing other things, and I can come back, make some adjustments and let it go! I love it.

The second is Sandlot Games' Westward III: Gold Rush.... Kind of like Zeus or Civilization... except you're one person who goes on various side quests and follows a story line, while growing a town and providing resources for the citizens.

Next I really enjoy is BigFish Games' Home Sweet Home: Christmas Edition... I love games where you get to design and get points for doing what the customer wants, this one has the added twist of having to build the redesigned room as well. I'm over halfway through the levels, but its enjoyable and when I'm finished I will definitely go back and play the last 2 editions.

Finally, IWin and BigFish Games' Fashion Star... fun for the same reasons as the last game, you have an objective, you design a photo shoot to match those objectives, get points and continue up the levels! I will be done with this one pretty soon, but still fun nonetheless.

This games are great, since I don't have much of an attention span and like the games to be over with fairly quickly (I won't play ANY game for hundrends or thousands of hours) these are perfect. I've downloaded and couple more and hopefully they will provide some entertainment as well.

I guess I could have a more exciting life and more exciting things to blog about than computer games. But alas, no craziness here.

Environment Canada: "No snowman-making weather with this kind of snow."

Today I got stuck in the snow.  Twice.

It all started when I had to be at work at 5:30 am to let in another girl.  Getting out of my apartment parking was fine... while driving I did a little slipping and sliding but luckily the snowplows had made at least 1 round and there weren't many other people around.  The problem was when I had to park.  Vancouver got 26 cm of snow yesterday.  That's over 10 inches... almost a FOOT of snow!  Well I got stuck.  As I ran into the shop, in tears, Ease was already there and helped me shovel and move my car so it wasn't blocking the alley. 

That put me in a terrible mood.

Since it took Ease and I almost 45 mins to get me in a legit position to leave my car, we opened pretty late.  I didn't have to bake as much.  Which meant I got to go home earlier...  when one of the delivery guys showed up he taught me the best way to get my car un-stuck.  Since he grew up in Ontario, I figured he knew what he was talking about.

But, I couldn't get my car out.  Finally, after another 20 mins of shoveling, hot water and manuevering (luckily I wore my rain boots today so my feet weren't soaking like yesterday), I was able to move.  Then I got stuck getting out of the alley.  FINALLY I made it to Main St. (the snow plows had been riding up and down all morning dropping salt) and made it home without further incident.  

I've seen snow, and driven in snow, but never THIS MUCH snow.  To help me make my point of exactly how much snow there is lying around, I bring you Gordon, my foot tall Texas garden gnome.

Here is the snow on my balcony outside my room:

Here is Gordon hanging out in the snow:

Close up:

That, my friends, is Gordon in 9 inches of snow.  On my balcony.  It's not much better outside in the alleys, side streets and the like.  Here are two pictures of it snowing outside my window.  The first is from the first snowfall since I've been here, from last week, and the second is from yesterday.

The first is fairly light, the second is fairly heavy.  Also, yesterday when I came out from work, my car was covered in between 3 and 4 inches of snow.  That was fun getting that off.  Its supposed to be a picture perfect white Christmas here... maybe I will venture out on xmas day and take photos, maybe not.  All I know is that for now my car is NOT leaving its garage!  Even if it takes me 2 hrs to get to work and home this next week.

It snowed up until 9 or so this morning and will start again tomorrow.  People are shovelling sidewalks like crazy, but we're running out of places to put the snow.  Melt please?

Holiday snowstorm

Winter rolls in coast to coast with blustering snow, high winds, severe cold

The Great White North is living up to its name.

Winter debuted Sunday with boisterous displays of heavy snow, powerful winds and numbing cold across the country. Forecasters are predicting Christmas will look much the same.

"I would dare say if you're in a satellite looking down on Canada, it would be white from coast to coast to coast and it would be frozen," said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

"There's no area that can say that winter hasn't really arrived."

(. . .)

In Vancouver, snow began falling Saturday night and continued into Sunday, with up to 20 cm of snow expected in some areas by day's end.

(. . .)

Those dreaming of a white Christmas will get their wish - mostly.

While Yuletide will likely be a rare postcard perfect in Vancouver - with more snow expected on top of what is already on the ground - forecasters said it was possible that parts of Ontario and the East Coast may get an influx of slightly milder temperatures and even rain.

(story from the Canadian Press, photo from the Vancouver Sun)

6 inches of snow??  This is crazy!  It does NOT do this in BC.  Add on top of that the fact that I have to be at work at 5:30 am tomorrow (as I did today) and am not looking forward to that at all!  Today was rough enough, but tomorrow will only be worse... luckily I am off on Tuesday and close on Wednesday... hopefully the buses will be running by then, and have Christmas day off.  I really am not a fan of this snowstorm.  Hopefully it will come to an end soon.

Dividends!

One of the most exciting things (to me) about owning shares in mutual funds (and therefore stocks) is dividends.  Since I only started my Roth IRA in December 2007, this is my first year to experience them... and it was so exciting to see my shares grow by $250!  I was able to get almost 21 shares at the current prices.  It's not a whole lot, but its nice to wach my investments grow.

