I resolve to be resolute in my hatred of resolutions

I didn't make any resolutions this year—I'm buying into the whole "new year, new me" less and less as I get older. I think I'm just becoming more cynical. No, actually, I know I'm becoming more cynical. And I'm not resolving to change that. Nor am I resolving to lose weight, or cook a new recipe each week, or stop swearing when people cut me off.

I'm too stubborn to let 2011-Kristen start some stupid diet or join a cooking class just because 2010-Kristen thought it would make her a better person. New Year's Eve alone taught me that past-Kristen can't be trusted. Yeah, just one more drink and I'll still be fine the next morning. Thanks 2010-Kristen, you're super.

However, despite my stubbornness and determination to do things on my own terms without the New Year giving me the all-important cue, there are a few things I have to accomplish in 2011—like completing the move-in process, which includes setting up the second bedroom and finding out what that mystery light switch in the living room does. I also need to finish writing my thesis so that I can officially get my Masters degree.

We got a head start on the second bedroom thing this afternoon by going out and buying a bed. Last night our best friends were reduced to sleeping on piles of blankets stacked on the floor. I awoke this morning with a deep sense of shame, and Luc and I immediately left the house to purchase a bed.

As for the mystery switch, we hit a brick wall after twenty minutes of plug testing and cursing.

But the year's off to a good start: I actually got my blog banner up in time (unlike hectic December), we've already snowshoed to the top of Cypress mountain, and compared to my stress levels at the beginning of 2010, I'm doing juuuust fiiiine!

So, Happy New Year, blog readers! Thanks for sticking around I promise to do plenty of ill-advised things in 2011 and document them all. First up: sliding down a snowshoe trail on a garbage bag and crashing into a tree. Stay tuned...

On some recent accomplishments

It's been a while, yes, but I'm back from wedding mania and home from the honeymoon and I have lots to report. I'm just going to start with some things that I recently knocked off my 101 Things To Do in 1001 Days list.

Let's start from the top...

#13 - Get a job in publishing
Check! I was fortunate enough to be offered a full-time position by the company I did my internship with. I start in a week and I couldn't be more excited. Although working full time means writing my thesis will take a bit longer (pushing graduating to a later date), this is the kind of opportunity I've been hoping for since I went back to school. And bonus, we can finally start looking for our own condo! So maybe that "buy a home" item on the list will be the next thing to be checked off?

#26 - Order room service
A honeymoon is the perfect time to indulge, so I'm happy to say that this item can be checked off several times! Pictured below is a champagne breakfast on our balcony. This is moments before I shot the cork off the champagne bottle into the pool area below. Whoops!

#47 - Read 100 books
I'm getting ever closer to my 100 books. My most recent conquest was "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert, the infamous "Eat Pray Love" author. I received it as a birthday gift and thought it would be an appropriate post-wedding read. Maybe not, though. Although Gilbert eventually comes to peace with her second marriage and finds her own nesting spot in legal matrimony, the entire book is basically her squinting skeptically at the strength and longevity of modern marriage. There was a bevy of fascinating historical information on marriage, but it was a little bleak for a beach read.

#54 - Swim at the bottom of a waterfall
We left our resort for one full day, and on our agenda was climbing a waterfall. We took a tour bus down the North coast to Ocho Rios, where we climbed Dunn's River Falls. It's a 700 foot high, unique waterfall that is broken into several shelves. Many spots involve linking hands in a human chain to increase stability when scaling the rocks. The most fun was swimming around at the bottom of the falls and the spot where the rocks had formed a waterslide.

#73 - Watch a sunrise
It's pretty much against the rules of vacationing (let alone, honeymooning) to get up at 5:00am, but after watching several amazing sunsets, we really wanted to take in the sunrise as well. We actually snuck onto the roof of the hotel...and it was worth it.

#80 - Take Luc to the spa for a massage
Not only did Luc get a massage, but we also did the sauna, steamroom, hot tub, water therapy, freezing cold plunging pool, and couples facials. He probably doesn't approve of me telling my blog readers that...but after my lengthy absence, I'm not even sure how many of you there are left!

