Volkswagen and the Bark Side

Volkswagen must really like Star Wars, especially around the Super Bowl.  Last year’s Super Bowl ad “The Force” is one of my favourites.

This year, their game day commercial teaser “The Bark Side” seems to show there will be more where that came from.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Loss and Inspiration

On Thursday, I was saddened to learn of the death of Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke.  I’d been following the story closely since news of her training accident in Utah on Jan. 10.  While I don’t regularly follow skiing and had honestly never heard of her, something about her story struck a chord with me.  Amidst the news reports I heard her described as a pioneer, role model, athlete, and all around amazing person.  I learned that she was a world class athlete who was famous in the skiing world for her ability and skill in the women’s skiing superpipe.  She helped get women accepted into the once male dominated sport, and was a key force behind getting superpipe skiing into the Olympics (debuting in Sochi in 2014).  In hearing excerpts of her interviews on t.v. and on the radio, and seeing her many YouTube clips, I could tell that she was bubbly and approachable.  It seems to me that she loved her sport, and that she loved life.

In this excerpt from the Ski Channel’s “Winter” you can see the love that she and her husband skier Rory Bushfield had for the sport and for each other.

At 29, Sarah was the same age as me.  She was also  married a month after me.  I can’t even begin to imagine what her family is going through.  Her family set up a website to help pay for her medical bills.  Given the support they’ve received, they are now able to pay the bills and any other funds raised will go to memorial costs and to establish a foundation to honour Sarah’s legacy.  Donations can be made here.

I feel truly inspired by Sarah Burke, not just by her athletic ability but by how much she seemed to love life, and lived life to the fullest. Thank you Sarah.

RIP Sarah Burke. 1982-2012. Image courtesy of CTV

We did it!

On Saturday I ran my first ever half marathon (and so did Dan), in the “happiest place on earth,” Walt Disney World! I’m so proud of us and everybody who ran with us (a lot of people from the Soo). Kristen and I ran the first 10 miles together. At around mile 10 my legs started to tighten and I knew I couldn’t keep pace. I told her to go without me since she was going to break 2:30 and she did! The last 3 miles of the run were the hardest I’ve ever ran. I hobbled and when I reached the finish line I could not stop smiling. It was a great moment and one that I will cherish forever.  I’m proud of us, especially considering we didn’t finish our training and hadn’t run for 3 weeks (4 weeks for Dan), due to terrible relentless colds.  Dan finished in around 2:08 and I finished in 2:36:17.  I’ll post more about this trip and the half later.  It was an incredible experience and now I’m definitely hooked on running.  We’re already planning our next runs!

Donald and Daisy (our teacup chihuahua)

What are you doing New Years Eve?

I can’t believe 2011 is coming to a close already.  New Years Eve is one of my favourite occasions, and as we prepare to celebrate, I just had to share this video by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Brings a smile to my face.  Enjoy!

Why we run

As I’ve mentioned before, I started running in the summer of 2010 and am currently training for my first half marathon.  In the last year, I’ve run (chipped-time) a 12 k, a 10 k, and a 5 k race/fun run, in that order.  Obviously I did things a little backward.  Running has been hard and easy at the same time.  I have a love/hate relationship with running.  There are days when I feel like I could run forever, and days when I feel like I won’t make it around the block.  There are days when it’s hard to get out the door to run, and days when all I can think about is running.  I asked Kristen when the runner’s high is supposed to kick in.  She told me it’s after the run.  I believe it!

I’m also a new subscriber to Runner’s World.  I enjoy reading about other runners, their stories, why the run and what motivates them.  The latest issue features a story on Ben Davis, who lost 120 lbs with the help of running.  He made a video about his 120 lb journey which covers the baby steps he took into getting to where he is.  It covers milestones like running his first 5k, his first half, then his first full marathon until finally he was an Ironman.  It’s incredibly inspiring and it’ll give me something else for me to think about when I struggle getting out the door for my next run.