Happy 2008 to me!

On another note, tomorrow is the darkest day of the year (woo 8 hrs of sunlight!) AND a storm is supposed to be hitting Vancouver.  It's been really, really cold lately... the lowest was -13 this morning, but hopefully since sunlight will start increasing soon, so will the temperature!

Union Jack Pillow

(Union Jack Pillow from Cox&Cox)

Italian crime novels

I've been a huge fan of author Donna Leon for awhile.  My mom discovered her several years ago, and when she discovered she wrote mysteries based in Venice, she just had to get me Death at La Fenice one Christmas.  Since reading the first one, I've read every single one I could get my hands on.   All 15 I've run across.  Half.com is one of my best friends when it comes to books, so that is how I got a lot of them.  Today I decided to check up on some of my favorite authors... since Leon released a book last year I figured she was due for a new one soon, and I knew another one my favorite authors, Andrea Camilleri, who's Inspector Montalbano series is based on an Italian policeman (in Sicily) has a recently translated book being released in Feb.  He writes in Italian.

I checked Amazon, saw the new Leon novel will be released in April, but I also ran across a list of Leon's novels in chronological order.  Even though I knew I'd read them all, I checked anyway.  I knew wrong.  The list had 2 books on it I'd heard of, but assumed they were the British titling of a book I'd read.  Wrong again.  Here is the list per Wikipedia:

1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994) aka Dressed for Death
4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995) aka Death and Judgment
5. Acqua Alta (1996) aka Death in High Water
6. The Death of Faith (1997) aka Quietly in Their Sleep
7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
8. Fatal Remedies (1999)
9. Friends in High Places (2000)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
18. About Face (2009)

Books nos. 10 and 11 I haven't read and I can't find on any of my usual sites in the States/Canada (except for over $100 USD... no way).   So I decided to check Amazon UK and lo and behold, was able to find them both, in paperback, for only $30 USD including shipping to Canada!  I absolutely love finding books I haven't yet read by my favorite authors.

So, I decided to check on Andrea Camilleri.  Again, this is Wikipedia's list:

1. The Shape of Water - 2002 (La forma dell’acqua - 1994)
2. The Terracotta Dog - 2002 (Il cane di terracotta - 1996)
3. The Snack Thief - 2003 (Il ladro di merendine - 1996)
4. The Voice of the Violin - 2003 (La voce del violino - 1997)
5. Excursion to Tindari - 2005 (La gita a Tindari - 2000)
6. The Scent of the Night - 2005 (L’odore della notte - 2001)
7. Rounding the Mark - 2006 (Il giro di boa - 2003)
8. The Patience of the Spider - 2007 (La pazienza del ragno - 2004)
9. The Paper Moon - 2008 (La Luna di Carta - 2005)
10. August Heat - 2006 (La Vampa d'Agosto - 2006)
11. The Sphinx's Wings - 2006 (Le Ali della Sfinge - 2006)
12. The Sand Path - 2007 (La pista di Sabbia - 2007)
13. The Potter's Field - 2008 (Il campo del vasaio - 2008)
14. The Age of Doubt - 2008 (L'età del dubbio) - 2008

August Heat is the novel that is being released in English in February... I'm so excited I can't wait!  I have contemplated trying to read his novels in Italian, but would have to get a hold of one first (hello Amazon UK!).  Maybe a future project...  As it is, I am anxiously awaiting his next release in English and the Donna Leon books in the mail!

Title? No thanks.

I got my hair cut today... VERY exciting.  I think the last time I had it cut was March or something!  Haley, my stylist, was fantastic.  I didn't really know what I wanted done with hair, I just knew I didn't want it chopped off.  Luckily, Haley didn't want to chop my hair off either... she didn't even want to cut off up to my shoulders!  So she layered, gave it more life, gave me a little blurb of bangs and it was finished.  I love it and am so excited to finally have my hair feeling healthy and light again!

The weather has been extremely pleasant here for the past several months, sitting around 10 degrees celsius.  However, yesterday is started getting colder, today was pretty close to zero and tomorrow it is supposed to snow... OH NO!  The mountains on the North Shore (I have got to learn the name of the range) have snow all over their tips... very pretty.  Here's a shot from one of my apartment's patios facing northwest.

We have a tree!

Things I love (Part I): Personal finance edition

• I love the PearBudget online spreadsheet because, through it, I have discovered that I actually live within my means and often have extra money at the end of the month to put other places.  I am able to see where my money goes (okay, I really like to buy clothes) and where I *think* my money goes but it actually doesn't (eating out).
  
  
• I love the Yodlee Moneycenter, because: a) I can track all of money between all my accounts (and when it leaves my accounts), b) I can track my Canadian accounts, and c) I can see my net worth and where my assets/liabilities are and what percentage of my total those are (for instance, my retirement account is currently 75% of my assets).  Well, I love it for more than reasons a, b and c but those are just the ones I want to mention.
  
