Home Office

So, as most of you know when I moved over to Victoria my old company wanted to keep me on, so I've been working from home for the last two months. When I started I was super excited and so glad for the opportunity. There are a lot of great things about working from home and some not-so-great things I never would have thought of. Here is a summary.

Good Things

• I have my own private bathroom and I don't even have to close the door!
• I can work in my pajamas, although I tried this ONCE and it didn't work out. I lasted about an hour before I realized that all the flannelette was distracting me.
  
• I have my own coffee supply. I never go to get a cup of coffee and some jackass has taken the last and not made more.
• My fridge isn't full of 100 lunches, some of which have been there since last spring.
• The commute.
• I can take a break and have a nap. Make up the time later.
• I don't have to put up with annoying/smelly/irritating work mates.
  

Bad Things

• I'm super lonely.
• Cabin fever sets in quickly.
• It's hard to stay motivated to work sometimes because it's so quiet here. I tend to work harder when there is chaos around me. I'm a huge fan of open concept offices.
  
• It's easier to slack off and check personal email, blogs or download stuff off Itunes with nobody to see me. Disclipline people, discipline. *
  
• People in the office tend to forget about me, so if I need more work I really have to get in their faces on email.

Overall, it's been a great experience and I would recommend that anyone try it out if they have the opportunity. But I'm looking forward to getting out there and meeting new people in the design community here.

I wonder what the sales reps are like? I bet you there aren't any like that guy that Rawbean had to put up with about a month ago. Since the island is so much more relaxed, does that mean the deadlines are more reasonable?

I can't wait to find out.



*Oh shut up, I KNOW I should be working right now.

This is a super lame post

Okay, so I've been really sick for over a week. I've barely been outside of my apartment so there isn't much to post about. This is my excuse for what you are about to read.

Look what I noticed about my Itunes*! I have two songs in a row by bands whose names are totally bird related! What are the chances**? I mean, I have 15.22GB in my Itunes which isn't much, but still.



On that note, I would like to extend my appreciation to Rawbean for getting me started on my blog! You have her to thank for this great content. Just be glad I don't have a webcam. ***



Now hopefully I'll be getting out of the house and will have better things to report!


*Don't make fun of my brutal Photoshop skills and stop laughing at my pathetic arrows.
**Don't even go there Chris
*** As if.

Worst. Movie. EVER.

I'm a huge fan of the Vancouver International Film Festival. In fact, when we decided to move to Victoria, it was one of the things I knew I would miss the most about Vancouver. So, we ventured over to Vancouver to see some film festival movies a couple weeks ago.

Brad chose a film called Birdsong. It was the story of the three wise men.

This is 98 minutes of my life I will never get back. Ever.

There was almost no dialogue and certainly no music. The theatre was virtually silent for 98 minutes.

One of the worst scenes (which was about 12 minutes long, uninterrupted) was a shot of three guys slowly, s l o w l y walking over a sand dune. They disappear over the top, 30 seconds pass then they start. coming. back.

The rest of the movie consisted of again, excrutiating long shots of Joseph just sitting there outside his rock shelter doing NOTHING AT ALL. Mary hanging out with a lamb or climbing on rocks, and almost complete dark shots that you could barely make out.

After a while I started to entertain myself by:

1. Counting the number of people leaving the theatre
2. Listening to the woman's stomach growl next to me
3. I considered taking out the credit cards from my wallet and practising reading "braille"
4. Watching a guy a few rows ahead tip his popcorn bag over his mouth

Seriously, you think Plan 9 was bad? At least there was dialogue!! Independance Day? At least there was music!?

I should have known when one of the "actors" and the producer introduced the film and the producer said "I once presented this film to a theatre with 1000 people, and only 200 left!"

I should have walked out, but at one point I said to myself "I'm going to wait three more scenes." Well, little did I know then that the scenes were super long. After that I asked Brad what time it was and he said we had been there an hour already. I whisper back "good pick" as I settled into my seat to continue counting the people leaving.

God.

Itty-Bitty City

Here is an image my husband made showing the City of Vancouver (in the red outline) laid over top of the entire Victoria area.

What the hell?

I had no idea Vancouver was this much larger than Victoria. You would think then that it's easier to get around here - alas not true. This is a City where you need a car.

In the last month and a half, I've eaten more plates of fish and chips and driven the car more than the total number of times I've driven in Vancouver in the last 12 years!

Plus, as Invisible Girl and I noticed the other day - there is Co-Op here. Co-Op. Nothing takes you back to the prairies faster than Co-Op. And Smitty's. Yes, they have those too!

Hello? Is anybody out there?

I'm sure that over time I'll master the awesome photos, layouts and links that I've seen in other blogs but for now, please put up with my lame posts.

To start, I want to make this blog a written record of my transition from living in Vancouver to living in Victoria. Maybe it will help someone else who is pondering a similar move and it won't take them 12 years to actually get up and do something about it!

This won't be the only thing I write about (obviously) because I've been informed by another long time blogger (Rawbean) that I should start a blog because I have a lot to say!

So, for now I leave you with a cartoon I drew last year. This happened, of course - in Vancouver. Someone asked me the other day if there was anything about Vancouver that I was glad to be away from. I couldn't think of a single thing.

Maybe this is something!