Here’s Ben’s video:

It’s time to start the music, It’s time to light the lights…

I love the Muppets and can’t wait to see the new Muppet movie, which opened yesterday.  I loved watching re-runs of The Muppet Show growing up, and I loved Kermit the Frog.  To this day, my mom says Kermit’s Rainbow Connection still reminds her of me because I sang it so much.  In the weeks leading up to The Muppets I’ve really enjoyed all of the promotions.  The Muppets are classic and loveable all around the world.  They have been translated into dozens of languages across the globe.

Last week on my way to work I happened to be listening to 99.9 Virgin Radio Breakfast Show when they played an excerpt from the first single from The Muppets Soundtrack, a rendition of Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You” by the Camilla and the Chickens.  I have never laughed so hard in my life.  The co-host on the Breakfast Show also does a mean chicken cluck.  You can hear a snippet here.

In the five days leading up to The Muppets, The National Post has also had the brilliant “Tournament of Muppets” where they pitted “felt against fur” in an effort to find out which Muppet would reign supreme.  Each Muppet had a defence written and readers were asked to vote.  When it came down to Kermit and Gonzo in the end, I had to vote for Kermit, but it wasn’t to be.  Dan has insisted that Gonzo’s the right choice.  Gonzo the Great, who’s blue, won’t conform, and appears willing to try anything.

Here’s what The Tournament of Muppets bracket looked like in the end.

The other day I also caught an interview on Q with Kermit the Frog.  As Kermit looks back on the last 30 years, he’s funny, touching, candid, and yes, he avoids truly answering the question about his relationship with Miss Piggy.  I really love this interview and recommend it to anybody else who loves the Muppets.

When I was in New York this summer I visited The Muppet Workshop at FAO Schwarz.  I didn’t get to make any Muppets though.  Maybe next time.

Project management, team building & April Fools’

April Fools’ Day is an excellent chance to participate in some fun team building activities.  When I worked in Sault Ste. Marie we took this opportunity on more than one occasion (and not always on April 1).  Here’s why it’s such a great team building activity:

• Each person must be able to work effectively as both an individual and a team member to achieve a mutual goal
• You have a tight deadline to complete your task
• Limited resources means being creative and resourceful
• Planning is involved to coordinate these tasks
• Communication is key
• Problem solving skills are utilized

Between April 2009 and August 2010 we did several team building activities within “The Office.”  (I feel like The Office could learn a thing or two from us;).  In the spirit of project work, each prank had its own project name: Project Follow Your Nose, Project Wrapping Paper, Project Balloon Kevin, Project Club Sally and Project Survivor (which included elements of all of the previous projects).

Here are some pictures of each project.  Enjoy!

Project Follow Your Nose

Materials:  “Fruit Whirls” (imitation Fruit Loops) & tin foil.

Team: Marla, Jess S., Lindsey, Mei

Project Wrapping Paper

Materials: Wrapping paper, balloons

Team: Marla, Lindsey, Kristen, Mei

We even wrapped the things inside his drawers

 

Project Balloon Kevin

Materials: Balloons, garbage bags

Team: Kristen, Mei

Wishing Kevin good luck the only way we know how.

 

 

Project Club Sally

Materials: Garbage bags, disco balls, mini strobe light, glow sticks, Sandstorm (note this project looks much better on video!)

Team: Marla, Lindsey, Kristen, Mei

When you came into the office you saw this.

 

Club Sally from the outside.

 

Sally kept his Club open all day.

 

View from inside Club Sally

 

View from inside Club Sally with the strobe light

 

Project Survivor

Materials: balloons, saranwrap, wrapping paper, disco balls, pictures of all the staff who have moved on to other opportunities (Sally was the Survivor:), Halloween decorations etc.  (all left over materials from previous projects).

Team: Lindsey, Mei, Nicole

Sally outwit, outplay and outlast many others

 

Close up of the balloons. Lindsey blew up most of them!