#98 - Go an entire week without checking the stat counter on my blog
Needless to say, with the wedding and the honeymoon I've been pretty disconnected from everything digital. And it's been a nice break. But make no mistake...it's nice to be back!

Fatties on Ice and MPub Withdrawal

My friend from school Cynara started a podcast with one of her friends named Jenny. It's called Fatties on Ice and it's pretty cool. You should check it out. It's about pop culture and media – they make a good team and they're very witty. I think one of the aspects I most enjoy, though, is hearing one of my classmates debate and discuss! It makes me feel like I'm in class again. Have I mentioned that I miss school? A lot. I love classes and discussions and fiery debates, and I even enjoy writing papers.

Sure, there were a few sunny Saturdays spent hunched over my computer all day, wearing the same grungy shirt I slept in the night before, banging away on the keyboard, each keystroke only driving me closer to the point of losing my mind. Those, I would like stricken from the record and my permanent memory. But all of the other times, even the first week of school, when we got to our editorial class and were given a seriously hefty, dense, academic manuscript, a tight little timeline and it was like, BAM, read this now, edit it, this is your life, suckers. I enjoyed that.

The Intern, the Bride and the Blogger

Lately my brain has been so occupied with work and wedding that I've barely had a chance to think like a blogger. Usually I'm grasping at paper and pencils every 5 minutes because I can't keep up with my internal dialogue of blog writing, but lately it's been nothing but crickets up there. However, that's because my everyday life dynamic has changed in the past month. The blog writer is sitting there scratching her head and picking knits from her hair, but the intern and the bride are running around, arms flailing like a mom on the dance floor. And the grad student is studiously working on her thesis in the backdrop, trying to keep to herself.

I'm knee-deep in the second month of my internship and 11 weeks out from the biggest day of my life (until, that is, we start with the baby making). My 9-5 is filled with writing, reading, editing, html and other fun webby magazine things that require enough brain power that I can't be simultaneously writing blog posts. My evenings are consumed with little wedding details that I churn out until they defeat me and I collapse with exhaustion in my bed that is never quite soft enough to catch my tired, heavy limbs.

It's been busy, but it's been good. And the strange little things that always seem to happen to me still happen, I just haven't had the will and the wit to jot them down. Like when one of our neighbours stole the quarter out of my laundry basket (filled with my, ahem, delicates).  My basket was waiting in line beside the washer and some crazy decided to snatch my shiny laundry money. I'm not pointing fingers, but I'm going to just assume it was the panflute player. I put in an honest effort to blog about that, but then I'm quite certain I fell asleep with my eyes open. But life goes on, I got another quarter and I'm telling the story now.

I'm writing an article this week for BC Living about Luc's and my hike to the peak of the Stawamus Chief in Squamish – which I will post a link to when it's done – so for now I've got this amateur, made-in-one-hour iMovie of our trip to the top.

So while I try to balance life as an intern, bride and blogger (and grad student, eek!), please amuse yourselves with this little ditty.



Update: check out the full story on BC Living.

Frank's Red Hot Sauce changed my life

Tomorrow marks the first day of my summer internship with a magazine publisher. And I think that to distract myself from getting too nervous my mind is trying to fixate on other things. All I can focus on is the chicken burger I ate tonight and the hot sauce that I put on it. Why has it taken me 25 years to put hot sauce on a chicken burger? Now I finally get that commercial with the old lady...take my word friends, I am going to put that shit on everything.

But back to the internship.....I've been nervously awaiting this for a while now. A first day anywhere is nerve wracking, but this is the first day that actually matters in my career. And this job comes with a scary new bus route. The trip planner on the bus website gave me about five different options, so I'm going with the one that only requires two buses, rather than bus/bus/skytrain. If the bus route makes me late...at least I have four more to try, right?

On my whereabouts

Luc and I jetted off to Saskatchewan on Friday to spend time with the family and celebrate his grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary. It's been nice to have some time to unwind after an intense school year. I'll be back to reality on Wednesday, but for now I'm quite enjoying my mental vacation.