  
• I love the Get Rich Slowly blog, because not only does blogger JR have great posts and insights about things related to personal finance, he has a great following of thoughtful and learned readers who are able to provide additional insight and information.  The forums are fantastic and people are so willing to help others out.  I love.

"CASH ONLY"

After spending a wonderful 5 days with my mom when she came to visit (maybe I will do a post on that someday?), I have been back to the real world of work.  I baked Sunday and then took Mom to the airport.  I baked Monday, helped a co-worker shop for shoes/accessories, crashed from pure exhaustion and did nothing yesterday.  Then today, all hell broke loose.

I should have known when I woke up this morning that it was going to be a rough day.  Although really, things were going pretty smoothly then.  I made it to work on time.  But when I walked up to the door at 5:15 am there was a big sign that said "CASH ONLY."  Oh dear, the tills are broken again.  But hey!  We can just call Halo and they will fix it.  Au contraire.

The 6:30 supervisor was late, which was bad for me since I was feeling slightly frazzled already.  Everything progressed fairly smoothly (no temper tantrums yet) and before I knew it it was break time.  On my break I bought an aranciata in a bottle and discovered it wasn't a twist top.  I should have known then that it was going to be a really rough day.

When I came back after my break, not only were the cash registers still not accepting debit, credit or gift cards, but now they didn't accept cash either.  They were BRO-KEN.  So, instead, the two people on till had broken out the good ole' pen, paper and a calculator.  So from 9:45 to 1:15 we did everything.  By hand. It was a great excerise of the memory (to remember product prices) and the mind (to calculate change).  We also had to code the drinks by hand and run them over to the bar for the baristas.  Luckily, everything was running pretty smoothly once we developed a system.  One person wrote down the order, added it up and took care of the money; one person wrote the drinks down and ran to the bar; and the last took care of things like food, drip coffees and whole beans.  

It was a very taxing, hilarious and all-around sort-of fun day.  That is, if I don't have to repeat it again tomorrow.

Fa la la la la

While the Christmas season officially started on Friday in the States post-Thanksgiving... by that standard the holiday season should been in full swing here in the Great White North since Canadian Thanksgiving on Oct 13.  Yes, that's OCTOBER.

Fortunately, those living north of the 49th parallel tend to wait awhile and "Christmas" officially started yesterday.  I am not excited.

What I am excited about, however, is the new Christmas blend we got in at the coffee shop yesterday.  It is definitely my new favorite coffee and I can't wait to take home my first lb. next week!  Since I forsee a lot of alone time the last two weeks of December, a nice cup of Christmas blend should keep my company.  Maybe a good book or two as well?

I wish I had some photos to share of the holiday season gearing up here in the Lower Mainland, but alas, I do not.  However, since Mom will be arriving in about 23 hrs (!) I will be breakng out the camera and shooting some photos.  My dad gave me a tutorial via Skype tonight on camera settings, so hopefully that will help me take some nicer photos than I have been taking in the past!  If I can take nice photos with the point and shoot, I will definitely feel more vindicated in wanting (and eventually obtaining) that digital SLR I've been coveting.

On another note, the work Christmas party is in two weeks on Granville Island!  Went dress shopping Saturday post-poutine (best in Vancouver!) and got great deals at Barefoot Contessa  on Commercial.  I bought a cute, lace on black strapless cocktail dress after trying on at least a dozen!  I had a difficult time picking between it (called the "Natalie Portman" dress) and another, slightly sexier satin sheath dress which had gorgeous details!  I absoultely adored the shop and plan to return again soon next time I need some clothing!

LOVE this dress

On teen pregnancies and medical records... or lack thereof

After the announcement that Sarah Palin's17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant, at the RNC, I've been extremely interested in that "developement."

Growing up in the second most conservative city in the US that strongly believes in abstinence only eduction, as well as having friends strong involved in advocacy of comprehensive sex education, I wondered what it meant for the future of America, especially if McCain/Palin won the election.

In late October, a great article ("Red Sex, Blue Sex") was published in the New Yorker about sexual activities in teenagers from conservative vs liberal ideaologies/backgrounds/etc...

Since then, about once a week, I'll google "Bristol Palin" and see the most recent articles about her , maybe to see pictures about how her pregnancy is progressing and overall just to see what actually happens.  There are obviously less and less articles appearing, but today I ran across an extremely interesting one from the BayouBuzz.  About the "released" medical records, which SP keeps insisting the mainstream media needs to look at to prove the "goofy" issue of Trig's paternity.

Really? If its so "goofy" and ridiculous, why not just release his birth certificate?  Or SP's medical records?

Regardless, I went into this whole, so-called "Sarah Deception" just interested in what will happen to Bristol with this pregnancy.  Now, I don't even believe she was 5 months along at the time... maybe 3 or 4.  Regardless, I'm curious how the birth will go, if Bristol and Levi will actually get married, etc.