 

Pic of the Survivor - Sally!

 

Sally couldn't get into his cubicle to use his phone.

 

Learning to Run

The other day Kristen asked me if I have updated my blog lately.

“No…” I replied sheepishly.

“You know I do check sometimes,” she said.

The last time I posted we were in the midst of Canada Reads.  Unfortunately, I still haven’t had a chance to listen to the rest of the Canada Reads debates which is why I never finished posting.

Kristen has inspired me to write a post just for her (and see if she really is still checking;).

As I mentioned before, Kristen is a good friend and my running buddy.  I’ve been trying to be a runner since approximately May 2010.  It all started when I joined the Ultimate Frisbee Team in Sault Ste. Marie.  Kristen convinced me that it would be a fun not too serious team activity and we would get to drink beer after each game.  At the time I considered myself to be pretty fit and naively thought that running for an hour wouldn’t be a big deal.  Unfortunately our first game was against a group of 16 year old high school track stars and I spent an hour chasing a girl much faster and younger than me.  I can’t even describe the pain I was in during and even after the game (I had shin splints for the first time in my life and they didn’t go away for over 2 weeks.  It hurt to get out of bed, it hurt to walk up stairs let alone run for an hour).  “We need to start training,” Kristen said.  That’s when we started running together, along with her chocolate lab Maggie.  I had never really  run in my life before  and frisbee became the ultimate reason for learning to run (though thankfully none of the other teams were as young or as fast as that first one).

Fast forward to now, and Kristen has convinced me to run the Disney World Half Marathon with her in January 2012.  And by convince I mean the conversation went like this:

Kristen: “Mei, do you want to run the Disney Half Marathon with me?  You get a Donald Duck medal.”

Mei: “Ok!”

So now even though we don’t live in the same city, we are still continuing to train together.

For her birthday I gave Kristen a copy of Christopher McDougall‘s book “Born to Run.”  Right after I bought the book, Christopher McDougall’s TED talk was featured.  His talk is incredibly inspiring . Wish us luck in our pursuit for the Donald Duck medal!

Essex County voted out for all the wrong reasons

I love that Canada Reads is now available in video format, and filmed in front of a live studio audience.  It was extremely enjoyable to watch the debates.  Here are a few things I noticed:

•  Ali Velshi took notes while every panellist was speaking.  He’s very serious about this!  I’d love to see what his notes look like! 
• I also enjoyed seeing Sara Quin’s copy of Essex County filled with sticky notes. 
• I wish Georges Laraque would stop ending almost every sentence with “and stuff” (this happens to be a pet peeve of mine).    It makes it difficult for me to take what he’s saying seriously.

Sara Quinn defended Jeff Lemire's Essex County. Image courtesy of CBC.

I was disappointed but not surprised that Essex County was the first one voted off.  While I’ve mentioned before my love for all of the books (I don’t have a favourite to win since they’re all good), I was very disappointed in the reasoning behind voting Essex County off.  A lot of the panellists seemed to be thrown off by its format and most of their arguments for voting it off didn’t make sense to me.  Debbie Travis complained about its “lack of words.”  That to me, is not an argument.  I think the way Jeff Lemire used his words is very important to the story and the way he used them in combination with the art.  Lorne Cardinal felt that it wasn’t a “novel” but more of a “collection of short stories.”  I also don’t agree with that argument because of the books that have been featured on Canada Reads in the past.  Did he forget about Whylah Falls by George Elliot Clarke from the 2002 Canada Reads?  Whylah Falls is a collection of poetry  which came head to head with the eventual winner (and one of my favourite books), Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion.