The end is nigh but the road is still long

The week is coming to an end, and so is my final year of school. By no means am I completely finished (hello internship and thesis...), but tomorrow we're wrapping up our big term projects and saying au revoir to course work. We got out of our offices at school before sundown for the first time this week and there was even a rainbow to greet us. The pot of gold was waiting for me at home - it took the shape of the Canucks winning their first playoff game. Hallelujah.

If all goes well tomorrow in the unveiling of the editorial workflow system prototype we've been building online for the past 9 weeks (if you're interested the presentations will be live blogged HERE beginning at 1:00pm tomorrow afternoon), I should be settling into my second glass of wine by about 4:30pm and prepping for the first weekend without papers and readings lurking in my subconscious.

For those of you interested in technology, WordPress, magazine publishing, workflows, content management systems (have I bored you yet?), or if you just have that insatiable curiosity to learn about anything and everything, check out our final report below. It's chockfull of interesting screenshots, so if you don't want to read the whole thing, you can still see what it is we crazy grad students were doing! 

I'm baaa-aaack

This morning I was wiping my eyes with makeup remover until I realized, oh, that's not smeared mascara, those are just tired bags, they're not going to rub off. I've just returned after a long weekend of "repose" (and by repose I just mean no school work or wedding planning) to my final two weeks of classes and two papers, a presentation and a final project.

The long weekend was anything but restful in the physical sense, but it was the longest mental vacation I've taken in a while. Every night was a late one, and every day was long and enjoyable one. I didn't have time to think about school, which was great. But I did have to get up at a decent hour every morning. But if you have to get up early, there's no better way to do so than having the cutest twin four-year-old girls jumping on your bed and giggling like wild hyenas. Luc and I spent the long weekend at West Edmonton Mall with his family; eating, drinking, swimming, shopping, amusement parking (yes, I'm making it a verb), and hanging out. And now it's back to writing, reading, busing, budgeting, and stressing out.

Thanks?

I've been getting a bit delirious lately working a big school project. When this happens, I generally turn to things that make me laugh. Like lolcats. And since DIY wedding projects have also been at the front of my mind...I was thinking, what about this for a thank you card?

Let's see if you can follow my train of thought

It's quite remarkable the amount of inspiration and ideas that I draw from my daily bus rides. Today in class we were talking about new technologies and what the future looks like. More specifically, we were ruminating on the idea of whether or not eBooks will eclipse the printed book, much like the mp3 has done to the CD. Somehow that general seed of 'current and future technologies in society' led me to this:

Today a woman had each hand gripped on either door handle and was aggressively shaking them before the bus had come to a full stop. I thought to myself - "does she know something that the rest of us don't? Is this baby gonna blow? Not much else would call for such fervent shaking when the bus is still in motion."

No, the bus was not on the verge of exploding - she was just ignorant to the steps required to exit the bus. It's not even one of the more confusing technologies to grasp, but so many people seem to be stumped by it. Why is this? If you're not familiar with the bus door-opening technique in Vancouver transit, it's quite simple (as listed step-by-step below).

Step 1 - Wait until the bus has come to a complete stop.
Step 2 - Look for the illuminated green light directly above the doors
Step 3 - Lightly push the door handles
Step 4 - Step off the bus

I don't know why this vexes me so?!?!! But every time I see someone white-knuckling the handles and shaking them like they're in an argument with the doors, I want to scratch out my eyeballs. It makes me think of the people who get angry or judge, but never take the time to understand; and stretching it a bit further (in relation to our technology discussion), it makes me think of the people who are in denial of the progress happening in the world and who are ignorant of the transitions being made in our everyday lives. There are people who abhor technology and live their lives in its periphery - coming into contact with it when necessary, but even then, not taking the time to understand it. I can't relate to these people, because I grew up with technology and I love what it does for my life. So I can't understand the people that aren't even interested in learning about it before they push it aside or criticize it. However, because I can't relate to their position, I try not to judge them too harshly. That's one of the problems though - we condemn what we don't understand. It's a classic problem that is manifested in a myriad of situations. Taking the time to understand before you judge is a critical step, but it seems like when that step requires too much effort we cop out.