And don't even get me started on the medical records... invoking the right to medical privacy when you're trying to overturn the most famous case that is based on that right?  Pick a side and stay there.  I, for one, think Sarah Palin is full or more inconsistencies and idiocies than G.W., but that is not an argument for this post.  This is about medical records.  Which I now want to see.  Desperately. 

But now that I've looked into it... is Sarah actually Trig's mother?  Or is Bristol?  

A word from President-Elect Barack Obama

I found this quote on a blog by 7 year old Stanislaw Gunkle.  Read it.  On election day, the post by the young political blogger was a letter from (now president-elect) Barack Obama.  He wrote:

"I leave you with three bits of advice that will make your life more fulfilling: Look out for other people, even when it does not directly benefit you; strive to make a difference everywhere you go; and get back up every time you are knocked down."

$$$

It's almost 2 a.m. and I'm awake writing a blog post.  I know I should be sleeping, since I have to be at work at 5:45 a.m. for opening shift, but right now I really don't care.  

I can't remember exactly when, or the reasons why, I became so interested in personal finance.  All I know is that at some point I became extremely interested in finding out information on budgeting, retirment accounts, various methods of saving, reducing spending, etc.   It was hard to make sure everything was running smoothly while I didn't have a full time job between graduation and now.  Today, I do have a full time job but its not a career job and its NOT making me the big bucks... in fact, I'm pretty sure I'm sitting in a really low income bracket if you translate my money to USD.

But thats not the point.  The point is that having a relatively steady monthy paycheck really helps out my budgeting.  Budgeting is something I've always been fascinated with, but in practice have never really grasped.  But I'm trying to make it work...  I've been using PearBudget's online application and finally subscribed now that my free month is up.  So far its been not bad.  I had to figure out how to allot my monthly paychecks and I figure once I get the rest of November down I will figure out a better way to adjust my spending/saving habits.  My biggest problem on this go (all 1.5 months of it) has been what currency I budget in.  Since most of my accounts (all of my savings, student loan, credit cards and BoA checking) are all in USD, I figure that should be my main currency.  However, living and working in Vancouver means that my paycheck, daily expenditures and RBC checking account are all in CAD.  

I've figured the best solution to this problem is to budget in USD... this way, when I say I've spent $40 CAD on my phone bill this month, which, if charged to my credit card, would show up at only $37 USD, I would have $3 extra dollars at the end of the month in my banking account which would immediately be whisked over to savings.  Right now I think this works reasonably well since it is, in a sense, overinflating my costs a bit while forcing me to spend less money, since my budget can't tell the difference.  

In addition to my budget, I opened up a Vanguard Roth IRA last December (which as of today has lost almost 50% in the tanking US economy), created a 6 month living expense emergency fund and opened several other small superflous savings accounts such as car, home and travel which I deposit very small amounts into every month.   In regards to the little savings accounts, I already have almost 200 in one and almost $100 in the other two from depositing a measly $10-20 dollars a month.  It reminds me that even the smallest bit DOES make a difference... I am almost $400 richer this year (disregarding the IRA) than I was last year because of putting aside $50 a month.   If I had put away $100 a month instead, I would now be looking at an extra $800.  I am hoping that the $100 in my "Home" account will grow into a down payment by the time I am ready to buy property.  Clearly I will need to deposit more than $10 a month, but that is a story for another post.

Today I opened up my first CD.  Call it a trial run, but this is my opportunity to check it out before I incorporate CDs into my everyday portfolio. For this CD I mearly took $150 out of my travel fund and rolled it into a 9-month, 3.75% CD.  I will make exactly $4.18 off the CD, which is under $1 more than I would be in my 2.75% savings account (again, darn the tanking US economy!) but, as I mentioned, its a good chance for me to check out how this thing works... how I'm feeling about having my money tied up/losing the liquidity, how I feel when I get it back, experimenting w/ the possibility of dropping/rising interest rates, etc.

I know its a bit early for me to be making any goals for 2009, but I've decided to get a head start on the new year.  Fow now, I only have 4, and some are pretty abstract:

1) Increase my emergency fund back up to 6 months of living expenses

2) Max out my Roth IRA contribution

3) Increase my monthly student loan repayments

4) Increase my net worth

5) Learn patience!

I am sure these will change and become more concrete over the next month and a half until 2009, but I think it gives me a pretty good head start.  By increasing my student loan repayments, I can cut 5 years off my loan, saving myself THOUSANDS of dollars!  And my student loans aren't even that high!  Its amazing what your money (even not making much) can do with a little persistence and patience! My debt won't disappear and my net worth won't increase overnight... its something I'm going to have to keep working at for years and years.  One of my favorite personal finance blogs, Get Rich Slowly, had a great article up on Oct. 16 that gave 10 unconventional money saving tips.  #10 is to "Focus on getting over the $100,000 hump."  That is what 2009 will be about.  Obviously, I won't be reaching that hump, but it'll be my focus.  