It was just unfortunate that so much of the debates around Essex County focused on the format and not the content.  It’s a beautiful book and I am going to recommend it to all of my friends.  I thought Sara Quin was an excellent panellist.  She’s intelligent, articulate and makes excellent arguments.  She’s probably right in that Canada is just a little behind.  In the United States they’re already recognizing graphic novels as a legitimate form of novel and she cited several examples including Persepolis, another of my favourites.  With that said, she was very graceful about the book being voted off and I agree that it was a huge step just having it make it to the top 5.

The confessionals were also interesting.  I didn’t like what Georges Laraque had to say about Sara Quin.  He seemed to think she voted for The Bone Cage because she didn’t understand it, whereas I think it was just strategic.  The Bone Cage and Essex County were the two underdogs so it makes sense to me why she would vote for The Bone Cage.  I was also disheartened by Laraque’s insistence that Essex County should never have even been on the list.  I strongly disagree.  Canadians voted it onto the list and this is Canada Reads right?

Finally, I’m interested to hear which book Debbie Travis didn’t finish because it “wasn’t well written.”  Even so, as a panellist I still think she should have finished it.  It makes it hard to argue against a book when you don’t know what you’re talking about.  Anyway, we’ll see how today’s debates go!

Canada Reads 2011

Wow it’s been a while.  I’ll do a post later on why I’ve been so busy.  It seems like a lot of my friends stopped blogging around the same time.  Maybe the year of the Rabbit will bring us all back to the blogosphere.

Anyway, I am very excited for Canada Reads 2011!  The debates begin today on CBC Radio One.  This is the first year that I’ve managed to read all 5 of the books before the debates (usually I’ve managed to finish 4 out of the 5).  I have to say I was very impressed by this year’s selections.  I was a little sceptical at first about how they were short listed.  This year Canadians were polled and voted for their top picks until it was whittled down to the top 10.  The panellists then chose their books from the top 10 creating the top 5.

Image courtesy of terryfallis.com

I’ve always enjoyed the Canada Reads selections.  There’s always a variety and there are usually books on the list that I wouldn’t have picked up on my own.  I also nearly always feel satisfied after reading them.  In previous years I’ve always found one book that dragged and just wasn’t my taste.  This year I loved every book.  Every book left me sad that it was over and wishing there was more.  For the first time, I don’t care which book wins because they were all incredible.

Here’s my take on the books, in the order that I read them (based on availability at the library):

The Birth House by Ami McKay – This book had been on my “to read” list for a long time and I wish I had read it sooner!  It was interesting and filled with compelling characters.  I loved the mix of the old ways and the new ways and the dichotomy of the sterile new medical facilities versus giving birth in the warmth of your own home.  It was a beautiful book and I will be recommending it to my friends.

Unless by Carol Shields – Although I was an English major and studied Canadian fiction I had never read Carol Shields before.  Unless was her final book and it was pure poetry.  This book was completely visceral and told in a nonlinear format.  It was beautiful.  I will definitely be reading more of her books and also recommending this one (I will probably recommend all 5 Canada Reads books to my friends).

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis – This book was also on my “to read” list for a while.  It was very entertaining and perfect for those who love politics and those who don’t know much about politics.  It’s also the perfect book for grammar nerds.  I also love the structure of the narrative switching from the first person, Daniel to the first person (in the form of letters), Angus.

The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou – This book made me feel like a jock.  I loved the descriptions of the two athletes and the back and forth, alternating chapters on them.  I recently began training for my first half marathon.  Having never been athletics I enjoyed feeling athletic from reading this book. I loved how it tackled the question of what happens to athletes when they are past their prime.  What happens to them after they have peaked and what do they do when it’s all over when all they’ve known in their lives is their sport?

Essex County by Jeff Lemire – There were many moments in this beautiful graphic novel where I thought I might burst into tears.  The story focused on regret, moving on (or not moving on in some cases) and love.  The story followed 3 generations as they try to fulfill their dreams, in hockey, in comic books and more.  It highlights rural Canada versus urban Canada; the country/small town versus the big city and how you can feel lonely in both.  I’m looking forward to rereading this graphic novel when I go home.