People have been blogging a lot about New Years Resolutions, and I think I mentioned that I didn't really bother making any. Like I often do, I've changed my mind: I'm resolving to take more time to understand before I judge. My first step was reading this article posted to a class website about twitter, then opening my own account. But I guess what I'm really trying to say is, the people that reef on the bus doors represent everything that is wrong with the world.

Anti-panflute propaganda

Even though this really had nothing to do with our class, this flow-chart made it's way into a presentation by a guest speaker (Thad McIlroy) the other day. It occurred to me that it's my duty to print and post this chart in the lobby of my apartment building. My regular readers will know why - our downstairs neighbour plays the flute , panflute, recorder, or some incarnation of a similar instrument. Whatever it is, it's still going on, and it has to stop.

My love-hate relationship with technology

In class yesterday, our prof quoted Robert Bringhurst calling a book "something small enough to hold in your hand, but something large enough to get lost in" - I really enjoy that idea. It conjures an image of being curled up in a big chair but feeling like you're miles away in a different world. There's this romantic notion associated with printed books that I'll never abandon. I've talked about it before, and I'm sure to talk about it again. 


This discussion came from our Technology and Evolving Forms of Publishing class. We also talked about social networking tools and how they can be used as business tools. I've been reluctant to participate in Twitter, not because I think it's just a fad and I'm worried about investing time in something ephemeral, but because when I think "Twitter", I think "lame, attention-hungry celebrities" and "people writing about stupid shit I don't want to hear about". It seems like an entire tool dedicated to proliferating messages that are really just glorified Facebook status updates. But that's not always the case- I'm being harsh. The reality is, the way the tool is defined in your mind depends on your experience with it and what you want it to do for you. Some people use Facebook to chat with friends and keep in touch. Some people use Facebook to post inappropriate/explicit pictures of themselves and show off about all the cool stuff that they do and how hungover they always are. And some people just try and have as many people on their friend list as possible. Regarding Twitter - I'm holding any further judgements until I have a more thorough knowledge of the subject (and an experimental account of my own). 


I'm keeping an open mind and trying not to let my paranoid thoughts rule. New technologies are great, but they also scare me a bit - their overwhelming grip on society and they way we lead our lives is remarkable. Sometimes a text suffices or a status update saves you time - but I fear a world where we're all 'connected' but we're emotionally further from each other than ever. It sounds corny, but I know a lot of people who feel the same way. It's cool that I can see pictures and get updates of a friend's trip while they're away....but I like looking at photo albums after someone's been gone, and meeting for coffee to hear all the crazy stories. Sometimes I don't want to be connected to everyone and I wish that I wasn't privy to 24/7 updates. I think this comes from the fear of where we're headed though - not so much that I don't enjoy the technology that we have now, but that I'm afraid of what it's capable of doing. I love you technology, just please don't turn us into a society of out-of-touch blobs like the people in Wall-E . 

Design Stuff

These are links to some portfolio material from my Masters of Publishing program. I'll be making periodical additions, and nothing boring for now - just design stuff! I've also added all of my blog banners.

Book Redesign



Magazine Redesign



Catalogue Redesign



Blog Banners



And if you'd like to see the rest, you can find them here: http://issuu.com/kage

Kitties are people too, you know!

We had an interesting discussion in editing class this morning regarding the use of "who" and "which" when referring to animals. Many people believe that language shapes culture; especially when a language labels nouns as being male or female. The same can be said for choice of pronouns.

If we say, "the four kittens, which had always lived together, went to different homes," the kittens are seen as objects. The argument is that if we treat them as objects in language, our culture will reflect that treatment. Giving animals a personal pronoun will give them more rights and respect in the real world. So, if we say, "the four kittens, who had always lived together, went to different homes," they are treated more like people, and this will be reflected in our culture with a more humane treatment of animals.

What do you think? Does language shape culture?