I guess my primary focus should be paying off my debts, because as low as the student loan is, it is still more than my current savings interest rates are...  However, maxing out my IRA contribution should (and will be) paramount.  

wtf america?

I think Nov 4 was an interesting day.  Not necessarily in terms of a change in the presidency, Senate and House, but in the dichotomy the US is now facing.  Three states banned same sex marriages--including one of the most liberal states, California, which began allowing the marriages in June after a court decision ruled the Calif. constitution didn't restrict marriage to a union between a man and a woman--while two other states (Massachusetts and Connecticut) still allow them.  

On the same ballot as Proposition 8 in California, Prop 4 (which would have required parental notification for girls under 18 seeking an abortion and mandated a 48-hour waiting period before the procedure) was rejected 52% to 48%.  In South Dakota, Measure 11 was rejected by 56% of voters although it wasn't an outright abortion ban and had a number of exceptions.  By 3 votes to 1, Colorado's Amendment 48 (which would have defined a "person" from the point of egg fertilization) was defeated... even a number of prominent pro-life activists felt the definition went too far.

Nebraska and Colorado banned affirmative action, although Nebraska's result is currently being challenged in court due to shady signature collecting.  Arizona, Florida, California and Arkansas further reduced rights for gay and lesbian couples. Michigan is allowing medicinal marijuana (too much influence from our northern neighbours eh??) and Massachussetts decriminizlied marijuana.  Massachussetts also decided to keep their state income tax (and by two-thirds!), while Missouri made English the official state language.  And finally, the State of Washington legalized physician assisted suicide for terminally ill patients (Oregon already passed a similar law).

I feel like these propositions best show, for the most part, which direction America's moral compass is facing.  So far the federal government hasn't had to step in on any of these issues, but by taking a look as these ballot initiatives I think you can see what might happen if they did.  I believe we'd uphold Roe v. Wade... all 3 anti-abortion initiatives were struck down, including in South Dakota which already has the strictes abortion laws in the nation!  But on the flip side of that, gay marriage is still, and for the most part will remain, illegal... because all though two states allow it, at least 14 more have rejected the idea.

The rest I point out for interest since I know not many people followed every states ballot initiatives (myself included until I heard about Colorado's Amendment 48)... its interesting to see each state march to its own drum while maintaining some semblance of unity.

Game. Set. Match!

Its Obama!  FiveThirtyEight called it at exactly 8:27 pm ET after he won Ohio:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/barack-obama-wins-ohio.html

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/obama-to-become-next-president.html

Hopefully some of the damage of the past 8 years can be repaired and we can give the world something good to think about... living abroad has really shown me a lot of international opinions of the US, and a majority of them not good.  I am ready for a CHANGE!

Happy election Day!!

Itsssssssssss election day!  I have been reading articles and blogs all day long in between grocery runs and errands.  In about 20 mins I'll be heading to yoga to take my mind off of the stressfulness of today... and I am hoping that by the time I get back we will have a new-president elect who can do some good in the world!

The 2 resources I am heavily utlizing tonight are the wonderful blog FiveThirtyEight (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/) and the NY Times presidental voting spread (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/votes.html).  FiveThirtyEight explains the entire process AND breaks down the numbers for you, which is great.  And the Times voting spread is just the best version of this I've found.  

So if there is good news at the end of the next several hours, maybe I will be back to comment on it.  But as of right now, I am taking a time out to breathe!

I hope everyone who didn't early vote or vote in absentee took time to vote today, despite the long lines and crowds, its one of the most important elections ever (especially in my lifetime) and its time for a CHANGE!

Happy November!

Here I am at 7 am the morning after Halloween awake and blogging because I can't sleep... I only got about 3 or 4 hours because I just couldn't sleep, so weird.

Last night was Halloween (obviously) and despite my early efforts to altogether avoid the holiday, I ended up getting in the spirit and dressing up.  I also carved a pumpkin!  One of my co-workers decided to have a contest for the employees, so I had to make one after all.  I had plans to carve it last night with one of the other boys from work, but instead I ended up closing so I carved mine while he baked pumpkin seeds and served soup.  I did Oogie Boogie from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and he did end up quite frightening.  Originally I was going to do Boo from Mario Bros., but I didn't have a good enough knife or saw for the detail work... so Oogie Boogie it was.  

Last night after I finally put my costume together (having a roommate that works in a lab definitely has it perks!), I ran by the coffee shop to grab a drink and see other's costumes.  We had a doctor, a vampire and a German boy (although he's always German, only this time he was in full costume).  I was, as you can see from the photo to the left, a mad scientist.  It was fun getting ready, teasing my hair to craziness and putting an "explosion" on my face.  The drink in the beaker was a lot of fun... definitely had everyone interested in what was in it.

Right now the sun is finally coming up... its 7:40.  Sadly, the nights are still going to be getting longer for at least another month and a half.  Its amazing how little daylight there is... I can't imagine going farter north to where there is extremely little.  But I do want to go to Alaska.  So bad.