Never a dull moment

A lot has happened lately - our car was broken into, I finished a huge project at school, our landlord spilled ABS cleaner all over our kitchen floor and now it has two giant fluorescent purple spots, I finally got back into a gym routine, 

AND.......

I'm going wedding dress shopping today - for the second time! The first round was quick and the store didn't have much selection, but it was still really fun. Today, all of my bridesmaids are coming along and we're going to a store that also carries bridesmaid dresses. I was going to post my favourite dress on here, but just in case it turns out to be "the one", I don't think I should....Luc reads my blog and I'm a big fan of not letting the groom see the bride in her dress. Or see what the dress looks like!

We also went to a couple of concerts in the past month - Pearl Jam at GM Place, Collective Soul at the Commodore Ballroom (my favourite venue and one of my favourite bands) and U2 at BC Place.

Despite my earlier predictions, we weren't sitting around TOO many weirdos at the Pearl Jam concert. There was one guy who danced the same way to every song; slow, fast, medium paced, or Eddie Vedder talking to the crowd....he just kept dancing away. The Collective Soul and the U2 concert were both a different story....amazing shows, lots of amazingly weird events and people....

I'm like, totally professional

For a class we have to choose a magazine to completely redesign. I'm not sure that I'd like to do one of the magazines that I currently read, because I like them...that's why I read them. I enjoy the layout, the content, the photography... There are some things that I would change, but in general, they're pretty good.

But here comes the dilemma...I have an idea for a different type of magazine that I would like to redesign. Not a magazine that I read, not a magazine that I would read were it better designed. Just a really atrocious magazine. It is called.....Tiger Beat! I used to buy Tiger Beat back in the day when the walls in my room were plastered with JTT posters and staying up until 9:00pm meant we had a cool babysitter. But the problem is this: I think these magazines look like shit and are a disrespect to the teeny boppers that read them. Just because the content is trash, doesn't mean that the magazine should look like trash. HOWEVER, I don't know if my design teacher will take me seriously if I hand in a project with the cast of Twilight on the cover.

Tomorrow I'm going to scan the shelves in the neighbourhood 7-11 in search of a respectable magazine in need of a facelift. And if I can't find one...then I need to find the perfect font to encapsulate just how totally HOT Miley Cyrus's fold-out poster is.

Maximum Capacity

I've learned a lot being student again. I can spread takeout over 3 days of school lunches. I can get ready in the morning, eat breakfast, make coffee, check bus times, and get out the door in less than 15 minutes. I've learned that the motivational factor of Timbits outweighs anything and everything. I've also learned so much in my classes that it feels like my brain needs to stand up, stretch its legs, and take a big deep breath. We're nearing the end of one of our major projects and the days are getting longer and the mornings are getting earlier.

Despite my crammed schedule, the never-ending pages of readings, and my to-do list that has grown so quickly it must have discovered how to asexually reproduce...I'm continually trying to keep up with wedding planning on the side. Back at the end of August I told myself that I was putting the brakes on wedding planning until Christmas break, but any bride (or woman, for that matter) can tell you that it's impossible. There's no switch in your head that you can flick on and off, willy nilly, to block out invitation layouts and dress styles and centerpieces. I should also mention that Luc's older sister had a fabulous wedding this weekend that threw my brain into wedding overdrive.

So now, after telling myself to focus on school, start a wedding dress diet, and leave the planning until Christmas break, I'm sitting at the computer, eating a chocolate bar and fawning over flower arrangements and hotel options for our guests. Go team!

Is an eBook really a book?

One of the readings for a class this week was about eBooks and reading on the Amazon Kindle. As you can imagine, in a publishing program, this topic comes up often. I think it's great that people are reading, I just don't like the idea of the eBook trying to replace a real book. I hate it when people try to predict the extinction of print - whether it be books, magazines, or newspapers. But I don't see eBooks as real books. To me, eBooks take all of the elements that make a book a book and get rid of them. Poof! Or, I guess "zap" would be better. Click? Whatever.

One of the comments in the article I read was from a man who said eBook pages are great because they don't flutter in the wind. That right there is an example of how we're taking the human out of everything.  Obviously a screen doesn't flutter in the wind - but I would call that a con, not an advantage over print books. I want to feel the pages, even if they flutter out of my fingers every now and then. I like running my hands over the textured pages and tracing the tips of my fingers over the cover design. I want to see what kind of font they used and how the chapters are organized.

My feelings towards eBooks are akin to the feelings I harbour for screw top wine bottles. I'm not a wine snob. I just like the old fashioned way; the romance and the routine. I recognize that it's easier to skip the corkscrew and get straight to the drinking, but that doesn't concern me. Taking the time to open the bottle is all part of the process. I understand that the introduction of the screw top wasn't intended as a time saver, but I'm just saying...I like doing it the old way. Some people won't agree, but I think uncorking the wine can be just as pleasurable as drinking the wine.

It's the same with books. I know that I could download an eBook from the web in seconds, but I like visiting the bookstore. And the feeling of finishing a great book is doubled when you file it on your shelf, and it sits there obediently, looking beautiful. Or when you lend that book to a friend. A few years ago I got a used copy of The English Patient that someone had written notes in.

I had no mirrors in my house for three years. Yet - I could always see my reflection: the children, the neon lights, the faces of the Filipino and Russian prostitutes, the eyes of taxi drivers in the rearview mirror, in the raindrops, in the journals, in the music, in the movement. I was never as unaware of what I looked like as I was in Japan - and yet, I was most conscious of how I appeared. 

As soon as I can find something like that in an eBook, maybe I'll change my mind. Maybe. Because it's not just about the words on the page. Reading an eBook is convenient. Reading a print book is an experience. It's about everything that goes into making them, everything that comes out, and everything that follows.

I will say this: eBooks aren't all bad. Just like screw top wine bottles. But I think print will disappear at the same time the french warm up to the idea of twisting a lid off their wine.

Cool as a cucumber

While dining at our friends' house this evening, we began to talk about how school is going and what kind of internship I'm looking for. Despite being very intrigued by 3 months in India with a publisher who creates hand-made books, I just couldn't stomach 93 nights away from Luc. Until these creepy man-replacements make their way to Canada, I'll be looking at opportunities close to home.

This conversation lead into marriage talk, of course. Our friends aren't engaged but they're thinking of tying the knot in the next year or two. Our wedding still seems so far away - less than a year now, but still leaving us ages and ages to plan everything. I left their house feeling relaxed and laid-back about planning our wedding. Until I got home and opened my email...and realized that our family has started receiving the save-the-dates in the mail...which means that people are actually coming to our wedding....which means I actually do have to plan an entire wedding this year and complete my degree and keep doing the laundry all at the same time. For the love of god, who will teach Luc how to wash the delicates??? I have a project to do and fabric swatches to choose from!!!

Book worms

My return to school has introduced a whole new swirling mass of thoughts into my already crowded stream of consciousness. Today, day 3, was amazing. I spent the bus ride home thinking about something other than the wedding. And speaking of taking the bus, this public transport thing is going to make for A LOT of weird and interesting blog posts....like the guy who went nuts trying to open the doors before the bus had stopped moving, or the girl who had a cut out "V" on the back of her pants to show off her tattoo...or the guy who was reading over my shoulder as I wrote those two things down in my notebook! Yes, the colourful people of Vancouver are at my fingertips, quite literally.

But back to school...we're already bogged down with a bunch of readings and assignments but it's so exciting- we actually get to create things. We get to create a company, a company name, a logo, books...and we get to learn SO FREAKING MUCH.....I think I'm on a natural high just from thinking about this! Also, it's been really great to meet all the people in the program, people I can relate to...other people that spend days trying to find the right day planner, people that look through book catalogs with the same enthusiasm that a child watches toy commercials, people that unpack their books before their furniture when moving...and people whom I will get to experience the highs and lows of the next year and a half with, commiserating, studying, and obviously getting drunk together every now and then. It's really nice to be around other people that will be going through the same thing and that understand what it is we're doing here. It's also really nice to not be someone's slave anymore.