On another note, I am really enjoying working at the coffee shop.  I have met some really interesting and fun people and am looking forward to the next several months with them... although it won't be all of them.  Some are moving on and supposedly there are some "big changes" happening in the next few weeks, but there is still so much to look forward to!

Apple Fest!

Arggg... don't you hate it when you write a big long post out and then accidentally refresh the page or something and have to retype it?  I do.

Today was the Apple Festival at UBC Botanical Gardens!  The roommate and I went, stopping first at MIX Bakery in West Point Grey (I had a sour cream coffee cake and apple cider) before heading to brave the crowds.  The fest was awesome!  They had over 60 varieties of apples for sale (but some were sold out by the time we got there) and a number of them were from ancient varieties and one was even just recently discovered in nearby Crawston, BC!  We picked up 4 bags, a bag of Elstar and Honeycrisp for immediate enjoyment, some Belle de Boskoop for baking/cookies (apple pie anyone?) and a bag of Gloster to eat after Christmas... they need to ripen for a couple of months after picking.  

Also, in case the 2 or 3 people who read this didn't already know, I have a job!  I'm working in a local coffee shop as a part-time baker, part-time till person.  It's been great so far, I'm definitely enjoying the shop and getting to know the people who work there.  They have made me feel so welcome from the first time I met them all, and I am definitely looking forward to the next few months of getting to know them

So I guess thats about it...  just mostly been working and enjoying Vancouver!!

Beautiful British Columbia

Vikings, pilgrims and kings... oh my!

It's been awhile since I've posted.  To make a long story short, I went for a job I really wanted... gave it a lot of me, and I've just been feeling exhausted since I didn't get it.  What king of person with 5 years experience goes for an entry level job anyway?  But this isn't about that, or what I've been doing in the past few weeks.  I went to Whistler, which was awesome, so maybe I will post about that later. 

I stumbled across ancestry.com today, and to be honest, I got pretty addicted.  I decided to see how far back I could "trace" my genealogy (though the hints function) before it runs out.  I thought I ran into that with a guy named John Peryns from Somerset, England born in 1401, but it turns out we have a much more interesting history when I hit the Scottish branch of the family.

Finding links to the past through other people's family trees was pretty difficult once I got out of the family I knew, sometimes there would just be a first name or last name and a date of birth.  No place or date of death or much else.  But that all changed when I stumbled upon a man by the name of Carnegie in late 14th century Scotland.  I figure that since he's probably THE Carnegie's ancestor somehow, that someone really researched this.  The trees/records became pretty precise, with the actual day of some of the people's deaths.

Currently, I have discovered 5 castles (Dindonald, Dundaff, Rosslyn, Montrose, and Inchmurrin), four Earldoms (including Fergus, Lord of Galloway, via his possible marriage to an illegitimate daughter of King Henry I of England),  and a whole slew of history. Who knew??  I'm not related to General McClellan, but this is so much cooler.

The entire Fergus storyline fascinates me... according to wikipedia his orgins are kind of a mystery, so I am going to say what my family tree tells me.  His father is Gudrod (Godfred) Cronan from the Isle of Man (who died in Iceland in 1095) and his mother is Maria Haardraada Haraldsdatter from Norway.  And his wife, which the tree names Elizabeth of England, is the illegitimate (?) daughter of King Henry I Beauclerc of England (William the Conqueror's son) and Matilda, Princess of Scotland.  Anyone else confused?  I am... here's a picture to help (if its too little try clicking on it):

So according to Ancestry.com, not only do I share a 10th great grandmother with John F. Kennedy, but I am descended from royalty! After discovering all this, I gave up on seeing how far back I could go.  A king has ancestors to infinity (and so does the legend of Fergus for that matter).  But do I stop looking?  Of course not... I dig a little deeper, and see that there is a lot of activity from the Norweigans pre-1100.  Which, as we all should know, is the viking era, which explains why their is a Norse in Scotland and someone ending up in Iceland.  I delved a bit more into the royalty as well, but if you're truly interested in that there are plenty of history books for that.

I think thats enough digging for the night... the oldest date I could find was right at about 1000 AD, because before that, they just didn't worry about the dates.  Its pretty late now, but be patient with me, I will update again eventually!

NO INTERNET

Internet is out in my building, LAME!  So I am sitting at Starbucks with my two free hours checking emails and drinking coffee.  The internet has been out since last night, so I'm not sure when it'll be working again!

Tasty transfat free food!

Yesterday when I went to the grocery store, I discovered it was customer appreciation day and got 10% off my total purchases!

I talk about the grocery store, because I've been noticing that everything I've been cooking tastes so good!  I know its not because I'm an outstanding chef or anything, because that would be rather sudden, but rather the ingredients used just taste that much better up here.  There aren't transfats in anything and most of the fruits and veggies are extremely fresh.  I love it!  Eventually I will learn to cook better and faster, but for now I am just enjoying how tasty everything is!

That's all I wanted to comment on for now.

"This is the interactive part of the flight..."

I'm back in Vancouver after spending the last weekend of the summer in the heart of oil country farther east.  One the hour plane ride from here to Edmonton, I got a beautiful view of the Lower Mainland and the Cascades, but the Rockies were covered in clouds.  This morning and the flight from Edmonton the Rockies were visible (and quite stunning) but all of Vancouver was under heavy cloud cover and rain.  Oh, the rain...

On the flight this morning was the only truly witty flight attendant I think I've ever had on board.  Usually there is the cheesy: "There may be fifty ways to leave your lover, but there are only 6 ways to leave this airplane."  However, there was none of that on this flight.  She had the entire plane cracking up and hanging on her every word.

While the flight attendant was definitely the best part of the flight this morning, something really odd (to me at least) did happen.  At one point she came on the PA and announced that the flight to Ottawa was ready to leave, however it was missing some of its passengers, so if you were heading to Ottawa then you needed to get off the plane.   I didn't realize that it was still possible to get on the wrong flight.  Although I was definitely proven wrong this morning.

I don't really have much to announce other than that... the weekend was spent mostly running errands-shopping at Costco, Ikea, Walmart, Home Depot--finding mexican food in Edmonton, cleaning D's room and watching lots of NCIS.  It was nice to spend some time with someone I have known longer than a couple weeks.  I got a really nice winter jacket, which I've reallllly been needing since I took all the other ones back.

And thats all I have for now... I will probably remember more later and come back with another blog, but for now I will work on uploading the few pictures I took of Vancouver and the mountains.

Double B Adventures (Bus and Bed)

Today I took the bus downtown to pick up my SIN number and get a library card. Now the most direct route for me to get downtown from the apartment I now live in, is via Hastings St. On Hastings resides the part of town known as "Skid Row," where the poorest of the poor "live." My mom and I walked down Hastings when we visited in July, but it wasn't anything what it looked like when we drove by today... there were hundreds of homeless people wandering the sidewalks in the small two block area where most of Skid Row is concentrated. But thats not my story, my story today is about what happened before we drove down that part of Hastings. It starts on the bus stop right before those two blocks, when two men separately got on the bus and sat down next to one another. Within minutes of the bus taking off from the stop, the man closest to the window shoved the one in the seat next to him onto the floor and yelling at him. The man on the floor gets up and the man by the window pushes him back down. While this is going on, the bus driver stops the bus, opens the door and yells at the man by the window to get off the bus. He starts making excuses but the bus driver says for him again to get off. People from the back of the bus start shouting at him to get off. Meanwhile, the man on the floor gets up and moves to the seat in front of me. The man by the window finally stands up and starts to leave, but before he gets off he comes over to where the other man is and pulls back his fist as though he were going to punch the guy. I'm sitting there staring in disbelief, thinking I should do something but I was genuinely scared of the large, seeming mentally retarded black man hauling off to punch the poor, also mentally retarded man sitting in front of me. So I did nothing. The guy in the chair blocked the first punch, so the man successfully tried another. I was so stunned, I didn't even know what to do, but the bus driver roared a final "GET OFF" and the man left.

The entire incident reminded me of when I took "Theories of Persuasion" and we studied something about people in large crowds being less likely to take action because they think (hope?) someone else will. I don't know if thats so much the deal, or rather a fear of the large, MR man who could target me next, but I just felt extremely guilty that I didn't just reach a hand out to help block. The blow largely missed the guy, he just had a small red spot on his cheek, and for the rest of his trip he kept apologizing to me, saying he did nothing wrong, he just sat down...

In any case, the bus didn't stop on Skid Row and the trip back was uneventful.

Now I am in my new apartment off Commercial Drive, which I love. The room itself is rather small, but I have two huge mirrors and a huge window which help the room feel bigger. I also have my own balcony and bathroom, which is super fantastic. And Molly has a parking spot (two actually) in the underground parking garage, she is extremely happy down there not having to worry about vandals and thieves. There is also a massive blackberry bush about a block and a half east, a couple days ago I went out and picked 4 cups of blackberries that Claire and I have been eating. They are so amazingly sweet and fresh, I've never had anything like them. There are so many neat shops down Commercial, I found a cute little Italian grocery I love and will frequent more often. I've actually discovered food is much cheaper at these little places than at large chains such as Safeway. Not only cheaper, but much tastier.

I've been watching craigslist for a bed frame for my air mattress, mostly because I can't stand sleeping on the floor, it drives me insane. Since I wasn't able to find anything cheaper than Ikea, I decided to head over there and get one for myself. It's a fantastic beautiful unfinished pine bed--I get a whiff of pine everytime I come into my room now--and it took me roughly 6 hours and 2 stripped screws to assemble, but I got it together. I also got some organizational boxes for my clothes and an on sale artist's dummy for decoration. And since I also went to the art store yesterday for some basic art supplies (so I can get some decoration in my room), the artist's dummy may come in handy for sketching people!

All in all, this has been an extremely interesting week, but I am glad that it is the weekend and I can start Monday on fully focusing on finding a job... I have already pulled a lot of ads from Craigslist I am going to respond to. It should be an interesting week!

The view across English Bay...

Hunting... of apartments, fans and ABMs

The past several days have been mostly uneventful... I checked out a couple of places in Kits. I looked at one upstairs suite with a family and I ended up staying two and a half hours while they canned peaches, read to their kids and gave me a piece of blackberry pie. I really liked the family, but not particularly the house... the bathroom didn't have a shower and there was no parking. Sometimes I wish I hadn't brought my car but mostly I am glad because it really helps me out a lot... like today when I had to go fan hunting.

On Friday I moved from the first UBC dorm into the second, more expensive... the room is hot and I can't get any internet in it--very annoying. But it has two refrigerators in the suite (instead of down the hall) and an in-suite bathroom. Plus they clean every day... however, the hot room has been killing me. I couldn't find a fan in any of the area Safeways, so I had to look up Wal-Mart and Home Depot, none of which were nearby. So I looked up Canadian Tire and there was one just a little farther than I had looked yesterday! So this morning I woke up (really hot, of course) and headed toward 7th and Cambie. Since I have NO cash I had to park under the Save-On Foods across the street instead of at a meter... Although I found out later the Canadian Tire had its own parking above the store. I went in and found some really cheap, crappy fans for $20 and in the demo section I found a really great retro looking oscillating desk fan for $50. I hunted around and found the absolute last one in the store... the box was a little smashed but it hadn't been opened, so I figured I would try it out.

After stowing the box safely away in my car, I headed back out to find an ABM--like I said, I had NO cash... only a couple 5 cent coins--and found a RBC with an ABM! Then I was so happy I stopped at a Starbucks on the way back to my car right next to a Home Depot! The Home Depot is so new it wasn't even on the website yet... but now I know it is there, and I have a fan, so I am happy. I came back to the hot, hot room, opened up the box and realized I actually had to put the fan together myself... and it had screws. Since I'm not quite sure whether I brought my tool kit or not and I certainly didn't want to have to drive back to Canadian Tire/Home Depot and buy one, I figured out that my tweezers fit perfectly and was able to screw the fan together!

Thank goodness for the fan! It is cooling my room off right now while I am sitting out on the patio enjoying this beautiful view over the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island, watching the boats go by... tomorrow I have an appointment with Scotia Bank about setting up a bank account and I think I may head to the beach afterwards and read a book and spend a little time in the sun. I'm supposed to hear from my two favorite places I looked at tomorrow... I have my fingers crossed!

And so it begins...

The idea for the title of this blog came about when, during my drive from Texas to Vancouver, I was arriving into the small city in Washington state where I'd be spending my final night on the road and I realized that Vancouver really was halfway to Alaska for me. The reason for the blog is, as many people know, to chronicle my move into a new city where I have no place to live, no job and no friends from the state I was born in, grew up in, went to school in and where everything in between happened.

Although the title is "Halfway to Alaska," I won't actually be making it there. I do have plans to visit someday--I'd love to take a cruise up and drive back down the Alaskan Highway--but right now I am working on settling in to beautiful British Columbia and making a life for myself here.

Saturday morning at the bright cheery hour of 4 a.m., with my car completely packed, my mom and I took off from grand ol' Lubbock, heading north to Amarillo. I won't bore you with the details, but we spent a grand total of 40 minutes in Oklahoma and had lunch north of Denver... a very late lunch. We counted windmills, got stuck in one-lane-only construction lines and saw a whole bunch of nothing really in the process. Once we hit Wyoming, we decided to go see a dinosaur graveyard about 30 mins or more out of our way, and unfortunately the only thing we found was a long closed down house that once directed you to the dino pits, but we couldn't find any way of getting there. We arrived in Rawlins, Wyoming around 5, got some dinner at Taco John's and I was asleep around 7 p.m.

The next morning we didn't leave until about 5 a.m., driving through a sort of "no man's land" along the continental divide where water doesn't flow any direction and making it all the way to Utah in mid-morning. We stopped for lunch somewhere insignificant in Idaho--which actually was very reminiscent of Texas--making it to Oregon early enough to stop in Baker City at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center for about an hour and a half. The Center was fantastic, located up on a hill, and had actual parts of the Trail you could still see. From there we headed to Kennewick, Washington. We had difficulties finding the hotel and had a late dinner. The next day we didn't head out until about 7 a.m. since we wanted to miss the morning rush hour in Seattle. We stopped at the beautiful little mountain town of Hyak, had lunch in Everett and passed through Seattle and reached the border about 1 p.m. We were detained at the border for about 40 minutes while Border Patrol ran a background check on me and got my work permit in order and before we knew it we were off to Vancouver!

So here I am, sitting in my University of British Columbia hostel-dorm room wondering what I'm going to do for the next several months! First order of business is to find a place to live, so that is what I have been focusing on. I've already checked out a couple of places, one great and one not-so-great, and am looking at another one on Friday in the area I am really interested in living in. In the meantime, I'm hoping for the best!